After launching last week in the U.S., the Galaxy Note 8.0 is now available to purchase in Canada. Right now, the device can be bought at Best Buy, Future Shop, Staples, and other authorized retailers, priced at $429 — which means it’s significantly more expensive than in the U.S.
BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry’s last hope at competing with Android and iOS, has gotten off to a good start since its release last week. The BlackBerry Z10, the first of two BB10 devices that will launch in the coming months, has seen strong sales in the U.K., while there’s plenty of pre-order interest in other markets, too.
What’s likely to be most encouraging to BlackBerry, however, is that 50% of pre-order customers in its native Canada aren’t already BlackBerry customers — they’re switching from the likes of Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.
Today, Facebook updated its Messenger app for both iOS and Android, adding a voice messaging capability to the app on both platforms.
There have also been reports that Facebook has been rolling out a pilot VOIP feature to the Messenger app, which will let users call other Facebook Messenger friends for free, or at least without incurring carrier voice minute debits.
The VOIP option is not available for all users, as the iOS app is the only one with even a mention of the feature in the app description. TechCrunch reported that the pilot program is only available in Canada for now, as well.
According to a source who spoke with Android Central, Rogers is preparing to announce an all new plan structure come tomorrow. A quick glance at the flyer depicting the new plans shows the familiar “unlimited talk” sell. Now that customers have become more data hungry and less dependent on voice, carriers have switched to offering “unlimited” voice and less data (yea, I know) — pawning the “unlimited” voice off as a value (when everyone knows it’s not).
It looks like our friends to the north will now have the ability to pick up the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 at any participating retailer. Samsung launched their larger Note model here in the U.S. last month and despite its tremendous productivity potential, it’s been met with mixed reviews. It carries numerous software bells and whistles, specifically to cater to the S Pen, but some of the hardware isn’t what you’d expect from a $500 device.
