Category Archives: Web & Tech

Palm Pre: VanRamblings Finds the Smartphone of Our Dreams

January 14, 2009Web & TechRaymond Tomlin

As the grand prize winner at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, just wrapped this week in Las Vegas, VanRamblings has found the smartphone of our dreams: the Palm Pre, replete with …

a 3.1-inch (480×320 pixel) multi-touch screen, easily outpacing Apple’s iPhone in capability
a slide-down QWERTY-type keypad
802.11b/g WiFi, 8GB of internal storage, GPS, Bluetooth, a powerful processor, accelerometer and a wireless charger
a 3.2 megapixel camera, with flash (alas, no video)
a handset that gently curves so that it fits snugly against your ear while placing the microphone right near your lips
a quick, efficient browser (powered by Linux) that renders pages beautifully

As to the question of which carrier will introduce the Palm Pre in Canada, because the Pre, at present, is designed for a CDMA network, either or both of Telus and Bell — both of which currently employ CDMA — will likely be the lucky Canadian carrier(s). Later in the year, Palm will introduce a GSM model, which will allow the Pre to expand to Rogers’ customers.
No details are yet available on pricing, but early expectation is that a Canadian carrier would mimic the $400 upfront charge that exclusive U.S. carrier Sprint has indicated they will charge for the Pre. Although, given the competition in the market from Apple’s iPhone ($199) and RIM’s Blackberry Storm ($249), the final Pre introductory price in Canada may be reduced to remain in line with existing A-list smartphones available on the market.

July 2008 Web-Tech News on VanRamblings

July 6, 2008Web & TechRaymond Tomlin

Have you ever tried to visit a web page only to get the 404 error or another message, even though the site was working just fine an hour ago?
Down for everyone or just me does one thing. Type an URL into the site, and you’ll find out if the whole world is seeing what you’re seeing. Yep, it’s easy to determine if if that web site you’re trying to reach is actually down, or if your busted-up computer or network filters is the problem.

So much for the benign reputation of Google. A report in the New York Times Saturday, July 5th, suggests that not all is well with the search engine behemoth. Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, recently told Google staff that he had no sympathy for the parents who were upset by a 75% increase in Google day care fees — to a whopping $57,000 a year! — and, further, that he was “tired of ‘Googlers’ who felt entitled to perks like ‘bottled water and M&Ms’.”
That’s what we love in our billionaire corporate entrepreneurs — a kind heart, an ability to relate to the concerns of line staff, and the milk of human kindness. Whoa, Mr. Brin, just what’s up at Google? Fifty-seven thousand dollars in annual daycare fees? Way to value your staff, Google.

A few weeks back, corporate anti-virus company, AVG, notified subscribers that their free AVG 7.5 workhorse would become defunct June 1st (the company later changed that date to June 25), although even as of this writing AVG 7.5 (the free version) seems to be performing well, as the company continues to provide virus definition updates to the supposedly defunct software.
Soon after AVG made the new version announcement word began to filter across the Internet that the free version of AVG 8.0 would work to full capacity for only 30 days, after which the e-mail scanning facility would become defunct, requiring subscribers to update to AVG 8 PRO.
AVG recently published an announcement that …

Contrary to rumours circulating on the Internet, AVG Free 8.0 does not include any “trial” or “time-out” functionality. Every option provided in the program is fully functional for the life of the product.

So, for those who loves them some free AVG, you can safely download the fully functional, and absolutely free, 8.0.1 version of AVG anti-virus here.

Microsoft has released Windows XP Service Pack 3 currently rolling out to customers across the globe. Online tech company, CNET, warns users to hold off on downloading the massive Windows XP hotfix update until the ‘bugs’ have been worked out.
To prevent Windows XP from automatically installing, you can surf to this site, following the directions to block the installation of the service pack.
VanRamblings brings you this announcement in the hopes of preventing potential havoc on your PC. We advise you to wait until 2009 to download Windows XP SP3, when Microsoft will make the update mandatory.

Telus HDTV: 175 Channels and (Almost) Nothin’ On

June 27, 2008Television, Web & TechRaymond Tomlin

Here it is summer, the days are warm and the sun shines, and what has VanRamblings all excited? HDTV. That’s right, High Definition Television.

Yes, in the sweltering days of summer, VanRamblings has signed on to the Telus HDTV package, replete with 57 channels and nothin’ on (well, actually, there are more like 175 channels, and nothing to watch). Be that as it may, we’re still pleased that we switched to Telus TV.

And why might that be? Because we’ve saved money on our home phone, Internet and TV package — with more goodies than we had before — over what we’d been paying previously. Here are the Telus TV packages …

Being cheap, VanRamblings went for package number 1, including …

Telephone: Telus IP phone with crystal clear reception; call waiting and call display (including call display on the TV when someone phones); 200 minutes of long distance free, and 7¢ a minute after that
Telus high speed enhanced, which doubles the speed of downloads, and makes surfing perceptibly quicker
Telus HDTV, with the essentials, and two theme packs. There’s an additional $15 charge for HDTV.

Total cost of the package: $95.95 + $15 = $110.95, plus tax.

Telus Optik TV Channel Guide, June 8, 2011

Well, hold on a minute. Things aren’t quite what they seem at first glance. There were some hiccups that occurred on the way to achieving HDTV bliss.

First off, according to the somewhat confused folks who initially answered the phone at Telus TV in late June, if you want almost all of the HDTV channels available in Canada (the few of those that are currently offered), as well as most of the U.S. networks that are broadcasting in HDTV, we were told, latterly, that you have to sign up for theme packs that include those channels. HDTV for those channels is not automatic. Well, if you have a look at the Telus HDTV page all of the HDTV theme packs come in at $15. Which is where Telus
gets its $15 HDTV subscriber "come on" from.

But the Telus TV folks told VanRamblings that subscribers have to subscribe, at a cost of $6 for each theme pack, to the conventional digital theme packs that include those HDTV channels. And pay $15 more to watch those channels in HD. Confusing. Misleading. And off-putting.

So, if you want the Discovery Channel, the Time Choice channels, Movie Central HD, TSN and Sportsnet HD (which broadcast out of Toronto), you’ll end up paying another $24, plus another $15 for those channels in HD! Telus HDTV isn’t quite what it seems, then. Not good. We were not happy.

On top of that, Global TV Vancouver HD is not (currently) available on Telus HDTV, although it is available to Shaw and Bell satellite subscribers.

Locally, only CBC broadcasts the local news in HD. Global news programmes may go HD in the autumn, BCTV’s engineer told VanRamblings; hopefully Telus will have initialed a broadcast agreement with GlobalBC by then. CTV Vancouver broadcasts most American programming in HD, but not their news programmes. CTV Vancouver promises full HD by 2010, in time for the Olympics, which will likely mean sometime towards the end of next year.

Telus also does not currently offer a PVR, as Shaw does, so subscribers cannot record HDTV programming for viewing later.

Shaw, if you indicate that you’re leaving them for Telus will offer you a bundle package, including Shaw High Speed and IP Home phone with unlimited long distance in North America, for $95, plus $29 more for the HDTV package. But VanRamblings did not want to move to Shaw at this point, although we were most recently on Shaw’s digital TV package.

VanRamblings called Telus TV to express concern about their confusing and misleading advertising, and commitments not met, and was forwarded to Telus’ Loyalty and Retention division (where we found some fine folks).

Telus finally stepped up to the plate, and during the course of a quite pleasant discussion about what we had been promised at the time we signed up for Telus TV in May, not to mention the information that appears on their website, we arrived at a joint agreement which offered VanRamblings: 3 months of Telus TV (including HDTV) for free — so VanRamblings won’t begin paying for TV til October — with an additional $144 in credit on VanRamblings’ Telus account, for a total saving of $330.

Beginning October 1st, VanRamblings will pay $136, plus tax, each month, for the phone (with call display and call waiting, plus 200 minutes of long distance, monthly, in North America), high speed enhanced Internet, and the essentials TV package, plus 5 theme packs. VanRamblings will receive almost all of the HDTV channels available in Canada with this agreement.

If VanRamblings deducts the $144 credit offered by Telus, as well as the $186 three month saving on the TV / HDTV that was agreed to by the Loyalty and Retention division, VanRamblings’ monthly HDTV / telephone / Internet package, in reality, will come to only $108.50 per month.

VanRamblings can live with that. Cheaper than Shaw, with a decent service.

Come fall, though, when we switch to the five theme packs from the full-meal deal that VanRamblings is receiving for the next three months for free, we expect trouble with Telus (not to mention, we’re not sure that we want five theme packs).

So far Telus has not been great at keeping their word, or being consistent from Telus salesperson to Telus salesperson as to what Telus offers respecting HDTV, and how much that will cost a subscriber. Come late September, chances are that we’ll end up writing more about Telus TV and what shenanigans, if any, Telus may be up to at that time. Stay tuned.

ALERT, INSTALL IMMEDIATELY: All-Inclusive Microsoft Update

February 14, 2007Web & TechRaymond Tomlin

Aiming to patch
20 critical vulnerabilities, Microsoft yesterday delivered its monthly batch of security updates — including 11 critical issues in the Windows operating system, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.), Internet Explorer and even its own anti-virus tools — matching its all-time high for monthly security fixes, its largest security batch since August 2006.
Now, it’s true, you could wait for the fine folks at Microsoft to notify you about the absolutely critical updates — say tomorrow, or next week, or whenever you’re on their notification list of one billion computer users. But do you really want to wait? Should you? VanRamblings thinks not.
Among the factors contributing to the unusually high volume of February patches could be the discovery of four vulnerabilities Microsoft had planned to address in its January 2007 security bulletins, but didn’t.
Okay, so now is the time for you to surf on over to Microsoft’s Update site (in Internet Explorer), and download and install the patches. Immediately.