Killarney School principal Dave Devin is behind bars for using his BlackBerry too much. His bail is set at $1,200 and law enforcement officials will hold him until this money is raised.
Sorry but I couldn’t help posting this. It’s actually a fund raiser on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society called Jail ‘n’ Bail where community members voluntarily “jail” themselves and raise bail money for cancer. Dave Devin was “arrested” for using his BlackBerry too much and was released less than an hour later. Phew!
This isn’t the most breaking of BlackBerry news but there is an interesting contest going on in the City of Ottawa, where BlackBerry is playing a central role in boosting the local economy.
Ottawa, Canada’s capital, is home to a staggering number of BlackBerry devices. Being the capital city, the Federal government constitutes around 18.2% of local GDP. That means there is a significant amount of government workers in the region and the vast majority of them carry a BlackBerry.
So if you live in Ottawa, join in the fun. Also, feel free to recommend this initiative to your local government representatives as it could do great things for the local economy.
RIM has been lobbying very hard to get the Canadian government to intervene in the deal between Nortel and Sony Ericsson. The deal involves the sale of a variety of Nortel’s assets including their LTE operations, which are of great interest to RIM in order to future-proof devices.
The Canadian government has ruled on the issue and declined to review the $1.13 billion sale of Nortel Networks’ CDMA and LTE assets to Ericsson. The announcement was made by Canada’s Industry Minister, Tony Clement, and it closes any possibility of the Canadian government intervening in favor of RIM.
The underlying reasons for which RIM wanted the Canadian government to intervene are vague at best. The Investment Canada Act stipulates that the Canadian government must intervene if the sale of Canadian assets to a foreign country poses some security risk.
“There are no grounds to believe this transaction could be injurious to Canada’s national security,” Clement said Wednesday, adding that Ericsson “has the resources and customer base necessary to bring Canadian innovation to market. … This deal is very beneficial to Canada.”
So it looks as though RIM is going to have to find another way to acquire the LTE and CDMA technology it desires.
Today Canadians are taking a Civic Holiday, which is celebrated on the first Monday of August. In Newfoundland, it’s called Regatta Day, in Saskatchewan it’s called Saskatchewan Day, Nova Scotia call it Natal Day, Torontonians call it Simcoe Day and Ottawans call it Colonel By Day. The list goes on forever.
So if you’re Canadian, you’re probably up at your cottage and not reading BlackBerry Cool. Don’t worry though, RIM’s official previewing of the Curve 8520 isn’t until tomorrow so you aren’t missing much today.
On Saturday, Nortel officially sold a portfolio of CDMA and next-generation LTE wireless assets to Swedish Ericsson. While RIM did not enter the Nortel bid officially, they’re still looking for ways to acquire some of Nortel’s technology.
However, we’ve learned today that RIM and Nortel have been in negotiations over other key patents related to the next-generation wireless business “for months.”
On Sunday, RIM reiterated that it “remains interested in acquiring certain Nortel assets,” without providing specifics.
All of this information leads me to believe that RIM will find a way to acquire the CDMA and LTE technology, required to future proof BlackBerry devices and keep costs low but not having to pay royalties for the technology.
The question is: what patents are left to be sold, and will they be enough for RIM’s long term strategy?
Canada has recently passed a new Investment Canada Act which gives the Cabinet the power to block a foreign corporate takeover in the interests of national security. While it may not be clear what constitutes “national security,” the Nortel auction is a clear example of where this act can be applied.
In RIM’s most recent press release, they outlined that they are on board with the Investment Canada Act and wish it to be applied. “RIM believes that the loss of Canadian ownership of Nortel’s CDMA and Long Term Evolution Access businesses may significantly, adversely affect national interests, with potential national security implications, and that the Government of Canada should review the situation closely.”
The Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement doesn’t seem to be showing any interest in the matter and has publicly said he “cannot interfere” in Nortel’s legal court-managed U. S. Chapter 11 corporate reorganization.
Major bids for the CDMA and LTE techonlogy are coming from Finland’s Nokia. While Finland doesn’t pose a national security threat in the traditional sense, the lose of this technology will almost certainly have an adverse economic impact.
Implementing LTE technology on Canadian BlackBerry devices is going to give our economy a much needed boost of wireless infrastructure and pushing this technology forward is going to create jobs. The Canadian government is in a position to help a company that is creating jobs at home, rather than shipping our home grown technology abroad.
We’ve written about buzzd several times and today they have some great news for Canadians. buzzd is now optimized for Canadian locales as well as made available to BlackBerry Storm users.
If you haven’t heard, buzzd is a location-sensitive city guide and social network. They have had great success on App World with over 200K downloads in the first 30 days of being available in App World. buzzd is an easy way to discover what’s going on in your city and it leaves you rarely asking “what should we do tonight?”
The social aspects of buzzd mean editorially driven event and venue information, along with up-to-the-minute reviews and ratings from other members of the buzzd community, are available constantly. Users can browse and search continuously updated event feeds, which include pricing, location, and event details as well as the firsthand ratings and reviews posted from the event by other members in real-time.
Event and venue information is courtesy of Citysearch, Flavorpill, Time Out, MyOpenBar, last.fm, Upcoming.org and many other local content providers. User-generated feedback for “real-time” activity about venues and events is also layered at the top of event listings throughout the platform.
Happy Canada day folks! BlackBerry Cool would like to present what could be considered “The Best of Canadian Culture.” Feel free to comment your personal favorite Canadiana. Here they are in no particular order:
The Make it Seven campaign has done a great job of promoting Canadian hockey. It’s a big part of Canadian culture and we’re proud of our nation’s dominance in the sport.
French Canada
It’s great to live in an officially bilingual country, founded on two distinct cultures (anglo and franco). Canada’s French history can be seen in Quebec, the Acadian East Coast and our First Nations Peoples.
The East Coast
Theirs a well-deserved stereotype about Canadians that they’re polite and friendly. The maritimes is a great place to experience this friendly vibe. Go during lobster fest!
The West Coast
Whether you’re skiing in the Rockies or on a beach in Vancouver, the West Coast is an outdoorsman’s dream.
Prairies and Central Canada
Canada’s natural resources are an economic competitive advantage. We have vast amounts of wheat, softwood lumber, minerals and a booming oil economy. Did you know we’re the largest exporter of oil to the US?
Aboriginal and First Nations People
Canada’s First Nations People represent a Canada that was totally different than it is today. While it hasn’t been an easy transition for these cultures, they remain a huge part of our culture and nationhood.
Canadian Music, Film, Arts and Entertainment
There isn’t one unified Canadian taste in music, film or the arts. All we can do is present some openly Canadian examples. Some good recent Canadian bands include Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and The Stills. Trailer Park Boys is a great Canadian show about degenerate life in Halifax. Canada is also a great place to film popular hollywood movies. Government subsidies make it very cost effective to film in Canada.
Canpages is a Canadian business directory, very similar to 411. They’ve recently launched a free voice recognition search application for the BlackBerry. The application lets you speak a search request into your phone and then receive the results in text—leaving your hands free for other more important activities.
The app lets you speak the area or location of the business you’re searching for into your phone or you can simply search for a business “nearby” using the phone’s GPS capabilities.
Although the app is a good idea, it’s strange that it’s SMS-based. SMS applications are usually reserved for feature phones and “dumb phones”, while the BlackBerry should be emailed based. I guess this is for the BIS folks who don’t like email.
[UPDATE: The applications is not SMS based – rather, it actually uses 3G and doesn’t rely on text or email. You don’t need to request the app using SMS, although it is convenient. You can download the Canpages application by opening a browser on your Blackberry and going to canpages.ca/bb. From there you are able to download the app directly and it works great. It’s also available through Blackberry App World on your phone.]
To download the application for free to a BlackBerry text “blackberry” to 898411.
[ED NOTE: I'm having trouble getting the number to accept the text from a BlackBerry Storm 9530. Comment and let me know if you've had more success with this. The news came from a trusted PR company so I know it's legit.]
Recently, the ambassador of Canada was asked to say a few words about Canada and Canadian identity. Rather than talk about our unique natural landscapes, endearing cultural norms or even how we pronounce words funny, the ambassador chose to talk about Tim Hortons.
For the ambassador, Canadian identity was more about a relatively small coffee chain than it was about our historical accomplishments. While Tim Hortons does make an awesome cup of Joe, and I do appreciate their low prices, it’s not a very global company.
Canadians love to identify themselves as being a diverse nation with an interest in all things global. We celebrate Toronto’s diversity and the word “diversity” comes up in Canadian culture as much as the word “freedom” comes up in American.
The company that embodies this spirit isn’t Tim Hortons, but rather RIM. RIM is a Canadian company building a product that is truly global. The BlackBerry is helping economies be more efficient, as well as helping us stay in touch, thus strengthening the bonds of society. Canadian identity should be linked to something that empowers people, rather than make them fat.
Andrew Cohen, a professor of journalism and international affairs at Carleton University, wrote a good article on this subject that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen (no link). He also backs RIM as Canada’s best foreign policy tool.
