No iPhone for you
Jul 31, 2008 Bad Business
The Torontoist reports that Rogers is preventing some customers from purchasing an iPhone. After the fiasco about the data plans offered with a new iPhone, you would think that Rogers would have learned its lesson.
Apparently not. According to the Torontoist article:
Due to a breathtakingly boneheaded policy created by the company’s National Planning Department, existing customers currently under a Rogers contract and who have upgraded their handset within the year are prohibited from purchasing an iPhone. At all.
Well, that’s only partly true. They can buy an iPhone if they cancel their current contract, pay the early cancellation penalty fee ($20 per month left on the contract) and handset subsidy, and then sign up to a new contract, which includes an additional $35 activation fee. Customers aren’t even allowed to keep their previous phone number, as number porting is only available when transferring carriers—so, to retain a number with an iPhone, a customer would have to sign up for a brand new account with Rogers subsidiary Fido.
Absolutely ridiculous. I fail to understand why this company is so afraid of having happy customers. It is mind boggling.
Canadian “Do Not Call” list
Jul 31, 2008 Uncategorized
Taking after the US Do Not Call Registry, Canada will have its own flavour (a Do Not Call List - DNCL) as of September 30, 2008. Bell Canada was granted a 5 year contract to operate the DNCL in December 2007.
Points of Interest
- You can register any Canadian telephone number be it landline, fax or cell phone.
- To register you will be able to call a toll free number (to be determined), send a fax to a toll free number (TBD) as well as through an online form.
- The registration will be valid for 3 years, after which you will have to enroll again.
- There are exceptions to the DNCL. Entities exempted include:
- registered charities;
- political parties;
- nomination contestants, leadership contestants or candidates of a political party;
- opinion polling firms or market research firms conducting surveys when the call does not involve the sale of a product or service;
- general circulation newspapers calling for the purpose of selling a subscription;
- fines are up to $1,500 for individuals and up to $15,000 for corporations
To get more information about the Canadian DNCL check out the CRTC’s Facts about September 2008 launch of the National Do Not Call List. You can also consult the DNCL website and use it to register once it is open for registration.
So you think you can solder?
Jul 31, 2008 Video
IEEE Spectrum has a video from the NYC Soldering championship held earlier this year. The kit to be built is the TV-B-Gone which turns off all TVs in its range (which can get quite annoying at times). Here’s a video of it in action:
The people participating in the NYC Soldering championship race to build their kits against time. It’s quite awesome to see them in action. Check out the video here.
If Apple cares, the next iPhone will have these features
Jul 24, 2008 Gadget
Cracked.com has a list of 20 Features the Next iPhone should totally have. This is one of those rare cases where I agree with their choice for number 1:
Although, number 7 would be great too.
Tags: apple, Cracked.com, iphone
Facebook in real life
Jul 17, 2008 Video
Facebook has been around for a while now and I’m sure many people can’t remember a time before Facebook. The guys over at Sync found a video which is giving us a look into what the world would be like if Facebook was real. Quite scary!
Tags: facebook