Canadian Market Just Doesn’t Get the Nexus One Google Phone
I'm not claiming to be an expert or anything, but I did spend a good six months following the HTC Hero story before it came to market. In case you missed that one, its release was a watershed moment in the history of the Android OS. Many people have agreed that it was the first device to really compete with the iPhone head to head and showed that Google's foray into the smartphone realm was more than just a half-baked afterthought.
I haven't followed the Nexus One story much at all, actually, until now. But I believe that it makes the Hero seem like just another iPhone rip-off. That's because what we are getting with the Nexus One isn't just another smartphone, it is a whole different way of relating to the telecommunications industry.
Many people are still unaware of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). This is a telephone service that works just like your traditional landline, except instead of using an analog signal (the kind used by Alexander Graham Bell himself in the first phone call), it uses a digital signal that is transmitted over the internet. The great advantage of this technology is that traditional phone lines can still be used, but using digital technology increases the bandwidth of the transmission. In other words, you don't need an analog signal anymore, all you need is an internet connection (whether that be DSL or cable or satellite) and you can make and receive telephone calls.
This technology has yet to make its way into the cellular market for many reasons. The main one being that its introduction would seriously hurt the bottom line of cellular companies. Just think, with VOIP on a cell phone you don't even need a "Talk & Text Plan". All you need is a data plan. With a data plan you can use Skype, or Google Voice or some other technology out there that we haven't even heard of or hasn't been invented yet.
The Nexus One is pushing the limits by going for the jugular of the cellphone industry. That main vein is the outrageous prices that the industry places on consumers for traditional services that have basically been rendered obsolete by the emergence of new technologies like VOIP (don't even get me started on the text-message thing, which is an even more outrageous story of manipulation and incredibly lucrative for the entrenched powers).
The reason that most people don't know about this in Canada is obvious. Rogers, Bell and Telus have the highest rates of any cellular companies in the world. Anything that would jeopardize their cartel is blasted in the major press because they not only control a lot of the media directly, but also indirectly through advertising. They aren't going to be paying the Globe and Mail or National Post or even the Toronto Star for advertising if their reporters are telling the public how they are being ripped off (much less reporting those stories themselves).
This missing puzzle piece in Canada, to really make the Nexus One a game changer in this market, will be for some Canadian Cellular company to offer "data only" cellular plans. What that would look like is that you buy a sim card from a cellular provider and pay for a data plan only instead of a talk and text with data which is the current norm. This really isn't that different from buying a USB stick that you hook up to your laptop, it is just that we still don't think of smartphones as handheld computers. The reality is that is just exactly what they are. Millions of dollars in advertising revenue are being spent to keep you and everyone else in Canada from realizing this (and to be fair, it is happening in the US as well, but at least T-Mobile is already on board with Google).
I have an inkling of hope that Globalive will be offering this type of service through Wind Mobile, but only time will tell. As for me, I'm hoping that Google offers the Nexus One directly to Canadian consumers sooner than later, I want one! How about you?
Bugbase Brings Open Hardware to the Masses
I'm starting to get really excited about the emerging field of open hardware. The primary concept is analagous to the open software movement in terms of making hardware that can be modified by the user. Bug Labs is now selling a modular computing device running Linux sofware with an ARM processor. The possiblities for this are absolutely unlimited.
Here is an interview with Eric von Hippel from MIT discussing one of the Bugbase modules that has been developed in his honor, the BugvonHippel breakout module that expands the capabilities of the Bugbase into being used as a controller for about any electronic device you could think of. There is also a lot of really good discussion and speculation about where the future economy is going, where design and innovation is user-driven, rather than by the manufacturers.
After all that, I just can't wait to get my hands on one of these!
File Number # 8740-B2-200904989 – Bell Canada – TN 7181
I just received this email from my ISP. After reading it over I posted a response to the indicated URL. I wanted to show the world just how manipulative and evil Bell Canada can be. I should know, I worked for one of their mutant symbionts in the states (AT&T formerly known as SBC formerly known as Southwestern Bell before the breakup of Ma Bell when they and Verizon and Bell Canada were all just parts of the biggest monopoly the world had ever seen).
**********
Dear Valued Customer,
We are writing to you today as many activities are underway to shape/reshape
Internet use as you all know it. Over the last year some of you have been
made aware and/or have seen activities on throttling in the news or in your
daily lives. Another proceeding relating to the Internet in Canada required
Telecom providers (Bell/Telus/etc.) to provide ISPs with wholesale service
speeds that match those that they offer to their own retail customers.
Specifically, Bell has been directed by the CRTC to provide matching speeds
which would allow us all to have more flexibility in our day to day online
requirements. Instead of adhering to these directives, Bell decided to take
this issue to the federal Cabinet and at the same time file a tariff
application with the CRTC proposing to introduce Usage Based Billing (UBB)
on its wholesale customer accounts.
What does this mean for you, the consumer?
Bell provides TekSavvy with last mile, wholesale DSL access services, which
TekSavvy uses to provide you with your Internet access. If Bell were to be
allowed to introduce UBB on this service, a cap of 60GB would be imposed on
all of its users, with very heavy penalties per Gigabyte afterwards
(multiple times more than our current per Gigabyte rate of $0.25/GB on
overages). This would inherently all but remove Unlimited internet services
in Ontario/Quebec and potentially cause large increases in internet costs
from month to month.
If you'd like to make your comments/concerns known about what Bell is
attempting to do, please do so here:
http://support.crtc.gc.ca/crtcsubmissionmu/forms/Telecom.aspx?lang=e
Select the word "Tariff" from the drop down list.
Add the following in Subject Line "File Number # 8740-B2-200904989 - Bell
Canada - TN 7181" and make your thoughts known!
The deadline for filing your comments is today at midnight, so hurry!
Regards,
*********
HERE IS MY RESPONSE:
Nothing less than the future of Canadian innovation is at stake with this tariff. The only party this helps is Bell Canada, and their legacy of control and manipulation. There is no way that this is good for the average consumer who will end up paying for it. Rather than becoming more competitive and implementing technology that gives consumers more choice and more value for their money, Bell Canada is seeking governmental approval for its mismanagement and abuse of technological resources.
Ten years ago 60 gigabytes a month of downloads would have seemed an outrageously high number. But then again, ten years ago a dial-up internet connection and 56 kilobytes per second was the norm. Even so, under ideal conditions it would have been possible to download over 145 gigabytes of data in a month! (56 kb/sec * 60 sec * 60 min * 24 hours * 30 days = 145152000 kb = 145.152 GB/month). So even though 60 gigabytes seemed like a lot back then it still represented less than half of the potential amount of data that could have been downloaded with that technology.
Today it would be a conservative estimate to say that most broadband services average around 2 megabytes per second download (2000 kb/sec). This represents a capacity increase of 35 times, so the potential data downloaded under ideal conditions comes to over 5000 gigabytes! The 60 gigabyte per month download represents 1.2 % of the ideal capacity of the system under current conditions. For all practical purposes we can expect information technology to continue to improve in at least a linear fashion and in another ten years for it to increase another 35 times in capacity. In other words, not only does this tariff look stupid now, but as times go by the apparent stupidity of it will increase as well, as that 60 gigabytes per month represents less and less of the total data transfer capacity of the system and Bell Canada is able to charge their customers premium prices for nearly all of the data traffic that passes through it.
A fair tariff (if there is such a thing) would at least consider charging overage fees based on some ratio between potential and actual use, and as more bandwith becomes available that specific number would increase. How Bell Canada even came up with this 60 gigabyte per month number itself is completely suspect. If we were expected to only drive 1 % of the speed our cars were capable of, then we would all be driving somewhere between 1 and 2 kilometers per hour.
To the people who will decide whether or not to implement this decision, please, please, do not give in to this ridiculous proposal from Bell Canada. Do not slow down the pace of innovation and progress that has been made possible through the internet by allowing them to put up a big toll gate at every intersection. Say "no" to the culture of entitlement and control that exists at Bell Canada and say "yes" to the future.
*******
Unfortunately, when I tried to submit that whole schpiel I was told that it exeded 2000 characters. So, I put in my calculations which were the most important part so the rest of my rantings will have to be remembered here.
Economy Shrinks With Consumers Leading the Way
"The one part of the G.D.P. we can reliably count on in these times is government."
This article contains some interesting statistics about the current state of the U.S. economy, as well a few funny quotes.
When the Wolf’s at the Door
On Wednesday President Bush warned Americans about the impending economic crisis and said that if Congress refused to act then the country would go into a recession. Let's just take a few moments to ask some questions.
1. How is Congress to blame for the fact that the banks gave a bunch of money to people who couldn't pay it back? This is purely the result of bad decisions by investors and speculators. Many people were hoping to make loads of money on these deals, instead they lost their ass and took the whole country with them. And now they are holding a gun to the head of the American people saying, "You think it's bad now, if you don't give me more money right away it's going to get really ugly."
2. What happened to "free-market" economics? The big banks and fiscal conservatives champion this one all the time, when it is in their best interest to do so. Now that they're loosing money they're crying "Momma!" I don't know why people are suddenly objecting to America becoming a socialist country now, it has been a socialist country for the rich for most of its history.
3. What is this really going to cost? It always costs more than they say it's going to. So $700 billion is just the first estimate. We're talking most likely somewhere in the trillions. The taxpayers have already been shelling out $100 billion a year on Iraq since 2003, does anybody remember what that was supposed to cost?
4. How do you stop a recession (or for that matter, depression)? This is the kicker, because nobody knows the answer to this question. All of the economic data going back to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution shows cycles of boom and bust. For all of its bluster, economics is still a relatively new field of study. Maybe after a few more hundreds of years we'll be able to say for certain, but who knows? The guys at the Treasury Department are espousing a theory of what to do, they have no idea whether if it will actually do any good whatsoever.
5. What is the actual value of these bad investments? I would argue that the money people are afraid of loosing never existed in the first place. These "bad investments" we keep hearing about were mortgages clumped together and sold and re-sold and traded and used as credit between the big banks in dozens different ways. There still isn't anybody who can come to the table right now and explain what these financial instruments are actually worth. Their value still lies off in the future where only time will tell whether or not people will pay their mortgages or go into foreclosure (which is related to the overall future of the economy).
6. Where is the U.S. economy headed these days anyway? Is it destined to be the richest country in the world for all of eternity or is the global economy changing things? There is the possibility that there are much broader causes for the general problems in the U.S. economy, and that the housing crisis is just the most visible part. All of the margins that have put the United States in the lead over the years are beginning to fall off. There really is no guarantee that dumping all of this money into the banks will fix things. It may actually just give the people who have squandered our wealth over the years the last penny in our pockets.
7. Is unlimited economic growth a feasible goal? The current pace of "economic development" has still left billions of people poor and irreversibly destroyed much of the earth's natural economy, the environment. What many people still seem to miss is that infinite growth of anything in a finite space will destroy everthing in its environment in the process of following it's growth curve (i.e. "There ain't room enough in this town for the both of us!").
8. What about all of the other countries? If this is really going to effect the global economy, how come no other countries are stepping in to pledge their support? For example, China has loads of cash, why aren't they pumping money into the global economy? I think that the other countries either expect the U.S. to fix everything or they view trying to intervene themselves a waste of money. Either way, it looks like the States are on their own this time.
Okay, so say it is in the best interest of all Americans and "for the economy" if we give the crybabies their $700 billion pacifier. Who better to tell the American people that this needs to be done than George W. Bush, the most devisive and inept president in the history of the country, and during his last "lame-duck" months in office no-less. I mean, come on, this is the same guy who said that there were WMDs in Iraq, and that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were buds. I don't know the exact numbers, but I do know the national debt has exponentially increased during his last seven-and-a-half years in office. I can say for sure is that he has been the most expensive president to ever sit in the oval office. Everyone has forgotten by now, but the last time the economy was looking even close to as unstable was when he first came to office (I refuse to say he was "elected"). Come on, think, remember Enron? Maybe this should become a battle cry like "Remember the Alamo!" Anybody who still listens to a thing this guy says is a total doofus. As others before me have pointed out, he is the ipitome of the boy who cried wolf.
So if there is anywhere where I could put the blame for the economic mess in the U.S., it is on George W. Bush. If he had not destroyed his credibility a hundred different ways over the years then he may well have been able to use his executive powers and influence to change the course of things for the better. One thing is for sure, the wolf is at the door, and he's getting dinner tonight. Some sheep will be sacrificed on the altar to the God of money and in the end the poor will be worse off.
The American Financial Meltdown Finally Comes to Canada
Shares of Manulife Financial Corp. erased 6.22 per cent, or $2.24, to $33.76 after it disclosed more than $800 million (U.S.) in total exposure to troubled Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., AIG and Washington Mutual Inc. Canada's largest insurance company made that revelation late yesterday, adding it would take an unspecified third-quarter charge with respect to some of those holdings.
Link to the original article here.
This is only the tip of the iceberg for the spillover effects of the U.S. economy on Canada, I'm afraid. I've been talking to a lot people about the financial problems south of the border over the last year and most of them have thought that Canada was immune. The banks here were'nt giving out subprime mortgage loans (though the recently stopped practice of giving a 45-year loan with no downpayment I would argue is pretty much the same thing). So everything was okay, right? Wrong, because although Canadian banks weren't giving the subprime loans, they were heavily invested in American companies that did.
It still amazes me, that the citizens of the biggest trading partner of the U.S. can think they're not going to not be negatively effected by the economic problems down south. Though there seems to be a bit of a delay here, the tide is coming in nonetheless. The next dominoe to fall? I'm betting (and I must admit hoping) on the Toronto housing market. The "strong financial sector" here was supposedly the reason that housing prices had gone down across the country everywhere but here. The out of control speculators here now have nothing left to prop up the overinflated housing prices. It is going to be an interesting winter.
You Need A Budget
The author of the extremely useful "You Need A Budget" financial software, Jesse Mecham, surprised the world today when he decided to quit budgeting. The full details can be found here.
We regard this post as highly controversial and recommend to everyone to not listen to this madness but keep budgeting with all ye might.
