canada

HTC Radar 4G coming to Videotron, possibly other Canadian carriers

January 31, 2012 | By Surur

MobileSyrup reports that the T-Mobile US version of the HTC Radar will be coming to Videotron, a Quebec-based regional carrier in Canada.

The handset will be selling around $100 on contract, and they report that since Videotron uses AWS, the handset will likely also end up on WIND Mobile and Mobilicity.

The HTC Radar is expected to show up in Videotron in Spring 2012.

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Telus announcing availability of 8107 update for HTC 7 Surround and LG Optimus 7

January 25, 2012 | By Surur

telus8107

Telus has posted a support page advising users that the 8107 “disappearing keyboard” update for Windows Phone 7 is now available, fixing a number of issues.

The updates are available for the LG Optimus 7 and the HTC Surround and can be accessed by connecting your phone to your desktop via USB and using desktop Zune to check for updates in settings.

See the page here.

Thanks Tommy and Patrick for the tip.

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Telus posts the Nokia Lumia 800 as coming soon

January 12, 2012 | By Surur

telus800

Its not a complete surprise, as it has been announced earlier, but the Nokia Lumia 800 has just shown up on Telus Canada’s website as coming soon.

The handset will be offered in all 3 colours (Black, Pink and Cyan). Unfortunately no pricing information was revealed.

Nokia Lumia 710 Will Be Canada’s First 2nd-Gen Windows Phone

January 5, 2012 | By Liwen Guo

Canada has always been a bit neglected in Microsoft’s Windows Phone push (even with competitions as awesome as this one), and so far not one second-gen device has been launched there. However, that is finally set to change, with the Nokia Lumia 710 and subseqently Lumia 900 arriving at some unknown dates, according to a tipster of MobileSyrup. It is also not known yet whether they will launch on Rogers, Bell or Telus.

The Nokia Lumia 710 is a mid-range device, featuring a 3.7″ LCD display with WVGA resolution, 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB RAM and 5MP camera, whereas the rumored Lumia 900, codenamed Ace, will reportedly have a bigger 4.3″ ClearBlack AMOLED display, a higher-quality 8MP camera and come with LTE support.

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Microsoft Canada giving away prizes to Developers creating WP7 apps

December 26, 2011 | By Surur

manifesto

The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will soon cross 50,000 apps, but Microsoft Canada is not leaving that to chance.

They have created a reward system where developers are eligible for great prizes simply for submitting “quality” apps to Marketplace (something which Microsoft does not define in its Terms and Conditions).

The promotion is called The Developer Movement and runs from the 16th December to the 20th May.

The reward system is as below:

PUBLISH 1 QUALITY APP
       Select a reward below:

A Kinect™ Sensor for Xbox 360®

10,000 Microsoft Points

Monster® Beats™ Headphones

A 1TB External HD

PUBLISH 2 QUALITY APPS
      Select a reward below:

    A Windows® Phone 7

    A $500 Gift Voucher

    35,000 Microsoft Points

    An Xbox 360® with

    Kinect Bundle

PUBLISH 3 QUALITY APPS
      Your apps will be considered by our judges for publicity across:

    The Xbox Newsletter

    The Xbox Live Dashboard

    MSDN Website

    MSDN Flash Newsletter

    Canadian Developer Blog

The first 200 people that register for the Developer Movement may also get their AppHub account for free. Only Canadian residents are eligible.

Receiving $500 for publishing only two apps may be more than many regular developers would have earned from sales in Marketplace itself, so the competition certainly sounds worthwhile.

Read more about the contest at Developermovement.com

Via WPCentral.com

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Multiple Nokia WP7 handsets coming to all Canadian carriers

October 6, 2011 | By Surur

Chad Saliba, Portfolia Collaboration Manager for Nokia Canada told MobileSyrup that in 2012 multiple Windows Phone devices will be released in Canada, across multiple price points and on several carriers, including Rogers, Telus and Bell, who are all sourcing Windows Phone 7 handsets.

The devices will range from low-end handsets, with basic specs (but within the chassis 1 requirements) to higher-end devices with “more powerful internals”

Chad also confirmed that a Nokia Maps product, with other Nokia IP, will be coming to Windows Phone 7.

Nokia is expected to announce at least one and possibly as many as 3 Windows Phone 7 handsets at Nokia World on October 26th, so all mysteries should be abolished soon.

Zune getting ready to roll out to Canada, include Zune Pass

September 22, 2011 | By Surur

Bob has dropped us a line and some screen shots showing that Microsoft may be getting ready to roll out the full Zune Marketplace to Canada.

When signing into Zune with his American Zune account and his PC region set to Canada he was able to load what appeared to be a full-featured Canadian Zune site, which featured music and also offered to let him sign up for Zune Pass. However when clicking on the link it still took him to the US sign up page.

When signing in with his Canadian Zune account only the usual apps and Videos were available.

There have been some evidence of a full-featured Zune experience coming to Canada and Microsoft has released a Regional Availability Chart which did show Canada getting the Zune Marketplace, so hopefully we will see the full service roll out very soon, possible as part of the Mango package.

Thanks to Bob for the tip and screen shots.

See another screen shot after the break.

Continue reading →

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Canada’s Telus now also ready for Mango

September 20, 2011 | By Surur

We can tick Telus of from the list of carriers ready for the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update, with the company posting about a “new software update for the LG Optimus 7” being available to take your device up to 7.10.7720.68.

Interestingly the post does clearly talk about a September 2011 update, which may either be the old schedule, or suggest we will get the new software in the next 10 days.

Thanks EJ for the tip.

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Now Zune marketplace allows music purchasing in Canada

August 8, 2011 | By Surur

We reported a few days ago that traces of the Zune Marketplace for music was showing up in Canada, and now Zunited has updated their report, stating that they are now in fact able to purchase music.

The service is still pretty bareboned, as Zunited notes:

This is great news but a few things are still missing though: the ability to properly go from an artist in your collection to their respective page in the Marketplace still results in an error message about the artist being “no longer available at Zune Marketplace.” Also, the pretty view of featured artists, top 10, and also general browsing experience seems to be somewhere between lacking and non-existent. Another aesthetic feature that is missing is the artist pictures and bio, which make the music user experience on the Windows Phone and Zune HD exponentially more enjoyable.

Zunited notes that just being able to purchase music in Canada is an achievement – the market has numerous rules and regulations designed specifically to keep music stores out of the country.

We have recently recieved similar reports from Australia, indicating that a possible expansion of the Zune music service is underway, hopefully with a big splash to coincide with Mango handsets.

Zune Marketplace makes a brief appearance in Canada

August 5, 2011 | By Surur

Canadian Zune users may soon have access to classics like "The Lumberjack Song" by Monty Python.

Josh from Zunited reports that, while installing the 4.8.2098.0 update for the Zune desktop software necessary to sync with Windows Phone Mango, a skeleton of a Canadian Zune Marketplace for Music and Podcasts briefly showed up.

He writes:

So as I am doing a routine clean-up of my music library, I clicked onto the Marketplace as I sometimes do in hopes of finding something on sale and to my surprise, the option for music and podcasts appeared along with videos and apps.

Double and triple checking that my locale was in fact, Canada

Obviously it goes without saying: mind blown. My excitement was somewhat extinguished to discover that there was no actual content in the music or podcast sections. But things like categories, “Top Songs,” and other framework items were visible.

Unfortunately trying to link from an artist via the “more about this artist” method proved unsuccessful as an error message was received telling me that the artist no longer existed in the marketplace. Leaving the conclusion that the Canadian Zune music Marketplace was a temporary mirage.

Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore recently promised that Zune Marketplace will expand to other countries, and it may be that this is to coincide with the launch of Mango. Hopefully this mirage is a portend of things to come.

Canadian Students win $25,000 for Windows Phone 7 app, plan to start own studio

April 8, 2011 | By Surur

apathon

A team of 4 Canadian students have won the Great Canadian Appathon on Thursday, competing against 100 others to create the best Windows Phone 7 game in 48 hours.

They plan to use the money to start their own gaming studio, Bit Shift Games.

“We get back home and we are going to start talking about it next Wednesday and and do the necessary steps that we need to get set up as a business on the infrastructure side,” said one of the four, 22 year old Pieter Parker.

The winning game, Super Punch, will be published by XMG Studio Inc, and the team is already planning their next game Roundboy.

“We also have some really sweet ideas that we want to do as well as Super Punch, so it is going to be very exciting times for us,” said Mr. Parker.

Read more about the games at bitshiftgames.com.

Via FinancialPost.com

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“The Great Canadian Appathon” is this weekend

March 11, 2011 | By l3v5y

This weekend marks the “Great Canadian Appathon,” a contest sponsored by TELUS, XMG Studio and The National Post, looking for young Canadian programmers to produce a WP7 game in a mere 48 hours.

The Great Canadian Appathon is a chance for post-secondary students across Canada to showcase their skills in developing great games. Students can get together in teams of up to 4 people to hack their game together for 48 hours. The event is presented by XMG Studio and the National post. The Prizes are being sponsored by TELUS and the finale event is being sponsored by KPMG.

Of particular interest is the involvement of Toronto-based game studio XMG, who have traditionally been very iOS-focused. The “Appathon” is open to all college (“post-secondary”) students in Canada. You can read more at the official website here.

via RGBFilter.com – thanks Doug Groves for the heads up.

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Telus WP7 ad campaign: magnetic Live Tiles on the streets of Montreal

March 8, 2011 | By l3v5y

The Canadian carrier TELUS has launched a new promotion on the streets of Montreal: huge replicas of the LG Optimus 7 and magnetic billboards, complete with 4000 magnetic Live Tiles that customers can take home if they want; each has the addresses of stores stocking WP7 handsets on the back.

We certainly hope Montreal consumers find this promotion… attractive?

via SmartKetai.com; thanks Micha for the tip.

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