In the era of convenience, of instant everything, of faster than fast, it can be difficult to make healthy choices when it comes to food. With ingredient lists that read like a mad scientist’s chemistry experiment gone wrong and diet alternatives that often turn out to be far unhealthier than their regular counterparts (don’t get me started on aspartame), it often seems like every choice, whatever it is, turns out to be unhealthy somehow.

But for once in the mystifying quagmire of advancing technology mobile media has actually made something easier, as useful apps have emerged that allow users to investigate product ingredients, track their food intake, and participate in online communities for healthy living whenever and wherever they want.

Drawing on the power of constant connection, these apps assure users that they’ll have the information they need at their fingertips to make the right food choices and that they’ll instantly have the support they need to fight those pesky cravings that always seem to derail even the best dietary intentions.

As I peruse the pages of the various tech and telecom blogs daily I pass hundreds of stories about the latest apps, most of which hold my attention for less time than it takes to read the title of the article itself. But every once in awhile I find something that has a wider appeal, an app story that goes beyond using your phone to play pseudo-musical instruments, or viewing the latest salacious mobile content, or playing the newest update for Angry Birds to something that impacts everyone. Here are some of the more useful apps I’ve come across:

Fooducation

Looking for fun and exciting foods for her kids, Hemi Weingarten’s wife purchased some glow-in-the-dark yogurt. Viewing the product suspiciously, Weingarten decided to research the ingredient list, particularly the inclusion of “Red #40,” which he subsequently found to be a controversial chemical banned in several European countries.

This spurred him on to create Fooducate, a mobile app that provides nutritional and ingredient information about packaged foods. Once loaded, simply point your smartphone camera at the product barcode and the app will assign it a nutrition grade, letting you know instantly what choices are right for you and what products should best be avoided.

Tracking Food Intake

One of the biggest hurdles for those looking to eat healthier is actually tracking the food they eat. While people often work hard to prepare healthy meals they often forget about their snacking habits and things like that can quickly derail even the most fervent nutrition devotee.

There are now several very useful apps—such as DailyBurn Tracker or MealSnap—available to assist users in tracking everything they eat, giving them daily calories limits, estimating the caloric content of everything eaten, and most of all, providing users the opportunity to think about what they’re ingesting.

Community

Beyond that, many traditional diet and nutrition companies like Jenny Craig have gone mobile, providing users with instant information regarding healthy eating choices and access to communities for that extra bit of support.

In the end, amidst the myriad of useless apps that you can download occasionally there appears a few that are actually useful, so if you’re looking to make healthier choices in 2012, let your smartphone help.

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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Rogers is on a roll this year and it seems to be making all the right moves. Whether it’s the decision to end throttling, the partnership with WaveFront to foster wireless innovation, the expansion of its LTE network across Montreal suburbs or the launch of its new speedy LTE devices – it’s becoming hard to keep Rogers out of the news.

And yesterday, Rogers unveiled another new service – “Rogers One Number” which lets you do video calls, send SMS texts, and make/ receive standard voice calls on your computer, all using your wireless number.

While such “One Number” cross-platform communication services/ tools are commonly provided by smartphone providers (BBM, FaceTime, Google Voice), Rogers is the first Canadian wireless carrier to offer such a service.

The Rogers One Number service is being offered free to all postpaid wireless subscribers. The idea is to let customers use a single phone number to talk, text, and email on their mobile devices and computers. The service also allows users to video chat with other One Number users via their computers at no cost. Customers can organize their texts, calls, and emails into a single inbox, and sync contacts between their mobile phones and the One Number website.

“Canadians have told us that with more and more technology, their lives have become more confusing and complicated. We now have a seamless and easy-to-use solution for them with Rogers One Number,” said John Boynton, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Rogers Communications. “By extending your Rogers wireless number to your computer, we’re transforming and simplifying how Canadians connect with family and friends.”

The service also offers several less-than-obvious perks. All calls to Canada started via your computer remain free, even if these are handed-off to your phone later on. Rogers plans to release complimentary Android and iOS apps to allow you to manage permissions and visibility thereby providing anytime, anywhere access to your account.

While critics would argue that Rogers One Number simply reinvents the telephony-PC crossover wheel, I believe it’s a much-needed service since Google Voice isn’t available in Canada. The obvious limitation though – the service is tied to your Rogers number and it would no longer work if you switch carriers.  None the less, I reckon it would be a good value-add for customers who plan to stick around with Rogers. Have you tried it yet? If so, please share your feedback on the Rogers One Number service by leaving a comment below.

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Written by: Gaurav Kheterpal. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.comby:RSS,Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Facebook is gearing up to display advertisements on tablet and smartphone applications. The advertisements will begin to appear as early as March.

The move comes prior to the initial public offering and is one way for the social networking giant to snag more revenue opportunities. It’s probably the tip of the iceberg and we can look forward to Facebook seeking out more money-making momentum as the year moves along.

Facebook is calling the mobile ads “sponsored stories” and will inject them into feeds within weeks. Advertising agencies have apparently been lining up to submit proposals for the feature.

With half of all Facebook users accessing their accounts through mobile devices, it was only a matter of time before the site put mobile advertising in the game.

“We do not currently directly generate any meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products, and our ability to do so successfully is unproven,” said Facebook in its IPO filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. “Accordingly, if users continue to increasingly access Facebook mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers, and if we are unable to successfully implement monetization strategies for our mobile users, our revenue and financial results may be negatively affected.”

Facebook has made some money from mobile devices thanks to Facebook Credits, a $557 million goldmine for the company. It’s not clear how much of that dollar amount comes from mobile avenues, of course, but one has to suspect that a good chunk of it does.

Facebook will be up against a few roadblocks when it comes to implementing the advertisements, of course. They’ll have to ensure that the ads aren’t too invasive, for one thing, and will need to keep issues like aesthetics in mind. Considering that most mobile users have limited space to view wall posts or make their way through their news feeds, taking up space, even 10 percent of it, with a mobile ad could be problematic.

“Sponsored stories” will be theoretically integrated right into the news feed. Users who endorse those brands will have their posts highlighted, saving Facebook from having to deal with large block or display advertisements on the side or bottom panels.

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Written by: Jordan Richardson. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

It looks like the care-free days of malware miscreants running amuck in the Android Marketplace may soon be over, as Google has hired a Bouncer to give those pesky viruses the bum’s rush. In a move that falls under the “Its about Time” category, Google is attempting to bring an end to the veritable viral free-for-all in its app market by installing a new security system—aptly named Bouncer­—that will reportedly, “scan incoming apps and scrutinize developers in order to weed out software that may contain malicious code.”

There’s no question that mobile malware has been a growing concern over the past year, particularly for Android, which has the dubious distinction of being the most popular target for underhanded developers and their malicious code.

By installing this invaluable level of mobile security Google will undoubtedly make all of our Android mobile devices a little more safe and secure, and will hopefully have much of the malicious malware hearing the phrase I’m sure many of have heard while attempting to get into that one exclusive club, “You’re not on the list.” But will it be enough to keep Android users safe?

Historically Google has seemingly not concerned itself overmuch with the threat of malware in its free open source Android platform. Perhaps due to the naïveté that all developers hold to Google’s own “Don’t Be Evil” philosophy or perhaps due to simple ignorance or ineptitude, Android has turned into a breeding ground for viruses and other malicious code.

While Android users have had to suffer this malware for several years now—with my first report on Android malware written way back in 2010—you just knew that Google simply couldn’t continue to run such a shoddy operation when faced with the rigorous screening process its closest competitor Apple puts its developers through before they can sell software at the latter’s App Store.

But will Bouncer keep all of us Android users safe, or will it simply let in the good looking malware and the ones willing to slip it a fifty like every other bouncer in the world? From initial analysis, there is some consensus that Bouncer may be just what the Android Marketplace needs to beef up its security.

As I mentioned, Bouncer works like a Marketplace door man, analyzing each app as it’s uploaded to the Market, scans it for potential threats, trojans, or spyware and runs a background scan on the developer to see if any previous malicious history has been reported. If the app or the developer fails any of these tests they will be turned away.

Should the app pass this initial scan and be loaded into the Marketplace, Bouncer will run a simulation of the software on Google’s cloud infrastructure, allowing it to assess any latent threats that might appear when activated on an actual Android mobile device. Finally, Bouncer will maintain a standard of security by running repeated scans on existing apps, just to make sure nothing has slipped by its watchful gaze.

But the question remains, is Google’s reactive Bouncer software as effective as Apple’s proactive—and quite draconian—developer approval process? Say what you will about Apple’s annoying standards, the company has found a way to limit malicious malware by stopping threats before they ever hit the store. Google’s Bouncer, on the other hand, is nothing more than an antiviral watchdog, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years about antivirus software, hackers and spammers will always find a way to stay one step ahead.

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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Rogers had a dream run with its LTE rollout last year and going by the way it’s started the New Year, I can’t help wonder if 2012 will be the defining year for the “Beyond 4G” experience. Shortly after it announced the expansion of its LTE service in Montreal suburbs, Rogers is now planning to better your “Beyond 4G” experience.

To that effect, the company yesterday launched two new LTE devices that will offer the fastest speeds in Canada, as well as more LTE plan options. Rogers claims the two new devices – the Sierra Wireless 4G AirCard® 330U LTE Rocket stick and the AirCard 763S LTE mobile hotspot will both offer LTE download speeds of up to 40 Mbps.

Rogers has always been a front runner in the “Need for Speed” game and if the recent claims prove to be true, it will firmly establish the “Beyond 4G” brand as “Beyond fast” and settle any concerns about it being (beyond) bogus.

Until now, Rogers already offered a wide array of LTE-enabled devices including the LTE Rocket™ mobile hotspot (Sierra Wireless AirCard, two LTE smartphones, the Rogers exclusive Samsung Galaxy S II LTE smartphone™ and the HTC Raider™, the Rogers exclusive HTC Jetstream™ LTE tablet and the Rogers LTE Rocket stick (Sierra Wireless AirCard ® 313U).

Rogers says the two new devices will support dual frequency – 1700/2100 MHz and the 2600 MHz spectrum, thereby offering much faster LTE download speeds of up to 40 Mbps, compared to 12-25 Mbps for devices using 1700/2100 MHz only. Rogers shares the 2600 MHz spectrum with Bell and the two carriers have reported set aside more capacity for LTE devices. The new LTE Hotspot and Dongle will be sold in all Rogers’ current LTE coverage areas including Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver.

“We are thrilled to offer Canada’s fastest LTE devices on Canada’s fastest and largest LTE network,” said John Boynton, Rogers Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. “We were the first to launch an LTE network in Canada and we have invested in the network technology that enables us to keep raising the bar for our customers to experience faster speeds, more devices and more LTE plan options.”

Last August, Rogers drew staunch criticism over its “Beyond 4G” campaign as consumer advocates claimed that Rogers’ network is “incapable” of reaching speeds over the upper limits of what is now considered 4G. My fellow blogger Jeff Wiener settled the “Beyond 4G” debate for good as he tried the Roger’s Sierra USB LTE mobile Internet stick and concluded that it “simply outclassed every other wireless network I’ve ever tested…and most wired ones too!”

Rogers also announced that it will extend its range of 4G HSPA+ mobile internet plans to LTE models including the Flex Rate plan for Rocket stick and mobile hotspot starting from $22.93 per month and Flex Rate plans for tablets starting from $7.93 per month.  The new LTE pricing options will be available this week.

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Written by: Gaurav Kheterpal. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.comby:RSS,Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

1. Digitcom Recognized as Avaya “Partner in Customer Excellence”

This month we here at Digitcom were proud to receive the prestigious distinction as an Avaya “Partner in Customer Excellence,” a newly created designation that identifies and rewards channel partners who achieve significantly higher scores in their customer satisfaction surveys.

The designation “Partner in Customer Excellence” itself comes as part of a set of initiatives designed to not only acknowledge those who exceed the customer satisfaction standard but to help all channel partners know where they stand in comparison with others and how they can improve. In the end, both Avaya and its various channel partners benefit when all parties are focused on customer satisfaction, a commitment that we pride ourselves on here at Digitcom. 

2. RIM’s Balsillie, Lazaridis Finally Resign – Too Little, Too Late?

Digitcom awards and distinctions aside for a moment, the really big news in the tech and telecom world this month was the announcement that long time RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis finally resigned in an effort to pave the way for new leadership and perhaps a renewed (or would that just be “new”) focus on innovation. Following the announcement, Thorsten Heins, a former Siemens AG executive who joined the Waterloo giant in late 2007, was appointed the new RIM CEO.

Despite the change in leadership, however, investors remain unconvinced as shares in the company plunged nine percent immediately following the announcement and a further 3.2 percent in the days following.

3. Apple Customers want new iPhones (Not Better Working Conditions)

The day after Apple posted massive profits in its latest fiscal report, the working conditions along the Cupertino technology giant’s supply lines, particularly those found in the Foxconn factories littered across China, have once again come under scrutiny in a NY Times exposé; not because something new has happened, but because nothing old has changed.

With employees facing inhumane conditions, including unsafe work environments, exorbitantly long work hours, and even physical punishment, the question becomes who’s to blame for this ongoing crisis, and it looks like it may very well be us, the North American Apple loving public.

4. Complaints over Throttling Are Up

According to reports from the CRTC, complaints over throttling are up in Canada. The telecom regulator says that there have been 52 complaints filed since last fall compared to 51 complaints filed in the period between October 2009 and September of last year. The newest numbers outnumber complaints filed by users over the two year period following the CRTC’s release of traffic management rules. Last fall, the regulator released a “reminder” to ISPs about the rules released in 2009.

This story comes as part of a longstanding saga of throttling here in Canada, with many carriers (Rogers in particular) continuously testing the CRTC’s guidelines with supposedly inadvertent instances of illegal network shaping.

5. End Of An Era: Avaya Channel Boss Jeremy Butt Calls It A Day!

Establishing an effective channel partner program is easier said than done, especially for companies which operate in keenly contested market segments such as Unified Communications. While he is no Steve Jobs, it’s fair to say that Jeremy Butt had the same effect on Avaya Channel sales that the former had on Apple’s revolutionary product design.

After four years on the job as global channel chief in which he embraced a more channel-friendly model and actively promoted efforts to crack down the grey market activity, Jeremy Butt will be leaving Avaya at the end of March.

6. iPads in the Classroom: A Sound Investment or Bottomless Money Pit?

As expected Apple unveiled its latest technological advancement geared specifically to the education sector this month, digital textbooks. Part of its newly revamped online book service, dubbed “iBooks 2” Apple’s upgrades will allow textbook manufacturers to create fully interactive titles for the iPad in an effort to bring education to life.

But while Apple is lauding its new digital textbooks as the future of education, many are questioning whether such technology is needed and whether it’s affordable. In fact, there seems to be a growing dissident voice in the education community crying out not for iPads and other technology, but simply for funds to keep teachers.

With complaints over Internet throttling up and with the CRTC saying that it has evidence of Rogers’ throttling, the telecommunications giant says that it will stop the practice in 2012.

The move comes on the heels of Bell’s decision to end throttling effective March of this year.

Rogers revealed its decision to end throttling in a letter to the CRTC on Friday. At the same time, it also refuted the CRTC’s claims that it was guilty of “unauthorized throttling” with respect to video games.

“The testing which the Commission has done was artificial in that it was designed to send a file which would be subject to traffic shaping,” Rogers senior vice president of regulatory affairs Ken Engelhart wrote. “Your traffic was not representative of the way our online gaming customers or other customers use the Internet. The result of your testing is not surprising: it showed that the system operates as it was configured to do.”

Engelhart’s mention of the testing being “not surprising” seems to contradict Rogers’ initial response to the CRTC’s findings: “We’re actually very surprised by this. We do our own testing constantly and this is not anything that our testing results have shown,” said company spokeswoman Patricia Trott at the time.

Okay…

Rogers says that the CRTC’s evidence points to “a bit of traffic that never gets classified.” A problem can arise if some of that unclassified traffic is directed to a port on the user’s computer that would normally be used for P2P file sharing. The traffic gets throttled by Rogers’ apparatus because it can’t be identified. Rogers says that this happens to only about 0.005 percent of “real world traffic.”

Some were less than convinced of the company’s explanation. “Rogers failed to provide the CRTC with technical data as to which games and applications they have tested themselves,” said Canadian Gamers Organization founder Jason Koblovsky. “Without the technical data from their tests on online games, the Canadian Gamers Organization worries that Rogers’ response may be an attempt to mislead the CRTC and the public. We continue to call on Rogers to make these numbers public.”

Rogers countered swiftly, stating that it wasn’t “up to anything” sinister. “I can assure you the only thing we are up to is investing a lot of money, time and effort to try and give our customers the best possible Internet service we can,” said Engelhart.

In any event, Rogers appears to be meeting the CRTC’s demands from last month. The company either had to rebut the evidence or present a compliance plan by February 3. Rogers says it will use a phased-in approach to stop throttling, commencing officially at the start of next month.

“New technologies and ongoing investments in network capacity will allow Rogers to begin phasing out that policy starting in March 2012,” wrote Engelhart. “These changes will be introduced to half of Rogers existing Internet customers by June 2012 and to its remaining customers by December 2012.”

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Written by: Jordan Richardson. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

There are thousands of things that each of us desire on a daily basis, some of which we give in to, some of which we fight to resist. There are some desires that are hardwired into our innermost being, the need for food, for shelter, for safety; while others we impose upon ourselves, the desire for a cigarette, a drink, or that much needed cup of coffee for example. But in this modern technological age, researchers have found yet one more desire that is becoming increasingly more difficult to say no to… social networking.

In a study conducted by a team of researchers from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business designed to measure levels of desire, it was discovered that the average digitally connected person finds it more difficult to resist tweeting than the lure of cigarettes, alcohol or other persistent desires.

The study even found that people give in to the siren song of social networking far more readily than they do to several instincts actually needed for the continued propagation of the species, namely sleep and sex. Does anyone else find it problematic for the furtherance of our species that people would rather digitally connect with another human being rather than actually connect?

The study, led by chief researcher Wilhelm Hofmann, was designed to document people’s desire control ‘in the wild,’ that is outside of a controlled laboratory setup, in an effort to see just what sorts of desires people were facing, giving in to, and trying to resist. While gauging several different types of desires, the focus of the study was, of course, the lure of social networking, and if you didn’t think people were becoming addicted to Twitter and Facebook, well the proof is about to start rolling in.

“Modern life is a welter of assorted desires marked by frequent conflict and resistance, the latter with uneven success,” said Hofmann in an interview with the UK Guardian. Sleep and leisure were the most problematic desires, suggesting “pervasive tension between natural inclinations to rest and relax and the multitude of work and other obligations”.

The study also concludes that while the desires for sex and sleep were found to be stronger, people’s ability to resist them was concomitantly stronger, meaning that in comparison with the desire to Tweet the average respondent still gave in to the desire to social network than the desire to sleep or sleep around.

But are the findings of this study really that surprising? When compared to sex or sleep the desire to social network seems relatively innocuous, a low-risk, low-commitment sort of activity that can be done in seconds. On the other hand, a commitment to sleep or have sex carries with it significantly more weight (and hopefully a slightly longer time commitment) and thus requires more thought and more resistance to giving in to urges.

In the end the thing I find the most problematic about this study is just how subtly  invasive social networking can be, an activity so banal and mundane in our digital existence that we barely even give it a passing thought. Like almost anything else in our lives, excessive dedication to social networking lowers our resistance to it, meaning we give in to our desire to Tweet the trivial events of our lives more readily the next time and slowly become dependent on, addicted to, the need to social network.

Now the real question is, will you Tweet this?

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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Year 2011 was a mixed bag of sorts for ShoreTel. Though it started off well, its market blitzkrieg hit a speed bump as the disaster in Japan threatened to cut supply lines. Things started to turn around towards the latter half of the year as the IP-based phone service bagged lucrative partnership deals with Tech Data Canada and HP.

And the company couldn’t have made a better start to the New Year – generating record revenues in its second quarter for fiscal 2012, and surprising analysts by reporting earnings that beat their expectations by 400 percent. To top it off, ShoreTel last week confirmed that it will acquire M5 Networks, a New York-based hosted UC vendor, in a deal worth about $146 million.

First, a quick look at ShoreTel’s Q2 results. The company’s revenue grew 22 percent year-over-year to $58 million, and up 8 percent from the previous quarter. Net income was $1.4 million or 3 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $1 million, or 2 cents per share a year ago. Despite the company posting a surprise non-GAAP profit, it was downgraded by equities research analysts at Craig Hallum from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating.

“ShoreTel’s market share within both worldwide and the United States have grown significantly year-over-year,” chief executive Peter Blackmore said. “We expect to build these market share gains and continue to close the gap between our current number three position and the number two player in the U.S. We also added a record of nearly 1300 new customers in the quarter, a sequential increase of 24 percent over quarter one.“

M5 Networks, headquartered in New York City, has been operating in the Unified Communication segment since year 2000. The company is considered a leader in the UC cloud market with more than 2,000 customers. M5’s flagship offerings include the M5 Scribe Voice Mail to Email Translation service, as well as fax, business application integration and a softphone offering. Last April, M5 acquired a call center vendor Callfinity and integrated its solution into the M5 hosted platform.

As for the ShoreTel’s M5 acquisition, the latter’s shareholders will receive approximately $84 million in cash and 9.5 million shares of ShoreTel stock. The move is expected to boost ShoreTel’s cloud capabilities thereby enabling it to offer both cloud-based and on-premise solutions. Post acquisition, M5 Networks will become a ShoreTel business unit led by its current CEO Dan Hoffman, who will become president and general manager of the new business unit. Though the engineering groups from each company will remain separate, they will cooperate and coordinate in order to leverage the innovation and best practices of both groups so that both product road maps will benefit from the combined capabilities.

“The acquisition of M5 positions ShoreTel as a leader in the fast-growing cloud UC market and delivers a suite of hosted telephony solutions that is unmatched in the marketplace,” said Blackmore. “This acquisition is a critical step in our evolution and enables the company to capitalize on trends in cloud computing and advance our enterprise communications strategy.”

Gartner predicts that the UC cloud segment could grow 36 percent, to $2.2 billion, by 2015. With M5 Networks in the bag, ShoreTel will further strengthen its position as a formidable player in the hosted UC segment.

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Written by: Gaurav Kheterpal. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.comby:RSS,Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Since its own IPO way back in 2004, Google has employed the informal motto, “Don’t Be Evil,” as the basis for much of its decision making. The company’s underlying philosophy has been that you don’t need to exploit users for profits and that its better to invest in improving the world over the long term even if it means sometimes forfeiting short term gains.

By creating a Don’t Be Evil culture, the search engine giant established a baseline for honesty and integrity in its decision-making meant to dissociate itself from any form of cheating or exploitation. The philosophy is said to imbue everything from Google’s search engine algorithms to the company’s privacy settings on it Google+ social network and one embodied by the company through offering many of its unique services (Google Earth, Maps, and Street View for instance) at no cost to users. 

But with a recent decision in a lawsuit in France it looks like its becoming more difficult to be not evil, as Google was found guilty of anti-competitive practices for offering its Google Maps platform for free.

Earlier this week in a Paris court Google France and its parent company Google were found guilty of anti-competitive practices for offering its mapping service for free to businesses across the country and were ordered to pay the plaintiff, Bottin Cartographes, 500,000 Euros (about $660,000). In addition, the court also required Google to pay a fine of 15,000 Euros for this practice.

It’s a huge victory for Bottin Cartographes, a mapping company that has seen its profits dwindle over the years as it’s struggled to compete with the search engine giant who offers the same services absolutely free.

“We proved the illegality of (Google’s) strategy to remove its competitors,” Jean-David Scemmama, attorney for Bottin Cartographes, said in a statement. “The court recognized the unfair and abusive character of the methods used, and allocated Bottin Cartographes all it claimed. This is the first time Google has been convicted for its Google Maps application.”

This decision comes after years of Bottin Cartographes arguing that by offering its mapping services for free the search engine giant was taking control of the mapping industry and stifling competition, as companies like Bottin Cartographes simply can’t afford to offer their services at no cost.

That being said, despite the fact that Google can find 500,000 Euros in the couch in the employee break room, the search engine giant isn’t about to accept this decision and word is an appeal is already in the works.

For me this entire situation raises the interesting question of the legality of ‘free’ in a capitalist society. Truthfully, in a society founded on profits and competition on the face of it there seems nothing more contradictory than offering something that has no direct profit stream connected to it (because you better believe Google makes money of its Maps program, just not from users). Of course for all those of us who exist as the rank-and-file of capitalism, a little more ‘free’ is always welcome.

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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Last December, Telus predicted a “Big 2012” for investors and raised its dividend by 10 percent, bumping it up to $2.55 a share. While growth in the smartphone sector is expected to drive revenue, the wireless giant knows diversification is the name of the game. To that effect, the carrier last year partnered with U.S. based digital signage provider Stratacache to provide digital signage services across Canada.

On the same note, Telus yesterday announced that it has acquired Wolf Medical Systems, a company that provides online health records sharing for doctors. The move will create ‘Telus Physician Solutions’ – a new line of business targeted as strengthening the carrier’s position in the country’s healthcare sector.

Wolf Medical Systems has electronically processed more than 11 million patient visit records since 2010. The company offers hosted, cloud-based technology which will provide “anytime anywhere” access to patient information over the carrier’s wireless and wireline networks. The EMR industry is transforming with patients and doctors starting to use smartphones and tablets to view/ process electronic medical records. Telus says doctors using Wolf EMR see more than 26,000 patients a day and review 166,000 lab results

As part of the acquisition, Wolf Medical founder Brendan Byrne will be heading the new business entity – ‘Telus Physician Solutions’.

“Electronic medical records are an essential building block to an efficient healthcare system in Canada,” explained Paul Lepage, senior vice-president, TELUS Health Solutions. “While EMRs have been proven to increase efficiency and performance at both the clinical and regional healthcare system levels, Canada’s EMR penetration rate of about 32 per cent lags behind other OECD countries. By committing to the EMR market with a best-in-class solution, combined with the connectivity that our wireless and wireline broadband networks enable, we are positioned to help increase this adoption rate which will in turn improve work processes, efficiencies in service delivery, and patient health outcomes.”

Telus has been operating in the EMR segment since 2008 when it acquired Emergis, a popular Montreal-based company specializing in electronic health records. Since Telus Health was born, the carrier has pumped in close to $800-million over three years in healthcare-related technology. The acquisition of Wolf Medical will further strengthen Telus Health’s position as a formidable player in the EMR segment.

Given the cut-throat competition in the wireless segment, it’s not unusual to see wireless carriers move out of their comfort zones and explore alternate business lines. Last year, Rogers tried it’s hand at several unconventional business lines such as machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless connectivity, banking, home monitoring service and vanity number services.

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

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Written by: Gaurav Kheterpal. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.comby:RSS,Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

I’m torn. On the one hand I like my iPhone (I mean I really like it), while on the other hand I can’t ever imagine any of the staff here at Digitcom enduring the working conditions that those along Apple’s supply chain face on a daily basis. So what’s the answer? How do we fix this ethical problem?

Yesterday business mogul Donald Trump weighed in on the issue, challenging new Apple CEO Tim Cook to relocate Apple’s supply chain to America, calling for Apple to pioneer the move towards in-sourcing, that is, bringing American companies’ supply chains abroad back to U.S. soil. But in today’s global economic market is pulling production out of these countries really the answer?

Where Trump is clearly interested in companies like Apple bringing their supply chains to America as a way of boosting a flagging economy, I continue to frame the entire situation in human terms, in a way that helps the Chinese Foxconn workers and helps us here at home, and perhaps its within that framework that a possible solution can be found.

It was a little over a decade ago when the corporate trend of the day was outsourcing, the relocation of many aspects of one’s business, including manufacturing, supply lines, and customer service to other countries where employment standards were lower and employment expenditures could thus be reduced.

The result of such outsourcing was that many companies indeed were able to reduce employment costs and thus increase revenues, although for customers it often meant that a phone call to the customer service department of the company down the street meant a call rerouted to somewhere in rural Asia…but I digress.

For years now the North American consumer has been living in blissful ignorance of the human story behind outsourcing, happy to purchase cheaper gadgets and technology and happy to not have to think about any of the ethical issues associated with how those devices are made. But as enhanced communication brings our global community that much closer together it’s becoming impossible to ignore the impact that our consumer habits have on the rest of the world.

With all that said, though, the question remains, is outsourcing really the problem? There’s no question that companies traditionally outsource because labour is cheaper overseas, with countries like China and India taking hard stances against unionized labour, allowing wages to stay low. So to a degree there’s no denying that the drive to save a buck has created this situation.

In my mind, however, there could be even more damage done if companies like Apple pulled their manufacturing operations out of countries like China entirely, a move that would undoubtedly result in mass layoffs, ending in other human tragedies as well.

Truthfully (and I’m not sure how politically correct this will sound) I think the answer is that we need to start bringing some of our North American employment standards to these other countries, and its here, I think, that Apple could truly be a pioneer. As was stated yesterday, all Apple would realistically need to do would be to demand workers along its supply line be treated better and it would be done. As the NY Times report stated last week, “Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice.”

Is it all as simple as that? Probably not, but we have to start somewhere.

2011 was another good year for Shopify as the world’s fastest growing ecommerce platform in the world secured $15 Million in Series B funding. The company grew to 80 employees and speculations were rife that the company will need to make acquisitions to grow its business to the next level.

Yesterday, Shopify announced that it has acquired Ottawa mobile application developer Select Start Studios Inc. (aka S3) for an undisclosed amount. This “easy buy” is expected to help Shopify improve the accessibility of its products and enable customers to buy Shopify products using smartphones and tablets.

Though S3 is a tiny company with only 16 employees, it’s a well-known name in mobile app development circles in Ottawa. S3’s claim to fame includes iPhone apps for global accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers, phone listing provider Yellow Pages, telecommunications firm Avaya and others. Though the company’s headcount grew marginally last year, its revenues grew 600% during that time. Post acquisition, S3 will no longer exist as a separate legal entity, thereby boosting Shopify’s employee count to 100.

On the other hand, Shopify is widely regarded as one of the most exciting ecommerce startups wordwide. The company offers a do-it-yourself online shopping platform which powers more than 20,000 active online stores across 80 different international markets. The company’s partners include big names such as GE, Rovio Mobile and Evernote. Shopify has witnessed an encouraging increase in mobile transactions and with S3 in the bag, Ottawa’s fastest-growing company looks well poised for m-Commerce growth.

“After seeing a massive increase in mobile transactions at Shopify, we believe there is great demand and opportunity for mcommerce,” said Lutke. “The S3 acquisition brings in top talent that will rapidly deliver on our mobile strategy, and produce several new mobile product offerings this year. These guys are at the top of their game and know this stuff better than anyone. We’ve been saying for a while that Ottawa is a fantastic place for starting technology companies. This just confirms it.”

Tobi Lutke, Shopify’s co-founder and CEO believes that online shopping is the future. Therefore, it’s no coincidence that the company has purchased the mcommerce.com domain as well. Shopify plans to hire another 40 people by the end of year 2012.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but it is believed that the deal involved a mix of cash and stock.

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Written by: Gaurav Kheterpal. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.comby:RSS,Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

The Samsung Galaxy Note

With the steady proliferation of mobile technology the next thing customers are going to need is not another phone or tablet, but some sort of Batman-esque utility belt to hold all this stuff. The fact is many on the bleeding edge of technological innovation are discovering they have a problem, too many devices and not enough hands.

In today’s mobile market it seems there’s a device for everything, with tablets proficient in certain tasks and smartphones in others, with every tech company quickly looking for ways to unify these devices into one seamless user experience. But Samsung is taking this drive towards integration one step further (or perhaps one step backwards), ignoring advanced Cloud technology in favour of a simpler, more straightforward solution, a tablet/smartphone hybrid.

The Samsung Galaxy Note is set to hit shelves on February 19^th, touted as a new type of smartphone that blends the convenience of a smartphone with the functionality of a tablet. But such a hybrid device is really nothing new, and I would guess that even those looking to simplify their digital existence would still rather have one useable smartphone and one useable tablet, instead of one partially functional hybrid.

It was a little almost five months ago when the world got its first look at Samsung’s hybrid Galaxy Note device at the IFA tech conference in Berlin. The company touted its cutting edge hybrid device as a brand new class of smartphone set to fill that void between the conventional—and not to mention portable—smartphone and the versatile and functional tablet computing platform…if such a void really exists.

At the time the company stated, “The Galaxy Note is a new category of product, developed through Samsung’s deep consumer understanding and insight…It combines core on-the-go benefits of various mobile devices while maintaining smartphone portability to create a whole new user experience.”

I had to laugh when I first read Samsung’s effusive self-glorification (or perhaps self-delusion) when it spoke about the Galaxy Note as “a new category of product,” and of the company’s own “deep consumer understanding and insight,” given the fact that we’ve seen exactly this sort of hybrid device before with the Dell Streak and given the fact that consumers, in general, hated it.

According to Samsung, the Galaxy Note is targeted specifically at those looking to condense their proliferating device portfolio into a single product. Beyond that, I’m sure that the Galaxy Note will find its niche market, especially among certain professional and artistic crowds who will find value in the ability to scribble notes, drawings, or thoughts onto the phone with the included stylus, but I would guess that such a market still won’t be enough to keep the Note around for very long.

The issue with hybrid devices has historically been that they’re a Jack-of-all-trades but a King of none, functioning as a mediocre tablet and a mediocre smartphone. As I’ve said before, the problem with hybrid devices is generally that they combine the major weaknesses of the genres they are trying to marry, meaning that a device like the Note is too small to be a tablet, way too big to a smartphone; lacking the power or functionality of a tablet and, since it obscures half your face while you talk on it, I would say lacking the convenience of a mobile phone as well.

I’ll be interested to see if the Samsung Galaxy Note is able to overcome these weaknesses and actually succeed where others have failed when its released on February 19th–$300 on a two year contract with AT&T.

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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Less than a week after a poignant NY Times exposé lambasted Apple for its substandard moderation and oversight of ongoing labour and worker safety issues in its Chinese supplied facilities– in which an unnamed Apple executive proclaimed that, “Right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China”–one group is calling out for an “ethical” iPhone, one made under fair labour practices.

Ethical watchdog group SumOfUs posted an online petition late last week, demanding that Apple resolve the inhumane working conditions and practices overseas and challenging the tech giant to create the “first ethical iPhone.”

In a recently leaked internal email, Apple CEO Tim Cook took issue with the reports that Apple was turning a blind eye to the veritable human tragedy being played out along the company’s supply chain, stating that “any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us.” As the petition states, if Cook is indeed as offended as he claims to be, the time is now to do something about it.

Apple has a long and somewhat controversial history with ethical issues, with the late Steve Jobs often pushing his whitewashed moral agenda on the tech consumer public in a strong-armed take-it-or-leave-it fashion. There was the longstanding debate over users ability to access and view adult material on their Apple devices, the recent controversy over homophobic mobile applications, and an apparent “glitch” in the company’s Siri voice assistant that prevented it from directing users to abortion clinics.

In most cases Apple took the route it considered to be the least controversial, hoping to avoid any sort of unified public outcry that might actually rouse the tech consuming public from its Apple-crazed hypnosis.

While it remains to be seen what Apple will do in response to this current situation, the difference here is that the working conditions of workers along Apple’s supply line is a matter of money, considerable money I would wager, and Apple has never been known to cough up one red cent if it can help it.

That said, SumOfUs is confident that such an overhaul to its supply line is realistic, as all Apple has to do is demand improvements from its supplies and they’ll be implemented. In fact, SumOfUs executive director Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman has taken things one step further, challenging Apple CEO Tim Cook to stand by his words and prove whether he really is as offended by these allegations as he says he is.

Instead of blaming the media for covering this story, Stinebrickner-Kauffman argues, Cook needs to recognize that this is the supply chain he setup as the company’s former COO and “he needs to start taking responsibility, not blaming the messenger.”

The real question, though, is whether the general public actually wants an “ethical” iPhone, as while that weighty prefix may deliver improved working conditions for Chinese factory workers it’ll likely bring increased costs to the consumer here in North America as well. While I’m sure people signing the petition are willing to pay more for their gadgets, the lamentable fact is that there’s a long consumer history of money savings trumping ethical concerns and I fear it will do so once again here.

Did you like this post ? TheTelecomBlog.com publishes daily news, editorial, thoughts, and controversial opinion – you can subscribe by: RSS (click here), or email (click here).

Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.