Sun

1 APC UPB10 MOBILE POWER PACK, $83.

There are few things more annoying to the digital road warrior to find out that you’ve forgotten to charge your cellphone, PDA or iPod — or, for that matter, your portable gaming system — and you’re halfway into the middle of nowhere. But if you’ve remembered this power pack device from APC, and it, too, is charged, you’ll be all right, if you’ve also remembered to bring the USB-based charger cord for your phone or PDA. Just hook up that phone and you’ll be able to make a call, leave it on longer and you can fully charge it. It’s lightweight and incredibly simple to use.

2 CAMERA STABILIZING BAG, $60.

So far as we can tell, you’ll have to send away to a site in England (like www.boystuff.co.uk) for this, but, hey, if your camera doesn’t have a good stabilizing lens system or you’re somewhere that a tripod isn’t going to work, this could help you snap the photos you need. When it’s being carried it’s the size of a tennis ball, but when you fill it with, say, sand, rice or (well, this isn’t, perhaps the best alternative) stones or rocks, then you have a place to rest your camera and take those low-light shots.

3 LEXMARK X9350 WIRELESS OFFICE ALL-IN-ONE PRINTER, $350.

With its wireless (or Ethernet) networking and the capability of printing on both sides of paper, this new printer from Lexmark combines both flexibility (and a wire-free uncluttered workplace) and the means of providing professional looking documents at the same time as saving on paper consumption. The printer comes not only with a 150-sheet input tray but also a 50-page automatic document feeder that enables multiple-page faxes and copying. You can also do wireless scanning from the printer to the computer.

4 RICHO 500SE GPS-READY EIGHT-MEGAPIXEL DIGITAL CAMERA, $1,250 OR $1,365 WITH WIFI, NOT YET AVAILABLE IN CANADA.

You can either use this camera’s detachable GPS module or your own Bluetooth-enabled GPS device to capture real-time WGS-84 or MGRS position information. Perhaps it’s not for the average traveller but if you’re one of those photographers who absolutely has to provide the the coordinates of your digital images, then the 500 SE, with a lens that provides the 35 mm equivalent of 28 mm to 85 mm, could be just what you’ve been looking for. The camera also has large buttons and dials so it’s easy to operate while the user is wearing gloves.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

On March 14, phone-number portability comes to Canada

Jim Jamieson
Province

Alfred Wan expects to see a brisk up-tick in his business on March 14.

The manager of the Wireless Wave outlet at Pacific Centre Mall in Vancouver knows that’s the first day mobile-phone customers can take their numbers with them when they ditch their carriers.

That means not having to tell your customers — or buddies — what your new number is.

“People want the best deal and the best coverage, but they want to keep their number,” Wan said.

“A lot of consumers out there are waiting for this.”

So-called wireless-number portability, or WNP, allows consumers to change service providers within the same local-calling area and keep their existing phone number.

WNP also lets consumers move a number from a wireline phone to a wireless phone, and vice versa.

Canada will be the second country in the world, after the U.S., which made the move in 2003, to offer complete wireless-to-wireless, wireless-to-wireline and wireline-to-wireless portability.

While there are a number of hurdles for those who might wish to change carriers — contract cancellation penalties and the need to buy a new handset are obvious ones — having to give a new phone number to friends and business contacts is one of the most daunting.

“Consumers are going to win in a lot of ways because carriers are going to have to work harder to earn their trust,” said Andrew Black, CEO of Virgin Mobile Canada. “People have always been held back from switching by the fact they couldn’t keep their numbers with them.” As a small but aggressive player in the prepaid market — which does not require contracts — Virgin Mobile feels it is in a position to gain a surge of new customers, Black said.

Chris Langdon, Telus vice-president of network services, said his company is well-positioned to hold onto customers.

Telus’s wireless division had the industry’s lowest customer churn rate — the number of customers who leave a supplier in a given period — of 1.33 per cent last year, Langdon said.

A new wave of marketing campaigns by the carriers — especially Telus, Bell Canada and Rogers Communications — is expected nearer WNP Day but all are coy about their strategies.

Analysts don’t expect a tidal wave of change on March 14. Movement is expected to be gradual, as contracts expire, led by business users who spend more than $100 monthly — a small part of the market.

Tony Olvet, a vice-president at IDC Canada, said the impact of WNP will likely be more significant on the business side, where a phone number is linked to potential sales or support.

The Canadian wireless industry association has a comprehensive website at www.wirelessnumberportability.ca.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

Consumers will avoid Beta-VHS battle with machine playing all formats

Marke Andrews
Sun

A truce could be at hand in the war between digital formats when a DVD player that handles both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD hits Canadian stores March 2.

The dispute between the two formats harkens back to the great 1980s tilt between VHS and Beta video, which left Beta buyers with useless products.

The Super Multi Blue Player from LG Electronics, a global company with head offices in South Korea, will debut on March 2 in Canada and the U.S. — and nowhere else until at least the summer. The machine, which plays both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs, will be available in Canada only at Future Shop stores for the first month. Other retail outlets will get the machine, which has a list price of $1,499, in April.

“We don’t want to dictate to consumers one technology over the other,” said Frank Lee, public relations manager for LG Electronics Canada, during a Vancouver demonstration of the DVD player with LG’s 47-inch LCD high-definition television and an LG surround-sound system. “This machine will play every format.”

The Super Multi Blue Player reads DVD, CD and HD-DVD-ROM formats. It will also write to a CD.

Using 1080p plasma technology, the picture quality is stunning. Lee and Andrew Barrett, vice-president of marketing for LG Electronics Canada, played discs in both formats — a Blue-ray DVD of the animated movie Ice Age and a HD DVD of Batman Begins — and then popped in an Ice Age disc with 1080i technology, considered state-of-the-art until 1080p came along. The difference was like night and day. The 1080i disc appeared dark, and features on the animals’ fur and feathers were indistinct compared to the clear images of the the 1080p.

Because of the clash between Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, consumers have been reluctant to buy hi-def DVD players and DVD movies for them, afraid of investing in a big-ticket purchase of what may end up being an obsolete technology.

Up until now, Blu-ray appeared to have the edge in the war. Seven of the eight biggest Hollywood studios committed to making their movies in the Blu-ray format, and five of those seven committed exclusively to Blu-ray. These seven studios account for 82 per cent of the movie titles available.

According to figures supplied by cduniverse.com, 134 titles are currently available in Blu-ray form, 114 in HD DVD, and 58 are available in both formats.

That’s all moot with a machine like the Super Multi Blue Player.

The creation of a dual-play system may be a relief to the studios, who were facing the same quandary as the consumer over choosing a possibly redundant format, only with a lot more at stake.

Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders has called the machine “a great first step towards resolving consumer confusion and uncertainty.”

Lee expects other manufacturers to come up with dual-format machines like the Super Multi Blue Player, which was in development for more than two years.

 

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Vancouver firm’s solution to Google’s problem make for a mutually satisfactory high-tech marriage

Peter Wilson
Sun

Vancouver’s Sxip Identity found itself in the worldwide high-tech spotlight Thursday following an announcement by Google of a Microsoft-challenging suite of online corporate software.

Partnered with Google and featured on its site, Sxip offers companies a secure way of internally accessing the new and highly-touted Google Apps Premier Edition — which provides word processing, spreadsheet, e-mail, instant messaging, calendar and talk programs via the Internet.

Google’s head of enterprise partnerships, Kevin Smith, said in an interview Thursday that Google can’t offer everything that a company might need for smooth integration of its Apps suite.

Where Sxip comes in, said Smith, is that its product — Sxip Access for Google Apps — allows corporate users to call up Google Apps on their browser without having to use a separate sign-in.

“One of the reasons it was very attractive to work with Sxip on this was that it was a very nice solution to allow you to do that single sign-on,” said Smith.

He added that while there had been earlier conversations between the two companies, Google eventually approached Sxip because “we decided that it was a good fit.”

Sxip is one of 10 companies — and the only Canadian firm — to have partnerships with Google for Google Apps. While Google will charge corporations $50 US per user annually for the service, Sxip will get $5 per user.

Sxip already has a similar solution in place at the online contact management site Salesforce.com, but the company regards the Google partnership as a big win.

“Google is the new gorilla in the market that has agreed with us that, yeah, organizations need this kind of service,” said Sxip operations vice-president Mike DeSandoli. “It feels very good that we’re going in the right direction and that this will be major.

“Google will be very successful, and I think we’ll be right there with them.”

The fact that Sxip’s application permits users to go straight into Google Apps after having signed on to the corporate network makes their activity seamless, said DeSandoli.

“Companies are worried about their users actually using the applications, and having them face a second log-in page is a barrier to that,” said DeSandoli.

“And they’re concerned about employees putting user names and passwords on the Net because that could pose a risk. With our solution, there’s no exposure of the password, ever.”

Gerry Gebels, an analyst in identity management with Salt Lake City’s Burton Group, said that the recent upsurge in use of online software adds to the challenge for corporate management to safely handle access and credentials for a workforce.

“So you’ve got the demand for these kinds of applications and you have these application providers out there, and that means you need something in the middle to make it work a little more smoothly,” said Gebels.

“It’s a business opportunity for Sxip to jump on.”

Gebels said that Sxip is not alone in offering its solutions for corporations that use Internet-based services, but that having competitors tends to validate the field as a whole.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

CHOOSING A FEED: Here’s a guide to what’s involved in picking a service provider

Jim Jamieson
Province

You succumbed to all the buzz and just bought your first high-definition television.

Doing all the due diligence around that purchase was probably taxing, but don’t kid yourself into thinking your job is finished.

Sure, the picture from your regular TV feed — cable or satellite — is clearer with the new set. But why buy a Ferrari and drive it in first gear?

So the next question is: Where do I get my HD channels from?

At first glance, it probably looks easy: Just pick one of the four options available and away you go. But after a little examination it becomes clear that the decision is far from simple.

The first thing to realize is we are in the midst of a major transition period between analogue and digital/HD TV — and, as in the ancient Chinese curse, we’re living in interesting times.

Another thing you’ll quickly find: There is less HD content out there than you might have expected — and what is there is uneven in quality.

And each of the TV providers — depending on your circumstances, budget and viewing interests — may or may not be the best route for you.

There are two well-known options available: the cable suppliers, notably Shaw Communications, and the satellite-TV guys, notably Shaw-owned Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu. Also, Telus, the Burnaby-based telecommunications company, has already launched its TV product but currently has HD content only in trials and will offer it commercially later this year.

But there is a lesser-known fourth option, though it is probably not suitable at the moment for most people — over-the-air broadcasts.

Currently, the best-quality HD signal you can get is through an antenna, said Greg Gilmour, an independent seller and installer of satellite communications equipment, mostly for high-speed Internet access.

“My No. 1 choice would be off air via TV antenna,” said Gilmour.

From his home in Aldergrove, he gets 24 HD channels, most from the U.S.

“We watched the Super Bowl on [Seattle-based] KIRO via antenna,” he said.

“I have the ability to switch between that and Bell [ExpressVu] and Star Choice and see the difference in picture quality. Believe me, there was no comparison.”

It sounds great, but isn’t easy unless you have Gilmour’s collection of gear and live in a similarly advantageous location.

A $60 to $80 HD antenna may get you in the game, but in the Vancouver area, the only networks that broadcast over-the-air HD

signals currently are CBC and CTV, so the content is limited.

There is another wild card: It’s only an option if your HD TV has an internal tuner or you have an HD set-top box.

For greater certainty of service and if you’re looking for more variety and offerings such as pay-per-view movies and sports events, then you’re back to the satellite and cable guys.

Which is better?

There is no short or easy answer. With the prevalence of discounts, back-ended programming credits, waived installation fees, lease or ownership of hardware and varying and sometimes mystifying package structures, it’s headache-inducing to attempt an apples-to-apples comparison.

One advantage of satellite over cable is that all the content is digital and — at least in

theory — clearer. But if you have decided to go with satellite, it’s no slam dunk that it will work for you, either.

Dishes must have line of sight to get the signal, and if you’re near tall trees, buildings or live in a mountainous area, an installation might not be possible.

There have been instances where Bell ExpressVu couldn’t install an HD feed to an existing SD (standard definition) customer — although the company says this is rare.

Bell ExpressVu’s two satellites are hovering over Ontario, so are lower to the horizon in B.C., and this may complicate installation issues in some locations.

Alberta-based Star Choice broadcasts from two satellites farther west, but this doesn’t guarantee installation, either.

Cable TV service has been around in the Lower Mainland for more than 40 years, so most homes are already wired.

Shaw, because it is already a high-speed Internet supplier, can bundle this product with cable/HD-TV content.

The company is mandated to keep much of its basic cable package (Channels 2 to 58) in analogue format by the federal regulator so as not to shut out those who don’t wish to get a set-top box for digital service.

Shaw riled some customers last month by deleting some of their existing HD channels without warning, following a free trial of several new HD channels.

The bottom line was that if you didn’t sign up for the enhanced HD package for an extra $9 a month, your HD package would shrink, including the loss of sports channels TSN and SportsNet.

Shaw officials wouldn’t comment.

The satellite/cable guys all require set-top boxes to access HD/digital content. These can be leased or purchased.

A satellite setup also requires a dish, which is typically thrown in as part of the package, along with installation.

These three suppliers also offer a set-top box that includes a personal video recorder, which many videophiles believe has revolutionized TV watching.

Because the PVR uses a hard drive to record programs, it allows users to skip through commercials in seconds while watching pre-recorded content.

But it also allows you to begin watching your favourite program, say, 10 minutes after it started being recorded, then fast-forward through commercials while the PVR continues recording ahead.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Sun

1) UTStarcom Pantech PN-8200 smartphone, $100 with contract from Telus, $400 without contract.

Aimed at the business customer, the Pantech PN-8200 gives users access to their Microsoft Outlook contact list, calendar, e-mail and the Internet while at the same time being a compact device that sits neatly in their pocket. Of course no mobile phone would be complete these days without a camera and this one sports a 1.3 megapixel unit. As well, there’s an expandable memory card slot — miniSD up to four gigabytes — so you can store your music and videos and play them with Windows Media Player Mobile 10.

2) Nokia 5300 XpressMusic wireless phone, $80 with a Rogers Wireless contract.

If you like to combine phone and music functions into a single unit, then the Nokia 5300 could be the item you’ve been seeking. All you have to do is press the slider up to extend the phone to reveal the keypad and gain access to as many as 500 tracks worth of music stored on a one gigabyte microSD card. Dedicated volume controls allow users to listen to their song collections while texting, browsing or taking pictures with the phone’s 1.3 megapixel camera. Nokia has also launched a series of accessories — including mini-speakers, and various types of headphones — to go with the 5300.

3) HP Officejet Pro L7000 all-in-one colour printer series, starting at $400, available March 2007.

Targeted at the small business, the new HP Officejet Pro L7000 series comprises three inkjet printers that HP claims offer speeds comparable to colour laser printers — as fast as 12 pages per minute black and 10 ppm for colour, but at costs as low as six cents per page. Like most multifunction machines these units allow for printing, copying, scanning and faxing.

4) Genius G-Note 7100 digital tablet, $160 US.

An alternative to shelling out for an entire tablet PC, these devices allow the user to take notes during meetings or in the classroom and then transfer them to their PC using built-in handwriting recognition. The unit comes with two pens and is compatible with the new Windows Vista operating system.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Some websites question Burnaby-based company’s claims

Peter Wilson
Sun

The Net-based buzz around Burnaby-based D-Wave Systems Inc. quantum computing demonstrations in Silicon Valley on Tuesday and at Vancouver’s Science World on Thursday has been mixed.

Some sites simply parroted the D-Wave press release saying its video hookup from a lab in Burnaby was indeed the first demonstration of a commercial quality quantum computer.

Others, relying mainly on an Associated Press report following the California launch, were more doubtful, and quoted HP quantum computer architect Phil Kuekes as saying: “Until we see more actual measurements, it’s hard to know whether it succeeded or not.”

Some critics complained the research hadn’t been subjected to peer review.

The company says it will have a 32-qubit system by the end of this year. It hopes corporate customers will be able to rent time on the quantum computer in the first quarter of 2008. That will be followed, D-Wave hopes, by a 512-qubit system, and then, at the end of 2008, by a 1,024-qubit system.

A qubit is the smallest unit of information in quantum computing, which uses quantum mechanics for its operations. A qubit is exponentially larger than a bit used in traditional computers. Quantum computers promise the ability for a life-sciences company being able to run 50 billion possible scenarios for a new drug, and then picking out the one that works.

This week’s demonstration showed D-Wave’s 16-qubit device solving Sodoku puzzles, searching a database for molecules with similar structural elements to those in the drug Prilosec, and running a seating chart program that chose suitable dining partners for the likes of Genghis Khan and Cleopatra.

In an earlier interview, company founder Geordie Rose was asked whether anyone at the demonstrations could possibly know if there really was actual quantum computing going on, especially since the demo was being done over a video link.

“To be brutally honest, of course you don’t,” said Rose. “And it would be very difficult to show that, even if you had the machine right next to you.

“With this demo we’re not asking anybody for anything. What we’re doing is showing the system in the way that we’ve designed it to function, so that people who have an interest can come back and kick the tires.

“The demo isn’t designed to get under the hood. This is more of a high-level demonstration of capability.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Peter Wilson
Sun

Never bothered to change the default password that came with the router for your home computer network?

You’re not alone. A study by Indiana University shows that about 50 per cent of us don’t bother or don’t know how.

And that means that 50 per cent of us are open to having our personal financial information stolen by what is known as — in yet another Net catch phrase — drive-by phishing.

You can become a victim — and chances are you’ll never know it’s happened — if you end up on a malicious website that downloads a JavaScript to your computer.

That JavaScript gets into your router settings by using the manufacturer’s default password. Then it changes the settings and, bam, it’s as if you have a phony directory of websites installed on your computer.

From now on when you type in www.mybank.com, for instance, you’ll be directed to a server operated by the bad guys where they’ve set up any number of fake financial websites. Once there, you type in your login and your password and instantly the evildoers have access to your account.

“The thing is they’re attacking the router, not the PC, so any security software you have installed to check that everything is okay will not really tell you that something bad is happening,” said Zulifar Ramzan, senior principal researcher at security firm Symantec, and one of the scientists who discovered the problem.

And it’s likely, adds Ramzan, who worked with colleagues at Indiana University, that you won’t even know to check for the problem.

“This particular class of attack is really silent. It doesn’t try to make itself known.”

To protect yourself, all you have to do is change your router password.

Ramzan said it’s understandable why half of users don’t bother to change their router default password. You have to read the manual to figure out how to do it and many router installation programs never prompt you.

“For the past few weeks I’ve been playing with a lot of different routers and trying the attack out on them,” said Ramzan. “So I put the [installation] CD in my computer and follow the steps. And what I find is that a lot of the router manufacturers do not include a prompt for changing the password.”

Ramzan said his speculation is that the manufacturers do this to make installation convenient, but it puts users in danger.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Jim Jamieson
Province

Microsoft Corp. and online security make strange bedfellows in the consciousness of most computer users.

It’s thanks to a series of vulnerabilities suffered by the global technology firm’s flagship product — its Windows operating system.

Now the Redmond, Wash.,-based software giant has vowed to erase that knock with a renewed push to increase security for business and consumer clients.

Besides a raft of new security features in its new Windows Vista, Microsoft also entered the so-called “PC Care” market in competition with the likes of McAfee and Symantec’s Norton products.

Launched in Canada Jan. 30, the new product is called Windows Live OneCare. It’s an anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing suite of applications that includes a firewall and data backup and performance tuneups.

Unlike most security products, OneCare offers all its features in a one-size-fits-all package — which sells for $60 and a $60 annual fee for virus definition and other updates.

“We wanted to provide a one-stop shop for users,” said Bruce Cowper, Microsoft senior program manager, Security Initiative.

“The goal was to make this a quality experience and something that can be used along with the improved security in Vista.”

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Copying Collective wants to introduce more tariffs to collect on recording devices

Marke Andrews
Sun

If you’re planning to buy an iPod or MP3 player, you may want to do it before the end of the year. Buying later may cost you another $75.

The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the non-profit agency which charges a tariff on blank CDs, Mini Discs and audio cassettes used for recording, has proposed not only an increase in the existing tariffs, but also a new tariff on digital memory cards and digital audio recorders.

The proposal, which must be approved by the Canadian Copyright Board, asks that the levy on CD-Rs and CD-RWs rise from 21 to 29 cents, and the levy on CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio and Mini Discs rise from 77 to 85 cents. No increase was asked on audio cassettes which are rarely used any more for music recording.

But the biggest news to consumers is the CPCC request for a levy on memory cards and digital audio recorders. The proposed levy ranges from $2 to $10 on memory cards, and $5 to $75 on digital recorders, depending on the capacity of each.

This is the second attempt to collect on recording devices. In 2004, the Canadian Copyright Board approved a levy on the hard disk or flash memory embedded in digital audio devices, but the levy was rejected that December by the Federal Court of Appeal which ruled that a hard disk within an MP3 was not a medium itself.

The successful appeal was launched by manufacturers and importers, primarily the Canadian Storage Media Alliance.

This time around, the CPCC will go after digital audio recorders.

“Our view is that devices such as the iPod are recording media,” said David Basskin, CPCC board member. “They meet the definition under the copyright act by which a levy can be collected. They are a medium that can be used to copy a sound recording that’s ordinarily used for that purpose by individuals.

“The reason that that people use iPods and similar things is to copy sound recordings, and when they do so they are not infringing copyright, and the tradeoff for that is that a levy is charged.”

Basskin hopes to have a decision by the Canadian Copyright Board before the end of the year. The current tariff expires on Dec. 31.

The proposed CPCC tariffs would run through Dec. 31, 2009. Cell phones, personal computers and hand-held computers are excluded from the proposed tariff.

The CPCC, established in 1999, collects the tariff fees from the manufacturers and importers of blank media. The funds collected are then distributed as royalties to songwriters and publishers (who receive 66 per cent), performers (18.9 per cent) and record companies (15.1 per cent). The CPCC pays the money to the organizations representing these groups (SOCAN, CMRRA and SODRAC represent songwriters and publishers), who then distribute it to their members.

In 2005, the CPCC distributed $31 million to rights holders from total revenue of $35 million.

Last June, a survey by Environics Research Group found that 60 per cent of Canadians believe that music creators should be compensated when their music is copied without their authorization. It is estimated that Canadians copy 1.1 billion tracks each year.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007