Archive for February 13, 2014

Telus Announces Travel Passes For Cuba

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 13, 2014 by itnerd

Given the polar vortex seems to be permanently parked over Canada. So a lot of Canadians are heading to places like Cuba and likely taking their smart phones with them. Telus can save them some cash as they announced new Travel Passes for Cuba. For example, customers travelling to Cuba can get 50 text messages, 50 minutes of voice and 50 MB of data for only $40, in comparison to spending approximately $600 with pay-per-use rates. See more Cuba Combo Pass options below.

Cuba Travel Pass

Cost

Voice, SMS & Data

Overage

Free Incoming Texts

Cuba Combo Pass 40

$40

50 min

50 texts

50 MB

$1.00/min

$0.60/text

$1.00/MB

Included

Cuba Combo Pass 65

$65

150 min

150 texts

150 MB

Cuba Combo Pass 100

$100

300 min

Unlimited texts

300 MB

$1.00/min

$1.00/MB

Cuba Text Pass 15

$15

75 texts

$0.60/text

Telus customers can also take advantage of Telus’ Travel Tracker which is a web portal accessible while traveling outside of Canada via the smartphone’s web browser to help Telus customers manage their data usage and costs in real-time. When a customer arrives in their destination country, they’ll receive a free text message with the link to the Travel Tracker portal.

For more information on Telus travel passes, visit www.telus.com/travel.

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OVH.com Expands With New Lines Of Dedicated Servers

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 13, 2014 by itnerd
Some news from OVH hit my inbox late today. The company announced that they are launching its most recent lines of dedicated servers targeting new markets to keep its growth going. Through 3 distinct brands, “OVH.com”, “So you start” and “Kimsufi”, OVH aims to reach a wider range of users ranging from fully developed markets (North America, Europe) to emerging ones (South America, Asia, Africa). OVH is now covering every type of business applications of its users:
Let’s look at those brands in detail:

OVH.com: With offers starting at $109/month, OVH.com is focusing on high-end professional servers for North America and Europe. Their solutions are highly customizable to fit any need.

SOYOUSTART.com: “So you Start” (SyS) is a line of professional, powerful and innovative servers providing the best ratio of technology/functionalities/price on the North American and European markets, Starting at $49/month. The SyS servers feature Intel processors (Xeon E3-1225v2 type) and the possibility to choose between a SSD and/or a RAID card and up to 48 gig of RAM. The “Backup” line, which is specially designed for data saving, offers disk space of up to 24 TB.

KIMSUFI.com: (Coming soon) Available all over the world, the Kimsufi solution presents around thirty different server offers starting at $12/month. OVH will use this line to gain recognition and new users in emerging markets. This solution will offer second generation machines offering more than a dozen processors of your choice, up to 4 cores and 16 gig of RAM and can reach up to 100 Mbps of bandwidth.

This should move OVH to the top of the list for anyone looking for hosting services as it gives them complete coverage in every market and every segment. That’s something that cannot be ignored.

 

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Digia Launches Qt Mobile Roadshow Series

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 13, 2014 by itnerd

If you’re interested in developing applications for multiple platforms, Digia has announced something that will be of interest to you. They are having a series of Qt Mobile Roadshows that will run in the US, UK and Germany during February and March. The full-day events will feature technical training and developer presentations focused on how the Qt cross-platform application and user interface (UI) development framework can be used to enhance, simplify and accelerate development for the leading mobile OS platforms.

Sessions will be delivered by Digia Qt trainers and Qt R&D specialists. Starting in San Francisco, CA, on February 19, the roadshow then moves to UK (London) on March 11 and Germany (Berlin) on March 13.

The agenda for the day includes:

  • Introduction to Qt Mobile, Qt Developer Offering for Mobile Platforms
  • Getting Started with Qt Mobile Programming using Qt Quick Controls
  • Qt on Android, Deploying to Devices and Google Play
  • Qt on iOS, Deploying to Devices and App Store
  • Introduction to Qt on Windows Phone and WinRT
  • Qt Cloud Services

For details of the Qt Mobile Roadshows and to register, visit the Digia website http://qt.digia.com or http://qt.digia.com/Qt-Mobile-Roadshow.

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BBM 2.0 For Android and iOS Available TODAY [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 13, 2014 by itnerd

BBM users should take note. An update to BBM is rolling out for Android and iOS users starting today. The key features in version 2.0 of BBM are:

  • BBM Voice: Android and iPhone users can now make free voice calls to BBM contacts over a WiFi or data connection
  • BBM Channels: iPhone and Android users now have access to BBM Channels – active, real conversations between people, brands and communities; users can create a new channel or subscribe to an existing BBM channel to join chats with others who share similar interests
  • One-Click Sharing: BBM users on Android, iPhone and BlackBerry devices have access to fast one-click sharing of photos, documents, voice notes and more
  • DropBox Integration: Built-in support for Dropbox with the BBM app makes it easy to send large files like presentations and videos; send files from your personal cloud directly to a BBM contact and save files directly to your smartphone or add it to your Dropbox account
  • Location Sharing: BBM users can choose to share their live location for a specified amount of time to other BBM contacts, powered by Glympse
  • New Emoticons: BBM users will be able to choose from 100 new emoticons

You can get more details here. It hasn’t hit my iPhone yet. But when it does I’ll update this post with my first impressions.

UPDATE: I downloaded it and it tried it. The experience is on my iPhone is pretty good though I did notice some visual issues with the app in the form of jitters when changing screens. I suspect that this will be fixed in an update shortly.

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ViewSonic Announces TD2240 10-Point Touch Display

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 13, 2014 by itnerd

 ViewSonic today launched its next-generation 10-point multi-touch 22” display. The new TD2240 provides a class leading multi-touch experience. Featuring projected capacitive touch technology, the TD2240 is highly resistant to screen contamination and delivers greater accuracy and responsiveness. The display also features full HD 1920×1080 resolution and an MHL-enabled HDMI port, allowing consumers to display multimedia content from smartphones or tablets with stunning image and picture quality.

The TD2240’s advanced dual-hinge stand allows the screen to be tilted at various levels, or even lay flat, to maximize the comfort and productivity of consumers. Equipped with scratch-resistant surface hardness, SuperClear technology for vivid colours at any angle, and stereo speakers for crystal-clear sound performance, the TD2240 is ideal for a variety of consumer, office and commercial purposes. In addition to the MHL (HDMI) port, other flexible connectivity options include DisplayPort, VGA, and a 4-port USB hub.

The TD2240 is currently available at an MSRP of $449. If you’re a Windows 8 user who wants to take full advantage of the Metro Interface, this is the monitor for you.

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Review: Belkin Miracast Video Adapter

Posted in Products with tags on February 13, 2014 by itnerd

Something that was quietly launched recently was the Belkin Miracast Video Adapter. It’s purpose is to allow you to mirror the display on your Android smartphone to your HDTV over the air. That way you can play your favourite game or surf the net on a much bigger screen. The question is, how well does it work?

The first thing is that you need to have an Android phone that works with it. If you have a phone running Android 4.2 or higher, you’re in business. I didn’t have a test phone handy with Android 4.2 so I had to borrow one for this test. If you’re unsure about whether your phone will work or not, here’s a list of what Belkin has tested. Assuming you have a phone that works, here’s what you need to do next:

  1. Plug the Miracast into your HDTV’s HDMI port. You may need the included HDMI extension cable to plug it in.
  2. Plug the included USB cable into the Miracast and an available USB port on your HDTV.
  3. Using your remote control, set your TV to the HDMI port that you plugged the Miracast into. If you see some instructions on your screen, you’re doing fine so far.
  4. Grab your Android phone and follow the on screen instructions to connect the smartphone to the Miracast. What you have to do varies from device to device. But it’s not more than three or four steps to connect your phone to the Miracast.
  5. Done!

Once you’re set up, anything on the screen of your phone will be mirrored exactly in 1080p resolution on your TV. Any sound that would normally come from your device will also be piped through the TV speakers. The mirroring (or “Casting” if you’re on a Nexus device) goes until you tell it to stop. The picture looked good. It’s likely best suited to watching YouTube videos in HQ. Games and apps looked decent. But some elements did suffer from being blown up in size to fit a HDTV. None of it is objectionable. The only real objection is that there is some lag between the phone screen and the TV. So if you’re playing a first person shooter, you’ll be forced to look at the phone’s screen to play.

So, what can you expect to pay for the Belkin Miracast? It retails for $80 MSRP. If you have a supported phone and you’d be using it for something other than hard core gaming such as displaying presentations or watching videos, the Belkin Miracast is worth a look to take what’s on your phone and display it on your TV.

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