From:Gerard CC:World

Just wanted to share a question I asked to Skype support:

I was really excited with the announcement of the iPhone version for Skype earlier this week. But when I tried to get it from the Canadian iTunes Store, it was nowhere to be found! Doing some search over the Internet, it appears Canada is the only country where the iPhone version of Skype is not available.

This is very surprising and I would like to get a better explanation as it is possible to download the Windows Mobile version from your site when in Canada, it is possible to purchase Skype WiFi phones in Canada and Skype works fine on notebooks / netbooks in Canada.

I can only suppose that there is a small delay for this and that Skype will be available shortly to people in Canada. Can you please let me know the reason why it is not yet available as well as when you expect Skype for iPhone to be available to Canadians?

Thank you for your quick answer.

And here is the answer I got back:

Thank you for contacting Skype Support.

We apologize for the inconvenience you’ve experienced while trying to download Skype for iPhone. Unfortunately, the Skype for iPhone application is not available for use in Canada at this time. There is an ambiguous restriction in one of the standards-based technology licenses, and we are looking into it. The issue is not related to Apple, nor is it specific to Skype.

Once again, we apologize for this inconvenience and would like to assure you that we are working on resolving this issue as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding and we hope you enjoy using Skype on your iPhone in the nearest future.

OK, there is hope, but let’s not be in a hurry.

Update (September 9, 2009): Skype for iPhone is now available in Canada! Next step, being able to do calls over 3G

Having used a Sony eBook Reader for quite a while, I wanted to share some ideas on how to improve this device and potentially other eBook Readers. All the comments in this post are related to the PRS-505 (the device I have) with the firmware 1.1, but from what I can tell, other eBook readers don’t have these available (nor do eBook apps on the iPhone for example). And for those who will comment asking why I am not using a Kindle from Amazon, I live in Canada and it isn’t available outside of the island called USA (yet).

In a nutshell, I still prefer to read books / documents on paper, but the geek toy solution works quite nicely. The main reasons are, in no particular order: DRM, geo-specific content, no way to flip through pages and no way to annotate / highlight the text you are reading.

Continue reading “How to improve eBook readers?”

It’s always interesting to better understand why people buy things, what makes them decide that this product is better than this one. One of the recommendations I heard a while back was for a book with the tagline “Truth and Lies About Why We Buy”. The book, called “Buyology” and written by Martin Lindstrom, is well worth the read.

In summary, I really enjoyed the fact that the author looked at existing pre-conceptions (the warning label on cigarettes to prevent people from smoking) and, through scientific research, looked at what really happened in the brain vs. what people tell. Quite a few widely accepted ideas have to be re-considered based on the results presented in Buyology… and it should every everyone in Marketing to think twice about a new campaign.

Continue reading ““Buyology” by Martin Lindstrom”

Using multiple computers on a regular basis (and on different platforms), I started looking for a way to keep the files I need most synchronized across all of them, e.g. to give me access to the documents I regularly access on whatever computer I am. Until now, I’ve been using MobileMe’s iDisk from Apple and a USB stick, and after some intensive use, really need to find something better. I had a look at multiple solutions, including DropBox, Windows Live Sync, Live Mesh, BeInSync, Syncplicity and SugarSync. Yes, there is a lot of choice out there, and it took me a while to sort out through all of it.

Continue reading “Keeping files synchronized across multiple computers”

In the past year, companies have started to communicate about how “green” they are. Apple for example (to pick one) has started publicly announcing how their packaging is shrinking to reduce the size needed for shipping, which I fully support. But when doing so, companies should not only consider the size of the box in which the product comes in, but also the size of the box used for shipping. Here is an example I recently encountered…

Continue reading “Packaging size matters…”

I’ve been downloading quite a few iPhone applications since the launch of the app store… but I really don’t use most of them. Here is a short list of those I use on a regular basis and that I would highly recommend purchasing (if not available for free), in addition to the following built-in apps: SMS, Calendar, Photos, Camera, Maps, Clock, Stock, Weather, Calculator, Phone, Mail, Safari and iPod.

Continue reading “iPhone apps: my most used list”

OK, I know, this is some sort of self promotion, but anyway… I will be taking part in a panel about Online Communities during the Social Media Breakfast tomorrow morning here in Ottawa, ON, Canada. In preparation for it, I had a discussion with Simon Chen from Ramius Communications and he recorded this little video… so I had to post it on my blog as well

For those who are attending, I will see you there tomorrow morning… and for those to also subscribe to my Graphics blog on CorelDRAW.com, sorry for the cross-posting

One of the subjects for an upcoming blog post (when I can take the time to get it written) is piracy, with a focus on the one related to software and intellectual property in general. To help with the preparation of it, I’ve been documenting myself on the subject, and part of this research, I got myself a copy of “The Pirate’s Dilemma” book by Matt Mason, subtitled “how youth culture is reinventing capitalism”.

While this book does not cover specifically software piracy, it contains a lot of insightful information about the challenges traditional companies face and how they should embrace piracy vs. fighting it, including great insights in different ways of thinking.

Continue reading ““The Pirate’s Dilemma” by Matt Mason”

Since its launch on July 11, 2008, the “new” online service from Apple had a bumpy start and reviews have been negative overall… even Walt Mossberg says that “Apple’s MobileMe Is Far Too Flawed To Be Reliable”. The problems that have plagued the service have not helped… and Apple also changed the tone of their messaging from “Exchange for the rest of us” to “The simple way to keep everything in sync”. But overall, the re-branding of .Mac and new web interface to the online service that Apple Inc charges $99 per year in the US (pricing does vary around the world, and I don’t think it will be lower) has all the base components that make it already worth for me, and that could become great with a few little “tweaks”.

Continue reading “MobileMe: Not as bad as people say…”

This is a quick test to see how the new iPhone Wordpress App is working. So far so good. And here is how photos taken directly from the app will be attached.

And the great thing is that you can easily update your posts…

As a follow-up to my previous post where I looked at the costing for data plans on Rogers in Canada for iPhone users, I needed to update the information based on the latest changes and limited time offers. For those who follow me on Twitter already know, I got myself the iPhone last Friday (that was fun). Just before the launch, Rogers announced a special time limited data plan at CA$ 30 for 6Gb of data per month, that could be added to any voice plan you wanted.

Continue reading “iPhone in Canada: The numbers take 2″

There has been a lot of commenting, discussions and complains about the price plans that Rogers / Fido are offering for the 3G iPhone in Canada. The Ruined iPhone web site is an online petition for Rogers to revise their monthly pricing.

The one huge thing that is a potential show-stopper for me is the 3-year contract that you have to sign to be able to have an iPhone in Canada. I don’t know what will happen in 3 years time, but I am 100% certain that I won’t have the same phone (iPhone 4.0 should be out by then). I would not mind paying more more for the phone now so that I don’t need to get locked in for such a long period of time.

Digging further into the offering, I wanted to do the math behind cost for data usage, to get a better picture of what we are actually talking about… and the findings are quite interesting. All pricing below are in Canadian Dollars.

In a nutshell, if you expect to transfer more than 2.1Gb per month and don’t use the iPhone as a phone a lot (under 150 minutes per month), go with the $60 plan, it’s cheaper! If you transfer 5Gb per month, it will cost you $229.80, $234.30, $251.08 and $235.36 on the $60, $75, $100 and $115 plans respectively.

Continue reading “iPhone in Canada: Looking into the numbers”