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Stumbled upon this one the other day. Do a search for Blackberry Ball to find an enormous number of listings for replacement BBerry trackballs. First introduced with the Pearl, the bberry trackballs work pretty well, however they do tend to wear out over time, and turn gradually grimier after thousands of thumbprints. WirelessNorth’s official blackberry curve also had the disconcerting habit of occasionally flinging it’s trackball across the floor (not good). Ebay and a measly $10 later however, all fixed up, gleaming white, stays in place and spins like a champ. Happy thumbs.

Anyway RIM users, mind this tip in case some of the old balls in your life ever get less fresh and playful than they once were. Good way to refub an “old” curve or pearl if you’re having problems. New trackballs don’t come with 3G, but cheaper than a Bold.

iPhone users, we haven’t looked for replacement fingers on eBay. But if there were, wouldn’t recommend buying them.

The chart above (courtesy admob) about says it all. When it comes to smart phones, nokia rules the rest of the world while RIM owns North America (ignoring the smaller pink chunk of mostly-american Palm users, who just haven’t upgraded to Blackberry yet).

But there’s a lot that the high-end Nokia’s have that local smartphones lack, like killer photo, video and multimedia capabilities. Going against this trend Rogers launched the n95 this summer. Ironically just months before the n96 was released. The N96 has been out from Nokia for a few weeks now, as well as a selection of other n-series devices the N85 and N79. Of the bunch, the n85 (pictured) and the n79 might be the most interesting (the n96 being most distinguished by it’s sky-high price and mobile TV feature that won’t work over here).

For Rogers who’s new strategy seems to be to sell (almost) everything/anything GSM that Bell and Telus can’t get, how long can it be?

So what’s your take on the new blackberry flip phone? Last we saw the beastie, we worried it was downright fugly but the release version (on T-mobile, no doubt Rogers soon). Early reviews are fairly positive, it’s got two big screens and better keyboard/ball, wifi and a better browser etc. And it is supposed to be pretty cheap. Nonetheless there’s one glaring flaw: no 3G.

It’s 2008 RIM what’s the deal? We can theorize a few reasons, some better than the others. Form factor: they needed 2G to keep it thin and light. Battery life: RIM is famous for not including advanced features until they could do it without sacrificing day-long battery life. Cost: shaving 3G cuts the materials bill by a few dollars (think single digits, but it counts). Ignorance: EDGE and classic speed push email is pretty good to start with, as first-time smartphone users won’t know what they’re missing. Wifi is good enough: really? Market segmentation: if the low-end kickstart could do everything, why would anyone step up to the premium models? Timing: the 3G/EVDO version is coming next year.

Overall, it’s got enough under the hood that we think this launch will still do well for Canada’s home-team cellphone maker. But what’s your intuition? Are there really hoards of would-be smart phone users braying to lay their clammy hands on a flip phone factor? Is this the kickstart RIM needs to beat out the $199 iphone in the low end of the market? Or is this flipper-baby missing some too-important bits in your mind?

The news is spilling over the interwebs that the first Google Android handset is close to (finally) seeing the light of day. Long maligned by the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Nokia and everyone else as mere vapourware, it’s now decidedly looking less and less vapourous. The first model is the HTC Dream (nice name). Supposedly to materialize between November and January, depending on your level of optimism. In any case, the dream really exists, it just passed FCC trials. You may remember it took similar time for Apple’s first iPhone to move from FCC to production and launch.

The significance for north of the border? The first handset directly supports the same 1700MHz 3G band (AWS) just auctioned in Canada (thanks T-mobile). An entirely hypothetical bonus, at least until any/all players get around to rolling out service on the shiny new ether. But one hopes a sign of good things to come. Mmmm open handsets, open mobile platforms. The idea almost makes us misty.

[This report brought to you by special correspondent  Andrew Duchesne of Teclaration.com and Gadgetnorth.com. Thanks Andrew! -ed]

Well last night I was privileged to be on the VIP guest list to the official Canadian Launch of the Samsung Instinct, and it was quit an affair. Held in Downtown Toronto at the “Social” club as well different locals in Vancouver ad Montreal, there was lots of Champagne flowing, lights flashing and good groves pumping. There were a couple handfuls of Instincts to play with and 5 to be given away….Ahem..I did not win one??? On to the good stuff.

I found the instinct to be very sturdy, it feels well made as do most Samsung products, the instinct fits very well in your hands, dare I say even better than the iPhone It is not as slippery feeling and can be gripped a little easier as well thanks to it’s narrower width. The home screen is eye pleasing and easy to navigate and to get back to with its home key button, 1 of 3 buttons you have a choice of using ( Home , Back, Call). I found it easy to return to your last position at any time by just using the back arrow key. The camera worked very well, as did the video, and browser. I could of used a little more screen landscape for the browser though as the side menus took up some valuable space. Texting seemed easy as did the IM chat, the screen automatically goes into landscape position for certain apps as opposed to having to tilt the phone to go in that direction (there is no accelerometer involved here).

I see this phone fitting in with the younger crowed very easily as you don’t need to be a computer person to use or navigate it. It is a cell phone with a great touch screen and navigation systems. Their demo graphic is bang on I believe for anyone between 14 to 30 something this phone does the job well. It is not an iPhone killer, but what is, but I also believe the iPhone to be for a different breed of user than this Samsung. The Instinct will fill the middle market I think very well from a Cost point ($149.00 3 year plan) as well as socially with Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and its ease of use, and also the Samsung brand name.

I liked this phone …enough to recommend it to people who I believe are looking for more than just a cell phone, but not looking to go to the iPhone, or a Blackberry.

Oh I also found the Instinct slightly easier to type on than the iPhone, at least for these pudgy fingers. Here are the Instincts Features in case you missed them:

• Dual mode, dual band digital phone (1.9GHz & 800MHz)
• Operates on both the Bell core network and the Bell high speed mobile network
• Integrated digital music player (MP3) and access to Bell’s Full track Music downloads
• External memory card slot allows you to store and carry additional pictures, videos and music up to 8GB
• Quick access to popular content including Facebook, News, Sports and Weather highlights
• GPS turn-by-turn navigation
• Windows Live™ Messenger and Windows Live™ Hotmail
• HTML Mobile Browser™
• SMS/Text messaging capable* with full qwerty keyboard
• 2.0 megapixel camera, with 4x digital zoom
• Video camera
• Picture/Video messaging capable*
• Mass storage tool to transfer MP3s, pictures and videos to and from your PC
• Backup Manager support
• Bluetooth 2.0 enabled.

Intel has big ambitions for the wireless world. Four years ago, intel effectively conquering home and local area networks by pushing open standard wifi in every “centrino” branded laptop. It turned out that powerful (for their day) low powered cpu’s coupled with wifi was the killer app that has resulted in explosive growth of notebook sales and the popularity of wifi-equipped coffee shops everywhere.

Intel Centrino 2 platform, codename “Montevina”.

With today’s launch of the Cetrino2 brand, intel would like to duplicate that success by now revolutionizing mobile broadband as thoroughly as they revolutionized local networking. With Centrino2, Intel will be introducing several important changes focused on mobility. Intels Pentium M processors are getting physically smaller and dropping in power from 35 to 25 watts (making thin/light form factors like the macbook air soon to be more common). And most importantly, Centrino2 is (supposed to) contain Wimax built-in as well as Wifi. Intel would like wimax to be the big selling point. They would like every Centrino2 to be capable of that great dream, ubiquitous fast internet connectivity. Intel would like this to be the next killer feature in computing that sells a lot of chips.

However, as with any of us, intel would “like” a lot of things. Unfortunately, liking alone won’t always make it true. Although intel’s platform is being “released” today, the Wimax components have been delayed (again) until sometime mid-august. Next there is the little problem of what network those wimax radios will connect to. At the moment Wimax only have about 2 million subscribers worldwide (whereas mobile/celular carriers have, like, a lot more). Europe is pretty keen on GSM/HSPA/UMTS instead. The technology does looks like it could be slowly getting some traction in Asia/pacific and developing countries. In the US Sprint/Clearwire will (finally) be launching something soon [Sprint CEO touts WiMAX, calls for end of "walled gardens"].

But then, there is a final concern as to whether the technology actually works well enough. Depending on tower density and signal strength, Wimax may not be so good at penetrating indoors (if recent experience with older hardware, pre-mobile-spec psuedo-wimax etc., bell/rogers “Portable Internet” is any guide). Having to hold your laptop up to the highest window in your house to get a decent signal may not be your preferred usage scenario.

As earlier reported on WirelessNorth.ca, Canadian carriers Bell and Rogers announced at their recent earnings call that they do not have plans to invest further Wimax. They will keep their existing networks operating just in case (or so Industry Canada doesn’t take the spectrum back), but are both preferring instead to spend future capex on more carrier-friendly HSPA and/or LTE/4G technologies.

So how could we see real centrino/wimax-powerd “3rd pipe” mobile-broadband competition in Canada? Well, most all of the working wimax spectrum in Canada is owned by… you guessed it… Rogers and Bell.

As computers get ever smaller and more connected and as phones get ever smarter and more like computers, there is bound to be a collision somewhere in the middle. As with networks, big internet and computer brands (Intel, Google, Microsoft) are working hard at blasting open wireless connectivity (as free and open as possible) as all the better playground for selling their softwares, webservices and chips.

For the incumbent providers of mobile devices, it’s clear that the barbarians are the gates. It’s just an open question yet as to whether they can find the door.

Earlier on WirelessNorth.ca: Bell Pushing Cottage-Country “Wimax”

I made the trek out to the Rogers Headquarters this morning to cover the launch of the Nokia N95. I was sent in place of Tom because he is gone to sail a boat around the Carribean. Tough life.

I had secretly hoped that Rogers would unveil some sort of new pricing scheme, something that would be a preview of the monthly pricing for the upcoming iPhone. No such luck.

The N95, which was first released in March of 2007 (just over a year ago), is a fine phone. Everyone I know who has had one in the past year has loved it. In typical Nokia style, it is very hacker friendly as it runs Symbian, and you can install everything from games to your own webserver on it.

It is no secert: The N95 is a killer phone that looks great and we all wish we could have. It easily rivals the iPhone in everything except popularity, although the 10 million N-Series phones Nokia sold last quarter isn’t so bad.

When the phone is available next week, it will come with a 3-year contract as a bonus when you buy a 20$ a month add-on pack on top of any voice plan you want. Under the typical Vision plans you can get Video Streaming, Audio Streaming and a slew of other Vision features. The executives I spoke to weren’t terribly clear about how the plan would stack, but this is what I was able to gather.

1. Pick any voice plan
2. Add on a 20$ a month pack that includes
   • Unlimited Email (restricted to Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc,. no POP)
   • 2500 SMS Messages
   • “A couple hundred MMSs”
   • Unlimited Web Browsing
   • Free 3-year contract
3. If you want to use GPS, you can either pay for Rogers Telenav product or you can use Nokia Maps, but data is pay-per-use for the non-Rogers application. The executive I spoke to quoted that the pay-per-use data would be at 1.5c/kb.
4. On a 3-year contract, most of the Vision features get included.
5. If you don’t want the 20$ addon pack mentioned above, you can just get the 7$/month unlimited web-browsing addon.
6. The phone will be priced at $399 on a 3-year contract

So, it didn’t happen. I didn’t get my revolution in pricing. They didn’t say “60$ a month for 1000 minutes and unlimited data usage on the device”, instead I was left more confused than ever. This application is pay-per-use, but this one is a flat fee. Application X is free, but you pay for its Data. Unlimited Email is included, but you can only use specific providers.

The list goes on. You are all used to it, we all think it is normal. I, however, have been helping my mother shop for a phone the last few weeks, and I can tell you that most people still can’t navigate these options.

By simplifying plan pricing, Rogers, Bell or Telus could make it much easier for people to buy new devices and, most likely, start using more and more services. As it is, pricing is still very unclear and has not improved in years. I am not complaining about actual data rates here, I am complaining about the daunting pricing structures.

The question is: Has Rogers twisted Apple’s arm and will they offer similarily confusing options for the iPhone? Will the Canadian iPhone come with Exchange support, undercutting the lucrative corporate email market that Rogers, Telus and Bell all specifically protect (by limited what email accounts you can get email from on cheaper plans), and will all applications fall in a single, large (or unlimited) data bucket the way pricing has been set for the iPhone all over the world, or will billing be segmented by Application. Will rogers try to put iPhone users on to their Telenav product, and charge per-use for the iPhone’s built in maps application?

The answer should be an obvious “No”. Of course Apple will demand a similar pricing scheme for the iPhone in Canada as they have negotiated in other countries. I hope that is the case, but if so, it really seems odd that Nokia is getting such a bad deal, so close to the launch of the iPhone.

My guess is that this discombobulated pricing is the result of internal politics. The Vision plans seem to come from a different group than other applications and options, and I imagine the same could be said for Blackberry and other Smartphone plans. Consolidated and clearer pricing may require not just a new vision for Rogers, but serious organzational changes.

I’ve been trying out a 3G (Rogers HSPA) pc card for about a week now. A more full review coming, but a few remarkable observations:

• It’s really great to be connected anywhere. And the device works most anyplace (in the city) you can get a cell signal.
• Celular broadband is immeasurably better than rogers/bell Wimax-like “portable” internet.
• It’s fast. Or at least fast enough to be indistinguishable from wired broadband for general websufing
• You immediately want a smaller/lighter notebook to take with you everywhere. I have 3+lb 13″ notebook. I now want something smaller.
• The device works quite well in streetcars, buses, taxis if you can balance a laptop on your knee in those places (see above)
• Smart phones and RIMs are nice, but something with a real keyboard and just enough screen to show a whole webpage is even better.
• The days of cheap, paperback sized micro-laptops are coming. With 3G, these are going to sell like crazy.
• Unlike in other countries, 3G data plans are still not quite cheap enough for the mass market in Canada. But they may be worth it already for you.
• The pricing of the devices by the big 3 is all wrong. $399 + activation fee without a 3 year contract is ridiculous. Signing a 3 year contract on a data card doesn’t make any sense at all because the devices and networks are changing too quickly. In other parts of the world, dongles go for free with a 1 yr contract. And the carriers sell them by the wheelbarrow load.
• In Canada, Telus has the best plans and pricing but Rogers as Canada’s only GSM/HSPA carrier (sigh) is compatible with more devices, like you can get an unlocked data card for cheap on eBay (hint). HSPA devices take SIM cards just like GSM phones.
• Soon though it won’t matter. The new EeePC from Asus or others (the whole micro PC) will only cost $399. And it will come with HSPA or EVDO built in.
• It’s wonderful to go anywhere and bring your own connection with you.
• Wifi in general becomes much less important. (and works great at conferences)
• No more hunting for open wifi and minutes of frustration trying to connect to flaky base stations.
• You IT department is in big trouble.
• Want to surf facebook, monster.com, or anything else at work and not have your web use monitored? Just bring your own connection. This will be increasingly prevalent as the price of devices and plans relentlessly falls.

ABI research forecasts global celular 3G modem sales to grow from 5M 2006 to 68M by 2012. Compare this with 65M wifi units sold last year

Play with it yourself. Recommended.

Breathless romours are afoot on the mobile forums that Rogers may be substantially reducing surfing rates on certain devices. Feb 5th is the magic date that Big Red is expected to be dropping rates to as low as $5 to $7 for unlimited surfing on for on-device browsers.

What’s the catch? the plan may not be available on windows media, smart phones or blackberries (a.k.a any any device you might actually want to use unlimited browsing on).

This too after recently introducing a $15 unlimited email plan for the pearl.

All of which seeming to further this Canadian industry trend of per-device network pricing. A nice gesture, but but not quite the open device landscape of our wireless dreams? Check back Feb 5th to know for sure.

At CES yesterday, famous hardware-maker MSI announced a new mobile devices built on Vancouver’s own Intrinsyc Softare. As far as I understand it’s workings, Intrinsyc’s Soleus platform is an OS and toolset for mobiles built in turn on top of Microsoft CE platform and development suites. In cooperation with Microsoft, this would look like a strong northern competitor of sorts to Google’s upcoming Android platform for mobiles.

The device itself features “includes EDGE/HSDPA WAN capabilities as well as WiFi WLAN functionality. It may also be offered with WiMAX, although no further details of this were provided. Using a 667MHz Samsung SC36400 processor, the 5608 also boasts a two megapixel camera, GPS, and digital TV reception in T-DMB, DVB-H, and ISDVT formats, MSI says.” Neat. At least, sounds great on paper, but will Intrinsyc’s Windows/CE-based UI really rival Apple’s OS-X equivalent on a multimedia handheld?

No word yet on how/when/if the device will be distributed in Canada. However, we here at WirelessNorth.ca are ready to give one a test drive, as soon as Intrinsyc or MSI wants to send one our way…

More details here.