#Canada 3.0 Conference is on right now and tomorrow, and already is featuring a big emphasis on mobile, and did we hear someone said Canada needs an ICT strategy? WirelessNorth.ca will be at 3.0 tomorrow taking about augmented reality, teh future, and how mobile will reshape business and the public/private sectors. But you don’t have to wait for that, already the twitter stream for #can30 is fantastic, you might tune-in and add a few new followers here.

#Tonight is mobile monday in Toronto at MaRS, there are a couple seats left…. West coasties might want to catch the next momovan event later on the 22nd.

#Tonight is SaveOurNet.ca sponsored Internet town hall meeting at the Gladstone in Toronto. WN will be there too. this is of course just one part of…

#NetChangeWeek so get out there, and add your voice, your energy and your brains towards making Canada the connected, innovative innovative we could be.

Did we leave anything out?

MoMoVan May 4th – Focus on Mobile Health The next Mobile Monday Vancouver (MoMoVan) will take place on May 4th at the Granville Island Brewery (6-8pm). We are going to focus on Mobile Health and will be bringing in speakers and panelists to tell you about what is going on in the space locally and what the implications are for healthcare. Stay tuned. Details coming next week.

psst: if there’s anyone interested in covering the event in Vancouver for WirelessNorth.ca let us know.

Meanwhile in Toronto another momoto event is coming up under the (rather improbable?) title of Toronto: The Epicentre of Global Mobile Internet Innovation and Economic Growth with some local folks from the .mobi advisory group.

For both events, tickets are the right price, free.

If you have, or are about to spontaneously organize, any mobile event this monday in your hometown let us know. We’ll help spread the word.

In which Michele introduces the The Hammer Metric, WirelessNorth.ca’s new method for evaluating mobile devices.

The Hammer Metric is measured by the strength of one’s desire to smash any designed tool (device, machine, system, etc) with a hammer in relation to particular aspects of design, functionality or use, especially as said usage relates to feelings of epic frustration or FAIL. As such, a low rating is desired, as it reflects a minimal urge for destruction based on what could be construed as user-centric antagonization on the part of the designer/maker.

Today we’ll be aiming our hammers at the newish Nokia E71 (now available on Rogers). This is Nokia’s fastest, sleekest, priciest, contender for the title of BlackBerry killer. This is a hybrid work/play device, for both the creation and consumption of content, whither image, video, web, office, email (yes, this is content) or music. Overall we’re going to give it 3 out of 10 hammers. This is pretty good.

The biggest value of this device is that it does a LOT OF STUFF and there is SO MUCH STUFF*, and that one can personalize almost every single aspect of functionality. However, the raw capabilities of the device are minimally hampered in the carrier-bound edition of the phone. More on that later.

The Good

Crystal-clear sound – while walking down a busy urban street, the loudspeaker quality = remarkably good conversation from both sides. Also the headphone/mic adapter is v v good. (1/10 hammers)

Connectivity for the E71 is the peppy 3G GSM, as well as the great option for WLAN when available (note: the author subscribes to Rogers’ 6GB plan, and with extended media streaming + normal use, I haven’t come close to the limit). (1/10)

The battery life is incredible, even with extended use of rich media applications, data, voice, email, etc – it lasts for days. (1/10)

The E71 has a pretty substantial memory of up to 8GB with MicroSD, 110MB internal memory, and the form factor is glorious, with the exception of the keyboard (comments below). Slim, substantial, the stainless steel back and trim are bonuses for grip and style. (2/10)

QuickOffice lets you create word docs, spreadsheets and presentations on the fly, and while formatting is a bit limited it’s still pretty damn good for sketching ideas out on mobile. The PDF reader is a pretty sweet addition as well. (3/10)

The GPS works well, with Nokia’s Maps application enabling navigation, positioning, trip distance, etc. (3/10)

Media tools include: voice recorder, video/image recording with a good suite of format/style settings, 2 music players (that would be one more than necessary thanks to the pretty terrible Rogers-branded player), podcast subscriber, a barcode reader, radio players, flash player (could use improvement), etc. Media transfer is enabled via Bluetooth, infrared or USB, and is simplified via a drag&drop protocol. Also, if you’re connected to the OVI platform you can save your content to the cloud and access/sync/share to your heart’s content. (Cool but E-series apps are sparse. Ovi may be much improved when the App Store launches in May 09) (3/10)

Aaaannnd speaking of apps, there’s a wide variety available via the Download Catalog as well as various other places on the web – it takes a bit more work to find them but there is an incredibly rich array of applications and services available. (4/10)

The Meh

The UI, while effective enough to use, still feels very much like a desktop… I feel like the practicality of this device came to the forefront, and while simplicity and accessibility is the +++ for the E71, a part of me wants a bit of playful glam. Where’s my mobile experience? While I don’t feel like I need to be an engineer in order to use it (a la Blackberry), I am hoping that the next iteration of the S60 OS will be a wee bit less desktop-centric.(5/10)

The Rogers branded web platform is… not very useful, and feels like it is getting in the way of what is already a great but potentially awesome smartphone. Thankfully the personalization workarounds that Nokia has developed allow you to bypass most of this. (5/10)

Web browsing is also at times a bit kludgey, and I’ve had the darn thing crash multiple times while browsing, precipitating a total restart. (5/10)

The camera, while bumped up to 3.2 megapixels, could use a better sensor and a WAY better flash, if only to prevent your subjects from appearing like pale, crazed vampirical maniacs. Given enough light though, video shot with the device looks and sounds *great* (try that on your iphone).(6/10)

The Ugly

No connectivity to the N-Gage platform, of yet (it’s primarily for the N-series phones…) Boo! The games that are pre-loaded are shadows of what is possible. (7/10)

The keyboard is no BlackBerry – straight rows of keys makes for somewhat awkward typing, also the QAZ keys are aligned with the far left edge, and the zero is found not below the number grid (that would be the space bar) but to the right. Little quibbles, as after a few hours of use typos are almost non-existent. Wish I could say the same for my laptop. (8/10)

Also, you can not tether the E71 to your other devices to share your 3G over wifi or bluetooth (haven’t tried the infrared). The Nokia fully enables it, but the carrier has fully locked out the capability on their version of the E71 (9/10).

Full Specs: http://europe.nokia.com/A41146123
This device is a nice balance between work and play. It doesn’t have the jellybelly sweetness of the iPhone, but it holds its own based on a quality platform, powerful hardware and specs, rich media and hyper-localized personalization. 3/10 hammers!

The E71 is 99.99 from Rogers on a 3year term, $399 on no term. Full retail and unlocked $569 at ncix.com. The later is less of a bad deal than you might think. There is little in the carrier platform of the phone that adds value. Rather more the opposite… Le sigh.

^{*or other words that rhyme with stuff}

If you dream of creating the next “killer app” for mobile phones consider this: the iPhone app fund rejects 99.8% of applicants. In a six-month period over 2,700 plans were received. Out of that group, only five companies were funded.

According to a recent Jupiterresearch/Forrester research report, mobile TV adoption is now at just 1%, and interest in all types of mobile TV is just over half what it was in 2006.

And Yahoo tech reported that a wave of economic gloom is set to hit mobile phone buyers (in 2009), with a growing number of analysts expecting the once-buoyant market to shrink for the first time since the 2001 crash.

But against this backdrop of doom and gloom, content creators gain ground as mobile technology continues to flourish, while carriers and other traditional gatekeepers of mobile content give way to new distribution opportunities.

Drawing on the experience of each of our panelists, iLunch 7.03 will explore:

- the types of mobile content that have been most successful to-date
- the best businesses to be in: mobile content creation, platforms or distribution
- distribution methods, partnerships and monetization strategies that have been most successful in this space
- the role of private investors or venture capitalists

Panelists for this session include:

• Simon Foster, Vice President, Business Development, GlassBOX Television Inc
• David Bazak, Sr. Relationship Manager, Media & Entertainment, RBC Royal Bank of Canada
• Mark Hyland, VP, Marketing, QuickPlay Media
• McLean Mashingaidze-Greaves, CEO/Founder, The Nimble Company

Moderated by: Thomas Purves, Tech Strategist and blogger

Register Here!

And hope to see you there.

# Apple has just announced they will be touring the world with their own developer workshops for the iPhone (sounds like a fun job). They are stopping in Toronto December 4th, which at the moment, is the only venue in North America not yet sold out. While there’s still spots, I’d recommend signing up for both!

# Free tickets for WirelessNorth.ca’s mobile/iPhone developers meetup tonight are now sold out. A few sponsor tickets remain (all funds raised go directly to the nacho, wifi and free beer budget).