The Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 7510 has been sitting pretty on T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) south of the border for awhile now, but here in Canada, Rogers (NYSE: RCI) has just picked it up. I played with one briefly at CES when it was first announced, and though it’s just a simple little flip at its core, there are a few cool features. For one, the the outer casing is interchangeable, so you fashion plates out there can have a phone that matches your wardrobe; it comes packaged with red and teal, but there’s also a brown one available for the less flamboyant users. The LED screen is cool in that it shines through that outer casing, so when it’s off, the surface just looks like a solid colour. On the more practical side of things, the Nokia 7510 offers Wi-Fi support, and as such Rogers is plugging it into their UMA TalkSpot service, so you can make calls over your local Wi-Fi connection. With the right plan, you can make unlimited Wi-Fi calls, but even without it, you’ll never have any signal issues in a connected house. You’ll be able to nab your own 7510 shortly for $49.99 on the customarily painful three-year contract.

[via CNW]

Canadian iPhone fans that are pining for the new iPhone 3GS, but are locked in over at TELUS (NYSE: TU) with no desire to make a switch to Rogers (NYSE: RCI) (heck, who needs another monthly bill, right?)… Good news may be coming your way. A shiny-new rumor has surfaced detailing that TELUS might be getting the iPhone 3GS this October, making them the second carrier to push the iPhone in Canada. Mmmmmm, competition!

This could be a bit of a shocker to say the least, because we all thought Rogers had that whole exclusivity thing down-pat… But again, chalk this up to rumor and nothing else. The information comes to us via a reliable tipster over at HowardForums, but tipsters are often wrong.

For what it’s worth, the rumor has TELUS picking up the iPhone 3GS this October once they get their HSPA network up. At the moment, TELUS is a CDMA-only carrier.

Again, this is very much a rumor. Chalk it up as speculation at best, but it sure would be nice to see some competition against Rogers on the iPhone scene. Might help drive down those crazy monthly rates, no?

[Via: BGR]

A couple of device releases for the Canadians in the crows this fine afternoon. Word has trickled down to my inbox that the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 and C510a are both now available on the Rogers (NYSE: RCI) network.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is a hefty device, weighing in at 158 grams. This slider features a full QWERTY keyboard with a 3″ VGA touchscreen with a resolution of 800×480. There’s a 3.5mm audio jack on-board, microSD card expansion slot (up to 16GB), 3.2MP camera with auto focus and LED flash, VGA video recording, WiFi, GPS, and the device runs on Win-Mo 6.1. The three-year contract will cost you $249.99, or if you’d prefer to buy it outright be prepared to fork over $599.99. You can check out all the details at Rogers.

The Sony Ericsson C510a is a more economical model, and is built in the classic Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) candybar style. It’s got a 3.2MP camera with digital zoom and picture editing, plus there’s GPS to help you geo-tag your pictures. 30fps video is also available on the C510a. The display is 2.2″ with a resolution of 240×320. The price? $79.99 on the three-year contract and $229.99 outright. Read more over at Rogers.

Thanks John!

[Via: MobileSyrup]

A few short weeks ago, Rogers unleashed the HTC Magic and Dream, allowing Google’s mobile OS, Android, to descend upon Canada like a swarm of open source, robotic, bright green locusts. I, for one, welcomed our new insectoid overlords. Will had already enjoyed the bleeding edge of Android when it first came out in the fall with T-Mobile’s G1, but since then we’ve experienced the much-touted Cupcake update, and a new piece of hardware to carry the world’s second-newest cellphone platform. The G1 didn’t really come off as a comfortable, let alone sexy smartphone; the chin was bizarrely angled, and could easily get in the way of typing, and the whole thing looked fairly chunky. On the other hand, the Magic, announced in Barcelona at MWC, was a proper device that could easily appeal to the mass market, and make Android more than just a developer’s sandbox. T-Mobile will soon be releasing the MyTouch 3G, their version of the Magic, so read on for a peek into the future.

Update: Samples from the camera now included in the gallery.

Read the full article »

It’s been awhile, but it looks like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has finally arrived in Canada! Gosh, it seems to me we first mentioned this back in the fall of last year. It’s been awhile for sure.

Rogers (NYSE: RCI) has officially announced the availability of the 3.2″ touchscreen device, on a 3-year contract for $199.99. Other key features of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic include the 3.5mm headphone jack (of course, as this device is certainly geared for music and multimedia), expansion to 16GB (microSD… the device comes with an 8GB card), full QWERTY touchscreen keyboard, plus there is also a 3.2MP camera on-board with Carl Zeiss optics, auto-focus and dual LED flash. And, if you really love the pics you’re taking and wish to share them, you can share them with the world via Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s Ovi Share. Brilliant.

[Via: MobileSyrup]

Hey, hey! Whadaya know, this weekend we actually had some official BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) OS releases! Rogers (NYSE: RCI) Wireless and AT&T (NYSE: T) got down and dirty with specific OS releases.

In Rogers’ case, it was OS 4.6.0.250 for the BlackBerry Curve 8900 (get it here). In AT&T’s case, it was OS 4.5.0.158 for the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 (get it here).

Gotta love it when an official OS release drops. However, if you’re on either of these carriers and carry the 8900 or 8110, be sure to backup your device and take all necessary precautions before proceeding. As always, happy OS updating!

[Via: CrackBerry]

Canadians should now be able to send and receive money securely with their mobile devices. How? With a new money transfer service called Zoompass of course! The new service has been launched by mobile payment vendor EnStream.

EnStream is jointly owned by the ‘big 3′ in Canada; Rogers (NYSE: RCI), Bell and Telus (NYSE: TU). The companies wanted to collaborate to bring together a money transfer solution for customers on all networks (it will work on all sub-branded networks as well… I’m talking Fido, Solo and PC Mobile here).

President of EnStream Robin Dua commented:

The launch of Zoompass represents an important milestone in financial services that makes the mobile phone the central device consumers use to transfer money and make purchases. The Zoompass mobile service ushers in a new era in electronic payments that addresses a growing desire to move money quickly and easily between friends, family, and merchants. Zoompass makes it easy to split a lunch bill, request money from parents, collect sports team fees, solicit money for a co-worker’s gift, or even pay a babysitter - right from a mobile phone. With the groundbreaking launch of Zoompass, Canadians nationwide can expect to hear more people ask one another “Do you want me to Zoom you the money?”

Every Zoompass transaction will be PIN protected, and all sensitive information is stored on secure servers… so even if you’ve lost your mobile device, there is no need to worry about your critical financial info getting into the wrong hands.

Zoompass will be officially unveiled at the 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto this week.

[Via: Cellular-News]

Canada’s three main operators: Bell, Rogers (NYSE: RCI) and Telus (NYSE: TU), are joing forces to launch a mobile payment system called Zoompass. It’s supposed to be launching on June 15th and will allow customers to send, receive and request money, with a $0.50 fee to send money and transfer funds from your Zoompass account to your bank account. Zoompass is built on EnStream software and that’s just about all the information we have. The website is blank.

Transactions from mobile devices are supposed to reach $1.6 billion this year according to ABI Research, but I have strong doubts about that claim. Paying with cash is easy, you take pieces of paper and metal out of your pocket, give it to someone, who in turn gives you a product. Credit cards are even easier. You give a piece of plastic to someone, they swipe it, in some countries you sign a piece of paper, in others you enter a pin code, and then bam, you get your product. How is something like Zoompass going to take off when you’re going to have people fumbling about, typing long strings of digits on a UI that will vary phone by phone? Grandma can’t even check her voicemail, how is she going to Zoompass Timmy $5 for candy?

Near Field Communication (NFC) needs to launch already. The GSMA approved the single wire protocol that can tie an NFC chip directly to the phone’s SIM card, so now we just have to sit patiently and wait until the software, hardware and infrastructure are rolled out that supports all of this.

I’ve never been more jealous of the Japanese.

[Via: Mobile Syrup, Unwired View]

Canadians are now getting to grips with the Android OS, now that the HTC Magic and Dream are available on Rogers. As it turns out, the two Android-powered devices actually come pre-loaded with their own custom build of Android. The build is a heavily ‘Rogersed-out’ version with bright reds throughout, a handy ‘My Account’ launcher, T9 soft keyboard, Exchange support, Quickoffice, PDF Reader and more. This of course is all made possible because these new devices are not ‘Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Experience’ phones… thus, Rogers (NYSE: RCI) and HTC can tweak up their own ‘custom’ build of Android to their liking.

Need more Rogers/Android love? You can check out a full set of screenshots over at Flickr.

[EngadgetMobile via Android and Me]

Just got a note from Rogers (NYSE: RCI) saying that the iPhone 3G cut to $99 will be happening north of the border as well on June 19th., and that the $199 and $299 price tags for the recently-launched 16 GB and 32 GB iPhone 3GS respectively. The 6 GB/ $30 plan that was reintroduced as part of their Android debut will also be available, but on the downside, those who wanted to nab an iPhone 3GS outright won’t be able to - here’s hoping you’re eligible for an upgrade, or you’ll be swallowing an uncomfortably-sized early termination fee. It should be worth noting that Rogers was happily listed as one of the tethering supporters. Maybe that 15 GB plan doesn’t look so ridiculous after all…

Update: Correction - there will be a no-term price, they just aren’t saying what it is yet.