Complete details of Eastlink’s new wireless plans and devices

eastlink
Nova Scotia-based Eastlink (Bragg Communications) invested $25 million in 2008 wireless spectrum auction to acquire 19 licences. After several delays their 4G LTE service will finally go live today in HRM (Halifax Regional Municipality), then a bigger rollout starting tomorrow. The initial coverage map will extend out of the Halifax area and reach as far as Charlottetown – then cover most of PEI and Nova Scotia within 18 months.

The devices you can expect to see are the Sony Xperia T, Samsung Galaxy S III, LG Nexus 4, BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Curve 9320 and the entry-level LG F4n.

We’ve received some internal documents and most surprising is that Eastlink will give customers both a no-contract and a ‘contract’ type offering. The no-contract is self explanatory, but new to the mix is something called the “easyTab.” This is similar to Koodo Mobile’s Tab, WIND Mobile’s WINDTab, or Virgin Mobile’s SuperTab where they’ll offer a discounted price on the handset then 10% of the monthly bill goes towards paying off the device. To get the ‘easyTab’ discount one would need to have a minimum of $40/month voice and data plan.

Here’s the complete pricing of the handsets:
– Sony Xperia T: $79 on the ‘easyTab’ and $549 outright
– Samsung Galaxy S III: $99 on the ‘easyTab’ and $599 outright
– LG Nexus 4: $129 on the ‘easyTab’ and $499 outright
– BlackBerry Bold 9900: $49 on the ‘easyTab’ and $599 outright
– BlackBerry Curve 9320: $19 on the ‘easyTab’ and $199 outright
– LG F4n: $9 on the ‘easyTab’
– Huawei e397 Internet Stick: $0 on the ‘easyTab’ and $149 outright

Now for the rate plans. As expected, bundling is a huge play. However, first the monthly talk, text and data rates:

$25/month Talk and Text plan (price falls depending on the bundle option)
– 200 local anytime minutes
– Unlimited Nights and weekends
– Unlimited Text, Picture and Video Messaging
– Unlimited “My Eastlink Calling” – calls between Eastlink customers
– Call Display, Call Waiting and conference calling is included
– 25 minutes of Canada-Wide Travel Pack

$37.50/month Talk and Text plan (price falls depending on the bundle option)
– No activation fee
– Unlimited local anytime minutes
– Unlimited Nights and weekends
– Unlimited Text, Picture and Video Messaging
– Unlimited “My Eastlink Calling” – calls between Eastlink customers
– Call Display, Call Waiting and conference calling is included
– 50 minutes of Canada-Wide Travel Pack

Data Add-ons:
– “Social” data is $10/month and includes Unlimited Facebook/Twitter/BBM
– 1GB data is $20/month (price falls depending on the bundle option)
– 2GB data is $25/month (price falls depending on the bundle option)
– 5GB data is $40/month (price falls depending on the bundle option)

Wireless Internet Stick data rates:
– 3GB data for $35/month
– 5GB data for $45/month

Calling Features:
– Voicemail: $5/month
– Voicemail to email (voicemail required): $3/month
– Unlimited call forwarding: $3/month
– Top 5 local Calling: $5/month
– Top 10 Canada-wide calling: $10/month
– Unlimited Eastlink calling: $10/month
– Unlimited Canada long distance: $10/month
– Unlimited North America: $25/month
– International Text messaging: $5/month

Bundling savings:
– Save 10% when bundled with 1 other Eastlink service (TV, Internet, home phone)
– Save 15% when bundled with 2 other Eastlink service (TV, Internet, home phone)
– Save 20% when bundled with 3 other Eastlink service (TV, Internet, home phone)

As far as roaming, here’s what you can expect:
– Calls to North America:: $0.50 per minute
– Sent text message: $0.50 per message
– Received text message: free
– Sent picture or video message: $0.50 per message (data applicable)
– Received picture or video message: (data applicable)
– Data is $1 per MB

Finally, there’s a “Family sharing” option that gives further discounts – up to 20%. The internal doc we received states that customers can “create a family sharing account for up to 5 family members and watch the savings grow… Only with Eastlink can you get a monthly discount of up to 20% off your monthly wireless plan for each member of your family. Each member can choose their own plan and save money by combining and sharing their minutes and data.”

So there you have it. A solid device lineup and respectable monthly price plans. Certainly worth the wait and will bring more competition to the East Coast.

Source: Mobile Syrup

GE sells rest of NBCU to Comcast for $16.7 billion

GE sells rest of NBCU to Comcast for $16.7 billionComcast has announced today that it will be purchasing the remaining 49 percent of NBCUniversal that it does not own.

The massive cable company will purchase the stake from GE for $16.7 billion, giving it 100 percent ownership of the film and television company.

In 2011, Comcast purchased the majority stake from GE for $13.75 billion after 16 months of regulatory hurdles.

Additionally, the cable co. is purchasing NBCU’s floors at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in NYC for $1.4 billion.

Comcast had the right to buy the remaining stake starting in July 2014, but decided the price was right today. “Our belief is that we would have paid more later,” added Comcast’s CEO.

Google finally unveils Nexus 4 wireless charging accessory

Google finally unveils Nexus 4 wireless charging accessory Google has made the aptly named Nexus 4 Wireless Charger available to fans of the new flagship.

The device is available through the Google Play Store, and ships “within a week.”

For $60 (before tax and shipping), users receive the nice looking orb, which is Qi inductive. “Its angled surface provides easy visibility of your phone while charging. This elegant device was designed specifically for your Nexus 4 — no clunky add-ons or accessories needed,” says Google.

When docked, the phone will reveal the battery power, and weather, news and sports. Google says it takes a bit over 3 hours to fully charge the device with the charger.

Check it here: Nexus 4 Wireless Charger

Bill Gates hits Reddit for AMA

Bill Gates hits Reddit for AMABill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, hit Reddit today to answer some questions.

Before he even started the AMA, he posted a short animated video answering the the most popular questions being posed to him. The first question in the video is, “How much money is in your wallet?,” followed by, “Can I have a million dollars?,” and of course, “Which would you rather fight: 100 duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck?” (Video below).

In the AMA he got into more interesting stuff however, like when he was asked about any products he regretted not launching with Microsoft:

“We had a rich database as the client/cloud store that was part of a Windows release that was before its time. This is an idea that will remerge since your cloud store will be rich with schema rather than just a bunch of files and the client will be a partial replica of it with rich schema understanding.”

He was referring to WinFS.

Other questions surround the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is a charitable organization that has spent billions of dollars on vaccine development and other programs.

Check it out: I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA

President Obama to host Fireside Hangout on Google+ this Thursday

President Obama to host Fireside Hangout on Google+ this ThursdayPresident Obama to follow VP Joe Biden by hosting Google+ Hangout.

The President will deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress and the American people on Tuesday evening, continuing a 200 year tradition. Ex Presidents and their staff would typically then be grilled about the speech for a few days afterwards by the media, and the Obama administration will be no different.

On Thursday however, President Obama will subject himself to questions in a Google+ Hangout session at 4:50pm ET. Like VP Biden’s Hangout, the President will be joined by a group of people who regularly discuss important issues of the day online. Americans will also be able to submit questions or thoughts to the President by going to the White House YouTube channel and submitting a questions (text or video).

You have until 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, February 13.

The President’s State of the Union address will also be broadcast live on YouTube, from 9pm ET, as will the response from the Republican Party via Senator Marco Rubio.

The Fireside handout with President Obama can be watched on the White House Google+ page or the White House YouTube channel.

Tablets now account for 46 percent of all PC shipments as Apple controls market

Tablets now account for 46 percent of all PC shipments as Apple controls marketAccording to the latest Canalys figures, tablets accounted for 46 percent of all PC shipments in the Q4 2012, huge news for the devices that really did not exist before the 2010 launch of the iPad.

Overall, there were 134 million units shipped, 46.2 million of which qualified as tablets. Tablet shipments grew 75 percent year-over-year.

Apple controlled the lion’s share, shipping 27 million iPads. The new iPad Mini accounted for just over half of all iPad shipments. However, Apple fell below 50 percent tablet share for the year for the first time ever, says the report.

“Apple timed the launch of the iPad Mini well,” added Canalys research analyst, Pin-Chen Tang. “Its success proves there is a clear demand for pads with smaller screens at a more affordable price. Without the launch, Apple would surely have lost more ground to its competitors.”

Samsung moved 7.6 million tablets, and Amazon shipped 4.6 million units. Google’s Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets (built by Asus and Samsung), shipped 2.6 million units during the quarter. Microsoft’s Windows RT-based Surface shipped just 720,000 units. Canalys says Microsoft has failed with the tablet, “The outlook for Windows RT appears bleak. Hardware OEMs are ignoring it due, in part, to a pricing strategy that does not align with the economics of the pad market.”

The firm says Microsoft will need to re-examine its pricing for the Surface RT.

Microsoft targets 57 security issues in Patch Tuesday bundle

Microsoft targets 57 security issues in Patch Tuesday bundleMicrosoft targets some critical flaws.

It will roll out fixes as it always does; on Patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of every month. The February 2013 bundle targets flaws in the Windows Operating Systems, Internet Explorer and Exchange. All in all, 57 security issues will be addressed on Patch Tuesday.

The company will push out at least 12 updates to address the flaws – five of which come with a rating of critical. Security updates with this rating suggest that the flaws could be exploited to run arbitrary code on a victims PC if they, for example, visit a specially crafted webpage to exploit them.

Every version of Internet Explorer from IE6 needs to be patched, while flaws in the Windows operating system are considered critical only for versions below Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.

Users should not procrastinate when it comes to Microsoft’s monthly patches. While the second Tuesday of every month has become known as “Patch Tuesday”, there is a lesser known monthly special day, known by some as “Exploit Wednesday”.

Malware writers and others dissect the updates pushed out on Patch Tuesday and develop exploits as quickly as they can against the vulnerabilities, hoping to catch out users who procrastinate when it comes to keeping updated.

Microsoft’s advisory for Feb 2013’s patches: technet.microsoft.com

IMPORTANT: Adobe pushes out Flash updates for serious security flaws

IMPORTANT: Adobe pushes out Flash updates for serious security flawsAdobe issues important fixes.

It has had to address two zero-day vulnerabilities that are being exploited in the wild. One (CVE-2013-0633) is being exploited in the wild in targeted attacks designed to trick the user into opening a Microsoft Word document delivered as an email attachment which contains malicious Flash (SWF) content.

The other serious flaw (CVE-2013-0634) is being exploited in the wild in attacks delivered via malicious Flash (SWF) content hosted on websites that target Flash Player in Firefox or Safari on the Macintosh platform, as well as attacks designed to trick Windows users into opening a Microsoft Word document delivered as an email attachment which contains malicious Flash (SWF) content.

Affected software versions include…

  • Adobe Flash Player 11.5.502.146 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh
  • Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.261 and earlier versions for Linux
  • Adobe Flash Player 11.1.115.36 and earlier versions for Android 4.x
  • Adobe Flash Player 11.1.111.31 and earlier versions for Android 3.x and 2.x

Find out what version of Flash you are running on a desktop or laptop here.

If you are running Flash on Android, go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Adobe Flash Player x.x.

Visit the Adobe Flash Player Download Center for updates.