A decade ago I visited my adult cousines in Guang Dong province and they barely spoke any mandarin. There was no need to. Local TV/radio was readily in Cantonese and they could read all national documents written in Chinese.
Situations have changed since there's more business dealings with those outside their province so they have since learned to speak mandarin fluently.
I imagine they treat the need to learn Mandarin in the same way Quebecois have to learn English.
Even 12Mbps doesn't sound super fast to me. In Canada we've had real world speeds higher than this from most carriers since the start of 2010. Even on our newest budget network (WIND Mobile) I've gotten real world speeds of 7Mbps on my N900.
T-Mobile has even recently been started calling HSPA+ (21Mbps) as 4G. Well why not, if you think "up to 12Mbps" is 4G.
Our major carriers will be rolling out 42Mbps+ (not sure what real world speeds will be) HSPA soon, and they are still calling it 3G. It's only marketing in the US that pushes the definition beyond ITU standards.
I just find it funny that what US carriers call 4G is actually slow than most 3G networks around the world.
In any case all of Roger's Android devices does have 3G bands that will work with Bell and Telus. Telus also carries its own HSPA version of the HTC Hero.
So the article is wrong that Rogers is the only choice for Android in Canada, even if you ignore the fact that most Android devices that work on US networks will work on one or more of the HSPA networks with a SIM activation.
In Canada, the CDMA carriers (Telus, Bell) don't allow foreign CDMA handsets. So you couldn't import an unlocked Verizon DROID for example.
However, as of late last year, nearly all carriers now also have a UMTS/HSPA network (aka 3G GSM), including the new ones like WIND Mobile. They are all capable of using foreign handsets with compatible bands (which means AT&T or T-Mobile compatible depending on the network).
There actually isn't any CDMA Android devices in Canada. Telus does, however carry the UMTS/HSPA version of the HTC Hero. WIND Mobile can use all T-Mobile US Android devices including the Nexus One. Bell can use whatever Rogers and Telus offers.
The statement from the article "Rogers is the only GSM carrier in Canada and so the only choice for Android users" is completely for this reason.
If you're going to count Fido as separate network (really a MVNO), then you might as well count Koodo , Solo and Virgin Canada as well. And technically Bell and Telus and their MVNO doesn't have a 2G GSM network, just a 3G UMTS/HSPA network.
You'll also need to include WIND Mobile too if you're counting 3G networks. Although they currently don't carry any Android devices, they are the only ones with T-Mobile US devices and Nexus One users (imported from US).
Out of all these, only Rogers (Dream/Magic/LG) and Telus (Hero) are carrying Android devices. The other networks are all capable of using imported devices by activating SIM accounts.
Sure, if you like to count MVNos and sub-brands of Bell. There are probably 11 companies that offer GMS/HSPA in Canada as well if you count MVNOs; granted more users are still on CDMA tech.
Thankfully, all the big players will be on HSPA by next year in Canada.
I did this for my wife and she absolutely loves it. With the 2GB of RAM upgrade ($40), you can kill the swap file, and make a RAMDisk big enough for temp folders and browser cache. It makes things very snappy and quick. With a SD slot it's very easy to add 1Gb to 16GB of storage just by adding an SD card, or attach any old USB drive if you need more. Mine boots up in less than 10 seconds.
I can't speak for any other place in Canada, but in the Toronto area all the pirated movies originate from China, and often with official looking graphics cover. The other day I saw a DVD of a movie in current release, with a release date in September 2007 at a local Asian mall.
Yes, the RCMP goes in and raid these shops every so often, but as soon as they're gone, the pirates just open up shop again and there are plenty of takers.
So I'm not sure how checking paying customers for video cameras actually helps with movie piracy in Canada. They will accomplish nothing and just waste everybody's time and money.
I got a Nuvi 370 with the Traffic feature. Unfortunately the traffic info isn't broadcasted in Toronto until July (delayed 6 months from the original January date), so I'll have to wait to really enjoy the feature.
In the meantime, it does tell me where speed traps are and keep beeping as long as exceed the speed limit in the trap zone. This is handy because you don't need your GPS beeping at you when you're stuck in traffic. Of course I had to go in and "fix the data" because normal traffc speeds are almost always 10-20% faster than the speed limit.
That's not surprising because I've seen the same thing in Toronto. To be fair, grooming while driving isn't limited dumb blondes. I've seen plenty of men shaving or even putting on their tie while driving. Mind you, traffic around here can be worst than L.A., and you'll be lucky if you're going 20 mph.
As for texting while driving, it is absolutely scaring the number of people that do it, but do you really need a specific law against it? Maybe we just need to enforce existing "careless driving" laws. Otherwise we'd have to make separate laws for texting, combing, dressing, changing CDs, etc... while driving.
Non-citizen are occausionally made honorary appointments to the Order of Canada. Perhaps the most famous person receiving this honour is Nelson Mandela. He was also the first foreigner to receive the highest honour of the Companion to the order of Canada.
Also, they didn't change that everywhere. The last time I checked Coke in Canada was still made with sugar. That that goes for most pop (soda/soft drink/"Coke") products in Canada as well as candies and chocolate.
I never understood why Coke and chocolate in the USA taste "weird" until I found out about this factoid and started comparing ingredients.
Wait. Rumor has it that Nintendo will be selling the Wii in different colours without bundling Wii Sport for a lower price. They are not likely to do this until the demands for the Wii drops. They're having a hard time meeting demand as it is.
It's probably a lot easier and quicker to stamp discs and print packaging than to make complicated hardware parts that may be dependent on supply chains. Also the variable costs of a game is going to be very little compared to hardware, so your risk for over-production will be lower.
Living in Canada we still have a mix of imperial units being used. People know what a mile is and what an inch is. Pounds and Feet/Inches are commonly used to describe weight and height for people (as well as food sold by the weight; although food sold by volume is almost exclusively sold in Litres).
Everything else is mostly in metric. Even then people still some resistance to metric units such as L/100km and instead use the miles per gallon. Ironically this one actaully illustrates the need for standardization. MPG in Canada is measured in Canadian gallons which is different from US gallons.
The one thing that I don't readily auto-convert in my mind is temperatures in F vs C. Other than 32F = 0C and 100F ~ 37C, everything in between isn't as clear without actually doing some calcuations.
Metric is standard but imperial units are still understood because of US influences.
They explained it in one episode. Basically the gate translate the language for them. Kind of like how the TARDIS does it.
Of course it doesn't explain why sometimes they selectively hear Ancient or Goa'uld, or why they can still understand other people when they're not traveling via the Stargate.
$10/day is less than what most hotel charges for access, so I think that price-point is just about right.
The per-hour price seems a bit high though. Isn't Internet cafe prices about $2-3 pre hour? And that includes the use of their computer (albeit, a computer that's potentially full of spyware and key loggers).
I think $2 is more appropriate for an hourly rate. However, if you look at what the cell companies are charging for data access, $5 an hour isn't overly "inflated".
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A decade ago I visited my adult cousines in Guang Dong province and they barely spoke any mandarin. There was no need to. Local TV/radio was readily in Cantonese and they could read all national documents written in Chinese.
Situations have changed since there's more business dealings with those outside their province so they have since learned to speak mandarin fluently.
I imagine they treat the need to learn Mandarin in the same way Quebecois have to learn English.
It's not just an accent. My surname is Wu in mandarin, Ng in cantonese and pronounced Go or No in other dialects.
Even 12Mbps doesn't sound super fast to me. In Canada we've had real world speeds higher than this from most carriers since the start of 2010. Even on our newest budget network (WIND Mobile) I've gotten real world speeds of 7Mbps on my N900.
T-Mobile has even recently been started calling HSPA+ (21Mbps) as 4G. Well why not, if you think "up to 12Mbps" is 4G.
Our major carriers will be rolling out 42Mbps+ (not sure what real world speeds will be) HSPA soon, and they are still calling it 3G. It's only marketing in the US that pushes the definition beyond ITU standards.
I just find it funny that what US carriers call 4G is actually slow than most 3G networks around the world.
"completely wrong" is what I meant.
In any case all of Roger's Android devices does have 3G bands that will work with Bell and Telus. Telus also carries its own HSPA version of the HTC Hero.
So the article is wrong that Rogers is the only choice for Android in Canada, even if you ignore the fact that most Android devices that work on US networks will work on one or more of the HSPA networks with a SIM activation.
In Canada, the CDMA carriers (Telus, Bell) don't allow foreign CDMA handsets. So you couldn't import an unlocked Verizon DROID for example.
However, as of late last year, nearly all carriers now also have a UMTS/HSPA network (aka 3G GSM), including the new ones like WIND Mobile. They are all capable of using foreign handsets with compatible bands (which means AT&T or T-Mobile compatible depending on the network).
There actually isn't any CDMA Android devices in Canada. Telus does, however carry the UMTS/HSPA version of the HTC Hero. WIND Mobile can use all T-Mobile US Android devices including the Nexus One. Bell can use whatever Rogers and Telus offers.
The statement from the article "Rogers is the only GSM carrier in Canada and so the only choice for Android users" is completely for this reason.
Can't really count DAVE until they launch and that's not even their brand that they plan to use.
If you're going to count Fido as separate network (really a MVNO), then you might as well count Koodo , Solo and Virgin Canada as well. And technically Bell and Telus and their MVNO doesn't have a 2G GSM network, just a 3G UMTS/HSPA network.
You'll also need to include WIND Mobile too if you're counting 3G networks. Although they currently don't carry any Android devices, they are the only ones with T-Mobile US devices and Nexus One users (imported from US).
Out of all these, only Rogers (Dream/Magic/LG) and Telus (Hero) are carrying Android devices. The other networks are all capable of using imported devices by activating SIM accounts.
Sure, if you like to count MVNos and sub-brands of Bell. There are probably 11 companies that offer GMS/HSPA in Canada as well if you count MVNOs; granted more users are still on CDMA tech.
Thankfully, all the big players will be on HSPA by next year in Canada.
They need to buy AOL to get last remaining bits of CompuServe.
I did this for my wife and she absolutely loves it. With the 2GB of RAM upgrade ($40), you can kill the swap file, and make a RAMDisk big enough for temp folders and browser cache. It makes things very snappy and quick. With a SD slot it's very easy to add 1Gb to 16GB of storage just by adding an SD card, or attach any old USB drive if you need more. Mine boots up in less than 10 seconds.
They're also going about this the wrong way.
I can't speak for any other place in Canada, but in the Toronto area all the pirated movies originate from China, and often with official looking graphics cover. The other day I saw a DVD of a movie in current release, with a release date in September 2007 at a local Asian mall.
Yes, the RCMP goes in and raid these shops every so often, but as soon as they're gone, the pirates just open up shop again and there are plenty of takers.
So I'm not sure how checking paying customers for video cameras actually helps with movie piracy in Canada. They will accomplish nothing and just waste everybody's time and money.
I got a Nuvi 370 with the Traffic feature. Unfortunately the traffic info isn't broadcasted in Toronto until July (delayed 6 months from the original January date), so I'll have to wait to really enjoy the feature.
In the meantime, it does tell me where speed traps are and keep beeping as long as exceed the speed limit in the trap zone. This is handy because you don't need your GPS beeping at you when you're stuck in traffic. Of course I had to go in and "fix the data" because normal traffc speeds are almost always 10-20% faster than the speed limit.
I was just thinking there must be some way to form the bits into a picture somehow... oh wait, I think I see an elephant.
That's not surprising because I've seen the same thing in Toronto. To be fair, grooming while driving isn't limited dumb blondes. I've seen plenty of men shaving or even putting on their tie while driving. Mind you, traffic around here can be worst than L.A., and you'll be lucky if you're going 20 mph.
As for texting while driving, it is absolutely scaring the number of people that do it, but do you really need a specific law against it? Maybe we just need to enforce existing "careless driving" laws. Otherwise we'd have to make separate laws for texting, combing, dressing, changing CDs, etc... while driving.
The new Intel CSI Miami. "It looks like, there is, some sort, of, connection." WWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAA!
[minrant]Stupid David Caruso[/minirant]
Why not combine the two and get "Grizzly Gopher". That's more in line with "Feisty Fawn", where you have a docile animal with an aggressive adjective.
"Grazing Gerbil" just doesn't sound as exciting.
With all the great games out there for the DS/DSL, I still can't put down Tetris DS. Too addictive playing online.
:)
Call me crazy, but I think they need a version of Tetris for the Wii
Non-citizen are occausionally made honorary appointments to the Order of Canada. Perhaps the most famous person receiving this honour is Nelson Mandela. He was also the first foreigner to receive the highest honour of the Companion to the order of Canada.
Also, they didn't change that everywhere. The last time I checked Coke in Canada was still made with sugar. That that goes for most pop (soda/soft drink/"Coke") products in Canada as well as candies and chocolate.
I never understood why Coke and chocolate in the USA taste "weird" until I found out about this factoid and started comparing ingredients.
Wait. Rumor has it that Nintendo will be selling the Wii in different colours without bundling Wii Sport for a lower price. They are not likely to do this until the demands for the Wii drops. They're having a hard time meeting demand as it is.
It's probably a lot easier and quicker to stamp discs and print packaging than to make complicated hardware parts that may be dependent on supply chains. Also the variable costs of a game is going to be very little compared to hardware, so your risk for over-production will be lower.
Living in Canada we still have a mix of imperial units being used. People know what a mile is and what an inch is. Pounds and Feet/Inches are commonly used to describe weight and height for people (as well as food sold by the weight; although food sold by volume is almost exclusively sold in Litres).
Everything else is mostly in metric. Even then people still some resistance to metric units such as L/100km and instead use the miles per gallon. Ironically this one actaully illustrates the need for standardization. MPG in Canada is measured in Canadian gallons which is different from US gallons.
The one thing that I don't readily auto-convert in my mind is temperatures in F vs C. Other than 32F = 0C and 100F ~ 37C, everything in between isn't as clear without actually doing some calcuations.
Metric is standard but imperial units are still understood because of US influences.
They explained it in one episode. Basically the gate translate the language for them. Kind of like how the TARDIS does it.
Of course it doesn't explain why sometimes they selectively hear Ancient or Goa'uld, or why they can still understand other people when they're not traveling via the Stargate.
$10/day is less than what most hotel charges for access, so I think that price-point is just about right.
The per-hour price seems a bit high though. Isn't Internet cafe prices about $2-3 pre hour? And that includes the use of their computer (albeit, a computer that's potentially full of spyware and key loggers).
I think $2 is more appropriate for an hourly rate. However, if you look at what the cell companies are charging for data access, $5 an hour isn't overly "inflated".