Google Inc. said in its fourth-quarter results that the average “cost-per-click” for ads on its sites and those of its network members decreased by three per cent over the fourth quarter of 2013. Cost-per-click for Google sites specifically was down eight per cent at the end of the three-month period ending Dec. 31, compared to a year earlier. Revenues for the quarter were $18.1 billion US, up from $15.71 billion a year earlier, Google said, but below analyst expectations, Bloomberg noted Thursday. Net income was $4.76 billion US, up from $3.38 billion US a year earlier....
Automated vehicles are about to become the most disruptive near-term technology in the average person's life, the Conference Board of Canada said in report released Wednesday. The research group said the impact of driverless cars will be even more substantial than other technologies coming in future years, such as 3D printing and 5G wireless technology. The report noted that several vehicle manufacturers expect to have fully automated vehicles available within the next decade. It said plans for investing in the appropriate infrastructure should start now, given that transportation...
In the past six months, Canadians’ usage of streaming music services seems to have jumped, in a trend that’s not only good news for streaming services, but wireless companies as well. Nielsen Co. only began...
For the first time, Google Inc.’s YouTube streaming service is hosting a live Super Bowl halftime show of its own that will stream during the break of the NFL championship game on Feb. 1. Hosted by Harley Morenstein,...
Google Inc. said Thursday it will stop selling the Explorer Edition of its Google Glass wearable product after Jan. 19. The company said in a statement on the Google+ social network: "January 19 will be the last day to get the Glass Explorer Edition. In the meantime, we’re continuing to build for the future, and you’ll start to see...
Google Inc.'s director of self-driving cars says such technology will be in operation in two to five years, but Canada will have to wait longer due to its climate, according to a report by the Financial Post. An article...
Global smartphone sales to end users were up 20.3 per cent worldwide in this year's third quarter compared to a year earlier, technology research company Gartner Inc. said Monday. The company said in a press release that smartphone sales amounted to 301 million in the third quarter. It said feature-phone sales were down 25 per cent, which made the overall mobile-phone market flat in the third quarter with 455.8 million sales. A shrinking price gap between feature phones and Android-powered smartphones was cited as the reason for the trend. Gartner said smartphone sales accounted...
Canadian Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien has joined 22 other privacy authorities from Canadian provinces and international jurisdictions calling on mobile-app marketplaces to require easily...
A recent study on the wireless industry's effects on the Canadian economy in 2013 showed a shift favouring businesses involved in applications and content, and against those involved in devices and other hardware. The study was done for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) by research company...
International Data Corp. said Monday that growth in worldwide smartphone shipments is expected to drop from 26.3 per cent this year to 12.2 per cent next year, and even further in the years beyond that. IDC said in a press...
The tablet market in 2014 is undergoing a "massive deceleration," technology research company International Data Corp. said Tuesday. It predicted in a news release there would be 235.7 million shipments of tablets and two-in-one hybrids this year, a gain of 7.2 per cent from a year earlier. That's down from...
Google Inc. is launching a new approach to Internet advertising in the United States that uses a subscriber model to replace ads on certain websites. With Google Contributor, users can choose to pay...
Canada’s largest media companies take it as a given that the current market for advertising on traditional broadcast media is weak, but experts say broadcasting is shifting to a new normal as online advertising becomes the...
Google Inc.'s wearable device, Glass, is seeing a decline in interest among the public and application developers, according to an article by Reuters. The article, published Friday, said nine out of 16 app makers it contacted...
BlackBerry Ltd. on Thursday announced the availability of its latest system for enterprise management of mobile devices. The new system is called BES12, which BlackBerry said in a press release "is the foundation for...
The CRTC is concerned with “much bigger issues with greater ramifications down the road” than the question of whether it will regulate over-the-top (OTT) services like Netflix, CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said Thursday. As the CRTC makes decisions on issues raised at the Let’s Talk TV hearing earlier this fall, “‘regulating’ Netflix is the least of our concerns,” Blais told the Vancouver Board of Trade in a speech, according to speaking notes provided by the CRTC. The question of whether the CRTC should, or could, regulate such services was...
Netflix isn’t the only game in town anymore. In recent weeks, Canadian and American TV giants have made a number of announcements about new over-the-top (OTT) video services — HBO and CBS revealing new streaming...
Deepak Khandelwal will become new chief customer officer at Rogers Communications Inc., the company said in a press release Tuesday. Khandelwal is currently vice-president of global customer experience at Google Inc. and will...
Google Inc.'s YouTube streaming service is exploring possible subscription models, according to report by Re/code. The technology news website reported Monday that YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said during an on-stage interview...
TD Canada Trust announced Thursday it has introduced a way for customers to deposit cheques in their bank account by taking a photo with their mobile phone through the bank’s mobile app. The bank also said business...
When CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais faced off against Netflix Inc. in September, his ordering of the U.S.-based streaming service to give the CRTC information it had previously refused to provide added fuel to a debate about whether the CRTC can — or whether it should — regulate online video services. That debate, which saw everyone from Prime Minister Stephen Harper to Quebecor Inc. and Google Inc. wade in during the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV hearing, has cooled off somewhat, for the moment at least, after the CRTC decided to exclude Google Inc.'s and Netflix’...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Tuesday that Jacob Glick will start work next month in the newly created position of chief corporate affairs officer. Previously, Glick headed Google Inc.'s global public policy and government relations team, and before that took on the same responsibilities...
OTTAWA — NDP Leader Tom Mulcair on Wednesday denounced Heritage Minister Shelly Glover's statements that ruled out regulation for online video services such as Netflix and YouTube, which...
Canadian shoppers are increasingly turning to their smartphones while in-store to find bargains, check for coupons and look up product reviews, according to a new study. A report from consumer...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced it is releasing a new hockey app that will give customers access to new camera angles and additional content like interviews and analysis. “Exclusive to Rogers’ customers, and it...
A coalition of some of the biggest Internet companies in the United States criticized Canada in a report released Tuesday for being a laggard in the usage and development of Internet technology to grow the economy. The Internet...
Netflix Inc. said Tuesday it would have its first original movie next summer. It said in a press release that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend will premiere on Netflix simultaneously with showings in Imax theatres...
The CRTC said Monday it will remove all evidence presented by Netflix Inc. and Google Inc., including oral and written presentations, from the Let’s Talk TV process, following the...
Google Inc. on Monday announced a new smartphone, known as Android One, it will make available first in India and other developing countries in the near future. Google said in a blog post that the new product represents the...
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday his government is determined not to tax Internet services such as Netflix and YouTube In a wide-ranging speech in Ottawa to kick off the new parliamentary session, he also mentioned the government's support of a pick-and-pay TV system and a planned ban on extra fees for paper billing. Harper said his government is "helping families and all consumers with ... common-sense measures, like banning the practice of charging people who want to receive their bills in the mail, like letting Canadians choose to pay for the TV channels they actually...
GATINEAU, Que. — A move by the CRTC to regulate over-the-top (OTT) video platforms could set a precedent for regulators in other countries, a Google Inc. lawyer told the commission on the first...
In a little more than a week, the people who make and produce, broadcast and distribute, analyze and report on the Canadian television industry will gather in Gatineau, Que., to spend two weeks talking about its future. The...
Demand for smartphones in emerging markets will help drive growth in global shipments this year to 23.8 per cent for a total of 1.25 billion devices shipped, International Data Corp. said Thursday. The research company said in a press release that mature markets, which include Canada, the United States, Japan and Western Europe, will account for 26.5...
Complaints to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada nearly doubled in 2013 from the previous year as concerns about BCE Inc.'s advertising and tracking program filled the commissioner’s inbox. According to the privacy commissioner’s annual report to Parliament, released Thursday, there were 426 complaints made...
The dominant smartphone brands keep getting stronger as weaker brands, such as devices from BlackBerry Ltd., lose more ground, according to International Data Corp. The technology research company said in a press release Thursday that worldwide smartphone shipments totalled 301.3 million in this year's second quarter, up 25.3 per cent from the same time a year earlier. Devices powered by Google Inc.'s Android software represented 84.7 per cent of the overall market, with 255.3 million shipments, a gain of 33.3 per cent from last year, IDC said. Pricing was credited with much of that...
Almost half of anglophone Canadians aged 18 or older own a tablet, according to a report released Tuesday from Media Technology Monitor. Tablet penetration has grown to 45 per cent of Anglos from 34 per cent in the same period...
Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and Netflix Inc. must pay Canadian songwriters and publishers for music videos viewed on their services, the Copyright Board of Canada ruled on Friday. The board certified two tariffs from the Society...
Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it is cutting 18,000 jobs, most of them related to integrating the cellphone division of Nokia Corp., the acquisition of which closed in April. In a letter to employees,...
Google Inc. has bought Songza Media Inc., the music-streaming service said on its website Tuesday. "Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we’re becoming part of Google," Songza said in the online notice,...
Google Inc. is extending its Android operating system to cars and television sets, the company said Wednesday during its Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco. Customers can use the Android Auto service to connect...
Amid the many challenges television service providers were already facing, along came an Ottawa company making devices with digital recording capabilities and electronic-guide functionality for those...
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and BCE Inc. on Wednesday said that CIBC's mobile payment app will be available in the coming weeks for certain mobile phones on the Bell network. In a joint...
Google Inc. said Tuesday it had reached a deal to buy satellite company Skybox Imaging Inc. and hopes it can help it improve Internet access in some areas. Google said in a press release it is buying Skybox for $500 million US in...
MONTREAL —Videotron’s new iPad application, which allows users to access live TV, free and paid video-on-demand (VOD) content and programming stored on a personal video recorder (PVR), in addition to a recommendation function and integrated social networking, is a sign of where "TV-everywhere" strategies are heading, said Alan Breznick, a media, telecom and technology analyst at research group Heavy Reading. “I think this is a sign of what’s to come, and we’ll definitely see more social media integrated, we’ll definitely see more...
A new report says smartphone sales will continue to grow in the coming years, though the opposite trend will be seen with BlackBerry Ltd.’s handsets. International Data Corp. said in a news...
Apple Inc. is planning on expanding into the Internet of Things and will announce a new connected-home platform next week, according to a report from the Financial Times. The paper reported that the platform will unify the...
Samsung Electronics Co. is poised to release a smartwatch that will not need to be tethered to a smartphone to make calls, the Wall Street Journal reported. An article posted on its website Friday said, according to people...
Google Inc. is purchasing Divide, a company that provides technology and services for workers who bring their own mobile devices to work. Divide posted a notice on its website on Monday that said it is “thrilled to be...
Google Inc. said Tuesday any resident of the United States is invited to sign up for the opportunity to purchase its Glass technology, which is still in development. “We’re still in the Explorer Program while we continue to improve our hardware and software, but starting today anyone in the U.S. can buy the Glass Explorer Edition, as long as we have it on hand,” the company said in a blog posting. With the exception of one day last month, the wearable device has generally only been available to a select group of developers, contest winners and invitees as the company tests...
Almost 150 U.S. technology companies, such as Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp., have written a letter to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission calling its proposed net-neutrality rules a...
Google Inc. has made a switch in the managing director’s position at its Canadian operations, the Financial Post reported Wednesday. An article on the Post’s website said Chris O’Neill was leaving the post after...
OTTAWA — Canada is becoming a “rentership society,” and this bodes well for the future of music streaming in this country, the managing director for Canada of online music provider...
Google Inc. announced Monday that its online music streaming service, Google Play Music, is now available in Canada. Paul Joyce, product manager for Google Play Music, said in a Google Canada blog post that Canadians can try...
OTTAWA — Telecommunications companies don’t voluntarily give out confidential customer information to the government, said William Abbott, senior counsel and privacy ombudsman at BCE Inc....
An antitrust class-action lawsuit in the U.S. has been filed against Google Inc., claiming the search engine illegally monopolized and stagnated the American market for Internet and mobile search....
BCE Inc.’s chief legal and regulatory officer told a Senate hearing on Wednesday night that his company’s targeted advertising program respects Canada’s current privacy laws. Mirko Bibic repeatedly compared his...
Online streaming of audio is gradually growing in popularity but not replacing traditional radio listening, according to a new report from the Media Technology Monitor. MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, said Tuesday that 64 per...
Google Inc. said its first quarter revenue was $15.42 billion US, a gain of 19 per cent from a year earlier. In a press release Wednesday, Google said net income was $3.45 billion US for the three months ended March 31, up from $3.35 billion US in the first quarter of 2013. "We got lots of product improvements done, especially on mobile,” Google CEO Larry Page said in the press release. “I'm also excited with progress on our emerging businesses." Google said 68 per cent of its revenue was generated from its own websites, including video-sharing site YouTube in the...
Google Inc. on Wednesday finished a two-day developer conference about its plans for a smartphone with replaceable parts. An article published Tuesday on the PCWorld website said the phone, dubbed Project Ara, will have removable...
Twitter Inc. said Tuesday it is acquiring social media analytics provider Gnip Inc., a move one analyst said could cause trouble for other companies that analyze and monetize the social...
Google Inc. will make its Glass wearable device available to the general public in the United States in a one-day sale on Tuesday. The device will sell Tuesday for $1,500 US, the company said in a blog post last Thursday. Since...
BlackBerry Ltd. said Monday that there is an “extremely small” risk to the security of BBM communications from the Heartbleed bug on devices powered by Apple Inc.’s iOS software or...
There are a few hundred people in Toronto who are, in a manner of speaking, wearing their passion and belief in the potential of wearable technology on their sleeves. A group, comprised largely of people in related professional areas, has started to gather on a monthly basis to discuss the potential, opportunities and issues that could arise in this emerging field. The group, which initially started out in January as Wearable Wednesday with the idea of having a meeting on the last Wednesday of every month, has since rebranded itself as We Are Wearables. Organizer Tom Emrich told the Wire...
Blue Ant Media Inc., a Toronto-based media group, said Tuesday it has struck a partnership with Omnia Media, which it said is the third-largest largest music-focused network on Google Inc.’s...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is calling on governments to do more to protect people from companies that offer so-called free online services. In a press release issued Wednesday, it said consumers have little...
BlackBerry Ltd. said Wednesday that its Secure Work Space application for Apple Inc.’s iPhones and devices running on Google Inc.’s Android software has been certified in a way that should...
Italian eyewear maker Luxottica Group S.p.A. said Tuesday that it has reached a deal with Google Inc. to collaborate on making its Google Glass wearable technology. The company said in a press release that its main brands,...
Google Inc. and Viacom Inc. have settled a copyright lawsuit relating the uploading of content owned by the latter on Google’s YouTube platform, the company’s said in a joint news release issued last week. Terms of...
Google Inc.’s Chromecast device — which allows users to play video and audio files on their televisions while controlling the content and playing options through their mobile devices or...
Tanya Woods, director and legal counsel for regulatory and copyright law at BCE Inc., is leaving to become vice-president of policy and legal affairs the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, The Lobby Monitor reported....
Canadian groups including the actors’ union ACTRA, the Canadian Media Production Association, and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) have joined in filing a brief in a U.S. Supreme Court...
Shaw Communications Inc. said Thursday it has launched a mobile app and upgraded the website for its History channel to allow its subscribers on-demand viewing of almost 300 hours of programming. Shaw said in a press release the History Go application is available for users of Apple Inc.’s iPhones and smartphones powered by Google Inc.’s Android software. The on-demand service can also be accessed at history.ca. The service, which will give users access to more than 20 shows, such as Vikings, Ice Pilots NWT and Pawn Stars, was available as of Thursday to those who subscribe to...
BlackBerry Ltd. announced a new version of its BBM messaging system Thursday that will, among other features, allow users of Apple Inc.’s iPhone and smartphones powered by Google Inc.’s Android system to make free...
Google Inc.’s Android operating system and Apple Inc.’s iOS software powered 95.7 per cent of the smartphones shipped globally in 2013’s third quarter, a report released Wednesday...
CBC/Radio-Canada said Thursday it reached licensing agreements for coverage of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games with Quebecor Inc. subsidiary Videotron Ltd., Telus Corp., Google Inc. and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance. This...
Google Inc. said Wednesday it has reached a deal to sell Motorola Mobility LCC to Lenovo Group Ltd. for $2.91 billion US. Google CEO Larry Page said in a blog post Wednesday that the smartphone business is “super...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said Wednesday that Google Inc. breached Canadian privacy law by using individuals’ health information to provide them with targeted advertisements. The office said in a release that it launched an investigation after a man with sleep apnea complained that after doing online searches for medical treatments, he was “followed” by advertisements relating to his condition when visiting websites that had nothing to do with sleep...
Google Inc. said Monday it has bought Nest Labs Inc. for $3.2 billion US. Nest makes products such as a thermostat that learns the schedules of homeowners and programs itself, the company’s website says. “Nest’s founders, Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, have built a tremendous team...
Google Inc.’s Android operating system will reach 1.1 billion users in 2014, research company Gartner Inc. said. That would mark a 26 per cent increase from 2013, Gartner said in a release Tuesday. "Android holds the...
Canada’s Competition Bureau is has initiated a formal inquiry into Google Inc.’s search and advertising activities following a preliminary probe that found signs of anti-competitive behaviour, the Financial Post reported. The report said the bureau found evidence that Google was using its position as the dominant search engine in ways that...
Google Inc.’s YouTube will bring in about $5.6 billion US in advertising revenue this year, according to an analysis from research firm eMarketer Inc. Its report said this is a 51.4 per cent increase from last year. After paying its advertising partners and video content creators, YouTube would net $1.96 billion US, eMarketer said, which is up...
The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, a group pushing governments for more open access to wireless spectrum, said Monday it is holding its first-ever global summit in Bangkok. Membership in the group, which launched in June, includes technology firms such as Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. It calls on governments around the world to provide...
Phones running on Google Inc.’s Android operating system made up 81 per cent of all smartphone shipments worldwide in the third quarter of 2013, up from 74.9 per cent at the same time a year...
Google Inc. has opened talks to acquire the rights to the National Football League’s (NFL) “Sunday Ticket” subscription TV service, tech blog AllThingsDigital reported on Tuesday. U.S. broadcast distributor DirecTV currently holds the American rights to the Sunday Ticket service, which allows subscribers to watch out-of-market NFL...
Apple Inc., Microsoft Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Canada's largest Internet and mobile wireless providers said the Conservative government's amendments to the Copyright Act last year did not create...
Jennifer Stoddart, Canada’s privacy commissioner, is among 36 data protection authorities who issued a joint letter Tuesday raising concerns about Google Glass. The letter, addressed to Google Inc. CEO Larry Page, asked the company to answer questions about privacy implications related to Google Glass, a smart wireless device worn as glasses. The letter asked how Google Glass would comply with data protection laws, what privacy safeguards are being used, what information Google collects through the technology, and how it plans to use it and share information with third parties. The privacy officials asked for information on issues around facial recognition and whether Google is...
Google Inc. bought Waze Ltd., a company that develops mapping applications with real-time updates, for about $1 billion US, Reuters reported. Google made the announcement on its blog on Tuesday, in a post by...
Jacob Glick, head of Google Inc.’s government relations and public policy team for Canada, will move to the company’s head office in California. Glick, a former technology lawyer at McCarthy Tetrault, joined Google’s policy team in Ottawa in 2007, according to his LinkedIn page. He also worked as general counsel at the Canadian...
OTTAWA—Canadian companies are slow to adopt “big data” technologies that can help them extract large amounts of consumer and business information to better improve their corporate strategies and operations, industry experts said. Colin McKay, global public policy manager at Google Inc.’s Canadian...
Google Inc.’s acquisition of Toronto technology startup DNNresearch Inc. could help the company perfect its voice search technology on mobile devices and computers, analysts said. In a release on March 12, the University of Toronto said DNNresearch, owned by Geoffrey Hinton, a professor in the department of computer...
Google Inc. reached an agreement with a group of publishers in France that involves the company creating a 60-million euro fund to support digital media publishing initiatives for French readers, Google said on its blog Feb. 1. Nathalie Collin, president of l’Association de la presse politique et d'intérêt generale (IPG), Marc Schwartz, a French-government appointed negotiator, and Carlo D’Asaro Biondo, head of Google for Southern and Eastern Europe, negotiated the deal, Le Figaro reported Saturday. Google CEO Eric Schmidt met with French President Francois...
YouTube plans to offer paid subscriptions to a new set of online TV channels, Ad Age reported. YouTube, owned by Google Inc., has approached some content providers and TV channels about the creation of new online YouTube channels...