International Data Corp. said Tuesday that global smartphone shipments will rise 11.3 per cent in 2015, down from growth of 27.6 per cent last year. That will result in about 1.45 billion smartphones shipped worldwide, IDC said in a press release. It noted that shipments to China are predicted to rise 2.5 per cent this year, marking the first time China's growth would trail global trends. "As reported earlier in May, smartphone shipments in China actually declined year-over-year in the first quarter of 2015, showing that the largest market in the world has reached a level of...
MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron has launched a new app for Apple Inc.’s smartwatch that the company hopes will increase discoverability of channels available though its cable packages and appeal to early tech adopters. The app, called “Illico for Apple watch,” allows the users to shuffle through TV channels by choosing a category, such as children’s programming, sports or music. The app then communicates with the set-top box to cycle through all the channels that fall in that category. That function works only with live channels, but the app can also...
The decline of BlackBerry Ltd. as a dominant player in the global smartphone market can be traced largely to its inadequate response to Apple Inc.'s iPhone, say authors of a new book on the subject. Losing the Signal: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of BlackBerry was written by Globe and Mail journalists Jacquie McNish...
The Chinese smartphone market shrank in this year's first quarter, technology research company International Data Corp. said Monday. IDC said in a press release that smartphone shipments in China were down four per cent from...
BCE Inc. announced Tuesday that its CraveTV streaming service is now available to Canadians on Apple TV, but subscriptions to a participating TV service provider are still required to access the...
The global tablet market saw its second straight year-over-year decline in shipments in the first quarter of 2015, International Data Corp. said Thursday. The technology research company said in a press release that companies...
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce announced Thursday it will soon have a banking application for Apple Inc.'s Apple Watch. CIBC said in a press release that its app will allow users to check account balances, transfer funds between accounts, view recent transactions, or find the nearest branch or ATM. It said the app would be available from the Apple Watch App Store on Friday....
Apple Inc. is negotiating with Canada's major banks about a launch of its mobile-payment service, Apple Pay, in November, according to the Wall Street Journal. An article published online Friday said Apple is negotiating with...
Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) had a small-scale launch in Canada recently, with Rogers Communications Inc. making the service that allows carriers to transmit voice calls on the same networks as data available to a portion of its...
Cogeco Cable Inc. said Monday it is now offering its TiVo Inc. service to customers in Quebec. Cogeco Cable Canada CEO Louise St-Pierre said in a Monday news release that the service ensures “there will always be something...
Apple Inc. is reportedly planning to launch its own music-streaming service, according to the New York Times. The streaming service will be part of a “sweeping overhaul” of the company’s music services, the...
International Data Corp. has lowered its forecast for tablet and 2-in-1 hybrid shipments in 2015 following previous figures that showed the first ever year-on-year decline for this market in the fourth quarter of last year. IDC...
A new report from Ericsson AG suggests Apple Inc.’s upcoming Apple Watch could address a market that's far larger than what current wearable sales would indicate. In a worldwide study of...
The chief executive of the Royal Bank of Canada says his company is on a “collision course” with technology giants such as Apple Inc. and Google Inc. as the act of making payments with...
Apple Inc. unveiled new details about its upcoming Apple Watch on Monday, saying the wearable device will be available on April 24 in Canada and eight other countries. The watch will have 18 hours of...
BlackBerry Ltd. CEO John Chen said he's open the idea of having the company produce another tablet, according to a report by CNet. "It's not in the works, but it's on my mind," an article published on the website Tuesday reported Chen as saying during an interview from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The article reported Chen as saying he would "want it to be different. I want it to be iconic. Bringing a tablet out for a tablet's sake, it's not the right thing to do." Chen's statement comes in the wake of data from International Data Corp....
Technology research company Gartner Inc. said Tuesday that annual smartphone sales surpassed one billion for the first time in 2014. The company said in a press release that mobile-phone...
Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook said the company’s new smartwatch is designed to be able to replace car keys and fobs, The Telegraph reported Friday. The British newspaper quoted Cook as saying the watch will also include features...
Users of Apple Inc.'s iPhone 6 Plus are using twice as much data as those with the iPhone 6, according to a report from Citrix Systems Inc. The U.S. provider of workplace mobility technology said...
Google Inc.'s Android and Apple Inc.'s iOS operating systems "inched closer to total domination of the worldwide smartphone market" in the fourth quarter of 2014, International Data Corp. said Tuesday. The technology research company said in news release that the two operating systems powered 96.3 per...
Apple Inc. said Monday it will spend 1.7 billion euros ($2.4 billion Cdn) on two data centres in Europe that are expected to be operational in 2017. The company said in a press release the facilities will each be 166,000 square metres (1.8 million square feet), with one going in Athenry, Ireland, and the other in Viborg, Denmark. Apple said the data centres will be used to power its online services such as iTunes purchase, the App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe. It said each of the data centres will run on 100 per cent renewable energy....
The next generation of health technology is slowly rolling out in Canada, but experts say more government leadership is needed to bring innovations such as remote health monitoring and personalized...
BlackBerry Ltd. is seeking an injunction against the latest version of a keyboard add-on made by Ryan Seacrest's Typo Products LLC for Apple Inc.'s iPhones, Reuters reported Tuesday. The article said BlackBerry claimed in...
Sandvine Inc., a Canadian company that provides software to telecommunications service providers around the world, said Wednesday that it has added capabilities enabling it to help carriers offer...
New data shows that tablet shipments declined year-over-year in last year's fourth quarter — for the first time in the category’s short market history — though a Canadian trends observer says the cultural impact of tablets isn't going away any time soon. International Data Corp. said in a press...
Apple Inc. is raising prices for applications sold through its App Store in Canada due to the declining value of the Canadian dollar, the Canadian Press reported Thursday. The CP article cites an email Apple sent to software...
OTTAWA — Apple Inc.'s Canadian subsidiary has been ordered by the Federal Court to hand over records and other relevant information to help the Competition Bureau determine whether the...
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...
The Competition Bureau filed an application on Tuesday in federal court to compel Apple Inc. to turn over records related to an investigation into whether the company used anti-competitive language in...
Apple Inc. and International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. on Wednesday announced a new suite of business applications and cloud services for iPad and iPhone users. The companies said in a press release that IBM MobileFirst for iOS includes applications tailored for use in telecommunications, banking, retail, insurance, financial services, air travel and government. The offerings are the result of a partnership Apple and IBM announced in July to develop business applications for Apple's mobile devices. “Our collaboration combines IBM’s industry expertise and unmatched...
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...
Some TV-industry analysts who are among the early adopters of Rogers Communications Inc.'s and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi are detailing problems they've experienced with the streaming service in...
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...
A former marketing professional and now a critic of the industry has identified several BCE Inc. employees he says have been writing positive reviews of one of their own company's products on Apple Inc.'s App Store. Scott Stratten, president of UnMarketing, wrote in a blog post this week that he has linked positive reviews of MyBell Mobile with different Bell employees, by tracing their names through the professional social networking site, LinkedIn. Bell employees identified on Stratten's blog as making these reviews include associate director Mike McEnery, performance manager Charbel Nassif, marketing manager Steph Steen, computer applications support associate Vince Caputo, IT executive Saad Saade and senior project manager Tori Brown. Bell spokesman Paolo Pasquini said...
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...
BlackBerry Ltd. is offering up to $600 in incentives for Canadian iPhone users to purchase a BlackBerry Passport. On Monday, BlackBerry said in a press release that, between Dec. 1 and Feb. 13, it...
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...
Eastlink said Wednesday it will start offering the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus for no money down with two-year contracts to customers on Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island starting Friday. The company said in a press release...
Global smartphone shipments were up 25.2 per cent in this year's third quarter from a year earlier, driven largely by explosive growth in devices coming from China's Xiaomi, International Data Corp. said in a release Wednesday. IDC said that preliminary data indicates there were 327.6 million shipments of...
A feature of Apple Inc.'s new iPads could become a thorn in the side for wireless carriers, Barclays Capital telecom analyst Phillip Huang said Monday. The iPad Air 2, released last week, has a software-based SIM card, or soft-SIM, that allows users to switch between multiple carriers directly through the device as well as use different...
Apple Inc. announced new versions of its iPad tablets on Thursday, as well as updated versions of its desktop computers, at a Cupertino, Calif., press event. The new 9.7-inch iPad Air 2 is thinner and lighter than the previous...
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...
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 information company BrandSpark International, released Thursday, showed more than half of Canadians polled say they use their smartphone more often when shopping than they did a year earlier. The study divided respondents into three groups, which it called “mobile personas”: "mobile moms" aged 25 to 54 with a child 18 or younger in the home; "mobile millennials"...
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...
Apple Inc.'s recent release of the iPhone 6 has sparked an "upgrade cycle" among Canadian consumers that is likely to pad the bottom lines of Canada's major wireless providers, according to analysts at Barclays Capital. Phillip Huang and Ali Pervez said in a research note Monday that demand for cheaper...
Apple Inc. said Monday it has sold more than 10 million of its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones since their launch on Sept. 19. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a press release that it was the company’s “best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin.” In...
Apple Inc. announced two new larger iPhones, a payment system and a wearable device, the Apple Watch, at a Tuesday event in Cupertino, Calif. The new smartphones are, at 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches measured diagonally, larger than...
The size of the Internet is becoming a challenge for the hardware that supports it and there could be some hiccups in service in the coming months as a result, according to experts. Jim Cowie, chief scientist with New Hampshire-based Internet analytics company Dyn, said users of the Internet might have had problems accessing certain websites on Aug. 12 because on that day many of border gateway protocol (BGP) routers that direct web traffic reached their limit. Cowie said many of these routers — he's unsure the exact number or proportion — are only capable of handling about...
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...
Devicescape Software Inc. is a California-based company that is trying to sell wireless carriers on the potential of using the multitude of free WiFi hotspots in existence to their benefit. The...
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...
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...
World tablet shipments were up 11 per cent in the second quarter compared to a year earlier, International Data Corp. said Thursday. It said in a press release that preliminary data shows that total shipments were 49.3 million in...
Apple Inc. and International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. have entered a partnership that will integrate IBM’s “big data and analytics capabilities” with Apple’s iPad and iPhone products. The companies...
After years of dragging their feet, carriers finally have “the will” to adopt the latest in wireless technology that will allow them to ditch their old networks once and for all, according to Nordicity analyst Stephan...
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...
BlackBerry Ltd. chief executive John Chen said the company might get into the business of making so-called phablets, or smartphones with extra-large screens, according to an article in an Indonesian publication. In an interview with Chen published Monday, the Jakarta Post quoted the BlackBerry CEO as saying, in response to a question about new products that might become available in Indonesia: "If we will do another thing, we will probably go to phablet. I think if you look at our strategy and if you look at where the market goes, there is definitely a good market for something between a...
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...
At its Worldwide Developers Conference Monday, Apple Inc. revealed new software for Mac computers that, among other things, will allow iPhone calls and texting to be facilitated through a computer. Apple said in a press...
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 familiar with the matter, the product will be released between June and July. Samsung already has a smartwatch on the market, though it uses the signal of a smartphone to make calls, as most smartwatches do. The Wall Street Journal article said Samsung has been talking with carriers in the United States, Europe and South Korea about offering its next smartwatch. Canada...
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...
OTTAWA — Lawyers representing two streaming music services told the Copyright Board of Canada in hearings this week that a request from the not-for-profit group that represents Canadian songwriters and music publishers to...
A wearable device called the iWatch is poised to be among the next pieces of disruptive technology offered by Apple Inc., according to reports. A Reuters article on Monday said the company has hired about a half-dozen...
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....
Preliminary data shows the worldwide tablet market saw lower-than-expected annual growth in the first quarter, according to a release from research firm International Data Corp. Total shipments, including laptop-tablet hybrids,...
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...
A U.S. district judge has ordered Typo Products LLC to stop selling its case for Apple Inc.'s iPhone that includes a physical keyboard for typing on the device while a lawsuit against Typo by...
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...
Apple Inc. and Comcast Corp. are discussing launching a streaming TV service, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. Quoting anonymous sources, WSJ reported the service “would use an Apple set-top box and get special treatment on Comcast's cables to ensure it bypasses congestion on the Web.” It said that “Apple's intention is to allow users to stream live and on-demand TV programming and digital-video recordings stored in the 'cloud,' effectively taking the place of a traditional cable set-top box.” It added that the talks are in the early stages and there are still hurdles to be worked out, such as the relationship Apple would have with Comcast’s customers. WSJ reported that while “Apple would like a separate 'flow' for its...
Analysts from Barclays Capital said there is little risk to Quebecor Inc.’s businesses from former CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau’s candidacy for the sovereigntist Parti...
Apple Inc. has brought its phone trade-in program to retail stores Canada for the first time, allowing customers to trade in old iPhones in exchange for credit on the latest models. The program, which began in the U.S. in August...
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...
Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday announced the launch of a cloud-based movie service called Disney Movies Everywhere to consumers in the United States. It’s available as an free application for Apple Inc.’s iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches, or by signing up online. Disney said in a press release that the service “enables consumers to discover, purchase, manage and watch movies from Disney, Pixar and Marvel at home and on the go.” The company said users of this service gain access to more than 400 movies, and the service works in conjunction with Apple’s iTunes online...
Canadians overwhelmingly use Apple Inc. iPhones as a second screen when watching television, and despite vanishingly small market share, those with BlackBerry Ltd. smartphones account for nearly...
Rogers Communications Inc. has launched a new program to allow customers to get new smartphones every 12 months. Subscribers to the Rogers Next program, who are on a two-year term, pay an extra $24.99 per month for the right 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...
Apple Inc. is planning to launch a new Apple TV set-top box and is negotiating with Time Warner Cable Inc. as a potential partner, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. Time Warner, as well as other potential partners, would add video...
The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency will use about 80,000 BlackBerry Ltd. devices on a new mobile communications system to be launched at the end of January, news agencies reported Monday....
U.S. President Barack Obama is still a customer of Canada’s BlackBerry Ltd., Reuters reported. The news article said Obama told an audience of youth on Wednesday that he continues to use a BlackBerry and is not permitted to...
Nearly the same number of Canadians now use mobile devices made by Samsung Electronics Co. as use devices made by Apple Inc., Ipsos Reid said. The company said in a release Tuesday that 33 per cent of Canadian smartphone owners...
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 earlier, research firm IDC said Tuesday. In its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report, the company said Microsoft Corp.’s mobile operating system, called Windows Phone, accounted for 3.6 per cent of shipments and had volume growth of 156 per cent year over year. Ramon Llamas, research manager with IDC's mobile phone team, said in a release that price was a factor in the success...
Apple Inc. will likely start selling a new television device in 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Analyst Masahiko Ishino told WSJ that Apple would probably begin selling the ultra-high-definition TVs in the fourth...
Apple Inc. is planning to bring its iTunes Radio streaming music service to Canada, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg said Apple plans to expand the service, released in the U.S. Sept. 18, to Canada...
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...