Technology research company International Data Corp. said said in a press release Thursday that the global market for wearables grew 223.2 per cent in this year's second quarter with 18.1 million units shipped, up from 5.6 million units shipped in the same period the previous year. IDC said in the release that Fitbit Inc., the fitness tracker, was seen as the top wearable in the market, shipping 4.4 million units in the second quarter of 2015. The release also noted that Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch has already made an impact in the short amount of time since its recent release in...
A new report released Monday from Media Technology Monitor (MTM) says 85 per cent of Canadian users of Facebook Inc.’s photo and video-sharing app, Instagram, are younger than 50 and most are prone to owning new technology. MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, said in the report that nearly 55 per cent of Instagram users live in a cellphone-only household and “in general, Instagram users are a pretty tech loving group — they are more likely to own most technologies,” such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, smart TVs, PVRs, Apple Inc.’s Apple TV, or Google...
Telus Corp. said Monday that it has launched in Quebec a service called Business Connect, an advanced cloud-communications business service, in partnership with RingCentral Inc. It said in a press release that the service was...
Wearables and tracking tags are being used more frequently in a wider variety of workplaces to collect statistics on employee productivity, health and satisfaction — tracking the performance of professional athletes, helping...
Canadian chat-app maker Kik Interactive Inc. said Tuesday that it has received a $50-million US investment from China's Tencent Holdings Ltd., maker of WeChat messaging app. Kik CEO Ted Livingston said in a blog post on the...
CBC/Radio-Canada announced Tuesday that more than 22 million Canadians watched some part of the Pan Am Games that aired from July 10-26. The public broadcaster said in a press release that nearly 2.16 million Canadians tuned in...
Stingray Digital Group Inc., a provider of music content through both traditional TV channels and streaming apps, announced Thursday it will acquire three TV music channels in order to expand its broadcast offerings. The Montreal-based company said in the release that it is buying Brava NL, Brava HD, and Djazz TV, three channels broadcasting music and cultural content "distributed to an estimated 35 million subscribers in 50 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle-East and the Caribbean." “Stingray is always on the lookout for opportunities to further expand its global footprint and diversify its highly-successful offering. We will leverage these three channels to strengthen our relationships with Pay-TV operators and their subscribers worldwide, and to solidify our position as the leading B2B provider of quality music...
Canadian millennials are more active on mobile devices than other demographics, while Canadians aged 35 and above still slightly prefer using a desktop, according to the new global mobile report by...
The Internet has run out of new IP addresses based on the most commonly-used format, and one Canadian expert says service providers in the country are being too slow in making the switch to the newer protocol. Jacques Latour,...
Wearable devices could replace everything in our pockets, eventually wiping out smartphones in five to 10 years, says one wearable-technology company CEO. However, others say functionality, design and...
The use of live-streaming apps such as Periscope and Meerkat has helped journalists provide unfiltered, live as-it-happens moments for viewers, according to some proponents, though others claim such technology compromises the...
Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it is cutting as many as 7,800 positions primarily as a result of restructuring its phone hardware business. The company said in a press release that this will result in a write-down of about $7.6...
The volume of online and mobile messaging will increase 70 per cent over the next four years, Juniper Research Ltd. said Tuesday. The research group said the number of emails, instant messages, social media posts, and text...
Telus Corp.’s Optik TV customers will now have access more than 1,000 National Film Board of Canada (NFB) films on their TV via a new app. Telus announced Thursday in a press release that the NFB app is now available to...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. ranks first among fitness-band makers for customer-satisfaction among U.S. residents, while Fitbit Inc. is second, according to a survey by J.D. Power and Associates. It said in a press release...
Cisco Systems Inc. announced Tuesday it is planning to acquire OpenDNS, a security systems company with offices in San Francisco and Vancouver. Cisco said in a press release that it will buy the company for $635 million US and use the aquisition to provide security for the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT), which in Canada is expected to have an annual growth of 18 per cent and generate $6.5 billion revenue in 2018, with The Wire Report recently reporting on the growth and expansion of the IoT space. It said in the release that OpenDNS’ security will be on a...
Over the past year, there has been a key change in the Internet of Things (IoT) market, as customers have become more aware of the technology and what it can do for them, according to officials from...
Hexoskin, a Montreal-based maker of shirts that capture biometric information about people, said this week that its products were to become available on the Canadian website of Best Buy Co. Inc. as of Friday. The company said in...
Pelmorex Media Inc. announced Thursday the launch of a new Weather Network app for Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch. “The Apple Watch is one of the must-have tech accessories this year and as Canada’s leading weather...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. said Wednesday it has launched a machine-to-machine (M2M) management centre, which is an online portal for its business customers to control and monitor devices linked to an M2M...
A mobile payment application owned and supported by Canada's three biggest wireless providers was announced Tuesday for Android and BlackBerry phones, while iPhone users are left waiting for Apple Pay to come to Canada. Suretap, a joint venture of Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp., said that its mobile wallet application would be available to customers of the three companies' main mobile services, as well as Bell's flanker brand Virgin Mobile and Telus' Koodo. It will be available as a download or preloaded app on more than 30 different smartphones made by...
International Data Corp. predicted Thursday that the global wearable market will grow 173.3 per cent this year. The technology research company said in a press release that 72.1 million wearable devices will be shipped this year,...
Over-the-top (OTT) messaging services are expected to see traffic levels triple globally by 2019 compared to last year's levels, but a lack of success in monetizing the product will lead to a decline in global revenue for the...
Ottawa-based e-commerce company Shopify on Tuesday said it has teamed with social networking website Pinterest to provide businesses a new way to sell things directly to online audiences. Shopify...
The number of third-party applications for smart wearable devices is expected to surge from 2,500 last year to 349,000 by 2019, International Data Corp. said Tuesday. The research company said in a news release that most of these...
Google Inc. will launch a new Android-based platform that will allow companies to build connected devices, it said in a blog post Thursday. Google said the platform, called Project Brillo, will include a communications protocol,...
Optimal Payments PLC, an Isle of Man-based company that provides transactional technology, said Thursday it has bought Montreal-based Fans Entertainment Inc., which created a consumer mobile app for fans attending Montreal...
The president of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.'s Canadian unit is calling for policy-makers, businesses and academics in Canada to come together and help prepare the country for the coming of 5G networking technology. At a...
At some point this summer, Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi streaming service will be made available to customers of other TV and Internet service providers...
Eastlink on Tuesday announced it is offering a new and improved security-and-automation service for homes. Among other things, the new service called Winston can detect when the home occupant is approaching the residence and prepare for their arrival by doing things things such as setting the temperature to preferred levels and turning on lights, Eastlink said in a press release. The service also allows the occupant to provide unique codes to different people, such as kids or babysitters, and set parameters for when certain people can enter the home. Eastlink's website lists other...
IT-services company CGI Group Inc. said Wednesday it has teamed up with Baseline Telematics to use real-time vehicle metrics to help insurance company set their rates. CGI said in a news release it...
Facebook Inc. said Tuesday it has introduced a new feature to its mobile app that allows news and public affairs publishers to have content posted directly on Facebook feeds and appear 10 times faster...
Amazon.com Inc.'s Canadian unit on Monday announced the launch of an online shop for wearable technology. The company said in a press release that customers can now go to www.amazon.ca/wearabletechnology to shop for the...
Oculus VR, the virtual-reality technology company bought by Facebook Inc. last year, said Wednesday that it will start shipping its Rift headset in the first quarter of next year, and pre-orders will be taken later this...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. said Thursday it has launched mobile-payment capabilities for wireless customers who bank with Toronto Dominion Bank and have certain devices. SaskTel said the current service works with the mobile-payments app from TD, and other banks will be added in the future. It said it worked with EnStream LP, a partnership between BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp., to develop the technology for its mobile-payments service. The carrier's website indicates the TD app it is supporting will work on several devices equipped with Google...
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...
Google Inc.'s Android division on Monday announced several upgrades to its smartwatch technology, including built-in WiFi, making apps visible even when devices are in energy-saving mode, and adding easier functionality for...
Vancouver-based Recon Instruments announced Thursday the release of its new smart goggles for outdoor sports enthusiasts called Recon Jet. It said in a press release that the product is equipped with GPS, a camera, a display...
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...
A 27-year-old entrepreneur wants to offer an alternative to what he calls a monopoly in the market for audio music channels offered through TV service providers in Canada. Evan Kosiner, president and owner of Kosiner Venture...
Network management provider Sandvine Inc. said Wednesday it has launched a smartphone application for mobile service providers to allow customers to manage their plans on their device. The...
International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. said Tuesday it will invest $3 billion US over the next four years to establish an Internet of Things (IoT) unit. It said in a press release it will use its cloud-based platform to help business clients better integrate data from IoT devices and other...
Facebook Inc. announced Wednesday that its Messenger app is being opened up as a platform for other other apps, and at least two Canadian companies have signed on to provide their services. “Messenger Platform brings even...
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 more than 54,000 people, the technology maker examined the idea of the “quantified self,” in which individuals track their daily metrics such as calories consumed, steps taken or quality of sleep. Ericsson found that interest levels in wearables are much higher than actual use, and that...
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...
Snapchat Inc., the maker of mobile apps for picture and video sharing, is being valued at as much as $19 billion US in current talks to secure a new round of funding, Bloomberg reported this week. An article Tuesday said the...
The Canadian Media Fund (CMF) said Thursday it would provide $8 million to finance 31 digital media projects, as part of the second round of its "experimental stream" for 2014-15. CMF said in a press release that 23...
BlackBerry Ltd. CEO John Chen said the battle for net neutrality in the United States should not only focus on service providers' traffic management practices, but should also include companies,...
Most Americans say mobile communications should be treated differently than wireline connections when it comes to enforcing net neutrality principles, according to recently released survey. A poll commissioned by CTIA-The Wireless Association, which represents wireless-related companies in the United States and elsewhere, found 78 per cent of respondents support different regulations for net neutrality imposed on mobile than wired Internet services, the organization said in a press release Friday. It added that 64 per cent of respondents felt wireless service providers should be able to...
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...
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,...
It became illegal Thursday to install software on another person's computer, smartphone or other device without their consent, the CRTC said. The commission said in a press release that the new rules are part of anti-spam...
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...
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said on a Facebook post Tuesday that the service now has more than 700 million active monthly users, up from 450 million when Facebook Inc. announced its intention to purchase the mobile-messaging-app company...
The Canadian Media Fund (CMF) said Monday it was providing $11.8 million for 24 interactive digital-media projects across the country. The funding is the second round of the CMF's...
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...
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 accessible privacy policies from developers of apps that collect personal information from users. Therrien is among those who signed a letter addressed to operators of application stores, including Google Inc., Apple Inc. and BlackBerry Ltd., that said "an app marketplace operator should, acting as a responsible corporate citizen, make the basic commitment to require each app that can...
Telus Corp. said Wednesday it has launched Canada's "first Internet of Things marketplace" with an online offering of 38 different applications, and more to come, for business operations ranging from transportation...
DHX Media Ltd. said Tuesday it has reached an agreement to purchase Vancouver-based children's content producer Nerd Corps Entertainment Inc. for $57 million. Halifax-based DHX, a broadcaster and producer of television...
Canadian broadcast distributors need to do more to increase awareness and usage of their TV-everywhere products, according to Gord Hendren, president of Charlton Strategic Research, which produced a report on the subject....
Rogers Communications Inc. has changed the pricing of data used by its Anyplace TV app, writing on its website that as of Aug. 18, standard data charges would apply to customers who use the app while on its wireless network....