Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

Fido posts

Filed under: iPhone

Virgin Mobile Canada: Fifth Canadian outlet for iPhone

The iPhone is getting yet another carrier in the great white north. Virgin Mobile Canada has announced that it'll start selling the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in the coming months.

When exactly? How much? Can I get a Richard Branson ringtone? Actually, I can make my own ringtones, but what about the rest of it? We'll have to wait to find out. All the company said in its incredibly short notice was that it'll sell the phones online and in its brick-and-mortar stores at some point. Well, that and that its gotten some love from J.D. Power and Associates for its prepaid and postpaid wireless services.

The phones are already on sale north of the border through Rogers Wireless, its subsidiary Fido, Bell Canada, and Telus. While a Canadian friend tells me Virgin Mobile Canada has a reputation for inexpensive phones with prepaid service, Canadian mobile news site MobileSyrup expects Virgin to charge roughly the same prices with the same three-year contracts as Canada's other iPhone carriers.

Thanks EZ Mac Mike for the tip!

[via iLounge, MobileSyrup]

Filed under: Retail, iPhone, Jailbreak/pwnage

Will Canada's iPhone be unlocked?

The iPhone is slowly making it's way around the world. In Canada, there are now four major carriers that support the device: Rogers, Fido, Telus and Bell. So how will Apple continue to stock and support the iPhone with that many carriers? That's where the story get's interesting.

According to iPhoneInCanada.ca, to make stocking and inventory easier, the iPhones in Apple's Canadian retail stores will arrive completely unlocked without any SIM card. Once a carrier is chosen and a SIM card is placed in the device, it will then be locked to that carrier. So what happens if you put in a SIM card from a carrier other than the four in Canada? The simple answer: we have no idea!

While we're not entirely sure what this means, it does present some interesting ideas. The Canadian iPhones could only recognize the four possible carrier's SIM cards, but may also be entirely unlocked. It'll be interesting to see how people that want to use the iPhone on unsupported carriers will take this news.

Filed under: iPhone

Canadian iPhone: Consumer Revolt against Rogers tariffs

When Rogers/Fido announced the iPhone voice/data plans a few days ago, the proposed rates were not received warmly. Over ten thousand people are letting their eDispleasure be heard on the "Rogers + iPhone3G == Ruined" protest website.

Canadian petitioners are unhappy with the high plan rates and the lack of affordable data. The site offers a list of Rogers/Fido contacts and suggests consumers take action, sending an email or letter, or calling.

The petition itself is full of impassioned feedback, suggesting that Rogers is killing a potential new market by exploiting demand with subpar overpriced service.

Are you Canadian? Let us know what you think of the the data rates in the comments.

Thanks, heath

Tip of the Day

Use Spotlight as a reference tool. Type any word in the Spotlight box and one of the top entries will be a definition. Click on it, and it will bring up the dictionary application to check the word in either the dictionary, thesaurus, Apple database, or Wikipedia.


Follow us on Twitter!
 TUAW [Cafepress]

Featured Galleries

DNC Macs
Macworld 2008 Keynote
Macworld 2008 Build-up
Google Earth for iPhone
Podcaster
Storyist 2.0
AT&T Navigator Road Test
Bento for iPhone 1.0
Scrabble for iPhone
Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer Briefcase
Apple Vanity Plates
Apple booth Macworld 07
WorldVoice Radio
Quickoffice for iPhone 1.1.1
Daylite 3.9 Review
DiscPainter
Mariner Calc for iPhone
2009CupertinoBus
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
MLB.com At Bat 2009
Macworld Expo 2007 show floor

 

More Apple Analysis

AOL Radio TUAW on Stitcher