Mark Arteaga

Similar to our friends down south, Canada recently just completed it's wireless spectrum auction.  A major difference I found is that the Canadian Government restricted the big three players (Rogers, Telus and Bell Mobility) to only bid 40% of the spectrum block to allow new players in the field.  Now that it's complete the Canadian government has raised $4.25billion and we now have a few more players in the field.  With more competition the state of the wireless industry in Canada can only get better. The recent data price drops are a good start!  Check out WirelessNorth.ca who has been covering the auction since it was announced and here for the final results.

Mike Temporale a good friend and fellow Canadian MVP just launched a new site dedicated to talking about mobility called Mobile Jaw.  Here is an excerpt about what the site is about:

Mobile Jaw is a site dedicated to talking about mobility.  We’re not trying to be another breaking news site - there’s plenty of those around.  Mobile Jaw is going to focus on articles, reviews, tips & tricks, and our random thoughts as they relate to mobility.  When we say mobility, we’re not just talking about phones - although, that will be a big part of our focus.  For us, Mobility is using technology to help keep you connected to the things that matter when you’re out and about.  We don’t want to restrict the conversation to any one area.

Check out the site and make sure to subscribe!

A friend of mine Kirk Ballou has just launched a mobile search site called GOMO Info where you can find local businesses from your mobile phone.  For example type in pizza and you get a number for Dominos Pizza as seen here

Type in 'car' and you get a list of car rental companies.

All search results come back with a phone number you can click on and your device will call.

Try it out on your device (any device not just Windows Mobile) at www.gomoinfo.mobi

First we had a "cross over" virus (using the Smart Device Framework :) for Windows Mobile devices and now the first trojan for RIM's Blackberry devices.  Basically the user would download a 'tic-tac-toe' game and then that application would communicate with another program that would get into the corporate networks via the BES server.  If you properly configured your BES server you should not be affected. 

Just saw that the Macromedia standalone Flash Player for Pocket PC is now $499US.  Strange move if you ask me.  Why would you charge for a player or viewer, it's like Microsoft wanting to charge for their PowerPoint Viewer.  Users are just viewing the thing and nothing else.  Probably give developers compelling reasons to drop Flash.  Don't know if it is included with Flash Professional 8 or what the license says in terms of re-distributing the player but it's a really strange move if you ask me! 

Note the player for a Mobile IE (or Pocket IE) which is an ActiveX control is still available for free...it's just the stand alone player that can go full screen that is not.