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“Canadian cellphone companies are giving customers the ability to refuse mid-term changes to their contracts under a new wireless code of conduct.”

CBC News reported last month that the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association has made changes to the way that wireless carriers can make changes to customer contracts.  Customers will now be allowed to cancel their contract without early cancellation fees if their carrier makes material changes to that contract.

“In the case of such material changes that are unfavourable to customers, we either give them the right to terminate the contract without any additional fees for early termination, or allow them to remain on the unchanged contract,” the code on the CWTA website says.

This is only applicable to those customers that have fixed contracts, so pay as you go cellular plans are not included, but the code does include all carriers who have fixed term contracts.  Historically carriers have charged about $20 per month, for each remaining month in a contract, for the cancellation of a voice plan on their network.

“The CCTS will resolve and hear complaints and they will adjudicate against the code and, therefore, enforce the code,” CWTA president Bernard Lord said. “That’s one thing that’s very clear here and different from similar codes you’ll find in other countries, and that is that our code links to a third-party adjudicator.”

So far, the code has been signed on by every major Canadian cellphone carrier — including Bell, Rogers and Telus and their subsidiary brands Solo, Virgin, Fido and Koodo as have new entrants starting service within the next few months.

For more on this article visit the CBC News Story here:

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/09/01/cwta-wireless-code-conduct.html?ref=rss

Happy Contract Negotiations

www.saveoncellphones.ca

National Do Not Call List (DNCL)

Do telemarketers calling you on your home line bother you?  Do you hate those calls telling you that you have Won a Cruise or to Take a Survey?  Well in the next few months those telemarketers are going to start to have access to cell phone numbers.  Thats right, not only will they be able to bother you at home, but they will be able to get you on your cell phone or PDA.

Fortunately the Canadian Radio, Television and Communication Commission has setup a system to give you the option to opt in or out of these services.  https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/index-eng

From their website:

“The National Do Not Call List (DNCL) gives consumers a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls. The National DNCL Rules introduce new responsibilities for Canada’s telemarketers.

If you are a consumer you can choose to reduce the number of telemarketing calls you receive by registering your residential, wireless, fax or VoIP telephone number on the National DNCL. You can also check your registration, find out how to remove your number from the National DNCL, and file a complaint about telemarketing calls. Please consult our frequently asked questions section to find out more about the National DNCL.

The National Do Not Call List (DNCL) introduces new responsibilities for Canada’s telemarketers. If you are a telemarketer you can use this Web site to register your business information, obtain and buy a subscription to the National DNCL, and download or query the National DNCL. You can also find out about subscription rates, file formats and other information in the Telemarketer section of this Web site.”

If you want to De-Register your number, here is the direct link so that you won’t be receiving any annoying telemarketing calls:

https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/insnum-regnum-eng

However, for the select few of you that enjoy those phone calls, please do not hesitate to keep your number active and you can listen as to how you can win that trip of a lifetime or take the latest survey.

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FURTHER DETAILS AND FAQs ON THE NATIONAL DO NOT CALL LIST

Source: CRTC Website: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/DNCL/brochure_consumer.htm

Have you heard about Canada’s National Do Not Call List?

You can sign up to reduce the number of telemarketing calls you receive—and maintain your personal privacy. It’s your choice.

What is the National Do Not Call List?

Every year, thousands of Canadians raise concerns about receiving unwanted telemarketing calls. In 2006, the federal government passed a law allowing for the creation of a National Do Not Call List (DNCL) that all telemarketers must respect. When you sign up to have your cellular, home phone or fax number included on it, companies making unsolicited marketing or sales calls can no longer contact you.

How do I sign up?

Registering for the National DNCL is simple. Call 1-866-580-DNCL 1-866-580-DNCL ( 866-580-3625 866-580-3625) or log on to www.dncl.gc.ca and follow the few easy steps required. That’s it: your number will be on the List.

How long do I have to wait before my registration takes effect?

After you sign up, your numbers will be added to the List within 24 hours. Telemarketers then have 31 days to update their own information and make sure they don’t call you in their next round of solicitation. Don’t expect all calls to stop immediately, though. You could still receive calls within those first 31 days.

Is my registration permanent?

No. Your number will be registered on the National DNCL for five years. As well, if your numbers change, you will have to register your new numbers.

How do telemarketers know I’m on the National DNCL?

Telemarketers are required by law to subscribe to the National DNCL. Such companies register and pay fees to download updates from a secure website. It is their responsibility to ensure numbers on the National DNCL are not called.

What do I do if I get calls after I am on the National DNCL?

You can file a complaint with the operator of the National DNCL online at www.dncl.gc.ca or by calling 1-866-580-DNCL 1-866-580-DNCL ( 866-580-3625 866-580-3625). One important detail: don’t hang up if you get an unwanted call! To make a complaint you need to provide the name of the organization that called you OR the number where that organization can be reached, the date of the call and your own number. By law, telemarketers must give you their name and number.

Why should you learn more about the National Do Not Call List?

Your privacy is yours to manage: being informed will help you take action to protect yourself.

What happens to telemarketers who call numbers on the National DNCL?

New legislation gives the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) the power to assign penalties of up to $1,500 per infraction for individuals and $15,000 for corporations that do not follow the National DNCL rules.

Does being on the List prevent all unsolicited calls?

Being on the National DNCL keeps you from receiving most telemarketing calls, but there are exceptions. Registered charities are still allowed to call for donations, and certain other organizations—such as companies conducting polls or surveys, political parties, and newspapers looking for subscriptions—can also continue to contact you. As well, if you’ve done business with a company in the last 18 months, that company is considered to have a relationship with you and is allowed to call. After 18 months the company must stop calling if you’re on the National DNCL, unless you give permission otherwise. To learn more about exemptions, call 1-866-580-DNCL 1-866-580-DNCL ( 866-580-3625 866-580-3625) or go to www.dncl.gc.ca.

Can I do anything to stop exempted calls?

Yes. If you do not want to be called by an organization—even if that organization is legally allowed to call you—you can ask to be put on its own do not call list. Every telemarketer based in Canada must maintain such a list and respect your wishes not to be called.

What happens if I receive a call after hours?

Even organizations making exempt calls must abide by the telemarketing rules. Exempt calls that are made outside the permitted calling hours should be reported to the National DNCL operator, and the organization that called you may be subject to pay a penalty.

Will I be protected from phone fraud if I sign up?

The National DNCL applies to all telemarketing organizations. It does not necessarily prevent fraudulent telemarketing calls. That’s why it’s important for you to always to be on your guard: if you receive a call and are worried it may be part of a fraud scheme, contact the police

Sign up

Go to www.dncl.gc.ca or call 1-866-580-DNCL 1-866-580-DNCL ( 866-580-3625 866-580-3625) to register your number on the National DNCL. You can manage your privacy. It’s your choice.

National Do Not Call List at a glance

Remember:

Signing up is simple and quick

It’s the telemarketer’s job by law to check and respect the National DNCL

Some kinds of calls are exempt—the National DNCL does not apply in every case

If you do receive a valid call, the telemarketer has to follow Canada’s Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules

You may ask to be put on a telemarketer’s own do not call list at any time

Complaints can be made quickly and easily by phone or online—and any telemarketer found to be in violation of the law can receive financial penalties

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The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) launched the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) on September 30, 2008. Bell Canada was contracted to act as the National DNCL operator, and will be responsible for registering numbers, providing telemarketers with up-to-date versions of the list, and handling consumer complaints about telemarketing calls.

GPS Apps Showdown

Okay Blackberry users here is a review for you of Google Maps versus Blackberry Maps. With millions of blackberry users around the world and more and more applications it can sometimes be daunting to figure what the best options are.  Well here is a quick assessment of Google Maps and Blackberry Maps.

Blackberry Maps is the standard mapping and GPS application that many blackberries come with.  The application uses loaded maps and connects them to your built-in GPS to show you in real-time exactly where you are in the world.  Blackberry maps are very simple to use and the application has a clean interface.  Clicking the trackball or track wheel gives you the option of either zooming in/out of the map or panning around the map. The menu has options including getting directions from one location to another and adding locations to your favorites. One of the great options is that you can actually send your current location to someone else so they can see, on a map, where you are.  All in all, Blackberry Maps is simple but effective but is fairly limited in the bells and whistles.

Google Maps, on the other hand, is actually quite feature packed with options and abilities.  GMaps has all of the features of blackberry maps that I listed above, but in addition GMaps has all the same features that you see in the computer based online version of Google Maps.  This includes, clean basic versions of maps, along with satellite views that you can zoom right down to the buildings on.  If you are looking at cities in the United States you can actually switch to street view and see what the street looks like where the address is.  This is great for familiarizing yourself with a route or a neighbourhood.  You can actually make the street view full screen too! Another great feature of GMaps is you can click on a point or building on a street and it will show you the address of that street. 

Probably the coolest part of GMaps is Latitude.  Latitude is free signup which allows you and your friends to be able to visually track each other on your GPS blackberries.  It notes each of your locations and places it on GMaps for you to either help give directions when someone is lost, see if someone far from arriving or just to cheat at hide and go seek. To add to GMaps is actually a traffic monitor that shows how bad the traffic is on certain roads so you can plan your route better.

 Search Near By is an extremely handy feature of GMaps.  With this tool you can search for restaurants, businesses, gas stations, doctors, etc that are in close proximity to you.  So if you are running out of gas in your car it will pin-point the closest gas station for you to fill up.  Or if you are out with the family and you can’t make up your mind about a restaurant, this could help you make the decision.

 The last awesome part about Google Maps is that not only can it give you driving directions, it can also give you walking directions or transit directions.  So if you are in a new city and you have to get somewhere on the bus it will tell you what lines to take and when to change lines.  It will find you the shortest or quickest routes.  As well, if you feel like walking around town and want to check out a historic site you can plot in the two points and it will map out the best walking route for you.  Pretty cool app.

 Although Blackberry Maps does the job, it really doesn’t compare to Google Maps.  The best part of it all is that Google Maps is FREE! And is a relatively small sized application.  Now, the next question is probably, “How can I get it?”  Well, here is the best way to get it.

Text  “GMAPS” to 46653 and Google will send you a link to download the application right to your Blackberry!

Lastly, even if you don’t have a Blackberry you can use this application.  Google Maps are made for many PDAs and Smart Phones.  Give it a try and let me know what you think of the application.

www.saveoncellphones.ca

Posted on 04. Aug, 2009 by hilzfuld

This a great article posted on www.techmarketing.com by hilzfud.  I think it is a great article for all of those advanced Blackberry users that like BB Apps.  I can’t take credit for it, but I would like to share it.  Here is the article for you.  If you want to read it on TechMarketing visit: http://technmarketing.com/cellphone/top-5-blackberry-apps-you-did-not-know-about/

Top 5 BlackBerry Apps you Did Not Know About

Posted on 04. Aug, 2009 by hilzfuld in Mobile, iPhone

 If there is one place Apple has RIM beat, it is most definitely with it’s huge number of applications. While Apple’s App store is available globally, offers 60,000 apps, and has over 1.5 billion downloads, RIM’s numbers are far behind with the App World unavailable in most of the world. One of my major disappointments with my new BlackBerry was the fact that I could not install the App World, which made finding good apps a challenging task.

Although, there is no one place to discover the best BlackBerry apps, I have managed through some research, to find some pretty amazing ones. I already shared some with you in my top 10 BlackBerry Apps post, but since then I have come across some other great apps that are a little less well known so I thought I would share them with you. So here goes.

The following are 5 of the best BlackBerry apps you probably did not know about:

1: WiFi File Transfer: This app is developed by a company that goes by the name Chocolate Chunk Apps. I have had the privilege of corresponding with them over the past few weeks, and I must say, I am pretty impressed. They are clearly out to make the best products possible, and are always interested in hearing customer feedback, and I had a lot to provide.

Anyone who uses BlackBerry is aware of the lack of solid software available to properly sync the device. BlackBerry Desktop Manager is what comes with the device and in my humble opinion, has more bugs than features. The media part of Desktop Manager is especially buggy since RIM has apparently teamed up with Roxio to sync media with their devices. Mistake!

So, now that we have established that BlackBerry Desktop Manager is not a reliable option, how best to transfer files from PC/Mac to BlackBerry? Bluetooth? That is also quite a headache, especially on BlackBerrys. Do not ask me why, but RIM apparently thought it was a good idea to add a “Receive using Bluetooth” option that must be selected EVERY time you want to send a file to the BlackBerry via Bluetooth. So, for me, Bluetooth is out.

Wifi File Transfer solves this for you. Can you guess what it does? Look at the name, cmon! Basically, you enable Wifi on the phone, enable it on the PC/Mac, enter an IP address you are given when you launch the app and you are presented with a full fledged browser-based picture of your BlackBerry’s folder structure. You can then easily send files to your BlackBerry. It worked flawlessly, and has pretty much replaced my need for a USB connection to my PC, as well as ever enabling Bluetooth, or removing the memory card from my phone. Another great feature is the ability to play/view files on your BlackBerry straight from your browser without having to worry about transferring them to the PC first.

This is a very very useful app that I would recommend using. I have good news and bad news! The bad news is the app costs $10, but in my opinion, it is very worth it. The good news is, if you are reading this, and own a BlackBerry, you can have it for free.  Simply go here, add the app, then go to checkout and add the coupon code ”technmarketingwft”. Hurry up, there are only 10 free codes. Good luck and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

2: Start Me Up: I would not swear to this, but as far as I know, such an app is not available on any mobile platform. You know how you can type Msconfig on a PC and define what items start up when the computer starts? Well, now you can do that on your BlackBerry. You can not tell me that you do not have any use for this app. The way this app works is, you launch it, launch any app you want to start up, then select it from a list presented to you in the Start Me Up interface. When the device starts up, Start Me Up automatically starts up, launches the requested app, then closes down. Simple yet brilliant!

If, for example, you are using the Gmail app and want it to launch automatically and not have to start it manually every time, this app enables you to do that. An extremely useful app that I am sure ANY BlackBerry user can benefit from, especially since it is FREE, at least for now. Enjoy!

3: VLC Remote: There are not many programs I stick with for years. When good software is introduced, I usually check it out and if it is good, I use it, but generally, it is replaced by something better within a few months. Not VLC Media Player. I have been using as my primary media player on PC and Mac for years now, and I still love it. It is a lightweight media player that plays every format known to man.  Since I am such a huge fan of VLC, any mobile app that supports it will get my vote.

I have already reviewed the VLC Remote for iPhone and loved it. When I first heard about the VLC Remote for BlackBerry, I had to check it out. I assumed it was the same developer of the iPhone version for some reason, but it turns out it is actually Chocolate Chuck Apps who developed this app. I have been using it for a few days now, and I must say, this one is a winner. You can use your phone as a fully functioning remote control to select, view, play, rewind, and fast forward media files on your PC or Mac.

The app uses the advanced shortcuts BlackBerry users are so accustomed to and enables you to do pretty much anything in the app using one single button. You can select a music file or an entire folder to play, easily scan through a movie playing to the exact place you want to watch, as well as control the volume of the PC using the BlackBerry volume keys (nice one). These are just a few of the things you can do with the BlackBerry VLC Remote.

OK, good news and bad news again. It also costs $9.99, although it is now on a sale for half price (that’s not the good news). The good news is…it is FREE for our readers. Same deal as before. Go here, add the app to your cart, go to checkout and add the code ”technmarketingvlc”. There are 20 free codes waiting for you, so go get one.

4: BuzzMe: I know I wrote about this one before, but it is worth another mention. BlackBerrys for some odd reason, when configured to vibrate, cannot vibrate and ring at the same time. So what ends up happening is that the device vibrates for a few seconds, then starts ringing. By the time the second ring comes along, you have missed the call. One of those annoying quirks about BlackBerrys. A developer called BigTinCan, whose primary offering seems to be VOIP calls, makes an app called BuzzMe. It simply enables you to configure how and when the device will ring and vibrate. It is very customizable and they have managed to create a very friendly UI.

I was using BuzzMe before the latest round of improvements, and I have to say, these guys are working hard. Their new versions are a HUGE improvement over the previous version both in terms of UI and functionality. So what else can BuzzMe do? You ready for this? You can change the color of your LED light that blinks when you get a call/email/message. Now they do offer a free version that only supports calls, but their paid version, BuzzMe Pro has it all. Define how long you want the phone to vibrate, what color the LED should be, whether it should alert you during a call, and the ability to make the app start up automatically, plus much more.

BuzzMe also has a version for the Storm that makes use of its built-in accelerometer. This version enables you to silence the phone’s vibration by putting the phone face down. Another cool feature. OK, so I have good news and better news. You can download the free version here (OTA) or if you have a Storm here (OTA). The good news is the paid version is only $2.99, so it is VERY worth it. The better news is it is FREE for our readers. You can get a free copy of the regular Pro version here (OTA) or the Storm version here (OTA). I am sure you will love it. If you come across any issues with the app or the installation, please let me know in the comments and I will pass it on.

5: UberTwitter: This app is a little more well known, but it still has not replaced TwitterBerry as the main Twitter app for BlackBerry. I am not going to go into the entire app and all its advantages, I will just say, I use it as my primary Twitter app, and have even assigned a shortcut key to quickly launch the app. It has an extremely user-friendly interface and offers almost all the features Tweetdeck has or any other Twitter client for that matter. The only issue I have is a lack of threaded tweets. There is an “In Reply To” button available, but as of now, it has never worked properly for me.

They are always enhancing the app with the latest additions including fully integrated picture upload, as well as advanced use of the built in GPS. I have tried a lot of Twitter apps on a lot of mobile platforms including Windows Mobile, Symbian, iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. Aside from maybe TwitterFon on the iPhone, UberTwitter is the best I have seen. I am currently testing out a new beta version, and somehow UberTwitter just keeps getting better. The app is free and you can download it here.

OK, that was a little longer than expected, but I hope you enjoy these apps and please leave me your thoughts in the comments.

-Hillel

The Canada Line (Downtown to Airport and Richmond) opens today!

I know this topic is not directly related to cell phones, but it is relevant for thos people who travel for work in Canada and are looking to save some money.  Right now it costs about $35 to take a taxi from downtown Vancouver to the airport.  However that will all change today.  The Canada line of the Vancouver Skytrain officially opens today so any one coming to Vancouver for work can take the train from the airport to downtown for a tenth of the price!  Thats right $3.50!

The Canada Line is part of the infrastructure changes in Vancouver that have been implemented as part of the Olympics.  It is actually finished 4 months early and those working in Vancouver can save a lot of money by taking this express train.  Only 20 minutes from the airport to downtown the train connects to the sea bus, cruise ship terminal, VIA tail station and Greyhound Bus Station.

NOTE: On August 17th the new Canada Line will be free from 1pm to 9pm

So if you are coming into town on business you can jump on the SkyTrain right from the Airport and save yourself both the time and money of taking a taxi.  If you would like more information on the opening of the line you can read a full article in the Vancouver Sun.

http://bit.ly/13fcsj

You can also look at the Translink Website for the new route, stops and connections to other lines and buses.  Enjoy the expedited transportation and the cost savings!  Plus, you can use your cell phone on the whole route, all the way to downtown (I will test this out as soon as I can!)

www.translink.ca

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