Hasta La Gadget!

History would kindly tell us that this isn’t the very first deal Netflix and Warner Bros. have struck in past months — and, well, chances are it won’t be the last one either. Earlier today, the streaming giant announced it had reached a new exclusive agreement with the California-based studio which will bring a hefty amount of new content to subscribers in Canada. Starting January of next year, Netflix streamers in the Great White North can start watching TV shows such as The Vampire Diaries, Fringe and Pretty Little Liars, as well as films like The Hangover Part II, Horrible Bosses and even the critically-acclaimed blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises — although these movies will come “for a limited period following their pay television window.” There’s still some time before the deal bears fruit, so perhaps the next few weeks could be used to start clearing that overloaded Instant Queue of yours.

Continue reading Netflix announces new deal with Warner, will deliver popular content to Canadian streamers

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Netflix

Want LTE on your new Nexus 4? Well, you might have to move to another country. Unless it’s some elaborate post-Thanksgiving hoax from our Canadian neighbors, several Telus customers have demonstrated that the LTE chip hiding inside the Nexus 4 does work, and have connected to some data speeds resembling a 4G connection. This was enabled through the test menu, accessed by dialing *#*4636#*#*.

Tapping on the preferred network type option, you can select either LTE on its own, or a mix of LTE, GSM and CDMA. According to the videos, the Google phone then taps into your carrier’s LTE network if Band 4 is available, and you’re good to go. We’ve so far been unable to replicate it in the UK, which doesn’t use the same LTE Band 4 (AWS 2100 / 1700MHz) of Canadian carriers Bell, Rogers and Telus. We have also tested this with AT&T’s LTE, but had no luck there either — we tried it in a Band 17 area, not a Band 4 area (which is less common). This is, however, great news for T-Mobile customers as this is precisely the type of LTE they’ll be getting very soon. But for now, there’s two working videos already doing the rounds from Canada and we’ve included them both below.

[Thanks Kaung]

Update: There was a typo in the code required to activate the test menu. We’ve updated with the correct key combination.

Continue reading Nexus 4 shown working on Canadian LTE through simple carrier menu code (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google, LG

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Via: Tekgadg, XDA Developers (1), (2)

Kobo’s Arc tablet is hitting stores for the first time in Canada and the UK today, leaving eager punters in the US of A wondering if they’ve been forgotten. In America‘s hat, the 7-inch competitor to the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 is showing price tags of 200, 250 and 300 Canadian dollars for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, respectively. A WHSmith exclusive in the UK, £160 and £190 is what you’ll need for the lesser two options, and we can’t see a 64GB listing online just yet. French store Fnac will keep customers waiting til Monday, when they’ll be able to swap €200 for an Arc avec 16 gigs — its listings show no other sizes right now, barring a non-existent 8GB variant. Kobo hid a surprise for us in the announcement PR, too: it’s already working on a Jelly Bean 4.1 update for the ICS tablet. If you’re American and bummed you’re not reading this on your own shiny new Arc, it’s already passed inspection, so should be shipping before you know it.

Continue reading Kobo Arc available today in Canada and UK, coming to France on Monday

Filed under: Tablets

Kobo Arc available today in Canada and UK, coming to France on Monday originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After being discovered and misidentified back in 1958, the fossil remains of a massive twenty foot long, two-ton horned dinosaur found in Alberta have finally been acknowledged as a new species. Although there’s no evidence, scientists* speculate that Xenoceratops foremostensis fled north from what is now the United States 80 million years ago after being displeased with prehistoric election results. More »

Most larger North American cellular carriers still base their plans around voice minutes — how quaintly 2006 of them. We’re in an era of smartphones now, and Canada’s Rogers is revamping its plans to reflect a data-first reality while possibly wringing out a few dollars more. A quartet of newly active Unlimited Talk and Text rates hand out the now-trivial messaging and voice time like candy: apart from a $55 entry plan that includes a still-healthy 1,000 minutes of talk, they all offer unlimited local or Canada-wide calling as well as unlimited MMS and SMS. The gotcha, as you’d anticipate, is getting enough data. Anyone but the most casual among us will want to skip the anemic 200MB from the $55 plan in favor of the $65 (1GB), $75 (3GB) or $95 (5GB) tiers that let smartphones flex their muscles. Rogers’ strategy is no doubt meant to draw a few data-heavy Galaxy Note II and Lumia 920 buyers into more lucrative service echelons, but it’s a refreshing break from pricing that still treats the basics as scarce resources.

Update: It’s well-known that the major Canadian carriers tend to imitate each other’s cellular plans, and there’s no sign they’re letting up. MobileSyrup has heard that both Bell and Telus should have uncannily similar plans as of November 9th and 8th, respectively. About the only practical difference is Telus’ decision to focus on the top three tiers and hike prices by $5 across the board.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Rogers overhauls its cellphone plans to offer unlimited voice and text, hook Canadians on data (update: Bell and Telus too) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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