Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 reportedly headed to Virgin Mobile in Canada

Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 reportedly headed to Virgin Mobile in Canada

Since being unveiled a long, long time ago, the Galaxy Ace 2 has seen its younger S III brother grab all the praising headlines — oh, and we can say the same about its other bodacious, note-friendly sibling. Still, we have a feeling some Canadian Virgin Mobile customers would welcome one of Sammy’s lesser-specced family members with open arms hands. Well, according to MobileSyrup, the Ace 2 is exactly what folks using the prepaid carrier can expect come this holiday season, making the trip across the Atlantic with a rumored contract-free price tag of somewhere between $200 to $250. To give you a quick refresh, this Gingerbread handset boasts a 3.8-inch, WVGA display, a humble dual-core, 800MHz CPU alongside 768MB of RAM, 4GB of built-in storage and a decent 1,500mAh battery. We should be hearing more detailed info in the coming weeks, but while we wait for that, you could always revise our hands-on meeting with the Ace 2.

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Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 reportedly headed to Virgin Mobile in Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Sep 2012 02:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 now on sale in Canada for $499

Samsung Galaxy Note 101 now on sale in Canada for $499

After landing on American store shelves just a few short weeks ago, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 has officially gone on sale in the Great White North. Priced at $499, the Galaxy Note 10.1 features a 10.1-inch display, a 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos 4 quad processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.9-megapixel front shooter for placing video calls. Sadly, the Galaxy Note 10.1 ships with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but Sammy has promised that it’ll be blessed with Jelly Bean “very soon.” In addition to its snazzy innards, the Galaxy Note 10.1 includes its signature S-Pen and offers 50GB of free storage from Dropbox for two years. If you think this sounds like all that and a bag of chips plate of poutine, you can purchase the Galaxy Note 10.1 at Staples and other major Canadian retailers.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 now on sale in Canada for $499 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 21:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry outage affecting users in Europe, Middle East and Africa (update: service restored?)

BlackBerry outage affecting users in Europe, Middle East and Africa

While the two events are entirely unrelated, a major service outage coinciding with potentially the biggest mobile of the year hitting stores worldwide is just plain old unlucky. Users of RIM’s BlackBerry service in the EMEA region are at the wrong end of a network problem affecting BBM, email and internet. At the moment it doesn’t appear to be of the vast and crippling scale as last time, but small consolation if you’re one of the unlucky ones. RIM has acknowledged the issue, and you can bet the farm on the fact there is more than a handful of slightly stressed engineers on the case, hoping to keep customers from making that impulse purchase. Let us know in the comments if you’re affected.

Update: We’ve just received this official statement from RIM in the UK:

Our apologies to any customers impacted by the BlackBerry service issue today. We can confirm that services have been restored and are now operating normally.”

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BlackBerry outage affecting users in Europe, Middle East and Africa (update: service restored?) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 06:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Refresh Roundup: week of September 10th, 2012

Refresh Roundup: week of September 10th, 2012

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

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Refresh Roundup: week of September 10th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Sep 2012 21:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile Miscellany: week of September 10th, 2012

Mobile Miscellany week of September 10th, 2012

Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you’re like us and really want to know what’s going on, then you’ve come to the right place. This past week, C Spire Wireless activated its first LTE networks and we discovered strong indication that Isis will leverage the GSMA’s SIM-based NFC standard for its mobile payments system. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of September 10th, 2012.

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Mobile Miscellany: week of September 10th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Sep 2012 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canada’s Competition Bureau sues Bell, Rogers and Telus over alleged misleading advertising

Allegations of misleading advertising practices among Canada’s big telecom companies has been a recurring subject for some time, and it’s now been brought to the fore once again in the form of a multi-million dollar lawsuit. The country’s Competition Bureau announced today that, after a five-month investigation, it has decided to sue all three carriers and the industry group that represents them over ads that promote so-called premium texting services. In addition to demanding that such ads stop, the government agency is seeking full customer refunds for any charges incurred and a $10 million penalty from each carrier, plus an additional $1 million from the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association. For its part, the CWTA has unsurprisingly taken issue with the lawsuit, saying in a statement that it reached out to the Bureau last year to discuss the issue, and that its actions today “could disrupt the text message services, such as severe weather alerts, charitable donations, flight status updates or sports scores, on which millions of Canadian consumers depend.” You can find that full statement, and the Competition Bureau’s announcement of the lawsuit, at the links below.

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Canada’s Competition Bureau sues Bell, Rogers and Telus over alleged misleading advertising originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 16:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rogers boosting its LTE coverage in Canada, will cover 10 new cities by October 1st

Rogers boosting its LTE coverage in Canada, will cover 10 new cities by October 1st

We’re sure it’s just coincidence, but on the same day a certain new LTE phone was revealed, Rogers announced the expansion of its 4G network in Canada. By October 1st, the carrier will have switched on its high-speed network in Kingston, Edmonton, Quebec City, Oakville, Burlington, London, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Barrie. That’s not quite the end of it either, as the plan is to feed 60 percent of the country’s inhabitants the same 4G nourishment by the end of the year, and even more in 2013. With so many new LTE-capable devices soon finding their way into the hands of data-hungry Canadians, all that remains is the important decision of choosing your latest pocket-filler.

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Rogers boosting its LTE coverage in Canada, will cover 10 new cities by October 1st originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visualized: World’s largest QR code is a Canadian maize maze

Visualized World's largest QR code is a Canadian maize maze

And why wouldn’t it be? That’s how the Kraay family of Lacombe, Alberta, Canada gets down, as evidenced by the family’s past 13 years of elaborate corn maze designs — from a logo of the Edmonton Oilers to a 25th anniversary commemoration of Rick Hansen’s “Man in Motion” tour. Said QR code sends adventurous scanners to a website for the Kraay’s family farm website. The code also got the Kraays into the Guinness Book of World Records for “World’s Largest QR Code,” which was really what drove this whole project. At approximately 29,000 meters (1.1 square miles), that’s quite a bit of carefully crafted corn designing. It’s certainly more elaborate than the previously claimed record holder, and a lot more official.

“It was something that we didn’t think would happen. There were a lot of little things we had to do and Guinness is pretty picky with how you collect your evidence. We were a little bit on edge on whether it would come through so we were very relieved and very excited,” Rachel Kraay told CTV News about the project. To verify that the code works, the Kraays had to commission a helicopter to fly them over their own farm, allowing them to scan it while hovering hundreds of feet above. And then, at the end of last week, the Guinness folks sent over a package certifying the bizarre world record. “They didn’t even call. I just went to the door and there was a large package and inside was the certificate and a letter. I guess that’s how they do it.”

[Image credit: Facebook]

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Visualized: World’s largest QR code is a Canadian maize maze originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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3G Vita headed to Canada via Rogers on Oct. 2, Canadian gamers remain non-plussed

Despite having launched elsewhere in the world already, Sony’s 3G PlayStation Vita is heading north to Canada with help from Rogers Communications this October. Beyond the usual features of the Vita, the 3G model offers access to various social networks while on-the-go, as well as a handful of games that support asynchronous multiplayer via 3G. Mostly, though, it just offers a $50 bump to the usual Vita price of $250 (at least in the US). In Canada, however, the 3G version is getting bundled with Gravity Rush and Unit 13, and the whole shebang is launching on October 2 for $299.99. It’s unclear how much the unit will cost as a standalone (or if it’s even being offered that way), but we’ve asked Sony Canada for more info. 3G plans with Rogers run $15 and $30 for 30-day packages bundling 250MB or 5GB data streams, respectively.

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3G Vita headed to Canada via Rogers on Oct. 2, Canadian gamers remain non-plussed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile Miscellany: week of September 3rd, 2012

Mobile Miscellany week of September 3rd, 2012

Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you’re like us and really want to know what’s going on, then you’ve come to the right place. This past week, AT&T revealed grand plans for LTE expansion that’ll continue through the end of the year and the Galaxy Reverb for Virgin Mobile officially went up for preorder. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of September 3rd, 2012.

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Mobile Miscellany: week of September 3rd, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Sep 2012 21:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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