A guide to mobile companies in Toronto - Where does your money go?

Choices, choices, choices. The landscape of phone service carriers has changed enormously over the last year. Over the time you read this article, the landscape will likely change again. This information is current as of September 2010. Thanks to a great deal of competition and a number of new carriers on the market - we have choices. Lots of Choices! I decided to give you an idea of which company owns which brand. See the infographic at left for more!

Calwell Tech Weekly - Week of September 3rd

What an incredibly busy week in technology. This week lots of new features, a huge Apple keynote (that no-one in the Windows world was able to watch natively),  product updates and other interesting stuff in technology. The summer may be more or less dead, but you'll be glad you checked out this run down.  If you haven't been watching the news closely as you would have liked, I'm here to help with this week's Calwell Tech Weekly.

Market Shift: Why BIG changes have Bell and Rogers very, very afraid

With all changes in life comes a reluctance to accept the change and a tendency to fight them. In Canada, we are undergoing a significant amount of change in the mobile and Cable TV markets. The loosers are clearly the main providers of these services, namely Bell and Rogers. I predict in five years or less, we will no longer need to pay for Voice, Long Distance (in North America), and the classic Cable TV. It will be replaced by something very different and all of it, travelling across data. No longer will you be paying for voice plans, long distance on the same continent or Cable TV services.

Ever loose your domain name? Meet Asad from techaol.com who lost it to AOL

While stories of companies and people loosing domain names to big companies are all too common these days - I had never met a person who actually had this happen to them. When I met Asad in Toronto on a recent trip from California, he shared this experience. He registered a domain TECHAOL.COM a few years ago and had it taken from him by America Online. Take a look at the brief video interview below. Please accept my apologies for the poor lighting in the video.

The domain techaol.com is now linked to, and owned by America Online. WHOIS information on the domain shows AOL as the sole owner and no mention of Asad. In fact, what I find most interesting is no mention or record of what techaol.com was before it was taken over (WayBackMachine has no records).

Asad likely has no fight here either - I'm no lawyer - but it seems that having the letters AOL in your domain and being in some way related to technology will land you in a similar situation. Have you met anyone facing the same problem?

Calwell Tech Weekly - Week of August 27th

It's been a bit of a light week for me writing-wise. I have been working on a rather large upgrade and haven't had allot of time to get back to writing. No matter what, I still have your back when it come to tech news. Here's this week's Calwell Tech Weekly. Enjoy.

Calwell Tech Weekly - Week of August 20th

Summer's end is almost upon us. For those of us in Toronto, Canada  - a ritual of the last gasp of summer is the Canadian National Exhibition, which will open this Friday the 20th of August and run until Labor Day. For those of you who will be reading about tech instead of (or in addition too) partaking in the CNE, I give you the Tech Weekly:

Thoughts on Negativity

Recently, I read a nice little article on Pick The Brain about the idea that negativity can be a motivation killer. And another article entitled Why Optimists Prosper. I find myself in negative situations all the time. My work can be a cauldron of negativity. Most of what I generally do is about fixing problems - that's not a situation that breeds allot of positivity. I too, succumb to negative thought processes, and when I do, I usually pay for it. I usually snap out of it, but the challenge has always been to be motivated from a positive place towards a better future. I have been self employed now for more than 10 years, a testament to a sort of positive motivation. I have come across too many folks that, for some reason, are inherently negative and I always hope to see that change for the better.

Thoughts on US/Canada Cross-Border Shopping

I'm a Canadian living in Toronto. I'm not far from the American border (about an hour and a half of driving to the east or west, give or take a few minutes). Being in the technology industry - I am always coming across scenarios where a particular product is only available in the U.S. or the product may be significantly cheaper than it would be if purchased here in Canada. Even with our currencies almost at par, the lure of going to America to get the exclusive tech and bring it back is tremendous. While returning from a small road trip yesterday, I had some thoughts about cross-border shopping.