Yes, the Kindle is now available to Canadians. This e-ink reader is the darling of the US for a while, and is now available here, albeit with a few caveats:
customers will have to order it from Amazon USA. This is a potential disaster because this adds additional shipping costs ($21) and import fees ($31). I’m a little worried that Amazon has rushed this and not thought about the duty and PST/GST consequences – the government is going to add duty and GST and PST on top of when you import. What’s worse, the courier is probably going to be UPS, so customers will also be billed a brokerage fee on top of this. One might hope the “import fee deposit” of $31 will cover these costs, clearly all these charges are more than $31.
Only the Kindle is available, the Kindle DX is not. That means you do not get the larger 10″ screen, increased storage and rotating display.
Browsing is turned off. You will not be able to use the Kindle as a web browser. This makes no sense because it’s obvious they have a roaming agreement with a Canadian wireless carrier since you can purchase books wirelessly using 3G. I assume they did this in order to not incur data fees from the carrier. No doubt because our Canadian carriers are probably charging a lot more for data than the American carriers.
This is unconfirmed but Canadian authors are not available to be purchased via Amazon for the Kindle. I have to look into this more but the licensing isn’t setup for Canadian publishers.
If the Kindle is here, BRING THE KINDLE IPHONE APP TO US!! No, it’s still not available through App Store.
Update 11/20: CanoeTech believes that the Kindle is using the Rogers network for it’s 3G data.
The Canadian Tourism Commission posted a whole bunch of Youtube videos about Toronto recently. They’re quite good and worth having a look – discover a new area of Toronto. All of them have pretty good production value and are in HD.
The winners in each division of the Car of the Year awards were announced today. Out of this list, the overall Car and Truck of the Year will be announced at the Toronto Auto Show.
The Ford Taurus is the only domestic nameplate that won a category. The VW group owns VW, Audi and Porsche and took six categories including both performance car categories. Interesting to note that all six VW winners feature engines with direct injection and forced induction.
Small Car Under $21,000: Mazda3
Small Car Over $21,000: Mazda3 Sport
Family Car Under $30,000: Volkswagen Golf Wagon TDI
Family Car Over $30,000: Ford Taurus
Luxury Car Over $50,000: BMW 335d Sedan
Prestige Over $75,000: Porsche Panamera Turbo
Sport/Performance Under $50,000: Volkswagen Golf GTI
Sport/Performance Over $50,000: Audi S4
Convertible: Audi A5 Cabriolet
SUV/CUV Under $35,000: Subaru Outback
SUV/CUV $35,000 to $60,000: Volkswagen Touareg TDI Clean Diesel
I picked this up from the Globe: The US Ambassador to Canada is a blogger. He fills his official blog with posts about his introduction to Canada and moving into his new home in Ottawa. While I’m sure it won’t contain anything controversial, it’s pretty cool to see some inner workings of diplomats.
I’m hoping he keeps up the blog, as sometimes blogs are started and abandoned fairly quickly.
The Federation government is seeking submissions and input into the country’s copyright legislation. I think it’s important that everyone put in submissions so that the voice of the average Canadian can be heard, and not end up with an ill-serving piece of legislation like the DMCA in the States.
Online submissions are being accepted on their website. Things you should consider are:
Your rights to copy media that you have purchased to different formats and devices. Should you be allowed to copy a song purchased on iTunes onto a CD for a CD player?
Is file-sharing legal? What are the consequences for sharing files that you do not own? What about consequences if you do own it? What burden of proof is required before a copyright holder can prove that an individual was file sharing?
The DCMA in the USA makes it illegal to circumvent DRM or other copyright protection techniques, is this a path that Canada should go down?
What privacy rights do you have when copyright investigations are happening? Are ISP’s allowed to disclose your file sharing history?
Have you shopped around for car insurance the last time it was up for renewal? By shopping around, a lot of people can save some money. Recently my friend used the Kanetix site to look for the best insurance for a new driver. However, I’ve always noticed that insurance offered by that site were notoriously overpriced – even after “comparing” between multiple competitors. I sent him to a number of direct insurer sites and sure enough, he found a quote $155 dollars a month lower than the price offered by a Kanetix partner. I have never seen a quote by Kanetix offering competitive rates.
Try it yourself, compare Kanetix quotes with these insurers:
I haven’t posted much about LIGHTS because now she has her own blog (and a great video blog, at that), however she posted a new song which isn’t available anywhere on it, so it’s good to share.
Well, many reports of Google cars driving up and down Toronto are coming in. It’s true, Google Street View is finally coming to Canada. Originally blocked by the country’s various Privacy Commissioners because of privacy concerns, Google has pledged to blur faces and cars from the Canadian images in order to comply with our laws. So, don’t smile when you see their cars, wave instead.
Skype launched today on the iPhone with great fanfare…at least it did south of the border. You cannot get the free Skype app from Canadian iTunes. A report on CBC cited patent restrictions, however you can get Skype on the PC in Canada as well as for Windows Mobile handsets.
Surprisingly, not many people realize what cars are made in Canada. More importantly, that many GOOD* cars are made in Canada – ones that I would recommend. Here’s a full list of all the cars I know of that have final assembly here in the great-white-north:
Yes, the Kindle is now available to Canadians. This e-ink reader is the darling of the US for a while, and is now available here, albeit with a few caveats:
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