With the Canadian dollar back within a  hair of par, it’s time to look at what companies are doing a good job at letting Canadians buy with their newfound purchasing power.

One of the best companies in terms of pricing parity is Apple. Their laptops are within a hair of the USA price. Cheaper items like iPads have a 10% premium but still within a reasonable amount. The Apple TV pushes the limit at 20% premium – almost a “bad exchange”.

MacBook Pro 15

• USA: $1799
• Canada: $1849 (3% premium)

iPad

• USA: $499
• Canada: $549 (10% premium)

Apple TV

USA: $99

Canada: $119 (20% premium)

Well, the hits against the iPad keep coming. If you thought the device would tether with the iPhone, you were wrong. Engadget confirmed it yesterday.

The collective internet wisdom is so far unimpressed with the iPad. It strikes me as a cool toy but not a very visionary device and nothing that many of Apple’s competitors couldn’t copy and improve on.

Asus, Acer, HP, Dell – All of them had existing tablet plans which they are slow playing while they waited for the iPad announcement. Expect a slew of tablet announcements in the coming weeks. I except these tablets to have many features missing from the iPad: accepting external storage (USB or SD), pen/stylus input, “open” operating systems and lower price points. Expect them to come in many sizes from 5″ to 12″.

Microsoft and Google – The OS divisions of both companies may be able to capitalize on some Apple’s missteps. With Windows 7 capable of running on a Atom processor and Android far more advanced than it’s horrible 1.x versions, they may finally be in a place to come up with an iPad alternative. Microsoft is going to have to rely on Windows 7 not Windows Mobile.

Jailbreakers and Unlockers – As I type this a legion of hackers are working on the iPad SDK looking to be the first to hack it. No wonder geohot is letting others do the PS3 hacking.

I’m a big fan of LED-backlit displays. Not only they produce crisp, even-lit displays on both laptop displays and desktop monitors, but they take less power so they make laptop batteries last longer. Rob Galbraith compares four different laptop displays to determine how the LED-backlit screens have evolved over time.