Is The Palm Pre The Saviour Phone for Bell or Telus?

The most talked about cell phone at the most recent CES that just wrapped up, wasn't powered by Google's Android like so many were expecting. Instead it was from a company that was left for dead by much of the media that covers technology. The Pre captured attention that Palm hasn't seen in practically a decade. The Pre will launch on the Sprint network sometime in the first half of 2009. With subscribers switching to AT&T to get an iPhone or to T-Mobile for the Android based G1, Sprint has needed a smartphone like the pre for a very long time.

Speculation about which Canadian carrier will offer the Pre to their subscribers has already begun. A killer smartphone like the Pre will be essential to help the big Canadian CDMA carriers Bell Mobility and Telus to meet the challenge from Rogers with the iPhone and any potential new cell carriers expecting to start to offer service in the end of 2009 or sometime in 2010 with the G1 or some other Android based smartphone.

Telus needs to be the exclusive carrier of the Pre simply because it will one of the biggest things that will help them expand market share outside Alberta and BC. Palm needs Telus because Telus is truly a national carrier since Bell has very little coverage in BC and Alberta and no coverage in Saskatchewan or Manitoba.

Calls to Postpone Digital Switchover

The switching off of analog over the air TV signals is now just a little more than a month away and calls for a postponement haven't silenced but instead are coming from high places. Consumers' Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine claim that "millions of at-risk consumers, including rural, low-income and elderly citizens across the country could be left with blank television screens," according to Joel Kelsey and Christopher Murray of Consumers' Union.

The co-chair of the Obama-Biden transisition team, John Podesta has joined in the call for a postponement of the transition to digital broadcast television. Podestra notes that demand for the forty dollar vouchers for DTV converter boxes has increased to a point that there are now a million people on a waiting list to get vouchers.

The US government agency in charge of the voucher program, National Telecommunications and Information Administration has run out of money for the voucher program. This would seem to be problematic if the cost of the converter boxes was in the hundreds of dollars, but boxes are now approaching the forty dollar price point. Even if funding doesn't come until after the Febuary, 17th analog cutoff, there is not reason to hold off the switch over and turn the voucher program into a rebate. There are very few that can't scratch together forty dollars. DTV brings better picture and sound quality to all television viewers, don't postpone just get on with it.

The Death of Music DRM

Digital rights management, the technology restricts how music and videos are used by people who pay to download, is on it's way to becoming history (for downloaded music at least). At MacWorld Expo keynote Apple's Phil Schiller announced that all ten million songs available for download from the iTunes Music Store will no longer have DRM restrictions.

Steve Jobs lead the charge against Digital Rights Management about this time last year when he called on the recording industry to drop the requirement for DRM restrictions on all purchased downloaded music. Initially only EMI music played ball with Apple and offered DRM free songs on the iTunes Music store for an extra thirty cents per song.

Other online stores had more success in getting big music to drop DRM from paid downloads. WalMart.com went DRM free back in the summer of 2008. Amazon started their MP3 store with no DRM restrictions from the first day.

Now that Apple is going DRM free, it will be interesting to see if they stay with the AAC format or will they go to MP3. Going over to MP3 would mean that any digital music player could play songs downloaded from iTunes. Would Apple dare to be that open? Do the words too good to be true come to mind? but then Zunes play nonencrypted DRM free AAC files. Ain't that to strange to be true!