Bell Finally Joins Android Bandwagon

Posters that have been appearing at Bell stores are announcing Bell Mobility will be the exclusive carrier for Samsung's first Android based smartphone called the Galaxy.  The Galaxy uses Bell's new HSPA network, runs Android 1.5, has a 5 MP digital camera, has WiFi and has a microDS slot for memory expansion.  This announcement from Bell now brings all three of Canada's national cell phone carriers into the Android camp.  Telus recently announced their exclusive agreement to bring the Motorola Milestone (The HSPA version of the Droid) North of the 49th.  Subscribers to Canada's two regional carriers, MTS and Sasktel still do not have an Android smartphone of their own, something that probably won't change until the exclusivity agreements expire in two to three years.  Those in Manitoba and Saskatchewan who are looking at an Android based smartphone have one choice, Rogers

Having a Tripoly of national cell phone carriers in this country has led to subscribers of regional carriers and Mobile Network Virtual Operating (MNVO's) getting shut out of getting the cool in demand smartphones.  Exclusivity agreements between handset makers and the big national carriers is yet one of the signs that competition is long overdue.  Just the threat of competition has made the big national carriers drop the much hated system access fee, and the absolutely fraudlient 911 fee.  In order for the consumer to pick a phone then pick a carrier it's starting to happen, with Bell and Telus' new GSM/HSPA network it's now possible to to swich carriers just by swiching a SIM card in an unlocked phone.

News Corp's Stupid Gamble - Delisting From Google

Reports are surfacing that News Corporation is considering any offers for payment in exchange for de-listing it's newspapers and Fox news from Google News.  It is said that Microsoft is talking to News Corp about a deal where News Corp will make it's properties available through Microsoft's Bing search engine.  Bing's market share in search has fallen into the mid single digits after capturing 12 percent of all web searches when Microsoft launched Bing back in the summer.

For News Corp and other struggling news outlets the thought of the kind of money that Microsoft can bring to the table is at the very least worth considering, any such move to delist from Google may end up being hurtful in the end.  It's not just Google's web search market share of 80 percent or more that would make delisting from Google foolish to say the least.  People who use competing search engines often just use them as a second resort after searching Google first. 

A quick injection of cash from Microsoft may help News Corp in the short term, but in the long run sticking their online news properties on a search engine that is only capturing five percent of all web searches will rob them of the very thing that all online and offline media companies fight over, eyeballs.  Online advertising hasn't paid out the kind of money that media companies had expected, and people didn't pay to subscribe to online content.  Craig's List stole their classified cash cow, it's not hard to understand how traditional news outlets are struggling in the online age. 

Geek Anthems: Online - Brad Paisley

Songs like'White And Nerdy' and 'It's All About The Pentiums' by Weird Al Yankovic are considered a couple of geek anthems, songs that celebrate geek culture.  There's another one that fits into the catergory as a geek anthem.  Online by Brad Paisley may not celebrate geeks or geek culture but it is story of one geek played by Seinfeld's Jason Alexander in the video.  The protagonist works a dead end job in the fast food industry and drives a beater of a car.  He lives in his parents' basement, his real life is much different than the life he creates for himself on the Internet.  In his fantasy world he is played by Paisley himself.  The video intercuts concert footage featuring Taylor Swift and Kellie Pickler to go with the line of the chorus of the song "Even on a slow day I can have a three way chatting with two women at the same time"

Alexander's geeky protagonist is then seen playing the song in the concert footage and dancing with Swift and Pickler.  The protagonist's dream is shattered when Paisley comes to ask him "what the hell are you doing?"  The dream is totally over when after a dissolve we see him and his father played by William Shatner asking what the hell are you doing?  The protagonist dons his marching band uniform presumabily from high school days and goes marching down the street with the geeky female from next door.  The protagonist's mother played by Estelle Harris is seen with Paisley she says that "marching music makes me hot" with Paisley shuttering at the thought. 

Many reviewers panned the song stating that is way mean spirited and close to bullying.  I doubt that most of us have embellished the truth about ourselves to make us look better than we actually are online or offline.  To the critics maybe they should take a look at themselves and listen to the song and have a laugh.