With the upcoming Zune launch in the USA on November 14, 2006 with an MSRP of $249.99, I am left wondering when is the Canadian release? Even though I doubt I will be buying one, I would really like to take a closer look at it. In case you haven’t heard about it, the Zune is an MP3 player from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT). It features a 30gb hard drive, a 3 inch screen, and supports all forms of media playback such as audio, video, images, and fm radio. The device will be able to stream to the Xbox 360. Another interesting feature is the ability to transfer songs to your friends so they can listen, although it appears as though they will be limited to three days before they expire. The tranfering is done wirelessly as the device has builtin 802.11b/g wireless. Pretty cool specs overall, and something I wouldn’t mind having. So with no news on a Canadian release, we are all left in the dark. My guess is they are waiting to get a Canadian Zune Marketplace setup so it could be right before Christmas like December 11th, or probably not until late January, early February. I’m making the guess of December 11th since that is a Monday and it would give them two business weeks of pre-Christmas sales. They better announce something soon though, because people might make their purchase decisions for the all important Christmas rush.
How iTunes saved The Office
According to the people at NBC, the iTunes Store and the success that The Office has experienced from it are responsible for keeping the show alive. I have never paid for a tv show before via iTunes, but this is one show I would consider. The Office is such a great show and I am so thankful that they didn’t cancel it after the first season. I remember back then the television ratings weren’t that great but it had pretty decent numbers on iTunes. I just watch the show on tv and make sure to record it, so I have no need to pay for it. Hopefully sales continue strong and they make a fourth season.
Microsoft Prepares Major Update to Xbox Live
Now, with the launch of the PlayStation 3 and Wii just a few weeks away, Xbox 360 gamers are checking over a major update to Xbox Live, released October 31. The new update adds video playback which is a very nice addition. As well, it adds 1080p, so you can take that away from being a PS3 only advantage. They sped up the time it takes for the Xbox Live Arcade screen, no more waiting around. They revamped the marketplace, adding pictures. Also when viewing media it shows a possible field for an expiration date. I wonder if they are going to start releasing movie/tv show rentals? Either way, updates like this are always good for a console, especially when competition is right around the corner. For a complete list of updates, you can check out the official list Novermber 2006 Update List.
If you want to see a hilarious Xbox 360 commerical check this out.
Reddit has been acquired!
It has been confirmed that Conde Nast, owner of Wired and other magazines, acquired Boston-based Reddit earlier this morning, and will make the announcement later today. All four reddit employees will relocate to Wired’s San Francisco office. This is what I hope happens to me someday. I would be so happy if I could be bought out by a bigger company and be able to retire. With the news of Reddit, I wonder how much longer till Digg gets acquired. It is only a matter of time, since the new dot com buying spree is beginning again. I give them a couple weeks.
Be careful what you write online
While I agree that people should be careful about what they post online, I don’t think that employers should be basing all hiring on these postings. When I post online, I make sure to consider the consequences of the posts not just in the short term but the long term as well. According to a recent survey by CareerBuilder, one in four managers now ‘Google’ potential employees and 51% of applications were rejected because of what was found. So by using those stats, it means that around 12.5% of applications were rejcted due to what they had posted online. Online posting could also work the other way; say you wrote a very interesting, insightful article. A prospective employer could infact use that to increase your chances of being hired. The moral of the whole story is, watch what you write online since people can and will read it.
Time Change
The time changed the other day, although for people living in Saskatchewan, the day could pass without anyone noticing. For pretty much everyone else the time was set back one hour. Remember the saying old “Spring forward, Fall back”. The only reason people in Saskatchewan might notice is because their favorite tv shows might not be on at the same time. But it seems like every time change debate grows in Saskatchewan about whether or not we should start to change our clocks. There is a lot of argument and quite a few points brought forward, but it never seems like any progress is made. Some of the funniest excuses are from farmers who say the cows don’t know what time it is and the time change would distrupt their eating patterns. I laugh because the farmer could always feed the animals at a different time if they cared so much. In my opinion, saving daylight in the summer would be nice since the sun is always up way before I get up. It would be nice to move an hour of that into the evening. If the only inconvenience for saving an hour of daylight a day is changing the clocks twice a year, then I’m all for it.
Emirates Strikes Back
Emirates Airline cancelled its order and options for 20 Airbus A340 aircraft. This cancellation comes after earlier announcements from Airbus about further delays for the A380 aircraft. Emirates is Airbus’s largest customer with an order of 45 A380 aircraft for a total around $13.5 billion. The A380 is a superjumbo jet, the worlds largest, with a double-decker 555-seat capacity. Emirates doesn’t seem to be satisfied with the delays and can’t really do much. I believe that this cancellation of the A340 was made easier following the delays of the A380.  As well, Emirates is supposidly sending an engineering team to Airbus’s manufacturing facilites in Toulouse, France to gather data on how long they estimate the planes will take to construct. My feelings are that Airbus better put on a good show or another 45 airplane deal could very well be cancelled. I wonder what kind of compensation Emirates would have to pay for cancelling such a large order? … $100 million?? Either way, Emirates won’t be able to escape these delays easily.
Saskatchewan Provincial Sales Tax Cut
Andrew Thomson announced in the legislature that the sales tax for Saskatchewan will be cut from 7% to 5% effective tomorrow. This change is due to the current oil and gas boom that the government is currenly enjoying. This is their way of giving back to the people of the province. This cut moves the sales tax one percent below the old level that it was at before the NDP were re-elected in 2003. The move puts Saskatchewan with the lowest PST in the country besides Alberta which doesn’t have a provincial sales tax. This news comes a little late for myself, having bought a new car two weeks ago; which kind of sucks because that kind of tax break would actually mean a lot to me.
Early Digg Video from The ScreenSavers
The Techcrunch blog uncovered an early video of digg. Kevin Rose was presenting the site on The Screen Savers back in December 2004. The reason I found the video interesting is the way in which Kevin was describing the whole thing. He kept talking about the site as if it wasn’t actually his. In reality, Kevin was one of the founding members of the site, and this whole self promotion without letting anyone know its his site seems kind of deceptive. I don’t really know why he wasn’t more upfront with the matter that it was his. Maybe the producers at G4TV wouldn’t have allowed him to show it has they known. Either way, I remember that it wasn’t long after this video that he actually quit G4. Regardless, the video itself shows off a very old version of Digg with a lot less features and an uglier design. Take a look here.
ICBC surges 15% in first day of Trading
Industrial and Commerical Bank of China (SHA:601398) stock increased 15% after its first day of trading. The stock raised $21 billion in its initial public offering last week and are the largest bank in China. They have 355,000 employees and $800 billion in assets. They are one strong bank that shouldn’t be going anywhere for a long time. There has been a lot of foreign interest in these Chinese banks due to the expoding growth in their economy. With annual GDP growth of over 10% for the last 7 years or so, you can tell that all forms of business are going to be doing well. While I was in China, I did my banking through the much smaller and more inconvenient China Merchant’s Bank. That was probably a poor choice in a bank since they weren’t as common thus making their ATMs for. I still have my debit card, and there is probably a chance my account might still be open (although with pennies as a balance).
Source – International Herald Tribune