Canadian Apple Stores won’t be selling iPhone 3G!

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Portable Audio / Video

So, remember that story we posted yesterday about Canada’s Rogers Wireless ripping off iPhone 3G customers? Well, apparently, that wasn’t the end of that story. Since yesterday, we have found out that Apple has decided to reroute some of the iPhone 3G units that were meant for Canada, and they are instead sending them to Europe. Now, just a few minutes ago, the news broke that Apple Stores up in Canada will not be carrying the iPhone 3G as planned. This decision is obviously a direct response to the ridiculous prices ($60 per month for 150 minutes of talk time) that Rogers Wireless has decided to place on the iPhone 3G plans. This is getting juicy!

Read More | AppleInsider

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Nokia Takes Another Stab at the N-Gage

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Hardware, Portable/Mobile

Apparently Nokia is nothing if not persistent. This week Nokia plans to introduce a third cell phone to bear the name N-Gage and try yet again to gain some traction with its cell phone/game device hybrid. This time they spent some time with the design firm Ideo to research what consumers wanted in such a device and think they have it right this time. “The graphics problem has been removed. And phones today are always connected and you always carry them with you. Phones are now the perfect device for gaming,” says product manager Tomi Huttula.

Most curious perhaps is the decision to stick with the name N-Gage, which at this point carries some pretty negative baggage. The idea of a cell phone that plays half decent games isn’t particularly bad on the face of it but the Finland-based company learned the hard way in 2003 that gamers, who are likely to be the early adopters and initial market for such a device, won’t jump on board just because an idea has potential but lacks proper execution. There’s no reason to stick with the brand name when it has already failed twice.

Still, Nokia seems undaunted by past disappointments and is focusing this time around on the multiplayer features and streamlining the experience to be more attractive to casual gamers. Also Nokia isn’t focusing on a single model this time around but will offer N-Gage games on a few of its Series 60 smartphones, presumably as a trial run, before gradually expanding to all Series 60 models. The prices have yet to be announced, but more details should be available later in the week.

Read More | New York Times via Game | Life

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Xbox 360 Gets Warranty Extension

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Xbox 360

While the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii both had one year warranties (15 months for the Wii when registered), the Xbox 360 had trailed with a mere 90 day warranty. Now, Microsoft has extended the warranty on all Xbox 360 consoles, past and present, to one full year. Those users who have had to have their consoles repaired in the past will qualify for reimbursement of those fees.

The early Xbox 360 consoles were somewhat notorious for their failure rate. While Microsoft initially downplayed this issue, eventually they owned up to the problems and offered free repairs and a warranty extension for those users. Some complaints on the Internet indicate there are still problems with some Xbox 360 consoles shipped.

Microsoft’s press release announces the warranty extension as a customer satisfaction measure. This may be in response to Xbox 360 issues, but also as a way to address implied reliability issues by the gap in warranty length compared to the other consoles. For whatever the reason, this a good thing for Xbox 360 owners.

The full press release continues after the jump.

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