Cineplex had planned to convert some of the Empire Theaters they purchased across Canada by labor day this year. But I have been informed by a customer service representative that it has been delayed because of a regulatory issue.
I will post updates to this blog on this a.s.a.p.
Puretracks and several Puretracks powered sites appear to have gone down over the weekend.
My brother made me aware of this problem last Friday and I had assumed they were updating or were subject to a glitch. But I am still unable to access the sites as of 1 AM Eastern Time on September 3rd, 2013.
Complaints about the inaccessibility of the site also appear on the service’s Facebook page. But I have not been able to find much of anything else online.
They haven’t posted anything on their Facebook or Twitter account about an issue, though the latter has entries from the 30th of August that imply Puretracks is gone, allegedly from people in the company.
A new version of Puretracks had gone online on June 14th, 2013. But apparently customers weren’t satisfied with the new site according to several Facebook entries and I’m guessing that some of their customers were lured elsewhere with lower prices.
More and more cell providers are also offering unlimited streaming of music so I suspect Puretracks may be gone, though I have no confirmation of this other than a few rare scattered pieces of information on the internet.
I’ve contacted Pizza Pizza in regards to this issue because they seem to be having problems as well with chooseyoursongs.com, a Puretrack powered site where their customers can redeem Peel ‘N Win music downloads.
I will of course update this entry if I find something else.
UPDATE: Pizza Pizza has moved their Peal ‘N Win music download code redemption to Universal Music Group’s Getmusic.ca.
The Calgary Herold reported yesterday that new fees for international performers have been introduced on July 31st, 2013.
Non-Canadian musicians, technicians, sound engineers, crew members and tour managers may now be subject to a $275 fee, per person, per venue. This amount is added to the $150 work permit fee that most of these people are required to pay to work in Canada.
Prior to the introduction of this fee most bands were subject to a maximum of $450 to play Canada’s smaller venues. But now the fees have quadrupled for some international acts resulting in extra expenditures that will be passed along to consumers.
This new fee will also hurt new and upcoming international performers who have not yet gained enough of an audience in Canada to play the larger venues, some of which are tax exempt.
A petition against the implementation of this fee is available at change.org. Please consider signing this petition.
Thank You.
Select Rexall pharmacies are offering a $10 discount on $50 iTunes gift cards until August 22nd, 2013.
Please consult your local Rexall flyer for details.
Yesterday I was browsing my usual sources when I noticed that several game consoles
Reading through the technical specifications one can gather that both the
PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Both have Blu-ray players so they can play DVDs and Blu-ray discs and both have access to music and film services online via an Ethernet port or 802.11 b/g/n wireless network connectivity.
Cloud services are a big selling point with both consoles and both of these devices are powered by 8-core x86 processors with 8GB of RAM so they should be able to handle everything. But I haven’t been able to confirm an ability to use Skype on the PlayStation 4
.
I don’t know if they are expecting to implement it in response to the requests by PS3 users. But they did install it on the Vita so a Skype app may make it’s way onto the PlayStation 4
like it has on Xbox One
I haven’t explored the full functionality of Skype on my home entertainment system. But I would want to have access to it so I’m going to look into this a little more.
In regards to Youtube and Facebook, both devices appear to have apps to handle those social networks so I would probably use either to browse both sites. And both devices will probably have CinemaNow and Netflix apps, in case I want to use those online film rental services.
The ability to stream music and video from home computers and network drives is also made available on both devices.
A DLNA compatible network drive should be accessible on the PlayStation 4 whilst media on Windows PCs should be accessible on the Xbox One
allows the use of used games, allowing me to dabble in gaming as well.
The PlayStation 4’s lower sticker price at $399 makes it more attractive than the $499 Xbox One
I currently have a Blu-ray player and Smart TV with most of the apps and capabilities that I want but either game consoles would probably fulfill my needs if I were to decide to upgrade. And I have no particular preference for either when it comes to games because most of the games I play are on my Windows based PC.
Had the Xbox One