Postal Strike Information

It appears that the Conservative government is planning of tabling back to work legislation to end the postal strike that started today.

Canada Post had decided to lock out their employees and now mail service to and from the urban centers has stopped.

Mail is no longer being accepted, collected or distributed in most Canadian cities except for select government issued cheques. But some smaller communities may still recieve mail because their postal services are handled by the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association, thought it should be noted that they will not accept mail from customers.

Canada Post‘s e-Post site is still up and running so you can get your bills from that service or online directly from the businesses you deal with.

BTW, some retailers do offer alternative shipping methods to their Canadian customers.

The following Canadian retailers offer an option to ship to their local stores :

Bestbuy.ca
Futureshop.ca
www.sears.ca
thesource.ca

The following Canadian retailers offer courier shipping :

chapters.indigo.ca (Greater Toronto Area)
Sony Style Canada (Major Cities/By Appointment)
Tigerdirect.ca – FREE SHIPPING* on selected PC Deals at TigerDirect!

Amazon.ca has stated that alternative shipping methods will be made available. But delays in regards to sellers that use Canada Post are to be expected.

It should be noted that Amazon.com do offer courier service regularily to Canadians.

They use DHS Global Mail for Standard and Expedited Shipping, and UPS or DHL for Priority Shipping. BUT shipments valued above $20 Canadian may incur importation fees, which in this case would be administed by the courier, in addition to the standard duties and taxes.

International shipments valued at less than $20 are not subject to duties, taxes or importation fees because of the Low Value Shipment (LVS) process at the Canadian Border Services Agency, with some restrictions.

Additional information in regards to the possible alternatives will be added to this blog entry a.s.a.p. You can also keep track of the strike using these two links :

Canada Post Updates / Canadian Union Of Postal Workers

June 15th, 2011 1 Comment Consumer Information Rob McIntyre

Canada Post Reduces Deliveries

In response to the lack of mail traffic, Canada Post has decided to reduce deliveries in urban centers to three per week. Mail will be delivered on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

June 14th, 2011 Comments Off on Canada Post Reduces Deliveries Consumer Information Rob McIntyre

More Clouds In Forecast

Another online music retailer has decided to create a Cloud service.

American subscription service eMusic are hoping to launch their own Cloud service in the fall or winter.

This company had just recently secured the rights to EMI‘s older catalog, enabling members access to EMI recordings that are over 12 months old.

June 12th, 2011 Comments Off on More Clouds In Forecast Consumer Information, Music Technology Rob McIntyre

Hewlett-Packard Cloud Service

It appears that HP might unviel a new cloud service for their new Touchpad, according to Billboard, who confirmed the labels were in negotiations with this company.

The new Touchpad will be released on July 1st in the United States and July 15th in Canada. It will be available for pre-order from HP Canada on June 19.

June 10th, 2011 Comments Off on Hewlett-Packard Cloud Service Consumer Information, Music Industry, Music Technology Rob McIntyre

Gouging Canadians – Mobile Data Roaming

So the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has confirmed what every Canadian cell phone and mobile data user has suspected for years, and more so. Canadians are being gouged when it comes to mobile data roaming charges.

According to their May 30th study, Canadians that download and upload whilst roaming are charged some of the highest fees in the world, at up to US$24.61 per 1 MB transfer on a laptop.

These rates are of course prohibitive when it comes to the viewing and uploading of digital photographs and videos. But the use of cloud services whilst roaming are also subject to these enormous fees, as are music downloads.

I personally believe that though somewhat inconvenient at times, WI-FI is the preferable option for any traveler that wishes to transfer files to and from their devices.

Free WI-FI is available in many hotels, motels, campgrounds, airports and chains like Starbucks and McDonalds though-out Canada and the United States. And some hotels also offer faster wired connections, in select rooms of course.

Personally i’ve saved quite alot of money using Skype in hotel rooms and campgrounds in the past, using these free connections. And there is an option to limit transfers to wi-fi on the new iCloud service, so there are ways to avoid these fees altogether.

June 9th, 2011 Comments Off on Gouging Canadians – Mobile Data Roaming Consumer Information, Music Technology Rob McIntyre

iCloud Beta Available

An iCloud beta is available in a new version of iTunes.

Version 10.3 will include access to the service, which will enable Apple product users to automatically download their iTunes music purchases to their devices via wi-fi or 3G, free.

When activated the service will automatically send past and future purchases to every device or computer registered to the service. And in the Fall a service called “iTunes Match” will enable iTunes users to add up to 20,000 non-iTunes recordings to the iCloud service, without uploading these recordings to a server.

As previously mentioned, the basic iCloud service will be free to iTunes users whilst the Match service will cost $24.99 per year.

Note that this beta is not available through normal program updates. The most recent version available through the program is 10.2.2.

June 7th, 2011 2 Comments Music Industry, Music Technology Rob McIntyre