canada

Motorola announced this week that the Droid 3 will soon make its way north of the border, arriving exclusively as the Bell Mobility XT860 4G. Save for the difference in network support, the specifications read identical to its Verizon Wireless counterpart and should make for a terrific addition to the carrier's lineup.

Features include Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a five-row sliding QWERTY keyboard, 4-inch qHD display, a dual-core 1GHz processor, and an 8-megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p HD video. If the model number wasn't a dead giveaway, the XT860 4G offers support for Bell's growing 4G … Read more

Canadian Staples stores are failing to fully wipe customer data off returned laptops and storage devices before reselling them, thus violating Canada's privacy laws, the CBC News reports.

More than a third of the 149 storage devices tested by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, including laptops and USB hard drives, still had customer data on them--despite undergoing a wipe and restore process to be readied for resale. Some of the lingering information was reportedly pretty sensitive, including things like tax and ID records and passport numbers.

"Our findings are particularly disappointing given we had already investigated two complaints against Staples involving returned data storage devices and the company had committed to taking corrective action," commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said in a press release. "While Staples did improve procedures and control mechanisms after our investigations, the audit showed those procedures and controls were not consistently applied, nor were they always effective, leaving customers' personal information at serious risk." … Read more

Canadians will be packing more plastic in their wallets with the launch of new polymer bills that replace paper-cotton notes.

The Canadian dollar has traded above parity with the U.S. greenback for months, and gets technologically tougher with the new plastic money designed to thwart counterfeiters.

The polypropylene substrate lasts 2.5 times longer and makes it harder to copy than the existing paper-cotton money, according to the Bank of Canada. It marks the first full-scale use of a substrate other than paper for Canada's currency.

The two-windowed $100 note enters circulation in November and celebrates Canadian contributions to science. Aside from images of DNA, an ECG, insulin, and a researcher using a microscope, it has two portraits of Prime Minister Robert Borden. One is a unique holographic likeness set in a clear plastic window that changes colors with the viewing angle.

As seen in the promo vid below, other security features include raised ink, transparent text, and hidden numbers. If you look through the frosted maple leaf emblem at a single-point light source and hold it close to your eye, you'll see a hidden circle of numbers that match the face value of the note. … Read more

In addition to shaking hands with a robot to regain motor skills, stroke patients may be able to retrain their brains and recover hand motion by playing video games with a sensor glove developed at McGill University.

Mechanical engineering students under Rosaire Mongrain produced the Biomedical Sensor Glove in cooperation with Montreal start-up Jintronix.

The prototype has inertial measurement units to track the movement of the wrist, palm, and index finger. Patients play a video game involving a virtual hand that manipulates objects.

Associated software produces 3D models and lets patients monitor their progress at home. The system also sends data to treating physicians so they can keep tabs on the recovery process.

"The glove could take on many forms, and even rings alone could be used," Mongrain says. "The technology could also benefit people learning surgery and instruments such as piano."

Similar commercial gloves exist, but cost tens of thousands of dollars. By using cheaper sensors, the Biomedical Sensor Glove would cost about $1,000 to produce. Jintronix has submitted the idea to Grand Challenges Canada, an international development NPO, for funding.

Yet another good reason to keep playing video games. … Read more

It's lovely when old laws try to prevent new ways. It's like your grandma trying to take your PlayStation away.

Canada, for example, has section 329 of its Elections Act. It tells anyone who happens to be insensitive or insensate enough to transmit election results that they will be fined 25,000 quite valuable Canadian dollars--and, perhaps, be offered a mere five years in jail.

So along come those bespectacled nerdy types who go and invent things like Twitter--mechanisms that allow you to be a town crier to an especially large and populous town.

Now a Canadian in … Read more

After launching Friday in 25 countries outside the U.S., Apple's iPad 2 was already sold out by Saturday afternoon across major markets, according to several reports.

The long lines of iPad 2 buyers in the United Kingdom apparently scooped up all the available stock from Apple's stores and other retail outlets throughout the country.

Speaking with Apple stores in Regent Street and Covent Garden areas in London, the Web site Pocket-Lint found that supplies were depleted on Saturday with no more stock expected yesterday and no indication of new iPad 2s today. The situation was generally the … Read more

A cyberattack against Canada that tried to access classified government information and forced two key departments to go offline has been traced back to China, according to a story today from CBC News.

Sources told the CBC that the attacks were initially discovered in early January but that it's unknown whether the attackers themselves were in China or just directed their attacks through the country to hide their true source.

Specifically, the attacks reached computer systems at the Canadian government's Finance Department and Treasury Board in an attempt to capture passwords for government databases. In response, the government … Read more

Editor's note: This story originally ran in 2009. In the spirit of the holidays, we thought we'd run this touching piece again.

On a recent Christmas Eve, Jeff Martin found himself forced to explain to a Canadian general why, when Santa Claus passed through Toronto that night, Google Maps had placed the city in the United States.

Martin, then a senior marketing manager in Google's Geo group, was part of a huge team of people involved in the joint U.S.-Canada North American Aerospace Defense Command's annual NORAD Santa tracker program, a long-running effort to … Read more

The Internet finally seems to be as popular as TV, according to a study released yesterday by Forrester.

Based on a survey, the research firm's report found that people in the U.S. on average spend around 13 hours a week online, the same amount of time they spend watching TV.

As usual, the results vary by age. People ages 18 to 30 have been spending more time on the Internet than watching TV for awhile. But this marks the first Forrester study in which folks in the 32 to 44 group also are online more than they are … Read more