• more about #canada more comments →
    Benjello Jiggler: It did because some classless little twat at some little Ad agency is thoughtful enough to assume that this is funny. And old people handling a phone.... more »
    Pope John Peeps II: Haha. "This game was first played in 1299... And I think some of these people were there." more »
    frigg: The sarcastic dig is inconsequential. What's remarkable is Palm's further development of ads that make you not want to buy their product at all. I... more »
    takeshi: Oh please -- as if we don't constantly dig on the Canadians... more »
    dcdttu: Uh, Canadians are 'Americans' too. Seriously... more »
    Rodime: hehe, bell is just doing publicly what we all do privately - Make fun of you fat idiots down south. I mean, what other country would elect someone lik... more »
    UnderLoK: Good thing I'm north of Canada, in Detroit. more »
    Curves: I worked for a Canadian firm and most of my co-workers were Canadians in the US. The only activity I ever saw them seriously engage in was drinking o... more »
    SigmundTheSeaMonster: Now which Canadians? The French or the good ones? more »
    diskdaddy: We're (Canadians) afraid of our "Nazi Healthcare" system so we need to keep in tip-top shape. Got to keep the bureaucrats from coming to our doors wi... more »
  • #advertising

    Wait, Did This Bell Palm Pre Video Just Diss Americans?

    Bell Canada's latest Pre promo video is intended to illustrate the phone's ease of use in a tongue-in-cheek way. But its opening line certainly caught our attention: "Unlike our neighbors to the south, Canadians are an active people…" More »
  • #rumor

    Is Apple Really Releasing an 8GB iPhone 3GS? (Confirmed: No)

    Would Apple really ship something so regressive and line-mudding as that? Yes, according to Canadian carrier Rogers' website. Also, no, according to Canadian carrier Rogers' website, and salespeople. Let's take a gander at the evidence! UPDATED: False alarm, as suspected. More »
  • #durability

    iPod Classic Survives Deep Freeze in the Yukon

    In the melting ice, amidst the thawing dog crap, Whitehorse, Yukon resident Andrew noticed an oddly-familiar rectangular item: An iPod classic. He brought it home and found, to his surprise, that it was fully functional. More »
  • #heavymachinery

    Two Dudes Perform Dizzying Feat of Strength In Tractor Factory

    How wide is the hallway in this heavy machine factory outside of Edmonton, Alberta? Wide as two crazy men, according to this shot, sent by one of the show-offs. Two words, Ryan: Workers' Comp.
  • #winter

    Nationalistic Canadians Sculpt Giant BlackBerry Out of Ice

    Who says Canada sucks for gadgets? Oh, wait. Well, Ottawa's Winterlude festival includes this huge icy BlackBerry (Curve 8900?), showing hometown hero RIM's contribution to the gadget world. Way to represent, eh? [thanks, Ryan!]
  • #rumor

    Purported Rogers Phone Roadmap Makes Me Want To Move To Canada (Not Really)

    Who says Canada sucks for gadget lovers? This leaked Rogers/Fido roadmap says they'll get just about everything next year, including a 3G Blackberry Pearl Flip and a Storm with (ohgod) Wi-Fi.
  • #yourtaxdollarsatwork

    US to Deploy Drone Aircraft Along Canadian Border to Prevent Bacon Smuggling

    We all know who the real threats to our American way of life are: Canadians. That's why unmanned drone aircraft are set to start patrolling the US/Canadian border.
  • #robots

    Underwater Canadian Robots the Latest Weapon in the Battle for Arctic Oil

    Apparently our polite neighbors to the north, the Canadians, are going to use two underwater robots to bolster their claims over the Arctic in 2010. These twin $4 million Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (not T-1000's, lame), are being constructed by the very un-Cyberdyne sounding International Submarine Engineering to scout out and claim potential drilling locations in the cold north. The ice cold Arctic, as you may know, is a hotly contested territory for the Canadians, Russians, Norwegians, Danes, and United States. Sadly, there are no frickin' laser beams. Which is too bad, because we're positive Putin armed his Russian robot submersibles to the teeth. At the very least, they'll have GPS. More »
  • #apple

    Large, Goliath-Sized Apple Tells Small, David-Sized School to Stop Using Logo

    Apple is again flexing its immense legal muscle today with a threat of legal action against a small Vancouver Island business school over the use of the Apple logo. The tiny Victoria School of Business and Technology, which may remind some of a certain Biblical character named David, adopted the Apple-esque logo in 2005. Apple Inc., which may remind some of an angry, Biblical giant named Goliath, has used its trademark apple icon for the past 30 years. More »
  • #science

    Scientists Discover New State of Matter, Could Be Used To Upgrade Microchips

    McGill University researchers have discovered a new state of matter to go along with good ol' solid, liquid, gas, plasma and a handful of quantum states—it's called a quasi-three-dimensional electron crystal. While the name sounds like something that would sap Superman's powers, this new state of matter could be used to fabricate modern transistors and continue Moore's Law... possibly indefinitely. More »
  • #weaponry

    Pixels for Pistols Trades Guns for Digital Cameras

    Pixels for Pistols is a Toronto-based effort by the Henry's camera chain allowing anyone to trade in a gun, no questions asked, for a Nikon Coolpix S52 or Coolpix P60 camera. That's it. You give a gun and get a camera in an effort to get rid of unused guns that could be stolen and misused for crime. Lasting for four weeks, the venture has been so successful that gun owners across Ontario have been calling in to donate, despite not being eligible since they aren't local. And hose folks have come up with some quirky solutions of their own. From The Star: More »
  • #winterscoming

    Freehands Gloves Shield Your Soft Hands from Mild Winters

    Freehands gloves are a cute idea: uncover the thumb and forefinger so you can operate capacitive touchscreens, like the iPhone's, without removing your gloves. Past touchscreen-capable gloves (like these and these) have some sort of attachment on the outside of the glove so you don't have to expose your fingers. I'm singularly qualified to explain the problem here, because unlike the other Giz writers, I've lived in Canada. More »
  • #buckleup

    The History of Computing as Told by Pixelated Dancing Scientists (and Jim Guthrie)

    You might think the history of personal computing is way too complex to explain in under four minutes. But Canadian animators Superbrothers teamed up with singer-songwriter and all-around awesome dude Jim Guthrie to create this amazing music video that'll prove you wrong. The story: two heavily-pixelated scientists have a dance battle that echoes the transition from primitive '60s computers to today's cloud computing. The video is after the jump. More »
  • #uselections

    Canadian Retailer Uses Honesty and Anti-US Sentiment to Sell HDTVs

    The above pic is a splash screen you can see when visiting Canadian electronics and appliance retailer Easyhome, notifying visitors of a four-day sale. Depicted on the Sony TV in front of the American flag is a politician flashing pearly whites and a double-thumbed "This guy!" Beneath him is the none-too-veiled message "Even BS looks good on a 52-inch HD LCD TV." Maybe so, Canada, but some think it's even better with the volume all the way down. [Easyhome - Thanks Chris!]
  • #blackberrybold

    Rogers BlackBerry Bold Price Does Not Bode Well

    Our Canuck neighbors might be getting the BlackBerry Bold before we do, but they'll be paying through the nose for it—$399.99 on a three-year contract according to a leaked flyer. While Rogers does tend to run higher than the US on smartphones (though they are offering the iPhone 3G for $199), this does seem to dash any hope of seeing it below $300 on AT&T, or $249 in an aggressive pricing scenario. [CrackBerry]
  • #blackberrybold

    Yao Ming Sized BlackBerry Bold Comes With Rogers' Launch Kit

    BlackBerry News found this Rogers launch kit of the BlackBerry Bold somewhere up in Canada. So not only is Rogers getting it earlier than AT&T, whose launch is ridiculously mired in delays, but they're getting a gigantic murder-sized version of the phone as well? We say murder-sized because that's exactly the tool we see cellphone store employees being bludgeoned to death with by frustrated customers. Even Mr. Monk wouldn't be able to figure out what the murder weapon was. [BlackBerry News]
  • #iphone

    Rogers Caves, Offers 6GB iPhone 3G Monthly Data Plan for $30

    Canucks screamed, Rogers listened. Word from the North this morning is that Rogers will be offering a promotional 6GB data plan for $30 bucks a month if you activate a three-year contract before August 31—not the unlimited data we Yanks will be using, but pretty close. Click on for the full release from the horse's mouth. [Rogers] More »
  • #apple

    Apple Not Selling iPhones in Canadian Apple Stores on Launch Day

    Apple's apparently so fed up with the high pricing that Rogers is shoving into Canadian iPhone owners' faces that there will be no iPhone 3Gs sold at Apple Stores in Canada this Friday. This follows up Apple's previous action of diverting stock from Canada to Europe, and really sets the tone that they're unhappy with Rogers' $60 for 150 minutes, 75 SMS messages and 400MB data plan. So what's the deal? Canadians who still want one will have to line up early to get one of the 10-20 units per store that Rogers is getting. If we were you, we'd stay home and wait for Rogers to admit defeat, stop slapping its customers in the face and lower its prices. [Apple Insider]
  • #happycanadaday

    Why Canada Sucks For Gadget Lovers

    Until a week ago, I did not own a pair of shorts, but I did have two plaid flannel shirts and a drawer full of thick woolen socks. I say "to-more-owe," not "to-mah-row," and I went to "university," not "college." I have a full beard in the heat of summer. My passport reads United States of America, but I haven't lived here in four years. Yes, I was living in Canada, who today celebrates the peaceful unification of the Eastern provinces in 1867. Our northerly neighbo(u)rs were always kind to me, providing cheap higher education, affordable healthcare and a government that didn't totally suck balls. I loved living there, and haven't ruled out moving back. Yet beneath its placid exterior, there is a deep, dark secret threatening the life and liberty of its people: It absolutely blows to be a gadget nerd in Canada. More »
  • #icanada

    Canadians Write Angry Letter to Steve Jobs Over iPhone Plan in the Great White North

    Over a year after their Southern neighbors, Canadians are finally getting their hands on the magical iPhone. But Rogers Communications, the only carrier with a contract to sell the phone, has a data plan that makes AT&T look positively philanthropic. A $75 a month plan comes with a mandatory 3-year contract, 100 text messages, 300 weekday minutes, and a 750MB cap on 3G usage. To combat this injustice, Canadians have appealed to the top dog himself, Steve Jobs, in a letter asking him to intervene on their behalf. More »
  • #dontkillmebro

    Study Finds That One-Third Of Taser Victims Need Medical Attention

    Only days after Taser International was found liable in a wrongful death suit, a new study conducted by CBC News/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Press have concluded that one in three people shot by a Taser require medical attention. The information was gathered from RCMP incident reports filed between 2002 and 2007. Of the 3,226 tasings laid down during that period, 910 of the victims went to a medical facility to treat their injuries—and many more potentially serious cases did not seek treatment. More »
  • #blackberrybold

    Canadian Carrier Rogers Getting BlackBerry Bold June 25, Way Ahead of AT&T?

    Boy Genius is hearing that Canadian carrier Rogers is launching the BlackBerry Bold as early as June 25—a month or more ahead of the July/August release we've been hearing for AT&T in the U.S., where it has first dibs. We hope they're either wrong or AT&T's dropping it quicker than expected, since we hate it when the Canucks beat us at anything. BGR says nothing on RIM's end is holding up the launch. We can't figure it out—it's not like there's another big phone launching in the next couple weeks or anything that AT&T would want to clear space for. [BGR] More »
  • #itunesmovies

    iTunes Movie Purchases and Rentals Go to UK and Canada

    Apple's finally taken their movies to the UK and Canada, giving them 700 and 1200 films respectively to buy or rent. The flicks will be available the same day as their DVD release, and if you've got an Apple TV, you can watch 100 (UK) or 200 (Canada) of them in HD on your TV. Both countries have the standard 30 days to start watching a rental, and 48 hours after you've started to finish it. If you've been aching to give Apple the money you used to give retailers and not have to shower and get dressed in order to buy a movie, this is fantastic news! [Apple (UK) and Apple (Canada)]
  • #taser

    Canadian Cops Tase Knife-Wielding 82-Year-Old Patient in his Hospital Bed

    The cops in Canada seem to be getting the hang of the Taser business. Mounties summoned to a British Columbia hospital tased an octogenarian patient after he pulled a knife from his pocket. Eighty-two-year-old Frank Lasser, who was suffering from pneumonia and had been admitted to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, claimed that sometimes he got delusional when he got short of breath. Did that, however, make it right for the police to tase him, bro? More »
  • #apple

    Canadian iPod Owners Get $44 Each For Crappy Battery Life (Thanks, Budday!)

    I love when life imitates art. A few weeks after a South Park episode where indignant Canadians go on strike and are rewarded with Bennigan's coupons, indignant Canadian iPod owners go to court and win roughly the equivalent of a meal at Bennigan's: $44. Why? Because the 1G, 2G and 3G iPods that were supposed to have battery life of up to 8 hours instead delivered a paltry 3 hours, according to two separate rulings in Canadian court. Still up for settlement: the lawsuit by the Canadian gentleman who discovered that his 8GB nano only has 7.45GB of storage. He wants $220, but he'll take $92. [InformationWeek]
  • #gaming

    Weird Combo of the Day: More Cowbell Hat With Purchase of Rock Band or Guitar Hero III

    If there's one thing Canadians know how to do, it's party it up with either Rock Band or Guitar Hero III. Seen in this flyer by reader John, you get a free "More Cowbell" hat whenever you buy either of the two games. Walken, who made another appearance on SNL over the weekend (monologue was great, the rest was meh), would approve. [Thanks John!]
  • #happyhookah

    Hookah Table Not What It Sounds Like, Thank Gawd

    Not something that you frak your lady of the night on top of, nor anything to do with William Shatner, Adrian Zmed and Heather Locklear, the Hookah Table is a customized table that you can get high on, as well as under. Costing around $600 bucks, there's a bowl on top, which I guess you can put the salt in when your folks come round for dinner, and four hoses for you and your mates to suck on after your Mom has done the washing up and the coast is clear. You can choose from loads of different finishes (sadly, Happy is not one of them) but I'm sure if Ms Locklear makes it to yours you could ask her if she's up for it. [Hookah Tables via BallerHouse]
  • #gadgets

    Gen-X Author Douglas Coupland Claims that Technology Makes Idiots of Us All

    Douglas Coupland has been drafted in to fill Stephen Fry's shoes on his tech column Dork Talk, while the British polymath recovers from a broken arm. The Canadian author and artist has tackled the subject of gadgets and obsolescence, taking as his starting-point the fact that the box of techno-baubles he received from The Guardian in London were all unworkable in North America. And this got him thinking, about how time is now measured in "tech-waves." If that's the case, then what era are we currently in? More »
  • #moose

    Scientists Discover that Moose Antlers Act as Amplifiers

    The secret of a moose's exceptional hearing is down to its antlers, apparently. Scientists have discovered that those cool, gnarly things that look so fabulous perched atop the furry freaks act as amplifiers, allowing Mr Moose to be able to hear things up to 2 miles away. Added to the animal's already acute hearing—it's to do with its large ears that rotate in almost every direction, apparently—antlers improve the beast's audio capacities by as much as 19 per cent. More »
  • #identitycrisis

    Photographer Mistaken for Gunman

    Sheridan College in Ontario was locked down last Friday because it was suspected a gunman was on the premises. Thankfully, it was a false alarm, but how do you mistake a gunman? Apparently, all it took was a lone photographer, some camouflage cargo pants and his free-standing tripod. More »
  • #ces2008

    Bill Gates Farewell CES Keynote Cheat Sheet

    Right this minute, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is taking the stage to face the adoring throngs at CES for the last time. Before he moves on to the greater task of solving the world's problems, he will look back on his previous keynotes, talk about where Microsoft is headed, and make a few final announcements. Here are the Cliff's Notes to his last CES speech ever: More »
  • #madefreshdaily

    Umbra Concept Store Gets a Replicator

    Umbra, known for low-cost designy plastic kitchen and bathroom tchotchkes, seems like the perfect brand to start doing in-store fabrication of its less microchippy wares. Up in Toronto, Umbra's concept store features a 3D printer, and designers come to the store to work, creating models of their designs—you can see what looks like little candleholders or something to the left of the system. This isn't a full-fledged factory, but seeing this makes it easy to appreciate the old wax-toy machines, updated for the 21st century. Now, if only someone could make a 3D printer that didn't look so, well, 25th century. [Make]
  • #alienatingaliens

    Boffins Say E.T. Too Bored By Our Messages To Phone Home

    Radio messages we've sent whizzing out into space over the years to try to contact aliens may simply be too boring for extra-terrestrial beings to answer, say a couple of Canadian astrophysicists. Tedious bits of math, physics and biology normally on offer may just be intellectual spam to alien minds. Find out what boffins Yvan Dutil and Stephane Dumas suggest we should send instead after the jump. More »
  • #lights

    Neighbor-Networked Christmas Lights Are Four Shades of Awesome

    Whatever Christmas light scheme your dad cooked up as a kid most likely pales in comparison to these four Canadian families, who connected their Xmas lights together in a network-choreographed way. As you can see in the video, the lights go off according to pre-programmed timers (like the water fountains at the Bellagio) that are posted on their website so you can sync your own house up to them. Better yet, you can even log on and change their patterns yourself either from your desktop or your BlackBerry. Best. Lights. Ever. [Calico.whittaker.ca via BlackBerry Cool]
  • #readthefineprint

    Canadian Hoser Runs Up $85,000 Mobile Phone Bill

    How do you manage to run up an $85,000 mobile phone bill you ask? Apparently, 22-year-old Calgary native Piotr Staniaszek was under the impression that his $10 "unlimited browser plan" on Bell Mobility gave him carte blanche to use his cellphone as a PC modem. Unfortunately, when a $60,000 bill arrived in his mailbox for the month of November he learned the hard way that this was not the case. The charges were later upped to $85,000 "because the company was charging him on a per-kilobyte basis." More »
  • #apple

    Apple Takes iTunes TV to Canada

    Today, TV programming from Canada and the US—plus the NHL, eh—will be available north of the border on iTunes. You lucky ducks (looneys?) get such CBC and CTV smash hits as Corner Gas and Little Mosque on the Prairie along with US programming from the likes of Comedy Central, including the strangely inappropriate South Park. (What ever happened to "Blame Canada"?) Canada has only had to wait two years for access to TV shows on iTunes. By my calculations, that means Apple is still well ahead of TiVo in terms of serving the media needs of our hockey-loving northern brethren. More »
  • #jesuswept

    Canadians Finally Get TiVo

    Every once in a while we read a mundane press release—in this case, announcing that Canada gets TiVo—and just start laughing. Poor Canada is finally getting TiVo service, "just in time for the holiday season." But that's not the funniest part. The only hardware available will be the TiVo Series2, standard def, last gen DVR for 199 CAD. Merry Christmas, Canada. Now I know how Koreans look at American cellphone technology. On an unrelated note, Gizmodo will be starting a DVR drive for an unspecified, commercial-pausing-impoverished North American country. Here's the full TiVo press release: More »
  • #aiko

    World's Worst Fembot Slaps Your Face When You Touch Her Boobs

    More »
  • #toronto

    Biggest BSOD of All Time?

    At one of Toronto's locations of The Bay department store, four giant screens have suffered from the infamous Blue Screen of Death for days. You'd think that someone would, I dunno, turn off the freakin' screens. Or, at minimum, there's gotta be some 2.4gHz nanny cam feed they could leech for at least a few days before anyone complained. Because after the first 24 hours or so of BSOD, we begin to think that they like the aesthetic. [freshdaily]
  • #lame

    Copyright Board of Canada Plans to Tax Legal Music Downloads

    Oh, Canada. You already tax MP3 players and blank CDs. Now you want to tax downloads themselves? The Copyright Board of Canada has given the thumbs-up to a tax of at least 2.1 cents for individual tracks and 1.5 cents per track for whole album purchases from online stores. Even subscription services will have taxes tacked on—5.7 to 6.8 percent of the monthly fee. Better still, the tax would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 1996. More »