All blog posts in Future Shop Community Forums

Re: Customer Service Face-off: Bell vs. Rogers Part 1

MathewKumar — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:54:21 GMT

Update! Bell actually work their way into a score worse than an F by making me wait all day today (for the second day) for an engineer who never comes. Three phone calls later they promise he'll be here before 8 p.m.. Will he get here in time to do the job, or not? Is it incredibly annoying that I am missing a pre-arranged appointment for work to continue to wait for an engineer who may not come? Sure is!

Re: Blockbuster expected to file for bankruptcy

Krypto — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:17:12 GMT

The other thing to remember here is that Blockbuster in the US is a seperate entity than Blockbuster in Canada, meaning that what happens in the US may not have a dramatic impact on the Canadian operations. Another thing to consider is that Blockbuster has become a retail location for WIND Mobile. This may adjust the profitability of Blockbuster in Canada and may extend their survival.

Of course though, Blockbuster in Canada may go the way of the dodo as well in the near future. As kiosks show up in retail outlets and as people begin using video on demand services, it will be more and more difficult for companies such as Blockbuster to survive, and many of the current things that are happening are likely just delaying the inevitable.

Blockbuster expected to file for bankruptcy

TeddyK — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:02:22 GMT

When Netflix announced that it was bringing its streaming service to Canada this fall, some pundits were citing it as the death knell for Blockbuster and other video rental stores. There were reports two weeks ago that Blockbuster was prepared to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., effectively ending any dominance the company once had in the video rental market.

Be Power Smart with back-to-school electronics purchases

tonymauro — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:03:07 GMT

It seems that with every back-to-school season the appetite to purchase electronics increases. Students want new computers, printers, scanners and a plethora of other devices to help achieve academic excellence (I’m sure it’s not about Facebook or Twitter).

Re: Customer Service Face-off: Bell vs. Rogers Part 1

AlexU — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:28:55 GMT

Yeah Mathew, I feel for you. Low competition environment is always like that. Same happens with cellphones when your rates for some reason in the middle of the contract go up 20% and no explanation is givven.

Re: Steve says, “The strongest iPod lineup we've ever had.”

Susan Nguyen — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:04:44 GMT

is the ipod touch out in stores yet ?!

Free and good? It’s for the birds!

bgrier — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:02:10 GMT

Occasionally you stumble across a cool tool or two that really make you wonder why you'd not seen them before.

In my case it was with the Myna audio editing software that's part of the Aviary suite. It's cool, it works well, it's online, and it's free!

Re: NHL Slapshot Needs Classic Controls

timhortons73 — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:18:12 GMT

I agree with the article....give me classic controller pro support. So I can play it the way I am use to...with a controller in my hand.

Re: The CD is Dead, Long Live The CD

buzzbishop — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:24:39 GMT

Agreed Kodak1 - making photobooks from images is one of my backup steps (and a great treat to flip through on a rainy afternoon). There are many sites offering great bookmaking options - I choose iPhoto as it's built in to my Mac.

For my first wedding anniversary I made my wife a photobook of pics from our wedding. Year 1 is paper, afterall.

PKG On Entertainment Tonight Canada

nicepkg — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:05:46 GMT

ET Canada loves how PKG can deck out your gadgets with glamour.

Customer Service Face-off: Bell vs. Rogers Part 1

MathewKumar — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:49:53 GMT

I've been away for a while. Miss me? maybe not! But I've been away because I've been moving apartments, and as pretty much everyone has moved homes at some point in their lives, I imagine you can relate to just how difficult it is. So whatever companies can do to make things easier is much appreciated. For example, there's the task of moving over your internet, phone, TV service, and so on. How easy do the big two, Bell and Rogers, make it?

Re: A Case For Geo Hashtagging

Tanya aka NetChick — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:23:41 GMT

Hey, thanks for the shoutout, Buzz!

It was really interesting to move from Vancouver to Calgary, and notice the very different way in which people connect here. Not bad, just different... And I think the #YYC hashtag absolutely helps the smaller online community feel connected both online and off.

I'll be interested to see how this carries on -- Perhaps Vancouver will pick up on the trend? It's definitely a more solid, but less "wholly connected" group there.

StarCraft II: 3 Million Sold In First Month

PaulH — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:38:38 GMT

Everyone expected StarCraft II to sell well, but three million copies in the first month proves that Blizzard's real-time strategy game still has lots of momentum.

PAX Report #3 Always bet on Duke

Graham — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:28:39 GMT

It's been over a decade, and I find myself in almost the same position I did over ten years ago: still waiting for Duke Nukem Forever. Unlike any other day in the last ten years, however, today is the day when I'll actually get to see-and play-the game dubbed vaporware of the decade. Even as I sit on the cold concrete of the Washington Convention Center I can't help but feel a thrill of unchecked excitement; even though the air smells slightly of unwashed gamers and it feels like this may bring about Ragnarok, the possibility of playing Duke Nukem Forever makes it worth it.

The line stretches onwards ahead of me. I'm not sure what time I would have to rouse myself to be at the front of this line. Like an old god awakening it begins to shift. I haven't long to wait now.

Heading into the hall it becomes clear that the wait will go on for the better part of the day. Hours pass. Nations rise and fall. The door finally opens; I am greeted by Randy Pitchford of Gearbox. This is unreal.

U.S. Video Game Industry Growing 7x Faster Than Economy

PaulH — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:40:08 GMT

Last year we looked at the explosive growth of the Canadian video game industry, but what about our neighbours to the south? According to a recent report from Economists Incorporated it appears the industry there is growing at much higher pace than the rest of the U.S. economy.

PAX Report #2 Get Your TRON on

Graham — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:26:01 GMT

I thought I recognized some of the guys at the TRON booth at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle; learning that Vancouver's own Propaganda Games was working on the title confirmed it. The last time I had seen many of the face here, Propaganda was winding down production of Turok and getting ready to launch it. While Turok's reception was lukewarm, hopes at Propaganda appear to be high for TRON: Evolution. It's clear that the studio thinks it has a hit on its hands.

TRON: Evolution has a lot to live up to. The cult classic film from the early eighties earned a huge following for its groundbreaking (and utterly unused after the fact) use of rotoscoping. Starring Bruce Boxleitner, David Warburton, and Jeff Bridges, TRON captured the imaginations of young gamers around the world. The concept of a world within computer networks has been revisited since TRON, but never with the style or the gravitas of that film.

Re: The CD is Dead, Long Live The CD

Kodak1 — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:39:57 GMT

We at Kodak think about this kind of thing more than most as we contemplate how to help people preserve the moments of their lives forever. It might not be enough to save your digital images onto CD..or DVD...if those formats don't live for the next 100 years. (In fact, you know that they won't). Even if the media survives, you'll need some sort of museum hardware to read it!

You can say what you will about making prints....but I guarantee that we'll have the hardware necessary to view them 100 years from now! (your eyes!) I sometimes call prints "human readable images"...just to make this point.

Re: iOS4.1 Saves iPhone 3G

esman7 — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:07:12 GMT

Alex, I'm with you! Can't wait for this fix to come out as my iPhone 3G is reminiscent of the Apple Newton.

There's a good comparison video of the the iOS 4.0 vs 4.1 on the iPhone 3G to get an idea of speed enhancements on several different operations, namely:

-Sending a text message

-Looking up a location in Maps

-Finding a Photo in Camera Roll

-Pulling up a website in Safari

Re: iOS4.1 Saves iPhone 3G

AlexMOD — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 03:18:03 GMT

As an Iphone 3G owner myself, this news makes me happy once again! I too noticed the performance of my phone dwindle away as the OS4 upgrade hit Iphone owners. I held out hope that Apple would release an update to resolve this issue, I guess my patience is paying off!

Cheers,

Offline, yet intune!

bgrier — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 03:17:56 GMT

If you were looking for my weekly ‘This is the week that was’ post, please accept my apologies -- I was camping in the wilds of central Alberta with nary a cell tower within range. Which means I was offline for 3 days.

Which was actually kind of cool and refreshing because it ties in quite nicely to the subject this post...