Christmas Music 24/7

If just can’t get enough Christmas music, there are plenty of ways to satisfy your needs in the digital era.

From your computer, the easiest way to access your holiday favourites would be to find an online radio station. If you have a favourite terrestrial radio station, you should be able to find an online version that lets you listen live. Other stations that are dedicated to playing seasonal music can be found by searching for “Christmas music online”, you will find hundreds of streaming stations. Most of the stations are free of charge, although some may require registration. There are all sorts of genres to meet your needs, most play music continuously with only minimal interruptions for advertising. A music service that I find particularly well done is that on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) website (music.cbc.ca). On any computer you can access over 50 streaming stations, including two limited play Christmas channels, Seasonal Favourites and Classical Holiday.

You can access most of these same online stations described above using your smart phone or tablet through the browser although the user interface is much better if you are able to find an App for it. For example, the CBC Music application for iOS makes all of their Radio 1 and Radio 2 stations from across Canada available along with all of their streaming stations. Another application that I find quite good is “TuneIn Radio” which lets you listen to more than 100,000 stations from around the world. You can find dedicated Christmas stations, one of my favourites is Radio Santa Claus from Finland.

Seasonal music is also available through your television if you have a Smart TV or a set top box such as Roku or Apple TV connected to it. Most of these devices have a channel or application that allows access to online radio stations. For example, the Apple TV has a Radio application that provides access to hundreds of streaming stations under a number of genres. You can find Christmas music stations under the Religious category. If you don’t have a connected television and get your service through cable or by satellite, most providers have dedicated music channels. I am not talking about Much Music or MTV, but instead channels that play only music with no video, these are usually located in the higher numbers. For example Rogers Cable has approximately 20 music channels provided by Stingray Music, including Holiday Favourites, located on channel 222 and 710 in Ontario, Canada.

So if you’re like me and can’t get enough Christmas music there are many ways to satisfy your obsession.

Do you have any other suggestions? What are some of your favourite radio stations? Send a comment in below and share your experiences?

Happy Holidays.

Rogers Nextbox 3.0 – Real Life Review

I just recently exchanged a Rogers Nextbox 2.0 for a new Cisco 9865 (Nextbox 3.0) HDPVR. I was willing to give Rogers one last chance before abandoning them altogether and signing up with Bell Fibe TV. It’s not that the Rogers television service is bad or the monthly fees are out of line with its competitors, it was just the PVR’s that are supplied by them are atrocious. Based on my return record, I would say more than 80% of them had problems, since I rented the equipment it did not cost me anything to exchange them but after the 4th or 5th time it was getting frustrating. The reasons for the returns included: non responsiveness, endless rebooting, incorrect scheduled recordings, the list goes on. I sometimes think that this bad record is due to the fact that I was likely getting refurbished PVR’s every time I exchanged them but similar problems are described by people purchasing new units from third party suppliers such as Future Shop or Best Buy. I can’t imagine that it makes good business sense from Rogers’ point of view, having so many dissatisfied customers that can’t view their services because the hardware they get from Cisco/Scientific Atlanta is of such low quality. They should just stick to the business of providing good television services and leave the hardware supplying to company’s that have proven track records, a company such as TiVO. With this as a background, I decided to give them one last chance. Click here for my Real Life Review of Rogers Nextbox 3.0.

Rogers next Nextbox is here

The Nextbox 3.0 is now available from Rogers. The new offering is the only PVR hardware advertised on their website, so Rogers seems to be ready to roll this out in a big way. New features include: records up to 240 hours of HD programming plus an extra 150 hours with PVR extender (Nextbox 2.0 had a maximum of 225 hours with the extender); records up to 8 HD shows at the same time (Nextbox 2.0 and most of it competitors can only record 2); three minute fast forward skip tool; increased speed of channel changes with no lag time; and caller ID on your TV. You can purchase the Nextbox 3.0 outright for $507.49 (or rent to own for $17.76 per month); if you prefer to rent it the cost is $25.32 per month. For those of you interested, the Nextbox 3.0 is a Cisco 9865 Digital Video Recorder.

Publicity starting popping all over on the first week of August and now the first reviews are in from Rogers customers. Most of the initial comments at Digital Home appear positive. There does not appear to be many changes made to the Programming Guide but people seem pleased with improvements in the reaction time of the guide and channel surfing in general. The ability to record 8 shows at the same time is also a hit with everyone. There is some disagreement with Rogers claims that it is capable of recording 240 of HD programming, most people are reporting about 100-120 hours. You would expect an improvement from the Nextbox 2.0 since this new model has a 1 TB hard drive, double that of the previous box. Improvements to the recording time may be expected if Rogers upgrades recording formats.

Most agree that it is a significant improvement on the Nextbox 2.0 so do you plan on making the switch?

Rogers and Bell expand offerings on Mobile TV

Well it seems that Rogers and Bell are finally getting along with each other as they both recently announced additions of the other media giant’s offerings to their own mobile TV applications. Rogers Anyplace TV app users, available for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry will see the addition of TSN and TSN2 immediately, with access to CTV and CTV Two coming in the fall. For its part Bell subscribers to its Mobile TV application will now get access to Rogers’ owned City and Sportsnet channels, Sportsnet East, Sportsnet Ontario, Sportsnet West and Sportsnet Pacific. Of course you won’t be getting any of this for free as both Rogers and Bell charge $5 per month for 10 hours of mobile TV access.

Source: Mobile Syrup

Bell Fibe TV – Should you take the plunge?

If you live in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal or Quebec City and subscribe to other Bell Services you are probably getting inundated with publicity for Fibe TV. For those of you not familiar with it, Fibe TV is an IP (Internet Protocol) based television service that is delivered through your telephone line. Bell started testing the service back in 2006 in limited areas, but it was not until 2010 that it started offering the service to its customers in Montreal and Toronto and more recently to Ottawa and Quebec City.

Read the rest of the article here.

Unlock your cell phone at Rogers

Previously the only way to legally unlock your cell phone was to wait until your contract was over. Rogers has just announced though that as of March 28 you will be able to get your phone unlocked 90 days after you get it activated. This service can be performed at any Rogers corporate outlet and will be valid for its Fido and Chatr brands as well. Of course this service will not be free, it will set you back $50. Bell and Telus already offer this unlocking service for a cost of $75 and $35 respectively. The advantage of getting your phone unlocked is that when you travel to another country you can buy a SIM card for use in that country, this is usually much cheaper than paying roaming charges with your home carrier.

Source: iPhone in Canada

iPhone 5 on sale at Rogers, Bell and Telus (update)

Update: Now SaskTel has jumped onto the iPhone 5 sale bandwagon.  The same $99, $149 and $199 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB iPhone5’s can be had at this western Canadian carrier.

Source: iPhone in Canada

If you waited to get the latest model of the iPhone then your patience has paid off as there now seems to be a price war going on in Canada. All three big carriers, Bell, Telus and Rogers, have announced price reductions to Apple’s latest and greatest device. It started a week or so ago at Rogers and then yesterday Bell and Telus matched the original sale price, with Telus offering just a little more of a discount. Well, today the iPhone 5 can be obtained for the same discounted price, on a three contract of course, the discounted prices are: $99, $149 and $199 for 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB model respectively. The discounts could be in anticipation of the new model expected sometime in the late summer or fall. This could also be pre-emptive strike in advance of the new Samsung Galaxy S model set to be announced next week.

Source: iPhone in Canada

Check your cell phone bill carefully, very carefully…

In this world of paperless bills it is getting increasing difficult to keep on top of your bills every month.  I would advise you though to check your electronic bills every once in a while just in case… I did the same on my Rogers cell phone bill recently and noticed a “Third Party & Other Rogers Charges” charge of $9.99.  Upon further investigation it seems that I somehow subscribed to Gamifive Mobivillage, a monthly gaming service run by Buongiorno.  I was totally taken aback since neither I or nor anyone else in my household remembered signing up for this monthly service.  The only correspondence that I have received on this are a couple of SMS messages stating that I am enrolled in the service (I noticed these after the fact).

I immediately did a Google search on this and found that many other people have “inadvertently” subscribed to this same service.  Apparently this sort of practice is known as “cramming”, in which a 3rd Party takes advantage of a loophole in the Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) billing that allows them to start charging you for their services through your carrier, all they need to know is your phone number.  They seem to be taking advantage of the fact that many people don’t check their text messages, especially if they are coming from unknown numbers.  As well, most people don’t check their monthly bills on a regular basis.

So what can you do about these charges.  Well, you can call Buongiorno Gamifive directly, their number is given on the bill as well as on any text messages that you have received from them.  You can also Text “Stop” in response to their text messages.  This has resulted in varied success for the people reporting on them on the internet.  You can also call your carrier (e.g. Rogers, Bell, Telus) and ask the Customer Service Representative (CSR) to remove the charges.  Their knee jerk reaction to this request is to say that they can’t do anything about the charges and that you would have to phone the 3rd party directly.  If you are persistent they will credit your account but in most cases you will have to talk to their manager or Customer Retention Representative before you get a positive response.  You should be persistent, since no matter how much they say they are not responsible for the charges and have nothing to do with them, they are no doubt taking a percentage of that monthly fee going to Buongiorno.

In order to prevent this from happening in the future, you should ask your carrier to block 3rd party charges to your number, to all your numbers.  You should also verify all of your electronic bills regularly to make sure the company you are getting services from has not made any changes to your bill without properly and fully informing you.

Source: Shawn Dunn’s Tech Blog

iPhone 5 sale now on

Rogers, Telus and Bell have joined Fido in offering discounts on the iPhone 5. The 32 GB and 64 GB iPhone 5 can now be purchased for $229 and $279 respectively on a three year contract, they were previously $279 and $379. Rogers is offering the deal until March 4 and will require a monthly service plan of $45 or more. If you want to save even more money the iPhone 4S is $0 on a three year contract.

Source: iPhone in Canada

Rogers Galaxy S II receives Jelly Bean

If you have a Rogers Samsung Galaxy S II then you can now download the Jelly Bean update. The Android OS 4.1.2 can be obtained over the air or from Samsung.

Source. Mobile Syrup