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Is ‘pick-and-pay’ on the way? CRTC ruling comes amid wave of complaints from broadcast providers

National Post Tech Desk - Wed, 03/18/2015 - 14:28

OTTAWA — It might have sounded like a simple solution to years of complaints by Canadian television viewers stuck with a bundle of channels that many didn’t want to watch, nor pay for.

But a proposal by the country’s broadcast regulator to allow customers to pick and choose their own programming — on top of a basic service of local channels with a cap of up to $30 a month — has drawn a wave of complaints from broadcast providers, as well as their subscribers.

For major companies — BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. in particular — there are concerns over how unbundling and piecemeal add-ons will impact their bottom lines. Many consumers have questioned whether so-called “pick-and-pay” schemes will actually save them money in the long run.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on Thursday will rule whether to impose pick-and-pay guidelines on cable and satellite companies, which already face growing competition from online video services — such as Netflix, YouTube and Amazon — that are not regulated like traditional broadcasters.

Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais will announce the CRTC decision at 4 p.m. ET  at the regulator’s headquarters in Gatineau, Que.

“We believe a decision by the CRTC to force unbundling of TV channels could — over the long term — lead to a reduction of $5 to $10 in monthly [revenue per user] as customers get the option to choose the channels they want to watch and move discretionary money toward OTT (over-the-top) services such as Netflix,” said Maher Yaghi, an analyst at Desjardins Capital Markets.

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As well, Mr. Yaghi said “the transition could be made over a couple of years, starting with a requirement to offer five, 10 and 15 à la carte bundles that will eventually be reduced to pure à la carte offerings.”

“We expect many specialty channels will become unprofitable in an unbundled world. It is difficult to pinpoint which channels will be closed, but the impact on profitability should not be material as these stations were not very profitable to begin with.”

The C.D. Howe Institute, in a study in September, warned that “attempting to regulate pick-and-pay or product offerings would launch the CRTC on a more interventionist role in the entire content and video distribution business.”

The independent Toronto-based think-tank said such a move “would almost certainly require the CRTC to supervise the prices for unbundled products, as otherwise, broadcast distributors could offer larger bundles at steep discounts to discourage à la carte consumer choice.”

Another issue is who will set the pricing structure of pick-and-pay packages.

Mr. Yaghi suggests the CRTC could either set the cost of a basic package itself or allow companies to determine prices “as they see fit.”

Thursday’s ruling on pick-and-pay follows a series of hearings, which the federal body has dubbed “Let’s Talk TV,” aimed at developing new measures the regulator argues “will maximize choice for Canadian television viewers.”

These include dropping quotas on Canadian TV content in daytime programming, although the minimum 50% rule will remain in force during evening prime-time viewing.

At the same time, the CRTC wants to encourage more investment in higher-quality Canadian content. To encourage that growth, the regulator will require at least 35% of programs on specialty channels be produced in this country. Right now, the quota can fall anywhere between 15% and 85%.

Since becoming chairman in 2012, Mr. Blais has promised a more consumer-focused approach to regulatory decisions. As he stated in rejecting BCE’s initial bid for Astral Media shortly after his appointment: “Certainly, it is my intent to put Canadians back in the centre of their communications system.”

Fossil Fighters Frontier Review: The false promises of fossil fighting

National Post Tech Desk - Wed, 03/18/2015 - 14:09

Developed by Red Entertainment and Spike Chunsoft, Fossil Fighters: Frontier is a game … and yeah, that’s pretty much all there is to say about it.

Using a complex technological innovation, scientists have discovered a way to bring dinosaurs back to life. They revitalize their fossilized remains and do what only humans would do in this event: build a coliseum and battle them to the death.

This is the world of Vivosaurs. It’s a burgeoning business with international theme parks and an entire economy based around the creatures; however, some would use the technology for something even more evil than legalized cage fighting. And who is going to stop them?

This is where you step in.

As potential park wardens, you and a group of kids are battling it out for certification to work on Vivosaur preservations. As a warden, your job is to fend off poachers by using your rugged Bone Buggy and a group of trained dinos by your side.

The game has you travel to parks all around the world to explore all kinds of offensive cultural stereotypes. There’s also little to no educational content for what could have been a game about paleontology, but if you know the series then you know what to expect.

It’s a kids game and older players should probably adjust their expectations.

***

At the beginning of the game, you pick a name and gender. You’re then given an extended 30-minute tutorial on the game’s controls and mechanics. Part of that is learning how to control your Bone Buggy, revive fossils, and take part in battles.

It’s a fairly slow process, but once you get going you’re able to head out on your own, customize your vehicles, find new teammates, and take on the game’s story.

In each international destination, there’s a chance to revive new types of Vivosaurs. Each species has eight fossil slots and each one gives you a new ability, but finding them all can be a little tricky. Players can use a sonar device to locate the fossils, but sometimes they can be out of your reach.

The fossil-excavating minigame requires you enter into upon finding them has you digging up Vivosaur remains under a strict time limit. To make this process a little easier, you can buy upgraded excavating tools. It’s an easy enough process to get the fossils out of the rock, but you can also damage them in the process if you’re not careful.

But at the end of the day, what you’re often left with is a bunch of incomplete Vivosaurs. Since you’re only allowed to use one Vivosaur at a time in any given battle and experience points are not shared, it’s best to make sure they are totally complete before training one.

In the parks you can fight wild Vivosaurs to you can gain experience, but there’s no real incentive since you don’t gain any money from battles. The Vivosaurs out there just become a nuisance to be avoided at all costs as there’s also no way to escape battles.

And once you’ve gotten far enough into the story objectives to be certified, you can participate in tournaments that test your team’s abilities. There are also challenge zones in each area that give you access to rare fossils and powerful companions to use in a fight.

NintendoVivosaurs slowly battling it out in Fossil Fighters: Frontier.

At the beginning of each battle, the game does a speed check to see who is the fastest in your party and orders your turns that way. The player also gets FP points, which you gain more of throughout the game, that determine what skills you can use.

As a park warden, you have access to a number of “Paleo Pals” who will fight alongside side of you as teammates. Each of their Vivosaurs has different abilities and their users have buggy weapons that can boost your attack, defense, accuracy, or refill health.

These weapons, which you can also use, have limited use and need to be refilled at stations around each level. It’s a pretty haphazard system and you’ll often win by the hair of your Vivosaur’s chompers.

For instance, my Titano AR has an ability that when you hit an enemy it is sent into a low stance. Another another Vivosaur that has an attack that does more damage to Vivosaurs in a low-stance can then do double the damage to it on the next turn. Luckily, one of your pals has the ability to up your critical hit percentage, so you end up doing double damage on your first hit without actually meaning to do so.

That might sound great until you realize that you can’t actually control your Paleo Pals. These companions will do their best to usurp your ability to use stronger attacks every chance they can by using up your FP points.

Being able to order around your Paleo Pals would have added some much needed depth into the game’s combat system, but the problems with the battling is just the start.

One of the game’s main objectives is to conquer The Fossil Coliseum. Set into different categories based the Vivosaur elements and abilities, and they can only be challenged on specific days. So you’re basically forced to set your schedule around the game, which isn’t a great start. They also get progressively harder; however, if you tailor a group of Vivosaurs to be counter to what you’re fighting then you should have an easy enough time.

Also driving feels like pushing around a shopping cart. There are a few occasions where you’re called upon to use your driving skills in events like time attack races, but even with no upgrades you can beat most races without even trying.

NintendoYou can buy new equipment for your Bone Buggy that increases your ability to unearth fossils or make your buggy a little faster.

Driving and fighting might seem like a winning combination, but when you enter into each new area that’s bound to be filled with cliffs and fossils you realize how much of a slog it’s going to be. You’re going to spend the next hour digging up fossils in fear of being pulled out of the minigame if a wild Vivosaur attacks you from behind.

Later in the game you go to Europe and the first area is absolutely enormous. There’s a river, challenge zones, and story fights to get through. You’re also hampered by your Bone Buggy – most likely the truck at that point – that moves at a snail’s pace.

And in each area there are probably around six or seven unique Vivosaurs to collect with about four fossils in each set. In the hub world, there’s a fossil mart, but it doesn’t actually allow you to buy missing fossil pieces to fill in their skill slots and only opens about four hours into the game. It does give you a chance to collect a random fossil, but that’s hardly consolation for a fossil mart that doesn’t sell fossils!

NintendoEach fossil you collect for your Vivosaur unlocks a new ability that can use in battle.

While the game has its fun aspects like buying and customizing your Bone Buggy, I can’t really escape the bad parts of the experience. Driving around in your car feels clunky, the fossil-finding minigame is a headache, and the characters are stilted stereotypes.

You initially get paired up with another warden named Roland. Overweight, he isn’t exactly graceful, but the game goes an extra step making him comically roll into frame propelled by his body fat. This happens on more than one occasion.

It’s like they’re trying to make his weight his most endearing feature, but they miss the mark by a few hundred miles. Each town you enter is also filled with cultural stereotypes with the theme parks designed by people who didn’t seem to have a clue about the traditions of each area.

I understand that they’re supposed to be cheesy theme parks, but Europe’s captain being a viking and Asia’s a kung-fu master feels like it goes a little too far. I feel like the developers initially planned to have more than four areas around the world. Thankfully they didn’t get beyond the few available.

As I couched this at the top, Fossil Fighters: Frontier is meant for a younger audience. Older players should know that the game is very simple and can sometimes be extremely shallow.You only need to hear the game’s theme song to know what I’m talking about.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07qM4X15sMY&w=640&h=390]

And as someone who grew up in the heyday of dinosaur mania, I can say this game would not have inspired little me to be a paleontologist.

Android apps will now be reviewed before landing on Google Play Store

National Post Tech Desk - Wed, 03/18/2015 - 12:17

One of the main factors separating the Google Play Store from the App Store is that Apple Inc. diligently reviews and approves every app before it is added to its digital marketplace.

This means the process involved in getting an app approved on the iOS App Store is often lengthy for developers. The review system also ensures every app released on the App Store meets Apple’s quality standards.

Google has announced it is introducing a similar review process via its Android Developer Blog, although in a jab at Apple the company claims the new system won’t impact how quickly an app makes it to the Play Store. Until now, as long as an app didn’t directly violate Google’s Play Store terms of service, anyone could release an application on the Android marketplace.

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“We value the rapid innovation and iteration that is unique to Google Play, and will continue to help developers get their products to market within a matter of hours after submission, rather than days or weeks,” said Google’s product manager for Google Play, Eunice Kim, in a statement.

“In fact, there has been no noticeable change for developers during the rollout.”

Google’s team of experts will review each individual app, examining whether or not it violates the platform’s developer policies. The new approval system will also reportedly provide additional insight into why an app is rejected or suspended. An issue many developers have with the App Store is Apple’s lack of transparency concerning why an app is not approved.

It’s unclear if the new Play Store approval process will result in certain apps like retro game console emulators, or others existing in the popular legally gray area of Google’s marketplace, being removed from the store.

The new approval system also includes official ratings based on the Age Rating Coalition (IARC), an organization that includes the ESRB and PEGI video game rating platforms.

Power Corp sells French-language regional newspapers, keeps La Presse

National Post Tech Desk - Wed, 03/18/2015 - 10:08

MONTREAL — Power Corp. has sold all of the French-language regional newspapers in Quebec operated by its Gesca subsidiary to a new media company headed by former federal Liberal cabinet minister Martin Cauchon.

The amount of the transaction announced Wednesday wasn’t disclosed.

Groupe Capitales Medias has purchased newspapers in Quebec City (Le Soleil), Trois-Rivieres (Le Nouvelliste), Ottawa-Gatineau (Le Droit), Sherbrooke (La Tribune), Saguenay (Le Quotidien) et Granby (La Voix de l’Est), along with their websites.

However, the insurance and investment conglomerate will continue to operate its flagship Montreal La Presse.

Cauchon said the buyers want to maintain “a strong regional press.”

“It is a privilege to contribute to the quality of information, to the recognition of the independence of newsrooms and to give regions a strong voice to be heard,” he stated.

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The former politician wouldn’t say if the deal will lead to job cuts.

Claude Gagnon, who has headed the regional newspapers for Gesca since 2009, becomes president and general manager along with remaining president and editor of Le Soleil. Managers at each daily will also remain unchanged.

Gesca president Guy Crevier said the sale of the regional papers will allow the company to concentrate on developing and commercializing La Presse+, a digital version of the newspaper available on iPads and other tablets at no charge.

At Power’s annual meeting more than a year ago, co-CEOs Andre and Paul Desmarais said Gesca had to redefine itself or risk disappearing.

They also discussed the possibility of Power Corp. (TSX:POW) retaining La Presse and selling the regional newspapers.

Can Samsung Galaxy S6 phones give the smartphone maker the sales rebound it needs?

National Post Tech Desk - Wed, 03/18/2015 - 09:34

TORONTO — Samsung says it wanted to start over from scratch for its forthcoming new smartphones, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.

While loath to call the predecessor, the Galaxy S5, a flop, the South Korean company admits the plastic-bodied phone — which was marketed as a more rugged dust and water resistant device — missed the mark with many consumers.

“I don’t think that was true in every market,” says Ken Price, vice-president of carrier sales and marketing for Samsung Canada, when asked why sales slumped for the S5.

“I think we were successful with the S5. We’re not at liberty to share numbers but we wouldn’t view the same thing for Canada. What we’d say was, we pressed on things we thought the marketplace was telling us … and what the market told us was, increasingly, they were looking for something that felt more premium.

“So we feel confident we did some things to listen, respond and adjust our strategy.”

Samsung is now talking up the sleek design of the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge, made with “premium metal and glass.”

Price said Samsung also made a conscious effort to streamline the preloaded software on the new phones, unlike previous Galaxy devices that felt bloated in comparison.

“I think we looked in the mirror, so to speak, and said you know what, we’re going to make sure everything in there has a reason and in fact we’ve taken things out that no longer, we felt, had utility.”

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The Canadian Press sat down with Price and Vlastimir Lalovic, director of product marketing, to discuss the upcoming launch of the new phones, which are available in Canada starting April 10.

CP: You have 30 seconds with a consumer, what’s your pitch for them to consider a new Galaxy over an iPhone?

Lalovic: I would go with the design, because we’re using premium materials, we used Gorilla Glass 4 on the back and front, so this is the most durable glass material that is available today on the market. And our metal used in our devices is 50% stronger than any other devices.

CP: With the new design, users can no longer swap out the battery as they could with previous Galaxy phones and there’s no longer a SD card slot. What effect will those changes have on sales?

Lalovic: This kind of question we took very seriously, we have access to how many of Samsung’s customers actually purchased additional batteries and I can tell you it’s a very small number.

Price: I think that’s changed over time because the batteries have become better. Even on the Galaxy S5 we had faster charging and the battery capacity had improved, so over time we noticed the demand for replacement batteries went down.

CP: To what extent will emerging Chinese smartphone makers (such as market-leader Xiaomi) influence the Canadian market?

Price: Samsung is a humble company that at one point had 3% of the marketplace in smartphones and had to earn its way. The one thing about Canadians — and you can ask the folks in Waterloo this too — they want world-class products and a great value. And if you don’t deliver that, no matter what country you’re from, you’re not going to be successful. Will there be a chance for one of those manufacturers to emerge? That’ll depend on their ability to do what Samsung has done in terms of thinking about the user experience and being able to aggregate scale around that. It’s not easy to do. It’s not obvious to us who will be the next contender that would come up that way but I think it’ll have to be more than (just) a sheet of glass and putting Android in there, Canadians are more discerning than that.

CP: What did you think of the recent Apple Watch unveil and its impact on Samsung’s Gear watches?

Price: From our perspective, we’re onto our third generation (of smart watch) arguably, depending on what you count, so we’ve got lots of experience based on what we’ve done. Looking at what Apple’s done, I’m not sure they’ve done anything new, I think they’ve done it for their base, within the context of Apple customers. I’m not sure they’ve done anything to excite people outside of that base, based on new functionality or new ideas.

— This interview has been edited and condensed

Microsoft Corp ‘killing off’ Internet Explorer? That’s not really true

National Post Tech Desk - Wed, 03/18/2015 - 08:26

Microsoft has been working on a new web browser code-named “Project Spartan” specifically designed for Windows 10 for quite some time now, and that’s left plenty of people wondering what will happen to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

While some are claiming that Microsoft is “killing off” the Internet Explorer branding, that’s not true.

Microsoft confirmed to us that Internet Explorer will still be included in Windows 10, but that it will play second fiddle to “Project Spartan,” which is to be re-branded with a new name in the future.

“Project Spartan is Microsoft’s next generation browser, built just for Windows 10,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Business Insider. “We will continue to make Internet Explorer available with Windows 10 for enterprises and other customers who require legacy browser support.”

So while Internet Explorer will technically be included in Windows 10, Microsoft wants to shine a spotlight on Project Spartan as the main Microsoft browser, likely in an effort to shed the negative connotation many have with Internet Explorer (famously known for being the number one web browser for downloading other browsers) and to draw attention to the slew of new features Project Spartan will offer.

Project Spartan was first announced in January during Microsoft’s Windows 10 unveiling, and it offers a new design and rendering engine, and includes integration with Cortana, Microsoft’s virtual assistant.

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WinBeta

Allowing Project Spartan to plug into Cortana will allow users to glean more information from the web without leaving their current tab, with Cortana being able to pull up directions, store hours, phone numbers, and addresses from a website. All you’ll need to do is click on Cortana’s tiny blue ring to see what she can find from the website you’re visiting.

So what will Project Spartan eventually be called when Windows 10 launches?

Microsoft says it’s still deciding on how to re-brand Project Spartan, according to The Verge, but don’t be surprised if it includes the word “Microsoft” in the name — Microsoft’s marketing chief Chris Capossela says their polling suggests Chrome users preferred including the company name in the re-branding. 

SEE ALSO: Microsoft’s new ‘Project Spartan’ web browser shown off in new video

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Microsoft Corp CEO Satya Nadella unveils new tools for winning business customers’ support

National Post Tech Desk - Wed, 03/18/2015 - 08:01

ATLANTA, Georgia – This week, over 10,000 people from 76 countries gathered here for Microsoft’s annual Convergence conference.

The conference, which originally focused only on the Microsoft Dynamics business solutions, has now been expanded to be what Judson Althoff, president of Microsoft North America, referred to as “Microsoft’s premier event for business.” As well as Dynamics, its scope now includes other business software such as Microsoft Office, SQL Server, Yammer, Skype, Microsoft Lync, and Microsoft Azure.

“I think we are in the dawn of a new generation of business systems,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in his keynote. “The ability in real time to reason over data can build systems of intelligence. It converts systems into learning systems.”

Reflecting on Microsoft’s place in this new world, Mr. Nadella said, “We are focused on empowering individuals and organizations to be able to drive their agendas and achieve more. That’s our identity: we are in the empowerment business.”

He has three ambitions: to create more personal computing, with more natural user interfaces, and user trust; to reinvent productivity and business processes with better collaboration and new workflows; and to build an intelligent cloud that can accommodate rich data. The day’s product announcements reflected those goals.

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First, Microsoft Delve, a new component of Office 365, is now globally available. Delve is what Mr. Nadella calls a work newsfeed: a portal showing the documents, emails, and other items of interest to an individual. It encompasses news, items shared by colleagues, and anything else that matches the user’s interests. Topic boards such as “Voice of the Customer” can be set up by anyone, and shared.

Delve contains integration to Yammer, Microsoft’s corporate instant messaging software, allowing real time discussions.

Power BI, a tool that allows easy creating and viewing of business intelligence dashboards, was also released globally.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a hot topic at Microsoft, as it is virtually everywhere. To help its customer handle the data streaming in from the devices in the IoT, Microsoft announced the Azure Internet of Things Suite, which will become the core infrastructure to allow build-out of software as a service (SaaS) services around IoT data.

Microsoft Office 2016 has been in private beta testing for several months. We now see the release of the IT Pro and Developer Preview of Office 2016 for the Windows desktop, expanding the program to commercial Office 365 customers. Microsoft cautions that this early build doesn’t yet contain all the features they’re planning to ship in the final product, but customers can expect to see new features delivered through monthly updates.

In Dynamics CRM, Microsoft has partnered with InsideSales.com to score leads on their likelihood of engaging or buying. CRM also contains integration with Microsoft OneNote. Both of these features will appear in the Spring 2015 release, which will roll out in May.

The Spring release will also include support for Microsoft Office Groups, a new phone client, better integration with Microsoft Exchange, and integrated Cortana (Microsoft’s Siri-esque intelligent assistant).

Microsoft SharePoint will see new deployment options that permit customers to mix and match cloud and on premises implementations of CRM and SharePoint.

The company also announced the public preview of Skype for Business, which will replace Microsoft Lync.

On the whole, analyst Jerry Sheldon of IHL Group was pleased with what he heard. He was especially happy to hear Mr. Nadella reaffirm his focus on both consumer and business users, noting, “I was worried that they’d lost their way.”

Microsoft provided travel and accommodations for journalists attending this event.

 

Voltage Pictures ordered to pay $22,000 to TekSavvy in illegal downloads case

National Post Tech Desk - Wed, 03/18/2015 - 06:41

Voltage Pictures LLC must pay Internet provider TekSavvy Solutions Inc. about $22,000 to cover the costs of handing over the names of 2,000 people it says illegally shared its films over a two-month period in 2012, the Federal Court ruled Tuesday. The decision brings the high-profile case to a close, which sets a precedent about how copyright holders can pursue legal remedies when their work is stolen by illegal downloaders in Canada.

In February of last year, the court ruled the plaintiff must pay Chatham, Ont.-based TekSavvy the costs associated with tracking down the contact information of allegedly pirating customers. Tuesday’s decision sets the cost to Voltage at about $10 per Internet protocol (IP) address, far less than the $350,000 TekSavvy sought but more than the $884 Voltage argued it owed.

James Zibarras, a lawyer for Voltage, said the decision “confirms the court’s commitment to facilitate anti-piracy and allow companies like Voltage to pursue pirates.”

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