Natalia brings you the latest news on Adele’s interview with Anderson Cooper, Kristen Bell’s interview on Ellen is auto tuned, Ladyhawke’s latest music video and much more!
Natalia discusses what’s new with Pharrell Williams and her thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld’s mean comments towards Adele’s weight. She also shows a roster of animals behaving like humans and, wait until you see the new size of coffee available at Starbucks!
Natalia dishes the latest news on the Juno Awards nominees, the upcoming Spiderman 3D film starring Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and is Katy Perry hooking up with Tim Tebow? Watch today’s episode to find out.
When The Kooks are in the studio they’re focused and most importantly, sober. Watch Hugh and Luke explain their reasoning below.
The Kooks released a new album called “Junk of the Heart,” and you would think Hugh and Luke would be very excited about it. Well, they seemed rather indifferent to be honest. We spoke about that and why they don’t care about critics.
Natalia dishes the latest in entertainment news on Joan Rivers, Lana Del Rey and a brand new trailer for the movie Hunger Games.
Natalia talks about how Snooki might be pregnant, Nicolas Cage’s Cage Rage, Elisabetta Canalis is dating Steve-O and more for Feb 1, 2012.
Natalia dishes the news on Miley Cyrus breaking her tailbone, a 100 year old woman who plays the Nintendo DS to stay young and Houston, Texas contemplating a statute of Beyonce.
David Beckham debuts a new line of underwear, the worst dressed celebrity – Shy’m and Matthew Broderick is back as Ferris Bueller with a brand new commercial airing during the Super Bowl on Feb 5th 2012.
Daniel Radcliffe is back with his new movie The Woman In Black. It’s a bone chilling remake of a film from the ’80s. Ironically, Daniel actually scares very easily but he’s not afraid of ghosts. In this interview he tells us what really gives him the creeps.
Next time you’re struggling to make conversation, try asking this question: “If you could invite anyone (living or dead) to the perfect house party, who would it be?”
Graffiti6 is starting to make their North American invasion, and they are hitting up the Tonight Show. Does this sound familiar? Well the Beatles made the exact same journey over 40 years ago. Naturally, @jordans_life had to make some comparisons.
Nick plays World of Warcraft. Not only that, he’s the head of his guild, demonstrating that it IS possible to juggle being a hardcore gamer with being a top-selling recording artist.
During a LIVE interview on andPOP.com Nick Carter gave out a number and took phone calls from his fans. These were real phone calls from real fans who we gave exclusive access to one of the biggest recording artists of our generation.
There were great questions about music, fitness, the backstreet boys but the most popular question, however, was about his underwear. In this clip Nick talks about his his ‘Haynes’ and covering his fans with glow in the dark paint.
When releasing new music today, half the battle is online promotion. However, contests, signed merch and giveaways aren’t always the best solutions. When working on their latest album, Hedley came up with a brilliant idea, they decided to make trailers.
It’s hard to prepare for an interview with Hedley. So in this interview, we threw caution to the wind, got a 24 of beer and broadcast the interview live on our USTREAM (andPOP.tv). Eventually Jacob, Dave and @jordans_life ended up talking about hairy legs, their newest music video and more.
Diamandis from Marina and The Diamonds talks to us about her very serious disease. It’s called synaesthetic. And we lied, it’s not a disease. More like a cool condition. Diamandis explains further.
Would you be embarrassed if someone scrolled through your iPod? We sit down with Spee and Brendan to talk about the diverse music on their playlist.
Marina and The Diamonds are working on some new music, but Marina is being very secretive about it. Although the release has been delayed, she let’s us in on some secrets about the new album, and how alcohol changed her life.
An iPhone free from the exorbitant clutches of Rogers? That could be a reality if reports of a GSM migration by Telus and Bell are true.
Telus and Bell, Canada’s second and third largest wireless service providers, currently run on CDMA technology, a North American protocol that function without SIM cards. CDMA use is vastly overshadowed by GSM technology, which is used by Rogers and is the worldwide standard.
GSM users enjoy the freedom to move from handset to handset for free without losing their contact information, while CDMA customers are forced to pay a handset swap fee and manually input their contacts. As the sole Canadian GSM provider, Rogers has dominated the market. The world’s most sought-after handset, Apple’s iPhone, only works with GSM technology, leaving CDMA customers out in the cold.
But Telus and Bell are investigating a move to GSM, a move rumoured to cost upwards of $400 million. The transition is sure to shake up the monopolistic Canadian market, one that is defined by extremely expensive GSM data fees.
Rogers currently does not offer an unlimited data plan, the closest being a promotional $30 for 6GBs of data. Telus and Bell, on the other hand, offer much more affordable data plans. Last Holiday season, Telus launched an unlimited data plan for only $15. Bell announced a similar $7 unlimited package. If the transition to GSM comes into fruition, you can bet on thousands of iPhone customers flocking to Telus and Bell.
Rogers Wireless reported the best sales weekend in it’s history with the launch of the much-hyped Apple iPhone. The Canadian telecom giant confirmed that tens of thousands of iPhones sold out in many of the launch centres across Canada.
The news is sure to bring a sigh of relief to Rogers CEO Ted Rogers, who faced a wave of criticism for the iPhone’s expensive monthly rates. Almost 60,000 people signed a petition against Rogers, vowing to take their business elsewhere unless changes were made. Apple was rumoured to have cut back on iPhone shipments as a form of punishment for the abnormally high rate plans.The backlash, it appears, did little to stop the surge of sales.
The second shipment of iPhones is set to arrive at Rogers retail centres tomorrow.
Call me crazy, but I’ve waited over a year for the iPhone to come to Canada, and when it was finally announced that Rogers would carry it, my face lit up. However, a couple weeks later that smile disappeared as Rogers announced its iPhone plans and well, I wasn’t satisfied at all. I felt as if Rogers had taken such a great opportunity to take customers from Bell and Telus and tried to abuse its position as the only GSM provider in Canada, by not only giving us such low bandwidth allotments, but by giving us even less daytime minutes.
But not all was lost. A petition over at www.ruinediphone.com, which had more than 31,000 signatures at the time this article was written, may have just swayed Rogers to shift its position on the iPhone packages. A recent trip over to the Rogers Wireless iPhone plans reveals some new verbage and additional features now included with each plan.
The first thing you’ll notice is you now get 3 months unlimited calling…ok we’ll take that (but we’re still locked in for 3 years with 150 minutes on the base package). The second thing you’ll notice is the additional cost per minutes should you exceed the ones included (standard stuff). But the newest and most important change is that you can now add data packages to your EXISTING voice plan.
“While the iPhone 3G Voice and Data Packages allow you to use this device to its fullest and offer savings over separate voice and data plans, they are not the only options available to you. Other pricing options are available. For example, you may choose to combine one of our new data plans ranging from $30 per month (for 300MB) to $100 per month (for 6GB) with a voice plan. They are available by calling 1 888 ROGERS1 or by visiting your nearest Rogers retail location.”
If this was planned from the beginning, then strike one to Rogers for bad execution as every news outlet has picked up the story of how Canadians are getting ripped off on Voice and Data packages. But either way, we’re glad to see this as there was no way I was going to give up my unlimited incoming package for an iPhone.
For those Canadians baffled by the plans Fido and Rogers are offering for the iPhone 3G, I thought I’d offer some perspective by posting what AT&T is charging Americans for purchasing and using the iPhone 3G:
$69.99 for 450 voice minutes, unlimited data and 5000 evening and weekend minutes
$89.99 for 900 voice minutes, unlimited data and unlimited evening and weekend minutes
$109.99 for 1350 voice minutes, unlimited data and unlimited evening and weekend minutes
$129 for unlimited voice, data and evenings and weekends.
Unlimited text can be added for $20/month, $15 for 1500 messages or $5 for 200.
People who have purchased an iPhone before the 3G release will be able to upgrade for $199 (8GB) or $299 (16GB). The iPhone 3G (without the upgrade) will cost AT&T customers $399 for the 8GB model or $499 for the 16GB model. Both phones require a new two-year service agreement with one of the plans mentioned above. AT&T have said that a no-commitment version of the phone will be released, but not until after the initial launch. The no-commitment phones will cost $599 and $699, according to an article that appeared on www.engadget.com.
While the American version of the plans for the iPhone look better than the Canadian ones, consumers will still have to fork over a ton of cash for this techno-gadget. Even on the cheapest plan, users will be paying close to $850 a year to use their phone, and that’s not even including text messaging. That being said, AT&T customers on the ‘cheap plan’ get a lot more than Rogers customers on the comparable plan, which costs only $10 less a month. The cheapest Roger’s plan, at $60/month, offers 150 anytime minutes, 75 outgoing SMS, and 400 MB data, free evenings after 9pm.
Rogers announced this past week the long awaited voice + data plans that would be sold alongside the 3G iPhone on July 11th and Canadians are not going to like what they see.
The plans are as follows:
- $60/month – 150 anytime minutes, 75 outgoing SMS, and 400 MB data, free evenings after 9pm
- $75/months – 300 anytime minutes, 100 outgoing SMS, and 750 MB data, free evenings after 9pm
- $100/month – 600 anytime minutes, 200 outgoing SMS, and 1 GB data, free evenings after 9pm
- $115/month – 800 anytime minutes, 300 outgoing SMS, and 2 GB data, free evenings after 9pm
Rogers has also released 2 value packs for an additional $15 or $20 per month that include features such as caller ID, free evenings after 6pm and 2500 SMS. In addition, iPhone users will get free access to all Fido and Rogers hot spots around the country.
Sadly, Rogers does not offer an unlimited plan and it is unknown at this time if current subscribers can simply keep their current voice plan and just add an iPhone data plan. While Canadian’s have never been treated properly when it comes to voice or data plans, we don’t expect them to be any happier after seeing these iPhone plans. A typical bill with the value pack add-on is going to run you close to $100 month with taxes and the good ole system access fee.
It appears that Rogers just doesn’t understand what the general public wants and is limiting mobile growth in Canada. iPhone plans on the Fido brand are identical.
An iPhone will require a 3 year contract and $199 (8GB) and $299 (16gb) for the phone.
As a welcome to Canadian Music Week, Redpipe (Rogers Wireless’ indie music company), Universal Music/Fontana North and HMV have teamed up to offer Canadian artists a chance to win a $25,000 recording prize.
Unsigned Canadian artists who join Redpipe.ca will have the opportunity to gain exposure to thousands of music fans and be considered for the $25,000 recording prize. Fans will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite artists on redpipe.ca or via text message. Once voting is completed, the winner will be chosen by the pre-selected panel from among the top ten voted artists.
“The new Redpipe $25,000 Recording Prize solidifies our commitment to emerging artists in Canada.” said John Boynton, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Rogers Wireless.
The $25,000 prize includes:
· $5,000 cheque paid directly to the winning artist/band.
· $20,000 fund for recording and releasing the winning artist/band’s release.
· Fontana North Distribution will provide A&R, marketing and promotional support.
· Physical distribution through Fontana, with digital via Universal Music Canada.
· HMV will rack the winners CD in stores across Canada!
Band sign up ends April 14 and fan voting begins the next day.
On February 12, Rogers Communications and RIM announced the BlackBerry 8800, the newest addition to Rogers’ lineup of BlackBerry devices.
Operating on Rogers’ high-speed EDGE network, the quad-band BlackBerry 8800 is the thinnest BlackBerry handset yet. It incorporates built-in GPS (Global Positioning System), a full QWERTY keyboard, RIM’s new trackball navigation system for fast and intuitive navigation (i.e The Pearl), a media player, and a microSD expandable memory slot for storage of music and videos. The BlackBerry 8800 offers features including support for phone, email, text and instant messaging, web browser, organizer, multimedia, corporate data applications and more.
The BlackBerry 8800 features built-in GPS and supports location-based services applications. It includes BlackBerry Maps, which provides on-screen driving directions with the ability to track the route via the GPS – and integrates with other BlackBerry applications, so users can generate a map from an address in their BlackBerry Address Book and send maps via email from their BlackBerry 8800. Rogers’ customers can also receive turn-by-turn voice and on-screen driving directions on the BlackBerry 8800 with TeleNav GPS Navigator(TM. TeleNav GPS Navigator includes turn-by-turn voice and onscreen driving directions with 3D full-color moving maps.
The BlackBerry 8800 will be available in Canada exclusively at Rogers Wireless and is expected to be available in retail and business channels in March.
For more information on the device you can visit www.rogers.com and www.blackberry8800.com
