Canadians Beginning to Receive Transformer Prime Units

It looks like the first group of North American citizens are beginning to receive their ASUS Transformer Prime units in the mail. Canadian reader Mark has reported receiving his through UPS. Check your tracking number from your respective retailer to see if yours is inbound.

United States customers have also reported that device shipments have headed out from various retailers, including a new tip received by us today that GameStop was shipping orders from today and customers should begin receiving them tomorrow (overnight shipping). Hopefully everyone can enjoy some sweet ice cream before Christmas.
All of this lines up with word from our ASUS rep that the ASUS Transformer Prime will, in fact, be available in North American markets starting this week so we’re sure more than a few of you should see it on your doorsteps or in store shelves in no time. Be sure to let us know if you’ve gotten confirmation that your order has shipped! [Thanks Mark and everyone who sent this in!]

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Bell Canada Ice Cream Sandwich update plans leaked

According to a leaked Bell document, this Canadian telecom operator will be releasing Android 4.0 update for HTC Sensation in February 2012, making it one of the first phones after Galaxy Nexus on the network to run on Ice Cream Sandwich.
This document also revealed the ICS update dates for HTC Raider, and Samsung Galaxy S II, which are scheduled to roll-out around March, and April next year.
This is no guarantee that these updates will come right on time, but it certainly gives us an idea of when to expect the updates.

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Toshiba Excite AT200 gets a February 2012 release in Canada

Many were somewhat underwhelmed with Toshiba’s Android tablet debut, the 10-inch Thrive, even with its fabulous marketing strategy of telling consumers how smart they were through Tony Bennet-style singing. The second revision, now renamed the Excite, is headed for a release up north in February of next year. Mobile Syrup quotes an anonymous source that contradicts its January date on the website. Canadians looking for a super-slim Honeycomb tablet, try to contain your excitement.

All joking aside, the Excite AT200 is a pretty impressive piece of hardware, cramming a 10.1-inch display into a 7.7mm thin body. That’s just barely thicker than the skinny part of the DROID RAZR, and beats out the upcoming Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime by .6 millimeters. It’s a considerable improvement on the Thrive, which got a lot of complaints for its 16mm profile. On the inside you get a 1.2Ghz dual-core processor and either 16GB or 32GB of storage, with 2 and 5 megapixel front and rear cameras. Despite the svelte frame, Toshiba still found room for a MicroSD card slot and a Micro HDMI jack.
The tablet will launch with Honeycomb, which is a shame, since at that point Ice Cream Sandwich will have been available for about four months. There’s no word on an upgrade. Technically there’s no confirmation of a United States release either, but it seems like a given considering the FCC filing. If Toshiba had only gotten this attractive hardware out before Christmas, and at a price lower than the Transformer Prime and Galaxy Tab 10.1, it might have made a splash this year instead of next.
Be sure to check out our hands-on video of a pre-release Toshiba Excite.

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Galaxy Nexus on sale in Canada, Americans still out of luck

Oh Verizon, why do you vex us so? Just as planned, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is now on sale at Canadian wireless carriers Virgin Mobile and Bell, giving the Great White North a taste of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Subscribers can get the Galaxy Nexus for $159.99 from either carrier, though naturally you’ll have to sign up for a new two-year three-year contract or renew an existing one. Rogers is still planning a release for January.

The Canadian version is the same HSPA+ model that’s been on sale in the UK and circulated for press reviews – Verizon is still the only carrier confirmed to eventually receive an LTE version. On both Canadian carriers the phone is unbranded, like previous Nexus phones. Notably the Canadian Nexii are more than $140 cheaper than the leaked $299 Verizon price, and the unlocked model comes in at $649, while Verizon is probably pricing their model at $799. To be fair, both Canadian carriers are selling the 16GB version. Unless Virgin or Bell requires an activation with an unlocked model, northern US citizens should be able to make a run across the border and buy one full-price for use on AT&T or T-Mobile.
With just one day until the previously rumored launch of December 9th, it looks like Verizon has left its customers out in the cold yet again. The latest rumors indicate that indeed the December 9th date has been scrapped, with no indication of when the phone might actually go on sale. Verizon subscribers and prospective customers are growing increasingly angry at the company’s total lack of communication – aside from the signup page (which still has yet to send any sort of verification) and a short sentence in a PR message, there’s no official word from the company at all.

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Bell and Virgin Mobile Canada launching Galaxy Nexus on December 7 in Toronto, a day early

If you’re in Toronto, Canada and were hoping to pick up the brand Galaxy Nexus running on Google’s latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, you won’t have to wait until December 8. Starting tomorrow at 1PM, Bell and Virgin will be selling the Samsung Galaxy Nexus at their store in Yong-Dundas.
In addition to Bell and Virgin offering the phone a little early, the Best Buy store in Bay and Dundas will also be selling the Bell and Virgin Galaxy Nexus one day early. The phone is going to sell for $159.95 CAD when you sign a 3-year contract.
If you’re not in the Toronto area, unfortunately, you will have to wait just a little longer to get your brand-new Galaxy Nexus, 1 day to be exact.
Unfortunately, the rest of us in the U.S. still haven’t received an official launch date for the phone. We’re still hoping that Verizon will launch it on December 8.
Via Mobile Syrup, Bell (Twitter)

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Bell to get Galaxy Nexus on December 8

In the States, we had expected to see the Galaxy Nexus before December 8 originally and then a leak from Verizon tipped the December 8 launch date. December 8 will be a shared launch date with Bell Canada too. Bell has announced that its official launch date for the Galaxy Nexus smartphone is December 8.

At this point, we are all familiar with the Galaxy Nexus. We have been playing with some review units for a while now and recently offered up benchmarks for the device. The phone turned in some strong, if not overly impressive stats in our tests. The phone is on par in many aspects with the Galaxy S II. Bell will offer the smartphone with several different contracts.
A 3-year contract will offer the phone for $159.95 in Canada. The price jumps massively if you want to shave a year off that contract to $599.95. A one-year contract is $624.95 for the smartphone and a no contract price is set at $649.95.

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Motorola MotoKey Social (Facebook Phone) headed to Canada

Why Motorola why? We’ve seen this phone a few times but it appears for some odd reason Motorola and Telus have decided to give this depressing idea another try. Introducing the Motorola MotoKey Social. The Motorola Facebook Phone that is destined for greatness, or something like that. Given the huge success of the HTC Status Facebook phone this just seems like a great idea. Right guys?

Maybe I’m just being mean but HTC gave the sad Status Facebook phone a whopping 46 days or so before they pulled the plug. Maybe Motorola feels they have something unique and different but it doesn’t look all that different or amazing if you ask me. Even a quad-core processor and a 4000 mAh battery couldn’t get me to buy this phone. Okay that was a bit harsh — either way here’s the details and specs:

Now I know what your thinking — where is the Android? The dedicated capacitive buttons are no where and neither is a home or navigation button standard to Android on the keyboard. Maybe that is part of the reason I’ve posted my lovely fail photo above. The official MotoKey Social specs page clearly shows Android icons all over the place so you decide. The MotoKey Social has a 2.4″ display, an unknown processor but I’m guessing 800 MHz or maybe 1 GHz, a 3 megapixel camera, and then some micro-SD support.
This beautiful phone will be $89.99 starting November 21st over at TELUS in Canada. Who’s buying?
[via UnwiredView]

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Galaxy Nexus Launch Dates: Nov 17th (O2 UK), Early December (Virgin Mobile / Bell)

It often seems our readers want to know one thing: when will the Samsung Galaxy Nexus launch? The sky is falling! Who cares, when does the Galaxy Nexus launch? That guy has a machine gun and is about to kill us! Okay, I’ll start running once you tell me when the Galaxy Nexus launches!
We already knew that O2 in the UK would be launching the Galaxy Nexus on November 17th, but retailers throwing their own dates into the mix sparked confusion. O2 killed that confusion over the weekend by publishing a picture of the Galaxy Nexus on G+ and then answering a launch date question with, well:


Meanwhile, Virgin Mobile (Canada) has announced to it’s customers – and everyone else’s customers craving Ice Cream Sandwich – that they’ll be able to obtain the Holy Grail get the Galaxy Nexus in early December. They’ve even got a signup page on their website:

Here is the quote directly from Virgin Mobile:

"The new Galaxy Nexus™ will be available from Virgin Mobile when it arrives in Canada in early December. Plus, only Virgin Mobile Members can get this smartphone with a no-term contract on the Virgin Mobile SuperTab™. Whether it’s with talk and text plans or the hottest data plans, Galaxy Nexus™ can be hooked up to Virgin Mobile’s full range of plans - just pick the Virgin Mobile SuperTab™ amount and plan that’s perfect for you!
"Samsung’s ongoing collaboration with Google has resulted in a next generation smartphone that has both superior functionality and a stunning user-experience," said Paul Brannen, Vice President, Mobile Communications at Samsung Electronics Canada. "The large, responsive HD SuperAMOLED screen offers users full 720p video playback on the device, and accommodates the new Android 4.0 user interface that is based on soft keys."

UPDATE: Bell didn’t want to miss out on the action and has offered their promise and sign-up page too.

Don’t you wish American carriers were as forthcoming? Looking back on the Nexus One disaster that promised the device would be “Coming Soon” to Verizon but saw it get lost in the wilderness and left to perish, I won’t be satisfied until I hear a date cemented into a press release.
Lastly, a Notion Ink support thread indicates that Android 4.0 Source Code, aka Ice Cream Sandwich, will be published on November 17th. This makes sense since it would coincide with the date of the first ICS device launches.
It’s already November 14th… the Galaxy Nexus is almost here.

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LG confirms Optimus LTE heading to Bell in Canada

Late last month we mentioned that the Optimus LTE smartphone from LG was heading to Canada and would be landing on Bell. At the time, the thought was that the smartphone would be called the eye when it hit Bell. LG has confirmed that the Optimus LTE will be hitting Bell in Canada officially, but offers no firm launch date.

All LG is saying is that the smartphone will hit Bell “in the coming weeks.” Bell is still mum on when it will launch the device. It would be ideal that the smartphone would be launch before the holidays, but that remains to be seen. It’s also worth noting that the official LG press release says nothing about the smartphone being called the Eye on Bell. The device will operate on the Bell 4G LTE network and will have a 4.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 720.
The display is a True HD IPS unit and should look great with promised natural color and battery efficiency. The Optimus LTE has a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, an 1830 mAh battery, and an 8MP rear camera. It also has HDMI output and supports DLNA. We still expect to see this smartphone hit carriers in the US as well. However, there is now official word on a launch outside Canada at this time.

Related articles

• LG Optimus U1 to be first LG phone tasting Ice Cream Sandwich (goandroid.co.in)

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HTC Raider Now Available through Bell

If you call Canada home and want to lock into the LTE airwaves currently permeating the Great White North courtesy of Bell, you get your chance today as the carrier has released their first 4G smartphone, the HTC Raider The Raider features a 4.5-inch qHD display, 8MP camera, and 1.2GHz dual-core CPU. If you can stand to give up three years to a Bell contract and one device, the Raider is yours for only $149.99. Otherwise look to spend over $500 for two-year and one-year deals.
[via Bell]

Related articles

• HTC Raider sailing to Rogers with 4G LTE for just $149 (goandroid.co.in)

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HTC Raider sailing to Rogers with 4G LTE for just $149

The new HTC Raider codenamed the Holiday is all set to finally hit the shelves and reach our pockets, but with Rogers for now. While we are still waiting for a US launch like the leaks for AT&T suggest, Rogers will be getting this new 4.5″ 4G LTE smartphone here shortly, possibly as soon as November 1st.

We’ve seen plenty of the Raider (Holiday) and it was first leaked to the web back in August and we quickly learned it will be called the Raider. You can get all the details from HTC’s official announcement but what we have is a 4.5″ qHD smartphone with a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage and a beastly 8MP camera with dual LED flash.

Headed to Rogers Canada the HTC Raider will run with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and HTC Sense 3.0 UI. The awesomely low price listed above is on a new 3-year contract from Rogers. We don’t have an official launch date or what regular contract pricing will be at this time but for those in Canada this is one great smartphone. Apparently if users get a family plan with two lines of voice and data Rogers will also give buyers a free Galaxy Tab 10.1 — sweet deal huh? I’d be picking up a few HTC Raiders and enjoying that free tablet if I was chillin up in Canada.
[via Mobile Syrup]

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LG Optimus LTE comes to Bell Canada as the Eye

Just a few weeks ago LG unveiled its jaw-dropping Optimus LTE to spec junkies the world over, and those living in the great white north can get a crack at it on Bell soon. In Canada the phone will be known as the LG Optimus Eye, paying homage to its 8 megapixel/1080p rear camera. That’s not what will be turning the eye of Canadian consumers, however.

No, what makes the Optimus Eye stand out is its massive 4.5-inch screen running a full 1280 x 720 screen, and with a true IPS LCD panel, the it’ll be as crisp and clear as a February morning in Ottawa. That’s an iPhone 4-besting 329 pixels per inch. The hardware hits just keep coming with this one: a 1.5GHz dual-core processor should let Android Gingerbread fly on the Eye, and 4G LTE speeds will make sure that the wireless connection is no hindrance. Bell’s retail chain The Source was kind enough to post a preview video starring a genuine “Tech Expert” (who, by the way, erroneously says that the phone has a 1280 x 760 screen):




Bell is still mum on the price or availability of the LG Optimus Eye, but with an official marketing rollout expect news in the next few weeks. With this kind of top-shelf hardware you can expect a high price tag to boot, but for the time being Canadians will have to wait patiently. There’s still no word on the Optimus LTE making its way south to the United States.

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Rogers Rolls Out LTE For Major Canadian Cities, Leaks Pricing For Device Line Up

After just over a year of envious grumbling, the Canadians have finally gotten their first taste of LTE. Rogers Wireless announced today that true 4G speeds are available to customers in specific coverage areas in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver.
While this is surely a cause for excitement for my fellow Canucks, the devices that are currently on this new network aren't. At the time of launch, the only LTE device available to consumers is the Sierra Wireless AirCard 313U, a mobile "LTE Rocket stick" for laptops. On October 18, the HTC Jetstream will hit the market, with an LTE version of the Galaxy S II and the Sierra AirCard 754S mobile hotspot to follow in the weeks after.
Rogers has announced the pricing for the Jetstream, Galaxy S II, and the AirCard 754S on a 3-year contract or off contract, but MobileSyrup managed to get a hold of the full pricing details for the line up. Here's a look at what Rogers will be asking for their LTE devices:
HTC Jetstream: Launching October 18th:
3-year contract: $499.99
2-year contract: $549.99
1-year contract: $599.99
No-Term: $799.99
LTE Samsung Galaxy S II:
3-year contract: $199.99
2-year contract: $549.99
1-year contract: $599.99
No-Term: $649.99
LTE Sierra Wireless 754S Mobile Hotspot:
3-year contract: $129.99
2-year contract: $149.99
1-year contract: $169.99
No-Term: $199.99
The coverage may not be vast and the devices may not be many, but it's a start. Hopefully, Canadians will soon be able to stream hockey games and get directions to the nearest Timmie's even faster.
Source: Rogers, MobileSyrup

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You Can Now Rent Movies In Canada On The Android Market

Back in May, Google announced that users are able to rent movies through the Android Market. Started as a U.S. only offering, the option is now available for users in Canada.

If you are living in Canada, you are now able to rent HD movies through the Android Market for $3.99 - $4.99. From here, all the other rules apply, including a 48 hour window for watching the rented movies and the 30-day "Rental Grant Period". There are reportedly also Canadian titles included. Please note that your device has to run at least Android 2.2 Froyo in order to take advantage of the offering.

Source: MobileSyrup

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HTC enables bootloader unlock for EVO 3D in Europe and Canada

HTC has added two additional flavors of EVO 3D to its bootloader unlocking site, following in the footsteps of the Sprint version, which become unlockable last month. If you own an unbranded European EVO 3D, or a Rogers-branded device in Canada, then you can begin your quest by using the web tool over on the HTCDev site.

Unlocking your bootloader will allow you to monkey around with custom firmware and the like, though you'll void your warranty by doing so, even if you use the official HTC unlocking tools. Still interested? Hit the link below to begin.

Source: HTCDev

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