Canadians will soon have a quicker way to make purchases through the use of contactless payment cards that will enable customers to tap-to-purchase their items at the check-out instead of punching in pin numbers the traditional way. The Interac Association, a not-for-profit organization that gives Canadians automated banking and point-of-sale debit purchases, is introducing Flash Cards that will use RF smart card technology and will bring customers a speedier experience at the check out....

The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) hasreportedthat Canadians sent more than 14.2 billion text messages in the third quarter of 2010. This carries the total of the first three quarters of the year to over 40 billion. In September of 2010 Canadians sent 4.9 billion texts at an average of 163 million per day. Short codes, often used in mobile marketing campaigns were used 560 million times by Canadians in the third quarter of 2010, bringing the total number of sent and received short codes to 1....

Today adecisionwas made by theCRTC(Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) will end up costing Canadians more money for internet usage. Apparently, the CRTC thought Canadians weren’t paying enough in Internet overage fees from independent ISP’s so it renewed the rules to allow major ISP’s such as Bell, Rogers and Shaw to determine the “excessive bandwidth” rates charged by the smaller ISPs using its bandwidth. The Commission notes that carriers’ retail UBB rates are market-based and are not subject to prior Commission approval – that is, they are forborne from regulation....

Google’s Android operating system has continued to dominate the smartphone market in Q1 2011, holding the top spot for the second quarter running, according to anew market data reportfrom research firm Canalys. The Android platform, holding a 32.9% in Q4 2010, rose 2.1% over the last quarter with 35.7 million units shipping during that period. This was helped by a increased sales in the Asia Pacific region, after shipments grew 98% to 37....

Technology research specialists Canalys believe that if HP reintroduced its TouchPad tablet, the value of its PC division could be doubled – if not tripled – thecompany said in a recently published research note. HP’s decision to axe production of its webOS smartphone and tablet devices in August immediately followed an announcement that the computer maker was looking to spin-off its PC business to focus on enterprise clients. As a result, HP slashed the price of its TouchPad tablet to $99 in the US and £89 in the UK, seeing demand rocket for the device....