Oh boy, Rogers customers are going to love this.

Navigating over to the 911 fee area of the Rogers Website (or checking out your Rogers invoice), visitors will notice that effective April 12, 2010 Rogers will be increasing their monthly charged $0.50 911 fee to $0.75 per month.

Rogers has given no reason for the price increase, but that isn’t different than any other Rogers price increase.

However, do note that this change only affects existing Rogers customers who are still on an older price plan. In other words, if your wireless invoice has a “GRRF” or Government Regulatory Recovery Fee charge on it, then this change does not affect you.

But, if your wireless invoice has a “System Access Fee” and “Emergency Access Fee” charge on it, the Emergency Fee is increasing to $0.75 from $0.50 per month.

[Rogers]

How addicted are you to your iPhone? Addicted enough to express it on your fridge with some iPhone app magnets? If so, check out the iPhone App magnets from Jailbreak Toys.

The magnets include the entire first iPhone home screen, including the newer “Messages” app instead of “SMS”. The only two missing apps are Voice Memos and Contacts.

The set costs $12.99USD with free shipping with the purchase of three or more sets. The magnets are rather cool looking and would make a great gift for that iPhone fanatic in your life, but there is only one problem…no
Canadian shipping!

At this time, it seems they only ship to US states, even though “Postal Code” is listed as a required input field. There are ways around this limitation, but it’s too bad that there is not a direct Canadian shipping method.

Update March 11, 2010: iPhoneinCanada.ca reader “Solud Snake” contacted Jailbreak Toys regarding Canadian shipping and received this response:

We’re currently in the process of getting our international shipping up and running. It will be ready to go on March 17.

Epic news!

[Jailbreak Toys]

So far we’ve talked about the L5 remote, Bell PVR TV remote app, and the RedEye Mini. Being able to control all your multimedia devices with one remote is very handy. The latest patents submitted by Apple reveals that they have some sort of super remote in the works.

PatentlyApple.com writes about the following:

Apple has been trying to create the ultimate universal remote in their labs for several years now. In fact, the first of three patent figures in our cover graphic above is from one of their 2007 patents on the same subject. In this report, we’ll show you some of the great things that Apple is dreaming up in respect to Apple TV and a universal remote that is starting to really take shape: A universal remote that may finally have some real meaning beyond just controlling our iTunes content. Where’s the beef? Well here it is – and a whole lot more!

On one hand, Apple’s patent basically relates to portable electronic devices and more particularly to systems and methods for saving and restoring scenes in a multimedia system. What is a scene? A scene includes the states of one or more components in the multimedia system. States of components that could be captured in a scene can include, for example, the states of lights (e.g., whether they are turned on or off and their brightness levels), the states of speakers (e.g., volume level and balance), media that is playing on a media playback application, metadata associated with the media that is playing, or any other suitable states.

Devices in the multimedia system could include consumer electronic devices, such as televisions, set-top boxes, stereo receivers, and computers, and appliances, such as lights, window shades, and fireplaces. In addition, universal remote controls have been designed to interact with a wide variety of devices, so that a single universal remote control could be used to control more than one device. For example, a universal remote control could control both a television and set-top box.

This is very interesting. If Apple is going to create a new universal remote we could also see a new version of Apple TV coming our way (Apple’s so called hobby). What do you think? How soon will we see some sort of remote that controls our entire house, either via the iPhone or iPod Touch?

Yesterday Apple released beta 4 of the iPhone 3.2 SDK. Initially nothing seemed very different from the previous beta, until today when users located new gesture references.

Deep within the gestures folder of the new SDK, two new types of gesture commands have been found. The gestures are not currently present in the iPhone 3.1 SDK and are labeled 3Tap.plist and LongPress.plist.

In short, 3Tap.plist means a new 3 tap gesture and LongPress.plist simply indicates a long press gesture command. It is likely that these gestures will show up in the next iPhone firmware 3.2, currently at 3.1.3, or may even debut in a 4.0 release.

[9to5Mac]

If you live or work in Edmonton and are a software developer, whether independent or with a firm, you have a great chance at winning yourself a couple thousand dollars in prizes!

Later this month, the City of Edmonton will be holding a contest that will provide $50,000 in prize winnings to local software developers. The city is looking for methods to improve information flow to Edmonton residents, so if you think you have what it takes, keep an eye out!

The City of Edmonton will be looking to local software developers to improve the way information is made available to residents with a contest to be announced later this month.

Along side the contest, the city is further looking to partner with other municipalities in an effort to design a common platform that software developers can utilize to create applications for sending information to 311 call centers.

So if you live in Edmonton and develop software, keep an eye out for the Apps4Edmonton contest in the next few weeks. Winners have the chance to receive up to $50,000 in prizes and further be showcased at GTEC in Ottawa in October 2010.

[Vancouver Sun]

Do you send a lot of text and/or picture messages with your iPhone? Does your wireless bill add up every month from these messages? If so, take a closer look at the Pushme.to Messenger app.

Pushme.to by Treebune

Pushme.to is a messenger app that is made to send free messages from the internet to an iPhone or iPod Touch. In other words, using Pushme.to, users can send and receive free text and picture messages between their friends using their own iPhones, iPod Touch or other mobile device (receive from other mobile devices).

The benefit here is that using Pushme.to eliminates the monthly fee of paying for text or picture messages from the wireless carrier, as users no longer need to pay their carrier for that service. However, do note that if you send a text/picture message using your wireless carrier, charges will apply, as Pushme.to is simply an alternative method for messages.

By utilizing the app, users can completely bypass paying for SMS or MMS. Of all the types of messages that users can send, one of the largest beneficiaries will be international text message users, as there are no charges to send a message locally, within North America, or anywhere in the world.

Aside from using the app, users can also send messages via the web by navigating to http://pushme.to/nickname. What this means is users do not necessarily need to have an iPhone or iPod Touch to make use of the app and its messaging functions.

If you are looking to pick up Pushme.to, the app comes in two flavors; a free version and a paid version.

The paid version gives priorities for new features, delivers faster support, and does not have advertisements. The free version simply does not have the aforementioned benefits, however it is still as functional. If users begin with a lite account, their user account is fully compatible with the paid version.

Also, users of either the Lite or Full version can install a web widget on their blog, site, or even Facebook profile, so that visitors can send him/her free instant messages!

Pushme.to is available in the App Store for $2.99. The lite version is available for free.

Have you used Pushme.to or a similar service? What do you think?

Giveaway

If you haven’t used Pushme.to yet (or a similar service), I’m going to give away THREE copies today. To win, tell me about your wireless carrier billing horror story!

Winners chosen at random; Contest ends March 10, 2010 at 11:59PM PST.

Contest Rules:

1.) Make sure to include your email in the name entry form or I cannot contact you!

2.) One Contest Entry Per Person. Do not attempt to post multiple contest entries under different emails and/or user names during the same contest.

3.) Winner(s) must claim prize(s) within 24 hours of me sending the confirmation email. Failure to do so results in expulsion from the contest.

On Jan. 31st, The Simpsons featured Homer using his iPhone on the show’s opening couch gag. I never did catch the episode but the clip itself is pretty funny. This is the not the first time Apple has been featured on TV’s longest running show. You may recall the November 2008 episode that featured “Mapple” and “Steve Mobs”. Enjoy the following clips!

Homer Simpson Couch Gag Opening:

The Mapple Store:

Steve Mobs:

Lisa’s MyBill:

[JAiB and Brainstorm Tech]

The 2010 Academy Awards took place yesterday and guess who was spotted on the red carpet by Wayne Sutton? None other than ‘the man’ himself, Steve Jobs. That’s right folks, he was probably there to support Pixar with the nominations Up! received.

Also interesting to note was the first official iPad commercial debuted last night too. Featuring a dizzying array of iPad functions it surely wet the appetites of viewers for the much anticipated April 3rd launch date. I know I want one. Do I need one though? Nope. But I want one.

Here’s the commercial if you missed it (it’s also up on the Apple website):

…and here’s Steve Jobs spotted on the red carpet by Wayne Sutton and his iPhone (he was the only one yelling at Steve for his attention):

Here’s another shot from the AP:

So did your Oscar predictions come true? Christopher Waltz definitely deserved his Oscar for his performance in Inglourious Basterds.

Thanks Philippe for the email!

[9to5Mac for AP images]

It was recently reported that Apple has started pulling all WiFi finder apps from the App Store, due to an issue with an undocumented, private API being used in some of these apps. Developer Aspecto Software has decided to go the jailbreak route, and release their app, WiFiFoFum in Cydia, for Free.

This comes just 2 weeks after Apple pulled all the “boob” apps from the App Store, claiming they wanted to keep the App Store more family oriented. This is a huge blow to developers who have relied on these sales to keep their companies going. WiFiFoFum sold for $2.99 when it was in the App Store.

WiFiFoFum is a great app for finding WiFi, anywhere around you. It uses the iPhones Location API, to figure out where you are, then scans the surrounding area for WiFi networks. You have a live list of the closest hotspots, a map of the area showing more know hotspots, and a cool “radar” more that shows your orientation to these hotspots. There are many more features included, so if you don’t already have this from the App Store, and your device is jailbroken, there is no reason not to get it now.

Jailbroken iPhone users will continue to benefit from this behavior from Apple. As these companies are pushed out of the App store, they really only have one place to go: Cydia or Rock (I guess that’s 2 places ).Some developers with probably modify their apps, and resubmit them to Apple, but the easiest thing to do is turn to the dark side!

Thanks for reading. You can follow me on Twitter, if you want, and you can read more of my stuff over and Green Candy and iEvolution!

Looking for places nearby when you need them? Can’t find that restaurant, coffee shop, or bank machine? Check out Canada Eye!

Canada Eye by Canpages Inc.

Canpages has launched a free augmented reality iPhone app called the Canada Eye. Among searching for local businesses, the app lets users view the direction and distance to all specific business locations by utilizing augmented reality on the iPhone screen.

For those wondering what Augmented Reality is, essentially, AR is the integration of digital information with live video or environment in real time. In other words, using the iPhone 3GS compass, GPS, and camera, users can see points of interest overlaid on the iPhone screen instead of looking at a map.

Canada Eye lets users search for a specific category, whether it be a local deli to a Mom n’ Pop bakery to a Starbucks. Whatever business needs to be found, Canada Eye is the one app to find everything near you, and also provides direction of how to get there.

When opening the app for the first time, users can allow Canada Eye to use their current location to find local businesses nearby. Then, using one of over 30 points of interest, users tap on a category such as “ATM” and all of the ATM locations near the user are listed. Tapping on any search result allows users to one-touch call, add the business to the iPhone Contact List, open Safari to view a website, or view the directions on a map of how to get there.

Another great feature is being able to toggle between a list, map, or “eye” view while viewing the search results of a specific category. The default setting is “List”, which simply lists the search results. Tapping on “Map” will open an in-app map, using the Bing search engine oddly enough, which showcases all of the business locations with pins. Lastly, tapping “Eye” (or rotating the iPhone sideways) will start the Augmented Reality view and allow users to visual search for business locations in real time using the iPhone camera.

Canada Eye also allows users to use the one-touch menu to add more categories and to organize them how ever users want. In other words, users can keep their most used categories at the top of the list at all times!

If you are looking for a great point of interest app that also utilizes the amazing Augmented Reality technology, check out Canada Eye.

Canada Eye is available in the App Store for free.