For some, it’s a good week to be a cellphone user in Toronto. Of course, for others it’s also a bad week. And for myself, Anand and Demers, as Telus customers, it’s been a bad year. This is what happens when we all lock into contracts. Zing! Mobile news is this week’s podcast flavour, though we send some gaming tidbits your way as well. And if you’re a fan of Bollywood, I have it on good authority you’ll want to listen till the end.

• Mobilicity is Canada’s newest cellphone provider, though it only services a very limited slice of the GTA for now. We give you the lowdown on what they offer in terms of plans, phones and expectations.
• Rogers finally names their iPad data plans, and of course, there’s no unlimited to be found. Worse still, new owners can’t tether off their iPhone’s data plan either.
• People get nicer phones in the US, as usual. Anand travels down south and tells us of all the earthly delights.
• Bulletstorm is an over the top FPS parody with elements of Duke Nukem, Serious Sam, Borderlands and Epic Games goodness. You should all watch the trailer right about now.

Listen here, or at the Not So Much News!

Length: 32:48
Close: Haule Haule — Sukhwinder Singh
Download: 31.5 MB
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Life after the iPad. Things are strange. Food tastes differently. I can’t look at my wife the same anymore. She doesn’t even have GPS. Sigh.

Alas, we’ve managed to lurch forward here at the Not So Horrible podcast, as me and Anand take a look at life in the AfterPad. Adobe’s had some choice words for the Turtlenecks over in Cupertino, who are none to pleased at the lack of Flash support. Fujitsu, meanwhile, claims the iPad trademark is rightfully theirs. It’s the sort of stuff Judge Reinhold would be all over.

But in other, non-Apple news:

• REM may be the only ones to put a man on the moon any time soon — Obama’s restructuring NASA’s funding, and the space agency is none too pleased
• Ubisoft’s approach to DRM? The internet. You’re going to have to be online to play, folks. I don’t know if this counts as a solution.
• Mass Effect 2 is out. Gamers, rejoice!
• Twitter and texting, brking ur grmmr? That’s what some University Prof’s think. I guess they weren’t reading The Star six years ago when they wrote the exact same article.

And that’s that. Quite frankly, I’m glad all this Apple business is over and done with. However, there will always be a part of me that wishes my wife could speak to satellites. You’re safe for now, TomTom.

Length: 38:32
Close: The Illusive Man – Mass Effect 2 OST
Download: 37.0 MB
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This is it, people! The last episode of Oh-Nine! Me and Tony Stark will be taking the next week off, which means that this episode is closing down the first decade of the millenium. Will the next decade be just as magical? I do hope so. I figure it’s only a matter of time before we start doing these episodes in our flying cars, while robots cleanse our feet.

Oh, the possibilities.

And because we know you folks love surprises, we’ve brought resident curmudgeon Matt Demers back on the show, dropping knowledge and dashing good looks. This episode takes us all over the place, from phones to films, and you know it’s going to be a good time. So gather ’round the fire, roast some chestnuts and give us a listen while you await the most commercialized morning of the year. So concludes year one of the Not So Horrible Podcast!

Length: 40:39
Close: I Slept With The Bonhomme At The CBC – Broken Social Scene
Download: 39.0 MB
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Today, me and Anand met for the very first time in podcast history. Nearby, a chorus of whales burst forth from around us, singing hymns so decadent the sky wept. Diamonds fell from the sky, like expensive hail. Somewhere, a man with a guitar strummed a lone chord. Perhaps it was an A minor. Or just maybe it was a B flat.

Oh, and there was a whole lot of echo.

Those of you who’ve been following the ‘cast know that me and Anand have been doing this here project completely over the inter-tubes, packing our melodic voices into small little packets, and shooting them between us with the power of modern technology. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, it seems fitting that, for our tenth episode, we finally do one in person. And just like our humble beginnings, this too posed problems.

There was a whole lot of echo.

Despite being in the same room, we still used two mics. While this wouldn’t normally cause a problem, some funky discrepancies within audacity meant that things didn’t quite sync up. But just barely! Things are still listenable, for the most part, but we’ll understand if you don’t want to hear us repeat everything twice – albeit, with a very minuscule delay. And in our opinion, that just makes the podcast all the more interesting; you get to hear us discuss the Wii, the Zune, and pigeons.

Yes. Pigeons.

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