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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Savour the moment people, for this is our last week pre-iPad. The world will be very different in just a few short days. Water will taste different. Cats will become more friendly. Anand may finally be let past border security with only a light frisking. This is the hope.

But before we face the unstoppable deluge of Apple fanboyism, we’ve got some real news to talk about this week. Special guest and troubadour Brian Liu is on the show, dropping knowledge and giving us all Kindle envy. Topics of note include:

• Nintendo announced their upcoming handheld refresh, the Nintendo 3DS, in a very quiet fashion. I think the news broke in the dead of night. Did they really think we wouldn’t notice?
• Anand and Demers join forces in their hatred of Telus. Can’t say I blame them. I long for the day when we won’t speak ill of a telcom company.
• eReader prices are going down, which means us laggards might actually be able to afford one, finally. Brian, on the other hand…
• The Wall Street Journal thinks we’re going to pay $17.99 per month for a digital subscription — you know, on top of our $29.99 data plans.
• Finally, remember all that Android platform fragmentation we bitched about? That’s a big string of words, so I’ll forgive you if you don’t. Either way, Google says they’ve got a plan to fix it. Demers and about five other users care. (Zing!)

Listen here, or at the Not So Much News!

Length: 31:29
Close: God of War III Overture — Gerard Marino (GOW III OST)
Download: 30.2 MB
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Compadre and amigo-in-training Matt Demers returns for what is becoming a regular gig here at the Not So Horrible podcast. I’m not sure how I feel about that. There’s less toilet paper now, for one.

Otherwise, we hope you like phones, because there’s a lot of that junk going on today. Big ones, small ones, creepy ones and ones that don’t get timely updates, much to Demers’ chagrin. Talking points include:

• Palm’s in trouble. Which is a shame, because they’ve got a damn nice product in WebOS. Nevertheless, the company’s bleeding money, and we’ll tell you why.
• Shots of RIM’s BlackBerry OS 6.0 leak out, or so we’re told. I climb onto my soapbox and tell you why RIM’s heading downhill too.
• Windows Phone 7 Series, people. New details from Microsoft this week, and some interesting app store tidbits.
• Nexus One is finally available to Canadians, and works on all providers, contrary to what Rogers wants you to think.
• And finally, nobody loves Demers, Telus included. Android 2.1 is delayed for the time being, and there’s no ETA on its release. So much for mobile March Madness, eh?

Listen here, or at the Not So Much News!

Length: 34:05
Close: Hyrule Field (Orchestral version) – Koji Kondo (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess OST)
Download: 32.7 MB
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CAUTION: REALITY DISTORTION FIELD AHEAD.

This is a warning. If you do not like Apple, or do not wish to further indulge in the Padocalypse, then proceed no further. Here be dragons. And crushed dreams. And, of course, the iPad.

This is Apple’s “latest creation,” a 9.7 inch tablet that is, in essence, eight iPhones taped together. Notable features include:

• A capacitative, multi-touch screen — perfect to showcase your grubby fingerprints to friends and family
• A custom, Apple-made 1GHz A4 chip, whatever that means. Moles are investigating.
• FLAVOURS, as long as your idea of flavours is 16, 32 or 64GB
• Wifi in all models, and 3G in the more expensive kind, with GPS, internal compass and ALL THAT JAZZ
• iPhone OS 3.2 — pretend you have invented an anti-shrink ray device, and amaze your friends with your “new, larger phone”
• Fancy applications, from the likes of EA, the New York Times and a mobile version of iWork
• eBooks, in an iTunes like platform. Which, by the way, also includes an actual mobile iTunes.

AND SO MUCH MORE. Which, of course, we talk about. Because it wouldn’t be a product release party if me and Anand didn’t tear it to shreds, and give you the lowdown on what we love and hate. After all, it’s just the sort of stuff we like to touch upon. Ahem.

Length: 32:42
Close: Demon Days [Instrumental] – Gorillaz
Download: 31.4 MB
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