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Unlocked iPhone in Canada

Am I the only one who's surprised about this week's article in the Toronto Star announcing that the iPhone 4 will be available unlocked and without a contract in Canada?

Canada! The land of three-year contracts and punitive price points.

This seems to be a big step for our restrictive and over-regulated telecommunications industry, and could herald a movement toward true mobility.

Canada is one of the only countries left where three year contracts are still the norm for cutting-edge handsets. As a friend pointed out yesterday, this is a bit of a conundrum for consumers, while ensuring sky-high profits for providers. The people who have the most interest in new gadgets are the ones who want to change often and remain ahead of the curve. They are also the ones who are faced with signing another three year contract when the product cycle comes around again, which is less than a year in most cases.

There are a few factors leading to this change, and all represent shifts in power away from the providers. First, there is more competition. With Bell and Telus combining on the 3G front, Rogers is no longer the sole provider of the most modern handsets. We also have Kodoo, Virgin, Mobilicity, Wind and a few other upstarts entering the market place.

Second, is the devices themselves. The must-have status of phones from Apple, Blackberry and Google have forced Canadian telecom companies to be more responsive to the manufacturers for fear of missing the boat on the industry's latest trend.

Finally, Bill C-32 provides some copyright protection for consumers this time, that no longer bars unlocking phones.

Soon owning a cell phone could be as easy as leasing a car. After all, if the windshield of your Toyota cracks and you take it to Apple Auto Glass, Toyota doesn't immediately void the warranty of your car.

Food Post!

This is definitely my favourite thing to eat for lunch or dinner. Clockwise from the top: Parmigiano-Reggiano, Gruyere, Prosciutto di San Danielle, Genoa Salami, roasted pecans, local honey, any sort of crisp apple or pear and bakery-fresh ciabatta baguette. There is definitely no recipe for this, so take the idea and run with it.

There are some keys though. Roasted pecans and walnuts go perfectly with fragrant honey (not Billy Bee) and salty stuff like parmesan and prosciutto. You should also try to get something peppery, I like Genoa Salami but you could try sopresatta or pepperoni, to balance it all out.

The flavours are great, it's cheap because you only have to buy what you need and you can take it in any direction.

Art and Copy review

I remember trying to see this at Hot Docs last year and it was sold out, so I rented it a few weeks ago. For anybody who's interested in the advertising industry or communications more generally, Art & Copy is definitely worth watching. (view trailer)

It has great access to some of the legends of the business including Dan Weiden, Jeff Goodby and perhaps most interestingly George Lois.

The film does a great job illustrating that it is, in fact, the "creative" people that drive the world's most pervasive industry. It also shows that many of them aren't inherently creative or artistic people, rather just hard workers with the drive to see their ideas through. 

After getting stuck for ideas one day Dan Weiden came up with the now iconic "Fail Harder" wall at Weiden + Kennedy's Portland office. The wall was designed to impart the message that the only way to succeed is to fail harder. It took 100,000 push pins and 351 hours of work, and instead of creating the letters with the pins, they did it the hard way and filled in the whole wall around the letters:

If this kind of thinking appeals to you, or if you want some behind-the-scenes insight into some of the most famous ad campaigns of the last 30 years, check it out.

Scott Pilgrim takes over social media!

This trailer looks amazing, and the story behind it has an interesting online pr/marketing aspect.

A few days ago, director Edgar Wright, one of the four famous people I follow on Twitter announced they would release the trailer early if the Facebook fan page got 100,000 'likes.'

They followed through immediately, posting the video early Monday morning. The cool thing about this approach is it opens a somewhat permanent channel to their fans between now and the August release through Facebook. I know for myself and a few others I asked, people tend not to bother 'un-liking' stuff unless it becomes too annoying. So, if they play their cards right, they will have at least 100,000 fans to view other content before the release and to springboard future campaigns.

This is one of the better examples I can think of using social media to create buzz over a product. What began as a single Tweet on Friday spread quickly due to the director's large following and frequent updates. Then it moved to Facebook where it reached 100,000 fans in about 48 hours. A quick scan of more main-stream entertainment sites and blogs shows that it got huge pick up, and most stories also mentioned how the campaign worked.

I'm a huge fan of the books and will post about them later!

iPad is here, should communications pros be scared?

This is probably the best example I've seen of the type of experience the iPad can offer to the 'traditional' publishing industry.

All the content looks expandable and the interface appears to be fast and easy to use. 

Haven't we all wished at some point that the cover story of a magazine was as easy to find as just clicking on it?

While I'm excited about the iPad's potential, I have to say that the interactive advertising is perhaps the most interesting feature.  A quick look at this shows that while the iPad may bring sweeping changes to the publishing industry, ad agencies will see the challenge and profitability of being at the forefront of this shift as an exciting prospect.

The ads seem to include copy, video, audio, interactive images and links to specialized pages set up to support the product or service. The brief for one ad in this format could potentially read the same as a brief for an entire campaign using traditional media.

Although it hasn't been long enough yet (especially in Canada), it will be interesting to see where this format and others like it take public relations and advertising in the next few years. 

The only two things we know for sure: publishing companies will still find a way to charge (maybe more?) for space, and ad agencies aren't going to pass it up!

See the Wired article here

Le Select Bistro - best brunch in the city

Went out for brunch at Le Select Bistro on Wellington this morning. The area is really quiet during the day on weekends and the food is amazing. The menu is very French and the dishes are well executed by a skilled kitchen. The front and back terraces are beautiful as is the decor inside. The white tile in the bar area and the chairs outside look like they may have come directly from any number of bistros in Paris.

I had the seared fresh foie gras served on a thin French toast with flambe pears, a cocotte egg and a Port maple sauce. Certainly not light fare, but it was excellent. My girlfriend had apple cranberry stuffed French toast which was also really good and everyone's plates looked great as they went by.

It was about $70 for both meals, a great dessert and a few drinks. It's a great place to spend a few hours on a nice day and only a short walk from Queen west shopping