Village Gamer

Toronto – SIRIUS Canada, the country’s leading satellite radio company, today announced the launch of the first official satellite radio app for iPhone and iPod touch users in Canada.

The SIRIUS App, available for free from Apple’s App Store, will allow subscribers with an iPhone or iPod touch to access SIRIUS Satellite Radio’s unmatched news, sports, entertainment and commercial-free music content on their device.

“We’re excited to launch the first official satellite radio app in Canada and give SIRIUS subscribers a new way to enjoy SIRIUS’ unbeatable content on their iPhone and iPod touch,” said Mark Redmond, President and CEO, SIRIUS Canada Inc. “With the iPhone available from multiple carriers in Canada, this is a great opportunity for device users who are not yet subscribers to sample the incredible range of sports, news, talk, entertainment and commercial-free music programming available on SIRIUS.”

iPhone and iPod Touch users in Canada who are not yet SIRIUS subscribers can sign up for a free 14-day trial of the service. Following the trial, users will be given the option to become a SIRIUS subscriber. The SIRIUS App also allows users to:

– Purchase a song heard on SIRIUS while it is being played or “Tag” favourite songs for later purchase from the iTunes Store.

– See the current channel plus what is playing on all other available channels via the “Lookaround” function.

– Quickly surf through SIRIUS programming on the fly with the flick of a finger using the innovative Multi-Touch user interface of iPhone and iPod touch.

Seattle – Amazon today announced that Kindle, Amazon’s most wished for, most gifted, and No. 1 bestselling product, is now available for shipment to customers in Canada. Kindle wirelessly downloads books, magazines and newspapers to a crisp, high-resolution 6-inch electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle utilizes the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so you never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Readers in Canada can order their Kindle today for U.S. $259, with immediate shipment available. I just checked amazon.ca and could find lots of Kindle accessories but not the Kindle itself, so it appears that it can only be ordered from the American site.

“We know that Canadians are passionate about books and reading, and we’re excited to make Kindle available to our customers there,” said Ian Freed, vice president of Kindle. “Kindle enables customers around the world including Canada to think of a book and start reading it in under 60 seconds.”

The Kindle Store offers Canadian customers over 300,000 books, including New Releases and Globe and Mail Bestsellers, which are typically U.S. $11.99 or less.

More than 90 top newspapers and magazines are also available in the Kindle Store for single purchase or subscription. Available for the first time on Kindle are Canada’s national newspapers The Globe & Mail and The National Post. Additionally, all of Canwest’s major daily newspapers will be available on Kindle coming soon. They join top papers such as Le Monde (France), The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Times (U.K.), The Daily Telegraph (U.K.) and The Washington Post.

Customers in Canada can now enjoy the same features that have helped make Kindle the No. 1 bestselling product on Amazon, including:

– Slim and Trim: At just over a third of an inch thin (0.36 inches) and weighing just over 10 ounces, Kindle is pencil thin and lighter than a typical paperback.

– 3G Wireless: Readers can wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download books in less than 60 seconds, automatically receive newspaper and magazine subscriptions, and read from their library-now in more than 100 countries and territories including Canada.

– Reads Like Real Paper: Kindle’s 6-inch electronic ink display reads like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays.

– Stores Up to 1,500 Books: Kindle’s 2 GB of memory holds up to 1,500 books and Kindle books are automatically backed up by Amazon so customers can re-download titles in their library.

– Read for Weeks on a Single Charge: Kindle’s electronic paper display sips battery power so users can read for over two weeks with wireless turned off and up to four days on a single charge with wireless on.

– Read-To-Me: With the experimental Text-To-Speech feature, Kindle can read most newspapers, magazines and books out loud.

– Automatically Syncs With Kindle and Kindle Compatible Devices: Amazon’s “Whispersync” technology automatically syncs customers’ last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across Kindle, Kindle DX, and Kindle compatible devices like Kindle for iPhone and Kindle for PC.

– Read Personal Documents: Read personal documents in a variety of formats such as Microsoft Word and PDF.

– Instant Dictionary Lookup: Kindle comes with the New Oxford American Dictionary and over 250,000 definitions that appear instantly at the bottom of the page.

– Choose Text Size: Kindle lets readers customize their reading preference by providing six different text sizes.

– Bookmarks, Notes and Highlights: By using the QWERTY keyboard, Kindle users can add annotations to text, as well as highlight and clip key passages and bookmark pages for future use.