Rogers and CIBC kick off Canadian NFC-based mobile payments with mini event (update: full details)

Rogers and its banking partner CIBC have been making much ado over bringing NFC mobile payments to Canada since the spring, but the companies have been mostly silent on actual availability and let a rumored October 15th launch date pass by without fanfare. The two partners are at last ready to swing into action, at least symbolically - a photo-op at a Tim Hortons in Toronto on Friday will officially represent the first instance of their payment system being used in the wild.

Engadget , Rogers and CIBC kick off Canadian NFC-based mobile payments with mini event (update: full details), Rogers and CIBC kick off Canadian NFC-based mobile payments with mini event (update: full details)

Top tips to make sure corporate blogs engage your audience

Great advice to help you create must-read corporate blogs and silly advice to help you to suck up to those in power. Corporate blogs: Who reads corporate blogs. Well no one will if they are irrelevant and boring. Here are top tips to make sure blogs engage your audience, plus we give reasons for creating a blog in the first place. Good and Bad PR: Big bottoms on buildings and stunt videos gets the thumbs up from Rich Leigh this week, but it’s a thumbs down for a games company trying to bury bad news.

Press Release Distribution , Top tips to make sure corporate blogs engage your audience, Top tips to make sure corporate blogs engage your audience

Why Apple May Be Ditching Fake Leather, Felt, And Bookshelves

The New York Times' excellent Bits Blog wrote this morning about how Apple's management changes could lead to user interface changes. In particular, this concerns skeuomorphic elements and textures: Forstall (and Jobs before him) were apparently enamored with recreating real objects in the iOS interface. You can see this in apps like Game Center (hideous felt and a casino table motif), Newsstand and iBooks (they're not real texts unless they're on a virtual shelf), and the linen texture that pervades iOS and now OS X.

Ubergizmo , Why Apple May Be Ditching Fake Leather, Felt, And Bookshelves, Why Apple May Be Ditching Fake Leather, Felt, And Bookshelves

Google Has Already Updated Post-Sandy NY Transit Maps

If you've been living under a stone and missing out on non-tech news for the past week, a pretty major hurricane hit the Eastern seaboard including the Unofficial Capital of the World, New York City. Although the storm's gone, there's a lot of damage: some are saying that the New York subway could take months to get back to full service, and parts of New Jersey are absolutely wiped. Google's been trying to help, by putting crisis maps and links to support services on the main page. But today they also updated Maps to reflect the damage done.

Ubergizmo , Google Has Already Updated Post-Sandy NY Transit Maps, Google Has Already Updated Post-Sandy NY Transit Maps

Sprint Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 coming your way this November 11th

If you are a subscriber to Sprint's network and are on the lookout for a spanking new tablet, then here's news for you – Sprint will be making available their very first 4G LTE tablet to the masses this coming November 11th, where you will have to fork out $549.99 for this bad boy. Depending on your budget, you are able to activate the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 with one of the new, aggressively priced month-to-month tablet rate plans, where 300MB of 3G/4G LTE data will cost you $14.99, while folks who figure out that 300MB is pittance might want to settle for a more comfortable 3GB data at $34.99 per month.

Ubergizmo , Sprint Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 coming your way this November 11th, Sprint Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 coming your way this November 11th

US Cellular intros Motorola Electrify M, gets a slice of the Droid RAZR M on November 8th for $100

Americans who were eying Motorola's Droid RAZR M and just weren't keen on Verizon's typically overt branding now have at least one alternative. US Cellular is giving the big-screened, small-sized smartphone a slight respin as the Electrify M, with a subtler (if less Kevlar-laden) design wrapping around the same 4.3-inch screen, 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 and LTE that we've come to know. The carrier applies a light touch to the Android 4.0 build as well.

Engadget , US Cellular intros Motorola Electrify M, gets a slice of the Droid RAZR M on November 8th for $100, US Cellular intros Motorola Electrify M, gets a slice of the Droid RAZR M on November 8th for $100

Amazon Game Studios releases its first mobile game, Air Patriots, for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire

Amazon made its first push into in-house game development this summer with the launch of Amazon Game Studios and its first title, the Facebook-bound Living Classics, and its now made its second big move. The company announced today that its first mobile game, Air Patriots, is now available for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire devices (and free on each, albeit with in-app purchases). Not surprisingly, Amazon has paid particular attention to the Kindle Fire version, taking advantage of GameCircle to track achievements and high scores, as well as Whispersync to let you save your progress on one device and pick up where you left off on another.



Engadget , Amazon Game Studios releases its first mobile game, Air Patriots, for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire, Amazon Game Studios releases its first mobile game, Air Patriots, for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire