0.30 – The three guys are back and the big news is that Kevin is flashing a brand new 4GB iPhone. Unsurprisingly, this very expensive wi-fi enabled iPod is the first topic of conversation.

4.45 – Duncan wonders if RIM and Apple are changing the space completely. Mark thinks the Blackberry is going to be strong for business and Apple will take over consumers. Duncan disagrees and thinks RIM is becoming more and more consumer focused.

8.26 – Google makes another acquisition, this time of GrandCentral. Is this the next step in a globe spanning telecom network? Google says no, but Duncan thinks the “lady doth protest too much�.

9.34 – Kevin loves the Grand Central service and agrees with Duncan’s assertion. The amount of dark fiber and size and number of data centers points to a big telecom network.

10.29 - Mark wonders how this would change the landscape for telecom carriers. Duncan takes a long term view – voice telephony will be completely free, eventually. He sees the commodifcation of data services as a big problem for the carriers.

13.55 – Duncan wonders if Google will go the last mile and make an acquisition to connect customers to the network. Mark thinks Google will buy a piece of the 2008 spectrum auction and use it for wi-max.

15.48 – BCE is the next big topic. Will someone like Telus gazump OTPP? Will the media continue to buy into Michael Sabia’s spin? Will BCE go for more than $42 a share (some people are suggesting $49 a share)?

17.17 – Mark rails against the media calling this process an auction while Kevin calls it a management led buy-out and predicts that this isn’t all over just yet.

18.56 – Duncan has more criticism of the media’s retransmission of the Sabia spin and calls Sabia out for an inaccuracy.

19.57 – Mark thinks the buy-out is in precisely the wrong time for BCE, which has a lot of capital investment to be make right now. Duncan thinks the company will have up to $50bn of debt after the transaction.

Audio or text comments for Mark, Kevin and Duncan can be emailed to heytalkingtech@gmail.com.

0.27 – Just Mark and Kevin this week, Duncan is trapped in the BCE / Telus drama

0.59 – Mark starts off with news that Telus has pulled out of the BCE takeover process because they haven’t had enough time for due diligence.

1.17 - Darren Entwistle met with the newspapers last week suggesting a Bell / Telus merger was the best option for Canada.

1.33 - Kevin thinks Bell blew it.  He doesn’t understand why they wouldn’t extend the deadline.  He suggests it’s a matter of mistrust and a battle of egos.

2.08 - Mark suggests Michael Sabia of Bell would have known that Entwistle would be the topdog and he would be out of a job.

3.02 – Mark thinks the whole thing has been a public disaster.

3.12 - Kevin agrees calling it a “contrived BS process.� It brings more attention to Foreign Ownership restrictions. If they were lifted Canadians would get more for their money.

4.01 - Mark wonders if there are serious negotiating tactics in play. It might be a message to the Federal Government, Competition Bureau, the Board of Directors of Bell Canada. 

6.09 – Mark is excited for the official launch of the iPhone in the US he thinks it will be ‘God’s gift to smart phone’  despite the limitations which Matthew Ingram discussed in the Globe and Mail.

The question is why with all those limitations are people willing to spend the money on it?

6.58 - Kevin offers the simple answer because it’s cool! It’s a fashion accessory, not just a phone.

Kevin wonders how much more than 10 million will it sell, considering there are 35 million Mac users in the world.  It’s the new design benchmark.

8.10 - Mark reminds us of the blogosphere coverage when Blackberry Pearl came out and how the reviews at the time affected sales.  With the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal fawning over the iPhone, it counts for a lot considering it’s over a $2000 investment in “coolâ€? when you factor in fees over the course of a contract.

9.05 - Mark calls it ‘iLove’

9.19 - Kevin reminds us the first generation of a product is never the best.  And there is talk that the second generation is possibly coming out later this year.

10.05 - Mark asks why would you buy one now?  When the second generation will probably have so much more to offer?

10.33 - Kevin thinks there is no rational answer because it’s not a rational decision to line up 2 days ahead of time to get one. 

11.26 – Mark compares it to Cabbage Patch dolls, and the Wii, consumers love to be the first to have something.

11.40 – Mark talks about the future of online radio.  The copyright board in US is changing royalty regime which will triple the amount of money that online radio stations will have to pay to access music

12.19 – June 26 was the Day of Silence protest which was headed up by Pandora, and Yahoo LaunchCast to bring attention to the proposed changes.

12.35 - Mark thinks the Music Industry is cutting off its own nose despite its face because Internet radio is the ultimate discovery tool and consumers end up buying more and seeing more shows.

13.20 - Kevin finds it hard to understand as a fan, he feels that Internet radio shouod be a loss leader.  He suggests more subscription services.  The music industry needs to find a new business model.

14.20 - Mark talks about going to see  Manu Chao in Toronto last week, the show was sold out which suggests people will pay a premium to see a live performance, because it’s not a commodity.  It’s the foundation of the music industry. 

15.44 - Kevin agrees, the Industry needs to change their current way of thinking.

16.38 – The guys wish everyone a great Canada Day and a happy Independence Day.

Audio or text comments for Mark, Kevin and Duncan can be emailed to heytalkingtech@gmail.com.

0.38 - The guys get started with talk about the news of a potential BCE / Telus merger.

1.01 - Duncan talks about private equity’s interest in Bell and their inability to cut costs the same way that Telus could because they would lack the same synergy that combining Telus and BCE would have, which gives Telus has the ability to bid much higher than other players. 

3.17 - What will the merger mean to foreign ownership restrictions in Canada? 

3.39 – Duncan suggests if the merger goes through there will be the potential for other carriers to follow suit.

3.55 – Canada could end up with 2 or 3 national players which will mean less choice for consumers, higher costs and layoffs.

4.20 – The guys discuss the current environment and the fact that Canada is already priced as though it were in a monopoly situation, can we expect prices to go even higher?

5.10 – Duncan talks about Stephen Harper and the Tories general Western-based roots, they would love to see Eastern-based Bell be bought out by Western players. 

5.53 - Harper is an economic nationalist and has received flack in the past for letting assets such as Inco go.

6.04 – Setting the stage for a national player in telecom will help motivate the government to take down take down international barriers to allow them to eventually ease foreign ownership regulations.

6.27 – The Federal government is encouraging creation of a large national player in telecom that can compete internationally, how will it affect the banking sector?

7.07 – Talk of Telus CEO Darren Entwistle’s rise from regional VP at Cable & Wireless to potentially becoming the King of Canadian telecom if the merger with BCE goes through.

7.46 – The guys wonder how Entwistle will get along with BCE CEO George Cope … 

8.44 – More CEO chat.  Announcement that co-founder of Yahoo, Jerry Yang, has replaced Terry Semel as the new CEO of Yahoo.

9.25 – Semel’s demise came when he didn’t buy Google. 

10.03 – Most companies don’t do well when the founder of the company steps back in as CEO.  The one exception to the rule being, Apple’s Steve Jobs.

10.30 - Talk that Yahoo will get out of the search business and focus on ad revenue instead.

10.52 – Mark suggests the issue with Yahoo is it has lost its personality and become very corporate, whereas Google despite being big business, is still seen as a dynamic, fun company.

12.02 – Interesting that Canadian tech company Cognos blame their luke warm 2^nd Quarter forecasts on the rise of the Canadian dollar.    Conducting research and development in Ottawa has always been cheap, but the rising dollar is affecting the cost.

Audio or text comments for Mark, Kevin and Duncan can be emailed to heytalkingtech@gmail.com.

Our announcer is the lovely Amber Mac and the music is No Mojo by Anthony Stauffer and Holy Smoke which is available on the pod safe music network.

0.27 – Mark is back with Duncan. Kevin has taken the week off but will back next week. The subject of the week is the Canadian Telecom Summit which raised the issue of broadband Internet access, pricing and availability.

1.42 – Duncan thinks tiered pricing, depending on usage, is going to be difficult to implement in the short term. He thinks the answer for the cable companies will lie with Sandvine’s network management service.

3.24 – Mark brings up the lack of competition in the Canadian telco industry.

4.02 – The only reason the Toronto One Zone wi-max service is any good is because no-one uses it!

4.35 – How much will people pay for broadband? Do the carriers have their consumers by the balls?

5.28 – Duncan brings up the public policy issue of equality of access. Fiber tubes could be laid down in the big cities – thus alienating the more rural towns.

6.15 – Mark bemoans the dwindling rate of broadband penetration, due to a lack of innovation, lack of choice, and a low price. Duncan agrees.

7.23 – The guys segue into the wireless market – does Canada need or want a fourth carrier? Quebecor and MTS think it does and wants to be able to buy wireless spectrum. Money quote from Bell’s Lawson Hunter - “Where we you when Microcell was for sale in 2004?�

8.46 – Duncan thinks any outside player should be able to go to the regulator and ask to be sold wireless spectrum to break up the existing oligarchy. He doesn’t think it’ll matter because if the fourth carrier is successful, one of the big three will just buy it out anyway.

10.36 – Mark references an article that suggests Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski will jump ship and go to run Qwest. Duncan doesn’t see it happening, but admits it can’t be a lot of fun to run Nortel right now.

13.21 – The guys discuss a rumour that Nortel CTO John Roese is being groomed as the next CEO. Duncan thinks that is about 3-5 years down the line.

14.02 – He then segues onto another rumour that Intel is slashing its prices by 50 per cent and that the semiconductor industry will grow by just 1.8 per cent in the next 12 months. Mark wonders about the motivations behind Intel’s move, Duncan thinks it’s a reaction to AMD’s “poking of the bear�.

16.10 – He also thinks that Intel feels AMD is close enough to going under, Intel may be able to push them off the cliff. Would the investors let AMD go bankrupt? Duncan thinks the debt is too high for the PE crowd to come in and make money from any deal.

Audio or text comments for Mark, Kevin and Duncan can be emailed to heytalkingtech@gmail.com.

Our announcer is the lovely Amber Mac and the music is No Mojo by Anthony Stauffer and Holy Smoke which is available on the pod safe music network.

0.32 - It’s just Mark and Kevin this week as Duncan is away at a television engagement.

0.47 - Mark is excited to hear Kevin’s take on the big tech news of the week; the official launch of Apple’s iPhone.

1.01 - Kevin really wants one, but disappointed to know it will be locked to which ever network Apple deals with and while it can be used on other networks, a lot of the features would not be enabled.

1.45 - Kevin reminds us the issue with Apple is always supply and demand, they’re great at building hype, but never have enough.

2.20 - Mark asks about the high price and if it will affect consumer interest. 

2.50 – The guys discuss why consumers are willing to pay higher prices.  Kevin thinks the real trend in IT right now is in design, and people will pay a premium for functionality advantages. 

3.58 – A few more concerns with the iPhone to mention, Kevin isn’t sold on the touch screen and thinks it will take some getting used to.

4.15 – The big question, when will Canadians be able to get it? Kevin foresees it on the market before Christmas if Rogers and Apple can strike a deal.  But Mac has a history of holding back products from Canada, such as the iTunes store.

5.12 – Talk that Telus will hook up with W-CDMA network.  It could have leverage in negotiations with Rogers giving them the advantage on the wireless front.

6.14 - Mark talks about his lack of excitement over the eminent $30 Billion dollar take over of BCE and the recent involvement of the Teachers.

7.40 - Kevin talks about private equity firms going after telecom companies.

8.51 – Mark wonders what the new owners will do with it? 

9.26 - Mark thinks private equity firms might also go after Telus and thinks it is a much more exciting story because of the inclusion of Telus Mobility. Kevin thinks it’s a possibility.

10.27 – Kevin wonders about the future if there are changes to the Foreign Ownership Restrictions and the inclusion of big US carriers.

11.10 - Mark talks about his weekend blog post about banning the internet at work in response to several companies including TD and the City of Toronto’s move to ban employees from using Facebook.  Is Facebook the problem or is the problem employers not trusting their employees?

12.40 - Kevin suggests that companies could ban personal web surfing at work but people would still find a way to waste time.  The onus is on the employer to engage their employees.

13.35 - Mark sums it up, it all comes down to whether you get the job done or not.

15.57 - Mark asks Kevin for his impressions of the MESH Conference which happened in Toronto last week.

16.35 - Kevin thought the sessions were well run and a great bang for his buck. 

17.38 - Mark talks about why they tried to keep the price reasonable in order to reach young entrepreneurs and give them the chance to network.

18.10 - Mark mentions reading on Start Up North that the Toronto Venture Group has filed for bankruptcy protection and wonders if there is enough of an ecosystem in Toronto to support the tech start up world?

19.00 - Kevin points out there is smaller pool to draw from in Canada, there are still great entrepreneurs that need to be spotted, and it’s important to keep them with in Canada.

Audio or text comments for Mark, Kevin and Duncan can be emailed to heytalkingtech@gmail.com.

Our announcer is the lovely Amber Mac and the music is No Mojo by Anthony Stauffer and Holy Smoke which is available on the pod safe music network.