Rogers Communication announced a deal to carry Apple’s iPhone in Canada. Eamon Hoey, a sour grapes management consultant whose client list includes most of Canada’s major telecom companies except Rogers, disses the deal, calling it too little too late:

It just doesn’t matter anymore. There are now alternatives to the iPhone, which has been introduced everywhere else in the world. It’s no longer a novelty.

Equity analyst Felix Narhl said the iPhone “could hurt Rogers’ competitors Telus Mobility and Bell Canada.” Hoey’s clients? Telus Mobility and Bell Canada.

OS X hint in Macworld on how to use Spotlight to search for lyrics in iTunes. Added to my ‘much-ado-about-not-much’ file.

There are two fairly large caveats: first, Spotlight will only search MP3s, not AACs or any other file format, and second, you must have previously added the lyrics to the songs.

Or, to grab and add lyrics to iTunes: CantoPod, DeskTopLyrics, and, my favorite, Harmonic.

I hate it when some songs playing in iTunes are so much louder than others. iTunes’ Sound Check helps, but not enough. iVolume is the answer. The Techno Geek Speak:

iTunes uses a very fast algorithm to quickly analyze the volume of its songs. It’s fast, but it’s not very accurate. iVolume corrects the volume information that iTunes has calculated with better values. Therefore an algorithm is used that is oriented on the perception of the human ears.

In other words, using iVolume makes music in iTunes sound better, even if it isn’t.

Get a free Mother’s Day portrait when you sign up for Windows Live, whatever that is. It’s here, here, there, and over there. From Fake Steve:

Microsoft now has contracted a serious case of Ray Ozzie Disease, aka Featuritis Creepionis Complicationibus. And this is only the least of their problems.

Sorry. Please accept my apology. I couldn’t help myself.

My disappointment grows in proportion to the money burning a hole in my pocket as I pine for a new quad core iMac. Instead, Apple tosses a bone.

Just when you thought iMac had everything, now there’s even more. More powerful Intel Core 2 Duo processors. And more memory standard.

Yes, that’s nice. Where is my MacPro mini tower or my iMac with real quad core power? Sigh.

Another new feature in Windows Vista. The downgrade to Windows XP. Microsoft gets to count XP sales as Vista sales. PC World’s Ephraim Schwartz:

Dell will preinstall XP Professional as a “downgrade” on a variety of desktop PCs and laptops… saving users the hassle of doing it themselves.

It’s funny how there’s no clamor among Mac users to downgrade OS X Leopard to Jaguar.

Random quotes from Macintouch readers on what to do when something goes wrong with your Mac, or seems to.

Any time you get random freezes, it is a good idea to see if there is some software issues or perhaps a network issue.

Software? Network? Or, could it be, maybe, oh, I dunno, hardware?

Try running with Airport turned off to see if it is a Network issue. Run Disk Utility and try repairing permissions. Try to take notes on what you are doing when the freezes happen.

Most of us take a trial and error approach to figuring out what went wrong. Usually, a re-boot takes care of it. When it doesn’t, what list of steps should be followed? Sounds like an article in the making.

Another entry for the ‘we knew this already’ file, PC Mag does three months with Leopard and comes out smiling. Edward Mendelson:

Despite minor problems, it’s by far the best operating system ever written for the vast majority of consumers… Leopard is the most polished and easiest to use OS I’ve tested.

Four pages of lengthy Leopard details, and lots of ads to watch.