imons: Arena land deal jumps to $75M

EDMONTON - Monday afternoon, the City of Edmonton concluded a deal with the Katz Group to purchase three parcels of land for a proposed new downtown arena and entertainment district, for a total cost of $74.9 million.

That’s significantly more than the estimated $20 million figure people had been using to describe the cost of the arena site itself. Robert Moyles, who speaks for the city, said the price is higher than originally suggested because the city has purchased not just the land for the arena complex but the adjacent land, as well as a separate parcel on the south side of 104th Avenue.

The seven-acre site where the arena itself, as well as a planned public skating facility, will sit cost the city $24.6 million, plus an additional $1.3 million in legal fees and carrying costs. That $25.9-million total is roughly in line with the city’s original estimate.

The city has also purchased the adjacent five-acre parcel for another $15.4 million.

“That will allow us to control the development that goes in the area in terms of the time, the type, and the form,” Moyles told me.

As well, the city has purchased 3.7 acres of land south of the arena site, and east of the Greyhound station, for another $33.6 million.

However, Moyles said the Katz Group has agreed to buy back that land, and has already paid the city $16.8 million toward that purchase.

But there’s a twist.

Daryl Katz had long pledged to invest $100 million in commercial developments in the arena district.

At last Wednesday’s city council meeting, Coun. Tony Caterina, a staunch opponent of the arena deal, changed his position and voted in favour of the proposal — but only after he successfully amended the city’s agreement with the Katz Group to include a clause that would require the company to invest a minimum of $30 million in those ancillary commercial developments before construction of the arena is to begin.

I had rather assumed — perhaps naively — that such a $30-million commitment would involve some kind of visible development, like a hotel or an office block.

Not quite. Moyles said the Katz Groups’ repurchase of the 3.7-acre south parcel would be considered as representing that $30-million investment.

Once the Katz Group completes the repurchase of the south parcel, the city’s total costs on the complicated land deal will be $41.3 million.

The Katz Group had no comment Monday on the deal. But once again, I can’t help feeling that the goalposts just got moved. Katz is a tough negotiator — and with this land swap he’s just reduced his capital commitment in the ancillary developments to $70 million. In effect, Caterina’s amendment didn’t make this a better deal for the city — it made it, it would seem, a better deal for Katz.

The money for the land purchase is not included in the $450-million cost for the arena, and will not be covered by any future arena ticket tax or the proposed community revitalization levy. It’s coming, instead, out of general revenues. But no matter how you add the numbers, it’s a lot more money than Edmontonians were led to believe.

One more wrinkle in all this? We, the taxpayers of Edmonton, are now the landlords to the Baccarat Casino, which is owned by the Burnaby-based company, Gateway Casinos and Entertainment. Gateway is no mom and pop operation. The company is Canada’s second-largest casino operator, with nine casinos in British Columbia and Alberta. Last year, the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, were $105 million, up from $90 million the years before.

What are the terms of the Baccarat’s lease? How much rent does it pay? What legal liabilities might the city, as landlord, incur if it broke the lease to build the arena? On Monday, Moyles told me he couldn’t discuss any of those questions, citing third-party confidentiality. On Monday, no one from either the Baccarat or Gateway returned my calls.

Now, even if, for some reason, the complete arena deal doesn’t come to pass, buying this land is not a bad investment. The city bought the land for exactly what Katz paid for it, which seems to be a reasonable market price.

This property has languished for years. Barring the eyesore Baccarat, it’s used largely for gravel-top parking lots. Yet with the Epcor Tower all but complete, with a half-dozen new condo projects popping up all around, the land has far more development potential. It’s not a bad hold, even if the arena deal were to go sideways.

Still, it does mean the city is carrying a tremendous amount of downtown land in its real estate portfolio. Despite the “postponement” of the Royal Alberta Museum project, the city is also pushing ahead with its deal to purchase the old Canada Post site. (How much will that deal be worth? Neither Canada Post nor the city will say.) Together, the two deals will make city hall one of the city’s largest downtown land speculators. The potential payoffs for our downtown could be great. But the risks to taxpayers are too, especially if the city is depending on unreliable partners like the provincial and federal government for support.

As the RAM funding debacle has amply demonstrated, when it comes to downtown renewal, it’s up to city hall and local businesses and community activists to get the job done. Whether the arena can be part of that equation still remains to be seen.

First Look iOS5

http://www.infonet.bellmobility.ca/nete/productsandservices/Mobile/Apple/BD_iOS_5_overview.pdf

Dispute Over Apple Image Shows Internet's Reach

HONG KONG — Few personal journeys can shed as much light on the age we live in as the one traveled by Jonathan Mak in the past week.
Mr. Mak, a university student in Hong Kong, went from being an unknown, aspiring graphic designer to an Internet sensation after an image he produced spread rapidly across digital platforms following the death of Steven P. Jobs, the co-founder of Apple.
Mr. Mak’s design of a silhouetted profile of Mr. Jobs in the Apple company logo was shared across the Web and reported by news media. The actor Ashton Kutcher posted the design on his Twitter account.
And then, nearly as fast, Mr. Mak found himself being vilified.
With a speed fitting for the technological age that Mr. Jobs helped usher in, Mr. Mak became the subject of derisive Internet postings and negative news media reports. His design, it turned out, closely matched one produced earlier this year by Chris Thornley, a British graphic artist.
“It’s been a very overwhelming experience,” Mr. Mak, 19, said by telephone between classes at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design. “I still attend classes and lessons as usual. But as far as following my assignments, it’s been difficult.”
Mr. Mak said he had developed his design in late August — a white Apple logo on a black background, with a black silhouette of Mr. Jobs indented in the apple — as a tribute to Mr. Jobs after he stepped down as chief executive of Apple.
Mr. Mak said he had searched across the Internet both for inspiration and to ensure he was not copying another design. He said his searches had not uncovered Mr. Thornley’s design.
He then posted the tweaked Apple logo on his blog . Mr. Mak also asked the public to alert him if they spotted similarities between his work and others.
The design lay quietly on his blog for weeks until Mr. Jobs’s death on Oct. 5.
“Overnight, my Web site went from getting 80 responses to tens of thousands,” he said. “At first I was very happy.”
But by the weekend, Mr. Mak said, people began informing him how similar his design was to Mr. Thornley’s, which featured a black Apple logo on a white background, with a white silhouette of Mr. Jobs at a slightly different angle.
Mr. Mak said he had received notification Sunday night from Mr. Thornley’s wife, Julia, about the similarities of the two designs.
In the world of graphic design, similarities between images are quite common, said Juliette Cezzar, director of the communication design program at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. But Mr. Mak’s case shows how easy it has become to unearth similar images or outright copies.
“If we were living in a different age, it would take weeks, maybe months to discover copies,” Ms. Cezzar said. “Now it can take 24 hours. That is a good thing.”
In a statement released to the news media, Mr. Thornley said he had followed the controversy while receiving treatment for a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He said he had first developed his design in May “because I wanted to celebrate the fact that someone who had cancer was still working, still driving forward and still thinking positively about the future.”
Mr. Thornley, a 40-year-old living in Darwen, England, acknowledged the dangers the digital age presented to creativity.
“The Internet can be a double-edged sword,” he said. “You need to use the Internet in order to promote yourself, but in order to do this you are making yourself vulnerable to these situations.”
Mr. Thornley said he hoped to speak with Mr. Mak soon about the two designs.
“J. Mak has been as honest as he can about the situation, I think,” he said. “It is important to have the debate about this, and J. Mak has to be credited for opening up the debate and not hiding from it.”
Such an environment “is really stressful for designers,” said Ms. Cezzar. “You don’t want to be called out in front of the world and called a copier.”
For his part, Mr. Mak said the past week had provided a lesson he could apply as a graphic designer.
“It really taught me to be very careful about what I say and do,” Mr. Mak said. “With all the negative publicity I received in Hong Kong, it taught me to be very careful. At the same time, I need to stay true to my sense of aesthetics.”

Apple's iPhone 4S goes on sale, fans say tribute to Jobs

SYDNEY/TOKYO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's iPhone 4S finally went on sale in stores around the globe on Friday, with fans snapping up the final gadget unveiled during Steve Jobs' lifetime, many buying the phone as a tribute to the former Apple boss.
"I think a lot of people are going to buy the iPhone 4S because it was the last iPhone Steve worked on," said Wil Batterham, 15, who with his school friend Tom Mosca were the first to buy the new phone in Sydney's Apple store.
"People are saying it was named after him, like iPhone 4S, for Steve," said Batterham, clutching his new phone.
Asked what will be the first function they use on the iPhone 4S, Mosca said he would ask the new iPhone's voice-activated "personal assistant" software: "Where's Steve?."
CEO Tim Cook and his executive team hope the first device launched without Apple's former visionary leader at the helm will safeguard their global market share lead.
Samsung, Apple's arch-rival with smartphones powered by Google's Android software, expects to overtake Apple as the world's biggest smartphone vendor in terms of units sold in the third quarter.
The iPhone 4S -- introduced to the world just a day before Jobs died -- was dubbed a disappointment because it fell short of being a revolution in design, but glowing reviews centered around its "Siri" voice-activated software have since helped it set a record pace in initial, online sales orders.
Apple fans showed no disappointment in Sydney on Friday as they purchased the phone, ahead of sales in Japan, Germany, France, Britain and North America.
Hundreds queued around the block of the Sydney Apple store, many rugged up against the chilly morning, as Apple staff chatted and clapped a countdown to the store opening. Apple's 13 Australian stores were the first to open their doors at 8.00 a.m. local time (2100 GMT, Thursday) to sell the iPhone 4S.
The vast majority of iPhone 4S buyers at the Sydney store appeared to be existing Apple customers, many having bought the original iPhone and upgrades each time.
Only one out of 10 people surveyed by Reuters was a new Apple customer. That buyer was replacing his HTC smartphone with the new iPhone 4S.
"I have been waiting for the iPhone 5 for a long time. But since Jobs died, I wanted to make sure I had a new iPhone with some advantages over the old," said Mark Du, referring to his concern over future Apple gadgets without Jobs at the helm.
Apple said it did not release sales figures on launch day, so gauging the initial sales may be difficult. Apple said it had taken more than 1 million online orders in the first 24 hours after its release, exceeding the 600,000 for the iPhone 4, though that model was sold in fewer countries.
Some analysts expect fourth-quarter iPhone shipments of as much as 30 million or more, almost double from a year ago.
Apple's fifth-generation iPhone uses chips from Qualcomm Inc, Toshiba and a host of smaller semiconductor companies, according to repair firm iFixit, which cracked the device open on Thursday.
SPEECH RECOGNITION A WINNER
Analysts say Apple CEO Cook needs to move out from under his former mentor's enormous shadow soon, and avoid clinging to the Jobs' mystique to preserve its brand.
Apple fans in Sydney made sure to remember Jobs as part of the iPhone 4S launch, with a small flower, candle and photo shrine erected outside the glass-fronted store.
The iPhone -- seen as the market's gold standard -- is Apple's highest-margin product and accounts for 40 percent of its annual revenue. It is the world's biggest selling smartphone, for now maintaining a slim market-share lead over Samsung's Galaxy, at 18.4 versus 17.8 percent worldwide.
In a sign of how tough the competition is, two doors along from the Sydney Apple store, Samsung has been selling its new Galaxy SII for only A$2 to its first 10 customers each day, prompting Samsung fans to also camp out on the footpath.
But analysts point to several factors in Apple's favor: a $199 price that matches up well with rival devices such as Amazon.com Inc's "Fire" tablet; availability promised on more than 100 carriers by the end of 2011, far more than its predecessors; and glowing reviews.
Apple's iconic smartphone comes with a faster processor and a better and more light-sensitive camera, but little else to separate it from its predecessor. But tech experts say the real gems lie beneath the phone's familiar sleek casing.
Influential reviewers Walt Mossberg and David Pogue raved about "Siri" -- a voice-command activated assistant that responds to spoken commands and questions in context, such as queries about the weather or a friend's phone number.
"I'm buying it mainly for the voice activated Siri, its like your own personal secretary," said Shane Gray, 42, one of the Sydney buyers.
(Reporting by Michael Perry in SYDNEY, Edwin Chan in LOS ANGELES, Isabel Reynolds in TOKYO, Editing by Mark Bendeich)

16 Tips to Simplify Your Life (and Increase Your Productivity)

Someone once said “it takes a genius to live a simple life” and I totally agree with that.
In this world of “dramatic distraction” and information overload it is too easy to become overwhelmed, lose focus and be swept away from the things that matter most.
Here are 16 tips that I have learnt form other leaders, blogs and books, and have been trying to apply in my life to de-clutter, un-complicate and become more intentional about how I spend my time…
1. Turn off all technology for 60 minutes a day and focus on doing your most important work.
2. Don’t check your email first thing in the morning. (This one in particular has been life-changing for me!)
3. Start your day with exercise. (or even better, learn how to surf – no better way to start the day!)
4. Be obedient to the sabbath! (That means learning how to really rest and refuel – taking one full day a week as a complete recovery day.)
5. Learn to say no.
6. Plan your week ahead. (I spend 10 minutes every Sunday evening looking at my diary for the upcoming week and planning spaces for work, rest, exercise, relational meetings etc. It helps me to stay focused on that which is important and gives me permission to say no to that which isn’t.)
7. Don’t answer your phone every time it rings.
8. Get up early.
9. Go to bed early.
10. Eat a big healthy breakfast.
11. Clean out your closets. Get rid of things you never wear or don’t use anymore.
12. Stop watching TV. Or at least cutback to no more than 1hr per day. (Jess and I haven’t had a TV for the nearly 6 years we’ve been married. When you don’t have it, you simply don’t miss it.)
13. Make sure you plan a decent holiday break once a year. (I find it should be at least 10 days for it to become truly regenerative.)
14. Learn to protect your time. The data says workers are interrupted every 11 minutes. Distractions destroy productivity and complicate your life.
15. Do your banking online.
16. Use Evernote. Seriously, it’s an amazing piece of software.

In the end, it’s about priority. About deciding what really matters and, as Stephen Covey says, “putting first things first”! And so, as you simplify you life, may it increase your productivity and grant you a greater sense of purpose, and may it bring you great freedom and peace.

Bell is introducing the iPhone 4S in Canada on 14th October 2011.

Apple iPhone4S. It’s the most amazing iPhone yet!
Pre-order now for shipping beginning October 14.
iPhone 4S picks up where amazing left off. It's the fastest, most powerful iPhone ever. It features an 8-megapixel camera with all-new optics. It lets you record, edit and share stunning 1080p HD video. And it comes with iOS 5 and iCloud.
If you're already a Bell Mobility customer and would like to upgrade to the iPhone 4S, we've set aside phones just for you. Please call 1 800 667-0123 to order yours now.


 

iPhone 4S picks up where amazing left off. It’s the fastest, most powerful iPhone ever. It features an 8-megapixel camera with all-new optics. It lets you record, edit, and share stunning 1080p HD video. And it comes with iOS 5 and iCloud.

Why you’ll love an iPhone

There are many reasons why iPhone is the world’s best-selling smartphone. It’s so easy to use, you don’t need a manual. The hardware and software are engineered by Apple to work together perfectly. And iPhone gives you truly long battery life. Some people settle for any smartphone. But iPhone owners love their iPhones.

Key selling points:

·         Dual-core A5 chip – up to 2X faster performance & 7X faster graphics

iPhone 4S is the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. The A5 chip delivers up to 2x faster performance, so it’s quicker at launching apps, loading pages in Safari, and taking photos. And with up to 7x faster graphics, gameplay is even more amazing.

·         8-megapixel camera – all new optics

With a custom lens and a new 8-megapixel sensor, iPhone 4S takes photos unlike any you’ve ever seen from a mobile device. You can also record 1080p HD video with image stabilization.

·         High-resolution Retina display

Thanks to the Retina display, the highest-resolution phone screen, everything you see and do on iPhone 4S looks amazing. The pixel density is so high the human eye can’t distinguish individual pixels. Games, movies, and photos are stunning at almost any angle. Text in books, web pages, and email is crisp at any size.

·         Over 500,000 apps on the App Store

Browse more than 500,000 apps on the App Store. You’ll find great apps for just about anything: games, social networking, travel, business, news, weather, sports, and more. Search by category or check out the Top Paid and Top Free charts.

·         iOS 5—the world’s most advanced mobile OS with over 200 new features

iOS 5 is not only advanced, it’s also incredibly easy to use. And with over 200 new features, including Notification Center, Reminders, and Twitter integration, iOS 5 makes iPhone even better.

·         iCloud—your content on all your iOS devices

iCloud stores your music, photos, documents, and more, and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices. Automatic, effortless, and seamless—it just works. iCloud is the easiest way to manage your content, because now you don’t have to.

·         1080p HD video recording

iPhone 4S features:

·         HSPA data speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps

Touch up photos right on your iPhone — without the help of photo editing software on a computer. You can crop and rotate photos, enhance the image overall and even remove

·         red-eye.

·         Edit your HD video right on iPhone. Just drag to select start and end points on a filmstrip to trim your clips. Or make a mini-blockbuster in iMovie with Apple-designed themes, titles, transitions and even a soundtrack

·         Video stabilization removes unwanted motion caused by unsteady hands. And if you’re recording a scene with subjects in both the foreground and the background, the camera focuses where you want with a tap.

Display:

iOS 5 features:

·         Notification center ·         iMessage ·         Reminders ·         Twitter Integration ·         Newstand

·         Lock screen shortcuts ·         Game center enhancement ·         Reading List ·         Sync between iOS devices ·         Tabbed browsing

·         PC-free feature ·         Wireless updates ·         AirPlay ·         Find My Friends ·         Siri – iPhone 4S only

• 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display

Resolution:

• 960 x 640 pixel resolution at 326 ppi

Storage

• 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB¹

Cellular:

• UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
• CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)²

Wireless data:

• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4 GHz only)
• Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology

GPS:

• Assisted GPS

Camera:

• 8 megapixel camera

Battery:

• Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery²

Talk time:

• Up to 8 hours on 3G, up to 14 hours on 2G (GSM)²

Standby time:

• Up to 200 hours³

Internet use:

• Up to 6 hours on 3G, up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi³

Video playback:

• Up to 10 hours³

Audio playback:

• Up to 40 hours³

Dimensions:

• 115.2 mm x 58.6 mm x 9.3 mm⁴

Weight:

• 140 g⁴

In the box:

• iPhone 4S
• Apple earphones with remote and mic
• Dock connector to USB cable
• USB power adapter
• Documentation

Input and output:

• 30-pin dock connector
• 3.5 mm stereo headphone mini- jack
• Built-in speaker
• Built-in microphone

Video:

• Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

Mac system requirements:

• Mac computer with USB 2.0 port
• OS X v10.5.8 or later
• iTunes 10.5 or later
• Apple ID (required for some features)
• Internet access

Windows system requirements:

• PC with USB 2.0 port
• Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later
• iTunes 10.5 or later
• Apple ID (required for some features)
• Internet access

Details:

1. 1 GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.
2. CDMA available only if iPhone 4S is sold and activated for use on a CDMA network.
3. All battery claims depend on network configuration and many other factors; actual results will vary. Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced by an Apple service provider. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information. For more details of iPhone performance tests for talk time, standby time, Internet use over 3G, Internet use over Wi-Fi, video playback, and audio playback, see www.apple.com/iphone/battery.html.

History



The original Leduc No. 1 oil well, now a monument located just south and west of the city; a replica stands at the southern entrance of Gateway Park on the Queen Elizabeth II Highway

 The first inhabitants settled in the area that is now Edmonton around 3,000 BC and perhaps as early as 12,000 BC, when an ice-free corridor opened up as the last ice age ended and timber, water, and wildlife became available in the region.^[15]
In 1754, Anthony Henday, an explorer working for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), may have been the first European to enter the Edmonton area.^[16] His expeditions across the Canadian Prairies were mainly to seek contact with the aboriginal population for the purpose of establishing the fur trade, as competition was fierce between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company. By 1795, Fort Edmonton was established on the north bank of the river, as a major trading post for the Hudson's Bay Company.^[17] The name of the new fort was suggested by John Peter Pruden after Edmonton, London, the home town of both the HBC deputy governor Sir James Winter Lake, and Pruden. In the late 19th century, the highly fertile soils surrounding Edmonton helped attract settlers, further establishing Edmonton as a major regional commercial and agricultural centre. Edmonton was also a stopping point for people hoping to cash in on the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897, although the majority of people doing so chose to take a steamship north to the Yukon from Vancouver.
Incorporated as a city in 1904 with a population of 8,350,^[18] Edmonton became the capital of Alberta as the province joined Confederation a year later, on September 1, 1905.^[19] In November 1905, the Canadian Northern Railway (CNR) arrived in Edmonton, accelerating growth.^[20]
During the early 1910s, Edmonton grew very rapidly, causing rising speculation in real estate prices. In 1912, Edmonton amalgamated with the City of Strathcona, south of the North Saskatchewan River; as a result, the city extended south of the North Saskatchewan River for the first time.^[21]
Just prior to World War I, the real estate boom ended suddenly, causing the city's population to decline sharply from over 72,500 in 1914 to under 54,000 only two years later.^[22] Recruitment to the Canadian military during the war also contributed to the drop in population. Afterwards, the city was slow to recover in population and economy during the 1920s and 1930s until World War II.
The first licensed airfield in Canada, Blatchford Field (now Edmonton City Centre (Blatchford Field) Airport), commenced operation in 1929.^[23] Pioneering aviators such as Wilfrid R. "Wop" May and Max Ward used Blatchford Field as a major base for the distribution of mail, food, and medicine to Northern Canada; hence Edmonton's role as the "Gateway to the North" was strengthened. World War II saw Edmonton becoming a major base for the construction of the Alaska Highway and the Northwest Staging Route.^[24]