Treo 750 with Windows Mobile 5 (huh?)

Recently, Palm Singapore together with Microwarehouse the Philippine Palm distributor launched the Palm Treo 750 Windows Mobile 5 thru a sassy event at the Embassy bar at the Fort Taguig city. It was attended by the Philippine Palm Users Group (MaPalad) mostly, and at some point members of the Pinoy Windows Mobile and the Philippine Mac Users Group (PhilMUG). The place was jam packed with members and was overflowing with drinks.

Palm gave the Windows Mobile platform some tweaks to "Treo-rized" it. Comparing it with other Windows Mobile Smartphones, the Treo 750 can find a contact directly from it's Today screen as compared to others which will need at least 4 steps. Overall the Treo 750 is a very nice addition to the Treo line, but the problem that I see with it here in the Philippines is in the OS itself. Microsoft just launched Windows Mobile 6, a snazzy eye-candy OS that is comparable to Vista in the desktop arena. It's usually offered as an upgrade by Networks in the US or UK to it's subscriber, but locally, I have not heard of OS upgrades from our major networks Globe and Smart. Thus, if one buys the Treo 750 today, in less than a couple of months, that OS will be old and basically the phone too. Unless Palm would offer them upgrade packages which I highly doubt.

Blogging with Flock doesn't work!

Flock is a web browser from the innards of Mozilla that has some social networking thingies working inside it's gut. One of the features being boasted by Flock is the easy blogging of sites. No more cut and paste and memorizing those kilometer long URL's. I used Flock before, but that was before Google migrated my account to the "new" Blogger engine, now blogging with Flock simply does not work. When I set up my account, it just stays at the "just double checking if your account is set up correctly" uhm hellooooo, I'm blogging right now, so I guess it's working?

It's unfortunate that it doesn't work anymore, it's been really very easy and simple to blog thru Flock, but now I guess I have to go back to the old, blogger website or email blogger for my blogs.

The CRUMPLER Launch Part

Last night, computer accessories king of the Philippines Charlie Paw together is his brother Howard "Bogs" Paw launched their first CRUMPLER store in the country at the Fort. CRUMPLER is a brand of computer and camera bag accessory. Lots of people came with three of the most prestigious user's group in the country as the major attendees, MaPalad (Philippine Palm User's Group), PodCentral (iPod User's Group Philippines) and PhilMUG (Philippine Mac User's Group). Food and drinks were overflowing and games was so excitiing, prizes where of course CRUMPLER bags. Three of CRUMPLER founders where present including their mascot, PINEAPPLE JUJU.

Yahoo! Messenger for VISTA

Under development, this is one cool interface worthy of the shiny AERO interface of Windows Vista. You can sign up to be one of the first few to be notified when it's ready for download here.

Here are some of the supposed features:

Built from the ground up specifically for Microsoft Windows Vista, this all-new version combines the reliable and easy-to-use features you've always loved from Yahoo! Messenger with the cutting-edge experience of this new operating system.

• Instant message, voice, webcam video, and more
• Use the integrated Yahoo! Messenger Sidebar gadget to keep up with the friends that matter most
• Also add Windows Live™ Messenger friends to your contact list to see when they're online and IM them
• Keep conversations organized by dragging and dropping them into one tabbed window
• Brand new emoticons, program icons and alert sounds
• Instantly change the look and feel of your Yahoo! Messenger interface
• Automatic groups are created in your contact list based on your Yahoo! interests (i.e. Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football league)

Yahoo! Widgets 4.0

Yahoo! Widgets 4.0 is now ready for download at http://widgets.yahoo.com. With the following new features:

• Speedier than ever

  • We heard you, and we've made big improvements in performance
  • Uses up less of your system memory compared to past versions

• Live, at-a-glance view

  • Mini Widgets bring updates and live info to you in a compact package
  • Keep your widgets neatly organized with the new Widget Dock

• New Widgets by Yahoo!

  • Gallery Widget: Browse the Widget Gallery without opening a web browser
  • Flickr Widget: Hooray! Upload, tag, and display Flickr photos.

• And, some things are the same as ever...

  • The most Widgets available anywhere online... over 4,000 and still growing!
  • Works on both Macs and Windows PCs

The unreachable 2Mbps of Globelines

Today, someone from Globelines came over my place to act on the complaint regarding my unreachable subscribed speed. I am currently under their 2Mbps plan and for some time now (being the pessimist that I am), I patiently waited until that incident in Taiwan has totally been fixed. But then, I noticed that I don't reach even 50% of my supposed subscribed speed.

Anyways, this guy came over and tested my speed, and for sure I was only getting around 4xxkbps to a maximum of 9xxkbps from my supposed 2Mbps, that should be around 2xxxkbps. So he checked my modem configuration (a Globelines supplied PROLINK 9300G wireless modem/router) and just as I observed before, that my line was capped at 1.5Mbps down and 512kbps up. He called up their Network Operations Center (NOC) and asked to change my settings to 2Mbps up and 1Mbps down (now this thing baffled me, supposedly, in their system, I should be, by default under the 2Mbps up and 1Mbps down setting already, for more than 3 mos. to be exact, and they're just setting it now?). Restarted the modem, and checked if it will sync with their servers, which it did NOT! So my settings were brought back to the old 1.5Mbps up and 512kbps down, which as expected synced. Now this baffled the technician more and called up other numbers and talked to a couple more peeeps. He then gave up and told me that he'd just go back tomorrow to check on the speed and told me to monitor the speed.

After he left, I checked my speed and for around 30 minutes, I was hitting 1.5Mbps! Yehey! But that was short lived since there was a brief power failure and since that time, I am now getting (again) my old 3xxkbps to 8kbps speeds. Now I know that it's not my wiring here at home and that the problem is on their side. I am just hoping that they would figure it out fast. It's not that I am not getting fast speed, heck, I'm really ok with the speed that I'm getting at the moment. But I am paying for a 2Mbps speed and just like them when they demand immediate payment for their services, then I should demand the appropriate speed that I am paying for. It's just a GIVE AND TAKE relationship, I do my part and they do theirs.

Globe Handyphone's "Loyalty" Program?

Recently, Globe (Handyphone) launched a silent "Loyalty" "Rewards" Program as a form of retention for their customers. This is not an announced promo and a subscriber has to call Globe's Customer Hotline and "inquire" for the said program. So, being a long-time Globe subscriber, I called their hotline, but to my dismay, I was told that since I did not get any call from their "Retention Team" then most likely that I did not "qualify" for the "criteria" set for the promo.

I wonder what "criteria" Globe is talking about and it looks like they don't give a shit if subscribers will leave them and shift carriers. In fact, SMART offers loyalty rewards to their subscribers on a yearly basis, and the rewards seems to be as what it is, rewards. The phones that SMART is giving away are will really be appreciated by their subscribers. Let me think hmmmm I guess will prepare changing numbers.

ADVANCES IN BUS TICKETING IN THE PHILIPPINES

It's been quite sometime since I used public transport to go to places. I got to try it again today and what a surprise. The bus conductor gave me a ticket that came from a portable printer attached to a Palm Zire 22! Forgive me if I sound really surprised because I never have thought that our local bus companies would adapt such technology.

The NEW SonyEricsson Phones

Here it goes again, new phones from Sony Ericsson, tsk tsk, everytime SE launches new phones, I get excited.

The SE W610 and entry level Walkman phone , it's quad-band with EDGE, an RDS FM Radio, an LED light for your pictures, A2DP stereo Bluetooth audio, a 2 megapixel camera, and that full suite of music management software, ships with a 512MB M2 card.

The SE K550 entry level Cybershot phone, has a 2.0 megapixel cam and LED photo light and is thin at 14-mm form factor, uses the Memory Stick M2 form factor. It is a quad-band EDGE device.

The high end K810 Cybershot phone, a feature rich 17-mm thin baby with a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus and Xenon flash in it's heart. It has a second cam up front for video calls and goes UMTS 2100 and GSM 900/1800/1900. The K810 uses the same Memory Stick M2 that the K550 uses.

And there's the super thin Walkman phone, the SE W880, at 9.4-millimeters thin, it's SE's slimmest Walkman phone yet and packs a 1.8" QVGA 262k TFT display and 2 megapixel camera with a 1GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card included in the box. It also comes pre-loaded with Walkman Player 2.0, Disc2Phone music management, and the TrackID music recognition applications. It also features a Flight Mode for use on the airplane and battery capable of up to 20-hours of music playback or up to 6 hours 30 mins of talk time. UMTS 2100 and GSM 900/1800/1900

So go ahead and drool people!!!!

UNLIMITED TEXTING AND AGING

With the advent of new technologies, it is imperative that society be able to adapt to these changes or suffer alienation. I am one of those people who tries and successfully cope up with this problem. But I guess, it will only be up to a certain point before things get out of hand.

A classic example is texting or internationally known as SMS. When this thing started, I had a Panasonic G-series phone (which doesn't have a caller ID that tells you the sender's name, just the number). I was using Globe Telecoms network (although I'm still using Globe up to now), and all one had to do was to pay the initial P200 fee and you're off to an unlimited texting spree, perhaps until one dies (that was then), and things change. A lot of promos and cellphones and cellphone technology after, we go to the present where everybody is complaining that Globe suddenly changed it's rules with regards to it's UNLIMITED texting promo. Well, it's hard to discuss about the repercussions of the change in the promo, but what I can say is, a lot of people has been enticed by the said add-on by these telecommunication companies, but for someone like me, a 32 year old father, this is not important anymore. I seldom text unless someone sends me one or it's really important to send a text message. Ever since these UNLIMITED texting promos, people now start to send and forward almost all spam or forwarded messages that they've received, unknowingly irritating those that receives them.

Perhaps there's a silver lining in the changing of the UNLIMITED texting scheme, and that is, less of those annoying, un-important SMSs. Happy texting everyone!

Vista Prices in the Philippines Outrageous!!!

Windows Vista will be launched officially tomorrow here in the Philippines at the SM Mall of Asia. Lots of extravaganza, but it all boils down if consumers will buy it or not. Looking at the Local Launch Website, the price of all the versions is Outrageous! No wonder majority of people would rather buy it from their "friendly neighborhood" pirates. Even the local Mac Users Group ( PhilMUG) laughs at the SRP of the rivals operating system. A few more bucks and you can buy a Mac Mini bundled with Mac OS X and iLife for the price of the Vista Ultimate edition. Although, in deference to Microsoft, Windows OS change comes every 5 years and every small upgrade comes free, while with the Mac OS, it may come out as cheap compared to the Windows version but the Mac OS charges for every incremental upgrade that they do. Good luck Microsoft!

Local Network War brought to the World Wide Web

It's Channel 2 against Channel 7 all over again (when did ever stop anyway). This time, it's in the interweb. Although ABS-CBN got a very wide lead, GMA is starting to catch up (or is it)? Last year, I noticed that the Inq7.net portal started to have 2 different banner stories, one from Inquirer.net (the online version of the local maverick newspaper The Philippine Daily Inquirer) and one from the news portal of GMA News GMAnews.tv. Then finally it happened, when I went to Inq7.net, it's become just a page that will give you a choice to be redirected to either GMA's site or to Inquirers.

With regards to the news layout, ABS-CBN wins hands down as the top stories are easy to see, while GMA's page is somewhat confusing (although, again, ABS-CBN had a head start, so I think I'm just used to their layout). With regards to the content, most of ABS-CBN stories are derived from Inq7.net (by the looks of it). GMA has more original story lines but updates are not as often as ABS-CBN's.

So for this one, I guess abs-cbnnews.com wins this battle (for the moment).

Note: From where I am right now, the post-Taiwan earthquake scenario, using a Globelines Broadband connection, connecting to ABS-CBN site is easier (would resolve faster) than with GMA's which most of the times, will not resolve.

Apple and the iPhone

After all the rumors and blogs, Apple has finally released the iPhone, the touchscreen iPod and the tablet OS X. Oh wait, the iPhone is a registered trademark of Cisco right? Well, it's confusing to be right. iPhone has been registered for Cisco but Apple Computer Inc., which is by the way now has been re-named to Apple Inc., is in talks with licensing the iPhone name from Cisco. Now that that's out of the way, let's go back to the iPod, errr iPhone. Yup, the iPhone and the touchscreen iPod is one and the same. It's a GSM/EDGE phone with an iPod connector at the bottom (where it's supposed to be in an iPod), it's an internet device because it's got safari and WiFi and it's a tablet PC err Mac because it operates on Mac OS X with a 2 MegaPixel Camera on the side.

So it's a phone, and it doesn't have any keypad/thumboard, but it has a touchscreen that Job's says is revolutionary. No need for a stylus because it is so sensitive and intuitive that it will recognize your fingers as the input device. SMS/text messages could be sent using a soft QWERTY keypad, and it's got PUSH Yahoo! Mail (so where's Gmail?), don't worry, Google wasn't left out because it's got Google Maps built-in. Though, just to make it clear, it's NOT a Smartphone, why? Because, as of the moment, you cannot install 3rd party applications in it. Though it's got Notepad if you want to jot down notes.

It's an iPod, with 4GB and 8GB capacity, will sync with iTunes (of course) and I know this because it's part of the UI and it's got that very recognizable iPod connector at the bottom. It will now show Album Art and will automatically shift the display to landscape when playing movies. It will do what a typical iPod can without the click wheel of course (again).

It's a handheld computer, just for the fact that it runs on Mac OS X. Though no Dock, it's got Widgets (as of the moment it's just Stocks and Weather) but it will come! It's got Safari and tabbed browsing, now the Nokia 800 will definitely have a competition and this time, the web pages are not cropped, but is shown as is though there are some zoom functions for those of you with nerdy glasses.

And, what's a phone without it's camera. A 2 megapixel camera that is at par or a little bit ahead than the others. And the small things such as a Proximity sensor that will deactivate the touchscreen when you put it close to your face/ear when using it as a phone. This way, no accidental touches on the screen, oh and it dims the backlight as well.

My opinion? Well, it's a heck of a design, though no 3G, but WiFi is very much welcome. The lack of expansion cards is a bit disappointing but can be irrelevant considering the capacity. Hopefully 3rd party applications can be develop and installed to maximize it's use of OS X. And, if time and funds permit, I WILL DEFINITELY GET ONE!!!!

Note: This is the 2nd post I've made after the Dec. 26 Taiwan earthquake and I'm doing this thru Gmail. I'm praying together with all the internet users in Asia that our "normal" broadband speeds would go back to normal. This is the reason why there's no pic attached to this article, hopefully, I will be able to post a pic (that is, if and if Blogger will open in my browser) in a weeks time (that's when they say that everything will be back to "normal"!)

Chaos in the internet from the Taiwan Quake

Today is the 2nd day since my internet connection has been unstable. At first I thought there was something wrong with my ISP (Globelines Broadband), but after trying (in futility) calling their "hotline" which even after 30 min no one answered, I was able to connect to PhilMUG website, it was there that I found out what happened. And from that time onwards my connection was sloooooooow and intermittent, even if my modem says otherwise.

It has been just now that I am able to connect to Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, my only source of information online for the past 2 days was Inq7.net and the local users groups (which at times becomes intermittent). In a few minutes I will try to log into Yahoo messenger, hoping that it will connect to servers.

So far, Google is still not loading on my side and Yahoo mail is still dragging. Though Engadget has been loading since the beginning of this crisis.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2006

Merry Christmas to all of you!!! May we have a Wonderful Holidays!

Microsoft Redesigned Website

Software giant has redesigned their website to look and feel like it's up and coming operating system that will replace Windows XP, the sleek looking, and long been delayed Windows VISTA.

Changing Wireless Keyboard

I changed my wireless keyboard from an A4tech Wireless Mini-desktop Keyboard and Mouse set to a Logitech Cordless Desktop EX110. Some may say that it's impractical since my A4tech keyboard and mouse combo is still working, but it's a mini-keyboard and it's giving me a hard time to type and use it. Thus, the reason to change units. Now this is a wonderful keyboard and mouse because it's full-sized and no more adapting when using other normal sized keyboards and mouse.

Also, the multi-media keys are working fine on VISTA (all the while I thought I will have some problems with the software side) but when I tried to use the special keys and it all worked. So far I'm enjoying the new toy.

BitTorrent acquires uTorrent

BitTorrent has bought popular torrent client uTorrent, here's there post to the uTorrent forum:

This is Bram Cohen, the creator of the BitTorrent protocol, and Ludvig (Ludde) Strigeus, the writer of µTorrent.

Together, we are pleased to announce that BitTorrent, Inc. and µTorrent AB have decided to join forces. BitTorrent has acquired µTorrent as it recognized the merits of µTorrent's exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community. Bringing together µTorrent's efficient implementation and compelling UI with BitTorrent's expertise in networking protocols will significantly benefit the community with what we envision will be the best BitTorrent client.

What does this mean for the µTorrent community? Not much, at least not at first. The intention is to maintain the website as it is, and keep the forums and community active. Moving forward behind the scenes, we will continue to develop µTorrent and will be using the codebase in other applications, especially ones where a fast, lightweight implementation is more suitable, such as embedded systems on TVs, cell phones, and other non-PC platforms.

The existent µTorrent and BitTorrent communities are immensely valuable to us, which is why we are announcing this here first to make sure you're all the first to know about the news. The plan is to continue to foster the health and growth of the community that has been critical to the success of µTorrent. Thank you in advance for your support.

Bram and Ludde

Palm licenses Palm OS Garnet Source Code -- So that's why!

ACCESS has announced it has entered into a non-exclusive agreement with Palm, Inc., that gives Palm a perpetual license for the Palm OS Garnet source code. ACCESS and Palm have also agreed to an expansion of the two companies’ existing patent license. Palm will pay ACCESS a total of $44 million (USD). Under terms of the agreement, ACCESS has granted Palm specific rights to modify the code base of Palm OS Garnet for use in its devices such as the Palm Treo smartphone family and the company’s other handheld computers. The agreement also grants Palm the right to use Palm OS Garnet in whole, or in part, in any product from Palm and together with any other system technologies. -- Palminfocenter

So this is the reason why! Me and my friends at MaPalad (The Philippine Palm Users Group) has been wondering why, Palm Inc. the hardware company has placed Palm OS Powered by ACCESS in their website for their handhelds.

Well, it only strengthens the theory that Palm is not dumping the Palm OS for Windows. But, it also tells us that Palm OS Garnet (Palm OS 5) is here to stay and the supposed Palm OS Cobalt and the ALP (Access Linux Platform) which I'm convinced, will be renamed as the next Palm OS 6, is still far away.

I hate my new MODEM/ROUTER

Lat week, I had upgraded my DSL plan to something like, 2Mbps. Globelines changed the Alcatel Speedtouch 511e to a PROLINK H9300G, a wireless modem/router. I guess the change is because they are now into ADSL2+. Although I don't have anything against the router/modem, it hasn't failed me yet since it was installed. The only thing that I hate about it is it's looks. Though plastic is plastic, and most routers have plastic casings, the one that PROLINK uses is the cheap looking one. I don't know, for me, the router looks like it's un-reliable (again, I'm just ranting because I don't like how it looks). What it replaced (unofficially) is a Speedtouch 580i, a wireless modem/router as well but the type of plastic used was more on the firm and stable side. I just don't like how the PROLINK looks, IT LOOKS CHEAP!!!!