Mobile
Filipino mobile platform, anyone?
Monday, May 12th, 2008 I agree with one of my favorite tech news sources (TechCrunch.com) that the next technology war will be fought in the realm of mobile platforms. In the dawn of OS-agnostic and Web-deployed applications, the old operating-systems war seems to be finally fizzling out. (A rather anticlimactic denouement, if you ask me.)
Microsoft and Apple have [...]
Reporter’s notebook
Saturday, February 16th, 2008I finally got my Asus Eee PC last Wednesday. It has, since then, replaced my main writing gear: an MSI S260 laptop running on Ubuntu Linux.
Several reporters and editors in Sun.Star Cebu had wanted to purchase an Eee PC since the start of the year but we couldn’t get a supplier with enough stocks to [...]
It isn’t just ringing, it’s Fringing
Monday, February 11th, 2008If you run a Symbian or Windows Mobile device, you have to install Fring. The mobile application lets you do instant messaging (IM) with Yahoo, Skype, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk and AIM and VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls using Skype Out or SIP. It can also be used with Twitter’s services.
The software works [...]
Sony Ericsson K850i impressive
Monday, January 14th, 2008I spent two glorious days last week testing the latest model in the Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot line: the K850i. When Jonjie Gonzalez, Sony Ericsson’s press relations man in Cebu, invited me to test a K850i demo unit for a day or two, I jumped at the chance. I am, after all, a rabid Sony Ericsson [...]
Sony Ericsson K850i test: Google Maps for Mobile with My Location works
Saturday, January 12th, 2008Google Maps for Mobile’s My Location feature works in the Sony Ericsson K850i, the latest in the Cyber-shot line to hit the market. My Location is a cool feature that places your approximate location on the map using GPS (Global Positioning System) or mobile towers.
If you have one of the recent phones that report cell [...]
New Google Maps for Mobile tracks your position using cell phone towers
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007Google released last week a new version of its Google Maps for Mobile application. The release, as with many of Google’s products, is designated “beta,” a label used for software that is still being actively tested and not yet released to the public.
I’ve read about mobile maps applications before, including the earlier Google versions, but [...]
Sony Ericsson unveils the K660: ‘engineered for mobile Internet’
Saturday, December 1st, 2007Sony Ericsson has unveiled a phone that I’m sure will give second thoughts to those already set on upgrading units this Christmas. The company announced earlier this month the coming availability of the Sony Ericsson K660, a phone that the company said was engineered for the mobile Internet.
The phone will only be available early next [...]
Android and the $10M Challenge
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007In the Official Google Blog, Steve Horowitz, Engineering Director posted nor announced - Calling all developers: $10M Android challenge.
Indroducing Android:
Today, the team is releasing an early look at the Android SDK for developers interested in building applications for Android. To get things rolling, we’ve also announced the Android Developer Challenge, which provides $10 million [...]
Smart TextMail and mobile alerts on tasks, website availability
Sunday, November 25th, 2007One of my longest mobile experiment drew to a close early this month with my rediscovery of Smart’s TextMail.
For more than a year, I’ve been trying one service after another in an effort to get my e-mails sent as text messages to my mobile phone. The answer, you might say, is simple: buy a [...]
Wi-Fi piggybacking widespread, anti-virus firm warns
Saturday, November 24th, 2007While setting up a Wi-Fi network for the PLDT myDSL connection at home earlier this week, I got a timely warning from a press release. Anti-virus company Sophos said many people now use someone else’s wireless Internet connection without their permission.
Sophos said 54 percent of 560 respondents who took their online survey admitted to using [...]
Smart unveils USB modem for mobile Internet access anywhere
Friday, November 23rd, 2007SMART Broadband, Inc. (SBI) has unveiled a USB modem that will allow users to access the Internet with speeds ranging from 384 kbps to 768 kbps anywhere where there is a Smart signal.
The device will be offered under SBI’s “Smart BRO Plan 799.” Under the plan, which costs P799 a month, subscribers have 60 [...]
MyTV? May TV! Analog TV in mobile phone
Friday, October 12th, 2007A Sun.Star Cebu colleague bought an interesting phone recently. May TV. (Note: Pronounce may as mai; may is the Tagalog word for “with.”) It’s not Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld or DVB-H, the technology used by Smart’s myTV service. It’s good old analog TV, the free-to-air signals picked up by regular TVs using antennae.
MOBILE [...]
Sony Ericsson makes me sing the blues
Monday, September 10th, 2007Inside the junk food section of a downtown department store, I decided to stop listening to my jazz collection at home.
Two weeks back, my family sought shelter in a Cebu City pension house from a scheduled overnight brownout in Lapu-Lapu City. We went to a downtown department store to stock on food and refreshments when [...]
Zyb goes social with new version
Friday, August 31st, 2007Zyb, a web service that provides free online phone data backups, has launched its new version with a better website interface and several new features, including social networking through phone contacts and micro-blogging.
I find Zyb a useful service and use at least once a month to make sure I have an off-site backup of my [...]
Windows Live services coming to Nokia phones
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007Nokia has announced that it has partnered with Microsoft to provide a suite of Windows Live services “specifically designed for Nokia devices.” Users of compatible S60 devices in selected countries can now download Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Contacts and Windows Live Spaces.
Users of Nokia Series 40 devices will be able to [...]
Sony Ericsson unveils K770
Thursday, August 16th, 2007Sony Ericsson has released its latest model in the Cyber-shot line: the K770. The phone, which will be marketed as the K770i in the Philippines and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, will be available by the fourth quarter of this year.
The K770 belongs to a phone line renowned for it’s photo quality: Cyber-shot models [...]
Open Source phone anyone?
Saturday, July 28th, 2007Open Source development has brought the world a stable operating system, reliable web server and thousands of free and very useful programs and scripts. Will it bring us the next great phone?
Last July 9, OpenMoko started selling from their website the Neo 1973 phone, which runs the company’s eponymous open source mobile software package. This [...]
Smart launches mobile TV service
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007For less than the monthly subscription fee of a cable TV connection, you can now watch digital TV anytime and anywhere on compatible mobile phones.
Smart Telecommunications Inc. and 360media launched on Tuesday myTV, a service that allows people to view high-quality TV broadcasts on their phones. The quality of the video is really great, it’s [...]
Upgrading to Sony Ericsson K800i
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007When my wife needed to upgrade her phone several weeks back, there was no question on which brand she’ll be getting. The question was which Sony Ericsson model best fits her needs and our budget.
I am a Sony Ericsson fan boy and my fanaticism must have rubbed off on my wife because she decided to [...]
Is Sony Ericsson trying to buy off Cebu journalists?
Monday, May 7th, 2007What if politicians announce, during their press conferences, that they will be holding a “writing” contest and the journalist who publishes the “best article” about the press conference gets to win P5,000 in cash.
What do you call that? If you were a journalist or a blogger, what would you feel?
That, in effect, is what Sony [...]
Business cards 2.0 with mobile phone codes
Sunday, April 29th, 2007Mobile phone codes such as semacodes and QR for “quick response” codes allow you to to embed data such as SMS messages, phone numbers, and URLs into images of square patterns.
HYPERLINKED BUSINESS CARD. This mobile code is linked to my blog address. I’m planning to have this printed at the back of my business [...]
E-mail on the high seas
Friday, April 6th, 2007There’s probably room enough for only 10 people on this islet of six trees (or shrubs) and a single hut.
Yet on these islets near Olango Island and for several kilometers near it, you can still connect to telecoms networks and send and receive text messages, make calls, and browse the mobile Internet. It boggles my [...]
Judging people by their phones
Saturday, March 31st, 2007What’s your phone? Mine’s a Sony Ericsson and, according to a survey by Nielsen Media Research, I’m likely to be an ambitious, success-driven, professional, and individualistic young man.
Nielsen Media Research, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, found in a survey in Australia that certain customer types were attracted to certain phone brands.
I’d like to believe [...]
Turn your mobile phone into a document scanner with Scanr app
Wednesday, March 21st, 2007I would give anything to have had this Scanr tool a decade ago when, as a beat reporter, I had to frequently photocopy documents for news stories. When I was still covering the Cebu City Hall beat, I did a series of news reports that exposed illegal collection of fees and various other transactions disallowed [...]
Manage songs in your phone, mp3 player with Songbird
Sunday, March 18th, 2007ITunes locks out other devices by limiting synchronization only to iPods and other Apple-approved devices. There are third-party software you can use to be able to manage songs in your phone or non-iPod mp3 player using iTunes but these applications can be complicated to install or tedious to use.
SONGBIRD, K750i. The transfer queue of [...]
Traffic, flood, crime data on your mobile phone
Saturday, March 17th, 2007Apart from Bulacan State University’s Smart Phone Guard, the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (Sweep) project that really piqued my interest in this year’s Innovation and Excellence Awards is Ateneo de Manila University’s Smart Safety Assistance (3S).
The system packages mobile services, using open source projects, into a system that offers people access, via a PC [...]
Using mobile technology to control entry to houses, spy on intruders
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007Bulacan State University had the most number of entries to this year’s Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (Sweep) Innovation and Excellence Award. The school’s Smart Phone Guard application took the top prize.
BSU could have taken the top two prizes had it combined its two home security projects: Smart LockInterCom and e-Spy Mobile Security. On its [...]
App that helps track, control stolen phones wins award
Monday, March 12th, 2007A mobile phone application that helps owners recover stolen units and protect private data was chosen as this year’s winner of the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (Sweep) Innovation and Excellence Awards, which closed last Saturday at the SM Mall of Asia.
The application, Smart Phone Guard, hides itself whenever the phone’s SIM (subscriber identification module) [...]
Sony Ericsson unveils W200i, W610i, and W880i in Cebu
Sunday, February 18th, 2007For a confessed Sony Ericsson fan boy, last Thursday’s unveiling of new Sony Ericsson models was a slice of heaven for me. The company launched three new Walkman phone models–the W200i, W610i, and W880i. The phones are expected to be available in the Philippines by the second quarter of this year.
SEXY. I thought to [...]
Mobile Internet and Globe Visibility, a demo
Sunday, February 4th, 2007In the run-up to Sinulog, the biggest festival in Cebu, I was invited to a demonstration of Globe Visibility, Globe’s HSDPA or High Speed Downlink Packet Access mobile Internet service.
The service, marketed by Globe with buzz phrases such as “3G plus,” “better than 3G,” and “mobile broadband,” promises download speeds of up to 1.4mbps. In [...]
Mapping Cebu’s Wi-Fi hotspots
Thursday, February 1st, 2007I’ve been meaning to map Cebu’s Wi-Fi hotspots for more than a month now. It is a project that I’ve kept putting off, mainly because of work deadlines and other tasks.
For a while, I planned to set out–and was on the verge of doing so at least twice–and go through 4 or 5 coffee shops [...]
15 days with the Treo 680 smartphone
Friday, January 12th, 2007I’ve been asked to review the Palm Treo 680. I got the unit yesterday from Microwarehouse and I’ll be testing it until I return the unit in the first week of February.
An official from Microwarehouse approached our executive editor weeks back asking her whether I would accept requests for reviews. Let me just spell it [...]