4th Gen iPod nano colors (Cute naman!)
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 10th, 2008
The rumors are true – the 4th generation iPod nanos are out. Apple has gone back to the roots of the nano, foregoing the fatty design for the gum stick form factor of the 1st and 2nd generation + the curved edges. And they’ve upped the memory too at 8GB and 16GB. Sigh. Flash memory just gets cheaper and cheaper. Every year, a new iPod owner gets at least twice the memory for the same price. It goes the same for all tech gadgets.
They did a great job with the colors – these aren’t the typical shades you’d find in your everyday gadget. According to Technograph, the rumored pricing is P12,000.00 for the 16GB version.
Apple, where’s the FM tuner? 
Bloggers’ Choice Award Nominations for Philippine Blog Awards ’08
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 10th, 2008Hello readers!
I’m reposting a whole bunch of information from the PBA 2008 website. The team has been working hard on the logistics and filtering entries for our much awaited awards night at One Esplanade. This is also our first sneak peek at our sponsors who have been very generous in giving away raffle prizes and making this HUGE EVENT possible!
Vote for your favorite blog! The nominees are …
Preview testing Markku’s “Strip!” WordPress Plugin
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 9th, 2008
At Wordcamp ’08, RebelPixel’s Markku Segguera unveiled his Strip! plugin for WordPress. From his talk, the Strip! plugin is applicable in the following scenario:
Let’s say you have a really good thread that generates a lot of comments. Sometimes you have friends who want to ride on with that thread and post unrelated URLs. It isn’t spam, but since “nahihiya” kayo, you also can’t delete it. Strip! removes the URL link with a simple click of a button. You can also “unstrip” the comment in case you decide to show the link.
Above is the screenshot in my comments section where I can strip “bad” comments. Since those comments and trackbacks are good (yay!) I don’t need to do it. I’ve only used it twice so far. Never mind which comments those were.
FRiiSPIRIT Rock Band / Guitar Hero / Wii Party this Friday!
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 9th, 2008
So the email thread, turned phone conversation went like this:
Me: Of course I remember you! (High School)
AJ: Guess what? We’re having a Wii party at my place! Can you invite your friends?
Me: Sure, where’s your house?
AJ: No, no, no, it’s the Wii party place called FriiSpirit
Me: Huwhatt???? All this time AJ, and you never told me you owned that place???
AJ: Well… yeah! So we’re having a party this Friday. Can you invite some of your blogger friends?
Me: OK. I can post it… how many can you accomodate? 30? 50?
AJ: Up to 100!
Me: Wew.
Rock Band! Guitar Hero Aerosmith! (and yes, it doesn’t come with Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing!) and Wii games from 9PM onwards!
So can you make it? Aside from several Wiis, they have 6 Guitar Hero accessories and … 2 ROCK BAND SETS!!! Everyone’s invited! Although there’s really no need RSVP, it would be nice to (WALK THIS WAY and …) get a head count. You can sign up via this Google Docs sheet.
FriiSpirit
G/F One Burgundy Plaza, Katipunan Ave.,
Loyola Heights, QC
Tel: 434-5434
Mobile: 0929-698-6738
Early Christmas Shopping at the TriNoMa Sale Month
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 8th, 2008What if BLUE and GREEN met?
Wow, so many sales at the TriNoMa. I’m listing two of them here. If you’re not like me (I cram all the shopping come November / December at the Cuenca Bazaar in Alabang), you might want to check out the freebies, promos and discounts that TriNoMa is offering. Think of it as an early Christmas shopping spreeeee!
Blue Green Sale from September 6 to October 6 2008
If you are from Ateneo or La Salle, all you need to do is (1) present your school ID or alumni ID or (2) simply print this coupon and bring it to the mall. The sale will be at the cinema lobby. Simply right click + save the image and print it out.
There are tons of promos and discounts across the entire mall. Here is a partial listing (about 25%) of the total sale coverage. Want the full listing? Proceed here. The discounts for SLRs and Crumpler bags are cool, but the best discount listed here is the 20% off on Bleach Catastrophe!!! They have the best and most affordable shirts and jackets. Here’s a photo of my Bleach Catastrophe jacket I bought while browsing with a few friends a couple of months ago.
Alterations Plus- 10% off on services
Bleach Catastrophe – 20% off on purchases
Brookstone – 10% off on purchases
Canon D Zone – 10% off on cash purchases and 5% off on card purchases. Offer valid only for digital cameras, SLRs, digital video cameras, and non-Canon products and accessories
Crumpler – 10% off on accessories and bags
Firma – 5% off on card purchases and 10% off on regular items
Mango – Get free Mango candles.
Olympic World – Get a free tote bag or sling bag.
Schu - 20% off on purchases
Tough Jeansmith – 10% of on all regular items
S.E.E. Optics – 10% to 30% off on selected items
TRU – 5% off on purchases
TriNoMa Store Specialists Sale September 11-14 2008
This one is for BPI card holders. Darn, no Zara! But that’s OK. Here are the brands that will be on sale from the 11th to the 14th:
Aerosoles
Anne Klein
Anne Klein Watches
Bass
Beauty Bar
Beka
Calvin Klein Jeans
Calvin Klein Underwear
Charriol
Citre Shine
Conair
Debenhams
Denman
Dep
Designer Fragrances
DKNY Jeans
Ecco
Fruits and Passion
Gap
Hawaiian Tropic
Jack Nicklaus
Kenneth Cole
Lacoste
Liz Claiborne
Marks & Spencer
Max Factor
Mexx
Nine West
Oka B
Polo Ralph Lauren
Princess
Rowenta
Springfield
Tefal
Zero Frizz
I hear there’s a third sale coming up. Will post more details about it later. I love the shopping holiday bliss!
More details on the SSI sale here.
Warhammer Online Open Beta Impressions
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 8th, 2008
So I clocked in about 5 hours of beta testing Warhammer today. Now I can finally quantify all the excitement that I’ve channeled since World of Warcraft. All in all, Mythic had an interesting take on how video games sort of encourage you to grind the same thing over and over again. After a while, it gets tedious. I realized that I’m not the same gamer I was from 5 years ago. I’m less patient and I have less time to dedicate to gaming (yeah right, I’ve clocked in 5 hours!).
The first five hours of play brings so much engagement to players. Compared to other MMO’s (especially to World of Warcraft), Warhammer: Age of Reckoning has a crap-load of things that can be done in almost all parts of the map. The quests are fun, if not downright stupid – I had to load myself onto a catapult to be flung into the enemy’s castle, and I had to load up unconscious dwarves into barrels and toss them from the castle walls.
Warhammer Online succeeds in bringing something for every gamer, whether you only have 30 minutes, 3 hours, or 10 hours of free time. It’s exactly what I hoped it to be – a breath of fresh air from my previous experiences with online role playing games. It has a Team Fortress 2 co-op flavor to it, which is, I think, why I found it appealing.
To put my beta impressions in a nutshell, unlike other MMO’s that reward players based on how long or how hard they play, Warhammer Online rewards players by simply playing the game at their own pace.
So far the only other Filipino I know who’s playing the open beta is Kiven. We’re both parked on Oceanic servers. We’re playing Chaos. Anyone else into this stuff?
Hi girls, ummm when was the last time you visited your OB? :D
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 7th, 2008To my 5 female readers,
Just curious. If you watched a movie in the last 4 months you may have come across this really depressing ad:
So have you? It gets the point across though and yeah, I was all set to watch a really funny comedy when all of a sudden, bummer! I’d turn my head to ask my movie buddy, “hey have you been to the OB lately?” but I was watching with my dad. Anyway…
It turns out that the ad forms part of a cervic cancer awareness advocacy and HPV prevention being spearheaded by Dr. Manalastas and the PGH. I found this out after being contacted by the good doctor – he’s the head of OB in PGH and a faculty member at the UP College of Medicine.
On the Internets
So BlogBank is helping out PGH and Dr. Manalastas in the cervic cancer awareness campaign. It is, apparently, the second most lethal death by cancer cause in the Philippines for women (the first is breast cancer). What makes it sad is that the awareness isn’t so huge because of a social stigma of visiting your OB for reasons other than pregnancy causes people to stare. Is this true?? Sorry, I’ve never been to an OB.
I learned that HPV can be easily prevented by regular check ups and a vaccine – even sadder the fact that not a lot of women know this. As for what the vaccine is – well consult your OB! We launched a series of ads for this month on the awareness campaign, and also held a small dinner (Peter Juan wrote about this).
Truth is, I feel really uncomfortable talking about such a topic because needles make me weak (I literally lose my grip) and well, I can’t relate. The campaign’s message to women is to please visit your OB and have yourself checked up. I hear a papsmear is like, what, P50.00 in a government hospital?
So there. To my 5 female readers, please ask your doctors about cervical cancer prevention. By the way, to my 7 male readers, guys can also be carriers of HPV. Eek!
Just got home from Wordcamp 2008; Meeting Matt Mullenweg
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 6th, 2008
Just got home from Wordcamp Philippines ’08 at CSB. I gave away something new to those who attended my talk today. I talked about dreams and goals ala Randy Pausche – and equated these to 3 important aspects of publishing: editorial, sales, and marketing. In detail, discussed one way to determine engagement, two sources in dealing with patrons, and four ways to determine media value for blogs in the Philippine setting that are actually being practiced. To those who attended, thanks so much!
“Serious” Photo Matt
“Let your hair down” Photo Matt
I also got to spend some time with Matt Mullenweg. This episode of Wordcamp is significant to the Philippines because it is the very first State of the Word address in South East Asia. It was also the first time globally that Matt did a live demo of the “CrazyHorse” WP 2.7 release (movable objects, security, better auto-plugin install, post stickies, etc). He also mentioned that the Philippines had the most kick ass WordCamp tees + logo ever designed. On an impressive note, Matt singled out Markku “Mr. Plugin” Segguera of Rebelpixel, being one of the first WP users in the Philippines.
Blogging is a huge global industry. And in South East Asia, the Philippines is leading.
Thanks to the Mindanao bloggers for setting up this event and see you next year for WordCamp 2009 in Manila! More photos from the event can be found here.
Matt Mullenweg is the founder of WordPress, one of the most popular blogging platforms used globally by consumers, corporations and government agencies.
BONUS: My inaudible recording of Matt talking during the impromptu press conference:
Matt Mullenweg in the Philippines from jayvee Fernandez on Vimeo.
Welcome to the blogosphere, RJ Ledesma!
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 5th, 2008
Guess who’s now in the blogosphere? RJ’s been intertwined in my life in several ways – it’s really no surprise considering this industry is really small. Welcome to the blogosphere, RJ Ledesma!
P.S. That’s RJ’s yaya on the banner, from his latest book release, Lies My Yaya Should Have Told Me.
Over the past three years, there were columns I’ve written that I’m pretty damned proud of and there are some columns I’ve written that were pretty damned to begin with. But, what the hell, I say let it all hang out. After all, what’s past is prologue. And, in this blog, we’re going to see a lot of prologue going on.
I hope to come out with a second book in early 2009 that collects the last half of my columns from The Manila Times, along with a couple of articles that I’ve written for MANUAL. In the meantime, I’ve had requests from family, friends and readers to reprint some of my older columns and other previously published work. So, by way of this blog, I plan to do the following:
1. Post the older columns that haven’t seen print since they were first published;
2. Post my current columns a week after they come out in the Star;
3. Post some articles that I’ve written for MANUAL;
4. Post columns that, for one reason or another, did not get published.
I also plan to post some totally random stuff as well – recommendations, ramblings, general lunacy. You know the drill.
Lastly, I also hope to use this blog as a sounding board to develop ideas for future columns and articles. So if you’ve got any ideas that you think would make for an interetsting column, please feel free to drop me a line. I would love to hear from you guys. [RJ Ledesma]
Do you still read books? Or are you only reading the Internet?
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 4th, 2008
“Read more books than blogs.” This is an ad from Analog Soul, a tee company.
I think the message isn’t to stop reading blogs OR to read more books. Neither is it about hating blogs or new media – heck, Analog Soul uses Multiply as their marketing tool. The disciplines of reading books and reading blogs (and stuff online) is very very different! I think the communication point is more of a commentary on how we need to balance our life.
They are a statement tee and apparel err … outfit (LOL!) and Analog Soul knows how to be pretty good at it. They need to be brazened and make these statements. Oh and they got great stuff by the way. Should drop by one time.
On another note, do you still read books despite your BUSY BUSY SCHEDULE? I still do – but much less nowadays. To cope with always being on the go, I listen to them on my iPod via Audible. That’s one book credit a month – 12 books in a year! I’m currently reading listening to the unabridged version of The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki.
In this endlessly fascinating book, New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future. [Random House]
Wrote about the book here, but only getting to actually listen this month. It’s fantastic!
Thanks to Richelle for the info I was looking for. Image credit is from Analog Soul.
It only costs $4.00 to put Chuck Norris inside your phone
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 3rd, 2008
Strange, but true. And yet it really kicks ass. Last year I sat in a mobile gaming conference with the guys from Gameloft – one of the best mobile gaming developers today as they’ve got a solid philosophy when designing games for the mobile phone: they should be engaging, intuitive and fun. And while we’re on the subject of FUN …
I don’t see anything that can top this: Chuck Norris bashes guerrillas with their own jeep.
Features
// The official game of martial arts champ, action star, TV hero, and media phenomenon Chuck Norris!
// A hilarious dive into the life of the legend: martial arts, denim-clad justice, and commando fights!
// Enjoyable and simple gameplay inspired by old-school arcade beat-’em-ups.
// Loads of enemies, including memorable bosses such as Fidel Castro and Kim Jong-il.
// Fight with heavy weaponry or unleash furious combos, then hop on a motorcycle, car or helicopter.
// Take pictures of your friends and turn them into the game’s enemies.
Chuck Norris: Bring on the Pain is Gameloft’s craziest title thus far. It only costs $4.00 to have your mobile phone indulge in a hatful of Chuck Norris jokes followed by an absurd premise of Chuck fighting communism and everything evil.
More coverage at Cellphone9.
