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Mostly Everything

Our portable LAN party solution

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The holidays are usually devoted to a lot of gaming, especially when my friends from high school fly home from the States. This is a set up of 5 portables running on a home WiFi network – two of which are Macs. The objective was to run through Diablo II: Lord of Destruction from the start and get as far as we could.

The most interesting part was installing Diablo II on two OS X machines and networking them with three other Windoze portables without having to run Parallels or BootCamp. I’ve talked about CrossOver for Mac OS X before and this is what we used to do a native install of Diablo. Original Blizzard installers are usually compatible with both Mac and PC but it was way too geeky to resist doing a native Windows run of Diablo on OS X. 🙂

So yeah, if you’re wondering how far into the game we got … age (and carpal tunnel) dictated the best of us and we got as far as Act I, defeating Andariel.

Please don’t judge. We’re just regular geeks. 😉

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Mostly Everything

MacHeist gives away free Mac apps this holiday season

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What? You mean you still haven’t checked out MacHeist’s latest list of freebies?! This holiday season, MacHeist is making app giveaway time more thematic by revealing free gifts underneath the Mac Giving Tree.

If you’re a Mac user, MacHeist’s giveaway for Christmas 2008 is a must have. I especially recommend 1password, Headline RSS reader and Enigmo 2 from Pangea.

Don’t forget to download the apps from the MacHeist Giving Tree to get them for free (check the serial numbers on the gift boxes)!

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Mostly Everything

The Spin: Wendy’s Baconator in 3 Philippine Magazines

This isn’t a blog about food, so when I do talk about food I approach it from a different angle. Here are some samplings of how Wendy’s latest offering – the Baconator appeals to different niches. The photos below are magazine ad pegs for three different publications: T3, Men’s Health and FHM.

The Baconator T3 Magazine

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Notice how the ad is essentially the same except for the take away quote on top of each Baconator. Sometimes, it isn’t about the product but with how the product can be spun into the content making it more relevant and less disconnected from the reader.

So have you tried it? It’s a killer! 🙂

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Mostly Everything

Geekiest Christmas gift for me! (thus far!!)

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To my dearest friend Knox. 9 years of friendship proves how much of my geeky side rubbed off on you. Thank you for this NES Controller belt 😀 I will wear it with pride, just like Captain N.

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Mostly Everything

Glofiish Reviews: DX900 for P29,990 and X610 for P19,990

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EDIT I:I recently published a review of the new dual faced ACER DX650 — yes Glofiish is now owned by ACER! If you bought a Glofiish device and wonder about tech support, I am told it will be honored with ACER.

EDIT II: Made a correction with the DX900 – it has a 3MP camera, not 1.3MP. The technical paper had a misprint.

Today, I’m inspired to write about a bit of history in the tech scene. Back in 2004 an obscure brand of hardware running what is now known as Windows Mobile came to the Philippines. That brand was E-TEN, and though the name in local tech has been forgotten it was one of the more brazened competitors to the O2 XDA line which was the most popular brand of “PDA Phones” during that time. Of course, O2 wasn’t a manufacturer in the strict sense, but a telco – and the XDA device was manufactured by HTC, O2’s OEM (O2 was a EU based telco that just strapped the brand onto the units). HTC grew in proportions, at least in the Philippines, overtaking E-TEN. They rebranded to DOPOD and then back to the HTC we know today, responsible for such sexy devices like the HTC Touch line.

But what happened to E-TEN (the last thing I wrote about them was with regards to the M600 Communicator)?? They became famous in the European market as they were the first to integrate GPS onto their smartphones, a MUST in the region. E-TEN made very decent phones, slightly cheaper to the O2 XDA. But they weren’t well marketed and have thus since faded locally.

… Until they relaunched into their new commercial brand — Glofiish. And this late December of 2008 and pushing forward to 2009, Glofiish is invading Philippine shores. I needed to give the backgrounder because not only is the history interesting, it is also a way for me to say that Glofiish isn’t at all a newbie in the mobile space. As a trump to this, ACER acquired Glofiish in March of 2008, a subtle way of saying that they will be moving into mobile phones this 2009. Watch for it!

I’ve had the privilege to break the local news (the devices are all over the Internet, but not in local cyberspace) on two “new” Glofiish devices that is, if I am not mistaken already available in the handheld market: the Glofiish DX900 and the Glofiish X610. In summary, the DX900 is a Windows Mobile 6.1 handheld that runs on dual SIM technology while the X610 is an affordable Windows Mobile 6.1 handheld at less than P20,000.00

Let’s get on with the show and tell.

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Glofiish DX900 (P29,990)

The DX900 is a dual SIM Windows Mobile 6.1 device. It needs to be noted that although both SIM cards can be active, only one SIM supports HSDPA while the other can only support EDGE. This isn’t really a disadvantage in itself as usually, one telco has better data rates and connectivity than the other. In the photos, I’m running a Red Mobile SIM and a SUN Cellular SIM for illustration.

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In terms of specs, the DX900 comes with all the bells and whistles of a Windows Mobile 6.1 device – WiFi, Bluetooth, 2.8 inch screen and GPS tracking. The unit is powered by a Samsung 533MHz processor and can store 128MB of RAM (256MB ROM). TV out and a built in accelerometer are added features, apart from a decent 3MP camera and secondary VGA camera in front.

In terms of real estate design, the DX900 is probably one of the best Windows Mobile devices I’ve held because the finish doesn’t oil easy. Unlike other flimsy devices that doesn’t have any sense of grip, the DX900’s outer face grips easy and isn’t “boxy.” In fact, if not for the logo, it could be mistaken for an HTC Touch device.

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Glofiish X610 (P19,990)

The Glofiish X610’s strength is that is very affordable, without compromising essential features for a Windows Mobile device. In the past, WM enabled smartphones go for above the P30,000 mark, so the X610 is a rather promising device given its price point alone.

Unlike the DX900, the X610 doesn’t sport 3G connectivity. It has a 2MP camera and 64MB of RAM (128MB flash ROM).

User Interface
The DX900 and X610 both come with the SPB UI, a custom interface built into Glofiish devices in the similar way that the Sony Xperia, Samsung OMNIA and the HTC Touch line have a customized home screen over and above the default Windows Mobile Start menu. The interface supports multitouch features allowing you to flip your thumb through the screens in the same way an iPod touch / iPhone works. It isn’t as versatile, but it is nonetheless a breath of fresh air as there is almost no UI lag in the screen flipping.

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Above is a shot of the X610 in “mid flip.”

Summary
The Glofiish X610 and DX900 will without a doubt appeal to fans of Windows Mobile. This platform has been around for quite sometime and has overtaken Palm by more than a mile (that is, until we see Palm 2.0?). Still, if you’ve been barricaded by the price point of most WM-based devices you can now breathe a sigh of relief as we now have a sub 20k device that runs on Windows Mobile 6.1. We also have a dual SIM option for those who want to stick to WM because of investments they made into the OS for app purchases.

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As for technical support, Glofiish will have local servicing and warranties as well.