Archives for Tech

Toshiba FF1 Ultralight LED Projector

You know, I have a thing for underdog products. Have you ever seen this device in the market? The Toshiba FF1 projector has been doing its rounds for almost 2 years now and hasn’t really been promoted much in the Philippines. So it really caught my eye when I dropped by Tricom Dynamics along Gil Puyat about 3 months ago and asked their marketing manager if I could take a look at this product.

The Toshiba FF1 ultralight projector does not use a regular replaceable bulb. Instead, it uses LED light projection technology. Several implications to this - the bulb can’t be replaced and it doesn’t fully light up a room for presentations. But these two things it sacrifices for ultra portability as you can see from the image (it is lighter than my laptop) and it also comes with a 2 hour battery pack. Yeah, you can use these things without a plug. I was able to attach this to the Nintendo Wii, to my laptop (to watch Gossip Girl, hee!) and project to the portable screen that it comes with. The screen (photo above) is a neat addition in cases where you really can’t find a wall to project to.

Because it doesn’t release a lot of heat, the FF1 is relatively silent as well and turns on almost instantly. Not bad for 2006 technology.

Interested in ordering one? Well you won’t find them in stores anymore so you will have to go through the warehouse. The address of the warehouse and pricing is as follows:
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iPhone 3G unlocked and more coverage

Happy weekend folks! I have a few news items from Cellphone9, most of which are YouTube videos sent by the official AT&T video production unit on the launch and demo of the iPhone 3G:

## iPhone 3G isdelivered by mail guy and secured inside the AT&T store

## iPhone 3G unboxing by the AT&T guy, Duncan Riley and Wirelessinfo. More unboxing videos here.

## iPhone 3G is unlocked on the same day of launch by Furiousim

## iPhone 3G GPS and Maps navigation demo

## Walt Mossberg is not so amazed with the iPhone 3G

ACER launches Aspire One Ultraportable in the Philippines SRP 18,800.00

Today, ACER launched their new mid year desktops and portables with the Aspire One leading the pack. So ACER finally releases their first ultraportable and there are a lot of things to like about it. First off, a sweet Intel Atom processor under this ultraportable’s hood and a 8GB solid state drive.

One peculiar item of note is the RAM - 1GB RAM with 512MB soldered into the device and the other 512MB is expandable to 1GB giving you an odd total RAM expansion of 1.5GB. It’s odd that ACER would put a small cap to the RAM expansion capabilities as 512MB doesn’t really matter as much in cases of ultra light devices.

So we played around with it today and yeah, it’s everything an ultraportable should be (I obviously can’t give feedback on the battery life). I noticed that the Aspire One didn’t mention Bluetooth in the specs. So there you have it - three, wait, three big brand ultra portables in the Philippine market with the ASUS eee, HP Mini Note (review here!) and the ACER Aspire One. We’re waiting for the MSI Wind to come among the big players.

There are other ultra light devices out there such as the Red Fox but I honestly don’t know how these fare. Any feedback on these?

The Aspire One comes in Sapphire Blue and Seashell White.

Technical Specs
AO 110-L08b (blue)
AO 110-L08w (blue)

Intel Atom Processor N270
1.6GHz 512kb L2 Cache 533 MHz Front Side Bus
Linpus Linux Lite OS
1GB Memory (512MB on board)
8GB Solid State Drive
8.9 inch WSVGA TFT
Multi-card reader
WLAN
Webcam
Comes with notebook sleeve
89% full sized keyboard
1 Year Warranty on Parts and Labor
1 Year International Travelers Warranty

Thanks Bill, t’was a fun ride!

He may not have Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field, but without him we wouldn’t have the Gates and Windows to the digital age.

Willing to Get Lost in the Great Singapore Sale 2008!!!

Wow, Equinox Club (photo). That’s as far as I went to seeing the night life of Singapore last year. This year it’s going to be different! Realized that I’ve been so burned out from a lot of things going on with work, so I asked a favor if I could extend a business trip on my expense. Nokia Connect 2008 is happening on the 16th and 17th in Singapore and knowing how that goes, the party is going to be a blast. The funny thing was that I almost got double booked — LG scheduled me to go for Communicasia but I had said yes to Nokia already. With that, the famous and ever reliable proprietor of TechnograPH is going to Communicasia 2008 to cover the latest phones and services!

But June 2008 is also the month of the Great Singapore Sale and yes, I’m going to get lost in this great sale, as well as get lost in the huge shopping list of my beauty blogger partner as well as her friends.

In terms of what I’m looking to get, well nothing fancy. I’m on the lookout for camera accessories such as a semi-ball tripod which allegedly sells for only P2,500.00 and a Nikkor remote for only P600.00. In terms of brands I’m curious to check out the Giordano store as I’ve noticed that Giordano Singapore has one of the best - if not the best selection in Asia, in the same way that Zara’s selection in the Philippines is a hundred times better than Malaysia, Indonesia or Singapore.

I supposedly booked myself at a little place in Little India but Mia came to my rescue and offered my nephew’s bed as the kids are back to school in Manila. Mia, you’re a lifesaver, and you can have all the Pure Foods hotdogs and corned beef I can carry!

So Calvin wrote about the sale, a head on collision with the first few days. Well, I’m going to be there right smack ready for the PC Show (I missed Toy Universe! and seeing Kung Fu Panda in person) and Calvin’s post was very helpful. Between shopping at Orchard Road to Sim Lin Square, I’m also trying to make time to meet up with some of my dad’s former classmates from AIM, and do a whole day Zoo and Night Safari tour…

… But the most important itinerary is to EAT AT PEPPER LUNCH SINGAPORE.

My comments and suggestions for Globe’s Alleged iPhone 3G Price Scheme

Corporate Hero? Maybe so. But in the Philippines, it could be a Corporate Zero.

There’s a tipper with an email going around the Philippine Internet - outlining a possible initial fee of PHP 9,995.00 for the iPhone, but of course killing you with a monthly fee of P3,500.00. There’s a higher plan where you get the phone free but have to pay the rate of a Globe Platinum subscriber at P5,000.00. The latter plan is nothing new - it’s what Platinum and SMART Infinity subscribers pay for this type of service plus they get any phone they want so I will leave that be. Let’s not even talk about the prepaid plans. I have a completely different take on this. Enjoy:

I wrote about this before — forgot though if it was for print or the blogs — how the iPhone should PUSH telcos to come up with better products, rather than push the iPhone itself. After watching the keynote, it made me realize more and more why Apple works closely with a telco (AT&T) as a lot of the iPhone’s services rely on a more robust data plan, a data plan that is light years ahead of our own 3G infrastructure.

Hi Jones (no, really Hi! I didn’t see you at the last PRSP seminar I gave last week), if you’re reading this I really hope you guys can figure out how to revamp this plan to be more subscriber friendly. The reason why Steve Jobs slashed the iPhone price was to make it more appealing to the masses. As he said, everyone should own an iPhone. If I had a say in the marketing roadmap for the iPhone, I’d take this as an opportunity to do some wow-ing myself, introducing a really kick ass data plan EXCLUSIVE to iPhone buyers from Globe initially, rather than put together a hodge-podge excuse that smells of corporate spare parts, which is what the telco experience is starting to feel like. In short, the product isn’t the iPhone 3G - it’s a revamped 3G roadmap that’s too remarkable to pass up. The iPhone 3G would be, well, a springboard.

This may be an edge over competition that just wants to unlock an iPhone and use it with SMART. Truth is, the iPhone can-afford crowd is a year ahead of the average guy who hasn’t even heard of the launch date here in the Philippines (because they don’t read up on the Internet). They’re going to have an easier time sourcing the iPhone from abroad. Or Greenhills. Wherever. Just not with Globe.

As for me, I’m definitely getting one from relatives from the US who are coming home in a few weeksmaybe a second hand 1st Gen iPhone wil work? I can’t wait. It is for me, the perfect time to get an iPhone because of the SDK release and although you still can’t do MMS, video recording, Business Card forwarding, and Bluetooth file exchange, I’m still hooked, it’s insane. That really floored me. Or … maybe I’ll get one from SMART, who knows? (Oops. A slip? I’m such a tease.)

Speaking on the side, I highly doubt uMobile will carry the iPhone unless they develop a native MMS application as this is one of the primary methods for sending ads. iPhone doesn’t have MMS.

So there it is Globe. It isn’t about the iPhone. Although it definitely is a news maker, it won’t follow through with the geek community here. Hey, we’re better than that. I hope the pricing isn’t final.

iPhone 3G: $199.00 for 8GB

The second coming of the Jesus Phone is nigh. Just moments ago, Steve unveiled the iPhone 3G at the WWDC 2008 conference. I managed to do a Live Plurk of the event. You can click the link to see my comments and some responses. I also have an initial post up at Cellphone9 for the coverage. Nothing fancy. More of a first impressions look. As a follow up I also wrote a piece on what a $199.00 iPhone does to the cellphone industry.

With Windows Mobile devices costing in the close $600.00 and above, what happens when the world’s most talked about phone get a huge price cut by half? What happens when the world’s most talked about phone acquires Microsoft ActiveSync and Exchange and push email? What happens when it acquires GPS and maps as well? All for the price of an entry-level phone from Nokia or Samsung.

Regarding the latter, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Overall, a lot of the new services announced won’t make huge waves in the Philippines. But the price point of the new and improved iPhone will. At less than P10,000.00 the 8GB iPhone will probably kill most of the competition. That is, if people don’t start charging more for unlocking it

How to Make a uMobile Invite Move Faster!

Hello again friends. A lot of you have been asking about uMobile invites. I recently emailed their technical support asking about why the sign up page was disabled. Well, it is back up now so I can start sending out invites again. But I also learned that I can only send 10 invites per month which means that the process might take longer — THEREFORE, I was able to get clarification on how to get more invites. I’ll paste the bulk of the email here and highlight the salient portions:

For your inquiry, yes you can invite 10 of your friends every month. That’s 100 friends in a year! We recently enabled the invite page so now you can start inviting your friends again.

If someone is interested in our service, they can request an invite code to customerservice at umobile dot com dot ph by simply sending their complete name and email address. If their request is unique or valid, we will send an email with an invite code.

Note that every application is still subject for approval. An applicant cannot log-in to the “My Account” page of the website until he/she is approved and have received their ümobile SIM. When the application is approved, we will send an email to confirm their approval and our customer service will contact them to confirm when and where their FREE ümobile SIM will be delivered.

So there you have it. Unfortunately I didn’t know about the limit and used up 10 invites for my family and close friends. But as you can see, the solution is right there on the email. Please send them an email with your details and then they will send you a respective sign up code. You will then be able to send out 10 invites per month to your close friends.

I really hope this helps and I apologize for the small mix up!

How does uMobile work? Here’s a video I made :)

Hi folks, looks like umobile is catching the interest of the general public, and why shouldn’t it? I have an account with them (but no SIM yet) and for those who are curious to know what’s in their dashboard, here’s a virtual tour I made last night. Some points of interest:

a. the unlimited ability to change your mobile phone number for P50.00 anytime (stalker fodder?)
b. invite-only scheme to apply
c. the ads

Anyway, pardon the coughing in the video. It’s that season for the colds.

U Mobile (ümobile): Country’s 5th Telco is the Free, Advertising Based Service

EDIT: Erratum on the free load and how it works

EDIT II: Apparently the referral system is now up. I’ll be referring people who want a umobile number. The application requires me to input your name, email and a current cellphone number so if you’re comfy with giving that out to me, send me an email. All info you provide will be held in strict confidence.

EDIT III: Short video walkthrough here

SMART Telecommunications, Globe Telecommunications, SUN Cellular, Bayan Telecommunications. And now there’s room for one more.

There’s a new number in town and that number is “+63999.” Word is out that a telco called CURE which was bought by SMART has been launched for the public, and their name is U Mobile or ümobile, the country’s first free advertising-driven telco. It’s sort of like Inquirer Libre which we get to pick up on the train station free of charge — because everything is subsidized by advertising.

ümobile is a brand owned by Connectivity Unlimited Resource Enterprise, Inc. CURE belongs to the family of the 2 leading telecommunication giants—PLDT and SMART. We maintain our independence as far as strategic business decisions and day-to-day operations are concerned. SMART supports us in our needs especially on network complement. [FAQ]

Is this the telco for the masses? Well no. Not really. Not yet. Currently, applications are by invite only and I heard that people who have been invited to the service (those who went to the launch party a few hours ago) will be able to refer friends who can join up and avail of the free service. I heard as well that there is an allocation of P350 worth of credit per month for users P100 a month for the first 6 months for free. The P350 is the maximum amount of load you can receive by participating in the ad program that is sent to your mobile. We were blown away and I really have so many questions to ask. But as of the moment, that’s all I know.

Commenting on the worldwide telecommunications scene, this is something Google wanted to do - buy their own spectrum and launch their own telco free of charge, driven entirely by advertising. The Philippines is the first in Asia to have an Ad Driven telco and yeah, this is huge. Freakin’ huge. The telco has been in operations for more than a year now undercover and have now launched officially with several partner establishments to deliver advertising directly to the mobile phone.

Ads are purely contextual and users will have to answer a thorough survey which is updated every year in case interests changes. So yes, “contextual” is dependent on the survey as far as I was informed.

Cool beans. Freakin’ cool beans. This is big.

P.S. I won an LG KU380 Phone from the raffle — well I think everyone went home with one! Marketing is surely aggressive. Open bar. Piss drunk. Wheeee!