Categories
Mostly Everything

LTE is just around the corner?

SMART LTE dongle

Is commercial LTE just around the corner?

OK so there are two parts to this story. The first part is based on fact while the other is chismis, but when you put both together, it sort of makes sense. So the story is that the First Philippine LTE Forum happens tomorrow, August 8 2012. If you look at the lineup, we have the following speakers:

Mr. Dirk Wolter–Chief Technology Officer, Mobility, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Ms. Carol Wan–Director, Business Consulting, Huawei Technologies Company Ltd.
Mr. Yoshinori Yasui– Senior Technical Advisor (Smart), NTT Docomo
Mr. Albert Nombres– Head of Solutions, Nokia Siemens Networks
Mr. Lawrence Macalintal—Chief Technology Officer, Ericsson Telecommunications, Inc.

The LTE forum comes at an “ideal” time, having heard rumors of the imminent LTE launch by SMART. This is really no secret as the telco has been working on a number of beta tests (I have been part of some) across the past few months.

Now the chismis: What excites me is that the rumored iPhone 5 will need to have LTE connectivity in order to compete with the market of powerful smartphones released by HTC and Samsung in the past few months. Is this their way of launching LTE into the smartphone space? This seems like a very tempting argument to make in favor of both the new data network launching very soon in the PH and a potential LTE-enabled iPhone that fits Asian standards.

Categories
Mostly Everything

Brand new iPhone 3GS sells in the Philippines for PHP 14,990; open line and NTC approved

OK this bit of news is a bit odd but believe it or not, the group that distributes Alcatel in the PH is also the same group that is bringing in NTC-registered stocks of the old iPhone 3GS. Yup, you heard it right. If you’ve always wanted to own a BRAND NEW iPhone but couldn’t afford the steep price and telco lock in period, you can avail of an iPhone 3GS for only PHP 14,990.00.

The iPhone 3GS is being made available nationwide. Some of the stores that carry it include:

Intogadgets
MemoXpress
JR MemoXpress
Power Mac Center

In the greater Manila area, you can find it in the following stores

Ambassador
Automatic Centre
Bluelite
CMK Cellphones
Twinline
Fonestyle
Link Plus
Mobile World / ABC Store
Hello
Silicon Valley
Techno Mobile
Widget City

The package comes with a 12 month warranty period and bundled with iOS 5. This is a really good deal because the iPhone 3GS is still considered “future proof” by Apple since it will be eligible for the new iOS 6 update.

Categories
Mostly Everything

Seagate Backup Plus can backup your Facebook and Flickr photos; 1TB for PHP 5,495

They may look nondescript but these Seagate drives get a tad more interesting when you find out that these have the capability to backup your Facebook and Flickr content. When you first plug in the HD using the USB 3.0 cable (it resembles the previous GoFlex line) you’ll be prompted to install the Seagate Dashboard which really does two things — install the social network backup feature and the Protect feature which is essentially a Time Machine app for PC users. On first install on Mac OS X, the Seagate Dashboard tanked. It was perhaps because the file system was formatted to NTFS so a quick reformat fixed this.

As long as you’re plugged in (USB 3.0 is fast via USM, although there are also Firewire and Thunderbolt versions) the Dashboard backs up photos that you upload to Facebook, even via mobile and that’s a great thing.

This new family of hard drives from Seagate come in red, blue, silver and black with a suggested retail prices of PHP 4,100 (500GB) and PHP 5,495 (1TB). Really, not bad at all.

PROS:
– backs up your entire Facebook photo portfolio and syncs new ones in real time
– fast USB 3.0 transfer speeds
– even if you don’t use the backup features, the price point of PHP 5,4xx.xx is very attractive

CONS:
– encountered hurdles in OS X install

Categories
Geek

The Galleon.PH is like our own local ThinkGeek online store

UPDATE: Why The Galleon is expensive

Ever wished us folks from the Philippines could order stuff from ThinkGeek? Unfortunately their amazing geeky furniture, toys, appliances, knick knacks and doodads can’t make it into our local shores due to the site’s shipping / transaction restrictions.

Well guess what? We now have a local store for discerning geeks (like you and me!) that sell off-center merchandise which we otherwise would not be able to bring in. Like these anti-gravity boots for PHP 10,xxx.

The Galleon is founded by Christian Blanquera and the store’s concept is social by nature as it allows the customers to choose what items to bring in. In an interview with The Bobbery, a web magazine that highlights excellence in the Philippine tech scene, Christian says that:

We think this project is pretty unique in that we are selling products not originally available here. The products we sell are ever growing because it’s the social community that really builds the store, based on what they truly want. We are trying to make this into a social experience and experiment.

At the moment, payment method is limited to credit card purchases and processed using PayPal. The site is on public alpha.

What are you waiting for? Check their current collection of goods out now. Also, this beer bottle leg holster is amazing:

Categories
Geek

SMART can give you the last 6 digits of your Globe number when you switch. And more.

In terms of the “industry wars” it seems that the ones involving telcos are the most fascinating. As someone who’s been involved in the industry for more than 8 years, I tend to hear things, a lot of them being allegedly true and others rumors. A number of these include SMART choosing earlier to invest in improving their data network in the late 2000’s while Globe introduced the unlimited texting scheme to increase subs. It’s also an allegedly “cute” reason why SMART bought SUN — to have introduced their own unli-text services without losing money while still relegating half the competition. Today, SMART is reaping the benefits of an early investment with a better mobile data network in most areas. A network modernization program takes between 2.5 to 5 years and Globe has just begun theirs. Are you willing to wait that long? By that time, gigabit connection speeds should already be the norm.

Continue reading “SMART can give you the last 6 digits of your Globe number when you switch. And more.”