Wow what a year. Just being at the cusp of a new year makes me realize how short time is, yet the irony of also realizing how you’ve actually done a lot in the past 365 days. To my friends and family, thank you for everything and may the new year greet us with one big bro-fist!
Bad news for the relatively huge blogging community of i.PH. Straight from Joel Disini’s mouth, i.PH is closing its blogging service. He’s giving bloggers 6 months to export their blog posts to other services.
Unfortunately, he said that he will be closing down i.ph soon so it would be best for me to start copy pasting all my posts and blog files. I couldn’t believe it. He said i.ph is no longer making profit and he’s giving us bloggers around 6 months before it fully shuts down.
Well, it was bound to happen. I’ve talked to many friends working for this company, (the mother organization owns the rights to the .ph registrar) and I’ve observed that while there were so many great ideas in the boiler room (i.e. mirroring services like SquareSpace, premium services, etc) none of these ever shipped. And in this industry, shipping is really important.
And it’s really not just about i.PH itself but the presence of so many other great blogging platforms — Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, SquareSpace.. competition is fast improving services while domain registration and hosting is getting cheaper by the day.
Thus far there is no official word on the i.PH blog. This piece of information comes from an encounter with Disini. If the news is 100% true (and it looks like it is), sad to see it go. Here’s a way to go out with a bang: have the community do one huge “transfer” party where everyone exports their blogs at the same time to other services.
So a number of people were rather “disturbed” by the screen grab of Atty. Topacio’s interview. The portait sitting above him was one of Adolf Hitler. Does having a portrait of someone nailed to the wall behind you really mean that much?
Well.
Dear Internet, presenting the Topacio Meme:
Wanna see something cool? First, try chatting with someone. Anyone. Via Facebook chat. Do this through the desktop. It doesn’t work when using Facebook Messenger for mobile.
Then, insert the Facebook profile name of anyone using this [[insert name here]] variable. For instance [[jayveefernandez]]. Press enter. If no profile name is available, use the number ID of your friend’s page. Remember, use the profile name stated in the Facebook address, not the first + last name. So if mine was facebook.com/jayveefernandez then the ID is [[jayveefernandez]].
Amaze your friends!
[image via Mashable]
More than the news about the coming iPhone 5 (which should be completely redesigned to support a bigger 4.3″ screen), I’m more interested in two Apple rumors namely the iPad 3 allegedly going to be released the day before Steve Jobs’ birthday on the 24th of February 2012 and the Siri app being ported as a wearable device to communicate with your iDevices. So for those asking about the mythical 3rd iPad, Q1 is the safe bet and yeah it’s actually due for a refresh. Some of my predictions would include:
– full screen “natural” 16:9 viewing (with sides of the app leaving space for thumbs in App view)
– virtual middle button
– Siri integration
– better camera
There’s rumor of an “iPad mini” going round as well and in its current vaporware form should be something like the Samsung Galaxy Note. If more of these configs get introduced there is no doubt Apple may bump iCloud storage up for free. Well, they’re rumors. So whatev.
Then there’s Siri. More than being a piece of software embedded in a phone or tablet, the iRumor is that it’s going full blown wearable hardware albeit more elegant than those Bluetooth headsets people wear on their ears. Maybe watches. Maybe. But then again, I’d be more excited to see Siri support more locations as its pretty limited in geo-services in the Philippines.
A third rumor, though not happening anytime in 2012 is the switch to hydrogen cells for powering the iPhone and iPad. This will enable iDevices to run for weeks on a single charge. It’s no secret that battery technology is one of the most archaic in today’s age as lithium ion is a really a thing of the past. Smartphones need that added power to stay alive and li-ion just doesn’t cut it anymore. The move to more efficient power was supposed to be through a sweet little item called Graphene but it looks like Apple is going through a completely different direction. Again, rumors.
[image c/o DigitalTrends]