Month: April 2011

Categories
Mostly Everything

A look into SMART’s prototype LTE Dongle by HUAWEI and my first speed test

Greetings from Boracay! I was able to borrow a special LTE USB dongle from HUAWEI. There are only 5 of these in the world made especially for the event and from what I heard HUAWEI really had to rush these to SMART. I have one of the four (oh wait I think Jen Juan also has one). The others are being used in stations around Boracay, shared over WiFi. You may wonder why we’re on the island. It’s because ever since before, Boracay has become a test bed for new technology. I was here in ’07 for their Mobile TV launch and now I’m back for their LTE deployment.

The USB dongle is in no way a representation of the final product. LTE will launch soon and will be deployed across the country. A bit of a technical info here: current SMART cell towers running 3G can easily be upgraded to accommodate LTE and later on, LTE Advanced. You will need “4G” enabled phones to access the higher data network so in the meantime, while the phones are not yet here, let’s be content with the dongle.

I will be doing a series of speed tests throughout my stay. This is the first.

From my hotel which is in a more remote location (and indoors) I am getting 15Mbps. This afternoon, the LTE booth was pushing 69Mbps (LTE promises 50Mbps) and while everyone was sharing over WiFi and stressing the network with HD video streaming, they did a decent ~ 30Mbps, which is still very fast.

Let me put into context what “fast” means. At my current speed I am downloading a 7GB game from the Steam Store at 290-400kbps, streaming the 720p HD version of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead without buffering (full screen) and uploading a couple of files (over 4GB) using my FTP to my server. Plus Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.


So funny! It says “faster than 99% of the Philippines!”

By the way guys, Mbps is not MEGABYTES PER SECOND but MEGABITS. Here’s an explanation. It is confusing so if you still can’t tell the difference I would really just use real world examples which everyone can understand (like the actions I just made above).

I’ll be doing more tests tomorrow as I would like the “real world” challenges such as being indoors / outdoors to affect the performance of speeds. So far I am very content.

LTE dongles will have a separate price compared to the 3G / HSPA ones currently available in the market. LTE is backwards compatible but not vice versa. The name of the LTE service is SMART Evolution.

Oh, just one more thing. The LTE dongle runs on Snow Leopard as well. Here’s a shot of my MenuMeters upload/download:

Wow.

Categories
Underwater

When is the best time to go to Tubbataha?


One of the many sea turtles that rest along the white sands of the reefs. This one was more accommodating and let me swim with it for a few minutes.

OK pardon me for this ultra-SEO’d title 🙂 But Tubbataha Reef is one of the diving highlights of the world and last April 14-20, I joined the second trip of the M/Y Hans Christian Andersen for 4 days of diving: In every dive you’re guaranteed sharks.

Tubbataha National Park is open from April to June. You can’t just “go there.” You need to take a live aboard boat and as far as I know you need to be a diver to go. Tubbataha is not an island. It is a coral atoll in the middle of the Sulu Sea composed of walls with great visibility with two sandbar islands which you cannot set foot on. The vis is so good, there was one point I went down to 138 ft thinking I was only at 80 ft. Great vis! Great diving!

The schedule is literally Eat, Dive, Sleep. Our group did a total of 15 dives. What we saw: schooling jacks and huge barracudas, manta ray, several eagle rays and marble rays, big tuna, turtles galore, more than 50 reef sharks (sharks guaranteed in every dive!) and lo and behold, a tiger shark. There were also sightings of hammerheads but our group did not see them.


One of our chase boats resting on the flat iron ocean surface.


Our dining area / cleaning area / where we load the chase boats.


Let’s do this!

Because of the odd weather patterns we were the first lucky group of the season on board the HCA. When we arrived on day 1, the waves were still a slightly strong but slowly got better come day 2 and finally, flat ironed calm. On the last day we were also able to make a trip to the Ranger Station that guards the reef. Since summer came late, I would honestly suggest booking your trip towards the end of April or maybe even early May regardless if you’re taking the HCA or Expedition Fleet. So yes, book on a later date and not early April. It’s a global warming thing methinks.

Underwater photos in this post were taken using a 18-55 kit lens on a standard Sea & Sea port with surprisingly good results despite having only one strobe. If you want to borrow these shots, I won’t mind as long as you give proper attribution. Thanks! Here’s the complete low res album.


Spawning barrel sponges jut out of the wall. This was a Nat Geo moment for me as when barrel sponges spawn, all others in the vicinity spawn as well.


At 40 ft under a small crevice, we found a lot of lobsters. All of the flora and fauna in Tubbataha are protected by law. No touching. No fishing.


A playful manta ray makes it way towards my lens. One of the tricks to shooting mantas is to pinpoint where they will end up when they make a turning gliding arc. I was lucky!


One of the many white tip reef sharks taking off from a dive site called Shark Airport.


A Napolen Wrasse whizzes by my lens. Happy I was able to take a photo.


In a group, I feel more comfortable going up close and personal with this school of barracudas. If they were solitary, it would mean they are hunting.


A peeping turtle probably annoyed that we disturbed him.


Tubbataha is known for its huge fan corals.

WOW talaga!


Pushing a school of jacks for 30 minutes was a bit tiring but we did it. These guys stayed with us for half the dive.


Jules and Jan chasing the manta for a quick photo op.


Where Tuna Sashimi comes from.

Another shark parked on the white sandy bottom.


Zoomed + Cropped + White Balanced: I shoot in RAW because I really have to do a lot of adjusting afterwards such as removing a little backscatter, and white balance adjustments. Other than that, all photos are as is.


Jules taking her time with the school of jacks.

My Tubbataha postcard shot with a very cooperative turtle.

Costs:
PHP 40,000.00 for the M/Y Hans Christian Andersen (price varies)
PHP 3,000.00 for park fees

Ranger Station
On the last day we were able to take a short visit to the Ranger Station. These are the brave men who stay for 2 months at a time, protecting the oceans from poachers and illegal fishers. The sand bar is amazing. It’s just there right in the middle of the ocean. We came in at low tide.

At the station we gave a small donation of canned goods (MEAT!) and bought some t-shirt souvenirs.

What an amazing trip! Next stop, Palau!

I’m now back in Manila and definitely missing the ocean. It’s lovely out there. I think, for what it’s worth, being away from Twitter and Facebook — and the city — really helps put many things in perspective.

Categories
Mostly Everything

Two weeks with the HTC Desire S

About two weeks ago I was able to nab the HTC Desire S running on Android 2.3 more popularly called Gingerbread. As far as I know, this and the Sony Ericsson Arc are the first two Gingerbread devices that are available in the Philippines running on the latest version of the Android OS. What’s the main difference between this version of Android and the previous? Well, not much really: they cleaned up the UI performance, they added a feature called Near Field Communication (like how in some countries you simply need to tap a commuter card onto a sensor to let you pass) and correct me if I’m wrong, real support for a front facing camera out of the box. Hence, the HTC Desire S comes with a front and back camera.

Continue reading “Two weeks with the HTC Desire S”
Categories
Mostly Everything

By the way if you still don’t have it, it’s Nathan Azarcon on the cover this month!

UNO rocks out this month with our very special Music Issue, featuring one of the country’s biggest rock stars on the cover: Nathan Azarcon. (This is, by the way, only the second time in the magazine’s nine-year history that we’ve put a solo male on the cover; the very first one was Manny Pangilinan.)

Inside, we combine two of our biggest passions — women and music — in a massive section featuring artists established and up-and-coming, including Lea Salonga, Barbie Almalbis, Celeste Legaspi, Sarah Gaugler, Vernie Varga, Katwo Librando, Kitchie Nadal, Myrene Academia, Armi Millare and many more. Also, editors Erwin Romulo and Luis Katigbak show off their picks for the best local music of the 2000s so far.

Those of you who have daydreamed of dating the hotter-than-hot Jacq Yu (or at least gazing at some incredible pix of her): we’ve got you covered. Also, the lovely Denise Montecillo joins us as we stuff our faces at Mercato Centrale. Jinno Rufino meets the NBA All-Stars, Eric Melendez talks about how we acquire music today, Lorely Trinidad tells us about growing up Fil-Am in a hip-hop world, Caliph8 shows us how to dig for rare vinyl, and Tricia Gosingtian says hello to New York City. That’s not all of course, but you’ll have to grab the issue to find out more.

(UNO’s Music special should be played at high volume, preferably in a residential area.)

[Follow us to UNO Magazine]

Categories
Underwater

Dear Internet, I finally found it. Presenting the FUUUUUUU barrel sponge

Taken in Tubbataha Reef, Philippines April 2011