Finally, after months of waiting Android users will ***soon*** be able to become part of the Instagram community. For the longest time, iOS users enjoyed the exclusivity of the most popular photo sharing app for the smartphone. Perhaps the reason why Instagram took this long, I surmise, has to do with the fact that there are just so many different types of camera hardware on Android, making it harder to scale as compared to iOS where you only have to develop for the iPad and iPhone. But then again, that didn’t stop other app developers to create their own Instagam-like apps for Android.
Sorry. No need to post a photo of that ice cream here because you all know what it looks like, thanks to the Internet.
I’m here to share a story. And some thoughts.
That Magnum ice cream in the Philippines is not new. I’ve been eating that for dessert for more than two years and the brand should be familiar to others (as from what I see on Twitter) because small grocery stores would carry it straight from other countries Filipino Recipes. Heck, Magnum was even around when I was in middle school (this product was released in the early 90’s). I would delight in it because there was a particular way I would eat it — since it had a thick layer of chocolate, I’d strip the bar naked of its chocolate covering then attack the ice cream proper and this feat of dexterity would perhaps be 80% of the novelty as to why I enjoyed eating it. I bought it for PHP 30.00 – PHP 35.00 if I remember correctly.
Fast forward to today. So I was out of the social media scene for about 2 weeks (I was busy getting married!). A few days before I went dark, I noticed a number of people post photos of a familiar ice cream brand on Instagram. I was delighted to hear that the product was now available locally (there was no doubt in my mind it was exactly the one I’d always get) so I nonchalantly went to 7-Eleven and bought one. Filipino Food Recipes It tasted exactly the same. And it was delightful. And I would think nothing about it afterwards. Why? Because it’s freakin’ ice cream, dude!
Whenever I walk into a 7-Eleven these days, I feel like all eyes are watching as I make my way to the freezer to grab a few bars to stock in my fridge at home. I open Twitter, and people are talking about it like it’s the worst thing ever made. Like how it’s a rip off. Like how Cornetto or Pinipig Crunch is much better. Frankly, I don’t care: on some days I want Cornetto Filipino Recipes. Other days I want Magnum. Sometimes I don’t have ice cream because I just had coffee. It’s the rewards of democracy that allows me to make mundane decisions like this everyday.
I want to enjoy my bar of ice cream in peace and not be subject to the amalgamated opinions of social media judging my every bite. And that blissful innocence was stolen, just recently.
I’ve known Erick Garayblas since my “way back” days in the old MaPalad.org and Pinoy Windows Mobile forum groups. Back then, he was already rocking the mobile gaming scene with hits like Traffic Jam and the highly addicting Tower Mogul that ran on both the Palm OS and Windows Mobile, the top two “advanced” mobile platforms at that time.
Just yesterday, Erick released another home-grown game for iOS under his new development house, Kuyi Mobile. Streetfood Tycoon is a strangely addicting “Jolly Jeep” simulator where you have to fulfill orders from walk-in customers by combining ingredients in the right order. Other than the time limit given to complete each order, you have to deal with restocking your ingredients, upgrading your facilities and buying better ingredients.
I read an article yesterday about how the Philippines (as well as other countries in Asia) are pushing for an All-Asean VISA pass for foreigners. It’s similar to a Schengen VISA, but applied to Asia so that it unites then entire Asia in terms of tourism. After reading this, I hopped on to another announcement that’s in a different field altogether but still relevant by principle.
Last week at the Samsung SEA Forum, our very own Ariel Arias announced a new line of SMART TV’s (and I really feel bad because it renders my two 40″ Samsung SMART TV’s obsolescent!) but alongside this he also announced a new service called Viki Premiere which will debut in South East Asia. Essentially, Viki premiere is a subscription-based service exclusive to Samsung allowing all Asean neighbors to download and watch each other’s popular “Jewel in the Palace” tele-novelas (Korean, Filipino, Chinese, etc) and they will have respective subtitles and / or dubbing in each country’s language.
Why is this epic?
It is a powerful statement to go for digital downloads. The Philippines (and the rest of Asia) absolutely needs its own digital distribution system for music, movies and other forms of entertainment. We can’t default to iTunes because they have Western-focused content. What about Asia?
It is contextually brilliant as it brings together the rich pop culture of all the nations in South East Asia, pushing them to compare, improve and discuss their shows in a one stop digital platform.
Because digital distribution is sexy
Although they didn’t go into detail about how this will work, it appears that the service will be tied into their new line of SMART TV’s (I’m not sure if the previous models will be able to avail of the upgrade but theoretically, they should). In addition, Samsung has revamped its AllShare platform turning it into its own Cloud-based sync platform. This allows you to sync content between your SMART TV, Galaxy phones and tablets.
Say what you want about software pirates but you cannot deny the fact that software piracy is building the future of computing tomorrow, today. Think of the most popular application for distributing your movies and music — torrents — and how it is being used to share information in the most convenient way possible. My take on piracy has always been a functional one more than a financial one: i don’t mind paying for my media. What I don’t mind is the hassle of going through hell just to install something i legitimately bought.
Today. the Pirate Bay has once again taken computing to the next level. They are set to be using drones to hover their servers in the air:
TPB LOSS
We were down a few hours earlier today. There’s no need to worry, we haven’t been raided this time. We’re only upgrading stuff since we’re still growing.
One of the technical things we always optimize is where to put our front machines. They are the ones that re-direct your traffic to a secret location. We have now decided to try to build something extraordinary.
With the development of GPS controlled drones, far-reaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we’re going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. A real act of war.
We’re just starting so we haven’t figured everything out yet. But we can’t limit ourselves to hosting things just on land anymore. These Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) are just the first attempt. With modern radio transmitters we can get over 100Mbps per node up to 50km away. For the proxy system we’re building, that’s more than enough.
But when time comes we will host in all parts of the galaxy, being true to our slogan of being the galaxy’s most resilient system. And all of the parts we’ll use to build that system on will be downloadable.
Low Orbit Server Stations. That’s mind-blowing. Is this an early April Fool’s joke or a lot of amazing technology at work (for those curious, this is done via Magnet Links) to prove a point about the free Internet?
