I’M writing this blog entry via wifi using the Opera browser on the HTC Touch Cruise Windows Mobile handheld that I’m reviewing.

This isn’t the full review yet, just a quick update to show the device in action. I’ve always believed that if it’s possible to write the review using the product you’re testing, you should do it

Here’s a photo I took of my six-year-old daughter Sam with the Touch Cruise’s 3-megapixel camera. It’s Saturday morning here in the Philippines, and almost the moment she woke up, Sam started reading her copy of the latest issue of K-Zone.

Sent this pic to Photobucket via e-mail — I set up my Gmail account on this device.

Will keep you updated.

SOME people don’t get new media, and think that’s new media’s fault. But the fault, dear brontosaurus, is not in new media, but in yourselves.

I’m not saying that new media is perfect. It has warts and all, and kinks that will be ironed out in time, just as any other medium when it was new. What I find laughable, however, is when people don’t even try it out for themselves, before passing judgment on it. Like people who don’t even watch YouTube, yet claim to be experts on online video. People who dismiss blogging, or think they know all there is to know about it, without having tried blogging themselves.

People who try to make everything fit in their outmoded structures and obsolete world views, not realizing that everything is changing around them. You don’t just have to worry about being incompetent. The real danger is in becoming irrelevant. After all, the dinosaurs were pretty competent and successful, brain size notwithstanding… until something happened, and they failed to adapt.

Anyway, here’s a video taken by INQUIRER.net technology reporter Erwin Oliva of Janet Steele, author and associate professor in journalism at George Washington University, sharing her insights on narrative reporting and its role in the new media age.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

UPDATE: The live coverage is over but you can check out the raw footage beamed by Phoenix, as well as more information on the Mars mission, here.
SpaceVidcast is now airing the previews that were shown prior to the actual landing.

DON’T just read about it; watch the video stream of the Phoenix Mars Lander landing.

Here’s the SpaceVidcast Live Channel via Ustream.TV.

Or you can go to the NASA TV page.

WE live in a world where often too much information is available, yet people have too little time. So increasingly we want our content in small yet constant doses. And we want it now. On demand. All the time.

It could be micro-blogging via Twitter, like what INQUIRER.net executive editor Leo Magno, tech reporter Erwin Oliva and multimedia reporter Izah Morales are doing, bringing updates from Cagayan de Oro using their mobile phones at twitter.com/talesofthenomad.

It could be the bunnies of Angry Alien Productions, who give 30-second reenactments of movies such as “Alien,” “Kill Bill,” “Die Hard” and “Borat.” In fact, the site’s bunny version of “Brokeback Mountain” won two Webby awards this year. I’ve been watching the bunnies for years now, and my favorite is still one of the very first ones I saw, “Jaws.” You have to watch it heh

It could be flash fiction, also known by different names such as short short story or microfiction. I remember Sacha Chua being a flash fiction enthusiast when we first met online years ago, when she contributed some literary pieces to our YOU site. Check out some samples of Sacha’s flash fiction.

Another site you can visit for flash fiction is Flash Fiction Online. Let me know if you have other sites you can recommend.

Now go have a bite.

WELL, at least you can in this online game from Kewlbox.com In his real-life quest for the Democratic nomination, probably not, though anything’s still possible.

Anyway, you can check it out. Click on the image to go to the game page.

Heck, even in this game, it’s easier to rack up points playing as Barack Obama than as Hillary Clinton.

Seriously, though, what do you think of Obama? I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a fan of his, though I also know Hillary has her own faults. Obama’s very eloquent, he can inspire people — but really, what’s there beyond the words?

Where’s the beef? Or is it all Chiz Whiz?