February 2005 Archives

Is Apple perturbed by the rather feisty (and noisy) challenge being mounted by the Creative Zen Micro? You be the judge. I mean, just because they recently launched a new, improved iPod mini that just so happens to have a gigabyte more memory and 8 hours more battery life than the Zen Micro doesn't really mean that they're getting all fidgety now, does it? As far as "new, improved" is concerned, though, that's about it for the latest mini. No color screen, no serious firmware updates. Which brings up the question, Why bother releasing a 'new, improved' iPod mini in the first place? Unless, horror of horrors, it IS because they are actually worried about the Creative Zen Micro! But seriously folks, this looks more like a preventive measure on Apple's part. After all, in the end it's all about value. And, as Jayvee notes in his upcoming review, the Creative Zen Micro simply does offer more value for money versus the current iPod mini. So with the new iPod mini, perhaps Apple has indeed successfully managed to blunt Creative's value proposition by a bit. In fact, the current crop of 4MB iPod minis have even been price-slashed by US$ 50.00. The fight goes on...

Paris Hilton's T-Mobile Sidekick phone has been hacked, and now the web is flooded with the actual phone numbers of a stunning array of Hollywood celebrities as taken from her address book. So how in the world can anybody hack into somebody's phone? Well, apparently, T-Mobile's security implementation for the Sidekick is similar to that of Yahoo's: In case you forget your password, it simply asks a simple question such as "What's the name of your pet?" and, if you answer right, it then assumes that you are indeed Paris Hilton. The thing is, Paris is so proud of her pet chihuahua that everyone and his Google knows that its name is Tinkerbell. So now, not only do the masses know the private phone numbers of celebrities such as Christina Aguilera, Ashlee Simpson, Avril Lavigne, Eminem, Lindsay Lohan and Anna Kournikova, but they even have access to her very personal pictures and emails. Decent or otherwise. Tsk tsk. This raises an interesting issue: all the high tech security systems in the world will be utterly, utterly useless if, in the end, they will still resort to asking a question as lame as "What's your favorite color?" in order to verify somebody's identity. Take it from me: Your web email accounts are not safe from your friends, your acquaintances and especially your enemies. All it takes is for them to know your middle name, your birthday, your favorite fruit, or your pet's name... and they can now have full access to your accounts. So never, ever plug the obvious answers into these "in case you lose your password" data fields when you're setting up your mail accounts. Time to bring out that thesaurus...

Recently got to fiddle around with Creative's iPod mini killer, the Creative Zen Micro. Yes, I am impressed -- Creative said that they would come out to produce an iPod killer and they did just that - after a failed attempt though (the digital war still has its casualties) with their Creative Zen Touch. The Micro (left) got the formula right this time, adding more memory, more features and get this - more colors than the iPod mini, and to top it all off, threw everything into the shrinking machine ot produce something waaaay smaller than Apple's mini. Some notable features that the Zen Micro has which the iPod mini doesn't: (1) removable batteries, (2) FM tuner, (3) voice recorder, (4) a slightly cheaper retail price! Wow, finally -- something that can unseat the iPod? Stay tuned for the next issue of m|ph for the complete show down.

Thanks to its 24/7 unlimited texts and calls feature, Sun Cellular has been under fire from the two large mobile heavyweights in the Philippine market. Using their lesser known subsidiaries, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications have filed petitions with the National Telecommunications Commission for it to stop Sun from offering the 24/7 feature, claiming that Sun is engaging in predatory and discriminatory pricing. Nice try. But it’s going to take more than that for the two major players to cause a fiery Sun-set. For one thing, it’s difficult to prove predatory pricing when intra-network calls and texts merely run on fixed costs — whether or not Sun offered its 24/7 feature in the first place, it will still be incurring the same network costs anyway… and the same goes for the other telcos as well. In fact, predatory pricing as an argument only works if Sun was a market leader that dropped its prices below cost to kill competition. But not only is Sun not a market leader (and that's an understatement), but it actually became even more profitable via its launch of the 24/7 program! (Well, okay, they're still incurring losses at the moment, but it's now far less than before.) So perhaps the real question we should be asking is: why are the big telcos still charging us one peso per text message in the first place? Speaking of which, here is the irony of the suits: if we limit our discussions to SMS alone, just last year the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the two largest telcos against the NTC. In brief, the Supreme Court agreed with the two large players that the NTC had no right to regulate SMS messaging because it has yet to prove that SMS was a value-added service in the first place. And yet these same telcos are now begging the NTC to regulate Sun’s unlimited services. Ha ha. But that’s business for you. Bottom line? They can try to make Sun go belly up (Sunny side up?), but they’ve got to make their arguments more convincing. Better yet, maybe they can just drop their prices and compete the fair market way...

Last month, my trusty Tungsten T3 started acting up. It would just spontaneously shut down, even while I was in the midst of doing something. This was particularly annoying when, for instance, I was using it as an MP3 player and it would just stop arbitrarily right in the middle of Bono’s wail. After some fiddling, I realized that the problem lay in its slider mechanism: the T3 only acted up whenever it was in shut mode. The slider contacts could just be loose, I thought. Which was still a bummer - I didn’t want to open up my unit, and I didn’t want to send it in for a quick repair since I simply didn’t have the time to take it anywhere. And then I remembered that I had that huge can of contact cleaner just sitting on my tool shelf (see related story here). Perhaps the contacts just needed a little cleaning? Contact cleaners are sprays that react with moderate levels of corrosion, often working effectively enough to completely eat the corrosion away. These sprays are non-conductive, so there is no danger of shorting out your electronic equipment. You can flood circuit boards with this stuff and it wouldn't matter. Of course, more serious types of corrosion would need more intensive cleaning methods, so contact cleaners are generally used for maintenance rather than for repair. But if you're lucky, then contact cleaner alone may be all that you'll need to fix something. Fortunately for me, the T3's slider contacts are exposed to the elements. Thus, there was no need for me to open up the unit to access these (regardless of how screwdriver-happy you are, the less you pry your device open, the better). So out went my trusty contact cleaner and, with nozzle attached, it was simply a matter of pointing it at the two slider contacts. These are located at the back of the T3 and visible when the slider is set to the open position. After a couple of generous sprays, I could literally see the metal slider contacts becoming shinier. Presto! Loose connection was gone, and my T3 was good as new! Now I can listen to Bono as he screams his lungs out without having to worry about unwanted interruptions. If you have gadgets with knobs, sliders and other mechanisms that come with electronic contacts, a can of contact cleaner can be a pretty useful first aid tool. That, and a micro screwdriver set, a fine-point soldering iron, tweezers, voltmeter, potato chips...

Feel like releasing your poetic juices, but can't seem to find the strength to lift a pen? Then why not just text it? The National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA) Committee on Literary Arts for the National Arts (yes, that's quite a a mouthful) is inviting rabid texters to join their TEXTSAWIKAIN contest. You have until February 28 to compose a two-line poem or proverb about the environment. Send it to 09279245243 or 09279245242. Some winning posts from the past: Walang matimtimang lupa, Kung ang punoy salaula. -Roger Endaya, Maynila Alkansya ang kalikasan, Pamana sa kabataan. -Joel Costa Malabanan Ang ilog na basurahan, Parang buhay na pinaslang. -Arnulfo Sambajon, Taytay Rizal Think you can do just as well? Think you can do even better? Then contact Eva or Rose at the UP Institute for Creative Writing at 9221830 for more details!

The February issue of m|ph is out! Coke girl Nikki Gil is featured on the cover, showing off Creative's Zen Micro digital music player. Yeah, I know, it's a few days late, but since it's my first issue as Editor in Chief (again), I hope you can cut me some slack. It took quite an effort getting back into the groove of putting out a magazine. Nevertheless, we think we've brought out another good issue. We have full-page reviews of the Sony PlayStation Portable, the Nintendo DS, and the Nokia 9500 Communicator, and shorter ones of the iPod photo and the hot new iPod shuffle. Other devices in the review section are the Nokia Fashion Line phones (7260, 7270, and 7280), the Archos Gmini 400, and the Motorola RAZR V3. We also show off portable photo printers from Canon, Kodak, and HP. Other articles that you are sure to enjoy and learn from are Survivor, geek edition , where Howard and and I try to last five days without our laptops, and a new section, the Editors' chat, essentially the transcript of a no holds barred group chat about the PSP and the DS. In the we focus on ncryption applications, all the better to keep your little black books safe from prying eyes. And, in keeping with the theme of Valentine's Day, we feature an interview with Paolo and Suzi Abrera, and show off the sleekest and sexiest cell phone-Bluetooth headset pairs. There will be more changes in the next issues, all with the idea of strengthening m|ph's mission of serving as the definitive guide to the mobile lifestyle. Enjoy this new issue, and please give us tons of feedback.

If you love Japanese “New Wave Horror

I've had the Treo 650 for only a day and a half and I'm really smitten. There's not a single feature that is to die for, and it has some, ummm, issues (memory and the lack of Wi-Fi are the top two that come to mind), but man, the way the entire package is put together is what makes it so outstanding. It's not small, but it's very pocketable and certainly not as large as the XDA II. It's doesn't have a very big screen but the one it has is easily one of the best found on a PDA-phone. The keyboard is not as big and as easy to use as that of the Nokia 9500 but it allows you to type at a reasonably fast clip (at least faster than writing with Graffiti, in my case). There will be a full review in the March issue of m|ph. I thought I would be a life-long two-piece guy, but the Treo 650 has convinced me that it's possible to create a good one-piece solution. Now, if only they can make it cheaper, lose the antenna, and make it slimmer...

Okay, our office right now is awash in Birds. No, it’s not a scene from a Hitchcock movie, but we’ve been testing Bird phones for an upcoming m|ph article. You’ve probably been seeing Bird-branded phones in stores. And you probably have been wondering if they’re worthy of your attention. Well, I’ve been using the Bird A130 for some time now, and I have to admit that it’s pretty impressive for a brand that is only now beginning to hit our consciousness. At the very least, I have to say that, despite its simple build, it has turned out to be quite an attention getter. This clamshell has been mistaken for a Nokia 6170 (although I fail to see that much of a resemblance) and even for a Nokia 7270(!). I’d say that much of these perceptions come from its silver and black color scheme, as well as its current anonymity in the Philippine market. One of the biggest concerns of consumers, upon finding out that Bird is a brand from mainland China, is that it might be difficult to use. However, the interface turns out to be surprisingly friendly. In fact, I felt more comfortable with its interface than I did with that of some popular European models (er, model phones, not females!). The menu was pretty straightforward and there was a logical progression that was fairly manageable to grasp. The color screen was bright, the keys comfortable, and even the form factor was surprisingly pleasing. The unit was very palm-friendly, and it fit really snugly in my hand. Heck, I actually enjoyed using this phone! Particularly as the clamshell opened and shut with a crowd-pleasing snappiness. It’s not a perfect unit, mind you. And I do have a number of qualms about it, some of which are major points. But I’ll reserve that for the magazine review. For now, what I can say is that, based on my experience, these erstwhile little-known Bird phones can indeed become worthy contenders in our mobile market.

Ok, my 15 minutes of fame as one of the few iPod shuffle owners in the country has officially been extended by a week or so (the time it’s gonna take for the iPod shuffle units destined for local stores to arrive), and I thought I’d share some more observations from a week’s worth of using Apple’s new, flash-based music player. Less is more. I’m glad I got only the 512MB version. No, really. 120 songs played in random is enough to tide me over for a few days before I need to refresh the list. I have a small library (just over a thousand songs), and only about a third of that can make it to my “favorites