May 2008 Archives

It’s been a while since we last heard news about the upcoming Nokia E71 that we've practically forgotten about it. Thanks to the very-so-reliable Boy Genius Reports, they've reminded us of its existence and they're even lucky enough to land a unit of their own for testing and has come out with a hands-on review on this yet-to-be-released model. After all's been said and done, they're pretty impressed with the E71 though the keyboard did provide some room for a little nit-picking as the small form factor of the phone meant downsizing the keypad as well. However, performance, according to them, was pretty good across the board. Based on the various images they have in their photo gallery, the E71 seems to follow suit in the iPhone-inspired chrome accent  design which makes it look like the lovechild of the E51 and the E61i. It probably got more from the E51 as it comes in an ultra-slim form factor which makes it the thinnest Eseries phone to come out with a full QWERTY pad. Feature-wise, it has a 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, HSDPA capability, Bluetooth and an SD card expansion slot. Unfortunately, release dates are still yet to be announced. Oh well, this is probably why patience is considered a virtue.

Multi-touch is all the craze these days and Microsoft is making sure everyone knows that they’re not about to be left behind in this regard. At the D: All Things Digital conference, the Microsoft camp gave the attending media and public a glimpse into Windows 7. Its got multi-touch written all over it and while the applications shown in the video are for demonstration purposes only, the entire OS running behind the scenes is purely Windows 7. One finger, two fingers, heck, even use your ten fingers; this new OS is said to recognize it. Banking on the technology and wow-factor they got from the Surface PC, this is about as fancy Windows has ever gotten. An OS-X like dock is also being eyed as a new integral part of the interface though little detail was given as to how it will actually look. A target date of less than two years has been given for the release of this next OS version, unless of course certain unforeseen circumstances push it to a later date or earlier one if we’re lucky enough. Just be prepared to get your monitor display all dirty from the touching once Microsoft gets the ball rolling on this one.

How much would a 3G, HSDPA, and Wi-Fi capable phone cost nowadays? You’d probably figure it to be P15000+, and though this figure might hold true for most brand new units, Nokia is offering you a more affordable solution. The Nokia E51 may look expensive with its slim form factor and high-end connectivity features, but you’ll be surprised to know that this business phone is retailing for less than P13K. It’s really a great bargain if you ask me. Seldom do you find a unit priced this low to boast of having the latest connectivity tools such as HSDPA, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth plus other useful features that include a 2-megpixel camera, email support, Nokia Office Tools, and FM radio. This is truly a feature-packed device that's well within the budget of financially-challenged consumers. If looks alone were the basis of determining the price of a phone, there’s no doubt that the E51's priced is justified, but with its more-than-average feature set, it’s absolutely a steal.

I guess it’s safe to say that in this day and age, computers are becoming smaller in size while maintaining many of its robust features and a little something more. Now, welcome the latest addition to this slowly growing class of mobile computers: the Willcom D4 (Sharp WS016SH).  Akihabara has come out with a review of this upcoming device, and their quite pleased with it. It’s one of the first UMPCs to have an Intel Atom running at its core with 1.33GHz speed. Other specs include a 1GB RAM, 40GB HDD, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Windows Vista. It's hard to believe that all of these are housed in an ultra-compact 84x188x25.9mm body that weighs only 470g. It makes use of a 5-inch 1024x600 touch screen and has a slide out full QWERTY keypad for text input. It also comes with a 2-megpaixel camera and OneSeg TV tuner. Based on their review, the choice to go Vista seems to be a bad move as performance greatly suffered due to the high demands on the OS. I also wonder how the hell you can read text with display resolutions set so high.  However, they quickly noted that this is still not yet the final version so their might be changes in either the OS or the hardware configuration. Though we highly doubt that this nifty little piece of machinery will make it to our country, this is just a sign of greater things to come in the mobile computer industry.

While many prefer getting their daily dose of info from the internet, there is still something to be said about magazines and their loyal readers. So it comes as no surprise that some of these publications are sill around and some website even capitalize on the popularity of these well known magazines. Such is the case with Zinio and for an undisclosed period, you can view the magazines they carry free on your iPhone/iPod Touch or Safari browser. Just head on over to www.zinio.com/iphone on your iPhone or iPod Touch and start reading for free. If you don’t have an iPhone, you can likewise use your Safari browser. Just be sure you enable the Develop Menu through the Advanced tab in the Preferences. Once its enabled, click Develop, then User Agent and select Mobile Safari 1.1.3 –iPhone. Thank you to iSmashPhone for this little tidbit. Some of the more popular titles available are Popular Mechanics, Men’s Health, Playboy, Penthouse, Esquire, PC Magazine, Popular Photography, and Reader’s Digest to name a few.  You've got to hurry though, we don't know how long before they regain their sanity and pull this free service off the net.

It seems like only yesterday that the new Eee PC was unveiled in the Philippines, and now Engadget has announced that the Intel Atom-based Eee PC will be released on June 3^rd. That's less than two weeks from today. Aside from the new processor, DigiTimes reports that some design changes are expected to be included in this new version aptly named the Eee 901. Metal alloy parts will be integrated into the hinges and track pad, while Bluetooth is being considered as an additional means of communication for the ultraportable from Asus. It will be unveiled in June so give or take three months before it hits the local market. This will be the most expensive Eee PC to date, but considering the upgrade in hardware configuration, it might just be worth it. With the impending release of this new Eee this early, it might be a tactical mistake on Asus part as would-be buyers of the 900 might just skip this version and opt to wait for the 901. I know that's what I would do, and I believe others share the same sentiment as well.

Ditching the toy-like appearance of the current version, OLPC gave everyone a preview of what is to be called the XOXO or simply XO2. Founder Nick Negroponte unveiled this thing of beauty during the Global Country workshop of OLPC and told drooling hopefuls that they’d have to wait for 2010 for it become available.

This concept design takes the touch screen interface to the next level and makes the stuff of science-fiction movies a reality (at least if things go according to plan). Based on the design, you can fold open this notebook all the way and the display becomes one continuous whole page interface. Their aiming for a $75 cost and a one-watt power consumption.

This is pretty ambitious considering how the first OLPC unit failed to meet expectations, and the stakes are even higher on this one with the implementation of a completely new design. But hey, it’s still pretty early on in the game so we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. For now, satisfy your craving on these set of images.

It looks like Asus is going to be adding a premium to their motherboard collection with the inclusion of Splashtop instant-on OS, a technology developed by DeviceVM. What it basically does is provided users with a built-in OS saved on memory chip linked directly to the BIOS. Since it's stored on a memory chip that's integrated into the motherboard, access time is almost instantaneous as it eliminates the need to communicate with the HDD. The OS is a Linux distro that features Firefox and Skype which allows you to start browsing right from the get go. Asus is calling this new feature Express Gate and is already included in their P5Q motherboard line. They also plan to include it in future/upcoming motherboards as well so don’t be surprised when the day comes that you only need to set-up your PC and you’re ready to surf the net without having to go through the tedious process of installing Windows. Though a bit far fetched, Asus laptops might even become Windows-less in the near future as a result of this. Seriously, this is a welcome development because quite frankly, waiting for Windows to start is such a hassle. This new partnership between DeviceVM and Asus will not only bring Linux to a wider audience, but more importantly, challenge current OS developers to improve on their existing software.

Yeah, the multi-touch screen interface on the iPhone is cool and all, but one thing that will get anybody down is a dead battery; and as Apple products go, they don’t necessarily come with widely common charging port design nor is it easy to find a fellow iPhone-user from whom you can borrow a charger from. So, for the busy body who’s always on the go, we recommend the Mophie Juice Pack. It’s already available in Digital Walker branches for a very reasonable price considering the benefits you’ll be getting. It’s basically a slide on battery pack that snuggly fits your iPhone with battery indicator lights located at the rear of the device. It more or less doubles the battery life of your iPhone so you need not worry of running out of juice for a couple of days when you’re continuously on the road (or just keep on forgetting to charge the phone). Of course, this info only applies for those who have resourcefully purchased an iPhone already despite it not yet being released officially in the local market, but it's a nice thing to know that aside from protective cases, there are products such as this that are already available. An iPod Touch version is said to be available as well, but there are no sightings of it yet as of this writing.

  The latest iteration of the highly successful Asus Eee PC has recently been launched locally. It’s a bit more expensive as compared to the first release, but at least this one packs in more features albeit maintaining its ultra-compact and light-weight form factor. Aside from the larger screen, it now comes in bigger storage capacities of 12 and 20 GB, a 1.3-megapixel camera, multi-touch enabled touchpad, and option to either go Windows or stay with Linux. As a result of this latest version being released in the market, the first edition’s price has been steadily going down to pave the way for this new model. While the improvements are indeed most welcome, the question for current Eee PC owners is: are these new features good enough for you to upgrade or will you wait for something more remarkable to come out in the near future like the Intel Atom-based model?

I’ve been holding out on posting this bit of info until the end of this week primarily because I’m hoping that something more substantial and specific will come out, but it seems that we’ll have to wait a little longer to get the juicy details on this latest development.   As many of you iPhone fanboys in the Philippines probably know by now (and if not, read on), Globe has been named one of the first to make available Apple’s controversial mobile device in our country. This happened as a result of SingTel's success in inking a deal with Apple to distribute the iPhone in Asia through their network in Singapore and partly-owned subsidiaries in India (Bharti group),the Philippines (Globe); and Australia (Optus). I already hinted on the possibility of Globe carrying the iPhone before, but the circumstances before and now are completely different. Will they be the only one? When will this happen? Which iPhone model will they release? There are so many questions, but no definite answers at the moment. The suspense just keeps on growing.  

If you think that knock-offs are limited to mainstream units only, you’re sadly mistaken. Veptu, a Chinese company, is taking a bite out of, not only Vertu’s design book, but a piece of their market as well. With various handsets emulating the luxury line of Nokia, this Chinese upstart offers opulence at a more enticing price. Gold-plated and accented with diamonds, in terms of materials, they do measure up to what luxury is all about. However, I doubt that they even come close to the craftsmanship and build of the real thing. Fortunately (or not), they do offer a bit more in terms of features, but then again, those who prefer the Vertu aren’t really after the high-end functionality. This is probably good news for social-climbers and wannabes who can’t afford the real things, but for the rest of the mobile community, this just goes to show that nothing is out of reach for the talented cloners of the world.

Remember the time when you got the latest mobile phone as a present only to find out later on that it was locked to a particular network and you couldn’t use it with just any SIM? Yeah, there are those who do unlocking services for a fee sprouting in almost every corner of the metro, but you’re really not guaranteed of the service and if you’re unlucky enough, they might even do some serious damage if they’re not careful. Finally, someone with the same frame of mind has come up with a solution that doesn’t entail such procedures as opening up your mobile phone or tampering with its software. SIMable provides a simple solution to unlocking your phone via a chip that you use hand-in-hand with your regular SIM. This not only makes unlocking safe and easy, it also enables you to unlock a variety of phones with no added expense. Unfortunately, they're relatively new and have no local counterparts yet; but the good news is, they do ship internationally and are looking for distributors to expand their business so there's an opportunity for you here if you fit the bill. There's a lot of the potential for a product such as this one here in the Philippines especially with the lack of laws restricting the practice of locking mobile phones to network providers. Now, unlocking is as easy as 1-2-3.

Codenamed Kickstart, RIM plans to introduce this new Blackberry (hopefully) within the year. Thanks to Boy Genius Reports for the spy shots of what could be the first clamshell to come from the company.

However, aside from this design choice, no other details were given so we’re still pretty much left in limbo as to what the specs will be and when it will become available. The good thing is, with news that the Blackberry 9000 packing 3G capabilities, then I guess it’s safe to assume that this new flip-phone will be 3G compatible as well, unless of course it’s a lower model which I highly doubt.

Oh well, I guess we’ll have to play the waiting game once again before we get the real low-down on this one, but I’m glad that RIM has decided to offer a clamshell once and for all. This just goes to show how they're adapting to the changing times albeit being a few years behind the competition; but as they say, better late than never. 

While some laptops are taking the big plunge in terms of market price, Macbooks still don’t come cheap. So it doesn’t come as a surprise to find someone distraught with both anger and anguish after discovering that their precious and expensive Apple laptop has been stolen. However, this wasn’t the case with this New York resident who managed to catch the culprits thanks to her Mac and wits. She went home one day and discoverd that her apartment was burglarized and her Macbook was taken. Thanks to a friend and probably an ounce of luck as well, she was informed that her laptop was connected to the internet. This prompted her to try to connect to her Macbook, which she did successfully, via the Back to My Mac program and took control of her laptop even from a remote location. She was then able to photograph the two culprits through the built-in iSight who were later on arrested with the stolen goods in their possession. Rarely do you come across stories such as this, but what the heck, if you’re a victim, why not try out this ploy and maybe catch those unwitting and careless criminals? It wouldn't hurt to try and make technology work for you ‘til the very end. One of the few more reasons why I find that a Mac is better than a PC.

Microsoft came up with the Zune to battle it out with the iPod for supremacy in the DAP arena, and while it is yet to make headway in this regard, the Gates team is showing off a new aspect to their player which might make it more appealing to a different set of buyers. This video by Gizmodo is a preview of what we can expect in the continuing evolution of the Zune. There's no denying that one of the more outstanding features the Zune has over the iPod is the built-in Wi-fi, and it seems that they’re taking advantage of it to the hilt. The Zune XNA games allows up to 8 players to compete via an ad-hoc wireless set-up which takes gaming on the Zune to a whole new level. The player itself doesn't come with 3D accelerated hardware, but 3D-enhacning software can be provided. The official announcement can be found at the XNA Team Blog. However, don’t expect it to compete with the likes of the PSP because quite frankly, the Zune still isn’t a gaming console. It is, at the end of the day, a portable media player with extended gaming capabilities which, in the context of things, doesn’t hurt at all especially if it helps boost sales. This is just a demo of the things to come from the Zune. It isn’t commercially available yet, but if you want to try it out for yourself right now, head on over to the Zune Boards for the instructions in doing so (not advised for newbies). The question on my mind now is, with this new feature on Microsoft’s player, will the Zune be able to take a bigger bite out of Apple’s share of the market or will this all end up in vain? Only time will tell...

HTC has finally unveiled to the public its latest mobile device, the Touch Diamond. It’s the latest addition to their Touch Phone line which is composed of the Touch, Touch Dual and Touch Cruise. It looks like a simplified Touch Cruise that’s a bit more angular. It comes in a sleek black finish with a large, brilliant 2.8-inch touch screen. The rear design adds a little flare with its geometric pattern that’s somewhat reminiscent of Nokia’s Prism phones. Personally, I find the design to be a bit too boring for my taste, but minimalists will surely appreciate the simplicity in its design. Underneath its slim exterior lies 4GB of storage, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus at the rear and a secondary camera at the front. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and features Touch FLO 3D both of which adds for a unique user experience with its fresh new graphic interface. We’re looking forward to reviewing this new touch screen enabled device, but for those who just can’t wait, you can check out Engadget’s take on the Diamond.

  Thanks to Vodafone, ten more countries are set to officially be blessed with the release of the iPhone. These are Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. While no exact dates were given as to when the touted Jesus Phone will make its appearance in each country, Vodafone assures iPhone-fanboys that it will definitely be this year. With this latest development, I’m beginning to wonder when the iPhone will officially be released in the Philippines or if it will ever be unveiled in the local market. Vodafone is actually a roaming partner of Globe Telecommunications. So, one might ask, is it safe to assume that Globe will be the exclusive local network provider of Apple? No. While Globe does have a partnership with Vodafone, it does not grant them the same privilege, and if you look at the list mentioned above, those are countries that have Vodafone as company present in their local market. They’re not just partner networks. So the question on who will bring the iPhone to the Philippines is still up in the air, but with the way things are going, I’m slowly beginning to care less and I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one growing weary of the long wait.

While Sharp is proudly touting the world’s thinnest LCD HDTV thanks to its X-Series, that’s not the big news as of the moment. What’s even better than those huge ultra thin LCD TV sets is the new partnership with AMIMON. Their new tandem is set to offer a new way of enjoying HDTV: wirelessly. Yup, that’s right. AMIMON has developed a technology that will allow video to be transmitted wirelessly up to 100-feet away. That’s great news for neat-freaks and obsessive-compulsive video fanatics who don’t want those cable-management nightmares. Since this is a new technology, the big question now is: will others follow suit and go wireless as well? I guess only time will tell, but this is nevertheless great news in the realm of wireless technology.   I’m not sure if the technolgy will be available locally, but if the Sharp X-Series LCD makes it to the Philippines, check if it’s wireless HDTV ready. If so, it’ll be compatible with the wireless transmitters that will be sold in US and Japan.

With the rise of customizations being today, almost anything can be modified to look and feel like your very own personal creation. This goes for mobile phones, laptops and now, even the iPhone. This brave soul probably thought that the final product would outweigh whatever damage he may inflict on his iPhone and threw caution out of the window. Nevertheless, the glowing Apple logo at the back does indeed looks very cool and ties in nicely with the Macbook line of computers though we're a bit apprehensive of the whole process. It's very tedious and risky, and half-hearted modders are cautioned on taking on such a hardcore project. From adding additional lights to polishing the rear cover; if you’re not careful enough, you might end up with a totally vandalized-looking iPhone or, God forbid, a useless brick. Kudos to Croiman for the snazzy looking mod, and with the initial success of this one, it looks like there’s more to come. Head on over to the iPhoneclub for a complete step-by-step (unfortunately, some of the text is in Dutch) so you can do it on your own iPhone; if you dare.

The fashionable Lenovo U110 IdeaPad is now available in the US with a starting price of $ 1899.00. This new ultra-portable was awarded Best in the Computer and Hardware by CNet in CES 2008 held earlier this year. Aside from the aluminum-alloy etched top cover which is available in either black or red, this is first laptop to feature a bezel-less screen which in turn provides a completely flat display. It also features an unusually shiny keyboard which will make neat-freaks worry due to it being smudge and fingerprint prone. Nevertheless, putting all the aesthetics aside, this is one of the more powerful ones in its category. It manages to pack in an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, dual-layer DVD writer, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for connectivity. The LED-backlit display is an 11.1-inch widescreen WXGA which maxes out at 1366x768 resolution. The 1.3-megapixel integrated camera also provides security through a face-recognition biometric log-in system. It likewise comes bundled with Windows Vista Home Premium OS.   It’s may not be as thin as the Macbook Air or as affordable as the Asus Eee, but it sure looks good both inside and out. I just wish it was already available locally so I can get my grubby hands on one now.

RIM Technology is expected to release this month their latest mobile device, the Blackberry 9000. Though it features a sexy new body, a spanking new user-interface and 3G capabilities, gadget-junkies are left wondering why they haven’t joined the whole touch screen bandwagon. Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s co-chief executive, probably answers it best, “I couldn’t type on it and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it.” He shared this sentiment on the now popular interface in a query from the New York Times. While his statements may shoot down any early speculations of a touch screen device being planned, two independent developers, however, confirm that such a device is indeed in the works. Dubbed as the Apple Killer, other details such as projected release date and specifications are still yet to be known. With new competition coming from Apple, RIM should get their act together unless they want to get left behind by the more innovating pack.