Mobile Philippines

The LifeDrive Diaries, Part IV: Wireless is wonderful

Jason De Villa — Tue, 24 May 2005 13:36:45 +0000

As a top-of-the-line model, the LifeDrive has several wireless options built in: infrared, Bluetooth (1.2–oops, a fact check showed that it’s only 1.1), and Wi-Fi (802.11b).

For a long time now, Palm users on many a message board have been screaming for a Palm handheld with Wi-Fi. And really, they can�t be blamed, because top-of-the-line PDAs from most other manufacturers had it. They thought it would come in the Tungsten|T3, but it did not. Then the T5 came out, and it did not have Wi-Fi. The SD Wi-Fi card provided little consolation because of the price (P8,000) and the fact that it worked only with a few models.
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The LifeDrive Diaries, Part III: Music and movie machine

Jason De Villa — Sun, 22 May 2005 10:24:38 +0000

3.85 gig of hard drive space is way too much for work files. And all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy anyway. The LifeDrive is meant to keep tons of multi-media files: photos, music, videos. (more…)

The LifeDrive Diaries, Part II: What�s New

Jason De Villa — Sat, 21 May 2005 00:26:33 +0000

Although palmOne is adamant about not calling this a PDA (it�s a Mobile Manager, for God�s sake ;-)), it�s only logical to use their previous high-end PDAs�the Tungsten|T3 and T5�as the starting point for looking at the LifeDrive�s specs.

Before proceeding to describe what�s new, let�s list down what�s not new. (more…)

The LifeDrive Diaries, Part I: The Aesthetics

Jason De Villa — Thu, 19 May 2005 00:49:49 +0000

I�m glad to see that the LifeDrive is smaller than I imagined it to be. The initial rumors on the Web said that it was twice as thick as the Tungsten|T5. Well, if you want to be technical about it, it�s about 1-1/4 times as thick as the T5 (15 mm vs 19 mm). It�s Palm�s biggest handheld so far, but its not so big that you can�t pocket it. Granted, it�ll be a tight fit in your shirt pocket, but who carries PDAs around in his shirt pocket anyway? It will slip easily into your pants pocket, although you might get funny looks of the �Is that a rocket in your pocket�

Labor of love: the February issue

Jason De Villa — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 10:50:36 +0000

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.

In the mood for love

Jason De Villa — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 02:12:40 +0000

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…

Mood: Shuffled!

Jason De Villa — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 06:19:10 +0000

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.

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m|ph talk: eSoft Interactive

Jason De Villa — Sat, 11 Dec 2004 07:31:57 +0000

m|ph talk is a weekly interview with interesting people in the mobile tech industry. This week�s interview features Aiza Tancinco and Erick Garayblas of eSoft Interactive, the most successful local publisher of games for PDAs. eSoft Interactive first made a name for itself with Marble Mania, a hugely popular game for the Pocket PC platform. That was soon followed by other games like Tower Mogul, Traffic Jam, and Word Challenge. This year, they released palm OS versions of some of the more popular ones, and they continue to make waves in the PDA game world.

Find out more about the dynamic duo behind this successful company.
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Here comes the Xda II mini

Jason De Villa — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 01:13:10 +0000

Perhaps wanting to follow Apple’s success in expanding the iPod market with the iPod mini, O2 Asia has launched the Xda II mini, and damn if this isn’t a sexy little PDA-phone.

Based on sightings, anecdotal evidence, and some unofficial statements from dealers and telco officials, the Xda II is the number one PDA-phone combo by far in the local market. This new version–smaller and cheaper–should bring nothing but good news to those put off by the size and price of current PDA-phone combos.

On the plus side, the Xda II mini has a fast processor, Bluetooth, and a 1.3-megapixel camera. On the minus side, it doesn’t have a number pad or keyboard–bad news for one-handed heavy texters.

While there’s no official annoucement yet on when it will be available locally, the O2 Asia web site does list several stores in the country where you could expect to buy this baby.

For those curious about the technical specs, the full list is here.

m|ph talk: Juan Magdaraog

Jason De Villa — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:50:11 +0000

m|ph talk is a weekly interview with interesting people in the mobile tech industry. This week’s interview features Juan magdaraog of Innov8.

You may already know Juan Benedicto �Dickoy