In one sentence,

TMS is a convenient way to download any form of multimedia into your mobile by turning your phone’s camera into a barcode scanner.

Welcome to the next generation of content distribution in the Philippines! In the “old days” we used to grab content (quotes, movie schedules, breaking news, ringtones, movie clips) by texting a few characters to an odd number combination (text “imhandsome” to 5555). This is well and good, but it is time to take advantage of a much more convenient piece of technology that allows you to really make your mobile phone an extension of your personal life. Imagine being able to:
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OMG! Philippine Idol is right around the corner. Since we live in the land of “star in every barangay,” each candidate is sure to have a procession of text votes from their super extended family, friends, and barangay.

So here’s the big question now — will Philippine Idol clog the mobile networks? Wait! Before you answer, read this article, that investigates how Cingular had partnered with American Idol - therefore creating a bias in geographic location when it comes to text votes.

How hard will it be penetrating the Philippine Idol vote center with SUN? What about Globe? Err … SMART?

The Sony Ericsson W900i had been the talk of the Internet for the past several weeks being the Walkman phone that can do 3G. Having been first spotted around February 2006 in the Philippines, the W900i is now commercially available for a whopping P35,000.00. Steep eh? Well there’s the rub ladies and gentlemen.

The design of the W900i hails from the old S700 “balisong design” that proved to be a unique getaway from regular clamshell and candybar portfolios. Because it bears the mark of the “W,” it essentially packs itself with multimedia features. The Sony Ericsson W900i is essentially three things. First, it is the premier 3G phone of the SE group sporting dual cameras. Second, it is a 2MP autofocus digicam, marketed as an able camera because of the way it mirrors a Cybershot. Third, it is a Walkman music player with really good in-ear plugs.

“This side up”
For those of you who’ve owned an S700, you’d be familiar with the 180 degree swivel body that quite frankly, can be detrimental to the phone’s hardware because of frequent flipping. Furthermore, this type of design presents a few hangups such as trying to reorient the phone’s screen when changing from closed to open mode (thanks Adel for pointing this out).

The real estate is composed of two main parts - the “top” of the phone houses the screen, directional pad and seven(!) buttons which include a deidicated Internet button, a 3G video call button and a shortcut menu button that displays calendar events and bookmarks as well. The second half of the phone holds the keypad, the power button, the Walkman and camera mode buttons, the memory stick duo slot, and the phone lock mechanism that doubles as the flash button when the camera is turned on.

Stay tuned for thte full review in the upcoming issue of Mobile Philippines!

The R927 does more than just take pictures - it makes yesterday’s dinner go away. Oh god. This is so perfect for MySpace and Friendster himala pictures. Check out the before and after shot to the left.

This 8.2 megapixel camera offers 3 levels of slimming, with the option to undo the effect should the result turn out awkward. Of course, the original picture is saved separately without question. Although this built-in image processing feature might make one look in her prime of youth, it will affect the background as well with the compression involved. Small price to pay for skin deep beauty? The R927 will retail for USD $400.

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Holy cow it’s out! Wait, how come the name is different? Well technically it’s not. Part of our efforts to make the magazine more recognizable is to expand the name of m|PH to its full name which is Mobile Philippines. When we came out three years ago, a bunch of folks thought we were a car magazine, for obvious reasons. Three years later, we’re still that same mag on tech you can take with you - but this time more visible, wittier, and we’ve become the preferred read for the geek community. Thank you for three years of support and we sincerely hope that you’ll accompany us on our geeky journey for several more.

On the cover is the elegant Cheska Garcia holding a Blue A737G laptop.

This issue is special for us editors. We take a look back at the 25 colorful covers of Mobile Philippines and also have full spread feature on the people behind the biggest tech magazine in the country - the past and present editors and editorial assistants.

This issue is also packed with gadget lovin! We’ve included new long term test feature articles where we take very popular devices and put them through the test of time’s wear and tear. This issue, we did the Nokia N-Gage QD and the Palm LifeDrive. We also have full length reviews of the new MacBook Pro, the eccentric Nokia 7380, the iPod Hi-Fi component, the swiveling Nokia 3250, the Dell Inspiron E1505, and many more!

We’ve also beefed up our “How To” section with many new interesting things such as how to back up your phone contacts using Plaxo, how to make your own LAN cables, and how to maximize MS Outlook.

We also have a special feature on popular geek goddess Kendra Castillo, a feature on the latest Mocha Blends BF Paranaque hotspot and a geek customs check: where we grab Howard Paw’s bag and see what’s inside on a regular day.

Also in this issue - Mobile Man meets his new NEMESIS! (egad!)

As of today, we’re ranked at 50. That makes us the 50th most popular *registered* blog in the Philippine blogosphere. Thank you for the support dear readers and keep on clicking!

We have a lot in store for you next ish, as it may shock the bejezus out of some changes we are gradually implementing. Abangan!

The Pinoy Top Blogs project was created by Abe Olandres, one of the pillars of the Philippine blogging community.

Terence Pua, founder of local startup Pusit and Philippine affiliate of Friendster, has told INQ7.net that it will unveil a service called Friendster Mobs next month.

This new service, which will be available only in the country, will allow Filipino subscribers to do online and mobile instant messaging using a homegrown solution.

“The vision for Mobs is to make your buddy list in Friendster portable. There will be no downloading of any software client in your computer or mobile phone. Eventually we will allow people to do conference instant messaging,” Pua added.

Wait, so instead of sending SMS or calling someone, I can just leave a personal message in Friendster if its really urgent? But with the way its so popular now, I’ll believe anything.

Friendster is the online viral community that’s equitable in magnitude to the popularity of MySpace in the US. But you already know this. And no, Mobile Philippines is not on Friendster.

[Read the full article here]

UPDATE: We’re aware of the “comments not showing up” issue. We’re trying to fix it now.
UPDATE 2 : Comments should be back to normal.

m|PH, the most visible home-grown magazine on mobile technology is now available in newsstands for the month of May. The jaw-dropping Kelly Misa graces the cover, making her every midsummer geek’s dream.

Travel photography is this month’s focus feature so whip out those cameras and learn a thing or two from the country’s most talented photographers - the young and restless Jake Verzora, the eccentric Andy Maluche, the fabulous Dominque James, and other talented shutterbugs like Kai Huang, Toto Labrador and Chad Samaniego. This month’s issue is also jam-packed with information on understanding the rudiments of operating your professional camera to making a do-it-yourself lens cleaning lab.

Because summer travel is in, m|PH takes a look at the WiFi scene in Cebu. Gadget reviews are abundant as the editors and team of writers showcase the new Motorola RAZR V3i, the 3G capable Nokia 6280, the powerhouse Nokia N80, and the travel-friendly Siemens ME75. There are a lot of notebooks in season this summer including the Fujitsu C1321 and the Sony VAIO TX27GP. Some cameras featured in this issue include the BenQ DC C500 and the Sony Cybershot DSC R1.

m|PH, which stands for Mobile Philippines, is a monthly publication geared towards the Filipino who is always on the go. Faithful readers have always described m|PH as the most informative and engaging among all the technology magazines because of its tongue-in-cheek humor and three years of credibility. m|PH is available at all news stands and technology hubs for just P80.00 per issue.

As part of the world’s Web 2.0 efforts, Pandora is an online radio station that does more than just play music from specific genres. What it actually does is search for music from a “starting point” by letting you enter a name of a favorite band or artist. Afterwards, Pandora does the rest by playing songs from this artist and even other songs with more or less the same beat.

What’s also interesting is that the music being played also graduates with the beat. Say you do choose Dave Matthews, and it starts playing a more upbeat “What Would You Say.” Pandora will continue playing upbeat music with the same playing style and slowly graduate to a different style, say something more slow like a ballad, but by the same roster of artists chosen. You can then choose to scrap the song and Pandora will remember it.

And as a note, I’ve confirmed that when you try to add Queen to your radio station, Pandora will recommend Reo Speedwagon and Journey as songs that match your taste.

Hyuk hyuk.

[Thanks for the tip, Elber]