By Joey Alarilla
INQUIRER.net

FEELING nostalgic? Head on over to the Minisode Network, which is part of MySpace TV.

The site offers free streaming video of vintage shows owned by Sony Pictures Television such as “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Facts of Life” and “Starsky and Hutch.” The “Charlie’s Angels” photo I used here is courtesy of Associated Press.

These episodes are compressed so that you can watch the whole show over the Internet, which explains why they’re called minisodes. (Well, not exactly the whole show, because they’re edited so that they’re shorter, but you can still get the gist of the full episode. Watch them and see if they still make sense, heh.)

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By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

CEBU, Philippines–At the Cebu ICT exhibit, US company Smartmatic showed off its answer to one important issue most people in this country seem not to care much about or even be aware of — how to automate the country’s elections.

Election computerization is not a new issue, though. It should have happened several elections ago, only it was mired in controversy — a not-so-surprising route for most government IT projects. Now some foreign companies like Smartmatic say it can be done with proven technology.

This machine shown above (which looks like an ordinary IP phone) is used to verify individual voters, assuming there‘s a database, of course. You tap either your left or right thumb onto that small slot at the bottom and out comes a printed confirmation that you are indeed eligible to vote.

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By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

IF I were to think of a word that best describes last week’s CommunicAsia in just one word, here it is: broadband.

Specifically, from Ericsson’s point of view, the future of networks is about broadband without wires. In numeric terms, thanks to a new standard called LTE (Long Term Evolution), that’s 150Mbps download speed on your mobile phone or HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access)-powered laptop — wherever, whenever.

So after going through really interesting IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) and mobile TV demos, it was a refreshing thought to find more about how Miss Jolie plans to make the world a better place. Minus the Lara Croft outfit, of course.

By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

THEY are no longer called mobile phones.

They are “multimedia devices” that will become the portable computer you carry around, according to Nokia.

Just take a look at these devices featured in CommunicAsia by different manufacturers this year. They all sport colorful and bigger-than-usual screens that will allow you to view on-demand video and television shows.

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By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

WHAT I’m holding is a prototype mobile TV handset by Ericsson. This was taken during the demonstration of the unit at CommunicAsia 2007 in Singapore.

Unlike mobile TV handsets by Nokia or Samsung, this one does not receive TV signals via DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld).

That’s because Ericsson’s vision of mobile TV runs on another standard called MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service).

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