Me and My Music

I love music, you might find a lot of topics about mobile phones in my blog but music played a part of it ever since the start. Music have always been my companion when writing blogs, it somehow makes my brain work when I run out of ideas and words specially if I'm about to write advance post of about a week or two. c", I often schedule my blog post because I don't have access to internet when I'm at work and I'm usually out for work for about the least 2 weeks.

I have a few gadgets for music, I have Nokia N82 Black as my main Music player, Nokia headphone for my private listening pleasure, pretty useful since I'm always on the go, My portable DVD player, to play my MP3 disc collection, although its been a while since I haven't use it, and finally my Altec Lancing boom box, use only if I feel generous in sharing my music to the whole house or to the neighbors.

I have varied taste when it comes to music, I almost love all genre, Heavy Metal, got Sepultura, Marilyn Mason and Rammstein collection with me, Pop Rock, David Cook, Daughtry style. I also like Rap, i love Akon, Flo Rida and the nasty music of Eminem kinda like style. Pop, the Jonas Brothers, Shwayze, Second Hand Serenade, Jon Bon Jovi, Coldplay and a whole lot more.

Right now, I love playing Last.Fm on my Mobbler application and officially announce my addiction to it haha. Last.Fm is fantastic, I can personalized my listening pleasure depending on my mode for the day and wallah, it provides me with the best songs that suite my choice of mode or genre. I can even make my own playlist and broadcast it to the world for others to hear, just brilliant.

I've decided to share my weekly playlist in my future blog. Share my music to everyone, and maybe in return share you thoughts about it and share your playlist as well, I love to hear something from you guys.

Read More

U.S. Weekend Box Office!!

Top 12 movies during the weekend: September 26-September 28, 2008


1. Eagle Eye
$29,200,000.00
Gross: $29,200,000.00

2. Nights In Rodanthe
$13,570,000.00
Gross: $13,579,000.00




3. Lake View Terrace
$7,000,000.00
Gross: $25,700,000.00

4. Fireproof
$6,514,000.00
Gross: $6,514,000.00




5. Burn After Reading
$6,169,000.00
Gross: $45,540,000.00

6. Igor
$5,500,000.00
Gross: $14,339,000.00




7. Righteous Kill
$3,803,000.00
Gross: $34,805,000.00

8. My Best Friend's Girl
$3,800,000.00
Gross: $14,529,000.00




9. Miracle At Sta. Ana
$3,501,000.00
Gross: 3,501,000.00

10. Tyler Perrey's The Family That Preys
$3,160,000.00
Gross: $32,796,000.00

Read More

I'm I Ready For A Touchscreen Device?

A few post ago, I have tackle about a topic regarding the use of touchscreen devices, I have cited in that post that the use of touchscreen is not my forte since I'm more of a reality thinker, that touchscreen is difficult to used when your in a real world, when walking on the street or riding a bus, etc, we just cant use both hands in this situation. The screen of touchscreen interface devices tend to be wash out also in bright daylight, how can this be of use in the outside world, totally not.

Now, Nokia will launched its very first touchscreen device, the Nokia 5800 Express Music, well this affect my judgment on the argument? Frankly, I don't know yet, I still have to wait for the official performance of the device to see if it counters my negative impression on such devices when it comes to usability in real world, hopefully. I wouldn't be surprise if Nokia touchscreen interface will be easy to navigate even on the outside world like the use of one hand only among others, knowing Nokia, they have been giving us devices with the easiest interface that makes mobile communication simple than the rest. Hopefully, Nokia will also address the problem on screen brightness on broad daylight. So far with all the touchscreens that came out, nobody among them address this issues and I'm hoping that Nokia have made positive move on this.

I have to admit, I fall in love with Nokia 5800 Tube when I first saw the official image and I was indeed eager to own one. Design wise, its stylish, sleek and very attractive, the initial specs are not bad rather, it has GPS, Wifi, HSDPA, Geotagging, Bluetooth, Dual LED flash among others, the only major difference I believe will just be the Camera which contains only 3.2MP Carl Zeiss compared to the 5MP of the Nseries. It might lack also media support for videos or movies being marketed as a music centric device.

Anyways, let just wait for the official specs of this device when it comes out and whether it will address the issues thrown against touchscreen devices.

Read More

The Newest Mummy Movie; Old Tricks

The Mummy; Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Aaahhh??!! I was rather bored and confused watching this film. It was a big disappointed, I expected something more, something big on this film but sadly their was nothing on it. The old trick of showing a good trailer, made me march to the movie theater to watch the film just to be frustrated in the end, a wicked practice that should be stop once and for all.

The story was rather confusing, an evil emperor was cursed yet with impeding possibility of world ciaos, the tomb should have been guarded fully blah, blah, to make the story short, the whole story is a crap. No matter how you try to understand the movie, you just couldn't prevent yourself from asking questions, how, why, where, etc, I hate movies that well make you think dumb and this movie will imply to you that.

The movie lacks luster, the action and thrill was not there anymore compared to the other two mummy movies in the past. The effects was dry rather than astonishing. The plot was short lived rather than odd. It was the worsiest mummy movie of them all.

The only good thing I earned from this movie, seeing Jet Lee do what he do best, high flying stunts, and kung fu, but short lived as well. Hopefully, the next mummy movie will be better than this and I'm looking forward for the next movie to contain the best action and effects we have enjoyed in the past again, Make it happened!

Read More

The Amazing Race 3; Pit Stop 3

Its an Amazing Race day friends, just an update, teams are now down to 7. One team was eliminated last night on I believe the longest race episode in the history of The Amazing Race Asia.

The race was still in Vietnam, a culture riched country which started with a grueling 25 hours bus trip to Hue. It was part of the test to hurdle a whole day trip in the bus with no air condition, it means they have to be static for a day and sleep in the bus which i know was a draining experience being able to experience overnight travel myself. You cant really sleep well in this condition and you will end up drooling the next day.

The Hue tasks were long rather, the first one was to fix a jeep, change tire and do some change oil, this was an easy task for men being used to cars than women and it did made a difference being teams with men finish early than all women team. The next task was a brainier, they have to study the history of Vietnam and all its dynasties. They were asked to collect symbols for each dynasty with no additional clue given, there were information's provided where the symbols were place and this made a difference, other teams didn't mind this info's thus giving them a hard time on the next task, to arrange this symbols in accordance to its reign. The team of Pailin and Natalie gave up on this tasks, which I think was the dumbest thing to do since they will incur 4 hour penalty.

Some other tasks, make enssence and pad a rice, then drive a bicycle which was difficult to maneuver to the Pit Stop.

Some of the remarkable highlights, team Malaysia's unfortunate accident with Berni falling down from a bike, loosing consciousness for a while, flat front on the pavement, teams frustrations and attitudes coming out from the racers among others. This was the most entertaining episode so far and I believe there were more to come.

Anyways here is the rundown of the top teams that made it in the third round.
1. Berni and Henry (Malaysia) - I'm liking this team every episode, they're really trying the best they can and it paid off.
2. Sam and Vince (Hongkong) - Good Team but I'm not taking beat on them.
3. Tania and Ida (Malaysia) - I was wrong calling them not remarkable before, there a strong team.
4. A.D. and Fuzzie (Singapore) - A weak team, just lucky enough to stay in the race.
5. Jeoff and Tisha (Philippines) - Strong team but Jeoff is rude and gaining enemies which I think will backfire on them soon.
6. Mai and Oliver (Thailand) - Mai is now adjusting, keeping up to other teams.
7. Niroo and Kapel (India) - Another weak team, waiting for elimination.
8. Natalie and Pailin (Thailand) - Eliminated, Natalie losing interest to continue.

Read More

Nokia N82 and Theme Scheduler

Another Symbian 60 application day my dear readers.

Today I'm going to feature one of Dr. Jukka's software application, the Theme Scheduler, one of the best application I've used so far for my Nokia N82 Black.

I love variation on everything, I'm a type of person who easily gets bored on monotonous things and my mobile phone is not excluded from it. Since I cannot change the casing of N82 every now and then due to the complicated process to be done, I found a useful way in achieving this, to change the Theme of the phone as often as I could and the easiest way to do this is by setting it on a schedule basis and that's how the Theme Scheduler came to my attention.

Theme Scheduler is a free theme scheduler application that allows automated theme scheduling with timer, or automated theme changing according to active profile. Designed for S60 OS 9.1 Symbian smartphones, and tested only with Nokia S60 devices.

The schedule can be set on a daily basis, it will provide you with an option as to what theme you want every day of the week from Monday to Sunday and what time do you want it to change, you cannot set the date thou because it has no calendar included but then this is better than clicking buttons everyday just to change your theme.

I set my theme to be change once a day, set to change every 5:00 am, Monday to Sunday. I have 7 themes installed right now, I used to have 21 themes and change my themes trice a day before, but Nokia N82 cannot handle to much Theme application save on the device memory, so I have to lower it to once a day.

Visit the website of Dr. Jukka on this link: http://www.drjukka.com/ThemeScheduler.html
Download is FREE, English language only and Unsigned. You need to have the software Signed to Symbian before you can use it and signing is easy, you only need an IMEA of your device.

Read More

Nokia N82; Caution!!

Nokia N82 is a though device and can withstand physical abused but not internal.

My beloved phone have just been reflashed by Globe Telecom because it bugged down due to excessive software installation. In my case, the phone cannot send text messages due to full device memory. I thought it was just a Telecom malfunction since the problem was about text but they told me that it was due to a full device memory. It was an unexpected scenario because according to the phone details, I still have 50,000 KB to spend and their was basically no hang up as it was suppose to be since the memory was depleting but no signs of such.

To give you a brief background about the status of the phone that time, I have installed 21 themes on the device memory plus some softwares, maybe less than 6. I intentionally save it on the device memory because S60 devices have a problem specially with themes, that when you save it on the memory card, you wont be able to remove some of it because it will not appear on the Applications Manager nor in the memory card folders. Now I have to suffer the consequence, I lost all my save files on the device memory and even lost my memory card.

After the reflashed, the memory card malfunctioned, it locked up and was asking for a pin code that I haven't really set, I didn't even know that option rather. I called up Nokia Service Center about it and they told me that I have no choice but to reformat the card which will erase every file on it and so are my Navfone and Panorama softwares being save in the memory card themselves. Now I have to inquire with Nokia Service Center if they can restore the two softwares for me for free, booth are of much used.

Again BEWARE everyone, never trust the memory meter of your device, its not as accurate as it seem. As much as possible, store your installed software on the memory card and not on the device memory, all of them.

Read More

Nokia N82 and Amazing Race Asia

The amazing Nokia N82 Silver Edition have a brief appearance in the most amazing show in Asia, The Amazing Race Asia Season 3.

Part of the task they need to accomplish was to finish an N-Gage Game, System Rush Evolution using Nokia N82 connected to a television via TV out. Its fun watching racers play their hearts out specially the ladies who doesn't really play much video games like men do. Every racers needs to finished at least one round to be able to received their next clue. Talking about advertising to the highest level as the show is being watch all over Asia.








This how the game looks like on the big screen. I haven't really tried it yet, but i think its fun.














This is Bernie Chan of Team Malaysia seriously pitting the very sexy Nokia N82, original version. She also have a hard time finishing the game like most of the women racers. Something to do with genetic make up maybe. c",






Watch out for more of The Amazing Race Asia, Nokia N82 and N-Gage on this blog.

Read More

U.S. Weekend Box Office!!

Top 12 movies during the weekend: September 19-September 21, 2008




1. Lake View Terrace
$15,600,000.00

Gross: $15,600,000.00







2. Burn After Reading
$11,295,000.00

Gross: $36,401,000.00







3. My Best Friend's Girl
$8,300,000.00

Gross: $8,300,000.00







4. Igor
$8,010,000.00

Gross: $8,010,000.00







5. Righteous Kill
$7,700,000.00

Gross: $28,810,000.00







6. Tyler Perrey's The Family That Preys
$7,5000,000.00

Gross: $28,356,000.00







7. The Women
$5,306,000.00

Gross: $19,209,000.00







8. Ghost Town
$5,171,000.00

Gross: $5,171,000.00







9. The Dark Knight
$2,950,000.00

Gross: $521,925,000.00







10. The House Bunny
$2,800,000.00

Gross: $45,725,000.00

Read More

To Love And Protect

Before I bought my Nokia N82 Black, I have already set a quest to gather much information on how I could protect my soon to be mobile device, what precautions i need to do and all that. Being a typical mobile phone user in the past, I have few ways and means but I have to learn more.

One of the first advice I received upon buying the phone came from the friendly sales staff of Nokia Flagship Store. They say that I should not peel off the plastic that covers the screen, keypad print and the Nokia Nseries print at the back. They say it will protect the phone against scratches and protect the print at the back since the letters were just printed on the surface and will peel off upon rigid use. They also ask me to buy a 3 layered screen protector from CDR King which cost at about Php60.

Good advices there but the best way is to buy protective cover. Philippines is very bless to have protective covers for almost all Nokia devices sold at a low price. I bought a crystal transparent case that can cover most of the phone parts except the keypad, camera cover and other important connection gateways. MSN transparent crystal case cost at about Php80 but offers 100% protection against scratches. What I like about this case is its transparency, it will preserve the design and style of the device although it will increase the size and the cover to pick up scratches in just a short time.

I also bought a flip top Capdase leather case which can also cover most of the device like that of the crystal. It cost at about Php600 in stores and at about Php999 on eBay.ph. What I like about this case is the thought of being able to used the phone without taking it out from the pouch and the extra cover that it can give on the screen and keypad as the flip folds. I'm confident also about the firmness of the cover, its tough and durable, its a foam covered with leather that will surely withstand abuse. The only disadvantage I can find in this case is that it covers the design and style thus not able to flaunt it in public, rather than that, its the best protective cover so far.

There were also rubber casing sold, but it only protect the device against scratches but not against fall. Rubbers are thin, slippery in most times and prone to dust, hopefully you will not buy one.

This are just few guides to all my dear readers, stay tuned for more life guides and Nokia N82 Black.

Read More

The Amazing Race Pit Stop 1 and 2

The Amazing Race Season 3 have already started last week and this post is a rundown of episode 1 and 2.

The first two episode as expected was full of excitement, adventure and fun, it was actually the first time that the race started in Thailand as the earlier first two seasons started in Singapore. I like all the task they did as a salvo, players have to eat a plate of cockroach, scorpions, worms and crickets before being handed with the next clue, it requires a lot of guts and courage to be able to swallow those creepy creatures and the players willingly eat it in the spirit competition and I salute them for that.

Second task is cleaning a huge bus which I think is lame, yet fun also since most of this players are celebrities and not use to those kinds of chores. 3rd task was the easiest, they only need to find the clue that were scattered all over beneath the Budda statue, but with time constrain, they have to find the clue before the bus leaves and if they cant, tney need to wait for the next bus to leave and so forth.

The last task a road block, a bit easier also, padding rice or carting are the option and most of the players went to rice challenge
.
Heres a rundown of the top teams that made it on the first round.
1. Mai and Oliver (Thailand)
2. Jeoff and Tisha (Philippines)
3. Berni and Henry (Malaysia)
4. Natalie and Pailin (Thailand)
5. Tania and Ida (Malaysia)
6. William ans Isaac (South Korea)
7. Sam and Vince (Hongkong)
8. A.D. and Fuzzie (Singapore)
9. Niroo and Kapel (India)
10. Nene and Amit (India) Eliminated

The second episode was even tougher than the first and drama starts to evade the players. Very remarkable was the word fight of Mai and Oliver of Team Thailand during episode one, while the crying scene of Pailin at the airport was heart breaker, seeing a lovely lady cry because she would be sleeping in an airport was something I would not allow to happen. Jeoff of team Philippines started to loose his patient and thus starting to become a blonder for them. He is like a school boy who nags Tisha instead of giving her support so she can do the task easily without preassure.

Anyways here is the rundown of the top teams that made it in the second round.
1. Berni and Henry (Malaysia) - I like there strong perseverance.
2. A.D. and Fuzzie (Singapore) - A weak team, just lucky enough to stay in the race.
3. Sam and Vince (Hongkong) - Good Team but not winable
4. Niroo and Kapel (India) - Another weak team, wating for elimination.
5. Jeoff and Tisha (Philippines) - Strong team but easily loose patients in tasks.
6. Tania and Ida (Malaysia) - Not remarkable
7. Natalie and Pailin (Thailand) - Lethal combination of beauty and charm.
8. Mai and Oliver (Thailand) - The brat and the hopeful, Oliver likes Mai and Mai doesn't care.
9. Sam and Vince (Hongkong) - Eliminated

Read More

The Amazing Race 3

My most favorite television show in Asia is back again on AXN, The Amazing Race Asia. I've been a big fan of the show ever since it aired 2 years ago, and will be an enthusiast for the rest of my life, maybe. hehehe

Its because of the adventure, travel and excitement that made me hook up to this show, I love to travel, going to places, I love adventure and I love the idea of pitting up contestants from different Asian countries to compete, it ushers nationality and team spirit to viewers. I like the original Amazing Race too but I just cant relate to them being Americans.

There are 10 teams competing this season, 2 teams from Thailand, India and Malaysia while 1 team for Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and my team Philippines. What I notice with this seasons teams was that majority of the participants are celebrities from their own country.

Teams Thailand have a Miss Universe 2005 and Miss Earth Thailand 2006, hot and sexy tandem. Second team is an Actress and Model tandem, pretty interesting team up here as the actress got attitude.

Teams Malaysia have TV host, actress and a chef, a strong sibling team while the other team has an actress, producer, an all girl tandem.

Teams India have an Actor with it, sort of a father and son tandem while the second team has a model with it.

Team South Korea has a sports TV host on it, an all male tag team.

Hong Kong have a comedian and host, also and all male tandem.

Singapore have a director and a free lance writer on the team, an all girl tandem and weak I believe, producers intended to cast a weak team from Singapore to give chances for other countries to win as well, Season 1 and 2 was won by Singaporeans.

Finally, my team Philippines (left inset picture) has Geoff Rodriguez, a Model, and Tisha Silang, former Miss Philippines Universe, a strong and competitive couple. Well this be the team who will bring the beacon for the country? Hope so!

Amazing Race Asia have already become a big hit in the region that celebrities are now opting to join, it not about the price anymore as the main reason for joining the race, its about international exposure that this celebrities will get upon joining that might help their respective carrier.

You can access the Amazing Race Asia on AXN and stay tuned for more of The Amazing Race updates on this Blog.

Read More

Nokia N82; Step 1

More of the best applications for Nokia N82.

I have cited quite a few in my past blogs and just a feedback though, Yahoo Go! is quite buggy, right now I cant upload new emails on it because theirs a connection problem and I haven't really find a way to fixed it. I might be removing the said application on my device. Sorry Yahoo Go! but I think you will need to Go!

One of the application that I installed and loved was the Nokia Step Counter. Its a software that has the ability to count your steps as you walk or run, yup it wouldn't be called Step Counter for nothingc", Not only that it has the ability to determines the distance you have covered and your energy expenditure. You can even compare your activity levels on different days by looking up the summaries stored in a handy diary. Cool right? This would be a great addition for people who are managing their wieght like me haha, this would be a good guide if I need to walk more to meet the energy I need to burn in relation to my calory intake.

Steps are measured by analyzing the output from an accelerometer in your Nokia S60 mobile device, that would mean that this application can be installed only with devices that have accelerometer like N82 and N95, better upgrade your device if you want this cool feature. c", All you have to do is carry your phone around with you whenever you move, for example in a pocket of your clothing, attached to a belt or your upper arm, or in a handbag worn over your shoulder. I have tried this software and its really fantastic, you have to run this software in the background though, so it consumes the battery as well but who cares, important thing is, I will be aware of the energy to spend.

By the way, this is still a beta applications, so be mindfull of the issues involve with it.
You really need this application guys, it inspired me to be weight and diet conscoius and it might do goo to you as well, and best of all, its FREE. Visit this site for the download link and enjoy. http://www.nokia.com/A41033364

The best things in life are FREE

Read More

Love Found, Nokia N85

A week ago, Nokia, the number one mobile device company in the world, introduce the newest addition to their top of the line Nseries portfolio, the Nokia N85 and Nokia N79. Honestly I was expecting Nokia Tube featured in the Dark Knight movie to be introduce as well but it didn't came through, next time maybe, anyways, the year is not over yet, they might announce it anytime soon.

Between the two Nseries phones, what interest me is the Nokia N85. It looks very similar to Nokia N96, dual slider form factor in a black suite, the only difference was the size, N85 being smaller and thinner than N96 and the screen where in N96 is .2 inch bigger than N85 and with less buttons than N96.

Feature wise, N85 has the newest being the most recent compared to N96 but their was big difference in specifications. N96 is still superior in specs but N85 will pose a big fight in feature and price.

Heres a run down of Nokia N85 Technical Specifications and Features, the challenger:

Operating System: Symbian OS v9
Developer Flatform: S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2

Frequency Band: GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1,900, WCDMA 2100, 1900, 900, 850

Display: Resolution: 240 x 320, Color Depth: 24 bit , OLED

CPU: Single ARM 11 369 MHz

Memory: Max User Storage: 74 MB, NAND Memory: 78 MB, Memory Card Size: Micro, 8 GB

Network Data Support: HSDPA, EGPRS, HSCSD, WCDMA, GPRS, CSD, Dual Transfer Mode (MSC 11)
OMA Client Provisioning v1.1, OMA Device Management v1.1.2, OMA Data Synchronization v1.2
GPS Feature: A-GPS

Local Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, A2DP +EDR, Bluetooth Stereo Audio, Micro USB, Mini Stereo
Plug 3.5mm, Nokia AV 3.5mm, Nokia microUSB Cable CA-101, UPnP, USB 2.0 High-Speed, USB

Mass Storage, WLAN 802.11b/g, WEP, WPA, WPA2 (AES/TKIP)

Java Technology: CLDC 1.1, eSWT UI API, IAP Info API, JSR 135 Mobile Media API, Nokia UI API, MIDP 2.1

Flash Lite: Flash Lite 3.0

Messaging: IM, MMS+SMIL, SMS
Email Protocol: IMAP4, POP3, SMTP

Camera: Resolution: 2584 x 1938, Sensor: CMOS 5.0 Megapixels, Focal length 5.45 mm, F-Stop/Aperture f/2.8, Focus range 10 cm to infinity, Digital Zoom: 20 x, Feature: Auto Focus, Carl Zeiss Optics, Flash, Red-Eye Reduction, Self Timer, Video Stabilizatio, Video Resolution: 640 x 480, Video Frame Rate: 30 fps, Video Zoom: 8 x, Video Format: H.263, MPEG-4
Secondary Camera: Resolution: 352 x 288, Digital Zoom: 2 x, Image Format: JPEG, Video Format: H.263

Video Feature: Video Editor, Video Player, Video Recorder, Video Ringtones, Video Sharing, Video Streaming
Video Format: 3GPP formats (H.263), Flash Video, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, RealVideo 7,8,9/10, WMV

Audio Feature: Audio Equalizer, Audio Recording AAC stereo, 48kHz, Audio Streaming, FM Transmitter (88.1 - 107.9 MHz), Music Player, Stereo
Audio Format: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, MP4, M4A, WMA, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, Mobile XMF, SP-MIDI, MIDI Tones (poly 64), RealAudio 7,8,10, True tones, WAV

Exra Features:
Acceleration Sensor, Flight Mode, FOTA Firmware over the Air, Internet Radio, Nokia Maps, , OMA Domain Name System (DNS) 1.0, On-Demand Paging, Open C API's, Stereo FM RDS Radio, Stereo Handsfree Speakers, Still Image Editor, SyncML, Themes, TV Out, Visual Radio and more.

Only the best features and the newest are thrown on this device, OLED screen that is said to show true color of images yet consumes less power, the interchangeable backlight on the upper slide depending on the application used, if its music and video, forward, rewind, pause and stop buttons lights up, if in games, two buttons lights up, FM transmitter, dual led flash, and best of all, it hauses 10 n-gages games free.

This device is said to carry the torched of being the most sold device for nokia in the next few months being an all-in-one device, yet affordable. I am now turn between N96, N85 or the upcoming Nokia Tube for my next upgrade. This are all great devices and it will now depend on how much money I can save by that time.

Read More