2014, Announcements, Burning Platform, And Moving Forward

Another year to conquer for this smallish blog site but rather the most challenging and exciting one since I'm about to announced something that will change this blog forever. Gone were the days of solitude, the right time had come, this is it..

RETROSPECT

The blog had performed fairly well in 2013, breaking records as to the number of page views and unique visits, stretch to the limits of sobriety and backed by a strong following, but for those who religiously follow it, compared to the previous years, I hardly published stories anymore due to circumstances I cannot avoid.

First and foremost, time, I hardly have the luxury of it anymore because of my hectic schedule. Just imagine joggling two jobs a day together with my business tryst and law school, I hardly even have enough for myself, how much more for the blog. I am now on my third year in Law school and it certainly demands so much attention. The dreaded BAR exam is also not too far away (October 2015) and our professors were already encouraging us to prepare as early as now. BAR exam is not just any other exam out there, its the most difficult and prestigious of all. Where in the world can you find an exam where people manage to kill themselves or go crazy in a yearly basis?

Second, health, I believe being in front of a computer all the time affects your eyes, weight and sleeping patterns. Several studies had already been published about it, and its futile to argue because I myself would blame it for my massive weight increase 4 years back and my degrading eyesight. Maximum allowed time in front of a computer according to experts, two hours the most, and I'm already exposed to computer for about 8 at the office.

Third, social, I've notice that my addiction to the internet decreases my ability to interact with people in a natural way. Somehow it decreased my ability to respond to situations instantaneously, critical most specially that the career that I'm pursuing needs quick thinking and analysis. I've notice a huge difference from the way I interact with people and situations before and now. My friends always joke about my being lost in the circle for quite sometime, that I have stretched the boundary of my heartache to abnormal desolation.

And finally, my being lost in transition, from my well loved burning platform to nowhere! Sad to say their is nothing among the current software platforms yet that captured my interest and attention, worthy to replaced my old and burning Symbian.

So close is Android but not to my standard, Windows Phone is incomplete, iOS is too restricted and Blackberry is good as dead. Remember that I started this blog because I was soo inspired with my Nokia N82, now, I lost that synergy and inspiration. Maybe their will come a time that one of this platforms evolved to my fullest liking, a platform that can rekindle my interest back to smartphone technology. In a few months perhaps, years or decades, who knows?

FORTHCOMING

With all this reasons, I've decided to take this blog to the next level by opening it up to the entire tech world. Being open means that everyone can now submit personal stories and experiences related to technology; the camera that you loved; the wearable gadget that you've recently purchased; the smartphone that you cant lived without or the apps that makes your day complete. The blog will now be entirely about you!

You can submit your original stories via this email account, gregg003@ovi.com and I will publish it on the blog with your name as the author. Anonymous post will also be respected as well as the option to restrict comments from readers.

I will still be writing posts if I have time and this subdued moments is definitely temporary. Soon, when everything falls down to perspective, I will return in my full geek self and make technology world as rowdy as ever. For the mean time, I rest my case!

2014 Image from http://www.volkerballueder.com

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PLDT Telpad and The Endless Possibilities

You’ve probably see the commercial of PLDT Telpad on TV showing bits of its features and I have to say it’s a pretty cool device with all things you can do with it from web browsing, to video calls and playing games like angry birds but what else can a regular user do with such a powerful device.


Here are more ways that you can use the AD-1000A Telpad:

1. Promote World Peace!

Yes, just like the most common answers of contestants in beauty contests, a Telpad user can take part on the greatest humanitarian cause with its ability to connect to any social network to have ever existed, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Multiply, etc., all this social mesh have existing applications on Android Market that a Telpad user can download, install and use via WIFI to spread the love and peace throughout humanity.

2. Learn in style.

PLDT AD-1000A Telpad is a substitute to all your reference needs. Say you’re a student that carries a bunch of more or less 1000 page books to school every day, what the Telpad can do is eliminate this tedious practice with its eBook feature.

E-books are digital publications, consisting of text, images, or both, and are readable on computers or other electronic devices. The Telpad’s E-book reader allows users to read books virtually in a book-like manner with the flipping page action or even better with its ability to highlight a portion or add a side note on the virtual page or zoom in or out the page to the user’s preference. With the Telpad’s 32GB of storage, users can save thousands of eBooks on it and will save them a bunch of weight to bring every day.

3. Teach interactively.

The device has a 7 inches TFT LCD capacitive screen that few people can picked into clearly all at the same time, all you need to do is download basic learning and educational tools and applications on Android market and ask people to set near you and teach them interactively with everything you want or better yet if you have a large audience, connect the device to a TV/Screen monitor via its HDMI port so a lot of people can see.

4. Explore creativity.

The device has a 4-point multi-touch screen, meaning, you can touch the screen with all of your four fingers all at the same time registering individual commands per finger, so how can this be related to creativity? Art, painting and anything artistry related, the device is capable of having this applications installed so you can sketch your way out to hearts content.

5. Experience movies and videos.

Love movies? Well I’m not going to tell you that the Telpad can let you watch movies because it’s given on the specs sheet that it supports .mp4, .avi, .flv and .mkv, instead I challenge you to create your own masterpiece and share it on Facebook or Youtube. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Telpad is capable of editing a video you’ve captured using your camcorder or mobilephone and make it into a movie that everyone could enjoy. You can find a lot of video editing apps on Android Market and it’s up to you to construct your storyline, plot, etc.

6. Conquer time.

Conquer time and not time conquer you. The Telpad can let you easily manage your time by organizing your daily schedules making it your personal virtual secretary. It will keep you posted with the reminders and To Do lists that you created for the day. Just choose the wide range of calendar and reminder application on the market that best suites you.

7. Love yourself.

Not in a deceitful way of course, but in a healthy way. The Telpad via the Android market offers you a wide range of applications to monitor your health. Weight, BMI, Blood pressure, Sugar, Exercise, these were just a few of the stuffs you can monitor using your device. A lot of apps also offer tips on how to improve your ways and means, personality, looks, etc.

And so much more…

As mentioned on my blog title, owning a PLDT Telpad has endless possibilities, you can do whatever you want or say whatever you say, you can even conquer the world with it, but which is which, always remember the moral lesson that the movie Spiderman partake, that with such power comes with great responsibility. Be responsible enough with your decisions and actions in using the device and most of all put God first above the rest.

To know more about PLDT Telpad, click the following links:

Official website: www.pldttelpad.com
PLDT landline Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pldtlandline

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QWERTY Touch Monobloc Form Factor, How Many Devices Are Out There?

I've recently became an advocate of a Monobloc QWERTY Touch phone, it came to my realization after trying every possible touchscreen devices from different Operating System in the market at the moment which in many ways than one, failed to fit my needs, preference and lifestyle. I consider touchscreen interface as more of a burden to me than ease especially in writing messages, one of my most used feature.

As I've mentioned in my past articles, my mobilephone is half of my blog's life, it is where I wrote most of my articles and the primary device that I use to connect socially via Instant Messenger, Twitter, Foursquare or Facebook which needs a very able messaging system to be able communicate. Virtual touchscreen input is a big joke if it will be fitted to this kind of setup, virtual keypads just frustrates. Monobloc because sliding equates vulnerability and I don't want to constantly worry about the device all the time.

So back to the question, how many mobilephone devices are there that sports the form factor whom I consider the ultimate of them all. You'll be quite surprise!

If we exclude Chinese cloned phones, there were 53 known branded devices in the market at the moment with the very first device released 9 years ago, the Palm Treo 600. It has a Palm Operating System with a 160x160 pixel 2.5 inches resistive touch panel. The phone actually had quite a feature; web browser, organizer, games, card slot, etc. From right then, there where 5 more phones that come out from the company with Palm Pixi Plus as the latest in the bunch.

Though Palm was the first one to come out with the form factor, it was Microsoft Windows Mobile Operating System that rule the segment with Benq offering the very first device, the P50, a 2.8 screen size phone with a resistive touch panel. There where 31 more phones that came out afterwards with Sony Ericsson's Aspen as the latest in the bunch.

Symbian jumped into the Touch QWERTY segment 3 years after via Sony Ericsson's M600, a UIQ running 2.6 inches, 240 x 360 pixel resistive touch panel phone. But instead of single key per letter mechanism, they infuse two letters in one key. Only 2 more phones came out afterwards, the Sony Ericsson M606 and the Sony Ericsson P1 as the company put its development to rest in 2008.

Android operating devices starts to pop out recently with Huawei leading the way, the U8300, an Android Eclair phone with 2.6 inch resistive touch screen display. Following the trend where 5 more devices from Motorola, Acer and Dell with the Motorola DROID Pro XT610 on the frontline.

On the rumor mill is the Meego Operating System joining the segment with an E72-like business centric device carrying ARM CPU, 640 x 480 VGA screen, HSPA, WIFI and 8MP Carl Zeiss camera with autofocus. It is currently the most interesting device in this segment having seen how impressive the Meego Operating system was in the early pre-production versions. This phone might see the light of day in the upcoming World Mobile Congress next month.

So there you go folks, the not so long history of my very much regarded best form factor of all, the QWERTY Touch Monobloc. More than one reason or another, this segment might grow forward in the upcoming years with the growing number of people getting frustrated with lone touchscreens. Try a little survey like I did, asking my colleagues at work if they like touchscreen on a phone, a massive 80% say they don't because of the very obvious reason, messaging difficulty.

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My Predictions in the Mobilephone World 2011

The mobilephone world has experienced a massive changed and development in 2010 like no other industry in the business world, from the fiercest competition, birth of new competitors, success stories, struggles, and failures to getting back on track in the fullest fighting form among others. It is a healthy battle of competitors in the arena where nobody wins except the buying public.

I will not be detailing such events in this article but instead focus on the things that I expect to happen in 2011.

1. Battle royal of mobilephone operating systems, from Symbian offering massive improvements, Android going for the kill, iOS going defensive, Windows Mobile 7 advancements, BADA’s forward press, Blackberry going offensive with their newly brought user interface and Meego going mainstream.

2. The introduction of Meego devices to droll for from mobilephones, tablets, laptops among others. It will be launch by several computer and mobilephone companies with Nokia leading the way with the Nokia N9 and the Z5000 Tablet.

3. iPhone will be launching another breakthrough product via iOS 5, as much as possible they want to announce something for everyone to talk about to hide the decrease of their market share. iPhone will also become cheaper.

4. More expensive HTC devices with improvements on the Sense UI to envy.

5. New high end Samsung devices both phones and tablets bearing Android Operating System and BADA. 3D will be their game to apt the competition.

6. Sony Ericsson launching their own Android Tablet and will witness how their Xperia Playstation fail in the market.

7. Motorola taking up more market share from Samsung in North America with their rigorous Android campaign.

8. LG to release high end Android phones with 3D screens and joining the Meego team.

9. Nokia going Window Mobile 7 on Tablet devices and the releasing more Symbian^3 devices from all form factors possible. My dream phone will be included abd I cannot afford to buy one until 2012.

10. Android going nuts with multiple handsets from different manufacturers that people would start getting confused and would rather go for unique OS’s.

11. Last but not the least, me buying entry level phones because aside from the fact that it is my most read articles of 2010, I also cannot afford expensive devices anymore. I‘m also routing to buy 7-10” Tablet device, a cheap one to play around when I’m at home. It would definitely serve as my movie, surfing, eBook and gaming buddy. At the moment, the cheapest are the Android tablets from Chinese manufacturers, something around PhP8,000 for an Éclair running one but a Meego running one would be awesome. Early preview of tablets running the Operating System is very cool, dying to own one.

And the next chapter of the blog continues.

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