It’s the last stretch of my Nokia DiscOVIries contest. I’ll be collating and choosing a winner of the best workstation photo come midnight GMT +8. If you still wish to join, all you need to do is follow the simple instructions and upload a photo of your workstation at home or in your work place. You don’t need to have a Nokia phone to do this, but you do need to be based in Manila, Philippines to join.

How i wish the Philippines could properly implement the Comes with Music program of Nokia. In Singapore, buying a Nokia phone allows you to enjoy one full year of free music downloads. In the Philippines, w cannot implement such a scheme because of (1) the record labels and (2) there’s a rule that value added services should go through a company that is owned by a Filipino. Which means Nokia may have to go through a third party service provider or through a telco, which completely defeats the purpose of having the Ovi store and the Comes with Music freebies. …read more

OK so this is a rare moment. I am currently a recruit for the Ovi by Nokia campaign here in the Philippines. This is a purely local effort that taps bloggers from different niches in the Philippines to help spread the word about Nokia’s shift to a software and services company. I’m classified under “tech” obviously.
So yeah, this was the second time I’ve been asked to participate (the last time was as an ambassador for the Xenon flash enabled N82) and the overall objective is to get more sign ups and create active users for the plethora of Ovi …read more

Here’s a size comparison between the Modu and the Nokai E71. I was able to acquire the not-so-new Modu unit from Globe telecommunications as they intend to launch this in the Philippines for only P7,999.00. The Modu is a “modular phone” which means that the other features come to life when you attach the small device to several modules such as casings, desk MP3 players, etc. By itself, the Modu is already a full functioning phone, allowing you to make calls and load up music.
I still need to do actual real world tests for the practicality of having …read more

A couple of weeks ago, Nokia sent me to cover Nokia Connection ‘09 in Singapore. Had I found the time, I would have trotted over to CommunicAsia to check out what the other phone manufacturers were pulling out of their hats. Well, the only free time I had was spent shopping and the billboards around Orchard Road “magically transformed” to show off the new Samsung Jet.

I’ve been toying with the HTC Magic and my verdict has been telltale of expectations that were basically preconceived with a “Google OS.” Apparently Android may be too early in its stages to support a couple of things, especially with the Mac. I’ve been having bad trouble trying to do two things:

1. First, a total free sync solution to the HTC Magic with my iCal and Address Book. If there existed one, the telco where I got it from didn’t really elaborate on the apps. Apparently, not all Androids are created equal and the version for the Philippines packed into …read more

Similar to how Nokia launched their Ovi Music store in Singapore, it seems like the new Android OS for the HTC Magic isn’t fully implemented in other parts of the world. In the Philippines for instance, the Android store isn’t even a built in on device application which you can launch.
There isn’t even talk about integration with your Google Applications. Nonetheless, the HTC Magic is a good piece of hardware that seems very promising in what it can deliver. Not sure about when HTC will deploy the rest of the features, or if this is something the telcos should …read more

A few months ago I was part of a team that was consulted upon to help launch a Philippines-based service that had “everything in a box” related to a particular telco’s property. Although the focus was with the blogs on my end, the bigger picture was with the actual portal itself. The name of the portal is Sandbox.

Sad that the current product doesn’t use “open technology” to share with the outside world. It doesn’t have RSS feeds and you really can’t permalink much. Not much Javascript either for photo uploading. What it does fulfill though is having all of SMART …read more

The Nokia N97 is finally here in Asia and is now available on pre-order between June 16-18 2009. The preorder allows you to become part of a raffle for 500 Linksys routers. Preorder now.

Slide into a whole new dimension of mobile fun! Be one of the first in the Philippines to own the amazing multimedia computer, the Nokia N97. Imagine having a full touch-screen home screen to view movies and photos, a keyboard that makes you send messages faster; and immense memory to store anything and everything – all on the palm of your hand.
What’s there not to love? …read more

Attended the press briefing for ACER’s new line of smartphones. The F1 caught my attention. Although not as tactile friendly as the HTC Touch Pro 2, the F1 shines with its ultra huge screen.

Above is actually a size comparison of the iPod touch with the ACER F1 alongside the M900. The F1 is the device with a blank screen. Some YouTube vids below discussing the phone.