In less than 9 hours, more than 80% of city of Metro Manila was covered in flood. The average rainfall in one month covered Metro Manila in 6 hours. As I write this entry, telco networks are slowly coming back to normalcy but a great part of the city is still flooded. There are actually systems that allow you to send cash donations via SMS and the link can be found here.

TXTPower urges its members, supporters and friends abroad to make donations via Paypal. You may also donate via SmartMoney (5577-5144-1866-7103) or GCash 0917-9751092. All donations coursed through TXTPower …read more

Ah, Facebook the ultimate time waster. We can’t get enough of it so many other companies are building Facebook apps for their own platforms. Truthfully though, not all apps are created equal. From a personal level I run Facebook both from my iPod touch and a Blackberry Storm — not mobile web versions of course, but the actual downloadable app. I haven’t run S60’s version yet.

Between the two, I’d like to think the iPod touch version is the best among the rest. This is due to the platform itself, adopting the famous haptic scrolling and huge buttons. But what the …read more

Today I thought I’d take a look at the good ‘ol days when the Visor Handspring revolutionized the PDA industry. Here’s a website screenshot from roughly 2001, with the “Ice” blue mid range Visor deluxe sitting with an ice pack. Back then, 8MB of memory and a monochrome screen would set you back 150USD. Today, that usually gets you a mid range phone.
Handspring was particularly adamant in selling accessories and one-upped Palm by adding a more colorful plethora of choices such as stylus tips and cases.
And yeah, the springboard modules. Those were crazy back in the day. Imagine if every …read more

Touch screen phones are the in thing today. Everyone seems to want one. Or rather, maybe the market is making us think we want one. If you’ve read the Authenticity Book you will realize how thought provoking the discussion on authority is. Truth is, the iPhone wasn’t the inventor of touch screen phones, but boy did they authenticate it as a way of life. When BlackBerry released their own touch screen phone, is it a fake iPhone? When Nokia released its 5800 phone, is it really just a real product, fake iPhone? You tell me.
Phone manufacturers tend to sit back …read more

GruvMe is interesting although in its current beta state there isn’t much to see. The site reminds me of a flash games site that caters to Nintendo Wii owners — since you can run flash on an Opera browser, technically speaking you can run these games on the Wii Browser. The same concept works for GruvMe, but they seem to be spinning the concept towards iPhone users who don’t want to be limited by the YouTube channel (odd?). GruvMe makes use of QuickTime to stream movies — both independent and blockbuster — as well as act as a social network …read more

Starting April 1 (no this isn’t an April Fool’s prank), Symbian Guru will be running a contest for FREE SOFTWARE. The mechanics are very simple — it’s a virtual Easter Egg hunt:

On the 1st of April we will hide some number of ‘Eggs’ word on our product description texts. For every ‘Egg’ found we will give you one registration code for the software present on our website at www.symbianguru.com. You need to indicate the post where you have found the word and copy the phrase or sentence with this ‘Egg’ word. Also do not forget to name the software …read more

According to a recent survey from the NTC, local telco from the Philippines, SUN Cellular, experiences a drop call rate of close to 20%. To quote:
We’re in the era of 3G data connectivity with the big players – SMART and Globe slugging it out to see which one holds the better service. In fact the NTC recently proclaimed Globe to be the overall winner with SMART at a very close (like really close!) second. We’re past 2G and the basics. We’ve enjoyed good reception, SMS and calls for many years now with the two giants; now we’re ranting about cheaper …read more

With the release of two new Motorola phones, the ROKR EM30 and the ROKR EM25, Motorola has released new artist collaborations. If you’re from the west, you definitely have never heard of these guys as they’re more famous in South East Asia. Nonetheless, they rock!
The new collaborations include artists such as Imago, Nyco Maca, Queso, Angulo and DJ Mark Nicosia.
[photo c/o Odyssey Live and Motorola PR ]

Animoto, the photo presentation site that makes kick ass videos (Samsung Roadshow Video here) is offering $5.00 off when you sign up for a subscription plan with them. All you need to do is enter the code in bold below when you sign up for a new account subscription or click on this link.
Here is the coupon code:
hqmnftcy

The Holy Week, a week-long celebration / reflection on the Passion of the Christ culminates today at Easter Sunday. The feast of the Holy Week includes the Good Friday live Crucifixion which is done in the popular province of San Fernando, Pampanga. The Good Friday story was written by Brit tech site, The Register.
As someone who lives in the Philippines and visits San Fernando one or two times a year, I can say that the Crucifixion rituals have really grown into a tourist event. In fact, a lot of the crucified have been doing this for years – being …read more