Leon Kilat ::: The Cybercafe Experiments

Globe unveils new Globe Broadband Tattoo USB skins

Max Limpag — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:04:23 +0000

GLOBE Broadband Tattoo has unveiled three new designs for its USB skin—Black Dragon, Purple Brushstrokes, and White Techie.

Globe is “the first to offer funky broadband-equipped USBs in the Philippines,” the company said in a press statement.

BLACK DRAGON USB skin for Globe Broadband Tattoo.

“Globe is also the first to offer exclusive content inside each Globe Broadband Tattoo kit to enable users to get more value out of it. Each kit comes with free installers for your favorite online games from e-Games—Cabal Online, ZX Online, and Audition Dance Battle,” the company said.

Each Tattoo kit also includes a link to download free McAfee anti-virus software installer for a 60-day free trial. Selected Tattoo kits also contain limited-edition vouchers for free gifts from Adidas and Levi’s.

Globe Broadband Tattoo is available both in prepaid and postpaid plans. It is available in prepaid for P1,895 and comes with a free P100, which is equivalent to five hours of free Internet time. You can load credits to the kit like a regular prepaid SIM through Autoload Max, Share-A-Load, or prepaid call cards.

Globe offers three Globe Broadband Tattoo postpaid plans. Plan 799 gives subscribers 60 free mobile Internet hours per month and two free Wi-Fi Internet hours at Globe hotspots nationwide for P799 per month.

Plan 999 offers 75 free mobile Internet hours per month and three free Wi-Fi Internet hours at Globe hotspots nationwide for P999 per month.

Globe Broadband Tattoo Plan 1,499, on the other hand, offers 120 hours of free mobile Web access and unlimited Wi-Fi connection at any Globe hotspot nationwide.

Cebu needs to work to keep IT talents: Damarillo

Max Limpag — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:03:47 +0000

CEBU has the potential to be the next Silicon Valley but it must deal with the movement of its talented workers to Manila and abroad and improve its marketing as a technology hub, an information technology entrepreneur said Friday.

Winston Damarillo, one of the founders of G2iX and its chief executive officer, said that because of its geography, weather and quality of life, Cebu has the makings of a technology center.

Damarillo also said local companies are cooperative with industry undertakings and there is a good partnership with the academe through such initiatives as the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for IT (Cedfit).

TECH ENTREPRENEUR Winston Damarillo, G2ix chief executive officer, talks to students and software developers during the opening of DevCon Visayas in the G2ix Tech Bar in the IT Park in Lahug, Cebu City. Damarillo says he wants to make technical conferences a regular event in Cebu.

Damarillo said Cebu has a lot of IT talents and his companies will expand more here rather than in Manila. Among the undertakings of G2ix are Exist, MaestroDev, and Morph Labs.

“We need to solve big problems here. We need to bring in big projects,” Damarillo said in an interview at the sideline of DevCon Visayas.

Damarillo cited as example Morph Labs, a cloud computing service provider run by local talents.

He said one thing that can help improve the talent pool in Cebu is the holding of technical conferences like DevCon Visayas. He said developers learn a lot if they are shown how software projects were done in technical and informal conferences like DevCon.

“You might say that it’s a hard project but then when you are shown how it’s done, you’d find it’s actually easy,” he said.

Damarillo said DevCon Visayas, held Friday at the G2ix Tech Bar at the IT Park, exceeded their expectations.

Diane Suico, Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) marketing program director, said they expected only 70 participants but those who attended exceeded 300 persons.

Damarillo said he will be organizing more DevCons in other areas of the country like Davao City. Suico said they are also looking into other areas of the Visayas.

Damarillo said he will make DevCon a regular event in Cebu. He also said he will be setting up a training center in Cebu to help improve the capabilities of local IT developers on Java, Ruby and rich Internet applications.

Smart offers unlimited calling within its network nationwide with Smartalk

Max Limpag — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:28:19 +0000

Smart Communications is offering its subscribers unlimited calling within its network through the Smartalk service, which will be available nationwide starting tomorrow, June 26.

Under the service, which was formally unveiled in Cebu yesterday, Smart subscribers can make unlimited calls to other users in its network using two subscription plans: Smartalk 100 and Smartalk 500.

SMARTALK LAUNCH. (From left) Atty. Maria Jane Paredes, Smart public affairs manager for Visayas and Mindanao, Danilo Mojica, head of Smart’s wireless consumer division, and Annie Naval, marketing group head, answer questions of reporters from Cebu and Mindanao during the launch of Smartalk in Cebu City.

Smartalk 100 offers 5 days of unlimited calls within the network for P100. Smartalk 500 offers 30 days of unlimited calling for P500. Subscribers can enroll into the plan either through conversion of their current load or by buying Smartalk loads from Smart retailers.

The service is also available to Smart post-paid users both as a P500 add-on to their monthly fee or through purchasing Smartalk 100 and 500 loads from retailers. Company officials said this is the first time that post-paid users can purchase packages from load retailers.

“This is best for post-paid subscribers who prefer to stay within their monthly service fee cap yet need to avail themselves of unlimited calling,” the company said in a statement.

To use the unlimited calling service, prepaid users have to dial *6400 plus the 11-digit number of the Smart subscriber. Smart post-paid users, however, do not need to add *6400 and can just directly dial the number. Annie Naval, head of Smart marketing, said they were working to simplify dialing for prepaid users.

Danilo Mojica, head of Smart’s Wireless Consumer Division, said the company ‘s network is efficient enough to take the increase in volume of calls expected with the promotion.

Mojica said the product was extensively tested in Cebu “against all parameters” and results “were very positive.” He said that in the three weeks of testing, they only had three complaints and these had nothing to do with network congestion.

Mojica also said their unlimited calls offer does not put a time limit on the calls.

“With this new service, Smart subscribers all over the country need only one phone, one SIM and one number to be able to make unlimited, crystal-clear calls to over 38 million Smart numbers anytime, anywhere,” Smart chief wireless advisor Orlando Vea said in a statement.

DevCon Visayas to host hackathon, talks on software, web development

Max Limpag — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:26:54 +0000

SOFTWARE engineers from all over the country are scheduled to meet in a conference in Cebu City on Friday, June 26, to talk about technical issues on software development.

DevCon Visayas offers free admissions to its technical sessions on such topics as cloud computing, social networking and content management systems through sponsors Oracle and G2iX. Organizers are asking those interested to join the conference to register online at http://www.devcon.ph/.

The conference will also host birds of a feather (BoF) sessions, informal sessions to discuss topics like favorite operating system for development or use of Java, Ruby on Rails or .Net for building web applications.

The conference will also host talks on social networking trends, cloud computing and open source tools to speed up development.

DevCon Visayas will also host a Hackathon where participants code together on projects like deploying a content management system-powered website in 30 minutes, building online applications and automating testing.

The conference is organized by the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA). It is being held as a side event to the Cebu ICT 2009, a key event of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s celebration of business month.

The conference will be held at the G2iX TechBar, Unit A, i1 Bldg. in Asiatown IT Park.

The conference will start at 1:40 p.m. with a talk by technology entrepreneur Winston Damarillo, G2iX CEO and PSIA Director. BoF sessions will start at 3:30 p.m. while the Hackathon will start at 7 p.m.

Sony Ericsson shows off Cyber-shot phones in smiles campaign

Max Limpag — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:33:30 +0000

Sony Ericsson is embarking on a national campaign to collect 1 million digital photos of people smiling andraise P1 million for the United Nations Children’s Fund or Unicef. For each smile Sony Ericsson photographs of people who visit their booths in SM malls all over the country, P1 will go to Unicef.

The campaign is done in partnership with nine SM Malls that will also be holding a contest among themselves on who could gather the most smiles. SM Prime Holdings vice president Marissa Fernan, who is a bit of a gadget nerd herself, is confident of Cebu’s chances to win the contest among SM Malls. You have until the end of this month to go to the Spread the Smiles booth in SM Cebu and have yourself photographed there.

If you give a P20 donation, you will be given a Digiprint photo printout, a spot on the Smile Wall and a raffle ticket to win a Sony Ericsson C510 Cyber-shot phone.

SMILE SHUTTER. Vince dela Cruz, Sony Ericsson product marketing manager, demonstrates how smiling can trigger the shutter of Sony Ericsson’s Cyber-shot phones during the launch of its Spread the Smiles campaign in Cebu.

The campaign is a good showcase for Sony Ericsson’s Cyber-shot product line. You can fault Sony Ericsson for several things—from its lackluster smartphone offerings to its infuriating connectors for its accessories—but when it comes to imaging, Sony Ericsson is among the mobile phone leaders.

The Spread the Smiles campaign quickly takes photos of smiles of mallgoers through the Smile Shutter function of Sony Ericsson’s Cybershot phones C510 and C905. The Smile Shutter is a nifty piece of technology that detects smiles of people in camera range and then takes photos.

By using a cameraphone with Smile Shutter, taking a photo of yourself just became easier. You no longer have to master that awkward twisting of the unit to put yourself into frame and then clicking on the camera button to take the photo. With Smile Shutter, you just have to smile to trigger the camera.

Of the units being showcased in the campaign, the C905 is the more formidable device. It is a whopping 8.1-megapixel phone with Xenon flash, auto focus with face detection, and image stabilizer.

Apart from its imaging capabilities, the C905 comes with what are now standard features of high-end mobile phones—Wi-Fi and HSPA connectivity, a built-in email client and global positioning system (GPS).

With GPS, you can geo-tag photos and use Wayfinder Navigator (the unit comes with a trial version) or Google Maps.

Globe offers unlimited calling to landlines with Globe DUO

Max Limpag — Sun, 24 May 2009 18:59:02 +0000

Globe launched in Cebu last week its Globe DUO service, a combination mobile and landline service that gives subscribers two numbers—a mobile phone number and a portable landline number—using just one subscriber identification module (SIM).

With Globe DUO, consumers get to make and receive unlimited calls to and from any landline number within a certain coverage area. Globe DUO subscribers can also make unlimited calls to other subscribers of the service.

The service is initially available for pospaid Globe subscribers in Manila and Cebu. Today, May 25, Globe will open the service for the first time to prepaid users. Globe Telecom Consumer Wireless Business Group head Ferdinand dela Cruz said they chose Cebu for today’s introduction of the service to prepaid use.

LANDLINE AND MOBILE PHONE. Globe Telecom Consumer Wireless Business Group head Ferdinand dela Cruz talks about Globe DUO during its launch in Cebu.

“Globe is breaking the barriers between mobile and landline by coming up with this revolutionary 2-in-1 service,” dela Cruz said during Thursday’s launch at the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug, Cebu City.

“Globe DUO is a testament of our commitment to continuously provide our customers with the latest wireless services in the world at the most affordable price and offer them every convenient means of connecting to one another,” Globe president and chief executive office Ernest Cu said in a press statement.

Globe DUO is the company’s answer to PLDT’s Landline Plus service. It is a virtual shot in the bow for what had been a long unchallenged innovative service.

With PLDT Landline Plus and Globe DUO, the word “landline” becomes an adjective merely for the way calls are charged and phone numbers are formatted. Because when you think about it, portable “landline” phones are really mobile phones.

To enroll with Globe DUO, postpaid users need to pay P399 for 30 days. This will be charged on top of their Globe monthly plan and comes with an initial 90-day subscription. If you already have a post-paid subscription with the company, you can just activate the Globe DUO service by texting DUO (area of service) ON to 8888.

If you’re a post-paid subscriber in Cebu, just send DUO CEB ON to 8888. The system will assist you in subscribing to the service. You will get an SMS message containing the terms and conditions of the service which you have to accept by sending yes as a reply.

After you accept the terms, you will then get a message that will contain your “landline” number. The service becomes immediately active and you can call and get calls from any landline number in Cebu, whether Globe or PLDT.

Dela Cruz said Globe invested on an advance call management platform to detect which type of call is being made. He also said Globe is upgrading its network capacity “ahead of demand.”

Prepaid users in Cebu can enroll themselves into Globe DUO by texting DUO CEB 125 or DUO CEB 350. The amounts are for the two prepaid subscription plans: P125 for five days and P350 for 14 days.

When I asked a Globe official why they didn’t have an option for monthly prepaid subscriptions, he said they are encouraging users to get a Globe postpaid plan so that they can enjoy freebies that come with their monthly subscriptions. With the service, Globe is apparently out to expand its subscriber base.

While it’s prepaid services may be more expensive than PLDT Landline Plus, which has a P300 monthly plan, Globe allows unlimited calling to landlines and other DUO users. In PLDT Landline Plus, you have to pay by the minute once you exceed your plan’s free allocation. And unlike PLDT Landline Plus, Globe DUO is just an add-on to your mobile phone subscription. You don’t need a separate SIM and phone for it.

Globe denies throttling peer-to-peer traffic, works to normalize downloads

Max Limpag — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:08:51 +0000

Globe has denied implementing any bandwidth capping for peer-to-peer downloads. The company said in a press statement that it is working to restore downloading through peer-to-peer applications in Globe Broadband. It also said, however, that the company will consider limiting bandwidth if it detects “abusive usage.”

“You may experience slow downloading using peer-to-peer applications. Restoration is currently ongoing. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you. Rest assured that steps are already being taken so that the service will normalize the soonest possible time. Thank you for bearing with us,” Globe said in a press statement.

Globe said there was an incident last Friday, May 15, “that affected P2P applications.”

“This is being corrected today and your connection experience will be back to normal by tomorrow,” Globe said in the statement.

The statement by Menchie Cruz, Globe corporate communications head, included a listing of frequently asked questions that included a denial that the company implements bandwith capping.

“We are not implementing any bandwidth capping at this time,” Globe said.

But will Globe implement any bandwidth capping in the future?

“We will have to review our network set-up and take appropriate action, if we detect abusive usage that degrades the quality of the network and affect other subscribers’ experience,” the company said.

The company said it will cap bandwidth “if there is a clear need to protect all Globe subscribers from a few abusive users.”

One more reason to love Nokia: standard audio jacks

Max Limpag — Sun, 10 May 2009 19:03:08 +0000

(This is for my Sun.Star Cebu column on Tuesday, May 12, 2009)

Two Nokia phones I’ve recently tested steeled my conviction to transfer to the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer from Sony Ericsson, whose phones I’ve been using for at least a decade. The two units, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and N96, have standard jacks for audio and video-out connections.

With standard audio jacks, you can use regular headphones, including those you buy for laptops or personal computers, with your mobile phone. Not only do you have more choices when it comes to the quality or design, you also have more options when it comes to the price.

With the current design of mobile phone accessories like earphones and external speakers, you are locked into the phone manufacturer’s usually expensive product offerings. The other option is to risk buying cheap knockoffs that at times conk out in less than a week.

USE REGULAR HEADPHONES. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has a standard audio jack and you can use any type of headphone with it. Above, a regular PC headphone works with the device.

These “original” accessories cost so much more than many branded earphones sold in gadget and computer shops. With standard audio jacks in phones, you can choose to buy these types of earphones instead. Most of these earphones, which cost less than “original” phone headsets, have excellent audio quality.

With the 5800 and N96, I was able to use my headphone of choice, the so-called circumaural headphones or those with earmuff designs, instead of the current fad, the earbuds. I used the headphones, bought for use with a laptop, both to listen to songs and talk—you just have to hold the phone like a walkie-talkie because while you are using the headphone to listen to the conversation, you need to use the phone’s built-in mic to talk.

Earmuff headphones are cooler, with its retro look, and more comfortable. Earbuds, on the other hand, may lead to hearing loss, according to a previous study.

I don’t know how hard it is from an engineering standpoint to use standard audio jacks as connectors for earphones but with Nokia’s move, there is a chance the other manufacturers will be spurred into following. Nokia isn’t the phone manufacturing leader for nothing.

In my extensive experience with Sony Ericsson, the audio connectors are among the first victims of wear and tear. After a year of extensive use of the headset that comes shipped with the phone, you start experiencing sporadic connectivity and sometimes the music—or worse, the conversation—gets cut off repeatedly and you have to wiggle the connecting points to recover the connection. You don’t have this problem with standard audio jacks.

What’s worse is that these connectors are also the ones used for power and you’d also have to wiggle the connectors when charging your phone.

I don’t know what spurred the company to take the design decision but it shows a lot of respect for standards and consumer choice. I’ve always thought how great it would be for phones to be engineered like personal computers, with standardized parts that you can interchange and upgrade.

That might be impossible but building on standard components like regular audio jacks is a good start. Soon, we can have standard ports for PC connectivity, such as mini-USB, or even power connections. That way, we can use interchangeable chargers or PC connectivity cables.

Microsoft launches Windows Server 2008 Foundation in Cebu

Max Limpag — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:46:14 +0000

Microsoft Philippines launched this morning in Cebu the Windows Server 2008 Foundation, its server solution for small and medium businesses.

Microsoft Philippines Geo-Expansion Lead Boy Bawal said the product will help small companies grow their businesses and boost their competitiveness.

Windows Server 2008 Foundation is a server solution that allows a company with less than 15 computer users to set up a network with file and print sharing, remote access, security and other general server capabilities. It comes bundled with server hardware that can cost as low as P57,000. Bawal said this is the first time that a server software is offered at this price point.

The product, Microsoft officials say, is targeted at first time server users.

For the first time, Bawal said companies no longer have to pay client access license for each user of the system.

SERVER FOR SMALL COMPANIES. Boy Bawal of Microsoft Philippines says that Windows Server 2008 Foundation is the first time that a server software is offered as a hardware bundle for as low as P57,000. He said the product will help small companies grow their businesses and boost their competitiveness.

Bill Hilf, general manager of Microsoft Corp. server and tools, said anyone with rudimentary computer skills can deploy the basic server function of the package. He said Windows Server 2008 Foundation offers onscreen software wizards that guide users in setting the system as a file server or any other network configuration.

Hilf said that in making the product, they had two key principles in mind: lower the price to make it affordable to smaller companies and make it simple to deploy.

Nicky Eala, server business group head of Microsoft Philippines, said the system is something small businesses can just buy, turn on and have a working office network.

Hilf said more advance functions of the server can be set up with the help of solutions providers. He said deployment of the system can help spur local information technology (IT) solutions providers. Hilf also said they system also offers an upgrade path to other more advance Microsoft server products.

Hilf said the Philippines is an unusual market because 99.7 percent of establishments are micro, small and medium enterprises. He said 92 percent are micro-enterprises that employ one to nine employees. He said these businesses employ 70 percent of the labor market.

Hilf said his team stayed with small companies throughout the world to figure out their IT needs and how Microsoft can help provide them with solutions. He said they would typically see workers of small companies line up at the end of the day to log out from a single PC terminal with their attendance being printed out by an attached printer.

He said they also saw company workers burn data generated throughout the working day on a compact disc (CD) or DVD to serve as backup.

He said many of these companies typically use multiple desktops and just share files using CDs and other devices.

Hilf said these types of companies will greatly benefit from a networked solution.

He also said that unlike regular desktops, servers are designed to be always on and fault-tolerant.

By packaging the system with the hardware of partners like HP and IBM, Hilf said users can just go to the vendor for both hardware and software support.

Hilf also said that for every purchase of the system, Microsoft will donate a portion to Techsoup.org and Telecentre.org, which are groups working to build the capabilities of nongovernment organizations worldwide.

In the cloud? What if it all goes up in smoke? The case of my missing phone numbers

Max Limpag — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:50:04 +0000

LAST Thursday, I got the phone number of an elementary school friend I haven’t had contact with in more than a decade. After saving the contact info in the cellphone I am currently testing, a Nokia 5800, I immediately synchronized my phonebook with Zyb.

Zyb is a web-based service that stores your contact data. It has social networking features that plug into such sites as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

But Zyb’s core function is to make sure you have an updated (and backed up) copy of all your contact details. It is a very useful service especially when you get a new phone or use several units.

To make sure you always have the latest contact details of people, Zyb regularly reminds you to synchronize your phone book with its servers.

SYNCHRONIZING WITH ZYB. Zyb holds the latest copy of my phone contacts. The service regularly reminds you to synchronize your phonebook to make sure you have the latest copy of your phone contacts.

If you change your phone number, you don’t even have to give your new contact details to your contacts who also use Zyb. Your number will be automatically updated the next time they synchronize their phonebooks.

I’ve been using Zyb for close to three years and have become dependent on it. In all those years, I’ve never encountered major problems.

Until last Thursday.

The first indication of a problem was when I received a text message from an unlisted number asking me where I was and whether I wanted to go to Makati. I set it aside while working on an article for my section when I again received another text from the same number asking about the kids. Now, I’m pretty sure I only had kids with one woman so I knew something was wrong.

It was at this point that I checked the contacts menu to find that of my more than 150 phone contacts, only nine were left. These nine phone contacts were those that I saved in the past two weeks.

MISSING CONTACTS. Last Thursday, 152 of my phone contacts ended up getting deleted during a synchronization with Zyb. I was able to recover the phone numbers later.

With panic starting to set in, I decided to try synchronizing with Zyb again. After the second, third and succeeding attempts at synchronization, my phonebook still only had nine contacts and I was in full-blown panic mode. It’s bad enough to deal with such a technical snafu, it’s worse to do it on the road.

Zyb prides itself with keeping your data safe and I know I’d be able to restore all my contacts. I just wasn’t sure when and whether I could do it while on vacation.

Not knowing what else to do, I decided to check on my “Deleted contacts.” It was there that I found out that while synchronizing the 5800’s phonebook with Zyb, 152 of my phone contacts were deleted. It was a good thing the deletion wasn’t permit.

I just checked on the phone contacts I wanted to recover and after synchronizing my phone again, all my contacts were restored to my phonebook.

While everything ended well, the scare taught me to be wary of keeping data on “the cloud,” the metaphorical term for Internet-based services and data storage.

It’s not as if I did not have a previous warning.

In 2007, I had a lot of problems accessing key data and using online services when it took Globelines more than a month to restore Internet service at my home after that Taiwan quake. The service was cut off at the height of my experiment to make the Internet—The Network—my computer. The service cutoff was a very painful and costly lesson.

I have since transferred to a better Internet service provider and weaned myself from my dependence on online services. But Zyb was something I never thought would fail me. To be fair, it didn’t fail me last Thursday because I was still able to recover my contacts but it did give me a scare.

I’m buying a Rolodex.