Now back to the Nokia 5800. The now available firmware version 50.0.005 via the Nokia Software Updater is such a welcome update to my older Symbian OS firmware. One of the most welcome new feature for me has been the ability to browse lists like Contacts, menus using kinetic scrolling technology. Kinetic scrolling is a feature that has been introduced in touch screen enabled mobile phones that allow for fast scrolling of long lists just by swiping a finger. This is such a productive feature especially when I’m trying to scroll thru my Addressbook.

The Nokia 5800 firmware update also includes updated versions of  Maps 3.0 with Share location feature, Browser, and Ovi Music. The web browsing seems to be a bit faster now. Things I’d like to have though is an automatic fit to screen resizing of web pages and better handling of tabs or windows much like the Opera Mobile web browser that is also available on the Nokia 5800.

There are also improvements to the Ovi Sync and Ovi Store applications. To be able to update to version 50.0.005 firmware, you need to do it via the Nokia Software Updater on a PC. The Over-the-Air feature (direct updating using the Nokia 5800 phone) doesn’t seem to work. You can check the current version of your Nokia 5800 XpressMusic mobile phone by typing in *#0000# on the home screen.

Update: Just found out that version 51.0.006 for the Nokia 5800 is already available but it’s not yet available for the Philippines.

And what do you get from the Nokia C6 from that price point? For one thing, besides the touch screen display, you get a slide-in physical keyboard. This should make the more affordable and modern smartphone within the reach of the younger generation who loves text messaging.

I’ve seen teens buying the popular E63 and E71 because of their physical keyboard. But the Nokia E71 and E63 screen size is just not good enough for seriously browsing the web. With the Nokia C6 having that 640×360 screen and an improved web browser, people are bound to get more out of the web especially if you’re into social sites like Facebook and Twitter which are popular sites in the Philippines.

What’s even more exciting about the new Nokia C6 is that it can also run Ovi Maps which is still the best freely available navigation software for Philippine users. The GPS in the Nokia C6 is also a fun feature if you’re into location based social services.

The Nokia C6 has also other features such as bluetooth, Wifi, high speed HSDPA connectivity, quadband GSM for world wide phone operation compatibility. And Nokia has even preloaded the C6 with Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger software for people who love instant messaging. I see the Nokia C6 to start becoming a popular mobile phone choice for Philippine users who just loves the Internet, online chatting and SMS messaging. After all the Philippines is known as the Text Messaging capital of the World.

The Samsung Galaxy 5 sports a TFT capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 240×320 pixels and a screen size of 2.8 inches. This Android cell phone is smaller and lighter than the Samsung Spica. It also has a slower CPU clocked at 600 Mhz. And a bit smaller memory at 170MB compared to the Samsung Spica’s 180MB internal memory. But the Galaxy 5 comes with a lot of the features that you’d expect from a modern touchscreen phone like an accelerometer, GPS, bluetooth, wifi, quadband GSM, HSDPA. It also has a builtin Stereo FM receiver with RDS which is something lacking on the Samsung Spica. It has a 2 megapixel camera. The Android OS that comes installed with the mobile phone is version 2.1.

The Samsung Galaxy 5 Android phone is about 12,000 pesos which is priced a little below the Samsung Galaxy Spica. Personally, from a market perspective, I would like to have Samsung price it a bit more below at the less than 10,000 peso price range that would surely fit into what seems to be the average teen budget for mobile phones in the Philippines. With the Samsung Spica being only about a thousand plus pesos more expensive than the Galaxy 5 aka i5500, I’d recommend that you buy the more capable Samsung Spica.

The LG GT540 comes in black, white colors and also pink for the ladies. The LG Optimus Android phone has a TFT resistive touchscreen capable of 256K colors (65K effective) with a pixel resolution of 320 x 480 pixels and display size of 3.0 inches. It has the basic specs that you’d expect from an Android based mobile phone which includes a GPS, accelerometer for user interface auto-rotate, HSDPA capability, quadband GSM, 3.5mm audio jack, 3-megapixel autofocus camera, wifi, bluetooth, stereo FM radio with RDS.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It comes with Android OS version 1.6 which I hope LG would update soon. Other software loaded on the Android mobile phone includes social networking integration such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo with live updates. Standard mobile apps from Google such as Search, Maps and Gmail are also found on the mobile phone. One interesting feature is it’s support of DivX videos like the Samsung Spica.

And of course if the loaded mobile apps is not enough for your liking, you can always get more apps from the Android Market.

If you want to know more about what Android version 2.2 has to offer, you can watch the youtube video below about Froyo:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The newest Android mobile phones in the Philippines now sport higher resolutions and faster processors than the ones I have seen previously. The Sony Ericcson Xperia X10, HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy S are three new Android phones you can find in the Philippines.

The Samsung Galaxy S is the latest Android mobile phone to arrive in the Philippines. I think it is currently available only from Globe Telecoms. It has a 4.0 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. Samsung uses its own ARM Cortex A8 1GHz processor on the Galaxy S. The other specifications include HSPA speed, Wi-fi, bluetooth, a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, a secondary VGA camera, GPS, accelerometer, proximity sensor, an FM radio. It has 512MB of RAM, 2GB of ROM and either an 8GB or 16GB internal storage plus it supports an additional 32GB of external storage via a microSD slot. The Samsung Galaxy S is about 32,000+ pesos as a prepaid kit from Globe Telecoms.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is one such Android phone. The Xperia X10 has a 4.0 inch TFT capacitive touch screen display with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. It uses the speedier 1Ghz Snapdragon processor. It also has the features you’d expect from a modern connected phone like HSPA speed, Wi-fi, bluetooth, a 8-megapixel camera, LED flash, GPS, accelerometer and proximity sensor. It has a 1GB internal storage and 384MB of RAM. It supports 32GB of external storage via a microSD slot. The Xperia X10 is the most expensive of the three Android phones which is about 35,000+ pesos.

The HTC Desire is an Android phone similar in specifications and design to the Google branded Nexus One. It has a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. It uses the 1Ghz Snapdragon processor. The other specifications include HSPA speed, Wi-fi, bluetooth, a 5-megapixel camera, LED flash, GPS, accelerometer, proximity sensor, optical trackpad and an FM radio. It has 512MB of RAM. It supports 32GB of external storage via a microSD slot. The HTC Desire is about 32,000+ pesos.

That brings to about 7 Android mobile phones that are officially sold locally in the Philippines and it is probably just the start. For instance, Motorola still hasn’t officially announce local availability of its Android mobile phones. Also interesting to see is whether other brands will start to appear in the local market. I’m already seeing a lot of interest in Android mobile phones in the Philippines not only from ordinary users but also from local mobile developers.

On July 30 Google will begin purchasing the clean energy from 114 megawatts of wind generation at the NextEra Energy Resources Story County II facility in Iowa at a predetermined rate for 20 years powering several data centers. The wind farm, which began operation in December 2009, consists of 100 GE 1.5MW XLE turbines.

This recent action of Google to enter into a long term contract to purchase power generation using clean technology encourages energy generation companies to use clean and green tech. I hope that other big companies would follow because green house effects has reached a point that everyone should do its share to minimize it — especially the big corporations.

From an article in the New Scientist, it looks like Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman has turned down both fame and fortune for solving one of the most difficult problems in mathematics (relating to the properties of three-dimensional spheres).

Perelman turned down the mathematic’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize called the Fields Medal and the Clay Mathematics Institute offer $1 million prize for the resolution.

It seems the reason is that Perelman finds it unfair to accept them because not all the work leading to the resolution of the mathematical problem can be attributed to him.

Maybe the Clay Institute can just setup a Perelman fund that will help mathematically gifted students to get free education in developing countries. What do you think?

Besides creating web sites, I am very fascinated with the idea of the mobile phone evolving into something more and more like a computer that we use everyday to surf the web. I’m actually fortunate enough to be seeing this happening now.

More and more computer like mobile phones like Nokia N900 or Android phones like the Samsung Spica are being available on the market. These mobile phones have GPS as a standard feature not to mention fast processors and high resolution displays. These features allow people to create services that allow consumers to use their phone to find things like shops, products, services that are actually near their current location by using the GPS on their mobile phones.

This is such a great thing both for mobile phone users and business establishments for one main reason – discoverability. It’s now easier for people to find what they need and for business to be found by people.

For me, it’s great since I would now be able to start pushing forward with ideas that I have for quite a while. So now what actually began as a hobby with ortigas.com will now actually become my own startup. I’ve done quite a bit of work already to get it started and during the coming months I am planning to create services that would allow people to access Ortigas Online using their mobile phone. Really exciting times ahead!

The main reason I want a notebook is mobility. Of course I also want some decent processing power under the hood aside from the mobility since I want to be able to use it for some development work. But at the end of the day I want to be able to use my notebook without having to look for an electric outlet.

One of the pains I’ve experienced with other notebooks is that after a maximum of 2 hours I find myself looking for a wall outlet. With a Macbook or Macbook Pro, you can easily spend 5 hours of use without having to worry about recharging your notebook. I’ve even been able to use my Macbook Pro for almost 7 hours before having to recharge it.

One reason is price. At 50,000+ pesos for an entry level Macbook, obviously a Macbook is not for everyone. But if you’re looking for a mid to high level notebook then you should seriously consider buying a Macbook if only for the battery life it offers.

But I wouldn’t stop there. I can think of several other compelling reasons why choose a Macbook. One of them is viruses. Mac OS X is based on the Unix operating system. One inherent problems with Windows is viruses. I still use Windows and it’s a pain having to always concern myself with installing and updating an anti-virus. Not to mention the extra processing it entails on the computer having that anti-virus running in the background.

When I starting using my Macbook, one other reason I am beginning to love it is the multi-touch trackpad — all trackpads should be made this way. For the first time since I’ve been using notebooks, I have actually found myself not connecting a computer mouse to my notebook. Using a multi-touch trackpad is so much easier than other trackpads on notebooks — it’s much more natural.

And of course there’s the easy to use Mac OS X and the way it just works with the Macbook hardware. Being a Linux/Ubuntu user, I just love having those multiple virtual workspaces. At first, I was a bit skeptical about using Mac OS X as my main environment. It turns out after a couple of days, I love how easy it is to use plus I still get to be able to use both Windows and Linux on the Macbook.

So if you’re looking for a notebook at the Macbook price range, I recommend you’d seriously consider getting a Macbook. The battery life is simply great and all the other benefits of having a Mac are simply icing on the cake.