YugaTech | Philippines, Technology News & Reviews » Daily Dose

Shooting with the QTube Crew on QTV 11

yuga — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:04:02 +0000

We did a taping for a new segment of QTube last week and another one this afternoon. The segment will focus on new gadgets and starts airing this Thursday.

Last week, we taped the segment for the Blackberry Storm and today we did the Asus Eee PC T91.

So while they’re fixing up the house, I thought I’d take my own shots of them and feature them here.

Makes me realize again how much easier it is just being a blogger. With TV shows like these, it takes a lot of people and a lot of time to do one segment.

You can catch the show this Thursday evening (around 10:15PM) on QTube.

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Merry Christmas from YugaTech!

yuga — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 05:27:01 +0000

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Incheon International Airport rocks!

yuga — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 09:47:12 +0000

Last week, I wrote about them blogger-friendly airports I’ve encountered in the last couple of years. Well, I’d like to add Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea on top of that list.

The Incheon Airport combines the best of Hong Kong IA and Changi Airport in terms of space, passenger-friendliness, accessibility and geeky leisure.

It’s geek paradise here — tons of open wide space and comfy chairs (good for sleeping too), free high-speed wifi all over, great bargain shops and a lounge that rocks. Food prices aren’t bad either.

At first I thought this section here was a restaurant or something until I realized it’s the a free lounge where people can stretch out in a corner, hook up their laptop and wait for boarding.

Each corner sofa comes with a small table for your laptop and drinks. Most tables have laptops hooked up online that you can use for free (here’s one with a Macbook tied up to the table). Under the sofa are individual power plugs and a LAN port (if you don’t have WiFi laptops.)

There’s a compartment below the sofa you can use to store some of your valuable stuff (don’t know where you can get the keys). Best of all there are about a dozen WiFi hotspots that are blazing fast. Did one with SpeedTest below and it gave me 10Mbps down and 2Mbps up.

If there’s any other airport I’d rather be stuck with waiting for hours, the Incheon Airport will be it. Too bad it’s only open between 7am and 8pm each day so I don’t know if they cut the WiFi beyond that.

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Gadget Shopping at Seoul, South Korea Just landed this morning at Seoul, South Korea and will...

Does it feel like Christmas already?

yuga — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:10:40 +0000

I have nothing to write about today but I’d like to share this little milestone I had last night.

So just a quick note to my regular readers here — Happy Holidays!

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Blogging the Time Zone

yuga — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:33:54 +0000

Since I arrived here in Gummersbach City a couple of days ago, my blogging time has changed a bit as there’s a 7 hour difference between here and the Philippines.

So I’m writing this post at 7AM here but the sky is still dark outside and it doesn’t get any sun until 8:30 or so. Here’s a pic of my work table.

Took a panoramic shot out the window yesterday from my 7th floor room. Click on the thumbnail to see larger view. Walked downtown yesterday and the place was deserted.

They say Sunday is a mandatory rest day and no one’s allowed to work or man the stores.

Really small quite city with a population of about 54,000.

Here’s a photo of the Theodor-Heuss-Akademie on the top side of the hill where we’re housed. First time I saw the sun since I first came here last year — it’s still chilly at around 6 degrees.

The wifi in the building has now reached the upper floor rooms so I’m glad to get some blogging time in the evening and early mornings.

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Flying to Germany Will be flying to Germany today on a two-week workshop...

Blogger-Friendly Airports

yuga — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 10:29:52 +0000

In my travels abroad in the last three years, I’ve gone thru dozens of airports and only a few of them are really what I could call “blogger-friendly”. I think airports should have free wifi as part of their standard service to travelers.

So which airports are really blogger friendly? My top picks are Hong Kong International Airport and Changi International Airport in Singapore.

The Hong Kong Int’l Airport has free wifi all over the place, has a number of easily accessible power sockets for plugging your laptop and the departure gates are also open so you can surf all you want before boarding. There are also computer kioks with broadband internet you can use if you don’t have a laptop.

On second is Changi Airport in Singapore with free wifi but not so many places to plug in your laptops. The Wireless @ SG service now require visitors to sign up before getting the wifi service (the registration form though is confusing — couldn’t figure out the format for the required mobile number field). The departure gates are also separated from the shops via security gates. There are quite a number of PC kiosks around with internet.

The NAIA 2 terminal could have made it as a runner up had their so-called free wifi was working. At least, they now have that exclusive desk for laptop-users to use for re-charging. There are about 5 PC kiosks (probably sponsored by Samsung) which promises free internet use (though there was none when I tried using them).

I remember the Soekarno-Hatta Jakarta International Airport also had free wifi but power plugs are sparse. The Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand is also nice but free wifi is spotty.

To the frequent blogger travelers out there, which other airports do you think are blogger-friendly?

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Flying to Germany

yuga — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 23:57:54 +0000

Will be flying to Germany today on a two-week workshop and some traveling. This is the same one I moderated last year. It’s looking to be a yearly thing for me.

As such, expect the next couple of weeks to be a bit spotty in terms of blog posts. Blog posts will also be peppered with a little bit of non-tech too as we travel around Deutschland.

I also left my public mobile number at home to avoid too much charges on international roaming (someone will be answering that phone so you can also leave a message). I can still be reached via email but response will be sparse (so bear with me if it’s urgent).

I’ve left several scheduled posts in the next couple of days to fill in the gaps that I’m really away. I have this feeling I will be on Twitter most of the time so you can follow me there too.

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Blogging the Time Zone Since I arrived here in Gummersbach City a couple of...

GE Money Bank ATM crashes

yuga — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:28:29 +0000

For the past week, all ATM machines of GE Money Bank went offline because of a system-wide crash. The bank has been frantically fixing the problem ever since.

The problem started when the bank scheduled a system update which resulted into a crash.

The problem is that, according to a source, all ATM card PINs have been disabled. Was at one of the branches a couple of days ago and saw people coming in to have their new ATM PINs released to them.

GE Money Bank released this notice to the public:

ATM services have been restored, GE Money Bank ATM cardholders may claim their new ATM PINs at their branch of account starting Monday, Nov. 3, 2008 for Metro Manila branches, and Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008 for provincial branches. ATM PINs for payroll accounts may be claimed at their respective HR departments by Nov. 5, 2008. The old PINs are no longer valid. However, online services are still unavailable.

GE Money has close to 30 branches nationwide.

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Moo Mini Cards: An Expensive Lesson in Proofreading

yuga — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:30:27 +0000

I’ve been an avid fan of the Moo cards ever since they went online. The business/calling cards are of high quality and each one is unique so even if they’re coming in from London and are a little expensive, I ordered 3 boxes.

With all that excitement, I forgot to proofread my submission.

It’s an expensive mistake. All 300 cards have a typo with the mobile number.

Now, either I throw them away or invest in a nice White-Out and spend hours cleaning out the errors. Maybe the latter.

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Win a trip to Disneyland, Hong Kong with Asus

yuga — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:24:07 +0000

Asus is giving away free trips to Disneyland, Hong Kong for every purchase of a new Asus Eee PC 701 — that’s a 3 days 2 nights vacation for you and 3 of your family members.

Starting July 22, 2008 every purchase of an Asus EeePC 701 (2G or 4G) will entitle you to a raffle entry. Just write your name, address, signature, and contact information on a sheet of paper, along with a photocopy of the sales invoice, billing statement or delivery receipt and a cut out portion of the box where the serial number is indicated and send/mail it to 14 United St., Bo. Kapitolyo, Pasig City, 1603.

A total of one of eight (8) lucky families of four (4) will win a free vacation to Hong Kong and visit Disneyland. Promo starts July 22 and ends August 15, 2008.

Note: Current SRP of the Asus Eee PC 701 is around php14,000. Check out the specs here and read my review here.

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The Typhoon that busted my DSL Modem

yuga — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:23:45 +0000

In the years that typhoons have hit Metro Manila, none have dealt much damage to electronics at home. That’s until Typhoon Frank hit Manila this week-end. It’s all Frank’s fault – the metrowide blackout busted my DSL modem.

When the power went back on, everything seemed normal except for the SpeedStream 5100 ADSL modem that PLDT provided with my line. The damn thing just won’t turn on again. Nothing, nil zilch. Must have been fried or something.

Already reported to PLDT Customer Service about it and they promised to replace the modem with a newer model. Hopefully, they’d deliver it soon — like tomorrow.

If not, I’m looking into getting my own backup DSL modem. Anybody know where I could get one for cheap?

For the meantime, I could be spending some Php300+ a day on Smart 3G.

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US Airports searching inside laptops?

yuga — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:34:51 +0000

If you’re traveling to the United States and happen to bring your laptop, iPod or other electronic gadgets with you, airport or border authorities can actually search for data in them.

The Guardian UK has the story:

Last month a US court ruled that border agents can search your laptop, or any other electronic device, when you’re entering the country. They can take your computer and download its entire contents, or keep it for several days. Customs and Border Patrol has not published any rules regarding this practice, and I and others have written a letter to Congress urging it to investigate and regulate this practice.

But the US is not alone. British customs agents search laptops for pornography.

Various reasons may prompt this thorough security check — unlicensed softwares, pirated music, porn videos, terrorist plans? Who knows what else they could be on the look-out.

My previous visits to other countries haven’t gone this far. At the Changi Airport terminal, they’d ask passengers to take out their laptops from their bags and separately run them thru the scanners. Worst experience I had was at the Karachi Airport in Pakistan where airport police turned my luggage inside-out, leaving my clothes and laundry on the floor.

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Incheon International Airport rocks! Last week, I wrote about them blogger-friendly airports I’ve encountered...

Twitter by the Numbers

yuga — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:24:44 +0000

Twitter has a relatively nice growth in the past year. Amidst the cloud of hype, some numbers are finally making their way out into the clearing. Pretty interesting stats.

The numbers will speak for themselves. By March 2008, Twitter has:

Total Users: 1+ million (1.3 million by April 2008 according to Silicon Alley)
Total Active Users: 200,000 per week
Total Twitter Messages: 3 million/day

That 200k users per week sending out 3 million messages per day boils down to 105 messages per day per active user. That’s a ton of twittering per day! According to TC, the active users doubled in just 2 months — 100k per week in January 2008 — a quick jump from 50k/week back in April 2007. No wonder Twitter has been reportedly suffering from numerous downtimes recently.

Twitter is also testing some ads and is on its first dibs into making some real money.

Twitter Japan has been spotted to ad streaming ads on the right side of the website — advertisers moving to where the conversations are. From the looks on that screenshot, Toyota just became the first advertiser on Twitter.

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eBay to sell Skype

yuga — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:47:56 +0000

After just over 2 years of acquiring VoIP service Skype, eBay may be selling off the unit if it does not find anything of significant use for it in its core business. If that happens later this year, Skype could be the largest single useless acquisition ever.

According to the Financial Times:

The comments from John Donahoe, who took over at the end of last month, are the most direct indication yet that Ebay is thinking of scrapping the ill-starred acquisition. It paid $3.1bn, but wrote down the value of the business by $1.4bn last year after concluding it would not match earlier hopes.

Ebay originally believed that Skype would oil the wheels of its online markets by making communications easier between buyers and sellers, while also supporting new business models such as “click to call”. Nearly three years after the acquisition, however, Ebay has yet to prove Skype can help its other businesses.

Skype reportedly had $126 million in revenues for the 1st Quarter of 2008, a 61% growth from same quarter last year. Top that with an additional 33 million new users for a total of 309 million worldwide.

That’s a relatively impressive performance in itself but the $2.4 billion (acquisition price devalued later on by eBay) service may not fit well with eBay’s plan to expand its growth.

If that happens, some bigger player could come into the scene. Google perhaps? Google Talk isn’t doing any good so buying Skype may be a good move.

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Updates, updates… and more Updates!

yuga — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:43:44 +0000

A deluge of updates from popular gadgets to freewares and stats. Check them out after the jump.

WordPress 2.3.3 is now out with some bugs fixes and an urgent security release.
Microsoft also announced that Windows Vista SP1 is out. Hope this Service Pack fixed all the kinks. There are still some issue with Vista drivers though.
Apple quietly announced as 16GB iPhone and a 32GB iPod Touch. Should be released worldwide within a month. US SRP is both at $499 but I guess the price would jump to Php25,000 to Php30,000 when it reaches the shops. There’s also the Pink Nano for Valentines.
Google just announced some new security services to their Google Apps, c/o the recently bought security company Postini.
Intel made some more clarifications on their recently announced Silverthorne mobile processor.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Social Sites Don’t Deliver Big Ad Gains“. I’m sure this is not a surprise to anybody.
Opera Mobile 9.5 is announced, with Flash-support, widget-ready and Web 2.0 enabled. Opera tops the mobile browsers again. Even Apple’s Safari browser for the iPhone/iTouch doesn’t support Web 2.0 sites natively.
Amazon has this new program called Paper Click Ads.

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A very Merry New Year!

yuga — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:51:31 +0000

I’d like to greet everyone a grand new year. 2007 is so last year. Let’s all welcome 2008.

Here’s to another fruitful year to everyone!

P.S. Too bad there won’t be any World Pyro Olympics this year.

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Merry Christmas to all!

yuga — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:31:23 +0000

While the night is young and I still have time, I’d like to greet all my readers, friends and fellow bloggers a very Merry Christmas!

Malipayun nga Paskua sa inyo nga Tanan!

Hope everyone’s having a great time with friends, family and loved ones.

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Calling all Wii Gamers!

yuga — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 05:33:58 +0000

If you own a Nintendo Wii or maybe even a Wii Fanboy, you might be interested in guesting for GMA 7’s Unang Hirit show tomorrow morning (Monday) at around 6AM.

Just bring your Wii and games so you can play them on the set during airtime. There will be a crew that will pick you up and your stuff before call time. If interested, call or text Aubrey of Unang Hirit at 0906.315.86.94 (m) or 9827777 loc. 3028.

See you there.

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