We know that this may be out-dated by all standards but we never really had the chance to do a full review of the dual-core smartphone from Cherry Mobile locally known as the Magnum 2X. Now that we have a review unit from the Philippine-based cellphone manufacturer, we thought to give it a fair airtime.
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We’ve finally got our hands on the mid-range offspring of the Nokia-Microsoft partnership, the Lumia 710. The Windows Phone powered smartphone just sits perfectly in between its entry-level sibling Lumia 610 and its high-end counterpart Lumia 800. Check out our full review after the break.
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This year, the new flavor of Google’s mobile OS will be Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0 ICS) and majority, if not all, of the flagship handsets that will be launched this year will have it pre-installed so we thought it’s best to give you a comprehensive walkthrough on what to expect from ICS.
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AT&T just announced a number of new Windows Phone 7 (Mango) smartphones in its line-up. Among them is a 4.3-incher, Super AMOLED Plus Samsung Focus S.
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We had a closer look of LG’s first ever Android phone today — the LG Optimus (LG GT540). LG Philippines is positioning it to be the most affordable Android phone in the country with a suggested retail price of Php12,900.
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The Samsung Galaxy S is among the most anticipated Android phones to date. So after using the handset for over a week, I’m handing down my verdict. Check out the full review of the Samsung Galaxy S GT-i9000 after the jump.
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First time I got hold of the NX10 from Samsung, I thought it’s a nice-looking compact dSLR. Turns out it’s not really an SLR, or even a micro-4/3 or even a hybrid. The Samsung NX10 falls under an entirely new category and Samsung intends to carve a market for it.
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The mobile SIM card comes with a PUK (Personal Unblocking Key) code or PIN (personal identification number). The main purpose of these codes is to provide a security.
These codes are normally used to prevent your SIM card from unauthorized use, theft or loss. The PUK is enclosed in a machine-generated security paper. Make sure to take care in storing this paper as it will be your only copy.
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If you’re using free WordPress and Joomla themes, then you should check your theme files for some malicious codes. This issue was first raised by Derek of 5ThiryOne (via JaypeeOnline) which hit Digg’s frontpage the other day. One of Derek’s free WordPress themes have actually been modified and inserted with malicious codes.
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It’s heaven for the gadget freak. The Challenger retail store at Funan Digitallife Mall in Singapore is the place to be when shopping for the latest tech toys and gadgets. All six floors are dedicated to top of the line stuff at rock bottom prices. I must have wiped out my entire credit line at HSBC in less than an hour.
On our first night at Singapore, I saw this feature of a gadget shop on cable TV. The unique this about this Challenger is that it has two pricing schemes — a regular price for the one-time shopper and a discounted price for members (I spared no time in subscribing as a member. Just SG$30 for 2 years.). To give you an idea of how much some of the stuff there, here’s an estimated list I got from memory:
Compaq Presario V3000 (Code Duo 1.73GHz, 14.1″ WXGA, 120GB HDD, 512DDR2 RAM) – Php31k
Dell 22″ Widescreen Flat LCD Monitor – Php15k
Nokia N95 – Php33k
That Presario laptop is about Php49k here in Manila, a 22″ Samsung LCD is Php25k last time I checked and the Nokia N95 is around Php44k. Yay, I almost bought that N95. On top of that, you get a rebate from GST of around 8% if I’m not mistaken. You just show it in the customs at the airport and they’ll give you back some cash for all your receipts. Some gadgets like the iPod Nano, the Nintendo DS Lite and the Sony PSP are somewhat the same price as we have here. Will do a rundown of gadget reviews in the next posts.
Mp3newswire.net did a round-up of potential iPod killers for Summer 2006.
Looking for an MP3 player and you are open to units other than the iPod? I doubt any of these units will be iPod killers (that silly term their marketing departments continue to use), but they do offer a lot of features not (yet) found on an iPod. As we said before, individually there is no such thing as an iPod killer, but together these players can slowly chip away at Apple’s market share. That’s making the assumption that the iPod’s ability to sell three out of every four players is not sustainable. iTunes does lock a lot of users into Apple’s DRM format, so it may be a really slow chipping away.
- Toshiba Gigabeat S
- Samsung SBH-300 Bluetooth
- Sony NW-A1200 with 8GB
- NEC VoTol
- Sandisk Sansa e200 Series
- Oregon Scientific MP121 Measures BMI
- Samsung YP-U2
- Viliv P1
- Viliv P2 with GPS
- iRiver E10 Subs as TV Remote
- Panasonic D-Snap SD 330 series and SD 500 series
- Archos 104
- Venzero One
- MobiBLU Cube 2
- MobiBLU B153
- RCA Lyra X3000
- Delkin Revel
- JVC XA-F107 and XA-F57
- Acer MP-500
- Dada Code M
- iRiver Clix
- Samsung YP-Z5
- Maxfield Max-Joy Protects the Ears
- Lenovo Easy Cube MP500
- Kiss MP3 Player
- Sony Thumb-drive Player
- Tomy Bear MP3
- Inkel Widetouch 5.6
- Sharp Music Carry QT-MPA10
- Memorex MMP8565
- Memorex 8550 and 3774
- Shiro AS
- Evergreen DN-2000 (sells for less than $10! )
Ok, not all of the media players in the list are really worth it — some are just out of the iPod’s league while others are just cutesy. But if I were in a world where Apple does not exist, I would go for Viliv P2 with GPS (yup, GPS) –
4.3 inch color LCD widescreen, 60GB storage, supports MPEG-1/2/4, H.264, DivX, WMV 7/8/9, XviD, MP3, WMA, OGG, AC-3, and WAV.
[tags]apple, ipod, nano, media player, mp3[/tags]
In this very long and seemingly unending battle between the CICT and local domain registrar/administrator dotPH, the government will ask ICANN to strip dotPH of domain functions.
Manila Bulletin has the story:
The Commission on ICT (CICT), the government’s main agency for ICT matters, will ask the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to rescind the authority it has delegated to dotPH Domains Inc. to issue country code level domains (ccTLD) if the latter would not relinquish control as a registrar and administrator at the same time.
“It has to choose only one function: either as registrar or as administrator. But it can’t have both,” said CICT chair Virgilio Peña during the sidelines of a media briefing meant to update the public on the Philippine position in the recently concluded World Summit on the Information Society held in Tunis, Tunisia.
Peña headed the local delegation which included CICT Commissioner Emmanuel Lallana, Sun Microsystems Philippines president Cynthia R. Mamon, and Foundation for Media Alternatives executive director Alan Alegre.
At the Tunis summit, Peña said he was able to talk to ICANN president and CEO Paul Twomey who gave the assurance that the recommendation of the Philippine government concerning the current domain debacle will be given weight, if not followed, by the ICANN.
I am posting the simple hack I made with using dynamic images to replace the date entries of my blog. Just follow the short tutorial here to implement the same with your WordPress blog:
- Create your own date image template in Photoshop. Make sure that you layout them so that the month, day and year are all distinct from each other and not overlapping. See my example here :
- Using the ruler guide in Photoshop, slice the template into three parts.
- You will need to determine the date format you use in your blog. Mine uses day of week, day and month. Now create individual images using the sliced template and name them accordingly. For day of week, the naming convention is mon.gif, tue.gif, … sun.gif; for the day — 1.gif,… 30.gif; for the month — jan.gif, feb.gif,… dec.gif.
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Note: If you use full date names, you will need to name your GIF files similarly (i.e. Friday, February 22, 2005 will use “friday.gif”, “february.gif”, “22.gif” and “2005.gif”).
- Now, we’re ready to hack the WP date function to replace text dates with images. Go to your WP theme folder and look for the post.php file and open it for editing. Note: depending on the WP theme you use, the file could also be index.php.
- Look for the date function as such:
< ?php the_time('D, M j') ?>
You will need to break that into 3 parts like this:
< ?php the_time('D') ?>
< ?php the_time('M') ?>
< ?php the_time('j') ?>
Now we edit them so the code echos the image equivalent:
< ?php $d = strtolower(get_the_time('D')); echo ("< img src= 'wp-images/{$d}.gif' > “); ?>
< ?php $m = strtolower(get_the_time('M')); echo ("< img src= 'wp-images/{$m}.gif' > “); ?>
< ?php $j = strtolower(get_the_time('j')); echo ("< img src = 'wp-images/{$j}.gif' > “); ?>
- You will need to check on the date format parameter string if you have a different date format.
I hope that was fairly simple to understand. 
I’m not sure if this hack can be made into a plugin though.
Yesterday, Auction.ph launched the 3rd installation of their popular Barkada Txt Promo. This SMS event allow users to get free e-Load credits (Globe, Touch Mobile, Smart, Talk ‘N Text, Addict Mobile, and Sun Cellular) or Auction.ph e-Money. Essentially, you get Php30 e-Load by referring new friends to join Auction.ph (up first 20 referrals only or Php600 of e-Load or e-Money for post-paid). Your friend also gets the free e-Load too.
