Is TV Obsolete?

The increased number of online users is the reason why internet providers are doing well in terms of business. With an internet connection present, accessing news and entertainment is just within our reach. But has the Internet made television obsolete?

Ask yourself this: “how many hours per week do I still get to watch TV – whether may it be news, movies or series?”

If you answered ’0-10 hours per week’ and the reason is because of the internet, then perhaps you would agree that Internet is cannibalizing television. In fact, the internet is killing TV in one way or another. With torrent and entertainment sites like The Pirate Bay and Get Glue, who says we still need to open the television to watch “True Blood” on HBO and allow advertisements to ruin the momentum?

And with Youtube around, there’s no more need to worry about missing our favorite news or teleseryes, right?

Throughout the years, there has been a sea-change on both the way we look at TV shows and TV sets.

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US Ambassador Harry K. Thomas, Jr. Champions Embassy's Online Presence

The Protocol Office of the United States Embassy in Manila invited over a few friends and media to grace the Reception to Internet Freedom last Friday, March 25. Fortunate am I to be one of the guests, we were welcomed by nonetheless the US Ambassador Harry K. Thomas, Jr. himself.

The simple gathering was formally opened by the Ambassador with a brief speech, then awarding the prize to their Facebook's 20,000th fan, and quickly followed by a short question and answer portion.

The reception was called for to happily and proudly promote the efforts of the US Embassy in Manila on its online and social media activities, complementing the landmark address of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's foreign policy speech on Internet Freedom.

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Nokia E7 Unboxing

Officially launched in the Philippines last March 24, 2011, the Nokia E7 is tagged as the ultimate smartphone, especially targeting the businessmen who are always on-the-go.

Why ultimate smartphone? It enables access to private and business email; allows the creation, editing and sharing of office documents, viewing of PDF files with Adobe Reader; has fast, secure intranet access with the built-in VPN; takes high-resolution photos and HD video with the 8 megapixel camera and dual LED flash; allows HDMI connectivity to project files, videos and images onto large screens. The phone has 16 gigabytes of on-board flash memory and USB-On-The-Go, enabling easy file sharing by connecting a USB stick to the smartphone.

While I show the unboxing photos of the smartphone below, don't forget to check out its specifications listed on my previous entry.

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Twestival Manila 2011 Needs You!

Manila, Philippines held a successful Twestival (or Twitter Festival) last March 24 at Le Bistro Vert, Makati amidst the very short preparation time. Joining several cities around the globe, this year's Twestival Manila (@TwestivalMNL) is the first ever Twitter event for a cause in the Philippines after the birth of Twestival in 2009.

Through the leadership of Rosario Juan (@juanxi), volunteers like Tonyo (@tonyocruz), Marga (@diskodiablo), Charlene (@takeoutsushi), Jonver (@jonver_david), Nina (@ninaterol), yours truly, and a lot more took the time off to plan on and offline for Twestival Manila 2011, which supports JeepneED Inc.

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Nokia E7 Lands the Philippines

The highly anticipated Nokia E7 ultimate smartphone has officially been launched by Nokia Philippines on March 24, 2011 at the Rizal Ballroom of Makati Shangri-la.

Those who have pre-ordered the smartphone online will be able to claim it until March 29, 2011. All others can purchase the E7 units locally available in Nokia stores nationwide by March 31, 2011 for the SRP of Php32,000, in colors Dark Grey and Silver White. Read the specifications here.

Launching the smartphone with a beach theme, Nokia E7 presses the fact that businessmen and non-businessmen alike can do work and access work-related communications even when at the beach or anywhere outside office.

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WinilaCity Presents Philippines

There's a new website in town that offers great deals at amazingly huge discounts -- it's called WinilaCity. Launched in March 2011, WinilaCity is a complementary website to Winila, which offers online auctions for the latest gadgets, games, and lifestyle products. WinilaCity is a group-buying website.

How does WinilaCity work?

You need to sign up to WinilaCity.com by either entering your details or connecting your Facebook profile. Once signed up, come back to the site from time to time or wait for newsletters on your e-mail to know about the latest deals.

Deals on bars, restaurants, spa, stores, etc. will have a timer that tells you when the offer expires. If the minimum number of people participates, the deal is on and the voucher will be sent to your email address the next day. However, if not enough people join, no one gets the deal and your payment will not be charged.

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Thank you, Oishi!

Are you the type of person who wants to receive surprise gifts/packages at home? I do! Last March 17, work day went so fast as I kept on thinking the upcoming church retreat the next day. Little did I know that I'd be coming home seeing a huge Oishi paper bag and a heavy 24-bottle filled box. I thought, "Surprise, Glenn!"

Without any bias or dishonesty (because this is not a paid entry nor was it requested to be blogged), most of the products that were sent to me are the ones we really patronize. A few of them were new, but majority are products we often buy from the supermarket.

Let me run down a few of the products:

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Pre-Order the Nokia E7 until March 22

Hesitant to buy a Nokia N8 until now, because it's just a full touchscreen phone? Hail the Nokia E7, a touchscreen phone with a slide-out keyboard. It's Nokia and it's an E-series phone, so expect to get a great deal out of the Finnish company's new business phone.

You can pre-order your own Nokia E7 online until March 22, 2011 at the price of Php32,000. No pre-payment needed. The first 500 will also take home a Nokia DC-11k charger, a lightweight mobile power pack lets you power up two devices at the same time, for free!

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Yoshinoya + Century Bangus = Winner Dish!

There's a new dish at Yoshinoya that you need to try! It's called the Century Bangus Kabayaki, which was launched last March 9, 2011, in time for Ash Wednesday. But let me hold the details on that first as I give you a short background on Yoshinoya and Century.

Century Pacific Group, makers of renowned Century Tuna among others, is the franchisee of Yoshinoya in the Philippines since December 2001. With their continuous innovation and passion to give products that are of high quality and superior value to consumers, they're adding a new product in their line called Century Bangus.

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Yesterday and Today: Looking back on where computers started

Computers have evolved into something magnificent and useful for everyone. We might be knowledgeable of popular innovators Bill Gates and Steve Jobs or known brands like HP and IBM, but have we looked back and tracked where computers really started? Thanks to Andy Crofford of TestKing.com, let’s walk down the memory lane to reconstruct the history of computers and everything connected to it.

1940s First Generation. This is where everything started – from HP’s audio oscillator, Bell Telephone Laboratories’ complex number calculator to the Atanasoff-Berry Computer and the first architecture of a stored-program computer. Who would’ve thought that it would lead to the mainstream computers we know today after several decades?

1950s Second Generation, Transistors. It’s the era when many firsts took place. This includes the first commercially produced computer to use all-diode logic, first reliable OS running 35 hours a week at 90-percent utility, first computer to solve clerical problems, first programmable computer built with transistors, and later on the first electronic and transistorized computers from NEC and IBM.

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BlackBerry Software Update Officially Released

Research in Motion's BlackBerry has finally released the official OS6 software update. It's available for BlackBerry 9300, 9700 in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines, and BlackBerry 9105 for Indonesia and Malaysia only.

With OS6, you can have the ease of navigation and multitasking. To see more of what's waiting for you, watch the video below:

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Smart, Nokia Offers Nokia X2-01 Almost Free

Looking for an inexpensive new QWERTY phone? Nokia Philippines and Smart Communications partners together to offer yet another wonderful deal for consumers.

Get a brand new Nokia X2-01 phone with Php4,950 worth of free texts, calls or mobile internet from Smart Buddy! With the said price, it's like you're getting the phone for free.

When you activate and register the Nokia X2-01 bundled with Smart Buddy SIM on or before December 31, 2011, you can get all these amazing freebies by texting X2 to 9922:

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The 10 Won Battles of Recent Tech

Recent technology has victimized the older technology inasmuch as we would want to say it did not. Thanks to the immense ingenuity of innovators around the globe, we are endlessly thinking of gadgets to produce in order to make our lives better and easier. There are tons of useful technologies in the past decades that have been or are becoming obsolete, which this generation’s youngsters probably would not have to use at all.

Let’s list down “victims” of new technologies, basing from the usual activities we do.

1. Paper Letters vs. E-Mail – Sending messages has never been this easy with electronic mails around. No more writing and using of liquid erasers that wastes our time. To add, Mother Nature has been rejoicing, because bills can be delivered electronically, rather than printing thousands of them to just end up in the trash.
2. Fan vs. Air Cooler – Gone are the days when we need to exert effort in swaying our hands up and down just to feel the breeze fall onto our face. With an air cooler around, it does not just sheds out air but also helps with the cleaning and cooling of air.
3. Payphones vs. Mobile Phone – Back in the early 90’s, people are so used to seeing a payphone in corners of the streets. Until one day, telcos removed them one after the other because earnings aren’t the same as before. Mobile phones have revolutionized several tasks into one portable unit that is easier to bring around. But I guess we miss finding that last coin in our pockets so as we can call using the pay phone?

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Chicken Charlie's Yummy Fried Chicken

In the street of J. Abad Santos, popularized by everyone's favorite tea place Serenitea, lies a small restaurant called Chicken Charlie. Their branch in San Juan opened last November 2010, seconding to their first baby in Banawe. I've got the chance to try it out for take out last December and recently for dine in, which I want to share with you all.

Parking can be a challenge, since the space is small. Only about a car or two can park directly in front of the restaurant. I'd suggest going there at night, so closed stores nearby can be used for extra slots. Or you can also try parking in Serenitea, buy a drink, and bring it to Chicken Charlie (needless to say, you need to order, okay?).

Entering the restaurant, we can see a number of tables, chairs and couches, which I find spacious and uncrowded. For smokers, you can utilize a couple of their tables and chairs outside for dining as well.

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