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March 20 Microsoft just announced the availability of the final release version of Internet Explorer 8. But, its not available for poor Windows 7 beta users like me  
December 07 Twitter has its Fail-whale, and Plurk has Mr. T. I would have expected, social network for professionals, LinkedIn’s “representative” to look more professional, like wearing a suit and the like. Well, as with all Web 2.0 characters, they give us something more, hmm, fun-looking 
July 05  So there I was… thinking Ill get 4GB RAM when I bought 2x 2GB DDRII RAM modules for my Vista laptop. Well, imagine my surprise when I discovered that my OS could only “see” about 3GB.  After reading some online tech articles, I learned that I could only use 3GB of application space on 32 Bit Windows and the remaining 1GB is used as kernel mode address space. Ill pretend that I understood that  Seems my only option would be to use 64 Bit Windows Vista, but since most software don’t support 64 Bit Windows, I decided to stick to my more masa Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit. May 07 
"Re-defining the perception of advanced mobile phones… the HTC Touch Diamond™ signals a giant leap forward in combining hi-tech prowess with intuitive usability and exhilarating design. Featuring a sharp 2.8-inch touch screen housed within a stunning formation of brushed steel and flawless faceted edges, the HTC Touch Diamond is as beautiful to behold as it is to use. With HTC’s vibrant touch-responsive user interface, TouchFLO™ 3D, and ultra-fast HSDPA internet connectivity… the HTC Touch Diamond offers a rich online experience to rival a notebook computer, allowing you to interact with Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia as freely as you would with a broadband connection. Your contacts, favourite music, videos and photos are no longer an uninspired line of text. With TouchFLO 3D, album artwork, video stills and snapshots of your friends’ and family’s faces are brought to life for you to interact, play and launch at your fingertips."
http://www.htc.com/uk/product.aspx?id=46038
Processor
Qualcomm® MSM7201A™ 528 MHz
Operating System
Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
Memory
ROM: 256 MB
RAM: 192 MB DDR SDRAM
Internal storage: 4 GB
Display
2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution
Network
HSDPA/WCDMA:
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Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
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Up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
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Europe/Asia: 900/1800/1900 MHz
GPS
GPS and A-GPS ready
Connectivity
Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
Camera
Main camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Second camera: VGA CMOS color camera
Battery
Rechargeable Lithium-ion or Lithium-ion polymer battery
Capacity: 900 mAh September 27    Since the launching of Office 2007 in the Philippines last February, documents with the Open XML format, Office 2007's native format, have been steadily gaining circulation. For a lot of us, the document attachments we get in our inboxes are important, and sometimes, even mission-critical.
For users of older versions of MS Office, we have the Office Compatibility Pack which lets us open, edit and save documents in Office 2007's native format. But Windows Mobile users have been left out in the cold. Ever since the launching of Office 2007 last February, about 8 months long, Office 2007 documents cannot be opened in Windows Mobile, until now. Today, Microsoft has released Microsoft Office Mobile 6.1 Upgrade for Windows Mobile. Microsoft Office 2007 introduced new Open XML-based file formats for Office applications. These new file formats reduce file size, improve security and reliability, and enhance integration with external sources.
To allow Windows Mobile users to work with Office documents created in the Open XML formats, Microsoft has developed an upgrade for Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile applications. This upgrade to the Office Mobile applications allows viewing and editing of Word documents and Excel workbooks and viewing of PowerPoint slideshows created by using Microsoft Office 2007.
Other improvements include:
• Enhanced viewing experience for charts in Excel Mobile.
• Ability to view SmartArt in PowerPoint Mobile.
• Ability to view and extract files from compressed (.zip) folders.
I'm glad Microsoft came out with this. But why did it take too long? Download the file now from the Microsoft website and install in your respective Windows Mobile device. April 14 NTC sets public hearing on mobile services By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 07:28pm (Mla time) 04/12/2007 MANILA, Philippines -- The National Telecommunications Commission will conduct on April 26 a public hearing on its draft rules governing value-added services offered by mobile operators and other private companies. The commission has already deregulated Voice over IP or VoIP, allowing Internet service providers or ISPs to offer VoIP as a value-added service.
It is looking to issue similar rules governing "enhanced services" including messaging services (SMS, MMS, etc), email, gaming services and mobile content. Source: NTC sets public hearing on mobile services - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos April 12 This might come in handy... APC releases power pack for mobile gadgets By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 04:54pm (Mla time) 04/11/2007 MANILA -- Vacationers and frequent travelers during the hot summer months usually carry a bagful of electronic gadgets from cellular phones, digital music players, digital cameras and camcorders, and personal digital assistants. In most cases, people carry an equal number of battery chargers with them, usually a clutter of wires that get entangled with each other. But even carrying chargers do not assure users that there are available power sockets to plug in their chargers in the places they visit. click on the link below for more... Source: APC releases power pack for mobile gadgets - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos April 03 Athough this sounds cool, this could be made easier and more flexible using Windows Moblile devices and Microsoft Visual Studio for Robotics with Lego Mindstorm NXT. UP physics lab innovates use of wireless, mobile apps By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 05:24pm (Mla time) 03/29/2007 Mobile phones as remote controls? Why not?
A physics laboratory in the University of the Philippines Diliman is developing remote access capabilities for mobile phones. Likewise, the National Institute of Physics (NIP) also created hardware components that can control industrial-type equipment, including hospital equipment.
Presenting their equipment to INQUIRER.NET , UP NIP Associate Professor Carlo Mar Blanca showed four projects that he and his students are working on. Most of the equipment are off-the-shelf parts but the methods of putting these together are unique to the NIP's development program.
Blanca said their main objective is to create a wireless architecture that will enable distant researchers to remotely monitor, control and acquire data. Blanca calls its central wireless architecture Smart Research Facility (no relation to Smart Communications).
Most importantly, Blanca noted that their projects are not intended for commercial purposes but as proof-of-concept designs that may allow others to develop specialized equipment for remote control and monitoring purposes.
The novel designs of the NIP include thermal monitoring wherein a mobile phone can access the temperature of heat-sensitive industrial laboratory equipment. A cellular phone module transmitter attached to a temperature sensor will send a text message to an administrator warning of temperature or humidity increase or decrease in some equipment.
"This system can have automatic updating or the user can send a text message asking the temperature sensor to give the latest heat reading," Blanca said.
The next project is a camera surveillance system that employs a high-resolution digital camera with infrared sensor that is triggered when it detects movement. It then captures a photo of the intruder then sends the image via multimedia service to an administrator. This system also uses similar cellular transmission equipment from the thermal monitoring system.
Likewise, a third project is a mobile phone based control mechanism for a programmable robot, provided by Lego Mindstorm. These robots move when the user sends commands either via circuit-switch data or the much faster GPRS (general packet radio service).
The mobile software itself uses Java software kits and was done in collaboration with Janne Levula, senior technology expert of Nokia Finland.
A fourth project is a remote access electro-cardiogram monitor wherein the same cellular module is attached to an existing ECG machine, which then sends data to a doctor's phone via GPRS. But instead of text-based information, the data is re-converted to a graphical display similar to that of an actual ECG machine. It also transmits the patient's name, age and current pulse rate.
Another novel project is a remote access microscope using video streaming via 3G. Incidentally, NIP used a now-rare Play Microscope, a toy created by Intel. The Play Microscope is attached with a viewing module which is then attached to a cellular transmission module. A doctor or researcher can view slides on the microscopes in real time using a 3G-enabled camera phone.
But the previous projects would be overshadowed by another NIP project; a wireless telemicroscope that can be remotely controlled via GPRS, 3G or even over the Internet and wireless local area network. The lens changing of the high resolution telemicroscope can be controlled in these different ways and data can be taken from pictures of materials underneath the slides.
Blanca said the main purpose of the wireless telemicroscope is to allow researchers from different sites to use it without having to be physically present. This machine would be used as an example of how future doctors and researchers would be able to use limited equipment that are not readily or physically available to them.
"These are all researches and if you notice, we're not even in software programming, biology or robotics. What we're doing here at the NIP is to show that there is now the melding together of different scientific disciplines to solve research projects. Even with limited supply of equipment or funds, scientists will be able to have immediate access to equipment through wireless," Blanca said. Source: UP physics lab innovates use of wireless, mobile apps - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos March 25  Recently Ive been hearing a lot of this Blue Ocean Strategy in my conversations with people and realized that it is fast becoming one of those business buzzwords that we would start hear too much of, just like Six Sigma, TQM and Kaizen. So, in order not to appear dumb whenever i hear that word again in a conversation I decided to do some research. So here is what i found out, so far...
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant is a business book written by two INSEAD professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in 2005. It has since then become an international bestseller and is published in 37 languages. Wikipedia says: The "ocean" refers to the market or industry. "Blue oceans" are untapped and uncontested markets, which provide little or no competition for anyone who would dive in, since the markets are not crowded. A "red ocean", on the other hand, refers to a saturated market where there is fierce competition, already crowded with people (companies) providing the same type of services or producing the same kind of goods. Their idea is to do something different from everyone else, producing something that no one has yet seen, thereby creating a "blue ocean". An essential concept is that the innovation (in product, service, or delivery) must raise and create value for the market, while simultaneously reducing or eliminating features or services that are less valued by the current or future market. The authors critique Michael Porter's idea that successful business are either low-cost providers, or niche-players. Instead, they propose finding value that crosses conventional market segmentation and offering value and lower cost. It seems that this new concept has been getting a lot of support. Like LG, for example who seems to be taking it very seriously:  | LG Declares "Blue Ocean Management" Campaign Apliance and consumer electronics maker LG Electronics announced the launch of its first Blue Ocean Management campaign. Underlying its drive to become one of the top three consumer electronics manufacturers by 2010, LG said the program incorporates the understanding that only flexible companies that adapt to lifecycle and industry changes will enjoy continued growth. http://en.qschina.com/html/tradeinfo/html/2006/1/16/3490.html | Im thinking of buying the book. This really seems interesting. the phrase "Don’t Compete with Rivals—Make Them Irrelevant" sounds really cool! Someday I should come up with a business buzzword of my own, borrowing from exsisting concepts and mixing them up together. Ill write a book about it and get rich from the royalties and international speaking engagements. Next buzzword to learn... Business Scorecard. OnTheGoSolutions.com just released a You Tube video of the unboxing of the Dopod U1000. I, myself, have had the previlage of playing with this Windows Mobile powerhouse for a few days, and I would admit that I was hooked. It really feels like using a Tablet PC. November 09 November 8, 2006. A new Windows era has began... 
Windows Vista has been completed and has been released to manufacturing! November 05  With the announcement of a new Windows Live service incubation called Windows Live Barcode, I have created my own Windows Live Barcode vCard and it works very well with the Dopod 838 Pro and Dopod D810 im using. Windows Live Barcode is based on QR Code, which is very popular right now in Japan, Taiwan, China and other Asian countries.
A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. QR Codes are most common in Japan, and are currently the most popular type of two dimensional code in Japan. Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used for inventory management in a wide variety of industries. More recently, the inclusion of QR Code reading software on camera phones in Japan has led to a wide variety of new, consumer-oriented applications, aimed at relieving the user of the tedious task of entering data into their mobile phone. QR Codes storing addresses and URLs are becoming increasingly common in magazines and advertisements in Japan. The addition of QR Codes on business cards is also becoming common, greatly simplifying the task of entering the personal details of a new acquaintance into the address book of one's mobile phone. October 07 TECHFILES
Enterprise mobility benefits By Don Herana
INQ7.net
Last updated 08:24pm (Mla time) 10/04/2006 THERE is no doubt that through every IT revolution there’s this one defining technology that has changed the way we work, learn and communicate. As we progressed through the ages, businesses have evolved with each of these technologies. For instance, if we look at what IT revolutionary stage we are in this decade, we can say that it is the age of enterprise mobility. Enterprise Mobility The signs are obvious: Information is what makes modern companies run. And as workers become more mobile, companies must provide information to those workers on-the-go and vice versa for better collaboration. Mobile data devices such as light weight notebooks, smart cell phone devices with data capability, Personal Digital Assistant, Enterprise Digital Assistants (EDA) - a device more durable than a PDA with added functionalities, and “ruggedized” special purpose portable devices for use by field personnel or for use in manufacturing plants, warehouses, field transport and logistics, etc. Most associates have several ways of obtaining the information they need. Access to back-end systems -- such as CRM, ERP, financial reports, and databases -- is critical and most associates today rely on an interrelationship with fellow associates or systems within the organization to provide them with the needed information. This is where enterprise mobility using mobile computing sets in. Enterprise mobility is having the ability to capture and deliver information at the point of activity securely and accurately. Enterprise mobility is more than pushing information from one place to another. It is the bi-directional flow of information that sets it apart from a simple activity such as looking up the latest news on your phone. It is the transfer of mission-critical information that enables you to have access to the information you need, when you need it. Enterprise mobility solutions have become easier to implement and manage. More often, these are being implemented across vertical industries like manufacturing, warehousing, wholesale distribution, transport and logistics, retail, healthcare, among others. Even horizontal industries can reap the benefits of enterprise mobility through sales force automation, direct sales delivery automation, field force automation and asset inventory management. Enterprise mobility is important because no matter what industry you are in, having mission-critical information available when and where you need it increases productivity and creates competitive advantage. Better decisions can be made more efficiently because the information you need is at your fingertips, not at the office, in the data center or constrained by wired networks. Information has virtually no use when locked within supply chains or lags behind real time. Enterprise mobility creates a closed loop of information. Business benefits of mobile computing Enabling or enhancing an organization’s mobile workforce can have a major beneficial impact. Companies must create a strategy for the short and long term of implementing next generation mobile technologies in order to substantially increase the productivity and operational efficiency of their associates and ultimately, the organizations effectiveness. Mobile computing is streamlining processes through automation that will minimize or even eliminate errors experienced on manual processes. Other benefits include faster decision making through real time information visibility, better customer service and support that will lead to customer satisfaction, increased competitiveness, improved asset utilization and the elimination of information delays inherent in a manual approach. Ultimately, for companies, the business benefits of mobile computing are the things that matter most: increased sales, increased profitability, and reduced costs. Ideally, mobile business processes enable end users to access multiple business operation systems, like ERP, Supply Chain, Financials, Document Management and others. The result for the end-user is the ability to transact the right information at the point-of work. Achieving the benefits of enterprise mobility is not easy. As you move up the curve from a fixed device, to a portable device and onto a mobile device the business benefit goes through the roof, but the application demands also increase. More factors are introduced that require technical integration because mobile applications behave differently than those on a fixed network. Mobile computing components Mobile computing solutions consist of three main components: 1) Mobile computing devices with barcode scanning capability and image capture, data entry options such as keypad and touchpad, form factors such as gun type (for scan intensive usage) or handheld devices, ruggedized or durable devices that can withstand multiple drops on a concrete or carpeted floor. Companies must assess what devices are best fit for various classes of users based on job function, information requirements, collaboration needs, connectivity options, security, etc. Companies should also review the needs based on durability factors necessary for devices and peripherals (fully rugged, splash proof, enterprise durable, consumer grade). Companies must insure some level of flexibility and choice in deploying devices to the mobile workforce. 2) Application software with a choice of mobile computing operating systems. Enterprise mobility cannot be delivered with only point products. Applications built around a mobile business process are completely different from that of a traditional business process and as the move is made towards a truly mobile process the applications must change. Many companies that say they offer mobile solutions simply offer a mobile version of their current back-end applications, which in turn may serve as a temporary solution, providing the information that you could access on your PC. This is only providing limited function to the end user and is not achieving enterprise mobility. 3) Wireless communication infrastructure (WiFi, GPRS, Bluetooth). This will enable real-time communications via mobile computers between the associate in the field and employees and systems inside and outside the four walls of the company. Enabling enterprise mobility within the organization Indeed, the flood of information can drive an organization either into high costs or increased efficiency. Immediate information availability could help improve customer service levels to form the foundation for your company’s future growth. Enabling a mobile workforce within the organization will equate to providing technology solutions that will address the major business issues that most companies need to address. Organizations that fail to stay abreast will find themselves falling behind in increasingly competitive markets. E-mail the author at dherana@gmail.com Source: Enterprise mobility benefits - INQ7.net October 01 Telecom companies moving to change revenue-sharing scheme Telecommunications firms are starting to become generous to their partner content providers, moving away from the traditional 70%-30% sharing scheme, tagged as the lowest sharing in the world for content providers. 
Now, companies such as Ayala-led Globe Telecom, Inc. are starting to give away as much as 60% share in revenues. Rival Smart Communications, Inc. has also started changing its revenue-sharing scheme when it signed a three-year, exclusive deal with leading sports and entertainment firm IMG for high-speed mobile and Internet content. IMG has provided Smart third-generation or 3G international and local sports content, ranging from news clips, interviews of sports celebrities, instructional tips and live video streaming of sports events. But content providers offering short messaging service (SMS) -- which accounts for the bulk of the 300-strong mobile content developers in the country -- do not stand to benefit unless they shift to producing "rich, compelling and original" multimedia content. Officials from two SMS-based content providers said their revenue-sharing deal with telecom companies remain the same. Mario Domingo, consultant head for service creation division at Globe, told BusinessWorld in a recent interview that Globe started to tweak their five-year-old revenue-sharing scheme only this year. "We have 50%-50% and in some cases 40%-60%, in favor of the content provider. Whenever we identify the content to be really compelling, meaning it’s proprietary, it’s a differentiator, we are going to charge less for that," Mr. Domingo said. He said mobile content from Sa Piling Mo, a television drama series produced by ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. is getting about half of the revenues per content. "For example, Sa Piling Mo is produced, directed and designed by ABS-CBN so any content emanating from that, we will be happy to get only half of it, and they get half of it," Mr. Domingo said. He added that any content which could pass as "plug and play", meaning needing minimal or no added work at all from telecom companies, would be given a bigger share. "And if I could remove my part of the work and my partner could do that part of the work, I will be happy to share more. In the early days, what happened was we still need to do a lot of technical work," Mr. Domingo said. G-LIVE Late last week, Globe launched the latest in its set of premium content. The company released about a million subscriber identification module (SIM) cards which are capable of receiving unlimited information for free under its latest offer called G-Live. Globe said the Philippines is the third country in Asia to carry the service, after China and Thailand. G-Live provides a subscriber free snapshots or headlines of the news for free. But if the subscriber wishes to download the full news of any other content available, he will be advised of the charges before he actually downloads. Globe said this is purely optional and permission-based and the subscriber is guided by the G-Live interface every step of the way. "Anything that appears on G-Live is free. This is not the same as text broadcast, this is not spam," Globe head for consumer business group Ferdinand M. dela Cruz said. The frequency of the message varies, depending on the profile of the subscriber. It could be news in the morning and entertainment updates in the afternoon. Messages are only sent out from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mr. dela Cruz said subscribers don’t have to worry about being interrupted or getting out of touch, as G-Live works quietly in the background. Incoming news headlines and updates are non-disruptive as they do not emit light or sound. Further, the information is not directed to the phone’s inbox, hence does not take up memory space. Plus, no matter how frequent the messages come, the battery life of the mobile phone is not affected. The service could also be customized to suit the requirement of a specific area. In Thailand, the service was used to warn subscribers of one network of an impending tsunami. For news content, Globe has partnered with both ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. and GMA Network, Inc. But Globe is currently in talks with various content providers. Existing Globe subscribers can download the G-Live service, but only for Symbian-capable phones such as the N6600 and N70. Source: BusinessWorld: I.T. Matters - News September 23 Here's some good news! Currently, a lot is to be desired in the quality of locally developed enterprise mobile applications. It is comforting to know that, at last, Microsoft would be setting up a local R&D in the philippines and would initially focus on enterprise mobile applications. DLSU, Microsoft put up R&D facility By Alexander Villafania
INQ7.net
Last updated 07:36pm (Mla time) 09/22/2006 THE De La Salle University recently partnered with Microsoft Philippines to put up the first Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC) in the Philippines. The MIC will serve as a research and development laboratory for faculty and students of the DLSU College of Computer Studies (CSS). It will feature Microsoft development applications for the mobile platform. The MIC will initially focus on R&D of programming tools or content publishing tools, enterprise-level mobile security and productivity tools. Microsoft Southeast Asia President Chris Atkinson said mobile applications are becoming a major trend among enterprises, which points to the showcasing of mobile development applications in the DLSU MIC. Atkinson said the company would like to explore opportunities in putting up its next MICs in other schools. "But we want to make sure first that the first MIC will be a success.” DLSU CSS Dean Caslon Chua said the MIC will not be limited to just mobile platform development but could be used by students and faculty to develop applications desktop and server platform. Though the MIC is not built as a business incubator, Chua said projects developed in the MIC can be reviewed for possible business ventures. "Our focus is to give our students an opportunity to develop innovative applications that could perhaps have future benefits," Chua said. Source: DLSU, Microsoft put up R&D facility - INQ7.net September 15  I am now posting from the Tech Negosyo Exhibit at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. Lot of interesting stuff here for small & medium scale business and entreps.
I just took some photos and uploaded it in an albumSeptember 10 Posted at MoDaCo is news of a new Windows Mobile device being developed that would succeed the HTC Universal(AKA Dopod 900, I-Mate Jasjar and O2 XDA Exec) planned to be launched between the end of the year to early next year. I've always wanted a Dopod 900, but have had second thoughts since it doesnt support HSDPA, which I want to take advantage of when i use my Windows Mobile phone as a modem for my laptop. The HTC Omni promises to be faster & thinner. I think id rather want to have this one than a Dopod 838 Pro! After the slew of recent device announcements... HTC is now busily prepping the follow up to it's 'mini-laptop' form factor HTC Universal, better know as the SPV M5000, i-mate JASJAR, T-Mobile MDA Pro, O2 XDA Exec etc 
The follow up to the Universal, codenamed the 'HTC Omni', is set to offer a similar design, VGA support once again, and boosted connectivity with HSDPA support.
The Intel processor is expected to make way for a Samsung unit (similar to that found in the HTC Hermes).
From a form factor perspective, the HTC Omni will be slightly thinner than the Universal. Additional hardware buttons make an appearance, however an external LCD - a popular user request on the Universal - is not included in current designs.
The device will ship late '06 / early '07 with at least Windows Mobile 5 AKU 3 as standard, which enables in the base OS a feature that is expected to be a unique selling point to the Omni... the facility to output to a projector!
As the device is in early stages, much of the specification is still fluid... but it's sure to be a winner amongst existing Universal owners, who are understandably reluctant to give up their VGA screens!
Paul O'Brien - Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices - MoDaCo.network Founder Source: HTC preps 'Omni' successor to Universal - MoDaCo September 09  One thing that got me hooked on Microsoft Windows Vista is its ALT-Tab replacement which lets the open windows queue in a 3D veiw. Beats the Mac's Exposé anytime. Now XP users can experience the same thing - if you have a good graphics card and decent CPU and RAM, that is.
Check out Topdesk and try out their demo version. My mobile phone numbers are down. For two days the Smart Communications network service has been erratic, specific only to its Multiline SIM users, according to customer service when i inquired at my nearest Smart Wireless Center. This is really annoying! If this happens to me again, im switching to Globe. For those trying to get in touch with me through my cell phone, please send me an email or IM me using Windows Live Messenger at norbert@aquende.com, which also happens to be my Windows Live ID.
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