Free wifi in NAIA Terminal 2

Just to let folks know, there is actually free wifi in the PAL terminal of NAIA. No awkward sign-up procedures, no free wifi card, just find the open network, I think it was something very obvious like NAIAT2wifi, connect to that and you are ready to go. Surfed using my ipod touch, the wife used her new Nokia E71 and we had no problems.

Great for shooting off that last minute to do list to your officemates before you head off for your holiday.

Iphone now in the Philippines . . .wooppeee?

Nope, the above pictures are not of a new Apple store in the Philippines, they are of the Apple Store on Stockton in San Francisco on the day the Iphone was first launched. We all know what happened, huge lines, long registration/purchasing process, etc.

That was back in July, now in August, the Iphone has come to the Philippines. Despite the excitement being drummed up by local fanboys however the launch here was not as "splashy". I went to a Globe store in the afternoon, there were five other guys there, no line, people just milling around. I did get to talk to a saleslady who confirmed that they had run out of units already although their store (Podium) was only allocated 20. Unlike the twisted process of buying one in the US, the Globe process was pretty straight forward and one could walk out with an iphone within 20 minutes.

I was tempted but the price of the unit was ridiculous, that and I wanted to see how it did on the Globe network first. I'll post updates ones I find someone who got an iphone from Globe.

Mystery App #1

Guess what this app does...

Post your answers as comments. Clue: If you like downloads,.. you're going to love this.

More Iphone News

According to the Asian Wall Street Journal, Apple is working on a software fix for the dropped calls problem it has been experiencing with the 3g Iphone. The fix will be sent out as a software upgrade within a couple of weeks, not in time for the Philippine launch though. This is the first time I've actually heard about this problem so all you people who are excited to get one, you may just want to watch out for that. I'd wait and see what the experience is for the early adopters but I know my warning falls on deaf ears, heck, I'm nearly tempted to go out and reserve one now.

Globe launch date for the Iphone - 22 August, 3 days away.

Hard disk media players.

Here's something nifty to do with your computer and TV, most especially if you are already into downloading video torrent files. Oh yeah! You know who you are and you've been really patient with those downloads. I finally got me one of these hard disk (HD) media players. Basically its a small enclosure that can contain a hard disk and it can play video/media files from the drive directly onto your tv set, without the computer. So I took one of my old drives that i've swapped out for a bigger one and started collecting my video and pictures into the unit. It's been great. Here's the benefits by getting one.

1. Imagine watching your torrents videos on a 21" screen or bigger. Colors more vivid, less pixelation. Yeah, you get the picture.
2. Save entire series in the drive watch it straight through. Saves from burning each into a dvd, then loading it in one by one. A movie is about 400mb. You can load about 60 in a 30GB HD or 1000 in a 500gb hd.
3. No need for conversion- well almost. This unit takes in avi, divx, and mpeg 4 files. So if downloaded file is in these formats its good to go. Does not work for mkv or ogm files yet.
4. Offload your camera pics directly and have family albums and videos available all the time for all to view right on the TV.
5. Doubles as an external hard disk for your computer. When you plug it to the computer usb, it shifts into usb mode and becomes an external hard disk. Good for a backup drive for your laptop. Makes it easy to compose your family videos using your favorite software then save and play using your HD media player. Video and raw materials.

I've tried this out with the HD Media Player from CDR-King, it's working great except for this snow which i've just about figured out. But there are many options out there. Let us know what you've got and if it's any good.

WD Roundup

Western Digital's My Book and My Passport series of external hard drives are not only practical but affordable. My Book hard drives are powered (ie they need to be plugged into the electrical mains) while My Passport drives are USB powered and are way more mobile.

Here are the prices from the 3rd floor V-Mall in Greenhills;

My Book Essentials -
500gig PHP4,800
1 TB - PHP8,600

Prices of My Book are based on their lowest model (USB interface), the higher models have firewire and e-sata connections that provide faster read /write speeds but I feel like the basic model is fine.

My Passport Essentials -
160gig PHP3,250
250gig PHP4,300
320gig PHP5,500

Note there's also a My Passport Elite and Studio edition that basically have more software installed in them, again, for me the Essential series is fine.

The cheapest I found are from Acenet, right near the entrance to the centre aisle on the third floor.

Here's a tip: Don't buy hard drives unless you are absolutely going to use them already, prices drop and capacity increases every other month.

Antivirus Tips : My 5 Best Practices

Gotta make mention of this most essential know-how in this connected world, especially if you are on a Windows laptop or desktop. I've just gotten through another bout of cleaning up my computer from virus attacks where I've been losing disk space and experiencing a slow down in the response of my computer. I'm still lucky, cuz it was not yet a case where i've lost files or worse yet where the system has gone haywire like in my bro-in-law's laptop recently.

I figured it was worth to let everyone know how to avoid getting into these irritating situations right from the get-go when you have your computer. So here are some 5 simple steps that I would recommend to keep virus from making its home in your computer.

1. Install an antivirus as the first software and before you connect to anything other than your power supply: after your windows operating system install an antivirus software right away. Luckily new computers usually have some limited trial version of McAfee or Symantec installed. Personally I'm a satisfied user of GriSoft's AVG Free Edition. You can later purchase licensed versions of these trial versions if you like, but do also consider Kaspersky's and BitDefender when you are willing to shell out the dough for more security. Why install it as the first software, well, if you don't a virus will install itself before the antivirus and then it's harder to clean in up. Mark my words, the moment you plug your computer onto the internet, or any network for that matter, it's going to get attacked and in this connected world of today, what do we first do with our computers.... hmmm? So install the antivirus first and you will be protected very early on.

2. Browse the Internet using Firefox or Safari - for a myriad of reasons a lot of malicious software out there attack the feature rich application known as IE or use it to get in to your computer. Now this may be a myth, but that's what I believe. I usually install the browser next after the antivirus. I trust Firefox with its default security features,. If you're an IE lover at least upgrade to IE7, but I wouldn't suggest using IE 6 to do that. Safari for you Mac wannabees, comes with iTunes upgrade.

3. Watch out for those pop-ups when you browse - Ain't the Internet grand. Where else can you get any info you want on any topic, right at the comfort of your home, cafe, work, or even car. Now watch out for those sites that have any pop-up that asks you to click on something to join a promo or event. Worse is a site that asks you to install programs so you can get more info. ON your next click, you might just be allowing a malicious program to install itself on your computer. Mini-games, free wall papers, video viewers are sometimes hiding these virus, trojans, or malwares. They can also get tricky, some popups are designed to let you click a button to cancel the installation, but they may also be using the same button to activate the installation by misleading you to think that you were going to "cancel" it. Me I avoid trying to click anything on those pop-ups. Just hit ALT-F4 on your keyboard and the pop-up window should close itself without having to click on any of the buttons.

4. USB flash drives are our friends, but scan your USB drives from your friends before opening them in your computer - the virus on a USB drive works right at the moment you open the USB drive when it is shown on your computer. Avoid any triggered virus by scanning the USB drive before you open the folder to view the files in the drive. It's a bummer that this might take long for 2GB-16GB flash drives, but you know what the consequences are, right? Now, it's not just USB drives mind you. CF cards, SD, MMC are also flash drives. They can get infected with virus and pass it on to other computers. They don't do any harm to your digital cameras or phones or MP3 players, but when you take it out and stick it in to other computers, then the virus comes alive again to infect its next host. Better make sure your Photo Printing store has virus free computers when you give them your Flash Memory cards.

5. Love those torrents, but scan after downloading - torrents are home made files shared by peers on the internet. It might be the case that during the "home made" process that these files were also infected with Virus so just take the extra care to double check what's inside the torrent downloads before you use them. Video and audio files are relatively safe so long as they don't come in zip files which you have to run first to extract. Definitely scan the installers and the like. I use azureus vuze for torrent downloads.

I've done it this way and my computer has lived a relatively virus free life. I know that it get's attacked every now and then, but have always managed to keep virus from staying rooted for long.

At least once a year, I would run a full virus scan with the latest updates using the Trinity Rescue Disk for that "really clean feeling". ..... Trinity? what's that.... Some reference to the heroine in the Matrix series?... If your interested about this I can post this as a next blog topic, so let me know. If you can't wait that long, there's always Google, right?

Greenhills Walkabout

We'll probably make a "sticky" section of this eventually but for now here's my Greenhills walkabout results.

For those that don't know, Greenhills, in particular the third floor of Virra Mall, is the tech Mecca of the Philippines. I like it better than Gilmore since it's all under one roof and airconditioned and the prices aren't that far. Here are my discoveries;

Apple Iphone 3g available in Ambassador Appliances Php49,000 or a whooping US$1,166.00 approximately. Even unsubsidized by the telecoms in the US I would think the iphone would sell for not more than US$600 and that's being conservative. So here it is selling for more than twice that BUT in their defense, it is an unlocked Iphone (16gig) and will work with any provider. . . . .nah, it's still too much . . . .

but no doubt, someone will still buy it. Better hurry though, heard there were only 4 units.

Browser Word Search

Ever googled anything only to come up with a mile long page where the word / item /phrase you were looking for was not the first thing on the page. The result is a long and eye straining search for the item as you slowly scroll down to find it.

Here's a quick tip - in your browser hit "control F" and a search bar will appear. Type in your word and it should highlight all matching results on the page itself. If more than one hit is found just click on "next" and it should move on until you've hit them all.

Happy searching.

Got this tip from Tekzilla's video podcast. Sign up for their video podcasts to get quick daily tips like this and every week they have a 45 minute show answering viewer questions, that and Veronica Belmonte is cute.

Spice up your Outlook

Most of the people I know who use Outlook are corporate drones. Here's a way to spice up Outlook and add, shall I say it, a sprinkling of "social networking" to it (gasp!).

Download XOBNI, an Outlook attachment that scans your data of e-mails and spits out interesting facts about the people you send or receive e-mails from. Before you write this off as a totally frivolous piece of software know that it does provide interesting facts such as who your top e-mail recipients are, what time they usually send their e-mails (etremely useful so you know when to check your e-mails) and it lists the latest correspondence you've had via the title of the e-mail (if you want to drill down to the contents you can do that also).

It currently only works on Outlook 2003 and 2007 although they are working on a Yahoo Mail application, no word on when that will come out.

Globe reveals Iphone plans

Globe has finally announced its plans for the Iphone in the Philippines.

iPHONE PLANS
The new Globe iPhone 3G Plans with FREE Mobile Internet and Wi-Fi hours
	PLAN 1599	PLAN 2199	PLAN 3299	PLAN 3999	PLAN 4999
Monthly Service Fee	P1,599	P2,199	P3,299	P3,999	P4,999
Free Local Voice Minutes	100	210	350	500	750
Globe to Globe	P5.50	P5.00	P4.50	P4.00	P3.50
Globe to Non-Globe	P7.00	P6.50	P6.00	P5.50	P4.50
Free Local SMS Text Message	350	350	450	550	650
Text fee after free text allocation	P1.00/msg.	P0.50/msg.	P0.50/msg.	P0.50/msg.	P0.50/msg.
Free Local Mobile Internet Hours	40 hours	60 hours	100 hours	100 hours	100 hours
Rate in excess of free Mobile Internet hours	P0.50/min.	P0.50/min.	P0.50/min.	P0.50/min.	P0.50/min.
Free WiZ Wi-Fi Hours	20 hours	30 hours	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Rate in excess of free WiZ Wi-Fi hours	P2.00/min	P2.00/min	-	-	-
8 GB	P16,800	P14,600	P12,300	P5,600	FREE
16 GB	P22,300	P20,000	P17,800	P11,000	P5,500

At its lowest plan, subscribers will still need to dish out PHP16,800 (US$400) for the 8 gig version and PHP22,300 (US$530) for the 16gig version. Compare that with US prices of $199(8gig) and $299(16gig) and you're wondering where the telecom subsidy for the units comes in. Needless to say, geeks and the fashion conscious will still flock to this just to be able to go around with a new Iphone.

In its defense though, Globe's Plan3999 comes closer to the US prices and at plan 4999 you're infinitely ahead (Free 8gig iphone) if you already spend that much on your monthly phone bill anyway.

Click here for all of Globe's offerings.