PS3 in Manila a rip-off December 22, 2006
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I bought my 60-gig PS3 in Hongkong for about 30 thousand pesos, Toy Kingdom in Manila is selling it at 60 thousand pesos. PS3 in Greenhills is cheaper by a few thousand pesos. It is however still more economical if Filipino gamers would go to Hongkong to buy a PS3. The 60 thousand pesos you would pay for a PS3 in Manila is more than enough to give you a round-trip ticket to Hongkong to buy a PS3.
Airfare (via Cebu Pacific) = 20 thousand
PS3 = 30 thousand
pocket money = 10 thousand
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T O T A L 60 thousand
I was informed by my source in HK that for 35 thousand pesos you could buy a PS3 with three games of your choice.
Scanner Exposes Counterfeit Spare Parts December 21, 2006
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A new high-performance scanner instantly identifies bogus or obsolete spare parts that harbor substantial safety risks in aircraft or automobiles. As the research magazine Pictures of the Future reports, Siemens has developed the Simatic HawkEye scanner — a scanning device that reads, digitizes and evaluates data-matrix codes (DMCs) in less than 100 milliseconds. In the automotive and aerospace industries, the new scanner will soon be exposing counterfeit spare parts by checking the authenticity of two-dimensional bar codes in seconds, by means of direct online consultation with the product manufacturers. Data-matrix codes require only one percent of the space required by the more widespread one-dimensional bar codes — without any reduction in the data content. A DMC can also be scanned from any angle. And thanks to the presence of redundant data, it can be read even if individual parts are destroyed. Today, for example, the German rail company Deutsche Bahn uses the small square with the dot pattern on its online tickets. And the postal service Deutsche Post uses DMCs to apply postage to millions of envelopes.
When it comes to industrial labeling that’s impossible to counterfeit, however, the two-dimensional code is still at an early stage. The new scanner series from the Siemens automation specialists could give it a boost, though. These high-resolution devices use powerful software to identify and digitize the code in a fraction of a second, even when there are interfering reflections or low levels of contrast. Up to 1,800 scans are possible per minute, which also makes the system suitable for inspections conducted by machines. All of this requires powerful communications networks and databases, however.
Just an example: If an airline replaces a part during maintenance, the code of the spare part is scanned in and authenticated online in a manufacturer’s database. The German airline Lufthansa is already making preparations to adopt the system. During aircraft maintenance, the engines are dismantled and any damaged turbine blades are replaced. To ensure that each blade is again attached at the right point, they are marked with a DMC and checked over with a Siemens scanner.
Creative Zen V Plus MP3 Plus Video in the Palm of Your Hands December 16, 2006
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Being an owner of the Creative Zen V Plus for three months now, I can’t believe how Creative was able to put everything in such a small gadget. The Zen V Plus may not look high-tech but you just have to use it and see for yourself. At Creative’s website (www.creative.com), the Zen V Plus is categorized as an MP3 player and not a portable media player (PMP) just to make things clear.
The first time I saw the box, it did made a good impression, but seeing the player just made me say “cute.” It measures 2.65 inches long, 1.7 inches wide, and .62 inch thick. The Zen V Plus is small enough to fit in the palm of your hands.
The Zen V Plus has that piano-gloss finish that covers even the 1.5-inch OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display making it scratch resistant. Below the display is where the 5-way joystick, play/pause and return button is located. At the right side is where the dedicated volume buttons are placed, and beneath it is the record button. The power and lock switch is located on the left side. On top is where the USB port, headphone jack, line-in jack, and microphone is located. Battery is internal and it is charged via USB.
The package that I got included the 1GB Zen V Plus, USB cord, earphones, a velvet pouch, CD Installer, and some documentations. Currently there are three versions of the Zen V Plus and it is color coded with the unit. An orange accent would give you 1 Gigabytes storage capacity, the green accent has 2 Gigabytes, and the blue accent has 4 Gigabytes. My Zen V Plus has an orange accent. Creative revealed in their launch last week that they are coming up with an 8GB version some time next year.
So what does the Zen V Plus offer? Well, almost similar to the Zen Vision M which is quite a big gadget. I haven’t actually used the Vision M but portability-wise, I’d prefer the Zen V Plus. It can play MP3, WMA, IMA ADPCM, and WMA DRM files, has an FM Radio with 32 presets, can play videos, view photos, and can do voice recording.
Surprisingly, it also has an organizer in it which can be synchronized with Microsoft Outlook. Also, the Zen V Plus also has an alarm setting which will be useful if it is connected to a Creative docking system or portable system (sold separately). With that setup, it can become a portable radio system with alarm function.
I’ve tried setting the alarm once and turned off the player. Like a mobile phone’s alarm, the Zen V Plus did turn on although I forgot to connect it to a speaker so I didn’t actually hear it went on. But it did drain the battery when I checked it in the afternoon (I thought it was still off).
I really like the way I can record interviews with the Zen V Plus. It’s clear enough to get the important details and it is also easy to do transcriptions with it. As you rewind or forward, it is done, at first, via seconds compared to other players that skip about five or ten seconds.
Another nice thing about the Zen V Plus is it’s capability to play videos – a feature not found in the Zen V (along with the FM radio feature). With regards to video playing, the file you will be storing in the Zen V Plus will be re-encoded using the accompanied software. The display, even though it is quite small, you can actually change its orientation from normal to 90 degrees, 180 degrees and 270 degrees counter clockwise.
Battery life is said to last up to 15 hours, which is perhaps true. I was able to make a recording of more than three and a half hours with the battery level almost full. And the Zen V Plus’ battery still wasn’t drained after that.
So far, what I don’t like about the Zen V Plus is the way you have to charge it. It seems that USB charging has become standard with most MP3 players. It would have been better if the package included a adapter head that you can connect to the USB plug. But Creative would suggest that you buy their Universal Power Adapter, in case you prefer charging through AC outlets.
I would also comment on the small display. Yes, it’s too small for videos as other people have also said. But Creative might have intentionally made it small because, as I’ve said, it’s not a PMP. And I think the display is enough for short video clips. On the other hand, there’s also the problem of video conversion. What happens is than when I converted an MTV clip, it’s file size grew bigger. I can’t understand why that happened since the resolution of the original file was 640x 480 (the output was reduced to 128×96 and it became a DIB or device-independent bitmap file). If you love video clips, the 4 Gigabyte version would be ideal.
Overall, I would recommend the Creative Zen V Plus is a good alternative to PMPs and is ideal for people who need a small mp3 player with photo and video playback. This would make a good Christmas gift since it’s not as expensive as other mp3 players with the same features. Actually, most mp3 players of the same size don’t have photo and video playback (unless it’s a mobile phone). — By Carlo S. Suerte Felipe
Women, please don’t read! December 15, 2006
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Men beware, your days of not telling the truth (lying!) about your real location are numbered. Even the fake noise you installed in your mobile phones that emits a traffic or office background noise while you talk would now be useless as there is a gadget that exactly reports your location in real time. The good (or bad?) thing is that this gadget could be installed by someone who has access to your vehicle with or without you knowing it. Parents could install the gadget in their children’s vehicle, business owners could install it to their fleet of delivery trucks and of course doubting wives could put this to their husbands’ cars in the guise of security in this “dangerous times”.
The iNav Global Positioning System is now in the Philippines. Mr. Edel Ortiz, Country Manager of iNav Philippines proudly showed the iNav units to MB Technews last week and we were impressed by what we saw.
Unlike other tracking systems and locators that use GPRS and GSM signals to locate the subject, iNav system uses satellite signal. The problem with locators that we have tested is that they triangulate the location of the subject giving us inaccurate results. There was even a locator from a leading telco that gave us an almost a kilometer off-mark from where the subject is located. The iNav tracking system is different, aside from accurately pin-pointing the location of the vehicle it has additional security functions. You can eavesdrop to whoever is using your vehicle without them knowing. It could send SMS messages updating you the present location of the vehicle and it could provide journey records for your vehicle. The vehicle could also be tracked using google map or the electronic map which is accurate up to secondary or small streets within Metro Manila. There are other functions which I hope I could discover and play with in the next two weeks.
Although the real application of the iNav GPS is for security and monitoring, just imagine what this gadget could do to philandering husbands and unfaithful boyfriends haha.
Samsung Launches a New Female Phone, the Aqua S December 11, 2006
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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., introduced the new fashion phone SGH-E570 also known as “Aqua S” dedicated for the female consumers.
Samsung Electronics has been leading the female phone market as the first company to introduce a phone specifically designed for women. The company announced its plans to release the Aqua S Phone, which is a subsequent model of the Aqua (SGH-E530) that was launched last May and has been well-received by female consumers.
The Aqua S Phone adopts an elegant design and specific functions to meet women’s needs. Women’s Life is a menu comprised of distinguished and specialized functionalities, such as the calorie counting function and fragrance matcher,which are in line with the latest trend amongst female consumer.
After entering one’s height and weight, the step counter functions measure the amount of steps taken during the day. Afterwards, the user can utilize the calorie counting feature to measure the amount of calories burned during the day. Measured values are used to display and keep track of weekly and monthly recordings. Other features that enable female consumers to efficiently manage their health include the menstrual cycle alert function and fragrance matcher, which suggests the compatible fragrance for the user.
To accommodate women’s preference for aesthetic design, Aqua S Phone adopts a smooth round exterior with a premium, artistic pattern on the back.
In addition to functions designed to meet the specific needs of female consumers, this product also features cutting-edge multimedia functionalities that are frequently used by female consumers, including a 1.3 million pixel camera, Bluetooth®, MP3 player, and camcorder features.
The Aqua S Phone comes in an array of five different colors appealing to women: sweet pink, festival orange, oasis blue, special silver, and viola black. The SGH-E570 will be released in Europe and CIS market at the end of December 2006 and will expand worldwide in 2007.
Humanizing Technology December 6, 2006
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Nokia recently presented its forecasts for the industry and its financial targets for the next one to two years in a crowd of more than two thousand journalists and clients at the Rai Convention Center in Amsterdam. Nokia President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said that Nokia sees a unique oppurtunity with the Internet and is actively aligning the company’s strategies in pursuit of this major business prospect. With an estimated 850 million Nokia device users all over the world, Nokia is in the position to connect more people to the internet than any other company.
Nokia forecasts for the industry:
- Nokia expects industry mobile device volumes in 2007 to grow by up to 10% from the approximately 970 million units Nokia estimates for 2006. Nokia expects the volume growth in 2007 to be above 15% in Asia Pacific, China, and Middle East & Africa, and below 10% in Europe, Latin America and North America.
- Nokia expects the device industry to experience value growth in 2007, but expects some decline in industry ASPs, primarily reflecting the increasing impact of the emerging markets and competitive factors in general.
- Nokia now forecasts that the three billion mobile subscriptions mark will be reached in 2007, instead of in 2008 as Nokia forecasted previously.
- Nokia expects slight growth in the mobile and fixed infrastructure and related services market in euro terms in 2007.
Nokia financial targets:
- Nokia operating margin target of 15% during the next one to two years. This target is revised from the one to two year 17% operating margin target Nokia set in December 2005, primarily due to Nokia’s increased exposure to the infrastructure market following the expected start of operations of Nokia Siemens Networks.
- Device (Mobile Phones and Multimedia combined) operating margin target of 17% during the next one to two years. This target is revised from the one to two year 17%-18% device operating margin target Nokia set in December 2005.
- Nokia Siemens Networks operating margin target of 10% plus during the next one to two years. Nokia Siemens Networks maintains its target to achieve a double digit operating margin by year end 2007, before restructuring charges.
- Nokia targets an improvement in the ratio of Nokia gross margin to R&D expenses and an improvement in the ratio of Nokia gross margin to sales and marketing expenses in 2007, compared to 2006.
- Nokia expects to meet its previously stated target to reduce overall R&D expenditure to 9%-10% of net sales by the end of 2006.
As I look at it, the Nokia event in Amsterdam was more of a Philosophical event rather than a technological gathering. Being known as the most user-friendly phone, Nokia will go a step further by bringing its technology really down to the level of the users, where they can not only use their phones easily but also personlize their phones, interact with others and make decisions using their mobile phones. The keyword here is “individuation”, it is a process by which a person develops his individual personality without alienating himself from the group. With the latest Nokia technological offerings a user would can be his real self and personalizing his phone with his needs but without being out of the group where he belongs.
The time where consumers where just mere spectators is now the thing of the past, the audience now has decided to take the stage, consumers now would like to be part of the action; they want to participate and contribute. With Nokia’s latest phones and innovations a consumer can do everything and decide on anything be it alone, within a group or with the group.
What is the use of Technology if the person who needs it could not even know how to use it? Each individual has particular needs when it comes to technology and Nokia aims to answer these needs. And seeing the technologies they have presented in the Nokia World 2006, I can say that they are on the right track.
Wii drops price December 4, 2006
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(November 26, 2006) The Wii has arrived and like the PS3, Technews would be the first consumer in the Philippines to have this game console courtesy of our source in Hong Kong. The original price given to us was HK4200.00, but I was surprised when I was informed that it would be HK3800.00 only. The reason given to us by our source is that his clients, who are hard core gamers, are not interested with the Wii. He said that hardcore gamers who love to brag that they have the units in advance cancelled their orders. Unlike Technews, which needs to have the unit in advance to review it, his other clients need whatever is new for bragging rights; he was however surprised when a majority of these clients decided to cancel their orders for unknown reasons. He was expecting a PS3 like scenario but it did not happen. “The problem with the Wii is that the battery life of the controller is very poor, and unlike the PS3 it does not support HD graphics. The PS3 is not only a gaming console but a lot more. The Wii could not even play CD or DVD. The Wii is a lot cheaper but the PS3 has non-gaming functions that consumers see as a good buy.”
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Gadgets Galore
We have around 20 new gadgets, cell phones and mp3 players on standby for review. These gadgets came from our source in Hong Kong as we do not encourage manufacturers to send us their products so that we could give objective and realistic reviews of the units. The problem with some manufacturers is that they even give us guidelines on how to review their products; this is just so wrong as it will defeat the purpose of the review — to give the real score on what is the performance of a product. Our PS3 for instance did not come from Sony, Our BD-P1000 Blu-ray player was not from Samsung and the Nokia 5500 that we reviewed came from Hong Kong and not from Nokia. Occasionally we accept units for review but we do not sign for the manufacturers review guidelines nor do we accept payment for what we do. Rom Feria, a columnist of Tech101 has something to say about this; he said in his blog “How can you give credence to your review when people know that you get paid to write/say it. This is so “Microsoftesque” – paying companies to do reviews and surveys to ensure that in the end, the study is favorable to them.” MISMO!
