Mobile Lures

This is the season when I am so bent in having a MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz and an HTC Legend Android 2.1 phone. I am teetering a buying frenzy to have them that every time I pass by a Mac shop or an HTC Concept Store, I am tempted to swipe them off my credit card.

As to the question of why the two, I should say I am the rabid kind when it comes to technology optimization and adaptation, and once that is satiated, it leaves me with death-infusing boredom. Yes, I get bored with iPhone interface that I want an HTC Sense UI. And the HTC Legend's gorgeous unibody compliments well with Macbook's Aluminum unibody too, as if they are both tailored-fit with one another.

What's holding me back individually are: MacBook Pro: even the 13inch is way too heavy for my dear shoulder. HTC Legend: it is cut short in terms of size and processing power.

What's holding me both is that they might be a budget overkill. I need a laptop for my writing endeavor only, and a mobile phone for my day to day contact need. Those are basic needs any basic device can function and provide. Even if I can get a significant discount of $100 and a free 8GB iPod Touch for the purchase of a Macbook Pro, shelling out a $1,220(inclusive of iWork and tax) for a notebook I just use for basic research and casual browsing regimen just doesn't cut it. And not only that, add up a Php32k for the HTC Legend boarded a whopping Php87k-90k of hard-earned money's worth.

So what now, to buy or not to buy.

Legendary Insatiables

Fresh from traversing the metropolitan heart of the Land of the Rising Sun, some good ol' friends called me and invited me to a yet another oriental landscape, this time in our very own backyard, nestled in the compound of PICC's Boom na Boom. The name of the place is Legend Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant.

True to their word, Legend even brims a pride of having a Hong Kong-find culinary master.

Unlike any restaurants that we went into where we only ordered a nubbin just to taste their house specialty, this time, we ordered almost everything on the menu, almost every gourmet and flagship recipe. Served one after the other, it turned out to be a night of overflowing satisfaction. A gastronomic challenge to us all was how to stuff a relentless luxuriation of recipe one after the other into our already and almost-maxed out stomach.

Based on what I can recall and my limited culinary jargons, we devoured Hot & Sour Soup Sze Chuan Style, Steamed Lobster with Garlic, Steamed Lapu-Lapu Fillet w/ Bean Curd Taosi Sauce, Steamed Crab with Chinese wine & Eggwhite, plus a lot more our stomach hopes to stuff and tongues to taste. There was even a Roasted Pigeon and a Sea Cucumber that I forgot what the name is, but they taste so delectably good. All that complimented by a bottle of widely recognized Sauvignon wine.

With predominantly wenge-colored furnitures, the ambiance feels like a good Cantonese Hongkong-style Chinese food haven of sort.

And since the place is authentically Chinese, what more could you expect than our Chinese folks in a deluge number that you would think you're in a Mano Po set.

My friend feels otherwise, he feels like blackanese Chris Tucker damned in the suburbs of China in Rush Hour movie.

Riding the iPad wind

I was a rabid glam metal fan during college, and I ride almost every wind of Poison's hits back then. This time around, I am riding the wind with the hits in technology. Unlike C. C. DeVille, I don't rock around guitar but gadgets.

With the latest iPad to ride on, the wind this time is blustering. The height of the iPad is accompanied with the release of the Globe MicroSIM to maxmize its 3G use. More than just a pad of ebook(hundreds of it), more than just a handy preference for urgent browsing and email checking, this is a toy to covet.

Packed in a MacBook aluminum material, it is either a MacBook with less computing muscle and without keyboard or an iPod Touch in steroid. It's relatively fast for internet browsing, at least based on a public wifi at Burger King where the unboxing happened, it has been dubbed as a usurper to the netbook throne.

The iPad packs Apple's custom-design, PA Semi-designed 1GHz A4 system-on-a-chip -- a single Cortex A8 core coupled with a PowerVR SGX GPU. Also onboard is 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, a digital compass, an accelerometer, microphone, and ambient light sensor. The 3G model that ships at the end of the month will add UMTS / HSDPA data along with an AGPS chip. You can purchase the device in capacities of 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB.

In between Apple iPad, Sony Ebook Reader and Amazon Kindle, I'd choose iPad. But in between an iPad and a netbook? I have to check first what brand of netbook that is. Brand conscious?

Linga Sharira

What so nice about being a bachelor is the vigor of vagabond that you get to go wherever you want to go and you get to taste the good food bustling inside it.

The uninviting thing is traveling alone and relying on your Filipino street skills in deciphering spoken tongue, street signs, and incomprehensible words of a foreign land.

Yes, they may have convenience marts as conveniently located every nook and corner a la our very own 7-11, but the merchandise are printed in their language.

And they may have variety of dishes, some are rarely delicious, some are just plain shabby and pricey, but the unsavory part is the ordering of the menu, perusing foreign name of dishes, and aligning your local taste bud to their offerings.

The most delightful part, and I'm sure most will pretty agree, is technology dive. Oh yes, you get to swim into the oceans of their technology rooted into their cultures and aiding into their daily lives. Unveiling right before your very eyes is an undulation that awaits to happen. Laptops, cellphones, communication technology, household automations, internet displays and new marketing channeling techniques, every state-of-the-art proliferation parading straight into your senses, and you'd marvel at how great this nation is, probably at par with the West. It's the linga sarira of power, I should say.

Dipping into the Android shore

I should have been all set by now. All my luggages should be kept with clothes primed for my travel. But I still feel like an embryonic mite trying to get a whole out of me. So what's the missing link. Oh yes, the place enjoys the privilege of having no import tax and no VAT, that in itself adorned them as a shopping capital of Asia. It's not the rudimentary travelogue checklist, not the luggages or clothes, not toiletries and perfumes, nor corporate portfolio and business materials, but a long list of to-buy-items.

Number one on my list: Android Mobile Phone

Yes, it was my birthday last week, and annually I'm having a ceremonial rite of rewarding myself every birthday. Last year, I got myself an iPhone 3GS. This year, I am hunting for an Android prey. Why Android amidst the flurry of the iPhone 4G hype right now? It is because I am getting a bit bored of the iPhone interface. I have literally tasted all phone OS'es from WinMo to iPhone OS, Symbian to Brew, that I want to try another variant, and the one that I haven't tasted yet is the flavor that is an Android.
Here are what I have been teetering as my choices, with its accompanying grins and grimaces hoping that you can also help me in my buying decision.

HTC Legend:
What's hot: 1) made of unibody Aluminum material, same as that of MacBook Pro unibody 2) uses HTC Sense as an Android layer; What's not: 1) 400Mhz short of the 1Ghz Qualcomm power of HTC Desire 2) only 320x480 HVGA Resolution 3) its cuteness also brings cramped onscreen keyboard

HTC Desire:
What's hot: 1) 1GHz horsepower via Qualcomm 2) 480x800 WVGA Resolution 3) HTC Sense UI; What's not: 1) I am not appealed by the rounded corners 2) I don't like its hardware buttons, or its placement 3) battery life is tad too low

Google Nexus One:
What's hot: 1) It's Google, with no fancy UI at its layer, so it will most likely get updates ahead from those with UI due to customization adjustment; What's not:
1) I don't like the old Blackberry senseware navigation button because it accummulates dirt and will somehow stop working

I went to HTC Concept Shop at SM North Annex Cyberzone but reading the brochures and fiddling demo just doesn't cut it. Also, not in the picture were Motorola Milestone and Samsung Galaxy S. While Motorola Milestone has a slid-physical QWERTY/QWERTZ(depending on your region) keyboard, it has no HTC Sense UI which I really find handy and attractive. Samsung Galaxy S probably leads the band of Android brothers, by having a huge 4inch screen and a SuperduperAMOLED screen, its camera doesn't have a flash. And a camera is a necessity for me because I am a mobile photographer, I travel light and easy, but I write articles too which in most cases require photographs as unequivocal iota of proof.

But if anyone out there forgets to grab me a gift for my birthday, I can accept anything amongs the list. If you're constraints with shoe-stringed budget, an HTC Legend will suffice. Current SRP is Php31,900, but I think is just around Php22,000(peso equivalent) in HongKong. Now, I am already giving you a favor by giving away that price point, all you have to do is to swipe your credit card.

Lunching at Pepper Lunch (Shangri-La Mall)

I have never been a stickler for Japanese restaurant primarily because I never had a grown afficionado for steamed meats, except for dumplings. But due to the incessant plea of my pals at Philmug, I tried out Pepper Lunch today out of my frustration to drive all the way to Maitre Chocolatier Boutique Cafe in Jupiter Street.

Pepper Lunch is positioned as a DIY Japanese resto. It not only appealed to my practical sense of mobility because of their wifi amenity, it also sashayed my gargantuan random gastric ramblings. And it has wifi too. It seems that one requisite feature for me to adore a restaurant would be the presence of a working wifi, although I am not a food blogger and a restaurant connoisseur. I am posting this blog as it happens, where it happens.

Today, I had a Beef Pepper rice and a soda and salad combo. Not bad for a Japanese-themed resto. It feels quasi Japanese as staff are also semi-talking Nihonggo.

Pepper Lunch is owned by a fellow Philmuger Jeroen, that same reason makes it one of our favorite tambay tidings.

Amenities of mobility

Just recently I was at a place where I disdained from being at. Neither because I earned bad memories of being subjected to doctors with similar mold as that of a science fiction's mad scientist nor am I afraid of needles, but because it is a place I don't want my dearest folks in the family yard to end up at. Had it not been for the first bundle of joy of friends Mike and Mayumi, I wouldn't have been in where am conspicuously brushing aside.

It came to a surprise to me that hospitals nowadays address the infallible need to get connected through the information superhighway called "world wide web."

I hope other service-oriented establishments like airline ticketing offices, LTO, Meralco, etc. will follow the lead, as chances are, if you're availing any of their services, you'd most likely have to wait eons of time before you get heeded. And either you have to kill your besetting boredom, or you have to convert wasted time of waiting to a productive mobile businesses.

Going back, I made my first hospital-based Facebook wall post inside the private room of St.Luke's. Not only do I find the internet speed to be relatively fast enough, but it was a well-kept room with up-to-date facilities.

The astronomer-side of me allegorically equate the feeling of my first Facebook post in a hospital be perhaps tantamount to man's first walk on the moon.

Clinkers of Palm Proficiency

It has been almost 8years that this group once forge to create a community of gadget enthusiasts, particularly Palm PDA. It was wayback when PDAs are the ultimate iconography of mobility, having been able to bring the entire office with you at the palm of your hand, and with only a pocket as your carryall investment.

Palm although fizzled in the arena of handheld devices with only a handful of products that were able to make its way to the consumer market. But the group still stands, with solidarity fostered from technobabbles into life-changing talks.

This time however, gadget talks have become more heterogenous, from MacBook to netbooks, from iPhone to Blackberry, from WinMo to Android. Brand has never been group's restrain anymore, rather it has become a moving shore of open talks and democratic discourse.

Apart from the Music21(Timog) event that had the group rigged in spanking riots and endless laughter, this time we had it frolicking ourselves like kids out of rascal reserves, at McDonald's Green Meadows, where the spirit of youthfulness teemed with unadulterated fun. 

Yes, several years and counting and so much have changed, from the surnames to additional joys in the family. And change is what even cemented the group's friendship, transitioning from the kindred passion towards technology to a bond of life that goes beyond the changing of the season.

Astronomy: the why and wherefore of mobility

After having a sumptuous lunch at the Persian Grill, and drown myself with the metropolitan's tastiest Biryani and Lamb Keema, I headed off to Manila Planetarium(near Manila Hotel) to attend our monthly meeting. Oh, haven't I mentioned that I reprised my affinity and ardor towards hardcore science? Being an officer of an astronomy society in Cebu is my ticket to ride at the Philippine's premiere astronomy organization, ALP. 

While most people advocated charity outreach, I participated in educational programs. As an old adage says "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Heterogenous it may seem, we share common goal, to make astronomy reachable to all sectors of community, academic, commercial or recreational. Some colleagues have grad studies in MS Astronomy, some are astrophotographers since time immemorial, some are nature-trekkers who evangelized the socio-environmental significance by partaking astronomy in it, others are pure hobbyists. Asked about my fervent interest in astronomy, I'd say it is "astrophysics." It is in the dissection of the quantum components of celestial bodies that we will be able to understand our beginning and help determine our future as an intelligent race. The essence of our humanity is being able to steward our habitat and the symbiosis of life that comes along with it. While some ventured in the visual appreciation and practical side of astronomy and photography combined, I on the other hand, choose to thrive on the situational astronomy, the what-if's and how-come's, the logic of cosmic entropy.  

As my physics professor and astronomy mentor, Christopher Go, puts it, "let the meek inherit the Earth, the rest of us shall travel to the stars."

And speaking of Chris, I would like to take this chance in congratulating him for a yet another contribution in the science community, duly acknowledged by NASA, the recent Jupiter cosmic impact. 

Since this blog caters to mobility, I would probably be lodging some hot topics on mobile astronomy, or an astronomy that spans beyond terrestrially-fixated observatories. But still, as a technology writer, it will always be technology-centric. Besides, astronomy is essentially the why and wherefore of mobility as our galactic plane is constantly moving.  

In a country where education is largely left off in favor of entertainment and sports, I once and for all, took the road less traveled. 

Workstation Wilderness

The workstation says so much about oneself. It is almost a description of your room, or at least arrayed much like it is. It is after all your place to keep whenever you're overworked, your place of abode whenever you want to stay hung in the balance, and just about every expression of yourself whenever a sounding board is not available. 

Much like a bedroom which is a temple of rejuvenated spirit, a workstation is a launching ground for a day's struggle. Sometimes it does spell inspiration as some of us are accustomed to hanging accolades of work achievements, pictures of family and loved ones, and a meaningful trinkets from business travels.

My workstation is a transition from a minimalist design, a zen of its class, to a desk full of creative clutters, with post-it notes all over any divine-given spaces.

In Avid, it used to be just a decent white table under a spacious confine with a white CPU and CRT monitor that ultimately became beige out of the rising dusts from carpet to and fro at every nook of the airconditioned space. The auxiliary devices that I use comes in handy for me to render support of the different retail fronts and back-office departments. Along with it are my PDAs, Sony Clie TJ37 and Handpsring Visor Prism. Yes, you've seen it right, it's a desktop and two PDAs, Clie TJ37(personal device) and Visor Prism(company-issued), no laptop. 

In Siemens, it is usually marked the by the changing landscape and the dynamism of business practices. I don't even know if it has been a graffiti of some sort, or just a lame exercise of our localized democracy, but the desk has been a torrential rain of Post-Its and posted memos and Visio graphs. All in the good name of business. 

Caught in my business travels, my hotel room transforms into both a de-stressing sojourn and an office extension. 

Nothing can you see pictures of love-doves dearly hanging in the walls, or a figurative figurine figures gracing its presence by welcoming me whenever I sit down and start hunkering my work. No frills, no bells and whistles. This is to be expected under a highly kinetic environment where a business climate is following a season.  And my arsenal? A Fujitsu desktop and a Toshiba Satellite laptop(company-issued)

In the Asian Digest, although I have a workstation, it is just a desk where I can hook up to the office network. It's a frontage of formality I should say, as contributing writers are not a regular sight in the office. In most cases, we might just be caught claiming checks at the Accounting Department. And beer smirching after office with fellow writers and colleagues form editorial board. Or better yet, painting the town red by our lurid sights of the best restaurants and hang-out circuits in the metro. Or at our regular pilgrims on trade shows and on car accessory havens at Banawe and Evangelista. Oh yeah, writers, technology or lifestyle or otherwise, are practically the prime movers of our own cause, the purveyors of our writing concept and the roving chroniclers of our stories. Hence, devoid of any poetic rage, we are accustomed to unfurl our laptops and write at just anywhere, and any place can turn into our workstation. With me is my digital concierge, a Fujitsu Lifebook(company-issued)

In AIM, my place of work is crammed with different digital media library that contains all our IT assets for most part. Oh, and did I mention, I am a walking library too? As all of them are stored in my iPhone too? That is just a contingent back-up devices that I employ, in case of catastrophic event will happen, like an electromagnetic pulse bomb hitting our office, just hope I'm not there, or else my iPhone will get fried too. iPhone comes hand to hand with HP Pavillion(company-issued)

In between my intervals, my Toshiba Portege lappie serves the functions of random business calls. On the other side of it, it does also give me the synaptic tendencies to detour on coffee shops most of the time I'm homeward bound. I spent literally almost all my business transactions in coffee shops, and like what I always say, some of them had even become my unofficial office.

That also means, in my lifetime, I practically have three laptops, one a torrent-friendly Acer Aspire that serves as my desktop at home, the other a Toshiba Portege which is my mobile companion, and the third, a company-issued laptop of just about any brand as my business workhorse.

Now, if these computing dongles can only be wired through my brain, I need not lug them around with me, freeing me from the shackles of being the 21st century Atlas.