Canon 7D leaked, EOS 6D skipped?

Photos and specs of the upcoming Canon EOS 7D has been leaked and proving to be some kick-ass mid-range DSLR. Why the EOS 6D label has been skipped is understandable.

The rumored 7D can shoot still photos up to 8 frames per second and will have an ISO range from 100 to 6400 and a special 12800 ISO mode. It has an 18 megapixel sensor and dual DIGIC 4 processors.

The dSLR comes with a 3-inch LCD display and will have the full 1080p HD recording inherited from the 5D, according to Engadget.

If you’re wondering that a Canon 6D should be out first before the 7D, the number 6 connotes bad luck and even if the Japenese aren’t that superstitious, most Chinese might not buy a camera that has the number 6 labeled in it.

Blackberry Storm 9500 Review

The Blackberry Storm is the first full touchscreen smartphone by RIM. Research in Motion (RIM) has made its mark in making great mobile devices for the business segment with its Blackberry handsets. RIM’s signature work in most of its devices include a very dependable full qwerty keyboard and the push email technology that’s geared towards the corporate crowd.

It was then not surprising when RIM announced the Blackberry Storm with a full touch screen interface — an arena that competing manufacturer Apple is making big waves with its iPhone. It was a move that RIM needed to do in order to slow down if not stop Apple’s attempt at eating away its long-dominated market.

The biggest challenge for the Blackberry Storm when it shed the physical keys was the virtual keyboard. The screen itself is recessed so you need to press down on the display panel instead of just tap. Users familiar with other touch screen phones may find this mechanism a bit odd but for first timers, it only takes a little while to get used to (I still often forget to press down a bit harder every once in a while).

Only four physical buttons are found at the bottom of the display panel that’s dedicated to Send, End, Menu and Return. The virtual keyboard also rotates automatically in landscape mode when the device is positioned sideways.

The Storm sports a large 3.25-inch screen with a resolution of 480 x 360 pixels of up to 65,000 colors. The display delivers bright and crisp details especially when playing video and multimedia files in MPEG4 format. The user interface is very similar to other previous versions of the Blackberry but the touch navigation becomes a bit frustrating especially when scrolling webpages.

For connectivity, the Storm is equipped with Bluetooth and 3G/HSDPA. RIM completely skipped WiFi functionality which could turn off a lot of data-heavy users expecting this feature to be there. As such, 3G (including GPRS) connectivity is practically essential as the Blackberry relies on it for delivering push email. But as I said in the TV interview for QTube last week, the lack of WiFi is a deal-breaker.

The built-in autofocus camera is 3.2 megapixels with 2x digital zoom and coupled with a flash. It takes good pictures under decent lighting conditions although the shutter is a bit slow and could result to blurry images even with the flash activated. The handset has a 128MB flash memory and a 1GB internal storage that can be expanded to 16GB with an external microSD card.

The Blackberry Storm has a 1400mAh battery with a capacity of 6 hours talktime and 15 days on standby. My experience with the push email set to “On” gave me about 2 days worth of usage. To maximize and use the push email functionality, the device requires a Blackberry service subscription with a RIM partner telcos (both Smart and Globe offer Blackberry Personal Plans).

Nokia Booklet 3G gets official

I didn’t expect Nokia to join the netbook bandwagon since they’ve been touting the N97 as a handheld personal computer. But it doesn’t hurt to have one more competitor in this segment so we’ll surely see the Nokia Booklet 3G soon enough.

Aside from sporting a 10.1″ screen and HDMI output, the Booklet 3G will also have 3G/HSDPA ports with hot-swappable SIM card and assisted GPS so you can run Ovi Maps on the mini laptop.

The biggest advantage I guess would be the 12-hour battery life that Nokia claims it can squeeze off of a single full charge. Now that’s gonna break Asus’s record with the 1000HE.

The mini laptop will be powered by an Intel Atom (the Z series I assume) and will run Windows 7. Wonder what happened to their Moblin plans. As for the price and the rest of the specs, expect the full details during the Nokia World 2009 on September 2.

See the promotional video here. (Update: the video indicates it will be made of aluminum with chiclet-style keyboard, weighs at 1.25kg, under 20mm thin, WiFi and Bluetooth. This is not going to be cheap (Nokia calls it a mini laptop and not a netbook). Could be north of the price of the N97.)

Freecom claims Smallest 2.5″ External HDD

External mobile hard drives are pretty common nowadays and to get some attention, Freecom claims it owns the world’s smallest external HDD in the 2.5″ category.

Actually, most mobile hard drives have the same size and dimensions. What’s making them lighter, bigger or smaller is the casing so Freecom made the simplest casing — a touch rubber jacket.

This mobile HDD sent in by PCTrends has a capacity of 320GB, covered by a rubber case and comes with a USB cable. Compared to my old WD Passport 160GB, the Freecom XSS is about 25% smaller.

The Freecom XXS mobile HDD costs about Php3,550 in stores.

Asus Eee PC T91 Tablet Review

The Eee PC T91 is Asus’ first tablet netbook and while it’s not really the first one in this category (Gigabyte did the M912 tablet netbook last year), Asus is looking to revive the trend of the tablet PC.

At 8.9 inch, the Asus T91 is an appropriately sized tablet — pretty light but not too small. It has a glossy, black finish that makes it look elegant and classy (in the same league as the Asus Seashell series).Think of this as a smaller, thinner and lighter 1000HE with a swivel hinge instead of stilts.

The keyboard is tightly packed and though the keys a bit small, they’re the chiclet-type so touch-typing isn’t too hard to do. The trackpad has been improved as well although there’s no separation between the left and right click buttons.

Powering the Eee PC T91 is the cooler Atom Z520 running at 1.33GHz (same CPU as the Sony Vaio P VGN-P13GH and the Acer Aspire One AO751) with a 1GB DDR2 RAM (upgradeable to 2GB) so don’t expect it to be speedy when launching programs. Good thing it’s pre-installed with Windows XP rather than Vista.

The 8.9″ touchscreen has a resolution of 1024×768 pixels and not the usual 1024×600 in its class. Asus should also make its other 10-inch netbooks in the same resolution. The tablet also comes with a stylus tucked at the front side corner.

The LED screen is supported by a single hinge at the center that swivels a full 180-degrees and flips down to transform into the tablet form. The touch sensitivity is good enough but not that pretty accurate (you’ll need to do some calibrations first).

The T91 also comes with a separate Touch UI which you can launch from XP or via a dedicated slider button at the bottom left side of the screen. It’s a collection of softwares (TouchSuite) that’s made for specific touch functions like notepad, memo, photos and browsing.

The storage is a 16GB SSD and not the typical big-sized hard drives (the 80GB to 160GB) and while that might have contributed to the lightness of the netbook, I still think the 16GB is big enough.

There’s Bluetooth 2.1 and WiFi 802.11n but did not see the optional GPS, TV Tuner of 3G modem Asus say you can equip it with. As for the battery life, I think I’m getting around 4 something hours although Asus claims it tops at 5 hours, which is not bad.

No word on the final retail price yet but my guess is that this one could fetch a price tag of around Php25 to Php30k.

Why do Filipinos still think 3G is expensive?

Even today, I still hear a lot of people saying or commenting hat 3G internet in the Philippines is still expensive. Yeah, it’s not that very cheap but I don’t think it’s expensive either.

Let’s skip comparing our local 3G internet rates to the rates in other countries and look at some domestic parallels.

Let’s look at Netopia, the most popular internet cafe chains in the country, and see how much they charge for rentals. Members get a discounted rate of about Php30 while non-members pay Php45, right? (or is it higher)

Regular internet shops (the mom-and-pop’s type at the street corner) charges Php20 for gaming and Php25 for surfing.

Pay-for-access WiFi Zones provided by Airborne Access and Globe WiZ charges Php100 per hour.

If we compare 3G internet at Php20 per hour, it’s not that bad. Actually, if you compare it to the examples above, it’s the cheapest. So, why there’s still the perception that 3G is expensive?

• The WAP-era trauma. About half a decade ago, when WAP was first introduced, they cost an arm and a leg. I remember viewing my blog over WAP and posting a comment back then — those 3 page loads costs me Php100!
• Reliability. If you surf on a net cafe, you’re pretty much sure you’d get a good if not fast internet speed. Over 3G, it’s a hit and miss.
• Over-charging nightmares. Either your prepaid loads get drained up real fast or your postpaid bill is thru the roof — any one of these incidents could happen to you.
• Coverage. Even if you’re subscribed on 3G, there’s no telling if your area is covered only by GPRS or EDGE.

The only compelling reason why I think 3G is cheap for me is because of mobility. Maybe someday, we’ll have an alternative option with mobile WiMax.

Edimax nLite WiFi USB Adapter

I got about 3 or 4 WiFi USB dongles at home to hook up desktop PCs and media players to the wireless network. This one sent in by PCTrends is way smaller — it’s the Wireless nLITE Mini-size USB Adapter — probably the smallest out there right now.

The Edimax WiFi USB dongle is compatible with wireless 802.11n standard with a data rate of up to 150Mbps (as long as your router also supports it).

The ones I have at home are from LinkSys and TPLink (the only model compatible with my HDX 1000 NMT) and one can clearly see the difference in size. The problem with my existing WiFi dongles is that once you plug them in one USB port, you can’t use the adjacent port as it covers it. This one by Edimax doesn’t get in the way.

Haven’t seen these in stores by they should sell for around Php1,500.

Zune HD now on Pre-Order at Amazon

The new Zune HD will start shipping on September 15, 2009 and is now ready for pre-order at Amazon for just $219.99 (~Php10,500).

I just pre-ordered one today at Amazon. Hopefully, it will arrive here before end of that month.

The Zune HD comes in 16GB ($219.99) and 32GB ($289.99) models. Some feature highlights:

Touchscreen - the Zune HD has multi-touch navigation, a 3.3-inch screen and 16:9 OLED display (480×272 pixel resolution) screen.

HD Radio - the Zune will have an integrated HD Radio receiver so you can tune in to HD radio content (too bad we ain’t got one in the Philippines).

HD Video Out - it will support 720p HD movies via the AV Dock (dock sold separately). Downscaled to 480×272 on the player.

WiFi - synchronize your song collection wirelessly or stream music over WiFi. Also has a full web browser for surfing.

Available colors in black and platinum.

Nokia 5630, 5730 XpressMusic out and priced

The two new XpressMusic phones from Nokia, the 5630 and 5730, are now out and available in stores. The 5730XM was first announced last March and features a full sliding keyboard.

The Nokia 5730 XpressMusic is 3G/HSDPA and WiFi capable with a 2.4″ screen and a 3.2MP Carl Zeiss optics. It also has a full qwerty keyboard that slides out from the left side, similar to the Nokia E75. Internal storage is just 100MB but it supports up to 16GB using a microSD.

The Nokia 5630 XpressMusic has 256 MB storage, 128 MB RAM and includes a 4GB microSD card (16GB maximum). It also features HSDPA 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2 Mbps, WiFi 802.11 b/g, FM Tuner and 3.15MP camera with LED flash powered by ARM 11 600 MHz processor.

The Nokia 5630 XpressMusic has a suggested retail price of Php13,020 and the 5730XM has an SRP of Php18,750.

New owners also get the phones with 500 free tracks from Universal Music and Airborne Access free wifi for 60 days.

Samsung i8910 Omnia HD Review

After using the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD for over a month now, I’m still having some mixed feeling about the phone. At one hand, the specs and features are awesome but one the other hand, the S60 platform kind of ruined the experience a bit. Let me share with you my thoughts in this review.

The Samsung Omnia HD looks gorgeous — really large screen, slim and sleek. The capacitive touchscreen itself is pretty good with enough sensitivity so you don’t often re-tap on icons and widgets. Scrolling is smooth as well (except when using the browser) and seems pretty close to the responsiveness of the iPhone 3G. See more photos here and complete specs here.

The 3.7″ 640×360-pixel real estate, one of the largest I’ve seen on a smartphone, makes for watching videos very enjoyable. I loaded up a couple of DivX files and they played smoothly with the display crisp and bright even at an angle.

I bumped into a bug though — some of the DivX videos would not show up on vertical orientation but would play just fine in horizontal (scaling problem, perhaps?).

Samsung used the Symbian S60 platform here but added the TouchWiz UI as well so aside from the familar interface of the S60, you also get some added navigational menus like the sliding bar at the left where you can pull up widgets. There’s also a floating bar on top which gives you 3 layers of desktop-like display. Checkout the screenshots below.

The 8-megapixel camera takes great pictures, especially hidef (720p @ 24fps) videos. The built-in flash is bright enough to be able to lit objects within 2 meters from the camera. Close-up shots, like the one below, show some decent depth of field.

(Click to download the original images; 2.64MB each.)

The i8910 has quite a number of storage, both built-in and external — 58MB NAND Flash, 148MB RAM, 8MB ROM, 8GB internal memory card, up to 32GB external memory card (microSD). With the 16GB model and a 32GB external microSD card, you can rack up to 48GB of storage on this phone.

Web browsing via WiFi or 3G/HSDPA is fairly fast although the built-in browser is a bit cumbersome to use.

The battery is rated at only 1000mAh and would normally last about 2 days on regular use but it gets easily drained when you playvideos/music or browse the net using WiFi or 3G (the commercial units are reported at 1500mAh).

Some nice additions:

Digital Compass - something the G2 and the iPhone 3GS also have. Not really that usefull unless you’re the hiking-type of person.

Smart Card Reader - scan a business/calling card with the camera and it automatically recognizes the information (name, phone, email, webiste, etc.) and stores it on the phone. Pretty accurate at around 80 - 90% character recognition.

LBS Services - Samsung included a number of location-based services in the unit to make good use of the GPS/AGPS features.

The Samsung i8910 has all you’d ever wanted for a multimedia phone and more. However, despite the powerful engine under the hood, it feels like the S60 platform is still somewhat slow and laggy at times, giving you an impression that it’s underpowered. We first saw this S60 5th Edition platform with the Nokia 5800XM but since that one had a slower CPU, smaller screen and uses resistive touchscreen, the Samsung i8910 beats it in almost all aspect.

Since the handset I am using is an engineering/prototype unit, some of the bugs/kinks might have been fixed or improved on the commercial release.

I did a comparative chart of features pitting the Samsung i8910 HD against the iPhone 3GS, Nokia N97, LG Arena and the HTC Magic here earlier and the i8910 got top marks. It’s not cheap though — expect to shell out Php32,000 for the 8GB model and Php36,000 for the 16GB model.

Are we ready for 64-bit?

Just re-installed a secondary OS on my main PC and decided to go with the 64-bit version of Windows 7. Been wondering that for the longest time, people have not really cozied up with 64-bit Windows.

It’s been like close to a half a decade now that 64-bit editions of Windows are available and yet it hasn’t gone mainstream (the x86-64 was introduced in 2003).

Before, the main concern is that even if the OS and the hardware is capable of 64-bit, majority of the softwares are compiled into 32-bit code so you don’t really get any significant improvement. Moreover, with the 32-bit Windows OS, it can only use up to about 3GB of RAM so even if you have 2 sticks of 2GB RAM (4GB total), your system can only see 3GB and the remaining 1GB is unused.

The biggest issue that’s causing the slow adaptation is because most device drivers aren’t compatible for 64-bit. If your printer, scanner, etc were manufactured before 2007, chances are they don’t have drivers for 64-bit OS (I have 2 USB WiFi dongles from LinkSys and they don’t have drivers for 64-bit Vista).

Maybe in a couple more years, we’ll see 64-bit take on a larger user base.

For now, I’m enjoying the speed bump running Windows 7 64-bit on an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 with a full 4GB of RAM. Firing up Adobe Photoshop CS4 64-bit is a joy (launch time: 4 seconds).

Anybody out there running a 64-bit Windows OS?

Lenovo IdeaPad U450p

Whenever I see a new notebook that sports an Intel CULV, it always reminded me of the Timeline. This newly announced Lenovo IdeaPad U450p is one of them (and I can already see the trend now).

Just like the Acer Timeline and the Gateway LT series, the Lenovo Ideapad U450p on a low-powered Intel Core 2 Solo with 2 configurations.

Intel Pentium SU2700 1.3GHz or Core 2 Solo SU3500 1.4GHz
Intel Integrated Graphics X4500
3GB or 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 RAM
14″ HD AntiGlare 1366×768 display screen
250GB or 320GB SATA HDD
WiFi 802.11 b/g
DVD+R
6-cell battery

Price ranges between $799 to $899 so that’s about the same price that Acer is selling their Timeline series for although this model is is not yet available in the Philippines.

Internet slows down after Japan earthquake

Internet connectivity has slowed to a crawl today as undersea cable were affected by the recent earthquake in Japan.

Reports from ComputerWorld indicates the Philippines is one of the affected countries:

At about 10:50 a.m. on Wednesday, local time, an alarm signaled a cable fault on Segment 7 of APCN2, which connects Hong Kong and Shantou, China. The disruption caused a temporary loss of service on the undersea link but all customers that use the cable were soon shifted to capacity on other cables, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The APCN2 cable is owned by a consortium of 26 telecom operators from 14 different countries. The cable links Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, South Korea and Japan.

Looks like PLDT is the most heavily affected. Some sites appear down as DNS routing are not resolving.

This is just an excuse for a new PC Case

The introduction of Intel’s Core i7 processors prompted new line of motherboards and demand for DDR3 memory as well as some overclocking challenges and hardcore enthusiasts and gamers.

Asus sent in a couple of their stuff so it was a reason for me to built yet another rig.

The one above is a 10-kilogram Storm Sniper case from Cooler Master. It has a knob at front up front that controls the internal LED lights as well as the ventilation fans (see more details here).

Attach an Asus OC Station (Republic of Gamers Over-Clocking Controller) to the case and you get a cool-looking rig.

Problem though is that prices of Core i7 processors are still too steep. The Core i7 940 2.93GHz alone retails for about Php30,000.

Neo V1195 and B1230 NetBooks

Filipino laptop manufacturer Neo has been doing quite a number of netbooks for sometime now but these two has a couple of interesting specs worth looking into.

The Neo B1230 Travel Choice NetBook has specs that are pretty common (Intel Atom N270, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD) except that it features a 4-cell Lithium Polymer battery, the same type of battery the new Asus Eee PC 1008HA has.

The retail price of Php20,995 doesn’t really make it look too attractive.

On the other hand, Neo V1195 PowerSum NetBook is proving to be priced competitively for the specs it offers. That includes an Intel Atom N280, 10.2” screen, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 320GB HDD, 1.3MP webcam, WiFi 802.11b/g, 6-cell battery and pre-installed with Windows XP Home.

For a price of Php21,995 that’s a good deal. Of course, you also get to pick your color.

Facebook acquires FriendFeed

Facebook was unable to successfully court Twitter before so it’s going for the next best thing — FriendFeed.

This acquisition will open up FriendFeed to over 250 million Facebook users and hopefully catapult them to the same level as where Twitter is now.

“FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being. We’re still figuring out our longer-term plans for the product with the Facebook team.” according to Bret Taylor over at the FriendFeed blog.

The sales is said to be in the $50 Million range in cash and stocks. It’s still unknown how FriendFeed will integrate with Facebook but my guess is that FF could replace the FB Status messages.

Dell Inspiron Mini 10A selling for Php20,999

I thought the Dell Mini 9 would be the last netbook from Dell we’d see for the longest time. It’s been almost a year ago when the first model was launched while the Inspiron Mini 10 was announced as early as January this year.

Turns out the Dell Mini Inspiron 10A is already selling for Php20,999 in store.

Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz
1GB RAM
160GB HDD
10.1″ display screen @1024×600
Bluetooth 2.0
WiFi 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
Webcam

The Mini 10 comes pre-installed with Windows XP Home SP3 but only has a 3-cell battery out of the box. No word if there’s a 6-cell battery option {source: Tradeport/Accent Micro}. The price — Php 20,999.

The Dell Mini is probably one of the best netbooks to use if you want to do a hackintosh.

Here comes Pay Per Tweet

With the continuous growth of Twitter worldwide, I thought it’s only a matter of time before someone does a Pay Per Post marketplace. So there you go — Pay Per Tweet — make some money online by tweeting.

Though the site is not yet open for registration and details aren’t posted yet, it’s pretty easy to imagine what this new marketplace will be:

1) Advertisers buy tweets by the thousands (CPM model) — say $200 per 1,000 tweets.

2) Pay Per Tweet (PPT) auctions the tweet ads and each tweet costs $0.10 (50-50 share).

The model is similar to Pay Per Post — someone buys a post; someone publishes it and earn a couple of bucks.

Question is — will it be just plain per-tweet or will PPT also consider the number of followers a twitterer has? We’re already seeing lots of masked affiliate links on the Twitter stream. I’m pretty sure this PPT will eventually open the floodgates for more ProTwitterers.

HP wins our Best Netbook-Maker Survey

We did a survey on the best netbook-maker a couple of weeks back and I thought it’s time to share the results of that survey (there were over 1,000 votes sent in). Not surprisingly, HP came out the winner of the poll.

At 25% of the votes, HP took the top spot. It’s followed by Acer at 18%, then Asus at 14%. Dell, Sony and Toshiba are tied at 8% while MSI was surprisingly behind at 7% and Lenovo at 6%. The remaining 6% were shared by Neo, Red Fox, Gateway, Gigabyte, Qube, Astone and Minix.

With the HP Mini 2140 and the HP Mini 1100 (plus the Vivienne Tam Special Edition), HP deserves the spot. While the Acer, Asus and MSI crowd might not agree, the brand and lifestyle approach contributed to this. That doesn’t mean though that HP has more sales in the netbook market — that crown is still fought between Asus and Acer.

Pinoy Friendster Day to set World Record

Friendster Philippines is gunning for a World Record for the Biggest Eyeball ever — an attempt to make the definitive statement that the Philippines is still Friendster Capital of the world.

With already 21,000 Friendster Fans logging in, the event could be on its way to set the world record for the largest gathering of members from a social networking community.

Set to happen this August 15, 2009 at the SM Mall of Asia Music Hall, the EB will include live bands by Rico Blanco, Callalily, 6 Cycle Mind, Imago, Pedicab, Paraluman.

Fujitsu M2010 gets priced

And I thought we won’t get to see Fujitsu’s netbook here in the Philippines until I found one listed on Asianic. The Fujitsu M2010 is now available in the Philippines for a retail price of Php26,900.

Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz
1 GB DDR2 RAM
10.1” display screen @ 1024×600 pixel
160 GB SATA HDD
WiFi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
3 x USB 2.0
1.3MP webcam
4-in-1 card reader
Windows XP Home

Weighs at 1.15kg and is available in black and pink.

Sun Cellular caps 2Mbps 3G to 650Kbps

Several readers sent in reports that Sun Cellular is allegedly capping their 2Mbps unlimited 3G internet (Sun Wireless Broadband) to just 640Kbps.

While this bandwidth capping has not been official confirmed, a number SWB users have been sharing bandwidth results from their experience that there’s indeed some sort of capping going on (using Mobile Data Monitoring Application).

The Sun Wireles Broadband (SWB) unlimited service has a monthly service fee of Php799 (the cheapest 3G internet service in the Philippines) for unlimited 3G internet within Metro Manila. Sun Cellular promises speeds of up to 2Mbps on their 3.5G network. Consumer reports on 640Kbps cap is definitely a significant issue and it’s possible their network is already clogging up (a victim of their own success?).

I have contacted Sun Cellular for an official response to this issue and they promised to get back to me. Will update this post once I get official word from them.

MSI Wind U200 drops Atom for a Pentium

MSI’s next Wind U-series netbook line is dropping the Atom for a Pentium CULV processor in its upcoming 12″ MSI Wind u200 ultra-mobile notebook.

The specs of this Wind U200 is very similar to that of Acer’s Timeline and Gateway LT series.

Intel Pentium CULV SU2700 @ 1.3GHz
12″ dislay screen @ 1366×768 pixel resolution
Intel Mobile GS40 Express chipset
4GB DDR2 RAM
320GB HDD 5400rpm
Gigabit Ethernet
WiFi 802.11b/g/n
3 x USB 2.0 ports
1 HDMI port
4-in-1 card reader
1.3 MP webcam
6-cell battery
Microsoft Vista Home Premium

No idea when will this be shipped to the Philippines or how much they’ll cost but since MSI is also offering the X-Slim series between Php30k to Php40k, it might end up somewhere near that price point.

Smart offers 2 hours 3G internet for Php20

Yesterday, Smart announced a new promo offering mobile internet users an extra hour for every hour of usage during off-peak times. That’s Php20 for 2 hours (Php10 per hour) between 2am to 6am.

The promo starts today and in order to avail of it, one must go to the Smart Mobile portal (m.smart.com.ph) on your phone’s browser and click on the “Free 1 Hour with Off-Peak Internet Plan” link. You need to activate it before you can get your extra 1 hour free.

You will need to have at least 1-peso load balance remaining in order to activate this and activation is only between 2am to 4am. If you go beyond the 6am off-peak hours, you will be charged the regular rate of Php10 per 30 minutes.

The off-peak hours indicated by Smart gives us some idea that 3G internet usage is still at its peak even between 12 midnight to 2am. Now that’s a lot of heavy 3G internet users.

Asus U20A is sexy and expensive

Asus has come up with its very own ultra-low voltage and slim notebook line which practically goes head to head with the Acer Timeline, HP Pavillion DV2 and the Gateway LT series we’ve seen earlier. Of particular interest is the 12.1″ Asus U20A notebook which is already available at PC Bodega.

At first glance, the design looks like a bigger Asus Eee PC Seashell edition. It’s not really a netbook but falls under the ultra-mobile notebook category.

Asus U20A
12.1″ display screen @ 1280×800 pixels
Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 1.2GHz
4GB DDR2 RAM
500GB SATA HDD @ 5400rpm
Intel GMA 4500MHD
WiFi 802.11 b/g
1.3MP webcam
4 x USB 2.0 ports
Gigabit LAN
8-in-1 card reader
Express Card slot
Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
Vista Home Premium

The notebook comes with an external DVD writer and a standard 6-cell battery that can last up to 8.5 hours. Weighs about 1.78kg (3.91 lbs). Listed price at PC Bodega is Php62,500.

Nikon CoolPix S1000pj Camera with Projector

Nikon gets a new first in the digital camera segment — the Nikon CoolPix S1000pj has a built-in projector. It comes with its own stand and remote control.

12.1 megapixel
5x zoom Nikkor lens
2.7 inch high-resolution LCD monitor
36MB internal memory with SD/SDHC card
ISO 80 to 6400

The projector’s brightness goes up to 10 lumens with an optimal projection distance of 2 meters and battery life of 1 hour. A digital camera with project makes sense — that means you can project your images and videos into a screen/wall on-the-go.

X-Mini 2: Bigger, Badder, Louder

The X-Mini II has been out for a while now but it’s only recently that I got one to test out. This 2nd generation capsule speaker is now bigger and more bad-ass.

A bigger chamber could only mean a better bass and the X-Mini 2 did not disappoint. The sound is fuller, the volume is louder and you still get that nice crisp audio quality that made the previous one popular.

Power output of the speaker is at 1.9 watts and the battery capacity is now at 400mAh (33% more than the old one) so you get somewhere between 4 to 8 hours of playback depending on the volume settings.

This new one has an internal volume control and a buddy jack so you can hook it up to another X-Mini and daisy-chain dozens of them in a single audio line.

Among the three (X-Mini, and X-Mini Max) I liked this one better. You’ll have to shell out Php1,600 for the X-Mini II but IMO it’s still well worth it.

Cyber Clean: Cleaning Compound for Gadgets

Got intrigued by this jar of gooey compund which claims to be able to help clean devices and gadgets on the fly. So I bought one and tried it at home.

The compound, call Cyber Clean, feels like synthetic clay or Play Dough, just a little soft and slimier. It doesn’t break up easily too so when you mash it against the gadget you’re cleaning, it doesn’t leave any trace of the substance.

What it does is it sticks/attaches to your device and removes small dirts and dusts along with it. The advantage is that it can get into the hard-to-get corners and openings of devices like your computer keyboard, grooves of the lens body or your cellphone keypad. If you tried cleaning your laptop keyboard with water and cotton buds without much success, then this one might help.

If the dirt has already settled into the device, this compound can’t remove it.

The dirt also remains within the compound so after several uses, you’ll have to dispose of the clay. The number of uses will depend on how dirty your gadgets are.

They sell them in a small sachet of 50 grams for Php150 and the 140 gram bottle for Php350.

Free Gadget Magazines: Do they work?

The Mobile Philippines magazine has been offering subscriptions for free in the last 8 months (at least) and I only found about it today.

I’m not really into magazines lately although I still have that 12-issue subscription from Digital Photographer. Went around Virra Mall this afternoon to get me a new kick-ass PC case (that’s for the PCLabs) when I saw copies of Mobile Philippines being given out for free.

It’s a good move I think since the focus is getting as many readers as possible and make money off print advertising. It’s pretty to sell magazines if they’re free, right? Inquirer’s Libre was a huge hit.

To those who aren’t into magazines any longer, would a free subscription change your mind and go back to reading a printed copy? In the era of Gizmodo and Engadget, could this be the future of gadget magazines?

Asus External DVD-RW Drive for Netbooks

Asus finally made some nice external DVD writer to match their pretty netbooks and nettops — the Asus SDRW-08D1S-U External DVD-RW Drive matches the finish of the Eee PC and the form factor of the Eee Box.

This super-multi DVD burner can do almost any disk formats, except maybe Blu-ray. But that’s just it — an external DVD burner that should stylishly match any of your current Asus netbook.

There’s no more power cable, just the USB cable. There are 4 paddings on the bottom part, it also comes with a cradle so you can position it upright.

Still have to run some burn-in test but Asus claims an 8x speed on DVD and 24x on CD. Burned a 2GB file into a DVD in just 6 mins 58 secs.

Don’t know yet how much this one would cost but I don’t think it’s gonna be cheap. Expect somewhere between Php3-Php5k for this one. Of course, there will be other alternatives out there but if you have an Asus netbook/nettop, it’s nice to pair with wit an Asus ODD.