A new Davao Blogs aggregator is in town! Blog Davao is the premier site that gathers the best blogs created by Davao locals. Moreover, the latest posts from these blogs are summarized and linked for your convenience. If you think your blog is fit to be in Blog Davao, use our contact form. Subscribe to the Blog Davao feed too.

My Davao Jobs is a new site that allows employers and jobseekers in Davao City to connect. For employers, posting jobs is easy and free. All they need to do is use the submit form, fill in the job details and send. I noticed some nice activity slowly trickling in, which is a sign that people are finding it useful. For jobseekers, submitting an application could be done directly on the job page. My Davao Jobs, unlike any other site catering to the same locale, allows jobseekers to attach their resumes. If you’re an employer or jobseeker in Davao City, check out My Davao Jobs!

To all my readers who’ve stuck with me all these years.. And the new ones who accidentally drop by..

Happy New Year to you and your family!

Let’s all look forward to the new year with hope, ambition and more blog posts!!

-Andrew

Due to uncontrollable circumstances, I would like to announce that I’m no longer part of the core group of Mindanao Bloggers. That does not however take away the fact that I am a blogger from Mindanao. I will continue the ideals and crusade that we stood for, perhaps in another time, shape or form. Who knows?

I got 30 invites yesterday and now they’re down to 18. Who wants? Leave your email in the comments section. May take a day or two for the invite to be sent.

UPDATE: Down to Zero. I’m quite surprised by the number of requests I got! Wow! I will have more invites available soon. Please subscribe to my feed to get dibs on those future invites.

I’d like to extend an invitation to all bloggers to attend the Bloggers Christmas Party here in Davao City on December 4, 2009. We are also turning it into a party to celebrate Firefox’s 5th anniversary. Expect tons of sumptuous food, drinks, revelry, kris kringle, cool schwag and … wait for it … karaoke! There’s one catch though. There’s a measly P200 fee to cover the expenses. It’ll be worth it, I promise.

In light of that, things are definitely shaking up in the Mindanao blogosphere. Conflicts high in the mountains and unsurprisingly they abound in the online atmosphere as well. To tackle that problem we decided on forming a local bloggers group for Davao City and an altogether new one with a larger scope (hint, hint). If you wanna find out more, do join this event. Everyone’s voice will have a chance to be heard and we are keen on gathering as much ideas possible to make this work.

Last but not the least, we are going to introduce a newly revved-up Avatar Media — our company, plans, goals and mission. This group has been formed long ago but never quite took off. With a smashing new logo and website, we are ready to take on the challenges of new media in the city and Mindanao.

To join this event, head over to the official sign-up sheet found at Avatar Media’s official website.

For two straight days, Google has featured two different logos or “doodles” commemorating the 40th anniversary of our favorite children’s show, Sesame Street.

Here in the Philippines, Big Bird was the first logo that appeared.

And just an hour ago, Cookie Monster.

My fearless forecast is this will be going on for 5 more days, with Elmo, Bert and Ernie, Grover and Oscar the Grouch receiving their own doodles.

If you ask me, the Cookie Monster logo is pretty cute. It’s the one to beat.

UPDATE (11/6) Bert and Ernie:

(11/7) Oscar the Grouch:

(11/8) Elmo

(11/9) Count von Count

(11/10) Sesame Street Ensemble

Congrats to the organizers of the 3rd Mindanao Bloggers Summit (MBS3) for a job well done! The MBS3 was held this time in Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental. Previous editions were done in Davao City and General Santos City. I wasn’t able to make it because I’m still recovering from injuries I sustained in an accident in Singapore. I hope to be around for MBS4 here in Davao.

MBS3 received raves from bloggers such as Migs Hipolito, Jim Hao, Lyle Santos and Brendel Balaga. I honestly was quite concerned about how it would go. But these concerns were quickly put to rest once several attendees began plurking. Notable speakers were Adel Tamano, Aileen Apolo, Lyle Santos and Avel Manansala.

The biggest surprise came when people began texting me congratulatory messages. Apparently I’m one of 10 recipients of the Digital Tribe of Mindanao award from Globe Telecom. I’m not exactly sure what the award means, but hey, I’ll take awards any day!

Again, congratulations to the MBS team in CDO, led by Chiq Montes. Good job guys!

The Philippine Blog Awards honored the Filipino blogosphere’s best of the best last October 9, 2009. Congratulations to all the winners, with special mention to my friend Mica Rodriguez, who won the Blogger’s Choice Award! Here’s the complete list of winners:

Special Awards

Best Blog Design – The Site Guy
Best Filipino Blog Abroad – The Warped Zone
Best Foreign Blog – My Sari Sari Store
Blogger’s Choice – Micamyx
Best Filipiniana Blog – Pilipino Komiks
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I vote for my photoblog, Davao Photo, to win the 2009 Blogger’s Choice Award at the Philippine Blog Awards.

A lot have been campaigning their blogs to win this prestigious award. I’m refraining from voting for anyone this time, because I made two promises to two people that I would vote for them, blindly thinking that it was possible. But after reading the fine print, I learned I was wrong. So to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings, I hereby declare that my vote goes to myself. There is no rule against voting for myself. I know I won’t win but at least I chose something close to my heart. And that is why I feel like I’ve won already.

xoxo

As I get up to speed with my blogging here, here are some things worth mentioning:

1. The Mindanao Bloggers Summit 3 in Cagayan de Oro City is a go on October 24, 2009. There is a minimum fee of P500 which covers expenses throughout the sessions including food and a city tour, and there is an option to go white water rafting for P1,000. Sounds like fun! Kudos to the organizing team led by Chiq Montes.

2. The Philippine Blog Awards is going to Mindanao! Yes, the PBA will be held in tandem with MBS3! Special awards to be given out are Mindanao Advocacy Blog, Mindanao Photoblog, Uniquely Mindanao Blog and Mindanao Destination Blog.

3. Nokia OVI spokesperson Jayvee Fernandez blogged about a contest where you upload a pic of your workstation and get a chance to win P2,000 in gift certificates and a Nokia phone. I submitted mine, but I doubt that I’ll win But mine doesn’t look so bad, right? More details here.

4. I just got back from a trip to 3 countries – Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. I had a blast, except for injuries I sustained while doing a Superman stunt on a walk-on conveyor. Read about it in my personal blog.

5. I recently launched a blog with my friend Aileen that’s dedicated to our favorite beverage — TEA! There are only two entries so far, but there’s more to come, I promise! Once Aileen gets her Internet back, she’ll start posting too. Head over to Tea, Completely.

6. I *really* hope I can revive this blog of mine. I wonder why people still keep visiting but I’ll try the best I can to keep it that way. I tend to over-analyze when writing an article for Alleba Blog and that burdens me a lot. My real style of writing could be seen on my personal blog, which is more relaxed and free-flowing. I’ll employ that tone here from now on. Should be great. Might I mention that I made some real cool purchases in Singapore which I look forward to sharing with you guys.

7. I wasn’t at Wordcamp Philippines 2009 for several reasons. Most of them I could not mention here. But let me say this. Leadership doesn’t mean sitting around, acting like a diva and think you can treat people like slaves. Wordcamp 2008 was a success because the team worked as equals. That’s not to say Wordcamp 2009 wasn’t a success, but I’d go as far as saying that Chattee, Lyle, Brendel and Jim did a splendid job in turning things around and making the event an enjoyable one.

8. Wordcamp NYC is now using a logo that I made for their event. I didn’t expect to win. Actually, four of us won! LOL.

That’s all for now. More updates coming soon!

Word is that Yahoo! Philippines will announce Monday that they had hired Jack Madrid as its new Country Manager.

According to his Linkedin Profile, Jack’s had two decades worth of experience in BPO, media, banking and venture capital. A graduate of Wharton, he specializes in call center management, strategic planning, media & marketing and commercial banking. Prior to his new gig, Jack was senior executive for Dell International Services, a contact center in the Mall of Asia. His impressive work portfolio also includes MTV, Ayala Corporation and Citibank.

Yahoo! Philippines has taken great strides in boosting its brand awareness locally, most recently through the Yahoo! Purple Hunt, which took participants all Metro Manila to find “clues” to win prizes. I surmise that Mr. Madrid’s hiring is in lieu of something bigger. What it might be, I have no clue. Yahoo! does have a General Manager for the Philippines, in the person of Jojo Anonuevo. I wonder how their roles would play out (or clash) once Jack steps in. Something’s brewing, that’s for sure.

To those attending the Google-Globe Developer Workshop tomorrow (June 20, 2009), the event will be held at one of the conference rooms found at the West wing of the Tech Portal building of the UP-Ayala Technohub. The Tech Portal building is the horseshoe-shaped building where the shops and cafes are located.

Here’s a map:

For more about the event, click here.

Again, see you there!

Thanks to Bong for the original image of the map.

HTC Country Manager Mark Sergio officially announced today that the HTC Magic™, the first Android-powered mobile phone in the Philippines, will be available exclusively through Smart Gold, the postpaid brand of leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART).

SMART and HTC Corporation will be launching HTC Magic™ very soon. The HTC Magic™ is the first of its kind to be introduced in the Philippines. The smartphone is equipped with the Android operating system, and is supported by SMART’s HSDPA network, the widest in the country.

“To truly maximize the power of advanced, all-in-one devices, they need to be powered by innovative operator technologies – offering the HTC Magic through SMART Gold is a natural fit,” said Miriam Choa, activations manager of SMART Gold.

The HTC Magic™ comes with a powerful mobile browser that provides easy access to Google services such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Talk. It also has the Smart Dialer function, which allows users to either dial the phone number or simply type in the first few letters of the name of the person they want to call.

“Part of SMART’s efforts in putting the Internet in the hands of every Filipino is providing subscribers a broad selection of the latest, most advanced handset models that suit their lifestyles at very affordable rates,” said Choa.

SMART Gold is a pioneering postpaid brand which offers a wide variety of monthly plans, all offering free or subsidized handsets, free airtime and SMS. SMART Gold subscribers enjoy access to high-speed, mobile Internet and other value-added services powered by SMART’s nationwide mobile broadband coverage.

The HTC Magic will be available exclusively under SMART Gold subscription plans, and will be out in the market by the end of June 2009.

UPDATE: Globe made a similar announcement. I wonder how this would pan out.

The Daily Top 10 Posts Wordpress plugin has been updated and fully tested on Wordpress 2.8.

It’s not a major update, but I included a feature that many have been clamoring for — the ability to exclude certain posts or pages from tracking. You will need to edit the file manually. When I find the time you will be able to do this through the admin panel. For now, we’ll have to go manual. To exclude posts, open up the plugin file and edit the line (~99) that reads:

$EXCLUDE = "";

Between the double quotes, type the ID’s of posts you don’t want to track. You can figure out the ID’s by looking at Posts > Edit.

Your code should look something like this:

$EXCLUDE = "5,7,9,104,110,250";

Do this ONLY if you want to disable tracking on specific posts. Otherwise, leave the code as is. Disabled posts will stop registering hits and will cease to appear in all widgets.

I’m aware that some requested a feature to disable tracking on certain categories. That will be done in the next update. Give it a week or two.

To download the update, click here or automatically update in the plugins panel.
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