It’s the third time I forgot to bring my mouse over here at the office. I’m not the touchpad type of user so I usually don’t get any work done without a real mouse. Instead of stocking up on Gingko Biloba to increase circulation to my brain (thus improve memory, thus won’t forget the mouse), I ran down to the nearest PC store (which is equivalent to heaven, if there is one lol) to look for, well, a mouse.
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Could this be the future of air travel? Yves Rossy definitely thinks so. Rossy, a former fighter pilot, took five years to perfect his flying contraption. All his hard work pays off during his maiden flight on May 15, 2008. He zooms and spins in the sky and over the Swiss-effin-alps like there’s no tomorrow. *Kinda* reminds me of a certain character in Toy Story, but to hell with that. He’s way cooler. What I would give to be in his shoes, or wings, right now.

Video after the jump.

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After realizing that my 2-year-old Compaq laptop (aptly baptized as Maximus) wasn’t serving my needs anymore (despite my fruitless attempts at ‘pimping’ it), I decided to hunt for a new one while I as on a 10-day tour of Manila. In particular, I was looking for a lightweight yet powerful PC with quick processing speed, more-than-enough disk space and lots of RAM. I was getting kinda bored with Compaq’s and HP’s offerings and true enough, as I was scouring Glorietta’s Park Square, the picture was bleak. So I thought, why not a Vaio? I entered Electroworld’s store and saw a Sony display table with a Vaoi FZ on it. It was beautiful — a strikingly vivid 15-inch LCD screen, 250GB HD and 2GB of RAM — all that for just 74,000 pesos! The Electroworld guy said that the unit recently got a big price slash, something like 50%. So I was totally sold! When I was getting ready to buy it, I was told that the display unit was the last one they had in stock. Oh my. Ok, later dude, I’ll think about it, is what I told him. The security guard was even trying to convince me, saying the Vaio was put on display only on that day. Fortunately my cousin Ria was bugging me from outside the mall to haul my ass out coz she and her posse of blogger friends were waiting for me. I did go out empty-handed, which is good I guess, coz that would mean more PC-obsessing the next day. I looked up the FZ online and what do you know. The FZ that Electroworld was trying to sell to me did not have the specs I was told it had! The actual specs were: 15-inch non-LCD screen (but the colors were still pretty), 160GB HD and 2GB RAM. The specs above were for a different model that costs 160,000 pesos. Darnit.
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I conducted a quick survey called “Globe, Smart or Sun?” a week ago and got a nice number of responses from my techie/blogger friends. Here’s what I found:
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I noticed a lack of localized gadgets for us Filipinos using iGoogle, so I came up with a few Google Gadgets that deliver the freshest headlines from our top online newspapers.

Click on each image to add them to your iGoogle page. Enjoy!

I think I just had a tech orgasm.

Touted as “a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet communications device”, the Apple iPhone uses a touchscreen navigation and comes with the Safari browser, integrated Google search and maps, free Yahoo push IMAP email (a la BlackBerry), runs OSX and widgets. The big let-down is that Apple struck an exclusive deal with Cingular Wireless, which will start selling the phone in June 2007 with a binding 2-year contract. Worse, it won’t reach Asian markets till 2008! But I’m sure the black market will somehow get its hands on it soon enough, IMO. iPhone will set you back $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for 8GB. For sure, this is the phone that’ll replace my Sony Ericsson W800i.

Quick video demo after the jump.
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Related Link: Best iPhone Deal. Visit our store now.

From TechEBlog via Zipped:

Called the ‘Land Walker’, this behemoth stands 11 feet tall, weighs 1 ton and sports two air guns. It was created by Masaaki Nagumo of Sakakibara Kikai Co., an environment machinery manufacturer in Shinto, Japan. Fascinated by his favorite anime show ‘Gundam’, Nagumo wanted to create something similar to the high-flying robots. Understandably, ‘Land Walker’ has a long way to go in terms of development, but Nagumo’s tenacity and genius alone are commendable. Don’t expect to see this on Ebay anytime soon. Right now it’s available only in Japan, for $300,000 a pop.

Demo clip after the jump.
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Google Maps for Mobile now has Real-time traffic reporting! How cool is that.
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Looking for the best deals on computers, peripherals and gadgets in the Philippines?

TipidPC.com is the leading resource for buying and selling brand new and second-hand computer parts and peripherals in the Philippines.

TipidPC is the brainchild of Jesus A. Domingo and has been online since July 2001 (about the same as Alleba.com). I hope to interview Mr. Domingo soon since not much information is available from their site. Nevertheless, TipidPC has an enormous following and has a good number of brick-and-mortar establishments doing business with them. Last I checked, there were 715 users currently browsing the site! Wow.

On the Net: TipidPC.com

I’m trying to decide which digital camera to buy. I went to the Sony store and checked out the Cyber-shot DSC-H2. Price tag: Php33,900.

Sony Cybershot DSC H2
6.00 Mpixel Resolution
12X Optical Zoom

There was no way for me to read the whole list of features this camera has because it was sitting behind a glass display and once I got a hold of it it was attached to a locked cable. It was like this store didn’t want to sell me anything. But the camera looked absolutely beautiful. I didn’t mind the bulkiness because it just added to the ‘professional’ feel of it. If I wanted to be taken seriously I’d at least try to look like the real thing right? Hehe. Everyone’s buying those smallish toys that claim to be cameras. I beg to differ. I’d rather go for the brawny bunch. Without bothering to go obsessive on the specs I simply decided to dig up reviews later on the Internet for a more reliable opinion.

Right across the Sony store was the Canon store. A slew of SLR-type cameras was on display but most of them were definitely not within my budget. There was however one that was: the Canon Powershot S2. It wasn’t exactly the kind I was aiming for. It came in chrome and screamed “consumer electronic”. It didn’t look as ‘pro’ as the Cyber-Shot, but it basically had the same features. Price tag: Php29,000.

Canon Powershot S2 IS
5.00 Mpixel Resolution
12X Optical Zoom

While I was researching some more, I learned Canon came out with a meaner model, the Powershot S3. Price tag: ~P35,000.

Canon Powershot S3 IS
6.00 Mpixel Resolution
12X Optical Zoom

My main purpose of buying a camera is to learn photography and take great pictures. And in the process, maybe make it an alternative career path. I’ve always been interested in this craft since I took it up at Pratt in New York. It was sad though because my professor didn’t appreciate the stuff I came up with. He said my subjects were too random and lacked focus. Hmm. To add fuel to the flame one of my classmates stole my Nikon camera. Two police officers showed up in school but they did nothing but asked me to file a report. But I digress. I’ll blog about my final purchase tomorrow. If you guys have had experience with the cameras I mentioned, please fill me in!