Imagine a phone that does the job of recharging itself. The geniuses at Finnish company Nokia in Cambridge, UK invented a new charging system that harnesses the infinite amount of radio waves that surrounds us, and converts the electromagnetic radiation into electricity to power a cellular phone battery. These radio waves can come simply from your own television set, wifi transmitters, radios, or any device with antennae. Still in the experimental stages, Nokia foresees this technology to go mainstream in 3-5 years. For now, they are working on getting the charger to generate 20 milliwatts, enough for a phone to run on stanby mode forever. About double that, we can do voice calls for whatever lengths we desire, load permitting.

Would you buy this cellphone?

Admittedly, I’m not the gadgets-savvy person I used to be. All these brands pumping out high-tech thingamabobs almost every week has left me dazed and confused (and I reckon you too). So I heard that, for the nth time, Apple has come up with, literally, a rainbow of new iPod Nanos. These skittle babies put my old worn out first-gen iPod Nano to shame. Not only can they hold up to 4,000 songs, they can play videos too! See, just saying that proves how bad it is.

I’m mulling over either getting this or an iPod Touch. The iPod Touch is a veritable feast for the eyes isn’t it? Also helps that it’s available here in Davao City. But it costs 80 bucks more than the Nano. I know, why not the iPod classic? Honestly, I don’t need that much memory (120 g’s) and it costs even more than the Touch.

Help me out will ya?

Oh, and check out this cool Apple logo:

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.

I wanted something different this time. I wanted a wireless mouse. The only one they had in stock was the Logitech Cordless Laser Mouse (model V470). Costs quite a bit more than the usual mouse (P2300) that the saleslady decided to give me a measly 3-month warranty to go with it. Aesthetically speaking, the V470 is one hot-looking gadget. It is “Designed for Mac” as it says on the box and it sure would sit nicely beside a Macbook. Unfortunately I don’t own a Macbook, but a metallic HP Pavilion dv3000 that I bought a few weeks ago.

Here’s my verdict so far: I’m used to cheap lightweight mice that I get from CDR-King. The V470 is a tad bulkier and heavier due to the required AA batteries to power it. But the fact that it’s wireless makes it excusable. Bluetooth and Laser technology makes it far more precise than regular optical infrared-dependent mice. I noticed that even on a plain slippery surface it still works quite while and doesn’t wobble at all. Scrolling up and down is very smooth. I can’t wait to test this on Warcraft and Photoshop. Obviously, this one’s a keeper.

Features:

Laser precision
Side-to-Side Scrolling Plus Zoom
Bluetooth wireless technology
Protective pouch
Light, durable design
Battery life indicator
Compatible on Windows XP/Vista/Mac OS X

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.

Update:
On Septebmer 26, 2008, Yves Rossy traveled 22 miles across the English Channel on his homemade jet wing, tracing the route that Frenchman Louis Bleriot followed in 1909 when he became the first man to cross the channel on an airplane. The trip took a mere 13 minutes, but Rossy’s daring feat will likely be remembered throughout history as the most badass. Ever.

Here’s a video of his amazing accomplishment:

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, while costing about the same price. Darnit.

I went back to Park Square. I ran into TCA (The Computer Authority) and saw this fabulous, shiny HP Pavilion DV3000 on their window display. I can’t believe I missed it the previous day. I interviewed the salesguy but all he could say was that it was a newly-released model and overall a fantastic buy. The specs were quite impressive: 250GB HD, 2GB RAM, Nvidia Video Card with 256MB dedicated memory, a nice titanium finish, really sleek-looking (the salesguy said it’s because it was made of the same material as golf clubs lol). The screen was 13.3 inches which is perfect since I wanted something lightweight. Ah yes, I think I’ve found the one! It set me back some 77,000 pesos or $1,833.00. Notice my consistency in my blogging lately? All because of my new HP DV3000, although blogging didn’t buy me this laptop

I’m not the “benchmarking” type of guy, but so far I’m loving how lightning-fast it opens and runs applications. In a week or two I’m going to install Warcraft and see how that fairs. Hope you like this review.

Product Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 2.4Ghz
2GB Memory
250GB Hard Drive
NVidia Geforce 256MB Video Card
DVD+RW Drive
WiFi Enabled/Bluetooth
13″ WXGA LCD
1.3MP Webcam
Dual Mic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Fingerprint Reader
eSATA/USB Combo Port
HDMI Port
HP 3D Driveguard

If you’re looking for an affordable notebook, research some of the Dell.com Laptop deals online before going to your nearest retail outlet.

2. Prepaid users outnumbered postpaid users 3 to 2 – Again, not surprising. Some own just one phone and switch SIM cards depending on who they want to text or call.

3. There were more users on Globe than Smart 4 to 3 – I was expecting Smart to win this one, but Globe tends to be popular among techies/yuppies who can afford their rates.

4. On primary use of phone, text messaging was the most important, followed by calling, Internet browsing, taking photos, sending emails and storing/playing music – Expected, given that we are, no less, the text messaging addicts of the world. I would expect music to rank higher than it did, but apparently our iPods are indeed there for a purpose.

Other neat facts:

The total mobile market is a mind-blowing 55 million subscribers. That’s a 63% market penetration rate! Smart is the leading network with 54% of the market, followed by Globe with 36% and Sun with 10%. For 2006 alone, the market welcomed 14 million new subscribers or a 36% growth rate. This year’s growth won’t be as fast-paced, experts predict.

Thanks to all who participated!

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

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.

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.

Hmm. Did Nagumo really base it on Gundam? Coz it looks a hell lot like Star Wars’ AT-ST Walker: