Sink or Swim

According to ProductWiki.com, here are the contenders to the famous iPhone. I am still an iPhone fan but it doesn’t hurt to know the competition.   There’s more but here are my top three. [Source]

HTC Desire HD
October, 2010

$649.00$563.00 (13% off)

Pros

• an Evo 4G for the rest of the world
• intelligent ringer – rings louder if it senses it’s stored away, quiets down when picked up and mutes when flipped over
• powerful hardware – 1GHz processor, 768MB of RAM, 1.5GB of internal storage

Cons

• standard LCD display
• battery life will be too short at only 1230mAh capacity
• available only in Europe, and very expensive to import

RIM BlackBerry Torch 9800
August, 2010

$489.53

Pros

• full slide-out QWERTY keyboard – a BlackBerry specialty that blows most other phone keyboards out of the water
• the first phone to run RIM’s latest BlackBerry 6 operating system
• 5MP camera with LED flash

Cons

• not the revolutionary device most were hoping for to keep RIM competitive in the consumer market
• dated aesthetic for a consumer device
• quite bulky compared to QWERTY-less devices

Samsung Galaxy S
July, 2010

Pros

• stunning 4″ Super-AMOLED display @ 800 x 480px, takes phone displays to a new level (esp. color, contrast, viewing angles & brightness)
• runs a current generation high end 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU by Samsung (Hummingbird)
• WiFi (802.11b/g/n) and 3G (HSPA max downlink 7.2 Mbit/s, max uplink 5.76Mbit/s) connectivity

Cons

• no camera flash
• No dedicated Camera button
• Terrible GPS performance and no reliable fix so far

I came across a post about the top 10 gadgets for 2010. And since 2011 is fast approaching, let me do a re-post of my top three favorite from that list. I’m still trying to covet them but very much unsuccessful as of this writing.

Lenovo IdeaPad U1

It’s a notebook that looks like a laptop computer but has a detachable screen that you can use as a separate tablet computer.

Apple Tablet

Plastic Logic Que E-Reader

Predicted to be the e-reder to own in 2010. Has a sci-fi like thinness with 11.6-inch screen with touch capability.

source

So, you’ve decided to head to the Internet in your little bit of free time. You have decided that you want to try out something new. A game sounds good, but you are unsure what type of game you would be most interested in. Here are some options.

Online casino games: These are a great option if you love heading to Vegas but don’t have the time or money. Place your bets and get ready to have a good time. With options from sportsbooks to poker and more, you can find everything that you love about Vegas (minus the great food and crazy people!) with online casino games.

read more »

Want to get your hands on a Nokia C6?  I’ve been eyeing this before I got my iPhone and still like it, mainly because of the QWERTY keyboard.

If you feel the same, read the flyer below.

The original price is actually Php15,000 but on November 13, 2010 starting from 1PM to 3PM, the participating malls will offer it for only P6,490 to lucky customers who can manage to squeeze themselves in the 2-hour sale.

This promo will be held at :

• SM Megamall
• SM North EDSA
• SM Cebu
• Gaisano Davao

Read more here.

Saw these mbt shoes on TV and I got curious about its capacity to improve the use of your joints and spine. God knows I need all the workout I could get so it walking / running around with MBT (Masai Barefoot Technology) shoes can help me achieve that, then I’m willing to give it a try. According to the site, it can strengthen and tone your muscles in the feet, legs, buttocks, stomach and back. It also helps in increasing the muscle activity and circulation therefore reducing cellulite (oh my tell me this is true please!) and varicose veins.

I knew there was a reason why my mom kept nagging me to walk and stand up straight! It doesn’t only make you look good but it also makes us healthier and stronger.

More and more people are using the internet nowadays not just for their everyday correspondence or research but for their business as well. The internet is empowering more and more companies everyday by allowing them to speak with their clients even if they live in different time zones, send and receive important correspondence like contracts and other files without necessarily hiring couriers to do the job, and monitor your office and employees even if you are in a business meeting in China. However, despite the many advantages that one can get from the internet, a business will not be able to survive without the use of fax machines and online fax.

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As if lusting after iPhone4, iPad and other mini-computers is not enough, Dell Streak comes into the picture.

I must say I’m a sucker for all portable things that can let me take amazing photos, blog, surf the web, email, read books, watch videos/listen to music. It’s also a bonus if I can use it for work – designing and HTML coding with FTP transfer abilities. But I digress. Let me just highlight the latest item on my WANTED list.

Dell Streak.

Dell Streak (previously known as the Mini 5) is a smartphone/tablet hybrid from Dell that uses the Android operating system. It comes with a 5″ capacitive touchscreen and two cameras, a 5MP one with dual-LED flash on the back and a VGA-resolution one on the front for video calling; both are capable of video. The development was first disclosed in June 2009[4] and in October 2009 it was known that the tablet is capable of making 3G phone calls. [5]

And directly from dell.com’s blog:

Hardware-wise, the Dell Streak features the following:

• A sharp 5-inch capacitive multi-touch WVGA (800×480) display for a great full-screen experience watching video or browsing the web
• Fast 1GHz Snapdragon ARM-based mobile processor from Qualcomm
• 5 MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash that offers easy point & shoot capability and quick uploads to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and more
• VGA front-facing camera enables video chat functionality down the road
• A user-removable (and replaceable) battery
• A 3.5mm headphone jack means many of you can use the Dell Streak as the music source (and more) in your car
• Integrated 3G + Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + Bluetooth 2.1 (think headsets, external keyboards, stereo headsets, etc.)
• UMTS / GPRS / EDGE class 12 GSM radio with link speeds of HSDPA 7.2 Mbps / HSUPA
• A user-accessible Micro SD slot expandable up to 32GB. That means you can store  lots of movies, music, photos or other kinds of files.

On the software side, here’s what you can expect:

• A customized multi-touch version of the Google Android operating system that features Dell user interface enhancements
• Access to over 38,000  apps (and growing) via the Android Marketplace
• Microsoft Exchange connectivity and integration through TouchDown
• Google Voice support
• Integrated Google Maps with voice-activated search, turn-by-turn navigation, street and satellite views
• Quick access to activity streams via integrated social network app widgets like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

Pricing: $299.99 with new two-year AT&T contract, and $549.99 without.

A friend is inviting me to join him in one of the Forex training workshops that he’s attending. He said most of his earnings came from forex trading and that I should try it myself. If he asked me five years ago I would be interested to play with extra money but now that I have kids, I find that I’m extra careful when it comes to investments. I still want to try it in the future though. I’ve read some of the articles and learned that although the risks are high, the ROI is so impressive that I might give it a go as soon as I get some extra cash that we will not use for the family’s NEEDs and WANTs.