Category Archives for Gear

iPhone5 Cheap and iPhone5 Standard?

Apple released two of the same product today: the iPhone is now available as an iPhone5C or an iPhone5S. Everyone’s chiming in on what do C and S stand for, and we’re all having a riot filling in the meaning. Much like when the iPad came out.

iPhone5C may very well mean ‘color’ but having a plastic body means it’s looking pretty cheap — meant for the consumer market. Meanwhile, the classier/’standard’ iPhone, the iPhone5S gets a new security feature through its new fingerprint scanner integrated into the home button.

So, what’s so wrong about it?

Apple is losing money, I reckon, because of Android and the great number of handset manufacturers adopting it as their operating system. Nokia, of course, still maintains its Symbian units but until the recent acquisition by Microsoft, we think we all know how it’s going to be pretty soon. Perhaps as a last hurrah for the generations of their feature phones, the premium Nokia 515 made its debut a couple of weeks back and it really isn’t a bad move, in my opinion, most specially since we’ve been drowning in everything ‘smart’. It was quite a refreshing idea.

iPhone 5C, image from engadget.com

I don’t know if Apple felt threatened or if it’s running out of ideas. But releasing two models of the same product — a product that has a loyal following — is like being betrayed for your years of loyalty. You stick with them and buy the product because it’s a flagship premium product and then they say, “Oh, we can make more money if we sell the premium product and lower our standards a bit. Yeah. Let’s make it cheaper so we can make more money and get a bulk of consumers on our side! Let’s do that! As for our loyal ones, yeah… we have this new feature for yah. Enjoy!”

If I were a real Apple fan, I would be fuming right now.

Counterfeit Nokia BP-4L Battery?

I needed to replace my BP-4L battery so I bought one from those mall stalls. It’s one thing that they admit that they only sell imitation electronics and gadgets but it’s a different matter when you pass-off something as “original” or a genuine product when it’s really not. We hear this often as “Class A” products.

I bought this one and was told that this was “original” from Nokia. I had my doubts so I still haggled with the price a little. After opening and comparing my original BP-4L with the one from the box, it was somehow pretty evident that they were just after my money. Here are some shots I took for you to compare:

Although it may not seem fair because I’m comparing one battery that came with my Nokia phone with a replacement battery, I would think that Nokia produces the same batteries with their genuine enhancements/accessories and would differ very slightly from the ones pre-packed in the units they are selling.

First sign was the label. If you’ve heard of RTFM when having a problem, you should RTFL (label) when buying stuff. Or maybe that’s just my way of saying “Read the Fine Print” 😀 I hope you don’t buy stuff like this anytime soon.

By the way, Happy Holidays!

Get Quickoffice 6.0 for free

Well, almost… 😉

Though I was actually pining for the PalmPre, it is very much out of the budget. And out of the country! 😛 So I got the Nokia E63 instead!

It’s a wonderfully brilliant smartphone and most of all, cheap! But it packs a lot for the price. OK, it’s not a touchscreen, it doesn’t have GPS, it doesn’t have an accelerometer, it doesn’t have a good camera — so what? 🙂 What’s important to me is that it gets the job done and I have what I want (and need).

And since it’s a businessphone, you’ll be able to bring your MS Office documents with you, view them, and even edit them on the road! And now, you can do the same with MS Office 2007 docs using Quickoffice 6.0 on your S60 mobile phones via FREE upgrade! Provided you have a Nokia E-series phone. 😀 hehe… lucky me, right? 🙂

the palm pre wins me over

and i thought G1 had me at Android, here comes palm with a new addition to their smartphone line-up — the Palm Pre, introduced at CES and I just caught it with my regular prying into YouTube and other tech sites. 😀

What do I know so far? I WANT IT! hahaha…

It’s got personality. I can’t call it ‘sexy’ but it looks bulky. I feel like I’ll be carrying with me a big piece of stone. I haven’t held it in my hands yet so no definite conclusions. It must feel solid and sturdier than the iPhone. I always found the iPods/iPhone a bit ‘fragile’.

If somebody gives me one for my birthday (cough, cough, please? cough), I wouldn’t mind. 😀

Heart vs. Head

Does it make sense, now, to own a separate organizer when smartphones are the latest thing in technology? It’s nothing really… it’s just that I’m one of those sorry losers who can’t affort to buy them fancy Apple iPhones, Samsung Omnia, Nokia 5800 or Nseries but still want to keep organized. And lives the digital lifestyle!

My latest temptation — the old Zire 22 by Palm. It still looks cool, it’s quite presentable. And if you get tired of the white color, bring it to Gmask and choose the skin for you!

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got a posh girl with a laptop?

Then better start thinking about getting her one of these babies for Christmas or Thanksgiving! 😀 ahaha…

Just another find on multiply.com… These laptop bags and sleeves/folders are cooler than you think. 🙂 Easily access your laptop by just unzipping the sides of the the sleeve/folder and she’s good to go! Clean-up after using your laptop’s just as easy! Close, zip the sides, flip the top, and voila! you’re good to go! Nifty idea which isn’t unique, but is handy if you’re a student. Plus you don’t have to take it out anymore making you look like you’re bragging too much about yourself. “ooohh, look at me and my laptop!”

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