Ultrabooks will rule 2012

Some IT journalists and industry analysts are predicting that 2012 will be the year of the ultrabook. You know, those anorexic laptops that are less than 0.8-inch thick and weigh less than 1.4kg, come with no optical drive, have ditched the hard disk for a solid-state drive, powered by a Core i5 or i7 processor, have a battery life of about 5–8 hours, and are priced around $1,000 (about Php 43,000).

Apple, with its MacBook Air, created a new market segment. Again.

The ZenBook from Asus, one of the thin laptops, aka ultrabooks

At least, that is how Intel defines an ultrabook. By the way, if you want to use the term "ultrabook," you might save yourself some future, highly probable legal headache by getting in touch with Intel, which owns the copyright to that term.

Kindle Fire: Waiting for Amazon to "Friend" customers with non-U.S. IP addresses

Since its U.S. launch on November 14, 2011, Amazon's Kindle Fire has certainly made the tablet computer market a much more interesting space. Finally, consumers (at least, those who reside in the states) now have choices that are not limited between the expensive iPad and high-end Android slates and the low-cost, jocular excuses for a tablet computer.

Amazon's Kindle Fire is one exciting tablet computer. Local consumers, however, better wait for Amazon to resolve its geographical limits.

The Kindle Fire makes no pretensions as far as its list of features and capabilities is concerned. This doesn't mean, however, that it is a stingy and underperforming, underwhelming piece of high-tech tool-cum-toy.

Disk encryption keeps criminal data from police eyes

A research paper published in the Digital Investigation journal asserts that criminals can keep their data from law enforcement agencies by simply using commonly available hard drive encryption software. The joint U.S.-UK team of researchers has found that local and federal agencies cannot access data on a hard-disk drive that can incriminate those using the computer to commit crimes.

Data encryption protects the innocent, as well as the criminals. (Photo courtesy of renjith krishnan: www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=721)   

Hollywood movies have made us believe that cracking encryption-protected disk drives is as easy as ABC. The unglamorous truth, however, is government-sanctioned hackers are unable to break the encryption, in most cases.

Researchers say that encryption is virtually heaven sent for criminals, especially for the IT-enabled variety.

Looking at the bright side, if disk encryption can help protect criminals' data, we can all take comfort from the fact that it also keeps safe data owned by the more law-abiding people like us.

Huawei brings MediaPad tablet computer to the Philippines

Months after Huawei introduced it at the 2011 CommunicAsia in Singapore, the MediaPad is finally available from your favorite local IT retailers.

Running on the Honeycomb 3.2 build of Google's Android mobile operating system, the MediaPad comes packing a 7-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, encased in a 10.5mm (or 0.4 inches) thin body frame.

The MediaPad is Huawei's take on what consumers want from their tablets.

This 390-gram tablet computer is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor and includes a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel auto-focus main camera that also shoots HD videos.

Finally, with Nokia's Lumia 800, Windows users need not be embarrassed by their phones

Let's admit it, most fans of Windows have been afflicted with smartphone envy, for the longest time. While lovers of the iOS and Android platforms have been proudly and at times brashly displaying their iPhones and Android phones, users of Windows-badged smartphones are surreptitiously using their own.

The humiliation, both self-imposed and bestowed by popular culture and market realities, has continued for quite some time. That is, until now.

Nokia's Lumia 800 eases Windows users' smartphone envy.

Last week's launch of the Lumia 800 smartphone by Nokia finally ends most Windows users' wait for a real "Windows smartphone." Finally, Windows users need not feel inadequate each time an Android or iPhone fan whips out his or her smartphone.

Hewlett Packard's TouchPad Tablet Computer Receives a Reprieve

Agreeably surprised by consumers' rabid desire to own one of those TouchPad tablet computers they had earlier declared dead, HP executives recently announced plans to "produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand."

Fire-sale prices made a bestseller out of the HP TouchPad.

HP cut the price of the tablet from $399 and $499 to $99 the weekend following the company's announcement it was ending its tablet PC business on August 18. The move was part of HP's decision to give up its consumer business and focus instead on the enterprise market.

The fire sale created an online feeding frenzy, with consumers seeking to get their hands on one or more of those tablets set to become a piece of IT history or consumer electronics foible.

HP loses money with every TouchPad it sells. 

HP is set to lose money on every final-production-run TouchPad. HIS iSuppli's estimates it costs $318 to produce a 32GB version of the tablet computer.

I wonder why HP would want to have this "final run?" Is the company doing it just to spite Apple?

Hmm. There must be a business model somewhere here.

Source: Reuters Technology News

Cherry Mobile Introduces the Q70, the First Quad-SIM Mobile Phone in the Philippines

Dual and triple-SIM mobile phones are so 2010.

Cherry Mobile's introduction of the Q70, a quadruple SIM phone, has made this possible. 

That is four SIM cards in one mobile phone. No need to buy two or more handsets even for those who need to get in touch using four SIM cards. (If you're one of those people, I wonder what kind of social life you have.)

The company said the Cherry Mobile Q70 is the country's first Quad-SIM-Quad Standby handset that "enables consumers to utilize four different service providers which can be all active at any given time."

Samsung NC215: Samsung Combines Solar Energy with Portable Computing

The Sun might yet have saved the netbook from an impending tablet-driven euthanasia.

While some quarters have been trumpeting the netbook's so-called inevitable doom, along comes Samsung with the NC215 solar-powered netbook.

Loaded with a solar panel on its lid, the netbook can convert two hours of sunlight into an hour of netbook operation.

Hackers attack finance and cloak-and-dagger worlds

Last week, the Manila Bulletin's online edition carried a couple of stories here and here telling about hacking attacks affecting Citigroup and America's spy agency CIA.

In the Citigroup incident, hackers stole personal information of more than 360,000 American credit card customers, almost double the initial estimates.


Hacker group LuIz Security claims to have broken into the public Web site of America's spy agency. 

 According to Citigroup officials, the bank discovered the cyber-attack on May 10. Apparently, hackers used the company's Account Online system to access credit cards issued by North America Citigroup in the United States.

ASUS Power User Gathering 2011

Last week, Mangyantech snagged an invite to Asus Philippines' Power User Gathering 2011 event. A highly exclusive event, it allowed the Taiwanese computer and components manufacturer to highlight some of its latest high-end PC parts and components to a select gathering of some of the country's geekiest PC users.




PUG participants listening to product presentation (when they were not arguing, with gusto)



Sydney of Asus discussing the features and capabilities of a high-end graphics card from his company

 Described by Wikipedia as one who has "the ability to use advanced features of programs which are beyond the abilities of 'normal' users," a power user is a rather special breed of an IT user. Not necessarily a programmer or a computer engineer, a power user is generally aware of what his or her computer is capable of doing, and usually demands more from his computer system and its parts and components.

Acer Iconia 484G64ns dual-display touchscreen PC reaches Philippine shores

Last Thursday, Acer Philippines introduced the Iconia line of touchscreen devices. This makes the country one of the first few territories to grab a hold of the latest Acer products.

Leading the pack is the Acer Iconia, which stands out with its dual 14-inch multitouch, high-definition 1,366 x 768-pixel LED backlit TFT LCD screens.

Below is a video featuring the Iconia (courtesy of Acer Philippines).



These screens support up to 10-finger touch.

Made of tempered glass (Corning Gorilla glass), these LCDs are quite thin but are capable of surviving rugged environments and rough modes of usage.

Canalys report adds to growing death knell for the netbook

Various market reports and IT industry analysts' assertions would like us to believe that the netbook is on its way to history's dustbin. The latest in this growing list of virtual obituaries for the netbook is a recent report from market research firm Canalys, which predicts that shipments of tablet computers will grow to 52 million in 2011. Apple will grab more than 75 percent of the market, the company says.



The iPad 2 from Apple leads the tablet computer's pillage of the netbook country, market analysts say.

 Also-ran tablet brands will have to kill each other for the remaining 12 million.

The market research firm's PR department created some sticky sound bites for its latest market study. And most of the world's IT media people and bloggers picked up those designed-for-TV one-liners, such as "For every two tablet computers sold, a netbook (or laptop) won't be shipped," or something to that effect.


A deeper look at data presented by these analysts, however, shows the netbook is going strong.

 A closer look at Canalys' figures, however, would reveal some feet of clay for most IT industry analysts' doomsday forecasts for the PC sector — in particular, the notebook and its smaller cousin, the netbook.

The market research firm's study admits that demand for notebook computers will grow at least 8 percent. Netbooks, despite its projected demise, would still sell some 34 million units.

Tens of millions units sold and analysts say the netbook is gone and dead? I wonder what these people are ingesting. Applegesic? Or MacOpium? Or iViagra?

iPad 2 rubs it in: Apple still the real boss in the tablet computer space

Here's a good-news-and-bad-news routine for Apple's rivals in the tablet-computer market.

The good news first: The iPad is no longer the number 1, best-selling tablet computer.

The bad news: It is now the iPad 2.

The iPad 2 shows who's boss.

Its detractors can rant to high heavens and as much as their hearts desire, but the fact remains: The iPad 2's coming is a most blunt reminder for everybody about who is the real king in the tablet computer market — and who are mere pretenders to the throne.

Microsoft and Nokia join forces in smartphone market

Of all the analysts who publicized their reactions to the Microsoft-Nokia smartphone deal announced on February 11, Blue Badge Insights founder Andrew Brust seemed to be the most rational I have seen so far. He said (in an interview with http://www.eweek.com/), "The two companies are on their respective back feet."

Brust added, "But they can certainly help each other: Microsoft gets global reach and market share from Nokia; Nokia upgrades from the somewhat stunted Symbian OS to something modern, touch-centric and contemporary in design value, through Microsoft's WP7."

Nokia president and CEO Stephen Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Now, compare that with the vitriol and beratings mouthed by some other analysts, industry rivals and partners, and even consumers. These people seem to remain unable to forgive Microsoft for its role in the Wintel homogeny during the 1990s and early 2000s.

My Samsung S2 Portable HDD goes lights out

My one-month-old portable hard disk drive, a Samsung S2 Portable, went bonkers last week. All of sudden, and without even the slightest of premonitions, the Korean-made 320GB HDD lost its intimate partnership with my home PC, and would not even talk to my old-hand, dual-core laptop.




My one-month-old Samsung S2 Portable HDD, seconds before it stopped letting me access my data

I had a hard time trying to stifle my fear, as the worst of worries over losing data – lots of data – began rearing its head. This could not be happening to me, I told myself. This is something that happens only to those unlucky or foolish enough to place their data-storage fate in the hands of unworthy data-keeping devices and services.



My brick of a portable HDD in its full naked glory

Instead of letting me browse and open files I had stored in the portable HDD, my home PC is telling me now that the drive needs to be formatted before I can use it. Before I can use it!

Of course, the unit comes with warranty. But would even the toughest warranty be able to retrieve my gigabytes of photos, work files, movies, MP3s, and other digital souvenirs I picked up for the last two years?

I should have browsed the Web for users' opinions about this product before I decided to buy this Samsung HDD. Unfortunately for me, the thought of doing so came to my mind hours after I lost my HDD. I should have read this and this.

HondaJet Light Business Jet Flies, Conforms With FAA

HondaJet light business jet, front view profile

Last month, on December 20, 2010, a HondaJet light business jet took off from Honda Aircraft Company’s facility at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. Aside from marking a huge step forward in the company’s march to mass produce an advanced generation of business jets, the event was the first flight by a HondaJet that conforms to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s safety and performance rules and regulations.

Consumer electronics, information technology ease our worries in 2011

Hello, 2011. It's good that you finally got here. Your predecessor has been a real roller coaster -- sometimes a real pal, and a times, a real pain in the arse.

A part of me is hoping you would turn out a lot nicer and a lot friendlier than the last one. But you can do whatever you want; I don't really care that much. After all that we have been through, anything you can bring about, we definitely have seen it before.

Also, whatever gloom and doom you might be capable of doing, it would not matter much. After all, we have consumer electronics and technology to help tide us over. Last year was a killer, figuratively and literally. Yet we have survived. Thanks to technology.

Bombings, massacres, and natural calamities? We can go beyond those things. Thanks to our love affair with the latest and the shiniest tech toys. Those self-declared saviors of our freedoms and eternal salvations, they can bomb us all into the next millennium or two, but they cannot make us let go of our smartphones, our tablet computers, and of our wireless Web connections.

In fact, in almost all of last year, the only thing that retained its luster was the technology sector. Humans' achievements in science and technology almost helped us forget about those morons who think killing and maiming each other is their only way to nirvana and paradise.

Those smartphones, laptops, and tablet computers are more than our latest badges of vanities. They are symbols of our ability to overcome adversities, even our weaknesses, wickedness, and ignorance.

Long live, consumer electronics!