Nokia = Hate

For the past 8 years, the mobile phone manufacturer that I have only trusted for my cellphone needs is Nokia. But, recently, I have been very disappointed, even furious with Nokia. In less than a year's time, my new phone almost had problems no less than 3 times. And now, the Nokia Care Service Center here in SM North EDSA in Metro Manila is giving me a hard time getting through to them!

No one's answering the phone, as if they are avoid all the angry customers. They don't have service units enough for maybe at least half of their customers. Back to the service center, I badly need my phone now, and I don't have any idea if it's already okay because no one is answering their lines!

Whenever I'm thinking of getting a new phone, it's only Nokia that I think of because other manufacturers' handsets either look ugly or are very hard to use. Now, I would no longer buy a Nokia for a primary handset, unless their lousy customer service greatly improves. This is a very big disappointment.

Nokia is starting to make me an evil person. Maybe it's just Nokia here in the Philippines, but it gives me a very poor impression of the whole company worldwide, as they should be giving good service no matter what country their customers are from.

Until they stop ignoring the voices of subscribers, I'm going to continue spreading the bad word about Nokia.

Lunar Images (Full Moon)

Last Saturday, 19th of April 2008, we went to my orgmate Ate Erika's house for a refresher course in Astronomy. We discussed the celestial sphere and telescopes and astroimaging. I'm already quite acquainted to telescopes and astroimaging so they're not so new to me anymore, but the celestial sphere was quite a wonder yet, and at that night I was able to appreciate its beauty.

But before the lecture even started, we first took some lunar images. Below are some of mine. For the first image, I used Ate Erika's camera, and for the last two, my mobile phone. :D The telescope we used was Ate Erika's 6" reflector.

Set-up UP Webmail with Apple Mail

Set-up Your UP Webmail Account with Apple Mail (Mac OS X Leopard)

By Ronipe Gutierrez


Many of us would like to use our UP Webmail accounts, consciously, subconsciously, or secretly. Unfortunately, we find it a hassle to log-in to the UP Webmail log-in page (http://mail.up.edu.ph). But if you’re a Mac user, this will be good news to you. You can set-up your UP Webmail Account with Apple Mail, and you will being able to use your UP Webmail by just opening Mail, no more tedious log-in processes all in just 5 easy steps!

Now, if you have never used Mail before, just open the program by clicking on its logo and a dialog box (a window) will appear asking you for some stuff. But if you’ve used Mail before, just add a new account simply by clicking on Mail on the menu bar, then go to Preferences > Accounts, then click the Small plus « + » sign on the lower left hand corner to add a new account.

Step 1:

A dialog box/window like the one below will appear. Just enter the name that you want to be put on all your outgoing e-mails, then your UP Webmail address and your password then click Continue. (Note: I just blurred the password field to disable counting of characters of the password.)


Step 2:

For the account type, POP is the default, but change it to IMAP. Then, on the description field, type, UP Webmail, then type imap4.up.edu.ph as your incoming mail server, then your user name and password. Click Continue.



Step 3 :

A dialog box like the one below will appear. Choose Connect.
Step 4 :

Now, for the outgoing server. Type in the description field, UP Webmail Outgoing, then type smtpauth.up.edu.ph as your outgoing server. Make sure the checkbox beside « Use only this server » is unchecked. Then type again your webmail user name and password. Click Continue.

Then, the dialog box will become like the one below. Check Use authentication. Another dialog box like the one below will appear, choose Connect.



Step 5 :

An account summary will appear. Check the Take account online checkbox, then click Create.

Now, you’re ready to use your UP Webmail account without having to open your web browser! All you have to do is just open Mail, and your messages will all automatically be there, even all your folders! And the good thing about this is that the folders you create will also be created on your UP Webmail account when you log on using a different computer using your web browser. Enjoy !

Mac OS X Tip: iChat AV

A new switcher? Or an old one who does not use iChat AV? If your not familiar with iChat AV, in a word, it is the built-in chat client (like Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, etc.) in Mac OS X. Saying that it is just another chat client is an understatement. It's very powerful, especially for video conferencing. It's not everyday that you find an application that can make you have a 4-way video conference. And it's not that common in the Windows world. And if you're running Mac OS X Leopard, you can use Photobooth effects on your video while chatting. You can even change your background! So go ahead, take your Mac experience further.

Don't you have to subscribe to .Mac to use iChat AV?

Not necessarily. You can use your Gmail account to log-in, and it will function as your Google Talk Mac version, you can add buddies using Gmail, too. However, you cannot video chat/conference with your buddies on Windows.

You can also use an AOL screenname. This way you can video chat with your buddies on Windows via AIM (AOL Instant Messenger).

Or, better yet, this is the one I would most prefer (plus the Gmail one. You can sign-in to multiple accounts simultaneously), sign-up for a free .Mac trial account. After 60 days, your .Mac features will no longer be accessible to you (unless you subscribe), but your .Mac username you can use forever in iChat. Plus, .Mac uses the AIM/AOL network, you can add your AIM/AOL buddies on your .Mac log-in, enabling you to video chat with your buddies on Windows running AIM.

Go ahead, try it!

Return of the Apple we know and love?

This article was originally posted Oct 20th 2007 3:00PM by Mike Schramm, from TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

I'm reposting this here to bring this to more people, as I'm afraid, as others are, that Apple is now turning into Microsoft, and Microsoft now listens to its user base more.

"For the past few months, we've seen some turbulent waters here at TUAW. I don't think I need to mention the furor that's popped up in the comments multiple times over a number of Apple's past actions. All the iPhone unlocking has stirred emotions we didn't even know you guys had. The ringtones issue made a lot of us question just what kind of company Apple was. And Apple's own developers were pretty shocked when they found out that to develop for the iPhone, they'd need to brush up on HTML and AJAX, not Cocoa. The Apple we've seen the past few months has been making plenty money, but not so much winning our hearts.

But as Macworld points out, change may finally be back in the air, and all in the past week. Apple brought DRM free music back down to normal prices, which is exactly what Jobs wanted to do when he wrote that open letter we all cheered so long ago. Apple has unlocked the iPhone-- albeit in France, and only because they had to, and they'll probably charge a lot more for it, but still, it's progress. High sales of the unlocks there will be more ammunition for getting an unlock everywhere else. And of course, we got the announcement, finally, of a coming SDK for the iPhone.

Apple isn't even close to back in the clear yet-- we may have cheaper DRM-free music, but no one but France has an unlocked iPhone, and all we have is the promise of an SDK with zero details on what that means. It's been a rough road these past few months, however, and we can only hope that Apple is listening to what their fans want, and willing to get back on track."


And here's one comment I wanted to post here, posted at 3:40PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Angelus2007:

I am not sure they are back yet. I think the lower DRM free price is more of the market than Steve Jobs being nice. If he wanted them a 99 cents to begin with why didn't he? With Amazon selling DRM free music for 89 cents how can you sell yours for 40 cents more?

Also the article said it itself, they only unlocked the iPhone because they had too. What about the $100 store credit, or raising the price for students?

It seems we are in a world where Microsoft is doing right by their customers and Apple isn't. What happened Steve? Why can't you still sell 30GB iPods for $200? Or how about firmware updates for my 5.5G iPod? If Redmond can do it why can't you? For all the bad things Microsoft has done in the past, early Zune adopters get the features in their old player, and those not wanting 80GB can get 30GB for $200. Sell me a 2GB 2G Nano for $99, I don't need video. For once Cupertino should watch what Redmond is doing instead of the other way around.

I was Apple would go back to the way it was, thinking different.

The Web in Your Palm: Browsing the Web on a Mobile Phone

It is no more than a decade and a half when the internet came to the Philippines in 1994 (according to my research) in the once glorious dial-up connection. Then there was the milestone in internet connectivity, the arrival of broadband, the most popular of which, mostly among residential subscribers, is DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), with the average downlink speed of 384 Kbps. Although this is not the fastest, and certainly much lacking as opposed to other countries' connections, to someone who just upgraded from the dial-up community, this is something sent from the heavens above.

Then came wireless web connectivity options - WiFi, WAP, GPRS, and 3G, being the most, along with WiFi, among others. WiFi was very popular with notebook owners, and 3G more with mobile handset owners, since WiFi handsets are not as available as 3G handsets. It became popular because of its promise to deliver speeds comparable to residential DSL, and up to 1.4 Mbps if the operator supports HSDPA (Globe Telecom).

But will operators in the Philippines be able to give this promise? For Smart 3G, I think they quite did it, for my mobile phone browsing. Though not supporting HSDPA yet, unlike Globe, they were quite able to deliver decent speeds. I can do decent web browsing on the go without a computer.

I use a Nokia N73, and Nokia's web browser sure is amazing! I can really view most web pages the way I view them on a computer. The browser's mini map was a great implementation! I can check my mail on the go, search for stuff to read, download music, and watch videos on YouTube Mobile (it automatically redirects here), although, recently, I can no longer download videos from YouTube Mobile. Maybe this is a network-related concern?

Anyway, the only downside to this is the small screen that can make reading a little less friendly, and the keypad. I'd much prefer a QWERTY keypad, but they come in business phones, which sport features that I would very much want to use, but also lacking in a lot of features college students like me would like, hence I incline to prefering multimedia phones, aside from the reason that business phones are expensive. LOL! :D

UP Diliman WiFi hotspots

For those UP Diliman students who happen to have WiFi devices (e.g. laptops, cellphones, PDAs, etc. with WiFi), here is a list of the WiFi hotspots in the campus. All you need is your UP Webmail account to be able to access them. :P If you have any corrections and additions, please tell me so, either via a personal message or a comment. I am very much aware that this list is not complete yet, and I am hoping to complete it with your help. Thanks to Charm, Marge, and Keith for the info!

1. Main Library
2. College of Engineering Library
3. NCPAG
4. College of Business Administration
5. School of Economics
6. EEE
7. Vinzons' Hall
8. Computer Center

Ayon! Enjoy the free connections! :P