I just upgraded my Samsung Galaxy Tab (Model GT-P1000) to Android 2.3.3 or Gingerbread. Ever since Samsung announced the tab was getting Gingerbread, I’ve been regularly checking whether the firmware was already available for the Philippines.

Gingerbread offers a streamlined user interface “for simplicity and speed.” Here’s a listing of the firmware’s improvements.

GINGERBREAD UPDATE. The Galaxy Tab gets upgraded to Android 2.3.3 or Gingerbread, which offers improvements on the user interface, power management among a slew of other features. Click on photo to enlarge.

“The user interface is refined in many ways across the system, making it easier to learn, faster to use, and more power-efficient. A simplified visual theme of colors against black brings vividness and contrast to the notification bar, menus, and other parts of the UI. Changes in menus and settings make it easier for the user to navigate and control the features of the system and device.”

It also comes with a keyboard “redesigned and optimized for faster text input and editing” as well as improvements in copying and pasting text. Gingerbread also offers improved power management, built-in Internet calling, downloads management and offers “user access to multiple cameras on the device, including a front-facing camera, if available.”

Continue reading ‘Samsung Galaxy Tab gets updated to Gingerbread’

I need to work with CSS/XHTML often enough that I’d need a reference but rarely enough to make me memorize the damned properties, selectors and syntax. I used to print out CSS/XHTML cheat sheets and tape these on my cubicle wall for easy reference whenever I was working on a website.

Just as I was about to print new cheat sheets to replace the torn and smudged copies that I had, I found handy and infinitely better references—two free Android apps.

Continue reading ‘CSS cheat sheets as Android apps: stop taping printouts on your cubicle walls’

Poynter associate editor Mallary Jean Tenore lists tips for online journalists to build an engaged audience online in her post “5 small steps journalists can take to build a bigger, more engaged audience.”

The post provides great pieces of advice on getting the word out on your article like letting your news sources and people who may have a stake in your article know about the piece through the social networks. To be effective, Tenore suggests that you include their Twitter and Facebook names in the update so that they can be notified.

She also suggests linking to the work of other news sites and informing them about it.

Tenore also suggests engaging with others covering your beat and tweeting follow-ups “that help advance the discussion about your story.”

Continue reading ‘Poynter lists tips on how to build an engaged audience’

Delivereads is an interesting service for the Kindle—it sends out articles curated by “Web-addicted insider, investor and entrepreneur” Dave Pell.

Pell said he thought about the service after he got a Kindle.

DELIVEREADS provides curated content to your Kindle for free. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

“My friends got together and bought me a Kindle because they worried I was spending too much time on the web and not enough time reading books. And it worked. I read several books on my Kindle. Then I realized that I can easily send longer articles from the web to my Kindle — you know, those pieces that you either have to print out or that you just stop reading. Now I’m spending even more time on the web, searching for great articles to send to my Kindle,” he said.

Signing up with Delivereads is easy. Just add [email protected] to your Kindle Approved E-mail List and then enter your Kindle address in the Delivereads site.

His selection this week includes a GQ story on how one of hockey’s toughest characters became a gay advocate, an Atlantic piece on a 25-year-old murder mystery, the Washington Monthly profile of Edward Tufte and Joel Stein’s article in Time magazine on Zach Galifianakis.
I just signed up for the service and received my first dispatch.

Curated reading apps are really helpful to improve the signal to noise ratio in today’s information age of push-button publishing and social networking.

I hope Delivereads can, in the future, provide categorized curated articles instead of just sending a single dispatch.

SMART today announced the offering of a 7-inch Android 2.2 powered tablet bundled with its Smart Bro package. The company said the offering will further “democratize” Internet access in the country.

The ZTE V9 was launched last week with a suggested retail price of P12,795.

ZTE V9. The 7-inch Android 2.2-powered tablet is being bundled with Smart Bro and is sold at a suggested retail price of P12,795. (CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE)

“The ZTE V9 is an affordable way for our subscribers to get the rich Internet experience of desktops and laptops, and the convenience and portability of Internet-capable mobile phones,” Smart chief wireless advisor Orlando Vea said in a press statement.

“We know that many Filipinos still access the Internet mainly through Internet cafes and work or school computers. With low-cost Internet devices such as this, we aim to increase the country’s Internet population, by enabling more people to easily have their own personal Internet access device,” Vea said.

Initially being offered for prepaid subscription, Smart is making available the ZTE V9 on affordable payment terms. Subscriber may pay in six monthly installments at 0 percent interest through participating credit cards. It comes with a Smart Bro prepaid SIM with five days of unlimited Internet browsing. Subscriber may then register the Smart Bro prepaid account to avail of Unlisurf Packages, Per Minute Packages, or All Text Packages.

But more than just for Internet surfing, Smart officials expect Smart Bro to revolutionize the way subscribers use data services through the ZTE V9.

Continue reading ‘Smart launches low-cost Android tablet’

A student project that uses telecommunications technology to speed up the detection of dengue cases won the grand prize in last Wednesday’s 7th Smart Wireless Engineering and Education Program (Sweep) Innovation and Excellence Awards in the SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia.

The student team from Bulacan State University (BSU) automated and sped up the detection of dengue through blood platelet counting using a portable capturing device that connected via mobile Internet to a digital analyzer machine.

HIDDEN SENSORS. PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno checks the sensors that detect chainsaw sounds and trigger an alert to forestry officials in the booth of University of San Carlos. Click on image to enlarge. (SMART PUBLIC AFFAIRS PHOTO)

The project, 3D: Dengue Detecting Device, won P500,000 in cash through Smart Money for the student team led by Donn Angelo Teodoro and another P500,000 in grants for the school.

Holy Cross of Davao College, meanwhile, got 2nd place for its system that automatically alerts maritime authorities in cases of overloading of vessels. The system uses sensors to detect overloading of ships and then automatically warns authorities through text messages. The student team led by Bobby Jay Carmelotes won P300,000 in cash through Smart Money and another P300,000 in grants for their school.

Third place went to Batangas State University for its drip irrigation system that used GSM technology and various sensors. The Smart Farmbihira system is capable of automatically watering and fertilizing a plantation at a set time or manually through a text message. The system also notifies the farmer on the condition of the soil and the harvest time of the crop. With the win, the student team led by Josephine Medina got P150,000 in cash through Smart Money while the school won P150,000 in grants.

Smart also handed out a special innovation award to a University of Baguio project that used the force of vehicles passing through a street to generate electricity to light up street lamps. A Smart official said they decided to hand out the special award because the project was “so far out and ahead of its time.”

The three winning projects bested seven other entries from Smart’s partner schools all over the country.

Continue reading ‘Student team uses mobile tech to speed up dengue detection, wins Smart Sweep grand prize’