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Sony Ericsson unveils the K660: ‘engineered for mobile Internet’

Max Limpag — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 19:25:25 +0000

Sony Ericsson has unveiled a phone that I’m sure will give second thoughts to those already set on upgrading units this Christmas. The company announced earlier this month the coming availability of the Sony Ericsson K660, a phone that the company said was engineered for the mobile Internet.

The phone will only be available early next year so you might want to postpone your Christmas phone upgrade by a month or two.

FUNKY COLOR FOR A COOL PHONE. The lime on white version of the Sony Ericsson K660i, an HSDPA-enable phone that has been engineered for the mobile Internet. Click on photo to enlarge.

The K660, which will be marketed as the K660i in the Asia-Pacific region, is an HSDPA-enabled phone. The phone can access so-called “mobile broadband” networks that offer higher connection speeds. This not only makes browsing on the phone faster, it also makes it a good laptop accessory—as mobile modem.

I don’t know how wide HSDPA coverage is in Cebu but in my previous experience with PLDT WeRoam, I got strong and consistent HSDPA signals within downtown and mid-town Cebu City areas. I got a consistent GPRS speed at home in Lapu-Lapu City but this was a few months back. I suspect things have improved since then, based on my wife’s experience with using her Sony Ericsson K800i as modem.

The phone was engineered for mobile web browsing. Martin Winkler, head of web marketing at Sony Ericsson, said the company’s ” vision is to offer ‘Generation Web’ a mobile Internet experience that’s rich, user-friendly and satisfying.”

It offers landscape browsing, an option that allows you to view and navigate pages sideways, to make use of the wider screen. It comes with Google Maps for Mobile and I might work with the My Location service, a really cool service that places you in the map by using triangulation of the cellphone towers being used by your phone. I tried the service in my K750i and my wifes K800i but both phones don’t work with the service.

The phone, as with any multi-media unit released in the market today, also serves as a media player. It comes with e-mail and instant messaging clients. I also comes with a camera with a two-megapixel resolution. In my experience, this picture quality will do for online publishing. It has Bluetooth connectivity and serves as a USB mass storage when connected to a PC. It can record both audio and video.

It comes in a funky color “lime on white” or the so-so “wine on black.” It got me in “lime.”

Will I be upgrading to this unit? Nah, I’d wait for the latest in the K750i, K800i line to have a lime on white model.

Smart unveils USB modem for mobile Internet access anywhere

Max Limpag — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:32:05 +0000

SMART Broadband, Inc. (SBI) has unveiled a USB modem that will allow users to access the Internet with speeds ranging from 384 kbps to 768 kbps anywhere where there is a Smart signal.

The device will be offered under SBI’s “Smart BRO Plan 799.�? Under the plan, which costs P799 a month, subscribers have 60 hours of Internet usage per month and will be charged P10 for every 30-minute block in excess.

MOBILE INTERNET. The Smart BRO USB modem allows you to connect to the Internet anywhere where there is a Smart network coverage. The device is offered under a P799 monthly plan. Click on photo to enlarge.

When I first read the press release, I was immediately tempted to get one. But it’s not something I need just yet. I rarely go out right now and at any given hour I’m either at home or at the office or on my way to either place. Still, it’s certainly something I want.

People who are always on the go, however, will find the device useful, especially in areas with sparse Wi-Fi coverage.

The device is certainly a cheaper alternative to PLDT WeRoam and one that you can also use in a desktop PC. The device, according to a company press statement, is part of Smart’s “thrust of broadbanding the country, of making wireless broadband Internet services more accessible and more affordable.”

“This takes Internet access to the next level. With the portable USB modem, areas that previously could not avail (itself) of broadband services will have instant Internet access, as long as there is Smart network coverage,” SBI president Rolando G. Peña said in a press statement.

To avail yourself of the plan, you need to have a monthly salary of P12,000 and present financial documents such as the latest income tax return, current bank statement, or bank certification letter. Subscribers will be charged a one-time fee of P1,999 for the modem.

The Smart BRO Plan 799 kit comes with a data modem, PC software and “a cool denim sock for storing the modem.�? The USB modem currently works only in Windows 2000 and XP. But Smart said that before the year ends, the modem will be compatible with other operating systems.

I just checked with the Smart Bro website and found that a higher plan, at P999 a month, gives you a LAN modem that’s compatible with other operating systems. I don’t know how small or large the device is but the USB modem seems small enough to be convenient to carry around.

If the USB modem does get to support more operating systems, including Linux, I just might get one. Next year, I’d be working on projects that would need me to be on the field more often. The Smart BRO USB modem will certainly be useful.

Showing Windows the door

Max Limpag — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 21:38:59 +0000

I’m now running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn beta on my main blogging gear – an MSI S260 laptop – and I haven’t stopped saying “wow” since when I finished installing it late Monday night.

I’ve used Ubuntu before, but mainly as a local server and the experience can be summarized as: boot CD, choose server setup, follow on-screen instructions, configure settings, then connect from my Windows PC.

MY NEW WORKSTATION. Ubuntu running on my main blogging gear, an MSI S260 laptop. Click on photo to view larger image.

I’ve never gotten around to using Ubuntu as a desktop despite a long standing entry in my to-do list to do just that. I’ve tried its live CD and tinkered with desktops installed with it but for a long time I lived in a Windows-centric world–office PC, home unit, and laptop. What has stopped me from using Ubuntu sooner is my dependence on such applications as Photoshop and InDesign for newsroom work.

I’ve also been set back by my reliance on the open source Float’s Mobile Agent (FMA) to manage my Sony Ericsson K750i. When I’m at the office, my phone is, more often than not, connected to the PC and being managed by FMA. I use the program to send, receive, and archive messages as well as manage my contacts and calendar entries. When I’m on the field, FMA saves me a lot of time sending messages while writing stories.

FMA currently runs only on Windows but I found an old post in the support forum that said a developer was able to make it run in Linux using Wine.

Last Monday, I decided to wipe out Windows from my laptop and use the Ubuntu Feisty Fawn beta release. The IT staff assigned to the newsroom suggested I use a dual-boot setup and retain a Windows partition but I was bent on having an Ubuntu-only system.

I’m no geek, and the only sudo I know ends with “ko” but with the holidays, I figured I’d have enough time to tinker with my laptop if the installation goes awry.

It’s also partly symbolic, the onset of summer being the time for such rites of passage as circumcisions, I figure now is the best time to see if I can cut it out with using an Ubuntu desktop.

Installing Ubuntu is, in a way, a bit like circumcision in that your fear of it is magnified way out of proportion. When I was scheduled to be circumcised, my father recounted how, in his case, he had to endure not having anesthesia and how the cutter (a neighborhood quack doctor) just asked him to look up and then shhiikkk, he was circumcised and told to dip into the waters of a nearby beach. In my time, I was administered anesthesia.

Talks of how difficult Linux is to install and use as a desktop is about as valid today as being told to hit the beach after getting circumcised. That’s old school.

Easy to install, use, configure

For me, Ubuntu (at least Feisty Fawn) has made the Linux desktop easy to use and configure that I slapped myself in the head for taking this long to migrate.

The act of installing the OS itself is so simple, much simpler than Windows. You just change the boot sequence in your BIOS (press the Delete key when your PC starts) to boot the CD first instead of your hard disk. Insert the CD into your PC’s CD drive and then start the system. It will run the live CD and Ubuntu will run in your computer without having been installed and touching any of your files. If you’re ready to install the system, just click on the Install link on the desktop.

One of the conceptual challenges that faces a Windows user new to Linux is the idea that applications are available from the install CD itself and various repositories. In Windows, after the install you have to buy additional software packages for your word processor, photo editor, desktop publishing software etc.

In Ubuntu, you just go to Applications then choose Add/Remove and you will be presented with a long list of assorted applications you can install into your system. It even has star ratings for popularity of the apps. Use the wisdom of the crowd, check out the five-star and four-star applications first.

In Windows, applications are one-click installs, you just click on the installer and it will run and set up the software for you. While installing some software can be difficult in Linux, its applications and package managers allow you one-click multiple installs. You can, if you want, install 20 software packages at a single time.

Among the applications I immediately installed is the Open Office suite because I need it for presentations and, once in a while, dealing with spreadsheets. But for word processing, I use AbiWord and not Open Office Writer. Even in Windows I prefer AbiWord because of it’s speed.

AbiWord as Darkroom

OLD SCHOOL WRITING. I configured AbiWord to run fullscreen with green text on black background. But dude, where’s my cursor? Click on photo to enlarge.

AbiWord also has this nifty function of going full screen when you press the F11 button. In Windows, I love using Darkroom, a simple full screen text editor with old school green text on black background. I was searching for an equivalent version for Linux when I saw the full screen option in AbiWord. I hit F11 in AbiWord and found it does cover the entire screen. I like writing this way: no distractions and no temptation to click on buttons or to check the email. I also like the green text on black background, it reminds me of my first years in media when I wrote stories on old DOS-based machines. I still have to find a way to make the cursor visible in this color combination, though.

Also among the initial batch of applications I installed was Beryl, the program that spurred me into migrating now, instead of waiting for the final Feisty Fawn release later this month. Beryl has got to be the best desktop in the computing world (I don’t have much experience with Max OS X).

I’ve read post upon post and comment upon comment describing Beryl as better and more visually-appealing than Windows Vista and, more importantly, with lower hardware requirement.

I don’t think my MSI S260 can run Vista with all its visual effects. My RAM is less than a gigabyte, I just added 512MB to the 256MB that came with the unit. But with Beryl, my laptop has been transformed into such a wonderful workstation that’s not only visually appealing but perfectly usable.

A day or two after playing non-stop with the configurations of Beryl, I found that all new applications were launched on the background. Even notice boxes were opened on the background. For instance, when you close Firefox with multiple tabs open, a notice box would prompt you whether you really want to close the browser. In my case, this prompt appears behind the current window and I have to swap windows using alt + tab to view it. When I click on photos and files in the file manager, these will be opened on an inactive window behind it. It was irritating.

It turned out that I set the “level of focus stealing prevention” to “high” in Beryl. When I set it back again to “normal,” the problem was fixed.

I still have to study how to create a screencast in Ubuntu but here’s one done on Beryl and posted on YouTube:

Another thing that struck me as really amazing is the dependable implementation of virtual desktops. I once tried it with Windows using an application I could no longer remember and the whole thing crashed, wiping out data I was working on. With Ubuntu and Beryl, virtual desktop is rock-solid and easy to manage and for these past days, I find myself working better by organizing specific tasks on certain desktops.

I make it a point, upon logging, in to designate one desktop for writing. This desktop only has AbiWord running on full screen, no Firefox, no Gaim, no file manager, no other application.

Phone, camera

One of my biggest worries in using a Linux desktop is the support for gadgets such as cell phones, card readers, printers, and digital cameras. My impression was that it would need a high degree of technical expertise to be able to connect, say, your digital camera or cellphone to your Linux desktop what with all those text on mounting and unmounting.

This is where I was surprised.

Out of the box, Ubuntu connects to the Sony Ericsson K750i memory stick better than Windows does. In Windows, you need to install a driver and, depending on the version of your phone, upgrade the firmware to fix a nasty USB transfer bug.

K750i ON UBUNTU. Unlike Windows XP, Ubuntu recognizes the K750i out of the box. Here, it detects the presence of photos and music in my phone’s memory card. Click on photo to enlarge.

When I connected my Sony Ericsson K750i, with the R1CA021 firmware, to my Ubuntu laptop, the drive was automatically mounted on the system. I was able to browse my files including photos and music tracks in my phones Memory Stick Duo. The transfer of the files is also very fast, at least twice the speed I experienced in Windows. In fact, the first time I copied files I went to the destination directory expecting the transfer to have failed because of the speed. But all the files I transferred were there.

I couldn’t make my laptop’s built-in card reader work. It’s a Ricoh card reader and I found this link to a discussion that may hold the solution but I still have to try it.

IMPORTING photos into Ubuntu from Canon A410. The transfer of photos is unbelievably fast. Click on image to enlarge.

The only reason I’m using the card reader is to download photos from my wife’s digital camera, a Canon A410. I tried connecting the camera using its USB cable but Ubuntu did not detect it (at first) that’s why I was desperate to have the card reader work.

But when I connected the USB cable again using a different USB port, the system detected that a camera had been attached and identified its model correctly. It then offered me options on importing the photographs.

I encountered a PIP I/O error in my first imports and the photographs were not copied. It turned out that the camera turned itself off after a few minutes because I enabled power saving in it. In Windows, it never turns itself off during transfers. I just disabled power saving in the Canon A410 and since then, I’ve never encountered problems in importing photos.

As with the K750i, the speed by which photos are imported from the camera in Ubuntu continues to amaze me. The F-Sport Photo Manager is also a great gallery manager. I’ve enjoyed using it to manage m photos and I’ve barely scratched the surface of its features.

Point-and-click Apache server setup

POINT-AND-CLICK APACHE INSTALL. Installing Apache on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn using Gnome Apt. You can also install Apache using a point-and-click interface using Synaptic Package Manager. Click on photo to view larger image.

I then tried to set up an Apache, PHP, MySQL server for demonstrations and local web development. There are a bunch of tutorials on how to do this but there’s actually an easy to use, point-and-click interface to setting one up in Ubuntu Feisty Fawn.

For point-and-click installation of an Apache 2, PHP, MySQL, proftpd server, I used the Gnome Apt (at first) and Synaptic Package Manager, which you can add in Applications. These package managers simplify installation in that these map dependencies. I added Apache modules and even a GUI client for proftpd.

The Apache, PHP, MySQL server now runs in my laptop but I still have problems with virtual domain configuration. The last Apache configuration editing I ever did was with the 1.3 version of the server software.

Even with the GUI, I still have difficulties connecting, via Filezilla, to localhost. Again, this is probably due to configurations I did wrong or failed to do. As backup plan for my demo this week, I might just transfer files using GNOME Commader running as root: gksu gnome-commander from the terminal (imagine opening an application from the command line, it’s freakin geeky).

The only major problem I still haven’t solved is using PLDT WeRoam with Ubuntu. My wife was assigned by her department a PLDT WeRoam (with HSDPA, no less) account and my online life and work depended on it during the times Globelines Broadband’s service deteriorated exponentially.

I found some links to solutions that, I suspect, are way, way over my head. Gnome PPP doesn’t detect the card but it blinks blue, indicating it may be working.

Now that I have PLDT MyDSL at home, I no longer use PLDT WeRoam that much. I just used it whenever I was on the field. I will definitely need to use PLDT WeRoam again. If you’re using Ubuntu and you managed to make the service work with your system, do give non-geeks like me a hint on how to do it. I can buy you this, if you want one .

FINALLY, my laptop deserves to use a sticker shipped to me last year.

I did some of the tweaks described by Chin Wong in his blog. In Feisty Fawn’s case, the swappiness involved adding a line instead of editing an existing one. After close to a week of my Ubuntu-only setup, I am in digital bliss. The system is so stable (and I’m using a beta at that) and fast.

Picture this: I was updating my system on one desktop; playing Nina Simone on another; opening this post in AbiWord on another; and browsing websites and checking mails on a fourth desktop when my wife asked me to upload the photos I had in my phone. I connected my K750i, imported the photos, launched JUploader, dragged and drop photos from the file manager to JUploader, edited the titles and tags of the photos and then uploaded these to Zooomr. All this I did without my laptop crashing.

Still with Windows? I tell you, if I can install and configure Ubuntu, so can you and your computing life will be the better for it.

Mobile e-mail on the high seas

Max Limpag — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 09:39:57 +0000

There’s probably room enough for only 10 people on this islet of six trees (or shrubs) and a single hut.

Yet on this islet near Olango Island and for several kilometers near it, you can still connect to telecoms networks and send and receive text messages, make calls, and browse the mobile Internet. It boggles my mind when I thought I’d “get away from it all” during a trip to several islets yesterday that I was never out of range of the telecoms network.

E-MAIL ON THE HIGH SEAS. Checking Gmail on a boat in the middle of nowhere. Click on photo to enlarge image.

Up until two years back, I still heard of stories and jokes on how people on several areas of Cebu had to go to a certain spot or climb trees just to send and receive text messages. I seem to remember being told of connection problems in Olango.

Yesterday, my family went island-hopping in the Olango area, an island four kilometers off Mactan island. Lapu-Lapu City beaches are great but swimming in its waters is nothing compared to the experience of dipping into the pristine waters of remote islets and shallows that stretch for a kilometer.

BLOGGING PARADISE. All you need is a laptop with PLDT WeRoam, a few kilos of tuna and pork, a grill, and a liter of your favorite drink and you’re in blogging paradise. Click on photo to enlarge image.

I took my phone with me because it also serves as my blogging camera. Before boarding the boat, I did a final check of messages because I was certain I’d be off the telecoms grid in the next few hours.

After swimming for more than two hours, our group was on our way to the floating restaurants of Olango Island when we passed a curious islet with one small hut. The boat’s guide pointed it out to us and said it was the biggest of the three islets named Tres Rosas (three roses). On one point, the name of the islets makes sense: I got stung by a sea urchin half a kilometer off it.

Tres Rosas is “owned” (or managed) by Cebu White Sands beach resort. It’s exclusive to its guests but I doubt whether the resort would have known had we decided to dock and take our lunch on it. It is that remote.

IT’S SUMMERTIME in the Philippines and the living is easy. Stop blog-hopping, turn your computer off, and hit the beach. Click on photo to enlarge image.

When we passed the islet, we took photos of it and as I closed the camera cover of my phone, I glanced at the screen and found that the Smart Communications (my telecoms provider) signal was still strong. On my Sony Ericsson K750i, the signal was four bars. For a non-telecoms guy, this was disconcerting. How can the signal possibly cover this part of the seas?

In no time, I launched my GMail for mobile application to check my e-mails. It loaded quickly and I was informed that 1.) this blog had a short downtime, and 2.) I sold another text link.

I also read Jhay Rocas‘ emailed question on using sets in Zooomr. I wrote him a quick reply, sent the mail, and then held tight as the boat started bucking under big waves. After we ate at a “floating” restaurant, we proceeded to Sta. Rosa, effectively going around Olango Island. I then checked GMail again and read Jhay’s reply to my message.

The entire time yesterday I was connected to Smart’s telecoms grid. My wife’s phone, which is with Globe, was also connected to its network but I do not know whether it was connected the entire time of our trip.

In these days of always-on connection anywhere, can we ever get away from it all?

I can just picture myself on Tres Rosas, blogging with a laptop connected to the Internet via PLDT WeRoam. A few steps away, a huge chunk of tuna lies on a grill, beside it a smaller piece of pork belly.

How does one get to own an islet?

Mobile Internet and Globe Visibility, a demo

Max Limpag — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 15:41:26 +0000

In the run-up to Sinulog, the biggest festival in Cebu, I was invited to a demonstration of Globe Visibility, Globe’s HSDPA or High Speed Downlink Packet Access mobile Internet service.

The service, marketed by Globe with buzz phrases such as “3G plus,” “better than 3G,” and “mobile broadband,” promises download speeds of up to 1.4mbps. In the limited time that I observed the demo, Globe Visibility was browsing at breakneck speeds. Heck, it was even faster than the faltering and intermittent Globelines Broadband connection I had at home.

During the demo, a member of Globe’s technical staff tested the connection using their in-house browsing speed monitor and it registered 595.5kbps. I checked several sites and most load very fast.

GLOBE VISIBILITY. With Globe staff shortly before they started the demo on Globe visibility. Click on photo to view larger image.

What should be stressed though is that the speed is for downloading. Its upload speed is way slower. You may get blazing access when viewing web sites or downloading files but sending and uploading files is something else. You won’t get speeds you might have been used to getting in cabled connections. I wasn’t, however, able to try uploading a file because I had to leave early for desk work in the newsroom.

What’s great about the service is its pricing, you can have unlimited HSDPA, 3G, GPRS, and Wi-Fi browsing for only P2,000 a month. I was told during the demo that the initial payment to enroll into the service is only a one-month advance in the monthly fee. But a colleague who called up Globe a week or two later was told she’d have to pay one month in advance and another P2,000.

Mickey of Globe shows Cebu journalists the browsing speed of Globe Visibility. Closely watching the demo is Gerard Pareja of Cebu Daily News. Click on photo to view larger image.

A member of Globe’s tech staff who led the demo said he was able to use HSDPA the entire time he was in Cebu–from the airport in Mactan Island to his hotel in barangay Mabolo to the venue of the demo, a restaurant near the Waterfront hotel and the IT Park in Barangay Lahug.

He said this shows that you’ll get even more than your money’s worth especially if you’re in Metro Cebu because of the wide HSDPA coverage. The service uses the slower, way slower, GPRS connection if it’s out of HSDPA coverage. Who’d want to surf websites using GPRS? I don’t. I’d rather look for an Internet cafe or a Wi-Fi hotspot, even if it’s several kilometers away. But the option is there if you need to connect to the Internet, no matter how slow it is. (An aside: in case you’re interested, I’m mapping Cebu’s Wi-Fi hotspots.)

I checked with PLDT WeRoam, and found they now offer HSDPA access under a different package. I’ll get more info Monday as Smart has invited me to a demo of their HSDPA service.

Re-installing my life: the perils of keeping everything online

Max Limpag — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:30:55 +0000

For more than a year, I have been moving my data online as part of an experiment to make the network my computer. With the telecoms disruption caused by a recent earthquake in Taiwan, my world crashed.

As I write this, the Globelines Broadband connection I have at home is still horrendously slow. It is a 7.8 mbps line to nowhere. I was giddy upon seeing for the first time the notification that my connection to Globelines is 7.8 mbps (it used to say 2 mbps). Now, the notice feels like a taunt.

It takes about as much time to load pages with Globelines Broadband right now as it would take a Sinulog contingent to finish a dance. To say the connection is as slow as molasses would be to overstate the viscosity of the substance.

It was a good thing that I use Gmail for mobile application in my phone, a Sony Ericsson k750i using a Smart pre-paid subscription. I can open my GMail messages faster on my phone than I could using Globelines in my home PC. Half of the time, I couldn’t even get past the Gmail login screen when I use the Globelines connection.

With the service disruption, I could no longer access my tasks lists and calendar items–all saved online. I could not access Google Calendar and my activeCollab installation.

I keep all my tasks in my activeCollab installation and without Internet access at home, I felt lost. I could still access these data at the office but I do a lot of work at home and for several days I gave up on trying to connect I cut my surfing hours and chose to spend the time watching documentaries on the Gnostics, Knights Templars, early Christians and other esoteric topics on religion. The holidays seem to bring out all these documentaries on the various aspects of what we now know as Christianity.

When it’s really important, I use the PLDT WeRoam account assigned to my wife but the signal is weak at home and I frequently get disconnected and half of the time, I don’t get optimal speed.

With the Internet connection woes, I decided to re-install applications I ditched earlier in favor of online solutions. I also tried new applications for notes keeping and tasks management. I will be writing about these pieces of software in the coming days. At least the service disruption has spurred me into trying out pieces of software I would have ignored in my bullheadedness to keep everything online.

WeRoam saves the day: Updating WordPress to latest release

Max Limpag — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 21:30:21 +0000

Internet connection has been dismal these past few days following the earthquake in Taiwan that cut submarine cables connecting parts of Asia to the Internet. The Globelines Broadband account I use at home chokes on most web sites. When I connect using it, I’d be able to load pages for the first few minutes and then the connection gets stalled again.

The intermittent connection has made me dependent these past few days on the PLDT WeRoam account temporarily assigned to my wife. WeRoam isn’t as fast as Globelines BQ (before the quake) but with it, I manage to check my mails and browse “must-visit” sites such as del.icio.us and Lifehacker. I seldom visit, let alone log into, my blog these days because of the awful connection speeds. Luckily, I managed to open my Google Reader an hour back and read JAngelo’s post about a vulnerability in WordPress, the open source script I use in this site. I promptly logged into my blog and found that version 2.0.6 has been released.

Seeing that WordPress 2.0.6 “includes an important security fix,” I quickly prepared to update blogs I run and help manage. Before last week, I wouldn’t have dared upgrading my blog using WeRoam. The signal at home is weak and my previous attempt at using WeRoam’s connection to FTP files to my server had me giving up after a few minutes, it was so slow I decided to switch to Globelines.

But today, WeRoam is fast. Not Globelines fast but fast enough for FTP uploading of files to the server. Thank God. With my blogs updated, now I can sleep.