And here are my de rigeur unboxing photos:

I’ve received quite a few gadgets since I started blogging in earnest, which was around 2007, either directly (gifts, prizes) or indirectly (acquired through blog-related earnings). There was a series of Nokia phones and a Bluetooth headphone, each of which I got to use for about a month — and my all-time favorite was the N82, which I got to keep. I won an HP mini at a press launch of HP’s new line of computers. Except for that and my very first laptop, my notebooks (as well as two iPods) were all bought with earnings from ad placements on my blogs. Same goes for my Lumix LX3, the quintessential blogger’s camera.

What I really would like to be given is a Sony Bloggie. A handy pocket videocam perfect for interviews and such, don’t you think? Of course there’s the Flip Mino and similar cameras of other brands, but I believe the Bloggie is for me. It’s nearly identical in spelling and pronunciation to my own nickname, for crying out loud!

It’s fun and it’s fulfilling in a way to receive gadgets. After all, these devices are tools of the blogger’s trade. But it shouldn’t be an end, it shouldn’t be the objective for blogging. It’s disturbing to see some people taking up blogging because of a desire to get hold of material things. More often than not, so-called bloggers of this ilk fail to appreciate the raison d’être of blogs: quality and meaningful content. But that’s an entirely different topic which I’ll leave for another day.

In the meantime, I’m finally going to be able to play Angry Birds on a bigger screen. Oh yeah, keep my Google Apps calendar and contacts beautifully synchronized as well, of course, that too. Now I’m in a quandary as to whether I should dispose of my old iPod touch 3G or not…

This media center lets you collect the things that matter to you safe in one place, share the things that you love with your family and friends using multiple devices anywhere in your home, and lets you experience a whole new level of entertainment.

Here are the new things to love about the WD TV Live Hub Media Center:

• The advent of HD video and increasing demand for premium online video beefed up the need for storage. In the US alone, households will need at least 500GB of storage in 2013. But WD exceeds that expectation by coming up with a built-in 1 terabyte space in the TV Live Hub™ for both network and local storage.
• The WD TV Live Hub is also a media server. You can stream your HD video, music and photos from the onboard hard drive to any DLNA-certified multimedia device, anywhere in the connected home, including the WD TV Live™ media player, TVs, Blu-ray disc players, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 game consoles. You can also stream content from the WD TV Live Hub media center to your iPad, iPhone, or Android smart phones.
• Using the new, stylish, and feature-packed interface of WD^® TV Live Hub™, you can now mark your favorite files or folders, even rate them, set up a playback queue, browse videos with synopsis view, and many more.





• Express your personality and mood with WD TV Live Hub’s customizable interface. Choose various themes or use your own photo as background.



• If you want everything to be simple, just grab your remote control and program its color coded keys, or set up the content browse method the way you like it – lesser key presses, more time to enjoy your favorite music, video, and other files.



• Choose from the different input options WD® TV Live Hub™ offers: on-screen keyboard, alphanumeric keypad, and optional USB keyboard.
• WD TV Live Hub allows you to manage your files, or sync content from USB or network drive.
• Using an online database, you can get content information on your media files.
• Facebook fanatics may play their shared photos and videos, and check out the latest newsfeed from this social networking site.



• For those who decided to have a breath of fresh air outside, turn on the WD TV Live Hub first to get weather forecast from AccuWeather.com to help you decide whether to bring your umbrella or not.

With the numerous options and amazing features WD^® TV Live Hub™ offers, you and your family have more reasons to welcome the coming year together!

[Media Release]

WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today announced that the WD TV Live HD media player, featuring network capability and Full-HD 1080p resolution, is the first network media player compatible with Windows 7. The WD TV Live HD media player makes it easy for anyone to play media stored on USB and network drives, any PC on the home network, as well as content from popular websites, on the biggest television screen in their home.

Using the Windows 7 Play To feature, users can initiate and control the streaming of video, music or photos to the WD TV Live HD media player and home entertainment systems from any Windows 7-based PC on their network. Any compatible media file accessible from the PC — located either on the PC or on the network — can be played to the WD TV Live by right clicking on the file name in the folder or directly from within Windows Media Player 12 and choosing the WD TV Live HD media player as the playback device.

Current users of the WD TV Live will need to update their media player to the latest firmware in order to use the Windows 7 Play To feature. Instructions for updating the WD TV Live HD media player can be found here.

“Microsoft is pleased that Western Digital has earned the Compatible with Windows 7 logo and is supporting the Play To feature with WD TV Live HD media player,” said Mark Relph, senior director, Windows Ecosystem Product Management at Microsoft Corp. “Now more than 100 million Windows 7 customers will have an affordable and easy way to play files to their HD TVs and other devices from their PC.”

“We regularly engage with WD TV Live enthusiasts in our online community. Many have been asking for a way to “push” media from their PCs to their TV or home theater system, especially from laptops. With the new Windows 7 Play To feature, users can select music or movies from their laptop and play it on an HD TV connected to a WD TV Live HD media player, whether the HD TV is across the living room or in a different room altogether,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “WD worked closely with Microsoft on this exciting new feature to ensure the seamless compatibility of the WD TV Live HD media player with Windows 7 PC’s and deliver WD TV Live users what they want.”

WD TV Live HD Media Player

Features of the Windows 7-compatible WD TV Live HD media player include:

• Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation with the included remote control and crisp, animated navigation menus;
• Play a wide variety of file formats including support for the most popular file formats with no need to spend time transcoding;
• Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV and discover new music with Pandora® Internet radio or listen to thousands of radio stations via Live365 Internet radio;
• Ethernet port for wired or WiFi® connection¹ to access files anywhere on the network to play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on a home network;
• Turns a USB drive² into an HD media player and plays content from most popular USB drives, and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices;
• Unlimited media collection, just add more USB drives for more space;
• Two USB ports for seamless media playback from multiple USB drives and ability to access them simultaneously while a media library feature collects the content on all the drives into one list sorted by media type;
• Transfer files by copying, moving or deleting files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, a camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive using the on-screen menus;
• Picture Transfer Protocol support to show photos and movies directly from digital camera or video camera and/or any digital imaging device that supports Picture Transfer Protocol;
• Advanced navigation options including thumbnail and list views, media library and search;
• Photo viewing to create custom slide shows, zoom and pan and search;
• Movie viewing with fast-forward, rewind, pause, zoom and pan, view subtitles, and search;
• Music playback with fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search;
• File copying between USB devices;
• HDMI® 1.3 port, composite video and component video output for the highest quality HDTV or home theater;
• SPDIF digital output that sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience; and,
• Ultra-compact design to fit easily into a home entertainment center.

Pricing and Availability

The WD TV Live HD media player is distributed by Axis Global Technologies, Inc. and ATP Peripherals (Phils), Inc. and is available now at select retailers in Philippines. Covered by a 1-year limited warranty, the MSRP for WD TV Live HD media player is ₱7,500.

[Media Release]

Western Digital, WD, WD TV and the WD logo and My Book are registered trademarks; WD TV, World Edition and My Passport are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies. One gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. One terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.

Manila, 25 May 2010 — More than a year ago, WD® devised the WD Caviar® Blue™, WD Caviar® Green™ and WD Caviar® Black™ hard drive series, designed to help consumers make better informed choices in selecting their digital storage solutions. Now, in the Philippines, these hard drives have faces and personalities in the forms of Brent, Gus and Blake.

Brent represents the WD Caviar Blue hard drive, which is built for everyday computing. Gus represents the WD Caviar Green hard drive, engineered to be cool, quiet and eco-friendly for reducing carbon footprint and saving our Planet Earth. Blake represents the WD Caviar Black hard drive, which is built to be fast and powerful for gaming enthusiasts and overclocker fans who want speed at their fingertips.

Brent, Gus and Blake are fast gaining popularity and teasing chuckles out of netizens as their animated episodes pick up tens of thousands of views. Following the launch of the trailer episode last Christmas, the story of Brent continues with his misadventure with his extremely spontaneous girl. In episode three, Gus consults his disk doctor about his non-nature loving girl who is driving him up the wall. And in episode four, Blake is in therapy with his disk doctor and complaining of his girlfriend who is unable to appreciate the victory that he had achieved through his passion in racing. They all have something in common. Visit WD’s The Power of Choice website here to see Brent, Gus and Blake in action.

Together with the launch of episode four, WD introduces the new WD Blue, Green and Black Photo Hunt Contest. This is the 2nd online marketing campaign following the success of the BGB Photo and Digital Art Contest which had just announced the winners last April. Contestants for the Photo Hunt Contest are required to spot all the differences between the two photos before the time runs out. Pit against the clock for a high score and stand a chance to win attractive prizes like Canon EOS 550D digital SLR camera, Apple® iPad™ 64GB with Wi-Fi + 3G, Mac mini 160GB and more. Click here for the contest mechanics.

About WD

WD, one of the storage industry’s pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users’ data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and media products.

WD was founded in 1970. The company’s storage products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company’s Web site to access a variety of financial and investor information.

[Media Release]

Western Digital, WD, the WD logo and WD Caviar are registered trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. in the US and other countries; Black, Green and Blue are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks herein are property of their respective owner. As used for storage capacity, one megabyte (MB) = one million bytes, one gigabyte (GB) = one billion bytes, and one terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.

The Tattoo embodies three core principles of HTC Sense: Make it Mine, Stay Close, and Discover the Unexpected

Mobile communications frontrunner HTC Corp. today introduces the HTC Tattoo™, an Android-based phone that brings high personalization to a broader market. With its distinct design and the ability to personalize programs on the phone — from its applications as well as content — people are able to express themselves and create their own individual mobile experience.

“Everyone wants their own phone to feel like it was specifically made for them. The Tattoo, with HTC Sense, represents an easy way to shape your own distinct mobile experience and really make it your own,” said Peter Chou, HTC Corp.’s Chief Executive Officer. “The HTC Tattoo ensures that you can create the most engaging and appropriate mobile experience through simple yet powerful personalization.”

HTC Tattoo is the second phone to embody a mobile experience focused on putting people at the center by making your phone work in a simpler and more natural way, otherwise known as HTC Sense™. Designed by listening to and observing how people live and communicate, HTC Sense revolves around three fundamental principles: Make it Mine, Stay Close, and Discover the Unexpected.

With HTC Tattoo, you stay close to the important people in your life by integrating your communications and applications, including voice calls, emails, texts, photos, and status updates into one consolidated view, while providing innovative and fun mobile phone experiences.

The stylish HTC Tattoo is small and compact, fitting snugly into your hand or pocket. You stay fashionably chic with its lightweight design and easy-to-navigate keys. Its touch-screen interface alongside the four-way navigation control and enter button, make browsing your phone seamlessly sophisticated.

HTC Tattoo integrates Google’s innovative mobile services including: Google Maps, search, Google Mail, and Android Market where users can download thousands of popular applications and games. It also comes complete with a broad variety of hardware features including a 3.2 mega pixel camera, 3.5mm stereo headset jack and expandable microSD™ memory.

Pricing and Availability

The new HTC Tattoo is now available in thoughtful silver at all authorized resellers at a suggested retail price of ₱14,990 and is available with Globe Telecom through Plan 1,800, which comes with one month free subscription of Super Surf. The standard retail HTC Tattoo package comes with a 2GB microSD™ card.

HTC Tattoo™ At A Glance

HTC Hero Awarded Mobile Phone of the Year at Mobile World Congress 2010

HTC also ranked World’s Most Innovative Company and second in Consumer Electronic category by FAST COMPANY magazine

HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, launched HTC Hero in June 2009 in London, and has since won the recognition of several international awards. The phone beat four other nominees in the recent Global Mobile Awards held at the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona to clinch the Best Mobile Handset or Device of the Year.

Since October 2009, HTC Hero has been awarded three major international awards, including Stuff Magazine’s Gadget of the Year, Mobile Choice’s Phone of the Year, and T3 Magazine’s Phone of the Year. With the lineup of awards under HTC’s belt, various telecommunication providers around the world have been aggressively promoting HTC’s products in their retail shops.

HTC was also included in the internationally recognized magazine FAST COMPANY’s list of “World’s Most Innovative Companies,” and was ranked second in the Consumer Electronic category. Adding to the accolades for the HTC Hero, the mobile powerhouse also won several awards in the region in 2009, like the Editor’s Choice Award by Hardware Zone and the Silver Award by Hardware Magazine.

“‘Quietly Brilliant’ reflects our corporate culture. We listen attentively to and observe consumers’ demands. HTC strongly believe in the concept of ‘YOU’ — making mobile phones consumer-centric through the combination of software and hardware, with each mobile phone specially tailored for the user. We hope that consumers share the same sentiments and have confidence in HTC products,” elaborates Cher Wang, Chairman, HTC Corporation.

HTC’s Chief Executive Officer, Peter Chou, commented, “We are glad to be conferred with these awards and are pleased to share the prestige with our end users.”

HTC Hero is all about enhancing the mobile experience for the user. Its superior capabilities complemented by its thoughtful design elements have proven it a winner. Keeping users ahead of technology, HTC Hero will be upgradable to Android 2.1 from May 2010.

About HTC

Founded in 1997, HTC Corporation (HTC) is a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design. Since its establishment, HTC has developed strong R&D capabilities, pioneered many new designs and product innovations and launched state-of-the-art mobile phones for mobile operators and distributors in Europe, the US, Asia and around the world. HTC is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile device market. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com.

The Tattoo conveniently connects via USB and installed without a hitch on my Windows7-powered laptop. When I plugged it in the first time, the modem’s connectivity software installed itself (after my approval, of course) and was up and running in no time at all. Connecting to the network is a cinch, too!

Speaking of which, the Tattoo will be able to detect signal strength as well as the availability of WCDMA or HSDPA in your area. For best download/upload speeds, make sure you’re in an area where either WCDMA or HSDPA is present. (Where neither is available, chances are, you’ll be glad you had Internet connectivity at all.)

I’m happy with the broadband access I get in various places in Mindanao: Davao City, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Zamboanga City. When I go and visit more cities in the Philippine South, I’ll surely bring the Tattoo with me.

The Tattoo is available as a pre-paid and as a post-paid service. I use the former, and I am charged on the basis of duration. I remember when Internet service providers used to charge on a per-kilobyte basis, which was OK back then because connections were still very slow. But now that we have broadband access, it’s very advantageous for users of Globe Tattoo to be charged on a time-connected basis. We can download (and upload) much more in a short span of time and get charged only for the duration of connectivity.

If you don’t have yours yet, check out the Globe Tattoo broadband gallery of products.

However, when I upgraded my system to Windows 7 (64-bit) a couple of days ago, I found that the drivers bundled with the device wouldn’t install properly. I have an Acer Aspire 2930, and the Plug-It model is a ZTE HSDPA USB Modem MF627.

Windows 7 is simply superb. It installed much faster compared to my experience with earlier versions of Windows, and I had no problems with drivers at all. Some drivers didn’t install automatically — for the AuthenTec biometric device and for the multi-card reader — but Windows 7′s improved Internet driver search took care of that.

And that’s what solved the problem for the ZTE modem as well. I searched the Web for solutions to the problem, because the SmartBro Plug-It wouldn’t work on Windows 7, but there were no real solutions. In one forum, someone advised that one should enable the ZTE drivers to run in Windows-2000 compatibility mode. But that won’t work for the Windows 7 Home Premium edition, because it doesn’t have compatibility mode. But that’s a rather dirty approach to the problem.

What finally made it work for me was Windows’ Device Manager. I went there, and saw the warning flags on the devices labeled ZTE. What you should do is right-click on each one and click on Install driver software (or something to that effect), and let Windows 7 do the rest! Once that’s done, you’ll see a new item under Modems: ZTE Proprietary USB Modem; and three new items under Memory technology driver (the Plug-It has a slot for a microSD card).

I’m using my SmartBro Plug-It right now to post this article!

HTC Country Manager Mark Sergio officially announced today that the HTC Magic™, the first Android-powered mobile phone in the Philippines, will be available exclusively through SMART Gold, the postpaid brand of leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART).

SMART and HTC Corporation will be launching HTC Magic™ very soon. The HTC Magic™ is the first of its kind to be introduced in the Philippines. The smartphone is equipped with the Android operating system, and is supported by SMART’s HSDPA network, the widest in the country.

“To truly maximize the power of advanced, all-in-one devices, they need to be powered by innovative operator technologies — offering the HTC Magic through SMART Gold is a natural fit,” said Miriam Choa, activations manager of SMART Gold.

The HTC Magic™ comes with a powerful mobile browser that provides easy access to Google services such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Talk. It also has the Smart Dialer function, which allows users to either dial the phone number or simply type in the first few letters of the name of the person they want to call.

“Part of SMART’s efforts in putting the Internet in the hands of every Filipino is providing subscribers a broad selection of the latest, most advanced handset models that suit their lifestyles at very affordable rates,” said Choa.

SMART Gold is a pioneering postpaid brand which offers a wide variety of monthly plans, all offering free or subsidized handsets, free airtime and SMS. SMART Gold subscribers enjoy access to high-speed, mobile Internet and other value-added services powered by SMART’s nationwide mobile broadband coverage.

The HTC Magic will be available exclusively under SMART Gold subscription plans, and will be out in the market by the end of June 2009.

I wonder how the first Android phone in the Philippines will fare against the iPhone… Not that Apple’s mobile — being carried by SMART’s competitor — has really covered much ground to date, but there are droves of iPod/iPhone enthusiasts in the country, not to mention a few Apple App developers.

This should be interesting to follow.

It can be extremely stressful for businesspeople in these uncertain times. To put more time and energy on work may seem like the most practical way to survive and succeed in the global financial crisis, but doing so can also take its toll. Play and relaxation are much needed after a long day of business meetings and corporate decisions. Balance is the key to living a successful, happy life–in business and in everything else. But then again, in this harsh economic climate, more work means less play… or does it?

ExcelAsia President Rita Trillo-Ugarte

That’s why ExcelAsia President Rita Trillo-Ugarte chooses only the HTC Touch Pro in helping her keep a balance between business and fun. “I need a phone that is as fast and efficient as I want to be, so that I can communicate easily with my staff and my clients,” she says, “and the HTC Touch Pro does just that.” With its elegant touch-screen user interface and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, sending short text messages and typing out long e-mails and business letters on the Touch Pro can be done in a zip.

“The HTC Touch Pro really is a powerhouse beauty. It has all the features that I need, in a sleek and smooth little package,” says Rita. As ExcelAsia president and first and foremost a mother and a wife, Rita likes to stay on top of her business affairs without sacrificing time with her family. “My daughter, husband, and I were in Palawan recently, and I couldn’t believe I was able to take care of my e-mails through my phone! My laptop didn’t even get the service,” Rita explains. “I can be online all the time with my HTC Touch Pro, which is very necessary for me. Now I don’t need my laptop that much,” she says.

The HTC Touch Pro’s 2.8-inch VGA touch screen provides four times the resolution of most PDA phones, making e-mail and web-browsing easier and sharper. It also runs on the Windows Mobile 6.1 professional operating system, allowing quick and convenient access to Microsoft Office applications and important documents while on the go.

HTC Touch Pro

“I recommend the HTC Touch Pro to individuals like me who strive for balance between work and play. The Touch Pro is a fully equipped business phone with all the non-business perks. I can use the stylus, tap the unique TouchFLO 3D interface with my fingertips, or type using the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Even my friends think it’s so nice and chic!” says Rita.

Rita also likes taking pictures with her phone, especially with the HTC Touch Pro’s 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto-focus and flash. “I sent my sister Annie some pictures I took while we were in Palawan, and she couldn’t believe they were taken from my phone,” Rita says. And the wallpaper on her HTC Touch Pro screen? A lovely photo of husband Jose Mari and daughter Camila. No wonder Rita is always inspired with the most brilliant ideas.