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Leo Lastimosa and Kapamilyas
Merlou Gerzon and Merlie Neri
Francis Cabas
Marlon Melgazo
Donna Ocampo
Alan Almendras
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Monday, October 17, 2005
3-G Phone
VoIP: Internet Phone Revolution
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Call DYAB Absolutely FREE
Monday, October 10, 2005
Print IPods
SOMETIMES what appears to be a threat is actually a life preserver.
The poor defenseless music industry cowered - then prosecuted - when the monster of digital downloads came lurching over the horizon. Then the iPod came along and music looks like a business again - a smaller business, eked out in 99- cent units - but still a business.
Cable channels were supposed to gut network television, but instead have become a place where shows like "Seinfeld" and "Law and Order" are resold and rewatched. The movie industry reacted to DVD's as though they were a sign of the imminent apocalypse, and now studios are using their libraries to churn profits.
Which brings us to the last of the great analog technologies, the one many of you are using right now.
The newspaper business is in a horrible state. It's not that papers don't make money. They make plenty. But not many people, or at least not many on Wall Street, see a future in them. In an attempt to leave the forest of dead trees and reach the high plains of digital media, every paper in the country is struggling mightily to digitize its content with Web sites, blogs, video and podcasts.
And they are half right. Putting print on the grid is a necessity, because the grid is where America lives. But what the newspaper industry really needs is an iPod moment.
According to a nifty piece of polling, directed by Bob Papper of Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., and released last week, average Americans spend more time online, on the phone, punching the remote, the radio and the game console than they do sleeping - a total of nine hours a day. And much of the time, they are using more than one medium simultaneously, answering e-mail messages while returning calls with a TV buzzing in the background.
For all the print newspaper's elegance - it is a very portable, searchable technology - it has some drawbacks. A paper is a static product in a dynamic news age, and while every medium is after eyeballs, the industry has to take that quite literally. You cannot read this story while driving in your car - which is how most of America commutes - and you cannot have it on in the background. America is hooked on "companion" media, a pet platform that sits in the corner and pays attention to you when you pay attention to it.
No wonder that print is taking a hit. In the Ball State study, the Internet in all of its incarnations beat out reading print materials in all forms in every age bracket up to 65.
Print's anachronisms, whether it is the last-mile delivery, the slaying of forests, or the sale of thick packages that most consumers use only small slices of, make change inevitable once a better answer is available.
Consider if the line between the Web and print matter were erased by a device for data consumption, not data entry - all screen, no baggage - that was uplinked and updated constantly: a digital player for the eyes, with an iTunes-like array of content available at a ubiquitous volume and a low, digestible price.
Sure, there are tablet PC's and so-called viewpads out there, but they need to boot every time they are used - they are just computers without keyboards. The iPod was not a new kind of CD player, it was a new way of listening to music. And the dangling white headphones became something that brought joy to the ears and also cachet to the wearer.
"There are all sorts of devices coming along," said Dick Brass, who built the first spelling checker that worked and a format for e-books for Microsoft. "When something is good enough and close enough to paper for people to say, 'I want to use this,' then things will change quickly as they have with the iPod."
Newspapers might live long on such devices, but again, there are hurdles, some technical, some economic.
"It looks simple to come up with a tablet that works, but it is not," said Esther Dyson, a consultant on digital issues. "In order to have the power and portability you need, you need power. The screen is the part of the device that uses the most power."
Mr. Brass and others have suggested that superthin lithium batteries will do the trick, or that the power source can be built into the spine of a fold-out two-page device.
But even when such a gadget is finally in a form consumers will glom onto, newspapers will have to fight for space and mindshare. And it is axiomatic thus far that online customers are much lower-margin customers than print customers. Because there is no scarcity of ad space on the Web, you cannot charge nearly so much for a banner ad on a page with millions of hits as you can for a double-page spread in a national paper.
The real peril of the industry has been the uncoupling of the editorial model - still salient if the Hurricane Katrina coverage is any indication - from the business model, which relies in part on classified advertising. The Web gives classifieds a functionality that print will never match. (Thank you, Craigslist.) And everybody knows consumers on the Web do not want to pay for what they can get free, right?
Maybe not. As iTunes has demonstrated, there is a vast swath of consumers who are willing to pay for what they want and avoid the moral taint of unauthorized use.
There is already a crisscross of intention on the part of the current content providers. The primary gesture of Google and Yahoo - search is actually content - is now being woven with video, paid columnists and, ye gads, even some reporters. Television networks are beginning to explore whether people would pay for an on-demand version of their product. Blogs are federating into verticals of quality to be sold to advertisers. Broadcast radio worries about competition from satellite radio while satellite wonders if it can get people to unplug their iPods.
That is the future that newspapers have to prepare for. Readers no longer care so much who you are, they just want to know what you know.
That may sound grim for big media brands, the kind of proposition that will not provide enough cash flow to finance a squad of reporters examining what a hurricane left behind or venturing out onto the streets of Baghdad. But in a frantic age where the quality of the information can be critical, being a reliable news source humming away in everyone's backpack sounds just useful enough to be a business.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Iraq Porn?
 CBS News |
Guardian Unlimited
By ROBERT BURNS. WASHINGTON (AP) - After an initial look at complaints about US soldiers posting photos of Iraq war dead on an Internet site, Army investigators concluded they had too little evidence to pursue criminal charges. ...
Did Soldiers Trade Photos of Iraq Dead for Porn? ABC News
US probes Iraq net body pictures BBC News
Aljazeera.com - CNN International - Ireland Online - Washington Post - all 165 related »
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Smart Phone
Microsoft, partners step up 'smart phone' war
Glenn Chapman
Agence France-Presse
SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft has teamed up with mobile computer maker Palm and telecom giant Verizon on a new "smart phone" aiming to grab market share from the popular Blackberry device.
The world's biggest software group and the two partners will combine their marketing clout to take on established "smart phone" devices using the Blackberry platform developed by Canada's Research in Motion.
"Most people carrying a Blackberry today still have a mobile phone," Allen Bush of Palm told AFP. "That idea is just ludicrous to us; that in this day and age, you can't combine that elegantly."
A new "Windows Mobile" telephone that doubles as a hand-held computer with features including being synchronized with popular Microsoft Outlook messaging and scheduling software should be in US stores by early 2006, said Palm's chief executive officer Ed Collie.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates called the telephone "more than a milestone" and said it is designed to make users feel as though "Hey, I've got Outlook in my pocket."
Bush predicted it wouldn't be a "winner take all" battle with Blackberry, but that it was more likely to become a market with many competing devices.
"I think the market is converging now," Douglas Smith of Microsoft told AFP. "This a natural step that all things go mobile. This is where it has all been leading."
Users of the new Treo phone developed by Palm will have Microsoft software connected to Verizon's broadband EV-DO network capable of transferring huge amounts of data "lightning fast," said Verizon president Denny Strigl.
"I think we've hit a sweet spot," said Colligan.
Gates, Colligan and Strigl refused to discuss how much the mobile phone would cost or say anything about a radio feature engineered into the device.
Company marketing people said the "smartphone" would likely be priced at the high end of a market currently ranging from 199 to 599 dollars.
The Treo uses a Microsoft operating system to link users to multiple e-mail accounts and even view Powerpoint presentations.
The companies have been developing the telephone for years, using code names derived from 1960s rock bands and children's television program Sesame Street in a project jokingly referred to as "the worst-kept secret in the industry."
"Palm always did great work, so we lusted after some of those things they did well," Gates said. "Likewise, Verizon worked well with most Windows devices online. The strategy is to draw on our strengths."
Company officials said the announcement was timed to give "the 640,000 developers writing applications today" a chance to tailor products and uses for the Windows Treo.
The companies are aiming to capture a major portion of approximately 126 million business people who use Microsoft software to coordinate work, e-mail and scheduling in their work places, Gates said.
Verizon's high-speed network reaches half the nation's population, Strigl said, making it more accessible than the Wi-Fi system used by laptop computers.
"You don't have to go three blocks to find a [Wi-Fi] hot spot," Strigl said.
"I might add you don't have to drink a cup of coffee," he said, taking a jab at cafes that offer wireless computer connections to customers.
Colligan conceded that Palm and Microsoft have competed vigorously in the past.
"Sometimes partners compete and competitors partner," Colligan said. "And that is what is happening here."
Gates said the only problem he expected with the Treo was "keeping it in stock."
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Sony's Comeback
Sony chief to outline plan to revive ailing icon
Agence France-Presse
TOKYO -- Sony chief executive Howard Stringer unveils a three-year plan Thursday aimed at reversing a slump at the Japanese electronics icon, in the first major test for the British-born former journalist.
The 63-year-old executive, the first foreigner ever to take the helm at Sony, is expected to focus on the company's core electronics division, which has been mired in losses for the past two years.
While further cost cuts seem likely, analysts say Stringer must also reverse a slump in sales to secure the future of the sprawling electronics and entertainment conglomerate, which was born from the ashes of World War II.
Though it is also known for movies and music, the company which brought the world the transistor radio, Walkman and PlayStation still relies on electronics for 70 percent of its 67 billion dollars in annual sales.
But it is now lagging behind rivals such as Sharp and Panasonic brand-maker Matsushita in the television market and struggling to challenge Apple's lead in the market for digital music players.
Stiff price competition and loss of market share to rivals saw Sony post its first back-to-back quarterly loss in the three months to June and drastically slash its forecast for the year.
"What the market is hoping is that they clearly show concrete steps to improve their electronics business," said Mitsuhiro Osawa, an analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities.
While cost cuts, layoffs and the sale of non-core businesses would help boost profitability, investors also want to know how Sony will boost sales.
"Sony's previous business plan seemed to focus on costs and less on the product line-up," said Osawa.
In 2003 the company announced 20,000 job cuts over three years as part of a "Transformation 60" plan to trim costs and put its media, entertainment and electronics units on the same path ahead of its 60th anniversary in 2006.
The company is now considering floating its financial unit but has denied reports it is planning to sell the subsidiary, as well as a stake in a satellite broadcaster, in a move that could lead to substantial layoffs.
However, Sony declined to comment on reports that it would stop development of new picture-tube television models and reorganize assembly plants in 11 countries abroad, including the United States, to switch to flat TVs.
Welsh-born Stringer, or "Sir Howard" as he is known since being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999, has a hard act to follow.
The only other foreign executive to head a major Japanese company was Carlos Ghosn, the Brazilian-born Frenchman credited with turning around Nissan Motor after his appointment in 1999 when France's Renault took a controlling stake.
At the company's annual general meeting in June, Stringer was asked by a shareholder about his proficiency in Japanese. He replied that he was a foreigner "but first and foremost I am a Sony warrior."
Sony's meteoric rise began almost 60 years ago in Japan's bombed-out capital when Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka founded a company to repair damaged radios.
Its first product was a rice-cooker. It went on to bring the world myriad other gadgets, becoming a global icon and symbol of Japan's post-war technological might.
Computer Sales
Computer sales in Asia Pacific tipped to grow 15% in 2005
Agence France-Presse
SINGAPORE--Computer sales in the Asia Pacific excluding Japan are tipped to rise by almost 15 percent to 40.03 million in 2005, led by strong demand for notebooks as prices tumble, an industry report said Wednesday.
Growth is expected to continue in 2006 with a projected increase of 12.2 percent to nearly 45 million units, research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) said.
"Notebooks were on fire this past quarter with the spread of low prices and increased awareness in mature and developing countries alike," said Bryan Ma, IDC's regional associate director of personal systems research.
According to IDC, sales of notebook computers in 2005 are expected to increase 35.7 percent, compared with 10.2 percent for desktop computers.
Personal computer (PC) demand will be strongest in the emerging markets of China and India, with other South Asian countries expected to offer significant growth prospects.
"The PC markets in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, though small at the moment, represent burgeoning opportunities in the region, particularly in the business and public sectors," said Andrew Wong, IDC's research manager.
"All of these markets are highly fragmented with a few strong local vendors and a large assembler/whitebox market.
"This represents an opportune time for multinational vendors to respond competitively in order to try to achieve increased penetration in these markets."
China will remain biggest market, with almost 48 percent of the region's sales in 2005 expected to come from the Asian economic powerhouse, IDC said.
Its neighbor India, the second largest PC market in Asia, is expected to clock the fastest sales growth rate of 30.1 percent this year and 25.6 percent next year on the back of buoyant economic growth, IDC said.
For mature markets like Hong Kong and South Korea, computer sales growth rates are expected to be modest, IDC said, without giving specific figures.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
P.5 B Hike in Phone Bills
Govt’s ‘phone and postage’ bill rose by P.5 B in ‘04
NG cellphone expense up by 50%, LGUs by 124 %
Government’s “phone and postage” bill rose by almost
half a billion pesos in 2004 compared to the previous
year, mostly due to an increase in cellular phone use
by government officials, Sen. Ralph Recto said.
Recto said national government agencies,
government-owned or -controlled corporations, and
local government units spent P3.724 billion for
“postage, landline and mobile telephone use, and
internet, cable, telegraph expenses” in 2004.
This amount, under what is grouped in the government
as “communication expenses,” is P447 million or 14
percent higher than the P3.277 billion it shelled out
for the same purpose in 2003.
Last year, national government agencies racked up a
total of P1.897 billion in communication bills from
P1.666 billion in 2003, while GOCCs added P1.116
billion (2003 : P967 M) and local governments, P710
million (2003 : P644 M).
The increase, Recto pointed out, was largely due to
the rise in mobile phone billings.
Cellular phone use in national government agencies, he
said, jumped by almost 50 percent, thereby increasing
their bill from P168 million in 2003 to P251 million
last year.
Local governments, on the other hand, more than
doubled their mobile phone expense, from P72.6 million
in 2003 to P163 million the following year.
The consolidated Commission on Audit financial report
on GOCCs, which was the basis of Recto’s findings, did
not, however, contain a breakdown of the communication
expenses spent by government corporations.
“But it is safe to assume that our more techno-savvy
friends in the GOCC sector increased their mobile
phone use,” he said.
While telephone use has been on the rise, payment of
postage by both NG agencies and LGUs, on the other
hand, has been declining. NG spent P176 million in
2004, down from P199 million in 2003, and the latter,
following the same downhill trend, from P25 million in
2003 to P21 million last year.
While public offices, like the rest of the nation, are
staying away from post and telegraph offices, more and
more of them are hitting the information highway to
send out communication.
Recto said the cost of LGUs’ internet subscription
tripled to P19 million in 2004, while more NGs are
being wired, as shown by a 25 percent increase, or to
P159 million, in their internet fees.
“Even in the bureaucracy, where manual typewriters
still rule in some pockets, email now beats snail
mail,” he said.
As telephone density increases, Recto expects a yearly
rise in the phone and internet expenses of the
1.3-million strong bureaucracy.
“This is not bad per se, for as long as this form of
technology would increase government productivity,
improve public services and make public officials more
accessible to the people. Who doesn’t want a police
car that is just a text away, or asking for a
government document by a click of a mouse?” he said.
“However, the convenience to the public that
e-governance brings should not be abused by officials
who use government communication resources for their
own private use,” he said.
“This is where the DBM and the CoA should come in by
imposing reasonable ceilings on the usage of a phone
or internet facility by an authorized government
employee without sacrificing efficiency in service,”
he said.
“Computers are not for personal chatting, but for
public service. One should not use his government-paid
cellular phone in checking on the maid at home if the
children had eaten supper,” he said.
Monday, September 19, 2005
IT Youth
Youth congress draws big crowd of knowledge-hungry students
Alexander Villafania
INQ7.net
THE THIRD Philippine Youth Congress in Information Technology (Y4IT) has drawn its biggest crowd to date, nearly 7,000 students from high schools and colleges nationwide, one of its organizers said.
Y4IT was held from September 15 to 17, highlighting current events in the IT industry in the field of e-learning, video game development, the contact center business, open source programming, network security, robotics, wireless communications technologies and bio-informatics, among others.
UP assistant vice president for development Jaime D.L. ; said delegates came from as far north as Batanes province and as far south as Tawi-Tawi province. He said the UP Theater where they held the three-day even was unable to accommodate the throngs of students that continued to arrive.
"We had to refuse entry to other students because the UP Theater was already full up to the lobby. These students had to brave the rain just to attend," Caro said, adding that the UP Theater could only sit 2,000.
Caro added that they had almost doubled the number of attendees since they started in 2003.
He attributed the increase to the growing interest of students in IT careers.
"For many of these students it was their first time to see the presentations that we lined up during the last three days so they were really happy to get the big picture about the whole IT industry," Caro said.
Y4IT was organized by the University of the Philippines' Information Technology Training Center, the Department of Science and Technology's Virtual Center for Technology Innovation, and the Diliman Computer Science Foundation Inc.
For next year, Caro said, they might shift the event's format to breakout sessions to allow students to choose which IT tracks to attend. The UP Film Center next to the UP Theater could also be used for next year's Y4IT.
