Have you noticed the growing number of Filipino companies advertising on Facebook lately? This trend points to two things: 1) the population of Filipino users in Facebook has reached critical mass already; and, 2) businesses in the Philippines are finally grasping the reality behind ‘new media’ and the benefits of online advertising and marketing.

Facebook reports that the site now has upwards of 140 million active users, and that 70% of that is outside the U.S. (I would certainly love to find out the numbers from the Philippines!) And an even more significant demographic that will surely attract advertisers: the fastest growing segment of this population are 25 years old and older. •••Read on»

No matter how splendid Apple® headsets are, sometimes your ears get sore when you have earphones plugged into them for too long. Sometimes you want to be surrounded by perfect-sounding tunes without being aurally isolated from the world.

You’re the type who likes things portable and compact (which also refers to what you spend for them). That’s why you have an iPod touch and a BurgerBass mini speaker. The entertainment system that’s spot on for you. •••Read on»

Davao City makes it to the Philippines’ 2008 Top 10 IT-BPO Outsourcing Destinations

Davao City has added another distinction to its cap by ranking 4th in the Philippine 2008 Top 10 Next Wave Cities for ITO-BPO Destinations. Conferred by the Commission on Information & Communications Technology (CICT) and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) last 3 December 2008 at the BPO Summit of the Philippines at Crowne Plaza Galleria in Ortigas Center, Pasig, this Award should put to rest the speculation that the city is not ready to host multiple IT-BPO locators/investors.

The CICT and BPAP scored no less than thirty-one (31) ICT-ready locations in the Philippine Cyber-Corridor and their performance in four (4) major areas to include talent, infrastructure, cost and business environment. •••Read on»

The Symbian S60 on the Nokia N-Series mobile phones offers a wide range of applications that are Internet-enabled. Here are the apps that I currently have on my Nokia N82.

One of my favorites: Nimbuzz. Basically, it’s a chat program that consolidates your accounts in Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM/ICQ, and a few others into one interface. When you login to Nimbuzz on your mobile, you actually go online on all of the IMs that you specify in this app’s community settings. (Thanks to my buddy, Winston, for letting me know about Nimbuzz last year.)

Nimbuzz also lets you do voice via Skype; but I haven’t tried that yet, only the chatting part. It would really be cool if I could use Nimbuzz’s internet calling facility, and not get charged toll fees for international calls!
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It would most probably be safe to assume that all Filipinos who go online have at least a working knowledge of English. That’s possibly why there haven’t been many sources of Filipino-language material on the Internet, because there just wasn’t much need (or so many of us think).

But there is a need: a need to preserve our heritage, which can only be properly illustrated in our native tongue. (Let’s not go into the linguistic rivalries between the major language groups of our country, however. When I speak of ‘native tongue’ and refer to it as Filipino or Tagalog, that’s only because that’s what the powers that be have designated it to be.) •••Read on»

Yesterday, Microsoft’s Development & Platform Evangelism (DPE) group, in partnership with Lane Systems Inc. (LSI), held a long-overdue educational event in Davao City for the benefit of local software developers. According to Rodney Jao, president of LSI, the last time that Microsoft held an official event in the city was almost two years ago.

The seminar, held at the Grand Men Seng Hotel from 1:30 to 4:30 PM, focused on developing business applications for Windows Mobile, presented by Jao, who is a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for Device Applications Development. In attendance were representatives of corporate IT departments and independent software companies, as well as freelance programmers and students. •••Read on»

In this age of high technology, you find an increasing number of people with more than just cellular phones — there are PSPs, iPods, smart devices with a huge identity crisis (are they phones or cameras or something else entirely?), and there are more to come for sure.

Suffice it to say that we are now in an era of heightened mobility. We now demand — nay, expect — to have our desired information readily available via our handheld gadgets. Therefore, as a publisher, I thought it important to get my blogs’ content onto other platforms other than the Web browser.

I’d like to share what I’ve found for doing exactly that: Feedm8.com.

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In a nutshell, the e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition is an annual event that attracts potential buyers from all over the world to interface with Philippine IT companies and IT-enabled services. It’s an all-out showcase of what Filipino technopreneurs can bring to the global marketplace.

For the first time since its inception, the organizers of e-Services Philippines (as it is more commonly known) are on a roadshow all over the country, kicking off with the Davao leg today. We were at the offices of the Department of Trade & Industry - Region XI (which is a long-time, staunch supporter of all Philippine IT initiatives), where we were apprised of the latest developments in the preparations for this event. e-Services Philippines is organized each year by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM).

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After romancing the awesome Nokia N82 for nearly four months, WOM World is now asking for it back… (sigh)  However, I’ve gotten yet another mobile phone: the N96. While the N82, like I’ve mentioned before, is a camera phone, the N96 is reportedly a video phone. This I have to see.

I’ll take some videos and see how this phone fares. More on that in future posts!

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There is a plethora of glossy magazines being churned out in the country today, from the pithy to the pitiable, covering topics of interest to the general public or to a specific interest group. In my opinion, those publications that have made it a point to focus on a niche are the ones that will find loyal readers.

One such magazine that was launched last 10 October 2008 is iCreate. It’s a publication that’s very narrow in focus, but wide in possibilities. To begin with, iCreate targets Mac enthusiasts and users of other Apple technologies. However, it also styles itself as a rich resource for those who are seriously considering a switch to the world of the Mac.

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