[Here's my inaanak (godson) who took this early morning flight with his parents to Manila, to migrate to Australia soon. This photo was taken after the christening. He was asleep here and it was very funny how his hands seemed to be talking. One of the first few photos edited using PhotoPad.]

Thank you for your comments when I blogged about the stunner last week. To those who asked about my (first) impressions, I am afraid that I cannot write objectively because I absolutely liked it since Day 1. Although it is also a question of who needs it, I shall say that it is generally not a must, but it would really depend on the consumer (user). The truth is I debated with myself many times if I should get it or not. To get a decent netbook has been a plan since early last year. But nothing convinced me, especially because of the storage and battery limitation. However, when the iPad was coming then promising at least a 16GB storage and 10 hours battery life (promise is true! sleep mode also helps to conserve the battery), I took a serious note.

(The email provides a column on the left to display listing of mails received.)

Another question is if you should get the unit with 3G capabilities or not. Again, it would depend on your intended manner of consumption. If you have an iPhone which is 3G enabled, it is better to get the basic one (with wifi capabilities). Aside from that it is cheaper, you can actually create a wifi network through your iPhone 3G. Whether you do or do not have a mobile with 3G capabilities, you need to assess if you would be willing to be tied up to a fixed monthly bill and if you are going to utilize it. In my case, I am using a Samsung dual sim phone (got tired of maintaining two phones for my UAE and roaming sim cards, respectively + I maintain a company issued phone with 24/7 connection). I hardly saw the need to get the iPad 3G because wifi network is generous in my location. Most of my usage of iPad will rarely require a connection when I am out of the house. But basically, I don’t want the monthly fee.

In a week’s time, I declare that it was really worth it. Especially when I started installing the FREE applications. I have not taken any paid application, and no plans yet. If you can get it for free and legally, why not.

If you know me personally, you would be able to figure out what exactly got me. Why do I like thee? Aside from its remarkable speed and crisp interface, let us count the many ways (on the first week):

(a) iBook

What a clean and elegant reader. Upon installation of the application, I automatically got my first free book on the shelf. It is Winnie the Pooh! The virtual shelf looks like my real bookshelf here.

Did you just see the pages? It feels like flipping a real book.

(b) National Public Radio (NPR)

I love this site. It offers a good selection of podcasts, you may listen to programs and read the articles simultaneously.  I think that the application is way better than the website.

(c) Fluent News

Checking the news is part of my breakfast. This application consolidates news from different sources/ sites. It is as easy as one click to sort the headlines.

(d) PhotoPad

As captioned for the first photo, this photo editor is user friendly.

For the farewell party for my inaanak and his parents-friends-colleagues, I have uploaded the dedicated album to the iPad. I gathered the photos we had with them during their stay in the UAE.  Some videos were uploaded, too.  As the iPad is very handy and presentable, it is much better than bringing a notebook/netbook or other tablet. The same goes when using it for business presentation. Glenda of Oodles of Goodles blogged about it, too.

(e) Wall Street Journal

One of my must haves. It is a good idea that saved articles and earmarking were made possible.

(f) TweetDeck

I have also installed Twitterific. The interface for both is commendable. A must have for those who are into twitter. Don’t tell me you don’t have an account. Don’t you think that it is a must? Hahaha. Seriously, a lot of good things are happening and can be found there. The real time updates especially for the issues of national concern are unbeatable. Much better than watching the local television.

(g) Organizers

You can facilitate it through the calendar (great layout whether it is on a day, week or month view), memo or tap and dictate (voice notes, cool eh?).

(h) IMDb

Yes, one of the things that I monitor just because I’m like that. Have you seen Iron Man 2? I think that Robert Downey, Jr. was born for that movie.

(i) Dictionary and Thesaurus

It comes so handy. And yes, it’s reliable.

(j) Virtuoso and other music-related applications

It is worth mentioning that the audio quality of the iPad is far better than the laptop’s, iPod’s and iPhone’s. I particularly liked the Virtuoso application. You can at least always play the piano while singing a birthday song to the celebrant. Haha. Seriously, it sounds very nice.

(k) These and counting!

[Did you see the icons of ongoing downloads? One of those is for Crunchyroll, I engage in selected Asian series, in case you don't know. As an aside, The Vampire Diaries Season 1 (ten times better than Twilight), Shawshank Redemption, Ironman 1 and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist are currently in My Videos. I don't maintain several albums though because I house them (they're a lot!) in the iPod.]

It has been a week since this toy met me. The free apps seems more than sufficient. You can just imagine the difference that the premium and future apps will make. Well, the games (although I am not much into it), I think, deserves a separate post.

While my blog and/or majority of the Filipinos are almost turning politics centric, which is irresistible because of the coming elections in the Philippines, let us take a break to welcome my new toy. Had I known that this is more than stunning and really suits me, I should not have hesitated long enough to get it.

This photo was taken by a friend-colleague that day the iPad was delivered to me. We were in a meeting room when I excitedly open it, and then she acted like one of those paparazzi (and until now she does not want to delete my photos from her mobile) .

While I explore the stunner, let’s go back to business. I have casted my vote already last weekend. And the big day in the Philippines is coming so soooooon! We may not have the same bets/choices, but I am sure that all of you will vote wisely.

Let us all pray for a peaceful and honest elections.

This blog has been hacked.

I don’t know when it exactly happened, but I suspect it was yesterday. I think I saw it coming. The other day three new users registered to this blog as subscribers. Their email addresses are strangers to me, i.e. the first time I heard about them. I’m normally security (and anonymity) conscious that I intended to reset my passwords soon because of that. However, I failed to do so because I wasn’t accessing this blog much the past days. And yesterday (I’m convinced that’s when the hacking happened), I had to spend almost the whole day in Dubai that I hardly went online. Except for the few comments that I moderated through my phone.

As I reached home last night, something nagged me to check my dashboard. There I found out that:

(a) There were already two administrators for this blog. I don’t know how that happened but I’m supposed to be its sole administrator. Though it’s too late, I immediately disabled the registration function. This bogus administrator probably used the “back door”.
(b) The permalink structure was strangely modified. Hence, if a reader would try to view a single post, there’s a script above the title that says, “Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘”‘ in /home/witsandn/public_html/wp-includes/classes.php(108) : eval()’d code(1) : eval()’d code on line 1″. When I checked the specific php file, I hardly can locate the malicious code.
(c) The preceding script’s immediate effects are that: the reader can’t leave comments or worse the site appears to be inaccessible/down.

I’m not technically literate to immediately fix the bugs. But instead of getting more irritated about these hackers and how to delete or modify the php files, I just consoled myself that I better go back to basic rather than waste my time on thinking of the things that appear complicated to me. I was using one of wordpress’ old versions (2.5.2) and I never wanted to simply upgrade but to go for a complete reinstallation for peace of mind. I was thinking that if I wouldn’t reinstall, some files that contain malicious scripts would probably remain. After almost a couple of hours, backing up, reinstallation and importing of old posts and comments were done. Whew.

The following day, I learned that I was not the lone victim but even the widely read Tech Crunch and Lorelle. The common denominator is that we were using some of the old versions of wordpress.org (wordpress.com is different). As you probably know, wordpress.org as a self-hosted platform is widely used/one of the largest blogging engines.

I don’t know the reason of the other administrators for not upgrading their versions. We probably are alike in some ways in my main consideration that I don’t want to get out of my comfort zone, i.e. I was satisfied with the old version that I’m also afraid that any upgrading will screw my then layout (some themes are compatible with a certain version), etc.

I’ve installed additional security-related plug ins. But I don’t think these would affect much the functionality of the blog. But probably, some good souls will be affected by the content protector plug-in that I activated to minimize stealing of contents (you’ll see for yourself when you try to right click the photo and other contents). I don’t mind sharing of work as long as we respect each other’s copyright.

Going back to being hacked, that’s a lesson learned. Whatever blogging platform we are using, we should be cautious about the obvious risks. I tell you, I cared about this, but I was really into it when it happened to me. In real life, I’m not afraid to get out of my comfort zone. But with a blog being maintained, I cared less with the upgrades because I used to think that it’s just a blog. But not anymore.

Well, when was the last time you’ve changed your dashboard, cpanel and other log in details? You know what I mean. Do it now.

It has been more than three months since I got an iPhone.  I think it is a pretty good deal to judge this phone by now.  A few months before leaving Philippines I was intending to replace my ever reliable Samsung E530 which I got when the flip phones were just starting to hit Manila (until now I am using this for my roaming sim card, this pink fone is so small yet amazing especially because of its video capabilities which is commendable for its generation, one of the first flips) by a red Treo.  However, I deferred my outlay when I finally decided to come to Abu Dhabi.  I had to know what would suit me best as I came here.

More than 3 months back, I was torn between getting a Blackberry (BB) and an iPhone.  I compared the two and that made me more confused.  But initially I perished the thought of getting a BB because I would need to have a postpaid subscription.  Obviously I don’t like.  I can manage with the wifi so why spend a penny for the subscription?  Also, almost everyone in the office is holding a BB.  And I dared to be different!  Hahaha!  Kidding.

Seriously, I wanted a diversion from having a business phone.  The fact that I am already so much into doing business, creating one, and maintaining one, get a life at least.  So boldly I got an iPhone.  I got it from an authorized dealer stationed in the mall.  And yes, it is an unlocked one.  It is legitimately manufactured and I even got an AT & T sim card which is inside the package.  Obviously, that would not work in UAE but I am keeping it as a souvenir.  Cheesy. 

(Photo source)

After a quarter with an iPhone I can vouch for the following:

(+) It is really a fantastic chic phone:  stylish, slim, and it’s an apple (yes, chic-y)

(+) Lotsa of playlists on the go!  No need for a separate iPod.

(+) 8gb storage, I am not going to ask for more.  There’s the 16gb unit if you want, shell out some more of course

(+)  Movies, You tube, etc. on the go!  With the movies and other files that I saved/ queued, where’s the dull moment? :)  Seriously, it was so addicting and bizarre at first.  Makes you want to watch not from the television or laptop, but in the iPhone’s generous screen.  So strategically consumerly sized.

(+)  No need for a postpaid subscription (unlike BB, but there’s 1 unit that is wifi enabled) thanks to wifi resources!

(+)  Blogging/ checking mails/ being on-line  is handy, especially in case I get lazy to open the laptop

(+)  Scheduler saves my day!

(+)  Viewing of Word, Excel, and PDF files and other attachements in the emails is possible.

(+) It doesn’t have Sent Items folder, it appears like a chat trail. 

(+)  Auto completion of words

(+) Easy synch with iTunes

(+)  Nice camera, makes my old digicam inactive. 

(+)  8 hours talk time

(+)  Etc.

 On the downside

(-) It took me a week to adjust to its keyboard.  It has no stylus (BB doesn’t have one either).  I have perfectly adjusted after a week, anyway.

(-) The words that you type do auto-complete (which is actually an advantage if you are purely texting in English).  That’s why when I compose Filipino/ Tagalog SMS, some words came out as other another word.  Passed that stage anyway.  I supposed some who didn’t know I was using an iPhone already found it odd and not so witty of me of my out of the world combination of Tagalog.

(-)  Because it is a superb multimedia phone, you tend to use it more, you are using more battery.   It has no spare battery.  And borrowing (in case you didn’t bring yours) a charger is a problem when not so many iPhone users are in your circle.

(-)  You cannot forward SMS/ MMS.  I don’t care anyway, I am not fond of doing that.  But sometimes, I hope I can forward a few items that I already sent.

(-)  You need to keep your fingers clean all the time before touching it.  Remember, it functions with the power of touch.   During the first two weeks I did wish for a stylus.

(-)  Since my unit is an unlocked one, I cannot upgrade some third party applications while I am in UAE.  Luckily, there’s nothing much to upgrade yet.

(-)  Creation and editing of Word, Excel and PDF files is not yet possible (only limited to viewing), which is availble in BB Pearl.  So far, I just need to immediately view some files and forward these in emails.

All in all, I am happy with this chic fone with my old pink flippy Samsung (in it’s 3rd or 4th (?) year with me.  Let’s see if my old phone has not retired yet when my iPhone reaches its 3rd or 4th year so.  

Do you think words are not enough? 

A German syndicate announced last week that it has patented a chip for sending scents via text and multimedia messages.   A spokesperson from mobile services company ConVisual told reporters that people could send the smell of the ocean breeze through cell phones from vacation spots or mark special occasions by sending an aromatic two-dimensional bouquet.

Developers have been working on the chips for eight years, and they could be released to market by 2010, according to a report in the Berlin-based, English-language news site.   About 100 scents will be available on the chips, but consumers will need special phones to use them. Developers are seeking partnerships with mobile phone companies for marketing and distribution.

So far, researchers have worked on floral and other enjoyable scents, but the possibilities are endless (ack!  are there gross scents coming?  I fear!). Fortunately, people with scent-enabled mobile phones will be able to reject messages.

It seems that “scent technology is increasingly attractive.” In the United States, Motorola obtained a patent for smell-releasing phones and explained that the device would “fill a need” and “address problems” of on-the-go consumers who miss the nice fragrances they enjoy from plug-in devices at home.

Let’s see what will happen in 2010 when the smell-phone is finally launched.  Therefore, aside from saying “I will text/call you later”, expect to hear ”Smell you later“.