PEDES3ANTECH

While waiting for my iPhone 5 in the mail, I decided to make use of my Galaxy Note 2 for one last experiment. I decided to install Facebook Home on my Galaxy Note 2 and check it out.  Facebook Home is seen by many as a strategic move from Facebook to enter the mobile market. Over the years, Facebook has seen a huge movement in user engagement towards mobile channels rather than the traditional desktop/laptop model. This user evolution has caused panic to some of its investors as Facebook initially looked unprepared for this movement. It had no way of capturing user behaviour thru mobile and also had no way of pushing advertising to its mobile site. It started to feel like Facebook was struggling to keep up with its market. Users were viewing Mobile as the future while Facebook was looking at it as a dead-end.  The launch of Facebook Home is seen by many as the answer to Facebook's Mobile challenge. There were rumours initially that Facebook was going to launch its ow...

Today, I have given up on Android and regret having made the decision to switch to it from iOS in the first place. I am not supposed to post anything new in this blog until I got back home from my vacation but the recent turn of events is just too frustrating not to share.  Ever since I used my first iPhone, I have always relied on my smartphone as my main camera during vacation trips. I felt that with the significant improvements in smartphone camera quality carrying a dedicated digital point and shoot camera became unnecessary. When I switched from my iPhone to the Galaxy Note 2, I expected the Note 2 to functions as my main/ day to day camera as well. I went on this trip with my Galaxy Note 2 prepped for heavy picture taking and video recording. The Note 2 only came with 16GB of internal memory so I decided to buy an external micro SD card (32GB) to make sure I had enough memory to store all the pictures and videos I planned to take. Everything was set. I was even ...

So it looks like my previous post was kind of prophetic- my flight from Vancouver was delayed causing me to miss my connecting flight from Hong Kong to Manila. I now have a 5 hr lay over and a massive headache due to the turbulence during my flight and lack of sleep. I am not a happy camper right now, but my mood has been lightened by the great accommodation provided by Cathay Pacific's Business Class Lounge. I took a shot of Jack Daniels to shake off the headache and ate a plate full of dumplings. I sort of regained consciousness after the shot and the decent food in my stomach, then I realized I still have 4 hrs to kill. Good thing I had my tech travel kit with me. I pulled out my iPad mini, checked my emails, sent emails to family that I am alive and ok and even shared my location thru foursquare :-) Now I am writing this post. I am still struggling to come up with a topic to write about. It has been a fairly quite news day for tech so far save for the bad news that HTC One ...

I am finally going on a vacation! I am running away from the cold weather here in Vancouver and will be heading to a warm and sunny place. I will be re-charging my battery after a very long and hectic couple of months at work but I also want to stay connected. Yes, I am like many people in the world today, I cannot stay unplugged for too long or else I will lose my mind. That is why, whenever I travel I always carry with my my Essential Tech Travel kit.  My tech travel kit is a combination of both hardware and software that I consider essential in managing my trip and staying in touch and connected. I consider them essential because they can make or break the success of the planning that I put into my trip and it ensure that I have a smooth and relaxing vacation. Here is the run down: Macbook Pro: - This is a must for me on every trip. It keeps me sane and connected during long layovers. It houses my media library and when I am stuck in the airport for 2-3 hours  i...

Panic Alert Newsfeed is just a random message board Attention everyone! Facebook is about to implement another major change- they plan to revamp News Feed! Judging from peoples reaction when News feed was implemented, world-wide chaos is almost certain. The world of social media will once again be shaken and people's status updates will once again be filled with stuff like: "FU Facebook! You screwed me over again", "Facebook please leave my news feed alone", "That's it! I am leaving Facebook ". My news feed will be flooded with these comments and there is nothing I can do about it but suffer the deluge of negativity. But I am hoping that one of the things Facebook changes with News Feed this Thursday is my ability to filter these types of comments out. Like many of the people I know on Facebook  I was not happy when "News Feed" was implemented. It was not that I hated the idea of news feed but it was more of a desig...

Battle of the screen size. Mobile devices seem to be getting bigger in every iteration. Manufacturers have been obsessed with making their phones bigger, faster and more battery efficient. The consumers also seem to be accepting this change with open arms and pockets. A lot of the major product announcements lately have showcased phones with displays between 4.5-5 inches. These sizes were considered ridiculous just 5 years ago when phones seemed to get smaller. The advancements in graphic interface, touch screen technology and our growing need to be connected, people have seen the benefits- albeit- need of having more screen real-estate. This combination of processing power and the need to be productive where ever and when ever has fuelled the growth of what we now fondly call "phablets". Gone were the days when our phones were only meant for calling and texting- now our devices can truly be called smart-phones and to me the demand we exert on the devices has lead to it...

This week, Barcelona Spain is the centre of the Mobile universe. The Mobile World Congress is in full swing and manufacturers, developers and the media are in for a beautiful showcase of this years biggest innovations in mobile technology.  Although the trend recently has been for manufacturers to launch major product iterations with their own media events (Apple, Samsung, Blackberry, Windows etc), the Mobile World Congress is still expected to showcase some major advancements in mobile. Samsung will still be making an appearance and has shown the new Galaxy Note 8.0 to compete directly with the iPad mini and Kindle Fire HD. Other than this announcement, nobody is expecting anything else major from Samsung. Apple will never launch anything outside it uber hyped media events. Microsoft has decided to bask in its perceived success with Surface Pro and Windows 8, and Blackberry has decided- wrongly- that it did enough with its Z10 announcement last month.  ...