Pipo M1 Tablet

It seems that I'm a true spur of the moment buyer--I was browsing and looking at some gadgets in Virra Mall Greenhills and I came across the M1 tablet, which is made by Pipo, a Taiwanese brand with manufacturing facilities in China.  I was immediately impressed with the tablet's specs-- 9.7" screen, 1.6 ghz dual core Rockchip processor, 1 gb RAM, 16 gb internal flash, front and back camera (2MP each), capacitive touchscreen, accepts external SD flash up to 32 gb, and runs on Android Jelly Bean.  At P10k, this is definitely a cheap alternative to the iPad, so I picked it up, just like that!  It's quite light (around 700 grams, I'd say), and the casing that I got is black metallic, which is much sturdier than the cheaper Chinese Android brands (P7,500 level) which use plastic casings.  Previously, I was looking at a Huawei tablet (with SIM slot) at around P14k, but that was only clocking at 1 ghz while running Android Gingerbread; it was more expensive and I didn't really need the phone function.  The built-in Jelly Bean of the M1 was thus an instant attraction for me.  As a bonus, the M1 comes with a built-in screen protector (of course you can peel this off if you want).  The unit has USB and HDMI ports, the wi-fi receiver is pretty sensitive even with faint signals, and the screen is very clear (while specs are at 1024 x 768, it's still not as clear as the Retina display, but it's quite close).  The battery is supposed to be rated at 8,000 MAh (6-8 hours on average use); I haven't used it that much though to comment on battery life.  I used it watching 2 movies (roughly 4 hours) and battery dropped to 30%, which is not bad, but not great either.  Drawbacks--it's got only one side speaker (stereo model is the M2), so you have to use headphones to get the stereo effect.  Also, there is no local tech support & warranty (this is Greenhills, after all).  Well, I've been a techie gambler, since the days of the Sharp BASIC programmable, the Commodore Vic-20 and the Atari console, and I think that's part of the fun!

Lenovo P700

I was looking for a mid-priced Android phone and all I've seen the past few weeks were the cheaper China versions running Fro-Yo or Gingerbread.  While I use a Blackberry for everyday talk, text and email, I was thinking of an Android phone mainly for games and browsing.  Getting a dual SIM phone seemed like a value-for-money proposition, but I wasn't too excited about the P17,000 price tag of the HTC Desire V.  Luckily I bumped into the Lenovo P700, which at P11,000 seemed like a good proposition.  The phone has got a 4" inch capacitive touchscreen which allowed me to type easily (3.2" screens simply have a cramped display); moreover, the screen resolution is pretty sharp.  It's got dual SIM capability and this allows calling flexibility in weak signal areas--the slight drawback is that SIM slot 2 runs only on 2G.  O/S is Ice Cream Sandwich, which isn't bad at all, no hang-ups of the earlier Fro-Yo.  Camera has 5MP, and takes reasonably clear pictures (no flash, however).  Processor is decent at 1ghz, not really fast but pretty responsive for day to day use.  Battery has 2500 mAh, which takes me around 2 days before I need to recharge; charging time, however, takes much longer at around 3 hours.  The phone seems quite sturdily built, although I can't say much about shock resistance (no way I'm going to drop the phone just to get you feedback on that issue).  The package comes with a external battery pack from Belkin, and a free Smart Bro SIM.  My only complaint with Lenovo is that the phone is only available in a few retail outlets--most stores don't even carry the brand.  Considering that Lenovo has the IBM heritage, I think the phone is slightly under-marketed.  This seemed like a good step upwards from the Samsung Galaxy Y Duos, which Monique has (running Gingerbread off 800 mhz, at a cheaper SRP though of P8,000), and it wasn't going to cost me the arm-and-leg price of the Samsung Galazy S-III (around P34,000).     I am hoping that this phone will be my play-buddy for a long time to come!

AKG

Vicky and Monique have been searching for a good pair of headphones, and they have a long list of musts:  lightweight, comfortable press on or hug around the ear, handles a wide range of frequencies (deep resounding bass to tweeter clarity), lengthy cord (1.5 m) and affordable price.  I've been canvassing for the past few months, and I was convinced enough to get an AKG headphone for Monique.  Not bad at all, their starter headsets come in at P2,000 and these babies can outperform some of the more expensive versions of other brands (bracket of P4,000 to P10,000 a pair).  I understand that the company is a subsidiary of the same group that makes Harman Kardon amps which is pretty much a known name in the audio business.

Buffalo

Eddie was in town this week and since we were transferring a large for volume of computer files, I had to purchase a 1TB external hard disk for the purpose.  To my chagrin, the price of these hard drives have doubled up over the past few weeks, from an average of P5,000 to the prevailing prices at P10,000 each!  My last hope was to go to the Park Square Mall in Makati--the place is literally a techie's beehive.  Luckily the Hub had a few remaining units of Buffalo hard drives, and I was able to purchase one at old stock prices.  Apparently, the latest price increases are a backlash from the flooding in Bangkok--several HD plants were forced to shut down, and the stocks have dwindled severely.  The forecast is that it will take till August 2012 for the situation to normalize. Coming home, I was thus musing about the prices of tech gadgets, and how volatile the supply and demand situation can be, which is both a good and bad thing, depending on which side of the fence one is situated in.  External HD prices went up, conversely, we've seen price drops too.  Cellphones, can be had for a song--Hua Fei has cell phones retailing for as low at P499.  The Fujitsu Lifebook with an Intel i5 processor and pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home, can be obtained for as low as P27,000.  China-made 6" tablets go for as low at P3,500, and branded 8" Android tablets like Coby retail at P8,000.  It's a competitive techie market, and even the big boys can falter--Research in Motion, the makers of the Blackberry phone, recently announced a delay in the launch of their new models, from early 2012 to late 2012, and some analysts are predicting the demise of this big player.  If you recall, Motorola might have invented the cell phone, and Nokia made the cellphone a household toy, but the cheap smart phones are starting to gain ground these days.

I started off with a Sharp portable BASIC programmable in 1981 and a Commodore 64 in 1982, and look at the computers we have today!

VLC Video Player

I am convinced that open-sourced programs are the way to go!  After a few weeks of trying to determine how to play MKV videos on my computer, cousin Eddie informed me about VLC Media Player, an open-source program that is free to download ala Open Office.  Now I have tried playing these high-definition videos with Nero, ffd Show, Win Player and DivX, all to no avail (unless I cough up $5 - $14 for additional audio-video codecs).  With VLC, everything just plays... and plays... and plays...

MSI Core 2

Was so lucky to catch the Accent warehouse sale at the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday.  While my Lenovo netbook is pretty handy, I do miss having an optical drive, and yes, speed of the Intel Atom processor doesn't compare at all to Pentium 2 based notebooks.  I was looking at an Acer P2 notebook at only P19k, but when I turned, someone picked it up quick!  That was really fast, I didn't see that coming and that got me so disappointed.  I had to look around for alternatives and I was lucky to find the MSI EX Core 2 notebook--and guess what, it's got a Blue-Ray player--for only P23k!  On the spur of the moment, I charged it--12 months, 0% interest.  To my mind, not bad at all...  Now I've got the fastest notebook in the family--Vicky's Dell, Monique's Toshiba and Bryan's Compaq are merely Pentium 2 notebooks and I've got a Core 2 going! Well, one of these days, I'll get my hands on a Core i7... But for now, yehey! ;-)

Nokia N900

I just saw a review of the Nokia N900 in a tech magazine, and when I saw the 9.5 rating, I was so glad that I got this unit for Monique.  The mobile phone of choice amongst her peers is actually the Apple I-Phone, but somehow, having both a QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen appealed to her and was an exact match for her requirements.  With the Maemo operating system, this unit is quite flexible, fast, and works more like a PC than a phone.  The 5 mp camera is also a plus; whenever we travel and forget to bring a camera, the N900 makes up for our forgetfulness.  I don't think she'll be looking for a new phone for the next couple of years!

Skype

Technology never ceases to amaze me.... Went online via Skype this morning so that Vicky & my in-laws could talk to her brothers Royce & Robert in the US.  Imagine clear overseas audio & video communication for just the cost of your monthly internet subscription!  Time was when we had to make a primary "person-to-person" long distance call merely to establish presence of the called party (at no cost) and then follow-up with a "station-to-station" long distance call (which was much cheaper).  Hehe, the strategies we used to save money were quite impressive! Today, communication is very easy, very cheap and even with people across the globe, we can still keep in touch... Nice thing, is it not?