Posts tagged nokia

Win Some, Lose Some

My first ever memory of winning something was in third grade. A Milo caravan of some sort visited our school to serve free cups of the tonic chocolate malt drink as well as to give away some promotional novelties to schoolchildren. Our names were entered in a raffle. Up for grabs were Milo notebooks, pens and pencil sharpeners. I won a sharpener-cum-Alvin Patrimonio action figure.Three points!

Three years later, I won some money. I took home P2,000 cash after winning at an inter-school poster-making contest promoting environmental consciousness. Soon after that, I won even more dough in a nationalistically themed collage-making competition. Whoever said there’s no money in art obviously didn’t know how to make green drawings and patriotic arrangements.

Fast-forward to my senior year in high school, I was editor-in-chief of our school paper. I was sent to a press conference where the supposedly sharp pens of budding journalists from other schools in different towns and provinces clashed with each other. My editorial piece on jueteng impressed the judges. I won a shiny piece of paper with my name on it.

Attending university the following year found me abusing my thumbs for the sake of winning. I spent my free periods joining countless text-in promos from my then cellular service provider, Smart. For my first over-the-air triumph, I won a Nokia 3530, one of the first ever color phones tp be released, for being the top scorer in a The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring trivia contest. Afterwards, I claimed a sleek Samsung DVD player, the top prize in a similar contest for The Matrix Reloaded. Then came the greatest point thus far in my ongoing winning streak. Coming in first numerous times in a daily speed-texting/word-building game, I managed to collect, by the end of the promo, 7 Nokia 7250s and 33 P500 prepaid cards. Whew!

I graduated from college, and my interest in text-in contests carried on. I won heaps of stuff from radio contests, including my copy of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. I also bagged a total of P50,000, give or take, after outsmarting other eager texters on an almost daily basis in yet another Smart speed-texting game. I thought of opening an account at Gringotts.

Now, I’ve become one of those hapless board-certified professionals. At some point, my job became so increasingly taxing that my preoccupation with joining contests began to wane. That my luck was evidently running out didn’t help either. I tried several rounds of speed-texting but, alas, my mind and thumb coordination wasn’t as quick as it used to be. Now, I’m working my bottom off full-time, trying hard to make ends meet. I wonder, where have all my luck gone? And, more important, whatever happened to my seminal Milo sharpener-cum-Alvin Patrimonio action figure?

Google Me This, Google Maps

First of all, I just have to say that I am really sorry for not posting anything for the past two weeks. My day job has been quite taxing at the very least and I have had to stay at the office till the wee wee hours: around 8 to 10 pm. So, dear readers, I ask you to accept my most sincere apology… even though it wasn’t my fault.

Google Maps. Downloaded this little gem for my Nokia 5800 a little less than a week ago and my original opinion hasn’t changed since then: it beats the hay out of the pre-installed Nokia Maps 2.0.

For one thing, Google Maps is fast. It can locate my position within 30 meters in less than a minute whilst Nokia Maps clocked in at a very disappointing 5 minutes. This is probably because Google Maps, apart from GPS signals, also uses timing signals from the cellular network towers in the area. This means you can still see your position indoors. An added bonus with using a Google navigation app is access to Google Earth topography. That is, searchable satellite shots of any area you happen to be viewing are downloaded straight to your phone. Included also are all user created bookmarks on Google Earth. Of course, you’d need internet access to get the images but once they’re there the maps stay in memory. A 3G or HSPA connection would be ideal. GPRS is okay but would definitely take longer to load.

I activated Google Maps on the shuttle on my way home from work last Friday. I couldn’t help but feel really cool as I watched my location being updated every few meters. Also came in handy this Saturday when I and Renee were looking for Robinson’s Mall at Sta. Rosa.

This is one app that’s definitely for keeps. Good thing it’s free as are most apps from Google. Gone are the days when I ask for directions from Chowking security guards and jeepney drivers. Metro Manila will never again seem so daunting.

[post by Ian, who may or may not be a good friend of mine]

iMiss My iPhone, Part 1

Two weeks.

Exactly how I managed to live, let alone breathe, without my precious, my prized possession, my best friend (with all due respect to the girlfriend, of course), my iPhone, is way beyond me. How I even convinced myself into thinking I could get by in its absence well enough for me to hand it to a total stranger standing behind a shiny counter, wearing a Globe Telecom ID, casually clicking on her mouse beside a laptop bearing the label “iTunes Ready,” promising to give me a call in two weeks to tell me that my precious, my prized possession, my best friend, my now sorely missed iPhone is back from Apple limbo and ready to be tapped again, swiped again, flicked again, pinched, tilted and shaken again by the hands that ever so carefully, er, took care of it—I realized this could very well be the longest sentence I’ve ever come up with in my entire writing career, if any—is a greater mystery.

But still, let me give you the 411 on this little 404 of mine.

But not now. Perhaps on my next post. ‘Cause right now I just want to go to sleep and wake up (my pathetic attempt at an oxymoron) from make-believing that this cheap Motorola W-whatchamacallit I’m holding has multi-touch features, a tilt sensor and room for at least a hundred apps. It also doesn’t help knowing that Ian just scored a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, even though I was never taken by anything that has the word Nokia in its name.

Oh well. It’s been two weeks and still no call from the stranger with the Globe Telecom ID. What’s another two weeks, right?