Remember R2-D2 projecting to the rebel alliance? Remember Robin’s tactical overlay in Young Justice? I’m really excited for the “next phase” in display. Although it may take an additional 10 years to be improved and adopted by consumers, there’s hope in the horizon!
Digital Signage: Although the demonstration shows monochrome colors, full color projections are possible with the use of red, green and blue lasers. Imagine getting rid of all the ugly billboards along EDSA and instead have lasers projecting only in certain spots. But the key take away here is that these signs can be turned off anytime to give way to bluer skies.
You know, it’s OK to admit that your wallet seems to empty itself during the holiday gift giving routine. It’s the same story every Christmas — that I either decide to buy bulk gifts for all my friends (i.e. my blog themed cupcakes from way back) or individual gifts for people who are really memorable to me during the year. Now it’s usually the former, but one thing that I always had a hard time doing was budget my expenses. Well. Because even if let’s say I set a budget of PHP3,000-PHP5,000 for gifts (excluding family) I find out at the end of my shopping spree that I’ve emptied my wallet! I think “sales” are a consumer trap, especially if you’re into gadgets.
Been playing with the Samsung Galaxy Note for the past week. It’s a peculiar device, being the biggest smartphone to date yet doesn’t seem to have that bulky feel compared, say to Dell’s Streak. I’ve shown this phone to a lot of friends and the most common reaction is that of intrigue accompanied by the question, “would I look stupid carrying this around?”
OK. So here’s another side to my geekiness. Board games.
I’m hooked on Ascension. It’s the staple board game (sorry, Bang!) I play with my regular gaming group next to 7 Wonders. It’s fast, easy to understand, doesn’t require much setup, and you can play with 2-4 guys. A 30 minute game is already long. So I was thrilled at the chance to interview Justin Gary of Gary Games, creator of Ascension. For those who enjoy deck building games like Dominion, Ascension takes direct precedence as a more compact but still epic deck builder. This interview talks about how Ascension was conceived as well as the latest expansion, Storm of Souls.
The Inquirer reported this evening that SMART Communications would be offering the new Apple iPhone 4S come end of 2011.
Quote:
MANILA, Philippines—Wireless telecommunications giant Smart Communications is set to heat up competition in the offering of telco services bundled with Apple products with the rollout of Apple’s game-changing smartphone iPhone to premium subscribers within this year.
Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of Smart’s parent firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., confirmed that Smart was in talks with Apple to launch the latest version of the iPhone—iPhone4S—before yearend.
Similar to what happened to bigger markets like the United States, Germany and Canada, consumer electronics giant Apple has abandoned the regime of exclusive iPhone distribution.
With the lapse of the exclusivity deal with Globe Telecom, the original iPhone official carrier in the Philippines, Smart is now getting ready to launch iPhone4S as well.
[source]
The article also mentions the possibility to bring in Apple iPad tablets with data plans.
It seems that a Twitter hashtag campaign has started called #smartiphone. You can try to follow this for more developments. This development is rather interesting as SMART has already cornered exclusivity deals with HTC for their Android phones. WIth the iPhone 4S deal, has SMART locked in the smartphone business for both Android and iOS?
Aside: During the launch of the Netphone 701 and SmartNet platform at the Jump store, one of the execs did hint of being in talks with Apple for something related to smartphones. It seems like the cat is out of the bag. Are we going to see a SmartNet app pretty soon on the iTunes Store?
[N.B. There is a general disclosure on my blog’s about page on who I work / consult for.]
