Categories
Geek

Remembering the days we used to review WiFi hotspots

I’m reposting a piece I wrote together with Eva Gubat from 2006. This was a time when the blue & black Linksys routers were a status symbol at home because the “next frontier” was being able to add WiFi to your home. It was the age of Apple’s iBooks and PowerBooks — of being able to flex working from a coffee shop. I remember browsing PinoyExchange or MaPalad and the forums would have a list of “friendly” establishments that had free WiFi and allowed you to plug your laptop.

Many phones didn’t have WiFi back then so getting online on a portable device meant having to use a PocketPC or something that ran Palm OS. These were the final days of Symbian S60 and Nokia, which Steve Jobs would then deliver the final blow with the launch of the first iPhone a few months later.

This piece was part of an ongoing series that featured such friendly establishments offering free WiFi. Tech magazines at the time didn’t cross into lifestyle, but publishers soon realized that it was the lifestyle sections that attracted the budgets, so we had to be fashionably geek. Oh how times have changed.

Categories
Mostly Everything

My green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) photo featured at the Tubbataha Reef 25th Anniversary Exhibit

jayvee fernandez green sea turtle

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Tubbataha Reef’s declaration as a world heritage site. I consider myself proud and honored to be one of the contributing underwater photographers participating in a roving photo exhibit around Ayala Malls.

Above is my photo of the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) taken during my 2011 Tubbataha charter trip on board the HCA. I would like to thank WWF Philippines and the Tubbataha Management Office for this honor.

Tubbataha Reef 25th Anniversary Photo Exhibit Album

The Tubbataha Reefs is considered one of the best dive sites in the world, and is one of the most biologically rich and diverse areas within the Coral Triangle, Earth’s epicenter of marine life.

With the support of Canon Marketing (Philippines), Inc. and the Ayala Malls, WWF-Philippines and the Tubbataha Management Office formally opened the exhibit on Monday at the New Glorietta Activity Center.The exhibit will continue to run from April 10 to 13, at the Ground Level of Glorietta 3.

Through the photo exhibit, WWF and TMO aim to promote the Tubbataha experience and highlight the importance of protecting our Tubbataha Reefs and help raise funds to build a new Tubbataha Ranger Station, which will better protect this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Categories
Mostly Everything

Nokia Lumia 620 pegged at PHP 11,600

Nokia Lumia 620

Nokia has put a price tag on its entry-level follow up to the Lumia 610. The new Lumia 620, pegged at PHP 11,600 comes with the following tech specs:

5MP main camera and secondary front-facing VGA camera
Windows Phone 8 software
PhotoBeamer (free) for photo sharing
Snapdragonâ„¢ S4 Dual-core 1.0GHz
3.8″ LCD screen
microSIM slot
NFC enabled
1300 mAh battery life
512 MB RAM and 8GB internal storage (additional 7GB online with Skydrive)
Up to 64GB microSD card slot

Nokia Lumia 620 Philippines by

Categories
Mostly Everything

My Dive Gear

So Lilliane started this so I decided to follow with my own list of dive gear. I’ve divided the list into skin diving gear, SCUBA gear and underwater camera gear.

Skin Diving Gear

Black SCUBAPRO Spectra Mask

The current mask I’m using now. I like the black skirts instead of transparent ones because it gives less distractions when taking photos. This mask was a gift to me by Chie!

So will you buy Crocs after they’ve reinvented themselves?

About three years ago I bought my first pair of Crocs. It’s akin to the first time you experience anything in your pubescent life — and then grow up to realize that what you did was a bit overrated.

So despite being comfortable, the lot were in agreement that the “awkward” fashion sense outweighed the actual comfort. So what did Crocs do? They removed the holes and kept the sole. Capitalize on what makes your product good, and mitigate the weakness — holes. Note that they also kept the bright colors, at least in most designs that made Crocs stand out as well.

One thing regarding brand authenticity though — check out the Tideline Canvas: Real Crocs, or fake Sanuks?

Here are some of the new pairs of Crocs available TODAY in the Philippines: