Author’s note: This piece originally appeared as a column entry in the May 2006 issue of MPH where I was one of the founding editors at large. MPH was literally the biggest tech magazine in the local industry that focused on technology that could fit in your pocket.This piece brings me great joy, emanating from the fact that the thoughts are frozen in time – frozen in 2006. Updating RSS feeds. EDGE. WiFi as a novelty. This piece is more than a decade old. And you know what? Some things just don’t change.
There have been several speculations about the movement of INQ7.net to the new Inquirer.net site, and fancy that – this blog was mentioned to have unveiled the scoop about the partnership between the Inquirer group of companies:
Now we can concentrate on INQUIRER.net, on developing new content and services and integrating the online properties of the other members of the Inquirer group of companies, which has grown over the years. As you can see from the example of this Mobile Philippines beta site that Jayvee Fernandez has previewed on his blog. – Joey Alarilla
Though I’m no longer a “full time consultant” for HIP, I want to see myself as still actively involved in the creation process of the technology magazine titles I have come to love.
2007 will be an exciting year for online media, especially for the Inquirer group. I’m in no position to talk about the what could have beens or the lost opportunities with GMA 7 but I honestly feel that Inquirer was left with a better deal with the new solo mode for both companies. Here’s to a fruitful 2007!
Several months ago I wrote a post that explored the statement “sex sells” in commercial print publications. Though it may be true that “sex does sell” I also clarified that “so does other things.” Here is an excerpt:
So when is it okay to put a “sexy†lady on the front cover? The guideline we live by, at least here where I work, is that everything should be in context. Phoem is wearing a sexy (but elegant) swimsuit because it’s summer. She’s holding an Olympus mju series camera, known to be an all-weather resistant model. Hence, she took it out to the beach.
I will now add that a Google-friendly babe on the front cover will no doubt increase your traffic by a lot. People searching for her over the Internet will no doubt be led towards your site at one point in their search results.
Several months ago I interviewed Ala Paredes for the Mobile Philippines‘ “Fashionably Geek” section. Here is an excerpt from this article which was written by our assistant editor Eva Gubat (link withheld!) as I interviewed her at the Hotel Philippine Plaza. Note that this article was written a few days before she migrated to Australia, so this was one of the last interviews she did for local media before leaving. Take it away, Eva:
Ala shares that she might rename her blog to “Island Girl in Narnia,” or something of that sort. She religiously updates her blog every four or five days, and thinks that the frequency will be higher once she’s in Sydney. “I’ll probably be updating it more since I’ll be so lonely and depressed.” That’s why her theme for her blog is the jeepney with the tag, Manila-Sydney. Very apt for her sojourn in Australia with her family, a sort of crazy-slash-sensible family adventure. “Isang huling sakay,” she muses.
It’s her musing, raves and rants that keep the readers of her blog coming back for more trips on her jeepney blog. Sometimes, she’s top 2, sometimes 4. “I used to think it was such a loser thing to do. Like, ‘Yuck. Why would you want to post your thoughts online?’ And then I stumbled upon this one blog by two American girls and their blog was just funny and entertaining. Maybe I’ll try this kind of blog, I thought.”
So guys, what do you think of the purple and white cover? For this month we gave Angel Locsin a call to grace the cover of this fabulous issue.
In this issue I reviewed the Nokia 6233, the cheapest 3G phone available in the market. I also believe that two bloggers made their debut reviews here. Markku reviews a Creative MuVo flash player while Abraham reviews the Oakley thump.
This is also the first magazine to feature a TMS tag prominently on the front cover. Is this the advent of physical world connectivity in the Philippines? The era of the QR code has begun!
