Engadget recently reports that the iPhone has been unlocked by a six-man team who had been working since launch for an unlocking solution. So will this mean we’ll be seeing the iPhone in the Philippine market anytime soon (the grey market, at least)?

Well, probably, yes. Again, most likely in the grey market. But for all intents and purposes, I think the iPhone would be good just for eye candy for now, and not so much for the rich data features and functionalities that it’s supposed to have revolutionized mobile telephony with. For one, it’s slow, in terms of data transfer. EDGE? Come on–even a PhP 6,000 LG phone supports 3G speeds. Secondly, networks here won’t support the iPhone-specific features that AT&T has, such as visual voicemail and YouTube out-of-the-box.

Still, for me the most important thing the iPhone has contributed to mobile telephony is the user interface, which is worlds apart from how we use our phones today. So the SIM-unlocking and a possible availability in the country are just the first steps. I’m waiting for iPhone version 2, or other manufacturers coming out with iPhone wannabes. Maybe then we’ll see a really big difference.

I just received a text this afternoon, and it’s all too familiar:

D’Auditor’s of PGMA Charity foundation nform u dat ur cel.# Won P.950,000 2nd prize winner draw last:07/17/07 DTI.#1058 s2007 call now i’m atty.Marton G. Reyes [sic]

I quoted the SMS as is.

Now I’m an avid fan of scam-baiting activities, such as those on 419eater.com (do check out the site; lots of fun stuff there). I’ve actually tried communicating with email scammers, and they really get persuasive with their attempts to get your information. I’ve tried creating dummy identities, complete with fake IDs, email addresses and telephone numbers.

These people are desperate to cheat you out of your money, and even a year after my last contact, the 419 scammer (a.k.a. “nigerian scammer”) is still emailing me following up their requests for information.

With SMS scams, sometimes I’m tempted to respond, and lead these people around in circles–possibly even to reveal their identities or perhaps get caught by the authorities. At the very least, responding to them and exchanging messages would deplete their mobile credits. The point is to make them exert enough effort and spend enough time to think it’s not worth scamming you anymore (but of course, you spend time and effort, too).

But–and this is a big but–today’s unlimited texting schemes make it easy and cheap for scammers to mass-send text messages to other users within their networks. For instance, for about PhP 50, you can get five days’ worth of unlimited texting, or so. How many messages do you think these scammers can send in that time? I think in a day, they can send hundreds manually. What more if their phone or SIMs are connected to computers?

And out of those thousands, even if only a small percentage responds and even if a smaller percentage actually believes and gets lured into sending prepaid credits, cash, or whatever other things the scammers are asking for, it’s still worth the low investment of a few pesos per day (or week).

The marginal cost is nil or close to nil, so this means the more messages they send out, the better their chances of getting more in return.

Unlimited texting schemes are a godsend to heavy texters. It’s a good thing. But with any good thing, these schemes are prone to abuse. And I think these text scams are made easier this way.

So, do you think there are ways to prevent this type of abuse?

I posted about this on my blog way back almost two years ago, but it seems FHM Philippines is still publishing AdSense ads on their homepage (screenshot after the jump). If you refer to the Google AdSense policies, it’s clearly stated that sites displaying mature content may not use Google AdSense.

Sites displaying Google ads may not include:
…

• Pornography, adult, or mature content

…

Now I’m sure some of you would argue on the “pornographic” aspect of FHM, but as for having mature and adult content, I would say FHM definitely falls under that classification.

I’m pretty sure this has already been reported to Google, but I’m wondering why action has not been taken yet. I’ve heard of AdSense users getting suspended or banned because of simple violations (like images beside ads, or ads posted on foreign-language sites; I know, that has happened to me several times). But this seems to be a more serious violation, and nothing has been done about it. I’m wondering about the mature nature of the link ads, too.

Is Summit getting preferential treatment because of their being a big publisher, at least in the Philippines? If that is so, then it’s one case of “everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others,” a la Animal Farm.

There are a handful of free SMS services out there, but CallWave is my favorite. You can either install it as an OS X Dashboard widget, a Yahoo Widget Engine (Konfabulator) widget, or even as a Google Gadget on your Google Homepage (instructions here). If you use Windows Vista, you can install it as a standalone Vista gadget.

Yes, it works on Philippine networks. You can also send text to most other countries. And unlike most free PC to SMS providers I know, CallWave is pretty quick–messages are received in just a few seconds.

The Google Gadget version is pretty sparse and you have to regsiter your mobile number to use it. The OS X Widget has more features, as it can access numbers from your Mac phonebook for easy reference. I haven’t tried the other versions, though. But I’m pretty sure they’re all straightforward and easy to use.

Escalators can be very dangerous machines. Apparently they can eat up appendages and even crocs too! No not the reptilian kind, but the shoe.

I’ve been meaning to buy Crocs for my kids, but now I’m not so sure anymore after reading horror stories about escalators gobbling up these lightweight rubber thingies, like this account by Daphne Osena-Paez (do check out her Flickr).

As we were going down Sophia’s left shoe (pink crocs) got caught on the side of the escalator. None of us knew what was happening. Soph was yelling. We thought she was just excited about something she was seeing while going down. It happened so fast. I looked down and saw that her shoe was being EATEN by the crack between the escalator and side foot rail. She was screaming. I saw the little pink croc being gobbled up. It was one of those slow-motion moments. I didn’t know what was happening but I still grabbed her foot and carried her down to the landing. Call it mother’s instincts. Her croc and socks (thank God she was wearing socks) got left behind in the escalator.

Or maybe it’s the combination of Crocs + escalators that can be deadly. Perhaps it’s really the escalators. Any loose material (such as strings and shoelaces), or even any soft and pliable footwear (such as flip flops) can get caught in between escalator steps and teeth. I’ve had experience before where my daughter’s pants bottom almost got caught in escalator teeth because they had those stupid drawstrings.

Apparently, this is not an isolated case (check here, here, and here for some stories, among others).

Maybe it’s time to rethink escalator technology.

In case of crocs use stairs.

[via Parenting Blog]

It’s election season once again, folks. It’s the time for crappy campaign advertisements on TV and radio, poster-polluted streets, and musically-challenged jingles. We’ve heard them over and over–campaign lyrics sung to the tune of popular songs, mostly from vans blaring the songs from tinny speakers (which makes the songs barely comprehensible). Apparently, music is an essential aspect of Philippine politics. I’ve long since wondered, however, whether the politicians campaigning using these songs ever bother about copyright.

So far, I’ve observed that La Bamba is among the more popular tunes; it has been used since the 80′s because of the easy by which you can replace the chorus lyrics (and because the tune is traditional, and hence not copyrighted). These recent years, though, I believe politicians turned their preference towards novelty tunes, such as those by Lito Camo (PCIJ had a feature on this back in 2004).

Sure, for the local music, the candidates could always ask permission from the composers or music labels. But what about those songs with international composers? I’m wondering whether their local labels/distributorships have given the go signal to use their music. Otherwise, that’s a clear violation of intellectual property. I’m pretty sure using musical compositions for campaign purposes is outside of fair use.

At any rate, if it’s true that music (leading to name recall) is the one aspect that can make or break a campaign, then perhaps our country has no hope of successfully moving from personality-based politics into one that is based on party platforms and idealism.

The $100 laptop by OLPC is old news. Even so, the Philippine government has no plans to distribute the laptops in the country. Since government will not sponsor such a project, the $100 laptop will probably not reach our soils, unless some enterprising individual manages to get hold of units and sell them in the grey market (as is usual with unsupported cellphones sold in the grey-market here).

However, the Philippine market might be ripe for the thin-client type NetTV and NetPC being marketed in India. These nifty little gadgets have been featured in Newsweek this month, with the focus of how it’s changing the face of computing in India, where Novatium, the company that created the boxes, is based.

If Rajesh Jain is successful, the NetTV, which hooks up to any television, could be the first in a family of devices that connect the next billion people to the Internet. Jain, 39, is cofounder and chairman of Novatium, the Chennai-based company that makes NetTV and NetPC, a similar product that uses a normal computer monitor. Both are based on cheap cell-phone chips and come without the hard-disk drive, extensive memory and prepackaged software thatadd hundreds of dollars to the cost of regular PCs. Instead, they are little more than a keyboard, a screen and a couple of USB ports—and use a central network server to run software applications and store data. Novatium already sells the NetPC for only $100—just within reach of India’s growing middle class—and Jain believes he can soon drive the price down to $70.

One striking feature of the NetTV is that it can plug into any television to work. It doesn’t need any local applications, since all will reside on, and run from, the server. And the NetTV can connect to the server via any open network, be it cable, DSL, wireless (I assume).

Novatium and the OLPC initiative both share the vision of bringing cheap computing to the masses. They differ, though, in two big ways. OLPC focuses on local applications, since its intended users are those in very rural areas (with likely no stable Internet connection). NetTV and NetPC, meanwhile are meant for those middle class urban dwellers who cannot afford more expensive computers. They would likely be able to have access to Cable or wireless broadband.

OLPC intends its laptops to be large-scale projects sponsored by beneficiary countries. Novatium, meanwhile, aims to have a viable business model by actually earning money from subscriptions.

So will this be the best way to bring computer access to the Filipino masses, then? Consider that a good majority of Filipino households have access to at least one TV set. And a good number has access to a telecommunications network, whether fixed line or wireless (not necessarily subscribed to a network, but just having access to a cellular signal or telephone/ cableTV would suffice).

The NetTV/NetPC model relies on subscriptions and partnerships with ISPs/telecoms providers, so government intervention may not necessarily be required. And in India, Novatium reportedly charges only about $10 per month for the service. Would a similar amount be viable in our country? That’s about PhP 5,000 outright for the box and PhP 500 monthly subscription.

Not bad, I would say–especially since that already connects you to the Internet, and lets you run software (like office/productivity apps) without the headaches of having to install legit software or installing open source ones. And that’s cheaper than a mid-range cellphone. And PhP 500 per month for software and productivity would be more worth it than splurging everything on prepaid mobile phone credits.

The main concern now would be how to bring in the product and the services–or similar ones–to our shores.

Anyone up to this challenge?

Inquirer.net reports:

Poor Filipinos living off a shoestring budget nonetheless spend about $2 a month on mobile telecommunications, according to a recent study done in five developing countries in Asia.

Hoping to understand the telecommunications use of people from the “bottom of the pyramid” of socioeconomic classification, “Teleuse on a Shoestring 2: A study of telecom use at the bottom of the pyramid in Asia” revealed that telecommunications access was prevalent even among poor Filipinos.

Society dictates how mobile phones are used, however. While mobile use in the more developed nations tend to be more of voice calls and data, you can expect users from developing countries to prefer cheaper means of communication.

With the Philippines’ poorest expecting a high cost from making calls or sending text messages, a “culture of cost-cutting” has become evident in the Philippines, the study showed.

Such a culture has driven the demand for second-hand mobile handsets, pre-paid services (the highest in tandem with Pakistan), and text messaging, which is a perceived as a cheaper way to communicate. The poorest Filipinos use text messaging at least once a day.

Perhaps the study should have taken into account the tingi or piece-meal system that’s preferred by users here. Cash-strapped users prefer to pay for micro amounts of prepaid load, even if this might translate to being more expensive in the long run. In comparison, higher-value call cards have longer lifetimes and usually come with free SMS.

Also, consider PhP 100 of prepaid credit usually expires in 15 days (depending on the network, but it’s mostly this case). Smaller amounts have even shorter lifetimes. So this means the lower-end users profiled in the survey are likely to have zero balance half the time, thereby rendering their phones for-receiving only. Not quite an effective tool for communication, if you ask me.

Still, it’s an interesting idea how the cellular phone has proliferated our culture so much that it’s now part of peoples’ priorities, perhaps sometimes at par with other necessities like food, shelter and life’s other niceties.

You may have heard the news that popular torrent tracker site The Pirate Bay is looking for a sovereign state or territory to transfer its servers to. The point is that they are trying to avoid copyright laws, which most countries have. By purchasing its own sovereign territory, TPB hopes to be able to mitigate these laws. For now, TPB has launched a campaign to raise funds for the “purchase” of self-proclaimed sovereign Prinicpality of Sealand. However, this may not be without glitches, because the sovereign status of Sealand is in question.

TorrentFreak suggests other territories that TPB can consider, and it includes the Chris Pinnacle island in Guimaras as a possible location. The Pirate Bay wiki also says privately-held Philippines islands could be ideal because of existing infrastructure. A commenter notes that the Philippines may not exactly be a good place to move into, because of some circumstances.

Chris Pinnacle Island might not be a good place, Philippines has VERY “close” ties with the US government, the US may require Phil to cut the electricity on the island (if TPB bought it) “otherwise the US-Phil relations ends”

Such drastic measures (ending of US-Philippine relations?)! But I think there would be no merit to TPB hosting here. For one, privately held islands are still considered within Philippine sovereignity, and subsequently within jurisdiction of Philippine laws. Note that under the E-Commerce Act of 2000, and the Philippine Copyright Law, piracy is a criminal offense.

Nonetheless, I still wonder about the efficacy of these laws, and whether the authorities would actively pursue entities like The Pirate Bay if they were to decide to host here. Piracy is still rampant, although physical forms like DVDs and CDs, rather than downloads and file-sharing, are more popular. And I also wonder whether organizations like the MPAA and RIAA, which are known to sue individuals for downloading bootlegged material (even unwittingly, or even if it were just their computers or broadband accounts that were used for the downloads), would likewise do the same here. The Philippine legal process is known to be excruciatingly slow, and the costs of litigation might outweigh the benefits.

MacHeads got excited with Gizmodo’s post a few days back that the iPhone was soon to be released. Brian Lam “guaranteed” that the iPhone will be announced in a few days, and that it wasn’t what he expected. True enough, the iPhone was announced, but it is not from Apple. The iPhone trademark has actually been held by Cisco for some time, and Linksys (a subsidiary of Cisco) is marketing it as a VoIP phone that can do Skype and other VoIP standards.

It’s not what any of us expected. The iPhone is a voip phone made by Linksys. Cisco, their parent company, has owned that trademark since 1996. And they’re announcing their product in a few hours.

P.S. Macheads–including those from Macrumors, Think Secret, TUAW, and Cult of Mac–know Apple likes to release gear on Tuesdays. So they didn’t expect an Apple iPhone Monday. If you did read into my original post and feel like I misled you, sincere apologies for the discomfort.

I’m betting that if Apple ever gets to market a mobile phone, they’re calling it MacPhone and MacPhone Pro. Hah!