A good number of Filipinos nowadays turn to the internet for extra source of income, one of which is selling goods online. And what’s the most easiest way to sell your stuff? Either post it on TipidPC, Sulit, Ebay.PH, or have your own online store. You can hire somebody to create your own store or look for free alternatives and the most popular is Multiply. 

The problem with Multiply is that it’s cumbersome to create galleries and upload items and manage it. You can opt for the real storefront service from Multiply but that thing is not free. You want a real storefront because it’s easier for your potential customers to browse and transact and to be seen with other stores.

Now have you heard of SkyyShop? It is a FREE Facebook application which you use on your Facebook page in order for it to have a real online shop. It’s very easy to set up and will give you a kick ass e-commerce solution with all the bells and whistles in no time. Keep track of your inventory? Check. Perform sitewide or category-wide discount? Check. FB alerts for orders? Check. Transaction history? Yep! Payment via Paypal? Sure can! Secure checkout? Check. And get this, if you already have a Multiply shop, you can easily import all your photos into your SkyyShop! You don’t have to be a whiz to have your own working online store.

Since it’s also a Facebook app, we all know how Facebook rocks when it comes to promoting things. SkyyShop is tightly integrated with Facebook which allows your customers to easily share your store or each item you are selling, commenting is also possible for each items and is done via Facebook and you can even inform all your page/store fans of new items or announcements.

So why is this thing free? There should be a catch. Well in a way there is but it’s totally optional. SkyyShop is being run by SkyyServices and they’re pushing their payment gateway called SkyyPay. When you subscribe to SkyyPay, your shop will have the ability to accept more payment options (7-Eleven, Smart Money, M.Lhuillier, BDO, BPI, BancNet, Metrobank) instead of just PayPal and whatever C.O.D or bank transfer arrangement you have. It does come with a one time fee of Php2,500 though and will require a small percentage of your sales (which you can have your customers shoulder). If you haven’t heard of SkyyServices yet, it’s because they usually deal with high-profile private clients. It’s just now that they decided to reach out to the mainstream market to compete with other local online payment gateways such as Mozcom’s DragonPay and CashSense.

For more traditional sellers, PayPal is ok and just put the usual transaction and shipping arrangement in your Terms and Policy page. However, having SkyyPay will raise your store to the next level since it will cater to more mature online shoppers out there including international customers.

Oh yeah, you also get free support for your shop in case you run into any problem. I didn’t. I tried setting up my own Facebook shop and the steps were easy to follow. Do try it out if you plan to sell your stuff in Facebook. Visit their site at http://portal.skyyshop.com/ to know more about the app.

That was quick. Some people are still having problems updating to iOS 5 (Error 3200? Just keep trying) but the jailbreak for it is finally available, albeit a tethered one that is and only for Mac as of now.

iPhone Dev Team just released Redsn0w 0.9.9b5 for Mac (Windows coming soon) which is a tethered jailbreak for iOS5. Do note that like the previous versions, it doesn’t work for the iPad 2 and won’t work for the upcoming iPhone 4S. If you don’t know what tethered jailbreak is, it means you have to redo the jailbreak whenever you power up or reboot your device.

Despite reading this, you may not bother jailbreaking your iOS 5 yet because of the restrictions. However, it’s good to know that it’s already available and it’s just a matter of time before we see a proper untethered jailbreak for both Mac and Windows. Good job iPhone Dev Team.

If you’re the adventurous type when it comes to your gadgets, head over to RedmondPie for instructions how to use Redsn0w for the iOS5.

Additional reading: What’s new with the iOS5?

Here’s a couple of sites that I find really useful when I’m researching on gadgets that I want to purchase or simply for reference, only for cameras and phones that is.

Snapsort is a site where you can check the specs of cameras. Point and shoots, DSLRs, EVILs, they have a huge database including new cameras such as the Nikon V1 and the Pentax Q. When you compare two cameras, it will give you a detailed summary of the advantages one over has the other as well as recommendations for alternatives. Really, really helpful!

Geekaphone is a similar site but for mobile phones. What you would find of value here when comparing phones are the scores for each aspects such as processing power, battery life, camera, etc. Bear in mind that comparisons are automated so proprietary technology such as Sony’s Bravia Engine or Nokia’s ClearBlack screen are not accounted for.

You can also browse the sites for cameras and phones based on your needs (type, size, display, etc.). Although it won’t give you an honest to goodness recommendation as opposed to reviews, these sites serve well for a quick, high-level comparison with an easy-to-understand layout. Now where’s the site for laptops and tablets?

One of the things that I like about Android smartphones is that you can easily connect it to your PC and use it as a storage device without installing any software. Not unlike iPhone which needs iTunes and WP7 phones that needs Zune.

However, that’s not the case for the Samsung Galaxy Ace (at least ours). When you connect it to your PC via USB, it will detect there’s a device connected to it but it will stop there. There’s no notification on your device to turn it into a Storage Device unlike in Galaxy S. You need to install Samsung Kies (Samsung’s phone manager) in order to access your phone from your PC.

This is one drawback of the Galaxy Ace. Other Android phones automatically install drivers to the PC once connected to enable Mass Storage mode but the Ace wants you to install the 60+MB Kies software that you probably won’t use afterwards (aside from updating). What if you want to connect it to a friend’s PC?

Well Samsung has a way out for this one. The reason why it’s not recognizing your phone as a mass storage device is that it’s set to USB Debugging mode by default.

Just go to Settings > Applications > Development and uncheck USB Debugging.

Once that is done, when you connect your Galaxy Ace to your PC, you will get the screen to Turn On USB Storage.

One of the huge advantage of Android over iOS is that it does not rely on a media organizer app like iTunes. Just transfer your media files to your device or SD card and it will automatically use them for you. For non-OC people, this is a good thing.

Since Android can automatically look for music stored in your device, this means that you can download MP3s from any source over the web (like your Dropbox) and it will appear into your music player immediately – with ID tags and album art if available.

Here’s a simple guide on how you can use your Android device as an MP3 downloader so that you won’t need your PC anymore to put music onto it.

1. Go to Android Market on your device and download an MP3 downloader. There are lots but let’s try searching for “MP3 Music Download” and download the app with the exact same title.

2. Open it up and you’ll be presented with a simple UI.

3. Let’s click Search and look for a song.

4. You can preview the file first or download it. Now understand that these are public files so some may not be exactly the song that you’re looking for. Or it won’t have the bitrate that you want.

5. Once you click download, you will see it in your Android’s notification screen. The speed will depend on your connection and on which server it’s coming from so if it’s too slow for your taste, just choose another one.

6. When that’s done, go back to Library (see Step 2) and you’ll see the files you downloaded. You can choose to play it from within the app which also downloads the album art and the lyrics (if available) for you. It will also appear in your device’s native music player.

7. Another cool thing about this app is that if you don’t know what to download, it has some music charts to give you ideas on what to search for.

So how about that? It’s a great way to while away your time when you’re stuck in a place with a free high-speed WiFi. Of course you may still want to connect your Android device to your PC so that you can back up your music, edit the tags, arrange the folders, the file-naming and all that just because you want to keep it neat and orderly.

Sometimes, you just can’t find the apps or games you are looking for in the Android market. Problem with Android is that there are a lot of markets out there for apps/games unlike Apple which only has the App Store. Or maybe a friend has some games that he wants to share to you and instead of downloading them from the market which might take time, why not install (also known as sideloading) them directly?

Here’s how you can install APKs (.apks are Android packages) on your Android device directly, bypassing the Market. Be warned though that there exists apps outside the market that would gain access to your private details. Before installing any apps, read the warning as to what phone data the app will be accessing before your decide to push through.

1. Make sure you allow apps from unknown sources to be installed. Go to Settings > Applications and check Unknown sources.

2. Transfer your .apk file to your SD card. You can simply connect it to your PC to copy the files. Or if the file’s not too big, send it to your Dropbox or E-mail and access it from your phone (if you do it this way, no need for step 3).

3. Since I copied a game onto my microSD, I need to access it from the phone. I downloaded a file manager (Astro) and browsed to my APK. Some phones like Samsung already have a built-in file explorer. If you have Documents to Go or any other apps that can open documents, you can also use that.

4. Found your APK? Good, just click it to open.

5. Read the warning. Everything looks kosher? Good? Go ahead and click Install.

That’s it. Your app should appear on your phone ready to use. Feel free to delete the install file (.apk) from your SD card to save space. If you’re downloading APKs from untrusted sources, don’t be surprised if the app or game won’t run properly. That’s what you have to deal with when installing non-Market apps.

Android is by Google and it’s no mystery that Gmail will seamlessly work with it. But for you Yahoo! users out there, you may have been unsuccessful adding your Yahoo! Mail account to your Android device and ending up downloading a separate Yahoo! app just to check your mails.

Well, you can still add your Yahoo! account to the Android’s native mail app (so that you can check all your mails in one place) by doing a manual set up. Allow us to walk you through to the process.

1. First thing you want to do is go to Settings > Accounts and sync and choose IMAP/POP3 mail (or the equivalent in your device).

2. Enter your Yahoo! mail and password and click Manual Setup.

3. Choose IMAP protocol for Incoming using the following details:

• IMAP server: imap.mail.yahoo.com
• Security type: SSL
• Server port: 993

4. Click Next.

5. For Outgoing, use the following details:

• SMTP server: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
• Security type: SSL
• Server port: 465

6. Click Next and your Yahoo! Mail should appear on your device’s mail app.

With all the Android devices coming out in bigger forms and display sizes, one can’t help to use it as an e-book reader. Tablets are a good candidate as well as phones with 4-inch screens and up.

There are only a few free e-book reader options in the Android market as of now. The two most popular apps are Kobo and Aldiko and some manufacturers already include them into their device.

Between the two, I would choose Aldiko because you can import your collection of e-books provided they’re in .EPUB format. I don’t have a problem with that because I use Calibre as my e-book organizer which has a built-in conversion tool for almost all type of e-book formats.

Here’s how you can import and read e-books on your Android device.

1. First thing you need to do is transfer your e-books (.epub) to your SD card. I used Dropbox since I can’t find my USB cable anywhere. If you don’t know where to get e-books, mIRC is always a good source.

2. Now launch Aldiko (download from Android Market for free) and press the Home icon on the upper left.

3. Select SD card

4. Select the e-book you wish to import and choose Import to Aldiko.

5. That’s it. Just wait for a few seconds for Aldiko to finish importing.

There you have it. You can now see your book on your shelf ready for reading. Sweet and easy!

This is really old but I still get questions regarding these two Windows state especially from first-time laptop owners. Do you know what’s the difference between Sleep and Hibernate mode? When to use Sleep, Hibernate or plain old Shutdown?

Sleep is a power-saving state which stores your current work state into memory and powers down the rest of your system’s components. It’s quick to enter into Sleep mode and quick to wake up from it (3 seconds). When it sleep mode, your laptop will consume a little amount of power from your battery to power the memory.

It’s mainly used if you’ll be taking a meal break, or if you’re going to a meeting and don’t want to carry your laptop with the lid open. Usually by default, when you close the lid of your laptop, it will enter into Sleep mode.

Hibernate is like a quick shutdown. What Windows does is save your open documents and programs on a hibernate file into your hard disk and powers your system off. It doesn’t consume power and will boot slightly faster than your typical Shutdown.

Most people replace Shutdown with Hibernate. If you’re going to store your machine for long periods of time, it’s better to put it in Hibernate rather than Sleep. Or Shutdown if you’re an old-fashioned PC user.

Now for some questions you may want to ask:

What happens if the battery runs out while in Sleep mode?

The short answer is, you’ll lose your unsaved work. However, most laptops we have right now have a failsafe for such instance. If your battery becomes critically low, your machine will wake from Sleep mode, saves your work and goes into Hibernate mode. Some machines have a pre-set timer that if it reaches past, say 3 hours, it will automatically go into Hibernate mode.

Why would I need to Shutdown if Hibernate is much better?

Usually, there’s no more need to shutdown your laptop. You would only want to shut it down if Windows is not cleaning itself up properly from Hibernate mode. But in that case, you would want to do a Restart instead. A drawback of Hibernate mode though is eventually, your disk fragments rather quickly but it can be resolved by de-fragmenting it.

Can I set my laptop to Sleep or Hibernate when I close the lid?

You sure can. Look for the Power Management settings in your Windows and you can see different options there. You can even allow it not to turn off when you close the lid in case you’re using your laptop to download torrents. You can also change the Power button to do a Sleep or Hibernate if you wish.

So how about you guys? Do you still shutdown your laptop?

I guess this is something that is no longer new but, just like me who would not update my Yahoo! Messenger regularly this can be an exciting feature of YM version 11.

I have been scouting for an IM app for the past few weeks that can integrate both my Yahoo! and Facebook contacts. Having an app that would allow you to chat with both your FB friends and YM contacts would be easier.  I have tried IMO for Chrome, Trillian and a few more but it did not make me happy at all. IMO would disconnect my FB account once in a while; while Trillian which has a feature that I like – tabbed messaging, does not show my YM contacts as I want it to be (only displays the Yahoo! ID). So I uninstalled both.

While experimenting the tabbed browsing tweak for YM, which did not work also, I uninstalled version 10 from my laptop and tried version 11. Upon installation, I learned that you can now actually integrate your Facebook account with it and share your Yahoo! updates to Facebook too.

Just like any apps that you install and allow in your Facebook, you just have to click that “Link to Facebook” button in the messenger window and you’re all set!

Very easy. From there you can now chat with your Facebook friends without having to launch your browser and login to your Facebook account.

Yahoo! says you can also integrate your Twitter account which I have yet to try. But in the meantime, I already have a solution to my problem. Just one application running that will allow me to communicate with both my Facebook friends and Yahoo! contacts.

Try it now and let us know your experience too!