Tropical storm Sendong brought widespread devastations in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan City and other nearby areas in Mindanao. To aid the victims reach out to their families, Smart sets up “Libreng Tawag” stations in key locations in affected areas.

As early as Saturday morning, Smart immediately set up Libreng Tawag stations in evacuation centers and barangay halls in affected areas of Macasandig, Carmen, Kauswagan and Velez St. in Cagayan De Oro City; and Camanjac and Batinguel in Dumaguete City where a state of calamity has also been declared.  Additional free calls facilities are also
being put up by the telco in other typhoon-hit areas especially within CDO and Iligan City to provide communication and free phone charging services to affected residents.

These libreng tawag stations offer free calls, free phone charging, and in some sites, free Internet communications.

“Our mobile phone network continued to operate despite the horrific flash floods and widespread power outages,” said Ramon Isberto, head of Smart’s Public Affairs. “This has enabled Smart personnel and our provincial dealers to set up libreng tawag centers the morning after.”

“Smart employees based in the region have been deployed to affected areas to assess the situation and to respond to the needs of the residents in coordination with local official and emergency organizations like the Philippine Red Corss,” Isberto said.

How Smart subscribers can help

Smart has also actively called on its subscribers all over the country to send help to those affected by typhoon Sendong.

Smart Money users can instantly transfer funds through their mobile phones to the official Baha Fund account number 5577 5130 6822 1104. Donors may also deposit cash to the same Smart Money account number in any Banco De Oro branch nationwide or through Hapinoy and Cebuana Lhuillier outlets.

Smart subscribers may also send their financial help to the Philippine Red Cross through text. To donate, cellphone users should send RED <AMOUNT> to 4143. Valid donation amounts are 10, 25, 50 and 100 and will be charged to the subscriber’s prepaid load or postpaid bill.

The world as we know it has achieved greater things over time; things which really started from small ideas. Steve Jobs had a vision of technology’s future and his legacies only proved people’s sense of the possible.

You must be wondering why we would be writing about a leading healthcare provider. As an advocate of programs that give people a voice like how blogs are essentially all about, PTB wants to help Unilab spread the word about a country’s first, web-based crowd sourcing facility called Link-Up. United Laboratories, Inc., or UNILAB is a leading Filipino healthcare and wellness company with its success rooted in the Filipino tradition of working together called Bayanihan. Inspired by this tradition, UNILAB introduces Link-Up to collaborate directly with consumers.

Meeting up with the company’s key people last Monday over a hearty meal at Milky & Sunny in Brgy. Kapitolyo, Pasig, I found a sincere desire in them to hear what it is that people really need and make it happen. Unilab’s Link-Up innovation does not only encourage ideas for new products, but is also open for ideas that can help them reach wider markets faster and better through the use of technologies we have at hand.

If you have something in mind that you strongly believe can improve lives; may it be something that caters to your health and wellness like a new product, innovative packaging or even a mobile application like a health tracker on your Android phone, Unilab has opened its doors outside of its boundaries to find better solutions for our changing health needs.

Share your idea by registering to their website: http://unilablinkup.com and it will be evaluated through a 4-level review process. If your idea passes the second review stage by which you will become UNILAB’s Innovation Partner, Unilab shall grant Php5,000 worth of gift pack. Again, your idea will undergo another set of review process and if meets the quality standards of Unilab, you will receive Php50,000 after the commercial launch of your innovation.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a consumer, a supplier, or simply an inspired individual concerned with enriching Filipino communities but lacking the resources – simply put, your ideas count and Unilab’s willing to help you put them into action.

Just want to share this program by Acer to you dear readers. This will definitely help your school if they win.

ACER Philippines is giving away Php 120,000.00 worth of Digital Learning Equipment in this search for the oldest school equipment! So its time to get those camera and search for your school’s oldest equipment. Be it your oldest chair, blackboard, typewriter or chalkboard, whatever you can find in your school.

Take a picture of video of your entry, write a little essay about how that equipment helped your school community acquire valuable learning and improved the general academic development!

That easy! Because Old school is Cool!

Go to Acer’s Facebook page for more details of this program.

[Acer Philippines]

Every time I go to Singapore, I’m really amazed how efficient their small city is especially their public transport system. It’s not just their railway or bus transit that I would love to be implemented here in Manila but more particularly their EMAS or Expressway Monitoring Advisory System that can inform motorists in advance of traffic situations.

Recently at a media party hosted by IBM, they talked briefly about Smart Cities. What it takes to be one. How the government or a city could harness the abundance of technology already present within us. There was this Smarter Cities Summit early this month where DOST and IBM Philippines held a forum to tackle different ways to advance technology into different areas of our urban system greater sustainability, growth, and social progress.

There are four key factors to help us achieve a Smart City status:

• Smarter Investor. Invests in IT for infrastructure systems to make them more intelligent, instrumented and interconnected.
• Smarter Citizen Services. Transform government through IT, enable real-time data
  analysis and improve government services in a secure citizen-focused efficient manner.
• Smarter Regulator, Policy Maker. Use intelligent systems to restore faith in financial markets, protect privacy and civil liberties, enable smarter health, grids, etc.
• Smarter Global Participant. Collaborate with other governments and international
  organizations to create “smart” policies and solutions for global issues: public health, climate change, energy, global trade, disaster recovery.

There were some representatives from the government who attended the summit and I’m really hoping that a change for a smarter city would soon come. The main thing is, Governments can help create Smarter Cities through forward-looking policy decisions.

If we couldn’t implement something simple such as a centralized database for official IDs so that we don’t have need to have our fingerprint and pictures taken in different government agencies (i.e. NBI, LTO, etc.) then I guess we’re not yet headed into a smarter future.

There’s this new Facebook app/link that’s been duping people all over Facebook. Who wouldn’t want to see 13 Worst Marriage Proposal Videos on a slow day anyway?

Clicking the link will direct you to laughallday.net which is not really a site but just a page with this content.

Based on the instructions, you need to click Like to see the video but right there it already looks dubious you should just close the window and look for failed proposals on YouTube. Unfortunately, close to 900,000 people are already being duped into clicking the Like button and some of them may be your friends.

So for those of you who clicked the Like button, what else happened aside from letting your FB friends know that you’ve been suckered?

If you like to see 6 Awesome Marriage Proposal videos though, do check out Calvin’s Hub. It’s not a scam link don’t worry.

MSI-ECS is one of the largest IT distributors in the country for products from Acer, Apple, HP, Lenovo and Samsung. Last week, they announced the opening of their first DigiCARE computer service facility which is located at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

“We hope that existing customers will gain full confidence on these brands as they are assured that their IT investments are protected and that they are guaranteed that the life of their unit is prolonged. We have industry-certified engineers and technicians to address whatever service requirements they may need,” said Jimmy Go, president and CEO, MSI-ECS Philippines.

Mr. Go further added that aside from offering services and repair, the facility will also hold certification trainings to their channel partners to uplift their competencies.

The Service Center is at the ground floor of Total Corporate Center, a building situated along Kalayaan Avenue, within Bonifacio Triangle Drive, near Samsung’s office. The office is at the back of the building, alongside Starbucks, 7/11, and BPI.

MSI-ECS DigiCARE
Ground Floor, Shop #10, Phils Plans Corporate Center
1012 North Triangle Drive (Along Kalayaan Ave.)
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig

BlackBerry loyal users, here’s something that you can be proud of for choosing to stay with Blackberry despite all the hoopla with iOS4 and Android smartphones these days. Kinda interesting to know for BlackBerry junkies.Rysavy Research did this study on “Mobile Data Constraints and the Need for Optimization”, which contextualizes the BlackBerry advantage in terms of today’s mobile data industry and emerging consumer trends.

Here are some points comparing BlackBerry’s efficiency with competing systems based on the study:

Efficient E-mail Handling – As shown in the above table, in nearly all cases, BlackBerry was significantly more efficient than competing solutions when it comes to handling e-mail. In nearly all cases, BlackBerry sent less data over the air than the original file size.  In some cases, the amount sent was only a small percentage of the original file.

Superior Browsing Efficiency – BlackBerry users have the ability to choose the image quality settings for Web browsing including low, medium, and high. The lower the image quality setting, the less data is transferred to the device and the faster the downloading time.

Policy Management Capability – Beyond efficient operation, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server provides a number of ways that businesses can control data consumption on BlackBerry devices, for security and consumption control purposes.

Protocol Resiliency – BlackBerry communications protocols were designed to function even in slower networks. This heritage makes them highly bandwidth-efficient and particularly resilient in congestion situations regularly encountered today’s modern networks.

While the mobile broadband market is emerging as an extremely successful industry, it is facing significant challenges that can only be met through a broad sweep of measures to meet rising demand while ensuring efficient use of networks.

RIM rises to the challenge by delivering high-value, highly efficient products and services for a wide range of customers.  As BlackBerry enables significantly less data consumption by applications, it benefits carriers by lowering costs and by accommodating a greater number of users on the network without any deterioration in quality.  Meanwhile, end-users can benefit from lower monthly fees.  This is the BlackBerry advantage.

July 26, 2010 is another big day for the Republic of the Philippines. It will be President Noynoy’s first State Of The Nation Address or SONA.

But unlike the former president who now occupy a seat in the 15th Congress, there will be less fanfares, less props and all. And its not going to be a holiday at all like we’re accustomed to! However, color coding is lifted on Monday.

But wait! To most of us online people, where do we watch the SONA? If you are in the office, do you have TV in your lounge? Are you going to take a leave of absence just to watch it? How about our fellow Pinoy Expats? The Pinoy overseas that has no access to TFC of ABS-CBN?

We have these suggestions to you:

Here are top online sites we have in mind as of press time.

• ABS-CBN’s ANC
• JUSTIN tv
• USTREAM tv
• BITSTOP

In an effort to go green and create a sustainable environmental program, Canon launched its GreenNation campaign.

Throughout the world, Canon has been improving on its efforts to reduce carbon footprint and using lesser resources in the production of its products. Canon calls this global effort Action for Green which is based on a simply cycle of Produce, Use and Recycle.

So how can you help in this environmental endeavor?

Dispose Canon printer cartridges properly. Canon is giving their printer owners the chance to drop their empty printer cartridges in their stores/showroom/Dzone located at various malls and locations all over Metro Manila.

Purchase Canon. With Canon, every product purchase is as good as supporting its advocacy towards a greener environment. Canon users are assured of an environmental-friendly process in every Canon product they use.

Be a Citizen of Canon’s GreenNation

Here’s the cool part. Canon knows how to keep it fun for its citizens. By being a part of GreenNation, you can take advantage of events like photography workshops, major sale events, lectures, and other fun activities.

To be citizens of GreenNation, you can log on to http://www.canon.com.ph/section/environmental/

Like your fave gadgets, celebrities, organization and the likes. Our very own Supreme Court can now be found in Facebook and Twitter!

Would you ever imagine Chief Justice Renato Corona updating his page on Facebook? Or tweeting his itineraries for the day? Maybe not, but the highest judicial branch in the land in its objective to reach the online community, recently joined social networking sites Facebook and Twitter!

Welcome to Facebook, your Honors! Here’s the link to their Facebook page, or simply search “Supreme Court of the Philippines” from Facebook. There are now almost 1,500 members since they launched it last week.

The page features former and current Supreme Court Justices. The first ever SC is Cayetano L. Arellano, who served from 1901 to 1920. Our current SC is Renato Corona who was controversially appointed by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Be a fan and get updates from our Justice System.

I wonder though who makes the updates? I’m sure its not one of the senior Justices. If there’s one Justice who’s techie enough, I have to say it’s Justice Midas Marquez who is the spokesperson and one of the youngest lawyers in the Supreme Court.

You can also follow them on their Twitter account which is Twitter.com/KorteSuprema.