Year: 2011

The Road to the iPad 2

It’s been days since the Apple Media Event in San Francisco. What we’ve learned from the event:

  • The expected release of the iPad 2;
  • The expected release of iOS 4.3;
  • Some updated apps especially made for the iPad 2, such as Garage Band, Photo Booth, and iMovie;

Personally, I’m not that impressed with the specs of the new iPad. From what Pinoy Tech Blog has pointed out as key differences from the original iPad, I don’t think I’ll easily buy to that processor upgrade, or the addition of front and rear cameras, or the reduction in thickness (or thinness, if you may) and weight, especially if it only officially reaches the Philippine shores in another eight months. Read further and check out the specs »

Chat with Facebook Friends using Pidgin

I actually haven’t known that Facebook chat has supported the XMPP standards for quite some time now. Now it enables desktop chat clients like my favorite Pidgin to connect to your Facebook friends without a need for any plugin (which sometimes break).

Thanks to How-To Geek, now I know.

What is Pidgin?

Pidgin is an easy to use and free chat client used by millions. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and more chat networks all at once.

I have long been an advocate of Pidgin as a desktop chat client. The reason why? Read more to know why and how to use Pidgin to chat with Facebook friends »

Singin’ and Rappin’ to the Tune of “The Angry Birds”

If you have played The Angry Birds in your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch (I believe there’s a PC version also–and Android), you should be familiar with the music.

The Angry Birds Rap

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAdUvqBBUYw&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

Written and rapped by Bshap (Brandon Shapiro)
Video Edited by Zachary Durand Continue reading Singin’ and Rappin’ to the Tune of “The Angry Birds”

The Day that Yahoo! was Doomed

The Rise and Fall of Yahoo! Infographic (click image to view the full infographic)

We have seen an interesting infographic about the rise and fall of Yahoo!, detailing the timeline at which the big media giant/search engine/web portal rise from scratch and the start of its downfall.

We knew about the demise of Geocities. Back in the day when blogging was new, Yahoo! was acquiring big services like Del.icio.us, MyBlogLog (I’ve introduced MyBlogLog back then, describing it an awesome social networking service for bloggers), and Flickr.

In the ensuing years after the acquisitions, Delicious has offered not much improvements in the service despite the start of a growing competition like StumbleUpon, etc., and its blog full of spam comments. MyBlogLog on the other had invited a lot of spammers, and they’ve done nothing to bring order in the service. Flickr, well, they’ve been into a lot of controversies.

Now, Delicious is for sale (at least contrary to earlier reports that it’ll be shut down), MyBlogLog is shutting down, and Flickr, well, we still have to wait further developments.

Paul Graham, being once an insider, offered his better insights about What Happened to Yahoo!. Continue Reading »

Tumblr2WP: A WooThemes Tumblr Exporter

I have mentioned earlier two alternatives in migrating your Tumblr blog to WordPress, both of which are not so ideal solution — I’ve concluded. WooThemes recently has come up with their new tool, a free utility to help you with the same migration, the Tumblr2WP.

Tumblr2WP makes it super simple to transfer your Tumblr content to your own, self-hosted WordPress install.

This tool will create a WXR (WordPress eXtended RSS) file from your tumblr site which can be imported into WordPress.

With the introduction of the Custom Post Formats in the new WordPress 3.1, it just makes it more compelling to switch blogging from Tumblr to WordPress instead. Continue reading Tumblr2WP: A WooThemes Tumblr Exporter

When I Got Into the World of EOS

This is the old commercial of the Canon EOS 350D that actually inspired me to take up photography as a hobby:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVS9-1Jjlmk&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

I once was hooked into photography that I bought every accessory I could barely afford. Now, it’s so sad to see them just lying around, gathering dusts. ‘Continue Reading When I Got Into the World of EOS’

A Reaction to the Movie “I Am Number Four”

John is an extraordinary teen, masking his true identity and passing as a typical high school student to elude a deadly enemy seeking to destroy him. Three like him have already been killed … he is Number Four.

Since the rest of the nine are scattered around the world, he has to find them to join their powers and defeat the enemy. When he found Number Six (or at least she found him), together they begin their journey to find the rest — and that’s where the movie ended. Continue reading A Reaction to the Movie “I Am Number Four”