Seriously? Is the next generation going to be called – the New iPad? Apple just announced the new iPad which many have been anticipating to be called either iPad 3 or iPad HD. But knowing Apple, it just won’t give us what we wanted and will surely veer away from the norm.  So, the new iPad is called – yes, the New iPad. We all better get used to that.

So, what’s new with the New iPad? For starters, it will have Retina Display. Imagined the transition from the iPhone 3GS to iPhone 4 and you’ll pretty much get how improved the display capability of the new iPad from the iPad 2. To be technical how about, the new iPad’s screen resolution is measured as 2048 x 1536.

The new iPad will also have a 5MP iSight Camera, faster and yet the same dual-core processor, quad-core graphics, and 4G-LTE when it is released through Verizon and AT&T.

Price range is the same as the prices of the iPad 2 when it was launched last year (starting at $499 for the base 16GB model). This bumps the price range of the iPad 2 down to $399 for the basic model. Availability will be on March 16, not only for the U.S. for also for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the US Virgin Islands on Friday, March 16.

In the looks department, it’s pretty much the same as the iPad 2. Although some people are saying that it’s a bit thicker than the iPad 2.

Via Apple

It was only a couple of hours ago when a Smart Representative was informing about my pre-registration for the iPhone 4S. Smart is launching the iPhone 4S right now through a camp out gig at Rockwell in Makati. The Smart Representative also told me that I will be contacted by another Smart Representative to confirm my reservation. I also asked her about the Smart plans and pricing details of their iPhone 4S but was told that it will be revealed tomorrow.

But guess what, Smart couldn’t wait until tomorrow and so their pricing details for the iPhone 4S has just been revealed. Here you go folks. For those who are planning to get the iPhone 4S from Smart, here are the different pricing details for the Smart iPhone 4S plans.

Smart is offering the iPhone 4S under its different postpaid plans as well as on prepaid plans which will cost you the following:

• P33,200 for 16GB
• P38,200 for 32GB
• P43,200 for 64GB

Related articles

• Globe and Smart to Release the iPhone 4S on December 16 (aczafra.com)
• Globe is Now Processing iPhone 4S Orders, Release in Manila Could Be Anytime Soon! (aczafra.com)
• Philippines iPhone 4S Unboxing and First Impressions (aczafra.com)

This is a long overdue post. I was contacted by a Binverse representative a couple of weeks ago to inform me about the Binverse Premium Usenet service. If you’re familiar with “Usenet,” well it seems that it has now become a premium content downloading site. You may think of Binverse as a more organized and formalized form of Torrent sites. Sorry, folks but I’m not really familiar with Torrent as I’ve used it only a couple of times.

So, anyway Binverse is offering premium content downloading service from the Binverse servers. The contents are already available and all you have to do is search for it on the Binverse desktop application (for Mac and Windows). The only downside to Binverse is that unlike Torrents, downloading content is not free. But don’t worry because their premium package are very affordable and if you download contents from the Internet, you might want to give the service a try.

Now, the Binverse representative are generous enough to have given us 2 premium accounts worth 50GB of download capacity. What’s good about this free 50GB account is that it will expire only after you have consumed the file capacity.

So, how do you get those free premium accounts? Simple – just leave a comment and the first two who do so gets the free account. That simple, no questions asked.

Go!

If I remember it correctly, it’s almost two weeks now (or more?) since Google has introduced its social networking service, Google+. As of today, there are probably more than 18 million users of Google+ already. And Google has yet to release this to the public. The more than 18 million Google+ users just grew through the “by-invitation” process that Google employed to build the Google+ userbase. Hence, at the growth that it is growing, the social media has suddenly shaken up by Google+.

Many were not expecting Google’s social networking service would be quite a hit. Many thought it will be just like Google Wave and Google Buzz which never really took off. But then, the inevitable happened – Google managed to successfully launch a new social networking service which in time will give Facebook and Twitter, two of the most popular social networking/social media services a run for their money.

Gradually, Google+ is carving its niche in the social media sphere. Although it’s still not allowed, several businesses have sneaked in and managed to create an account for their companies. Can you imagine how the userbase of Google+ will grow once businesses such as web hosting providers, restaurants, brand companies and others are allowed to create their Google+ account? I could just imagine how threatened Facebook and Twitter is right now.

If you’re running a business, especially technology-related and you want to promote your products or brands, Google+ is the right place to do so. Currently, the Google+ ecosphere is inhabited by geeks and techies who are actively interacting with one another, sharing information and links they find cool and interesting for fellow geeks.

Google+ will soon compete with Facebook in the brand advertising space. Google lives by its advertising revenue. So, expect Google to leverage on the growing popularity of Google+ and once the business model is in place, expect business companies ranging from the technical ones such as those offering dedicated servers to the more consumer-based products such as food and beverages among others – to come knocking on your Google+ account’s door asking you to add them to your Circles.

Google+ is shaking up the social media ecosphere, there’s no doubt about that. How other social media sites are going to react will be quite interesting to find out.

This is a sample post composed using Blogsy for iPad app.

My wife and I  just finished the Unilab Run United 2011 and I can’t help but be amazed by how the organizers fully utilized technology in delivering not only a well organized run but a pretty cool one as well – in terms of delivering race results promptly. I just checked out my Facebook account, and guess what, our race results were already posted on my Facebook Wall! Coolness, right?

Aside from that, there’s also a link that will direct you to the Run’s Online Results Board where you can already the full results for all the categories. Of course including your full results. Complete with your ranking based on – overall, men’s category, and age category. More coolness right?

The online race results will still be updated later on to include photos and videos. Of course, we can’t expect the photographers to upload their photos as soon as the race finished. That will be asking too much.

Anyway, kudos to the race organizers – Unilab and RunRio (?) and of course BazuSports for a very good online system. I love it! Now, I can’t wait for the 2nd leg of the Unilab Run United in the coming months.

It’s the first day of SEMCON 2010 today and on the keynote this morning, opening the conference is none other than SEO god himself, Aaron Wall of SEOBook.com. It was great to finally hear somebody who became famous because of his knowledge on Search Engine Optimization and its underlying concepts and strategies. Aaron talked about what’s new in Search, mentioning the recently launched Google Instant and its impact on SEO work.Other speakers were:

Charlie Ellis – Maximize Your SEO

Jim Boykin – Building Pages & Links

Giovanni Villanueva – Pitfalls of PPC

Dean Chew – Winning Web Design for Users and Search Engines

Benj Arriola – Foundations of Link Building

Bruce Persaud – SEO PDF Primer

I was able to listen up to Benj Arriola and all I can say is that these guys really know what they are doing, have mastered the art of SEO, and are all best examples to emulate if you are serious with search-related work.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s sessions.

Want to turn your BlackBerry device into a personal travel assistant?  Check out WorldMate Live Travel Like A Pro BlackBerry app. It’s currently available from the BlackBerry App World, which if you remember just got activated for Philippine market a couple of days ago.

WorldMate Live provides you with everything you  need to during business or holiday trips.

WorldMate Live creates a travel itinerary on your BlackBerry smartphone and automatically syncs between your BlackBerry smartphone and your personal web site. All you have to do is send an email to trips@worldmate.com containing your travel plans.

WorldMate Live guides you with important itinerary updates, maps and directions to your hotel and meetings, weather forecasts, helps you with real-time currency conversions, and more.

And recently, WorldMate Live Travel Like A Pro BlackBerry app rolled out two new features:

• one-click limousine reservations for over 5000 airports around the world
• integration with the world’s largest business social networking site, LinkedIn, where you can find and communicate with your nearby contacts and automatically update your LinkedIn status

Download WorldMate Live Travel Like a Pro from BlackBerry App World, at ww.blackberry.com/appworld

When it comes to portable media storage, I only trust one brand – Western Digital. In fact I’ve got three WD portable media storage device – a 1TB My Book Edition, and 2 350GB Passports. What’s good about Western Digital is that they are evolving into just a portable media storage into a multimedia media drives. And one of their media drives just arrived on Philippine soil – the new My Passport  AV Portable Media Drive.

My Passport  AV portable media drives were designed specifically for video storage and playback and deliver a plug-and-play experience for digital media enthusiasts. The media drive is available in 320GB capacity and supports game consoles, camcorders, TVs, DVRs, Blu-ray players and media players including Western Digital’s very own WD TV Media Player.

The My Passport AV Media Drive allows you to conenct a USB drive and play the multimedia content from the drive to an HD TV.

The new My Passport AV portable media drives feature a 3-year limited warranty. My Passport AV portable media drives are distributed by Axis Global Technologies, Inc. and ATP Peripherals (Phils), Inc. and are available through select retailers. MSRP for the My Passport AV portable media drive with 320 GB is Php 4,850.00.

Alright folks. Those who read my previous post about this gig and are interested to join, you have until Thursday, March 25, 2010. I’ve heard that there are not to many people who submitted their entries yet, so you’ve got a better chances of winning the prize – flying to South Africa with your parents or guardians.  Check out the details after the jump

First Filipino flag bearer to FIFA World Cup™

Join now for an experience of a lifetime at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ atwww.clickthecity.com/sonyericssonfifa.  Children have until March 25, 2010 to send in their videos answering, “Why I deserve to win the Sony Ericsson Search for the FIFA World Cup™ flag bearer.”  Sony Ericsson is sending a Filipino child to proudly carry a FIFA flag live on the pitch in South Africa , marking the first time the country will participate in the global sports event.

The competition dares Filipino children aged 10-16 years old to creatively answer the question in a 30-60 second video.  Act, dance, illustrate, sing or perform the reason.  Contestants can submit as many entries as they want.  Five finalists will each win the Sony Ericsson Kita, the gesture gaming phone wonder with 5-megapixel camera, photo geo-tagging, Net access, high quality media player and stereo speakers.

From then on, the five videos will be voted upon for the Philippines to decide who gets to be the first FIFA flag bearer.   The grand winner, together with his parent or guardian, will fly to South Africa in July complete with hotel accommodations and pocket money.  He or she will then walk the pitch with other young flag bearers and watch a thrilling FIFA World Cup™ semi-finals match firsthand.

“This will be the first time for the Philippines to participate in a FIFA World Cup™ event so we are inviting Filipino children to try out and give it their best,” said Dennis Manzano, Sony Ericsson General Manager.

More details are at www.clickthecity.com/sonyericssonfifa. Join in or vote for the top video of your choice.  The grand winner will be announced on April 20, 2010.