I’ve noticed that more Filipino professionals and businessmen are now using BlackBerry smart phones. I use a BlackBerry Bold 9000 myself and other than the small tech issues, I’m very happy and satisfied with the unit. I literally am able to run my business and all my other sidelines using the phone. Ultimately the main attraction of the BlackBerry is their mobile push e-mail system. There are times that the e-mail comes in my mobile inbox faster than my Outlook (which is weird), haha. The ability to answer emails on the go effortlessly is such a huge advantage and benefit for people...

It looks like all major tech companies are now focusing on delivering multi-touch tablet products. Apple’s iPad is set to ship sometime this summer. Shortly after them though Lenovo will be launching a truly revolutionary product – the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid. Why is it revolutionary? It’s a 2-in-1 device. It’s a laptop but you can actually remove part of the monitor and it becomes a 3G Multi-touch Tablet. Whoa! Talk about a super epic win! The Lenovo IdeaPad U1 will cost $999 USD or around P50,000. It will be available on the market starting June 1, 2010. For more information,...

One of my biggest frustrations is that I’m not a good cook, haha. I can fry and steam food but that’s about the extent of my abilities. Well to those out there who are like me, here’s good news. The Academy of International Culinary Arts is raffling away a diploma course to anyone interested. All you have to do is to just go to their promo page and fill out the raffle form and your automatically included in the list. Feel free to pass this to your friends and loved ones. Disclosure: AICA is one of our clients for marketing consultancy.

Manny Pangilinan purchased majority share in TV 5 and gave out a strong message in the recent Ad Congress. He said that TV 5 would be the force that would break the duopoly between ABS-CBN and GMA 7. Having worked for a PLDT company, I’d have to say that TV 5 has a strong chance of doing so. Combine the elements of professional management, strong marketing, and big budget then you have a powerhouse in the making. TV5 actually fired the first shot already by pirating Paolo Bediones from GMA7. From what I heard though Paolo was given a corporate/management job and not a talent role. Looks like...

In the New Generations study made by Cartoon Network, it was shown that internet usage has grown tremendously, especially with the 7-14 y/o age bracket. In fact, 61% of all Filipinos in that age are already online. As an internet marketer, this is definitely good news but I was very alarmed when I also saw that reading books dropped to fourth place, behind TV, internet usage, and listening to music. Let me just take this opportunity to share some insights on this. Books have made me who I am today Other than having great mentors, I also owe a lot to the non-school books that I voraciously read...

As most of you have probably noticed, I’ve been on a pretty long blogging break. The reason behind this is I’ve been busy preparing for my wedding/engagement proposal to my girlfriend of almost 9 years. Last Sunday I finally proposed and it definitely was one of the most memorable and special moments in my life. I did it in public during our Sunday service at Victory Greenhills. Mich said yes and I’m now officially “engaged”! Fortunately a lot of people took pictures and videos and I wanted to share them with all of you now. Here’s the complete proposal caught...

During my usual “Facebooking” nights, I got an invitation from a fan profile page from Go Negosyo. Since I was an avid supporter of the program, I decided to be fan. However, it looks like some group is using other intellectual properties without their permission so that they can spam users into going to their website. I find this in bad taste and I couldn’t resist writing about it. The person spamming is Martin De Leon and the group he belongs to is called the “Create Abundance Business Community”. I’d like to take this opportunity to voice out my concern with...

I worked in the online gaming industry for almost 5 years. I started out as a Community Manager for ePLDT’s netGames, and eventually moved up the ranks all the way up to Marketing Head for the Casual Games Division for the leading online gaming company in the country – Level Up. The training I received from Level Up has made me a much better professional and person and I can’t thank them enough for having me on board as part of the team for the past 4 years. Anyway, I’m just sharing that Level Up now has several job openings that you guys might be interested in applying...

I got a few calls from friends this afternoon saying that http://newmedia.com.ph was down. The message was that the domain expired. This got me really frustrated and angry since I was running an ad campaign to drive traffic to the site and I was just plugging New Media in a talk I was giving this afternoon to around 150 people. I called up my host and domain registry – www.philhosting.net to see what was happening. Man… I literally flipped out in anger after talking to their customer support agent. This is by far one of the worst experiences I’ve had with a tech company (save...

As most of you have noticed by now, I’ve been writing political analysis and commentaries here at New Media Philippines for the past few weeks. I believe that this is kinda ruining the topic flow of this site but I’m having a hard time NOT writing about politics. So instead of “spamming” New Media Philippines with political commentaries, I’ve decided to launch a new blog focuses on current events and politics. I’m very happy to announce the soft launch of www.juancountry.com. I’ve already moved some of my previous posts here and I’ve also added...

If you’re like me, then you’re probably pissed off right now at how slow your internet is. You might have problems playing your favorite online game, or it’s taking you half an hour just to upload a picture on Facebook. Did some research and apparently this is caused by a disruption in the undersea cables in Asia. So… relax a bit. You’re not the only guy experiencing the slow down. There’s a good chance almost everyone in the Philippines is. Here’s a snippet of the article I’m talking about: A segment of the Asia-Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) undersea...

For months now, we’ve been aggressively fighting the CON ASS initiative by House Speaker Prospero Nograles and the rest of the 171 congressmen who voted for it in plenary. Our primary vehicle was the STOP CON ASS Facebook movement, which garnered over 110,000 members in less than a month. In today’s issue of the Inquirer, there was a story there with several Congressmen saying that one of the reasons why the CON ASS movement wouldn’t prosper anymore was because of President Cory Aquino. Even in death, the mother of Democracy gave one last service to the Filipino people.

Don’t believe me? Two major media outlets came out with pictures of what looks like President Arroyo being carried in casket. Here’s a picture and the caption in yesterday’s issue of the Manila Bulletin. But wait… there’s more. Check out the other picture after the break. This time it’s the coverage of a major television station.

My good friend sent me an e-mail with a blog post from a Facebook user named Happy Feraren. While she was waiting for President Cory Aquino’s cortege, she and her Mom decided to buy a yellow umbrella. They were then given a yellow beaded bracelet afterwards for free. However, when they looked closer at the bracelet, it had the picture of Senator Jamby Madrigal, who recently declared her intention to run for the Presidency in 2010. Senator Madrigal, with all due respect, I think you’ve crossed the line with your politicking. Giving away campaign materials during the memorial service...

SUMMIT Media is really taking their online content strategy seriously. I just heard that they launched two new websites – Techie.com.ph and Yummy.ph. Both sites have content that’s popular in the Philippines – gadgets and food. Check both sites out and let me know what you think. I’ll do reviews of both websites in separate posts.

I’m 27 years old, I come from a political family, and yet I don’t really know much about former President Cory Aquino. All I know was that she succeeded former President Marcos through EDSA in 1986 and that she’s been criticizing the Arroyo administration for the past few years. When I heard she passed away this morning, I was really surprised to be genuinely saddened by the news. I did some soul searching while driving along Ateneo (meeting a colleague) and then it struck me why. This post is for my generation and the next generation of Filipinos who never really knew Cory....

Remember by post on 10,000 hours from Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers? Well, here’s a kid who’s well on his way on becoming the next global guitar superstar. He’s already making waves on Youtube and it’s only a matter of time before mainstream media picks this up and he’s the new poster boy for New Media.His name is Sungha Jung. Here’s one of his videos that’s my personal favorite! Sungha Jung – Billie Jean I’ve compiled some of his other videos in a separate blog post on my gaming and technology blog. You might want to check it out.

Yahoo recently overhauled their homepages – both the local and global versions. The first major difference is the color scheme. Finally, their marketing department realized that they can’t brand themselves purple if the color of their logo and site is red. They’ve changed to color scheme to reflect the “purple hunt” campaign that they’ve been running for the past few months. Yahoo still isn’t going the simple-minimalist direction of Google with their redesign. They’re still heavy on content and they’ve added a new sidebar feature to the global...

My blogging has been a bit intermittent over the past few weeks because I’ve been having insane amounts of trouble with my PLDT MyDSL connection. I’ve written a detailed account of what I’ve been experiencing in my Games & Technology blog, Waukster Online. Let me just post the links to the posts for your “reading pleasure”. Right now I’m just relying on my cellphone’s built-in modem so that I can connect to the net. Broadband DSL Rants and Raves – A post summarizing my experiences with various broadband providers. I talked about what I went...

To those who don’t know, I just celebrated my 27th birthday. The past year for me has been one of the most significant times in my life. I went through so much changes in the past 12 months – physically, emotionally, spiritually, and professionally. Some for worse, but most definitely for the better. I’d like to think that the past year was one of breakthroughs. I overcame a lot of challenges and was presented with so much opportunity for growth. Here’s a short video I made celebrating the past year. Hope you guys enjoy watching it. With the grace of God and the support...