War Driving (Stumbling)

My wife has complained to me for the nth time that she has been losing her long lustrous shiny black hair. She blames her overly long hair being so heavy that her hair strands just gives way. She is starting to get bald!!! I wanted my wife to be in her crowning glory. But she insisted that I let her cut it short. After a few arguments along the way, I gave in. We went to a local David's Salon for the job.

With us was our kid son, Louis. Restless as he was (he is 5 years old by the way), I can't seem to be restful myself.

I remember, I have my trusty old iPod Touch with me. I tried stumbling for free wi-fi internet and behold! 3 open gateways for me!

As my wife gets her haircut, I started to browse my way out of boredom again! I even signed-up to one of my suppliers on my online business. Even viewed crazy Japanese shows on www.youtube.com.

Bottomline is, the Philippines has been a wi-fi hotspot everywhere and every business in and around the corner just caters to your online needs if ever it arises.

My iPod Touch

This morning I attended the 1st Philippine Society for Neuro-Oncology Conference at the EDSA Shangrila Hotel. Annoyed by the foreign speakers (which they exalted their Filipino apprentices as well, nonetheless) bragging about anything they can think of just to "sell" their "expertise" to the audience (5 years of good prognosis for Glioblastoma Multiforme? DUH!!! ) Not to mention that the whole conference appeared like a major advertisement of one of the prominent non-stock/non-profit hospitals in the Philippines! I wonder if Luke, one of Christ's disciples, would feel if he's alive right now?!?

Bored to death on that fact, add to that the cool ambiance and the cozy smell of newly brewed coffee, I was starting to close my eyes and to doze off. Good thing I brought with me my 16Gb iPod Touch! Checked for a Wi-fi connection, I was amazed to have at least more than 5 open and free internet connections! Welcome to the Philippines! Please visit us for free wi-fi Internet!

With the Touch's

• 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
• 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch

and

• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
• Maps location based service

I browsed the net on my way out of dreamland! Even checked-out emails and watched YouTube videos on-the-fly. Posted bids and haggled discounts on buy-now merchandise. More powerful than any Windows Mobile device I've ever had. Started on iPaq's way back year 2000, I'm a Microsoft solid fan by the way. I'm a member of PinoyWindowsMobile and many other Microsoft Philippine sites out there including Windows Smartphone devices like modaco.com and airfagev.com to name a few. I've learned to write xml and html on the way. A couple of PDA's and Smartphones later, despite my hesitation, I took my chance on a Mac! Just because of that very impressive multi-touch screen Apple has to boast and 16Gb of storage.

So here I am. Jailbroken my iPod in the past 3 months, installed a couple of free apps, by the way there's a gazillion free apps out there. I've yet to encounter a paid app as I have not in anyway. I've learned to maximize my new found gadget to its full potential.

Perfect as it would have been, I tried to post or edit my blog but I can't. I clicked away like hell on a link but nothing happens. Since Mother's day is fast approaching, I wanted to send my mom and wife an e-card. But to no avail! I guess Safari on the iPod Touch/iPhone is just new. It needed a little maturity for it to be a full-pledged internet browser. It don't even support Flash!

As we walked out of the conference room, wifi signal began to drop dramatically. But thanks to its iPod soul, I was able to entertain myself with my 3Gb worth of music, 4Gb of videos, and a couple of games. I had more than half of its storage capacity left to keep me occupied for a couple of hours.

With its slim and streamlined body, who could ever thought this thing could pack such a powerful processing power and a large storage capacity. Even faster and larger in storage than my workstation at my office of Pentium III 500Mhz with 10Gb hard disk.

Pros: large, high-pixel, multi-touch screen (i use it for personal web browsing more than my computers)
fast processor, 16Gb storage
built-in wifi
lots of free web-based and native applications
small form factor (handheld)

Cons: short battery-life (lasts me up to 2 days only with heavy usage)
no provision for storage expansion,

For detailed specifications, click here.