I am suffering from a severe bout of ‘gadgetitis’ and have been doing so for sometime now. I am so desiring the Apple Iphone that everyday I read about it on the net. I have been following the cat and mouse game between Steve Jobs and the hackers who have managed to unlock the iphone.

With the release of the upgraded operating system 1.1.1 by Apple which unequivocally lays out their plans to tie up the iphone with specific phone companies all over the world, it is imperative that if I am to get one, it will have to be an unlocked iphone otherwise, I will pay exhorbitant rates using a Philippine sim card in every country I go to. I can’t believe Apple is doing this. It is so ‘unglobal’.

I am thinking of asking my sister to get me a couple of iphones from the US. The going rate here in Manila of an unlocked iphone is around 29K to 35K depending on who you are talking to. With the Peso the way it is, it is cheaper to buy it in the US at around 20K Pesos (399 USD plus tax) locked. I plan on umlocking it myself. A few questions come to mind.

1) Does anyone know what the best software there is to use for unlocking the iphone?

2) In the Philippines, which company will have the honor of carrying the iphone? Globe or Smart?

3) For those who own an iphone, can you give me an idea of your satisfaction rating from 1 to 10?

Gadgetitis is such hard sickness to recover from. In moments like this, I defer to the wisdom of Oscar Wilde who said, ‘The best way to deal with tremptation is to succumb.’ Heh heh.

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Last weekend, APO had a show in Lucena and before hitting the city, we had lunch in a little resort called Palaisdaan that had beautiful exotic animals. There were Palawan bear cats, huge turtles, ostrichs, huge snakes, a puma and two gorgeous tigers.

Beautiful tigers

If this were a lion, it would look like the opening credits of a movie.

A snake crushing a chicken for lunch

A fierce looking puma. It is scary until you hear it growl. My God, it growls like a kitten.

A baby croc.

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It’s an APO weekend at the Music Museum, one of our favorite performance venues. It’s small and intimate enough you can see the people’s faces up and here individual chuckles.

I am really enjoying our shows these days. After 38 years, I just feel we are on a new high. Even our audiences are about 30 to 40 percent young people again. When wqe ask the audience how many are watching us ‘live’ for the first time, we are astonished at the numbers. Sometimes it’s over 50 percent. The new audience has ‘discovered’ us thanks to the tribute albums the bands did to us and our songs. If you are thinking of catching the shows this Friday and Saturday, call 4265301 or 4260103 to inquire about tickets. Don’t take too long. It’s going fast I hear.