Musings

Gadgetitis, animals and an APO weekend

15 Comments

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.

15 thoughts on “Gadgetitis, animals and an APO weekend”

  1. hi mr. jim,im having fun everytime i read your blog. . .especially this one. your group is the best for me. . . i really really love apo. . .God bless

    Reply

  3. hi sir Jim,

    si Charm po to from Michigan; I don’t know if you remember. Anyway, try po kayo visit sa Ilounge.com – it’s a messageboard of sort, you’re find a lot of Iphone users there – nag-tambay lang.. 😀

    Reply

  6. HI MR. JIM PAREDES,
    THIS IS RHEA FROM TORONTO, JUST WANNA LET YOU KNOW DAT IM SO EXCITED TODAY COZ TONIGHT ULL BE PERFORMING AT MUSIC MUSEUM AND THAT CONCERT OF YOURS IS OUR ( ME AND MY BORTHER) GIFT TO OUR PARENTS FOR THEIR 31ST WEDDING ANNIVERSARY. IN THEIR 31 YRS OF BEING MAGASAWA THIS IS THE VERY FIRST TIME NA MAKAKANOOD NG LIVE CONCERT ACTUALLY 1ST TIME NILA SA BUONG BUHAY NILA JUST IN CASE U HAVE THE CHANCE TO READ THIS BEFORE YOUR SHOW I HOPE U CAN GREET THEM IN YOUR CONCERT ( I GOT THEM THE FRONT SEATS THATS WHY IM SO EXCITED NAG ASK LANG PO AKO SA FRIEND KO JAN SA MANILA TO BUY 3 TICKETS FOR OUR NANAY AND TATAY AND 1 FOR MY COUSIN AS THEIR CHAPERON HEHEHE) THEYLL BE WATCHIN DA OCT.12 SHOW HOPE U CAN GREET MY MR. PET TALARDE AND MRS. ESTER TALARDE FOR THEIR ANNIV. IN UR SHOW FOR SURE ULL GONNA MAKE THEM VERYVERY HAPPY TNK U SO MUCH AND MORE POWER

    Reply

  9. i heard pinoys were the first ones to unlock the iphone. some people here are already using it. it works with globe daw. most probably it will also work with smart. hehe.

    Reply

  10. Hi Rhea, we greeted your folks last night.

    nonong- zen notwithstanding, I allow myself certain joys and luho sometiemes. ha ha. Gadgets are just so fascinating. And believe me, I don’t buy every gadget that comes along.

    babypink–don’t wait too long

    lara–it was the americans who first unlocked it, and shared the software with the world through the net.

    Reply

  12. Hi Mr. Jim!! Bloghopping lang po. Got here through GreyMom’s site. Anyway, regarding the iPhone, I got mine in the US and had it unlocked here. I heard the rates for unlocking range from Php1800 to 5000. I’m using Sun Cellular and it works just fine. The thing I don’t like about it much is that the “keys” on the “keyboard” display for the SMS feature is so small. Tuloy mali-mali kung minsan yung spelling ko. Unintentional yan ha. Otherwise, it’s fine. Also, I couldn’t figure out how to transfer my entire directory even if it was saved on my sim. I had to type up my entire directory again. Yun lang po.

    Reply

  14. Well Sir jim, I was in los angeles last week, and a friend of mine here in sydney asked me to buy him an iphone. Which I did, and he had his mate unlock it for him, I dont know how much that cost him though. The other hiccup isnt just unlocking it, but apple has been coming out with updates to help you run your iphone more smoothly(NOT!). Those updates need unlocking too! so there is another catch. Hope that helps:)

    Reply

  15. Professionals or career oriented people here find iPhone to be more of for entertainment purpose than an all around utility gadget. A Treo 750W or 755P has more functionality but cost a whole lot more.

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