Tech Friday: COMDDAP Expo 2010

COMDDAP or Computer Manufacturers, Distributors & Dealers Association of the Philippines will be having their annual expo this December 2 up to December 5, 2010. For those who are wondering what's this expo is all about, it's just the showcase of well renowned IT companies from all around the world. 51 companies will either display their latest product, or will try to meet their last quarter sales by selling their products in rock bottom prices. Expect the likes of Microsoft and Apple. Intel and AMD, and many many more. Details and event schedule after the jump.

COMDDAP Expo 2010
December 2 - December 5, 2010
SM Mall of Asia SMX Convention
10:00AM - 7:00PM

OLDEST PC HUNT
‘HUNT’ Mechanics

1. The ‘HUNT’ is open to

individuals residing in the Philippines excluding COMDDAP EXPO MANILA 2010 organizers and staff up to the 2nd degree of consanguinity; and
Philippine-owned and based private companies, government institutions, and ‘ non-profit organizations excluding those who are classified as part of the I.C.T. industry in all levels as distributors, resellers, representatives and agents of PC manufacturers, brands or services;

2. PC units to be entered in the ‘HUNT’ must be in its original form, not necessarily working, and with its basic original components intact;
3. The ‘HUNT’ entries must conform to the following definition:

Microcomputer designed for use by an individual at one time;
Comprised of the following components: central processing unit (CPU), internal memory consisting of RAM and ROM;
Capable of connecting to a data storage device (i.e. hard disc, floppy disc, cassette drives, CD/ROM/DVD, etc.) and input/output device.

4. Entry forms will be made available together with the contest rules in the www.comddap.org site. These forms must be accomplished in full and sent via (a) email to info@comddap.org or exhibit@comddap.org ; (b) faxed to +632 8156531; (c) delivered by postage to: The COMDDAP Secretariat, 7F SEDCCO Building, Rada Street, Legaspi Village, Makati City. Entries must be postmarked or dated no later than October 31, 2010.
5. All entries will be reviewed by the Organizers to ensure that no duplication of models or brands are entered. In the event that there are duplications, the first to submit their entry (to be based on the postmarked [if mailed] or date [if sent via email or facsimile] is qualified to join.
6. Qualified entry owners will be contacted by the COMDDAP Secretariat via telephone and email to confirm the entry.
7. The ‘Hunt’ PC entries are expected to be at the COMDDAP Secretariat Office on or before November 15, 2010. These units remain to be the sole property of the owners, as defined in the official entry form.
8. Qualified entries will be displayed (from December 2 to 5), judged, and awarded during the Opening Ceremony of COMDDAP EXPO MANILA 2010 event on December 2 at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City.

Entry Process & Form
1. Download the form from www.comddap.org site.
2. Entries (included in the form) must be accomplished in full to include the following data:

(a) Owner’s Name;
(b) Complete Address;
(c) Contact Number/s;
(d) Email Address/es; and
(e) Full Description of PC citing the (1) brand; (2) Model; (3) Accessories/Peripherals included; and (4) Working or Non-working.
and
3. All entries should be accompanied with a photo that will show the unit in full clarity.

Judging Criteria

1. PC Unit’s state [completeness – main board and CPU; all components intact] – 70%
2. Age of PC Unit [launching date pf PC model in the market*] – 30%

Bonus points maybe given to working PCs at the time of submission to the COMDDAP Secretariat or of display (December 2, 2010).

NOTE: Old PCs that may qualify: Apple II, Commodore 64s, IBM PCXT or other 1st generation units, Altair 8800b, 1960 Digital PDP-1

COMDDAP AUCTION 2010
AUCTION MECHANICS

1. There will be a maximum of two (2) auctions per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, depending on the number of event participants who are willing to have their products auctioned off.
2. Items to be auctioned will be displayed either physically in the auction area or via picture in the projector screen with the corresponding specifications and suggested retail prices (SRPs).
3. The auctioneer will start the auction by announcing and describing the item to be auctioned starting with the agreed starting bid price.
4. Qualified bidders will be allowed to give their bid offer on the floor.
5. All of the offered bid prices will be displayed on the projector screen as the auctioneer conducts the bidding process.
6. The auctioneer will give three (3) opportunities for any bidder to give his last offer after which the bid process ends. Highest bid wins.
7. Each bidding has a maximum of ten (10) minutes to complete.
8. A Certificate or Confirmation Slip will be given to the winning bidder (after each bid) as a proof, and to be used for processing of payment and claim.

REGISTRATION PROCESS
1. For Activity Participants/ Vendors
a. Interested activity participants (limited to confirmed event exhibitors only) can submit registration form to the COMDDAP Secretariat, subject to approval by the committee in charge.
b. Items to be auctioned off should be submitted/delivered to the COMDDAP Secretariat, and PRIOR to the event dates. Vendor should indicate the starting bid price, and the suggested retail price (SRP).
2. For Bidders
a. Interested bidders should register at the Registration Counter, or the area designated for Auction Registration.
b. Daily Auction is open to both the exhibit visitors and the personnel of the event participants/exhibitors.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
1. The auctioned items that had a winning bid, should be paid in cash or credit card, or dependent on the vendor’s policy on the same day that it was auctioned off. Otherwise, the bidding exercise is forfeited.
2. Warranty of items will be based on the vendor’s policy.
3. 10% of the winning bid price will be “donated” to COMDDAP, which in turn will be added to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds of the event.

WHAT ITEMS ARE QUALIFIED FOR AUCTION
1. Only items worth One Thousand Pesos only (Php 1,000.00) and over are qualified for auction.
2. All items to be auctioned off should be ICT related.

Tech Friday: Instant Photography is Back

Remember the good old times of Polaroid film? You know, take a shot and develop the film on the spot. I know some of the younger generation might not know this cool camera, but to the rest of us, owning a Polaroid camera was neat back then.



Now, you can enjoy once again that point, shoot and develop feel because Polaroid's instant camera and instant film is back on business. Details after the jump.



Introducing the new CZA-05300 Polaroid PoGo (called Polaroid 2.0 by some). This baby has a 5.0 megapixel sensor and a 4x digital zoom. This may be downright boring to some, but what this baby have is a build in high speed printer. The built-in Zink printer produces quality colored 2x3 inches pictures 40 seconds per photo. The photo paper is smudge proof, water resistant and tear resistant and comes with an adhesive back to let you stick your pictures anywhere.

If you are into photography just for fun or you're just a vain person. This camera is definitely for you. The SRP is P9,995 in some famous electronics boutique.

Tech Friday: Google Instant

No, it's not that just add water thing you are currently thinking right now. Google recently launched their new feature in their ever growing search engine.

Google Instant makes you see instantly the results of the keyword you were searching. This may be troublesome to others but this feature is pretty cool IMHO.

Tech Friday: Apple launches new iPod models

Last September 1, Steve Jobs introduced the new line of Apple iPods that will be available on stores this coming September 8, 2010.

These new breed of iPods will surely answer the need of the consumers for a better music experience. Details after the jump

iPod Shuffle



The "budget" iPod that sacrifices a display screen to bring you a cheap music player. The iPod Shuffle is now on its fourth generation includes the return of clickable track and volume controls form the first two generations. The control pad is 18% larger than the second generation of iPod shuffle and the model also features VoiceOver from the third generation in twenty-five languages. It also features Genius and handles multiple playlists. They are currently being sold in 2 Gigabyte models with US pricing for the device announced to start at US$49.

iPod Nano



My personal favorite. This iPod is like the standard iPod but suffers dwarfism. The sixth generation iPod nano now comes with a multi touch screen similar to the iPod Touch. Don't expect a large screen though. Some notable changes are as follows: the device now features a smaller lower resolution (higher pixel density) screen which supports multi-touch. The device supports over 24 hours of music playback on a single charge. Also, the device retains the same 30-pin dock connector as previous generations. The new iPod Nano also does not support video playback.Additionally, the device no longer has a camera or voice recorder, as Apple's market research determined that many customers rarely used those features in the previous generation devices. The 6th generation iPod is also at the same price point as the 5th generation device which is $149.

iPod Touch



The big daddy of the iPod line. Since it's first release last September 2007, the iPod Touch (some misname it as iTouch) sold millions already. The fourth generation ipod Touch is bundled with new innovations that will surely make you want to buy it. The front-facing camera for FaceTime, the iPhone's retina display, has support for recording 720p video and 960 x 720 still photos via a back camera, Apple's A4 chip, a built-in microphone and a 3-axis gyroscope are the notable changes that you can get from this next model which you can get for as low as $229.

There you have it folks. Apple will surely make your wallets cry in agony.

Till next time.

Tech Friday: McAfee sold to Intel for $7.68 billion

McAfee, the Santa Clara-based security / antivirus company, was recently acquired by Intel and it will function as a wholly owned subsidiary (under the control of its Software and Services group). Experts believe that this move is Intel's step into strengthening the security of connected devices (i.e. wifi gizmos). As we all know, we are already on the wireless age and a series of threats that attack the vulnerability of this network are developed every day. Let's just wait for what Intel is cooking after the acquisition.

Tech Friday: Android OS

I've been busy lately and my site was overrun by outdated content. So here we are with a new gimmick that comes every week to satisfy your technophilia techo hunger. Welcome Techo Friday! It's Friday the 13th today and it's fitting to launch this new segment of my website on this wonderful day. Anyway, our first topic is one of the trending topics in twitter and geeks dig this operating system like hot pandesal. I'm talking about Android! So let's begin!

Android is none other than Google's flagship operating system for mobile devices (mobile phones, netbooks and such). It's based on Linux kernel and GNU software so expect it to be opensource.

A lot of developers jumped on the Android bandwagon since it's distribution last 2007 and doubled on its release last October 2008. Since then, lots of mobile companies like HTC, LG, Samsung and Motorola took advantage of the flexibility of the OS to bring us mobile phones with rich content and customization. So how many versions of Android are there anyway? What the heck aere those cupcakes they were talking about? Well, just like Microsoft uses a codename/petname to their Windows, Google tend to satisfy their sweet tooth with these names:

note: Before they called it like sweet desserts, HTC Dream was the first mobile phone to use the Android OS (Android 1.0)

1.5 (Cupcake)
-Ability to record and watch videos through camcorder mode
-Uploading videos to YouTube and pictures to Picasa directly from the phone
-A new soft-keyboard with text-prediction
-Bluetooth A2DP and AVRCP support
-Ability to automatically connect to a Bluetooth headset within a certain distance
-New widgets and folders that can populate the Home screens
-Animated screen transitions

LG GW620, HTC Hero and Motorola MB300 were among the first early adopters of this version.

1.6 (Donut)
-An improved Android Market experience
-An integrated camera, camcorder, and gallery interface
-Gallery now enables users to select multiple photos for deletion
-Updated Voice Search, with faster response and deeper integration with native applications, including the ability to dial contacts-
-Updated search experience to allow searching bookmarks, history, contacts, and the web from the home screen
-Updated technology support for CDMA/EVDO, 802.1x, VPNs, and a text-to-speech engine
-Support for WVGA screen resolutions
-Speed improvements in searching and camera applications
-Gesture framework and GestureBuilder development tool

HTC Sapphire, Samsung Galaxy and Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 were among the popular phones who used this version.

2.0/2.1 (Eclair)
-Optimized hardware speed
-Support for more screen sizes and resolutions
-Revamped UI
-New Browser UI and HTML5 support
-New contact lists
-Better white-black ratio for backgrounds
-Improved Google Maps 3.1.2
-Microsoft Exchange support
-Built in flash support for Camera
-Digital Zoom
-MotionEvent class enhanced to track multi-touch events
-Improved virtual keyboard
-Bluetooth 2.1
-Live Wallpapers

Motorola Droid, HTC Legend, Samsung Galaxy S and Google Nexus One were the notable mention on this version.

2.2 (Froyo)
-General Android OS speed, memory, and performance optimizations
-Additional application speed improvements courtesy of JIT implementation
-Integration of Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine into the Browser application
-Increased Microsoft Exchange support (security policies, auto-discovery, GAL look-up, calendar synchronization, remote wipe)
-Improved application launcher with shortcuts to Phone and Browser applications
-USB tethering and WiFi hotspot functionality
-Added an option to disable data access over mobile network
-Updated Market application with batch and automatic update features
-Quick switching between multiple keyboard languages and their dictionaries
-Voice dialing and contact sharing over Bluetooth
-Support for numeric and alphanumeric passwords
-Support for file upload fields in the Browser application
-Browser can now display animated GIFs (instead of just the first frame)
-Support for installing applications to the expandable memory
-Adobe Flash 10.1 support

Motorola Droid 2 and HTC Evo 4G are one of the few current phones that uses this latest stable version.

note: An upcoming version (3.0) on Q4 2010 is named Gingerbread and support for WebM video playback and improved copy–paste functionalities are the currently confirmed features. Rumor has it that the upcoming "PSP phone" of Sony will use this version.

There you have it guys. If you are planning to join the Android craze, better check the version first and the capabilities of that "flavor" in order to satisfy your cravings.

Till next time on Tech Friday!