The Beanster Blog

I left Globe late 2011 and moved to SMART. Nearly two (2) years later my situation with SMART has deteriorated to deplorable levels at home and so-so at work. Still no LTE for both. I got a Globe line recently and have been testing their service. I must admit the last time I was with Globe I had a terrible experience during their upgrade phase. SMART - I pay 999PhP/monthly for 40 mins, 100 sms, and unlimited data. GLOBE – for testing I got a 299PhP/monthly plan with 500 peso value, this peso value I applied to a GoSURF 499 package (1.5Gb data + Spotify Premium for 6 months) so I have 1 peso left. that’s 1 SMS everything else is on top. My strategy: Reduce my SMART plan from 999 to 349 (the lowest plan with SMART) as I transition from SMART to Globe. Increase Globe from 299 to 999 (peso value 1,700) and get GoSURF 999 (5Gb). The staff at Globe center V-Mall told me I can upgrade anytime so I call GLOBE and ask how to upgrade my plan. Now here is the dumb part: I was informed to...

Globe has recently been dominant in my feeds. unfortunately for the telco it’s not positive news at all. Globe got blasted for managing their network, which according to the NTC is within their rights, via their fair-use policy (FUP) their official response leaves nothing to be desired and could be construed as a cop-out. Why does Globe Telecom compare themselves to US carriers? US carriers over-charge and treat their customers horribly. So I guess the comparison is valid. I don't see the US comparison as justifying their FUP but as an admission of guilt that their service sucks! Smart Communications, Inc. even though I still don't have LTE at home/work since switching (1 year plus) it is clear that their network is better in more places vs Globe (still YMMV). smart's response is a bit more arrogant but they are keeping up for the most part. The NTC is asking globe to explain the complaints re: their network management tactics. so they will probably get fined, and do ...

I love htc, I loved them way back when they were just an OEM and did not sell their own devices. I owned several htc made devices under the XDA, imate, dopod, Palm, htc brands. So it pains me to see this company struggling in today's mobile wars. My question is: why has htc stopped innovating? I think they became a "me too" player and that is why they are in trouble. htc used to have tons of form-factors. Remember these: They had portrait slider (htc blue angel aka o2 xda) They had landscape slider (htc wizard aka doped 838) They had landscape slider w/ tilting screen (htc tytn) They had a convertible (htc universal) They had a qwerty bar (treo pro, htc cha cha) Now if all the competition is churning out slabs why not go the other way and serve a different form factor. I bought an htc cha cha good idea form factor wise but the specs were less than mediocre, htc should update this design and put A1 specs on it. no one is doing qwerty bar except blackberry....

So which is it? Nokia (NOK) and Microsoft (MSFT) announced a partnership today. Both lumbering companies have been in some trouble with their smartphone divisions. Both have been loosing market share to Apple, Android and Blackberry in recent years. WindowsMobile (previously PocketPC and currently WindowsPhone) once the dominant mobile OS, yes folks before the iPhone came into power Microsoft slowly but surely killed of it’s main competitor palm OS, which was acquired by hp last year and is now barely a sliver of a shadow of it’s former former former self. Just this week hp/palm unveiled 2 new smartphones the palm Pre 3 and Veer, as well as their entry into the tablet space with the TouchPad. hp being one of the top computer manufacturers at the moment has the resources to use and spread webOS like a creamy peanut butter across all markets they are in. By being one of MSFT’s biggest customers now suddenly not using Windows7 (still MSFT’s tablet OS of choice) and churning out comp...

Gadget sites are reporting that WindowsPhone7 (WP7) will be dropping on 11-October-2010… they should have made it 10-10-10 and give it a spin w/ marketing it as the best effort from Microsoft’s mobile division.

Feb 15, 2010 Barcelona, Spain – Microsoft Introduces it’s latest generation of mobile OS. It’s now called Windows Phone 7 series (and yes it is a mouthful). I watched the keynote and was surprised on what they have announced. WP7 looks and will probably be very very different from previous versions of Windows Mobile. As an old time WinMob user and fanboi I have a feeling of melancholy with this coming version (Microsoft says devices should ship by end of 2010). Looking back at this: Unsolicited Advice to Microsoft & the WM7 Team blog post. It seems that Microsoft was able to address some of my concerns but then again much much more have been raised. #1 scrap standard concentrate on professional. //It is unclear at this time if there will be only one version of WindowsPhone7 series but so far it looks like they will only have a touch version. #2 be strict with hardware requirements. //I applaud Microsoft for taking more control over this now we shall see how the OEMs will c...