Congress OKs Internet-based phone services liberalization

The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill that would totally liberalize Internet-based telephone services.

Under House Bill 5284 —the proposed Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Act —telecommunication, Internet service and cable TV providers would be required to extend equal capacity access to all entities supplying web-based telephone services.

Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, one of the authors of the bill, said the measure expressly forbids network operators from discriminating against VoIP service providers, and from degrading in any way the access of their subscribers.

“Consumers, including small traders and the families of overseas workers, are entitled to benefit from cheap telephone services over the Internet,” Villa-fuerte said, adding that VoIP would also spur business activity and build up the country’s competitiveness in the global information and communications technology (ICT) market.

VoIP involves the routing of voice signals or conversations over the Internet, or through any other Internet Protocol-based network, instead of via the traditional circuit-based technology.

Villafuerte noted that with VoIP, the cost of international calls is expected to drop to as low as $0.05 from $0.40 per minute.
He said VoIP services would become “irresistibly popular in the country in the months ahead as more Filipinos gain easier access to the Internet.”

The number of Internet users in the Philippines is projected to double to 13.5 million by 2008, from just 5.8 million this year, according to the global ICT research and advisory firm XMG Inc.

Low price

In the US alone, Villa-fuerte said over 300,000 consumers are signing up every month for low-priced Internet telephony, bringing the total VoIP subscribers there to over seven million as of June.

Under HB 5284, now pending Senate action, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) would strictly oversee the liberalization of VOIP services, and ensure that such services become readily available to the general public.

The bill explicitly bans “prohibitive” network interconnection charges.

The NTC would ascertain the rates to be levied by network providers.

Regulators would see to it that VoIP service providers enjoy a fair and reasonable margin, in order to keep them viable.

Network providers would also be disallowed from requiring their subscribers to purchase or use, or to refrain from purchasing or using any VoIP services as a precondition to obtaining broadband service.

Besides Villafuerte, the other authors of HB 5284 are Reps. Clavel Martinez (Cebu, 4th), Abraham Mitra, Simeon Kintanar (Cebu, 2nd), Rufino Biazon, Janette Garin and Eufrocino Codilla.

Villafuerte said the bill will reinforce existing NTC guidelines for VoIP service providers. (PR)

Nokia ‘Internet Edition’

Limpag: Nokia ‘Internet Edition’
By Max Limpag
Celltalk

Web services. Nokia is shipping a new version of the N80, which is dubbed as the Internet Edition. The phone offers wireless LAN access with an easy-to-use wizard to help in configuring Internet access.

The device will contain, “Internet services not previously installed together on Nokia devices.”

What’s great about the phone is that it allows users to place Internet calls using voice-over Internet protocol (VOIP). I’m not sure, however, whether telcos will be actively promoting this, especially in the Philippines, as they have been continually campaigning against it. VOIP threatens to eat up their huge cash cow: long-distance phone call charges.

The VOIP framework, according to a Nokia press release, is integrated into the phone’s interface that “making an Internet call with the Nokia N80 Internet Edition is as easy as making a regular voice call; only the call is carried over WLAN.”

The phone also allows downloading “compatible third party Internet call applications.” The company didn’t say in their statement but maybe we could assume Skype, the top VOIP application in the Web, will work with the phone.

PACKAGED. The Nokia N80 Internet Edition, the company said, “. . . comes out of the box ready to create, connect, consume and interact with some of the Internet’s most popular services.

“Use Yahoo! Search in the Mobile Search application to conveniently search for and find most anything on the web, and use the Mini Map functionality of the Internet browser to enjoy the pages you find. Browse through thousands of items at Amazon.com, or scroll though a book with Amazon’s MobiPocket Reader.

“You can also share your moments online—snap a photo and send it directly from your device to your Flickr site for your friends and family to enjoy, too.

Connect to the Yahoo! Community using the Yahoo! Go for Mobile application.”

Most of these services work with current multimedia phones but since these are not integrated into the service, you’d need a bit of a workaround to make them function.

Expect coming mobile phones to come integrated with Web services as the days of a truly mobile Internet slowly dawns on us.

Limpag: Back up your phone data online

By Max Limpag
Celltalk

Important data. Most people nowadays, especially those who grew up with cell phones, don’t keep phone numbers and contact details in paper organizers. Try asking kids what a Filofax or a Rolodex is and they’d likely give you a blank look.

The ability of phones to keep and organize contact details has made it most people’s default and sole “address book.” People no longer take phone numbers down; they’d either ask that you “miscall” them so that they can save the number or send the contact details via SMS, infrared or Bluetooth.

This reliance on a single device for your contacts database can be risky. If your phone gets stolen, will you still be able to reconstruct your address book? If you’re like most people, you’d likely answer no.

AS EASY AS Z-Y-B. Most new phones come with PC suites, programs that allow you to manage your handset’s data from your computer. This can be very helpful in backing up data. If you’re using a Sony Ericsson phone, junk the CD that came with it and use Float’s Mobile Agent (go ahead, Google it).

The problem with these desktop applications, however, is that you need to connect the phone to your PC regularly if you want up-to-date backups of your data.

This is where zyb.com comes in. The FREE service allows you to backup your phone book and calendar online, without having to connect your handset to the PC. If your phone ever gets lost or stolen, you can just buy a new unit and get all your phone contacts and calendar items by connecting to zyb.com.

If your phone can connect to the Internet and it has SyncML (most likely it has), then you can use zyb.com. The site says you can use “almost any mobile” from Nokia, SonyEricsson, Siemens and Motorola and “some of the newer models” from Samsung, LG and others.

HOW TO. The service is easy to use. The service, however, isn’t for people uncomfortable with storing sensitive data online.

Just go to zyb.com, sign up for an account, enter your phone number and cell phone model and the service will send you a message containing the install setting for your phone. Just follow the instructions on the screen.

To make things even easier, just choose “set up this mobile automatically” and follow the on-screen instructions.

I tried zyb.com using a SonyEricsson K750i on a Smart connection and it worked. The initial synchronization may take time because the entire phone address book and calendar are being sent but you can speed up synchronization later by choosing to sync only the new data.

The synchronization with my Smart unit took less than five minutes and when I checked my prepaid load, I found that I merely spent less than P30 for the transaction.

I then used zyb.com to enter calendar and phone data and then clicked on the Zyb synchronization shortcut in my phone and the data was downloaded to the unit.

It was a different story with my wife’s phone, though. I tried to sync her SonyEricsson T630 Globe unit to the service and it wouldn’t work.

I don’t know if it was a handset problem or a network problem but I tried and failed more than four times. I no longer had the time to do further tests, though, as I had to submit this column.

Ready, set, snap: Nokia N73 starts shipping

Nokia said shipments have begun for the Nokia N73, a stunning multimedia computer with excellent photography features and integrated stereo speakers for optimized audio pleasure.

The Nokia N73 includes a 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera with Carl Zeiss optics, and support for social networks on the Internet like Flickr, the world’s leading online photo sharing community.

The Nokia N73 is available in two color combinations: silver gray/deep plum, and frost white/mocha brown.

"We are very excited to bring the Nokia N73 to the world. It’s the ideal companion for any digital camera lover or simply anyone who appreciates stunning print quality and multimedia just a slide and a click away," said Parikshit Bhasin, country general manager of Nokia Philippines.

"At the core of the Nokia N73 is a camera that is truly ready for the Internet age, enabling people to share their photos on the Web in an instant on Flickr or other photo-sharing communities," he added.

The Nokia N73 meets a multitude of the everyday user’s needs – in one pocketable device. Available in 3G or quad-band EDGE/GSM networks, it has all the diversity of a multimedia computer enabled with the S60 3rd Edition Software on Symbian OS.

Combining powerful photography features with support for browsing, e-mail and Internet communities renders the Nokia N73 the ultimate connected camera.

A high-quality 3.2 megapixel (2048 x 1536 pixels) camera with Carl Zeiss optics, the Nokia N73 provides "real" photo quality up to 10" x 8" (25 x 20 cm).

Thanks to the mechanical shutter and advanced auto-focus, photos are sharper, boasting crisp detail with reduced movement distortion, even in low light conditions. Once you’ve snapped photos or videos, viewing them is a simple pleasure on the large, high-resolution, 2.4-inch full screen landscape viewfinder.

Display photos instantly on the beautiful screen, edge to edge, by simply pressing the dedicated review key. The powerful and intuitive active toolbar interface provides a one-touch selection to effortlessly send photos via e-mail, Bluetooth connectivity or MMS, print or upload them onto an Internet community.

Impress your friends by creating a slideshow, complete with your own stereo music soundtrack. Simply select your favorite images and digital tunes, and enjoy the show.

Less than 90cc, the high-performing Nokia N73 not only travels with you, but also has intuitive functionality for additional ease-of-use.

In fact, every aspect of the Nokia N73 has been designed to make photography easy. The dedicated controls for capture, zoom and review, together with the active toolbar interface, provide intuitive and fast control of key camera functions.

Nokia N73 users will also be able to use Amazon’s Mobipocket Reader and Amazon Anywhere features, which will be pre-installed on the device in certain areas.

With Amazon Anywhere, shoppers can get immediate access to Amazon’s expansive selection and search customer reviews, receive personalized recommendations, and shop right from their Nokia N73.

Mobipocket Reader transforms the multimedia computer into a universal eBook reader with access to more than 25,000 eBooks from major US, German, French and Spanish publishers.



The Philippine STAR 08/19/2006

Mobile phones, mobile films

When mobile phone manufacturers started integrating cameras into handsets, they weren’t necessarily thinking of redefining the cinematic experience. But by adding value to a hugely popular product, they handed over much more than technology to the hands of the tech consumer.

Nearly 300 million camera phone users are now collectively enriching our visual memory with snapshots of everyday life, records of fluid moments and movements of people going through the daily grind, and other portraits of the different and differing compartments of our public selves.

With still shots as the rage, can motion picture on mobiles be far behind?

Visual storytelling is an old art. The cellphone craze has merely taken the visual narrative to a new dimension. Got a big idea and a camera phone? Make each moment count, make memories, make films.

The recent venture of Discovery Network Asia and Nokia to launch a mobile film competition drew thousands of entries from 10 countries last year, and probably thousands more this year, proof that an emerging film genre is fast taking shape.

In the Philippines, 10 aspiring mobile filmmakers made it to the elimination round of the Discovery-Nokia Mobile FilmMakers 2006 Awards.

The 10 semi-finalists, Diadema Martinez, Eric Ras, Jacobo Nepomuceno, Jasmin Celestina Bernardino, Joel Anthony Cardenas, Manuel Franklin Coloma, Ponciano Subillaga Tabor, Reynaldo de Guzman, Roel Gonzaga, and Vernono Villapando, attended a special workshop organized by Discovery Networks Asia with local filmmaker Jeffrey Jeturian to help them gain insights on mobile filmmaking.

Workshops were also conducted in other countries to help the other semi-finalists hone their filmmaking skills, specifically with the Nokia N90, which they will be using to shoot a 30-second clip.

Two of the clips will be chosen from each country and brought to the regional workshop in Singapore where well-known Asian directors such as Singaporean Kelvin Tong (The Maid), Thai Ekachai Uekrongtham (Beautiful Boxer), Indonesian Riri Riza (Eliana, Merry Go Round) and Jeffrey Jeturian (Larger than Life) will provide tips on mobile filmmaking through interviews and webcasts.

At stake in the regional competition are a $10,000 cash prize and a three-month stint at Discovery’s regional headquarters in Singapore.

But more than the incentive, the overall goal of the competition is to fan the interest of people in expressing their creativity through a different medium.

"The Mobile FilmMakers initiative has clearly helped change the traditional concept of mobile phones and has taken filmmaking to an exciting new direction," James Gibbons, senior vice president for programming and creative services of Discovery Networks Asia, said in a statement.

"We were very impressed by the quality of the entries this year. We hope to uncover more new talent from the Philippines and other countries throughout the region," he added.

Rhomel Marcojos, product marketing head of Nokia Philippines, said they hope to make mobile filmmaking a common and enjoyable activity among camera phone users in the country.

Incidentally, the grand prizewinner last year was a Filipino, Janice Yu, who gained the nod of the jurors with her innovative underwater film.

"With the advancement of technology we have now, it is a godsend for videographers like me who can have immediate access to equipment that despite their small size, are packed with walloping features and quality, and we are not just limited to shooting footage during holidays and special occasions but any day and every day," the Mobile FilmMakers 2006 website quoted Yu as saying.

According to Discovery Networks Asia, to enter the contest, the applicants were asked to submit a written description of the theme "My Discovery." The challenge was to share a unique insight, knowledge or experience and bring to life a "discovery moment" as it is imagined on-screen.

Discovery said the semi-finalists were selected based on the strength of their ideas relating to the theme.

In this new film genre, the idea is the power behind a work. How that idea is translated into visuals and delivered on a tiny screen is the work of technology.

Today’s cellphones, especially Nokia’s N90 multimedia phone, which will be used in the competition, are equipped with high-end features that make capturing and editing video clips possible.

The N90 itself, with its unique "twist and shoot" design, has a two-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens. It also has a 262,144-color (352 x 416 pixels) main display, which provides good viewing experience. The handset comes with 31MB internal memory and a complimentary 128MB RS-MultiMediaCard.

Incidentally, Nokia and Discovery Networks Asia were not the first to launch an international competition for mobile phone filmmaking.

Before it, there was BigDigit, the World’s Smallest Film Festival, held in 2003, which, according to the Mobile FilmMakers Awards 2006 website, "was among the pioneer events that encouraged the production of short films to be played specifically on mobile devices."

The website also mentioned the efforts of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, NESTA (the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts) and a technology company called BLINK in commissioning short films.

Aside from the Mobile FilmMakers Awards 2005 and 2006, Nokia also launched a short film competition in the United Kingdom in 2003.

A competitor, Siemens, also had its own Siemens Micro Movie competition, which was held in 2003 and 2004 as part of the St. Kilda Film Festival.

As short films shot from mobile phones are now becoming a regular feature in film festivals, more people are taking part in re-imagining and reconfiguring the possibilities of the film medium.

If the mainstream film industry is viewed by many as a dying proposition in the Philippines, perhaps, the mobile phone phenomenon can give it a needed boost, albeit a temporary panacea.


By Eden Estopace
The Philippine STAR 08/19/2006

The iPod goes running

Nike and the nano team up to monitor your workouts
BY MIKE WENDLAND

FREE PRESS COLUMNIST


I am seriously in the exercise groove and I owe it all to my iPod.

And Nike.

Nike+iPod equals exercise motivation, thanks to an ingenious gizmo that fits in the bottom of my new Nike running shoes and connects with my iPod nano to measure the distance I cover, the pace I'm going, the calories I'm burning and how long I've just been doing it.

All to the beat of my favorite tunes.

The new Nike+iPod system is my choice for the coolest new gizmo of the year.

And it only costs $29.

For starters

Of course, you do need an iPod nano, if you don't have one. They start at $149. And you'll need some running shoes. Technically, you could cut a hole in what you have to hold the wireless sensor.

But it's much better to get a new pair of Nikes made with a custom, built-in pocket just under the insole. Nike has six different models available for men and women, starting at about $85.

Getting it all to work is so simple you don't even need to read the manual.

Put the sensor in the shoe and plug a small wireless receiver into the bottom of your nano. That's it. You're good to go.

The scroll wheel on the music player has a Nike+nano setting on the menu. Click it. Find the settings submenu. Click it. Choose distance to be measured by either kilometers or miles. Click the weight selection and enter your weight. That's what is used to calculate the calories you burn in a workout.

There is another function you should look at in settings. It's the sensor choice option. Now, truthfully, I didn't do a thing with this the first time I used the device. I just took it on what I know to be a two-mile walk.

At the end of the walk, the screen on my nano informed me that I had covered 2.07 miles. Pretty close.

But I made it even closer.

The sensor function has a calibration feature lets you pick a course you know to be accurate. Do the course and the sensor adjusts accordingly to remember your style.

I did it on a quarter mile track. When I did that two-mile walk again, it said 2.01.

I could tweak it more, but that's plenty accurate for me.

You pick the music

Music is, of course, what an iPod is all about. Pick your favorite workout song on the nano and make it your PowerSong. Then, at anytime during a workout, all you have to do is press and hold the center button and it plays your favorite. For me, that's Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down a Dream."

On the iTunes music store, there is now a Nike Sport Music section with $9.95 workouts you can download for roadwork or treadmill training.

But most of us will use our own tunes on the nano. They play through the earbuds as the nano screen shows your time, pace and speed. You don't need to even look at the screen, though. You can activate a feature on the nano in which a voice gives you periodic audio updates over the music.

The system also lets you run a basic open-ended workout or one based on time, distance or calories. Want to burn off 100 calories? Set the workout to last until you do.

Another cool thing about this: When you plug your iPod into your computer, it can connect to a Nike Web site that stores your workouts and lets you set fitness goals.

Talk about motivation mojo.

Technology columnist MIKE WENDLAND can be reached at 313-222-8861 or mwendland@freepress.com. He posts daily on his PC Mike Web log at www.freep.com/pcmike.