We recently bought an 32″ LCD TV. As expected in malls, the sellers will try to sell you the brand that they are assigned on, and not necessarily what’s best for you and what fits your budget. They are like madmen on hgh spray, they will do anything to convince you that the other brand is inferior to the brand they are carrying. So we had to deal with constant prodding, explanations and even back stabbing before we ended up with the Toshiba Regza 32″. We were supposed to get the Sanyo LCD TV, but the Toshiba was better in some aspects and it included a mount. So far so good, we have been enjoying a number of old movies on DVD and my son enjoys watching a Sponge Bob in a big screen. The TV has been living up to it’s promises so far, so we will see how it fairs as time test it out.

Pldt MyDsl is the worst ever internet connection and service that I have ever encountered in my life! I thought Globe had it bad, PLDT is even worse! I’ll divide my review into two parts – Internet Connection and Customer Service.

1. Internet Connection: S U P E R – S L O W! Unbelievable! We used to have Globe and we had “downtime” problems with them but at least the speed you get is equal to what they commited. When we switched to Smart Bro (the one with Antennae), everything was smooth sailing from the next day installation to the day we moved out of our apartment. Now that we moved and want to use this old PLDT account – I am utterly disgusted at the intermittent connection and the unbelievably slow download and upload speed. The plan claims to be at 1MBPs but I rarely get download above 20kbps, and most of the time, our internet connection is down. I was getting double the speed with our 384kbps SMART Bro connection!

2. Customer Service: Waste of time and money! Wait time at their support lines will take around 30 minutes to an hour. Reps don’t know what they are doing and have on many occassions put the phone down on me. I have also asked to speak with a supervisor countless times and I was only able to reach ONE! If you think that’s bad, try going to their business office! I waited for 3 hours to do a transfer of ownership. I have been asking for a month now for a technician to check our connection here at home but NOT ONE has shown up. At least in Globe they show up after 2 weeks!

Conclusion:
I want to give PLDT until July to show me that they are worth our money. The only reason I am keeping PLDT is because of the old Phone account that we’ve had for many years. But if this kind of service and connection goes on until July, we will definitely move to a greener pasture.

PLDT MyDSL: 1 out of 10 (I don’t even like the telephone, sound is too weak). If I were you, don’t even think about wasting a single Peso with this company – they seem to have forgotten what got them on the Telco business – their customers!

Laptops are the new tech trend here in Manila.  It has successfully replaced the mobile phone craze.  When before you would see people pulling out their phones, now you see people showing off their laptops. Just go to your nearest coffee shop and you will find people using their laptops to access wireless networks.  Some are probably working, some are probably playing, while most are probably just showing off.   Nowadays, it has become a must to own a laptop. Who wouldn’t want to when you can do virtually anything with it.

Most musicians are aware of the dreaded 3 letter ackronym and what it means.  Gear acquisition syndrome is in layman’s term – the constant urge to buy gear.   Recently I have had my own share of GAS – which is why I just got myself a Martin DCX1E.  And now GAS is attacking again – I’m salivating over the new Zoom G2.1Nu.  Reading from online reviews – and from the specs – that is definitely the pedal for me.  I’m not into having too much gear – and have been a modest user of multieffects.  I am a firm believer that pedals should just be considered as tools – and that my tone will still be there without my pedals.  So the G2.1Nu which is small, easy to carry but full of features is the ultimate pedal for me.  Oh well need to look at my online credit report to see if I could use my card for this one. And ofcourse I also have my loving wife’s approval to ask for… good luck to me

Being a fan of Wrestling, I have to try the new WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2010 game, even though I am expecting that the game will most likely be the same as the previous years release, with a few added features and changes.  And yes I was right, the latest version of WWE Smackdown vs Raw did not add much to the graphics, or to lessen the loading time.  It is basically the same as it’s predecessors, just with some minor adjustments to the gameplay and updated roster.  Anyway, being a fan, I am still enjoying the game but for people that are not inteested in WWE, they will probably not waste their time to try and learn the many complicated moves and reversals, and not to mention the stories.  I was hoping that they at leaet improved the graphics aspect, if not the story.  Maybe use cad drawing with 3d. Bottomline: this game gets a 3.5 out of 5 score.

Finally we are seeing technological advances in the field of Energy.  The latest of these innovation is known as Bloom Box.  It is equivalent to an entire power grid in a box with the added benefit of being earth friendly.  Guests of the launch include industry giants like John Donahoe of eBay, Bill Simon of Walmart, Brian Kelly of Coca-Cola, and Google’s Larry Page.  It is forecasted that there will be one box in each American home in 5 to 10 years!, wow.

Here are the technical specifications of the product.

http://www.bloomenergy.com/products/data-sheet/

I used to have a W810i and I never had a single complaint about that phone.  I updated the firmware and drivers for the cam and audio and it was working awesome up to the time that I gave it up for a new Sony Ericsson W595.  In my opinion, having tried both Nokia and Sony phones – Sony owns them all, in terms of workmanship, battery life, toughness and overall quality.   That changed though when I decided to get the W595, I wanted to get another Walkman brand phone so I opted for this sleek looking phone.  Unfortunately upon checking my new phone – I was less than enthusiastic about it’s features though (or mostly lack of).  I can take the fact that it didn’t have the flashlight that I’ve always loved about my old W810i, but what I can’t understand was why they put a 3.2MP Camera that has no focus and no flash…  what is wrong with the guys at Sony!  As for the music – the sound is at least good but not any better than my beloved W810i.  The only good thing about the phone is it’s sleek design and sound.  Oh well this review just made me feel depressed about my phone.  I will just swap this for something better in the near future.