Not Something I Get Everyday

"Globe Advisory: In the interest of national security, please be informed that mobile subscribers of all telcos in select areas of Manila will experience temporary loss of signal due to security measures being conducted by the government in line with the feast of the Black Nazarene. Thank you."

Upgraded to Treo 680

Since my old Treo 600 showed signs of truly giving up the ghost, I finally arranged for a friend who was flying in from Singapore to pick up a Treo 680 (unlocked, GSM) for me.

After using it for three days, I'm ready at last to post my initial impressions.

Things that I Liked
Especially in comparison to the Treo 600

• Physically
• Fantastic screen resolution (!!!)
  
• No antenna
• Lighter and slightly slimmer unit
  
• Removable battery
  
• Photos and Videos
• Can record video (new)
  
• Little portrait mirror next to camera lens (new)
  
• Photo viewer / slideshow is very friendly
• Can take photos at 2x zoom
• Contacts
• Can add photo or image for each contact (new)
  
• Can specify ringtone for each contact (new)
  
• Calendar
• Can now categorize calendar entries (new)
  
• Can now beam all calendar entries belonging to one category to another phone (instead of beaming per item, new)
  
• Today's Agenda view (new)
  
• Year view (new)
  
• Messaging
  
• Very clean integration of SMS and MMS features
  
• Can delete single message from within a chat thread (new)
  
• Can force messages to thread even if I haven't replied to a message (new)
  
• Can save messages to a Saved Folder (new)
  
• New sent folder provides easy access to my messages outside of chat threads
• Auto-select messages in a chat thread as you scroll down (new)
  
• MMSes with long subject names are delivered without errors
  
• Web and Email
  
• Blazer web browser lets me disable CSS and not display images
• Gmail configuration is pre-built in, no need to set up POP and SMTP
• New: Voice Recorder feature
• Fantastic sound quality and playback volume
  
• Great microphone sensitivity
• Network
• Bluetooth now available
  

What I Didn't Like:

• Physically
• Back cover has a slightly clunky feel, as does the side cover for the SD card
• Have to remove battery to get to the SIM card (not so with the Treo 600)
  
• Positions of buttons have been moved around and require some adjustment
  
• Photos and Videos
• No improvement in camera resolution. Still at VGA
• Camera battery drain problem requires the installation of a software patch
  
• Web and Email
  
• Command to disconnect from the GRPS network used to be available from within the browser. Now it's only available in Network settings; requires extra navigation
  
• Network
• Still no wi-fi

Also, in the course of playing around with this unit, I learned about a few Treo features that were available even with the Treo 600, but which I had not used before:

• You can beam your entire contact list from one Treo to another
• You can beam only contacts belonging to one particular category
• You can beam all your memos from one Treo to another
  
• You can beam only memos of a particular category
• You can use MMS to send an email

Overall, I'm incredibly happy with this upgrade, and in fact find myself wondering why I waited this long to switch!

Obviously, the Treo 680 is nowhere near as sexy as an iPhone, but since I'm very risk averse (i.e., I don't want to deal with a hacked phone) and I don't want to deal with the headaches of migrating data from one type of phone to another, the Treo 680 is just right for me.

Globe Visibility SpeedTest Results

Ran a few tests using Globe Visibility's 3G connection using SpeedTest.net's service.

Test 1: Connect to Los Angeles, USA
Download speed: 620 kbps. Upload speed: 110 kbps
April 15, 2007. 11:48pm GMT+8



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Test 2: Connect to New York, USA
Download speed: 556 kbps. Upload speed: 120 kbps
April 15, 2007. 11:54pm GMT+8



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Test 3: Connect to London, UK
Download speed: 320 kbps. Upload: 188 kbps
April 16, 2007. 12:00am GMT+8



These numbers are higher than I expected, given how my web pages are loading. Hmm.

TreoTwit may be cheaper than Twapper

I'm really happy that Twapper is a more cost-effective mechanism for posting Twitter updates than direct SMS messages.

But the years my mother spent drilling in the mantra of 'a penny saved is a penny earned' has kept me searching for still cheaper ways to tweet.

So I was quite thrilled to learn about TreoTwit a couple of nights ago, all thanks to Dan Rubin.

TreoTwit is a Palm OS application from Mitreo.com ("my Treo" in Spanish) that lets you post updates to Twitter directly without navigating through a web form.

The application itself is small (94kb) and simple. When you launch it, you get a screen that lets you enter up to 140 characters.


Image from the TreoTwit site

Click the "Update" button when you're done entering your tweet. The application uses GPRS on my Palm device to connect to Twitter, authenticate my Twitter user id and password (which I only had to specify once), then posts my update.

A little confirmation note appears briefly at the bottom of the page once your update is successfully posted.

While I have no actual numbers, I'm optimistic that this approach costs less than posting via Twapper, because there's no need to load a web page before or after entering the tweet. All that's left is the authentication, the text of the tweet itself, and a confirmation message afterwards.

* * *

The application was in v0.84 when I first downloaded it. That version was incompatible with my Treo 600 because my screen is only capable of displaying 160 x 160 pixels.

I posted my feedback on the TreoTwit support thread (registration required through a Spanish language interface! Thank God for babelfish on Altavista) and the folks at Mitreo kindly updated the application in less than 24 hours.

v0.85 is now installed on my Treo 600 and it works like a charm.

Now all I can possibly ask for is some data transfer estimates from Mitreo so I can figure out how much each TreoTweet actually costs me. It's on days like this that I wish I felt a bit more adventurous and a lot less math challenged, because the basis for an educated guess is probably buried somewhere in the Twitter API documentation.

* * *

Update 1: I tried using TreoTwit a couple of hours ago but got a "DNS error" message when I tried to post an update.

I switched to Twapper and was able to post an update through my phone browser, so it looks like the problem is not with Twitter itself. I've left a note at the TreoTwit Support thread and for now I'm hopeful that it's just a temporary problem.

* * *

Update 2: It's around 7 hours later and I just tried to post an update using TreoTwit -- it is working again. Hopefully the problem doesn't occur too often. And if it does, there's always Twapper.

Each Twapper update costs P4.53 (est. only)

For some time, I'd been looking for a cheaper way to send Twitter updates. Without a Philippine SMS center, each update via SMS message to Twitter's UK number costs me around P15 per message.

It was therefore hard to contain my excitement when I finally figured out how to use the Twapper feature in 30boxes Mobile to send my tweets. By my back-of-the-envelope estimates, it costs around P4.50 per update when I use Twapper.

That computation is based on the following assumptions (please feel free to correct my math):

• I transfer roughly 8 to 12 kb of data each time I load my Twapper page (without images), according to my Treo's web browser.
• Let's just use 15kb per page refresh to be on the safe side.
  
• I typically load the page twice whenever I post:
  
1. To access the form for posting, and
   
2. When the page refreshes to let me know if the update is successful.
• For the sake of simplicity, let's assume that I use the full 140 characters for all my 'tweets' (140 bytes)
  
• Let's add an admittedly arbitrary overhead of 50% to the tweet for authentication and other handshaking. This means the update itself requires at least 210 bytes or 0.2 kb
  
• Globe (my mobile provider) charges P0.15 / kb of transfer
• 15kb + 0.2kb + 15kb = 30.2 kb per update
  
• 30.2 kb * P0.15/kb = P4.53 per Twitter update via Twapper
  

Paying P4.53 per update is a lot more acceptable than P15, IMHO.

Caveat: this computation does not yet factor in all the typical post-paid billing adjustments (currency adjustment, VAT, etc.) that will, of course, apply.

Suspended

I was so surprised to receive this BBC news alert via Twitter:

bbcworld: Mobile-phone text messaging in Cambodia is suspended, supposedly to protect voters during local elections. http://tinyurl.com/2w5jph

Wow. Can you imagine that happening in the Philippines, where texting is already quite literally a way of life, and where we actually call today's youth GenTxt (Generation Text)?

Wouldn't it be easier to just go after the people who are broadcasting political text messages on a massive scale and stop them from doing so? Or better yet, charge them fines for doing so?

I hope our very own Comelec does not get any bright ideas from this for our May elections.

Globe's G-Webcall

Received an interesting text message today from Globe Telecom:

Globe Advisory: Going abroad this summer? Register to G-webcall before you fly n enjoy P7.50/min rate anywer in d world! Just txt GWEB ON to 2865 or visit http://www.g-webcall.com for free info. To change ur password, txt GWEB SETPASS [newpassword] to 2865. Account valid for 180 days.

Will have to check that one out when I have time later this week.

Twitter Wishlist: Addendum

Around four and a half months ago (after a month of using Twitter), I came up with a Twitter Wishlist with three items, none of which have materialized so far. * sniff! *

Now I've got two new items to add, although frankly I consider these to be even lower in priority than the items on my original list.

1. Finding out which of my posts have been starred, and how many times. I see this as a way for followers to give feedback. After all, each star means someone took the trouble to explicitly mark a 'tweet' as something that they liked. That seems like valuable feedback to me.
2. Getting a local (i.e., Philippine-based) number to send Twitter updates to. Most of the local mobile content providers charge P2.50/message for value-added text services, where the revenue is split between the content provider and the telco. Since I'm used to that charging scheme, I frankly wouldn't mind paying that kind of money to send a Twitter update. It sure beats the fee I'm charged right now each time I send an SMS to the UK server!

Still on Twitter, I'm eagerly awaiting the day Jazzbo finishes setting up his PhilMusic Twitter feed. Once he gets it up and running, PhilMusic will be the first Philippine-based site I know of that uses Twitter to send updates, and it would be free of charge to 'followers' too. * Thumbs up! *

Update (March 4): PhilMusic's Twitter feed is now officially up.

Twittering Anew

Twitter has released yet another round of updates and of course I immediately took advantage and tweaked my settings so that the color scheme on my Twitter home matches my blog.

Some thoughts:

• Statistics. I like! It surprised me to realize that I am just one more post away from making my 100th "status update" using Twitter. haha! Obviously, I'm addicted.
• Mini-thumbs. I like the fact that the avatars are all shrunk down to mini-thumbnails in the sidebar. Efficient use of space, especially for the uber-popular people who have 4,000 friends (mild exaggeration there).
• Tabs. I like the faux-tab interface. Simple but snazzy.
• Sleep. Had a laugh when I saw the new "Sleep Time" option. I used to wake up in the middle of the night when Twitter updates arrived. haha! But that stopped being a problem when I changed my incoming message tone to something less intrusive.

Anyway, I really liked the new updates, which is why I felt motivated to use the invitation feature today to invite a few more people -- mostly folks in the Philippines whom I don't see often enough. Since it's free for us to receive text messages, I figured it was about time I spread the good word around.

Unfortunately, no one has responded yet (it's been over 12 hours!), which makes me wonder whether or not the invitations even got sent in the first place! And the main reason that I'm wondering is this: I had added one of my own email addresses to the list of invitees and I haven't received the invite email yet. :-(

None of the items on my Twitter Wishlist have made it into this round of updates. But considering how quickly they're putting new features out, I have reason to hope. :D

Twittering Away

After months of not keeping up, I finally revisited Odeo, the new company that Evan Williams decided to start after leaving Google/Blogger.

I was aware of the plans to do podcasting from way back, so seeing it actually up and now working wasn't a surprise. What caught my eye instead was Twitter.

Living as we do in the Philippines (the SMS capital of the world!) I wanted to try it out right away. Registering was a snap, and adding the javascript to my blog's sidebar was easy, especially since I've now gotten quite used to adding these little web widgets to the sidebar. After Sitemeter, Technorati, and Flickr, Twitter was easy.

I have no idea, though, how this affects my phone bills. Since we're not used to paying to receive SMS messages here, I'm not certain how Globe will react if I were to suddenly receive a lot of SMSes from outside the country (I hope I don't get charged for them).

I'm also leery of sending messages from my phone to Twitter's SMS gateway in the US (with the +1 country code) since I know from experience I'll get charged roughly P20 a pop. So for now, I really don't expect to be updating my Twitter status via my phone, which is a rather sad state of affairs considering that's what it's designed for. The cost involved is prohibitive, at least for me. Therefore, my updates will still primarily be web-based, I think.

Now, if they had a Philippine gateway that I can use to send my latest status update to (for say P1.00 or P2.50 per message), I'd probably use it more religiously, and I'd be more predisposed to inviting my friends to this.

Come to think of it, Twitter reminds me a lot of the Ktext and Fanatxt services of local entertainment talents... you know, the one where you subscribe to receive SMS or MMS updates on their new gigs or events. The difference is that Twitter is for the masses (well, the mobile and web-aware masses, that is) and for now it doesn't support MMS-based updates.

Wouldn't be surprised if Globe or Smart think about implementing a localized version of this service once they get wind of this.

__

Update: I decided to send a Twitter update through SMS so I can check how much it will actually cost on my next bill. Interestingly, there's a noticeable delay before the update gets posted. I sent the text msg at 9:29pm and it finally appeared on my Twitter archive at 10:16pm -- a lag of 47 minutes.