I'm Back! The Power Of A Vision Board

The Secret Website

I'm back after an extended absence. Been working nearly 16 hours a day over the past 10 months or so to get things going on the finance side. Thankfully things are a lot better now.

In connection with my humble success, I want to share with everyone here the power of the vision board.

I'm sure many of you have heard of "The Secret". To me it was a nice movie and book which showed techniques like visualization and vision boards to make things happen. I was impressed enough to try and make a vision folder on my PC. This was were I put all the things I wanted from tech stuff to cars. I would visit this folder every so often, add some pictures and remove others as my dreams changed.


Then in a series of events straight out of the Celestine Prophecy (which states that nothing happens by chance, that everything happens for a reason), I got a new client for my writing gigs and we got to emailing back and forth about vision boards.

Imagine my surprise when she mentioned that she had not only met one of the people in THE SECRET movie, but she was able to attend a party at the very house he had pointed out in the movie. At that moment, I realized that life had just let me in on seeing THE SECRET in action!

So I promptly checked out my vision folder and  to my surprise, I got nearly 80% of all the things in my folder. And mind you a lot of these items were just stuff I dreamed of having. It included an Omnia 2, an HTC HD2, a six core processor (instead of a Core i7) and a lot more. I am still waiting for my Expedition, Nissan Skyline Crossover, Skyline R35 and Ducati... hey the book said dream big.

There was actually a list where I put some items I wanted that were actually not things you buy but things you receive and on that point, I received nearly 100% of what I asked for.

The basic principle of The Secret was to ask and you shall receive and believe me, it works.


Check out the movie and read the book.

NOKIA E72 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I went to the Nokia Store in Trinoma last week and was pleasantly surprised to see that the much awaited Nokia E72 was already available.

For those looking forward to buying themselves the new E series business phone that is giving Blackberry a run for its money, you would be happy to know that the price is, I think, even less than the E71 at launch.

Cash Price is 22,258 while Card price for zero (??) interest is 23,258.

It has the usual E series package which includes the case, usb cable and a 4 GB memory card.

So what were my initial impressions? Luckily I had my trusted E71 for comparison and here is the summary:

Size: Essentially the same as the E71. Same sleek form factor.

Weight: About the same too. It's the type of weight that doesn't feel heavy but it imparts a feeling of quality and durability to the phone.

Keys: Much to my chagrin, the E72 keys are much better than my E71's. They are slightly bigger and the layout was changed just a wee bit.  

Appearance: This is the surprise for me, I thought that right off the bat, I would go for the E72 but this was not the case. Whether in black or in beige, somehow it had just about equal visual appeal compared to the E71.

So what is my take on the Nokia E72?

For non E71 users looking for a best in class qwerty smartphone then this is probably one of the best, if not THE best alternative.

In my opinion, it trumps the Blackberry which fails on value for money.

The reason may be the fact that showbiz people here have made the Blackberry their buzz word and their must haves. Since they are not on tight budgets, the price of the Blackberry has remained relatively high.

There are of course some new offerings from Samsung and Sony that will compete directly with the E72 but from reviews so far, the E72 remains at the top of the business phone class.

For E71 users like myself, it's not such a cut and dried decision. 80% of the E71 is on par with the E72.

In my opinion, the advantages of the E72 would be the IMPROVEMENTS to the camera, the keyboard and better gps.

I emphasized improvement because the E71 is definitely not inferior. It's just that the E72 has improved on it.

Personally, my upgrade plans remain the same. I hope to have the Xperia and the E72 soon. Maybe the Xperia could be my Merry Xmas to me :)

As you can see the E72 is not tops on my list. I am still very happy with my E71 and I will not be letting this go, even when I get an E72.

Everytime I tinker with my E71, I still marvel at how well equipped it is and how it has singlehandedly softened the mind of a previously die hard Sony Ericsson devotee.

I hope to be able to do a detailed review of the E72 soon. But till then, if you are in the market for a smartphone in the 22k range, then look no further.

The E72 looks like it will assume the throne of the E71 as the best smartphone.And I can hardly wait for it to assume a place beside my E71 :)

The JAC TECH Store is now open!

With the help of my friends in AMAZON, I am now able to offer tech stuff and books that I have personally picked out.

In time I will attempt to post reviews for all these items.

So please come in and stay a while.

I will be updating and reorganizing the store constantly so if you have any requests just send me an email and I'll try to get it on board the store.

A long overdue report about gadget updates

Sometime in the last couple of months, some serendipitous events magically occurred and the following things happened:

I gave up:

My SE P1i to my significant other

My SE W850i to my eldest son

My Samsung E250 to my eldest daughter

My W810i to a buyer on Ebay

My 3120 to a sale in my village

My 6120 to a buyer on Ebay

I gained:

A Nokia E71 through the generosity of my mother

A Nokia 5800 Xpress Music from the sale of my 2 Nokias

An SE P990i as a swap from my son for the W850i


I always post my gadget wishes and pipe dreams here so here's what I have realistically ( i think) planned for myself as far as upgrades are concerned:

The following info is formatted as follows:

Current phone / Line (Network) / Upgrade path

Nokia E71 / GPS Business line (Sun) / E72, will retain E71 to replace K810

Nokia 5800 XM / Personal Line (Sun) / No upgrade planned

SE K810i / Ebay Toy Business Line (Sun) / E71, (see above)

P990i / Business Line (Globe/Duo) / Xperia

Samsung C5212 / Business Line (PLDT Landline / Smart) / A dual sim phone with 3G that has a longer standby than the C5212


I also plan to get a robust phone with long battery life, good GPS, wlan etc. to bring along on my mountain biking trips. Will be backed up by another phone carrying a different sim with a very long battery life, maybe a Philips. It may sound like overkill but believe me, in the places where I ride, signal can get spotty and the weather can change rapidly. I already got stuck on the trail once with just one phone with no signal while my riding companion had one phone with signal and low battery. This was right in the middle of heavy rain on a muddy trail with no lights. So I can assure you its NOT overkill.

Of course I will only carry 2 phones when riding but during my workday, I wish I could carry less phones but I need to segregate my businesses and I also need to carry my office with me. My Globe and Smart lines are prepaid and are loaded with the barest minimum except for the Superduo service which I find indispensable.

So thats the update for now. Obviously I need to post several reviews soon from the the hardware to the service.

Watch out for them and thanks for reading.

Sony Ericsson Satio : First Impressions

I have to admit that the Sony IDOU or SATIO was one of the handsets that I declared that I WILL BUY.

However, like many dreams in this world, reality shows its not all that its hyped up to be. Again like some dreams, it may have been better left as one.

I had the chance to see the mockup in the Sony Ericsson Shop in Trinoma. The sales people were certainly eager to please with their canned responses but once I started asking some slightly technical questions theirs eyes glazed over and they starting mumbling over and over again that they were not informed of the technical specs with nary a glance at their product catalog which I suspect had the information I needed.

Anyway here are my first impressions based on the mockup and the brochure:

GOOD:

- The phone looks really classy in person, it certainly can hold its own with the Iphone 3GS

- It feels good in my hands, it imparts a feeling of solid build and quality.

- The form factor is excellent for men but it may not be as comfortable for the women. It is significantly larger than my Nokia 5800 Xpress Music

BAD:

- The 12 megapixel lens juts out from the back. It may be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective. For appearance, its a big no no because it looks bulky from the side. For handling purposes, the bulky thing rests the phone securely in your hands.

- Price, it costs much more than my Acer Core2 laptop. Essentially for the price you can buy an E71 and an Asus Netbook.

- The phone runs on the Symbian OS which is the same one used on the Xpress Music. Turn it on and several screens look so much like the Nokia. Which is not a bad thing except that you could buy two 5800's for the price of the Satio and have money left over to buy a good set of earphones and a bluetooth headset.


MY VERDICT:

The Satio is an undeniably good looking phone and it does have a 12 megapixel shooter. The form factor is better suited for men though women do tend to favor touch screens. As a touch screen phone, the appearance of this phone is top notch and oozed quality. In a way I could say that its a businessmans touchscreen phone. More business like than the Iphone.

However there are reports starting to crop up on the net about mass recalls and returns of the Satio due to unspecified software issues. It is a bit alarming considering that there were other SE phones that had software issues but were not returned by these outlets.

So based on the preliminary impressions and these reports, I would personally wait and see first. Beyond the bragging rights, it seldom pays to be an early adopter because you will actually be the beta tester of those products at a much steeper cost which will send you crying when you learn the market price 2 to 3 months after launch.

But if you have the dough and the courage and patience to handle latest and greatest with the aforementioned cons then go right ahead. You'll have a phone that will trump the Iphone on looks alone.

For myself, I'm sticking to my E71 / 5800 combo until the smoke clears and the bugs ironed out. Besides the X10 is starting to tickle my fancy too.

DISCLOSURE: To dispel notions of favoritism, let me share the following information. I personally carry 5 phones right now, 2 Nokias (e71 and 5800), 2 Sony Ericssons (p990 and k810) and a Samsung C5212.

Sun Broadband 3 MBPS - October 14 SOME IMPROVEMENT !

I always believe in being fair even to those who are cheating me directly or indirectly.

So today, I had a pleasant revelation when SBW started exhibiting some gesture of speeding up.

Here are 4 speedtests taken one after the other:

Sun Broadband 3 MBPS - Oct 13