Earth Hour

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Severe Thunderstorms down Instagram, Pinterest

Thanks to Mother Nature two of my favorite  web sites went down today.

Severe thunderstorms in North Virginia caused an outage to the Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud, which took down Instagram, Pinterest, Netflix and other cloud based sites.  

Although the sites have a local hub here in Asia, it appears that all services are still routed to North America. Hence, this problem. 

I tried loading some pictures on Instagram and either I waited for eternity for the site to come up or I just got pieces of it.  Netizens expressed their frustrations on Twitter and and the affected companies also took to social networking sites to send their messages that they're having some technical problems and were fixing it.  

It's not the first time that Amazon's cloud server was affected by outages due to weather. Many tech experts are beginning to worry that this may lead some industries to have second thoughts on embracing the cloud technology.



Saturday, June 23, 2012

Micrsoft Unveils the Surface

Microsoft recently announced its own tablet called the Surface.  It is a 10-inch tablet that comes with a touch screen.  The Surface will come in two flavors - one with an ARM processor that will run on Windows RT, and the other powered by Intel's Ivy Bridge chip running on Windows 8.


Another difference between the two machines is their thickness and weight.  The Windows RT Surface comes in at 9.3 mm thin and weighs 676 grams.  The Windows 8 Pro version is a bit heftier at 13.5 mm and 903 grams.  Microsoft touts the casing as a product of a unique approach and calls it the VaporMg (pronounced as Vapor Mag) which resulted to the thinner form factor of both machines.  It also enabled the inclusion of a kickstand to its design.

And yes, it has a 3 mm touch cover that clicks in on the spine of the Surface.  Microsoft took a swipe at Apple by saying that the pressure sensitive technology on the touch cover allows a user to touch type faster than on an on-screen keyboard.  The user can also add a thin click on cover that will make typing more natural.

It's not even out in the market yet but there already those who give this new gadget the death sentence.  One of them is even a Microsoft partner: an Acer executive declared that the Surface will be a total flop.  Online analysts believe that this must have stemmed from the fact that the company will now directly compete with its hardware manufacturing partners.

We'll find out about that once the machine hits the market.  For now, Microsoft has not even announced when the Surface will, umm, surface in the market and at how much.

(all images from microsoft.com/surface)



Sunday, June 17, 2012

ToyCon 2012: Met Angry Woebots

I was at the ToyCon 2012 this afternoon just to watch the Cosplay Competition.  I also got some ThreeA WWRp Armstrong at the VinylonVinyl booth this afternoon.  Who would be at their booth but no less than Angry Woebots! 


Angry Woebots


Aaron Martin was there to sign autographs and do some customizing of his famous panda figures.  I ended up getting one of his sketches. Sorry for the bad photo I only have my iPhone4 with me.


Angry Woebots

Angry Woebots at ToyCon 2012




Monday, June 11, 2012

Apple WWDC 2012




In a few hours, Apple CEO Tim Cook will deliver his keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2012,  The keynote address during the WWDC has always been anticipated part of the event and I suppose will also be this year.  It's when the late great Steve Jobs usually revealed what the company will release in the succeeding months.

Since a few months ago the Apple blog universe has been full of rumors of what Cook will reveal this year.  Apple itself has revealed at least two products that will be announced during the keynote and these include:



Mac OSX Mountain Lion.  The latest iteration of the Mac's operating system.  It will reportedly include the following features: Notification Center, iMessages, iCloud, Airplay and more.  Apple touts the new Mac OS X as inspired by the iPad and re-imagined for the Mac.  I won't be downloading this one immediately though and perhaps just wait for it to be available in the next generation Macs which I intend to buy anyway.


iOS6. This one is expected.  Photos of banners for  iOS 6 being put up circulated in the Internet days ago.  What it includes are still up in the air but rumors are rife with Facebook integration like Twitter in iOS 5, a Siri for iPad. The biggest addition to the iOS would be Apple's own mapping solution which could replace google maps in all our iOS devices.

from cnet

Because of iOS 6, many speculate that Cook will also announce the next generation iPhone. Also, there have been sightings of alleged parts of the next iPhone which led people to believe the announcement more likely to happen.   I highly doubt it though.  The announcement for Apple's smartphone has its own event usually in September or October.  So I think Apple will stick to that schedule.

There are also stories about updates of several Macs including the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air , the iMac and the Mac Pro.  Aside from thinner MacBooks, there are rumors about Retina Display on the iMac and all Mac portables.  I am not an expert on this one and I will wait for Cook's announcement.  But Retina Display and touch capability on the iMac are features that will definitely make me get one.

These are the things that I will be waiting for later.  I might stay up late tonight and hang around the sites that will have a live coverage of the event.



Saturday, June 9, 2012

Meet Puck from Okedoki X VTSS

Meet Puck, a cute little pug designed by Okedoki and produced by VTSS Toys.  He is coming out on July 5.  We're a lucky bunch because we're one of only 5 countries where Puck will be released.



Below is the colorway for our country which will be available from SecretFresh.  Only 30 pieces will be available for all of us.



Watch the video below to know more about this cute doggie.







Friday, June 8, 2012

DUNNY Series 2012



Kidrobot has finally taken the lid off the 2012 iteration of its popular Dunny Series yesterday.  This year's series features the handiworks of artists Andrew Bell, Attaboy, Scribe, Jeremiah Ketner, Jon-Paul Kaiser, Junko Mizuno, Kronk, MAD, Mauro Gatti, Sergio Mancini, Nakanari, Pac23, Tara McPherson, and Triclops Studio.  Those who would buy a case will get their hands on an exclusive dunny by Sucklord.  





The 2012 Dunny Series will be available online and in Kidrobot stores and retailers worldwide on June 21.  Hopefully these figures get to our shores.  I hope to get the Tara McPherson and Andrew Bell figures.


(all images from kidrobot.com)





Friday, June 1, 2012

Bourne Legacy Official Theatrical Trailer

I just got a look at the official theatrical trailer of Bourne Legacy starring Jeremy Renner.  This is the film that was shot here earlier this year and got local government officials pumped up over the "benefits" the country will get from the experience.

One can get from the trailer that there was this project that created an elite force and Jason Bourne is just one of them.  One agent happened to be this new character played by Renner. What the trailer did not say is why he is in Manila.  

The streets of Manila looked so glossy and yet the chaos cannot be denied. And honestly, I never thought I would see a public utility jeepney involved in a car chase scene of a Hollywood movie! The movie opens in August.  In the meantime, take a look at the trailer below (from youtube.com).