CHARGEPOD

You have a process when you get home that usually involves disgorging the contents of your pockets or bag onto some flat surface and connect each electronic gadget to a long snaking cable.

Those cables twist turn and loop around each other in a spaghetti tangle of wire. What a mess. Let's not even talk about how you had to get a specially built power-strip to handle all those giant transformers at the end.

And what happens if you go out of town? You have to untangle that bird's nest of wiring to retrieve that one cable.

It's a disaster - one that some very smart engineers were only happy to tackle. They realized that they could consolidate up to six chargers into one compact and easily manageable device.

Hours of agonizing over industrial design finally paid off when they released the Chargepod. A flat disk of electronic organization, capable of charging up to six devices simultaneously. They chose the six most popular connectors to get you started, but you can purchase, a la carte, the chargers necessary to connect potentially thousands of devices to your Chargepod, from all your cellphones, to your laptop, iPod, iPhone, PSP, DS and even other less famous gadgets.

SMALL WONDER 2

Found this out from a friend months ago. He was the one looking for it at the mall. I just accompanied him to find one.

He was at rehearsals (he's a back-up singer), and one of them back-up friends took out this speaker and plugged it in her iPod.

Yeah I know, you wouldn't expect much from something so small right?

Wrong.

Turns out, this small wonder packs huge volume. Quite surprisingly at that.

Of course the sound isn't that great, always expect a lot of highs from something this small. Very "tweeter-ish" at that. But if it's maximum volume and portability you're after, then the x-mini capsule speakers is for you.

It includes a retractable USB slash audio jack, so that you can charge it via PC, or via wall outlet (I use my iPod charger). Takes around 2 hours to charge, and it gives about 5 hours of juice. Not bad for something so small.

I got mine in white to match my silver iPod. It also comes in red and black. All in matte.

The X-mini capsule speakers retails at P1,200 at Mobile 1 at The Podium.

The copycat x-mini speakers, called the "hamburger" speakers (how original), retails around P700 to P150o at Power Mac Centers and at V-mall. It's even free when you buy an iPod at Power Mac Centers. They have it in yellow, white, red, green and black. All in high gloss. Kinda tacky. And volume isn't that wowing as the X-mini.

SONY ROLLY

The latest Sony music player, the Rolly, will be released in Japan on the 29th of September.

The palmtop Rolly, features stereo speakers, 1 Gb of flash memory, and runs on a rechargeable lithium ion battery, and is packaged inside the egg-shaped body weighing 300g. It also integrates various audio technologies Sony had developed to produce clear sounds. Unlike other music players, instead of using an LCD display the Rolly has a minimalistic interface, consisting of a combined power and play button, and two wheels, which can be used to navigate through tracks, albums and to control the volume level.

The Rolly features three motion functions enabling it to synchronise movement to the music. The self-motion function analyzes the wavelength data making the player move and controlling the lights automatically in time with the music.

The auto-motion function uses the bundled Motion Editor software to automatically generate movement and light programs. and the custom-motion function also using the Motion Editor, allows the user to precisely configure the movements of the players six motors and the timing and color of the LED side lights to create unique motion data.

The lithium-ion battery lasts 4 to 5 hours when the player is playing music and in motion and it can be charged either via USB or mains power.

The Rolly, which also supports streaming and transfer of music and data via Bluetooth, is open-priced but is expected to hit the market at about 40,000 yen or close to US$350.

APRIL 1 IS FREEZE DAY!

Got this from a friend:

"PEOPLE of Manila, Unite.

The capital of the Philippines shall be part of the WORLDWIDE Freeze on April Fool's Day,
April 1, 2008.

Improv Manila Agents [and even non-agents] shall freeze at the SM Mall of Asia's facade at the Main Mall for 5 minutes, then unfreeze as if nothing happened. 100 people (and counting)are to attend this FIRST flash mob in the Philippines.

Be part of history. Mission briefing: 5:00 at the SM Mall of Asia baystrip (the sidewalk of the mall by the bay), immediately facing the Music Hall."

Don't know what this is all about?

Watch this:

FREAKY

Just called the FedEx customer service to inquire about shipping rates to San Francisco.

The guy who took my call was very accomodating, patient, very fluent and listo. Ganda pa ng boses. Pwedeng DJ!

So after the call, I had to get his name for future reference.

Guess what his name is?

Chad!

[insert Twilight Zone theme]

HARD CANDY

And this is the cover of Madonna's upcoming album, Hard Candy.

Now that's fierce! Hot grandmomma!

E=MC2 COVER

This is Mariah's new album cover, E=MC2.

You feelin' it?

I'm not. Nothing compared to 2005's Emancipation of Mimi.