Unexpected Aftermath

Typhoon Sendong passed through the southern part of the Philippines over the weekend.  Weather alerts were issued as soon as the storm entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility or PAR. However, we never really learned any lessons after Ondoy and the recent Pepeng which destroyed a lot of properties and claimed a lot of lives. The latest count puts the dead at 662 and hundreds more missing.  The local government officials of the affected areas particularly Cagayan de Oro, and Iligan did not even make the necessary precautions that should have been automatic once your area is placed under a storm signal.  There were no flood warnings issued and the floods came in the dead of the night.

Nevertheless, we cannot bring back time and destruction is already upon us. I just pray for strength, especially for the people who were badly affected by this calamity.  May they remain strong and faithful to be able to weather this storm that has literally and figuratively destroyed their lives.

There are a lot of pictures of the devastation that TS Sendong did and I do not need to post it here.  What we need now is to help our fellow countrymen to be able to pick up the pieces and continue on with their lives.

Courtesy of Philippine National Red Cross

You can go to the webpage of Philippine Red Cross for information on how to donate.  I believe television networks are also accepting donations in cash or in kind for the 88,000 or so evacuees.  There are also a lot of other NGOs and private organizations mobilizing to help out these people in need.  Water, food and clothing and blankets are what they need the most now.    I hope we can share even if a little bit of our blessings to these people who have lost everything.

Rainy Holidays

This is a really very seldom occurrence.  Davao City is placed under a storm signal.  DOST-PAGASA has placed the city together with other Mindanao provinces like Cotabato, Zamboanga Provinces and Lanao Provinces under Signal #1.  Tropical Storm SENDONG is still at the sea and will make a landfall at Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur.  

Here's the latest picture from DOST - PAGASA weather services

 

For more updates, you can visit the website of PAGASA.  Stay safe and dry people!

Christmas Wishlist #1

We were at the mall yesterday when we saw this nifty gadget while browsing the Samsung store.  My husband was not that happy when he learned about it.  You see, he just bought the Samsung Galaxy SII which cost him a lot and is now costing him more because of the excess GPRS charges brought about by letting the boys use it.  To date, his excess charges already reached almost 2K because the kids were downloading games from the Marketplace.  We do have wifi here in our house but sometimes, it does not reach the room at the back where they sometimes play.  Unfortunately, the little one found a way to activate the data via GPRS thus the excess usage.

Back to the gadget we saw yesterday... It was the first time we saw the Samsung Galaxy S wifi only.  It was like an IPod touch but only with bigger screen.  It's screen size is the same as the newly released Galaxy Note. I believe the screen is about 5" but of course, it is not as sophisticated as the Note. The great thing about it is that it only costs around P13,000++.  With the amount my hubby bough his SII, he could have already bought 2 of the S wifi and not have any problems with excess data charges and erupting wars every now and then on who gets to use the phone to play.  Howell....  I was suggesting that he sell his unit since it was fairly new and he can buy 2 new gadgets! Hahahahah....

However, I am still an Apple fan so I am still dreaming of owning an IPad someday.  Maybe I'll wait for IPad 3 to be released.  Rumor has it that production is already ongoing for its components and release of the product will be sometime April of 2012.  It's a wait and see game for Apple fanatics and semi-fanatics like me =)

What's on your wishlist?

Image courtesy of http://cdn.androidcommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/sgs-wifi5-main.jpg

Specifications of the product can be found here

Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 5.0

• Read opinions
• Compare
• Pictures
• Related phones
• In the news  (new)

CHECK PRICE

• Negri Electronics
• GSM Nation

POPULARITY

Daily interest

3.9%

Total hits:

912827

VOTING RESULTS

Design

7.6

Features

7.4

Performance

7.5

12345678910 12345678910 12345678910 

Votes:

686

Tablet with no support for GSM voice communication, SMS, and MMS.

This is not a GSM device, it will not work on any GSM network worldwide.

GENERAL	2G Network	N/A
	Announced	2011, February
	Status	Available. Released 2011, May

SIZE	Dimensions	141.3 x 78.2 x 11.9 mm
	Weight	-

DISPLAY	Type	LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	480 x 800 pixels, 5.0 inches (~187 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
		- TouchWiz UI - Optical trackpad - Touch-sensitive controls

SOUND	Alert types	N/A
	Loudspeaker	Yes, with stereo speakers
	3.5mm jack	Yes
		- SoundAlive enhanced sound engine

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 32GB, buy memory
	Internal	8/16GB storage

DATA	GPRS	No
	EDGE	No
	Speed	No
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v3.0 + HS
	USB	Yes, v2.0 microUSB

CAMERA	Primary	3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Video	Yes
	Secondary	Yes, VGA

FEATURES	OS	Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo)
	CPU	1 GHz
	Sensors	Accelerometer, compass
	Messaging	Email, Push Mail, IM
	Browser	HTML, Adobe Flash
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Black
		- SNS integration - 8h video playback - MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player - Organizer - Image/video editor - ThinkFree document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration - Voice memo - Predictive text input (Swype)

BATTERY		Standard battery, Li-Ion 2500 mAh
	Stand-by
	Talk time
	Music play	Up to 60 h

MISC	Price group	Source:  GSMARENA.COM