by Jovie Cabais | Dec 8, 2013 | Tech Updates
More than two weeks of unstable power or none at all crippled Bohol’s business environment very severely. Tourism should have been very brisk already at this time of the year. Consumers should have been buying lots of Christmas celebration related goods. Parties should have started already. Instead, we have stores closing earlier than usual and resorts making up promos to attract as many guests, if any arrive. After the October 15 earthquake, the tourism industry suffered because of a lot of cancellations. But it might have only been a temporary setback if power wasn’t knocked out after typhoon Yolanda which did not damage Bohol significantly. With the electrical service being totally out in major tourism areas, travel agencies have no choice but to suggest to guests to go elsewhere. Because we are not sure when electricity would be back to normal, service providers would either have to prepare to spend for fuel for their generators in order to meet their commitments with their customers, or shut down for a while. Others may have to shut down permanently, unfortunately. Yolanda reminded us that we should not assume electricity from outside the province is always available. Bohol must have its own capability to generate enough electricity at least to keep the city and major tourism and industrial sites running. The choice for Bohol would be renewable energy sources. At the household level, off-grid solar energy systems would be a practical option. If we could buy these systems in volume, we could drive the cost down. If these systems could be tax exempt and duty free, costs can easily drop by at...
by Jovie Cabais | Dec 7, 2013 | Tech Updates
After so many “leaks” of the features of the upcoming Galaxy S4, Samsung fans finally got a glimpse of the latest iteration of the Galaxy S series of smart phones. The upgraded features did not disappoint most reviewers. The case and location of the home button of the S4 looks very similar to the S3 but the S4 is lighter and thinner. It also has a larger battery capacity at 2600mAH vs 2100mAH on the older unit providing the extra juice for its slightly larger 5” 1080pixel screen and 8-core CPU (some markets may only have 4-core CPUs). Yes, that’s 8 microprocessors on this smartphone. Your regular desktop computer most likely will have less CPU cores. A 13 megapixel rear camera and 2 megapixel camera on the front and the camera software allows you to use both cameras simultaneously. That might come in handy if you pretend to take pictures of something in front of you but you are also taking a picture of someone behind you. I like the addition of an infrared blaster which means you can use the S4 as a remote control for your TV, DVD and even your aircon. This may just be the reason why I’ll get an S4 over an iPhone 5 when I upgrade my lowly but quite reliable Galaxy S mini at the end of the telco contract. Pretty handy if I only reach for the S4 instead of three or more remote controls when I’m too sleepy to remember which is the power button on each remote. There’s a ton of software upgrades on the...
by Jovie Cabais | Nov 17, 2013 | Tech Updates
written by : by Jerome J. Auza Super Typhoon Yolanda was probably the strongest typhoon to ever make landfall in recorded history and yet we thought we were ready for it. Yolanda flattened Tacloban City and many other cities and towns along its path. We thanked God it spared Bohol otherwise it would have been a double disaster for us. But us in Bohol were caught off guard, not by the typhoon itself, but by its impact: total blackout in most areas of the province. The damaged transmission facilities of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines will take several months to repair. A temporary solution to connect Bohol to the grid will take several weeks. All these assuming there are no delays. As an IT services company, Auza.Net need to continue its operations and we have to resort to using generators at the cost of Php1000 per day. This is enough only to run our computers and the network and everyone has to contend with the heat and humidity. A resort in Panglao is spending Php14,000 per day on generators and unfortunately they have to close for the mean time. It doesn’t take much brains to conclude that the power situation would have a domino effect on Bohol’s economy. Bohol doesn’t even have enough electrical generating capacity to run Tagbilaran City. Next to no electrical service is no water supply in areas dependent on electrical pumps. Drinking water producers have closed shop also, except those who have access to a water source and have generators. But they are selling their product at a higher price due to the...
by Jovie Cabais | Oct 30, 2013 | Tech Updates
During the course of our web surfing, we found out that one of the main concerns of iPhone 4S users is how to maintain battery life for longer, especially since Apple hasn’t achieved significant improvements in this area with the new model yet. So, we searched again and found out from a certain website that Technology commentator Dan Warne has a few suggestions and steps in order to achieve the maximum life of your iPhone 4S battery, we’ve also added some from other sources: 1. Disable unnecessary connections: turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when you are not using them. 2. Disable 3G: switching back to a 2G or GSM network saves a lot of power with the obvious sacrifice that web browsing becomes much slower. 3. Adjust screen brightness: the default settings are useful outdoors on bright sunny days, otherwise a dimmed screen light will improve battery life significantly. 4. Adjust Notification settings: iPhones have “Push” technology that allows your phone to stay connected to the internet all the time in order to receive emails and notifications and to deliver them instantly. This could be convenient but is exhausting for the battery. The technology writer suggests selecting the “Manually” option, under the “Fetch” section, which means the phone will only download for email when you actually open the email app and check for email. 5. Drain your batteries and then charge them until full. Avoid charging while the battery is half empty and at the same time, avoid overcharging. 6. If none of this helps your iPhone’s endurance, then you might consider a third party battery pack. Source:...
by Jovie Cabais | Oct 27, 2013 | Tech Updates
The earthquake that hit Bohol on October 15, 2013 damaged a lot of infrastructure cutting off access to several towns and created a humanitarian crisis. Food and water immediately run out. Electricity and water services cut off and restoration is almost impossible with roads and bridges damaged. Private citizens, NGOs, friends, relatives and volunteers immediately organized relief goods delivery operations. Small scale initially and later on growing into a constant stream of relief goods for the earthquake victims. Facebook pages that invite people to join the relief efforts, donate goods or volunteer in delivering the relief goods. People all over the world donated money, resources or goods and updates to the situation of the towns and victims were detailed in these Facebook pages. Useful as these Facebook pages were during the relief goods delivery operations, these were not coordinated and unified. Because of the difficulty in accessing the affected towns, a coordinated effort would have made the delivery efforts more efficient and perhaps faster. But just the same, these relief efforts are commendable and the citizens of Bohol, especially in the most affected towns, owe their thanks to everyone who joined in the relief efforts. Boholanos showed they are one in this effort of helping the victims of the earthquake....
