Certified Blogaholic

Finally, RIM unveils the Storm, the Blackberry that promises to unseat the IPhone in the mobile phone market. The Storm is the first ever touchscreen Blackberry with a 480 by 360-pixel, 3.25-inch glass display. Like the IPhone, it supports multi-touch (good for 2-finger gestures) but with a “ClickThrough” feature where the user will distinctly feel the screen being pressed and released. Can it deliver tactile touch capabilities that is missing in the IPhone?

Besides the multi-touch screen, the Storm will come with an ambient light sensor and an accelerometer that automatically turns the screen when you move it sideways. In landscape view, the touch keypad is a full QWERTY while in portrait mode, it has the SureType pad similar to the Blackberry Pearl. It will also come with full-on Office document editing—including support for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

It is roughly the size of the IPhone which will include CDMA and GSM radios and 3G access. The GPS feature will have a turn-by-turn directions. Of course, it will have Bluetooth capabilities, Blackberry email support, and also a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus. For now, it will be exclusive for Verizon Wireless (no confirmation yet) and pricing still remains a mystery. There are rumors that it will match IPhone 3G’s $199 price. Rumors also abound that a Blackberry Store is in the works, like the Apple’s App Store and the Android Market.

Whether the Storm will a better alternative to the IPhone or the upcoming T-Mobile G remains to be seen.

It turns out that Steve Job’s team botched the security protection of the IPhone. Losing your IPhone or leaving it lying around poses a security risk to users. MacRumors discovered the fault warning IPhone users of the potential risk.

If you think your IPhone data is protected with the passlock code, think again. It seems that Apple just placed the feature in the mobile phone to scare of potential thieves. It’s nothing more than a screen design that can be easily disabled.

While the IPhone is locked, the only thing any user supposedly can do is to dial emergency numbers. However, even with a passlock code, anyone can unlock your IPhone. All they have to do is to double-click the Home key while in the Emergency Call screen and it will be directed to the default Favorites menu. From there, any attacker gets a free-for-all on your email. Clicking a contact’s email address, then cancel from the message screen and he is in. Web browsing can also be accessed through a contact’s URL found through Google Maps. And of course, they can make any call by clicking your contact’s number and adding a call.

Apparently, Apple is already aware of the possible security breach and is currently working on a security patch. Not to worry though. You can easily remedy the flaw by changing the double-click preferences by setting it to an IPhone capability that will not provide thieves with critical information. If you set it to the iPod, all they get are your videos and music. Better yet, set it to the Home screen which will just bring it back to the Passlock Code panel.

For all IPhone users, just try to keep your security risk at minimum levels if possible. Remember to just leave critical information as little as possible in your mobile phone.

Blogging started as a hobby for Dr. Arnold Kim. His blog, MacRumors.com, features gossip and facts about Apple. Although it was a time-consuming hobby, he kept at it while earning his medical degree. He completed his medical degree and began to diagnose kidney problems for patients. With his website attracting 4.4 million people and 40 million views per month, he decided to hang up his stethoscope this month and become a problogger full time. According to Quantcast, it has become the one of the most popular technology website to date.

Now that he has decided to focus his attention on his blog, Dr. Kim believes the potential to earn more from his endeavor will grow further. As with all other people who are unaware of a blog’s potential, his colleagues could not comprehend how he could make more money from blogging than pursuing his medical profession. He sums it all up in two words, “build traffic.” In the internet, traffic equals power, which in turn translates to money.

Dr. Kim started blogging about Steve Jobs’ company in 2000 writing about rumors on future Apple products he collects around the web. Being a secretive company, Apple has become the object of speculation and interest over the years. With a computer science degree from the Columbia University, his skills in programming and technology has added value to the blog and made visitors keep coming back for more. He also knew that everyone wants to know in advance what Steve Jobs is up to. If the midnight vigil during the market release of the IPhone 3G is any indication, Dr. Kim has indeed found a niche that was worth more than the degree he is giving up.

MacRumors ranks No. 2 on a list of the “25 most valuable blogs,” just behind Gawker Media and ahead of The Huffington Post, PerezHilton.com, and TechCrunch. Among those on the list, 2 tech-oriented blogs, Ars Technica and PaidContent, were sold earlier this year for alleged sums in excess of $25 million. Ars Technica has over 3 million visitors per month while PaidContent and its associate blogs reach approximately half a million people. Considering that MacRumors attracts a far bigger audience, valuations indicate that he has a gold mine in his hands. That is one piece of real estate that no crisis can topple.

Initially, he hesitated to make it a full-time job since he enjoyed medicine and had invested almost $200,000 for his education. However, when he saw the figures, it had become an easy decision to make.

When asked how he figures out the rumors from the real thing, he claims that its all a gut feel. He is aware that most of the images of future Apple products in the web are fakes. He does enjoy this fun part where he sometimes posts suspicious images with hints on their authenticity.

At the moment, he is planning to go beyond the horizons of MacRumors. He is currently cooperating in a spinoff Web site, Touch Arcade, that tracks the new games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Though he keeps mum about his other expansion plans, one thing is certain — he plans to go where no blogger has gone before.

I am gadget junkie. I love gadgets that make my eyes go wide with amazement when I see what it can accomplish. I looked through Time Magazine’s Best Inventions for 2007 just to whet my appetite. Everytime I look at inventions like these, I still can’t believe how amazingly intelligent and creative humans can be. Let me show you my favorites among all the amazing stuff humans have concocted in 2007.

I will start off with Time’s Invention of the Year — the IPhone. I know. I was surprised too. How can this cellphone get the top award when it seems to be all hype? Time gave reasons why it was chosen and I will sum it all up as best I could. First reason is — it really looks good. I can’t argue with that. I love the colors of the screen and the design. The animations made by Apple on the interface is also cool. No other cellphone can top that. Next, it’s all touchscreen. It’s not the first time a gadget is equipped with this feature. But have you seen a cellphone with the whole interface controlled via touchscreen? Nope. And of course, it’s not just a cellphone — it’s a genuine hand-held computer inside an elegant glass and stainless steel case. You can actually install Google Maps where you really need it — on the palm of your hand. You can add so many nifty softwares in it with such cute and colorful icons. Finally, if this is just the first edition, can you imagine what the next upgrades will be like. I can’t wait.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an Apple advertiser. But my next choice also wowed me the first time I saw it. Steve Jobs really seems to know how to make your mouth open with his new gadgets. The first time I saw the IMac, I searched for a full 5 minutes looking for the computer’s CPU. It doesn’t have a separate CPU? Whaaat?! The entire system was squished inside the slim LCD monitor. The DVD writer opens on the right edge of the gorgeous monitor. The monitor/entire system is made of a single sheet of aluminum so you wont see any seams or screws except for a single compartment on the bottom that provides easy access to the memory slots. And the IMac is not all beauty. We all know that the Mac OS has improved in leaps that it claims to be even more stable than Microsoft. I can go on forever. Let me just say this — “I want an IMac!”

My next fave is for earth lovers. It’s Tata Motors’ air car. Tata Motors was contracted by French R&D firm, MDI, to manufacture compressed - air - technology vehicles. The cars will run on air and the only thing it emits is colder and cleaner air. Moreover, a built-in air compressor can be plugged in to refill the tanks within minutes. For those complaining about high fuel cost, you better hold your horses. The cars will be available by 2009 yet.

Then we have the amazing Digital Water Pavilion. MIT’s SENSEable City Laboratory will build the Digital Water Pavilion for 2008’s Expo Zaragoza in Spain. The walls of the structure will be sheets of water flowing from computer - controlled nozzles that shape them into endlessly scrolling words and patterns. Talk about cool advertising! Wouldn’t it be cool to have a room like this at home? Portion of the room that is meant to be a door will sense when you are about to go out and stop water flow in that area. This is what I call innovation.

There are several more in Time’s list like clothes that change color with your moods, the erasable paper that does not require ink and may be used several times over, Sony’s new HD handycams, and so on. For the inventors of those in the list, my hats off to all of you.