Saturday, October 30, 2010

Globe Super Combo 20

Super Combo 20 offers 1 Day unlimited Texting plus 50 Minutes of voice call (yes it can be divided to different calls)

To Register text COMBO20 to 8888

1 Peso Maintaining Balance needed to continue availing this promo.

Promo is valid until November 30 2010 (it might get extended as what happens to famous promos globe has)

AllTxt 20 Combo

AllTxt 20 Combo is new and improved! You get 150 texts to Smart/Talk N' Text + 10 texts to other networks + 10 consumable minutes to Smart/ Talk N' Text! All of that, just for P20.00!

Go ahead and register! Text C20 to 2827!

red mobile UNLITXT COMBO

1. P10(UNLITXT RED TO RED + 10MIN CALL RED TO RED/SMART+_20TXT TO ALL NETWORKS VALID FOR 1 DAY

2. P20( UNLI CALL&TXT RED TO RED + 10MIN RED TO SMART+ 30 TXT TO TO ALL NETWORKS VALID FOR 1 DAY

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Smart Bro Pocket WiFi Portable 3G Router

Smart now has their own version of a portable 3G+WiFi router they called SmartBro Pocket WiFi. This new product competes head-on with Globe MyFi launched back in July.


The SmartBro Pocket WiFi is only available on a postpaid Plan 495 for 50 hours of 3G internet every month. You will also need to add another Php150 per month for the Pocket WiFi device for the next 24 month lock-in period (that makes Php645/month for 24 months).

An extra Php10 per 30 minutes will be charged on top of the MSF when you exceed the 50 hour allocation. The promised speed it up to 2Mbps. They even have a promo that if you pay on time, you get 5 hours free on top of your monthly allocation.

As of the moment, they do not have an unlimited plan, probably because this will compete with the SmartBro Share-It Unlimited Plan. However, unlike the SmartBro Share-It that is restricted to your area/city/province, the SmartBro Pocket WiFi has nationwide coverage.

Likewise, since this is a postpaid account, the Smart UnliSurf offers (Unlisurf200) are not applicable on this device. Not sure if this is also a Huawei device (probably a ZTE by the looks of it) but it can handle up to 5 WiFi devices at the same time.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

DagdagCALL

1. Ano ang DagdagCALL?

Ang DagdagCALL ay dagdag na 3 minutes pangtawag to TM/Globe na pwedeng hati-hatiin P5 lang! Maari lang bumili ng DagdagCALL kung ikaw ay registered sa - SULITXT5, ASTIGTXT10, at ASTIGTXTALL.

2. Pwede ba akong magregister sa DagdagCALL anytime?

Maari ka lang magregister sa DagdagCALL hangga't hindi pa expired ang iyong SULITXT5, ASTIGTXT10, at ASTIGTXTALL.

3. Pwede ba akong magregister ng paulit-ulit sa DagdagCALL?

Oo, pwede kang magregister ng higit sa isang beses sa DagdagCALL, hangga't hindi pa expire ang iyong SULITXT5, ASTIGTXT10, o ASTIGTXTALL.

5. Ano ang mangyayari kapag nagregister ako ng paulit-ulit sa DagdagCALL?

Maiipon ang iyong 3 minutes na pangtawag.

Halimbawa. Kung magreregister ka ng tatlong beses sa DagdagCALL, magkakaipon ka ng 9 minutes na pantawag to TM/Globe na pwedeng hati-hatiin.

6. Kailan mag-e-expire ang DagdagCALL ko?

24 hours ang validity DagdagCALL. Mag-eexpire ang DagdagCALL mo, makalipas ang 24 hours mula sa huli mong DagdagCALL registration.

7. Hindi pa expired ang aking DagdagCALL. Maari ba akong makapagregister sa mga TM combo at voice promo?

Hindi. Dapat maubos muna ang iyong DagdagCALL minutes bago makaregister sa TM combo o voice promos.

DagdagTXT

1. Ano ang DagdagTXT?

Ang DagdagTXT ay dagdag na 10 texts to ALL NETWORKS. P5 lang! Pwede lang bumili ng DagdagTXT kung ikaw ay registered sa ASTIGTAWAG20.

2. Pano kung registered ako sa ibang promo maliban sa ASTIGTAWAG20, maari pa rin ba akong mag DagdagTXT?

Hindi. Hindi ka makakapagregister sa DagdagTXT kung ikaw ay hindi registered sa ASTIGTAWAG20.

3. Pwede ba akong magregister sa DagdagTXT anytime?

Maari ka lang magregister sa DagdagTXT hangga't hindi pa expire ang iyong ASTIGTAWAG20.

4. Pwede ba akong magregister ng paulit-ulit sa DagdagTXT?

Oo. Pwede kang magregister ng higit sa isang beses sa DagdagTXT, hangga't hindi pa expire ang iyong ASTIGTAWAG20.

5. Ano ang mangyayari kapag nagregister ako ng paulit-ulit sa DagdagTXT?

Maiipon ang iyong 10 texts to ALL NETWORKS.

Halimbawa. Kung magreregister ka ng tatlong beses sa DagdagTXT, makakaipon ka ng 30 texts to ALL NETWORKS.

6. Kailan mag-eexpire ang DagdagTXT ko?

24 hours ang validity DagdagTXT. Mag-eexpire ang DagdagTXT mo, makalipas ang 24 hours mula sa huli mong DagdagTXT registration.

7. Hindi pa expire ang aking DagdagTXT. Maari ba akong makapagregister sa TM text offers?

Hindi. Dapat maubos muna ang iyong DagdagTXT bago makaregister sa TM text promos.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

DOST, Smart ink pact on co-location of rain gauges

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has announced that it has forged a deal with Smart Communications for the placement of telemetric rain gauges in the wireless operator’s cell sites.

DOST, through the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), signed the agreement with Smart on October 5 initially covering 63 cell sites nationwide.

“The co-location of our telemetric gauges in Smart cell sites will complement our on-going program to strengthen the capacity of Pagasa in issuing weather forecasts and flood warnings to the public,” DOST secretary Mario G. Montejo said in a statement.

Each telemetric rain gauge automatically sends rainfall data to Pagasa’s 44 Automatic Weather Stations in the form of short messaging system or SMS. The data will then be posted real-time in Pagasa’s website that is accessible to the public.

The co-location arrangement also means Pagasa telemetric rain gauges will have uninterrupted power supplies during power outage caused by the weather disturbances.

DOST undersecretary and concurrent Pagasa acting administrator Graciano P. Yumul Jr. said the pact will save the weather bureau additional expenses in setting up new locations for its weather forecasting instruments since Smart cell sites are already in place nationwide.

The new agreement expands a similar initiative previously covering Metro Manila. Smart offered to accommodate the installation of the additional Pagasa rain gauges in its cell sites nationwide.

Pagasa and Smart engineers earlier met to identify the ideal sites for co-location of the rain gauges in areas such as Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Abra, Benguet, Bulacan, Zambales, Metro Manila, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, Mindoro Oriental, and Marinduque Camarines Norte, and Sorsogon in Luzon and Negros Occidental, Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Iloilo, Bohol, Northern Samar, and Leyte in the Visayas.

Other provinces in Mindanao considered for the project include Lanao Del Norte, Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental, Sarangani, Davao Del Norte, Sultan Kudarat, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte, and Surigao del Sur.

“Smart is very happy to be part of this noble partnership which aims at saving the lives of our people during disasters,” Smart Communications president and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno said in a statement.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Google Translate spews profanities in Filipino

It may be funny, but it underscores a problem that's nothing to laugh about.

Making the rounds in social media today are screengrabs of errors produced using Google Translate that show bewilderingly profane Filipino translations for English-language scientific terms.

For example, Google Translate converts "titration" (a common chemistry lab procedure) into "pagsukat sa t***". Attempting to translate the noun's verb form, "titrate", yields the similarly profane-sounding but nonsensical "t***in".

Google Translate, an online language translation tool, also renders other scientific terms into less risqué but no less bewildering Filipino translations: "sublimation" becomes "pangingimbabaw"; "diffusion" is "pagsasabog"; "inorganic" is "tulagay".

Google Translate and other similar online tools (such as Yahoo! Babelfish) are inherently not designed to produce perfectly fluent translations. The results generated by online translators are often syntactically and grammatically incorrect, but are largely expected to be reasonable approximations of the meaning of the original text.

Google Translate, for its part, performs this task by comparing large volumes of online text and looking for similar patterns in a process called "statistical machine translation".



This means that English words don't necessarily have to have a direct Filipino translation; Google Translate just needs to have a large enough sample of human-translated documents for it to understand idioms and turns-of-phrase that are particular to the language being translated.

The fact that Google Translate seems to fail more often when translating scientific terms indicates the dearth of Filipino science-related documents online.

And this is certainly no laughing matter, according to Dr. Isagani Tapang, an associate professor of physics at the University of the Philippines in Diliman and chair of AGHAM.

"This is directly indicative of scientific output in the Philippines. Maliit na nga ang output, mas konti pa ang sinasalin sa Filipino (The output itself is small, and the number of Filipino translations is even smaller)," he said.

Tapang stressed the need for Filipino-language scientific articles for educational purposes. What's needed isn't necessarily direct word-for-word translations of scientific terms, he says, but rather instructional and educational materials that discuss science in the vernacular.

"For example, we know what a 'transistor' is even if it's an English term. But when we talk about it in the classroom, the discourse is in Filipino," he noted.

"You still need to report scientific developments in the vernacular, otherwise it will remain in the original language. Hindi na sya mababasa, so paano sya lalaganap? (It won't get read, so how will it spread?)," Tapang said.

He also pointed out that the effort need not encompass large bodies of text just yet. "Even just Filipino-language abstracts of scientific papers will be a great help," he opined.

Based on Tagalog Wikipedia statistics alone, as of Oct. 5, there are only 246 science articles out of over 20,000 on the site.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Globe GCASH Card

Globe GCASH Card allows you to access your GCASH Wallet/s through any Expressnet, BancNet and MegaLink ATMs. GCASH Card is available to Globe subscribers starting Friday, October 1, 2010. Here are the privileges and mechanics on how to apply for a Globe GCASH Card.

Globe GCASH Card
MECHANICS:
a. You must be a registered GCASH member.
b. Application is done online. Visit http://ping.fm/H7NhF
c. You must have at least a minimum of Gcash wallet amount of Php 100.00.

PRIVILEGES:
a. It allows you to withdraw your GCASH wallet from any of the 9,000 ATMs nationwide, across all ATMs - Megalink, Bancnet, Expressnet, Encash etc.
b. Choose your own customized design or from the GCASH Card sample cards found on the website.

REMINDERS:
a. The cost of the GCASH Card will be PHP 100. This will be deducted from the GCash wallet.
b. Delivery of the card will be 2 weeks from the date of application.
c. You will be charged P20 for every withdrawal from your GCASH Card regardless of the amount.
d. To follow up your application, you can send an email to Gcashcarddelivery@globetel.com.ph
e. Read the image policies and guidelines before uploading your own customized photo or background.

Sun Cellular offer Mobile Travel SIM

Now, tourists and balikbayans have more reasons to visit the Philippines. With the new Sun Mobile Travel SIM, travelers can call back home with the lowest rates of Sun Cellular.

In partnership with Cebu Pacific, Sun Cellular brings the powerful SIM that offers as much as 100 minutes of IDD calls to key countries.

With this tie-up, travelers to the country are able to get in touch with their loved ones more conveniently. In fact, the Sun Mobile Travel SIM is available on Cebu Pacific’s international flights to the Philippines.

The new international mobile SIM has 100 minutes of IDD calls to the United States (mainland), Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Guam, or as much as 40 minutes of IDD calls to other select countries, including Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia.

What’s more, it has 20 international text messages to 20 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Macau, Oman, Cyprus, Bahamas, and Puerto Rico.

The SIM also has P150 credits for more IDD calls and international text messages. It also has Unlimited Call and Text service within the Sun network.

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