Thoughts before I sleep, October 20, 2013

Today's thoughts before I sleep: 

Let me thank my PIA7 staff especially those from Bohol--Rey, Elvie, Yboy and Junjun for continuously sending SMS which I turned into tweets that are being followed, retweeted, mentioned, and favorited by the global/virtual community whose numbers I may never know.

May I commend Elvie for standing by at the Tagbilaran City operation center where she gets and sourced out information, situation and updates from all over the towns in Bohol.

Rey, for making tweets/info that lead, guide many teams to access roads, routes and footbridges so that help, relief and rescue are dispatched at least with his first hand experience.

Rey's training as a professional tour guide are reflected on his tweets and, SMS or information on where to pass, detour or what kind of transport best suited for a particular track.

He tweets new routes, dangers of roadslips and landslides, unsafe roads and bridges, as well as the relief needs of people affected by the quake and the indomitable spirit of responders and volunteers.

As I composed these information into official leads/tweets, I imagined myself in those routes, roads, bridges, dangers, death.

It was like a movie I played in my mind...a landscape of vast, massive destruction with children, women, and people against the backdrop of dust, mud, shambles, rubbles and heroism.

I could almost feel the eerie silence of a place that Rey described in his tweets and I could see him in a huddle with his wife and children one rainy night inside their tent perched outside his house that the quake destroyed in half.

This is the image I want to leave you tonight from one of Rey's tweets:

"Rains come tonight, forcing scattered sleeping mats to huddle under one tent as quake fail to break our oneness."

iPhone experience 2: All's Well that Ends Well

My close encounters with iPhone & SMART Communications really tried my patience.

Just as my iPhone 4S got busted, my office, the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) issued me an iPhone 5 that I received on May 10.

Excited to use it, I immediately put the retention SIM in.

Called PIA-regional operations & Admin to request our PLDT/SMART corporate account coordinator to facilitate the activation of my retention SIM.  

I was told to wait for 3 days. The 3 days ran up to 11 days before I could use it because SMART had to change the SIM.

iPhone 5 is wonderful, very much better than iPhone 4S. Apple must have fixed all the kinks in iPhone 4S to come up with this wonderful experience of iPhone 5.

Now, let's go back to my busted iPhone 4S which SIM is still under the P2000/mo plan until May 2014. 

Called Ms. Hazel Amoyan of SMART again, asked her advise on what I should do with this busted iPhone unit, and whether SMART can change it so I can continue with the plan.

Ms. Hazel tried everything and then..a replacement unit was possible! It was a Samsung Galaxy Mega dual core.

"Ah, Android technology," I thought. I heard so much good reviews about the Samsung Galaxy. I was actually excited to try it. 

It's been 3 months now that I'm using the unit. I like its size, just exact for a palm grasp and great for reading ebooks, news, documents, Facebook and everything else. 

This is Ms Hazel and her protégé of SMART-Visayas.  We had coffee after I got the Samsung Galaxy Mega to show my heartfelt appreciation of what she did to take care of my needs.

Ok, now my review of the Samsung Galaxy Mega compared to iPhone 5.  

All apps in the iPhone 5 are very user-friendly. One click for every use and you are on your way.  Steve Jobs must have figured this out. 

For example, at the iPhone 5 I can easily switch from one twitter account to the other as admin to 5 accounts without so much fuss. 

I can't do this in the Samsung Galaxy Mega. It asks too many questions before you can manage your tweets, retweets or quotes! 

This is the same with the other applications in the Samsung Galaxy Mega, even with FB or with blogger or with wordpress.

I'm comfortable using both iOS and android but I mostly prefer the iOS because the keyboard of Samsung Galaxy Mega is too light your words or letters literally jump out and more often get the wrong letter and mis-spelling your words. 

Choices differ from person to person. For busy executives, the iPhone is really handy & fast.

I wish Apple makes the next iPhone unit a little wider than its size now-- even as wide as the Samsung Galaxy Mega, that is perfect for me!

I have actually best of both worlds in terms of smart phones and computer.

The iPhone and MacBook Air are swank, they really are a seamless pair that editors, writers and directors must have!

The Samsung Galaxy Mega serves as a spare when your iPhone runs out of battery.