Pinoy Meets World

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – – Astro Boy, the mythical Japanese cartoon character that has captivated generations of young people worldwide, will come out this year as an animated film by British director David Bowers.

“Without a doubt, this experience has been one of greater creative freedom. A lot of my robots, for example, were inspired by pre-Colombian characters,” said Luis Grane, the film’s Argentine character designer.

The animated feature is based on the popular Japanese cartoon series by Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989), known as the “god of manga” in its heyday in the 1960s.  Read more... (148 words, estimated 36 secs reading time)

MANILA, Philippines – The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which sets cellphone rates, admitted that it failed to act on complaints submitted by mobile phone subscribers.

The agency has been prevented from setting the expiration and duration of cellphone loads, among other rules, after a Quezon City court order temporarily disallowed the implementation of its guidelines, an NTC official said during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

These guidelines are contained in memorandum circular 13-06-2000 which imposes rules on billing statements, call rates, and the sale and use of prepaid cards, NTC deputy commissioner Douglas Michael Millillin said during a hearing of the Senate committees on trade and commerce and public services.  Read more... (235 words, estimated 56 secs reading time)

NEW YORK – A political coup in New York’s statehouse can be traced back to an incident in which a top lawmaker so enraged a wealthy backer by peering at e-mails on his BlackBerry that his patron engineered his ouster.

One of the newer forms of poor office etiquette — paying more attention to a hand-held device than to a conversation or business meeting — happens so frequently that businesses are complaining it upsets workplaces, wastes time and costs money.

“It happens all the time, and it’s definitely getting worse,” said Jane Wesman, a public relations executive and author of “Dive Right In — The Sharks Won’t Bite.”  Read more... (187 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – - Internet rights champions have accused Apple of stifling free speech by bullying OdioWorks into ending online sharing of ways to get iPods to work with music websites other than iTunes.

Attorneys from nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) teamed with OdioWorks lawyers to file a lawsuit against California-based Apple in a US federal court.

At the heart of the issue is the BluWiki website that details ways to get Apple’s popular iPhones and iPod MP3 players to synchronize music and video files with media at services such as Songbird, Banshee, Rockbox, and Winamp.  Read more... (187 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

TOKYO (AFP) – - Twenty years ago Japan’s Nintendo Co. launched the Game Boy, the iconic handheld video game player that spawned characters from Super Mario to Pokemon and sold 200 million units worldwide.

When the Game Boy was first launched this week in 1989, Japan was enjoying its economic “bubble years,” Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” topped international charts, and Chinese students were just starting to mass on Tiananmen Square.

Video games had recently moved from the arcades into family homes. In Japan children were playing Nintendo’s Family Computer or “Famicom” games on their television sets, and simple handheld games called Game and Watch.  Read more... (179 words, estimated 43 secs reading time)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – - Apple came under fire after an application for the iPhone called “Baby Shaker” was briefly approved for sale in the company’s online store.

The program, which reportedly appeared in Apple’s App Store on Monday and cost 99 cents to download, allowed a user to shake an iPhone screen to make a baby stop crying.

After enough shakes, the hand-drawn baby pictured on the screen stopped wailing and a large red “X” appeared over each eye.

Silicon Valley technology blogs reported that the application, from an outside developer called Sikalosoft, was pulled from the App Store several hours after Krapps.com, a website which reviews iPhone applications, revealed its existence.  Read more... (144 words, estimated 35 secs reading time)

MANILA, Philippines – Local retailer Puregold is deploying a Linux-based point-of-sale or POS system, as it looks to cutting down costs on security while expanding its network of stores.

Puregold has ordered more than 2,000 licenses of TPLinux software, according to Paderborn, Germany-based Wincor Nixdorf, which sells niche solutions for banks and retail firms.

These licenses will cover Puregold’s network of 36 hypermarket stores in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces, the German firm said.

Puregold is the first Philippine-based firm to use the German firm’s open source-based software, according to the German company.

Full Story@ Inquirer