Myphone: Pinoy Pride, Pinoy Heart

Myphone is truly made by and for the Pinoy! When Solid Group, the Filipino manufacturer of the Myphone, launched the T22 Duo just two years ago, I was impressed by the innovative idea. It’s indeed very Pinoy to maintain two SIM cards for a single mobile phone and pull a switch-a-roo whenever necessary. While others would find it funny--if not downright weird--it is not unusual for us to instruct someone to “miss call” first before sending a text message. Why? We want to make sure that the particular number you are sending a message to is active or its corresponding SIM card is currently the one in use. The Myphone T22 Duo, the first dual active SIM phone in the country, has changed all that.

This 2009, Solid Group continues to amaze, taking Pinoy-friendly and “Pinoy pride” several notches higher! With the release of the Myphone Pinoyphone series, I realized just how creative the Filipino mind is. Just when I thought that the Philippines will always fall behind our more technologically advanced Asian brothers, the Pinoy phone seems to prove me wrong (Thank God for that)!

Although I’ve seen ads and ticklers before its launch, it wasn’t until recently that I actually had the chance to try out the Pinoyphone and confirm that THIS is really IT! Who knows better as to what’s important to the typical Pinoy than a kabayan? It’s the only cell phone I know that has jokes, prayers, scriptures, famous movie lines, history, and trivia bits! And as if these weren’t enough, it comes with OPM and videoke, or “sing along,” features that complete its Pinoy signature. I must say that this is one phone that has a heart—a 100% Pinoy heart. Proudly Philippine-made.

Confessions of a Facebook Addict

(Photo credit: http://www.symbianize.com)

I can’t say exactly which came first: the desire to test my unofficial hypothesis or the mania caused by my 289 class to fit everything, including fb, into a framework. All I know is what my Internet log tells me—I have doubled, sometimes even tripled, the frequency and duration of my Internet use, specifically logging into one site: fb. Not that I don’t have a life, but it seems that lately, it’s my life which I have been unsuspectingly working around fb.

Here’s what happened, anyway. My hypothesis was—and still is—that fb is addictive, because it’s a venue for validation in every sense of the word: to confirm if something was true, to declare an official statement, to make something officially acceptable.

My friend and neighbor B told me about her friend who happens to be a social researcher. She said that her friend used her skills on something which she herself (the friend, not B) could actually benefit from: she searched her ex’s current girlfriend to find out how long they’ve been together, suspecting that the ex cheated on B’s friend while they were still together. I’m citing this only as an example, but in case you were wondering, he didn’t. Thank God!

Not long ago, I had asked Ms. G if she thinks we would still be on fb by the time we’re, say, 50. “Maybe. But what would we be posting then? Scanned images of our graduate certificates?” She replied with a laugh. I got what she meant, so I teased her back with, “Maybe pictures to show how good a catch our son or daughter would be marrying.” After all, these are what usually make mamas proud, right?

Also, there are a variety of people I don’t personally know but whose loud conversations in the train have made me a reluctant-only-at-first eavesdropper. They were talking about going somewhere really cool with people, who, in their opinion, are equally cool. They said to take pictures of themselves and go on a tagging spree on fb to cause someone they all know (but don’t particularly like) to feel “they’re cool by association, and I’m not.” Their words, not mine.

So my hypothesis makes sense, I thought and left it at that. If people care that much about themselves, especially using online social networks, then, I wanted to make sure that they get credit for who they really are.

Whenever I Compare friends, I hit “skip” each time one friend I know very, very well is matched against someone I don’t know that much. Who am I to judge whether my friend is smarter than my acquaintance? What do I really know about my college roommate being more likely to be successful than my high school classmate?  Things change through the years, and besides, who defines “success”? Or how do I perceive a person’s “happiness”? By his/her job, the relationship he/she has, the family he/she is raising? I’ve made sure to poke back the person who poked me, especially if he/she did not just Mass Superpoke. This person took his/her time, even if only out of boredom, to buy me a margarita and taser Mr. G.  Also, I’ve learned to save my comments for people who welcome them. Enough said. In the end, changing my settings and walking on eggshells not to flood the News Feed, I realized that I had tested my fb hypothesis on myself. While I was, in a way, validating people, I was also validating myself—as someone who doesn’t want to offend and be judgmental of people.

If you’re still with me, reading up to this paragraph, then I would take consolation in the possibility that I’m not alone in my fb addiction. Indeed, I’m not. D called me one night, and we spent more than an hour on the phone, talking about fb and stopping only when she got to the train station. We talked about being reunited with old friends (Aw, Y and Z ended up together pala), finding new ones (W is so talented, you should see his cartoons minsan), and losing some—at least online (V deleted her fb account all of a sudden, why kaya?). I told her that I’ve been reading everything I could find on Mark Zuckerberg—his Harvard issues, ethical and intellectual property violations—because you can only find the answer to a question about something when you know who the creator is and how he thinks.

In the meantime, I set my phone to ring exactly 30 minutes after I log into fb, and when it does, I log out immediately. It’s been working beautifully so far.

Paulo Coelho Christmas Freebies

Did you fall in love with "By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept"? Did "Veronika Decides to Die" change your life? Did you understand human nature better with "The Devil and Miss Prym"? If you have all these three titles of Paulo Coelho's On the Seventh Day trilogy, then you are indeed a Coelho fan. Best known as the best-selling author of "The Alchemist" and as one of the world's most influential writers, Paulo is also a strong advocate of file-sharing. So this Christmas season, Paulo Coelho is giving fans and bookworms the best present ever: free downloads of Paulo Coelho books right from his blog site!

Coelho aficionados, hurry! The free download of several titles is until the first week of January only. After that, the download page will be offline. Book titles in various languages are available in ePub, Mobipocket/Kindle, PDF, Sony Reader, and iLiad formats. Spread the Coelho love! HAPPY CHRISTMAS to you all!

Thanks for dropping by on my blog!

My Facebook Hypothesis (as published in HerWord.com)

Last semester, I submitted a paper for my Conflict Resolution class in which I particularly focused on the Change Management part of the syllabus. It was an overview of Social Network Analysis (SNA) as an empirical tool in change management. Well, just to describe SNA, it’s a fusion of psychology, sociology, and mathematics, wherein SNA software can measure the interpersonal relations of the organization at the informal level, draw a graph of these relations, and help the organization identify the real power source of the organization. Simply put, SNA assumes that power and influence does not belong to the boss but to the informal leader: the person whose friendship and opinion is valued by the majority, the “sociometric star,” as Jacob Moreno calls it. I wrote that 

“At the organizational level, identifying informal networks and determining the types and strength of existing relationships would inevitably lead to the detection of the legitimate change agent. Perhaps, empowering the sociometric star to function as a linking pin would intensify Likert and Likert’s concept of interaction-influence network and improve organizational effectiveness in general.”

Now, before I bore you with academic writing, let me proceed with my blog and tell you that I’ve created a Facebook account (but call it “fb;” otherwise, you’d be tagged as newbie) and somehow managed to get addicted to it. Although majority of fb users are non-Filipino, most of them tell me one thing: fb is addicting. I started monitoring my Internet logs and realized “Shoot. I’ve more-than-doubled my regular Internet indulgence” –not just in frequency (number of times I log in to fb) but in duration as well (number of hours I spend online). 

Because this really disturbed me, I started asking friends, who also have fb accounts, WHY IS fb ADDICTING? After all, Friendster has increased its photo limit, improved its blog base, and added applications, which made fb a unique online social network in the first place (The culprit, by the way, is Mark Elliot Zuckerberg; he created Facebook and became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at 24). 

Then it hit me. Facebook takes online social networks to the extreme. Not only can you guess at your sociometric star quality via Social Profile and Superlatives. You may “suggest” friendship between people, give a margarita to a friend, and drop an elephant on another. It allows you to “eavesdrop,” because it tracks everything you do and say to friends. Let’s say A and B are friends, and B and C are also friends. Although A is not a friend of C, A can see what’s going on in C’s life (even when C sets his/her account to “private”) whenever B leaves a comment on C, which gets published in B’s “news feed.” If you guessed that this sounds like trouble, then your guess is as good as mine. I’ve had friends delete their accounts or delete some friends off their list because of some conflict arising from fb. I must say that, at one point—okay more than once, I got a bit affected by this same conflict, although I wouldn’t tell you what happened–in fairness to the other persons involved.

Weird? No. There’s nothing wrong with fb, because it DID say that it is a social network. It did not say that it IS a social network for friends only. A social network exists between enemies as well. I’ve had friends on fb (where else?) tell me that fb is a venue for us to gloat over those who’ve stepped on our toes. It makes sense. It’s saying, “Hello, Cheerleader! You broke my heart in high school, because I wore ugly braces and corduroy trousers. But look at me now! I’m Mr. ABC (I’m now known by initials, see) with a kick-ass car and weekends in Oahu.” Or, let’s say you’ve been a wallflower all your life and on your 25^th birthday, your pimples finally decided to take a retirement. All of a sudden your face is everywhere on fb, in a not-so-silent scream to vindicate you of aesthetic injustice in the past. What a validation!

Ergo, my hypothesis: fb is addicting, because each one of us has a need for validation in one way or another. Don’t hate me yet; I admit that I’d been there. And while you may indignantly argue against it, you would blog about how you don’t need validation, and that, my friend, is a validation in itself. Now, if you took all this time to read my lengthy blog about something so mundane and trivial, then it means that you and I share an affinity for understanding the vague. If you feel like doing your own little experiment, log in to Facebook.com. You won’t be disappointed.

My Holiday Personality

It's 2 days before Christmas, but my brain has already decided to take a vacation leave. Actually, I should be working on a writing project for my father-slash-client, so I've been negotiating with my brain--in vain, I must add--for 2 hours now. In the end, I found myself taking a holiday personality test instead--as if there's not enough of them on Facebook already. There's no place like blogthings.com for crazy quizzes, fun personality tests, and what-nots that you can post on your websites and blogs.

Your Holiday Personality is Caring

Your holidays are all about connecting and sharing. This is a sacred time of year, and you like to spend it with those who are special to you. You like to make sure everyone around you is comfortable, full of love (and goodies!), and healthy. You love to surprise people with the best Christmas gifts ever. You will search high and low for that perfect present. You are always reflecting on the true meaning behind the holidays. You appreciate all that you have been given in this world.

What's Your Holiday Personality?

Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity

       
Aw... Check out what blogthing has in store for you. Once your results are generated, simply click on the "Get Code" link and voila! You can post your results on your website right away. HTML proficiency and eye strain NOT necessary. You only need to be a copy-paste expert. Happy Holidays!

Use Facebook emoticons: Go from zzz to snazz

It's Christmas week, so everyone (me, especially) is already into the I'm-on-holiday-thank-you-very-much mode. If you're like most of my Facebook friends, you're either in a tagging frenzy with your office party photos or making status updates on a per-minute basis. Fortunately for you, I'm trying to get into Santa's Nice List this year, so I'm sharing some of the Facebook emoticons and symbols I've found in the blogosphere.  Simply copy-paste these cutesy Facebook symbols and make your captions, Wall posts, and status updates (or tweets) go from zzzzz to snazz!

☞ ♂ ♀ εїз ♣ ♥

™  ®  ©  ♠  ♣  ♥ ஐ ♫ ♪ ♭

Because I really, really need to work harder to get into the list, here's a list of the most popular facebook emoticons and smileys as well as their shortcuts.

confused    o.O

devil           3:) 

grumpy       >:(  

pacman      :v

penguin      <(")

robot          :|]

shark        (^^^)

Morph your friend into her fave celeb!

Yay! It's 5 days 'til Christmas! Any girl knows that there's no such thing as "too late for Christmas shopping" BUT if you're on a tight budget, don't fret. Here's a little suggestion: turn your friends into celebrities! You don't need to be a kingmaker to do that. You don't have to spend a single cent even. With MyHeritage.com's face recognition system, you can upload your friends' photos and morph them into their celebrity face match! Check out what I did for my sister:

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family research - Family pictures

I posted this on her Facebook as well. The best thing about the app is that it's quite simple to use. For this one, it didn't even take me longer than 3 minutes. Simply upload your friend's photo, and the facial recognition software will do the job for you. All that you'll be required to do is to put and adjust reference points. You can choose whether you'd like to create a collage (of your friend's celebrity twins) or a celebrity morph. You can then send your project slash present to your friend's e-mail, Facebook, myspace, and other online social network accounts. Or you can get the code and post it on your website. This will surely boost the surprise factor, and your friend will love you for revealing her celebrity twin. For best results, choose a photo with large, front-facing, straight faces. Photos where your friend is looking directly at the camera and not wearing sunglasses are guaranteed to have more accurate celebrity matches.

Things I know about life I learned from the Web:

In the tradition of Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten, I'm posting something that I wrote back in 2005. This was way before I got addicted to Facebook--for which I'm making a new list. (The pathos and conflict on my News Feed puts it in a class of its own. lol.)

Things I know about life I learned from the Web:

Always remember where to use which password

Your history can catch up with you. Delete cookies.

When you get too far from what you’re looking for, you can always hit Home

Too much of a good thing can be hazardous. Share too many files, and you’ll end up God-knows-where.net

Just as you’re updating your antivirus, someone else is coming up with a more dangerous one that can crash your hard drive

If you’re sure about what you don’t want or need, always remember to Empty Recycle Bin to reclaim disk space

Help/Support is not always on real time

If you happen to perform an illegal operation, system will shut down

If at times you find yourself looking at things that don’t seem to appear the way they should, Refresh

Defrag from time to time

The webcam can be positioned to show the best angles. You only see what you want to see

If you don’t have adequate bandwidth, expect some downtime

You have the power to create links, but there are times when your search leads to unavailable. . . and you may need to adjust your security settings

You get more hits from passersby

Your social network profile is sometimes more interesting to your enemies than it is to your friends :P

If you feel that you need an emotional or creative outlet and a place where your opinion matters, where YOU matter, create your own blog

If you need assurance that you’re not alone and that you’re normal, read THEIR blogs

*****

If in doubt, Google

How to find your doppelganger

A couple of weeks ago, an old friend from high school who is now based in London sent me this message: "You look just like Myleene Klass. My husband agrees." My first reaction? Google Images. Needless to say, I was thrilled.

I hope that you will pardon me for such vanity, but you're likely to feel good about being described as a dead ringer for a celebrity, especially when it happens to be someone really hot. A dead ringer in these days means "exact duplicate." In the past,celebrity or no celebrity, "dead ringer" was supposedly a bad thing. The phrase has existed since 1882, and it referred to a race horse that is substituted for another of similar appearance to defraud bookies.

A doppelganger is a similar concept, although it's much more eerie than fraudulent. In German, doppelgänger means a double or a look-alike of a certain person. It also refers to the paranormal experience of seeing yourself--and I'm not talking mirrors, photographs, and videos. If you thought that THAT was scary, try digesting the concept that it meant bad luck--the death omen kind. In fact, in Norse mythology, a ghost referred to as a vardøger is an apparition of a living person that does this person's action in advance. Remember the urban legend about a friend of a friend who died, but seconds before his death, he was seen somewhere else? Among followers of paranormal and esoteric knowledge, they may refer to the concept as bilocation or "evil twin."

Enough about the scary part (although I'm fully aware that it's almost Halloween). If you haven't heard of the Doppelganger Theory, it's that belief that somewhere in the world, you have a twin. Although there's no scientific backing to that, it's part of pop culture now (Hint: Tomb Raider, Coraline, and even CSI).

And so, remembering Cosmo's Separated at Birth section, I took the time to pull together a couple of doppelgangers--from the famous to the obscure. Indonesian Ilham Anas and US President Barack Obama. American actress Tina Fey and US politician Sarah Palin. Tom Cruise and CSI's Nick Stokes (George Eads). Jake Gyllenhaal and CSI Miami's Ryan Wolfe (Jonathan Togo). Mel Gibson and Christian singer Carman. Myleene Klass and moi.

Barack Obama and Ilham Anas

Photo from http://www.ebaumsworld.com

Tina Fey and Sara Palin 

Photo above from http://tothewire.wordpress.com

Tom Cruise and George Eads

Jake Gyllenhaal and Jonathan Togo

 

 Mel Gibson and Carman

Myleene Klass and (shameless) me :P

If you want to find your own celebrity lookalike, there are plenty of applications on the web--and they're all free! If you have a Facebook account (who doesn't?!), you can use FaceDouble. With this fb app, you can find your celebrity lookalike or a doppelganger who's also another Facebook user. It also automatically imports this into a photo album, so you can use it as your profile pic. What's more, you can create one for your fb friends and surprise them with their own doppelgangers and celebrity lookalikes in a tagging spree that everyone on Facebook seems to love to do so much. Or you can go to MyHeritage.com. It's actually a geneology site, but it uses a face-recognition software which allows you to do more than just find your doppelganger. There's plenty of fun stuff you can do, like find long-lost relatives or morph yourself into Jessica Alba--and that's just for starters. Try it out and do come back to tell me which celebrity lookalike has graced my blog with his/her presence.

See Also:
Who Started Doppelganger Week on Facebook?
Morph Your Friend into Her Fave Celeb!

Google Adsense disabled???

Wow. It's been a while since I've had the time to write for my own blog. Unfortunately, this comeback is a sad experience. I just found out that my Google Adsense account has been disabled. I know what you're thinking: "What did she do?"

Good question.

I'm wondering about that, too. For one, my application for Google Adsense was disapproved the first time, because I have the misfortune of living in a rather small city where houses and streets aren't numbered. I was informed that I could reapply, but to make sure I won't have problems this time, I decided to send an e-mail to their customer service. Unfortunately, I never received a reply.

And today, just as I was going to post an entry, I found out that my account has been disabled. Usually, this happens when you violate Google Adsense's policies, such as clicking on ads in your own site or soliciting clicks from friends in the blogosphere. I did none of that. In fact, I have not been sent a notification e-mail warning me of a policy violation (like what bloggers' whose accounts have been disabled typically get). I had read the Terms and Conditions meticulously before applying, as I am aware that once you breach any of these, you're going to get kicked for good.

What is mind-boggling for me is that my account has been disabled even if it was never even activated. I thought about giving it another chance and filling out their appeals form. However, I decided against it after reading the forum threads. See for yourself here.

It just doesn't make (Ad)sense. Oh well, I guess I'll just charge this one to experience. It sure won't make me love blogging less.

homecourt advantage: the benefits of working from home

For so long, people have found the concept of working from home quite appealing. Who can blame them? Prior to the Internet, which took telecommuting careers to a whole new level, the set-up used to be associated only with positions high enough the corporate ladder that they merit a flexible work schedule. Today, whether you are a blogger, data processor, freelance writer, graphic artist, or an online entrepreneur, you can enjoy the benefits of working from home:


Increased savings

Working from home cuts your transport and meal expenses. Since you don't have to leave home to earn income, you get to save on gas--think of what you're doing for energy efficiency and the environment! And especially if you work in one of those posh corporate offices, the required power lunches and after-office drinks can be quite hazardous to your finances.

Work even in your pyjamas

Home-based jobs liberate you from constricting office clothes. In addition, no more dress codes to cramp your style!

No more wet shoes and stilettos slipping off the pavement

Ever got caught in 7:00 AM rain? If you're working from home, you couldn't care less even if it doesn't stop raining until it's 9:00 AM (in fact, you could still be asleep then). I'd say this is one of the best things that happened ever since I made a career shift. Add this to saying goodbye to runs in my pantyhose, which of course resulted from squishing myself into crammed train rides.

No more chasing cabs and getting caught in traffic jams

The reason why I used to get down and dirty just to catch my train is that at rush hour, cabbies become instant superstars, and the streets are their red carpets! And what jammed red carpets they are! Remember how the soles of your shoes almost bore a hole on the floor of one-too-many cabs--or your own car--when you were running late for work, and it looked like hell was emptied out onto the highway?

No bundy clocks or bioscans

The reason of that agitation is, of course, the perennial race against time. When you're a home-based worker, the job is usually on a flexible schedule, or flexi-time. This means that your performance is measured based on output and not so much on actual time spent at work. So unless you have a fixed schedule, you can do your job at your own pace and time. If you're most productive at midnight, you can work then--just make sure that you don't miss your deadline, if your home-based job requires one.

No boss literally breathing down your neck.

Should I even explain?

No office politics

No coworkers gossiping about whose fault it was that the presentation bombed. No coworkers gossiping in the cubes. No coworkers gossiping. No coworkers. Period. Sometimes, that is enough benefit.

Work-life balance

With home-based work, pursuing a career no longer has to mean compromising family time and other areas of your life. Especially in families with both parents working, quality time with their kids is often a concern. For stay-at-home moms, a home-based job provides financial independence and boosts self-esteem.

Happy worker

I should know. I'm a home-based writer. I provide text content for clients running search engines and what-have-yous. I'm doing what I love to do, and I get paid per word. This May, I shall have been working from home for a year already. I must admit that I'm still a long way off from the Internet success stories--people earning $4,000 per month without leaving the comforts of their homes. But I sure am not complaining. :)

planning to work from home?

For so long, people have viewed globalization and the Internet as a threat. According to the World Internet Usage Statistics, however, the number of Internet users from 2000 to 2008 increased by a whopping 338%. While the reasons for going online may be for business, education, entertainment, or social networking purposes, a number of people now make a living by working online. With the economy on a downturn, the threat of job loss leads many to seek work-from-home jobs to cushion the fall just in case.

What is a home-based worker?

This simply refers to a person who works from home. In contrast to a "home worker," which is usually taken in the context of domestic work and care, a home-based worker earns a living by performing job tasks at home, which serves as his/her office. Traditionally, jobs that allow people to work from home include envelope stuffing, handicraft, and even babysitting. Nowadays, the globalized market and the Web has provided a variety of jobs for home-based workers.

What types of jobs can I do if I want to work from home?

• Data entry/Data processing - Most data entry jobs are paid by the number of forms you are able to fill out, so if your fingers are good on the keyboard, this might be a good start for you. Not only do you need to work fast, your typing skills should be matched with accuracy. However, be wary of bogus data entry jobs. Many people were reported to have been victimized by Internet frauds promising work-from-home data processing jobs with payment rates that are much too high. So, how do you tell fake jobs from real ones? This can be really tough, as some of the websites that the fake jobs are posted on may have very professional-looking layouts. Usually, these websites require you to make a payment to "register" as a data processor. Also, their rates are often too good to be true. Before you make a go for it, make sure that you check out several websites so you can at least make a comparison of the rates and estimate the pay for data entry posts in the job market. You may also visit Work-From-Home-Directory.com to help you with your search.

• Paid surveys - If you are opinionated or like answering online quizzes, then what could be better than getting paid for what you willingly do for free? Paid surveys may require you to have a PayPal account where your payment can be sent. In addition, some surveys are available only within certain territories/countries.

• Research writing - If your written English communication and research skills are above average, then you may want to check out sites where writers can receive research projects from all over the world. It would help if you have some experience in using style guides, such as the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). However, there are some intellectual property issues associated with this job, because it is a form of "ghost writing," where somebody else (your client) passes off your work as his/her own.

• Blogging - If you are a prolific writer, then blogging could be your thing. Blogs, or web logs, are online journals, similar to what you are reading now. It is a "push-button publication," so you do the research for your topic, writing, and editing all by yourself. You may only earn from your blog by allowing related ads to be displayed on your site. First, you need to apply for advertising services programs, such as Google Adsense. Usually, bloggers earn revenue based on the number of actual clicks on the ads. However, some options allow bloggers to get paid fixed rates based on site traffic. The application to Google Adsense is free, but once it is approved, make sure that you do not violate any of the terms and conditions. Otherwise, your account will be terminated, and you will no longer be able to file another application.
  

Coming up next is my article "Homecourt Advantage: The Benefits of Working from Home." In the meantime, good luck with your home-based job hunt!

Amazon Kindle 2: e-books reinvented

Have you gotten your hands on the new Kindle yet? Last month, I received e-mails from friends raving about Amazon’s new release, the Kindle 2. Like the original Amazon Kindle, it is a gadget that allows you to read e-books (electronic books). Unlike your average e-book in scroll-down PDF format, Kindle 2 lets you flip through the virtual pages like you do with real books.









ReKindled



Amazon.com’s subsidiary Lab126 designed and released the first Amazon Kindle in the US on 19 November 2007. As both a software and hardware platform, the gadget has a screen on which the electronic pages are displayed. Contents may be downloaded on Amazon Whispernet, on which access is free but is available only in the US. In February 2009, Amazon released the Kindle 2, which is sold at US$359 each.




More Kindle Updates



According to reviews, the new version of Kindle has longer battery life and faster page refresh features. In addition, it has an audio option that allows readers with poor eyesight to have the text read out loud. Amazon.com also announced this March that they will be releasing a platform called “Kindle for iPhone.” An email-based service allows you to convert HTML, DOC, PDF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP documents to the format compatible with Kindle (AZW). New York Times bestsellers may be downloaded at approximately US$10, and classics at US$1.99 through the Amazon Kindle store. However, once you have downloaded, you may not transfer the files to another Kindle or any other device for proprietary reasons.


5 Reasons Why You Should Get an Amazon Kindle


• It’s compact. Its thickness ranges from 0.8-0.38 inches, making it sleek and quite portable. Say goodbye to your bulky hardbound!


• It has a 2 GB internal memory, which can hold up to 1,500 books. You’re going to be a walking bookshelf!


• If you’re a Stephen King fan, he wrote the novel UR, which is exclusive for Kindle 2.



• It comes with a New Oxford American Dictionary to make your word search more convenient.



• It’s like reading a real book, only much lighter.






5 Reasons Why You May Not Want to Get An Amazon Kindle



• It’s expensive! Enough said.



• If you’re the tactile reader, you’d probably want to stay old school. I like the smell of paper and the feel of paper under my fingertips. Also, dog-eared pages seem to add more character to my books.



• If you’re the sentimental type, the Kindle might look out of place in your bookshelf.



• You may have to wait for some titles to be available at the Kindle store before you can get your hands (or not—excuse the pun) on the books you want.



• You can’t put a Kindle over your face while dozing off at the beach.