Two more rejoinders to the Earth, Wind & Fire minor ‘issue’

• From Mark Young, in-charge of publicity, brand management and entertainment of The Fame Factory:

I am Earth, Wind & Fire’s publicist and recently saw your article on-line in The Philippine STAR regarding Al McKay’s revue group “The Experience” (which did a series of shows in the Philippines last week).

Earth, Wind & Fire is certainly honored that Mr. McKay has put together a cover band and revue as a tribute to the great music of Earth, Wind & Fire. They are just as honored when the group is paid a tribute by a high school or college band that often plays EWF hits at their sporting events.

The Original founding members Philip Bailey (lead vocalist), Verdine White (bass player and brother to Maurice White) and Ralph Johnson travel, perform and record as Earth, Wind & Fire under an international trademark.

Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Ralph Johnson and founder Maurice White were recently honored by the Grammy Awards with nominations for their latest Earth, Wind & Fire album, Illumination.

Earth, Wind & Fire continually tours to sold-out audiences around the world, most recently coming off a South American tour in which EWF played numerous sold out engagements to audiences exceeding 20,000 in Chile and Brazil alone, with their extraordinary show sending fans into a frenzy.

EWF is currently on tour in Europe playing to thousands of fans in Germany and to over 30,000 people at a stadium in Amsterdam.

The “EWF Experience” band member quoted in The Philippine STAR as to the real EWF band lip-synching in concert is unfounded. EWF is an example of pure quality and professionalism.
We look forward to you seeing EWF live in concert someday to experience why Earth, Wind & Fire is the legendary band and certainly is the reason that Mr. McKay is paying tribute to them with his cover band revue.

Reading the article, it appears to be that the one that performed here in Manila is NOT the original Earth Wind and Fire! Imagine being robbed of your hard earned money to watch somebody who you didn’t pay to watch. This is alarming because this may happen in real life. Let’s say there is one group having a faction not liking the current policy, running away and creating their own group and stealing the name altogether. They may end up using the name in bad faith. Earth Wind and Fire is known as a group, i don’t even know the name of the band members but I know that the band themselves are one heck of a performer. Think of some members of McDonald’s board members running away and then claim they are McDonald’s also competing against the very same McDonalds that people know. What if you as an individual earned honor you truly deserved and worked hard for and then someone steps in claiming that the very name you are using is not yours and he/she has to take it. These things might sound crazy but it really does happen. The most common incidents of these come from social networking sites.

If only people knows the true meaning of respect.

Disclaimer: I have never used this yet (for I don’t have an iphone). But I will try this with my Ipod Touch, which I was able to unlock for 1.1.2 but not yet for the latest one.

http://unlockcellphonecode.com/2008/03/01/unlock-your-iphone/

Feedback is appreciated

1. The price. when it was officially launched in the US, it was priced at 599 for the 8gig model and 499 for the 4gig model. After a couple of months, it was slashed to 399 for the 8G model and phased out the 4G model. It has caused an outrage in the US. Over here in Manila, the first iphones in sight costs 40,000 pesos (almost 800 US). It costs 28,000 in the market now because of the price drop. I am not willing to pay 40,000 for the iphone at this time. 28k is feasible but i’m not yet about to bite.

2. Compatibility. Yes the iphone has been hacked. But what good it would do to you if the support is limited? Yes everything is online but not everything online works, just like a fix for one cannot be guaranteed to be a fixed for all. I can be a geek at times but I don’t want to be a geek for a 30k or so toy. It’s nice to always have a backup support in case I mess up.

3. Updates. An Iphone update might, or for some people who hacked it, completely makes the phone unusable. Yes it will be fixed but how long before you can use it again?

4. Warranty. I want the things I buy to be placed under warranty and unlocking the iphone may void that warranty. I’ll just buy a paperweight somewhere if I want one.

Yes call me a chicken if you want to, but I don’t want to spend on something that I don’t think i can get my money’s worth at this time. I want an iphone really bad, but just like the Wii that I have coveted last christmas, I didn’t bite with the high price they were offering for wii then because it is simply not worth 30k at that time. I just completely fell out of it until it reached it’s current value, and i’m not interested on getting a wii anymore (opted to get a psp instead).

When it comes out officially here in Manila, I will move heaven and earth to get one. But for now, let the geeks do their tweaking so I can maximize it when I get one.

bootleg vista out in the market now

The ultimate version is priced at 26,000 ($500+) pesos compared to the street price of the bootleg copy of 300 pesos ($6). No wonder why people would go for the pirated copy. Me being an ordinary citizen, can’t afford a 500 dollar software that is a hardware-hogging-resources monster. Not only that, there are at least 8 versions of the software to chose from and not to mention that the other softwares that need to be purchased also (MS office, etc.)

That is why more and more people need to switch to open source: To negate the rising cost of these kind of softwares. Microsoft should remember that we need to buy the hardware too! Which makes technology a high cost to reach for ordinary individuals. Either they cut down costs or set a price that each area/country can afford.

To us ordinary citizens, XP is being sold at a discount, so i guess we have to settle for that

Other known issue is its ability to sync windows contact to an Ipod and the Itunes graphics and text not displaying correctly (although a resize of the window fixes the problem, it is still a glitch). Itunes is still unsupported on 64-bit platform.

The whole article can be readhere

A disgruntled hacker with a personal grudge against Symantec, which provides anti-virus software to leading Fortune 500 companies, could be behind a new, crippling computer virus that’s already hit a division of at least one big U.S. corporation on Thursday.

If it spreads, technology experts warn the latest strains of the insidious RINBOT computer virus could hijack network systems of businesses worldwide.

The whole article can be seen on CNN’s page

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/biztech/02/22/cisco.apple.ap/index.html

As per the article, Apple can use the name IPhone for their new multimedia device in exchange for “interoperability” of both companies’ devices.

A win-win situation where the true winners are the consumers

An Ipod, A phone, an Internet Communicator. An Ipod, A phone, an Internet Communicator. An Ipod, A phone, an Internet Communicator.

LOL

My Ipod Video

Bought this product 2 years ago.  At first, it is difficult to get videos that are compatible with this gadget but once you get the hang of it, it is easy to use.  Converting movies to mp4 format is tricky.  I have tried quicktime pro, sony vegas, and xilisoft, the latter is the one that i’m constantly using.  converting from any video format to avi takes around an hour using my windows pc (athlon 1.4 256MB RAM).  syncing these videos are done using my desktop, which will be discussed later.  My Ipod is in mac format, and have no intention of making it windows compatible.  It has always been a must to bring this gadget to long trips to fight boredom.  Battery life isn’t that long though, for I can only watch 1 movie on a long trip.  But you can listen to an hour’s worth of songs after that.  I have a couple of photos on my Ipod but that’s just a bonus because i don’t plan to make this a photo storage gadget.

My Mac Mini

Desktop to a new level, that is what MacMini brings to the table.  The most basic of the mac desktops, but definitely not the least.  The last of the G4s manufactured, My Mac Mini can outperform even the family desktop that runs on windows.  Out of the box, I just installed a couple of programs for ftp (transmit),   cd burning (simply burns), p2p software (limewire) and chat software (YM, ICQ).  Look at the specs of this gadget in its website and see all the numbers it brings but my most favorite stat on this server is 0 – zero crashes after 2 years of extensive use.  This is the only machine that I ever used that ran 3 days straight without rebooting (and access it remotely via vnc).  Try it on a windows platform and it will either crash or slow down after x amount of days.

 Macbook core 2 duo

My latest gadget is the  macbook core 2 duo.  After 6 months or so looking for the perfect laptop for me, I ended up getting a Mac for a laptop.  And why not?  It was very useful for me.  open it up and as it’s slogan says, “it just works” .  I never have to set up wireless internet, it automatically detects it.  capture your moment with your loved ones with Photo Booth, and make cool slide shows with Iphoto in just minutes.  What I particularly like about macs in general is that they both have terminals, like linux console.  I haven’t explored bootcamp (hey i paid for a mac, why switch back to windows).   a built in bluetooth keeps my phone free of multimedia files.

I won’t say that I wont switch back to windows.  But compare it with the vista that just came out, Mac still rules.  No more looking for drivers, no expensive hardware.  Yes, macs are expensive but once you buy a mac, you never have to download drivers, almost all softwares that you use in windows have their mac counterpart.  I don’t have to buy additional softwares for various applications and you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues.  Uninstall a program that you don’t want to use anymore?  Simply drag the program to the trash can and that’s it.

Still not convinced?  check this out http://www.apple.com/getamac/

Get a Mac, you’ll never go back