oGolly, uBought an iPhone?

Okay. So the blog title’s an exaggeration of the front pages I’ve seen talk about the iPhone’s US release. But you cannot deny the hype – the iPhone is a big thing. Or at least that’s what they want us to know.

When Steve Jobs announced the release of the iPhone almost a year back, me and my friend Jan were in the same computer terminal. Both in awe, we were wondering as to how much it would cost once it reaches Asian shores – and hopefully the Philippines – next year. I can’t recall the exact figure, but I do remember that we think it would be just damn expensive. What more about a mobile phone, Wi-fi device, and iPod rolled into one? It’s gotta be expensive here. And not worth it, thanks to the notoriety of phone snatchers.

But the Americans are just as crazy. The iPhone just started flying off the shelves, after queues were forming in front of Apple stores. I was watching BBC News earlier and this clip of a guy who was declaring “I got two!” – in a mix of happiness and mocking nyahaha, probably – got stuck in my head. But is it really going to be worth it for him? What about the other guy (in the same news report) who was going head over heels in apparent excitement when the store opened?Is the wait really going to be worth it?

Switch on the “rise” button

Let’s get the celebrity spottings out of the way first. Yesterday at the NBC Tent, we spotted Rico Blanco, Chiqui Roa and Mike Grape (of Kala). Admittedly, for one person who’s more than surprised to actually get invites to the xFM launch party, it’s a starstruck event.

But let me clarify – I wasn’t there for the celebrity spottings. Sure, it was a media launch, and I managed to get a pair of invites courtesy of Loi Landicho. It felt weird, actually, when I finally got my invites and saw the label. Niko Batallones. Blogger. Just to add to the sense of surprise, the reception desk asked me about my company affiliation. “I just wrote a blog entry about the station,” I said. They did let me in.

Appropriately, the party was called Rise. If you’ve been tuned in for most of xFM’s month and a half, you’ve probably gotten used to hearing the liner “a culture on the rise” play in between the songs. True enough, my access card had a moon in front. But for one person who’s basically never been in a party all his life, and is even more surprised to realize he deserves this invite, it’s about the radio station more than anything.

Is Steve Jobs redoing the revolution?

Apple chairman Steve Jobs yesterday posted an open letter to music executives on the company website, calling for a change in the way music is sold online. It’s time, he says, for record labels to drop data protection that comes with each legal music download.

In exchange, he says, he could open the hugely successful iTunes Music Store to more portable music devices – one thing it has already done in France after government intervention.

Arguing that his suggestion would be beneficial to consumers, he cited data rights management, or DRM, as the main reason why music tracks downloaded through iTunes cannot be transferred to other such devices.

Streaming independence

Yes, I’ll be quick to admit, I am a radio freak. As if it needs some admission, judging from my previous articles, but still. Despite the fact that MP3s have practically taken over some people’s listening and radio has become a bit blah all over, especially here, I’ll say there is still some hope.

Obviously that hope would have to be Internet radio. Or, to be exact, radio stations from outside the Philippines that pretty much provide an alternative to what most stations in Manila provide: pop, talk, and taglines in the fashion of Love Radio’s kailangan pa bang i-memorize yan? Admittedly listening to these stations sorted out my current tastes in music – a weird mix of anything alternative, anything independent and the occasional jazz or dance track – and when I’m online and away from home, I listen to these stations.

Well, of course I still listen to radio at home – usually that would be NU 107 at home or in school, with the headphones on in between classes. If I’m in front of the PC at home and I don’t feel like going to these sites (mainly because I’m not on broadband), I also have my MP3s, and even if I pretend to be a radio programmer, my (more than) three thousand tracks are no match forwhat these stations have to offer. Take note, though, that these stations are the indie rock ones; if it doesn’t whet your tastes, and I know it wouldn’t always, feel free to punch in your suggestions on the comments box.

And it all began like this

I am just a writer, I know.

Already I am experiencing a few frustrations as I write this entry. For one, the photo isn’t turning out the way I wanted it to turn out – it’s just nudged to the left, enough to be noticed, and for me to scurry to edit things at the very last minute, to no avail. I’d usually spend time trying to figure it out, but as I type this it’s entered early morning, and I’d be spanked if I stay up further.

I started writing when I was really young. I mean, I practically grew up with newspapers around me, even if nobody from the family worked in journalism. I remember marvelling at how the small letter A was written, and I attempted to copy it on every blank scrap of newsprint I could find in the Sunday magazines of the newspapers at the time. Then I began signing those insurance forms that you would usually see in publications such as the Manila Bulletin. I think that was the only time I faked my information; you had to be hypothetical, of course. I was just six.