Mobile phones have been part of our lives for several years now, more so this year than the previous two years. It used to be that there is only one landline phone in one household and some of your neighbors do not even have a connection. Now, not only does all the members of the family own at least one mobile phone, some even have multiple phones.

Among the phone brands, Nokia became popularly known to be for the general public, thus, accessories are also widely distributed. For more classy phones like Motorola, finding Motorola accessories are not as widely scattered. Good thing there is the internet.

I don’t open virtual greeting cards since long time ago when bad people started to attach virus on them. Besides, it’s not lasting. You can’t hold them. You can only read them but you can’t see the handwriting of the person who sent it.

I love cards. I still keep those sent to me since I was a teenager. I still have all the letters sent to me since the 80s. Whereas the virutal cards, I delete them.

Sending a real greeting card is still a lot better, be it simple ones, birthday cards, Christmas cards, anniversary cards, get-well cards, maybe even a deck of playing cards!

Go for real!

This morning when I viewed the “friends” of one of my cousin’s list, I saw a familiar name. I know she’s one of my paternal relatives. My father died even before I was born so I wasn’t able to connect with my relatives as much I wanted to. I just hear stories from my mom.

Happily, she added me and I wrote her a message signifying my desire to connect and get to know my paternal relatives now that we’re not getting any younger.

I got to see her photos and I found out that she’s into marathon and triathlon. Wow! I wanted to do that especially moreso now that I see her figure! It may not be the quick weight loss solution but I’m sure it will help my respiratory health get stronger and eventually conquer my asthma.

Hopefully it is not yet too late to know my relatives on a personal level.

Two decades ago, announcements are done by paper or airwaves. Print or radio/TV. Meetings are held in an office, a conference hall, hotel, etc. Announcements are necessary. Meetings are necessary. But the cost of having them are every growing since maintenance of the facilities and labor costs are also rising, simply because the cost of living is rising as time flies oh so rapidly.

Now with the decline of the economy, the more we need to announce and to hold meetings otherwise the economy will go from worse to worst. Good thing there is the internet. It has made the world much smaller and communication has become faster and easier. With this conferencing solutions, our reach is farther at a fraction of the usual cost.

No longer do people have to travel just to go to a conference meeting. Fuel is saved. No need to even have the announcement printed on paper. If everything is done via the internet, we save on paper, we save trees.

As a personal example, I sell houses locally but I reach to the overseas Filipino workers. Normally, just like what my co-workers do, they stand in a public place to give out leaflets to those who might likely be interested to buy a property. For me, I have a realty website that shows what I offer. If they’re interested, we chat. We meet over the internet, discuss and settle without them having to come over just to see the place.

Since the internet emerged in 1994 in the Philippines, I was just glad I got hooked.

The pilot had a heart attack he got blind. He was on air. He called for help and the only solution was to have another plane fly beside him. The blind pilot must believe and trust the guide.

In life, we often go blind. We usually blend in with the world, adapting to its moral decline. Unless we cry for help, we are sure to crash.

Watch the video and let me know your side of the issue.

Tongue twisters are a way to train our tongues to say the words without getting tongue-tied. As with any skill, all you need is practice.

Are you fond of tongue twisters? Two days ago, out of the blue, I thought of creating a couple. Try these tongue twisters and see how you fare.

Here where I live, there are several bus companies you can rely on to bring you to different directions. One thing in common, though, is having “video on board” as part of their come-on. If not a movie, it will be the TV that is on.

One bus company saw a different angle. What you see is a series of short entertaining stuff, be it an MTV, a YouTube video, a TV food show, fashion show, but in between, there are ads of different sorts. While traveling for more than an hour, you’ll see it loop back.

Having this digital signage is not limited in buses but where many people are waiting like terminals, malls and parks. When there’s nothing else to see, your tendency is to watch, even if it’s just as an…and even if you have looped several times.

In 2000, one of my brothers-in-law gave us an old mobile phone. It’s one of those jurassic phones, as we call it. I’m not sure of the model but I think it was Motorola and it was about an inch and a half thick, about 7 inches long and 2 inches wide. It had a digital display where the numbers you punch in are reflected in red. You pull the 4-inch antenna when you have to use it. The charger is about 3 inches square and an inch high. The battery is half the phone which occupies the back. You make the phone stand on the charger slot to have it charged which lasted only for about 3 hours, and as the battery weakened over time, you have to have it charged while you’re talking with someone.

Then I had a chance to buy a Nokia 6210. It was the funniest phone I had because I have dropped it several times and the parts scattered all over the place within a 2-meter radius and I picked every part up, and like a jigsaw puzzle, put them together, and still worked! I was able to use it for 3 years, I think. It was very used that you can’t recognize the numbers and letters on the keypad. I finally gave it rest when I got fed up tinkering on the small parts to keep them together. Lost tread was basically the reason parts kept on falling apart.

The next phone I had, which I bought second hand also was a Nokia 5210. It was one of the best, I think, for the purposes I needed at that time, most especially, texting (SMS). The Philippines is not the Texting Capital of the World for nothing. I don’t have any interest with phone games at all so it doesn’t concern me. The phone was small, fits in my pocket, and it’s shock proof so rugged motions and even some drops was nothing. Later, my eldest started to use it until she lost it while biking.

Last year, in February, I bought the most awaited ASUS V80. Hubby compared phones on the net for about 5 months to see what fits me, budgetwise, basic features and a 2-Mp camera. It was the best 2-Mp camera in the market. (I don’t need more than 2-Mp since I meant to use it for the internet.) Up until now, that’s my phone.

I’m just one of the subscribers who enjoy the benefits of a GSM phone. I’m in sales (real estate) my phone has helped me a lot, communicationwise and photowise. I’m just one of those subscribers who has never changed number for 4 years now.

It took 12 years to hit the 1 billion subscribers until 2004 but only 2.5 years to hit the next billion. With 3.3 billion at the moment and still growing, there is no doubt that the telecommunication industry is the future. It also means that more cell phone towers are bound to be installed in the next few years to accommodate the growing subscribers.

How about you, what’s your GSM story?

Did you know that it was in 1887 that radio waves was first detected by Heinrich Hertz using a Spark Gap Transmitter? When he was asked about the impact it could have to the future, he claimed it would be of no importance.

It was in 1893 when Nikola Tesla transmitted radio waves. In 1897 Gugleilmo Marconi was awarded patent for improving the transmission of electrical impulses. A year later, in 1898, Tesla awed the ignorant by demonstrating a remote-controled boat which, his audience thought, was moved by his mind.

Reginald Fessenden aired his voice through AM (amplitude modulation) which was heard over the North Atlantic in 1906. In 1913, Harold Arnold created the first amplifying vacuum tube which were used on long line transmission telephone lines.

1915 was when the first transatlantic transmission achieved by AT&T from Arlington to Paris and the Eiffel Tower in France used to hold the receiving antenna. Shortwave radio was developed in 1921 and 10 years later, FM (frequency modulation) which was the key to transmit digital information across RF (radio frequency).

1972, ethernet was created. 1982, GSM group was formed. For those who do not know, GSM stands for Groupe Special Mobile which decided to go digital on all its cellular systems. In 1989 GSM Technical details worked out and planned a narrowband time division multiple access (TDMA).

In 1990, L-band radio (digital radio) was demonstrated. The Global Positioning System (GPS) operates in the L-band. The first GSM specification was released.

The first GSM call was made in Finland, March 1991 on the Radiolinja Network which was given GSM license in 1990. In April 1992, the first non-European network was launched in Australia.

1997, IEEE 802.11 standard was created, also known as Wi-Fi.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)  was formed in September 1998 by IBM, Intel, Nokia, Ericsson and Toshiba. In 2000, the first consumer Bluetooth product was released by Ericsson.

December 2001, WiMax was created. In 2004, WiMAX  much more scalable than Wi-Fi.

Today, 3.3 Billion subscriptions are connected worldwide with the GSM family of technologies—GSM, GPRS, EDGE and UMTS/HSPA.

The market is here. Wireless communication is one of the top  investment opportunities we can hold on to with a very bright future. Check the wireless blue book!