Cherry Mobile is quite the breakout brand in mobile phones. It’s stylish, full-featured and best of all, inexpensive. It’s even dual-SIM. No wonder everybody’s been raving about it!

Below are the new dual SIM phones sold by Cherry Mobile.

Cherry M35 Integra (Php 5690)

Cherry D50 Inertia (Php 3690)

Cherry D20 Life (Php 2990)

Cherry S11 Blade (Php 2690)

Currently, Cherry Mobile is running the Dobleng Kasiyahan promo. That means you buy one, you take one! This runs from May 28 to July 18, 2010 so get your Cherry mobile phones now!

Cherry Mobile Combo Number One: P1 + P1 = P1790 (Save Php200)

Cherry Mobile Combo Number Two: P1 + 1602 = 1990 (Save Php200)

Cherry Mobile Combo Number Three: 1800 + 1800 = Php 2290 (Save Php290)

Cherry Mobile Combo Number Four: 1602 + D15 Dual SIM = Php 2990 (Save Php200)

Cherry Mobile’s cheapest phones are the Cherry Mobile P1 which is only Php999, and the Cherry Mobile D15, only Php1999. They also have QWERTY phones, such as the Cherry Mobile Q3 (Php2990) and the Cherry Mobile Q3i (Php2890). Both are dual SIM.

Cherry Mobile also has touch screen phones, and these are the Cherry Mobile T80 (Php6990), the Cherry Mobile G5 (Php6990) and the Cherry Mobile Eclipse (Php9999). Amazingly, Cherry Mobile even carries phones with analog TV! These are Cherry Mobile Q6 (Php4790), Cherry Mobile Q7 (Php5890), Cherry Mobile Q8 (Php5990), Cherry Mobile Q9 (Php5990) and Cherry Mobile G7 (Php4990).

I was in Manila last, last week visiting Fli when I heard that Pond’s was currently having a big beauty sale with up to 70% on selected items! I am a firm believer of facial skincare (I even once went out of my way to check out the best wrinkle cream available for my wrinkly, sun-burned skin I sustained snorkeling. Of course, my skin just healed and the wrinkles went away) and have been using the Pond’s clear solutions antibacterial facial scrub for three years now. But what I really wanted to try out are the Flawless white products. However, being a bit pricey and definitely out of my price range, I wasn’t able to do so yet. So imagine my joy when we stumbled upon a Pond’s booth in Landmark. I was sooo happy that without further thought and hesitation, I grabbed Fli’s hand and pulled her towards the booth. What follows is an awkward but funny conversation.

Pond’s Girl: (giving my pretty gf a big wide smile) Yes, ma’am, how can I help you?

Me: (giving an equally big wide smile) How much is the Flawless White Serum?

Pond’s Girl: (still looking at Fli) Well, ma’am, it’s normally at P435, but since we’re having a big beauty sale, I can give it to you for P130. Shall I wrap it up for you ma’am?

Fli: (looks at me) Um…well, Gim. It’s at P130. So, are you gonna get get it?

Me: (a bit miffed that the salesgirl insisted on talking to Fli and not me, but conversational still) So how do you use it? Do you leave it on, or do you wash it out afterwards?

Pond’s Girl: (glances hesitantly at me, starts to talk, then makes up her mind and starts instructing Fli) well, all you have to do is to massage the cream gently on your skin using a circular motion…(hesitates as Fli gestures surreptitiously at me. Understanding escapes her lips with an “oh!”. She then at last turns to me and starts giving directions).

At this point I am too miffed and embarassed to hear the rest of her salestalk, so I just pay for the product and hurriedly leave. We are a few feet away from the booth when, as if as an afterthought, the salesgirl calls out to me: ” Oh, and by the way, sir, you need to moisturize after using the whitening cream!” I race out of the store with Fli’s pealing laughter echoing closely behind.

Hey, I should start searching for free car insurance quotes! Because I might be able to drive one again! A car, I mean.

See, I lost my driver’s license card (along with my ATM, credit card and a wad of cash) a year ago when I stupidly placed my purse in the shallow pockets of a pair of red shorts and boarded a taxi in Cebu.

Minutes after Gim paid the taxi driver and we were walking to our destination, I suddenly realized my loss. Tried to run after the taxi, but by that time it was meters away and going faster and farther.

So careless of me. Fortunately, it only took a lengthy explanation to get a new ATM card and a phone call to have my credit card voided (it was gonna lead me to financial ruin anyway). But so not that easy to get a new driver’s license!

Gim and I started the process today. Because I’m nearing my renewal date, and if I had renewed it a year earlier, there would’ve been an extra fee of Php50. But the bureaucracy doesn’t stop there.

First we went to get a community tax certificate from the City Treasurer’s Office. Because if we didn’t, we couldn’t get an affidavit of loss. That cost me only Php5 because I said I was a student. (Well, technically I am!)

Then we went to get the affidavit, which, for a piece of paper saying I had lost my card, cost me Php150. And the lawyer wasn’t even there, so maybe his secretary forged his signature or something.

Thirdly, we went to the Land Transportation Office to get the form for a duplicate license. Filled it up and we were told to come back tomorrow. Oh and they don’t have any pens in there, so I had to buy a crappy pen outside. Why???

Checked for the cost of the renewal. Php472.63. What??? Here’s the breakdown.

Replacement Fee – 225 (For a little piece of laminated paper)
Duplicate Fee – 50 (Per year of unexpired portion, wtf?)
Certification Fee – 100 (Another piece of paper)
Clearance Fee – 30 (Another wtf?)
Computer Fee – 67.63 (For like, 5 minutes worth of computer usage.)

I think LTO just likes to make up these phantom fees so they could extract every single peso from our pockets. *Blood pressure shooting up*

Wait, we’re not yet done. Tomorrow, there’s still the matter of acquiring extra documents such as the Certificate of Good Health from a government physician (which apparently requires an xray worth around Php300 by itself) and a Drug Test from an LTO-accredited office. So all of that will probably cost me around Php1000.

Still with me? We’re racking up almost Php2000 worth of fees now. And I haven’t even gotten my card yet. Guess what they’ll say tomorrow when I finally pay ALL the fees and submit all the supporting documents? They’ll say, hush hush, that if I want my request to be processed immediately, I should hand them over around Php1000, under the table, if you know what I mean. Or even more, depending on how rich I look at that particular moment.

I should know, because that happened to me the first time around. And if I don’t pay this transaction fee, it will take me eons to get my license. And I only have a week before I’m returning to Manila.

So. Do other people pay half the monthly minimum wage to get a crummy plastic laminated card, or are the Filipinos just doomed to eternal governmental fail?

Hot on the heels of the Globe Visibility rebranding comes the newly minted “Smart Big Bro”, previously named Smart Bro Prepaid.

It has been repriced from P2500 to the lower price of P1995. It comes with free P100 worth of load (5 hours of Internet usage).

The device uses a 3G or HSDPA (high speed data packet access, if I remember my Network class lol) signal, whichever is available.

HSDPA speed is up to 2Mbps, but HSDPA is very limited in the Philippines. I don’t think it is even available outside of Manila (and even in Manila it is spotty at best), so other cities will probably just get 3G with a top speed of 384Kbps (or worse, GPRS).

Of course, published speed is never the same as actual speed. Actual speed depends on how strong the signal is in your area and how many users are tapping on that signal. If you want to know how fast 3G in your area is, try surfing the web using your cellphone (make sure it is on 3G and not GPRS). That’s the speed you get. If you want to know how fast GPRS is… well, I think dial-up is comparable to that.

Internet surfing on Smart Big Bro costs P10 for every 30 minutes. The kit comes with the USB wifi device and a Smart SIM which you can load up like regular SIMs, except this one will pay your Internet charges and not your phone bill.

Smart Big Bro is not available for international roaming so if you’re on your Sydney or Paris or Orlando vacations, you’re out of luck.

Globe Broadband Prepaid Visibility has just rebranded itself as Globe Broadband Tattoo. With the rebranding also comes a reprice – the prepaid kit now only costs P1895, from the previous P2500.

The prepaid package comes with a USB modem, a SIM you can reload like regular SIMs (but it’s not for your phone, it’s to pay for your Internet hours) and a free five hours worth of Internet usage. Afterwards, every fifteen minutes costs P5.

I’ve been eagerly waiting for this drop since prepaid Internet became available a year or two ago. It started out at a steep price of P4500, and now at P1895, it’s practically a steal. The USB modem itself probably costs more than that!

Before buying the unit, though, consider first the network coverage of Globe. Not so wide a net, compared to Smart. However, Smart’s prepaid kit still sells for P2500. I’ve been told that Globe’s network is pretty strong in the city (of Zamboanga, where I am, currently). But I wonder how it performs outside of town (I live 5km away from the pueblo).

Nevertheless, I think that it’s a good buy. I have an unlimited plan at home, so I am planning to buy the Globe Visibility (sorry, Tattoo) kit for backup, whenever my main line fails or when I go flit to Manila or Dapitan or wherever. I think anybody with a laptop computer would definitely be needing this prepaid kit as well. (Or, if you can afford P1500 monthly, there’s a great unlimited postpaid plan too.)

Has anybody bought this yet, and what are your thoughts?

It’s confirmed, the Eraserheads will push through with the second part of their concert. (Ely Buendia suffered heart palpitations during the last concert, so the group was not able to play more than 15 songs.)

The concert will be held at SM Mall of Asia on March 7, 2009 at 8PM. Tickets are now available at your local TicketWorld outlet.

The ticket prices are such:

• VIP PhP5,000
• Gold PhP3,000
• Silver PhP1,300
• Bronze Php300

Maybe now we can listen to “Ang Huling El Bimbo” live once again.

Effective on the first of January 2009, Philippine Airlines (PAL) will be cutting down its fuel surcharge for selected flights, owing to the fall of oil prices across global markets.

International flights will experience a cut of at least $45 while domestic flights will be cheaper by P100.

More on the story here.

Nanobook, netbook, UMPC, it goes by many names. I call it a mini laptop.

My mom just bought an Astone UMPC laptop for herself for Christmas and it’s soooo tiny! She’s not a geek like me (or anything remotely close!) and she only wants the thing so she can bring it with her when she goes to Hong Kong early next year for some important meeting (in case she has to show a Powerpoint presentation).

For such a small package (230×171×29.4mm and a monitor of only 7 inches) and such a low price (P12,000 or less than $300) it packs quite a punch. It has a LAN port, wifi, a webcam, a card reader, bluetooth (Hey! Even my HP laptop doesn’t have that!), and even a touchscreen!

You’d think a little toy like this would only contain around 8gb of space or less like the Asus EEE PC, but no, this thing actually has 60 gigs of hard disk space and a computer memory of1 gig RAM. Yes, it’s running comfortably on Windows XP and can handle the whole Microsoft suite and then some. None of that complicated Linux stuff. (My mom would freak!)

So this is my latest tech tip for travelers. If you want to bring a laptop while going around the world, it’s best to keep it light (the Astone weighs only 0.97kg) and thrifty (in case it gets lost or broken!). The caveat of course is that the keyboard is cramped and the best resolution is WVGA 800×480 but, do you really care, when you’re otherwise occupied in sampling the wonders of the world?

My pad in Dapitan is quite lacking in the furnishings department, so I tried shopping for some discount furniture over at the local department stores in nearby Dipolog.

Didn’t find anything good save for some truckers selling wood furniture. You know, those really pretty chairs and tables that look like uncut wood or wood sculptures but are lacquered very beautifully? Unfortch the really pretty bookcase I wanted was going for Php10,000 (around $220), so no thanks.

Now I’m back in Zamboanga and I’m so glad to see there are a lot of mini-malls that have opened up. I had mistakenly thought that things were cheaper in Dipolog, but seeing a barbecue griller selling for only Php700 ($15) made me rethink that.

Perhaps I don’t have to go to Manila to shop for Christmas presents after all…

My academics are done, woohoo! Now all I’ve left to do to complete my Masters is my thesis software and paper. Easier said than done, but for now I’m treating myself to a relaxing vacation!

I’ve left Manila and settled down (pretend) with my boyfriend in Dapitan. It’s been so fun pretending to be husband and wife (hehe). I’ll be staying a month or two here before I head on home to Zamboanga, so I thought it would be much cheaper to buy appliances for cooking rather than to eat out all the time.

We bought a rice cooker (Php600 or $13), an oven toaster (Php500 or $11), a water heater (Php200 or $4), kitchen utensils (about Php1k or $22) and a Petron Gasulette (a single-burner gas stove at Php1700 or $38). My boyfriend’s a great cook so he’s been cooking a lot of great food, like breaded pork (yum!), corned beef with onion and potatoes (mmm!) and calamares (needs work). I’m so looking forward to the future, when he’s finally a doctor and we can buy a house and everything! Hehe.

When we’re not cooking, we’re watching movies. The last movie we watched was What Happens in Vegas starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. It wasn’t funny, I wouldn’t recommend watching it. And do people really win 3 million dollars via a slot machine?! In spite of the lousy script, boy that movie made me want to visit Vegas!

I know it’s kind of too far in the future to plan. (Hello, I can barely afford to eat in a restaurant, let along purchase a ticket to fly halfway around the world.) But for what it’s worth, I’ve scouted out a Las Vegas strip map so I won’t get lost. My boyfriend can tell you how bad I am at directions. I once hopped on a jeepney with Gim, confident I knew the landmarks of Malate, and we spent an hour on the vehicle not knowing where to get off. I literally need a travel book just to roam around Manila, what more Vegas. (Am I silly to be planning this nonsense?)

In other news, I’ve been bumming around, sleeping late, enjoying the sun and sea, and looking for a swim teacher (because I would like to learn). Oh if life were always this easy.