Tumbly - Tumblr Client for Symbian (Nokia) Touch Mobile Phones Made Possible by a Filipino

And, it is brought to you by a Filipino from down south Davao, Philippines -- Loell Anthony Erecre. Tumbly is  not Loell's first applications but those will be for other posts.

Tumbly - a native symbian client for Tumblr

I really have not much to say about the application since I do not have a Nokia touch. I got an old boring E71. But nevertheless, I'm excited that tumblr in Nokia is created by a Pinoy. Tumblr is like facebook and twitter, which are available in all mobile OS except Symbian. And, now it's on Nokia, and it's made possible by a Filipino. Delightcious!

You can find a 'more detailed' post about Tumbly at my yet another blog -- phmobileapps.com. Tumbly is free for download at the Nokia Ovi Store (which will be renamed soon?) - http://store.ovi.com/content/119525.

Fanpic with iOS TeachMate App Developer

The best thing about my new work is being surrounded with 'cool' people -- people who design and build stuff. They can already be more than enough subjects for my (make-believe) start-up stories.

So below's a pic with Lord Norlan Mumar, who co-founded ui + code with his programmer wife -- geek couple huh! Being Mac geeks, ui + code will be about fun iPhone / iPod Touch utility applications. 

Their first iOS application released is Teach Mate. It's for teachers. So for those looking what to gift their teachers, you must get them this app. You can find more details about TeachMate at my phmobileapps blog (girls can not have too many shoes, and so is I with blogs).

with Lord Norlan Mumar & TeachMate

Why an iPhone / iPod touch application for teachers? That is probably for another post. But I'm guessing is that because they, Norlan and his wife, had and have been in the academia. 

Kuyi Mobile Infographic -- It's iOS Apps Downloads & Revenues

Infographic showing iOS apps downloads and sales statistics is nothing new but viewing an infographic of a Filipino mobile developer is very interesting because it is something close to us, and in a way inspiring. And, the more interesting thing about is that it is a one-man team, Erick Garayblas.

via digitalsinigang.blogspot.com

From the infographic, something I learned:
* You can not put ads on free iOS applications
* So a good way to market your other apps via free apps is to create your own free apps -- make sense?

GroupsME -- collaborate via mobile phone

GroupsME's tagline is "Empowering people to collaborate as a group through mobile." So it's mainly a mobile application. They launched first the SMS-based version of it, and I believe they will be later on releasing a mobile web version, and probably a native client for different mobile OS.

The gist of it is that GroupsME will provide you and your group, organization, businesses or whatever association you have a one unique number. So you no longer need to get all your members / friends mobile number, and so the other members of your group just so you can update each other via text / sms. Every one in the group can just text that one number, and all members who are registered to that group number will receive the message.

Following is just a sample that it works. Sorry, it's such a crappy screenshot from a mobile phone. But anyhoo, you can check GroupsME at http://groupsme.nsparks.com/ and use it for your fan club, businesses, and movements.

You can also use it for marketing -- you can send updates to your clients in one go. Then, it can be also a branding to your business since you have that unique number. And, then develop / create a bond with your customers with quick personal updates.

It also has a corresponding web app. I'll just share the public view of it. You can simply sign up a Groupsme account, and you can see how it works.

GroupsME is developed by Next Sparks (NSparks), a software start-up based in Cebu, Philippines. The main guys are Ian Bert Tusil and Stephen Paul Suarez. 

Ian (yellow shirt) and Paul

Over a quick chat, I asked them how did they come up with GroupsME. And, the first answer they blurted out is that they just wanted to do something cool. They just develop their 'first' version for a month, so I believe they're that cool.

I've known Ian years back, and back then he was into e-commerce web apps so I'm kind of surprise as to why he's now doing mobile. Well, I guess some people just wanted to do cool stuff. I guess, without them knowing, they're on the track since, as the statistics God say, mobile is now the new black.

fan pic

Kachop -- Picture Crop Tool, 1st Prize Startup Weekend Tokyo 2010

Kachop is a web and mobile application that allows the user to crop pictures easily. The Kachop team won the first prize of Tokyo Startup Weekend (Nov. 14-21), competing against 8 other teams. As the winner, it moved on to Global Startup Battle, where they will be competing with other teams and products from all over the world. (Sadly, the voting time has ended. I felt sad for posting this so late.)

One of the members of Kachop team is Marie Engelene Obien, a Filipina. She used to teach at Atene de Manila University before moving to Japan.

Source: kachop.com

Following are details of Kachop which I lifted from its facebook page:

Description:

Kachop is a web and mobile application that allows the user to crop pictures in 3 very simple steps:
1) Choose new background you like
2) Choose photo to crop
3) Tap to remove unwanted background from photo

The Kachop Team developed prototypes for web and Android. iPhone and Windows Phone apps will come along the way.

Everything will be free so we want everyone to enjoy using it!

Founded:

November 21, 2010

Company Overview:

Kachop is built during Startup Weekend in Tokyo, a 3-day event jampacked with action towards building a new startup.

The idea came from an original one: Around the World. Eventually, it was developed into something helpful, fun, and may probably be.. viral!

Products:

kachop.com
kachop for Android

I hope to download soon the Kachop android app, and will post screenshots and a short review of it on phmobileapps.com. On the other hand, you can check Scribeit and Anywhere Bingo which, I believe, are collaborative work of Marie Engelene Obien and Nico Prananta, who is also part of Kachop team.

CHITS - Community Health Information Tracking System

 

CHITS (Community Health Information Tracking System) -- let me quote the whole of their About page to describe CHITS since I do not have exposure to health care.

CHITS is short for the Community Health Information Tracking system, a free and open source software electronic health record system for local government health centers in the Philippines. CHITS was created by Dr. Herman Tolentino through a grant from the International Development Research Centre of Canada. Since 2004, CHITS has been expanding to rural health units around the country.


CHITS is being managed by the UP Manila – National Telehealth Center. It is an integral part of the “Using Computers and Cellphones to Improve Local Health Information Systems” program.


Director and CHITS Program manager: Alvin B. Marcelo, MD

-------------------

So basically CHITS is, imagine, an electronic version of doctor's chart. When you go to your doctor for a check-up or something, her / his secretary will hand her your record which is usually a piece of paper with the history of your past check-ups.

Now, why would we bother with electronic medical record?

Katherin Kuan, an MIT student and part of the SANA team, made a research regarding the health care system in the Philippines entitled, Delivery of eHealth and Telemedicine Services to the Philippines From a Sustainability Perspective. Cited in her paper is the following statement:

"There is a disconnect between what is happening on the ground and what those needs are compared to the policies being made in the PhilHealth headquarters. Hence, there is a tremendous need for electronic documentation of care to ensure quality care."

You might say we don't need computerization of our medical records, we need medicine. But as stated in one of CHITS blog posts, it provides information for decision making. So in case of baranggay health care centers, if their records are in electronic form like CHITS, the concerned departments can easily get a quick overview of the statistics of the diseases. As such, government offices can then provide proper allocation of the correct medicines. Because as reports said, baranggay health centers do not really lack medicine supplies. The problem is that they have the wrong supply of medicines thus stocks going to waste.

CHITS made a pilot implementation in Pasay City, where they also implemented an SMS reminders functionality for pregnant women for their pre-natal check-up. Then, they also expanded to selected areas of Tarlac for pilot testing.

You can take a look at the CHITS application from their demo page. Following are screenshots I made of CHITS application.

Screenshot of Community Health Information Tracking System (CHITS)

Some of the people involved in CHITS are: Dr. Alvin Marcelo (TOYM awardee), Eric Pareja, and Alison Perez. If you are interested to be part of CHITS team, and improve our healthcare system, you may check with them. Just imagine working on a social network site that helps improve people's lives.

Chikker -- Chikka's Twitter

Chikker.com is a product of Chikka. Thus the name Chikker, I guess.

In their About Us page, it is defined as:

"Chikker is an online and mobile text service wherein members can submit updates anytime and anywhere via mobile. Followers of the said member receives these updates anytime, anywhere!"   

To update Chikker via web, of course, you simply log in to your account, and update from there.
To update via SMS / text, you simply prefix your update message with 'Publish' then send it to 2354. (More at their FAQ)

Since I am new in Chikker, I have a hard time finding people to connect with. It will be easier if they have a feature where I can invite my friends from twitter or facebook, and other social sites. 

But it looks like Chikker has a different way of letting you find friends or invite friends to Chikker.

• You can invite your friends via text / SMS by texting 'Invite ' to 2354. (P1/text)
• You can also get a random list of Chikker members by sending 'List' to 2354.
• Or, you can randomly follow the members displayed on Chikker's homepage.

For more ways, check the most ever reliable source -- FAQ.

So now what? Well, if you have a group or an organization, you can all sign up to Chikker, and it's a good way of updating everybody with just sending one update. Or, use Chikker for another way of socializing -- web to SMS and vice versa.

Here is my Chikker profile, http://www.chikker.com/profile/view/OWRANGE. You can follow me, or not. =)

Jollibee Developing Mobile Website -- Leak?

I scrape this information from Yugatech's blog.

I think it's more of a promotional teaser than a leak. Though, I find the idea of ordering fastfood from your mobile phone not that exciting, but I'm still looking forward to as how it will fare once it will roll out to the public. It can be a barometer if the Philippine audience is ready to embrace this different form of mobile technology.

Following is the video of the supposedly leaked Jollibee mobile website:


Alpha Version - JollibeeDelivery mobile website. from manolo almagro on Vimeo.


If you look at the video, it's in Manolo Almagro's vimeo account. Manolo Almagro is a digital experience strategist, according to his Google profile. So he can be one of the people behind Jollibee's mobile delivery website.

SpellDialer.com -- call me at dial.owrange

I no longer need to give out my boring digits for you to call me via mobile phone. You can call me now by going to Spelldialer.com from your phone's mobile browser (any phone will do as long as it has mobile browsing feature). Of course, you need wifi/mobile internet for you to do that.

simply input dial.owrange on the Dial field 

click that green phone icon to proceed

Try it now, call me via Spelldialer.com using dial.owrange. Standard call rates will apply for the calls you made via Spelldialer.com.

Spelldialer is brought to you by Spelldial. You can check the Spelldial.com site to know more about this product. Also, to create your own 'vanity customized' contact number, simply create an account at their site.

You can also check the following Slideshare presentation for a backgrounder about Spelldial.

SpellDial: The future of dialing

View more presentations from Albert Padin.

txtexpense (Alpha) - track expenses through SMS

I'm a klutz in budgeting. Well, I'm not really a big fun of budgeting -- I don't want any heart attack please.

But I give txtexpense a try because the person who created it is a friend. And, I'm kind of amazed how he did it singlehandedly while he is a University faculty at the same time, of course with his beautiful girlfriend on the side. =)

After some time, I get the hang of using it. One is it's easy because it's just a text away. So instant and eeny weeny purchases are always tracked. But what I most love about it is that I don't need to see a spreadsheet of my expenses just to list down my expenses. A programmer friend once shared to me his created excel file for tracking expenses but I stopped using it because every time I put down my expenses, all the figures are splashed across my face. It's scary when you see you're already way out of your budget.

With txtexpense, I just keep texting to the application my expenses, then just view them at the end of month or when I am ready to face my bankruptcy.

For those budget OC, this will be a bestfriend to keep. =) Simply sign up for it via web, then keep the gateway number in your phonebook so you can easily text your expenses into your account.

JJ Lumagbas keeps making an emphasis that the application is still in alpha stage so you might experience some bumps and rough patches. But it also means, a lot of features are also coming up. In one of our random conversations, he talked about:

* being able to set a budget, then you will get a text if you are nearing your budget limit -- This I'm really looking forward to.

* being able to inquire about your expense status to help you decide before making a purchase

* making saving/budgeting a social experience -- you can enlist friends/family that can get reminder if you are about to get bankrupt, this way they can nudge you to fix your spending habit. Or, they can praise/like/poke if you are doing well in managing your expenses.

* and others.

For now, you can text or input your expenses via the web.

As the home page says, you can find out where your money goes.

Then, monitor your spending changes. Isn't it cute? It's like our VECO bill.

I'm hoping to catch up with JJ soon, and hear more stories from him about his 'creation.' Pictures below from his Crazy Friday presentation, this was way before its Alpha Launch.

Please do check out TXTPENSE at http://txtpense.codrschool.com. And, also like its facebook page here.