Best designed Pinoy blogs for 2006
Basangpanaginip has a list of the best Pinoy blogs for 2006. Is there a worst of list? Maybe this site will win an award

Send FREE SMS to the Philippines
Sick of Chikka? GizmoProject has launched GizmoSMS that allows you to send FREE messages to any mobile phone.

Pinoy Bloggers at the Beach
Marc has some photos of blogger trip to Puerto Galera. Sasha is hot.

Got Pets?
Pinoy Pets Network is going to be an aggregator of you guessed it, Pinoy pets. Thanks Abe.

Grab a Camera and make $
GetRichSlowly has a great introduction on how to sell digital photos online. With so many great locations in the Philippines, this would make an excellent sideline. You might even be able to make a few $ on the collection you already have.

*I need a better name for this News Feature

When I 1st saw that ThePinoy.tv is sponsoring the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards, I got excited and thought that it was going to be a Philippine version of Revision3 or Joost. The thought of a Pinoy IPTV network makes my mouth water. I’ll admit that I was disappointed when I found out that it’s only a video contest. Regardless, I think that there’s a lot of potential.

Talent shows are nothing new to Pinoys with the daily bombardment of exploitation contests on noontime Philippine network TV and the more recent imports such as American Idol and Big Brother. The Pinoy TV contest is simple compared to other online contests by Ksolo and Bix. Submit your video based on the monthly theme and the one who receives the most votes by the users, win $100.
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Philmusic
Philmusic.com now utilizes the popular SMS web application Twitter to keep their readers updated via their cell phone.

Offline Office
Jayvee Fernandez posted an interesting article about the need of a free offline office suite like Google Apps. With the inconsistent internet connection in the Philippines and still expensive price point for the masses, it’s very much needed.

Here’s a screenshot of the Binibing Pilipinas 2007 website after the winners were announced. Notice there’s no branding at top of the site and the 5 yyyyy’s at the bottom of the page. I guess it’s a placeholder for a banner ad or maybe it’s for - Why are the 3 photos of the girls blurry? Doesn’t your developer have a staging environment?
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FlipTunes.net aims to fill the need of an online OPM (Original Pinoy Music) store we have been waiting for years. Self proclaimed as a “Global Entertainment Portal”, the site contains some (weak) music articles and an online store that uses Window DRM. That is right, sorry iPod owners.I cannot see anyone in the Philippines using this service. It’s much easier to buy a CD either legit or pirated and convert it to any digital file yourself. The market here is for Filams and OFW’s. While iTunes does have some OPM, it’s lacking. Even targeting the Filam market is tough. They are competing with the Pinoy stores that carry music and movies in every major US city. Don’t forget about the online stores such as TitikPilipino.com, TatakPilipino.com, Divisoria.com, OdysseyLive.net and dozens more.

Good
* Underground artists
* Infrastructure/Payment gateway
* Developed/Managed by Mozcom

Bad
* Downloads only work in IE
* Windows DRM,DRM,DRM
* Torrents - Why use the word torrent on the site? The average Joe doesn’t know what a torrent is.
* User interface - FlipTunes needs a makeover. The UI feels like an out of the box ecommerce package. I suggest they check out LaLa.com and study their use of Ajax.
* Different looking site for the store section
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Philippine Blog Awards
Watch video of Abe Olandres and Jayvee Fernandez talk about the Philippine Blog Awards being held at the RCBC Plaza Auditorium Podium 4 in Makati City on March 31.

Emerging Earth
Another Pinoy joins b5media. Mike Abundo will now blog about technology that is changing your world. Emerging Earth tells you how and why you should even care. Congrats Mike!

NoypiTunes is service that allows you to make your phone more “Noypi” with ringtones, wallpapers and logos. NoypiTunes is focusing on the US market with availability through Cingular/ATT and Sprint. The service will soon be available through T-Mobile and Sprint.

When I 1st heard of NoypiTunes, I thought that it was finally an online OPM store. I was wrong. I think it’s named that just so people would think it’s an OPM iTunes store. Looking at the logo, they are hoping to ride the iTunes wave. Why is the “i” green? Could there be a possible lawsuit? I know Apple has gone after companies for using “iPod” and “iTunes” in the name.

From their site:

Here you’ll find a wide collection of top-rated homegrown music from artists like Bamboo, True Faith, and from Pinoy master rapper Francis M, downloadable as ringtones to US mobile phones.

You can avail of download packages and enjoy four polyphonic ringtones for the price of one.

Get what you want from a catalogue of all-original content that gives your mobile that very Pinoy brand - be it in jokes, horoscopes, love quotes and inspirations. You can even find comic strips from legendary cartoonist Larry Alcala or those tribal logos that’ll take you back to Boracay. Now dig this, you can subscribe to MMS images of Filipina models that are rocking the town!

I do see them as having a market in the US. I know my mom would pay the $4.99 if she could figure out how to do it.
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