Learning perhaps from U.S. President Barack Obama's use of the Internet and other IT tools in his campaign for the White House, our local politicians have started employing online and other IT tools in their quest for coveted government posts. Recently, aside from boasting of their survey ratings (especially, by those who rank way up there), local candidates have been making noises about the numbers of followers of their respective Twitter and Facebook accounts.

It is as if majority of Filipinos had access to the Internet.

Nevertheless, the 2010 elections is on its way to being tagged as the country's first, a turning point when the Internet becomes an important and significant part of candidates' arsenals.

Now, aside from their gold, goons, and guns, candidates are also brandishing their social networking accounts.

This corner, however, has observed that some candidates' supporters are flooding online forums with comments selling their bets' qualifications and fitness for the posts they are running for.

Our unsolicited advice for online hucksters, er…, posters: Do not make your posts and comments too partisan. And do not use all caps or bold-letter words, they sound hysterical. Nobody would believe you.

Panasonic's New Lumix Camera

Panasonic introduced the Lumix DMC-ZR3, a digital camera with AVCHD Lite High Definition video recording features. The camera also comes with a 25mm ultrawide angle Leica lens and 8x optical zoom. The camera's Intelligent Zoom feature also extends its zoom to 10x.
But it is in video recording that the camera shines best. Its ability to record AVCHD Lite HD video means the Lumix ZR3 can take true HD video footages.
The camera's other features include face recognition, Happy Mode color control, and several other intelligent technologies.

Google Does a Palm Pre

Google seems to have borrowed an anti-Apple trick from Palm, maker of the Pre smart phone.

Faced with Apple's rejection of its Voice application for the iPhone platform, Google revised the Web site for the free telephony service to make it easier to be displayed on the Mac-based smart phone's operating system. This move allows iPhone owners to use Google's Voice application, which is currently banned by Apple.

Months ago, Palm tweaked its Pre smart phone to enable it to synch with Apple's iTune software. Palm's trick most likely provided Google with some inspiration. This development, however, highlights the rising tensions between the erstwhile chums.

iPad is Here

Steve Jobs finally unveiled his company's latest "paradigm-shifting" product — the iPad. With his usual flair and mastery of marketing 101, Jobs did his "shock and awe" piece. The throngs of Mac faithful were not disappointed.

The iPad comes with almost all the features that some Mac-world clairvoyants, for quite sometime now, have been foreseeing and wishing it would have. Indeed, it is a cross between the iPhone/iPod Touch and a laptop. The tablet-style computer has a wider screen than the iPod, but it has retained the sex appeal of its smaller and older cousins.