MANILA, Philippines -- We all know and appreciate the rain's life-giving role. You know that "each drop that falls sustains life" role.

But this knowledge hardly lifts the sense of gloom that the rain brings — that murkiness that engulfs souls unlucky (lucky?) enough to find themselves at the torrent's receiving end. Psychiatrists have a name for this downpour-caused dreariness, and it is not pretty.

I am sure we all can imagine the dreariness and darkness that come with non-stop heavy rain. I am also sure that that is the way some tech companies feel for quite some time now.

Based on media reports, two of those companies would be Microsoft and Nokia, which happened to be partners in one of the least likely to succeed, most likely to fail attempts at a turnaround the mobile phone market has ever seen. Nevertheless, this corner ardently wishes for their partnership to achieve its objectives.

After all, I have been a very satisfied user of products made by these companies.

Nokia N9

This makes us look forward to seeing the N9, the Finnish mobile vendor's latest flagship smartphone and which it launched last week in Singapore.

Reports and blogs about the device, which incidentally comes powered by the Meego operating system, have mostly been positive. Fans are especially awed by Nokia's decision to dump the "home" button, something that the iPhone and most Android phones come with.

Critics, however, said they were not happy with its "outdated" OS. For these detractors, and some fans alike, the real test will come when Nokia finally releases smartphones that use Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system.

This corner, however, believes that the N9 should be judged based on its own merits. And from what I have heard so far (and saw from online news sources), this Nokia device should definitely rock.

Until this corner gets its hands on the device, we have to take the word of those bast*rds lucky enough to see the smartphone up close and personal.

iBlood Pressure

Withings, an app developer more famous for developing an application that lets its users tell the world about their weight, has announced an app for the iOS that will allow its users to measure their blood pressure using their iPhone, iPad, or iPad Touch.

The app comes with its own plug-in blood pressure cuff and will retail for $129 (about Php5,550). Once it had taken the user's BP, it can then send the data to the user's healthcare providers.

I can see lots of consumers, who belong to certain age groups, buying this app.

That's all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.