How Many Internet Users In The Philippines?

Exactly how many Internet users are there in the Philippines? As of June 2010, the figure is pegged at 29.7 million, or around 30% of the estimated population of 100 million Filipinos as per Nielsen.

Smart claims that 8.3 million of that figure use the Internet through its nationwide wireless broadband and cellular network. Smart Broadband serves 1.3 million through its wireless broadband service (Wimax, fixed wireless, SmartBro), while the 7 million surf the Internet through their Smart mobile phone.

Sharing Large Files Over The Internet

Every now and then, we would get an inquiry for ThePictureShop from Mac users on how they can send their photos to us to be converted into a picturebook. While some of our photo book competitors use free file uploading sites like YouSendIt, I wrote our own customized software for sending images to us. Unfortunately, the PictureBookMaker software that I wrote works only on Microsoft Windows (since I don't know how to program for the Mac). So there is no straightforward way of sending image files to us if you are not running on Windows.

While reading the July 2008 issue of PC World Philippines, I came across this interesting site called drop.io. You can easily upload files into it by just providing a "drop" name. The "drop" name is like the folder name. In my test, I called my drop "dicktestphoto". So my folder's URL had the name http://drop.io/dicktestphoto.

Uploading is primarily done via the web browser. I can't tell if its just using the standard RFC for file upload via HTTP or if its using some other proprietary method. I did not get any prompt to allow an ActiveX Control to run, neither did I see a Java applet loading. So unless they used some other clever Javascript/Ajax trick, I have no idea how they are doing the file upload.

You can also upload files by simply sending it as an email attachment. The email will be addressed to the "drop" name -- in my case, to dicktestphoto@drop.io. I tried sending the email via GMail, then refreshed my "drop" screen. Voila! The attached photo is there.

One of the best thing I like with drop.io is it does not require registration! You just create your "drop" folder and start uploading. Its that simple. Each "drop" folder seems to be limited to 100MB (although the PC World article was hinting 1GB). I'm not too sure though as I can't seem to find anything in their FAQ that talks about the total limit. I do know that if you really want a large amount of space, you have to "upgrade" to their premium service and pay some fee.

You can also specify how long the image files that you upload will stay in drop.io servers. For my test, I just told the system to expire it after a day. I believe if you want the file to stay there forever (or at least, while drop.io stays afloat), you also have to upgrade to their premium service.

Will ask future Mac customers inquiring about uploading photos to ThePictureShop to try this service.

Globe 3G

Globe finally came around its senses and offered a time-based 3G/GPRS mobile Internet access, as opposed to, its old method of charging P0.15 per kb transferred. Well, actually, they still offer the former as an option but I doubt if people will still use it given that there's now a time-based option. As is typical between Globe and Smart, they try to out-do each other by providing smaller and smaller denominations. So whereas Smart offers 3G mobile Internet access at P10 for 30 mins, Globe offers it at P5 for 15 mins.

Since I mainly use 3G access for GMail Mobile, the 15 mins. option suits me better. Its only seldom that I actually surf on my phone, or use my phone as a modem and surf on my notebook. Globe access point settings can be found in this obscure Globe URL.