Ate Vangie – Siri Pinoy version

Who’s more innovative than Pinoys?

My tummy ache’s as I watched this funny video by “Macapuno Systems”. Kudos Macapuno! It’s wonderful!

This video is a spoof of Apple’s video about Siri application on iPhone 4S. I stumbled on this video on youtube while searching about iPhones.

As i told you already, Apple launched her 5^th generation iPhone, the iPhone 4S with Siri application.  Siri is a personal assistant application that lets your iPhone do stuff for you. But what if your English doesn’t sound like American? Will Siri understand you?

Macapuno Systems introduced the Pinoy version of Siri – Ate Vangie. This spoof video shows what will happen if Filipino culture is mixed with technology.

Watch this and let your worries fly away!

Apple's iPhone 4S with Siri Application

Apple Inc. has done tremendous innovation in the phone technology. One of Apple’s best is the iPhone – an internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones. On October 4, 2011, Apple announced her fifth generation iPhone, the iPhone 4S. What’s new about this 5th generation iPhone? It’s the siri application.

 What is Siri?

Siri is Apple’s latest iPhone 4S feature. This application controls your phone with your voice. It is a personal assistant application that lets you use your voice to send messages, set reminders, place phone calls, and more. But instead of just dictating a message to your phone, you can ask your iPhone to do stuff for you.

iPhone 4S was released to the market on October 14, 2011. It was introduced in the Philippines on December 16.

Here’s a video showing how Siri can simplify your life.

The Tin Can Telephone

The tin can telephone is commonly used in elementary schools to teach sound vibration and the origin of telephone. Tin can telephone is a device or toy made up of two tin cans or paper cups connected by a taut string.

The toy works in such a way that when the string is pulled tightly and someone speaks into one of the cans, its bottom vibrates. The string also vibrates in the process transmitting the sound vibration to the other end. The bottom of the second can vibrates just like the first can, thus copying the sound.

As simple and common as it seems but do you know that the first recorded person who made such device was an English natural philosopher, architect and a person of great and varied learning?

In 1664 to1665, Robert Hooke connected cups with an inflated wire to experiment with the sound transmission. The device was sometimes called the "lovers' telephone". Four centuries later, when telephone became a common household appliance, lover’s telephone became a common tool to teach children about sound vibration in preschools and elementary schools.

The Origin of Telephone

A tin can telephone toy made of two cans connected by a wire.
Image from campfire.andycamper.com

I remember when I was a kid playing “tele-telepono” with my brother and sister. Our toy was made of two empty cans of sardines which we picked up from our mother’s garbage. We made a hole at the bottom of both cans and connected them with a string about 50 meters long. My sister stood on our window while I and my brother hold the other end at our neighbor’s house. Then we talked and laughed and shouted at each other – a fun way of spending time in a remote village, where there was no technology except a battery-powered radio.

This painted a vague scenario of the origin of telephone. According to Wikipedia, “The origins of the telephone date back to the non-electrical string telephone or "lover's telephone" that has been known for centuries, comprising two diaphragms connected by a taut string or wire. Sound waves are carried as mechanical vibrations along the string or wire from one diaphragm to the other. The classic example is the tin can telephone, a children's toy made by connecting the two ends of a string to the bottoms of two metal cans…. The essential idea of this toy was that a diaphragm can collect voice sounds from the air, as in the ear, and a string … can transmit such collected voice sounds for reproduction at a distance.”

Have you played this kind of toy back when you were a kid? We would like to hear your story.

The Importance of Communication

“In the beginning was the Word.” This is how the religious describes the origin of all things. For them, God is a great communicator and made everything to communicate to Him and with each other.

Whether one is religious or not, each of us know that communication is important. In fact, it is life. Try to imagine life without communication. No one likes that. It’s like living in an island cut off from everything. But it’s more than that. Because even though we are alone, we still communicate to ourselves.

You still remember the time when you were day dreaming, imagining your crush, and rehearsing what to say the moment you meet him. Then unconsciously, you began murmuring to yourself. The murmur was coupled with a smile and the smile turned into kilig. And then you began voicing your thoughts and your barkada heard you talking and looked at you with crossed brows and said, “nababaliw ka na ata ah?” It was an embarrassing moment but that was self-communicating.

We communicate because communication is built within us. We exist to communicate. It is as basic as the air we breathe. Without it no one can live. Having it, you’re still alive even if you communicate to the dead.

It was because of the hunger to communicate that telephone was invented. As people multiply and travel around the world, the distance between their “loved ones” increased. This demands a long distance communication which was at first met by letters. But letters is limited through time and space. A better means of communication is needed. Telephone answered the need. The word telephone came from two Greek words: tēle, and phōnē which mean far and voice respectively. It is excellent invention that enables us to hear our lovers’ voice from afar. Through the invention of telephone, friends, family, lovers and even enemies can hear each other’s voice at once.

Nowadays, with the rapid advancement of technology, communication comes at the speed of light with colors and styles. But no matter how advanced our gadgets are; we owe everything to the creator of communication and the inventor of telephone.

About the Author

The author of Phonetech Philippines is fond of phones and cellphones even though he is a bit shy to answer calls because his English doesn’t sound like a call center agent. He is a licensed electronic engineer and currently working in a pretigious company in the Philippines. Even as an electronics engineer, he realized that technology adances very fast. In the meantime, he found himself lagging behind of technical information specially of phone technology. Thus, he made this site. He made this blog to review his college telecom lessons and to enrich his knowledge of the recent phone technology.

His first cellphone was a Nokia 5110 given to him by his sister during college. Eventually he lost the 8k worth cellphone when he slept in the jeepney. The second cellphone he got is a recon Nokia 6210 bought from Robinsons. Eventually he lost it again in the jeepney for a simple reason – tanga kasi.

Since then, he borrowed phones to text the woman he likes. But she rejected him because he doesn’t text often.

It was not until one Christmas day, when his sister gave him again a Sony Ericsson k310 bought from Taiwan. Bongga! He never lost it again (of course) but kept it even until its keypad failed. He used that phone to court another woman until by some glorious fate - he won a Nokia 7210 Supernova through a raffle. Thanks to Orange Brutus for catering his date and giving him his phone.

In May 2011, he married a fellow electronics engineer. During their honeymoon, his Nokia 7210 Supernova was stolen while he and his wife were sleeping deeply in a cold of the night. But not long enough, he owned a phone again, thanks to his generous supervisor, who gave him Nokia XpressMusic for free.

Nowadays, he plans to buy the best cellphone out there. But his budget keeps hindering him. So, in order to gratify his unfulfilled desire, he made this fantastic blog instead.

About Phonetech Philippines

Hi, welcome to phonetechphilippines, a website dedicated to phones and everything related to phones. You may ask why this website exists. Well, phonetechphilippines was created by a Filipino electronics engineer as part of his New Year resolution on January 2012. You know; they say the world is ending in 2012, so this fellow made everything he can to inform you about phones. They don’t have any relation of course!

Phonetech stands for phone technology. Philippines was added for a simple reason that http.phonetech.com is no longer available in blogger. Thanks for that unknown fellow who took the blog address first. He made this website sounds local.

Phonetech Philippines is dedicated to study the phone technology. As this blog progresses you will learn lessons on how phones developed into the most sophisticated cellphone we have today. Aside from that, you will also learn theories behind cellphone functionalities.

Phonetech Philippines also aims to make this site informative and fun. From time to time, you will be informed of the latest cellphone models available in the Philippine market with their specs, features and prices. And in doing so, the author aims to entertain you with his funny writing style.