Hand-y TV

Bandied about as the first mobile TV right in your hand, Smart’s “myTV” service has attracted a lot of attention for making the Philippines one of the first in Asia to be on the crest of this technological innovation. You have to hand it to Smart on this gamble, as I know the technology is in its developmental stage and who knows how many subscribers will sign on, but being the first has its merits, and Smart certainly knows the value of that. If reports are to be believed, mobile phone ownership here in the Philippines has pretty much reached saturation point. While phone retailers know there will always be people out there looking for the latest model, the service providers have to find new ways to up the spend of their subscribers and can no longer rely on sheer activation. And it’s on this count that Smart is pushing itself as the company that provides the latest and best to its subscribers.

For now, those who sign up “myTV” have the following stations to stream onto their phones (specifically the Nokia N92 and the Samsung P930) on the Entertainment front — Cartoon Network, the Entertainment Channel, Jack TV, Pinoy Box Office and MTV. On the News, it’s CNN; while on the Sports side, you have Basketball TV, PBA and Solar Sports. And if you’re into documentaries, the History Channel and the National Geographic Channel. To avail of “myTV”, one pays a fixed monthly rate and can enjoy as much “stream time” as one’s heart desires. Whether this is an introductory package or one that will be the standard remains to be seen.

With the N92 I tested, I was dealing with a 2.8” screen, good sound quality and a clear image. It took just a couple of seconds for the program guide to appear. And to my pleasant surprise, the different channels were all marked out with the current show indicated. When you select a channel, you first get the schedule of the day for that channel. This is in fact, more information than you get watching on a regular television, and I thought highly of this feature. The Samsung P930 will even have PIP support (Picture in Picture), so you can see what’s showing on another channel via a pop up small screen within the main screen.

If Filipino television-watching is generally a group or family activity, “myTV” will definitely play “out of the box” (Yes, pun intended as television is referred to as the “box”). Constantly holding the phone in your palm may be a great visual, but it did get tiring after awhile, and one really needs a close flat surface to plant the phone on. Having said that, am sure serious TV fanatics will love this service and only hope more channels will be available very soon. Plus knowing Filipinos and how we love to make “sikat,” don’t be surprised if orthopedic doctors will soon be getting new patients, complaining about “myTV” wrist strains, just like how we have tennis elbows.

Bending reality

There are novelists who take extreme delight in bending conventional spatial and temporal notions, producing literature that enthralls, while giving us exotic “food for thought.” Three recently published novels provide this kind of entertainment; one posing as a ghost story, the second as surreal fantasy and the third as ruminative memoir. They signal crowning achievements for their respective creators.

Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott (available at Powerbooks): While this novel may have similarities to The French Lieutenent’s Woman of John Fowles with the literary device of having two narratives, one present day and one rooted in the past — the era of Isaac Newton; Ghostwalk extends the genre into a ghost story, with the past stretching its fingers and impinging on the events of today. A lady writer who was completing a book on Newton and his dabbling in alchemy is found dead, floating on the river beside her Cambridge home. Her son commissions his ex-girlfriend to complete the book and strange happenings ensue. Central to the plot is one cloudy character who seemed to have paved the way for Isaac and his academic career and success at Trinity College. There are conspiracies, secret societies and espionage riddling both narratives, and they make for a tightly plotted novel that flirts as historical fiction.

Hospital by Toby Litt (available at Fully Booked): This is a tale that’s half fairy tale a la Jack and the Beanstalk, and half surreal fable with elements of MASH (the movie) and The Hospital thrown in. It’s like every folksy fear one has of hospitals and the medical service, has been given a macabre twist, courtesy of Mr. Litt. The book comes at us fast and furious, and if I didn’t know better, I’d insist this was written in some drug-induced stupor — it’s that crazy and strangely entertaining. There are Haitian porters at this London hospital who practice Santeria voodoo and witchcraft, there are doctors and nurses who long for eternal life and consort with the Devil and the black arts. There’s a comatose accident victim, hailed as the Second Coming, and central to the Jack/Beanstalk analogy, a boy who has swallowed an apple seed and feels a full tree growing inside of him. This may be Neil Gaiman territory, but Litt stakes his own claim.

The Visible World by Mark Slouka (available at Powerbooks): Reading The Visible World, there are segments which remind me of David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green and its lyrical evocation of childhood, and there are passages which are reminiscent of Michael Ondaatje at his finest, the elliptical portrayal of one’s search for meaning and identity, set against the backdrop of the lives of one’s parents. Shifting from Nazi-occupied Prague to the lives of Czech emigres in New York, the book is a treasure trove of reflections and memories. One gleans how one’s memories can be manufactured in the name of normalcy and conventionality; that the search for truth can bring one face-to-face with versions that force one to reevaluate one’s value system and securely held visions of family. What is impressive is how throughout the novel, one is slyly charmed by Slouka’s prose. It augurs well for his future novels.