Thankfully I found an easy way to transfer my iTunes library from Windows to Mac OS X over WiFi. All this method needed was an iTunes account, for iTunes to be installed on the transmitting and the receiving computers, and for the computers to be in the same WiFi network. This is all thanks to an iTunes feature called Home Sharing, introduced in iTunes 9.

Here’s how to transfer your iTunes library from Windows to Mac using this method.

1. Go to Advanced → Enable Home Sharing on your menu bar, then click the Home Sharing icon on the iTunes sidebar. Enter your iTunes Store login credentials. Do this on both your Windows and Mac computers.
2. On iTunes on your Mac computer, you should be able to see the library of your Windows computer under Home Sharing in iTunes. Then just click on Music, hit Cmd + A to select all the songs, then drag them over to the Music section of your Mac’s library (at the top of the sidebar). Do the same for Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, and Apps. (Movie rentals can’t be transferred using this method, though.)

Just wait a few minutes for the transfers to complete, and, Bob’s your uncle (heh, British expression), you’ve successfully transferred your iTunes library from Mac to Windows easily through WiFi. For more information and help regarding Home Sharing, visit the pertinent Apple support page.

I hope you found my little tutorial on how to move your iTunes library from Windows to Mac O X useful. I’d be glad to try to answer any of your questions—just post them in the Comments section below or contact me.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

Holy crap, it's Aidan! Later in the movie, Carrie calls big and tells him, "something's happened." Dun-dun-dunnn. {Image from Allmoviephoto.com}

I know my masculinity will have to suffer when I say this, but I’m an avid fan of “Sex and the City”. I know, I know—it’s a girl’s show, and I’m straight (jussayin). But the ideas of frantic life in New York, nights out, apartment walls lined with bookshelves, complicated relationships, and a barely working newspaper columnist just appeal to me.

My first SATC experience actually happened five years after the original series ended, when HBO ran the “Sex and the City” movie. Critics apparently didn’t think it was great, but I found it interesting, my taste in movies being relatively pedestrian. Later on HBO started replaying SATC the series starting from the very first episode, and so I began sleeping later than usual on Wednesday evenings. (Yes, SATC is the reason I started arriving later than usual for Physics class on Thursdays.)

On May 27, “Sex And The City 2″, the aptly named sequel to the SATC movie, opens in New York City, with an opening in the Philippines probably soon afterwards. In SATC2, Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha fly to Morocco for a desert getaway. There Carrie—get this—meets Aidan, her erstwhile boyfriend whom she cheated with Big on. The trailer, which is available on the movie’s website, doesn’t give away much else, save the fact that this movie is bound to click with those who, like me, closely followed the series. (Yes, despite the fact that Miley Cyrus appears in the movie.)

“Sex And The City 2,” playing in a theater near you really soon.

* * *

I watch Entourage, too, so as we Filipinos like to say, quits lang. Haha. Entourage is to men what SATC probably is to women. SATC took place in New York; Entourage has Los Angeles. SATC is about a fashionista writer, her socialite friends, and the way they handle their lovelives with a “chicks before dicks” attitude; Entourage  is about an A-list movie star, his three friends who also make up his entourage, and their romantic exploits, which they pursue with the motto “Bros before hos.”

There’s no hint of an Entourage the Movie yet, but the seventh season of the HBO series is set to premiere on June 27! At the end of Season 6, Eric proposed to Sloan, Turtle went back to school and broke up with Jamie, Drama got a holding deal, and Vince was getting ready to shoot another film following his success in Gatsby. The boys look ready to go their own separate ways so it wouldn’t be wrong to assume we’ll be following more than one storyline come June. Exciting!

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

Look at it, people. It’s absolutely hideous.

I imagine this is what it would be like to have Dr. Frankenstein and his creation stand side by side. Image from Gizmodo

Seriously? A flat, sandwich-like brick? I am sorely disappointed. It looks like something some enterprising young Chinese businessman would sell in one of the myriad shady stalls in malls across the Philippines. In fact, look around a bit and it’s likely you’ll find something that looks something, if not exactly, like this. One could argue that the bigger battery and whatever else changed hardware-wise necessitated such a bland form factor; I imagine a bezel would look tacky on something as thick as that. But still, I refuse to believe that Jon Ive and crew, with their impressive portfolio of devices, were unable to come up with a better body for it. The only theory left is that this misplaced prototype is so early, even the form factor is still open to modification; if this is true I sincerely hope Ive has come up with something better.

The next-gen iPhone is beautiful under the hood, to be sure. Among the new features in the next-gen prototype are a front-facing camera (something that would’ve made perfect sense to include two years ago), camera flash (probably still no Flash of the Adobe kind, though), what looks like a higher-resolution display, and and a bigger battery (the other innards have been shrunk to make space for it). Gizmodo doesn’t mention what processor it uses, though it will probably sport a faster chip than the 3GS.

Now listen to this: it uses a micro-SIM, just like the iPad. A MICRO-SIM. Haven’t heard of it? Of course—most no one uses it. Cutting up your regular SIM to fit the micro-SIM slot is a trivial task, but you nonetheless have to wonder why Apple would put such an obscure technology into what is arguably the world’s most popular phone. Perhaps they’re taking a risk and trying to move the industry forward by forcing their sizable user base to adapt to the micro-SIM standard. Perhaps the internal makeup of the phone simply cannot accommodate a regular SIM.

Despite its sheer hideousness, I would still buy the next-gen iPhone if I had enough money. The iPhone OS is still the best mobile operating system anyone can get; Apple’s App Store, draconian though its management is, still makes it worth buying. Nonetheless, if this wayward prototype turns out to be the final product, I would be sorely disappointed. Specially in recent years, Apple has been leading the industry, creating effective products and forcing competitors to follow their lead. If this is how Jobs and gang want the future of mobile phones to look, I’m not so sure I want them to keep leading.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

While we’re on the topic of men who sound like girls, I wonder if Justin Beiber is a castrato.

* * *

Apparently there’s this place on the Interwebs you can go to find out what song was sitting at the top of the charts when you were born. For me it was Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You”. Upon The Nashman’s suggestion I looked up what topped the charts nine months prior to my birth. It was “All for Love” by Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting. I’m not sure what to make of that.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!

2009 was one hell of a year. We had to endure tragedies of tremendous proportions, withstand the continuing effects of a global financial meltdown, and bear the loss of far too many people we loved and held so close to our hearts. Indeed, it was in many ways a trial by fire for us, not only as a nation but the world as well.

Now that 2009 can only be spoken of in the past tense, we step into a new year and a new decade with hope for better days to come. We can never be certain of what 2010 will bring, but we greet it with glee and optimism, ready to take on the challenges it is sure to throw our way and raring to seize the opportunities it will hopefully offer.

Friends, please accept my sincere wishes for a Happy New Year to you and your loved ones. Thank you for keeping me company during the journey that was 2009, and here’s to a deantastic ride ahead.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

When I decided to give the service a spin by calling my phone from my mom’s phone, however, I discovered that calls made to me when my phone is off or when I can’t pick up the call doesn’t go to voicemail; instead, the call simply drops. Voicemail only works when Call Divert is activated and calls are set to divert to the voicemail number (211).

I expected unanswered calls to go to voicemail automatically, regardless of whether Call Divert is turned on. With the current setup, voicemail is rendered next to useless. When I’m very busy and can’t take calls, I simply turn off my phone, not activate Call Divert. I want those calls to go to voicemail while my phone’s off or when I leave it unattended.

Does Sun Cellular’s voicemail service really only work when Call Divert is turned on? Doesn’t it send unanswered calls to voicemail automatically? Or am I the only one experiencing this?

UPDATE 01/23

I did some googling and found a solution to the voicemail conundrum: global voicemail shortcodes. Basically, they’re codes you dial on your phone that changes the phone’s internal settings and dictates how it should divert calls. The list of global voicemail shortcodes can be found here.

It’s still not a satisfactory solution for me, though. Why? When someone calls me and is directed to voicemail—say for example when I reject the call—it doesn’t play my voicemail greeting directly; instead, the voice prompt that says “The subscriber you are calling is busy at the moment…” is played, a brief pause is heard, and only then does my greeting follow. This is problematic because the caller is likely to hang up before my greeting is played, so nobody leaves me any messages. At most, all I receive is an SMS telling me that someone tried to call me, was directed to voicemail, and didn’t leave a message. What I would like to happen is for the system to skip the voice prompt (e.g. “the subscriber you are calling is busy at the moment”) and go directly to my voicemail greeting. If I remember correctly, this is what Smart Telecom’s voicemail service does. (Last time I used Smart’s voicemail was about four years ago, though, so…)

I hope this information gets through to someone from Sun Cellular. In the meantime, though, the shortcodes are a Sun Cel user’s best bet.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

On this episode (where I repeatedly make sabat, giggle and speak too fast), we talked about:

• The Plurkfiesta at Banchetto
• Update on the Bebigerls
• The Failon Incident
• The boy who killed the cat
• And the world debut of the Jenijenjen Song

The voices on the podcast are those of Pakbet Boys Rain Contreras, J, and Gilbz, as well as “Trainee” Crushie Di, along with me and Jenny.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

That can only mean one thing: Summer has finally come! Goodbye, annoying Trigonometry homework! Goodbye, jam-packed, restless weekdays! Hello, sleepless nights! Hello, fun fun fun! For this summer, I’ve decided not to waste my time lazing around all day. Instead, I’m going to make the most out of my two worry-free months by doing all the things I haven’t been able to do thanks to the hectic school year.

Launch DeanTastic.com

Deantastic.com will be my second attempt at entering the crowded technology blogging niche. I’m working on DeanTastic.com as we speak-tweaking the layout here and there but mainly stuffing it with content. My goal is to get ten posts up on the blog before I launch it. DeanTastic.com aims to simplify technology, the Web, and blogging, dishing tips, tricks and news about those three topics from a layman’s point of view as opposed to the old-media-esque manner used by Engadget, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, and Valleywag.

I’m looking at the last half of April or the first half of May as my target launch date. Hopefully I’ll hit that target bullseye.

Deantastic Tech is now live! Please do drop by or subscribe to its RSS feed. (Heck, do both!) There’s also a weekly podcast to go with the site. Check it out as well. I can check off one item from my to-do list now!

Continue tweaking Plush

I’ve been working on the theme used in this blog for quite a while now. Although I think it’s progressed dramatically since its early V0.9 days, there’s admittedly still a lot of space for improvement. Plush version 1.5 and beyond will hopefully be more dynamic, standards-compliant and unbrokinated on smaller screen resolutions.

Begin Reading Again

I can’t remember the last novel I finished, but I do know it’s been a long time since. The hectic school year (and the Internet) offered me no opportunity to flip open another novel and read it from cover to cover and as a result, my to-read list has swelled up. Over the next two months, I plan to begin and finish reading:

• 1984 by George Orwell
• Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho
• The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. I know it’s not a novel and I haven’t gotten myself a copy yet but I’ve been for so long now itching to read this work by arguably the greatest statesman of our time.

Review for Entrance Exams

Shortly after school opens in June, I’m going to have to start looking for a college to go to, and that means taking the daunting entrance exams every high school student dreads. I’m aiming for the University of the Philippines – Diliman Campus (probably a course related to writing, although I’m still slightly inclined to do corporate law), but the plan is to take as many college entrance exams as I can. I have my MSA reviewer booklets here (epistaxis-inducing questions, btw) and I’m planning to enroll in a summer review center, too.

Make some moolah

Hey, it’s a bearish market, and contrary to what the Jatot in the Palace says, the Philippines doesn’t look like it’s going to be immune to the global credit crunch for much longer. A man’s got to make some money. I plan to take freelancing more seriously over the summer and beyond. I’ve already an account at oDesk and take a peek at Craigslist every once in a while. Perhaps I’ll be able to earn the dough I need to purchase all those gadgets I’ve been craving for. Apple’s also poised to release its next iteration of the popular iPhone smartphone come June, so I’d better have some money on hand in case Globe has a discounted upgrade scheme for existing iPhone users.

Fill Up my Moleskine

I am the proud owner of a Moleskine notebook—the legendary notebook used by Chatwin, Hemingway, Van Gogh and Picasso. It’s supposed to be the personal repository of the thoughts I’d rather not have lying around on the Interwho. I find it ridiculously difficult to spill my inner thoughts onto paper. Hopefully, that will change over the summer.

Conclusion

So there you have it—the list of things I plan to accomplish during my two months off. Wish me luck, and hello Summer!

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

I’m yet unsure as to how accessible Internet will be from Naga, although I will make sure to get online if it is at all possible. In the meantime, please help yourselves to Deantastic blog posts. I’ll also be microblogging at Plurk, so if you want to follow my escapades in Luzon, follow me there. If you need to shoot me an email, send one my way through the contact page.

Thanks, and a Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your valentine!

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

Twilight is a series of novels (composed of Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, in that order) which tells the story of Bella Swan, a handsome vampire named Edward Cullen, and the romance they form and share in the rainy town of Forks, Washington. Apparently, the story has not failed to capture the attention, admiration and addiction of people (mostly teenage girls) the world over. It might be the shriek-inducing love between them, it might be the thrill of being the object of a vampire’s affection, it might be the fact that Robert Pattinson is (and I quote) “hot”. Whatever it is, it’s raking in money for Meyer—25 million copies have been sold worldwide,says Wikipedia. The movie adaptation of Twilight, the first book in the series, took in $69,637,740 in the US alone [source], and that number is expected to rise as the film keeps on showing in theaters worldwide.

Marielle and I, bookworms though we are, didn’t really get the whole craze surrounding Twilight. To be more precise, I think we (or at least I) gave it a quick once-over and shunned it at the mention of “vampire”, “teen”, and “love”. My indifference to the novel was only aggravated by my Twilight-addicted classmates’ incessant chatting (squealing, actually) about the story, about how hot that Cullen vampire was, and about how they would storm the local cinema once the movie went out. (Apparently, that kind of stuff ticks me off.)

The cast of Twilight. Credit: http://www.filmonic.com/

Well, last Wednesday, when Twilight finally moved from “Next Picture” to “Now Showing” on our local mall’s Program List, two of my classmates, Misty and Arbee (along with a few boys, I think), rushed over there right after school. It should go without saying that they absolutely loved the film, regardless of whether or not it was actually great.

So, Marielle and I were kinda like, “Dude, the Twilight movie’s out, we’ve got the afternoon off on Friday, and I miss popcorn.” We finally decided to reevaluate Twilight by seeing the movie and then judging whether or not it’s really worth our time. So tomorrow (today, by the time this post goes online), I, Marielle, Misty, Arbee (yes, they’re going to re-watch it—certified Twilight addicts, no?), Zia, and a few other friends will troop to Gaisano Cinema, buy popcorn and Coke, and get as much Twilight as we can.

Shoot me now.

Well, to be honest, I’m not usually this irrationally condescending of literary works, so we’ll see how it works out. When I’m back and fully recovered from the PTSD (Post-Twilight Stress Disorder) that will surely ensue, I’ll try to write an honest critique/review of the film for you.

Toodles.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.