Touch and go

MANILA, Philippines - Just two more sleeps and then it’s voting time.

It’s quite interesting how as we move closer to ‘E-Day’ there is always something new that I continue to discover about the more popular candidates.

Sometimes, it is hard for folks like me to sift the good from the bad, so I take time to do a little sleuthing on my own about the candidates who interest me.

And, mind you, these are not just for the presidential and vice presidential candidates. I think that most people have already made up their minds where that is concerned.

It is quite interesting though how many people have yet to complete their senatorial lineup. And there are even a few people I have talked to recently who told me that they would just decide on who to vote for the local positions when they get to the voting precinct.

Of course, there are many voters who are responsible and have a list, who checked and read it more than twice, with the names of the people they will vote for.

What’s more, E-Day in this country is much like an anticipated fiesta, where nothing seems to be in place even if the day of the main event is just a few days away.

Whatever, we only have one country, and we love it with all our hearts.

I guess it is hard to stay away from E-Day talk, but this is an article about cellphones, and stick to the topic I must.

But picking the right cellphone is much like deciding on who will best lead this country to wherever we may be headed.

There are so many cellphone manufacturers, but none, in my opinion at least, comes closest to Samsung in introducing the most number of cellphones in the shortest period of time.

Let’s get touchy

It is truly wonderful just how the Korean cellphone manufacturer has made the touch-screen phone mainstream.

As I visited my suking cellphone tindahan last weekend I was awestruck at just how many touch-screen cellphones Samsung has in its arsenal.

But there was one cute phone that caught this gadget-lover’s attention. Blame it on the Sam Milby poster that called out to me to give the Samsung C3510, for robotic name, and Genoa, for cool name, a try.

Let’s see.

I really loved the Samsung Corby. Matter of fact, I made sure to be the first in line when the Corby was first introduced on the market.

Now, following closely at the heels of the Corby is the Genoa, which my suking seller told me features almost identical hardware specifications as the Corby.

“Siguro ang pagkaiba ng dalawa ay yung camera,” said my all-knowledgeable salesperson. “Etong Genoa 1.3-megapixel camera.”

Not one to be impressed by high-megapixel cameras, I gave the Genoa a spin.

I just love how Samsung has been able to develop an interface that weaves into all its touch-screen cellphones. This means that it only really takes a few button-pushes to get to the core of the cellphone.

And so it was with the Genoa.

I loaded my ever-reliable SIM, which has data connection capabilities. This way it makes it easy for me to check out my Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail accounts.

Yes, even at this older stage of my life, I have learned how to tweet.

“Tita Kathy, if you don’t tweet no one will know your take on life,” said Oscar, one of those young people who spends lots of time tweeting. “And what we think and feel is what makes this country and the world better.”

The young, they still believe - and perhaps we should too.

Go ahead, touch now

The Samsung Genoa is a pretty straightforward-looking cellphone. It comes in black and has the typical roundish Samsung look.

But as we all know, looks aren’t everything. And more often than not, it is important to go beyond looks to see what goodies lie inside. This kind of thinking is even truer when it comes to judging cellphones.

SIM card loaded, battery charged. I take the Genoa for a test run.

As those of you who read me regularly know, I cannot start to work on a cellphone until I set up the basics - that is, the cellphone profile.

It takes me less than two minutes to configure the Genoa to my liking. And, yes, it had my fave Bug song ringtone, which made the cellphone even more valuable to me.

I noticed that the Genoa integrates a 2.8-inch touch-sensitive screen with QVGA resolution that utilizes capacitive technology.

The buttons on either side of the device have a unique pointed shape that makes them easy to feel with your fingers. The microSD slot is easily accessible. The topside has a 3.5-mm headphone jack, which is quite standard as Samsung cellphones go.

Simply be

I would describe the Samsung Genoa as a “what you see is what you get” type of cellphone. There is nothing super outstanding in its looks. Perhaps I could even go as far as saying that the Genoa is a cellphone for people who like understated elegance. It is a cellphone that doesn’t call much attention to itself, but performs much better than many other handsets that are form and not much function.

Thread to the future

And, yes, one of the cooler things going for the Genoa is the threaded style messaging. There are many people who have fallen for this type of messaging.

The Genoa is also equipped with an automated e-mail account setup for Yahoo! and Google and the handset supports push notification alerts.

I did make sure that I set up my e-mail accounts and noticed that the e-mails started loading almost instantaneously.

I also tried the six Web icons, which allowed me to set up my Facebook. The other sites were Friendster, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa and Photobucket.

I set up my Facebook account and got it working OK although I did have a little difficulty with the connections - perhaps, Facebook is a little busier than my e-mail accounts.

But once it was all set up, I was able to update my status and also check out what my friends were doing.

For instant messaging I set up my Twitter account and then did a little tweeting. I really find this service a good way to keep up with what young people are thinking - at the moment they are thinking it.

Just great.

Let the music play on

I liked the quality of the music, which I listen to through boxed headphones. I also listened to a little music on the FM radio. Cool.

As a last test, I made a few calls on the Genoa, yes, phone calls. I did like the call quality. The person I called heard me loud and clear and the same went for me.

I also sent a few text messages, which were sent out without a hitch - just as it should be.

All told, there are really all sorts of cellphones out there with all sorts of things they claim to be able to do.

But claiming and doing are two different things.

Just like during E-Day, just remember folks that claiming and doing are two different things.

Vote for the people who you believe will do the country good. And hopefully not for the people who only claim that they will do good.

The Samsung Genoa is one cellphone that is packed with features that many of today’s younger cellphone users will enjoy. And, yes, the Genoa doesn’t claim to be good. It is a good cellphone that does what it says it can.