oDesk offers funds transfer directly to your Philippine bank account!

Great news for all oDesk contractors in the Philippines! oDesk is now offering local funds transfer, where you can directly deposit your earnings into your Philippine bank account for a low, flat fee. This eliminates the need for a third party vendor, such as Payoneer or PayPal. Instead, all your money goes directly to your bank account (in pesos too!) through the local clearing system.

It takes 3 to 5 business days for your funds to be properly transferred. Local funds transfer in the Philippines is still in the beta stage, but oDesk assures contractors that the system is sound and their money is in good hands. It's in the beta stage because they know it can improve in the future.

Setting up the local funds transfer is a one-step activation process. You just need your bank's head office BRSTN code, your account number and information. While oDesk charges $1.99 for each transfer, you may incur other charges, such as incoming remittance fees. It's best to ask if your bank has other charges when receiving a BRSTN local funds transfer. oDesk did mention that due to their existing tie-ups with several local banks, these fees won't be very steep.

For a complete list of details, please view this post at the oDesk website. You can also check out the discussion thread. A lot of my questions have been answered just by reading through it.

I'm going to sign up for this. I'm currently using Payoneer and the fees are killing me. Imagine a $20 transfer will incur up to more than $5 in fees just to get the money to Payoneer. I think it's fast and convenient, but not worth it if you're only going to be transferring minimum amounts. I'm trying out Paypal which is somewhat cheaper (transfer from Paypal to local bank, charges may apply too).

This service is open to all Philippine oDesk contractors. Other countries have their own local funds transfer too. It sounds like a very easy solution for all our withdrawal woes (hoy, wag ka bastos! :p) I'm glad oDesk decided to bring this service to us. I can't wait to try it, especially since according to that post, BPI doesn't have any incoming remittance charges! :D

Have you tried this? Will you sign up for it? I'd love to hear about your experience if you have.

January 2012 Update: I was able to try this a few months after I posted this. When my account reached a little over PHP 10,000, I facilitated the transfer. It was pretty quick, and it took less than two days to get from my oDesk account to my BPI savings account. And yes, no remittance charges (compared to transferring from PayPal to BPI).

Dear Globe, it's me again

My Globe DSL service bill for December-January just arrived in my mailbox and I was surprised to see that I still had a balance of P1,150+. I remember asking my brother to pay this balance on my behalf a couple of months ago. Plurk friends will remember it as the time when I ranted about having no service with Globe for nearly a week.

I called up customer service and asked for the updated balance. True enough, I did make the payment and my balance now is P0.93. Since the matter was settled, I was ready to end the call when the customer service rep informed me that I could sign up for paperless billing through the Globe website. I let her finish her spiel even though I was already familiar with the service. The kicker was this line:

"Ma'am, you can view your bill through our online facility and when you're ready to make the payment, i-print niyo nalang po yung bill."

Globe's current set-up with "paperless billing" is that you'll see a scan of the paper bill you receive every month. Unlike the online facility of banks, it doesn't reflect the actual balance of your bill but rather what was received by their system before the cut-off. This was the reason why I had more than a thousand pesos in my bill, as the payment was made after the cut-off period.

Now, I am not certain if customers are truly required to print the bill when paying. If you have a credit card or pay through BPI's online facility, it shouldn't matter. But what about those who can only pay through Globe or Bayad centers? I know I have been able to make over-the-counter payments for my DSL by just providing the correct information the attendant asked for, such as the account number and account holder's name, as well as verify some other details. I am also positive that I was able to make the payment through the machines some Globe centers have even without the stub from the bill.

If Globe does require a printout of the bill from customer who signed up for paperless billing, it totally defeats the purpose of the service in the first place. It doesn't make it more environmentally friendly, and maybe this is a rarity, but what of the customers who do not have printer access (either at home or at the office)?

My points?

1. Clarify the process for bills payment. If a customer uses the paperless billing, will s/he require a print-out, or not?
2. Update the system so that customers who do use the service will be able to view in real time their actual balance. A delay of 12 to 24 hours is acceptable. A discrepancy of 1 month is not.

I look forward seeing some improvement in your service, Globe.

The search for a new phone

I've had my current mobile phone, a Sony Ericsson P800, since 2004. How's that for a long term relationship? I've lost the flip keys and the stylus. There's a crack by the camera buttons, the back cover lock's broken and the paint's chipping. Recently, I can't hear the message tone so I'm missing a lot of calls. It's also rather slow to respond sometimes, but I'm thinking it's because it has a lot of contents. Can your phone hold 1,200+ messages? Yeah maybe, but was it manufactured before 2005? >:D


See my phone in the background? It looks ready to give up.

I do love this phone, else I wouldn't stick with it for this long. It's one of the first touchscreen smartphones ever released by any phone manufacturer. It's got a copy/paste function long before iPhone put it in iOS. I can load programs in it. It's also able to view documents, thanks to a program that came with the phone. I also had a Men in Black game and a few others (one of which my mother remembers with much fondness). Sure, it's camera's just VGA, but it was the one I used to take pictures of the Jars of Clay concert back in 2005.

I've finally decided to take the plunge and get a new phone. I've always wanted an iPhone, but it's the version 4 or not at all, and since it's too expensive, I've decided to go with an Android phone. As of last month and thanks to the countless reviews I've read, my choice was HTC Desire, but since they came out with HTC Desire HD, I'm wavering. Especially since there's only about four thousand pesos price difference. Go with the HD, right?



Now all I need now is to have the funds and I'm all set. Goal: Before my birthday. Wish me luck!

SoPhone: The Convincing iPhone Clone?

Here's something you might need to watch out for the next time you browse the electronics tiangge: an iPhone 4 knockoff called "SoPhone". It looks and feels just like an iPhone 4, from the body's dimensions and even the software. Check it out.



As you can see, anyone who is not that familiar with the iPhone 4, or just has a passing knowledge about the product can easily take this as the real thing. The software here looks just like the iOS4.

There's some delay in the response of the software, and you can see that the "accelerometer" didn't properly adjust when the device's direction changed. The sound and display looks good though, but it's definitely not the Retina display the new 1Phone 4 boasts of. I don't think this will support the same apps as the real iOS will. Too bad the demonstration didn't include anything about the other apps like games or the camera.

The most glaring difference is in the device interior: it can be easily opened, the battery can be removed and the SIM card slot is for a regular sized one, rather than the mini one. The SoPhone has a 3.5-inch touch-screen, 4GB of flash storage (not sure if it's expandable), dual cameras, is Wi-Fi ready, and has Bluetooth.

I foresee issues with Apple on this, but I have to admit, it's pretty darn amusing to see this. Still, nothing can replace the iPhone 4. I still want one.

You've Been Stung!

I wasn't yet born when The Green Hornet first aired as a radio series, nor when it became a TV series. I only got to watch it when a local channel (forgot which one) aired reruns during afternoons back in the 80s. Back then, I already thought Kato was cool (I consider him one of the reasons why I went into martial arts in the first place). When I found out he was played by Bruce Lee, Kato's cool factor went up several notches.

I didn't have high expectations with the movie when I first saw the trailer. The Britt Reid I knew was an intellectual and somewhat serious guy as opposed to the party-all-night playboy Seth Rogen portrayed him in this 2011 incarnation. I didn't expect much from Jay Chou either. I haven't seen any of his movies, but I have heard his music.



I was wrong. I liked Jay Chou as Kato. I love the homages to Bruce Lee (the sketchbook, the --- ok fine, I won't spoil it). I didn't quite care for Britt Reid, but Chadnofsky/Bloodnofsky is a hoot. The jokes between Kato and Britt made me wonder if Rogen and Evan Goldberg (the movie's scriptwriters) referred to the Bro Code when writing the script. There were definitely a lot of funny scenes that had me snickering all throughout.

You know what's another cool thing? The Mythbusters team up with Seth Rogen to prove (or disprove) scenes from the movie. So I won't spoil things for you, I shall keep mum about what they're going to do, except that the myths are titled "Explosive Escape" and "Elevator Car Cut". You have time to watch the movie before this Mythbusters episode airs on January 28 on Discovery Channel. Grab some of Krispy Kreme's Green Hornet doughnuts (called "Green Iced Sting") to sweeten the deal.


Adam Savage, Seth Rogen, Jamie Hyneman. Picture courtesy of Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific.

I look forward to seeing Buster in a suit.