Mapalad.org, the official website of the Palm user group in the Philippines, is currently down.

I asked Sharon Agoncillo — one of Mapalad’s leaders — about it, and I found out that our group has just lost its sponsored web hosting.

While the officers of Mapalad are looking for new web hosting sponsors, members are advised to join the group’s Facebook page.

I’ve been reading about Entrecard on other Filipino-owned blogs in the past weeks. Entrecard is an ad-exchange network for bloggers. However, because most of my blogs are in Filipino/Tagalog, and to join you must have an “English-speaking blog,” I wasn’t able to sign up as soon as I wanted to.

The other day, I read Janette Toral’s twit about her Entrecard being featured on a certain site. This made me more curious, so I decided to sign up using this blog, which is in Filipino and English. Looks like this blog’s being bilingual hasn’t affected my acceptance in the network as other members have been dropping their cards on this site.

I’m still learning and exploring Entrecard’s features. For now, I just enjoy dropping my card on other sites and browsing those dropped on mine.

On such days as yesterday, when Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and his comrades took over the Manila Peninsula Hotel, don’t you wish you could check the local news as often as you want even if you’re not in front of your PC?

The good news–and you probably know it already–is that you could read the mobile version of the leading local news sites using your Palm Treo (or other cellphones). Just start your GPRS connection and point your Blazer (or Opera Mini, and other) to http://wap.gmanews.tv for the GMA-7 news site or http://mobile.inquirer.net for Philippine Daily Inquirer’s online news.

These sites are updated regularly, so you’ll surely get the latest news updates.

For Palm newbies, check out It’s a Palm Thing (www.palmthing.com). It’s a nice site with an interactive flash presentation that demonstrates the uses of a Palm Treo.