Motorola’s 2008 mobile phone new lineup
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 28th, 2008
EDIT Nov 13 2008: Just heard today from a few local Motorola employees that Motorola Philippines is closing shop for good. Issues such as after sales support, etc are still up in the air.
Dispelling rumors that they are leaving the mobile phone industry, Motorola shows off their new lineup of mobile phones for 2008. I was with Mari Litonjua of Motorola last week for a press lunch as he showed off an excellent lineup of phones for the different market segments:
The W230 is the world’s cheapest MP3 phone at a mere PHP 2,490.00 without a post-paid plan
The ROKR E8 is the next-generation music player phone that comes with new technologies such as Song ID, ModeShift, and FastScroll.
The Motorola Q 9h is the follow up to the first Q, an enterprise-greared Windows Mobile phone that sports BlackBerry connectivity.
Batanes Laffs
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 27th, 2008NO FUNNY STUFF
LADIES NIGHT ALL WEEK
MAY YOUR TRIBE PROSPER
Saigon Street Snaps (wew! I alliterate!)
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 26th, 2008
Touched base (LOL what a term, this “touched base”) at Ho Chi Minh earlier today. Here are some street snaps of downtown. Trying (very hard) to do this whole street photography bit.
Delifrance now serves alcohol … in their coffee
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 26th, 2008
Bim from The Man Blog gets a caffeine rush, then gets wasted at Deli France. Bim gives us a thumbs up!
When asked by a Delifrance barista for the PASSWORD, say “Naughty with my coffee” and you get a cup of spiked coffee for free.
Get ready on March 3-7 from 5-7 PM. For dine in only.
In the same way the Greenwich is now selling coffee and dessert, the Jollibee group is now doing the same thing with Delifrance by refurbishing some key branches into coffee shops. The kicker is that they are now serving spiked coffee after 5 PM (Could Jollibee itself be next?).
What an excellent marketing strategy. We’ve got an excess of coffee shops in the metro, but coffee shops that spike their drinks? Nada. I’m sure that other shops will follow suit. The Spiked After 5 campaign aims to communicate this message to people who wish to unwind after a long day with coffee and alcohol in one. Delifrance is also one of the few restaurants that does not serve rice meals so it is another good way of attracting health buffs.
We have some photos of the event c/o Phoebe.
Disclaimer: Delifrance is an advertiser on this blog for the month of March 2008. Interested in getting local blog advertising on your site? Click here for details.
Marlboro Country, Sabtang
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 25th, 2008
It’s been what … 15 years since my last visit.
Batanes is as beautiful as ever. Although some of the areas have been modernized (read: cemented streets, electricity and w00t — Internet!), the rolling hills, whistling wind and crashing waves still take center stage as the islands’ splendor.
Batanes looks so much more beautiful than my last visit. I’ve gotten so used to city life, I don’t see sprawling hills and cliffs this unbridled. If ever I do, its usually part of some commercial attraction in some residential resort or beach. This is virgin.
Made friends with the cows.
I’ve uploaded the Batanes photoset for everyone to view. Pardon some of the shots that are a little over exposed or grainy – this was a road test for one of the lenses I inherited. The fish eye needs some cleaning and I’ve actually sent it to this convenient place in the south (there’s a guy who sells old cameras in Tropical Hut Grocery, BF Homes). The prime f/2.8 Tamron came out OK but the fish eye needed to be sent back.
This was a special press conference in line with EPSON’s new photo printers. I am covering this for 2BU. To the bloggers and photographers who went on the trip, please send me one or two of your best shots so that we can include it in the article with photo credits. 
43rd Anvil Awards Afterthoughts: Philip Morris eBook Art Award
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 24th, 2008Philippine Art Awards eBook Supplement
Philip Morris bagged a ton of awards during the Anvils. One of the more unique Merit awards they received was for a supplement interactive eBook to their Philip Morris Philippine Art Award (PAA). It is a nicely packaged CD ROM that contains the electronic version of the Coffee Table Book which is given to patrons on a limited “print” run.
There are art competitions and art competitions. Then there’s the Philip Morris Art Competition, officially known as Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards (PAA). Within a span of a decade, the PAA has established itself as the most prestigious and most-awaited art event and competition in the country. What puts PAA above the rest of the art competitions that even established artists have accepted the challenge to compete in this art arena? What so uplifts the status of the PAA that those previously unheard of, upon winning, turn into artistic luminaries overnight?
Electronic magazine design has been prolific for quite some time now. These designs are usually applied to web samplers of magazines such as Electronic Gaming Monthly. You can use your mouse pointer to flip virtual pages onto a flash application. That’s what this entry is. You can scroll through a virtual book with the visuals of the entries and credits.
Just one thing though. Although the eBook is a supplement that definitely goes in the right direction, the CD ROM didn’t contain high resolution versions of the entries. Well, this could have been for copyright reasons but it’s hard to appreciate a painting that’s reduced to 400 x 300.
Congratulations Philip Morris!
Coke Light vs. Coke Zero: A Taste Feedback?
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 23rd, 2008
Coke Zero was launched last week with a really huge event at the Fort. My cousin who was one of the agency guys in charge of the event tells me that it is a way for Coke to compete with Pepsi Max, and to get a larger demographic of male “no sugar” Coke drinkers. Statistics as well say that the impression of Coke Light is more of a “ladies choice” than a men’s thing. I think this was partly realized after the free Coke Light campaign done in malls such as the Greenbelt 3 in many legs last year.
So really, do you notice a taste difference between the two? I’ve been buying BOTH for the past week and as a consumer, I really can’t care less on which one I get. Here are the top five no sugar soft drinks I buy regularly in order from most preferred to least preferred:
Coke Light / Coke Zero
Sarsi Light
A&W Rootbeer Light
Pepsi Light
Pepsi Max
They say that between Coke Light and Coke Zero, the taste difference kicks in when both drinks are consumed at room temperature. Allegedly, you won’t notice the taste difference when both drinks are iced. Of course, doing this is rather gross so I’d rather not experiment on a matter with no great consequence to my current state of affairs
What you think?
43rd Anvil Awards Afterthoughts: Experience Philippines
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 22nd, 2008
I am lucky to have been a involved as a juror for the 43th Anvil Awards. As one of the judges of the Interactive Media category I was able to have a rare glimpse into the current state of Philippine public relations and marketing campaigns, specifically in the Online Tools of PR division.
This is the first of several afterthoughts on winning noteworthy marketing campaigns worth sharing with everyone.
Experience Philippines: Department of Tourism
What it is:
The Department of Tourism issues 250 free round trip tickets to the Philippines for 3rd and 4th generation Filipinos in the USA. The objective is to get them to explore, enjoy, fly home, and come back dragging more friends to see the many wonders this country has to offer.
Why it is notable:
It is quite a feat to have a government arm thinking of something quite of the box. Amidst the many government controversies we’re hearing, the DOT is doing amazing “non-dinosaur” things that directly promotes the country’s tourism. For bloggers, the most notable event was when the DOT shipped Christine “HappySlip” Gambito for a meet and greet and had her serve as an ambassador for the Experience Philippines campaign.
FInal thoughts:
Although the website obviously needs some work, I’d still say that it isn’t about how you do it, but more about the results. The Experience Philippines campaign is still a good example of how we can think of out of the box ways to promote our sexy country. Special thanks to Yehey! for doing a lot of the legwork to make this a reality.
Angkor Wat, Cambodia Take Two! (Vietnam Included in set!)
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 19th, 2008
Last year I posted something (wait let me find it …. here it is!) about wanting to go to Cambodia with friends who could make time out for a few days to see Angkor Wat, shoot it, and go home. Despite my being out of Manila for several times last year, I wasn’t able to do this with friends.
So it’s take two this year! We’re leaving on the 26th of February and will be gone for around a week. Destinations include Vietnam and Cambodia for finally – a vacation trip I’l be going with Phoebe’s family and two other friends.
This is our first time to these places and Lonely Planet advises to not stray away too far or else encounter active land mines. The objective really is to … eat! We’ve been checking out some Vietnam food blogs with some good suggestions but we’re most likely to stay in the Ho Chi Minh area.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated — and by the time we get back, I hope to take down that stock photo of Angkor and post something more personal. Photos updated and uploaded. Shooting Angkor Wat is now a dream realized! Second photo is c/o Phoebe.
Eating my words — Valentine’s Day Gift from Dad!
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 15th, 2008Remember how my dad gave me his entire Cokin creative filter collection almost a year ago? Well, for Valentine’s he went over the top by giving me a little bit more of his hobby.
But first, let me eat my words. Despite the technical support supremacy of Canon, if all things were constant, I’d opt to go for Nikon’s color quality. So yeah, dad gave me his entire lens collection. These are old lenses – some are 1986 AF Nikkor lenses (I initially thought that all were manual. One or two are AF). I actually feel that the only people who would appreciate this post would be those who are really into old school photography.
So here are the 9 reasons why I shifted to adopted Nikon:
(more…)
In vitae memoriam
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 14th, 2008The family has been quite busy with our grandma’s funeral preparations. One thing that my cousins realized is that it was a little difficult finding a lot of stock photos of her. We’d have to segregate everything from the seven children’s families, scan them and then push them all to iPhoto for a themed slideshow.
I was having a conversation with my cousin who’s a film director and we came to agree that if it were our generation, finding photos would be so much easier as our lives are pretty much public in Facebook, Multiply and Friendster. Not to mention our blogs as well. What would it be like, 50 years from now when it came to storing our memories online?
One of the resolutions among the cousins would be to start a centralized photo repository. Maybe on Flickr or Multiply because it is very easy to batch upload. And then maybe link them all to a blog or something. The objective would be to come up with an organized way for anyone in the family to have access to these gems and contribute.
Any suggestions?
