Wii Night with the LG Scarlet
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 28th, 2009
Having scheduled Wii Night, it just so happened that LG lent us their latest LCD TV, the Scarlet. We were supposed to play on my home TV but the delivery was more than welcome. Yay!
Eye popping as it is, the Scarlet boasts to be the thinnest LCD TV (so far!) accentuated by a very nice crimson color on the back. I guess if Samsung brought forth the wine glass design for their flat screens, LG goes in the direction of color. And it’s really nice. I guess this is the type of furniture you’d want to display in the middle of the room rather than pushed to a corner.
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Google Chrome for Mac OS X Developer Beta Download
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 27th, 2009
Although several of its features are still not implemented (such as importation of passwords), Google Chrome for Mac OS X is hot.
Sony DSC T700 with Marine Pack Hands On in Anilao
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 23rd, 2009
Photo Credits: Juned Sonido, Benj Espina, myself
Went on a weekend dive at Dive and Trek in Anilao. A friend was taking her open water course so a bunch of us tagged along. It was also good to meet up (underwater!) with Wowie, Jerome and the rest of the guys from Intel. On the side of the Internet community, Juned was able to drag Benj along. Fun times!
The full review and more underwater shots after the jump.
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Why Did YouTube Ban Podline6?
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 19th, 2009
A little bit of old news, but I still can’t get over the fact that YouTube had to remove podline6′s entire channel from their site. podline6 has been humbly covering old hits on piano and guitar for quite some time now, getting it spot on — and more — when he does covers by America and Bread. His version of “Hot Rod Hearts” on piano is even better than Robee Dupree’s. Above is my favorite America cover on guitar, “Are You There?”
Above: An emotional podline6 talks about copyright infringement
I’ve been a fan of Larry’s covers for more than a year but his account was suspended by YouTube for copyright infringement. Since when was it illegal to cover songs? It’s not like he was making any money out of it. Yeah, we know it isn’t YouTube’s fault, but record labels need to protect artists. Do artists really need all this protecting? If I were a musician and someone did a cover of my song, I’d be honored. But the record label won’t. And it’s not like he’s covering new songs … but that’s besides the point. In hindsight, why is it OK for other people to cover songs on YouTube and not be banned? And why was his entire channel banned?
So when I grab my guitar and cover songs by James Taylor, am I violating copyright law??
Larry has created a new account, under podline66 to continue to make people happy. He never did it for the money. Check his covers. He’s amazing.
Celine Lopez on our June Cover
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 18th, 2009
A late post for me, but better this than never. Celine is on our front cover for June. And if you’re interested in seeing what was behind it, we uploaded the shoot below.
If you’ve seen the issue up front, you’ll notice the cover lines that don’t appear on the online version. It’s almost like a hologram. With David Bowie references all over.
Y’know, the guy from Labyrinth.
More E72 and E71 Comparison Photos and Review
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 16th, 2009
In the Philippines, the Nokia E72 will ship for around P22,000.00
Hi guys, thanks for all the link backs and comments with regards to the E72 launch I covered. A lot of you were asking about the enhanced Navi key so over lunch I borrowed the E72 of one of the regional comms from Nokia and the product is the video you see above. I’m showing off how well the Navi key works in conjunction to the user interface. As you can see, it is very fast (who needs a touch screen anyway??). The Navi key really shines with the new multimedia menu especially when browsing through photos.
Ready for my photo barrage? It’s all after the jump.
Get Fabulous with DANCE FABULOUS!
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 16th, 2009There’s no other way to demo this game for the N Gage than to show it. It’s basically a combination of Boogie for the Nintendo Wii and Dance Dance Revolution, all put together on your mobile phone. What makes this game challenging is that there’s no rhythm bar, unlike in the Wii’s Boogie.
There is no multiplayer component so you can’t play with friends but since you’re logged on to the N Gage Arena, you can compare top scores per region and even globally.
Universal’s Cindy Gomez (up and coming artist) is also inside the game as an avatar which you can play. Five of her songs are included as tracks but you can use any music track within your device.
The game uses an achievements-based system to unlock items so leveling up allows you to see more items and use them as apparel for your avatar.
Dance Fabulous is available on free trial for the N Gage which you can buy later on.
UPDATED Hands On: Nokia XpressMusic 5530 retails for 200 Euros (PHP 13,000)
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 16th, 2009
UPDATE: Hey thanks for visiting. If you love these early hands on features and phone reviews, please support me by subscribing to my blog’s email feed:
Hands On
I’d feel bad for you if you recently bought a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone. Today, Nokia launched the 5530 XpressMusic phone, the cheapest touch screen music phone in their entire roster, which retails for about 200 EU. Holy cow, that’s just about, or less than, P13,000 if I’m not mistaken.
The complete hands on after the break.
UPDATED III: Nokia E72 vs E71 Comparison Photos and Review
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 15th, 2009
UPDATE II: A ton more photo comparisons here as I was able to borrow an E72 over lunch from the comms people of Nokia SG. The E72 will retail in the Philippines for about P22,000.00
UPDATE: Hey thanks for visiting. If you love these early hands on features and phone reviews, please support me by subscribing to my blog’s email feed:
Lo and behold, the brand new Nokia E72 was accidentally unveiled yesterday via a leaked video over the Internet. No scandals here of that sort: according to some Nokia execs who were at Nokia Connections ’09, one of the tech guys accidentally classified one top secret video as “public” instead of “private” thus leaking one of four videos for the new phone launches today. Oh well, it’s probably a good thing anyway – think of the Internet coverage on the leak!
Soooo … yay! It is thus of no surprise to have the Nokia E72 launched today at Nokia Connections, alongside the ultra affordable 5530 XpressMusic and mid range 3710 Fold. This post is dedicated to the latest enterprise device, the E72. Hands down, the E72 is an amazing phone that borrows from everything that made the E71 great and the hardworking engineers over at Nokia were quick to add a few interesting touches.
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Loren Shuster talks about Nokia’s Ovi Platform
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 15th, 2009
The following post is a paraphrase of the media workshop conducted by Loren Shuster, which is essentially a mindset establishing thing for the media. A lot of these are trends and product features and when mentioned, my own thoughts.
There are 1.3 billion users on the Internet. Over 40% of these have mobile Internet access as well. In 2008, the number of mobile Internet users doubled, making the mobile Internet the only way to access the web for developing countries.
it is estimated that by 2012, the number of mobile Internet devices will surpass the total number of desktops that have Internet access. By 2012, there will be over 1 billion people accessing social networking sites via mobile phones. There are 9.3 million individuals using mobile Internet per day. 8.2 million use the mobile Internet for maps.
The ability to personalize and customize information on your phone is important. Content is determined on the terms of users, not corporations.
(Jayvee’s Note — This is the point where they show how the Nokia N97 has customization for the home screen.)
In 2008, Nokia has shipped 60 million converged devices, 36 million were N-series devices. Within these devices is the Ovi Services which is composed of the following 5 parts:
Maps and Navigation
Music
Messaging
Games
Media Services
(Jayvee’s Note — Shuster talks about the Ovi Store. This is basically stuff we’ve heard in local press conferences, but in addition, he mentions that the store also houses flash-based content.)
In addition to this, there are also embedded business models for other companies to adapt into their plans, such as the Maps feature within Ovi (adding your businesses into the Maps and I would guess paying a premium to be seen).
Using Ovi services, you can share locations and actions and behaviors of all your friends. You can track where they are, see their schedule, know what photos they take, hear the music they listen to, and share your own schedule as well.
(Jayvee’s Note — I guess this is preempted by the new RSS feed feature on your phone’s home screen which made debut in the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Phone. The new 5530 XpressMusic allows you to track up to 20 friends, but these are basic functions such as calls, RSS feeds to blogs, social networking profiles and SMS.)
Now on to developing markets. Ovi Mail’s reach successful across Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand. Mostly thanks to the less than 50 EU phones that were recently launched and ease of use email.
With music downloads, Nokia has brought in more than 3 million music downloads, which surpasses piracy in Singapore. By taking away the cost barrier from Comes with Music, you can download unlimited amounts of music, 80% of the downloads are actually complete albums. (Jayvee’s Note – Comes with Music allows for 1 year free download of songs from the Music Store — around 4 million songs.)
Announced: Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, Nokia E72, Nokia 3710 Fold
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 15th, 2009
Just finished the keynote speech and device showcase for day 1 of Nokia Connection. Below is the rundown (as far as I could catch up) of the event, in live blog format. The keynote highlights after the jump.
