Underwater with an INON Strobe
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at November 30th, 2009
Months ago I brought a Sony Cybershot W230 underwater with its appropriate casing. This weekend, I was able to borrow an INON strobe light courtesy of Jan. Since the Achilles’ heel of Sony cameras is the inability to customize your white balance underwater (it only has 3 presets), shooting with a strobe really changes the game.
Read on below for sample photos.
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Chinatown and Quiapo with a Samsung Pixon M8910
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at November 28th, 2009
Carlos Celdran (@carlosceldran) gave us a walking tour of Chinatown and Quiapo. These shots were taken with a Pixon M8910, Samsung’s latest 12MP cameraphone. From the photos above, all I have to say is that the vignette / rustic modes are the best ever. ‘Nuff said.
Nokia DiscOVIries Last Week’s Winner: Lowell Aguirre
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at November 25th, 2009It’s been a good run, and we’re down to our final winner for Nokia’s DiscOVIries photo competition. For this last contest, the winner is no other than Lowell Aguirre for his most creative wireless hotspot location — the Rotary Centennial Park of Kandaya.
I’d like to thank everyone for joining the series of contests that we’ve been running since October! There’s one more prize up for grabs and that’s going to be between the previous winners of the competition, which will be decided upon randomly through the Randomizer app. I’ll have this up soon!
Again, thank you for participating!
How many endangered species can you find in Tord Boontje’s HP Mini?
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at November 21st, 2009
HP is really hyping it all up with designer mini notebooks. After the Vivienne Tam release, HP goes all designer environment friendly by conscripting the help of Studio Tord Boontje to engrave the likeness of endangered animals on the latest “eco friendly” mini notebook. It’s a really a point of reference so that if we see any of these cross the road while we’re behind the wheel, make sure to stop.
Essentially, the special edition mini notebook also comes with a nice carrying case and PVC-free wireless mouse.
That’s Miriam Quiambao walking down the ramp with a beautiful mini notebook. I must admit, it does look good. The HP Mini by Studio Tord Boontje is priced at P27,990. Only 1,000 units are available in the Philippines.
Buy now, and the environment will be saved!
Hands on with the Nokia N97 mini (PHP 28,900.00)
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at November 21st, 2009
UPDATE: On third day use, I kept the charger plugged in for most of the day. Odd, but battery life improved. It’s been 9 hours and I’m still on full bar. It is apparent therefore that the drain really comes in when you start doing wireless Internet and other such functions apart from calls and text. I checked other websites and they confirm the same thing as well — battery life is significantly less, but if all you do is SMS and call, you’ll get by on a single charge.
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I was able to borrow a Nokia N97 mini for the weekend. I’ve been using it for two and a half days. Despite being a new release, the phone suffers from two things which I think is integral to day to day use — weak battery life and a noticeably weaker signal similar to the E71.
Read on for the full hands on.
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Everytime Manny Pacquiao hurts someone, Nike releases a Trainer 1 Shoe
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at November 20th, 2009
Manny Pacquiao whips Cotto = Nike releases a shoe. They’re launching this today at several Nike Park stores in Glorietta, TriNoMa, and The Fort. The shoes are in the colors of the Philippine flag — red, blue and white.
The Nike Trainer 1 Low retails at PHP 5,995. Go, succumb to the fever of consumerism and buy these shoes. Manny Pacquiao orders you!
Jinkee should have her own shoe line. In Janilyn.
Nokia DiscOVIries: Last Week’s Winner for “Cheese”
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at November 18th, 2009
Last week I announced a special guest judge. Presenting Gabe Mercado!
Here is Gabe’s choice for winning entry. Congratulations to Dianne Pena!
Speaking of cheese, Gabe organizes Sing-A-Longkot at mag:net Bonifacio High Street: sappy songs which we secretly love. That, and S.P.I.T. Check them out on Facebook.
Dragon Age: Origins Screenshots on an NVIDIA GT230M
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at November 17th, 2009
I’m totally immersed in Bioware’s latest storytelling masterpiece, Dragon Age: Origins. Here are breathtaking screenshots taken at highest settings from the Sony VAIO CW’s video card at 8x anti-aliasing. The game still runs smoothly.
If you have 500 hours to burn, get this now. It’s cheaper if you buy the box from Datablitz, at only P1,300.00. It’s more expensive on Steam.
Nokia DiscOVIries: The Final Contest
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at November 17th, 2009It’s been a great run dear readers. As I end the Nokia DiscOVIries promotion with this week’s contest I’d like to thank everyone for biding the time to sign up for your OVI accounts. The winner of the previous contest will be announced very soon, as I made a special request from a friend to act as the guest judge. 
Stay tuned!
As with all promos, I know that not everyone will be diligently using OVI in their day to day lives — but if you do, then that’s great. A tip: I especially find the service for videos useful if you want a sure-fire way to keep your background music inside your home made videos. YouTube and Facebook have been clamping down on copyrighted music lately, and thus far OVI seems to be more friendly with this.
Also, if you own a S60 based phone (all Nokia phones and some LG and Samsung units) you should definitely try syncing your address book online with the OVI contact list tool (click on the Address Book icon on the nav bar) so that if you misplace your phone, your contacts can easily be rebuilt by a simple sync.
On to the contest. We’re playing for a PHP 2,000.00 Ayala eGift Certificate and a chance to win a Nokia phone.
When I started tech blogging, I covered mostly “technology that you could bring with you” because of a conditioning with a magazine I wrote for back in the day. There’s a sample cover below. Since then, portable technology has been my first love as we would cover more than just the gadgets, but the lifestyle behind portability. So we also did restaurant reviews — especially those with WiFi hotspots, which in 2005 was still quite rare.
On the cover were the two Coca Cola girls who garnered instant fame because of their TV ad.
For this week’s contest, I’d like you to upload a photo(s) of the restaurants, bars and other hang out places you frequent when you need to work. It can be idle time in your favorite coffee shop while surfing the web, or a quick plugin to the Internet to email that one important document. It matters not really. I just want to know where my readers hang out. Remember to include a short description of the place(s) you frequent, why you enjoy hanging out there, and also please do not forget to include your OVI email.
Again, I’m going to have a special guest judge for this contest, and you can submit entries till 11:59PM of November 22, 2009. The mechanics for the DiscOVIries promotion can be read here.
How UNO Magazine helps us be patient for James Jean’s trip
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at November 16th, 2009
This is a little online partnership I worked with Fully Booked and my “day job” with UNO as online editor. We’re giving away three works of James Jean.
James Jean.
Who the hell is James jean??!
Thanks to my fellow editor Luis Katigbak, we found this little paragraph that best describes him:
“Like Wolverine, James Jean is the best at what he does. Unlike Wolverine, James Jean doesn’t kill people with razors that pop out of his hand. You might not know James Jean by name but you’ve seen his work. His art’s all over the place. It’s in galleries, on Prada bags, album covers, in magazines and on the covers of DC comics. Tom Herpich and Kenichi Hoshine are simlarly talented and definitely blow minds with their intense talent and vision but James Jean is the king. James’ drawings have sophistication, power and delicacy beyond what most drawers can muster.”
– Nick Gazin, VICELAND
His art is all over the place, the ubiquity is overwhelming. So there’s a book signing and a “meet and greet” but we have something to help bide the wait. We’re raffling off some of his works. To join, click here.
The following prizes are up for grabs, courtesy of Fully Booked:
One (1) copy of Process Recess volume 3
One (1) copy of Fables Volume 1 Deluxe Edition
One (1) copy of XOXO Postcard BookContest runs from November 4 – November 18. Deadline for entries is November 18, 11:59 PM. Editors of UNO will submit a shortlist of contestants to Fully Booked. Fully Booked will then determine the 3 lucky winners.
Winners will be announced on November 20.
Prizes can be claimed at Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street. Prizes not claimed after 30 days will be forfeited in favor of Fully Booked.
You need to leave the comments on the UNO blog. Three more days guys! We have more than 50 entries so far, so good luck!
How to fix the Uploader Java Applet for Facebook on Firefox for Mac
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at November 15th, 2009
On Firefox for Macintosh, and maybe even on PC’s, Facebook photo uploading can be a small discomfort when you try to select photos for uploading. The screen shot above shows you why: for some weird reason the Java uploader gets screwed up, loading only 90% of the uploader applet. Thus, you can barely make out the “Upload” button which goes right beside the select all and deselect all button. You can’t click on it. To remedy this, all you need to do is click on the “select all” (or “deselect all”) button and press Tab. Your cursor will automatically move to the Upload button and press the spacebar (not enter!) to accept changes.
Or, just download Opera or use Safari.
