Kevin Durant is new endorser for SMART Mobile Broadband
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 31st, 2011
This is an announcement I’ve been dying to make (and help break) today but yes folks, NBA 2010-2011 scoring champion Kevin Durant is SMART’s newest endorser for mobile broadband. It seems like a lot more was happening behind the scenes during the recent NBA-PBA exhibition game sponsored by SMART. The move to get Kevin Durant as SMART’s new endorser enforces SMART”s commitment to further push its mobile networks to HSPA+ and in the near future, LTE.
If you wish to know more, you can check out the newspapers today for the ad and full press release =)
Disclosure: I’m a consultant for SMART Communications.
A Tribute to Fabio
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 31st, 2011It really seemed like the contest was rigged for Old Spice Guy to pull a fast one over Fabio. Be that as it may, I congratulate Fabio for his amazing sportsmanship in the ‘Mano a Mano en El Bano’ contest. This post is a tribute to Fabio and in fact I was able to pull out an old video which I recorded together with Kate Alvarez back in 2007. The old video host was junked and I do realize that 3 years is a long time for digital and now we have everything on YouTube and Vimeo (funny too since I did mention Megavideo’s claim to fame to be “better than YouTube” — where are they now? HA!). So I have re-uploaded the video for all to see.
In this video Kate and I dissect the Italian male model as a template to romance novel covers. Enjoy me from 2007!
SMART Communications launches Volume Based Data Plans and Starter Dongle
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 23rd, 2011
EDIT: To check balance for ALWAYS ON Promo, send GOLD BAL for SMART Gold and BAL for Prepaid. Send to 2200.
SMART has been releasing new Internet surfing packages. If you own a smartphone that hooks up to data, there’s a brand new package that’s been made more affordable for mobile phone browsing. I used to pay an additional PHP 1200 a month for mobile Internet — that’s unlimited Internet use for 30 days on my Samsung Galaxy S II. That obviously burns a hole in my wallet — it’s not just me echoing this sentiment, but many other mobile warriors who need to be always online yet want to only be charged based on the volume of data then use.
Instead of time-based usage, SMART has launched new volume based usage plans that are extraordinarily affordable.
If all you’re doing is Twitter, Facebook, checking in to Foursquare and chatting with friends via Yahoo Messenger and Kik Messenger via your phone, you only need 250 MB – 500 MB of bandwidth per month. It gets higher if you start tethering (remember, running app versions of your favorite services on a smartphone decreases bandwidth usage). What’s even cooler is that the system sends out a warning if you’re at 80% capacity of bandwidth allocation, allowing you to re-subscribe. To check your balance, send BAL to 2200 for prepaid and GOLD BAL to 2200 for postpaid.
Again, this is SO MUCH CHEAPER than subscribing to PHP 15 / 30 minutes and PHP 50 / day of Internet.
What if I want to use a USB dongle for my computer?
Before, we were tied down to fixed monthly fees and a LOCK IN PERIOD which everybody hated. So what SMART did was to remove the fixed monthly fees and lock in period allowing you to use the dongle to whatever plan you desired — whether you go for the time-based usage, PHP 15/30 minutes usage or yes .. this new volume-based consumable usage (Unlisurf, Per Minute, Volume, Prepaid Lifestyle). You can leave the country, come back, and not worry about wasting a month’s worth of data fees. It’s really customizable. Remember, the USB stick is only half the magic. It’s the fact that you can customize your usage and bills.
The Starter Dongle costs only PHP 995.00 with free one hour of surfing. But again, I do have to stress that there are no strings attached to the USB dongle. You can subscribe to different plans via the Web Connect application.
My unlimited data plan expires on the 29th. I’m looking forward to cutting my bill with these new plans (and also really get to see how much data I’m consuming from Tweets, Facebook and the occasional app download.)
Disclosure: I’m a consultant for SMART Communications.
The Biggest Underwater Photo Exhibit in the Philippines
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 22nd, 2011I’ve been up since last night helping install the biggest underwater photo exhibit in the country thus far. Tomorrow, we’re flying in some of the best underwater photographers in the world — the likes of Michael Aw and Lynn Funkhouser who have both shot for the BBC and National Geographic — to judge the first country-wide underwater photo contest. Hundreds of photos from amateurs and enthusiasts are tremendously mind blowing!
In the morning, there will be seminars on underwater photography by Michael Aw, Steve de Neef, Lynn Funkhouser, and Hideki Iwama. Full schedule here. The awarding will commence at night and the exhibit will be open to all for the entire weekend.
Spot the celebs!
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 21st, 2011
SMART x HTC from Styles Entertainment Group on Vimeo.
Summary of the SMART + HTC Partnership party and the launch of the HTC ChaCha Facebook phone. This event trended on Twitter worldwide.
Installing OS X Lion
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 21st, 2011
Just installed. Done with a 375 KB/s connection. Let’s go!
RIM BlackBerry Playbook Video Review (25 minutes)
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 19th, 2011UPDATE:
Official BlackBerry Playbook PH pricing:
16GB at P23,990
32GB at P28,990
64GB at P33,990
The Playbook will be available August 6 2011 via retail and telcos.
I host a weekly tech show called ‘The Geeks’ every Wednesday from 2-4PM, live over the Internet. We archive copies for future viewing. If you’re interested, catch us at this url: http://www.flippish.com/vjlive at that time.
In this segment I show my co-host Sheena Dian the BlackBerry Playbook. We spend a half hour talking about this outlier tablet. If you want to see more photos and commentary, I featured the Playbook back in its infancy at Mobile World Congress ’11 with Andi Manzano.
Pros
Best form factor among the 7 inch tablets
Comes with neoprene case
Amazing multitask functions
Imaginative touch sensitive frame
Cons
Very limited number of apps
Noticeable UI lag (which we have to bring up given the new standards of dual core Android tablets)
We have to wait for Android Marketplace support
Very hard to do PIM and email if you don’t own a BlackBerry
No 3G version (rely on a BlackBerry phone to tether unless you connect via mobile WiFi hotspot)
Although not available here yet, the rumored price is at PHP 30,xxx.xx
Verdict
The BlackBerry Playbook has always seemed like a work in progress to me. If you track the progress of this tablet for the past 12 months you will see how RIM has brought it to life by supporting Android apps. That’s the whole irony — the Playbook (will) support Android apps but PIM only works well if you own a BlackBerry smartphone.
I honestly cannot give a real verdict. We will have to wait for the time when the Playbook truly supports Android apps. If you already own a BlackBerry smartphone, the Playbook makes sense … but so does an iPad or Android tablet. There’s the rub.
One comment to note from my high school barkada who now lives in Canada:
Since RIM is a Canadian company, the Playbook has been all over the place here in Vancouver. And yet, it is not doing so well. At all.
I’ve gotten some serious hands on time with the thing and spoken with a few Blackberry reps, Blackberry App developers, as well as some local tech bloggers, and it looks like Blackberry keeps making promises it can’t keep. They told us that the Android support and the native email client would come in June. Well, June came and went and it’s not here.
App development for the thing is apparently pretty difficult, definitely not as easy as developing for the iPad and Android OS, so Apps have been very slow to the marketplace.
For the apps that are there, most of them work fine, but there are random performance issues that keep cropping up with the Playbook… apps will hang for no reason, crash for no reason, and even sometimes refuse to load. Even Blackberry’s own browser is one of the most unreliable when it comes to performance.
It’s sad because the hardware sure looks pretty and it does promise great things. But for now, promise is all it has, it seems. There are rumblings around the country that RIM is dying fast, and the Playbook is one of the big reasons for that.
SCUBA Test: Samsung PL120 and SH100 WiFi Camera with Seashell Housing
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 18th, 2011
Above: Jan in his complete pro UW setup
The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands. The irony is that a lot of the action happens in the city Manila. In its odd state, you would think that for a country that is surrounded by water, we would have at our disposal a stable of underwater cameras or housings with underwater cases for sale in most gadget stores. Sadly this is not the (underwater) case. **Pun Intended**
If you take a look at the UW housing landscape in the Philippines, save for a dedicated store that deals with UW housings, it is quite rare to find manufacturers outfitting underwater cases for cameras. The reason isn’t so much as lack of demand, but warranty. It is very hard to put a warranty tag on a decent acrylic housing that can be submersed at depths of 100+ ft. Not that it would flood. But the risks may be bad for business.
Nonetheless, bringing down a camera to the underwater depths has its rewards. I for one have been diving for more than 2 years, shooting amateur UW video for a little more than a year, and indulging myself in underwater photography for a little over six months.
(more…)
Our Samsung Corby II Winner is…
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 8th, 2011Hi all, apologies for this rather late announcement. Been out and about. In any case, congratulations to Ceejay Aranilla for winning the Samsung Corby II phone in my contest last week! You will receive an email from Samsung’s PR agency.
The contest had a whopping 2,700++ entries!
The #SMARTHTC Event was trending worldwide on Twitter
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 8th, 2011
I can’t remember — was it 8 glasses of Grey Goose on Sprite? Basta. As far as I can remember everything was a blur. SMART and HTC were giving out ChaCha and Sensation smartphones like there was a huge surplus and the event was trending worldwide on Twitter for a couple of hours.
That event was epic. SMART announced their exclusive partnership with HTC for carrying all their smart phones. It’s part of their positioning as the Android brand in the Philippines.
Disclosure: I’m a consultant for SMART Communications.
‘Sharkwater’ is the best shark documentary I’ve seen. Spare an hour and a half to watch it here.
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 8th, 2011Stunning underwater video from a guy who loves the oceans. And sharks. ’Sharkwater’ is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen that talks about why sharks are not the predators we’re made to believe. The fear of sharks is one of the most successful media hypes that has gone viral in the past 50 years because of military training videos, the media and Hollywood.
