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Mostly Everything

SMART WiFi Plug-it: Plugged in at home and inside your car

OK folks, commercial time!

Of all of SMART’s ‘Bro’ line products which includes the ‘Rocket’ and ‘Pocket’ series (the main difference being the ‘Rocket’ line is capable of 12 mbps speeds) none is more peculiar than the Pocket WiFi product. This is because it comes in two variants — the regular USB plug which slides into your computer (or any USB power source) and the rather niche car adaptor version, which, well slides into your cigarette lighter.

Since you can plug this into any USB power source, after configuring it on your computer, you can use those USB-to-plug adapters which they usually bundle with Android phones to power up the dongle and have up to 5 different devices connected simultaneously. I was actually thinking about why a person would want to use one of these devices instead of having data turned on from your phone and lo and behold I can think of one example. If you’re running an iOS device (iPhone and iPad) Apple halts App Store downloads and updates if the file exceeds a certain size (usually Retina versions). That would mean you would have to “trick” iOS by connecting to a WiFi device instead of using 3G/HSPA+. So that’s that.

Tech Specs:

One-time fee: P3,495
Usage fee: Pay per use. P10 for every 30 mins. Or avail of any usage package (Unlisurf, Per Minute, Prepaid Lifestyle).
Freebies: Preloaded with 240 internet hours and 400 SMS to Smart and Sun Subscribers (valid for 10 days)
Connection: via USB, via WiFi
Speed: Up to 7.2 Mbps
Lock-in Period: None (this is the best feature!)
Application requirements: None
System requirements: Any WiFi enabled device with WLAN 802.11 b/g/n standard and internet browser

Categories
Mostly Everything

Admiration for the Amazon Kindle

I have never been this enamored with product packaging since the MacBook, but people do tell me that Amazon really does amazing things with their Kindle hardware line. I’ve never owned one before, till now. This was given to me as a token for speaking in the recent PRSP Congress (everyone agrees that this 2012 PR Congress was something else!). Before the Kindle, I had a Sony eReader and I have to admit although these two ebook readers do the same thing, there’s something about the Kindle that just makes books more appealing to read. No more used textbooks that pile up in the library.

Categories
Mostly Everything

NBA 2K13 is out: make sure you buy the PH version as in-game items are region locked

XPLAY.PH sells NBA2K13 at the following prices:
PS3 PHP 2,595
XBOX 360 PHP 2,495
PC PHP 1,995
PSP PHP 1,895

Just a friendly PSA from the good guys of NBA 2K13 — with the game being released this week in the Philippines for all platforms, it needs to be noted that if you’re going to be playing this on the PC, XBOX 360 or Playstation 3, you absolutely should get your copy from a local vendor as the in-game items are region-locked.

I’m not a huge sports gamer on the console and PC (my brother is) but I can understand the huge frustration when you bring home a disk from another region expecting to be able to access the online features and DLC’s — and you can’t because they’re blocked from South East Asia.

So, do yourself a favor and buy original from a local vendor. If you’re planning on ordering this from Steam (like its predecessors), it isn’t available.

On another note, if you’re willing to spend a bit more for freebies, check out the Dynasty Edition which gives you the following additional items:

NBA2K13_DynastyEdition_SellSheet

Full sized basketball from Spalding and Art of Basketball
2K Sports Ink’d Earbuds from Skullcandy
2K13 DLC: All-Star add-on content package sponsored by Sprite
2K13 controller skin from Sklnlt for XBOX 360 or PS3

Categories
Mostly Everything

Rico and I attempt to destroy an “anti-theft” bag

When Denise contacted us and asked if we wanted to review a bag, we obviously had to ask what made this particular bag special. Like its competitor Pacsafe, these bags from Travelon are equipped with some anti-theft countermeasures that Rico and I decided to test.

I actually wrote about these bags back in June but only got to do a real hands on now. We asked if we could do ANYTHING it and she agreed.

So we introduced it to the sharp end of my dive knife.

Enjoy! =) If you like the video, do let us know what else we should review!

(P.S. Travelon is not an advertiser on this site. The idea to break the bag came from me)

TRAVELON ANTI THEFT

Categories
Mostly Everything

Nokia Philippines announces Asha 309, will sell for around PHP 4,400.00

With all this talk about high end smartphones, Nokia is plowing the entry-level mass market with its Internet-enabled affordable feature phones. Today, Nokia seems to be focusing on this market by churning out touch-screen feature phones that go below the PHP 4,100.00 (USD $99.00) mark. The Nokia Asha 309 is evidence to this.

The Nokia Asha 309 is primarily a WiFi phone (for mobile data it comes with 2G browsing only which in this day and age is obsolete) that comes with 32GB microSD card support. It comes with smartphone-like features such as the 3.0″ touch screen, multiple home screens similar to Android and yes — RADIO. It comes with a Twitter and Facebook client as well as a dedicated YouTube client. This is for the netizen who wants the bare essentials on a feature phone.

On another note, it has to be said that Nokia also updated their Nokia Xpress Browser which is now a lot faster and allegedly at par with the smartphone browsing experience. Also, Nokia seems to have a long term partnership with EA as their phones are stocked with mobile games. In this case, 40 of them.