So how was your Diablo III Open Beta Experience?

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 24th, 2012

Got to play Diablo III over the open beta weekend and it was a great experience. The game is worth the pre-order and it looks like boyfriends and husbands will be AWOL starting May 15th. Although I got a decent playthrough, I wasn’t able to finish the game with the Barbarian nor the Demon Hunter. I spent most of my time with the Monk, Witch Doctor and the Wizard and albeit 13 levels of play doesn’t give you the clearest picture of endgame builds, it’s still a great sneak peek. It’s on beta after all.

But this isn’t what this post is about.

**Raise your hand if you’re on Sky Broadband**

After moving into our new place at The Fort, we subscribed to a new Sky Broadband plan. I was very sold on Sky’s fixed line cable service in Paranaque and have been with them for years. Barely any problems and service was epic. It seems that my move to a different location coincided with a problem with their connection that’s being replicated by other users as well, as seen on Twitter.

The symptoms are as follows:

- if you have a download meter installed, it looks like there’s no problem as we’re getting spot on 150Kbps speeds for the price we pay for surfing. And it jumps to 250Kbps. Even more sometimes!

- BUT downloading huge files like email won’t work

- BUT downloading seeds doesn’t work (these are purely legitimate seeds because a lot of legitimate services make use of torrent technology)

- AND playing online games is abysmal; Diablo III barely loads and you won’t even see enemies. You can’t even open crates. Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer is unplayable.

Here’s the thing: I tethered my iPhone4s to my computer and everything runs really well on HSPA (Go SMART!). The photo above shows my lag on an iPhone. It’s just silly that we’ve come to the point that mobile data is actually more reliable than this wired connection. And that’s how I’ve been playing Mass Effect and Diablo III ever since. This is most probably a DNS issue for Sky. I tried doing a direct connect, eliminating the possibility of the wireless router being the problem, but it didn’t help. Port forwarding doesn’t do anything as well.

Just wondering — has anyone experienced similar problems with Sky Broadband and if you’ve fixed the issue (I really think it’s DNS!) What did you do? Been trying to talk to someone from @skyserves but talk isn’t happening.

@SkyServes, please fix this problem before May 15 2012. That’s when Diablo III launches worldwide. I will have to point out that in 2010, on the day Starcraft II launched, your service went black throughout the whole of Paranaque for a couple of hours and many gamers from the south couldn’t authenticate their copies. Sad panda.

Your service was great! Let’s keep it that way!

Diablo III Open Beta Weekend. Anyone can play!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 20th, 2012

What you need to know:

Blizzard is opening up Diablo III for open beta this weekend.

Anyone can download it and play all the characters up to Level 13.

Download it now.

That is all.

More details.

IKEA builds amazing home entertainment system: the UPPLEVA Smart TV line

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 18th, 2012

In Steve Job’s authorized biography, we read that he had finally nailed the future of television. Before he passed on to the next life, he had already laid groundwork for the development of some sort of home entertainment system. I’m reminded of that tidbit today, as IKEA unveils their new line of furniture: an all-in-one home entertainment system sans the ugly wiring.

The IKEA UPPLEVA (which means “Experiencing” in Swedish) is a mesh between furniture and electronics. Here are the specs:

Full HD 1080p SMART LED TV (supplier brand not mentioned but it’s most probably a Samsung!)
Blu-ray Player
2.1 Speaker System where the .1 subwoofer is wireless

For those unfamiliar, since the centerpiece is a SMART TV which means that it is fully upgradable as the years progress. You will be able to remove and replace the processor as well as other components, taking the lead with what Samsung is doing to their line of televisions which seems to be the industry baseline.

Available in 2013.

Road Test: PowerBag — A bag that charges your gadgets on the go!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 17th, 2012

Them: “Is everyone ready?”
Me: “Wait lang guys, I have to finish charging my bag!”

Spent a couple of days in Beijing, China and for the most part I was outdoors walking the length of the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, being un-forbidden in the Forbidden City and making our way to the Emperor’s Summer Palace. That was the perfect opportunity to road test the PowerBag, the latest geeky configuration of a backpack. It’s a charger and a backpack at the same time.

Removable battery

Wall socket

PowerBag charger and cables

There’s a whole line of bags + chargers available but this one in particular was co-designed by ful and comes in three colors. There’s nothing complex about the bag’s design: it’s water resistant and comes with two storage areas for (1) clothes and other personal effects and (2) your gadgets. Gadgets would include tablets, phones and laptops.

The front storage comes with a neoprene pouch that houses the lithium-ion battery. The battery itself is removable and comes in 3000mAh and 6000mAh variants. To get a sense of how much juice that’s worth, a 3000mAh battery can get about 15 hours of additional life on an iPhone 4s. From the battery pack, three sets of cords seam through the bag and go into the side pocket. These cords are for Apple, mini USB and micro USB (for Android and Blackberry). if you have bigger things to charge, like tablets, you can always pull the cord from the side pocket into the main storage so you can charge an iPad or a Galaxy Tab on the go.

To know how much juice the bag has left, the front comes with LED lights that indicate how much charge the battery pack has. Charging the bag is easy. It comes with a wall charger which you plug into a removable cap near the battery.

I brought the PowerBag everywhere we toured save for the Night Market because it was really near the hotel. If you aren’t a geek cowboy and don’t bring along an extension cord, the PowerBag can also serve as precisely that — an extension cord for charging.

The PowerBag will be available soon in the Philippines. First stores to have stocks will be Mobile 1 Rockwell and Ansons Emporium. Follow them on Facebook.

Pricing: PHP 6,990.00 – PHP 7,490.00

Highlights
Removable Battery
Water resistant
Comfortable for the long haul
Plenty compartments
Additional USB slot inside main storage for more devices

Highlights: Interview with Zeddie Little AKA Ridiculously Photogenic Guy

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 17th, 2012

Latest Internet meme sensation Ridiculously Photogenic Guy aka “Zeddie Little” (photogenicguy) is doing an IAmA on Reddit. For those unfamiliar with IAmA, it is abbreviation for “I am A” and is a cue to open the floodgates of the Internet to ask him anything. He’s currently the number one post on the front page. Here are some highlights.

Q: Are you prepared for the title “Sexiest Man Alive 2012″ by the People magazine? – endrehelg
A: Haha! I’m pretty sure I’m miles away from even being a contender, nor would I ever expect it.

Q: What is your hair-care regimen? – sirsasana
A: Oh man, I kinda saw this one coming, haha. Just shampoo, maybe conditioner, no particular brand or whatever. Its really thin so I just use wax/pomade from Keihl’s (product placement?). And once in a while go to a cool barber called Freeman’s.

Q: How do you view your famous picture? Normally most people doesn’t like their own photos, would you say ” yep. That’s definitely a ridicoulous good photo”. I’m really interested how you like your picture – justdgl_therealone
A: Regardless of who the subject is, Will King took a great photo. I’ve told Will, the photographer, that as well.

Q: What was your time for the marathon? – jr98664
A: The run was a 10K, I’ve yet to run a marathon, though. My chip time was 47:16 I believe.

Q: What’s your favorite meme of yourself? – greywarden
A: It got to a point where it felt weird looking at a billion pics of mysef, so I might have missed out on any recent ones within the past week or so.
There are a ton of great ones. Off the top of my head, I like the “Record Milk Sales” one, the creepy Wolverine one and definitely the RPG photoshopped into the North By Northwest airplane scene.

Q: What has been your friend’s/family’s reaction to all this? did you know of memes before you became an internet sensation? – powermad47
A: They love it. My dad was so proud he would have given away my complete biography, complete with SSN to a journalist until I had to ask him to dial it back a little bit, haha.
Yeah, I’ve always found memes funny, but never, ever though I’d BECOME one. Bizarre.

Q: How did you first react when you found out you picture went viral? How has it affected your life? – Polite_Canadian_Girl
A: I got a call from Redditor friends about 4 hours after the images was initially posted on the internet. They were saying I was number one on Reddit, and gave no explanation, so I assumed whatever it was was really bad, but I was racking my brain as to what it could have been.
When I finally saw the photo I laughed for about an hour. It was just surreal. It’s still surreal.

Full IAmA here.

Hands on with the Nokia Lumia 900 running Windows Phone 7.5

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 16th, 2012

Last week I asked Nokia if I could have a look at their drool-worthy Lumia 900. As a former Windows Phone user (I had not yet upgraded to the latest Mango 7.5), I was curious to know why the 900 series had won so many industry awards and, after finally getting to hold one in my hands I knew what all the praise was all about. In a nutshell, the Nokia Lumia 900 is the best Windows Phone to date. Not only is it top of its class, it readily competes with the top tier smartphones running Android and iOS in terms of speed and power.
(more…)

Hello I’m Jayvee: All Around Geek, Diver, Photographer — and I’m Joining SNUPS!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 12th, 2012

Hey guys, back to reality! This post is long delayed. Sorry about that. If you want more real time updates, I’m almost always online on Twitter (@jayvee) and Instagram (@jayveef).

Anyway, we’ve been working on a huge event — it’s basically Year II of SNUPS, the biggest underwater photo competition in the Philippines. Now, you don’t need to be a professional photographer to join. There are categories suited for beginners as long as you can bring a camera down 2 feet with tupperware (you’ll be amazed with the things you can find — after all it’s the Philippines!).

In this case, we took the iPhone 4s down. Have a look at the video and share it with friends who may be interested! =)

Dates:

Cebu
April 20-24 2012

Anilao
May 4-8 2012

Holy Week Hiatus: Beijing

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 4th, 2012

It’s that time of the year where most Filipinos pull themselves away from the computer and run to the beach. In our case, it’s Beijing! Here are some photos of the Great Wall, The Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the lake surrounded by Beijing’s night life and alleyways.

On a related note, the Android version of Instagram was released early this morning. If you’re on Android, download it now!

Photos taken with Instagram for iOS. Follow me at @jayveef (not to be confused with my Twitter account which is @jayvee.

P.S. Got to experience first-hand the Great Firewall of China. Most blog services are banned (self-hosted WordPress is safe), Twitter + Facebook are blocked as well. If I wanted to post to Twitter or FB, I’d have to use apps like Instagram, Foursquare or Path as these are unblocked. Our local tour guide told us that she really doesn’t feel the need to use these anyway as none of her friends are in it. To her, the mobile phone is more important and China has gone a long way since.

Gorgeous Guimaras: An underwater exploration

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 28th, 2012

Gorgeous Guimaras from Robert Suntay on Vimeo.

NUDI was invited by the Department of Tourism and the governor of Guimaras to do an exploratory dive and see what the islands have to offer. This is an enthralling video by Robert Suntay showcasing the relaxing waters of Guimaras.

Can’t wait! Nightfall for iOS Coming Soon

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 27th, 2012

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I love the Android mobile platform but when it comes to this little niche of board game / card game titles, iOS is always first to market. If you’re a board game geek, you’ll be pleased to know that Nightfall is coming to the App Store very soon. I previously did a short overview and unboxing of the Nightfall: Martial Law a standalone expansion on GeekOut and if you read closely, the physical card game, albeit fun can bring about a huge impediment with the setup process as there are over 300 cards to organize. Bringing the game to iOS removes this hassle!

Added bonus: Check out this interview with Playdek and AEG.

Be the first in line for Instagram for Android

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 26th, 2012

Finally, after months of waiting Android users will ***soon*** be able to become part of the Instagram community. For the longest time, iOS users enjoyed the exclusivity of the most popular photo sharing app for the smartphone. Perhaps the reason why Instagram took this long, I surmise, has to do with the fact that there are just so many different types of camera hardware on Android, making it harder to scale as compared to iOS where you only have to develop for the iPad and iPhone. But then again, that didn’t stop other app developers to create their own Instagam-like apps for Android.

Anyway, be first in line. Sign up here.