Geeky things you can buy for P50.00

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 13th, 2012

When Apple revamped the music industry with single track purchases for less than P50.00 per track, that changed the way people sold applications and in-app purchases. It’s essentially the “tingi” method turned into a digital business. Now there’s a huge product launch tomorrow but all we can say is that it has something to do with the power of P50.00.

In the digital age, there are surprisingly a lot of things you can buy with fifty pesos. Here are some examples:

2,500 Coins in Temple Run

A definite chart topper on iOS devices, I still have no idea how people can score over 3,000,000 points in a single run. But I do know this — if you’re really frustrated and want to earn those coins without any effort, you can always drop $0.99 for 2,500 coins to help you buy upgrades for your brave explorer.

“GRAND UPPERCUT!!”

Streets of Rage 2

Streets of Rage 2 has my childhood written all over it. It’s become one of the defining games of its genre, released way back in the 90′s for the SEGA Genesis. And guess what? It’s here for iOS for less than fifty pesos. That’s totally awesome. I’m reliving an epic two-player side scrolling beat ‘em up experience with Axel, Blaze, Skate and Max as they take on Shiva and Mr. X. Streets of Rage 2 is a complete port to iOS. It even includes multiplayer support via wireless connectivity.

Two Games of Half Life 2: Survivor

I now have a new reason to head over to Resorts World and it has nothing to do with the casino. The new “Gamezoo” arcade is a two-storey haven for a lot of coin-op arcade machines that are practically hard to find. Case in point: Half Life 2: Survivor. This arcade series was never released in the USA and quite frankly I’m baffled as to how Gamezoo even knew that this game existed. It’s out and it’s in Resort’s World. A single game costs P20.00. Half Life 2: Survivor is a marriage between Team Fortress 2 and the Half Life franchise allowing up to 8 players to battle simultaneously in a single arena.

———–

These are just three cheap (and geeky) thrills you can get with PHP 50.00. What about you? What are your most favorite apps that retail for less than a dollar?

Ticket to Ride (Pocket) is FREE today. Get it, quick!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 9th, 2012

If you’re a big fan of board games and own an iOS device, I highly suggest you download Ticket to Ride Pocket (that’s the iPhone version) because it’s free. Ticket to Ride is one of the best selling board games in recent history and the port to the iOS is just plain amazing. You know it’s a good game when you consistently see 5-star ratings in the comments section.

If you’re not into board games, I still suggest you pick it up because it’s not at all pretentious and rather easy to pick up for the family.

Ticket to Ride [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Bump up your Dropbox space to 5GB for free

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 6th, 2012

Despite being hooked to the iCloud environment (we have a 4s and an iPad 2), I’m still a believer in Dropbox. Whereas I was forced to use iCloud, I chose to still sign up for a Dropbox account because it really makes document sharing more efficient while being platform-agnostic. The only problem with it is outside the 3GB of free space on my account (acquired from referrals) you need to pay for space, which is quite understandable given their “freemium” business model. So when I found out that they were bumping up their free space to up to 5GB if you participated in a beta program, I immediately got started.

Dropbox recently launched a new photo sync service that copies files directly from your digital camera to the cloud. For every 500MB of space you upload, they give you 500MB of cloud space. That would mean if you’re gunning for 2GB of space to reach 5GB, you will need to upload 2GB worth of photos or video from your camera. Note that merely transferring photos from your HD will not work. You will need to plug in your camera and Dropbox will automatically detect it and prompt you to start transferring. It doesn’t work with a plugged in iPhone.

DOWNLOAD THE DROPBOX DESKTOP BETA HERE. It is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux x86_64 / Linux x86.

If you own an Android device, you will also be able to upload photos wirelessly and this counts as well.

Fine Dining: A Short Film by Lance Katigbak

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 4th, 2012

“I wanted to be able to show that poverty doesn’t have to be a hindrance to be able to do loving acts. Even if you are materially poor, if you have the dedication and if you refuse to lose your human dignity, it’s still possible for you to help others, (…)”

- Lance Katigbak

Lance is a fellow Southridge alumnus. Found out we were both EIC’s of our school paper. Go Lance!

The DOT linked back to my ‘It’s More Fun’ Tutorial!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at January 31st, 2012

Got home to a big surprise! The Department of Tourism has linked my “It’s More Fun” meme tutorial onto their front page under Fun Stuff! I’m really happy that the blog has been recognized in this way.

The site also links back to other amazing works from fellow netizens as well as official “It’s More Fun” wallpapers, social network avatars, and animated logos. Great work!
—-

Last week I got a glimpse of the new DOT tourism video while at an IMMAP function. Sec. Mon Jimenez was the guest of honor and showed us the 90% completed ‘It’s More Fun’ PH tourism video. All I have to say is that it’s really amazing and something we can be very proud of. The video managed to portray an accurate as well as positive image of our country’s diversity in people and natural resources. It’s so good, people were too engaged to even snap it with their cameras.

It’s definitely more fun in the Philippines! Thanks for the heads up, Corey!=)

Pinspire vs Pinterest

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at January 30th, 2012

So Pinterest came first. Pinspire followed next, albeit rather quickly. Pinterest needs no introduction. But if it did, I’d say: If Path is the hot new social network of 2012, Pinterest is “new Tumblr of 2012.” Developed by the Samwer Brothers of Rocket Internet, Pinsire is a fascinating copy of the former.

So what gives? Rocket Internet’s strategy is to take concepts on beta and replicate them into their huge global network. The end result is well, something close to the original but scaled for regions that it otherwise would not be able to reach. End of the day, we can go on and on about copying a site and its features (in this case, copying most of it) but you will notice that the communities are both very different.

In any case, no harm in trying out both. We have a small offer for you though — and it’s for Pinspire, because they wanted some ad space on this little blog. If you want to win some great Apple products, courtesy of these guys, just follow these steps:

STEP 1
Sign up on Pinspire using this link and add some original pins.

STEP 2
Put the pin link in the comments section. Like this:
http://www.pinspire.com/board/show/267972 < — That’s my underwater album.

STEP 3
Promote it like crazy!
The most popular board wins an 8GB iPod Touch.
The top succeeding 10 boards win a 2GB iPod Shuffle each.

The popularity will be aggregately determined by the number of board followers, likes and comments. The winners will be announced on February 29, 2012. Deadline of entries is on midnight of February 25, 2012

N.B. Pinspire is an advertiser on this blog.

Google’s New SEO Algorithm: ‘Social Engine Optimization’

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at January 25th, 2012

EDIT: I was listening to an episode of TWiT three days ago and the end result of the controversy is exactly what I outline in the latter part of this post.

As of last week, most of your SEO tactics are rendered obsolescent. Somewhat.

Last year, Google’s top level mandate was “to go social.” And that reflected havily on Google employees with regards to performance so much so that company bonuses were to be directly associated with how Google performed in “social.” So last week, in the week of CES 2012, Google unveiled (secretly) its full blown foray into the new search algorithm making use of your social profile, starting with Google+. Google+ isn’t just a social network then. It does so much more:

- it helps Google see whether the content you post is actually yours and not scraped from somewhere else. How does it know which sites are yours? Well, your G+ profile under “About Me.” See the image on top? It says I contribute to A Bugged Life, NUDI (our SCUBA site), and Geekout (I write there once in a while). I’m not sure if this can be gamed — like I can ask 100 friends to say that they write on my blog to increase SERP, but then again this new tailored search feature will show different results depending on the account you hold. In other words, if you ask an SEO guy to work on your site and he gives you a screenshot of your blog on the first page of Google, that may be true for his or her account, but you may see something completely different. That’s how powerful the implications are for this new method. So be aware.

- it looks at other popular social sites (in this case Twitter and Flickr) and sees whether you own accounts currently signed in to. It links several popular social networks to G+ including Flickr, Twitter, Quora, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo!, and more. I hope it starts linking Tumblr and Pinterest soon. This makes me wonder whether sites like Path and Instagram should have official web versions for showing content (apart from Followgram) so they can get linked and indexed.

- Your “SEO” is only as good as how engaging you are with your content. There you have it — that is still the core ideal of “relevant content” but this time tied to your friends and what they share as well. If you +1 something, it means that you’re going to want more of that in your search results. In the same way, if you spam a friend, he or she can easily un-friend you and that’s it — bye bye social graph. Talk about tailored search.

- This new algorithm allows you to flourish in your preferred social space (as long as you have a Google+ profile HAHA!) whether it be a blog, Twitter, Quora, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. In other words, “blogging” is not the foundation of Web 2.0 (or whatever it’s called nowadays).

In short, for those of you saying that Google+ is useless and boring compared to Facebook, think again. Your site’s SEO will be determined by how much time you’ve invested in G+, the type of friends that you have, and what they share. Welcome to the new search. Now stop selling links.

Here you go –> CONNECT YOUR ACCOUNTS NOW.

That is how I understand it. I’d love to see how social search unfolds in the next few weeks and months. Comments, reactions most welcome.

Student makes 3D version of Arkham Horror. Help her beta test it!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at January 25th, 2012

Imagine that, to complete your Bachelor’s degree you design a 3D version of one of the best board games ever made: Arkham Horror.

I’ve been so wanting to get into it, but the sheer number of expansions, time to invest coupled with finding people to actually play with hinders me from this awesome experience. If you ever drop by Hobbes & Landes or Neutral Grounds, you’ll see rows and rows of Arkham Horror core sets and expansions. I really did want it but chickened out for reasons mentioned above and instead got Betrayal at House on a Hill which doesn’t live up to par, but at least doesn’t have a steep learning curve.

Well, anyway.

I emailed this amazing lady (her name is Andi) to ask if I can participate as a beta test and she sent me the game! in exchange for feedback. The game is about 80% polished (as the YouTube vid states) and I’m just so amazed at what she was able to do.

For those asking, this isn’t an official port of the game by Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). It’s by a student. She plans to present this project to them and get an official endorsement. If you’re wondering whether this holds as copyright infringement, well .. it doesn’t. Because this is a school project, it falls under Fair Use Policy in Europe. Wow. Just wow.

If you love Arkham Horror but hate the setup process, I suggest you send her an email. She’s accepting beta testers till the 5th of February 2012.

This is the reason why we should demand more from Hollywood

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at January 24th, 2012

‘Archetype’ is a labor of love directed by Aaron Sim. It was created with a budget of USD $0.00. Maybe he’s exaggerating, but what this technology revolution did for social media, it’s doing its magic to the film industry.

No wonder there is a lot of worry in Hollywood. And I’m not referring to the actual cost to produce things nowadays. It’s merely the fact that Hollywood — and other big businesses have been built under a pretense of an enduring industrial age.

They never saw this revolution coming. And it’s the same reason why we should demand more from Hollywood. Because they need to change too.

Take your iPhone 4s underwater (up to 300 meters!!!) with Patima

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at January 19th, 2012

As a guys who likes to take photos underwater, I tend to keep my choice of camera brands within the confines of the “1-Way Test” … which simply begs the question “Can I take it underwater?” So I’m more inclined to invest in photography equipment which you can wet. The geeky appeal of it all is trying to figure out how to keep electronics from staying dry at 100 ft below the surface and the concept is challenging. Well, we did it for an iPod, so what’s stopping us from taking the iPhone down?!

So when I got an iPhone 4s from SMART, I really had no intention to take it down. Well, I knew it could be technically done with a special consumer-rated case from Lifeproof (Howard did a review on it on Technoodling recently) and Gabe Mercado did give me a demonstration at 5ft deep in salt water.

But the question is, can you take the iPhone 4s down to recreational SCUBA depths of 60-120ft? Well, Patima’s new casing exclusively for the iPhone 4s allows you to do so. Not just into recreational depths … but up to 300 meters folks.

Exclusive for camera or video functions of the iPhone 4S
- Rated to 300meters, anti-moisture and anti-dust purposes
- Simple operation with 4 buttons
- Compact Size and light weight
- Material – CNC milled Aluminium Acetal, Stainless Steel
- Finishing – Anodized after Barrel, Sanding and coating
- Color – Silver
- Size: 185 x 70 x 40mm
- Weight – 400g on land
- Available controls: Rec Button, STOP button, Program Confirm Button, Camera/Camcorder mode Button and Power Button

PRICE: PHP 15,000.00 via Splash UW Imaging located at the 2nd Floor Greenhills Shopping Mall (across Krispy Kreme)

OK looking at the shots, I’m really wondering how exactly will you unlock the iPhone with the three buttons? The three buttons + home is obviously used for the camera, gallery and photo / video switch (again not sure how you’re going to switch). I’ll probably get an explanation how it works and hopefully a run-through. I don’t see any slots for strobes or video lights so you pretty much have to do a DIY config to get this thing working 100%. Nonetheless, I don’t think Patima designed this to be your primary underwater camera, but still. It delivers.

This Patima case doesn’t seem to be compatible with other iPhone models.

Jollibee brings NFC technology to their stores with the ‘happyplus’ Card

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at January 17th, 2012

I laud Jollibee for being the first retailer pushing for fast adoption of NFC technology in the Philippines.

Geeky Explanation: (warning, nosebleed)
NFC stands for “Near Field Communication” and is a prevalent piece of technology similar to Bluetooth or QR codes and is based on the current RFID technology. The difference is that the “near field” in NFC means that as soon as you point your device (in this case a card) to the kiosk sensor within 4 centimeters, the “tag” is recorded. The not-so-recent Android 2.3 Gingerbread upgrade enables NFC for several of their models like the Samsung Galaxy S II.

Non-Geeky Explanation:
Your mobile phone (or any device with NFC) is now a debit card.

The HappyPlus Card seems to be Jollibee’s way to condition the minds of Filipinos to adopt NFC as a part of their daily lives. This is a bridge. It is no secret that the final product will be to use NFC-enabled smartphones (many Android devices already have it built in but aren’t being used by Pinoys) but the cards are a good way of pushing the market to familiarize with this tech. Essentially, it’s something Filipinos have been doing for a while, claiming rewards points with their load, using Passa Load services, etc. Jollibee’s move makes sense as they already have staked their claim in a mobile app for smartphones (aka Netphone).

The service will be available starting January 23 2012. The card itself will cost PHP 100.00 and will enable rewards points to accumulate. You can use the points to purchase from Jollibee, Chowking, Red Ribbon, Greenwich and soon, Mang Inasal. In essence, NFC eventually replaces the CBTL Swirl Cards and SM Advantage cards we have come to love.

Current Phones that support NFC:

Android
Nexus S
Google Nexus S 4G
Samsung Galaxy S II (not all versions)
Samsung Galaxy Note (not all versions)
Galaxy Nexus

Meego
Nokia N9

BlackBerry
Blackberry Bold 9790
BlackBerry Bold 9990/9930
BlackBerry Torch 9810/9860
Blackberry Curve 9350/9360/9370

The iPhone does not officially support NFC technology.

2012 is the year NFC will be introduced and will grow. Smart has started pushing it as well for bazaar entrances. You can use your smartphone (w/ NFC) to enter bazaars. Who knows what’s next? Concert tickets? MRT tickets? Endless!