Tag: Pricing

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Hands on with the Samsung Smart TV

Just came from Samsung’s office. Doing a really cool speaking / presenting gig for them across some locations in the country. Sitting inside their offices were several new Smart TV’s. If you don’t know what these are, they’re basically the love child between a television and a smartphone. And they’re elegant. And epic.

We did some tests with Skype calls, app downloads, “Social TV” updating (that’s your Twitter, Google Chat and Facebook right beside your picture), web browsing and of course a lot of Blu-ray watching.

For this flat TV segment, connectivity is key. Apart from being able to connect to the Internet and do your standard browsing, you can also use your Android device or iPhone as a remote controller via Bluetooth. If you don’t own any of these, you can also buy a QWERTY remote controller that connects via Bluetooth. That means you can have a QWERTY / smartphone side by side your IrDA remote control.

Just like a smartphone, you will be required to create a Smart TV account using an email address and password. Afterwards, you will be able to link up Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Picasa (pre-Google+ days heh), and Google Chat. OF course, since this TV is pretty much a computer, automatic updates will be released in the future. Whenever you turn off your TV you will automatically be logged out. New sessions will require you to login to access web features but of course, the TV will work even without Internet. 🙂

There are two current lines, the Series 7 and Series 8, differentiated mostly by the size of the screen and price. This is best in class. If you check retailers, they usually sell these about PHP 200,000.00. The one in the photo is a Series 8 60 inch Smart TV that retails for PHP 320K. Yes so it isn’t for everyone. Some would rather get a more affordable LED or Plasma and a computer.

The current promo includes a 3D Blu-ray player with a Blupass rental card, HD USB webcam for video calls and a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

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Netphone keeps a running balance of your load

“I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it.”
– Pointer Sisters

This photo pretty much sums up two key features about SmartNet. If you’re subscribed to Netphone services, (1) you’re always connected to SMART’s data network. The way they charge for this is very different from all their other data plans (volume based and time based). In this case, (2) you can see the current running balance if you’re on postpaid and your current remaining load balance if you’re on prepaid. By default, this solves a lot of customer support issues because you will always be aware of your usage. No more surprises.

HERE: For the past several hours I’ve been online with only PHP 1.00 of load. On Facebook. On Twitter. On SmartNet’s own global directory. On chat. And this is really one of the best ways to explain the synergy between the phone and the cost of services tied to it.

There’s no other service in this country that lets you keep a PHP 1.00 balance while letting you do all these great things on the Internet. The Netphone line from SMART will come with its own super-low pricing schemes for data. Abangan. September 1.

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Netphone Begins: Unboxing the Netphone 701

UPDATE: Actual Netphone pricing for both prepaid and postpaid plans over here.

Dropped by SMART this afternoon to meet up with Louie. On the latest list of things to study would be the highly anticipated 701, the first of the Netphone smartphones. Exciting! Back in February, I was able to play with a pre-alpha release. This is the real thing and it comes in a nice box reminiscent of how I loved unboxing G.I. Joe toys as a kid. As I still need to charge the phone and get some much needed sleep here’s a little unboxing for you after the jump.

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HTC ChaCha: The Facebook phone you’ve been waiting for! (Part II)

This is the second part of a two part series. Part I can be found here.

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Samsung Galaxy S II: Best smartphone for 2011?

N.B. You can pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S II by following these instructions. Retail price is PHP 29,990. Discounted price is PHP 26,990.

For the past three weeks I’ve been playing with both the prototype and the actual unit of Samsung’s lastest Android gem, the Galaxy S II. I first got to hold the device back in Mobile World Congress ’11 in Barcelona and it is, without doubt, the most highly anticipated smartphone in the Android universe because it’s simply mind blowing.

This phone deserves to be reviewed from two perspectives: (1) as the successor to the first Samsung Galaxy S which was also highly popular and (2) from the perspective of an Android device and how it compares to the competition.

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