Gadgets Magazine | The Philippines' First Tech-Lifestyle Magazine

Google keeps on Googling, posts Q2 results, $12 billion profit

Technology

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20 Jul 2012

Google has just posted it’s Q2 results, and as expected the search giant shows no sign of slowing down. The company has posted a $12 billion profit ($12.21 billion to be exact) for Q2, with $1.25 billion coming from newly acquired company, Motorola Mobility. That’s 35 percent consolidated revenue growth year over year kiddies, so if you’re a Google investor, we’re pretty sure you’re grinning from ear to ear by now. “Google standalone had a strong quarter with 21% year-on-year revenue growth, and we launched a bunch of exciting new products at I/O — in particular the Nexus 7 tablet, which has received rave reviews,” said Google CEO Larry Page in the press release of the announcement, which you can grab here. Good job Google. Now maybe you guys can get the Nexus 7 here sooner? Pretty please?

Source: Google

ChargeCard is the slimmest, most ingenious iPhone charging cable ever designed

Gadgets Team

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20 Jul 2012

0

ChargeCard is the slimmest, most ingenious iPhone charging cable ever designed

Have you ever wanted to charge your iDevice but for some reason forgot to bring your data cable? Have you ever wished that the iPhone charging cable was as thin and handy as a credit card? Well, we have some good news for you. Meet ChargeCard, a simple and elegant way of charging your iDevice without dealing with the hassle of the normal iPod connector. The product premise is simple enough – it’s an iPhone cable that folds up and is roughly the same size and shape of a credit card at only thrice the thickness. Unfortunately, the product isn’t being offered yet – that’s where you come in. The creators of the ChargeCard are looking for funding to make the project into a reality, as making molds and dies for the final product isn’t exactly cheap. Want to help? Fantastic. Head on over to their Kickstarter page to help these guys bring a simple yet ingenious product to market.

Source: Kickstarter

LG rolls out impossibly thin IPS7 series of IPS monitors, brings Cinema Screen design to a desk near you

Gadgets Team

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20 Jul 2012

1

LG rolls out impossibly thin IPS7 series of IPS monitors, brings Cinema Screen design to a desk near you

LG has just notified us that they’ve just released their new IPS7 series of premium monitors across several Asian countries. Their newest monitors bring their extremely thin, almost invisible bezel Cinema Screen design to desktop monitors, with impressive results. LG says that the IPS7 series have bezels that are only 1.2mm thin, which is almost indiscernible, making these monitors extremely pleasant to look at, especially when watching movies. They’ve also managed to reduce the overall depth of the monitor to a mere 14.1mm. The new monitors also boast Mobile High-Definition Link technology, which allows users to connect their mobile devices to the display with a single cable to the HDMI input port. LG has not said when this particular monitor will show in the Philippines, nor the eventual price when it lands here.

Honda announces voluntary recall for 2012 CR-V

Uncategorized

Press Release

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20 Jul 2012

1

Honda announces voluntary recall for 2012 CR-V

Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. announced yesterday, a voluntary recall of 834 units of the Honda CR-V 2012 year model sold in the Philippines between April and July of this year, to replace the inner and/or door latch assembly with countermeasure parts.

Findings show that if the manual or power door lock is activated while an interior front door handle is being opened by an occupant, the cable connecting the interior door handle to the door latch mechanism may become loose and move out of position. There is a possibility that the cable can move far enough out of position to make the interior door handle inoperable and, in very extreme case, prevent the door from properly latching. If the latter condition occurs, it is possible for a front door to be closed but not fully latched, allowing the door to open while driving.

No crashes or injuries have been reported related to this issue.

Concerned customers and/or owners shall be notified through a phone notification by Honda dealers and Letters of notice will be sent starting July 20, 2012. Honda is announcing this recall to encourage owners of all affected vehicles to take their vehicles to an authorized dealer as soon as they receive notification of this recall from Honda. To conduct the voluntary recall in an orderly manner, customers are requested to call their respective dealers for service appointment or call the Honda Hotline 1-800-1000-HONDA (46632) and (02) 857-7240 or email at [email protected]. You may also visit Honda Cars Philippines’ website www.hondaphil.com for inquiries and details of scheduling. Replacement of affected parts will be carried out in all 28 authorized dealers and 3 service centers nationwide, free of charge and will take about 2 hours (Repair time only). Repair of affected vehicles will start from August 1, 2012.

Other CR-V belonging to different year models will not experience the same failure because a different door latch and inner door handle design mechanism were applied.

Owners of Honda Jazz, City, Civic, Accord, Pilot, Odyssey and HR-V models sold and distributed by Honda Cars Philippines are not affected and thus have no reason to worry since the affected parts are of different specifications and/or design.

Visit Honda Cars Philippines’ website to check if your CR-V is part of the recall.

Windows 8 officially coming on Oct 26, 2012

Technology

Gadgets Team

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19 Jul 2012

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Windows 8 officially coming on Oct 26, 2012

Some minor bit of Windows 8 news for you all – Microsoft has officially pushed out when they will release Windows 8 out into the wild, and that anointed date is Oct. 26, 2012. Those of you who are buying new PCs and notebooks on the aforementioned dates should be able to grab it on new machines preloaded with it. And if you didn’t know, Microsoft has already outlined attractive upgrade paths for the new OS, so there isn’t any reason for you not to get it.

Source: CNET

CyanogenMod 10 builds showing up for Galaxy S III, promises Jelly Bean upgrade soon

Technology

Gadgets Team

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19 Jul 2012

0

CyanogenMod 10 builds showing up for Galaxy S III, promises Jelly Bean upgrade soon

We reported on an unofficial port of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on the Galaxy S III a few weeks ago that was looking a bit rough around the edges, and today we’re happy to announce that there’s been progress in that particular Android front. Phone Arena is reporting that there are now CyanogenMod 10 builds popping up all over the place with a Jelly Bean upgrade that has more complete functionality compared to the previous mod attempts. This time round, the CM crew has managed to get almost all of the major features of the S III working except for the camera and WiFi tethering functions. Feel like giving it a try? Well, head on down to the source link below and see if you can get the latest and greatest version of Android working on your S III.

Source: Phone Arena, XDA Developers

Solons pushes SOPA-like law, imprisonment of two years and minimum Php 50,000 fine

Technology

Gadgets Team

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19 Jul 2012

4

Solons pushes SOPA-like law, imprisonment of two years and minimum Php 50,000 fine

Buhay Party-list Reps. Irwin C. Tieng and Mariano Michael Velarde are looking to curb online piracy here in the Philippines by introducing tough, anti-piracy measures. House Bill 6187, or the “Anti-Online Piracy Act,” addresses that particular issue by imposing stiff penalties for offenders, which include imprisonment of 2 years plus a fine ranging from P50,000 to P150,000 for first time violators. Second time violators will be slapped with a fine of P150,000 to P300,000 and 3 years imprisonment. For the third and subsequent offenses, the bill shall penalize violators with 5 years imprisonment plus a fine ranging from P300,000 to P1,000,000.

“With the tremendous expansion of the Internet, it has regrettably become a cash-cow for the criminals and organized crime cartels that profit from digital piracy,” Tieng said. “Regardless how the infringer sees it, piracy is theft of intellectual property and is no more justifiable than shoplifting. The damage done to the entertainment industry and legitimate end users do not outweigh the few advantages that piracy does have,” Tieng stressed.

Everyone recognizes that online piracy is bad, but the stiff fines and penalties are a bit excessive, if you ask us. There’s also the obvious question of how exactly do they plan to implement this? Will they tell ISPs to snoop around their user’s traffic? If that is so, we’re pretty sure that privacy advocates are not going to be happy. We have yet to see the actual wording of the law, so there’s still a lot of un-answered questions at this point.

Source: Reddit via Reddit Philippines (Facebook), House of Representatives

Globe introduces different PowerSurf plans

Technology

Gadgets Team

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18 Jul 2012

0

Globe introduces different PowerSurf plans

Globe has given its subscribers a flexible internet data plan that allows them to choose how much they want to spend on data every month. The four mobile internet schemes codenamed Rookie, Friendly, and Master allow users the flexibility of acquiring a data plan every month that addresses their internet needs. The Rookie plan is the least expensive of them all, costing only Php 99 for 50MB of data for one month. Next on the tier is Friendly, which gives users a monthly cap of 300MB of data for only Php 299 a month. The highest tier is the Master, which gives users 1GB worth of data for only Php 500 a month.

“Knowing your MB profile will definitely empower you to make your own rules when it comes to mobile surfing. Once you know what your profile is, you can get the perfect PowerSurf MB plan for you so you can maximize your mobile surfing experience. So whether you are a Rookie, Friendly, Worker, Master, Globe PowerSurf MB plans give you full control over your usage—over the things you love to do on the mobile phone, over how long you want to be online, and more importantly, over your mobile browsing budget,” said Jenny Granada-Echevarria, Head of Globe Mobile Data Services.

Prepaid subscribers on a budget can choose the following affordable PowerSurf plans: 20MB for P15 valid for 1 day, 50MB for P30 also valid for 1 day, and 100MB for P50 valid for 3 days. Prepaid and Postpaid subscribers looking for plans with higher MB allocation and longer validity can avail of the following 30-day PowerSurf MB variants: 50MB for only P99, 300 MB for only P299, and 1GB (or 1024MB) for only P499.

The patent war continues: HTC files countersuit against Apple using recently acquired HP patents

Technology

Gadgets Team

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18 Jul 2012

0

HTC is going on the offensive on their patent war with Apple, and has filed ounterclaims against Apple in the Southern District of Florida using two patents it acquired from HP last December. The patents cover U.S. Patent No. 7,571,221 on “installation of network services in an embedded network server” which they say is present in numerous Apple products, which include products like the Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac Mini, the iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch, iPad, iPad 2 and the new iPad. Another patent, U.S. Patent No. 7,120,684 on a “method and system for central management of a computer network” is present on Apple’s Apple Remote Desktop, Apple Profile Manager, and/or products and services that use Apple Remote Desktop and Apple Profile Manager. We’re not entirely sure how this will affect the current patent landscape, as both companies are currently embroiled in an expensive patent suit that they cannot afford to lose.

Source: FOSS Patents

Armscor 1911-A2 .22 TCM hands-on, first impressions

Gadgets Team

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18 Jul 2012

8

Armscor 1911-A2 .22 TCM hands-on, first impressions

We’re doing a different kind of hands-on today. We were invited to Armscor’s sprawling Marikina facility today for an appreciation shoot of sorts, with the promise of firing their latest and greatest weapon system, the .22 TCM. Being a gun-nut and an active airsoft player, it would have been unthinkable to refuse this golden opportunity generously offered by the premier firearms manufacturer in the Philippines. That’s how I found myself driving down to Marikina, excited to see what this unique firearm has to offer.

I met Martin Tuason, Armscor Precision President and we chatted briefly about the .22 TCM. Most shooters discount any round that doesn’t begin with the number 4, but as Martin told me – the .22 TCM is one of the most effective rounds that they’ve ever made. In fact, he was very confident about it, that he made me a little bet – if, for some reason, shooting the .22 TCM round didn’t put a smile in my face later in the day, he was more than happy to buy me dinner later. That little bet got me thinking – just how good is this new weapon system?

First off, let’s talk about the .22 TCM round. This particular round is a high-velocity pistol cartridge that hurtles through the air at about 2100 FPS. To put that in perspective, a typical 9mm round flies through the air at around 1300 FPS and a typical .45 round clocks in at 1000 FPS.

That puts the velocity of the .22 TCM round near the velocity of rifle round, which also means that the .22 TCM can reach out farther compared to other pistol rounds.

The .22 TCM Pistol itself doesn’t look revolutionary. In fact, it looks kind of like any old double stacked 1911. This full frame pistol has Novak-style sights and a beavertail grip safety. The pistol is very comfortable to hold and shooting it is a damn pleasure. Just like any 1911, the TCM can be customized – in fact, we saw one that was tricked out with an ambi-safety, magwell and a fiber optic front sight.

One of the hallmarks of the .22 TCM round is that it is a high velocity round. It is also very loud, and exudes a heck of a lot of muzzle flash. It is also has very low felt recoil, which means it allows users to put more accurate follow-up shots downrange quicker. We had the opportunity to shoot Armscor’s other products chambered in various calibers, and we can definitely say that the .22 TCM has the least recoil of all the guns present during the media shoot.

We’d show you the target that we were shooting at earlier today, unfortunately since there were a whole host of other shooters shooting the same target, but we can attest that the .22 TCM’s recoil was soft enough that even rank amateurs like us could put a nice center group in an IPSEC target with rapid fire – something that wouldn’t have been possible with bigger calibers.

Some of you may already be asking: what is the point of the .22 TCM? Well, it’s a weapon system that gives users that extra range that might mean life and death when it comes down to it, along with a soft recoiling round that allows users to place more accurate follow-up shots downrage. We haven’t seen the effects of the .22 TCM on ballistic gelatin ourselves, but Martin Tuason assures us that it’s a very damaging round – moreso than the big boy rounds. Tim Dillon, President and CEO of STI International was present during the media shoot and told us what the effect of the round on a pig carcass was. He said that when the round hit the head of the carcass, there was no exit wound. When the head was dissected, there were no longer any recognizable brain bits – the round had turned the brain into mush. Pretty effective, if you ask me.

The .22 TCM is an impressive weapon system. The soft recoiling round combined with the typical 1911 frame means that both new and old shooters can easily transition and use the weapon system without re-training themselves to a new system. It’s also a pretty fun gun to shoot – it goes without saying that Martin didn’t have to buy me dinner, on account of the huge smile on my face after I walked away from the shooting bay.

The 1911-A2 .22 TCM is now being sold in the country by Armscor, and overseas through Rock Island Armory. The 1911-A2 .22 TCM comes in two versions – a stand-alone .22 TCM pistol, and a version with an included 9mm barrel. The SRP of the .22 TCM is Php 50,000 without the 9mm barrel. With the 9mm barrel the price goes up to Php 60,000. The .22 TCM round retails for Php 31 a piece.

Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig calls on runners for 2012 Run for the Pasig River

Technology

Gadgets Team

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18 Jul 2012

0

Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig calls on runners for 2012 Run for the Pasig River

ABS-CBN Foundation is once again calling on participants to join the foot-race to raise awareness and funds for the rehabilitation of the rivers in the metro. September 30, 2012 will mark the fourth round of its annual advocacy marathon, Run for the Pasig River, in line with its ongoing environmental initiative Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig (KBPIP).

This year, Run for the Pasig River aims to gather enough finances and support to rehabilitate the waterways of Quezon City, San Juan, Mandaluyong and Makati.

There will be three major event categories for the advocacy run along Commonwealth Avenue. The first is the 15K Ride & Roll with a 4:00 a.m. gunstart. Next is the 15K Commonwealth Challenge Run with a 4:10 a.m. gunstart. Finally, there’s the 5K Morning Madness Run with a 6:00 a.m. gunstart. The starting and finish line will be the Quezon City Memorial Circle.

Registration for this year’s Run for the Pasig River will open on July 16, 2012 in SM North EDSA, 2nd Floor Cinema C Lobby; on July 20 in SM Megamall, Lower Ground Level, Building A; and SM Mall of Asia, Ground Floor Main Mall. Merchandise booths will also be set up in the registration areas. Proceeds of the merchandise will also go to river rehabilitation.

For more updates and information on the run and the KBPIP advocacy, please visit www.runforthepasigriver.com.

All-New Ford Focus. Start it. Share it. Win it.

Mobility

Gadgets Team

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17 Jul 2012

0

Ford Philippines launched an exciting, interactive and unprecedented campaign, called “All-New Ford Focus…Start it. Share it. Win it.” This was designed to engage Filipino consumers with real-life smart demos of the all-new Ford Focus’ first-in-segment, smart technologies. This smart demo road show will start on August 3 at SM Marikina.

The campaign will give more than 1,000 consumers in the Philippines the opportunity to personally experience the smart features of the all-new Focus through weekend events spanning August 3 to September 16. To join, consumers must register on Facebook for the events. Walk-in registrations will also be accepted at the event. Consumers will test two new features of the Ford Focus, the Active Park Assist and the Active City Stop.

The Active Park Assist, with the touch of a button, the driver of the all-new Focus can parallel park easily – totally hands-free. This nifty system uses sensors around the Focus to help identify a feasible spot then steer the car into the space. The driver controls the accelerator, brake and gears.

The Active City Stop is a collision-mitigation system helps to avoid low-speed front-end collisions by monitoring the road ahead and braking automatically if the sensors detect for stationary traffic or a stopped vehicle in front of the all-new Focus.

Each participant will then be filmed, and they can share the videos with their friends on Facebook. The videos will compete against each other in terms of most unique views, most entertainment value, and the participants’ creative response to their favorite smart feature over ten days, where the top ten will be named the finalists and each finalist will receive an Apple iPad.

From October 8-18, the finalists will compete to win the all-new Ford Focus. People can log on to Facebook and vote for their favorite video. The most popular video at the end of the period will win the all-new Ford Focus.

Krave Multimedia Soundbar hands-on, first impressions

Gadgets Team

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17 Jul 2012

0

Krave Multimedia Soundbar hands-on, first impressions

We received an unusual product the other week that holds a lot of promise. Named the Krave Multimedia Soundbar, this particular audio accessory isn’t your typical speaker or iPod dock. From what we could see, the Krave is a one stop multimedia shop for everything that A/V enthusiasts want – an excellent speaker, multimedia player and a network player, something that few products can claim to be.

At first glance, the Krave looks like a normal 2.1 surround soundbar with an iPhone/iPod dock. But upon further inspection, this particular soundbar has a built-in media player that can playback HD movies using a variety of sources – be it from your network, USB stick or HDD. In fact, each purchase of the Krave Soundbar also nets owners a free 1 TB HDD that they can fill with HD movies of their choosing, and for a nominal fee, can get that same external HDD replaced with another one, again filled with full HD movies.

Like we mentioned, the Krave is also an iPhone/iPod dock – just flip the center dock station open, plug in your device, and away you go. The sound quality of the soundbar is pretty impressive – full bass and round mids. The overall construction of the device is pretty nice, and the minimalistic design of the entire thing means that it’ll easily fit in most modern homes today. The Krave soundbar also comes with its own remote control and a subwoofer.

That’s it for now. Watch out for our full review once we get this baby set-up with a flatscreen TV.

Get a matching base for your Retro Pop handset at an exclusive promo price!

Archives

Gadgets Team

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17 Jul 2012

0

Get a matching base for your Retro Pop handset at an exclusive promo price!

Here’s an awesome mid-year promo from Native Union!

From July 9 to August 30, 2012, you get a matching Pop Base when you purchase a Native Union Retro Pop handset. This usually costs Php 3,125, but for the month of July, this dandy duo will be available at a promo price of Php 2,250. This promo is exclusive to Rustan’s Department Stores found in Makati, Shangri-La, Gateway and Alabang.

Review: Sony VAIO T13 (SVT13115FGS)

Gadgets Team

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17 Jul 2012

1

While other notebook manufacturers have been releasing ultrabooks left and right, Japanese manufacturer Sony has strangely been quiet until the announcement of their VAIO T series last May. Since then, many tech pundits have wondered the eventual price point of their ultrabook entry, fearing high prices that’s been the hallmark of VAIO notebooks ever since they were introduced. We’ve managed to grab a VAIO T13 for review, and we’re pleasantly surprised at the value proposition of the new series.

Sony doesn’t like us calling their VAIO T series ultrabooks, but let’s not kid ourselves here: this notebook bears all the characteristics of an ultrabook – a chassis that’s only 17.8mm thin, latest generation (Ivy Bridge) Core i5 processor, overall weight of only 1.6 kilos and a hybrid SSD drive. The notebook is clad in a silver plastic body, with a brushed aluminum design that gives it that extra visual flair. And while its competitors try to outdo each other in flowing, smooth curved lines in terms of design, the T13 has taken the cornered, boxy route when it comes to overall aesthetic. Build quality is excellent, which is no surprise – this is a Sony, after all.

The body has all the usual ports you need, and then some – 2 USB ports (one being USB 3.0), SD card reader, full-sized HDMI port, Ethernet and a D-Sub port.

The T13 uses island style keys that are decently sized, which is complimented by a clickpad that doesn’t have physical seperators. One of the things we noticed with the keyboard itself is that the seperation between keys are a bit too wide, which means that the less adept typers out there will misspell a word or two until they get used to it. Another issue we had with the keyboard was the shallow travel which is a usual problem with ultrabooks. We also noticed that the T13 doesn’t have a backlit keyboard, which is a bit disappointing.

The display is a 13.3 inch wide (WXGA 1366 x 768) TFT color display that does a good job, but doesn’t deliver pictures quite as rich as some ultrabooks currently out in the market. It’s also bit prone to glare in some lighting situations, and doesn’t have wide viewing angles – drift a bit off center and the display becomes washed out.

Internally, the T13 packs an Intel Core i5 3317u processor, pumping about 1.7GHz of processing speed. That’s paired with 4GB of DDR3 memory, onboard Intel HD Graphics 4000 and a 500GB HDD paired with a 32GB SSD drive for faster boot-up times. Sony has also helpfully added their own software enhancements into the machine, VAIO Gate, to help you access programs faster and easier.

Sony promised a wake up time of around 2 seconds from sleep, and the T13 delivered. Boot times from cold boot were significantly higher (about 19 seconds) but it’s definitely faster than what traditional notebooks can deliver.

Overall performance for the T13 was excellent, and the notebook rarely, if ever, hanged while in use. While it’s integrated graphics won’t be setting performance records anytime soon, it’s still suitable for light to moderate graphical number crunching, and can run most mainstream games without issues.

Battery-wise, you’re looking at about 5 hours and 30 minutes give or take, which is pretty good for an ultrabook of this size and weight. That’s more than enough to get most users through the day.

One of the things we really disliked about the T13 is the clickpad itself. In our experience, pads that don’t have physical seperators are a pain to use, and the clickpad that ships with the T13 is no exception. Specifically the rightmost corner of the clickpad for the right mouse button which sometimes refuses to register our frantic clicks.

Overall, the T13 is a great little ultrabook that does the job well. The notebook currently has a list price of Php 49,999, which isn’t that bad, considering that this ultrabook comes from a company that prides itself in building hi-quality electronic products.

What’s Hot:

Excellent design

Fast boot up

Long battery life

What’s Not:

Shallow keyboard travel

Clickpad issues

Bottomline:

The Sony VAIO T13 isn’t the cheapest ultrabook out in the market right now, but it gives users plenty of value for money. The fact that it’s made by Sony means that you’ll be getting your money’s worth as far as build quality and durability is concerned.

Buymeter: 4/5

Tech Specs

Screen Size: 13.3 inch wide (WXGA 1366 x 768) TFT color display
Memory: 4GB DDR3
CPU and chipset: Intel Core i5 (Ivy Bridge) 3317u processor, 1.7GHz
Physical Dimensions: 323.0 x 17.8 x 226.0 mm
Warranty: 1 year warranty on parts and labor