Gadgets Magazine | The Philippines' First Tech-Lifestyle Magazine

Globe launches first Tatt Awards

-

23 Jul 2011

There’s no stopping the increasing pervasiveness of social media in the Philippines. With over 25-Million internet users—and counting, one study even shows that 95% of online Pinoys actively tweet, Facebook, plurk and blog, giving more credence to the Philippines being called the Social Networking capital of the world.

Globe has come up with the first Tatt Awards to give due recognition to the growing power and influence of this medium and to people who have used the digital space to inspire, spur change and make a difference. Powered by Globe Tattoo, the Tatt Awards was launched at the posh Opus Club in Resorts World Manila to coincide with the 2nd annual Social Media Day.

“Tattoo is about making your mark and your own personal definition of greatness. The Tatt Awards is our venue to recognize those individuals that through their passion and individuality have created a space that is truly theirs, but sincerely shared with others,” said Dong Ronquillo, Head of Nomadic Broadband Business of Globe Telecom.

The Tatt Awards has ten categories:

The One, the most influential trendsetter that shaped opinion, moved people and prompted action;
Ballbreaker, a blogger or a Twitter user who started a debate, sparked conversations or a revolution of opinions with just one hard-hitting post;
Stylisimo, a person that not only reviewed fashion but also set a trend one that everyone followed;
Indie Rocker, a musical band or indie artist who fought hard to claim their space in the hearts of the Filipino audience via webtime;
Wordslayer, a blogger whose mastery of words showed wit, humor and grit to the Philippine blogosphere;
Artiste, an inspiring person whose fiery passion for creating visual art through original graphic design, animation or photography has caught fire in the Philippine online art scene;
Tech Junkie, a blogger, podcaster or Twitter user who shares access to the latest in trends and the fast pace world of e-knowledge;
#Thought-Mover, a Twitter user who sparked a fire in the Philippine Twittersphere with one unique hashtag;
Video Slinger, an individual or group who shook the Pinoy web space with though-provoking or entertaining video; and
The Advocate, a person or a group of individuals who worked to improve the state of a societal cause in the Philippines through social media.

Winners will receive a whopping P100,000 in cash and premium broadband products from Tattoo, and will be decided by public voting and a panel of judges christened The Tatt Council. Members of The Tatt Council include Dong Ronquillo; award-winning journalist Maria Ressa; Rock Ed Philippines founder Gang Badoy; popular lifestyle blogger and entrepreneur Cecile Zamora-Van Straten; tech blogger and Tattoo ambassador Rico Mossesgeld; director and video blogger Kring Elenzano; Radio DJ Chico Garcia and Hans Roxas-Chua, President of the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP).

Online nominations were accepted until July 14, 2011 via the Tattoo portal www.tattoo.globe.com.ph/tattawards. Finalists will be announced on August 10, at which point the online voting will begin and run until August 24. The Tatt Awards Night will be on August 27.

Everyone’s Vision Petron: Lakbay Pinoy Petron Student Art Competition deadline

Technology

Press Release

-

23 Jul 2011

2

Everyone’s Vision Petron: Lakbay Pinoy Petron Student Art Competition deadline

Submission for entries to Everyone’s Vision Petron, a national student art competition, is set for Monday, 25 July 2011.

Themed Lakbay Pinoy —Journeys to Remember, Pathways to Rediscover, this year’s competition focuses on life journeys expressed symbolically by roads, highways and byways. It can be a mountain path representing a journey to success, or a zigzag lane symbolizing seasons of change. It can be a forest trail sparking childhood memories, or a nostalgic route conjuring reminiscences of student life.

Everyone’s Vision Petron is open to all talented students enrolled in a regular university or college course, or in tutorial and photography classes. Student artists may compete in three categories: Painting (oil and water-based media), photography, and t-shirt design.

In the painting category, six Grand Prize winners will each receive P50,000; for the colored photography category, six Grand Prize winners will each receive P30,000; and in the t-shirt design category, three Grand Prize winners will each receive P30,000. All Grand Prize winners will also receive a trophies and plaques made by National Artist Napoleon V. Abueva. All Runners-up will get trophies.

Entries may be submitted to the Secretariat Office (c/o Studio 5 Designs, 28 Paseo de Roxas cor Jupiter St, Bel-Air Village, Makati City, telephone 02-8909318).

Leaked Battlefield 3 gameplay videos confirms it is awesome

Archives

Gadgets Team

-

22 Jul 2011

1

Leaked Battlefield 3 gameplay videos confirms it is awesome

We previously gave you guys a few deets on DICE’s upcoming multiplayer bonanza/relationship ender Battlefield 3 including the release date and some of the classes and gameplay elements. Of course, a lot of those were based on tiny tidbits of information gleaned from other sites and the short multiplayer trailer that was shown in E3. But thankfully a few enterprising individuals have managed to get their hands on (probably) pre-alpha software of the upcoming title and uploaded lengthy multiplayer gameplay videos on YouTube, and we like what we see. The new Frostbite engine delivers extremely pretty visuals, and the destructible environments add a nice dimension to the frenetic combat. There’s definitely a bit of lag in some portions of the video, but that’s probably from either the video capture software they’re using, or the alpha (read: not retail) code that they’re playing with. But enough talking – you’re probably raring to see the videos already. We’ve embedded the videos below.

Source: UsamaFTW YouTube Channel

Google tells you when your PC is infected by malware

Archives

Gadgets Team

-

22 Jul 2011

4

Google tells you when your PC is infected by malware

Proving once again why they’re a spectacularly awesome company, Google now tells its users if their PCs are currently hosting malware. The malware alert appears as a yellow stripe on the top of their web search results when Google determines that your PC is sending questionable traffic. Google security engineer Damian Menscher said in the Google Online Security Blog that “recently, we found some unusual search traffic while performing routine maintenance on one of our data centers. After collaborating with security engineers at several companies that were sending this modified traffic, we determined that the computers exhibiting this behavior were infected with a particular strain of malicious software, or malware.”

Aside from notifying people that their PCs are infected, Google also provides a link on how to fix the issues in your PC. While this shouldn’t be considered as a replacement for traditional anti-virus software, it’s a nice gesture nonetheless from the search giant. Unfortunately, the pessimist in us sees the potential abuse this particular functionality opens up for virus and malware writers, as there are already malicious code writers that use the old “your computer may be infected” trick to get you to install their software on your PC. As always, be vigilant on the things you click and download online.

Source: Google Security Blog

Lenovo jumps on tablet bandwagon with IdeaPad Tablet K1, P1 and ThinkPad tablet

Archives

Gadgets Team

-

22 Jul 2011

0

Lenovo jumps on tablet bandwagon with IdeaPad Tablet K1, P1 and ThinkPad tablet

Lenovo’s jumping in on the tablet gravy train with three new offerings – the IdeaPad Tablet K1, P1 and ThinkPad branded tablet for business. While the IdeaPad P1 is your regular Windows on tablet deal, the IdeaPad K1 and ThinkPad tablet will be powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 superchip. Both will be using Google’s already prolific Android Honeycomb 3.1 The ThinkPad tablet intrigues us the most, simply because it’s the first time we’ve seen Honeycomb put on a suit and be made to work in a corporate setting. Lenovo says that it’ll still be able to keep data safe with layered data security, and that “the device is easily supported by IT managers thanks to a suite of business partner solutions that include anti-theft software and the ability to disable the tablet if the device is lost or stolen with Computrace.” That’s going be easier said than done we suppose, especially since malware for the platform is exponentially rising. Future owners of the ThinkPad tablet will have the option to buy a digitizer pen and a ThinkPad quality Keyboard Folio Case with optical TrackPoint for the days they yearn for a keyboard.

The 32GB model IdeaPad Tablet K1 is priced at $479, and can be ordered in the U.S. starting July 20, 2011, amd will be generally available worldwide during the third quarter 2011. The 16GB ThinkPad Tablet is priced at $479 without the digitizer pen, and at $509 including the digitizer pen, for Wi-Fi models. There is also an optional keyboard portfolio carrying case available for $99. Lenovo is also promising a 3G version of the ThinkPad Tablet after launch. The IdeaPad Tablet P1 will be available in the fourth quarter 2011.

Samsung attempts to give compact cameras shallower DoF

Archives

Gadgets Team

-

22 Jul 2011

0

Samsung attempts to give compact cameras shallower DoF

If Samsung’s compact point-and-shoots survive the tumultuous market these next few years, they might gain a shallower depth of field.

The company recently filed an ambitious patent which theoretically equips dual lenses onto their compact cameras. The main lens will proceed with normal image capturing, and the second lens will calculate the area distance around the image. The camera will then proceed to combine the data from both lenses to configure depth and consequently apply the synthesized bokeh.

While it sounds like a very ingenious concept, DSLR users shouldn’t expect the same blur offered by fast lenses, although it is a great feature to apply on a point-and-shoot. With the continual rise of the micro-four-thirds line however, it will be interesting to see if the smaller compacts will still be around once this patent is materialized.

Source: PopPhoto

Review: Acer Iconia Tab A500

GadgetsLab

Gadgets Team

-

21 Jul 2011

3

The tablets just keep on coming. Not to be outdone by their Taiwanese competitor, Acer has released their take on the Google’s tablet OS – the Iconia Tab A500. Hardware-wise, it’s near identical to the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 in the bits that count – namely the dual-core NVIDIA Tegra processor that powers everything – so it’ll be interesting to see what the A500 brings to the table.

First impressions are everything, and boy does the A500 bring out the big guns immediately. The A500’s back is treated with a nice, brushed aluminum finish, and the overall design evokes images of sleek, solid machines.

The left side of the device houses the power button, headphone jack and a mini HDMI port, while the right side contains the charging, micro USB and USB port. The top of the device contains the volume rocker and orientation lock and a small flap that protects a microSD slot. There’s a docking connector on the bottom of the device, so it’s not hard to picture the A500 having a keyboard dock in the near future. The screen is 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 TFT LCD deal. On paper the display seems inferior to similarly sized IPS displays, but in practice that wasn’t the case.

The A500 has a 5-megapixel camera at the back and a smaller front facing camera on the front. Unlike other tablets, the A500 has very nice speakers on the back that actually belt out sharable sound. The whole thing weighs in at about 730g, which is a bit on the heavy side, considering the iPad 2 only weighs in at 601g.

Like its contemporaries, the A500 is powered by Android Honeycomb, Google’s tablet OS. The device we got for review had the newer, 3.1 update which meant that it could take some USB devices without issues, like USB controllers. Providing all the number crunching muscle is a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 1Ghz processor.

There’s not a lot about Honeycomb that we haven’t covered in our previous review, so we’re not going to delve on it too much. Suffice to say that using the A500’s doesn’t veer too far off of the stock Honeycomb experience. Acer’s included an app that takes advantage of their clear.fi experience, which is basically a fancy way of sharing digital content through similarly enabled devices.

Battery life was good – the A500 managed to survive a weekend with occasional trips to Google and YouTube without much trouble. Heavier use (longer browsing, videos, music and gaming) made the A500 tap out from a full charge in about 7 hours.

The biggest weakness of the A500 is something that Acer has no control of – software. A few months ago when we reviewed its competitor, the Asus Transformer, we said that one of our main concerns were the scarcity of apps in the Android Market specifically made for Honeycomb. A few months on and that particular complaint is still valid – I mean, there isn’t even a native Honeycomb app for Facebook. If you want to use this device to access Facebook, you’d have to go through the browser first.

As nice as the A500 is, there are chinks in the design – a firm squeeze reveals some slight creaks, and its weight makes it uncomfortable to use when lying down, as it constantly threatens to fall on your face lest you drop your guard. The display, as good as it is, is a natural magnet for greasy fingerprints, so you may want to keep a handkerchief in the A500’s carrying case.

So is the Iconia Tab A500 worth it? Yes – as long as you’re willing to accept some of the relatively minor faults in the product, and Honeycomb’s underwhelming app selection. At Php 21,900, its price definitely makes it a solid contender in the fast growing local tablet market.

What’s Hot:

Orientation switch

Very competitively priced

Good screen

clear.fi makes sharing between Acer products easier

What’s Not:

Some slight creaks

Heavy

Screen is prone to glare

Bottomline:

Yes it does have some flaws, but at the price Acer is asking for it, it’s definitely a tablet that you should seriously consider.

Buymeter: 8.6

Tech Specs:

Display
10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 TFT LCD
Operating System
Android Honeycomb, 3.1
Processor
1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual Core processor, Tegra 2 chipset
Physical Dimensions
260 x 177 x 13.3 mm
Weight
730 g

Want to see what your baby sees? Check out this app.

Gadgets Team

-

21 Jul 2011

0

Want to see what your baby sees? Check out this app.

Ever wonder what your baby is thinking about when they’re off spacing out? I remember I used to think my baby was talking to a ghost whenever she’d laugh and coo at some random point on the wall. Of course, most parents are worrywarts and want to immediately identify their babies wants and needs (and oftentimes, we just guess.) But that’s because there wasn’t an app that could help.

Now, there is. The What Do You See? App allows you to first set your child’s age then simulate what your child sees during its first year of life. Save your child’s name and birthdate and get a live preview of your child’s vision. You can also capture the images of what your baby is seeing and share them perhaps with other mommies and daddies who are also just as curious.

The What Do You See? App is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (4th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, and iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.and costs $ 1.99 on iTunes.

Source: Trendhunter

Toshiba releases TECRA R840 series, promises mobility without compromise

Archives

Gadgets Team

-

21 Jul 2011

1

Toshiba releases TECRA R840 series, promises mobility without compromise

If there’s one thing that Toshiba notebooks are known for, it’s reliability. We’ve heard (and seen) Toshiba notebooks made in the 90’s that are still kicking around today, and their passion for making solid, reliable notebooks continues today. At an event in the Palladium, New World Hotel yesterday, the company unveiled their newest notebook aimed at the corporate market. The TECRA R840 series aims to deliver both performance and mobility without sacrificing the brand’s legendary reliability.

The new range of notebooks is powered by Intel’s second generation Core processors (Sandybridge), can have up to 8GB of DDR3 memory and has discrete graphics by way of ATI Radeon HD6450M (1GB of dedicated VRAM).

The R840 series is able to take a lot of abuse, thanks to extensive HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Test) testing. They were able to withstand drops from a 76cm height, sustained loads of 100KG on the LCD lid and resistant to spills up to a volume of 30ml on the keyboard without compromising the data stored on the device.

Prices will depend on configuration, it’s best to contact Tricom Dynamics at 8906525 to know more.

Product Highlight: Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II

Archives

Gadgets Team

-

21 Jul 2011

1

Product Highlight: Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II

If there’s one thing that techies will always need, its storage. That goes double for professional photographers and video editors. That’s the reason why they’ll probably be picking up the WD My Book Studio Edition II. Its massive 6TB capacity means that you can keep working on projects without worrying about how much space you have left. Its Mac ready, has lightning fast FireWire 800, and RAID 0 (Striped) – essential qualities for a lighting fast storage system. You want one? It’ll set you back Php 20,753.

Apple NEWs: OSX Lion available, MacBook Air updates and more

Gadgets Team

-

21 Jul 2011

1

OS X LION

Apple has released MAC OSX Lion 10.7 and is available for download only at the Mac App Store for $29.99 (approx. Php 1,290) at a size of 3.49GB.

It showcases over 250 brand new features, which include multi-touch gesture support and the ability to run apps in full-screen mode (which recent Windows-to-Mac converts will appreciate). Furthermore, it has the App Store already built-in, and introduces Mission Control (give users a bird’s-eye view of all processes for easier management) and Launchpad (provides shortcuts to apps like iPad’s interface).

More info on OS X LION

MACBOOK AIR AND MAC MINI

Apple has also released the all-new Macbook Air (which will come with OSX Lion), and now features Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors, Thunderbolt i/o’s , all-flash storage and the return of the backlit keyboard. The Mac Mini has also been updated with improved processors and Thunderbolt as well, although the optical drive has been removed.

The MacBook Air will start retailing at $999 (approx. Php 42,590)

More info here

THUNDERBOLT DISPLAY

The world’s first Thunderbolt Display has also been announced, which allows Mac notebook users to connect to a larger display. With a daisy-chain capacity of up to five devices, using the display will also grant additional ports: 3 USB 2.0 ports, Firewire 800 and Gigabit Ethernet. It is reported to be officially released soon and will retail at $999 (approx. Php 42,590).

More info

And we have a winner!

Archives

Gadgets Team

-

20 Jul 2011

0

Alright, so we gathered up the email addresses of the people who joined the contest, and through the power of random numbers (Random.org) picked a winner. And guess what Ms. Marie Mangaliman, you’re the new owner of a brand spanking new Vivatar 12-megapixel camera. Congratulations!

And for those people who didn’t win, don’t feel bad. The prizes are just starting to get interesting, and who knows, you may be the next winner of our giveaway soon. Stay tuned folks!

Man creates Iron Man repulsor beam, might be Tony Stark

Archives

Gadgets Team

-

20 Jul 2011

1

Man creates Iron Man repulsor beam, might be Tony Stark

Impressive acts of nerdery like these give us hope that superheroes might be real – a German lab technician Patrick Priebe has managed to create a palm mounted laser that’s as strong as the S3 Spyder III Arctic laser that routinely burns holes in things. To put things in perspective,the maximum strength for consumer laser pointers is typically five milliwatts – Patrick’s palm-mounted beam of death is about 1000 milliwatts. While it’s based on a completely different technology than what Iron Man uses (repulsors vs lasers), the build is wicked cool enough to make us question this man’s identity. We’re just going to assume that he’s possibly Tony Stark until proven otherwise.

Source: Hack a Day

The biggest fake of all – counterfeit Apple store in Kunming, China

Archives

Gadgets Team

-

20 Jul 2011

3

The biggest fake of all – counterfeit Apple store in Kunming, China

There have been a fair amount of counterfeit products that have come out of China in the past few years – fake iPhones, iPads, tablets and what have you are pretty much par for the course over there – but this one has got to take the cake. A blogger by the name of BirdAbroad happened to come across a counterfeit Apple store. You read that right – a counterfeit Apple store.

At first glance, the store looks legit – it has the same styling cues as Apple stores in the US, same store layout, same shirts that Apple store employees wear. But upon closer inspection, BirdAbroad found a few things amiss that raised red flags. “This was a total Apple store rip-off. A beautiful rip-off – a brilliant one – the best rip-off store we had ever seen (and we see them every day). But some things were just not right: the stairs were poorly made. The walls hadn’t been painted properly. Apple never writes “Apple Store” on its signs – it just puts up the glowing, iconic fruit.”

Okay, so some of you are probably saying that although this particular store might have copied the whole look of an Apple store, and the fact that they’re selling genuine Apple products mean that they’re a real store, right? Well, not exactly. Take the Power Mac Center. While they look like an Apple store, they’re a premium reseller, not an Apple owned store. You can clearly see the store’s logo from the outside. The store that BirdAbroad found was selling products as if the store was owned by Apple, and therein lies the rub. Since the owner of the store apparently doesn’t care about respecting the very IP of the brand he’s supposed to be selling, what are the odds that some of the stock in his inventory are genuine Apple products, or that the people doing repairs and whatnot are actually certified by Apple?

The saddest part of all of this is that the employees that are working in the store genuinely think that they’re working for Apple, which really kind of bums us out.

Source: BirdAbroad

HP joins hands with BSP to stop counterfeits

Archives

Gadgets Team

-

20 Jul 2011

1

HP joins hands with BSP to stop counterfeits

Let’s not beat around the bush here – counterfeit products are bad. Counterfeiters take away money from people who poured time and effort into creating a product, effectively robbing the people behind great products. It’s a huge problem in our country, and because of it we’ve been placed in United States’ blacklist of countries tolerating intellectual piracy and counterfeits. That’s the reason why HP Philippines and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the nation’s monetary authority, join hands to launch a phenomenal advocacy against the production and proliferation of fakes and counterfeits. Dubbed as NO to Fakes, KNOW the Original!, the campaign seeks to raise public awareness and commitment to stop the proliferation of counterfeits, including frequently counterfeited items such as banknotes (Peso bills) and Original HP Ink cartridges and toners.

“Both HP and BSP are targets of counterfeiters. We are very happy to take this first step to make people aware and to educate them on what’s real and not. We look forward to more partners to join this advocacy campaign,” said Armando Pascual, Country General Manager, imaging and Printing Group, HP Philippines.

The campaign kicked off today at the Activity Center in Trinoma where HP and the BSP had setup to educate consumers of the dangers of counterfeit products and bank notes. Here, consumers can trade-in their old HP printers for discounts on new HP printers. Consumers who want to get their hands on the new, better and more colorful currency that’s set to roll out soon can get their old bills replaced with new ones. The exhibit will run until tomorrow, July 21.