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    ArtPetron 10 exhibit at the 2011 Philippine International Guitar Festival and Competition

    ArtPetron exhibit @ Guitar Festival

    Winners of the ArtPetron 10 student art competition were displayed at the recently-concluded 2011 Philippine International Guitar Festival & Competition, held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last January 27-30, 2011. Billed as the biggest event in Philippine guitar history, the festival featured world-class guitar performers from the United States, Europe and Asia.

    ArtPetron 10, themed Alay sa Natatanging Pamayanan, featured Petron’s involvement in the communities and its dynamic partnerships with local folk in uplifting their quality of life. The ArtPetron National Student Art Competition is a painting and photography contest open to all college students. It is Petron’s advocacy with the Filipino youth, and is also an expression of the oil company’s long-standing support for the preservation, appreciation and rediscovery of Philippine arts, culture, values and traditions.

    A look into blind photography

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    “One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” – taken from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

    Pete Eckert is a photographer.

    A blind one.

    After being diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, the once sculptor and industrial designer turned to photography to continue his love for the visual arts.

    Here is his story and how love and creativity aren’t limited to just one of the senses.

    | Artists Wanted | In Focus : Pete Eckert from Artists Wanted on Vimeo.

    New Samsung Galaxy Tab has 10.1-inch screen, will be powered by NVDIA Tegra

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    Lookie here. NVDIA just sent us an email regarding the new 10.1 inch variant of the Galaxy Tab, specifically the processor that’s going to power the beast. The new iteration of Sammy’s Tablet will use NVIDIA’s dual core Tegra 2 chip in conjunction with Android 3.0, AKA Honeycomb.You can peruse the whole release below.

    NVIDIA and Samsung Partner to Deliver the Galaxy Tab 10.1
    Honeycomb Tablet

    GALAXY Tab’s Successor Powered by Tegra 2, Featuring a Dual-Core CPU plus an NVIDIA
    GeForce GPU That Enable Full Use of Android 3.0

    SINGAPORE — February 14, 2011—NVIDIA and Samsung Electronics announced today the Galaxy Tab 10.1, a 10.1-inch screen tablet which uses the NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 mobile super chip to take full advantage of the Android 3.0 (also known as Honeycomb) user interface.
    While the previous 7-inch GALAXY Tab introduced the Android tablet space, the new Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet maximises the entertainment on-the-go experience. It features the Tegra 2 chip’s dual-core CPU and GeForce GPU for faster Web browsing, snappier response time and overall better performance.
    Galaxy Tab 10.1 utilises the Tegra 2 chip to power Honeycomb, the first GPU-accelerated user interface designed for tablets and other larger-screen devices. The new Samsung tablet with Tegra 2 enables consumers to engage in multitasking, surf the web quickly with fast-loading Web pages and Flash-based content, enjoy console-quality gaming and savor HD movies.
    “Our first GALAXY Tab successfully defined a new generation of Android tablets,” said Hyungmoon Noh, VP of R&D Strategy Group, at Samsung. “We’ve worked closely with NVIDIA to raise the stakes again. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, with Honeycomb and Tegra 2, provide the optimal entertainment and multimedia experience without compromising mobility Samsung is known for.” “Samsung’s latest tablet with the Tegra 2 mobile super chip and Honeycomb is a great example of what we’ve come to expect from one of the world’s most innovative companies,” said Michael Rayfield, General Manager of the Mobile business at NVIDIA. The companies are also partnering to bring a new Android-based super phone with a dual-core CPU to consumers, for never-before-seen experiences.

    Cosplayers placed in videogames spell #fail.

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    Cosplay, in case you didn’t know, is short for “costume play” where anime enthusiasts dress up as their favorite characters. It’s actually pretty big in the Philippines. It’s all good and fun…. unitl it ruins our favorite video games. Check out the gallery of mishaps when cosplayers invade video games. Have a happy weekend everyone. :)

    [album: https://gadgetsmagazine.com.ph/wp-content/plugins/dm-albums/dm-albums.php?currdir=/wp-content/uploads/dm-albums/[email protected]/Cosplayfail/]

    Check out the full gallery at 1UP via Buzzfeed.

    Nokia, Microsoft Partnership Official. MeeGo still alive.

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    We knew it was coming but now, looks like it’s official. Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia and Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corporation, has just announced their strategic alliance to bring consumers a new mobile experience with stellar hardware and innovative software. Check out the video for the announcement:

    Nokia made announcements regarding its current operating systems too. It’s seems like Symbian and MeeGo are still here to stay.

    • Symbian will “a franchise platform, leveraging previous investments to harvest additional value. This strategy recognizes the opportunity to retain and transition the installed base of 200 million Symbian owners. Nokia expects to sell approximately 150 million more Symbian devices in the years to come.”
    • MeeGo will become “an open-source, mobile operating system project. MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences. Nokia still plans to ship a MeeGo-related product later this year.

    via The Next Web, Image Credit

    BMW becomes more than just a car

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    If a car was once just a medium to get you from point A to B, BMW now challenges you to dream of even more possibilities you can do with, to, and inside your ride. As more advanced technology and the need to stay constantly connected whenever, wherever you are arise, BMW continues to create cars that address these needs and makes its own “car of the future.” And it looks like all those sci-fi, far future type automobiles we see on TV are now slowly but surely becoming a reality.

    BMW released images of the Vision ConnectedDrive, which hopes to integrate information technology and the wide, open road.

    Source: PSFK

    Game Review: Shank

    Gamers who grew up in the 90’s have probably played a side-scrolling beat ’em up in some stage of their lives. Games on the NES like Double Dragon and Battletoads only prepared us for arcade classics like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Aliens Vs. Predators and the like. There was a certain charm to these games, and the cathartic effects of laying the beatdown on multiple enemies never failed to put a smile on my face. Sadly games like these are too few and far in between nowadays, all the more reason why I’m expressing my undying love to the newly released game by Klei Entertainment – Shank.

    Shank is a side scrolling beat-em up in the same vein as the games I mentioned before. You play Shank, a former member of an elite assassination squad that’s out for revenge after his former teammates killed his lover and left him for dead. While the cheesy plot sounds a lot like Kill Bill, it just gives the player an excuse to beat, shoot, stab and chainsaw anyone foolish enough to get in his way.

    The visual style of Shank is unique, to say the least. The animation and character design looks like a cross between a well done flash clip and an ultra violent Saturday morning cartoon. Genndy Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack was the first thing that flashed through my mind as I played the game for the first time. There’s also some nice graphic novel-esque elements in the game, which isn’t surprising since most of the staff that worked on it were traditional animators and artists.

    The controls are fluid and straddles the line of being complex enough to enable players to enact mind numbing combos, but simple enough that the learning curve is almost nonexistent. Shank has a variety of attacks – a light where he uses his knife, a heavy and a gun. You start off with just a knife, a chainsaw and two pistols but you’ll also come across different weapons like machetes, chains, shotgun, MAC 11 and a katana. Each weapon has its own strength and weaknesses, and you can switch them up even in mid combo to deliver the most damage.

    Aside from the attacks mentioned above, Shank can also pounce and grapple enemies. When pouncing, Shank jumps high in the air allowing him to escape thrown grenades and projectiles and gives him enough time to permanently disembowel any enemy unlucky enough to get caught. Shank can also throw a grenade at enemies to take out high priority targets and bunched up enemies. The game also encourages players to experiment on combos and attacks – for example, you shove a grenade up an opponent’s mouth when you grapple him. Moments like that can’t be matched by any game.

    The only issue I have is that the game isn’t very keyboard friendly, and you’ll really require a nice gamepad to get the most out of it. Other than that, there’s not much to complain about this stellar beat em up.

    You can grab Shank from here, at the Steam store for a measly $9.

    The Foursquare film noir

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    What happens when an old-school detective uses modern social networks to solve a crime? “Hard Boiled” is an indie short made by two filmmakers who like to call themselves The Indie Machines. Watch how sharing way too much information on Twitter and Foursquare leads to the death of the victim. Pretty well done, I say.

    via The Next Web, Image Credit

    5 Free iOS games you might want to try (Volume 1)

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    If you want budget gaming on your iPhone, nothing beats FREE! Good thing there are tons of quality free games on the App Store and I’ll be sharing 5 that have been keeping me busy this week. These apps not by any means new, but if you don’t have these yet, I suggest you try it out.

    1. Can Knockdown

    It’s a pretty simple game. You just… knock down cans by throwing a ball at them. It gets addictive because whenever you make streaks, your score gets multiplied. And well, the visuals are pretty compelling; especially the slow-mo action when you knock down everything in one shot. It’s pretty cool, plus there’s Game Center support so you can brag among your friends.

    2. Pokerist.com

    I admittedly suck badly at poker but I have to say, Pokerist.com keeps me hooked. It requires you to be online to play it because you’re not playing against AI but other humans as well. It’s not exactly one of those all-in, buy back online poker games because chips actually have value in this game. Kinda. You can use real money to buy chips, or just log-in everyday to get a chance to win in the daily raffle.

    3. Super K.O. Boxing 2

    Being in the same country as boxing-legend Manny Pacquiao, who wouldn’t be a fan of the sport? Super KO Boxing is a pretty neat boxing game with cartoon-like visuals. The characters are pretty interesting so beating the opponents actually makes me excited to see who’s next.

    4. Fragger Desert Strike

    Fragger Dessert Strike a port of the flash game from Miniclip.com. It’s somewhat similar to Angry Birds, but instead of launching birds from a slingshot, you throw grenades to masked people who don’t move. It’s a bit harder and the physics aren’t as complex, but if you get stuck on a stage, the game has a built-in “view solution” option. Pretty neat if you keep getting stuck in some stages.

    5. Ninjump

    So you’re this ninja, who for some reason just likes to run vertically on walls. Boost your way up by hitting ferrets, birds, ninja stars, or explosives. Gain satisfaction by beating your friends (and the rest of the world) with your high score, which you can share on Facebook or tweet. It’s a shame this game doesn’t support Game Center but at least there’s Open Feint for leaderboards.

    Oh and if you’re on Game Center, add me: francist. :)

    Image Credit

    Coleman has your back

    Who says gadgets and outdoor sports and leisure don’t mix?

    Coleman, a trusted in brand in camp and outdoor gear, introduces the Coleman backpack, sure to secure your belongings no matter what the terrain. These lightweight and multi-functional backpacks are ideal for overnights to day hikes, to urban crossover use. Available in a variety of eye-catching and hip colors, the backpacks feature fleece-lined MP3 player pockets, mesh water bottle pockets, thermo-molded back panels with air channels to increase airflow and reduce moisture, removable 1-inch waist belts, and quick-release safety buckles on the shoulder straps. Made of tough durable nylon, and with capacities of up to 1800 cubic inches (30 L), this all means you get to take more gear, and that your gear will be better protected. So whether you’re scaling that mountain you’ve had your eye on, taking a back trail you’ve never seen before, or just simply living a day in your urban life, you won’t want Coleman off your back.

    DOJ with Microsoft concludes 2nd International Conference on Cybercrime

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    Cybercrime is an emerging threat to the way netizens go about their daily routine, and that fact isn’t lost on Microsoft and the Department of Justice. During the recently concluded 2nd International Conference on Cybercrime both the DOJ and Microsoft pushed for the passage of the cybercrime bill to protect the rights of ICT users in the Philippines, and hopefully to curb the malicious elements in cyberspace. The event was attended by political heavyweights such as Sen. Edgardo Angara; Cong. Sigfrido Tinga, Taguig City; Atty. Ivan John Uy, Chairman, Commission on Information Communications Technology; Dondi Mapa, National Technology Officer, Microsoft Philippines and government agencies like the National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police, Department of Trade and Industry, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

    The cybercrime bill will prevent and combat information theft, computer system hacking and evenonline human trafficking. It will protect individuals and companies from illegal or unauthorized access totheir computer systems. The process of retaining and using digital evidence is also a significant feature.

    Stay sun-kissed and wrinkle-free with Kiehl’s

    Tropical countries are ripe for the conditions of photo-aging and overall skin-damage. And with summer fast approaching (and vacation getaways already booked), you can be sure that though you may be taking time off from work with the sun on your face, the sand at your feet, your skin will also definitely take a beating, making you look older than you were when you first actually arrived on the beach.

    Kiehl’s introduces Double Strength Deep Wrinkle Filler, a breakthrough wrinkle treatment that offers instant and long-term results – without the use of silicones. It is clinically demonstrated to immediately diminish the look of lines and wrinkles (based on clinical evaluation of overall appearance) and has been shown to minimize the number of facial lines over time, in as little as four weeks.

    Offering customers an alternative to invasive wrinkle-smoothing in-office procedures, Kiehl’s chemists developed the latest addition to the Dermatologist Solutions line for optimized precision and efficacy against signs of skin-aging such as forehead lines, crow’s feet, naso-labial folds, and lip-area lines.  Engineered specifically for targeted, daily application, Double Strength Deep Wrinkle Filler is a gentle, yet potent blend of two types of extremely bio-compatible Hyaluronic Acids, plus polymers, peptides and silica to help provide double-action, visible skin-smoothing immediately while minimizing the appearance of wrinkles and visibly improving skin’s elasticity over time. It also does not contain fragrance or parabens.

    Gadgets Magazine finds out if this breakthrough technology actually works in our March issue BEAUTYLAB.

    Nokia CEO Stephen Elop: We are standing on a burning platform

    Engadget has just revealed a telling internal memo that may spell a monumental shift in the way the firm in Espoo does business. In a 1,300+ word memo released by recently appointed Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, he admits that “We are standing on a “burning platform,” and “we have more than one explosion – we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fuelling a blazing fire around us.” This is referencing the tremendous popularity of Apple and Android’s unseating of Symbian as the top selling mobile OS according to research firm Canalys. He also laments Symbian’s shortcomings, saying “…Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements.” The memo also hints on the fact that to survive, Nokia might need to use other operating systems like Android or Windows 7 – something that is unprecedented in the company’s history.

    Hello there,

    There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform’s edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.

    As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a “burning platform,” and he needed to make a choice.

    He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times – his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a “burning platform” caused a radical change in his behaviour.

    We too, are standing on a “burning platform,” and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour.

    Over the past few months, I’ve shared with you what I’ve heard from our shareholders, operators, developers, suppliers and from you. Today, I’m going to share what I’ve learned and what I have come to believe.

    I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform.

    And, we have more than one explosion – we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fuelling a blazing fire around us.

    For example, there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem.

    In 2008, Apple’s market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent; by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.

    And then, there is Android. In about two years, Android created a platform that attracts application developers, service providers and hardware manufacturers. Android came in at the high-end, they are now winning the mid-range, and quickly they are going downstream to phones under €100. Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry’s innovation to its core.

    Let’s not forget about the low-end price range. In 2008, MediaTek supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an unbelievable pace. By some accounts, this ecosystem now produces more than one third of the phones sold globally – taking share from us in emerging markets.

    While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind.

    The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.

    We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.

    At the midrange, we have Symbian. It has proven to be non-competitive in leading markets like North America. Additionally, Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements, leading to slowness in product development and also creating a disadvantage when we seek to take advantage of new hardware platforms. As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind, while our competitors advance further and further ahead.

    At the lower-end price range, Chinese OEMs are cranking out a device much faster than, as one Nokia employee said only partially in jest, “the time that it takes us to polish a PowerPoint presentation.” They are fast, they are cheap, and they are challenging us.

    And the truly perplexing aspect is that we’re not even fighting with the right weapons. We are still too often trying to approach each price range on a device-to-device basis.

    The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.

    This is one of the decisions we need to make. In the meantime, we’ve lost market share, we’ve lost mind share and we’ve lost time.

    On Tuesday, Standard & Poor’s informed that they will put our A long term and A-1 short term ratings on negative credit watch. This is a similar rating action to the one that Moody’s took last week. Basically it means that during the next few weeks they will make an analysis of Nokia, and decide on a possible credit rating downgrade. Why are these credit agencies contemplating these changes? Because they are concerned about our competitiveness.

    Consumer preference for Nokia declined worldwide. In the UK, our brand preference has slipped to 20 percent, which is 8 percent lower than last year. That means only 1 out of 5 people in the UK prefer Nokia to other brands. It’s also down in the other markets, which are traditionally our strongholds: Russia, Germany, Indonesia, UAE, and on and on and on.

    How did we get to this point? Why did we fall behind when the world around us evolved?

    This is what I have been trying to understand. I believe at least some of it has been due to our attitude inside Nokia. We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven’t been delivering innovation fast enough. We’re not collaborating internally.

    Nokia, our platform is burning.

    We are working on a path forward — a path to rebuild our market leadership. When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together, we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to define our future.

    The burning platform, upon which the man found himself, caused the man to shift his behaviour, and take a bold and brave step into an uncertain future. He was able to tell his story. Now, we have a great opportunity to do the same.

    Stephen.

    Source: Engadget

    New software translates any spoken language into sign language

    Apart from being the summer capital of the Philippines, Baguio can now boast to be the birthplace of one of the greatest innovations in communication for the hard of hearing.

    The thesis project of eight IT students at Saint Louis University is a computer program that uses animation to teach sign langauge. Project leader Ahmed Abdullah Khayef described the program as a dictionary for people who hope to learn or teach sign language.

    “[Although] there are already existing technologies…they are language-specific. My  project is different because it…can accommodate all languages across nations. You can have your ‘jejemon’ sign language…when you input the word, pick the sign elements, then save it and when the user types the same word, he can view the avatar [demonstrating] the sign language.”

    The program uses an avatar to teach a user standard sign language and also to create his own sign code for any word. “Users themselves can pick [the gestures] to animate the sign. So eventually, you can create your own sign language, like for ‘jejemon,'” he says.

    Khayef’s team researched for their thesis by visiting schools for the hearing-impaired to learn more about their language—learning how poorly equipped hearing teachers are to teach what to them is a borrowed language.

    [Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20110130-317407/New-software-breaks-barrier-in-silent-world-wins-top-prize]


    Zuckerberg gets a restraining order against his stalker

    Stalkers– the one downside to being popular. Unlucky for Facebook CEO he’s not getting a horde of screaming fan-girls like Twilight superstar, Robert Pattinson; instead, he gets crazy mad-man. Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly obtained a restraining order against Pradeep Manukonda, who was ordered by the court to stay at least 300 yards away from him, his sister and his girlfriend. According to the filed papers, the restraining order was granted under the grounds that Manukonda attempted to “follow, surveil and contact Mr. Zuckerberg using language threatening his personal safety.”

    Check out one of the messages Manukonda sent to Zuckerberg’s sister, Randi:

    It sends chills down my spine.

    Source