Battle of the Minis: Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini vs HTC One Mini 2

Pitting a notable newcomer against a rival device is slowly becoming a tradition for us here at YugaTech. And with the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini, we think it’s only fair to give it the same treatment as the ones that came before it by comparing it against the fairly new HTC One Mini 2.

Summary of advantages:

Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini:
* Thinner form-factor (9.1mm vs 10.6mm)
* Lighter body (120g vs 137g)
* Water and Dust proof
* Slightly faster processor
* 50% more RAM
* Better Bluetooth chip

HTC One Mini 2:
* Aluminum build
* Better rear camera
* Better front camera
* Slightly higher battery capacity

Judging by the two handsets specs sheets, it seems that the new Galaxy S5 Mini has a slight advantage over the smaller brother of HTC’s current flagship device.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini philippines

In terms of aesthetics, the Galaxy S5 Mini trumps the One Mini 2 by having a lighter and thinner design, not to mention having an IP67-certified body that will certainly appeal to the adventurous crowd. However, the latter is banking on its Aluminum-clad body to win over the more laid back and classy crowd.

It’s still uncertain what processor did Samsung use on the S5 Mini, but one thing we do know is that it’ll benefit from having more RAM than its rival when the going gets tough. But what the One Mini 2 may lack on the processing end, it compensates for having a better camera (on paper, at least) both on the back and on the front.

HTC One Mini 2 Philippines

So what’s it going to be folks? The thinner, lighter and IP67-certified Galaxy S5 Mini or the aluminum-clad HTC One Mini 2 with better camera front and rear cameras? We’d love to see your thoughts on the comments field below.

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On Being Grateful, Even When I’m Really Not

“Do you keep a gratitude journal?”

I was asked this question by a Couchsurfer I shared a host with in Sabah – a Couchsurfer who, no matter how hard I tried, couldn’t stand to be around with. He’s one of those ridiculously extroverted Americans who has unshakable opinions about everything, never misses an opportunity to let their thoughts be known, and is completely oblivious to how this can annoy the crap out of people around them. As someone with unshakable opinions herself, almost every conversation with him felt like an invitation to an argument. I’d try to keep the peace by staying silent, but every now and then I’d give in to the urge to fire back with a counter-argument or sarcastic reply.

He asked me this question while on a bus to downtown Kota Kinabalu. It was my first time commuting to town from our host’s apartment, and he offered to show me how to get there and find my way back. A kind gesture, except after two days of traveling with him, I was barely receptive to anything he said.

“Well,” I began. “I keep a journal. But it’s just a regular journal where I digest my experiences and allow myself to feel what I feel. I think it’s dishonest to try and be grateful during moments when you’re not.”

“But the times you feel the least grateful are the times you need gratitude the most,” he replied.

What an asshole, I thought as I rolled my eyes and stared out the window.

Yet I found myself thinking about his words during my walk home from work today. I’ve been struggling with an inexplicable bout of sadness all day, the kind that creeps up from out of nowhere and threatens to explode in full-blown pity party. I didn’t know what to do with my feelings, didn’t feel like talking to anyone about it or using alcohol to escape the discomfort of my own head. But in spite of the dark thoughts rattling around my brain, what the Couchsurfer said on the bus rang loud and clear:

The times you feel the least grateful are the times you need gratitude the most.

When the chemicals in my brain go off-kilter and tell me that I will never ever ever experience happiness again, it does help to look at the highlight reel of my life and be thankful for the amazing things that have happened thus far. While I’m still not convinced that I will be happy again, it comforts me to know that good things still happen even when I think I don’t deserve it.

So to power through my sadness, let me make a list of things I’m grateful for, in no particular order:

my living room

I’m grateful for the relatively short daily commute, for every evening I have the time and energy to cook a decent meal, and for the apartment I call my home.

I’m grateful for parents who love me as I am, and who encourage me to only be myself.

friday at work

I’m grateful for my job, for everything I’m learning so far, and for opportunities disguised as projects about to blow up in my face. I’m grateful to have of sharp, hardworking, and seriously awesome coworkers who make panicked deadlines feel less like a catastrophe and more like an achievable goal.

I’m grateful for the time a coworker once caught me smoking while I was sad, listened to me cry and ramble over lunch and ice cream, and said, “You’re a beautiful and intelligent girl with a great life ahead of you. I’m only telling you this because I don’t think you say it to yourself at all. Everything is going to be all right.”

surf stoked

I’m grateful the gift of surfing, even when the only surf I can get is whitewash. I’m grateful for every wave I’ve caught and ridden. I’m grateful I can go surfing at all despite being constantly strapped for cash and out of shape.

I’m grateful for all the people I’ve paddled out with, for every long car ride to the ocean, for every long lost friend I found through our shared love of surfing.

I’m grateful that surfing takes me to the beach so often that it feels like a second home.

on the road in vietnam

I’m grateful I can travel despite my limited vacation leaves and limited disposable income. I’m grateful for the brief and fleeting friendships with amazing people on the road, and for the evenings that turned into mornings in their company.

I’m grateful for friends from around the world who welcomed me into their homes and treated me like family.

I’m grateful for friends who care enough about me to break through the walls I built around my heart, and who still stick around even when I think I’m incapable of making deep, meaningful connections with anyone.

I’m grateful for the love I have had and lost.

I’m grateful for the good times with friends I’m not friends with anymore. I’m grateful to have known them at all.

la union sunset pa rin

I’m grateful for every sunset I see, and every rare morning I’m awake early enough for the sunrise.

I’m grateful for the kindness of people I wasn’t always kind to. And I am grateful for this important and humbling lesson on gratitude from a fellow traveler who, I must admit, was completely right about something for once.

‘Don’t wait for 2016 to pass the FOI bill’

CIVIL SOCIETY and government leaders who took part in Tuesday’s Freedom of Information (FOI) Town Hall meeting and petition sign-up asked President Benigno S. Aquino III and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. for concrete and tangible proof that the FOI bill is a priority of the administration, warning that delaying passage of the bill till the last minute would be dangerous and counterproductive.

“Let’s not wait for 2016, let’s not wait for the last session day of Congress (to pass the FOI bill),” said Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello. “”The word from Malacanang is that this is a bill that they support, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. As far as I can see, I have no evident, tangible, empirical proof that Malacanang’s support is really there.”

“Until there is no FOI, there is no true democracy,” Bello added.

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Makati Business Club chairman Ramon del Rosario Jr. also expressed support for the FOI, saying it is important that this administration take steps to institutionalize transparency and accountability through a law. Del Rosario said that while the business community believes that the Aquino administration is “pushing an agenda of good governance,” there is a need to institutionalize these practices for succeeding administrations.

“We need to institutionalize transparency and accountability so that future governments would have no choice (but to practice this),” del Rosario said. “The idea of building a culture of accountability and transparency needs to be institutionalized.”

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The Right to Know, Right Now! Network organized Tuesday’s Town Hall meeting in order to focus attention on the issues surrounding the FOI bill, which is still pending in the House committee on public information. Earlier this year, the Senate had already passed its own version of the FOI bill on third and final reading. FOI advocates are worried with the slow pace of the bill in the lower chamber, which has traditionally been hesitant to pass an FOI measure.

In a prerecorded interview with House committee on public information chairman Jorge Almonte Jr. that was played during the Town Hall meeting, Almonte assured participants that his committee would finish a consolidated FOI bill and report this to the House floor before the end of the year. Almonte also said that he was “80 percent sure” that the FOI bill would be passed before the 16th Congress adjourns in June 2016. Almonte said he based his confidence on assurances given him by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Del Rosario said that the business community had also been given the same assurance by Belmonte in a previous forum.

FOI advocates are worried that President Aquino is not keen on having an FOI bill, after he publicly voiced his apprehensions several times that the media has become too powerful.

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Senator Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public information that had successfully shepherded the FOI bill through the upper chamber, said that the recent scandals rocking the Senate had actually helped to push the FOI through the chamber faster than expected.

Poe said that because several senators had been implicated in the pork barrel scandal, many senators felt the need to show that they also wanted a transparent and accountable government. Interestingly, in his prerecorded interview, Almonte said the same pork barrel scandal is causing some congressmen to hesitate in giving support to the FOI.

“The people in the Senate wanted to prove themselves, that we can do something productive that is actually of good use to the public,” Poe told more than a hundred participants in the FOI Town Hall meeting. It also helped that social media and public awareness had pressured the upper chamber into acting on the FOI bill with greater dispatch.

Diwa party-list Rep. Emmeline Aglipay said that the FOI bill should move faster now in the committee level, now that the “more contentious provisions” dealing with exemptions have already been resolved. Aglipay said the bill should move faster with the pressure being applied by civil society groups.

But Poe also noted the need to make the FOI issue more tangible to ordinary citizens. Poe said the challenge is to make freedom of information more interesting to the public. “Kaya nagkaroon ng PDAF scandal, kasi hindi ninyo alam ang nangyayari sa gobyerno,” she said. (The reason there is a PDAF scandal is because most of you do not know what is happening in your government.)

Philippine Airlines Employees Association President Gerry Rivera echoed Poe’s remarks, saying that many Filipinos are still not able to relate the FOI issue to their more basic concerns such as food and shelter. On the other hand, Rivera said one of the reasons for persistent poverty is because so much corruption in government goes unchecked.

The Town Hall meeting was highlighted by the participation of many student and nongovernment groups from all over the country. During the Town Hall meeting, student groups, schools, and civil society organizations sent messages of support and photos. Participating groups included:

  • Students and teachers from Ateneo de Manila University, Miriam College, and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila;
  • Bulacan State University;
  • Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK) at the Napolcom offices;
  • Ifugao State University
  • Alliance of Progressive Labor mobile teams in Metro Manila;
  • Clark Freeport Zone
  • Partido ng Manggagawa representatives from Rosario, Cavite;
  • Kaabag sa Sugbo in Cebu City;
  • Bislig in Surigao del Sur;
  • La Salle Bacolod City;
  • Siaton, Negros Oriental;
  • and CODE-NGO in Davao City

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The Town Hall meeting was also an occasion to drum up support for the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition’s online petition at change.org that now has more than ten thousand signatories in support of the FOI bill. Organizers plan to present the collected signatures to Malacanang in time for President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address in July this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Samsung Galaxy S5 mini now official

The small brother of the flagship Samsung Galaxy S5, the S5 mini, is now official. Sporting a 4.5-inch HD display, IP67-certified body, LTE, and a 1.4GHz quad-core CPU.

galaxy s5 mini_1

Samsung Galaxy S5 mini specs:
4.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display, 326ppi
1.4GHz quad-core CPU
1.5GB RAM
16GB internal storage
up to 64GB via microSD
8 megapixel AF rear camera w/ LED flash
2.1 megapixel front camera
LTE, HSPA+
NFC
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0 LE
A-GPS + GLONASS
IR Remote
IP67 dust and water resistant body
Android 4.4 KitKat
Ultra Power Saving mode, heart rate monitor, fingerprint scanner
2,100mAh battery
131.1 x 64.8 x 9.1mm
120g

galaxy s5 mini_2

The Galaxy S5 mini will be available first in Russia starting in early July followed by the rest of the global market in the coming months. It will come in four color options: Charcoal Black, Shimmery White, Electric Blue and Copper Gold.

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VAIO returns as a corporation, to offer VAIO Pro and Fit PCs next month

After being sold to Japan Industrial Partners Inc. (JIP) back in February, Sony’s former PC brand, VAIO, is now returning to the PC business not just as a brand but as a corporation as well.

vaio corp

Now known as the VAIO Corporation, it will start selling its own VAIO computers, sans the Sony branding, beginning August. Its first offerings are the new models of the VAIO Pro (11.6-inch / 13.3-inch) and VAIO Fit (15.5-inch) notebooks. No word yet on when they’ll make these models available internationally.

The VAIO Corporation is headquartered at Azumino City, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. It currently has 240 employees with an investment ratio of 95% JIP, 5% Sony.

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