Month: May 2012

Samsung Galaxy S3 : king of the android phones?

ajay Leave a comment

While there’s much anticipation for the so-called iPhone 5, tech giant Samsung has shown that it’s ahead of the game with the recent launch in London of its high-end smartphone, the Galaxy S III (or S3).

Samsung Galaxy S3

Word has it that the Samsung Galaxy S3 will be available to consumers starting late May or June. Being a Galaxy S2 user, I am of course excited about this development since I would like to know if there’s enough reason to upgrade. Judging from the specs of the new Samsung android phone, looks like there are lots of reasons to switch phones now indeed! :)

Here are some features to love about the upcoming Galaxy S3: (taken from the official Galaxy website)

- 4.8 HD Super Amoled display
- lets you watch videos as you email or text with screen pop-up
- S Voice feature responds to your words: you can tell it to wake up, answer, even take a photo.
- with Direct Call, if you’re messaging and want to call instead, simply lift your phone to your ear and it will dial your friend automatically.
- Share photos, videos & games you’re playing with AllShare Cast and even use your phone as a game controller

The Samsung Galaxy S3 runs on the latest Android OS version 4.0 (also called Ice Cream Sandwich). We surmise that the phone will be launched in the Philippines in the last week of May and that the price will be in the range of 28,000-30,000…will keep you updated :)

Island Grill Express Cebu: Sooo Pinoy!

Enrico Dee Leave a comment

I was kind if surprised that one of our food stop is actually not a restaurant, but a food shop located in the middle of a food Court. It’s Island Grill Express, located at the basement of SM City Cebu, where the Food Court is also located.

sooo pinoy 00063

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Bitstop is D&B’s newest OTS Affiliate Partner

admin Leave a comment

Bitstop Network Services, Inc. and Dun & Bradstreet Philippines, Inc. (D&B)
recently inked an agreement which authorizes Bitstop to market and sell
D&B’s suite of Online Trust Solutions (OTS) as an affiliate partner.

“We believe that a synergy exists between D&B and Bitstop,” says Jennifer
Non, D&B’s Marketing Manager. “Bitstop is an established player in the IT
space, offering a wide range of products and services including web hosting.
OTS is a complementary, value-add service that Bitstop can offer to its web
hosting clients.”

Enhancing trust and confidence in online transactions

With the explosive growth of the Internet and e-commerce, businesses are now
faced with the pressing dilemma of reassuring its customers regarding the
legitimacy of its existence and its ability to provide the products and
services that they claim to offer. Recognizing this need, D&B launched the
Online Trust Solutions offering in May 2011 to the Philippine market.

Quite simply, D&B’s suite of Online Trust Solutions offers the business
community the opportunity to enhance the trust and confidence in the online
space by displaying verified and validated information through the display
of a D-U-N-SR RegisteredT seal on their website, emails, and other
electronic documents. “D&B’s Online Trust Solutions provide a way for
companies to communicate to their website viewers – who are basically their
potential clients, suppliers and partners – that their company’s identity
and information has been verified by a third party, and that the website
being viewed is actually owned and maintained by their organization,” Non
explains.

*****

About Dun & Bradstreet (D&B): Dun & Bradstreet is the world’s leading source
of commercial information and insight on businesses, enabling companies to
Decide with ConfidenceR for 170 years. D&B’s global commercial database
contains more than 190 million business records. The database is enhanced by
D&B’s proprietary DUNSRightR Quality Process, which provides our customers
with quality business information. This quality information is the
foundation of our global solutions that customers rely on to make critical
business decisions.

D&B provides solution sets that meet a diverse set of customer needs
globally. Customers use D&B Risk Management SolutionsTM to mitigate credit
and supplier risk, increase cash flow and drive increased profitability; D&B
Sales & Marketing SolutionsTM to increase revenue from new and existing
customers; and D&B Internet SolutionsTM to convert prospects into clients
faster by enabling business professionals to research companies, executives
and industries, over the web

Bicol Express: the train, not the food

ajay Leave a comment

I’ve been researching on the state of the Philippine National Railway trains because I want to use this mode of transport in going to Bicol. In popular parlance, the trains are known as the Bicol Express. I don’t know if this differs from the train line called Mayon Limited.

The trains are further classified into de luxe and ordinary. Understandably, the de luxe trains are more expensive and should I say, has better toilets or CR. Not bad really. I was expecting worse :)

PNR train seats

PNR train lavatory

Mayon Limited Deluxe even has a lounge (and a LED TV!)

PNR train lounge

The sleeper class. Beds look rock-hard but the hoi polloi aren’t complaining….

PNR train bed

In the meantime, these are the seats in the Mayon Limited ordinary trains. They remind me more of the LRT/MRT trains….

PNR train ordinary

Ordinary train fares are more than 100 per cent cheaper than those in the deluxe trains. 344 pesos on the ordinary vis a vis 717 pesos in the deluxe trains. Still, I think this is way cheaper than taking a plane (unless there’s a zero seat sale) so it’s understandable that more and more people are taking the trains these days.

Besides, the trains stop over in nearby provinces like San Pablo in Laguna and Lucena in Quezon en route to Naga City (too bad, no trains going to Legazpi at the moment).

Photos courtesy of the Philippine National Railways page on Facebook.

For bookings and inquiries on train schedules, contact PNR in Manila & Tutuban, 3190048, Lucena – (042) 6612990 & Naga (054) 6982132

Exercise

Lauren Leave a comment

If writing is a muscle that needs exercise, then my writing muscle is a lazy flabby thing growing fat on a junk food diet of comedy websites and British tabloids. It occasionally gets up with a grunt to churn out reports, emails, and training documents before slumping back into a sofa, cushions deflating under its weight. On days when I try to coax it into moving, like I am doing today, it is restless and unfocused and I can hardly get anything substantial out of it.

It may not have been a wise idea to give up writing for a career that requires little imagination, I realize too late. I don’t know what I was thinking when I thought that taking a step away from writing/blogging would somehow make me a better writer. I suppose if you trade writing for work that fuels your passion and feeds the imagination, you’d never run out of thoughts and experiences for your writing muscle to run with. But when you face Excel spreadsheets on a daily basis, you gain little insight about the human condition and your imagination grows stale (but at least you can concatenate cells).

Now, every time I am confronted by a blank piece of paper or a new WordPress post, my hand freezes and my vocabulary level drops. It’s a monumental struggle to find the right words to express whatever I’m feeling. My writing muscle strains at the effort, mutters something about a cramp, and drops the work in search for gossip columns to munch on.

My writing muscle desperately needs to get back in shape before it becomes too fat to move and begins to atrophy. I worry that my sabbatical from writing is starting to do irreparable damage; my thoughts are all over the place and I can’t stand to read what I have just written. When my writing muscle was fit and toned from writing on a regular basis, my prose was streamlined and coherent, my notebook free from erasures. You know you’re a struggling writer when you keep ripping pages out to start afresh.

So I’m giving my writing muscle an exercise regimen: this blog (or my horror blog) will see one new blog post each week, no matter how crappy or awkward I think my prose might be, and the frequency of my blog posts will increase as soon as my job gives me more time for myself. These efforts will be complemented by literature from my favorite authors, essays about the art of writing, or any good read that will provoke me to write well. I don’t know how long it will take for me to feel comfortable about my own writing again but one thing’s for sure – my writing muscle can’t get any worse off than when I stopped writing completely.