Day: December 9, 2014

10 Wrong but Funny Ways Filipinos used #RubyPH

Kevin Bruce Francisco Leave a comment

Using a hashtag is a helpful tool for different purposes. With it, you can see what’s trending online or what a lot of people are talking about in the cyberspace. In times of a typhoon, an official hashtag (like #RubyPH) is a useful way to stay updated with advisories from PAGASA as well as for the local media and government to monitor emergencies and people in need of rescuing. This is why it’s somewhat important that we, as netizens, make sure that we use it appropriately.

Thing is, we Filipinos sometimes couldn’t help but add a little humor to everything we do even during trying times like these. Here are 10 funny ways #RubyPH was not used for its purpose on social media.

1. Taking a selfie.

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2. Posting your favorite food to eat during a storm.

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3. No bath proclamation.

4. Wishing for suspension of classes.

 

5. Using the storm to try and score with your crush.

6. Taking a legs + socks photo. RubyPH-social-media-6 7. Just to be “in”.

8. Lip-syncing to Maybe This Time while wrapped in blanket.

9. Making fun of our news reporters.

RubyPH-social-media-710. And our personal favorite: Storm-related quotes. #feels

Lastly, here’s one tweet that we couldn’t find a category to put it in.

Found something funny you saw the previous days? Share them below with everyone!

The post 10 Wrong but Funny Ways Filipinos used #RubyPH appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

ASEAN Sky Line

Chhaly Samsokrith Leave a comment
We all know ASEAN is a growing region where economic development is undergoing and producing growth and prosperity. Out of all achievements, this time we will look at the sky line of ASEAN: the tallest building of each ASEAN nations. We share the same sky, therefore the same dream. 

NOTE: There are new buildings under construction and on the verge of completion as we speak. This article is last update of December 2014. Should there be any changes in the status, we will promptly work on it. Also, some countries are very difficult to access information regarding what we are looking for. So some might have inconsistent information. Please feel free to comments. 

1. Brunei- One of the richest land in the world, Brunei has attracted millions of tourists to witness its beautiful natural and human-made resort. Particularly, its highest building is approximately 122 meter longs and gorgeously standing in Bandar Seri Begawan. Having built in 1990 and owned by the Ministry Finance, it was called The Ministry of Finance Building and Complex.
Ministry of Finance Brunei


























2. Cambodia- Having been acknowledged as one of the oldest civilization country among Asia, Cambodia is an empire full of culture and belief. In 1992, Angkor Wat Temple, the most targeted place for most tourists, has been listed in World Cultural Heritage List. It brings such a pride and happiness to all Cambodian people. Nonetheless, recently there is a huge skyscraper emerges in the heart of Phnom Penh, called Vattanac Capital which owned by Vattanac Properties Limited. Its height is about 188 meters (617 ft) which will be used for Residence, Commercial, Office Rental, and Banking.
Vattanac Capital






















3. Indonesia- A country which made up of more than 17,500 islands, Indonesia has won its fame as a heaven of sea creatures. But marine life is not the only thing Indonesia shall be remembered about. Wisma 46, the 250 meters long PT Swadharma Primautama building which was built in 1996 in Jakarta, is a great addition to the growing sky line of ASEAN. You may note that this building appears in the 2004 video game Need for Speed: Underground 2, located in Bayview City Centre. 

Wisma 46
































4. Laos- Lao, which is famed for their beautiful landscape, installed a towering figure on the bank of the Mekong River. Erected since 2004, Don Chan Palace has been recognized as the top place which bringing harmony to any visitors. 
Don Chan Palace






















5. Malaysia- Little is needed to add for this amazing masterpiece. The Petronas Tower which is located in Kuala Lumpur city, is listed as the the top Commercial building which is the busiest and highest one among all. Its 451.9 meters height just simply amuse everyone. 
Petronas Twin Tower






















6. Myanmar- Myanmar also known as Burma is a country full of Pagodas and Temples. One might think that most of its well-known place are pagodas. However if we take a deeper look at each piece of its architecture, we will surprise of its masterpieces and unique. We would never get sick of visit every of its pagodas I promise. Because they were designed in deference and apparently gorgeous. Like many other countries, Myanmar does have its notable and the highest tower in town, it was called Diamond Inya Palace. It is a kind of residential condominium which will be finished in the following year 2015. With its 127 meters, this building owned by Mandalay Golden Wing Construction Ltd in Yangon.
Diamond Inya Palace




















7. The Philippines – The Philippines, a home of a diverse range of birds, plants, animals and sea creatures has earned so much attention from other people. It is a must stop-by place for whom enjoy travelling in the natural land. Whereas talking about a human-made attractive place there, PBCom Tower, a 259 meters long with antenna has been listed as the tallest building among many other stylist building in Manila even it was erected since 2010. 
PBCom Tower

























8. Singapore – The smallest and the most modern one in ASIA, Singapore has been earning respect and admiring from various countries even from the West. In such a short period of time, it has developed itself to become one of strongest countries in trade and economic. Due to its limited space, you would barely see a small building besides a resident one. But, what is more special about Singapore is that currently there are 3 buildings considered the highest one. They are: Republic Plaza (completed 1995), One Raffle Place - Tower Two (1986) and United Overseas Bank (UOB) Plaza One (1986), all are 280 meters long.
One Raffle Place
Republic Plaza









UOB Plaza One

9. Thailand – Thailand, with Its countless and wonderful natural resorts, its extraordinary services just make every tourists cannot help but note it as a relaxing place for summer vocation or after retirement. Moreover, its usage of technology is just more than expected. They have so many skyscrapers, modern way of transportation and many other means. Ever since 1997, its tallest tower has been built as Baiyoke Tower II within 304 meters in Bangkok.
Baiyoke Tower II
































10. Vietnam – Being known through its delicious snacks and foods, Vietnam rarely fail to fulfill its visitor desire. Sometime you don’t need to go to a market by just standing in front of your hotel or walking in the street, you would see tremendous kinds of snacks is being sold in everywhere. However, besides food, there are many things which adored by tourists. In 2011, the highest tower “Landmark 72” which is owned by Keangnam Enterprise, has charmed so many people by its great service in Hotel, office, serviced residences, retail and observatory in Hanoi. 
Landmark 72 Tower

























Article by: Dara Ratanakraksmey 
Prepared by: Chhaly Samsokrith

Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph Review

Bob Freking Leave a comment

When Cherry Mobile announced the Alpha series, a lot of people were wowed mainly because they were bringing Windows to an affordable scale. The Alpha Morph is the 10-inch Windows 8.1 tablet, which as the name implies, morphs into something like a laptop with the detachable keyboard dock. So, did Cherry Mobile succeed in creating the ultimate affordable tablet-laptop hybrid? Read on our full review to find out.

CM Alpha Morph (1)

Design and Construction

The Morph is off to a good start with its construction, but not so much in design. The front side is made and designed out of the things you’d expect from a 10-inch Windows 8.1 tablet, and the back is all soft touch material. The sides have a specific angling to them which makes the tablet comfortable to hold, but it still does have quite some heft.

The right side is clean from anything, below is the place for docking, above is the volume rocker, while the rest of the ports are on the left side, with matching labels for each! First off, the volume rocker on top is confusing, secondly, the ports could have lost the labels as it makes the Morph look cheap, and third, we wish the ports were evenly distributed across the device. The buttons aren’t so clicky either.

CM Alpha Morph (7)

The Alpha Morph feels really nice in the hand, but using it was the thing that proved to have problems – it’s quite bulky while the buttons and ports were all too confusing and uninspiring.

There is a capacitive Windows Start button up front, and even when the device is asleep, it weirdly works – and that’s a bad thing. Simply touching the button will awaken the device.

Display

A 10.1-inch 1280 x 720 LCD display rocks the front of the Alpha Morph, and we like it. You can make out with pixels if you look closely, but to the average consumer getting a device at this price range, it is more than satisfactory. It would have been better if it were slightly higher in pixel count, but it’s okay.

CM Alpha Morph (3)

The colors and the viewing angles of this display are above average, and it’s fairly bright to be able to use outside but not in direct sunlight. We did however find the display showing off cooler tones than warmer ones, but it’s a small complaint.

Multimedia and Usage

A lot of people use tablets for their media, and if you happen to experience the Alpha Morph, you’ll find that watching videos on it is more than just enough. This is all due to, like what we’ve said, the colors, the good viewing angles and the decent resolution of the display. The audio you’ll hear on the other hand is only very similar to those you hear on smartphones, only a lot louder; it lacks depth and bass, and the highs and mids are the only ones heard for the most part. It’s decent, but having them firing off the back isn’t helping its case. Rest it on its back and you’ll get muffled sound – loud muffled sound nonetheless.

However, let’s be real. Not a lot of laptops even twice the price have stunning displays and great audio feedback, so these things aren’t really a bad thing to start with.

CM Alpha Morph (4)

CM is packing in a keyboard dock for the Alpha Morph: it has no battery but it acts as a stand, hoping that you may look at the Alpha Morph as a machine to get tasks done. However, I honestly didn’t enjoy using it. The keyboard is cramped especially if you have big hands, the left and right clicks can only be accessed by holding down the Fn button and the trackpad is cramped and doesn’t feel good as well. On the bright side, the trackpad does support a few gestures like scrolling, and the keyboard is quite usable if you get used to it – but we really do advise you to get an external mouse (which will require you to use the bundled adapter, no USB port), because right clicking is a huge pain.

CM Alpha Morph (5)

Another small thing is that when the tablet is docked, when you close it, the tablet doesn’t immediately turn the display off – which consumes battery and cause accidental presses when you forget to turn it off.

The cameras on the Alpha Morph aren’t anything special to talk about, just like any other Windows tablet for that matter. For the sake of describing it though, it’s usable for video chats online, but nothing more. Not even your selfies.

Performance and Benchmarks

Rocking an Intel Atom CPU at 1.33GHz, this device is a beast! I don’t see a lot of hiccups and lags especially on Windows 8.1, and with 2GB RAM, it’s far from disappointing as I find the performance comparable to other higher priced tablets rocking similar internals.

CM Alpha Morph (2)

From multitasking with a few applications to going around YouTube videos and many other tabs in Chrome, the Alpha Morph is no slouch. You will be getting more than what you paid for when it comes to performance.

CM Alpha Morph (1)

Here are the scores of the Alpha Morph in the Windows Experience Index:

  • Processor: 5.9
  • Memory (RAM): 4.5
  • Graphics Score: 4.1
  • Gaming Graphics: 4
  • Primary Hard Disk: 6.9
  • Base Score: 4

Do have to note that it does get hot on the lower left corner where you charge the device at times. It won’t burn your fingers, but it does get uncomfortable.

Battery

The 8,000mAh battery inside the tablet is mediocre at best. Watching a YouTube video from a full charge will only last you an hour on 50% brightness and 100% audio, but the life could be longer if you watch videos offline and if you have earphones on. The setting of the battery mode was set to balanced, as there were no other modes configured when reviewing the device out of the box. We also left the device asleep for a few days and it didn’t do so well conserving battery when not in use.

CM Alpha Morph (6)

For most users, we suggest configuring your device well to conserve battery, and to hug a wall to charge when possible. You’ll be able to get stuff done with the Alpha Morph, but only enough for the day.

Conclusion

I like the Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph, because it’s the local company telling us that it’s not only interested in bringing only Android to the Philippines. With a 10.1-inch Windows 8.1 convertible coming from Cherry Mobile, people may finally be able to get some work done for just Php11,999.

CM Alpha Morph (2)

However, it’s the little things that kill this tablet: waking up the display by accidentally tapping the capacitive button, not being able to sleep when you close it with the keyboard, bad button placements, a serious need for a mouse and more. Overall, the Alpha Morph is a great tablet for its price, but the experience you’re getting will be only equal to or less than what you paid for.

Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph specs:
10-inch HD IPS display @ 1280 x 720 resolution
1.33GHz Intel Z3735D quad-core processor
Intel HD Graphics – Gen 7
2GB RAM
32GB ROM
Up to 64GB via microSD
2MP rear camera with BSI sensor
2MP front camera
Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n
USB OTG ready
8,000mAh battery
Windows 8.1 OS
Bundled Office 365, 1TB OneDrive

What we liked about it:

  • Sturdy and solid soft-touch construction
  • Loud speakers
  • Trackpad supports scrolling gestures
  • Keyboard case is still good to have despite flaws
  • Great performance
  • Bundled Office 365, 1TB OneDrive

What we didn’t like about it:

  • Wakes up by the touch of the capacitive Start button
  • Only 720p
  • Cramped keyboard and trackpad
  • Clicking with the keyboard case is a pain
  • Display doesn’t turn off when closed with keyboard
  • Gets hot
  • Mediocre battery life

The post Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph Review appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

The dazzling Lights of Ligligan Parul 2014

Eric Leave a comment

Every December all roads lead to San Fernando Pampanga for the annual celebration of Ligligan Parul or the Giant Lantern Festival. This yearly spectacle is attended by thousands of local and foreign tourists alike.

But behind all this glimmering lights are a dizzying web of wires and lightbulbs only a genius can understand.

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And this is what we exactly discovered during a recent media familiarization tour of the Giant Lantern Festival. The tour was organized by the City Tourism Office of San Fernando and was attended by local media from Pampanga as well as media from Manila.

Early morning of December 2 i traveled from Metro Manila to San Fernando the capital of the province of Pampanga for the tour.

At around 10am we left the heroes hall and off to our first destination : Brgy Telabastagan. Telabastagan is known as last year’s champion of ligligan parul so giving me access to their closely guarded secret excites me a lot.

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Finally we arrived. Even if it’s covered with tarpaulin i can easily spot the lantern as it is soooo big! During the interview we learned that the minimum size of every parol must be no less than 20ft in diameter.

I can just imagine how can these master craftsmen create stunning visual play of lights without confusing themselves on the wires? I learned that Telabastagan uses 11,800 lightbulbs just for one lantern. According to Mr. Arnel Flores lantern designer of Telabastagan for this year, their expenses have already reached six hundred thousand pesos. They will also be using eight rotors to create the magical patterns on the lanterns.

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Rotors are barrel shaped steel connected to a power source. When a thin hairpin-like instrument touches the surface of the barrel. The light bulb goes on. To turn it off. Portions of the barrel are covered with masking tape. The rotors are said to be the brain of the most dazzling lights of San Fernando Giant Lanterns.

Its just amazing to see an entire barrel covered with masking tape and then piece by piece they are removed according to the lighting pattern or design.

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More than just the giant lanterns, we also got to tour a school where college students are busy preparing beautifully crafted lanterns using recycled materials to be used during the lantern parade one of the activities leading to the highlight of Ligligan parul.

We also visited Safer Village one of the participants for this years inter village Christmas Decor competition. I can really see the community effort in this competition. Each one is pitching in their contributions in any way. Whether its snacks for the guests or sounds for entertainment. It’s really amazing what the spirit of Christmas can bring.

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This year’s highlight of Ligligan parul is slated December 13 at the Robinsons StarMills in San Fernando Pampanga.

Mekeni, Malaus pu kayo!