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SPONSORED: Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Impressions

Samsung is all geared up for the Samsung Galaxy Note II. For those who have been on the gadget front lines, vehemently deciding between a Samsung Galaxy SIII, an iPhone 5 or this new Note II, we can understand how tough this choice can be. For one thing, between the Note II and the S III, they’re almost completely identical save for the screen real estate — but even that is pushing it as when you’re choosing between a 4.8″ and 5.5″ screen, at that point it really boils down to how big your physical pockets are.

Adding half an inch of screen turns the Galaxy Note II a tad shy of the 7″ big brother tablets that in all irony are already starting to retail for less than USD 0.00 (have a look at the Haipad tablet) and only half an inch shy of an Amazon Kindle eBook reader.

In terms of power and usability, the Galaxy Note 2 really doesn’t disappoint as Samsung is really cornering the “phablet” market with the Note’s previous success. Plus the fact that it has a stylus makes it a less formidable case study for another lawsuit with Apple.

In the Philippines, the Samsung Galaxy Note II will be available this coming October 16 2012.

Tech Specs:

Exynos 4412 chipset (Samsung has a tendency to make use of the more powerful Exynos graphics chip vs. NVNDIA’s Tegra chips)
Quad-core 1.6GHz CPU
2GB RAM
microSD slot up to 64GB
5.5-inch Super AMOLED HD with Corning Gorilla Glass 2 (1280 x 720 resolution)
8-megapixel rear camera with autofocus, LED flash
3100mAh battery
Android Jelly Bean 4.1

Add them up for more details!

Samsung Galaxy Note II on Facebook
Samsung Galaxy Note II on Twitter

Categories
Mostly Everything

How To: Respec (reset all skill points) in Torchlight II

If you aren’t playing Torchlight II, you absolutely must. Two things that make it absolutely more fun than Diablo III are: apart from online and single player mode, the game allows you to play via LAN which brings back the good old days of multiplayer gaming – six characters can play via a local network without the need for Internet. Second — community supported mods are widely available. Runic Games isn’t about to penalize you for modifying game files — these were the original creators of Diablo and they’re opening up the game to add community-supported add-ons.

Since the game itself doesn’t (yet) have an option to re-spec your character, a community mod was submitted that alters your shared stash to contain several potions that allow you to reset your skills.

If you haven’t yet gotten a hold of this game, you can do so for only USD $19.99 via their online store. If you’re still iffy, you can download the free demo to check it out.

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Mostly Everything

This is an awesome 16-bit forest scene animated GIF

Happy Friday! This is a 16-bit animated GIF (found in the recesses of the Internet — IMGUR to be more specific) of a forest scene. It’s oddly calming. Now all it needs are ambient sounds which you can find by checking out a short tutorial we made for a rainy ambient background.

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Mostly Everything

SMART WiFi Plug-it: Plugged in at home and inside your car

OK folks, commercial time!

Of all of SMART’s ‘Bro’ line products which includes the ‘Rocket’ and ‘Pocket’ series (the main difference being the ‘Rocket’ line is capable of 12 mbps speeds) none is more peculiar than the Pocket WiFi product. This is because it comes in two variants — the regular USB plug which slides into your computer (or any USB power source) and the rather niche car adaptor version, which, well slides into your cigarette lighter.

Since you can plug this into any USB power source, after configuring it on your computer, you can use those USB-to-plug adapters which they usually bundle with Android phones to power up the dongle and have up to 5 different devices connected simultaneously. I was actually thinking about why a person would want to use one of these devices instead of having data turned on from your phone and lo and behold I can think of one example. If you’re running an iOS device (iPhone and iPad) Apple halts App Store downloads and updates if the file exceeds a certain size (usually Retina versions). That would mean you would have to “trick” iOS by connecting to a WiFi device instead of using 3G/HSPA+. So that’s that.

Tech Specs:

One-time fee: P3,495
Usage fee: Pay per use. P10 for every 30 mins. Or avail of any usage package (Unlisurf, Per Minute, Prepaid Lifestyle).
Freebies: Preloaded with 240 internet hours and 400 SMS to Smart and Sun Subscribers (valid for 10 days)
Connection: via USB, via WiFi
Speed: Up to 7.2 Mbps
Lock-in Period: None (this is the best feature!)
Application requirements: None
System requirements: Any WiFi enabled device with WLAN 802.11 b/g/n standard and internet browser

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Mostly Everything

Admiration for the Amazon Kindle

I have never been this enamored with product packaging since the MacBook, but people do tell me that Amazon really does amazing things with their Kindle hardware line. I’ve never owned one before, till now. This was given to me as a token for speaking in the recent PRSP Congress (everyone agrees that this 2012 PR Congress was something else!). Before the Kindle, I had a Sony eReader and I have to admit although these two ebook readers do the same thing, there’s something about the Kindle that just makes books more appealing to read. No more used textbooks that pile up in the library.

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