Confirmed: Tweets were going around the circles of SMART employees. #SMARTGalaxyS3 is in fact real. But it’s different when you see it on SMART’s official Twitter account.
Lots of clues leading up to the announcement. Jean Ong (@jeanong75) of SMART posted this little beauty 2 days ago on Instagram:
Exclusive to SMART? Crazy. Apparently the other “telco” has it too. But based on track record, they’re more of a marketing company these days than a telco. Telcos are supposed to have signal. You know where to go.
Confirmed! Microsoft and Nokia will be launching the Lumia 610 and 900 in Philippine shores this coming May 18th. Though the teaser poster doesn’t say it, we’ve uncovered the smoke and mirrors with a quick message to Nokia’s Nikka Abes and she did confirm that both the 610 and 900 will be officially launched here, although the former 610 is already out in stores.
I featured the Lumia 900 a few days ago with a one-on-one with Nikka at the Nokia office.
Hey geeks! If it’s one thing I’m pleased to announce for 2012, I’ve partnered with distributors to to give away more gadgets to locals who follow this blog. Thanks to you, more than 6 years of writing thousands of posts (thankfully not a lot of them were ramblings!) have given me that oomph to get out there and ask for more things to raffle off. A key learning was that although contests were great for everyone, they were sporadic and unscheduled. A partnership with key distributors would make these contests come more often PLUS they will be first to market c/o A BUGGED LIFE (YAY!!). A lot of the stuff I’ll be giving away will be available first here.
So right now, all i have to say is .. stay tuned! Add me up on Twitter (@jayvee) and Instagram (@jayveef) and yeah on Facebook too… I still don’t have a fan page, I feel weird about creating one to be honest so everything goes through my personal account. ANYWAY, the first wave of giveaways will be announced soon.
Oh look at that PowerMat.. it charges your gadgets without wires through magnetic induction! So geeky.
It was really great catching up with Erick Garayblas (@egarayblas) last week over coffee. We talked about the success of Streetfood Tycoon and how his life as a mobile game developer has evolved with the rise of the Apple App Store. We talked about a ton of things so here’s a more organized version of the interview.
** Ed’s note: Not mentioned in the written interview is how Erick was able to have his ‘kwek-kweks’ in many baskets. He noted how he’s shifted from an ad-driven business model (free to play but ad supported) which earned him a ton of money a month into in-app purchases which, although earns less, is more stable as the latter relies on Google’s Adsense platform which can be subject to a lot of technicalities.
1. How did Streetfood Tycoon come to be? What’s your thought process in designing a game?
Streetfood Tycoon came from my penchant for playing simulation and business-related games. I’m a huge fan of Lemonade Tycoon and Sim Tower. I “borrowed” a few mechanics from these two games and presented them in my own unique way w/in the game. I normally don’t follow a “thought process”, I just browse through my list of ideas (which come from dreams, reading books/comics, playing “other” games and talking to friends), try to mix them up, create a prototype and see how it goes from there. A lot of prototypes get shelved while the good ones become full blown games.
The HP Z1 is an engineering marvel. In the same way that space-saver apartments are awe-inspiring, the Z1 is wireless (as in everything is snap on!) solution to the workstation that saves a ton of space inside and out. This cuts corners when it comes to maintenance allowing your IT guy easy access to remove and replace hardware by just snapping modules in and out.
I’ve never been in love with a workstation before; a workstation you’d actually find in a call center floor or your run off the mill IT department. But that’s just how amazing this thing is. Treating the desktop workstation like a car, you can easily pop up the hood and see the insides laid neatly on the 27 inch flat screen’s behind. Everything is removable — from the motherboard to the fans and heatsink, the NVIDIA Quadro video card (optional), Intel Xeon Processor, and the hard drives. Even the wireless USB receiver is located inside the hood allowing you to use the mouse and keyboard without any wires.
The HP Z1 Workstation isn’t just available on bulk order for the enterprise market but will also be made available over the counter for consumers who want a desktop solution that even mom can take apart. It retails in the PHP 80,000.00 and thereabouts.
