There’s a lot of life left in the PS3 even post-E3 and that’s saying a lot. As the current generation of consoles come to a close, the PS3 has aged gracefully. While Sony is set to release the PS4 this November, they’ve given gamers a sweet parting gift — The Last of Us. Developed by Naughty Dog (in my opinion the best AAA-game studio developer also responsible for the Uncharted series), this PS3-exclusive has a hype that truly does justice to the actual product, from more than two years of previews, teasers, live-action trailers and let’s play videos. It’s finally here.

Pricing: Steelbook Edition PHP 2,595.00 (with X-Play retailers mentioned at the bottom)

N.B. X-Play is not the exclusive distributor of The Last of Us in the Philippines.

The Last of Us XPLAY

Several weeks ago I reviewed the first BlackBerry 10 handheld to hit local shores, the BB Z10. It was essentially the Canadian company’s foray into a revamped OS to keep up with the ever-changing market. In that review I basically spelled out how the new OS is both condemning and innovative: the new OS doesn’t provide any new innovation that makes it stand out (unless of course you’re a BlackBerry Hub loyalist in which case my argument is moot) but it also has something great going for it — Android compatibility. This is what I had to say back then regarding that:

The secret has been out for a while. BlackBerry OS10 is Android-compatible. To an extent. Nope, it doesn’t run an iteration of Android. Rather, OS10 can run an emulation of Android within its own operating system in the same way that a Macintosh can run Windows using Parallels. A huge number of Android apps are compatible with the Z10 and this is done through a method known as “side loading” the apps into the phone. To side load means to install applications from a USB cable from the computer as opposed to “OTA” or “over the air” which is the typical way we download apps from the Android Play Store or the iTunes Store. CrackBerry has a detailed guide if you are interested (for Mac and PC).

From the paragraph above I was able to install Instagram and make it work successfully.

The BlackBerry Q10 is really the same beast. Although instead of 16 icons, it can only accomodate 12 given that 50% of its real estate is allocated to the QWERTY keypad. Here’s a stumping moment as I used it: I hated touch screen keyboards but was forced to use them because of the advent of Android and iOS. My non-Android phone before I switched was a Nokia E72 which was pretty much the form factor of the Q10. My fingers trembled when I tried to press the buttons. And that sucked. Was I just too used to a touch screen? The journalist beside me also experienced the same thing, so it was like a road trip to nostalgia and then my efforts were challenged by phone use behavior that I used to swear by. Mind blowing. This definitely isn’t a minus for the Q10 because a physical keypad is something we definitely need and with due practice, I can get my texting fingers back.

Other than that, it’s essentially the same phone with great features listed below and it won’t take much convincing to get a BlackBerry fan back into the action. And hey, LTE. That’s always welcome. Again, read my Z10 review because the features are essentially the same. The Q10 just has a very well crafted keypad.

On a related note, BlackBerry Philippines now has a service center (which I happened to pass by) located near the fire house in Makati. This is welcome news. It took me 2 years to have my BlackBerry Pearl serviced about 6 years ago because they had to ship it to Canada. At least now, service is really just nearby.

BlackBerry 10 1 Media Alert FINAL 05132013

Presenting … the Emperor of Energy. The Principal of Power. The Baron of Batteries. This is one sick charging dock on wheels for 10 iPads. Meant for the office or school setting, the MultiCharger-X is really built for tablet-centric organizations (or for people who just really have money to spare!).

For schools, the charging dock allows you to sync with one computer for transferring files. But really, it’s 10 chargers on wheels with a safety lock. Yours for PHP 40,000.

Contact the distributor below for details.

Multiple iPad Charger for Schools by Jayvee

CG intro, plants (and more plants!) and the hint of time travel with the neat Back to the Future reference. It’s about time for Plants vs Zombies 2! However — based on the details on the website, the game will be launched exclusively on iOS for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch this coming July 2013.

Regarding the exclusivity, a Popcap representative had this to say:

I will keep putting this info out there today but I want the community to know, we are only exclusive to Apple first. We have plenty more info to hand out just not quite yet. When I have more news to share, I will indeed. And we are reading your comments and understand your concerns. That’s why I keep trying to post replies in here so you all know what’s up!

So it seems that the word “exclusive” actually means first to launch and that it should be available on other devices (Mac, PC, Android) after a period of time.

Congratulations to Joyce de Vera who made use of the Camera360 + Cymera combo. Joyce, we will be in touch for your prize. Thank you!

“I first used a camera app Camera360 while taking our photos in Jollibee, to have an amazing effect such as Magic Skin – Glossy. Then I used Cymera to add more effects and it is the best camera app for the portraits. It has everything I need in a camera and photo editor to help me create photos by applying hand-picked filters and the best beauty effects, run through our own face detection technology.I was with my eldest sister that time. We had our late lunch in Jollibee.

We ordered Jollibee value meals: Jolly Hotdog Classic, Yum! with Cheese, 2 large fries, 2 cups of Sarsi, and for our dessert, we had 2 MILO Mix-In Cookie Berry and Pretzel Krunch. It was my first time to try it out and I was definitely surprised. For only P38, this dessert is definitely awesome! My sister and I enjoyed our meals and the time we spent together in Jollibee because of its coziness atmosphere. Hopefully, we’re going back there this week to buy MILO Mix-In for our family. Thank you.”

For those who joined, thank you! You can still an awesome experience by going to the nearest Jollibee store and have a Milo Mix-in sundae. They come in two variants: the creamy Jollibee ice cream choco cookies mixed in with pretzels and MILO, or you can opt for a Mix In with strawberry syrup, cookies and MILO if you want a more fruity tang. These desserts cost PHP 38.00 a cup and are available nationwide.

You can win this for you and your dad!

Fathers Day is still several calendar days away but our fine friends from MSI-ECS (ZTE Philippines and Genius) have decided to start the daddy celebrations this early! We are giving away the following prizes:

1. FIRST PRIZE: A pair of ZTE V956 Android smartphones (one for you and one for dad!)
2. SECOND PRIZE: Genius GX-Gaming SW 2.1 Speakers (700 watts)
3. THIRD PRIZE: Genius Gaming Headset and SPi250G Portable Speakers

The contest mechanics:

1. This contest is not a raffle.
2. Upload or email your memorable photo(s) with dad and add a caption. Multiple entries permitted.
2.1 You may upload on Instagram / Twitter but use the hashtag #msiecs_thanksdad.
2.2 If you are going to email, please send to BOTH mgranil (at) msi-ecs dot com dot ph and jayvee.fernandez (at) gmail dot com
3. This contest is open till June 20 2013
4. MSI ECS will upload all the entries to their Facebook page for all to see.
5. **Not a requirement** but you can also follow me: @jayveef (Instagram) and @jayvee (Twitter)
Criteria for winners:

1. 50% number of votes (likes on the photo)
2. 50% decision of ABL

Winners will be announced on June 24 2013.

You may click on the photo above to see the mechanics as well.

EDIT: Clarification that there are two models available.

OK let’s get this out of the way first: for a pair of these noise cancelling cans, prepare to plop down PHP 15,720 for them. There is a lower 1000 series (PHP 8,910) and a higher 3000 series with the noise cancellation technology. It comes in a nice protective bag too.

Almost nobody has beard of Fanny Wang in the Philippines. But these guys have been around for a while and have always been an established global brand. Last year I did a quick preview of their headphones but failed to post a real hands on. This year I found out that the MSI-ECS group will be heavily distributing these amazing set of cans.

For the steep price of headphones, what do you get? For one, it comes in a super elegant and practical fit case complete with lanyard and storage pouch for your cables. Outside the flashy exterior colors, Fanny Wang delivers impressive audio quality with three settings: “normal” (which is basically your vanilla setting), “active noise cancelling mode” which blocks off 95% of other sounds and a similar setting but with better bass. Warning: wearing these w/ noise cancelling turned on will really block off noise from external sources so you will barely hear other people trying to talk to you in their regular tone of voice with music playing. Turned on with nothing playing in the background is … deafening. Yes, the silence can be deafening and to be honest I use this mode (with no music) when I really need to get down with serious writing assignments.

At its current price point, this is one of the more affordable noise cancelling earphones in the market today. High end models will set you back by around PHP 20,000 or more. I won’t pretend to be an audio expert — my knowledge of audio output devices isn’t as verbose as what I do with phones, but I can definitely say that these headphones make for a good case, especially for video gaming. I would honestly suggest trying these first and then decide if the noise cancelling feature is worth your money.

Oh and just one more thing — Fanny Wang headphones come with a special audio jack — it comes with a second 3.5mm input hole which lets you insert a second pair of headphones. You can now listen to the same music with a friend with 2 pairs of headphones!

Fanny Wang 1000 series Stylish and Professional Headphones

SONY sent over their new Walkman saying “you don’t need to review it, but you can keep it!” And I was like, “wait this product is too impressive to not review!” And oh, thanks SONY. So here it is. This is the Walkman you’ve been waiting for. Yes it is waterproof and it doesn’t come with wires but you don’t need to be an active joe to need one.

In a nutshell: this is what the iPod shuffle would have looked like if SONY made it. And it’s way better.

First off, let us look at some specs:

4GB internal memory
No frills music transferring via USB (no DRM or anything like that)
iTunes compatible
Mac and PC Compatible
Proprietary magnetic charger with integrated USB cable
In-ear ports of varying sizes

No wires. That’s the main value proposition with this PHP 4,999 MP3 player. The hardware is built into both the left and the right earpieces. Technology really allows it to become less bulky, so yay, science! The right earpiece houses the on / off button (audible sound cues tell you it is being turned on), the play / pause button and the forward / backward track button. The right earpiece also contains the magnetic charger which docks into a proprietary USB charging station. On the left earpiece, we have the Playlist and Shuffle functions, which I honestly don’t use.

ProTip: because it uses a magnetic charger, please have a can of WD40 to grease the contact points of both devices once you’ve finished a workout, especially if you went swimming with this thing.

The NWZ-270 is waterproof but please don’t use this while snorkeling because it may crack with the slightest pressure. Since a pillar of water is a great medium to transmit sound, the NWZ-270 is not ideal for this situation. If you want to snorkel with music (why?!) I suggest you pick up an H2O Audio SCUBA pack for your iPod. But, if you’re going to use this for swimming on a lap pool or in the shower (like meeee!!!) then by all means go!

Also, this Walkman is great for runners or gym work. No dangling parts.

Should you buy it? I say yes, if you’re always out there. It’s really a no brainer. Just please don’t use this while walking late at night because you might get mugged.

Why he won: After going through hundreds of entries, I was able to visualize Laurence San Pedro’s entry because of the cool image he attached as a Twitter card. Although this wasn’t a requirement in the contest, the extra effort paid off. It was the most unique way to present the answer to the contest question.

Congratulations Laurence San Pedro! We will be in touch so you can pick up the iPad from SMART Communications.

——————

OMG it’s been 10 years! Addict Mobile represent! Entering my very first job (in real estate, can you believe?!) I wanted to feel like a responsible adult who’s new to the workforce so the first thing I did after signing my employment certificate was to apply for a post-paid line. I was actually already a SMART sub back then but through prepaid and the main reason why I stuck to this network was their competitor had an odd billing system which had this thing called “dollar conversion” and it didn’t quite make sense because my bill would fluctuate every month. So budget conscious me killed it and took a risk with a postpaid line with SMART. And a Nokia 3650. OMG, do you remember this phone? It was the phone with the weird circular keypad and despite having an odd layout, I could text really fast on it! 3650 + Addict Mobile reprezzzent!!!

Do you remember this phone??

It’s been ten years and I haven’t looked back. I’m happy to have been a partner with SMART through this blog for the past 3 years. Back in the day, when blogs didn’t exist and there was no such thing as digital marketing or online brand ambassadors, I was supporting them. One of the things I particularly loved was their retention plan — that every 1 1/2 years they would make me eligible for a new phone. Believe it or not, I’ve never bought a new phone since 2003. That’s mainly due to the retention plan that my network gives me. New phone every two years or so.

So today, on the anniversary of my 10th year, I’ll be giving away one of the most coveted gadgets to date: the 4th generation iPad with Retina Display (16GB) which is also available through SMART’s LTE plans! Want to win this? Check out the Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The mechanics are posted on the Rafflecopter page, and I suggest you enter the contest through there because it’s much easier to monitor. But if you want to do it through here, that’s fine too:

1. Follow these accounts on Twitter:

@jayvee (that’s me!)
@SmartCares
@SmartPromos

2. Answer the question:

How can #SmartLTEiPad make you live more? (Please include the #SmartLTEiPad hashtag. No hashtag, no entry. Multiple entries are valid.)

3. I will be looking through the entries and will be choosing one winner come the 25th of the month so keep those entries coming! This contest is valid for PH residents only. A valid ID will be asked of you to pick up the prize.

For those of you who are planning on getting an iPad mini or iPad w/ Retina display under the new LTE plans, you can check out this detailed guide for the plans and costs:

Every other tech blog has made the ‘Diamond pun’ so here’s mine: this post has taken forever to write (because diamonds last forever). So yes, this is late. Like one month late. The Starmobile Diamond was released back in April and has been making the rounds among the many lifestyle and tech blogs. About two weeks ago I had lunch with Starmobile’s Consumer Marketing Head, Katrina Tioseco, President Michael Chen and Asst. Brand Manager Paula Rivera. Immediate discussions naturally revolved around the state of the phone industry, local blogs and yes, SCUBA diving (as Katrina is also a licensed SCUBA diver). I swear, diving is the new golf.

For those unaware, the Diamond is Starmobile’s current flagship phone. The ‘before’ standard for smartphones scratching the PHP 10,000 price point would be a screen roughly 4″ with your typical generic China-OEM specs like a shitty camera. It is a relief that many local manufacturers have raised the bar in terms of quality while maintaining competitive price points. Starmobile is the poster child of such a phenomenon as the phones are designed locally (they are a local startup) but manufactured in China. Outsourcing OEM’s is a normal thing for these more affordable brands but Michael and Katrina have been harping the fact that what separates them from the rest is their QA testing and “small things” such as being able to cram more characters into one SMS vs other brands (and that’s a big deal if you’re on prepaid) that divide text messages into several messages.

Essentially, unlike many brands that simply do a “shopping cart” of looking through phones in a conveyor belt in China and then branding them, Starmobile designs the phones they want to spec such as the finish (type of material such as glass, plastic or metal) and other modifications and then have the devices built. This gives them better control over quality and flexibility with the phones that they intend to release in response to market trends.

For less than PHP 10,000, you can avail of an Android powered high resolution 5-in screen with a non-shitty 12MB IBS camera with dual core power. If you’re the type of person who goes for Antutu benchmarks, it definitely isn’t the best in class with a 5,609 score BUT that’s not the point. For a sub-10k phone, it’s nifty. It’s elegant and I can’t help but stress how beautiful the screen is. See specs below.

Summary

If you’re looking for an affordable smartphone that also doubles as a good media player, the 5-in Diamond with scratch-proof IPS display will definitely amaze you. I wish the 2000mAh battery were slightly bigger – perhaps 2500 to 3000mAh and this would add so much more value to the phone. But as it is, the Diamond is, for lack of a better term, solid.

Pros
- huge screen with sharp resolutions; definitely one of the best in its class
- overall design
- non-generic camera courtesy of the BSI flash technology

Cons
- battery life suffers due to the nice screen (bring a portable charger!)

Starmobile Diamond Packs the following:

Dual-SIM Dual Standby
1.0GHz Dual Core
PowerVR SGX531 GPU
5-inch scratch resistant IPS LCD display (720×1,280)
12MP rear camera w/ IBS for low light
3MP front camera
2000mAh battery
1GB RAM
4GB internal storage
microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
Android Jelly Bean (v4.1.1)