Following the announcement that the Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition has become part of the Nexus line as the Galaxy S4 Nexus for sporting a vanilla or raw version of Android Jellybean, local online gadget store Widget City has slashed down the price of the Google Nexus 4.

Though the main listing page still shows a price tag of Php20,490.00, the slashed down price of Php14,990 will appear once you hit the check out button.

Google Nexus 4 Specs

With this, expect to see a lot more Nexus 4 on the street as the previously local prices have pushed back others who are thinking they are being ripped off when the Nexus 4 is much cheaper in the US.

Now how much money do I have the bank again?

True to their promise, PC giant Hewlett-Packard has finally made available their latest attempt at getting a slice of the lucrative tablet market – the HP Slate 7.

First announced in February, the 7-inch tablet sports an ARM A9 Dual Core chip running at 1.6Ghz and has Beats Audio to boot. This is HP’s first device to run on Android OS and sports the latest version, Jelly Bean.

Check out the full specs below:
ARM A9 Dual Core @ 1.6Ghz
1GB of RAM, 8GB of eMMC
7-inch HFFS wide angle LCD @ 1024×600, 170ppi
Capacitive touchscreen
Wi-Fi b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1
One cell 13.4WHr 2 Ah lithium-ion battery (up to 5 hours)
3MP rear camera, VGA front camera
Micro SD up to 32GB
Micro USB for file transfer
Accelerometer
3.5mm audio jack
Stereo speakers
Built-in mic
Beats Audio

The HP Slate 7 is priced to go head to head with the competition at $169 USD. It is now available in the US. There’s no word yet as to when or if it will be officially released here in the Philippines.

Will the Hp Slate 7 redeem HP’s fortunes in the mobile computing market? It’s too early to tell, but the Slate 7 is definitely a step in the right direction.

I can’t recall exactly when it started, but about 3 weeks ago, I noticed that whenever I watched a video on YouTube it would be littered with yellow snowy pixels all over.

The annoying snowy pixels were present only in Chrome but not when I used Firefox. This was the first time I encountered such an issue in the 6 years that I have been using Linux. A quick Google search led me to the culprit.

It was the flash plugin named “pepper flash” or “out-of-process” that caused the yellow snow pixels on YouTube videos. Disabling the darn thing resolved the issue.

Simply type in “chrome://plugins” on a blank tab of Chrome, under the section Adobe Flash Player you’d find the a line that says “Location: /opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so” and simply disable it.

You’d now be able to enjoy YouTube in all its glory.

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A few days ago, my wife and I saw again Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol on HBO. She was so hooked into it, she wanted to watch the earlier three films.

While watching Ghost Protocol, she asked me why wasn’t I fond of the Mission Impossible franchise? In all honesty, I told her that for some unclear reason, it never grew or rubbed on me that Mission Impossible is a must-watch movie.

It’s not that the movie sucks, on the contrary, it’s one of biggest action film franchises in Hollywood. I’d easily describe it as America’s answer to Britain’s James Bond of which I am a real fan.

And that’s probably why I am neutral towards Mission Impossible, I grew up watching more Bond films than seeing each and every installment of Mission Impossible as they were released that when I saw bits and parts of it, (Ghost Protocol is the only film I saw in its entirety) I cannot help but stack it up against a Bond film.

So, after grabbing a copy of the first three Mission Impossible films, we’ve set up a movie date night to watch each one.

Last night, we saw Mission Impossible II which was released back in 2000. This is the installment that I am more familiar with because Limp Bizkit contributed a kick-ass song based on the films’ signature beat to its soundtrack, Take a look around.

It was also then that I remember seeing at least half of the film on HBO a few years ago because I distinctly recalled the motorcycle chase scene near the end of the movie. I knew it was directed by John Woo because of the way Ethan Hunt swirled around, ala-Kung Fu style, before he shot his gun at the enemies. That’s signature John Woo action directing.

I have yet to see Mission Impossible III but so far, Ethan Hunt’s adventures are fun to watch and there are indeed some brilliant moments in the films. At this point, I would dare say that no one has topped John Woo’s work in Mission Impossible II and that the producers should keep this in mind when they start working on Mission Impossible 5.

Now relax, this blog post will not self-destruct in 5 seconds.

Call it an internet meme or not, this little exercise is a lot of fun to do mainly because you get to go down memory lane again and look back at all the previous mobile phones you have owned or used in the past.

It may reveal how old you are, but it will show you how far mobile phone technology has gone and it can offer as to what the future may hold.

For me, it all started in 1999 just before I graduated from elementary school when my grandfather gave me my first mobile phone as a gift. From then on it was ride from Siemens, to Nokia, to SonyEricsson to LG to BlackBerry and to the present, an HTC device.

So without further adieu, here’s the list of all of the mobile phones I’ve ever owned and used:

• Siemens C25
• Nokia 3210
• Nokia 3310
• Nokia 3595
• Sony Ericsson K800i
• LG Optimus One
• BlackBerry Curve 8520
• BlackBerry Bold 9700
• HTC One V

On average, I used a phone for two years. The longest one I’ve used was the SonyEricsson K800i which I bought using my own money. The K800i was more than a phone, it was a point-and-shoot camera and a personal organizer rolled in one sleek and sexy design.

All of my Nokia phones were either handed down to me by my relatives or given to me as a gift. Though I forgot what happened to my Siemens C25, I distinctly remember the pain in the eyes whenever I checked my Nokia 3210 in the middle of the night because of its two signature white backlights. It was brighter than an ordinary flashlight!

The LG Optimus One was my very first touch-screen phone running on Android. Instantly, I became an Android fan. Though in between my first and current Android phone, I spent a few years using BlackBerry phones which I loved because of its physical keyboard and how it never failed in handling my office email. However, with RIM struggling to keep its devices on the same pace as the iPhone and Android phones, it was only logical that I switch back to Android upon leaving BlackBerry behind.

So at present, I have an HTC One V running on Ice Cream Sandwich. I wished it was running on the stock version but the HTC Sense 4.0 UI remains the best skin for Android up to date. As to what would be my next phone? Definitely it’s still going to run on Android but it would be Jelly Bean, as for the model and make, the jury is still out on this one.