CM Storm, the gaming arm of Coolermaster is proud to support our Philippine Point Blank team. CM Storm FGW as they represent our country on May 26-27 at Indonesia for the Pointblank 2012 International Championship. Nine countries will be battling itt for the top prize of USD15,000.

CM Storm FGW has conquered the local Pointblank scene by winning the Nationals at Dmination 6 last April 21, 2012 at The World Trade Center and has been a team to reckon with in the FPS game genre.

About CM Storm

CM Storm, the gaming brand of Coolermaster, the world leader in computer thermal, power and mobile accessories manufacturer, has been supporting the e-sports scene for the past years by providing award winning designs like mechanical keyboards (Quickfire & Trigger), gaming mouse (Xornet & Sentinel), headsets (Sirus & Sonuz) and desktop enclosures (Enforcer & Trooper)

Be sure to cheer and support our local team CM Storm FGW by visiting :

http://www.facebook.com/CMPhilippines

http://www.facebook.com/stormgear

https://www.facebook.com/FGW.CMStorm

Asiasoft Online was responsible for bringing the popular 2D MMORPG Maple Story to Southeast Asia as well in the Philippines announced that they will be introducing the Legends patch (which will be the first patch release to the Philippines) for Maple Story. This was held last May 3, 2012 at Be Connected, Greenbelt 1, Makati.

The latest patch will bring new quests, three whole new character classes and an improved user interface.

The Legends patch will composed of four parts and they will be released in the following:

• Legends – Prelude (released on April 5)
• Legends – Cannon Shooter (released on May 14)
• Legends – Mercedes (release on May 30)
• Legends – Demon Slayer (release on July)

The new character classes will bring a new kind of gaming experience for the Maple Story players, let’s take a look at the descriptions of the three:

Cannon Shooter

• Uses a Hand Cannon as a main weapon.
• Has a monkey that follow him, it can provide quests, job advancement information and is linked to some of the Cannon Shooter’s skills.

Mercedes

•  She is a Hero type class.
• You can pick a different gender for the Mercedes class.
• She uses a new special weapon called the Dual Bow Gun and an off-hand weapon called the Mercedes Arrow.
• She only has a second job advancement at level 30, when reaching level 10, 70 and 120, the advancement will be implemented automatically without taking any advancement quests.
• You can use the Pegasus mounts that can be obtain at levels 70 and 120.

Demon Slayer

• He is the first dark Maple Story character .
• He can equip any Warrior type equipments.
• His primary stats is STR and the secondary is DEX.
• He uses Demon Fury (DF) to use his skills instead of the traditional MP.
• He cannot use potions to recover life, he can regenerate his life as times passes by or by attacking enemies and absorbing their life force.
• No gender lock for the Demon Slayer
• Uses a one-hand Axe or Blunt weapon and a unique item called the Force Shield.
• Can customize with different face paints.
• Can use Demons Wings at levels 30 and 120.

We tried testing the new characters during the launch event and we find it really interesting. The Cannon Shooter felt like an ordinary range character at first, but once you use your cannon while jumping to increase your jumping height, it felt like like those classic platform games, and along with the cool skills like the one where you can summon a massive ship to rain havoc.

Next is the Mercedes, playing as this character reminds me more of Devil May Cry, as she can do aerial attacks and skills as well as doing a launching attack skills where you can make a combo in midair.

And finally for the Demon Slayer, it has that Warrior feel to it as you can gain Demon Fury points by attacking, and using his dash move can damage any monster from it’s path, as well as the ability to absorb life from enemies you attacked.

It’s interesting to see despite after being release more than five years ago, Maplestory still have a large community and they still new content up to this day.

For more details on the game, visit their official website at http://maple.asiasoftsea.com/index

The critical role of apps in differentiating hardware platforms, the dramatic expansion and transformation of emerging markets – such as Turkey, China, and India – plus LTE and Cloud computing for the emerging mobile enterprise market will all be among the hot technology topics discussed by industry leaders and key innovators at the Computex Taipei Innovation Forum 2012.

The forum aims to spur innovation, and to create new consumer markets and niche service models across the ICT Eco Chain, the vertical supply chain of the industry which includes ICs, hardware, software, distributors and service providers. The forum takes place on Tuesday 5 June, 2012 in Taipei, Taiwan, on the first day of the Computex show. Keynote addresses include “Networked Society – A New Generation Innovation” from Arun Bhikshesvaran, Ericsson’s Chief Marketing Officer.

“The rapid proliferation of high performance mobile and fixed broadband networks, increasing adoption of smart devices and innovative applications and services is shaping our lives and the world that we live in today”, says Bhikshesvaran. In his keynote address, Bhikshesvaran will be explaining how smartphones and tablets have changed the way we deal with information sources throughout the day, leading to behaviors that are very different from both voice-centric mobile phones and power-hungry laptops.

Applications that enable new experiences and reduce friction for business have been introduced in many industries including retail, travel, banking, healthcare, education and transportation. The combined benefit across leading global cities has been studied and documented in Ericsson’s Networked Society City Index.

In addition to reviewing the key aspects of this index, Bhikshesvaran’s talk will cover emerging opportunities for innovation in the areas of communications services, network-enabled cloud and industry verticals leading to the Networked Society. These opportunities will build on the capabilities of the current ecosystem of hardware manufacturers, applications and software developers and business process experts leading to new experiences and efficiencies.

The Computex Taipei Innovation Forum is a B2B forum that joins 500 qualified industry professionals, including designers, engineers, R&D leaders and more, from an array of global ICT companies. The forum platforms the latest devices, systems and service models that are enhancing innovative collaboration across countries, industries and technologies. Spotlight topics at this year’s event include new visual communication, mobile computing, LTE, ultra high-definition video, and cloud applications. The forum focuses on the critical knowledge and strategies needed to compete in today’s globally competitive market.

Other morning keynote addresses will include: “Future Prospects of LTE – Advanced for a Smarter City” from Seizo Onoe, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the R&D Strategy Department at NTT DOCOMO, and “Realizing the Value of High Performance Mobile Computing”, from Rob Chandhok, Senior Vice President at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.

In addition, Philippe Lambinet, Corporate Strategy Officer at STMicroelectronics, will deliver an address titled “The Next Step in Multimedia Convergence: Tomorrow Today”, and NVIDIA’s Ujesh Desai will speak on “The Dawn of a New Era in Computing”.

The opening speech of the event will be “New Visual Communication Experience in Smart Life”, from Hirotoshi Uehara of Panasonic’s AVC Networks Company.

Subjects covered in afternoon events will include trusted solutions, 3G and LTE measurement standards, the networked society, new HD and home network connectivity, telematics cloud service solutions, gesture recognition, and super high resolution glasses-free 3D displays.

The day will be rounded off with a panel discussion on the theme: “Building Hubs that Serve Manufacturers and Consumers for the Emerging Market”, moderated by Yuji Inoue, Chairman of the Toyota InfoTechnology Center.

About Computex Taipei 2012 and the Computex Taipei Innovation Forum

The Innovation Forum takes place on the first day of the Computex Taipei 2012 show, which runs from June 5th to 9th 2012. Now in its 31st year, Computex is the world’s second largest computer show, and Asia’s largest. Computex is one of the world’s key technology events, featuring the latest products and services from global technology manufacturers and innovators. Learn more about Computex at www.computextaipei.com.tw

The venue for the Computex Taipei Innovation Forum 2012 is the Taipei World Trade Center, Exhibition Hall 1, 2nd Floor, Rooms 3, 4 and 5. The forum takes place on Tuesday 5 June. The Innovation Forum is sponsored by the Bureau of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council. Find out more about the Innovation Forum at www.computexif.com

Giada, a brand of Shenzhen Jiehe Technology Development Co., Ltd – one of the largest manufacturers of digital products, graphics cards, and motherboards in China – is attending Computex 2012 in Taipei, Taiwan – from June 5 to June 9, 2012. Giada will be showcasing its range of Mini PCs and compact motherboards at the Nangang Exhibition Hall in Taipei, in booth M1033a.

Visit Giada (Shenzhen Jiehe Technology Development Co., Ltd.) at Computex 2012:
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Hall: Nangang Exhibition Hall
Booth No: M1033a

This year at Computex, Giada will be featuring two low-power, space-saving Mini PCs, the Uni-BOX U70 and the new i53, as well as the new MI-HM77T/NI-HM77T motherboard.

About Giada

It’s practically impossible to give a comprehensive review of Diablo 3 right at this moment, seeing as how we’ve only played it for four to five hours. What we can do for now is to share a brisk narrative based on what we’ve observed in the game so far and (hopefully) build on that later on.

With that out of the way, here is the first thing I can tell you about Diablo 3. Complete, utter chaos. But this is not about the game itself. If you haven’t heard already, the launch of Diablo 3 was utterly and completely spoiled by the total lack of preparation on Blizzard’s part.

To their credit, Blizzard took action as fast as they possibly could and pulled in as many servers as they can conjure up to accommodate the throngs of enraged players. The good news is that Diablo 3 is now ready to take on all comers, but Blizzard is still hedging its bets by saying that they are still “keeping an eye out” for more problems which are likely to crop up.

But enough about the launching day woes. Diablo 3 looks to redeem itself by offering a very satisfying gaming experience, as expected. I especially loved the combat system, although the skill system has a rather steep learning curve. If you’re an absolute beginner, Diablo 3 can be a bummer, but veterans will be able to jump in right away learn the newer aspects as they go.

But I did observe a rather upsetting thing. It seems as if the skill system in Diablo 3 has been bumped up to the point where your weapon is becoming more and more useless as you level up. There are lots of powerful skills to earn even at the lower rungs of the leveling ladder, so much so that using your weapon can sometimes feel like a hindrance instead of an advantage.

I also don’t like the idea of using the auction houses. I decided to buy an axe to see how it could affect my character and my gameplay, and I got the most powerful one that was available for my current level. After spending some time with this new axe equipped, I discovered that I couldn’t pick up anything else that could come close to this auction house bad boy. The loot system in the game will almost certainly be rendered impractical and meaningless by buying your weapons in auction houses.

*gameplay video during beta weekend*

Mark your calendars, as the very first Vocaloid event in the Philippines is set on May 20, 2012 and it will be called VocaFusion. The venue will be at the Function Room 1, The SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia.

The purpose of the event is to introduce to the Filipinos about Vocaloid; which is a software that let users synthesize singing by inputting lyrics and melodies. With this program, people creating create songs, with the positive impact of the software, it has evolved into a new culture and spawned communities that focused on the software itself.

There will be band performances, dance competitions, voice acting contest, cosplay catwalks, mini-games and special guests that are famous in the Vocaloid Community and in Nico Nico Douga such as Osamuraisan, That, Rerulili/ToushahiP, Jesuke and Min-Chan.

There are also booths at the event for the Vocaloids fan to cater on. The entrance fee is PhP 200.

And yes, the Reimaru Files team will be there to cover this one-of-a-kind awesome event. So be there  as it happens.

By the way, we created this poster to promote VocaFusion, if you like the poster, please do share it to your friends to promote the event.

If you are looking for the official poster, you can check out VocaFusion’s official Facebook Page and from their official website for the full details of the event.

Yep it’s May 15 and we what that means, it”s the launch day for Diablo III. Fans have waited for this RPG for a decade now and let’s see how the Pinoy fans are doing during the release day.

We stumbled at Datablitz at the Podium in Ortigas in the afternoon to check out how many people are preparing to buy the game, and it turns out that some people are already at the store waiting in line to get their hands at the game. The management at Datablitz in Podium were kind enough to let us take some photos of people lining up to buy Diablo III.

Next we checked the people at the SM Megamall in the evening, and there are a lot of people in line just to buy the game, and for some weird reasons, the management there does not allow photos at the store, well too bad for that.

Well anyway we heard some news that the Diablo III servers are having problems due to the enormous amount of players logging in simultaneously, as a result players are receiving an Error 37 message whenever they try to access the game.

source: kotaku

Another issue is a discovered bug where if you equip a specific shield to your Templar follower, you will encounter an Error 3006 message and boot you out of the game, and the worst part, you can’t return to the game until Blizzard release a patch to fix the problem. *edit: this only happens to Demon Hunter users

Best advise for players is to be more patient for the bugs to be fixed and for servers to be stable, or better wait for a few more days before you play the game, but then again after 12 years of waiting, can you guys resist waiting for a few more days to experience a better game?

A few days ago Apple released iOS 5.1.1 for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. This update contains some changes to HDR photography from the lock screen, along with some fixes regarding purchasing and Safari.

The details:

• Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
• Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
• Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
• Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
• Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase

Also, there was an update regarding the Webkit Engine (the browser engine that powers Google Chrome and Safari):

• WebKit Available for: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation) and later, iPad, iPad 2Impact: Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to a cross-site scripting attackDescription: Multiple cross-site scripting issues existed in WebKit.CVE-IDCVE-2011-3046 : Sergey Glazunov working with Google’s Pwnium contest

  CVE-2011-3056 : Sergey Glazunov

• WebKit Available for: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation) and later, iPad, iPad 2Impact: Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code executionDescription: A memory corruption issue existed in WebKit.CVE-IDCVE-2012-0672 : Adam Barth and Abhishek Arya of the Google Chrome Security Team

Via Techsideout

It looks like Filipino fans of the Gundam franchise will be able to watch the fifth episode of Gundam Unicorn in a local cinema. An image from Club Gunpla shows that there will be a scheduled screening of the episode on May 27, 2012 from 10:00AM untill 1:00PM at the SM North EDSA Cinema 5.

In order to get a ticket for the screening, you need to purchase any Gunpla products worth PhP 300 from Toy Kingdom and/or Toy Kindgom Express (Metro Manila, Cavita, Bulacan and Pampanga area only). Alternatively, you can get two tickets if you join the 2012 Gundam Model Kit Contest at the The Block Atrium at SM City North EDSA.

You can redeem the tickets during the Gundam Model Kit Contest from May 19 to 26, 2012.

For more info on the special screening, head on to Club-Gunpla’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Club.Gunpla

Along with the screening of Episode 5: The Black Unicorn, they will also screen Episode 4: At The Bottom of The Gravity Well at the same schedule.

Gundam UC Episode 5 will premiere in Japan in selected cinemas on May 19, 2012. The DVD and Blu-Ray release is on June 8, 2012