Should I buy the iPad Mini?

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October 27, 2012

Should I buy the iPad Mini? That is the question. iPad mini was filled with mix impressions. Steve Jobs once said that 10” is the minimum size for the tablets but Apple just broke that word from their founder and former CEO this week. To refresh your memory, the iPad Mini has a 7.9” display and it is powered by A5 processor which can be found on the iPhone 4s and iPad 2. The starting price of the iPad mini is quite steep at $329 (that’s around PHP14,000-PHP15,000). The iPad Mini is much larger compared to most Android competitors but the question still remains. Should I buy the iPad?

There are a lot of things on why you should and shouldn’t buy the iPad. And here are some points that I think that you should know before buying the iPad. You might change your mind about the iPad Mini after reading this. Here are some of the negative things that you should know before buying the iPad Mini.

The iPad Mini is expensive.

There are a lot of other tablets that you can buy for a much lower price. Well, it doesn’t have the same screen size as the iPad Mini but those Android tablets are $100 cheaper than this tablet. The Google Nexus 7 has a quad-core processor and a 7” screen with a higher resolution and it lacks a rear camera but this tablet starts at $199 (That’s the 8GB variant). $250-$299 should’ve been a sweet spot for this baby. There are other alternative Android tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0, Huawei Mediapad, Ainol tablets and many more. Oh and I almost forgot!, Windows RT tablets are coming to the market soon :).

A5 Processor + No Retina display

Those people who are already using an iPad 3 might be disappointed with the processor and the display. The A5 processor can be found on the iPhone 4s and the display might be a bit sucker than the iPad 3 but better than the iPad 2. Apple should’ve put an A5x processor inside. Oh and the iPad Mini is still at 4:3 ratio display. That sucks.

And here are the things that might want you to drool over the iPad Mini.

It’s more portable

Tablets are meant for portability and some people don’t want the Retina iPad because it doesn’t fit in their bags or purse. The iPad mini is much portable, lighter and slimmer than its bigger brother.

Apps + Games

Most iPad apps and games will work on the iPad mini thanks to the same 1024 x 768 resolution. Oh and I think, it will be more comfortable to play on this one since It has a smaller screen and thinner body. Well, a hands-on of the device could answer that question

If you ask me, well. Ughmmm. Well. I won’t buy the iPad mini. The price is too steep for me. I’ll rather buy an iPad 2 than this one since the iPad 2 has a larger screen. But like what I’ve said earlier, if you need an iPad that is much more portable and smaller then you have no choice but to get the iPad mini. No word on how much will it be in the Philippines and when will it be available on resellers.

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Smart’s Bite Into The Better Network Campaign: Smart iPhone 5 soon?

By

Jam Ancheta

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October 26, 2012

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Anne Curtis2 Bite Into The Better Network 650

We love Anne Curtis and Apple. Smart’s newest campaign just featured both. It’s literally an Apple, not the company that we love *ehem fanboys ehem*. Oh and it’s not just Anne who just took a bite of that Apple. Derek Ramsay, Apl.de.ap., Ramon Bautista, Luis Manzano & Cristalle Belo took a bite too. But c’mon guys! I think Smart just teased us of what’s coming and since it’s Apple, I guess Smart is teasing us with the next iPhone. Yep, it’s the iPhone 5. According to some of our trusted and not-so-trusted sources, the iPhone 5 will be launching this Mid-November to December in the Philippines. You can subscribe in this link if you’re curious about that “bite that Apple thing”. Oh and if you look at the URL (http://apps.smart.com.ph/12345). Yeah, 12345. I guess that’s just one of the clues that Smart will be bringing the iPhone 5 very soon. Ahm. Well, that is just my 2 cents. Since we love Anne, Let’s go back to Anne. Check out Anne’s Smart bite into the better network video after the break

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DTC Mobile EGO Review: The dual-sim QWERTY w/ Mobile TV

By

Jam Ancheta

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October 26, 2012

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Another affordable phone from DTC Mobile that features a QWERTY keyboard and a mobile TV is the DTC Mobile EGO. It features a larger display than the unit we previously reviewed, DTC Mobile GTV1 Stark. So what’s up with the Ego? Well some of the features that I really like about this phone is that there’s interchangeable keyboard covers and I think you can use spray paint on those keyboard covers to change the color of the covers yourselves. Anyway, this phone isn’t powered by Android but it packs a proprietary OS that is very similar to the DTC Mobile GTV1 Stark. Click on the link below to check out my short review of the phone.

The keyboard cover could easily be removed.

The large and comfortable QWERTY keyboard

As expected, the phone would have a body made up of plastic. The phone is very affordable so don’t expect an aluminum body or whatsoever. I love the QWERTY keys of the phone, it’s very comfortable to type on. The feel and experience is kinda similar to the Blackberry Curve. I love typing on this phone. (Well you could type on this phone soon when you won the raffle!). The phone is comfortable to hold too. People who loves to text gonna love this phone for sure.

At the front you can see the larger 2.2″ screen which has a small resolution. But at least this one has a bigger screen than the DTC Mobile GTV1 Stark. The keys are big and like I said, it is easier to type on this phone than any other phones that I’ve tried. The keys are comparable to Blackberry curve phones.

The Back cover

At the back, there’s the much better 1.3 Megapixel camera and the speaker grill. I like the glossiness back of the phone but it attracts a lot of fingerprints and smudge and I hate it so much. When you open the back cover, you can find the large 1500mAh battery, which is quite large for a phone like this. Because of the large capacity of the battery, the phone can last up to a lot of days. And of course, there’s the dual sim slot inside along with the MicroSD card slot which is up to 4GB.

DAT LARGE 1500mAh BATTERY

Dual Sim and MicroSD card slot

The proprietary OS is very similar to the DTC mobile GTV1 Spark but some of the transitions were gone. I don’t think those transitions will affect your experience on the phone. Anyway, it has a Mobile TV feature too but in my place, it’s very hard to get a TV signal around here.

Ohh that’s the antenna

There are some games and Java apps and games will work on this phone. There’s Sudoku, Opera mini and some more apps that you can use. The Facebook and Yahoo messenger app on the phone will just lead you to their mobile website.

Micro-USB and 3.5mm audio jack

If you want to get a DTC Mobile Ego right now, check out their nearest kiosk. It’s now available for P1,899.00. That’s very affordable, I think. So what are you waiting for? Get one now!

Watch out! We’ll be raffling this phone soon!

Disclaimer: DTC Mobile Philippines gave us this phone for review and raffle.

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Globe Launches LTE Data Roaming, Now available in Hong Kong

By

Jam Ancheta

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October 25, 2012

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Globe LTE Roaming was launch at Manila Peninsula

This year has been filled with LTE news on different networks. And last Tuesday, We were invited by Globe to witness the launch of the first roaming LTE. Remember Tattoo Black? Yep, that is Globe’s offering for LTE broadbands and now they just launched the 4G LTE Roaming. Obviously, Globe Postpaid subscribers can only avail of this one since you’ll need to have a Globe LTE sim. Yeah, your prepaid sim won’t work on LTE.

Globe initially partners with China Mobile Hong Kong Company Limited for the LTE data roaming. They’re one of the biggest network worldwide if you didn’t know. Globe will also launch the 4G LTE Roaming in Korea too with SK Telecom. They said that it will cost you USD$10 for a day of 4G LTE Roaming at China Mobile.

Livestream of Hong Kong’s Skyline using Globe’s 4G LTE Roaming

Guys, don’t fret because the 4G LTE Roaming would arrive in Australia, Singapore, US, Japan, Canada and the Middle east very soon.

Mr. Ernest Cu, the President and CEO of Globe

It’s nice to see that there’s 4G LTE roaming in Hong Kong but I wish that there would be more LTE devices that’ll be coming to Globe aside from these devices:

Top L: HTC One XL | Top R: Huawei P1 Ascend LTE | Bottom L: Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE | Botton R: ZTE T81

If you’re in Hong Kong and you have a Globe LTE device with you, why don’t you check it out? LTE is pretty fast :).

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Nokia Lumia 510 Specifications and Price in the Philippines: The most affordable Lumia ever!

By

Jam Ancheta

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October 24, 2012

0

The Nokia Lumia 510 comes in 5 vivid colors

Here’s a very very affordable Windows Smartphone that’ll be coming to the Philippines very soon! The Nokia Lumia 510! Yep, the Nokia Lumia 510 is not their newest entry level Windows phone. Nokia really want to capture the low budget segment with this phone. So, what’s so special about this phone? First of all, the Nokia Lumia 510 got a 4-inch WVGA display. That’s pretty good considering that the phone would have a starting price of USD$199 (That’s below PHP10k!). There’s a 5 megapixel camera too but without flash. The Nokia Lumia 510 is just powered by Windows Phone 7.5 which will be updated to Windows phone 7.8 very soon (Sorry WP8 fans!).

Oh and the processor and the RAM is just similar to the Nokia Lumia 610. Yes, it will have the same 800mHz processor and a 256mb RAM so some Windows Phone apps might not work on this phone. But don’t worry folks, the Nokia Lumia 510 would have the Nokia apps that we all love like the Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive. I’m glad that Nokia decided to bring the Lumia phones to a much lower price points because not everybody could afford a smartphone in the Philippines. The Android phones are getting much cheaper these days especially those Android phones that came from China. As of this posting, the Nokia Lumia 510 is not yet available but it is expected to arrive in the Nokia Store this November

Nokia Lumia 510 Specifications and Price in the Philippines

Dimensions and Weight	120.7 x 64.9 x 11.5 mm, 129g
Display	4-inch WVGA 800×480 LCD
Processor	Snapdragon S1 800Mhz
RAM	256mb
Storage	4 GB
Camera	5 Megapixel Rear Camera
Bluetooth	Yes
NFC	No
Wi-Fi	Yes
Connectivity	HSDPA
Battery	1300mAh
Colors	Yellow, Cyan, Black, Red and White
Other features	Nokia apps
OS	Windows Phone 7.5
Price	USD$199 Excluding Taxes and subsidies. My guess is that the phone would be available for P9,000

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The iPad Mini is here: 7.9″ screen, A5 Processor & Thinner!

By

Jam Ancheta

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October 24, 2012

0

Here we go. The iPad Mini is here. The iPad Mini is expected to dominate the much affordable and smaller tablet segment. As expected, it will have a 7.9” screen. So what does the new iPad mini have to offer? Aside from the 7.9” screen which is larger than the Nexus 7 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0, which are both affordable. The iPad Mini’s 7.9” display has a resolution of 1024 x 768 which is similar to the iPad 2. I was quite disappointed not to see a resolution larger than 1280×800. The iPad Mini comes in two colors – White & Silver and Black & Slate. Yeah, just like the iPhone 5. The device is powered by the A5 processor which can be found on the iPhone 4s. Yeah, that’s another disappointment. I was hoping that this iPad Mini would be powered by at least A5x which can be found on the 3rd generation iPad.

Other features that can be found on the tablet are the 5 megapixel rear camera and the 1.2 megapixel front camera. Well nothing special about those things. Oh and these iPads also sports a lightning connector so if you still have those old iPod or iPhone cables. You might want to ditch them very soon. There’s optional LTE too if you want and of course, there’s the Nano-Sim tray for that. The iPad Mini is much thinner too at 7.2mm. I think that’s thinner than my SGS3.

It’s nice to see that Apple had decided to go on the below 10” tablet market. I’m sure that some people would prefer this size over the bigger Retina iPad which was also updated to today. I was quite disappointed to see that there’s still the small resolution display and they put in the old A5 processor. They should’ve at least made it to A5x. The starting price is kinda steep too at $329 (P14,000-P15,000). The iPad Mini isn’t available yet here in the Philippines (Check the Apple PH Online Store) but if you got some friends or relatives in the US, the pre-order will start at October 26 (US) and expect it to be ship by November 2. Well let’s hope that the iPad Mini would arrive in the Philippine shores very soon.

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Good Deal: Sony Xperia Sola for P9,950 at Online Store!

By

Jam Ancheta

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October 23, 2012

0

And just as what we expected, Dual core phones are getting cheaper day by day and here’s one of those dual core phones that got a very affordable price. The Sony Xperia Sola features floating touch that can detect your fingers even without touch the screen. This is only useful at web browsing, live wallpaper and some other apps that support it. So what are the other features that can be found on the Xperia Sola aside from the Dual core processor and floating touch? Well, the phone got some specs and features that can be mostly found on other midrange phones like the 5 megapixel camera that can record videos at HD 720p. Not bad for a phone with a price like that. If you want to know more about the specifications of the phone check out my post here. If you want the Sony Xperia Sola then get it at Widget City for P9,950.

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Lenovo K860 Specifications and Price in the Philippines: 5-inch quad core smartphone! at PHP20k!

By

Jam Ancheta

-

October 23, 2012

0

It is expected. 5″ phones are coming. I know that some of you guys are familiar with Lenovo especially in the desktop and laptop industry but they recently invaded the mobile space too. They have some very affordable phones out there and they just recently revealed their flagship phone that will arrive here in the Philippines — the Lenovo K860. So what’s up with this phone? This phone got a 5″ HD-IPS LCD. That’s pretty awesome right? But wait! there’s more! The phone got a 1.4 Ghz Quad Core Exynos 4412 processor too. Yep, that’s the processor that can be found on the SGS3. So expect that the performance of this phone would be similar to the Samsung Galaxy S3. I haven’t personally tried this phone but for its price, I think this phone is great. Too bad, the phone is still at ICS but I think this phone would be updated to Jelly Bean too.

Lenovo K860 Specifications

Dimensions and Weight	–
Display	5.0″ HD IPS-LCD 720 x 1280 pixels display
Processor	1.4 Ghz Quad-Core Exynos 4412 Processor
RAM	1 GB RAM
Storage	8 GB w/ MicroSD up to 32 GB
Camera	8 Megapixel AF Camera w/ Dual LED flash 1080p recording 2 Megapixel Front Camera
Bluetooth	Yes
NFC	–
Wi-Fi	Yes, Wi-Fi b/g/n
Connectivity	HSPA+
Battery	2250mAh
Colors	Black
Other features	Built-In Asphalt Game
OS	Android 4.0.4
Price	P19,999

Lenovo K860 Price in the Philippines
According to Lenovo Mobile Philippines, the Lenovo K860 will have a SRP of P19,999.

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Windows RT and Windows 8: What’s the difference?

By

Jam Ancheta

-

October 22, 2012

0

Windows 8 is coming along with Windows RT. But a lot of people don’t know the difference with these two. Some people think that they are the same except that the RT one runs on tablets and on ARM processors. Some people don’t even know what ARM processors are. To make it simple for you guys, ARM processors can be mostly found on the mobile devices and tablets like the iPad, Galaxy phones and Android tablets while the x86 processors are the processors that can be found on desktops and these x86 processors are the Intel Core 2 Duo, i5, AMD A6 and alikes. There are only a few Windows RT tablets that will be available like the Asus Vivo Tab, Samsung ATIV tab and the Microsoft Surface which Microsoft’s biggest bet but sadly, it won’t arrive here in the Philippines. And since we’re talking about the Windows 8 and Windows RT, let’s talk about some of the important differences between the two.

Old apps and games won’t work on Windows RT

So yeah, if you’re thinking of playing your old games such as Ragnarok Online, SimCity or Call of Duty 4. Unfortunately those games and apps will only work on the X86 computers or on the Windows 8.

You can only install apps that came from Microsoft Store

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to install apps that didn’t came from your USB or some torrent sites. The only apps that you can install in Windows RT are the apps that are on Microsoft Store. And sadly, there is only a pinch of apps and games that are available on the Microsoft Store and some of those apps on the Microsoft Store won’t work on the Windows RT.

Windows RT comes with Office 2013 Preview for RT pre-installed
One of the main selling point of the RT tablets is that they’re already pre-installed with Office 2013. Well, it’s not yet the final version but soon, the RT users would be able to get the Final version of Office 2013 RT for free thru Windows Update. But take note guys, there Office 2013 RT doesn’t allow add-ons and it lacks some other features. But hey, I think there are only a few people who use those things.

Goodbye Windows Media Player

If you love Windows Media Player (But I doubt a lot of people love Windows Media Player) then this may be one of the deal breakers. Windows RT comes with apps such as Music and videos in where you can play your media files. I think Microsoft wants us to get use to Windows 8/RT apps. I don’t think of it as a disadvantage since Windows RT devices are mostly tablets and I don’t think that the Windows Media Player is a touch optimized one.

So yeah, these are just some of the limitations of Windows RT. So if you are buying a Windows RT device, you might want to consider some of these things. For me?, Well I’m still drooling for one since I want a tablet that has a very near experience to a desktop. The Windows Ecosystem is great and I think there will be a lot of apps and games would be coming on the Windows RT devices soon. I’m pretty sure that devs would want to develop apps and submit it to Microsoft Store since it’s Windows. Well that’s just my 2 cents.

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Sony Xperia TX Specifications and Price in the Philippines: Get the bond phone at online stores!

By

Jam Ancheta

-

October 21, 2012

0

So there’s a new addition to the crowded Xperia family of Sony Mobile. The Sony Xperia TX. So what’s new and special about this one? Well the phone got a dual-core Krait which beats Samsung Galaxy S III’s Quad-core Exynos processor on some benchmarks. Too bad there’s no water-proof or dust proof in here. But hey! at least you could get the feel of Xperia and its features with the Sony Xperia TX. Oh and the Sony Xperia TX/T will be James Bond’s phone on its upcoming film that will be release by the end of the month — Skyfall. Okay, enough with Bond. The Sony Xperia TX will be powered by ICS but I’m pretty sure that it will be updated to Jelly Bean soon.

If you feel that your Sony Xperia S has a very small screen, don’t worry Sony Xperia TX has a 4.55″ screen which has a resolution of 1280 x 720. Yeah, that’s even bigger than your old desktop monitors. Sony phones has been known for creating phones with good cameras and I think they won’t fail you with their 13 megapixel camera that has some unique features like the 3D sweep panorama. Sony has some pretty amazing features but I’m quite disappointed on how Sony handle their software updates.

Sony Xperia TX Specifications

Dimensions and Weight	131 x 68.6 x 8.6 mm, 127g
Display	4.55″ Display 1280×720
Processor	Qualcomm MSM8260A Snapdragon Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait
RAM	1 GB RAM
Storage	16 GB with MicroSD up to 32 GB
Camera	13 Megapixel rear camera w/ LED Flash 1080p@30fps 1.3 Megapixel front camera 720p@30fps
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 3.1
NFC	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes
Connectivity	HSDPA
Battery	1750mAh
Colors	Black, pink and white
Other features	Shatter proof glass, Sony Mobile Bravia Engine
OS	Android 4.0.4 ICS (Upgradeable to 4.1 soon)

Sony Xperia TX Price in the Philippines
The Sony Xperia TX is now available at Widget City with a price tag of P24,900

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