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JBL J33 Review

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You are probably familiar with JBL. Yes, they’re the company who brought us a lot of audio products that are awesome and with quality. I’ve used the JBL J33 and yes, I was very satisfied with it. There are only a few earphones that satisfies me like the JBL J33 In-ear headphones did. You know what, just check out my review after the break

The JBL J33 got a unique buckle design. I find it brilliant because the buckle protects the wires inside the earbuds. Sometimes when one of the earbuds doesn’t work, it’s because of the wires inside these cables. Annoying right? Thanks to the buckle design, it would lessen the chances that it would happen.

Like what I’ve said earlier, JBL comes with a quality. The JBL J33’s cable doesn’t feel that it will tear or break easily. The cables are thick and you won’t feel that a simple accidental tugged won’t break the J33’s cable. A really nice feature that all in-ear headphones should have. However, I feel that the cable of the JBL J33 is too long

The JBL J33 is also very comfortable to use. There’s also a small pouch to compensate for that long wire. Whenever I use the JBL J33, I always bring the pouch, not because I’m protecting the JBL J33, but because the cables are too long.

The audio quality? The JBL J33 isn’t the best that I’ve tried but it is definitely a great one. The mids and highs are very nice while the bass feels just right but l wish it could get deeper. But hey, overall, I feel that the JBL J33 is one of the best in-ear headphones that you could get in the stores right now

The JBL J33 is now available at JBL Acoustical Space Megamall, JBL Sound Gallery BGC, and JBL Digital Dreams SM North.

Mazda Skyactiv Experiment: Roadtrip from Manila to Clark

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It was a sunny Saturday when we started the Mazda Skyactiv Experiment. Together with Mico Halili (micohaliliblogs.blogspot.com) and Winslow Co (TeamTechSquad.com) along with our marshall, Ms. Menchie Ramirez (She’s an awesome driver!), we drove the Mazda CX-5 AWD with Skyactiv all the way from the busy streets of Manila to the wide avenues of Clark. So what is this experiment all about? It’s easy, our objective is to have the most efficient run on our category. Check our experience after the break.

Jam Ancheta, Mico Halili and Winslow Co

First things first, Skyactiv is a technology built by Mazda that is integrated within Mazda engines which enables the engine to increase its fuel efficiency and engine output. Basically, it maximizes the performance without sacrificing fuel consumption.

Since I drove at the city leg, our team performed slightly poor compared to the other teams LOL. Despite that, I still feel the 8.9 km/L that we got from the 2.5 liter engine for the CX-5 AWD was very efficient compared to other compact crossover utility from other manufacturers. At day 2, we got a 15.44 km/L fuel efficiency which is just 0.01 away from car No.1.

Mazda CX-5 AWD

Interior of Mazda CX-5 AWD

Aside from Skyactiv, there were a lot of technologies that are included in the car such a iEloop. Mazda CX-5 has a built-in capacitor, which stores energy and then converts it to electricity. With the iEloop technology, there would be no wasted energy.

Victor Basa, Raffy Pedrajita and Abe Olandres 

Mazda 6

Another cool feature of the Mazda CX-5 AWD is iStop in which the engines shut off whenever you apply a break. Cool huh? Yes, you can all those premium features on the Mazda CX-5 AWD.


I would like to thank Mazda Philippines for giving us the chance to experience the awesome Mazda CX-5 AWD. If you want to know more about their cars, you may visit mazda.ph

CloudFone GEO 400q: Quad-Core smartphone with 2000 mAh battery at P4,000

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This year, Quad-Core smartphones are getting cheaper and they’re being sold as a mid-range or an entry level smartphone. At PHP4,000 you can now get a quad-core smartphone that would surely run apps and games smoothly. Yes, CloudFone GEO 400q brings you a MTK6582 1.3 GHz Quad-Core processor for P4,000. Not only that, because when you get a CloudFone GEO 400q, you’ll also get a FREE Powersurf 299 for 2 months. That’s free 300 MB of data! Very interesting right? Check out the full specifications after the break

CloudFone GEO 400q Specifications

  • MTK 6582 1.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor
  • 4” FWVGA touch-screen display
  • 512 MB RAM
  • 4 GB Internal storage w/ MicroSD card slot up to 32 GB
  • 5 MP Rear Camera
  • VGA Front Camera
  • Dual-Sim
  • Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
  • 2000mAh

By just basing on the specifications, this is the best P4,000 smartphone that we can get right now. It might only have a 512 MB of RAM but it runs on a MTK 6582 1.3 GHz Quad-Core processor which performs slightly better than the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 200 processor or MSM8225q processor. It also have a bigger 2000mAh battery which would surely last longer than other smartphone in its price range.  Another interesting addition in here is the free Powersurf 299 for 2 months. Who doesn’t want free data, right?
The CloudFone GEO 400q is now available for P4,000.

Cherry Mobile Titan Pro Review

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Cherry Mobile doesn’t stop creating phones for the Filipino consumers. They have different phones that cater different people. They have waterproof phones that float, a watch phone that make you look like an 007 agent and even a phone that connects to your phone (Yeah, phoneception). And now, Cherry Mobile brings us the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro, a phone that brings us a gesture pen that supports pressure sensitivity to an affordable price. Cherry Mobile proves us once again that having a phone with a stylus that supports different features doesn’t have to be expensive. Check out my review after the break.


The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro only has a 5.0” display which might be quite small for some who use a stylus. The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro display looks pretty great but I was highly disappointed with the refresh rate of the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro. It was only set at 40.36 Hz. In layman’s term, playing some games like Flappy bird wouldn’t be enjoyable. When playing Flappy birds, you’ll notice that the bird moving slowly. Why? Because of the low refresh rate. A big deal breaker for some people who loves to play games.


Cherry Mobile Titan Pro looks pretty damn good. The front actually reminds me of the HTC One minus the metal body and design but the design has flaws, because the black bezel is raised over the white part. Yeah, it was not flat that’s why sometimes you’ll see backlight bleeding on the phone. You’ll probably notice that the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro’s back is still made up of plastic but it was still solid. I actually had a hard time removing and placing back the back cover of the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro.



The stylus of the phone was nicely placed at the back but the stylus design was kinda awkward. Not that really awkward, it is just because of the top end of the stylus, which makes it awkward. There’s a big bulge at the top end but that won’t distract you from writing on the phone. Just like the Stylus of the Samsung Galaxy Note, there’s a button on the stylus too, it can also be used for some features. I also noticed that the stylus was thin which makes it less comfortable when writing. When you’re writing on the display, you could notice the smooth and glossy texture of the tip of the pen and the display.

There are no special hardware features aside from the stylus that is built-in the smartphone. Despite surpassing the PhP10,000 mark, the internal storage of the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro is still at 4 GB but of course, you could expand that via MicroSD. It wasn’t really a deal breaker since most phones still have a 4 GB Internal storage but c’mon, they should’ve improve it to at least 8 GB of Internal Storage. There’s a 1 GB of RAM too which is enough



The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro is still using a MediaTek MTK6589 Quad-Core processor This year, we might see this quad-core processor for the mid-range phones. It isn’t really disappointing since the Cosmos Z2 is the only Cherry Mobile smartphone powered by an Octa-Core processor and if they used an Octa-Core processor in it, people would probably choose this over the Cosmos Z2 because of the included G-Pen. Cherry Mobile Titan Pro has a dual-sim slot, one is a micro-sim while the other one is a regular sim slot or the mini sim card slot.

The battery life of the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro was a  little bit long that I expected. On normal usage, the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro was able to last up to a normal day of usage or at 15 hours of use. I barely used the stylus that time. That’s not actually bad for me. If you’ll be using the stylus more, I bet the battery life would be shorter. The sound quality of the phone isn’t that bad but it was already acceptable. But I was hoping that the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro had a better sound quality.
The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro isn’t running on the latest Android and there is no word regarding the Android Kitkat 4.4 availability on the phone. But I hope that it’ll be updated to Android 4.4 because Google had done a great job in improving Android and lessening the fragmentation on their operating system.

There are a lot of apps that are included on Cherry Mobile Titan Pro to maximize its G-Pen. One of it is the doodle app. It basically acts just like the S-Note of the Samsung Galaxy Note and the features on the app were very similar but sometimes, when I’m drawing something on the doodle app, the phone suddenly doesn’t recognize the G-Pen which leaves a missing sketch on the drawing app.
Another feature that you would probably love on the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro is the preview. By just hovering the Gesture pen on the album on gallery or a message on the messaging app, you could see a preview of the images or the message respectively.

If you feel that the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro’s display is too big for you then you could turn on the one hand easy feature. Basically, when you turned that on, all you need is to tilt the phone to the preferred side and then the display would automatically tilt to the side which makes it easier to reach the other side of the display. A really nice feature that I would like to see on phablets. 5” display is just the right size for me that’s why I didn’t used the one hand easy feature.



I find it easier to navigate on the smartphone using the Gesture Pen or the G-Pen but unlike other capacitive stylus, the G Pen is much smoother which gives less friction compared to other capacitive stylus. Whenever I removed and use the G Pen there’s a memo app that automatically appears on the screen which makes it easier to jot down notes. But sometimes, the G-Pen isn’t responsive.



Since the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro uses a MediaTek MTK6589 and with a 1 GB of RAM, don’t expect too much on the phone. The performance is still on par with the other phones using the same chipset. Gaming isn’t the smartphone’s best feature but it could play heavy 3D games like the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas at mid settings without lags. But when you turn it to high settings with advance settings on shadows, the game would be laggy and unplayable. I would still prefer a Mali-400 equipped smartphone like the MTK6582 chipset but the difference was not really dramatic. The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro got a score of 12995 at Antutu. A score expected on a smartphone with this specs and chipset.



The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro has a 12 megapixel camera with LED flash and it doesn’t use interpolation unlike the cosmos phones. But the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro’s camera was easily beaten by the camera of the Cherry Mobile Apollo and the Cherry Mobile Flare HD. The noise on the lowlight shots were very noticeable and most of shots that I took weren’t really sharp. It’s not the worst 12 Megapixel Camera that I’ve seen on a smartphone but I wish they’ve improved it more. Not really a phone that you would want to buy if you taking shots using your smartphone.

As far as I know, the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro is the only local branded smartphone that utilizes the stylus and has some special features. Some people might not like stylus or the gesture pen of the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro but artists or people who just want to draw and maximize the stylus, would definitely love the phone especially when they’re on the budget. The main deal breaker on the phone was the refresh rate. It is really disappointing, some games can’t be played such as flappy bird but a software update might come soon to fix that problem.



Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit unveiled!

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Aside from the Samsung Galaxy S5, Samsung also announced their new wearable focus on fitness — The Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit. It is the first wearable devices to feature a curved Super AMOLED display. It is a fitness band that focus on health but it also functions as a Smartwatch. The Samsung Galaxy Gear fit also notifies you when you have a new SMS, calls, emails, S-Planner and other 3rd party apps. You can also interchangeable straps. Check out the specifications after the break

Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit Specifications

  • 1.84” Curved Super AMOLED display 432×128
  • Pedometer
  • Exercise
  • Heart Rate
  • Sleep
  • Stopwatch
  • Timer
  • Notifications
  • Changeable strap
  • IP67 Dust and Water resistant
  • Bluetooth 4.0
  • 210mAh battery with 3-4 days usage
The Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit will only work on Samsung Galaxy devices. There’s no SRP yet but it is expected to be released on April 2014.

Samsung Galaxy S5: Water and dust resistant, Heart rate sensor & Fingerprint scanner

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The next flagship smartphone of Samsung has just been announced today at Unpacked 5. One of the biggest addition to the Samsung Galaxy S5 is the IP67 certification. It means that the Samsung Galaxy S5 would be water and dust resistant. Other new features that we could see on the Samsung Galaxy S5 are the fingerprint scanner and the heart rate sensor. The Samsung Galaxy S5 also has a larger display at 5.1″. Why don’t you check out the full specifications after the break

Samsung Galaxy S5 Specifications

  • 5.1 FHD Super AMOLED display
  • Snapdragon 800 2.5 GHz Quad Core processor
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 16/32 GB storage w/ MicroSD card slot
  • 16 MP Rear camera
  • 2 MP Front Camera
  • Heart rate sensor
  • Pedometer
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Ultra power saving mode
  • 2800mAh Battery
  • Android 4.4.2 Kitkat
I’m not a fan of the new rear design of the Samsung Galaxy S5, I liked the faux leather back more than this. They should’ve also made the RAM up to 3 GB to make the Samsung Galaxy S5 faster and on par with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. However, I applaud Samsung for making it just Full HD instead of a QHD because having a larger resolution on a display would be pointless and it will just suck out more battery. The new features are also enticing.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 is expected to be release on April 11.

Sony Xperia Z2 & Xperia Z2 tablet now official

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Sony unveiled their newest Xperia products today at MWC including their newest flagship phone and tablet. Both of them will still sport an IP67 certification or waterproof and dustproof. The Sony Xperia Z2 would still feature a very similar design from its predecessor. The only noticeable difference was the larger and better display but still, it is still at Full HD. The Sony Xperia Z2 has also a bigger 3 GB RAM which allows it to record 4K videos. Check out the full specs of the Sony Xperia Z2 and Sony Xperia Z2 tablet after the break.

Sony Xperia Z2 Specifications

  • Snapdragon 801 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor 
  • 5.2” Full HD Triluminos display 
  • 3 GB RAM 
  • 16 GB Storage with MicroSD card slot 
  • 20.7 MP Exmor RS camera with 4K video recording 
  • 2.2 MP Front Camera 
  • Android 4.4 Kitkat 
  • 3200mAh battery 
  • Waterproof and Dustproof 

Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet Specifications

  • Snapdragon 801 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor 
  • 10.1” Full HD Triluminos display 
  • 3 GB RAM 
  • 16 GB Storage with MicroSD card slot 
  • 8.1 MP Exmor RS camera 
  • 2.2 MP Front Camera 
  • Android 4.4 Kitkat 
  • 6000mAh battery 
  • Waterproof and Dustproof 

Both the Sony Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z2 tablet will be available on March 2014 globally.

Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL Android phones unveiled!

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The first wave of Nokia Androids are here — the Nokia X, Nokia X+ and the Nokia XL. The Nokia Android phones might sound like an awesome idea but the Nokia X phones were placed under the Nokia Lumia line so don’t expect a top-notch hardware and a Pureview camera on it. Check out the new phones after the break.

Nokia X 

  • 4” IPS LCD 800×480 display 
  • Snapdragon 200 1 GHz Dual-Core Processor 
  • 512 MB RAM 
  • 4 GB + MicroSD up to 32 GB 
  • 3G 
  • WiFi
  • 3 MP Fixed Focus Rear Camera 


Nokia X+

  • 4” IPS LCD 800×480 display 
  • Snapdragon 200 1 GHz Dual-Core Processor 
  • 768 MB RAM 
  • 4 GB + MicroSD up to 32 GB 
  • 3G 
  • WiFi 
  • 3 MP Fixed Focus Rear Camera 


Nokia XL

  • 4” IPS LCD 800×480 display 
  • Snapdragon 200 1 GHz Dual-Core Processor 
  • 768 MB RAM 
  • 4 GB + MicroSD up to 32 GB 
  • 3G 
  • WiFi 
  • 5 MP AF Rear Camera w/ LED Flash 
  • 2 MP Front Camera 

All of these phones would run on a forked version of Android and it will have the Microsoft services that you could see on your Nokia Lumia phones. Basically, they just want to connect to the people who can’t leave Android. Once they’re get used to the services of Microsoft, they’ll probably switched to Windows Phone. You know what, now I really wonder why Nokia didn’t choose Android in the first place. Oh and there’s no Google Play on these phones, only Yandex and Nokia Store.

The Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL will be priced €89, €99 and €109 respectively 

Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo are now official

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Finally, the Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo are now official. These 2 smartwatches ditched the Galaxy along with the Android in favor of the new operating system — Tizen. It also comes in two variants, one smartwatch has a camera while the other one has none. One of the main features of these smart watches are heart rate sensor, pedometer, exercise and sleep& stress. Unlike the previous Gear, both the Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo would be dust and water resistant. Looks like MWC 2014’s keynote would be very interesting. No word regarding price and availability.

Samsung’s 2nd-Gen smartwatch comes in two variants

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Looks like Samsung can’t control the leaks. This time, it’s their smartwatches and just like the Samsung Galaxy S5, the new smarwatches from Samsung would come in two variants. And according to a recent tweet of evleaks, these smartwatches might not be Galaxy-branded which means it might use Tizen OS for it. Well, that’s what we know for now. All we have to do is wait for Samsung’s announcement on MWC 2014.