There is this asian guy who just brought New York Knicks to a 3 straight win in NBA. And if you’re not down with that, how about this — Jeremy Lin is the first player to score 89 points in his first three career starts since the NBA and the ABA merged last 1976–77. He became a sensation in just three games because of that. And today, they just won against the Timberwolves and the LINsation scored 20 points. Quite surprising for an Asian who came from Harvard to have a skills in basketball like this. FYI He is a taiwanese who grew up in the United States and studied at Harvard.
As of this posting, he has different memes such as Linsation, Linsanity, The jeremy lin show, the yellow mamba and a lot of more. So what do you think? Can he lead New York to the playoffs? Will he steal the spotlight from Carmelo Anthony?. Time will tell folks. Time will tell….
Lately I’ve been curious about the Blackberry devices here in the Philippines. Contrary to what the US based blogs says about the Blackberry, the Blackberry OS devices here in the Philippines is still rising according to Interaksyon. Blackberry rose 66% which is even more than the iOS’ 62% but both was overshadowed by Android which rose by 300%. I wasn’t surprised by these numbers because of the networks’ very affordable rates for Blackberry services like the recently launched unlimited BBM for a day. Both Smart and Globe offer this promo and it’ll just cost you P15 a day with additional freebies. I think that’s quite a steal already. Why? for example in Globe, you’ll get a 100 text globe-to-globe in Sulitxt for P15. But for P15 in Globe’s BB rates, you’ll get 100 text globe-to-globe and an unlimited BBM for a day.
You’re doing it right Blackberry Philippines
Like what I’ve said earlier, the networks here in the Philippines are offering an affordable rates for Blackberry users. Blackberry social for a month costs P300 only. For P300 you can enjoy unlimited Facebook, BBM and twitter. And again, that’s quite affordable. I asked my friends about what they want with Blackberry. Almost all of them have the same answer. The thing that they want from the Blackberry devices is the Blackberry Services and its affordable rates. And I asked them again if they want to choose Android or iOS over Blackberry. I was hoping that they would answer “Yes I want to switch to Android” but most of them answered that they still prefer Blackberry because of BBM. I believe that they still want their Blackberry devices because of its services and rates. FYI, those people that I asked are college students here in Manila.
This is my <Suggestion>
Blackberry creates devices with great hardware but their OS is dying slowly but because of their services and rates, they still manage to get more and more users. Blackberry has just a mere numbers of users here in the Philippines compared to Nokia and Samsung but it could increase if they’ll offer more affordable devices. The cheapest they got is the Blackberry 8520 which cost around P8000 and up at different online stores.
Blackberry should also improve their app world too. Their app repository is way behind iOS and Android market. Oh and the newer OS, The Windows Phone has more apps than Blackberry. Another thing that crippled Blackberry is the Playbook. Its features were useless when it was launched. Most of the essential apps that a tablet need is missing in the Playbook. I’m glad that they include those apps on the Playbook 2.0. But still, they don’t have the Blackberry Messenger on the Playbook which is quite disappointing.
My last suggestion is for Blackberry Philippines. They should attract more students to Blackberry devices. Yes, students. Why? because if there are a lot students who choose Blackberry and use their services most of the time, it may lead to the so-called BBM Virus. These people will be forced to buy and switch to Blackberry because of BBM. In BBM, we can communicate easier to a group, we can send pictures and notes easier and a lot more. Oh and teenagers love to communicate with each other and yes, this BBM virus has recently spread in our section. Maybe Blackberry Philippines can get some local ambassadors in universities (Ehem, ehem. I study in UST. Haha just kidding.). Let them promote the unique features of Blackberry. Maybe if they can, Blackberry should offer discounts to students.
Some of you might think that my suggestions are dumb but seriously, the BBM virus really work. I don’t know who spread this in our class but I assure you that it wasn’t me.
P.S. The author of this blog is planning to save up for a Blackberry device which will be his back-up phone. He loves his Windows Phone so much and he’ll just use Blackberry because of its services like BBM.
This is my <any word here>: is a section of JAM Online in where the owner of this blog talks about his <any word here>
Almost everybody in the tech world is very excited for the coming of the Microsoft Windows 8 especially the WOA version. WOA means Windows 8 on ARM. Yes guys. For those people who wasn’t informed about Windows 8 capabilities, Windows 8 is now capable on running on ARM Devices like the tablets. So what can we expect with the new Windows 8?. Well, it will have the full desktop experience just like the Windows 8 on desktop (Windows Explorer will be there). We’re not sure if all of the legacy apps will work on the ARM devices but I still doubt that will work. Anyway, aside from the preview of Windows 8 on ARM. Office 15 was also shown on the video and some of the apps included in the Windows 8 on ARM like the Internet Explorer 10 dressed in Metro UI.
If you want to know more about the things that I’m talking about. Here’s the video of a guy from Microsoft discussing Windows 8 on ARM
Wow. Just wow. Planning to buy a tablet when it comes out. By the way, the Windows 8 consumer preview will be available at the end of February.
HSPA+ is really the next big thing in the mobile broadband industry here in the Philippines this 2012 (Geez, I hope that LTE devices will arrive here in the Philippines soon). Globe has released some of their own 4G enabled products, the Globe Tattoo 4G sticks. They used some personalities like Nonito Donaire, Danica Magpantay and many more to be their endorsers. While Globe is busy endorsing their 4G products, Smart has recently launched the Smart Rocket Chic. It is a mobile broadband that has a suitable looks for chics. As you can see in the picture, it is really a great mobile broadband for chics. It is sexy and has metallic pink finish body which is kinda attractive. This device is now available at Smart online store (Yeah!, they got an online store too just like Apple) which can be foundin this link.
The device is capable of speeds up to 12 mbps at optimal conditions (I doubt that you can reach that speed). Just be sure that you are in a HSPA+ enabled site because If you don’t, you’ll just get 3G speeds. You can get it at the Smart Online store with a price tag of P2,345.00
I got to play with the Blackberry 9790 for a short period of time (hats off to my cousin who bought the phone). We got this phone at Widget City for a fair price but I still think that Blackberry phones are too expensive for its features. For its price, I can get a Dual-core Android phone instead. But hey, Blackberry still got some loyal fans thanks to its unique services like the BBM. The rates are much cheaper on the Blackberry like the BB Max, BB social and many more. Some of teens still prefer Blackberry over Android and iOS just because of BBM. Yes, they can’t leave their Blackberry just because of that. (On a different note, Android rise up to 300% while the Blackberry and iOS surged 66% and 62% respectively according to Interaksyon). Anyway, back the the Blackberry 9790
There is one thing that Blackberry always impress me. It’s the keyboard. Yes, I know that there are a lot of QWERTY phones out there like the Android touting HTC Chacha & the Symbian-powered Nokia E6 which we reviewed a couple of months agobut the Blackberry phones have the best QWERTY keys. I can type faster on the BB curve and bold phones faster than any phones that I’ve tried.
This phone has a lot less features compared to its big brother, the Blackberry Bold 9900. This one has the same 5 megapixel camera but this one can’t record 720p videos. It can only record VGA Videos (Bummer right?). The processor was also downgraded to 1 GHz from 1.2 Ghz. The screen and resolution was also smaller but it still retain the capacitive touchscreen. Anyway, here’s the video of the hands-on of the Blackberry Bold 9790. Widget City is selling this phone for P19,800
If you think that Microsoft’sWindows Phone 7 is too cool for you. (Oh and do check out the Nokia Lumia 800 Reviewto check how cool the phone is). And you want to get one but doesn’t have enough bucks to purchase one. Then you might consider this 2 first generation Windows Phone 7 from HTC. Why?, because Widget City is selling it for a very affordable price. These 2 phones are HTC HD7 and HTC Mozart. Both are Windows Phone and both of them can be upgraded to Mango, the latest version of the WP7 OS. These phones were released almost a year and a half ago. But hey, these phones are Windows Phone and WP7 Mango is great.
There are a lot of cool features like the Facebook integration with the phone. Once your accounts are connected to your phone. You can easily view your friends Facebook and twitter account on the people hub (That’s the contacts app for the Windows Phone). You can even tweet or post on their wall directly on your phone. Speaking of integration, once you are connected to your accounts. You can view your latest notifications directly from your phone. Pretty easy huh?. Those are just some of the unique features of Windows Phone. You might want to check out Windows Phone Mango reviews to know more about it. Oh and if you ask me if which phone should I get next?, I rather choose a Windows Phone rather than an Android or an iOS for a phone. Anyway, so what’s inside the HD7 and Mozart?. Here it is:
HTC HD7 Specifications: 480 x 800 pixels, 4.3 inches LCD Screen 8/16 GB Internal memory 5 megapixel AF Camera, dual LED flash with 720p video recording Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon 1 GHz
Windows Phone 7 (upgradeable to Windows Phone 7.5 Mango)
What’s the deal breaker here?. Well, both of the phones doesn’t have a front camera that we can use for video call and these phones are a bit old. They’re the first generations of Windows Phones. Anyway, here’s one reason why you should get a HTC Windows Phone. CHICS DIG IT.
A HTC Model with the HTC Radar, A windows phone. This chic loves Windows Phone
Did you ever think that Samsung were out of ideas when it comes to Android?. Think again because Samsung recently announced the Samsung Galaxy S Advance. A dual core Android that looks almost the same with the Galaxy S II’s predecessor. It has a 4″ Super AMOLED display which is better than the Galaxy W’s 3.7 display. It also sports a 1 GHz dual core processor which is quite decent already. (Quad core phones/tablets are coming this year folks!). The phone is still equipped with Gingerbread and we hope that we’ll see a Ice Cream Sandwich update soon. Oh and if you’re looking for a 4G radio. Sorry folks, no 4G here. This phone is just a dumber version of the Galaxy S II and Galaxy R
Samsung Galaxy S Advance Specifications 123.2 x 63.0 x 9.69 mm, 120g 1 GHz Dual core processor 4.0” WVGA(480×800) Super AMOLED display 5 Megapixel Auto Focus Camera with LED Flash (720@30fps) and rear 1.3 Megapixel Camera A-GPS Bluetooth® technology v 3.0 High Speed USB 2.0 Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n 8/16GB User memory w/ microSD (up to 32GB)
768MB RAM
Android 2.3(Gingerbread)
Samsung Galaxy S Advance Review and Hands-on
There are no Hands-on or reviews as of this posting
Last week I was able to get a short hands-on of the next portable gaming device of Sony, the Sony Playstation Vita. It wasn’t called as PSP2 or Playstation Portable 2. It was simply named as PS Vita or Playstation Vita. Well, IMO I like the name PS vita rather than the PSP2. Anyway, if you’re not familiar with what’s inside the Playstation Vita we have a tech specs sheet in here. When it was announced by Sony last year, it had exceed my expectations. I didn’t expect that the Sony Playstation Vita would have a 4 cores that time. I didn’t expect that it will also have a touchpad at the back and a larger screen.
I just borrowed the Sony Playstation Vita from a blockmate and I want to share with you some of features that I tried in the Playstation Vita. He is currently selling it for P18,500 along with some original accessories and a game. Anyway, the first thing that I noticed about the Playstation Vita is that the device is bigger than its predecessor. It has a 5 inch OLED multi-touch screen with 960 x 544 resolution which is quite small for me. It should’ve a 720p resolution. 960×544 is not enough for PS Vita, it needs a higher PPI.
Playstation Vita Lock screen
The Playstation Vita also included another analog. Yes, our prayers has finally been answered by Sony. Other than that, Sony added a glossy touchpad and a multitouch screen which we can also use for games. I’ve use multitouch screen most of the time rather than the buttons. It is much easier to navigate using the screen. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try the touchpad because the game that he have is Uncharted Golden Abyss. Another thing that I don’t like with the Playstation Vita is that the screen is too glossy. The sunlight legibility isn’t great too. I also noticed that the buttons got smaller in the Vita and they aren’t that much springier or soft compared to the predecessor. The new analogs are waaay better than the analog on the PSP. The should L and R buttons are still there, nothing change at all. But the volume button, power button, flash card slot at the top. The Playstation button, select and start button can be clearly seen at the front of the device
The Playstation Vita also has 2 camera. Both of them performs below average. Well, that’s normal for a gaming device. They don’t need a good camera for a portable gaming device unless they’ll add a Kinect inside. Inside the device are some cool apps that you might enjoy like Near, Party, Group messaging, browser, photos, remote play, PS store, Playstation trophies and more. I wasn’t surprised that they added the Playstation trophy in the Vita. Xbox has their Xbox live on their phones already. Oh I almost forgot, they added a lock screen for the Playstation Vita.
Playstation Vita’s back
I haven’t tried much of the features of the device since I just got a short hands-on of it. But all in all, I think the device is great. It is just too big and the resolution should’ve been higher. The graphics?, well it is already near the Playstation 3. The gaming experience? better than the 3DS and the mobile phones we have right now. Playstation Vita is truly a portable gaming device. Who says that portable gaming device are dead? it isn’t. Hopefully, we can see more games that will be coming on the Playstation Vita. There are only a few games available on the Playstation Vita right now. I can’t say much more about the Playstation Vita since I just played it for just a very short period of time.
Do you want an affordable laptop this year but has a budget of below P50,000?. Want a Mac but doesn’t have enough money for that?. No worries boys and girls because at Widget City you get all of the best deals. And today they’re offering Macbook Air MC968 and Macbook Pro MD313 for a very affordable price. The current SRPs of this Macbook Air and Macbook Pro are P49999 and P61999 respectively but at Widget City you can get it for a very affordable price of P41500 for the Macbook Air while P51500 for the Macbook Pro. But here at JAM Online, you can get a P1500 discount more and get the Macbook Air for only P40000 and the Macbook Pro for P50000. Holy Macaroni!. Read more for details
Want to get a brand new Macbook Air and Macbook Pro for P40000 and P50000 respectively?. Well, that’s easy. Just take a screenshot of this page show the screenshot to them when you purchase the device. Easy huh. Check out the Macbook Air and the Macbook Pro
I want to thank Widget Cityfor making this pre valentine promo possible. Get it now folks!.
For the past 2 weeks, I had a great time using the Nokia Lumia 800. The Windows Phone 7.5 OS and the 8 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera was just too awesome to use. Nokia Lumia 800 is the first Windows Phone created by the marriage of deal of Nokia and Microsoft. It was first seen when Stephen Elop revealed this at an event where the cameras were not allowed but apparently someone recorded the event using his/her camera. It was codenamed “Nokia Sea Ray” back then. Last year, it was officially announced along with the Nokia Lumia 710, an affordable Nokia Windows phone. Nokia Lumia 800 received mixed reactions from critics. But for me, the polycarbonate body, nice camera and the gorgeous design was a job well done for Nokia. After it was announced, I believed that this is the weapon that the Nokia needs to kill all the “Nokia is going down” articles.
The hardware
I already said earlier that the look and the feel of the Nokia Lumia 800 is the same as the Nokia N9. The polycarbonate body and the curve gorilla glass makes the phone sexier than ever. It is a gorgeous piece of block. You can even let the phone stand because the top and the bottom of its body is flat. On the front, there’s the curve gorilla glass display, three capacitive windows phone buttons and sensors. Some of you guys might be disappointed because Nokia says no-no for the front facing camera on the Lumia 800. Some people were disappointed too because of the small 3.7” Clearblack AMOLED Display. Most high-end phones are already screens above 4”. Even though it has a small screen compared to other flagship phones. The Clearblack AMOLED Display is still awesome though. Because of this unique feature of Nokia, you can barely see the edges of the screen which makes the whole curve display looks like it’s the whole screen when it the color of the screen is at black
The battery life? no problemo folks. The Nokia Lumia 800 last for a day. You guys might have a problem regarding sim cards. Why? because the Nokia Lumia 800 is using a Micro-Sim slot. So you might want to buy a new sim card or just cut your old sim. But be careful!, cutting your Sim might damage it. So cut it at your own risk. Don’t worry, there are some shops that’ll cut your sim card for a small price.
You can play your music directly from the button at the headset
The earpiece
Nokia Lumia 800 alongside with the Galaxy S II
Audiophiles might not be happy about the Nokia Lumia 800 because the loudspeaker was just horrible. My old Nokia 5610 Xpressmusic has a better loudspeaker. Nokia added a earphone which is kinda odd. You should put the left bud for your left ear and right bud for the right ear because the quality wouldn’t be so good if you interchange it. As for the USB cable and charger, I don’t have any problem with that. The thing that I liked about Nokia is that they included a silicone case in every Nokia Lumia 800. So you don’t have to buy a case for your precious device.
1.4 GHz single core Snapdragon processor of Qualcomm powers this device. The Android competition is on dual core these days but Windows Phone devices still stick to single core processors. They don’t rely on hardware. Microsoft wants to have a unique experience on their single core devices. An experience that you won’t see on the Android and iOS devices. And I believe in Microsoft. Why?. The Live tiles, fast growing marketplace, the ecosystem, Windows 8 integration and many more. The Windows phone 7 experience and future is really awesome.
The back of the 8 megapixel touting Nokia Lumia 800
The 8 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera. Nokia loves Carl Zeiss
Nokia Lumia’s 800 camera is a 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. The megapixel has been downgraded to 8 megapixel from Nokia N8’s 12 megapixel camera. Well, 8 megapixel isn’t that bad. The quality on the phone’s Carl Zeiss camera is quite good. It produced photos with well saturated and a bit sharp. Here are some sample photos taken by Nokia Lumia 800:
Lights at the Main Building of University of Santo Tomas
Macro shot of a pen and calculator
A shot from the Carpark of the University Of Santo Tomas
Night shot at the University Of Santo Tomas. It is the oldest university in Asia
At the corridor
A view from our condo
at the corridor again
An innocent dog
Early in the morning
A shot at low light with flash
While here’s a HD Video taken using the Nokia Lumia 800
720p HD videos at 30 frames per second isn’t that bad these days but isn’t that great either. The latest iOS and Android phones can handle and record 1080p@30fps videos. But hey, Nokia Lumia 800 has a great recording quality for a phone. I even use it to record some video when we forgot the DSLR camera. And yes, it was good as long as we have a great lighting conditions. But if you are taking a photo or recording a video on a low light environment then don’t expect good image.
Zune Music player
Xbox Live
The Nokia Windows Phone experience
Windows Phone isn’t that much popular especially to Filipinos. Even the Nokia Lumia 800 wasn’t launched here in the Philippines. Some of the things that I like with the Windows Phone are Live tiles, People hub, fast and fluid scrolling, NO fragmentation and so much more. Some of my friends are amazed with Windows Phone because my Twitter and Facebook are connected in the People hub. I can directly post, check in, share pictures and check my notifications on my Windows Phone. I can even post and stalk *hehe* my friends on Facebook and twitter because I can see their wall and twitter timeline directly from the Windows Phone.
The look and the feel of the Nokia Windows Phone is just the same with other Windows phones. But IMO, Nokia Windows Phone is way better than the other WP7 Mango phones thanks to the apps exclusive to the Lumia phones like the Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps in where there is a free turn-by-turn navigation. The thing that I like about the Nokia maps is you can download the Philippine maps so you can use it to navigate even if you’re offline. The navigation of the Nokia Maps was accurate but the only thing that I don’t like in here is that they don’t mention the exact street/place name. Maybe, they can’t recognize our language yet. Anyway, there are other unique apps from Nokia like ESPN, App highlights and many more. Oh and Nokia announced that there are some EA games that will be coming on the Windows Phone like Real Racing 2, Monopoly, etc.
Nokia Collection at the Windows Marketplace
Nokia Lumia 800 packaging
The Nokia Lumia 800 and the Verdict
Nokia Lumia 800 is one of the best phone I tried so far. The camera was great but unlike the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S that we reviewed a few months ago. The Arc S has a better camera especially at low light IMO. If you think that the 1.4 GHz single core processor is too slow, think again. Windows Phone doesn’t need a dual core. Windows Phone is great. Nokia is one of the best in the mobile industry. When you combine those two, you’ll get a powerful device.
Windows Phone is great. The Xbox live is way better than the iOS’ game center. You can connect your Xbox live account on your Xbox 360 oh and did I say that you can earn achievements in Xbox live games on your phone?. Zune is a great music player too. You can download unlimited music using Zune pass and you can use some of the unique features that Zune has like the downloading of pictures, bio and so much more. I’ll not discuss more about the Windows Phone because this is a Nokia Lumia 800 review.
Nokia Lumia 800 is really a good device. If you ask me if Nokia is back. Yes, they’re back. Some of you might be disappointed with the lack of some features like the front facing camera. Windows Phone needs some time to ripe up. The marketplace needs more apps and games to catch up with iOS and Android. Some games are expensive, some of them are priced at $2.99 (Xbox live games). If you want a smartphone that has a great camera then you might want to include this on your must-buy list. Obviously, Windows Phone is better than Symbian. Almost all apps that you need is here at Windows Phone. Office, Facebook, twitter, etc. And maybe on Windows Phone 8, we might see Skype integration since Skype is already a division of Microsoft.
Nokia Drive in Action
Nokia Lumia 900 was already announced but we don’t have a word regarding that phone if it will come here in our country. Nokia Lumia 800 is expected to be launched along with the Nokia Lumia 710. All in all, Nokia Lumia 800 is still a great phone even though the loudspeaker sucks and it doesn’t have a front facing camera. If you ask me, it is best Windows Phone I tried so far but if you’re looking for a phone with bigger screen, you might want to wait for the Lumia 900. A much bigger and better phone.
If you want to get this right now, you can get it at our favorite online store, Widget City for P23,500 but if you want to get a P500 discount just take a screenshot of this page and just show it to them.
Nokia N9 alongside with the Nokia Lumia 800
JAM Online
Rating: 9.7/10
Disclosure: The black Nokia Lumia 800 was lend to us by Nokia Connects. And yes, it was awesome. Felt lonely after I returned the device.
