Motorola Atrix availability in the Philippines

Someone on TipidPC is selling (pre-seling) the US-only Motorola Atrix for 35,000 pesos and includes a free anti-glare screen protector. If you didn’t know, the Motorola Atrix doubles up as your personal PC when docked either in the Laptop Dock or the Multi-Media Dock. Perfect for people who needs a single device but doesn’t want to be constrained in on doing everything on their phone.

InvisibleSkins are now back! Pre-order yours now

Now accepting pre-orders for new batch of devices.  Email: techoloph@gmail.com.
Available for: Google Nexus S, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G,  Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Desire, HTC Desire HD, Blackberry Bold 2 9700, Zune HD, Nokia N8, Sony Ericsson Satio U1. Your device is not on the list? Email us.

Windows Phone 7 booth at SM Megamall Cyberzone

Was at the SM Megamall this morning to buy (and sell) some stuff when I chanced upon this Cyberzone event beside the food court. Among the booths was from Microsoft and they were showing off Windows Phone 7 and some handsets along with Internet Explorer 9 and Windows 7.

I was also able to hold a Windows Phone 7 for the second time and it was buttery smooth. It’s like the Zune HD on steroids. I asked the attendant to talk more about the features and he gladly showed me his HTC Mozart and showed how the Live Tiles work and the Xbox integration. There had a working HTC Mozart and LG WP7 phone on display.

I also asked about the “NoDo” update which I know had some delays and the attendant said the update will be available by next month (I’m not really sure about that) Also asked if Samsung Focus or Omnia 7 will reach the Philippines and I got a negative answer.

They also had this pachinko game where you had to have Windows Phone 7 and IE attendants stamp your card be eligible to play. It was easy and quick  so I tried it out and won an “I <3 my Windows 7” button pin. I wished it fell on number 7 so that I could score a free Windows 7 shirt :)

Palm Pre Plus Review

The original Palm Pre, when it was introduced, was helmed as the true iPhone-killer due to it’s true multitasking feature and simple and beautiful user interface matching those of iOS. Click photos to enlarge

It was a point of innovation for Palm as it scrapped its legacy PalmOS in exchange for the more modern and web-based operating system called WebOS. Palm then released the Palm Pre Plus as an upgrade for the original Pre and to cater to its GSM carriers.

Read the review after the jump.

Read more »

Gadget packagings are now simpler thanks to Apple

Simple single product shot at the front on a white matte box that displays the product in its true-to-size scale. These boxes can even be displayed on the shelf as proof of your gadget “collections”.  To the unfamiliar, they may even mistake these 3 different devices as being made by one company. Gone are the days where premium products need to be packaged egregiously and uneconomically - Thanks to Apple.

Meatball Joe for iPad by Nesesita Philippines

Nesisita has just launched their first Philippine-made iPad app game titled Meatball Joe.

Created by indie game developer Nesesita, Meatball Joe is a new take on a classic pinball game, with fast-paced gameplay that allow players to test their skills while traveling to eight gastronomically-themed world locations.

Game info after the break and check below for a single-use promo code. http://meatballjoe.com

Read more »

Excited to get my iPad 2

A cousin of mine will be going home this March 30th and will be bringing two iPad 2 (64gb Wi-Fi + 3G) and a couple of Smart Covers as well. One for me and for my friend Glenn. I’m very excited to see what has been improved but hopeful that the screen backlighting issue won’t be too harsh. Special thanks to Mark, Drew and the gang and to my cousins :) Yes they bought 5 iPad’s on opening day. Rumor has it that they bought the last remaining stocks for the AT&T 3G’s on that Apple Store.

Will be doing a review and side-by-side comparison with the iPad 1 as soon as the iPad 2 arrives in the Philippines.

Google Nexus S arrives

UPDATE: Read Google Nexus S Philippine Review here

The Nexus S may be among the minority of Android phones in the Philippines but that may change this month. Samsung is rumored to be bringing the Nexus S this March 2011 to the Philippines according to Yugatech with a price of about 28,500. That would be on the range of the Samsung Galaxy S phones, even cheaper, when it was released last year.

I’ll be playing with this official Google phone from Samsung for a while. First impressions? The Super AMOLED looks absolutely stunning. Fast fast fast! Useless NFC chip but nice curvy display.

www.google.com/nexus

iPad 3G+Wi-fi or iPad Wi-fi only? Why not just tether?

Are you in the market for buying the new iPad 2 (or iPad 1G) and undecided between what model to choose? You may save money by buying a Wi-Fi only iPad and then tether it to your hotspot-enable phone.

Benefits of Tethering your Wi-Fi-only iPad

Pros

1. Cheaper iPad Wi-Fi model.
2. use MiFi (like this one) or mobile hotspot feature of your phone.
3. Single SIM card, no need to buy a new microsim for your iDevice.
4. Pay as you go. Use what you want, when you want.
5. No more reloading the SIM card of the iPad (to keep it from expiring as well)
6. Instantly activate the all-surf promos of Smart, Globe or Sun via phone.
7. You can even share your wireless hotspot to other 4 devices at the same time.

Cons

1. Your phone’s battery life
2. You must shell out additional 5,000 for a MiFi device (if you are going this route, better buy the iPad 3G+Wifi since you’ll be adding roughl the same amount. Then just jailbreak and get MyWi to be able to make your iPad a wireless hotspot itself.)

Apple drops iPad Philippine Prices to P19,990

After the release of the iPad 2, Apple Online Store for the Philippines updated their iPad pricing by slashing P5,000 pesos. If you’re not too keen on the 2nd-generation, now may be a good time to get one.

Apple Store Philippines

Western Digital WD TV Live Hub Interface Walkthrough Hands On

Western Digital’s WD TV Live Hub is it's successor to the WD TV Live (which was also reviewed here before) This media player has a built-in 1TB drive inside capable of storing 200,000 photos, 76 hours of videos or 250,000 songs . It also features online services from NetFlix, Blockbuster, Pandora (US only), MediaFly as well as standards like Youtube, Facebook and Flickr.

Above is the interface walkthrough of the WD TV Live Hub named “Mochi”. Navigating the interface was quite easy using the remote. Mochi is XML based according to Western Digital so we hope to see user-created themes in the future.

It is disappointing to note that the WD TV Live Hub still lacked Wi-Fi support. I don’t quite understand why they didn’t place a built-in Wi-Fi receiver in this thing considering other high-end players like the Apple TV already has this feature. There is however option to plug in a wireless usb adapter but be sure to check for compatibility. Our D-Link model didn’t work on this one.

Philippine SRP is 9,500 Pesos

Supported File Formats

Video - AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9, FLV (h.264) 
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle - SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

Inside the Box

• Media Center: media player with built-in hard drive
• Remote control with batteries
• AC adapter
• Quick Install Guide

Thanks to Western Digital Philippines for providing this review unit.

Photos (click to enlarge)

  

Windows Phone 7 Concept Ad Microsoft should use

Ad conceptualized & created by Brandon Foy, case study. http://www.welovewp7.com/