D4

By Allan D. Francisco

Technews
lobe Telecom joins forces with the Figaro Coffee Company, a leading specialty coffee chain in the country, and leading IT retail chains Complink and Asianic, to allow netizens to live the Tattoo lifestyle, wade through data bytes while sipping on their fave Figaro brew for free. Figaro customers can get their very own limited edition TattooFigaro Sonic Prepaid Stick for free by simply collecting ten stamps from now until August 20, 2012. Every P300 purchase of food and drinks is equivalent to one stamp. Alternately, a single purchase worth P3,000 at Figaro entitles the customer to a free limited edition Tattoo-Figaro Sonic Prepaid Stick! Buy a Tattoo Explorer Prepaid Lifestyle Stick at any outlet of Complink or Asianic nationwide for P1,295 and get a free, limited edition Figaro Coffee Club Card. This special card gives the bearer free vouchers for hot and cold drinks; 10% off on every visit with a minimum P200 food purchase at any of the 70 Figaro branches nationwide; a mini-birthday cake; plus a limited edition Figaro foldable fan. Complink is one of the countrys fastest-growing resellers of ICT-related products with 24 out-

EVERY MONDAY May 28, 2012

Google Gobbles Smartphone Market Shares

new school year is just a few days away. For parents, these days mark some of the year's most stressful periods. On top of the average household's need to scrounge for money to pay for some family members' enrolment fees and related expenses, a considerable portion of the parents' time will be spent hunting for school uniforms and supplies. These days also carry with them a considerable degree of optimism. After all, the coming school year represents a significant step toward achieving parents' goal of providing their children an opportunity to earn education, a lifetime and life-changing investment.

Globe Lets You Sip, Dine, Surf With Tattoo And Figaro

In fact, things are going so great that its newly launched flagship model, the Galaxy S III, has reportedly posted some 9 million in pre-orders. Apparently, Samsung has got another winner with the smartphone, which comes with a 1.4GHz microprocessor, 1GB of RAM, and is available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models. The smartphone will launch in Europe on May 29, a day after its Philippine debut. Android, Smartphone Lords Market research firm reported that, in the first quarter of 2012, Android smartphones outsold every other smartphone running a different mobile operating system. In fact, more than 56 percent of smartphones sold during the quarter run on the Android OS. iPhone, the most popular smartphone, accounted for 22.9 percent of smartphone sales during the period. Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Microsoft's Windows Phone continued to lose market shares. IBM Snubs Siri Big Blue apparently is no fan of Siri, the iPhone's talkative assistant. IBM has banned the iOS voiceactivated digital assistant, fearing that the blabbermouth feature could pose some security risks. The company, according to MIT's Technology Review magazine, "worries that the spoken queries might be stored somewhere." Turns out Big Blue was right. Apple indeed stores iPhone users' searches, email messages, and all other queries launched via a session with Siri. That's all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.

Globe and Figaro officials display the limited edition Tattoo-Figaro Sonic Stick, from left, Tattoo Nomadic Senior Product Manager Grace Calara, Globe National Commercial Accounts Head Dhing Pascual, Figaro COO Divine Cabreira, and Figaro CEO Crismel Verano.

LG's New Flagship LG Electronics Inc. has a new flagship smartphone model the Optimus LTE II. Formerly the world's third-largest mobile phone manufacturer, LG hopes the new Optimus smartphone can reverse its series of bad luck, foremost of which was the massive losses in its mobile business since 2010. The Optimus LTE II comes with 2GB of RAM, which should make other smartphones tremble before it. After all, most of them have only 1GB or 1.5GB of RAM. Most importantly, however, the Optimus LTE II comes with a battery that reportedly lasts 40 percent longer than that of its predecessor, the Optimus LTE. LG hopes to sell 35 million units of smartphones, a 75 percent increase over its 2011 sales. Galaxy S III Pre-Orders Samsung, for its part, does not seem to have any of LG's problems.

lets and concept stores across the country; while Asianic is one of the most preferred IT dealers and service providers in the market, with 36 branches nationwide. A coffee shop nowadays is more than just a place to grab a caffeine pick-me-up. Today people hold meetings, do some work or relax at coffee shops, nursing their favorite coffee concoctions. Our partnership with Figaro gives loyal patrons a treat with their very own, customized Tattoo-Figaro Sonic Prepaid Stick, said Dhing Pascual, National Commercial Accounts Head of Globe Telecom. We are also giving our loyal business partners incentives for

consumers via synergy among the leading ICT retailers, the leading specialty coffee chain, and the most preferred broadband in the country thats powered by Globe. We are very pleased with the new promos that we are offering to our customers together with Globe. One of our primary goals is to provide our customers greater value and more incentives to visit Figaro branches nationwide, said Figaro Coffee Systems Inc. Chief Executive Officer Crismel Verano. The Tattoo Prepaid Explorer Stick runs at speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps. It is especially designed for foodies and adventurers.

The Cameras Of The Future

Technology is evolving so quickly. As such, it is not a surprise that there will be amazing new camera tricks and innovations that might be coming our way soon. Here are five of them, which you might probably enjoy, or maybe not, in the near future. Compact Transformation Did you know that compact camera sales dropped hugely at 30% in 2011? This is definitely a direct result of increasingly smarter smartphones available in the market. Today, smartphone cameras are considered as an alternative to point-and-shoots, because aside from being handy and convenient, the features and picture quality are getting better. From touch screen controls, built-in WiFi, direct and quick uploads to social media to slow-motion movie functions, automatic color fixes, timers triggered by smiling or winking, and other more interesting enhancements all of these just makes it even easier to leave the compact point-and-shoot at home. The challenge though for smartphone camera manufacturers is to keep on adding more tricks over the years. Three-Dimensional Photos While 3D cinemas and television screens are so popular these days, 3D cameras are also slowly making a notable impression to the photographers eyes. Staggeringly, three-dimensional photos are becoming wanted, since it is cool and unique. As a matter of fact, some applications today are capable of converting a normal photo into a 3D copy. After various developments over the years, like most technologies, having a 3D picture has gone from cumbersome and expensive to the more affordable and convenient as they are today. Siri Technology on DSLR If you think about it, putting Apples Siri technology into a DSLR is very much possible and, if successful, will quite be useful. Imagine having a camera with Siri on it, where it is capable of communicating with humans and responding to commands from the simple shutter release to menu configurations. With WiFi on cameras starting to be a norm these days, putting on a voice-command feature will not be far from reality. Shoot Now, Tweak Later Photography becomes even better with the innovation of the US companyLytro, which makes use of the light field technology. Unlike traditional cameras that capture limited scope of light, these unusual-looking devices are capable of capturing all of the elements. As such, a photographer can capture both 3D and 2D images, as well as shift the perspective of a picture already taken. More amazingly, similar cameras would be able to focus and re-focus the pictures after shooting them. Tweaking then becomes easier, because photos become movable and adaptable depending on what the viewer wants to see. The Lytro cameras initial reviews havent been 100% convincing, but the technology is expected to definitely improve over time. Instant Photoshop Some of the cameras these days have the capability to beautify the portraits of people with undesirable elements. However, we havent heard of cameras that can instantly remove photo bombers. Perhaps soon, cloning out these photo-trashers maybe done on the spot, within the camera itself. By automatically shooting extra images, the camera will allow the blending of desired parts of each photo into one composite image, therefore eliminating the bad parts. These and other more changes will surely shift the concept of photography over time. While lots of developments are about to happen, which do you think will have the biggest impact in the field of photography? Tweet me @GlennOng. (Glenn Richmond Ong)

GENYO Now Compatible With Most Devices, Browsers

GENYO, the countrys first and only fully-integrated learning management system for basic education, literally brings learning beyond the confines of the traditional classroom. As a web-based educational resource, GENYO can now be accessed 24/7 from any device using any browser. GENYO e-Learning Management System is now compatible with Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari. With this development, GENYO users can now enjoy the systems full features and maximize learning using any of these more popular browsers. Whats more, schools wanting to expand their e-Learning program can now choose from several hardware setup optionstablets in the classroom, mobile laptop kits, and desktop computers making learning available whenever they want it, however they need it. Whether in school, libraries, coffee shops, during traffic jam on the way home, or at home, students and teachers can access a world of knowledge without limitations. With its versatility and flexibility, GENYO makes learning anytime, anywhere a reality. For more information, visit www.genyo.com.ph.

Boomer Gen
here was a time when I had a whole collection of mechanical watches that had to be wound regularly. When automatic watches became the vogue, we only had to shake these watches every day or two to keep them going. Then, came the age of the battery or solar-powered, or otherwise motivated watches, those that are able to run until their power sources run down. There was a time, too, when the appeal of electronic watches especially those favored by Japanese manufacturers were all the rage. Unfortunately, like most things electronic, these faddish watches lasted only as long as their electronics did not give up. I had one that could tell time, naturally, but also had room temperature, month and day features, and could even tell me what day (e.g.,

Jose Ma J Fernandez

Must-Have Watch?
Monday to Sunday) I was born. Then came the day that not even a battery change or a severe electric shock could revive it and it joined many other millions of watches in the great beyond where dead timepieces go. That is when I rediscovered the reliable watches that limited themselves to telling me the time of day and the day of the month, which is really all that one needs. Besides, one has his or her cellphone for the other things that one needs, such as a calendar to remind one of appointments, alarms for different times of the day, reminders of important feasts or birthdays, and so forth. That is why I look with a bit of trepidation at this new electronic watch made by Tokyoflash, makers of the popular QLOCKTWO wall clock. This wristwatch, called, naturally QLOCKTWO W (probably for wristwatch, duh!), has a square face that can generate a set of letters that can tell the time. For example, instead of an analog or digital readout, the time is read thus: IT IS HALF PAST TWO, and so forth! The square face has dimensions of 35mm x 35mm that allows a grid of about 110 letters to light up when prompted by a press of the button on the right side. Aside from telling time, additional pressing of the button will show the calendar date and even the time in seconds. The watch will come in basic colors and have either a leather or rubber strap. Estimated price will be about Euro 550 or over $700. Bit pricey! And of course, it may be a must-have watch for a while, until the fad vanishes or the electronics fail. For this jaded boomer, the plain jane models that simply tell time and dont need serious winding daily are ok already.