BestBuy slashes price on BlackBerry PlayBook by $200
It’s not that the BlackBerry PlayBook sales was down but it was also not as RIM expected. And now that it’s out for a number of months, interest on the PlayBook is waning and along with the announcement of new and cheaper Kindle’s, RIM has to do something. So a price slash it is coming from BestBuy.
BlackBerry PlayBook is a very decent device on its own. It has an impressive set of specs which works really well with its QNX OS. But at a price that matches Apple’s iPad 2 or other Android tablets, one is most likely to make the PlayBook a third choice.
Now the PlayBook does a semi-HP TouchPad move with a $200 price slash on all its model. The 16GB version is now down to $299.99 which somewhat brings it closer to the price of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 WiFi. The 32GB is now at $399.99 while the 64GB is at $499.99. If you’ve been waiting for a price reduction on the PlayBook, this is it so you might wanna hook up with friends or relatives in the US to get you one.
Read our review of the BlackBerry Playbook.
Ericsson empowers new TV experiences across multiple devices
In the Manila leg of its TV Roadshow for Asia Pacific, Ericsson, provider of technology and services to telecom operators, demonstrated its ‘End to Endless’ television solutions that are helping to drive the delivery of more content to more consumers across multiple networks and devices.We are witnessing rapid infrastructure changes in the Asia Pacific market as consumer desire to consume more and more video is shaping today’s television into an ‘anytime, anywhere’ experience. This move towards a multi-screen, multi-platform proposition is both a subscriber and revenue growth opportunity. We very recently highlighted this trend through our announcement with Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan. Ericsson’s end to end solution will enable Chunghwa Telecom to offer an enhanced service across STBs, PCs, Smartphones, and Tablet devices, representing a significant replacement of existing functionality” said Eugene Sarmiento, Head of Multiscreen TV APAC, Ericsson.
Digital TV penetration in the APAC region is set to rise dramatically over the next five years, which presents a number of challenges to broadcasters and operators alike; not only in the acquisition and processing of high quality content but also in the management and efficient delivery of large volumes of video, media and audio across multiple platforms to multiple devices. Ericsson’s expertise in delivering next generation TV solutions to customers in the Asia Pacific market is invaluable as we enable them to bring the desired Individual TV Experience to consumers.
“This is part of our Networked Society vision – an important driver of the Networked Society is consumer demand for multimedia anywhere, anyplace, and any way they want it,” Elie Hanna, President and Country Unit Head for Ericsson Philippines and Pacific Islands, explained. “The Networked Society is the result of mobility, broadband and cloud computing coming together and becoming relevant to users. By 2016, we predict that there will be five billion mobile broadband subscriptions, and the challenge for content owners and distributors will be on how they can be creative in the environment where the technology is ready. However, even where creativity is present, it is not useful until consumers make it personal. This is why content creators, service providers, and technology partners like Ericsson must continue to collaborate towards connected creativity.”
Ericsson Consumer Lab research shows that people are watching more video content on devices such as smartphones and tablets, but 84% watch broadcast TV more than once per week. “This means there is a great opportunity to bring relevant solutions to viewers,” said Hanna.
He further revealed that “our Consumer Lab studies show Video on Demand’s share of wallet in increasing in size and is a new revenue stream that pay TV providers should tap into.”
He further revealed that “our Consumer Lab studies show Video on Demand’s share of wallet in increasing in size and is a new revenue stream that pay TV providers should tap into.”
As part of the roadshow, Ericsson demonstrated TV viewing experience on the smartphones, tablets and PC to augment linear TV prime time television. Ericsson also showcased the award winning Ericsson Media Connect client, a device that lets users control live broadcast TV, on-demand video, internet video, photos and audio, seamlessly between devices in the Home.
Globe announces BlackBerry Bold 9900 pricing plans
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 was launched last Monday and we learned that the prepaid price for it is Php31,690. Globe has announced their pricing plans for postpaid subscribers and you can pre-order yours before it comes out on October 7.
| All UNLI Plan | Plan 299 | Plan 499 | Plan 999 | Plan 1799 | Plan 2499 | Plan 3799 | Plan 5K | Plan 10K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P29,230 | P29,230 | P27,980 | P21,740 | P15,120 | P6,300 | FREE | FREE | FREE |
The new BlackBerry Bold is now slimmer (although wider) and faster than previous BlackBerry smartphones and it also comes with BlackBerry 7 OS.
BlackBerry Bold 9900 Specs:
- 2.8″ high resolution capacitive touch screen display
- BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard
- 1.2 GHz Processor
- BlackBerry 7 OS
- 8 GB on-board memory, expandable up to 40GB
- 5.0 MP camera, supports HD video recording
- Comes with premium Docs To Go® productivity suite
- NFC technology
- Accelerometer, Digital Compass and Proximity Sensor allowing for Augmented Reality
- Built-in GPS / aGPS
- Dual-Band Wi-Fi® – 802.11 2.4 GHz b/g/n, 5 GHz a/n
- Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support
- Wireless Network support: Tri-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE
- 1230 mAh removable, rechargeable battery
- 2-year warranty
For additional information please visit www.globe.com.ph/blackberry.
Knowing that the Philippines is one emerging market in the ASEAN, Toshiba learned that extending reach and finding growth in the country is pivotal to further reinforce their strong presence in the region. The laptop market will enjoy a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26%, and TVs the figures are even more impressive: a CAGR of 49%. This trend also holds true in tablets, which will see a CAGR of 43% from FY2011 to FY2013.
The Toshiba Philippines headquarters will provide nationwide market coverage with its unified sales and marketing operation. It has a Philippine-centric business structure that promotes the development and delivery of products customized to meet the needs of Filipinos.
Tomoyasu Yamamoto, President of Toshiba (Philippines) Inc. said, “For the past years, we have been reinforcing our marketing activities in ASEAN market to deliver products that address local needs and enhance brand awareness. We are very excited to have an opportunity to expand our business in the Philippines with the launch of a very strong line-up of TVs and PCs. We continue to make efforts to understand the market and look forward to meeting the needs of consumers throughout the Philippines.”
In line with this announcement, Toshiba Philippines also announced upcoming digital products such as their 55-inch glasses-free 3DTV, the world’s lightest and thinnest ultrabook, and their REGZA tablets, both the 10-inch and 7-inch version. We’ll take a look at some of these new products in upcoming posts so stay tuned.
According to the IDC report, IBM’s 2010 ASEAN services revenue was 31 percent more than the next closest competitor. IBM was also the market share leader in outsourcing and application management.
Global Services is a critical component of IBM’s strategy of providing IT infrastructure and business insight and solutions to clients. While solutions often include industry-leading IBM software and systems, other suppliers’ products are also used if a client solution requires it. Within Global Services, there are
Global Business Services (GBS) primarily provides professional services and application management services, delivering business value and innovation to clients through solutions which leverage industry and business-process expertise while integrating the industry-leading portfolio of IBM and strategic partners, to define the upper end of client-valued services.
“More clients in ASEAN including the Philippines are looking to services providers to leverage technology to stimulate growth and compete in a global market. Forward looking companies are acknowledging the paradigm shift — wherein the ‘cheapest’ is not necessarily the best when it comes to technology services, ” said Rodney Regalado, Country Executive, Global Technology Services, IBM Philippines. “IBM’s success is driven by our ability to uniquely combine industry expertise with technology know-how, a world-class software portfolio and cutting edge research capabilities. This is what organizations need from their services provider today and is a key reason why we are succeeding in the marketplace.”
Last year, IBM clinched numerous strategic deals around the ASEAN region including Singapore Health Services Pte Ltd, Prudential Indonesia, Philippine Nature Spring, Clearing House for Number Portability Co. Ltd in Thailand and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) in Malaysia.
Source: IDC Asia/Pacific Semiannual IT Services Tracker 2H 2010, April 2011.*Services include Business Consulting, IT Consulting, Custom Application Development, System Integration, Network Consulting & Integration, Application Management, Desktop Management, Network Management, Hosted Application Management, Hosting Infrastructure Services, IS Outsourcing, Business Processing Outsourcing, Hardware Deploy & Support, Software Deploy & Support, and IT Education & Training.
Looking at your current (or old depending on when you are reading this) profile, you would realize how hard it is to backtrack on what happened the previous week, or months… or year. Not that you want to view old news but it’s somehow nice to remember when you’ve bought your first car, or when you got engaged or just what did you do a year ago.
Facebook Timeline allows you to backtrack to the things that happened in your life and view it in a beautiful way. It’s like a scrapbook but you don’t have to do anything at all. Facebook takes care of everything, it pulls all events that you’ve attended, places you’ve checked in, wall photos, things you’ve forgotten you posted on Facebook and you can view it by month or year. Everything from when you joined Facebook.
Then Facebook also added what they call Life Events as part of status update. These are special status updates that correspond to important events in your life, like when you took a trip, transferred to a new job, had surgery, and more. What Facebook does is display this prominently in your timeline so you or those viewing your profile won’t miss it.
It’s not just status updates though. Once developers begin to incorporate Open Graph to their apps, you can now track your things you’ve done or accomplished via the Timeline. Like the runs you have via Nike+ or videos you watched in Hulu or Netflix, or music you’ve listen to in Spotify or books you’ve read in Kobo. It may not mean much for Filipino users with most services not available locally but in time, we’ll be seeing more apps that would take advantage of the Timeline.
Learn more about Facebook Timeline.
Toshiba strengthens presence in the country with new headquarters
Not known to a lot of people, for the longest time, there was no Toshiba Philippines until this year. We see their products — TVs, PCs, laptops, refrigerators, but Toshiba doesn’t really have a strong presence in the country aside from its distributors and channel partners. Toshiba addressed that by having a local headquarters in Makati as well as announcing new business strategy for the local market.
The Toshiba Philippines headquarters will provide nationwide market coverage with its unified sales and marketing operation. It has a Philippine-centric business structure that promotes the development and delivery of products customized to meet the needs of Filipinos.
Tomoyasu Yamamoto, President of Toshiba (Philippines) Inc. said, “For the past years, we have been reinforcing our marketing activities in ASEAN market to deliver products that address local needs and enhance brand awareness. We are very excited to have an opportunity to expand our business in the Philippines with the launch of a very strong line-up of TVs and PCs. We continue to make efforts to understand the market and look forward to meeting the needs of consumers throughout the Philippines.”
IBM leads ASEAN market share in IT services
IT analyst firm International Data Corporation (IDC) has ranked IBM number one in ASEAN market share as measured by revenue in its report, “IDC Asia/Pacific Semiannual IT Services Tracker 2H 2010, April 2011.”According to the IDC report, IBM’s 2010 ASEAN services revenue was 31 percent more than the next closest competitor. IBM was also the market share leader in outsourcing and application management.
two reportable segments: Global Technology Services and Global Business Services.
Global Technology Services (GTS) primarily provides IT infrastructure services and business process services, delivering business value through the company’s global scale, standardization and automation.Global Business Services (GBS) primarily provides professional services and application management services, delivering business value and innovation to clients through solutions which leverage industry and business-process expertise while integrating the industry-leading portfolio of IBM and strategic partners, to define the upper end of client-valued services.
“More clients in ASEAN including the Philippines are looking to services providers to leverage technology to stimulate growth and compete in a global market. Forward looking companies are acknowledging the paradigm shift — wherein the ‘cheapest’ is not necessarily the best when it comes to technology services, ” said Rodney Regalado, Country Executive, Global Technology Services, IBM Philippines. “IBM’s success is driven by our ability to uniquely combine industry expertise with technology know-how, a world-class software portfolio and cutting edge research capabilities. This is what organizations need from their services provider today and is a key reason why we are succeeding in the marketplace.”
Last year, IBM clinched numerous strategic deals around the ASEAN region including Singapore Health Services Pte Ltd, Prudential Indonesia, Philippine Nature Spring, Clearing House for Number Portability Co. Ltd in Thailand and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) in Malaysia.
Source: IDC Asia/Pacific Semiannual IT Services Tracker 2H 2010, April 2011.*Services include Business Consulting, IT Consulting, Custom Application Development, System Integration, Network Consulting & Integration, Application Management, Desktop Management, Network Management, Hosted Application Management, Hosting Infrastructure Services, IS Outsourcing, Business Processing Outsourcing, Hardware Deploy & Support, Software Deploy & Support, and IT Education & Training.
Facebook Timeline gives you a better way to view your profile
One of the most-talked about announcement by Zuck during the Facebook f8 event a couple of days ago is the new profile display called Timeline. It may not be for some people but for those who use Facebook to somewhat tell the story of their life, Timeline is a pretty nifty feature.
Looking at your current (or old depending on when you are reading this) profile, you would realize how hard it is to backtrack on what happened the previous week, or months… or year. Not that you want to view old news but it’s somehow nice to remember when you’ve bought your first car, or when you got engaged or just what did you do a year ago.
Facebook Timeline allows you to backtrack to the things that happened in your life and view it in a beautiful way. It’s like a scrapbook but you don’t have to do anything at all. Facebook takes care of everything, it pulls all events that you’ve attended, places you’ve checked in, wall photos, things you’ve forgotten you posted on Facebook and you can view it by month or year. Everything from when you joined Facebook.
Then Facebook also added what they call Life Events as part of status update. These are special status updates that correspond to important events in your life, like when you took a trip, transferred to a new job, had surgery, and more. What Facebook does is display this prominently in your timeline so you or those viewing your profile won’t miss it.
It’s not just status updates though. Once developers begin to incorporate Open Graph to their apps, you can now track your things you’ve done or accomplished via the Timeline. Like the runs you have via Nike+ or videos you watched in Hulu or Netflix, or music you’ve listen to in Spotify or books you’ve read in Kobo. It may not mean much for Filipino users with most services not available locally but in time, we’ll be seeing more apps that would take advantage of the Timeline.
Learn more about Facebook Timeline.
Overall, Timeline is an exciting feature. It might look complicated at first but as you use it,
you’ll learn how conveniently Facebook laid out things. It won’t change anything in terms of privacy, you still have control on what you can display on your profile or who can view it. Facebook just changed the way you view your profile page, in a good way in my opinion.
Facebook will roll out Timeline at the end of this month but if you want to use it now, here’s a simple guide on how to enable your Timeline.
So what do you think? How does the new Facebook Timeline sound to you?