Apple Introduces the New iPod


Apple introduced the new iPod to the Philippine market in a media briefing held at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel last October 2. The new iPod dubbed "the best digital music player and most popular portable video player in the world" now features a brighter and enhanced 2.5-inch color display for playing home movies, photos and podcasts.

With improved integration features with Apple iTunes 7 and new redesigned earbud headphones, the new iPod's color display allows users to watch video in full color or view photo slideshows while playing music.

The same with previous generations, the new iPod still clutches Apple’s patented Click Wheel for one-handed navigation. Also built-in the new iPod is a seamless gapless playback feature that allows music or consecutive tracks to be heard just as they are produced.

The new iPod also features an improved Search and Quick Scroll function for easy music. With Apple’s Auto-Sync technology, digital music, podcasts, photos, audiobooks, and movies can be automatically downloaded onto the iPod. Auto-Sync also keeps the new iPod up-to-date when it is plugged into a PC or Mac.

Depending on the settings used, Apple stated that the 30GB model has up to 14 hours of battery life for music playback and up to 3.5 hours of video playback. The 80GB model's battery can provide up to 20 hours of battery life for music playback and 6.5 hours of video playback.

Available in white or black casing, the new iPod 30GB model is priced at Php 16,190.00 suggested retail price. It is also available in 80GB model at Php 22,690.00, which can hold up to 20,000 songs or 100 hours of video.

EPSON launches new All-In-One, entry-level printers


Individual ink cartridge system for budget printers unveiled
Epson Philippines (EPC) launched its three latest all-in-one (AIO) printers - the EPSON Stylus CX2900, CX3900, and CX5900 - and two entry-level printers - EPSON Stylus C59 and C79 - during a media briefing at the National Sports Grill restaurant in Makati City on September 21, 2006. Randy Kanapi, EPC Marketing Group Head, said “with the new printers we are launching, consumers can actually experience the features we offer not just basically for media hype.”

Individual Ink System now on affordable printers

The EPSON Stylus C59 and C79, priced at Php2,695.00 and Php3,995.00 respectively, are two of the company's latest addition to its affordable home printers with the industry’s first integrated individual ink cartridge system on entry-level machines. Individual ink cartridge system was previously a feature for mid-range and high-end printers only.

Kanapi said “the biggest concern of consumers is the cost of cartridges. With EPSON’s INKdividual system now on affordable printers, users can actually have big cost savings because they don't need to change the entire cartridge system when a color cartridge runs out.”

Don Navarro, EPC Product Management Associate, said “the C59 and C79 offer home users unparalleled value-for-money proposition complemented by high quality printouts and new low-priced inks. C59 users can expect remarkable low operating costs in the long run with only Php295.00 per cartridge. On the other hand, each C79 cartridge is available at only Php449.00. Despite the low price of cartridges, the new inks do not compromise print quality.” The C59 and C79 models use a four-color cartridge system.

Navarro also said that “aside from affordability, C59 and C79 features print speeds of up to 22 pages per minute (ppm) for black text printouts and 12 ppm for color.”

Navarro said that “the C79 is the only printer in its class to use Epson’ revolutionary INKdividual DURAbrite Ultra inks that ensures lifetime durability of up to 120 years, based on Epson’s testing when printed on EPSON Matte Paper heavyweight, with extraordinary water and smudge-resistance.”

Hideto Nakamura, EPC President, said that “Epson will further improve DURAbrite inks for the benefit of consumers.”

EPSON’s new AIO printers

Navarro said that “the CX2900, CX3900, and CX5900 are versatile AIOs that are designed to combine the functions of a scanner, copies and printer, all in one single compact unit. With the increasing demand for all thing digital, an AIO slips seamlessly alongside other digital devices in a modern home.”

Epson boasts of the CX2900, priced at Php4,995.00, as the only entry-level AIO printer with individual ink cartridge system in the market today. CX2900 ink costs Php295.00 per cartridge.

Designed for SOHO users, the CX3900, priced at Php6,496.00, is capable of printing of up to 5760 dpi, outdoing other similar range AIO’s in the market today.

With a built-in 2” color LCD, the CX5900, priced at Php7,995.00, allows users to print directly without the PC from mobile storage cards, including SD card, and CompactFlash, MultiMediaCard. CX3900 and CX5900 inks cost Php449.00 per cartridge.

Epson Philippines is on the web at http://www.epson.com.ph.

New Epson Philippines President

Epson Philippines Corporation introduced Hideto Nakamura as the company’s new president in a press conference held at the Shangri-la Hotel Makati last July 24. Nakamura, who assumed office replacing Keita Fujiwara last April, said that Epson Philippines will give more focus on the corporate segment of the local market in the company’s current fiscal year. Before the introduction, Jino Alvarez, Assistant General Manager for sales and marketing, John Titan, Assistant General Manager for corporate products, and Randy Kanapi, Marketing Group Head briefed the media people on the current state of the company.

Pentium D


Pentium D is the first desktop multi-core processor, introduced by Intel in May 2005. It made up of two Pentium 4 Prescott core placed on a single package, and it runs on 2.8, 3.0 and 3.2 GHz clock speeds, corresponding to models 820, 830 and 840 respectively.

Equipped with 1 MB of L2 cache per core, the Pentium D also supports the EM64T specifications, and the newer versions of the processor support the Vanderpool virtualization technology. It only works with the Intel 945, 955, 975 as well as with the nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition chipsets.

Pentium D is the last Intel processor line to carry the Pentium name. The next generation of dual core processors will carry the Core Duo name.

Why Dual Core?

Because of physical limitations, manufacturers can no longer offer enhanced performance by just bumping up the clock speed of the processors. The logical solution was to use two (or more) independent processors in a single package, which is akin to putting two brains instead of one, hence the birth of dual core systems like the Pentium D. Dual core processors are advantageous in running multi-tasking-heavy and multi-threaded programs, such as video encoding and 3D rendering tasks.

IBM was first to introduce a dual core processor, the POWER4, back in 2000. Apple’s PowerMac G5 was the first to use dual core processors, and other manufacturers also followed suit with their dual core processors, including Sun Microsystems’ UltraSPARC IV, Intel’s Xeon and Core Duo, and Advanced Micro Devices with their Opteron and Athlon 64 X2 processors.

Liquid Dreams: 65 inches of high definition nirvana


Sharp LC-65D90U HDTV

Pros: Allows you to have bragging rights with the largest available LCD television (in the Philippines).

Cons: This HDTV's massive screen clutches a tantamount huge price.

Every electronics manufacturer these days seemed to have taken to heart the mantra, bigger, faster, and stronger. For LCD television manufacturers, the quest is for larger and crisper screens.

For now, Sharp may have been on the front of the flat panel race, with the introduction of the world’s largest available LCD television – the Sharp Aquos LC-65D90U – with 65 inches of high definition performance.

Utilizing a full spec HDTV 1080p resolution, the Aquos comes with true 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, delivering rich, cinema quality images regardless of room brightness and the source of HD signals. Sharp also added a slew of technological innovations to ensure maximum performance, including a four-wavelength backlight adds a deep crimson red to conventional RGB wavelengths, thus giving the picture a deeper and more accurate hue of red. The interlaced to progressive conversion technology ensures detailed HDTV images and smooth pictures

The high quality noise reduction ensures that the pictures are spared of the dreaded “mosquitoes’ that mar the quality of viewing. Active contrast technology resulted to a contrast ratio of up to 4000:1, resulting whiter whites and blacker blacks. The Quick-Shoot technology gave the Aquos a 12ms response time, making images free from blurs and ensuring a clear, crisp playback. Viewing is also undistorted, thanks to the radial arrangement of the liquid crystal molecules, allowing viewing angles of up to 170 degrees in all directions.

Additional touches. Sharp also included some other features that complemented the Aquos well, like the stainless speakers with extra-large aperture grills that deliver clear, natural audio. The Aquos can also be set up in any home theater rig easily, as it can be connected to DVD, VHS, satellite, and to high definition sources through DVI, HD component and HDMI inputs.

In a nutshell, aside from being the largest available LCD television (which is a bragging right on its own), the Aquos is a full-featured and excellently designed television that screams “cutting edge.”

Price: About Php1 million as of May 15, 2006 ($1=Php52)

PQI Squeezes 16GB into Credit Card-sized Flash Card


A Taiwanese flash card manufacturer is prepping up the introduction of a credit card-sized 16GB Flash Card.

Power Quotient International (PQI), a memory module manufacturer in Taiwan, will ship the wallet-size storage device called U510. The flash card’s dimension is only 85mm x 54mm x 3mm. It is expected to battle out with a thinner USB flash-drive from OCZ, which has recently announced a storage card called Mini-Kart with only 2.8mm thickness. We’re not sure if there’s a flash card with U510’s size that exceeds 16GB.

U510’s remarkable credit card-size design allows you to slip it into your wallet or pocket. It has a built-in retractable USB connector and should work with Macs and Windows.

Yahoo! Launches a New Mobile Service in RP


Yahoo! Inc. unveiled a new feature designed for users who want to take Internet content and services on their mobile phones. Dubbed "Yahoo! Go for Mobile", the new service is the mobile version of Yahoo! Go, a suite of free products and services with personal information manager (PIM) functionality including E-mail, search engine, calendar, messaging, photo album, and address book.

This new Yahoo! feature was formally launched for Philippine users last April 25 at the Be Connect Internet cafe, Greenbelt 4, Makati City with Reza Behnam and Larry Jordan, Yahoo! Southeast Asia Managing Director and Product Management Director, respectively.

Jordan said that "Yahoo! Go for Mobile is a step towards connecting Internet users in the Philippines to Yahoo! services on their mobile phones."

Yahoo! Go for Mobile allows users to upload pictures taken from their mobile phone to Yahoo! Photos, and also sign up for a new account and check their E-mail from the mobile device.

The new service is initially available for selected Nokia handsets, including the N70, 6680, 6681, 6630, 7610, 6670 and the 6600, which will get Yahoo! Go for Mobile preinstalled.

Behnam said, "The Philippines is important to Yahoo," and "the company aims to make the Internet more relevant to the local users."

Yahoo! has recently clinched a partnership with Smart and Globe mobile service providers to offer new mobile content and services including SMS alerts and WAP services to Yahoo users in the Philippines.

With more localized content relevant to Filipino web surfers, a new facelift of the Yahoo! Philippines homepage ( www.yahoo.com.ph ) was also unveiled during the launch. Geared for local net aficionados, the Yahoo! Philippines portal further integrates local versions of Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Mail, News, Entertainment, and Sports.

Dual-Core Shift

We are entering a new advent of dual-core processors, which we expect to sprout like wild fire over the next decade. While AMD is set to carve its place with Athlon 64 X2 4800 in the heated multi-processor clash, Intel is getting ready for the launching of Presler, the second-generation dual-core Pentium 4.

Sharp Philippines Banners 65-inch TV


With 46-inch LCD television becoming commonplace in an increasingly overcrowded market, many manufacturers are hard pressed to come up with the next big thing. Sharp Philippines has just done that, literally. The largest manufacturer of LCD televisions in the world introduced to the Philippines the largest available LCD television yet – the Aquos 65-inch model.

With one of its top honcho Hiroshi Hatano, Sharp AVP for Marketing, at the helm of the unveiling, Sharp Philippines showcased the Aquos’ superlative specs at a media briefing held at Dusit Nikko Hotel in Makati City last April 21.

The 65-inch Aquos offers an high-definition performance, showing video at 1920x1080 resolution. The 1080p native TV also comes with a four-wavelength backlit system that adds crimson red to the usual Red, Green and Blue wavelengths, allowing it to show deeper hues of red and markedly increasing image clarity. With the Quick Shot Technology the Aquos also eliminated visual lag resulting to sharper and clearer pictures. It can accept high-def sources through its High Definition Multimedia Interface, Digital Video Interface and HD component inputs.

Although Sharp did not announce pricing for the 65-inch model, it is expected to be available at the neighborhood of 1 million pesos.

In the briefing, Sharp also introduced various high-technology products with advanced features, including washing machines with silver ion technology, and a double French door refrigerator.

Canon steps up efforts in providing integrated imaging solutions for businesses


Canon Marketing Philippines, Inc. has announced the renaming of a business unit in its intention to enhance and further build its leadership as the leading solutions provider in integrated imaging solutions.

The establishment of the Business Imaging Solutions (BIS) Division will focus on providing integrated imaging solutions aimed at improving business efficiency and productivity by providing hardware, software and services. BIS, formerly known as Office Systems Solutions, offers a wider business scope.

“The new name now becomes the more appropriate tag that reflects our new approach towards customized solutions rather than merely “box-selling” or hardware-selling,” said Ramon Arteficio, CEO & President of Canon Marketing Philippines.

BIS will include the Production and Graphic Arts Unit. This business unit aims to target meticulous clients with high volume and graphic intensive requirements such as printing presses, publications and other graphic arts production houses.

It will carry the High-Volume/High-Speed imageRUNNER product line and Canon’s Color Laser Copier (CLC), full-color copying machines for graphic printing packaged with a color management solution.

Another development in BIS is the beefing up of the Japanese Accounts Group. This strategy aims to give special attention to corporate accounts that are Japanese-managed.

To stress this move towards offering total business solutions further, the BIS has also adopted a new slogan for 2006: “Business Can Be Simple.” This slogan emphasizes how Canon’s range of business solutions help in simplifying business processes.

SonicWALL aims to keep market leadership in RP


SonicWALL, one of the biggest unified threat management vendors in the world, endeavors to keep its market leadership in the Philippines with the release of new products designed for small and medium businesses.

Speaking at a press briefing held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel last April 4, Antony Chapman, SonicWALL Senior Director for Asia-Pacific, said that now “the company is number one in threat management, number one in security appliances, number three in web filtering appliances, and just a few months after the introduction of SSL-VPN products, has captured the number three spot in that market.”

According to Chapman, SonicWALL is the biggest provider of UTM solutions in the world with more than $135 million in revenues, and sales have grown 55% last year.

Chapman attributed the company’s success to its introduction of new products, such as the streamlined SSL VPN appliances designed for small networks. Previously focused on large enterprises, SonicWALL’s line of inexpensive UTM appliances and SSL VPN products are geared to companies with less than 1000 employees, which represents a new market for the company.

Chapman also cited the company’s thrust for expansion, which includes its acquisition of email security firm Mail Frontier, which would further cement its foothold in the security market.

SonicWALL is on the web at http://www.SonicWALL.com .

ProCurve HP Launches Switches with Wirespeed Performance, Integrated Gigabit PoE


Wirespeed performance and integrated Gigabit Power of Ethernet (PoE), advanced functionalities that address the most up-to-date needs of security, mobility and convergence applications, are now featured in the new intelligent Layer 3/4 LAN switches from ProCurve Networking, (www.procurve.com) a business unit of Hewlett-Packard for wired and wireless LAN and WAN networking products, services, and solutions.

Amol Mitra, ProCurve Networking’s Worldwide Director for Product Marketing introduced their company’s latest product line of switches across a range of 24 to 288 Gigabit ports, including the ProCurve 5400 chassis series and the ProCurve 3500 stackable series at a media briefing held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel last March 31.

Mitra said, “the 5400 and 3500 series are setting a new standard in intelligent switches. Both deliver wirespeed Gigabit and 10 Gigabit performance and come standard with integrated Gigabit PoE and a lifetime warranty. They have versatile intelligent ports that combine the capabilities of the ProVision Application Specific Integrated Chip (ASIC), the flexibility of 10/100/1000 performance and integrated PoE.”

With Procurve’s “Wirespeed Policy Enforcement,” Mitra said that “network administrators can have hardware-based control of access and traffic flow to protect, detect and respond against network threats without decreasing network performance.”

The built-in ASIC of ProCurve switches is designed to continuously operate while withstanding error conditions and external attacks of the network.

Recognizing the necessary migration of intelligence and functionality to the network edge, Mitra said “the ProCurve Adaptive EDGE Architecture strategy is the industry’s only comprehensive and inclusive network design strategy that is adaptable, scalable and completely interoperable for achieving command from the center with control to the network edge.”

Mitra emphasized that ProCurve is geared towards providing a “scalable, adaptive, flexible, and cost-effective infrastructure that can enable today’s applications and future applications.”

“We are set to provide functionality, performance, and Power over Ethernet in one package so customers will not need to buy them separately,” Mitra said.

ProCurve also introduced during the briefing other products to complement its lineup, including the ProCurve 4200 switch family, the ProCurve 6200 switch, and a media-flexible 10-gigabit module for the ProCurve 8100 series.

Canon in High Gear with New Products


Canon Philippines kicked off 2006 by launching a slew of new products across all categories – printers, cameras, and digicams – to further cement its position as the leader in digital imaging solutions in the local market.

“Canon demonstrates our digital imaging prowess again by addressing the fast growing interest in photography and printing at various expertise levels,” said Ramon Arteficio, President of Canon Marketing Philippines, Arteficio graced the unprecedented product launching, which saw the introduction of 19 new products, held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Makati last March 28.

Among the new products showcased by Canon include its flagship digital SLR EOS 30D camera, the successor to its hugely successful EOS 20D camera. It also launched new feature-rich Elura video cameras equipped with image stabilizers, several models of the Ixus and PowerShot series cameras, DV camcorders, the Pixma multifunction printers, and a couple of laser printers.

CyberPress marks 10th year with IT badminton tourney


The country’s pioneering organization of IT writers, CyberPress, also known as the IT Journalists Association of the Philippines Inc., is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. To kickstart the festivities, CyberPress staged a badminton tournament dubbed “First All-IT CyberPress Invitational Badminton Cup” held last March 25 at the 4th floor of Solid House Building, 1231 Chino Roces Ave (formerly Pasong Tamo Extension), Makati City.

The contest aimed to gather members of the local IT industry, which the CyberPress has been covering for the past ten years, and engaged them in a friendly competition. The tournament was carried on cable television by Destiny Cable.

Although there were no major prizes at stake, participants in the tournament vied for pride and prestige in the men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. A participating team was entitled to field a total of six players composed of three females and three males.

The winners of the tournament will be cited during the CyberPress tenth anniversary party on April 28, 2006 at the Crowne Plaza Galleria in Pasig City.

Among those which have participated include Epson, EMC, HP, IBM, Innove, Microsoft, Smart Communications, SAP, Accenture, and TrendMicro. MyDestiny, which provided the venue for free, also entered in the tournament.

Maxtor Intros New External Drives


Responding to the need for external storage solutions with higher capacities and better features, Maxtor recently unveiled its revamped Maxtor OneTouch III line of external storage products, with Craig Davis, the Asia-Pacific Branded Products Group manager showcasing the new products at a press briefing held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel last March 23.

The OneTouch III family is composed of several products with different capacities and interfaces, with the high-end model, the OneTouch III Turbo edition, topping at 1 terabyte capacity and featuring three interfaces – USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800. The external drives, designed by award winning firm Frog Design, also features new software tools that will make the data backup process a cinch even for novices.

“We want to emphasize simplicity,” said Davis to describe the backup process using the OneTouch, as he noted that in their studies, there is a big gap between the need for consumers to backup their data, and the actual effort to do such. “The OneTouch III solution has a user-friendly interface that allows easy operation,” he added.

Aside from the worry-free operation Davis also emphasized the OneTouch III’s improved acoustics, speed, and other features such as inner disk casing and shock mounts that contribute to the drives’ durability and reliability. He also demonstrated the security feature called DriveLock that guards the data and safeguard its contents even if the drive is lost or stolen.

San Beda holds IT Conference in Subic


The San Beda College Department of Computer Applications and Information Science (CAIS) and its student arm, the Bedan Computer Information Society (BCIS) held a three-day IT Conference in Legenda Suites, Cubi Point, SBMA, Olongapo City last February 24-26.

Prof. Josephine Prudente, CAIS department chair said that this event demonstrated their "commitment in providing superior education in the field of Information Technology while inculcating the Benedictine values in the minds of young Filipinos."

Melvin Juruena, BCIS activity chair said that this year's IT Conference with the theme, "ICT Issues and Trends: A Roadmap to a Competitive Global Economy” was designed exclusively for junior and senior Bedan computer majors.

Benedict Villa, current BCIS president remarked that their activities served as practical application of what they have learned inside the classrooms. "We have updated our skills and knowledge about the latest breakthroughs in the ICT industry," Villa said.

The CAIS and BCIS invited industry experts to discuss several topics including Kit Andal, MSI-Digiland Network Consultant and MIS Supervisor (Introduction to Wi-Fi Technology); Michelle Casio, Microsoft Philippines Platform Strategy Manager (Microsoft Software); Engr. Jessica Toe Hio, Sony Ericsson Customer Service and Product Marketing Manager (3G Technology); Grace Dimaranan, Top Peg Animation President (Computer Graphics and Animation); Marlon Magtira, PC Buyers Guide magazine Editor-in-Chief (Trends in ICT); Stanley Sia, Sykes Asia Systems Engineer (Information Technology Corporate Applications); and Xavier Capilitan, Trend Micro Software Security Group Assistant Team Leader (Internet Security and Ethics).

iTunes' 1 Billion Milestone


Apple announced that the number of songs legally downloaded via its iTunes music store reached the 1 billion mark since April 2003, when the music service was launched. The 1 billionth song, Speed of Sound by Coldplay, was purchased by Alex Ostrovsky. Ostrovsky won a hefty prize, including an iMac and 10 video iPods. iTunes reached the 500-million song milestones on July 17, 2005.

Parallel ATA: R.I.P. 2006


Intel will do away with yet another legacy technology – the parallel ATA or IDE technology, which is used to connect mass storage to computers. Its upcoming ICH8 south bridge chip will not have PATA support. Instead the number of USB 2.0 ports that it will support will rise to ten. The new south bridge chip will also feature USB port disabling, and will support up to six Serial ATA ports and six PCI Express x1 lanes. The AC ’97 sound system will also be abandoned.

Mac OS X Gets First Virus


Apple’s Mac OS X, touted to be a safe alternative to Windows operating system, now has the dubious distinction of being attacked by a virus. Called Leap-A, the first Mac OS X virus infects Mac computers running on OS X 10.4 through the iChat instant messaging application. Anti-virus company Sophos was the first to identify the virus.

Acer First to Intro Dual-Core Laptops


Acer is first to unveil dual-core notebooks for the Philippine market, showcasing the Intel Core Duo-equipped computers at a press briefing held at Dusit Nikko Hotel in Makati last February 16.

Targeting a broad range of customers, Acer will make available up to 15 dual core models. The first five unveiled are equipped with 1.6-, 1.83- and 2.0 GHz dual-core processors. The notebooks also feature 667 MHz front side buses and Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology.

The top of the line model, the TravelMate 8204WLMi, comes with an Intel 945 chipset, and an array of security and communications features, plus an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics chip with 512MB of HyperMemory Technology.

Acer notebooks are available at MSI-ECS Philippines and Meriton Distribution.

Intel to Debut Merom mobile CPU in Q4


Intel's next-generation notebook processor codenamed Merom will ship in the fourth quarter of 2006 (http://www.intel.com/technology/computing/ngma/ ). This latest micro-architecture promises to be an energy-efficient, low power, high-performing and scaleable blueprint on which future Intel server, desktop, and mobile multi-core processors will be based.

According to plans, Merom will work within the Napa Platform and will initially be available as a 2.33 GHz Core Duo chip and a 1,83 GHz Core Solo. The development is thought to push back the introduction of a 2.33 GHz Core duo chip from Q2 to Q3 this year.

Intel's latest desktop dual-core processor codenamed Conroe is planned to be introduced in Q3. Conroe will work within Bridge Creek digital home platform and Averil digital office platform.

For severs, the new Woodcrest targeted for introduction in Q3, will work within the Bensley server platform and the Glidewell workstation platform. The Tigerton, optimized for quad-core based on next generation micro-architecture may come by next year, 2007.

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