Music and Mobility: Philips GoGear

Philips had music and mobility in mind when they created and launched their latest gadgets in the market and called the collection Philips GoGear.

Philips revealed their new suite of Go Gear portable media players matched with top notch sound quality and stylish design.
Let me make this simple for you, you don't have to believe me in the design aspect, just check out the photos of the models below. My verdict - design wise - on each model at the end of the article. :)

As per the sound, the bar of mp3 music's quality has just been raised. The new Full Sound technology restores the details lost in compressed music formats. You have to experience the difference yourselves. I did tonight, at their "Let Your Ears Decide" GoGear product launch at Bonifacio High Street.


Go Gear LUXE
MP3 player with Bluetooth headset
- fastens like an accessory. Switch from music to calls on your Bluetooth mobile phone and view caller ID with one touch.


GoGear Aria
With FullSoundTM and premium headphones
- featurs FullSoundTM. Use this to download online videos to the player and easily navigate content on its 2” full color display


GoGear Muse
With FullSound2TM and noise cancellation headphones
- a portable Audio-Video (AV) player with FullSound2TM technology and noise cancellation headphones for exceptional sound and inspired music enjoyment on the go. With 3” wide-QVGA color display.


GoGear Opus With FullSoundTM and premium headphones
- a portable AV player with FullSound TM. Be entertained on the go – download online videos and then view them on the 2.8” QVGA color screen.


GoGear Vibe
Small size, big entertainment
- portable AV player is a superbly small design. Its 1.44” full color display shows off album art and folder view ensures easy file navigation and organization.


GoGear Spark
With FullSound TM to bring music to life
- Album art makes the player glow while your songs are playing. Show off your player with photos as screensaver.


GoGear RaGa
With robust aluminum finish
- it sports a sturdy aluminum design, making it highly wearable and durable. Enjoy up to 27-hour playback of your favorite MP3, WMA music, and FM radio.


GoGear Mix
Full color display for easy navigation
- with a handy built-in clip, it also lets you transfer files speedily with push-out USB (no cables required). With easy navigation on its full color display and 25-hour music playback.

* The product descriptions are sourced from Philips

Luxe is definitely for the ladies. It's actually kinda funny since I thought the ladies could actually use it as a hair clip while enjoying their music. :) Aria, Muse, and Opus are all in the range of the 'big-screens' but I find Opus to be the most ergonomic.

Spark looks like a button of some sort which is kinda 'cute' in the beginning but ends up looking more of a toy than the mp3 player that I want. RaGa almost made it but I hoped for smoother edges.

Mix is the most basic and for those with a limited budget; but I say settle with Vibe for a little more. With its compact size and more choices for storage capacity, this is the best and most practical choice for me.

But if price is not an issue, Go for Opus, even over the more expensive Muse, for its sleek design.

Below are more pictures from tonight's Philipps GoGear event launch:
Check out the full Philips GoGear collection's multimedia functionalities at R.O.X., B1 ROX Bldg., near Serendra and other details of the Philips Bandwidth Battle of the Bands here.

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UNICEF & Stairway Foundation Pushes for Anti Child Pornography Act of 2009

Stairway Foundation, in cooperation with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), aims to break the silence in the realities of child pornography in the Philippines. One of the avenues with which they are pushing this advocacy is through the recent premiere of a new animated film drama called Red Leaves, last Tuesday (June 2), at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium in RCBC Plaza, Makati City.

The film narrates the story of two young girls led away from their family and into child prostitution and sex trafficking. The film took two years in production and was written and directed by Ms. Monica D. Ray. The short story is based from a book compilation entitled “Black Angels, Street Children Realities” written by Ray herself in 2001.

“We decided to use animation, a very light medium, to communicate a heavy issue...animation can portray realities that cannot be easily communicated in other media.” Ray says.

It was followed by the award-winning Cracked Mirrors theater production.
The short film is an eye opener to the common man. It revealed the story behind a not-so-secret societal taboo here in the Philippines which many hesitates to openly discuss or at least talk about.

Red Leaves Falling is actually the third in a series of animation movies from Stairway. It is an honor for Digital Manila to be given a copy of the three digital animation films from UNICEF and Stairway Foundation. This blog would be more than willing to lend these videos in CD format to any institution interested for educational viewing or other purposes that would help spread the awareness/campaign. Please contact the blog author at DigitalManilaBlog@gmail.com .The event also played host to different speakers and advocates against child pornography. The night's main concern was to send out the message of urgency in needing to pass the Anti Child Pornography Act 2009 currently on second reading in the House of Representatives. It was a campaign to awaken the Philippine congress to enact the aforementioned bill soon.

This is a far better bill worthy of concern than pushing for a constitutional assembly at this time.
Recent studies show that a child pornography site can receive more than a million hits a month.

“The Philippines has no comprehensive law at the moment to prevent the spread of child pornography,” UNICEF Representative Vanessa Tobin states. “The problem in the region and country is getting far worse,” she adds.

Visit Stairway Foundation’s website at
www.stairwayfoundation.org
Send email inquiries at
stairway@stairwayfoundation.org

For the complete schedule of other activities for the ten-day “Silence is Acceptance” campaign against child pornography,
email UNICEF Philippines through mfrancia@unicef.org or call (63)(2)901.01.73.

Break the Silence. Share your concern.

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14th Graphic Expo 2009 Starts Today!

The Philippine's 14th Graphic Expo 2009, the country's distinguished trade show in creative and graphic design, starts today - June 3 - and will hold a number of seminars as well until June 6, 2009. It will be held at the Phiilippine Trade and Training Center (PTTC) in Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City, Philippines.

Although registration fee is around P3,300, there are some seminars which are free (but you have to register first). Two of which are the Philippine Web Designers Organization's (PWDO) Designing with Web Standards and Web Design Freelancing. Please see details below:

Designing with Web Standards
June 03, 2009, Wednesday, 3:00 - 4:00pm

Introducing web standards to graphic designers who wants to transition into web and for web designers who want to sharpen their skills. The presentation will cover best practices in building standards-compliant sites, the philosophy of web design applied in web standards, and the technologies behind it - CSS, XHTML, and accessibility methods. Considerations of web standards include the interoperability, accessibility and usability of web pages and web sites.

Web Designing Freelancing
June 04, 2009, Thursday, 2:00 - 3:00pm

Freelance web designers often cannot avoid issues pertaining to their projects-- from pricing to professionalism. This seminar is intended to give designers practical advice on the business side of freelancing. This includes marketing a designer's services, working with clients, and pricing projects to ease the pain of working freelance.

Seminar briefs sourced from here

Register for the free seminar at
Telephone numbers: +632-896-0637, 899-2952, 896-0639, 899-6216, 890-2101
Fax numbers: +632-890-2101, 896-0637
Email : fiera@info.com
Web site: http://www.fmi. com.ph
The Graphic Expo's exhibitor's profile include desktop publishing/free press, graphic and digital imaging including digital photography, storage devices and technology, multimedia, animation, gadgets, web publishing and the internet. See more of the Graphic Expo details at http://www.fmi.com.ph/event-detail.php?id=39

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The Podium Enables Free WiFi

The Podium in Ortigas (Pasig City) launched their free Wifi service last Sunday, May 31, 2009. This is actually the 3rd-in-a-row as two other Wifi services were launched by the SM Group in the past few months which included SM Marikina and The Block at SM North Edsa.

The launch this time though, is a little different such that an entertainment was provided in the first part as Podium's usual Sunday program in their mall.

It featured rising singer Vince Camua. The young crooner serenaded the crowd at the earlier part and he was a good performer.
Moreover, the two previous events had laptop as the raffle prize giveaway. This time around, they tried having smaller but more prizes in forms of tenant gift certificates and a Nokia cellfone grand prize. I guess this is better such that more than one person is going home happy with a prize; although this writer haven't won a single anything ever since. Not that I'm complaining, raffle depends on chances and perhaps they were just not for me. :) (haha!)
Some of the winners included fellow bloggers Ohmski and Fjords who won the Nokia Cellfone grand prize.
Anyhow, congratulations to the SM Group for providing free Wifi services to their mall customers in phases just like in other developed countries. With today's connected communal habits of the young generation, internet connection is almost a must.

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Charity Dodgeball Tournament a Success

Held last May 30 at Club 650 in Libis, the First Annual Dodgeball Tournament organized by Playboy Philippines for the benefit of Gives Back Foundation was a success! It was also supported by different sponsors including 100 Plus drink.

8 teams from different sectors battled it out in the game. Two blogger teams namely Blog Ballers and Digital Manila didn't make it to the finals but nonetheless posed a threat.
In the end, team Lozatech emerged as champions.
The fund-raising activity aimed to raise at least Php 200,000 for the chemotherapy treatment of nine (9) cancer patient kids at the Veterans Hospital in Quezon City.

The tournament will benefit the GivesBack Foundation, Inc., a non-governmental, non-profit organization that is devoted to the search for a better quality of life for the least fortunate and provide meaningful assistance to various marginalized members of society.
A big thanks to Dodge Ball Association of the Philippines as well for their assistance in organizing the dodgeball tournament.

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