Facebook recently released the Facebook Lite app for Android, six months after being in the beta labs. Essentially a watered-down version of the Facebook app and website, Facebook Lite is intended for emerging markets where Internet connections are unreliable and bargain-basement devices are outselling their mid- to high-end counterparts by an embarrassing margin. The app is currently available in India and the Philippines, and soon in Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Its only about 430KB in size compared to the full Facebook app, which gobbles up 140MB of my phone’s storage. [frame src=”https://www.revu.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Facebook-Lite-interface1.jpg” target=”_self” width=”620″ height=”412″ alt=”Premium WordPress Themes” align=”center” prettyphoto=”false”] …
Starmobile Up Neo: big screen, small price
Starmobile today announced a new big-screen phone as part of its push in the low-to-midrange segment. The Starmobile Up Neo is the latest addition to the company’s Up series and sports a 5.3-inch, high-res display to go along with a nice metallic frame and a textured back cover. The overall look is reminiscent of the Starmobile Knight Luxe, but with a larger screen real estate that has its share of pros and cons. The overall look is reminiscent of Starmobile’s recently released Knight Luxe, but with a larger screen real estate that has its share of pros and cons. To …
SALE ALERT: OPPO reduces price of Find 7a to P17K
OPPO Philippines has announced a month-long sale for 4 of its existing smartphones. Throughout the month July, you can get the OPPO Joy Plus, Neo 3, Mirror 3, and powerhouse Find 7a at discounted prices across all OPPO stores and partner retailers nationwide. The sale lasts until July 31, 2015. [frame src=”https://www.revu.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/OPPO-Philippines-sale.jpg” target=”_self” width=”620″ height=”412″ alt=”Premium WordPress Themes” align=”center” prettyphoto=”false”] You’ll find the full roster of discounted products in the list below. OPPO Joy Plus — P3,990 (from P4,990) OPPO Neo 3 — P5,990 (from P6,990) OPPO Mirror 3 — P9,990 (from P10,990) OPPO Find 7a — P16,990 (from P21,990) …
Mid-range Samsung Galaxy Tab A comes w/LTE, S Pen
Samsung’s been in the tablet business for quite some time, and over the years, it has played around with different designs to keep things interesting. Right now, it seems the Korean giant has taken a different approach to making mid-range slates, as evidenced by the outward appearance and 4:3 screen ratio of its new Galaxy Tab A tablet. It is, in many ways, the unofficial successor to the Galaxy Note 8.0. The 4:3 ratio, as Samsung puts it, “is ideal for reading books, magazines and newspapers, as well as surfing the net,” though I’d argue that packing more pixels into the 8-inch …
Lenovo unveils 4 new laptops, price starts at P14,495
Hoping to maintain its competitive advantage in the PC and tablet industries, Lenovo today unveiled 4 new consumer laptops for the local market. The company’s latest offering includes the Lenovo Yoga 300 and 500, Ideapad 100, and Z51 laptop, which is by design a multimedia workstation aimed at music and movie lovers. The Lenovo Z51 is a 15-inch laptop equipped with a full-HD display and AMD Radeon graphics. Other internals include up to an Intel Core i7 processor and up to 1TB of built-in storage. Its base price starts at P42,995. Lenovo Ideapad 100 Image 1 of 17 The entry-level Ideapad …
Globe’s free Facebook offer now comes w/photo, video browsing
Pretty much everyone is on Facebook now, and chances are, you use it a lot to keep in touch with your family and friends, share pictures, pass on news, and so on. Which makes Globe Telecom’s latest announcement all the more timely and important. Globe and TM subscribers can now get free and full access to Facebook on Web, mobile, and app without data charges. As of today, subscribers to any GoSurf data plan can get free and full access to Facebook on Web, mobile, and app (Android and iOS) sans data charges. They don’t even need to purchase any additional data plan …
Report: Apple’s next iPhones to have Force Touch
We’re just months away from seeing the next iPhone models — if history is any indication, Apple is expected to launch a new iPhone duo in September — which means the rumor mill is spinning wildly once again with iPhone-related news. With Force Touch, iPhone owners would be able to perform different functions just by applying more force to their screen touches. Case in point: A recent report from Bloomberg says that this year’s iPhone sequels will make use of pressure-sensitive displays that will incorporate Force Touch input, similar to the Apple Watch and the new line of MacBooks. If that is …
OnePlus 2 slated to launch on July 27 in VR
Smartphone startup OnePlus has announced the launch date of the OnePlus 2, with the unveiling set for July 27, a month from today. Even better, the company will stream a 360-degree video feed of the launch event so that anyone with an Internet connection and a VR headset (Google Cardboard, anyone?) can watch the debut of its second-gen flaghship in full next-gen splendor. As previously reported, the phone will sport an improved version of the Snapdragon 810 chipset — Qualcomm’s latest and fastest yet — and will make use of a USB Type-C port. Yes, it’s the same reversible connector …
Meizu M2 Note coming to PH in July
Speaking to tech blog Unbox, local distributor of Meizu smartphones Novo7 Tech has confirmed the Philippine release of the Meizu M2 Note sometime in July. The 5.5-incher, which debuted in China earlier this month, will be heading to local shores as a timed exclusive that can be purchased on Lazada Philippines’ website at a discounted price of P6,990. After the initial sale period, the phone will be available at a slightly higher price of P7,490 in Novo7 Tech stores. The M2 Note is heading to local shores as a timed exclusive that can be purchased on Lazada’s website at a …
Yelp Philippines goes live w/thousands of reviews
That’s right! Yelp, the de facto online business directory for many — the yellow pages of the Internet, if you will — is now live in the Philippines, which means you can now mosey over to Yelp Philippines and read thousands of crowd-sourced reviews to find your next favorite restaurant or watering hole. Business owners, on the other hand, can look forward to a new way of promoting their establishments by tapping into a local community of Yelpers (read: Yelp users). Yelp can also provide them a means of gauging consumer interest online. Yelp, the yellow pages of the Internet, if …
Hands-on: OPPO Joy 3
Amid the recent renaissance of value-for-money smartphones in the Philippines, OPPO has refreshed its entry-level Joy series to compete with local and foreign players in the industry. Say hello to the OPPO Joy 3, which is more like a spiritual successor to the Joy Plus, seeing how close the release dates of both phones are. In case you don’t feel like doing a Google search, the Joy Plus debuted in the Philippines just last April, which leads me to believe that it will continue to occupy the bottom rung of OPPO’s smartphone hierarchy until the end of the year. OPPO’s …
OPPO Joy 3 arrives in PH, priced at P6,490
OPPO Philippines today unveiled the next iteration of the entry-level Joy series, the OPPO Joy 3. As you may have gathered, it’s a step above the recently released OPPO Joy Plus in a number of key areas, sporting a 4.5-inch IPS screen and a quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz under the hood, along with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of expandable memory. By contrast, the Joy Plus packs a 4-inch display and dual-core innards. With the release of another budget challenger from OPPO, it could be argued that the company is taking aim at the bottom end of the spectrum. The …
P6,999 Cherry Mobile Flare X w/flagship specs revealed
Cherry Mobile made another huge announcement today with the unveiling of a top-specced Android phone that’s sure to shake up the local tech community. You’re looking at the incredibly powerful and incredibly affordable Cherry Mobile Flare X — which I reckon is the higher-end version of China’s JiaYu S3.
Cubix Cube is a Lazada-exclusive, octa-core phone
It turns out Cherry Mobile is also positioning itself at the forefront of the online retail revolution, alongside other players like Xiaomi, Huawei, and Lenovo. The company recently announced the creation of a new sub-brand — Cubix — whose focus is on smart devices that will be sold through Lazada Philippines’ website.
OnePlus 2 to use improved version of Snapdragon 810
Earlier today, smartphone startup OnePlus revealed new details about its upcoming — and eagerly awaited — flagship phone, the OnePlus 2. According to the company, the successor to the brilliant OnePlus One will be powered by an improved version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, which is said to run cooler than its predecessor. The OnePlus 2 will be powered by an improved version of the Snapdragon 810 CPU, which is said to run cooler than its predecessor. In case you haven’t heard, the first iteration of Qualcomm’s most powerful processor to date has faced a flurry of negative publicity since its …
Starmobile Knight Luxe, Up HD are brand’s top sellers
It’s not often that we get a peek at how major players are faring in the local tech scene, so it’s always a welcome sight to see a company like Starmobile drop some information about its current best sellers. According to the company, the Starmobile Knight Luxe and Up HD — both of which are fairly new releases, mind you — have become its most popular devices in 2015. In fact, Starmobile product development head Michael Chen says that both Android phones comprise more than a third of Starmobile’s smartphone sales from May to June of this year, even claiming …
NBA Live 16 unveiled at E3, promises better online play
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015, or simply E3 2015, is upon us, and one of the more interesting titles in EA’s lineup this year is the company’s upcoming basketball sim NBA Live 16. NBA Live 16 will bring a fresh batch of modes and new gameplay mechanics, as well as a new feature that allows you to scan your face into the game using your phone’s camera. The game will bring a fresh batch of modes, new gameplay mechanics that you haven’t seen before, including touch passing, dribble handoffs, and the ability to fight through screens, as well as a new face-scan …
P7,999 Firefly Mobile Allure 64 LTE phone is stacked
Cherry Mobile, MyPhone, and Torque may be the most popular homegrown smartphone brands right now, but newcomer Firefly Mobile is quickly making a name for itself as a company with attention-grabbing offerings like the Intense 64 LTE and Intense Mini, both of which promise speedy performance without burning a hole in your budget. Firefly Mobile’s latest release, the Allure 64 LTE, expands on that tradition by bringing upmarket features, such as a 5.5-inch IPS panel with curved-edge Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top, an aircraft-grade aluminum-magnesium alloy frame, and a 360-degree fingerprint sensor to the sub-P8,000 segment. Things look just …
Cherry Mobile has a new mid-range phone for under P10K
(UPDATE, June 19: According to Cherry Mobile, the Cosmos S2 is now available in Cherry Mobile kiosks and stores.) As if you didn’t know already, things are heating up in the local mobile space in 2015, largely because of competition from Chinese brands like Lenovo, Honor, and Oppo that are making a strong push in the mid-range market. Homegrown players MyPhone and Starmobile have already responded to this year’s wave of low-cost, high-performance smartphones from the Far East by releasing their own iterations of bargain blowers running the Android operating system. The Cherry Mobile Cosmos S2 checks many of the same …
Globe rolls out affordable hotspot service for SMEs
Hiring an IT guy to handle a commercial establishment’s complimentary WiFi service might not be something all entrepreneurs welcome for various reasons, which is why Globe Telecom has come up with a new service aimed squarely at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that makes it far simpler to turn any store, restaurant, bar, or any place where people wait, for that matter, into a hotspot. Globe’s WiFi Hub not only allows business owners to attract more customers, but also lets them make more money by charging patrons for WiFi passes. Globe’s myBusiness WiFi Hub not only allows establishments to attract more customers …