Sunday, May 22, 2016

Last May 20, 2016, Caltex has partnered with 20th Century Fox for the latest installment of the most-anticipated blockbuster movie X-Men: Apocalypse. To give X-Men fans the chance to experience the Power of X at the SM Mall of Asia Atrium. 

The venue was transformed into the X-Men School for Gifted Youngsters where mall-goers enjoyed the fun, entertaining and exciting activities, plus a chance to win exclusive X-Men gifts.

Participants brought out the mutants in them in the Race to The Power of X arcade challenge. They also released their strength in the Release the Power of X hammer game and tested their minds in the Match the Power of X challenge. They also had their selfies with your favorite X-Men characters taken at the photo booth. While event also served as the launch pad for Delo Sports with ISOSYN Technology where motorists learned how to protect and maximize the power of their car engines at the Caltex Delo Sports product demo area. 


“At Caltex, our customers are the cornerstone of our business. Every bottle of Caltex Havoline and Delo engine oil is imbued with the power to protect their engines and deliver optimized performance. To help our customers ‘Enjoy the Journey’ even more, we’ve tailored exclusive offers and activities to make every journey with Caltex an exciting one,” - Joseph Bronfman, CPI Area Business Manager for Lubricants, Philippines, and Vietnam. 


In addition, Mr. Bronfman says, "This is also a very opportune event as we introduce Delo Sports, the latest from the Caltex diesel engine oil product family, which will allow motorists to experience the full power and performance of their diesel engines in their everyday drive.”

It was indeed an exciting, power-packed event with no less than the Caltex and X-Men releasing the Power of X for everyone to experience.
When it comes to employee satisfaction, factors like competitive pay, benefits, and work responsibilities are common considerations that shape the playing field. However, specialists are now looking at the correlation between a location’s general climate to career satisfaction and overall business success.

SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPHI) operates under this concept. The affiliate of SM Investments Corp. has invested on the E-Com complex to ride and sustain the booming business growth in the country by providing a progressive work environment.

David Rafael, Senior Vice President of SMPHI explained, “Companies are investing in the Philippines because of three things. World-class facilities, competitive labor cost, and its educated workforce. Maintaining that growth momentum means we have to keep these factors intact.”

He continued, “How do you do this? By creating infrastructure that is conducive to both the business and the workforce.”

The E-Commerce complex located within the Mall of Asia township is built around the concept. Comprised of One, Two, and Five E-Com Center, the steadily rising business district is designed to offer a good balance of accessibility, infrastructure, and lifestyle opportunities for work-life balance.
Also currently in the pipeline is SM Prime’s first Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building Three E-Com center which is slated to be completed by 2017. Four E-Com center, which has broken ground this year, is also expected to be operational by 2020.

One E-Com center opened in 2008 followed by Two E-Com center in 2012 to much success. Five E-Com center, which contributed an additional 88,000 sqm leasable area to the business complex last year has also reached full occupancy since opening its doors last year.

Three E-Com Center and Four E-Com Center will both add a gross floor area of 111, 727 sqm and 123,968 sqm respectively to the growing business district.
The master planned buildings are specifically designed to cater to information technology businesses which have been flooding the country during recent years. Recently, the SM Central Business Park or SM iCity 3, which includes the area of Three and Four E-Com, has also been declared as a PEZA Special Economic Zone.

“The focus should not only be in fostering business growth but in cultivating a dynamic work environment for the people operating there,” said Rafael. “A business district should be well-rounded and capable of standing by itself.”
SM Prime’s vision for its E-commerce centers is supported by a strong suite of resources within the township. Besides from the place being accessible to employees through major thoroughfares, the area also has lifestyle destinations for a more versatile experience. A stone’s throw away is top shopping destination Mall of Asia and entertainment venues SMX Convention Center and SM Arena.

Leisure developments like Microtel and the soon to be operational Tryp Hotel and Conrad Hotel are also included in the township. Residential developments under SM Residences (Sea, Shell, Shore, and Shore 2) are also within close proximity of the area. 

Boosting the convenience of the business district are also expansion of infrastructure. Additional floors in the North and South Parking building are in the works as well as an additional pedestrian footbridge that will connect the office buildings to the lifestyle and parking spaces.

“Boosting the business sector should be fueled by support from all aspects. This means providing the right infrastructure and a good working environment. If the workforce is happy, growth will definitely follow,” Rafael closes. 

Press Release
Washing machines have been very helpful in making life at home easier than having to do laundry by hand. It allowed most people to do more household work and other things within the day, unlike before when “laundry day” literally means doing laundry the whole day. Though washing machines have really been a big help, there is still uneasiness with some of things related to it, such as the amount of electricity and water it consumes, the confusion sometimes in using it, and the damage it does to some fabrics when it gets tangled during the wash.

Fortunately, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of home appliances— Midea, understands these 
difficulties that may arise during laundry day. That is why they come up with innovative products that 
have distinct features that respond to some of the worries most people have when using a washing machine.

Midea’s Semi-Automatic Twin Tub washing machines cleans the clothes thoroughly without having the clothes entangled with each other with its Dual Cleaning Motion technology. Its Spin Air Dry on the other hand, dries clothes faster and more efficiently. These technologies help Midea Twin Tub consume lesser electricity down to just one peso (Php 1) per wash load as tested by the Meralco Powerlab— perfect for the budget conscious households. The Twin Tub is also made with high-grade durable material called ABS Plastic with double walling for more protection, making it take heavy loads for a very long time.

Fully Automatic top load washing machines have the One Touch Wash feature which allows people to easily use the washing machine with just a push of a button. It also has smart sensors that set the right amount of water and the right amount of time in washing, based on the laundry. This feature avoids the confusion in getting the right setting for every wash load, and most of all it saves 37% on water consumption. The high-speed motor used in these washing machines could wash, rinse, and dry for as fast as 19 minutes without consuming too much electricity. A full wash load in the tub running a complete wash, rinse, and dry cycle costs no more than one peso (Php 1) in electricity consumption.

The Water Magic Cube, brought by its innovative design, allows the water in the tub to flow without tangling the clothes that may cause some damages to the fabric. This feature also allows it to clean 27% better than other washing machines and reduce tangles up to 84%. All of these features also save time for busy mommies who are active and are always on the go. This also allows more time for all those extra wash loads and most especially, more time for the family.

Midea’s Front Load Washer, on the other hand, are for the meticulous. A complete wash, rinse, and dry cycle using the Daily Wear setting takes 82 minutes to complete. It may sound a very long time, but it actually consumes an equivalent of just two pesos (Php 2) worth of electricity. The same setting uses 43 liters of water which is only equivalent to just one peso (Php 1), giving the family 70% savings on their monthly water bill. At the same time, its Clothes Care System gives cleaner clothes with no tangles and no damage.

While Midea washing machines do great in saving water, electricity, and time for the whole family, it still does a great job in getting off dirt and stains from the clothes. Living home life is happier with more time spent with family, secured by the peace of mind brought by the help of technology, and balanced by the harmony brought by innovation. This is the difference Midea aims for, to be every family’s choice of home appliance.

Monday, May 16, 2016


“The new Acer Predator gaming systems are designed to deliver the ultimate gaming and virtual reality experiences for our customers,” said James Lin, general manager, Consumer Notebooks,IT Products Business, Acer Inc. “Virtual reality offers unlimited new possibilities, not just in gaming but across a wide variety of industries and applications in professional environments. As we showed in our VR partner demos, Acer intends to give our customers the tools they need for both playing and working in this new digital world.”

“Acer continues to bring innovations to the gaming community through their Predator line,” said Peter Han, vice president Worldwide OEM Marketing, Microsoft Corp. “With Windows 10 they are pushing the limits of the modern PC experience, allowing gamers a choice in where and how they want to play.”



Predator 17 X Notebook

Ramping up the performance of its successful Predator gaming notebooks, the new Predator 17 X brings overclocking and desktop grade performance 2 to mobile gaming. Powered by a 6th Generation Intel ® Core ™ i7-6820HK processor, NVIDIA ® GeForce ® GTX 980 graphics, and a custom triple-fan cooling system, it delivers an uncompromising combination of power and portability 2 . With overclocking, gamers will enjoy turbo speeds of up to 4.0GHz for the CPU; up to 1310MHz for the GPU, and up to 3.7GHz for VRAM. Fully ready to tackle virtual worlds, its top- end GPU and the high-performance CPU makes it an ideal “VR-to- go” platform.

“The Predator 17 X incorporates the world’s only notebook GPU powerful enough for virtual reality—the GeForce GTX 980,” said Kaustubh Sanghani, general manager of notebook business, NVIDIA. “Gamers and VR content developers will embrace the Predator 17 X’s performance, design, and mobility, allowing VR to be experienced anywhere and everywhere.”

For the ultimate in game play, buttery smooth visuals are delivered on the notebook’s 17.3-inch G-SYNC panel. Available with either an FHD IPS (1920 x 1080) or UHD IPS (4K 3840 x 2160) display, NVIDIA G-SYNC technology matches the refresh rate of the screen with the powerful GPU to eliminate screen tearing and minimize stuttering.

All this muscle is enhanced with DDR4-2133 memory and enterprise level NVMe PCIe solid state drives 2 in a three-SATA- SSD RAID 0 array for immense data transfer speeds. Killer DoubleShot Pro enables Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections to work together, so gamers can use Ethernet for gaming or use WiFi for watching twitch.tv, listening to music or Skyping with friends.

Thunderbolt™ 3 brings Thunderbolt to USB-C at speeds up to 40 Gbps, or up to 8X faster than USB 3.0 and 4X faster than USB 3.1.

The Predator 17 X’s triple-fan cooling system maximizes heat dissipation and ensures extreme overclocking performance. An Aeroblade fan located near the GPU uses the world’s thinnest metallic blades (0.1mm) to simulate aircraft wing flight behavior to enhance fan speed, reduce drag and noise. Together, the three fans optimize airflow while an efficient front intake system brings cool air into the laptop. A vapor chamber, usually used in server environments for high-performance and cooling efficiency, also helps dissipate the heat for better overclocking performance. The Predator 17 X also includes DustDefender and CoolBoost, with reverse rotating, dual high-speed fans to remove dust build-up and improve heat dissipation.

Acer’s PredatorSense software offers advanced customization options for gaming features like overclocking modes, keyboard macro profiles and programmable keys for favorite games and adjustable lighting configurations. The Predator 17 X’s backlit keyboard also includes customizable RGB illumination so gamers can change and personalize lighting zone colors for specific game or profile setups.




Predator G1 Desktop – Power and Portability Perfect for LAN Parties and Gaming on-the-Go The Predator G1 (G1-710) gaming desktop squeezes awe-inspiring power into a compact 16-liter body and is designed for gaming at home or on-the- go. This highly transportable gaming beast easily fits under an arm or in an optional carrying case, making it the ultimate war machine for 
serious gamers and LAN parties.

The perfect balance between compact size and great power, the Predator G1’s body supports full-size NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics (up to Titan X), 6th Generation Intel Core processors and up to 64GB DDR4 memory for supremely smooth gameplay 2 . For gamers interested in virtual reality, just plug in a VR headset and get ready to explore new worlds with the Predator G1 leading the
way.



“The growing popularity of eSports coupled with the new compute intensive usage models like 4K gaming, game streaming, and Virtual Reality put PCs right at the heart of the gaming revolution.

The 6th gen Intel Core-based Acer Predator gaming systems provides enthusiasts and mainstream gamers the horsepower for the most immersive gaming experience,” said Frank Soqui, general manager, Desktop Enthusiast Group, Intel Corp.

The new Predator desktop also includes Killer DoubleShot ™ Pro, which picks the fastest network connection (Ethernet or Wireless) and sends all high priority traffic over that interface, while standard traffic is sent to the other to ensure highest priority traffic is always delivered over the fastest and most reliable link.

With support for G-SYNC and 4K2K Ultra High Definition visuals, the Predator G1 provides stunningly smooth high-quality images, delivering games and movies with unparalleled precision and clarity, while Creative Soundblaster X-Fi MB5 and 7.1 channel audio support provide immersive sound.

The Predator G1 also offers massive storage, either via a 4TB (7200 RPM) hard disk drive or a 512GB solid-state drive 3 , while a USB 3.1 Type-C Gen. 2 port adds huge expandability and fast data transfer. Acer also offers a range of optional accessories for the Predator G1 gaming desktop, including a mechanical keyboard, headset and wheeled carrying case.

Predator Z1 Display – Curved Monitor with G-SYNC Delivers Total Gaming Immersion Acer’s new Predator Z1 monitor line introduces mainstream high-performance curved monitors featuring NVIDIA G-SYNC technology to Acer’s gaming line up. They are available in 31.5-, 30-and 27-inches, and feature a tight 1800R curve to make it easier to get fully immersed and surrounded by the action. The curved display improves immersion by having more depth, provides a wide field of view and broad viewing angle. G-SYNC matches the monitor’s refresh rate with the PC’s powerful GPU to eliminate screen tearing and minimize stuttering.

The 30-inch model features an 1800R ultra-wide FHD (2560 x 1080) display with 21:9 resolution and 100% sRGB color gamut, delivering incredible detail for identifying enemies and exploring new worlds. Combined with a fast 4ms GTG (gray-to- gray) response time and up to 200Hz refresh rate, it provides the smoothest possible graphics for unbelievably realistic visuals; fast-moving action and dramatic transitions will be all rendered smoothly without the annoying effects of smearing or ghosting. Lastly, support for 6-axis color adjustment results in beautifully smooth gradation, keeping the intermediate shades of extremely fine colors vibrant and lifelike.

The Predator Z1 series’ 178-degree viewing angles and curved design are perfect for multiple monitor setups, giving an uninterrupted view free of blind spots. An ergonomically designed stand provides tilt and height adjustments for easy finding of the ideal viewing position while a useful swivel feature automatically adjusts images from portrait to landscape. A quick-release design releases the monitor from the stand for wall-mounting. Cables can also be hidden inside the stand to keep the gaming area organized and clutter free. Select models include an ambient lighting feature which offers multiple and customizable colors (red, green, blue, white, orange) and styles (fixed, pulsing, flashing or rippling).

The Predator Z1 monitor also includes AcerVisionCare ™ and BlueLight Shield ™ for less eye fatigue, and GameView for special settings like dark boost, which fine-tunes visuals for more details in darker scenes, and aim point assistance for those perfect shots.

The new Predator lineup was unveiled at the next@acer event at 4 World Trade Center in New York, where the company announced a range of new devices and solutions for families, students, and professionals. To learn more about availability, product specifications, and prices, visit www.acer.com.ph.
Subscribe to RSS Feed Follow me on Twitter!