OPPO Endorsers JoshLia officially introduce the new OPPO F7, Pre-Order starts April 12

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25MP Front Facing camera, A.I. Beautification 2.0 and whole new 6.23” Super Full-Screen Display

Manila Philippines, April 08, 2018 – OPPO Philippines’ endorsers Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto, officially launched the all-new OPPO F7 smartphone. With a summer vibe themed launch in ABS-CBN’s Sunday entertainment show ASAP, the all-new OPPO F7 took centerstage flaunting its new 25MP front-facing camera with A.I. Beauty Technology 2.0 for more natural looking selfies.

Highest 25MP Selfie Camera

The OPPO F7 is the latest smartphone from OPPO, equipped with the highest front facing camera of 25 megapixels with the improved A.I. Beauty Technology 2.0 that can target 296 facial recognition spots for a more precise personalized beauty. It can also now customize up to 4 faces whether male or female, to deliver unique beautification for every person in a frame.

Additionally, the OPPO F7 features real-time hardware HDR Technology to take a superior range of luminance levels when shot in bright or shaded environments. Selfies are more fun with dedicated augmented reality stickers and a cover shot bokeh effect that blurs the background to highlight the subject further.

Furthermore, embedded A.I beautification preferences of the user, based on the regular edits made to images in the photo album, and automatically creates similar adjustments on subsequent photos taken on the phone.

Super Full Screen with Multi-Tasking

The OPPO F7 embodies a 6.23” Super Full-Screen display with a Full HD+ resolution of 2280x1080 for an enjoyable viewing experience. OPPO maximized the notch screen area with a dedicated multi-tasking toggle to quickly reply to messages or send text messages, users can also quickly take a screenshot or even screen capture to record your gameplay and share immediately.

New Generation of Performance

With a new 12mm Octa-Core processor with dedicated A.I. chips, the OPPO F7 is 80% faster than its predecessor, with multi-tasking intended for heavy users thanks to its 4GB RAM. Storage is also upgraded to 64GB with options to expand with its dedicated MicroSD card.

“The OPPO F7 is our latest offering to our customers, we continue to change the selfie smartphone industry with our ground-breaking technologies such as the A.I. Beauty Technology. With our highest front facing 25MP Selfie Camera, improved performance, screen, and a body to admire, the OPPO F7 will surely be a hit just like any other F series models.” said Eason de Guzman, OPPO Philippines’ Public Relations Manager.

All-New TV Commercial

OPPO F7’s latest TV commercial acknowledges the dilemma of online-bashing, it starts with OPPO endorser Julia receiving derogative statements, which netizens usually comment to anyone and especially to celebrities. But with a real capture of herself, all defamatory statements are overpowered with the acknowledgment of Julia’s celebrity couple, Joshua Garcia.

With a statement “The one who knows you best, sees your true beauty”, OPPO encourages everyone to find and capture their real self for everyone to see. Check out the new TV commercial in the OPPO official Facebook page.

Pre-Order Details

Starting April 12, the OPPO F7 will be available for pre-order in all OPPO authorized resellers until April 20, 2018, customers who will avail within the duration will get a free Olike Magic Music Lamp. Customers who will avail the pre-order are required to deposit Php1,000 in any OPPO authorized store and claim their unit starting April 21, 2018. The OPPO F7 can be availed with the official price of Php17,990 in Solar Red and Moonlight Silver.

Exciting Promos and Freebies

Customers are also encouraged to check out the OPPO Philippines official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OPPOPH/­ for special promos and upcoming roadshow schedules about the new OPPO F7.

OPPO F7 official specifications

Operating System Color OS 5.0, based on Android 8.1

Processor Helio P60 Octa-Core P60

GPU ARM Mali-G72

RAM 4 GB

Storage 64 GB (Support microSD card up to 256 GB)

Battery 3400mAh

Display

Size 6.23 inches, 19:9 Aspect Ratio

Resolution 2280x1080

Display type IPS

Colors 16 million colors

Camera

Front sensor 25MP with Hardware Sensor HDR + A.I. Beauty Technology 2.0

Aperture Front: 2.0

Rear Camera 16MP with Expert Mode

Aperture Rear: 1.8

Video Mode: 1080P, 720P

Others Portrait Mode, AR Stickers, Vivid Mode

Connectivity

Bluetooth Yes

Wireless 2.4GHz, 5.0GHz

Cellular 2G,3G,4G

SIM Card Type Two 4G LTE slots

Security

Face Unlock As fast as 0.08s

Fingerprint Yes

Pattern, PIN Yes

Color Solar Red, Moonlight Silver

#LetsPlayNowAtSM ! Fun-filled summer kiddie adventures at SM City San Lazaro

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SM Supermalls invites kids of all ages to the #LetsPlayNowAtSM grand summer kickoff ! 

Transforming SM City San Lazaro’s event center on April 7 into an exciting wonderland filled with real-play, entertainment, and fun technology that can help them learn and make friends!

 

This is fun-filled summer kiddie adventures at SM for delighting kiddie shoppers with a summer to remember,

It's really great with fun play can foster learning and development in children. Parents can let their kids’ imagination run wild at the arts and crafts and coloring booth. They can discover their inner superstar at the modeling and singing booth. 

You can have them explore virtual reality with digital and interactive games. Kids can even harness their fitness skills and team play through basketball and indoor archery. There will also be interactive playgrounds, such as the foam pit, ball pit, and a giant maze, fit for their untiring energy.

The kids’ favorite characters will also come and play including Doraemon and Nobita, Peppa Pig, and Dora the Explorer, among many others.

Some of the country’s top kiddie stars such as Nhikzy Calma, Esang De Torres, Chunsa Jung, Raikko Matteo, Marco Masa, Nayomi Ramos, and Sophia Corine will also join the fun with special performances.

The #LetsPlayNowAtSM grand summer kick-off will be co-hosted by Sam Shoaf, a talented a finalist of “Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids.”

Start your kids’ summer experience with an exciting and fun-filled adventure at SM! This event is also brought to you by Toy Kingdom, Baby Company, Cyberzone, The SM Store, SM Shopmag, SM Accessories, SM Markets, SM Kids, and SM Storyland.

“Sino Ba Siya” Is The Second Single Of Miko and Gab

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Miko and Gab goes romantic on their second single Sino Ba Siya. A song about a boy’s longing for a girl he meets but is hesitant to make the first move, Sino Ba Siya is a follow up to the single Hugot. It is composed by Anton Juarez (Miko’s older brother) who also penned Hugot.

The song will be launched in MOR 101.9 on April 13 (Friday) while its nationwide release in all MOR stations is slated the next day, April 14.

Miko and Gab (composed of Miko Juarez and Gabriel Umali) are very excited to have their fans and music lovers listen to their latest single. Miko shares, “I am grateful to be given the opportunity to record another song. We spent a lot of time brainstorming about the theme and concept that will easily capture the public’s attention. We have to think about our audience. Dapat easy listening iyong kanta. If the public enjoyed our debut song Hugot, I’m sure matutuwa sila when they listen to Sino Ba Siya.”

Gab adds, “Parang kailan lang when we released our debut song and now here comes our second single. Fresh and new. Hot off the grill. I’m happy and thankful for all the blessings. Music is my life! I want to perform and inspire people with my songs. Miko is a great music partner and we have excellent rapport. We enjoy each other’s company. I hope the public will support us once more and like our new song Sino Ba Siya gaya ng ginawa nila noon sa Hugot which enjoyed radio airplays.” 

Sino Ba Siya is released by Star Music and is available on iTunes and Spotify.

Miko ang Gab will go on personal appearances around Metro Manila and the adjoining provinces. Watch out for Miko and Gab as they go live on FB. Follow Miko and Gab on FB and Instagram or on their personal accounts. #SinoBaSiyaMikoandGab

Miko and Gab are talents of Asian Artists Agency. For inquiries, please call (02) 855-4765 or (02) 405-4423, email info@asianartistsagency.com, and visit fb.com/asianartistsagency

Mariah Carey: Live in Concert on October 26!

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"BREAKING NEWS! 

 The one and only @MariahCarey is coming back to MANILA 

for a special one night concert on October 26 at the Araneta Coliseum!

Performing her #1s and more!!!

The one and only, Mariah Carey, is coming back to Manila for a special one-night concert on October 26th at the Araneta Coliseum. The pop icon is set to perform her number ones and more, bringing a new and bigger tour for her Filipino fans.

Mariah Carey is the best-selling female artiste of all time with more than 200 million records sold worldwide to date and eighteen Billboard #1 singles (seventeen self-penned) including ‘Hero’, ‘Fantasy’, ‘Always Be My Baby’, ‘Honey’, ‘One Sweet Day’, ‘Without You’, ‘Touch My Body’, ‘We Belong Together’, ‘Don’t Forget About Us’ and the global smash hit Christmas single ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’, more than any solo artiste in history. With her distinct five-octave vocal range, prolific song writing, and producing talent, Mariah has defined the modern pop performance.

As a singer, songwriter and record producer, she has been recognized with five Grammy Awards, nine American Music Awards, Billboard's "Artist of the Decade" Award, the World Music Award for "World's Best Selling Female Artiste of the Millennium," and BMI's "Icon Award" to name a few.

‘Mariah Carey: Live in Concert’ is presented by Wilbros Live. Tickets will be on-sale beginning Friday, April 20 via TicketNet.com.ph or call 911-5555 for more details.

Facebook.com/WilbrosLive

Twitter @WilbrosLive

Instagram @WilbrosLive


Presented by @WilbrosLive
#MariahCareyMNL2018
#WilbrosLive

Experience cinematic history with Avengers: Infinity War at SM Cinema

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SM Cinema brings you Marvel’s grandest superhero crossover movie, Avengers: Infinity War! Experience and see the movies come to life! 

Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War is showing in IMAX, Director’s Club and SM Cinema branches nationwide starting April 25.

Dubbed as the most ambitious crossover event and the first Hollywood film shot entirely with IMAX cameras, Avengers: Infinity War spans the entire ten-year run of the Marvel cinematic universe (MCU).

Set two years after the Avengers were torn apart from the events of Captain America: Civil War, Earth’s mightiest heroes has to assemble once more, and band together with the Guardians of the Galaxy to stop Thanos from amassing the infinity stones and destroying half of the entire universe.

Step into The Avengers Hall, stand side by side with life-sized Marvel character figures and see Thanos’ greatest boon, the six (6) Infinity Stones at SM City North EDSA The Block Atrium on April 6 – 17, SM City Bicutan Event Area on April 22 – 28, SM Southmall Concourse Area on April 23 – 30, SM Mall of Asia Atrium on May 7 – 14, SM City Telabastagan SM Cinema Lobby on May 14 – 27 and, SM City Manila Event Area on May 20 – 31.

Dedicated comic book geeks and MCU buffs and can assemble at SM Megamall on April 15, 9am for the #AvengersPH Fan Event, the biggest gathering of Marvel Fans in the Philippines where they can send questions and greetings to the whole cast, play exciting games, and get a chance to win exclusive movie merchandise. 

SM Cinema will also give you the latest updates to the red carpet-style fan event happening on April 16 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore with appearances from Nebula (Karen Gillan), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) so make sure to follow @SM_Cinema on Facebook and Instagram.

The exciting activities include The Avengers Hall, an interactive exhibit with life-sized Marvel character figures and more displayed at various SM malls, the #AvengersPH Fan Event, which is the biggest gathering of Marvel Fans in the Philippines on April 15th at SM Megamall, and an exclusive live stream the red carpet-style fan event happening on April 16 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore with appearances from Nebula (Karen Gillan), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.).

Catch Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War in IMAX, Director’s Club and SM Cinema branches nationwide starting April 25. Book your tickets now through the new website, www.smcinema.com or for an even more convenient experience, get the SM Cinema app, now with an augmented reality feature where users can be part of the Avengers: Infinity War action! 

Download the SM Cinema app now through the App Store and Google Play. Stay tuned to /SMCinema on facebook and @SM_Cinema on Instagram for more information! 

SM l Disney Partnership

SM Lifestyle Entertainment Inc. forged a partnership with The Walt Disney Company in September 2015, to bring closer the world renowned Disney brand to the hearts of the Filipinos. The partnership aims to bring Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars through different Disney branded events, theatrical releases and promotions, and other unique Disney experiences through the synergy of the different subsidiaries of SM: SM Lifestyle Entertainment (SM’s lifestyle and entertainment arm), SM Supermalls, SM Markets, SM Retail, and Toy Kingdom.

Catching up, made more fun with the Samsung Galaxy J7+ and J7 Pro

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While our busy lifestyles have made it difficult for us to bond with our BFFs, our smartphones provide ingenious ways to keep our besties in the loop. From cool chat features to state-of-the-art cameras, there’s always a creative way for us to catch up with our life’s constants. In today’s digital age, how can we make our BFFs feel that we are always there for them?

Share, share, share. If you see something on your Facebook or Instagram feed that reminds you of your BFFs (or if it’s something so funny or cute, you just have to share it), send the link immediately to them! Not only do you get to show them that you care, but you also brighten up their day.

Fanboy/fangirl over your go-to TV shows. Even if you’re worlds apart, you and your BFF can still watch the latest episode of your favorite series at the same time. Take your friendship to the next level by sending updates over suspenseful story arcs and major plot twists while the show is on. If you want to take it even further, go on video chat to see each other’s awesome reactions!

Take each other on your vacations and stay-cations. Having the time of your life on a popular tourist destination? Chilling out in the most comfortable hotel? Share the moment by taking selfies and sharing them with your BFF. Take each other on virtual vacations (or stay-cations!) so that you don’t miss any special moments together. Make sure that the shots can be Instagram-worthy, too!

Even if you don’t get to see each other often, rest assured that your BFF is always there for you. When you do get to catch up in person (finally!), make sure that you take lots of photos together! Make the Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro your new BFF in creating more picture-perfect memories. Take gorgeous shots with the smartphones 13MP rear autofocus camera with LED flash and 13MP front-facing camera with LED flash, and relive your BFF moments in full vibrant color, thanks to the Galaxy J7’s 5.5” FHD Super AMOLED Display.

The Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro and J7+ in Pink is now available in the Philippines. To know more, you can visit the Samsung Galaxy Studio located at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig or visit our websites, facebook.com/SamsungPH or log on to samsung.com/ph .

Shopee officially launches Shopee Mall, a dedicated in-app space with around 500 brands onboard

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Shopee Mall offers 100% Authenticity Guarantee, 7 Days Return, Free Shipping and Cash on Delivery nationwide; with discounts up to 95% off during Shopee Mall Grand Launch 

Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, has officially launched ‘Shopee Mall’, a new dedicated portal featuring thousands of products sold by leading brands and Shopee’s top sellers. Shopee Mall will give users direct access to a variety of prominent brands such as Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, Xiaomi, Abbot, SM Store and many more. All products on Shopee Mall come with 7 Days Return Policy, 100% Authenticity Guarantee, Free Shipping and Cash on Delivery nationwide.

Terence Pang, Chief Operating Officer of Shopee said, “Following the tremendous growth of Shopee in the Philippines, Shopee has taken a major step to officially launch Shopee Mall as a way to cement our position as the one-stop shopping platform of choice in the market. Moving forward, Shopee will continue to establish more strategic partnerships with leading brands to expand and diversify our product assortment to a wider range of demographics, and to drive forward the growth of Philippine’s e-commerce industry.”

Maynard Ngu, CEO of Cherry Mobile, stated, “Shopee is one of the leading e-commerce players in the Philippines’ market with great potential. The introduction of Shopee mall is a strategic move as it helps to target consumers who are looking for a premium shopping experience. Cherry Mobile is excited to be partnering with Shopee to reach out to more Filipinos from all across the country. Moving forward, we are looking forward to working closely together with Shopee to provide the best shopping experience and deals for our customers.”

Shopee Mall was conceptualized to solve shoppers’ concerns about authenticity, a major concern among buyers when shopping online. The newly launched portal caters to the demands of Filipino shoppers by allowing users to shop from their favourite brands on an integrated and secure platform. Additionally, with more local brands embracing e-commerce, Shopee Mall provides a platform for traditional brands and retailers to expand their digital presence, and reflects Shopee’s commitment to constantly innovate and enhance its platform, features, and services to best meet the needs of users.

A premium online shopping environment

To identify Shopee Mall product listings, shoppers can look out for the distinctive red ‘Mall’ label while browsing.

Shopee ensures a premium online shopping experience with the following benefits:

• 7 Days Return Policy: Shoppers can enjoy hassle-free returns within 7 days for all Shopee Mall products.

• 100% Authenticity Guarantee: Serves to eliminate buyer concerns about product authenticity. Any shopper who receives a counterfeit product when purchasing from Shopee Mall is entitled to a 100% refund.

• Free Shipping and Cash on Delivery nationwide: Shoppers can enjoy greater cost savings with free shipping nationwide on every order, subject to a minimum spend of 500 Pesos.

Get ready for a series of super deals and promotions during Shopee Mall Grand Launch

Shopee Mall Grand Launch runs from 4 to 6 April, where users can look forward to upsized deals including massive discounts of up to 95% off, 44 peso deals, multiple flash sales daily, surprise voucher codes, and up to 10% Shopee coinscashback across all product categories on Shopee. Users can shop the “Only on Shopee” collection, featuring a delightful range of branded bundles and promotions that are only available on Shopee. With Shopee Mall, all your favourite brands are now just a few clicks away!

For more information, visit www.shopee.ph.

Download the Shopee app for free on Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

About Shopee

Shopee is the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. It is a platform tailored for the region, providing customers with an easy, secure and fast online shopping experience through strong payment and logistical support. Shopee aims to continually enhance its platform and become the region’s e-commerce destination of choice.

Shopee has a wide selection of product categories ranging from consumer electronics to home & living, health & beauty, baby & toys, fashion and fitness equipment.

Shopee, a Sea company, was first launched in Singapore in 2015, and has since expanded its reach to Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Sea is a leader in digital entertainment, e-commerce and digital financial services across Greater Southeast Asia. Sea's mission is to better the lives of consumers and small businesses with technology, and is listed on the NYSE under the symbol SE.

Get the OPPO F5 with A.I. Beautified Selfies at Php 1,000 off in a limited-time offer Priced at Php 14,990 from April 6-9, 2018

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MANILA, April 6, 2018 – OPPO’s best-selling smartphone F5, which features the first Artificial Intelligence Beauty Technology in a smartphone, is now even more attractive with a limited-time discount of Php 1,000. With A.I. Beauty Technology, selfies are rendered more natural by analyzing more than 260 facial points in the subject’s face.

Get the OPPO F5 with A.I. Beautified Selfies at Php 1,000 off in a limited-time offer Priced at Php 14,990 from April 6-9, 2018Priced at Php 14,990 from April 6-9, 2018 

The F5 is equipped with a 6” FHD+ Full Screen display, allowing a bigger and more immersive screen with the same footprint of a 5.5” smartphone. Along with a powerful octa-core processor and 4GB RAM for seamless multi-tasking, photography is also highlighted with a 20MP front-facing camera and a 16MP f/1.8 aperture rear camera for a crisp and vibrant shooting experience.

“We encourage our customers to take the opportunity to avail of our limited-time price discount for the best-selling OPPO F5. Its overall appealing package highlighting its superior selfie features is ideal for anyone this season,” said Eason de Guzman, OPPO Philippines’ Public Relations Manager.

The limited-time price offer will run from April 6 to 9, 2018 at all OPPO authorized stores and resellers nationwide. 

For more exciting updates, visit :

https://www.facebook.com/OPPOPH/­

Instagram.com/OPPOPhilippines

twitter.com/OPPOPhilippines

Boracay to be closed for 6 months for rehabilitation

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Philippine resort island Boracay to be closed for 6 months for rehabilitation. President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the recommendation of three government agencies to close Boracay down completely for six months beginning April 26 to start its rehabilitation.. 

"Boracay [is] closed for six months effective 26 April," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said. Harry Roque shared that Duterte made the order during a cabinet meeting at the presidential palace late on Wednesday. The recommendation was made by the task force composed of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Tourism (DOT), and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). The temporary closure is seen by the National Government as a short-term solution to address the environmental woes hounding Boracay.

Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed Roque's statement, saying that Duterte has indeed approved the "total closure" of the country's most famous tourist destination.

Guevarra said a calamity fund will be activated to help those who will affected by the shutdown, including the residents and the thousands of resort workers who will be displaced.

The island, which has a total land area of 1,064 hectares, has more than 56,000 population, according to government figures.

Duterte has earlier said that he supports the recommendation of three government departments to shut down Boracay for six months to give way to the massive clean-up on the island.

Duterte, who likened the island to a "cesspool," has ordered a crackdown on the island after learning that many of the establishments there have no proper sewerage system and emptying their waste directly into the sea.

Since Duterte gave the order, the government started dismantling illegal structures erected in forest lands and on the beach.

The popular resort island's powdery white sand and calm blue waters attract 2 million visitors yearly.

Microsoft reaches a historic milestone, using AI to match human performance in translating news from Chinese to English

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A team of Microsoft researchers said Wednesday that they believe they have created the first machine translation system that can translate sentences of news articles from Chinese to English with the same quality and accuracy as a person.

Researchers in the company’s Asia and U.S. labs said that their system achieved human parity on a commonly used test set of news stories, called newstest2017, which was developed by a group of industry and academic partners and released at a research conference called WMT17 last fall. To ensure the results were both accurate and on par with what people would have done, the team hired external bilingual human evaluators, who compared Microsoft’s results to two independently produced human reference translations.

Xuedong Huang, a technical fellow in charge of Microsoft’s speech, natural language and machine translation efforts, called it a major milestone in one of the most challenging natural language processing tasks.

“Hitting human parity in a machine translation task is a dream that all of us have had,” Huang said. “We just didn’t realize we’d be able to hit it so soon.”

Huang, who also led the group that recently achieved human parity in a conversational speech recognition task, said the translation milestone was especially gratifying because of the possibilities it has for helping people understand each other better.

“The pursuit of removing language barriers to help people communicate better is fantastic,” he said. “It’s very, very rewarding.”

Machine translation is a problem researchers have worked on for decades – and, experts say, for much of that time many believed human parity could never be achieved. Still, the researchers cautioned that the milestone does not mean that machine translation is a solved problem.

Ming Zhou, assistant managing director of Microsoft Research Asia and head of a natural language processing group that worked on the project, said that the team was thrilled to achieve the human parity milestone on the dataset. But he cautioned that there are still many challenges ahead, such as testing the system on real-time news stories.

Arul Menezes, partner research manager of Microsoft’s machine translation team, said the team set out to prove that its systems could perform about as well as a person when it used a language pair – Chinese and English – for which there is a lot of data, on a test set that includes the more commonplace vocabulary of general interest news stories.

“Given the best-case situation as far as data and availability of resources goes, we wanted to find out if we could actually match the performance of a professional human translator,” said Menezes, who helped lead the project.

Menezes said the research team can apply the technical breakthroughs they made for this achievement to Microsoft’s commercially available translation products in multiple languages. That will pave the way for more accurate and natural-sounding translations across other languages and for texts with more complex or niche vocabulary.

DUAL LEARNING, DELIBERATION, JOINT TRAINING AND AGREEMENT REGULARIZATION

Although academic and industry researchers have worked on translation for years, they’ve recently achieved substantial breakthroughs by using a method of training AI systems called deep neural networks. That has allowed them to create more fluent, natural-sounding translations that take into account an even broader context than the previous approach, known as statistical machine translation.

To reach the human parity milestone on this dataset, three research teams in Microsoft’s Beijing and Redmond, Washington, research labs worked together to add a number of other training methods that would make the system more fluent and accurate. In many cases, these new methods mimic how people improve their own work iteratively, by going over it again and again until they get it right.

“Much of our research is really inspired by how we humans do things,” said Tie-Yan Liu, a principal research manager with Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, who leads a machine learning team that worked on this project.

One method they used is dual learning. Think of this as a way of fact-checking the system’s work: Every time they sent a sentence through the system to be translated from Chinese to English, the research team also translated it back from English to Chinese. That’s similar to what people might do to make sure that their automated translations were accurate, and it allowed the system to refine and learn from its own mistakes. Dual learning, which was developed by the Microsoft research team, also can be used to improve results in other AI tasks.

Another method, called deliberation networks, is similar to how people edit and revise their own writing by going through it again and again. The researchers taught the system to repeat the process of translating the same sentence over and over, gradually refining and improving the response.

The researchers also developed two new techniques to improve the accuracy of their translations, Zhou said.

One technique, called joint training, was used to iteratively boost the English-to-Chinese and Chinese-to-English translation systems. With this method, the English-to-Chinese translation system translates new English sentences into Chinese in order to obtain new sentence pairs. Those are then used to augment the training dataset that is going in the opposite direction, from Chinese to English. The same procedure is then applied in the other direction. As they converge, the performance of both systems improves.

Another technique is called agreement regularization. With this method, the translation can be generated by having the system read from left to right or from right to left. If these two translation techniques generate the same translation, the result is considered more trustworthy than if they don’t get the same results. The method is used to encourage the systems to generate a consensus translation.

Zhou said he expects these methods and techniques to be useful for improving machine translation in other languages and situations as well. He said they also could be used to make other AI breakthroughs beyond translation.

“This is an area where machine translation research can apply to the whole field of AI research,” he said.

NO ‘RIGHT’ ANSWER

The test set the team used to reach the human parity milestone includes about 2,000 sentences from a sample of online newspapers that have been professionally translated.

Microsoft ran multiple evaluation rounds on the test set, randomly selecting hundreds of translations for evaluation each time. To verify that Microsoft’s machine translation was as good as a person’s translation, the company went beyond the specifications of the test set and hired a group of outside bilingual language consultants to compare Microsoft’s results against manually produced human translations.

The method of verifying the results highlights the complexity of teaching systems to translate accurately. With other tasks, such as speech recognition, it’s pretty straightforward to tell if a system is performing as well as a person, because the ideal result will be the exact same for a person and a machine. Researchers call that a pattern recognition task.

With translation, there’s more nuance. Even two fluent human translators might translate the exact same sentence slightly differently, and neither would be wrong. That’s because there’s more than one “right” way to say the same thing.

“Machine translation is much more complex than a pure pattern recognition task,” Zhou said.  “People can use different words to express the exact same thing, but you cannot necessarily say which one is better.”

The researchers say that complexity is what makes machine translation such a challenging problem, but also such a rewarding one.

Liu said no one knows whether machine translation systems will ever get good enough to translate any text in any language pair with the accuracy and lyricism of a human translator. But, he said, these recent breakthroughs allow the teams to move on to the next big steps toward that goal and other big AI achievements, such as reaching human parity in speech-to-speech translation.

“What we can predict is that definitely we will do better and better,” Liu said.

“Fresh Eyes” ! Andy Grammer is coming for a special concert in Manila

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Multi-platinum selling pop artist Andy Grammer is coming to Manila for a special and intimate concert on June 7th at the Music Museum in Greenhills, San Juan.

This music genius is all about inspiring and empowering the world by communicating his truths through his music. The first male pop star in a decade since John Mayer to reach the Top 10 at Adult Pop Radio on his first two singles, Grammer has taken the music world by storm with a succession of anthemic pop hits, 6 of which are certified gold or better. His debut album featured the platinum singles "Keep Your Head Up" and "Fine By Me." Andy's second album, Magazines or Novels, featured the triple platinum infectious smash hit "Honey, I'm Good," which was one of the best-selling songs of 2015, and the certified gold anthem "Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah)." Andy’s third full-length album, The Good Parts, was released December 1, 2017. The record includes his global smash hit single “Fresh Eyes,” which has become a streaming phenomenon with over 300 million total streams, the catchy summer jam featuring LunchMoney Lewis, “Give Love,” as well as his NEW hit single “Smoke Clears.

Tickets to Andy Grammer – Live in Manila will be on-sale on Friday, April 13 via TicketWorld.com.phor at the Music Museum box office. For more information, call 891-9999 or 374-9999. Presented by Wilbros Live.

Facebook.com/WilbrosLive

Twitter @WilbrosLive

Instagram @WilbrosLive 

#AndyGrammerMNL #WilbrosLive

17 year-old singer-songwriter-producer debut E.P. ‘Fern’

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Wunderkind musician Fern. has launched his self-titled debut E.P. ‘Fern.’ last March 30, 2018.

The 17 year-old singer-songwriter-producer having only been active on the scene for a few months has already garnered multiple achievements. His first single ‘Into You,’ debuted and stayed at #1 on the Spotify Philippines Top 50 Viral Chart for one week, and has garnered over 1.5 million plays on Spotify. ‘Into You,’ along with his latest single ‘Wanna Dance With You’ have both been included by Spotify in playlists in countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and the Philippines. On top of this, Fern. has been featured on Scout Magazine’s 'Teens Under 18 To Watch Out For In 2018,’ and has already been given opportunities to collaborate with young OPM artists such as Asia’s Pop Sweetheart Julie Anne San Jose, TALA, and Claudia Barretto.

Heavily inspired by the beats of the ‘80s, along with a handful of sonic influences from artists such as The 1975, LANY, The Weeknd, and Frank Ocean, the EP features songs that perfectly encapsulate the euphoric experiences of youth, love, and heartbreak that will definitely resonate with everyone looking for songs to chill and groove along to.

In addition, an EP Launch Party was held at Early Night?, BGC last March 26, 2018 to much success, with the attendance of both fans and media alike.

Fern.’s self-titled debut EP, featuring his singles ‘Into You,’ ‘Are You Mine,’ and ‘Wanna Dance With You,’ along with three new tracks, is now available on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, and Amazon. 

Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @ferntan_ and on Facebook at facebook.com/fernperiod

Hardware retail chain Handyman adapts GCash cashless payment system nationwide

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Filipino homeowners, project planners and builders who have been shopping hardware and home improvement needs at Handyman will now have the power to pay their purchases at their fingertips, as GCash scan-to-pay system becomes available in all Handyman branches nationwide.

Mynt President and CEO Anthony Thomas with Handyman General Manager Stanley Co

As the move for nationwide cashless ecosystem continues, Handyman will now implement the cashless payment scheme by the end of March to those who have GCash as part of the strengthened partnership with Mynt.

“At Globe, we are very happy that Handyman will implement the QR scan-to-pay system of GCash. This nationwide rollout is a testament to the increasing interest of the public in using their smartphones as an alternative and convenient way to pay purchases over the counter. No more cash, no need for change,” says Anthony Thomas, chief executive officer of Mynt.

Handyman, a subsidiary of Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc, opened its first store in Robinsons Galleria in July 1994. In 2001, Handyman became a member of the Do It Best Corporation which is one of the biggest hardware cooperatives in the United States. The membership became an advantage for Filipinos as Handyman brought thousands of affordable, high quality imported products to the Philippine market.

  

“Our aim at Handyman is to make our do-it-yourselfer and homemaker customers happy not only with their purchase but also while shopping. With G-cash as an additional option for payment in our stores, transactions will now be faster and safer for them.” says Stanley Co, general manager of Handyman.

With the increase in smartphone usage in the country and its customer base, GCash continues to make its mark as the preferred e-payment system for Filipinos.

  

Using GCash to pay over the counter purchases also has its perks. As reward for continually using GCash as form of payment, a 10% cashback capped at Php500 will be given at participating GCash QR merchants to users and subscribers from February 19 to March 31, 2018.

In addition, GCash will also give a 50% cashback up to P500 on the first transaction when using scan to pay in participating GCash QR merchants this coming March 18 To avail, users and subscribers will just have to purchase products on 18th of March.

New subscribers may have access to the GCash scan-to-pay by downloading the latest version of the GCash app to their iPhone or Android smartphone. Once the app is installed, customers can create an account and fund it through the GCash wallet that can be loaded at any of over 12,000 GCash Partner Outlets nationwide. GCash partner outlets include Robinsons Business Centers and 7-eleven branches.

Once the e-wallet is funded, a customer only needs to tap the Scan QR and point the phone at the merchant’s QR code. After recognizing the QR code, one would only need to tap pay. GCash also gives its users and customers security and transparency as all purchases can be viewed on the App. GCash is operated by Mynt, which is owned by Globe Telecom, Ant Financial and Ayala Corp.