MVP Announces FREE INTERNET for Smart, Sun Cellular and Talk ‘N Text Prepaid!

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The much awaited announcement by Manny V. Pangilinan made at the Makati Shangrila Hotel, September 26, 2014. It wasn’t about running for public office but the announcement is for an advocacy and promo they want to give more to people - Smart, Sun Cellular and Talk ‘N Text Prepaid subscribers.

In an unprecedented move, wireless services leader Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) together with Talk ‘N Text and Sun Cellular today announced that they will start providing free Internet access to its prepaid subscriber base via their mobile phones.

Manuel V. Pangilinan, (MVP) chairman of Smart and its parent company PLDT has announced that all subscribers of Smart Prepaid, Sun Prepaid and Talk ‘N Text will be able to use mobile internet for free. He said that these subscribers can post status on Facebook, upload photos on Instagram, listen to streaming music on Spinnr, shopping on Lazada or Zalora, and of course browse your favorite websites.

"We are launching this initiative to provide a much larger number of Filipinos the opportunity to try out and experience the Internet, enjoy its benefits and, as we at Smart like to say, live more," MVP said.

“This special offer is specifically designed to assist our prepaid subscribers who make up the bulk of our population. Many of them have the mobile devices capable of accessing the Internet but have yet to use them to go online,” said MVP.

Through this special offer, all of the 66 million Smart Prepaid, Talk ‘N Text, and Sun Cellular Prepaid subscribers can use their data-enabled cellphones to browse through and post on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, visit their favorites websites, search on Google and Wikipedia, use navigation tools like Waze and Google Maps, book a cab or limo service via Easy Taxi and Uber, or use traffic info sites such as the MMDA's and InterAksyon's.

They can also send and receive emails, read their favorite blogs or update their own blogs, listen to songs via Smart’s Spinnr music service, shop via online stores like Zalora, Lazada, book their travel details through sites like Skyscanner and Expedia, among other things – all without incurring data charges.

Orlando B. Vea, Smart's chief wireless advisor said, "This special offer is in line with our advocacy of 'Internet for All'."

"It complements the affordable mobile Internet packages that Smart has been introducing over the past year. Among the latest of such innovations are PowerApp and PisoNet service which provides 10 minutes of mobile Internet access for one peso."

They’re encouraging prepaid subscribers to go online and experience mobile internet life without having to pay and subscribe for special prepaid data promos.

To avail of this promo, subscribers must:

**  have an available airtime balance of at least PhP 1 or is subscribed to any load bucket or promo

** register each day by sending "FREE" to "9999" (registration is free)

An SMS confirmation will be received upon successful registration.

Once registered, subscribers can enjoy free data of up to 30MB per day. However, data charges apply to peer-to-peer uploads and download, VOIP, and messaging.

Smart, Sun and Talk ‘N Text prepaid subscribers can start using their free mobile data starting today with at least 1 peso in their prepaid balance. Though The Big Boss of PLDT, MVP mentioned and encouraged that mobile browsing and app usage that requires internet connectivity can be used with their free mobile data, accessing streaming videos like YouTube and torrent downloading are not allowed. A paywall would appear and will advise the user to top-up their credits to access those features. “Free” here means no data charges, not unlimited bandwidth.

Smart, Sun Cellular, or Talk ‘n Text prepaid SIM on a data-enabled mobile device, you can enjoy up to 30mb of FREE mobile Internet per day for two months. Subscribers can access the internet either through data-capable feature phones or smartphones running on Android, iOS and Windows operating systems. 

The promo is good up to November 30, 2014.

This move complements Smart’s other affordable Internet access innovations, such as PisoNet, which gives users 10 minutes of mobile Internet access for one peso.

Unrivaled network

Smart’s free mobile Internet offer follows the telco leader’s recent announcement that it has stepped up the deployment of its mobile internet network, to meet the growing demand for mobile data services.

Smart recently reported a 73% hike in mobile data traffic, as smartphone prices continue to fall and innovative services like SmartNet and PisoNet allow more and more Filipinos to gain access to the Internet via their mobile phones.

“The strength and resiliency of our mobile data infrastructure enable us to make this special free internet offer available to our prepaid subscribers. Moreover, we continue to expand the reach of our network so that we can bring the internet to more communities all over the country,” said Napoleon L. Nazareno, president and CEO of Smart and PLDT.

The PLDT Group has thus far rolled out about 90,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables all over the country which provides the transmission facilities needed to support internet services. It has also the most extensive international cable systems needed to connect the Philippines to the rest of the world.

Philips commemorates breast cancer awareness month

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With the use of medical expertise and innovative technology to offer information, education and free testing to women, helping them manage their health and well-being. That can change the world when it comes to early diagnoses, treatment and prevention.

Every year, approximately 1.4 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer. The cure lies in innovation.

In terms of breast cancer incidence, the Philippines ranks the highest in Asia. According to research, one in every 13 Filipino women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. 

For its part, Philips has always been committed to improving the healthcare landscape of the country—including providing solutions to help women care for themselves better.

In line with this, Philips Avent and Philips Healthcare are set to cap breast cancer awareness month with an event geared to raise awareness about this deadly disease.

Last September 24, 2014, Philips held a tour of the mammography facility at Capitol Medical Center, Quezon City.

Luckily, I am one of the media people invited to join a event to see the reseach and innovation as part of the campaign to raise awareness. I had my mammography and thankfully for what result it would be. 

Breast cancer continues to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women in the United States, regardless of race or ethnicity. Nearly all breast cancers can be treated successfully if found early. When breast cancer is found in its earliest stage, the five-year survival rate is 98 percent.

In 2013 we continue to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month through a global, multi-year campaign. As part of the campaign we raise awareness through eye-catching pink illuminations of landmarks, we help fund international research, and we offer women free testing and education in various locations around the world.

For years Philips have been supporting Breast Cancer Awarenss by using our innovative colored LEDs to illuminate global landmarks and literally putting a pink spotlight on the importance of early breast cancer detection.

In 2013 we go a step further: rolling out a global relay of eye-catching pink illuminations, travelling around the world throughout the month of October.

Every year, approximately 1.4 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer. The cure lies in innovation. Ground-breaking research and technological development can change the world when it comes to early diagnoses, treatment and prevention.

That is why as part of the campaign; Philips and Philips employees donate money to renowned research institutes in North America, Europe and Asia.

We also use our medical expertise and innovative technology to offer information, education and free testing to women, helping them manage their health and well-being.

“At Philips, we believe that innovation should be personal, relevant and impactful. This is why our solutions are focused on the needs and expectations of our customers around the world, many of whom are women,” says Frans van Houten, Philips Chief Executive Officer, “Through our support of Breast Cancer Awareness, we want to emphasize the importance of early detection. We also strongly believe that research and innovation can change the world when it comes to early diagnosis, treatment and prevention.”

Amsterdam, the Netherlands – As a technology company that cares about people, Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is pleased to continue its support of Breast Cancer Awareness on a global scale. As part of its commitment, Philips aims to offer 10,000 women free mammography testing and highlight the importance of early detection by illuminating an estimated 100 landmarks around the world pink throughout the month of October.

2013 marks the second year of the company’s multi-year global Breast Cancer Awareness program. Philips hopes to add meaningful value to the cause in the fight against breast cancer by building on the technology, expertise and passion across its three sectors.

“At Philips, we believe that innovation should be personal, relevant and impactful. This is why our solutions are focused on the needs and expectations of our customers around the world, many of whom are women,” says Frans van Houten, Philips Chief Executive Officer, “Through our support of Breast Cancer Awareness, we want to emphasize the importance of early detection. We also strongly believe that research and innovation can change the world when it comes to early diagnosis, treatment and prevention.”

Philips will build on its expertise in Healthcare to educate men and women within and outside the organization on the importance of early detection and ways of (self) examination. Philips also aspires to galvanize its employee base of 115,000 employees to raise funds for ground-breaking innovation, by supporting international research in three renowned institutes based across Europe, Asia and North America*.

More information on the Philips’ Breast Cancer Awareness program

Photos : Here .

DepEd supports preparedness efforts of Albay LGU, ensures continued delivery of educ needs in affected schools

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In its mission to ensure the safety of students and school personnel, the Department of Education (DepEd)—in close coordination with the local government unit (LGU) of Albay—has implemented preventive measures such as organizing a skeletal force and safeguarding records and equipment in schools within the permanent danger zone (PDZ) and extended danger zone (EDZ), and preparing evacuation centers ahead of actual evacuation in areas affected by the Mayon volcano disturbance.

Of the 724 schools in the province, 76 have been identified as affected. These affected schools are those within the PDZ and EDZ. Of these, 28 have already resumed classes as of September 23. To date, 676 out of 724 schools have regular classes in the province despite Alert Level 3.

DepEd has implemented interventions to foster a sense of normalcy among learners. The Department has worked together with the local government of Albay and UNICEF for the deployment of 155 tents for the 38 schools used as evacuation centers in five towns and two cities in the province. These evacuation centers are closely monitored and co-managed by DepEd school personnel.

These 38 schools used as evacuation centers are also accommodating the student enrolment of displaced schools to ensure the continued delivery of education needs. For instance, San Jose Elementary School in Malilipot, Albay has taken in Calbayog ES pupils. On September 23, some 1,200 students are expected to report, to be accounted for, while 18 tents are being set up to provide for their needs. School personnel are likewise tasked to do daily tracking of all students by grade level.

Together with the Albay provincial government, DepEd continues to work toward class resumption in affected schools in Albay, Legaspi, Tabaco, and Ligao.

ATAT Motorcycle Club turns 12! 1st official long ride of ATAT on September 26-28

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Highly passionate individuals who loves to ride motorcycles on the street and on the race track and aims on promoting Philippine Motorsports through racing and having organized riding events throughout the country - ATAT, Any Time All The Time.

ATAT Motorcycle Club (ATAT, as formally registered in the SEC, stands for Any Time All the Time) will have its 1st official long ride for 2014 to Baguio as it commemorates the new set of officers for the year 2014-2015 with President Charlie Carlos Ride.

The 1st official long ride of ATAT (2014-2015) to Baguio, will be on this weekend, September 26-28, 2014.

ATAT was founded on friendship in 2002 when three long-time friends Kiko Bernardo, Teddy Lim and Elton Ong decided to get together after realizing their passion for motorbikes. From there, the group of three started to grow and had many impromptu rides —at any given time, at a moment’s notice, with a “drop what you are doing and let’s ride!” kind of attitude.

Together with another long time friend Alberto Matias the group decided to name the group ATAT — which, in the vernacular, describes someone all too eager and impatient to do something. Together with Benjie Ladra, Myke Torres, Kevin Chua, and Jimmy Chan pioneers in ATAT, the group started to grow in numbers. Reaching a high of 45 members at its peak. 

Now on to its 12th year, ATAT Motorcycle Club has established itself as one of the premier motorcycle clubs in the country. At present, the club has 24 members and despite their busy schedules, their friendship has evolved into a deep sense of camaraderie and a brotherhood of passionate riders.

The members consists of : Elton Ong, Benjie Ladra, Abet Matias, Marc de Joya, Charlie Carlos, Raymond Hallare, Vince Mercado, Felix Luakian, Mervin Pullon,Francis Varela, Paolo Vialu, Rei Lagamia, Mayie Capinpin , Oliver Jimeno, JC Villanueva, AJ Maralit, Aaron Macalinao, Jevis Aguila Marketing Manager at Granstar Motors, the local distributor of Aprilia and Lawrence Macalinao “We have been riding for a long time, and unlike other sport-bike riders, ATAT members really push and ride hard. We have made it our advocacy to ride hard on the track, not on the streets, to promote safe riding,” said Marc de Joya, General Manager at Ducati Phils.

Follow their ride schedule and adventures by liking https://www.facebook.com/groups/atatmc/?ref=ts&fref=ts on Facebook as ATAT Racing Team heads on to Clark International Speedway this October 4 & 5 and witness the much awaited 4th leg of the Ducati Cup 2014 and Any Time All the Time Motorcycle Club (ATAT MC).

WD introduces Cold-DATA-storage HDDs , Optimized for the modern datacenter

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Progressive-Capacity, Energy-Efficient WD Ae Drives Enable Archive Tier of Storage Optimized for Web-scale, Cold-data Infrastructures

WD®, a Western Digital company and world leader in storage deployed for modern datacenters, today announced its innovative WD Ae™ line of hard drives designed for the unique operating characteristics of the emerging archive tier within web-scale datacenters. Built on a platform to achieve optimal total cost of ownership (TCO), WD Ae hard drives utilize the lowest possible power consumption and a Progressive Capacity™ model to enable a new tier of storage for large-scale cloud infrastructures. 

“Modern datacenter customers came to us with a need for an HDD solution designed specifically for ever-expanding cold-data repositories,” said Matt Rutledge, senior vice president and general manager, storage technology, WD. “Now in our third generation with over 700 petabytes deployed, WD is bringing the WD Ae drive to the broader market, representing another vital component of WD’s capacity storage portfolio, which delivers features and product attributes optimized for the rapidly evolving storage market.”

The expanding scale of data creation and the corresponding need to retain, preserve and extract value from that data creates a new and unique challenge for large-scale datacenter entities. Reliable, long-term data management for massive-scale data storage is becoming ever more critical. The conventional tools and technologies for cost-effective storage are not effective in massive-scale datacenters, so entirely new approaches to storage architectures and associated component technology are emerging. 

“Cloud service providers have rapidly growing volumes of generally inactive data to store and manage, while at the same providing customers with access to the data at almost any time,” according to John Rydning, IDC’s vice president for hard disk drive research.

“WD’s new WD Ae line of HDDs is aimed directly at these storage use cases, and is helping to define a new, active archive enterprise storage sub-segment, thus opening new HDD storage opportunities for the HDD industry.”

Focusing on the unique attributes of cold data, WD has led the cold/archive market with multiple generations of archive storage, actively evolving a product formula to deliver the optimal combination of cost-effectiveness, power efficiency, storage density and application intensity. WD Ae drives are purpose-built archive HDDs with extreme areal density on a high volume mechanical platform that offers increased power efficiency and a Progressive Capacity model.

Part of the unique attributes of the WD Ae hard drive family includes: a dense five-platter platform, which renders an optimal mix of power, performance, capacity and cost; capacities greater than 6 TB; SATA 6 Gb/s interface; and a workload and reliability rating of 60 TB/yr workload and 500 Khrs Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF). 

WD Ae Progressive Capacity

As technology and manufacturing processes mature over time, incremental capacity increases are realized. WD’s innovative Progressive Capacity model allows distribution of these incrementally higher capacity models to take advantage of their fullest available capacity: 6.1 TB, 6.2 TB, or 6.3 TB, for instance. These more granular capacity increments result in far greater capacity attainment through the life of a product platform. At the massive scale of modern applications, the availability of incremental capacity each quarter renders exceptional value to datacenters who can realize improvements in capacity-per-drive, capacity-per-volumetric space and reduced infrastructure overhead. 

Hot vs. Cold Data Storage - the Data Storage Temperature Continuum

While approximately 20-30 percent of data on most networks is active, commonly referred to as “hot,” the majority of data, 70-80 percent is inactive or “cold,” meaning it is unchanging and infrequently accessed. Given the challenges of storing petabyte- or exabyte-scale data, public cloud and private cloud ecosystems are focused on creating entirely new tiers of storage to deal with the varying degrees of “data temperature.” The cold data tier is emerging in a manner very similar to the way the “Tier 0” emerged over the past decade to deal with critical performance requirements. Now the industry is adding a new tier on the opposite end of the data temperature spectrum, often referred to as “Tier 3” storage.

Cold storage is the practice of creating a new tier of important information not frequently accessed for long periods of time, and can include structured, unstructured, or semi-structured data that has timeless value, and of which the exact schedule of retrieval is uncertain. As a result, data retrieval times can be relaxed, compared to the speed at which hot data needs be retrieved. 

Ultimately, with purpose-built and cost-optimized cold data storage infrastructure and devices, IT departments can deliver vastly improved time-to-archive and time-to-retrieve cold/archive data that outstrips capabilities of monolithic tape libraries, while utilizing standard hard-drive based storage solutions that are abundantly used and understood to realize optimal application value and significant storage cost savings.

Availability

WD Ae hard drives will be sold in box quantities of 20 and available to select distributors, integrators and distributed by Ubertech Technologies Inc and Iontech Techologies Inc. in the Philippines starting late 2014. WD Ae drives are covered by a three-year limited warranty.

More information about WD’s Ae datacenter hard drives can be found on the company website at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1340.