Shop and dine for free with Home Credit's Instant Treats

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What makes a day of shopping better? Capping it off with some good food, of course! Now that the ber months are just around the corner, malls are sure to get packed again with early Christmas shoppers scouting for treats for their loved ones and themselves. Luckily, Home Credit Philippines (HCPH) is giving an early gift to its customers with its newest promo “Instant Treats”*.

For a minimum suggested retail price of P 20,000 for laptops, computers, furniture, home appliances, and electronics, each Home Credit customer will be given an e-voucher worth P300 for Max’s and Pancake House starting August 4 to October 15, 2018. The e-voucher will be sent via the My Home Credit App 72 hours after signing the installment contract. The voucher is valid until October 31, 2019 so customers can save it up for days when they need a special free treat.

 This newest offering from Home Credit Philippines is just one of the many ways the Prague-based company shows its thanks to its customers. Recently, the consumer finance in-store loan provider for smartphones, gadgets, appliances, and furniture hit their three million customer mark. HCPH Chief Marketing and Product Officer Franchette Cardona says that they are planning to roll out more treats for their customers to improve their Home Credit experience. “We have gotten a lot of support from the Filipino market in the five years that we have been here. Rest assured, we are looking for more ways to improve our customer service in terms of access, products, and rewards.”

 As part of its commitment to continuously improve customer experience, Home Credit Philippines has shortened its approval time to ten minutes. The company has also been making consistent improvements to their app to provide better ease of access to their customers.

 While the Instant Treats Promo is not applicable to any smartphone installment purchase, customers can still get the e-voucher if they bundle it with a non-mobile item. 

Ready to shop? Below is a list of all the Home Credit partner stores where you can avail of the promo:

·         Silicon Valley

·         Savers Appliances

·         Robinsons Appliances

·         Gaisano Metro

·         FC Home

·         Home Along

·         Asian Home

·         First Family

·         Solid Mark

·         All Home

·         Gaisano Grand

·         Automatic Centre

·         Western Appliance

For questions or concerns about the voucher codes, call Home Credit’s customer service hotline at (02) 788-1000 or 7000 (Monday-Saturday 10AM - 10PM, Sunday 10AM - 5PM).

 *The Instant Treats promo is not applicable to Home Credit’s 0% interest promo.

StarVR Unveils the World’s Most Advanced Virtual Reality Headset with Integrated Eye Tracking

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With advanced optics, integrated eye tracking, industry-leading field-of-view, state-of-the-art rendering technology, and open integration to the VR hardware and software ecosystem, the industry leader raises the bar for premium VR experiences for the enterprise – the VR ‘Final Frontier’.

StarVR®, the leader in premium virtual reality for the enterprise, unveiled its next-generation VR headset specifically architected to support the most optimal life-like VR experience to date to meet commercial and enterprise needs and requirements. 

Launched at SIGGRAPH 2018, StarVR One is a one-of-its-kind VR head mounted display that provides nearly 100-percent human viewing angle. StarVR One features key technology innovations critical to redefine what’s possible in virtual reality. Featuring the most advanced optics, VR-optimized displays, integrated eye tracking, and vendor-agnostic tracking architecture, StarVR One is built from the ground up to support the most demanding use cases for both commercial and enterprise sectors. 

“StarVR continues its legacy of innovation that pushes past the barriers standing in the way of enterprise-grade VR experiences,” said Emmanuel Marquez, CTO of StarVR Corporation. “StarVR is blazing new trails to deliver break-through technology for a new world of realism to support real business decisioning and value creation. With our StarVR One headset we are conquering the VR final frontier – the enterprise.” 

StarVR One features an extensive 210-degree horizontal and 130-degree vertical field-of-view. This breakthrough architecture covers nearly 100 percent of natural human vision. The unparalleled field-of-view supports a new, more expansive user experience, approximating natural human peripheral vision; this opens up what is now possible with StarVR One, including support for rigorous and exacting VR experiences such as driving and flight simulations, and the ability to identify design issues in engineering applications, for example. 

StarVR’s custom AMOLED displays serve up 16 million sub-pixels at a refresh rate of 90 frames per second to bring every detail to the eyes. The proprietary displays are designed specifically for VR with a unique full RGB per pixel arrangement to provide a professional-grade color spectrum for real-life color. Coupled with StarVR’s custom-crafted Fresnel lenses, the result is a crystal-clear visual experience within the entire field-of-view. The state-of-the-art lens design and precision manufacturing ensures exceptional contrast and true clean colors in every VR experience. 

StarVR One seamlessly integrates Tobii’s industry-leading eye tracking technology. Along with the eye tracking, StarVR One automatically measures Interpupillary Distance (IPD) and instantly provides the best image adjusted for every user. Integrated eye tracking empowers dynamic foveated rendering, a break-through rendering technology which concentrates high-quality rendering only where the eyes are focused. As a result, the highest quality imagery is pushed to the eye focus area while maintaining the right amount of peripheral imagery detail. StarVR One eye tracking unleashes a new world of commercial possibilities to leverage user intent data for content gaze analysis and improved interactivity, including heat maps. 

StarVR enables a wide variety of use case scenarios. Two product variants are available with two different integrated tracking systems. The StarVR One is out-of-the-box ready for the SteamVR 2.0 tracking solution. Alternatively, the StarVR One XT is embedded with active optical markers for compatibility with optical tracking systems for the most demanding use cases. It is further enhanced with ready-to-use plugins for a variety of tracking systems and provides the additional tools for customization. 

The ergonomic headset design supports comfortable wearability. The headset weighs only 450g and the headband evenly distributes the weight to ensure comfort even during extended sessions and longer use. 

StarVR features exceptional extensibility for ease-of-integration with a wide array of components, systems and environments. The StarVR software development kit (SDK) makes developing new content or upgrading existing VR experience to StarVR’s premium wide-field of view platform seamless. Developers also have the option of leveraging the StarVR One dual-input VR SLI mode, maximizing the rendering performance to deliver the best image quality. The StarVR SDK API is designed to be familiar to developers working with existing industry standards and empowers them with feature sets beyond other platforms. 

The development effort that has culminated in the launch of StarVR One has involved extensive collaboration from StarVR’s industry-leading technology partners, including Intel, NVIDIA and Epic Games. 

“We are excited to partner with StarVR to combine Intel’s computing performance with StarVR’s advanced commercial VR technology to create incredibly true-to-life virtual experiences that are bound only by one’s imagination,” said Kumar Kaushik, GM, AR/VR , Intel. “VR is destined to transform industries of all kinds, and Intel and StarVR are on the forefront of this wave.” 

“StarVR and NVIDIA have collaborated to deliver an innovative, best-in-class solution with the StarVR One platform,” said David Weinstein, NVIDIA’s director of Enterprise VR. “StarVR One is tightly integrated with NVIDIA’s Quadro GPU, leveraging VRWorks and foveated rendering to support the most demanding VR use cases in the commercial and enterprise markets.” 

“Unreal Engine is renowned for its ability to render visuals that are unparalleled in quality for immersive VR experiences, many of which are mission-critical and business-priority use cases,” said Simon Jones, director of Unreal Engine Enterprise at Epic Games. “StarVR’s native Unreal plugin gives developers quicker access to premier hardware features, enabling them to manifest their vision of creativity, form and function, and to create business value.” 

”Epic is fully invested in advancing the OpenXR standard for cross-platform XR applications, and we're working with StarVR to combine Unreal Engine 4's OpenXR application support with StarVR's preliminary OpenXR runtime and hardware, alongside their existing UE4 plugin. We're excited to empower developers to build content in a platform-agnostic way, and this is a huge first step towards that," said Nick Whiting, technical director of VR and AR, Epic Games. 

About StarVR

StarVR Corporation is dedicated to the innovation of professional virtual reality solutions, with a focus on high-end enterprise applications and location-based entertainment. At the core of its commercial solutions sits the StarVR head-mounted-display (HMD). The next-generation StarVR® One headset features an industry-leading 210-degree field-of-view and integrated eye tracking, proprietary full RGB AMOLED displays with 16 million sub-pixels and custom designed lenses. Founded as a joint venture between Acer and Starbreeze, StarVR Corporation is listed on the emerging stock board of the Taipei Exchange (TPEx: 6681). The company is headquartered in Taipei, with presence in Los Angeles, Paris and Stockholm. Learn more at www.starvr.com

Shell Art Competition that Produced BENCAB, ANG KIUKOK, JOYA, Calls for Entries

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For more than 50 years now, Shell has built its legacy as a champion of the arts through the National Students Art Competition (NSAC). Now on its 51st year, Shell NSAC is one of the most enduring and highly anticipated student competitions in our country’s art scene.

The NSAC has established itself as a legacy platform in discovering and honouring the talents of Filipino student artists, most of whom have become seasoned art masters in their own right: Benedicto “Bencab” Cabrera, Jose Joya, Juvenal Sanso, Ang Kiukok, Leeroy New, Ronald Ventura, Rodel Tapaya, and Jun Yee, to name a few.

For this year, Shell NSAC presents the theme “PERSPECTIVE,” and calls for young artists to show their magnificent visions of the future and to share their unique take on how to make the future bright. Today’s new breed of artist-visionaries are encouraged to create masterpieces that showcase the future of the arts or to illustrate magnificent future sustainable cities. The theme also provides an opportunity for student artists to inspire families to shoot for quality of life amidst rapid development, to urge inventors to rise up to the energy challenge, or to open the eyes of a nation to help amidst environmental change.

“Through this year’s NSAC, we continue to discover young artistic talents whose art pieces not only promote our nation’s art and culture but also inspire a bright perspective of the future. We are excited to see how our young student artists paint and create their picture of tomorrow,” says Sankie Simbulan, Pilipinas Shell Social Performance and Social Investment Manager.

In celebration of the new generation of Filipino talent who will ultimately contribute to our country’s artistic legacy, the National Students Art Competition is now opening its doors for submissions in painting and sculpture for this year’s competition.

The Shell NSAC is open to all college students enrolled with at least 12 units in a recognized Philippine school in the school year 2018-2019. Participants can submit a maximum of two (2) entries only in the following themed categories: oil/acrylic, watercolour, sculpture, and digital fine arts (print).

Across all categories, grand prize winners will each be awarded a cash prize amounting to P60,000, while second and third prize winners will receive P40,000 and P30,000, respectively. Major winners will also receive medals and plaques. All finalists, except MAJOR winners, will each receive a cash prize of P2,000 and a Certificate of Merit.

Submission of provincial entries will be on September 18, 19, and 20, 2018 at any Shell depot and installation outside Metro Manila. Participants may also submit entries in any of the following centres: Gallery Orange, 9-A – 10-A, 2/F Art District, Main Bldg., Lopue’s, Mandalagan, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Museo Iloilo, Bonifacio Drive, Iloilo City. Metro Manila-based contestants must submit their entries on October 4, 5, and 6, 2018 at the Shell House, 156 Valero Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City.

51 Years of Powering Students’ Artistry

The National Students Art Competition is a testament to Shell’s commitment not just in powering progress through energy, but also through supporting arts, communities, and the youth towards nation-building.

For more information and complete details on how to join the 51st NSAC, visit www.shell.com.ph/shell_art. Interested students may also inquire with the Fine Arts department or the student affairs office of their respective colleges and universities.

Four fresh reads from ABS-CBN Publishing to be launched at the Manila Int’l Book Fair

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ABS-CBN Publishing, Inc. joins this year’s Manila International Book Fair with four exciting book launches, inspiring talks, and meet-and-greet sessions with Kapamilya authors at the biggest and longest running book fest in the country happening from September 12 to 16 at the SMX, Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City.

With talks from Charo, Chef Tatung, Sue, and more

ABS-CBN’s publishing arm will formally launch Ferdie Cabiling’s “Run” book on Thursday (September 13) at 5:30 PM, Chef Myke Tatung’s recipe manual “Dishkarte” on Friday (September 14) at 12 NN, and Ana Theresa Cruzate’s horror story “Tell Me How You Want To Die” and Arlo Icabandi’s “Ang Halimaw Sa Baryo San Vicente” on Sunday (September 16) at 3 PM.

On Thursday (September 13), “365 Days of Feels” author Noreen Capili, or more popularly known as Noringai, shares her inspiration in Writing For The Telenovela seminar at 10 AM, while FQ Mom Rose Fausto conducts money talk in FQKwentuhan: Kamusta Na Ang Relasyon Niyo Sa Pera at 1:30 PM. Chef Tatung gives A Talk From Heart to Platter at 3:30 PM and spoken word artist Juan Miguel Severo will lead the Habang Wala Pa Sila discussion at 6 PM.

ABS-CBN chief content officer and ABS-CBN University president Charo Santos-Concio, author of “My Journey: The Story Of An Unexpected Leader,” shares her leadership learnings on Saturday (September 15) at 9 AM.

Readers can also meet and greet other Kapamilya authors on Saturday such as former beauty queen Abby Arenas of “88 Things Every Professional Should Know” at 11 AM, feng shui expert Master Hanz Cua who will conduct a tarot reading session at 1 PM, Binibining Mia, Charmaine Lasar, Ruth Mendoza, and Ana Cruzate at 1 PM, and YouTube sensation Lloyd Cadena, author of “Ex-Rated” at 3 PM.

On Sunday (September 16), Queen Elly will talk about her book “The Room” and “Don’t Tell” with actress Sue Ramirez at 5:30 PM.

Now on its 39th year, MIBF has become the most-awaited exhibition for all sorts of readers. It also hosts seminars, workshops, book signings, and other programs, such as the co-located event POP HUB: Comic Splash X Fandom Fest.

ABS-CBN Publishing, known for bestselling books that redefine genres, is a magazine and book publisher and a wholly owned subsidiary of ABS-CBN. It includes a variety of fiction and nonfiction books, with lifestyle, culinary, self-help, and biography reads in its portfolio. For more updates, follow ABS-CBN Publishing on Instagram @abscbnbooks or visit noink.abs-cbn.com.

LG Honors the Injured Liberators of Marawi with a Donation to the AFP Health Service Command

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On its 30th anniversary, LG donates air conditioners, washers, TVs and a refrigerator to benefit Marawi soldier casualties and other injured soldiers at the Victoriano Luna Medical Center. 

In the spirit of National Heroes Day, LG Electronics reaffirmed its longstanding commitment to providing assistance to the community with a donation-in-kind to the Victoriano Luna Medical Center (VLMC), a government hospital that provides sanctuary and support to injured soldiers, including those who suffered casualties in the Marawi siege.

In a simple ceremony held on August 29 at the AFP Health Service Command, Mr. Inkwun Heo, Managing Director of LG Philippines, handed over ten (10) 1.5 HP Dual Cool Inverter Split Type Air Purifying Deluxe Airconditioners, two (2) 13kg Inverter Top Load Washing Machines, one (1) 24 cu ft Side by Side Refrigerator and ten (10) 43" Smart TVs to Col. Jeffrey Jake Gallenero, Philippine Army MNSA, Chief of Staff, AFP Health Service Command (AFPHSC). Also present were the chiefs of each operating unit and staff of the AFP Health Service Command.

The project was initiated to ease the recovery of the valiant soldiers at the Orthopedic Heroes Ward who sustained injuries in Marawi and other military efforts. Each airconditioner features an independently working Air Purification mode, assuring that the air the patients breathe is clean even when the unit is switched off, and never stale. LG airconditioners also operate at low sound levels to provide better rest and uninterrupted sleep for these wounded soldiers. Along with the Smart TVs, these airconditioning units will bring comfort to patients and their families at the wards, Officers’ Room, and Isolation and Post-recovery rooms. 

Aside from the patients at the Orthopedic Heroes Ward, the hospital staff will also benefit from LG’s donation of washing machines and a refrigerator, which will be placed at the ward comfort rooms and ward pantry, respectively. The Side by Side Refrigerator has multiple cooling air vents that distribute and circulate cool air to every corner of the refrigerator, ensuring that the staff’s and patients’ food are properly cooled and remain fresh, while the 13kg Inverter Top Load Washing Machines have a Turbo Drum feature that enables the most powerful wash and the removal of the toughest hospital stains.

The airconditioners, washing machines and refrigerator are all equipped with the latest inverter technology, ensuring that the medical center enjoys bigger energy savings but with more efficient appliances. 

“LG, through its products, is committed to making an everyday difference in the lives of individuals,” says Mr. Heo. “On its 30th anniversary, LG Philippines is honored to support the injured soldiers of Marawi and the Victoriano Luna Medical Center, and we hope that our small gesture will go far in helping these soldiers on their road to recovery.” 

BGen Augustus H De Villa, Acting Commander AFP Health Service Command (AFPHSC) expressed his fervent gratitude to LG Electronics. “I, together with the staff of the AFP Health Service Command, would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to LG Philippines. This deed of donation signing is a concrete realization that our soldiers’ efforts are greatly recognized by the people they are serving. May you continue supporting our troops as they protect and secure the sovereignty of our nation.” 

Earlier this year, LG donated health kits, comprised of roughly 30,000 personal care products, and 200 computer monitors to 46 public schools in Marawi. These initiatives are part of the company’s goals of promoting products and services that serve the local community. Through its CSR projects, LG will continue to serve the Filipino people by developing—and sharing—technology that cares. 

LG Philippines managing director Mr. Inkwun Heo offers praise and appreciation to Corporal Roy Aquino PA who suffered injuries in the Marawi siege. Looking on is LTC Domingo A Chua Jr (MC) PA, Head Dept of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology at the V Luna Medical Center. 

About LG Electronics Philippines 

LG Electronics Philippines is the Philippine subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc., a $48 billion global force and technology leader in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications. LG Electronics sells a range of stylish and innovative home entertainment products, mobile phones, home appliances, commercial displays, and air conditioning systems all under LG’s “Life’s Good” marketing theme. For more details on how LG products can help improve your life, visit lg.com/ph, like @LGPhilippines / @LGTVPhilippines / @LGMobilePH on Facebook, and follow @LGPhilippines on Instagram.