Google celebrates Buwan ng Wika with Translate-a-thon

Tweet

Philippines kicked-off a month-long nationwide translation campaign called Love Your Language with it’s first translate-a-thon to improve the quality of Filipino and Cebuano translations online.

In celebration of Buwan ng Wika, Google invites every Filipino including translators, language lovers, and culture enthusiasts to contribute to the Google Translate Community to help bridge language barriers and bring the Filipino and Cebuano languages and cultures better representation online to share with the rest of the world.

"The Google Translate Community is a platform for Filipinos to express their national pride and love for our local language through their contributions," said Gail Tan, Google Philippines Head of Communications and Public Affairs. "Through this dedicated community effort, we believe that the Filipinos can build a web that truly works for them as they make Filipino and Cebuano languages better understood and appreciated online by both native and non-native speakers.”

Throughout August, Google is holding a series of Love Your Language translate-a-thons across the country through several community-led and campus-led events in Bacolod, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Dagupan, Davao, General Santos, Guimaras, Halsema, Iligan, Iloilo, La Union, Los Banos, Makati City, Pangasinan, Quezon City, and Zamboanga.

Individuals and organizations who want to help translate as part of Love Your Language in the Philippines can get more information and register at https://sites.google.com/site/loveyourlanguagephilippines/ or https://goo.gl/HPwI3Z. 

Participants are encouraged to share their Google Translate Community anecdotes through their social media channels using hashtags #LoveYourLanguagePH or #GoogleTranslatePH.

Love Your Language Campaign

Love Your Language is Google's way of empowering the communities to build high quality translations online for their languages using the Google Translate Community Tool so that native and non-native speakers can appreciate the language better.

Love Your Language in the Philippines  is NOT a contest.

Google is encouraging Filipinos to help improve the translation of Filipino and Cebuano languages online at their own leisure. But Google will recognize the top contributors in the country at the end of the month because their effort will surely bring better representation to these languages online, and they want to honor them for that.

Everone can be anywhere in the world. If you want your contribution to count towards the submissions coming from the Philippines, sign up here. Otherwise, you can use the Google Translate Community Tool without registering.

You have to sign in using a Gmail account to use the Google Translate Community Tool.  If you don't have a Gmail account, you can sign up for one here. 

Google advises to use only one account when you sign in to the translate tool so they can attribute the right measurement to your contribution. Google discourages the use of one Gmail account by multiple people for online security reasons.

Feel free to translate Filipino and Cebuano if you're knowledge of them. Your contribution count will be the total number of submissions coming from your Gmail account regardless of language. 

All the submissions made from your Gmail account from August 1, 2015, 12:00 am to August 31, 2015, 11:59 pm will be counted towards your total contribution, whether it's under Translate or Validate, Filipino or Cebuano.

Everyone can keep translating beyond August to continue improving Filipino and Cebuano on the web. But Google will only measure the contribution by organizations and individuals until August 31, 2015 as part of this month-long program. 

For more information, visit the Love Your Language site.

How to use Google Translate Community Too

Once you are a a registered participant (FORM), you may access the Google Translate Community tool at https://translate.google.com/community from your computer or mobile devices. Using the tool is very easy:

Step 1: Sign in with your Gmail. 

Step 2: Click on the bar lines at the left and then click on Languages. You may choose English, Filipino and Cebuano. You can also change your settings, check your badges and your stats from here 

Step 3: Select the translation you want to work on. 

Step 4: Translate or Validate. Have fun! 

(There is no English-Cebuano Validation yet. This feature will appear once we have enough English-Cebuano Translations to validate.)

Google Translate 

Today, websites, documents, emails and even instant messages can be translated into 90 different languages -- including Filipino and Cebuano-- instantaneously and for free through Google Translate.

Launched in 2006, Google Translate has become one of Google's most popular and useful products, processing a billion of translations a day. 92% of Translate's 500 million users are outside the USA. It currently supports text inputs in 90 languages and spoken translations in 42 languages. In its conversation mode, Translate can recognize a language being spoken and provide translation between the two languages for 32 languages. It can also recognize and translate text in an image in 36 languages through its Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology

Google Translate learns from the available material on the web and gets smarter as it receives more inputs.

Google Translate Community is a free feature on Google Translate that allows language enthusiasts to help improve the translation quality. This helps Google Translate to have quality translated words in 90 languages as well as help Google in launching new supported languages. 

With the new Google Translate Community tool, people can directly contribute in helping improve the representation, accuracy and understanding of their language online. Using this tool, people can generate new translations as well as to rate and compare existing translated words and phrases. 

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

A Spark of Brilliance: OPPO Launches Mirror 5 and presents Sarah Geronimo as the first local brand Ambassador

Tweet

OPPO, gives now a spark of brilliance - wisdom and innovation, shining above the ordinary.

Global electronics and technology service provider OPPO delivers customers with the most delightful electronic experience that is full of surprises, through meticulous designs and smart technology.

OPPO has finally launched their new smartphone, the OPPO Mirror 5, in the Philippines. This coincided with the reveal and contract signing of their first local brand ambassador, Sarah Geronimo, last August 13 at the SM Mall of Asia Atrium. 

Sarah Geronimo, the face of OPPO Mirror 5 

“We at OPPO Philippines are very happy to finally launch the OPPO Mirror 5 in the Philippines,” said OPPO Philippines CEO James Ma. “Filipino users demand nothing less than the best kind of mobile experience, and this is precisely what the Mirror 5 delivers – great performance combined with great aesthetics.”

A Spark of Brilliance

As its slogan suggests, the Mirror 5 is a perfect interpretation of its design philosophy, "wisdom and innovation, shining above the ordinary". With a unique diamond-like mirrored surface, the OPPO Mirror 5 is a feast for the eyes. Designed with individual cut-glass segments consisting of different reflective properties, all crafted using a sophisticated ultraviolet embossing technique, the Mirror 5 provides a stunning finish that comes in both white and blue color options. 

Beneath the attractive surface is an innovative internal structure reinforced with a bi-metallic frame and cross beams for exceptional strength and durability, coming together to create a tough skeleton within. The 5-inch display is an ideal size to fit in the palm with fantastic image quality and entertainment that is truly pleasurable and enjoyable on the go.

SRP: P9,990.00

Display: 5"

Processor: Quad-core 1.2GHz

Rear Camera: 8MP

Front Camera: 5MP

Resolution: 960x540 Pixels

RAM: 2GB

OS: Color OS 2.1 (based on Android 5.1)

Storage: 16GB (expandable up to 128GB)

Battery Capacity: 2420mAh

Key Selling Points:Pure Image 2.0+, ColorOS 2.1 (based on android 5.1), Smart Remote, Diamond-like mirrored surface

Robust Performance

The Mirror 5 relies on the brand new ColorOS 2.1. Based on Android 5.1, OPPO’s new OS provides a faster, steadier, and overall enhanced user experience. Besides the new UI and extended themes available, ColorOS comes with fast activation speeds, smooth and steady sliding, as well as more memory and power, in which key application scenes have been optimized. Thanks to self-optimization and the more reliable Android 5.1, the stability of ColorOS 2.1 has been greatly improved.

Under the hood is the ColorOS 2.1, the latest OPPO OS

Under the hood is a power-packed Qualcomm Snapdragon Quad-Core 410 64-bit processor with 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM, bringing fast and seamless multitasking between games, programs and applications. The Mirror 5 offers 3G with super-high speeds, dual-SIM slots, and SD card support of up to 128GB, helping users balance their workload and personal needs. 

It also has a specialized three-in-one efficient management and organization function that can automatically sort, transfer, and manage icons by batches. What’s more is its automatic memory garbage clearing process that is initiated every 10 minutes of being idle.

Create that spark in your life

The Mirror 5 is not simply a device built with appearance and performance in mind – its goal is to bring a spark of creativity to life.

The Mirror 5 comes equipped with a 5 MP front camera with selfie fillight and an 8MP rear camera, making for stunning selfies and landscape photos. With greater photosensitivity for low light conditions and a swift exposure time to minimize blurring, as well as the newly enhanced Pure Image 2.0+ engine, you can look forward to consistently superior images.

Smart features is an area where OPPO is investing a great deal of time and effort. The Ultra-responsive remote control function of the Mirror 5 empowers users to take control of various household appliances using their phone with stronger, more sensitive signals from lengthy distances. And the platform also supports online updates of appliance compatibility to ensure total household control.

Intuitive Remote Control

The Mirror 5 was launched back in July in other countries and has now made its way to the local market. Equipped with its unique diamond-patterned back; OPPO’s latest OS, the ColorOS 2.1; and a host of smart functions, the Mirror 5 is a strong contender for the best phone in its price range. The newly launched Mirror 5 is locally priced at PHP 9,990.00. 

A star not only for a night

Along with their premiere of the Mirror 5, OPPO also revealed their first local brand ambassador at the launch event. OPPO had been teasing the public about their new brand ambassador for weeks in social media, and so the reveal of popular pop singer Sarah Geronimo was greeted with much enthusiasm.

Prior to the contract signing, which also happened at the event, Sarah performed two of her latest songs to the glee of the crowd.

“I’m excited to work with OPPO,” Sarah said, regarding the contract signing. “They’re the type of company I want to be with.”

James Ma, OPPO Philippines CEO, had this to say on their new endorser: “We chose Sarah as our first ambassador because we think she’s an ideal fit for OPPO. She brings an unmatched combination of freshness and elegance to the table, and that’s what we want in an endorser.”

Photos: Arts & Travel Magazine

Discover your town, Discover Robinsons Townville : Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. launches new brand name for its community malls

Tweet

Today marks a milestone for the Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. as it formally launches new brand name for its community malls - Robinsons Townville.

Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. has been operating community malls for quite some time now. Starting with the first mall in Cabanatuan in 2008, the group currently manages nine (9) malls nationwide: Cabanatuan, Meycauayan, Pulilan, BF Ruins, Davao, Laguna, Dumaguete, Imus and Dasmariñas, Cavite.

One more community mall is also scheduled to open before the year ends. These malls, however, were known in the community with different names.

“Robinsons Townville connotes a sense of belongingness, of being family-oriented, fun and friendly. It is convenient to go to. It offers goods and services that reasonably meet the expectations of households,” said Mr. Joel Delfin, AVP of Robinsons Townville. 

These malls at 3,000 sqm to one hectare are anchored by Robinsons affiliates like Robinsons Supermarket, Robinsons Department Store, Robinsons Appliances, Handyman, Daiso Japan and South Star Drug. To complement these anchor stores, there are banks, ATMS, quick service restaurants, food kiosks, boutiques, a bookstore, a spa, a salon and an amusement center for kids as well as other full-fledged services designed to meet the needs of a growing community. 

To kick-off this milestone, a carnival-themed celebration was organized to excite the community starting with Meycauayan (August 14), Cabanatuan (August 28), BF Parañaque (September 11) and Pulilan (September 25). An array of fun and rewarding games and activities are in place for attendees to enjoy, including special performances from local performers. 

Besides the three-day sale at every launch date, customers can double their points on their Robinsons Rewards Card when they purchase in any of the Robinsons stores during this period. 

To find out more about Robinsons Townville and its activities, visit its official Facebook page: www.facebook.com/RobinsonsTownville.

Photos: Arts &Travel Magazine 

Kata SM City Baguio is Now Open!

Tweet

Kata SM City Baguio is Now Open! 

In celebration of the opening of Kata SM City Baguio, we are giving away FREE Screen Protector and Flip Cover for purchase of selected Kata device.

Buy any Kata device and get FREE Screen Protector & Case! Freebies are exclusive at Kata SM City Baguio today on August 16 only.

PLDT, Voyager launch concierge service of social commerce platform TackThis!

Tweet

Online store creator to help more Filipino businesses go digital

Most businesses in the Philippines - large and small - recognize the potential of eCommerce, but only few are ready for the unique challenges that come with selling to customers online.

To address this gap, Voyager Innovations (Voyager), the digital unit of PLDT and Smart, together with PLDT Alpha and PLDT SME Nation, has launched today its premium concierge service for online store creator TackThis! to over a thousand partner businesses so they can quickly and efficiently build their own branded digital commerce footprint that incorporates a seamless social shopping experience for customers.

As a platform, TackThis! enables businesses to set up their online shops in just a matter of minutes. They can then “tack” their store to Facebook and other websites and the platform facilitates the customer’s entire digital commerce journey - beginning from the point of order, through the management of inventory, and ending with fulfillment and payment.

The premium concierge service aims to enable larger retailers who need a more comprehensive suite of features on top of the basic offerings of TackThis! Together with the wide array of solutions from PLDT Alpha and PLDT SME Nation, TackThis! is seen to further boost digital commerce in the country. 

“At Voyager, we believe that eCommerce is one of the building blocks of the digital economy. TackThis! is already changing eCommerce as it integrates the social shopping experience. Meanwhile, our partners can benefit from the one-stop solution that TackThis! provides, including our enhanced concierge service,” said Mitch Padua, vice president and head of digital commerce at Voyager Innovations.

“The premium concierge service gives retailers an end-to-end service that streamlines their online store requirements. This way, businesses don’t have to allocate huge resources in maintaining their online stores. TackThis! allows them to focus on what they know best: selling their products,” said Kat Luna-Abelarde, First Vice President and Head of PLDT SME Business.

The advanced features that come as a part of the concierge service include professional services for an effortless online store creation as well as hassle-free store management of logistics, payments and customer service via a team of TackThis! Ambassadors.

The concierge service also includes store marketing via placement on Takatack, the sister site of TackThis! Takatack is now the largest online shopping discovery platform that aggregates and promotes not only offerings from the thousands of merchants who have established their online shops through TackThis!, but also products from other online stores and retailers in the country including Rocket Internet-backed Zalora and Lazada.

Tackthis! has over 30,000 merchants in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines with more than 400 merchants already part of the premium Tackthis! Concierge Program - an end to end solution tailored to get retailers selling online quickly.

An industry trend analysis released by BMI Research last July estimated that 82% of all Internet users in the country or around 22 million Filipinos shop online. Retail sales account for USD207 billion but only 0.6% accounts for online retail.

The growth rate for eCommerce is high. A 2014 study by Ken Research estimates that Philippine eCommerce can expect a 101.4% annual growth rate from 2013 through 2018 due to increasingly heavier Internet usage and mobile penetration.

Out of the over one million registered businesses in the country, it is estimated that only 1% have a website. In the past, a company would have had to hire a large development and operations team to establish their digital footprint. TackThis! provides the simplicity and ease of having an online store. TackThis! aims to help businesses tap into this huge opportunity to reach more Filipinos going and shopping online. 

To know more about TackThis!, please visit: www.tackthis.com.ph/

To know more about Takatack, please visit: www.takatack.com/