Experience the thrill of Spider-man: Homecoming with OPPO

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Get a chance to win movie tickets and watch the latest movie with OPPO F3 Black Edition

Catch the web-shooting action of Spider-man: Homecoming with OPPO F3 Black Edition. O-Fans can get a chance to win two (2) movie tickets to watch the much-awaited movie by simply joining OPPO’s giveaway contest. Participants will simply visit the OPPO Philippines Facebook fan page to join and follow the simple instructions to earn raffle entries.

Experience as well the OPPO F3 Black Edition’s sleek metal and gorgeous matte black body, along with its dual selfie camera that lets you capture wide selfies to a larger area. The 16MP front camera with beautification 4.0 allows the best natural looking selfies even at night thanks to its screen flash feature. All these on a 5.5” Full HD JDI screen, 4GB of RAM for multitasking and ample 64GB storage for heavy data users.

Movie ticket giveaway

Fans of OPPO Philippines Facebook page simply needs to visit http://bit.ly/OPPOSpidey to enter the contest to earn raffle entries. Participants can join until 11:59PM of July 11, 2017 and winners will be announced by the following day, July 12, 2017. A total of 150 winners will win two (2) movie tickets to watch Spider-man: Homecoming with a friend.

About Spiderman: Homecoming

A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who made his sensational debut in Captain America: Civil War, begins to navigate his new found identity as the web-slinging superhero in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine – distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man – but when the Vulture (Michael Keaton) emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened.

The OPPO F3 Black Edition is available nationwide in any OPPO concept and dealers stores for a special discounted price of Php15,990, under the Back-to-School Promo until July 31, 2017. All unit comes with a pre-installed screen protector and soft transparent case for added value and protection.

For more details about the OPPO F3, please visit https://www.facebook.com/OPPOPH/ or log on to http://www.oppo.com/ph/index.html.

In farming, millions start with one quality seed

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Philippines is primarily an agricultural country. The popular folk song "Magtanim ay 'Di Biro" (Planting rice is never fun) tells about the difficulties of the life of the farmers, bent over the entire day, to plant.

Farmers are the 2nd poorest work force in the country next to fishermen, reason for which the current generation shies away from pursuing a career in agriculture thinking that it is a difficult and unrewarding profession.

However, farming is a field where there are endless opportunities. In fact, vegetable farming could help you get out of poverty. Recently, I had the chance to experience to be a farming in one day. I joined the East-West Seed “Great Journey” listening tour in Bulacan to meet and greet farmer nominees in the Search for 35 Farmer Heroes, as part of East-West Seed’s 35th anniversary celebration. East-West Seed is an integrated vegetable seed company and one of the 10 largest seed companies in the world. The winners of the search will serve as ambassadors and role models in the vegetable farming industry.

East-West Seed hopes to be able to influence more people to get into vegetable production. 

Two of the Farmers Heroes nominees shared their interesting and profitable vegetable farming journey:

Johnny Gatuz, 55, a former OFW, shared with us how he now makes more money by growing papaya and other high-value crops in Brgy. Kaingin, San Rafael, Bulacan than when he was an Overseas Filipino Worker ( OFW ) in Saudi Arabia.

His father was a traditional farmer and they hardly made ends meet. This prompted Johnny to seek for the proverbial greener pastures and worked as a construction worker in Saudi Arabia where he worked for five years as a construction worker. While there, he realized that the life of an OFW is not easy at all coupled by the fact that he was not also earning significantly. He flew back home, fell in love, got married and fell in love anew with farm life.

He started by renting out a one-hectare farm land which he planted with pumpkin, okra and sitaw.

As a newbie farmer, he wasn’t earning enough. His breakthrough came when he discovered East-West Seed and started using their seeds in his farm. His yields doubled and the quality and consistency of his crops were so much better.

Johnny now owns several hectares of farm land, farm machinery, a tractor, his own motorcycle for transporting his crops to the market. He also has sufficient savings for his family.

To pay it forward, Johnny hires his neighbors to help him during planting and harvest seasons. He is also very generous in training other would-be-farmers and is, in fact, responsible for converting a jobless, “tambay” neighbor into a successful vegetable farmer.

Rowena Manalo, 41, of San Ildefonso, Bulacan was also raised in a family of farmers.

At a young age, she and her siblings were already trained how to do farm work. As she reached adulthood. She worked as “biyahera” of the vegetable harvests. As a “biyahera,” she transports the bundled produce from the farm to the market, specifically the “bagsakan” which is the Balintawak Market in Quezon City.

Such was her simple life until she fell in love and married Jun, also a farmer, when they were both 21.

Inspired by the success of other farmers, Rowena and Jun decided to have their own piece of land where they could also plant vegetables as their means of livelihood.

As other start-up farmers, the young couple rented out a half-hectare farmland and with a very small capital of P5,000 which they borrowed, they bought ampalaya and sitaw seeds and went straight ahead with planting these I their small farm lot.

But their journey was not easy.

“Lagi kaming umiiyak noon. Kasi tuwing dumadaan kami sa mga taniman, nilalait, iniinsulto at pinagtatawanan kami ng mga beterano ng magsasaka at sinasabi nila na ano ba ang alam naming sa pagsasaka. Hindi sila naniniwala na kaya naming palaguin ang aming sakahan,” Rowena said as she started to tear up.

“Bayaan mo, pagdating ng araw, atin lahat ang lupang ito,” her husband Jun would always tell her.

Her husband’s word proved to be prophetic as the couple now owns seven hectares of land, two tractors for rent, a grocery, agri store, a water refilling station and their own lovely house.

Rowena attributes their success to three things: their faith in God, the love in their marriage that never wavered and their love for the farm and hard work.

“Nagsimula kami sa binhi ng EWS na sitaw at ampalaya at nagulat kami dahil mas nagging mabunga at maganda ang quality ng aming mga ani. Sinundan naming tio ng talong at mais,” Rowena said, recalling their “breakthrough” moment.

Last 2015, Rowena shared that they hit their first million through an abundant yield high-quality mais grande.

There is something so humbling about seeing these farmers working hard to give us the most basic of our needs. Johnny and Rowena, with East-West Seed show us vegetable farming is a very profitable business and it is an industry that continues to grow.

Shopee Philippines Celebrates 2 Years of Continued Success

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Shopee Philippines celebrates its 2nd birthday / anniversary party held at Ibiza Beach Club with fun games and activities with media, bloggers, sponsors, business partners and guests last June 21, 2017. 

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Shopee Philippines is celebrating its 2nd birthday with over 2 million listings and 3 million downloads to date, making it the number 1 shopping app in the country. Regionally, Shopee has achieved an annualized Gross Merchandise Volume of $3 billion USD with more than 40 million downloads.

In the past 2 years, Shopee has introduced several programs that revolutionized online shopping for Filipinos, including Free Shipping, Cash On Delivery (COD), and Shopee University, which helps aspiring entrepreneurs set up their online business.

To celebrate the success, from June 20 to 22, users are treated to special promotions and up to 90% discounts across multiple categories, including electronics, gadgets, makeup and clothes from Shopee’s official shops and top sellers.

Safe, Convenient Shopping

Since its launch in 2015, Shopee has made online shopping convenient with its highly customer-centric platform. Both buyers and sellers are able to transact safely through Shopee Guarantee, which holds payments in escrow until buyers receive their orders.

Sellers also enjoy Shopee University, a series of in-depth tutorial modules aimed at helping sellers to set up and grow their online businesses. Shopee has hosted sessions in over 30 cities around the country and thousands of participants have joined in the past year. The free classes provide more insights on topics such as online marketing, digital photography and tutorial sessions on Shopee’s features, among others.

“Shopee’s campaigns help us with our product marketing. With its reach, it helps us to expand our customer base and reach,” said Angela Mae Delajero, Corporate Sales Supervisor of Messy Bessy.

Welcoming Established Partner Brands

Shopee buyers can look forward to an even wider range of products from new Official Shops, including Oppo, Unilab, Stabilo, Kodak, Transcend, and Eureka. More brands are expected to join later this year.

OPPO phones now available on Shopee

“As e-commerce gains more popularity, Shopee will continue to be a strong player in this space. Our partnership with Shopee will further increase our online reach and give customers more options to buy official OPPO products,” said Stephen Cheng, Brand Manager of OPPO Philippines.

Ellen Lising, President of Ellen’s Skin Care and Permanent Cosmetics, agreed, “As we celebrate our 38th anniversary, we’ve partnered with Shopee to reach our growing list of diverse clientele and we will provide the most beautiful, intense and radiant kind of products and services that make our clientele feel confidently beautiful in and out.”

Looking to the Future

Shopee seeks to continuously improve its platform and optimise overall user experience. 

Macy Castillo, Head of Commercial Business for Shopee, said, “We continuously challenge ourselves to find ways to improve our app and system to make online shopping easier. We regularly get feedback from our users and aim to bring to them the best online shopping experience. ”

Moving forward, Shopee aims to further expand its user base nationwide. “We want to cater to every buyer and seller in key cities and provinces. With our robust and well-integrated platform, we’re confident that we can provide an easy and hassle-free shopping experience nationwide,” added Castillo.

Visit http://birthday.shopee.ph/ or www.shopee.ph to learn more about Shopee and special promotions.

Shopee is available for free download on Google Play and App Store.

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Pinoy App Developers Proved Their Incredible Skills in ASUS Philippines’ First Ever Hackathon Event Organized Dubbed as Zenfone AR: A New Reality

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ASUS Philippines’ latest smartphone – the Zenfone AR – takes center stage as aspiring mobile app developers competed for the ultimate prize in the Zenfone AR: A New Reality Hackathon

The final six teams come together for a photo with the Zenfone AR: A New Reality hackathon judges, Mr. Solon Chen of GDAP, Mr. Dominukus Susanto of Qualcomm, spearheaded by ASUS Philippines Systems Group Country Manager, Mr. George Su (center stage), and USEC. Mon Ibrahim of The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

ASUS Philippines recently launched the Zenfone AR, the world’s first Tango enabled and Daydream-ready smartphone with 8GB of RAM, through a 48-hour hackathon event, dubbed as the “Zenfone AR: A New Reality Hackathon”, held last June 22 to 24 in Whitespace Manila in Makati City.

In line with its commitment to search for the incredible, ASUS together with VR Philippines, a commmunity of virtual reality developers and enthusiasts who promote the advancement of VR technology in the Philippines, and key industry partners from the private and government sector, collaborated to organize a one-of-a kind hackathon event that aims to develop Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications that benefits the lives of Filipinos and address challenges through the power of AR and VR.

“As you may know, Augmented and Virtual reality are still in their infancy stage and it needs more awareness to properly understand its full potential,” said ASUS Philippines’ Product Marketer for Smartphones, Mike Santos, as he welcomed the teams on the first day of the event. “Hence, AR and VR are game-changers that can make our lives better; especially now in this ever-changing digital world.”

“ASUS Zenfone AR is the world’s first Tango enabled and Daydream ready smartphone with 8GB of RAM that is available in the market. We, at ASUS, believe that the Zenfone AR will be a great tool for professionals and early adaptors who are keen to further explore the power of Augmented and Virtual reality to maximize their profession and expertise.

“We are on the verge of going beyond what we know and hand-in-hand, we will be exploring endless possibilities and ways in making reality far better than what it is today through the innovative power of the Zenfone AR.” Santos concluded.

An incredible 48-hour hackathon experience

The teams being briefed on the first day before they formally begin the hackathon.

For a chance to win PHP 100,000.00 and undergo an exclusive immersion at ASUS Headquarters in Taiwan, six (6) teams were chosen as finalists from different parts of the country. The six finalists were: Team ARBotics from Quezon City, Team Studio 3 from Makati City, Team ImagineAR also from Quezon City, Team MB from De La Salle University in Taft, Team Semicolon STI Global City, and Team Dark Fire from Cebu City.

These teams spent 48 hours in the confines of Whitespace Manila to develop Augmented and Virtual reality applications that were special to the capabilities of the Zenfone AR. To further challenge the app developers, the teams picked 2 different fields of specialization, which they had to provide AR or VR innovation into an application.

Each team convened in their respective workstations, working on their application.

Bound by time in a hackathon that made use of 2 technologies that were quite new – each team displayed critical thinking and camaraderie as they worked hard to develop the application that aims to solve key problems in the Philippines. Fortunately, while still far from their perfected states, all six (6) teams prevailed in creating different applications that they feel would be best solutions to the problems that they were assigned to.

Going Beyond Reality – the Hackathon awarding

Zenfans and media guests enjoy the Zenfone AR experience booths as they wait for the event to begin.

Media guests, Zenfans, private and government sector members and as well as various IT movers-and-shakers arrived on the final day of the Zenfone AR: A New Reality Hackathon, last June 24. Attendees during this day did not only celebrate the arrival of the much-anticipated arrival of the Zenfone AR in the Philippines, but also reveled in the brilliance each team displayed through the applications they made over the span of over just 48 hours, which they had the pleasure of experiencing during the second half of the evening.

Left to Right - Mr. Solon Chen, GDAP Head of Membership, Mr. Dominikus Susanto, Qualcomm Marketing Lead for SEA Region,

Mr George Su, ASUS Philippines Country Manager, and USEC Monchito Ibrahim, Undersecretary of Management and Operations of DICT, the hackathon judges with Mr. Mike Santos, ASUS Philippines Product Marketer for Smartphones. Missing in this photo, Mr. Carlo Ople, PLDT Enterprise and International Carrier Business Vice President for Digital Marketing Strategy

The panel of judges were composed of individuals who were well-versed in their fields and already utilized augmented reality and virtual reality in their respective areas of expertise starting from the Head of Membership for GDAP, Mr. Solon Chen, Vice President for Digital Marketing Strategy for PLDT Enterprise and International Carrier Business, Mr. Carlo Ople, from the Marketing Lead for the SEA Region of Qualcomm, Mr. Dominukus Susanto, and the Undersecretary for Management and Operations of DICT, USEC. Monchito Ibrahim. ASUS Philippines’ very own Country Manager, Mr. George Su, who sat as the Chairman of the judges during the hackathon event.

Ranging from various problems on IT/Telco and Medical to Lifestyle and Design, each team was judged according to the following criteria: 25% Relevance, 15% Creativity, 30% Usability, 20% Problem Solving, and 10% Popularity Vote from media and fans. With the presented benchmarks, 3 teams were crowned winners of the first ever ASUS Philippines Hackathon, while teams who did not place were given PHP 10,000.00 as consolation prizes and, in addition, Google Philippines gifted all participants all-access pass to Google events in the Philippines. The 3rd place, with the reward of PHP 50,000.00, was presented to Team ImagineAR, a team from UP Diliman and Los Baños that established the ImagineAR mobile games company in Quezon City, which developed “EngineAR” application – an augmented reality application on Engineering and Transport that allowed users to envision and design their automotive. The 2nd place, with the reward of PHP 75,000.00 was granted to Team Studio 3, a team of game developers from KLab Cyscorpions, Inc. based in Makati, for their “kwARrto” application, which tried to solve concerns on Lifestyle and Design with an augmented reality application which permitted the users to view rooms, and personalize them accordingly to what they want.

Team ARBotics, a group of UP Diliman Students and Haraya VR/Diwata-1 engineers from Quezon City and Navotas City. The team was led by former Diwata-1 developer, Juan Paolo Espiritu, and won the 1stplace by showcasing a virtual reality application that aims to solve IT-Telco and medical issues through their application called “AR/ER”. ARBotics developed the application for on-the-go medical practitioners who would need access to a body scanner, in the event of an unforeseen accident. They were awarded not only the PHP 100,000.00 cash prize but also the 5-day exclusive immersion in ASUS Taiwan, under the Research and Development AMAX department, slated for October 2017.

Team ARBotics stand together with the Zenfone AR: A New Reality judges, Mr. Solon Chen of GDAP, Mr. Dominikus Susanto from Qualcomm, Mr. George Su the Country Manager for ASUS Philippines (center stage), USEC. Monchito Ibrahim of DICT upon winning the 1st place.

The Zenfone AR: A New Reality aims to empower the new generation of app developers. It was truly a celebration of going beyond reality by using a powerful and innovative smartphone device for AR and VR – the Zenfone AR.

Moreover, George Su, Systems Group Country Manager of ASUS Philippines shared that the search for the incredible would not end with just the hackathon. Su added, “The hackathon is only one way to help Filipinos understand this new kind of technology present today. Fans and enthusiasts can expect more efforts from ASUS Philippines to support AR and VR efforts spearheaded by industry leaders, Google Developer Groups, The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and as well as the private sector. We believe this effort is only a beginning towards the incredible.

ZENFONE AR AVAILABILITY IN THE MARKET

The Zenfone AR is available for pre-ordering from July 5 to 16! Pre-order now to get the Zenfone AR together with its exclusive bundle of the ZenPower Ultra, exclusive Zenfone AR Clear Case and Tempered Glass, as well as the Zenfone AR VR Cardboard.

For more information on local ASUS events, the Zenfone AR, and other incredible products available in the market, tune in to ASUS Philippines’ Official Facebook Page.

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING

Island Cove’s New Business Venture

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Island Cove Hotel and Leisure Park is known to be the most sought resort in the province of Cavite. The company has provided leisure, relaxation and amazing dining experience to the Filipinos in the past 20 years. As the company grows, new business developments are realized.

Since Island Cove is known for its events and functions, the company has opened its first ever food service solutions called Island Cove Food Services, Inc. (ICFS). ICFS provides catering service solutions for socials and corporate events held outside the resort, volume food preparation and delivery, pre cooked/ portioned food supplies and healthy meal plans. 

Island Cove has seen the potential of sharing its expertise in the field of Hospitality Management to individuals who wish to polish their craft. Because of this, the company has decided to open its first learning institution - the International Skills Learning Academy or ISLA. ISLA offers TESDA courses (such as Housekeeping) and lifestyle courses such as Kiddie Cooking Class, Baking Class and Events Management. ISLA also offers FoodSHAP Food Safety courses. Completers of the course will be accredited as licensed food handlers by the Department of Health.

Island Cove is also very much excited to address the laundry service needs of the nearby hotels and accommodations as it offers its own Laundry Service. The Island Cove Laundry Service offers state of the art industrial sized washers, ironers and dryers that are managed by experts in the field of Housekeeping and Laundry Service.

To know more about Island Cove’s new products, you may call: (046) 434 4313 or 0917 706 1406.