Viber’s New Facelift Includes Lightning-Speed Chats And Other Cool Changes

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Viber, the leading messaging app, rolls out a new chat screen design that gives its one billion registered users a beautiful and remarkably efficient chatting experience, with messages sent and delivered at twice the speed and receive status updates! 

The upgraded design is now available for all iPhone users and will be rolled out soon to Android users.

Have you ever been chatting with a friend and wondered: Did they even open my message? What is taking them so long to respond? Viber takes instant messaging to ‘ultra’ real-time level with its chat screen facelift and the following new improvements that you can now enjoy as a part of its ever-growing community:

Faster messages than ever before.  You can now exchange messages twice as fast as before, so your chats will flow more naturally and move along more quickly and eliminate the panic of an unanswered text.

Quicker message status icons.  You can now quickly see whether your recipient has read your message with these new message delivery status icons:  ✓ means your message is sent; ✓✓ means your message has been delivered to your recipient’s phone; while ✓✓ means your recipient has seen your message.

Bigger & brighter chat bubbles. Viber’s new brighter chat color scheme and bigger chat bubbles show more content in the screen making it easy for you to see and focus more on the chat’s content at one glance.

A sharper GIF, photo and video experience.  Now, you can receive bigger photos or videos from your family and friends in bigger, better quality thumbnails in your chat screen.

Of course, Viber is equipped with end-to-end encryption by default, making it the safest messenger out there. Users know that by using Viber their data and content isn’t shared with third parties, while even Viber itself can’t access it—giving them 100% privacy.

“Providing an exceptional communication experience to the hundreds of millions of people using Viber passionately every day is what drives us for constant innovation. We wanted to give our users a fresh stunning look, that not only looked good but really runs better from the inside out” says Ofir Eyal, VP Product of Viber.

“Everything we do revolves around how we communicate with each other and how we ultimately connect. Now, no matter where our users are located around the world, they will have the fastest service available all without compromising a fun, quirky and visually stunning chat experience.”

Experience the new, fresh chat screen with faster messages when you update to the latest version of Viber today!

BTS Hits 10 Million YouTube Subscribers

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The Bangtan boys' YouTube channel hits 10 million subscribers.
 (Image from BTS' Instagram account)

Since their channel creation on December 2012, BTS YouTube channel BANGTANTV has already garnered 10 million subscribers, making them the first Korean boy group to reach 10 Million subscribers on YouTube.

Pinoy fans are showing strong support, even making it to the top ten audience of the group alongside fans from South Korea, United States, and Japan.

BTS is among YouTube’s 20 most-viewed artists globally, based on data gathered from January 2018 to mid-August 18.

BTS is composed of 7 members and is currently one of the most popular Korean pop group acts worldwide. The Bangtan boys have broken records left and right – both on newer platforms like YouTube and music institutions like Billboard. They won Top Social Artist for the 2nd year in a row and performed “Fake Love” during the 2018 Billboard Music Awards.

Pasig City Named Philippine Winner of WWF’s One Planet City Challenge 2018

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Leading experts within the field of urban sustainability around the world have proclaimed Pasig City as the Philippine National Capital of the 2017-2017 edition of World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) One Planet City Challenge (OPCC), a biennial global challenge that recognizes cities for developing infrastructure, housing, transport and mobility solutions to power the global transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient future. This edition saw 133 cities representing 23 countries accepting the Challenge. 

Pasig’s concrete and comprehensive actions to reduce its carbon emissions, particularly its plan to reduce traffic emissions and congestions as well as its targeted actions around renewable energy and energy efficiency, truly reflected the “sustainable transport and mobility” theme of this run of the OPCC and have made the city eligible for the Global OPCC Prize, which will be awarded in September. The jury also particularly appreciated the city’s strong community engagement and its adaptation actions, such as the cleaning of the Pasig River and its strong alignment of actions to emissions reduction and execution of said actions. 

Seven other Philippine cities, namely Batangas, Catbalogan, Makati, Parañaque, San Carlos, Tagum, and Zamboanga have successfully qualified to join the 2017-2018 OPCC based on the criteria announced early in 2017. The cities of Makati, Pasig, and San Carlos went on to become national finalists and participated in the “We Love Cities” global campaign from May 7 until the end of June 2018. 

The City of Jakarta bagged the top plum in the campaign, which is a social media contest that is aimed at inspiring and engaging the respective citizens of the national finalists across the globe for support, votes, and ideas for improvement while Pasig came in second. 

Launched in 2011 as the Earth Hour City Challenge, the OPCC highlights the crucial role that cities play in the transition toward a low-carbon and sustainable future. Since then, over 400 countries from 5 continents have heeded the call to sustainably address fast and large transformations in population, consumption patterns, resource use, and waste management. The Philippines joined the Challenge in its 2015-2016 run. 

The awarding ceremony for the OPCC national winner, finalists, and qualifiers of the Philippines was held at Marco Polo Ortigas as part of WWF-Philippines’ two-day workshop entitled One Planet Cities: Raising Climate Ambitions and Sustainability Actions for 1.5°C. 

Said workshop brought together cities from all over the country to further discuss ways in which they can work together towards the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming to 1.5°C. Updates on the progress of the Philippine government on its commitment to the Paris Agreement, as well as other framework plans addressing climate change and sustainable urban development. 

Insights from panelists coming from various sectors steered the tackling of the status of the Local Climate Change Action Plan (LCCAP) compliance of local government units, especially in the urban setting. Challenges being faced by both the national government and the cities in the implementation of their respective LCCAPs were also mapped out with the help of workshop facilitators from WWF-Philippines.

Visit www.panda.org/opcc and http://www.welovecities.org/ for further details on the One Planet City Challenge and We Love Cities.

Basketball coach is Mang Inasal’s 2018 Gawad Pilipinoy’s new hero

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Basketball is the most-loved sport in the Philippines. For Filipinos, the ball game is more than just a pastime – it is training ground for discipline and sportsmanship, as well as for building friendships and camaraderie.

Utilizing basketball as a means to inspire and teach life lessons to underprivileged youth, Coach Ruben Lanot II was recently honored as the Mang Inasal’s 2018 Gawad Pilipinoy awardee.

Making use of basketball as a means to inspire and teach life lessons to underprivileged youth, 35-year-old Ruben Lanot II, a tireless and dedicated basketball coach, was recently honored as the Mang Inasal’s 2018 Gawad Pilipinoy awardee.

Coach Ruben Lanot II (center) receives the Gawad Pilipinoy 2018 trophy from (L-R) Mang Inasal Head Jojo Subido and Marketing Head Aileen Natividad.

The leading Pinoy chicken inasal brand’s very own recognition program for the country’s modern-day heroes,Gawad Pilipinoy cites outstanding individuals who represent galing ng Pinoy by fulfilling a passion or vocation that uplifts the lives of the less fortunate.

“Mang Inasal Philippines wishes to promote positive Filipino values by recognizing individuals who exemplify them, like Coach Ruben, who dedicated his life to teaching the youth the importance of sportsmanship and realizing their dreams through basketball. He fulfills his passion for the game while inspiring kids to love the sport and make it as an instrument to improve their lives,” said Mang Inasal Head Jojo P. Subido.

Coach Ruben started his love affair with the game at a very young age of six. He grew a deep liking for the sport while watching Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) games. He became a varsity player in his senior year at the University of Sto. Tomas, and after graduation, eventually found coaching basketball as his calling.

His decision to quit his day job as an office employee in favor of coaching was further strengthened when he was commissioned to join the Junior NBA program as coach, where he was able to meet and coach talented young players from different provinces. It was there that he thought that these raw talents, when given the right training, equipment, and the opportunity to play, would become even better players.

Founder of Hoops Dreams, Coach Ruben holds basketball training sessions at the Taguig Tenement, where the young players are not only coached on the game, but also on life lessons that will help them achieve their dreams

“I was able to relate to those aspiring young players since I myself didn’t come from an affluent family. When I was just starting to play, I didn’t have access to scientific basketball. That’s why I want these kids to experience what I didn’t get to enjoy before. Wala ako noong coach na masasabi kong naghulma sa akin nung bata ako about basketball (I didn’t have a coach whom I can say molded me as a young kid trying to play basketball),” Coach Ruben said.

These experiences inspired him to start his “Hoop Dreams” advocacy program, which aims to help those youth who aspire of becoming basketball players by giving them the skills, the drills, the right values, and even the jerseys and the shoes they need for the game. For the program, Coach Ruben partners with different orphanages, associations and organizations, which are looking for ways to give indigent youth better opportunities.

Coach Ruben holds basketball training sessions at the Taguig Tenement, where the young players are coached on the game, but also on life lessons that will help them achieve their dreams. As far as Coach Ruben is concerned, he exerts the same amount of sacrifice and effort to train the kids from the tenement as well as those children attending the private school where Ruben also coaches.

“Through basketball, I am able to give the youth, especially the underprivileged ones, a new reason to dream and hope that they can be good at something. That’s the best thing about pursuing my passion in basketball – I am able to fulfill the purpose behind that passion – that is, to be able to help others. Kaya’t hanggang may batang gustong matuto, nandito lang si Coach Ruben para sa kanila (As long as there are kids who want to learn, Coach Ruben is just here for them),” he said.

With Coach Ruben’s selfless use of his skills and passion to help the Pinoy youth through basketball, he is definitely a deserving recipient of the 2018 Gawad Pilipinoy award. 

Get to know more about Coach Ruben from the 2018 Gawad Pilipinoy Awards video at Mang Inasal Philippines’s official Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/MangInasalPhilippines/).

“TNT Boys” Serenade Meralco Scholars

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The singing trio of Francis Concepcion, 11, Mackie Empuerto, 12, and Kiefer Sanchez, 13, also known as the “TNT Boys,” wowed a jam-packed theater at the MVP Academic Achievement Awards (MVP AAA) held recently at the Meralco Theater in Pasig City.

The ‘TNT Boys’ perform during the awarding ceremonies of the 2018 MVP Academic Achievement Awards (MVP AAA) at the Meralco Theater in Pasig City.

The group, which caught the attention of TV audiences in the U.S. when they performed in the hit talent show “Little Big Shots,” serenaded close to 300 awardees of One Meralco Foundation’s annual recognition program, which rewards the academic achievement of children and siblings of qualified employees of Meralco and its subsidiaries.

On its eighth year, the MVP AAA recognized 210 winners and 76 top achievers.

Each winner received an MVP AAA medal and a P20,000 cash prize. Meanwhile, top achievers — those who won during the previous year and continued to excel academically and have received honors during the current academic year — each received an MVP AAA Top Achievers medal.

The awardees and their parents cheered as the TNT Boys rendered a back-to-back performance of Angeline Quinto’s “Patuloy ang Pangarap” and Sarah Geronimo’s hit single “Forever’s Not Enough.”

Meralco President and CEO Oscar S. Reyes congratulates an MVP AAA winner and her father, a Meralco employee.

Addressing a primarily young audience, the boys congratulated the MVP AAA winners for doing their best to deserve the recognition. They also shared that despite their very tight work schedule, they still set aside time for their studies in between shows. They are currently home-schooled.

“Natutuwa po kami na nandito kami para makisaya sa inyo kasi naniniwala rin po kami na mahalaga talaga ang pag-aaral,” Kiefer said.

“Sa guidance ni God, sa tulong ng parents natin, at sa pamamagitan ng edukasyon, talagang walang imposible. Kaya tayong lahat, patuloy lang sa pangarap,” he added.

The TNT Boys capped the show with an encore performance of “This is Me,” a theme from the musical film, “The Greatest Showman.”