Staging the Men of Design

Basic home furniture and everyday items get a fresh, modern take and find harmony between function, practicality and design as Men of Design Matt Carr of Umbra; Arno Ruijzenaars of Leff Amsterdam; and Kenneth Cobunpue take the spotlight at the “Contemporary Design Showcase”.

The Contemporary Design Showcase features the masterpieces of the three esteemed designers who represent their globally-recognized brands in contemporary home furnishing.

Matt Carr of Toronto-based homeware design company Umbra who is for his signature designs that can be distinguished by subtle design detail, style references and the reinvention of traditional objects. Arno Ruijzenaars of clock master Leff Amsterdam pushes the boundaries to create timepiece which exposes elements of construction such as the Tube Clock. Kenneth Cobonpue, a renowned Filipino furniture designer, is known for his masterpieces made of natural materials such as rattan, bamboo, abaca, and buri palm such as the Yoda chair.

Men of Design Matt Carr, Arno Ruijzenaars and Kenneth Cobonpue prove that in the world of artistry, design knows no gender. It is the sensibility of the artists that is always at the core of every masterpiece. And in these modern times, the perfect marriage of beauty and function is the common principle shared by designers across the globe—or the force that binds Umbra, Leff Amsterdam and Kenneth Cobonpue.

Catch the works of these design masters at the Kenneth Cobonpue Showroom located at The Residences, San Lorenzo Tower, Greenbelt, Makati City.

Promenade/Theater Mall Christmas Lighting Ceremony Ushers in December Mall Activities

Christmas came alive at Greenhills Promenade and Theater Mall with the official Christmas Lighting ceremony on November 26 when hot young stars Ken Chan of GMA’s Destiny Rose, Jake Vargas, Prince Villanueva and Sanya Lopez joined Music Museum Group president Precy M. Florentino and other MMGI officials in switching on hundreds of glittery parols.

They were joined by Kuya Germs, German Moreno, Walang Tulugan co-hosts Jon Knight and Sharmaine Santiago, Music Museum Group Vice Presidents Paolo F. Mendoza and Rosalina F. Mendoza.

The Christmas lighting ceremony is an annual tradition in this part of Greenhills that is enlivened by the presence of stars and entertainment personalities. The dining, shopping and entertainment enclave is best known among leisure lovers for its favorite performance venues, the Music Museum and Teatrino, its glam Greenhills Cinemas, the first movie theaters in the country to show movies in state of the art sound technology, Dolby Atmos and its lively mix of shops and restaurants.

The lighting ceremony also touched off a series of engaging Christmas activities at the Promenade and Theater Mall. The Teatrino Film Series, a Philippine independent movie festival put together by Heneral Luna director Jerrold Tarog in September 2014, continues to regale moviegoers with weekend movie treats at the Teatrino up to December 19.

Jerrold Tarog’s film, Senior Year; Sleepless by Prime Cruz and Alagwa by Ian Lorenos were first to screen on December 12. On December 19, Alvin Yapan’s Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Paa starrng Rocco Nacino and Paolo Avelino comes back to haunt all lovers of dance, beauty and gender equality. Mihk Vergara’s Patintero : Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo goes on at 7 p.m., while Jason Paul Laxamana’s Magkakabaung starring Allen Dizon and Gladys Reyes closes the Film Series festival for 2015 at 9:30 p.m. Tarog’s Sana Dati, Sigrid Andrea Bernardo’s Lorna, Pepe Diokno’s highly acclaimed Above the Clouds showed in late November.

On December 19 a Star Wars exhibit featuring rare Star Wars toys and memorabilia will be held at the new Promenade Hall. Shoppers may join the X-Wing Game Tournament and witness the launch of the Darth Vader Annual #1 at the venue. Renowned Filipino comic book artist Leinil Francis Yu of Marvel Comics will have an autograph signing session for comic book fans. A Cosplay Contest will excite shoppers on the same day and exhibit goers get free movie tickets for special screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, plus other freebies.

On December 21 and 22, the music of Charlie Park and K-Pops! will liven up afternoon Christmas shopping and leisure activities as the Korean group performs for holiday shoppers and passers by at the Greenhills Promenade and the Theatre Mall at 5:30pm.

Tech Guide: Here’s the Ultimate List to Have in Mind When Looking for That Perfect Smartphone for You

Tech Guide: Here’s the Ultimate List to Have in Mind When Looking for That Perfect Smartphone for You We’re breaking down the ‘insider secrets’ and top tips in order for you to maximize your smartphone experience Manila, Philippines (2 November, 2015) — In this modern digital age, even the tech-savvy among us admit that they too can get easily get lost in the sea of products and devices that are advertised to be the supposed latest ‘game-changer’ in the tech industry. And as such, nowadays one must be even more vigilant in choosing what kind of smartphone that can really keep up with his basic needs. And though many may say that making that decision is easily more said than done, on the contrary, one only actually needs to just look for certain essential factors that should be present for you to get that perfect smartphone experience attuned to your lifestyle.  And with the Holiday rush clearly in full-swing already, we are out to lend a helping hand by conveniently listing down and summarizing these factors into the four basic yet important must-haves – some often overlooked – that would make just anyone and everyone’s lives easier when deciding what particular smartphone they should purchase. At the end of this brief and informative article, you will surprise yourself by now wisely knowing what specific factors and features you would first want to consider before purchasing that smartphone really meant for you. Choose a smartphone with at least 1GB RAM Random Access Memory, or RAM, is the smartphone part that few of us think about, and yet it’s absolutely vital to everything we do. If your smartphone lacks memory then your stuff will soon slow to a crawl — and that’s why we recommended a smartphone with at least 1GB of RAM. Why 1GB? Because apps are always growing in size, so you need enough memory to run everything you want. Consider Facebook — that’s about 70MB alone. Now launch Twitter, and that’s another 60MB or so. Instragram? That needs around 30MB. And all that just for starters! Now think of everything else you might use on a daily basis! You can see how quickly it all adds up — and that’s before you think about any documents you might open in these apps, or pictures you might view, or games you might play, or what Android needs for itself. So, RAM’s really important — now let’s break down a bit more… ·         Why 1GB RAM? Remarkably, many low-cost smartphones have less than 1GB RAM. It’s important to check, else that ‘bargain’ smartphone might burden you with 768MB or even a mere 512MB of memory. Seriously, it’s just not enough — and you’ll feel the pain every day. Apps will run slowly, and even switching between tasks will feel like it takes forever. And in the future you might not even be able to run some apps because a lack of memory. This chart shows why buying a smartphone with less than 1GB of RAM is a mistake: Running Apps RAM Required Remaining RAM Facebook 70MB 307MB Used by Running Apps 85MB Used by Other Apps & System 608MB RAM Available Twitter 60MB Instagram 30MB Whatsapp 23MB Email 15MB Path 9MB BBM 100MB With a 1GB smartphone, such as any ASUS ZenFone model, you’ll have plenty of RAM to spare — even with all these apps running. On a lesser model, with just 512MB of memory, you’ll pretty much have reached the limit! ·         Why 2GB RAM? If you think you’ll need more RAM and even better performance then consider a smartphone with 2GB RAM or more. The Android 5 (Lollipop) operating system, for instance, gobbles up loads of of memory just for itself — so 2GB gives Android and everything else on your smartphone more room to work. Also, some of the newest applications out there demand a lot of memory to run properly. So, remembering our table above, a smartphone with 2GB RAM would leave you 1.6GB left to run more apps — and that’s plenty for most things you’ll want to do! Choose smartphone with at least 8GB storage As with RAM, it might surprise you to learn that many affordable smartphones are fitted with only 4GB of internal storage — and honestly, that’s just not enough nowadays. Why? Well, we’re happy to explain… ·         Many apps will install only to internal storage For starters, many apps can be installed only on the device’s internal storage — so promises of expanding the memory by inserting a micro SD card are worthless in this regard. Of course, if you remember our earlier table you might think 4GB is plenty. But think again! Android 5.0 (Lollipop) along takes up around 3GB, leaving a paltry 1GB for your own apps and content. And you can pretty much forget being able to upgrade to later versions of Android, as you won’t have enough space to do the job. And don’t forget that many apps grow as you use them, so with a 4GB smartphone you’ll very quickly run out of space — and your device will be effectively useless to you. Here’s another simple table to highlight the problem: Running Apps Storage Needed Remaining Storage Facebook 340MB Total Used Storage 6.06GB 2GB Storage Available Twitter 60MB Instagram 30MB Whatsapp 85MB Email 48MB Path 12MB BBM 85MB Internal Apps 2.85GB Android System 2.55GB Now this example below considers an 8GB smartphone with lots of popular apps in use and with typical storage requirements, leaving a comfortable 2GB of storage remaining to play with. Now imagine this same suite of apps on a 4GB handset — and you’ll see why you need to avoid such devices! ·         Choose smartphone with 8GB internal storage Only with this about of storage will you be able to download, install and run the apps you want, and allow them the space they need to expand as you use them. It’s also the only way to ensure you’ll be able to update to newer versions of Android, when they become available. And while we’re here, we should say that ideally you should go for a device with more than 8GB of storage — but now you understand why 8GB is the absolute minimum! Choose a smartphone with superior camera quality For most of us, our smartphone camera is now our main camera. Because we now take it with us wherever we go, it is essential to choose a smartphone with a great camera — and great camera features! So, while the megapixel (MP) resolution is important, there’s more to grabbing a great smartphone snapper. Here’s what to shop for: ·         Fast Focus Near-instant focus is important, those precious moments are gone in the blink of an eye — and you’ll kick yourself if you miss the chance to capture your child’s first smile. So, look for a smartphone a fast auto-focus, and preferably one with a laser auto-focus that works as fast as 0.03 seconds. ·         Backlight Handling You can’t guarantee the lighting of the locations where you shoot, so shop for a smartphone camera that offers a great HDR function — because this will capture the best photos, even when there’s a lot of light in the background. ·         Night Vision A smartphone that can see in the dark? They exist — if you shop wisely! With a good low-light feature, you’ll capture great photos even when illumination is at a minimum, ensuring your subject is clearly visible and without noise or blur. ·         Skin-Tone Retention It’s bad when photos look washed-out because the smartphone’s LED flash compensates for skin tone. That’s why a smartphone with a dual-tone LED flash is very important, as it allows the smartphone to deliver the perfect light combination to keep skin tones looking beautifully natural. Dual-LED features have different names, such as Real Tone flash. ·         DSLR-Grade Controls It is best if your smartphone has a manual mode that allows you to control every aspect of its camera. With this feature you can fine tune the shot for every scenario, and apply creative effects that you’ll never experience from automatic mode alone. ·         More Megapixels And after all of the above, take into consideration the megapixel – because more of them means more detail captured. Also look for features like ‘Super Resolution’, which combine multiple shots into one ‘Super Resolution’ photo for incredible detail. Choose a smartphone with a long battery life And finally… the battery! It’s the forgotten black brick that takes up most of the room inside your smartphone, and yet it’s the part that powers everything — so you need one with both the juice and durability to do everything you need. Here’s what you need to know: ·         Battery capacity is the most important thing… It might seem obvious that capacity is the most important aspect of a smartphone battery —and it is. Measured in milliampere-hour (or mAh), the bigger it is, the better. But there’s actually a bit more to it than that, because different smartphones consume those milliampere-hours at different rates. So be smart when you shop and consider these factors: o    Does the smartphone have a power-efficient processor? Many low-cost smartphones have inefficient processors that also produce a lot of heat. o    Is the antenna engineered to acquire the best reception? This is important because if your smartphone has a bad signal, it’ll use more power — and that’ll reduce the battery life. o    Has the manufacturer installed bloatware? If your smartphone is pre-loaded with lots of useless apps, they could be consuming power in the background — so buy a device that lets you remove unwanted apps. ·         …but don’t forget the battery type You’ve probably never given the TYPE of battery a second thought — but you really should. The most common type today is lithium-ion (or li-ion), and these are actually okay. But forward-thinking brands fit better lithium-ion-polymer (li-polymer, or li-poly) cells. The benefit of li-polymer cells are several: o    Li-polymer batteries have longer lifecycles o    Li-polymer batteries are easily moulded, often resulting in thinner smartphones o    Li-polymer don’t suffer from the ‘memory effect’, so can be charged at any time with degrading usefulness. ·         Battery-saving software features And before we go — a last word about software. Not all Android smartphones are equal, and some do more than others to extend battery life. So, check out what the manufacturer adds to Android to keep your smartphone’s cells in good shape! -###-   AVAILABILITY & PRICING For the latest information on the ASUS ZenFone 2 product portfolio series, may refer to http://bit.ly/IncredibleHolidaysMobile. NOTES TO EDITORS ASUS Global Press Room: http://press.asus.com ASUS PH Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ASUSph ASUS PH Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ASUSph ### About ASUS ASUS is a worldwide top-three consumer notebook vendor and maker of the world’s best-selling, most award-winning motherboards. A leading enterprise in the new digital era, ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today’s digital home and office, with a broad portfolio that includes motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, displays, desktop and all-in-one PCs, notebooks, netbooks, servers, multimedia devices, wireless solutions, networking devices, tablets, smartphones and wearables. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS won 4,326 awards in 2014 and is widely credited with revolutionizing the PC industry with its Eee PC™. ASUS has more than 16,000 employees around the globe with a world-class R&D team of 5,200 engineers. Company revenue for 2014 was approximately US$14.5 billion.