Apps and Gadgets

Smart is the first in the Philippines to offer the Xiaomi Mi3 with a postpaid plan - a metallic smartphone with superior specs and yet, is priced quite reasonably for smartphones in its category. At Smart data plan 999 (with 24-month lock-in period), you get the Xiaomi Mi3 FREE plus the following: * All-day (unlimited) surfing * 99 all-network texts * 9 minutes all-network calls

Good news for the Catholic faithful. The Vatican is on social media. No, I am not referring to @Pontifex , the Pope's official Twitter account. That's old hat. This is the latest news... the Pope now has his very own app. What else but The Pope App ! It's only been a week since the app debuted on the online scene but it already has over 100,000 downloads. Available on both the App Store and Google Play, The Pope App presents "the latest news and information on the Pope as produced by the Vatican's own media services and featured on News.va, the official network hub of Vatican communication". The latest news coming from the Vatican Live events are streamed on the app Social sharing of Pope's tweets within app Other features in the app The app's contents are easily shareable and can be easily changed from within the app into different languages including Spanish, French, Italian or Portuguese. Live views from webc...

Recognizing that Filipinos really love music, Smart has teamed up with premium music streaming service Deezer to bring over 30 million songs in its library to Smart's postpaid subscribers. Deezer is an app available on Google Play and the App Store. It is also on the web (deezer.com) so you have access to Deezer on your computer or via your mobile phone. With over 30 million tracks in its inventory, Deezer offers the music lover a wide range of genres to choose from. My son is a Beatles fan and at the blogger launch, he was saying that other music streaming apps didn't cut it for him because they didn't have Beatles songs. Well, what do you know. Deezer does! And he spent a good part of the night with the headphones on, listening to different songs he'd pick out from Deezer's vast music database. Here's more from Deezer that you'd find interesting. * Music Recommendations from Music Editors - this combines the best of man and machine recommendations...

In a digital world where the smartphone is used more and more for selfies and photo uploads on social media, not all smartphone cameras cut it anymore. Samsung has now launched a camera-specialized smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy K zoom that blends advanced digital camera technology with a Galaxy smartphone. How the Galaxy K zoom looks with lens recessed Opening the Camera app automatically activates the zoom lens' protrusion

Today, Globe's President & CEO, Ernest Cu, announced before media and bloggers that Globe has finally achieved 100% network coverage with 3G signal and that in another 90 days, it will be able to provide full HSPA+ (LTE) coverage. Globe's Cu says the rollout of both 3G and 4G HSPA+ infrastructure for its entire network is part of its transformation efforts to deliver the most modernized telecommunications infrastructure in the country. With this transformation, they say subscribers should expect enhanced coverage in major points of convergence and a more reliable network not just for texts and voice calls but also for fast internet connection.

It always pays to listen to your subscribers and get their feedback. After a lot of listening, planning and tweaking, the first phase (beta) of the Smart Bro Dashboard was launched at a blogger event yesterday.

This is a heads-up for industries in the healthcare, retail/hospitality, education and office/banking/finance industries. Samsung just recently unveiled their new Industry Business Solutions Center located at Campus Avenue, McKinley Hill. Bringing together Samsung's products and software that build on convergence, current digital technology and productivity, the center is a showcase of all the possibilities that these industries can now avail of. I joined a tour around the Industry Business Solutions Center and here is what is already available. The Center greets visitors with a huge video wall which can show individual windows, each showing a different set of information, or it can become one huge wall showing an enlarged view of a map, traffic situation, weather information or anything else. Video walls are very good in what many refer to as "war rooms" -- those centers that are used for disaster monitoring, strategy mapping, command centers.