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Nokia N9 Hands-On Preview (Pre-Order up to November 18, 2011 Online with SMART)

Fritz — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:30:21 +0000

For about two weeks, I’ve been carrying around and using the Nokia N9 running on MeeGo. Being a snooty Nokia N8 user for a year, experiencing the sleek “swipe” driven interface, the look and feel and color palette that’s cool and current to the eyes, the smoothness of the transitions between the screens and shifting between multi-tasked applications, and how everything just appears so simple on the N9 just blew me away. In just two days, I told myself I should have one. At any cost, though “for free” would be better. LOL.

It’s a good thing SMART is offering the unit for free to some already-existing and new post-paid plans. Pre-order started on November 4 and will last until November 18, 2011 online via this link at the SMART website.

Much has been said about MeeGo, how the N9 will be the first and only mobile unit to carry it, and how Nokia should have used this Mobile OS instead of WinMo for future devices if you have been reading about rave reviews of the N9 unit during the past month. The statement has its merits because it’s so easy to fall in love, pardon the term, with this mobile OS. I have not experienced the Nokia Lumia 800 yet as that won’t be available in the Philippines in the near future from what I gathered from friends in Nokia so I can’t really vouch for the idea just yet.

This preview should have with it a video showing you how the transitions and navigations work but I’ll try my best to do that with screenshots, instead. Here’s to hoping it’s just as good as a video presentation. Let’s also leave out the highly technical aspect of a mobile phone unit review, spanning several pages long of ultra nerdiness, and leave that coverage with gsmarena and other similar sites LOL.

The Home Screens

On one are your applications, next are your updates with feeds from either or both facebook and twitter and your email or SMS messages, and the next are all your open and active applications that you can readily launch with a tap. On the N9, we shift between home screens with a swipe. While in an active application, swipe left or right or up to go back to one of these home screens. Please left-click on the images below to enlarge.

Pinch the default 2×2 grid of the active apps home screen and you get a 3×3 grid to see more of your launched apps running in the background.

Here’s a change: there currently is no way for a user to close an active app while it is running. There is no “x” or close button. Swipe your way to the home screen containing a preview of your active apps, press and hold anywhere on that screen, and you will have the facility to either close the apps one by one or just close them all at the same time. At first, I found this awkward since I am, and so are most of you, so used to closing apps one by one when we like to exit but not getting a “close/exit app” button on the app itself actually makes things simpler. It’s one less screen press for mankind, one app at a time!

EDIT: Nikka Abes of Nokia tipped that there is a way to close an active app: swipe from top to bottom. To enable this feature, change your N9 settings by going to Settings > Device > Display and turn the “Swipe down to close app” option on. Thanks Nikka! :)

Another nifty feature with MeeGo is how you move around and arrange the icons of all your apps on the home screen. Tap and hold the icon of the app, drag it to the desired location, release, and hit “Done.” That’s it! You can even delete an app you installed via this view. It was a chore to do such a task on the home screen of the N8 and arranging however which way you want just could not be done on the menu screen, but here we have it folks. The ease of doing things epitomized by this tiny bit of improvement on MeeGo and the N9.

How Some of the Apps Look or Work

The first screen where we input our Security PIN has an exciting green on black going on but that could not be screen grabbed but here’s a run down of how some other apps look when launched.

It bothered me at first that apps may not come in droves for MeeGo but seeing that there’s a readily available (and free) currency converter, measurement converter, and screen grabber via the Ovi Store for this OS, the need for more suddenly felt trivial. I don’t even miss Pulse (the RSS feed reader on the Android) that much any more.

Conclusion

As of press time, I haven’t tried the “Drive,” “Maps,” and “Skype” applications on the N9 just yet. Having subscribed to an unlimited mobile data plan subscription made me fully utilize the social network and web applications/solutions on the N9. From the look and feel of the apps I shared above, I can with true conviction say that the MeeGo operating system delivers a great user experience that long-time users of other mobile OS, moreso Symbian^3, would not have a problem adapting to. The interface, and I can’t stress this enough, is absolutely fluid. The N9 is a great multi-tasking device, has quite a little but reasonable lag times (that I attribute more to the network signal where I’m at than the N9 itself), a splendid shooter, and has an interesting and eye-catching form factor albeit the unibody being polycarbonate plastic (does not feel and look cheap at all).

People have been comparing the N9 to the Nokia Lumia 800 but I think the N9 has much more oomph based on these three hand-picked differences: Screen Resolution (the N9 has 3.9 inches while the Lumia 800 has 3.7), RAM (the N9 has 1GB while the Lumia 800 has 512Mb), and the N9′s front-facing camera that they took out from the Lumia 800.

Other specs worth noting on the Nokia N9 are the following:

Penta-band 3G with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support
Slim and sleek at 116.45 x 61.2 x 7.6-12.1 mm
8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics with f/2.2, wide angle with 3.77mm / 28mm focal length
HTML5, CSS 3, and XHTML markup language support
Full web browsing of real web pages from a fast and highly responsive browser based on Webkit2 technology (multi-page browsing enabled, too)
Conversational view for SMS
16/64GB Storage (not expandable with a micro SD, unlike the N8)
Chat directly on your phone via WiFi or 3G/HSPA using your gmail chat or facebook accounts (which is the reason I always look online these days lol)
Easy-to-use email client (HTML supported) with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx, .odt, .ods, .odp, .pdf
Joikuspot Wi-Fi tethering
you can view the rest from the Nokia N9 official website.

From a Nokia N8, despite it still being the best camera phone in the world at this time, I would readily shift to MeeGo with the Nokia N9. We have been hoping for that Symbian Belle upgrade for months and it seems, from talks on some forums I’ve visited, the update won’t be coming so soon. Bummer. When the update comes, however, I’d still give it a try hoping it comes close to what MeeGo’s got going. One other thing that’s sure to hold me back from getting the N9, or three, rather, are my 3 Angry Birds games that have all been three-starred to perfection on my N8. If only those can be ported LOL.

I mentioned that the Nokia N9 is available for the Philippines on pre-order from SMART up to the 18th while first shipment will come on the 21st. If this preview made you want the N9 bad, then we’re lucky that owning one is just a click, a few types, and a few days away. When that time comes, be ready to have your SIM cut micro-SIM size.

Lastly… “Unfollow” (China’s Nokia N9 campaign video with Fan BingBing). Uncanny parallelism is uncanny (slow claps).

Alodia’s Fantasy Live Online Show Event Recap in Photos

Fritz — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 23:58:32 +0000

Prepare for an Alodia’s Fantasy event photo avalanche! Hover on the pics for captions. I enjoyed the program immensely with friends Kring Elenzano, Winston Almendras, Faith Salazar, and Coy Caballes. The cosplay competition segment is the best that I have seen so far from among the cosplay competions I’ve attended through the years: schedule is tight but just right, sound accompanying the performances are all high quality BGMs, finalist line up are truly worthy to be called best in class, and the cosplayers gave it their all to justify their character portrayals. The event was held in the ICON at the Intercontinental Manila Hotel. Usually a bar and lounge for a CBD night out, it was for the night transformed to stage the live online show. I heard from Marcelle, the host for the evening alongside Alodia Gosiengfiao, that the number of online views for the program reached more than 10,000 and at one point, there were around 700+ simultaneous views. If broadband in the Philippines weren’t so darn slow, I bet there would be a lot more people staying in their homes to watch the show. Still, amazing!

Below are photos of the cosplay participants during the show’s competition. First up, the Male Cosplay Category.

Dennis Madarang playing Pyramid Head, a violent monster from the hit game Silent Hill 2, is the winner for the Male Cosplay Category. If you look at his skirt closely, you’ll observe that he brought along his arcane posse. Talk about detail!

For non-otakus, Sajin Komamura is the captain of the 7th Division of Gokai 13 in Soul Society in the anime series Bleach (if the robe does not give that away yet lol).

Eddieson goes onto the stage with a folder covering his face. Put down, he reveals a cylindrical-ish Red Angry Bird mask and starts throwing birds to the audience as the Angry Birds theme played in the background. Then suddenly, he yanks away the pants, throws down the mask, and pulls off the black shirt to reveal Red Hawk. OutSTANDING in creativity!

I apologize to Rubinstein Ebuenga who played Kamen Rider Dark Kiva with the song number because my shots of you are all dark. Failure from my end, sorry. Plus I’m quite peeved by the color of the lighting in the venue. Too magenta for my liking and white balance presets. Again, I’m sorry.

Up next are the ladies from the Female Cosplay Category.

I have been taking photos of Monique in various cosplay conventions but it is only during Alodia’s Fantasy that I have seen her do the geiko dance. It was nothing short of stunning: her facial expression show pride, control, and a calm vibe showing in her calculated and fluid movements that she must have perfected through years of cosplaying a geisha. Great job, Minique! Mighty proud of you, my friend! EDIT: So I found out that Monique was played the wrong background music for her number. Double the props to you, my friend for pulling that dance off like that with professional reserve. Shame shame on the audio people. Shame!

Myrtle Gail won in the female cosplay category by playing Grand Archer Rena from the MMORPG Elsword.

Apologies to Catrina Anne Lazaro who played Black Rock Shooter because my shots of your performance could not be salvaged owing to the erratic and magenta saturated lighting :( I’m so sorry!

Next up is the Mecha Cosplay Category.

From the rehearsals earlier Saturday, Don Robert came in a Stark jacket for the run through. Near the end, he did a back flip much to the surprise of everybody in the set. The question in my mind was will he do it during the actual competition with the Mark V on. He didn’t. I must say the online audience just missed a singularly awesome moment in Philippine cosplay history.

Bolen Lareza playing Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn’s MSN-06S Sinanju bagged the grand prize in the Mecha cosplay category. I suddenly remember something I heard from a friend during a con a loooooong time ago: “we are no match with chibis. They come out and they wow and make everyone swoon and gush with little or no effort.” Haha. Bolen, however, really worked the stage. Her moves are in sync with the background music and sound effects. The mecha is also exquisitely made. My favorite detail is the etched insignia on the MSN-06S’s left shoulder.

Richard Cheng’s Zoids mecha is probably the biggest mecha I have EVER seen around. It’s just HUGE! Just look at that photo where he’s fighting with a human who looks like a mouse. Not in this picture is the tail detail of the mecha. It’s LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG AND HUGE, TOO!

For the other things that happend that night, check out the following. click on the landscape oriented photos for the larger image.

Kel asked Gerard what his name is to which Gerard answered, “a friend.” His answer brought the house down. Well played.

That’s it. The Alodia’s Fantasy program in photos. Great job flippish and everyone who made this event possible and the sponsors, of course. Thanks Kring and Chris Tan for the invite! Will there be an Alodia’s Fantasy Encore any time soon? :)

PS: I apologize to the Haga Twins Miwha and Michiko, too. Looking at my photos at home, it appears I did not have a great shot of them other than what I took during the rehearsals. Bawi ako next time, I promise >.<

Alodia’s Fantasy Sneak Peek Rehearsal Photos!

Fritz — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 10:19:01 +0000

[ EDIT: Click here for the actual event photo recap. Thanks! ]

Adding to Kring Elenzano’s post on what to expect from the Alodia’s Fantasy live online special which will air tonight, October 22, 2011 8pm-10pm GMT +8 flippish.com, below are a few preview photos from this afternoon’s rehearsals to get you all more excited to be at home and watch it get aired direct from the set.

(Click for the full-sized image)

Michiko and Miwha Haga in the house!

You probably won’t see Kring later but she’s there in the audience LOL

Yes, folks, Alodia will be dancing on set. Epic! Online viewers will also be treated to a live chat portion with Alodia. There will be so much more in store for viewers tonight so stay tuned!

From what I gathered, there will also be a cosplay contest that will be divided into three categories: Female, Male, and Mecha. The contest will be open for online votes so cast those “likes” for your favorite cosplayer. Links for voting are situated below the video stream at the flippish.com site. There will be live judges so I reckon the number of likes will form part of the final score tally as the winners for each category will also be announced tonight before the end of the program. For your reference, I got ahold of the names of all the contestants representing a huge chunk of the more popular and passionate cosplayers in the Philippines. They will be on set and will show off their glorious renditions of their favorite characters. They are:

Male Cosplayers:
Cykah Malagad (Ashtaroth)
Ryan Simbul (Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Blademaster with Dragon X Armor)
Mark Celtic Buenaventura (Warlord Predator)
Dennis Madarang
Rubinstein Ebuenga (Kamen Rider Dark Kiva)
John Ezekiel De Guzman
Eddieson Jaluag (Red Hawk)
Jo Marcel Navarro (Mamoru)

Female Cosplayers:
Chienna Filomeno
Monique Dimanlig (Geiko)
Hye marie Nim
Myrtle gail
Isabel Cortez (She-Predator)
Aikia Keary
Catrina Anne Lazaro
Czarina Bisda
Marienela Chanco (Suigintou or Rozen Maiden)
Shiela navarro (Yellow Ironman)

Mecha Cosplayers:
Jonam Baladad (Mobile Suit Girl Gundam Wing Zero)
Don Robert Torio (Iron Man Mark V)
Bolen Lareza (MG Sinanju)
Gibs Sagun (Kamen Rider Oz Latoratah Combo)
Miguel Panlilio
AbrahaM Cruz (Zodiac Twelve from Exteel)
Richard Cheng (EZ-021 Deathsaurer from Zoids)

To support your favorites, don’t forget to vote.

For latar tonight, there will also be an After Party from 10pm onwards. Gates of ICON Ultimate Club will be opened at 10pm for all the registered Flippish members who want to meet and mingle with Alodia and other cosplayers. Registered Flippish member will be given After Party Invites, so if you know someone who wants to join the After Party, all they have to do is register on Flippish to make it into the guest list and be given an After Party Invite.

If you missed the trailer, here it is. Note of the list of performers who will be gracing this event? Awesomeness! Don’t forget that Alodia’s Fantasy airs tonight, October 22 at 8:00 PM (Philippine Standard Time) live on flippish.

Watch out for my photos from during the event tomorrow!

Cosplayers of Cosplay Mania ’11 Day 2

Fritz — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:45:54 +0000

Wasn’t able to drop by Day 1 but didn’t let Day 2 of Cosplay Mania ’11 just happen without me meekly (lol) requesting for photos from the better cosplayers of the day. Was told by Lyron Aquino last night that Kristel Lim will showcase something BIG for Day 2 (which also happens to be her birthday. Happy Birthday Kristel!). And in a great big armor she came! Saw a lot of familiar faces in the crowd the likes of Samantha De Guzman in armor, Jia Gold Bustamante doing Shaiya Light (a very wholesome rendition, mind you. I would not have thought it possible for anyone to put together until today), Lyron was of course around in his version of civilian clothes (lol), and Jayem Sison as a Black★Rock Shooter dude, complete with abdominal stitched-up lacerations, a badass katana, and bright blue right eye. And of course, abs.

Like you’ve read what I’ve written anyway. You just scrolled straight at the photos, didn’t you? I do that all the time, too. Guilty as a death row inmate. Overall, Cosplay Mania ’11 was pretty organized. Sure, there were three long lines moving at a snail’s pace at the entrance but that was because the security folks were pretty thorough with the bag inspection of both participants and spectators. Security minus the irony. Great job! SMX was also pretty lax in letting cosplayers and photographers just hang around the lobby area of the Function Halls which is a first for the cosplay cons I’ve gone to in SMX, so far. The result was an event that is not as crowded, though I think there are more people who attended this year than last. I had so much fun that I could not be arsed to watch the TOrCH Finals, although I did buy tickets LOL.

Ok, on to the photos! Just like old times, left click to view the larger image. Feel free to grab and post on your facebook but please do not remove the watermark. Linking back to fritzified.com is not required but I’ll love you more if you do lol. If you know the characters that I haven’t named and the names of the cosplayrs featured here, do call me out on them by the comment area so I can properly label the photos in return for their indulgence (for graciously letting me take their photos). Great job for this year’s con, guys! If I may say, participants are SERIOUSLY getting better and better each con!

EDIT: as this is too good to not share. Added Gerard Sison’s cosplay of Superman. Know why that costume looks so finely detailed? Here’s the story straight from Gerard:

“I was offered that Superman costume the night before the Toycon. It is a limited edition Christopher Reeve replica and there are only 10 in the world. It is made in Argentina and was sourced from all over the world. But I thought it was too much to spend for.”

AMAZING!

Cosplay Mania ’11 TOrCH Manila Preliminaries Winner

Fritz — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:52:18 +0000

Before the grand showdown today, Sunday, October 2, 2011, of the Cosplay Tournament of Champions aka TOrCH II 2011, preliminaries were held in Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod, Davao, Cebu, and three other SM locations around Metro Manila. The winners from each of the locations get to compete against each other during the TOrCH II Grand Finals. The finals will be held at the SMX, SM Mall of Asia during Day 2, that’s TODAY, of Cosplay Mania ’11. The Grand Prize winners will only represent the Philippines in the AFA ’11 Regional Cosplay Championships. Very VERY snooty.

A week ago, I was in SM Manila to watch the Manila preliminaries. Team Vostel who cosplayed Voltes V and Baizanga emerged victorious with Team Lion Rush who cosplayed Chun Li and Ryu coming in second with a fraction of a point difference in the score. That Voltes V cosplay sure looks like it jumped straight out of the animated series and everyone agrees. Contestants are asked to do a skit complete with sound bites from their chosen anime, manga, or game. How well shall Team Vostel and all other finalists fare in the Finals? Stay tuned for that and more on my update soon after the event.

See you at Cosplay Mania ’11!

New from Smart: Netphone smartphone with SmartNet

Fritz — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:25:00 +0000

Up until I got my hands on Smart’s Netphone, even after witnessing a demonstration as to what “Safe Browse” and “SmartNet” is during its launch, I still only had a vague notion of what sets this low-priced smartphone apart from the rest. After a week of playing with my Netphone unit, I have been publishing updates via the Netphone to my facebook, twitter, and SmartNet accounts all in one push AND for FREE. Netphone users only need to maintain a P1.00 balance on their Smart prepaid numbers when using the Netphone to avail of this free service. Not bad at all, yes?

Foremost, let’s get some terms out of the way. The Netphone is the new low-price point Android smartphone being offered exclusively by Smart. It is relatively cheap at P9,990 with a prepaid bundle and it comes free with some postpaid plans starting from as low as P800 monthly (visit the Smart website for details). The NetPhone comes with a locally developed app: SmartNet. SmartNet lets you update your facebook and twitter social streams and send chat messages to contacts that you may find via SmartNet’s ever growing global phonebook (contacts should accept your friend request first before you can send them chat messages, which makes total sense). Through SmartNet via the Netphone, you can also read notifications and updates by friends from your facebook and twitter streams. At no cost. I should know because I have been monitoring my load balance on the phone and it has remained the same since the last time I topped up 5 days ago.

Here’s how your updates would look both on twitter and facebook:

This is where you compose your message on SmartNet, where one sending means three.

twitter web view of an update I sent via SmartNet during the Samsung Cheerdance Competition last Saturday, where UP won. Of course. Pardon my bladder.

And here’s the facebook update of the same message. Again, pardon the bladder and congratulations to the UP Pep Squad!!!

Another nifty feature that you may enjoy right now on the Netphone is send chat messages to SmartNet contacts, again, at no per sending cost from your end. Via the “Chat” icon (see first full Netphone image on this post with the icons), choose a contact by clicking on their name, type in a message, and press send. It’s just like going to your inbox and composing an SMS then sending. Only difference is, you guessed it, it’s free. LOL. You may only send free chat messages to contacts who are in your “Social Stream’s” “Friend List.” The process of adding friends is pretty straight forward: (1) Search for a friend’s name from SmartNet’s global directory, (2) send them a “friend request,” and (3) after they approve your request, you’ll begin to see them on your “Friends” list. When I’m being a cheapskate, I send my contacts chat messages instead because they will receive the message right away anyway, just like SMS, BBM, and a WhatsApp messaging. You get the picture.

During the launch, I only had one question in mind: whether or not push gmail (since the mobile unit runs on Android and it would be a waste if you do not fully utilize this feature) can be availed for free with Smartnet. We were told that Smart considers gmail as a “third party” and that each time you told the phone to sync, you’d be charged unless you avail of the messaging service for an additional fee (like Nokia Messaging for push email on a Nokia handset). When I initially set up my Netphone, I also configured gmail to sync twice daily. Surprisingly, even though my Internet connectivity is set to SmartNet, I have never been charged even as the phone syncs to my gmail as twice daily, as scheduled. It may be a glitch that will get patched eventually but until then, I’m getting gmail push email for free, too!

What can’t you do for free via SmartNet just yet? Liking facebook statuses and uploading photos on facebook and twitpic. Not being able to “like” while mobile and for free is a bummer, haha. Believe me, I tried and failed. Gotta reserve the “liking” activity at home on the lappy, then. LOL. However, Smart prepaid subscribers, via the Netphone, can subscribe to daily or monthly services that can let you surf the web via your phone for as low as P20 daily and P999 monthly. This “subscription” is pretty useful when there are links to updates that would require you to view sites not covered by SmartNet for free. Details below:

Netphone Value Pack (Daily) at P20: Unlimited Social Stream and Chat + 10Mb Internet Browsing + 50 Texts (Smart-Smart)

Netphone Connect Pack (Daily) at P30: Unlimited Social Stream and Chat + 20Mb Internet Browsing + 5 minutes calls (Smart-Smart) + 100 Texts (Smart-Smart)

Netphone Power Pack (Daily) at P40: Unlimited Social Stream and Chat + 30Mb Internet Browsing + 10 minutes calls (Smart-Smart) + 150 Texts (Smart-Smart)

Netphone Power Pack (Monthly) at P999: Unlimited Social Stream and Chat + 1000Mb Internet Browsing + 200 minutes calls (Smart-Smart) + 3500 Texts (Smart-Smart)

I’ve been on a Smart postpaid subscriber for only about a decade and I’ve always either had the regular subscription, consumable plan, or, for a year already and counting, the unlimited data plan. The consumable calls and texts for said plan subscriptions always covered calls and texts to any network so I’m a bit iffed that the ones I mentioned had the dreaded “Smart-Smart only” clause.

For now, the SmartNet service can only be had on the Netphone. By design, however, if would be deployed to almost all mobile handsets, except for iOS because ~~they’re snooty beyotchiz~~ of proprietary reasons. And yet, this just in, Smart representatives have in passing hinted on a possibility of having the SmartNet app on the iOS. Hmmm, remains to be seen, then. People from the Smart Netphone team at the launch said that the SmartNet app deployment should come soon, as would higher price point versions of the Netphone.

In summary, the SmartNet social media platform offers solutions for our constant need to be in touch with our contacts on facebook and twitter plus the ever growing global directory composed of Smart subscribers in both prepaid and postpaid (by just maintaining a P1.00 balance on prepaid). Introducing the said service on the proprietary and low-priced Netphone Android OS device, fully customizable with a host of free apps via the Android Market to suit every personality, deserves nothing short of a solid two thumbs up. More on the Netphone, the nuances of the device, its make, the feel, and specs on a follow up post this week so stay tuned.

Netphone home screen with the Pulse app running, can’t do without it since BatangYagit introduced the app when I was testing the SGSII

The Netphone’s flip side

And if you can’t get enough of the shot on the header showing the Netphone with my Rockman X D-Arts action figure, here’s a full image (do left click for a larger view)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand here are some more Rockman X images for your indulgence. And mine. LOL

Thanks to Smart Communications for the Netphone review unit!