What happens when you take the LG Prada 3.0, a slim Gingerbread phone that looks svelte and sleek, and then you decided to make it fat and obnoxious? Well, you get the LG Optimus Vu – a Gingerbread Android phone with a 5” screen, but in a 4:3 ratio screen format. This type of ratio of screen was typical back in the days of thick CRT monitors and televisions, but not very popular in the land of smartphones and portable devices – and we think there’s a reason why. Either way, it’s clamoring for LG’s flagship right now with a dual-core 1.5Ghz processor with various high-end options. At the same time its also obviously going for the Samsung Galaxy Note’s market by including a capacitive stylus in the package. Despite not being such a big fan of Samsung’s large-screen tablet-phone, when you compare the specs and factor in the ridiculous screen ratio and handling difficulty of the LG, you’ve got a pretty simple answer when choosing between the two.

The LG Optimus Vu is the Korean-company’s newest stab at the high-end Android smartphone market which, we admit, is getting really crowded these days. In fact, its so crowded right now that without a specific selling point, its hard to differentiate yourselves from the rest of the pack. Samsung has done its part in developing devices that has had the highest quality HD AMOLED screens coupled with ridiculous amount of processor specs and tech underneath with its 5.3”-screened Galaxy Note. LG seems to want to compete in this category with their Optimus Vu, which comes in with a 5” 1024×768 IPS display in 4:3 format, Dual-Core 1.5Ghz processor, 8MP Camera with LED Flash, 1.3MP front facing camera, and the usual smartphone connectivity options all running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. (An update to Android 4.0 ICS is promised later on.) Finally, support for a stylus will be built in, though it wasn’t noted if it will come in the package or if there will be a slot to hold it in the phone.

LG Optimus Vu (left) and the LG Prada 3.0 (right). Its like the Prada’s twin just got a little extra tubby

But Jesus Christ look how hard that thing is to hold! And it just looks exactly like the Prada 3.0 phone except wider and without the Prada accents! Come on LG. We can’t see any reason at all why you should use a 4:3 ratio screen when everyone, including your televisions have been getting wider and wider. Motorola made the same ugly decision when they released the “square”-screened Motorola Flipout – there’s just no real world use for “square-ish” screens. Videos will look terrible on this since they’ll be letterboxed while watching, wasting at least 20-30% of your screen space. Pictures will mostly be shown letterboxed as well, unless you shoot at 4:3 ratio. You could argue that the 4:3 screen is for your stylus input or ease of use, but people write on wider screens perfectly fine so why even bother? Is it just to be different? Can you imagine yourself holding this pancake phone up right next to your face and not looking like a complete douche?

LG Optimus Vu side by side against the Samsung Galaxy Note (Source: HelloAdam100)

Specs-wise LG comes out with respectable, high-end performing phones. However, if its going to compete with the Galaxy Note its going on an uphill battle. The incredibly popular Note has an HD 1280×800 resolution Super AMOLED screen versus LG’s 1024×768 IPS display – a difference that might as well be night and day favoring the Samsung phone. While processor specs aren’t really that much more different, Sammy’s got the upper hand when it comes to brand recognition and popularity right now, so what is LG getting at?

When it comes down to it, LG’s Optimus Vu is not as offensive as it seems. The specs are definitely up there for a flagship device and certainly the thin design and stylus adds a lot of usefulness to the phone. It doesn’t look like it can directly compete with Samsung’s offering, but will likely want to carve a niche of its own. The handling is definitely a concern here, but isn’t impossible to overcome. The fact that LG xeroxed their Prada design and made it wider isn’t a terrible idea either, since the Prada 3.0 looked and felt pretty awesome. We would have wanted them to lead the charge by having Android 4.0 out of the box, but they’ve opted to go for the relatively aging Gingerbread platform – losing a huge opportunity to beat Samsung to the punch. Either way, its had to knock a phone that comes that close to competing with one of the top devices out there, and that’s what the LG Optimus Vu does.

 
We give the LG Optimus Vu n* Stars.
Oh wait, this wasn’t a review; we just sort of got carried away there.

The Optimus Vu isn’t yet announced to be coming to the Philippines at all, and has only been announced in Korea. It’s expected to show up in other parts of the world though, so we might see it in our shores soon. Its not a bad phone, despite all our criticisms – but we just don’t understand why even bother with a 4:3 screen. Maybe we’re just dumb and don’t know anything about phones and we’ll stand corrected when we see it for ourselves, or even review it. But until then, yeah.

To see more of this device, check out the video thing below. Then watch the Prada 3.0 trailer just after it and tell us that’s not exactly the same thing except wider.

ECS Motherboards Philippines, one of the well known PC component makers, is raffling off one of their enthusiast motherboards for us desktop consumers in the Philippines. Which means, you’re invited to join this giveaway. (Assuming you’re reading this in the Philippines.) The terms are your typical “Like” the page, Tweet about it, and refer your friends. What’s interesting though is that you can keep doing some of these daily, effectively giving you more entries every day as long as you can keep referring people to it or tweeting about it. Of course, that also means more competition in the form of people you referred, but such is the nature of the beast, right? The prize for this raffle draw is one of their latest offerings in the form of the ECS X79R-AX Black Extreme enthusiast motherboard – a new one that supports Intel’s X79 Sandy Bridge processors with overclocking capabilities.

The ECS X79R-AX motherboard is an Intel Sandy Bridge-E board capable of mounting up to four PCIe Gen 3 x 16 slots allowing for 4-way GPUs in the form of NVIDIA’s SLI or AMD CrossFireX graphics chips. It also supports quad-channel memory going up to 64GB, which is overclockable up to 2500Mhz – almost twice the normal 1333Mhz frequencies. Rounding out the features include WiFi & Bluetooth built-in, eSATA slots, up to 12 SATA ports, and gigabit ethernet ports for fast network and disk access.

Of course, all that information is not much use unless you win it right? (Or you’re buying one.) So go on ahead and click through to the ECS Philippines Fanpage here, or to the raffle app embedded on their Fanpage here. Both links do require at least a Facebook account to begin with though, but that’s not hard to accomplish now isn’t it?

The giveaway is using a well known system called Rafflecopter and allows you to do multiple things to get more tickets into the draw. In this case, tweeting about it and referring your friends will get you extra chances of winning, and you can do these everyday until the end of the eligible timeline – which is until February 26, 2012. You still have about a week to go so there’s plenty of time to get those tickets!

To (sort of) learn more about the ECS X79R-AX, you can check out this video tour just below.

When it comes to gaming keyboards, the mechanical versions are easily the superior kind. Most keyboards (from laptops and desktops) these days are built on a technology called membranes, and it comes with a little rubbery layer to bring your keys back up whenever you strike the keys. Mechanical keyboards are much better in this sense because it employs real mechanical microswitches – these little devices have real moving parts and springs and are much more preferred when it comes to tactile feedback and experience. That’s why gamers prefer these kinds of keyboards for gaming, and that’s why we’re checking one out today. For this unboxing, we’re checking out the CM Storm Quick Fire Rapid mechanical gaming keyboard, and this one is equipped with the high quality Cherry MX microswitches. But lets not go on about it, and play some games in our Unboxing! Hop over the jump for our video.

And there you have it for the CM Storm Quick Fire Rapid keyboard. (That’s a lot of words.) The device is listed at about $80 from international sites, so in the Philippines it will probably end up at around PHP 3-4k when it comes to our shores. For a really comfortable keyboard though, that sounds like a decent bargain.

Does anyone actually still give a flying hoot (pun!) about Angry Birds? Since we really don’t anymore. We stopped caring long before the next bazillionth version and “level update” came out. Why? Because the game got stale – it started to get repetitive fast. Once you’ve figured out the basic premise of slinging your various colored aviary to destroy innocent buildings (and pigs) in various forms and physics, it just got old. It doesn’t help that Rovio hasn’t really innovated at all when it comes to gameplay concepts – its just recycling the same old shenanigans and adding a new coat of paint. But we digress. Rovio is continuing the trend of milking the franchise providing new content to their fans by announcing Angry Birds Space, a “new” game of aviary flinging coming to you this March – but get this, its in SPAAAAAACCCCCEEE!!!!

Angry Birds Space will be coming out in March 22 and will promise some new gameplay concepts (somehow we bet its going to be underwhelming just like Angry Birds Rio) plus some “surprises”. Not much else has been revealed, so that’s all there is. If you’re still, for some reason, excited for playing a slingshot physics game in the colorful world of cute, but pissed off aviary, check your phones and other devices (they’re launching more than just a game) in March to pick it up. Meantime, go ahead and check out their trailer below to learn absolutely nothing about the game.

Its been a while since we last saw anything about a movie called “Chronicle” – about a few months at least. Back in October, we put up the trailer and the teaser text from 20th Century Fox on Viral.PH about a movie centered around three high-school guys who happen to have chanced upon some rather psychokinetic or mystical powers. Back then, the release mentioned that the movie would open in March 2012 so we weren’t expecting it to be out in theatres so soon. However, Chronicle is definitely showing now and we think it’s a pretty good movie to catch – unless you’re specifically looking for a dark horror movie or something along the lines of a paranormal thing.

He can make a pretty hefty commission on garbage disposal there…

“Chronicle” is shot in the “found footage” format, a style of movie wherein the show is seen from video recordings of cameras and other devices in the story – lending it a more realistic and gritty feel. Much of the movie revolves around the dynamics between the three main characters – the filmographer Andrew (Dane DeHaan); his cousin Matt (Alex Russell); and their new best-friend-by-chance Class Presidentiable Steve (Michael B. Jordan). The film is based around the personal video recordings (and some added from other devices) of our typical social-outcast Andrew, who begins a new hobby of recording his life. After Matt brings him to a party where he finds himself outcast, Steve calls him out to a field to get something unusual on film. Long story short, the camera breaks but the three high-school guys pick up some unusual psychokinetic powers.

We find the three a bit later, new camera in hand, building up their newly learned skills – and herein lies the conflict. Andrew, due to immense social and domestic pressures, begins to show less compassion for people around him – even including Matt and Steve. The question then surfaces: Can these three high school guys, a social misfit among them, be able to control and maintain secrecy – not to mention the legality of their newfound powers? And if not, what happens to these guys? Well, that’s for you to check out at your nearest local theater.

What Chronicle ends up to be is a great, if predictable enough, sci-fi (if you can call it that) movie in 84 minutes. It doesn’t end up explaining what caused the characters’ powers to begin with, but ultimately doesn’t need to. There were some genuine moments of enjoyment during the early parts of the show, and the awkward nature of the camera and Andrew’s social-inabilities are well delivered. The CG effects were pretty well made and lend itself to the style of the cinematography. Near the climax it starts to get kinda patchy and over-the-top, but you could have gleaned that much from the trailers. Either way, it’s a fresh take on that Spiderman mantra of, “With great blah blah blah, blah blah blah.” Sorry, its just too cliché to write. Final thought: go watch it.

Check out the new trailer here below for more teasering-ing!

At a media event held last month, Tattoo @ Home – Globe Telecom’s brand of household-based internet service provider – took the opportunity to introduce us to their newest WiMax, DSL & Fiber Optic plans. Admittedly though, more emphasis was given to their newest celebrity endorser – the Ford Supermodel of the World 2010 winner Danica Magpantay. Ms. Magpantay is daughter to Lala Flores, who is also another (former) Supermodel of the World – bagging the prestigious award back in 1990 for the Philippines. The argument levied here is that parents would want the best for their children, just like mother Lala Flores want the best for her daughter Danica. And to wish for the best would mean to give them the greatest value for money high-speed broadband internet – giving their offspring the best possible launching pad for stardom. We guess the argument worked pretty well for Alodia Gosiengfiao, so we guess it works here as well.

 
Click for full res

Interestingly, Tattoo @ Home offers three different ways to hop on to the wide world of the intertubes – it offers the traditional line-based DSL subscription, a much newer WiMax 4G wireless internet service, and finally a service called GPON (Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network). While GPON sounds like a Japanese toy you get from a vending machine, it’s probably most comparable to a T1 dedicated connection given that it is technically an optical internet line. If you’re interested though, a 50MBps connection starts at around PHP 14,999. DSL and WiMax are a lot more reasonable for most homes and they hover around the PHP 800-3,000 mark (512kbps-5Mbps) with optional phone lines. In selected areas DSL can also go up to 15Mbps though it does cost PHP 6,300/month.

A feature unique to Globe’s Tattoo @ Home service is their Speed Boost “add-on”, which gives you another 1Mbps of bandwidth in either Day, Night, or “Insomniac” hours of the day. These range from PHP 250-100 depending on the plan you’re currently subscribed on and at what time of the day you’ll be using the temporary upgrade. Finally, there’s also the capability to customize plans according to the users’ needs via their Plan Builder here.

Additionally, if you’re here because you’re a Danica Magpantay fan, we’ll just add in some more pictures down below. You can also check out her TV ad for Globe Tattoo @ Home embedded down there too.

When it comes to designer phones, devices haven’t exactly been robust or technologically capable. Brands like Vertu, Tonino Lamborghini, and Ferrari have all been cranking out luxury phones that may have been decent on the design end, but terrible on functionality. LG is set to change that with their third iteration of their Prada phone line – aptly named the Prada phone by LG 3.0. (We’ll call it the LG Prada 3.0 for simplicity’s sake.) The device is actually a pretty decent dual-core smartphone that can stand is own ground against flagships from competing manufacturers – and that’s saying a lot. You’ll also be getting some classic Prada design cues like the Saffiano pattern on the back, metal accents, plus a unique high-contrast black & white Android skin to continue the motif. Its not even that much more expensive either, as the SRP is at a decent PHP 29,990. And just to be completely honest, the design makes it look like guys wouldn’t have a problem buying these for themselves as well.

The LG Prada 3.0

The LG Prada 3.0 is actually, by all intents and purposes, a pretty good flagship “performance” phone if you’re basing on specs alone. It comes with a 1Ghz dual-core processor, 4.3” 800×480 NOVA display (brightest display on phones), 8MP Camera + LED Flash, 1080x30fps video recording, 1.3MP front facing camera, NFC support, and all the usual Android accoutrements. While those specs aren’t necessarily something to call home about, the fact that it’s a Prada phone will. The device is only 8.5mm thick, which makes it as thin as the Samsung Galaxy S II. It also features the Prada trademark Saffiano patten on the back, with embossed logos from Prada and LG adorning it. You’ll also get metal accents in the form of the sides and buttons, as well as a custom high-contrast black & white skin on top of the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS. (Android 4.0 ICS update is planned for 2nd quarter 2012.) You can see more of this design and interface in our preview video below.

While the Prada brand might be aimed more at a premium female market, we don’t see any reason why even guys shouldn’t be able to enjoy this device. It’s classic black styling doesn’t necessarily make it look like its been designed only for sophisticated women to enjoy – and given that it’s a dual-core phone, it could be a great choice for people who are looking for a stylish device that can deliver amazing performance. (See: Android Performance Database for stats on the LG Prada 3.0 – it has the most amount of memory we’ve ever seen on a smartphone, no joke.)

The Prada phone by LG 3.0 will be available at LG Concept Stores in the Philippines for PHP 29,990, with full rollout targeted by this February. There will also be a line of Prada accessories that you can buy for this phone including a Bluetooth headset, wired headphones and a charging/data dock. So check them out at your nearest local LG retailers if you can!

For more pictures of the event, check out our gallery below.

		Prada Phone By LG 3.0 Launch VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Thanks to some family affairs that we had to take care of in Angeles City last week, we were pretty much a stone’s throw away from Clarkfield, Pampanga, where The 17th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta was taking place. On the first day of the festival (Feb 9), we found some time to check it out and take some pictures – a great opportunity to test out some of our review units and cameras. We mostly used our new Olympus E-PL1 micro 4/3 camera for high quality all-around shooting; but we also brought as a backup our trusty Canon PowerShot SX130 IS for its megazoom capabilities, as well as our Nokia N9 review unit. While all three devices hold their own as decent cameras in their own right, the Olympus was by far the most enjoyable to use with its retro styling coupled with DSLR-quality images. Feel free to have a gander at the images it produced in the gallery below. (Some post processing has been done on these including exposure, color correction & cropping – but no touchups.)

The 17th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta In Pictures VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

And here’s a couple of shots from the Nokia N9 and the Canon SX130 just for good measure.

The Nokia N9 (left) is good for those impromptu shots, while the SX130 (right) is great for its long range

Then we took some sample videos with all three representatives – the Olympus E-PL1 comes first, then SX130, then finally the Nokia N9.

And that’s about it for our short visit to the Balloon Festival this year! Maybe we’ll be there again next year to take even more pictures – hopefully with more balloons. (Just a thought.)

Got an iPhone? Chances are you could have used just about the same amount of money in buying yourself one of the rapidly growing forms of transportation in the country – the trusty motorcycle. And not just any kind of motorcycle but Suzuki’s newly launched GD110 – currently the cheapest motorcycle in the Philippines. With a retail price of only PHP 47,900, the new bike effectively brings the price of ownership to a comfortable level below the fifty-grand line. Combined with Suzuki’s environmentally-friendly engine and user-friendly features, the GD110 certainly promises to be a contender for the Philippine’s commuter motorcycle marketplace.

The Suzuki GD110 is powered by a 4-stroke, air-cooled 113cc SOHC engine that is designed with fuel efficiency in mind. (Though there have been no published mileage reports at this time, Suzuki mentioned that it is comparable to both their competitors and their own line of commuter bikes.) This is then paired with 4-speed transmission for less gear-shifting through traffic; and coupled with environmental features like the Suzuki PAIR (Pulsed Secondary Air Injection) system. The body itself is fitted with ease-of-use features for better and simpler handling as well – like the lower seat height designed with Filipinos in mind. Other features include new high visibility meters, indicator lamps, round headlamps and parking indicator lights for safety and better visibility.

What it basically boils down to is mostly the price, and the reliability of the Suzuki branding – for PHP 47,900 this is one good personal transportation machine; add the Suzuki badge there and you got a good guarantee that it’ll be one of the most durable motorcycles you’ll ever own. What’s more, Suzuki is offering replacement parts piece-by-piece (not per assembly), which will pass on even more effective savings when it comes to maintaining your new bike.

The Suzuki GD110 is available now for PHP 47,900 and comes in Pearlescent Black, Metallic Jade Royal Blue, and Metallic Silk Red. So check one out at your nearest Suzuki retailer if you’re so inclined.

If you want to see more of the Suzuki GD110, check out our preview video below. You can also check out more pictures from the event from our gallery below.

		Suzuki GD110 Launch VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

For the past year or so, Nokia has been implementing a screen technology called ClearBlack on their devices – a unique screen filter that is designed to deliver the best viewing experience for its users. From its name alone you can mostly tell what it does – it makes the screen look clear, and black. (Genius, right?) More specifically, the display has been designed to minimalize the amount of outside light reflected by the screen – thus promising improved sunlight legibility and creating some amazing dark blacks in any condition. (Even your indoor lighting can be reflected by regular screens and can ruin the experience.) But what exactly is this magical screen that seems to be able to do what other “Anti-Glare” screens can’t? Well its elementary, my dear Watson!

On the screen itself there are three layers – invisible to the naked eye. These are made up of a polarizing filter, a circular polarizing filter, and a reflective surface. (Polarization, as you may know, is commonly used these days in two consumer products – polarized sunglasses and the circularly-polarized 3D theatre glasses. Both of these are being used in a ClearBlack display.) When outside light comes into your screen, the first polarizing filter turns it into vertically polarized light. Then it hits a circular filter, which turns it into right-circular polarized light. When this gets reflected by the reflecting surface, it “mirrors” and becomes left-circular polarized. This, in turn, becomes horizontally polarized after going back through the same circular filter it came in. Finally, when it hits the vertical polarizer, all of the horizontal light becomes blocked and doesn’t pass through onto your eyes. Simply put, ClearBlack technology is made up of polarizers that were designed to prevent light from reflecting onto a surface and back into your eyes. Clever, eh?

After seeing a couple of Nokia’s ClearBlack products for yourselves – namely the Lumia 800 and the N9 – we’re glad to say the technology has a lot of merit. The screen does fare much better in direct sunlight and should be one of the best possible choices for consumers looking for a device they can use outdoors. This, coupled with the AMOLED technology beneath it, also creates some of the best blacks and colors in the business – making these Nokia products just that much more attractive to the eyes and hopefully, to more consumers.

P.S.: You just got educationalized by theTechnoclast.com!

Source: Nokia Conversations