Galaxy Note II Promo from Globe and Smart

You can avail of the Samsung Galaxy Note II from Globe which comes with a Plan 999 contract locked for 2 years, and additional P700 per month. In total that's *1699 per month you will be paying to get this promo.

Globe's Plan 999 includes

• Unlimited mobile surfing for 24 months
• 200 SMS and 10 minutes of calls to Globe/TM

*P16,800 cashout at Plan 999 is payable at 0% 24 months installment payment via credit card.
I wonder if there's any discount if you use cash instead of credit card.

Here's the link to the Globe promo.

Smart is also offering Note 2 in their plan 2000. Samsung will enjoy the sales while the Philippines wait for the arrival of iPhone 5 which is said to be released soon.

Galaxy Note II Specifications:

BODY	Dimensions	151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4 mm (5.95 x 3.17 x 0.37 in)
	Weight	183 g (6.46 oz)
		- Touch-sensitive controls - S Pen stylus

DISPLAY	Type		Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size		720 x 1280 pixels, 5.5 inches (~267 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch		Yes
	Protection		Corning Gorilla Glass 2
MEMORY		Card slot		microSD, up to 64 GB
		Internal		16/32/64 GB storage, 2 GB RAM

DATA	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, LE, EDR
	NFC	Yes
	USB	Yes, microUSB (MHL) v2.0, USB Host support

CAMERA	Primary	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization
	Video	Yes, 1080p@30fps
	Secondary	Yes, 1.9 MP

FEATURES	OS	Android OS, v4.1.1 (Jelly Bean)
	Chipset	Exynos 4412 Quad
	CPU	Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A9
	GPU	Mali-400MP
	Sensors	Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
	Browser	HTML5
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Titanium Gray, Marble White

BATTERY		Standard battery, Li-Ion 3100 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 980 h (2G) / Up to 890 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 35 h (2G) / Up to 16 h (3G)

Ice Cream Sandwich Beta for Xperia Arc S is here!

Sony has released the beta version of ICS for 2011 Xperia phones: Arc S,  Neo V, and Ray. Yey! My phone is included in the list! This build is a big leap from alpha version of the rom released last December because many features are now working. However, note that is is not yet an official release; it's still in beta so expect to see problems. As reported, Wifi and Bluetooth don't work, but there is a workaround. Google Apps like GMail, Maps, etc are not included, but there's also a workaround for this.

Watch the demo in Youtube.

Instructions are found here and I can't wait to try it on my phone. Sony recommends it only to experienced developers with extensive knowledge on flashing roms so try it at your own risk.  I'm new to flashing roms, and I'm a bit afraid I'll brick my phone. If I do muster the courage to update my Arc S, I'll post the detailed steps here in my blog.

More information at XDA Forum:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1513090

Android 4.33 peso Apps for 10 Days to celebrate 10B Downloads

In celebration of surpassing the 10 Billion downloads in Android Market, Google is offering handpicked premium apps for 10 cents a piece! Yes, that's 4.33 pesos! Not sure though how much will my credit card charge for the transaction fee (I hope it's free).

This is my first time to buy Android apps, and the process is dead-simple. If you've already used your Google account to buy something, like in my case I bought this domain name mvergel.com using Google Apps, you don't have to enter your credit card details again. This is a very convenient / a bit scary thing if you ask me.

I bought 2 premium apps yesterday for 4.33 Pesos each: Autodesk SketchBook (an excellent drawing app) and Paper Camera (for fun). Today they're offering a new set of apps; a bit less interesting than yesterday's list but still I purchased one: Christmas HD live wallpaper, and it's good.

Wish I could've downloaded the Swiftkey Keyboard app yesteday, darn. If only I knew that they'll be replacing the offered apps everyday.

To see the excitingl list, just open the Market app and click tile where it says 90% Off. :Enjoy! :-)

[update] Added the list of apps for each day


Dec 7, 2011

1. Asphalt 6 HD
2. Color & Draw for Kids
3. Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro
4. Fieldrunners HD
5. Great Little War Game
6. Minecraft
7. Paper Camera
8. Sketchbook Mobile
9. Soundhound Infinity
10. SwiftKey X

Dec 8, 2011

1. Fruit Ninja
2. BB Bedtime Battle
3. AirSync
4. Flick Golf!
5. Start Chart
6. Reckless Racing
7. Reckless Racing (XPeria Play Optimized)
8. Christmas HD (Live wallpaper)
9. Beautiful Widgets
10. Read It Later Pro