Rainy Day Beats and Backup with the Ekowave and Ekopack Luna!

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Ekoteke has two new products tha they're really excited about! Take a look at their Ekopack Luna and Ekowave headphones. They had so much fun with their earphones so they decided to create headphones to add more variety to their sound range. The Ekopack Luna is the first in the Philippines to have a design like that in the country. Please see below for more details of the new Ekogadgets.


Ekotek is serving up double the fun with the Ekopack Luna and Ekowave! Get more out of your day by charging up with the first power bank of its kind in the Philippines. Ride the soundwaves with a pair of headphones that sound and feel great, not just for the ears but also for your pocket! 

Ekopack Luna

The newest Ekopack is sure to brighten your day! With a one-of-a-kind design, it functions as both an LED lamp and a backup for your gadgets. A unique shake feature indicates the charging power left in your Luna and to see it, just give your Ekopack Luna a shake!

With 7500 mAh of power a dual-charging capacity, it'll be sure to keep you (and a friend) going through the day. All encased in a stylish white and chrome case, the Ekopack Luna is functional as it is fashionable.

SPECS:
Capacity: 7500mAh
Input: DC 5V/2A
Output 1: DC5V/1A

SRP: 1199

Ekowave

Ride the sound waves like a pro with the Ekowave! It can take the heat like a pro-headphone with an impedance of 32 Ohms. This means that can you plug the EkoWave in to your favorite mobile gadgets, and even use it with professional audio equipments such as amplifiers and mixers without worrying about blowing it out.

Aside from the built-in comfort cushions around its earpads, EkoWave's equally-comfy headband can be custom fit with its built-in adjuster for anti head-bobbing accidents.

SPECS:
Speaker Size: 40mm
Sensitivity: 102dB±3dB
Impedance: 32Ω
Frequency Response : 20Hz to 20KHZ
Cord Length: Approx. 1.5m
Plug Type: 3.5mm Stereo
Microphone: 6×5.0MM
Sensitivity: -58dB±3dB

SRP: 999

Catch the Ekopack Luna and Ekowave at our kiosks in SM North Edsa the Annex, SM Megamall, SM Pampanga, as well as selected Office Warehouse, Astrovision, and iStudio branches. They're also chillin over at IGIG in Greenhills Promenade. See you there!

Ways to Save Money During Home-Buying

Wazzup Pilipinas!

MyProperty.ph lists ways on how you can save money when buying the home of your dreams

One of the best things that can show how much one has accomplished is by finally purchasing a home. Owning a home speaks volume on one’s accomplishments, and in many ways it can be considered as a status symbol. For many others, it is basking on the security of having a shelter paid for with their hard-earned money. Whatever the reason, most people would definitely want to acquire a home to call their own.

But before going window-shopping, it is absolutely necessary to determine your financial capacity. As a home is probably one of your biggest purchases, every peso saved is a big help. Online real estate marketplace MyProperty.ph has put together a list of ways one can save money during home-buying.

1. Get pre-approved for a housing loan

Getting pre-approved for a housing loan offers plenty of advantages. Once your loan for a new home has been pre-approved, you would know just how much you can afford so you will not be wasting money, effort, and time looking at houses that are not within your budget. Also, a pre-approved mortgage gives you an edge when it comes to competing with other buyers for a home as it gives the seller an assurance of your payment capacity.

2. Go online

To save budget while searching for a good bank, Andy Mañalac, former chairman of the National Real Estate Association of the Philippines and now chief advisor of ThinkInvest, suggests going online. “Not only do you save on travel expenses, but [you] also enjoy the benefit of choosing the bank that can give you the best loan rates and terms,” he said. You can easily Compare Home Loans online from different providers.

Mañalac also advises to try house-hunting and initial selection online; not only is it free, but it’s convenient and easy as well. “Now you can do your initial selection through the different listing platforms, check out the details, and have a bird’s eye view of the surroundings and even a street view of the actual property. You can now also view the actual interiors of the units with a controlled panning of the property photos and videos available,” he stated.

3. Narrow down your choices

Arming yourself with a budget and various information about the available houses for sale will help you narrow down your choices. This means you’re eliminating houses that are not within your budget and not up to your standards, thus saving you from spending your resources on impossible choices.

4. Visit houses area by area

Instead of jumping from one area to another then back to where you’ve previously been, you’ll save money and time if you can concentrate on the available houses in one location first. Getting a map and studying the area helps you plan how you can go about the day. The quicker you get to the destination, the more time you’ll have to inquire about and inspect the property.

5. Schedule as many property viewings as you can in a day

If possible, visit as many houses as you can in a day. This does not mean you have to rush through every house and risk missing out on details that could potentially make you regret settling for your chosen new abode. However, the more houses you see, the closer you are to finding your dream home.

6. Take note of the payment period

It is important to consider how long you will be paying for your mortgage. Depending on your finances, you may choose to pay for your mortgage over a shorter period of time, say 5 years, but this means your monthly mortgage payment will be higher. If you opt to choose a longer loan duration, say 15 or 20 years, that is absolutely fine; you will be paying lower monthly mortgage payments, although the overall cost of the loan will be higher as well. What’s important here to choose a payment scheme that your monthly income can comfortably accommodate.

7. Try to haggle

During the negotiation process, you may try to haggle the price of the house, especially if you found some things that could lower its value, such as outdated fixtures, leaking ceilings, and other elements that need repair or replacement. Be careful not to overhaggle, though; going to extreme lengths, such as fabricating a story, just to get the price down might force the seller to give the house to another buyer who’s offering a higher price.

However, Mañalac warns buyers from being the first to make an offer. Knowing the actual and listed price is important as it will help you determine the lowest price the seller will accept. From there, buyers can start making the counteroffer.

There are many more ways to save money when buying a home. It just takes patience, skills in finding the right one, and knowledge to avoid being a victim of overpricing. It’s also recommended to hire a professional, such as a licensed real estate broker, to help you with buying a home.

Strong Smartphone, Data Traffic Growth in Philippines: Ericsson Mobility Report

Wazzup Pilipinas!

· Strong smartphone subscription and data growth are seen to be driving the telecommunications industry in the Philippines, based on the findings from the latest edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report.

· Mobile subscription penetration is expected to reach close to 130 percent by 2021 after having climbed to 115 percent in 2015. While LTE was around only 5 percent of all mobile subscriptions at the end of 2015, it’s expected to grow close to 70 percent in 2021.

· “By 2021, insights from the Ericsson Mobility Report indicate that the smartphone subscriptions in the country will more than double from close to 40 million in 2015 to around 90 million in 2021,” Sean Gowran, President and Country Manager of Ericsson Philippines and Pacific Islands, shared.

· Mobile broadband (MBB) subscription penetration for the country stood at almost 50 percent in 2015 but will reach more than 120 percent by 2021. “Aside from increasing affordability of smartphones and improvements in broadband coverage that our operators are working on, we think the youth segment of the market is one of the key drivers of mobile broadband growth, as they are more likely to be viewing online videos, using social networking and instant messaging apps on a daily basis,” Gowran said.

· Globally, the Ericsson Mobility Report detailed a dramatic shift in teen viewing habits: use of cellular data for smartphone video grew 127 percent in just 15 months (2014-15). Over a period of four years (2011-15) there has been nearly 50 percent drop in the time teens spend watching TV/video on a TV screen, and in contrast an 85 percent increase in time spent watching TV/video on a smartphone. This, and the fact that the upcoming generation of mobile users are the heaviest consumers of data for smartphone video streaming (Wi-Fi and cellular combined), makes them the most important group for operators to monitor.

· Compared to mobile broadband subscription penetration, the country’s fixed broadband subscription penetration, on the other hand, was just above 10 percent in 2015. “By 2021, however, we see this penetration rate going up to almost 20 percent,” Gowran said.

· When comparing March 2016 and March 2015, average data traffic per user for mobile broadband in Philippines grew close to 30 percent, compared to around 60 percent for Wi-Fi. Gowran stated that “this is tremendous growth and we recommend that service providers consider how to include Wi-Fi as part of their overall strategy.”

· Worldwide, the Ericsson Mobility Report reveals that the Internet of Things (IoT) is set to overtake mobile phones as the largest category of connected device by 2018.

Between 2015 and 2021, the number of IoT connected devices is expected to grow 23 percent annually, of which cellular IoT is forecast to have the highest growth rate. Of the 28 billion total devices that will be connected by 2021, close to 16 billion will be IoT devices.

Gowran revealed that: “IoT is now accelerating as device costs fall and innovative applications emerge. From 2020, commercial deployment of 5G networks will provide additional capabilities that are critical for IoT, such as network slicing and the capacity to connect exponentially more devices than is possible today.”

The Ericsson Mobility Report is one of the leading analyses of mobile data traffic available, providing in-depth measurements from live networks spread around the globe. The report uses these measurements and analysis, together with internal forecasts and other relevant studies, to provide insights into current traffic and market trends in the Networked Society.

The Traffic Exploration Tool, which accompanies the report, can be used to create customized graphs and tables. The information can be filtered by region, subscription, technology, traffic and device type.

The report defines a connected device as a physical object that has an IP stack enabling two-way communication over a network interface.