How Much Rent Should You Expect From Metro Manila’s Most Exclusive Subdivisions?

Wazzup Pilipinas!

If you are looking to rent a house in one of Makati’s exclusive subdivisions or gated communities, expect to pay more—in fact, way more Unless you go to a company who delivers services such as Live in Guardians.

Crunching data from its 80,000-plus property listings, global property website Lamudi Philippines (www.lamudi.com.ph) ranked Metro Manila’s most exclusive enclaves based on the average rent of listed houses.

Leading the pack is the very exclusive Forbes Park—known as the home of business tycoons, ambassadors, and boxing icons—where the average rent stands at Php402,459. As of this writing, there are more than 60 houses for rent in the community, while the average number of bedrooms is 4.3. At 1,637 sqm, Forbes Park also boasts the largest average residential lot size anywhere in Metro Manila.

Coming in second is nearby Dasmariñas Village, where average monthly rents stand at Php276,340, followed by Urdaneta Village at Php269,984, and Bel-Air at Php182,240. The average number of bedrooms of rental houses in these three villages is 4.11, 3.8, and 3.6, respectively.

The posh Ayala Alabang in Muntinlupa City is fifth, where monthly rents average Php174,121. Rental houses in this village are also relatively bigger, with average number of bedrooms of 4.15.

New AMD A-Series Desktop Processors: Smart Choice for Everyday Computing

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AMD, the company whose technology helps power the Microsoft Xbox One and the Sony PlayStation 4, recently introduced the newest addition to its A-Series line of desktop processors. The A8-7670K APU provides a superb experience for Microsoft Windows 10, mainstream workloads, and eSports online gaming.

The A8-7670K is an affordable APU that combines the energy efficient processing power of an AMD CPU with the pixel pushing power of AMD Radeon graphics (GPU) in one convenient package. Users can easily multitask modern workloads and stream video in Windows 10 or mow down their enemies in popular eSports online gaming titles such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Powered by 10 compute cores (4 CPU + 6 GPU) , the A8-7670K APU provides the processing and graphics capability budget conscious mainstream users need today.

“AMD takes great strides to deliver innovative technology that provides the performance and convenience customers need today and tomorrow. The AMD A8-7670K APU is no exception. Our newest APU provides a smooth user experience and is engineered for Windows 10 and eSports online gaming,” said Kevin Lensing, Sr. Director, Client Business Unit at AMD.

“The new addition of the AMD A8-7670K APU allows us to deliver more options for discerning mainstream PC buyers,” said Zack Shutt, Vice President at Xidax. “AMD’s latest driver and feature support allow incredible new entry points for impressive gaming technologies such as FreeSync and Virtual Super Resolution.”

Discovery Channel Features the Badjaos, The Last Free-Diving Nomads, Among The Cultures

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To be featured on Discovery Channel’s The Great Human Odyssey is Anthropologist Dr. Niobe Thompson's journeys around the world to reveal the mysteries of our survival.

How did humans overcome near extinction in an African super-drought and find a place to rebuild? How did we master the Arctic and cross the oceans to populate every corner of the planet? When and how did the Homo sapiens emerge as the world's only global species?

Unlock the mysteries of our very existence as anthropologist Dr. Niobe Thompson reveals groundbreaking scientific research and traces the footsteps of our human ancestors across five continents – including the tip of the Philippine archipelago, Tawi-Tawi – on THE GREAT HUMAN ODYSSEY, premiering August 2, airing Sundays at 8 p.m.

Throughout the three-part series, Dr. Thompson provides a never-before-seen glimpse into our species’ past through expeditions to some of the world’s most remote cultures. With the Philippines being the only area left with an intact freediving culture, the crew of The Great Human Odyssey was motivated to visit the Badjao - the master hunters of the sea floor and the world’s last traditional divers.

What Can Chris Brown Do With His One Million Dollars?

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Grammy Award-winning entertainer Chris Brown is again in the news, and again perhaps not in a way he wants.

Philippine immigration officials have barred the singer-songwriter from leaving the country due to a fraud complaint filed by the influential Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) sect. In the complaint, the INC claims that Brown and his Canadian promoter, John Michael Pio Roda, swindled the sect when it failed to show up for a New Year’s Eve concert in 2014. The INC maintains that Brown and his promoter have been paid in full ($1,006,250, to be exact) for the concert.

Now that all is clear about how much (allegedly) Brown pocketed from a concert he didn’t show up for, Lamudi Philippines has put together a list of luxury properties he can spend his money on while stuck in the Philippines. After all, a million bucks can go a long, long way here.

YouthHack Manila: Back with the 2015 Startup Challenge - Think. Create. Innovate.

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YouthHack Manila was started one year ago with the goal of helping students learn more about startups, technology and entrepreneurship. YouthHack held its first startup challenge last July 12-13, 2014 at the Gates Professional Schools where over 100 high school students got the opportunity to hear from experienced entrepreneurs, go through ideation, prototyping and pitching workshops and pitch their idea to a panel of judges.

YouthHack Founder David Ongchoco shared, “Through our events and programs, we hope to empower students to build their skills, take risks and turn their ideas into reality. It’s my dream that hopefully, the next Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs or Bill Gates success story will come from YouthHack.”

Since starting out with a two-day event last year, YouthHack has expanded its programs to include a Code Weekend and a Fellowship Program that pairs talented high school and university students with fast-growing startups. The first-ever YouthHack Code Weekend was held last July 11 and 12, 2015 in Microsoft Philippines where participants spent over 36 hours building a working prototype of their ideas. YouthHack has also held events and programs in Philadelphia and Singapore.

This July, YouthHack Manila in partnership with Katalyst.ph will be holding the YouthHack Manila Startup Challenge on July 25 and 26 in Xavier School. More than 250 students, including both high school and university students, will gather for an opportunity to learn more about startups and entrepreneurship.

Epson Unveils First-Ever Value-Priced Business Projectors

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Epson, the world’s number one projector maker, is redefining the market for business projectors with its first value-priced WUXGA projectors that deliver superb high-resolution images beyond Full HD video and other graphics-intensive content.

Supporting a Widescreen Ultra Extended Array (WUXGA) resolution of 1,920x1,200 pixels that goes beyond Full HD, the EB-U32 and EB-U04 promise eye-popping images, distortion-free video, plus enhanced color and white brightness of over 3,000 lumens.

The two new projectors are part of value-priced projectors that delivers industry-leading features that many businesses around the world depend on for high quality color projections.

Unlike other 1-chip projectors, Epson projectors are not susceptible to the “rainbow effect” – a limitation of the 1-chip technology that occurs while projecting darker moving images.

That is because all Epson projectors are powered by Epson’s proprietary 3LCD technology that produces vibrant color projections and smooth projections of movies without color breakup. They also deliver up to 3 times higher color brightness and up to 3 times wider color gamut than 1-chip projectors.

Fortinet Brings High Performance Advanced Protection with Two New Appliances

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Fortinet, the global leader in high-performance cybersecurity solutions, announced the launch of the FortiGate 400D and the FortiGate 900D next-generation firewalls (NGFWs). These new appliances further bolster Fortinet’s broad portfolio of integrated security solutions while delivering five times greater NGFW performance than competing products. With the introduction of these two solutions, Fortinet has again made high-performance, cutting-edge cybersecurity more accessible for mid-market and enterprise organizations.

Organizations of all sizes are being targeted by cyber criminals and must defend their critical infrastructures and proprietary data from advanced, highly focused threats more than ever before. Yet, increased bandwidth requirements and network utilization complicate the process, particularly as organizations increase in size and scope. What they need are industry-leading solutions that provide the security effectiveness and features to protect from advanced threats, while delivering the performance and connectivity to future-proof their infrastructures.

Fortinet’s new FortiGate 400D and 900D NGFWs were engineered to deliver high-performance security and specifically tailored to meet the grueling demands of mid-sized and enterprise organizations today and into the future. Leveraging Fortinet’s legendary FortiASIC-accelerated performance, both Appliances utilize Fortinet’s proprietary Network Processor 6 (NP6), providing the FortiGate 400D with throughput performance of 16 Gbps and propelling the FortiGate 900D to speeds of 52 Gbps.

Palami Asks Fans to Take Advantage of Azkals Home Games

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The Philippine national football team is scheduled to play only three more games in the country in the ongoing qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup as the rest of its matches will be held outside the Philippines.

“Let’s take advantage of the hometown matches by watching the Azkals play in person. The Azkals will be playing for the country’s honor. The fans’ support will count a lot,” Team Manager Dan Stephen Palami said.

The next Azkals game is scheduled on September 8 against a tough Uzbekistan squad at the spanking Philippine Sports Stadium in Bocaue, Bulacan. Kickoff time is at 8 p.m.

Palami said playing before a home crowd will be motivating for the Azkals, especially if the players see the all-out support of fans turning up in droves for the games.

“We are fortunate to see our Azkals playing more home games, unlike in the 2011 qualifiers where they had only two home games,” he said. 

Epson Marks 5th Anniversary of Ink Tank System Printers In Southeast Asia With Powerful New Range

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2015 marks a significant milestone in the printing industry: it is the fifth anniversary of the world’s first branded ink tank system printers since they first launched in Southeast Asia. Introduced in 2010 by Epson, the L-Series ink tank system printers have successfully helped businesses and home users enjoy unsurpassed lowest printing costs while the range progressively added and upgraded models with increasing performance and features. To date, over two million Epson ink tank system printers have been sold in Southeast Asia alone.

To celebrate the fifth anniversary and success of the L-Series in Southeast Asia, Epson has refreshed the entire range with six powerful models that bring significant performance improvements to the series. In addition to improved ISO print speeds, the new range includes the L655 flagship model which is the first ink tank system printer with Epson’s advanced PrecisionCore business printing technology, allowing it to achieve high ISO print speeds.

“The Epson L-Series was specially designed for Southeast Asia, and its great success over these past five years affirms its popularity among the over two million customers in the region who have bought it since its launch,” says Epson Southeast Asia’s Managing Director, Toshimitsu Tanaka. “We will continue to improve the L-Series while committing to provide the world’s lowest printing costs it has become famous for,” he concludes.

Building a Business Aligned Security Strategy for Our Organization

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"I am looking at these security solutions because they protect these assets that drives 3 million dollars of revenue for our organization. Can you please approve this." is a much better statement to hear from the IT manager than just saying "Please approve this firewall that we need to buy." The CEO or CFO would know that we are thinking about the business. Remapping your proposal using business lingo is a more effective way to convince management to approve your plans.

The same way that Fortinet does not hard sell their products. They try to understand the situation of the organization so they could pinpoint the actual weakness in the security infrastructure to provide the better solution to their needs or requirements. It's not about quickly offering an equipment that they can buy to address the issues but to understand first the problem like the challenges and specific points that needs protection. There really is a need to see the big picture before a recommendation should be given.

It's basically educating the clients on what are the possible things to do or maximize on their existing infrastructure rather than letting them figure it out on their own and adjust on the product's capabilities and limitations. This allows the clients to get the most appropriate solution from Fortinet.

At an intimate media discussion, experts from Fortinet led by Alvin Rodrigues, Fortinet Marketing Development Director for Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Also present during the discussions where Jeff Castillo, Managing Country Director of Fortinet, Nap Castillo, Regional Pre-Sales Consultant of Fortinet and Rachelle Alcantara, Channel Account Manager of Fortinet.

The event was held at Café 1771 located at Greenbelt 5 in Makati city and attended by select members of the media. A presentation was held while food was being served to everyone. We enjoyed a delightful feast from Café 1771 while questions were being thrown to the Fortinet guys.