Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Monday, October 5, 2015

Cetaphil Has A New Baby

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After 68 years of taking care of Filipino skin, Cetaphil brings you a line specifically developed to care of your baby’s normal skin – exactly like how a mother’s loving touch will be. Backed by decades of world-class skincare science, Cetaphil introduces the arrival of Cetaphil Baby to provide the best in skincare that a baby deserves everyday.

Remember that first touch, that first look, and that first smile of your newborn? Cetaphil Baby is your partner through the magical beginnings of motherhood. Because every mother’s touch is filled with care, love, and passion, Cetaphil Baby will care for your little one’s skin just the way a mother does.

The brand comes in a complete skincare line with Gentle Wash & Shampoo, Ultra-moisturizing Bath & Wash, Massage Oil, Daily Lotion, Shampoo and Baby wipes to ensure that a mother’s loving touch is always accompanied by a world-class, trusted product. Designed for easy application, the complete line is paraben-free, free from minerals, gentle on the skin, and mild to cater to every baby with normal skin. .

Cetaphil Baby believes that the bond between a mother and her baby is unbreakable and so should the products that come into their relationship. The long wait for a baby product that extends the mother’s touch is now over, as Cetaphil Baby is now available at leading stores nationwide.

The Largest Philippine Real Estate Developers and Their CAPEX in 2015

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Here’s a rundown of how much the country’s largest property developers are spending in 2015 to finance their projects.

With a gross domestic product (GDP) growing on average 6.2 percent between 2010 and 2014, the Philippines has steadily emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia. Expectedly, local real estate has been one of the large contributors to the country’s GDP growth average.

While the industry had been doing well in the past couple of years on its own, even more vigorous growth in the immediate future is anticipated within. Rapid urbanization coupled with the continued rise of the residential sector have been the key sources of growth for local real estate, and is one of the main reason for several developers’ leading the way for record capital expenditures (CAPEX) in 2015.

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We are always proud to share the news about Filipino brands that have made it mainstream, and thus we are extremely happy that Plush and Play - those adorable fruits and vegetables stuffed toys with their own fun names - are now available for sale at Toy Kingdom of SM Megamall.

Fabien Courteille, a French man at Gawad Kalinga, was thrilled to share with us their product line as we interviewed him for WazzupPilipinas.com. He enumerated some of the many characters that make up the many fruits and vegetables stuffed toys partially handcrafted but whole-heartedly made by mothers at the Gawad Kalinga foundation at GK Enchanted Farm.

His partners, namely Howard Lorenzo, Ainee Idanan, and Coco Castro Cruz, were equally glad to tell their participation in the very first Filipino brand of stuffed toys that are indeed colorful and durable for all ages to play with, or even just display at home or even in the office.

We also interviewed Tony Meloto, the founder of Gawad Kalinga, and has his video message for everyone whom he encourages to support the Plush and Play brand. He said that it's ironic that it takes a French man to make this move in changing the mindset of our people in supporting Filipino brand of toys. We should be giving our kids something truly Filipino-made to play with so that it will eventually cascade to the betterment of both our people and economy. We should all be prioritizing in helping every Filipino endeavor so that we would all benefit from it.

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8Layer Academy visited us on September 3, 2015 to present the winning teams who bagged the 3 top places in the Hack UP competition recently held at the GT Toyota building of the University of the Philippines over the previous weekend.

The winners were from the following very promising apps: "Pulong", "Tara" and "Identinantion" that all had a common theme of "culture." These apps were designed to highlight related ways to bring the people closer to the Philippine culture as they respectively tackle the somewhat negative "Filipino time" culture and how to sort of address it by making people more aware of their current location during a call for a meeting, a more innovative way to gather people for culture-related events, and another app that seeks to bridge the gap to how little or wrong we know of the Philippine culture.

These young minds all seek to provide answers to the problems of society through this hackathon, and many more of its other runs at different venues all targeting the youth specifically college students.

I'm still waiting for their official press release so I can help share to you their accomplishments but I'm just too excited to share this already. These kind of news are the ones that we really need to support as they help build a more constructive hobby or past time for the youth. What could be better than spending your time and talent thinking of ways to improve the nation.

Mercato Centrale is Now Even Better at its New Location

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We interviewed co-founder RJ Ledesma, the man who wears many hats, and tried out the equally many dishes available at the new spot of the always festive Mercato Centrale that is now located at 25th street corner 5th avenue of Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. Here you'll see the "Between the Lines" astronaut mural created by the art duo Cyrcle from Los Angeles. The mural is actually more popularly known as "The Spaceman."

The new location is just opposite The Forum building where some restaurants are also located but I guess they may now have something to fear every Friday and Saturday, 6pm-‐3am, as Mercato Centrale offers so much with very affordable prices to boast. You'll be able to buy a meal here for only an average of Php 100 only, with quality that is comparable to other dishes served at top restaurants.

RJ Ledesma mentions some of his highly recommended brands in the video interview and encourages everyone to check all the others as they truly offer excellent choices.

In my case, I've got to try five dishes from the food stalls offering churros (Don Churro), cheesesteak (Ultimate Cheesesteak), Garlic Chicken rice meal (Edgy's Food Trip), layered crepe (Cakes by K ) and lasagna (Chicago Pizza). There was a Php 100 food coupon from Auntie May's that says it's good for the next visit, but the owner, Auntie May herself, gave the blessing to serve it to me already and even allowed me to not pay additional because the Angus Beef Salpicao dish was worth more than Php 100. Also, another coupon from JD's Takoyaki bought me 4 pieces of the yummy street food.

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Now making their presence felt in the Philippines is a new product that will change the way you eat bread. The product comes with different fillings but the outside appearance all look the same except for the colors of the Japanese writings in the wrapping.

The Hattendo Japanese Chilled Creams Buns were sort of weird at first touch because I was totally surprised it was cold, or as they say "chilled." I'm not really used to having cold buns for snacks, but I gave it a try. Why not? I asked myself. This was my first time to try something like this but definitely liked the product at my very first bite.

It was actually on display at an event that I attended on August 27, 2015 so the curiosity within me stepped in to inquire about the product from always want to try something new. Thus I immediately approached the lady who was attending to the Hattendo booth. There I found out from her that it was free for tasting, and she asked me to get one that I like. I asked for a recommendation on which flavor was the best and she gave me three choices. I chose the Custard flavor, and gladly can say I enjoyed it up to the last bite.

I found myself coming back to ask for more because I wanted to try out the other flavors like Matcha, Azuki Bean and many others, and luckily got to eat my second piece of Hattendo Japanese chilled cream bun that day, of which eventually they approached me and said that they will give me a few more in exchange of a blog review. They probably realized I liked it so much so they're giving me a great chance to splurge on the product. I agreed because that's great news that will also give me the opportunity to share it with my wife and kids.

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You friendly neighborhood Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas was invited at the media and VIP event of the PhilBike Expo 2015 event for its opening ceremonies and press conference plus the biking stunts exhibition of the three cycling superstars who visited the Philippines event from Spain, France and Italy, namely Viki Gomez, Matthias Dandois, and Vittorio Brumotti.

The PhilBike Expo is the country’s first and largest trade and consumer show dedicated to the promotion and development of cycling. Top and up-and-coming bicycle and sports brands put their best and latest wares on display and testing for the ever-growing local riding community. An indoor MTB track and BMX street park was also available for both play and competitions.

We took a special video coverage of almost everything so you could also see what went on during the first day of the event that was not yet open to the public. Sadly, I missed out on Vittorio's exhibition as it was scheduled far later in the afternoon of the same day. I actually waited for his turn but unfortunately I was waiting at the wrong end of the SMX halls. I thought he will also be doing his stunts at the same platform where BMX Bikers Matthias and Viki performed noontime.

Below are the videos I took of the event, plus interviews with two of the cyclist. Photo ops with the three cycling superstars are also here, plus photo coverage within the videos to be uploaded soon at our official Facebook page. Check out more videos at our YouTube channel.

Also here are the profile of the two cyclist as per official press release of the organizers.

WD Makes Cloud Storage More Personal (And Private)

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WD, a Western Digital company, and a worldwide leader in storage solutions, today introduced significant enhancements to WD’s family of My Cloud® personal storage devices, including a new, redesigned My Cloud OS 3 operating system, Software Developer Kit (SDK) enabling enhanced app integration and a dual-drive My Cloud Mirror personal cloud storage offering increased memory and faster processing performance than previous generations.

WD’s My Cloud OS 3 features an intuitive user interface delivering a rich content-sharing experience, and back-up and sync capabilities that elevate the personal cloud NAS offering while retaining the privacy and control unique to personal cloud devices physically located in the home or office.

“We know our personal cloud customers place the highest value on their personal content and enjoy the peace of mind from backing up PCs, smart phones and tablets to and centralizing content on their My Cloud systems,” said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of Content Solutions business at WD. “They tell us they are confident in the privacy, control and anywhere access we provide them with the My Cloud OS. Now, with My Cloud OS 3, we’ve made users’ management of their digital lives easier than ever before.”

My Cloud OS 3 features new photo and video capabilities. MyCloud.com provides users global access to their My Cloud via an intuitive web browser-based user interface and enables file collaboration, comprehensive access management and a photos and videos gallery view.

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In partnership with global entertainment industry powerhouse Twentieth Century Fox Film “The Martian”, AOC, a global-leader in display technology, we may soon be winning great prizes. With the company's first product placement in a major Hollywood film, AOC has become the official monitor partner of "The Martian," the highly-anticipated sci-fi adventure from master director Ridley Scott.

AOC supports the spirit of technological discovery and exploration. To celebrate this, AOC has just announced a Facebook campaign which welcomes participants from countries across the Asia Pacific. Participants can win limited edition The Martian merchandise. But the Grand Prize is a free trip for 2 to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

The Grand Prize includes a return flight from the winner's country, 4-day car rental; 3 night accommodation at a luxury hotel in Orlando, Florida, USA; Exclusive Two-Day Space Adventure at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex; Full-day admission to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Lunch with an astronaut, and more.

AOC Unveils New Ultra Slim Monitor with Narrow Bezel to Celebrate Theatrical Release of The Martian

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AOC, a global-leader in display technology, has partnered with a powerhouse in the global entertainment industry – Twentieth Century Fox. With the company's first product placement in a major Hollywood film, AOC has become the official monitor partner of "The Martian," the highly-anticipated sci-fi adventure from master director Ridley Scott, in cinemas globally starting September 30.

The Martian is about an astronaut that was stranded in Mars. During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible, rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return. Based on a best-selling novel, and helmed by master director Ridley Scott, The Martian features a star-studded cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Michael Pena, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Donald Glover. The Martian was released globally in cinemas on September 30.

In line with the themes of "The Martian”, AOC supports the spirit of technological discovery and exploration. To celebrate the movie release, AOC has unveiled a new ultra slim monitor with narrow bezel featuring cutting edge technology, the 27" AOC I2769VM display.

Attractive ultra slim and narrow bezel design

AOC’s I2769VM has a sleek, ultra-slim design with an appearance of narrow bezels. With ultra-slim design, the display takes up no unnecessary space, adds style to any setting and encourages end-users to focus on what is on screen. And the 2mm ultra-narrow bezels for a virtually borderless appearance are ideally suited for use in dual monitor or multiple monitor setups. The display features solid panel that ensures no trails, puddling or flashing from touching the screen.

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Fujitsu Philippines Inc., a leading Information Technology (IT) systems integrator and solutions provider in the Philippines, recently launched its new office in Sta. Rosa, Laguna to strengthen its operations in the region.

According to FPI president Raul “Cricket” Santiago III, the Laguna office will serve as the consultation office for its more than 75 customers in the South, bringing the company’s products and services closer to them.

“With the new office in place, our customers no longer need to waste their time in travel. Now, our workforce can address our customers’ I.T. woes faster and more efficiently,” Santiago said.

The office is designed as a “hot desk” where employees can use different work stations during shifting time periods. This means that no permanent seats are provided for each employee. This is intended to encourage more customer interface outside the offices.

“Our employees are expected to work outside the office, usually where their clients are. For closed door meetings and other consultations, they can invite the customers here and discuss important matters,” Santiago added.

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Twitter today announced a partnership with leading television network ABS-CBN and McDonald’s through Twitter Amplify, a sponsorship package that allows the global foodservice retailer to extend its brand presence and reach targeted audiences following the UAAP Cheerdance Championship in the Philippines on October 3, 2015.

The first Twitter Amplify deal of its kind in the region, starting tomorrow ABS-CBN will tweet live content, including videos of the cheerleading action from the annual competition which McDonald’s @McDo_PH, will be running a series of Promoted Tweets against, supported by Twitter’s Auto Amplify. Apart from being at the live event, students from the eight competing universities cheering for their teams can watch the competition on television, follow #UAAPCDC2015 conversations on Twitter and tweet #McDoBonFries for a chance to win free fries for their school.

Twitter Amplify enables media organizations and brands to capture the excitement on television and distribute it to audiences across Twitter, far beyond their existing followers, even across the globe. Audiences can immediately relive that moment or experience it for the first time on their mobile phones while they engage in Twitter conversations.

“We are pleased to have ABS-CBN and McDonald’s come on board as our first Twitter Amplify partners in Southeast Asia, paving the way for development in the region,” says Marie Sornin, Head of International Development, Content Partnerships and Twitter Amplify. “This Twitter Amplify partnership in support of the cheerdance championship is an excellent opportunity to connect with the youth of Philippines through creative and premium video content.”

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The PhilBike Expo, the country’s first and largest trade and consumer show dedicated to the promotion and development of cycling, is all systems go for its second annual run this 2015. The expo offers trade participants and media exclusive access on Oct. 2, and welcomes the public from Oct. 3 to 4 at the SMX Convention Center, Halls 2 – 4.

Organized by Phil-Bike Convention, Inc., the PhilBike Expo this year is expected to surpass its crowd count of 10,000 at its inaugural two-day show last 2014 at the World Trade Center. To make this feat possible, organizers are flying in three of the sport’s biggest superstars: Vittorio Brumotti of Italy, Spaniard Viki Gómez, and Matthias Dandois of France for breathtaking demos and workshops with local biking enthusiasts.

Gómez and Dandois are also slated to judge the National BMX Freestyle Championships – advanced category during the three-day affair. Sanctioned by the Asian Extreme Sports Federation of the Philippines, the competition offers local bikers the chance to represent the country in international meets.

Other events include: MANILA FIXED GEAR Harabas Criterium; Mountain Bike Time Trial and Tricks; Pinoy Mt. Biker Rat Race; Fastest Fold; and a bike clinic hosted by the National Bicycle Organization. Cash prizes and special items await contest winners.

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Globe Telecom, Inc. signed a 10-year P5 Billion and 7-year US$45 Million term loan with Metrobank. The loans shall be used to finance Globe's capital expenditures.

“This new loan facility from Metrobank will help us address the demands of our customers in their continuing shift to a digital lifestyle. Globe is committed to invest in additional network capacities to handle the robust growth in data traffic from our customers“, said Alberto de Larrazabal, Globe Chief Financial Officer.

Globe invested about P11.4 Billion in capital expenditures in the first half of 2015. Bulk of the investment was allocated for data-related projects, including investments for the company’s broadband network, capacities for wireless data, LTE, and domestic and international transmission facilities.

Globe Telecom, Inc. closed the first half of 2015 with record-level consolidated service revenues of P53.8 Billion, 13% higher than the P47.7 Billion reported a year ago, on the strength of robust revenue gains on mobile data and broadband, as more customers adopt a digital lifestyle. On a sequential basis, Globe posted its highest ever consolidated service revenues of P27.6 Billion for the second quarter of the year, outpacing both the record-level revenues in the seasonally strong fourth quarter of 2014 of P26.3 Billion and last quarter’s P26.2 Billion by 5%.

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Power Mac Center, the premier Apple partner in the Philippines, takes its customers to a new adventure as it partners with the country’s most prestigious travel rewards program for the PAL Mabuhay Miles - Power Mac Center’s “Adventure Awaits.”

“This partnership is important for PAL because it will allow us to tap into Power Mac Center’s market. Since we have the same brand profile, this will allow us to reach their customers and engage them,” said PAL’s Asst. VP - Loyalty Program, Marietta Casanova.

From October 1 to November 15, Power Mac Center customers who are PAL Mabuhay Miles members with a minimum purchase of ₱80,000 in a single transaction receipt will get 10,000 Mabuhay Miles. And if a single purchase transaction fetches more than ₱120,000, customers get double the miles or 20,000 Mabuhay Miles.

“Our latest promotion aims to reward customers of Power Mac Center with the chance to enjoy their Apple devices while traveling with the country’s premier flag carrier, Philippine Airlines,” said Power Mac Center Marketing Director, Joey Alvarez.