Shynk File Manager: Hassle Free File Management

I have always had to connect my phone's cable to my laptop or setup bluetooth to get to share files and documents. At one point I felt that it would be a wonderful thing to get to do all those wirelessly and even remotely, without the need for me to be physically with my gadget say tablet or phone. This would be such an invaluable tool when it comes to meetings and sharing of files between me and my friends. That's when I discovered Shynk File Manager.

Shynk File Manager is now available in the Google Store for android and it does exactly what I wished a sync application would. All I had to do was download their application on my android and go to their website and viola my phone's data is now visible in my computer wirelessly, not to mention securely. I have access to everything from what is in my SD card to the root programs of my unit(currently am using HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy Y). Based on Google Play the program is free for download and is compatible with all unit types.

As of this writing only 100+ people have heard of this application, but with a software as user friendly and practically easy to use am sure it'll kick up pretty soon. This is truly one application that does exactly what it says it will do and no ads to bother the users.

Shynk File Manager is a Definite Application Must Have for all the users that constantly need to share documents, files, etc from your Tablet or Smartphone.

Firefox 14 for Android

Firefox has just released its updated and fully functional Web Browser to the Android Community and if you were a fan of the old Dolphin HD Browsers you might want to take its competitor for a bit of a spin as it may make you want to switch.

With a lot of features promised, one of the things they have emphasized is that you'll find that browsing speed has greatly improved across the board. Mozilla has claimed that the whole interface has been significantly improved and sped up, so zooming, panning, and launching the browser should be all a lot quicker and smoother. Based on the benchmark tools, Mozilla has claimed to be 2x times faster than the stock Android Browser.

Aside from speed, they have built in a lot of syncing options - Mozilla calls it the "awesome screen" which displays all of your bookmarks, history, and password/form data to your Android phone. Unlike Chrome, Firefox for Android supports flash.

For those of us moving towards the newer web technologies, there are also a number of HTML5 capabilities on the Firefox for Android and is much more stable compared to the beta version of Firefox.

For the Android Tablet Users you might have to standby for a bit as your device shall be next on their list.

Here is a summary of what the New Firefox for Android has to offer:


SPEED


Get to the Web and find what you’re looking for fast.

SYNC
Access your desktop browser history, bookmarks, passwords and tabs from any device.

ADVANCED SECURITY
Control your privacy, security and how much data you share on the Web

AWESOME SCREEN
Browse your favorite sites with minimal or no typing.

ADD-ONS
Customize your browser just the way you like it.

For a complete list of features, check out http://mozilla.org/mobile/features/.

Have questions or need help? Visit http://support.mozilla.org/mobile.

The Firefox browser works on most Android devices. See if it works on yours:http://www.mozilla.org/mobile/platforms/

Want to know more about the permissions Firefox requests?http://mzl.la/FirefoxPermissions

Till the Next time...

Flipboard - Fully Intergrated Social News Medium

I was going around through the internet highway looking for news and realized that I had to open several applications to get news from friends via twitter and facebook and then go through other application for news both local and abroad. I then had to go through different applications for my favorite lifestyle topics, another for recipes, and so on... It was quite taxing to go to one application and then the next, irregardless of being able to save all of them in a particular folder. I though could there be an application that is out now in the Android and IOS market that I can use which incorporates all of my Social News and Other Info Medium? I eventually came across several recommendations such as the use of Pulse News and TED which in more ways than one answered my needs. But I had to admit, the way things were layed out wasn't eye catching found myself back to my old habits of going through each application instead of using those mentioned above. It wasn't until after a few months after that I found out of an application that arranged news in such a way that resembles the Live Tiles of MS Windows 7.5 and 8 Phones - Flipboard.

I was a bit skeptical at first, cause of my experience with the other two applications that tried to answer my need for all sorts of news and information from several different mediums. Flipboard, once I had started setting it up initially, gave me a natural feeling to technology. The setup was smooth and easy, no boring advertisements, no need to sign up for anything, no unnecessary advertisement, just news and the way I wanted it. Tiled conveniently and what was even more delightful to find out was that it was so easy to arrange each news tile according to what you feel is suitable for you with just the same way one would arrange icons on their smartphones - hold and drag to desired position. You can even "x" the tiles you dont want or seemingly dont need.

Initially one would be given an opportunity to pick the top categories of the topics you would want preloaded in your flipboard(name most likely comes from the fact that you flip through the stories like an actual flipboard, but in this case digital style). You also have the power to search for other contents and news providers and/or encode the rss feed of your favorite news topic source and viola - its in your flipboard.

Here is a summary of what they have to offer based on what the developers of Flipboard

Accolades:
- Webby Award Winner in News and Social categories, as well as People’s Voice Award (2011, 2012)
- WIRED magazine Essential App (2011)
- TechCrunch Cruchies—Best Touch Interface (2011)
- Gannett Foundation Award for Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism (2011)
- TIME Magazine 50 Best Inventions (2010)

Highlights:

★ Be amazed by what you see when everything people are sharing, collecting and publishing in every moment comes together in a single place.

★ Search for anything—people, topics, hashtags, blogs, your favorite sites—and flip through articles, updates, photos and videos in a beautiful magazine format.

★ Connect Flipboard to 12 social networks, streamlining your reading and activities like commenting, liking and sharing. Services include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, Google Reader, LinkedIn, Flickr, 500px, Sina Weibo and Renren.

★ Get a quick dose of what’s happening now, in Cover Stories, a constantly updated selection of articles, photos and videos shared by your friends.

★ Save anything to read later using Instapaper, Pocket and Readability.

★ Create a Flipboard account to access your favorite content and social networks on different or shared devices.

★ Enjoy Flipboard in 14 localized editions—for Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan, U.S. and U.K.

★ Explore hundreds of staff picks in the Content Guide, including must-read magazines and blogs, gorgeous photography and special curated sections devoted to the news of the day and other topics of interest.

★ Access Flipboard quickly through the widget.

Connect with us: Visit us at http://www.flipboard.com or email us at support@flipboard.com. Follow us at @flipboard on Twitter or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/flipboard.

WIth all that said, one can only truly understand the beauty of the application unless you get hands on experience with it. You can download flipboard in both apple store (availbale for iphone and ipad) and for Android under the play.google.com application and site. Its free for all to download with no hooks added. 

For android here is the link to Flipboard

Till the next time...

Amazing Bangkok: Day 1

I have just gotten back from our Bangkok trip and am still living the memories of each day in my head. I was blown away from the moment i stepped off the plane and headed into their airport. I also noticed that even though a lot of them dont speak english, there are many that would go out of their way to help you out and get you to where you are going or to simply make you feel right at home.

Today I'll highlight the details of our First Days' Experience in Bangkok from the Airport, The Hotel we chose and the first visit to the mall area Siam Paragon. Also, Highlighted will be the eating and food experience along the way. Let the story of my Bangkok Trip begin, picture by picture. (all photos taken using HTC One X)

The Suvarnabhumi Airport was amazing. From the Design Details to the quality of service. It felt like I was in a futuristic setting but with the color and culture that was uniquely Thai.

Traveling can be tiring and with the moving walkways in their airport, gives you a moment to catch your breath, while it tours you across the majestic Suvarnabhumi Airport

From Inside and out I was amazed at how artistically designed the airport was. Far from most Squared Out Airport Structures, Suvarnabhumi was quite an architectural treat.

I had a harder time going through the immigration in the Philippines as the officer on our end had a lot of questions where she asked for my company ID, Travel Tickets, my old passport etc. In the Thailand side though immigration was a breeze, as all they did was look at my passport, and simply welcomed me to Thailand. 

There were lots of options in terms of mode of transportation from the airport to your hotel. You can choose the regular metered taxi, taxi fixed service, or if you are a bit more adventurous if not already accustomed to the locale - the Bangkok Train Station BTS. 

We took a metered cab(colorful selection of cabs - purple, green, etc) that brought us to where we had to go, in this case our hotel Inn Saladaeng. One should be careful though as sometimes the cabs tend to take the longer sorta scenic route thus enabling them to charge you more than what you would have ended up paying for. English is not a common language thus I strongly recommend to bring a dictionary with you, preferably an electronic one for less hassles(I have google translate on my HTC One X). I also used the application Navigator by MapFactor, this works on most of the android devices, to guide us through and was quite a life saver whenever we did find ourselves lost in the Metro. Just make sure that you download the application and the necessary maps prior to leaving for your vacation.  

Once we arrived at our hotel, Inn Saladaeng in Saladaeng Street, we were greeted by a very friendly lobby staff who spoke decent english. I was forewarned prior to leaving for bangkok that only very few people would be able to speak and understand english but thankfully this cute and quaint boutique hotel was able to do so quite well and even helped us set our itinerary for the whole trip advising us on what would be the most convenient modes of transportation and their rates along with updates on events that we might be interested in participating or visiting. 

The cute boutique setting of Inn Saladaeng 

Our Room was just at cute and neat. They even provided Free Wireless Service which was conveniently fast along with daily complimentary water.

It was quite a peculiar sight for me to see how almost every home was connected to satellite TV as opposed to the former cable technology. 

We had a nice view out side our room. The neighborhood was quiet and everyone around the area was quite friendly and helpful. Just be mindful though of pick pockets, the locals are pretty adamant at warning everyone about them.

 Inn Saladaeng was conveniently located beside the BTS, Bangkok's Metro Train system, making traveling around bangkok convenient and fun. We also found that unlike most Metro Train Systems, The BTS wasn't congested with people, advertising along the train station, though quite numerous, was very pleasant to the eye and seemingly had a standardization and was quite neatly presented.

Having fun prior to boarding the train. One had to make sure you have change, as the prepaid tickets are to be purchased over a ticketing machine and it only accepted 10 and 5 Baht coins.

In the train one can see these digital representation of where you are and what direction that train was going. It also included the map of the entire train system and their stops, making it convenient for anyone that takes the BTS.

 Our first stop was at the Siam Paragon Mall where an Ocean park was also located. The first thing we did once we got there was to eat as we were famished from our trip. To be honest the entire highlight of our trip was more of the food and we really dug in.

Pad Thai taste so different and a lot more richer in it's country of origin. Nothing like any Pad Thai I have had in the Philippines. Mango Tree in the Philippines would probably be the closest. 

I dont remember most of the names of the food we ate but this is just some of the few that made an impression. Tom Yum Soup was the right kind of spicy and savoury to taste. Be warned, most of the Thai Cuisine involves a lot of spice. 

The Food Court system was quite a unique experience for me. One had to purchase a Food Prepaid Card then use the card to pay for the Food here in the Siam Paragon Food Hall. If any money was left one was to go back to the Food Card Counter and get a refund. Convenient or not, this was quite fun and reminded me of former school cafeteria days.

DURIAN - Need I say more? The way they picked their fruits prior to giving to their customers in the Siam Paragon Gourmet Market was quite impressive. They had to go through so many and sniff and check if the fruits not only durian were upto international marketing standards before it was wrapped like this and handed over to us. 

The Thai Lanzones was nothing like I've ever tasted here in Manila. The sweetness was amazing, plus it was near seedless and had more of its fruity fleshy goodness for us to consume

They had little aquariums in the Siam Paragon Food Hall that served both as eye candy for the diners while  being a marketing teaser for what one would expect of the Ocean park Museum at the basement of the massive mall.

The Thai has a gift of graphic, and love color to the point of putting it in every place they can imagine.

One wouldn't find the need to look for a Starbucks or CBTL in Bangkok as there are so many others around that were both beautiful and elegant but quite affordable and tasty. 

I was impressed on how active and creative the Thai are when it comes to advertising and design. Who would have thought of putting an Big Ass LED Screen right beside a coffee hang out. 

I noticed all throughout my stay in Bangkok, that they have learned to live with nature in a beautiful symbiosis. From the moment you step off the airport all the way into their malls, you'll notice how they have incorporated the essence of nature into every architecture they put out. 

I loved the way this Mall was layed out. Each floor was for a particular industry or product category, making it easy for the consumers to find what they want or need without having to go around it lost and dazed. One though has to take note that each floor has a massive selection of brands and items to choose from.

As mentioned in my earlier description, the Thai people really love incorporating a lot of graphic art and color into everything they do and make. It makes shopping fun and pleasant.

Fortunate for us we were able to catch an actual MTV Thai Event in Siam Mall. They really layed out the set well. Simple but elegant.

After our mall adventure we decided to head home. As earlier mentioned, it was so easy to go from the Siam Paragon Mall and back because of the BTS line. One just has to get accustomed with the way the train system is layed out, which wasn't hard at all. The guards were very helpful and informative. 

This is the view of Saladaeng Street right as we turn from the BTS line. I love how  the vendors make an effort to keep the street clean. Not only do the shop owners participate in keeping the place clean, but so do the street vendors. 

Taking another break from our long day in the front porch area of Inn Saladaeng. The Orange juice was from a street vendor just beside our hotel. I noticed though that they love putting salt in most of their food including fruit juices. It was strange but tasty.

Durian is best eaten outside as to not make our room smelly. 

The lobby of Inn Saladaeng was very quaint and homey. We felt very at home here from day one.

Every establishment had a shrine similar to this. One shouldn't be surprised by them as the country is predominantly Buddhist. They are required to give 3 months of their lives as a monk here in Thailand. This is the reason why they are quite humble as a culture.

This concludes Day 1 of our Bangkok Adventure. More to follow.

Till then....

Macbook Air 11" Intel Core i5 Real Life Review

I am not a newbie to the Mac Software and Units, as one of my old units was the 13 inch macbook pro 2006 edition. I was fairly happy with the performance of Mac OS Prior to the OS X, and have found that they are quite more responsive and hardly any lag with any of the programs installed. Formerly being a Windows user one, I had initially been fearful of that difficulty of the transition from Windows to Mac. Surprisingly, upon initial usage, I found that the Mac OS was quite user friendly and a lot of the functionalities in windows were still present with better fluidity.

With all that being said, with my old macbook retiring out, I had made the option to purchase the new MacBook Air 11" Intel Core i5 unit. Powered by the new Mac OSX (will be upgrading to the new Mountain Lion OS later in the year), I have to say am quite impressed. I haven't used any unit prior to this one that has worked so hard and so smoothly considering the size of the unit. On first glance, especially in the leatherette sleeve I have got for it, one would think of it as a piece of document and not a computer. With 128 GB of storage space and 4 gb of ddr3 ram inside I have had no trouble with storing documents nor playing taxing 3d games. The MacBook Air also charges up pretty quickly and in between charges lasts me roughly about 5 - 7 hours depending on type of usage, generally I hit the 5 hour ranges due to heavy usage such as youtube video, facebook chatting, blogging, data searching, etc... The power cable also is easy to carry as it is much smaller that the old bulky charger I used to have with my MacBook 13".

Because of the new OSX installed in this mini power house, gestures on the track pad was easy to learn and more intuitive to navigate. It basically follows that gesture patterns of what one would be using with the IOS 5 of the iPad and iPhone. This will be even more evident once we have migrated our system over to that of the Mountain Lion.

Over the period of 5 months of usage now, the overall usage and usability has been above par with any of the units I have handled and can even rival that of his bigger brothers (MacBook Air 13" and the MacBook Pro), I can say with confidence that this is a worthy machine for online workers such as myself especially those that are constantly on the go. Easy to carry just like it's touch screen Apple Brothers and yet with the power house of any desktop, I couldn't have asked for a better business travel companion.

Does it come cheap? I guess that is where one would have to find debate, but current market values of this unit is becoming quite competitive against its windows competitors, none of them have come close though to the technological ingenuity that this unit has provided. If you have a choice and want a unit that you know won't get easily replaced after a year, I'd say go for the MacBook Air. As to what size is I guess a personal preference.

For more info on the MacBook Air Line simply go to the Apple Store webpage or follow this link: MacBook Air

Till the next time...

****Updates on the Macbook Air - The new and updated Macbook Air Products including that of the its brothers the Macbook Pro have had an upgrade in terms of hardware.  It has now gotten faster in terms of computing and processor speed and the allowed ram has been increase to double of what it had before.  Cool thing is Price hasn't changed - if you have more budget to spend, you can even get your Macbook Air to go from 1.7Ghz to 2.0 Ghz and even have an increased SD Storage which was previously only at 128 GB. Everything else remains the same. Don't fret though if you were able to buy the previous version which carries the 1.6Ghz Core i5 Version as that is still quite awesome, heck am one of those people too. Just waiting to see if Apple will allow Turbo Boost with the older units as Intel has it already built in.

Check out the new specs below:

Till the next update.

Xian's Las Haciendas Adventure

Last weekend we decided to go on a Las Haciendas hike trip with an unlikely hiker of our family, Xian our white Pekingese Dog. Las Haciendas is located in Batangas, near Tanauan City, roughly about 2 hours drive away from Metro Manila Via SLEX. All of the pictures here were taken using my HTC One X.

Meet Xian our Hiking Pekingese - Though Admittedly he had to be in his doggy back in some parts of the hike to avoid the hassles of the river crossing.

From Makati City we took the Skyway along Buendia, you would have to keep your eye out for the exit as the SLEX exit came a lot earlier than we thought and because we missed it ended up in the Alabang Exit and had to go around Alabang trying to find our way back to SLEX. The travel from that point though was rather easy and quite scenic.

We were impressed with how green the surrounding area was heading to the SLEX to STAR section of the South

To help with finding how to get to Las Haciendas farm we had to use our Navigators CarNavi and also an application on the Android called Navigator(have to download the offline map for the philippines, which is free. This allows you to navigate without the need for internet connection and use your phone's built in GPS to guide the way) for my HTC One X. Side by side the CarNavi and Navigator app worked like a charm and guided us to where we had to go. Tip though on the navigation - if you can't search for the place using the usual search terms utilize the map and scroll around and manually create a flag waypoint for a more accurate destination lock. 

One we arrived at Las Haciendas' Club House we were greeted immediately with an awesome view of the valley between Batangas and Tagaytay City not to mention a bird's eye view of Ambon Ambon Falls where we would be hiking up to right after.

These are the shots taken right at the Infinity pool of the Las Haciendas Club House

(Las Haciendas is going to be with MegaWorld soon so expect an even better property development - I can just imagine how much more better this view and place shall be)

We sat in the club house for a quick lunch first and cool down from the long drive before we gear up for the 40 min or so hike to Ambon Ambon Falls. There are a variety of amazing lunch specials to choose from and very clean showers to use for those that want to freshen up before and after the hike. 

Xian and his daddy cooling off before our long hike up to Ambon Ambon Falls

From Las Haciendas a Jeepney was scheduled to pick us up at 1:15, right after our lunch. From Las Haciendas to the Drop off point for the hike was a quick 2 minute ride. A guide was there to meet us at the drop off point and gave us a quick briefing as to what to expect for the hike. One of the things he emphasized on was that we would be crossing one path that find us about waist high with creek water thus we had to ensure that all of our gadgets were kept in water tight packaging or at least in a single bag that would be easy to carry over our head.

Below is the picture summary of the hike up to the point of Ambon Ambon Falls.

This would be the first marker of the Ambon Ambon Hike

The amount of Tree and Flora Cover it wasn't as hot as one would've expected of a hike

Many of the Plants that provided shelter from the sun were these large overgrown bamboos swaying to the gentle breeze

We also had umbrellas with us just in case rain decided to fall and also as quick shield from the sun in times that we were not under the leafy covers of the trees and bamboos

A new and improved foot bridge, beside it was an old ancient and broken down bridge which thankfully we didn't have to take

We found ourselves hiking uphill most of the time which was a good cardio workout for all of us

Open fields and a small banana plantation patch was a common site

Rice planting season, though the farmers and farm animals were in siesta mode by the time we arrived

Man made water spout, this was a halfway mark to Ambon Ambon Falls. This served as a place to cool down and refresh before we head up further the hike path.

We also had times when we would head downhill but not as often as the steep climbing paths we've encountered.

Small creeks were common and I recommend to wear foot wear that you can use in these situations. 

An old broken down hut was an eerie place to see along the path, hopefully someone restores this to its former magnificence. 

We found ourselves on the side of a cliff, had to be careful not to fall as the rocks were sharp and steep at this part.

This was the start of the really wet hike up to Ambon Ambon Falls

Nature was really showing off from here, with dragonflies dancing around like black fairies around everyone that was walking across the wet path

The shade from the foliage and the cool creek made the feeling of a some what magical setting.  

This was the final mini rock climb up to Ambon Ambon Falls. You would either choose to go up the wooden make shift ladder or go to the water chest deep side on the left. I personally found going to that later to be easier and much wetter.

Careful though as you reach the other side of this boulder, the water and slippery rocks still tend to be quite a challenge and we all had our own versions of cuts and bruises but nothing major.

This is what we found on that last climb which I have to admit was worth all the effort. Below this is a mini pool that we had an awesome time splashing about it.

This was my favorite spot of the falls cause standing underneath the falls was both refreshing and fun.

The hike back was a lot quicker, I think that was primarily because we didn't take pictures anymore and was rather in a hurry to get to the sari sari shop by the start of the hike entrance. We all had our fair share of sodas to get cooled down before we started the 2 minute ride back to the Las Haciendas Club House.

The reward we all gave ourselves was fun pool time over at the Las Haciendas Infinity pool. Enjoying the warm waters and the awesome view of the hike we had just previously conquered. Over all the hike wasn't a tough one as Xian our Travelling Pekingese and the kids all found it quite fun and easy. 

The waters of the pool was pleasantly warm and of varying depths was ideal for both kids and adults alike.

View of the club house by the pool side, there are also small huts where one can sleep and lounge in during the lazy afternoon underneath their mango and coconut trees.

Xian was also feeling relaxed and cooled off by the pool side hut. He was was probably contemplating on the fun day he had. Plus he was able to finish off more than the usual food for dinner after this which was a good thing since he tends to be a picky eater come dinner time.

Coconut juice anyone? :) 

Xian all pooped out and sleepy by the time he got home. Though he was generally asleep the entire trip back and was snoring all the way home while hogging the car's AC.

Would we recommend going to Las Haciendas? of course, especially since the trip was quite inexpensive. The hike fee itself was only 150 per head and make sure you either eat lunch prior to the hike at the Las Haciendas Club house or bring a picnic lunch and enjoy it at the falls. 

This week's adventure will be at Bangkok and there'll be a lot of pictures to be taken there. I'll be over working all of my travel gadgets and hopefully be able to bring home some amazing shots.

Till the next time...