Vivo V9 stuns in elegant Velvet Red

Calling red as a head-turner is an understatement. No color has the same impact as red. Red represents a myriad of emotions and occasions from both ends of the spectrum. But global smartphone brand Vivo owns the color byhighlighting its elegance that transcends trends.

Vivo has released its flagship smartphone, the V9, in Velvet Red.



The Vivo V9 in Velvet Red has the same power as its previously released Pearl Black and Gold colors. It has a 24-megapixel AI selfie camera, 16MP+5MP dual rear camera, and a 6.3-inch FullView™ Display with a 90 percent screen-to-body ratio—only in a more eye-catching finish.

With its standout color, the Vivo V9 in Velvet Red is as good as any glitzy fashion accessory. Pair it up with a monochromatic outfit, the smartphone can add a pop of color to your look. It will also go best with your outfits in green, blue, yellow, orange,and earthy hues. If you are feeling a bit more adventurous, you can wear any color you wish with your Velvet Red in hand.

Vivo Philippines Vice President for Sales Hazel Bascon explained that the Velvet Red represents the youthful vibe of the global smartphone brand.



“Red is for the bold, for the adventurous, for the youthful, for the fashion-forward, for the energetic. Our ardent users are mostly young, hip, and spirited and the Vivo V9 in Velvet Red is a fitting nod to them,” she said.

The Vivo V9 Velvet Red is also retailed at Php17,990 at authorized shops nationwide.

BLUE ANT MEDIA GOES ON DECK WITH PIRATES AND MERMAIDS THIS SUMMER

Blue Ant Entertainment, the exclusive pay TV broadcaster of Siren across multiple territories in Asia, is set to make a splash with new shows and blockbuster movies this June!







All hands on deck as Blue Ant Entertainment brings out mermaids and pirates with American drama Siren premiering on 4 June, and the four classic Pirates of the Caribbean movies as part of a new weekly movie block in the same month.







From depths unknown




Legend has it that coastal town Bristol Cove on the Pacific Northwest was once home to mermaids. Folklore proves more than fiction when a mysterious young woman who calls herself Ryn (Eline Powell) suddenly appears one night. The strange visitor soon catches the interests of local marine biologist Ben Pownell (Alex Roe). Together, along with Ben’s fellow marine biologist Maddie Bishop (Fola Evans-Akingbola), deep-sea fisherman Xander McClure (Ian Verdun), town eccentric and folklore expert Helen Hawkins (Rena Owen), and another mysterious woman who calls herself Donna (Sibongile Mlambo) unravel tensions between the denizens of land and sea as predatory mermaids seek to claim their birthright. Catch the two-hour special premiere of Siren on Monday, 4 June, at 9:45 P.M.(8:45 P.M. JKT/BKK) first and exclusive on Blue Ant Entertainment.

© Freeform


Siren has reached over 4 million views since its premiere in the U.S. alone, and has been well received by audience and critics alike. American digital media and entertainment company for women, Refinery29, describes Siren as “gripping and original,”while one of Florida’s largest newspapers, Tampa Bay Times, says that the show is “worth the deep dive in.” Cinemablend, the Internet’s go-to source of entertainment news, praises Powell as “a standout as Ryn,” and television news source website TV Fanatic says that “Siren is what television has been missing.”




Shiver me timbers




© Disney/ Jerry Bruckheimer




Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise follows the adventures of the eccentric Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) involving magical treasures, supernatural creatures, former lovers, and even pirate mutiny. In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the governor’s daughter, Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), has been captured by Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Jack’s traitorous former first mate who captains the cursed Black Pearl. Together with Elizabeth’s lover, William Turner (Orlando Bloom), Jack sets sail to save the damsel in distress and reclaim what the mutinous Barbossa has stolen from him.




The first four movies of the franchise (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest; Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End; andPirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) will air all Thursdays of June on Blue Ant Entertainment.







Love and the big screen




FIRST DATES © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc




There’s a lot more to look forward to this summer on Blue Ant Entertainment. Romance is in the air as complete strangers meet for the first time over lovely dinner on reality show First Datesevery Tuesday at 8:50 P.M. (7:50 P.M. JKT/BKK). First Dateshas instantly become a hit in the Philippines two weeks from its launch and has doubled Blue Ant Entertainment’s weekday 8:50P.M. time slot average compared to the previous two weeks. This is based on data released by Kantar Media.




The big screen is also coming to the network’s international channels, Blue Ant Entertainment and Blue Ant Extreme. The channels will soon carry box office classics from NBCUniversal and Disney to cater to a wider audience in the region.




To learn more about Blue Ant Entertainment’s exciting programsand movie lineup, follow the channel at www.facebook.com/BlueAntEntertainment/, @BlueAntEnt on Twitter, and @BlueAntEntertainment on Instagram.

Filipino Pride: Tanduay Reaps International Recognitions

Proudly Philippine-made rum Tanduay is capturing palates of the world’s connoisseurs as it recently gathers prestigious international awards.

The major recognitions the brand received for its various products included:  a gold award under the category Gold Rum Premium for Tanduay Rum Gold from the Rum & Cachaça Masters 2018; a double gold medal and best white rum citation for Tanduay Rum Silver from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2018; a silver award for the Tanduay Rum Gold also from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2018; another gold and silver awards from Tastings of the Chicago-based Beverage Testing Institute also for the Tanduay Rum Silver and Gold; and a Category Winner for Column Still Rum from the World Rum Awards once again for Tanduay Rum Silver and Gold. These award-giving bodies are among the most prestigious spirits competitions in the world and recognized internationally as most influential in the spirits industry.

All these achievements are borne from Tanduay’s commitment to excellence and industry innovations under the leadership of its Chairman, Dr. Lucio Tan. Only the finest ingredients make it into each bottle of Tanduay rum and there is attention to detail at the manufacturing stages, where stringent quality control is meticulously applied at every step of the production process.

Since the acquisition of the Tanduay brand by the Lucio Tan group 30 years ago, plant modernization and expansion projects tremendously increased the distillery’s production capacity. With an unmatched ageing facility that houses not less than 200,000 barrels of aged reserves, Tanduay continues to produce one of the world’s finest rums.

Through the leadership of Tan’s son and Tanduay president, Lucio “Bong” Tan, Jr., the company made a historic expansion in the world arena. Tanduay made a strategic alliance with companies in the United States to expand its distribution capacity. The company likewise backed up its marketing efforts striking a two-year partnership deal with 2017 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors. 

“We are proud to be recognized by the world’s tastemakers and placed at par with international brands. We share these achievements for Tanduay with our Filipino consumers, because it is through their constant support for the brand that we have continued to reach new heights over the past 30 years,” Bong Tan shares. He adds that as Tanduay ensures the excellent quality of its flagship products, it is producing more craft spirits, with the vision to grow the business in the international market, strengthening their claim in the spirits categories all over the world.       

Microsoft Build 2018 - The Forces that will Shape the Future

Microsoft make big announcements on what's next in AI, cloud computing, and machine learning

Build is Microsoft’s big annual developer conference where they share their vision for technology and seek to empower everyone to be more productive. First held in 2011, Microsoft Build is an event aimed towards enabling software engineers and web developers using Windows, Windows Phone, Microsoft Azure,and other Microsoft technologies.

At Build 2018, Microsoft continues to pursue its mission to empower more people and organizations through the forces that will shape the future—particularly AI, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, and App Development.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, opened the conference with a view on opportunity and responsibility. “When we talk about limitless opportunity, it’s about truly figuring out how to empower more people and more organizations. We have a real responsibility as we think about the impact of technology…to ensure that technology is reaching everyone.” 

Technology is weaved into every fabric of our modern lives while software is now also a major driver of economies. While personal computing continues to evolve, the cloud provides global infrastructure, scale and intelligence. Computing is everywhere and this is a huge opportunity for developers 

AI for Accessibility

Microsoft continues to utilize technology to impact and improve the quality of human life. With AI, they are opening the door to a new wave of possibilities to break down barriers in communication and really impact the lives of people with disabilities. 

At Build 2018, Satya Nadella announced the company’s new initiative: AI for Accessibility. It is a $25 million, five-year program to encourage the development of AI technology aimed towards helping the disabled community. The program will provide grants and support to research organizations, NGOs, and developers as they set out to empower and enable the more than 1B people with disabilities around the world.

Re-Inventing Meetings and Collaboration

The conference was a showcase of several technologies that greatly improved the quality of human life. This included AI-powered productivity solutions for the workplace. 

Modern Meetings was Microsoft’s approach to the good old meeting. They showed developers how real-time AI services, Microsoft 365, and Cortana promote active collaboration in meetings. From real-time transcription to immediate data access in Power BI, integrated tools are bringing coworkers and content together in new ways.

The meeting room used hardware that features a 360-degree camera and microphone array that can detect anyone in a meeting room, greet them, and transcribe what they say in any language. It’s also capable of real-time translation. 

It further uses AI to follow up on what meeting participants say in a meeting. So, if a participant says “I’ll call you tomorrow,” they’ll get a notification in Microsoft Teams. Modern Meetings promises to make meetings and conferences more manageable.

And speaking of Microsoft Teams, improved collaboration tools for the platform were also announced. Companies can now bring a line of business apps into a dedicated section of the Store just for their organization. 

By bringing line of business apps to a hub of communication and collaboration, companies can reduce unnecessary friction that allows them to build upon the contributions of their colleagues.

Project Kinect for Azure

One of Microsoft’s major anouncements at Build 2018 was the move of Kinect to the cloud. Kinect may sound familiar for gamers as it was first used as a motion-and-voice control system for the Xbox 360 console. 

“Kinect, when we first launched it in 2010, was a speech-first, gaze-first, vision-first device. It was used in gaming, and then, later on, it came to the PC, and it was used in many applications: medical, industrial, robotics, education... We’ve been inspired by what developers have done, and since Kinect, we’ve made a tremendous amount of progress when it comes to some of the foundational technologies in HoloLens. So we’re taking those advances and packaging them up as Project Kinect for Azure,” said Satya Nadella.

Project Kinect for Azure brings together important advances in AI-enabled edge devices with object sensing, skeletal tracking technology. And combined with a cloud platform, the possibilities are truly endlessj

Red Bull Reign Gears for Philippine Return

This June, Red Bull’s signature basketball tournament makes its return to the Philippines! Red Bull Reign is about scoring. A high-endurance, offense-driven 3×3 basketball tournament that invites the world’s top ballers to battle it out for the chance to compete at the World Finals in Washington, DC, USA. Red Bull Reign is the only open international 3×3 basketball in the world. The rules are simple: the team that scores the most overall points in each round will advance until only one team remains.

Red Bull Reign made its official debut in the Philippines last year. Eight teams squared off during the Philippine Finals at the Nagtahan Bridge Court, Pasig River, in Manila, on Saturday, May 27th, 2017. A series of exciting, back-to-back round-robin matches took place that afternoon and showcased various styles on the street court. Qualifying teams included Team Santa Rosa, the Bull Squad, Balandra Squad, and G3 Apparel, which consisted of Eric Tai and previous Red Bull King of the Rock Philippine Representative, Willie Miller.

The Bull Squad took home the victory after defeating Team Santa Rosa in the finals with a score of 27 to 20. The team consisted of Filipino-Canadian PBA hopefuls, Clay Crellin and Glenn Gravengard, Kitt Paolo Balmori, and Team Captain, Obinna Ezeike. The win enabled them to represent the Philippines at the World Finals in Washington DC, USA.

“We were hungry”, said Gravengard. “We wanted it more.”

In addition, the tournament proved to be a success with the local barangay who had hosted the first-annual Red Bull Reign. Pre-event activities included a group clean-up of the Pasig River as well as the creation of a youth-oriented mural by Red Bull Doodle Art finalists, Manuel “Meow Meow” Liwanag and Rojan Elmo Barcelon.

The up-coming, second annual Red Bull Reign will be under the supervision of tournament director, Vince Hizon, and sports consultant, Al Delos Reyes. It promises to be one of the biggest 3×3 basketball tournaments of the year and a celebration of streetball culture. It is open to players ages 16 and above to submit their teams of three (plus one reserve). Each teams must be 50% Filipino and need to have their passports and the potential to travel to the US!

With four games taking place across several countries this summer, the 2018 Red Bull Reign promises to be the most exciting edition yet!

• Manila Qualifier A | June 16th, 2018 | Buendia Food by the Court
• Manila Qualifier B | June 23rd, 2018 | Taft Food by the Court
• Last Chance Qualifier | June 30th, 2018 | Taft Food by the Court
• Finals | June 30th, 2018 | Taft Food by the Court

For more information, please visit http://bit.ly/redbullre ignph

RCBC creates first-of-its-kind ‘ePiso’ Digital Cash

From left to right ,Margarita Lopez - Digital Banking and Operations Head, RCBC, Ana Luisa Lim - Chief Compliance Officer, RCBC, Melchor Plabasan - Deputy Director and Head of Core Information Technology Specialist Group, BSP, John Thomas Deveras, Asset Management and Remedial Head, RCBC, Mary Ann Cube - Central Point of Contact Department IV Officer-In-Charge, BSP, Ma. Belinda Caraan - Supervision and Examination Officer-In-Charge, BSP, Helen Dee - Chairperson, RCBC, Gil Buenaventura - President, RCBC, Florentino Madonza - Controllership Head, RCBC, Jonathan Lumain - Chief Technology Officer, RCBC

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) has partnered with eCurrency Mint Limited to launch its digital money, RCBC ePiso. A first-of-its-kind digital cash in the country, the ePiso is a digitized Philippine peso that enables secure, affordable, fast and efficient mode of mobile payment that provides consumers and businesses an innovative payment solution revolutionizing day-to-day commerce.

The creation of the Digital Secured Stored Value supply has started the transformation of our Philippine peso into a digital fiat currency. The supply creation was led by RCBC President Gil Buenaventura, Asset Management and Remedial Head John Thomas Deveras, Chief Compliance Officer Ana Luisa Lim, Digital Banking Head Margarita Lopez, Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Lumain and Controllership Head Florentino Madonza, in the presence of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Director and Head of Core Information Technology Specialist Group Melchor Plabasan, Supervision and Examination Officer-In-Charge Ma. Belinda Caraan, and Central Point of Contact Department IV Officer-In-Charge Mary Ann Cube. RCBC’s ePiso is piloted under a regulatory sandbox initiative regulatory initiative with the BSP.

Digitized peso for every Filipino

The RCBC ePiso is Philippine pesos that are securely digitized so it will not be lost, stolen or counterfeited, unlike physical bills and coins which are prone to security risks and fraud. Everyone can have their money secured easily by going to the nearest partner merchant to convert physical pesos and coins to ePiso.

The ePiso is placed in a Mobile Wallet, a smartphone app which can be downloaded through Google Play, and will soon be available through the Apple Store.

Making life convenient and comfortable

The digitization of the peso aims to help Filipinos have easier access to financial services no matter where they are. Acquiring digital cash is very easy as users only need to go to sari-sari stores and accredited partners to convert their hard cash to “ePiso” digital cash for free.

Through the mobile wallet, users can buy goods at partner retailers, pay bills, or send money to other ePiso users without the risk of theft or misplacing their money. With the mobile wallet, the ePiso is secured with password protection, on top of digital security layers, so the account owner is the only one who has access to his money. With ePiso, consumers can safely carry digital currency with them anywhere they go and have access to it anytime they want.

Digital payment solution for businesses

The RCBC ePiso model is also very flexible. It can be used for faster exchange of payments for businesses, big and small alike. RCBC ePiso can be also be used to save on disbursement, transportation, collection and sending payment costs. Essentially, the objective of RCBC is to make the business process cheaper so that goods and services can be delivered to every Filipino faster and at less cost.

The creation of the ePiso supply is a testament to RCBC’s commitment to uplift the lives of Filipinos using digital technologies so they can reap the benefits of access to financial services and enjoy a convenient and comfortable lifestyle.

Jollibee’s new Ube Pie offers crispy and creamy spin to classic Pinoy treat

There’s a new dessert pie in town—and it boasts of a classic Pinoy dessert favorite at its core!

Jollibee, the country’s number one fast-food brand, is introducing a sweet, creamy, and purple addition to its dessert line-up: the all-new Ube Pie. Bringing together a delightfully rich ube filling and the texture of a golden-brown, crispy pie crust, this new offering is definitely the answer to your ube cravings.

“The Ube Pie is an exciting new addition to Jollibee’s dessert-pie line, which includes all-time favorites like the Peach Mango and Choco Mallow Pies,” said Kay Segismundo, Jollibee Senior Marketing Manager for Complementary Products. “We’ve turned this humble yet truly delicious dessert into a convenient treat that you can enjoy on the go while staying true to the unique characteristics of this classic Pinoy ingredient.”

Thanks to its vivid purple hue and irresistible combination of sweetness, good mouthfeel and texture that simply melts in the mouth, ube has taken the culinary world by storm over the last couple of years. Chefs and taste-makers across the globe cannot get enough of ube, as seen in glowing features in publications like GQ andHuffPost.

“Ube fanatics will be happy to know that there’s a new ube treat for them when craving strikes. Just drop by the nearest Jollibee for an authentic, delightful Ube Pie!” added Segismundo. 

Indulge in your ube cravings with the new Ube Pie, available in all Jollibee stores nationwide for dine-in, take-out, drive-thru, and delivery starting May 21, 2018. The Ube Pie will retail for P29.00* for solo and P82.00* for the Trio Pack.

For more information on Jollibee’s latest products and promotions, like Jollibee Philippines on Facebook or follow @Jollibee on Twitter and Instagram.