The First Triple SIM handset in the Philippines!

TORQUE recently announced that the First Triple SIM Mobile Phone in the Philippines will be available this June 2010. The Torque TQ800 Trinity, the only Triple SIM GSM Quadband handset available in the market will surely turn the heads of mobile fanatics.  Perfect for the busy body who have at least two lines at hand, with the Torque TQ800, you can have three lines in one handset. “The Torque TQ800 is perfect for the travelling businessman because aside from its Triple SIM/Triple Standby feature, it’s also Quadband GSM,  WiFi ready, has TV and FM Radio for entertainment and all the  other basic mobile features” says Chris Uyco, Torque’s President and CEO and the brains behind the brand.  

Beautifully and perfectly crafted with its QWERTY keyboard and easy access buttons with a sturdy Trackball for easy navigation, the Torque TQ800 is one head turner.  Praise to its internal memory that can store up to 3000 Phonebook Entries, with Motion Sensor for selected phone functions, extra large and clear 2.4” LCD that enables you to take pleasure while watching your program with its mobile TV. It is also equipped with an FM radio, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, dual cameras (2MP at the back, VGA in front) with video recording and a micro-SD expandable memory slot. This phone is surely compacted with the deity and spirit of this 1^st of its kind innovation.

Exclusively distributed by Topstrasse Global Inc., the Torque TQ800 will soon be available in a few weeks at an unbelievably price range of less than P8,000.00 in all leading mobile stores nationwide.  Unquestionably functionality at its best!

Accessing social networking sites at a breeze thru your phone

Cell phones have been essential part of our rapidly changing lives. Their influence and popularity are enormous and help us a lot. Topstrasse Global Inc. offers you TORQUE DQ100 which has bunch of features to keep you going on your hectic and frenzy daily routine.

A prettied version of its cousin DQ300, this full QWERTY keyboard phone has  user-friendly Navigation key, FM radio key and MP3 player key for access on  music player  and  3GP functions. With this cool gadget you can listen loudly with its technology speakers and easy Facebook and Yahoo Msg. access

Jam-packed with the essential Torque features this dual-sim and dual-standby phone has WAP 2.0/ GPRS/ SMS/ MMS, dependable Torch Light, and 0.3 MP VGA Camera. The screen delivers clear and vivid colors with its Large and vivid 2.0" 65K color TFT LCD for a good display of your captured photos and pre-downloaded videos with Micro-SD (up to 2GB) expandable memory.

As a whole, this pleasantly surprising phone is of good build quality handset and a pocket-buddy for only P 2,999.00.  Have these off beat and youthful design with our four colors you can choose from Magnetic Green, Magenetic Red, Magnetic Orange an Magnetic Blue. Go to your nearest cellphone dealers now!

Going QWERTY!

Looking for a cellphone that fits your lifestyle? TORQUE DQ300 is a dual-sim and dual-standby handset for you to feature full QWERTY keyboard with its very helpful and vital attributes. This Filipino-engineered gadget aims to deliver full set of functions, including Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) 2.0 that enables you to access  internet sites and applications with eBuddy like MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk, Facebook, ICQ, MySpace, AIM, Opera Mini, and  Friendster.

Ultra-slim and Ultra-compact pocketable designed is completely in character of the latest trends of handsets in the market. It is compact and lightweight equipped with the Large 2. 0” 65K color TFT LCD and 1.3 MP compatible camera with Video Recorder packed for good quality display for watching videos, texting, chatting, social networks information search and email correspondence.

The phone also offers the user media control button for easy-press direct to your Facebook access. With is basic functions like GPRS/ SMS/ MMS, Voice Recorder and FM Radio/ MP3/ MP4/ 3GP Player that will keep you for a full gadget experience.

The black version of the DQ300 reminds you of the Blackberry 8520, same glossy finish casing and keyboard and button setup. If you want something similar to the Blackberry but at lower cost, you can go for this model - as your "Blueberry".

The DQ300 store up to 1000 Phonebook entries and phone memory is Micro-SD expandable up 2GB and is now available in stylishly designed with four colors to choose from Posh Black, Posh Blue and Posh Red. How about P 2,999.00 for a price tag? TORQUE DQ300 is really a good deal for you!

Protecting our kids during the summer months!

The intense heat we all have been experiencing the past weeks have taken its toll on most of us, not to mention the increase in energy consumption due to the use of our airconditioning more than 8 hours a day just to keep us and our kids cool this summer months. But keeping ourselves cool is not the only problem we face right now butl but  we also have to contend with summer diseases that thrive during these months such as sore eyes, measles, flu, and dengue.  Babies and toddlers are the most vulnerable to these germs and bacteria going around since their immune systems isnt that developed yet. That's why parents must give the necessary protection for their kids, and proper hygiene is one simple and effective way to ward off these bacteria.

Use of high quality wipes has been an effective way to keep my kids clean most of the time. Not those kind of low quality wipes that you normally buy in tiangges or wet markets where most have been tested and found positive for harmful bacteria such as E. Choli, candido albigans and S. Aureus which causes complications such as skin irritation, eczema, severe diarrhea, stomach cramps and urinary tract infections. Not to mention the awful smell it emanates once you've opened the packaging.  You might have saved a few pesos in buying these kind of wipes, but spend a few hundreds or thousand of pesos for medicine.

One brand of wipes that is safe to use is the Pigeon Baby Wipes. The brand has attested that their products has gone through an extensive micobiological testing to ensure that the wipes are free from fungi and bacteria that can cause skin irritation and discomfort.  It also has chamomile oil which acts as an excellent natural skin cleansing agent and ensures that its option pH5.0 level retains your skin the overall moisture balance. It also provides that cooling effect your child needs during these hot months!

For kids still bottle fed, we always have to ensure that the bottles are well cleaned and sterilized to ensure proper hygiene. One product that is harsh to the bacteria but not to the bottle is the Pigeon Liquid Cleanser. This not only cleans the feeding bottles but it can also safe for  washing fresh produce such as fruits and vegetables as well by remoing those agricultural chemicals producers has been using in our food. It's also safe in sanitizing toys and other baby and toddler's accessories to protect them from these summer borne germs!

Let our kids enjoy the summer months, but at the same time let's equip them with the proper protection against germs by using high quality products such as those from Pigeon.

Give Four Give Five

The new lines of Hot Wheels Color Shifter are here, with new and far more exciting transformation. This time you will not only have two cars in one,  neither three cars in one, but four cars in one with the  new Hot Wheels Power Creature Color Shifters! Taking your kids' favorite cars into a fierce power creature that changes its colors. Just dip the cars on icy water and watch how it changes its colors before your very eyes, and try putting it  on warm water,  it will change again in to a different color, you can do it again with on much warmer water then watch how cool it is as it changes again to another color. With the Hot Wheels Color Shifter, just use your imagination and mix the colors of your car!

Hot Wheels has for the past several years continued to thrill kids and kids at heart in introducing endless innovations in their die cast cars line up. And now, Hot Wheels Color Shifters has landed on Philippine shores to thrill all Hot Wheels fans!

 
Hot Wheels Color Shifters Power Creature is exclusively distributed by Richwell Trading Corporation. Available at leading toy stores and department stores nationwide.

The Torque DTV100

I just got hold of a new mobile phone unit from a new player in the local market – Torque. It’s a local brand and most of their phones are sourced from China. The model that I have is the DTV 100, it’s a dual sim (standby only) with a built-in TV and FM radio.

Before we go into the details of the unit, let me give you a brief on dual sim phones for those who are new to this.  There are 2 types of dual sim, the dual active and dual standby.  Most of the dual sim phone models that were released in the market a few years back are mostly dual standby, which means that while you are using one line, you cannot receive any calls or sms messages on the other line.  For the dual active, both sims are working at the same time. You can receive another call on the line (just like call waiting) and receive it at the same time (just like conference call, though some models only work if it’s within the same network). This holds true also with your text messages. 

Now going back to the DTV 100, the packaging is quite attractive if you’ll compare it to the other brands in the market, you can’t help but notice that the box is somewhat similar to the iPhone.  

The DTV 100 unit is quite sleek with its black thin casing, I just got disoriented with its keyboard layout. Half of the keyboard is for the menu and function keys and the other half is the numeric keys. The keys are small enough not to accidentally press the other keys but if you have large fingers, this is not the phone for you.  It might take you some time to get used to this kind of keyboard layout especially if you’re used to doing other things at the same time while using your phone.

The interface takes time getting used to especially if you’re setting up the phone for the first time. Though it has several user profile settings which you can program based on your type of mood for the day.  The response time of its function keys is quite fast compared to the other brands but going through the several features of the phone is quite bothersome since you have to go through to a lot of commands just to confirm a function. Take for example send an sms, it will take you an average of 8 presses just to send a message. It’s sms inbox has a separate folder so you have to go through a few folders just to check on your inbox items.

The TV function is basic but very useful especially when you need to check on your latest local shows. Watched the funeral procession of Pres. Cory Aquino from LSGH to the Manila Cathedral last week on the phone the whole time. It’s a good thing had the phone fully charged that morning. The TV mode uses a lot of power from the battery.  Be sure to have the charger always on hand. It has a dedicated TV key on the keyboard so going to the TV function is just one press away. The signal depends on your location, but I noticed that it’s easy to get a good reception from QTV and Net 25 anywhere I go.  It also has a landscape view where you can watch on the whole 2.4” screen of the phone. The antenna is a bit tad, using the old style retractable stainless type that you see in old transistor types of radio in the past. The DTV 100 is also equipped with a micro SD expandable memory where you can store and watch your videos through your supplied earphones. But if you are into high fidelity sounds, replacing the stock earphones may not be that easy since the DTV 100 uses only a mini-usb type of jack for everything aside from the earphones, this goes the same for charging and file transfer (aside from Bluetooth). The radio function also has a dedicated key on the unique keyboard layout.

Transferring your contacts from your old phone may be a bit problematic. You can only transfer your address book via your sim card and Bluetooth (one at a time!). But according to the manufacturer, they are already developing a third party application where you can extract your address book either from outlook (for pocket pcs) and other formats from your Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. This will be available thru download from their site at torque-online.com in the coming months.

The built-in 1.3 MP camera is very basic. Actually most phones right now have either at least 5 MP in their arsenal, so don’t expect anything with this camera.

Overall, the DTV 100 is a nice weekend phone where you can store your entire address book (1000 phonebook entries) from your 2 lines and just bring one phone anywhere.  Features are basic with the extra TV feature (not HD though) but it keeps you entertained. And for the price of the DTV 100, P 5,499.00, very reasonable compared to the other branded phones with the same features. 

Light and Portable

Gadgets are becoming even smaller with manufacturers finding ways to create smaller components giving the word “handy or portable” a new meaning. Take for example Torque’s latest product, the ES-5HD, one of the smallest HD video camera in the local market.  It claims to have an 11 megapixel maximum still resolution for its digital camera while for its High Definition video recording, a maximum of 720p/30 frames per second. The ES-5HD has a 64MB internal memory with an expandable storage up to 16Gb SD card slot.  I only have a 1Gb SD card that usually give me about 25 to 30 minutes of HD videos, for the D1 video resolution (PAL/NTSC), it will give you about a little bit over an hour worth of videos.

         

Aside from the usual Audio Video jack output, the Torque ES-5HD is equipped with HDMI for those who want to directly show their videos on their LCD screens at home. With its small size of about 100 x 57 x 17.9 mm, it easily fits the palm of your hand or in your shirt pocket. It’s almost the size of a regular pocket pc phone.  Video quality is quite good if you compare versus the camera phones.  But with its very portable size, video output seems to be a bit shaky. Not recommended for those suffering from trembling or “pasmado” hands. But there is a built-in stabilizer, the drawback using this feature is that it disables the digital zoom feature.  Having that trusty tripod at hand will greatly improve your shots.  

This is also useful on “spy” missions due to its very compact size.

  

Also the function buttons and the jack outputs are all located  on one side of the camera, easy for those who have petite and cute fingers. 

Picture resolution is good especially for outdoor shots. But for low light conditions, it just gives you dark or sometimes blurry pictures even with the use of the built-in flash. Video output is relatively good both for outdoor and low light conditions. Turning on the night mode function improves it a little bit except if you are shooting moving objects. 

Sample outdoor shot taken from the ES 5HD during one of our out of town trips.

Color registration is quite good

It also has a motion detect function useful for monitoring purposes. It stops recording when it doesn’t detect movement anymore. Perfect to spy on your nanny and kids if you are always in the office. 

The ES 5HD can also function  as a Web Cam so need to buy and upgrade from your  Winnie the Pooh web cams if you have this camera.  It also boasts its music player capabilities but it can only play mp3 files. Sound quality is average using the stock earphones, though you can use your iPod earphones for improve music experience.

For the price of the ES 5HD at P4,999.00, not bad with all the features you get in just one small gadget .  Though not recommended for the discerning photo enthusiasts or videographer, but very useful for your everyday use.