New MMORPG Game LORD NINE Infinite Class Set to Launch in PH July 31st

Folks who are into MMORPG will be so pleased about the coming launch of LORD NINE Infinite Class in Southeast Asia and in the Philippines this coming August, and we got to witness gameplay in the advanced server this morning at the SM Cyberzone in Makati. I love RPG's to start with especially when it's a bit medieval which makes this a really good alternative for the tired ones that exist today. The story is quite simple, as this huge fantasy world is being fought by over 9 different lords, and where they await who will reign supreme once the dust settles. This is quite nice for those who doesn't want it complicated, just good stories lots of monsters to slash, use magic and combat. Radiant is the first Lord but there are 9 others who could eventually get it. Jaeyoung Han the creator says "Smilegate gets love from Asia (Korea, Japan , Taiwan) and over the years, and want to make it event closer to Philippine shores. We want to build communities."

Joong Hyuk Park the Global Business Team Manager from Smilegate adds "We launched this in different countries and have built a lot of players, this is a player driven community. It's easier to play, we hope you get to find this game interesting." 

The story time line would be Orpheta The Era of Giants, Pernox Conquest Wars, EOS The Birth Era of the Lord, Midday way The War for Dominance and Serus The Rise of the New Power. 

The game is immersive, with really good graphics that is pretty close to reality. Some of them are drawn based on real structures from famous landmarks, blended in to create this world. You can create different classes using your preferred weapons, that's over 60 classes you can utilize throughout the story. From swords, bows, staff, bare hands, daggers, shields, you can concentrate on a few and master it in battle. You can combine these and produce different character abilities and change when you want to. Weapons and skills change based on traits, while the ability system can be customized with 52 abilities and 60 classes. It's up to you to build your strategy. You can also unlock hidden abilities that are sometimes locked in the server, so make sure to explore and experiment. They also have Homun System or Pets that can travel with you and help with quests and battles, it even adds to your stats which may prove to be useful in battle. You can also play this on PC and mobile, it supports cross platform play so if you are out of the house, you can still make that game with your friends done. 

You can also farm fro items or trade,  diamond sales have been quite good in Korea and Taiwan so take advantage of that in USDT or cash (and is highly encouraged). There will be open trading between global users, use Line Next for it. They will listen to players in Southeast Asia especially the tip local content creators so everyone can enjoy it. They also use multiple languages and support it. They will have fun localized content to build communities, this will be officially launched on July 31st, 2025 so stay tuned!

You Get MORE with NVIDIA on these Back to School Promos

It's back to school season and that only means one thing, you need a new laptop and NVIDIA just showcased some of the units that have better computing and graphics because they have it inside.

The GEFORCE RTX GPU's certainly has impressed a lot of consumers with its capability to service those who are in content creation, gaming, and even the usual office or school work. Videos won't look archaic or digitized and can harness AI via its Tensor Cores which are not available on ordinary laptops. I like the GEFORCE RTX 4090 which they showcased during the event, and used to convert 1080p videos into 4K HDR resolution with no hitches.

Recently, NVIDIA also launched Project G Assist which they revealed at COMPUTEX 2024. It's basically an RTX powered AI that you can use to enhance the utilization of games and apps while they are running. You now don't have to use walkthroughs for the game you are excited about because if you use it in game, it answers your queries and gives you more context of what is happening in game. Imagine the things you can do with it when you are playing RPG's and story form games because it'll be easier to finish tasks, and give you text or speech answers instantly.

NVIDIA Consumer Lead Jerome Matti says "Today, we are excited to share new tech from our partners Acer, ASUS, Lenovo, PC Express, Silicon Valley and more."

Senior Tech Manager from NVIDIA John Gillooly added "ATX AI PC's have come a long way. It's something that we have been talking about for years. It's both cool and scary, but the technology is here. AI for Gaming in 2018, AI for Creators in 2019, AI for Broadcast and Video Conferencing in 2020, AI for Video in 2023 and AI FOR productivity this 2024. NVIDIA Studio is a program for content creators, and it has been really successful and we didn't realize that it was going to be big. We are now faster and have better quality, a night and day comparison than what we were able to do before. From DLSS that gets framerates higher and better quality, faster AI image generation in graphics software on RTX AI Apps, the number 1 apps now have RTX acceleration in all of them. This places GEFORCE RTX at the head of the pack compared to Radeons in the market."

NVIDIA Consumer Lead Jerome Matti says "Today, we are excited to share new tech from our partners Acer, ASUS, Lenovo, PC Express, Silicon Valley and more."

Senior Tech Manager from NVIDIA John Gillooly added "ATX AI PC's have come a long way. It's something that we have been talking about for years. It's both cool and scary, but the technology is here. AI for Gaming in 2018, AI for Creators in 2019, AI for Broadcast and Video Conferencing in 2020, AI for Video in 2023 and AI FOR productivity this 2024. NVIDIA Studio is a program for content creators, and it has been really successful and we didn't realize that it was going to be big. We are now faster and have better quality, a night and day comparison than what we were able to do before. From DLSS that gets framerates higher and better quality, faster AI image generation in graphics software on RTX AI Apps, the number 1 apps now have RTX acceleration in all of them. This places GEFORCE RTX at the head of the pack compared to Radeons in the market."

Chat RTX is a local chatbot tech demo with the TensorRT-LLM that also supports Voice and Image files. In Computex 2024, they also showcased NVIDIA ACE Path that makes lifelike Game Characters, something powerful that developers can use. G Assist on the other hand can be used in game, it scans, give you advise on system optimization and change settings for better performance. RTX Remix is a tool for game models, it allows you to enhance textures, assets than the usual low res texture you get on games. NVIDIA App Beta is now available as a software package in new laptops released by different manufacturers. If you are looking for a laptop that can do this and more, make sure it's equipped with an NVIDIA in it.

The NVIDIA app might be in Beta, the second edition was released a few weeks ago and will only publish officially when they're happy with it.

PC Express VP for Sales and Marketing Jesse Tan shared "We have a big promo for best I class laptops, different NVIDIA based laptops from Acer, Lenovo, HP, Gigabyte, MSI, with the latest NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX hardware and free stuff plus installment upto 36 months. They also have brand promos with free GC's, game controllers,  printers, monitors, (depends on the model and brand). From today til June 30, we'll be giving away an XBOX controller for every purchase of units with the RTX4060 as part of the promo."

Silicon Valley's Archie Buenaventura says "We have exclusive bundles with MS Office Home and Student, ASUS TUF backpack, 3000 gc sm voucher, MSI Mouse, Mousepad, Essential Backpack and have this on Home Credit installments. Some will have higher GC amounts especially with the MSI Cyborg 15 and Predator Helios, just check our Silicon Valley stores to know more about it."

That's a lot, so make sure you've got that NVIDIA on your laptop and PC's!

Predator League 2024 PH Qualifiers and Asia Pacific Regional Finals Announced

Looks like it's going to be a tough competition for Filipino E-Sport athletes as the Asia Pacific Predator League 2024 Philippine Qualifiers start this month. These are for the exciting RIOT titles particularly games DOTA 2 and Valorant which is still adored in the Manila and elsewhere in the world. This is part Predator's efforts to discover more talent and help existing gamers have an avenue to showcase their skills versus the best of the best for these games in the Asia Pacific region. 

Yes, this is a good stepping stone for budding E-Gamers to gain experience in the industry as slots will be given to winners of the Philippine Qualifiers then join the regional finals. 

Ms. Sue Ong Lim the GM of Acer Philippines says "I'd like to welcome everyone and our valued partners. Predator has been steadfast in championing eSports in the region. In the next few weeks, we will have a few teams announced as finalists, and we will have the winner soon."

Paulo Sy of TNC says "Asia Pacific Predator League is being hosted by Predator in the region where gamers get to showcase their talent against the best in the region. The country finals will happen at the SM North Edsa Annex Atrium and we have 4 teams Neon, Made in Philippines for DOTA2 and  for Valorant we have Naos eSports, Oasis, Zol and Valhalla. During the event the ambassadors and endorsers of Predator will be there to see you. The finals will happen at the Mall of Asia Arena where the Philippine representative will battle it out with other reps from other countries in the region. The finals will be on January 10-14, plus an on ground event and lives stream for those watching at home. It will be 16 teams all in all, separated into 4 groups, then the winners via round robin will battle it out in the championship. The winner will get 65000 USD and special awards will be up for grabs. There will be other events during those dates, and we can't wait to see them early next year!"

PESO Executive Director Marlon Marcelo says "We want to elevate eSports and we have teams doing that now in different events. Happy to say we have won several tournaments, we have been very busy fielding athletes for different games. There is an opportunity to join and compete in the international competitions for 2024. We are doing that in the national level too through Palarong Pambansa. We will do good in DOTA2 and Valorant, which is why we also support the Predator League because they consistently help us, give opportunity for amateurs and professionals to win in a higher competition. The ecosystem in the country is being supported by them, and MOA Arena will be a great venue next year to witness that. We are the number 1 eSports county, see you soon!"

For those who want to start their gaming journey, Predator has the new Helios line which you can check at their experience stores so you can try it out before getting one. The biggest fans of these games are in the Philippines, and the community surely will show up on the day. Be there and Stand Proud!

Well Known PC Builders Join NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Launch

If you want something done, you've got to build it. And with the eve of Desktop Computers being built not just for work, but gaming and content creation, the need for more powerful graphics cards are becoming a reality. A few days ago, several PC builders in the country joined NVIDIA in launching GeForce RTX PC's and GeForce Esport PC's. If there's anyone that knows how to do it right, it's these people.

Jerome Matti NVIDIA Consumer Business Lead says "These days, almost everyone is a gamer and creator. People also stream, view on various platforms, and we are experiencing VR growth, plus a lot of creators that need RTX platform, DLSS that provide real good gaming quality. There are also good drivers for creators so you can have quiet but powerful machines all around. People still need high refresh rates, fast reactions during games, better broadcast capability and we have the best of that NVIDIA."

Arnold Padilla the NVIDIA iCafe and E-Sports and System Builds adds "Game revenues are at an all time high. We have RTX for gamers and creators for Ray Tracing, DLSS, Reflex and AI. To maintain solid frame rates, lesser latency, for over 250 games that support NVIDIA, we need to step up from GTX to RTX. We are introducing 2 categories today, the GEFORCE RTX PC's for Gaming Enthusiasts, plus the GEFORCE ESPORTS PC"s."

The goal is to get all users have the best experience with their PC's especially those with special requirements for creating videos, 3D graphics, all tailored to their needs. Gamers also need a powerful machine that can handle every kind of game out there, and not cause and hassle when it comes to winning those third person shooting games, important tournaments when it matters most.

PC distributors will continue to be a big part of the solution so they could recommend the best one for the budget and requirements people need at home, the office, or even outdoors. NVIDIA GeForce as they've got official stores there. If you need the GeForce RTX 30 Series, GeForce RTX 2060, GeForce RTX 3060 or their other products, it's available in Lazada, or Shopee here https://shope.ee/4pcV1yJtQGhttps://shope.ee/4pcV1yJtQGhttps://shope.ee/4pcV1yJtQG

Philippine Based Synergy88 Digital Joins External Development Summit

Ms. Jackeline Chua, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Synergy88 Digital

This year has been successful for Synergy88 Digital, one of the biggest Filipino owned multi business process and graphic arts service providers in the country. Their thrust is on animation, game and art development that's got their entire operations based in the country. The extraordinary accomplishments has already brought the nod of government agencies and so with their recent representation of the Philippines in Vancouver, Canada, they showcased what current talent they have over at Synergy88 Digital as they joined the External Development Summit (XDS). This is the premier international games industry event that focuses on external development of art, animation, audio, software engineering, quality assurance and more. This was the same event where Synergy88 Digital met a subsidiary of Microsoft called The Coalition and Microsoft Studios (back in 2014) who was at that time working with a game called Gears of War 4, part of the Gears of War series heavily favored on Windows 10 PC's the newer XBOX Consoles. Thanks to the Department of Trade and Industry - Board of Investments and their other offices, they're already scheduled to come back next year. 

The company and it's divisions went through rigorous tests, standardization procedures so all it's processes would come accorded with their counterparts, later on achieving the coveted certification from Microsoft. Synergy88 Digital is officially a Microsoft Certified Development Studio, the only one in the Philippines. Soon thereafter, they accomplished training, passed exams and requirements and are still continuously learning from Microsoft directly. Gears of War 4 by the way has been nominated with several awards and have been lauded by critics for the exceptional artwork for characters, realistic weaponry, environments and stunning visual effects. 

Aside from the work they put in on these incredible games, they also have other projects under NDA's and revered as top secret as they haven't gone out of the market yet. They've attributed their success mostly on the things they've learned along the way including the representations they did during XDS as they clearly didn't just showcase their ware, they were able to learn a lot from the new technologies introduced in the summit. They get to see the latest trends, learn from actual companies, interact with the world's best game developers, programmers, publishers and vendors. They shared the next generation AR and VR technologies have already reached their offices, so we'll be seeing quite a throng of great titles in the next couple of years. They also hold the title of being the first Microsoft 3D Game Art Vendor in the country. Here's a short interview we did at their studios in Quezon City.

We had the feeling of optimism from Ms. Jackie Chua and the people from her office because as they've communicated they have just barely scratched the tip of the iceberg on this 100 Billion Dollar industry. The talented triple A skilled people of Synergy88 Digital are also into digital, film and special effects. Those nice things you see on local prime time shows in ABSCBN, a couple of indie and mainstream movie projects (of which are also award winning ones) come from here too. Their other divisions like ASI Studios, Kalaro Games, Synergy88 Productions, South Eastern Data Center and Renderbee would continue to churn out more products in the coming years, and they are actively looking for talents to join their roster. They have a program to discover talents which they have started recently, I'm raring to telly you about that on the next article so stay tuned! For more information about their company, please visit their official website www.synergy88studios.com.

On a personal note: I actually worked in a similar industry and by my standards, I am impressed about their products and skill sets. Their goals however do not end there.

Smart Introduces 5G LTE-A Network in the Country!

Mr. Orlando B. Vea, Chief Wireless Advisor of Smart during the tests of 5G LTE-A technology in 2013; where they recorded 209.66 mbps speeds in the Philippines.

In the eve of the rising number of Filipinos clamouring for better and faster Internet connection, the nations largest network Smart Communications just announced the first ever use of 5G LTE in the Philippines by switching to this state in  the Smart JUMP Center in Mandaluyong City.

Mobile operators elsewhere in the world like AT&T and T-Mobile has this and it has delivered data of up to 100 megabits per second (mbps) to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) which is alomst ten times faster than 3G. You can also compare that to be more than twice as fast as current 4G services in the country.

This new LTE-A technology is something historical as this pegs Smart to be in the ranks of a few carriers in the world that has it. Smart just made the Philippines stand along with other leading mobile operators in South Korea, United States, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong. Now that this is going to be available in the country, we would be soon  enjoying dreamy 5G speeds as they roll out these changes in more regions in the Philippines.

This has been a possible task as Smart also utilizes the PLDT Fiber Optic Cable connection. They say it's already around 90,000 Kilometers of underwater cabling installed and they'll be continuing to install lines in the Visayas and Mindanao region to prevent redundant ones. It's going to be faster and better soon and it'll benefit millions of Filipinos. As long as you're with Smart, you're gonna get there!

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Western Digital Releases WD TV in the Philippines

I think I've seen one of these in Greenhills a couple of years ago and I know there have been multiple upgrades and advancements in these boxes especially since it is WD TV. I've worked with other brands and cable corporations who have something similar to this but still, WDTV presents more premium functions and features that you won't normally see in other media players. Now, Western Digital just announced the release of the WDTV Personal Edition. This means that any other media whether you have it on your PC, Laptop or USB's. the WDTV Personal Edition would be able to play it as long as you have it on your network. This is also Wifi enabled so you don't need to be connected via ethernet or directly wired to the box itself. For me, that's totally convenient.

Mr. Jim Welsh the Executive Vice President for WD Content Solutions Business and Worldwide Sales says that "The new WDTV Personal Edition would make it seamless for anyone to play in a multitude of screen sizes and get them to play a variety of personal videos, photos and music. The quality will be superb and it can support various video file formats such as MKV, MP4, AVI, WMV, MOV and a whole lot more." You can also use Western Digital's array of external or portable drives like the WD My Cloud - Personal Cloud which I reviewed a few days ago. You can basically take charge with the kind of entertainment you want on your living room, you choose your own applications, you can stream HD videos too via Miracast, Youtube, Hulu Plus, Vudu + a lot more while playing it on your hand held device or HD TV's. 

 

The WD TV is currently sold in the Philippines through its official distributor Iontech Inc and EA Global Supply Chain Solutions Inc. It's suggested retail price is around 4,890 pesos while the WD TV Remote app for smartphones or mobile handsets is free on the App Store and Google Play Store. You should check it out!

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Unboxing The Western Digital My Cloud - Personal Cloud Storage

The WD My Cloud - Personal Cloud Storage

Storage options in this day and age is but of a necessity and we've kept an eye on most brands that carry them in the Philippines. I for one am in the looks for it because I have tons of photos to keep on archives for copyright's sake. The good news is, they're getting smarter and smarter now. Case in point is the WD My Cloud Personal Cloud Storage. This came out perhaps in the late half of 2013. It's given a whole new meaning on what to expect with today's network storage devices in the lines of SOHO servers. Add to that it's capability to get integrated with cloud storage features that would be perfect for mobile devices. This is one unbelievable device and I'll show you how to install it on Windows 7. Here's our attempt to unbox it!  

Now, you don't have to subscribe to major service providers to get that cloud capability. You can also have less maintenance since you can have this right in the comforts of your own home. It's also a shared storage so you can assign rights to users to have different access restrictions re: Read/Write capability. 

As long as you have internet connection, you can use WD's free apps to upload and share files from different platforms. It can come from your phone, tablet, phablet, PC or Mac. I tried it on my iPhone and it ran without a hitch. It's like your own virtual dropbox where you can assign and create your own folders and set access to it too. I love that you can also check the drive's status and see how your drive performs while connected to the network. 

Just type in the url WDMyCloud/UI and you'll be taken to this user interface. It's got all the nice little things you need to know about your drive. It also indicates the number of cloud devices connected to it. If there are also some updates on the hardware's firmware, you can choose to do it here as well.

It might be simple to some of you but I like the fact that they thought about having attachments like these on the box. It addresses something so simple but you don't have to go out anymore and buy one off the market because they knew you had this in your home.

It's also autovolt, so whether you are in a country who's got 110V or 220V on their outlet, don't worry because you'll have the adapter doing its thing for you.

You've got enough storage as it's got 3TB of space that's perfect for those HD movies you've stored long ago on your hard drive. Please do yourself a favor and transfer it to the Personal Cloud Storage and get everyone else access to the file. I can even see a movie marathon spurning on your own personal rooms, whenever and wherever you may wish to get it. I watched my favorite Hunter X Hunter series on my phone by transferring the file from the laptop to the drive. I want to have separate access restrictions to my parents because they're used to deleting apps on my tablet already, let alone the drive if they had it. We don't mean to do that.

Up close, it's make is surely sturdy. The base won't budge unless an outside force would be too much to handle. It's got one drive inside, but you know what makes it special? The speed. I think if you compare this to my existing 3 TB hard drive, it's like buying a sportscar and leaving the tractor outside your farm. My photos were transferred only in a few minutes, a couple more faster than my previous one. I haven't tested it though to mirror onto another drive but the backup feature on it from this to another drive on my desktop actually works. Where else can you find easy setup with the network drives to back up on multiple locations? It's something that WD can surely be proud of. The cable seen above can run Gigabit rates. That, in less than 200 hundred dollars. I've seen some around 170 bucks and possibly this could be cheaper in the Philippines less tax and duties.

 

 If you've got to save files and want to have instant access to it, the WD My Cloud Personal Storage would be the perfect network storage drive to have in your home. It's not complicated to set up, the unit looks sleek and classy that it won't look like clutter in your office. Best of all, it's available at Astroplus, DigiHub, Digital Arena, Digital Hub, my favorite store Digital Walker, Heima, iGig, Quicksound and other specialty stores nationwide. You may check out https://www.facebook.com/digitstrading and see specials on other items like these in their stores. I'll give it a 4/5 because it's affordable and has got more features than the regular network drive. If you're already using it, can you tell me what other things you are using this for? I'm so psyched I don't have to use remote desktop anymore if I need files off my home. What cool things have you done with it?

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