Level Up! and e-Games Merge?! [OMGWTFBBQ]

It's quite fitting for the Valentine's Day as two huge online gaming companies here in the Philippines, Level Up! and e-Games, merges. What does this mean for the Online Gaming community? Well, it will be amazing! Imagine, one massive national event for all the games alone will be epic!


Official Announcement below:

IP E-Game Ventures Inc. (E-Games), the listed online gaming subsidiary (PSE:EG) of IP Ventures, Inc., and Level Up! Inc. (LUI), have reached an agreement to merge their Philippine online game publishing businesses. On February 14, the parties signed an agreement stating that most of E-Game’s titles and assets relating to its game publishing business will be transferred to LUI and the publishing operations of said titles will be merged into LUI’s associated online game publishing company, Playweb Games Inc.

In exchange, E-Games will receive equity in LUI, a commercial interest in Playweb Games Inc. (game publisher and operator of all game titles and services under the Level Up! brand in the Philippines), and a cash consideration. The parties shall work in good faith to complete the deal. The appropriate disclosures and comprehensive statements shall be made at the appropriate time. E-Games and LUI, as a merged entity, is expected to strategically benefit both companies as a result of future operational synergies and savings.

Source: PSE

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Samsung Galaxy S III is Coming?! [Beautiful Specs]

The Samsung UAE seems to have slipped when the GT-I9300 seems to have appeared in the list. Is this a sign that Samsung will release a new flagship phone soon? Or someone just added something to the list earlier than expected.

Image from Redmondpie.com

A preview of Samsung Galaxy S III was leaked some time ago and the internet was buzzing ever since. According to the leak, the new Galaxy S3 was planned to have a whopping 1.8Ghz DUAL CORE processor, a huge 2 Gigs of RAM, 12 Megapixels, and a 4.6'' Super AMOLED Plus HD screen. But that was just a rumor and the picture below is an unconfirmed leak.

Photo from Phandroid

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Webpocalypse 2012: SOPA, PIPA, PCFOPA + SOPA Philippines Brewing

When the Mayans predicted that the world will end on 2012, maybe it isn't the world that will end but the Internet. Or they did run out of stones to write on. In any case, the file sharing world is under attack from FBI as they keep on shutting the File Sharing websites one by one (see the list at the end of this post).

SOPA and PIPA is still not passed yet and yet the crack down is already this hard. If SOPA and PIPA passed, the internet will indeed be broken as a government will be given authoritative power over the internet. Censors will be all over the place and the once free internet community will be just a memory. But now, another legislation is being realized. The Protect Children from Online Pornographer's Act or PCFOPA.

Despite the heroic name of the legislation, it's actually worse than SOPA. PCFOPA aims to scan you internet history for any Children pornography and even give the right to scan your credit card purchases if ever you purchased online children pornography.

January 18, 2012 protest may not be enough

Sounds good right?

But please take note, it gives the government to SCAN YOUR INTERNET HISTORY. It's almost like it's an internet big brother.

Intentions are good but it is again, without a doubt, open for abuse. FBI can't even protect their own website  from a cyber attack, how can we be sure that the tools that will be used for this is even secure in the first place? This legislation is bad for everyone since I know that other countries will be affected.

How do I know? Our very own country, Philippines, is already formulating a legislation that takes pattern with SOPA. TechLocal.com reports that different organizations, such as the MPA and IP Coalition, are already lobbying the legislation. It also reports that  Rep. Rufus Rodrigues and Sen. Loren Legarda and Edgardo Angara has already been approached by these organizations regarding this and they are hoping that it will be passed this year.


Very dark times for the internet indeed.

In other news:


MegaUpload - CLOSED.
FileServe - Closing, doesnt sell premium.
FileJungle - Deleting files. Blocked in EUA.
UploadStation - Blocked in EUA.
FileSonic - Doesnt know much (Under FBI investigation).
VideoBB - CLOSED! Soon will disappear.
Uploaded - Banished from EUA and FBI will go after the owners that disappeared
FilePost - Deleting all files (will leave only executables,pdfs, txts)
VideoZer - Closing and blocked in affliated contries to USA.
4shared - Deleting files with copyright and is FBI's line.
MediaFire - Called to testify in the next 90 days and it will have to open the doors to FBI
Torrente org - Might delete everything until 30 days "is under criminal investigation"
Rede Share mIRC - Waits decision on Torrents case to continue or shut it down
KoshiKO - operating 100% Japan will not adhere to SOPA/PIPA
Shienko Box - operating 100% China/korea will not adhere to SOPA/PIPA
ShareX BR - grupo UOL/BOL/iG dizem que não irão aderir ao SOPA/PIPA / will not adhere to SOPA/PIPA

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus is now Available for Pre-Order! [Smart]

Just recently, Smart Communications has finally opened their pre-order microsite for the Galaxy Nexus. Unfortunately, the device is only available exclusively for Smart postpaid subscribers and it is free on Unlimited Data Plan 2000 and Smart All-In Plans 3500. The pre-order will be starting today up to January 27, 2012. The phone will be launched and offered exclusively through Smart.

To get started on the pre-order, click this link. 

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Megaupload Shuts Down, Anonymous Retaliates [Dawn of CyberWar?]

Megaupload was one of the most used file sharing website in the world. Today, it was taken down. Not because of a SOPA or PIPA protest. Not because it was hacked. But because it was forced to be shutdown by the federal government due to piracy. That's the short version before you go all tl;dr on me. But if you want to know more, read on below.

There were four individuals arrested, the founder, Kim Schmitz aka Kim Dotcom, and three other employees, namely Bram van der Kolk, Finn Batato and Mathias Ortman. (I swear I am not making up these names)

The company is trying to defend itself that they were stomping out piracy in their website when someone complained. Unfortunately, the judge was not convinced and their bails were not allowed to be posted.

We are already seeing the effects that such laws can be enacted without the use of SOPA/PIPA which is a clear indication that it doesn't need to be implemented anyways. But I am not saying that these poor chaps are guilty with something.. At the very least, there will be a due process for this.

In another news, to retaliate for Megauploads takedown, Anonymous has risen and hacked the Department of Justice site, together with RIAA, MPAA, and Universal Music.

Is the first Cyber World War upon us?

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WTF is SOPA and PIPA? WTF Happened to Wikipedia?! [Now You Know]

The short and sweet answer? Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) are two legislations being passed through congress in order to give the USA government ultimate powers to manipulate the internet DNS and block website whom they think is infringing copyrights. It's a power very open for abuse and could really break the internet as we know it.

Despite the attractive and hero-like title of the bill, it is really bad for us. Not because we are such freeloaders (aminin!) but it will destroy the world of the internet as we know it because it already gives a government enough powers to simply block a website easily. Even if there is a due process, how will the judge ever decide if the website should be block if lawyers should simply just wrap the complaint with fancy words just to get it passed? Like the stupid analogy that "piracy is stealing."

That's why many other websites shuts down on January 18th (including wikipedia). To stop SOPA from passing. Don't worry though, these websites are not gone forever.

Don't get me wrong, I am not in any way condoning piracy but there are already laws for that. There are already bills and legislation that protect these companies from copyright infringement (we are seeing it in YouTube all the time, this clip is blahblah. But no, they need to have a more destructive tool and total control to the internet.

If you think that SOPA and PIPA won't have any effect here in the Philippines and to all others outside the USA, think again. Most websites we know are hosted in the US and if they are blocked, we won't be able to access it. There is also a threat that other countries will follow suit. 

The internet should be free from anyone's control. Support the campaign against SOPA and PIPA!

Here is a video as to why we should support Americans and Websites to stop SOPA and PIPA from passing.



Here is a longer video:



If you like reading regarding the matter here is a wonderful website dedicated to it: http://americancensorship.org

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Waterproof and Long Battery Life - Samsung's Promise [Wow. Just wow.]

Samsung, the creator of wonderful smartphones such as the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Nexus, is once again setting the trend for innovation as they seem to be researching two of the most common problems of today's generation of devices. Water damages and Short Battery life.

When it comes to waterproofing, we are already there. Liquipel is already offering to waterproof your device by sending your device to them and they will send the device back after they finished applying their technology to it. Unfortunately for us Filipinos, the technology is only available in the US.

But another thing is interesting in CES 2012. Enter Hz0. It does the same thing as Liquipel but only much cooler. Apple seems to be already in the talks in applying Hz0 to their devices, particularly the iPhone 5 in the near future. But Samsung has already expressed their interest on the product and wants to apply it to their future lines of phones as well.

Also, another thing worth mentioning is that Samsung is already in the works for extending the battery life of the smartphones. According to Samsung's VP of Product Innovation, Kevin Packingham, longer battery life is one of the company's targets this 2012. I hope it's all true.

I'm sure the technology would be expensive. But if you don't mind the look, you can always use cellophane for waterproofing and some Chinese-made battery life extenders for longer battery life. Heh.

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