SAMSUNG DONATES $1 MILLION TO YOLANDA VICTIMS!

MANILA, Philippines - South Korea's biggest conglomerate, the Samsung Group, on Tuesday said it is offering $1 million in aid to the Philippines, which is recovering from the devastation caused by typhoon Yolanda.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said Samsung Group is making the donation through the Red Cross and World Vision Philippines.

PH'S RICHEST MAN MORE WEALTHY THAN SAMSUNG AND NEWS CORP EXECS!

MANILA - Mall tycoon Henry Sy has cemented his position as the Philippines' richest man after he landed on Bloomberg Markets magazine's ranking of the world's wealthiest men and women -- the only Filipino to make it to the list.

In a statement, Bloomberg Markets magazine said Sy -- whose empire spans the retail business, banking, property and resort development -- landed on the 72nd spot with a net worth of $13.3 billion, ahead of the likes of Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who ranked 86th, and South Korea's Lee Kun Hee of tech giant Samsung, who placed 99th.

NOKIA SHUTS DOWN MOJOR FACTORY IN FINLAND!

SALO, Finland — Nokia workers in Salo thought chief executive Stephen Elop signaled that their plant, Europe’s last major mobile phone factory, would survive when he visited in February, but last week he announced its closure anyway.

This final chapter in Nokia’s long goodbye to manufacturing in Finland will claim about 850 jobs, on top of 1,000 announced earlier in the year, and rob the town of 90 percent of its tax revenue.

BREAKING DAWN PART 2 OFFICIAL TRAILER RELEASED!

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN IS THE FAIREST IN THE INTERNATIONAL BOX OFFICE!

(Reuters) - "Snow White and the Huntsman" broke the spell of lacklustre performances by many big-budget films this summer season at movie theatres, grabbing $56.3 million in its first weekend to top "Men in Black 3," according to studio estimates on Sunday.

The film, a dark and sometimes violent take on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, collected an additional $39.3 million in 45 international markets where it also opened this weekend.

PHILIP PHILIPS' BEATS UNDERWOOD AND COOK IN ALBUM SALES!

It seems Phillip Phillips is breaking the streak of lackluster Idol winners’ album sales.The season 11 winner has just landed behind season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson on the list of the biggest-selling digital sales among ‘Idol’ alums.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Phillip already sold 280,000 copies of his coronation single, “Home,” just behind Clarkson’s best-selling week ever, when she sold 280,000 copies of “My Life Would Suck Without You” in 2009.

‘Home’ is also the biggest selling winner’s song, as it already outpaced David Cook’s 236,000 copies of “The Time of My Life” in 2006. He even beats Carrie Underwood’s best-selling digital week, 125,000 copies of “I Told You So.”

FACEBOOK TO BUY FACE RECOGNITION FIRM FACE.COM!

Social networking giant Facebook may be planning to acquire a face recognition technology company, a tech site reported Monday night (Manila time).

The Next Web cited a report by Israeli business publication Calcalist that Facebook is planning to buy technology company Face.com.

NOLI'S "KABAYAN" BECOMES A FINALIST IN THE 2012 NEW YORK FESTIVAL!

DZMM’s public affairs program Kabayan anchored by "Kabayan" Noli de Castro was named as a finalist at the prestigious 2012 New York Festivals (NYF) World's Best Radio Programs.

Kabayan was distinguished in the Best Public Affairs Program category and the lone Philippine radio program to succeed in the international competition.

FACEBOOK TO BUY OPERA FOR A FB-CENTERED BROWSER?

Is social networking giant Facebook planning to buy Norwegian browser maker Opera Software to create a Facebook-centric browser?

A tech site cited sources who said this could be the case—where the resulting product will allow a user to keep his or her social life up to date.

Pocket-lint.com said one of its trusted sources indicated the social networking giant is looking to buy Opera Software, the company behind the Opera web browser.

"Opera already has a very good mobile browser, which has seen strong growth in the two years it has been available. And Facebook's buying the company would save it having to build a browser from scratch," it said.

AMERICAN IDOL PAYS JESSICA SANCHEZ LESS WITH AS RATINGS DWINDLE!

After becoming the first runner-up in Season 11 of "American Idol," Filipino-Mexican-American Jessica Sanchez may get at least $30,000 in advances for recording singles, reportedly a much smaller amount compared to what the previous runners-up received.

According to a report of the news site NJ.com on Friday: "Coming in second on "American Idol" may still be a path to superstardom, but it no longer offers guaranteed paychecks worthy of the next pop idol or rock star."Apart from this, Sanchez will only receive at least $60,000 if she is asked to record four to 10 extended play songs.

MICROSOFT RELEASES ITS OWN SOCIAL NETWORK!

Microsoft has quietly launched its own social networking project that it said seeks to combine social networking and search, while encouraging interaction and collaboration.

 

Dubbed So.cl (pronounced “social”), the new network developed by Microsoft’s FUSE Labs is an “experimental research project” that explores social search for the purpose of learning.

 

CHINA TO IMPOSE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS ON PHL?!

BEIJING – China should impose “sanctions” against the Philippines after it offered to allow more US troops on its soil, state media said Sunday, amid growing tensions over disputed waters in the South China Sea.

Manila said Friday it planned to hold more joint exercises and to let more US troops rotate through the Southeast Asian country — an offer welcomed by the United States as it seeks to expand its military power in Asia.

KNOW HOW FACEBOOK'S IPO WILL AFFECT USERS!

WASHINGTON -- If you are one of the almost one billion people who use Facebook, you are unlikely to notice any major changes when you sign in this weekend.

Facebook's entry to the stock market -- expected Friday -- will be a timeline-shaking corporate event, but users may find nothing new to like or dislike.

SAMSUNG UNLEASHED THE NEW GALAXY S3!

LONDON, United Kingdom - South Korea's Samsung Electronics on Thursday (Friday, May 4, in Manila) unveiled its latest flagship smartphone at a London launch as it seeks to cement its position as the world's best-selling mobile phone maker.

The Galaxy S3 boasts a 4.8-inch screen (12.2cm), 22% larger than the Galaxy S2, the hugely popular predecessor that helped the company overhaul Nokia as the world leader.

Despite the larger screen, Samsung says the phone is not much larger than its predecessor due to its smaller frame.

TAIWAN ALSO CLAIMS SCARBOROUGH SHOUL!

MANILA, Philippines – Who says it's Philippine or Chinese territory?

The disputed Scarborough Shoal is theirs, Taiwan reasserted as the standoff between the Philippines and China in the area entered its 4th week.

Taiwan's Foreign Affairs Ministry is willing to jointly explore South China Sea's resources with other countries, according to a report by Taiwan's national news agency Tuesday, May 1.

GOOGLE USERS NOW CAN SAVE 5GB OF FILES FOR FREE VIA GOOGLE DRIVE!

Google on Wednesday (Manila time) launched its long-awaited Google Drive, a cloud-based storage service integrated into its other online services.

Sundar Pichai, SVP of Chrome and Apps, said Google Drive allows users to create, share, collaborate, and keep various files including videos, photos, Google Docs, and PDFs.“You can get started with 5GB of storage for free—that’s enough to store the high-res photos of your trip to the Mt. Everest, scanned copies of your grandparents’ love letters or a career’s worth of business proposals, and still have space for the novel you’re working on. You can choose to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month,” Pichai said in a blog post.

CHINA iPHONE SALES BOOSTS APPLE'S Q1 EARNINGS BY 94%!

Apple Inc. (AAPL) profit almost doubled last quarter, reflecting robust demand for the iPhone in China and purchases of a new version of the iPad, allaying the growth concerns that sliced shares 12 percent in two weeks.

Net income in the fiscal second quarter climbed 94 percent to $11.6 billion, or $12.30 a share, as sales rose 59 percent to $39.2 billion, Cupertino, California-based Apple said today in a statement. Analysts had predicted profit of $10.02 a share on revenue of $36.9 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is relying more on regions outside the U.S. for sales growth. Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones in the period after releasing the latest model in China and 21 other countries in January. That helped make up for sales declines from the previous quarter at the top U.S. mobile-phone carriers, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. It also quelled speculation that Apple’s growth pace may slacken.

FACEBOOK TO PAY MICROSOFT $550 MILLION FOR 650 AOL PATENTS!

Social networking giant Facebook has struck a deal with Microsoft to get about 650 of some 800 patents that the latter is acquiring from America Online (AOL).

Tech site Ars Technica reported the patents Microsoft aims to acquire from AOL include patents related to the Netscape web browser.

PHL IS 2ND WORST IN WEB PAGE LOADING WORLWIDE!

When it comes to surfing the Internet, Filipinos may have to be extra patient.

This, as the Philippines was listed among the slowest countries in the world for loading Web pages on a desktop computer, according to a study from the Internet giant Google.

iPHONE 5 TO USE LIQUID METAL! GALAXY S3 TO USE CERAMIC TECH!

The next flagship devices from Samsung and Apple Inc. may feel sexier as they will use new materials: ceramics for Samsung's Galaxy, and a new alloy "liquid metal" for Apple's iPhone, according to a report on Korea-based tech site ETNews.com which cited industry sources.

It said the materials will make the two firms' devices thin, light and resistant to impact and added that Samsung's Galaxy S3, to be unveiled in London on May 3, is likely to have a ceramic main body.