Businessmirror March 02, 2019

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SOMOS O NO SOMOS? Evolving special ties between PHL, US in focus as Pompeo meets Locsin

V

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

@BNicolasBM

ISITING United States Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo assured Manila on Friday that the terms of the PHLUS Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) insofar as the obligations to defend the Philippines from aggression are clear, prompting the Philippine government to scale down an earlier push for a review of the 1951 treaty.

“Our commitments under the treaty are clear. Our obligations are real and the South China Sea is certainly part of an important body of

water for freedom of navigation. I think the whole world understands that the Trump administration has made a true commitment to mak-

ing sure that these remain open for security of the countries in the region and for the world, open for commercial transit as well,” Pompeo said in a joint press briefing shortly after meeting Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. at the Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday.

Moreover, Pompeo noted that “any attack on Philippine forces, aircraft, or public vessels in the South China Sea would trigger mutual defense obligations under Article IV of our Mutual Defense Treaty.”

He added, “We remain committed to supporting the Philippines in their efforts and we certainly need it to do its part as well but so all the countries in the region so these vital economic sea lanes are open and China does not close the threat for shutting this down.”

For his part, Locsin said there is no need to review the 1951 treaty as he is “very confident” that the

United States will back the Philippines in case of a confrontation with outside forces in the West Philippine Sea. “…In vagueness lies the best deterrence and what is there and how do you flesh out that vagueness. In repeated assurance by the United States that in the event an act of aggression is committed against the Philippines, I don’t believe going down into the details is the way the sincerity of the American commitment will be shown,” he said during the joint news conference with Pompeo on Thursday.

Referring to the US, Locsin continued, “They will respond depending on the circumstances but we are very assured, we are very confident that United States has in the words of Secretary Pompeo and in the words of [US] President Trump to our President [Duterte], ‘we have your back’.”

Continued on A2

(TOP) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo boards his plane at Colonel Jesus Villamor Air Base in Manila on Friday. (Above) Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. shakes hands with Pompeo after a joint press briefing at the Department of Foreign Affairs. AP/NONIE REYES

From bounty payments to espionage, US alleges Chinese IP theft

I

By Todd Shields | Bloomberg

But this bounty program at Huawei Technologies Co. used encrypted email and it paid workers for secrets stolen from other companies, US prosecutors alleged last month. Their indictment accuses the company of stealing technology from T-Mobile US Inc., a case that gets under way Thursday with a hearing in federal court in Seattle.

American companies for decades have complained about Chinese firms stealing intellectual property—or IP—by theft or by demanding its disclosure in order to do business in the country. US President Donald Trump has made

protection of IP a focus of trade talks now underway.

“The US has made substantial progress in our trade talks with China on important structural issues including intellectual property protection,” Trump said in a tweet on February 24 as he announced the delay of higher tariffs for an unspecified period.

The Chinese government dismisses the complaints. But the US economy loses at least $225 billion annually from counterfeit goods, pirated software, and theft of trade secrets, according to a 2017 report by the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 51.7690

SANGOIRI | DREAMSTIME.COM

T bore hallmarks of a normal incentive program: Employees nominated outstanding work and managers doled out bonuses.

Property, or IP Commission. The IP Commission called China “the world’s principal IP infringer” that is “deeply committed to industrial policies that include maximizing the acquisition of foreign technology and information.”

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Congress on Wednesday that the US is seeking commitments against cyber-theft and physical theft in the ongoing talks.

“I agree with those who see our large and growing trade deficit and their unfair trade practices, including technology transfer issues, failure to protect intellectual property, large subsidies, cyber-theft of commercial secrets and other problems, as major threats to our economy,” Lighthizer said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and former US President Barack Obama in 2015 reached an agreement to stop the theft of corporate secrets. But the US in November 2018 accused China of continuing a See “IP Theft,” A2

n JAPAN 0.4645 n UK 68.6612 n HK 6.5950 n CHINA 7.7342 n SINGAPORE 38.2907 n AUSTRALIA 36.7198 n EU 58.8924 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.8051

Source: BSP (March 1, 2019 )

News

A2 Saturday, March 2, 2019

Somos o no somos?

Continued from a1

In November, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had first floated the idea of reviewing the MDT, amid continuing concern that America was not so committed to helping the Philippines face China’s expansionary moves in the South China Sea, where it has gone on a reclamation and island-building spree, setting up sprawling, fortified facilities that critics say belie Beijing’s claims of purely civilian purposes.

Lorenzana’s push for review was seen as part of a continuing effort to assess the evolving “special relations” of the two allies.

Need to ‘evaluate’

MEANWHILE, Malacañang clarified also on Friday that there is still a need to “evaluate” the treaty “because there may be some kinks that need to be clarified” such as the areas that need to be covered.

“I am sure the Secretary of Defense Lorenzana would want to review despite the pronouncement,” Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo said in a briefing. “We will have to evaluate but we are pleased to note that the US has made a policy statement with respect to attacks on Philippine vessels to be deemed as an attack against the US,” he added.

The Department of National Defense had wanted Washington’s definitive stand on whether Manila could count on its ally’s support in any act of aggression in the nine islets and features that it occupies or claims in the West Philippine Sea. Lorenzana also earlier hinted that the islets and shoals should be covered by the treaty, which, on one hand, obligates the US to militarily come to the aid of the country once it is attacked by the other states.

While the country has occupied or claimed the islets and shoals in the West Philippine Sea, its claims are being challenged aggressively, specifically by China, which has already built fortified bases on its man-made islets in the South China Sea.

This comes as the Duterte administration has sought warmer relations with China despite the maritime dispute in the West Philippine Sea.

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Future FTA, economic relations

AT the bilateral meeting on Friday, both countries also agreed to deepen and expand their bilateral economic relations, including “pursuing negotiations for a future Free Trade Agreement [FTA],” Locsin said.

He did not elaborate further on the FTA but Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said last year that one reason the Philippines is keen on securing this deal is to revive the local garments industry.

Meanwhile, Pompeo also assured Filipinos that America “will remain a close friend in helping them achieve their national dreams.”

He added, “Where America goes, we seek partnership not domination,” he said.

The US official also said the US is eager to build cooperation with other countries, especially when it comes to energy. This, as he made a pitch for American companies over Chinese enterprises.

“Demand for energy in Asia is going to skyrocket in the coming years.

And American companies are poised to invest billions in the region. They are the best partners to deliver reliable, secure and affordable supplies of energy,” he said. “Similarly, American companies are the best partners in priority areas in infrastructure, development and the digital economy because they operate with the highest standards of transparency and adherence to the rule of law. The same cannot be said for Chinese staterun or state-backed enterprises.”

North Korea

POMPEO also cited some highlights of the Hanoi summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the Philippine government.

The second summit between the two leaders ended without any deal or agreement.

He said America appreciates the Philippines’ “firm support for America’s maximum pressure campaign and continued diplomacy.”

While North Korea has denied asking for the lifting of economic sanctions in its entirety in exchange for denuclearizing its main nuclear complex, Pompeo stood firm that Trump’s narrative was right.

“They basically asked for full sanctions really. They did ask for that. That was in exchange for some

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (center) poses with embassy staff at the US Embassy in Manila on March 1, 2019. AP/ANDREW HARNIK

relatively undefined…but a scope that President Trump thinks was not adequate to justify that level of economic sanctions really from the world,” he said.

But North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho has since said that North Korea demanded only partial sanctions relief in exchange for shutting down its main nuclear complex.

Nonetheless, Pompeo said they are still “anxious” to continue the negotiations on the denuclearization of North Korea.

“We are anxious to get back to the table so we can continue the conversation that will ultimately lead to peace and stability, a better life for the North Korean people, and a lower threat, a denuclearized North Korea,” he said.

IP theft… state-backed campaign of intellectual property and technology theft.

China has long denied pilfering technology, attributing the US accusations to hearsay.

Pence complaints

“CHINA’S achievements in innovation have been made by the wisdom and hard work of the Chinese people,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said in response to complaints made

by Vice President Mike Pence last summer.

“It is typical unilateralism and zero-sum thinking to launch trade wars for domestic political considerations and for one’s own interests,” Hua said, according to the Xinhua state news agency.

In December, two Chinese nationals, said by US prosecutors to have coordinated with the Chinese government, were indicted and accused of a decade-long espionage campaign that yielded secrets from US companies and government agencies. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the charges were “an important step in revealing to the world China’s continued practice of stealing commercial data.”

Nuclear, solar

“IP theft has been part of the opening with China from the start,” James Lewis, director of the technology policy program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, said in an interview. “It has been a constant theme.”

Accusations run the gamut, including stealing nuclear-power know-how, software to run wind turbines, industrial fabric-cutting machines—and, in Huawei’s case, parts of a phone-testing robot.

In 2011, the Shenzen-based company was just entering the US market with its phones, and its handsets were failing too often.

It saw a path to catching up with competitors’ quality: a testing robot like the one developed by its partner, T-Mobile.

T-Mobile protected the robot with patents, security cameras, a guard and confidentiality agreements. Huawei engineers in China allegedly pressed their US-based colleagues for details on how the device worked, according to court filings. Tensions rose. “We CAN’T ask TMO any questions about the robot. TMO is VERY angry the questions that we asked,” a Huawei employee in the US allegedly said in an e-mail.

Continued from a1

Robot piece IN May 2013, a Huawei engineer allegedly placed a robot piece into his laptop bag, left with it and, along with a colleague, took measurements and photos and sent them back to China, according to the indictment.

Huawei last month issued a statement saying it had done nothing wrong. “The company denies that it or its subsidiary or affiliate have committed any of the asserted violations of US law set forth in each of the indictments,” Huawei said.

Earlier, it blamed the incident on rogue employees. Representatives of the company were scheduled to appear Thursday in US District Court in Seattle to answer the charges.

China’s foreign ministry reacted to the charges against Huawei by accusing the US of manipulation. It called on the Trump administration to stop its “unreasonable crackdown” on Chinese companies.

Civil suit

THE case already has been the subject of a civil suit. In 2017 a jury awarded T-Mobile $4.8 million in damages from Huawei for breach of contract but rejected allegations of misappropriation of trade secrets.

The parties later agreed to drop the case after settlement talks.

Accusations of theft go back years. In the early 1990s, Chinesemade fabric cutters began appearing on the market. Robert Stevenson, chief executive officer of Buffalo, New York-based Eastman Machine Co., a closely held maker of machines for cutting cloth that dates to the 19th century, said the new machines were clones of those made by his company.

Sales of the genuine machines plummeted, and Eastman went from having 150 union workers and selling 20,000 machines annually worldwide, to 58 workers and selling fewer than 8,000, Stevenson testified to Congress in 2005.

The company survived—but is smaller, he says, as a result of Chinese copying.

“These thefts in China not only have cost me 50 jobs, they probably have cost millions of jobs,” Stevenson said in an interview. “Right now in this discussion with China, with the Trump administration, hopefully they’re doing something about it.”

Most countries steal less as their economy matures, but China shows a different pattern, said Derek Scissors, an economist at the

American Enterprise Institute.

“As China has become more advanced, they’ve been able to benefit more from IP theft,” Scissors said in an interview.

“Cyber makes it possible to steal a lot more than previously” because rather than sneak into a factory, “you just break into the network,” Scissors said. “It’s crucial to China and intractable in the trade talks.”

At times cyber-theft can have a dramatic effect on a victim’s fortunes.

American Superconductor Corp., based in Ayer, Massachusetts, cut almost 700 jobs and lost more than $1 billion in shareholder equity after Sinovel Wind Group Co. allegedly stole software used to regulate power flowing from wind turbines, according to prosecutors.

Sinovel was found guilty last year in a federal court in Wisconsin of orchestrating the 2011 theft, conducted via an Austrian employee paid to become an insider spy. Sinovel agreed to pay $57.5 million in restitution, according to a court filing.

“It’s a Pyrrhic legal victory,” Michael Brown, a former chief executive officer of cybersecurity firm Symantec Corp., told Congress in July.

Wind turbines

AMERICAN Superconductor is “now competing in a global market for wind turbines against its former customer using stolen technology,” Brown said. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.

More recently, China General Nuclear Power Co. turned to a Taiwan-born US citizen and nuclear engineer trained at US universities for help procuring components for its reactors, according to the Justice Department.

The engineer, in turn, allegedly enlisted employees at Florida Power & Light Co. and the Tennessee Valley Authority, to provide technical reports. The engineer pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2017.

China’s nuclear industry once relied on imported technology. But the newest reactors are more than 90 percent domestic.

“The playbook is simple: rob, replicate and replace,” John Demers, assistant US attorney general for national security, testified at a Senate hearing in December.

“Rob the American company of its intellectual property, replicate that technology and replace the American company in the Chinese market, and one day, in the global market.”

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US economy in a ‘good place,’ Fed’s Powell says

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EDERAL Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says that the economy is in a “good place” with low inflation and maximum employment. But he says not every American has enjoyed the benefits of the long expansion.

In remarks on T hursday to the Citizens Budget Council in New York City, he said policymakers must do more to address problems that are holding back long-term growth.

Powell repeated the v iew he gave Congress this week that the Fed can afford to be “patient” in deciding when to boost interest rates again. T hat gives

the central bank time to assess how “crosscurrents,” such as a global slowdow n, w ill impact the economy, he said.

Policy-makers need to boost efforts to address long-term problems, such as low work force participation and weak productivity growth, he said.

From 1991 through 2007, the economy, as measured by the

gross domestic product, expanded annually by about 3 percent, similar to the pace seen for much of the period after World War II, Powell noted.

But he said since 2007—a period marked by the Great Recession—growth has averaged just 1.7 percent, a slowdown that has meant incomes are almost 20 percent lower now than they would have been if the stronger growth had prevailed over the past 12 years.

He cited two elements of this slowdown: a drop in the growth rate of hou rs being worked, and the pace of productiv it y improvements.

The slowdown in hours worked is due in part to a slowdown in growth in the labor force, reflecting lower birth rates and a growing retiree population as the baby boom generation ages.

NOKOR’S KIM VOWS TO MEET TRUMP AGAIN AFTER SUMMIT COLLAPSE N ORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to meet again with President Donald Trump to continue nuclear negotiations after a two-day summit between the leaders collapsed on Thursday, amid disagreement over sanctions relief and conflicting accounts of Pyongyang’s demands.

Kim’s pledge was released Friday through North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA in a report offering a more optimistic outlook than the regime’s top diplomats gave in a rare news conference hours earlier. Kim expressed appreciation for Trump’s “active efforts toward results” and called the summit talks “productive.”

Earlier, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho had disputed Trump’s claim that Kim had demanded a complete removal of economic sanctions—which the US president said led him to break off talks. Another top regime diplomat signaled a hardening stance, telling reporters Kim may have “lost the will” to make a deal on his country’s nuclear program.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui told reporters the “US not accepting our proposal is missing an opportunity that comes once in a thousand years.”

The KCNA report, however, called the efforts to reduce tensions of “great significance.”

Kim has limited options as international sanctions choke North Korea’s faltering economy, and securing some measure of economic support from China would likely be crucial for the regime. The North Korean leader in January made a similar threat to shift toward a “new path” if Trump didn’t lift sanctions and then proceeded to meet the US president.

Trump ended the summit early and said Kim

“wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that.” In exchange, Trump said the North Korean leader had offered to dismantle his nation’s main nuclear facility at Yongbyon.

Ri, however, said North Korea had only asked for relief from sanctions enacted in 2016 and 2017. He said that would mean removing sanctions imposed by five of 11 United Nations resolutions against the country.

In comments later to reporters traveling with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, a senior State Department official said the North Koreans were unwilling to impose a complete freeze on their weapons program, and the sanctions relief would have given North Korea “many, many billions of dollars.” The official, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations, said North Korea was asking for relief of all sanctions except those covering its weapons.

The official said the US looks forward to more talks, while acknowledging that challenges remain. Among them is the fact that the two sides still don’t agree on what “denuclearization” means.

In return for sanctions relief, the North Korean offer included shuttering its plutonium and uranium facilities at Yongbyon under the observation of US experts, Choe said.

Yongbyon is a sprawling complex with dozens of buildings and reactors, including plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment facilities and research centers. It is a crown jewel of the North’s nuclear capabilities.

The US presented Kim with evidence of additional secret nuclear sites, surprising the North Koreans, according to Trump. Pompeo

said that even without Yongbyon, the country would still possess missiles, warheads and other elements of a nuclear program that were unacceptable to the US. Several analysts said Nor th Korea’s demands for sanctions relief included all of the key sanctions, as the US contends, and would have left the Trump administration little leverage to address other hidden enrichment facilities.

“This is basically asking sanctions relaxation on everything. There is not even a value to consider,” the North’s offer, said Shin Beomchul of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

The UN sanctions resolutions imposed since 2016 include limits on North Korea’s crude-oil imports, a ban on the North’s exports of key items such as seafood and minerals, as well as a cap on North Korean laborers working overseas.

Ri told reporters that “first stage” steps such as those Pyongyang proposed are “inevitable” for the process of complete denuclearization. He added that North Korea’s stance “will never be changed” and that “it could be difficult to meet again.”

“Chairman Kim got the feeling that he didn’t understand the way Americans calculate,” Choe added. “I have a feeling that Chairman Kim may have lost the will” to negotiate with Trump.

The North Korean officials’ hastily arranged news conference was a rare departure for the regime, which usually avoids directly engaging with Western media and communicates through formal statements. They assembled reporters on Friday just after midnight local time. Ri spoke and then Choe, the No. 2 in the ministry, stayed behind afterward for a question-and-answer session. Bloomberg News

But he said a more surprising and troubling reason is that the share of Americans counted as being in the work force has fallen significantly since the late 1990s.

While some of this decline is a result of younger people staying in school longer, a drop in the participation rate for those aged 25 to 54 is more troubling, and this decline has been much greater in the United States that in other industrialized countries.

He said research indicates that

the decline is larger among workers with less education and suggests that more needs to be done to prepare people to participate in a modern work force.

P ro duc t i v it y g ro w t h , t he amount of output per hour of work, has also been declining, Powell said. Researchers have been unable to pinpoint the exact reasons for this drop, which is occurring not only in the United States but in other developed countries.

He said while the actual causes for the productivity slowdown may be difficult to isolate, policymakers should focus on creating an environment that will support stronger productivity gains through such methods as encouraging investment in more efficient equipment.

“We need policies that support innovation and create a favorable environment for investment in both the skills of workers and the tools they have,” Powell said. AP

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If you have any information/objection to the above mentioned application/s, please communicate with the Regional Director thru Employment Promotion and Workers Welfare (EPWW) Division with Telephone No. 400-6011.

ATTY. ANA C. DIONE, CPA REGIONAL DIRECTOR

A6 Saturday, March 2, 2019 | Editor: Mike Besa

GOLF IS A GAM

By David MacKenzie

O

ANGELO QUE JOINS LEGENDS IN MAYBANK CHAMPIONSHIP Asean category to bolster regional talent and provide global platform for players

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UALA LUMPUR—The Philippines’ Angelo Que and European Tour legends Thomas Bjørn and Miguel Ángel Jiménez are the latest golf stars to confirm their participation in this year’s Maybank Championship, adding quality to the marquee field in Malaysia.

Que’s entry and that of the two European veterans comes alongside a Maybank announcement of a five-strong ASEAN line-up joining the European Tour and Asian Toursanctioned event at Saujana Golf & Country Club in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia from March 21 to 24.

Joining Que in the ASEAN quintet are Ye Htet Aung of Myanmar, Indonesia’s duo of Danny Masrin and George Gandranata, and Singaporean Johnson Poh. The entries of Bjørn and Jiménez add greater depth to an already formidable field that includes multiple Major championship winners, Ernie Els of South Africa and Irishman Padraig Harrington.

A 15-time winner on the European Tour, Bjørn is riding the crest of a wave of success having led Team Europe to victory over Team Asia

in the EurAsia Cup at Glenmarie in Shah Alam, Malaysia in January 2018 and then that famous triumph over Team United States in the Ryder Cup in France last September.

Jiménez, widely known as the ‘most interesting golfer in the world’ because of his antics on and off the course, has 21 European Tour titles to his credit.

Together they will bring heightened competitions and excitement to the international field in the fourth edition of the US$3 million tournament.

Also, in the mix at Saujana will be Japan’s Shinichi Mizuno, who earned a slot with his victory in the Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Maybank Asian Development Tour (ADT) Championship at Saujana in December.

Commenting on the new additions to the field, Maybank Group President and CEO, Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said, “The inclusion of Que in the ASEAN category, along with Thomas Bjørn and Miguel Ángel Jiménez, is exciting news for golfing fans and will certainly add to the stiff competition expected this year. So too is the ASEAN category, which we see as an extension of

our commitment to support the growth of local talent in the region.”

“We hope the opportunity provided to the five ASEAN players in particular will enable them to lift their game further and inspire even more young talents in the region to aim to be among the world’s best. We wish them and the rest of the field all the very best in the tournament,” added Datuk Abdul Farid.

Defending champion Shubhankar Sharma of India, top-ranked Malaysian Gavin Green, Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa, and Thailand’s Poom Saksansin will also be in Kuala Lumpur.

The Maybank Championship, whose tagline is ‘Where the Best Meet’ is part of the European Tour’s season-long Race to Dubai and will feature no fewer than 15 of the world’s top-150 players. It will also boast star attractions from other nations, including Australia, China, India, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, and Thailand.

The Maybank Championship, which is Malaysia’s premier golf tournament, is set to have a few more star players added to the lineup in the next couple of weeks or so.

N a good day—even your best— you’re going to miss some shots. The player who misses the fewest usually wins.”—Ben Hogan I’ve intentionally used the word “misses” in this article instead of “mistakes”, but too many golfers get the two confused. Ben Hogan once said that he only hit 5-6 shots in a round that were exactly as he intended, the rest were good misses. Misses are an inevitable part of the game. Of course, the aim is to limit them as much as possible, but it’s not so much about the misses themselves but how the player responds to them. Sure, we can learn from our misses and use them to improve in the long run, but on the course, this processing has to be done quickly.

“BOUNCE BACK”

ON the PGA Tour, they have a stat called “bounce back,” which in my opinion is a great statistic to look at to see how a player deals with the adversities and challenges of a round.

It measures what the player does on the hole following a bogey or worse. As you can see, the leader in this statistic scores a par or better almost 40 percent of the time after making a bogey or worse, which is mighty impressive. So why are some players better at rolling with the punches of a round than others? It’s highly likely

that they are using some of the following 10 mental game strategies to prepare for, and cope with, the ups and downs in a round of golf:

STRATEGY 1: ACCEPTING THAT GOLF IS NOT A GAME OF PERFECT GOLF is not a game of perfect. It’s a difficult game, and you are always going to miss the target several times a round. It’s an unpredictable game, and in fact, that’s one of the things that we love about it. Accepting that this is the case, and that you don’t have full control over the outcome, is an important step in mental coaching for golf. As I reminded my Tour player student, you’re never going to be immune to bogeys or worse, and you’re likely to have them in any round, no matter how good you become. So, accept that it will probably happen, and it won’t be such a shock to the system when it does.

STRATEGY 2: DEVELOP A GROWTH MINDSET

“I NEVER learned anything from any game I won”—Bobby Jones Failure and making mistakes are part of the journey to be better, it’s how we learn and improve. I’d like you to work towards a “growth mindset” which is more curious about what can be learned, as opposed to constantly judging your ability based on the outcome of each shot and the scores of your rounds. When

we do this and take a longer-term view of success, it makes it easier to deal with setbacks and challenges (as they are seen as being a constructive part of the improvement process).

Professor Carol Dweck of Stanford University coined the term growth mindset, with the opposite being a fixed mindset, where people are limited by too much focus on results. Because people with a growth mindset know that mistakes are a part of the learning process, they are less afraid of them and it helps them play more freely.

STRATEGY 3: AVOID OUTCOME GOALS

MISSES are going to feel worse if you are also failing in outcome goals that you’ve set for a round. Avoid setting any goals for the outcome of your shots or your round. E.g., avoiding 3 putts, hitting more than 10 fairways, breaking 80, etc., all add pressure and increase the frustration from misses. Instead, set goals that you have full control over.

STRATEGY 4: LIMIT NEGATIVE SELF TALK

PAY attention to how you are talking to yourself after misses. If you find yourself beating yourself up or being your worst critic, snap yourself out of it. It’s important that when you feel like you are losing yourself to a negative state of mind and bad mood, you change it by being your best “inner caddie”

COBRA KING F9 SPEEDBACK DRIVER

ONE OF THE HOTTES D

By Mike Besa

OMINANCE in the driver market has traditionally been the bailiwick of the Carlsbad biggies—Callaway and TaylorMade. It’s been this way for what seems like decades. But parity seems to have caught up with golf club manufacturers. Perhaps the restrictions placed on the performance of the clubface combined

with improvements in manufacturing techniques have served to make substantial gains more difficult, but last year saw some new names at the top of the driver hit parade.

Ping stole the show last year with their G400 series. The G400 MAX, in particular, proved somewhat of a unicorn appealing to amateurs and elite players alike. This year, Cobra is poised to replicate the feat with the new F9 driver.

Most drivers feature one or two key technologies which enhance performance and separate it from its competitors.

Cobra has thrown the proverbial kitchen sink at the F9 by employing every trick in their playbook to extract every iota of performance from the F9.

The theme at Cobra is speed and lots of it.

There might be a limit on how fast driver faces can be so Cobra set out to make the King F9 as aerodynamic as possible to help us swing it faster. They identified a common problem in today’s driver designs: to get optimal aerodynamic properties, you have to sacrifice other parts of the design.

Aerodynamically efficient drivers generally have a raised crown, blended edges and a raised tail, all of which serve to raise the center of gravity, making the club more difficult to hit. Cobra countered this with their Speedback Weighting System, which protrudes below the F9’s trailing edge, returning the center of gravity low and to the rear where it does the most good. Without it, the aero features would raise the center of gravity and make it more difficult to hit.

To this formula, Cobra added their proprietary milled face with Cobra’s Dual Roll Technology, which optimizes bulge above and below the center of the clubface. The axis of the face design is tilted at a 7-degree axis to account for the amount of toe droop the driver experiences during the swing.

Throw in the Carbon Wrap Crown, Cobra’s adjustable hosel that allows +/-1.5 degrees of adjustment in loft with draw settings as options, adjustable weights on the sole to tune the CG location and a very nice selection of highperformance golf shafts, and you have a recipe for what is potentially the driver of the year.

The King F9 Speedback drivers are equipped with Cobra Connect Technology, powered by Arccos. Electronically enabled grips work in conjunction with the Arccos Driver app on your smartphone, allowing you to collect data on your golf games for analysis.

COBRA CONNECT Technology analyzes every aspect of your game, so you can eliminate guesswork and make smarter shot decisions. All of your shot data syncs automatically to your smartphone in your pocket so you can review your progress during and after your round. Track your distances, tune your driver and pore over your stats to

help you make better decisions on the golf course. It’s all there for the taking.

We had read and seen so much about the King F9 Speedback that when a demo was offered to us, we jumped at the chance to put it through its paces. When you swing the club, Cobra’s hard work on its aerodynamic properties become readily apparent; the club swings very easily and feels fast.

The Fujikura Atmos Tour Spec Blue that came with our tester is a real-deal shaft.

Other Tour quality shafts ranging in weight from 50-70+ grams are available to fit the broadest selection of golfers possible. It’s midspin, mid-kick and produces a high, piercing ball. You can also get the King F9 Speedback with a 60-gram Project X Hazardus Smoke and a 70-gram Fujikura Atmos Tour Spec Black for the faster swingers. Golfers with slower swing speeds will love the new 50-gram, Fujikura Speeder Evolution and the 50-gram UST Mamiya Helium shafts.

The King F9 Speedback is a handsome driver to look upon at address. The carbon crown with its reinforcing ribs stands out but isn’t a distraction. The yellow Cobra logo provides reference to the location of the sweet spot.

Because we were in a bit of hurry to perform the tests on the King F9 Speedback, we decided to put it directly into play without any range time. We were in for a very pleasant surprise. True to its heritage, the King F9 is very easy to hit. Finding the center of the clubface was almost routine. It seemed every bit as long as our gamers. We will follow up this review with flight data from a launch monitor to confirm our suspicions about the ball speeds we experienced.

In sum, the Cobra F9 Speedback driver is a technological tour de force. The technologies aren’t just there for show either; this is a serious piece of performance hardware. With the wide range of shaft options, the club’s degree of adjustability for CG location, loft and trajectory make the King F9 Speedback a perfect starting point for a truly explosive hot rod of a driver.

If we had one nit to pick, it would be that the adjustable hosel requires rotating the shaft and thus relocating the position of the shaft’s spine. Now, we’ve heard from the manufacturers for years that their research has shown that the spine position is statistically insignificant. We beg to differ and kept the loft in the standard setting.

Other than that, the Cobra King F9 Speedback is a heck of a driver, and it’s just the first of the hot, new drivers of 2019. Is it the hottest of them all? We can’t wait to find out for ourselves.

The Cobra King F9 Speedback retails for P29,500 and is available at all J-Ten Proshops.

www.pinoygolfer.com | Saturday, March 2, 2019 A7

ME OF MISSES and having self-compassion. The best caddies on the PGA Tour are not just good at helping a player pick the best shot to hit, but they know what to say to help them during the tougher times of a round. You probably don’t have the luxury of a caddie, so you have to do this yourself using positive self talk.

STRATEGY 5: SEPARATE YOU THE PLAYER FROM YOU THE PERSON

YOUR self-worth or ability level should not be linked to the score you just had on a hole or shot you just hit. To avoid playing “ego golf,” I suggest to my students that they “act as if” they are their favorite Tour player (with the characteristic and demeanor they aspire to have). This can help separate you as a player from you as a person. When the ego is too involved, it makes mistakes more difficult to deal with.

STRATEGY 6: BEING MORE SELF-AWARE

DURING your rounds, it’s important to be aware of what you are doing and thinking.

Are your behaviors and thoughts helping or hurting your performance? Through the mental coaching process, we work to identify a player’s “optimal performance state,” so they are always taking action to move themselves towards it. When you have awareness of how you feel, what you are focusing on and what

you are doing, you have more control.

STRATEGY 7: KEEP A PERFORMANCE JOURNAL

TO help you with greater self-awareness when you’re feeling the pressure on the course, it’s important to do some honest reflection after a round about how you dealt with the challenges. What might have caused your misses and how well did you respond? Create an action plan for limiting them and a better way to process them on the course. I always have my students‘ grade on how well they did with this as part of their post-round review.

STRATEGY 8: RECALL YOUR PAST SUCCESSES

ONE way to not let misses compound and instead to bounce back is to remind yourself of your past successes. Develop a personal highlight reel of the times you have felt most confident and successful on the course and got through them in between shots.

STRATEGY 9: ACKNOWLEDGE, ACCEPT AND REFOCUS

HOWEVER you feel on the course, it’s okay to feel that way. This is essentially what mindfulness is about. If you feel disappointed, frustrated or angry, it’s important to accept that’s the way you feel (you are accepting what is true) and not to tell yourself it’s

wrong to feel that way or to try and suppress it. When you go through this process of acknowledgement and acceptance, it’s much easier to move on and refocus.

STRATEGY 10: HAVE A GOOD POST-SHOT ROUTINE

A GOOD post-shot routine keeps you more objective and less emotional. The trick is to reserve judgement and learn from the shot.

Where was your focus before, during and after the shot? Did you focus on your process? Were you thinking about a negative outcome while you were over the ball? Were you 100-percent committed to the shot? Were you overly concerned about your swing mechanics? How was your tempo, and was there any tension?

End each shot with a post-shot evaluation but avoid overanalysis. If you feel like it was something technical that caused the miss, play the shot again (without the ball) and feel the swing you want to make next time. Going back to Strategy #3, the journey to be better is all about being curious and not judging the outcome of each shot. Instead, treat every shot as a learning opportunity for self-discovery. n David MacKenzie is a mental-golf coach

and lives in Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Golf State of Mind, a teaching program designed to help golfers condition their minds to overcome fear and play with confidence.

ST DRIVERS OF 2019

Saso to contest Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific title Three of four players involved in playoff last year join 80-strong field at The Royal Golf Club

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T ANDREWS: Defending champion Atthaya Thithikul will lead a host of emerging stars from the region when the second edition of the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) is played at The Royal Golf Club in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, from April 25 to 28.

At No. 8 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Thailand’s Thithikul will also be the highest-ranked player in the field which features 80 players from 20 Asia-Pacific countries.

As well as Thithikul, two of the other three players involved in the exciting playoff that decided the champion in Singapore last year—Yuka Saso of the Philippines and Yuna Nishimura of Japan—have also committed to the championship.

The 17-year-old reigning Asian Games champion Saso, along with her namesake from Japan, Yuka Yasuda, are the next two highest-ranked players—at Nos. 34 and 17, respectively.

The field comprises 15 players ranked inside the top 100 of the WAGR. The largest contingent is eight players from host nation Japan, while there will be players representing nations such as Bangladesh, Guam, Vietnam, Iran and Cook Islands— countries where the women’s game is still in its infancy.

The champion at The Royal Golf Club will earn a spot in two of the five women’s major championships—the AIG Women’s British Open and the Evian Championship. She will also receive an invite to the 2020 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

Thithikul, who created history in July 2017 when she became the youngest winner on the Ladies European Tour at the age of 14 at the Thailand Championship, enjoyed a phenomenal year as the WAAP champion. She was the Leading amateur

YUKA SASO PAUL LAKATOS/R&A.

at the 2018 Women’s British Open and ANA Inspiration and was tied eighth in the HSBC Women’s World Championship (the three spots she secured as winner of the inaugural WAAP).

“I am so excited to play the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific again. This year, I want to enjoy every moment of the championship and do my best. I am really looking forward

to it,” said Atthaya, who turned 16 on, February 20.

“It means so much to me to have won the WAAP last year. It gave me invitations to many big tournaments, and I feel like it has been a huge learning experience for me in my journey to become a professional golfer.”

Kei Muratsu, chairman of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, said: “Once again, we have the leading amateurs from this region taking part in the championship and the quality of the field shows how important the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific championship has already become within just one year of its inception.

“We are looking forward to welcoming all of our participants to Japan and have no doubt they will put up as impressive a show as they did last year in Singapore.”

The Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific championship has been developed by The R&A and Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) to unearth emerging talent and provide a pathway for Asia’s elite women amateurs to emerge on the international stage.

The R&A launched the Women in Golf Charter last year and is committed to increasing the participation of women in the sport. The WAAP is one of several key championships conducted by the governing body and a significant initiative along with the APGC to drive the popularity of women’s golf in the region.

Kabaya Ohayo Group and Rolex are the championship’s principal sponsors. IMG assists with championship staging and TV broadcasting.

For more information on the championship, visit the web site at randa.org/WAAP. For updates, like the championship’s Facebook page and follow @ WAAPGolf on Twitter and Instagram.

Sports BusinessMirror

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T

HE $100,000 The Country Club (TCC) Ladies Invitational will not only feature world No. 2 Sung-hyun Park but also a slew of Korean aces ready to stamp their mark on the richest-ever tournament on the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour (LPGT).

Hwang Ye-nah, who held off then amateur Princess Superal to win the ICTSI Ladies Open at Southlinks, the first Ladies Professional Golf Association of Taiwan cosanctioned event in 2015, then cruised to a wire-to-wire triumph at the International Container Terminal Services Inc. Champion Tour at Mt. Malarayat in 2017, is back in the hunt, together with former Philippine Ladies Amateur Open titlist Lee Jeong-hwa, who put on a pair of stirring comebacks to sweep the two Champion Tour events at Splendido and Southwoods in 2016.

Focus will also on the young Hwang Minjeong, who marked her pro debut in grand

Saturday, March 2, 2019

Editor: Jun Lomibao • mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

BODY ENGLISH fashion, beating a host of Thailand top guns and Superal to clinch the ICTSI Splendido Ladies Classic title last January.

That should make the South Koreans the marked players in the March 6 to 8 event at the challenging The Country Club in Santa Rosa, Laguna, which serves as the fifth leg of the 2018-19 LPGT season and third stop of the LPGA of Taiwan.

But Park, 26, remains the prime target of a stellar international field eager to earn a crack at the coveted crown and the top $17,500 aside from the bragging rights as the winner of the inaugural championship put up by ICTSI and organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. Park, who recently signed a two-year sponsorship deal with Solaire Resort & Casino, is expected to come into the event in top form, having primed up in the Honda LPGA in Thailand last week.

Canlubang’s Abe Avena and Mari Hechanova hope a little body English would help sink their putts during the third round of the Philippine Airlines Seniors Interclub on Friday at the Club Filipino de Cebu in Cebu. STEPHANIE TUMAMPOS

SAILING CHAMP Emerson Villena (center) emerges as the biggest winner in the inaugural Subic Bay International Regatta Match Racing Championship in the ongoing Subic Bay Cup Regatta. Villena, an Asian Sailing Federation Keel Boat Cup champion, beats fellow Philippine team member Ridgely Balladares. Villena received his Tanduay Rum trophy from Philippine Sailing Association president Judes Echauz (left) and Jun Avecilla, chairman of the Subic Sailing.

I

LOILO City’s Kimberly Colaste beat Cebu City’s Maria Kristine Lavandero in the seventh and final round to top the girls’ 12-under standard division and emerge the first double-gold medal winner in chess in the Visayas Leg of the 2019 Philippine National Youth Games-Batang Pinoy at the Iloilo Sports Complex Covered Gym on Friday in Iloilo City.

Colaste, 11, finished with six points, half a point ahead of eventual silver medalist Ysabelle Noriel Nabor of La Carlota City with 5.5 points and a full point atop Kristina Concepcion Belano of Cebu Province.

It was the second gold for the Asean Youth campaigner after she also topped the rapid event last Monday. She is expected to go for a third gold medal in the blitz starting at 9 a.m. on Sunday.

Anton Benedict Bebit gave Iloilo its fourth gold in chess after he topped the 12-under standard event by drawing with Mark Alfonso Azaola of Capiz in the final round ahead of Tagbilaran’s Kyle Christian Sumingat and Victorias City’s Steven Paul Gancia, who settled for the silver and bronze, respectively.

H

OUSTON—James Harden had 58 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds and the Houston Rockets overcame a 21-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Miami Heat, 121118, on Thursday night.

Harden made 8 of 18 three-pointers and was 16 of 32 overall from the field and 18 of 18 on free throws. He fell three points short of his career high set at New York on January 23, and had the most point ever against the Heat—breaking Willie Burton’s mark of 53 for Philadelphia on December 13, 1994.

Austin Rivers scored 17 points, and Chris Paul and Gary Clark each had 14 to help Houston win its fourth straight game. The Rockets shot 49 percent, including 19 of 46 on three-pointers.

Kelly Olynyk and Goran Dragic each had 21 points for Miami, Justise Winslow added 19 points and eight assists, and Josh Richardson had 18 points. The Heat shot 52 percent, making 15 of 28

Their efforts virtually clinched Iloilo City its first overall title in Batang Pinoy, as it has raked in a 46-38-35 (gold-silver-bronze) haul ahead of last year’s champion Cebu City (32-42-44) and Cebu Province (32-20-33) with a day to go.

Bacolod City’s Tyrone Dale Yao denied Asean Youth gold-medal winner Jave Mareck Peteros of Cebu City a second gold by snatching the boys’ under-15 standard mint.

Yao, who drew with Jerish John Velarde of Lapu-Lapu, and Peteros, who smashed John Lester Belano of Cebu Province, actually finished tied for first with 5.5 points apiece but the former took the gold by virtue of his shock fourth-round upset of the latter.

Peteros, a Grade 8 student at University of San Carlos who snared the rapid gold Monday, blamed himself for blowing his winning opportunities.

“It was my fault. I was winning against him [Yao] and lost and I was also winning in the sixth round [versus Mandaue’s Arje Villarin] and ended up with a draw. It was really all on me,” Peteros said. “I’ll just do my best to win in the blitz event and make up for this.”

three-pointers.

Miami was coming off a home victory over Golden State on Wednesday night on Dwyane Wade’s banked three-pointer at the buzzer.

Houston played at Charlotte on Wednesday night.

Tobias Harris scored 32 points and Ben Simmons had a triple-double to help Philadelphia beat Oklahoma City, 108-104.

Harris had his highest point total in eight games with Philadelphia since coming off in a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers. Simmons had 11 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists for his ninth triple-double of the season.

Star center Joel Embiid missed his fourth straight game because of left-knee soreness.

Russell Westbrook had his 25th triple-double of the season for Oklahoma City, finishing with 23 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. Thunder forward Paul George sat out with soreness in his right shoulder. AP

T

HIS early Jayvee Mocon is making a strong case for the season’s Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Rookie of the Year plum.

The Rain or Shine wingman emerged as the PBA Press Corps’s Rookie of the Month for February following his stellar showing that helped propel the Elasto Painters on top of the Philippine Cup. The former San Beda ace averaged 5.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in the five games Rain or Shine played during the “Love Month”—all of which the team won.

Mocon played an averaged 20.18 minutes per outing and started in two out of those five games and was the leading rebounder of the team during that stretch.

Picked sixth overall by Rain or Shine in last year’s draft, Mocon jump-started the month by exploding for 18 points, 17 rebounds and four assists, as Rain or Shine stunned reigning and defending champion San Miguel Beer, 108-98, at the Ynares Center in Antipolo to emerge co-Best Player of the Game with two-time Most Valuable Player James Yap. Mocon bested top rookie pick CJ Perez for the monthly honor handed out by the men and women regularly covering the PBA beat.

Perez, the first-ever recipient of the plum for the month of January, placed second in the voting after posting averages of 15.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists with Columbian Dyip, which went 1-2 in the three games it played.

NBA RESULTS Indiana 122, Minnesota 115 Orlando 103, Golden State 96 Cleveland 125, New York 118 Houston 121, Miami 118 Philadelphia 108, Oklahoma City 104 Utah 111, Denver 104

BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

ADRI shows her love for skin care and makeup.

GAME FACE ON FOR CYBERZONE GAME FEST 2019 CALLING all e-gamers. Gear up for the much-awaited gaming weekend of the year and get a firsthand experience on the latest gadgets and trends at the Cyberzone Game Fest 2019, ongoing until March 3 at The Annex of SM City North Edsa.

“With the fast growth of the gaming community, we aim to take it a notch higher as we offer Filipino e-gamers and fans an extraordinary experience through live tournaments and exclusive access to the latest in tech in select SM malls,” said SM Supermalls Senior Vice President for Marketing Jonjon San Agustin.

This year’s game fest will feature exciting activities for game lovers to enjoy: 1. MOBILE LEGENDS TOURNAMENT. In partnership with MESA, gamers may gather their teams for a thrilling live tournament experience at the Mobile Legends Tournament, happening in all legs of the game fest.

2. GAME ZONE. With the touch-and-try customer experience of participating tech brands, gamers and shoppers alike can get first dibs on exclusive deals and discounts on mobile, console, and PC and laptop products.

3. GAME BATTLE GROUND. Game enthusiasts will have the chance to showcase their skills in various gaming tournaments, such as Tekken 7, PUBG and Special Force (Allstar by Playpark), from participating partners and brands.

Copresented by PLDT and Smart, the Cyberzone Game Fest 2019 will bring excitement in other SM malls: Southmall (March 8 to 9), Batangas, (March 15 to 17), Puerto Princesa (March 22 to 24), Manila (March 29 to 30), Marikina (April 5 to 7), Legazpi (April 12 to 14), Cebu (April 26 to 28), Bacoor (May 3 to 5), Clark (May 10 to 12), Davao (May 17 to 19) and Fairview (May 24 to 25).

This event is made possible by Asus Republic of Gamers, Asus Zenfone, Acer Predator, Lenovo Legion, HP Omen, Sony Playstation, Samsung, PC Express, MSI, Logitech, Complink, JBL, Data Blitz, Ubisoft, Playpark, NVIDIA, Cooler Master, AOC/Agon, Sennheiser, HyperX and Secret 6.

BASS ‘N BACON IS NOT JUST YOUR USUAL EDM PARTY A party with free bacon and a whole lot of bass? How

about an EDM party with heroes and villains? Sony recently partnered with Emoji Records as it continues to strengthen its presence in the local EDM scene with its Extra Bass product line. The EDM communities had the time of their lives and partied ‘til the break of dawn at the Movie Stars Café on February 15. This is the fifth year that Emoji Records organized the Bass ‘n Bacon event. Inspired by comic book characters, the EDM party attendees were dressed up as their favorite superheroes and villains. Spin performances from top local EDM artists in the two interactive stages powered up with Sony Extra Bass speakers to pump up their sets. A touch and try booth was available in the entrance showcasing EXTRA BASS headphones and speakers, giving the attendees a chance to experience the deep and punchy bass music which is perfect for EDM lovers. Plan your EDM parties or be your own DJ with Sony Extra Bass headphones and speakers. Products are available in all Sony Centers nationwide.

Saturday, March 2, 2019 A9

FOR travel, no one beats Ana Gonzales.

Why would you follow anyone on Instagram?

PRIMETIME

DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

‘S

HE [or he] is so boring. I will unfollow or mute” is a statement that I hear a lot from my friends in reference to celebrities and social-media influencers.

The next common complaint is, “He [or she] is kadiri [repulsive].”

Why do we follow influencers? Is it because they’re good looking and/or hot? It starts with the looks, of course. You follow someone because his or her visual appeals to you. For instance, I have never followed this famous American blogger and influencer even at the height of her fame because I couldn’t relate to her aesthetic. She’s beautiful and has a great sense of style but I never really “got” her, if you know what I mean.

But I do follow Dara (@daraxxi on Instagram), who we all know as Sandara Park in the Philippines,

because I think she is beautiful and cool in the way I think people are cool. She dresses like my friend Cecile, who’s one of the coolest people I know. Dara’s Instagram isn’t really “feed goals,” as kids like to call it these days, but it’s interesting enough for me.

Another account that I follow is that of Adri (@sortofobsessed), who loves skin care and makeup.

Adri has the most amazing skin. I love how she curates her Instagram to the point that it is on-point, but still reflects her personality. On her feed, Adri mostly posts the products that she likes with a dominantly pink aesthetic. I am not a fan of pink, but I make an exception for her. Adri’s Instagram stories, where she reviews products and shows her followers how she uses them, are very informative.

I appreciate how Adri replies to her followers without being snarky.

Ava Te-Zabat (@artsyava) is also someone with a pastel feed. This wife and mother is not your typical mommy blogger. She is someone who is young at heart. I love how she composes her photographs and how she knows her best angles so that each image is perfect or nearly so.

For travel, no one beats Ana Gonzales (@anagon) who is an expert in a way that you can relate to.

Ana can find her way around Japan and Korea, despite not speaking the language. Via her Instagram stories, she has the most practical tips for travelers. I

also love her photos.

So what would make people follow a celebrity or influencer on social media, particularly Instagram?

So I made an informal survey and this is what I found out: 1. People are so obsessed with feed goals, but it is not a serious consideration. You don’t follow someone because he or she has amazing pictures of sunsets and clouds.

2. If you post food, make sure it is appetizing. This certain dish might be your childhood favorite, but people may not like the way it looks.

3. Unless you’re an actress or actor with a spectacular face, don’t post your face all the time.

Three out of five posts with your face on it is an acceptable ratio.

4. Pets, shoes and travel are three of the posts people I talked to found the most interesting. But they also said they don’t want to be saturated with posts like these. A balance is what they seek.

5. People I talked to didn’t mind sponsored posts, but they said celebrities and influencers had to be true to their own brand. Turn-offs include influencers posting about one particular brand today and the rival brand after two days. They also didn’t like it if celebrities and influencers posted about dieting and whitening aids, and it is obvious that the posts are sponsored. ■

PLDT says beauty queens are effective influencers TELECOMMUNICATIONS juggernaut PLDT Inc. said tapping beauty queens is an effective way of developing a strong branding position to ensure strong customer loyalty.

Andrew Santos, PLDT first vice president and head of consumer marketing, said the company has gotten a warm response from the local market since the organization partnered with the Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc. in 2014.

He added that the business alliance enabled the brand to gain more exposure both in the local and foreign markets, especially when the Philippines hosted the Miss Universe competition in 2017.

In this regard, Santos said PLDT has consistently supported outstanding and inspiring Filipinas who have made an impact in the international stage like the Miss Universe contest. “PLDT supports world-class Filipino talents and we take pride in the achievements of outstanding Filipinas like Miss Universe Catriona Gray. Together with Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc., we continue to support them in their mission to bring pride to the country and help uplift the lives of Filipinos through service and nation-building,” he said in a press statement.

On February 22 Gray was given a warm welcome

by PLDT officials and employees led by its chairman Manuel Pangilinan when she paid a courtesy call, a tradition that has been carried on since 2014, when PLDT Home and Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc. first forged their fruitful partnership in support

MISS Universe Catriona Gray

of outstanding and inspiring women who make an impact in the international stage.

In 2017 when the Miss Universe pageant was held in the Philippines, Santos said PLDT Home Fibr was at the forefront of the international event. He added that Pangilinan played a major role to enable the country to host the beauty pageant in 2017.

As a result, Santos said PLDT and Smart provided fixed broadband and mobile connectivity to power up

the Miss Universe pageant.

Santos said PLDT has made it their commitment to sponsor major Binibining Pilipinas events and had been engaging most of the beauty queens and their respective courts as PLDT Home brand ambassadors.

As such, PLDT and the queens have both been reaching out to Filipinos from all walks of life spreading cheer and goodwill all over the country.

RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES

BusinessMirror

A10 Saturday, March 2, 2019

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THE free HP ePrint and HP Smart apps enable users to remotely control select HP printers using their mobile devices.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Now you can remotely control your printer THROUGH ever-evolving digital technology and the Internet, people are discovering faster and more convenient ways of connecting with their loved ones from anywhere, and sharing their adventures and experiences to millions of people around the world.

This same boundless technology is what enables HP users to harness the capability of HP printers and put its power in the palm of their hands, wherever they may be.

With the HP ePrint app and HP Smart app installed— these are available for free download on the Apple App Store and Google Play—in their mobile devices, users can print almost anything, from anywhere, at any time, using their HP Photosmart network-capable printers with integrated wireless or Ethernet and selected HP Officejet printers (www. hp.com/go/mobileprinting).

With the HP ePrint solution, users can easily print documents, presentations and photos by attaching .doc, .txt or PDF files, PowerPoint files, or JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PNG and GIF image files to an e-mail message and sending this to the printer’s e-mail address. The simple process does not require any printing software and enables the printers to be shared among multiple devices with Internet connection, including smartphones, tablets, desktop PCs, laptops, or notebook computers, in the office or at home.

The printer’s HP ePrint e-mail address is provided when the service is enabled during initial product setup and registration. HP assigns a random e-mail address for the printer and does not publicize it to prevent unauthorized e-mail. HP ePrint also provides industry-standard spam filtering and transforms e-mails and attachments to a printonly format to reduce the threat of a virus or harmful content.

With the HP Smart app, on the other hand, users can print from their mobile devices to virtually anywhere with select HP printers, including the HP Ink Tank Wireless 415 AiO printer.

The app enables printing photos and documents directly from smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices; Facebook, Instagram or other social-media platforms; cloud storage, like Dropbox, Google Drive and camera-roll gallery. The app even customizes photos for print optimization.

With the HP Smart app, scanning and sharing files on the go has never been faster and easier. With the app, just take a picture of the document using a smartphone camera and share them to the cloud, e-mail or social media.

The app’s automatic border detection makes scans align perfectly for professional-looking images. The app also enables sending and sharing digital files to the printer for remote printing. Running out of ink or toner will not be a problem as users can easily monitor and order supplies using the HP Smart app.

We can use the Internet to make ourselves happier

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BY TYLER COWEN Bloomberg

OST critiques of online activity and social media are neither rigorous nor helpful—by which I mean, they do not adequately explain why spending so much time online might be problematic and, if it is, what to do about it. Allow me to offer a tentative hypothesis and solution.

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who is also a Nobel laureate in economics, has written and cowritten a number of papers on happiness in which he distinguishes between enjoying the moment and having an overall sense of satisfaction with one’s life. As it turns out, these two variables often diverge quite dramatically.

For instance, you might enjoy getting rip-roaring drunk one night with your friends. But looking back on that experience may not help you feel you lived a better and richer life; you might wish you had spent the time working for charity instead. Alternatively, raising children may be highly rewarding in the long run, but moment-by-moment it probably increases stress and maybe even subtracts from any feelings of immediate happiness. (Haven’t you heard the joke, “The best thing about having kids is having a night away from the kids”?)

Humans have been making trade-offs between these different kinds of rewards for generations. Of course, we don’t always get it right.

What’s new is this: online life and social media have radically shifted the relative costs across rewards. It is now far easier to pursue immediate

happiness, compared to the available options in, say, 1986. E-mails, TikTok videos, the latest witty (or outraged) tweets, whatever your favorite online avocation may be—all are just a keystroke, click or swipe away. And as economists would predict, people are indeed seeking and finding far more momentary pleasures.

Consider the time I spend on Twitter. I can take a peek and have some fun pretty much anytime I want, and for free. Yet never do I think that I will someday look back and reminisce about all that time I spent scrolling through tweets.

In contrast, I look back fondly on my time in high school, and how my friends used to ride bikes to each other’s homes to hang out and listen to record albums. I’m no longer sure how much fun it was at the time, or even if that matters—the glorious memories are in place. The same is true for the good travel experiences I have had, even (especially?) if at the time they were quite stressful or simply involved a lot of tedious legwork.

My tentative conclusion from all this: online life is inducing us to invest less in our memories and longterm sense of satisfaction. It is pretty obvious from human behavior that, right now, the Internet is doing more to boost short-term pleasures.

The more negative take would be that online life is obscuring our understanding of our own lives. I do not go that far. After all, humans make analogous choices about balancing short- and long-term happiness when they have one child rather than four, or when they sit on an exercise bike rather than get on a plane to Paris.

Those aren’t the wrong decisions for everybody.

I would also point out that it is possible to use the

Internet to make fond memories or improve our longterm sense of satisfaction. It may help us find the right romantic partner (cue to those four children) or plan that memorable vacation.

Too often I hear critics describe online behavior in terms of “addiction.”

Yet, addiction has a fairly well-defined set of medical and clinical meanings, and they do not always transfer readily to the technology context. I don’t, for instance, observe many people trying to throw away their smartphones, the way many people try to quit alcohol or cigarettes. At the same time, many people who want to quit parts of the Internet, such as blogging or Twitter, seem to be able to do so without going through withdrawal.

All this said, it’s hard to argue that the Internet hasn’t made things worse for human beings who are already inclined to seek too much immediate reward.

The Internet feeds this tendency. It’s probably also true that people with richer long-term memories provide external benefits to society as a whole, for example by passing down wisdom or inspiration.

There is so much talk about regulating or controlling the Internet. Dare I suggest an alternative approach? Use public policy to help shift the balance of ease back toward life satisfaction and the formation of longer-term memories.

Make it cheaper and easier to have and raise children. Use the education system to support more study trips abroad. Think about how to ease the pursuit of long-term life satisfaction.

There are plenty of human imperfections behind our online choices. As we respond, why not accentuate the positive—and keep the freedom to choose? ■

Digital technology boosts ASA Philippines’s profitability

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES SMALL banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the Philippines are realizing the importance of digital technology to achieve higher degree of operational efficiencies, and are seeking to offer more services to the unbanked and underserved portion of the country’s over 100 million population.

Experts said investing in digital technology, such as cloud-based systems, can deliver positive results for the microfinance sector as their revenues increase with wider reach and higher volume of transactions.

ASA Philippines, a major microfinance nongovernment organization (NGO), which offers collateral-free loans as little as P5,000 ($93) to nearly 1.7 million women entrepreneurs all over the country underscored the importance of deploying digital technology to enhance their operations.

“We used to be known as a company with only

paper and pencil, but now we have an automated system,” said ASA Philippines President and CEO Kamrul Hasan Tarafder, referring to how the company’s microfinance officers and agents once handled transactions in the field, in report posted in the company’s web site.

After interconnecting all its 1,150 branches using a cloud-based system in 2016, Tarafder said ASA Philippines achieved a turnaround in two years compared to the challenge it experienced in the first 12 years of its operations, expanding to the remotest places in the country and quadruple its product offerings. “Now I can check our financial standing any moment, anytime. Previously, I had to wait almost until the end of the month to understand the performance, audited status of the institution, profitability, portfolio quality, etc.,” Tarafder said.

“That gave us the courage, both the management and the board, for greater expansion. Our system

helped us to get even to remote places—we are in Itbayat and in Sitangkai,” Tarafder said. Itbayat is a town in the northern Philippine province of Batanes, while Sitangkai is the southernmost municipality of the Philippines.

Migrating to the cloud benefited ASA. Tarafder said ASA’s net income jumped more than 150 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, while its loan portfolio climbed 57 percent in the same period. Its loan portfolio further increased by an annual 52 percent in 2017. Developed as an in-house product for ASA, the cloud-based system also helped the MFI diversify its products. From just two types of loans—business loan as well as water and sanitation loan—ASA now offers nine loan products, including educational financing, housing loans and agriculture financing.

“The most important achievement was diversifying our portfolio. We could not have managed multiple loans without the cloud system,”

Tarafder pointed out. Since 2000, the Asian Development Bank has been working closely with the government and other development partners to support the Philippines’s goal of increasing the poor’s access to finance and addressing high-income inequality in the country. The ADB Board of Directors recently approved a $300-million loan to fund reforms under the Inclusive Finance Development Program. The program provides the resources on ADB’s work started the 1990s in helping the government create a vibrant microfinance industry.

Under the Inclusive Finance Development Program, ADB has worked with the government to identify priority reforms to increase financial inclusion. These reforms include, strengthening agriculture finance; improving financial literacy; expanding micro insurance, crop insurance, and Islamic finance; as well as encouraging digital innovation in the banking sector.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

BusinessMirror

Saturday, March 2, 2019 A11

YouTube walks a tightrope with its video makers, advertisers

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FROM left: Bevin Manian, VP for Retail Pro International; John Boe, senior director on consulting services for Genie Technologies Inc.; Sriharsha lindala, Solution Advisor VP for JDA Software; and Brian Fernandez, director of sales for Capillary.

BY RACHEL LERMAN The Associated Press

AN FRANCISCO—YouTube’s year-in-review video is usually a celebration of video creators who upload free clips—sometimes wacky, sometimes personal, sometimes offensive— that the company then sells ads against.

But this time, the video-sharing network provoked a backlash from creators and viewers with “Rewind 2018,” which sidelined many prominent YouTubers in favor of mainstream celebrities and an inclusive, feelgood message.

The snubbed YouTubers and their fans quickly retaliated with a passive-aggressive but potent protest. Within a week, Rewind 2018 was the most unpopular video on the service, now with more than 15 million dislikes. So intense was the dissent that YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki sort-of apologized and reached out directly to at least one neglected YouTuber. The outcry highlights the challenges YouTube faces as it tries to navigate the tension between creators who make the videos, some of them controversial and the advertisers who fuel profits.

YouTube is an increasingly important business for parent company Google. Although Google doesn’t break out YouTube revenue, the research firm eMarketer estimates that YouTube ad revenue grew to $9.5 billion in 2018, up 22 percent from the year before. YouTube makes some of its own videos, but relies heavily on outsiders for the vast majority.

As YouTube grows, it’s easier for YouTubers to feel slighted by YouTube’s attentiveness to advertisers.

Some saw Rewind 2018 as an effort by YouTube to present a sanitized version of itself, said Luke Majoinen, who runs the entertainment YouTube channel Joinen, which has more than 200,000 subscribers. “It’s pretty much an ad for YouTube.”

Video creators disillusioned with YouTube don’t have many alternatives. Although there are other options—Snapchat, and an increasingly competitive Instagram—it’s still the first place viewers turn to watch videos. And it’s the most viable way to make money, Majoinen said.

Creators who have enough subscribers to their video channels—usually more than 1,000—can apply to get paid a sliding rate when enough viewers watch ads that run with their videos. In her quarterly blog post to YouTubers, Wojcicki acknowledged that her kids found the Rewind video “cringey.”

“We hear you that it didn’t accurately show the year’s key moments, nor did it reflect the YouTube you know,” she narrated in an accompanying video as thumbs-down icons popped up on the screen. “We’ll do better to tell our story in 2019.”

In particular, the Rewind video appeared to steer clear of some popular but controversial video creators.

It featured more than a dozen celebrities who used YouTube to launch their fame, as well as mainstream celebs such as Will Smith and Trevor Noah.

But it excluded one of the top YouTube stars,

OMNICHANNEL WILL CONTINUE TO DISRUPT IN 2019, GENIETECH SAYS

Felix Kjellberg. The Swedish YouTuber who goes

by PewDiePie has 86 million followers. YouTube has distanced itself from him after he made jokes criticized as anti-Semitic and posted Nazi imagery in his videos. YouTube also excluded Logan Paul, who made an infamous video in Japan’s Aokigahara forest, sometimes called the “suicide forest,” which appeared to show a dead body hanging from a tree and Paul giggling and joking about it.

Kjellberg and Paul have both apologized for offensive videos. And despite the transgressions, their audiences stayed strong. The pair still hold power on a service where so much is determined by subscriber loyalty. Many YouTubers responded to Rewind by posting reaction videos expressing their disappointment. Kjellberg made his own version of Rewind, which heavily featured what many thought YouTube’s video was missing—himself. (That, and memes.) It garnered more than 7 million likes.

Companies know advertising on YouTube can be risky, but it also attracts an audience that can be otherwise hard to reach, eMarketer principal analyst Paul Verna said.

Advertisers flexed their muscles in early 2017 and began boycotting the site until it could prevent their ads from appearing next to extremist clips promoting hate and violence.

The boycott was short lived, but smaller boycotts have popped up since, including one over the past week when AT&T, Nestlé and Epic Games suspended ads on YouTube while the company worked to quell

inappropriate comments that sexualized children on otherwise innocuous videos.

YouTube allows advertisers to choose topics and demographics to target with their ads. But some companies want to see stronger protections against inappropriate videos to assure their ads appear next to safe videos.

YouTube has taken action to protect advertisers, but creators now complain that YouTube’s countermeasures results in some of their videos being improperly “demonetized,” or classified as not suitable for ads—which means they don’t earn money.

YouTube didn’t respond to a request for comment on demonetization.

YouTube’s Wojcicki, however, did respond directly to a PewDiePie video on the subject. In a comment, she pointed creators to an official video explaining demonetization and noting that YouTube still promotes demonetized videos through its recommendation engine.

Majoinen and other creators say they’re standing behind YouTube.

“I’m optimistic they’ll continue to work on blind spots,” said Marques Brownlee, who appeared in the Rewind video and runs a tech review YouTube channel that has 7.8 million followers. His own reaction video to Rewind also noted its advertiserfriendliness. There is good news for one artist in all this—Justin Bieber no longer has the most disliked video, a title he previously held for the music video of his song “Baby.” ■

AS consumer expectations heighten and e-commerce sales continue to rise, Genie Technologies (GenieTech, www.gti.com.ph), a leading solutions provider, says that businesses too slow to adapt to the ever-changing digital world have a tough road ahead.

According to a 2018 study conducted by Nielsen, the global fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) e-commerce platform will reach over $400 billion and will account for a 10- to 20-percent market share.

As such, there are now more consumers who are buying online through omnichannel facilities, especially with the advent of mobile devices and digital tools that are changing the brand-to-customer experience. GenieTech Philippines Chief Operating Officer Mahesh Gopinath said that this trend is also pertinent to the Philippine market, with over 67 million Filipinos now using the Internet.

“Retail is not complicated but old strategies are failing to address customer problems due to the changing demands of the market. By taking advantage of omnichannel facilities, businesses can provide an even better experience to their customers,” said Mahesh during the 1st Omnichannel Asia Summit Philippines 2019 held recently at the SMX Convention Center Aura, SM Aura Premier, Taguig City.

Mahesh also noted that omnichannel is about connecting the customer journey. From the stores to the apps, desktops and tablets, omnichannel solutions are proven technologies that provide a seamless customer experience. It connects multichannel listing, POS, inventory management, and other solutions to consolidate customer data from all points of the buying process.

“Retailers are competing to provide the best customer experience. Omnichannel solutions are the way to provide customers with a seamless online and offline experience,” Mahesh added.

Among the resource persons from the tech and retail industries who graced the event include Grab Philippines Country Head Brian Cu, Facebook Philippines Head of Client Solutions Ash Mandhyan, Shopee Associate Director Martin Yu and Lazada COO Carlos Barrera.

Japanese engine manufacturer bares smart agri tractors to Southeast Asia market

BY PAULINE JOY M. GUTIERREZ JAPAN’S Yanmar Agribusiness Corp. unveiled recently its newest tractor equipment for the Southeast Asia market. The YM3B7A and YM351A models with engine outputs of 57 and 51 horsepower, respectively, feature a host of new technology and will go on sale in the first quarter of 2019 and soon be deployed internationally in a bid to widen the company’s global reach.

“With the entry of the YM into the burgeoning Southeast Asia tractor market, Yanmar is poised to deliver 21st-century agriculture by providing value to the region’s farmers,” President Hiroaki Kitaoka said in a statement in Bangkok, Thailand.

According to Yanmar, the launch of the YM series addresses the demand by field contractors for efficient 50hp to 60hp machines that cut costs and, ultimately, increase farmers’ profit margin.

Both models are designed to work on rice paddies and dry fields, as well as haul heaps of crops. Its newly designed rotary tillers limit soil traveling into the rotary for reduced power loss.

Yanmar has also utilized information and communication technology for automation through the SMARTASSIST-Remote (SA-R).

SA-R allows operators to access vital operational

information about their tractors through an intuitive user interface which can be accessed from a smartphone. Its geolocation features show the tractor’s location and work status, as well as measure work area accurately for easier inspection of work logs. This technology, which is standard to both the YM351A and the YM357A, can also issue warnings when the machinery is operating outside preset parameters, or if the equipment moves beyond designated boundaries. “[Beyond updates on the] working condition of the tractor, SA-R can also alert service personnel or help with scheduling servicing,” said Kitaoka in a press interview during the launch event.

Yanmar’s YM tractors come with a Yanmar directinjection TNV diesel engine that realizes high power with low fuel consumption and increased durability.

This engine incorporates a number of innovations such as a mono plunger fuel injection pump that atomizes fuel at uniformly high pressure, combustion chamber designed for even fuel-air mixture and complete combustion for high- and low-power emissions, and two-stage air filters to prevent piston ring wear. A full synchromesh transmission allows operators to change direction and speed without gear noise. Meanwhile, gear ratios are matched to work speed with eight forward and eight reverse gears.

The drivetrain of the engine and core parts are made with highly durable casting. The tractor has double cone synchronizer and a double labyrinth seal. It also features a hydraulic clutch and one-touch power take-off button. The Yanmar engines are made in Japan featuring the iconic red body build design by

Yanmar Holdings Director Ken Okuyama. The body and parts, on the other hand, are sourced from India while its assembly was done in Thailand.

These tractors will be made available in the Philippines through local distributor Ada Manufacturing Corp. ■

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YANMAR Agribusiness Corp. President Hiraoki Kitaoka beside the YM351A tractor model.

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

BusinessMirror

Saturday, March 2, 2019 A12

Foldables, 5G and best from MWC THE TECHNIVORE ED UY

whereiseduy@gmail.com

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HEN Apple launched its 10th anniversary phone in 2017, the iPhone X, it made sure it received all the attention worthy of a milestone device—even if it meant making their other devices, the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, immediately obsolete.

In Samsung’s case, however, the new Samsung Galaxy S10 line may have headlined their Unpacked 2019 event, but it was clearly the Galaxy Fold which stole the show. Yes, the S10e, S10, and S10+ are really good phones, packed with every possible feature could imagine—but when you see a phone that folds, end of story. The Galaxy Fold, may not be the first foldable phone, but it certainly is the most interesting device from the South Korean company thus far. The Galaxy Fold features the world’s first 7.3-inch Infinity Flex Display, which folds into a compact device with another cover display. Galaxy Fold offers a powerful new way to multitask, watch videos, play games, and more—bringing to life new experiences and possibilities years in the making.

Galaxy Fold is in a category of its own delivering a new kind of mobile experience and brings together material, engineering and display innovations, developed over eight years following the debut of Samsung’s first flexible display prototype in 2011.

The internal screen does not merely bend; it folds. Folding is a more intuitive motion, and a more difficult innovation to deliver. Samsung invented a new polymer layer and created a display around 50 percent thinner than the typical smartphone display.

The new material makes Galaxy Fold flexible and tough, built to last. It opens smoothly and naturally, like a book, and closes flat and compact with a satisfying click. The Galaxy Fold also has a unique UX providing new ways to get the most out of your smartphone. Designed for the ultimate multitasker you can open up to three active apps simultaneously on the main display and with App Continuity, there is seamless transitions between the cover and the main displays. As Galaxy Fold opens and closes, apps will automatically show up where you leave off. When you’re ready to take a photo, make in-depth edits, or have a closer look at social-media feeds, open the display for a big screen and fuller canvas.

To ensure everything runs smoothly, even when running three apps simultaneously, the Galaxy Fold has a high-powered, next-generation AP chipset and 12GB of RAM with PC-like performance. It has a dual battery system and is also capable of charging itself and a second device simultaneously via Wireless PowerShare. As for the cameras, the Galaxy Fold has a total of six lenses—three in the back, two on the inside and one on the cover.

The Galaxy Fold will be available in the US both in LTE and 5G variants starting April 26 with a price tag starting at $1,980, or roughly P103,000. It is still

uncertain if it will be available locally.

ARE YOU (FOLD)IN OR OUT? WITH Samsung announcing the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Fold ahead of the biggest mobile show, there were those who thought the annual Mobile World Congress 2019 would be a little less exciting. But after reading all the good stuff about the event, it seems that Samsung’s absence just gave other manufacturers more opportunities to showcase their own devices.

First, of course, is Huawei. When Samsung kicked off Unpacked 2019 with the Galaxy Fold, jaws dropped and you could feel the collective sense of awe while watching the livestream.

But when Huawei showed off its own foldable, the Huawei Mate X, it again stole the spotlight and was recognized as one of the best devices at the MWC. While the Galaxy Fold reminded people of the Nokia 9000 Communicator, which had the screen inside, the Huawei Mate X has its folding mechanism reversed so that the flexible OLED is on the outside, wrapped around the body of the device. So whether open or closed, it looked like a prop straight out of a sci-fi TV show and like nothing else on the market.

When folded out, the Huawei Mate X spreads to an 8-inch display with a resolution of 2200 x 2480 (6.6-inch display when folded). It also comes with a “sidebar handle” that houses the triple camera and fingerprint sensor. Its powered by a Kirin 980 processor, 8GB of RAM and 512GB storage. Huawei even threw in 5G, which would mean 10 times faster download speeds compared to 4G phones.

So it looks like it is going to be another tough battle between Samsung and Huawei, also considering that the Chinese giant has yet to reveal any official details about its upcoming flagship Huawei P30 and P30 Pro.

Mi 9 THE KINGSLAYER LOOKING to slay those “flagships” is Xiaomi’s Mi 9 smartphone. Although revealed in China a week prior, Xiaomi announced that it will be coming to worldwide markets during MWC 2019.

The Mi 9 has a triple camera setup, consisting of a 48MP main camera, 16MP ultra-wide and 12MP telephoto lens, partnered with a 20MP selfie cam. It has a curved back as opposed to most handsets which have flat rears making it more comfortable to hold.

The phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, with a Game Turbo mode which boosts performance and framerate while playing mobile games, and a 3,300mAh battery backed by a 20W wireless charging system. Like the Mi 8, there is also a semi transparent Explore Edition “Alita,” which gives users an idea of the internals of the Mi 9. And like other Xiaomi devices, it has a “killer” price tag of around $500, or below P30,000 when converted.

Next up is one of the most leaked phones for the past year—the Nokia 9 PureView. It claims to take smartphone photography to a whole other level, with its five lenses on the back, as well as a time of flight (ToF) sensor. They’re all 12MP f/1.8 lenses and two shoot in color while three are black-and-white that combine all these images into one seriously detailed shot. The Nokia 9 PureView has a sharp 5.99-inch 1440 x 2880 P-OLED screen, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, and a glass and metal build.

But its stuck with a top-end 2018 Snapdragon 845 chipset, which probably explains why it also has a lower price tag of $699.

Another worthy mention is the Sony Xperia 1—not a foldable, but with the first 4K HDR OLED screen on a phone. So if you really want the best Netflix and chill experience, the Xperia 1 may be the one for you. It has a 21:9 aspect ratio which looks better when watching video in landscape orientation. As for the specs, it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, 6GB of RAM and a powerful triple-lens rear camera.

And finally there’s the smartphone from Energizer—yes, the battery manufacturer. Its far from being the best, and it’s certainly one of the most bizarre. While most companies are trying to come out with phones with bigger screens but slimmer profiles, Energizer seems to have different plans.

Enter the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop. It’s isn’t just thick, it’s fat with an eye-popping 18mm (almost a quarter of an inch) thickness. It’s almost like three smartphones have been piled on top of each other and looks more like a power bank with a built-in phone.

The Power Max P18K Pop has a ginormous battery—you guessed, it has an 18,000mAh pack which is said to last for 200 hours of video playback, 90 hours of calls or 50 days of standby time. The device supports fast charging which is a good thing as the phone will take eight to nine hours to

reach full charge. The rest of the specs, however, aren’t too “powerful.” It has a 6.2-inch display and a Mediatek Helio P70 processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a microSD card slot. It has a rear-facing triple camera (12 megapixels, 5 megapixels and 2 megapixels), a pop-up dual selfie camera, and runs on Android Pie. And despite its thickness, Energizer still decided to ditch the headphone jack.

‘GET CLOSER’ WITH OPPO OPPO made its debut at the MWC sharing some exciting announcements on the innovation behind its advancements in mobile technologies in 2019, such as a world-first 10x lossless zoom technology and 5G technology.

Oppo brought the 5G era closer with the announcement of its first 5G smartphone and the Oppo 5G Landing Project. In this initiative, Oppo proposed and committed to bring into full play the capability of carrier partners like Swisscom, Telstra, and Optus, and more in-depth collaboration with potential partners like Singtel to promote the implementation of 5G products and services, so that consumers can experience new levels of performance and efficiency that will empower new use cases and connect new industries.

Oppo has been anticipating and preparing for the arrival of 5G since 2015, and has invested in design and technology to ensure the production of a desirable phone. The hotly anticipated arrival of its first 5G smartphone looks set to revolutionize consumers’ lives through 4K, 8K video download/ upload/cloud-play, 3D video calling, 5G cloud gaming and multiplayer AR/VR gaming, in-store navigation, AR shopping, immersive entertainment everywhere, and more Oppo likewise presented the world’s first 10x lossless zoom technology. 10x lossless zoom is a new technology created with industry-leading camera specifications including a triple-lens camera structure consisting of a telephoto lens, ultrawide angle lens, and main camera. To provide further value to users, Oppo also introduced Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) on both the main camera and the telephoto lens to achieve higher, anti-shake accuracy that brings people closer to the world around them so that they never miss the unmissable. ■

LUCKY GLOBE AT HOME SUBSCRIBER MEETS ‘CAPTAIN MARVEL’ CAST AT SINGAPORE FAN EVENT LAST January, Globe At Home customers with active DisneyLife app subscriptions were qualified to join the raffle promo for the Captain Marvel fan meet. The prize included a trip for two to Singapore plus exclusive access to the fan meet.

A much-awaited new movie release from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain Marvel had fans on edge as Disney and Marvel finally bring one of the most iconic superheroes to the big screen.

Set for its Philippine premiere on March 6, Captain Marvel follows the journey of a former US Air Force fighter pilot as she becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes who

returns to planet Earth with a team of scientifically and technologically advanced tactical militaristic force. Their mission: to stop an intergalactic battle between two alien worlds and save mankind in the process. The latest blockbuster from Marvel universe stars Brie Larson in the title role alongside Hollywood A-listers Samuel L. Jackson and Jude Law with Gemma Chan, Djimon Hounsou and Lee Pace.

Globe At Home continues to give its loyal subscribers more meaningful perks and immersive experiences not only online but also on-ground.

Through its partnerships with the likes of Disney, Globe At Home provides its loyal patrons

access to the best digital experiences and once-ina-lifetime events. With Globe at Home, you can enjoy world-class entertainment—so make that switch to fast, unlimited Internet with Globe At Home and apply for a GoUnli plan to get speeds of up to 100 Mbps. Enjoy nonstop streaming with the whole family—with no data cap. Starting at just P1,699 per month, Globe At Home gives you a fast and reliable Internet connection, unlimited data, and free six-month subscriptions to top streaming apps, such as DisneyLife, FOX+ and HOOQ. For existing subscribers who wish to get DisneyLife and charge it to their Globe At Home bill, visit www.globe.com.ph/broadband/add-ons.

GLOBE At Home Postpaid customer and certified Marvel Universe fan Paolo Cari got a once-ina-lifetime chance to fly to Singapore to meet the A-list cast of the much-awaited Marvel movie franchise, Captain Marvel.