Some Filipino and Asian-centric apps for your iPhone

We now focus our eyes on some low-profile releases by Filipino developers or some Asian-centric apps. Just a teeny collection. Hell, maybe I could get this going on a regular basis?

Supermarket Manila

#1 on the Philippine App Store charts for paid apps, this game has a polish to it. The premise here is that you own a supermarket, and that you have to manage it. I know, it's a bit of a rip-off to games like Diner Dash, but hey! It looks like a decent rip-off with a Filipino flavor, I'm guessing. It costs $1.99.

Philippine Travel Guide

The Philippines has its own wonders and sights. So why not get yourself a mobile travel guide while you get out during summer?

You don't need an Internet connection, either. $0.99 on the App Store.

CX Mobile

Bring a football spin to your average travel guide with Cathay Pacific's CX Mobile.

It gives you everything you'd want to know when traveling to Hong Kong- probably a location you'll be going to when talking about going abroad- and it has Google Maps support. Ooh, it looks like a great companion to the free Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook! It costs zilch.

TVU Player

iPhone gets live TV! And many Philippine channels work best. You can't watch on landscape though.

The thing is that you can only run this under Wi-Fi, but with my tests, I never got anything to really run. Just a loading screen. Still, several reviews state that it works, and many of the working channels are Asian. For me, at least.

Classical Philippines Radio

This free app gives you all the folk songs you want. Although they're not my cup of tea, I know that some people will want this.

Wonder how old and classic this throwback iPhone radio station gets? Does it still have Pilita Corrales in there somewhere? Or is it purely songs of the Paruparong Bukid variety?

Filipino Phrases: How to Argue, Use Slang, and More!

It's an almost 1200 word list of Filipino phrases fit for daily use.

Unfortunately, the page says, the "argument" part only reaches to "bwisit". Will it cause an uproar if they included other... "phrases"? Maybe in a tiny scale, but otherwise, no. This app is more aimed to people who want to LEARN the language. It costs $3.99.

DianHua

Ever encountered a Chinese word that you found foreign and that you want to get a translation without having to resort to the Internet nor a bulky dictionary? Well, look no further than the free DianHua Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary! It has saved my ass a couple times.

Wan Nian Li Chinese Calendar

Want to specifically know when the Mooncake Festival comes? Well, a Lunar calendar does that job for you. There are many, I know, but I randomly picked this one. :p

That's about it, I guess. Tune in next time, if there is a next time.

CES: More cool stuff

There's always some fantasy that turns into reality everyday. Those fantasies usually come first in a movie, and with passion do tech companies turn them into something that simply seems second nature. Today, we have yet another iconic gadget turned reality, and it's the Watch Phone, courtesy of LG.

While there have been watch phones in the past, they've been big and bulky and clearly have drowned from the public consciousness. With this watch phone, it's all different. It's sleek, it looks cool, and it just looks awesome.

I mean, I'm not gonna be first in line because simply putting a wristwatch onto your ear would look damn silly, but the features are simply as brilliant as Dick Tracy's. I mean, first you get a touch screen based interface, and then there's the phone part, of course, then there's the music player and hell, a camera (with megapixels that have yet to be determined)!

Additionally, for your text messages, the watch will read them out loud for you. It's not yet known whether there'll be a speakerphone, but I suggest getting a Bluetooth headset because it has a feature that even the iPhone doesn't even have: stereo Bluetooth!

That is awesome, but impractical.

So let's see some more practical stuff then- like the Samsung P3.

OK, maybe it's just a music player that is reminiscent of the iPod touch. It plays movies, music, and shows photos. But here are some things the iPod touch can't even have because it's in the iPhone (oh wait, the iPhone doesn't even have them either): stereo Bluetooth, FM radio, built-in voice recording, haptic feedback (the thing vibrates when you touch it), a great customizable widgets interface and wait for it- a frigging phone.

Technically, the P3 is not a phone. But here's the thing: if you go through a few menus and select Mobile Phone Bluetooth syncing, you don't even have to use your phone anymore. Instead, you can receive text messages and receive calls because the P3 has a built-in speaker and microphone. It's like the surrogate of your phone! But don't take my word for it, watch it in action.

Interested? Well, like the iPod touch, it'll max out with 32 GB of capacity with 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB capacities to choose from. Prices unknown as of now, though.

Not practical enough? Already have an iPod? Well, then I don't know... Let's just throw practicality out the window, and say hello to glasses-powered 3D gaming by nVidia.

The glasses aren't as geeky as the red-blue glasses of the 50's, and the feature is already compatible with several current-gen games. All you need, however, is a special monitor, I think. Just shell out for that and $199 for the nVidia kit, and you're all set for that 3D LAN party.

There are sliders everywhere so you can adjust several settings, too, but if you're interested in this, just remember the Virtual Boy.

Surprisingly enough, 199 US dollars is kind of inexpensive, but my hearing may be wrong.

Perhaps that thing is too cheap for you, and you want to hear something outrageous. Fine. I'll give it to you.

What's this? A picture frame? Nope, it's a portable Blu-ray player- the world's first.

You can swivel the screen to make it look like a frame or a laptop, and... there are connections on the side.

Panasonic managed to fit the power of Blu-ray into this thing, and it'll sell for 799 US dollars- equivalent to about 37627 Philippine pesos. OK, perhaps it's not THAT outrageous when you consider that it's a Blu-ray player, but think about it like this: it defeats the purpose of Blu-ray.

How? Well, it's like this: High-definition is made for big screen TV's, so being able to experience high definition is next to impossible in a portable device. In short, you're better off buying a significantly cheaper portable DVD player, as it's more practical, and you won't notice the difference at all.

That is unless the device can output to a TV. That changes everything.

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*If you've been tracking CES, you may ask: Where's the Sony VAIO Lifestyle PC? Well, that netbook is pretty lame in my eyes. Stylish, but lame, like the MacBook Air, only significantly harder to use. Seriously, would you like to squint while using Windows Vista AND get used to that really small joystick in replacement to the touchpad? I don't think so.