Gadgets and Tech in the Philippines

SanDisk has just released an iPhone dock with a very interesting twist to it.  The iXpand is designed primarily to be an iPhone dock and charger, the new concept behind it though is that it also serves as a backup for all the data on your iPhone.  The idea behind the iXpand is that the data on your iPhone is being backed up while you charge your phone, usually at night.   The iXpand backs up your photos, videos and contacts.  Although most of us already backup to iCloud , it still is a good idea to have multiple backups , aside from that, iCloud has limited free storage.  So you have the option of completely backing up locally to the iXpand and backup whatever can fit in iCloud. The top of the iXpand is made of soft rubber for you to lay your iPhone on, then a wrap-around groove to keep the Lightning cable neat.  The iXpand is capable of fast-charging with 15W of power. The iXpand comes with a companion app for backing up and restoring your iPhone's contents. T

There are many uses of cutting out portions of an image, one of them is to remove the background and probably replacing it with a plain background color, others want to add the cut out to another image, the needs vary and the list goes on. I'll be showing you the exact steps on cutting out a specific portion of an image and saving it to another image file .  This is using the freeware photo editor GIMP . So here is the original image, and let's say I would like to cut out the car from the whole image: Open the file in GIMP, click on Layer-Transparency-Add Alpha Channel. Now, select the Lasso or Free Select Tool   .  You can now trace the shape you want to cut out, return to the starting point of your tracing to complete the selection. Click on Select-Invert then press CTRL-X to cut out the selected area.  This is how the cut out area will look: You can now use the cut out image however you want. Related articles Photographer of the Day: Francesco

The Genius SP-906BT Plus Bluetooth speaker is designed for the adventurous people out there, people who love nature and who want to take their music with them wherever they go.  The SP-906BT Plus speaker has a rugged design and comes in 5 very attractive colors to suit your active lifestyle . The SP-906BT Plus speaker weighs only 185 grams, which is lighter than a baseball and also smaller than a baseball, so for Mountain bikers like me, this is very handy to have on the bike, you won't feel the added load. Enhanced design gives the SP-906BT Plus speaker a boost to its volume and at the same time gives the speaker a deeper bass effect .  According to Genius, the SP-906BT was designed by professional acoustic engineers. The SP-906BT Plus speaker has a built-in amplifier which also helps in giving the speaker stronger and deeper bass. The battery in the SP-906BT Plus is capable of delivering up to 10 hours of power, that's 200 songs played continuously.  Asi

The GoPlay Sidekick is a wireless game controller for use with your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and even the Apple TV.  The GoPlay Sidekick was just released recently and is looking to be an excellent gaming companion to iOS devices. The GoPlay Sidekick comes from a company called Kanex , a Premium Apple Accessory maker whose products range from Desktop Keyboards, Power Banks, Cables and Adapters, Hubs and Docks to Chargers. The GoPlay Sidekick makes you enjoy console-like gaming on the go, the wireless game controller connects to your iOS devices via Bluetooth. As you can see, the GoPlay SideKick is similar to the controllers of the current consoles we have, closer to the XBox one configuration. Out of the box, the GoPlay SideKick comes with a carrying case that doubles as a stand, which you can use for your iPhone or iPod, making it a very convenient stand while you play your games. The GoPlay SideKick has a built-in rechargeable battery which can be charged by your li

I have been using my Amazon Echo Dot for about 6 months now and I am pretty happy with what it could do. The Amazon Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device that Amazon hopes would be the control center of everyone's Smart homes.  The Echo Dot is powered by Amazon's intelligent personal assistant, so you can just say "Alexa" and the Echo Dot will be waiting for your voice command. The Echo Dot is capable of playing music, controlling smart home devices, make calls, send and receive messages, provide information like traffic, read the news, set alarms, read audio books from Audible, and a lot more.  The capabilities of the Echo Dot, which Amazon calls skills,  are ever expanding, and all you have to do is enable any new skill you want through the free Amazon Alexa App. Although the Echo Dot is itself a speaker, music quality isn't the best.  The Echo Dot can connect to external speakers or headphones by Bluetooth or through a 3.5mm stereo cable.  Wi

Nintendo has announced the release of a classic edition of its very popular Super Nintendo gaming console .  The Super Nintendo Classic Edition will start shipping on September 29, Nintendo said in a surprise press release yesterday. The miniaturized 16-bit gray and purple version of the hit gaming console of the 90's, Super Nintendo will ship with 21 games including a sequel to the 3D Shooter Star Fox that Nintendo developed but never released. The Super Nintendo Classic Edition gaming console will have a price tag of $79.99, or $20 more than the first classic edition Nintendo released last year, the 8-bit NES Classic, which by the way was sold out quickly. According to Nintendo, the Super Nintendo Classic Edition will be the exact albeit shrinked version of the original Super Nintendo released in 1991.  The Classic edition will  include original U.S. pack-in  Super Mario World ,  The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past ,  Super Mario Kart ,  Super Metroid  and  F-