MasterCard launches financial management website

MasterCard recently launched Priceless Pointers, a personal finance management website to help Filipino consumers keep their financial life pointed towards the right direction. Located at www.mastercard.com/sea/pointers, the website offers a suite of tools to help consumers save well and spend wisely. Priceless Pointers has resources, tips and links containing helpful hints and informative videos on how to manage debt, plan your retirement or save effectively. Open to everyone, whether you are a MasterCard cardholder or not, you can enjoy an interactive experience using any of the website’s eight insightful sections, which include: Video Pointers, Purchase Power, Payoff Accelerator, Savings Target, Retirement Calculator, Credit FAQ, Debt FAQ and Financial Glossary. Through Priceless Pointers, MasterCard strongly underscores its effort to promote financial literacy. In photo during the successful launch are (from left) Judith Marie Dayrit, MasterCard VP for marketing and member relations; Kara-Mae Lim, MasterCard AVP, South East Asia and Poch Villa-Real, MasterCard country manager.

Nokia and Microsoft develop best mobile business solutions

Nokia, the world’s no. 1 mobile phone manufacturer, has formed an alliance with Microsoft, the world’s leader in software, to design, develop and market mobile productivity solutions to Nokia smartphones.

The solution delivers direct, secure access to email and personal information through the organizations’ Microsoft Exchange servers, enabling employees to connect to their corporate mail server with their Nokia smartphone without the need for additional servers. It is fast becoming the solution of choice among businesses since it became available for Nokia Smartphones on more than 550 operator networks worldwide.

Using Microsoft^® Exchange, you can deploy Mail for Exchange to synchronize email, calendar, contacts and tasks on over 50 Nokia smartphone models, including the Nokia E5, Nokia E52, Nokia E72 and Nokia E63.

“IT directors are being pressured to deploy business mobility solutions such as email, IM and intranet access for more employees, but without the high costs they have had to spend on additional middleware, licenses and maintenance,” says Benoit Nalin, General Manager of Nokia Philippines.

“Nokia is doing more than any other handset company to help businesses go mobile. Microsoft will design and develop mobile productivity, communication and collaboration solutions, and we will jointly bring them to market – giving our smartphones the edge over the competition,” added Nalin.

In addition to accessing email, if your company has a Microsoft^® Office Communications Server or Lync 2010, employees also enjoy direct access to corporate instant messaging through Microsoft^® Communicator Mobile, which was the first new application to be delivered by the two companies as part of their strategic alliance announced last year. This solution is already available on the Nokia E5, Nokia E52 and Nokia E72 smartphones.

The Nokia business smartphones are powerful mobile offices that offer business grade security solutions for secure corporate connectivity. Users of these business-optimized devices also enjoy access to maps, navigation, apps and other services through Ovi. Business category apps in the Ovi Store, such as Worldmate, F-Secure Anti-Theft for Mobile, Boingo, Bloomberg and ClicktheCity, have also significantly increased in popularity.

“We are very happy to collaborate with Nokia in creating a set of services that will give Filipinos control over their personal and business tasks, as well as enable individuals to accomplish work more efficiently with Microsoft business solutions,” said John Bessey, Managing Director, Microsoft Philippines. “With this partnership, we hope to maximize the potential of the smartphone market by letting users take full advantage of the benefits of Microsoft’s innovative unified communications technologies such as Microsoft Exchange Server and the recently launched Microsoft Lync Server 2010.”

The alliance of Nokia and Microsoft will continue to provide businesses easy mobilization and maximized IT investments. Overtime, the two companies plan to deliver Microsoft Office Mobile and related applications, including mobile-optimized versions of Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile and OneNote Mobile to Nokia smartphones. And people can eventually access intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint on their Nokia devices.

Through business messaging solutions that are developed, tested and certified by Microsoft, Nokia will be able to give new user experiences that will better meet the needs of mobile professionals.

Pinoy game Tong-its now on your Nokia phones

Local game app World Tong-its Tour is currently one of the highest-rated card games on the Ovi Store, with popularity that extends to other SEA countries like Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia

The Filipino app developers behind World Tong-its Tour: Automated Systems Enablers Inc. president Cris Bella and chief financial officer Abel Canare

What’s your favorite Pinoy game? We Pinoys have such fondness for the traditional games we grew up with. That’s because they bring back fun memories we shared with siblings or friends back home. One of the most popular Pinoy games is tong-its, which for a majority of Pinoys have became the default entertainment from the small barangays in the Metro to far-flung barrios in the provinces.

And now this all-time favorite Pinoy card game can be played anytime, wherever you are in the world. Tong-its has finally come to roost for Nokia smartphones, thanks to a small start-up app developer company in Cavite that’s big on creativity and can-do attitude.

Automated Systems Enablers Inc. (ASEi) started in June 2009 when the multinational company they worked for shut down its operations. Engineers Cris Balla, Abel Canare, and 10 other colleagues decided to start a venture that would focus on developing software for different markets. ASEi started with generic recording and accounting programs for schools until they realized the growing potential of developing applications for smartphones. Applications, after all, have become the backbone of success for many smartphone brands. A mobile phone today is not only a messaging and image-capturing instrument. It has also become an entertainment device, a productivity tool and a gaming center.

“Mobile phones today are as powerful as computers were 10 years ago,” ASEi president Chris Balla says. “Nokia phones, for example, have powerful microprocessors that are capable of handling and running complicated applications.”

ASEi had the opportunity to develop for other smartphone brands and platforms, but what attracted the company to Nokia is the openness of the Symbian system, the ubiquity of Nokia handsets among Filipino smartphone users and the Ovi Store. Symbian is the only smartphone operating system that is capable of supporting a full spectrum of devices, from low-end QWERTY phones to sleek high-end touch screen gizmos. What’s more, the platform also supports a number of universal programming languages such Java, HTML 5, Qt, and Qt Quick. This is a far cry from other systems that are tightly regulated and application development requires specific coding.

Another factor that nudged ASEi to develop for Nokia was the Ovi Store which can be accessed directly from any Nokia smartphone or through the Internet using any computer. It does not require a separate program to be accessed. Users just sign up for free and they can immediately browse and download away. In fact, on a daily basis there are 3.5 million downloads from the Ovi Store globally, which includes themes, games, videos, applications and so much more. This ease of access is essential for a young company like ASEi, which is seeking for exposure and ramp up its application downloads in the already crowded app developer market.

ASEi had its first entry to Ovi Store in January 2010 when it introduced the Jeepney Grand Prix, a racing game set in EDSA. Because it was a paid application sold in other countries, it did not perform as expected and was pulled from the Ovi Store months later. Not to be discouraged, ASEi developed a game based on a popular Filipino pastime: tong-its. World Tong-its Tour entered the Ovi Store in June 2010 and has become a hit ever since.

Like the World Poker Tour, the World Tong-its Tour takes place in three different settings: Boracay (the easiest level), Macau (intermediate level) and Las Vegas (expert level). Wagers and earnings increase as you successfully advance to another level, but if you think you can easily outsmart your opponents on this game, you’re in for a big surprise. There is a time limit of 35 seconds per turn, so if you’re the kind of player who thinks too long before every move, you will certainly lose. Also, the AI (artificial intelligence) built into the game is purposely designed to be challenging.

“We deliberately stayed away from developing an AI that can be easily beaten because we wanted players to think. Tong-its is as much a game of skill as it is a game of instinct and luck,” explains Balla.

World Tong-its Tour players will also find the game’s user interface helpful and convenient. There is a Sort button that can organize your cards according to number color, an Auto button that can help you choose which “made” cards you can post or lay out on the table, and an Attach button that assists you in placing cards on “made” ones on the table. The game’s sound effects are also humorous, such as when your computer opponent completes a made card or wins a round.

What sets World Tong-its Tour from other card games are its additional features. World Tong-Its Tour is the only card game with the ability to use the phone’s camera to shoot your own customized game avatar. What’s more, the game’s online play feature allows you to play tong-its with two of your friends via wi-fi or 3G connection.

The World Tong-its Tour has become so successful (it is one of the highest-rated card games on Ovi Store) it spawned another tong-its game from ASEi. Called Tong-its Extreme, it features multiple personalities and different artificial intelligence engines. Unlike the World Tong-its Tour, Tong-its Extreme offers unlimited chips so you can play to your heart’s delight.

The reception of Filipinos to the two tong-its games and the popularity of World Tong-its Tour in other SEA countries like Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia has prompted ASEi to develop more apps based on popular Filipino games. In fact, ASEi will soon be releasing Pusoy and Pusoy Dos games on the Ovi Store.This strategy not only differentiates their apps on the market but also capitalizes on Filipinos’ preference for Nokia phones both here and abroad. After all, no matter where they go, what twang they acquire or nationalities they assume, Pinoys will always be Pinoys.