Best Video Player for Mobile Phones

As a certified video lover and cellphone enthusiast, CorePlayer is really the best video player for mobile phones. I already tried a lot of video players for mobile phones, but only CorePlayer was able to deliver what a video lover like me want to see and experience in watching video clips and movies.

CorePlayer can open almost all known formats for videos, audios and photos. This is the first reason why I fall in love with this player. Default video player of most phones usually can only play 3GP and MP4 videos. And this feature of CorePlayer is really a big help for me. I don't have to convert my favorite FLV youtube videos or my favorite AVI movies anymore. I can watch them already straight to my phone anytime and anywhere. Its (CorePlayer) latest version, CorePlayer 1.3.6, can also HD videos and movies. CorePlayer is really a great video player if you have tons of videos in different file formats. And you can also open music and image files on it! Below is the complete list of file formats supported by the latest CorePlayer 1.3.6

Audio Formats: MP3, MP2, AAC, MKA, WMA, Midi, WAV, OGG, Speex, WAVPACK, TTA, FLAC, MPC, AMR, ADPCM, ALaw, MuLaw, G.729, GSM

Video Formats: H.264 (AVC), AVCHD, MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-4 part 2 (ASP), DivX, XviD, WMV, Theora, Dirac, MJPEG, MSVIDEO1

Image Formats: JPEG (420, 422, 440, EXIF Headers), BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF, MJPEG

Container Formats: Flash/FLV, Matroska, ASF, ASX, AVI, PS, M2TS, TS, 3GPP, MOV, MPEG-4, OGM, NSV

Aside from playing videos stored in your phone or memory card, CorePlayer can also stream videos. You can stream YouTube videos directly, and you can also stream video from other online servers.

Streaming Formats: HTTP, UDP, UDP Multicast, UDP Unicast, RDP, RTP, RTSP, RTCP (keep alive), ASX, ASF, Multicast, HTTP Tunneling

Another reason why I like CorePlayer is its ZOOM OPTION. You can choose if you want your video to FIT BEST on your screen, FILL SCREEN, and STRETCH TO SCREEN.

FIT BEST option is best for watching videos who has larger resolution than your phone's screen. It will compress the video so the video will fit in your screen and you can see the picture. For example, a 320x240 video being played on a 176x208 screen of N70.

STRETCH TO SCREEN option is best for fixing the difference between the aspect ratio of the video and your phone's screen. Most of the videos today are in 16:9 aspect ratio. On the other hand, the common aspect ratio of the display of phones is 4:3. If you watch 16:9 video in a 4:3 display, you will see empty spaces (black spaces) above and below of your screen. With the use of STRETCH TO SCREEN OPTION, these empty spaces will be removed. CorePlayer will stretch the video, filling all the empty spaces on your screen. The only problem with this option, the characters and stuffs in the will look weird or silly. They will look too thin (when stretched vertically) or too fat (when stretched horizontally). This is because the proper proportion of the video was removed when it was stretched.

FILL SCREEN is an alternative option for high resolution videos and videos with different aspect ratio compared the phone display. With this option, your screen will be filled with moving objects. No black spaces will be displayed. The disadvantage of this option is that you will not see some part of the video. This option will fill the empty spaces by zooming in your video. So if your screen is in 4:3 ratio and the video is in 16:9, you will not be able to see some part of the images on the right and left side of the video. The advantage of this option is that the video will look bigger.

Aside from the three options stated above, you can also zoom the video by percentage (50%, 100%, 150%, 200%). I always set my zoom option to STRETCH TO SCREEN. I will not see empty spaces in my screen while I am still able to see the whole video.

Outside of the reasons stated above, there are other reasons why I really like CorePlayer. CorePlayer support full screen video play. You can rewind, fast-forward and adjust the volume even in full screen mode. CorePlayer also allows its users to adjust the duration of the rewind and fast-forward options. CorePlayer has continuous playing capability. This feature is good for movies divided into many parts. Just check all the parts, and your movie will play continuously and smoothly. No need to press anything when one part is done and you want to play the next part. CorePlayer will do it for you.

The only negative that I saw in CorePlayer is its inability to play files of different folders continuously. If you want to play video or audio files continuously, the files must be stored with the same folder. Despite of this weakness, CorePlayer is still the best video player for me. You can download CorePlayer in its official website coreplayer.com CorePlayer is not a freeware. You need to pay dollars to use it. But I assure you, it's worth paying for.

Interesting Facts and Trivia

Reading about interesting facts and trivia is one of my favorite hobbies. And the internet has helped me a lot in finding these informations. Today, I would like to share to all of you some of the best facts and trivia that I've read throughout the net.

- In "Smooth Criminal" Michael Jackson uses the same dance move that the Tin Man uses in The Wizard of Oz. Michael Jackson actually learned a lot of his dance moves, including this one, from singer/dancer Jeffrey Daniel. Strangely enough, Michael Jackson was in a musical adaptation of The Wizard of Oz called The Wiz. But, instead of the Tin Man, he played the Scarecrow.

- Adam Rainer was both a dwarf and a giant in his lifetime. At age 21 , Adam Rainer of Graz Austria was only 3 feet 10.5 inches, making him a dwarf. But during a sudden growth spurt in his 20 s he started growing at a rate of 3.6 inches every year. By age 32 he was 7 feet 2 inches tall! When he died at age 51 , he was 7 feet and 8 inches tall. That's nearly twice as tall as he was at age 21! Sadly, he spent his last years in bed, unable to walk, because his excessive growth rate damaged his body. This makes Adam Rainer the only person to ever be classified as both a dwarf and a giant!

- There's a spider in Brazil whose bites can cause an erection that lasts FOR HOURS. A bite from the Brazilian Wandering Spider can cause pain, an increase in blood pressure, and an erection. Victims have to to go to the hospital. The chemical that causes these erections, which can last for hours, is being researched for treatment of erectile dysfunction.

- Actually, lightning CAN strike the same place twice! This is a common misconception. There is no reason why lightning couldn't strike the same place twice. The Empire State Building for instance, gets struck by lightning 100 TIMES EVERY YEAR on average.

- Shaving doesn't cause hair to grow back thicker. Your hair's thickness depends on your genetics and your hormones. Whether you shave makes no difference. It also doesn't make it grow back faster or make your hair rougher. What really happens is that as your hair grows it tapers off at the end. The ends of your hairs are thinner and appear less coarse. When you cut that part out, what's left is the thick part of your hair. So it seems like it got thicker and coarser.

- The Pokemon Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan are based off of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

- Chocolate can help you live longer. Chocolate has antioxidants that can protect you against heart disease. Dark chocolate has 8 times the amount of antioxidants than strawberries. The flavonoids help relax blood pressure by producing nitric oxide. A small bar of dark chocolate every day can help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol. Chocolate also has serotonin which acts as an antidepressant. Also, while chocolate has fat, most of the fat in chocolate does not impact your cholesterol. Chocolate is still high-calorie and high-fat, so you need to eat in moderation. You don't need more than about 3.5 ounces of chocolate to receive the benefits. If you want to eat chocolate to improve your health, eat dark chocolate because it has the most antioxidants, don't eat too much of it, and don't eat it with milk. Milk can prevent your body from processing the antioxidants.

- Teddy bears and other toys kill more people than REAL bears. In the last 89 years 82 Americans have been killed by bears. Compare that to the 22 deaths caused by toys like teddy bears EVERY YEAR. Children are at most risk from death from their toys. For instance, small parts in a teddy bear can be a choking hazard (like its eyes). Also, children can trip on teddy bears and fall down a flight of stairs or hit their head on a sharp corner of a table. Also, a teddy bear once killed 2,500 fish! A teddy bear fell into a pool at a trout hatchery, clogging the pipes. The fish all suffocated and died.

- Bart Simpson from "The Simpsons" is voiced by a 52-year-old woman named Nancy Cartwright. Nancy Cartwright has been the voice of Bart Simpson since "The Simpsons" started back in 1987 . She's the voice of several other Simpsons characters (Ralp Wiggum, Nelson Muntz) and she provided the voice for Chuckie Finster in "Rugrats". She's also the author of a book, My Life as a 10- Year-Old Boy. Cartwright is a prominent member of the Church of Scientology. She was once the center of a controversy because she used the Bart Simpson voice in a robo-call about Scientology.

- Carrots used to be purple, not orange. Purple carrots used to be grown in the Middle East and the Far East, as early as 1 ,000 years ago. The Dutch introduced orange carrots in the 16th century. Purple carrots have become rare because intensive breeding has made the orange carrot more widespread.

- The first ever video uploaded to Youtube was that of a man at the Zoo, titled "Me at the zoo." It is 18 seconds long and has over 3 million views. It was uploaded at 8 :27 pm on April 23 , 2005. The video features Jawad Karim, one of YouTube's founders.

- Paul Hunn holds the record for the loudest burp, 107.1 decibels. That's LOUDER THAN A MOTORCYCLE and almost as loud as a CHAINSAW. The 107.1 db number comes from the Guinness World Records website.

- If Facebook were a country, it would be the THIRD LARGEST country in the world, BIGGER than the U.S. and Indonesia. In 2009 , Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had 200 million users, which (if Facebook was a country) would make it the fifth largest in the world. That was back then. Now, Facebook's statistics page claims that there are more than 400 million active users (twice as many as last year!). This means that there are more Facebook users than people living in the United States (309 million) or Indonesia (231 million). The only countries with bigger populations than Facebook are China and India.

Simple Virus Protection for your PC

I've been using this very simple technique to protect my PC from virus attacks for more than a year now. And it has been very effective and efficient for me.

My computer is equipped with Intel Celeron 1.6GHz processor, 256MB video card and 1GB RAM. And I am running a Windows XP SP2 operating system. If you will notice, my processor is really slow. That's why protecting my PC with a top of the line anti-virus is not a good idea. I can't run an application or game without lag and delay when the real time protection of my anti-virus is turned on. I've tried to use AVG, BitDefender and PC-cillin to protect my PC. They are all good in detecting and killing viruses. But they also eats up a lot of space in my computer's memory and they also run tons of processes. These stuffs make my computer very slow.

Because of the problems brought by anti-viruses to my PC, I tried to find a way to protect my PC without sacrificing its performance. Fortunately, I've found one!

With this trick, there is no need to install memory hog anti-viruses and my PC can still run applications smooth and fast. The trick is based on the concept "prevention is better than cure".

The main software that we need to use is the USB Disk Security. This software will automatically scan your USB drive once an USB storage device is plugged into it. It will detect .exe viruses and other viruses that uses an autorun.inf file to automatically execute itself and spread harm to your PC. USB Disk Security will also allow you to disable the autoplay or autorun function of your PC once it detects an USB storage device is plugged into your PC.

This trick using USB Disk Security is only good for those users whose primary source of virus attacks are from USB storage devices or flash drives. In my case, the only source of viruses that infests my PC is the USB port. I am a safety first internet surfer. I never visit malicious websites. I also refrain from downloading software cracks from the net which most of the time are viruses. So it leaves my USB port as the only way for viruses to enter my PC.

So here's what I do with USB Disk Security. First, I will plug the flash drive. Second, USB Disk Security will automatically scan the device. If it detects a virus, I will just click the "delete all" button and reinsert the USB storage device. Since the software will delete all autorun viruses, you can now easily double click your drive without the fear of accidentally executing a virus. But still be careful. The software will only delete autorun viruses. So it may leave non-self-starting viruses in your device. Just be observant. Do not click odd, weird or malicious files.

USB Disk Security really fits my need for a simple and effective virus protection. So if you have the same problem as mine with your PC, I advise you to try this very simple virus protection now! You can download USB Disk Security here.

Must See SNSD Videos

Hi there! Just want to share to all of you all of my favorite SNSD videos that I've watched since becoming an SNSD fan in early February this year. I have limited time to watch SNSD videos because of my busy school life. That's why it's really important for me to be able to watch their best videos available online. I consider these videos as “Must See Videos”. Your life as an SNSD fan won’t be complete if you miss these videos. So let's begin!

[HD] Girls' Generation(SNSD) GEE Comeback Stage (01.10.2009 MBC Musiccore)

- this is the very first SNSD video that I've watched in YouTube. This video is also the reason why I was hooked with SNSD.

SNSD (소녀시대) - Kissing You (키싱유) MV [HD]

- for me, the SNSD girls were in their cutest and most beautiful look in this music video.

SNSD - Oh!(Mar 6, 2010)

- the girls performed Oh! in an ice skating rink which maybe the coolest stage that they ever performed at. But this performance is their hottest! Lots of white, flawless, and beautiful skins were displayed!

Beautiful girl + Honey honey _ SNSD (perf lalala MBC)

- I really like this video! The lines of SeoHyun really fit her. "I'm a beautiful girl". The girls look fresh and divine with their white dresses.

Girl's Generation [SNSD] - Cooky (LG CYON)

- this video is the best! This is the ultimate "Eye's Candy!". I almost have a cardiac arrest when I first saw this.

[HD] 100411 SNSD Wanna Be Chocolate

- this video is also cute. I was really impressed on their ability to sing a full English song. And Jessica's Barbie doll look is the best!

HD SNSD - Oh! & Hahaha Song (Jaurim) & 3! 4! (Roo'Ra) Jun 17 2010 GIRLS' GENERATION Live 1080p

- SeoHyun's devil's horn head dress caught my attention in this video. She looks very cute with those horns. I also like the song 3! 4!.

SNSD-ETUDE+GENIE(TELL ME YOUR WISH) LIVE!

- the first Etude performance video that I saw. The SNSD girls look so cute with their dresses. I also like their performance of Genie.

SNSD - tell me your wish(genie) live HQ

- I love the intro of this video. The girls look so seductive and sexy. Those long legs are very hot!

HD SNSD - Into the new world [full] May04.2010 4/5 GIRLS' GENERATION Live 720p

- Into the new world is one of my favorite SNSD songs. And this live performance of the song is my most favorite among other Into the new world videos. In this video, I realized that Into the new world has very cute dance steps.

Manny Pacquiao V.S. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

In the recent years, Pacquiao (51W-3L-2D) and Mayweather (41W-0L-0D) have been considered as two of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world. But the question is, who is the better boxer between them? And this question can only be answered by a boxing match featuring these two boxers.

A Pacquiao v.s. Mayweather match is the number one item in every boxing fan’s wishlist today. All boxing aficionados have been rooting to see Pacquiao and Mayweather battle each other inside the boxing ring. But until today, this dream match between Pacquiao and Mayweather is still a dream people wish to come true.

Both camps of Pacquiao and Mayweather have tried to negotiate with each other to set up a match made in heaven for these two great boxers. Unfortunately, there are things that their camps cannot settle.

First is the financial thing. Mayweather wants to have a bigger money share over Pacquiao. But Pacquiao's camp believes that both boxers are in the same level, therefore they must have a 50-50 share on the earnings of the match. This thing has been the biggest problem both camps encountered when they first tried to talk with each other. But after few weeks of continous negotiation, both camps have agreed to have a 55-45 (I'm not sure with this figure. Kindly correct me if this is wrong.) share in favor of Mayweather. Fans were so excited when they heard this news. The dream match between Pacquiao and Mayweather is one step closer to reality.

But this excitement didn't last long as the camps of Pacquiao and Mayweather have encountered another disagreement. Mayweather requested for the match to have an Olympics standard drug test. This kind of drug test will examine the urine and blood of the athlete before and after the fight. Pacquiao didn't agree with this proposal. According to his camp, Pacquiao freaks out when his blood is being taken and it makes him feel very weak. It is ok for them to have a blood test after the fight. But a blood test one day before the fight, never...

When this news came out, fans felt very upset. They can't believe that a simple blood test will hinder the development of this dream match.

Some people say that Pacquiao uses performance enhancement drug that's why he didn't want to undergo a drug/blood test before the fight. While some are saying that Mayweather is just harassing Pacquiao.

No matter what the truth is, it's still a sad news for boxing fans. Until now, fans are still hopeful that someday this dream match will came true.

As a Filipino, I really want to see how Pacquiao's speedy-hard punches will fair against Mayweather's excellent defense. I believe that, Pacquiao is the only boxer that can beat Mayweather today. According to Juan Manuel Marquez, a Mexican boxer who fought against Pacquiao and Mayweather, Pacquiao's punches are harder and stronger than those of Mayweather's. This statement of Marquez made me more excited about the possible match up of Pacquiao and Mayweather. I'm really hoping that this match will happen soon!

Most Delicious Garlic Bread!

So far, the most delicious garlic bread or most delicious bread in general, that I've ever tasted was Pizza Hut's garlic bread. The flavor of their garlic bread is damn so good! I was really shocked the first time I tasted it. I didn't expect that their garlic was exceptionally delicious. And it goes well with Pizza Hut's soup dishes.

Aside from being so delicious, Pizza Hut's garlic bread is also heavy to the stomach. It can satisfy your hunger alone. Eat four pieces of garlic bread and your hunger is gone! Pizza Hut's garlic bread is an appetizer, but it feels like the main course for me. I was even thinking of buying this garlic bread every morning for my breakfast, instead of buying regular breads in other bakeries and bakeshops.

I don't know how Pizza Hut creates this delicious garlic bread. But all I know is that, this garlic bread is the best!!!

HD Like videos for symbian^1 phones

Symbian^1 phones, specifically Nokia s60v5 phones, can only play Standard Definition (SD) videos. The phone's video playback capability can play videos up to 640x480 pixels in resolution. The video quality of an SD video is not that bad. But if you want serious visual pleasure, HD (High Definition) video is the answer. And this is the main problem with s60v5 phones. These phones cannot play videos larger than 640x480 pixel resolution.

Nokia s60v5 phones have 3.2in widescreen display. Its wide screen is really great for watching videos and movies. As a video lover, I was really frustrated to find out that s60v5 phones can't play HD videos. I tried to watch SD music videos in a Nokia 5230. Some videos look good, but still not enough to satisfy my cravings for serious visual entertainment. So I tried to find a way on how can I incorporate the quality of a 1080p HD video to a 480p SD video. Luckily, I found one!

After a lot of experimentation, I finally discovered that the secret for a high quality SD video is a high video bitrate. I observed that a low resolution, high bitrate video looks better than a high resolution, low bitrate video.

So if you have a 720p or 1080p HD video and you want to watch that video in your s60v5 phone, the best thing you can do is to convert it to a video with 640x480 resolution and bitrate of 2,500 kbit/sec or 2.5 Mbit/sec (I use Total Video Converter in converting videos. Download it here). This value of bitrate (2.5 Mbit/sec) is the best bitrate you can put in a video that you want to watch in your s60v5 phone. Bitrate higher than 2.5 Mbit/sec will cause some lag and delay during video play back in an s60v5 phone. I recommend to convert the video into .mp4 format.

If you have low resolution videos (320x240 or 480x360) or SD video (640x480), you can also convert these videos to 640x480 resolution and 2.5 Mbit/sec bitrate. After converting, you will see a big improvement on their video quality.

With this trick, you can now have HD like videos for your s60v5 phone. The only disadvantage of this trick is that it will increase the file size of your video.

One more thing, the converted video will only look great on the 3.2in widescreen display of the phone. The video will still be awful when watched full screen in a computer monitor.

So what are you waiting for? Convert those dull videos now. And enjoy a great movie experience with your s60v5 phone.

How to distinguish original Nokia phones

In the recent years, Nokia clone phones have started to invade the cellphone market. And a lot of consumers have also started patronizing these clones. But we can't blame these consumers for buying fake Nokia phones. Because the clones are almost mirror image of the original phones. And these fake phones are way cheaper than the genuine Nokia phones. Isn't that cool? A phone that looks like the original Nokia unit for a very low price.

But not all consumers like these clone phones. There are buyers who really want to buy an original Nokia phone but were tricked to purchase the fake one. And it's a big disappointment for those victims to find out that the features they were looking for are not available in the fake phone that they bought. So it's really an advantage if you know how to distinguish original Nokia phones from clones.

Most of these clones were originally manufactured in China. That's why fake Nokia phones were also known as China phones. These Chinese manufactured phones were repackaged and branded as Nokia phones when sold to the market.

Physically, a China phone has a lot of resemblance with the original Nokia unit. If you will put a China phone and an original Nokia unit side by side, I'm pretty sure that you will have a hard time determining which one is original and which one is fake by just looking at them. You need to do more inspections to be able to distinguish the original Nokia phone. Below are some simple tips to determine an original Nokia unit:

Basic Korean Words

After you learned the basic writing system of the Koreans in my previous article, Basic Korean (Hangul) Tutorial, it is now time for you to know some basic Korean words that you can use in your everyday life. These basic Korean words can help you have a decent life in Korea.

Words/Phrases used for conversations:

안녕 (annyong) - Korean's general term for Hi or Hello.

안녕 하세요 (annyong haseyo) - a formal Hi or Hello. You can also use this word to greet good morning, good afternoon or good evening.

여보세요 (yeoboseyo) - Hello in phone conversation.

안녕 아침 (annyong achim) - Good morning

안녕히 주무세요 (annyonghi jumuseyo) - Good night

안녕히 가세요 (annyonghi gaseyo) - Good bye

감사 합니다 (gamsa hamnida) - a formal thank you

고마워 (gomawo) - thanks

고맙다 (gomapta) - thank you

사랑해요 (saranghaeyo) - i love you

네 (ne) - yes

아니오 (anio) - no

아니야 (aniya) - not

축하애요 (chukahaeyo) - congratulations

Korean numbers:

하나 (hana) - one

둘 (dul) - two

세 (seht) - three

네 (neht) - four

다섯 (daseot) - five

여섯 (yeoseot) - six

일곱 (ilgop) - seven

여덟 (yeodeol) - eight

아홉 (aihop) - nine

열 (yeol) - ten

백 (baeg) - hundred

천 (cheon) - thousand

Korean colors:

검정(geomjeong) - black

푸른 (pureun) - blue

갈색 (galsaek) - brown

초록색 (choroksaek) - green

회색 (hoesaek) - gray

오렌지 (orenji) - orange

분홍색 (bunhongsaek) - pink

보라색 (burasaek) - purple

빨강 (bbalgang) - red

노란 (noran) - yellow

Korean shapes:

원형 (wonhyeong) - circle

원뿔 (wonbbul) - cone

삼각형 (samgakhyeong) - triangle

Foods:

빵 (bbang)- bread

밥 (bap) - rice (cooked)

쌀 (ssal) - rice (raw)

샐러드 (saelleodeu) - salad

국 (guk) - soup

쇠고기 (sogogi) - beef

닭고기 (dakgogi) - chicken

돼지고기 (dwaejigogi) - pork

양파 (yangpa) - onion

소금 (sogeum) - salt

간장 (ganjang) - soy sauce

사과 (sagwa) - apple

바나나 (banana) - banana

포도 (podo) - grapes

딸기 (ddalgi) - strawberry

당근 (dang-geun) - carrot

오이 (oi) - cucumber

감자 (gamja) - potato

Body Parts:

팔 (pal) - arm

귀 (gwi) - ear

눈 (nun) - eye

얼굴 (eolgul) - face

손 (son) - hand

머리 (meori) - head

다리 (dari) - leg

코 (ko) - nose

입 (ip) - mouth

이빨 (ibbal) - teeth

혀 (hyeo) - tongue

엄지 (eomji) - thumb

So that's it for now. I'll be posting more basic Korean words in my future articles. :)