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.

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. :)

Why SNSD is so addicting...

(Try to read my previous topic about SNSD)

SNSD (So Nyeo Shi Dae or Girls' Generation) is one of the most popular and successful girl group in Korea. They are also popular in other countries (Japan, Philippines, Thailand, etc.). This means that, even they (fans) are not Koreans or they (fans) cannot understand the Korean language, fans still love SNSD. International fans even put up their own SNSD fans club in their countries. These clubs set up special events every time SNSD officially released an album in their country, or when SNSD celebrates their anniversary. Some international fans (like me) were even influenced by SNSD to learn how to speak Korean to be able to understand their songs. That's how powerful and charismatic SNSD is.

Though they (SNSD) are very popular, there are still some people who don't like SNSD. These haters are known as anti-snsd. Haters are bringing up a lot of negative issues just to put SNSD down. Anti-snsd are saying that the girls' (SNSD) beauty are product of surgical procedures, and the group is not talented enough to deserve all the attention and popularity that they are getting. I don't know the real reason why they hate SNSD. But I think they are just envy of the extreme popularity and success that SNSD achieved in just three short years.

Despite of these negative publicities, fans are still hooked with SNSD. Fans are ignoring these issues and they just keep on supporting SNSD. And this continuing support of the fans makes haters go crazy.

SNSD has really captured the heart of the fans. So what's with SNSD that got people to be so addicted to them?

I'm an SNSD fan too. And I'm really addicted to them! My phone (Nokia N70me) is fully loaded with their songs and videos. I don't even have enough space to put in English or Filipino songs. After months of being hooked with SNSD, I was finally able to sort out the reasons why they were so addicting. Things that made them ahead of the pack. They are the following:

1. Their songs are all addicting. Their cute and beautiful voices mixed with catchy melody equals highly addicting songs! All the songs in their two albums, two repackaged albums and two mini albums can make every listeners addicted to them. One of their most popular songs is Gee. Korean fans were so addicted to Gee that it went no.1 in MNET countdown for eight straight weeks. Beating the record of the world wide hit song Nobody by Wonder Girls. Nobody became no.1 in MNET for just six consecutive weeks. Gee also became no.1 in Music Bank for nine consecutive weeks.

   Their songs are simple and catchy. That's why ordinary people can easily memorize the rhythm and melody of their songs. The sound of Korean words is also fun to hear. Even the international fans, who don't understand the Korean lyrics of SNSD songs, are still able to memorize and sing their songs.

2. Cute dance steps. Like their songs, the dance steps of SNSD are also simple and easy to follow. Even people who has no talent in dancing can easily do the dance steps of SNSD (like in my case ^_^).

   It's really a pleasure to the eyes watching their cute faces performing cute dance numbers. You can easily forget all your problems by just watching them do their moves. Their dance moves really fit their cute, innocent looking faces. Not all girls look good when they do cute dance steps. But SNSD looks great and fun to watch every time they perform! Actually, this one of the main reasons why I got addicted to SNSD. I love watching videos. And I really love the way they dance in all of their music videos.

3. Nine is better than one. I think SNSD having nine members, is the main thing that separates them from other Korean girl group. The usual number of members of a Korean singing group is four or five. But SM Entertainment wants to be unique. That's why they designed SNSD to have nine members. This is also the same strategy that SME applied on Super Junior, a popular and successful Korean boy group composed of 13 members.

   So what's the advantage if they have nine members compared to four or five members of the other groups?

   If you were an audience, you will find it more fun and entertaining to watch a bigger group performing together smoothly. You will never be bored. Your eyes will be busy trying to see what each member is doing.

   That is also the case with SNSD. You have nine beautiful ladies performing in front of you. Your eyes will try to memorize each member's face. Looking for the one that you can call as "my most favorite member!". And if you are already tired in focusing your attention on your favorite member (this is almost an impossible thing to happen. You will never get tired of watching your favorite SNSD member.), there are still eight other cute and beautiful faces that your eyes can watch for. Because of this fact, fans will never be bored watching SNSD. Isn't that great?

4. They have cute, beautiful, lovely faces. For me, this the biggest reason why fans are so addicted to SNSD. We all knew that all singers are really good in singing. But not all singers are pleasing to the eyes. And SNSD is a type of singing group with beautiful voices and faces.

   I was a 2NE1 fan before, but SNSD's beauty has made me forget 2NE1. I'm not saying that 2NE1 members aren't pretty. CL, Bom, Dara, and Minzy are also beautiful. Both groups are great singers and dancers. But SNSD's beauty is just too much for me. That's why I decided to pick SNSD over 2NE1.

   I created a short clip of SeoHyun singing her pat on Gee in one of SNSD's live performances. This is the video that made me say: "I am now a true blooded SNSD fan!". This short clip has made me decide to be an SNSD fan for a long, long time. :)

Busting Out Text Scams!

Scammers are everywhere. And one of their newly discovered playground is the world of SMS (short messaging system) or text messaging. Scamming through text is a clever way of stealing money from people. It's so easy and safe (for scammers' part).

Text messaging is not a much secured way of communication. Anyone who knows your number can easily send a scam message to you. And there's no way for you to figure out the real identity of the sender. Because there is no existing law that requires prepaid subscribers to register their SIM (subscriber identification module). Scammers can easily buy SIMs and change their mobile number. In this way, they can trick more people and still hide their identity.

In this article I'll be giving some tips, not how to know the real identity of the scammer, but how to distinguish genuine text messages from scam ones. It is really hard or almost impossible to determine the identity of a text scammer, but it's so easy to verify if a message is scam or not.

We will bust out two of the most common format of text scams. Let's begin!

1. The Promo Scam

"Congratulations! You won $100,000. Your number was luckily drawn in our Monthly promo draw last July 1st. Please call on this number and look for Atty. Smith for details on how to claim your prize."

Promo scam is a classical format of text scams. This is the first type of text scam that circulated in the SMS world. A lot of people were victimized by this scam. It's because of a simple reason; everybody wants to gain instant money. $100,000 is a huge amount of money to pass up. People who received this kind of message got so excited that they forget to verify if it's true.

Promo scam works like this:

1. The victim will call that number to know the details on how to claim the fake prize.

2. The scammer will ask the victim to send the details of his credit card and/or bank account so they can send the fake prize on that account.

3. Instead of sending the prize, the scammer will quickly access the victim's account and steal all the money of the victim.

4. After sweeping the victim's bank account, the scammer will buy a new SIM and change his number so that the victim cannot contact the scammer anymore when the victim realizes that he was scammed!

*Small time scammers will only ask for cell phone load instead of bank account details. When the scammer got enough amount of load from the victim, he will then change his number.

So here are some tips on what to do if you receive this kind of message:

1. Try to remember if you have ever joined any text promos. If you can't remember anything, then the text that you received is a 99% sure text scam.

2. Look for the promo code. All legitimate promo has their own unique code given by the government. Scammers are genius. They knew this fact. That's why they also put fake promo codes in their scam messages. If you see a promo code in a text message of this kind, try to verify it by calling the government department that handle all promos in your country.

3. Investigate the sender's number. Legitimate text promos use special numbers. They can be three to six digit numbers. If the sender's number looks like an ordinary mobile number, then it's 100% scam.

2. The Roaming Scam

"Hello guys! How are you there? I send a package full of stuffs for all of you. Miss you all! By the way, this is my new roaming number. Contact me here if you have any problem."

The roaming scam targets people who have friends or relatives outside the country. This kind of text scam is somewhat a psychological trick. It triggers the emotional weakness of humans. When a person has special someone abroad then he received a text message like this, he tends to be too excited and cheerful that he started to assume that the sender of the message is his love one.

The amount of money that a scammer can get from this kind of scam depends on how quick before the victim realizes that he was being tricked. It ranges from several days up to a couple of months. Scammers usually ask for cell phone loads. They pretend to have a hard time loading up their mobile accounts in their imaginary country. Sometimes they even ask for money or other stuffs. You can't blame people who are victimized by this trick. Because if you're in the same situation, you will also give everything that your love one asked just to make him feel better while living in a lonely country. Scammers who use this trick are also from the same country as the victim. That's why they emphasizes that they are using a roaming number. So that the victim will not wonder why does the sender's number look like an ordinary local cell phone number.

If you receive this kind of text and you really have a friend or relative that is outside the country, these are the things that you must do to avoid being scammed:

1. Never assume that the sender is your love one. Never reply a text message that attempts to guess the name of the sender. Remember, scammers send scam messages to random numbers. So they don't know if you really have relatives abroad. Sending a reply like, "Joe is this you?" is already a big success for the scammer. Aside from confirming that you do have relatives or friends abroad, you also gave them an instant identity. The scammer will now begin to pretend that he is the real "Joe" that you know. You just made the scammer's job easier. Instead of guessing a name, you should ask the sender his name. If he replied a name that you didn't know, then it's a sure scam. Usually, scammers don't reply anymore if you ask them to give a name. Because the probability of picking a right name, is too low.

2. Contact your relative or friend's old number. If the scammer luckily guessed a right name, then you must verify it. You can contact the old number of your friend or relative, or you can send an e-mail to him if he has an e-mail account.

3. Call that number. If your love one doesn’t have an e-mail account or his old number is not working anymore, the only way to verify the sender's identity is by calling him. Listen to his voice. Try to analyze the way he speaks. And check it yourself if he sounds like the real person. If he doesn’t, then he was just trying to scam you. But usually, if it is a scam, the scammer will never try to answer your call.