This season sure does bring in some pretty serious realization on things that really matters and what makes this time the most amazing time of the year. It's not just the gifts that we give and receive but also how we value the people around us. This realization triggered me after watching a holiday-themed video series by El Real Pasta Facebook Page on Facebook.

Get up to P1,500 in cashback when you pay with PayMaya!  Get cashbacks on online shopping and every QR purchase when you #ShopPaMore with PayMaya this holiday season 

It’s time to leave your cash and credit card at home because all you’ll use for all your shopping needs at the last stretch of 2018 is your PayMaya app, as you can get rewarded with cashback on every PayMaya QR transaction as you #ShopPaMore this holiday season! 

Shoppers can get as much as 100% cashback on all of their purchases whenever they shop in-store using PayMaya QR at all partner merchants nationwide from today until December 31, 2018. To view the full list of PayMaya QR-enabled merchants, visit pymy.co/QRmerchants. 

This means shoppers can buy Christmas outfits for their inaanaks at The SM Store or Robinsons Department Store, or even complete their Noche Buena plans at various PayMaya QR-enabled supermarkets, and get rewarded and get rewarded up to P1,000 for every QR transaction. 

Christmas is the most awaited time of the year, where we all come together with our loved ones. From long chats over Noche Buena to unwrapping gifts for our family and friends, it’s the little things that make this holiday special. But with the season also comes the rush, making it hard to find time to prepare for all the festivities and have everything perfect and on time for the celebrations. 

To help you get through the jam packed times, honestbee, Asia's fastest growing food service powered by community and technology, has partnered with another leading hypermarket chain, Shopwise. “We’re living up to our promise of giving our customers more choices for their online grocery shopping, especially if they are looking for more affordable options for their daily essentials” said Crystal Gonzalez, Managing Director of honestbee Philippines. 

honestbee can now bring you everything you need for the holiday, from your party essentials, Christmas gifts, and different ingredients to fill your dinner table with delicious meals. Choose from Shopwise’s wide selection of groceries, clothes, toys, and home essentials that will go easy on your budget. These include notable brands such as Papa Alfredo, Sunharvest, SnapMax and Southdale Farm, and also quality affordable wines from French Cellar, Wine Makers Reserve, and Red Peak to complete you holiday dinners. 

Avara, a leisure nature and yacht club situated in Palawan’s first capital of Taytay, recently opened its doors to lovers of lush sea and surf, catering best to families who are out for lavish, well-deserved vacation. This topflight leisure club is established by Seaside Premier Development Corporation and is guided by no less than big-name board of advisors who are experts in the field of deluxe seaside recreation, to ensure that Avara’s clientele receive only topnotch service. 

Go crazy on 12-12 with back-to-back discounts and cashbacks when you #ShopPaMore with PayMaya! 

The most awaited sale event of the year on 12-12 has just gotten more exciting as PayMaya brings better cash deals with bigger and better cashbacks, discounts, and prizes. Shoppers who will #PayWithPayMaya can stack up and enjoy back-to-back online and in-store cashbacks as well as a chance to take home the jaw-dropping P10 million prize at the “PayMaya Pa More” raffle promo. You can take advantage of all these deals, even without a credit card, exclusively with PayMaya! 

Shop to your heart’s content at Lazada, Zalora and other online stores to enjoy cashbacks and discounts, on top of the price drop offered on the items you are buying, only with PayMaya. Score a 50% discount of up to P200 when you use the promo code PAYMAYA1212 upon check-out at Lazada. Get more deals at Zalora with a 25% discount on a minimum purchase of P1,500 when you use the promo code PYMYOF25 upon check-out. 

The newest ZenFone Max series smartphone hits the market, retaining the DNA of its predecessor to deliver max performance, max battery and max durability.

The fans’ longing has ended as ASUS Philippines announced the availability of the ZenFone Max Pro M2 during its official Philippine launch today at Ayala Malls the 30th. It is no secret that the latest smartphone offering of ASUS this year will finally set foot in the Philippines after all the teasers went out late November– making fans yearn for its arrival just in time for the Christmas season! It simultaneous launched in Indonesia who gave the opening remarks.

Making someone's wish come true sure is something that warms the heart. It a privilege that not a lot of people know is quite easy and sometimes free. With the theme 'Shop with Heart', this years 12.12 sale of Lazada is granting various wishes of the heart of a few lucky individuals.

Marvel has just released the first trailer for Avengers 4 online and the people are going crazy and easter egg videos will be popping out soon with their own speculations and theories. After months of anticipation, Marvel has finally releases the first trailer and fans are loving it!

Avengers End Game is the direct sequel to Avengers: Infinity War, which ended quite drastic leaving 50% less people on earth and leaving very few super heroes on earth. 

Whether you’re buying gifts for yourself or for your loved ones, PayMaya is bringing you more reasons to #ShopPaMore this Christmas season as it offers back-to-back online and offline cashbacks, and a chance to win P10 million at its “PayMaya Pa More” raffle promo. You can enjoy all of these perks, even without a credit card!

Shop to your heart’s content at Century City Mall’s Shopaholic Special from December 7-9, 2018, where you can enjoy a 20% cashback of up to P500 when you #ScanToPay using PayMaya QR. 

Splurge on your gifts for your family and friends, guilt-free because for every P2,000 single or accumulated receipt at merchants in Century City Mall, you earn an entry to get a chance to be one of 100 lucky shoppers who will take home a P10,000 cash prize. And when you #ScanToPay with PayMaya for your purchase, you get twice as many raffle entries, doubling up on your chances of winning!

But if you’re an online shopping junkie, you can also score a 10% cashback of up to P200 when you use your PayMaya virtual or physical card to pay for the things you love online– may it be gifts for your friends or airfare for your holiday getaway. You can take advantage of this awesome deal from December 8-10, 2018. 

The Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) is proud to announce it has worked with over 160 local vendors to generate more than 250 offers for the seventh annual Shop Guam e-Festival. The GVB signature event launched on Saturday, November 10, 2018, and will run through February 10, 2019. It also kicked off a yearlong Shop Guam campaign that will continue into four promotional seasons.

“We’re excited to share all the great deals being offered with this year’s Shop Guam e-Festival and want to thank all the local businesses and GVB members that teamed up with us,” said GVB President and CEO Nathan Denight. “We highly encourage our local residents and visitors to download the free Shop Guam mobile app and take advantage of these exclusive offers during the holiday season.”

The free Shop Guam mobile app is available in six different languages and also serves as a visitor guide with sections featuring local events and businesses found only on Guam.

The state of the art mobile app additionally utilizes new QR codes that merchants can scan for shoppers to redeem offers. Unlike the other promotional seasons, the winter e-Festival period will use the Shop Guam mobile app’s iBeacon technology, which alerts users through real-time push notifications when they are nearby Shop Guam merchants.

“The journey that we’ve taken to grow Shop Guam into an award-winning global campaign has been nothing short of fantastic,” said GVB Director of Global Marketing Pilar Laguaña. “We’ve worked very hard with our industry partners and businesses to promote and develop the largest shopping event in the Western Pacific. Our Shop Guam app can be enjoyed by island residents and visitors alike, so please share it with your family and friends.”

Shop Guam Ambassadors to help promote e-Festival Eight social media ambassadors from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Russia, and North America have been selected by GVB to assist promoting the Shop Guam e-Festival in their respective countries. Their combined fan base on social media totals more than 12 million. The digital influencers include Chihiro Inohana (Japan), Jin So Young (South Korea), Eliana Lee Yu (North America), Lien Hsia (Taiwan), Kabee Cheung (Hong Kong), Denise Laurel (Philippines), Sai Sai (China) and Karina Titova (Russia).

A user-generated content (UGC) campaign has also launched to promote Shop Guam by encouraging shoppers to post their shopping experience on social media and tagging GVB so their content can be shared worldwide. The Shop Guam UGC campaign is linked to the second year of the #instaGuam campaign. Growth of Shop Guam

Shop Guam has attracted 1.8 million visitors to Guam since the campaign began in 2012 and has generated over $68 million in media value. GVB has worked with 784 local merchants and promoted their 1,213 offers in the past six years. The mobile app has been downloaded just under 130,000 times.

The Shop Guam e-Festival mobile app received the 2017 Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award for the best mobile app category. More so, the success of the Shop Guam campaign supported GVB’s historic recognition as the first tourism office in the United States to win the prestigious President’s “E” Award for its tourism export excellence.

For more information or to join the 2018 Shop Guam campaign, contact GVB Shop Guam Co-Op Liaison Robbie Gerrie Bautista at shopguam@visitguam.org or 671-797-9900. The Shop Guam mobile app is available for free on Google Play and Apple iTunes.

Here's something new that you don't see hear everyday, a cultural album release by our local artists & musicians. Focused on presenting the rich and colorful music of the Philippines to the world, Lea Salonga, a Filipino international artist pays homage to 15 beautiful traditional folk songs, representing various regions and dialects like Tagalog, Ilocano, Kapampangan, Bicolano, Bisaya and Ilonggo.

Just yesterday, Huawei announced that they will launch the new Nova 4 with in-screen selfie camera on December 17. This is following the teaser they made a week ago after the being seen out and about in China in a pre-production unit. Smartphone business is a though business and Huawei & Samsung has been in tight competition with each other, especially now that Huawei took the number 2 position in the smartphone market,

It's also known that Samsung is to release the Galaxy A8s even before Huawei announced theirs, but when Huawei announced the date of the Nova 4 launch with the smartphone screen hole, in a matter of hours, Samsung announced that it will show off the Galaxy A8s 1 week earlier on December 10. How's that for competition?

Coincidence or no? Well for me, it sure doesn't matter at all. As long as the phone works well and the specs and price are awesome. Being able to brag that they are the first smartphone with a screen hole  is a good PR, but doesn't necessarily mean that they're the best right or better than the next ones right? Anyways, this hole on screen has been the talks since late November, and now they're here. Just because of the date, Samsung might just beat Huawei to the punch on being first but things can still change.

King of Entry Level Smartphones - Realme C1 is going on sale on Lazada this December 5th, 2018 for only P 5,490. Realme Philippines, the newest game changer smartphone brand in the Philippines recently unveiled its first smartphone in the country, the Realme C1. Designed to be the Philippines’ #RealEntryLevelKing, the C1 defies the expectations of affordable smartphones with its enticing performance & design on Lazada this December 5th 2018, 12NN. 

Well, let's just say figuratively (and literally) it kinda snowed. With the passion that the Huawei brand has in their mantra "Make it Possible", it certainly was a prediction back in 2015 by the Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO, Mr. Richard Yu that Huawei would become the no. 1 smartphone maker in the world within three to five years. Fast forward to 2018, Huawei just place the #2 spot globally. How's that for making things possible.

Innovations are not new with Huawei. They have been getting feedback from its customers and has been implementing them with their products. Some to take a note of would be the Kirin series chipsets, Leica cameras and the power-efficient batteries. That certainly improved the user experience across the board and catapulted Huawei devices to achieving major critical and consumer acclaim.