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You might not think it possible, but there is something worse than being caught in a gridlock in Metro Manila: Not having your phone with you!
Or, not having a mobile phone or service that doesn’t let you stay connected in meaningful ways.
It works either way, actually – getting stuck in Manila traffic (or a bureaucracy-ridden government office, or the the MRT, anywhere you’re on your butt for hours on end) can be a curse or blessing, depending on what your phone or mobile device can do.
According to Felino A. Palafox Jr., a founder of the Philippine chapter of The International Real Estate Federation (Fiabci) in an article in Business Mirror, “Metro Manila residents spend 1,000 hours on congested roads every year.”
If you aren’t properly digitally connected, that’s 1,000 hours of not checking your mail, not YouTubing, not Instagramming—in other words, not making your daily commute just a bit more bearable.
Because, hey, no one can deny the convenience and ease mobile innovations have brought us.
Paying bills online? Sure.
Checking on what’s showing in the nearest movie house? You got it.
Reserving a slot with hairstylist at your favorite salon? Easy.
No more empty hours in the wasteland of daily commutes and unnecessary waits. The trick is to plug in and make these innovations available to you.
Of course, loading up your mobile devices with whole seasons of Friends or Parks and Recreation to keep you company is one more thing you can do to get a semblance of “productivity” during these times, but memory space is always an issue. You can also make offline playlists from streaming services to make them readily available, but this actually takes up more space than storing actual mp3 files.
Here’s an option for the memory-space-challenged: make entertainment available while in traffic – or anywhere you find yourself with a little downtime – by opening your iflix app, available on both iOS and Android platforms. If a TV show or movie seems more appealing than scrolling through 9gag for the nth time that day, try this video-on-demand service, and open the floodgates of thousands of hours viewing. Star Trek. Big Bang Theory. Heck, Dora The Explorer!
Tip: subscribe through Smart, and you’ll be able to get movies and TV shows for only P99/month. The same price goes for PLDT subscribers, as well. Standard price is P129 a month for non-Smart subscribers, so that’s immediate savings right there. A Smart subscription also gets you the chance to link up to five devices to your account—if you’ve got kids or a tight-knit barkada, you can share your account and have them enjoy entertainment everywhere on-the-go, too—that’s two great perks on one subscription alone.
Another entertainment portal that can be accessed with special rates via Smart is Fox International Channels via the app Viewstream (also downloadable on any OS platform). Catch up on The Walking Dead while waiting for your date (is she really coming? Oh wait, Rick’s about to get bad-ass again, thank GOD…). Get your daily dose of snark with The Simpsons while traversing Guadalupe. Get into a vogue-ing mood before you hit the clubs with Asia’s Next Top Model.
Fox International on Viewstream gives you nine live broadcast channels so it’s literally like having cable TV wherever you go—even when you’re squeezing yourself onto the MRT. (For parents looking for a quick fix for kids about to explode from boredom from long car rides, this can be heaven-sent!)
And if your kids are more gamers than TV buffs, let them lose themselves in massively popular multi-player game Clash of Clans! If they’re good enough, they could even compete in the country’s biggest Clash of Clans event, Philippine Clash 2015, with over PHP2M worth in prizes at stake.
Traffic and the other inconveniences that Manila life presents can be tiresome, but there will always be solutions to make this reality better. Even brighter. All you have to do—aside from not forgetting your phone!—is to look for smarter solutions that are relevant to your lifestyle.
Visit http//smart.com.ph/smartlife for more details.
