ICYME (Aug 7-13): Star-studded week of phones, games, and trailers

It’s been a busy week for week for the tech industry. Sprinkled with a couple of gadget and game launches, last week had us giddy again with new things to do and get excited about. As we do every week, let’s run down the things you may have missed last week:

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• Welcome the new ASUS ZenFone 3 family! Last year’s Zenfone 2 family was the breakout hit of 2015. Sporting the best value for money of the previous year’s cream of the crop, the ZenFone 2 seemed to be hard to top. We shouldn’t be surprised that ASUS has done it again with the ZenFone 3. The ZenFone 3 is out to gently rock your wallets in all shapes and sizes (with some wallets bigger than others). We’ve got the new ASUS ZenFone 3 (starts P16,995), Zenfone 3 Deluxe (starts at P34,995), Zenfone 3 Ultra (P32,995), Zenfone 3 Max (P8,995), and Zenfone 3 Laser (P11,995). That’s not even including the new ZenBook and Transformers.

• Time to be selfie experts. Also last week, OPPO has launched its new selfie expert, the OPPO F1s. Armed with a tougher 16-megapixel front camera, it can take selfies with amazing clarity for a mid-ranged price point of P12,990. Along with the phone’s reveal, OPPO has also introduced the phone’s ambassadors—Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Ella Cruz, Kylie Padilla, Janine Gutierrez, Shay Carlos, Bea Binene, Mikael Daez, Julian Trono, Apple David, Carla Lizardo, and (of course) Sarah Geronimo.

• Spicing up your home. Breaking out from its standard lineup of fridges, SMEG has officially opened its very own lifestyle store in Park Terrances, Makati. SMEG is also transitioning into a lifestyle brand with the launching of its magazine, Stile de Vita.

• Madame captain on the bridge! For the first time in its decades-long run, Star Trek will finally have a female captain. Set for a 2017 release, the new Star Trek: Discovery series will feature more minorities including the aforementioned female lead and an openly gay character.

• Beep boop, goodbye, R2D2. Speaking of stars, we bid a sad farewell to the master behind one half of our favorite droid tag team. Kenny Baker, who plays the ever popular R2D2 in the Star Wars series, has passed away after a long bout with illness. He was 81 after living an illustrious life.

• To the stars in a rickety ship. We’re not saying goodbye to the stars yet for our next entry. After years in development, No Man’s Sky has finally been released to the public. Hello Games seems to deliver on its promise of a vast space explorer. Sadly, in between reports of bugs and a lack of content, No Man’s Sky seems to be an unfinished game at best. Looks like we’ll have to wait for patches to do a full review.

• Hello, Rogue One! We promise this is our last entry about stars, but if the new Rogue One trailer drops, you know we’ll have our hands dirty with drool. New details, characters, and ships arise from the new trailer. We also have a glimpse of an old foe—Darth Vader himself!

• Pokemon Uranium arrives… and leaves. After years in development, fan-made game Pokémon Uranium releases a full version for its steadfast fan base. Set in Tandor, Pokémon Uranium takes on the world of Pokémon after a nuclear crisis rocks the world and affects our beloved pets. Featuring all-new oodles of new Pokémon , the game is a callback to the old games of yore. Sadly, Nintendo has taken notice and contacted the developers, who were forced to take down the game from their website but not after 1.5 million downloads.