Beginning March 12, Starbucks customers who purchase either of the NEW Springtime Favourites, Azuki Blossom Cream Frappuccino or Matcha Azuki Blossom Cream Frappuccino can experience Cherry Blossom at their favourite Starbucks stores. You just simply need to scan the QR code that can be found in each cup. After scanning the QR code, you will need to locate the banner with the Cherry Blossom to trigger the Augmented Reality (AR) experience. Upon scanning, you can take selfies under Cherry Trees of falling cherry blossoms. Join in on the Cherry Blossom craze and visit Starbucks to witness spring in full bloom!

Starbucks embraces the changing of the seasons with new Springtime favorites inspired by Cherry Blossom. In Japan, the blooming of cherry blossoms is one of the most anticipated times of the year as it marks the coming of Spring – a time of new beginnings. The breath-taking sight of cherry trees tinted with the pale pink haze symbolizes beauty, life, and renewal.

The Azuki Blossom Cream Frappuccino is as dreamy as a Spring day in Japan with its velvety milk and sweet red bean base, topped with whipped cream, falling petals of white and pink rice blossom petals, and tart dried cranberry bits. A green tea variation, the Matcha Azuki Blossom Cream Frappuccino is also offered which blends the bright flavors of Matcha and sweet red bean. This cherry blossom treat is also sprinkled with pink and white rice petals and cranberry bits on top of whipped cream and red beans.

Starbucks Spring Season Blend is also available for those who want to bring spring’s unique flavors into their cup of coffee at home, it combines four distinct coffees from around the world to deliver a big syrupy body with dark cherry and cedary spice flavors.

Stunning Sakura-themed merchandise is also ripe for the picking in Starbucks stores. With a dainty palette of pink, purple, and gold, the collection depicts two kinds of cherry blossoms, inspired by traditional hand drawings and oil paintings that captures its beauty.


The double-walled mugs with rubber lids in Blossom Pink and in Blossom Gray with Sakura motifs, tumblers like the clear Cold Cup designed with a sprinkling confetti blossom and complemented with a lid and straw, and even adorable Bearista Bear Keychains in pastel pink are also part of the collection.

The 2019 Sakura Card will complete the collection, designed to show the delicateness of the Cherry Blossom’s pale pink petals. The card is available for an initial activation amount of 300 pesos per card. Visit the Starbucks Philippines Facebook Page for more details.

Experience Cherry Blossom at Starbucks posted at Cebu Events Blog

Affordable real estate developer and subsidiary of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) Amaia Land launches Amaia Steps Mandaue Tower 2 offering to families and individuals seeking high-quality and affordable housing options. Amaia Steps Mandaue will offer 288 units with various unit sizes that can cater to needs of its prospect homeowners.


Amaia Steps Mandaue Tower 2 is set to provide its prospective residents convenient access to Cebu’s cultural and heritage sites. It is near to Cebu major thoroughfares and the Mactan International Airport.

Amaia Steps Mandaue Tower 2 signifies new beginnings and a chance to settle down in a spacious, well-designed units at very affordable prices. Residents will also relish spending fun weekends at the Amaia Steps amenities including a swimming pool which is expected to be completed this quarter or bonding with family and friends at the courtyard.



Amaia Land made it possible of owning an affordable and sustainable homes closer to hardworking Filipinos through easy payment options: cash, deferred cash, and bank financing.

Amaia continues to serve homeowners with affordable and sustainable developments that aim to elevate the Filipino living experience in a well-secured environment.

For inquiries about Amaia Steps Mandaue Tower 2 and other Amaia developments, check out www.amaialand.com or follow www.facebook.com/AmaiaLand.

This article will not touch on the greater technical aspect on ASUS Zenfone 5 AI Capabilities, instead I will share my actual Straight-out-of-Camera (SOOC) FOOD photos taken from the Zenfone 5, some experience and slightly citing some of the AI capabilities of Zenfone 5.

To begin, ASUS Zenfone 5 is one of the most intelligent phones ever made by ASUS and in the market. It has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC (System on a Chip) mobile platforms inside giving its capabilities of the Artificial Intelligence Engine (AIE) or AI capabilities to execute many micro tasks involved in Artificial Intelligence (AI) computing. In short, this phone is intelligent and able to perform advance tasks using data and reacts to stimulus through its sensors.

I was in a buffet setting at a hotel in Cebu Business Park and about to eat lunch. Before I take anything to eat, I decided to take some pictures on what's in the buffet area. Most of the time, I take only few pictures but this time as I am shooting using an ASUS Zenfone 5 and I like what I see from the pictures that I took. So there I spend nearly 5-10 minutes taking pictures before having something to eat.

See below pictures that I took and look how Zenfone 5 perfectly implemented its AI scene detection where it intelligently adjust and optimize Color temperature and saturation, Contrasts, Brightness, Shutter Speed, and Exposure Time in every scene that I captured. These photos are taken in Auto mode.






The Snapdragon 636 has powerful, 8-core processors based on Qualcomm’s Kryo technology, and are built on highly-advanced 14nm manufacturing processes which gives them extremely good battery performance. Thus, giving it the Artificial Intelligence capabilities that give them the ability to manage the many small human-like decision making processes involved in AI.

ASUS is able to deliver with Zenfone 5 the AI algorithm that works better in the market. It's AI Scene Detection uses a special algorithm known technically as an “AI data model“, it senses the up to 16 scenes or subjects the user is shooting applies the ideal settings that would render the best results.
The camera’s AI data model is created by referencing thousands of stock photos stored on ASUS servers gets refined with each firmware update of the smartphone.

Aside from Food, Zenfone Camera can detect people, dog, cat, sunset, sky, green field, ocean, flower, plant, snow, night view, stage, text, tripod and even QR codes. With these advance information that every Zenfone 5 smartphone is using, no wonder it could quickly decide on its own the most accurate camera setting in taking pictures. Now it's time for sweets!



To end this article, let's try to get acquainted with the Camera used in ASUS Zenfone 5 whose responsible to deliver decent mobile photos.

The ZenFone 5 has three cameras. The rear has two, a 120-degree wide angle, F2.2, 8-megapixel camera that can capture wide landscapes and a light sensitive main camera with the latest, top-of-the-line, 12 megapixel Sony flagship IMX363 sensor that has large 1.4 micron pixels and a wide F1.8 aperture lens. Its front camera is an 8-megapixel, F2.0 selfie camera


The main camera is great for portraits and focusing on isolated subjects, night and low light shots. The wide angle camera is excellent for shooting broad landscapes, in confined areas, just be careful with using wide angle since the extreme eastern and western quadrant of the photo tends to bend, this is expected on wide angle lenses. All are supplemented with a Color Correction Sensor and LED flash.
ASUS Zenfone 5 Camera Food Photography Test posted at Cebu Events Blog