GMovies App: Convenience at Your Fingertips

I had the GMovies app for several months now.  But I only use it to view movie schedules on various cinemas.  It was just yesterday when I fully utilize its feature, that is buying movie tickets using my mobile phone, a real convenience at your fingertips.

GMovies is powered by Globe.  Even if it is under Ayala Group of companies, you will see movie schedules on various cinemas around the metro and even key cities around the Philippines like Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Pampanga and many others.  But unfortunately, at this time, you can only buy tickets on cinemas managed by the Ayala Malls Group.  But I don't think one has to worry about it since Ayala Malls has been continually expanding all over the Philippines.  They have Marquee Mall in Pampanga, Harbour Point in Subic, Ayala Center in Cebu, Abreeza Mall in Davao and Centrio Mall in Cagayan de Oro.

The GMovies app enables user to browse movie schedules currently on showing with a brief synopsis and even movie rating from rotten tomatoes.  Users can also view nearest cinema on their current location.

Yesterday, we decided to watch Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy.  Knowing its Metro Manila Film Festival season (meaning long queues in buying tickets and possibility of seats to be sold out fast), we decided to purchase tickets online.  Our choice of cinema was Glorietta as it is the nearest to my place.  I used to have a Sure Seats account, where you can reserve tickets and just pay upon arrival on the cinema (managed by Ayala malls) but I already forgot my credentials there so I tried buying tickets using GMovies app.  Here's what I did.

1. Select the movie of your choice. Click the Showtimes button. The list of nearby cinemas will be shown.

2. Select your preferred cinema.  I picked Glorietta 4.  Various schedules will be shown with corresponding price.  In case of our preferred movie, it is available in Cinema 3 and 4 in Glorietta.

3. Select your prefered schedule.  The available seats will be shown on your chosen schedule.  Select your preferred seat/s then click Buy button.

4.  Once you click Buy, you will proceed with the payment options.  Currently, there are 3 options available as shown below.  I read that Gcash payment will be available soon.  You may double check your prefered schedule and seat as indicated in the upper right portion of your app. 

5.  In our case, we chose the credit card payment option.  For credit card purchases, you will be charged an additional 20 pesos per ticket.  This is the same amount charged by sure seats for reservation.  Input your email address on the pop up screen then you will be directed to Peso Pay payment facility.

6.  At the Peso Pay payment facility, you will be asked to choose between Visa or Master Card payment.  Once you have chosen any of these, you will then input your credit card details.

7.   You are done!  A payment confirmation will be shown on your screen once done.  Since this is my first transaction using this app, I just screen grabbed the payment confirmation.  I checked my email and there was no email yet, but a got it on a later time.

When I received the email, there were some instructions there on how to claim the tickets.    Specifically for credit card transactions, one must print the email confirmation and bring the card card used for the payment.  But since I don't have printer at home, I'm hopeful that presenting the email from my mobile will suffice.

Upon arriving at Glorietta, since I am familiar with Sure Seats transaction, we fall in line at the Sure Seats counter.  The lady asked me to log in my credentials at Sure Seats website but I told her I made transactions using GMovies so she told me to just go directly in the cinema to get our tickets.  Wow, what a convenience, I thought.

At the cinema, the lady at the entrance was asking for the print out but I told her I don't have it and asked where can I print it.  She told me I can have the email confirmation printed at the Sure Seats counter, I told her that it was them who told me to just go directly at the cinema.  I also said if she can just copy the barcode details instead.  She asked her colleague and she said to her to just copy the barcode while telling me to have it printed next time.  Well, that was not quite a convenience at that time.

It was just now that I learned through the GMovies app via My Tickets tab that indeed I no longer need the printed email.  

The lady at the Sure Seats counter was correct but unfortunately, the lady at the cinema entrance may not be familiar with it or maybe because I didn't tell her that I purchased tickets through GMovies.

This is really very convenient, a true convenience at your fingertips.  You can purchase your tickets anytime, anywhere.  I hope payment through ATM via online banking will be available soon.  Besides, BPI, another Ayala Group, have an online banking facility.  I prefer debiting my cash rather than paying through credit card.

Viber, Line, WeChat, Kakao Talk

Admit it. I'm sure you have at least one of these instant messaging or chat applications on your smartphone.  Me, I have at least 3 but I frequently use only 1.

Before, text messaging was your only way to reach your loved ones in the cheapest way using your mobile phone.  But because of technological advancement, there are now so many ways to reach them, not just by texting but through sending instant messages.  No, not through email nor through online chat such as Yahoo Messanger and Skype.  And no, you don't even need to be connected to the internet.  Instant messaging applications (or a.k.a Chat applications) such as Viber, Line, WeChat, Kakao Tallk are available in application stores on your smartphones which you can download for free.  Once you have these applications, you can use them also for free!  Well not really, you still need to have either WiFi connection, Unli Data or Unli Chat service offered by your service provider.

All of these instant messaging applications offers free calls and text messaging.  So what's the difference between Viber, Line, WeChat, Kakao Talk and other instant messaging applications available for smartphone?  Well, I'm really not sure.  But I think they only differ to add-on features it offers.

I first learned about Viber and I knew it offers free calls worldwide as long as you have WiFi.  My siblings encourages each one of us to have Viber because some of them are working abroad.  Aside from Skype to help us connect to each other, we also had Viber which allows us to be connected instantly.  This has become very useful for us, most especially our homes have wireless connections and our mobile phones are capable of using Viber.  The free call offered by Viber was the most useful feature I love from Viber.  And now, the group chat feature is the secondary feature my siblings and I
enjoy.  Its like our billboard where we can post anything in case we're offline.  And when we're online, we can easily converse to each other, anywhere in the world!

Viber logo

I knew about Line when I downloaded Line Camera.  I enjoyed the features of Line Camera as it adds beauty to your pictures with its various effects, stamps/stickers and text features.  The stickers available in the camera are also in the instant messaging.  I've been reading in some fashion bloggers about Line chat and they find the stickers adorable as it can be added to your message.  Some of its stickers are also "moving" which can also express what you're feeling.  Although I have recently downloaded Line chat, I still don't use them as I don't have friends who uses the same app.   

Line logo

WeChat has became famous because of its advertisement on TV.  One of its famous feature is the voice chat wherein instead of sending text message, you can just send a voice message instantly.  This feature differentiates this app from other instant messaging app which got me interested.  So I let my boyfriend download this app so we can "talk" endlessly and for free.  WeChat also features voice group chat.  I haven't tried that though.  They also have cute stickers that is "moving".  So just like Line, aside from your message, you can just send stickers as an addition to what you wanted to say.

WeChat logo

Kakao Talk was the most recent instant messaging app available in the market.  Just like WeChat, this become famous because of its advertisement on TV.  The most advertised feature of Kakao Talk was their "moving" sticker.  With just exchanging stickers, you can already relay your message or your feelings to your friends clearly.  I'm not so familiar with Kakao Talk since I no longer downloaded this.  I feel I have enough instant messaging app on my smartphone.

Kakao Talk logo

 
There are other apps available for chat such as FB instant messaging, Yahoo Messenger, Skype and many others which I may not be familiar of.  Whatever applications you are using, the most important is that you can now connect to anyone at an instant.  I wonder what will be the next innovation available to your smartphone?  

BDO and BPI Mobile Banking: Let's Find Ways to Make Things Easy

At this 21st century, we are seeing a lot of technological advancement.  Smartphones, tablets, cloud computing, wireless connections are just few innovations that revolutionize the way we live.  Everything is within reach, whether you need to communicate to your love ones, find the nearest gas station, know the latest events in your community, pay your bills or mobile banking, all of these can be done at your fingertips.  I find it really convenient to do these things with my smartphone, especially paying bills online.

The past years, BPI has already come up with application on smartphone for mobile banking.  This is ultra convenient for me since I am a heavy BPI user, especially when paying bills.  This is how BPI's mobile app looks like.  It has evolved in time to make it more user friendly.

BPI Mobile App

BDO, on the other hand, did not succumb to this innovation.  They too created an application on smartphone for mobile banking.  Although, it took them quite a while to have this convenient application.  Before, the BDO app in app store is not that really helpful.  One cannot perform similar transactions as BPI app.  You can only check your balance and nothing more.  Well, lately, they have updated their app so one can have the convenience of performing several banking transactions at their fingertips.  Here is what BDO app looks like.

BDO Mobile App

I like both applications as I have savings account with them.  I can check balances, pay bills and even transfer money (of same bank).  I haven't tried inter-bank money transfer and I'm not sure if both banks are capable of it.  Although, I read that BPI is already capable of this kind of transaction.

Other banks already have mobile applications such as RCBC, China Bank, UCPB, Citibank and Union Bank.  Well, I'm speaking of applications available in App Store but I'm sure these are also available to Android users.

Thank you BPI and BDO!  You truly make things easy by finding ways :)