Take a look at the unreleased LG V30

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There has been a lot of talk surrounding the upcoming LG V30 that will be launched very soon. The LG flagship is predicted to go up against t8he likes of the iPhone 8 series and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. While we’re still waiting for more consistent rumors, popular leak sorcerer Evan Blass has once again pulled a trick from his sleeves, posting what is highly likely the official render of the LG V30.

Based on the high resolution render seen above by Evan Blass, the LG V30 retains the general design language set in stone for the LG G6 that launched earlier this year. But it seems like the bezels surrounding the display are lesser than those of the LG G6. The display of the LG V30 is rumored to be of a 6-inch P-OLED panel, in an 18:9 aspect ratio which is more or less confirmed in this render.

On the rear panel we see the dual camera setup which will consist of a 16MP sensor with an impressive f/1.6 aperture and a 13MP wide angle lens. Below the camera setup is a rear fingerprint sensor which is standard of LG. One other thing to note is the glossy frame of the LG V30, which might point to a difference in material and texture, possibly to give the device a better grip on its sides.

Regardless of all that has been said, we are only two weeks away from the main event in which the LG V30 will be launched. Are you excited?

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Take stunning Hyperlapse videos on the Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G

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With the Galaxy Note20 Ultra in your hands, the sky’s the limit when it comes to shooting stunning pictures and videos with its powerful tri-camera system that takes 108MP photos and 8K videos. As we have shown you previously on how you can perfectly control your video image settings with the Pro Video mode, Hyperlapse is another creative mode that you can unleash your creativity to capture the attention of your audience.

Now, isn’t Hyperlapse similar to timelapse? Well, they are essentially the same but Hyperlapse offers flexibility if your video requires movement over greater distances, in other ways of saying you are creating a timelapse as you are moving your camera.

To use Hyperlapse, launch the camera app on your Galaxy Note20 Ultra and switch to the Hyperlapse mode on the bottom scroll menu, you will usually find it on the More page if it isn’t set as one of your default camera modes.

Once you are in Hyperlapse mode, there are several features you can take advantage to shoot great hyperlapses. Starting with the video speed, while the auto mode already works well in most cases, you can increase the video speed and it guides you on which shooting scenario to be best used on.

If you are shooting in low light with lots of moving objects, it is best to keep the Night Hyperlapse feature turned on especially if you are taking light trails as it uses long exposure to capture your footage, make sure you use a tripod as well.

The Super Steady Mode ensures your Hyperlapse video stays stabilized and it is very helpful when you are shooting things in a crowded environment where holding a tripod or gimbal isn’t convenient, in this way you are also able to change your shooting angles while in action without causing too much shakes.

Before you get started on a Hyperlapse video, I would always recommend if you can get a table top tripod to mount your phone as it really eases your hand movement while you are on the move.

Train Tracks and Tunnels

This is the easiest way to get started on an Hyperlapse video, make sure you grab a seat and have space on the front or back of a train, set your Galaxy Note20 Ultra on a mini tripod and place it as close as possible to the windscreen, hit that record button and travel a few stations, pass through tunnels, you will then be able to see a stunning train track Hyperlapse after that.

Perform a dramatic zoom in of your subject

One dramatic way to make an intro of your video can be done by doing a Hyperlapse, have you or your friend stand in the center of the frame and from a far distance, slowly walk towards your subject and end it with either a medium or super close up shot.

Moving Cars and Busy Crowd Traffic

Unlike time lapse, Hyperlapse can create a really smooth motion of moving traffic if you are thinking to shoot as you are crossing an overhead bridge or walking along the streets, so make sure you have the Galaxy Note20 Ultra mounted to a table top tripod or a mobile gimbal, hit the record button and start walking at a slow pace.

Circle shot on an object

Doing a circle shot can be really interesting with Hyperlapse, as it helps your audience focus on the subject while see things happen in fast motion around it, hence what you will need to do is to ensure the subject is in the middle of the frame, hit that record button and slowly walk around it when holding the Galaxy Note20 Ultra.

Ready to get started on your next amazing video shoot with a smartphone? The Galaxy Note20 series smartphones are ready to take your creative ideas up a notch with their amazing features and a powerful camera system, here are their retail prices:

Galaxy Note20 – RM3,899

Galaxy Note20 5G – RM4,299

Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G – RM5,199

Find out more about the Galaxy Note20 series
here
.

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Tales of Berseria will be in English for PC and PS4, but not PS3

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The Tales franchise have had lots of good response, obviously so since the next Tales series will be its sixteenth game. So Bandai Namco has just confirmed that the next Tales – Tales of Berseria, will also be getting a PC release, in line with what they’ve been doing with its other Tales series such as the previous Tales of Zestiria.

Apparently during the Jump Festa this week, Bandai Namco spilled some juicy details. Other than the fact that this is the first Tales series where the main character is a female, Velvet, the main protagonist is an embodiment of darkness due to “festering anger and hatred after a traumatic experience three years prior.” Wow, sounds like a pretty emo character. We can just hope it doesn’t get too overboard.

However, despite how brooding and depressing the main protagonist character sounds, thankfully Velvet is paired with a lighter character; Laphicet, a young man created in the image of “light”. So far, these two are the only playable characters we’ve seen so far looking at the trailer and early release photos. Hopefully the other characters balance out the “dark and light” combinations or we will have another soap opera in our hands.

Another update from Famitsu magazine, Tales of Berseria is set in a period long before Tales of Zesteria. It is set in a middle of an area called “Wasteland” in a continent called “Glenwood”. The sceneries, landmarks and surroundings will be vastly different, providing you some hints on how the past of Tales of Zestiria was like.

So far, there have been no confirmed launched date for Tales of Berseria yet, but we can probably expect it to be released in PS4 and PC via Steam in 2016 for the English version, but sadly for PS3 users, Tales of Berseria will only be in Japanese.

Source:
Siliconera
,
TechnoBuffalo

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Tales of Symphonia HD is coming to PC soon

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Bandai Namco announced in June that Tales of Zestiria will be coming on Steam on October 20, which was a perfect news for fans of the long-running “Tales Of” franchise and there will be even more release coming to PC soon and one of it is an HD remake of Tales of Symphonia that will be releasing on 2016, but Steam didn’t state which month or quarter of 2016.

Herve Hoerdt from Bandai Namco said, “As we announced during our Level-Up event, 2015 is full of surprise for Tales of fans. Bringing Tales of Zestiria to PlayStation 4 and PC was our first step towards the celebration of the 20th Anniversary, bringing Tales of Symphonia HD, an all-time favourite, to PC is now the second step! We are working hard to bring more exciting content for Tales of Lovers in Western countries, and we hope that our efforts are appreciated!”

On Steam, the Tales of Symphonia page doesn’t say much about the game, nor does it give any indication of price and there be only some mystery figure for you to guess the release date of the game on 2016. Luckily, they provide the system requirements for the fans out there as follows:

Minimum:

 OS: Windows Vista 32/64

 Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+, 2.6GHz

 Memory: 1 GB RAM

 Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT / ATI Radeon HD 4830

 DirectX: Version 9.0

 Hard Drive: 7 GB available space

 Additional Notes: Gamepad support

Recommended:

 OS: Windows 7 (x64) / Windows 8 (x64)

 Processor: Intel Core i3-530, 2.93 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 940, 3.0GHz

 Memory: 4 GB RAM

 Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti / AMD Radeon HD 7850

 Hard Drive: 7 GB available space

 Additional Notes: Gamepad support

But! As a very good news, the Tales of Symphonia HD are also part of the Tales of Zestiria pre-purchase the game on Steam and there will be four tiers of bonus “rewards” are on offer, based on the number of people who pre-order the game: the “Classic Weapons set,” the “Classic Male Costumes Set,” the “Classic Female Costumes Set,” and a surprisingly free copy of Tales of Symphonia HD. You start your pre-order over here and you will receive the copy of Tales of Symphonia HD as soon as the game released on Steam, then it will automatically add to your Steam library.

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This adorable TP-Link camera protects your home with these 5 features

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IP cameras have gotten more affordable over the years with improved features and image quality, despite that most of them do not offer a good software experience and reliable feature set, which ultimately may not be able to do a good surveillance job and the reason we highly recommend the TP-Link Tapo C200, as it comes with these features to monitor your home securely.

Full HD and super clear night vision recording

Don’t let its adorable form factor fool you, because the Tapo C200’s records video at an incredibly clear Full HD resolution with a high quality 2-megapixel f/2.4 wide angle lens, it is one of the largest sensors for an IP camera that can capture more details even in low lighting conditions.

https://klgadgetguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/tapoc200videosample-lowlight.mp4

In addition, the Tapo C200’s IR flood light makes it possible to monitor your home even without a light source of up to 30ft and more impressively, it eliminates any frame drops which you will not miss capturing every suspicious motion that’s happening around your home.

Don’t forget, you will also be able to monitor any angle of your home as it can rotate 360-degree horizontally and 114-degrees vertically, nothing goes unnoticed with the Tapo C200’s powerful camera.

Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa Integration Support

Own a Google Nest Hub, Amazon Echo Show or even a Chromecast on your TV? The Tapo C200 works with either Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, which allows you to view your surveillance footage on your smart display or TV with just a simple voice command on your phone, smart speaker or display. For security purposes, the Tapo C200 doesn’t allow turning off the camera using voice command, so be rest assured no one will be able to disable your camera except you.

Built-in Alarm Siren and Flash Light

One thing baddies will never expect the Tapo C200 to come with is a built-in alarm and light to scare them away. With the motion detection feature activated, the camera’s loudspeaker plays a loud siren and flashes its front LED light when it detects a motion, , it also records a short footage of the event so that you can easily download to your phone.

Choose how and when to record with an advanced scheduler

It isn’t every time we remember to tap the ‘Away’ button in the app, that’s why the Tapo C200 comes with a really advanced yet simple to use scheduler that you can configure to record continuously, or only trigger a recording when a motion is detected at a certain day or time period, in this way you get to keep only the necessary surveillance so that you can make the most out of your storage and easily check them back with a calendar.

Encrypted 128-bit secure transmission and local surveillance storage up to 128GB

Many affordable IP cameras don’t use a secure transmission when streaming footage to your smartphone, this can potentially compromise your privacy and allow hackers expose your surveillance to the wild without you noticing. The Tapo C200 takes care of that with a 128-bit AES secure transmission where the connection only happens between you and your camera, TP-Link’s secure servers do not store any surveillance data generated by your camera.

Lastly, the Tapo C200’s discrete MicroSD card slot accepts up to 128GB of storage which saves up several months of footage in an efficient MP4 format, older footages will automatically be deleted so there’s no need to manage the camera’s storage at all.

The TP-Link Tapo C200 retails at RM149, head over
here
 to get one to monitor your home securely.

This article is sponsored by TP-Link.

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Tavern Brawl: Encounter at the Crossroads

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Hearthstone’s new Tavern Brawl mode makes Blizzard crack their mind for different interpretations of the game’s mechanics for its weekly challenges – like last week’s by playing a free minion every time you play a spell card. This week the Tavern Brawl will be Encounter at the Crossroads, you will receive a deck with 15 class cards and 15 neutral cards randomly. Besides that, in the deck will have 2 or more of same legendary with a bigger chance to get a legendary is higher than getting a non-legendary.

The video above will show you roughly what you can do with this week and what you can get from Tavern Brawl. Please like our Facebook page and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content like this.


Tavern Brawl: Too Many Portals

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Hearthstone’s tried their best to release the best Tavern Brawl every week so the players will not feel bored with the game. This week, they bring other mechanics that will make you feel luck is everything – Too Many Portals. You will receive a lot of Unstable Portal and some class spell card to win your opponent. There was a mistake for this week Tavern Brawl, Blizzard accidentally release the Tavern Brawl the very first challenge which was Showdown at Blackrock Mountain. However, you can fix it by updating your client on your phone or PC.

Alex will be live streaming tonight for the new Tavern Brawl: Too Many Portals and Arena run. Please like our Facebook page and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content like this.


Taylor Swift reunites with Spotify

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It was in 2014 when Tay Tay announced her split with popular music streaming app Spotify, where the famous country star turned pop artist cried foul over the fact that her music was made available in the free ad supported version of Spotify. She compared the music streaming service to the likes of Rhapsody and Beats Music, where users had to pay for a premium package to access Swift’s music. But that has changed, as Swift was be getting back together with Spotify, which has now grown its paid subscriber base to an impressive 50 million.

Swift made the announcement to celebrate 10 million copies of her “1989” album sold worldwide. At the same time, the singer has sold 100 million of her songs in total, which is quite the achievement. The fact that Spotify’s artists have been getting better payouts in terms of royalty could also be one of the reasons why Swift made this decision.

Taylor Swift’s reunion with Spotify might result in die hard Swifties making a return to using the music streaming app once again. Besides, the paid version of Spotify isn’t any expensive to begin with, at RM14.90 a month. Spotify is also currently offering new users 3 months of subscription for the same price. Are you affected with Tay Tay’s return to Spotify?

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Taylor Swift uses facial recognition system to identify her stalkers at concerts

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Stalkers are a kind of human being that has nothing else better to do than to stalk on another person’s life to get to know them in a creepy and deeper way. Some stalkers are so into it, they could even list out the things that you do on a daily basis, from the things you eat, the clothes you wear, and many more.

Although many don’t face stalkers in real life but the people who do face this problem is celebrities. Taylor Swift is one of the celebrities that faces this problem and she have just the right tools to find her stalkers and take action against them.

Not too long ago, Taylor Swift held a concert at California’s Rose Bowl in May and the concert was monitored by a facial recognition system. The facial recognition system aims to target on Taylor Swift”s stalkers.

The facial recognition system is built into a kiosk that displays the highlights of Taylor Swift’s rehearsals, which would then secretly record and scan on onlooker’s face. The data would then be sent to a “command post” in Nashville, Tennessee that would attempt to match hundreds of images to a database of her known stalkers.

It is said that US artists have yet to publicize for using facial recognition system in their concerts. Although it is unknown if it is legal to do so, but considering that a concert is a private event, organizers have the rights to do any kind of surveillance. This move may seem a bit too extreme but it is not the first time facial recognition system has been used to look out for unwanted guests.

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TCL gets serious about its smartphones in CES 2020

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TCL smartphones were great as we reviewed the
TCL Plex
 last year, the company is getting really serious about making its own branded smartphone based on its expertise on displays. At CES 2020, TCL has shown off to medias the new TCL 10 series smartphones, which comprises the 10L, 10 Pro and 10 5G – simple and straightforward names.

No hardware specifications have been shared to the medias, however the 10L and 10 Pro are obvious successors to the PLEX, which now comes with four cameras on the back and will supposedly run Snapdragon 600 series processors. As for the 10 5G, TCL says that it is powered by a Snapdragon 700 series chip which could possibly be the Snapdragon 765, which has a 5G modem integrated into the chip that will potentially resolve power consumption issues.

The TCL 10 Pro gets the main spotlight among the other two, where it has a curved display like Samsung’s flagship phones and boasting a visual processor that converts SDR content to HDR, TCL also says that it is possible that the end product might come with a variable refresh rate that could go up to 120Hz, I’d still take that with a pinch of salt for now, but let’s face it, why is there still a waterdrop notch on a modern smartphone?

The TCL PLEX we reviewed last time has a really competitive price tag of RM1,199, so we should expect these phones to be priced around the same range when it gets released, TCL will only reveal more details about the phones in Mobile World Congress next month, do you think TCL will price its first 5G phone below RM2000? Let us know your thoughts.

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TCL’s newest concept phone replaces foldable display with an extendable slide-out screen

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Instead of phones with a bendable display, TCL has a new trick up its sleeve: an extendable slide-out screen. A prototype of this phone is supposed to appear in MWC, but sadly the show has been cancelled.

TCL’s concept of the phone is to offer more screen space without needing to rely on bending the displays like the Galaxy Fold, Galaxy Z Flip and Motorola Razr. When the display is extended, you’ll end up with a tablet-sized device that comes with a curved screen.

Image credit: Cnet

Based on the images, the TCL concept phone will sport a dual-camera setup on the front — located on the top right of the phone. Next to the cameras is where you can supposedly extend the display, so you’re pulling two sides apart to get that extra screen. If you look at the back of the phone, the vertical line right next to the quad-camera setup is where you can pull to extend the screen.

So, where did they hide the extra screen? Our current assumption is that it is hidden in between the back panel and the primary display, so when you pull it out, you’ll notice a slight unevenness in the displays. That being said, I still think it’s better than foldable displays that (sadly) haven’t been perfected yet.

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TCL FOLD ‘n ROLL: the first 3-in-1 smartphone

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Recently, more and more companies have started creating their own foldable and rollable smartphones, but never have we seen one that can do both. Now, for the first time ever, TCL is developing a phone that can unfold into a phablet and roll out into a tablet; and we get a first look at how the device might work because a prototype was seen during DTC 2021 in Shenzhen, China.

Here is the concept video along with its prototype:

This FOLD ‘n ROLL device will make use of TCL’s next-generation hinges and mechanics so that it can fold and extend its display whenever the user wants. As seen in the concept video, it will start off with a standard 6.87-inch display which can then be unfolded to become a 8.85-inch phablet; and if that’s not enough for you, it can further extend to boast a 10-inch display tablet. The device is still in early development so the user interface does lag when trying to adapt to an extended display but it’s a promising start.

Reports
 mention that rather than presenting a new smartphone that will launch in the future, this prototype was meant to showcase new display capabilities by TCL and its subsidiary CSOT but TCL does have plans on releasing its own foldable phone by the end of this year so we’ll be sure to keep you updated.

Source

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TCL announces NXTPAPER: A Full HD paper-like display technology

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TCL
 introduced the next display technology called the NXTPAPER — an upgraded solution from the colour e-ink display.

According to
GizmoChina
,
TCL
 used a highly reflective screen and its own display technology that reuses natural light to create the NXTPAPER. This resulted in a better display with a wider colour palette and a faster screen refresh rate.

TCL NXTPAPER is better than E-Ink

This display also has a thinner panel, higher contrast and better battery consumption that makes it desirable for larger-screen devices. TCL has already included the NXTPAPER display in two of its upcoming tablets — the TCL 10 TABMAX and 10 TABMID. The former has a 10.36-inch display while the latter has an 8-inch screen.

The TCL tablets will be available for sale by the end of the year, pushing FHD resolution on a paper-like display without harmful blue light and flicker.

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TCL P725: The perfect 4K HDR Android TV for your home and office

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Today, our TVs are more than just being a device sitting in our living room that entertain us with our favourite shows, they can control our smart home appliances, send map navigation instructions to our phones, set our calendar appointments and even answer questions such as the weather.

Is your TV still not doing that? Enter the TCL P725, a 4K Android TV that offers a host of features best suited for your home and office, and here’s why you should consider getting one.

Premium design that looks good in the living and meeting room

No matter how you place the TCL P725, it looks good in every angle with a metallic slim bezel-less design and an inverted V-Shape stand, combined with a fabric block that resides at the center of the TV that houses the power LED, the TV is available from sizes of 43-inches up to 65-inches which you will definitely find the right size to fit in any room.

Android TV 11 – the latest and most secure TV operating system

The TCL P725 is one of the few TVs in the market that comes preloaded with the latest Android TV 11 operating system, which brings better performance than most Android TVs in the market and better privacy control on apps, you also no longer need to tether your computer to the TV for doing presentation as it supports Chromecast from your computer’s web browser.

Having the latest version of Android TV also means you get access to the most updated apps and games on the Google Play Store, as developers continue to build and update apps for the latest Android TV version, you are also guaranteed of frequent security updates that protects your TV, the TCL P725 is a future proof TV that home and offices can depend on.

Need to set that reminder for your next meeting or get traffic information to work? The TCL P725 comes with Google Assistant that helps you do all that with just your voice, it also recognizes your family or colleague’s voice with the Voice Match feature so it knows who to respond to.

The only Android TV with a webcam

Want to conduct a video call with your friends or coworkers? The TCL P725 comes with an optional HD camera that works well with Google Duo and other video chat apps available on the Google Play Store, you no longer need to deal with messy cables or complex setups on your computer, a few button presses is all you need and you are set for an amazing video call experience on a 55-inch canvas.

Amazing visuals and sound with Dolby technologies

The TCL P725 features an AiPQ engine that intelligently processes content in real time to offer sharper visuals and true-to-life colors, so even when you are playing HD content on the TV, it doesn’t look pixelated. In addition, playing Netflix content such as Squid Game and 6 Underground will look amazing all thanks to Dolby Vision, which dramatically improves contrast and dynamic range.

With two 10W speakers, no conference calls and movies will sound tinny which eliminates the need for external speakers, combined with Dolby Atmos technology, you will be very impressed with the object-based surround sound tracking technology when playing supported content on the TV.

Modern Connectivity Options

The TCL P725 comes with dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0, which are essential modern wireless connections that ensures you get to play your content without lag and can stream high quality wireless audio respectively.

In addition, the TV has one HDMI 2.1 and two HDMI 2.0 ports for connecting various media devices, you can also experience higher audio quality when you connect an eARC sound bar to the HDMI 2.1 port.

Last but not least, a USB 3.0 port is available for faster file access on your external storage drive, while a USB 2.0 port lets you connect an external keyboard or mouse for easier input on Android TV.

To find out more on where you can purchase the TCL P725 4K Android TV, visit the link here for a list of TCL authorized resellers in Malaysia. For a limited time, TCL is offering customers a free webcam to pair with the TV when you purchase the TV, so don’t miss out this opportunity to upgrade your TV for your home or office.

This article is sponsored by TCL Malaysia.

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TCL plans to produce a smartphone that can be turned into a smartwatch

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One thing everyone is excited to see this year is definitely foldable smartphones and many companies have already revealed that they’re going to be releasing foldable smartphones this year including Samsung, HUAWEI and Xiaomi. Now, even the television maker TCL will be joining the trend and it’s releasing several of them.

While TCL is known to manufacture budget televisions, it is also known for producing phones for BlackBerry Mobile and Alcatel. TCL’s current plan seems to revolve around devices with flexible displays and this includes two tablets, two smartphones and one device that doubles as a smartphone and a smartwatch.

Image credit: CNET

According to the image obtained from CNET, the tablet comes in two variants in which one folds inwards whereas the other folds outwards, and this also applies to the TCL smartphones. However, the smartphones fold vertically like traditional flip phones, and the image shows the smartphones in a rather tall and thin body build which is rather odd-looking. As for the smartphone that can be a smartwatch, it appears to be thin and can be bent into a cuff to function as a smartwatch.

Though you’ll probably be seeing foldable smartphones in the market by this year, TCL told CNET that its first foldable device will only be released in 2020. TCL’s general manager Stefan Streit also stated that the foldable technology can be useful for “other consumer products like wearables, home appliances and TVs”.

Would you get a smartphone that also functions as a smartwatch?

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TCL Plex is now available at RM1,199, supports HDR10, Snapdragon 675 and 48MP camera

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Better known for their household appliances and TVs, Chinese electronics brand have today made their smartphone debut in the country with the TCL Plex.

With the brand’s impressive track record in the display department, the TCL Plex supposedly shares the same level of screen quality. It features 6.53-inch FHD+ IPS LCD display with punch hole notch. The panel features TCL’s NXTVISION tech that adapts the brightness and contrast via 6-axis colour enhancement optimization. On top of that, the phone also supports HDR10 for a fuller colour gamut.

At the back is a glass panel that shimmers under light – reminiscent of the Vivo V17 Pro. Like the Vivo V17 Pro, the TCL Plex is available in Opal White and Obsidian Black. Also at the back is a three-camera setup – 48MP main + 16MP super wide angle lens + 2MP low-light lens. On top of that is a 24MP selfie shooter that shoots videos of up to 1080p at 120FPS.

Under the hood is a Snapdragon 675 with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. The phone also supports expandable storage of up to 256GB. Powering the phone is a 3,820mAh battery which charges via USB C and supports fast charging of up to 18W.

Coming out of left field – the TCL Plex is an interesting device in that you can connect up to four Bluetooth audio devices at one time, and have output from all four. This is achievable only via 4G mobile data and 5GHz WiFi; you’ll only get 2 speakers if you’re connected on a 2.4GHz connection.

Another cool feature is that the back-mounted fingerprint sensor can be customized with different fingerprint profiles, each can be used to open different apps.

The phone ships with Android 9 and TCL UI. The phone is priced at RM1,199 and is available the official Shopee
store
. Each purchase will score you a pair of free TCL MTRO headphones while stocks last.

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TCL Plex Review: Functional and Inexpensive

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To most of you, TCL might be a familiar household name when it comes to home appliances, but if you have been keeping tabs on the tech industry, the company is in charge of manufacturing several smartphone brands, to name a few – Blackberry, Alcatel and Flash, which I have previously come across and they were great devices. Now, TCL believes that it is ready to bring its expertise of display panels to its first self-branded smartphone with the introduction of the TCL Plex.

If you think the phone is somehow related to the Plex media software you have been familiar with, they aren’t related although their branding bears a little resemblance, I also unfortunately find the phone’s design to be rather uninspiring, it has a camera hole cut out on the top left of the display which TCL has fondly called the ‘Dotch’, the back features a horizontal triple camera module with a stripe across that’s inspired from the Huawei Mate 10 and a good old squarish fingerprint reader right below.

If you can dismiss that, you will be happy to know that the TCL Plex doesn’t have a cheap plastic build that’s usually found on its competition, there’s also a little heft when you pick up the device, that’s because it uses a dual curved glass material on the back with an aluminum construction, depending on the color you choose, it produces a holographic effect when in contact with light.

Despite the less interesting industrial design, TCL has managed to get a few things right. For instance, the USB-C and audio port are not located next to each other, so that you won’t have trouble holding the phone in landscape while both ports are being used; there is a customizable ‘smart key’ physical button on the left that lets you launch apps or perform actions by single, double or long pressing, it is also textured to not confuse the user with the power button.

With a Snapdragon 675 chipset and 6GB RAM in place, the TCL Plex may not be able to compete with some similarly priced rivals out there on paper, but I have faced no lags or whatsoever during the review period. If you have used Alcatel or Flash branded phones before, you will find the Android Pie based TCL UI skin to be rather familiar, such as the very functional app drawer that lets you sort your apps by icon colors, category or alphabetically.

I didn’t spend a lot of time customizing the user interface as I already like what it is out of the box, there are several preinstalled software that can’t be uninstalled, such as a web browser and TCL’s Star Phone app, which I don’t need to use and couldn’t care less as they didn’t affect the phone’s performance.

Now, let’s talk about that display.

While it uses a 6.53” IPS display with a FHD+ resolution, this is no mere IPS display as TCL has integrated a visual processor by Pixelworks, which does HDR10 tone mapping, realtime SDR to HDR conversion and some picture enhancements.

These visual enhancements can be found in the phone’s NXTVISION app, and to be honest I did find the display to be have better contrast than other mobile IPS displays, image highlights are improved and blacks are blacker, and if you look close enough, details are also slightly sharpened when it comes to hair strands or wall gaps in a video content, which is definitely noticeable if you frequently watch movies on your phone.

Overall, the TCL Plex’s display is decent, as it has great visibility under direct sunlight, there’s also very little color shifts as you move the device and that camera hole cutout is in a good position where it won’t affect viewing experience and gaming. Despite being a HDR capable display, the phone isn’t able to play HD and HDR content on Netflix at the time of review, which TCL says that they are working on it to get the device certified.

As decent as the phone’s media consumption experience goes, the phone’s loudspeaker isn’t great if you were to watch movies with it, I probably shouldn’t put my expectations high on it, but when I hear guns and explosions being produced in a bright sharp manner and the fact that I need to crank the volume bar to maximum to have a more enjoyable me time movie moment, it isn’t great and you should probably put on headphones or just connect a Bluetooth speaker for a better audio experience.

Speaking of Bluetooth speakers, the phone has a ‘Super Bluetooth’ feature that lets you stream audio up to 4 Bluetooth devices, its rather gimmicky by all means and takes a while to set it up, but if you do want to tear down your room by booming music, this should come handy.

As mid-range phones now come with triple camera setups with 48MP lenses, the TCL Plex joins the bandwagon with a unique camera system, you get a 48MP f/1.8 Sony IMX582 wide-angle camera, a 16MP ultrawide angle camera and a 2MP f/1.8 low light lens dedicated to video recording.

Image quality for the main lens is acceptable for its class, though there is noticeable loss of detail even in good lighting, color and dynamic range is processed well, I’m also glad that the ultrawide angle lens doesn’t produced washed out images like I’ve seen on some other devices.

[sciba leftsrc=”https://klgadgetguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20191006_204049.jpg” leftlabel=”With Super Night Mode” rightsrc=”https://klgadgetguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20191006_204114.jpg” rightlabel=”Without Super Night Mode” mode=”horizontal” width=””]

[sciba leftsrc=”https://klgadgetguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20191028_132859.jpg” leftlabel=”Wide Angle” rightsrc=”https://klgadgetguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20191028_132909.jpg” rightlabel=”Ultra Wide Angle” mode=”horizontal” width=””]

The phone’s video recording stabilization does a great job at ensuring walking shots don’t feel nauseating, it also works at 4K30p recording which I’ll give some points for that, however the low light video lens isn’t too useful in my case, though I noticed it does tend to record a brighter video than the main lens but video resolution will be limited to 1080p and you will also lose stabilization. Again, its good to have, but I’d have preferred if TCL had included a telephoto lens.

https://klgadgetguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/TCL-Plex-Comparison.mp4

The TCL Plex’s efficient hardware package and software optimization has made it a battery life champ despite only having a 3820mAh battery, it is possible to go without a day of charge when used moderately but even at my most challenging day with 5 hours of screen-on-time, it will only require a charge after 30 hours unplugged, that’s an impressive battery life that I have not seen on mid-range phones for a long time. Not to forget to mention, it supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 and will get you fully charged in no time if you forget to charge it.

I loved the TCL PLEX, I really do, I’m even willing to forgo its boring design and some of the shortcomings to recommend this device to anyone who wants a no-nonsense smartphone, its got a useful software experience, a camera that doesn’t suck, great battery life, and most essentially, an accessible retail price of RM1,199. Granted, it loses out to brands like realme and Xiaomi for its specs sheet, but one thing for sure is that TCL is committed to the PLEX’s software development and promising an Android 10 update in the coming months. TCL has certainly learned how to make a good smartphone with its experience on Alcatel and Blackberry devices, and the PLEX is just the beginning.

The Good

Display panel has good contrast and accurate colors

Responsive and feature packed software

Acceptable mid-range camera performance

Good battery life

The Not so Good

Low light video lens not useful

Boring design

tcl
tcl malaysia
TCL Plex


TCL rolling displays spotted in leaked video

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Foldable smartphones haven’t quite taken off like we’d hoped, which unsurprising considering how much they cost – that and the fact that regular smartphones still work great.

But there is a future in foldable technology – it extends a display when needed, and retracts to a regular-sized phone when not in use; that’s a great solution!
But,
 TCL thinks they can do one better – they’re apparently experimenting with a setup that lets the display roll across to extend the panel.

Spotted on video via
@FoldUniverse
 are two displays of the kind in two sizes – 4.5-inch and 6.7-inch. There are two hinges on both sides of the phone, one of it allows the screen to roll out, extending the display like a scroll.

Another design sees a less obvious hinge, because the mechanism that moves is hidden under the main phone bumpers. The mechanism then slides out from the phone case, and reveals the rest of the display. We’ve seen this
before
 back when TCL teased the technology – so we’re finally seeing the real thing in action.

We assume this lets manufacturers pack a larger display in a smaller frame – but it also looks pretty expensive. The tech is most likely to be shown off to the public next year and we can’t wait to see the applications this will enable.

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TCL teases triple display foldable phone with three displays, plus another rollable folding phone

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In a display-centric smartphone climate – major players like Samsung, Huawei, vivo have all showed off their crazy display tech; this time however, a lesser-known brand joins the fray.

TCL is more well-known for its impressive TVs, but have put out a few decent smartphones too, such as the TCL Plex. They recently showed off concept triple-folding smartphone – the phone apparently uses two different hinges – DragonHinge and ButterflyHinge – to achieve this.

Image credit: GSM Arena

When unfolded, you get a massive 10-inch tablet – when folded, you have a relatively compact 6.65-inch smartphone with a 20.8:9 aspect ratio that pushes 3K resolution.

Image credit: GSM Arena

According to rendered images, how it works is that one park of the display folds inwards, and another folds back, both hinged on the middle display panel – so essentially three display panels.

https://fdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/news/20/03/tcl-concepts/gsmarena_001.mp4

TCL also adds to their repertoire with another kind of foldable smartphone – this time, it employs a rolling mechanism instead. One panel slides under the main display – and when extended, you get a 7.8-inch tablet.

Image credit: TCL Rollable phone

The mechanism is motorized and is set in motion with a single button. It does not allow for manual pull-push operations which we think is to prevent users from damaging the parts inside.

These are currently just concept phones, but considering what we’ve seen exist so far, TCL’s foray into the foldable market seems likely with these designs.

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TCL Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition unveiled: Displays full colours using micro-LED panels

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Perhaps more well-known for their TV panels, TCL reckons they can compete in the
smart-eyewear market

as well with the launch of the
Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition
.

The device packs micro-LED displays – each pixel only measures 4

µm in size, and according to a report by
GSM Arena
, TCL has managed to allow the glasses to show full-colour images as opposed to monochrome ones like on
Xiaomi’s Smart Glasses.

As expected of a pair of smart glasses – the Thunderbird will allow wearers to read notifications and news, check schedules, and control smart home devices all through the device itself.

It also comes equipped with a camera that sit near the bridge of the nose – it can be used to take pictures, and presumably also used for navigation.

We don’t know how much these glasses will cost, but considering the
TCL NxtWear
 – the brand’s other wearable display – cost 899 AUD (about RM2,774); so we can expect the Thunderbird to demand a higher price since it packs better hardware.

smart glasses
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Thunder smart glasses pioneer edition


TCL will unveil another BlackBerry device in October

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While BlackBerry isn’t the most active of companies when it comes to smartphones, its loyal and die hard fan base never fails to generate hype prior to the launch of its devices every single time. Earlier this year, BlackBerry unveiled the BlackBerry KEYone which reached the depths of every BB fan boy’s heart. Just recently, rumors have emerged regarding a new secure BlackBerry version of the Android OS and now, the company is slated to announce a new device with TCL later this year.

According to CNET, TCL’s head of global sales, regional marketing and e-commerce for BlackBerry’s mobile division, Francois Mahieu has revealed a couple of key points for an upcoming device. For starters, the handset will not have a physical QWERTY keyboard which have been known with BlackBerry’s legacy phones. It will instead be a full touch screen device, much like the DTEK60 from last year.

Mahieu has also revealed that the phone will be making its appearance this October, which isn’t too far from now. We can’t be sure as to whether or not the upcoming BlackBerry smartphone will be the successor to the BlackBerry DTEK60 or DTEK50, but we shall soon find out. Besides, we have IFA 2017 in the corner to kill some time.

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Team DOT and Team GIZMO emerge victorious in the Dew Challenge 2015

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The dust has settled on the two month long Dew Challenge 2015 and with it, champions have emerged for both the Defense of the Ancients 2 tournament and the Hearthstone Challenge tournament.

Throughout the entire competition, a total of 4,100 gamers took part in the Dew Challenge 2015. This large scale DotA 2 and Hearthstone competition eventually culminated in the grand finale that was held in One Utama’s TGV Cinema over the weekend, where 28 teams compete against each other to emerge as the champion.

At the end of the tournament, Team DOT emerged victorious in the DotA 2 tournament, winning themselves a whopping RM150,000 prize. The Hearthstone Challenge was won by Team GIZMO, which went home with RM30,000 in prize money.

“The Dew Challenge 2015 fulfilled its promise of fuelling passion, authenticity, action and entertainment for the next generation in a new twist of an adrenaline pumping, mental endurance-testing online gaming tournament. The inaugural Dew Challenge Gaming edition was a huge success and we believe this movement is here to stay! We are pleased that all participants got to “Do the Dew” and enjoy their favourite Mountain Dew to pump them up throughout the DotA 2 and Hearthstone Challenges,” says Hemalatha Ragavan, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Permanis.

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Teaser image of One M10 out on Twitter

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As many of you may know, HTC isn’t launching their next flagship at MWC this week, giving some limelight to the HTC One X9 and its refreshed Desire lineup. The HTC One M10 is rumored to be launched on the 21st of April. Prior to the rumored date, HTC has released an image on their Twitter account, teasing the the One M10 alongside a #powerof10 hashtag.

It is highly likely that HTC is referring to the One M10, suggesting that HTC won’t be switching to another name or number for its next flagship. Shown in the photo is only the edges of the device, which tells us that HTC is most likely sticking to a similar design with an all metal build like the M7, M8 and M9.

The HTC One M9 that was launched last year was rather disappointing when being compared to the likes of Samsung and LG. Having sported a 1080p display, which is now the standard resolution of mid range handsets, and a mediocre camera, summing up a lacksture flagship device by the Taiwanese OEM.

The One M10 on the other hand, is rumored to sport a 2K AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 820 processor and 4GB of RAM. The rest of the specs haven’t seen rumors solid enough to predict the device itself. With less than two months left and MWC coming to an end, we will most likely be looking at more rumors and leaks regarding HTC’s next flagship. Till then, stay tuned!

Source:
HTC (Twitter)

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Teaser poster confirms the Realme X to sport a pop-up selfie camera

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Let’s just put a hold on the Realme 3 Pro that’s about to be launched tomorrow because Realme X’s teaser poster is out, confirming the phone’s pop-up selfie camera.

The teaser poster alone led us to confirm a few things — its launch date on May 15, a pop-up selfie camera (full screen display!) and an in-display fingerprint sensor. It also showed two colour variants of the phone — a white version that reminds me of the Samsung S10e’s Prism White, and a purple-to-blue version that resembles the Realme 3 Pro’s Nitro Blue.

Image credit: Weibo

Aside from that, the company confirmed that the Realme X will come with the next-generation optical in-display fingerprint sensor, and the area for unlock has been increased by 44% — probably for more efficient unlocking. Following previous leaks and rumours, the Realme X will sport a 6.5-inch AMOLED display — an upgrade over the Realme 3 Pro — and will have FHD+ resolution, in addition to being powered by a Snapdragon 710 chipset.

Storage wise, the phone is said to come with up to 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, and we are expecting it to ship with ColorOS 6 based on Android 9. Just like the Realme 3 Pro, the phone will come with VOOC Flash Charge 3.0, but has a slightly smaller 3,700mAh battery.

When it comes to the camera, the phone is going to house a 48MP Sony IMX586 main camera paired with a 5MP secondary sensor. On the front, we’re expecting to see a 16MP pop-up selfie camera.

Realme
Realme X


Tech Kakis #003: Gadgets for the Holidays

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In this episode of Tech Kakis, we are doing things a little different, instead of talking about news and trends, we show you gadgets that you should consider buying for your holidays, because we know you are either thinking of buying yourself a great Christmas present for yourselves or you’d have probably got your huge paycheck already. So, its time to reward yourself a little since the year is coming to an end! This time, we are joined again by Kok Kee from
Nasilemaktech.com
 and Muzaffar from
TechNave.com
, each of us will be suggesting three gadgets that you can buy for the holidays – they are the best stuffs that we can think of course – you should be also getting your questions answered about these gadgets if you are watching the show.

TechNave.com
’s Gadget for the Holidays here –
http://goo.gl/lfmuve
NasiLemakTech.com
’s Gadget for the Holidays here –
http://wp.me/p2mVqQ-27s

KLGadgetGuy’s Gadgets for the Holidays

Gadget No.1:
Dell
 Inspiron 14 7000 Series (Pandora)

I’m personally using and reviewing
Dell
’s most recent entry-level and budget gaming laptop, the
Dell
 Inspiron 14 7000 Series a.k.a the Pandora comes with a true Intel Core i7 4710HQ quad-core CPU and NVIDIA GeForce GTX850M 4GB discrete graphics that will allow you to run current games with high graphics quality, the laptop comes with 8GB RAM, 1TB harddrive, a 14-inch Full HD non-touch matte display and WiFi 802.11ac. All of these great stuff come under an extremely affordable price tag at RM3,199, which is relatively cheaper than most gaming laptops out there. Of course, you may have to make up for the small 14-inch display if you are a serious gamer, but hey, that size is extremely portable! Stay tuned to our review of the Pandora, it’ll be out before Christmas I promise.

To buy the
Dell
 Inspiron 14 7000 Series, head on to
http://goo.gl/nnXFRH

Gadget No. 2: Apple iPhone 6

The fruit brand is obviously everybody’s favorite brand, you can’t deny it, the
iPhone 6
 is still one of the best smartphones that you can buy, though its way overpriced than some Android smartphones, some may even complain that the screen isn’t big enough and the boring software experience, you certainly won’t get bored with its reliability and beautiful industrial design.

Find out our
iPhone 6 Review here
.

Our
iPhone 6
 is an imported model and you can get it from Lazada Malaysia by clicking on the banner if you can’t wait for restocks in local resellers

Gadget No. 3: CHOETECH 6 Port 50W
Charger

Thinking of travelling around the world but with many of your devices? The CHOETECH 6 port
charger
 will definitely help you with that, it has a maximum amperage of 10A, every port will have a maximum 2A output and when all ports are used up, it charges equally in 1.5A. This
charger
 isn’t readily available for purchase at local retailers but you can purchase it at Amazon, it will cost $25.99 and international shipping charges should cost around $25-$30, which will eventually reach RM150-RM160, it is definitely still cheaper than getting multiple genuine smartphone chargers.

To buy the CHOETECH 6 Port Charger, head on to
http://geni.us/2iI2


Technics EAH-AZ60 and EAH-AZ40 to launch in Malaysia; priced from RM649

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Panasonic-owned audio brand Technics has landed in Malaysia, revealing the EAH-AZ60 and EAH-AZ40 — two new wireless earbuds.

Both the true wireless earbuds are almost similar in design and has a IPX4 rating. These earbuds are stemless, much like the Soul TWS earbuds we’ve reviewed awhile back.

While the AZ40 comes in four sizes of silicone earpieces (XS, S, M, L), the AZ60 comes in 7 sizes (XS1, XS2, S1, S2, M, L, XL).

EAH-AZ60

With a higher price tag, the
AZ60
 also has better specifications — this includes eight microphones in total.

Each earbud has four microphones — a feedforward mic, feedback mic, talk mic and voice detection mic.

The AZ60 also comes with an acoustic chamber, harmoniser and 8mm drivers, in addition to supporting LDAC codec for hi-res audio quality.

Apart from featuring ANC, the AZ60 also has Natural Ambient Mode and Attention Mode.

The former is similar to Jabra’s HearThrough mode while the latter reduces surrounding noise but makes an exception for human voices.

The AZ60 doesn’t fall short in battery life, offering up to 7.5 hours on a single charge and up to 25 hours if we include the case.

These earbuds require 3.5 hours to fully charge both earbuds and case, and supports fast charging in which 15 minutes will get you up to 80 minutes of music playback.

EAH-AZ40

On the other hand, the
AZ40
 has 6mm drivers but also sports an acoustic control chamber and harmoniser. Each earbuds has three mics — two talk mics that reduces surrounding noise and a voice detection mic.

While the AZ40 is slightly lighter than its sibling at 5g per earbud, it doesn’t support LDAC codec.

That being said, it can also offer up to 7.5 hours of playback time with the earbuds and up to 25 hours if we include the charging case.

It also comes with quick charging, offering up to 90 minutes of playback when charged for 15 minutes.

Both the AZ60 and AZ40 are only available in mid-October and will retail at RM1,049 and RM649 respectively.

EAH-AZ40
EAH-AZ60
Technics


Technopinion: Could the Apple TV be the next gaming console?

410

That Game Company, the developers behind the multi-award winning game Journey has just announced during the Apple Conference that they will be releasing their new game, Sky, exclusively on the iOS. When I heard this news I was first, very excited that they are coming back and announced a new game. The second thing is that why would a company that is exclusive to Sony, produce a game for iOS and even to the point, got their own spot to demo and talk about their game. Then it hit me, could Apple be trying to get into the console gaming market?

Before anyone shoots me down hear me out, the new Apple TV is no doubt a very powerful system and it could be capable enough to beat out even the Nintendo Switch when it comes to performance. As a person that takes public transport a lot, I always see people on the train or bus waiting for time to pass, playing games on their phone and in my opinion, there are better games on iOS compared to Android. Apple definitely knows this so why not bank into the mobile gaming market by allowing users to carry their games with them when they are out, and play their games on a nice 4K monitor at home via the Apple TV. It is the perfect option for gamers that are busy with daily life but want to slot in some time for them to get their gaming fix. This is similar to what Sony allowed us to do with the PS3, PS4 and PS Vita, there is an option for cross safe on games that support it, the concept is similar, save the game on the PS4 and download the save file to the Vita before leaving the house and you can pick up where you left from. If that is the case with the Apple TV, seeing as how iOS games have cloud safe, this method could work out very well.

SteelSeries Nimbus paired with Apple TV

Here’s another scenario, in our
previous article
, we wrote about an iOS developer that managed to find out that the Apple TV on the iOS11 beta had an option to provide haptic feedback, everyone assumed that this might be included in the Apple TV remote but it was not shown during the conference. My thoughts wandered and came to a conclusion, what if Apple is going to release a controller for the Apple TV? It would make sense if they are going on the path of being a game console because I don’t know about you but I am not attracted by the fact that I have to use the Siri Remote to play my games. I would rather have a nice controller to play my games and not swipe on a glass surface. Secondly, the controller could have haptic feedback and we all know that the feedback on the iPhone 7 Plus feels amazing, what if you can get that exact same feeling on the controller for the Apple TV?

Again, all of this is speculations of a gamer, these are just my thoughts on how Apple could tap into the mobile gaming market and possibly enhanced the mobile gaming experience. Nothing is certain and I definitely don’t know what Apple’s roadmap is like for the Apple TV. Enough about my thoughts, let me know what you think about this, let’s discuss about this in the comments below or comment on Facebook what do you think about this.

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Technopinion: Don't buy a carrier branded smartphone

579

When it comes to buying smartphones, the first thing that comes into every mind would be the budget and features you’re looking at, then it comes down to brand preference, like it or not everyone is sure to have a favourite brand no matter how much we reviewers spend time recommending every different smartphone brands. Finally, we decide if we want to purchase the phone with or without a contract, if your choice is the former, then you get to enjoy subsidised prices while usually subjected to a 24-month contract period with the telco of your choice, depending on how you see it could be a good or bad thing. Recently, we see Maxis debuting its own smartphone, the NeXT M1, it is no MWC star and never going to get any awards, which brings us to today’s Technopinion.

We don’t need more smartphone choices and a subpar postpaid plan

Maxis isn’t the first Malaysian telco to launch a carrier branded smartphone in recent times, Yes 4G was in fact the first one with the terrible Altitude 4G smartphone, however the latter launched the smartphone with a reason simply because the network relies on VoLTE technology to make phone calls, which the product compliments the usage of the network.

However in Maxis’ case, the NeXT M1 is a mere typical everyday 4G Android smartphone, for starters there’s a Mediatek MT6755 processor mated to 2GB of RAM and 16GB onboard storage, there’s also a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display, a 13-megapixel main and 5-megapixel front camera, a 2960mAh battery and comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow preloaded. To get this phone, you are required to sign up the telco’s Postpaid Starter Plan which costs RM78/month and stay 24-months with Maxis, the plan offers a crappy 2GB (Weekday) + 2GB (Weekend) data, 50 minutes calls to all networks and RM0.10 for every SMS sent, which is a huge rip off from the entry level MaxisONE 98 plan that offers unlimited calls and text with 10GB of data.

Look, if you simply want a cheap 4G smartphone, there are tons of smartphones out there that is either on par or can outperform the NeXT M1, do the math on the monthly commitment on this worthless Postpaid Starter plan, and you will find yourselves paying RM1,872 in total over the next 24-months, which you can already purchase an iPhone SE or a OnePlus 3T smartphone. We don’t need any more smartphone choices, period.

No commitment to software updates

If you look at both the Yes Altitude and NeXT M1 smartphones, neither Yes 4G nor Maxis dare to guarantee software updates in the near future, chances are you might also miss out Android security patches which is rather crucial these days.

Such issues are rather common in countries like the US, where carrier branded Android devices are either abandoned with their current software or receive extremely late upgrades to the latest Android software, but in the case of both the Yes Altitude and NeXT M1, the telcos do not commission a well known device maker like Samsung or HTC to make their phones, and there’s no way that the telcos will hire a R&D team to offer support for a phone that probably won’t sell. Hence, this is why you should seriously stay away from buying a carrier branded phone especially when it is made by an unknown manufacturer.

No benefits and services

In the US, carrier branded smartphones do come with certain benefits and privileges, while it probably isn’t the most useful thing, it at least explains why the company branded their own smartphones. Back here, there is simply no benefit in owning a carrier branded smartphone, though you may get a limited time device protection service, you are not going to become a VIP of the telco by purchasing one, and if they claim that the service is best experienced on their own smartphones, companies like Samsung shouldn’t have their devices selling on the telco’s store.

Entry-level smartphones are the most sellable devices in the Malaysian market, devices like Samsung’s J Series, Huawei’s Y Range, Wiko’s U Feel range are already very capable of their own, and users who are only able to afford entry-level smartphones are most likely going to end up with a prepaid plan, saving the need to be contracted with a 24-months plan, which is why carrier branded devices aren’t going to work right here, and you shouldn’t be fooled by any telco’s offer that sells you a crappy device with a crappy postpaid plan.

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Technopinion: How legacy smartphone brands should stay relevant in today's market?

423

Apple changed the way how smartphones work with the very first iPhone a decade ago, and the existence of Android gave some technology companies the opportunity to make smartphones to play against the iPhone. However, not all brands succeed in making Android smartphones, some decided to call it quits, some were sold to bigger business entities, while some are still struggling to make a name despite being active in the market. This year, we see brands like Nokia coming back with Android smartphones and a modernized 3310 feature phone, HTC bringing back the U branding moniker that it once used on its early batch of Android devices, and Motorola taking over Lenovo’s presence in the smartphone market. Can these once well known brands make a market impact where Apple, Oppo and Samsung dominates? What should these smartphone brands do to be relevant again in the market?

Branding needs to be done right

Smartphone makers are probably aware by now that customer loyalty is no longer a thing when it comes to selling smartphones, you may release a smartphone with a beautiful metallic design complete with a powerful specs sheet, and the next thing you know is to have competitors offering very much the same thing and probably with a lower price tag. Competing in price and specs is no longer viable today, which is why companies like Oppo has succeeded in selling its smartphones last year by merely branding their phones as a ‘Selfie Expert’, and the company continues its success with this year’s R9s smartphone, with a message of telling consumers that their smartphone cameras are now clearer.

To make a great comeback, these legacy smartphone companies can’t just simply bring back the old message on what it used to be back then, they require more than just good marketing to influence purchasing decisions, because the reason to own a smartphone these days isn’t really about its features and usability, but to create an entirely new brand message that makes them different from the rest of the competition.

Make new products, not reviving them

I commend on how Motorola has been taking things forward as a legacy smartphone brand, the Moto Z that we just reviewed was really fun to use with the Moto Mods, although the mods are rather expensive to own, you can’t deny that this is a new thing that not many other companies would have attempted to do so, and I expect the company to probably unveil the same concept with its new flagship devices this year. Making a come back isn’t all about reviving the best things you have done before, but to create something that the market doesn’t know that they want it.

Let’s look back at the first iPhone, people didn’t know that touch could be a lot more interesting with pinch to zoom gestures, and we won’t be looking for apps to make our smartphone experience better if it weren’t for an App Store, and nobody even expected that smartphones today can be a substitute for our laptops to send e-mails and browse the web. If legacy smartphone brands are just making hardware for the sake of existence in the market, no one will remember these brands and as I have said in my previous
Technopinion
, we don’t need more smartphone brands if they don’t make a difference. Period.

Software and User Experience

I don’t know about you but when it comes to purchasing a smartphone, I’m extremely particular about the overall user experience, while I’m glad that most legacy phone brands I know do tend to come with stock flavors of Android with very minimal skin customizations, there is still a need to make a difference apart from cosmetics. For instance, timely Android OS updates, is something that many other phone makers will not ever guarantee, while this initiative is subjected to the phone’s hardware, manufacturers can always ensure that their phones are always updated for at least two years.

What are your thoughts about legacy smartphone brands making a come back? Share with me your thoughts on what they should do to stay relevant in the market.

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Technopinion: Huawei P10’s flash storage fiasco teaches the industry one important lesson

339

Just a few hours ago, reports of Huawei’s flagship P10 smartphones using different
storage chips
 have aroused attention worldwide, causing outrage among fans and customers, and while Huawei has officially
issued a statement
 that the phone does indeed use different storage chips from different manufacturers, and at the same time claiming that the different storage chip made little difference to the experience and smartphone performance shouldn’t be judged by benchmarks, users aren’t happy with the answer of course, its like buying an Audi with the internals of a Toyota, and you just have to convince yourself to think that you own an Audi.

By all means, a flaw in hardware isn’t something new, for instance Apple has the iPhone 4’s “antennagate”, battery life performance between the TSMC and Samsung made Apple SoC. Huawei’s blunder this time teaches the smartphone industry one important lesson – be very careful with showing benchmark scores. In fact, Huawei did cause another blunder back then, claiming that
4GB RAM phones to perform better than 6GB RAM phones
, with the irony of its P10 Plus to feature the latter amount of RAM. During Huawei’s P10 press conference, I threw the question at one of Huawei’s executives and the reply I got was, “We tested our 4GB RAM equipped phones with some competitor models that came with 6GB of RAM, and found ours to perform better, and this is the real intention of that statement.”

The thing is, if Huawei is so confident that the phone offers a great and speedy user experience, there’s no need to show benchmark scores against competitors, because frankly speaking most smartphones are already fast enough with optimized software, and Huawei has already done well with EMUI. Otherwise, Huawei executives should really be careful with their words and social media postings.

huawei p10
p10 storage issues
technopinion


Technopinion: The Mi A1 could start a pure Android trend in international markets

266

The Xiaomi A1 is, and by all means, an international variant of the Mi 5x, which was launched in China last month, it is a decently priced phone with great performance internals and a great pair of cameras adopted from the flagship Mi 6. Earlier today, Xiaomi has announced that the Mi A1 will be available in other markets out of India (Malaysia included), and we are going to expect more of such devices appear really soon in Xiaomi’s international product release, because one thing for sure, is that the market has a demand for Android devices that run pure Android.

I’ve been complaining a lot about MIUI in the past for resembling iOS too much, though it was one of my favorite Android skins due to some useful features and more recently, I find it to be among the fastest Android skins to be updated with the most recent version of Android. However, it would seem that Xiaomi has eventually realized that MIUI isn’t exactly intended for the international market, despite of its huge community in the MIUI forums, some features just can’t be used out of China and as the gap of its features begin to close in with stock Android, it makes sense for Xiaomi to move on to the Android One program to compete with companies like Samsung, Oppo and Vivo, as Android One devices are among the fastest to receive the latest Android software and security patches, it gives Xiaomi devices one more unique selling point apart from its attractive hardware and pricing.

I’m optimistic about how the Mi A1 will perform here, despite the company being really quiet this year, as this is definitely one device almost anyone could afford with Google’s software support, companies like HMD Global are already embracing the stock Android experience with Nokia phones and promised that all of its current devices will be upgraded to Android Oreo soon, will we soon see companies like Samsung, Oppo and Vivo making the same move?

android one
technopinion
xiaomi
xiaomi a1


Technopinion: Telcos, its time for unlimited data

451

U Mobile changed the way we use mobile data with the Hero Postpaid plan and a number of ‘Onz’ product offerings, webe came along with a truly unlimited postpaid plan but with compromises, and more recently Digi announced its all new Postpaid Infinite plans with no limits in calls and data on its flagship plans. These events tell us one thing, the war of affordable postpaid plans with huge data quota is almost over, and its time that all telcos begin to offer unlimited data with a price that people will pay for.

Crazy? Yes. Possible? Why Not!

I attended a recent event hosted by YouTube and learned that Malaysia has one of the highest mobile penetration rate in the region, Malaysians also tend to stream videos mostly on their smartphones using mobile data, not to forget to mention that we use our phones a lot for social media. Hence, you do realize that many telcos have started giving separate data allocation for such applications, and that screws up net neutrality, which is why telcos should really start considering to offer just one single postpaid plan with unlimited data for all purpose.

Profit? Network Performance?

Its probably the least concern of a customer, because if telcos keep offering too many postpaid plans to choose from, its confusing and nobody knows how much data they will ever need, and rarely anyone cares about how much data they have used on Netflix and YouTube. In terms of profit and network performance, telcos could easily pull that off by using the charges that users are already paying every month. Seriously, I won’t mind paying RM150/month for Digi’s Postpaid Infinite plan if I no longer need to be so mindful about data usage.

What’s next?

While price is always a deciding factor on which telco I should go for, I won’t mind paying a premium for unlimited data if the telco offers great value added services, and most importantly the support I need whenever I have problems with the service,   now lets see what the rest of the telcos have in mind after Digi’s offering.

What do you think? Would you prefer an unlimited data plan that could possibly come with compromises, or stick to the current ones with limited data quota?

celcom
dataplan
digi
malaysia
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umobile


Technopinion: Why I still can’t get myself to use Samsung Pay

417

It has been more than two months since Samsung Pay made its debut here, Samsung has done an incredible job of getting most major Malaysian banks onboard in the first round, and also some of the most used rewards card companies. I commend the company for racing to the front line ahead of Apple to bring smartphone payments here, and I was even considering to purchase a Galaxy S7 Edge, which is now rather affordable after the S8’s release, to use Samsung Pay and reduce the bulk of my wallet. However, after experiencing the Samsung Pay demo on a Galaxy A7 (2017) at a Samsung Experience store, I decided not to do it for a number of reasons.

When Samsung Pay launched, there were a number of merchants that had ‘Pay with Samsung Pay’ cardboards sticking on the payment counter, and till today I’ve never see an increase in merchants doing that. There was one day where I was queuing up to order my coffee, the person in front of me was using a Galaxy S7 Edge, while there was the Samsung Pay sign shining right in front of her, she simply whipped up a credit card from her purse and passed it to the cashier for payment, I thought either she didn’t bother to set it up on her phone or she just wasn’t interested in doing so. Also, I was rather surprised on why didn’t the cashier ask if the customer knew anything about Samsung Pay.

Back to my story at the experience store, there was this credit card terminal with a Galaxy A7 (2017) right next to it, I swiped up a dummy credit card configured on the phone, and I seriously had no idea on which part of the credit card terminal to tap on, as I assumed that it has been programmed simply to detect the presence of the phone’s NFC or MST signal, nothing happened and there wasn’t a store personnel coming over to help me complete the demonstration, I left the store feeling rather unsatisfied and I decided that things are a lot more straightforward if I pulled out my usual credit card from my wallet to pay.

The conclusion of the story here is, Samsung isn’t doing enough to promote the use of Samsung Pay, there isn’t enough campaigns educating customers the necessity of this feature, and with Malaysian banks’ implementation of using PIN to authorize transactions in the near future, I feel this is already secure enough than whipping my phone out to make payments, most importantly the inconsistency of Samsung’s promotion of its payment service doesn’t give me confidence of using my phone to substitute my plastic credit cards. With the advantage of MST (magnetic secure transmission), Samsung’s payment solution stood out when it comes to compatibility, but sadly banks and terminal providers aren’t promoting Samsung Pay, and I won’t be surprised if many Samsung users here aren’t aware of how can the service benefit them. Do you use Samsung Pay? Share with us your experience in the comments down below.

samsung
samsung pay
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technopinion


Teclast announces the X98 Pro, its first Cherry Trail powered Windows 10 Tablet

271

Teclast has just announced the X98 Pro, a Windows 10
tablet

based on Intel’s latest Cherry Trail platform that boasts some decent hardware specifications, as you may all know Teclast have been making a number of high quality and affordable
tablet
s in the past, it isn’t resting on its laurels with the X98 Pro. In terms of design, the
tablet

looks just like the X98 Air 3G that we’ve previewed on a couple of months back, powering the device is a Intel Atom x5-8500 SoC mated to 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM, the
tablet

has 64GB of onboard stoarge with support for expandable memory, a gorgeous 9.7-inch 2048×1536 resolution display, a 5-megapixel main camera and 2-megapixel front camera, a Micro HDMI port and an 8000mAh battery.

At the price of $270 or lower, the X98 Pro is an attractive buy if you are considering to own a
tablet

that runs Windows 10, its hardware configuration matches very closely with the base model of Microsoft’s Surface 3 and has a much higher resolution display than the latter. The Teclast X98 Pro is currently available for preorders over at
Aliexpress
and
GeekBuying
, so head on over there to place one unit or simply wait for our folks at Teclast Malaysia to bring over this device.

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tablet
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Teclast is a tablet brand that dual boots Android and Windows 8.1 coming soon to Malaysia

394

If you have been looking for an affordable
tablet
 that runs native Android OS or
Windows 8.1
 at the same time, Teclast is an upcoming brand in Malaysia that is going to sell you such devices that dual boots two of these operating systems, the firm is set to launch three devices by the end of this month, namely the P70 3G Octa Core, X80h WiFi and X98 Air 3G Retina.

We have a little knowledge about the background of the company here, Teclast started off as an R&D company in 1999 and their current core business is to produce tablets with value and quality in mind, the company owns 93 patents and 7 software copyrights, its products have also been endorsed by most Chinese mainstream medias.

The company has intended to utilize social media in promoting its products locally and will be hosting an event in UiTM Shah Alam with a pre-order session on April 29th, the devices are apparently targeted at students and prices will start from RM399 including GST.

The company’s flagship X98 Air 3G Retina
tablet
 will come preloaded with Android 4.4 KitKat and
Windows 8.1
, the tablet sports a 9.7-inch IGZO display with an impressive 2048×1536 resolution and we assume it comes with Intel’s Atom Z3735G system-on-chip as the company mentions a 22nm Intel Bay Trail chip in the specs sheet, what makes this product interesting is that you’ll be able to make
GSM phone
 calls on Android while Windows is limited to use 3G data. The X98 Air 3G Retina tablet has built-in GPS, a MicroHDMI port, 2GB RAM and 32GB of eMMC storage with MicroSD expansion, a huge 8500mAh battery and comes with an optional Bluetooth keyboard casing. The tablet will retail at RM899 including GST and Teclast is giving out a free casing andscreen protector with the purchase on launch day.

The mid-range X80h is an 8-inch
tablet
 with WiFi connectivity and supports dual boot Android 4.4 KitKat and
Windows 8.1
, its slim profile of 7.9mm and bezel width of 5.5mm should make it a really good
portable tablet
 on the go, it will apparently have the same processor as the X98 Air 3G Retina and despite not sporting built-in 3G connectivity, the company does allow you to connect an external USB modem via USB OTG and has HDMI output as well, the tablet retail at RM599 inclusive of GST and comes with a free casing and screen protector.

Last but not the least, the P70
tablet
 doesn’t support dual boot however it still runs on Android 4.4 KitKat instead of an outdated version of Android, processing power is done by Mediatek’s 64-bit MT8392 Octa-Core chip mated to 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM, thetablet sports a 7-inch 1280×800 resolution IPS display, 8GB of expandable memory, a 2-megapixel
rear camera
 and VGA front camera and a 3200mAh battery, the P70 is the most affordable of all the three models at RM399 after GST and Teclast will also provide a free case and screen protector to go with it.

Teclast products are distributed by Brightgate Distribution Sdn. Bhd in Malaysia and it is time that a tablet that dual boots both Android and full fledge Windows start appearing in stores and we believe this is the first but not the last Chinese hardware player coming into the hybrid tablet operating system game, we will be attending the company’s event on 29 April at UiTM Shah Alam so stay tuned while we will be there to perform a hands on with the tablets.


TECLAST X98 Air 3G First Impressions: Work and Play on a single device becomes a reality

305

Ever since I started my career on tech journalism, I have been on the look out for a computing device that will make work a pleasure or I could just use it to play some games if I ever need to. I personally own a heavy but powerful Lenovo laptop with discrete graphics and it didn’t fare quite well in its battery life if I were out the whole day without access to a wall socket. After a while, I decided that I should probably upgrade my old
iPad 2
 to an iPad Air a couple of years back and bought an expensive Logitech K810 Illuminated keyboard to go with. After that, I got fed up and decided that these two devices will have to be in my bag all the time wherever I go. Until…

I was given this perfect device

The
TECLAST X98 Air 3G tablet
 is a Dual OS (Operating System)
tablet
 that I’ve been eyeing on as my work device for some time and recently, I was contacted by TECLAST Malaysia and happened to realize that the product is managed by a new company named Brightgate Distribution. I was excited, went on to have a quick chat with the folks and started unboxing thetablet the day I got it back as you can see from my unboxing video even although it was just uploaded recently.

Dual Boot vs Dual OS

Before I get into more details, here’s what you really need to understand the difference between a Dual Boot and Dual OS despite being very close terms.

Dual Boot literally means having two operating systems installed in one single storage and system environment and relies on the bootloader of one particular operating system to boot either one of the operating systems, for instance if you have both
Windows 8.1
 and Ubuntu installed on a single hard drive, then you are relying either on a Windows Bootloader or Ubuntu’s very own GRUB bootloader to run each respective operating systems.

In contrast, the Dual OS mechanism allows you to boot into an entirely different system environment, in which we call it the BIOS (Basic Input Output System). In the
case
 of the X98 Air 3G tablet, running Android and Windows on one single device isn’t as straightforward as you may think, as Android requires very specific hardware and drivers to run on, the manufacturer needs to be very careful on which hardware or features to be activated to avoid compatibility issues. In traditional cases such as the Transformer Book Trio from ASUS, it requires different processors onboard to power Android and Windows respectively, thanks to Intel’s support for Android, the TECLAST X98 Air 3G no longer requires that hardware configuration hence saving a lot of cost on the device.

First Impressions

Having used crazily powerful gaming laptops in the past, the
X98 Air 3G tablet
 may sound like a huge downgrade for me with an Intel Atom Z3736F 1.33GHz (turbo boost up to 2.16GHz) CPU with 2GB of RAM and a paltry 32GB of eMMC storage. However what makes the device truly a pleasure to use isn’t just only its Dual OS capability, but the beautiful 9.7-inch Retina Display (2048 x 1536 resolution) by LG/Philips, it resolves my eye strains that I’ve had with my current laptop’s standard HD display resolution, gives me the best display resolution that I’ve always loved on the iPad and full blown Windows 8.1 with Bing that runs Windows programs.

In terms of design, I won’t call it unique as it looks totally like
an iPad
 clone just like any Chinese
tablet
s, but at least the
tablet
isn’t made up of any cheap plastic and it offers some additional expansion options that similar range tablets will not be able to offer – a MicroHDMI port, MiniSIM slot with HSPA+ support and a MicroSD card slot that takes up to 64GB of storage. A 5-megapixel auto focus main camera and 2-megapixel front camera is onboard the device as well for simple photography and you shouldn’t expect any great results from it, there’s also a pair of loudspeakers on the back that produces reasonably good audio quality. Otherwise, the
X98 Air 3G tablet
 has WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth and an 8000mAh battery.

I have been actively using the
X98 Air 3G tablet
 for the past three days, I lowered my expectations on the device to become merely a web browsing and texting device, my primary operating system is Windows and to my surprise, the entry-level hardware has managed to serve me really well with very some acceptable slow downs when more applications are opened concurrently. Once I’m done with Windows I’ll shut it down and switch over to Android and leave the device on standby to conserve power, I managed to achieve a full day of computing power with such a usage pattern and I will only need to charge the device at the end of the day.

Overall, this is a Chinese made product that I’m generally impressed with and have never regretted using as my sole working driver for the past three days, while its still too early to conclude if I’m able to overcome the device’s limitation – low internal storage and RAM, I’d really suggest you folks to not look at its negative side of things, but really, all you need to love about the
tablet
 is its beautiful display.

The TECLAST X98 Air 3G will be available after 29 April 2015 with a SRP of RM899 and comes with a free
screen protector
, aprotective case and one year free Microsoft
Office 365
 Personal with 1TB OneDrive storage. Stay tuned for our full review coming up and meanwhile – #ChallengeAccepted.


Tecno shows off its first foldable phone in MWC 2023

6.1K

While we have already seen major smartphone announcements on MWC 2023, Tecno is also present in the show and has unveiled the Phantom V Fold, which is the brand’s very first foldable phone that rivals the Galaxy Z Fold4 and Honor Magic Vs.

Tecno has opted for a Mediatek Dimensity 9000+ chip to power the Phantom V Fold paired with 12GB RAM and up to 512GB of storage, which results in a great rather attractive starting price of $1,099 (RM4,915) and maxes out at $1,222 (RM5,465).

Like its Chinese competition, the Phantom V Fold features a ‘virtually crease-free’ foldable screen that measures 7.85-inches with a 2296×2000 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, while the external display measures 6.42-inches and refreshes at 120Hz as well.

In addition, Tecno hasn’t cheapen out the foldable’s other hardware, as it features a triple camera system that comprises a 50MP main, 50MP telephoto and 13MP ultrawide, while it has a 16MP punch hole camera on the inner display and a 32MP punch hole camera on the outer display.

Like the Honor Magic Vs, the Phantom V Fold has a 5,000mAh battery albeit with a slower 45W fast charging, Tecno claims 40% of battery with just 15 minutes of charging, while the foldable will be fully revived from a dead battery in 55 minutes, there’s however no wireless charging.

Image Credit: Engadget

The Tecno Phantom V Fold will run Android 13 out of the box with the company’s HiOS 13 skin, which the company claims to have optimized its foldable phone experience for the top 1,000 most downloaded apps globally.

Tecno sure has some brand presence here in Malaysia, but we doubt this would be a device that the company has plans to bring despite its competitive pricing, but nonetheless this would be an interesting device if it ever makes its way here.

Source:
Engadget

mwc 2023
phantom v fold
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These telcos are offering FREE internet data and calls during the RMO period

534

Several major companies in the country are doing their part in helping the
rakyat

cope with the Restrictive Movement Order that is keeping Malaysians at home until the end of the month.

Among those helpful companies include our local
telcos
 – over the past three days, each
major
 brand has come out to announce their commitments to help us while we’re stuck at home.

Digi

Image credit: Digi

[Update, March 31] :

Digi has today announced that its postpaid and prepaid users will get 1GB of free internet on a daily basis until the end of the RMO period this 31 March. The free internet is available to use from 8am to 6pm every day. You’ll have to claim your free internet via the MyDigi app.

On top of that, prepaid as well as Digi Prepaid Broadband customers can also enjoy free 300MB + 5 mins of calls with every RM10 reload. The quota is valid for three days. Meanwhile, if you top up RM30, you’ll get 1GB internet + 15 mins of calls; this is valid for 7 days upon activation.

Digi is offering free calls to all State Health Department lines across the country; while web access to the Ministry of Health and online medical video consultant platform
Doctor
 On Call are made free during the RMO period. Meaning you can browse these websites without eating up your mobile data.

Unifi

For
unifi
 subscribers, you can enjoy unlimited data via the BEBAS prepaid pass for RM0 (from RM20). The deal lasts until the end of the month, and since the pass lasts seven days upon activation, you can apply for it another time until 31 March at no cost.

You can subscribe to this even if you have no money in your prepaid account. On top of that, you also get 999GB of LTE hotspot quota so you can share your internet access with your entire household.

Yoodo

Yoodo is also offering free internet data, but will last until the end of April. Active users can get up to 1GB free weekly data today, and every Monday until the 27 April.
Yoodo
 wants you to make use of this data to get your work done as many of you are continuing to work while still at home.

Celcom

Celcom’s contribution includes free unlimited WhatsApp usage from 8am-6pm daily; free unlimited access to Microsoft 365 from 8am-6pm daily, free browsing on the Ministry of Health’s website; free calls to Crisis Preparedness Response Centre and the Movement Control Order Hotline.

Xpax
 users can also get 10% e-wallet cashback upon a reload purchase. All services can be attained via the Celcom Life App, online customer service and online shop.

U Mobile

 U Mobile is doubling up your data and hotspot quotas so you can share it with your family – the promo is applicable to Unlimited Hero P139, P99, Giler Unlimited GX50 and GX68 subscribers during the RMO period.

 On top of that, the telco is also offering free calls to
Crisis Preparedness Response Centre hotlines.

Maxis (Updated: 23 March)

Like the other telcos, Maxis will not be charging for data and calls when users visit to government-health websites and makes calls to medical hotlines. The zero-call rates offering will be in effect tomorrow, March 24.

Through its mobile apps MyMaxis and Hotlink RED, users can enjoy 3GB mobile internet pass for all Maxis, Maxis Business and Hotlink postpaid plans. This will take effect this 27 March.

On top of that, other benefits include 30% cashback via digital top-ups, Free 20GB internet with HotlinkMU purchases and SOS top ups for every everyone who are in an emergency.

YES 4G (Updated: 23 March)

 YES 4G’s contribution remains basic at the moment by offering free phone calls to all emergency hotlines across the nation. It’s still something; and YES could announce more in the coming days, so watch this space for updates.

At this point, we have all we need to stay productive while at home, even if you’re not working. We think some folks living in dorms or have housemates that hog up the bandwidth, can make use of these services without breaking the bank. Stay safe, stay clean, and stay away from other people.

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maxis
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umobile
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unlmited hotspot
Yoodo


Telcos from the UK and Japan are pausing orders for Huawei phones amid trade ban

392

As expected, it’s not looking good for Huawei after the whole American trade ban fracas. Reports have surfaced that orders for Huawei phones are being suspended as a consequence, continuing the domino effects of the ban imposed by the Trump administration a few days ago.

Image credit: CNet

According to CNN, Vodafone has put a hold on pre-orders for the Huawei Mate 20X (5G) device in the United Kingdom. As big names such as Samsung, Xiaomi and OPPO push to bring 5G-enabled smartphones to the market, Huawei are dealt a blow any attempt to be part of this movement.

Another big name carrier in the UK, EE, had also delayed the efforts to push out Huawei’s latest products as a result.

Image credit: Phone World

Over in Japan, the biggest telcoms brand NTT Docomo announced that they’ll hit the pause button on reservations of the Huawei P30 Lite, which was set to launch this month. KDDI and SoftBank Corp, also two of Japan’s biggest telcos, had followed suit in halting orders for Huawei smartphones.

If anything, this is a sign of things to come for the Malaysian market, and although no word has been given yet as to the sales of future Huawei devices in the country, we suggest bracing for the worst to come.

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Telegram starts testing video call feature on beta app

621

Telegram is finally adding video call support as reports revealed that the new feature is being tested in the app’s beta version.

Telegram is a great competitor to WhatsApp, but one of the things it lacks is video call support. Telegram users can only send video messages or make voice calls, and that’s not enough — especially due to the recent quarantine caused by COVID-19.

Download the APK from Microsoft App Center

Android Police
 also pointed out that users will have to download a standalone app from the
Microsoft App Center
 and authenticate the app again to get all the chats transferred.

No support for group video calls yet

Unfortunately, there’s not much to expect from the video calling feature. It doesn’t support group video calls and because it’s a beta version, there are still some bugs that needed to be fixed. Interestingly, there’s a PIP support but you’ll need to use the back arrow located on the top left or it won’t work.

Download the APK file
here
.

telegram
Telegram beta
video call


Telegram group video calls can now have 1000 participants

732

In Telegram’s latest update, you can now have up to 1000 participants in group video calls; the catch is, only up to 30 people actually get to broadcast video from their cameras. The rest can still watch and listen.

In a way, this update takes a book from social audio app
Clubhouse

– where users can now treat the feature as a platform to broadcast live content; but the added benefit here is that the selected few get to present visually as well, as opposed to the all-audio format of Clubhouse.

https://klgadgetguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/telegram-video-calls-1000.mp4

According to Telegram’s blog, the feature will let you know when you are live – meaning your webcam is engaged, and mic is turned on – and show you which members are currently present and are listening. It also looks like you have the option to turn off your camera and just use your audio input only if you choose.

In the same update, Telegram has also introduced higher resolution video messages, and the ability to expand and scrub these video messages.

https://klgadgetguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/telegram-screen-sharing-1-on-1.mp4

On the productivity front, users on 1-on-1 calls can now screen share, which also contains sound from your device.

Another note-worthy update introduced is in the privacy front where users can now set a period of time for the messages, they send to erase themselves. The feature lets you choose between 1 day to 1 month for a text message to delete itself. This is useful if you’re sharing over personal information that you don’t want sticking around forever.

For more information of Telegram’s latest updates, read up on their blog
here
.

telegram
video calls


Telegram launches its own anonymous blogging platform called Telegraph

1.2K

Secure messaging app Telegraph is expanding into the blogging space as the company has launched a new anonymous bloggin platform called
Telegraph
.

There are a few things that sets Telegraph apart from the traditional blogging platforms. For starters, the website itself is minimalistic to the bone, sporting only three boxes that allows you to fill in your post’s title, your name, and the main post itself. Writing a post on the platform is very straightforward, as embedding Twitter posts and YouTube videos can be done by just dropping the links into the box.

While Telegraph allows you to post various articles without needing to register for the service, the service doesn’t provide a method that allows you to edit your published posts. Telegraph uses a cookie system to remember its users, so if you’ve removed said cookie from your computer, you won’t be able to make remove the post you’ve published.

The way Telegraph is built is not all that different when compared to sites like Medium. However, the whole anonymous nature of Telegraph means that it is far more susceptible to abuse. For example, anyone could publish a highly sensitive post and credit it to another person, and no one would know otherwise. Whether or not the people that created Telegraph are ready to combat the trolls remains to be seen.

Source:
TechCrunch
,
Telegraph

anonymous
blogging
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telegraph


Telegram now testing video messaging feature on beta version

298

Telegram has been known for its secret timed chats which can self destruct. The messaging app has been sneaking in a couple of features to its platform in order to keep its users from straying away, having boasted more than 100 million downloads since the app was launched. Last week saw the rollout of voice messaging to certain regions, and now Telegram is reportedly testing video messaging on the beta version of its app.

According to Italian site Planet Mobile, Telegram is currently testing a new video messaging feature in its app. This means that on top of sending voice messages and text messages, users will be able to send video messsages as well. Tapping on the microphone icon will allow you to switch to a video mode. Users will then have to hold the camera icon to begin recording video messages.

If you happen to be a Telegram user and you’re interested in this new feature, Planet Mobile has prepared a link to the APK file download, available at the source link below. Video messaging will definitely be a welcome addition to the app once it goes official. What do you think?

Source:
Planet Mobile

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beta
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messaging
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Telegram: Now with replies, @mentions and #hashtags!

346

So, Telegram just decided to release an update for their app on the Play Store (Click
here
!) that has come with some amazing features you never knew you always wanted. All you have to do to make a quick reply to a specific message in a group is to highlight it by holding down on message and clicking the reply icon. Another useful feature added is the @mentioning feature, if you need to get @someone’s attention in a group, just @mention them in your message. Also, when you forward a message you can now add a comment to it as well. Another insane feature is the ability to #hashtag, although I am not too sure what significance it will hold for this platform, I am sure users will quickly find a use for it. If you find no real use for it, #you #could #always #annoy #your #friends #instagram #style #hashtag #hashtaghashtag. Oh, and clicking on a #hashtag makes a quick search for that particular #hashtag. Give it a try!

Captioning your Forwarded Messages actually helps you add some much needed context.

Also, it didn’t take long for Warren to totally lose it.

Still not using Telegram? Click
here
 to find out why you should!