Christmas Gift Guide: 2019 Smartphones Under RM1,000

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You should be about 90% done with your Christmas shopping by now, especially when it comes to gifts for your friends and family. But have you gotten yourself a Christmas present yet? If the answer’s no, it’s time you reward yourself for surviving 2019. Here are five 2019 smartphones you can gift yourself without breaking the bank.

HONOR 20 Lite

Released in May this year, the HONOR 20 Lite is the youngest sibling of the HONOR 20 series. It’s the perfect phone for those who love taking photos as it comes with a 32MP selfie camera and a 24MP triple rear camera. It is powered by a midrange Kirin 710 chipset which is more than enough for casual gamers; couple that with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage that is expandable up to 512GB, you’ll never have to worry about your phone running out of storage.

The
HONOR 20 Lite
 is currently priced at RM799.

OPPO A5 2020

Yes, the name says 2020, but the A5 2020 is actually released this year. This phone is perfect if you like all things big because it has a 6.5-inch display paired with a 5,000mAh battery. Although it only has 3GB RAM and 64GB storage, its Snapdragon 665 processor is good enough for you to play heavy games like PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile without jerky frame rates. Plus, the phone also has dual stereo speakers that support Dolby Atmos, so watching Netflix and YouTube videos will be great on this phone.

The
OPPO A5 2020
 is available on OPPO’s online store for RM699. If you want the 4GB + 128GB storage variant, you can get it at OPPO’s official store on
Shopee
 for RM799.

vivo S1

They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but sometimes we want both the interior and the exterior of our phones to stand out. In comes the vivo S1 with a unique back design. Using the nano-ion coating technique, the S1 has a diamond-like pattern that shimmers and reflects light when you move it around. The S1 is great for those who love to go out all day and can’t live without their phone as it has a 4,500mAh battery with 18W Dual-Engine Fast Charging. With a 6.38-inch Super AMOLED display, the phone is guaranteed to give you crisp details and vibrant colours when you’re watching Instagram stories and watching the latest Korean drama on Netflix.

The
S1
 is originally priced at RM1,099, but the price has been reduced to RM999. Also, you’ll get a free vivo Electric Juicer when you purchase the phone online.

Samsung Galaxy A30s

Not a fan of Chinese brands? Well, Samsung also has a smartphone under RM1,000 that is worthy of your consideration. The Galaxy A30s has a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen paired with an in-display fingerprint sensor, in addition to a 16MP selfie camera. With a 4,000mah battery that supports 15W fast charging, carrying out daily tasks on the Galaxy A30s is a breeze. If you’re always on YouTube, getting the Galaxy A30s will be a wise choice as the company is bundling two-months of YouTube Premium subscription for free if you purchase the phone now.

The
Samsung Galaxy A30s
 is also on discount, so you’ll only need to spend RM854.05 if you buy it now via Samsung’s online store.

realme 5s

While all the phones we’ve just listed are new, the newest one is this realme 5s was just released less than a week ago.

The realme 5s has a huge 6.5-inch screen, a huge 5,000mAh battery, and a 48MP quad-camera setup. Be it ultra-wide shots, macro shots or lowlight shots, the realme 5s got you covered. The Crystal Red colour option is also beautiful and matches perfectly with Christmas vibes, making it the perfect present to get yourself.

Who doesn’t love free gifts right? If you get the
realme 5s
 now for RM799, you’ll also get five limited phone cases and the realme Earbuds 2 worth RM148.

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HONOR 20 Lite
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Chrome 55 will come with an upgraded JavaScript engine that reduce's the browser's memory footprint

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One of the key gripes that many people have (myself included) with Chrome is its memory consumption. Google’s browser has had a problem with RAM usage ever since it was first released to the public. So it is a rather huge relief to hear that the upcoming Chrome 55 update will see the browser sport an upgraded JavaScript engine which will lead to the browser consuming less memory in the process.

Currently scheduled for a December 6th release, Google states that the JavaScript V8 engine found in Chrome 55 will come with dramatic improvements to the browser’s performance. An internal test that has Google loading up webpages like the New York Times, Reddit and YouTube shows that Chrome 55 utilises 50 percent less RAM on average than Chrome 53.

While the upcoming update will see Chrome being less of a resource hog than it currently is, do not expect a huge jump in performance with Chrome 55. That said, Google has mentioned that they will continue to optimize the browser’s JavaScript engine, allowing those who utilise the browser on lower-end devices with less than 1GB of memory to browse the internet smoothly.

Source:
CNet

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Chrome 69 update will bring Google’s Material Design to the browser

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Google has already set the date for the release of their latest version of Chrome. The Chrome 69 update will come with Google’s Material Design to match the other Google apps that have been updated with this new design. Other than that, there are notes on how it will integrate to the notification center on Windows 10.

Google has been working hard to change all their apps and even Android to match their Material Design format, it is a simple design change that makes everything cleaner and more simple to look at. In the case of Chrome, the address bar will come with cleaner and rounded edges while the tabs will show straight edges and slightly rounded edges.

Lastly, right-click and drop-down menus will be cleaner, widely spaced and card-like to mimic printed media. Google will also add other system changes like asking for permission to display Flash content on websites. If you want to get a taste of the Material Design you can enable the new design on Chrome 68 now on Windows 10:

Type
chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md

into the address bar.

Next to “UI Layout for the browser’s top chrome,” switch from
Default
 to
Refresh
.

Restart Chrome.

The Chrome 69 update will arrive on September 4, however, they did not mention if uses can opt to not go with the new design.

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Chrome 73 finally supports dark mode on Mac

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Dark mode has been an ongoing trend, and now it’s finally available for Google Chrome on Mac on its newest version, Chrome 73.

While previously you can download themes through the Chrome store to get yourself a DIY dark mode, the latest update will automatically turn your Chrome browser into dark mode if you’ve already enabled it in your Mac settings.

To enable dark mode on your Mac, just go to System Preferences and select General. You can then select Dark at the Appearance option, and your Chrome will appear in dark mode.

The update’s release note also state that “Windows support is on the way”, so if you’ll have to wait longer if you’re using Windows. Also, Chrome 73 finally supports Progressive Web Apps on Mac.

Previously, Google tried to implement dark mode for Google Assistant but received many negative feedbacks as the dark mode still had white backgrounds which contradicts purpose of a dark theme. Fortunately, Chrome 73 has no such issues; you can visit sites like Facebook, Twitter and others and each webpage will still appear in a complete dark mode.

Chrome 73
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Chrome 79 update erases data of certain Android apps

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Ahh Chrome, everyone’s go to browser on mobile for browsing
everything –
unfortunately however, despite its popularity, it also isn’t perfect.

Its latest update, Chrome 79, is said to wipe out data on certain apps that uses Android’s built-in WebView. When we say erase data, we mean all or some local data on your device being wiped out. This happens when data is being migrated during the update is not done properly.

Google has since paused the roll-out of the update and is currently weighing their options in terms of how to fix the issue; these options include rolling out the updates and carry out the data migration properly by putting back the missing data where they belong, or reverting back the changes to where the data used to be.

If you’ve already received the roll-out, do not update your Chrome app yet. Stay tuned on our website as we bring you more follow up pieces on the issue.

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Chrome for Android will now load pages faster

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Google Chrome, or known as just plain Chrome on the Android platform is probably the go to browser for most Android software users. But the browser app is still facing bugginess and slumps in performance from time to time, hence the reason for regular app updates.

The latest update for Chrome on the Play Store will now cause web pages to load slightly faster in the browsing experience. According to 9to5Google, this is due to the fact that Chrome now utilizes a new a speedier Java Script engine. With this optimization in place, web pages on the Chrome browser will now load at least 10 percent faster than before, up to a maximum of 20 percent.

The latest version of Chrome now supports animated PNG files as well, known as APNG’s, This file format is similar to that of GIF, and has been supported by Mozilla Firefox for quite some time now. Hence, Google is just making up ground in this aspect.

Chrome version 59 for Android has not been fully rolled out, but the new update will be available gradually to Android devices over the next week.

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Chrome on Android will soon support HDR video

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HDR video content is still in its infancy, meaning that we don’t come across a lot of videos which can be played in HDR mode. This is of course due to the limited amount of devices that support HDR videos, including video platforms and apps as well. Platforms such as YouTube and Netflix have begun adding support for HDR video content, and Chrome for Android will follow suit as well in the future.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) mode in videos bring up a better contrast, wider color gamut and better dynamic range to enhance the viewing experience. According to XDA Developers, Chrome for Android will soon be able to extract HDR metadata from the video container and to be passed to the MediaCodec class. The HDR video can then be supported on Chrome, which of course also requires a device that supports HDR video.

HDR video content is still scarce across video platforms, but with the future support for it on Chrome for Android, and the hope for more support on Android devices for HDR video, we might see a new world of delicious HDR content to be consumed.

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Chrome Canary is now available for Android devices

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Are you a fan of messing around with software builds that are in no way, shape or form ready for public use? If you are, then you’re in luck, because Google has made Chrome Canary available for Android users.

For those who have never heard of Chrome Canary before, here’s a quick rundown. Google’s Chrome browser is divided into four builds, each of which signifies the state of the build. These four builds are Stable, Beta, Dev, and Canary, with the latter very much being Alpha stages. Up until now, Chrome Canary has only been offered to Windows and Mac platforms, but this is no longer the case as it can now be downloaded on the Google Play Store.

If you want to experiment with Chrome Canary, but are unwilling to sacrifice your stable Chrome build, you need not worry, as both browsers can exist side by side. As Chrome Canary is very much a test platform for Google to test out various features, you’ll get to play around with various experiments that may or may not make it to the final build.

Once again, Chrome Canary is very unstable, so much so that Google has placed an “Unstable” label next to the Chrome Canary name itself. If you’re willing to brave the bugs, you may just be able to experience the future of Chrome first hand.

Source:
Chromium Blog

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canary
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google


Chrome to warn users about unencrypted websites

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Google’s upcoming version of the Chrome web browser, Chrome 56, will be cracking down on websites that aren’t encrypted as it will be flagging websites that do so as “not secure.”

Launching in January, Chrome 56 will be implementing a new warning that will display a small sign that shows “not secure” on login sites that are reliant on HTTP instead of the secure HTTPS. Currently, Chrome does flag website that uses HTTP, but it does so via a “neutral indicator.” Emily Schechter, a part of the Chrome Security Team, explains that regular HTTP opens you up to potential attacks. “When you load a website over HTTP, someone else on the network can look at or modify the site before it gets to you,” says Schechter.

The “not secure” sign will be the first step in Chrome’s crusade against HTTP, as the Chrome team mentions that they intend to denote HTTP websites with a special red triangle symbol as well. For websites who wish to not be flagged as insecure, you have roughly three months to jump ship to HTTPS.

Source:
Google

chrome
encryption
google
http
https
security


Chromebooks might soon have the ability to dual-boot Windows 10

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Chromebooks have seen a slow adoption here in Malaysia. With its focus on education, companies are not giving a good enough reason for the average consumer to get one. Google is looking to change that as they might allow Windows 10 to run on these devices.

XDA Developers was digging through the source codes for Chromebooks and found Campfire, a module that will allow the device to dual-boot ChromeOS and Windows 10 on multiple devices. Don’t jump out of your seats and get your self a Chromebook just yet, as manufacturers will still need to verify that their devices will support the dual-boot feature. Another issue is that the code comments mentioned that devices will need at least 40GB of internal storage and most devices come with 32GB. In addition to that, there are also indicators that you will simply need to use a simple command to activate the mode.

The ChromeOS biggest issue of adoption is the fact that it is still very limited to the Android ecosystem and for users that want more, they will still need to get a dedicated Windows laptop. With the ability to dual-boot, it might increase the adoption rate of future Chromebooks.

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Chuwi releases 12-inch Windows tablet

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Chinese manufacturer Chuwi has launched a Windows 10 powered tablet into the market, and it seems that Chuwi isn’t holding back on its spec sheet for the affordable tablet.

Introducing the Hi12, which comes with a 12 inch Retina IPS Display 2160×1440 (QHD) resolution. The tablet comes in an all metal unibody design. Underneath the hood lies a quad core Intel X5 Cherry Trail processor clocked at 1.44GHz, up to 1.84GHz with a 14nm process and Intel’s 8th-gen HD Graphics GPU, which according to Chuwi, is two times better than the previous generation. Th Hi12 is equipped with 4GB of DDR3L RAM, alongside 64GB of eMMC internal storage, expandable via a TF card slot.

For I/O, the Chuwi Hi12 features two full sized USB ports – a USB 2.0 and a USB 3.0 port, a Micro USB port, a Micro HDMI port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a TF card slot. If the camera specs of a tablet matter to you, the Hi12 sports a 5MP rear facing camera and a 2MP front facing camera. The tablet is powered by a massive 11,000mAh battery which can last you 6-8 hours on a single charge. It also supports a 3A fast charge technology which reduces charging time by 20%. The Hi12 runs a 64-bit Windows 10 out of the box.

What do you think about Chuwi’s new 12 inch tablet? Can it be a budget Chinese Microsoft Surface replacement? Let us know your thoughts below. Full details regarding the tablet are available
here
.

Source:
Chuwi

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12
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hi12
inch
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CIMB Clicks app replaces SMS TAC with the new One Tap Approval

1.4K

CIMB have announced that customers who uses the bank’s smartphone app will no longer need to request for a SMS TAC when making a transaction via CIMB phone app, as CIMB will soon launch and introduce their customers with the new SecureTAC system on their app.

With the new SecureTAC system, customers can authorise transactions on their app with an easy and secure one tap approval. For safety, customers phone will be authenticated & paired with their CIMB Clicks credentials, only transaction approved via recognised device will be processed. Similarly to their current security system, customer uses touch ID or fingerprint unlocking to check their account balance while other function require the customer to input their CIMB Clicks password.

The process is easy, the customer would only need to verify their transaction details, scroll down to the bottom of the confirmation page and tap on approve. According to CIMB, the SecureTAC system is not live yet but it will be rolled out soon.

CIMB
CIMB Malaysia
One Tap Approval
SecureTAC system


Cities around the world team up to lay ground rules for Airbnb and Uber

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It’s probably not too much of an exaggeration to say that Airbnb and Uber have been major disruptors in the markets that they are involved in. The former has been making hotels worldwide uncomfortable, while the latter has caused quite a commotion with the taxi services of various nations. Both companies have been courting controversies as of late, ranging from taxi strike protests to bills attempting to make short-term rentals illegal, but it seems that 10 cities around the world may be banding together to set up a set of rules that would allow Airbnb and Uber to operate as per normal.

According to Bloomberg, mayors from the cities of New York, Paris, Seoul, Athens, Barcelona, Toronto, and more are beginning to produce a common framework in which Airbnb and Uber will operate in. Mayors from these cities have met for the first time last month in Amsterdam to discuss on the regulations that should impose on Airbnb and Uber, but as the discussions are still in its early stages, no policy has been drafted up just yet.

“Having the 20 or 30 biggest urban markets of the world all operating under entirely different rules doesn’t do much good for anyone. We want consumers and tourists to have some consistency, city to city,” says Wiley Norvell, spokesman for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s deputy for housing and economic development.

While Uber declined to comment on the matter, a spokesman for Airbnb has said via e-mail that the company would “welcome any chance to educate more cities about the benefits of home sharing and look forward to continuing to work with officials around the world.”

Source:
Bloomberg

airbnb
legal
uber


Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer now available in Malaysia at the price of RM150,000

374

As the official distributor of Citroën brand, Naza Euro Motors Sdn Bhd have officially launched the latest Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer in Malaysia. Dubbed as the perfect family car, the new Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer enhanced design, unique experience of comfort and latest generation technologies presents a modern, user friendly and family oriented drive that allows drivers and passengers to travel in style and comfort.

The new Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer is powered by a 1.6 Turbo High Pressure engine to produce 167 PS of output and a segment-leading peak torque of 240 Nm at just 1,400 rpm. Which heightens the driving experience and the MPV can achieve a fuel efficiency of 5.8 liters/100km. In addition to that, it is paired to an efficient 6 speed auto transmission, which allows it to have a faster and smoother gear shifts.

Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourerhas added more practical storage compartments to its vehicle such as under floor compartments, removable central storage box and compartments all around the vehicle. The second and third row seats are also retractable to expand boot volume when needed, from 632 liters original boot space to a whopping 2,181 liters. Other than that, Citroën introduces to a new convenient feature which is the motorized hands free tailgate with height memory which works effortlessly just by placing your foot under the rear bumper to open or close the boot.

On the inside, it has a premium trim combination that Citroën uniquely calls the “Hype Grey ambiance”. The dashboard boasts a 12-inch HD color panoramic central display that makes it the largest in the MPV segment, and is complemented by a 7 inch touchscreen nestled underneath. The MPV features Android Auto, Apple Carplay, Mirrorlink and USB. When it comes to amenities you have the automatic electric parking brake, electric power steering, 12V socket in the central storage and rear aircraft style tables with LEDs.

For safety, the MPV is equipped with innovative driver’s assistance systems such as Active Safety Brake, Speed Limit Recognition and Driver Attention Alert. The Active Safety Brake works at speed of 30 km/h and stops the car from imminent collision, while the Speed Limit Recognition helps the driver comply with the legal speed and reduces the risk of having an accident on the road as it recognizes speed limit signs and gives this information to the driver via the instrument panel and the Driver Attention Alert is a safety system in place to detect drowsy driving and assist the driver to stay alert at all times on the road using sensors on the steering wheel.

In addition to that, there is six airbags, ABS with Electronic Brake Force Distribution and Emergency Braking Assistance, Electronic Stability Control with traction control, Automatic handbrake and Hill Start Assist function, Interior Child Monitoring Mirror, Driver Attention Alert and 3 ISOFIX mountings on the second row.

The Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer is now available for sale, priced at RM149,888.00 on the road without insurance and now for a limited time, it comes with a 3 year free service, as well as a 5 year or 120,000km Peace of mind warranty, 24 hour roadside assistance and exclusive Sky Lounge at Subang Skypark. Among the colors available for the Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer is Ruby Red, Lazuli Blue, Onyx Black and Polar White.

Citroën
Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer
Citroën Malaysia
Naza group


Civilizations VI revealed; to be released on October 21st

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In an announcement that came out of left field, it seems that Firaxis Games’ oh-so-popular turn-based 4X game, Civilizations, is about to get a new installment this year.

Aptly titled Civilizations VI, the game will be sporting a ton of new tweaks and improvements to the tried-and-true gameplay mechanics. For instance, Civilization VI will feature districts which will give bonuses to specific improvements built on the tiles, which forces you to decide if you would want to take advantage of said bonuses, or forgo it to fulfill other requirements. Another change made to the game is researching technologies. Previously, your rate of research in the game is tied to how much science your entire civilization outputs. In Civilization VI, most if not every technology in the game can be sped up when you fulfill specific requirements.

Politics in the game has also been worked upon to make it feel dynamic. Diplomacy against the AI has always been a weak link in the Civilizations series, but this time, Firaxis is aiming to improve it. Now, all AI leaders will have a historical agenda that’s appropriate to their historical personality, and with personality comes a play style that is unique but appropriate for their role.

Other improvements that have been made to Civilization VI includes the ability to embed support units into military units. In Civilization V, only one unit can occupy a tile at any given time. With Civilization VI, while you can only have one military unit on a tile at any time, you can also embed a support unit, such as a settler, into said military unit, allowing you to escort it without needing to free up a tile. Multiplayer has also been tweaked to allow for a shorter game. A quicker multiplayer game speed isn’t the only thing that’s been implemented into Civilization VI as you can now set specific scenarios and unique victory sets designed for shorter games. Said scenarios aren’t limited to multiplayer as they can be implemented in single player as well.

Simply put, Civilization VI looks to be a proper sequel to Civilization V rather than a reskin ala Beyond Earth. The game currently has a release date of October 21st.

Source:
PC Gamer

civilizationvi
firaxis


Classic look and dedicated smartwearable chipset – Mlais Smartwatch

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Love a smartwatch? Like the Huawei Watch? But if your wallet objects, then maybe you would want to check this out instead. The Mlais smartwatch will cost USD123 when it becomes available on Gear Best. The watch features a 316L stainless steel case and genuine leather band (metal straps are available as well). The screen is a 1.3-inch TFT with 360×360 px resolution (276ppi), but there aren’t any information about the glass.

The Mlais smartwatch is water resistant to an unspecified rating, and it’s powered by MediaTek’s wearable chipset, the MT2601 with a dual-core processor, 512MB RAM and 4GB storage. The watch runs Android 5.1 which will be the base for Android Wear instead of full-blown Android. But, the battery is pleasantly big at 400mAh (which promises 2-days standby) and you get a heart rate monitor with the superb price. It supports Wi-Fi connectivity, but does not come with GPS support.

If you interested, you can check it out over
here
.

SOURCE:
Fudzilla

androidwear
gearbest
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Classy looking Arte Black Nokia 6 listed on Amazon

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As much reception as Nokia and HMD Global are getting across the world, the American market will always be a different ball game, such is the case for most smartphone manufacturers out there. While not all Nokia smartphones will see the light in the US market, it looks like the unexpected Nokia 6 has appeared online on major retailer Amazon.

Instead of the Nokia 6, the handset is listed as the Nokia “N6” on Amazon. It is also only made available in the Arte Black color option, or known as “Art” Black on the online retailer’s page. This can go both ways for potential buyers in the US, since it can either be a false listing or the potential official arrival of the Nokia 6 stateside.

Listed with a price tag of $299 (RM 1,265.97), the Nokia 6 is certainly worth a purchase as an affordable mid range smartphone. Thought “temporarily out of stock”, the Nokia 6 should be made available for purchase if its US debut happens to be a real thing.

Having said that, aren’t you glad that the Nokia 6 is officially available in Malaysia for a lower price point of RM 999?

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Claude Bernard’s pair watches brings elegance and romance in design

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When you can send romantic graphical messages with smart watches, Swiss watch maker Claude Bernard thinks that elegance and romance should come in simplicity with its hand-made Swiss-Made Pair Watches, which is made to last forever and it simply tells you the time with a never boring watch face. Every Claude Bernard timepiece is meticulously hand-assembled in Les Genevez, Switzerland with Swiss Made precision movements and the finest quality materials in the industry by highly skilled professional watchmakers, yet they cost much cheaper than an Apple Watch Sports.

The great thing about these Pair time pieces is that they come with a beautiful message in its product design and there’s one with an Asian theme – The Moon Represents My Heart (Teresa Teng), the Claude Bernard Pair Watches comes in 28mm and 40mm strap sizes for leather straps and 27mm and 36mm strap sizes for stainless steel models. The prices of these premium Swiss Made watches will amaze you with its design, head on to your nearest watch retailers or visit Parkson at Pavilion, IOI City Mall and 1 Borneo in Sabah to check these beautiful time pieces.


“Clean & Fix” your house now by using the new feature on Grab

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Grab started out as an e-hailing service, but quickly expanded to include food delivery, parcel delivery, e-wallet service and now, home services.

In partnership with Kaodim, Grab has a new feature on its homepage called “Clean & Fix” which allows users to hire home repairs and cleaning services on the app. As of now, available services include house cleaning, plumbing repair, local moving and more. Users also get to pick between direct rate or comparative rates, depending on the type of service they’re going for.

This feature is only available in Klang Valley and Penang at the moment, though it is likely that Grab will expand it to other areas in the future. It was also stated that users can request for a reserve/refund if they aren’t satisfied with the service provided, and if there’s a case of damage or theft, they’ll get to enjoy free insurance coverage.

In terms of payment methods, Grab users can pay with either GrabPay or cash. However, GrabPay will only be available for selected service providers.

Clean & Fix
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Stalkers and strangers can get your info without you knowing via this app

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Technology is a double-edged sword, case in point: ClearView AI. This is a startup company that could compare a photo to a database of over 3 billion pictures and depending on how it’s used, it could be both advantageous and also dangerous.

With the Clearview app, you can take a photo of a stranger and get information about that person without him/her ever knowing your existence. Clearview uses the photo to match photos it obtained from large social media sites like Venmo, Facebook, YouTube and more. Once there are matches, it’ll serve up links to the sites so you’ll be able to check out whatever information that is revealed on those sites.

The database of Clearview currently exceeds those involved in law enforcement, including the FBI’s database that has over 641 million images of US citizens. Law enforcers have already made use of Clearview to assist in crimes — even though there may be false matches sometimes.

The good news is the app is not available to the public, but Clearview investors said that it’s possible in the future. This is risky because it’ll also aid stalkers and creeps in targeting someone, but there should be precautionary steps if Clearview does become public.

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Clubhouse: Exclusive invite-only feature is gone for good

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A year after being in beta version,
Clubhouse
 is now available to all iPhone and Android users — you don’t have to be invited to use the app anymore.

Bye bye, exclusivity

Clubhouse was initially an invite-only app because it needed to keep things in control as the community expands. “But we’ve always wanted Clubhouse to be open. Everyone in the world should have access to meaningful conversations,” said Clubhouse in its
blog post
.

Clubhouse is hiring!

In addition to removing the waitlist system, Clubhouse also revealed that they’re expanding the team — there are openings in various departments. They also introduced a newly-designed website, logo and app icon.

Without the exclusivity of the invite-only feature, Clubhouse may not seem as appealing to some anymore. On the other hand, this is a great news to those who wanted to join the app but didn’t have any connections.

Clubhouse


These Chinese New Year videos will make you cry/laugh your heart out

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There are many Chinese New Year videos and ads on YouTube right now as the festive season is just four days away. Some are funny, some are creative and some will tear you up. To save you the trouble from searching each and every one of them, we’ve decided to list them out for you.

Heartwarming

Digi, Maxis and Apple all came out with their CNY videos this year that revolves around family members. All these videos include family feud and dissatisfaction, reaching a mutual understanding and finally achieving contentment together. Just prepare some tissues — you might cry.

Creative

TNB and Petronas take the creative road with their videos; the former uses VR to play out the whole CNY scene while the actor is actually in office and the latter uses clothing to represent family members. Needless to say, both videos also highlighted togetherness.

Funny

CNY videos don’t always have to be touching; take these videos from Perodua, Nike and Watsons. Their videos focus on cultures with humorous elements throughout the videos. Watsons includes modern trends and traditional practices while also including the different races in Malaysia to highlight unity. Meanwhile, Nike directs the whole video on the significance of red envelopes.

My personal favorites? Nike, TNB and Watsons.

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Spotify and Epic Games join Coalition for App Fairness to fight Apple policies

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Coalition for App Fairness
 consist of a band of big-name app makers that want to challenge Apple’s App Store policies. This coalition houses the likes of Epic Games, Spotify, Deezer, and Tile – and these guys want a fairer environment when it comes to publishing their apps for iOS.

As it stands, Apple demands a 30% cut of any sales made on an App Store app – a tax Apple’s own apps don’t need to pay. This put competing developers and apps at a disadvantage as some may have to up their prices to compensate. On top of that, the group also challenges Apple’s other anti-consumer policies such as banning competing app stores and payment methods, eliminating competitive options.

The coalition proposes a solution to the issue by drafting a code of conduct that it wants Apple to follow – highlights include developer be free to choose any app store they wish to publish on, let all developers have equal access to technical information, and not pay unreasonable fees or revenue shares to Apple.

They’re still looking for more names to join the cause, but as it stands, these developers – with the exception of
Epic Games
 – still have their products listed on the App Store and are still required to fork out that 30% tax. With Google also charging the same rate for app and service purchases for listing on its Play Store, the Coalition for App Fairness could divert their attention to Google soon if they gain more traction.

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Cofounders say ToTok is removed without evidence, urge users to ignore Google’s warning

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Totok is a messaging app that has been removed from Google Play Store twice under the allegations that it spies on users, but the company denied the allegations.

Last week, Google removed ToTok from Play Store and sent a pop-up message that reads, “This app tries to spy on your personal data, such as SMS messages, photos, audio recordings or call history.” Google believes that ToTok is a spying tool that can track users’ data (conversations, locations, etc.) and shares these data with the UAE government.

However, founders of ToTok urged users to ignore Google’s warning because they don’t see any “legitimate reason” for Google to ban the app. They also further emphasized that the app has been removed without any evidence and expressed their dissatisfaction with both Google Play Store and App Store.

“Being devoted to transparency, we have also invited Apple and Google teams to meet us and visit our office in person, in the hope of clearing any existing concerns,” said Giac and Long, ToTok cofounders.

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Coleman opens first retail concept store in Malaysia to serve outdoor recreation enthusiasts

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Coleman brand of products are usually sold in many different stores nationwide, but now you can check out a larger range of their products at Coleman’s first retail concept store located at Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre. This 956 square feet flagship retail store – owned and operated by FM Retail Management Sdn Bhd and distributed by Momentum Strike Sdn Bhd, showcases more than 500 lines of outdoor recreational products under the Coleman umbrella of brands including Campingaz, Stearns, and Sevylor. Some products made exclusively for the Japan market are also available in Malaysian market for the first time, all at this store.

In conjuction with the opening, a 3-day Coleman “Own the Weekend” event is held at Sunway Pyramid’s Blue Concourse starting from today until this Sunday, 17 April 2016. There are fun-filled activities held at this event to allow you to explore and learn more about Coleman’s range of products. Some interesting challenges have been setup such as a 5-minute campsite set-up challenge with a Grand Prize of a complete set of Coleman campsite equipment worth RM6,000; a treasure hunt using the Coleman Outdoor Wagon; and Coleman Cooler Box Jenga. The crowd favourite was the ice-cream making activity using Coleman cooler jugs, accompanied by a team of cooler box percussionists who will perform live throughout the 3-day event.

The company plans to open another Coleman retail store in the second half of the year, with lots of other exciting events lined up such as glamping with pets and a rooftop party among many others.

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Collect points and get rewarded with the newly launched myNEWS Malaysia app

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In conjunction of its 22nd Anniversary, myNEWS has officially launched an app called “myNEWS Malaysia” as part of its commitment to offer a seamless and rewarding shopping experience for its customers.

The app acts as a virtual card where customers are able to collect and keep track of their loyalty points which they could later exchange for Bonus Points Rewards, Points
 Exchange Rewards, Stamps Campaigns and Promotion Coupons. Users that have accumulated at least 20 points could also use the points to redeem mySPECIAL rewards that includes food and beverages.

Users could also use the app to locate their nearest myNEWS store, latest store promotions, and up coming events by myNEWS.

To collect points, customers would first need to download the app and create an account. Before a customer make a payment, they would need to show the cashier their in-app bar code to scan. Once the payment is done via cash, debit/credit card or myNEWS gift card, the points would automatically be transferred to the users in-app virtual card.

In addition to that, myNEWS has also announced its partnership with Mastercard to launch a special Tap & Go promotion starting from now until 31 March 2019 where customers are rewarded with a free gift (Coke, 100 PLUS or Oyoshi drinks) for purchases made using their Mastercard credit or debit card with a minimum spend of RM10.

The app is now available for download on Android and iOS devices. For more information, feel free to log onto
http://www.mynews.com.my/loyalty-programme.php

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COLOP e-Mark Review: A functional mobile imprint printer

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I have seen a fair amount of handheld mobile printers in the past few years, while they are actually pretty cool gadgets that lets you print your documents wherever you go, most of them are really pricey and don’t necessarily deliver a great experience in terms of usability, image quality and after sales support compared to a good old inkjet printer.

I had the opportunity to evaluate the COLOP eMark recently, a mobile printer that focuses on printing imprints, which is unlike any mobile printers out there that can print a full page document. COLOP, the Austrian company famous for its rubber stamps, hopes that this gadget would be the perfect single device to store imprints instead of having several rubber stamps or label stickers.

As a business owner, I generally do not find any issues with my rubber stamps and find the rationale of this product to be questionable, but after using for several weeks, I am starting to find its usefulness and can finally conclude my review on this cool and unique piece of technology.

The COLOP eMark is a rather cute little device, as one will most likely see it more like a powerbank or charger than a mobile printer, it comes with color options of black or white, a magnetic holder comes as standard for storing the device and serves as its charging cradle, you also get a black storage case when you purchase the device.

Unfortunately, charging is done via a DC port rather than its Micro USB port, so you will have to bring along a separate charging brick if you intend to transport it around.

Surrounding the device is a LED strip that tells you which imprint is active, which you will need to remember the colors that your desired imprint is assigned to, though I’d have preferred a small LCD to tell me that, it isn’t difficult to get used to.

Removing the top cover reveals a removable 600mAh battery for up to 4.5 hours of continuous usage, the COLOP eMark uses a 3-color print cartridge developed by HP that offers up to 5000 imprints, but don’t just go buy any HP cartridge as a refill as the eMark’s cartridge uses a proprietary contact chip, the eMark’s cartridge can be purchased for RM169.

Setting up your imprints can be done with your smartphone or PC over WiFi direct or the MicroUSB port. One thing that I loved about the software is that it offers several imprint templates to choose from if you aren’t a design guru, otherwise you can easily import your self designed imprints through the app, one imprint supports up to 150mm width and three lines, which is already sufficient for most users.

The software is straightforward and you can add elements such as QR codes, bar codes, running serial numbers, dates and images into your imprint, the running number and date is particularly impressive as the device updates them as you complete an imprint, though for that you will need to keep the WiFi connection and the phone app active, as the app is responsible for sending the updated numbering to the device.

I first configured my imprints using the PC software and it worked flawlessly over a USB connection, but funnily when I connected using the smartphone app over WiFi, it doesn’t show the imprints that are stored within the device, this could be a bug that COLOP will need to resolve in the meantime.

Once you are done with setting up with your imprints, place the COLOP eMark on a solid surface and swipe either from the right or left at a moderate speed, a beep will sound occur when you have successfully printed a line. To switch to other stored imprints, simply tap two times on top of the device until the LED strip shows the color of your stored imprint.

Over the review period, I have been mainly using the COLOP eMark for signing documents and making labels on some of my stuff such as folders and boxes, it has definitely made me more organized and I no longer need to see my ugly handwriting, there’s hardly any issue that I can find but I do wished that the device could support more imprints instead of just four, as it takes a bit of hassle to get it connected wirelessly let alone needing to replace some of my imprints that I may still need to use.

The COLOP eMark is definitely a good first attempt from COLOP as a mobile printer made specifically for imprints, while I certainly do not believe that it took the company a long time to come out with this as stated on their website, the technology isn’t new but what the company has done well is to introduce it as a very practical gadget for customers such as solo entrepreneurs and creatives, which they will really appreciate for their documentation and labelling work, I can definitely see myself using it more and more if I were to sign tons of documents and could make lesser errors in documentations with it.

At RM1399, the COLOP eMark is no cheap gadget to own and it is a tough recommendation when you can make a ton of rubber stamps or labels with that money, but on a side note, it eliminates wastage and you have the luxury to keep changing your imprints whenever you want, not to forget to mention its easy to use software and customizability.

The COLOP eMark is officially distributed by A E Stamp Sdn Bhd, head over
here
 to check them out.

The Good

Good print quality

Reasonably priced cartridge

Imprint design templates in software

Reliable wireless connection

The Not so Good

Expensive

Doesn’t charge over USB

Only 4 imprints can be stored

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COLOP e-mark: New portable electronic stamp to offer high quality imprints

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AE Stamp’s latest invention is called the COLOP e-mark — a wireless electronic stamp that can create transfer any digital texts and images to absorbent surfaces.

Digitize your stamping with unlimited designs

Imagine a high-tech stamp that replaces all your conventional stamps; the COLOP e-mark can store up to four different designs at once including logos, texts, images and basic details such as time, date and numbers. By downloading its app, you can also edit or replace the designs with new ones.

Up to 5,000 high-quality imprints

This device makes use of HP inkjet technology for excellent print quality and with only one ink-cartridge, it can produce up to 5,000 imprints. It’s the perfect device to aid administrative tasks — adding sequential date, time and serial numbers — and you can even generate barcodes and QR codes. It can be used on paper, cardboard, serviettes, paper bags and more.

Rechargeable battery

Weighing at 224.5g, the COLOP e-mark is also lightweight and portable. It has a built-in rechargeable battery with up to 5 hours of continuous usage and comes with an ink cartridge, docking station, charger plus and USB cable.

The COLOP e-mark is available in black and white and costs RM1,399. You can purchase them via the official store on
Shopee
 and
Lazada
. You can also get the ink cartridge refill at RM169 from its
official site
.

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ColorOS 12 beta rolled out, starting with Find X3 Pro 5G

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ColorOS 12
 has been announced today, and among its new upgrades is Omoji, OPPO’s own avatar emoji.

OMOJI

ColorOS 12 is based on Android 12 and has many new features — Omoji is one of them. It features over 200 stylish trends and expressions that can be combined in various ways to create more than 100,000,000 different OMOJIs.

OPPO also uses Face Capture Algorithm that detects 77 facial feature points which are matched against 50 base expressions for subtle facial movement recognition.

In addition to OMOJI, OPPO also introduced new layout designs using 3D icons and Quantum Animation Engine 3.0.

Each widget are designed to move more realistically depending

the force applied to the simulation. The widgets will also have momentum, meaning they’ll gradually decelerate instead of abruptly stopping when you let go of them.

In short, OPPO is offering a more intuitive experience with ColorOS 12, so it feels closer to reality.

OPPO also optimised its layout to be more optimal for different languages — the new layout is adjusted to fit 67 different languages over 140 countries for a natural experience.

PC Connect

Syncing across devices is also easier; PC Connect lets users connect their Windows desktop/laptop with their phones so that transferring of files are more efficient.

This app will be launched later on in ColorOS 12.1 and can be connected via Bluetooth or QR code.

Even OPPO’s Clone Phone is now upgraded to version 2.0 — instead of using two separate QR codes, only one QR code is needed to connect and transfer data between two phones.

There’s even a data transfer animation so that it’s easier keep track of the transfer progress between phones.

ColorOS 12 rollout timeline

According to OPPO, ColorOS 12 Beta rolls out today and will be available on the
Find X3 Pro 5G
.

In November, other phones like the Find X2, Find X3 Pro and Reno6 Pro will also get the update. By the second half of 2022, older Reno Series, Find Series, F Series and A Series will receive the update.

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Come join us at Game Anime Expo 2017 on September 23rd

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Think you are up for an Overwatch match? Or are you looking to cosplay as your favorite character again? Block your calendars, because the Game Anime Expo 2017 is happening on September 23rd over at Berjaya Times Square, hosted by The Gameplan, KLGadgetGuy is proud to be the official media partner for this great event.

So what’s great about Game Anime Expo 2017, well apart from being able to participate competitive plays on games such as FIFA 17, Overwatch, Marvel VS Capcom: Infinite, Assetto Corsa, King of Fighter 14, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Street Fighter V and Tekken 7, there’s also a cosplay competition going on with a prize pool of up to RM2,400. If this isn’t exciting enough, you will be able to find famous cosplayers Rikka, Ying Tze, Kazumi Noomi, and Tekken 7 player Takukana visiting the event on that day as well, perfect timing to grab a selfie with them if you are a fan.

Want to participate in any of the competitive plays and cosplay competition in Game Anime Expo 2017? Head on over to the official
Game Anime Expo 2017 site
 for registration and prize pool information.

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Comic-Con will be launching its own streaming service on May 7th

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Comic-Con International, organizers of the world famous San Diego Comic-Con, wants to expand its presence beyond an event held during July. To that end, the company is partnering up with Lionsgate to launch a streaming service by June.

Called Comic-Con HQ, this streaming service aims to provide its subscribers with classic sci-fi and fantasy tiles, live streams of select San Diego Comic-Con panels, and original programming, including scripted series and unscripted news shows. For Comic-Con HQ’s original programming, Comic-Con International has revealed that they’ve enlisted the services of former G4 personalities Adam Sessler and Kevin Pereira to produce various shows for the service.

While details of the original programming on the service are still currently being jossed around, Comic-Con International did reveal some of the original shows that will be airing on the channel. Impossible Science will be a show which explores how new technologies can reproduce effects performed during magic shows, while Her Universe will be a geeky take on Project Runway.

The service is currently scheduled to be soft launched on the 7th of May. During this period, the service will be free to use. A subscription model will be implemented when Comic-Con HQ formally launches in June.

Source:
The Verge

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Commandos Glock Review: Gaming laptop with a desktop processor

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Gaming laptops have been the choice for the gamer on the go, with the wide variety of laptops out there, there is definitely an option for everyone. However, the slight issue of selecting a gaming laptop is the fact that you cant choose the exact specs that you want with the laptop and finding the exact specs of a laptop is rather difficult. There have to compromise when choosing these laptops, until now.

ArmoryX intends to change the way we choose a gaming laptop by offering users the freedom to pick the exact parts that go into the laptop. From its processor to its screen, the company is offering what other manufacturers can’t, the freedom of choice and they are starting with the Commandos Glock.

The overall design of the Glock is subtle, it does not scream gaming laptop but at the same time, it does not look like the everyday regular laptops that you have seen. All it has is the Commandos logo on the top which does not say much, but I must say it is a pretty cool looking logo. When it comes to I/O it gives you a nice and complete set of ports, on one side there is an ethernet port, USB 2.0 port, ports for a microphone and headphone and an SD card reader.
On the other side, there is a mini DisplayPort, HDMI port, type-c port, and two USB 3.0 ports. It practically gives you the option to extend its display to 3 other screens via the video ports and the type-c port. There are also heatsinks that are position on the back towards the sides and on the left side of the laptop. Flipping up the laptop will reveal the 15-inch FHD IPS screen which I am very satisfied with. The colours are great and it’s viewing angles are also great.

 I always have issues with laptop keyboards because of its small keycaps or its short travel distance, but the Glock seems to avoid that and provided decent sized keycaps and a comfortable and enjoyable travel distance for its keys. I am honestly very happy with these keys as I get an excellent typing experience when I am gaming or doing work. Then it comes down to the touchpad, although it uses windows precision drivers, I sometimes find myself performing a swipe or gesture twice when using it, but it does not happen all the time. However, that’s not a problem for me as I always have a mouse handy.

Specs wise this laptop comes with a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD and an Intel Core i5-8600K processor. That might sound fine to be a mid-range gaming laptop but remember I said that it is customizable? Well just like the RAM and HardDrive, the processor can be changed if you need too as it is a socketable CPU rather than soldered on like other regular laptops.

This not only gives you a longer reason to use it but at any time you feel like you need more processing power, you could simply swap out the processor and put in a more powerful Intel processor.

However, how does that translate to real-world use? The Witcher 3 and no man’s sky is able to maintain 35 frames per second overall, PUBG and Fortnite have pretty decent frames of 55 and 60 respectively. All the games were set to the highest graphics settings with AA off and the charger plugged in.

Thanks to the heatsinks that surround the laptop, it managed to cool down both the CPU and graphics card to safe and comfortable heats. The processor maxes out at 55 degrees while the graphics card maintains 75 degrees both on load. You might feel some heat around the WASD keys and towards the top of the keyboard, but it is barely noticeable as once I am engrossed into the game.

Although this laptop comes with Creative Sound Blaster 5 software, the audio quality is not so great, everything overall feels flat and there is no satisfaction from the audio which is probably due to the speakers on this laptop. However, where Creative’s software shines is when you connect a headphone, as the software allows for different types of tuning for your audio.

Aside from the audio software, the Glock comes with its own Control Center 2.0 which allows you to monitor the laptop from its heat, fan speeds, to changing the brightness of the keyboard, putting the laptop in different power management modes and customizing the speeds of the fans. Do note though that the fans can get really loud if you set the fan’s settings to Maximum but it does help to regulate the heat of the components.

When it comes to battery life, it is what you expect from a gaming laptop. On normal usage of browsing the internet, watching a movie and listing to some music, it has managed to last slightly below 4 hours, but when gaming you should expect slightly less than two hours, this might vary depending on the game you are playing but the time mentioned is taking into account heavy games like The Witcher 3 and PUBG.

The charger that comes with the laptop might be slightly big for some but it not as heavy as you would expect so with a slightly bigger bag you would not feel the charger at all.

Verdict

The Commandos Glock might just change the laptop market, with the option to customize the specifications of the laptop, it will definitely strike fear into the other gaming laptop manufacturers that don’t offer the freedom of choice. The Glock is not perfect, and it does have some flaws that other gaming laptops have avoided but with alterations and more offers in the choice of parts, the Commandos Glock is a gaming laptop that you should keep an eye on.

The Good

Freedom to choose your specs

Great keyboard

Nice screen

Good thermals

Socketable Processor

The Bad

Touchpad needs improvement

Speakers are mediocre

Plastic body

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review


Compared and Explained: Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Malaysia telco plans

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As we are getting close to the Galaxy Note 7’s August 19 launch date, Malaysia telcos are starting to take preorders for Samsung’s flagship, the Galaxy Note 7 brings over the great feature set of the Galaxy S7 and features an all new S-Pen that recognizes 4096 pressure level that makes taking notes and drawing sketches even better, the phone is also water resistant and comes with 64GB of onboard storage with Micro SD expansion. The Galaxy Note 7 retails at RM3,199 and Samsung is giving away a free standing Wireless Charger and a 10,200mAh USB Type-C powerbank for early birds. For your convenience, we have compiled and will elaborate the Galaxy Note 7 plans from Celcom, Digi, Maxis, U Mobile and Yes 4G.

Celcom

Celcom’s plan for the Galaxy Note 7 is fairly straightforward, the Galaxy Note 7 is available as low as RM2,140 if you are on the flagship FIRST Platinum plan that costs RM150/month, the plan will offer 18GB of data with unlimited free calls and SMS to all networks. The FIRST Blue and Gold postpaid plans are also eligible to purchase the device for a subsidized price as well, but for all postpaid plans, you will be tied to a 24-month contract with Celcom and require to pay an upfront payment of RM300 if you are signing up the service for the first time. For early termination, FIRST Blue and Gold customers are required to pay RM500 and FIRST Platinum customers will pay a whooping RM1000 penalty fee.

Last but not the least, Celcom is giving away a Powerbank, Wireless Charger Stand and Travel Charging Adapter to pre-order customers.

The Good: Straightforward and easy to understand
The Not so Good: Phone subsidised price isn’t low when compared to the rest, no financing option available.

Digi

Digi offers two type of Postpaid plans, which you could either opt for more calls and internet depending on your usage. The Galaxy Note can be yours at RM1210 if you are on Digi’s most expensive Postpaid 238 plan, however if you are not an existing user or just recently port over to the telco, you will be required to pay a rather high advance payment fee, but fret not as it will be credited back to your billing account in subsequent months. If high data volume and expensive plans don’t suit you, Digi also offers the Galaxy Note 7 to the Postpaid 68 plan, which you will still get a farily huge amount of subsidized discount at RM2,150 . Furthermore, Digi offers a 24-month 0% interest easy payment plan for the Galaxy Note 7 if you are cash strapped, a 24-month contract will be in place if you intend to get the Galaxy Note 7 from Digi.

Digi is also giving away a free Powerbank, Wireless Charging Stand and Travel Charging Adapter.

The Good: Good selection of Postpaid plans and flexible financing options, good discount off phone’s original pricing.
The Not so Good: High advance payment fee for new registrations

Maxis

Maxis offers two ways of purchasing the Galaxy Note 7 with a subsidised price, which one of it being its Zerolution plan, it requries no upfront payment and contract tie-ups, on top of that you can also join the Zerolution Upgrade Program for RM30/month to upgrade to a new phone for free after 12 months, it even has an optional Zerolution SafeDevice insurance to protect the phone from certain accidental damages, as you will be required to return the phone in good condition to Maxis for a new smartphone. Therefore, users will pay RM101/month over a 24-month period for the Galaxy Note 7, this comes up to a total amount of RM2424 and is still a very good deal considering that you do not need to pay an advance fee and tied to a contract.

On the other hand, Maxis also offers the conventional 24-month contract plan for the Galaxy Note 7, users will need to subscribe to either the MaxisONE 128, 158 or 188 plans and will be able to purchase the phone as low as RM1,299, a device advance fee of RM512 is applicable to all MaxisONE plans and will be credited back to the billing account in subsequent months.

Maxis is giving a free Powerbank and Wireless Charger Stand to those who pre-ordered the phone, no extra travel charging adapter.

The Good: Zerolution is straightforward, good discount on phone for 24-month contract plans
The Not-so-Good: Zerolution only available to existing and eligible customers, device upgrade plan not cost effective if not utilized after a year and requires the current phone to be returned for upgrade.

U Mobile

For those of you who subscribed to U Mobile’s Hero Postpaid plans for the generous amount of data, you’ll be disappointed to know that U Mobile only offers the Galaxy Note 7 on its Ultimate Device plans, you still get to purchase the phone from as low as RM1,699 and a monthly commitment fee of RM60/month, you will be tied to a 24-month contract. Even though the Ultimate Device plans may not have that much of data, you still get to enjoy a dedicated amount of data for video streaming services with Video-Onz, in this case the UD130 plan offers unlimited data for video streaming.

The Good: Affordable monthly plans
The Not so Good: No freebies for preorders, Ultimate Device plans don’t offer as much data compared to other telcos and its own Hero Postpaid plan

Yes 4G

The country’s first telco to offer VoLTE is offering the Note 7 on its Postpaid 88 and 128 plans, over a 24-month contract you can get the phone from as low as RM1508.49 while you will be required to pay an upfront fee for the plan, which will be credited back to your billing account over subsequent months. While Yes 4G may offer the best all rounder value among others, the telco’s 4G LTE network coverage is still rather limited at this point of time with no 3G and 2G support should you be in a no coverage area, which is why you should really consider the contract tenure for the telco’s current state.

The Good: Decent monthly postpaid plans and phone subsidised price
The Not so Good: No freebies, 24 month contract not feasible for subpar network coverage

Conclusion

Celcom, Digi and Maxis offer a pretty decent subsidised price for the Galaxy Note 7 and they all have advantages in each of their respective postpaid plans with lots of data quota and unlimited calls. On the other hand, U Mobile and Yes 4G subscribers are still getting a decent discount off the Galaxy Note 7’s retail price, but you may want to consider their network coverage areas since you’ll need to be with them for the next 24-months. What are your thoughts? Share with us in the comments down below.

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Compared and Explained: iPhone X Telco Plans

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As preorders of the iPhone X kicks off today, the phone will be officially launched on November 24th, due to the iPhone X’s expensive price we are going to assume most of you to head for a telco subsidized device if you seriously want to own one. As usual, we are going to check out the big four telco’s iPhone X plans and decide which one is the better deal. The iPhone X is available in 64GB and 256GB models and retails at RM5,149 and RM5,899 respectively, so here goes.

Celcom

For a limited time throughout the pre-order period, Celcom is offering an extra RM100 off the iPhone X’s subsidized price if you preorder the phone over its website. As for the iPhone X subsidized price, customers will be able to get RM2,001 off the iPhone X 64GB and RM2,161 off the iPhone X 256GB if you sign up with the FIRST Platinum Plus plan, which costs RM188/month with a 24 months contract, and you get 100GB of monthly internet with free 30GB Video Walla.

If you don’t require that much of data, Celcom also offers the iPhone X for the FIRST Gold Plus plan, which costs RM98/month, and you still get to own the iPhone X 64GB model for RM3,718 and the 256GB model for RM4,378, which is still a significant discount off the iPhone X’s original price. Furthermore, the plan also gives you 40GB Internet (20GB weekday+20GB weekend) , unlimited social apps and free 100GB Super VideoWalla for 12 months, so you are getting quite a great package here.

Link: Celcom
iPhone X 64GB
,
iPhone X 256GB

Maxis

If you are hoping Maxis to offer Zerolution for the iPhone X, you are out of luck. The iPhone X is available at a subsidized for MaxisONE 128 and above plans, which you will be able to get up to RM2,074 and RM2,164 of savings for the 64GB and 256GB model respectively. The subsidized price is slightly more than Celcom’s most expensive plan, however MaxisONE 188 offers only 50GB of monthly data, which is half of Celcom’s quota and doesn’t offer dedicated quota for music and video streaming, there’s also no unlimited data for social apps as well. However, 50GB is still a lot of data for many and if you don’t mind not having those extras, then Maxis’ iPhone X plan is the one to go for.

Link:
Maxis iPhone X

Digi

Digi offers the iPhone X in three postpaid plans for a subsidized price of RM3,495, so you will only need to understand which plans to go for based on your needs. Even though you don’t get a lot of rebates by signing up the iPhone X with Digi, the company’s postpaid plans are more affordable than the rest, Dig’s Postpaid 138 plan also offers free monthly Roam Like Home, which you get to call and surf in 8 countries without incurring additional roaming costs.

Link:
Digi iPhone X

U Mobile

Like the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, U Mobile offers the iPhone X for its Postpaid i90 and Postpaid i130 plans, which you are getting 7GB and 10GB of data respectively, and has unlimited quota for music and social media apps, you also get to have dedicated video streaming quota of up to 26 services. The iPhone X also isn’t getting a lot of rebate here, as it would cost RM3,465 and RM4,125 for the 64GB and 256GB model respectively if you sign up for the Postpaid i130 plan. However, U Mobile has the most amount of app, music and video partners, therefore you may want to consider U Mobile’s plan if you do a lot of social media activities and music listening.

Link:
U Mobile iPhone X

In a nutshell, here’s what we think of the telcos’ offering on the iPhone X.

Celcom – The all rounder and has the most postpaid plans for the iPhone X with decent subsidized price.

Maxis – If you value coverage and service, you may want to get the iPhone X with Maxis.

Digi – If you care about a lower monthly commitment fee, go for Digi’s iPhone X.

U Mobile – If you use a lot of data for social media, music and video streaming, U Mobile’s postpaid plan isn’t too bad.

What say you? Which telco would you go for the iPhone X? Tell us about it!

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Comparison of the Tomb Raider movie and game shows some promise for the movie

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IGN has recently taken out a video showing the comparison of events that took place in the trailer of the new Tomb Raider movie against the rebooted Tomb Raider games. We were taking a look at them and realized that the similarities in the movie and game are very close. This might mean that a production house has finally decided to follow the roots of a game that they are trying to adapt it into a movie.

In the video below you can see that scenes and actions that took place in the game are somewhat similar to each other giving us hope that it might turn out better than most people expect it to be. It is also good that Hollywood has finally learnt from all the mistakes of making a movie adaptation of a game with the recent big flop and to my disappointment, the Assassin Creed movie and the terrible nonsense that is the Death Note movie on Netflix.

We can look forward to making more movie adaptations of games and two other that I am really looking forward to is the Uncharted movie, which apparently the writer said the script is a ‘Beast’ and the Witcher tv series from Netflix, where Andrzej Sapkowski, the creator of The Witcher books serving as the creative consultant for the series and Tomas Baginski, who directed the intro video for all tree Witcher games and the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer taking up the role as director of the movie version of The Witcher and director of certain episodes of the tv series.

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Complex workloads may cause Intel Skylake powered computers to freeze

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If your computer is currently being powered by a Skylake, you might want to know that the processor has a known bug that causes the PC to freeze under complex workload conditions.

This bug was first discovered by
hardwareluxx
 when they were running Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search’s (GIMPS) Prime95 application to find Mersenne primes. Users at hardwareluxx has since submitted this report to GIMPS who has confirmed the existence of said bug, which was then forwarded to Intel.

Intel has since issued a statement that this particular bug does exist and has developed a fix which will be distributed to its hardware partners via a BIOS update.

While no reason is given as to why the bug occurs, testers confirmed that said bug affects both Linux and Windows-based system. Prime95 has historically been used to benchmark and stress-test computers using Fast Fourier Transforms to multiply extremely large numbers. The bug in question occuers when a particular exponent size, 14,942,209, pops up.

Source :
Ars Technica
,
hardwareluxx

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COMPUTEX 2014: ASUS announces the Transformer Book V

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The first day of COMPUTEX 2014 in Taipei is exciting with the announcement of the Transformer Book V, which is the company’s first
tablet
 hybrid that runs on Windows while being able to connect an Android smartphone to the back of the device. The laptop has a 12.5-inch display that runs on Windows 8.1 with an Intel Core CPU while the smartphone is a ZenFone-5 like 5-inch Android 4.4 device. What’s even more interesting is that the smartphone is the first smartphone to run on Intel’s 64-bit quad core Moorefield Atom chip with LTE support.

The Transformer Book V tablet bod weighs 0.8kg and is equipped with 4GB of RAM and a 28Wh battery that offers up to 10 hours of web browsing time. A 128GB flash storage is on the
tablet
 and a hard drive of up to 1TB is on the keyboard dock. The phone has 2GB of RAM, 8MP main camera, 2500mAh battery and supports up to 64GB of storage.

How does the duo works? Instead of having the tablet powered by the phone this time, you are able to switch between two operating systems when then phone is being docked to the tablet, the tablet isn’t just an empty shell this time but with a full fledge Windows 8.1 running on it.

Stay tuned to official news from ASUS Malaysia on pricing and availability.

Source:
Engadget


COMPUTEX 2014: ASUS GX500 Gaming Laptop announced

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Gaming laptops are always thick and heavy due to cooling considerations, not with the announcement of the ASUS GX500 RoG gaming laptop, this beast has a 4K display and is only 19mm thick and weighs a mere 2.2KG for a 15.6-inch form factor. This gaming laptop packs a Core i7 processor and the 3840×2160 display covers 100 percent of the NTSC colour gamut. Graphics power is done by a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M graphics chip. Price and availability? Let’s see how generous our friends are over at ASUS Malaysia.


COMPUTEX 2014: ASUS MeMo Pad 8 is the world’s lightest 8-inch LTE tablet

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ASUS rocked the first day of COMPUTEX 2014 by introducing a few amazing products, meet the ASUS MeMo Pad 8, which the company claims is the lightest 8-inch LTE
tablet
 in the world. The MeMo Pad 8 comes with a 64-bit Intel Atom Z3580 2.3GHz quad core CPU, full HD display with Gorilla Glass 3 and only weighs 299 grams. The MeMo Pad 8 also features a 5-megapixel main camera and 2-megapixel front facing camera, it will also have WiFi AC, NFC, and backfiring dual stereo speakers.

The MeMo Pad series has always been one of the best
tablet
 range from ASUS for its great features and affordable price tag, the MeMo Pad 8 (ME581CL)will be available around mid-June and we hope that this will be priced below RM1000 just like the ZenFones.

Source:
NDTV

Image Credit:
Engadget


COMPUTEX 2014: ASUS Transformer Book T300 Chi announced

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In COMPUTEX this year, ASUS seems to be getting more aggressive than ever in its transforming devices, the ASUS Transformer T300 Chi is probably the slimmest
tablet
 hybrid that you can find in the world now. The T300 Chi sports a 12.5-inch display with a shocking 2K display resolution with a thickness of just only 7.3mm and 14.33mm undocked and docked respectively. The
tablet
hybrid also has a great aluminium chassis and will have LTE connectivity on board, it is also reported that the T300 Chi will be using the latest Intel Core processors and will support up to 4GB RAM.

Given with such a thin profile, we might be looking at a Intel Broadwell chipset inside the T300 Chi as there doesn’t seem to have a cooling vent on the
tablet
 itself. Pricing and availability is not mentioned but when we see 5th Gen Intel processors coming out, thats when the T300 Chi will make its debut.


COMPUTEX 2014: GAMDIAS announces its most powerful gaming peripherals

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GAMDIAS, a Taiwanese company that manufactures gaming peripherals is ready to take on its rivals with the most powerful gaming peripherals that it has ever released this year in COMPUTEX 2014. A little bit on insight, the company and products are founded and created by gamers.

This year, GAMDIAS has launched 8 new high end products which includes the EREOBOS Laser/Optical gaming mouse, the OUREA Laser/Optical gaming mouse, the ARES/ARES Essential gaming keyboards, and the EROS V2 and HEBE V2 gaming headsets.

GMS5510-OUREA Mouse

The GMS5510-OUREA mouse has a weight tuning system with four 5g mini weights at the bottom as well as an ambidextrous design. The GMS7510-EREBOS mouse has the same features plus 3 sets of Ray-like magnetic interchangeable side panels for more ergonomic usage.

GKB6010-ARES Keyboard

The GKB6010-ARES keyboard features Multi-color pulsating lighting modes. It also has a magnetic wrist rest providing comfort for prolonged gaming doubled as dust cover. Plus, the WASD and arrow keys exchange design meets the needs for the left-handed or right-handed users.

GHS3200u-EROS and GHS3300-HEBE V2 Headset

The GHS3200u-EROS V2 (USB) headset features simulated 7.1 thrilling surround sound with 50mm gaming-class drivers. It is lightweight with asupport suspension headband. There is also a steel gooseneck microphone that can be bent in any directions for personalized usage.

The GHS3300-HEBE V2 (3.5mm) headset is compatible with the
Sony
 PS4.Level up with 50mm gaming-class drivers that provide upgraded transparent sound quality with balanced bass and trebles. There are 2 types of connectors that can be used on smart devices or computers for wider applications.

GAMDIAS will be coming to Malaysia really soon, so stay tuned while we get some gaming peripherals for review from them!


COMPUTEX 2014: GIGABYTE introduces world’s most powerful VGA cooling solutions

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COMPUTEX 2014 is coming up in June and Gigabyte, the Taiwanese manufacturer that focuses on making great PC and
tablet
gaming stuffs has introduced the world’s most power VGA cooling solutions for your GPU’s overclocking needs. Gamers, find yourselves salivating at the WINDFORCE Air Cooling System 600W edition and WATERFORCE All-In-One External Liquid Cooling System with 3 GeForce GTX780 Ti cards!

WINDFORCE Air Cooling System 600W Edition

Equipped with GIGABYTE’s patented “Triangle Cooling Technology”, the company has also redesigned the fans and the fins of the cooling system and using the high-performance composite cooper heat pipes for new WINDFORCE. The heat dissipation performance is enhanced up to 33% than the reference card.

The best air-cooling system ever – WINDFORCE 600W

GIGABYTE understands that a fan is crucial to the graphics card, so only the fan with the most efficiency is selected for WINDFORCE. Therefore, GIGABYTE constantly evolving the WINDFORCE to provide the latest and the best cooling solution to gamers. The latest WINDFORCE 600W with excusive cooling technology can signifcantly disspate up to 600W heat.

Patented “Triangle Cool” technology enhances 35% cooling performance
Features with the patented “Triangle Cool” technology, WINDFORCE 600W can bring away the heat easily from GPU. The cooling performance is 35% better than the regular fin designs.

Unique fan design increases 23% CFM
The whole new fan design with special 3D stripe curve can split the air flow, reduce the calm zone and increase the cooling performance. The air flow is amazingly increased up to 23%!

Special fin architecture augments 45% heat dissipation area
GIGABYTE also designs WINDFORCE 600W with a special fin architecture. The height differentiation design increases more than 45% heat dissipation area for better cooling capacity and significantly reduce the air resistance.

Composite heat-pipes increases 29% cooling capacity
The cooling system is supplemented by the composite heat-pipes, a heat-transfer device combines both thermal conductivity and phase transition for efficiently managing the transfer of heat between two solid interfaces which increases 29% of cooling capacity.

With only 2-slot height heat sink, the compact WINDFORCE 600W increases more than 33% thermal performance. It is not only the most powerful air-cooling system, but the best choice for a ultimate gaming experience.

WATERFORCE All-In-One External Liquid Cooling System

WATERFORCE
is specially designed for the gamers who dream about a silent and powerful super PC. With the exclusive 3-way SLI closed loop liquid cooling system, it can dissipate the heat of GPU, memory and MOSFET. The WATERFORCE intuitive control panel can let gamers to check the performance of the 3 graphics cards from the panel and separately adjust the temperature, fan speed and pump speed for uniform temperature of the cards.

42.9% lower temperature and 13.1dB lower noise than reference cooler
Comparing with 3-way SLI reference cooler, the cooling solution by WATERFORCE presents 42.9% lower temperature and 13.1 dB lower noises!

No more noise nightmare or harass of uneven temperatures while using multi graphics cards. No more try & error liquid cooling system DIY. With the world’s 1
st
 3 way SLI water cooling solution, WATERFORCE, gamers can easily install and enjoy the battles!

Pricing of these two amazing cooling devices are yet to be revealed by officials, but don’t expect them to be cheap, they look really good in pictures though.


COMPUTEX 2014: PAPAGO! announces innovative GoSafe 200 & 260 Drving Recorders

307

While in-car recorders a.k.a dash cams are still pretty new over here, PAPAGO! isn’t stopping its innovation with boring looking squarish driving recorders. The company has announced two new really attractive models – the GoSafe 200 & GoSafe 260 at COMPUTEX 2014 in Taipei.

PAPAGO! GoSafe 200

The GoSafe 200 has an ergonomic design that clips on the back of the car’s
rearview mirror
 and allows for the driver to use or hide-away the 2” LCD screen so you will not break any placement laws and avoid getting distracted while driving.

It also features a mini-compact design and a lens that captures a wide angle of 140° which records videos in Full HD 1080p resolution. With the slide out display design, you can simply close it with a snap so you will not be distracted by the display while driving.

PAPAGO! GoSafe 260

This is probably the most innovative and interesting one, the GoSafe 260 simply replaces your car’s rear view mirror while having a 2.7” LCD display embedded on it. The mirror is also an anti-glare type that helps the driver avoid super bright flash lights from cars behind, you won’t need to worry about those fast cars then. The GoSafe 260 captures video in Full HD 1080p resolution as well.

Pricing and Availability

We expect the GoSafe 200 and GoSafe 260 to be sold here really soon as the US will start selling on June 6, expect prices to be around RM500-RM800 for these devices.


COMPUTEX 2014: WD introduces the first PCI Express Hard Drives

280

If you’re still rocking a small capacity SSD and wished that they will be priced cheaper, check out the all new PCI Express hard drive from Western Digital, which has a whole new SATA Express interface that provides a roadmap for faster speeds, lower power consumption and increased flexibility for future OEM designs.

By moving to PCI Express, the industry marries the world’s most popular storage bus with the world’s most popular computer bus. This union provides a solid growth path to innovate new capability, while preserving the ability to plug legacy SATA drives into new SATA Express based computers. In another innovation, SATA Express allows cable connections with lower costs, by removing the PCI Express Sync line via SRIS (Separate RefClock with Independent SSC), which lowers the overall cable cost.

Pricing and availability of these new PCI Express hard drives from Western Digital are yet to be revealed officially.


COMPUTEX 2016: Acer announces Switch V 10 and Switch One 10 2-in-1 notebooks

338

Acer’s Switch series notebooks gets two new models as the company has announced the Switch V10 and Switch One 10 in COMPUTEX, designed for students and budget-conscious family, these 2-in-1 notebooks sports metal covers and can be detached from their keyboard docks while sporting four form factors – notebook, pad, tent and display.

The Switch V 10 tablet device has a range of striking colours, namely Pearl White, Shale Black, Coral Red, Peacock Blue and Navy Blue, available in 32GB and 64GB storage configurations, it has a built-in fingerprint scanner for Windows Hello, dual band MIMO 802.11ac wireless for fast wireless connections and an antimicrobial corning gorilla glass, the slim keyboard dock will offer additional 500GB of storage and two USB Type-A ports should you require expandability, which makes it a rather flexible device. The Switch One 10 will do without the fingerprint scanner while it continues to offer the same form factor application as the Switch V 10.

Acer’s new Switch series notebooks will be powered by Intel’s Atom ‘Cherry-Trail’ processor and comes preloaded with Windows 10 onboard, the Switch V 10 will go on sale in North America at Q3 this year starting at $249, the Switch One 10 will be available in July onwards and retails from $199.

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COMPUTEX 2016: AMD opts for an affordable graphics option with the USD 199 RX 480

286

AMD must have had a hell of a time for the past few weeks as everyone was raving about Nvidia’s GTX 1070s and 1080s. Today at COMPUTEX, AMD is fighting back, and they’re offering a decently powerful graphics card with a boatload of value. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the RX 480.

Based on the Polaris-10, the RX 480 will come with 36 Compute Units, more that 5 teraflops of computiing power and a memory size of either 4GB of GDDR5 or 8GB of GDDR5. However, the dealmaker has to be its pricing. AMD has announced that the RX 480 will retail for just USD 199 (RM 820), which is a significant price difference when you compare it to the GTX 1070 that retails for USD 380 (RM 1,568). One thing to note though is that the RX 480 might be split into two versions: the 4GB variant, and the 8GB variant. While the 4GB variant will indeed retail for USD 199, rumours are going around that the 8GB variant will have an estimated retail price of USD 250 (RM 1,032).

In terms of raw horsepower, the RX 480 loses out to both the GTX 1070 and the GTX 1080. However, considering the price difference between both cards, it’s probably expected. On stage, AMD did demonstrate that two RX 480 units in Crossfire setup is able to beat the GTX 1080 when running Ashes of Singularity. The RX 480s managed to run the game at 62.5 FPS while running at 50% computing capacity while the GTX 1080 runs the game at 58.7 FPS at near maximum computing capacity. While the live demo on stage is promising, it’s probably best to wait for third-party benchmarks before we jump on the RX 480 bandwagon.

One of the reasons that AMD will be selling the RX 480 at a low price point is that the company hopes that it would lower the barrier of entry for VR gaming. AMD has proudly boasted that this card is the first graphics card under USD 500 that is able to be deemed VR-ready.

As for the availability of the card, the RX 480 is expected to be available on the 29th of June.

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COMPUTEX 2016: AMD reveals the 'Bristol Ridge' APUs

253

Graphics cards aren’t the only thing that AMD showcased at their press conference in COMPUTEX of course. The company has also revealed its 7th generation processors today.

Codenamed Bristol Ridge, AMD has stated that the high-end FX chips are will be 56% faster than the previous generation laptop processors, while the entry-level chips are 52% faster than the previous generations’. According to the slides show on stage, it seems that the 7th Gen AMD FX chip offers 53% faster graphics and a 51% bump in compute performance when measured alongside Intel’s fastest Core i7 mobile chip.

Power efficiency has also been improved upon by AMD as the company claims that the FX chips use 12% less power than the previous generation. For the lower end chips, AMD has implemented “Excavator” cores to the A9, A6 and E2 processors, making them much more energy efficient while providing them with a performance increase as well.

AMD is still keeping mum as to the prices of the chips, but the company has stated that its partners such as Dell, HP, Asus and Lenovo are already utilising the chips in their new systems.

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COMPUTEX 2016: AMD teases the 'Summit Ridge' processor

369

Rounding up the press conference at COMPUTEX, AMD has decided to tease us all with the presence of the Zen processor.

First reported to be taped out in January, the ‘Summit Ridge’ CPU that was shown off at the press conference is an 8-core, 16 thread Zen-based CPU that will be utilising AMD’s new AM4 socket, the same socket that the Bristol Ridge will be using.

Details on Summit Ridge and Zen are scarce, but what AMD did reveal shows that the chip will deliver 40% more Instructions per Cycle (IPC). While the chip itself won’t be going into the commercial market quite yet, AMD has stated that it will be passing along some engineering samples to the company’s ‘top tier, high profile customers’ within the coming weeks. A wider sampling to their OEM base is expected to take place in the third quarter of the year.

As for the future of Zen, AMD has stated that Zen will be the basis of a range of products for AMD such as desktop CPUs as well as its 8th generation APU. Server products and embedded products will also be receiving Zen further down the line.

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COMPUTEX 2016: AOC debuts AGON gaming brand

316

Taiwan-based monitor manufacturer AOC is officially stepping into the gaming scene as the company officially reveals its new gaming brand. AGON.

According to AOC, the name AGON represents the company’s commitment to the PC gaming segment and the spirit of competitive gaming. AGON is an ancient Greek word which refers to “a struggle or contest”. The name is also intended to be an acrostic that represents AOC’s vision for AGON. Said acrostic is:

A
OC to lead the way in gaming monitor development

G
aming enhanced by the latest technology

O
utstanding performance for a competitive edge

N
ew standard of gaming for users to enjoy

In terms of hardware, AGON displayss will be available in QHD or 4K resolution. The screen will feature AOC Flicker Free and Low Blue Light technology for added eye protection.  It will also be packed with the latest in high-performance gaming technology. Features such as Adaptive-Sync, G-Sync and 144Hz refresh will be present on the monitors itself. Finally, unique gaming optimization features such as AOC Game mode will allow players to conveniently shift through game modes (e.g. FPS, RTS etc.) via an AOC-developed remote control.

AGON will be launching its first five monitors under the brand soon. These monitors are the AG271QX, AG271QG, AG322FCX, G2460PF, and G2460VQ6. All these monitors are expected to be available in the Asia Pacific region soon through AOC partners.

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COMPUTEX 2016: Apacer unveils the AS720 dual interface SSD, new mobile storage solutions and rugged external hard drive

468

In COMPUTEX 2016, Apacer has officially unveiled the world’s first dual-interface SSD, the AS720 can be used with either a SATAIII port or a USB 3.1 Type-C port, providing users convenience should they require fast access to their games and applications should they need to switch between computers. With a decent 540MB/s read and 450MB/s write speed, the SSD is made for an extreme gaming experience while the 30G anti-vibration and 3000G anti-shock features will protect the device from any accidental bumps, it is available in storage options of 120GB and 240GB.

As working on mobile devices is becoming common, Apacer has also announced a series of mobile storage devices with dual interfaces as well, this includes the AH190 Lightning flash drive that expand’s your iOS device’s storage, the AH180 USB 3.1 Type-C Dual Flash Drive that lets you transfer and access files on devices with USB Type-C port, the AP350 USB 3.1 Type-C Hub and A611 Type-C OTG adapter for connecting other devices such as keyboard, mices, external hard drives and more. In addition, the company has also announced its new microSDXC UHS-I U1 Class 10 memory card series that will have storage capacities up to 256GB with a 85MB/s read speed for demanding mobile applications.

Going rough at times? Apacer’s AC531 is a military-grade rugged hard drive and is IP68-certified water and dust resistant, throw it all over and even step on it if you want, because the chassis are made to endure up to 600kg of pressure. Apacer’s new products will be available in the market by the end of June, so do check with your local IT retailers if you are interested in them. In case you missed it, we have also performed a review on Apacer’s AS720 SSD, watch the video down below.

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COMPUTEX 2016: ARM preps new VR-ready graphics chips for smartphones

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Virtual Reality is just limited to the full-sized computers and Samsung’s Gear VR and Google’s Daydream initiative proves that VR will be making a grand entry into the world of smartphones as well. Chip maker ARM realises the potential of VR on a smartphone and they are preparing themselves with their new batch of mobile processors.

The items in question are the new Cortex-A73 chip and the Mali-G71 GPU, both of which are faster than the current chips. For those who like numbers, the Cortex-A73 is 30% faster and more power efficient than the A72 chip, a feat that can be attributed to the chip’s 10nm FinFET design. According to ARM, the A73 is able to sustain peak performance speeds far more than its previous chips, all while having the smallest footprint out of all of its processors.

As for the Mali-G71, the chip will be 50% faster and 20% more energy efficient than ARM’s recent GPUs. The chip itself is built on ARM’s new Bifrost architecture, which allows it to spit out graphics with a latency of 4ms. The G71 will have 32 shader cores, twice as many as the Mali-T880.

Right now, ARM has revealed that the new chip designs have been licensed to companies such as Mediatek, Marvell and HiSilicon. That said, seeing as the chips are still in its early stages, do not expect any of them to be featured in phones until early next year.

Source:
Engadget

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COMPUTEX 2016: Asus debuts the Zenbo robot assistant

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Out of all the things that Asus could announce at their press event in COMPUTEX, probably no one was expecting the company to reveal a robot. Well, they did, as Asus revealed a robotic personal assistant that goes by the name of Zenbo.

As a robotic personal assistant, think of Zenbo as Asus’s own version of Siri/Cortana, but in the form of a robot. Much like those other personal assistants, Zenbo is able to look up recipes, set up reminders, do some online shopping, and even contact your family when an emergency happens. Asus has also programmed the robot with emotions, making Zenbo quite possibly the cutest digital personal assistant available today.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Zenbo is that it is capable of connecting to your smart home devices, thereby making it work like a hub of sorts. With that capability, you can order Zenbo to turn on the lights or look through your house’s security cameras.

Zenbo isn’t just strictly a utility-device though as Asus claims that the robot is capable of providing entertainment as well. One of the entertainment feature is that Zenbo is able to tell stories from its built-in library.

Of course, Asus did note that Zenbo is currently in its infancy, but the company plans to introduce features such as spoken reminders. Asus will also be launching a Zenbo developer program, giving those interested access to the robot’s SDK. Whatever the case, Zenbo is quite possibly the most interesting thing that Asus has up its sleeves so far, and we can’t wait to see what this little thing is capable of.

The Zenbo will have a retail price of USD 599 (RM 2,466).

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COMPUTEX 2016: Asus reveals the ZenBook 3

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Asus did not neglect its own ultrabooks as the ZenBooks were present at the company’s pre-COMPUTEX press conference. Today, Asus debuted the ZenBook 3, and it is a little package that packs a ton of potential.

As always, the ZenBook 3 retains its small shape. With a thickness of just 11.9mm and weighing in at just 910g, the ZenBook 3 is both thinner and lighter than the MacBook Air. Despite its small size, the ZenBook 3 manages to stuff in a 12.5″ display, all by minimizing the amount of bezel located around the screen. Said screen is also protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 4 panel, giving the ZenBook 3 some durability.

For components, the ZenBook 3 is an ultrabook that comes with an Intel Core i7 processor, and 16GB of LPDDR3 RAM. For storage, the ZenBook 3 comes with either a 1TB PCIe SSD, or a 512GB PCIe SSD. Battery life on the ZenBook 3 is nothing to sneeze at either as it comes with a 40Wh battery that lasts up to 9 hours. If that isn’t enough, the ZenBook 3 comes with fast charging technology that can charge the battery to 60% capacity in just 49 minutes. Much like the Transformer 2-in-1s, the ZenBook 3 comes with a fingerprint scanner for Windows Hello purposes.

Interested? The 1TB variant of the ZenBook 3 will retail for USD 1,999, while the 512GB variant will retail for USD 1,499.

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