Webe now offers its unlimited plan with no tiered discounts at RM79/month

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If you have read my
review of Webe
 back then, I didn’t like the fact that the telco requires you to be an existing TM/P1 customer and use a webe-certified smartphone in order to enjoy its stated RM79/month fee. It seems that webe is finally eliminating this requirement, as of today, all new and existing subscribers of webe’s unlimited plan will no longer need to fulfill the mentioned requirement and only required to pay RM79/month, that’s a rather commendable move by webe and it should give the competition a run for what it is offering.

Despite of this, tethering is still not included as part of the package and users will still be required to subscribe to a tethering plan, which will cost RM6 (excluding GST) for 2 hours, though there is a way to bypass that if you own an Android device, it is still a trade off for some users who wants to tether their data connection to other device. In addition, I’ve also noted back in my review that webe’s LTE speed has been capped at 10Mbps, hence this isn’t a data plan meant for speedy downloads.

If you can live with the compromises, then good, head on over to
www.webe.com.my
 to find out more about the telco’s offering.

telco
webe


Webe is offering a new way to make purchases on the Play Store

362

Webe has yet again come out with another announcement for a new product that they are offering catered particularly towards gamers called Direct Carrier Billing(DCB). This new service will help gamers to purchase online games or in-app purchases from Google Play by adding the purchase to their monthly phone bill, eliminating the use of credit cards. In addition, customers can use this service to also purchase video content, magazine subscriptions, books and other apps through this service.

With the increasing number of people playing mobile games such as Mobile Legends, the online gaming community has been benefiting from webe’s unlimited data plans to play games anytime, with the inclusion of the DCB it will give them more flexibility on how they play and fund their passion. Nazeem Nasir, Chief Marketing Officer of webe has stated that they are giving alternatives to members that do not want to share their credit card details with third parties and with the lack of support from banks to purchase game related products, this would make the perfect solution for these members.

Here’s how webe members can enjoy the DCB service:

webe members can easily activate DCB on their Android handphones by adding ‘use webe billing’ in the payment methods of their Google Play account menu.

Once the activation is complete, it takes only a simple click on the ‘Buy’ button on their favourite Google Play game, in app purchase or content; select ‘bill my webe account’; and provide their Google account password to confirm the purchase.

Get Gaming!

From now on, webe members can purchase mobile games, videos, movies, books, magazine subscriptions and other digital content from the Play Store with this new feature.

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Webe Postpaid Plans priced below RM 85 per month with unlimited data

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With reports going around that a handful of UniFi, Streamyx and P1 customers have received their invite to subscribe to Webe, it was only a matter of time until the pricing for the upcoming postpaid service was revealed. Today, a report from local tech site
Lowyat.Net
 reveals that those who were invited to subscribe to Webe in its current stages are able to enjoy unlimited data for below RM 85 per month.

Judging from the Lowyat report, it seems that the Webe postpaid plan will come with a monthly commitment of RM 210.94. However, UniFi, Streamyx and P1 Users will be treated to an RM 63.30 discount. Furthermore, if your phone supports the LTE 850MHz band, customers will be further entitled to an additional RM 63.30 discount. After subtracting the monthly commitment with the discounts given, the Webe postpaid plan can be priced as low as RM 83.74 per month. That said, the first payment will be slightly more expensive as an additional upfront payment of RM 106 is required to get on Webe’s postpaid plan.

So what do you get for RM 83.74? Besides the unlimited data, Webe postpaid plan subscribers will also receive unlimited SMS and RM 500 worth of voice calls per month. Subscribers will also need to obtain a Personal Wi-Fi Pass from Webe’s website which costs RM 6.36 per two hours should they wish to share their data with other people via tethering.

In the meantime, those who are selected for the Webe postpaid plan are able to register themselves though the Webe online store or at Webe Lounges located at Sunway Pyramid, Queensbay Mall at Pulau Pinang, and Komtar at Johor Bharu.

Source:
Lowyat.Net

data
postpaidplan
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Webe Review: Compromising Speed and Convenience for a Unlimited Service

947

2016 has been an interesting year for the Malaysian telco industry, we started paying lower prices for more data, and more recently all telcos have begin to offer dedicated streaming data, which we really need to commend U Mobile for making this happen. Apart from these events, two new players have emerged this year and while they are not technically new in the telco industry, they both happen to revamp their services to adapt to the growing trend of LTE networks, Yes 4G and webe (formerly known as P1 Networks) are the new contenders in the Malaysian telco industry, these telcos were formerly one of the leaders in offering high speed broadband when WiMAX was still a thing back then, which unfortunately the technology didn’t live up its hype due to the lack of devices and complications of implementing it.

In this case, Yes 4G built an all 4G IP based network and offered VoLTE for voice calls, while webe went for a more traditional approach by utilising its parent company TM’s existing infrastructure and offered unlimited data, calls and text on one single plan. Now, it would seem that the latter would have something really attractive to offer up its sleeve, but it certainly comes with compromises, which is the reason that you are reading this review before you make your decision to port or sign up a new line with webe.

Webe vs Yes 4G

I can’t help writing this section simply because the introduction of this article already feels a lot like a comparison, but I’ll certainly make it short and simple to cover some general comparisons.

Monthly Commitment and Plans

Webe has been really proud of boasting its RM79/month plan with unlimited calls, data and text, but once you check out the * sign on its price, it is in fact one of the most expensive mobile plans if you are not using a webe certified phone and an existing P1/TM customer, as for the former if you happen to be using a common Galaxy smartphone or iPhone, you’ll most likely be able to use the service without any issues while enjoying a RM60 rebate.

Otherwise, you would receive an SMS like this and it isn’t really friendly at all. (Note: This is a OnePlus 3)

Yes 4G on the other hand provides both prepaid and postpaid options, its most affordable postpaid plan starts from RM48/month and you get access to the company’s existing WiMAX network as well, so that’s a better deal when compared to webe’s requirements. However, you will need to have a VoLTE capable device when using the company’s network, but unlike webe’s no-rebate policy, the network will not connect if you slot the SIM into a non VoLTE device, Yes 4G has been a little vague about its phone support and hasn’t even started supporting iPhones, despite being available since the iPhone 6.

Network Support

As mentioned, webe uses its parent company TM’s current base stations to provide its services, it falls back to 3G and 2G networks when 4G isn’t available, you are also able to use it in most 4G smartphones if you are not troubled by the webe certified phone rebate.

Just like how U Mobile started its early days in the market, Yes 4G built its network on the most recent wireless technology and they were pretty forward thinking in doing that, the telco even claimed that it has coverage over 85% of the peninsular, unfortunately when it come to remote places and indoors with limited coverage, there’s no legacy network to fall back on and the telco doesn’t even have Wi-Fi calling to back the network. It can be disappointing in the beginning stages, but it has already become a deal breaker for some thinking to consider using the telco’s network as a daily driver.

Webe – the no strings attached telco experience reviewed

I was provided a webe SIM for review prior to the launch and have been actively using the service for three weeks to conclude this review. The SIM’s packaging is simple and straightforward, you get a piece of simple instruction to guide you on setting up webe’s access point on your phone, the provided SIM card comes in three sizes on a single piece of adapter so there is no SIM cutting necessary.

During the review period, I’ve been travelling most of the time around Petaling Jaya and have visited major malls around the area, webe’s network fortunately stays up well in most locations I visited, LTE signals have been mostly consistent and as expected, the network falls back to 3G or 2G signals when I am deep inside the mall, such as going into cinema halls or sitting deep inside a restaurant, despite of that webe’s data connection is surprisingly workable in most cases, while at this point of time I assume their network hasn’t been loaded, which is why I was still able to send an image through WhatsApp over an EDGE connection without failure.

Speed tests performed throughout Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur.

Even though I was connected to webe’s LTE network most of the time, actual speed tests performed using Ookla’s
Speedtest.net
 app suggests that the telco has capped its maximum speeds, I recorded 5 Mbps of download speed most of the time and to my surprise, webe’s HSPA+ signal delivers faster speeds at times than you are on LTE. Thankfully, the capped data transfer speeds streams YouTube videos well without any buffers, VoIP calls and Facebook Live will work great if you are in a good coverage area.

Webe does have one huge limitation when it comes to it data services, as you will need to subscribe to a data tethering package that costs RM6.36/2 hours (GST included) in order to share your phone’s data connection to other devices, which I find it rather inconvenient and absurd if the telco considers this to be a ‘Fair Usage Policy’. However, if you are using an Android smartphone, you can actually get away with it by using an app called Clockworkmod Tether, which enables your PC and Mac to share your phone’s connection using the Tunneling network methodology to avoid the telco’s detection, unfortunately I find it to be rather unreliable at times and I don’t recommend this if you are doing serious work.

Rather than charging an hourly rate for tethering, I would really hope that webe consider having monthly tethering plans for this, which I would gladly sign up if available.

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Webe will be rebranded to Unifi, last chance to sign up for Webe’s RM79 plan

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Webe has been one of the more interesting telcos to come out of our country, offering customers RM79 per-month for unlimited data, calls, and SMS which has managed to bring in a lot of customers to be part of their service. For those of you that don’t know, Webe is actually a company under TM and on 16 September Webe will be rebranded to Unifi.

Eventually, in the next coming days, Webe customers will realize their telco name on the top left or right of their phone will have a name change to Unifi. However, TM and Webe has mentioned that there is nothing to worry as customers under Webe will maintain their plans and would not have to do any changes with their SIM cards or phone, as this is a service side change.

However, if you are looking to be a Webe customer, the FAQ section has mentioned that there will be a last call to become a Webe member from 16 September onwards. Those of you that want to make the change will have to do so very soon in order to enjoy the RM79 plan. They did not mention what will be the plans after that but at the current price, getting unlimited data, calls, and SMS is already a very good deal that you should take advantage of.

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WeChat Malaysia rewards users with WeReward campaign

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In these days when the cost of living is increasing at a shocking pace with the upcoming GST, WeChat Malaysia has decided to reward users by announcing its WeReward campaign that lets Malaysian users redeem deals and coupons by just making voice calls in the app and earn WeChat points.

The period of this campaign will run from 25 March 2015 – 25 April 2015 and users will be able to redeem deals from Huawei, Chatime, GrabTaxi, mCash and Zalora. With every 60 seconds in voice calls, users will be entitled to 3 points so the longer you chat, the more WeChat points will be rewarded and we think most of you chat heads should be able to get lots of them.

The available deals that users can redeem are as below:

Huawei

Power bank: Get 1 unit of Ultra-Thin Power-Bank (4,800mAh) (any color) with every Honor 6 purchase. (50,000 units)
RM30 Cash voucher: Enjoy RM30 rebate with any purchase of Honor devices (not including accessories) at Vmall.my. (300,000 vouchers)

Chatime

Purchase any Chatime Cendol-Latea at 15% discount. (Unlimited)

MCash

Receive a 10% discount code to purchase
mobile phone
, PC accessories, anime merchandise, toys or fashion items! (Unlimited)

Grabtaxi

Receive a promo code to get RM10 off your next 3 MyTeksi rides. (Unlimited)

Zalora

Enjoy RM50 off storewide with a minimum spend of RM75. (200,000 vouchers)

Pretty cool deals right? Start voice calling your friends on WeChat now and you will be able to redeem them, I’m particularly interested in Huawei’s deal though.


WeChat Pay given a green light to expand reach to more merchants – including mamak stalls

400

Regardless of what your thoughts on multi-billion Dollar company Tencent are, you can’t deny that their chatting app WeChat is as popular as they come – with hundreds of millions of users world-wide, it’s also a go-to e-wallet app for many, even in Malaysia.

Despite this, WeChat aren’t resting on their laurels – the brands Malaysian wing have announced plans to expand its merchant base to widen the support of their e-wallet service WeChat Pay.

Brands such as Starbucks, Dome, Tealive, Petron, KK Mart and more are anchor merchants for the service, and WeChat aims to expand it to even
mamak
outlets – that, we like. Currently, Syed Bistro will be the first mamak eatery to support WeChat Pay

WeChat mentions that they also plan to involve smaller businesses into its list of partner merchants.

This comes after Razer’s move to bolster its Razer Pay presence in the country with its new HQ, and Maybank’s introduction of their own e-wallet, MAE. It’s safe to say Malaysia are moving closer to a digitized consumer finance climate and it’ll be interesting to see if we can adopt this change.

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We’re being awarded USD850,000! – Identifying a scam e-mail that we received

522

On the very rare occasion, we get scam e-mails like this – and it’s been some time since we’ve seen one and we find it amusing. So we’re sharing with you how a scam e-mail looks like and to tell you to ABSOLUTELY NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS from the mail.

This person, by the name of Emiliano Mahut e-mailed us yesterday, graciously notifying us that we’re benefactors to USD850,000 due to be issued by the European Payments Council (EPC). It says that we’ve won an award and that’s the prize – WHAT AWARD EMILIANO?! Plus, why is the e-mail sent as a calendar event? Is this a party Emiliano – do we bring our own booze?

Also, you’d think being an employee of the European Payments Council, Emiliano would have an e-mail address with his company’s domain – but
nah
, apparently these guys use Gmail.

Also being an employee of the European Payments Council, you’d think Emiliano here would know how to spell the name of the organization he’s working for – notice he’s grossly failed to title case the words “payment” and “council” – for shame Emiliano.

He then proceeds to not address us with a proper name, but instead just greet us with a neighbourly “Good Day” – well, good day to you my dude! He mentions that the council had sent a physical e-mail, which we did not receive; this is just an attempt at appearing formal – like a government body SOP of sending physical letters.

Emiliano then says that the money is loaded onto a debit card for us to collect and withdraw from – how convenient! We’re not sure how massive sums of cash get transferred to people, but we’re sure it’s not via a debit card.

And then of course to collect our moolah, we’ll have to contact another person who also happens to use a Gmail domain. He’s the Regional Zonal Coordinator – regional and zonal are redundant, they mean the same thing.

Emiliano then signs off with his designation as being from the Payments Committee of the European Commission – where are you from Emiliano – the European Payments Commission or the European Commission? Although they do work closely with each other, they’re both separate entities. Why would someone from the EC send an email on behalf of the EPC?

By now, I hope you, the person reading this, sees the signs of a scam mail – and we urge you to not fall for anyone saying they have money to give you. Visit the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commissions
website
 to learn more about online phishing.

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email
European commission
european payments council
gmail
scam


We’re keeping our eyes peeled too #MoreLumia

258

Microsoft
Lumia
 uploaded this video to YouTube approximately 12 hours ago.

And could this be the highly anticipated Microsoft
Lumia
 device?

Stay tuned!

#MoreLumia

Source(s):
TechnoFun


319

TechNode wrote about
why WeChat blocks competitors, while Facebook doesn’t
.

“Chinese and Western companies tend to have a dramatically different approach to expansion. In a few words: Western companies build products, while Chinese companies build ecosystems.”

“Nowhere is this trend more obvious than in the investment pattern of Chinese and Western companies. Chinese companies tend to be much more active early-stage investors into booming companies.”

“The purpose of these investments is to build a system of allegiance to the group. After receiving investment, the company will have to integrate with the ecosystem of the group and reject the competing ecosystem.”

“As a consequence, Pinduoduo heavily integrates with WeChat and offers WeChat Pay as a recommended payment method, while JD.com doesn’t support Alipay at all. Both companies, of course, received investment from Tencent.”

This trend of joining an existing ecosystem is prevalent in many industries in China. Franchising is common not only in the food and beverages industry, but also in retail stores, hospitality outlets, convenience stores, and even logistics.

Many small business owners become franchisees to leverage on the brand reputation, expertise, market knowledge, and network they gain. They receive training, market analysis, and even the equipment to offer products and service at a better level than if they started out on their own. They also get to bring in a larger range of products at a lower price.

This is a big difference from Western companies that rely on acquisitions to gain new technology or human resources.

The franchise benefits by expanding faster than if they were to set up their own stores in every part of each city in the country. Convenience stores appear every other street in each town in a city. It would require a large investment and effort to accomplish this if they expanded on their own. Taking up franchises allow them to sweep through the region, often utilising existing store spaces and staff.

Likewise, it makes more sense for the large companies to create an ecosystem. They don’t need to risk entering a new market, yet they can tap on the existing user base of their allies.

This is a big difference from Western companies that rely on acquisitions to gain new technology or human resources.

These acquisitions can be major operations aimed at overtaking superstar products (such as Facebook acquisition of WhatsApp, Instagram and Oculus Rift or Apple acquisition of Shazam last September).

But more often than not, these acquisitions are technology or acqui-hiring operations aimed at developing existing products, such as the acquisition of Redkix by Facebook in July 2018 (which was merged with Workplace by Facebook) or the purchase of Senosis by Google in September 2018 (which was merged with Nest Lab).

Western companies tend to consolidate their expertise and manpower under a single company. Of course, this isn’t exclusive to the west and acquisition sometimes even happen within an ecosystem. The acquisition and subsequent assimilation of Mobike by Meituan is a good example.

Note : This article was originally published on
BakingPixel
 by
Jenxi Seow
.

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Western Digital 1TB 3D NAND SSD Review: SSD That Every Enterprise Should Have

393

What is your data worth? All those files, pictures, music, videos all must be stored somewhere safe and reliable. Most of us regular Joes opt for a pen drive or maybe one of the many cloud services that are available. However, what if you are running a company and require information or data to be written and read as fast as possible, you probably have no other options other than getting your company an SSD, but some of these drives are still not as fast to transfer and write from and to many computers at the same time and the storage capacities are not good enough for an enterprise. Western Digital has offered a solution and it comes in a form of a unique and extremely well-designed 3D NAND SSD with storage capacity up to 1TB which is the exact device we have reviewed

Before we go into the review, some of you might be wondering, what the difference between a regular SSD and a 3D NAND SSD. Regular SSDs use 2D or planar NAND system, which would be good if you don’t need a lot of space and are happy with the transfer speeds of a regular SSDs. Problems with a 2D NAND SSD is that, if manufacturers were to shrink the flash memory to increase storage size, it would lead to problems like the reliability of the data being intact. 3D NANDs basically have stacks of flash memory which is able to do two things, increase the storage capacity tremendously while maintaining the size of the drive and offer read and write speeds that are much faster than a regular SSD. The only drawback here is the production cost which is significantly higher than normal SSDs, and this 1TB WD 3D NAND SSD will run you about RM2000.

Design

Black: WD 3D NAND SSD

Well, if you have seen an SSD before then this will be very familiar to you as it looks like any regular SSD and includes the same connectors for power and data transfer. As you can see from the photo it is not bigger or smaller than a regular SSD even if it is a 3D NAND, So you don’t have to worry about it taking up space in your build as it would fit into any SSD bay or mount.

Speeds

Now, this is where it gets impressive because this SSD can reach speeds of up to 560mb/s and we have the numbers to prove it to you.

As you can see this is the results of the speeds and we are not blowing it up when we say it is extremely fast, this test was performed three times to ensure that there is no error or miscalculation in the speeds. And this really shows when it comes to real-world use as we were transferring 10GB with a total of 800 files took less than 20 seconds. For those of you that don’t know, if the total size of your transfer is small but consist of many files, it will still slow down the transfer speed as the files still needs to be indexed by the storage device and the system to keep the files intact.

For the sake of being sure about the speeds, a test was done using ATTO which also confirms the Crystal Disk Mark results and shows off the blazing fast speeds that the company has promised.

Software

Western Digital has also released a dashboard that helps to monitor and do certain functions to the SSD. The interface is really simple to use with all the functions that you can perform on the drive easily accessible, the home page shows off graphs that tell you about the storage capacity and there is even a section to tell you the lifespan of the SSD.

I have been transferring and deleting files countless times and it still manages to stay at 100% health. Based on that, it is quite safe to say that the drive will last a very long time before you can even see the percentage drop but everyone will use the drive different so the performance might vary slightly.

Other than that, there is also options to upgrade the firmware of the drive, safely wipe the drive and even the option to make it into a bootable drive if need be. I highly recommend that this software is downloaded regardless if you own a 3D NAND SSD or a regular SSD especially if you are going to be storing sensitive and valuable data.

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Western Digital announces its own 10TB hard drive.

298

Seagate isn’t the only one with a 10TB hard drive as Western Digital announced that it will be releasing a new, high-capacity configuration of up to 10T for its award-winning WD Gold datacenter hard drives.

Designed for modern enterprice storage systems, the WD Gold 10TB comes with HelioSeal helium-technology for high capcity, power efficient storage for datacenter environments. The design of the WD Gold 10TB has also be optimised, resulting in a 8% operating power reduction while delivering 25% more capacity. This improvement helps reduce TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of servers and storage systems.

Before you decide to buy one though, do note that the WD Gold 10TB is a hard drive that is made for datacenters. As such, the hard drive is not what anyone would call ‘affordable.’ If money is no issue for you, you can get the WD Gold 10TB for a cool RM 3,499.

“WD Gold drives are a key component of the overall WD portfolio, providing power efficient, capacity-optimized storage for a wide range of high workload applications. The new 10TB capacity enables customers to efficiently deploy higher density storage solutions,” says Brendan Collins, Vice President of Product Marketing for Western Digital.

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Western Digital announces the WD Ae hard drvies

315

As data centers require more storage space and reliability in hard drive performance, Western Digital has announced its WD Ae™ line of
hard drives
 for data centers. The WD Ae™
hard drives
 utilize the best possible power consumption and a Progressive Capacity ™ model to enable a new tier of storage for large-scale cloud infrastructures.

Attributes of the WD Ae hard drive family includes a dense five-platter platform, which renders an optimal mix of power, performance, capacity and cost; capacities greater than 6 TB; SATA 6 Gb/s interface; and a workload and reliability rating of 60 TB/yr workload and 500 Khrs Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF).

The WD Ae
hard drives
 will be sold in box quantities of 20 and will be available to select distributors starting late 2014, covered by a 3 year limited warranty. For more information, head on to the source link down below.

Source:
Western Digital


Western Digital finalizes acquisition of SanDisk

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Western Digital is about to get a whole lot bigger as the Business Wire is reporting that the Ministry of Commerce of China has approved WD’s acquisition of SanDisk.

News of SanDisk being acquired by Western Digital for USD19 billion first began in October of last year. With all necessary regulatory approvals for the acquisitions having been received, the transaction is expected to close tomorrow. SanDisk stockholders would then approve said transaction at a special meeting of stockholders which will be held on Sunday.

“We are pleased that the final regulatory approval has been received and we can now proceed with the planned combination with Western Digital. We thank our stakeholders for their support of this transaction and look forward to contributing to the success of Western Digital as it transforms into the leading storage solutions company,” says Sanjay Mehrotra, President and Chief Executive Officer of SanDisk.

Once the deals have been signed, Western Digital will acquire SanDisk’s flash memory cards, USB sticks, as well as its SSD market.

Source:
Business Wire

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Western Digital introduces 4TB model to My Passport Ultra and My Passport for Mac

283

If you have been buying multiple portable hard drives for bringing your huge amount of data on the go, WD is going to unload weight off your bag as it has introduced a 4TB model for the My Passport Ultra and My Passport for Mac, which will allow you to carry even more data in a slim and portable device. The My Passport portable hard drives has been well known for its reliability and comes with WD Backup automatic backup software with cloud-ready Dropbox integration and 256-bit AES hardware encryption with password protection to prevent unauthorised access.

The My Passport Ultra 4TB is backed by a 3-year limited warranty and comes with a suggested retail price of RM699, whereas the My Passport for Mac 4TB will be available at a later time with no mention of pricing yet.

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Western Digital introduces a new gaming NVMe SSD

378

Western Digital has introduced a new and powerful Gaming SSD with NVMe performance that is made to maximize the experience for gamers. The Western Digital Black 3D NVMe SSD comes with the company’s own SSD architecture and controller.

WD has said that the drive is able to accelerate data for PC applications, allowing users to quickly access, engage and capture the current high-resolution video audio and gaming content. As gaming is moving into the 4K UHD era, these new SSDs will eliminate storage bottleneck and allow for a smoother transfer of big data sizes. Thanks to all these advancements, it allows for a sequential read of up to 3,400MB/s for 1TB and 500GB models and wite speeds of up to 2,800MB/s for the 1TB model. In addition to that, it also features up to 500,000 random-read IOPs for the 1TB model, making it ideal for data-intensive multitasking environments.

The Western Digital Black 3D NVMe SSD will be available in Malaysia towards the end of July 2018. The 250GB will cost RM449, 500GB at RM799 and 1TB at RM1,599, these drives will be available at selected Western Digital retailers, e-tailers, resellers, system integrators and distributors globally.

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Western Digital introduces two new portable SSD storage for photographers

375

Western Digital Malaysia has introduced durable and high-performance media capture solutions that come in the form of two new portable SSDs. These SSDs are the My Passport Wireless SSD and the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD.

My Passport Wireless SSD

My Passport Wireless SSD is made to preserve photos and videos captured on cameras or drones. It features a one-touch card copy that allows for editing and sharing of content as well as the capability to directly access the drive via third-party mobile creative apps like FiLMiC Pro and LumaFusion.

It also comes with a built-in SD card reader with supports up to 65MB/s read speeds and a one-touch button to backup all your photos from an SD card. The SSD inside is protected from shock, vibrations and drops up to 1 meter.

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD

The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD supports high-speed transfers up to 550MB/s read speeds and has a IP55 certification for water, dust resistant and a solid state core for greater durability.

All of these features are fit into a chassis that fits comfortably in your hand and it works with both PC and Mac computers.

My Passport Wireless SSD comes with a two-year limited warranty and will be available at the end of July. It also comes in different storage sizes, RM1,099 for 250GB, RM1,499 for 500GB, RM2,299 for 1TB and RM3,699 for 2TB. The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD comes with a three-year limited warranty and comes with a retail price of RM529 for 250GB, RM829 for 500GB, RM1,699 for 1TB and RM3,299 for 2TB. Both storage solutions can be purchased at all IT retail outlets and online stores including Lazada, 11street and Shopee.

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Western Digital launches its WD Blue and WD Green consumer level SSDs

361

With SSDs being more commonplace these days, it is a curiosity that Western Digital has yet to release their own for the consumer market. That is no longer the case, as WD has announced that it will be releasing the WD Blue and WD Green SSDs, both of which are meant for personal consumers.

For the WD Blue SSD, Western Digital states that the Solid State Drive will come in both 2.5″/7mm case or M.2 2280 form factors, and will offer up to 545MB/s and 525MB/s sequential read and write speeds, with endurance of up to 400TBW. The WD Blue comes in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB configurations, and has an MSRP that ranges from USD79 to USD299. The WD Blue is now available to select customers worldwide and can be bought from
Western Digital’s own website
.

Alongside the WD Blue is the WD Green SSD. Much like the WD Blue, the WD Green comes in both 2.5″/7mm case or M.2 2280 form factors. However, the WD Green emphasizes ultra-low power-draw, enabling laptop users to work longer between battery charges. As such, it comes with a lower sequential read and write speed of 540MB/s and 405MB/s respectively. The WD Green will be available in 120GB and 240GB configurations, and will be made available to select regions and customers later this quarter.

Source:
Business Wire

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Western Digital launches My Passport Wireless Pro 3TB wireless hard drive

245

I reviewed
Western Digital’s My Passport
 previously and I love how I can easily access my files when I’m on the go without using a computer, the company is now back to introduce a new successor. The WD My Passport Wireless Pro now comes with 3TB of storage capacity and now features a faster SD 3.0 card reader, it offers an all day battery life and will support both Windows and MacOS. For those looking to transfer files wirelessly, WD has also upgraded the hard drive with 802.11ac connection for faster WiFi Direct transfers, the previous model comes with 802.11n connection.

Using the WD My Cloud app, users can easily access and backup files wirelessly to the hard drive, WD has also taken further effort to include Plex in the hard drive software so if you happen to store all of your media files on it, your Plex enabled streaming device will be able to stream them from the hard drive. To celebrate the launch, WD is running a promotion on its
11street official store
, where customers will get to purchase the My Passport Wireless Pro at RM1,099 and get a free Sandisk 16GB Ultra SD card, if you really want the device badly but can’t fork out that amount of cash, 11street allows you to perform a 0% installment of up to 36 months depending on your bank’s credit card.

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Western Digital Malaysia introduces the WD Red and WD Red Pro NAS Hard Disk

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As NAS storage becomes more common and we require more storage to store our files, WD has finally introduced its new WD Red and WD Red Pro NAS
hard drives
 here in Malaysia, the WD Red’s storage option starts from 1TB up to 6TB while the WD Red Pro starts from 2TB up to 4TB. Both hard drives have a
SATA 3 6Gb/s
 interface and 64GB of buffer cache.

The difference between the WD Red and WD Red Pro is obviously performance and power consumption, the WD Red has an IntelliPower rotational speed which is a fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance, it is made for home and SOHO users who uses 1-8 bays NAS. On the other hand, the WD Red Pro is the higher performance model that offers a constant standard desktop hard drive’s performance at 7200RPM and made for demanding users that uses 8-16 bays NAS.

Both the WD Red and WD Red Pro supports WD’s NASWARE 3.0 that offers better protection and reliability while having native built-in RAID support, the WD Red and WD Red Pro are also engineered for challenging environments with hot temperatures.

Interested in getting one? Both the WD Red and WD Red Pro is now available at your favorite PC retailers already so do head over and check them out.


Western Digital My Cloud EX2100 Review: NAS Simplified for the Experts

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I remembered there was a time when our in-house videographer once exclaimed suddenly in the peaceful office, as she isn’t able to access the external Thunderbolt hard drive connected to our video editing Mac Pro, the entire office was devastated as there were many ongoing video projects that is saved on it, thankfully with a couple of system restarts and reinserting the hard drive, the Thunderbolt storage started to worked like a miracle and I finally realize the need to invest into a really good NAS (network attached storage) that could help avoid such disasters, WD has been kind enough to send me its My Cloud EX2100 2-bay NAS a couple of months back, and the device now serves actively as our office’s needy backup storage vault.

Hardware and Built

The My Cloud EX2100 is a solidly made product out of the box, it sports a metal enclosure and looks just like most enterprise grade NAS. In comparison to some other NAS I’ve seen, WD has kept things fairly straightforward with the EX2100, there’s a front USB 3.0 connection which you can either connect an USB storage device or camera and have it copy its content directly into the NAS with a press of a button. I also like the fact that WD has made the access to the hard drives rather straightforward, the latch does requires some amount of strength to lift to pop the hard drive out of the enclosure, and replacing it is easy as positioning it on the tray, no screws or adapters required.

At the back, you find dual Gigabit Ethernet ports which is good for splitting network bandwidth or if you decide to have it used in different networks, there’s also an additional USB 3.0 port if you ever need it to plug in another USB drive to backup your NAS or share the device across the network, there is also a small cooling fan that ventilates heat out of the enclosure, you can’t really go anywhere wrong with the EX2100, the hardware is very straightforward and shouldn’t take up much effort to get familiar with it.

Setup and Software

If you have been using WD’s My Cloud products, you will find the EX2100’s setup no different from it. For starters, it isn’t complicated as well, you will only need to know your EX2100’s IP address otherwise enter
http://wdmycloudex2100
 on a PC browser or
http://wdmycloudex2100.local
 on a Mac, follow the setup instructions and you will be presented with a very informative graphical dashboard. On a side note, I highly recommend that you head on to System settings and upgrade to WD’s latest firmware to ensure stability.

WD’s software is one of the simpler ones when you compare to its competition, its quite a good thing for those who doesn’t want to take some time to learn on it, the main tab shows the features of the NAS and every one of them feels pretty straightforward, setting up shares and user privileges are even simpler than you do on Windows, the NAS can also perform tasks such as remote downloading from a HTTP, FTP or P2P source, and it is pretty much a server as well as you are able to run applications such as WordPress, Plex Media Server, Acronis True Image and many more, since it runs on a Linux core, it is possible that you might be able to install a Linux package application on to the NAS.

The backup features of the WD EX2100 is pretty comprehensive as well, the useful one includes Internal and Cloud backup, which can be used to backup files to another local NAS and two other external cloud services – Amazon S3 and Elephant Drive – respectively.

Similar to the other My Cloud products, the EX2100 allows you to sign up for My Cloud account to be able to access the NAS from anywhere in the world, I’ve tried streaming a 720p movie from the NAS remotely over a 30Mbps download connection and our office’s 22Mbps internet managed to uphold a very smooth playback experience, not to forget to mention that the EX2100 also handles remote uploads pretty well.

As a mid-range NAS, the WD My Cloud EX2100 is undoubtedly a fully featured product that you really can’t find fault with, you don’t need to hire an IT technician to have it up and running in your enterprise, because all it takes is just 10 minutes of your time to fully understand on what this product can actually offer.

Performance

The EX2100 is a pretty high performance NAS for its class, it sports a 1.3 GHz Marvell dual-core processor with 1GB of DDR3 RAM  and it should technically do well for an SME with around 50 staffs accessing the drive simultaneously, while its kind of over powered in the KLGadgetGuy office with 6 users, the EX2100 connected to our office’s ASUS AC87 router was able to deliver an average 103MB/second of write speeds for and 90MB/second of read speeds for a huge file transfer on a Gigabit Ethernet connection, that’s considerably decent if you are thinking to use it as a mini server for hosting a website while being able to handle file transfers.

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Western Digital My Cloud First Look and Unboxing

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The problem about cloud storage services today is that they give very limited storage space to the user and require a premium for additional storage, worse of all, you don’t feel secure having your files saved in a hard drive where you can’t see it on your own and they are exposed to any theft and attacks if the service provider happens to lack security. Today, we received a solution from Western Digital which will be answering all of our worries, introducing the My Cloud Personal Cloud Storage from Western Digital.

Western Digital My Cloud Unboxing Video

Out of The Box

WD’s My Cloud looks like its My Book hard drive in terms of its design and form factor, our review unit here is a 3TB hard drive and comes with a LAN cable, AC adapter with two plug converters and manuals. On first impressions, you can immediately feel that the hard drive isn’t one cheapo hardware and we really love that.

On the back of the My Cloud we find a Gigabit LAN port, USB 3.0 port that lets you connect an external hard drive to share across the network and the power port. The My Cloud also has a few cooling vents around the chassis for dissipating heat off the hard drive.

Upon first start up, users are required to have a WD Cloud account and will have 2.89TB of accessible storage.

Pricing and Availability

The Western Digital My Cloud hard drive is available in storage sizes from 2TB up to 4TB, prices will start from RM499 onwards and you are now able to purchase it at your nearest PC retailer.


Western Digital My Cloud Review

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Whenever we think of using cloud storage services, it is always the fee that we have to pay for it, yet we aren’t able to fully maximize its potential and face the risk of security issues. Therefore, you may start wondering if you could have full visibility on how and where your files are being stored, while being able to access them remotely. Being the expert in storage solutions, Western Digital has the solution to this with its My Cloud personal cloud storage, which storage options start from 2TB up to 4TB.

Western Digital My Cloud Hard Drive Video Review

Western Digital My Cloud Web Configuration Overview

A MyBook Harddrive with Internet Connectivity

If you are a storage junkie, you might already be using WD’s My Book Desktop harddrive, which is obviously missing the function to be able to connect to the Internet. With the My Cloud hard drive, you I’ll be able to have your files up in the cloud all the time as long as you have an internet connection.

The device sports a Gigabit LAN port which will allow great file transfer speeds over a wired connection, you will need to make sure that you have a router next to your
desk
 if you want to have it in sight, because it doesn’t have built-in WiFi.

One plus point over the company’s My Book storage is the additional USB 3.0 port at the back of the device, which will allow you to connect and share additional external hard disks and flash drives over the network.

Apart from being a network connected storage, the device doesn’t do much things, there are some devices out there such as the Apple’s Time Capsule and Xiaomi’s Mi Router, which gives users the ability to double the usage of it by including router features. Knowing that WD is merely an expert in storage, we don’t really blame them for not implementing this but it is certainly a possible solution.

Great hardware that comes with easy to use software

Assuming that you’re buying a device like the My Cloud, you’d probably have some level of knowledge in setting up a device like this, because the My Cloud’s configuration is simply accessible via your web browser just like any network connected devices out there. If you think you still need some guidance, WD’s Setup Wizard is here to help you to set up the essential stuffs which you can download via
WDMyCloud.com
. After everything is done, you’ll see a
storage drive
 popping up in Explorer on Windows and a network share in Finder on Mac.

Now, let’s dive into the web configuration and get our hands dirty. Of course, WD has kept its web configuration software fairly simple, once you’re logged in, you will be presented with a really cool looking dashboard that shows you the status and information of the hard drive, which is very informative and we get to know instantly if there’s an issue with the network or a firmware update is available for us.

User access and folder sharing can be configured easily with just a few clicks and button toggles for permissions, users will also be required to provide a valid e-mail address to create a
WDCloud.com
 account for the hard drive’s cloud access.

The hard drive does come with a few additional features as well, while most likely you could be using the device to store all your media files like music, pictures and videos, the hard drive is able to act as a DLNA or
iTUnes
 Media Server to make sharing your contents over the network easier without your users going deep into your shared folders.

You are also able to create safepoints of the device into a external USB storage or network share to avoid data loss should the device goes out of service, but you need to be very sure that you have a larger hard drive to be able to back all of your files in; Furthermore, the My Cloud does support Time Machine backup for your Mac so this should come in pretty handy given that ample amount of storage being given by WD.

While you are out and on the go, you are able to access the hard drive on both your PC and mobile devices, the WD My Cloud app can be downloaded from the WD support site while the mobile app is available for both Android and iOS devices, the software is merely a file transfer tool and you are able to generate a direct download URL for your files.

Last but not the least, we are really satisfied with the My Cloud’s simple and easy to use web configuration, it is going to work well for home users but for the enterprise users, you may not want to consider this as WD doesn’t offer remote management or an app to remotely manage the hard drive when you’re away from your local network.

Performance and Reliability

We can’t really take screenshots on this as there are no specific tools to test this, our WD My Cloud hard drive is connected to an Apple Airport Express router throughout the review period and running off a 100Mbps Ethernet connection, there are a total of 3 users connected wirelessly to the router and we are all accessing and uploading stuffs to the hard drive concurrently, we are happy to report that we haven’t face any performance issues on file transfers and surfing the web at the same time. Though we have to admit wireless transfers are really slow but our laptops doesn’t support the wider bandwidth 5GHz band, which the Airport Express supports by default.

The reliability of downloading and uploading files remotely to and from the hard drive depends a lot on your Internet connection, for our
case
 in Malaysia, we are using a 5 Mbps fiber optic connection and have achieved optimal speeds most of the time. Of course, you may want to consider investing a higher internet connection speed if you have multiple users accessing the hard drive at the same time.

Verdict – A reliable product but has room for improvements

Western Digital has done well in where the company’s expertise should be, the WD My Cloud is an improved product of the popular and reliable My Book Desktop hard drive which offers users the convenience of accessing their files remotely rather than having it stay on your
desk
 all the time. However, this product could be better if WD can add on router features so that we are able to fully replace our Wireless routers without adding more stuffs to the table, we hope to see that coming in the next version. The Western Digital My Cloud hard drive has storage options from 2TB up to 4TB, which starts at the price of RM499 up to RM799, it is pricey but for the sake of convenience, reliability and security on your files, this price tag is certainly worth burning a hole in your pockets.

The Good

+ Reliable performance

+ Easy to use web configuration

+ Remote access app available for Android and iOS smartphones

+ Compact design

+ Additional USB 3.0 port for sharing external harddrives

+ Time Machine,
iTunes
 and DLNA server

The Bad

– No remote configuration management

– Price isn’t cheap for just an additional feature over the My Book

We rate the Western Digital My Cloud hard drive at 4.5 out of 5 stars.


Western Digital Releases WD Black 6 TB Hard Drive

357

Western Digital is one of the world’s leader in drives storage, today released the expansion of its award-winning WD Black line of performance
hard
drives

up to 6 TB capacity. The 3.5-inch offers 7200 RPM drive can be a perfect solution for gamers and professionals for high-performance desktop systems and workstations. Besides that, it combine 7200 RPM spin speed, 128 MB cache, dual stage actuator technology, SATA 6 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface, and an integrated dual processor to deliver ultimate performance in a maximum-capacity drive.

The new WD Black 6TB is up to 29% faster than the previous WD Black 4TB version in maximum data rate throughput and 10% faster in PCMark Vantage. StableTrac Technology (2 TB and larger models) to secure the motor shaft inside of the hard drive to increase reliability and help reduce impact due to system-included vibrations from other components. It capable of stabilizing the platters inside that have better results in more accurate tracking in a particular sector during read and writing operations.

WD increases the dynamic cache technology to improve caching algorithms in real time to allocate and optimize cache between reads and writes. This improvement will reduce the congestion on cache for read data and increase overall performance. Besides that, it has a dual-core processor that offers twice the processing capability as a single-core processor to maximize drive for faster read and write speeds.

The WD Black Drive is covered by a five-year limited warranty, the WD Black 5 TB drive is priced at USD 264 (approx. RM 1,085), and the WD Black 6 TB drive is priced at USD 294 (approx. RM 1,205).

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Western Digital unveils storage solutions for all kinds of users and a 400GB microSD card

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Western Digital Corporation today has shown off three different products that will cater to the different needs that users have. They unveiled a  microSD card with 400GB of storage, a charger that doubles as your backup device for iPhones and a new personal cloud storage solution.

My Cloud Home

The My Cloud Home is designed to be a personal storage solution that encourages users to take control of their scattered digital content. With this device, users can centralize all their photos, videos and files from different sources like their smartphone, USB devices, cloud providers and even social media.

It also has an intuitive user interface that users can access via a web browser and for those of you that prefer to access it without a web browser, it can also be integrated with Explorer on Windows and Finder on Mac. There is also a Duo version which comes with two drive bays instead of one on the standard version.

SanDisk iXpand Base

The iXpand Base is a device that will allow you to backup your photos, videos and contacts from your iPhone into the device while charging your phone.

It supports a charging output of 15W which will enable the fast charging on the latest iPhone 8 devices, there is also a groove surrounding the device for easy cable management storing the cable neatly to messing up your tables.

400GB SanDisk Ultra microSD Card

With the launch of this 400GB microSD card which makes it the highest storage microSD card available to the world which will be available in Malaysia December 2017 onwards.

It also has a transfer speed of up to 100MB/s so users will never need to worry time when transferring their photos and videos or extending the storage capabilities of their mobile devices.

The My Cloud Home series comes with a two-year limited warranty and is available now at all consumer electronic stores with the pricing as follows

My Cloud Home
 2TB – RM739
 3TB – RM839
 4TB – RM1,059
 6TB – RM1,459
 8TB – RM1,799

My Cloud Home Duo
 4TB – RM1,599
 6TB – RM1,999
 8TB – RM2,499
 12TB – RM3,459
 16TB – RM3,999
 20TB – RM4,399

The iXpand Base is also available at all Apple Premium Resellers stores, 11street, Lazada and Shopee at a suggested retail price of RM369 for 64GB, RM529 for 128GB an RM899 for 256GB. Finally, the 400GB SanDisk Ultra microSD Card will come with a ten-year limited warranty and will be available from 11street, Lazada and Shopee starting December 2017 with a suggested retail price of RM1,499

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Western Digital unveils two new storage devices for the Malaysian market.

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Western Digital has brought two new storage devices in the Pro series to the Malaysian market. The devices in question is the My Passport Wireless Pro Wi-Fi mobile storage, and the My Cloud Pro Series network attached storage (NAS), both of which are designed for the creative community.

First up, the My Passport Wireless Pro Wi-Fi mobile storage. As the name implies, this version of the My Passport allows the user to backup, save, edit and trasfer their work to the device seamlessly via a direct Wi-Fi connection. Up to eight other devices are able to connect to the drive at any one time. Tethered connections are also available and the device does come with a built-in SD card reader and a USB 2.0 port.

The devices comes with up to 3TB of storage space and has a battery life of up to 10 hours. Said battery capacity also allows the My Passport Wireless Pro to function as an emergency power bank, allowing you to charge phones and other devices. Last but not least, the My Passport Wireless Pro is compatible with Adobe’s Creative Cloud for mobile photo and video editing, as well as compatibility with Plex Media Server, giving the device the capability to play up to four streams of content while on-the-go. The My Passport Wireless Pro 3TB variant will retail for RM 1,099.

Where the My Passport Wireless Pro is meant for those who work on-the-go, the My Cloud Pro Series NAS is meant for editing and studio work. With up to 32TB of storage, the My Cloud Pro Series NAS allows you to import from cameras, memory card readers, and other USB storage with a simple one touch backup button. All you need to do so is to connect your cameras and compatibles USB storage devices, and press a button.

Besides storage, the My Cloud Pro Series NAS also comes with a hardware accelerated video processor, giving the NAS powerful transcoding capabilities. This feature allows you to ingest, edit, store and stream content to and from popular formats, including 4K video. Much like the My Passport Wireless Pro Wi-Fi, the My Cloud Pro Series NAS is compatible with Adobe’s Creative Cloud and Plex Media Server. The diskless My Cloud Pro 2-bay NAS will have a retail price of up to RM 4,599 for the 16TB variant, while the 4-bay variant will have a retail price of up to RM7,999 for the 32TB variant.

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Western Digital unveils WD Red and Red Pro optimized for NAS systems

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Western Digital has announced the expansion of its award-winning WD Red and WD Red Pro NAS hard drives lineup with the introduction of the 10TB capacity models optimized for personal, home and small to medium business NAS systems. Thanks to the helium-based design which enables a 25 percent capacity increase from the WD Red 8TB NAS storage drive and with the support for up to 16 bays in tower and racked-based systems, the hard drive will deliver the same performance, reliability and capacity to systems operating up to 16 bay NAS system.

Some of the features that come with this new hard drive is the 3D Active Balance Plus, a balance control technology that improves overall drive performance and reliability. There is also a seamless integration with Western Digital’s My Cloud Pro Series NAS and My Cloud Expert Series NAS systems designed specifically for the creative community to bring seamless transfer between devices whether users are shooting remotely or editing at home. Lastly, is the NASware 3.0 which is an enhanced version of the company’s original NASware technology designed to improve reliability and system performance, reduce customer downtime and simplify the integration process.

Both the drives are going through final compatibility testing with leading NAS system provides and the full list of WD Red-qualified products and manufacturers is available
here
. The drives are available in July at selected retailers and distributors. The WD Red 10TB drive will retail at RM2,249 with a three-year warranty and the WD Red Pro 10TB will retail at RM2,449 with five-year warranty. For more information on the drives visit Western Digital’s official website
here
.

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What is Clubhouse, and why is it so popular?

1K

If you haven’t heard of
Clubhouse
, you will rightly be forgiven; that’s because this invite-only voice chat app is so exclusive and elitist, you can’t just sign up for like other apps.

Do note, this is not to be confused with the other ‘
Clubhouse
‘ developed by Clubhouse Software Inc, which is a project management app.

It’s always Elon Musk…

Image credit: Getty Images

The app became popular when
Elon Musk
 recently held an interview with Robinhood’s (the app used by Redditors to buy up GameStop stocks to troll Wall Street short sellers) CEO Vlad Tenev. When I say popular, he drew such a big crowd that the chat room he was in had maxed out in participants, so his interview had to be livestreamed on YouTube.

The app was initially launched back in March 2020, with about 1,500 users, but since Elon took the stage, it now has over 2 million users, and is worth a whopping
 $1 billion
. Oh and did I mention it’s only on the Apple App Store at the moment? Imagine the numbers when the
Android
 version comes out.

How does Clubhouse work?

The reason why Clubhouse house hasn’t caught on until now, is because even after you download the app, you need an invitation code from someone who’s already in – the link will then prompt you to an account setup page. Think an actual clubhouse, or yacht club where the only way in is if your cousin Danny, who’s part of the club, knows a guy and that guy is doing him a
favour
 by making you part of the gang for whatever reason.

Once you have your account set up, you can pick your topic of interests and have a bunch of chat rooms suggested to you – you can find anything from radio shows, podcasts, interviews, and just people chatting about politics or something; I
challenge
 someone to make a chat room dedicated to needle felting, and if you do, sign me up.

When a chatroom closes, it’s gone for good – unless of course someone records it or streams it online, like with Elon’s interview.

So who uses Clubhouse?

Image credit: 6Park News

Well, besides big-daddy Elon himself, you have Mark Zuckerberg,
MC Hammer
 and celebrities; in Malaysia, you even have
Tan Sri Tony Fernandes
, and comedian Dr. Jason Leong!

Besides that, anyone can use the app really as long as you have an invitation code – you can use to chat with the fam this Chinese New Year if you’d like.

Will Clubhouse catch on?

Image credit: Clubhouse

Well, yes – sooner rather than later too. With the pandemic still raging on in most parts of the world, Clubhouse could be the go-to platform for people to talk with like-minded
individuals
 around the globe about their
favorite
 topics – think Reddit but fancier and more exclusive.

You can download the Clubhouse app on the Apple App Store
here
 – then maybe ask around for
an
 invitation code?

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What makes a good MicroSD Card?

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It is no surprise that storage is getting increasingly cheaper and affordable these days. Remember the time where 1GB flash drives and memory cards would make you think twice before purchasing one? The game has changed. Now, microSD cards are way more affordable than ever, considering the fact that they are widely used across mobile devices, action cams and dash cam recorders, just to name a few. When it comes to selecting microSD cards, there are two key aspects to bear in mind – capacity and speed.

Apacer’s R85 microSD card is a classic example of what most users require in their range of devices these days. The Apacer R85 boasts reading speeds of up to a shocking 85MB per second, pretty much putting it above the rest of the competition. With such performance, multitasking on your smartphone will be a breeze.

The speed class of the Apacer R85 will mean that it will match well with modern DSLR and compact cameras, being capable of handling Full HD 1080p videos without a doubt. On top of that, the memory card supports 3D videos as well. The Apacer R85 is offered in different capacities, starting from 8GB till 128GB, depending on how much storage space you need for your device. Also, the card comes with a limited lifetime warranty, like Apacer does with all of its other memory cards.

With the Apacer R85 microSD, speed and efficiency will be the least of your worries. The Apacer R85 works with most modern smartphones out in the market today. With such impressive speeds, you won’t be missing out on life’s special moments. Photos and social media are undoubtledy part and parcel of our lives, and in order to keep up, storing all your favorite moments comes with storage space as well. The Apacer R85 comes in five storage capacity options for you to choose what you think is best for your device so that you won’t run out of space. Whether it’s your smartphone, action camera or DSLR, the Apacer R85 is built to keep up with your moments from your vacations, dates and events.

The Apacer R85 microSD card is currently available for purchase on Lazada Malaysia online, plus major IT stores nationwide such as Viewnet and All IT Hypermarket, offered in memory configurations ranging from 8GB up to 128GB as mentioned earlier. However, Apacer is currently offering you a chance to win an Apacer Powerbank, GoPro Hero Session and Fujifilm X-A2 camera if you purchase the R85 microSD card of either
32GB, 64GB, or 128GB capacity
. Scanning the QR code on the packaging of the card will link you to a lucky draw tab. By entering the unique participant number on the sticker from the packaging, you will stand a chance to win the above mentioned prizes! This lucky draw contest will be open until the end of this month (31st October 2016), so grab an R85 card for yourself to be in the running to win these attractive prizes!

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What smartphone brands should copy from Apple

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This isn’t an article about what hardware innovations, design nuances, or pricing strategies phone makers should copy from Apple – this is an opinion piece about why I think these brands should give back to the community via charities, à la Apple’s Product Red collaboration. We’re talking, of course, about turning consumerism into philanthropy.

Product Red
 and Apple has been working together to give proceeds, either from sales or auctions to fund a war against HIV/AIDS in eight African countries. After the launch of the newest iPhone SE, Apple also
announced
 that a portion of the sale for the Product Red variant will go to Global Fund’s COVID-19 Response. An apt shift in focus from the duo given the situation. From the customers’ point of view, all we need to do is opt for the Product Red variant of the iPhone SE and we’ll know someone out there is being helped.

Now that we’ve figured out that we could turn people’s need to shop into something more meaningful, I was thinking maybe big name phone makers could also do the same. Because the last time Apple donated proceeds from the iPhone XR sales, a total of
USD160 mil
 was donated to the Global Fund. That’s a lot of moolah!

Samsung has its own efforts in place – these include
charity galas
, grants and more. Meanwhile
Huawei
 has donated equipment to impoverished areas in the world. But considering the deep pockets and global reach every major smartphone brand have nowadays, one can’t help but think they too could do what Apple does with Product Red.

I do, however, understand that this is essentially a form of CSR or a PR stunt – but if it helps people in need, then as a consumer I wouldn’t mind contributing at all. Especially if I was going to buy that smartphone anyway, I might as well have my hard-earned money go to a charity somewhere at the same time. On top of that, charities like these require a level of transparency from from the benefactors, which is also good for public image.

It would be useful especially now as we’re all fighting the pandemic. Of course there are other ways to contribute without needing the help of a smartphone brand, but would it be more wholesome for the tech community if the like of vivo, OPPO and Xiaomi had their own thing going too?

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What we know about the Huawei P40 so far

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No smartphone is safe from
rumours
 – especially not a flagship like the Huawei P40. As per tech tradition, leaks and renders have been circulating online for the past week or so and we’ve got enough to paint a decent picture of what Huawei’s latest will look like.

Let’s start with what’s been confirmed – CEO Richard Yu has made public knowledge of the phone’s
launch date
, which is March 2020. We also know it won’t come with Google Mobile Services for reasons we’ve spoken way too often about; instead, it’ll come packed with Huawei Mobile Services.

As to how it’ll look, Richard Yu was quoted as saying that the P40 will sport a “never seen before” design – which we think refers to the
 quad-waterfall
 display
rumours
 we’ve been hearing. This just means that all four edges of the phone – chin and forehead included – will be curved.

Image credit: Onleaks

Leaked renders show that the top and bottom curves are reinforced with the phone’s
aluminium
 frame, make it look somewhat detached from the side curves – but you know what? This
is
something
 we’ve never seen before.

There will also apparently be three variants in the series – the biggest of which could be 6.7-inches. The phone looks quite thin however so we’re expecting a conservative battery size.

Image credit: GSM Arena

Speaking of, the phone will NOT come with a graphene battery pack as previously reported. Huawei France were guilty of tweeting a teaser claiming the P40 to adopt the new battery standard, but was quickly determined to be inaccurate – the tweet has since been taken down.
Lithuum
-ion is the order of the day for now.

Image credit: Slash Gear

Under the hood, it is reasonable speculation that the Kirin 990 5G to be the chipset of choice for Huawei’s newest phone. The processor is built on the 7nm process and comes with the
Balong
 5000 modem for 5G support.

Lastly, we go to the imaging department – the department the Huawei P-series is known to excel in. The module speculated to come with the device could be rectangular and placed on the top left corner of the back panel – this is a trend we’ll be seeing a lot of in 2020’s smarpthones.

On the module, we can expect up to four lenses – but the more exciting bit of information is that one of the lenses will be an 8MP 10x zoom periscope lens.

That’s all we know so far, but we’ll keep you updated on more news about the Huawei P40 when it comes. For now, we’ll put down a marker for its official release this March.

5g
android
gms
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HUAWEI P40
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What we know so far about the upcoming Redmi K50 series

1.1K

The Redmi K50 series is confirmed to release next month as teased by
Redmi

on their official
Weibo
. Although the definite release date was not revealed, the company was generous enough to feed us some specs until the series’ debut next month.

Image Credit: Redmi via
Weibo

As expected, the Redmi K50 series will feature Qualcomm’s
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
 SoC, along with a 4,700mAh battery that supports a whopping 120W of fast charging which the company claims can reach 100% (from 0%) in just 17 minutes.

The series will also feature a Double Vapour Chamber Cooling System for efficient heat dissipation as the company challenges to be the “coldest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 smartphone.”

According to
leakster

Digital Chat Station, there will be
four

variants in total for the upcoming Redmi series — K50, K50 Gaming Edition, K50 Pro, and K50 Pro+, with all variants featuring different SoCs; likely being:

K50 – Snapdragon 870

K50 Gaming Edition – Dimensity
9000

K50 Pro – Dimensity 7000

K50 Pro+ – Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

Apart from that, a
render

of the Redmi K50 Pro has been spotted onto the internet. If proven to be true, the Pro variant will sport a triple-camera setup and a punch-hole cutout selfie camera.

Image Credit:
Xiaomiui

Reports
say

the camera setup consists of a 64MP Sony IMX686 main sensor, a 13MP ultrawide lens, and a 2MP or 8MP macro lens. Moreover, the phone might feature a 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED display that pushes a 120Hz refresh rate.

Details about the other variants are currently still unknown but we’ll be sure to update you once we get more information, so stay tuned.

Source –
GSMArena

gaming phone
K50
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Redmi K50
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What we know so far about the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro

339

The latest rumours surrounding the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro reveals quite a lot about the phones. It was originally thought to be named as P11 and P11 Plus instead, but a teaser video released by Huawei has confirmed the names of the upcoming smartphones. And if you’re wondering when they are making their debut appearance, it’ll be at the Huawei press conference in Paris on March 27th.

Based on the alleged rumours, the designs of the phone would look identical to each other, though what sets them apart is that the Pro model has the anticipated triple-camera setup on the back. But when it comes to the front of the phone, notches are still apparent. Guess we’ll have to wait until the trend of notches get faded away. And we don’t expect Huawei to remove the fingerprint scanner from the phones as well, as that would seem too bold.

Although rumours on the display sizes of the P20 and P20 Pro seem pretty scarce at the moment, what we can expect is for them to be powered by the Kirin 970 chipset, just like the Mate 10 series. It’s also rumoured that the P20 Pro would house a triple lens 40MP rear camera setup with 5x hybrid zoom; setting it apart from the competition.

Besides that, the smartphones are expected to have facial recognition that’s safer than that of the Apple Face ID, since it’s been said that it could be secured enough to make payments and it unlocks in just 0.4 seconds. Other things to note about is that the P20 Pro may be packed with a massive 4,000 mAh battery, while the P20 may be powered by 3,320 mAh battery, and of course, it’s going to be included with the Android Oreo software too.

The Huawei P20 is expected to be priced at €679 while the Pro could cost €899. And though it does seem like they could be in a heated rivalry with the Samsung’s flagships this year, time will only tell so we’d still like to urge readers to take this with a grain of salt as we would update you from time to time.

apple face id
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Here is what’s happening at Game Anime Expo 2017

949

The air in Berjaya Times Square had a sense of intensity as it is hosting GamePlan Game and Anime Expo, a gathering of gamers playing console, PC and even mobile that will be duking it out in games like Overwatch, Street Fighter, FIFA and Mobile Legends. As the official media partner, you can bet that we were there to have a taste of the action and atmosphere. If you are a gamer that enjoys watching tournaments of the mentioned games, then pick up your phone and wallet and head over here for a weekend of intense gaming.

Walk on in from the front entrance of Times Square and you will be greeted with the first playing area that will host the Mobile Legends tournament. Powerbanks and smartphones were scattered all around waiting to have their owners play what will probably be the most intense match of Mobile Legends they will ever play.

Nice and comfortable bean bags were placed to give the participants the best experience for the game. Honor who is sponsoring the Mobile Legends is also there promoting their phones and overseeing the matches. Alongside them is Armageddon gaming products ready to be purchased for those that want to.

Going down a floor and that’s where the bigger action is happening with tournaments like Overwatch and Street Fighter is taking place on big screens with all the seats for the audience filled up supporting their favourite teams.

Shoutings and order giving were heard from the Overwatch side with team captains rapidly giving orders to their teammates in order to get the payload to its destination in one of the most entertaining matches in the game that I have ever seen. Players faces were in full focus mode as they processed all the mayhem that was happening.

Right across from that was the Street Fighter match that had players from Thailand, China, Taiwan and even the US. However, unlike the Overwatch side, players here were dead silent with focus so sharp that they zoned out all other distractions even advice from their own group members. You have probably heard the term “the comeback is real” and let me tell you that is not an understatement as some players managed to win the game with HP so low that a breeze would probably KO the character.

Other than that, on the side, there was a group of people playing games like King of Fighters and FIFA in a friendly match for both the tournament players and regular players alike. These players although playing a casual match, were in a state of focus to proof that a casual player can also master the game.

There is also a VR section where MSI was promoting their VR Ready gaming laptop that was hooked up to the HTC Vive. I got a chance to test out the system in VR and I have to say, it’s pretty impressive something as portable as the gaming laptop was able to work flawlessly with the VR headset and graphics was also very decent to play games in.

If VR is not your thing, there is also a dedicated area where people were playing racing simulators on driving wheels with three screens to give the best possible immersion. Although there is a small following for it, there was still a line for those that wanted to try out the simulator.

There are also other products like laptops, speakers and a visitor from the Indonesia selling his anime artwork to those that are the ultimate Otaku which look very impressive and the prices are also very reasonable.

If you have nothing to do for your weekend and want to see some gaming action taking place then make your way over to Berjaya Times Square and spend your time watching professional gamers going head to head to be crowned the champions of their respective games, after all, it is a free event!

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What's next for Xiaomi? A drone.

456

What does Xiaomi not have? Xiaomi’s products range from smartphones, tablets, TV’s, air purifiers, to even a smart rice cooker! And that’s just a few of the many products by the Chinese manufacturer. Up next, a Xiaomi drone, which will be unveiled this Wednesday, according to a teaser uploaded by Hugo Barra earlier.

Not only that, a short teaser video was uploaded online, giving us a few glimpses of what to expect of the Xiaomi drone when it launches. Based on the teaser video, the drone looks like a typical quadcopter, with a camera mounted below it. The camera, which isn’t tiny to begin with, seems to be able to capture video clips from all kinds of angles. However, don’t mistake it for a 360 degree camera which is currently in trend. That would be a story to tell for another day.

May 25 is the date when the Xiaomi drone unveils, according to Barra. The name for the drone has yet to be mentioned, but we’re guessing that it might be called a Mi Drone or something along that line, based on Xiaomi’s history of naming gadgets. How much do you think the drone will cost?

Source:
Hugo Barra (Twitter)

25
barra
drone
hugo
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mi
teaser
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What’s playing at the Core?

268

With the age of simplicity, mobility and
wireless-ness
 being dawned upon humankind ever so rampantly in the recent century, almost if not everyone would appreciate a high-end audio sound system minus the tangles (from wires) and bulk (from the stereo set itself). In light of this, audio tech companies have been working tirelessly to deliver more innovative and versatile products in order to lay waste the aforementioned situation. However, not many have succeeded like how Mass Fidelity has.

Behold, the Core. Not just another pretty looking
Bluetooth speaker
 but in actual fact, it is one mammoth of a speaker although possessing the size of a jewelry box. A gem it is indeed as this little fella even managed to fool audiophiles into thinking that the sound it reproduces was coming from a physical traditional 2-speaker stereo set but thanks to the Core’s Acoustic Holography technology, the miniature-sized speaker manages to physically recreate sound in space likened to a hologram albeit with much purer sounds compared to traditional stereo or surround sound.

No longer would listeners be plastered to a given position (i.e. between 2 speakers) to immerse in full stereo sound any longer as the Core incorporates Wave Field Synthesis which produces a
virtual acoustic scene
 to eliminate the “sweet spot”. Hence, listeners are now able to
get jiggy with it
 anywhere they’d like.

According to Mass Fidelity, The Core is engineered to deliver “An acoustic marvel” with “Bone-shaking bass” compliments from its 5x custom-designed mid/high frequency strategically aligned speakers and a downward-firing woofer coupled with Absolute Bass Technology (ABT) which promises a
real bass
 experience which can be felt and not just heard. On top of all that, the speaker is also fitted with several digital signal processors and an ARM processing core to ensure that the entire system is running optimally. The speaker’s amplifier is driven by 120 Watts of Digital Power and has a frequency response of 44Hz-20kHz.

The Core also comes with a wide array of features to tickle anyone’s fancy and you’d feel like a kid again once you get your hands on this Chrome-Acrylic-Fabric
Bluetooth speaker
. Without a shadow of doubt, the Core is all out to replace YOUR bulky home theater system with its simplified and space-conscious build as it comes with analog, digital and optical inputs for connection to video and audio sources respectively.

And to slap the icing atop the cake, the Core has a Battery life of “12 hours with a 2 hour charge time from empty,” Mass Fidelity claims.

With features and specs like that, what more would you want from a Class 1
Bluetooth speaker
?

As of the time of this article, the Core is up for Pre-Order
here
 with a price tag of $449 for one Core and $678 if you bundle it with a wireless subwoofer (for the all the
bass-heads
out there). Estimated delivery is June and July 2015 respectively. There are other options available as well, so do check them out if you’re looking for a wireless home sound system.

The Core – Wireless Speaker System
 from
Mass Fidelity
 on
Vimeo
.

Source(s):
Mass Fidelity
,
Indiegogo


WhatsApp may introduce advertisements to Status feature next year

336

Remember when WhatsAap was a humble texting app that anyone could get for free? Well, good things don’t usually last, do they. Although the popular app is still free to download and use, reports suggest that their ‘Status’ feature will soon feature ads in the near future.

Image credit: Crowdfire

Does that sound familiar to you? If it does, that’s because it’s akin to what Instagram has been doing for some time with their own Stories. The base WhatsAap platform will remain un-tarnished by ads, so you’re still able to text as usual with no interference; but the Status feature will soon be bombarded with full-screen vertical ads.

WhatsApp will bring Stories Ads in its status product in 2020.
#FMS19

pic.twitter.com/OI3TWMmfKj

— Olivier Ponteville (@Olivier_Ptv)
May 21, 2019

Considering WhatsAap is a free app and has been so for the longest time, it makes sense for them to monetize a not-so-frequently-used feature to bring in some dough. We’re hoping ads won’t spill over to the texting side of things as that would just be downright annoying.

In anycase, this isn’t confirmed yet, as the news came about during Facebook’s Marketing Summit in Rotterdam. It is said that the change will only be implemented next year, so we’re safe, for now.

advertisements
exting
instagram
social media
stories
whatsaap


WhatsApp allows you to share your location in real-time

308

WhatsApp has announced a new feature that will allow users to share their real-time locations with each other. The feature will allow users to either privately send their location or sent it in a group which is still protected by the app’s end-to-end encryption that has been implemented in a previous update.

To use this feature, users will need to press the attach button (the paper clip icon) in any chat and from there under the Location button there is an option to Share Live Location. Before sending the location, users have the option to set how long will the receivers be able to see your location before it gets hidden again. A unique feature is that if a group were to send all their locations, all of them will pop up on the same map eliminating the need to opening each individual’s attachments.

Image Source: BGR

The new feature will be rolling out in the next few weeks to both Android and iOS and is a feature that we personally believe is good to have as now you can make sure that your loved ones are safe as they make their way to a location or back home.

feature
live
location
share
whatsapp


WhatsApp begins two-factor authentication rollout on its beta app

338

Popular chat application WhatsApp is joining the two-factor authentication club as well as the security feature is now available on the beta version of WhatsApp.

First noted by Android Police, those who are running the WhatsApp Beta application will be able to activate two-factor authentication by accesssing the settings menu. When activate, WhatsApp will require the user to create a six-digit long password. This password will be used every time the user tries to login to service on a new device. Additionally, the user will also need to add an e-mail address, allowing the user to reset the password in the event that they’ve forgotten it. Once that’s done, the phone number associated with the WhatsApp account will be protector.

Many of you may notice that WhatsApp’s method of implementing two-factor authentication is rather different when compared to other services. This can be attributed to the fact that WhatsApp accounts are tied to a phone number instead of the traditional e-mail address. As such, sending a authetication code to the phone number defeats the point of two-factor authentication.

Source:
Android Police

application
security
twofactorauthentication
whatsapp


WhatsApp beta has minor tweaks to in app button placements

311

The latest update for the beta version of WhatsApp is currently on the roll out to beta users, and WhatsApp has switched up its in app interface ever so slightly, making it hard to notice unless you happen have it as your primary texting app. The new update sees a couple of changes in terms of button placements which might add to the convenience of using the app.

If you’re one who frequently sends images through WhatsApp, you’ll immediately note the change of attachment button placement, which has shifted from the top to the text box below. This can turn out to be a huge difference especially for phablet users, who do not need to stretch their fingers/thumb across the screen to tap on the attachment button. This means that you can now attach media, contacts, location and documents right in the text box below.

The other change is minor at best, but no doubt makes a difference as well. Instead of having a call icon, which then brings you to select the Voice Call or Video Call option, there is a new icon for video calls, eliminating one step to initiate a call. The new video call icon takes up the space left over by the attachment icon which now has a new place to call home.

Bear in mind that you have to be on WhatsApp beta to enjoy these new subtle changes. You can opt to register to be a beta tester for WhatsApp
here
.

Source:
Android Police

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WhatsApp is blocked in China

266

If you had suddenly realized that your WhatsApp isn’t working while you are in China, don’t blame your phone for it, as China has officially blocked the usage of WhatsApp within their network, but you shouldn’t be affected if you are using data roaming in the country. According to
previous reports
, WhatsApp have been facing disruptions in China for the past few months, such as unable to send a photo and video chats, as of now sending text messages via WhatsApp is impossible.

It would seem that the block is due to the fact that China has upgraded the firewall to block the NoiseSocket protocol, which the app uses it to send text, in addition to blocking the HTTPS/TLS protocol that sends photos and videos. China has been always known as the country with the great firewall, as it blocks access to Google services and Facebook in concerns of privacy and censorship, hence smartphones in China tend to have their own set of user interfaces and apps for various purposes.

The blocking of WhatsApp is going to be a huge frustration for many who frequently visits China that relies on the service, this action happens to coincide with the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which the app’s end-to-end encryption led to this decision as the Chinese government could not monitor data transferred in the app. Lastly, we hope you are glad that you can still read our site for this news, time to keep a VPN service handy if you are visiting China soon.

block
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whatsapp china


WhatsApp brings more life to its status updates with colors

336

Facebook Stories hasn’t quite made it, but colorful statuses have become increasingly popular lately among Facebook users. It looks like WhatsApp will be following suit as well, bringing colors to its status updates.

Colorful statuses have proved to be more eye catching than your typical status updates. One of the main reasons why they stand out more is that users get to pick their own colored or patterned background (on Facebook at least) when they post their status, making the status more unique than before. WhatsApp’s statuses function similarly to Snapchat Stories, Facebook Stories and Instagram Stories, but like Facebook Stories, it isn’t as popular or widely used as compared to the rest in the list.

The color status software update is currently on the roll out to WhatsApp users worldwide. The new feature will definitely breathe new life into WhatsApp statuses as it will be more appealing than ever. The update also comes with the ability to add links into statuses as seen in the second image above.

Be sure to check the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store to verify that you are on the latest version of WhatsApp which comes with the latest app update that includes this new feature.

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WhatsApp Business introduces Quick Replies, Labels and Chat List Filtering

1.3K

WhatsApp introduced the WhatsApp Business app a year ago and in efforts of improving the app to further assist businesses in their app experience, WhatsApp is introducing three new features.

The first feature is called Quick Replies in which business individuals can reply to frequently asked questions with replies they’ve prepared beforehand. For example, things like business information and product pricing can be prepared beforehand so that when customers ask these questions, business individuals can just quickly reply without needing to constantly copy paste their answers or retype their answers. To quickly reply a customer, just type “/“ on your keyboard and you’ll be offered a selection of quick replies to be sent to your customer.

Image credit: Android Police

Besides that, WhatsApp also offers a new feature called Labels that allows business individuals to label their contacts and chats for convenience. This will allow them to easily and quickly arrange their chats and contacts so that it is more efficient to search for them when needed.

Image credit: Android Police

Aside from that, business individual will also be able to filter their chats with the new feature known as Chat List Filtering. According to WhatsApp, you can filter your chats through different categories such as groups, broadcast lists or even unread messages.

These features are indeed great additions to the app for enhancing business communication through WhatsApp. There are already more than 5 million businesses that are using WhatsApp Business for expansion and customer support, and with more features like these three, WhatsApp Business is expected to attract more businesses.

whatsapp
WhatsApp Business


WhatsApp ceases support for Blackberry and Nokia

411

2016 will be the last year that WhatsApp would be available for BlackBerryOS and Symbian-using smartphones as the company announced that it will be dropping support for both OS-es this year.

“When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people’s use of moile devices looked very different from today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia. Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft – which account for 99.5 percent of sales today – were on less than 25 percent of mobile devices sold at the time. As we look ahead to our next seven years, we want to focus our efforts on the mobile platformsthe vast majority of people use,” reads an announcement.

By the end of 2016, WhatsApp will no longer be supporting BBOS, as well as Nokia S40 and Symbian S60. Those aren’t the only OS-es that will stop receiving support from WhatsApp as Android 2.1, Android 2.2, and Windows 7.1 devices will no longer be supported as well.

If you’re a BlackBerry user who wishes to continue using WhatsApp, you could opt for the Priv, the company’s first Android-powered smartphone.

Source:
New Day Post

android
bbos
blackberry
nokia
symbian
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WhatsApp cloud encryption feature available for iOS devices soon

715

We previously reported of WhatsApp’s plan to introduce
end-to-end encryption
 (E2EE) for cloud saves – and we also mentioned that the feature would only be available for Android platforms; however, new developments have arrive claiming that
iOS

too will get much-anticipated security feature.

When users backup their chats on to the iCloud, they can choose to enable E2EE for their saved data via the settings menu.

Like on Android, users will need to use a password or a 64-digit encryption key. Of course, WhatsApp will not have access to any of these codes, meaning there will be no way of retrieving them should users forget.

An update is expected to gradually rollout soon to iOS devices across the globe, so keep an eye out for the patch.

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WhatsApp to halt support for systems before Android 4.0.3 and iOS 9

328

We previously reported that WhatsApp would stop working on older Android and iOS devices – specifically speaking, Android version 2.3.7 and iOS 8. These systems would cease to receive updates on 1 February 2020.

In a new update, WhatsApp has officially noted that they recommend using devices running on Android 4.0.3 or iOS 9 and above to be safe. So even early 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (APi 14) devices are at risk of not receiving WhatsApp updates.

Issues that may arise if your device is affected include the inability to use certain features, which may stop functioning at any time. You also cannot create new accounts or reverify existing ones on these systems.

Phones running these systems are, of course, almost nine-years old; but if you still rely on a smartphone as old as this, we suggest you make the switch to a newer one soon.

android
ios
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Update your WhatsApp now if you’ve been waiting for Dark Mode

294

Finally, WhatsApp is getting the dark mode on both iOS and Android. We’ve been talking about this feature for more than a year, but the company sure took its time.

iOS users will have to make sure their app is downloaded to version 2.20.30 while Android users will need to update their app to version 2.20.64. If you’re on iOS 13 or Android 10, WhatsApp will automatically turn on the dark mode if your system is in dark mode. If you’re on Android 9 and below, you can choose to enable dark mode manually via Settings > Chats > Theme.

Image credit: WhatsApp

Sadly, there’s no way to turn the dark mode on manually if your iPhone’s system isn’t in dark mode. It would’ve been nice if WhatsApp enables manual dark mode for iOS 13 in the future.

WhatsApp also said that the dark mode will help to “reduce eye strain in low light environments” by including factors like readability and information hierarchy when they design this feature.

android
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WhatsApp makes sharing data with Facebook compulsory starting February

625

In less than a month, WhatsApp users will be forced to make a choice — to keep using WhatsApp and share their personal data with Facebook-owned companies and third-party service providers, or to stop using the app altogether.

Either accept the new policy, or quit WhatsApp

Image credit: XDA Developers

The
new privacy policy
 has been announced on January 4, 2021 in which your WhatsApp information such your phone number, transaction data and the way you interact with others will be shared with other Facebook companies. In WhatsApp’s blog, the company also stated that WhatsApp and other Facebook-owned companies will share user information to sell them “relevant offers and ads”.

No escape this time

This isn’t the first time WhatsApp pushed out an update like this; back in 2016, WhatsApp announced that user data will be shared to Facebook, but users could opt out if they wanted to. That’s not the case for the upcoming update — if you don’t want to share your personal data with Facebook and the other companies that they own, you’ll have no choice but to quit WhatsApp entirely.

WhatsApp convos are safe…for now

The only good news is your messages and calls are still using end-to-end encryption so you won’t have to worry about the tech giant exploiting the content of your conversations. This new change will also not affect those who live in the European Region.

privacy policy
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WhatsApp “Delete For Everyone” Major Update

376

As we all know, WhatsApp has a “Delete For Everyone” feature that allows sender to delete their sent messages within 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds, should they want to retract their sent messages. Now things are going to be different, because this time round, it’s not only going to be on the sender’s side, but also the recipient’s side.

According to WABetaInfo (A fan site that tests WhatsApp new feature), says that WhatsApp will soon feature the “Delete For Everyone” new update, whereas if the recipient did not receive a delete request by the sender within 13 hours, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds, then the message that the sender initially would like to delete will not be deleted.

It is said that the new feature is being added to stop users from deleting their older messages which can be done by tweaking with the mobile system settings. WABetaInfo also mentioned that the new feature is intended to be a protection against modded users that revoke messages that is sent weeks, months, or years ago.

Delete For Everyone
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