Attack on Titan game on PS4, PS3 and PS Vita looks like the anime

649

Shingeki no Kyojin, or better known as Attack on Titan, will be coming on the PlayStation consoles, namely on PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. This popular anime series took the world by storm, so it is no wonder that someone – Koei Tecmo Games in this instance, would eventually develop an Attack on Titan game for its hardcore fans.

Looking at the screenshots released, and since we are talking about Koei Tecmo who published hack-and-slash games like Dynasty Warriors, I would expect Attack on Titan to be a hack-and-slash as well, since they have categorised it as an action game. However, the art looks very much like the anime, so here’s to hoping the characters won’t end up becoming some stiff 3D models.

Attack on Titan will be produced by Koinuma Hisashi and directed by Kitamura Tomoyuki, both famous for their involvement in Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors series. According to Koinuma, Attack on Titan will follow the story of the original author Hajime Isayama, and instead of a defeat-the-bad-guy-to-continue-story kind of gameplay, Koei Tecmo mentioned that it will be an action game where you will understand the story as you play the game. Sounds so Dynasty Warrior-ish though.

The game will be made for PlayStation 4 and then adjusted for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. According to Koei Tecmo, Attack on Titan is slated to be released in Japan on Winter 2015, while for North America and Europe in 2016.

Source:
Famitsu
,
Gematsu

attack
games
gaming
on
ps4
titan


Attention gamers! Stand a chance of winning prizes on Championfy just by playing

1.1K

Samsung Malaysia has teamed up with top Esports platform, Championfy, to reward gamers with chances to win prizes for playing in tournaments hosted in the Samsung Arena. You get the possibility of winning yourself a
 Galaxy A22 4G
,
Galaxy A22 5G
, and even a
Galaxy A32 5G
.

Eligibility

To be elligible, you:

Must be a Malaysian citizen with a Malaysian Identity Card.

Must be at least 18 years old and above (as of 1st December 2021).

Must be a registered participant of Samsung Arena in partnership with Championfy.

Can’t be a Samsung employee (and their immediate families) or Samsung’s related agencies, retailers, and dealers.

Participation

If you are elligible and want to join in on the fun, simply
download
 the Championfy App (click
here

to download for Android or
here

for iOS),
register
 and
join
 the Samsung Arena organized by Championfy.

These are the tournaments that will be going on for the next few weeks that you can participate in:

Week 7 (15 January – 21 January): Jewel Black

Week 8 (22 January – 28 January): Knife Ninja

Prizes to be won

After participating in just one Samsung Arena game, you’ll get yourself a Samsung Online Store E-voucher worth up to RM150 via the app. Moreover, the top 3 winners will be entitled to winning weekly prizes.

Prize

Week 7

Week 8

1st Prize

Galaxy A22 5G (
RM999
)

Galaxy A32 5G (
RM1,099
)

2nd Prize

glap.play Universal Gamepad (
RM399
)

Galaxy Buds2 (
RM499
)

3rd Prize

Smart Keyboard Trio 500 (
RM179
)

Smart Keyboard Trio 500 (
RM179
)

For the Samsung Online Store e-voucher, you can use it on Samsung phones such as the Z FOLD3, Z FLIP3, S21 ULTRA, and many more. Just make sure to key in the E-voucher code in the Promo Code box before proceeding to make payment.

For more information about Samsung x Championfy, you can visit Samsung Malaysia’s website
here
.

Championfy
samsung
Samsung Arena


The Audi A4 is now available with the technology pack

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We witnessed the launch of the 9th generation of the
Audi A4
 last year, and now the company is finally making the car a little techy by introducing the tech pack to all three models of the executive sedan – the A4 1.4 TFSI, A4 2.0 TFSI quattro and A4 2.0 TFSI S line, it did took a little while for Audi Malaysia to introduce the technology pack, which upgrades the car’s instrument cluster to a 12.3-inch display with Audi’s Virtual Cockpit, which gives drivers convenience to the car’s MMI navigation system and displays information of the car, best of all it supports both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which you can connect your smartphone for music listening and take advantage of your smartphone’s voice assistant to perform tasks while driving.

In addition, the Audi A4 technology pack will also include the A8’s Matrix LED headlights with dynamic indicators at the front and a rear view camera. Therefore, its quite a lot of upgrades for the more techy drivers. The Audi A4 tech pack does come with a price increase of course, the A4 1.4 TFSI and 2.0 TFSI S-line model will cost an additional RM25,000, while the 2.0 TFSI quattro cost an additional RM20,000. However, Audi Malaysia is throwing in an introductory offer for the A4 Tech Pack while stocks last, and the prices are listed as below:

Audi A4 1.4 TFSI Tech Pack: RM224,900 (Original price at RM243,900)

Audi A4 2.0 TFSI S-line Tech Pack: RM274,900 (Original price at RM298,900)

Audi A4 2.0 TFSI quattro Tech Pack: RM314,900 (Original price at RM334,900)

The Audi A4 comes with a 5-year unlimited mileage warranty and are 100% assembled in Audi’s plant at Ingolstadt, Germany. For more info, visit your nearby Audi showroom or
Audi Malaysia’s website
.

audi a4
audi malaysia
b9


The new Audi Q3 offers more space and updated tech for RM270k in Malaysia

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Audi Malaysia has now completed its range of Q models with the introduction of the second generation Audi Q3, sporting a more self-confident design with the new striking Singleframe octagon grille that’s found on the Q8, new LED lights with symmetrical graphics and dynamic indicators, the Q3 is now a sportier family SUV.

Interior

The Audi Q3’s drivetrain is the same 1.4 TFSi engine mated to a six-speed S tronic transmission from its predecessor that delivers a maximum 150hp and 250Nm to its front wheels, it sprints from 0-100km/h in 8.9 seconds with a maximum top speed of 207km/h, while combined fuel consumption is rated at 7.2L/100km.

The more spacious cabin is one of the key selling points of the new Q3, as it is 97mm longer, 25mm wider, with an extended 77mm wheelbase, it enables a 530-litre luggage space and can be expanded up to 1525 litres when the seats are folded, while an electric tailgate with kick motion comes as standard for convenience.

Audi’s virtual cockpit plus now comes as standard on the Q3, featuring a 12.3-inch TFT digital instrument panel that lets you customize views to fit your driving experience, and paired with a 10.1-inch MMI navigation plus infotainment system that supports both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

The new Audi Q3 is now available with a retail price of RM269,900, it will be part of the collection that will be shown at paultan.org’s Premium Auto Care Exhibition (PACE) this November 2-9, 2019, customers who purchase any Audi car models during the period will qualify for an exclusive lucky draw, including an exclusive Audi Driving Experience in Germany valued at RM40,000, a shopping voucher for Audi Genuine Accessories worth RM5,000 and a Front Genuine Universal Traffic Recorder valued at RM2,500.

audi
audi malaysia
audi q3


Audio Technica introduces new models for their Solid Bass line-up

232

Professional audio device makers Audio-Technica has just revealed the latest editions to their Solid Bass series of audio equipment.

The new entries into Audio-Technica’s Solid Bass series includes an in-ear headphones and two over-ear headphones, all of which features the company’s revolutionary Deep Motion High-Res Audio Drivers and Dual Phase Push-Pull Drivers for an enhanced audio experience. The Solid Bass in-ear headphones, the CKS550iS, is engineered specially for a deep sounding bass that does not compromise on the mid and high frequency contents. These earphones features Dual Magnetic-Field Drivers to bring powrful yet precise bass reproduction in all 3 models. The CKS550iS also features the Airflow-Bass Venting System which provides excellent air damping.

For the over-ear headphones department, Audio-Technica is rolling out the ATH-WS770iS and the ATH-WS550iS. Both headphones feature the 53mm drivers which deliver impactful bass along with smooth, accurate midrange and treble, perfect for those who want to hear their music with a powerful punch. The WS770iS has a dual-aluminium rigid enclosure design with aluminium stabilizer and anti-vibration design to produce precise mid-high frequency.

“Audio-Technica’s Solid Bass family has a well-earned reputation for faithfully reproducing impactful bass sound. The new models we’re launching in South East Asia continues this tradition while bringing the best balance of price and performance with unparelleled user experience,” says Vincent Chan, Marketing Director of Audio-Technica SEA.

audiotechnica
headphones
solidbass


Australia finds Valve guilty of breaching local consumer laws

402

Not too long ago, there isn’t an option to request for a refund from Valve’s digital game store Steam. This did not sit well with some countries around the world as the inability to receive a refund goes against the country’s consumer law. Once such country is Australia, and they have came down hard on Valve over its refusal to implement a refund system between 2011 and 2014.

According to a report by
The Sydney Morning Herald
, the Australia Federal Court has fined Valve AUD3 million (RM9.6 million) over said breach in consumer law. Part of the reason why Valve was fined heavily for the lack of a refund option in Steam boils down to the fact that Valve has disregarded Australian law.

“[Valve] had a culture by which it formed a view without Australian legal advice that it was not subject to Australian law, and it was content to proceed to trade with Australian consumers without that advice and with the view that even if advice had been optained that Valve was required to comply with Australian law the advice might have been ignored,” says Justice James Edelman.

The moral of the story for this case? If you’re going to do business in another country, respect the consumer laws of said country. If you don’t, you may pay for it heavily in the future.

Source:
The Sydney Morning Herald

australia
consumerlaws
fines
legal
refunds
steam
valve


Australia opens up pre-registration for the Galaxy Note 8

301

The Galaxy Note 8 will finally be launched next month on August 23 at New York City. Officially, it will be the first Note device since the Galaxy Note 5 if we discount the discontinuation of the Note 7 and its refurbished version dubbed the Note FE. With less than a month to go before the launch, Samsung Australia has already opened up pre-registration for the upcoming phablet.

There’s a form on Samsung Australia’s official website for those who are interested to fill in, which includes the usual personal particulars, plus the person’s current device, carrier and Instagram handle. Australia is definitely not one of the first countries to receive Samsung handsets, but the pre-registration definitely marks a particular demand from that side of the world.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will be the company’s first ever global dual camera smartphone, and it might turn out to be Samsung’s most impressive smartphone yet, with fingers crossed that it history will not repeat itself. The phablet will be similarly spec-ed as the Galaxy S8 series, but will feature an even larger Infinity Display on the front with a near bezel-less design.

Samsung will be pitting both the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy Note 8 against Apple’s iPhone 8 series when it launches later this year. The South Korean company has produced strong results, and will aim to continue to do so throughout the iPhone hype.

apple
australia
galaxy note 8
galaxy s8
iphone 8
launch
samsung


AutoDraw turns your ugly sketches into beautiful vector art

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Google has launched yet another A.I. experiment related to drawing. The company previously launched “Quick, Draw!”, in which a neural network tries to guess your doodles on the web. This new experiment is similar to how “Quick, Draw!” works, and it even turns your doodles and sketches into perfect pieces of simple art.

Google has named its latest A.I. experiment “AutoDraw”. In AutoDraw, the same A.I. technology attempts to recognize your sketches, providing a list of suggestions thereafter. What’s different is the suggestions are in the form of preset vector like drawings instead. The preset doodles/drawings are courtesy of a group of artists behind this project. Users will be able to select from various suggested drawings after doodling his or her own, a handy feature if you intend to sketch out something cute for let’s say a birthday card. Instead of using your imperfect doodles, you will be able to convert it into a cleaner, neater, and also a perfect piece of drawing.

You can doodle on AutoDraw from the comfort of your own desktop, tablet or even your smartphone. It’s definitely a nifty web tool that you can use to show off to your mates! What do you think?

Source:
Google

ai
autodraw
doodle
draw
experiment
google
quick
sketch
tool
web


Automate your Lifestyle with Modes and Routines on the Galaxy A54 5G

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Living in a world where technology continuously evolves, we often find ourselves looking for solutions that can simplify our lives, rather than complicate them. This is where Samsung steps in with its innovative Modes & Routines feature, available on the Galaxy A54 5G, turning mundane tasks into seamless experiences.

Based on the simple yet effective principle of “If This Then That” (IFTTT). With this feature, users can design highly personalized actions and outcomes, molding the phone’s functionality to fit their everyday habits and routines.

Here are several examples on how it can work for you.

Driving Mode: Navigating and Grooving in Sync

Once you jump into the driver’s seat, the Driving Mode springs into action. This mode cues up your favourite tunes, sets up your navigation, and even sends polite messages to reject incoming calls while you focus on the road.

Eye Comfort Shield: Reading and Browsing with Ease

If you’re an avid reader or internet browser, the Modes & Routines feature helps protect your eyes from harmful blue light. A Routine can be set to activate the eye comfort shield as soon as you open reading apps or a web browser, maintaining your visual comfort.

Optimized Streaming and Gaming: The Perfect Pixel Experience

For movie lovers and gamers, predefine your favourite video streaming or gaming apps to run at a specific resolution and refresh rate, adjusting to your preferred brightness levels. This ensures optimal entertainment experiences, just the way you like it.

Intelligent Screen Time: No More Unwanted Timeouts

During a virtual meeting or while following an app-based workout, there’s no need to continuously tap the screen to keep it awake. Set a Routine to prevent screen timeouts when specific apps are open, saving you the hassle.

Smart Sound Settings: Your Phone Listens to Your Location

As the location changes from work, to home, to outdoors, the Modes & Routines feature automatically adjusts your sound settings to match your environment. Set your location as a condition, allowing the phone to detect your whereabouts and adjust your settings accordingly.

Seamless Connectivity: Swift Transition from Wi-Fi to Mobile Data

Transitioning from a weak Wi-Fi signal to mobile data is a breeze with this feature. It automatically switches to mobile data when you’re in a Wi-Fi dead zone or on the move. Conversely, it can switch from mobile data to Wi-Fi when running data-intensive apps.

Customized Notifications: Light Up Your Interactions

The feature extends to personalizing your experience when specific contacts call or text. Set special light effects to catch your eye when you receive incoming calls and messages from certain contacts, especially useful when your phone is on Silent mode.

Dynamic Sound Profiles: Tailoring Audio to Your Devices

Enjoy distinct sound profiles for different speakers whether you’re using Galaxy Buds, wired headphones, a car stereo, a home theatre system, or portable speakers. Set individual volume levels, equaliser settings, and activate Dolby Atmos for different devices.

Modes & Routines on the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G illustrate the power of automation in our everyday lives. These tools take the hassle out of adjusting settings, allowing users to focus on what truly matters.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G comes with 4 years of Android upgrades and 5 years of Security updates, available in colors of Awesome Lime, Awesome Violet, Awesome Graphite and Awesome White, the phone can be purchased for RM1,899.

Start automating your smartphone lifestyle with the Galaxy A54 5G by purchasing it at Samsung.com, Lazada and Shopee.

galaxy a54 5g
modes and routines
one ui 5.1


Automated Number Plate Recognition system launched in Johor

411

The Malaysian road laws have tend to be very lenient all this while especially in parking and speed summonses, where most roadsters will try to avoid paying or commit bribery, while government officials have a difficult time in getting these drivers paying up. Well, Johor drivers beware, as the government has started implementing the Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system that will be able to detect any outstanding offences that you have on your car, the system uses a high definition camera to capture number plates clearly and is connected to both Road Transport Department (JPJ) and Malaysian Police crime database, hence if your vehicle happens to be in the blacklist, relevant officers will be notified and don’t be surprised if any of them happen to stop you by the road while you are driving peacefully.

According to The Star and Paultan.org, the ANPR system will be implemented in other Malaysian states by June this year and the Johor Baru police department has so far received three ANPR devices, which has been mainly deployed to Malaysian customs and this made a lot of sense since there could be cases of car smuggling or cars with fake license plates entering and exiting the country. So, if you ever want to save some trouble, you had better pay up your summonses and drive safely on the road, most importantly, don’t ever make a ‘donation’.

SOURCE:
Paultan.org

anpr
cars
jpj
malaysia
pdrm
police


Avast and AVG extensions are collecting user data like browser history, which is a big no-no

356

It’s never safe on the internet, even those set up to protect you could turn on you – sounds dramatic, but popular antivirus brand Avast and its subsidiary AVG has been caught harvesting user data via several Firefox extensions.

According to a report by ZDNet, the extensions in question are
Avast
 Online Security, AVG Online Security, Avast
SafePrice
, and AVG
SafePrice
 – all of which have since been removed by Mozilla.

The revelation came courtesy of Wladimir
Platant
, creator of trusty AdBlock Plus. He found that the extensions were collecting way much more data that they needed to work, which included the users’ browser history – something that’s prohibited by Mozilla and Google.

Despite this, Google hasn’t removed the aforementioned extensions from their Chrome browser yet and can still be downloaded from the Chrome web store.

In ZDNet’s report, they quote Avast as claiming that they’re currently working with Mozilla to resolve the issue.

If you’re on Chrome and have these extensions installed, you should remove them immediately.

antivirus
avast
avg
browser
extension
history
security


AVITA launches the colorful LIBER series lifestyle laptops

434

If you think laptops these days are getting boring with pretty much the same set of colors, AVITA has officially entered the Malaysian market and introduced the AVITA LIBER, a range of colorful laptops that aims to combine performance with passion, the LIBER series comes in 13.3-inch and 14-inch models, both models will be available with processor options from  Intel Celeron up to the Intel Core i7 processor, RAM options of 4GB and 8GB DDR3 1600MHz, SSD storage options of either 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. Most impressively, AVITA claims battery life of up to 10 hours for both models, though it wasn’t clear if the maxed out Core i7 model would sport the same battery life with a 36Wh battery.

The AVITA LIBER is clearly targeted at those who wants a lightweight laptop with decent performance on the go, the 13-inch model weighs 1.37kg and the 14-inch model weighs slightly more at 1.49kg. Unlike most laptops in the same range, the AVITA LIBER comes with a generous amount of ports, there’s two standard USB 3.0 ports, a USB-C 3.0 port that supports Display Out and Charging other devices, Mini HDMI, a headphone jack and a MicroSD card slot, that is rather reasonable for the laptops’ thickness of 15mm and 16mm for the 13-inch and 14-inch model respectively, the laptops also come with a built-in fingerprint reader and a rather huge trackpad.

What the AVITA LIBER is different from the rest, is that the company allows design customization on its laptops, as they have planned to roll out a self-service customization platform later in 2018, and work with local designers and design institutions to create and produce customized casing patterns. AVITA will also be launching a line up of accessories, including laptop sleeves, backpack and carrying cases, which all of them feature a water-repellent zipper.

AVITA has also taken the opportunity to introduce the Nexstgo PRIMUM laptops, which is its flagship commercial laptops that has known to have passed 12 US military-grade tests and 72 hardware tests, it is available in sizes of 14-inch and 15-inch, which the 14-inch model weighs really light at 1.3kg. The Nexstgo PRIMUS laptops are available in processor options of Intel vPro Core i5 and i7, and a standard Intel Core i3 processor, users can install up to 32GB of DDR4-2400MHz RAM. Storage options are also pretty flexible, as users can configure the 14-inch model with either a 256GB or 512GB SSD, while the 15-inch model can be configured with either SSD, HDD or Intel Optane memory.

The AVITA LIBER laptops are available in a wide range of colors, which includes AVITA Purple, Angel Blue, Cloud Silver, Champagne Gold, Fragrant Lilac, Matt Black, Pearl White, Princess Pink, Space Grey and Urban Ruby. More colors will be introduced soon in the near future, the AVITA LIBER will retail from RM1,799 to RM4,399.

avita
avita liber malaysia
liber
nextsgo


Axiata-Telenor merger is not happening after months of negotiations

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Big news has emerged from the telco arena – reports have said merger talks between Axiata Group Bhd and Telenor SA have been canned.

The proposed merger would’ve seen Axiata’s Celcom and Telenor’s Digi share infrastructures and telecom assets.

Both brands are strong players in the industry, a merger could’ve given Maxis – who’re currently top player – a run for their money.

The Star reports complexities in the proposed transaction as main causes of a fall out between both parties. The report continues by saying that both camps had worked diligently across four months to find common ground.

Earlier on, there were also talks that should the merger have happened, significant jobs cuts would’ve taken place – however, these were just rumours.

Despite broken down talks of the merger, we reckon both Celcom and Digi will continue to flourish under their current respective leaderships. For us consumers, it means more options and better prices.

Axiata
celcom
digi
merger
telco
Telenor


Backed a Pebble Time? Pebble shows off the things you can do with it

398

As we all know, the Pebble Time is the most successful project in Kickstarter history and while the pledge is about to end in a couple of days, the company has just sent out the 7th update to backers (I’m one of them) to show us some stuffs that we can play on its new colored e-paper display smart watch. With the help of Pebble SDK 3.0, the Pebble Time is now able to play some nice 2D games and animate high quality watch faces, this is something that not many smart watches in the market are able to do so. Last but not the least, Pebble has also added support for step, swim and sleep tracking apps like Misfit, Jawbone UP,
Swim.com
 and Morpheus Sleep Tracker in its new software update as well as maintaining native integration with Strava, Endomondo, MapMyRun, Runtastic, Runkeeper and more.

Are you excited already? If you haven’t backed the project, there’s still chance so do head on to the source link down below to back the smart watch at $189 including delivery. Meanwhile, let’s look forward to more exciting apps from developers soon.


Backing up 101: How to transfer WhatsApp messages from Android to iPhone

635

The point is, WhatsApp is really convenient. It has basically revolutionized the way of communication; from being able to send messages, to pictures and even documents, without a hassle. And since it’s an essential for a lot of Android and iOS users, what happens if you decide to switch phones? Have you ever wondered how you could backup your messages from Android to iPhone? Fret not, this article’s for you.

Transferring WhatsApp messages from Android to iPhone using email chat

Step 1: On your Android device, open up your “WhatsApp” and go to “Settings”. Click “Chat Settings”, and on the drop down list shown, click “Email chat”.
 Step 2: Then, choose the WhatsApp conversation or history that you wish to transfer. A pop-up window saying “attaching media will generate a larger email message” will appear. Depending on your needs, you can click ‘Without Media” or “Attach Media”.
 Step 3: You will be prompted to key in your email address to the sending interface, then just hit “Send”.
 Step 4: Once you have sent, you can now log into your email on your new iPhone. You will be able to view your WhatsApp messages on your email account but you won’t be able to sync the messages to your WhatsApp account.

2. Transferring WhatsApp messages from Android to iPhone using WhatsApp Backup

Step 1: On your Android device, backup your WhatsApp messages. Once the backup is complete, go to “Settings” and click “Chat Settings”. When the drop down list appears, click “Backup conversations”.
 Step 2: Uninstall the WhatsApp application from your old Android device.
 Step 3: Download and install WhatsApp on your new iPhone. Once you have installed, use your original phone number to register your WhatsApp account on your iPhone. You will then receive a pop-up window saying that the backup of the messages is found.
 Step 4: Next, transfer your WhatsApp history by clicking the “Restore” command. Your WhatsApp messages will then be transferred from your Android device to your new iPhone. The transfer process will take some time depending on the size of your backup. Wait until the process has been finished successfully.

3. Transferring WhatsApp messages from Android to iPhone using Transfer Software

Step 1: Download and install the Backuptrans Android iPhone WhatsApp Transfer + on your PC and the launch the program.
 Step 2: Using USB cables, connect the Android and iPhone devices to your computer. You will get some on-screen tips on how to make your devices recognized by the app. On your phone agree to “Backup My Data” when it pops up and don’t provide your password.
 Step 3: On your PC, go to the Android device. The program will automatically display all your WhatsApp conversations in the device. Right-click on the device name and select “Transfer Messages from Android to iPhone”.

Now you should have a variety of ways you could use to transfer messages from your old Android device to your new iPhone. Be sure to let us know which methods would work best for you.

android
backup
ios
iphone
messages
whatsapp


BACKLIGHT CHERRY KEYBOARD MECHANICAL KEYBOARD MX BOARD 6.0

341

Today WeChat announced an interesting way to share any Excel and PowerPoint files, setting up mass group meetings while chatting with your colleagues, family and friends within the display of your desktop and mobile devices – WeChat Desktop. Now it comes with international English language support, innovative handy features and functions that are previously only available on mobile applications.

With WeChat Desktop, users can copy or share work-related files by simple as dragging and dropping files over for instant download. Besides that, you can capture, graphics, charts and icons effortlessly through special screenshot tools that are available within this update and you shall no worries about your files missing because everything will be synced across each other.

Now with the latest update you can summon other users to respond in the group chat by simply tagging the individual which in turn will receive a separate notification and the best part is you now can recall back your messages which you send by accident within two minutes.

Here’s the easy step for you to download WeChat Desktop for Window so you can click
here
, and Mac OS over
here
. You will require to scan QR code on your first successful login per desktop.

android
desktop
ios
mac
os
software
wechat
windows


Baidu will be testing out self-driving cars in the U.S.

276

Chinese tech company Baidu is aiming to make self-driving cars commericially viable by 2018. To that end, Baidu will be testing its own autonomous cars in the U.S. very soon.

In an interview with Baidu’s Chief Scientist Andrew Ng, Ng says that being able to test its cars in the U.S. would be a significant step for the company. To that end, Baidu has been advocating for better coordination with the U.S. government, which he sais is necessary to get self-driving cars on the road.

While self-driving cars are capable of handling a wide variety of situations, the fact of the matter is that self-driving cars are still not ready for the open road as the accident that happened with
Google’s own self-driving car can attest
. To counter that solution, Ng recommends that the government could make small changes in infrastructure to accommodate robot cars. “The (artificial intelligenece) is good enough where the changes to infrastructure are modest. Maybe in the distant future, we could make it drive like a human driver, but not in two years,” says Ng.

As for Baidu’s self driving vehicle aspirations, the company hopes to roll out self-driving shuttles that runs in a loop in a limited area in China by the end of 2018.

Source:
The Wall Street Journal

artificialintelligence
baidu
selfdrivingcar


Baidu’s text-to-speech system sounds close to a human

331

Three months ago, Baidu showed off DeepVoice, a system that turns text into speech which could produce speech that is eerily similar to a human voice and in almost in real time, but it could only learn one voice at a time and require many hours of audio to build a sample. Fast forward to today, and the company has just released DeepVoice 2 which can learn a persons voice in just 30 minutes of audio and a single system and imitate hundred different speakers.

DeepVoice 2 learns the common traits shared across hundreds of speakers to build a human voice and tweaks it to craft different characters without any human aid. Baidu is targeting digital assistants that use voice commands and ebooks to show the different characters, giving a unique experience to ebook lovers.

However Baidu is not the only one that is experimenting with this technology, Google has published a research on WaveNet, a vocoder that made huge gains in audio quality over traditional speech systems and Lyrebird, a Canadian startup, showed a system that could imitate the voice of famous figures based on one minute of audio data.

baidu
deepvoice
google
lyrebird
wavenet


Balenciaga fans can now flex with a Bang & Olufsen Speaker Bag

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If carrying a Balenciaga handbag is becoming too mainstream for you, the luxury brand has collaborated with Bang & Olufsen to unveil the Balenciaga | Bang & Olufsen Speaker bag at the 51st Couture show in Paris, the speaker is crafted to resemble the sculptural form of Balenciaga’s handbags, while it features B&O’s signature portable speaker styling.

The Balenciaga speaker bag will offer an impressive 18 hour battery life on a single charge and multipoint connectivity, while it features a door at the rear that reveals a sizeable compartment wrapped in Balenciaga’s Italian lambskin leather that’s assembled by hand, controls are placed under the handle, and the entire body is made out of anodized aluminum from B&O’s factory.

If you are looking to find this at Balenciaga outlets and electronic stores in Malaysia, you will be disappointed as it is only limited to 20 editions and can only be purchased at the newly opened Balenciaga Couture store in Paris, which we won’t be surprised if it is already sold out by now.

Well, at least we know luxury handbags aren’t so boring now.

balenciaga
bang & olufsen
speaker bag


Barnes & Noble launches low cost Amazon Fire 7 rival

285

Barnes & Noble, the largest retail bookseller in the United States, has launched yet another NOOK tablet which seems to rival Amazon’s Fire 7 tablet, despite recent claims of the company shutting down its NOOK based digital offerings. THe NOOK Tablet 7 might be the retailer’s attempt to revive its NOOK efforts, though NOOK has been struggling each quarter financially. Regardless, let’s take a look at what the NOOK Tablet 7 offers.

As it is a low cost tablet, we shouldn’t expect a lot from Barnes & Noble, and hopefully not complain at all. The NOOK Tablet 7, as its name states, sports a 7-inch IPS screen at 1024 x 600 resolution. Underneath the hood lies an unspecified quad core chipset and an undisclosed amount of RAM, which isn’t much of a surprise. Onboard storage is 8GB, which can be expanded up to a further 128GB via the micro SD card slot.

The NOOK Tablet 7 has a 5MP rear camera with auto focus and a 2MP front facing shooter, sufficient enough for video calling. The battery capacity of the tablet wasn’t specified, but the company claims it to offer up to 7 hours of reading, video watching and web browsing. The NOOK Tablet 7 runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, with a slew of B&N and NOOK apps pre-installed for access to the Barnes & Noble store, e-books and digital content such as newspapers and magazines from your fingertips.

The NOOK Tablet 7 as mentioned earlier, is a low cost tablet, and it carries a price tag of $49.99 (RM218.21), so neither of us should complain about what the tablet offers. The similarly priced Amazon Fire 7, will have its price slashed further on Black Friday to an even more fierce $33.33 (RM145.49). How successful will Barnes & Noble’s latest NOOK tablet turn out to be?

Source:
Barnes & Noble
 Via:
Pocketnow

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BARS: New Facebook app is made for aspiring rappers

651

Facebook launched a new app today; BARS in an app that is only available in the US App Store at the moment and is currently in a closed beta test.

BARS is not available to everyone yet

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BARS (@getbarsapp)

Users can download the app, but they’ll have to join the waitlist before being able to test BARS out. Users can just use beats that are readily available in the app and start creating their own raps, or even select the Challenge mode to start freestyle-ing with word cues.

Enjoy extra tools to make your rap better

In addition, BARS will also automatically suggest rhymes to help users stay on track with their rap flow. You can also add audio and visual filters to make your creations stand out.

“We’ll be opening up invites in batches,”

said its creator DJ Iyer. BARS is also part of the
NPE apps
 and because of their experimental nature, some of these apps may be shut down when results are unpromising. You can also checkout the BARS app
here
 and its Instagram
here
.

BARS
facebook
NPE


Batman: Arkham Knight updated on PC

369

Good news for Batman fans! The new patch has been completed and immediately available for those who already own Batman: Arkham Knight on PC. There are some of the major fixes and improvements that will be addressed with this new patch from the dev team.

Reduced frame rate hitches

Optimizations for system memory and VRAM usage

Improved performance on all GPUs (requires the latest drivers)

More Comprehensive In-Game Settings

Fixed low resolution texture bugs

Fixed hitches when running on mechanical hard drives (HDD)

In addition to the above, we’re continuing to work on the following for future updates:

Adding support for SLI and Crossfire

Adding support for the latest DLC & Season Pass content

Adding support for additional updates such as Photo Mode

The changelog also mentions there are some continued improvements and bug fixing for a Window 7 specific memory issue that occurs on configurations with 8GB of system RAM and some NVIDIA GPUs during extended gameplay. The dev team will be monitoring for any additional issues that come up and will provide further optimizations plus bug fixes along the way.

The new patch size is 626.2 MB, so fire up your Steam to get the new update and play with better framerate.

arkhamknight
batman
bug
fix
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Battery flaws were to blame for the Note 7's failure

370

For months, many have speculated over what doomed Samsung’s Note 7. Today, the Korean company has finally revealed the cause for the smartphone’s tendency to explode, and true to many speculations online, the root cause of the explosions comes from the flawed batteries that the smartphone sports.

There are two distinct battery flaws that happened with the Note 7. The first main flaw is caused by how the Note 7’s original batteries were manufactured. With the original batch of Note 7 smartphones, the battery flaw stems from the electrodes. As the casing of the Note 7 was too small to safely fit the electrode assembly inside, this may cause the positive and negative electrodes to come into contact with each other, leading to a short circuit that results in the phone exploding.

The second battery flaw has to do with those found in the replacement Note 7. According to the analysts, the replacement Note 7s sport batteries that have welding defects in them. This welding defect led to the positive tab of the battery to penetrate the insulation tape and the separator, causing it to come into contact with the negative electrode and causing a short circuit. In addition to this welding mishap, there are also batteries that do not have the insulation tape in the first place.

Samsung has also run tests on the other features of the Note 7 such as fast charging, wireless charging, USB Type-C and many others. The conclusion from those tests shows that none of the other features would have cause the Note 7 to fail as it did. In short, the Note 7’s problem lies solely in its battery.

As for what the company would do going forward, Samsung has announced that it will be implementing a number of changes to its internal processes in order to prevent the Note 7’s catastrophic failure from happening again. This includes assigning teams to own the crucial final checks for each device’s core components and putting batteries through an eight-point test that ranges from visual inspection to x-ray inspection to full disassembly.

Now that Samsung and the public knows what exactly went wrong with the Note 7, let’s hope the company becomes more vigilant when it comes to the upcoming Galaxy S8 phones. After all, the company can ill-afford yet another malfunctioning flagship device.

Source:
Android Authority
,
Engadget

battery
explosion
flaws
galaxy
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Battery maker Samsung SDI struggling in the market

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Samsung’s battery making affliliate Samsung SDI has been reportedly not doing well since the Galaxy Note 7 crisis. It is without a doubt that the explosions and fire incidents surrounding Samsung’s late phablet has opened up a huge wound for Samsung SDI, and as it turns out, the future won’t be pretty.

According to Reuters, Samsung SDI’s market value plunged 20% lower since the Galaxy Note 7 crisis. It has reported double the amount of losses in Q3 this year as compared to a year ago. An SDI representative has stated that many of the company’s clients have been contacting them regarding the safety of their batteries after the tragedy which hit the Galaxy Note 7. One of SDI’s biggest clients, Apple has also questioned the safety of the company’s batteries.

That isn’t the only problem that Samsung SDI has been facing. Reuters claims that the battery affliliate might find it harder to convince potential new customers due to its jeopardized reputation. Samsung SDI will definitely be facing an uphill battle over its plans to expand into electric vehicle batteries plus renewable storage systems. Another insider from SDI has labeled the Galaxy Note 7 crisis as “very embarrassing”, as SDI is still busy picking up pieces and getting back into pace from the crisis itself.

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics has claimed that it has been focusing on looking at all possibilities in order to find the root of what really caused the Galaxy Note 7 crisis. What do you think?

Source:
Reuters

7
apple
battery
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Battle of the broadband packages: Maxis fires back at Unifi with 800Mbps plans

2.5K

The fight is on – two of the largest fibre broadband providers in the country lock horns to provide the best deal around town.

We’re talking about TM Unifi and Maxis of course, and just last week, Unifi signified their intentions by introducing their new 300Mbps package for RM199. The plan entails unlimited quota, upload speeds of 50Mbps, Unifi media box, and more; this week, Maxis answers right back with
three
new MaxiONE Home Fibre plans – 300Mbps for RM149, 500Mbps, for RM219, and 800Mbps for RM299.

Image credit: Unifi

Taking a like-for-like comparison, Maxis’ 300Mbps plan is RM50 cheaper than Unifi’s, but the catch is that it doesn’t offer much else in terms of benefits like a media box. But the knockout blow here is dealt by Maxis’ 800Mbps plan that costs exactly the same as Unifi’s 300Mbps at RM199 per month.

Image credit: Maxis

With this package, you’re talking about unlimited quota, obviously, up to a whopping 200Mbps of upload speeds, two free mesh Wi-Fi devices, and free local calls. For the uninitiated, 800Mbps is mighty fast – only Time can beat their chests with their 1Gbps plan that’s priced the the same.

But here’s where TM stands a chance – coverage; both Maxis and Time have relatively limited coverage areas as compared to Unifi – which is pretty much nation-wide at this point. 300Mbps broadband speed is sufficient for most folks anyway, we we’re going to call it even between the telcos.

broadband
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maxis
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unifi


Battle of Virtual Assistants: Siri vs Cortana

296

Microsoft has recently released a beta version of Cortana for Android in the USA and they are talking about plans to release this virtual assistant in iOS as well. As we all know, iOS comes with its very own built in virtual assistant, Siri, and this is probably the most widely used virtual assistant to date. Cortana, however, released in 2014 for the
Windows
phone
, has recently gained much popularity so here is my size up on how these two compare.

Speed and Accuracy

I ran a few tests on both Siri and Cortana to test how fast they come up with answers to a few questions, set up a few reminders as well as making calls (over the same WiFi network).I was surprised that Siri took a little extra time in answering questions compared to Cortana but was way faster in processing my commands to make calls and set reminders.

However, Siri tends to pull up web suggestions most of the time unlike Cortana which usually gives me direct responses.

Look and feel

The overall layout and interface of both assistants are simple but I personally prefer Siri’s look. Set on a black background with blue font, Cortana does not look as professional as Siri though I am expecting improvements in its looks.

As for the voice of these assistants, despite the claims that Cortana feels more “real” given the fact that it was taken from the game, Halo, I think they both sound equally good.

Witty responses

If you have a virtual assistant on your device, chances are, you are going to ask it some ridiculous questions, for example, my favourite is “Will you go out with me?” or “Do you have a boyfriend?”. The answers given by Cortana are generally funnier and I did spend more time playing around with various questions there compared to Siri.

Microsoft has definitely done a good job in making Cortana a more fun experience. Hint, do ask Cortana to sing for you.

In conclusion, both Siri and Cortana are equally efficient virtual assistants although I would still pick Siri for convenience. Since Microsoft is planning to release Cortana on more platforms, I would expect it to have more improvements in terms of looks, feel and speed. Ultimately, Microsoft has done a great job in developing it so far and Siri is definitely in for some tough competition.

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Battlecry now open for beta sign-up

453

Remember Dirty Bomb? Just announced a few months ago, the game is based on team-based FPS game and, fortunately, there will be a competitor for Dirty Bomb. During E3, Bethesda announced a new game from the Battlecry Studio – Battlecry. It’s a team-based PvP game where you fight with one of the three factions; The Imperial Marines, the Cossack Empire, and the Han Republic.

There will be 5 different mercenary – Enforce is a Melee class that uses a one-handed weapon to brutally slash thru the enemies, Gadgeteer is a Range class that uses gun as their main weapon to eliminate the enemies from a distance, Brawler is another Melee class but he will be using knuckle instead of any sword, Infiltrator is a Melee class that uses dual-wielder sword to open path as fast as lighting and Ranger is a ranged class that uses a bow that capable to shoot some element arrow toward the enemy.
Kudos to the team because they allow a gamer to customize their own character with the theme they desire. Now you are also able to register for the beta sign-up and try out the game, I highly recommend for that gamer that require fast-paced game and this will be the one for you.

You can sign up over
here
.


Battlefield 1 will be the next Battlefield game

367

After months of rumours and speculation, it is finally official: EA will be bringing the Battlefield series to World War I in Battlefield 1.

While many have been wondering if Battlefield 1 will be set in an alternate World War I, DICE has confirmed that the game will be set in World War I proper with period accurate weaponry, army and vehicles. Indeed, the trailer shows that some of the vehicles that will be available in the game includes the British Mark V tank and biplanes. Horseback calvary will also be in the game thanks to the presence of the Ottoman Empire. Other notable inclusions in the trailer include artillery, zeppelins, and what appears to be mustard gas.

DICE has confirmed that there will be a single player campaign alongside the multiplayer meat, but seeing how the campaigns were like for Battlefields 3 and 4, we don’t expect much from it. Battlefield 1 will have a launch date of 21st October.

Source:
Kotaku

battlefield
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Battlefield 4 getting a new DLC – Night Operations DLC

338

It has been almost two years since Battlefield 4 came out, but Electronics Arts (EA) doesn’t to be quite done with the game. A new nighttime-focused DLC called Night Operations is set to come out in September, with a new map called Zavod. With a new feature that called Graveyard shift that has a several improvements and tweaks to allow for more stealthy and tactical gameplay which including sound and destructible light sources.

EA said they already touched things like passive/active spotting to make it easier to flank your opponent. Besides that, the company also improved the sound system so you can pinpoint where those footsteps come from, and you will be given the gadgets and tools of the night an improvement pass to make them shine in the dark.

The maps will be based on the Zavod 113 map: Graveyard Shift supports all standard game modes, but also offers a second, even darker layout for Gun Master mode which EA claims the plays very differently at night and with the new Night Operations will make a significant changes that aren’t specifically related to running around in the dark as change.

Unfortunately, there isn’t an exact launch date been unveiled at the moment, but EA said there will be more information will be released soon. However, don’t worry because you still can get a taste of what’s in store in the brief playtest footage playing with that has been attaching.

battlefield
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pcmasterrace


BB Merah Putih announces the BlackBerry Aurora

394

The BlackBerry name appears to be far from dead as the Indonesia-based BB Merah Putih has announced that it has a BlackBerry smartphone of its own: the BlackBerry Aurora.

Stated by BB Merah Putih’s Vice President Stanly Widjaja as “the first BlackBerry device in the world to be equipped with dual-SIM functionality,” the BlackBerry Aurora is equipped with a Snapdragon 425 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and a 3,000mAh battery. The phone features a 5.5″ 720p touchscreen and operates on Android Nougat.

For imaging, the BlackBerry Aurora carries a 13MP rear camera with phase detection auto focus (PDAF) and dual-tone LED flash. As for the front camera, the Aurora comes with an 8MP snapper with LED flash.

The Blackberry Aurora is expected to launch in Indonesia with a price tag of IDR3,499,000 (RM1,166). No word was given as to whether or not the phone will be made available outside of Indonesia, so you should probably tamper your expectations for it.

Source:
GSMArena
,
BB Merah Putih

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BBM update for iOS and Android makes premium features available for free

312

Two features from BlackBerry’s BBM app for iOS and Android will be made available to everyone as a recent update has made Retract and Timer free to users.

Previously, both Retract and Timer can only be accessed by those who subscribed to BBM’s premium features. Today, an update released for BBM has removed the paywell for both features. The first of the two features is Retract, a tool that lets its users delete individual messages on both the user’s own device as well as the recepient’s. The other feature is Timer, which is a Snapchat-style tool for ephemeral messaging. This feature allows users to set the duration of time their text and photos would be visible to the participants of a chat.

Apart from the premium features, some minor improvements have been made to BBM in general. Some of these improvements include the ability to forward messages from one chat to another, improved BBM Voice Call quality on Android and iOS, as well as giving BBM Android 6.0 support.

Source:
Inside Blackberry
,
Engadget

android
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BBM Video Beta now live for Asia-Pacific users

550

BBM loyalists rejoice as BlackBerry has finally made BBM Video Beta available to Android an iOS users in Asia-Pacific.

The BBM Video Beta has been available in other regions for a while now, with Asia-Pacific just receiving this feature yesterday. According to BlackBerry, the company has decided to release the feature in smaller markets first in order to adress any issues that might have come up before opening up the feature to more traffic. Despite the Beta moniker, BlackBerry has stated that BBM Video is stable.

For those interested, you can now download the BBM Video Beta off the Android Play Store or the iOS App Store. However, do note that your Android device needs to be running OS 4.4 KitKat or higher, and you iOS device must be running iOS 8 or higher. Needless to say, your contact must also have the app before you’re able to make video calls to each other.

Aside from the BBM Video Beta, BlackBerry has promised that more features will be coming in its next BBM release, which is scheduled to launch this summer. Some of the features that you can expect from the next BBM release includes phone number registration, improvements to group chats, and expanded message retraction for stickers, files, and other content. Android users will be able to share larger videos with their contacts on the upcoming BBM release, while iOS users will have to option to mute chat and group notifications.

Source:
BlackBerry Blog

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‘Be a Portrait Expert’ workshop: Learn to use the Reno6 Z’s camera and maybe even win an Enco Air!

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Still stuck at home, aren’t you? Well, if you’re looking to up your photography skills, OPPO is organising a live workshop that teaches its audience how to maximise the potential of the Reno6 Z’s camera. This online workshop is called “Be a Portrait Expert” and best of all, it’s free of charge!

It’s not just a photography workshop though; those who join the workshop will get to watch our local content creator Jestinna Kuan demonstrate the camera features of the Reno6 Z and also win RM100 voucher codes. If you’re lucky, you may even be one of the five individuals to walk away with the OPPO Enco Air.

So, why should you join this workshop?

Not only can you learn more
photography tips
, but you can also apply them by joining OPPO’s ongoing OPPO RENOVATORS Portrait Photography contest. This contest offers prizes up to RM51,000 and opportunities for winners to co-create with OPPO, in addition to having early access to new OPPO products.

Where to join the Reno6 Z ‘Be a Portrait Expert’ workshop

If you’re a proud owner of this Reno6 Z, or you’re just interested in learning more about smartphone photography, you can participate in this workshop by watching it on OPPO’s
YouTube
 channel or official
Facebook
 page. It will take place on September 11 at 8:30pm, so mark your calendars!

reno6 z


Be prepared to see MediaTek chips in Amazon’s new Fire TV and HD tablets

386

Amazon’s Fire HD tablets are great devices and they do pack a lot of fire power for its affordability, the flagship Kindle HDX for instance, uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 chip. According to a recent report by DIGITIMES, Taiwanese chipmaker
MediaTek
has announced that it will continue to  provide its silicon for Amazon’s upcoming Fire TV, Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 tablets. The new Fire TV will use the MTK8173 chip, a 64-bit quad-core processor while the two Fire HD tablets will receive the MT8135 1.5GHz quad-core processor.

The MT8173 in particular is an interesting chip as according to sources, instead of using four similar cores, the chip has a pair of high performance Cortex A72 and efficient Cortex A53 cores which makes it a rare mobile processor that we’ve ever seen, the MT8173 is no slouch in its capabilities as it features UHD 30 fps video playback, high display clarity and motion fluency on 120Hz displays. The included PowerVR GX6250 GPU supports OpenGL ES 3.1 and is optimized for WQXGA displays at 60 fps, all of these features could mean that we should be seeing some amazing app and graphical performance on Amazon’s new Fire TV box.

We should expect Amazon to announce its new refreshed Fire product line ups soon, and
MediaTek
 is well known for its affordable system-on-chips so we could expect these new devices to be priced around the same as well.

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Be quiet! Extends Dark Power Pro 11 Series with Three Models

336

Be quiet! the market leader in PC
power
supplies
 in Germany and is extending for the Dark Power Pro 11 series. New models with 550, 650 and 750 Watt capacity will tally to the 850, 1000 and 1200 Watt power supplies that were introduced in May. With their 80 PLUS Platinum certification and a slew of noise optimizations, these are the manufacturer’s most efficient and silent models.

These alternatives for less demanding high-end systems offer a well-known feature set. These include modular cable management, fan controlled by a temperature sensor, and the Overclocking key. The latter allows the merger of four separate 12V rails to switch from multi-rail operation to single-rail, delivering maximum performance under high loads.

With the help of optimized “Half Bridge + LLC + SR + DC/DC” topology, the Dark Power Pro 11
power
supplies
 with 550, 650, and 750 Watt have extremely high efficiency, up to 94% (80 PLUS Platinum certification) The power supply is utilizing a SilentWings 3 in 135-milimeter format, for near-silent operation. The power supply offers 6-pole motor and airflow-optimized fan blades with “Fluid Dynamic Bearing ” with low startup speed of 220 rotations per minute and the funnel shaped air intake have been adopted as well.

The manufacturer provides consistently implemented aluminium solid capacitors to ensure high durability and reliability. All capacitors are specified for 105 degrees celsius and have an output noise generated by load changes is prevented by using high-quality components. The sophisticated board layout with six daughter boards leads to the shorter interconnects and enables good heat dissipation.

The new model versions in the Dark Power Pro 11 series are available in shops as of today for a price of USD149 (approx. RM 650)-(550 Watt), USD 164 (approx. RM 710)-(650 Watt) and USD 179 (approx. RM 770)-(750 Watt).

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Be the first few in Malaysia to get the Vivo V15 at Vivo’s Superday Sale this Saturday!

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If you’ve been eyeing the new Vivo V15, you can be one of the first in the country to own the phone if you head over to Vivo’s Superday Sale at One Utama this Saturday,

Happening at the shopping mall’s Ground Floor, New Wing, Vivo will be handing out gift boxes worth up to RM299 as well as RM200 worth of Petronas Gift Cards to the first 50 people to buy the Vivo V15. Two lucky customers will also get to win the Vivo V15 Pro too!

Besides the phone itself, you can also look forward to games and activities such as claw machines, “Break the GoldEGG” challenges which let you stand a chance to win even more prizes.

You can also pre-order the V15 from now until March 22 for RM1,399 and receive gift boxes worth up to RM299, which contain items like a phone holder, Bluetooth headphones and a 6-month screen protection warranty.

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Beats by Dre collaborates with Disney, unveiling Mickey Mouse headphones.

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Apple’s Beats by Dre introduced a new pair of headphones, and it’s for Mickey Mouse’s fans. The limited edition Beats Solo3 Wireless headphones is made in conjunction of Mickey Mouse’s 90th anniversary through a collaboration with Disney, featuring a very classic version of Mickey Mouse.

Image credit : Apple

The Mickey Mouse character is printed all over the band and the ear cups, and the headphones are grey in colour. The headphones are shipped with a custom felt case that is also grey, though it’s slightly darker in colour.

Image credit : Apple

The Beats Solo3 Wireless features the Apple’s W1 chip for Bluetooth pairing and also the ability to switch between devices with the same iCloud account. Like the current Solo 3 Wireless, it has “Fast Fuel” tech which supports fast charging. Users can get three hours of playback just by charging the headphones for 5 minutes, and when it is fully charged, users can listen up to 40 hours of playback.

The Mickey Mouse 90th Anniversary edition Beats Solo3 Wireless headphones is priced at $329.95, slightly pricier than the normal edition that costs $299.95. It is now available for pre-order in Amazon and will be available in Apple retail stores,
Apple.com
, Best Buy and
Disney.com
 from 11 November.

apple
Beats by Dre
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Beats Fit Pro is available in Malaysia and its priced at RM909

1.7K

Apple
‘s Beats Fit Pro that launched November last year has finally arrived in Malaysia. The buds feature a secure fit, active noise cancellation, and spatial audio.

You won’t have to worry about the buds falling off as you can trust its universal wingtip design to stay put even when you’re working out or moving around. They also provide three soft silicone tips in the box for you to make use of.

Credit: Apple

Under the hood, we have the
Apple H1
 chip — meaning you get features such as instant one-touch pair with your Apple devices and automatic re-routing of your audio.

Other than that, the buds also come with
Active Noise Cancelling (ANC)
 to filter out unwanted noises and you can even switch to Transparency mode for when you need to be aware of your surroundings. The
Spatial Audio
 also helps to immersify you during your media consumption.

Image Credit: Apple

Apple claims you can get up to 6 hours of listening time with the charging case providing an extra 18 hours. But that’s with the ANC turned on, when it’s off, you’ll get up to 7 hours.

The Beats Fit Pro is available in four colours — Black, White, Stone Purple, and Sage Gray — and retails at
RM909
. If you’re interested in getting them, head to Apple Malaysia’s website
here
.

apple
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Beats Studio Buds+ introduced with a new transparent case for RM699

5.9K

Apple has introduced the Beats Studio Buds+ today, which succeeds the Studio Buds that was released two years ago with a similar design, though audio performance has been significantly upgraded with a new custom acoustic platform that packs powerful, balanced sound.

In terms of comfort, the Beats Studio Buds+ introduces a reengineered acoustic venting that improves audio precision, while gently relieving pressure for a more comfortable all day fit, it also includes a two-layer transducer that flexes to deliver cleaner bass and ultra-low distortion, so users can expect richer and more immersive sound that the previous generation.

Like the AirPods Pro Second Generation, the Studio Buds+ comes with four eartip sizes of XS, S, M & L to offer wearers the best fit for their ears.

The microphones of the Studio Buds+ is 3x larger than its predecessor which Apple calls it voice-targeting mics, its processor has been trained on 7000 hours of different noises from all over the world, which can better pinpoint your voice in noisy environments.

As a Beats product, the Studio Buds+ isn’t limited to just Apple devices when it comes to its functionality, as it is the only earbuds that support both Apple’s and Google’s Find My device service, which lets users locate their earbuds over the respective cloud locating services should they misplace them.

On top of that, the Studio Buds+ natively supports One-touch pairing on Apple devices and Google Fast Pair on Android devices, audio switching between different Apple devices and Google-based devices such as Android phones and Chromebooks, and its firmware can be updated OTA automatically on Apple devices and over the Beats app on Android devices.

Unlike AirPods, the Beats Studio Buds+ can support Spatial Audio for Dolby Atmos on both Apple and supported Android devices, which makes this a great value proposition.

Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency Mode comes as standard on the Studio Buds+, it also gains the AirPods Pro 2nd Gen’s adaptive active noise cancellation feature that can cancel noise more efficiently depending on your environment, these earbuds continue to be IPX4 rated against sweat and water.

Battery life has been improved over the previous model as Apple claims up to 9 hours of listening time on a single charge without ANC and total of 36 hours with the case, it charges over USB-C and offers up to 1 hour of playback with just a 5-minute charge, though sadly there’s no wireless charging for the case unlike the AirPods Pro.

In terms of color options, the Beats Studio Buds+ come in a new and cool Transparent case, alongside the regular Black/Gold and Ivory color, it goes on sale in the US for $169.99 and ships in 1-day, while it retails for RM699 in Malaysia, slightly more expensive than the previous model and Apple hasn’t started shipping here at this time of writing, which you can head
here
 to buy one when it becomes available.

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The Beats Studio3 Wireless headphone has Apple’s W1 chip and noise cancellation without breaking the bank

388

Wireless headphones with noise cancellation aren’t cheap, and Beats by Dr Dre’s new Studio3 Wireless headphone is a rather decently priced one, it has Apple’s W1 chip built in for easy pairing and seamless switching between supported iOS devices and most importantly, it features the company’s new and proprietary Pure Adaptive Noise Canceling (Pure ANC) technology, the headphone also uses an industry-class leading Class 1 Bluetooth connectivity for a reliable and longer range connectivity.

The Studio3 Wireless headphone’s battery life is rated at 22 hours with Pure ANC turned on, and up to 40 hours with Pure ANC turned off, double the battery life of its predecessor. If you happen to run out battery, the headphone features Fast Fuel charging which aims to give you 3 hours of playback time with just 10 minutes of charging via its MicroUSB port. On how it blocks noise out of the cans, the headphone monitors your environment continuously and uses advanced algorithm to determine the level of noise cancellation required, it also takes the current audio playback into consideration and adjusts accordingly to ensure audio fidelity. Beats have also implemented on-ear controls and a built-in microphone, which allows users to make calls, skip songs, control volume and activate Siri.

Apple will start selling the Beats Studio3 Wireless beginning October 9th at the Apple Online Store and resellers for RM1,460, color options are available in Matte Black, White, Blue and Reed, special edition colors of Porcelain Rose and Shadow Grey, it is strategically priced against Bose’s QC35 and Sony’s MDR-1000X, though both of the latter uses Active Noise Cancellation rather than Adaptive Noise Cancellation, the Beats Studio3 Wireless headphone owns them with its great battery life and connectivity.

apple
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Belkin and Devialet’s latest product combines a smart speaker and a wireless charger

485

When you hear the name Belkin, I’m pretty sure wireless chargers come into mind. Now, the company has collaborated with Devialet — a company famous for its loudspeakers — to create the Soundform Elite Hi-Fi Smart Speaker + Wireless Charger.

Yes, that’s a rather long name but basically, this product is a Google Assistant-powered smart speaker that can wireless charge your devices. With Devialet’s Speaker Active Matching (SAM) technology and “Push-Push” woofer design, this speaker is said to be able to cancel out vibration while delivering rich bass while also reducing audio distortion at higher volumes.

While the bottom half is similar to the Apple HomePod’s design, the top is angled so you can place your phone there for wireless charging. The Soundform Elite has a Qi wireless charger with 10W charging support, in addition to some control buttons.

The Soundform Elite is priced at $299 and will go on sale in February.

Belkin
Devialet
google assistant
smart speaker
Soundform Elite
Wireless charger


Benchmark results of a Moto X by Lenovo

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We’ve had a couple of leaks of a Moto G device from Lenovo recently, but no news about a flagship from the recently merged company, till now. A new benchmark test from GeekBench has revealed to us some specs about the upcoming flagship handset by the OEM.

A Moto device with model number Motorola XT-1650, is likely the successor to the Moto X Pure Edition launched last year. The Moto X Pure Edition carried an XT-1575 model number. Not much is being revealed in terms of specs, but we have a few, which is better than none at all. First off, the Moto X 2016 will be powered by the flagship standard Snapdragon 820 processor, coupled with 4GB of RAM alongside it. Unfortunately, that’s about it for the time being.

The Moto X 2016 will most likely pack a fingerprint sensor as well. We’re almost sure that it will given the fact that the rumored Moto G for this year will have a fingerprint sensor too. As usual, we’ll be looking forward to a device that can properly compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the LG G5. Till then, stay tuned!

Source:
GeekBench

2016
benchmark
geekbench
lenovo
moto
motorola
pure
x


Benchmark results of Asus Zenfone 3 derivation spotted

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With the recent launch of the Asus Zenfone Zoom, many have been expecting the next line of Zenfone’s to storm the smartphone market this year. Some have also been hopeful of the new high end Zenfone 3, expected to launch in mid-2016, to be able to pick a fight with flagships from LG and Samsung.

Nevertheless, benchmark results of a Zenfone 3 variant have been spotted on GFX Bench. Also known as the the Z010DD, it shouldn’t be Asus’ highest end Zenfone this year as its specs are tame compared to that of the 4GB RAM Zenfone 2.

We are definitely seeing a midrange variant of the Zenfone 3 with 3GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 615 processor. Running on Google’s latest Android Marshmallow, its screen is a bit of a letdown with an average 5.9 inch 720p display.

Another benchmark surfaced not too long ago as well. Model numbered Z012D, its resolution is upped to 1080p but shrinking the display to 5.5 inches, switching to a hexa-core Snapdragon 650 processor instead of the 615.

Don’t be disappointed just yet. Considering the number of Zenfone’s released last year, we are sure that Asus has more in store for us. For now, just sit tight and wait.

Source:
GFX Bench (1)
,
GFX Bench (2)
  Via:
Pocketnow

asus
benchmark
gfxbench
zenfone3


Benchmarks for the Snapdragon 850 surfaces on Geekbench

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Qualcomm is slowly moving into the PC business and they showed us previous, that the Snapdragon 835 processor is capable of running Windows 10 on an ARM processor. However, the performance was questionable and the company said that the Snapdragon 850 processor would fix those problems.

Qualcomm has promised that the 850 will have a 30% improvement in performance when compared to the 835 processor, the benchmark result tells a different story. WinFuture sported the listing on Geekbench for a Lenovo 81JL which is said to run on the Snapdragon 850 processor and it shows a single-core score of 2263 and on multi-core, it scored 6947. When compared to the Asus NovaGo which has the 835 chip, its scores were 1802 and 6475 respectively. That is roughly a 23% improvement which is quite a letdown.

The Snapdragon 850 processor is based off the 845 processor which means that we would still need to wait and see some decent performing ARM processors that can run Windows 10. For now, we will still have to stick to either Team Red or Team Blue.

10
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arm
processor
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Benchmarks on a new Sony flagship devices leaks, sources indicate it will be equipped with the Snapdragon 835

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Sony has been quiet for some time for a good reason. Recently, there has been a report that Sony is testing a flagship device and a benchmark result of the phone has been spotted on Geekbench. There is no name given to the device except for the model number which was listed as G8341.

The motherboard that the phone is using indicates that it is using the Snapdragon 835 processor, but on the specs sheet, it just shows that it is an 8-core 1.90Ghz processor. In other parts, it will have 4GB of RAM and will be running on Android 7.1.1. How the phone performs is also pretty decent, on single core performance it scored 1909 and 6459 on multicore processing. This indicates that it performs better compared to its rivals and the speculations points to the upcoming Sony Xperia XZ1.

A few weeks ago, the FCC certification panel displayed three upcoming Sony phones. Among the two, it was confirmed that it will be the Xperia XZ1 and XZ Compact but the third one is still unknown. It’s good to see Sony bringing competition into the smartphone market which can only be good to us consumers.

benchmarks
geekbench
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XZ1


BenQ F5 Review: Ergonomic display tech, affordable LTE smartphone

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BenQ, a household name that’s famous for its PC monitors have resurfaced itself in the mobile industry which many may not have heard of its presence on phones back in the Windows Mobile era. Looking at its Taiwanese pals such as ASUS succeeding in the smartphone market, it’s no wonder that the company has decided to release smartphones with its best secret weapon – display technology. The BenQ F5 is a mid-range LTE capable smartphone that the company has decided to kick start its smartphone market once again.

BenQ F5 Video Review

BenQ F5 Hardware Specifications

Processor:
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
 1.2GHz Quad Core

RAM/ROM: 2GB/16GB built-in with MicroSD expansion

Display: 5″ IPS (1280 x 720) with Low Blue Light technology

Camera: 13MP (main), 2MP (front)

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, BT 4.0

Networks: LTE Cat 4/DC-HSPA+

Battery: 2520 mAh

Comfortable aesthetics and display

The BenQ F5 isn’t special in terms of design, its overall design resembles a mixture of HTC and Lenovo’s products, it has some nice rounded corners which makes the phone comfortable to hold and thanks to its nice matte textured back cover, you won’t slip the phone easily.

As we’ve mentioned at the very beginning of this review, all you really need to pay attention to the BenQ F5 is how comfortable the display is. If you are familiar with BenQ’s monitor products, you’d have known its Low Blue Light Technology, this reduces the Blue color element on the display that makes it more comfortable for the human eye. In our experience, we perceived the difference instantly after turning on the mode, however you might at times find colors slightly washed out or looking unnatural, it’s really good if you are reading web pages for long durations.

The BenQ F5 isn’t going to create a WOW factor in the smartphone market, but you really can’t deny that this is one of the most health conscious smartphone in the market, especially when you are working on your smartphone most of the time.

Software experience that isn’t trying hard to differentiate

BenQ has loaded its very own Q UI on the phone’s software experience based on Android 4.4 KitKat, the UI performs snappily and there isn’t a moment of lag despite having a slower processor, it has definitely made us happy in many ways, however those app icons are really the eye sore of the user experience, blame us for getting exposed to other phone UI such as MIUI, HTC Sense or even the heavy
Samsung
 TouchWiz, the app icons looked extremely outdated, and the company has kept some parts of the user experience entirely in Vanilla theme.

It isn’t really bad, but we just wished that Q UI would have been a little more consistent in its software experience. Lastly, BenQ has removed the app drawer just like every other Chinese smartphone makers and replaced it with a ‘New Corner’ that will store your newly installed apps. Seriously, why can’t BenQ just stick back to the good old Vanilla Android UI?

BenQ has included a number of productivity apps on the phone’s software, depending on the user, they can be pretty useful or you can download better alternatives from Google Play. You have a note taking app called Qmemo, wireless transfer client called Qsora that works pretty well over WiFi, and Qmoney to track your daily expenses.

Good camera for the casual user

Having a
high resolution camera
 on a mid-range smartphone isn’t something new, such as the
case
 with Xiaomi’s Redmi Note. The BenQ F5’s camera is a pretty solid performer in taking day shots with accurate color saturation and decent auto focus and shutter performance, the camera app isn’t the most interesting software out there however it also features its SensEye technology that works similarly to ASUS’s PixelMaster and HTC’s Ultrapixel technology that compromises Megapixels for higher lighting exposure, despite of that the camera sadly isn’t great for low light photography. Check out the camera samples down below.

Video recording is supported up to 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second, which should be really sufficient for the average user who wants to do simple videography on the go.

Benchmarks, Battery Life and Network

Despite of its snappy performance, the BenQ F5 isn’t a solid performer in benchmarks, we wished BenQ could have used the faster 1.6GHz variant of the
Snapdragon 400
 SoC and that would’ve made the phone’s overall performance even better, the low score is probably caused by the Adreno 305 GPU that produces some choppy frame rates in 3D graphics test.

If you are the user that has been complaining poor battery life in mid-range smartphones, the BenQ F5 will satisfy you with that as the phone is able to last one full working day in our tests, we did lots of phone calls, received many group instant messages and even streamed music using Spotify. The phone charges fast too!

While we’re in some decent LTE coverage area, the phone occasionally drops to 3G and even EDGE data speeds at times when we were using the phone, we’ve tested it on other devices and we can certainly confirm this has something to do with the phone’s radio. Thankfully, voice calls made over the BenQ F5 is pretty good with callers reporting crisp and balanced volume.

Verdict – A good start off, but a long way to go

BenQ isn’t a company with lots of innovation when it comes to consumer electronics, the BenQ F5’s introduction to the already competitive smartphone market is certainly a daring effort, the phone now retails at RM699 and comes with a free cover
case
 for the phone. We’d hope BenQ completed the phone with a set of health related features, since its display technology is the only unique feature in the product. Despite having commonly found features on most smartphones, the BenQ F5 is a reasonably priced
LTE smartphone
 for the budget consumers.

The Good:

+ Comfortable aesthetics

+ Battery life

+ Snappy performance

+ Low Blue Light technology works well

+ Decent camera

The Not so Good:

– Boring software UI

– LTE connection isn’t stable (depending on coverage area)

Base on the score card above, the BenQ F5 gets a score of 7.5/10


BenQ’s GW2780T is the work from home monitor you will need right now

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Thinking to invest in a good monitor that not only takes care of your eye health but posture as well? BenQ has added the GW2780T 27-inch Full HD IPS monitor to its G series monitor that features a height adjustable stand, complemented with an optional RM599 Monitor Light ScreenBar that attaches to the top of the monitor for a more comfortable reading experience, this makes it one of the most comfortable productivity monitor to work at home.

Light the smaller 24-inch GW2480T, the GW2780T features a light sensor that intelligently adjusts the brightness of the monitor and enhances dark areas according to the ambient lighting, this not only helps sooth the human eye as lighting brightness change in the room, but also ensures vision health with the panel’s flicker free and low blue light technology.

With the height adjustable stand, users will also be able to swivel, tilt and pivot according to their viewing preference, the stand is able to increase up to 140mm of height from the base and should be sufficient for most tall people. The GW2780T has input ports of HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2, and D-Sub, it has two 2W speakers with audio in and out ports, great for connecting multiple devices and making it as a proper in-room entertainment monitor.

The BenQ GW2780T is now available for purchase at
Lazada
 for RM899, the
BenQ ScreenBar
 can also be purchased together with the monitor for an additional RM599.

benq
gw2480t
gw2780t


BenQ introduces a 4K HDR10 projector for all types of homes

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BenQ has just announced the availability of their new CineHome W1700 DLP 4K HDR home cinema projector which comes with the latest 4K UHD HDR technology and offers 8.3 million pixels, CinematicColor accuracy and projection-optimized HDR for a true-to-life image quality.

The W1700 utilizes a revolutionary 0.47-inch single-DMD DLP technology to minimize the projectors profile to fit better with modern lifestyles. It is able to enhance the 4K video thanks to HDR10 technology to get the best quality possible and supports HDCP 2.2 copy protection so users can enjoy all the 4K content they can get their hands on.

To get the best colours, the projector uses the BenQ CinematicColour technology and RGB colour wheel to achieve the highest standards of colour accuracy with over 96% coverage of Rec. 709 colour gamut. It also comes with CinemaMaster Video+ and CinemaMaster Audio+ to turn any space into a world-class cinema auditoriums with motion-adaptive edge pixel and dramatic audio processing for resonant base and hight notes.

Finally, it also has an auto keystone correction and a 1.2X zoom to accommodate any space alongside its sleek design and easy to setup, you will be sure to have a 4K movie night easily. You can even connect a Google Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV Stick to stream all the content directly to the projector. The BenQ W1700 4K UHD Home Cinema Projector will be available in December 2017 with a retail price of RM7,999.

4k
benq
cinema
hdr10
home
projector
uhd


BenQ introduces the TK800 DLP projector in time for the FIFA World Cup

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BenQ has just announced a new 4K projector in time for the FIFA World Cup. It is designed to deliver breathtaking picture quality, custom-tailored audiovisual modes and easy startup flexibility.

The BenQ TK800 offers true 4K UHD resolution with 8.3 million distinct pixels to produce lifelike realism using projector-optimised HDR to enhance brightness and contrast range with a one-step image optimisation and automatic HDR natural colour rendition. The project’s unique 4K colour wheel achieves 92% of the Rec.709 colour gamut and 3000-lumen brightness for great picture quality even in environments with bright ambient lighting.

To make your FIFA viewing event better, the TK800 offers a dedicated Football and Sports audiovisual mode to deliver a viewing experience as if you are part of the spectators. Football mode preserves natural skin tones, intensifies the colours of the grass on the pitch and enhances the clarity of the announcer’s commentary over the sounds of the cheering crowd.

The projector also comes with CinimaMaster Audio+ 2 sound system that has been upgraded to offer a wider frequency range and 5-watt power. This thanks to BenQ using materials like an aluminium driver diaphragm and resonant sound chambers for delicate details, pure vocals and resounding bass.

BenQ’s TK800 DLP projector is now available for purchase in Malaysia with a price of RM5,599 at
BenQ’s Official Lazada store
.

4k
benq
dlp
projector
tk800
uhd


BenQ introduces the W1700 home cinema projector with 4K and HDR10 support

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BenQ is bringing a cinema experience to your home with the introduction of the CineHome W1700 4K UHD HDR home cinema projector, which is equipped with 4K HDR technology, 8.3 million pixels, CinematicColor accuracy and projection-optimised HDR for a true-to-life image quality.

The projector uses a 0.47-inch single-DMD DLP technology which allows to further minimise the projector’s already sleek profile for the modern home and 4K optimized optical system for image precision and colour accuracy without artifacts. Image quality is further enhanced with HDR10 support which offers greater brightness and contrast range with auto image optimisation.

With the exclusive BenQ CinematicColor technology and RGBRGB colour wheel, this helps to preserve cinematic colours and covers 96% of the Rec. 709 colour gamut with precise Delta E<3 performance. To give you the added cinema immersion, the CinimaMaster Video+ and CinemaMaster Audio+ will offer users motion-adaptive edge pixel enhancement, sophisticated colour algorithms and beautiful flesh tone rendition as well as dramatic audio processing for resonant bass and soaring high tones.

The W1700 is also easy to setup and comes with auto keystone correction and powerful 1.2X big zoom to accommodate any space. You can also connect HDMI dongles like Google Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV Stick, allowing you to watch all your favourite TV series, movies and even video games.

The BenQ W1700 4K UHD Home Cinema projector will be available in January 2018 with a retail price of RM7,999 at all authorized dealers.

4k
benq
cinema
hdr10
home
projector
uhd
W1700


BenQ launches MOBIUZ 24.5″ and 27″ gaming monitor with 144Hz refresh rate

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The affordable high-refresh rate gaming monitor market is tightly contested one – but BenQ’s MOBIUZ could just be one of the stand-outs.

There are two models in store – a 24.5-inch variant (EX2510), and a 27-inch version (EX2710). Both panels are FHD and push a refresh rate of 144Hz. Both monitors use IPS panels and come packed with
Freesync
 and a snappy 1ms response time for fast-paced e-sports games.

On top of that, the monitors come equipped with HDRi technology which BenQ claims improves
colour
, contrast, and image detail; the devices also pack BenQ’s B.I. + sensor which helps detect optimal viewing conditions and automatically adjusts the screen’s settings to offer the best output possible.

There’s Light Tuner, which offers 20
colour
 setting presets to suit different game genres; Scenario Mapping is a feature included that automatically switches to your preferred settings when you change input sources – useful for folks who want to hook up their PC and console onto the same monitor.

Although widely unused, the 27-inch MOBIUZ packs a pair of 2.5W built-in speakers which work together with
treVolo
-tuned settings and a Digital Signal Processor to offer a more immersive audio experience. In case you want use of vertical space – the monitor supports wall mounting as well.

The 27-inch BenQ MOBIUZ is priced at RM1,499, while the 24.5-inch model is not available in Malaysia just yet. You can learn more about the monitors
here
, or buy the MOBIUZ EX2710
here
.

144hz monitor
benq
freesync
Gaming monitor
hdr
ips gaming monitor
mobiuz


BenQ launches the W11000 DLP 4K Home Cinema Projector

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Home Cinema aficionados rejoice as BenQ has brought in their flagship Home Cinema Projector to Malaysia: the W11000.

The BenQ W11000 is capable of outputting 3840×2160 distinct pixels for true 8.3-million pixel 4K UHD resolution thanks to the advanced DLP 4K UHD DMD with XPR technology found in the W11000. The Single-DMD DLP technology ensures absolute image integrity and colour accuracy without artifacts that can be introduced by panel alignment issues. BenQ’s highly optimized 4K optical system also employs 14 high-resolution elements, a true zoom system, and special low-dispersion lens coatings to preserve spectacular visual quality.

Raw numbers aside, the W11000 projector has the honour of being the only DLP 4K UHD projector to earn the prestigious THX certification, undergoing three rounds of testing at THX’s headquarters. The W11000 boasts a high native ANSI contrast ratio and has pure Rec.709 compliance in the colour department.

BenQ’s W11000 projector will retail for RM23,800. If you’re interested in getting the W11000 within this week, CMY Audio Visual will be having a one-week special promotion where you can get the projector for a special price of RM18,888. The offer includes free installation and mounting rack.

4k
benq
dlp
homecinema
projector
thx
w11000


BenQ launches the Zowie XL2540 e-sports monitor in Malaysia

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BenQ’s gaming division, Zowie, has launched a new gaming monitor today that is tailor made for the e-sports scene, the XL2540.

As expected from an e-sports monitor, the Zowie XL2540 monitor is 24.5″ gaming monitor has a 1080p screen that comes with a refresh rate of 240Hz and a 1ms grey-to-grey response time. For outputs, the XL2540 comes with two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort 1.2, and a DVI connection. An additional 4 USB ports can be found on the monitor as well.

Perhaps the most iconic feature of the XL2540 is the “Shields” that are placed on both sides of the monitor. The inclusion of the Shields is to let players focus on the game itself and not be distracted by the surroundings. The Shields can be adjusted or removed depending on the player’s preference. In addition to the Shields, the XL2540 also comes with the S Switch that can be found on BenQ’s other gaming monitor. With the S Switch, players can change the monitor’s settings without needing to fiddle with the traditional monitor buttons.

If you’re interested in the Zowie XL2540, the monitor can be had for RM2,399.

benq
gamingmonitor
shields
sswitch
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zowie


BenQ releases the QC1 Action Camera with 4G LTE connectivity

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While action cameras are all about having the widest angle lens with the best picture quality, BenQ does things a little differently with its QC1 action camera, not only it is reasonably priced at NTD14,900, it also comes with 4G LTE connectivity, which could be either unnecessary or useful for some. The QC1 has a 13-megapixel sensor with a f/2.8 aperture that’s capable of taking 1080p30 and 720p60 videos, it has a built-in GPS and WiFI module, a juicy 2260mAh battery and 4GB of onboard storage with MicroSD expansion.

The QC1’s processing power is done by a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8926 1.2GHz quad-core processor, which explains the camera’s connectivity and BenQ has rated the camera as IPx8 certified water-resistant, which you could bring the camera 60m underwater. So what does 4G LTE connectivity do on an action camera? You’d probably guessed it, the QC1 will support live streaming your footage to YouTube over 4G LTE, and thats pretty much about it. Its definitely a good option for those who doesn’t want to carry a phone around with them when you already have an action camera on hand.

BenQ’s action camera is currently on sale in Taiwan and will support LTE bands such as B3 (1800MHz), B7 (2600MHz), and B20 (800MHz), Taiwanese telcos are also offering the action camera at the price of NT$6490 (RM853), so if you happen to be in Taiwan and see this gadget, you can be rest assured that you’ll be able to use it right here as our telcos support LTE B7.

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BenQ T3 and BenQ F5 LTE smartphones has arrived in Malaysia, available from Superbuy.my

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It’s been a while since we’ve last heard of BenQ here, the company is now back to Malaysia by introducing two LTE smartphones that will be sold at local e-commerce site Superbuy tomorrow and exclusively for registered members only.

The BenQ T3 is an entry level LTE smartphone that comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.2GHz Quad-Core CPU, 1GB RAM + 4GB Internal storage expandable with MicroSD, 4.5” qHD (960×540) display with Low Blue Light technology, 8MP+0.3MP rear and front cameras, and a 1900mAh battery. The phone will be sold at RM599.

On the other hand, the higher end BenQ F5 features the same processor, 2GB RAM + 16GB internal storage with MicroSD expansion, 13MP+2MP BSI rear and front cameras, 5” 720p (1280×720) IPS display with Low Blue Light Technology and a 2520mAh battery. The F5 will retail at a slightly higher RM799, which is worth the price bump from the lower end T3.

Both devices are priced very affordably as an LTE device and will come preloaded with Android 4.4 KitKat and BenQ’s Q Home UI running on top, the phones will also run on Cat 4 LTE Networks with download speeds up to 150Mbps. To find out more, head on to
Superbuy’s website here
.


BenQ T3 Review: An affordable 4G LTE smartphone

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When I reviewed the BenQ F5 last month, I was impressed with a few things – first, it was one of the few affordable mid-range smartphones that offers 4G LTE, then it was a very snappy device despite being a
Snapdragon 400
 device and finally, BenQ is doing what it has done well to its monitors, implementing its low blue light tech on to its smartphone display. While BenQ’s smartphones certainly need to be more creative in the software department, they are certainly capable of competing with a few of its own Taiwanese competitors such as ASUS and HTC. Moving on to the BenQ T3, a more entry level device that packs a slower clocked Snapdragon quad-core SoC and a smaller display than the F5, it feels more like a flagship than its all plastic counterpart, it is a sleek looking entry-level smartphone that will capture anyone’s attention with it, but of course, there are always compromises that you’ll have to accept under its hood.

BenQ T3 Hardware Specifications

Processor:
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
 MSM8926 1.2GHz Quad-Core

RAM/ROM: 1GB/4GB ROM expandable via MicroSD up to 64GB

Display: 4.5″ qHD (960 x 540) IPS with Low Blue Light

Camera: 8MP (Main), 0.3MP (Front)

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, BT 4.0

Networks: 4G LTE/DC-HSPA+/GSM

Battery: 1900mAh

Unbelievable high profile design

We haven’t seen mid-range smartphones designed like the BenQ T3, of course we are not saying that the phone is built with premium materials, but simply put, the BenQ T3 isn’t a thick, ugly, rounded and plasticky device. In fact, the phone has an extremely sleek and compact built, which doesn’t make it cheap at all and it looks like it should cost more than it should. The phone has a chrome painted frame on the sides and its soft touch back cover makes it a really good phone to hold on your hand, if it had been an ASUS or HTC branded device, this phone will definitely sell like hot cakes and BenQ has to reach that brand status really soon.

One of the best things on a BenQ smartphone is the ergonomic display tech that many users will appreciate if reading on a smartphone display is a major activity, low blue light technology reduces blue light on the display which basically creates a natural paper reading experience, thus making the screen color temperature warmer and a little yellowish to reduce strain to the eyes. Of course, we won’t expect you reading an e-Book on a small 4.5-inch display but you can’t deny that it would work well for browsing the web on it for long hours.

All in all, the T3 is going to make people around you exclaiming about its affordability, because there’s simply no other smartphones in its range are going to look as handsome as it is.

Q Home UI gets revamped, phone storage a major issue

The phone comes with BenQ’s own Q Home UI running on top of Android KitKat, we’ve once complained its ugliness and features on the F5, it’s pretty flawless and snappy despite of that. During our review period, the T3 got its software update and introduced a much more polished user experience, despite not being an entire overhaul but BenQ has certainly spent their effort in beautifying app icons, which makes a lot more sense than having those outdated looking icons. Navigation is pretty much the same where it lags a standard Android app drawer and you’ll need to access all of your newly installed apps in the New Corner.

With that said, we are very impressed with the phone’s overall performance despite only having 1GB of RAM, app crashes and lags can be expected at times but you certainly won’t experience freezes like many other phones, it is safe to say that BenQ has implemented a really reliable software experience and have not made the phone bloated with third party apps.

Merely having 4GB of internal memory isn’t sufficient for installing the largest games despite having the required fire power most games will require, because it fills up too easily when you’ve already installed a number of apps and moving them to the
SD card
 still doesn’t help much, you are given approximately 2GB of user allocated storage so you might want to purchase an SD card to go with the phone.

There’s no perfect combo in the world, when you are paying for a device that cheap, you have to live with compromises, even with the most affordable and powerful Chinese
Android smartphone
, the BenQ T3 has the great and smooth software experience you will want but its paltry amount of storage is something that you’ll have to think twice before making that purchase.

Camera

The BenQ T3’s 8-megapixel camera takes pretty decent pictures for an entry-level device, do check out the camera samples down below.

Benchmarks, Battery Life and Network Quality

Like any
Snapdragon 400
 powered smartphones, the T3 gets reasonable scores when compare to some of its competition out there, while we are happy to report that in real world usage the phone is one of the most reliable ones when compared to some similarly spec devices

If you were to compare with phones like the HTC Desire 610 which has the same processor, RAM and a mere additional 100mAh in battery size, the BenQ T3’s battery certainly isn’t playing as nice, we only managed to get 10-12 hours of battery life with some light weight activities, make sure you keep a power bank handy when you’re out and about.

While battery life isn’t as great as you’d expect, network quality is reported to be good on our tests over Maxis 4G LTE, delivering superb browsing speeds and great call quality in metro areas, thanks to the phone’s compact factor making long duration phone calls over it is a joy.

Verdict – For those who wants 4G LTE connectivity in an affordable package

The T3 has impressed us with its build quality, fast 4G LTE connectivity and price tag, it delivers the needed performance for an entry-level productive user without paying too much, yet differentiating itself from the war of affordable Chinese smartphones. The BenQ T3 retails at RM499, which makes it one of the cheapest 4G LTE smartphones that anyone can afford to buy, for that, let’s just take our eyes off the compromises that we’ve mentioned back there.

The Good:

+ 4G LTE in an affordable package
+ Sleek and lightweight
+ Reasonable hardware performance
+ Decent camera capabilities
+ Low Blue Light display technology

The Not So Good:

– Less than average battery life
– Storage issues
– Low resolution front facing camera
– Display brightness could be better


Berlin has begun cracking down on Airbnb-style rentals

601

The German city of Berlin has become the first city in the world to ban short-term rentals of whole apartments through Airbnb.

On the 1st of May, Berlin introduced a new law called “Zweckentfremdungsverbot”, or prohibition of improper use. This law effectively makes the renting out entire flats or houses on websites such as Airbnb, Wimdu and 9Flats illegal. While residents of Berlin can no longer rent houses or apartments from sites like Airbnb, they can still rent out rooms through these websites.

One of the reason why Berlin has introduced a law that restricts the renting out of entire apartments or houses is due to the sharp increase in rent prices. Between 2009 and 2014, rent prices in Berlin has increased by 56 percent. Not helping matter is the fact that Berlin has limited property supply, which contributes to the rising rent prices.

As for enforcement, Berlin has appealed to the “civic spirit” of its residents and asked them to anonymously report any suspected misuse online. Those who are caught renting out apartments or houses coulld be fined up to EUR 100,000 (RM 452,362).

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