Alcatroz Renergii USB-C Rechargeable Battery Review

6.2K

As a tech guy, you might assume that I am well equipped with spare AA and AAA batteries around my home and office, but there will always be the day where I struggle to find two AAA batteries whenever my TV remote’s or wireless mice’s battery need to be replaced, which can sometimes be frustrating if I don’t have the luxury of time to head out to the convenience store to buy them, and my recent encounter with the Alcatroz Renergii batteries would put an end to that misery.

The Alcatroz Renergii are USB-C rechargable cylindrical batteries that is being sold in 1, 2 and 4 packs, unlike other the regular rechargeable batteries you see in the supermarket, both AA and AAA battery packs are priced the same from RM19 up to RM69, and you don’t need to buy a separate charging dock as you can just use your regular smartphone charging brick to charge them up, best of all it also comes with a USB-A to dual USB-C cable if you purchase the 2 and 4 pack model.

Speaking of the packaging, I like the cutouts on the back that you can easily tear it open instead of ripping up the whole thing, Alcatroz also provides a clear storage case should you purchase the 2 and 4 pack model, that’s considerably generous compared to other rechargeable batteries you find in the supermarket.

Each AA battery comes with a 1450mAh lithium-ion cell while an AAA battery comes with a 400mAh lithium-ion cell, which is quite a common battery capacity for rechargeable cylindrical batteries of their respective sizes, what I am most impressed  is how these batteries can be fitted with a USB-C port despite their size and considering it requires some small circuitry to control the charging current, the batteries support 5V1A input and Alcatroz claims a one hour duration to get them fully charged.

The Alcatroz Renergii batteries have a green LED indicator on the top that flashes while charging, though sadly there isn’t a button of sorts to check the battery status, the only way to find out the battery capacity is to see if your device actually tells the battery capacity, I inserted one AA battery into my Logitech LIFT mouse and found out that the battery has been pre-charged at 45% according to the Logi Options+ software.

Even when you don’t use the batteries over time, Alcatroz states that a fully charged battery will have a standby time of over 2-years as lithium-ion batteries deplete when not in use, each battery is also rated to have over 1000 cycles so it should serve you well for a couple of years if you use it regularly.

The Alcatroz Renergii rechargeable batteries can be purchased at Alcatroz’s official store at Shopee
here
, and we’d recommend that you get them so you can save yourselves whenever your remote control batteries are dead.

alcatroz
renergii
usb-c rechargeable battery


Intel 12th Gen Core Alder Lake CPUs are now official

1.2K

Intel has just unveiled their latest lineup of
12
th
 Gen Intel Core
 desktop processors – the family comes with six unlocked chips suited for gaming and content creation work.

Here’s a complete list of the new CPUs:

Core i5-12600KF (10C/16T)

Core i5-12600K (10C/16T)

Core i7-12700KF (12C/20T)

Core i7-12700K (12C/20T)

Core i9-12900KF (16C/24T)

Core i9-12900K (16C/24T)

As usual, the K moniker means that these CPUs are unlocked, and the F means the chip comes with integrated graphics; UHD Graphics 770 to be exact.

Intel built these processors on the company’s Alder Lake 10nm architecture that switches to a hybrid core design – each CPU use a mix of Performance cores (P-cores) and Efficient-cores (E-cores).

This is similar to the way smartphone chipsets are made – the E-cores are there to provide just enough performance for everyday work; this saves power, while the P-cores perform all the heavy-duty tasks.

Because of the split in core types, Intel has specified the clock speeds of each type – you can see the specs in the picture below.

Image credit: GSM Arena

These new CPUs will work with the new Z690 chipset and LGA1700 socket. Over 60 motherboard models are expected to arrive soon.

There’s support the latest and greatest DDR5 memory with up to 4,800MT/s. There is still support for DDR4 RAM but you won’t be able to use both memory types at the same time.

According Intel, all this translates to over 20% increase in performance in games such as Far Cry 6. Hitman 3, and Troy: A Total War Saga, when comparing the i9-12900K with the older i9-11900K.

Intel’s new CPUs start at the price of $264 (RM1,097), and can go all the way up to $589 (about RM2,447). They will go on sale this November 4 alongside the new Z690 motherboards.

12th gen intel core
alder lake
amd
ddr5
intel
ryzen


Alibaba wants to sell cars using a vending machine-like structure

325

Alibaba is not satisfied with just selling goods online and want to venture into physical sales in the grandest way possible. The e-commerce giant wants to sell cars using a vending machine-like system to customers.

It might sound like something out of a sci-fi movie but the company took the extra step by releasing a video showing off how the vending machine will work. The concept is similar to verticle carparks where you will just need to drive your car into a bay and the platform will elevate your car into an empty slot while giving you a reference for when you would want to retrieve your car. They are also allowing a test drive before you purchase the car and all of this can be done from the Alibaba Taobao app. Users will just need to snap a picture of the car they want to test, input their personal information, take a selfie and submit a deposit. All they need to do after that, is head over to the Tmall-brand car vending machine which will use facial recognition or login code to retrieve their choice of car and offer them a three-day test drive.

Alibaba intends to open two of this vending machines in January with more planned to launch across China by next year.

alibaba
car
machine
taobao
vending


Alien: Blackout is a survival horror mobile game with alternative endings

289

Have you been a fan of Alien movie franchise? If you are, you might be interested in the upcoming mobile game by developer D3 Go! because it’s a survival horror game called Alien: Blackout.

Alien: Blackout is claimed to be a new chapter in the Alien franchise, and the main character in the game will be Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda Ripley. Based on the trailer released by D3 Go!, Alien: Blackout is a first-person perspective game, where the players will be playing as Amanda.

Basically, Amanda is trapped with her crew in a space station with a Xenomorph on board. The mission is to survive without getting hunted by the monster while rescuing the crew members. Players need to outsmart the Xenomorph and protect the crew with only a holographic map, surveillance cameras and motion tracker.

The official site also stated that “Every decision can lead to a different conclusion.” This indicates that Alien: Blackout will have alternate endings depending on player’s decisions and actions, hence players can keep replaying the game to discover the different outcomes that the game has.

Alien: Blackout will be available in Apple App Store, Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore on 24 January 2019. However, it can already be preordered at the price of RM19.90.

Alien
Alien: Blackout
Amazon Appstore
app store
mobile game
play store


Alienware 15 Gaming Laptop Review: Does it live up to its premium name and price?

317

Design

The Alienware 15 is a sleek looking gaming machine with its trademark alien head standing out like a beacon, giving passerbys no chance to mistake this laptop as any other brand other than Alienware. Despite it being a gaming laptop, it still looks classy enough to be used at work, but should you use the AlienFX, you can still customize rainbow colored lighting if you like that kind of thing.

Left side ports

Back ports

Right side ports

This laptop sports multiple vents located on the back, front and even the under of it. Despite all that vents and the number of ports all around the laptop – on the back and on both sides; the Alienware 15 is slimmer than its predecessors and weighs more than 3kg. It does not have an optical drive though, since the sides sports ports instead of external storage.

Display

The Alienware 15 is named such is due to the size of its display – 15.6-inch, with 1920x1080p on a non-reflective matte screen. A matte screen means there is a lack of reflections and although it is matte, the color reproduction is still great. You can upgrade it to a 4k touchscreen panel though, but I don’t really like touchscreen especially for gaming laptops since it doesn’t really make much difference but drains more battery. Viewing angles is also great on this machine where someone on the side can still view movies and games clearly.

Audio

The speakers on the Alienware 15 is located on the front, which makes the sound clear and loud. Since this machine utilizes Creative Sound Blaster processors for its audio, music and sounds are crisp and clear although you might need headphones to get surround sound effects.

Performance

Since it has an Intel Core i7-4710HQ Quad Core up to 3.5GHz with Turbo Boost, you can expect good performance and smooth rendering at 1080p in high settings. With an SSD to boot the machine and a 1TB for storage, the laptop boots up pretty quick and with very minimal bloatware, performance is even better.

Thermal Management

This laptop does get baking hot when playing games. Even with so many vents, using it on high performance – which is when playing games, gets your hands all hot and sweaty. The fans also gets pretty loud so you can either ignore it, or use headphones should it annoy you.

Battery Life

On normal desktop usage, the battery life is pretty decent, going for more than 5 hours. However, don’t expect it to last when playing games, just like any other gaming laptops.

Benchmarks

alienware
classy
dell
gaming
laptop
notebook
review


Alienware Area-51 has the coolest gaming machine design

291

Alienware, a subsidiary of
Dell
 has always crafted cool looking gaming machines that impresses a lot, now you’ll be blown away by the company’s recently announced Alienware Area-51 gaming desktop, instead of having a tower form factor this time, it comes in a very unique triangular shape which Alienware calls it the Triad Chassis which offers a more efficient cooling system. Of course, design changes does come with more oomph in the rig’s gaming power, it supports quad channel DDR4 memory up to 32GB, up to 8-core Intel Core processors, super fast SSDs and based on Intel’s X99 chipset. What’s even more crazy is that this machine will have a capability of gaming away up to triple 4K monitors with its three external GPU slots onboard, with all of these GPUs combined you’ll be getting a resolution of 11520×2160.

Pricing and availability hasn’t been announced but you’re not going to expect the price to be cheap in anyway, but lets hope it comes in here soon so we can get a ‘feel’ of it, bring it on,
Dell
 Malaysia.

Source:
Alienware


Alienware introduces m15, their thinnest and lightest gaming laptop

428

Alienware’s laptops have always been thicker in size but that’s about to change with their latest addition. The new Alienware m15 is currently their thinnest and lightest laptop, measuring around 0.8 inches thick and weighing about 4.8 pounds.

The m15 comes with magnesium alloy and copper chassis. It has a 15.6 inch display, though you can choose to have a 1080p 60Hz display, 1080p 144Hz display or 4K 60Hz panel display. It has a full-sized RGB backlit keyboard which includes the numeric keypad that is usually only available for Alienware’s 17 inch laptops. The keyboard has six different zones for the color changes.

Furthermore, m15 starts with 8GB RAM and can be upgraded up to 32GB RAM. It supports single-storage or dual-storage configurations and can go up to 2TB storage and users can either choose the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or GTX 1070. In terms of processor, m15 comes with either i5-8300H quad-core processor or i7-8750H hexa-core processor.

Moving on to the ports section, on the sides, m15 has 3 USB 3.0 ports, a headset jack and the Gigabit Ethernet port. On m15’s back, there is the USB Type-C port, Thunderbolt 3, mini DisplayPort and HDMI port. The Alienware Graphics Amplifier port is also attached at the back of the m15 which is suitable for users who would like better graphics without upgrading the entire system.

Next, the m15 comes in the standard 60W battery, though for those who’d prefer longer battery life can opt for the 90W battery. It is said that on idle, the 90W battery can last up to 17 hours. Lastly, the m15 comes in the color Epic Silver or Nebula Red. Alienware m15 is rumoured to be at least $1100 and will be launched on October 25th.

alienware
dell
gaming laptop
m15


Alienware unleashes its gaming laptops and desktop in Malaysia

416

After a long wait, Alienware’s 2016 version of the Alienware 17 and Alienware 15 laptops are now available in Malaysia. But that’s not all as the company has also brought in the Aurora desktop as well.

For the Alienware laptops, the company has made some design changes to both the Alienware 17 and Alienware 15. Both Alienware laptops now come with the “Hinge-Forward” design, which supposedly improves thermal support. The laptops are also outfitted with Alienware’s new TactX keyboard that comes with optimised RGB LED for better key lighting, 2.2mm gaming-grade key travel and N-Key rollover.

In terms of specifications, both Alienwares will sport Nvidia’s new Pascal graphics cards. The Alienware 15 is capable of housing a GTX 1070, while the Alienware 17 can come with a GTX 1080, making both laptops VR-ready. Additionally, the Alienware 17 supports Tobii’s eye tracking technology thanks to the implementation of a Tobii camera in the laptop. Prices for the Alienware 15 begins at RM6,999, while the Alienware 17 will have a starting price of RM8,299. Both machines will be made available by the end of October.

Moving on, we have the new Alienware Aurora desktop. First aunched back in June, this mid-tower desktop sports a much more compact design than its predecessors. Small though it may be, the Alienware Aurora is a potentially beastly machines, as it is powered by Intel’s sixth-gen processors, and it is capable of supporting up to two of Nvidia’s own Pascal GPUs. For those who like to tinker with their desktops, the new Alienware Aurora chassis comes with tool-less access, allowing you to swap out components with ease. For the overclockers, liquid cooling is an option that the Alienware Aurora supports. The Alienware Auroro will have a starting retail price of RM3,999.

alienware
alienware15
alienware17
alienwareaurora
dell
desktop
gaming
laptop


All channels free on unifi TV until 31 March to offset RMO boredom

805

After Astro made their movie and sports channels free for subscribers during the restrictive movement order period, unifi has also announced that all customers with u
nifi TV
 will have free access to all channels starting today.

Happening until the end of March, this only applies to residential subscribers – which makes sense since everyone is ordered to stay at home for now. Along with the movement restriction and
closure
 of cinemas, the
rakyat

can still catch their
favourite
 shows on channels such as tvN, Fox Movies, Foxlife, Nickelodeon, National Geographic and more.

While you’re at home, you can also get essentials as well as food delivered to you via
Grab
 and
Foodpanda
 as they’ll continue to service customers during the isolation period. Kudos to all the companies and workers who are working to help provide our daily needs during the virus outbreak.

astro
channel
corona virus
fox movies
isolation
national geographic
outbreak
quarantine
restrictive movement
rmo
tv
tvn
unifi
unifi tv


All eyes on Samsung as the company trademarks Galaxy Eyeprint and Galaxy Iris

314

Trademarks are important when it comes to mobile technology, and Samsung has made a move to trademark a couple of names for their iris scanners in Galaxy devices for the US and its local market in South Korea. The names Galaxy Eyeprint and Galaxy Iris have officially been trademarked by the Korean company.

If you haven’t known, there is already a Galaxy tablet equipped with an iris scanner, and it isn’t just rumored. In fact, it was already launched in India, carrying the name Galaxy Tab Iris, along with entry level specs, catered to the government and corporate employees. Considering the fact that Samsung has pushed out an iris scanner equipped tablet, plus these new trademarks, chances are that we’ll be looking at a Galaxy Iris device pretty soon, even the possibility of it being on the next Galaxy S device won’t be much of a far fetched claim. Who knows? The Galaxy Note 6 might be packing the next level biometric scanner, but that may seem a little too soon.

We’re not sure how snappy can iris scanners perform when compared to the likes of fingerprint sensors of phones nowadays. Where reliability is concerned, it is hard to tell as well. Geniuses from around the world have managed to spoof the fingerprint sensors of flagship devices over the years, diminishing the faith of some consumers. If iris scanning technology turns out to be quicker, and more importantly, better security and reliability, then Samsung is on the right path to a head start over the rest of the competition. What do you think?

Source:
Galaxy Club

biometric
eyeprint
galaxy
iris
samsung
scanner
security
technology


All Half-Life titles free to play on Steam until March

386

If you’re a fan of the Half-Life series – well, I feel your pain. Half-Life 3 is as real as a unicorn at this point. What’s real though is the VR spin-off Half-Life: Alyx – which is pretty much a kick in the groin to die-hard fans of the brand.

The only good thing to come out of this however, is Valve making all Half-Life series titles free to play on Steam up until the release of Half-Life: Alyx.

The VR title launches this March so you’ve a good month or so to play your favourite Half-Life Collection at no cost at all – The links to play the titles for free are below:

Half-Life

Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2: Episode One

Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Just in time for the Chinese New Year holidays eh?

free to play
half-life
steam
valve


All iPhone models may sport an OLED display by 2019

314

This year, Apple is expected to introduce a flagship version of the iPhone that would be the first to sport an OLED display. However, this may just be the beginning of things to come as there are reports coming in that Apple plans to adopt OLED screens for all of its iPhone models by 2019.

According to a report by Korean website The Bell, supply chains are reporting that Apple is looking to double the adoption of OLED panels for the 2018 iPhone models. By 2019, Apple is looking to have all of its iPhones to sport OLED-display models, ranging from the affordable versions all the way to the flagship. In the meantime, Apple will be sourcing three suppliers for the OLED panels for this year’s flagship iPhone. The phone is expected to enter production around April or May.

Rumours surrounding this year’s iPhone model indicates that there wlll be three versions available. Where the flagship iPhone is expected to sport an OLED display, the other two would retain the standard LCD panels.

Source:
MacRumours
,
The Bell

apple
display
iphone
oled


All new ASUS Fonepad 7 now available in Malaysia

271

Tired of seeing cheap smartphones lately? Maybe its time to consider a cheap phablet. The all new ASUS Fonepad 7 Dual SIM is now available in Malaysia. The ASUS Fonepad 7 has an Intel Atom Z2520 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 7-inch 1024×600 IPS display, 2MP Camera and upgradeable to Android 4.4 KitKat at a later time while it ships with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

The phablet also features ZenUI, a light yet useful Android skin found on recent ASUS devices and has a rated continuous battery life of up to 10 hours. Selling price of the
tablet
 starts from RM499 for the 4GB model up to RM599 for the 8GB model, the phablet also supports MicroSD expansion so there won’t be any storage woes if you think the company gives too little. Head on to your nearest computer retail store to check out the latest ASUS Fonepad 7.


Alleged Pixel XL2 benchmark suggests 17.5:9 display aspect ratio

246

News of the Google Pixel XL2 (or the Google Pixel 2 XL) have surfaced yet again, this time via a benchmark test result on GFX Bench. It is probably still too early to speculate too much about Google’s first ever Pixel refresh which will be launched in the later part of this year.

According to Roland Quandt from tech news site Win Future uploaded an screenshot of the alleged benchmark test result of the Pixel XL2. The said device sports a rather odd 2560 x 1312 resolution display, which actually translates to a 17.5:9 aspect ratio. This follows to foot steps of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the LG G6’s displays at 18.5:9 and 18:9 respectively. The newer aspect ratio on the Pixel XL2 could also mean that the phone might feature a near bezel-less design as well.

Other specs based on the benchmark test result include a Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 12MP rear facing camera has been retained, probably with a newer sensor or improved software, plus a 8MP selfie camera. Oddly enough, the device ran on Android 7.1.1 at the time it was tested, so it can be hard to believe the whole benchmark result.

Do bear in mind to take information like these with a huge grain of salt as we are still in the early stages of leaks and rumors for Google’s upcoming Pixel series. What do you think?

aspect ratio
display
google pixel
snapdragon 835
xl


Alleged Samsung Galaxy A90 Spec Sheet Leaked Ahead of April 10 Launch

339

Leading Android smartphone maker Samsung is expected to announce the new Galaxy A90 mid-range Android smartphone at a launch event on April 10. Just a few days before the smartphone’s formal unveiling, its alleged spec sheet has been leaked online.

According to the new leak, Samsung Galaxy A90 will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7150 octa-core chipset. The unannounced Qualcomm chip is rumored to be a successor to the Snapdragon 710 from last year. Samsung Galaxy A90 will reportedly sport a 6.7-inch
New Infinity
 Super AMOLED display with 1080 x 2400 Full HD+ resolution and sound casting technology.

Apart from being Samsung’s first smartphone to have a Notchless Infinity display, the Galaxy A90 will also be the company’s first mobile device to have a sliding camera mechanism. The slider is expected to house a 48MP primary camera coupled with an f/2.0 aperture, an 8MP secondary sensor with an f/2.4 aperture, and a 3D ToF sensor. The sliding camera will be able to rotate as well, allowing users to capture selfies using the same sensors.

Surprisingly, the leak suggests the most expensive 2019 Galaxy A-series smartphone may not be very impressive in terms of battery life. The Galaxy A90 is said to pack only a 3700mAh capacity battery with 25W fast charging support.

Galaxy A90
leaks
samsung
smartphones


Alleged Samsung patents show sliding smartphone with two vertical screens

414

Following the introduction and eventual jeering of the Samsung Fold, the Korean giants are apparently working on, what could best be described as a sliding smartphone.

No, not like the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 where the sliding module activates the selfie camera, but one where a second screen appears when the main one slides above it.

According to Hot Hardware, leaked patents suggest that the main screen is housed between two sliding pillars and can be pushed upwards, revealing the bottom display; we’re assuming that the two screens will then extend the display and navigation buttons will migrate to the bottom panel.

Image credit: Hot Hardware

One of the patents show the cross section of design; we see a roller which is most likely responsible for making the sliding mechanism possible.

If this sees the light of day, Samsung would make doubly sure they take time to fine tune their tech; the recently introduction of the Galaxy Fold, where reviewers exposed flaws in the panels which came as a result of lapse QC.

android
Galaxy Fold
patent
samsung


Alphabet is looking to combat online trolls with artificial intelligence

346

Dealing with internet trolls using moderators isn’t exactly an easy job mainly because the sheer volume of trolls online could swamp the amount of moderators that works in any one company. In an attempt to save on manpower, Jigsaw, a company of Alphabet, has announced that it will begin using machine learning to combat online harassment.

The system in question is named “Perspective”, and Jigsaw is looking to train it to identify “toxic” comments. To do so, Jigsaw is feeding Perspective with thousands of comments that are identified as toxic by regular people. From there, the process is pretty straightforward in terms of machine learning: Perspective would be able to detect similarties from one comment to another, which allows it to flag toxic comments more accurately as time goes on.

Right now, Jigsaw has partnered up with The New York Times in order to test out the system in its comments section. Jigsaw will also be providing the API for Perspective to publishers and platforms who wish to use this technology for their websites.

Source:
Google Blog

alphabet
jigsaw
machinelearning
onlineharassment
perspective
trolls


Alphabet is selling off Boston Dynamics

273

Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. seems to be leaving the robotics market as the company is putting Boston Dynamics up for sale.

Originally acquired in late 2013, Google’s robotic initiative, dubbed Replicant, was plagued by leadership changes, failures to collaborate between companies and an unsuccessful effort to recruit a new leader. A person that was familiar with the group told Bloomberg News that Boston Dynamics executive were reluctant to work with Google’s other robot engineers in California and Tokyo, causing tensions between them to spill into open view within Google.

Not helping matters is the fact that when Google went under Alphabet Inc., its executives wanted all the various companies under its corporate umbrella to have plans to generate real revenue. The executives would eventually conclude that Boston Dynamics isn’t likely to produce a marketable product in the next few years and as such, have put the unit up for sale.

It is currently speculated that Toyota and Amazon are interested in acquiring the robotics outfit. Both Toyota and Amazon have yet to comment on the speculation.

Source:
Bloomberg News

alphabet
bostondynamics
business
google


Alphabet’s interest in acquiring Fitbit caused stock to skyrocket

291

Fitbit immediately comes to mind when it comes to fitness trackers and now news have surfaced that Alphabet — the parent company of Google — is planning to acquire Fitbit.

It is undeniable that the biggest competition to Apple when it comes to smartwatch is Fitbit, and if Alphabet successfully acquires Fitbit, then Google will be competing against Apple in a new segment since it doesn’t have its own smartwatch.

As reported by
CNBC
, Fitbit’s stock skyrocketed over 18% when the news (of Alphabet’s plan to acquire Fitbit) was spread. At the end of the day, the stock went up to 30.5% and Fitbit shares went above 12% this year. However,

Alphabet did not reveal the amount it has offered to buy Fitbit.

Both companies have yet to comment on this matter, but Fitbit sure is gaining profits from the news itself. What do you think? Will Fitbit be acquired by Alphabet?

alphabet
fitbit
google


Amazfit Bip U launched in Malaysia for just RM249

541

Bargain hunters may be familiar with the name
Amazfit
 thanks to their reputation for making proper budget smartwatches that rival the likes of Xiaomi; if you’re familiar with the brand, then you’ll be glad to know that they’ve just launched a new model in the form of the
Amazfit

Bip
 U.

This smartwatch costs only RM249 and packs quite a few neat features. For starters, it’s got a 1.43-inch TFT display that pushes a pixel density of 302×302. It’s also layered with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 3 tempered glass with an anti-fingerprint coating.

The watch is square and has a button on the side for navigation. You also get a 20mm band at default which comes in three
colours
 – pink, black, and green. To match your style, there are 50 watch faces to choose from, or if to make the watch your own, you can upload a picture as a watch face as well.

When it comes to tracking, there are over 60 sports modes which includes the basics such as running and cycling, or other activities such as yoga, and kickboxing. When tracking a workout, you’ll be fed information such as calories burned, heart rate changes, distance covered, and more. On top of that, the watch has a 5 ATM water-
resistance
 rating which lets you dive up to 50m deep with the watch on.

When it comes to health tracking, there are four notable features –
SomnusCare
,
BioTracker
,
OxygenBeats
, and Women’s Health;
SomnusCare
 monitors your sleep;
BioTracker
 measures your heart rate;
OxygenBeats
 measures your blood oxygen level; while Women’s Health helps users keep track of their menstrual cycles.

When it comes to battery life, the
Bip
 U packs a 225mAh battery, and the watch charges magnetically.
Amazfit
 promises a 9-day battery life on a full charge – which is impressive considering many
smartwatches
 only last about two days or so.

If you’re interested in getting the smartwatch, visit
Amazfit’s
 official Lazada page
here
 to make your purchase.

amazfit
amazfit bip u
amazfit malaysia
bip u
bip u malaysia price
fitness tracker
smartwatch


Amazfit GTR 3 and GTR 3 Pro launched with larger displays and battery life

860

Amazfit has just
unveiled

their new lineup of smartwatches and they come in the form of the
GTR 3

and  GTR 3 Pro.

Both models pack an aluminium body and a round watch face – the GTR 3 packs a 1.39-inch panel, while the GTR 3 Pro uses a 1.45-inch display. The latter uses a curved glass; while both offer a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, so outdoor viewing should be good.

The watches use two physical buttons on the side – the top button is a crown that you can use to scroll through menus and notifications.

The watches support your standard selection of health-tracking features such as SpO2 tracking, 24/7 heart rate monitoring,  sleep tracking, over 150 sports modes, VO2 Max, and more.

The Pro variant comes with 2.3GB of internal storage, and up to 12 days of battery life; while the regular GTR 3 offers more with up to 21 days of usage time.

The Amazfit GTR 3 is priced at $180 (RM750) while the GTR 3 Pro will set you back $230 (RM959). There’s no word on its local availability yet, but if our experience with the brand’s
previous

smartwatches indicate what Amazfit can offer – we’re definitely excited to see the GTR 3 series make it to Malaysia.

amazfit
GTR 3
gtr 3 pro
smartwatch


Amazfit GTR 3 Pro: A killer premium fitness smartwatch without a premium price

1.7K

Fitness tracker or smartwatch? That is the question. Not anymore with the Amazfit GTR 3 Pro, this latest premium fitness smartwatch comes with upgraded sophisticated health tracking features without a premium asking price, yet offering practical smartwatch functions that most fitness trackers could not offer, and here’s all you need to know about it and why you should own one.

Intuitive and Simple User Experience

Unlike many smartwatches that tends to complicate things, the GTR 3 Pro comes with the all-new Zepp OS, a lightweight and speedy user interface that requires very minimal learning curve while offering a rich customization experience with high quality widgets and watch faces.

Experience smooth animations when navigating through menus and adjusting settings, the smart watch also features a physical crown that lets you scroll through your list of apps and view information when your hands are wet, that’s how flexible a great smartwatch should be.

Accurate and detailed fitness tracking

Most fitness trackers and smartwatch offer very basic information on your workouts, they also don’t track your behavior such as driving which causes inaccurate fitness goals.

The GTR 3 Pro features a behavior tagging feature to help the watch understand your behaviors, so that you can focus on hitting your actual fitness goals for the day.

In addition, the GTR 3 Pro advises your workout recovery time based on the intensity of your workout and helps relieving physical fatigue.

Apart from providing extremely detailed information on your workouts, the GTR 3 Pro also gives you detailed insights on your sleep quality with the addition of breath tracking, something that even the most expensive smartwatch doesn’t offer.

One tap health measurement

With an all-new Biotracker PPG 3.0 sensor, the GTR 3 Pro measures blood oxygen saturation, stress levels, breathing rate and heart rate in 45 seconds with the one-tap measurement feature, this is the first and only smartwatch that does this and saves the wearers time from doing these measurements on individual apps.

iPhone and Android support

Worried that your smartwatch won’t work when you change from an iPhone to Android phone or vice versa? This is usually the case with WearOS smartwatches and the Apple Watch, fortunately the Amazfit GTR 3 Pro loves iPhones and Android phones, best of all your fitness data remains synchronized whenever you want to switch to a different device, every app and feature on the GTR 3 Pro works as usual too.

Amazing 12-day battery life

Fitness trackers and smartwatches with a large color display rarely makes past 7-days of battery life on a moderate use. All thanks to a large 450mAh battery and the efficiency of Zepp OS, the Amazfit GTR 3 Pro lasts up to 12 days when used moderately.

Even when you have the GTR 3 Pro’s GPS turned on all the time, it still lasts up to 35 hours from the moment you start your workout, which is perfect for activities such as marathons and hikes.

Looks great on any occasion

Hitting the gym or attending a meeting? The GTR 3 Pro will turn heads with its premium aluminum body and bezel-less round watch face, it also comes in either a brown leather strap or a black antibacterial silicone strap, or if you prefer, simply pair it up with any 22mm watch straps of your choice.

With plenty of high-quality watch faces to choose from, there is definitely one for any occasion and with the always-on-display feature, the GTR 3 Pro is an attention seeker even if you aren’t look at it and with its amazing battery life, there’s no reason to turn it off.

Amazfit GTR 3 Pro and GTS 3 Launch Promotion

To celebrate the launch of the Amazfit GTR 3 Pro and GTS 3, Amazfit Malaysia is doing a limited time promotion on their
official Shopee store
.

From 5-11 November, the first 300 customers who purchase the new Amazfit GTR 3 Pro and GTS 3 smartwatch will receive a free Dizo GoPods D wireless earbuds, customers will also stand a chance to win an Amazfit AirRun treadmill when they spend minimum RM999 on the official Shopee store.

The Amazfit
GTR 3 Pro
 retails at RM929, and the
GTS 3
 retail at RM649.

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GTR 3
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GTS 3


Amazfit GTR 3 Pro, GTR 3 and GTS 3 to launch in Malaysia

1.5K

Heads up fitness and smartwatch enthusiasts, Amazfit Malaysia has just announced that they will be launching three new exciting smartwatches in Malaysia, they are the GTR 3 Pro, GTR 3 and GTS 3.

These new smart watches not only bring improved health tracking features over their predecessors but are also powered by Zepp OS, a lightweight and feature-rich operating system that has lower power consumption compared to the previous smartwatch operating system, it supports Android and iOS devices, syncing fitness data to platforms such as Apple Health, Google Fit, Strava, Relive, Runkeeper and TrainingPeaks.

Amazfit GTR 3 Pro: The do-it-all premium fitness smartwatch

Boasting a vibrant 1.45-inch, 480×480 AMOLED display, the GTR 3 Pro is the crème de la crème among the trio that offers a premium classic watch design with sophisticated fitness tracking features, it offers a class leading 12-day battery life which is unmatched by many other premium smartwatches.

Even with continuous GPS usage, the GTR 3 Pro lasts up to a whooping 35 hours.

Weighing at only 32g, the GTR 3 Pro keeps your health in check with an advanced six photodiodes BioTracker PPG 3.0 biometric sensor, which allows users to track multiple health metrics at the same time and therefore, it has a One-tap Measuring feature that measures heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, stress level and breathing rate in 45 seconds with just one tap, unlike most smartwatches that requires you to measure these metrics in individual apps.

With over 150+ sports modes, the GTR 3 Pro intelligently recognizes eight types of sports as you start working out, it is also 5 ATM water resistant which Amazfit claims that will also resist sea water. Other advanced fitness tracking features include PeakBeats and Virtual Pacer, with the former that keeps users informed of their workout performance and the latter that lets you challenge yourself with a virtual runner that takes on your previous results.

Users will find the GTR 3 Pro a very practical smart watch, as it offers a physical crown for navigation when touching the screen isn’t possible, it also comes with a built-in loudspeaker that lets you listen to music and incoming calls, an offline voice assistant and Alexa voice assistant, and store up to 470 songs with the watch’s 2.3GB memory.

Amazfit GTR 3: 18-day battery life and sophisticated health tracking

Boasting a whooping 18-day battery life, the Amazfit GTR 3 keeps up with your workouts in a lightweight and durable aircraft-grade aluminum alloy body, it comes with a stylish antibacterial strap that keeps you comfortable for all-day wearing and during sleep.

Sporting a 1.39-inch AMOLED HD display, the GTR 3 comes with the same set of sophisticated fitness tracking features as the GTR 3 Pro, which you will also get the one-tap measurement feature that measures your heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, stress level and breathing rate.

Amazfit GTS 3: A modern looking fitness smart watch

For those who prefers a larger screen and square watch face, the Amazfit GTS 3 is one smartwatch you don’t want to miss, as it comes with a 1.75″ AMOLED Ultra HD display and lasts up to 12 days on a single charge, it features a classic crown for navigation, 150+ sports modes, the same advanced BioTracker PPG 3.0 biometric sensor as the GTR 3 Pro and Alexa voice assistant support.

How much and when can you buy them?

Amazfit Malaysia has confirmed that these three smartwatches will be available at 5th November on the official
Shopee
 store.

However, no pricing details have been revealed to us yet, though we expect the flagship GTR 3 Pro to have a sub RM1,000 price tag while the GTR 3 and GTS 3 to be priced around RM600-RM700, so stay tuned for more on this space for more details about these great Amazfit smartwatches.

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GTR 3
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Amazfit GTS 2 Mini launched in Malaysia: Priced at just RM399

548

Amazfit
 is a popular brand when it comes to value smartwatches and they’re expanding their range with the new GTS 2 Mini, a slightly smaller version of the regular GTS
2 from
 late last year.

The watch packs a 1.55-inch AMOLED screen layered on top with 2.5D glass that offers a decent level of scratch and impact protection. Being the smaller iteration of the GTS 2, the Mini only weighs 19.5g instead of the 24.7g the original GTS 2 weighs. The watch is also water resistant of up to 50m deep.

When it comes to fitness and health tracking, the watch packs a complete set of features that measure and track heart rate, blood oxygen level, sleep quality, menstrual cycle, and more.

On top of that, there are over 70 work-out modes to choose from you can view detailed stats of
your exercises
 on the
Amazfit
 companion app, Zepp.

In terms of battery life,
Amazfit
 claims you’ll get up to 14 days of power for typical use cases, while turning on the power saving mode will get you up to 21 days of battery life.

The
Amazfit
 GTS 2 Mini is available in Midnight Black, Flamingo Pink, and Sage Green and is priced at just RM399. With a price tag like this, it makes a decent upgrade over the fantastic
Amazfit Bip U
 which costs RM249 – you can watch our review of the latter
here
. You can visit brand’s official
Shopee
 store to make your purchase.

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amazfit GTR 2 mini
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Amazfit GTS 3, GTR 3, GTR 3 Pro launches in Malaysia!

1.6K

Today Amazfit launched their newest line of smartwatches, this includes the
 Amazfit GTS 3, GTR 3 and GTR 3 Pro.

Amazfit GTR 3 and GTR 3 Pro

These two smartwatches sport a more traditional look with round-shaped watch faces and have the same body made out of aircraft-grade aluminum alloy. They come with round displays, and is paired with options of a leather strap or a black fluoroelastomer strap.

The Amazfit GTR 3 and Amazfit GTR 3 Pro have AMOLED displays that features a high pixel density and a brightness up to 1000 nits. In addition, the refresh rate of these displays has been increased by 67 percent if compared to their predecessors. Furthurmore, the GTR 3 comes in at 1.39 inches round, with a resolution of 454 x 454p, and the GTR 3 Pro is slightly bigger being, 1.45 inches round and having a resolution of 480 x 480p. Both devices also include Always On Display mode.

They both also include a newly revamped interface titled ‘Zepp OS’ that supports third party applications like Apple Health or Google fit, and integrates with Home Connect.

Both smartwatches include an accelerometer, heart rate and blood oxygen (SpO2) tracking, satellite positioning, track stress levels, female cycles and even sleep monitoring that tracks the different stages of sleep and naps. These devices can even track your heart rate while gaming too.

They also include over 150 sports modes for you to track your progress and smart recognition for eight different sports by tracking your motion. Speaking of sports, both the GTR 3 and GTR 3 Pro have a water-resistance grade of 5ATM, meaning you can take it for a swim with no worry.

However, these products differ because the GTR 3 Pro includes a great deal of extra features such more watch faces, Alexa support, WiFi, a temperature sensor and 2.3GB of internal storage to store music and podcasts.

The extra features also mean it uses more battery life, so the GTR 3 Pro only has a 12-day battery life, and the GTR 3 has a 21-day battery life. Both models also include a Battery Saver Mode to extend its use. Additionally, Amazfit claims that with continuous GPS tracking it would last 35 hours.

Amazfit GTS 3

The Amazfit GTS 3 has all the same features as the GTR 3 – think smart recognition of sports, blood oxygen tracking and more.

The notable difference between the GTS 3 and the GTR 3 is that it offers a bigger rectangular screen that comes in 1.65” and1.75”. It is also paired with a 341 ppi pixel density, 1,000 nits of peak brightness and Always On Display mode like the other two.

The battery life has12 days of typical use and 6 days of heavy usage, 24 days with Battery Saver Continuous GPS tracking will deplete the battery in 20 hours.

You can pick up the GTR 3 Pro for RM929 and GTS 3 for RM649 via the
Amazfit Shopee store
, while the GTR 3 is only avalible on the
Amazfit Lazada store

for RM649 as well.

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GTR 3
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GTS 3
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Amazfit to launch GTR 3 and GTS 3 on October 12

909

Amazfit has confirmed the global launch of their next smartwatches, the Amazfit GTR 3 and GTS 3 — these watches will be debuting on October 12 with health-focused features.

Previous certification filings also hinted towards the release of these smartwatches;
Canaltech
 reported that the GTR 3 will come with a 440mAh battery.

Based on the FCC listing, the A20135 will be the GTS 3 while the A2040 will be the GTR 3; the former will come with a squarish display and the latter will have a round display.

These are the only information we have on the upcoming Amazfit smartwatches, but it won’t be long before we get to see the real deal.

Amazfit GTR 3 and GTS 3 expected to be priced less than RM1,000

The Amazfit
GTR 2
 and
GTS 2
 are currently priced at RM689 each;

we expect their successors to be slightly pricier, but they shouldn’t exceed the RM900-mark.

Both these smartwatches lean towards a classic design; for a more rugged look, check out our
review
 on the Amazfit T-Rex Pro.

Source

amazfit
GTR 3
GTS 3


Amazfit launches Bip 5 fitness tracker for RM329 in Malaysia

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If you are looking for a stylish and reliable fitness tracker that doesn’t break the bank, Amazfit has recently launched the Bip 5 fitness tracker in Malaysia, which should interest you with its affordable RM329 price tag as it comes with several attractive features.

The Bip 5 showcases a 1.91-inch ultra-large high-resolution touchscreen that enhances visibility and user interaction. Furthermore, the innovative device incorporates the Zepp OS 2.0, providing support for over 70 apps, including over 30 mini games.

Notable smart features such as Amazon Alexa, Morning updates, and a slightly curved glass screen have been integrated into the device to offer a more immersive and natural viewing experience. For personalisation, it also supports a Portrait Watch Face option, which allows users to switch among three uploaded pictures.

As the latest and most advanced iteration in the Bip series, the Amazfit Bip 5 excels in health monitoring features. It capitalizes on the health-focused Zepp OS 2.0 and the state-of-the-art BioTracker™ PPG sensor, offering 24-hour monitoring of blood oxygen saturation, heart rate, and stress levels. To ensure user’s health and safety, the device can set alerts for these three metrics and will notify users when abnormal readings are detected.

Fitness enthusiasts will be delighted to know that the Amazfit Bip 5 comes with over 120 workout modes, including auto-detection for seven sports. Users can also access real-time sports data read-outs through the built-in speaker for a more informed and effective workout routine.

The innovative capabilities of the Amazfit Bip 5 do not cease post-workout. The device incorporates Amazfit’s PeakBeats™ algorithm, which delivers detailed analysis of exercise data such as VO₂ Max. This valuable information can then be shared with popular fitness apps like adidas Running and Strava, via the Zepp App.

Starting from 5th to 8th August, the Amazfit Bip 5 will be exclusively available on
Shopee
 at a special launch price of RM319 for the first 200 units sold. After these initial sales, the device will be priced at RM329.

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Amazfit launches GTR Mini smartwatch in Malaysia for RM599

6.9K

Amazfit has introduced the GTR Mini smartwatch in Malaysia, it is a slim and premium smartwatch that boasts excellent GPS performance, while powered by the intuitive and lightweight Zepp OS, it appeals to those who prefers to wear a compact smartwatch on their wrists.

Weighing at just 34.2g with the silicone strap and measuring 9.25mm thin, the Amazfit GTR Mini screams premium with a stainless steel middle frame and button, it has a 1.28-inch curved glass AMOLED display that pushes 326ppi, while users get to choose from 80+ watch faces with matching always-on displays, while 11 of them are animated watch faces where users can choose to upload their favorite photos.

Like other Amazfit smartwatches, the GTR Mini tracks over 120 sports with seven automatic sports recognition, what really makes it stand out from the rest is its 5 Satellite Position Systems and patented circularly-polarized GPS antenna, which offers strong and accurate GPS tracking in complex environments surrounded by trees and buildings.

In addition, the GTR Mini has 5 ATM water resistance which can be used to track your swimming laps, other features include sleep tracking, blood oxygen monitoring, menstrual cycle tracking, heart rate and stress monitoring.

When it comes to battery life, Amazfit claims up to 14 days of regular use, 7 days of heavy usage and 25 hours of continuous GPS usage, if you only use it as a regular watch, it could last up to 30 days before requiring a charge.

Available in colors of Midnight Black, Misty Pink and Ocean Blue, the Amazfit GTR Mini can now be purchased exclusively at the official
Shopee
 store for RM579 for three days, thereafter it will revert to its usual retail price of RM599.

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gtr mini
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Amazfit launches T-Rex 2 rugged outdoor smartwatch for RM799

5.4K

Amazfit Malaysia has officially launched the T-Rex 2 rugged outdoor smartwatch today, which the company has claimed to have passed over 15 military-grade tests and can remain functional in temperatures as low as -30℃ through the ultra-low temperature operation feature.

Sporting a bright 1.39-inch AMOLED display, the T-Rex 2 features a ‘G-Shock’ like rugged watch frame design as it is made to sustain bumps and usage on all-terrains, which is in fact the main selling point of the smartwatch as it is catered for wearers who does extreme sports.

Like other Amazfit smartwatches, the T-Rex 2 runs on Zepp OS that’s light and intuitive to use, there’s over 150 sports tracking mode and wearers can create training templates for 11 different sports through the Zepp app, it also features dual-band GPS for accurate positioning, and the watch will last up to 24 days on a single charge.

The Amazfit T-Rex 2 is available in color options of Astro Black & Gold, Ember Black, Wild Green and Desert Khaki, it comes with a one-year warranty and retails for RM799.

To celebrate the launch, the T-Rex 2 will be available exclusively on Amazfit’s official Shopee store with a promotional price from 6 to 8 July, customers will also stand a chance to win a Powerbuds Pro, GTS 2 mini and Band 5, while the first 100 buyers of the T-Rex 2 will get an Amazfit sport bottle and screen protector.

Head
here
 to purchase the Amazfit T-Rex 2.

amazfit
t-rex 2


Amazfit PowerBuds Pro monitors your heart rate for RM699

1.1K

Amazfit has introduced the PowerBuds Pro wireless earbuds in Malaysia, this pair of earbuds emphasizes on health monitoring and features active noise cancellation. With up to 30 hours of total listening time, the PowerBuds Pro will last up to 9 hours in a single charge with ANC turned off.

Competing in the sea of wireless earbuds, the PowerBuds Pro offers built in health tracking feature which includes automatic run detection, heart rate monitoring with a PPG heart rate sensor, cervical spine sitting angle detection with the help of its accelerometer, which at least saves you the need of wearing a fitness tracker if you workout while listening to music.

What’s also interesting is that the PowerBuds Pro has four types of noise cancellation modes for users to choose from, unlike most wireless earbuds that only allows you to switch between noise cancellation and ambient sound, it lets users choose between Indoor, Travel, Workout and Adaptive modes, which is smarter in blocking out noise in the respective activities you do.

For example, Indoor mode cancels keyboard tapping and air cond whirs, travel mode blocks out rumbling sounds of public transport but lets in voice announcements, workout mode cancels environmental noises like wind but lets you hear moving traffic, while adaptive mode automatically adjusts the noise cancellation, which Amazfit claims to cancel up to 40dB of noise.

The Amazfit PowerBuds Pro will be available for purchase starting August 21, 2021 at an introductory price of RM639, which is RM50 off its usual price, interested customers can keep tabs on the official
Amazfit Shopee Store
.

amazfit
powerbuds pro


Amazfit T-Rex Pro launched in Malaysia: Improved toughness and more features

830

The
Amazfit
 T-Rex Pro
 has just been launched, and it improves over last year’s model with impressive improvements in almost every aspect.

The watch still comes with a 1.3-inch AMOLED display that pushes a 360×360 resolution; with a tempered glass protective layer and anti-fingerprint finish. This time, the display is housed in a metallic-painted frame, which still sports a similar rugged build. Also new in terms of design is a two-tone silicone strap, which is ‘skin-friendly’, keeping your skin dry even during an intense workout.

Being an outdoor-ready watch, the T-Rex Pro is now made tougher and has passed 15 military grade tests. It can also withstand heat of up to 70°C, can humid surroundings for up to 240 hours, as well as 96 hours of salt spraying.

Plus, you can take it up to 100m underwater if you want, because it also has 10 ATM water-resistance rating, compared to the regular T-Rex’s 5 ATM rating.

Moving on to its new software features, the T-Rex Pro now offers blood-oxygen level monitoring, on top of an improved BioTracker PPG 2 optical sensor for heart rate-tracking. Lastly,
Amazfit
 adds a stress-monitoring feature to round off the suite of new additions to the health-tracking side of things.

Moving on to sports and navigation, the watch now packs over 100 sports modes to choose from, which is a far cry from the 14 that the original T-Rex offered. There’s also smart automatic sports recognition for 8 types of sports, so you can immediately start your workout without swiping through menus first.

For navigation, you now get Galileo and
BeiDou
 systems on top of the existing GPS and GLONASS positioning.

In terms of battery life,
Amazfit
 claims that the watch can run for up to 18 days thanks to its 390mAh battery. It’ll take 1.5 hours to fully charge the device via a proprietary 2-pin magnetic charger. You’ll also need the Zepp app to pair the watch with your smartphone.

Price and availability

The Amazfit T-Rex Pro is available in Meteorite Black, Desert Grey, and Steel Blue; it’s priced at RM659 and will be available to pre-order via the brand’s
Shopee
 store from March 24 until March 31; and will go on sale this April 4.

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Amazfit T-Rex Pro Review: Impressive all-round features for less

2.5K

The
Amazfit
 T-Rex Pro
 impresses in many accounts, especially when you compare it to its predecessor – and at just RM659, this rugged device should be high up in your shortlist if you’re looking for a new smartwatch.

Design

At the risk of stating the obvious, the T-Rex Pro boasts a brawny build thanks to its high-performance and metal-sprayed bezel construction. It comes in three
colours
 – Meteorite Black, Desert Grey, and Steel Blue; my unit is the blue, and I’m not going to lie – it reminds me of classic G-Shock watches, which is not a bad thing at all.

Despite its
chonky
 exterior, the device weighs just 59.4 grams, and I like that it doesn’t weigh me down especially during a workout. There’s no getting around the fact that it has a large 47.7×47.7×13.5mm dimension, meaning it may not suit people with smaller wrists.

The strap measures at 122mm in length, and is made of silicone with a sweat-wicking design – it is one of the more flexible straps you get on an outdoor-centric watch, and a great plus point is that it feels comfortable on the skin.

Display

Arguably one of the most important parts of what makes a great smartwatch is a decent display – thankfully, the T-Rex Pro comes with a pretty nice 1.3-inch AMOLED panel that pushes a 360x360p resolution.

The tempered glass screen is layered with an anti-fingerprint matte coating that is also useful for reducing glare and scratches.

Other plus points include decent
colour
 output, and maximum brightness – they make staring at the screen everyday a pleasure.

Toughness

According to
Amazfit
, they’ve put the T-Rex Pro trough 15 military-grade tests (MIL-STD-810G) which include withstanding heat of up to 70°C and low temperatures of -40°C among other things. It is also built to resist humidity for up to 240 hours, or 96 hours of salt spraying; withstand freezing rain, as well as drops.

As standard of a proper 2021 smartwatch, the T-Rex Pro is also 10 ATM rated for water resistance, which lets you take the watch for up to a 100m dive.

Health and fitness tracking

The watch comes with over 100 sports and workout modes, which can all be accessed by tapping the select button – each workout shows you key stats like heart rate, intensity, time, and more. There’s also the useful PAI Health Assessment System that gives you a score based on a conglomeration of your health stats.

While we’re on the topic of workouts, there’s
ExerSense
 which is a new workout recognition system that automatically detects and recognize the type of activity you’re performing

When it comes to health tracking, the watch is equipped with
Amazfit’s

BioTracker
 2 PPG optical sensor that improves 24-hour heart-rate tracking accuracy. as well as stress levels, and sleep quality. For the most part, these tracking features work as advertised and can be accessed on the watch.

If you’re outdoors – which is where you should really be using the watch – there’s now Galileo and
BeiDou
 positioning systems on top of the usual GPS and GLONASS satellites.

Companion app

Although you get a decent amount of information on your watch itself, it’s the Zepp companion app that’ll you need in order to dig deeper into your data. Like I mentioned before in my review of the
Amazfit

Bip
 U
, Zepp is a fuss-free companion app that’s easy to use – and I give it points for that.

You can view your health scores and be presented with a more comprehensive breakdown of your data – you’ll also be presented with recommendations on how to improve your stats. Through Zepp, you can also change your watch face – however options are limited even on the app store.

Software

Scrolling through the watch’s menus and apps feel snappy, and I didn’t really experience any slowdowns after a month of using the device. The lack of widgets and pages could be a bane or a boon depending on who you ask – it simplifies the user experience a bit, but those who rely on widgets for ease of access may find this frustrating.

You get notifications and music playback too which syncs to Spotify – I appreciate watches that do both these features well simply because they help make my daily commutes a little easier to get through.

Battery life

In my experience, the watch can last about 14 days on regular use – I had 24-hour heart rate tracking and adaptive brightness enabled, along with short 15 to 30-minute workout sessions three to five times a week.

When it runs out of juice, you can power the watch up to full in about 1.5 hours – not bad considering the impressive battery life you’re getting.

Verdict

The
Amazfit
 T-Rex Pro is a great all-rounder that – although is made for the great outdoors – is a fantastic option for day-to-day use as well. Its vast selection of features and workout modes, as well as impressive battery life complete a very enticing modern-day smartwatch – one that costs just RM659 no less.

If you’re interested in getting the T-Rex Pro, you can visit
Amazfit’s
 official
Shopee
 and
Lazada
 pages here to make your purchase.

The Good

Rugged build

Impressive battery life

Plenty of health tracking features

Lightweight

The Not So Good

May be too large for small hands

No voice assistant support

Limited watch face options

This article is sponsored by Amazfit

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Amazfit T-Rex VS T-Rex Pro: Which should you get?

1.7K

The
Amazfit
 T-Rex
 smartwatch from last year was all about toughness, and a long battery life offered at an affordable price tag – this year, we’re treated to a much better version of the watch in the form of the Amazfit T-Rex Pro.

It’s brings added sturdiness and more features suited to the outdoorsy person – but how much better is the new T-Rex Pro compared its older sibling? Here’s a breakdown of the key differences between the two.

Built like an absolute unit

Picture this: present-day Dwyane ‘The Rock’ Johnson with all his gains, standing next to himself but from his wrestling days, who was at least half as small. That’s a pretty fitting analogy for how to differentiate these two watches.

The
Amazfit
 T-Rex Pro is present-day Dwayne Johnson, and here’s why: the device has passed a whopping 15 military-grade toughness tests compared to the regular
Amazfit
 T-Rex’s 12. Plus, you can take it up to 100m underwater if you want, because it also has 10 ATM water-resistance rating, compared to the regular T-Rex’s 5 ATM rating.

On top of that, the watch is heat resistant up to 70°C, can be withstand humidity for up to 240 hours, as well as 96 hours of salt spraying. It’s all around bigger and tougher, just like our man Dwayne Johnson.

The better-looking brother

The watch still comes with a pretty 1.3-inch AMOLED display that pushes a 360×360 resolution; a tempered glass layer protects the display and it’s coated with an anti-fingerprint finish to boot.

What’s new is that the
Amazfit
 T-Rex Pro gets a metallic-painted polycarbonate body, and a classier two-tone skin-friendly silicon wristband. These improvements complement the watch’s signature rugged aesthetic.

The fitter companion

The
Amazfit
 T-Rex Pro improves on its predecessor’s vast set of features with even more new additions for a more holistic monitoring, and tracking experience.

For health, the T-Rex Pro now offers blood-oxygen level (SpO2) monitoring, which is important for keeping an eye on the wearer’s overall health. The heart-rate tracker is now improved thanks to a new
BioTracker
 PPG 2 optical sensor. Lastly,
Amazfit
 adds a stress-monitoring feature to round off the suite of new additions to the health-tracking side of things.

Moving on to sports modes and navigation, the watch now packs over 100 sports modes to choose from, which is a far cry from the 14 that the original T-Rex offered. There’s also smart automatic sports recognition for 8 types of activities, so you can immediately start your workout without swiping through menus first.

For outdoor activities, an altimeter measurement feature has been added; plus, Galileo and BeiDou for navigation on top of the existing GPS and GLONASS systems. Add to that VO2max monitoring, you’ve got a complete outdoor smartwatch on your hands.

How to buy the Amazfit T-Rex Pro

The
Amazfit
 T-Rex Pro is available in Meteorite Black, Desert Grey, and Steel Blue; it’s priced at RM659 and will be available to pre-order via the brand’s
Shopee
 store until 31 March.

This article is sponsored by Amazfit

amazfit
amazfit t-rex
t-rex pro


Amazon Alexa will eventually be able to control all streaming services

280

Amazon has recently extended its famous home assistant device to be more compatible with video streaming services, initially, it only works on famous streaming services but with the tools now open to any content provider, we should expect to see more streaming services enabling voice control for their product.

With the introduction of Video Skill API, which will allow developers to accept inputs from Alexa to navigate their app, you will be able to play a particular show, search for content or change channels without moving an inch. This feature also applies to any Amazon product as long as its connected to the same network. Companies have already implemented this feature into their products such as Dish Network and YouView.

Amazon mentioned to TechCrunch that they are working with several other videos providers to develop this new service, but it will most probably take some time for streaming services to update their apps to take advantage of this new development.

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amazon
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streaming
video


Amazon brings back Big Mouth Billy Bass with built-in Alexa support

315

Amazon Echo has yet again added in a new product from their company, and this time it comes in the form of the legendary “Big Mouth Billy Bass”, the talking and singing fish that people used to love buying and hanging on the walls for entertainment purposes.

The new product is Alexa-enabled, which means you’re able to use the Big Mouth Billy Bass like how you would use Alexa on your Amazon Echo device. Speaking of Amazon Echo devices, you would need to connect the Alexa-enabled Billy Bass to an existing Echo device for it to work. Once its hooked up, you’ll be able to access it and use it for your usual task such as setting timers, playing music, and answering basic inquiries.

According to The Verge, “This gadget has been a long time coming. A developer named Brian Kane first came up with the idea of hacking a Billy Bass to connect to Alexa’s API in 2016, before, in 2017, the makers of the fishy ornament said they were going to make Kane’s idea real. More than a year later, the product is available for preorder, complete with an official “Alexa Gadget” certification.”

The Alexa-enabled Big Mouth Billy Bass is now
available for preorder
 on Amazon and its priced at $40 (RM167.52).

alexa
Alexa Enabled device
Amazon Echo
Big Mouth Billy Bass


Amazon clamps down on incentivized reviews

351

Up until now, Amazon has turned a blind eye to reviews that were done in exchange for free products, also known as “incentivized reviews,” on their website. This is no longer the case as the online marketplace has begun clamping done on this practice.

While Amazon has neveer tolerate paid reviews, the company did allow incentivized reviews provided that the reviewers added a disclaimer saying so. Today, Amazon has published a blog post mentioning that it has updated its terms of service, causing incentivized reviews to no longer be allowed on the website. While you can no longer post incentivized reviews on the Amazon marketplace proper, Amazon will still allow users to do so via the Amazon Vine program, albeit with limitations.

As for incentivized reviews that were pubilshed prior to the terms of service changes, Amazon has told TechCrunch that they will only be pulling reviews that are deemed “excessive” while the more measured reviews will remain visible on the item pages.

Source:
TechCrunch
,
Amazon

amazon
ban
incentivizedreviews


Amazon Cloud Services' S3 error was caused by a typo

390

Remember how a major chunk of the internet was inaccessible thanks to errors that popped up on AWS’s S3 servers? Well, Amazon has finally completed its post-mortem of the problem and it appears that the main culprit behind the error was a simple typo.

In a note that was published by Amazon today, the company explained that members of the S3 team needed to take a small number of servers offline in order to conduct some debugging of the billing system. However, a typo found in the input command caused a larger set of servers to be taken offline than intended.

Said servers also happened to support two major S3 subsystems: one that manages metadata, and another that manages location information. With both subsystems offline, services that depend on it are unable to perform basic data retrieval and storage leaks. With a large chunk of S3 now offline, the system are forced to do a full restart. During the time it takes for that to happen, other parts of Amazon Web Services stopped as well.

Amazon admitted that the S3 system was unable to handle a massive restart and as such, the company will be making changes to the system in order for it to recover more quickly from future accidents like this. Additionally, the company will be installing new safety features into the system that would prevent engineers from removing capacity from S3 if it would take subsystems below a certain threshold.

Source:
The Verge
,
Amazon

amazon
error
s3
server
typo


Amazon comes under fire for inadequate response over social engineering "hack"

362

Eric Springer has launched a scathing attack against Amazon as the company’s customer support team is suspected to have given away Springer’s private information through a social engineering “hack”.

On a blogpost published at Medium
, Springer went through his entire ordeal surrounding the incident. According to Springer, someone has utilised his whois information in order to impersonate him. Using said information, the individual then contacted Amazon Customer Support and wound up receiving Springer’s actual address and phone number.

Two more social engineering attempts were made after the intial attempt with the individual attempting to get Springer’s credit card information with the last one being a phone call and as such, no transcripts were made available. There are no updates as to whether said individual has managed to acquire Springer’s credit card information.

As of the time of writing, Amazon has not responded to the allegations.

Source :
Medium
,
Engadget

amazon
security
socialengineering


Amazon filed a patent that would see the company use blimps as flying warehouses

445

Amazon has been flirting with the idea of doing deliveries via a fleet of drones for the past year or so. However, a recently discovered patent that was filed by Amazon two years ago reveals that drone delivery might be the first step in a much a grander plan, and said grander plan is hilariously absurd.

The patent in question was first spotted by Zoe Leavitt, an analyst at technology data and research firm CB Insights. According to the filed patents, Amazon is looking to launch what the company calls “airborne fulfillment centers” which are basically giant blimps that are converted to aerial warehouses. Once someone orders an item from Amazon, the airborne fulfillment center will deploy drones to deliver said item to the customer, before returning to the fulfillment center. Besides being a flying warehouse, the airborne fulfillment center will also be able to provide advertising as well.

Alongside the massive blimp, smaller airships will be deployed in order to bring personnel and supplies from the ground. The smaller airships will also be used to restock the warehouse as well.

While the thought of an aerial Amazon warehouse sounds like something straight out of a movie, it is highly unlikely that Amazon would start deploying such a system anytime soon. For now, Amazon will still have to struggle with getting the proper clearance needed to test out its drone delivery system in the United States. That said, Amazon’s blimp warehouse patent has got to be the most ambitious thing that we’ve seen for a while..

Source:
Ars Technica

airbornefulfillmentcenter
amazon
delivery
drones
logistics


Amazon fined for shipping prohibited items on domestic and international flights

343

Amazon has gotten themselves a slap on the wrist in the UK as the UK authorities have fined Amazon UK GBP65,000 for attempting to ship dangerous goods on passenger planes.

Southwark Crown Court has found that Amazon has breached four UK civil aviation rules for the offense of “causing dangerous goods to be delivered for carriage in an aircraft.” Said dangerous goods in question includes spare lithium-ion batteries for mobile phones or tablets, a can of Dove deodorant, and a hair mousse made by Tresemme. For those who travel via aircraft, they would know that these items are usually banned on flights.

Amazon UK services was convicted under the UK’s Air Navigation (Dangerous Goods) Regulations 2002 and will be ordered to pay GBY60,000 in legal costs to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Following the sentencing, Amazon has promised that they would constantly to further improve and will continue to work with the CAA in this area.

Source:
Ars Technica

amazon
fine
shipping
uk


Amazon introduces a video conferencing service called Chime

258

Skype has just gotten itself a new competitor in the video conferencing market as Amazon has launched its own take on the service called Chime.

Built by the Amazon Web Services team, Chime is a business-centric video conferencing service that caters to the needs of companies. The base service for Chime comes with the standard video calls and chat rooms. However, those that are willing to pay for the service will also gain access to virtual meeting rooms, video sharing and screen sharing as well. As Chime is part of the AWS experience, the service also gains the security infrastructure that can be found on other AWS services.

For those looking to try out Chime, the basic tier is completely free and lets you try out the service’s video call and chat room features. For those who want a little more than the basics, Chime has a USD2.50 per month Plus plan that lets you use your corporate directory, as well as features such as screen sharing. Finally, the USD15 per month Pro plan gets you all of the above as well as video meeting features that can support up to 100 users simultaneously. The service is available for Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android devices, meaning you can test the service out on both your desktop machines and on your mobile devices.

amazon
amazonwebservice
business
chime
videoconferencing


Amazon introduces the Fire Phone to the world

271

Introduced a few hours ago on this time of writing at the US, Amazon has announced the Fire Phone, which looks like any touch screen smartphones today with a 4.7-inch 720p Gorilla Glass display, Snapdragon 800 2.2GHz processor, and 2GB RAM.

The device features a 13 Megapixel f/2.0 camera with optical image stabilization and is able to capture Full HD videos, a dedicated camera button is also available on the phone. As you’d expect from a company that also sells reading materials, the display of the Fire Phone have a great 590 nits of brightness and features dynamic image contrast and a “circular polarizer” to reduce glare. The Fire Phone runs on Fire OS 3.5 which is based on Android’s core.

The Fire Phone has dual stereo speakers that features virtual Dolby Digital Plus surround sound and comes with tangle-free and magnetic earbuds that clasp together.

There’s also X-Ray on the phone for second screen functionality, ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) and Miracast wireless display support.

CEO Jeff Bezos also mentions that its premier support Mayday will be available for the Fire Phone, which is a 24/7/365 live customer service support that the Kindle Fire currently has.

Firefly is a new feature introduced in the Fire Phone that will allow customers to use the phone’s camera to recognize things such as books, DVDs and etc as well as using the phone’s microphone to recognize music to be able to purchase content off the Amazon store. Firefly is an amazing search feature that will pull information from sources such as Wikipedia and will recognize over a hundred million items, which includes street signs, a dedicated Firefly button is available on the Fire Phone.

The Fire Phone comes with free unlimited cloud storage for your photos and will support global LTE bands, quad GSM, five band of UMTS, WiFi AC, NFC and Bluetooth. Amazon also claims that the phone will have a great battery life such as 285 hours of standby time, 22 hours of talk time, 65 hours and 11 hours of audio and video playback respectively. In terms of availability, the Fire Phone will only be available at
AT&T
 for $199 and $299 for the 32GB and 64 GB version respectively, off contract prices are $649 for the 32GB version and $749 for the 64GB version.

Judging by the specs above, the Fire Phone could be a key for Amazon going abroad in offering its services to the rest of the world, we certainly hope that there will be one day we see the Fire Phone reaching our shores since it will support our networks here. When that happens, the Fire Phone can be a great shopping phone for users over here.


Amazon is creating its own AirPods with built-in Alexa support

339

Amazon is trying to produce its own wireless earbuds, and these earbuds are said to be almost similar to Apple’s AirPods.

Just like the AirPods, Amazon’s wireless earbuds will be able to fit into users’ ears without the need of clips. The company will integrate Alexa support into the earbuds, so users will be able to access music, weather and other things through Alexa.

Amazon’s wireless earbuds will also have physical controls which utilises tapping to answer calls and control music playback. However, it will require pairing as it will not get built-in cellular connectivity. It’ll also come in a storage case that functions as a charger — just like the AirPods — and can be charged via a standard USB cable.

According to Bloomberg’s report, the Amazon earbuds have faced development delays, though the company expects it to be released within this year. The earbuds are also expected to come in black and grey.

alexa
amazon
wireless earbuds


Amazon Japan now offers international shipping for games

283

If you’re the kind of person who imports games from Japan every so often, you might be happy to hear that Amazon Japan will now officially support international shipping for games.

Before you start browsing the Amazon Japan website to get Japan only games though, you should know that the Amazon Japan will only ship games and consoles that they themselves stock. This means that you won’t be able to buy games from 3rd party sellers in the Amazon Marketplace. The second thing you should note is that not all games will be available for international shipping, so do keep that in mind when you browse the website for games you want.

Other than that, all you really need to do is to sign up for an Amazon Japan account, look for the game you want, enter your address and credit card information, and confirm your purchase. Once payment is complete, you can track your order on the website itself. It would normally take around 3 days for your game to arrive at your doorstep.

The prices of games on Amazon Japan are rather reasonable, and it may occasionally be cheaper than online stores such as
Play-Asia
. Just keep in mind that some consoles do have region locks, and Amazon Japan doesn’t do refunds for international shipping.

Source:
Eurogamer
,
NeoGAF

amazonjapan
internationalshipping
videogames


Amazon launches its own music streaming service called Amazon Music Unlimited

337

Apple and Spotify now has a new competitor in the audio streaming business, and it comes from Amazon. Said service is callled Amazon Music Unlimited, and it comes with some pretty interesting features.

Let’s start off with the basics. Currently available only in the U.S., Amazon Music Unlimited appears to be an extension of Amazon Prime Music. Much like any other music streaming service, Amazon Music Unlimtied will grant its subscribers access to “tens of millions” of songs.

With Amazon Music Unlimited, Amazon is looking to push its AI assistant, Alexa, aggresively. To do so, Amazon has developed features that can only be utilised if one owns an Amazon Echo speaker. With the speaker, the user would be able to navigate the service solely through their voice. For example, a user can request tell Alexa to “play music by the King of Pop,” and Alexa would begin playing songs by Michael Jackson. Thanks to machine learning, Alexa will also be able to customize a playlist based on the user’s listening history.

Pricing is where Amazon Music Unlimited becomes rather confusing, as there are multiple price points depending on various factors. On its own, Amazon Music Unlimited is priced at USD9.99 per month, identical to what Spotify or Apple Music is currently charging. However, if you are an existing Amazon Prime customer, a subscription to the service will cost just USD7.99. If you own an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or Amazon Tap device, the subscription gets even cheaper at USD3.99, with the catch that music playback will only work on that device.

Source:
Amazon
,
Ars Technica

alexa
amazon
amazonmusicunlimited
applemusic
echo
music
spotify
streaming


Amazon launches new initiative to crackdown on counterfeits

339

If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon, chances are good that you’ve ran into counterfeit goods before. If Bloomberg’s reports hold true though, that may soon be a thing of the past as Amazon is about to launch a new initiative the would prevent the sales of counterfeit goods on the website.

According to the report, Amazon will soon be organizing teams in the U.S. and Europe that will work with major brands to establish a registry of recognized sellers. Sources say that the new teams will seek out brands to register their items into Amazon’s database, even approaching companies that do not sell their products via the online website. Once registered, Amazon would require any marketplace merchant that sells those items to prove they have permission from the brand to sell them online. This system has been partially implemented this year as merchants who wished to sell products from brands like Adidas, Hasbro and Samsung are hit with hefty fees.

While the idea is good in theory, Amazon’s execution of the idea remains to be seen. Right now, it seems that Amazon is being rather heavy handed in its approach to clamping down on counterfeit goods. If Amazon comes off as too zealous in its patrolling of counterfeit goods, it may turn off some of the website’s marketplace merchants from using the service.

Source:
Bloomberg
,
Engadget

amazon
counterfeit
marketplace
online
products
sales


Amazon has made a waterproof 7-inch Kindle e-reader

312

If a tablet display doesn’t appeal to you in reading, then you obviously turn to an e-reader for a better experience, as e-paper displays don’t have the glare that LCD panels emit, and if you now want to use an e-reader by the poolside on in your bath tub, Amazon has just announced the Kindle Oasis, a 7-inch e-reader that not feels extremely premium with an aluminum body, but it can also be submerged in fresh water for up to 2 meters of depth and 60 minutes, making this water resistance capability even stronger than today’s waterproof smartphones.

The Kindle Oasis is released in conjunction with the Kindle’s 10th anniversary, it has the largest display of any Kindle e-readers and uses a rather high 300ppi e-paper display, battery life will last up to weeks and it has fast charging functionality to get it back from the dead for less than two hours. For all of these upgrades, the Kindle Oasis costs a lot for what it is, it will start from $249.99 for the 8GB model with special offers, which the tablet will show ads on the display when on standby, while it will cost up to $349.99 for the 32GB model with no ads and free cellular network. Amazon is also selling water-safe fabric covers for $44.99 and premium leather covers for $59.99, which eventually you are already spending on a mid-range Android tablet.

Amazon is taking pre-orders of the Kindle Oasis right now, which you can head on to www.amazon.com/kindleoasis if you are really fond of its larger display and water resistance capability.

amazon
kindle oasis


Amazon is making an attempt into the instant messaging market with Anytime

549

Looks like everyone wants in the instant messaging market and Amazon is not going to be left behind. According to a report from AFTV News, the retail giant has begun to survey its customers on potential features they would like to see in the app which they are calling Anytime.

The app looks to be an all-in-one feature rich service that could even rival social networks with a focus on messaging, voice and video calls and photo sharing where users will be able to apple pictures and videos, tag users, use stickers and GIFs, and play games. It even goes a step further by allowing users to contact businesses to order products or make reservations. According to images from the survey, the service will be secured and encrypted and will work on desktop and mobile phones. Some of these features are not new to Amazon, as they announced Chime, a video conferencing app for business users to rival the likes of Skype for Business or WebEx, earlier this year. They have also implemented voice calling and messaging features to Alexa devices.

Image Source: AFTV News

What do you think about Amazon’s attempt into the instant messaging market, could this be a mediocre attempt to enter the market? After all, they already have experience in most of the features offered, or could this be the new Whatsapp we will all switch to.

amazon
anytime
app
calls
instant
messaging
video
voice


Amazon Malaysia to launch in late 2017

350

This is not an April fool joke. because if you have been thinking to get that awesome product on Amazon but just can’t because it isn’t available here, you will be happy to know that the company will finally be launching its marketplace officially here in Malaysia, that’s right, you will soon be able to purchase products from Amazon just like you do on local e-commerce stores without worrying if it reaches you. Amazon and its affiliate iPrice, a meta-search website engine, has shared the screenshot of the Amazon Malaysia main page as pictured above, and users will be able to access the site by simply typing Amazon.my on their browser when it goes live, Amazon should also introduce its Prime member services and Music Unlimited service at launch as well.

One of the first products to be featured on Amazon Malaysia (we are sure this is an April Fool Joke) is a Bomoh Search Engine, which is sold by self-proclaimed Raja Bomoh Sedunia Nujum VIP, the product set will include a fresh pair of coconuts, a pair of the “All Seeing Stick”, a wooden basket and a magic carpet, which users can use it to perform traditional bomoh spells and Harry Potter spells. (Yes, this info comes directly from the press release)

Back to the serious side of things, Amazon has previously made its Prime video streaming service available here a couple of months back, and making its marketplace available here is already an expected move, and it will definitely be an interesting time to find out how Amazon would be able to compete with Alibaba owned Lazada, 11street, GemFive and many other large online marketplaces here. Meanwhile, Amazon will also be launching its marketplace at Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, The Philippines, and Vietnam, let’s hope Amazon will bring in the Echos, Fire tablets and TVs, and Kindles when it launches.

amazon
amazonmalaysia
prime


Amazon puts up job posting for a creative director of VR

341

With virtual reality technology finally made available to the general public, many tech companies are looking to embrace VR as part of the company’s strategy. Once such company is Amazon, and what they may do with VR tech could be rather interesting.

Quite recently, Amazon has
listed a job posting on LinkedIn
 that shows that the company is looking for a creative director for virtual reality. The creative director will work under the company’s A9 division and will be responsible for “building Amazon’s VR shopping experience for use by millions of customers on a wide variety of VR devices.”

While details of the creative director job is rather vague, the most interesting part of the description will have to be the mention of Amazon’s “VR shopping experience”. Assuming that this is Amazon’s endgame, it appears that the company may be looking to expand its online marketplace into the VR space. That on its on may paint a very interesting picture of Amazon’s future.

Source:
TechCrunch
,
LinkedIn

amazon
creativedirector
jobposting
virtualreality


Amazon removes encryption support from its products and operating system

308

While Apple fights the good fight,
@Amazon
 removes encryption as option from FireOS 5 |
@csoghoian

@normative

@eff

pic.twitter.com/nggBdtFG7j

— David Scovetta (@davidscovetta)
March 3, 2016

If you own an Amazon device that runs FireOS, you might want to know that Amazon has decided to remove encryption support in recent releases of FireOS 5.

As mentioned on
Amazon’s support forums
, Amazon has been slowly deprecating support for device encryption, eventually culminating in its removal altogether. Thie removal of encryption options affects new Fire tablets as well as older devices that have been upgraded to the latest version of Fire OS.

Amazon has since clarified with Ars Technica as to why they’ve removed encryption support. According to them, encryption support was removed in FireOS 5 because the feature wasn’t being used. “In the fall when we released FireOS 5, we removed some enterprise features that we found customers weren’t using. All Fire tablets’ communication with Amazon’s cloud meet our high standards for privacy and security including appropriate use of encryption,” says Amazon.

Simply put, while data stored on the device itself is unencrypted, connections between the device and external servers are still encrypted.

Source:
Ars Technica

amazon
encryption
fireos


Amazon reveals the all-new Kindle Paperwhite and it’s waterproof

324

The Paperwhite is one of the Kindle e-readers that is sold by Amazon and these e-readers are made for those who love reading yet worry about reading under bright lights. This is because the Paperwhite has a 6-inch high resolution display that is glare-free, unlike reflective smartphone and tablet screens. The Paperwhite is also thinner and lighter than its previous version, in addition to an increase in storage space, allowing users to choose the 8GB storage or 32GB storage should they want to more downloads.

Image credit : Amazon

One of the main upgrades to the Paperwhite is that it has waterproof rating of IPX8, which allows the device to be under fresh water up to 2 meters deep for 60 minutes. The cellular connectivity is also upgraded from 3G to 4G LTE, and like the rest of the Kindle e-readers, Paperwhite supports playback of Audible when paired with Bluetooth-enabled speakers or headphones. In terms of battery life, Kindle Paperwhite can last up to six weeks with a single charge, though it is highly dependent on the usage of the device.

Image credit : Amazon

The all-new Kindle Paperwhite is the 4th generation of its kind, and it is already available to be pre-ordered today on Amazon while the shipping will begin on 7 November. The new Paperwhite will cost you $129.99 for the 8GB model, $159.99 for the 32GB model and $249.99 for the 32GB version that has free cellular connectivity.

amazon
e-readers
kindle
Paperwhite


Amazon seeks to enter Southeast Asia in 2017

285

A major player in the online marketplace sector may finally make its long-awaited arrival in Southeast Asia as Techcrunch has reported that Amazon has plans to enter the local market early next year.

According to the report, it appears that Amazon is looking to enter the region via a launch in Singapore. To do so, the company has been covertly acquiring assets and making new hires, all of which has been led by Steven Scrive, head of Amazon’s ASEAN division. Once the Singapore launch is completed, many speculate that Amazon would then proceed to enter the Indonesian market. No word on a Malaysian launch was given, so it appears that we’re going to have to wait a while before that happens.

With Amazon entering the market, the company will now be going toe-to-toe with other e-commerce websites such as Lazada, and 11street. If everything goes well though, we may soon see a day where Amazon Prime is offered locally.

Source:
TechCrunch

amazon
expansion
singapore
southeastasia


Amazon to expand to South East Asia through Singapore

316

When it comes to online shopping, despite having the avenues available to shop online, many of us still envy over the fact that our relatives on the other side of the world have the privilege of shopping at Amazon.com. The American e-commerce giant is the largest Internet retailer in terms of its sales, and some reports claim that Amazon will be heading over to our region some time in the near future.

According to Singapore news outlet The Straits Times, online retailer Amazon has plans to enter the South East Asian region, via our neighbors Singapore. The company is said to be in the midst of hiring employees in Singapore, along with some purchase of assets. The report further states that the Amazon Prime service might be arriving in the country as soon as early 2017, including AmazonFresh – the company’s grocery delivery service.

The Amazon Prime service would mean that users in the SEA region would be able to enjoy Prime features when they sign up for the Prime membership. The perks and features include fast free shipping for Prime eligible items, exclusive access to Amazon’s library of movies, TV shows, ad-free music and Kindle books. If the said report turns out to be true, we might be looking at a tough contest over here at South East Asia.

Lazada is Asia’s largest e-commerce player and the Singapore owned online retailer has pretty much dominated the online market in the South East Asian region. If Amazon arrives to SEA, it is expected to put up a tough fight against the already established Lazada. Having said that, we do hope that Amazon won’t be limited to only Singapore when it arrives. What do you think?

Source:
The Straits Times

amazon
asia
east
ecommerce
internet
malaysia
online
retailer
sea
singapore
south
usa


Amazon to host a Digital Day sale tomorrow

356

Got a bunch of e-books you wanna buy from Amazon? Well, you might want to put those purchases on hold for now as it appears that Amazon will be hosting a Digital Day sale tomorrow.

At 3AM EST on the 30th of December (4pm tomorrow local time), Amazon will be offering discounts of up to 50 percent on all digital goods in its store. This means that applications, games, movies, music and e-books will qualify for the sale. Some titles that will be receiving discounts includes games like Rocket League and Titanfall 2, various Amazon music and video titles, Comixology comic books, and many more.

The sale itself will run for 24 hours, so you’ll have a full days worth of browsing before checking out. Seeing as the sale is focused on digital goods, depending on what you intend to purchase, you may or may not have to bypass a geographical hurdle. If you’re able to do so, you might just be able to pick up some discounted goods before 2017 rolls in.

Source:
Amazon

amazon
applications
digitalday
ebooks
games
movies
music
sales


Amazon to reveal new Kindle next week

316

Amazon’s premier e-reader will be getting a new iteration soon as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has stated in a tweet that the company will be revealing a new Kindle next week.

Heads up readers – all-new, top of the line Kindle almost ready. 8th generation. Details next week.

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos)
April 4, 2016

Described as being “top-of-the-line”, the 8th Generation Kindle is expected to replace the two-year-old Kindle Voyage as the company’s flagship e-reader. Seeing as the current Kindle Voyage is priced at USD 200, it wouldn’t be surprising that the new Kindle would be priced at around the same range.

That said, the announcement of a new flagship Kindle means that the more affordable version of the Kindle, the Paperwhite, will probably be unaffected by the new announcements. As for the device itself, no specifications have been leaked yet, but judging by what the Voyage has, we expect the new Kindle to feature some minor improvements over the Voyage.

Source:
Ars Technica


Amazon updates entry-level Kindle with more memory and Bluetooth audio support

303

Amazon’s Kindle is undeniably one of the best eReader out there when it comes to affordability, the company has unveiled a successor to its current entry-level eReader, which features a thinner and lighter design at the same $79.99 price tag, the new Kindle is claimed to be 11% thinner and 16% lighter than its predecessor, it is also equipped with more storage and RAM at 4GB and 512MB respectively, which matches the performance internals of the mid-range Kindle PaperWhite. Despite of that, the 6-inch e-paper display still isn’t backlit and maintains the same 167 ppi screen resolution from its predecessor.

What makes the new Kindle different is the inclusion of Bluetooth audio support, which is used for accessibility rather than music listening. Since the Kindle doesn’t sport any built-in speakers, visually impaired users can pair the Kindle to a Bluetooth audio device to use Amazon’s VoiceView screen reader that reads menus and text aloud. Amazon will begin to ship the new Kindle next month with pre-orders starting right now, if you have a little extra cash to spare, I might actually recommend spending on a Kindle Paperwhite as it has a better display for your reading pleasure.

amazon
ereader
kindle
kindle2016
newkindle


Amazon will restore Fire OS encryption support in spring

290

Last week, it was widely reported that Amazon has decided to remove Fire OS’ encryption support. Predictably, a huge outcry rose from it. Now, Amazon is backtracking as they will be re-implementing full disk encryption to Fire OS 5 in a software update “coming in spring”.

Amazon’s decision to remove encryption from its latest version of Fire OS was ill-received by its users. The negative reaction to Amazon removing encryption support can be attributed to the fact that currently, Apple and the FBI are undergoing a legal battle surrounding encryption. When asked as to why Amazon removed encryption support in the first place, the company said that encryption was an “enterprise feature” that “consumers werem’t using.”

While the outrage surrounding Amazon’s removal of encryption from Fire OS was reported on only last week, Amazon has been removing encryption support since last year on its Fire tablets. With Amazon backtracking on its decision to remove encryption support, it is safe to say that future Fire tablets will have encryption support by default.

Source:
Ars Technica

amazon
encryption
fireos5


Amazon joins NVIDIA, LG and Ericsson in withdrawal from MWC 2020

357

With the coronavirus outbreak worsening, Amazon joined the list of companies who will be skipping MWC this year.

As reported by Reuters, Amazon released a statement to confirm that it will not be exhibiting nor participating in the tech trade show this year. Although Amazon initially plans to attend the event to promote Amazon Web Services, the fear of the virus outbreak has caused the company to put its employees’ health and safety above their plans.

Amazon is now the fourth company to announce its withdrawal from the show; NVIDIA, Ericsson, and LG all announced in the past two weeks that they will not be attending. On the other hand, ZTE changed its mind — instead of skipping the event entirely, the Chinese company will take special measures to minimize public health risks.

To further increase safety measures, GSMA also banned visitors from China’s Hubei province and will be implementing temperature screening. “All travelers who have been in China will need to demonstrate proof they have been outside of China 14 days prior to the event (passport stamp, health certificate),” said GSMA.

amazon
Coronavirus
GSMA
MWC 2020