G.Skill Unveils Trident Z and Ripjaws V Series DDR4 Memory

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G.SKILL International Enterprise is one of the leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory, solid-state storage,
power
supplies
, and gaming peripherals, is proud to introduce the first retail memory kit to break through the 4000 MHz
barrier

and two brand new memory series – the Trident Z and Ripjaws V series. It’s specially designed with the performance for the latest 6th generation Intel Core Processors and Z170 motherboards.

The new Trident Z DDR4 memory is the successor to the high-end Trident memory series and making its appearance on the new DDR4 standard with better designed and fully tested for the next generation Skylake-S platform. G-Skill uses
Samsung

highest-end IC memory chips and validated on the ASRock Z170 OC Formula motherboard to achieve the 4000 MHz memory kit, this will be the first time in the history of extreme memory kits. The memory features a single-piece design that allow direct heat dissipation from the heat spreader to the cooling fins, dual-color construction for the ultimate system builds, and extreme XMP 2.0 support for simple overclocking setup. It has a range from DDR4 2800 MHz all the way to DDR4-4000 MHz, there aren’t any other competitor that can come close to the brink of extreme.

The Ripjaws V comes with a variety of colors: Blazing Red, Steel Blue, Radiant Silver, Gunmetal Gray, and Classic Black. With the latest update on the specifications, your next generation Skylake-S platform is now able to run smoother than ever with more memory capacity options with the brand new Ripjaws V or Trident Z memory kits.

The price and availability will be confirmed, but you also can personal message one of the distributors in Malaysia to get a clearer and updated information – Ideal Tech.

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Get 48% off your total for BOTH GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC!

1.3K

Yes, I know the title is clickbait, but hear me out – as you may have heard, Grand Theft Auto V is now free to own on the
Epic Games Store
. The deal ends this 21 May, so you still have some time to get it.
 But what if I told you you can get the game, plus Red Dead Redemption 2, for just RM140 instead of RM338?

Epic Mega Sale

It’s arrival onto the Epic Games Store also
coincides
 with the platform’s
Epic Mega Sale
 which sees a bunch of AAA titles get up to 75% off its retail price. On top of the discounts, you also get a USD10 Epic Coupon, which knocks off even more on your shopping cart total.

How do you get two games for cheap?

With this in mind, it’s now time to explain the title of this article –
Red Dead Redemption 2
 is getting a 20% discount, meaning it’s currently RM184 on the Epic Games Store. But wait, there’s more! Add that USD10 Epic Coupon we mentioned earlier to your purchase, and now RDR2 is just RM140!

Meaning the game is now cheaper on PC than it’s ever been – cheaper than on
Steam
 too, which currently costs RM175. At the time of writing, this price also factors in a 20% discount. On top of that, the RDR2: Special Edition is only RM166 on the Epic Games Store; meaning you get even more content with your game for less
compared
 to what Steam is offering.

Image credit: GosuNoob.com

That’s a huge drop from its RM230 (USD52.99) retail price! So, what does this have to do with GTA 5? Well, both games are developed by
Rockstar Games
, and the company has
its
 own Rockstar Games Launcher that you’ll need in order to run both GTA 5 and RDR2 regardless of whether you buy it on Epic or Steam.

So it makes more sense to get both these titles via the Epic Games Store, because not only does it cost less, but you’ll also have them both in the same library – no need to switch between Epic and Steam.

Image credit: Funchap.net

An alternative

However, I understand that RM140 is still a lot of money to spend on a two-year old game – the annual Steam Summer Sale is touted to start this
June 25
, and you can expect AAA titles to get crazy discounts too – so there’s a good chance RDR2 will go for a little cheaper than RM140 then.

But if you don’t want to wait, getting RDR2 and GTA V on the Epic Games Store now is a really good deal for just RM140. That’s over 70 hours of game time you’ll get to see out the CMCO. You can visit the Epic Game’s Store to
here
 to make your purchase.

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GTC 2015: GTX Titan X specifications and some other goodies

314

The moment that all the hardcore enthusiasts have been waiting for, the specifications and price of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X has finally been revealed. Does it cost $3,000? Surprisingly not, they’re going for a much lower price tag of $999 and judging from their performance offerings, this is a very low price to pay compared to the $3,000 we had to pay last year. NVIDIA CEO and co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang showcased the GTX Titan X as well as the new DIGITS Deep Learning GPU Training System, and the DIGITS DevBox. Enough about me talking about the stuff you barely care about. Let’s talk numbers!

The GeForce GTX Titan X

The GeForce GTX Titan X is promising the ability to run games like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor at 40FPS, and that’s pretty insane in high settings with FXAA enabled. It also promises to deliver twice the performance and power efficiency of the GTX 980 by squeezing in 3072 CUDA Cores for 7 teraflops of peak single-precision performance on it’s 12GB of VRAM. The card also comes with a 336.5GB/s memory bandwidth. It is truly the future of VR and 4K Gaming. Full specifications can be found the specifications page provided by NVIDIA over
here
.

3027 CUDA Cores

Base Clock: 1000 MHz / Boost Clock: 1075 MHz

Texture Fill Rate: 192 GigaTexels/s

Memory Clock: 7000 MHz

VRAM: 12GB GDDR5, 384-bit @ 336.5GB/s

TDP: 250W

Maxwell 2 GM200

Transistor Count: 8 Billion

TSMC 28nm

The GTX Titan X runs on Maxwell 2 and comes with all that Maxwell goodness combined with the UE4 engine including MFAA, Dynamic Super Resolution and Voxel Global Illumination. It supports 4-way SLI as well as a maximum digital resolution of 5120×3200 with the use of two display ports.

DIGITS: Deep Learning

Using deep neural networks (DNN) to train computers to classify and recognize objects is a laborious and time consuming tasks. Most hardware does not have the computing power to recognize descriptors fast enough for real time surveillance or live feeds. DIGITS Deep Learning GPU Training system is here to change that by providing the necessary tools from A-to-Z in building the best possible neural net. DIGITS is an all-in-one graphical system for designing, training and validation of DNN image classifications.

The GTX Titan X is not just for gaming, but was made for industrial use as well. DIGITS will guide users from the on-start on how they can go about handling the DNN. Deep learning with the GTX Titan X will not only enhance but speed up the speed of progression in the field of machine learning, starting with visual parameters tied to video classification, computer vision and non visual parameters such as speech recognition, natural language processing and audio recognition.

The success of the DNN will definitely be accelerated by the use of GPUs, which have been the platform of choice for the past few years — enabling data scientists to monitor and visualize data in real-time. The DIGITS system was designed for fast migration over to the new developer environment. It provides tools for DNN optimization, the main console lists databases from the local machine or data from the web. You can track adjustments you have made to the network and optimize for maximum accuracy.

DIGITS runs as a web server and makes it easy for multiple data scientists to work on the platform at one instance without any clash of data. This would be heaven for engineers working on big data clouds, visualization of data can take forever at times and the power of the GTX Titan X would definitely be beneficial to many programmers out there. Development as well as testing will be a breeze. Now all NVIDIA has to do is convince current companies about the prowess of their technology, as big data engineers are still relying on Xeon processors for their systems.


GTC 2015: Pascal Architecture for GPUs

292

NVIDIA just breezed through their Maxwell architecture and thought “Well that’s a thing of the past now, let’s show you what we have in store next” with their newest architecture, set to debut next year: The Pascal GPU Architecture. Just when you thought the Maxwell architecture was here to stay for a long time, NVIDIA announced that their Pascal architecture is set to accelerate deep learning applications by 10 times beyond the speed of the current Maxwell processors. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsu Huang revealed the details of Pascal and the roadmap during a keynote at GTC 2015.

“It will benefit from a billion dollars worth of refinement because of R&D done over the last three years,”

— Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO, NVIDIA

This new architecture is based solely on giving computers the ability to teach themselves — also known as deep learning within a deep neural network (DNN). The design of Pascal revolves heavily on the ability to being more faster, more accurate and the ability to mimic the human’s cortex-like data structure. We might actually be looking at the future of SkyNet right here. Comparing the new Pascal GPUs of the future to the newly launched GTX Titan X, the new line of cards are set to feature 32GB of memory — 2.7 times more than the GTX Titan X — as well as NVLink, NVIDIA’s high-speed interconnection of two GPUs which will lead to a total improvement of 10X in deep learning.

Mixed-Precision Computing

Mixed-precision computing aims to enabled Pascal-based GPUs to compute FLOPs with 32-bit accuracy with twice the speed. This increased FLOP perfomance benefits classification and convolution without sacrificing accuracy.

3D Memory

Memory bandwidth is constrained because we think of transistor dies as a 2D plane. 3D Memory will provide 3 times the memory bandwidth at nearly 3 times the frame buffer capacity by stacking its memory chips on top of each other and places adjacent to the CPU rather than further down the processor boards. This will dramatically decrease the travel time and improve the power efficiency of these memory clocks.

NVLink

NVLink is different from SLI as it allows Pascal to move data from the GPUs to the CPU at 12 times faster than the current PCI-Express standard. NVLink also allows double the number of GPUs in the system to work together in processing deep-learning computions as well as connect the CPU and GPUs in a much more flexible and energy efficient manner.


GTX 1660 Ti: Nvidia launches new affordable flagship GPU that matches GTX 1070 levels

336

It’s 2019 and it’s only fitting we get a new flagship GPU to beef up our rigs. This new flagship comes in the form of NVIDIA’s GTX 1660Ti – that’s right, we’ve broken through into 16-series territory. NVIDIA claims that the GTX 1660Ti is an affordable GPU that boasts top-of-the-line performance.

Image credit: Tech Here

According to Nvidia Product Manager Justin Walker, the reasoning behind the graphics card’s naming is because it’s supposed to boast performance levels that fall between the GTX 10-series and RTX 20-series family of cards. So, NVIDIA claims that the GTX 1660Ti mirrors the performance of the GTX 1070 8GB in terms of performance.

This power is achieved thanks to the usage of Nvidia’s new Turing architecture, which can be found in the RTX; but unlike the RTX, this GPU does not support ray-tracing. According to Nvidia head engineer Tom Petersen, the new Turing architecture allows for concurrent execution of floating point and integer operations – when comparing to the older Pascal architecture’s one-at-a-time method. By doing this, Turing is effectively faster and more efficient than its predecessor – hence the comparison to the GTX 1070 8GB.

Image credit: WCCF Tech

The GTX 1660Ti comes with 1,536 CUDA cores with 12nm FinFET technology. Adaptive shading is also a new addition to the card – its programming will do a better job at prioritizing key graphical areas in a scene and shade accordingly. This allows for 40% less shading but still maintains the same quality.

So what does this all mean? Turing, with all its new features, is reportedly able to run Wolfenstein 2 at 117 fps, while the GTX1060 6GB could do only 70FPS. With the aforementioned concurrent float point execution method, Nvidia claims that Shadow of The Tomb Raider runs at 55 average fps with it, while the older method yields a 36 fps performance.

The GTX 1660Ti only comes in one 6GB VRAM variant and it boasts GDDR6 memory. The card retails at $279 (RM1,138) which is a whole RM1,000 cheaper than a GTX 1070Ti. The card will be available at partnered distributors only, so don’t expect a Founders Edition.

gpu
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Guess debuts Android Wear smartwatches

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Fashion designer brands have gradually conformed to the tech world. Brands such as Tag Heuer, Michael Kors and Fossil have launched their respective smart time pieces, with household names such as Movado teasing its own as well. Popular brand Guess debuts its Android Wear lineup of smartwatches today – known as the Guess Connect.

The Guess Connect isn’t the company’s first attempt on wearable technology. In fact, back in 2015, Guess launched a series of hybrid watches with the same Guess Connect name. The old Guess Connect does not run on Android Wear, but rather, it has a tiny strip of display at the bottom of the watch face while the rest of the design carries the same analog outlook.

Guess decided to establish a relationship with Google and Qualcomm as the trend of smart wearables are on the rise. Like most newly launched smartwatches, the new Guess Connect will run on Android Wear 2.0. This means that the Guess Connect will sport Android Wear 2.0 features such as a keyboard for messaging, standalone apps and forth. Internally, the wearable is powered by the Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor. There are different watches catered for both sexes – a 41mm casing for the ladies and a 45mm casing model for men. There will also be over a hundred combinations for watch face, color, and sub dials, plus interchangeable straps for customization purposes.

Unfortunately, the announced availability date for the Guess Connect is rather vague, not to mention a long time to go. According to the company, the Guess Connect will be available in Fall/Winter 2017.

Source:
Global News Wire

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Gundam Battle Operation Next is Free on PlayStation 4 today!

364

 As soon as we got the news that there is a Gundam game on PlayStation 4 and it is free to play, we immediately launched our PSN account and downloaded it. Why? Because this is the first Gundam title on PlayStation 4! Gundam Battle Operation Next is free on PlayStation 4 and can be downloaded if you have an Asia PSN account.

Gundam Battle Operation Next is a Free-to-Play 5-on-5 team action game. Since this game incorporates mobile suits from different stories including those from Universal Century, Cosmic Era and even other timelines, all Gundam fans will get a chance to play and ogle at the action their favourite mobile suit can put out.

If you download the game and make certain in-game purchases during the promo period, you can obtain special goodies and bonuses. Here are the list of things you can get during the campaign period.

The Battle Energy Discount Campaign lasts for 3 weeks from 27 August 2015 onwards. Campaign Period: 27 August 2015 –  September 2015.

Special Offer for Asia Version is a time-limited special offer for Asia version players, where battle energy and various boosters will be given to players who have downloaded the game. Offer Period: 27 August 2015 – 17 September 2015.

Trophy Campaign presents Booster Sets to players according to the type of trophy they got during the campaign period on a first-come, first-served basis. Bronze Trophy winners get a
Booster
set
 consisting of “EXP/Parts/Dev” x 1 (For the first 1,000 players); Silver Trophy winners get a
Booster
set
 with “EXP/Parts/Dev” x 5 (For the first 500 players); while Gold Trophy winners are given a
Booster
set
 with “EXP/Parts/Dev” x 30 (For the first 5 players). Campaign period: 27 August 2015 – 30 September 2015.

free
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to


GUNNAR Collaborate with Razer to release the new glasses – Cerberus and RPG

358

Today Gunnar announced their latest line of collaboration with Razer, a pioneer in connected devices and software for games. It uses GUNNAR patented i-AMP lens technology from precision-engineered to reduce eye strain and improve the sharpness of high-resolution displays, but they also include a sleek signature black-and-green frames inspired by the Razer iconic credo. Gunnar included two more products in their family – Razer Cerberus and Razer RPG.

Each of these products is forged with high-strength – lightweight frame materials to provide long-lasting durability and optical stability. There will be soft, thermoplastic, rubber-tipped temples grip lightly to prevent slippage, with hidden hinges that flex to rest comfortably on a wide variety of head and face shapes.

The Cerberus will come with a combination of traditional style with a modern sensibility and construction that feature adjustable silicone nose pads that articulate in three dimensions to fit comfortably and securely in the long term.
The GUNNAR Cerberus and RPG designed by Razer will be available for USD 99.99 (approx. RM 373) From GUNNAR
official online store
.

cerberus
gunnar
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H1Z1 Battle Royale Appearing at TwitchCon

257

H1Z1’s Battle Royale mode will feature in the game’s first invitational next month, despite from humble origins as a mod for a mod. It will be happening at TwitchCon, and will involve players and Twitch personalities going head-to-head in the American zombie apocalypse.

From September 22, there are 25 percent of H1Z1 Invitational Crate Key funds will go towards the prize pool and it have vaguely useful stuff like weapon skins and emotes, but they also have T-shirts emblazoned with prominent Twitch broadcasters. The Invitational itself will take place on September 26 and will be on air at Twitch.

The contest will run throughout three weeks that will start from today and runs until August 31. For players that interested and require more details on how to get join, you can get it over here. In addition, three players selected will fly to TwitchCon 2015 in San Francisco.  Battle Royale uses a combat-oriented game mode forcing players to fight to the death. However, it’s originally a mod for the original DayZ mod, but Daybreak licensed it for H1Z1 late last year.

Gamers that interested with this event you can head over Twitch.tv to watch the game live on September 25 and 26.

battleroyale
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Hacker group manages to run Linux on the Nintendo Switch

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Linux has proven to be a very versatile operating system. A few years ago, we have seen a group of hackers running Linux on the PS3, and it seems to perform fairly well. Now, another group has managed to run a fully functional version of Linux on the Nintendo Switch.

A hacking collective known as fail0verflow, which is known for exploiting the Nvidia Tegra hardware equipped with the Switch, has shown an image on Twitter of a Nintendo Switch booting and running Linux. Recently, they tweeted another post which shows a video of Linux running on the system with complete support for the touchscreen, an operational web browser and a GPU-powered demo application. The hacker group has claimed that the exploited bug cant be patch on currently released hardware and won’t require a modchip.

Code execution is all the rage these days, but can your Switch do *this*? 😉
#switchnix

pic.twitter.com/NMnBq61tOM

— fail0verflow (@fail0verflow)
February 17, 2018

As of now, they have not released any information on how you can install Linux on your own Switch, but the fact that they have managed to bypass the security in the console opens up a huge possibility that in the future, the Switch might support backed up games and homebrew which will significantly increase the attractiveness of the Switch.

linux
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Hacker responsible for leaking celebrity nude photos charged

353

Remember back in 2014 when a hacker managed to leak nude photos of various celebrities? Well, the person responsible for what is widely dubbed as “The Fappening” will now be facing the court.

The man responsible for the leak was Ryan Collins. According to the
U.S. attorney for the Central District of California
, Collins illegally gained entry to more than 100 Apple and Google accounts in the process of accessing the celebrities’ photos sometime between November 1st 2012 and September 2nd 2014.

Collin’s modus operandi for this particular hack was a textbook example of social engineering. Collins would send an email to a victim from an address that appeared to be from Google or Apple. The email would ask the victim for their user name and password. Once the victim replied to the fake emails, he would access the iCloud and Gmail accounts of the victim and obtain complete iCloud backups with the help of an unnamed piece of software.

Collins has since pleaded guilty to “a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act”. Once the guilty plea is submitted, Collins will be facing up to five years in federal prison, although the authorities have recommended just 18 months. As for those that were responsible for posting up the nude pictures on the internet, the Justice Department states that there is an ongoing investigation done by the FBI.

Source:
Mashable

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Hackers managed to install Linux on a Playstation 4

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Ever since the PlayStation 4 was released two years ago, hackers have been trying to crack the system, with most attempts having limited success. Just recently though,
a hacker has managed to jailbreak the console via a FreeBSD kernal exploit
, which allows other hackers to break into their own consoles. Homebrew group fail0verflow is one such group, and they’ve managed to install Linux onto the PlayStation 4.

While the whole process of installing Linux to the PlayStation 4 is highly technical, the gist of the attempt is that Sony’s Orbis OS is based on a Unix-like software called FreeBSD. By using a WebKit bug similar to the
one discovered by GitHub user Cturt
, the group is able to trick the PS4 into freeing processes from the core of the console’s operating system by an improvised webpage. Once done, fail0verflow began to identify weaknesses in the console’s GPU. This process eventually culminates with the group installing Linux onto their PS4.

For those of you interested in attempting this, keep in mind that this entire process relies on the PlayStation 4 having the 1.76 firmware. If you’ve recently updated your console, this method is no longer applicable. Jailbreakers believe however, that the method could be altered in order to achieve the same outcome on more recent firmwares.

Also, just in case you’re wondering, this hack DOES NOT allow owners to install pirated games, so you’ll still have to buy your games.

Source :
Github
,
Engadget

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Hackers managed to steal USD80 million from the Bangladesh Bank

300

Last month, hackers were caught attempting to steal USD1 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. While they were not entirely successful, the hackers were still able to get away with USD80 million.

According to
Reuters
, the hackers managed to gain access to the inside servers of the Bangladesh Bank and stole its credentials for payment transfers. After acquiring the credentials, the theives then proceeded to bombard the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with nearly three dozen requests to move money from the Bangladesh Bank’s account to entities in the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

During the heist, Deutsche Bank noticed that one of the accounts that they were going to transfer funds to is called the “Shalika Fandation”. Noticing that “Fandation” could be a misspelling of the word “foundation”, Deutsche Bank attempted to seek clarification from the Bangladesh central bank, which caused the heist attempt to fall apart. The so-called foundation, of course, was non-existant.

While a total of USD870 million was stopped before the money could be transferred into various other accounts, the hacker still managed to get away with USD80 million. Bangladeshi authorities have since said that there is little hope of ever catching the hackers or even recovering the money.

Source:
Ars Technica
,
Reuters

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Hackers use CCleaner as a backdoor into computers

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If you are a user of CCleaner, it is highly advisable you ensure that your software is up-to-date as Piriform, the creators of the cleaner software has taken out a statement that hackers are using the software as a backdoor to access information on your computer.

Users who are using CCleaner 5.33, the update that came out between August 15 and September 12 and CCleaner Cloud 1.07 launched on August 24 might already be affected and should update their software immediately. The statement from the company also mentioned that the only data that was transmitted to the hacker’s servers are non-sensitive data like computer name, IP address, list of installed software, active software and list of network adaptors. They also added that there are no indicators that any other data has been sent over to the hacker’s server which is located in the US.

IF your version of CCleaner is not 5.34, please update the application and
download
 it directly from their website rather than third-party websites to ensure you are getting the correct and secured version.

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Halide enables the iPhone XR’s portrait mode on non-humans

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While it is impressive that the iPhone XR has the portrait mode and can capture good portrait pictures despite the lack of dual camera, it is only possible to do so when humans are the subjects. This means that the camera will not be able to detect non-humans as the subjects such as animal, plants and objects.

However, an app called Halide can overcome this problem, though it’ll cost you RM 24.90 to purchase the app. It has a depth aware feature that enable portrait modes for non-humans, which currently works on pets. It is still on early stages hence it can be a little inconsistent especially when the foreground and background do not have enough distance. Still, it is sufficient for those who really want to take portrait mode of their pets.

The Halide app also has a new update which is called Smart RAW for iPhone Xs, which is said to be able to get the best RAW shots out of the iPhone Xs, providing more details to the images such as better highlights and lower noise.

So now we have three options; to only use the portrait mode for humans as subjects, to purchase the Halide app and be able to use the portrait mode for more than just humans, or to pray and patiently wait for Apple to better the portrait mode through its iOS update.

apple
Halide
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Hands-on experience with Acer’s Mixed Reality VR headset

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When I was in Taiwan, attending Computex, the nice people over at Acer invited me to visit their popup booths that were set up in the shopping district of Taipei 101. There, they were displaying all of the products that they showcased during their Next@Acer event that happened a month back. The Predator and Nitro gaming devices were there and they even had an e-sport arena that they set up for a competition that was going to happen later in the evening. The booth that peeked my interest was the VR experience section where they allowed me to try the Acer Windows Mixed Reality headset, and I must say, I was quite impressed by it.

This headset did not come with a strap that holds the head unit to your face but rather, they mounted it on a helmet because we were playing a Mecha game that placed us in the pilot seat, which was pretty cool I must add. Not only did they take the effort to give us an immersive viewing experience, they also placed us in hydraulic powered chairs that will shake and move according to the actions in the game. If one of us took melee damage, the chair will rock left to right and when I was using the boost to cover a wide distance of the map, the chair will tilt backwards simulating inertia.

Even if I was in the VR world and the chair was moving and shaking a lot, I did not even once felt any motion sickness, I even tried it out twice and I was totally fine, something that other headsets can’t seem to overcome. The image quality, however, is slightly lower when comparing it to something like the Oculus Rift, but that helps in reducing the cost of the headset, unlike big price tag on both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive

The only difference, the Acer VR headset compared to other VR alternative is that it does not require external sensors as the cameras mounted on the front of the headset allows it to know your position in the 3D world and helps warn you when you are going to walk into a wall or getting close to an obstacle. I believe that will be its biggest selling point of the headset, the fact that you don’t have to worry about calibrating the sensors or the number of wires you will have to be careful not to trip over.

Acer’s Mixed Reality headset is not available in Malaysia as of yet, but the experience I got was very close to the feel of my Oculus Rift back at home. Coupling the VR experience with the hydraulic chair, Acer could very well have the power to change how arcades operate. Rather than sticking with the traditional arcade machines, they could well enough place these kinds of setups in mall arcades or even VR Cafes around Malaysia. This gives the chance for more people to experience inexpensive VR and opens the way to a new market of VR gamers in Malaysia.

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Hands on: HTC U Ultra and U Play, the new HTC flagship smartphones

503

True to its previous tagline, HTC decides to be a ‘Quietly Brilliant’ company again in CES 2017, as we were invited to a private suite to have a sneak peak of the company’s flagship for 2017. While the name of these devices come as no surprise due to previous leaks, the HTC U family marks the next journey for the company’s smartphones and there will be no HTC 11. Like its previous ‘YOU’ campaign many years back, the HTC U Ultra and U Play are made with the same DNA, HTC believes that a great phone experience starts with great software and it is all about the user, which is why both of these smartphones will come preloaded with a new AI enabled HTC Sense software running on top of Android Nougat.

As in how AI works on the phones, HTC says that the phone learns your behaviours, for instance if you have always checked into a restaurant via Foursquare, the phone knows the type of food you like and suggest that you check out other relevant ones. Another example would be creating a specific event on the calendar, the phone will know the best time to block your calendar based on history. In a nutshell, the phone would actually predict the events that you would have in the day and suggest accordingly. The AI experience is also made possible by HTC’s very own built-in always on voice recognition software, which runs on Google’s API and listens to the user’s command with the phones’ far-field microphone.

Now, onto the phones, starting with the HTC U Ultra, this flagship device is done with a mixture of metal and glass material. HTC says that the phone’s design tends to mimic the properties of liquid, the liquid surface design features a 3D glass that reflects when in contact with light, which I personally like despite being a fingerprint magnet. By all means, the U Ultra is unmistakably an HTC device, you still find the textured power button and the front capacitive fingerprint scanner on the device, it also has the same corners that you will find on the iPhone 7. I’m glad that HTC has brought the BoomSound Hi-Fi edition speakers to the Ultra, which is located at the earpiece and bottom of the device.

However, HTC has removed the headphone jack, and they have a darn good reason to do that for a better audio listening experience on headphones. Just like the HTC 10 Evo, the Ultra’s USB-C port is used to transmit audio to its U Sonic earphone, which detects ambient sound around you and offers the best music listening experience on the phone.

I’ve tested the sound quality and I must say, I’m impressed with how well they did noise cancellation on it. But still, I would really prefer if HTC hadn’t removed the 3.5mm headphone jack since most audiophiles are still using old school headphones, and the Ultra isn’t even waterproof despite of the port’s removal.

One new hardware on the U Ultra would be its secondary display which is very obviously inspired by the LG V20, HTC says it is also AI-enabled and at the time of preview, it isn’t possible to see how it works until I get to use one myself. Like the V20, the Ultra’s secondary display allows you to add shortcuts to contacts, show the current music playback, customise your personalised display name on top and many more.

In terms of specs, the U Ultra is powered by a Snapdragon 821 processor, while not the rumoured Snapdragon 835, it is still a rather capable hardware. It has a 5.7-inch Quad HD SLCD5 display that looks gorgeous, a 12-megapixel UltraPixel main camera continues to exist with OIS, PDAF, Laser AF and Auto HDR, the selfie shooter is now a 16-megapixel sensor that offers an UltraPixel mode, which will ensure that your selfies look bright even in the darkest moments.

Though the Ultra may be the spotlight in HTC’s private suite, the U Play is a more compact smartphone with a 5.2-inch Full HD display, it has the same design elements as its bigger Ultra sibling but with different hardware, a 16-megapixel main camera with OIS, PDAF and Auto HDR, there’s also no secondary display and BoomSound Hi-Fi speakers. However, the U Play still has a 16-megapixel front camera with an UltraPixel mode, and its headphone jack is also removed for support of the company’s AI-enabled HTC U Sonic earphones.

As much as I love the new HTC U smartphones, I am still a little disappointed and have hoped for more, apart from being the first smartphone to have AI, which is still a untested feature, HTC has made just another new flagship smartphone that probably isn’t going to WOW the smartphone industry like it did with the One M7. HTC says the U Ultra and Play are just the very beginning of what they have to offer, and there will be more exciting models to come later this year. I certainly can’t wait to see what HTC has to offer, especially the rumoured Vive capable smartphone, the company really needs to shine beyond just making beautiful smartphones, and I can’t wait to perform a full review on the U Ultra and U Play.

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Hands-on Review: Gigabyte Aero 14 Gaming Ultrabook

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Gaming laptops have come to a point where most of them will feature fancy RGB LED to attract attention and to tell you that it is a gaming centric laptop, but sometimes we just want these gaming laptops to be our regular working devices and you don’t need those fancy features for it to become a powerful workhouse, so Gigabyte has announced such a laptop called the Aero 14, announced in COMPUTEX this year, this laptop is technically a wolf hiding in a sheep’s clothing, it may look just like any Ultrabook but deep down inside, it has a powerful 6th generation Intel Core i7 CPU, NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 970M discrete graphics and a huge 94.24Wh battery that delivers up to 10 hours of usage.

The Aero 14 brings back memories of Dell’s older Inspiron laptops and ASUS’ very first G1 gaming laptop, Gigabyte has given the Aero 14 three very attractive colors – Black, Green and Orange – which is actually a good break from the usual gold and rose gold colors that we’ve been so accustomed to on recent tech gadgets. The Aero 14 feels incredibly slim and light for such a powerful device, with a mere 19.9mm thickness and weighing 1.89kg, it is even lighter than a common 14-inch notebook, the chassis is made of metal with a smooth finishing and the triangle shaped texture at the top is coated using the nano-imprint lithography process.

Gigabyte has generously given a number of modern input ports on the Aero 14, it has three USB 3.0 ports, a Type-C USB 3.1 port, one miniDisplay port, one HDMI 2.0 port, an SD card reader and a single microphone-audio combo jack. In addition, there’s also support for storage expansion with its dual-storage system and dual DDR4 2133 RAM slots that supports up to 32GB of memory.

Here’s a bonus, the AC adapter of the Aero 14 has a USB port that can charge your smartphones with a 2.0A power.

The hinges of the Aero 14 is pretty solid as I can lift up the lid with a single hand without having it falling over, I was greeted by the beautiful 14-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution IPS matte type display, there’s no touch support and viewing angles are really good as what you would expect from an IPS panel. While this is undoubtedly one of the highest resolution panels that I’ve seen on a 14-inch laptop, the screen refresh rate remains at 60Hz, which is quite a shame but I certainly understand the decision by Gigabyte to leave this feature out to differentiate it from the AORUS laptops.

One of the things that the Aero 14 has advantage against the P-series is the inclusion of five macro keys, every single key on the island-style keyboard is backlit with a white LED bulb (no RGB, sorry gamers!) that’s really beautiful, the typing experience is on par with the MacBook Pro and I really like the fonts that Gigabyte has used on the laptop’s keys, the trackpad is also a decent one which you won’t find the need to connect an external mouse while working with it.

Overall, my first impressions of the Aero 14 is a memorable one, it’s a powerful machine with a really simple yet attractive design, I wasn’t able to try out its full potential, particularly on its battery life in such a short period, I’m hoping that this would turn out to be a really good portable powerhouse for my video editing and gaming needs, let’s hope Gigabyte will pass us the Aero 14 really soon for a proper review, the Aero 14 is also expected to retail around $1600-$1700 on its release in Q3 this year.

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Happy April Fool! Play Pacman on Google Maps, yes its real!

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Its been a while since we’ve seen something funny from Google, remember the Animal Translator and Pokemon game? Google has now brought something more fun and practical to the table, by making you play Pacman on Google Maps – Yes, you can literally play Pacman on a super huge map in whichever part of the world you reside.

If you are interested and have some time to burn, all you need to do is to head on to
maps.google.com
 or fire up the app on your smartphone or
tablet
, you’ll then see a Pacman button on the bottom left which you’ll usually switch map types and watch everything turn into 8-bit, Mr Pacman and the four little monsters – Pinky, Binky, Inky and Clyde. Heck, you can even eat those bonus fruits to send those monsters back into their place.

As of now, we know everyone here is fuming about our government implementing GST on IT products and how we can travel less to avoid paying for increased fuel price, chillax and play the Pacman game, it will make you feel a little better I’m sure, Happy April Fools Day everyone!


HappyFresh is a superb app that gets your groceries delivered to your doorsteps

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Imagine running out to town just to get some vegetables for cooking a meal or some necessities you have just finished using at home, driving to a 5-10KM distance could probably take you 30 minutes during peak hours or if you are really unlucky. HappyFresh is a new app and service that just got official in Malaysia, which will bring grocery shopping to the tip of your hands and users can be rest assured of the company’s reliable 60 minute guarantee delivery service starting in select areas of Klang Valley.

HappyFresh was founded in October 2014 and the service started off with an invite-only basis two months back and at this time of writing, the app is available for download on Apple App Store and Google Play. First time users who signed up for the service will be entitled to a one-time free delivery service however on the next delivery, the user will be charged from a range of RM10-RM20 depending on the amount of the shopping cart, the lowest amount of the charge will be applied to users who have over a total of RM300 of purchases.

A quick look on the app itself reveals a really exciting and simple user interface, HappyFresh has thankfully made the app consistent and compliant with Google’s Material Design language on Android which makes it a joy to use, operation is smooth and it is one of the best local made apps that I’ve ever seen. At this time of writing, you’ll be able to choose your groceries from two stores and the company is working hard to add more retailers in the near future.

Not only I’m impressed with the beautiful, minimalistic and snappy experience, the app is so easy to use that even tech illiterate moms will know how to use it for the first time, you literally choose the item and quantity that you want, press the add cart button and check out using a credit or debit card. When I say this isn’t just a grocery shopping app, HappyFresh has product categories ranging from beauty to household products, you are technically having a supermarket on your smartphone.

Of course, there are times that the cooking house wives are usually the most particular ones when it comes to choosing their groceries, HappyFresh guarantees that all groceries delivered are fresh and if you’re not satisfied with the quality of the items, the company will refund the full amount that you’ve paid. Overall, the concept of the app makes a lot of sense and I can see the necessity of this service in urban areas, especially where traffic is really an issue, this comprehensive service will definitely give players such as Tesco a healthy competition. Head on to the source link to download HappyFresh on your phones and start picking your vegetables.


Hari Raya 2020 Promo: 7 Best Tech deals with discounts prizes and more!

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Our many festivities are great a great excuse to shop for gadget and tech upgrades – with the promos and campaigns that happen every time a festivity comes around, you’re sure to find value buys everywhere you look.

With Hari Raya upon us, here’s a list of promos and campaigns that’ll offer more value to your haul with discounts, prizes, and free gifts!

This is an ongoing article, which be updated with more entries as they come along

1. vivo

Happening from now until June 7 is the
Terangi

Rayamu

Dengan
 vivo campaign which will get you a host of freebies by way of gifts and lucky draws!

For starters, you’ll get complimentary goodies when you buy a vivo smartphone – depending on the price range of the product, you’ll get a different gift. Here’s what’s in store for you:

Phones below RM600 – Water bottle

Phones from RM600-RM1,000 – Gift Box

Phones above RM1,000 – Massage tool

vivo V19

You can visit any vivo Concept Store or retail partners (see here for list of retailers) to purchase your vivo phone and to redeem your free gift.

There’s also a lucky draw that could land you a Perodua Bezza! There’s only one of those to be given away, so if you don’t win that, you still stand a chance to get:

100% Cash Rebates for smartphone purchase – 10 units

20% Cash Rebates for smartphone purchase – 50 units

10% Cash Rebates for smartphone purchase – 100 units

RM10 Cash Prize – 1500 units

You can join the lucky draw
here
, visit
vivo’s

website
 to learn more about the campaign or the
vivo Store
 to buy a smartphone!

2. OPPO

This festive period, OPPO wants to give you up to RM10mil worth of prizes when you
purchase
 an
OPPO Reno Series
, OPPO A Series, or OPPO Find X2 Series smartphone. The campaign is ongoing until this May 31.

The OPPO Reno Series will land you a free OPPO Enco W31 wireless earbuds (RM259); the OPPO A Series smartphone will get you an OPPO backpack (RM199); and the OPPO Find X2 Series will score you the ENCO Free wireless earbud (RM499).

The newly-launched
OPPO A92
 smartphone also gets a discount to RM999 from its RM1,099 RRP during the campaign period.

On top of that, there’s a daily lucky draw that happens at 8PM every night, where you stand a chance win these prizes:

100% Cashback for smartphone purchase – 10 units

OPPO Enco W31 – 30 units

RM30
Foodpanda
 Discount Voucher – 60 units

You’ll have to purchase a phone first before being able to join the lucky draw – visit their website
here
 to find out how you can do that.

3. Digi

This year’s Hari Raya is going to be a little different –
balik
 kampung
is unfortunately off the table, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stay connected with your loved ones. With video calls, regular phone calls and texting now the de facto mode of keeping in touch with
nenek

and
atuk
,

you’re going to need a solid telco plan that gives you the data, network stability and unlimited calls you need to celebrate this Hari Raya.

Digi Postpaid

The telco giant is offering users 70GB of high-speed all-day, all-usages internet with unlimited calls too for RM80/month – Digi sweetens the deal with Loyalty Bonus, which grants eligible customers with extra data!

If you’re also looking to get a new smartphone this Hari Raya, you can enjoy an all-in payment plan of RM98/month with Digi’s
PhoneFreedom
 365 where you can also enjoy double internet quota and up 200GB, plus unlimited calls too.

Digi Prepaid

Get 30 days of Unlimited Social with 50% extra internet for RM15 only – this is great for those who like to catch up with cousins and friends on their social medias. There’s also the Internet
Cili

Padi
 XL pass that gets you 50% more internet for just RM28 – in case there’s a lot to catch up with your relatives. From 4am-7am, users can also get free 60GB internet made available via the
MyDigi
 Box of Surprise.

Visit Digi’s website
here
 to learn more about their Raya campaign which includes
offers
 for food, fashion and more!

4. HONOR

HONOR’s Fantastik Raya Bersama sees discounts on a host of their products, including smartphones, watches, backpacks, laptops and more.

From now until the May 24, you flash deals on their official web store where popular items such as the
HONOR
MagicBook
, HONOR 8X Max, HONOR
MagicWatch
 2 and more. The
prices
 will be revealed at 12PM every day, so you’ll have to be quick to snap up one of those devices for cheap.

If the pressure of flash deals is not quite your speed, then you can also look forward to new discounted prices for a list of selected HONOR smartphones – here’s a list of the phones:

HONOR 20 – RM1,099 (RRP RM1,199)

HONOR 20 Lite – RM699 (RRP RM799)

HONOR 9X – RM 899 (RRP RM999)

HONOR 8X Max – RM829 (RRP RM899)

HONOR 8A – RM469 (RRP RM499)

HONOR 8S – RM369 (RRP RM399)

HONOR 7S – RM299 (RRP RM329)

Visit their official
online store
 here to snag yourself one of these value deals, or go to their
Facebook
 page to know what other products are part of the promotion.

5. Samsung

Looking to spruce up your home while at home during the festive holidays? Samsung’s got you covered with their Raya
Bergaya
 home appliance promotion. From now until 30 June, you can purchase from a list of products which could land you free gifts or PWP promos so you can get more for less!

There’s a selection of 2020 QLED 8K TVs that’ll get you a free The Sero
spinning
 TV which is worth RM7,298! If budget is your concern, then you can also opt for a Samsung 4K QLED Smart TV that starts from RM3,499 and will entitle you to a PWP promo on a Samsung soundbar of your choice – think the Soundbar HW-3650 (PWP RM1,199 from RM1,699), Samsung Harmon/
Kardon
 HW-Q60R (PWP RM1,699 from RM2,599) and more.

Other items included in the promotion are refrigerators, air conditioners, air purifiers, vacuum cleaners and more. Visit Samsung’s website
here
 to find out what else is in store during Samsung’s Raya promo.

6. Lenovo

If a laptop is what you need then Lenovo has you covered with a host of promos and rewards. The promo ends this 31 July, making it one of the longer running campaigns for this Raya period.

Laptop discounts

A selection of laptops will have promo prices alongside cash rebates and redeemable rewards! The list includes laptops like the:

IdeaPad L340 15-inch (Promo price from RM1,799) – RM50 shopping voucher.

Lenovo S540 13-inch (Promo price from RM3,499) – Lenovo USB-C 3-in-1 hub worth RM200, plus RM400 upfront rebate.

Lenovo Legion Y7000 15-inch (Promo price from RM3,499) – Steam
vouchers
 worth up to RM300 and upfront rebate of RM300.

Lenovo Legion Y545 15-inch (Promo price from RM5,999) – Steam vouchers worth up to RM350.

And more…

Visit Lenovo’s website
here
 for more information on their Raya deals as well as to redeem your free gifts upon purchase.

7. Touch ‘n Go eWallet

It’s all about cashback with Touch ‘n Go eWallet
 – the company has partnered with a host of popular brands to offer promotions when you spend using your e-wallet.

The list of brands include:

Pensonic
 (until June 30) – RM10 off minimum spend of RM100 from Pensonic @ Lazada

Maxis Hotlink Red (until July 4) – RM3 cashback and RM3 credits with
minimum
 reload of RM10

KHIND (until 31 May) – RM5 off with minimum spend of RM50 at KHIND Online, plus 6-12 months warranty

Lazada (until 31 May) – Spend RM15 and get RM3 off with Touch ‘n Go eWallet
. Applicable only through Lazada application in
TnG

eWallet
 app.

And more…

In the spirit of giving, when you transfer
duit
 Raya
to your relatives using the Touch ‘n Go eWallet
, you stand to get up to RM300 worth of cashback rewards!

Visit Touch ‘n Go eWallet
’s
 website
here
 to learn more about participating
brands
 during the promo as well as more rewards you’ll get this Hari Raya.

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Harman Studio officially launched promising quality products at value prices

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Popular audio equipment manufacturer Harman Kardon now has a new outpost Harman Studio, located in the up-and-coming retail center Sunway Geo Avenue.

The two-story flagship store houses a list of well-known brands such as JBL, Harman Kardon, Mark Levinson, Lexicon, and Revel. Within its 3,000sqft space, you’ll find products ranging from portable speakers to home sound systems.

This store is one of the first outings for Harman Kardon’s in the APAC region; Mark Ng, Senior Business Development Manager of Harman Asia Pacific, says that the brand’s presence in the country would introduce Malaysians to Harman Kardon’s values of bringing value and quality when it comes to audio equipment.

To celebrate the launch of the store, Harman Studio’s partnership with Sime Darby Auto Bavaria means that every customer who purchase a BMW form 25-31 March will be entitled to RM3,000 worth of Harman Studio cash vouchers. You can get these vouchers when you visit the JBL roadshow that’s happening at Mid Valley Megamall’s North Court.

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Harmonix launches crowdfunding project to port Rock Band 4 to the PC

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Thus far, the Rock Band series has always been a console-centric game. Harmonix wants to change that by bringing Rock Band 4 to the PC. However, to do so, they’ll need money, and they’ve decided to raise some of that money via crowdfunding.

Launched yesterday, the Rock Band 4 PC crowdfunding project is hosted on
Fig
, the same website that hosted the
Psychonauts 2
 crowdfunding project. The difference between Fig and other crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter is that Fig allows users who invest in a project to potentially share in the profits.

For the porting, Harmonix will be teaming up with Sumo Digital to bring the game to the PC. The UK-based game developer will be handling a the porting of Rock Band 4, allowing Harmonix to keep the core Rock Band engineering, design and production teams to develop new features and content for both console and PC. The Harmonix engine team will be supporting Sumo in porting the game to the PC, and it will also be working on the Rock Band Network features.

Aside from Rock Band 4 being a port from the conosle, Harmonix is aiming to add some new features to the PC version of RB4. For starters, Harmonix plans to revive the Rock Band Network on the PC, allowing users to submit user-generated content to Rock Band. As the PC version will be released on Steam, Harmonix aims to leverage the Steam Workshop to allow users to create and sell their own songs.

Should the project be successful, Harmonix aims to have Rock Band 4 out on Steam by Fall of 2016. Of course, they have mentioned that there might be delays on the project. Currently, the project has 10% of its USD 1.5 million goal funded with 34 days left in the project. If you would like to rock out on your PC, you may want to pledge your money within the next month.

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HarmonyOS beta update will be coming to the HUAWEI Mate 40 series first

498

HarmonyOS has been
confirmed
 to release on December this year and unsurprisingly, the latest HUAWEI Mate 40 series will be the first phones to receive the beta update.

HUAWEI is shifting away from Android

Another thing that comes as no surprise is HUAWEI’s transition to HarmonyOS. After being banned from working with U.S. companies including Google, it’s only logical for HUAWEI to look for an alternative. When
HarmonyOS
 was first launched, it was only made available to smart home devices; in 2021, HUAWEI phones will also be running on the same operating system.

Most HUAWEI phones will get new HarmonyOS update

Apart from the
Mate 40 series,
 there are rumours that most of the existing HUAWEI smartphones will get an update to switch to HarmonyOS. This seems likely since HUAWEI is moving away from Android. However, HUAWEI will have to try harder to be able to compete against Android and iOS. After all, its current app store still has missing apps that can be found on App Store or Play Store.

Not being able to work with U.S. companies have created many problems for the Chinese tech giants. Just few months ago, HUAWEI’s consumer chief Richard You also said that the lack of supply for its Kirin chips may result in no Kirin chips at all in the future.

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Huawei Mate 40


HarmonyOS: Available for HUAWEI smartphones in 2021

534

When HUAWEI officially launched HarmonyOS, it was only available for its smart home devices. Now, HUAWEI’s consumer chief Richard Yu
announced
 that it will be available to all of its smartphones in 2021.

HUAWEI switching from Android to HarmonyOS

HUAWEI’s decision to move on from Android OS to HarmonyOS is likely due to the U.S government’s ban. The government has security concerns over the Chinese companies and did not allow U.S companies to sell any technologies and components to HUAWEI.

When Yu
announced
 the operating system back in 2019, he said that it’s “completely different from Android and iOS”. Now, the company has no choice but to use their own OS if they want to keep producing smartphones.

HUAWEI struggling to produce Kirin chips

HUAWEI has been facing a lot of difficulties
recently
, Yu said that the lack of chip supply might cause lead to “the last generation of HUAWEI Kirin high-end chips.” However, if HUAWEI successfully brings HarmonyOS to its phones, then it’s the only OS so far that can be shared across different devices — smartphones, wearables, smart home devices and in-car systems.

harmonyos
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Harvard researchers create metalens; claims that it could allow smartphones to take DSLR-quality photos

328

Smartphone cameras, while good, will never be able to stand up to proper DSLR cameras. However, that may soon change as researchers at Harvard have developed something that may give smartphones the ability to snap photos that are of DSLR-quality.

This new invention of sorts is dubbed ‘metalens’, a lens that’s created out of quartz plates full of microscopic titanium oxide structures instead of glass, whose patterns guide light towards the camera sensor. According to the
report
, said lens is capable of providing better focus than a state-of-the-art commercial lens. Perhaps the most impressive part about the ‘metalens’ is its size and cost. Measuring at just two millimeters in diameter, the ‘metalens’ is said to be much cheaper than the lenses the industry uses today. “We wanted to replace bulky optics. We can reduce the cost to two or three orders of magnitude,” says Mohammadreza Khorasaninejad, first author on the ‘metalens’ study.

While ‘metalens’ sounds highly promising, the tech itself is still very much in its infancy. Right now, the lenses were built to refract light at specific wavelengths – more specifically 405nm, 532nm, and 660nm. That said, Khorasaninejad and his team are currently working on developing ‘chromatic’ lens next.

Should ‘metalens’ becomes viable however, do expect some major changes to photography as a whole. ‘Metalens’ would not only allow you to take high-quality photos with just your smartphone, it may also result in a huge price drop for current top-tier lenses.

Source:
Popular Science
,
Harvard

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dslr
harvard
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smartphone


Harvey Norman releases the Charge Plus 2-in-1

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Harvey Norman goes the extra mile, bringing its name into the market of laptops with its brand new Charge Plus 2-in-1. The company has partnered with Microsoft Malaysia and Intel Malaysia in developing the 2-in-1 lifestyle device, combining productivity and style. According to Harvey Norma, the Charge Plus 2-in-1 is tailored specifically for the local consumer market.

Harvey Norman emphasizes on performance, portability and versatility in developing the Charge Plus 2-in-1. It is a 11.6-inch laptop equipped with a detachable keyboard. The company did not stinge on the laptop with a solid metal build encompassing it. Underneath the hood lies the Intel Atom Z8300 processor with 2 GB DDR3L RAM alongside 64GB of storage. The Charge Plus 2-in-1 comes preloaded with Microsoft Office 365 Suite, free for the first year, and Dewan Eja, a translator for Malaysian languages.

The Charge Plus 2-in-1 is available for RM1,899 exclusively at Harvey Norman Malaysia stores near you. The device comes with a one year warranty. 2 or 4 years of extended warranty and a Screen Crack Warranty offered by Harvey Norman are available for purchase, to provide the Charge Plus 2-in-1 with better protection coverage. Harvey Norman is offering a special promotion of RM1,096 worth of addtional goodies for the first 500 customers who purchases the Charge Plus 2-in-1 from their physical or online store. For more info, visit their website
here
.

2in1
charge
harvey
intel
malaysia
microsoft
norman
plus


Has Digi secretly release a new Infinite Plan?

310

News have surfaced from Lowyat Fourms that Digi has supposedly released a Postpaid 100 Infinite plan that gives its users infinite data similar to the other plans, the Infinite 150 and the Infinite 80. The only difference here is that, the Infinite 100 will give users a 20GB free tethering compared to the Infinite 80 which only gives 5GB per month.

More information about this is currently unknown as Digi’s official site has not indicated anything that would relate to the release of a new Infinite plan, but it would seem that the Infinite 100 plan would replace the currently out of stock Infinite 80 plan as seen on Digi’s official website. Whether the speed of this new plan will be capped or not is also still unknown.

Right now, we can only wait and see if Digi will give a statement about this or perhaps even update their website about this new Infinite 100 plan. Whether this is just a promotion that Digi has given to this particular user as a compensation or a upgrade specially requested by this user is also unknown at this point.

Source Image:
Lowyat Fourm

digi
digi infinite


Hasbro collaborates with Indiegogo to find ideas for the next boardgame

362

Hasbro, makers of such classic tabletop games such as Monopoly, Battleship and Operation, are looking to crowdsource a new game. To that end, they’ve launched the “Spring 2016 Next Great Game Challenge” in partnership with Indiegogo.

For the Next Great Game Challenge, those interested would need to pitch ideas for a game that they think would be successful in the market. Hasbro would then go through all of the pitches and select the top 15 games.

If the game was selected as one of the top 15, the participant would then be required to create a functional prototype. Once done, Hasbro would then do a playtest of the prototype. During this stage, Hasbro would be choosing five finalists. Once the finalists have been chosen, all five projects would have a crowdfunding campaign of their own launched on Indiegogo. Finalists would also receive USD 2,000 from Hasbro to help develop their game.

When the crowdfunding period is over, Hasbro would be selected one of the five projects as the Winner. Said winner stands to win USD 25,000 in cash price, a trip for four to Hasbro HQ, and an opportunity to work with the games company itself.

Unfortunately, the contest is only available for residents and citizens of the US, Canada, UK, Germany or France. Despite that, it would be interesting to see the games that comes out of this contest.

Source:
Hasbro Gaming Lab

crowdsource
hasbro
indiegogo


Hasselblade released aerial camera series without any internal moving part – the A5D

257

Hasselblad has announced their new aerial camera that can provide decisive in image quality for aerial photographers. The Hasselblad A5D has no moving parts to avoids unintentional internal mechanical movement when its
mount
 on drone or aircraft.

The camera will be available in 40MP, 50MP or 60MP sensor options and they claim it has “unrivalled” reliability, stability, and low weight. Images will be saved to CF memory cards or transferred directly using FireWire 800 and using the advantage of its new bodies to accept a LEMO push/pull connector cable that capable joint more than eight cameras to synchronize exposure, with capture occurring across the network of multiple bodies within a 20 microsecond duration.

Multiple synchronized cameras allow mappers to stitch images easily without overlapping and no missing areas. The 40MP and 60MP will have CCD sensors measure at 43.8×32.9mm, meanwhile the 50MP will receive a CMOS sensors measure 53.7×40.2mm. The company claims that one of the sensors has a dynamic range of 14 stops but doesn’t say which – though the 50MP sensor in use is known to offer such a range.

For more information on the A5D-40, A5D-50c and A5D-60 visit the special applications pages of the Hasselblad
website
.


Hatsune Miku concert to be held December 16, ticket prices start from RM169

787

As we have reported a few days back, the virtual vocaloid Hatsune Miku is making its very first concert here in Malaysia, its founding company Crypton Future Media, INC has partnered with Astro in hosting the concert over at Axiata Arena Bukit Jalil on December 16, the organizing parties have also mentioned that the arena is expected to host over 6500 audiences, even though the venue could technically fit more than the intended amount of audiences, this is done to ensure a proper stage setup and an enjoyable experience for fans visiting the concert.

As for ticket availability, Miku fans can purchase the tickets from www.myticket.asia starting from Sunday, 8 October at 10am, ticket prices will start from RM169 all the way up to RM439 for the VIP Rockzone area, prices quoted are exclusive of ticket fee and GST. Local artiste Zizan Razak and Thai YouTube sensation Chaleeda Gilbert will open the concert for Hatsune Miku as well, fans can expect this to be a really enjoyable concert. For more updates on future Hatsune Miku events, fans can always keep their tabs on mikuexpo.com and fb.com/mikuexpo2017mys.

astro
chaleeda gilbert
crypton future media
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Hatsune Miku will be performing in Malaysia on 16 December 2017

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Otakus rejoice as Hatsune Miku will be Live in Malaysia for the first time ever! This is in conjunction with the Hatsune Miku Expo 2017 which will have over 100,000 songs, video games and concert collaborations with stars like Lady Gaga and Pharrell Williams.

Hatsune Miku is actually not a real person, she is a 16-year old girl which uses computer-generated voice and 3D graphics to perform on stage which has blown up in Japan and slowly around the world. Because of this, the world tour has taken her from Indonesia to Los Angeles and Shanghai, she has even appeared on the famous David Letterman show. In fact, there is a big following for this blue haired idol here in Malaysia and people go as far as cosplay as her during Anime Conventions.

Hatsune Miku’s Malaysian concert will be held on 16 December 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, but there is still no solid confirmation on location, time or pricing for the concert. We will let you know more about it as soon as we get the information.

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HBO, Discovery and OTOY partners up to deliver virtual reality content

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HBO and Discovery Communications are also interested in the potential of virtual reality/augmented reality it seems as both companies have took an equity stake in OTOY to forge the development of next-generation media and content publishing platforms and services.

According to OTOY, the investment made by both HBO and Discovery will “fuel development and distribution of original holographic content, enabling HBO and Discovery to deliver new entertainment experiences to consumers across TV, mobile, web, social and emerging wearable technologies such as virtual and augmented reality.”

This wouldn’t be the first time HBO and OTOY have worked together as they are both companies are working together with Jon Stewart to produce “short form digital content.”

“OTOY has a roadmap for the future of entertainment and technology. Their creativity and drive perfectly aligns with HBO’s. We couldn’t be more excited to invest in OTOY and to work together on original content and amazing experiences for years to come,” says Michael Lombardo, President of HBO programming. “OTOY technology is a massive breakthrough and we look forward to seeing it take VR and AR experiences, including Discovery VR, to a whole new level,” says Paul Guyardo, Chief Commercial Officer at Discovery Communications.

Source:
OTOY

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HDMI 2.1 will support 10K resolutions at 120Hz

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4K is slowly getting to be a norm in households around the world, with just a handful of companies producing displays that support resolutions more than 4K. However, the new HDMI 2.1 spec sheets indicate that it can support 10K resolution with a full refresh rate of 120Hz.

Introduced in January this year, HDMI was initially thought to support 8K at 120Hz which is more than expected of what a system could produce, but when looking at the specs overview, it indicated that it will support 10K resolutions at 50Hz, 60Hz, 100Hz, and even 120Hz. Currently, at best, the GTX1080 Ti can comfortably produce a quality of 4K at 60FPS in games with just some tweaks in settings and at the moment, only Dell’s UltraSharp monitor supports 8K resolutions.

 It will be awhile before we are seeing displays that can support 10K at 120Hz which is honestly insane resolutions. As of now, 4K will be the standard of media consumption and slowly 1080p will slowly phase out. We would probably expect to see higher resolutions becoming the norm further in the future.

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HDMI Licensing introduces HDMI Alt Mode for USB Type-C to HDMI connections

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With USB Type-C slowly but surely gaining momentum, yet another outfit has decided to support this particular USB specification. That outfit is HDMI Licensing, and it is introducing HDMI Alternative Mode for USB Type-C devices.

The introduction of HDMI Alt Mode is a big one as the new specification will allow HDMI video signals to pass along a USB Type-C cable without any external hardware necessary. This means that dongles or docks that are meant to convert the DisplayPort signals will not longer be required. Furthermore, HDMI Alt Mode could also mean that lesser used HDMI connectors such as HDMI Type C (Mini HDMI) and HDMI Type D (Micro HDMI) can be phased out in favour of USB Type-C.

HDMI Alt Mode may seem like a brilliant idea, but there will be some drawbacks as well. The first problem that HDMI Alt Mode has is that it would not be backwards compatible with existing devices or upgradeable via software. This means that devices that require the use of dongles to work will still have to rely on said dongles. The other problem with HDMI Alt Mode is that it can only support the HDMI 1.4b standard, and not HDMI 2.0b. This means that while HDMI Alt Mode can support 4K playback, those playbacks will be limited to only 30FPS. High Dynamic Range (HDR) content will also not be supported on HDMI Alt Mode.

Source:
HDMI Licensing
,
Ars Technica

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Hearthstone Fireside Gathering by AniManGaki

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Summoning all Hearthstone players in Malaysia to join the team of Animangaki for the upcoming event on Hearthstone Fireside Gathering and Tournament. Fireside Gathering allows you to get together with friends old and new to play Hearthstone in public gathering spots and you are also able to unlock a special card back when you have more than 3 players on the same network and play more than 3 games with the same player.

At the Fireside gathering, you are also able to know more friends to discuss the expansion, latest decks and expansion which might bring you to Legendary rank as soon as you get all these tips. All players will be invited to join the first AMG HS Tournament regardless you are a newbie or a pro player and the registration fee for it is free. There will be Let’s Play that will prioritize new players, to ensure you are not left out on the fun during the Fireside Gathering.

In other hand, the Hearthstone tournament will start from 29 till 30 August, with the prizes worth RM 2,000. The format of the tournament will be divided into 2 stages – round robin and top 16. The stage of the round robin will be happening on 29 August with 32 players divided into 4 groups – Group Antonidas, Group Baron Geddon, Group Cenarius and Group Deathwing. The stage of the round robin will be happening on 29 August with 32 players divided into 4 groups – Group Antonidas, Group Baron Geddon, Group Cenarius and Group Deathwing. Players will require to play a best of 1 within their respective groups with 3 decks and can be reuse all 3 decks any number of times in Round Robbin and all these top 4 of each group will advance to the Top 16 bracket. On the next day will be Top 16 bracket tournament which uses conquest format by allowing players to play a best of 5 with single elimination, then the winner will be crowned on the same day.

The grand prize will be USD 100 worth Battle.net cash, Cooler Master Suppressor and a Goodies Bag, which the second prize will receive a USD 20 worth Battle.net cash, Cooler Master Devastator and Goodies Bag and the third place will receive a Cooler Master Devastator and Goodie bag. For more information about the rules and regulations of the tournament, you can check it out over
here
.

This tournament will be held within AniManGaki event grounds, therefore there will require an entry ticket to enter the event halls and it cost only RM30. For those that interested in joining this event, you can register over
here
.

*The location of the event place will be Sunway Convention Center.

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Hearthstone introduce co-op mode in Tavern Brawl

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Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, a competitive card battling game, will finally allow players to fight together, instead of against each other – for one week. The latest limited-time-only Tavern Brawl event, called “Unite Against Mechazod,” tasks players of the free-to-play Android, iOS, Mac and Windows PC game to find a partner with whom they’ll take on the titular, mechanical enemy.

Mechazod said, “You’ll each be piloting a pre-built deck assembled to give you and your partner on the other side of the board a chance to take out”. The character will switch to whichever side of the board he’s fighting against during each turn, and victory hinges on both players lasting through the match.

Unlike previous Tavern Brawls, whether you win or lose, both players will receive a free pack of cards for participating in the new co-op mode, which Blizzard says will be available at Tavern Brawl on its usual time (meaning it will start tonight at 0100 in Malaysia). A number of Hearthstone dedicated fanbase have started to speculate the introduction of co-op in the game for some time now.

Since the leak was pointing toward this week’s Tavern Brawl, it’s possible that the focus on co-op is a first test of something larger coming in future updates. Blizzard will surely talk more about Hearthstone at this year’s BlizzCon, which starts this Friday, November 6. Much of the weekend event, including the 2015 Hearthstone World Championship, will be live streamed.

SOURCE:
Battlenet

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Hearthstone’s The Grand Tournament Expansion Coming on 24 August

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Blizzard previously teases Hearthstone player with the upcoming expansion, The Grand Tournament by inviting a few professional player to try out the new cards that happened in July with two new mechanics, Jousting and Inspire. But, finally the company officially announced that Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament will launch on August 24.

Jousting is the new ability that compels both players to reveal a card chosen randomly from their decks. High card wins, and the winner is rewarded with Joust boost, which can confer a number of different effects, like taunts or health boosts. Inspire will trigger when you use the Hero Power and affects friendly minions who are tagged with the Inspire keyword by boosting their stats, modifying their attacks, or summoning additional allies.

The new cards will feature the finest of Azeroth’s knights and champions and will go on sale when the Grand Tournament begins. If you not willing to wait and eager to see the upcoming cards inside the expansion, you can take a look over
here
. Fortunately, Blizzard teases us with this week Tavern Brawl – Grand Tournament that two knights face off! One relies on jousting skill while the other inspires troops to great deeds.

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Hello Hero: Epic Battle has officially launched in Southeast Asia

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Hello Hero: Epic Battle is a new 3D mobile RPG that is now officially available in all Southeast Asian countries. Join Leo and his friends as they look for more players to help save the world.

To celebrate the Southeast Asia launch, Fincon will be giving away 500 Diamonds, 1 Golden Card Pack Ticket, 100% Hero EXP Boost x5 and 100% Gold Boost x5. After 100,000 Guardian pre-registration, 200,000 fans on Facebook and giving away more than 9,000,000 Diamonds, Hello Hero: Epic Battle has made a huge impression in SEA, players will get the chance to take home an exclusive smart toy figure soon as well. Other than launching in SEA, the game’s biggest update, Spring patch, will be uniting the community into one server to enable multiple combinations of Heroes to complete all levels of Adventure Mode.

For those of you looking for a new mobile RPG to burn some time, you can download Hello Hero: Epic Battle on your respective mobile app store and join the thousands of players already enjoying the game.

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Here are 5 portable travel speakers under RM50 we recommend

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Are you a passionate traveler who loves to carry your music with you wherever you go? If yes, then you would appreciate a portable speaker that’s light, inexpensive, and offers excellent audio quality. In this article, we are going to share with you five portable speakers under RM50 that you might find interesting for your next adventure.

SonicGo Clipz – RM49

First on our list is the SonicGo Clipz, retailing at RM49. It offers an impressive combination of features that match its stylish design. With Bluetooth 5.3, an attractive RGB color ring on its bass reflex, and the ability to switch audio sources between FM Radio, Bluetooth, USB and MicroSD, it provides a versatile listening experience.

Should you want louder sound, you can also wirelessly pair a second SonicGo Clipz to enable a stereo effect, which is all thanks to its modern Bluetooth connectivity.

Aside from listening to music, you can make conference calls with its built-in microphone. A 45mm driver delivering 10W of total power ensures clear vocals and clarity in music, although the bass might seem a little weak.

Its 4-hour battery life at 50% volume and USB-C port for charging make it a convenient companion for your travels. Weighing only 244g and featuring a clip for hanging on bags, it is easy to carry around.

Get the SonicGo Clipz
here
.

AudioBox 2GO Dock 100 – RM39

Next up is the Audiobox 2GO Dock 100 priced at RM39. With a unique army camouflage design and playback buttons located at the bottom, it also features a convenient dock that can hold your smartphone, offering a perfect set-up for movie watching.

This Bluetooth 5.3 speaker plays music at a considerable volume, thanks to a 66mm driver that fires to the top, and is known for delivering great vocals and instrumentals. However, it lacks microSD card support but has a 3.5mm input and a USB port for playing music from flash drives.

With up to 4 hours of battery life at 50% volume, this speaker will keep you entertained while you are out and about.

Get the Audiobox 2GO Dock 100
here
.

SonicGear SonicGo! 2 – RM39

The SonicGear SonicGo! 2 is available in colors of Red, Grey and Black to match your fashion statement, it also provides great value for RM39. Weighing just 234g, it features a rubber grip at the base to prevent slipping when playing loud music.

With the dimensions similar to a Google Home Mini, it supports MicroSD, USB input, FM Radio, and Bluetooth 5.3. It doesn’t have a 3.5mm input, but it compensates with a large 66mm driver delivering 10W of total output, and surprisingly robust bass.

Charging over a MicroUSB port, this speaker promises up to 4 hours of battery life at 50% volume.

Get the SonicGo! 2
here
.

SonicGear SonicGo! RDO 30-X – RM49

With a retro radio design, the SonicGear SonicGo! RDO 30-X offers a unique appeal. This speaker features a single 52mm driver design and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity that supports TWS pairing to a second unit to create a stereo effect.

For better FM radio reception, it has an extendable antenna, while it has conveniently placed playback buttons on top for easier control. Other features include a built-in torch light for emergencies, multiple inputs including MicroSD, USB, and 3.5mm AUX.

Promising up to 5 hours of battery life with 50% volume, this RM49 speaker provides excellent value for money.

Get the SonicGo! RDO 30-X
here
.

AudioBox 2GO-RDO 20 – RM49

Last but not least is the AudioBox 2GO-RDO 20. Packed with features, this small-sized speaker with a long radio antenna provides excellent FM radio reception even at indoors.

In an innovative twist, the back features a solar panel that can charge the battery when left out in the sun.

The 52mm driver size with 10W output delivers reasonable sound quality, although details may distort at high volumes, and it may lack bass. However, it does offer decent punchiness.

Additional features include a built-in torch light and multiple inputs for MicroSD and USB, although there is no 3.5mm input.

Get the AudioBox 2GO-RDO 20
here
.

With so many options under RM50, you have a variety of portable speakers to choose from for your next journey. Whether it’s a long drive, a camping trip, or a beach outing, these speakers ensure that your favorite tunes accompany you.

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Here are better alternatives to the Honor View 20

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If you have just got your new Honor View 20 – Congratulations on being one of the first few to own Honor’s latest flagship and brace through the crazy queue.

However, if you are looking elsewhere for a new phone to spend your pay check, here are some of the better alternatives that we have shortlisted to help you just do that, no long queues required and bracing the last minute CNY shopping traffic to 1 Utama.

Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018)

The Galaxy A9 (2018) may not be as powerful as the Honor View 20 in terms of its raw performance, but this doesn’t mean that it won’t be as capable as it in running games and your day-to-day apps with its Snapdragon 660 chipset, it also has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, while allowing you to expand storage with a MicroSD card without compromising the secondary SIM slot.

As opposed to the Honor View 20’s IPS display, the Galaxy A9 (2019) has a far superior Super AMOLED display.

More importantly, the Galaxy A9 has four cameras on the back to help you capture different moments, be it a wide angle, ultra-wide angle, telephoto or bokeh shot, it does it beautifully without a sweat with just a single tap in the camera app.

Furthermore, you can even save your wallet spaces for more cards with Samsung Pay, which allows you to store credit cards inside your phone and make payment on almost any credit card terminals.

The Galaxy A9 (2018) has also reached an all time low of
RM1,638
 at Lazada.

And oh, the Galaxy A9 even have two gradient colors to choose from, which in my opinion is even more catchy than the View 20’s dated reflective glass back.

Xiaomi MIX 2s

Why have a punch hole display when you can have one beautiful notchless display and ceramic back to admire and show off. Xiaomi’s MIX 2s has hit an all time-low price from RM1,399 for the 6GB+64GB storage variant, while you can top up an extra RM300 to double the base storage.

The MIX 2s is an incredibly satisfying flagship from Xiaomi that we have the joy of reviewing last year, it has superb battery life, built-in wireless charging, a speedy Snapdragon 845 processor, and a very capable 12MP dual camera system.

You probably know how good it is already, hence we’ll save the rest of the words, head on over to
G Store’s Lazada store
 to score yourself a unit.

Huawei Mate 20

Never thought we’d recommend the View 20’s direct rival eh? Huawei’s Mate 20 has just officially been slashed to an all-time low at RM2,399, and the Mate 20 lets you do more than just a nonsense 48MP and 3D camera, as it offers both an ultra-wide angle and telephoto lens to support its standard wide-angle lens, making it a more practical device to replace your point and shoot when you’re travelling around the world.

Besides, the Mate 20 has identical specs to the View 20’s base model, while you can opt to invest in Huawei’s own NM card to expand its internal storage when you need more, which is better than not having the option.

Furthermore, the Mate 20 can easily be converted into a PC desktop experience with just a single USB-C to HDMI cable, connect a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, it gives you a more complete experience than what the View 20 can offer.

No queue ups needed, the Mate 20 is readily available at
Lazada
 and any Huawei stores nationwide.

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Here are the best 11.11 tech deals on Shopee (Updated)

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Get ready your wallets in two days time, as the Singles Day sale marathon is about to happen, so don’t be sad if you aren’t in a relationship because we have some tech deals from Shopee for your retail therapy, so make sure you add those items into the cart now before they are gone, so here are the list of tech deals that will be happening on 11.11.

MacBook Air 13-inch (Mid 2017), Core i5/8GB RAM/128GB Storage
 @ RM3259 (21% off), apply voucher code AMAZE50 to enjoy RM50 off

DJI Osmo Mobile 2
 @ RM399 (32% off)

Lenovo Y520 Gaming Laptop
 (Core i7-7700HQ, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD, GTX 1050Ti) @ RM2949 (8% off)

Edifier H101 In-Ear Headphones
 @ RM9.90 (67% off)

ASUS X441 Laptop (Intel Celeron N4000, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD)
 @ RM930 (15% off)

Huawei Honor Band 4
 @ RM134.90

Sandisk Ultra Memory Card 64GB
 @ RM46.30

Honor Play
 @ RM1099

Samsung Galaxy S9
 @ RM2299

Sony WH-1000XM3 Wireless Noise Cancelling Earphones
 @ RM999

Sandisk Ultra A1 Class 10 128GB MicroSD Card
 @ RM88.80 (UP: RM118)

Sandisk Ultra 64GB MicroSD
 @ RM35.58

Realme 2 Pro 8GB+128GB
 @ RM999 (back again by popular demand)

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 6GB RAM+128GB Storage
 @ RM2449

Last updated: 8:05PM, November 11th 2018

Meanwhile, you can also check out other tech deals on Shopee by heading
here
.

*Disclaimer: Prices of the above items may change from time to time and is subject to availability by the seller.

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Here are the best 9.9 Tech Deals (UPDATE)

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Today is the day where most of you might be sticking to your screen waiting for that flash sale to happen or looking for that crazy low priced deal. Two e-commerce giants, Lazada and Shopee, have held their respective 9.9 event where both claimed to have extremely attractive discounts of more than 90% with lots of vouchers to spare.

Therefore, we will be constantly updating this post with great tech deals we have managed to spot on both e-commerce platforms. Get ready your wallets and credit cards!

Shopee (Updated 12:39PM)

Acer Predator PH315 Gaming Laptop
 – RM3,829 (Most affordable gaming laptop with GeForce GTX 1060)

Tronsmart Encore S1 Bluetooth Sport Earphones
 – RM99 (U.P @ RM119)

Razer DeathAdder Chroma Multi-Color Ergonomic Gaming Mouse
 – RM58 (Chroma RGB lighting and 10,000dpi tracking for a steal!)

Xiaomi 70 Mai Dashcam
 – RM116 (Affordable car dashcam with decent low light quality)

Sandisk Ultra A1 128GB MicroSD Card
 – RM105.40

Kingston Canvas Select 128GB Class 10 MicroSD card
 – RM99.90

Logitech G233 Wired Gaming Headset
 – RM188

WD Elements 2TB External Hard Drive
 – RM145

Kingston A400 480GB SSD
 – RM299

LDNIO A2405Q 2-Port Quick Charge 3.0 Adapter
 – RM20.80

Pineng 20000mAh Quick Charge 3.0 Powerbank
 – RM68.40

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch 1.8GHz Processor 256GB MQD42ZP/A
 – RM3880 (UP @ RM4719)

OnePlus 6 8GB RAM + 256GB Storage Imported Global ROM
 – RM2,349

Lazada (Updated 11:26AM)

SanDisk Cruzer Ultra 32GB
 – RM24.90 (Super fast storage with 100MB/s transfer rate)

UGREEN 8-in-1 USB-C Dongle
 – RM178.74

Beats Pill+ Portable Speaker
 – RM595 (Original from Apple Lazmall Store, UP @ RM933)

Creative Outlier Sports Bluetooth Headphones
 – RM229 (UP @ RM279,
read our review here
)

Creative Pebble Compact PC Speakers
 – RM79 (UP @ RM99)

Hisense 55″ UHD Smart LED TV 55N3000UW
 – RM1699 (UP @ RM2399, probably the most affordable 55-inch 4K TV right now)

ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 1060 6GB AMP Edition with Backplate [Extreme Overclocked]
 – RM1159 (UP @ RM1399)

ViewSonic VX3276-2K 31.5″ Monitor
 – RM979 (UP @ RM1299, super affordable 32″ productivity monitor)

Nokia 7 Plus
 – RM1439 (UP @ RM1699)

Apple AirPods
 – RM699 (UP @ RM800, Official from Apple Store LazMall)

Developing…

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Here’s 3 apps that you can use to get in touch with the Malaysian police

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Malaysians in general are always fearful and insecure about their surroundings as there are always danger or crime happening nearby. Although the Malaysian Government have reported that the crime rates of Malaysia have decreased by 11.7% early this year, it is not convincing enough for Malaysians to let down their guard as there are still crimes happening daily in different parts of Malaysia.

In order to combat the fears and insecurity of the public, the Malaysian Royal Malaysia Police or also known as Police Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) have created a few apps for the public to use for their convenience to report any suspicious acts in their surroundings or to report any crime.

VOLUNTEER SMARTPHONE PATROL (VSP)

The Volunteer Smartphone Patrol or better known as VSP is a new initiative by PDRM in establishing collaboration and strategic cooperation to prevent crime with the local community as the eyes and ears of the police.

In the past, PDRM encouraged the public to lodge a report via PDRM Hotline or Short Messaging Services (SMS). But with the VSP app, the public can now lodge a complaint or a report easily with multimedia elements such as videos, pictures, and GPS location Coordinates.

Users can lodge reports and complaints on cases such as stealing, suspected drug abuse, violence, illegal road racing, and many more cases that needs police assistance. There is also a “Balik Kampung” feature in the app that allows user to inform PDRM of the date of when they will not be around home and while they are away, there will be police that will come patrolling around their housing area to ensure the safety of the user while they are not home.

VSP is available as a free download on the
Apple App Store
 and
 Google Play
.

SaveME 999 POLIS

SaveME 999 POLIS is specifically designed for users who wants to lodge an emergency request that needs immediate help or assistance from PDRM. The app uses GPS in smart phones to identify the location of the users, so in case of an emergency, the police could detect the real time location of the user who have lodge the emergency request.

Details such as name, phone numbers, type of emergency, and registered address of the user will be transmitted automatically to The Malaysian Emergency Response Services 999 Response Centre (MERS 999 RC). Additional information about the incident and location detail can be added in the message. The informations will assist PDRM to send the required help fast and accurate.

There’s a “Preset Location” feature in the app whereby the user can add addresses of  familiar locations such as their home, office, parents house, or any other important places. If there were to be any emergency situation that occurs at one of the preset location, users can quickly choose the location from the preset list and send out an emergency request.

SaveME 999 POLIS is available as a free download on the
Apple App Store
 and
Google Play
.

SSO PDRM (SISTEM SEMAKAN ONLINE)

A collaboration made between PDRM and Program Transformasi Kerajaan (GTP), the SSO PDRM app is designed to enable Malaysians to check the report status of any online services provided by PDRM.

The SSO PDRM app allows user to check the status of their case, for example, if a user had gone to the police station to report a case or had filed a complaint through any PDRM app, they can check the status and process of the case if it is under investigation. Other than that, user of the app could also check if they have any unpaid summon that needs to be paid through the app.

By downloading this app, user who aspire to be a policemen or policewomen would have the privilege of getting first hand notification if there are any on going police recruitment by PDRM.

SSO PDRM is available as a free download on the
Apple App Store
 and
Google Play
.

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Here’s 5 mobile games to play with your friends and family during Chinese New Year

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Chinese New Year is a festive season for you to spend more time with your friends and family, and one of the best ways to have some fun together is none other than playing games. So, today I’m going to suggest five mobile games that you can play with your friends and family during Chinese New Year!

PUBG Mobile

I’m sure most of you already familiarised yourself with PUBG Mobile, but if you’re not a PUBG player, PUBG is an online multiplayer shooting game that allows you to team up with your friends. You can make up a team of four and fight against other players, or you can create a room with Room Card and invite up to 99 players to play with you. This could be the perfect chance for you to invite all your friends and family and engage in a shooting battle against each other to prove who’s the best, plus you get to have fun while you’re doing it.

Chicken Scream

Chicken Scream is a great game to play, especially with younger kids because it’s a much simpler game compared to PUBG. That being said, it doesn’t mean that the game is boring; in fact, it can be just as entertaining. Basically, you need to make noises to get the chicken to move and reach its goal, and the louder your voice is, the higher the chicken jumps. It might sound easy, but it’s really not as you progress through the levels. Make it a competitive game and take turns playing with your friends and family to see who can surpass more levels. It’ll be a good time to whip out your vocals in this game instead of just doing karaoke.

Bomber Friends

Now, one of the retro games that was super popular back in the days is called Bomberman. It is a strategy-based game that comes with maze-like maps and like its name, you’re a man who bombs stuff and pass missions. Now Bomber Friends is like a rendition of Bomberman where you can play on your own to pass missions or play with your friends to defeat each other. Just get your friends to download Bomber Friends, click on the

option to VS Friends, create a room and ask them to join you. A single room supports up to 8 players so you can play with more people at once. You can even team up so you don’t have to defeat everyone alone!

Fun Run 3

I remember playing Fun Run back when I was 17, and now the game has progressed so much that its developer has created Fun Run 3. Fun Run 3 is a great game whereby you get cute characters and power-ups in this racing game. It can support up to 4 players at a time, and while you’re racing against your friends, you can user power-ups (sawblades, missiles, explosives) to slow them down so that you can reach the goal faster than them. You can also dress up your characters in different skins and clothes to make it unique to your taste. Each round takes only a few minutes, so you don’t have to worry about the game taking up too much of your time.

Kings of Pool

Kings of Pool is for those of you who love playing pool but don’t have the time to visit a pool centre. No, I’m not talking about swimming, I’m talking about the cue sports. If you’re a fan of pool, then you definitely have to get Kings of Pool in your phone because it allows you to challenge other players and also your friends. Another feature of this game that makes it fun for both you and your friends or family is that it supports AR mode so the game can be even more realistic. Just find a flat surface for the app to scan to place the pool table, then you can play realistic pool with others. The AR mode is available for both iOS and Android users, so grab your phones and start playing pool with your friends and family!

With that being said, these five games are all available for download in both App Store and Play Store and it’s free of charge.

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Fun Run 3
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Here’s a better way of sideloading Android apps on Windows 11

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Windows 11 now officially supports Android apps all thanks to Intel’s Bridge Technology, but sideloading apps is still a chore if you can’t find the app you want on the limited Amazon AppStore, while entering ADB commands is a complicated process for most, but thankfully, an app called wsa_pacman will do the trick of simply letting you double click on the APK and install the app as usual.

WSA_PACMAN is a GUI package manager and package installer for Windows Subsystem for Android. Once installed, the app will associate all .apk and .xapk file extensions, while offering the convenience to access the “Manage Applications” Android settings page that lets you configure app permissions and removing them.

The app will establish an ADB connection automatically to make sideloading apps possible, without the complication of the user manually entering commands which one can usually encounter connection issues.

WSA_PACMAN can be downloaded for free and is available over at
Github
.

android
Windows 11
wsa_pacman


Here’s a clear view and specs of the Galaxy A54 5G and A34 5G

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While Samsung is still riding on the high momentum of the Galaxy S23 series, the company’s mid-range Galaxy A series is due for an upgrade this year, and before the next ‘Awesome’ launch happens, we are already seeing press images of the Galaxy A54 5G and A34 5G in courtesy of MediaMarkt, a German electronics chain store, which they may have accidentally published the live listing before the launch.

Both phones feature a major design change on their camera bumps while retaining their previous punch hole and water drop display notch, they also continue to feature IP67 water and dust resistance.

Powered by an Exynos 1380 chip that’s paired with up to 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, the Galaxy A54 5G is expected to sport a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED 120Hz FHD+ display, the camera setup is a 50MP OIS wide, 12MP ultrawide and 5MP macro lens, while a 5,000mAh battery powers it with support for 25W fast charging.

On the other hand, the Galaxy A34 5G is expected to sport a larger 6.6-inch 120Hz Super AMOLED display, while interestingly Samsung has decided to employ the Mediatek Dimensity 1080 chip to power the phone and pair it with up to 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage, the camera seems to be taken from the Galaxy A54 5G, which oddly makes it a more attractive device than the A54 5G if you don’t mind that dated V-shaped notch.

While we can safely assume the design of these phones to be final, we will take the leaked specs with a pinch of salt, especially on the lower-end Galaxy A34 5G, we definitely can’t wait to see what Samsung has in store for us on the Galaxy A series as they have always delivered great value on them.

Source:
MediaMarkt
, via
Amanz
.

galaxy a34 5g
galaxy a54 5g
samsung