2023 Hyundai Staria 10-seater launched in Malaysia from RM179K onwards

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Hyundai Sime-Darby Motors has unveiled the 2023 Hyundai Staria 10-seater luxury MPV today, the futuristic spaceship looking MPV first made its debut last year with a Premium variant that’s still on sale and priced at RM368,888, and Hyundai is looking to make this new variant more appealing to customers and it officially replaces the Grand Starex with a starting price of RM179,888.

The 2023 Hyundai Staria features a 2.2 litre turbodiesel engine that produces 177PS and 431Nm of torque, paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission, it is the most versatile large MPV that offers maximum flexibility with its seat configuration and full-flat seats, the fully flatten seats can also be turned into a bed for two for camping trips.

On the tech side of things, the Staria is probably the most well-equipped among its competitors, featuring a 10.25-inch instrument cluster display and an 8-inch large touchscreen that supports wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, while the Max variant comes with a 360-surround view camera for parking convenience, power sliding door, powered tailgate and electronic sidestep.

Hyundai’s SmartSense suite of safety features is also equipped on the Max variant, including Blind-Spot Collision Assist, Rear Cross Traffic Collision Assist, Lane Keep Assist, Driver Attention Warning and many more, the Staria will also come with 6 airbags on all variants.

In other conveniences, the Hyundai Staria 10-seater comes with a total of 8 USB ports with 1 reserved for data connectivity, while the Max variant has a Qi wireless charging pad that is equipped with a temperature sensor and cooling function so your smartphone won’t overheat while charging.

The 2023 Hyundai Staria 10-seater is currently available for preview and booking at 1 Utama Shopping Mall this week, while you can walk into any Hyundai dealerships to check it out as well, it is available in three variants of Lite, Plus and Max, which is priced at RM179,888, RM196,888 and RM209,888 respectively for OTR price without insurance in Peninsular Malaysia.

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21-inch iMac to get 4K display upgrade in November

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Apple is almost completing its Retina branding on its products, and the next one will be the company’s 21-inch iMac, which has always been sold as an entry level offering of the company’s All-in-One desktop. According to 9to5mac, Apple is reportedly including a 4K display on to the 21-inch iMac as discovered in the codes of OS X El Capitan, the display will have a resolution of 4096×2304 which is actually much more higher than the standard 3840×2160 resolution.

We do of course expect Apple to continue offering its standard resolution 21-inch iMac models since the 4K panel could significantly increase the price of the product. Apple is set to have its event on September 9th, which we shall be witnessing the launch of the new iPhone 6s,
iPad
, Apple TV and MacBooks with Skylake processors, and since OS X El Capitan will launch on end of October, expect the new 21-inch iMac to be shipped globally on the following month.

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Samsung Galaxy S20 phones not luxurious enough? Get the 24k gold-plated versions

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The Samsung Galaxy S20 series consists of three flagship phones capable of great photography and performance. However, if you’d like to stand out amongst others who have purchased the S20 phones, then you can get a gold-plated version of these phones from Goldgenie.

Goldgenie is a company from the UK that offers luxury gifts and 24k gold plating services. In the case of the Galaxy S20 series, the entire phone is covered in 24-karat gold, excluding its Dynamic AMOLED display and camera system. It’s definitely attention-grabbing if you bring it out with you, and heart-breaking if it gets stolen.

Image credit: Goldgenie

You should also be prepared to splurge if you’re set on getting these 24k gold phones. The Galaxy S20 will cost you £3,397 and the Galaxy S20+ will set you back £3,597. If you’ve set your eyes on the Galaxy S20 Ultra and it’s Space Zoom feature, then you’ll have to spend £3,797 to own the phone.

There’s also free worldwide shopping — yes, you can even ship the phone to Malaysia. If Android isn’t your cup of tea, Goldgenie also has gold-plated iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max.

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25,000 Gear S3's sold by Samsung in South Korea

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Samsung seemingly took advantage of the fairly silent Android Wear landscape of 2016 by launching the Gear S3. The Tizen powered smartwatch is considerably the most conventional watch looking wearable of the year, and it has performed pretty decent in terms of its sales in Samsung’s home ground South Korea. According to The Korea Herald, the manufacturing giant has managed to sell 25,000 units within ten days of its launch.

The Gear S3 is sold in both Frontier and Classic variants. Tracking back the performance of the older Gear S2, the past wearable sold 2,000 units daily, hence the sales of the Gear S3 can be considered as improvement. This said “improvement” can be due to a couple of other factors as well. First of all, it is without a doubt that consumers have grown to like smartwatches and are starting to include them in their lives. Another reason would be related to Samsung’s tactic of taking advantage over the absence of new Android Wear smartwatches from major OEM’s, with the exception of ASUS with its ZenWatch 3.

Having said that, Google has been slow on the development of Android Wear 2.0, which is slated to finally debut early next year. Meanwhile, Samsung’s current competition might only be from Apple’s Watch Series 2, which is target more to fitness buffs. What do you think of the Gear S3’s sales so far? Are you planning on getting one for yourself?

Source:
The Korea Herald


26 percent of iOS devices now run on iOS 11

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While Google is ever struggling with Android fragmentation over the sea of devices running on its open source OS, more than a quarter of Apple iOS devices now run on the company’s latest iOS 11 software. These statistics come as the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus has just been released recently.

iOS 11 is of course not as silky smooth as it is on all of Apple’s devices. It is no surprise that aged ones such as the iPhone 5S do suffer from some sluggishness when running iOS 11. Regardless, an impressive 26 percent of iOS devices now run on Apple’s latest software, which was just released a little over a week ago.

The adoption of iOS 11 also comes before the release of the more sought after iPhone X by Apple, which will no doubt boost the percentage in a short amount of time. Meanwhile, as of two weeks ago, only a mere 15.8 percent of Android devices are operating Android Nougat, which was released in 2016. Android Marshmallow devices are currently the highest, accounting for 32.2 percent, which will likely be the case for the next couple of months.

Are you running on iOS 11? Do you think it’s fair to compare iOS and Android when it comes to distribution and adoption?

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270,000 units of Galaxy Note 8 sold in first two days

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The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has gone on sale on home soil South Korea. The recently launched phablet by the South Korean manufacturer was its first ever smartphone with a dual camera setup, marking Samsung’s eventual step into the trending dual camera world. According to local news site The Investor, a total of 270,000 units of the Galaxy Note 8 were sold on in the first two days of its sale.

This respectable sales figures were recorded by South Korean carriers over the last weekend. It trumps the Galaxy Note 7 which had 160,000 units sold and the Galaxy S8 with 260,000 units sold over the same amount of time. The Galaxy Note 8 has already been made available for pre-orders over numerous regions worldwide.

Samsung’s flagship phablet of 2017 will face serious competition from the LG V30, which features an impressive wide angle sensor as part of its dual camera setup, plus the iPhone X, which uses Apple’s Face ID, along with dual OIS equipped cameras on the back, and a near bezel-less display on the front.

The Galaxy Note 8 is set for its release later this week on 21 September. What do you think of the phablet’s performance in South Korea over the weekend?

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The Huawei P30 and P30 Pro flagships are now available in Malaysia boasting impressive camera performance

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It’s here folks, the highly-anticipated Huawei P30 and P30 Pro has hit local shores bringing with it nearly unrivaled camera performance.

Starting with the Huawei P30, you get a 6.1-inch OLED display with a dew-drop notch. At the back, the edges of the phone’s glass panel are curved for ergonomics. The P30 comes with a triple-camera setup (40MP main + 16MP ultra-wide angle lens + 8MP telephoto lens), which is capable of 30x digital zoom. Both devices get a 32MP selfie camera.

Both devices get the same Kirin 980 chipset, but the P30 is only available in an 8GB + 128GB internal storage configuration. The phone comes with a decent 3,650mAh battery.

Both devices get in-screen fingerprint scanners a Type-C port, but the Huawei P30 gets a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Moving on to the Huawei P30 Pro, it gets a larger 6.47 Curved OLED display, meaning both the back and front of the phone are curved.

At the back, the P30 Pro sports a Leica Quad Camera setup (40MP main + 20MP ultrawide angle lens + 8MP telephoto lens + periscope-style ToF camera. The P30 Pro scores an unprecedented score of 112 on DxOMark scores, beating other flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Xiaomi Mi 9.

With the P30 Pro, you get an option of either a 8GB + 256GB internal storage or 8GB + 512GB storage configurations. As it’s the larger model, it’s only fitting that the P30 Pro comes with a bigger 4,200mAh battery. There will be no 3.5mm headphone jack present but a Type-C dongle is provided.

The P30 Pro supports Huawei SuperCharge fast charging of up to 40W, as well as wireless quick charge and reverse charging. The phone also sports an acourstic display which vibrates to create audio when you’re answering phone calls. Both devices ship with EMUI 9.1.

The phones will be available in three colors – Breathing Crystal, Aurora and Black The Huawei P30 and P30 Pro will be available for purchase on April 6 priced at RM2,699 (8GB + 128GB) and RM3,799 (8GB + 256GB) or RM4,399 (8GB + 512GB) respectively.

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Samsung Galaxy View 2 comes with a hinged stand and smaller display

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If you haven’t heard of the Samsung Galaxy View, well, there is one. It comes with a 18.4 Full HD display but more importantly, it runs on Android 5.1 so you should know how long the device has been around. Now, Samsung decided to introduce its successor, the Samsung Galaxy View 2.

The Galaxy View was not a popular device, but Samsung has not given up as the company tries to make the Galaxy View 2 with none of the flaws found in the Galaxy View. For example, the Galaxy View 2 will come with a smaller size display at 17.5 inches because it’s more portable and possibly lighter.

That aside, the Galaxy View 2 will come with two viewing positions instead of a fixed-angle kickstand that was seen on the Galaxy View. It will be able to stand upright and also at a 30-degree angle from the surface — the former will allow you better viewing experience whereas the latter will offer better typing experience.

The Galaxy View also had a handle on the back for mobility, but with the Galaxy View 2, this is instead replaced with a big circular hole. It is presumable that this will be the new handle for users to carry it around. The Galaxy View 2 is also reported to be powered by an Exynos 7885 processor and comes with 3GB RAM. It is very likely that the Galaxy View 2 will be launched soon, though there hasn’t been any information regarding its pricing and availability yet.

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Samsung Galaxy View 2


Twitter will soon let users hide tweet replies they find irrelevant or inappropriate

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While Twitter’s new camera function — similar to Instagram’s Stories — is finally available to most countries, Twitter has already started testing out another new feature that lets users hide tweets.

Discovered via reverse engineering by Jane Manchun Wong, the new feature will let users hide any replies that they find inappropriate or they just don’t want to see. So, the next time you find a tweet annoying, offensive or even just from someone you dislike, you can just hide their tweets on your posts.

Twitter’s unreleased Hidden Replies feature is functional on their Android app!

P.S. Pineapple belongs on pizza, any replies that says no will be hidden 😤
pic.twitter.com/diGB0TeQdY

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane)
April 24, 2019

There’s also the option to view the hidden tweets. Just click on the arrow icon on the top right of the tweet and you’ll be given the option to “View Hidden Tweets”, which will lead you to a page filled with hidden replies.

According to Wong, this feature is currently functional on Android, but iOS was not mentioned. It could be possible that iOS users have no access yet, but it’s just a matter of time before they do.

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It’s easy to soak in the pretty sights of Songkran captured by the iPhone

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The best way to keep your memories — both good and bad — with you is to make sure you capture the moments that mattered most. Sometimes, great pictures and videos are all you need to be reminded of the good times, and you won’t necessarily need to depend on cameras thanks to the advancement in smartphone technology. Case in point, the recent Songkran festival that was taken by a few Malaysians and Singaporeans using the iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.

Image credit: Yais Yusman @yaisyusman

A few photographers recently went to Chiang Mai to celebrate Songkran festival — also known as Thai New Year — which is famous for its “water fights”. However, these “water fights” actually hold a deeper meaning than just splashing water at each other. Water is an important element in this festival, where it symbolises cleansing and renewal. Thai people also sprinkle water on Buddha statues, hands of Buddhist monks and their elderly as a sign of respect.

Image credit: Yafiq Yusman @yafiqyusman

It is expected that if you’re attending Songkran festival, you’re going to be dripping wet with soaked clothes by the end of the day. Therefore, it is important for the photographers to use smartphones that have good cameras and are water-resistant such as the iPhone XR with IP67 rating and the iPhone XS and XS Max with IP68 rating.

Image credit: Yudhi Aristan @aristan89

The Singaporean photographers shared several tips when it comes to videography and photography during Songkran festival, such as utilising the Time-lapse and Slo-mo functions on iPhone, taking advantage of Smart HDR and using silicone/leather cases for a better grip. Yais Yusman suggested using InShot when it comes to editing videos, while Yudhi Aristan recommended Quik and Splice for video editing and VSCO and Lightroom for photo editing. Singapore’s Yafiq Yusman also shared that the combination of water droplets offers and interesting effect on photos.

Image credit: Jason Goh @smashpop

On the other hand, Jason Goh from Smashpop suggested shooting vertically and capturing photos from different angles. His favourite editing apps are Snapseed and VSCO, while Sufian Gaffar expressed his love for Quik. Gaffar also mentioned capturing images through reflection — from water or mirrors — which leads to unique framing.

Image credit: Zarnizar @zarnizar

Another Malaysian photographer Zarnizar provided some other less technical tips when it comes to taking pictures and videos during the festival, such as waking up earlier to shoot at the dawn, keeping an eye out for special moments, and having fun while you’re capturing the moments.

Image credit: Sufian Gaffar @iamod_

It is undeniable that smartphones’ capabilities have long surpassed our expectations and can sometimes be comparable to cameras. This proves that all you need to capture great moments in your life is merely a good smartphone and great editing apps, and the iPhones are already in that category.

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“Raya Dengan Shopee” campaign brings back Shopee Quiz, Goyang Shopee and more!

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Raya is less than two months away, and Shopee is ensuring that their users are well prepared before the festive season begins with their campaign “Raya Dengan Shopee”.

This campaign starts today, April 25 and will end on June 6, giving Shopee users more than enough time to start shopping for Raya. A few famous deals are coming back such as daily cashback, the Shocking Sale with deals as low as RM1, the Goyang Shopee that lets users get Shopee Coins, vouchers and gifts, and also the newer Shopee Quiz that only started this year. As usual, the Shopee Quiz will be on weekdays at 12pm, where users can win up to two million Shopee coins each session.

Shopee also ensures that its users can literally purchase everything they need on the app itself. Whether it’s makeup, clothing, cookware or even tech gadgets, Shopee has it all on its app. What’s more, Shopee also let users purchase property and vehicles via its app. In collaboration with the property developer S P Setia, customers only need to pay RM688 — a booking fee — to secure the units before visiting the sales gallery to complete the remainder of the payment.

As for vehicles, Shopee AutoMall — launched today — offers various kinds of vehicles from SUVs to motorbikes to hybrids, and Shopee will also offer booking fee from as low as RM1, in addition to lower interest rates, rebates, freebies and discounts.

There are also a few deals for the fasting month, in which there will be discounts up to 47% on The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf beverages during weekday Shocking Sale — valid from May 16, up to 40% discount for Kenny Rogers Roasters from May 6, and also buffet deals at Hotel Maya Kuala Lumpur, The Boulevard Kuala Lumpur and Royale Chulan Seremban.

But wait, that’s not all that Shopee is offering. There will also be partnerships’ benefits because Shopee is partnering with Maybank, Visa, Muslim Pro, MaxMoney, DHL and also J&T Express Malaysia. Rest assured that there will be free shipping, cashback, and many more.

For more information, download the Shopee app or visit Shopee’s website.

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You can now get movie tickets, book hotels and plan your trips in Grab

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Grab is expanding rapidly, offering more services as the company grows including GrabExpress, GrabPay and GrabFood. Now the company continues to grow by launching three new services — Tickets, Hotels and Trip Planner.

Image credit: Grab

With Tickets service, Grab users will be able to purchase movie tickets by May 2019 and even event tickets in the future. The service will let Grab users purchase tickets from different cinema chains without needing to create new accounts, and they’ll also be able to use GrabPay to pay for the tickets, earning GrabRewards point.

Image credit: Grab

That aside, Grab also launches Hotels service which offers special hotel booking offers via the app. The service allows booking of hotels from Agoda and in the future,
Booking.com
. All Grab users are expected to be able to enjoy the service by May.

Image credit: Grab

The third service Grab offers its users is called Trip Planner, which is a great way to help Malaysians plan their daily trips in real-time. The service shows the the estimated times from one venue to another, different transport options, and even upcoming arrivals of transit lines. There is also an Alerts tab that will inform users if there are modified services — delays, or change in payment methods. Trip Planner is already available to all Grab users in Malaysia.

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Fitbit Inspire HR Review: Essentials in a Mini

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One of the many ways to monitor your health is with the help of fitness trackers. Fitbit recently introduced the Fitbit Inspire and the Inspire HR, and like the names, one comes with a heart rate tracking and one does not. I’ve had the Inspire HR with me for almost a month now, and it has undoubtedly brought some changes.

Starting with the design, the Inspire HR is actually very similar to the Alta HR, as both devices lean towards the smaller side of the family. The Inspire HR is as simple as it can get, because it’s almost a third quarter of the Fitbit Charge 3 in terms of its width, and it really is a fitness tracker that doesn’t stand out — unless you’ve decided to pick a strap that is eye-catching.

I’d say the Inspire HR is made with simplicity in mind; it’s very basic yet practical. It has an upgraded OLED display over the Alta HR because the latter uses a tap display while the Inspire HR uses swipe gestures which is more convenient. I also prefer the Inspire HR’s button compared to the Charge 3’s button because its physical button is more practical — easier to be pressed — compared to the inductive button on the Charge 3. The design of the rounded corners seen on the Inspire HR is also more aesthetically pleasing compared to the Alta HR’s squarish design.

I love how light the Inspire HR is because it doesn’t give me the feeling that I have something weighing down my wrist, and it’s comfortable enough for me to wear it to sleep every night. It comes with a silicone strap in the box and the box includes two straps with different lengths so that it can cater to Fitbit users with different wrist sizes. I’ve bought third party silicone straps for the Inspire HR, but the Fitbit strap is still somehow more comfortable than those.

Now, the display on the Inspire HR may look big at first, but once I’ve started using it, I realized it’s actually much smaller thanks to the huge bezels surrounding it and honestly, it feels like a waste of space. Thanks to the tiny display, it doesn’t really help when it comes to message notifications, especially when the messages received are long texts that just can’t be fully displayed on the device. Also, the notifications only appear in real-time, meaning that once you’ve missed that notification, it will be gone from your Inspire HR.

However, rest assured that all the important features for a fitness tracker are still accessible within the Inspire HR, while the rest will need to be done via the Fitbit app. Through the tracker, I could track my heart rate, steps taken, calories burn, amount of sleep, water intake and more. Checking my tracker will remind me of my goals, but even if I don’t check on it, the Inspire HR will remind me of my main goal — in this case, steps taken daily — and it’ll also inform me when I’ve reached my goal with a celebratory animation on the tracker.

One of the highlights of the Inspire HR is of course, its heart rate tracking. The Inspire HR is one of the cheaper Fitbit devices with heart rate tracking, and this function is really beneficial because it allows detailed sleep tracking and also shows my cardio fitness level via the app. With this feature, I am more conscious of my sleeping patterns, and I try to get the proper amount of sleep that I need.

Aside from heart rate tracking, the Inspire HR can also track exercises such as running, swimming, cycling and more. What’s better is that even when I forget to manually track my exercises, the Inspire HR has automatic recognition so when it detects that I’m working out, it’ll automatically track the exercise for me. It’s unfortunate that there is no built-in GPS within the tracker itself, but it can take the data from my phone — provided I bring my phone with me when I’m running, hiking or cycling. It can also track swimming in general — it calculates the duration and calories burn, but not the number of laps and distance.

Since the Inspire HR can track swimming, it’s already obvious that it’s waterproof. Compared to the Alta HR which was only water resistant, this is a useful upgrade that can affect one’s decision when choosing between the Inspire HR and the Alta HR. I could wear it when I’m bathing or washing dishes, and the tracker still functions normally. As great as it is, the tracker is only waterproof up to 50m, so it’s probably not something you’d wear to go diving.

Moving on, the Inspire HR is actually quite lasting despite being a tiny device. Its battery life is said to last up to 5 days, and that is almost true — depending on how you use it. For me, it usually needs to be charged by the beginning of the 5
th
day, and sometimes I’ll just charge it on the 4
th
day because I worry it might run out of battery when I’m exercising the next day. Still, it’s great that it doesn’t need to be constantly charge, as I tend to forget to put it on before I sleep if I charge it during the night time.

Verdict

The Inspire HR is a great fitness tracker that costs RM468. While the Inspire is RM120 cheaper, it lacks heart rate tracking which makes it a less impressive device. The Inspire HR is basic yet practical, and it comes with all the important features that are squeezed into one tiny and comfortable device. However, if you wish to get a larger screen size, you can always opt for the Fitbit Charge 3 that costs RM728 and has a longer battery life, or the Fitbit Versa and Versa Lite that can do more — downloading apps and replying to messages — as they’re smartwatches. The Inspire HR is no more than a fitness tracker, but it’s doing a pretty great job as one.

The Good

Waterproof

Long lasting battery life

Heart rate tracking

Comfortable and light

The Not So Good

No built-in GPS

Narrow display

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Fitbit Inspire HR
Inspire HR


You’ll soon be able to use your Bitmoji characters in games thanks to Snapchat

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It has been long since Bitmoji was available on Snapchat, allowing Snapchat users to create their own characters to resemble them — or not. What’s better is that Snapchat will soon let you play games with using your Bitmoji characters.

By scanning an in-game code with Snapchat, you’ll be able to play as your Bitmoji character on PC, console and mobile games and this is possible thanks to the new Games SDK that Bitmoji has to offer. Co-founder Ba Blackstock told TechCrunch that the integration of Bitmoji characters into the game can be more engaging because it gives a sense of relevance when users are in game.

Blackstock also mentioned that Bitmoji for games will not be an open platform to prevent it from being used inappropriately, presumably games that involves violence or mature content.

As usual, users will be able to design the character via Bitmoji or Snapchat and they will be able to import their Bitmoji into the games via a QR Snapcode. Meanwhile, Snapchat already has its own game called Bitmoji Party that allows multi-player gaming and consists of mini-games.

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Boost launches its Super Shake campaign this Ramadan

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As Ramadan is approaching, the e-wallet app Boost is offering its very first Super Shake campaign that will last around four months for Boost users to win various kinds of prizes worth up to RM2.5million.

The Super Shake campaign is Boost’s biggest reward campaign yet, and users will get to earn tokens and join lucky draws every week from April 29 to August 18. There will be 8 grand prizes to be won, and users can win these grand prizes every two weeks. More importantly, users can choose the prizes that they would like to win. In addition, users can earn token by spending via Boost app. Every RM10 spending will earn users 1 token, and needless to say, the more tokens each user has will result in higher changes of winning.

Not only that, Boost also collaborated with 45 Ramadan Bazaars to offer a cashless payments when it comes to purchasing items and food in the bazaars. These Ramadan Bazaars are found all over Kuala Lumpur, Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Bahru and more. Moreover, Boost has also partnered with several other brands like Tealive, KFC, Zalora, Tesco, Watsons, KLIA Express and even 11Street and malls like Avenue K, MyTown and The Curve to offer more deals and cashback.

For users who are looking for food deliveries when it’s time to ‘buka puasa’, Boost offer cash back up to RM25 for food delivery via dahmakan and RM40 for food delivery via DeliverEat. For those who wants to shop for Raya clothes, Boost introduces the promo code ‘BOOSTGAYARAYA’ and also RM18 cashback when its users shop in Zalora and makes their payments via Boost.

In addition, Boost also decided to accommodate for the Muslims by introducing an in-app ‘buka puasa’ & prayer time feature that will remind its users of the time when they need to perform their prayers and also the time when they can start to feast.

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Acer launches the TravelMate P614, X314 and P214 in Malaysia for businesses and professionals

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Acer has decided to expand its business laptops to accommodate for more businesses and professionals by introducing three new members to the TravelMate series — the TravelMate P614, TravelMate X314 and also TravelMate P214.

TravelMate P614

The TravelMate P614 has a 14-inch FHD touchscreen equipped with Acer ComfyView technology and has a beautiful design of rounded corners and smooth curved hinge. With a magnesium allow chassis, the P614 is tough and durable yet it manages to weigh only 1.1kg.

The laptop is powered by Intel Core i7-8565U processor with 8GB RAM — upgradable to 24GB — and 512GB SSD M.2 PCIe NVMe, in addition to running on Windows 10 Professional 64 bit. Acer also ensures that the laptop is secured with Acer ProShield, Supervisor HDD password protection, Windows Hello and a few more.

The P614 comes with two USB 3.1 ports, one USB Type-C port, one MicroSD card reader and one HDMI port. That aside, it has two stereo speakers and also two built-in microphones. The laptop is said to be able to last up to 20 hours and can be fully charged in 2 hours.

The P614 starts at the price of RM5,699 and will be available in Q3 2019 at Acer official online stores and also selected authorised resellers.

TravelMate X314

The Acer TravelMate X314 is also a 14-inch model with Acer ComfyView technology and supports up to 178-degree viewing angle. With narrow bezels and Precision Touchpad, the laptop has more surface space and is more responsive compared to the TravelMate X3.

The X314 is powered by Intel Core i5-8265U and sports 8GB RAM that is upgradable to 32GB and it has 256GB SSD M.2 PCIe NVMe. In terms of security, the laptop has similar security features like the P614, and it has a FHD IR webcam in which the camera shutter can be closed, providing extra protection.

At the weight of 1.6kg, the X314 has three USB 3.0 ports, one USB Type-C port, one MicroSD card reader, one VGA port and one HDMI port. Its battery life can last up to 15 hours and it has similar speakers and microphones to the P614.

The X314 will also be available in Q3 2019 at Acer official online stores and selected authorised resellers, and will be priced from RM3,899.

TravelMate P214

Another new member of the TravelMate series is the TravelMate P214 that comes with a 14-inch HD display with 720p HD webcam and also stereo speakers equipped with Acer TrueHarmony technology.

Under the hood, the TravelMate P214 can be powered by either Intel Core i3-8130U or i5-8250U processor. In addition, it has 4GB RAM that can be upgraded to 20GB and there are two storage options — 1TB HDD for those who require more storage and 256GB SSD M.2 PCIe for those with less heavy tasks. Running on Windows 10 Professional 64 bit, the P214 also comes with Acer ProShield, Kensington lock slots and Supervisor HDD password protection.

The laptop weighs from 1.67kg, and consists of one USB Type-C port, two USB2.0 ports, one USB 3.1 port, one VGA port, one HDMI 2.0 port and one SD card reader. There is also an optional DVD writer for those who need it, and the laptop can last up to 14 hours in a single charge.

Below are the prices of the TravelMate P214 models:

TravelMate P214-51-398Q, i3-8130U, 1TB HDD: RM2,599

TravelMate P214-51-55V4, i5-8250U, 1TB HDD: RM2,899

TravelMate P214-51-50D8, i5-8250U, 1 TB HDD, 1x DVD Writer: RM2,999

TravelMate P214-51-510Z, i5-8250U, 256GB SSD M.2 PCIe: RM3,099

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TravelMate P214
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Under the Radar: If you can’t get enough of Avengers…

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This month has been all about Avengers, and we’re on board with that — no objections, whatsoever. As a tribute to MCU and all the joy, excitement and satisfaction it has provided us for over a decade, this month’s Under the Radar will be featuring all things Avengers.

It is undeniable that Avengers has been a big part of many of us, especially Marvel fans out there. Avengers: Endgame was released just last week yet it has already the year’s highest-grossing film, breaking $1 billion at the box office in just five days. There’s no doubt that the movie marks the end of an era, and left a void in true fans that can be hard to fill, so here are a few brands with gadgets that you can get to show your loyalty towards Marvel’s Avengers.

Acer

Image credit: Acer

Acer has three Avengers edition laptops that Marvel fans will drool over. The Acer Nitro 5 features Thanos, the villain that snapped his finger and wiped out 50% of the population. The Nitro 5 shows a rough paper-sketch of Thanos — played by Josh Brolin — in matte black with a gold hinge, perfect for those who prefer a subtle yet cool laptop design.

Image credit: Acer

Next, Acer made sure to include everyone’s favourite captain — Captain America — in the Aspire 6. The laptop features the Captain’s famous star symbol on the centre of the lid, and the whole laptop is covered in the dark blue that resemble Captain Steve Roger’s uniform. Even its trackpad matches with Captain America’s theme, and the body also sports a large Avengers logo covering half of it.

Image credit: Acer

Lastly, Acer integrated our all-time hero Iron Man in its Swift 3 laptop. Similar to how Iron Man has an Arc Reactor, the Swift 3 also has one that has Corning Gorilla Glass as cover. Naturally, the Swift 3 comes in cherry red and gold, and it looks absolutely stunning. Its body also comes with a huge Avengers logo like the Aspire 6, and it’s perfect for those who like a little attention.

For more information, check out Acer’s
official site
.

Neo Chair

Image credit: Neo Chair

Nothing screams “Marvel fans” louder than sitting on a huge gaming chair that has Marvel designs all over it. Neo Chair has gaming chairs that features four Avengers characters — Captain America, Black Panther, Iron Man and Spider-Man. Each character sports two different designs, so there are a total of eight designs to be picked from.

Image credit: Neo Chair
Image credit: Neo Chair
Image credit: Neo Chair
Image credit: Neo Chair
Image credit: Neo Chair
Image credit: Neo Chair
Image credit: Neo Chair
Image credit: Neo Chair

Each gaming chair comes with an adjustable armrest, headrest and back cushion and uses premium soft PU leather. These gaming chairs are priced from $198 and can be found on
Amazon
. Unfortunately, it doesn’t ship to Malaysia.

Logitech

Once again, Captain Steve Rogers and Tony Stark makes an appearance in yet another brand — and I’m not complaining. Logitech released a Marvel wireless mouse collection, featuring the two mentioned and also Black Panther, Spider-Man and the newest Captain Marvel.

The Iron Man, Spider-Man and Black Panther masks are featured in each character’s mouse, whereas Captain America’s vibranium shield is featured on his character’s mouse and Captain Marvel’s uniform design is featured on hers.

Image credit: Logitech
Image credit: Logitech
Image credit: Logitech
Image credit: Logitech
Image credit: Logitech

These wireless devices has 10m wireless accessibility and 12-month battery life. Priced at RM89, the M238 Marvel Collection Wireless Mouse weighs only 84g and is compatible with Windows, macOS, Chrome OS and also Linux Kernel. Visit
Logitech
 to check out these cool wireless mouses.

OPPO

Image credit: OPPO

While the above three items may not constantly be a reminder of how much of an Avengers fan you are, a smartphone with Avengers design on it definitely will. I’m not talking about smartphone cases, I’m talking about the smartphone itself. OPPO recently launched its Marvel’s Avengers Limited Edition that comes with a shiny blue gradient back with Avengers logo covering half the phone.

Image credit: OPPO

In addition, the phone also has a tiny Avengers logo on top of its camera module, and on its side you get a red power button and also an Avengers wallpaper readily set in your phone. But wait,

we’re not done! The phone also comes with a protective case — if you’re slightly more clumsy person — that comes with a i-Ring in the form of Captain America’s shield.

That aside, there will also be a stamped collector’s badge included in its box which looks heavier than you’d think, and really feels like a collector’s item. The OPPO F11 Pro costs RM1,399 and is available for pre-order till May 3.

acer
Avengers
F11 Pro
logitech
marvel
Neo Chair
oppo


ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Review – The New Value King?

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Fancy a new GPU but don’t want RTX? You’ve come across the GPU that might just be the one for you! The NVIDIA GTX 1660 launched with pretty little fanfare compared to its RTX brethren, neatly replacing the GTX 1060 and providing gamers with the new value option in the Turing lineup. We’ve got the ZOTAC GTX 1660 Firestorm in hand to put through its paces. Does this Tensor-absent & RT-less card live up to the legacy of its GTX predecessor?

Spec Sheet

GPU Architecture / Chip

Turing / TU116

Shaders

1408

Variant

TU116-300-A1

TMUs

88

Foundry

TSMC

ROPs

48

Transistors

6.6 billion

Tensor Cores

N/A

Clock Speed

1530 Mhz

RT Cores

N/A

Boost Clock

1785 Mhz

Memory

6 GB GDDR5

Die Size

284 mm2

Bus

192-bit

Memory Clock

2001Mhz (8 GHz effective)

Bandwidth

192.1 GB/s

TDP

120W

Outputs

3x DisplayPort

1x HDMI

Power Connector

8-pin

Width

Dual-Slot

Dimensions

229mm (L) x 113mm (H)

Giga Rays /s

N/A

Pixel Rate

85.68 GPixels/s

Texture Rate

157.1GTexels/s

The Basics

As anyone who’s bought a ZOTAC card in the previous 3 to 4 years will attest to, ZOTAC’s standard dual-fan blower solution is implemented here without much fanfare. A mix of gunmetal grey with black fans and a black PCB give the GTX 1660 a sleek, understated look, with very little in the way of bells, whistles and flash.

Powered by a single 8-pin connector placed on the front/top of the card (as opposed to the RTX 2060’s rather weird back-placement), the GTX 1660 has a much smaller footprint compared to the its RTX big brother, with overall length just a little under 7 inches / 17.4cm. Proof that size isn’t everything? (hey, stop giggling at the back).

On the rear of the card, the outputs denote the rather budget-oriented positioning of the GTX 1660, with 3x DisplayPports and 1x HDMI. No DVI or USB-C here, meaning that its VR-ready moniker is not meant for VirtualLink.

Plug this little number into your motherboard via a PCIe x16 connector, and the GTX 1660 will work with anything from the last 7 to 8 years of platforms from intel or AMD.

In comparison to the Founders Edition of the RTX line, the GTX 1660 looks… humdrum? It looks like any other ZOTAC card that’s already out on the market, with nothing to really distinguish it from ZOTAC’s other offerings. This calls to mind BMW’s ‘same sausage, different lengths’ design philosophy that plagued its models in the mid to late 90s, giving it a comforting sameness / bland familiarity (delete where applicable).

ZOTAC’s cooling solutions are also not always the best-performing, which gives me a concern or two before we get into testing. The other concern? The decision to use GDDR5 memory instead of the newer GDDR6 memory that you’ll find on the RTX line. I suspect its to keep costs down, but this is probably going to be at the cost of performance.

Let’s see what the numbers say.

Benchmarks – Methodology

Where possible, in-game / software benchmarks were used to give a consistent representation of the performance of the cards being tested. FIVE (5) runs were carried out at various settings / resolutions. The highest and lowest recorded FPS / score readings were discarded (to reduce the possibility of outliers), and an average of the three readings is then taken.

If there is no in-game benchmark available, then a repeat run of a certain portion of the game would be used, making sure that the portion in question would have an accurate cross-section of various game scenarios. FPS readings would then be recorded via CSV data collated from Razer Cortex, and averaged out accordingly.

All tests were carried out on our test bench (mentioned below), which is water-cooled via a Bykski custom-loop with two 360mm radiators to prevent any possible temperature bleed.

Three cards were used in benchmarks aside from the GTX 1660. Our main test bench card, a ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080TI Mini, is also water-cooled. The next card in our line-up is a Manli GTX 1060 6GB Gallardo, running on a stock cooling solution. The RTX 2060 FE has been added to the database for comparison.

Test Bench

CPU

Ryzen 7 2700X (water-cooled)

Motherboard

ASUS ROG Crosshair VII Hero Wi-Fi

Chipset

X470

Memory

16GB DDR4 OC’ed @3466MHz (Patriot VIPER RGB)

Graphics Card (comparison)

ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080Ti Mini (water-cooled)

NVIDIA RTX 2060 Founders Edition

Manli Gallardo NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

ZOTAC NVIDIA GTX 1660 Firestorm

SSD

OS : M.2 – Pioneer APS-SM1 (240GB)

Gaming SSD – LiteOn 512GB

PSU

Cooler Master G650M Semi Modular 650W

Monitor

Samsung LU28E590DS

3840 x 2160

28”

Benchmark Results – Games

Grand Theft Auto V

As mentioned previously, GTA V might be an old benchmark, but it really does push modern hardware to the limit. This is borne out in the numbers, with the GTX 1660 and the GTX 1060 in a virtual dead heat. Carrying the same memory configuration (6GB of GDDR5 VRAM) while battling a very memory-intensive game, the result is disappointing but not really surprising.

The RTX 2060 by comparison outpaces the GTX 1660 by 45% at 1080p, 48% at 1440p, and 52% at 4k (4xAA). The GTX 1080Ti at this point is already on a different planet before the GTX 1660 has even left Los Santos.

F1 2018

F1 2018 is an example of a beautiful game that has been optimised fantastically well. Game performance scales very well at any resolution, as evidenced by our numbers. Here, the GTX 1660 slots neatly between the GTX 1060 and RTX 2060 – beating the GTX 1060 by 25% (1080p), 25% (1440p) and 26% (4K). The gap to RTX 2060 is 21% (1080p), 26% (1440p) and 31% (4K). The GTX 1080Ti really puts the perfomance gap into perspective, with a relative difference of 55% at 1080p, 62% at 1440p and 115% at 4K.

Having said that, the GTX 1660 still offers playable framerates even at 4K, which is a staggering achievement for such a budget-oriented offering.

Assassin’s Creed : Origins

As we’ve noted previously, AC: Origins is a weird GPU/CPU dependent title that throws up interesting results. Not that there’s much surprise in how the GTX 1660 performs – it once again slots into the gap between GTX 1060 and RTX 2060. The performance vs 1060 gives a generational improvement of 15% (1080p), 18% (1440p) and 22% (4K). The gap to RTX 2060 goes from 18% (1080p) to 32% (1440p) and 36% (4K).

As a testament to the faster VRAM in the RTX 2060 (which kept the gap to the GTX 1080Ti relatively respectable at 14% (1080p & 1440p), the decision to use GDDR5 really hurts the GTX 1660’s performance here.

Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

Shadow of The Tomb Raider performance stays true to the trend that we’ve seen established with prior testing, as the GTX 1660 finds a natural home between the 1060 and RTX 2060. Outpacing the GTX 1060 by 22% (1080p), 26% (1440p) and 28% (4K), but losing out to the RTX 2060 by 33% (1080p), 34% (1440p) and 36% (4K), the GTX 1660 really shows its obvious budget roots.

4K performance is basically non-existent for this hardware configuration, so please don’t bother. The GTX 1080Ti is way off into the distance, although instead of the Flash vs Commissioner Gordon, this is the Flash vs Jimmy Olsen.

Battlefield V

A multiplayer game like BF V will prioritise FPS to deliver a smooth gaming experience (a critical aspect of twitch shooters) and the GTX 1660 delivers this right up to 1440p. 4K performance is barely serviceable, confirming our assumption that this really isn’t a 4K capable card.

With a gap of 14% (1080p), 33% (1440p) and 53% (4K, but also at a rather useless framerate), the GTX 1660 offers reasonable generational improvement compared to its predecessor. The gap to RTX 2060 is remarkably close at 1080p (less than 3 fps), and is 6% at 1440p, before widening massively to 73% at 4K.

Benchmark Results – Software / Rendering

3DMark – TimeSpy, DX12, 1440p

3DMark’s TimeSpy synthetic benchmarks offer a straightforward comparison for performance levels. Here, the GTX 1660 performs 27% better than the GTX 1060, while lagging by 40% behind the RTX 2060.

3DMark – TimeSpy Extreme, DX12, 4K

As mentioned previously, 4K performance for the GTX 1660 is not exactly laughable – it’s a bit cringeworthy instead, like a Michael Scott joke that doesn’t make sense. While there’s a 28% performance gap over the GTX 1060, the 40% deficit to the RTX 2060 is a punchline no one will enjoy.

V-RAY Render Benchmark

From V-RAY’s website :
If you are not familiar with V-Ray, it is one of the leading raytracers in the world that is used in many different industries including architecture and automotive design. It has also been used in over 150 motion pictures and numerous episodic television series. It also won a Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement in 2017.

Making use of the CUDA cores in NVIDIA cards to run ray-traced rendering, V-RAY Benchmark is a great tool for measuring the raw compute power of these cards. Bear in mind that they do not make use of OpenGL or DirectX capabilities.

The GTX 1660 beats out the GTX 1060 by a respectable 16% margin, with the RTX 2060 17% faster. Expected, as it were.

Octane Render Benchmark

OctaneBench is a benchmark that uses graphics card resources to render four different scenes with three different rendering techniques (info channels provided by scene files, direct lighting and path tracing) to accurately gauge the amount of computational rendering potential that the chosen graphics card has.

The results are predictable, as the GTX 1660 slots in between the GTX 1060 (+27%) and the RTX 2060 (-39%) – the GTX 1080Ti just screams off into the distance.

Ray-Tracing Benchmarks

N/A

A Word About Temperatures

While ZOTAC hasn’t exactly wowed us before with the thermal performance of their cooling solutions (I was so unhappy with mine I decided to watercool
everything
), the GTX 1660 delights with lower thermal output compared to its predecessor and bigger RTX sibling. You won’t hit thermal throttling anytime soon with this card.

In Conclusion

The GTX 1660 is a curious card. With the cheapest one on the market available for the relative pittance of RM939, there is a LOT of value to be found in this card. It outperforms its predecessor by an average margin of 27%, yet comes in at a lower MSRP than the GTX 1060 6GB. Home run, right?

Not quite. Because of the rather annoying (if understandable) decision to keep the price low by using GDDR5 instead of GDDR6, the GTX 1660 is hampered. We also find ourselves in a curious position of being too close to the GTX 1660Ti, which utilises GDDR6 and has more CUDA cores – all for an RM300 price premium.

It’s difficult to definitively state that the GTX 1660 needs to exist. It does indeed offer a generational improvement over the GTX 1060 6GB – yet so does the GTX 1660Ti by an even bigger margin, at the GTX 1060 6GB’s launch MSRP.

So where does that leave us?

Taken in isolation, the GTX 1660 is a perfectly respectable 1080p gaming card, with just-about-acceptable performance at 1440p at medium to low settings. At a little over RM900, it’s pretty darn good value too. Yet our eyes flit to the slightly higher-priced GTX 1660Ti with its faster VRAM and more CUDA cores, and wish they’d just gone with that one instead.

Taking a birds-eye view of the Turing range raises some questions about how NVIDIA have positioned their entire product line. As noted in our
review of the RTX 2060 FE
, it could have flown higher and farther with more than the measly 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM it was given. The Turing line as a whole could have been filled with killer cards at each pricepoint, if NVIDIA had been willing to sacrifice even a little of its rumoured profit margins. Instead, we have a product range that seems designed more by accountants than it was by consumer-focused policy decisions.

All of which makes us feel just a little bit meh about the GTX 1660. Our advice? Get one if you really can’t stretch that budget any further for a GTX 1660Ti, especially in the absence of anything resembling competition from AMD. Maybe NAVI will change the game and the landscape, but we’ll have to wait and see for that one.

What Works

Generational leap from 1060 to 1660 at a lower price

Small footprint

Excellent thermal performance

Great value when viewed in isolation

What Doesn’t (Really) Work

This is the pricepoint that the GTX 1660Ti should be in

GDDR5? In 2019? Really?

A product that feels like it was designed by accountants

What Doesn’t Work (At All)

Nothing, really – this is a perfectly serviceable graphics card

graphics card
graphics cards
nvidia
nvidia gtx
Nvidia GTX1660


Google offers auto-delete controls in Location History and Web & App Activity

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Privacy is one of the most important aspects when it comes to user data, and Google is heading the right way to make it easier for users to protect and control their data with its new auto-delete controls.

With Location History and Web & App Activity enabled, Google can offer more personalised recommendations such as places to go to and restaurants to dine in, but of course, this can be disabled since the very beginning. Google just wants to make it easier by introducing the auto-delete controls so users don’t have to manually delete their data.

With the new controls, users can choose how long they’d want to keep their data up — either 3 months or 18 months — so once their data passed the expiration date, it will automatically be deleted. Of course, the option to manually delete their data remains.

Location History and Web & App Activity will be the first two features to get these controls, and it is said to be rolling out in the next few weeks.

auto-delete controls
google
Location history
Web & App Activity


Netflix introduces high-quality audio and it adapts to your Internet speed

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In efforts to improve user experience, Netflix decided to introduce high-quality audio so your Netflix movies and shows sound better.

Now, worry not that this feature will cause longer your videos to buffer longer because it is an adaptive feature that matches your Internet speed. For instance, if your Internet speed is low, the audio quality will be decreased to prevent long buffering periods and if your Internet speed is high, the audio quality automatically improves. This is similar to Netflix’s video quality which is also adaptive.

According to Netflix, the bitrate for 5.1 surround sound has been increased up to 640kbps while the bitrate for Dolby Atmos has been increased up to 768kbps. Of course, you’ll need to ensure that your devices come with Dolby Atmos support or is connected to an audio system that supports 5.1 surround sound, and only those subscribed to the Premium plan will be able to enjoy Dolby Atmos.

The new feature is already launched, so you probably have to update your Netflix app if you haven’t already.

dolby atmos
netflix


The V15 Blossom Pink edition is vivo’s next pastel pink smartphone

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Remember when vivo launched the V11i in a special “Fairy Pink” edition that caught the eyes of many, especially females? The same is about to happen with the vivo V15, and it’s called the “Blossom Pink” edition.

The V15 currently comes with either Topaz Blue or Glamour Red, but soon it will also have its own pastel pink model called “Blossom Pink”. While the teaser poster only showed about one quarter of the phone in this pastel pink, we’re expecting it to come in a gradient colour like the other two colours available.

The V15 comes with an elevating 32MP front camera, while its rear holds a 12MP + 8MP + 5MP triple camera setup. It has 6GB RAM paired with 128GB storage, and sports a Mediatek P70 chipset.

The V15 Blossom Pink edition is not available yet, but we’re expecting its price to remain the same if the specs are unchanged. It will be available on vivo’s official site, retail stores, Lazada and also Shopee.

Blossom Pink
V15
vivo


HONOR celebrates Raya with free gifts and a chance to win Moschino merchandise

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Raya is approaching and HONOR is more than happy to honour their fans with gifts during the festive season, including a chance to win limited edition HONOR X Moschino merchandise and flagship smartphones.

The promotion that starts from May 1 to June 9 includes smartphones such as the HONOR 20 Lite, HONOR View20, HONOR 8X and more. Each phone comes with different gifts like food container, RM300 cash back, HONOR cat tote bag, HONOR backpack and more.

That aside, HONOR customers stand a chance to win limited edition HONOR X Moschino merchandise and flagship smartphone such as the HONOR 20 and HONOR View20 when they purchase selected smartphones at participating HONOR experience stores and partner stores. You only need to submit your details
here
 and you might just go home with the great prizes.

To find out which stores are participating in this promotion, click
here
. For more information, check out HONOR’s
Facebook page
 and also their
official site
.

honor
HONORaya
Moschino


The Asus ZenFone 6 teaser reveals a notch-less design, set to launch on May 16

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The ASUS ZenFone 5 was launched back in February 2018, and now ASUS is ready to launch its next ZenFone with the tagline “Defy Ordinary”. The ZenFone 6 is set to be launched on May 16 in Valencia, Spain and those who are interested can also watch the launch via livestream.

The teaser poster tweeted by the company 14 hours ago hints on a bezel-less and notch-less design. We are assuming that the phone will either come with a pop-up selfie camera or a slider, but personally I’m betting on the former.

Based on reports, the ASUS ZenFone 6 sports a FHD+ screen with dual SIM support, and it is highly likely that it will sport the latest Snapdragon 855 chipset. That aside, the phone will ship with Android 9 and is integrated with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage.

The phone is also certified by the FCC, confirmed to have a dual rear camera setup consisting of a 48MP main camera. It will support 18W fast charging, and we’re expecting a USB Type-C port with a bigger battery size compared to the ZenFone 5.

asus
ZenFone 6


Redmi’s flagship device is called the Redmi K20 Pro, not Redmi X

388

Redmi has always been accommodating to the midrange market, but since their separation with Xiaomi, they have been trying to come up with their own flagship device. However, previous rumours that reported the flagship phone as Redmi X were wrong, because it’s name is actually the Redmi K20 Pro.

We’re really not sure how the name came about, but hey, whatever floats their boat, right? But that aside, someone managed to get an image of the protective sticker on top of the phone’s screen, and the name Redmi K20 Pro is written in a very large font on the sticker.

Image credit: GSMArena

Similar to almost every other phone, the sticker also reveals several highlights of the Redmi K20 Pro, including what makes it a flagship phone — a Snapdragon 855 chipset. That aside, the phone is revealed to come with a 6.39-inch AMOLED screen with 4,000mAh battery and a triple rear camera setup with a 48MP main lens.

The Redmi K20 Pro might launch very soon, and could be the first flagship device from Redmi, if the image above is real.

redmi
Redmi K20 Pro


Boost and Shell Malaysia collaborates so you can fuel up your vehicle via e-wallet

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Boost took another step further to up their game, this time in collaboration with Shell Malaysia to bring cashless payment to petrol stations.

Thanks to the partnership that had just started in April, Boost users can now use their Boost e-wallet to make payments at selected Shell stations. They can purchase food and beverages in the stations without needing to use physical cash, and the same applies to putting fuel into their vehicles.

Despite the short amount of time the two companies has just started collaborating, Boost is already available in 800 Shell stations in Malaysia. To celebrate the collaboration, Boost users will get a RM5 cashback whenever they pay at Shell station with their Boost e-wallet with a minimum spend of RM40. This promotion will last for a full month, from May 14 to June 14.

So if you’re living a cashless lifestyle, you can always download Boost app from App Store and Play Store and fuel up your vehicles at Shell stations that support cashless payment via Boost e-wallet.

boost
e-wallet
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Google is fighting browser fingerprinting and limiting ad tracking in Chrome

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At Google I/O, Google made it clear that the company wants to help users set a limit to how much advertisers can track them online with a new set of controls. With these controls, users can see all the cookies stored and choose to limit whichever tracker they are uncomfortable with.

As explained in a Chromium blogpost, “Cookies play an important part of the web experience today — they are used to keep you logged into email, save shipping addresses on a retail site, and remember your preferences on the websites you’ve visited. And they can also be used to track your browsing activity across the web to serve personalized content and ads.”

While users can block cookies for quite some time now, these new set of controls give them more options, so they can clear the cookies while preserving their logins and settings. In addition, users will be able to have a clearer understanding on the browsers sites and how these sites use their data, so they can choose whether to block the cookies or not.

That aside, Google Ads & Commerce’s SVP Prabhakar Raghavan also wrote in a Google Ads blogpost that the company is aggressively tackling fingerprinting to prevent websites from collecting your data without permission. For more information, read this
post
.

chrome
google
google i/o


China replaces PUBG with government-friendly Game for Peace, no blood and corpses but full of nationalism

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Oh China, a nation of rich history and culture, sadly marred by adverse effects of communism; despite rapid shift towards a more progressive capitalistic ethos, remnants of its socialist past still plague how the great country is governed and how media is consumed.

Government-mandated censorship is still rife, and it has reared its ugly head again; this time the victim is the ever-popular games PUGB and PUBG: Mobile. The games, developed by PUBG Corporation, has been de-listed in China, and will be replaced by, wait for it, “Game for Peace”. The government-friendly game will be developed by Korean company Krafton, who were formerly known as Bluehole, who created PUBG; ironic.

Game for Peace will reportedly play exactly like PUBG except that it will lack blood and corpses, as well as references of imperial history and gambling. In a game that makes it your objective to kill all and be the last man standing; we don’t think this censorship would do much in curbing bad behavior. Tech Crunch also reports that the game will be steeped in nationalist themes with heavy emphasis on China’s air force.

According to reports from Reuters, the two games are inherently identical as player progress and achievements from PUBG will be transferred over to Game for Peace. We’re still trying to digest the name “Game for Peace” here.

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china
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2nd Gen AMD Ryzen processors are arriving in Malaysia on April 19

327

AMD has just announced that global pre-orders of the anticipated 2nd generation of AMD Ryzen processors have now started. The new generation processors offer more performance and innovative features at a great price point, offering a processor for everyone.

The 2nd generation Ryzen processors offers a lineup of two 8-core, 16-threads models and two 6-core, 12 threads models, both offering major upgrades and an advance in AMD’s SenseMI technology.

MODEL

CORES

THREADS

CLOCK SPEED MAX BOOST/ BASE (GHZ)

Smart Prefetch Cache

TDP

COOLER

SEP (MYR)

*Tax included

AVAILABILITY

Ryzen™ 7 2700X

8

16

4.3/3.7

20MB

105W

Wraith Prism (LED)

RM 1,559.00

Apr 19

Ryzen™ 7 2700

8

16

4.1/3.2

20MB

65W

Wraith Spire (LED)

RM 1,429.00

Apr 19

Ryzen™ 5 2600X

6

12

4.2/3.6

19MB

95W

Wraith Spire

RM 1,059.00

Apr 19

Ryzen™ 5 2600

6

12

3.9/3.4

19MB

65W

Wraith Stealth

RM 899.00

Apr 19

All the processors come with AMD Wraith Cooler inside, the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU now comes with a new Wraith Prism cooler, offering improved thermal performance over the Wraith Max. The 2nd gen processors are supports with the most advanced, optimized and efficient X470 chipset for the AM4 socket. The X470 chipset will be available from top manufacturers including ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI. The 300-series motherboards will also support these new processors after a simple BIOS update, but many motherboards already come supported for the new processors, indicated by a “Ryzen Desktop 2000 Ready” label on the package.

Pre-orders for the new processors have already started and the processors are expected to officially arrive on April 19.

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generation
price
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2nd Gen Moto 360 no longer available on the Google Store

300

Google will not be selling the 2nd Gen Moto 360 Android Wear smartwatch anymore, as the watch has vanished from its official store. The 2nd Gen Moto 360, which is no doubt one of the most popular Android Wear smartwatches till today, like many other wearables, is unavailable on the Google Store website, and will most probably not see a return to the site.

Still being seen as one of the best smartwatches in the Android space, the 2nd Gen Moto 360 has definitely well aged since its release back in September 2015. The removal of the wearable from the Google Store website is possibly due to the fact that Android Wear 2.0 will finally see a public release really soon. Recently, Evan Blass has tipped that the new version of Android Wear will be released on the 9th of February. This, coupled with another fact that Google will be launching two new flagship smartwatches in the near future, could be why we don’t see the 2nd Gen Moto 360 on sale via Google.

Perhaps, Motorola is in the midst of making a 3rd Gen Moto 360 that will run Android Wear 2.0 out of the box. 2nd Gen users need not to worry though, as their Moto 360 smartwatches will be supporting Android Wear 2.0. But if you are still willing to get your hands on the 2nd Gen Moto 360, you will have to seek other avenues apart from the Google Store and the Moto site. What do you think?

Source:
Google Store

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wear
wearable


2nd Generation AirPods Pro launches with improved active noise cancellation

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Followed by the new Apple Watch, Apple has unveiled the second generation AirPods Pro and while the earbuds look almost identical to the previous model, it offers improved active noise cancellation and transparency mode, spatial audio has also gotten more immersive and finally, you can actually control playback volume by swiping the touch control on the stem.

A brand new charging case is introduced that offers up to 30 hours of battery life and supports MagSafe charging, while the earbuds itself offer up to 6 hours of listening time on a single charge, there is a speaker that plays sound when triggered by the Find My service and a lanyard loop for attaching a lanyard so you won’t lose it easily, it will also take advantage of the iPhone’s U1 ultrawide band chip so that you can locate the case just like an AirTag.

In terms of comfort, Apple has included an even smaller XS eartip for smaller ears on top of the usual S, M, L eartips.

The 2nd Generation AirPods Pro is powered by a new H2 chip, which not only helps improve its noise cancellation by being able to reduce loud environmental noise further, such as a passing vehicle, siren, construction tools and even loud speakers at a concert, a new low-distortion audio driver and custom amplifier also offers improved acoustics with richer bass and clarity.

However, the new AirPods Pro still doesn’t support lossless music streaming.

The 2nd Generation AirPods Pro will retain its predecessor’s retail price of RM1,099, it will be available starting 23 September onwards.

airpods pro 2nd generation
apple


3 BIG Upgrades in the HONOR 9X

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HONOR’s X-series is as popular as ever in Malaysia – it’s a series made for the midrange market. Every year, HONOR makes sure to bring significant upgrades to the X series – be it an increase in display size, better battery life, or even just an improvement in design. This is why the X series continues to be a success; despite the constant upgrades, the phones remain in a reasonable price range. So, what upgrades do we see in the HONOR 9X this time?

First and foremost, the HONOR 9X is a great phone if you love spending hours upon hours binging Netflix or watching YouTube videos. It has a huge 6.59-inch FullView display that boasts a 91% screen-to-body ratio; couple that with a notch-less design, you’ll get an immersive full-screen experience. Not only that, its LCD panel pushes 1080p resolution and offers vibrant colours to further enhance the visuals; so with a screen as large and sharp as this, gaming is a pleasure too. HONOR even took into account how smartphones may affect your eyesight when it comes to dark environments, which is why they’ve included a TUV Rheinland-certified blue light filter on the HONOR 9X to prevent users from straining their eyes when they use their phones at night.

Compared to its predecessor, this phone has a large memory configuration of 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. This is more than enough for the average consumer, especially since there are many flagships out there with the same storage configuration. You can back up your data, download numerous apps, songs and videos, and still have ample room left since you can expand storage up to 512GB. With the increase in memory for this phone, launching multiple apps and playing games like Call of Duty or Mobile Legends will be a breeze.

Last but not least, HONOR also bumped up the battery life of the HONOR 9X by equipping it with a 4,000mAh battery. Gamers can
pwn
 noobs for 8 hours straight with this phone, while Netflix addicts can continuously stream videos for up to 13 hours. Can’t live a second without music? The HONOR 9X supports up to 120 hours of music playback in a single charge. For casual gamers or light smartphone users, the HONOR 9X easily lasts you around two days and probably even more if you don’t do games.

HONOR took the phrase “go big or go home” quite literally with this phone and with a big display, big storage and big battery, the HONOR 9X is a great option if you’re looking for a midrange device that is worthy of being your daily driver. If you’d like to get yourself this beast of a smartphone, you can get the HONOR 9X for RM999 from November 28 onwards at HONOR’s official web store at
Hihonor
 and official
Shopee
 store. It is also available at nationwide HONOR Experience Stores starting November 29.

From November 29 to December 1, those who purchase the HONOR 9X offline at HONOR Experience Stores or online through
Hihonor
 or
Shopee
 will be getting a gift box and the new HONOR Band 5 Sport for free. You can also opt for the PWP deal to get the new HONOR Sport Pro by paying an additional amount of RM199. Hurry up because the free gifts are only available while stock lasts!

This article is sponsored by HONOR.

hihonor
honor
HONOR9X
shopee


3 NEW Microsoft Devices unleashed to #PrepareforAnything

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L-R:
Lumia
 430, Lumia 640 &
Lumia
 640 XL

4 months have passed since Microsoft Malaysia organized an intimate session to release their
Lumia
 handsets to the wild, but just yesterday, Team KL Gadget Guy had the privilege of witnessing yet another launch of not one, not two but
THREE
Lumia
handsets! Read on to find out what happened in a little corner of KL today.

According to
Bruce Howe, General Manager, Microsoft Mobile Devices Sales for Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei,

“People are looking for a device which brings them more flexibility to switch easily between work and play, without breaking the bank.”

And that is exactly what the 3 devices are meant to accomplish – to strike a definitive balance between work, leisure and affordability.

#1
Lumia
 640 – RM 739 (available 17 April)

Based on the Datasheet above, it is pretty self-explanatory that the Lumia640 is the next mid-range phone killer although not having a host of ground-breaking features, however, it does has a
removable battery pack!
 Hence, if you are a heavy user and the 2,500 mAh battery pack seems a little tiny for you, do not fret – swap away! Besides that, nothing much to shout about as the phone has quite about standard features on any mid-range phone today.

#2 Lumia 640 XL – RM 929 (already available)

And for those who are a little screen-centric and desires more real estate in the palm of their hand, the Lumia 640 XL is definitely a keeper with an aptly engineered screen size of 5.7″ – a rather odd size but aesthetically beautiful nonetheless. Point to note is that the camera does not come pre-built with the PureView Camera tech but it does come embedded with a 13MP Carl Zeiss optics lens which promises continuous AF as well.

#3 Lumia 430 – RM 319 (availalbe end April 2015)

Last and definitely not the least would be the game changer for the market of users who wish to switch from an obsolete feature phone to their very first smartphone – aptly dubbed theLumia 430. The Lumia 430 runs on a Snapdragon 200 1.2GHz CPU with 1GB RAM and 8GB expandable storage. It has marked improvements compared to the budget
Lumia 535
 as it now has a secondary front-facing VGA camera coupled with the 2MP rear camera. And to top it all off, it comes with a removable 1,500 mAh battery pack. A mighty great steal if you’d ask me!

With that, this concludes the 3 devices that were launched today in a quaint little spot in KL. However, if you are
still
 not convinced to prep your monies to throw at the salesperson at the retail store to get your hands on these awesome devices, it is definitely a point to note that these Microsoft Devices run on the Windows Phone 8.1 Denim out-of-the-box and is upgradeable to Windows Phone 10 when it gets released during the coming summer (June).

On top of that, from 1 April to 3o June, the Lumia 640 & Lumia 640 XL comes with a 1-year
FREE
subscription to
Office 365
 Personal, which includes the latest Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote) on the Lumia as well as on one PC or Mac and one
tablet
 while also receiving an extra
1 TB
of OneDrive Storage!

…

Excuse me while I go hunt for some of those monies for my new Lumia device. Till next article. Cheerio!


3 things the Gear S3 made me look at smartwatches again

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In the early days where smart watches are just getting started, I dumped my dumb watch and decided to make the switch to smart watches. One of my very first smart watch was from Sony, it had a really small square display, it runs a few apps and receives notifications from my smartphone, I then moved on to Pebble, then Android Wear and finally, I got fed up with annoying notifications, proprietary charging cables and cradles. Therefore, I went on to buy a Casio Edifice EQB-500, which looks like a typical watch but comes with Bluetooth SMART for syncing the time with my smartphone and I absolutely love it. Until a few weeks back, the folks at Samsung decided to send me their latest Gear S3 Frontier smartwatch for review, and my love for smartwatches has once again returned.

ICYMI: Samsung Gear S3 Review

Smart and Solid Design

Although I have concluded my review in a YouTube video back in the US, I was inclined to write more about it as the watch had been with me for an extended period. For one, the Gear S3 has definitely looked a lot smarter than its predecessors and other smart watches I’ve seen, the display is bright and beautiful, while that rotating bezel is great for scrolling through messages and notifications. In addition, the Gear S3 is a IP68-certified water and dust resistant device and I have never find the need to take it off whenever I jumped into the pool. Overall, the Gear S3’s build quality is a rather commendable one, while it still remains as a rather geeky device, it is a smart looking wearable that you will want to wear it on your wrists in most occasions.

Software that works Standalone

When choosing a smartwatch, cross platform compatibility is always my first consideration and the Gear S3 thankfully offers that. After the demise of Pebble, this is probably one of the only few smart watch that could work with both iOS and Android devices, while support for the former is still in its very early development stages, the Gear S3 will work well with most Android messaging apps, including WhatsApp, Gmail, LINE and WeChat, which you will be able to reply to messages using your voice, the watch’s built-in keyboard and preset template messages. What I really love about the Gear S3’s software is the ability to work as a standalone device even if you don’t have it connected to your phone, Tizen OS is pretty much a decent smartphone operating system itself and there are already a number of useful apps you can download from the Samsung App Store.

Better than most fitness trackers I’ve worn

As far as I love wearing fitness trackers as well, they are just fitness trackers and do nothing more than that. The Gear S3 is a far better fitness tracking device that I’ve ever worn, while I won’t compare the accuracy to wearables that do only fitness tracking, it already does the essentials such as tracking your steps, recording your running activities and etc, it automatically pauses its tracking when it detects I’ve stopped moving, which avoids the need for user action as I’ve always forgotten to do when using other fitness trackers. Furthermore, the Gear S3 works very well as a workout music player, I was able to play my Spotify playlist and have it paired to my Bluetooth headphones, and I can just leave my phone in the gym locker.

Buy? Or not?

As I’ve mentioned in my review, the Gear S3 faces tough competition for what it is priced at, you also won’t miss a lot of things if you are already rocking a Gear S2 on your wrists, but what this handsome wearable truly offers more than the rest of its competition is being a standalone device, the cross platform support for iOS and Android, and being a rather competent fitness tracking device. Sure, Samsung still has a lot to work on its software, such as providing a better virtual assistant and introducing more apps in its catalogue, but the Gear S3 is definitely one wearable that I would consider purchasing, the review unit has already been returned to Samsung at this point of time, and I’m going to wait for a price drop on the device to make my purchase.

DISCLAIMER: This write up is a personal opinion and is not sponsored in anyway by Samsung.

gear
gears3
review
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tizen


3 Things to Look Forward on the GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070

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I just got back from NVIDIA’s regional press conference in Bangkok, where we were being shown the company’s fastest graphics card ever made, the GeForce GTX 1080 looks pretty futuristic even if you don’t look at the specs sheet alone, the boring looking plastic shroud is gone and now comes with a polygon style metal shroud that looks really attractive. There are lots of things that we’ve managed to understand better on the new things that NVIDIA has brought to the GTX 1080, apart from the usual upgraded performance and lower power consumption we’ve come to know on GPUs, there’s more on why the new Pascal based desktop GPU is so great that you may want to hold on your cash on buying a new graphics card for now.

Multi display gaming will look much better

If you have been gaming on a surround display set up, the GTX 1080’s Simultaneous Multi-Projection engine will definitely improve that experience, not only it tends to offer a more realistic viewing angle of your extended displays it also tends to correct the angle of 3D objects being shown on extended displays. The Simultaneous Multi-Projection engine is incorporated into the new PolyMorph Engine on the Pascal architecture, which is capable of processing geometry through up to 16 preconfigured projections, this will take the user’s center perspective point of view, and projects images correctly on the surround display environment instead of seeing tilt in graphics on extended displays. In other words, gamers will find that the surround setup will look properly like an extended flat display with the correct angles in the game.

Fast Sync removes tearing and improves input latency on your high FPS games

Gamers who play
MOBA
 games such as CS:GO and Dota 2 will benefit from this feature, Fast Sync complements high FPS games and G-SYNC monitors by decoupling the front end render pipeline from the backend display hardware. With this feature enabled, the game engine works in a way where V-SYNC is turned off while ensuring that the fast frames are rendered completely to the display, thus effectively removing graphics tearing and jitters which gamers will be able to enjoy a smooth and uninterrupted game play.

Single Pass Stereo to increase VR graphics frame rate

VR applications and games today will usually render projections to each eye of the VR headset separately, which eventually results in twice the amount of work for the GPU and affecting system performance. The Pascal’s Simultaneous Multi-Projection engine will enable the GPU to render the stereo proejctions of the image in a single rendering pass, known as the Single Pass Stereo capability, tasks such as scene submission, driver and OS scheduling and geometry processing on the GPU can be performed only once, which delivers a significant frame increase on VR applications and users should really be looking forward to an almost lag free VR experience.

NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080 will be officially available on May 27th onwards with a $599 MSRP, the GTX 1070 will be available later on June 10 with a $379 MSRP. The Founder’s edition of the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 is priced at $699 and $449 respectively, both will also be available for purchase at launch. Meanwhile, we are also expecting the new Pascal notebook GPUs to be announced on August this year, so stay tuned for more updates and drop us a comment below on any questions on NVIDIA’s new GPU.

geforce
gpu
gtx1070
gtx1080
nvidia
pascal


3 things Xiaomi didn’t mention about the Mi 6

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Yesterday, Xiaomi launched what might be a threat to current flagship smartphones out there – the Mi 6. When being put against the competition, Xiaomi’s latest flagship is worth every dollar spent, considering its specs to price ratio. The handset was designed beautifully inside out, not to mention spec-ed out internally as well. But there are a few details which were left out by Xiaomi during its Mi 6 launch event, so let’s take a breather to find out what are they.

Display resolution

The 5.15-inch display of the Mi 6 boasts brightness of 600 nits, along with an ultra dark mode of 1 nit for viewing in the dark or under low lighting conditions. Harmful blue rays have also been reduced in the display, while maintaining the display’s true to life colors. However, there was no word on the resolution of the display at the launch event, Xiaomi’s social media accounts or the MIUI forums. According to tech news outlet Engadget, it is safe to say that the Mi 6’s display is of Full HD 1080p resolution, which is undoubtedly sub par according to flagship standards. However, it is possible that Xiaomi retained the 1080p display to keep costs low for the Mi 6. Let us know if you find any info regarding the display resolution of the Mi 6.

No headphone jack!

If you’ve watched Xiaomi’s Mi 6 launch event yesterday, you were probably distracted by its beautiful design elements such as the four-sided 3D curved glass, the glossy metal frame enclosing the overall symmetrical design of the Mi 6. You too probably discovered that the Mi 6 sports dual stereo speakers claimed to give a more immersive experience as mentioned at the launch. However, Xiaomi has silently removed a key port that is missing on the Mi 6 – the headphone jack. Gone is the conventional 3.5mm headphone jack, which still exists on flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S8. This means that the Xiaomi Mi 6 is now added to the list of the handful of smartphones without headphone jacks, and you’lll probably find a USB Type-C to headphone jack adapter in the box that comes with the Mi 6. Love it or hate it, we will probably be seeing more devices forgoing the headphone jack in the future.

Front facing camera

It’s rather hard to deny the fact that Xiaomi put a lot of emphasis in explaining the wonders of the Mi 6’s dual camera configuration. Call it a rip off, but Xiaomi has put the iPhone 7 Plus camera’s goodness into a really affordable device. You’ll find a dual camera configuration, consisting of a 12MP wide angle lens and a 12MP telephoto lens, allowing a 2x optical zoom when taking pictures. The company has also brought back 4-axis OIS, which was omitted in the Mi 5s handset. The dual camera setup is probably the main highlight of the Mi 6, but nothing has been said of the phone’s front facing shooter. Based on the hands on review by Engadget once again, the Mi 5 features an 8MP front facing selfie camera, which isn’t a slouch at all, but is nothing too special as well. Nevertheless, the selfie shooter should be able to utilize Xiaomi’s Beautify 3.0 camera software on the Mi 6.

Conclusion

These three key details that Xiaomi missed out (probably on purpose) during its Mi 6 launch event could be the deciding factor(s) that affect one’s decision to get the Mi 6, especially the first two. Would you be able to bear with a sub-par 1080p display plus the controversial absence of a headphone jack? Apart from those, the Xiaomi Mi 6 is still a killer and worthy competitor to 2017’s flagship smartphones so far. Thoughts?

mi 6 review
mi6
mi6 malaysia
xiaomi


3 Ways to Backup Data from Your iPhone to Windows 10

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We all love smartphones. But when you have to backup your data from your iPhone to a Windows computer, things could tend to get a little messy. And annoying as well. Have you always wondered how to get them smoothly transferred without losing any of your data?

Apart from backing up your phones regularly, and freeing your storage space by deleting it on your iPhone, here are some easy ways you can opt for a stress-free backup session:

How to backup with iTunes

(This method works on both Windows and Mac operating systems.)

Step 1: Connect your iPhone to your computer and start iTunes.
 Step 2: Click on the smartphone icon, then go to “Overview” and find the category “Backups”.
 Step 3: Check “This computer” and then click “Back up now”. The backup should start immediately.

2. How to backup with EaseUS MobiMover Free

Step 1: Download the EaseUS MobiMover Free on your computer. Click
here
 and install it.
 Step 2: Unlock your iPhone when you connect it to the computer. Tap “Trust” if it prompts on the screen asking for permission to trust the computer.
 Step 3: Click the “Custom” button. You will find all the files and data from your iPhone with this function.
 Step 4: Select the data you want to backup. Then, select the “Transfer to Computer” button on the top right corner. Click the button and the path to which you would like to have your data saved.
 Step 5: Click the “Select” folder to start transferring. The process will be finished quickly as it runs faster than the iTunes software.

3. How to backup with iCloud

There’s no need for you to even connect your iPhone to your computer. All you have to do is just go to “Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup” on your iPhone and tap “Create a backup now”. As long as your iPhone is connected to the Internet, you will rest easy and just let the backup to start on its own. Just be mindful that the maximum storage capacity is 5GB on the iCloud, so if you have more data to backup, please consider Method 2.

One last thing to note, it is wise to always backup your phone before upgrading your iOS version.

backup
EaseUS
iphone
windows 10


WhatsApp’s next update includes 155 redesigned emojis

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The last time WhatsApp updated their emojis, it was only 21 emojis. This time, they’re redesigning 155 emojis and it has its good and bad.

Image credit: WABetaInfo

These updates will be available in the next stable release and also web update, but if you’re a beta tester, you should have the new emojis layout by now. That aside, it seems like only Android users are affected, as WABetaInfo did not say anything about iOS updates.

Image credit: WABetaInfo

Several emojis are found to only have slight or barely any changes, while others gets a huge redesign. For example, previously the elves/fairy emoji — I’m not exactly sure what are they — only show a zoomed in portrait but now it shows the full body of the character. Other emojis such as the dragon, rugby ball, siren and camera flash are also revamped.

Image credit: WABetaInfo

Meanwhile, many WhatsApp users are still waiting for WhatsApp’s Dark Mode that is currently under development. Telegram has already came up with its own Dark Mode, so WhatsApp better be quick or users might just convert and become a Telegrammer.

android
whatsapp


HONOR reveals its FlyPods Lite at RM349 and SoundStone at RM169

440

Everyone wants to create their own wireless earbuds, which is why HONOR has launched its own HONOR FlyPods Lite alongside a portable bluetooth speaker, the HONOR SoundStone.

The HONOR FlyPods Lite has a premium design that is light and compact, and comes in a single colour — classic white. It has a tap control for volume adjustment and also dual mics for noise cancellation purposes. In addition, it has a great feature that allows users to switch seamlessly between the earbuds so that they can listen to phone calls with one earbud while hearing the surroundings on the other.

The HONOR FlyPods Lite also has an IP54 rating that makes the device water resistant and sweat resistant, aside from having a Bluetooth 4.2 connection.

Moving on, the HONOR SoundStone comes with a large NdFeB magnet driver and has a high-sensitivity vibrating diaphragm and microphone with noise cancellation technology. It has a 700mAh battery that can be fully charged in 3 hours, and it can last more than 8.5 hours of playtime in a single charge. The HONOR SoundStone also sports an IPX5 rating and is light and compact.

The HONOR FlyPods Lite will cost RM349 while the HONOR SoundStone will cost RM169.

FlyPods Lite
honor
SoundStone


PrestoPay holds its first Cashless Raya Bazaar with up to 70% discounts from May 16 to May 18

347

Cashless payments have become a way of living for many of us and in Malaysia there are many different e-wallet apps, including Presto App that can be downloaded in both App Store and Play Store. In conjunction with the upcoming festive season, PrestoPay has decided to organise its first Cashless Raya Bazaar at Quill City Mall for three days.

Happening from 16 May to 18 May, the three-day bazaar has more than 30 participating merchants and there are many different deals with discounts up to 70%. From food and beverages to health and beauty, this Cashless Raya Bazaar has it all and just like its name, you can literally purchase everything without needing physical cash.

All you need to do is use your e-wallet apps, be it PrestoPay, WeChat Pay, Boost or any others. The merchants in the bazaar will let you purchase their products via e-wallet, so you won’t have to bring out any cash with you. Moreover, you can top up your PrestoPay to up to RM1,500 — a huge amount that some other e-wallet apps do not offer.

That aside, new users who download and register with Presto will entitle them to spin the wheel at the event and win up to 2,000 prizes daily. There’s also a “Spend and Win” contest during event period, where three top spenders will win prizes each day, meaning that there will be nine winners in total.

PrestoPay was just introduced back in 2018 but it has been a rather practical app with lots of feature. It can be used to pay bills, buy movie tickets, shop and even play games. Presto recently brought in a game called Grabbit that allows users to play the claw machine virtually. While they are playing with their smartphones, there are actual physical claw machines that are being controlled via their smartphones. If they managed to grab a plushie or toy, then that item will be sent to their house addresses.

Cashless Raya Bazaar
Presto
PrestoPay


Realme announces the Realme X with 6.53-inch AMOLED screen and a pop-up camera

340

Realme just launched the Realme C2 and Realme 3 Pro in Malaysia two days ago, but that doesn’t stop them from also launching the Realme X in China.

The Realme X is Realme’s first pop-up selfie camera phone, but it does have a few similarities with previous Realme devices. For example, the phone that comes with a 6.53-inch AMOLED display still has the S-shaped line pattern on its gradient back, reminding us of the Realme 3 Pro. However, the phone now sports the more advanced in-display fingerprint sensor and has no notch thanks to its pop-up camera.

Similarly to the Realme 3 Pro, the Realme X houses a Snapdragon 710 chipset and supports Hyper Boost 2.0 technology. The phone has up to 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, in addition to shipping with ColorOS 6.0 based on Android 9.0.

There will be a 16MP pop-up selfie camera on the front while on its back, Realme made sure to include a 48MP snapper paired with a 5MP secondary sensor. As for its battery, the Realme X will have a 3,765mAh battery which supports VOOC Flash Charge 3.0.

Realme
Realme X


Hotlink is offering 44GB high-speed Internet for FREE with every HotlinkMU Raya Promo pass

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We love festive seasons because not only do we get holidays where we can finally take a break from school or work, we can also get lots of deals and promotions, like the HotlinkMU RAYA deals.

To reward their customers, Hotlink has decided to offer 44GB high-speed Internet for free when customers purchase any HotlinkMU RAYA deals from May 16 till June 30. There are a few different options to pick from, depending on the validity and amount of data you want.

However, the 44GB Internet data will be split into half — 22GB for all-day and 22GB for 6 hours from 1AM – 7AM. The data will also be automatically activated once customers purchase any HotlinkMU Raya Promo pass. Of course, customers will need to have the Hotlink RED App that can be downloaded on Google Play Store and also Apple App Store.

For more information, check out Hotlink’s
website
.

hotlink
HotlinkMU RAYA


Facebook groups are going “Secret” to prevent being sabotaged by a random group

703

Have your Facebook groups been set to “Secret” out of a sudden? That’s what many Facebook users have been noticing since yesterday because many Facebook groups have been behaving similarly.

Why are so many Facebook groups changing to secret all at once? Can somebody fill me in? Thanks

cc
@BonJarber

@dyn___

pic.twitter.com/lycmjCxuHT

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane)
May 16, 2019

Why? Apparently, there have been individuals who will join these Facebook groups and spam the groups with images that violates Facebook’s guidelines and proceed to report these groups, resulting to the groups being banned by Facebook. According to TNW, the groups that are targeted are mostly meme groups.

Once the group becomes “Secret”, it will not be able to be found via public search, preventing the said individuals from trying to get Facebook to ban these groups. Unfortunately, group settings cannot be changed as you like — it can only be changed once every 28 days — and your decision is final after 24 hours, so these Facebook groups might just go into hiding for a month to prevent being affected.

Image credit: Teman-teman bulu burung

It was also discovered that the individuals are from a group called Indonesian Reporting Committee. About 19 hours ago, the group issued an apology letter on Facebook, stating that the reason for their doings are to remove hate speeches, hoax and anti-religious posts. The group leader Muhammad Salim apologised for their extreme actions and announced that they no longer be doing so.

facebook
Facebook Group


Samsung introduces the Galaxy S10+ Olympic Games Edition

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Continuing its tradition of releasing a special edition of its flagship smartphone before the Olympic Games, Samsung has introduced the Galaxy S10+ Olympic Games Edition ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. The first Olympic Edition Samsung flagship was released in 2012: Galaxy Note Olympic Edition. Last year, it released the Galaxy Note 8 PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games Limited Edition.

Samsung will be selling only 10,000 units of the Galaxy S10+ Olympic Games Edition via
NTT Docomo
 in Japan by the end of July. As for the price, the Galaxy S10+ Olympic Games Edition will cost JPY 110,000 (RM4,173).

Samsung Galaxy S10+ Olympic Games Edition is identical to the standard
Galaxy S10+
 in terms of hardware specifications. In terms of design, however, there are a few small differences. The special edition has a Tokyo Olympics logo on the back of the phone. Available only in Prism White color, the phone will be shipped in special retail packaging with the Galaxy Buds Olympic Edition earphones.

There is no word yet on whether the Olympic Games Edition of the Galaxy S10+ will be sold in markets outside Japan. While doubts remain over the smartphone’s availability outside Japan, Samsung is expected to launch various Olympic-branded apps and services ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games globally.

Galaxy S10
Galaxy S10+ Olympic Games Edition
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smartphones


Redmi 7A with 5.45″ HD+ display and 3900mAh battery gets certified by TENAA

353

Xiaomi sub-brand Redmi may soon launch a new entry-level smartphone in its home market. Chinese telecommunications regulatory agency TENAA has certified an upcoming Redmi smartphone bearing model number M1903C3EC. It is being speculated that the device could be launched as the Redmi 7A.

The images published by TENAA reveal the Redmi 7A will look quite different from the Redmi 7. In fact, the smartphone looks more or less similar to its predecessor, the Redmi 6A. According to TENAA, the Redmi 7A will arrive with a 5.45-inch LCD display featuring 720 x 1440 HD+ resolution and an 18:9 aspect ratio.

The upcoming smartphone will have an octa-core chipset running under its hood, clocked at 1.4 GHz. In terms of memory, the TENAA listing suggests the Redmi 7A will be available in three variants: 2GB + 16GB, 3GB + 32GB, and 4GB + 64GB. Like other Redmi smartphones launched so far this year, the Redmi 7A will be running on Xiaomi’s MIUI 10 based on Android Pie out of the box.

When it comes to imaging, the Redmi 7A will be identical to its predecessor with a 13MP rear-facing camera and a 5MP selfie camera. In terms of battery life, however, the Redmi 7A is expected to be a massive upgrade over the Redmi 6A. While the Redmi 6A features a 3000mAh battery, the Redmi 7A is listed to pack a 3900mAh capacity battery. What may disappoint some buyers is the lack of a fingerprint sensor. The smartphone will be available in Black, Blue, Red, Pink, White, Green, Gray, and Purple color options at launch.

entry level
redmi
Redmi 7A
xiaomi


No more Android for Huawei as Trump blacklists the company in trade ban

292

UPDATE: Google has confirmed that Google Play Services will continue to work for existing Huawei device users.

In light of the trade ban imposed by the Trump administration, Huawei will lose out on Google’s Android services outside of China, forcing future Huawei phones to implement in-house operating systems as well as app patches.

With this ban, Huawei phones will stop receiving updates to services like Gmail, Maps and Google Play services in general; turning old devices and new into empty shells with outdated apps. Despite the ban, Huawei aren’t barred from using Android’s open-source components, which Huawei rely on to build their EMUI interface.

Although the reason for President Trump’s ban on Huawei aren’t completely clear, many suspect that the President had accused Huawei of “working with the Communist regime of China” to install backdoors in America’s security systems — an accusation that’s seemingly not based on any proof that’s made known to the public.

What this means for Huawei a severe loss in market share across the globe, even in Europe; With this ban, Other American companies like Qualcomm, Nvidia and Intel are barred from working with the Chinese company — meaning no potential Snapdragon chipsets in the future, Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs for Huawei’s laptops.

Reports suggest that this is not a permanent ban, but rather just Trump flexing his authority on Huawei — meanwhile legal representatives from the Chinese company are in talks with the government to work out a deal. We, for one, are hoping this isn’t long-term; but for the meantime, we’ll have to make do with Huawei devices that won’t receive Google updates.

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