[Tutorial] LizardFS – Drive Level File Redundancy On Single Computer

RAID drive redundancy solution has been around since 1989 and honestly, it is getting a bit dated. Usually, people go with RAID 1 if they have 2 drives. RAID 5 if they want to take advantage of having more usable space when they have 3 or more disks. RAID 6 comes in when you have a large array of disk drives (minimum 4 drives) which protects against more than one-drive failure scenario. LizardFS however, is a more modern solution for a modern problem.
Credit: Cburnett
Credit: Cburnett
Credit: Cburnett
All of these RAID solutions are great for protecting your data from drive failure. However, you are stuck with a single redundancy scheme for the entire drive array. Meaning, if you have 8 drives, all of your files are going to be stuck with the same level of protection (single parity for RAID 5 and double parity for RAID 6 and so on) for a single array. Thus, stuck with a single number of usable space for the entire RAID array.

What if there is a solution for you to set a custom level of protection on the file level instead of a drive array level? With LizardFS, you can set each file’s protection level individually on the LizardFS array. Less important files can have a lower level of protection while more important files can have a higher level of redundancy or protection. This would mean, different files can have a recoverability success for a different number of drive-failure depending on the file’s redundancy setting.
Do note that file-level does not mean you have to set every file. You can simply set a folder’s setting and all the files in the folder will follow the folder’s redundancy setting
Credit: LizardFS
LizardFS was, however, designed to be a server-level redundancy rather than drive an individual drive level redundancy in a single machine. Meaning, a single server is something like a single drive in a traditional RAID array. An array of servers makes up something like a hard drive RAID array. Out of the box, LizardFS does not support drive level redundancy. However, in this tutorial, I will show you how to do just that for those who have a single machine and wanted to take advantage of LizardFS’s features.
The best part of using LizardFS is that you can freely add more drives into the array without having to even match drive sizes at any time. LizardFS will then work to rebalance your files according to each file’s set redundancy and protection level.
Credit: LizardFS
Overall LizardFS Plan
LizardFS system consists of a master server, chunk server, and shadow servers.
So here is our plan:

Configure a master server.
Configure multiple chunk servers (according to how many drives you have).
Configure the metalogger server.

The trick to this part is configuring all of these into a single machine where each will have different ports instead of separate servers with different IP. The master server being the redundancy controller while the chunk server is for the individual drive. Except for the shadow server. You can get around by not having a shadow server but this will be explained later.
Make sure you stick to the very end! If you don’t finish this tutorial completely, there might be a chance that your setup will run just fine but when a disk failure occurs or the OS disk died, you will be left with a bunch of data that you might not be able to recover or even rebuild without professional enterprise support from LizardFS.
Following all the steps to the end will ensure that your setup was proper!
Tutorial note:
In this tutorial, I will use 4 empty drives. Typically this is where people just set up RAID 5 or RAID 6 and be done with the setup having a fixed number of drive-failure protection and fixed usable storage.
If you follow this guide, make sure your drives are empty because when we format it, you are going to lose all data inside the drives.
Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS is used in this tutorial. It can be any Linux distro of your liking but do note that some paths might be different.
Some commands might require root permission.
If you are required to perform multiple of the same command, I will use capital X as a variable. For example, sda, sdb, sdc and sdb will be represented by sdX.

Format Drives & Mount Drives
List the disks available in your system:
lsblk
Take note of the drives you want to use. In our case, it will be:
/dev/sda
/dev/sdb
/dev/sde
/dev/sdf
First, format the all drives into GPT

fdisk /dev/sdX

In this utility, we just go with the default values since we are going to use the entire drive space. If there are any signature warnings, just overwrite the signature.

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.31.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

Command (m for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1):
First sector (2048-2097118, default 2048):
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-2097118, default 2097118):

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 1023 MiB.
Partition #1 contains a xfs signature.

Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o: y

The signature will be removed by a write command.

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

Repeat for all drives.
The second step is to create an xfs partition. You can also use ext4. It does not matter but xfs might give you slightly more performance.

mkfs.xfs /dev/sdX1

Repeat on all drives. We format the partition number 1 since that is what we set when we use fdisk to create a GPT partition in the previous step.
Note: If there is an error, install the xfs format first

apt install xfsprogs

Now we should see four drives with one partition each that has been formatted to xfs.

lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
sda
└─sda1 xfs 2b1175c1-7948-4085-8aac-abfaee561b4d
sdb
└─sdb1 xfs 91c673fb-e354-43f9-ba14-cfd17c3a728c
sdc
└─sdc1 xfs 00d19473-f111-4b51-95b7-f15d64b7390c
sdd
└─sdd1 xfs bd103d36-ab6b-4d65-8002-fcc5bc76d0fa

You might want to take note of the UUID and save it somewhere else because we will use it to mount our drives later. Otherwise, your drives would not be mounted if your machine reboots.
Let’s try mounting all of the drives:

mkdir /mnt/diskX
mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/diskX

If everything was mounted fine, it means your drives are ready to be registered for automatic mounting using the fstab configuration file.
Edit your fstab file and add these 4 lines at the bottom. Don’t delete any existing lines or your machine will not boot!
Use the UUID that we took note earlier for the appropriate drive number.
In my case, sda1 is disk1, sdb1 is disk2 and so on.
/etc/fstab

UUID=1b0fcaf6-2b60-4b59-8cc0-e88ef2d9d4d1 /mnt/disk1 xfs rw,noexec,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,largeio,inode64 0 0
UUID=e3f3e452-c5a1-4262-974f-6653a3f636f5 /mnt/disk2 xfs rw,noexec,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,largeio,inode64 0 0
UUID=19b166d8-9a91-4c8a-8d3a-8332136dd155 /mnt/disk3 xfs rw,noexec,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,largeio,inode64 0 0
UUID=d21756fc-5f73-43a0-80ab-864827395a56 /mnt/disk4 xfs rw,noexec,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,largeio,inode64 0 0

According to the official documentation, it is recommended to have this as a mount option as we had done above

rw,noexec,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,largeio,inode64,barrier=0

However, this is recommended only if you are formatted as xfs.
At this point, it is a good idea to reboot your system to see if the drives are properly mounted automatically.
Since LizardFS will be accessing the drives, make sure to give the correct permission to each drive:

chown lizardfs /mnt/diskX

Install LizardFS
In the most basic setup, we are going to need to install these four components of LizardFS:

apt install lizardfs-master lizardfs-chunkserver lizardfs-client lizardfs-cgiserv

You will also have to set a static IP for your machine. For some reason, LizardFS just don’t allow you to use locahost or 127.0.0.1. We will need to set your machine’s IP and the name as mfsmaster.
/etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 hostname
192.168.0.173 mfsmaster

Configure The Master Server
Copy the metadata database into the default location to create a new database.

cp /var/lib/lizardfs/metadata.mfs.empty /var/lib/lizardfs/metadata.mfs

This will be our database file. All of the file trackings will be done in this file. Don’t worry,  It will start to make sense later on during the last steps.
For the master server, we will need three files:
mfsmaster.cfg
mfsexports.cfg
mfsgoals.cfg
These are to be located in:
/etc/lizardfs/
Here are the contents of each file:
/etc/lizardfs/mfsmaster.cfg

PERSONALITY = master
NO_ATIME = 1
AUTO_RECOVERY = 1
CHUNKS_LOOP_MAX_CPU = 80
ENDANGERED_CHUNKS_PRIORITY = 1
CHUNKS_LOOP_MIN_TIME = 15

You may change the values of how much percentage does LizardFS has on your CPU. Depending on your situation.
Endangered chunks priority, I just set to value 1 since we are doing all of this in a single machine.
More information about mfsmaster.cfg can be read here.
/etc/lizardfs/mfsexports.cfg

* / rw

/etc/lizardfs/mfsgoals.cfg

1 single : _
2 redundant : $xor3
3 critical : $ec(3,2)
4 double : _ _

This is the important part that you may want to pay attention to. Goals mean the replication level goals of each file. Here, you are specifying the levels of redundancies that you have enabled for your particular LizardFS setup.
Do note that goal name can be any name. I just put mine as single, redundant and such.
For the sake of this tutorial, I will explain the modes briefly but I recommend that you read up further about the modes and configurations in detail to fully understand it.
The official documentation regarding replication goals can be read here.
_ a single underscore means your file will be written to a single hard drive in the pool.
_ _ a double underscore means that your data will be written on two drives, duplicated. This is pretty much like RAID 1.
$xor3 means that you are splitting the file into 3 chunks with one parity. This is similar to how RAID 5 works which give single-drive failure protection.
$ec(3,2) is for when you want to have 3 chunks across 3 drives with two parity redundancy. Just like RAID 6, this can tolerate two-drive failure.
The combination can be very flexible. You can do $xor7 or $ec(4,3) if you want. This is why I recommend you to read up on this part in the official documentation to understand how it really works.
Later on in this tutorial, we will see how you can set a file’s goal or a folder’s goal.
Now with the master configuration done, we can go ahead and enable the LizardFS master server. Using the enable command will register our service as an autostart on boot.

systemctl enable lizardfs-master
systemctl start lizardfs-master

Configure The Chunk Servers
Alright, so as we understood earlier, each chunk server is a drive. Since LizardFS is designed to be a server-level data redundancy, we will just treat each drive in our machine, as a chunk server.
We will configure four chunk servers, one for each drive. The configuration is identical except for the IP ports.
My preferred way of doing this is to store the configuration on the OS drive that the master server sits in. This way, it is easier for us to rebuild the array when we have to swap out a disk in an event of a failure.
Make a directory as such

mkdir /etc/lizardfs/chunkservers
mkdir /etc/lizardfs/chunkservers/diskX

Inside chunk servers directory, there should be four folders as such:

[email protected]:/etc/lizardfs/chunkservers# ls -l
total 20
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 10 22:37 disk1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 10 22:37 disk2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 10 22:36 disk3
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 10 22:53 disk4

For each chunk server, we will need two configuration files:
mfschunkserver.cfg
mfshdd.cfg
/etc/lizardfs/chunkservers/diskX/mfschunkserver.cfg

SYSLOG_IDENT = mfschunkserver-diskX
DATA_PATH = /mnt/diskX
CSSERV_LISTEN_PORT = 5000X
HDD_CONF_FILENAME = /etc/lizardfs/chunkservers/diskX/mfshdd.cfg
HDD_LEAVE_SPACE_DEFAULT = 0

Make sure to change the X with the drive number.
/etc/lizardfs/chunkservers/diskX/mfshdd.cfg

/mnt/diskX

Alright, everything seems to be good to go. Next step is to configure on how to actually run the server individually for each disk. In order to acheive this, we will use systemd to help us.
Create a service file
/etc/systemd/system/[email protected]

[Unit]
Description=LizardFS chunkserver daemon
Documentation=man:mfschunkserver
After=local-fs.target network.target lizardfs-master.service
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/mfschunkserver -d start -c /etc/lizardfs/chunkservers/%i/mfschunkserver.cfg
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
Restart=on-abort
OOMScoreAdjust=-999
IOAccounting=true
IOWeight=250
StartupIOWeight=100

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

As we can see here, the variable when we start the chunk server service will be used to load the appropriate mfschunkserver.cfg from the different directories of diskX.
Enable all of the chunk server services:

systemctl enable [email protected]
systemctl start [email protected]

Remember to replace X with your drive numbers. This is a variable that will be passed into the systemd file that we created earlier into the ExecStart path to select the appropriate configuration file based on disk number ( %i ).
By now, you will have the master server running and four chunk servers.
Finalizing The Array For Practical Use
We can check the status of our array by using the web GUI. Enable the webserver:

systemctl enable lizardfs-cgiserv
systemctl start lizardfs-cgiserv

Visit in your web browser
http://[machine’s IP address]:9425/mfs.cgi
You would want to pay attention to these three tabs:
Servers
Disks
Config

As we can see, all of our 4 drives are showing up. Yours will show 0% used disk space.
Make sure everything looks okay including the port number matching up to the disk number.
Lastly, make sure the goal definitions appears as what you set in mfsgoals.cfg earlier. We will use this, later on, to set individual redundancy level for each file or folder.
It is time to mount the array and start doing some write tests!

mkdir /mnt/lizardfs
chown lizardfs /mnt/lizardfs
mfsmount /mnt/lizardfs

It can be any name such as /mnt/array and such.
(optional) There are cases where you would want to make this mount point permanent such as if you are setting your LizardFS array as a NAS running SMB or just that you are setting LizardFS array up on your main daily computer.
Insert this into the end of your fstab
/etc/fstab

lizardfs fuse rw,mfsdelayedinit,nodev,noexec,nosuid,nofail 0 0

nodev = don’t allow device nodes (can’t have /dev/sda on this disk)
noexec = don’t allow executable files (can’t run programs stored on this disk)
nosuid = don’t allow executable files that autorun as root
nofail = don’t fail boot sequence if this fails
Now your LizardFS array will show up as a single drive. Just as if you were mounting a RAID array.
If you write to this array now, the default redundancy goal is a single disk mode _
This means it will write your data into any of the drives without any redundancy. To make life easier, we will create some folders to assist us with managing file redundancy modes.
Configuring Redundancy Modes
For our case, we configured 3 redundancy modes which was
1 single : _
2 redundant : $xor3
3 critical : $ec(3,2)
4 double : _ _
By default, everything written to the root will be treated as single. Create four folders, one for each mode:

mkdir /mnt/lizardfs/single
mkdir /mnt/lizardfs/redundant
mkdir /mnt/lizardfs/critical
mkdir /mnt/lizardfs/double

Then set the goals of each folder:

lizardfs setgoal -r single /mnt/lizardfs/single
lizardfs setgoal -r redundant /mnt/lizardfs/redundant
lizardfs setgoal -r critical /mnt/lizardfs/critical
lizardfs setgoal -r double /mnt/lizardfs/double

Now check if our replication goals were set properly:

lizardfs getgoal -r /mnt/lizardfs/single
lizardfs getgoal -r /mnt/lizardfs/redundant
lizardfs getgoal -r /mnt/lizardfs/critical
lizardfs getgoal -r /mnt/lizardfs/double

We should see something like this for each folder:

/mnt/lizardfs/important/:
files with goal important : 1
directories with goal important : 1

So, when you write files into the folder single, you will use less space in the entire pool but you will have no redundancy.
If you write into the redundant folder, you will use as much space as you would use in a RAID 5 setup and the data can survive a single-disk failure.
If you write your files into the critical folder, you will have a better redundancy by having two parity chunks, meaning this data can survive a two-disk failure.
That is the main idea, your entire array can be as efficient as you want it to be by balancing out the redundancy level and recoverability level.
It depends on the redundancy goals you set earlier on in mfsgoals.cfg.
Final Step – Ensuring Recoverability and Security
RECOVERABILITY
So, the way LizardFS keeps track of which pieces of files go into which chunk server (in our case, drives) is by keeping a database. Earlier, we set up the master server which keeps this database inside the current OS hard drive.
It is critical that we ensure that this database is redundant! This is so that we can still access, recover or rebuild our LizardFS array incase the OS drive goes bad or anything happens to it.
The official way of making sure our LizardFS database is safe is to configure the LizardFS metalogger server. This ensures that records are kept for any changes that occurred in the database to ensure that we could rebuild back our database from the metalogger.
By default, the metalogger files are generated and stored in /var/lib/lizardfs/
We should see a bunch of files as such:

Our plan to ensure that the metalogger files are redundant is to write the metalogger files into all of your drives, bypassing LizardFS by directly writing to the drives (/mnt/diskX/).
Lets create four config files. Create one config file for each metalogger so we could tell it where to write the metalogger files to.
/etc/lizardfs/chunkservers/diskX/mfsmetalogger.cfg

DATA_PATH = /mnt/diskX/metalogger

Create a folder inside our disks directly

mkdir /mnt/diskX/metalogger
chown lizardfs -R /mnt/diskX/metalogger

Just like how we configured chunk servers, we are going to have 4 metaloggers, one writing to each drive by using systemd.
/etc/systemd/system/[email protected]

[Unit]
Description=LizardFS metalogger daemon
Documentation=man:mfsmetalogger
After=local-fs.target network.target lizardfs-metalogger.service
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/mfsmetalogger -d -c /etc/lizardfs/chunkservers/%i/mfsmetalogger.cfg
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
Restart=on-abort
OOMScoreAdjust=-999
IOAccounting=true
IOWeight=250
StartupIOWeight=100

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now we can enable all four metalogger servers

systemctl enable liz[email protected]
systemctl start [email protected]

Now we have ensured that all of our data can be recovered in an event of main OS failure, we will take a look into making sure that our setup is secure.
SECURITY
By default, any new chunk server could just connect to the LizardFS master server. This is ideal in a datacenter setup as people could just set up a new physical chunk server and have all the data automatically rebalanced from all the other chunk servers.
In a home or office environment, we do not want this to happen. We want to only restrict everything to a single machine. Having a random person plugging into the network running a random LizardFS chunk server will result in a huge disaster.
Imagine your setup is a 4 disk system (4 chunk servers). A random attacker will come in and run their own LizardFS chunk server on their computer. LizardFS master will gladly just accept this connection and start to distribute chunks of data to the attacker’s chunk server. This will result in potentially irrecoverable data loss and not mention, data leakage.
To protect us from this, we need to seal off everything from the outside from contacting our LizardFS Master server and keep everything internal inside our single machine. If you are still reading this but have no idea on how to protect against this, we will set up a firewall inside our machine. The reason why I mention it like this is that there are many ways of doing this. This includes advanced firewall and network policy such as VLAN or IPsec.
Setup the firewall on our machine. We need these ports open:
9425 – LizardFS Monitor GUI
SSH – If you are using SSH
Samba – If you are planning to set up this as a NAS
If   have other services that need their port open for an incoming connection, take note and you can add them into the allowed ports:

ufw allow SSH
ufw allow Samba
ufw allow 9425

Once you are confident that everything is properly set, enable the firewall:

ufw enable

Your setup is now secured! All incoming connection will be blocked from reaching your server except for those ports we allowed.
Conclusion
You should now have a proper setup for a single machine with LizardFS running on localhost with all the chunk servers as a single drive. File-level redundancy can now be enjoyed at its fullest and you won’t have to squeeze your head on “should I really put these junk files inside my RAID 6 array and waste all those space to redundancy when I don’t need the redundancy?”
By now, you should have these running on your local machine

LizardFS Master
Four LizardFS Chunk Server
LizardFS Metalogger
LizardFS Web GUI

If you are going to set this up as a NAS, I would recommend that you find good software to manage users and mount points to expose. Alternatively, you can setup SMB manually and create a share to your LizardFS mount point.
Special thanks to @Volvagia356 for the systemd config files and the idea to set up LizardFS in such manner.

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Xiaomi 13 Ultra finally reaches Malaysia after 2 months of initial launch; Priced at RM5,199

Xiaomi Malaysia has officially launched the 13 Ultra smartphone after waiting for a couple of months.

As the best in class model in the Xiaomi 13 family, the wait is definitely mind-tiring as the Leica-co-engineered camera system is the main highlight of this device.
With a large 1-inch Sony IMX989 variable aperture main camera, capture exquisite photos and videos with ease while the other three that make up the entire quad-camera system pack all the extra features that can be fully utilized by professional photographers.
The use of Qualcomm’s latest and greatest SoC is expected for the flagship model while a vibrant screen and large battery with fast charge rounds up the entire package and the biggest bang for the Xiaomi 13 series.
Here’s a quick rundown of the entire specs lists.

6.73-inch AMOLED Display

1440p Resolution
Middle Punch Hole Notch
120Hz Refresh Rate with AdaptiveSync Pro
240Hz Sampling Rate
HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision. HLG Support

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Chipset
12GB RAM
512GB Storage
Quadruple Back Cameras

Main: 50MP f/1.9 – f/4.0 with multi-directional PDAF, Laser AF, OIS
Periscope Telephoto: 50MP f/3.0 with Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS, 3.2x Optical Zoom
Telephoto: 50MP f/1.8 with Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS, 3.2x Optical Zoom
Ultra-Wide: 50MP f/1.8 with Dual Pixel PDAF, ToF 3D

32MP Selfie Camera
5,000mAh Battery

90W Fast Charge

Price and Availability

For the price of RM5,199, you can bring home the Xiaomi 13 Ultra back home (soon because it is a preorder) in addition to some freebies including an Instant Photo Printer, 6-months Google One with 100GB cloud storage, and an extended warranty.
Additionally, you’ll get some “VIP” services like door-to-door delivery service, selected airport lounge access, 1-time out-of-warranty repair fee waive, and more.

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Grab some good deals from the Roborock S8 series plus free gifts up to RM599.90 this friday

Roborock Malaysia has teased what will happen this Friday and it is different from the usual sales pitch because only one series will be on the shelf.

The usual monthly sales will see the latest S8 series at a lower price where the base S8 is at RM2,499 while the dock-included S8+ and S8 Pro Ultra are at RM3,799 and RM5,399 respectively.
Aside from that, buyers will get some additional free gifts that can go up to RM599.90 so keep that in mind when you do receive your purchase.
The promotion will happen on both Shopee and Lazada so there is no exclusivity for the orange guy this time.

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Wiko releases the new affordable T50 and T10 smartphones in Malaysia

Wiko Malaysia is back announcing the two new T-series smartphones — T50 and T10 — will be launched locally soon.
Let’s start with the T50, which boasts a 6.6-inch Edgeless Display and a 4000mAh battery with 40W quick charging for a great viewing and gaming experience. On top of that, it features a 64-Megapixel Triple AI camera, enabling users to capture memorable moments and stunning photos.

On the other hand, the T10 is equipped with a 6.5-inch Edgeless Dewdrop Display and ultra slim design for comfortable viewing. It also includes a 13-Megapixel camera and a large 5000mAh battery for longer battery life.
Stay tuned to Wiko Malaysia’s official Facebook page for further updates on the launch of these two new smartphones.

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Vivo TWS Neo Earphone will be available on July 11 for RM359

Vivo Malaysia has announced their next wireless earbuds the Vivo TWS Neo will be available in Malaysia for sale starting from 11th July 2020, which will be priced at RM 359.

The Vivo TWS Neo earphone features a 14.2mm driver that supports CD-standard HD transmissions as well as 3 stereo sound effect for sensational sound quality for an enjoyable audio experience.
Aside from that, Vivo also claims that the TWS Neo has 88ms low latency mode and super-stable wireless connection guarantee reliable and smoother performance for on-the-go gaming and video calling experience. This claim might be true since it’s using aptX Adaptive codec, which culminates both aptX LL and aptX HD into one single adaptive codec.
We have done a bunch of wireless audio delay tests, and we’re interested to know what aptX LL brings to the table. Either way, here’s what we know so far.

The light and comfortable build of the earphone brings an array of powerful features, such as Slide Control, Find My TWS Neo, and so on. Vivo claims that the battery can last up to 22.5 hours thanks to the built-in Qualcomm low-power wireless chip and T1 power supply chip.
The Vivo TWS Neo earphone is available at all Vivo concept stores, authorized dealers, collaboration partners, and e-commerce platforms such as Lazada, Shopee, and Vivo Store.

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4 useful scenarios of the 108MP camera on the Xiaomi Mi Note 10

Xiaomi is spearheading the smartphone camera department now, and we Malaysians are enjoying it just 1 month after the global launch. This is a continuation of their commitment to bringing the latest devices to Malaysia as soon as possible. That means we Malaysians are one of the earliest countries to enjoy the latest Xiaomi Mi Note 10 and its 108MP glory.
This smartphone is certainly something unique. It’s targeted towards smartphone photographers as it has a total of 5 cameras – one for each situation:

5x optical zoom telephoto: 5MP (upscaled to 8MP) f/2.0; PDAF, Laser AF, OIS, 5x optical zoom
2x optical zoom telephoto: 12MP f/2.0; Dual Pixel PDAF, Laser AF, 2x optical zoom
Main: 108MP f/1.7 with 7P lens; PDAF, Laser AF, OIS
Ultrawide angle: 20MP f/2.2; Laser AF
Macro: 2MP f/2.4

Through Xiaomi’s partnership with Samsung, it enabled the Mi Note 10 to become the world’s first smartphone to have a 108MP camera. It is also the world’s first smartphone to have 5 usable cameras at the rear. And obviously, we took it out for a photo shoot – and we’ll be focusing on that 108MP camera.
There are a few notable scenarios on why we should use the 108MP camera – here are a few of them. All shots shown here are downsized to 1920×1440 pixels. to view the pictures in its full resolution, click here to visit our Shutterfly album.
Taking 108MP and downsizing it
Starting with the most common usage, downsizing. It is done to improve on the sharpness of the images, hence having better clarity on intricate details. This is not to be confused with pixel binning, which is the act of combining 4 pixels into one large pixel for better low-light shots.

As seen here, the tree leaves and grasses are clearly defined, and the brick tiled floor is great. We can still see the lines around the converging point of the brick tiled floor – which is a testament to this camera’s clarity.
Cropping leeway
For me personally, I enable grids on every single phone that I use because I want to get a better composition for each shot that I take. But sometimes, I have a change of mind after looking at the picture again – and I have to crop and rotate the picture a little.
That’s where having a high megapixel count really helps. I took these pictures in 108MP and realized that the image needs a little bit of cropping and rotation to straighten it. After editing, the image still retains a high level of clarity and detail.

A tip from us – don’t shift crop to a corner too much or the parallax will be unnatural. Crop around the center to prevent this.
Pixel-peeping details
Sometimes, when we took a picture and see it back a few hours later, we realized there’s something odd. It could be a blotch of color or perhaps someone’s shirt was inverted. Maybe you realized some random dude was posing in the background.
By taking 108MP pictures with the Xiaomi Mi Note 10, we’re able to peek at specific areas of the pictures to see what’s going on. For us, there’s a signboard behind which we had no idea it was there in the first place.
Mutiara Palace!
And what about this keyboard’s keycap? We know the legends are pad-printed, but what we didn’t know is how imperfect the printing was. I mean, it’s clearly not flat.

Mapping textures
To draw inspiration and ideas on how to create something life-like, textures are needed. It gives context to what would otherwise be a splat of ink – and textures tend to be really small and has lots of variation. Coconut isn’t entirely of the same color as some parts may have brown patches, as shown here.

We can also crop in and see that these coconuts have some sort of line that runs longitudinally along the coconut.

Another example is this flower. It looks like a blotch of pink color. When we zoomed in, we can see that it’s having some hair-like structure. We can see how light bounced off each individual hair and the petal curves. Even my eyes can’t see the individual strands of hair.
But there’s more
The 108MP camera is only one out of the total 5 rear-facing cameras on the Xiaomi Mi Note 10. We still have the ultrawide angle camera, two telephoto cameras with different zooming distances – and that’s excluding the 50x digital zoom capability. Let’s not forget that it also has another dedicated macro camera.

The Mi Note 10 has a camera for all of the situations that we can think of. It can even capture images in RAW format, so you can further tune the levels to create beautiful pictures. As it stands now, the Mi Note 10 and its software by default is already better than many smartphones in the market.

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Valve Unveils 13 New Steam Machine

With Gabe Newell, co-founder of the the Valve Corporation, just announced all 13 manufacturing partners for the Steam Machine and Valve’s CES 2014 event had finally come to the end! Although not all of them revealed their full hardware specifications, but still I going to show you what we know.
The idea behind Steam Machines is that any manufacturer can make their own version at different prices and with different hardware just like how Windows PCs are made, although they all use Steam OS instead of Windows and utilise Valve’s own Steam controller.

Alienware
Alienware’s Steam Machine has a very simple yet polished design with the Alienware and Steam logos on it with a pair of front-facing USB ports. Too bad that Dell didn’t reveal what’s inside of this sexy beast.
 Price: TBD

Alternate
CPU: Intel Core i5 4570
Graphics: Gigabyte GTX 760
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 1TB SSHD
Price: $1339

CyberPowerPC
CPU: AMD/Intel Core i5 CPU
Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 270/Nvidia GTX 760
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 500GB
Price: $499 and above

Digital Storm “Bolt II”
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K
Graphics: GTX 780 Ti
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 1TB HDD + 120 GB SSD
Price: $2,584

Gigabyte “Brix Pro”
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770R
Graphics: Intel Iris Pro 5200
RAM: 2 x 4GB
Storage: 1TB SATA 6Gb/sata
Price: TBD

iBuyPower
CPU: Quad-core AMD or Intel
Graphics: Radeon GCN Graphics
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 500GB+
Price: $499 and up

Falcon Northwest “Tiki”
CPU: customisable
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan
RAM: 8 to 16 GB
Storage: up to 6TB
Price: $1,799 – $6,000

Materiel.net
CPU: Intel Core i5 4440
Graphics: MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 8GB + 1TB SSHD
Price: $1,098

Next “Spa”
CPU: Intel Core i5
Graphics: Nvidia GT 760
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 1TB
Price: TBD

Origin PC “Chronos”
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K (3.9 to 4.6 GHz)
Graphics: 2 x 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX Titans
Price: TBD

Scan “NC10”
CPU: Intel Core i3 4000M
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 500GB
Price: $1,090

Webhallen
CPU: Intel Core i7
Graphics: Nvidia GT 780
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 1TB SSHD
Price: $1,499

Zotac
CPU: Intel Core (TBD)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX
RAM: TBD
Storage: TBD
Price: $599
This is everything we know about the systems revealed at  Valve’s CES 2014 event. There are many different kinds of unique Steam Machine designs that has different combination of hardware. What kind of Steam Machine will you buy? A small, affordable box or something bigger with high-end specification? The price range is totally absurd though! Some can go up to a few thousand US Dollars whereas some are just $499!
Via : Engadget

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Fashion Match Up – Laptop and Phone

Its a growing trend that people now tends to sit around at their favourite cafeterias, laptop opened with their smart phones attached at its side, either to tether or juice it up. And consciously, they try to match it. Non apple users will normally wrap their phones with signature Burberry plaid and stick the same on their laptop cover.
Yes, it is indeed hard to match your hardware when it comes from different makes. But today, let me give you a suggestion, assuming you are a Blackberry user that doesn’t mind a Dell laptop.

Yes its plain, and seemingly odd but its one of the best pairing out there, unless you have other suggestions.

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Lenovo reveals new tablets and smart clock at MWC 2021

The Mobile World Congress 2021 event has just begun yesterday and Lenovo is one of the first to blast us with a barrage of new products which are a plethora of tablets and a smart clock that is smarter than ever(?). Anyways, let’s take a look at them.

The first 2 device to hit the spotlight is the Yoga Tab 13 and Tab 11 designed to fit all use cases of entertainment and productivity. The larger model offers a 13-inch 2K display with 100% sRGB color gamut and Dolby Vision HDR for great visual display coupled with the native JBL speakers, I say this is well within the premium tablet experience range. Running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SoC with up to 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, it can manhandle anything you throw at it be it games, videos, or productivity tasks. Lastly, the tablet can be connected to another PC or laptop and be used as a secondary display, doubling its practicality too.
As a side note, the Yoga Tab 11 offers a similar experience at a lower price due to it using MediaTek’s G90T chipset, lower memory capacity, and the inability to be used as a second screen. Put it in simpler terms, it is a smaller Tab 11 without all the extra/premium features and just focuses on being an actual tablet.

Meanwhile, the new Tab Plus P11 is more of a middle ground device out of all of them as it uses the MediaTek G90T SoC instead of a Snapdragon to trade performance for a lower price tag. However, the screen and configuration are still great at 2000×1200 resolution with up to 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage. It also has a battery rated for up to 12 hours of continuous video playback which is pretty good for a device made for entertainment purposes.

Moving down the budget lists and the new 3rd generation of the Tab M7 and Tab M8 makes their way into the mainstream market as one of the more affordable choices among other competing brands. Its highlight is its competitive price that serves both goals of being a hub for your smart devices in your house and also just a cheap yet reliable Android device.

Lastly, Lenovo also introduced Smart Clock 2 that is basically a clock that does smart things such as weather information, schedules, notifications, and playing music/radio channels as well as integration with Google Photo to let you set your favorite images as the background. The device itself can also be plugged into an optional wireless charger pad that allows you to charge another device wirelessly (But not the clock itself presumably).
Pricing and Availability
As of now, only a couple of tablets are announced with official pricing for Malaysia while the others are awaiting their turn for localization so we’ll be updating the rest when the info comes around.

Yoga Tab 13: EUR799 (~RM3949.47)
Yoga Tab 11: EUR349 (~RM1725.11)
Tab P11 Plus: From RM1,799 [September 2021]
Tab M7 (3rd Gen): From RM549  [July 2021]
Tab M8 (3rd Gen): TBC
Smart Clock 2: EUR89.99 (~RM444.87)

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Underprivileged UKM students get warm help from HONOR Malaysia with MagicBook

Personally, I value education a lot. However, the digital divide exists – and the whole COVID-19 quarantine season made the digital divide even more apparent. Underprivileged students literally can’t get online and attend classrooms. So, HONOR Malaysia stepped in to help – and I personally appreciate their effort.
HONOR Malaysia is giving out HONOR MagicBook to underprivileged students, specifically University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) students who are lacking technological access due to COVID-19 forcing the education sector to rely on digital learning instead of face-to-face.

The initiative will allow selected students to temporarily gain ownership for the notebook until their campus reopens, no matter how long the period may be and issues such as attending online lectures, accessing course materials, and working on assignments can be overcome.
The Vice President Student Union of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Mr. Tan Ray Ming also expressed his gratitude towards the caring move:
We are very thankful for this opportunity presented by HONOR Malaysia. At such an unprecedented time, the notebooks will be of great assistance to our students in their transition to e-learning as our curriculum shifts online until the end of 2020.
HONOR MagicBook

To recap, the HONOR MagicBook is one of the most affordable laptops in the market that packs decent hardware suitable for users like students to perform document writing and online entertainment – like YouTube and Netflix. Priced at RM2,299, the user experience is relatively positive. Click here to check out our review and if it convinced you to pick up one, you may do so through the links below:

HiHonor
Shopee
SenQ
SenHeng

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Bad news for AMD Users

We all know that AMD and Nvidia have been engaging in intensive competition to gain the loyalty of their users. They have been competing in driver optimization as well as the implementation of proprietary features, software and developer tools for game manufacturer.
If you know about the Nvidia’s GameWorks, the collection of tools that enable the game developers to produce a game that optimizes Nvidia’s graphic card, then you probably know about Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs — the latest PC title that fully utilizes the Nvidia’s GameWorks. Nvidia proprietary technologies such as the TXAA and ShadowWorks are licensed by the developers in this game. Well, from the statement above, we can certainly say that this game is a bad news to AMD as it tends to run better on Nvidia hardware.

This news is not encouraging, to be truthful. In the long run, Nvidia might overrun AMD and dominate the market. Obviously that is their goal; as seen from this news – at least to AMD (and to me). As to a consumer/PC gamer, this would be a very bad news. For those who uses AMD, it leaves no choice to them but to get a Nvidia for themselves – yet Nvidia hardware is known to cost a lot more than AMD does for the same performance, no-thanks to its proprietary technology.
Put aside Watch Dogs, a few recent games such as Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Batman: Arkham Origins are also examples of  Nvidia GameWorks titles. Surely, the market will be sliced towards Nvidia. AMD, who adopts the open-source approach is having trouble here. Nvidia has closed-source and kept all the technologies to itself.
There’s a proverb from the Art of Sun Tsu that suits this situation well: If you know both yourself and your enemy well, you can win battles without jeopardy.
The act of AMD sharing its technologies with public puts itself in danger where its opponent has fully understanding of its technologies and make improvement on their own technologies. Well, by this, I didn’t mean that AMD is wrong. In fact, I like their idea of sharing with others as this can gather all intellects to improve the technologies more efficiently. Due to the GameWorks cooperation with the game developers, AMD is found to be blocked from giving comments to or receives any improvements on the game construction for their own hardware. Not even a single part of the codes to do any sort of optimization at all.
Despite the limited time that AMD had with Watch Dogs, AMD still manage to come up with an update. However, this new driver release seems not working as good as the Nvidia’s, obviously.
Aside from driver optimization for games, AMD’s “FreeSync” technology and Nvidia’s G-Sync serves the same purpose as the V-Sync (Vertical Sync) that is to eliminate the horizontal line that tears apart the image into two separate frames; known to show up in the screen when you play games. This means the screen will not flickered and screen-tearing when playing games. Again, Nvidia is adopting the same closed-source strategy and proprietary hardware instead of adopting AMD’s open-sourced mentality so that everyone can enjoy without boundaries.
It seems like the day that Nvidia conquering the market is coming soon in the future. Once Nvidia dominates the market, can you imagine what will happen? Here’s a hints- super-expensive hardware for no reason due to monopoly. Well, keep it in your mind, because that’s what Nvidia probably will do once the competition is eliminated.
Via : Forbes

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The OnePlus 8T will be available from October 28; starts from RM2,699

OnePlus has finally announced the availability of the OnePlus 8T in Malaysia that starts from RM2,699.
Being an OnePlus device, flagship hardware has always been the priority for the main series so let’s take a look at them.

6.55-inch Fluid AMOLED display

1080p resolution
Punch hole notch at the top left corner
120Hz refresh rate
HDR10+ certified

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset
Up to 12GB RAM
Up to 256GB storage
Quadruple rear-facing cameras

Main: 48MP f/1.7 with PDAF, OIS
Ultra-wide angle: 16MP f/2.2
Macro: 2MP f/2.4
Depth Sensor

16MP f/2.4 selfie camera
4,500mAh battery

65W wired charger

Android 11 with OxygenOS 11.0
Aquamarine Green, Lunar Silver colors

There are 2 configurations available to choose from:

8GB RAM + 128GB storage @ RM2,699
12GB RAM +256GB storage @ RM2,999

Abandoning the classic rear camera placement at the center and instead now on the top left with OxygenOS 11.0 looking more like Samsung’s One UI, I wonder what OnePlus’s take on community-focused user experience going against attempts of growing new user base through familiarization will lead the OxygenOS in the future.
Where to Buy

The OnePlus 8T will become available first online at Lazada when the midnight clock strikes on October 28 with the offline sales starting on October 31 at all authorized dealers stores. If you can wait for a couple of weeks, the Nov 11 Sale of the Year event will feature the 8T Pop-Up Bundle that includes a 12GB RAM + 256GB storage model, Quantum Bumper Case, and Oneplus Buds for the same price of RM2,999, essentially treating the 2 items as freebies. The bundle will be available only from 12 a.m to 2 a.m with 250 units available so gotta go fast on your fingers if you want to secure one.

Addendum: OnePlus 8T’s pricing is weird
For us here in Malaysia, the OnePlus 8T is even cheaper than the OnePlus 8’s base starting price – and that phone only launched 6 months ago.
Looking at the announcement and after reviewing the Galaxy S20 FE, honestly, I’m feeling a little unimpressed in terms of what OnePlus has to offer. Coming in as the middle child between the original OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro with a bit of mix and match, I can tell you how the Galaxy S20 FE is winning over it despite being slightly expensive – because we Malaysians get the 256GB storage model instead of the 128GB.

Samsung’s own app ecosystem is obviously way better than OnePlus with many of the features being actually practical in daily life use such as Samsung Pay and Samsung Home. The inclusive of Samsung DeX even allows extending its usage beyond as a smartphone.
Both of them strike a 120Hz display but the S20 FE has wireless charging. For a device that is priced near the RM3k mark but doesn’t have wireless charging, it really skews my preference of recommendation even coming from an OnePlus user like myself.
While the T series of Oneplus devices is less of a surprise but more of a stable upgrade built upon the initial models, I hope the company can do something similar to the OnePlus One and return to the throne of the once gloried flagship killer.

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Jabra announces new sustainability goals with major focus in ocean protection

Jabra has revealed a new environmental sustainability initiative today that aims to deal with the plastic problems of the sea.

Aquatic lives threatened by plastic waste are already decade-old news but with the presence of microplastics detected within human blood, it should be obvious enough to say that the issue needs to be tackled and controlled as soon as possible. That’s why Jabra is going to engage in marine conservation at the size of 62,000 football fields, or 450km² for the metric freaks. The engagement will be executed via fund donation towards parties that involve in protecting critical species and the livelihoods of people in Asia-
Pacific who depend on the ocean.

Jabra also recapped what they have done in 2021 for sustaining the overall ecosystem which included:

4,777 tons of e-waste recycled
Reduce the carbon footprint of Jabra products in terms of product packaging, distribution, and disposal
Upheld the act of human rights safeguards to comply with the UN Principles of Responsible Business
Excluded conflict minerals from mining in military-controlled regions via the five-step due diligence guidance laid out by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

And logically speaking, the brand will be continuing to do so for this year as well in addition to tackling the ocean plastic problem so kudos to them for setting an example for other competitors to learn and follow suit.

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Cyberjaya hosted Robo Race 2015

Cyberview, the guys who are responsible for the success of Cyberjaya, organized Robo Race 2015.

The Robo Race 2015 event is in collaboration with Terato Tech to raise give makers a space to showcase their abilities and also to show off a little. Who doesn’t like to show off their skills, especially when it comes to cool kick-ass robotics?
This year, Robo Race 2015 kicked up a notch by having two different categories – first one which is for those Under 16, and another Open category. Both were obviously well-received!
Personally as an engineering student in MMU Cyberjaya, I’m glad to see this happening. Firstly, Cyberjaya is quite a silent place if you ask me, and believe me – going there during MMU’s semester breaks feel like a ghost town. It’s amazing to see that youngsters these days have a huge exposure and influence, then guided by the internet alone, to venture into engineering fields, be it mechanical, electronics, electrical, or a combination of different aspects. The world needs engineers!

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All Antutu apps removed from Google Play Store

Antutu benchmark is one of the benchmark tools that we use for all of our smartphone tests for quite a long time. However, the app is removed from the Google Play Store overnight, without any warnings.
Antutu is one of the more well-known smartphone benchmark tools and acts as a means of gauging the performance of a particular smartphone. We won’t get into the details of how utterly flawed Antutu benchmarks are because that’s a story for another day – but people are obsessed over the numbers that a smartphone can produce.

However, according to Android Police, the Antutu benchmark is likely owned by Cheetah Mobile. It’s quite an indirect link though, as Android Police states that the privacy policy in Antutu’s page in the Google Play Store points to Cheetah Mobile’s website. Google has decided to remove all of Antutu’s apps from the Play Store. We’re talking about:

Antutu Benchmark
Antutu 3DBench
AItutu

It is also pointed out that Fu Sheng is the chairman/manager of Beijing Antutu Technology Co. and is also the CEO of Cheetah Mobile. There’s quite a lot of traces leading Antutu back to Cheetah Mobile, even though the information is fragmented.
So far, Antutu seems to know that this is happening. They’ve hosted the APK files on their website and you can download it directly from their website.

We’re thinking that this is a part of Google Play Store’s crackdown on disruptive ads in apps that are available on the Play Store. Google has just recently announced that they’ve removed nearly 600 apps from the Play Store, and Cheetah Mobile could be one of those developers that are heavily-hit.
Cheetah Mobile is infamous for buying up successful apps and turn them into a data-harvesting platform with lots of in-app purchases. It’s no surprise that Google just gives the banhammer to Cheetah Mobile – and I’m truly glad that they did.

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Huawei & Leica: Collaborating For Camera R&I

Since the announcement of the Huawei P9, the collaboration I dub as “Huawei & Leica” was rather controversial at first. When the news starts to settle down and  more people reviewed the device, it’s actually a really good camera — I mean smartphone.
Now, Huawei is taking the collaboration even further – as both Huawei and Leica Camera AG join together to for research and innovation in a center name it as ‘Max Berek Innovation Lab’.

Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei (right) and Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, majority shareholder and chairman of the advisory board of Leica Camera AG(left), signing the agreement on the establishment of the ‘Max Berek Innovation Lab’
This new lab is located at Leica’s global HQ at Wetzlar, Germany, as they now focus on developing better optical systems and software-based technologies with better image quality in mind. Other than that, this lab also focuses on computational imaging, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR).
What can we see more from this collaboration? I suppose there’re going to be more camera-centric smartphones like the Huawei P9 obviously and potentially Kirin-powered Leica cameras?

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Review – Transcend StoreJet 25C3N: Slim, Sleek, Sexy

In the market today, there are a lot of external hard disks available. They’re made by a multitude of manufacturers, and they’re offered in a variety of flavors – and each of these flavors have their own specialty too. We’ve seen the Transcend StoreJet 25H3 here, but this new StoreJet 25C3N is certainly a reimagining of how an external hard disk should look like.
As the StoreJet 25C3N is available in two variants, the one that I’m reviewing in particular is the TS1TSJ25C3N – the 1TB variant. Here’s our take on it.

Unboxing

The box is fairly simple, and it has a window along its longitude at the right side. That is a little sneak peak on what you’re going to get.

Opening up the box reveals a really tough clamshell packaging that protects the StoreJet 25C3N. It’s a little excessive in my opinion – but just goes to show how much Transcend really cares about their product.

Digging all of the contents out of the box reveals two Transcend product catalog – one for Apple and another one on their general purpose storage solutions, quick start guide, warranty guide, the StoreJet 25C3N itself, and a USB-A to USB 3.0 micro-B cable.

Pretty typical set of accessories, if you ask me. Actually, a little sleeve for the StoreJet 25C3N would be nice. Maybe with a dedicated storage space for the cable on the pouch too?
Design
Now, the Transcend StoreJet 25C3N is aimed towards sleekness. It looks classy, feels fantastic in the hands, and according to Transcend, it is built with an aluminium alloy housing.

With its durability in check, let’s talk about its aesthetics. I have to say, Transcend did a really good job in the overall design of the StoreJet 25C3N. The aluminium alloy housing is polished, sandblasted, and anodized to give it that matte grey look. At a glance, it almost looks like a the StoreJet 25C3N is wrapped with a shiny vinyl skin instead.

With a metal housing, one might think that the edges might be sharp. But of course Transcend already took care of it, as all of the edges on the StoreJet 25C3N are chamfered. I mean seriously – it’s chamfered all around.

As for its size, the 1TB variant of the StoreJet 25C3N only weighs in at 130 grams  (158 grams with the cable) and has a tiny size 114.5mm x 78.5mm x 9.95mm. Not that much bigger than a barebones 2.5-inch internal hard disk, actually.
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I do wish the bottom of the Transcend StoreJet 25C3N has a little more friction though, as it just slides around on my table like a sharp blade on an ice rink now.
Performance & Features
Ah, this is the most important factor when it comes to an external hard disk. It’s quite surprising that the Transcend StoreJet 25C3N actually performs slightly better compared to other larger and bulkier external hard disks!
Just take a look at the results from Crystal Disk Mark.

To me personally, I think the speeds are okay – nothing out of the ordinary for an external hard disk. It is at slightly higher speeds compared to the WD My Passport (2016) that we covered here too. However, there is definitely a price to pay – more on this later.
As for real-life test with files at about 3GB in average, it can reach speeds of 128MB/s – pretty good!

Features
As for its features, the StoreJet 25C3N is pretty standard across Transcend products. You get two pieces of free software – Transcend Elite Data Management and RecoveRX. These two software are something to look forward to – as they definitely bring extra value to your purchase. But then again – what do these two software actually do?
The Transcend Elite Data Management is a pretty neat software to automate all sorts of backups to be performed. I’ve talked about it in my review of the StoreJet 25H3 here, but there were some interface updates to the software. Now, it looks a lot more modern and clean compared to what we saw a year ago.
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Functionally, it’s the same – but it seems like Transcend has removed the option for Bookmark Sync. Not a big deal, since modern browsers these days support bookmark syncing to the cloud, too.
As for the RecoveRX software, it’s pretty much an “undelete” software made easy. Select the drive, click next, select what type of files you’d like to recover from the hard disk, and scan for those files. It’ll automatically recover and files found in the given path, too.
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Powerful yet simple to use utilities, if you ask me.
Compared to the StoreJet 25H3, it’s missing the “backup button” on the hard disk itself. That button was used to trigger a command on Transcend’s software, but it’s nowhere to be found here on the StoreJet 25C3N. Not a big deal though, since everything can be automated via the software anyway.
Wrapping up the Transcend StoreJet 25C3N review
In short, all I can say is that the StoreJet 25C3N is a tiny, slim, yet beautiful-looking piece of fashion accessory-cum-external storage device. It’s tiny, it does what it is supposed to do very well – and slightly better than average, and has a lot of free utility – but everything comes at a price.

Compared to its arguably less sleek-looking and larger StoreJet 25H3, the StoreJet 25C3N is priced slightly higher – at about RM 270 from what I can find on Lazada here, or about $113.99 USD here on Amazon. Is it expensive compared to others? Yes.
Of course, for the extra price you pay, Transcend gives you one more benefit – and that’s their 3-year global warranty.
Are all of these worth the extra?
I say yes.

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PSA – Do not spray hand sanitizer on your electronics!

With the recent outbreak of coronavirus, or COVID-19, we’re recommended to wash our hands always. The World Health Organization, or WHO for short, recommends all of us to frequently wash our hands with either soap or alcohol-based hand rub, also known as alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Quoting from WHO’s documentation:
Standard recommendations to prevent the spread of COVID-19 include frequent cleaning of hands using alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water
And hand sanitizers are located at many places. From walls in the mall to receptionist desks, it’s a quick and easy way to cleanse your hands. Moreover, it dries out quickly so we don’t have to wipe our hands too.

Some readers have asked us if we can use hand sanitizer to spray or wipe our phones and cleanse that as well. To which I reply – please don’t do that.

I know it’s tempting. I mean what’s the point if we were already using our phones, then putting the phone back into the pocket to wash our hands with hand sanitizer, then back to our phones again? To fully be “clean” – at least in this context – is to sanitize the phone too, no?
Well, yeah that’s true. But this is not the way to do it. Here are a few reasons why.
Softening of adhesive
Modern smartphones – especially those that are glued shut and have IP-rating, has lots of adhesives inside the phone. For example, many smartphones require heat on the sides of the back panel first before using a suction cup to lift the panel, then a pick to cut the adhesive.
iFixit is well-known for showing their use of alcohol in their repairability videos to loosen the adhesive on the battery.

However, alcohol found in hand sanitizers are solvents of the adhesives. So, if you are disinfecting your phone with hand sanitizer, then don’t be surprised if your back panel falls off suddenly. You’ve already weakened the adhesive by spray the phone with hand sanitizer.
Potential short-circuits
While spraying your device with jets of hand sanitizer, it’s highly possible that some of the liquid (or gel) gets inside the device – especially those devices that don’t have IP-rating.
While we can’t speak for all brands of hand sanitizer, most of them have additional ingredients other than alcohol. We had two bottles with us, both of them have different sets of ingredients:

Bottle 1

Water
3-trimethoxysilyl propyl dimethyl octadecyl ammonium chloride
Benzalkonium chloride
Fragrance

Bottle 2

Water
Denatured ethanol
TCE
Conditioner

Bottle 3

Denatured alcohol
Perfume
A lot of other chemicals

Some ingredient list is vague whereas some are very precise, and yet some are extremely long. Whichever the case, we are still unclear if there is any electrically conductive material inside the hand sanitizer.
Just don’t spray your device with hand sanitizer. It might cause a short-circuit.
“But isn’t isopropyl alcohol non-conductive?”, you might ask. And it’s true. We all use isopropyl alcohol to wash our and there’s also a big but – those components are already stripped and do not have power running.
Voiding your warranty
Even if your hand sanitizer might be non-conductive, it can still ruin your liquid contact indicator sticker. Which one am I talking about? This one.
Screenshot from Jerry Rig Everything.
Whenever liquid gets in contact with this sticker, it turns from white to red. When that happens, companies have the right to reject your warranty claim, citing that the device has liquid damage.
Also, keep in mind that IP-rated smartphones are tested with water, not seawater. Or hand sanitizer.
So how can we disinfect our phone?
Business Insider has stated that you can try using UV sanitization devices. Beaming UV rays on your device can potentially kill germs.
Apple and Samsung have officially recommended using microfiber cloth that is lightly dampened with soap and water to wipe your device. That’s the non-destructive way to clean your device.
We personally don’t have any methods to recommend, but I’m using alcohol swabs instead. It is actually just a swab with 70% isopropyl alcohol.
We don’t recommend it, but we do use alcohol swabs.
It’s not recommended since the oleophobic coating might be ruined – but I have a screen protector anyway. I have wiped my devices with alcohol swabs way too many times now and it’s still fine.
Using alcohol swabs might sound similar to spraying your device with hand sanitizer and will cause the adhesives to loosen over time, but these alcohol swabs don’t have an excessive amount of alcohol in them and highly unlikely to trickle inside the device.

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The Maxis Fibre Carnival tomorrow at Sunway Pyramid offers prizes and deals for new users

Maxis Malaysia’s second round of roadshow is happening tomorrow at Sunway Pyramid to promote their home fibre internet with a mix of some fun and prizes.
The booths will be placed in the Orange Concourse area with different stands offering a wide variety of activities such as the Game Zone and Human Claw Machine for the skillful group or the Family Dance Studio to record some TikTok clips.

Anyways, those who are signing up for a Maxis Home Fibre plan as a pre-existing Maxis Postpaid user can enjoy 6 months of free usage while completely new Maxis Home Fibre receives 6 months free of Max WiFi service that brings total wireless coverage to one’s home.
Not only that, all new sign-ups can join a special lucky game that offers stuff like the Samsung 65″ QLED TV, LG UHD 50″ TV, the Sony PlayStation 5, Samsung Soundbar, and much more.
The roadshow lasts from February 16 until 19.
Starting from a simple fee of RM89 per month, Maxis Home Fibre offers fast access to the Internet via the new WiFi 6 router in addition to the Max WiFi by Maxperts service eliminating all the dead zones inside your house for just RM19 per month for a limited time.

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Android 4.4 KitKat Update for ASUS Fonepad 7

Truly a great news for FonePad 7 (FE170CG) owners! Android 4.4 KitKat update is finally here in Malaysia!

The update can be done via Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) update. The latest system firmware (Build number : KVT49L.WW_fonepad-11.2.3.17.3-20141006 release-keys) is now available for update.
There should be an update notification. Afraid not, just manually check for update in About> System Update. Be patient if you have not received the update yet because the FOTA usually comes in batches – means that you might or might not get it quicker than other users.
Just wait for the auto-update! If you’re too impatient about it, take your own risk and go on to ASUS Support  and update the device yourself without waiting for the update to reach your turn. Your choice, but we take no responsibility on any consequences.
Have fun and enjoy KitKat!

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Save more with Samsung’s Merdeka Sale starting this August 1

Samsung is hosting the annual Merdeka Sale for all of us to celebrate the important event of how Malaysia came to be.

However, due to how the pandemic has torn the country apart, the theme this year for the brand is more into encouragement and positive vibes to make sure everyone stay safe and strong until it is over alongside the core spirit of Malaysia – Strength, and Unity – that makes the country a unique existence in the world.
Here are all the items listed for sale that you should look out for.
TVs / Projector

Product

RRP (RM)

Free Gifts

85″ QN900A Neo QLED 8K

RM 49,999

Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Mystic Bronze) +  32″ M7 Smart Monitor + Slim Fit Wall Bracket

75″ QN900A Neo QLED 8K

RM 36,999

Galaxy S21 5G (Phantom Violet)+ 32″ M5 Smart Monitor + Slim Fit Wall Bracket

65″ QN800A Neo QLED 8K

RM 18,999

Galaxy A22 LTE (Mint) + 32″ M5 Smart Monitor + Slim Fit Wall Bracket

55″ QN700A Neo QLED 8K

 RM 12,999

32″ M5 Smart Monitor + Slim Fit Wall Bracket

98″ QN90A Neo QLED 4K

RM 49,999

Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Mystic Bronze) +  32″ M7 Smart Monitor + Slim Fit Wall Bracket

85″ QN90A Neo QLED 4K

RM 26,999

Galaxy A72 (Awesome Violet) + 32″ M5 Smart Monitor + Slim Fit Wall Bracket

55″ QN85A Neo QLED 4K

RM 8,499

Galaxy A02 (Black) + Slim Fit Wall Bracket

85″ The Frame QLED 4K

 RM 18,999

32″ M5 Smart Monitor + 85″ Brown Modern Bezel + 3 Month Art Store Access

75″ The Frame QLED 4K

 RM 13,499

Galaxy A12 (Black) + 75″ Brown Modern Bezel + 3 Month Art Store Access

65″ The Frame QLED 4K

 RM 9,499

Galaxy A02 (Black) + 65″ Brown Modern Bezel + 3 Month Art Store Access

The Premiere 4K Triple laser projector LSP9

RM 39,999

Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Mystic Bronze) + 32″ M7 Smart Monitor

65″ AU9000 4K Crystal UHD

RM 5,999

Slim Fit Wall Bracket

75″ AU7700 4K UHD

RM 7,699

Galaxy A02

Soundbars (With PWP Price)

Product

RRP (RM)

PWP Price (RM)

Q950A

RM 6,499

RM 4,799

Q900A

RM 4,999

RM 3,699

Q800A

RM 3,999

RM 2,999

Q700A

RM 3,399

RM 2,699

Q600A

RM 2,599

RM 1,899

Monitors

Product

RRP (RM)

Free Gift / Promo Price

43″ M7 Smart Monitor

RM2,888

Free gift of Smart Keyboard Trio 500 (White)

27″ M5 White Smart Monitor

RM 1,488

Free gift of Smart Keyboard Trio 500 (White)

49″ Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor

RM 6,199

Promo Price @ RM 5,999

32″ Odyssey G7 Gaming Monitor

RM 2,899

Promo Price @ RM 2,799

32″ Odyssey G5 Gaming Monitor

RM 1,699

Promo Price @ RM 1,599

27″ Odyssey G3 Gaming Monitor

RM 1,299

Promo Price @ RM 1,199

28″ UHD Monitor UE590

RM 1,792

Promo Price @ RM 1,099

Home Appliances

Product

RRP (RM)

Free Gift / Promo Price

Side by Side with Family Hub, 660L

RM 8,999

RM400 Touch ’n Go eWallet credit

Side by Side with Food Showcase

RM 6,199

RM300 Touch ’n Go eWallet credit

Front Load Washer Dryer with AI Ecobubble™, 21KG Wash & 12KG Dry

RM 7,999

Free gift of Grill Microwave Oven + RM400 Touch ’n Go eWallet credit

Front Load Washer Dryer with AI Ecobubble™, 13KG Wash & 8KG Dry

RM 5,299

Promo Price @ RM 4,499 +
RM200 Touch ’n Go eWallet credit

WindFree Premium Plus 1.5HP

RM 2,699

Promo Price @ RM 2,499 +
RM100 Touch ’n Go eWallet credit

Smart Air Purifier, 60 ㎡

RM 1,799

Promo Price @ RM 1,599 + Filter

Jet Bot AI+ with Intel A.I. Driving

 RM 4,999

RM300 Touch ’n Go eWallet credit

Jet 90 premium, up to 200W

 RM 3,599

PWP Clean Station @ RM399 and Battery @ RM359

Convection Microwave Oven with HOT BLAST, 35L

RM 1,699

RM50 Touch ’n Go eWallet credit

The rest of the information can be accessed within the official campaign site.

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Newly launched OPPO Reno8 Z 5G and Enco Buds2 available for purchase in Malaysia starting today

OPPO Malaysia just launched the Z variant of the Reno8 family of smartphones together with the latest budget TWS which is the Enco Buds2.
Under normal circumstances, the Z member of a given Reno series smartphone is positioned as the most budget option as OPPO is maintaining the photography while molding nerfing everything else to make it a more affordable device for those who don’t really need a powerful smartphone.

But the Reno8 Z 5G is weirdly similar to the Reno7 Z, at least on paper. So if you already owned the latter, then upgrading to this is literally a no-brainer of saying No.
But it is still okay for a new purchase though.

6.43-inch AMOLED Display

1080p Resolution
Top Left Punch Hole Notch

Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G Chipset
8GB RAM
256GB Storage
Triple Rear Camera

Main: 64MP f/1.7 with PDAF
Macro: 2MP f/2.4
Depth Sensor

16MP Selfie Camera
4,500mAh Battery

33W Fast Charge
Reverse Charge

Starlight Black, Dawnlight Gold Colors

On the other hand, the Enco Buds2 is still carrying the “decent audio quality with average software support” image as the 10mm titanized driver and Enco Live feature provide a good chunk of audio output range to make sure you can listen to the details on the cheap. And that’s all you get though as the fancier functions and “convenient” things are exclusive to the expensive ones.
Price and Availability
The OPPO Reno8 Z 5G is priced at RM1,799 while the Enco Buds2 is at RM 140 and both of them are available for purchase on OPPO’s official online store alongside offline retailers and brand shops as well.
Available only for today, all purchases of the smartphone will get freebies worth up to RM997, including a free TWS and various rewards within the MyOPPO app.

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Logitech supports Sarawak ICT Expo Cyber Games 2013

It’s been quite some time for the e-gaming fellows to be recognized as athletes. Malaysia is also recognized in the eSports world as the team Orange scored big and made us proud.

Obviously we do have some very good e-gamers in Malaysia and Logitech sponsored the Sarawak ICT Expo Cyber Games 2013 some of its products to attract more players go on a friendly challenge with each other. This year, the games featured are Dota 2 and the new FPS game CrossFire. All you need to do to participate is to find a team and you’re up against the contest!
The prizes are stated above in the poster and Logitech is also offering a limited 33 units of the desktops used in the contest below cost prize at a discounted price of RM2299! It’s a brand new tower that has only been used for 3 days for the competition, then it’s for sale already! Hurry as there’s only 33 units! Book yours here!
For more information on the Sarawak ICT Expo Cyber Games 2013, visit GizmoGamers Facebook page.
To register for Dota 2, click here.
To register for CrossFire, click here.

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Keep yourself busy during the Ramadan month with a set of PICO 4 VR all-in-one headset at lower price and with free bundled games

With the Ramadan season approaching us in just a few more days, PICO Malaysia is one step ahead by engaging in another promotion campaign dedicated to the Muslim month.

For starters, the 256GB storage model is RM100 lower than its SRP but anyone who bought either the 128GB or 256GB variant, they’ll first receive the 4 starter titles Oh Shape, All-in-One Sports VR, Down the Rabbit Hole, and After the Fall by default in addition to 2 mystery games, all free of charge!
Online purchases are available via the links below or you can head to the physical shop located at Sunway Pyramid.

Lazada
Shopee
TikTok Shop

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[UPDATED] Black OPPO A77 Has ARRIVED!! Decent Hardware At RM1,398

Not too long ago, we spoke to you about the OPPO A57. Now, OPPO came back again and announced the all new OPPO A77. So what’s new?
Well, quite a lot, actually. Firstly, the OPPO A77 sports a 5.5-inch 1080p display with IPS LCD (of course, that’s the standard of current day smartphones). As for its chipset, it uses a MediaTek MT6750T, paired with an octa-core Cortex-A53 with 1.5GHz clock on each, Mali-T860MP2 graphics, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. To top it all off, the OPPO A77 comes with a 3,200mAh battery too.

That’s a pretty major upgrade when it comes to its hardware, by the way!

As for the camera, it still uses the same sensor and lens as the OPPO A57 – 13MP  f/2.2 with PDAF on the rear-facing camera and a 16MP f/2.0 camera for all your selfie goodness. Other than that, there’s a minor upgrade to Bluetooth 4.2. Everything else remains pretty much the same as far as specs go.
Even the design and aesthetics are pretty much the same as the OPPO A57. But hey – don’t fix what’s not broken, aye?

The OPPO A77 is obviously for those who want a rather low-priced smartphone that is built for taking selfies, but wants a smooth overall user experience and to play some games on it.
OPPO A77 is priced at RM1,398 and it’s available on Lazada right here, right now.

UPDATE: Black OPPO A77 coming soon!
Our initial impression about the OPPO R9s Black Edition is very positive. Now, the Black edition doesn’t have any special hardware – just a special blacked-out metal body.
That change alone is enough to win my heart over its rivaling smartphones. Seriously, have you looked at the black R9s? No? Never mind – look at the black OPPO A77 then. It’s gorgeous.

As of now, we still don’t have the release date for the brand new OPPO A77 Black Edition, but OPPO Malaysia has given us a clue – and that clue is July of 2017. No idea on the date or which week as of now.
We’ll keep you updated when we have more information about it.

UPDATE: The OPPO A77 Black Edition has arrived!
You know what’s better than having a sleek blacked out metal body? A price cut!
Yes! You read that right – the OPPO A77 is now having a RM100 discount – which means you can get an OPPO A77 for RM1,298 now. This includes the Gold, Rose Gold, and the new Black color too!
For those who are already eyeing on this beautiful smartphone, you can head on over to OPPO’s website and purchase it now!
You can click here to make your purchase through Lazada too!

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ezyCourier Makes Its Debut

ezyCourier Malaysia debut recently and they had they are officially launched last week at Malaysia IT Fair 2016 in Mid Valley Megamall. It was officiated by MCMC’s Chief Officer of Communication, Digital Services and Standards, Dato’ Mohd Ali Hanafiah Mohd Yunus and ezyCourier’s Director, John Gun.
In a nutshell, ezyCourier provide express delivery (2 hours delivery) in Klang Valley and supported area around it. Consumer can use their service starting now via their own mobile app. The initiative for such services started due to the rising of online reseller in Malaysia. ezyCourier delivery service doesn’t fix to any distance, so you could also use such delivery even the sender and receiver are within the same area.

At the same time, ezyCourier allowed anyone to be be their partners in delivering items, which subjected to their verification process. Once the partners accepted, they can start delivering any items around their area or Klang Valley. ezyCourier beliefs this could give anyone a chance to gain extra income during their free time.
As off now, the service only offered in Klang Valley and certain area around it, but they are planning to make it nationwide soon. You can download their delivery app for iOS or Android.

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China removes Plague Inc. from Apple App Store

So there’s this game. It’s a few years old at this point. It’s called Plague Inc. It’s a game about how different types of diseases infect people from around the world and eventually kill everyone. Since the recent coronavirus, or COVID-19 outbreak, Plague Inc. sales skyrocketed. But China decided to remove plaque Inc. on the Apple App Store.
“But what’s the reason for removing the game?” That’s the question we all have, and the reason is unjustified.

According to Kotaku, the China Cyberspace Administration removed Plague Inc., calling it “illegal content”.

The developers behind Plague Inc., Ndemic Creations, has released a statement on their website which confirms that the game is indeed removed in China right now. Citing the statement, it states:

It’s not clear to us if this removal is linked to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that China is facing. However, Plague Inc.’s educational importance has been repeatedly recognised by organisations like the CDC and we are currently working with major global health organisations to determine how we can best support their efforts to contain and control COVID-19.

I personally think that the game shouldn’t be removed, but instead given for free for everyone to play since there’s a virus outbreak right now. Within that game, it highlights the importance of hygiene as it is a common way for infections to happen.
Citing once again from Ndemic Creation’s statement:

… Plague Inc.’s educational importance has been repeatedly recognised by organisations like the CDC and we are currently working with major global health organisations to determine how we can best support their efforts to contain and control COVID-19.

Personally, the game is educational for me as it goes through the strengths and weaknesses of how diseases spread while learning the most effective way to transmit the disease. Think of Plague Inc. as education for gamified.
But hey – that doesn’t stop me from promoting that game.
Click here to get that game from the Google Play Store instead.

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The new BenQ ZOWIE XL2566K TN 360Hz DyAc+ Gaming Monitor is now available in Malaysia

BenQ has recently unveiled the latest and also the first-ever TN 360Hz DyAc+ gaming monitor: the ZOWIE XL2566K. Let’s find out what it has to offer.
Being the latest flagship model of the ZOWIE XL series, the XL2566K provides gamers with optimal smoothness and fast response thanks to the patented DyAc+ technology with a 360Hz refresh rate on a TN panel.

In comparison to the XL2546K with DyAc+, the XL2566K with DyAc+ makes vigorous in-game actions such as fast-moving targets and bullet trajectory much clearer.
On top of that, it also delivers sharper outlines of overall moving visuals, allowing gamers to focus more and have fewer distractions from the afterimage of the motions in-game.

Similar to the other XL-K series monitors, the XL2566K provides a comfortable and convenient playing experience with customizable features, a smaller base, and a height adjustable screen.
What’s more, it features the latest XL Setting to Share software that makes saving of video profiles prompt and sharing easier via a user-friendly interface.
Pricing and Availability
The new ZOWIE XL2566K TN 360Hz DyAc+ is currently available at a price of RM2,949 through BenQ’s official online stores on Shopee and Lazada.
Kindly refer to the link below to learn more about the new XL2566K gaming monitor:
https://zowie.benq.com/en-ap/monitor/xl2566k.html

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Logitech MK235 keyboard-mouse combo is extremely versatile

I have to admit – I love wireless keyboard and mouse sets – and personally using one myself, the Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000. I’ve been using it for years already too, and yet it held up. There’s one caveat though – it’s dirty as heck.
Let’s be honest – who didn’t eat in front of their keyboards before? Probably a very small amount of you guys. For those who do however, the keyboard might be filled with food crumbs or oil all over. Hit enter on Logitech’s brand new keyboard-mouse combo – the Logitech MK235.

It’s a full-sized keyboard with a standard 3-button mouse with a scroll wheel (sadly no side buttons), but that’s not it. The entire keyboard is very durably built, and is spill resistant!

The Logitech MK235 uses Logitech’s proprietary dongle, so both keyboard and mouse will be connected without any interference. Yet the entire keyboard-mouse set costs only RM99, and it’ll be available in March – not too far from now actually!
The only caveat here? Not having a standard keyboard layout. They should have the right-click button beside the arrow keys.

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Price of ROG Phone 6D series and Batman Edition confirmed for Malaysia from RM3,499

ASUS Malaysia has finally secured enough stocks to launch the ROG Phone 6D series smartphones and the specially-made Batman Edition package into the local market.

We’ve previously reported on the devices that come with MediaTek’s latest flagship Dimensity 9000+ SoC in order to branch out from the usual Qualcomm models in case you are one of the guys that want doesn’t want to follow the mainstream people and from what we’ve heard, Dimensity chips generally runs cooler assuming a given level of performance gauge.
For more information, you may read our old report about them but let’s hit you up with a spec sheet check since there was none last time.

Model

ROG Phone 6D

ROG Phone 6D Ultimate

ROG Phone 6 Batman Edition

Display

6.78-inch AMOLED (1080p+ Resolution, Notchless, 165Hz Refresh Rate, HDR10+ Support)

Chipset

MediaTek Dimensity 9000+

RAM

12GB

16GB

12GB

Storage

256GB

512GB

256GB

Rear Cameras

Main: 50MP f/1.9 with PDAF
Ultra-Wide: 13MP f/2.2
Macro: 5MP

Front Camera

12MP

Battery

6,000mAh (65W Fast Charge, 10W Reverse Wired Charge)

Miscellaneous

Pressure Sensitive Gaming Triggers, AeroActive Portal (Ultimate Model Exclusive)

Price
The ROG Phone 6D is priced at RM3,499 while the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate is at RM4,999 with the follow-up good news being you may buy them starting tomorrow.
Whereas the ROG Phone 6 Batman Edition comes with a full set of accessories and bundled items at RM4,799 and will become available around the end of this month.

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Post Malone Joins HyperX Family

Imagine this – waking up today and checking my email, and the subject goes something along the lines of “Post Malone is now an ambassador for HyperX.” I had mixed feelings – but knowing HyperX, it’s a good step forward.
Post Malone, an award-winning global superstar is now officially one of the HyperX Gaming Brand Ambassador. As an avid Call of Duty console gamer himself, Post Malone will represent HyperX headsets while gaming and streaming. In addition, HyperX is set to sponsor Post Malone’s first-ever festival, Posty Fest, in Dallas on October 28th with a full roster of talented artists.

HyperX is an innovative gaming company that shares my passion about gaming and its community. “I am honored to be the first musical artist to join the HyperX ambassador family and look forward to the collaborative projects ahead.
– Post Malone
As part of the gaming headset partnership, Post Malone will be prominently featured in HyperX marketing and branding campaigns in 2019. Additionally, Post will be integrating HyperX branding into his Twitch channel. Which means, we might be able to get a free copy of White Iverson when we purchase of HyperX headsets in the future – wouldn’t that be cool?
We’re thrilled to welcome Post Malone to the HyperX family. As HyperX’s first sponsored musician, we’re confident Post’s talent, style, and incredible passion for gaming will play an essential part in our ongoing brand story.
– HyperX
As a sponsor of the inaugural Posty Fest, where Post Malone, Tyler, the Creator and Travis Scott are currently scheduled to perform, HyperX will display gaming headsets including the new Cloud MIX wired for gaming and Bluetooth-enabled for listening to music or chatting with friends.
It goes to show that HyperX is confident that their headphones are liked even by musicians who plays game during their free time. With that said, I’m really hoping that HyperX will make a special edition White Iverson edition of their Cloud headsets some time in the future.

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Xiaomi reveals 4 more Mi 11 variants with the Lite version coming in starting April 6 at RM1,199

Xiaomi has introduced a total of 4 new models into the Mi 11 family ranging from lite use to heavy-duty users with a specialization in photography power.

The 4 models are Mi 11 Lite, Mi 11 Lite 5G, Mi 11i, and Mi 11 Ultra. With so many devices introduced in one go, we’ll keep it short and simple with a big table list instead of the usual points.

Mi 11 Lite

Mi 11 Lite 5G

Mi 11i

Mi 11 Ultra

Display

6.55-inch AMOLED DotDisplay, 90Hz Refresh Rate, HDR10

6.55-inch AMOLED DotDisplay, 90Hz Refresh Rate, HDR10+

6.67-inch AMOLED DotDisplay, 120Hz Refresh Rate, HDR10+

6.81-inch AMOLED Quad-curved DotDisplay, 120Hz Refresh Rate, 1700 nits max brightness

SoC

Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G

Qualcomm Snapdragon 780G

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888

RAM

6GB

Up to 8GB

8GB

12GB

Storage

Up to 128GB

128GB

Up to 256GB

256GB UFS 3.1

Rear Camera

Main: 64MP f/1.79
Ultra-Wide: 8MP f/2.2
Telemacro: 5MP f/2.4

Main: 64MP f/1.79
Ultra-Wide: 8MP f/2.2
Telemacro: 5MP f/2.4

Main: 108MP f/1.75
Ultra-wide: 8MP f/2.2
Telemacro: 5MP f/2.4

Main: 50MP f/1.95, OIS
Ultra-Wide: 48MP f/2.2
Telephoto: 48MP f/4.1

Front Camera

16MP

20MP

20MP

20MP

Battery

4250mAh, 33W Fast Charge

4250mAh, 33W Fast Charge

4250mAh, 33W Fast Charge

5000mAh, 67W Fast Charge, 10W reverse charging

Miscellaneous

Headphone Jack

Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi 6

Rear 1.1-inch AMOLED Display
Wi-Fi 6

Color

Boba Black, Bubblegum Blue, Peach Pink

Truffle Black, Mint Green, Citrus Yellow

Celestial Silver, Frosty White, Cosmic Black

Ceramic White, Ceramic Black

Availability
According to Xiaomi, the Mi 11 Lite will become available starting April 6 at RM1,199 with the rest of the 3 coming in the near future so in the meantime, why not take a look at the Mi 11 Lite first, especially those with light gaming and general use needs.

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Giveaway – GAMDIAS Gaming Peripherals!

Who wants to some new RGB gaming peripherals for free? I’m sure we all do – that’s why we’re hosting a giveaway with GAMDIAS in collaboration with Wavelength.Network, which consists of Tech Critter, My Everyday Tech, and us here from Nasi Lemak Tech.
As you may have already realized, Chinese New Year is around the corner and this is our way of saying thanks for all the continuous support and to wish you all a Happy Chinese New Year!

From now until the 25th February 2018, we’re having a giveaway of a total of 6 GAMDIAS gaming peripherals! We’re giving away the GAMDIAS Hermes M1 keyboard, Hebe M1 headphones, and the Zeus M1 mouse. Two of each, to be exact.
Join now over at the Gleam link below.
GAMDIAS Chinese New Year Giveaway

We recently reviewed the GAMDIAS Zeus P1 RGB gaming mouse here, and also the GAMDIAS Hermes P1 RGB mechanical gaming keyboard here. Check them out, too!
Review – GAMDIAS Zeus P1 RGB Gaming Mouse

Review – GAMDIAS Hermes P1 RGB Mechanical Keyboard

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Samsung Galaxy Tab A (2016) Now Official; Comes with S Pen

So you might’ve thought Samsung would lay low for a while, but no. As many other media has pointed out, Samsung will never be on the brink of extinction because of the Note7 fiasco. They’re going hard and strong as ever – and they’re starting with the new Galaxy Tab A (2016). It comes with an S Pen, and I  think tablets + S Pen is a much better combination.

The brand new Galaxy Tab A (2016) is a 10.1-inch tablet that comes with updated specs and has quite a lot to offer too. With a massive 7,300mAh battery, Samsung claims that it can last for over 13 hours of internet, YouTube, and work.

The Galaxy Tab A (2016) comes with a teeny 16GB storage and can be expanded up to another 256GB via microSD card. Of course, Samsung is generous enough to include 3GB of RAM into the tablet. Comes shipped with a WUXGA TFT screen, it seems like a tablet that is fitting for the current workloads and user demands.

The Galaxy Tab A (2016) is available at Samsung Experience Stores nationwide, and it costs RM1,599 here, inclusive of GST. It’s available in both black and white colours – so pick your choice now.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A (2016) with S Pen
 Product Specifications

Screen Display
10.1” WUXGA (1920×1200) TFT

Pen
S-Pen support

Internal Memory
16GB

RAM
3GB

Up to 256GB

Camera(Rear + Front)
8MP AF (Flash) + 2MP

Battery
7,300 mAh

Processor
1.6GHz Octa-Core

Thickness
8.2mm

Weight
560g

OS
Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Color
Black/White

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[UPDATED] Apple Pay feature now live in Malaysia; Maybank issued Visa/Mastercard exclusive for now

Despite having numerous ups and downs in terms of the emergence of the Apple Pay service like having the official website taken down moments before launch, several sources have confirmed that the long-awaited feature is now accessible for fellow Malaysians.

For the people that don’t have the slightest idea, Apple Pay works mostly the same as Samsung Pay where it’s a secured platform that helps you organize and keep the details of your digital payment options, mostly credit and debit cards, just to name a few.

By saving the banking information of those cards into the service, Apple device owners will not need to present those physical cards during purchases. Instead, they can just launch the app via their iPhone or Apple Watch, place it near the paying terminal, and voila, you’re done.
The good thing about it is that cards are prone to be more exploitive, particularly credit cards as malicious actors could just go brrrrr and PayWave everything they want. But things like a smartphone or smartwatch are less likely to be stolen and require user authentication before they start engaging the payment process.
Not to mention it looks cool because you’re tech-savvy to use them like a boss.
Anyway, with the official website taken down as of now, we only managed to scrounge up some key details that you need. For example, the list of supported cards.
Visa Cards

Maybank Visa Infinite Diamante Card
Maybank Visa Infinite Card
Maybank Manchester United Visa Infinite Card
Maybank Islamic Ikhwan Visa Infinite Card-i
Maybank Visa Signature Card
Maybank FC Barcelona Visa Signature Card
Maybank Shopee Visa Platinum Card
Petronas Maybank Visa Platinum Card
Maybank Islamic Petronas Ikhwan Visa Platinum Card-i
Maybank 2 Visa Platinum Card
Maybank Visa Platinum Card
Maybank Manchester United Visa Card
Maybank Manchester United Visa Limited Edition 2022 Credit Card
Petronas Maybank Visa Gold Card
Maybank 2 Visa Gold Card
Maybank Visa Gold Card
Maybank Visa Classic Card
Maybank Visa Debit Card
Maybank Manchester United Visa Debit Card
Maybank Manchester United Visa Limited Edition 2022 Debit Card
Maybank FC Barcelona Visa Debit Card
Tokyo 2020 Maybank Visa LED Debit Card
Maybank MAE Debit Card
Maybank Visa Manchester United Prepaid Card

Mastercard Cards

Maybank World Mastercard® Card
Maybank Islamic World Mastercard® Ikhwan Card
Maybank Grab Mastercard® Platinum Black Card
Maybank Grab Mastercard® Platinum White Card
Maybank 2 Mastercard® Platinum Card
Maybank Mastercard® Platinum Card
Maybank Islamic Mastercard® Ikhwan Platinum Card
Maybank 2 Mastercard® Gold Card
Maybank Mastercard® Gold Card
Maybank Islamic Mastercard® Ikhwan Gold Card
Maybank Mastercard® Platinum Debit Card
Maybank Mastercard® Classic Card

As the title suggests, Maybank is the first one to officially support their range of issued chipped plastic cards.
Keep in mind that the list is for this particular first launch and some of you smart brains realize there are no American Express (AMEX) cards. A piece of sad news, unfortunately. But Maybank did mention that support is inevitable in the future. The same thing can be said for cards coming out of Maybank Islamic.
Feeling feisty? You can just go punch in your details and see whether your card gets added successfully.
Have fun starting today, fellow Apple fans.

[Updated on August 9, 2022, 7:45 PM]
According to Malaysia’s Apple Pay website, the official supported banks are not only just Maybank but rather, together with Ambank and Standard Chartered.
However, AMEX integration is still the same as spectulated – Coming Soon™.

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