NewsBytes 2019 #2 - GrabExpress rolls out, new Lazada CEO, Yellow Heart initiative by Digi and more

How's is it going, my homies! It's been a while since we did our #NewsBytes but due to the recent Chinese New Year break, there wasn't so much news. So what's in the loop? Aside from the casual news below, there are a couple of interesting tech stuff to talk about - the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10 series livestream has been announced, Energizer came out of nowhere with a 18000mAh + dual pop-up front camera smartphone, Xiaomi Mi 9 has been teased and might be revealed in MWC 2019, we got our first look at the vivo V15 Pro in Malaysia, and other minor stuff that isn't that important.

Out of all of this news, Samsung will be taking all over the internet quite soon when it launches the new flagship series on 20 February 2019 in California. Rumours have it that there will be three Galaxy S10 models, a foldable smartphone called Galaxy F, a new Galaxy smartwatch and accessories like a wireless earbud. Be prepared to see a ton of Samsung news in the next coming days and we will definitely be covering all these. Personally, the Galaxy F is the most interesting one but it's not likely to go on commercial sale...or IS IT? Time will tell.

Anyway...onto the NEWSBYTES. Om nom nom.

Finally, after a long period of its beta testing, GrabExpress by Grab is now ready for service. If you have no idea what it is, it's basically like Poslaju, but by Grab. According to Grab, GrabExpress has seen a 10x increase in deliveries since October last year with more than 50% being return customers. During the same period, the number of delivery partners is increasing steadily week on week.

To celebrate this occasion, first-time users of the on-demand delivery service will be able to get RM5 OFF x 1 delivery with the promo code, ‘GRABEXPRESS’. The promotion is limited to the first 1000 redemptions SO ACT FAST!

After the CNY festive season, Lazada Malaysia has announced a new Chief Executive Officer, Leo Chow. His role has already started since January this year and will lead the strategic development and growth of Lazada in Malaysia.

Chow has been with Lazada Malaysia since 2018 as the regional Executive Vice President, where he developed and implemented regional category and assortment strategies; and managed traffic policies on marketing platforms. He also brings in a wealth of experience from his eight years at Taobao, where he was responsible for Taobao Global Platform, introduced a new model of cross-border business based on social eCommerce, and held category management roles. Chow was also part of the team that facilitated Alibaba's investment and integration of Lazada.

To make the internet a better place, Digi has launched "Together for Better Internet" from the recent Safer Internet Day 2019 event. With this, the "yellow man" has released several Public Service Announcement (PSA) videos across 30 Digi stores across the nation during Valentine's and the day after, along with related materials about having a safe internet on its social media platform.

“Digi is obsessed with our vision to create a safer internet experience for all and at the same time strengthen the digital resilience skills for all Malaysians against online dangers. We are hoping that having the awareness and the right knowledge will empower more parents to have an active role in their children’s online experience, including the ability to identify the multiple types of cyber risks. Hence, the decision to showcase all of our Yellow Heart educational PSA videos in our retail stores for these two days, on top of other activities to be carried out via our social media channels,” said Philip Ling, Digi’s Head of Sustainability.

To date, through the various programmes organised under its Yellow Heart initiative with various partners, Digi has reached out to more than 650,000 children across the nation. You can check out the Yellow Heart series at their YouTube channel right here or visit their website for more information.

Meanwhile, Celcom celebrated their Chinese New Year at their office but this time, it was held at their new HQ in Petaling Jaya, @celcom. About 400 staff came and this includes Idham Nawawi, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad, and Celcom’s senior management. As per tradition, there was tons of food to eat, lion dance performance and ang pows given out.

Idham Nawawi, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad (second from right, front row) and members of Celcom’s Senior management, together with the lion dance troupe wishes everyone Happy Chinese New Year 2019!

Also on Sunday (17 February 2019), Realme Malaysia just had its first ever fans gathering at the Realme Image Store in Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall. Those who were present managed to have an up-close look at the Realme C1, Realme 2 and Realme 2 Pro smartphones, as well as participating in fun and interactive games, taking home exciting prizes such as Realme earphones and backpacks.

“We have hosted our first fans gathering to get to know more about our loyal Realme fans and to also get their feedback on our products. We will be holding more fans gatherings in the future and will continue to interact with our fans in engaging activities,” said Tiffany Teh, Brand Manager, Realme Malaysia.

On the other hand, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) has been contracted to put some lighting show on the Iconic London Bridge. Why? Well, it's part of a public art commission and while it may not seem like a big deal to us, it's a huge milestone for the company to mark a momentous occasion to reinvigorate London’s most memorable landscapes.

Furthermore, this will go on for the next 10 years and more than 22,000 connected Philips Color Kinetics LED light points, capable of displaying over 16 million colours, will be used to create dynamic lighting effects on up to 15 London bridges including the famous London Bridge, Millenium Bridge, Westminster Bridge. This will be surely a sight to see at night so do check it out if you're in London!

Speaking of foreign countries, OPPO has announced its entry into three new European markets with consecutive launches in the United Kingdom, Turkey and Poland. For OPPO, launching in the UK marks a major milestone and the company kicked off its first in a series of launch events at the Tower Bridge in London on January 29th (local time), with a theme of “The Time is Now”. The technology includes the familiar ones that we know of, such as the SuperVOOC charging technology, the flagship Find X and the R-series - RX17 Pro and RX17 Neo.

“The Time is Now for users to bring their imagination to life through the technological power and design of OPPO,” said Terrence Tan, OPPO UK Executive Director of Sales. “We are excited to deliver innovative OPPO products to Europe that continue to surprise and inspire people to look up and out through their phones and into the world around them.”

In continuing the usage of going cashless, TNG Digital has announced a new partnership with Ar-Rahah Mosque in Kampung Kerinchi, to innovate a new way to donate and contribute, through the Touch ‘n Go eWallet. In other words, visitors of the mosque can now make their contributions and donations with the push of a button on their smartphones (SAY WHAT LOL).

Ustaz Khairul Hafiz from Ar-Rahah said that “We need to be open to accepting technology as a means to improve ourselves and the community we live in. Through this programme with TNG Digital, we are helping to foster more balanced future leaders”.

Finally, Cytron Technologies, a Penang-based company that designs and manufactures educational robotic kits, launched its latest product (rero:micro robot) and officially kickstarted its outreach campaign to bring robotics and coding to the masses. This outreach campaign is a joint effort between Cytron and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) in support of #mydigitalmaker movement, which aims to transform Malaysian youth from digital users to producers in the digital economy.

According to Cheryl Ng, head of rero EDUteam at Cytron, this is the third year they are running this outreach campaign with support from the Ministry of Education. rero: micro is a child-friendly robot kit that is specially designed to encourage young children to learn to code in a fun and easy manner. It comes with a game track and a 10-lesson booklet with a step-by-step guide, fun facts and coding challenges. The robots will be placed at the community Digital Maker Hub in Cyberjaya for teachers and students to use.

That's all, folks. Stay tuned for more NewsBytes at TechNave.com!


NewsBytes 2019 #20 - realme gets #1 in 9.9 Lazada, AlibabaTaobao Maker Festival and more

Well, it's certainly been an eventful week TechNavers, as this year's 9.9 online sale happened on Monday, it quickly got followed up by the Apple iPhone 11, new Apple iPad, Apple Watch Series 5 and Apple Arcade launch. Quite a lot of things got confirmed, even the controversial rear design but check them out above for more details.

However, for some, the news below are even more important, so here's TechNave NewsBytes 2019 #20 for the bits and bytes of Malaysia's tech world last week.

After the annual 9.9 online sale, realme Malaysia got No.1 best selling smartphone brand at Lazada's 9.9 online sale. The realme 3 Pro(4+64GB) was offered exclusively for Lazada shoppers at only RM 699 while realme’s value king the realme C2 (2+16GB) was sold at an affordable price of RM 299 on Crazy Brand Mega Offer on Lazada 9.9 sale at the realme Lazada store.

“At realme, we believe in offering the best product with the best value for our fans. Together with Lazada, we have achieved another record breaking milestone with our devices being the best selling smartphone brand on Lazada 9.9 Sale yesterday. We are proud to be partnering with Lazada to reach out to more Malaysian fans in giving them access to realme’s leap-forward technology,” Tiffany Teh, Brand Manager of realme Malaysia.

Celcom recently announced their business performance with 1.9% year to date revenue growth for their post-paid and prepaid services in Q2 2019. Their 4G population coverage rose to 93% whilst 4G LTE-A coverage grew to 81% compared to 89% and 76% respectively in Q2 2018.

Celcom’s strong network recorded a 39% YoY increase in average data usage to 13.3GB per month per sub in 2Q19, leading to a 2.9% QoQ revenue growth for its post-paid and prepaid services. Its focus on high-value customers contributed positively with a RM1 increase in post-paid Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) to RM85, and a Prepaid ARPU increase by RM3 to RM37 as compared to the previous quarter. Together with Celcom’s cost discipline, as of 1H19, EBITDA was lifted by 4.7%, FCF by 5% and PATAMI by 11.7%.

Moving forward Celcom will further intensify its focus towards profitability and operational excellence with smart investments such as delivering end-to-end Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions for industries across key verticals in Malaysia, in preparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0). Celcom will continue capitalising on new technologies and services, in-line with the government’s National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) to accelerate the nation’s baseline of 98% broadband coverage in populated areas by 2023 with a minimum broadband speed of 30Mbps nationwide.

Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (Digi) has rolled out MY Digital SME, a programme that aims to equip small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with tools and skills that will help give their businesses an online presence, enabling them for growth beyond the Malaysian borders. Held in collaboration with SME Corp, Mahir Digital Bersama Google, AVANA Facebook Commerce, REV Asia and Shopee, the programme is designed to be a hands-on workshop whereby upon completion of the full-day workshop, business owners and entrepreneurs can expect to create an online presence for their business.

To date, more than 500 local business owners and entrepreneurs have benefitted from the first two workshops held in Ipoh, Perak and Kota Bahru, Kelantan. With two more workshops in the pipeline, Digi’s Chief Business Officer, Eugene Teh believes that MY Digital SME will be able to empower over 1000 Malaysian SMEs to digitalise their business, further fostering digital growth in the SME segment.

Mahir Digital Bersama Google is sharing best practices on how to make your business stand out on Google Search and Maps; AVANA Facebook Commerce is conducting a workshop on how business owners can engage effectively with customers on social media; REV Asia is presenting on content marketing and amplifying brand presence; and Shopee is providing an introduction to e-commerce via their platform.

The remaining MY Digital SME workshops in the country will be held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (21 September) and Kuching, Sarawak (5 October). For more information on how to register for MY Digital SME, visit their site.

Maxis recently announced a strategic partnership with Cisco, to jointly deliver a wide range of market leading technologies for businesses in Malaysia. The first of many planned joint offerings from this partnership for the Malaysian market is the Managed Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solution for business.

SD-WAN allows for simplification in the management, deployment and administration of organisations’ network requirements. This enables operational tasks such as configuration, management and maintenance to be significantly simplified. Businesses are able to benefit from improved visibility and cost reduction by choosing to run over more cost-efficient connectivity options via Maxis’ varied network solutions. Check out the details at the Maxis site.

Lenovo recently launched their ‘Smarter Technology for All’ multichannel campaign. Designed for 12 different markets and in 14 separate languages, it will run across out-of-home advertising, cinema, TV and digital, and social media including China, US, UK, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Japan, India, Brazil, and Mexico.

The campaign features stories of how customers are transforming the world, and how Lenovo is helping them do it. The list includes healthcare to engineering to motorsports and more but you can check it out in the video below or go to their site for more details.

The Samsung Galaxy Note10 and Note10+, are packed with features and technologies to help you do more, experience more, and pursue your passions. While users are already aware of the device’s popular showcase features—from the pro-grade camera with Live Focus video to the edge-to-edge, fully immersive Cinematic Infinity Display—the Galaxy Note10 and Note10+ come with plenty more innovative capabilities than may first meet the eye.

Samsung Malaysia have put together an article to show you things you might not know you can do with these devices. Check it out for yourself at their site.

Taobao recently kicked off its fourth Taobao Maker Festival with the 2019 festival held at two different Hangzhou venues. It will showcase over 1,000 new and creative products, along with the most exciting avant-garde designs at the Broken Bridge Fashion Show, which opens the two-week festival.

The exhibition will cluster around six themes: technology, Chinese culture, trends, design, food and creativity. The Broken Bridge Fashion Show, which drew a huge crowd last year, will return on Sept. 12 with even more fascinating brands and designers. Also taking place at the West Lake venue will be a six-day intangible cultural heritage exhibition on Solitary Hill and a lantern carnival dedicated to the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Featured new products will include a vegan meat launched by Hong Kong social enterprise GreenMonday, powered exoskeletons launched by C-Exoskeleton, a virtual-reality headset launched by HTC and simultaneous translation technology launched by iFlytek, among many others.

With a focus on fashion trends popular among Generation Z and an aim to support young designers pursue their dreams, the Broken Bridge Fashion Show will continue to feature both Chinese and international brands, as well as world-renowned independent designers including Chayalan, Koche, Chen Peng, Ban Xiaoxue, Wanbing Huang, Li-Ning, Particle Fever and Kappa. Many of the fashion houses will launch special-edition designs at the Festival.

Alibaba’s entire economy will also participate at this year’s Festival to enhance the experience for participants. For example, Ele.me, Alibaba Group’s local services platform, has created a “rocket dining hall” built from parts of a Long March rocket to offer a fun dining experience for visitors. Fliggy, Alibaba Group’s online travel platform, will provide visitors with Hangzhou sightseeing suggestions.

Taobao continues to strengthen its status as the go-to platform for new brands and products. In the coming three years, Taobao plans to incubate 200,000 merchants with over RMB5 million each in annual sales. Taobao statistics released in July this year showed that new merchants who joined Taobao over the past three years achieved a total turnover of nearly RMB500 billion in the 2019 fiscal year. As of the end of 2018, there were nearly 50,000 independent designers running their business on Taobao, most of whom are in their 20s and early 30s.

Lazada Malaysia set a new record during its 9.9 Big Discovery Sale, beating its full day 2018 9.9 sales tally in just 2 hours. As the 24-hour extravaganza came to a close, Lazada reported a sales volume increase of over 3x compared to the previous year, with a staggering 500,000 items sold in the first 2 hours alone.

At its peak, shoppers were making more than 4,600 purchases per minute, with over 14x more customers using their Lazada Wallet over the 24-hour period. This showed an increase in preference for cashless transactions, which provided customers with a more rewarding payment option with exclusive cashback and discounts.

Lazada’s Chup Dulu pre-sale feature enabled customers put down a deposit to secure products at great discounts ahead of sale day, and to take their time to discover more deals throughout the day. Consumers were kept entertained while they shopped with experiences for Discovery through Lazada’s innovative Shoppertainment highlights. The popular Lazada in-app GUESS IT livestream show, hosted by personalities Sean Lee, Nabil Aqil, and Theebaan G, returned for a second run after a successful pilot during the Lazada Mid-Year Sale, and garnered 25% more participants from 6 to 8 September.

These Discoveries were fulfilled by Lazada’s leading first to last mile logistics capabilities, with the first parcel shipped out of one of Lazada’s eight warehouses before 12:30am. The first order, which was confirmed at 12:01am, was delivered to a customer in Petaling Jaya at 8:46am by Lazada eLogistics Express (LEX). During its peak, Lazada eLogistics (LeL) employees were packing over 12,000 items per hour.

This year, Malaysia celebrates its 62nd year of freedom, marking the anniversary of the day the Federation of Malaya gained independence from the British rule  on the 31st of August 1957. Fast forward to 2019, Malaysians are enjoying a different kind of freedom, now with the seamless convenience of connectivity and the power of choice in a click of a few buttons. And Netflix offers just that. The freedom to choose from more than 140 million hours of TV shows and movies, and watch as much as you want, anytime, anywhere, on nearly any Internet-connected device.

The best part is that you also have the freedom to play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments. Heck, you can even make choices for the characters of  Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and choose how the story unfolds. Check out the tips below:

In celebration of Merdeka and National Day, Netflix is showcasing Bebas Bersama Netflix with its diverse offering of Malaysian content for viewers around the world, including some of the best Malaysian Box Office Hits including Munafik 2, Hantu Kak Limah, and Paskal: The Movie, Pulang, Jagat, and the multiple award winning Crossroads: One Two Jaga.

So that's all for this week's TechNave NewsBytes. Stay tuned for more tech bits and bytes in the coming weeks at TechNave.com


NewsBytes 2019 #21 - Samsung goes Platinum twice, Celcom + Google + MoE, Grab, TikTok, Alibaba and more

It’s been a busy past 2 weeks with the official Apple iPhone 11 series launch in Malaysia so if you wanted to get an iPhone 11 on Digi or U Mobile we’ve got the details but if you’re still on the fence as to which telco you’d go for we’ve also got a total round-up comparison as well. If you’re still on the fence because of the camera capabilities we also managed to check that out too. The Huawei Mate 30 series is coming to Malaysia, while the Vivo Y12 arrived already but Spiderman rejoined the MCU (for how long? Depends on Sony).

The OnePlus 7T launched in India (wonder when that one is coming to Malaysia) and Honor showed off one of their first HarmonyOS devices with the Honor Vision Pro Smart TV. Official China pricing for the Huawei Mate 30 series came out, and it’s not as bad as the initial euro pricing, so we’re hoping Malaysian pricing will be around there or lower. DxOMark also gave the Huawei Mate 30 Pro the highest score available currently while Opensignal marked which telco was the top in their latest Mobile Network Experience Report for Malaysia September 2019.

The Fitbit Versa 2 and Fitbit Aria Aria air smartwatches also got released in Malaysia while Sharp did a world’s first with a smartphone packing a 240Hz refresh rate display. We checked out our first above RM300K gadget with the Mercedes AMG A35 Sedan, good guy Xiaomi gave Malaysian schools air purifiers and even came out with the world’s first surround display smartphone with the Mi MIX alpha and more. So those were the highlights for us but do check out the NewsBytes below.

Samsung Malaysia Electronics recently bagged two highly-coveted Platinum Awards under the “Communication Devices” and “Cameras, IT and Office & Business Equipment” categories at the 2019 Putra Brand Awards. In addition to that, Samsung took home a Gold award for its contribution to the “Personal, Households & Outdoor Appliances” segment as well.

“The past 50 years have been amazing for Samsung, and we are truly proud and grateful for everything that we have accomplished. Currently, our next bold vision is to take it to the next level – to truly make the idea of Connected Living a reality. This means producing half a billion devices a year that are both connected and intelligent. With that, a whole new world of connectivity and convenience will be ushered in, allowing us to focus on the most important things. We started off as a humble trading business 50 years ago, but have now evolved into an undisputed global leader in IT and consumer electronics that we are today.

Essentially, this is exactly what we want to inspire in our consumers – to do what you can’t. Being recognised with three of the highest Putra Brand Awards means a lot to us at Samsung, as it means that we have been doing the right things for our consumers. Over the years, our deep understanding of users’ needs has manifested into ground-breaking innovations; and as such, we continue to rewrite history with unparalleled innovations such as the Infinity-O Display, the Samsung One UI, and consumer electronics products’ that are seamlessly integrated via SmartThings. We are ecstatic about the win yet humbled at the same time, as we have set a high bar for ourselves that we must adhere to.

Over the decades, we have built an unwavering trust through pioneering technology. 50 great years have passed, and as Samsung propels towards the next 50 years, there are two guiding principles that will stand the test of time – innovation and trust. These two key principles are what we will hold onto more firmly than ever as we continue our pursuit of more inventive innovations that will make our vision of Connected Living a reality,” Yoonsoo Kim, President of Samsung Malaysia Electronics.

In related news, Samsung also announced that the Galaxy Note10 has been named by the Wi-Fi Alliance as the first smartphone to be certified for the new Wi-Fi 6 standard. Wi-Fi 6 will operate in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, offer greater capacity than previous generations and double the number of spatial streams.

Grab celebrated their ‘Grab For Good’ campaign to offer more support for the nearly 800 persons with disabilities (PWD) who earn on Grab, 500 of which are Malaysians. The drivers range from the deaf and hard-of-hearing to those who are wheelchair-bound. The event also appointed for the first time, PWD Driver and Delivery Partner Representative Committee (DRC) who will represent the 500 Grab driver and delivery partners.

In line with the International Week for the Deaf, the GrabforGood Celebration this year kicked off with the announcement that BreaktheSilence 2019 in partnership with the Malaysian Federation of the Deaf previously launched in 2018. This partnership has resulted in  initiatives including The Sign Language Dictionary, collaterals like in-car hanger, passenger , driver and merchant flip cards, sign language classes and more will be expanding to other countries in Southeast Asia.

Celcom Axiata Berhad recently partnered with the Ministry of Education Malaysia and Google for a two-day digital marketing bootcamp for local undergraduates. Held from 28-29 September 2019, KPM-Celcom Siswapreneur @ Google Bootcamp 2019 is a short course programme that gathers over 250 local undergraduates from 40 public and private universities, polytechnics, and colleges nationwide. The programme is also opened to employees and lecturers from the respective institutions.

The bootcamp which was held for the second time, is a part of KPM-Celcom Siswapreneur programme, established between the telco and the Ministry of Education Malaysia since 2016. The programme was initiated with the aim to create interest, strengthen and develop students’ entrepreneurship mind-sets, skills and talents, producing more digital entrepreneurs.

During the bootcamp, Google shared significant training modules such as the basics to kick-start a business, the basics of digital marketing, online tools for market research, and social media strategies for businesses. The KPM-Celcom Siswapreneur @Google Bootcamp 2019 was officiated by Yang Berhormat Dr. Maszlee bin Malik, Minister of Education at Residensi UTM KL.  Also present were Idham Nawawi, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad, Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Kamel bin Mohamad, Deputy Secretary General, Strategic Planning, Ministry of Education, Yang Berbahagia Datuk Hamisah binti Tapsir, Director General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, and Nick Bauer, Head of Public Policy, Google.

TikTok has teamed up with K-pop superstars BTS, to launch its #CNSchallenge campaign to usher in the reveal of BTS band member, j-hope’s latest hit – ‘Chicken Noodle Soup (feat. Becky G)’. This challenge aims to deliver j-hope’s ‘Chicken Noodle Soup (feat. Becky G)’ to the world in a new way on TikTok.

From now till October 4th, TikTok users in Malaysia and throughout the world are invited to show off their love for BTS through the #CNSchallenge by uploading creative videos of themselves dancing to the beat of the Chicken Noodle Soup’s catchy chorus. BTS members themselves will be uploading their own videos for this challenge on their official BTS TikTok account.

Ahead of the Apple iPhone 11 launch in Malaysia on 27 September 2019, Shopee presented those who pre-ordered the device 10 hours before. Simon Chen Yuen Keong, 32, was the first in Malaysia to receive the highly coveted all-new iPhone 11 at Shopee Malaysia’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. He purchased a unit of 128GB iPhone 11 in Black. More than 50 other Shopee users were also there at Shopee HQ eagerly waited for the iPhone 11, of which collection began at 12am sharp.

The iPhone 11 series is available in six colours: white, black, green, yellow, purple and red starting from RM3,399. All iPhone 11 devices sold on Shopee are 100% original Apple Malaysia products; standard Apple iPhone warranty applies for the devices.

Alibaba Cloud, the data intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, recently launched the 3rd generation of X-Dragon Architecture to advance the computing era for artificial intelligence (AI). This upgrade will be rolled out to millions of Alibaba Cloud servers around the world from next year and will increase their performance by five times in key metrics.

In total, Alibaba Cloud announced 85 new products and features at the annual flagship Apsara Conference, making significant advancements in the company’s evolution to data intelligence and AI-powered cloud. In the past six months, Alibaba Cloud has added 597 new products and features and more than 300 solutions to its portfolio, expanding a suite of cloud-native and AI-driven offerings. Data can now be analyzed and visualized in real-time to generate actionable insights.

The 3rd generation of X-Dragon Architecture seamlessly integrates computing platforms including the elastic container service (ECS) bare metal server and virtual machines within a single architecture. During tests of e-commerce scenarios with high levels of demand for AI usage, the new X-Dragon architecture increased queries-per-second (QPS) by 30% and decreased latency by 60%. The cloud native nature of the solution means zero power wastage from running physical servers, and therefore reducing the unit computing cost by 50%.

Alibaba Cloud also introduced the 6th Generation of ECS instance, which is based on the X-Dragon architecture. This generation of ECS instance delivers 20% improvement in computing power, 30% reduction in memory latency and 70% reduction in storage IO latency.

Also announced was the newly launched OSS Inner Trail which will log all applicable cloud operations, providing an additional layer of transparency to the customers who may have a higher demand on compliance and audits, for example customers in the finance industry. Alibaba also unveiled their Hanguang 800 NPU, its first AI inference chip developed by T-Head under the Alibaba DAMO Academy, an initiative to lead technology development and scientific research.

For the first time ever, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB), will be having its very own world championship, titled MLBB World Championship 2019 (M1). The M1 main event will be taking place on 15 – 17 November 2019 at Axiata Arena, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with the Group Stage taking place on 11 – 14 November 2019.

The world championship will feature the top 16 professional MLBB teams from 14 nations to battle it out for the lion’s share of the USD $250,000 total prize pool. The 16 teams will consist of 8 direct-invited teams via Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Myanmar and 8 qualified teams via M1 Qualifiers in Brazil, Cambodia, Japan, Thailand and Laos, Russia, Turkey, Vietnam and the USA. On board as M1 official sponsors are U Mobile and Youtube.

For the M1 Grand Finals on 15 – 17 November 2019, there are 3 types of ticket passes: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Tickets sales have begun with 3-Day passes and 1-Day passes available now. The 3-Day passes comes with MLBB in-game items, with the Gold ticket granting an exclusive M1 goodie bag as well. All tickets are free seating within the designated tier and all ticket-holders are able to participate in the lucky draw during the event. Check out more details at their site.

The Adobe Fresco app is now available on the Apple App Store. The app is available free for Creative Cloud subscribers, and non-subscribers can download a free version that has most of the same features, but lacks some brushes and limits the file export size to iPad screen resolution. There’s also an option to buy a standalone version of the app for USD$9.99 a month, which comes with the first six months for free if you purchase before December 31st, 2019. However, any new features added to the app later will only be available to users with a Creative Cloud plan.

Adobe Fresco has a range of features for illustrators and designers of all skill levels. The highlight, however, is Fresco’s Live Brushes, which uses Adobe Sensei’s AI platform to produce realistic watercolour and oil paint strokes. The app also allows artists to work with both vector and raster brushes and to export work to desktop Adobe apps as well as to download and import their own brushes. Check out the site for more info.

The Sixth #MYCYBERSALE 2019, Malaysia’s largest online sale, is optimistic of reaping RM500 million in revenue during the week-long period from 27 September 2019 till 3 October 2019. FPX joins PIKOM as a title partner with consumers who pay for their online purchases of at least RM 5 through FPX would be eligible to participate in a FPX contest offering RM270,000 worth of prizes, including 2 units of Proton X70 and a total of RM50,000 worth of shopping vouchers.

“PIKOM is extremely proud to announce that this year, the online shopping sale is fully private-sector funded. It took us six years to reach this far, making this an industry-led event as has been the original intent from the very beginning. With further support from both the Government and the private-sector, we will see growth in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and numbers of merchants participating, from Malaysia and Asian countries,” Ganesh Kumar Bangah, Chairman of PIKOM.

Astro GO users can now record all their favourite shows simultaneously with the new cloud recording feature. Astro GO users will be entitled to record and store up to 200 hours for free and easily manage, book and watch their recorded shows from their devices. The cloud feature allows for unlimited simultaneous recording on Astro GO.

Users can upgrade their cloud storage to a total of 400 hours (RM12/month) or a total of 1,500 hours (RM15/month) by visiting www.astro.com.my/selfservice. Customers are encouraged to update their Astro GO app on Google Play Store (Android) or Apple App Store (iOS) to begin enjoying the cloud recording feature. Astro GO is FREE for all Astro customers.

So, that's all for now TechNavers. Looks like this week is going to be another really busy week in tech but all the more reason for you to stay tuned to TechNave.com.


NewsBytes 2019 #3 - More MWC19 news, new partnerships, new apps and more

What's up, TechNavers? Of course, it was the MWC 2019 all week! We covered multiple MWC stuff that happened over the past few days, our boy, Jim managed to have a first impression + hands-on experience of the foldable Huawei Mate X smartphone, the untouchable (literally) Sony Xperia 1 and Xperia 10 series, the penta-camera Nokia 9 PureView, the 48MP Xiaomi Mi 9, an 18,000mAh Energizer smartphone, and many more MWC 2019 stuff (which you can find on our search engine). Also not forgetting the new vivo V15 Pro release in Malaysia on Super Brand Day, and of course - the Samsung Galaxy S10 series has officially launched in Malaysia!

Speaking of Samsung, the new flagship has exceeded our expectations! We have been playing around with it and so far, our favourite feature is the camera aspect and we recently wrote the Top 5 New Samsung Galaxy S10 camera features You Should Know About, as well as Top 5 Features the Samsung Galaxy S10 series got right. In my opinion, it's a worthy upgrade from the predecessor and that says a lot. So give it a read, y'all!

Anyway, onto other MWC 2019 and local news that also happened during this hectic week.

As always, Wiko made its presence in MWC 2019 and announced two new smartphones - View3 Pro and View3. These are two new mid-range tier devices and packing some respectable tech specs.

No price and availability were announced, though, and we aren't sure if Wiko plans to bring them into Malaysia. Below is the summary of what the two phones are featuring:

Speaking of MWC 2019, Celcom actually made a surprise appearance there and together with Microsoft Malaysia, the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for strategic collaboration between both parties to accelerate their shift to Cloud and re-imagine their work culture to better suit the digital needs for the upcoming 5G era.

With the new partnership, the MoU will see the joint deployment of Microsoft Teams and Yammer at @celcom for the design and building of a Celcom – Microsoft Innovation Centre, which will deliver customer-centric solutions that will improve Celcom’s customers’ IOT journey, as well as supporting Celcom with technology skills programs to develop new skills for Celcom’s workforce, focusing on Cloud and Security. To read the full story, you can check it out at Microsoft's Newsroom here.

Idham Nawawi (left), Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad and Alberto Granados (right), Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Operations at Microsoft Asia Pacific came together to mark the occasion

At another partnership signing, OPPO and Ericsson today announced the signing of a multi-year global patent license agreement between the two companies. The agreement covers patent licensing, and collaboration on a number of business projects.

Adler Feng, Head of OPPO Intellectual Property Department, said that the agreement will lay a solid foundation for further cooperation between the two companies in the 5G era. As of January 2019, the company has filed more than 33,000 patent applications worldwide and owns more than 8,000 granted patents. The deal with Ericsson is the latest in a series of patent license agreements by OPPO with key telecommunication industry partners including Qualcomm, Dolby and Nokia. OPPO will continue to work closely with leading industry partners to bring the best products and experiences to consumers globally.

So apparently, there was a recent Safer Internet Day (SID) global movement in Malaysia. A campaign by TikTok, #BetterMeBetterInternet is aimed to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology for young people. They are in partnership with key non-governmental organizations in Malaysia including P.S. The Children Malaysia, Yayasan Generasi Gemilang and the Malaysian Council For Child Welfare to promote online safety.

Campaigns like the #BetterMeBetterInternet campaign encourages the adoption of positive online habits through the application of customized stickers designed. With these stickers, users can embrace positive hashtags such as #likes, #Respect, #Positivity, #Creativity, #Security, and shove away negative hashtags such as #5badhabits #Cyber-bullying, #Negativity, #Trolls, #Anxiety, and #Haters. TikTok has also launched an in-app quiz to equip users with online safety tips, and users who answer all the questions correctly stand a chance to win special prizes, with winners being contacted via in-app push notification for prize delivery. For more information about TikTok’s safety efforts, you can visit the Safety Centre here.

If you mix up Tinder and job seeking apps, what do you find? If your answer is SlingApp, you're right and it's currently the fastest growing job-seeking app in Malaysia. Targetted towards young job seekers between the age of 18-30 years old, SlingApp is in partnership with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, MDEC’s eRezeki.

SlingApp Founders, Teh Tian Ji (left) and Lucas Wong officially launched the app for jobseekers to look for jobs under one minute

Co-Founder of SlingApp, Teh Tian Ji (郑天吉) said, “After our official appointment as a partner for the eRezeki programme, a government initiative under the MDEC on 15 November 2018, we are launching various campaigns to reach out to the B40 group nationwide to encourage them to sign up and get job matches. We aim that by the end of 2019, there will be more than 1 million successful job matches through this initiative. This will ultimately create more digital income opportunities while filling up the existing void in various industries.”

Since its launch in 2017, SlingApp has successfully matched 40,000 job seekers to more than 2,000 companies including major global brands such as DiGi Communications, AEON, Mary Kay, Sushi King, Tony Roma’s and Public Mutual. These subscribing employers have posted more than 5,000 jobs. Interestingly, youngsters between the age of 21 and 26 contribute 58% of the growing database on SlingApp.

In the coming months, SlingApp targets to include job opportunities outside Klang Valley, including Penang and Johor. The Malaysian based startup is also keen to expand within the countries in the Southeast Asia region such as Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

To learn more about SlingApp, visit www.slingapp.my!

In addition to the new Razer HQ in Malaysia recently, they have introduced promo coupons and instant messaging to the Razer Pay e-wallet app in Malaysia. This includes features such as purchases and promotions at thousands of online and offline participating retailers that users can collect and store in their own “Pockets”, transferring and receiving money from friends, and topping up and withdrawing funds easily.

Also, Razer Pay has partnered with 7-Eleven to offer an exclusive launch promotion. Every Razer Pay user in Malaysia can get one RM5 coupon from within the app (subject to availability) from February 25th to March 3rd to use for any purchase in 7-Eleven, with no minimum purchase required. From March 4th onwards, a limited quantity of RM5 and RM3 7-Eleven coupons will be released daily at 9.00 am and 1.00 pm respectively. Users can get one of each coupon and use them until March 15th.

Mr Syahrunizam Samsudin (left), CEO of TNG Digital Sdn Bhd and Mr Shahrul Nizar Ahmad (right), General Manager of KidZania Kuala Lumpur Mayor of Kid Zania Kuala Lumpur at the signing ceremony to mark its strategic partnership in educating kids and the future generation about going cashless

In another cashless news, KidZania Kuala Lumpur announced its partnership with TNG Digital Sdn. Bhd. The partnership will spearhead the adoption of cashless mobile payment with the Touch ‘n Go KidZania eWallet app to be applied as part of the payment system at KidZania Kuala Lumpur. The app, is the first of its kind among the KidZania franchise where it accepts kidzos, the KidZania currency, as part of its transaction and to be accessed in the award-winning edutainment centre.

In conjunction with the adoption of cashless transaction in KidZania Kuala Lumpur, both the edutainment centre and TNG Digital will also introduce the Touch ‘n Go eWallet Experiential Centre later in the year to further encourage the adoption of cashless payments among kids in KidZania Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, the Alibaba Group launched seven new solutions and two new features for the international markets at the MWC 2019. It ranges from serverless computing, data analytics, global networking, high-performance storage, and database for enterprises.

One fine product example - the Realtime Compute can process millions of events/sec and support real-time decision makings, such as for fraud detection, social analytics, and QoS monitoring of Telco networks. For managing and analyzing large data, Alibaba Cloud introduced an improved DataWorks, MaxCompute 2.0 and Data Lake Analytics for handling petabytes of data. You can find out more about it at their newsroom here.

In the financial side, Lenovo recently announced the results for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2018. The company posted its highest group revenue in four years of US$14 billion, up 8.5% YOY (12.8% YOY excluding currency impact). The company reported strong pre-tax income of US$350 million (up 133% / +US$200 million over the previous year) - an all-time record for the company as all businesses continued to report profit improvements.

Other noted achievements for the quarter include –

Welp, cool story bro. Congrats nonetheless.

(L-R) David Rajoo, Chief Cybersecurity Architect and Sherif El-Nabawi, Vice President, Sales Engineering & service provider sales

Another cool story, bro, is about Internet Security Threat Report by Symantec. According to its Symantec Internet Security ThreatReport Shares Current State of Cybersecurity in Malaysia, there are details about the latest trends in cybersecurity, including cryptojacking, ransomware, cloud and the breakthrough threat of 2018: formjacking.Formjacking is a threat that cybercriminals have been profiting from following the diminishing returns from ransomware and cryptojacking. The report found that more than 4,800 unique websites are compromised with formjacking code every month alone. You can read all about it here if you're into this kind of stuff and even join the webinar here.

At the graphics corner, AMD is pleased to announce support for Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics processors in Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition drivers. As promised by AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su during the CES Keynote, AMD is offering supplemental support for Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics processors via AMD.com driver postings which you can find it here.

With the link given, consumers will be able to get incredible drivers, designed to deliver stable and reliable experiences through extensive quality-assurance and third-party testing, and all notebooks and desktops powered by Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics processor will be supported with Radeon Settings in Radeon Software. Sounds pretty good to me!

Finally, PCMark 10 will have two new benchmark tests based on Microsoft Office applications. The two new benchmark tests which measure the battery life and Applications performance. The PCMark 10 Battery Life Profile will provide a broad view of battery life across four common scenarios: modern office work, video, gaming, and idle time. Comparing the battery life profiles of different models will give you a much better understanding of each device's relative strengths. It's scheduled to come at the end of March.

On the other hand, the PCMark 10 Applications benchmark is a new test that is based on Microsoft Office applications. Featuring tests that run in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Edge, the PCMark 10 Applications benchmark helps you measure practical, real-world performance and battery life for the modern office. You will also be able to benchmark the latest Snapdragon-powered Always Connected PCs running Windows 10 on ARM, with results that are comparable with scores from traditional x86-based devices. It's scheduled to be released in the first half of 2019.

That's all, folks. Have a great Sunday funday!


NewsBytes 2019 #4 - New smartphones releasing this week, Celcom CSR, new Acer storage solutions and more

How are you peeps doing? It has been a somewhat quiet week in the tech industry. Huawei Malaysia wasted no time bringing the Nova 4e into Malaysia even before its China counterpart officially announced it. The vivo V15Pro and V15 have also just been released recently and we got some nice photo samples. But perhaps the most interesting one is when Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp servers were down and everyone panicked. Oh, those poor Instamodels and influencers, we totally "feel" you.

But for this coming week is going to be a busy one for us. Samsung Galaxy M Series and Galaxy A Series will be revealed soon, followed by the OPPO F11 Pro, Redmi Note 7 and Realme 3! Then after that week, the Huawei P30 Series is the next big thing. So expect a lot of juicy tech news only at TechNave.com!!

Now, onward to the other news that happened over the past few days...

In the recent event of the Pasir Gudang toxic waste, Celcom Axiata Berhad has reached out to the victims and distributed over 500 power banks. On top of that, they also offer free WiFi connectivity via Celcom Home Wireless. This took place at Hospital Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru, Hospital Sultan Ismail Johor Bahru and Pasir Gudang Indoor Stadium.

Razali Abu Bakar (left), Head of Regional Retail Sales, Southern Region of Celcom Axiata Berhad, (in Blue Celcom t-shirt) together with other Celcom employees ensuring that affected victims and their families at Pasir Gudang are able to remain connected with the provision of power banks. Over 500 power banks were distributed to the affected families at Hospital Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru, Hospital Sultan Ismail Johor Bahru and Pasir Gudang Indoor Stadium

“During this period, Celcom’s network and technical teams are working around-the-clock to ensure connectivity. We want to assure those affected that they will be able to remain connected with their friends and family,” said Idham Nawawi, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad.

Celcom’s Occupational Safety, Health & Environment team had also successfully evacuated all Celcom employees and their families who reside within the area to safe zones. In other news, Celcom was also providing digital services for the rural communities through Pusat Internet. There are currently 175 Pusat Internet nationwide, providing the communities broadband internet services, ICT and e-commerce training, and training facilities that have contributed to equality in digital opportunities, while increasing local economic levels.

Malaysia had the privilege to be the first country outside of Taiwan to reveal a brand new Acer Altos QSAN XN3004T storage solution for small and medium enterprises. Designed for computing performance and data storage needs from businesses to public institutions with four 2TB HHD storage, it starts from RM4699 and it's available at all Acer online stores and selected authorized resellers soon.

Apart from that, there's also the Altos P Series Workstations, where it sports the latest 8th Gen Intel Core processor with NVIDIA Quadro graphics card, 64GB RAM and 32TB storage which is ideal for rendering tasks for users like designers, engineers, digital content creators, financial analysts and research professionals. There are two models for this, the Altos P30 F6 from RM4280 onward and Altos P330 F4 from RM8,799 onward; both will be available for purchase immediately at select Acer authorized resellers and at Acer official online stores soon. To know more, you can visit the page right here.

Last but not least, the Acer AltosCloud VDI (Virtual desktop infrastructure) solution. This solution allows users to easily set up their own virtual desktop computing system and it's ideal for organisations such as call centres, hospitals and even the library set-ups of private schools, colleges and universities.

Meanwhile, Lazada has plans to boost its cross-border operations for international brands and merchants. In the last three years, their cross-border sales quadrupled so it only makes sense to expand their geographical area. This includes Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam

“Backed by the best expertise and infrastructure from Alibaba, as well as our in-depth understanding of Southeast Asia, we are able to equip our cross-border sellers and brands with the knowledge and tools to ride this massive growth in the region,” Jing Yin, Lazada Group’s Co-President, Commercial, who was speaking on Thursday (Mar 7) in Shenzhen at Lazada’s first seller conference in 2019 where more than 1,000 merchants gathered to learn on how the platform will help them to better reach customers in Southeast Asia.

The meteoric rise in eCommerce spending in Southeast Asia reflects the increasing demand for cross-border products as the GMV from Lazada’s cross-border category grew by 4.6x over the last three years across Southeast Asia. In some countries, growth was 30x in the same period. According to industry estimates, the booming eCommerce market in Southeast Asia is on track to hit USD240billion by 2025, surpassing previous estimates by USD40billion.

Finally, Google has created a new ‘Back to Roots’ Voyager tour where everyone can follow the Temiars’ thirty-year journey from involuntary resettlement to their return home. The tour allows you to trace their resettlement route across the borders of their sacred sites, go on-ground for a look at their community today and discover what the future holds for this Orang Asli sub-group in Malaysia.

Shaped by previous Google efforts, such as 2018’s Google Earth Outreach initiative in which the Jakuns’ home village of Kampung Peta, Johor was mapped, and 2017’s ‘This is Home’ Voyager tour which featured the homes of the Semais in Pahang, the initiative will preserve the culture to create a more accurate reflection of the world we live in, and as more indigenous groups look to forward-thinking ways of protecting the past.

That's all, folks. Stay tuned for more NewsBytes at TechNave.com.


3 auspicious reasons to get a Samsung SUHD TV for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is drawing close, it’s inevitable that you, your friends and family will be sitting in front of a TV watching reruns of classic Chinese New Year flicks and modern Chinese blockbusters; and what better way to enjoy that with Samsung’s SUHD TV? Why a SUHD TV? Here are some cool facts about the TV that you might not know about.

And that’s it! Together with Smart Hub and One Remote, Samsung is providing you the Smart TV with most streamlined, convenient and intuitive TV user experience – offering choices and performance viewers expect from today’s home entertainment technology in this Chinese New Year.

Samsung Malaysia Electronics wishes all a prosperous Chinese New Year!


ASUS announces Face the Future ZenWatch Face Design contest

ASUS Malaysia recently announced their Face the Future global contest for their ASUS ZenWatch smartwatch. Beginning from 10 January 2015 (today) to 10 February 2015 you can send in your own ZenWatch watch face design which could become one of the standard watch faces included with the ASUS ZenWatch. Winners will win the ASUS ZenWatch with a prize for 6 categories including Overall Gold Medal, Best Beauty in Design, Best Practical Design, Best Creative Design, Best Student Design Award and Fan Favorite. In addition, 3 more ASUS ZenWatch smartwatches will also be up for grabs in a lucky draw for users who vote for their favourite designs, so everyone wins. Check out the ASUS ZenWatch site for more details or go and download the ASUS ZenWatch Watch Face Template for your entry in the Face the Future contest. Still no news on Malaysia release dates, but considering this Face the Future contest we expect the ASUS ZenWatch to make an appearance in Malaysia soon, probably after the contest ends, so stay tuned for more developments.


NewsBytes 2019 #5 - U Mobile 5G initiative, Maxis eKelas, Connected Mangroves & Operation ShadowHammer

What a hectic week, as we mentioned from our previous Newsbytes, there were several new smartphones launches over the past two weeks and the biggest highlight is obviously the Huawei P30 Series, which has a crazy zoom in feature that can go up to 50x with the P30 Pro, whereas the P30 can go up to 30x. You can check out our full coverage here and our hands-on video here as well. The P30 series is set to arrive in Malaysia on 2 April 2019.

Besides that, Huawei also showcased a bunch of new accessories, while Samsung had its own SEAO Forum showing a new 98-inch QLED 8K TV, HONOR 8C was announced for RM599, so were the new ROG Zephyrus S GX701 laptop & two other gaming desktops with RTX2080 graphics cards, and you can also get a new Galaxy S10+ 1TB model for RM5999 with a free Galaxy A9.

We can't wait to truly out the P30 Series to the test, as Huawei claims that it has the best camera features being able to capture the stars at night and other low-light situations. We are a bit sceptical, to be honest, after all, Apple iPhones don't have Pro Mode like most Android phones so it's kind of ironic to keep comparing but it's all in the name of marketing. Anyway, onto the NewsBytes that happened over this week.

U Mobile and Sun Life Malaysia commemorate the MoU signing on 26 March 2019 which explores creating a Digital Health Ecosystem, Digital Healthcare Innovation Community and 5G Trials

Recently, U Mobile has signed a memorandum of understanding with Sun Life Malaysia and this collaboration will allow the two parties to explore 5G trials on digital health use cases and venture into the possibility of setting up a digital health innovation incubator and accelerator focused on providing funding, relevant mentorship and investment resources to selected digital health content developers and providers.

On top of the digital health space, they will also go through 5G testbeds and trials. One such example may include U Mobile potentially working with Sun Life Malaysia’s network of medical providers on remote healthcare use cases. Another trial could see the use of Analytics and Machine Learning for wellness monitoring so that deeply personalised wellness recommendations may be presented to end user.

The MOU was signed by Wong Heang Tuck, U Mobile’s CEO and Raymond Lew, Sun Life Malaysia’s CEO & President / Country Head.

Students, guests and VIPs at the Anugerah Gemilang eKelas awards 2019

With Maxis' commitment on its eKelas initiative, they now have 72 Pusat Internet under Maxis’ care across 10 states, with over 9,000 students connecting through the programme. To celebrate the occasion, 25 eKelas students were awarded for their academic achievements at the second installation of the Anugerah Gemilang eKelas awards ceremony. Four students were presented with a cash contribution of RM1,200 and a school starter pack each, while 21 received RM600 and a school starter pack each. The cash allowance will be deposited into the students’ National Education Savings Scheme (Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional) accounts.

Maxis’ eKelas, which is delivered through Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC)-owned Pusat Internet under Maxis care, focuses on Science, Mathematics and English. The programme is also now recognised by the Ministry of Education as an initiative under its Highly Immersive Programme, where students are eligible to collect co-curricular marks from their participation in eKelas.

For more information on Maxis eKelas, please visit www.maxis.com.my/maxis-ekelas.

(fourth from the right) Todd Ashton, Head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, said that the Connected Mangroves project will nurture and protect the ecosystem in Sabak Bernam

Meanwhile, Ericsson and a subsidiary group from Axiata Group Berhad, edotco Group Sdn Bhd have been planting more than 1000 mangrove saplings at Kampung Dato Hormat, Sabak Bernam district in Selangor, Malaysia. This is part of an initiative of Connected Mangroves project since 2015 and more than 200 volunteers came together for a good cause.

We have written about this three years ago, where the mangroves are equipped with sensors to monitor real-time information about soil and weather conditions, fires, water levels and any intrusion from third parties. This is so that the saplings can grow up to full maturity without any interference thanks to the sensors, the farmers, NGOs, analysts and authorities, can have access to the data to understand more about the health of the saplings.

That said, Ericsson is now looking at the possibility of IoT solutions. They are currently working with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Universiti Putra Malaysia on a hackathon called “Technology for Good Challenge 2.0” which aims to attract new ideas and stimulate innovations in the IoT space for the Mangrove ecosystem as well as create local use cases to accelerate cellular IoT adoption by university and industries.

Finally, Kaspersky Lab has reported that there is a new supply chain attack called ShadowHammer. This is a new threat to many users online and many ASUS users are affected from the ASUS Live Update Utility, by injecting a backdoor into it at least between June and November 2018.

“The selected vendors are extremely attractive targets for APT groups that might want to take advantage of their vast customer base. It is not yet very clear what the ultimate goal of the attackers was and we are still researching who was behind the attack. However, techniques used to achieve unauthorized code execution, as well as other discovered artefacts suggest that ShadowHammer is probably related to the BARIUM APT, which was previously linked to the ShadowPad and CCleaner incidents, among others. This new campaign is yet another example of how sophisticated and dangerous a smart supply chain attack can be nowadays,” said Vitaly Kamluk, Director of Global Research and Analysis Team, APAC, at Kaspersky Lab.

In order to avoid falling victim to a targeted attack by a known or unknown threat actor, you can visit its Securelist page right here to find out more.

That's all, folks. Stay tuned for more NewsBytes at TechNave.com.


NewsBytes 2019 #6 - Huawei P30 Pro wins Best Photo Smartphone, "Stop Bad Hair Day” sale, new Kaspersky Lab & Microsoft report

What's up, fam? This week has gone by and it was rather a quiet week. Or should I say, it's a Huawei week? Huawei Malaysia has officially announced the price on the P30 Series, Matebook 13, Watch GT Active and Elegant models for the local market and tons of freebies too which you can read over here. Besides that, Xiaomi Malaysia has also officially announced the Mi 9 price tag, as well as the Black Shark 2 swimming its way to Malaysia shores.

As usual, we will be doing a few tech analysis and reviews on these smartphones except that...the Black Shark 2 won't be on our list due to our hectic schedule. And to be honest, this gaming smartphone may have been a little too late for the market. Similarly to the Razer Phone 2, it just doesn't have the "oomph" factor to impress us that much, especially with the ROG Phone which they don't even dare to compare (lol). I wasn't at the event, BUT BOIII, that was an awful presentation if you compare the Black Shark 2 to two non-gaming phones (i.e. Apple iPhone XS Max and Samsung Galaxy S10+). Shame on you.

Huawei P30 Pro has already officially launched in Malaysia and in conjunction with that, the group is also proud to announce that the latest camera-centric flagship is recognized as one of the Best Products of 2019, awarding the device the honour of “Best Photo Smartphone" for the third year in a row.

To quote the official citation of the P30 Pro from the TIPA General Assembly:

“Incredible Low Light Performance and Focal Length Options. The P30 Pro is dubbed a “quad camera” with numerous imaging options. The primary camera has a 1/1.7 40MP sensor that yields 10MP images. The optical stabilized lens has a 27mm (equivalent) focal length and maximum f/1.6 aperture, plus there is a 20MP 16mm (equivalent) super-wide option, a stabilized 5X (125mm equivalent) periscope style telephoto lens with folded optics, and a fourth PDAF “time of flight” AF sensor. The P30 Pro can cover an incredible focal length range thanks to a “super-resolution” algorithm that combines several RAW images into one high-res image that is then cropped to produce a 50X zoom effect. Low-light capability is equally impressive, with a top ISO of 409.600 that can capture exposures in near darkness, which is claimed to be 40% more light sensitive than a standard RGB sensor, delivering the best low-light performance of any smartphone camera to date.”

Most impressive, Huawei and congratulations.

Having a bad hair day? Well, starting from 8 until 12 April 2019, P&G and Shopee are coming together to launch its “Stop Bad Hair Day” themed Super Brand Day. Products include best-selling hair care brands; Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Rejoice and Herbal Essences across Malaysia.

On top of that, the discount offers go up to 80% off and the launch of brand new products, Rejoice 3-in-1 Perfect and Head & Shoulders Subzero. If you purchase hair care bundles, you can get 15% off, enjoy deals from as low as RM1 as well as daily Shocking Sale, and take part in social media contest and in-app games to win attractive prizes.

All P&G products can be found via the P&G Official Store on Shopee Mall with 15 days return, free shipping and 100% authenticity guaranteed. You can check them out right here.

Meanwhile, Kaspersky Lab is proud to announce that they have detected and prevented activity by malicious objects on almost half of the Industrial Control System (ICS) computers in 2018. The most affected countries were Vietnam, Algeria and Tunisia with the following percentage of 70.09%, 69.91% and 64.57% respectively. The least impacted nations were Ireland (11.7%), Switzerland (14.9%), and Denmark (15.2%).

According to Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky Lab, phishing emails with malicious attachments continue to be the main attack vector for penetrating industrial enterprises in the Asia Pacific and in the world.

“Our researchers are seeing many carefully crafted phishing emails, sent purportedly by real companies and masked as business correspondence, commercial offers, invitations to tender and so on, which could be very commonly faced by many enterprises in Malaysia. We recommend all companies to warn their staff of this real threat and to train them to recognize signs of an attack, to not open suspicious files or click on links, and to inform their IT department of any potential incidents,” Yeo said.

“H2 2018 saw a decline in ICS infections in Malaysia, 41.1% versus H1 2018 of 50.8%. It is a good sign that users are more aware of the cyber risks, and are becoming careful about it,” Yeo added.

If you would like to know more about the technical measures to protect yourself, you can read the full text of the report on the Kaspersky Lab ICS CERT website.

[L to R] Dr Karl Ng Kah Hou, Director, Data Economy, MDEC with K Raman, Managing Director, Microsoft Malaysia and Jun-Fwu Chin, Research Director for IDC Asia Pacific Datacenter Group and IDC ASEAN Research Group at the unveiling of Malaysia findings of Microsoft AI Study 2019 at Kuala Lumpur on 2 April 2019

Finally, another report finding titled “Future Ready Business: Assessing Asia Pacific’s Growth Potential Through AI” was published by Microsoft in the area of AI. This was to find out and analyze how Malaysia is embracing AI as well as the impact of AI on Malaysia’s businesses and economy.

Through over 100 surveys from business leaders and 100 workers in Malaysia, it's reported that AI will allow the rate of innovation to almost double (x1.8) by 2021. 67% of business leaders feel that AI will augment jobs and will increase employee productivity by 60%, but despite this, only 26% of organizations in Malaysia have embarked on their AI journeys. The study findings shared at the media session can be read in the Microsoft News Centre for further information.

That's all, folks. Stay tuned for more NewsBytes at TechNave.com.


NewsBytes 2019 #7 - vivo + VRace, Shopee Bosskurr, MLBB Season 2, new Intel & AMD techs, and more

Another week has gone by, another week of tech news. #[email protected] Global Press Conference just happened to announce several new laptops for working professionals and gamers, the big four telcos showcased their 5G capabilities in Putrajaya, so did vivo Malaysia but with a futuristic APEX 2019 concept smartphone, and the grand launching of them all, the new Samsung Galaxy A80 which has a motorized sliding rotating triple camera setup!

The Galaxy A80 is a rather interesting smartphone. You can call it the baby product of the old OPPO N3 and Find X, but it's about damn time that Samsung has a true full Infinity Display device. Nonetheless, it does raise issues of how long the motorize slider can last, will dust get in? Also, it's definitely fragile with the beautiful glass back. It's scheduled to be released on 26 May 2019 so I guess we have to wait and see.

Also, no offence but what's up with all these bland news we've been getting for the past week? Well...that's for you to find out. So go on below to read more if you're curious.

Who and what is VRace Malaysia? To give you a brief summary, VRace Malaysia is a competitive geolocation Virtual Race and they recently ran an online survey to understand the running market’s perception, trends, habits and behaviours. According to the survey result, Malaysians runners carry items such as smartphones (82.6%), keys (42.5%), cash (35.4%), running belt (33.3%), identification card (32.4%), Bluetooth earphones (18.4%), and regular earphones (16.6%) during their runs.

“Upon reviewing the results, 32.5 per cent of respondents monitor their running activities via their smartphone. This has opened up a new horizon for the industry’s potential to penetrate the market, and we sincerely hope that via this partnership with VRace Malaysia, our company can continue to innovate based on our user’s needs, as well as championing athletes across the country by fulfilling their daily sporting needs,” said Mike Xu, Chief Executive Officer of Vivo Malaysia, the Official Smartphone Partner for VRace Malaysia.

So...yeah this is a piece of pretty short news because I don't really see the point of announcing this. Like, will they also make a vivo smartband for the runners? Anything? No? Just an official smartphone partner? Ok. But if you want to know more fun facts, you can go into this website to check it out.

In a surprise move, Shopee has become the official sponsor for Team Bosskurr and with that, they shall be known as Shopee Bosskurr. Formerly known as Team Saiyan, comprises of Faris Zakaria (Shopee Bosskurr Soloz), Abdul Wandi (Shopee Bosskurr Logan), Andi Alfian (Shopee Bosskurr Gripex), Herwin Baharuddin (Shopee Bosskurr Rush), Sopian Sultan (Shopee Bosskurr Penjahat) and Ahmad Fuad Razali (Shopee Bosskurr Fredo).

Manager of Shopee Bosskurr, Nureddy Nursal (Shopee Bosskurr Daddy) said:

“This is an exciting collaboration between Bosskurr and Shopee Malaysia. Shopee has been very helpful and giving us guidance to set up our official store on the platform where our supporters would be able to purchase our merchandise. Working hand in hand with Shopee also allows us to bring awareness on e-sports to more Malaysians seeing as it has around 16 million downloads which is half of the country’s population. With the resources and support from Shopee, we will be able to focus better on training and achieve bigger things this year. Our biggest focus right now is to qualify for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) and represent Malaysia to make our country proud.”

In conjunction with that, there is also a newly launched Shopee Bosskurr Official Store on Shopee which sells jerseys, Gaming Cable by Bosskurr Gaming and other exclusive player merchandises. You can check out more at the store over at shopee.com.my/shopeebosskurr.

In another gaming news, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Diamond Challenge (MDC) Season 2 is making a return for Malaysian and Singaporean amateur and semi-professional teams. The second season is organized by MET Malaysia.

The new season will kick off with an online qualifier for Malaysian and Singaporean players, up to 512 teams. Then only the top 8 teams will challenge each other in the playoffs, which will be live streamed on Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’s Malaysia and official Facebook page. The champion will take home a USD1,500 cash prize and more than USD430 worth of in-game items. Below are the details of the competition:

Registration for the Malaysia and Singapore qualifiers will begin from 01 April until 14 April 2019. Please stay tuned to MET Malaysia’s Facebook page for more information and updates.

Meanwhile, Intel has introduced a new Intel Optane memory H10 with solid-state storage. According to Rob Crooke, senior vice president and general manager of the Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group at Intel, he said:

“Intel Optane memory H10 with solid-state storage features the unique combination of Intel Optane technology and Intel QLC 3D NAND—exemplifying our disruptive approach to memory and storage that unleashes the full power of Intel-connected platforms in a way no else can provide.”

So what's the big deal? Well, the combination allows Intel Optane memory expansion into thin and light notebooks. In other words, we will be able to pack up big gigabytes of data in notebooks in the near future. This also eliminates the need for a secondary storage device. It's also said to be 2x faster while multitasking, 60% faster in launching games, and opening media files up to 90%.

The Intel Optane memory H10 with solid state storage will come in the following capacities, 16GB (Intel Optane memory) + 256GB (storage); 32GB (Intel Optane memory) + 512GB (storage); and 32GB (Intel Optane memory) + 1TB storage. You can check out more information on this product page.

That said, AMD is also manufacturing a new processor for notebooks as well. Its latest additions to the PRO processor lineup: 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen PRO mobile processors with Radeon Vega Graphics and AMD Athlon PRO mobile processors with Radeon Vega Graphics, will provide commercial notebook users with power-efficient performance and create a wide range of business systems.HP and Lenovo with other OEMs are expected to have platform updates later in 2019.

“Modern PC users expect the experience between professional and personal to be imperceptible, and business notebook users want to utilize the latest modern features including 3D modeling, video editing, multi-display setups while multitasking securely, to get more done,” said Saeid Moshkelani, senior vice president and general manager, Client Compute, AMD. “With AMD Ryzen PRO and Athlon PRO mobile processors, AMD delivers the right performance, features, and choice to OEMs and commercial users, combined with the productivity, protection, and professional features needed to ensure seamless deployment throughout an organization.”

To read more information, you can head to AMD's website here to check it out.

Back to our local scene, Touch 'n Go eWallet now works with Tealive. This allows future promotions and discounts for selected Tealive drinks with payment made through the eWallet system. Upcoming promotions include a Raya Campaign which will begin on 5 May until 15 June 2019, where users can enjoy their favourite Tealive drinks at only RM2.50, exclusively with the Touch ‘n Go eWallet.

[L – R] Mr. Syahrunizam Samsudin, Chief Executive Officer of TNG Digital Sdn Bhd and Mr. Bryan Loo, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Loob Holdings Sdn Bhd celebrates the exclusive partnership between the Touch ‘n Go eWallet and Tealive

For more information, updates and terms & conditions for all Tealive promotions, log on here to keep updated.

In another "eh" news  ShopBack has just secured US$45M in its latest funding round. With a new capital injection brings the company’s total funding to US$83M, this allows new investors to include co-leads EV Growth and Rakuten Capital, as well as EDBI along with other existing investors. Amit Patel, CEO Ebates, Inc., a Rakuten company, and Willson Cuaca, Managing Partner of EV Growth, to join ShopBack’s Board of Directors.

“The fresh funding adds firepower to our innovative efforts centered on simplifying shopping experiences for users while building smarter marketing solutions. We’re now better equipped to not only deliver cost-efficient sales to our merchant partners, but also to leverage user insights across categories to do cross-selling efficiently,” said Alvin Gill, Country General Manager of ShopBack Malaysia.

So previously, we wrote that there was a ShadowHammer malware that's pretty vicious. But Kaspersky Lab has discovered another threat called the TajMahal. This bad boy here features around 80 malicious modules and includes functionality never before seen in an advanced persistent threat, such as the ability to steal information from printer queues and to grab previously seen files from a USB device the next time it reconnects.

So far, there has only been one case and the victim was a foreign-based, central Asian diplomatic entity, infected by 2014. The distribution and infection vectors for TajMahal are currently unknown. The earliest sample dated April 2013, and the most recent August 2018.

If you'd like to know more about the TajMahal APT framework and how to prevent them, it can be found on Securelist here.

That's all, folks. Now get out of here and play hard before the weekend ends! And stay tuned for more NewsBytes at TechNave.com.


NewsBytes 2019 #8 - Smile4REWARDS with Hotlink, Kamal Adli fans gathering, Maxis' first commercial NB-IoT and more

How are y'all doing? This week is Marvel's Avengers Endgame week and the whole world is going crazy about it. In conjunction with the most anticipated movie release of the year, OPPO has collaborated with Marvel to make an awesome OPPO F11 Pro Marvel's Avenger Limited Edition! There isn't much different from the standard F11 Pro, except that it has a 128GB storage and for just RM1399, it's a deal breaker.

While there isn't really much tech gadget news to go around, U Mobile recently announced about their new Money-Back-Guarantee 7-Day Trial which is nice for new users to try out their Unlimited HERO P99 for free. There's also an unfortunate Samsung Galaxy Fold screen blooper, which we think we won't be seeing it anytime soon this year. Hopefully, it won't be another disaster like the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7.

First up, Hotlink is now collaborating with McDonald's to give their customers free ice cream and nuggets! How does it work? All you need to do is go to any Smile4REWARDS Kiosks in the following four locations - McDonald’s Bangi Drive-Thru, McDonald’s Section 3 Shah Alam, McDonald’s Jalan Gopeng Drive-Thru, and McDonald’s Jalan Tebrau Drive-Thru.

For a free Chocolate Sundae, you can drive up to the kiosk, smile, take a picture and after that, you will be given a free ice cream with any purchase. Moreover, you can also get four pieces of Chicken McNuggets for free if you show the Deals page on the Hotlink RED App or MyMaxis App while making that redemption. Easy peasy.

It should also be noted that all customers who participate in the Smile4REWARDS will stand a chance to win a pair of free flight tickets to anywhere within the Southeast Asia region. All you need to do is share your Smile4REWARDS photo on Facebook and Instagram with the hashtags #HotlinkxMcD #Smile4REWARDS.

There are only 10 pairs of tickets, you can find out more about Hotlink Rewards here: www.hotlink.com.my/SMILE4REWARDS or visit www.hotlink.com.my

Also at another place, 30 Celcom customers (who were also the first owners of the OPPO F11 Pro) had the opportunity of a lifetime to personally meet and hang out with Malaysian actor, Kamal Adli.

The event took place at Galactic Laser, Sunway Pyramid, where the customers were able to enjoy a three-round laser tag game together with Kamal Adli and his team. As most of the winners had never played laser tag before, so they probably had a blast (pun intended) and not only that.

By the way, customers can now get the phone for free when they sign up with Celcom Mobile Platinum Plus postpaid plan at RM188 monthly. They can also own the phone through Celcom’s affordable instalment plan, Celcom EasyPhone, from as low as RM54/month.

With all the IoT and 5G trial going on, Maxis has recently launched its first commercial Narrowband-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) service in Malaysia. The network is activated in selected areas which include Cyberjaya, Penang, Kuching, Putrajaya, Johor Bahru, and KLCC. Through this, they will be promoting solutions and development of the local ecosystem, like new data streams, enabling actionable insights by connecting simple devices such as sensors.

“There is an immense amount of opportunities for NB-IoT especially around big data analytics and in enabling real-life use cases. The launch will encourage the development of an ecosystem of partners, developers and customers that will offer even more opportunities for enterprises, to better manage and optimise their assets, their environment, their energy usage and the safety of their people, and to unlock the potential for the delivery of new services in the Malaysian market. This is a significant step for us as it sets the standards in the deployment of IoT solutions,” said Paul McManus, Head of Enterprise, Maxis.

To find out more about Maxis NB-IoT, you can read it here.

Elsewhere in Taiwan, AMD introduced a new AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000 SoC at the Taiwan Embedded Forum. This new SoC here is able to support up to three 4K displays at up to 60 FPS, as well as sharing other features established in the AMD Embedded family including 10Gb Ethernet ports and security features.  The new SoC will be available this quarter to ODMs and OEMs worldwide and is already supported by numerous hardware and software companies including Advantech, ASRock, DFI, iBase, Netronome, Stratacache and many others. The Ryzen Embedded R1000 SoC will also power the upcoming Atari VCSTM game system.

If you want to read more about it, you can check it out right here.

Lastly, RAM Credit Information Sdn Bhd (RAMCI) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CyberSecurity Malaysia to work together by launching a public awareness campaign called ‘STOP IDENTITY THEFT’. It will be an educational roadshow from now until 16 May 2019 and also at the same time, launched a new JagaMyID Plus which is a credit monitoring tool for individuals to protect their personal credits.

JagaMyID Plus is offered at a special 20% discounted price of RM 79.20 for a one-year plan inclusive SST. Moreover, they also offer a promo code JAGAMYID to unlock this special promotion. The introductory price is RM99.00 inclusive SST.

“Besides providing a monthly credit score, identity fraud alerts, constant monitoring of credit card utilisation and monthly payment tracking, JagaMyID Plus comes with a powerful online dashboard that will update subscribers on aspects currently impacting their credit. In addition to that, it also has secured lock access to the credit report. This means that if someone ever tries to apply for any type of credit in your name while it’s locked, you will be immediately notified. With Plus version, you will get insurance coverage protection that provides compensation in the event of death, ATM withdrawal protection, snatch theft, bodily injury or other losses suffered by you. Being careful and well-prepared is key, and an identity theft protection service is just one piece of the puzzle to address this breach,” concluded Dawn Lai, Chief Executive Officer of RAM Credit Information (RAMCI).

That's all, folks. Stay tuned for more NewsBytes at TechNave.com.


NewsBytes 2019 #9 - Samsung wins Display of the Year, Nokia 8110 gets WhatsApp, & other Lenovo, U Mobile, Celcom, Digi activities

How's going, TechNavers? You better be celebrating Mother's Day and if not, at least wish yo mama one! Anyway, news seem to have died down a little. While there are some rumours here and there, the only news that are worth talking about are Samsung QLED 8K TV series has arrived in Malaysia, budget-friendly Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL were announced, Telenor and Axiata have merged together as one, and Facebook Dating is now live on your app.

Perhaps the most exciting feature (for us) is the fact that we have relaunched our new TechNave app 2.0! Wait, what? We used to have an app? Yeah, we do but it's just that it was really that great as it used to direct you to the web browser app in the end. So this time, we fixed that and you no longer have to be directed to the browser. Besides that, you can also search, compare and buy phones easily too! You can check out our guide here.

With the recent QLED 8K TV launch in Mid Valley, Samsung was also awarded Display of the Year from the Society for Information Display (SID) for its modular MicroLED display, The Wall. While it's not a new piece of technology, but it's certainly an impressive one featuring MicroLED technology which possesses colour qualities that produce vibrant-yet-natural colours.

Presented by the Society for Information Display, the 2019 Display Industry Awards (DIAs) recognize innovative display products, components, and applications that hold the most promise for shaping the future of the global display industry. The DIAs are awarded each year in three categories: Display of the Year, Display Application of the Year, and Display Component of the Year.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, fans of Nokia 8110 would be delighted to know that WhatsApp is now available. The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and in case you're wondering how much does the phone cost, it's only RM299 and you can purchase one at Nokia authorised dealers nationwide or Nokia’s Official Store on Lazada.

Speaking of Lazada, App Annie has named Lazada as Southeast Asia’s Number-One Shopping App for 2018 in their annual Top Publisher Award. This is due to Lazada having the highest number of monthly active users (MAU) in Southeast Asia and continues to retain its top spot in the first quarter (Q1) of this year.

Congratulations, Lazada! Come, I clap for you

Lenovo has been kind of quiet lately but there is a new appointment taking place. Varinderjit Singh will be replacing Khoo Hung Chuan who will be transitioning to a regional role for Central Asia Pacific, thus he is now the new General Manager for Lenovo Malaysia. Mr. Singh will be overseeing the overall growth of the Lenovo Malaysia business, as well as leading the organisation. According to the PR news, Mr. Singh has more than 28 years of global experience in the technology sector. Prior to joining Lenovo, he was the Managing Director for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, based in Malaysia.

Varinderjit Singh, General Manager of Lenovo Malaysia

In addition, the company has released 5 news gaming laptops packing up to 9th Gen Intel Core high-performance mobile processors and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 and 1660 Ti GPUs which are the Lenovo Legion Y7000 SE, IdeaPad L340 Gaming, as well as the upgraded Lenovo Legion Y740, Y540 and Y545 laptops. The pricing and availability of the products in Malaysia will be announced in June 2019.

U Mobile has also been busy on their own, the company signed a collaboration agreement with Chubb Insurance Malaysia Berhad. This partnership will offer a wide range of Chubb general insurance products of different premiums to both U Mobile and non-U Mobile customers. The agreement was signed by Wong Heang Tuck, U Mobile’s CEO and Steve Crouch, Chubb Insurance Malaysia Berhad’s Country President on 3 May 2019.

Starting from the third quarter of this year, U Mobile will be making Chubb’s Micro Personal Accident Insurance available from as low as RM6, as well as a range of travel and motor insurance products, via the telco’s soon to be launched e-wallet called GoPayz. To simplify the customer experience, quotations, applications, purchases and management of Chubb’s policies will be done entirely online via the GoPayz app and website.

Apart from Micro Personal Accident Insurance and Travel insurance, U Mobile will also be offering Motor Insurance as well as Device Insurance before the end of the year.

Idham Nawawi, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad cheering two of Celcom employees that volunteered as blood donor during Celcom’s Blood Donation Campaign recently

Then during 2 May 2019, Celcom drove a blood donation campaign in collaboration with MRSM Malaysia Student Association (ANSARA) and it was held in its new corporate office, @celcom, as part of its social responsibility efforts.

The ‘pre-Ramadhan’ Blood Donation Campaign 2019 marks the 13th edition of ANSARA’s campaign to increase awareness of the importance of blood donation in saving lives. A total of 135 bags of blood were collected at the end of the day which will be stored at, and used by, the Pusat Darah Negara. Great work, fam!

Then also during early May, Digi co-hosted the first telco Botathon in Malaysia together with Automation Anywhere, a Robotic Process Automation company. The event was an initiative of Digi’s Innovation 360°efforts to encourage employees to digitally transform by providing them with various platforms to apply innovation to their work and opportunities to upskill and develop new competencies.

“We believe in building a culture that gives our employees the freedom to explore, innovate and develop, with the aim of fostering an agile digital workforce that can adapt and evolve in our journey towards Industry 4.0. The Botathon was a fantastic way for our employees to develop new digital skills to automate processes, ultimately increasing operational efficiency and enabling them to build on the commitment to deliver excellence to customers,” said Kesavan Sivabalan, Chief Technology Officer, Digi.

To read the full story, you can check it out right here.

What is Ambi Climate and what does it have to do with Apple Siri? If you must know, this AI-enhanced air conditioner controller was created by Ambi Labs, all the way from Hong Kong and it integrates with Siri Shortcuts. With this, Apple users can use it to control their air con or heat pumps with personalized voice commands like "A Bit Cold”, “A Bit Warm” and “Comfy” with Siri. Ambi Climate is also compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

Available on iOS 12 or later, Siri Shortcuts is activated from the Siri & Search option in iPhone/iPad settings or through the Shortcuts app. Users will need to upgrade their Ambi Climate app to version 2.5.0. or later. The recommended price US$129 (~RM536) so we don't think we will be seeing this in Malaysia anytime soon.

Finally, Taiwan Excellence has recently launched its Taiwan Excellence Esports Cup 2019 (TEEC) online and on-ground tournament qualifiers in Malaysia. The tournament began recently on April and will end on November, where the winners of the CS:GO category will be receiving a golden ticket to the Grand Finals in Taiwan. The tournament will see at least 10,000 Malaysian gamers engaged on a competitive platform through console, mobile and PC.

Sponsors, Malaysian Reps, Taiwan Excellence VIPs

Stay tuned for more NewsBytes at TechNave.com.


NewsBytes #21 - Microsoft Surface Go pre-order from RM1749, new Wacom Intuos pen, Samsung's Love & Care campaign, revamped TikTok and more

What's up, TechNavers? In this week's NewsBytes, we are starting off with the announcement of availability for the Microsoft Surface Go. As mentioned in our previous post, the Surface Go is now on pre-order starting from RM1749 and will officially launch in the Malaysia market on 28 August 2018 at any authorized retailers.

There are two models for the Surface Go, which are the 4GB RAM/64GB eMMC (RM1749) and 8GB RAM/128GB SSD (RM2399). Also, there are several accessories for the tablet including the Surface Go Type Cove, a new Surface Mobile Mouse and a Surface Pen that are sold separately, with a price range of RM144 - RM549. To read the full specifications and retailer outlets, you can check it out at their newsroom page here.

Are you one of those modern artists that are in the digital art platform? You might want to check out Wacom, a global company based in Japan that provides state-of-the-art hardware and software for drawing, painting and image editing. Recently, they have announced a new and improved Intuos pen tablet for both beginners and veterans.

Available in both small (RM326 without Bluetooth, RM464 with Bluetooth) and medium-sized (RM878 with Bluetooth), the tablet area has a smaller footprint and lighter weight along with a built-in pen tray, four express keys, an LED indicator and in the Bluetooth models. The tablets have a 60% battery improvement and the pen boasts 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, battery-free Wacom EMR technology, and an improved ergonomic design for better handling.

Digital artists who purchase the new Wacom Intuos can download up to $160 (~RM651) worth of creative software, including Corel Painter Essentials 6 for design and illustration, CELSYS CLIP STUDIO PAINT PRO for comic and Magna creation, and Corel AfterShot 3 for photo editing. You can find out more about the devices here.

As Samsung Malaysia Electronics continues their Love & Care campaign, they have just recently launched a new Samsung Smart Community Centre within the rural areas of RPS Legap in Sungai Siput, Perak. So what did the rural people get from the company? Well, just some Samsung tablets, a 65-inch UHD Smart TV, 24-inch LED monitors, a refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, and wall-mounted air conditioners.

This villager from RPS Legap happily engaging with YAB Tuan Ahmad Faizal bin Dato’ Haji Azumu, Chief Minister of Perak (front right)

A collaborative effort with Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JAKOA), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), YAB Tuan Ahmad Faizal bin Dato’ Haji Azumu, Chief Minister of Perak said:

“Congratulations to the parties in stepping up to make a difference in people’s lives. Thanks to this initiative, the residents of RPS Legap will now receive digital education which will drive their ambitions and inspire them to achieve more. Let’s continue to support the national agenda in using ICT towards achieving a knowledge-based nation, and do our part for our community towards a better Malaysia,”

For more information about the Samsung Smart Community Centre in RPS Legap, you can read the full story over here.

Meanwhile, Western Digital has been busy developing a new second generation four-bits-per-cell architecture for 3D NAND. This allows them to push for a higher storage capacity of 1.33 terabits (TB) in a single chip (that's right, CHIP) thanks to the QLC technology. It was implemented for the company’s 96-layer BiCS4 device which was developed at the joint venture flash manufacturing facility in Yokkaichi, Japan with their partner Toshiba Memory Corporation.

“Leveraging Western Digital’s silicon processing, device engineering and system integration capabilities, the QLC technology allows 16 distinct levels to be sensed and utilized for storing data, BiCS4 QLC is our second generation four-bits-per-cell device, and it builds on the learnings from our QLC implementation in 64-layer BiCS3. With the best intrinsic cost structure of any NAND product, BiCS4 underscores our strengths in developing flash innovations that allow our customers’ data to thrive across retail, mobile, embedded, client and enterprise environments. We expect the four-bits-per-cell technology will find mainstream use in all these applications.” said Dr. Siva Sivaram, executive vice president, Silicon Technology and Manufacturing at Western Digital.

That's pretty cool, I guess. The possibilities are endless with a chip that stores 1.33TB! You can check out the full story over at their newsroom here.

Did we just make that name up? Nope, it's a real ransomware and a threat to the cyber world. According to Sophos, a global leader in network and endpoint security, they have released an in-depth investigation on the ransomware that first appeared in December 2015, providing a good understanding of how this ransomware attacks. According to Peter Mackenzie, Global Malware Escalations Manager at Sophos, he said:

“Most ransomware is spread in large, noisy and untargeted spam campaigns using simple techniques to infect victims and demand relatively small sums in ransom. What sets SamSam apart is that it’s a targeted attack tailored to cause maximum damage and ransom demands are measured in the tens of thousands of dollars. The attack method is surprisingly manual, and more cat burglar than smash-and-grab. As a result, the attacker can employ countermeasures to evade security tools and if interrupted can delete all trace of itself immediately, to hinder investigation.”

That's the bad news, but good thing that there is a way to countermeasure this. You can refer to the detailed whitepaper here, as well as an article on naked Security here.

Onto the more fun stuff, TikTok and musical.ly are now working together to create a new global app with the same TikTok name. What's the difference? Well, there's a new logo, a personalized viewing experience and offers more creative tools to make your videos.

Don't fret, you don't need to make a new account as existing creators’ from both musical.ly and TikTok accounts, content and fan base will move automatically to the new TikTok app. You can download the new version in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store now for free. Read more about the unified app in their newsroom here.

That's all, folks! Stay tuned for more NewsBytes at TechNave.com.