Monthly Archives: April 2020

PR Newswire

Qudian Files Its Annual Report on Form 20-F

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XIAMEN, China, April 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Qudian Inc. (“Qudian” or the “Company”) (NYSE: QD), a leading technology platform empowering the enhancement of online consumer finance experience in China, today announced that it filed its annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 27, 2020 (U.S. Time). The annual report on Form 20-F can be accessed on the Company’s investor relations website at http://ir.qudian.com.

Qudian will provide a hard copy of the annual report containing its audited consolidated financial statements, free of charge, to its shareholders and ADS holders upon request. Requests should be directed to Investor Relations department, Level 29, Tower A, AVIC Zijin Plaza, Siming District, Xiamen, Fujian Province, The People’s Republic of China, 361000.

About Qudian Inc.

Qudian Inc. (“Qudian”) is a leading technology platform empowering the enhancement of online consumer finance experience in China. The Company’s mission is to use technology to make personalized credit accessible to hundreds of millions of young, mobile-active consumers in China who need access to small credit for their discretionary spending but are underserved by traditional financial institutions due to lack of traditional credit data or high cost of servicing. Qudian’s credit solutions enable licensed, regulated financial institutions and ecosystem partners to offer affordable and customized loans to this young generation of consumers.

For more information, please visit http://ir.qudian.com.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

In China:

Qudian Inc.
IR team
Tel: +86-592-591-1711
E-mail: ir@qudian.com  

The Piacente Group, Inc.
Xi Zhang
Tel: +86 (10) 6508-0677
E-mail: qudian@tpg-ir.com

In the United States:

The Piacente Group, Inc.
Brandi Piacente
Tel: +1-212-481-2050
E-mail: qudian@tpg-ir.com 

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Source: Qudian Inc.

PR Newswire

Tencent Music Completed Investment in Radio Music, a Leading Music-for-business Provider in China

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SHENZHEN, China, April 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) (NYSE: TME) announced it has completed an equity investment in Radio Music Warehouse, a leading music company that provides music streaming solutions to business use in China, on April 27. TME has also obtained a right to further increase its shareholdings to controlling stake in the company. Upon completion of the transaction, TME will provide Radio Music with access to a rich and diversified music library to meet the personalized demands of its customers. At the same time, TME will promote and distribute its high quality music content, via the hundreds of thousand offline spots in China that is using Radio Music’s in-store music solutions.

Through business investments and other methods, TME is contributing to the recovery of normal business operations in China from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Radio Music has a professional music-for-business service system and comprehensive offline coverage resources. Through this investment, we will jointly explore music-for-business market to add value to our music ecosystem,” said Tony Yip, Chief Strategy Officer of TME. “TME will offer more diversified music content to resolve the challenge of a shortage of content for music solutions to business, and develop brand-new content promotion and distribution models in to provide a stage for artists and high-quality work everywhere. We also look forward to a strong synergy between music-for-business service and our existing online music and social entertainment services, to bring users a more professional, immersive music experience that drives the healthy development of the music-for-business industry and the music industry as a whole. “

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PR Newswire

Berkeley Lights Launches Two New Capabilities in the Opto Cell Therapy Development 1.0 Workflow to Accelerate the Creation Of Effective Cancer Immunotherapies

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The new multiplex cytokine and cytotoxicity assays as a part of the Opto Cell Therapy Development 1.0 workflow will help users of the Berkeley Lights’ platform develop cancer immunotherapies faster

EMERYVILLE, Calif., April 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Berkeley Lights, Inc., a leader in Digital Cell Biology, launched new capabilities to empower the Opto Cell Therapy Development 1.0 workflow. The workflow consists of a collection of software capabilities, reagents, and protocols to be run on the Beacon® and LightningTM systems. With the new capabilities researchers can now perform multiple functional assays on thousands of individual T cells in just days, allowing them to recover live cells for downstream genomic analysis. This ultimately enables Berkeley Lights’ customers to link T cell phenotype and function to genotype on individual cells, consolidating the T cell functional analytic process into one innovative platform.

T cell-based therapies have shown great promise for cancer treatment, but developing these therapies is challenging because the process of killing cancerous tumors by T cells relies on studying and screening multiple cell-to-cell interactions—a time-consuming and complex procedure. Current techniques to assess T cell function don’t allow scientists to collect all of the required data from the same cell. The new multiplex cytokine assay and the cytotoxicity assay, along with the recently launched TCRseq Well Plate Kit allow scientists to define and test the function of individual T cells. These applications enable simultaneous functional interrogation of thousands of individual T cells as they interact with antigen-presenting cells or tumors. Live, individual clones can be recovered for downstream expansion or genomic analysis. The Opto Cell Therapy Development 1.0 workflow enables CAR-T cell phenotypic and functional screening, and the discovery of T cell receptors (TCRs) associated with specific T cell behaviors.

“With the Opto Cell Therapy Development 1.0 workflow, users of Berkeley Lights’ platform can now tailor the development of cell therapies that mediate the rapid destruction of multiple tumor cells to the few T cells that really do all the work,” said John Proctor, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Marketing at Berkeley Lights. “The cytotoxicity assay visualizes killing activity from single T cells, such as multiplexed and serial killing, followed by live cell recovery for genomic analysis. This new assay avoids common problems associated with traditional killing assays, which measure average target cell lysis at fixed time points, obscuring kinetic details and ignoring the heterogeneity present in T cell subsets.”

Berkeley Lights will continue to release more cell therapy related capabilities to the Berkeley Lights platform in the coming months. Email info@berkeleylights.com for more info.

About Berkeley Lights
 Here at Berkeley Lights, we think cells are awesome! Cells are capable of manufacturing cures for diseases, fibers for clothing, energy in the form of biofuels, and food proteins for nutrition. So the question is, if nature is capable of manufacturing the products we need in a scalable way, why aren’t we doing more of this? Well, the answer is that with the solutions available today, it is hard. It takes a long time to find the right cell for a specific job, costs lots of money, and if you have picked a suboptimal cell line, has a very low process yield. The Berkeley Lights Platform delivers and links deep phenotypic, functional, and genotypic information at the single cell level. This is a new way to capture and interpret the qualitative language of biology and translate it into single cell specific digital information, which we call Digital Cell Biology. Using our platform, customers have the complete solution to find the best cells by functionally screening and recovering individual cells for antibody discovery, cell line development, cell therapy development, and synthetic biology. Using our systems and solutions, scientists can find the best cells, the first time they look. For more information, visit www.berkeleylights.com.

Berkeley Lights’ Beacon and Lightning systems and Culture Station instrument are for research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

Logo – https://techent.tv/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/berkeley-lights-launches-two-new-capabilities-in-the-opto-cell-therapy-development-1-0-workflow-to-accelerate-the-creation-of-effective-cancer-immunotherapies.jpg  

Source: Berkeley Lights, Inc.

PR Newswire

Aqara launches its new Smart Wall Switches in the U.S.

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NEW YORK, April 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Several months after Aqara launched its main product line on Amazon.com, receiving positive consumer reviews and selling out quickly, the company has widened its presence on Amazon.com by launching its latest Zigbee 3.0 wall switches on April 27. Moreover, along with the switches, Aqara is launching its famous Cube, a small-yet-powerful device able to control the whole range of other smart home devices.

On April 27, Aqara released its brand new Zigbee 3.0 US Smart Wall Switches including No-Neutral versions
On April 27, Aqara released its brand new Zigbee 3.0 US Smart Wall Switches including No-Neutral versions

Aqara Smart Wall Switch comes in four versions differentiated by the number of rockers or buttons (Single and Double Rocker) and the support of Neutral wire (With Neutral and No Neutral). Its features include: newest Zigbee 3.0 protocol, integration into the most popular ecosystems present on the market (such as Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant), timer function, support of automations via Aqara Home app and many more. For those who care about electricity bills, it offers a power consumption statistic available via the app along with remote controls available from anywhere in the world. The switch is fully compliant with U.S. wall switch standards and features easy installation with a single screwdriver required to complete it. As for the build and design, the minimalistic housing of the new Wall Switch was tested to support up to 100,000 on/off switches, which will make the observable useful life practically infinite.

Another product being launched, the Aqara Cube, is a small and unique piece of tech that incorporates various sensors to support 6 different gestures, which can control any other Aqara smart home devices. Its clean and compact design, which can fit almost any surface, will make its use frequent and intuitive.

Together, the released products are able to successfully control lights or other wired appliances such as bathroom exhaust both remotely and in a more classic way, and will complement smart home devices no matter which of the aforementioned ecosystems are used.

Moreover, to celebrate the launch, Aqara has prepared a 20% discount on the newly-released products for a limited time with the use of the code: AQARAPRS. Click here to shop.

For Media Enquiries:
pr@aqara.com

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PR Newswire

China Literature Limited Announces the Change of the Management Team

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HONG KONG, April 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — China Literature Limited (“China Literature” or the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”, stock code: 0772.HK), a leading online literature platform in China, announced changes to its management team. Certain members of the senior management team including Mr. Wu Wenhui and Mr. Liang Xiaodong, currently the Co-Chief Executive Officers, Mr. Shang Xuesong, the President, and Mr. Lin Tingfeng, the Senior Vice President, have resigned. Mr. Wu Wenhui will be re-designated as a non-executive Director and Vice Chairman of the Board, and Mr. Liang Xiaodong and other senior management will serve as consultants to the Group, to facilitate the smooth transition and development of the management team. Meanwhile, Mr. Cheng Wu, currently a Vice President of Tencent Holdings Limited (“Tencent“) and the Chief Executive Officer of Tencent Pictures, has been appointed by the board as the Chief Executive Officer and an executive Director of China Literature; and Mr. Hou Xiaonan, the Vice President of Tencent’s Platform and Content Group, has been appointed by the board as the President and an executive Director of China Literature, so as to lead China Literature towards a new stage of development through deepening the cooperation with Tencent and other industry partners.

After five years’ development, China Literature has become the leading digital reading platform and literature intellectual property (“IP”) incubator, with 8.1 million writers, 12.2 million literary works and hundreds of millions of readers. It is pioneering development of the industry, in particular the trends toward high-quality IP and a content ecosystem through the integration of online literature and digital content formats such as TV series, movies, anime, and games. Mr. Wu Wenhui and other members of the senior management team decided to retire given the Group has reached these new milestones.

Mr. James Mitchell, the Chairman of China Literature, commented, “China Literature has become a vital source of original IPs for creative industries in China. We express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Wu, Mr. Liang, and the other core management team members for their significant contribution in leading China Literature to become the leading online literature platform in China. We look forward to the new management team further energizing China Literature’s platform, and deepening cooperation between China Literature and key partners such as Tencent in activities including TV series, movies, and games.”

In recent years, China Literature has been promoting technological innovation and exploring business models which exhibit higher value for its users, further leading the industry into a new development phase. Mr. Wu Wenhui said, “This year marks the fifth anniversary of the establishment of China Literature as well as the eighteenth anniversary of Qidian.com. As one of the founders, I witness that the Group has indeed entered a new stage of growth. Together with several other management, I decided to retire with honour upon completion of our mission in bringing the Group to the new stage. In the future, it is essential for China Literature to build on our IP portfolio in establishing a more open ecosystem and new commercial rules to embrace future trends. This requires a thorough change in management to propel China Literature forwards in areas such as business innovation, technological breakthrough, IP creation and establishment of ecosystem.”

Mr. Cheng Wu, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of China Literature, said, “I would like to express my thanks to Mr. Wu Wenhui and the founding team for their trust to delegate authority to the new management team and continue to support the development of China Literature. We are confident in pushing forward the upgrade of China Literature from the largest copyrighted digital reading platform and literature IP incubator in the industry to an even stronger literature content ecosystem. We expect the upgrade in three aspects. Firstly, we will strengthen the core business through enhancing IP incubation capability, solidifying fundamentals, and speeding up the development across sectors to accelerate our IP development. Secondly, we will strengthen the connection capability of our platform through establishing stronger connection between the products of China Literature and Tencent’s properties. Finally, building on our proven paid reading model, we will expand our business through upgrading our business models in areas such as new technology and industrial internet.”

Mr. Cheng Wu, who joined Tencent in 2009, currently serves as the Vice President of Tencent and the Chief Executive Officer of Tencent Pictures, and is responsible for Tencent’s Marketing and Public Relations Department, and has been leading the marketing departments of Tencent Interactive Entertainment Group. In 2013, he and Mr. Wu Wenhui jointly played a critical role in founding Tencent Literature and served as the President of Tencent Literature and the Chief Executive Officer of Tencent Literature, respectively. In March 2015, upon the establishment of China Literature, he served as a director for a certain period to provide continuous supports to Mr. Wu Wenhui and the management team. He proactively promoted the collaboration of China Literature and New Classics Media with Tencent in areas including  films, animes, comics and online games businesses, co-developing cross-industry representative works such as Joy of Life and There Was a Lingjian Mountain a Long Time Ago.

Hou Xiaonan currently serves as the Vice President of the Platform and Content Group of Tencent and holds various management positions for Tencent businesses including Tencent Open Platform, YingYongBao, Tencent WeStart, Qingteng University and Penguin Media Content Platform. He has extensive and in-depth management experience in product planning and operation, business model innovation, resource integration and ecosystem cooperation.

About China Literature Limited

China Literature Limited is a pioneer in the online literature market and operates China’s leading online literature platform. The Company owns nine major branded products. Among these, QQ Reading, a unified mobile content aggregation and distribution platform, is the flagship product. Other branded products focus on individual genres and their respective fan bases. China Literature’s shareholder and strategic partner, Tencent, provides the Company with exclusive content distribution access via its suite of leading mobile and Internet products, including Mobile QQ, QQ Browser, Tencent News, Weixin Reading and Tencent Video. The Company also has distribution beyond the Tencent platforms by pre-installing Apps on handsets partners such as OPPO, Huawei and VIVO, as well as licensing content to third-party partners such as Baidu, Sogou, JD.com and Xiaomi Duokan. China Literature monetizes its vast and proprietary content library mainly through online paid reading and content adaptations for a variety of entertainment formats. China Literature’s diverse and high-quality content library is a significant competitive advantage that lies at the core of its business model. In 2018, China Literature further expanded its content capabilities downstream by acquiring New Classics Media, a renowned TV series, web series and film production company in China. For more information, please visit http://ir.yuewen.com/.  

Contact

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to the industry and business outlook, forecast business plans and growth strategies of the Company. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to the Company and are stated herein on the basis of the outlook at the time of this press release. They are based on certain expectations, assumptions and premises, some of which are subjective or beyond our control. These forward-looking statements may prove to be incorrect and may not be realized in future. Underlying the forward-looking statements is a large number of risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding these risks and uncertainties is included in our other public disclosure documents on our corporate website.

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PR Newswire

Bitauto Files Its Annual Report on Form 20-F

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BEIJING, April 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Bitauto Holdings Limited (“Bitauto” or the “Company”) (NYSE: BITA), a leading provider of internet content & marketing services, and transaction services for China’s automotive industry, today announced that it filed its annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 27, 2020.

The annual report can be accessed on Bitauto’s investor relations website at http://ir.bitauto.com as well as the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. Bitauto will provide hardcopies of the annual report containing its audited consolidated financial statements, free of charge, to its shareholders and ADS holders upon request.

About Bitauto Holdings Limited

Bitauto Holdings Limited (NYSE: BITA) is a leading provider of internet content & marketing services, and transaction services for China’s automotive industry. Bitauto’s business consists of three segments: advertising and subscription business, transaction services business and digital marketing solutions business.

Bitauto’s advertising and subscription business provides a variety of advertising services to automakers through the bitauto.com website and corresponding mobile apps which provide consumers with up-to-date automobile pricing and promotional information, specifications, reviews and consumer feedback. Bitauto also provides transaction-focused online advertisements and services for promotional activities to its business partners, including automakers, automobile dealers, auto finance partners and insurance companies. Bitauto offers subscription services via its SaaS platform, which provides web-based and mobile-based integrated digital marketing solutions to new car automobile dealers in China. The SaaS platform enables automobile dealer subscribers to create their own online showrooms, list pricing and promotional information, provide automobile dealer contact information, place advertisements and manage customer relationships to help them reach a broad set of purchase-minded customers and effectively market their automobiles to consumers online.

Bitauto’s transaction services business is primarily conducted by its controlled subsidiary, Yixin Group Limited (SEHK: 2858), a leading online automobile finance transaction platform in China, which provides transaction platform services as well as self-operated financing services.

Bitauto’s digital marketing solutions business provides automakers with one-stop digital marketing solutions, including website creation and maintenance, online public relations, online marketing campaigns, advertising agent services, big data applications and digital image creation.

For more information, please visit http://ir.bitauto.com.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

China
Suki Li
Bitauto Holdings Limited
Phone: +86-10-6849-2145
ir@bitauto.com

Philip Lisio
Foote Group
Phone: +86-10-8429-9544
bitauto@thefootegroup.com

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PR Newswire

58.com Announces Appointment of Independent Financial Advisor and Legal Counsel to the Special Committee

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BEIJING, April 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — 58.com Inc. (NYSE: WUBA) (“58.com” or the “Company”), China’s largest online classifieds marketplace, today announced that the special committee (the “Special Committee”) of the Company’s board of directors (the “Board”), formed to evaluate and consider the previously announced preliminary non-binding acquisition proposal letter dated April 2, 2020 (the “Proposal”) or any alternative strategic option that the Company may pursue, has retained Houlihan Lokey (China) Limited as its independent financial advisor and Fenwick & West LLP as its legal counsel to assist it in this process.

The Board cautions the Company’s shareholders and others considering trading the Company’s securities that no decisions have been made with respect to the Proposal or any alternative strategic option that the Company may pursue. There can be no assurance that any definitive offer will be received, that any definitive agreement will be executed relating to the transaction contemplated by the Proposal or that any other transaction will be approved or consummated. The Company does not undertake any obligation to provide any updates with respect to any transaction, except as required under applicable law.

About 58.com Inc.

58.com Inc. (NYSE: WUBA) operates China’s largest online classifieds marketplace, as measured by monthly unique visitors on both its www.58.com website and mobile applications. The Company’s online marketplace enables local business users and consumer users to connect, share information and conduct business. 58.com’s broad, in-depth and high-quality local information, combined with its easy-to-use website and mobile applications, has made it a trusted marketplace for consumers. 58.com’s strong brand recognition, large and growing user base, merchant network and massive database of local information create a powerful network effect. For more information on 58.com, please visit http://www.58.com.

Safe Harbor Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” “confident” and similar statements. 58.com may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about 58.com’s beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements that involve factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, but not limited to the following: 58.com’s goals and strategies; its future business development, financial condition and results of operations; its ability to retain and grow its user base and network of local merchants for its online marketplace; the growth of, and trends in, the markets for its services in China; the outbreak of COVID-19 or other health epidemics in China or globally; the demand for and market acceptance of its brand and services; competition in its industry in China; its ability to maintain the network infrastructure necessary to operate its website and mobile applications; relevant government policies and regulations relating to the corporate structure, business and industry; and its ability to protect its users’ information and adequately address privacy concerns. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is current as of the date of the press release, and 58.com does not undertake any obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

For more information, please contact:
58.com Inc.
ir@58.com

Christensen
In China
Mr. Christian Arnell
Phone: +86-10-5900-1548
E-mail: carnell@christensenir.com

In US
Ms. Linda Bergkamp
Phone: +1-480-614-3004
Email: lbergkamp@ChristensenIR.com

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News

Facebook Introduces Messenger Rooms and More!

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Everyone knows Zoom, everyone knows Skype, and Everyone knows Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. It is nice that in this time of need, you still can see the faces of your loved ones on your smartphone or PC screen. Unfortunately, not everyone is on every platform that we have listed. Well, everyone is on WhatsApp these days. Still, not everyone is on the same platform at once.

In that case, making a larger video call sometimes is quite difficult. That is why Zoom gained such a popularity. In the case of Zoom, you do not need to be a registered member of the platform to get into an online meeting. Everything feels a bit more formal than necessary though.

What if you just want to meet your friends just to hang out? What if you do not want to be limited by the 40 minutes imposed by Zoom for free accounts? You can do it with Facebook now.

The new update to Facebook brings an extra flexible video call function to Facebook’s already robust Messenger. They call it Messenger Rooms, because it sort of is like a virtual room. It also means that you do not need to be on Facebook to join in the Messenger call or video conference. A lot of us are on Facebook already anyway, so this makes plenty of sense now.

Source: Facebook

The biggest concern to this type of video calling now is security. Facebook anticipated that and made sure that the app is airtight in security. As an admin you can ensure that you can keep your Room private and secure from unknown joiners or spammers.

On top of that, Facebook is introducing their Live With feature. This is a clever live broadcasting tool for you to go on Facebook Live videos without getting your guests leaving their homes. It makes managing a livestream more straightforward than what it is currently. Those who does live videos know the pain of setting up two or three different apps to be running at the same time, making sure that the audio feeds properly and what not. Facebook Live With eliminates all that.

Source: Facebook

Of course, Facebook will be updating WhatsApp alongside Facebook Messenger. You can already make video calls with three other friends through your smartphone app. Now though you can create a video call to include up to eight people.

Back on Facebook Messenger, within the Room you have all the features of the usual video call that you might have with your friends personally too. You get all the sorts of fun filters that you are used to in the normal messenger video call. At the same time, your friends do not even have to be on Facebook to enjoy their time with you.

I you want to know more about Facebook’s new Messenger Room and their latest update, you can head down to their Newsroom. If you are reading this and have not seen the Messenger Room function appear yet, Facebook says that they are releasing it by stages in different countries and regions. That means it will get to you, just be patient.

Source: Facebook Newsroom

Android, iOS, Mobile, News

Video Calling on Telegram App; Finally, but Not Yet

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Web conferencing is all the rage these days. With extended quarantine period at this difficult time, everyone is craving for some form of human interaction after days of being alone at home. Thankfully, technology has our backs.

We can do plenty more than just making calls and sending text messages these days. You still can hang out with your friends in private text groups in WhatsApp or even Telegram. But you can do more than just group texts these days with smartphones.

The power of the internet has frown exponentially over the years. As technology progresses, the demand for data increases and that is how we get to the 5G data technology today. The power of high-speed internet also made it possible for us to connect with other people around the globe like never before. Yes, we are talking about video calling.

On Apple’s exclusive FaceTime app, you can do a video call with more than 10 people at one time. Sometimes you do not need to have that many people on one call, but it is nice to know you can. On the world popular Zoom app, you can do it with up to 100 people for free, at a limited time of course. You can even do a video call with four people at a time using WhatsApp.

There is one very popular chat app that we have been using that does not have the video call function just yet though. That app is Telegram.

We like Telegram for several reasons. You do not need to work with elaborate processes to get your messages saved from one device to another. It works on multiple devices at one time too, so you do not have to stick to only one device at a time. But we cannot do video calls with the app, bummer.

If you are a Telegram user, you might not have to be too bummed out for long though. Telegram is looking to be bringing their long awaited and highly requested video calling function in 2020. There are no mentions yet on when we will start seeing the function on our smartphones though, soon we hope.

Still, Telegram is more than just an alternative text messenger app. It has developed and reinvented itself multiple times to be a lot more than just a texting platform. To know more about Telegram and its development, you can check out their blog.

Source: Telegram Blog

Android, Health, iOS, Mobile, News

[COVID-19] Australia is Next in Launching COVID-19 Contact Tracing App

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About two weeks ago, a certain Cupertino based firm and a Mountain View tech giant decided to team up to create something that the world really needs. Apple and Google have decided that they are collaborating to create a framework for contact tracing apps. Singapore responded soon after with a contact tracing app that they are distributing in their own region, ‘TraceTogether’ they call it.

Source: ABC Australia

Following that is Australia, launching their own COVIDSafe app on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The app is based on Singapore’s TraceTogether app, which is fundamentally is a voluntary app for users. Basically, the app will allow your device to communicate with other smartphone devices within a certain radius, a sort of “digital handshake”.

It uses your device’s Bluetooth data to trace proximity with another person. Once that is established, the app cross checks your contact list and its own servers to identify infected persons. The app will then notify users if they have been in contact with an infected person for longer than 15 minutes.

There are some security concerns over this of course. You are allowing your smartphone to share its contact information with a server and another device via Bluetooth, which is less than ideal. Still, it will only share these data when you allow the app to do so. The app will also ask for your consent to share your data if you are an infected person or if you have been infected. There are also concerns about more data being shared out with external parties and governments.

Department of Health (Australia)

The Australian government have dismissed that claims and assured its people that the app, though public and open in nature, is secure and save. Any technology that could help with the fight against COVID-19 is a welcome addition after all.

Germany is on a different approach to contact tracing though. Like Google and Apple’s approach to contact tracing, they are prioritising a little bit more privacy. Instead of storing data in a centralised sever, the app will store data only on its devices. We have not seen any implementations on that just yet though, including Google and Apple’s attempt. We should see it soon, and we are quite excited.

For now, we can only wait and see if the app helps or not. Although, in the case of Malaysia, the Movement Control Order has helped with the local efforts in the fight against the virus. Do we still need the app then? What do you think? Let us know in the comments section.

Source: Department of Health (Australia), Engadget