PanzerGlass in collaboration with LA-based artist and philanthropist Mikael B and non-profit organization, The Perfect World Foundation, pledges to plant a tree for each unit sold.
DUBAI, UAE, May 21, 2021 — PanzerGlass, one of the leading screen protection brands in the world, announces the launch of its Limited Artist Edition ClearCase™ as part of its sustainability initiatives.
PanzerGlass Ltd Artist Edition Clearcase designed by Mikael B
The company has partnered with Los Angeles-based artist and philanthropist Mikael Brandrup (a.k.a. Mikael B), an ambassador for the Perfect World Foundation, a non-profit organisation that raises awareness and supports efforts to prevent the global ecological crisis.
"We are thrilled to partner with Mikael B. for our first-ever limited artist edition ClearCase. For each unit sold, we will plant a tree in the Sir David Attenborough Forest. This collaboration bridges smartphone protection, abstract street style art, and forest restoration to create small changes for a better world," announces Head of Global Marketing Michael Broend.
The Limited Artist Edition ClearCase™ available for iPhone 11 and 12 models features Mikael B’s original artwork and has a signature antibacterial coating proven to kill up to 99.99% of most common surface bacteria, a 100% recycled TPU frame, and an extra-strong honeycomb pattern to enhance shock absorption providing 25% improved scratch resistance.
Mikael B is an urban contemporary artist who always had a desire to make a difference with his art. He founded the Mikael B Foundation in 2017, where all his charity initiatives came together – including projects for a school in Cambodia, saving the world seas, and planting trees to reduce CO2 in collaboration with The Perfect World Foundation.
On this initiative, Mikael B commented: "The collaboration has been built on a shared passion for changing the world for the better. To kick off the project, I created a mural called "Moment of Clarity" in Los Angeles. I used the composition of the mural to design a ClearCase to protect your phone that bridges the PanzerGlass heritage and my art style."
"As a global business, we believe we have a responsibility to find sustainable solutions in everything we do. Our journey for a greener planet started years ago. Let’s continue this journey and take responsibility together," adds Michael Broend.
The Limited Artist Edition ClearCase will be made available for purchase at the leading Smartphone Electronics Accessories Retailers.
About PanzerGlass™ In 2013, the Danish start-up launched its new and exclusive line of products for mobile devices. Today, a leader in its category, PanzerGlass™, has 130 employees, is present in 70 different countries.
PanzerGlass™ is part of the Juhl Bach Holding Group, one of Denmark’s largest family-owned holding companies. JB Holding specializes in venture operations and has an impressive portfolio of companies ranging from start-ups to mature companies.
Acer is refreshing its TravelMate P4 and Concept D laptops with more power with Intel’s new generation of processors. The new refresh brings more powerful processors with more power and Intel’s Xe graphics. It brings more graphics prowess to the line up which caters for creators and on the go workers.
Acer’s TravelMate line up brings durability and productivity in one package. The new TravelMate Spin P4 adds the flexibility of working from anywhere with the MIL-STD-810G durability, You won’t need to worry about dropping your laptop or even spilling water on it. The TravelMate Spin P4 also brings the flexibility to work in a multiple modes with its ability to transform from laptop to tablet. You can even present on the fly with the Spin P4’s tent mode.
Running on the latest generation of Intel Core i7 processors, the laptop is built for remote workers. The Acer TravelMate P4 is touted to have up to 13.5 hours of battery life. It also comes with high speed USB type C ports as well as support for DisplayPort. It also features security features that will help protect your data such as TPM (Trusted Platform Module) 2.0 hard drive protection.
Creative Flexibility and Power with ConceptD
Acer continues to iterate its ConceptD line up with features and specifications catered towards designers. The new line up of ConceptD laptops bring top of the line performance with added flexibility and freedom thanks to the expansion of the Ezel line up. In addition, creatives can express themselves freely with the touch enabled display which supports Acer’s Active Stylus. The stylus supports 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity providing a more realistic feel when illustrating.
The new ConceptD 7 series comes power packed with the absolute latest in specifications. It has processors ranging from the 10th generation Intel Core i7 to the Intel Xeon processor to handle anything you throw at it. Need to render a large 3D graphic? It shouldn’t be a problem with the NVIDIA Quadro RTX3000 and RTX 5000 options which come with the ConceptD 7 series. The ConceptD 7 Pro also comes with the Ezel variant which brings the flexibility of a multimode workflow. It also allows users to draw and illustrate at an angle that is comfortable to them.
Of course, not all of us need unbridled power. If the ConceptD 7 series is a little too powerful, the ConceptD 3 series should hit the right balance. Coming with the 10th generation Intel Core i7 and the a choice between the NVIDIA Quadro T1000 or the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1650Ti, the ConceptD 3 series isn’t a slouch either. It also comes with an Ezel version similar to the ConceptD 7.
Both the ConceptD 3 and 7 series come with colour accurate, 15.6-inch IPS displays with a ΔE value of less than 2. The former comes with Full HD resolution while the latter comes with UHD resolution. They support the latest WiFi 6 standard, Bluetooth 5.0 and have a full array of ports including support for DisplayPort over USB. The ConceptD 7 series supports Thunderbolt 3.
Pricing & Availability
The Acer TravelMate Spin P4 is available for purchase from all Acer official stores and authorized dealers. It will be retailing for MYR4,699 for the version with the Intel Core i5 and MYR5,399 for the version with the Intel Core i7.
The ConceptD 7 series will be available from the Acer e-store and will retail for MYR13,099 for the Core i7 and NVIDIA Quadro RTX3000. The ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro with a more colour accurate display with 100% coverage of the Adobe RGB and sRGB gamuts will retail for MYR17,099 while the ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro with the Intel Xeon and Quadro RTX5000 will retail for MYR26,099.
The ConceptD 3 which comes equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1650 Ti will be retailing at MYR7,399. The ConceptD 3 Pro with the NVIDIA Quadro T1000 will retail for MYR8,399 while the ConceptD 3 Ezel Pro will be retailing for MYR10,099. The line up will be available at select Acer Resellers.
New Top Performance CPUs and GPUs Are Pushing the Limit of Traditional Air-Cooled Servers; Liquid Cooling Technology, improving Datacenter PUE and TCO – saving Over 40% on Power Costs
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 20, 2021 — Super Micro Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMCI), a global leader in enterprise computing, storage, networking, and green computing technology, is making available a range of liquid cooling solutions that reduce costs and allow the most demanding applications to run with less jitter and at faster CPU frequencies. Working with customers, Supermicro will design, implement and test the latest liquid cooling technologies at the rack level, ensuring a quick and seamless installation in customers’ data centers worldwide. Customers who implement a liquid cooling solution can improve datacenter PUE and TCO by over 40% on power costs.
"Supermicro has established dedicated teams to work with customers and partners to deliver state-of-the-art rack level liquid cooling solutions that enable systems that are used for the most demanding applications to remain operational under heavy computationally loads," said Charles Liang, president, and CEO, Supermicro. "Our most popular servers — GPU, SuperBlade, BigTwin, and Ultra systems — are easily outfitted with liquid cooling technology that reduces OPEX while keeping these systems operating at maximum performance levels."
Popular Systems
These selected Supermicro systems, including the latest GPU Systems, SuperBlades, BigTwin, and Ultra systems, are ideal for data centers with demanding applications. Supermicro experts have identified these servers as the best choice for AI, HPC, and related workloads where high-frequency and densely packed CPUs and GPUs are required.
Types of Cooling Offered
Supermicro has designed effective cooling solutions from small to large scale by carefully evaluating each case of our customer’s specific requirements and limitations, including Direct to Chip (D2C) cooling, Immersion cooling, Rear-door Heat Exchanger (RDHx) cooling, or a combination of these technologies.
Liquid cooling solutions give IT managers the confidence to run Supermicro servers at sustaining maximum performance levels, increasing the ROI of high-end servers.
A range of liquid cooling technologies can be used, depending on the data centers physical infrastructure. D2C cooling can be installed in each server, or entire systems can be immersed in a liquid for maximum heat removal. Supermicro works very closely with customers to determine the best suitable liquid cooling solution. Engineers will design the solution based on the types of systems chosen and the data center infrastructure. All or part of a data center can utilize liquid cooling technologies, optimizing the operating environment.
Supermicro (SMCI), the leading innovator in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology, is a premier provider of advanced Server Building Block Solutions® for Enterprise Data Center, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and Edge Computing Systems worldwide. Supermicro is committed to protecting the environment through its "We Keep IT Green®" initiative and provides customers with the most energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly solutions available on the market.
Supermicro, Server Building Block Solutions, and We Keep IT Green are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Super Micro Computer, Inc.
Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.
All other brands, names, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Google I/O 2021 is happening right now. The three-day conference kicked off with a bang though. To put it bluntly, Google I/O 2021 kicked off with a two-hour keynote highlighting everything coming from Google in 2021. While two hours do sound like a lot of drag, the announcements do sound mighty interesting though.
Google Workspace for Everyone
Source: Google
They kick off with something that everyone is concerned about in the period of pandemic, working from home. For that Google has something called Google Workspace. Google Workspace has been one of the most popular and thriving services since the world has gone into isolation with the looming pandemic situation. In 2021, the suite is updated with something called Smart Canvas.
Smart Canvas is a collaborative workspace within Google Workspace built for project management and keeping track of a project with your team members. It is kind of like a private chat or conversation within the larger organisation, but much cleaner. You can create and share Google Docs, Sheets, and even Slides within the group and work on the files together in real time.
Workspace is also now integrated with Google Meet, Google Doc, Google Sheet, and Google Slides. That also means that you can have a meeting on Google Meet within Google Workspace, share your files across the chat, and even edit the files together with your team in the Meets room. It is all about making remote collaborative work as seamless and organised as possible. Google also said Google Workspace will be available for free later in the year.
More in Google Search
Source: Google
Google search can also bring contents or search results that comes from other parts of the world in different languages with the integration of Google Translate algorithm and Google Lens as well. On top of that, Google is improving their language understanding and processing algorithm that should benefit more than just Google Translate, Google Lens, and regular Google Search.
They developed something called Wavenet, to make Google Assistant sound more natural and more contextual. They put that together with something they call Multitask Unified Model (MUM). All these makes Google Search and Google Lens the most powerful search and item identification tool ever.
The technologies that got mashed together means that Google search is not just single words anymore. It could be a sentence, a photo, and even both. The results can turn to be more than just web suggestions too. The result can turn out to be top suggestions, a place, and even connect you to merchants to buy what you need. If you set up your Google wallet correctly with all your merchant memberships as well, Google can connect you directly to deals that might be tied to your memberships too. There is a bit more to that too with Google Chrome, where you can track back your shopping carts on various sites even after you close the page.
Cleverer Google Maps
Source: Google
Google Maps is technically the most popular navigation app in the world. But that does not mean the app is flawless. There is always room for improvements.
Eco and Safe Driving
For example, Google introduces an ‘Eco Mode’ into the app. That basically means Google will take you through the most fuel efficient and economical route to get you to where you want and need to be. It may not be necessarily the fastest though, just keep that in mind.
They also introduced ‘safer driving’ routes for Google Maps. Obviously, that is what we call it, not what Google calls it. The idea is to navigate you to routes that might avoid traffic with sudden braking points and overall a smoother, clearer ride. All these are obviously done with Google’s navigation algorithm, traffic analysis, and GPS data such as speed or acceleration that Google Maps itself can see and work with in real-time.
Better Live View
Source: Google
They have expanded on Live View too in this case. Google Maps Live View does not just include navigation data in Augmented Reality anymore. It now shows you street names so that you can navigate better. It also now includes points of interest, landmarks, and you can pull up information regarding a place including its reviews directly from Maps app itself. Google Maps is also introducing Live View indoors now. It starts with the major train stations and airport in Zurich for now. The feature will be introduced to Tokyo also next month.
More Details
If you are getting yourself around by driving though, Google Maps is also a lot more detailed. Major intersections with road crossings and traffic lights will now show on maps so that you are better prepared. With Google’s understanding on your behaviour, your routine, and your usual routes, Google can also highlight relevant information, landmarks, or points of interest for you. A breakfast takeaway for example, on a Monday morning drive to work.
On top of all of that, Google Maps can now be a tool to help you plan your day not just on the road. Google Maps can track or predict how busy and packed an area will be at certain times just so you do not have to squeeze into the area at that time. You could plan to go another day for example, or just not go at all if it is not important. This is important in this day and age where social distancing is a recommended practice.
LaMDA
Source: Google
LaMDA is meant to be a conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI). Google says they have been using and testing it internally and it is powered by everything great about Google’s search engine and linguistic programming. In its demo, it sounds like an amazing piece of tech that could keep you having conversations with it from day to night.
It is programmed to know everything there is to know about our current world and situation. But it is not built to answer you with data necessarily. It is built to have natural conversations about the weather in general terms like “you might want to bring an umbrella in the afternoon”, rather than “there is a 78% chance of a light rain at 2.00 p.m.”.
While the answers that we saw from the demo does sound a little metallic and robotic at times, we cannot wait for LaMDA to be introduced into things like Workspace, YouTube, or even Google Maps. It is like having your own version of Iron Man’s JARVIS in your smartphone, or PC, or whatever you fancy.
More Organised Google Photos
Source: Google
Google Photos is a little bit more than just your photo gallery now though. It is now something you can use to create photo collages, to understand yourself better, and sort of your memory bank. Google’s image recognition recognises your photo patterns and puts all of them together to tell you that you tend to take photos of a certain context or a certain look. It tells you that you might be attracted to a certain sort of colour for example.
With Machine Learning (ML) as well, Google Photos can stitch multiple similar photos taken in succession to create a moving photo or video for you, even if there are gaps. Organisation and searching for your photos are even more intuitive too when you can find photos associated to certain celebrations for example.
Android 12 and Wear OS
Source: Google
Trust us when we say Android 12 is a huge overhaul of the Android OS. There is nearly no difference in terms of function, to be fair. Most of the changes are in the way things look and gets organised, and even customised. They call all this Material You design.
In terms of looks, things are a lot more intuitive, most organised, bigger, and a lot less cluttered. You get more control in how your User Interface (UI) looks in total as well. There are supposedly about 22% faster animation, they say.
You get more control over your own security and even privacy, and they are easier to access and understand with Privacy Dashboard. With the new UI as well, IoT controls are more front and center than before. There is a new improved remote app for your Android TV too.
Wear OS is getting a fresh lease of life too, thankfully. They want to make Wear OS a major smartwatch platform competitor to Apple’s WatchOS. To do that they managed to strike a partnership with their long-time partner, Samsung to bring Tizen and Wear OS together to make a more robust wearable operating system (OS) for everyone to use. Fitbit will also be introducing their own Wear OS later in the year and lend their expertise and know how in health and fitness into the upcoming Wear OS.
Your Safety, Privacy, and Protection Matters
Source: Google
Google has also improved their Google Password Manager. While the app still functions the same as before, you can now transfer password information from older devices. That also means that your passwords can be stored on-device instead of on-cloud. With Android’s on-device encryption nature, saving your managed passwords on your device could be a more secure option. With compromise alerts, you know when your accounts are accessed, and you can easily change passwords for whatever you have quickly via Password Manager.
Privacy Core
Google also introduced something called their Privacy Core. It is Google’s effort in giving control over information shared with Google back to its users. Supposedly as well, thanks to Privacy Core, you Live Caption sessions or translations will not be shared back to Google.
But security and privacy are more than that as well. It spreads to your search history, and even browsing history. Google is including an option now to delete ‘recent history’ on your Google Chrome.
Even in Google Maps, you can tell the app to not track your location history just so that the app does not collect your location data. You can allow Google Maps to track you accurately, or just give Google access to your approximate location now, in different apps. Not allowing Maps to track your data and build a history data also means that you are not going to get recommendations or suggestions from Google though. A worthy trade off, we think, for more privacy.
Better Health, Better Quality of Life
Source: Google
Since Google’s expansion and changing their own corporate name to Alphabet, they have been hugely involved in medical research. One of the places they have been pushing on is in the field of Mammograms. Google’s AI push into the platform means that screening for breast cancer is more accurate than ever. Their AI also helps doctors in understanding Mammograms and the severity in the diagnosis helping the health institutes prioritise different cases.
That is not all though. Dermatology is one huge field that could be expanded even using your own devices. Because this field has more to do with skin conditions, Google Lens can be an early diagnosis tool. You can take a photo of your skin conditions and Google can possibly identify what you have to a certain degree. Of course, nothing replaces a doctor in matters of treatments and full diagnosis, so Google can direct you towards a dermatologist near you via your browser. This feature will be available in the EU region by the end of the year 2021.
Project Starline
Source: Google
Speaking of health, we cannot ignore the current pandemic situation. We are all recommended to stay at home as much as possible and avoid as much human interaction as possible. The COVID-19 pandemic, while has brought humanity together more than ever, ironically has isolated us even more too.
Project Starline is a video chat tool that uses multiple cameras to create a 3D image model and project that 3D image to another part of the world. While that means that the file packages from that implementation are so bug that our regular internet speeds will not be able to cope, Google is working to compress the image files to a more sensible package size so that the images can be transferred using our regular internet connection.
The function of that is to implement a 3D video chat experience. While regular video chat today has progressed further than before, nothing replaces a physical presence and interaction. The idea with 3D projection calls looks to bridge that gap a little. Although you cannot touch the person still, having a 3D representation of a person is as close as you can get in having a physical presence in today’s world.
Google I/O 2021
Source: Google
To wrap up, Google announced that they are committing to shift their entire operation to carbon free energy sources by 2030. While Google has been proud of operating entirely on renewable energy, they are taking the first steps in relying on clean energy that does not leave any footprints. The commitment has led them to invest into Geothermal energy currently.
As promised by Google, the Google I/O 2021 is the largest ever. It is not just based on attendance though. It is also about the number of things that Google is introducing for 2021. It is also about Google’s commitments for the future, and we are excited, especially for Wear OS. For more information on what happened in Google I/O, you can check out Google’s Blog.
SHANGHAI, May 20, 2021 — As an authorized distributor, Mouser Electronics, Inc. is focused on the rapid introduction of new products and technologies, giving customers an edge and helping speed time to market. Over 1,100 semiconductor and electronic component manufacturer brands count on Mouser to help them introduce their products into the global marketplace. Mouser’s customers can expect 100% certified, genuine products that are fully traceable from each manufacturer.
Mouser Electronics Adds 483 NPIs in March 2021
Last month, Mouser launched more than 483 new products ready for shipment.
Some of the products introduced by Mouser last month include:
Analog Devices LTC2672 16-Bit Digital-to-Analog Converter Analog Devices LTC2672 five-channel, current-source output DAC, with selectable output ranges, precision reference, and a multiplexer for surveying the channel output voltages and currents.
TDK InvenSense SmartIndustrial™ Sensor Platforms TDK InvenSense SmartIndustrial devices are compact, high-precision, low-cost, accelerometers and motion-sensing MEMS modules that give engineers a range of sensing choices for industrial applications.
Intel® RealSense™ ID F450/F455 Intel RealSense ID F450/F455 is an out–of–the–box, credit-card-sized solution that combines an active depth sensor with a specialized neural network to deliver secure and accurate facial authentication.
As a global authorized distributor, Mouser offers the world’s widest selection of the newest semiconductors and electronic components — in stock and ready to ship. Mouser’s customers can expect 100% certified, genuine products that are fully traceable from each of its manufacturer partners. To help speed customers’ designs, Mouser’s website hosts an extensive library of technical resources, including a Technical Resource Center, along with product data sheets, supplier-specific reference designs, application notes, technical design information, engineering tools and other helpful information.
About Mouser Electronics Mouser Electronics, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is an authorized semiconductor and electronic component distributor focused on New Product Introductions from its leading manufacturer partners. Serving the global electronic design engineer and buyer community, the global distributor’s website, mouser.com, is available in multiple languages and currencies and features more than 5 million products from over 1,100 manufacturer brands. Mouser offers 27 support locations worldwide to provide best-in-class customer service in local language, currency and time zone. The distributor ships to over 630,000 customers in 223 countries/territories from its 1 million-square-foot, state-of-the-art distribution facilities in the Dallas, Texas, metro area. For more information, visit https://www.mouser.com/.
Trademarks Mouser and Mouser Electronics are registered trademarks of Mouser Electronics, Inc. Intel and RealSense are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. All other products, logos, and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
DUBAI, UAE, May 20, 2021 — Yalla Group Limited ("Yalla" or the "Company") (NYSE: YALA), the leading voice-centric social networking and entertainment platform in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), today announced that it became aware of certain short attack reports that contain numerous errors and distorted, misleading and unsubstantiated claims regarding the Company. The Company firmly denies any allegation or claim suggesting that the Company did not provide true and accurate public disclosure about its business and financial performance. The Company stands firmly by the accuracy and appropriateness of its audited financial statements and other public disclosure filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and otherwise publicly disclosed to its investors.
The Company believes these short attacks were purposefully designed to manipulate the price of the Company’s shares, with the aim of causing a stock price decline in order to economically benefit the short sellers, to the detriment of the Company’s public shareholders. These short attack reports also illustrated their authors’ lack of understanding of the Company’s business model and the feelings and sentiments of the Company’s user community. Yalla will consider any necessary and appropriate course of action to protect the interest of the Company and all of its shareholders, as well as its users, employees and other stakeholders.
The Company emphasizes that it has always been and will remain committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance and internal control, as well as transparent and timely disclosure in compliance with the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange.
About Yalla Group Limited
Yalla Group Limited is the leading voice-centric social networking and entertainment platform in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA). The Company’s flagship mobile application, Yalla, is specifically tailored for the people and local cultures of the region and primarily features Yalla rooms, a mirrored online version of the majlis or cafés where people spend their leisure time in casual chats. Voice chats are more suitable to the cultural norms in MENA compared to video chats. The Company strives to maintain users’ equal status on its platform, thereby encouraging all users to freely communicate and interact with each other. The Company also operates Yalla Ludo, a mobile application featuring online versions of board games that are highly popular in MENA, such as Ludo and Domino. In-game real-time chats and Ludo chat room functions are popular social networking features among users. Through close attention to detail and localized appeal that deeply resonates with users, Yalla’s mobile applications deliver a seamless user experience that fosters a loyal sense of belonging, creating a highly devoted and engaged user community.
This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking" statements pursuant to 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," "aims," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "likely to" and similar statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Yalla Group Limited’s beliefs, plans and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Yalla Group Limited’s filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Yalla Group Limited does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.
For investor and media inquiries, please contact:
Yalla Group Limited Investor Relations Kerry Gao – IR Director Tel: +86-571-8980-7962 Email: ir@yallatech.ae
The Piacente Group, Inc. Yang Song Tel: +86-10-6508-0677 Email: yalla@tpg-ir.com
In the United States:
The Piacente Group, Inc. Brandi Piacente Tel: +1-212-481-2050 Email: yalla@tpg-ir.com
The companies will bring expert instruction in STEM fields to individuals worldwide, with a shared goal of bridging the STEM opportunity gap
SINGAPORE and MUMBAI, India, May 20, 2021 — Emeritus, the global leader in making high-quality education accessible and affordable to individuals, companies, and governments around the world, announced today a definitive agreement to acquire iD Tech, the world leader in youth STEM education for $200 million. The acquisition, which is being made through Emeritus’ parent company Eruditus, marks Emeritus’ expansion into K12 STEM education, as the company grows to prepare individuals of all ages to succeed in the workforce, and positions Emeritus as one of the largest and fastest growing skilling platforms. Upon the closing of the transaction, iD Tech will operate independently, maintaining its all-star team of instructors and employees. Emeritus and iD Tech’s distinct, yet highly complementary, offerings will be scaled to support a global audience with improved learning experiences.
STEM career opportunities are projected to grow exponentially, with an estimated 3.5 million jobs in the U.S. alone that need to be filled by 2025. With offerings from both companies in coding, math, game development, robotics and more, Emeritus and iD Tech are positioned to make STEM learning more accessible, paving the way for brighter futures in STEM occupations.
"Emeritus is in the business of teaching the skills of the future like AR/VR, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, software engineering, design thinking and leadership to professionals," said Ashwin Damera, co-founder and CEO, pointing to the company’s more than 200 short courses, online degree programs, boot camps and CXO programs offered in collaboration with more than 50 of the world’s top universities. "We believe that proficiency and mastery of these skills should begin in K12, and that iD Tech will be instrumental as we jointly pursue our goal of closing STEM skills gaps globally. Their long-term learning system is a perfect complement to what we offer adult learners and will allow us to create a formidable life-long learning ecosystem. Moreover, as a female founded family company, with strong DEI initiatives and a mission-driven culture, the iD Tech team is inspiring and we’re excited to be working together."
Pete Ingram-Cauchi, CEO of iD Tech, echoed these sentiments, noting that "more and more kids are experiencing STEM touchpoints in their daily lives, whether it’s coding in their favorite video games or 3D printing mask extenders. The pandemic accelerated interest in STEM fields, and we have been ecstatic to see more interested learners exploring and mastering this space. Both iD Tech and Emeritus share the belief that such offerings will only continue to grow in interest, and we are confident that we can open access for people everywhere to our courses and instructors."
Damera explained that Emeritus’ global reach — its university partnerships and corporate clients span North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Southeast Asia, and 3x growth in emerging markets — combined with the fact that iD Tech has students from 135 countries and all 50 states in the US, makes for an unprecedented life-long learning proposition for students and professionals worldwide. It positions individuals for success, starting in elementary school and continuing throughout their professional careers. Students are supported and inspired by iD Tech’s programs with 97% of students going on to attend a four-year college (nine out of 10 of whom study STEM), and 90% saying that iD Tech impacted their long-term goals.
Emeritus and iD Tech share a pedagogical approach rooted in positive learner outcomes. Whether delivered online or in-person, learning programs from both companies are recognized for their innovative content, hands-on instruction and mentoring initiatives, and their accessibility and affordability. While virtual courses are the present focus, both companies will also continue to expand their in-person programs, many taking place at top universities, in the US and globally in 2022.
About Emeritus Emeritus is committed to teaching the skills of the future by making high-quality education accessible and affordable to individuals, companies, and governments around the world. It does this by collaborating with more than 50 top-tier universities across the United States, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, India and China. Emeritus’ short courses, degree programs, boot camps, and senior executive programs help individuals learn new skills and transform their lives, companies and organizations. Its unique model of state-of-the-art technology, curriculum innovation, and hands-on instruction from senior faculty, mentors and coaches educates more than 100,000 students per year across 80 countries. Founded in 2015, Emeritus, part of Eruditus Learning Solutions has more than 1,000 employees globally and offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai, Singapore, Palo Alto, Mexico City, New York, Boston, London, and Dubai. The company has raised over $160 million in capital and is backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia India, Leeds Illuminate, and Prosus Ventures. Learn more at Emeritus.org and Emeritus LinkedIn.
About iD Tech iD Tech is the world leader in youth STEM education and believes that all students deserve quality tech education. The family company was founded by a mother-daughter duo over 20 years ago in Silicon Valley and operates year-round online programs, in addition to summer camps at more than 150 top universities worldwide. Course topics include coding, 3D modeling, artificial intelligence, robotics, and game design. iD Tech is dedicated to bridging the digital divide and is committed to gender diversity. Since its inception, iD Tech has donated more than $6 million in life-changing educational experiences to underrepresented communities. For more information, visit www.iDTech.com.
Contrast furthers commitment to empower organizations to rapidly build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments with security integrity
LOS ALTOS, Calif., May 19, 2021 — Contrast Security, a leader in modernizing application security, today announced that it has joined the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and Linux Foundation as a silver member, which brings together the world’s top developers, end-users, and vendors to enable cloud native architectures and open source technologies. CNCF serves as the vendor-neutral home for many of the fastest-growing open source projects, including Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Envoy. In becoming a member, Contrast aims to support and educate the industry on the increasing risks and benefits of cloud native architectures and open source software through active participation in the foundation’s events, projects, and community.
Adoption of third-party open source software (OSS) has increased significantly over the past several years. OSS refers to application components (e.g., frameworks and libraries) within the public domain that developers can use, modify, and share to help augment proprietary code developed in-house and to accelerate time to market. As a result, OSS has gained wide adoption and is used by the vast number of enterprises — embraced by major corporations, including Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, and even Microsoft. At the same time, Contrast continues to empower organizations to leverage OSS safely without the risks they bring: vulnerabilities inherited to enterprises’ software, targeted attacks against open source code, and intellectual property licensing risks.
Cloud native applications also offer various benefits to organizations over traditional applications running in the cloud. The value of cloud native approaches typically falls into two different areas: greater business agility and faster development cycles. As organizations seek to tap the advantages of cloud native, the adoption of cloud native components is rapidly growing. Forrester, for example, predicts that just a year from now, 30% of developers will regularly use cloud containers and 25% will use serverless computing. These numbers will likely only increase as the marketplace continues to rapidly evolve and enterprises frequently need to make high-impact changes to applications on a very short timeline. However, in order to realize the full benefits of cloud native applications, organizations must ensure they have the right security technology and processes in place.
"We are proud to announce that Contrast has joined as a member of the CNCF and Linux Foundation to help drive industry change," said Surag Patel, Chief Strategy Officer at Contrast Security. "Many of the core foundations of this community to accelerate digital transformation, such as APIs, Kubernetes, serverless functions, Cloud Native architecture, and open source code, bring along with them exponentially increasing risk. Contrast was founded to enable enterprises to leverage all of these modern approaches while eliminating the risk they bring without slowing down digital transformation. We will bring a unique understanding of the market along with a differentiated capability around security observability that we believe will benefit the community."
Contrast’s CNCF membership follows the recent publication of its 2021 State of Open-source Security Report that revealed that 38% of third-party libraries found in applications are active and only 31% of classes in active libraries are invoked. Traditional software composition analysis (SCA) approaches attempt to analyze all of the open source code contained in applications — which translates into a huge time and resource expenditure chasing vulnerabilities that pose no risk at all. Yet, for third-party code that is invoked, risk is inherent: The average age of a library is 2.6 years old, and applications contain an average of 34 CVEs.
The report also discovered that many applications contain high-risk licensing issues that may require the applications in question to be released as open source (e.g., 35% contain at least one copyleft license). CNCF members will benefit from these and other types of data insights that are possible as a result of the inside-out application security approach of the Contrast Application Security Platform.
"It is a pleasure to welcome Contrast as a CNCF member," said Priyanka Sharma, General Manager at CNCF. "Cloud native patterns require integrated security practices and a paradigm shift to protect applications closer to dynamic workloads from the traditional perimeter-based security approach. We look forward to Contrast’s contributions and run-time security expertise to help shape the future of cloud native security and secure open source software."
Contrast already supports a variety of CNCF projects including Buildpacks with automated configuration of Contrast’s security instrumentation technology into every workload image. Every workload is paired with application security insights, instilling security confidence at scale in highly distributed environments. As a CNCF member, Contrast will continue to collaborate with peers on best practices, work directly with project maintainers, and provide feedback to CNCF.
About Contrast Security:
Contrast Security is the leader in modernizing application security, embedding code analysis and attack prevention directly into software. Contrast’s patented deep security instrumentation completely disrupts traditional application security approaches with integrated, comprehensive security observability that delivers highly accurate assessment and continuous protection of an entire application portfolio. This eliminates the need for disruptive scanning, expensive infrastructure workloads, and specialized security experts. The Contrast Application Security Platform accelerates development cycles, improves efficiencies and cost, and enables rapid scale while protecting applications from known and unknown threats.
OPPO is getting really busy with more and more devices coming into the Malaysian market. Just a few weeks back, the company launched their most affordable 5G smartphone, the OPPO A74 5G. The 4G variant of the OPPO A74 is now set to make its debut on May 20, 2021. It will be coming as an exclusive to LAZADA. It will be retailing for MYR899 and will be available with freebies for its first sale.
Source: OPPO Malaysia
The OPPO A74 comes packed with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor complemented with 6GB of RAM. It will also have 128GB of UFS 2.1 memory and support for up to 512GB of extra memory via a microSD card. It supports 33W fast charging through a USB-C port. On the camera front, it has a triple sensor setup with a 48-megapixel main camera sensor with an f/1.7 aperture, a 2-megapixel macro sensor with f/2.4 aperture and a 2-megapixel depth sensor with an f/2.4 aperture. The OPPO A74 supports 4K video recording at 30 fps. The front camera is a 16-megapixel sensor with an f/2.1 aperture. The phone is powered by a 5,000mAh battery.
The affordable option from OPPO also comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack and an under-screen fingerprint sensor. To complete the media experience, the smartphone comes with a 6.43-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen with a 1080×2400 pixel resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. It will be running ColorOS 11 atop Android 11.
Source: OPPO Malaysia
Together with the new smartphone, OPPO is also repricing the OPPO Reno5 5G. The mid-range offering will now be priced at MYR1,699, MYR200 cheaper than its launch price. The new pricing makes the smartphone one of the more affordable 5G devices available on the market now. It also comes with OPPO’s VOOC Charge 2.0 and a camera setup that brings all of OPPO’s signature camera features.
Android Wear or Wear OS as it was renamed a few years ago has been a little anaemic when it comes to updates; that is until NOW. Google took the stage at I/O 2021 to announce what could be the biggest and most important update to Wear OS: Google and Samsung are partnering to push Wear OS to the next level. The announcement confirms rumours which have been making their rounds for months.
Source: Google
The new partnership sees Samsung bring their know-how, expertise and features from their successful Tizen OS to Wear OS. As the companies put it, they are bringing “the best of their platforms together into one unified experience”. So what does this mean exactly? Well, the biggest change is that Samsung’s next Galaxy Watch will be shipping with Wear OS instead of Tizen OS. While this might seems like Samsung will be leaving their older watches behind, the company reassures its users that Galaxy Watch and other Tizen OS powered wearables will be receiving updates and support for at least 3 years after their launch.
Improvements Under the Hood
That aside, the new collaborative Wear OS approach also brings a slew of improvements that will not only be improving the user experience but also making developing for Wear OS a lot easier. The collaboration’s biggest improvement comes in its improved load time. Google is touting a whopping 30% improvement in app load times. In addition, Samsung and Google have made improvements to the lower layer of Wear OS to improve battery life. If you’ve used Wear OS smartwatches, you’d know that battery life can be an issue with them.
Source: Google
Google and Samsung have optimised background processes, making them more efficient and less intensive on the processors. In fact, processor-intensive processes like continuous heart rate monitoring have been optimised to use lower power cores to conserve power. This also opens the doors to more power-efficient features for wearable devices. Samsung has also helped with power efficiency with its bundled sensors which allow them to include more than one sensor in a single module.
More Diverse User Experience
Aside from improvements under the hood, the improvements are also creating a more diverse user experience. Manufacturers are now allowed to skin the operating system to have a more unified look across their devices. This also means that we might see slightly different experiences from manufacturers like Tag Heuer, Fossil and even Samsung will have their own design language when it comes to the user interface for their wearables. Google is expecting that the new customizability will result in a more diverse Wear OS ecosystem.
Google is also opening up more features in the OS to developers. Developers will be able to bring features like tiles to their apps. They have also integrated development for Wear OS into Android’s Development Studio. They are creating a more unified development experience across Android and Wear OS with a single touchpoint for development. Development is also made easier with Google’s Jetpack development suite which allows developers to call and implement API more readily. In addition, they are bringing Kotlin APIs to Wear OS.
Wear OS is also getting more focused on health with help from Samsung. Developers will be able to create new apps and improve their current apps with a more streamlined and simplified work flow. This comes thanks to the new Health Services platform which allows developers to retrieve data without building from scratch. Developers are able to take advantage of continuous data from the sensors and other contextual metrics without impacting the battery life of the device too much.
New Apps, Better Experience
Finally, these improvements directly impact how the OS performs and how accessible apps will be for the platform. The most direct improvements that users will be benefiting from is improved navigation on wearables. Google is bringing simple improvements like a double-tap to jump to your most recent app and even simpler swiping gestures to access your information.
Source: Google / Double Tap for Recent App
Source: Google / Tiles
Google is starting the ball rolling with updates coming to its core apps like Google Maps, Google Pay, Google Assistant and YouTube Music. The first change that will be coming to these apps is the adoption of the new “Material You” design. In addition, Google Maps will be getting better, more visible turn by turn navigation to help with using the app on the go. There are plans to take Google Maps offline. The same applies to YouTube Music as well. Google Assistant and Google Pay will be getting improvements as well. The latter will be making its way to 26 countries in the next few months while the former will become more user friendly on Wear.
It isn’t just Google that is improving its offerings. Spotify has revamped its experience on wearables; allowing users to seamlessly move on the go. The simplified interface allows users to not only control their music but also seamlessly switch between speakers and their Wear OS device. Other companies like Nike, Calm and Adidas have been working on revamping their experiences on OS. Fitbit will also join the Wear OS family. Wear OS apps will also be more visible on the Play Store with a dedicated section and recommendations.
The new Wear OS will be making its way to the market in the coming year. Current Wear OS devices find out if they are getting the big update in the coming months.
