Qualcomm has made a name for themselves pushing the boundaries of mobile processing with their successful Snapdragon processors. However, the company has – until now – left commercial hardware to their many partners. The company is changing things up with their latest announcement: a Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders.
Source: Qualcomm
The company seems to be taking a page out of Google’s book and is introducing a concept smartphone built from the ground up to highlight their processors. Designed by ASUS, the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders brings the full potential of the Snapdragon 888 Mobile Platform. The smartphone comes with compatibility for the latest connectivity standards: WiFi 6E, 5G support for both mmWave and sub 6 bandwidths and Bluetooth 5.2. Together with the connectivity, Qualcomm is removing any bottlenecks in performance by equipping the smartphone with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of onboard UFS 3.1 memory. The processor and top of the line storage promises some of the best read and write speeds.
Cameras Augmented by Qualcomm’s Triple ISP Technology & AI
The Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders comes with Qualcomm’s vision for the best camera experience on its platform. It comes with a 64-megapixel Sony IMX686 sensor with quad bayer technology; an aperture of f/1.8 and a effective focal length of 26.6mm with a 78.3° field of view; and four axis optical image stabilization. The triple sensor setup comes complemented with a secondary 12-megapixel Sony IMX363 sensor. This sensor has a f/2.2 aperture and an effective focal length of 14.3mm with support for macro shots. An 8-megapixel telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom and upto 12x hybrid zoom completes the triplet of cameras. On the front is a 24-megapixel sensor.
Source: Qualcomm
Qualcomm is touting the camera setup as a professional grade camera featuring AI augmentations that allow the camera to take good low light shots and intelligently focus and identify the best shot. Additionally, AI auto zoom allows your subject to be the focus of the shot while bringing you closer to the action. You can even shoot video in 4k and 8K resolutions. This is made possible by the Qualcomm Spectra 580 ISP which has gigapixel processing speeds.
Audiophile Experience Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound Technology
The new Qualcomm smartphone is also one of the first to feature Snapdragon Sound technology. The new optimizations allow users to wirelessly stream high quality, 24-bit audio with bitrates of up to 96KHz. Snapdragon Sound also enhances audio from end to end for a more robust sound with clear highs and boomy bass. It also enables super wideband voice for clear, true to life audio when making calls.
Source: Qualcomm
Of course, since Snapdragon Sound is focused on wireless audio, Qualcomm is including a set of wireless earphones by Master & Dynamic in the box with the Smartphone. The MW08SI comes with active noise cancelling and is powered by Qualcomm’s QCC5141 low power Bluetooth Audio SoC. It is able to do ultra low latency bluetooth streaming with true high resolution audio quality. It even has augmentations for better connectivity in environments with dense RF interference.
Desktop Gaming Experience on the Go
The Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders comes with the Adreno 660 GPU which is touted to bring 35% faster graphics rendering. Variable Rate Shading brings an additional 30% boost in performance as well. This experience is augmented by the 6.78-inch Samsung AMOLED display. It comes with a Full HD+ resolution of 2448×1080 pixels with a response rate of 1ms and 144Hz refresh rate. The display comes with HDR10+ certification and has a ΔE of less than 1. It also comes with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection and support for always on display. Qualcomm is also touting up to 20% increased responsiveness thanks to Qualcomm Game Quick Touch.
Source: Qualcomm
Dual stereo speaker augmented with Smart AMP up the ante when it comes to audio experience. Snapdragon Sound also works it magic in delivering high quality audio over these speakers. It also comes with multiple profiles optimized for content type. With the large, Quick Charge 5.0 enabled 4,000mAh battery, you should be gaming for hours on end.
Pricing & Availability
The Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders will be available starting on August. It will be available first in the U.S., China, Denmark, U.K., Japan, South Korea followed by India. No indication if the smartphone will be available outside these regions just yet.
Source: Qualcomm
ASUS will be distributing the smartphone. It will be retailing for USD$1,499 (MYR 6,268.31*). It will be available only in Midnight Blue.
*exchange rate taken from xe.com on 9 July 2021 at USD$ 1 = MYR4.18
Partners recognized for innovative solutions and making more possible for customers worldwide
REDMOND, Wash., July 9, 2021 — Microsoft Corp. on Thursday announced the winners and finalists of the 2021 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards. The annual awards recognize Microsoft partners demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. Award winners and finalists from around the world will be recognized at the all-digital Microsoft Inspire, July 14-15, 2021.
This year, Microsoft acknowledged partners in 56 categories celebrating each of the solution areas, industries and sectors globally in which Microsoft technologies are used. Several new awards and categories were announced this year, including a new Social Impact category, which encompasses community response, inclusion and sustainability.
Microsoft selected the finalists and winners for all Partner of the Year Awards from more than 4,400 nominations collected from more than 100 different countries worldwide. Applicants were judged based on their commitment to customers, their solution’s impact on the market, and exemplary use of Microsoft technologies.
"Announcing the winners and finalists for the Partner of the Year Awards is always a highlight for us each year," said Rodney Clark, corporate vice president, Global Partner Solutions, Channel Sales and Channel Chief, Microsoft. "These companies are bringing innovative solutions to complex business challenges and providing digital transformation opportunities for their customers from cloud to edge. Congratulations to each winner and finalist on this tremendous achievement."
About Microsoft Inspire Microsoft Inspire is the company’s largest partner event of the year. This conference brings together partners from around the world, industry leaders and Microsoft experts to discuss Microsoft cloud innovation, opportunities for partner growth and profitability, and ways to create and strengthen connections. This year, Inspire will take place July 14–15, 2021. More information can be found at https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire.
About Microsoft Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
HONG KONG, July 8, 2021 — Meituan (HKG: 3690) (the "Company"), China’s leading e-commerce platform for services, today introduced a new, self-developed drone model and announced plans for a drone logistics network pilot program in Shanghai. The announcement was made at the 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, where Meituan demonstrated how drones and delivery riders could conceivably work together to deliver orders.
In a partnership with local government, Meituan will explore opportunities for the construction of a demonstration center in Shanghai’s southwestern district of Jinshan; this center will run pilot operations for an urban low-altitude logistics network, the first of its kind to be established in China. The three-pronged network of drones, ground support infrastructure (landing ports, battery changing stations), and cloud-based dispatching systems will aim to achieve 15-minute delivery time for destinations within a three kilometer radius.
"Low-altitude logistics networks in urban areas will present an important growth opportunity for innovation and technology over the coming 10 to 20 years," said Puzhong Wang, Meituan Senior Vice President and head of the company’s on-demand delivery business. "Our efforts reflect Meituan’s hopes to use inclusive technology and innovation to help people live better."
"This network would enable us to adapt to different delivery scenarios across residential communities, shopping malls, office buildings, etc.," said Yinian Mao, head of Meituan’s drone delivery unit. "We envision a collaborative, integrated network where our drones and delivery riders can work seamlessly together to deliver orders."
A Meituan drone grasps a delivery box at the 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai
Meituan began exploring drone delivery opportunities in 2017. In early 2021, Meituan’s efforts reached a milestone when its drones delivered meals to customers in Shenzhen for the first time. Riders would pick up orders from merchants and take them to drone launching pads for last-mile delivery. Drones would then deliver them to special drone drop-off lockers, after which users could scan QR codes to pick up the orders. In June, Meituan also used drones to deliver vital supplies to residents in Shenzhen’s Nanshan district, who were isolated by a COVID-induced quarantine.
As of June 2021, Meituan’s drones have completed over 200,000 flight tests and delivered over 2,500 orders. Meituan has now completed the preliminary development stages for its drones and dispatching systems, with over 90% of its core systems and components developed in house.
About Meituan
Meituan (HKG: 3690) (the "Company") is China’s leading e-commerce platform for services. With the mission of "We help people eat better, live better," the Company’s platform uses technology to connect consumers and merchants. Service offerings on the platform address people’s daily needs for food, and extend further to broad lifestyle and travel services. Meituan is the world’s leading on-demand food delivery service provider and China’s leading e-commerce platform for in-store dining services. Meituan helps consumers discover merchant information, make informed decisions, complete online and offline transactions and enjoy on-demand delivery. The Company currently owns several household brands in China, including Meituan, China’s leading online marketplace for services, Dianping, China’s leading online destination for discovering local services, Meituan Waimai for on-demand delivery services, and Meituan Bikes for bike-sharing services. Meituan has 569.3 million Annual Transacting Users and 7.1 million Annual Active Merchants as of March 31, 2021. The Company operates in over 2,800 cities and counties in China.
The Nintendo Switch is in its fourth year by now. Launched in 2017, the little portable gaming console took the world by storm at its launch. It became all the rage for both Nintendo fans and gamers in general. It was a revolutionary gaming device, one that took modern video games out of the home and into the streets. The buzz was well placed and huge.
Sony and Microsoft launched their next generation gaming consoles earlier this year and those caused a whole buzz too. From the buzz, there was rumours about a new Nintendo Switch around the corner. The rumours were for Nintendo to launch a brand-new Switch that is supposed to be able to project up to 4K while its docked. It was also rumoured that the new Nintendo Switch was supposed to come with a slightly larger display and higher resolution. They dubbed the new Nintendo Switch replacement the Switch Pro
None of that came true of course. That does not mean that there is no new Switch this year, there is. Nintendo very recently just launched the Switch OLED Model instead.
It is no Switch Pro; we can guarantee you that. It boasts mostly the same internals as the current generation Switch. There are speculations that the big reason why Nintendo did not want to introduce a Switch replacement has something to do with the global part shortages.
While the Switch OLED Model still features the same internals as the original Switch V2 that was quietly introduced a little later, the package is entirely new though. For one, the most obvious change comes from the back of the device itself. The original console comes with a flimsy plastic piece they call a kickstand. The weak plastic piece that also covers the MicroSD expansion slot is now replaced with a proper Microsoft Surface-esque flexible kickstand that runs the entire length of the back allowing you to rest your Nintendo Switch on the table in any angles that suits your comfort.
The Switch OLED Model is supposed to be a little bigger than before, which also means that it needs a new bigger dock. The new dock is also compatible with older Switch devices, albeit with extra room. The new dock also features an ethernet port for you to connect to your router directly instead of iffy WiFi.
The most notable change to the newly announced Nintendo Switch OLED Model though is mentioned in its name itself. The new OLED display conquers the whole front of the device. It is larger too at 7-inch compared to 6.7-inch from before. Bigger display also means smaller bezels for even more immersion when you game with the OLED display. At that, OLED is also known to produce more vibrant, and more accurate colours, which is obviously a big welcome in a Nintendo Switch.
Of course, there are some improvements that are more than skin deep too. The built-in storage has increased to 64GB from 32GB. They’ve also improved added bigger speakers to the Switch OLED Model for even better audio experience.
Source: Nintendo
Source: Nintendo
Source: Nintendo
Source: Nintendo
Source: Nintendo
Colours are a way to really personalise your Nintendo Switch. Nintendo have been launching special edition Nintendo Switch devices alongside new Joy-Con controller colours. The colour combination you can get for the Nintendo Switch makes it one of the most customisable gaming consoles in the market. For the OLED Model, they are introducing the White colour option.
The new Nintendo Switch OLED Model will only be available in the market 8th October 2021 onward. it will be available in two colour options – the white set (obviously), and the neon red/blue combination that is staple of the Nintendo Switch. It will retail for US$ 349.99 (MYR 1,464*) when it is available in October. There are no mentions on which markets will get the Nintendo Switch first, but we can safely assume that the North American region will definitely be in the list. For more information on the latest Nintendo Switch OLED Model, you can head down to Nintendo’s website.
*Approximately based on the exchange rate of US$ 1= MYR 4.18 on xe.com as of 08/07/2021
Like any other good PC brand out there, Acer is one that houses several brands to serve different market segments. Acer houses, of course, Acer itself to sell computers for the general market, the lifestyle people and general office use. It also houses ConceptD, a new concept brand to serve the content creator or the creative industry with super quiet, super powerful, and super industrial computing solutions. Then there is Predator, the skunkworks, as we call it; that serves the gaming industry with souped up machines that looked like they could take you to the moon.
What we are reviewing here is nothing like a Predator machine, at least not in terms of concept or branding perspective. That is because it is not a Predator machine. It is an Acer machine but made for gaming anyway under the Nitro name. Oh yes, Acer has the Nitro namesake for its entry-level gaming line-up of products.
The Acer Nitro 5 has been Acer’s staple entry-level gaming laptop since they launched it a few years ago. In the market, the Acer Nitro 5 was also regarded as one of the best value-for-money machines you can get for gaming and content production. While it does not feature the most powerful components, it was plenty powerful for gaming as long as you do not expect Ultra graphics settings in games.
Here is the thing though, 2021 is a little different for Acer. It is also a different year for AMD. AMD is finally in a leading position in high-performance computing solutions after many years. They have made ultra-powerful CPUs that is loved by both the gaming and creator market. Acer decided that the powerful AMD processors should find a home in the Nitro 5 series and the Acer Nitro 5 for 2021 is born. Is it any good though? Should you buy it? We find out.
Design
The Acer Nitro 5’s shell in 2021 does still resemble the old Nitro 5. The angles are all in the same places, and the vents are largely similar in size and placements. Its dimensions did not change too much too.
Of course, there are some key visual differences between the older model and the new 2021 variant in terms of design. For one, the brushed aluminium look of the display shell is no more. It is now a semi-gloss finish. The power tappers running on both depths of the display shell is also gone. The glossy blacked out Acer logo remains from the previous generation Acer Nitro 5 though.
Instead, on the shell is now a Predator-esque lines that stems out from the bottom of the display shell. We would not call it a power bulge, maybe power lines. Instead of the regular red Nitro branding plate is now the same semi-gloss black finish as the display shell, while the Nitro print is red in colour, true to the Nitro theme colour.
While the keyboard is largely similar to the older Nitro 5, there is now proper RGB on the keyboard. We admit, it is not a per-key RGB, it is a four-zone RGB. Still, any RGB is good. Other than that though, the interior of Acer’s latest “entry-level” gaming laptop has remained very similar to before with the thin bezels and the semi-gloss black plate on the keyboard side.
The vents are also laid out differently now on the Acer Nitro 5. The have moved most of the I/O expansion slots further south of the device to make room for side exhaust vents on both sides. The rear vent however is not a single large vent anymore that stretches the width of the notebook. It is now split in two smaller vents with a quite a large red plate in the middle. It now looks a little bit like a mid-engine supercar, to be honest, especially with the charging port at the back too. We quite like the look, to be fair.
Hardware
The Acer Nitro 5 2021 is a very different beast compared to the ones that came before. We would not call the Nitro 5 that we have at hand “entry-level” anymore. There is no other way to put it, it is a high-end gaming PC, on paper at least.
Specifications
Acer Nitro 5 (2021)
As Tested
Processor (clock)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H (Octa-Core@3.2~4.4GHz)
GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
Display(s)
15.6-inch IPS (2560 x 1440 QHD) Narrow Bezel
Memory
512GB NVMe PCIe Gen 3 SSD 16GB DDR4 RAM (8GB x 2)
Networking and Connections (I/O)
1 x USB 3.1 Type-C 3 x USB 3.2 Type-A 1 x 3.5mm AUX 1 x HDMI 2.1 1 x Ethernet Port Killer WiFi Bluetooth 5.0
Operating System
Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
Miscellaneous
2.30kg All-metal body 720p webcam
Features
This Nitro 5 is also one of the most feature packed in its line-up’s history. There is quite a lot to talk about with the Nitro 5 starting with the decision to move the charging port and only the charging port to the back of the device. But there is also a new RGB keyboard on the Nitro 5 now, which is a sign of changing times and a new era in gaming. The Nitro 5 now looks more premium than any other “entry-level” gaming laptops out there.
Charging From the Rear
Instead of the usual placement of the regular laptop at the furthermost possible part of a notebook’s side, the Nitro 5 moved its proprietary charging port completely to the rear of the device. We saw Lenovo making the first move to put charging ports at the back of the device, and we are pretty much fans of the idea.
We do have a little complain on the backplate that houses the charging port though. The plate is so large that it covers nearly half the back of the device which could be used for more cooling vents. If the plate had to be this large, we would also prefer some expansion slots to occupy the rear of the notebook.
We also had a problem with the charging port in the New Nitro 5 when we first unpacked it and was going to get it to boot. The charger plug is a sort of a “two-stage” plug. You have to line it up with the charging port, and then slide it in. Usually, that is job done. It is not in this case, you have to push it into the charging port until the charger goes deeper in with a noticeable ‘click’. This, we do not like. What is wrong with using magnets to secure the charger?
4-Zone RGB Keyboard – Finally
The 2021 version of the Acer Nitro 5 houses a 4-zone programmable RGB keyboard. While it is a fresh change to the keyboard, the keyboard is physically the same keyboard you find on the previous Nitro 5 though. It feels the same, it types the same, it works the same so we are not going to talk about that.
Because it is 4-zone RGB though, you cannot program the keys to do a ripple effect from the Nitro Sense software bundled in the Acer Nitro 5. You can set four different colours on the four different RGB quadrants on the notebook with Nitro Sense to make it look a little more unique. We prefer the rainbow wave effect though, cos that makes the notebook look like it has per-key RGB.
Nitro Sense – Not Quite Predator Sense
The Nitro Sense is very much a stripped down, red toned version of Predator Sense. There is no Predator ‘Turbo’ function on the Nitro 5’s Nitro Sense. That also means that you do not get to overclock your CPU or GPU. Might as well anyway, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H (as tested) is a locked unit which also means you cannot really overclock the CPU. We would still appreciate some overclocking capabilities on the GPU though.
Instead, what you get are fan speed and RGB control app. Of course, you can monitor your system temperatures as well from the app. Just keep in mind that because the air intake is at the bottom of the notebook, your thermals could be greatly improved if you could just lift the Nitro 5 a little bit.
Via the app though, you can customise or maximise your fan speed depending on the apps you launch. You could tie the settings to Adobe Premiere Pro for example, to max out your fan speed when the app launches to keep the Nitro 5 from thermal throttling when you start rendering videos. You can also automatically throttle the fan speed when you launch certain games too if you want.
In terms of RGB, there is obviously a limited number of things that you can do with 4-zone lighting instead of per-key lighting. You cannot set individual colours to each key for example. You cannot even set ripple effects or rain drop effects on the keyboard with 4-zone RGB. Still, a programmable RGB is always a welcome addition to the Nitro 5.
Performance
We mentioned earlier that the Acer Nitro 5 is not what we would consider entry-level on paper. On paper, this is a damn good gaming PC. The Nitro 5 with AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800H is really “entry-level” only by name.
The Productivity and Creativity Stuff
The keyboard on the Nitro 5 is pretty much the same Keyboard you get from before. It also feels pretty much like any other keyboard that you get from Acer’s Predator gaming laptops. Then again, keyboard technology on notebook PCs have not changed or progressed all that much.
Key travel is expectedly shallow, like any regular laptop keyboard you would be used to. Still, it is not an uncomfortable keyboard to use. While key travels are short, there is enough travel in the keyboard that typing feels a little more natural.
The keys bottom out with a soft touch too. It does not feel like you are hitting your fingers against a solid block when you type out long emails or essays with the Nitro 5. There is also enough tactile feedback to each key press to help with precision and speed once you get used to the keyboard.
You would be more interested in its work performance though, in its horsepower in editing videos and even photos. With a spec like the Nitro 5 that we have here, browsing the internet is really a breeze; nothing to shout about or even criticize there. At some point we have more than 40 tabs open on Mozilla FireFox, three Microsoft Word instances open, Adobe Acrobat with about 3 tabs open at the same time as well, and the Nitro 5 has not even broken a sweat.
We use a lot of Adobe Creative Suite apps in our line of work too. We heavily rely on Adobe Premiere Pro, Audition, Acrobat, Photoshop, and even Lightroom for most of our day-to-day operations. Obviously, the most taxing app of all in our selection of apps is Adobe Premiere Pro.
On that end, it took the Acer Nitro 5 xx minutes to render a 1:30 minute video. The video was shot in 4K resolution and was rendered directly to H.VEC 264 MPEG-4 format in Full HD resolution with AAC format audio. Video rendering is AMD’s territory anyway, we expected the Nitro 5 to do well here.
Scrubbing through the 4K footage feels smooth too without too much trouble. Smooth and quick scrubbing also means accelerated workflow and less downtime. The downside here is that you have less excuses for not completing your video projects on time now.
Gaming
A gaming PC is built to game though, and game we did. We played titles like GTA V, Horizon Zero Dawn, Two Point Hospital, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Evil Genius 2, and A Way Out with the Nitro 5. We let the games decide the best resolution for each game when we first ran the game, and later crank the graphics settings all the way up.
You can expect most modern games to run on either ‘high’ or ‘ultra’ settings on the Acer Nitro 5. Remember we are running the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3070 variant, far from an entry-level spec sheet this. In that case, ‘high’ and ultra’ graphics on certain games are quite expected.
With Horizon Zero Dawn, the game defaults to Full HD in resolution for some reason. Although, graphics settings are set to ‘Ultra’ by default. Once we set the resolution to the correct size at 1440p, the game ran at about 70fps consistently without dropping a beat. Two Point hospital defaults to ‘high’ resolution and at times scored as low as 28fps. Once you zoom down into the littler details though you get about 50-60fps easily.
With GTA V, we expect graphics to run at up to ‘Ultra’ by default. By default, you do not get ‘Ultra’ settings from GTA V. In fact, even fps is limited to 60 fps by default. We corrected that to project at 165Hz and you automatically free up some horsepower from the Nitro 5 to get up to 100fps at times. Of course, not every setting on default was at ‘Very High’ or ‘Ultra’, Most of them were just below the highest settings available though, so it is just a single toggle away. Once we turned all of that up with MSAA off, we still got about 90fps. With MSAA is a little different though. We could turn it up to 4X without losing too much performance in terms of FPS. Once we get it to its max settings though, fps dropped to as low as 53fps at times and remains at about 65-70fps most of the time.
With these games, you are not really hitting the 165Hz of the QHD display at all though, which is a little bit of a waste. If you want to hit 165fps to fully take advantage of the 165Hz refresh rate though, you can play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and easily hit that much frames in a second.
Still, the Acer Nitro 5 is a formidable gaming PC that can hold itself against the sea of gaming PCs you find in the market currently. In fact, we do think it can hold itself against its more premium cousins in the Predator family. We believe that it could even outperform some of them in similar spec sheet with an Intel processor in fact.
Battery Life
The Nitro 5 lasted nearly 2.5 hours with its display on full brightness and power mode set to high-performance. We were using the Acer Nitro 5 for web browsing, typing a Word document (this review, in fact), and listening to some music (50% volume) at the same time. There were also a few browser tabs that was open at the same time on Mozilla Firefox.
We have to point out that we still could get GTA V running at about 30fps while on battery on its default settings. While it was our own careless mistake in forgetting to plug the charger in, this is also an indication that you should never game on battery. Still, we were quite impressed.
Putting the Acer Nitro 5 in battery saving mode via Windows turns the brightness down a little and limits background applications like OneDrive auto-sync. It does extend your battery life to 2 hours 45 minutes hours though. In that case, you might want to consider leaving your Acer Nitro 5 on battery saving mode to extend its battery life for the long meetings.
You may also use Nitro Sense to sip battery life with even smaller straws too. Putting the Nitro 5 on power saving mode on Nitro Sense decreases the brightness of the display even further and limits power draw by both the GPU and CPU. Plenty of times then, the GPU is not used at all for regular operations like web browsing, document editing, and even emails. In that case you can push the battery life of the Acer Nitro 5 from 2.5 hours to a little over 3.5 hours in our use case.
We believe that if you skim on the music playing part, turn the RGB on the keyboard off, and dim down the display all the way with both Nitro Sense and Windows on Power Saving mode, the Acer Nitro could go the distance and last over 4 hours. 4 hours in our books is usually more than what more gaming laptops could offer, even in the same conditions.
2K Display and DTS: X Ultra
In our test unit, we got the best possible display for the Acer Nitro 5. We have here a Quad HD 1440p display at 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. It refreshes at 165Hz for a maximum of 165fps that would really help in competitive titles. The IPS display also covers up to 100% sRGB colour gamut. That would help plenty in colour grading use cases, or even photo editing. But that also means that the 2K display looks good in any gaming or movie situation. It is the perfect display for entertainment, and a far cry from the Acer Nitro 5 displays we are used to in the older generation devices.
The display is now something that we can enjoy and rely on for work and play. While it is a little on the small side for a 2K monitor, the 15.6-inch display is fully capable of what we want it to do. We could use the display to reliably colour grade and edit videos, and even photos when we need to. We could do them on-the-go if we really have to. The lockdown that was enforced because of the pandemic though did not allow us to take this Acer Nitro 5 to the streets; we would have loved to do so though.
The speakers are DTS:X Ultra speakers that you should be used to with Acer’s gaming line-up in the modern era. On the Acer Nitro 5, you only get two speakers that fires outward and downward at both sides of the laptop. That is also quite a standard arrangement with laptops these days. There is a while science on why manufacturers designed speakers this way, but we will get into that another time.
We do have to say that laptop speakers have come a long way though. On the Acer Nitro 5 at least, the speakers do sound great. Audio sounds clean and clear throughout its volume range. Of course, low frequencies could benefit from having a dedicated sub-woofer. The mid and high frequencies are excellent and clean though. That also means that you should be able to enjoy your movies with the built-in speakers. Unfortunately, we do suggest you get a decent pair of headphones for games though. While sound is good and clear, the fan noise can overwhelm the speakers (even at full chat) a little bit especially when it spools for gaming and video editing purposes.
The Acer Nitro 5 – Finally, a gaming Laptop You Can Be Proud Of
You pay MYR 6,399 for this piece of kit we test. You get a brilliant AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3070 to boot. The combination of these hardware alongside 16GB of RAM are in no way “entry-level”. It is a high-performance gaming machine that fits the bill when you need some power in LAN parties.
While prices are not to say in the budget-friendly range, MYR 6,399 is still less than most laptops boasting similar hardware in the current market. In some sense, you are getting a more powerful PC than plenty of gaming PCs of the same price in 2021. With all that considered, this is still the more budget-friendly version of a high-performance gaming laptop.
In 2021, the Acer Nitro 5 has matured into something else. It is not sitting at the bottom of the pile anymore. It can stand and sit alongside the greats in the industry, oddly enough. It sort of pushes the Acer Nitro brand into a brand that could stand on its own with AMD. Sadly, that is not the case because there are Intel based Acer Nitro 5 out there. This also brings another problem to Acer, what are they going to do when the Predator gaming products cannot compete at the same prices?
The question we set out to answer though is whether or not the Acer Nitro 5 with AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800H and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3070 worth your money, whether or not you should buy it. Our answer is yes to both, but only if you have the budget to work with. While the Acer Nitro 5 for 2021 has been the most expensive Acer Nitro 5 of all that came before, the kind of power that is offered within the AMD variant of the Acer Nitro 5 is quite irresistible if you are in-need of a powerful laptop right now.
Cisco ranks first in "Best Workplaces in Hong Kong™ 2021"
Award is based on an independent employee trust audit
Cisco sees high levels of satisfaction among employees about leadership, organizational culture, and trust
HONG KONG, July 8, 2021 — Cisco has been ranked first in the "Best Workplaces in Hong Kong™ 2021" list. The rankings are put together based on an independent employee trust audit carried out by the Great Place to Work® organization, a global authority on workplace culture, which recognizes organizations with the most exceptional workplace culture practices.
In what has been a challenging year for companies across the world as they grappled with business disruptions and remote operations, Great Place to Work® recognized Cisco’s open and transparent work culture, and its relentless focus on employee wellbeing, as being key drivers of instilling exceptional trust among its employees.
The top ranking in Hong Kong follows Cisco’s global accolade of winning first place in both 2019 and 2020, on the global World’s Best Workplaces list by Great Place to Work® and Fortune Magazine.
Wilson Ching, General Manager of Cisco Hong Kong and Macau, said, "We are honoured and proud of the trust placed in us by our employees and of being recognized as the top place to work in Hong Kong. This award is a testament to our continuous efforts to foster a conscious culture where employees are engaged and feel supported to thrive. Our employees are our biggest differentiator, and we are committed to creating an environment where they feel empowered, and purposeful in all aspects of life."
This year’s award saw scores of companies from Hong Kong participating in the audit where employees shared their perspectives on leadership, organizational culture, and trust.
Cisco has always been committed to powering an inclusive future through innovative technology and a generous sense of corporate responsibility. At Cisco, Conscious Culture is a way of life where management and employees are aware of the environment that they are part of, ensuring everyone feels accountable, empowered, and actively contributes to a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone feels safe and can thrive. Cisco puts employees at the heart of the business and has created the environment, characteristics and experiences that built the culture.
As a world recognized technology company, a number of rituals are practised across all Cisco teams globally to help employees stay connected and ensure a strong sense of culture. For example, every week, employees check-in with their leaders for a focused conversation about work, priorities, loves, loathes and support needed. Every quarter, leaders launch an "Engagement Pulse", a short survey to find out how team members are feeling which in turn triggers courageous conversations and reflections and helps build stronger engagement.
El Cavanagh-Lomas, Vice President, People & Communities, EMEAR & APJC, Cisco, said, "The Great Place to Work® recognition for Cisco Hong Kong is first and foremost a testament to our employees who make Cisco an amazing workplace by embodying our core values and our Conscious Culture. The certification comes at a time as we adapt to the challenges of the pandemic and as our vision of Cisco’s hybrid workplace emerges and evolves. For us, the hybrid future of work is not just about using technology – it is the resilience, adaptability, and innovation of our people, qualities that have further strengthened our inclusive culture, making Cisco a much sought-after place to work across the region."
Across the company, Cisco’s Employee Resource Organizations (EROs) foster inclusive community networks connecting employees with shared interests and beliefs across all the markets that Cisco operates in, with the goal of driving connections and helping employees unleash their full potential.
At the heart of Cisco’s workplace culture is a focus on the "Whole You". Employees are encouraged to take care of themselves and make all aspects of wellbeing (physical, social, emotional and financial) a priority, so that they may give their best at work and at home.
About the Best Workplaces in Hong Kong™ list
Since 2016, Great Place to Work® has identified the top organizations that create great workplaces in Hong Kong regardless of their business scale and industry through the publication of the Best Workplaces in Hong Kong™ List. The objective of publishing the list is to acknowledge organizations and Great Workplaces from diverse industries and sizes that deliver and establish great culture and enhance the competitive edge in Hong Kong.
Great Place to Work® is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures that provides executive advisory and culture consulting services to businesses, non-profits, and government agencies in more than 90 countries across five continents. Through proprietary assessment tools, benchmarks and certification programs, Great Place to Work® provides the expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. The Institute works with media throughout the world to select lists of Best Workplaces. In Greater China, we partner with Bloomberg Businessweek/China and Classified Post to publish the ‘Best Workplaces™ list. In the US, we work with Fortune Magazine to publish the 100 Best Companies to Work For® list.
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in technology that powers the Internet. Cisco inspires new possibilities by reimagining your applications, securing your data, transforming your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a global and inclusive future. Discover more on The Network and follow us on Twitter at @Cisco.
The Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Zhu Jianshi as the Chief Executive Officer of FUTURITY BRANDS CHINA with effect from 8 July 2021.
HONG KONG, July 8, 2021 — Futurity Brands Limited announced today the appointment of Mr. Zhu Jianshi, as Chief Executive Officer of Futurity Brands China. Stan Wan, Futurity Brands Chairman and Group CEO, said: "After a rigorous search, the Board concluded that Mr. Zhu’s expertise and considerable experience in the licensing, fashion and retail sector, along with his exemplary track record of achievements as a CEO and COO made him the outstanding candidate for the role. Mr. Zhu is an accomplished leader and has consistently demonstrated throughout his career the ability to innovate and introduce high performance strategies in challenging environments yielding impressive growth and significant value creation. I look forward to his partnership in China to create a new chapter of success for the Futurity Brands Group."
About Futurity Brands
Futurity Brands is a purpose driven, end to end lifestyle brand management company focused on serving brands that can create a better tomorrow. Through its acquisition, licensing, distribution, design and strategic supply chain capabilities, Futurity Brands aims to deliver long term value by investing in brands and innovation that will provide consumer-centric solutions to global challenges. www.futuritybrands.com
Kennedy Center to Embrace Virtual Hybrid Event Platform, Allseated exVo to bring Virtual Reality to their Honor’s Gala
SAN FRANCISCO, July 8, 2021 — Allseated exVo, the leading 3D virtual hybrid event platform that brings the best of both worlds, virtual events and real-life events, announces a collaboration with the Kennedy Center for its largest annual fundraiser, the Kennedy Center Honors.
This collaboration allows the attendees of the Virtual Kennedy Center Honors Hub to network with real-time one click video calls; as well as mimic the look and feel of a real life event in the Kennedy Center’s iconic Grand Foyer and Opera House lobbies.
The Allseated platform offers event organizers a real-life looking experience from stages, seating for attendees, booths, sponsorships, and a well-designed conference hall much like they are used to in offline events. To tailor the platform’s functionality for the Honors,Allseated, in collaboration with production company CharityBids and the Kennedy Center developed a virtual re-creation of portions of the famed Center and filled these spaces with exclusive performances from renowned entertainers. As part of the Center’s online gala Hub, this virtual experience allows contributors to the virtual gala to tour the building, watch tributes, and interact with others. "The creative team has exceeded our expectations," says Kennedy Center Assistant Manager John Guastello. "The virtual component of the Honors Hub provides a unique experience that goes beyond the CBS broadcast and expands the opportunities of our audience to interact with and appreciate the brilliant artists we are honoring with this event."
According to CharityBids CEO Israel Schachter, "Our goal was to simply take all the amazing things these two institutions have to offer and stretch their respective limits to create an experience that represents the future of performing arts exhibition and education."
Sandy Hammer, Co-Founder and CMO of Allseated explained, "We are honored to be participating in such a prestigious event. It is for events like this that we designed exVo. The virtual reality experience in the Hub is immersive and realistic – it is an incredible piece of work!"
About Allseated Allseated transformed the event industry to an all-digital platform where all parties come together to collaboratively delight clients and grow businesses.
In 2021, exVo was launched specifically to answer all the challenges that result in virtual conference fatigue. All attendees, regardless of tech know-how, will be able to navigate through the experience.
About the Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is America’s living memorial to President John F. Kennedy, attracting millions of visitors each year to more than 2,000 performances, events, and exhibits. With its artistic affiliates, the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera, the Center is one of the nation’s busiest performing arts centers dedicated to providing world-class art, powerful education, and outstanding memorial experiences to the broadest possible constituency. Across all its offerings, the Kennedy Center is committed to increasing accessible, inclusive opportunities for all people to participate in, and learn through the arts, including more than 400 free performances each year and a variety of Specially Priced Ticket programs for students, seniors, persons with disabilities, and others. On September 7, 2019, the Kennedy Center inaugurated the REACH, its first-ever major expansion. Designed by Steven Holl Associates, the REACH provides visitors with new opportunities to interact and engage with the Center as the nation’s premier nexus of arts, learning, and culture.
About Charitybids From procuring and booking talent to writing and producing high-quality shows and events, CharityBids creates unique opportunities to help charities grow and thrive.
Their success is attributed to their reputation as industry experts, extensive network, and client-focused approach. CharityBids has become the go-to team for virtual event production and unique, once-in-a-lifetime consignment packages.
The company will integrate WatchKeeper’s platform into Dataminr Pulse for Corporate Enterprises to further accelerate the growth of its corporate business line, which has doubled in revenue growth 3 years in a row
NEW YORK, July 7, 2021 — Dataminr, the leading real-time information discovery platform, today announced the acquisition of WatchKeeper, an innovative real-time data geovisualization platform for corporate enterprises. WatchKeeper’s platform will provide seamless navigation through layers of internal company data and external contextual data in a single pane-of-glass interface alongside Dataminr alerts.
Combining Dataminr’s real-time alerts with WatchKeeper’s geo-visualized data layers will provide customers with broader context around real-time events that adversely impact their organization and disrupt their business operations. With hundreds of corporate enterprises across dozens of commercial industries relying on Dataminr Pulse, the integration of WatchKeeper’s platform will enhance the ability of corporate enterprises to assess and respond to events in real time.
"Dataminr’s real-time event and information discovery platform has revolutionized the way corporations learn about events and risks that impact their businesses," said Dataminr Founder and CEO Ted Bailey. "By integrating WatchKeeper’s advanced geovisualization platform into Dataminr Pulse, our alerts will be even more deeply integrated into the crisis management workflows of corporations, enabling broader contextualization, deeper analysis, and faster action."
WatchKeeper, a UK-based technology start-up founded in 2018, has quickly established itself among leading corporate enterprises as the most innovative and intuitive geovisualization platform for physical security and crisis management. With WatchKeeper integrated into Dataminr Pulse, corporations will be able to determine when events are occurring near their personnel, facilities, assets, and supply chain—and seamlessly visualize their global footprint of static and moving assets to better assess the full scope of potential business disruptions. WatchKeeper’s advanced geovisualization platform will also enable rapid navigation through diverse real-time data layers of contextual data, ranging from live weather data and traffic data to internal company security camera feeds and IoT sensor signals.
"The combination of Dataminr’s unparalleled real-time event and information discovery capabilities with our data geovisualization platform is the next big step in the evolution of physical security and crisis management for global corporate enterprises," said WatchKeeper’s Founder and CEO, Hugh Farquhar, who spent 10 years in corporate security and crisis management at Citigroup before founding the company. "During my time inside one of the world’s largest global corporations, I experienced firsthand the transformative power of seamlessly geo-visualizing high-impact events alongside internal company data. With our integration into Dataminr Pulse, enterprises will not only now know about global and hyper local events in real time, but also have a unified situational awareness platform that enables their teams to holistically respond to those events far more effectively."
The new, integrated version of Dataminr Pulse will be available to corporate customers through an early access program later this year, with wider availability planned for early 2022. Relied on by over half of the Fortune 50, Dataminr Pulse has established a wide footprint across many commercial sectors including technology; finance; retail; food and beverage; transportation and logistics; energy; telecom; healthcare; automotive; insurance; and pharma.
The acquisition of WatchKeeper comes on the heels of Dataminr’s $475M growth capital financing in April 2021 which valued the company at $4.1B. The recent infusion of capital is part of Dataminr’s strategy to further accelerate the growth of the company’s corporate business line, which has doubled in revenue growth three years in a row as customers have expanded use of Dataminr’s platform across physical safety and security, reputation risk and crisis management, business intelligence, and cyber threat detection.
The acquisition and integration of WatchKeeper in Dataminr Pulse will further fuel global corporate client growth, while also enabling the company to address an ever-expanding set of corporate use cases. "We have only scratched the surface of potential use cases for Dataminr’s platform, a horizontal capability that will power numerous future applications across the corporate enterprise. WatchKeeper’s advanced geovisualization platform will accelerate our efforts to unlock even more corporate use cases for global corporate enterprises over the years to come," said Bailey.
ABOUT DATAMINR
Dataminr delivers the earliest warnings on high impact events and critical information far in advance of other sources. Recognized as one of the world’s leading AI businesses, Dataminr enables faster response, more effective risk mitigation, and stronger crisis management for public and private sector organizations spanning global corporations, first responders, NGOs, and newsrooms. Recently valued at $4.1B, Dataminr is one of New York’s top private technology companies, with 650 employees across seven global offices.
Since its founding in 2009, Dataminr has created the world’s leading real-time information discovery platform which detects digital patterns of emerging events and critical information from public data signals. Today, Dataminr’s leading AI Platform performs trillions of daily computations across billions of public data inputs from over 150,000 unique public data sources. The company has been recognized for its groundbreaking AI Platform and rapid revenue growth by Forbes AI 50 and Deloitte Fast 500. Alongside Dataminr’s corporate product, Dataminr Pulse, the company provides public sector organizations with First Alert for first response, including the United Nations which relies on First Alert in over 100 countries. Dataminr for News is used by more than 650 newsrooms and by over 30,000 journalists world-wide.
The time has come to head to Rivia! Fans of the popular series – The Witcher – are in for a treat come July 10, 2021 as the first ever WitcherCon is happening! The conference will bring together the cinematic and game universes of The Witcher in a never before seen, multi-format event.
Source: Netflix
The day-long event kicks off first in the wee hours of 10th July in Malaysia at 1 am – that’s 7 pm CEST on 9th July 2021 in Europe and 10 am PST in the U.S. – on Twitch and YouTube. There will be a second stream happening at 9 am on 10th July in Malaysia – 3 am CEST on 10 July in Europe and 6 pm on 10th July in the U.S. – on the same platforms. According to Netflix, there will be exclusive announcements on each stream!
The event will be hosted by popular Twitch and YouTube personality, Julia Hardy. Hardy is arguably most well known for her Game to Train fitness programme where you can get fit around routines from popular game characters. She’s also hosted Runefest and Minecon previously. It will be giving fans an exclusive look at never-before-seen footage and insights from the production of the Witcher Universe.
WitcherCon will be featuring a series of panels and features with the stars and creators from both the popular game series and the hit Netflix series – The Witcher. Everything from GWENT, the Witcher’s card game to the many formats the Witcher’s story will be told in will be covered in the event. Fans of the series will get their burning questions about Season 2 of The Witcher answered by showrunners and stars of the series. CD Projekt Red will also be taking fans behind the scenes and into the future of The Witcher.
There will also be a special sitdown with Henry Cavill where he will delve into the nitty-gritty of fantasy, destiny and the wider Witcher Universe. Netflix has teased that the White Wolf may have a few surprises during his sitdown.
Source: Netflix
You’ll be able to tune in to WitcherCon on both YouTube and Twitch come 10th July! Details on panels, announcements and more can also be gotten from the official WitcherCon website.
