Monthly Archives: March 2022

Business, Consumer Electronics, iOS, Lifestyle, Mobile, News

Apple TV App is Now Useless on Android TVs and Google TVs – This Could Go Either Way

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Apple TV+ is, there is no easier way of saying this, good. There are plenty of interesting and captivating shows that are exclusive to the platform. Those exclusives actually won awards, just to prove our point. But unti 2021, Apple TV+ holds their cards very close to their chest. You can only access the Apple TV+ app via Apple devices like Apple TV, Mac, iPhone, and iPad. You could not, and still cannot access it on your Android smartphones. 

In 2021, it seems that Android users might be able to get a glimpse of what is on the other side with the introduction of the Apple TV app on their Android or Google TVs. Through the app, you can access whatever that Apple has on their Apple TV box, they can buy movies, rent movies, and even subscribe to Apple TV+. Their app is also available on NVIDIA Shield, and Google’s Chromecast dongles.  

There was a recent update for the app on Android and Google powered TVs. After the update, it TVs or boxes with Google’s operating system works, but only just. The app on these devices can only play the movies or stream on Apple TV+ only if you have already bought them, or rent them, or subscribed to Apple TV+ previously. If you have not, you are out of luck because you no longer have an option to buy, rent, or subscribe to anything on the app. The only button left here is “How to Watch”.  

Yes, the app will teach you how to watch your movies or shows on Android or Google TVs. But you are also required to have an Apple device at that, which also means it is going to be an extra spend if you do not own an iPhone or an iPad. Like we said earlier, this could go either way. 

The decision by Apple to remove their in-app purchase features could be due to a few things. For one, Apple might want to avoid the 30% commission that Google demands for all in-app purchases on their platforms. The other one could also be to probably just sell more devices. Both are likely though. 

For now, this might lead to a sharp drop in their subscriber count on Android and Google TVs. In the future though, there might be a bigger demand for affordable Apple devices just for Apple TVs services and features. It also could discourage Apple iPhone or iPad users to switch out of Apple’s ecosystem. We will just stick to Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Videos for now.  

PR Newswire

Boost, a regional FinTech firm, becomes first fully digital financier to secure investment grade A1 rating in Southeast Asia

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  • Boost looking to tap on burgeoning digital banking ecosystem within the Southeast Asian region
  • A1 rating for its Malaysian securitised receivables cements firm’s commitment towards the underserved segment securitizes financing portfolio; rating reflects the quality of portfolio underpinned by algorithmic scoring

SINGAPORE, March 22, 2022 — Boost, the leading regional financial technology (FinTech) provider, today announced that its maiden tranche of Senior Class A Medium Term Notes (MTN) has been rated A1 by Malaysia-based, RAM Rating Services Berhad (RAM Ratings) *, the leading and largest credit rating agency in Southeast Asia.

This establishes Boost as the first fully digital regional financier to receive an investment grade A1 rating for its securitised Malaysian receivables. The FinTech giant, which provides services spanning payment services, alternative lending, digital insurance, content services and merchant solutions, is the fintech arm of Bursa Malaysia-listed Axiata Group Berhad. Boost currently operates primarily in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The A1 rating was awarded on the back of a commendable non-performing financing (NPL) rate of less than 3 per cent from funds disbursed to finance Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) customers’ working capital, supply chain and invoice financing to help them grow their businesses.

Commenting on the A1 rating, Sheyantha Abeykoon, Chief Executive Officer of Boost, said, "We are glad to once again, set the standard for an industry which is at a very nascent stage, but has immense potential. The A1 rating of the securitised tranche is a testament of the quality of our financing portfolio and the robustness of our alternative lending platform. Our digital-first solutions are simple and conveniently available to customers, incorporating a comprehensive e-Know Your Customer (eKYC) with a 3-minute digital application journey supported by AI and machine learning tools,"

"We anticipate this rating will help diversify our capital base, enabling us to further support more SMEs. We are wholly focused on our aspiration of championing financial inclusivity, and we are excited at the prospects of serving more SMEs as we move towards becoming a full spectrum regional fintech player," added Abeykoon.

With the ongoing digital acceleration, there lies a greater opportunity to make finance more accessible. The rating exercise further underscores Boost’s capabilities and competencies in accelerating financial inclusion through Boost Credit (formerly Aspirasi) in using robust alternative data scoring frameworks to underwrite credit. Since its inception in 2017, Boost has been striving to leverage on opportunities to further widen its reach and positively impact underserved and unserved segments.

Gurpreet Khera, Chief Business Officer of Boost Credit commented, "The A1 rating is a significant milestone in our journey of building a truly Digital Bank, and a natural progression to provide comprehensive digital financial services for the region. The rating also reflects our commitment to continuously improve our product offerings as we envision a financially inclusive ecosystem in Southeast Asia."

The securitised receivables rating provides reassurance to potential investors about Boost’s operational capability to support such exercise. It also signals to stakeholders that its products have been vetted and meet the requirements for the securitisation exercise under an A1 rating.  The rating is applicable to the Senior Class A Medium Term Notes with a tenure of 30 months, and will be issued by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Salvare Assets Berhad and reviewed on an annual basis. Boost intends to issue more MTN tranches as it grows its financing portfolio to meet the needs of SMEs.

According to a report by Fitch Ratings, titled "South-East Asia’s Fintech Landscape: Rising Digital Adoption, Large Underserved Market to Fuel Sector Growth", SEA has a population of over 580 million at end-2020, of which more than half were unbanked.

In three short years of operation, Boost Credit has disbursed more than SGD390 million (RM1.2 billion) to SMEs in both Malaysia and Indonesia. Applicants enjoy a 3-minute digital application journey with a quick approval process to meet their financial needs to grow their business.

In July 2021, Boost announced a formal partnership with RHB Bank, Malaysia’s fourth largest, fully integrated financial services group to form a consortium and bid for a digital bank license. The consortium was one of 29 formal applicants received by Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), under the Financial Services Act 2013 and the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013, following a 6-month application period which ended on 30 June 2021. It is anticipated that up to five successful applicants will be granted a license by the first quarter of 2022.

Last year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) approved the country’s first digital banking licenses. Four licenses were issued with two each for digital full bank license (DFB) and digital wholesale bank license (DWB). In Indonesia, there are already seven digital banks and another seven are pending licences from the Financial Services Authority (OJK).

*Note for media: Established in 1990 by the central bank of Malaysia and now regulated by the Securities Commission Malaysia as part of the "institutional infrastructure" to support the development of Malaysia’s bond market, RAM has rated more than USD450 billion of bonds issued by over 750 entities.

About Boost

Boost is the fintech arm of Axiata that unifies financial services spanning payments, micro-financing, micro-insurance, cross border content services and merchant solutions. We combine deep fintech, in-house data and AI to meet growing and diverse needs of our customers and merchants across the region, with the aim of becoming a full spectrum fintech player in Southeast Asia. Our businesses are streamlined into four core brands:

Boost Life

The eWallet consumer platform that focuses on consumer lifestyle offerings such as online and offline retail payments, bill settlement, insurance and transportation & transit use cases with new features constantly introduced.

Boost Biz

The merchant business that offers a payment platform for enterprises of all sizes, business tools and digitalisation solutions.

Boost Credit      

Formerly Aspirasi, it houses the micro-financing & micro-insurance business and is a pioneering Digital Alternative financier in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Boost Connect

Formerly Apigate, Boost Connect is a global digital monetization and customer growth payment platform ecosystem provider with innovative products and services.

Users can download Boost from the Google Play Store, App Store or HUAWEI AppGallery.

For more information, check out the website at www.myboost.com.my, newsroom, or follow Boost on Facebook (facebook.com/myboostapp) and Instagram (instagram.com/myboostapp).

PR Newswire

ViewSonic’s myViewBoard Sens Brings UK’s First AI-powered Classroom to Smestow Academy

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Creating An Optimal Learning Environment with Better Wellness and Safety

BREA, Calif., March 22, 2022 — ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solutions, has partnered with the Smestow Academy in Wolverhampton, England, as the first school in the UK to deploy the AI-powered myViewBoard Sens analysis tool in the classroom. Through the real-time insights generated by the intelligent sensor, the school can ensure the classroom follows the wellness compliance, increase students’ engagement, and facilitate a safe and active learning environment for the best possible learning outcome.

ViewSonic's myViewBoard Sens brings UK's first AI-powered classroom to Smestow Academy, facilitating a safe and active learning environment for the best possible learning outcome.
ViewSonic’s myViewBoard Sens brings UK’s first AI-powered classroom to Smestow Academy, facilitating a safe and active learning environment for the best possible learning outcome.

"In the last few years, we had looked for a total Edtech solution to improve the overall learning experience of our students. In 2021, we started working with ViewSonic to implement over 100 ViewBoard interactive displays in our classrooms. Harnessing the power of myViewBoard Sens is our latest step in this journey," said Jonathan Stokes, Assistant Headteacher, Smestow Academy. "myViewBoard Sens offers students and teachers reassurance of a safe and engaging learning environment so we can deliver the best education possible. It is an exciting piece of EdTech innovation that we are proud to be trialing and rolling out in our classrooms."

"ViewSonic is passionate about providing comprehensive educational technology solutions for schools to drive better learning outcomes and attainments," said Peter Claxton, Senior Director of EdTech Solutions, ViewSonic. "We are incredibly pleased to be working with Smestow Academy to implement myViewBoard Sens in a real-world setting, helping the schools to adapt to the new era, and creating a highly engaged and safe learning environment. Through this pioneering project, we plan to introduce this next-gen technology to more schools around the world, opening up new learning opportunities for students, teachers, and schools."

In this project, myViewBoard Sens was installed on the ViewBoard, which sits at the front of a classroom, to analyze the wellness compliance of the indoor space. The school and teachers can get an instant view of the status through a dashboard app. The embedded sensor detects and evaluates the airborne transmission risk according to five indicators – temperature, humidity, occupancy rate, audience masked, and close contacts between students. If the rating of wellness compliance decreases, it means the wellness level is at risk and the myViewBoard Sens would suggest actionable insights on the dashboard in real-time for the school and teachers to take action. This makes sure the social distancing in the classroom follows the government’s protocol, reducing the risk of virus growth.

From the dashboard, the teachers can also get insights into student engagement at a group level to foster an active learning environment. From sensing the room’s temperature, color temperature, ambient lighting, to analyzing students’ attentiveness through articulated human pose estimation, the insights indicate the factors that may affect students’ focus. Teachers can look back and see how students responded to the class and make changes to their lesson plans or teaching approaches if necessary. Moreover, all data are generated and processed within the sensor locally without using individual profiles and without relying on the cloud, ensuring the highest levels of security and anonymity.

As a future-proof education solution, myViewBoard Sens helps the school evolve with the changing world and helps educators achieve the best educational outcomes in an optimal learning space. Moving forward, ViewSonic will continue to work with Smestow Academy to gather more feedback on the use of technology and explore more possibilities to provide greater benefits in education.

On March 23, day 1 of BETT Show 2022, Peter Claxton, Senior Director of EdTech Solutions, ViewSonic will deliver a keynote speech – The Art of the Possible (Innovation and AI) at 4pm, and on March 24, day 2 of BETT Show, Peter will host the EdTech Talk with the Smestow Academy at 3pm.

ViewSonic at BETT 2022
When
Wednesday 23rd March: 10:00am-6:00pm
Thursday 24th March: 10:00am-8:00pm
Friday 25th March: 10:00am-5:00pm

Where
ExCeL London, South Hall, Booth SF40

To find more information, please visit https://www.viewsonic.com/uk/bett2022. 

About Smestow Academy  
Located in Wolverhampton, the Smestow Academy is part of the University of Wolverhampton Multi-Academy Trust. Through the school’s curriculum, they aim to build people through the development of key skills, knowledge and understanding. This intent to provide an excellent education for all students is rooted in a desire to bring out the best in every student and prepare them for success in life.

About ViewSonic
Founded in California, ViewSonic is a leading global provider of visual solutions and conducts business in over 100 countries worldwide. As an innovator and visionary, ViewSonic is committed to providing comprehensive hardware and software solutions that include monitors, projectors, pen displays, commercial displays, All-in-One LED displays, ViewBoard interactive displays, and myViewBoard software ecosystem. With over 35 years of expertise in visual displays, ViewSonic has established a strong position for delivering innovative and reliable solutions for education, enterprise, consumer, and professional markets and helping customers "See the Difference." To find out more about ViewSonic, please visit www.viewsonic.com.  

PR Newswire

Infosys Recognized as one of the 2022 World’s Most Ethical Companies for the Second Consecutive Year by Ethisphere

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Recognition honors companies demonstrating exceptional leadership and a commitment to business integrity through best-in-class ethics, compliance, and governance practices

BENGALURU, India, March 21, 2022 — Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced that it has been recognized by Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as one of the 2022 World’s Most Ethical Companies, for the second consecutive year. Through this recognition, Infosys has become the only company in India, and one of the four honorees globally, in the software & services industry.

In 2022, 136 honorees were recognized from 22 countries and across 45 industries. These companies were evaluated based on the Ethisphere Ethics Quotient® across multiple categories, including culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance, governance, diversity, and initiatives to support a strong value chain.

"Today, business leaders face their greatest mandate yet to be ethical, accountable, and trusted to drive positive change," said Timothy Erblich, Chief Executive Officer, Ethisphere. "We continue to be inspired by the World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees and their dedication to integrity, sustainability, governance, and community. Congratulations to Infosys for earning the World’s Most Ethical Companies designation."

Salil Parekh, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Infosys, said, "Being ethical is at the heart of everything we do, and one of the core values on which Infosys has built its success over the years. We are honored to receive this recognition from the prestigious Ethisphere Institute. Receiving this recognition for the second consecutive year is a testament to our excellence in ethical practices and our commitment to operate with utmost integrity and transparency as articulated in our C-LIFE values."

The complete list of 2022 World’s Most Ethical Companies can be found at:  https://worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees

Methodology & Scoring

Grounded in Ethisphere’s proprietary Ethics Quotient®, the World’s Most Ethical Companies assessment process includes more than 200 questions on culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity, and initiatives to support a strong value chain. The process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify the leading practices of organizations across industries and around the globe.

About Ethisphere

Ethisphere® is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character and measure and improve culture. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition program and provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA).

More information about Ethisphere can be found at: https://ethisphere.com.

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE, BSE, NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the ‘safe harbor’ under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

  

Business, Lifestyle, Mobile, Social Media

Telegram Got Banned, and Then Unbanned in Brazil

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Getting apps banned in certain countries is a lot more common than you think. China is a prime example of plenty of apps and platforms getting banned in favour of their own in-house platforms. Facebook and Google cannot operate in China currently. That also means your WhatsApp will not work in China unless you use a VPN to bypass all the restrictions.  

Banning a communication platform or website does a few things for a country. For one, it helps curb the spreading of information from inside and outside the country. There is another aspect of monitoring the communication channels inside the country, but most independent platforms are encrypted enough that governments do not usually have a hold of your chat information – so we are mostly safe.  

Countries like the United States wants to have more control over companies like Facebook and Google because of the amount of information that these platforms have. They argued that these companies have breached a few privacy laws and are using our data illegally. Information, after all, is power. But there is also another thing that social media and communication platforms can do. You can spread untrue information and that information can be gospel.  

That is exactly what happened with Telegram in Brazil and the government has no choice but to curb the problem by banning the use of Telegram in the entire nation. Brazil has recently hosted a successful election campaign. Politics are never straightforward though and there will always be people who are unhappy about the results. That leads to misleading information being created and possibly circulated. The easiest way to disseminate disinformation is via social media.  

While Facebook and Google have been doing their part in keeping misinformation in check on their own platforms, Telegram is a more open-sourced platform that has not done a lot in filtering out bad actors. They can manually filter disinformation channels and users though, if you email them. Brazil did the exact same thing anyone would then. Nothing happened though, and that led to Brazil banning the platform on Friday.  

Telegram has since responded by removing the whatever reported posts that are pointed in the emails the Brazilian government has sent them. But they also claimed that they have missed the email. There is also a reason for them missing these emails. Apparently, Telegram uses a dedicated email for complains and takedown requests. The Brazilian court emailed Telegram on their general use email that they hardly check apparently. In that case, Telegram has also referred the Brazilian government to the correct email and rectified the issue.  

As of today, Telegram is no longer banned in Brazil. Telegram also promises that they will be doing better in labelling and taking down accounts, groups, and even misinformed posts in general. They have removed classified information shared by the Brazilian President and removed accounts belonging and connected to an activist that is accused of misinformation.  

Source: The Verge 

Advertorial, Computers

Bringing JOI to Hybrid Education by Empowering Flexibility & Adaptability in Classrooms

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In the past two years, the landscape of work and health has changed with the pandemic. However, while we look at the impacts of the pandemic on our education system. Students and teachers have been forced to adapt to an environment full of uncertainties. They’ve needed to learn in an environment that is constantly changing. What’s more, in most cases, they have been ill-equipped to adapt to these changes. However, as Malcolm X once said, “Education is the passport to the future” and educational institutions and educators must adapt to a new normal, especially with the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.

Like many other institutions, educational institutions like Primary Schools, Secondary Schools and even Universities have had to adopt a hybrid approach to both teaching and learning during the pandemic. That said, the demands of hybrid learning differ vastly. Education requires creativity, finesse and a touch of ingenuity; Skills and elements that can be lost with hybrid learning. Nevertheless, these elements can be preserved and amplified when teachers and students have access to the proper equipment. It wouldn’t be surprising to see creativity unbound, collaboration flourish and productivity increase with the right empowerment.

JOI Smart Classroom 7
Source: SNS Network

We’ve heard many success stories when it comes to hybrid learning throughout the pandemic. Institutions like Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) have successfully empowered their classrooms to embrace hybrid learning. They’ve done this by giving JOI a place in their classroom. The JOI suite of learning technologies is an end-to-end solution that covers everything from classroom devices to backbone technologies that allow for efficient, creative and collaborative teaching and learning.

One of the key technologies that empower distance learning is the JOI Smart Classroom. The platform allows teachers to interact with students and keep tabs on student progress. On the other hand, students get access to interactive experiences while learning seamlessly through a wireless connection. All these are enabled by SNS Network’s own JOI devices including the JOI Smartboard, JOI Books and JOI Connect. These devices unlock the flexibility needed for education to be adaptable to any circumstance.

What’s more, devices like the JOI Book and the JOI Classmate are built specifically to cater for remote learning. They’re powered by the latest Intel processors to bring the portability and processing power needed to empower remote teaching and learning. They also come with a variety of form factors with the JOI Book Touch 330 Pro able to support multimode productivity as a tablet and with a touchscreen. It also supports writing and drawing with a stylus.

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Source: SNS Network
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Source: SNS Network

In the classroom, JOI Smartboard and JOI Connect allow teachers to seamlessly teach both in-person and online. The Smartboard allows teachers to not only project but also annotate slides naturally with pen input or even write while teaching as they would naturally. This can seamless be integrated into platforms like Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams to be shared online. The students attending classes in person will get an uninterrupted experience like they always have. This allows teachers to bridge the current hybrid learning that is being implemented by the Ministry of Education in Malaysia across all national schools.

Of course, this brings up the question of data security and controlling access to the internet during learning hours. This is a non-issue with the JOI Classroom platform as it also allows teachers and administrators to grant and restrict access to websites outside those needed for education. They will also be able to grant or restrict access to plug and play devices via USB through this platform. The granular permissions allow them to help students focus better during learning hours while giving the students their freedoms outside learning hours.

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Source: SNS Network

It’s not a question of when but how schools and their administration can empower and facilitate this transition and new normal. As we move into an endemic phase, we also need to think about the future, about how we can better adapt to a constant state of uncertainty when it comes to education. Furthermore, we also need to take into consideration the feasibility of making students own a device whether by purchase or lease to take charge of their education.

If you’re interested in futureproofing education head on down to SNS Network’s official website to get more information.

DISCLAIMER: THIS ARTICLE IS AN ADVERTORIAL COMMISSIONED BY SNS NETWORK. IT MAY NOT REPRESENT THE OPINIONS OF THE TECHENT EDITORIAL BOARD.

PR Newswire

Appen provides data solutions featuring unique advantages for the entire AI lifecycle in the Chinese market

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SHANGHAI, March 18, 2022 — IDC recently analyzed the status quo of enterprises in the development and construction of AI applications, and summarized the characteristics of data services required for current AI model training in rising to data service challenges and needs. To tackle the development trend of AI data services, Appen, a world-leading AI training data service provider, now provides data solutions featuring unique advantages for the entire AI lifecycle in the Chinese market.

  1. AI is being employed and implemented across a wide range of industries with the rapid development of AI market in China.
  2. Enterprises find their data service needs are changing dramatically as they need to handle privacy concerns, the lack of data, and other challenges in adopting AI.
  3. To accelerate the process, they are attaching increasing importance to AI data, as well as the quality, efficiency, and safety of AI data services rendered.
  4. As a world-leading AI training data service provider boasting unique advantages in the Chinese market, Appen furnishes enterprises with full-stack acquisition and annotation services and solutions for images, texts, voice, audio, and video in the AI lifecycle. It provides OTS dataset products and intelligent data annotation On-Promise/SaaS/Hybrid platforms to be more responsive to the various needs of customers, manifesting outstanding advantages in the fields of foreign languages and autonomous driving data services.

AI Market in China

In recent years, the AI data service market has been fueled by the increasing need for rich and high-quality data sources brought by the rapid development of AI market in China. As shown in the figure below, IDC predicts that in 2021, the overall size of AI market in China will reach 8.22 billion US dollars (about one-fifth of the counterpart in the United States), and it’s expected to reach 16.3 billion US dollars by 2025. IDC forecasts that the five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the AI market in China will surpass that of the United States and the rest of the world in the post-pandemic era.


Enterprises are shifting their exploration of artificial intelligence technologies from single applications to multiple business scenarios and evolving from informatization to intelligentization, a more advanced stage, as the digital transformation enters "deep-water areas". Enterprises begin to employ AI-generated audio content, knowledge graphs, multi-modal interactions, and other technologies in their production environments. The application scenarios of such technologies have been expanded from simple identity authentication and intelligent customer services to intelligent process automation, meeting assistants, intelligent writing, virtual assistants for employees, AI digital humans, and so on. In terms of business effects, the business value of AI applications is becoming clearly visible and even assessable.

With a predominant value-added effect, AI has promoted the intelligent transformation of all walks of life, yet the implementation process is fraught with challenges. Problems occur in strategies, talents and teams, data, skills, processes, and many other areas. In a survey conducted in 2021, IDC found that the top three challenges faced by enterprises worldwide when adopting AI were high upfront costs, the lack of machine learning operations (MLOps) expertise, and the lack of data science expertise. Privacy concerns and the lack of training and testing data were also too serious to be ignored.


The widespread introduction of deep neural networks into industry applications has raised massive data needs, yet business effects cannot be significantly improved by continuing to optimize the model codes after such models are relatively mature. Therefore, optimizing the training data has become an important means for greatly improving the accuracy of AI models.

In this context, enterprises are devoting more resources to the acquisition of high-quality training data, not just model training, in their AI R&D. IDC found that, of the global enterprises that have been interviewed, 85% believe they spent more than half of their AI development investment to data preparation.

Appen China MatrixGo Data Annotation Platform

The MatrixGo high-precision data annotation platform is a platform product that Appen independently developed after entering the Chinese market. It includes Appen’s overseas practical experience, yet also fits the characteristics of the local market. Integrating rich and efficient annotation tools, it has powerful workflow scheduling capabilities and can support various annotation projects in rich scenarios with massive data by incorporating resources from its teams, supplier teams, and millions of crowdsourcing personnel. The platform can be delivered through private deployment, software as a service (SaaS), or hybrid cloud deployment, where SaaS can be integrated with privately deployed file service to further ensure compliance of data flow and strengthen data security management.

As a professional segmented solution-level product platform, it can provide functions for all core scenarios in the project execution process, including data requirement proposal and strategy formulation, data collection, high-precision annotation/classification, progress tracking and quality control, and full data delivery. It effectively integrates AI and model capabilities, enables large-scale man-machine coordination, and supports massive data acquisition, multilingual and multi-scene speech transcription and translation, complex content relevance evaluation, computer vision target recognition and tracking, and 3D object tracking in point clouds, semantic segmentation, and other functions to provide customers with high-quality AI training data in e-commerce, online social networking, content services, smart healthcare, smart hardware, autonomous driving, and other fields.


Appen’s MatrixGo platform has delivered the acquisition and annotation services for various AI applications, supporting and serving more than 130 customers and 700 projects in China in 2021.

Best Practices

  1. It’s a Chinese listed company specialized in intelligent voice and AI. As a typical representative of AI technology providers, it enjoys substantial shares in AI voice and semantics markets in China. It has a large demand size for data services, and about half of its expenditure is spent on external services in the form of integrated acquisition and annotation. The other half of demand is processed internally, for example, through its internal crowdsourcing platform.
    Why they chose Appen: 1) The efficiency of communications on the standards of data acquisition and annotation services is high; 2) Appen responds quickly during the project cooperation. 3) The quality evaluation results are good.
  2. As a typical representative of Chinese smartphone manufacturers, it reported that the number of global monthly active users of its mobile operating system and content ecosystem was about 400 million in 2021. With the expansion of business scenarios, it found that the needs for data services were growing rapidly. As its internal annotation team could not meet the business needs, it began to cooperate with Appen in 2021. Data annotation services it purchased have covered four domains, namely NLP content understanding, AI assistant voice recognition, computer vision (CV) picture or video taking, and the Internet of things (IoT) device sensors.
    Why they chose Appen:1) The high-quality annotation could meet project progress requirements. 2) Appen’s relatively comprehensive business coverage could meet the requirements of NLP, CV, automatic speech recognition (ASR), and other businesses. 3) Appen has demonstrated a good service attitude. It worked actively to solve new problems after the process for new projects was established and strove to improve project delivery quality.

The demand for data resources in AI development is driving the evolution of the data service market and bringing many opportunities. Nowadays Appen is providing tens of millions of data per month. It serves autonomous driving, technologies and the Internet, healthcare, finance, and other industries in the Chinese market, and features unique advantages for the entire AI lifecycle in the market.

Android, Mobile

Early Android 13 Developer Previews are Already Showing New Features  

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Not all of us got Android 12 yet but it seems like Google is eager to get more features into Android and excited about their next major development path – Android 13. Android 13 is inevitable; we know that it is going to come as well toward the end of this year 2022 at Google I/O 2022 edition. What we don’t know is what Android 13 will bring to the table. For that, we need to scour around and look at the Developer Preview for Android 13. So far there has only been two iterations of Android 13 Developer Preview, but we are already seeing some interesting things emerging. 

DP1: Universal Search, now with Google Photos 

Pixel Launcher search photos old
Source: 9to5 Google
Pixel Launcher search photos 1
Source: 9to5 Google
Pixel Launcher search photos 2
Source: 9to5 Google

For the Google Pixel, Android 12 brought a universal search bar. The universal search bar not only acts as a search button for apps. It allows users to search through pretty much everything in their smartphone via a search bar in their app drawer. There is the Google Search bar widget, yes, but Android 12 allows the app drawer search bar to act as the Google Search bar too. There is still a lot to explore with the search bar.  

In Android 13 Developer Preview, it seems like Google is integrating Google Photos with the search bar. That means that you can use the search bar to not only instantly pull things from Google Photos, but also potentially get the full search algorithm functionality from Google Photos in the search bar itself. You could be looking for a contact, for example, and Google Photo’s facial and object recognition kicks into high gear to find you the most relevant photos to your search.  

With that kind of implementation on Google Photos, we will not be surprised as well if Google decides to integrate apps like Gmail and Calendar to the list of integrations with the search bar. It would be nice if we just need to tap into the search bar to search for things in our emails or calendar without even opening the apps. But we digress, all we can do is wait for Android 13 to see light of day. 

DP2: Notifications, now an Option 

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Source: Google

One feature that Android lacked (but was rumoured to feature soon), and iOS has for a while now is opt in notifications. What is that? IOS allows you to choose which applications sends you notifications. It is one way to ensure that your notification bar is not loaded with notifications that you hardly care about.  

It seems that we are going to see a form of that for Android 13. Via the preview, it also seems like you can prioritise notifications. Which also means that only certain notifications go through and load up your notification screen in differing modes. It is a small tweak, but a welcome one. 

DP2: Better Media Player Visuals 

Screenshot 20220317 133726
Source: The Verge

On the visual part, Android 13 seems to feature a redesigned media player layout on the notification screen. Having media controls on the notification screen is nothing new for Android. Having nicer visuals is. If you fire up Spotify, the media player control in the notification screen shows part of the artwork. The control panel seems to be a little larger in the preview too, allowing more controls over the app itself other than the Previous, Play/Pause, and Next buttons.  

And Even More 

These are just some of the highlighted changes that we can expect in Android 13 though. The Developer Preview has shown much more changes that we can sort of expect in the next iteration of Android. To know more about Google’s planned update for Android 13 or even to experience the Developer Preview yourself, you can visit their website. 

PR Newswire

CoinPayments Appoints Dennis Pederson as the Company’s New Chief Executive Officer

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GEORGE TOWN, CAYMAN ISLANDS, March 18, 2022 — CoinPayments, the world’s largest provider of cryptocurrency payment services, is pleased to announce that Dennis Pederson has been appointed as the Company’s new Chief Executive Officer.

The appointment comes as CoinPayments continues to experience significant growth amidst an increase in demand worldwide for alternative payment solutions. In 2021, the Company saw global transactions totaling over $7 billion, an increase of more than 100% from the previous year.

"I am excited and honored to be given the opportunity to lead the world’s premier crypto payments gateway service provider," said Pederson. "This is a new era for us, and many positive changes will come over the next year. I look forward to seeing the Company continue to evolve and grow."

Pederson joined CoinPayments in 2016 as the Company’s General Manager. Since then, he has held multiple leadership roles, most recently as Chief Operating Officer, managing the overall operations of the business. Pederson’s contributions over the years have been instrumental in CoinPayments’ exponential growth.

"As a co-founder, I couldn’t be more elated with Dennis’ appointment as CEO. He has already demonstrated incredible acuity in leading the Company, and I am certain in his new role, he will propel CoinPayments to the next stage of its development as we continue to scale and more payments move to the blockchain," said Sina Mirzaie.

"While our global expansion continues, CoinPayments’ goal remains the same – provide merchants of all sizes with a trusted, streamlined, and scalable solution to accept cryptocurrency payments," Pederson added.

About CoinPayments  

CoinPayments is the easiest, fastest, and most secure way for merchants worldwide to receive cryptocurrencies as payment. It is the first and largest cryptocurrency payment gateway service provider, supporting more than 2,100 coins on its platform. It is the preferred crypto payment solution for merchants and eCommerce platform providers worldwide. Founded in 2013, CoinPayments is dedicated to providing clients with fast, secure, and user-friendly crypto payment APIs, shopping cart plugins, partner provider digital wallets, and a host of other solutions supporting cryptocurrency payment applications. Learn more at: https://www.coinpayments.net/  

PR Newswire

JS Global’s SharkNinja Wins Seven NPD Group Home Industry Performance Awards For Market Share Gains

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  • NPD recognized SharkNinja for recording the largest dollar share increase in the U.S. or Canada markets for seven key home industry categories
  • The recognition from NPD Group brings to eight the number of well-known industry awards that SharkNinja has received so far this year
  • Industry recognition for SharkNinja this year builds on 19 respected industry awards received in 2021

NEEDHAM, Mass., March 18, 2022 — SharkNinja, an innovation leader in the consumer floorcare and small kitchen appliance industry, and part of JS Global Lifestyle Company Limited (Hong Kong: 1691), a world-leading producer of small household appliances, recently won seven Home Industry Performance Awards from the NPD Group, in recognition of the company’s expanding market share for key product categories in North American markets.

NPD recognized SharkNinja for recording the largest dollar share increase in the U.S. or Canada markets for seven key home industry categories in 2021, compared to 2020, a testament to the continued popularity and success of the brands. The awards were announced during The Inspired Home Show, hosted by the International Housewares Association in Chicago from March 5-7.

The NPD awards further reflect Ninja’s strong performance in the U.S., where it has held the No. 1 rank in small kitchen appliance brands for the last two years[1]. In the U.S., the Ninja brand was recognized for the largest share gain in four categories of small appliances: kitchen electrics; cook and heat, or "heated"; electric food prep, or "motorized"; and coffee and beverage[2]. Ninja also received recognition for expanding its share of two U.S. housewares categories: total housewares; and bakeware and cookware.

In the Canada[3] market, Ninja was recognized by NPD for expanding its share of the kitchen electrics categories.  

"We’re excited that SharkNinja’s growth and leadership in key categories is being recognized by these Home Industry Performance Awards. This is further demonstration of SharkNinja’s ability to achieve success across our product lines, while achieving growth in existing categories, new categories, and through international expansion," said Mark Barrocas, global president of JS Global, and president of SharkNinja. "This builds on our outstanding track record in 2021, when the Shark and Ninja brands were collectively recognized with 19 respected industry awards. That pace continues in 2022, reflecting the extraordinary value we provide to our consumers," said Barrocas. 

The recognition from NPD Group brings the number of well-known industry awards that SharkNinja has received so far this year to eight. Last month, Ninja won the overall air fryer category in the "2022 Allrecipes Community Choice Awards", a product category that has quickly become a staple in many U.S. households as consumers continue shifting towards healthy cooking options and continue cooking more at home in general, a trend that is extending beyond the pandemic.

The awards haul for SharkNinja so far in 2022 builds on the strong performance in 2021, when the company was recognized both for its growing product portfolio within existing categories, as well as its expansion into new categories.

The Ninja brand portfolio of small kitchen appliances won more than 10 awards in 2021. Ninja’s air fryer category received repeated accolades throughout last year, with Popular Mechanics recognizing the Ninja Foodi 13-in-1 Dual Heat Air Fry Oven as its "Best Versatile Cooking Appliance" in the "Gear of the Year: The Best Products We Tested in 2021" list. Multiple Ninja coffee machines also received awards recognition in 2021, including the Ninja DualBrew Pro Specialty Coffee System, which won "Best Coffee Maker" from "The Rolling Stone Essentials 2021." Meanwhile, versions of the Ninja Foodi NeverDull Premium Knife System were recognized in the House Beautiful "Live Better Awards 2021" and the Good Housekeeping "2021 Kitchen Gear Awards."

Shark, the No.1 vacuum brand in the U.S. for the last 4 consecutive years[4], also garnered repeated industry recognition last year. Shark ended 2021 with at least seven awards in the cleaning category, including the "Good Housekeeping 2021 Cleaning Awards" for the Shark Wandvac System, which captured "Slimmest Stick Vacuum." The Shark Steam & Scrub captured "Deep-Cleaning Steam Mop." Other products to capture industry accolades include the Shark VACMOP Pro, which won "Best Vacuum-Mop Hybrid" from Better Homes & Gardens. By combining powerful suction for dry debris and spray mopping for wet stuck on messes, the VacMop has received broad support from retailers in the U.S. and has been well received by consumers as well since its launch in early 2020. Aside from award recognition, the product has become a best seller in retailers’ floor care departments and has generated record setting sell-outs during television direct sales airings.

The SharkNinja brands also received awards and recognition internationally in markets such as Europe and Japan. In Japan, SharkNinja’s expanded product portfolio has been led by growth in lightweight cordless vacuums. One notable award is for SharkNinja’s local product, the Shark EVOPOWER System Advanced (CS651J). Japan’s "Kaden Hihyo" (Home Appliance Criticism) magazine awarded it the "Best Buy High-End Stick Vacuum" award, noting the product is only competitor to have both usability and cleaning performance for high-end cordless sticks.

The strong performance of Shark and Ninja brands in 2021 and so far in 2022, across all the categories where they participate, highlights the category leadership of a wide variety of SharkNinja products. Shark, Ninja and the entire JS Global group continue to hold a leading position in the global small household appliances market thanks to an intense focus on quality, reliability, consumer satisfaction and accessible innovation to consumers. By focusing on its three-pillar growth mantra of growth in existing categories, growth in new and adjacent categories, and growth in international markets, JS Global is bringing innovative and design-driven products to audiences around the world.     

About JS Global

JS Global Lifestyle Company Limited (Hong Kong: 1691) is a world leading producer of small household appliances. It ranks fifth globally in the small household appliance industry and third among small household appliance-focused companies. It primarily operates three major brands: Shark, Ninja and Joyoung. The Company’s success is centered around its deep understanding of consumer needs, and is built on its strong product innovation and design capability powered by a global research and development platform, marketing strengths driving high brand engagement, and an omni-channel distribution coverage with high penetration.

About SharkNinja

SharkNinja is an innovation leader in the housewares industry and creator of the familiar household brands Shark® and Ninja®. SharkNinja provides the latest in easy-to-use innovative technology with a growing line of solutions that consist of Shark cleaning and home care products and Ninja kitchen appliances. Products are sold at major retailers and through distributors around the world. Ninja and Shark are registered trademarks of SharkNinja Operating LLC. SharkNinja is a subsidiary of JS Global Lifestyle Company Limited (Hong Kong: 1691) a leader in small household appliance innovation.

[1] Source: The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service, based on brand-level dollar sales, 52 weeks view for January 5, 2020-January 2, 2021; January 3, 2021-January 1, 2022

*Categories covered under claim: kitchen appliances category group

[2] Source: The NPD Group / Retail Tracking Service, U.S. dollar sales, 52 weeks ending January 1, 2022 vs. prior period

[3] Source: The NPD Group / Retail Tracking Service, Canada dollar sales, 12 months ending December 2021 vs. prior period

[4] Source: The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service, based on brand-level dollar sales, 52 weeks view- January 7, 2018-January 5, 2019; January 6, 2019-January 4, 2020; January 5, 2020-January 2, 2021; January 3, 2021-January 1, 2022.

*Categories covered under claim: full-size vacuum, hand/stick vacuum, non-electric carpet sweepers, specialty cleaning categories; excluding all other specialty, deep carpet cleaner, electric carpet sweeper, hand-held specialty cleaning subcategories. 

Media
Edmond Lococo, Managing Director, ICR Inc.
JSGlobalPR@icrinc.com

Company Contacts
Adam Quigley, VP of Finance at SharkNinja
AQuigley@sharkninja.com
Alicia Guo, Director of Investor Relations at JS Global
alicia.guo@jsgl.com

Investor Relations
ir@jsgl.com