Monthly Archives: April 2022

Computers, Lifestyle, Mobile, News

A Microsoft Garage Project Evolves, Welcome to Microsoft Journal

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There is something about writing notes on a piece of paper. The granular feel of the paper is irreplaceable, at least to us. But writing on endless amount of paper is quite unrealistic, especially in a world where businesses have declared a war on paper waste in the name of ecological “wokeness”. So, we end up with a replacement medium, digital ink.

Digital ink is nothing new too. We have seen very early implementations in the early days of high-end handheld devices like a PDA. Most of them comes with styluses that helps you navigate the tiny interface that was Windows for PDA devices, and help you write out notes in the form of handwriting recognition.

The introduction of smartphones made the stylus quite unpopular, since you can input everything with your fingers on an iPhone. But styluses did not go out of style as Samsung has proven in their Samsung Galaxy Note series introduced in the same year the Samsung Galaxy S2 was introduced. It exploded and became one of Samsung’s biggest trademark series.

A digital pen is not a regular pen that writes on paper, but it is a good trade off when you need to quickly take notes in a meeting, jot down ideas, and even get a quick sketch going. After all, your smartphone or tablet will always be next to you or in your bag for their versatility and convenience. We say tablet and smartphones also because there hasn’t been a competing support on Windows devices that could compare to the likes of Samsung Notes or Apple’s proprietary note taking applications. This is about to change though.

Welcome to Microsoft Journal, Microsoft’s proprietary note taking digital ink tool native to Windows. Finally, Windows has a note taking tool that supports just doodles on your screen. It is the perfect tool for when you have a stylus to work with. In the case of the Microsoft Surface devices, your Surface Pen is now more functional than before.

Thing is, an app like this is not technically new. You can find similar apps that supports note taking and sharing across devices already in the market, excluding Samsung and Apple’s proprietary offerings. So, how is this a revolutionary thing?

A Garage Product Turned into Official Product

Microsoft Garage Gallery
Source; Microsoft

First, you want to understand what a Garage Project is. Microsoft has this in-house incubation and development program, and they call it the Garage. If you have come across our articles and podcasts that covers Red Hat’s Innovation Labs, you can liken the Garage to that. It is technically a collaboration space that was initially created for Microsoft’s employees to develop new ideas. It could be a new app, new tool, or new ways of doing things.

From Garage, employees and partners can come together to experiment with new ideas, develop the ideas into a working prototype, and work along further to bring the idea to life. At the end of it, hopefully the project gets to see the light of day in the hands of other users. Microsoft’s Journal is one such project.

For Working with Stylus and With Microsoft 365

Journal Page
Source: Microsoft

The Journal app is made with digital inks first in mind, especially in Windows based tablets. But it also packs a very clever AI that makes the notes made in the Journal app a little more than just scribblings. Instead of turning the scribbles into typed out words, the AI recognizes everything from underlines, headlines, lists, and important marks. What that does is allow the app to organize the notes accordingly. When you need to pull them up, you can even use the same gestures to find the notes again.

At the same time, the notes can be synced directly with your Microsoft 365 calendar. It attaches to your meetings that you’ve put on the calendar so that you can pull it up again or refer to it again whenever you need a reminder on what your meeting is all about. Of course, you can access your journal anywhere you have access to your Microsoft 365.

In short, the Microsoft Journal app allows you to be completely random with your notes. You can scribble or note down things that you need or want quickly in a meeting. While you do that, the app makes sense of things for you so you can remain organized without wasting half an evening sorting out your notes into its own folders.

The Microsoft Journal app is now available for free from the Microsoft Store. It works on both Windows 11 and Windows 10 if you have not updated to Windows 11. To know more about Microsoft Journal, you can find out more on their website.

Lifestyle, News

Samsung Challenges You to Become “Born of the Galaxy Stars”

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Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphones have been touted as “creator” smartphones for a few years now. With the release of the Galaxy S22 series, the company is pushing even harder for its flagship to be a go-to when it comes to content creation. We’ve seen the phones used to create content on social media and also some pretty impressive shorts before. Now, Samsung wants creators to push the boundaries with Nightography and its Galaxy AI-enabled cameras.

Samsung Born of the Galaxy Stars

In conjunction with the launch of the new Galaxy S22 series, Samsung is launching a new competition with the Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) to challenge aspiring filmmakers to come up with amazing stories with their smartphones. 22 shortlisted teams will be presented with the Galaxy S22 series to shoot and bring their ideas to life. The final productions will be part of MIFFest 2022 where a lucky winner will be in the running for an MYR8,000 grand prize. In addition, the grand prize winner will also receive a trophy and Samsung products.

The theme of the “Born of the Galaxy Stars” competition this time around is “Borderless with Nightography“. As the name may suggest, ideas and scripts submitted are meant to highlight Samsung’s Nightography features which were advanced with the release of the Galaxy S22 series. Scripts should be submitted by 17 April 2022 at the official Born of the Galaxy of Stars Short Film Competition website.

Samsung Born of the Galaxy Stars 4

Samsung kicked things off with a showcase of the handiwork of four Malaysian Directors: Jawagar Samidurai, Taufiq Kamal, Ismail Jamaludin and Laura Low. All four used the Nightography feature of the Galaxy S22 series to showcase the themes of Fashion, Fitness, Romance and Music. These shorts can be viewed on the official website for the competition as well as on Samsung Malaysia’s YouTube Channel. So, get inspired and don’t forget to submit your award-winning scripts before 17 April 2022.

PR Newswire

Resulticks brings real-time, smart customer-engagement solutions for verticals to the Qualcomm® Smart Cities Accelerator Program

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NEW YORK, April 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Resulticks today announced that it has joined the Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program to collaborate on transforming the landscape of real-time customer engagement and communications. Together with the best of Qualcomm Technologies’ IoT solutions and services, Resulticks’ customer engagement solution will add new dimensions to end-consumer experiences, while also accelerating top-line growth for brands.

As one of the fastest growing AI-powered customer engagement solutions, Resulticks has always been ahead of the curve in enabling seamless journeys across the offline and online worlds through the handling of streams of data, events, and digital signals at scale. With the ever-increasing demand for context-based targeting and hyper-personalization, there are infinite ways in which these signals, communications, and analytics can come together at every juncture of the customer lifecycle from lead acquisition to conversion resulting in loyalty.

As part of the Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program, Resulticks can now facilitate brands to go beyond the usual touchpoints in this journey to leverage the signals from a gamut of sensors, wearables, smart devices, and digital screens that has remained largely untouched today.

“We are pleased to have Resulticks join the Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program ecosystem where we can together accelerate digital transformation and make it easier for businesses and entities looking to deliver smart AI-powered solutions for enhanced customer engagement,” said Ashok Tipirneni, director and head of platform product management, Smart Cities, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“Our aspiration has always been to be at the forefront of digital evolution, transformation and customer engagement,” said Mani Gopalaratnam, CEO, Resulticks. “For example, we are one of the first solutions of our kind to leverage edge and serverless technology and WebAssembly technologies to deliver what is really real-time engagement. But, it is also not about technology for technology’s sake. With Qualcomm Technologies, we believe we have all the right ingredients in the right place and at the right time to deliver smart solutions across verticals like retail, telecom, and banking that will deliver tangible outcomes to businesses, consumers, and the entire ecosystem. We are delighted and looking forward to making a difference with Qualcomm Technologies.”

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm is the world’s leading wireless technology innovator and the driving force behind the development, launch, and expansion of 5G. When we connected the phone to the internet, the mobile revolution was born. Today, our foundational technologies enable the mobile ecosystem and are found in every 3G, 4G and 5G smartphone. We bring the benefits of mobile to new industries, including automotive, the internet of things, and computing, and are leading the way to a world where everything and everyone can communicate and interact seamlessly.

Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering, research and development functions, and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business.

About Resulticks

Resulticks is a real-time, big-data-driven customer engagement solution built from the ground up by experts in marketing, technology, and business strategy to deliver topline growth. Outcomes-focused and enabled by the world’s first customer data blockchain, Resulticks equips brands to make a transformational leap to true omnichannel engagement. With its AI-powered, customer-centric approach and attribution at the segment-of-one level, Resulticks is changing how brands worldwide reach, acquire, and retain satisfied customers. For more information, please log on to www.resulticks.com. Follow Resulticks on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Qualcomm is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated.

Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program is a program of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.  

PR Newswire

Take a Look Under The Hood of Award Winning Fruit Tech Startup Hectre

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  • Hectre are bringing clever simplicity to the US orchard industry, delivering gains to fruit farmers
  • The popular NZ fruit tech company were named winners in the global AgTech BreakThrough Awards and are now double finalists in another prestigious awards program
  • Take a look under the hood of this Kiwi success story and find out what makes them shine

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, April 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — For many businesses, 2021 was a wild ride, but despite the challenges, some companies shone. Popular NZ fruit tech company Hectre (pronounced Hectare) was a definite sparkler, winning at the global AgTech BreakThrough Awards and gaining a reputation for best in class among the US apple growing industry.

The clever simplicity of the Hectre Orchard Management App on show. Jason Woodworth, CEO of Lamont Fruit Farms uses Hectre and says the bilingual capability and ease of use has been a huge plus for their company. Harvest data, labor tracking and quality control are all captured in real time, flowing through to yield and labor reporting, and auto generating payroll data. Hectre customers can print waterproof bin tickets right in the field, straight off a mobile printer.
The clever simplicity of the Hectre Orchard Management App on show. Jason Woodworth, CEO of Lamont Fruit Farms uses Hectre and says the bilingual capability and ease of use has been a huge plus for their company. Harvest data, labor tracking and quality control are all captured in real time, flowing through to yield and labor reporting, and auto generating payroll data. Hectre customers can print waterproof bin tickets right in the field, straight off a mobile printer.

Extremely high tech, but so very easy to use. Hectre’s Spectre for Apples app detects and sizes apples straight off a photo on an iPad, in the field or in the packhouse, with results served up in seconds. Early fruit sizing has never been simpler.
Extremely high tech, but so very easy to use. Hectre’s Spectre for Apples app detects and sizes apples straight off a photo on an iPad, in the field or in the packhouse, with results served up in seconds. Early fruit sizing has never been simpler.

It’s time to take a look under the hood to discover how this innovative company, built with buckets of “Kiwi” work ethic and a huge passion to deliver “better”, has gone on to become one of the most exciting agritech companies on the global stage.

Last week, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Hectre were named finalists in two categories at the prestigious NZ Hi-Tech Awards. How did they arrive at this point?

It all started with an apple. It was 2016 and Hectre was a team of three visionary co-founders, who upon learning of the daily struggles faced by apple growers, set out to find a better way. In consultation with a group of growers, they created the design for the Hectre Orchard Management App and importantly, growers backed them.

Simon Easton, co-owner of Wairepo Orchards, grows apples near Nelson, in NZ’s South Island, and still remembers when one of the founders, Menilik Dyer, turned up at his orchard with a large notebook and asked, “As a grower, what is it that you need that we could help with?” Easton was sick to death of writing out bin tickets – the labels that must go with each full fruit bin detailing the immense amount of origin data that growers have to capture (it’s even greater now).

Easton is a numbers man and is driven by continually improving the performance of his orchard. He wants to get his hands on data so he can hone in on what’s working well and identify opportunities to perform even better. He’s enjoyed seeing the journey of the Hectre app from those early days to where it is now. “Being able to get cost info out of Hectre is awesome. To know that picking cost me this amount and pruning cost me that amount…I just love all of that.” 

“We’ve always been keen to roll up our sleeves, get alongside growers and learn everything we can from them. I think they respect the fact that we genuinely value their insights, their skills and their extraordinary commitment to what has to be one of the hardest industries to be in. When you consider that fruit growers only get one chance each year to make money (after harvest), and the rest of the time they’re slogging their guts out and pouring in funds. It takes bravery and an immense amount of care and hard work to survive and thrive. Our team is continually in awe of the growers we work with,” says Hectre Co-founder and CEO, Matty Blomfield.

In the first few years, Hectre built out the Hectre Orchard Management App, an app that enables fruit growers to digitise their orchards, removing all the double and triple handling of paper they traditionally deal with and the wasted time that goes with it. Growers can manage all their labour through the app, including auto calculation of piece rates, plus integration with payroll programs. The ability to gain insights on the performance of pickers and fruit quality, delivers direct benefits as growers continue to battle the challenges rising from the pandemic and environmental factors.

Those early relationships formed with NZ fruit growers, led to invaluable introductions to growers in one of the world’s apple growing meccas, Washington, USA. “I remember one of our first US trips. We had recognised how important it was to have boots on the ground. So, with no appointments in place, we booked a flight to the US and then glued ourselves to the phone, calling up every grower we could and telling them we’d be in their area next week and could we meet,” reflects Blomfield.

The app now covers numerous fruit types such as apples, pears, high value cherries, kiwifruit and more. And the Hectre app is currently being used by fruit growers and packers in 11 countries, including US industry giants Washington Fruit & Produce and Borton Fruit.

“The platform and tools they’ve built support fruit growers of all sizes, from small family farms, to large integrated global fruit institutions. We believe Hectre’s dedication to constant innovation provides a significant competitive advantage and aligns well with our own approach to business,” says Byron Borton, Chief Visionary Officer at Borton Fruit.

Hectre’s innovation approach has centred on what they term, “clever simplicity”. Creating leading edge tech for fruit growers and packers, with user simplicity at the forefront. Kylie Hall, Marketing Manager at Hectre, says that focus on clever simplicity has created a unique market advantage and one Hectre has become known for. “We recognise that it’s not enough to just create awesome technology. We’ve got to be fully focused on who will be using that tech and how we can make it as simple as possible. That way, users can learn quickly, and our customers can optimise their tech investment, gaining full benefit from their spend.”

In Waterport, New York, Lamont Fruit Farms are using Hectre’s Orchard Management App. CEO Jason Woodworth says the insights are excellent. “Hectre is now the tool we use to evaluate all of our blocks in the true sense of real time. You can track each and every project and monitor costs from the start of pruning until the end of harvest. The staff are fantastic with support and are always thinking forward.”

Two years ago, Hectre launched Spectre for Apples, a computer vision AI app that helps fruit growers and packers assess the size of their fruit, from the very first pick. In an industry where size really does matter, it’s a crucial piece of information, enabling improved decision-making regarding storage and packing, and empowering growers and packers to secure sales orders earlier than ever before.

Spectre works straight off an iPad or iPhone and serves up sizing information within seconds. Users simply take a photo on their iPad and Spectre will detect and size more than 100 pieces of fruit from the fruit bin. Mobile, fast and simple. “We’ve since developed Spectre models to meet the needs of citrus packers too and are working with pilot customers this US harvest for Spectre for Cherries,” notes Hectre R&D Manager, Luke Butters. The pilot was quickly oversubscribed.

The upcoming US apple harvest will see yet another leading-edge innovation delivered by Hectre, this time focused on providing insights for huge US apple packhouses. It will be another world first piece of fruit tech, developed by a Kiwi company shining brightly. “We’ll share more about that later,” grins Butters.

Today, Hectre now has the collective talents of a team of 34, spread across NZ, the US and Vietnam. “Our tech is delivering huge benefits for both growers and packers, but it’s our people that really make the difference. Our people uncover the needs. They build our tech. They help growers learn our tech and they support the success of our customers. Each of them is humble, caring, hard working and hugely supportive of each other. They are our secret ingredient, and we value them highly,” adds Hall.

David Downs, Chair of the NZ Hi-Tech Trust which organises the NZ Hi-Tech Awards program, says the standard of entries continues to grow each year. “This year’s finalists span the full spectrum of the hi-tech sector, and the level of innovative tech products and solutions continues to astound us all.” Hectre has been named a finalist for both the Most Innovative Hi-Tech Agritech Solution and for Hi-Tech StartUp Company of the Year.

About Hectre

Hectre is an award winning startup empowering fruit growers and packers with the world’s simplest to use orchard technologies. Originating in New Zealand, with teams in the US, NZ and Vietnam, Hectre creates simple to use, leading edge orchard management and mobile fruit sizing apps. With the Hectre app fruit growers can digitise their orchard management processes, saving time and money, and getting more of their fruit to market, enhancing their financial sustainability. Fruit packers can increase their early size sample rates by up to 3000%, gaining access to sizing data as soon as the fruit is picked, enabling better decision making, reduced costs and achieving greater sales. To learn more about Hectre, please visit www.hectre.com

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PR Newswire

Gridtential Signs Development Agreement with Camel Energy and a Top-Three U.S. Automaker, Marking Entry into Automotive Battery Market

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SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Gridtential Energy, the inventor of Silicon Joule® bipole battery technology, today announced a product development agreement with Camel Energy, the largest car battery manufacturer in Asia, and a top-three U.S. automaker that is supplied by Camel. The agreement is targeted to culminate in the delivery of start/stop batteries for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. The same technology architecture can be used for low-voltage batteries in electric vehicles and extended to support the 48V batteries most often used in mild-hybrid vehicles.

The partnership positions Gridtential to capitalize on fast-growing demand in the automotive industry for a better alternative to the standard 12V car battery.

Camel has been approached by several large automotive companies to deliver Silicon Joule bipole advanced batteries for their vehicles. By replacing traditional lead plates with specially-formulated silicon hybrid bipoles, silicon hybrid batteries increase standard power density by three-fold, reduce weight by 30% or more, and have improved charge acceptance (at least a 3x increase in dynamic charge acceptance). Silicon hybrid batteries also can operate at higher temperatures and tolerate vibration better than traditional lead-based batteries — key metrics for the automotive industry.

Camel’s silicon hybrid batteries will have at least twice the lifespan of a traditional 12V lead battery, making them an attractive option for automotive manufacturers. 

Under the agreement, Gridtential and Camel engineering teams will work closely to optimize the thin-plate cell design and manufacturing of advanced bipole batteries. They will also verify metrics of cycle life, energy density, battery efficiency and charge acceptance.

Zubo Zhang, President of Camel Energy, Inc (CEI) said: “Along with our customers, we have been following the promise and advancements in bipole technology for many years. Gridtential’s technology readily scales, allowing us to offer a suite of bipole batteries for the transportation and other markets where Camel is dominant. This all works well with Camel’s interest to expand our localization in North America with major automotive customers.”

“It is great to share a vision of vehicle electrification with major automakers. Our silicon hybrid technology is poised to play a vital role in that future,” said Gridtential CEO John Barton. “There’s a growing recognition in the marketplace that innovative design and optimization of conventional active materials offers a safer alternative to lithium-ion with comparable performance and lower cost. We look forward to partnering with Camel and its automotive customers to hone the design, performance and manufacturing of these batteries as they build market share with industry redefining products.”

One of the key components that will improve the performance and efficiency of Camel batteries is the Silicon Joule PowerPlate™, which sits between thin battery cells and will be coated with Camel’s active material. Combined with a lightweight bipole design and a 99% recyclability rate for the lead inside, Camel’s batteries with Silicon Joule technology will be a much more sustainable and readily available alternative to lithium-ion batteries.

Silicon Joule is a revolutionary battery technology that substitutes treated silicon wafers, like those found in solar panels, for conventional lead grids to create an advanced AGM lead battery. It delivers increased power density and a deeper depth of discharge at a 75 percent lower levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) than conventional lead batteries.

Gridtential has development agreements with 15 battery makers. To inquire about the Silicon Joule Evaluation Program, contact Gridtential here.

About Gridtential
Gridtential is the creator of Silicon Joule®, breakthrough silicon hybrid technology that provides a lower-cost, safer, greener alternative to lithium-ion. Inspired by solar technology, Silicon Joule dramatically improves cycle life, power delivery, and discharge rate while reducing weight by 30%, delivering superior performance for deep-cycle and power applications including personal electric vehicles, renewable energy storage systems and hybrid automotive.

Gridtential Energy provides Silicon Joule reference batteries, development kits, bipole materials and non-exclusive licenses, enabling manufacturing partners to easily adapt their factories to provide high-performing, higher voltage 24V, 36V & 48V batteries to their customers for the hybrid-automotive, Low-Speed EV (LSEV), energy storage system (ESS) & telecom backup markets, all without gigascale capital investments.

Silicon Joule is in use today by 15 battery partners and several OEMs. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Gridtential’s investors include The Roda Group and 1955 Capital.

About Camel
Founded in 1980, Camel Group Co. is the largest car battery manufacturer in Asia and specializes in the R&D, production and sales of lead-acid batteries. It also works with producers of EV lithium-ion batteries and used battery recyclers.

Its products cover automotive starter, start-stop, lithium-ion and traction batteries. Camel batteries are widely used in cars, trucks, agricultural vehicles, golf carts, electric vehicles and other applications. Camel is innovating new energy solutions for the vehicles of the future and is committed to green energy manufacturing, recycling and enabling a low-carbon life for mankind.

Media Contact
Josh Green
Firebrand Communications
gridtential@firebrand.marketing
415 848 9175

Logo – https://techent.tv/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/gridtential-signs-development-agreement-with-camel-energy-and-a-top-three-u-s-automaker-marking-entry-into-automotive-battery-market.jpg 

Source: Gridtential Energy, Inc.

Accessories, Camera, News

DJI MIC is the Next Best Thing for Video Audio Solutions

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They say that a good audio adds a whole lot of value to your videos. They also say that even if your video looks bad, your audio can more than make up for it. It does sound counterintuitive, but it can be quite true.  

While it is true that the first thing that should stand out in a video is the visuals itself, bad audio can destroy a perfectly good video experience. Audio is one of the most underrated tools in a video production that people sometimes do not pay too much attention to it, especially when it is good. When it is bad though, you just cannot bear to watch the video for too long because the audio just annoys you. 

Audio gear is not exactly cheap or straightforward to work with though. Cheap solutions are out there, but they usually come with a whole slew of compromises that makes you think twice about using them sometimes, especially cables. Cabled set-ups, while are some of the most reliable and easily the best sounding while remaining relatively cheap to work with, is rather restrictive. That is also why plenty of productions have preferred to work with wireless microphone systems.  

36831639
Source: DJI

There are plenty of good choices out there too in this department. One of the most popular choices out there is made by RODE. Plenty have also sort of followed suite in the same form factor. All of them are similar kits too with one receiver and two mic transmitter combos. Each item must be charged individually and kept separately though. There are a few risks to that, obviously.  

What if you can just put them in a single place, and charge them simultaneously? What if you can just work with them like most true wireless earbuds now? They are sort of the same thing are they not? 

Oddly enough, the first manufacturer that does this is not RODE or Shure. It is DJI with their new DJI MIC. DJI should not be an unfamiliar name to content creators at this point. They make some of the most interesting video recording hardware to date. A lot of them are also targeted to independent and small-time content creators. Most of them are video recording gears though, not really audio recording dedicated items until the DJI MIC.  

It is a unique product, this DJI MIC. It will set you back US$ 329 (MYR 1,386*), which is just a little bit more expensive than the RODE Wireless Go II. It is a little smaller than the RODE alternatives. In concept, they work similarly. But there is one fundamental difference between the two. The DJI can be charged on a single platform and that single platform also works as their battery extenders, very much like true wireless headphones today. 

7789216
Source: DJI

Obviously, coming from DJI, it also comes with a slew of adapters for maximum recording flexibility. There is a USB Type-C adapter and a Lightning adapter that comes with the set if you prefer to shoot with your smartphones. Because it is made primarily with DSLRs to mind, of course it comes with a hot shoe mount adapter and a matching 3.5mm audio cable.  

According to DJI, the audio is transmitted via 2.4GHz frequency band that allows audio to be transmitted to the receiver from up to 250m away, which also means long lens shooting is not out of the question. DJI’s clever technologies have also ensured that the signals are free of interference for when your shoot locations get busy. 

7789215
Source: DJI
7789216
Source: DJI
36831639
Source: DJI
36831640
Source: DJI
36831641
Source: DJI

DJI also says that the entire package allows you to record videos at up to 15 hours in total (5 + 10 from charging case). That means that an entire day worth of shoot will be a non-issue with the DJI MIC. You are not going to be shooting five hours at a time as well, so you are not going to need to worry about the MIC running out of battery. If you need to, you can also record audio directly on to the receiver itself at up to 14 hours, either for backup, or when you are recording a podcast outside.  

The DJI MIC is available now in select regions. As mentioned, it will set you back US$ 329. It is not officially available in Malaysia just yet. You can pre-order it in Malaysia for MYR 1,599. For more information on the DJI MIC, you can visit their website.  

*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.21 on xe.com as of 05/04/2022 

PR Newswire

Mobile puzzle game ‘Disney POP TOWN’ completes its update

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  • “Tomorrowland“, first-complete-first-win puzzle stages based on real amusement rides revealed
  • New “Chapter Shift” for users’ freedom to select the chapters of their choice
  • New enhancements for riveting play: World Zoom Out, Story Skip, Stage Level Peak

SEOUL, South Korea, April 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Wemade Play (CEO Ho-Dae Lee, www.wemadeplay.com) has renewed its popular mobile puzzle game “Disney POP TOWN” on the 5th to entertain its regular and new users with new puzzle contents and improvements.

Disney Pop Town title
Disney Pop Town title

The newly updated game presents “Tomorrow Land” where competition events are held separately from conventional story-based play. The “Tomorrow Land” comprises of total 20 puzzle stages, with each set made up of 5 stages, and players are ranked on first-complete basis. Inspired by the real rides at Disney World the “Tomorrow Land” invites users to play at familiar puzzle settings and sparks exciting competition by allowing only 100 users to make it to the top rank. The “Tomorrow Land” will act as a playground for players to flaunt their puzzle skills and the top-ranking users will receive one-of-a-kind special costume as a reward.

Disney Pop Town screen shots
Disney Pop Town screen shots

“Disney POP TOWN” also showcased “Chapter Shift”, which grants users to move freely between puzzle stories. While players had to follow the story flow and play along the chapters sequentially before the update, they can now enjoy a much more unrestrained game and choose the chapters they want to play. The rewards for completing the last quest for every chapter have also been expanded.

Furthermore, the game allows users to take a sneak peek at the level of the difficult puzzles so they can strategically determine whether to mobilize their items or not. Other user-friendly enhancements such as “World Zoom Out” for an overview of users’ own map decoration and “Story Skip” to speed up the game have been installed.

Myeong-Ok Song, General Manager of Wemade Play, stated, “We have enthusiastically retouched our game so our users can thoroughly enjoy new competitions, puzzles, costumes, stories, and decoration. We are committed to providing the best quality game with due updates that reflect our users’ opinions.”

<About Disney POP TOWN>

Developed and serviced by Wemade Play, “Disney POP TOWN” is a mobile game released in Asian countries including Japan in October 2019. It is a narrative puzzle game based on 34 Disney’s beloved intellectual property contents including “Aladdin” and “Frozen.” Players can explore 2,900 puzzle stages in 14 chapters with 506 kinds of costumes.

PR Newswire

Sharing Economy International in joint venture with naked-eye 3D high-tech company Su Xin Rui Shi to lay out the underlying architecture of Metaverse technology

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HONG KONG, April 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — SHARING ECONOMY INTERNATIONAL INC (stock code: SEI”, hereinafter referred to as “SEII”) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary 3D Discovery Co., Ltd (“3D Discovery”) has entered into a strategic partnership with Suzhou Su Xin Rui Shi Technology Co., Ltd. (“Su Xin Rui Shi“) to jointly expand the international naked-eye 3D ecosystem and industry chain business, build a “Metaverse” underlying hardware support ecosystem, create a global leading platform for naked eye 3D technology, and develop and optimize the metaverse experience technology platform.

SEII aims to promote the development of the global sharing economy through the development of online platforms and cooperation in leasing business around technology and the global sharing economy market. SEII already has a number of technology and service platforms in key markets such as Asia, Europe and the US.

Su Xin Rui Shi is a leading global naked-eye 3D display technology research and development company, dedicated to the development and industrialisation of international top 3D light field real-time rendering engine technology. The team has three core innovative technologies: a light field reconstruction algorithm based on backlight matching technology, a programmable real-time 3D Light Field rendering engine based on human eye bio-stereoscopic vision, and a fusion algorithm between stereoscopic image source and virtual scene, making Su Xin Rui Shi a leading company in the industry to achieve real-time light field rendering. It is also one of the very few teams in China that can provide customised naked eye 3D solutions, and has successfully transformed ordinary 2D sources to 3D light field sources in real time, solving the current situation of content scarcity in the industry.

It is reported that 3D Discovery and Su Xin Rui Shi will jointly establish a joint venture in Hong Kong, in which 3D Discovery and Su Xin Rui Shi will hold 60% and 40% of the joint venture respectively (the “Joint Venture”). Through the joint venture, 3D Discovery and Su Xin Rui Shi plan to focus on developing and promoting naked eye 3D applications and services in key areas such as 8K/16K resolution real-time rendering, screenless suspended 3D displays and other technologies, expanding hardware sales around key regions such as Southeast Asia and Europe, represented by Hong Kong and Singapore, and providing high-definition digital modelling and hardware facilities upgrades to key customers.

The metaverse technology application platform, which is deeply laid out by the Joint Venture, will become a strategic engine and a new growth point for SEII’s sharing economy business. On the one hand, it will help the technical iteration of the public ECrent sharing and leasing business platform, providing a more realistic interactive experience of leasing scenarios for global users and enhancing transaction efficiency and service profits; on the other hand, it can provide more advanced technical services and marketing solutions for the company’s customers, effectively expanding and adding new customers’ scale and revenue.

With SEII’s extensive global presence and business resources in the sharing economy, as well as its international leadership in clarity, customizability, observer points, real-time rendering and other technical parameters, and its complete patent layout internationally, SEII will be able to “surge” in the capital market and further promote the development and transformation of new economic forms in the metaverse era.

Cision View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sharing-economy-international-in-joint-venture-with-naked-eye-3d-high-tech-company-su-xin-rui-shi-to-lay-out-the-underlying-architecture-of-metaverse-technology-301516857.html

Source: Sharing Economy International Inc.

Accessories, Computers, Gaming, News

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is Here! What Does This Mean for GPUs? 

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First, yes, we realise that the newly announced NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is not in any way an affordable piece of kit. In fact, it is NVIDIA’s most expensive RTX 30 series GPU to date at US$ 1,999 which is nearly MYR 8,500 by today’s estimation. But this also is not a regular GPU made for the regular consumer. 

To be fair, yes, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti broke cover a few days ago. It is still a brand-new piece of kit that hardly comes by though. While conditions in the market is not getting worse, it is not getting that much better either. Prices of GPUs are still quite inflated and item availability is still not great. So, does this mean that NVIDIA’s move in launching a new card going to screw us, customers over even more with an even more pricey GPU? 

As it turns out, not really. Let us go into that a little bit later. For now, the GPU; the star of the show.  

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is not really a new GPU. Like its siblings, the RTX 3090 Ti is more like a small improvement over the mighty RTX 3090. In some partner board cases, it is even bigger than the RTX 3090 which just makes them ridiculous to look at and to have.  

As mentioned earlier, it is no ordinary consumer class GPU. The regular RTX 3090 was not a regular consumer class GPU either, so you should not expect this one to be at its asking price. NVIDIA targets not only the most demanding gamers with this card, they want the prosumers to also notice. It is made to chew applications like Maya, Blender, Cinema4D, and other 3D rendering software then spitting out masterpieces as quickly as you can conceptualize them. Of course, I am exaggerating a little bit here, but you get the idea. 

It packs 10,752 CUDA cores with 24GB of onboard memory that is capable of 78 RT-TFLOPs, 40-Shader-TFLOPs, and 320 Tensor-TFLOPs. That basically means it can do a lot of calculations. The regular RTX 3090 only houses 10,496 CUDA cores in comparison. The result is a GPU that is overall 9% faster than the one that it evolves from. It is also about 50% faster than the most expensive GPU NVIDIA had before, the TITAN RTX.  

All these not just enables gamers to game with up to 8K resolutions in smooth fashion. It also enables content creators to work even more seamlessly with 8K resolution contents. The demand for contents today has brought 8K resolution videos as standard. This would be the perfect GPU to work with for 8K contents.  

ROG Strix LC and TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Graphics Cards
Source: ASUS

The first of the board partners that have come out and announced their RTX 3090 (at least in Malaysia) is ASUS with their ROG Strix and TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GPUs. The Strix is quite unique, a water-cooled GPU with its own AiO cooler that you need to find space for in your case, if you want one. The TUF Gaming GPU is a more regular GPU, but you still do need some clearance for it with a 3.2 slot heatsink. You can get the ROG GPU at MYR 11,000 and the TUF Gaming GPU from MYR 9,700, which is around the ballpark price of a high-end GPU these days.  

So, What Does This Mean? 

A quick Shopee search for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 GPU will bring you some clue to the answers. You would see prices of the previous halo product going anywhere between MYR 10,000 to about MYR 12,000. This would be considered a reasonable price before the RTX 3090 Ti showed up. Considering stocks are low, with demands that stocks could not meet, it is understandable these prices.  

A few months ago, a quick search of the NVIDIA GeForece RTX 3090 yields result that hover anywhere between MYR 12,000 to even MYR 20,000 for a single GPU. This also means that GPUs have gone down in prices for the past few months and that is a good thing. But it is not necessarily good enough because GPUs are still sold way above their retail prices, just because they can. 

Here is the thing though, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti marks an end of stock shortages in the GPU market, it is basically NVIDIA producing a new halo product because they can finally do it with ease. It is why the RTX 3080 Ti was released and the RTX 3090 Ti had to wait a few more months before it comes to light.  

If you look closely, even with ASUS’ inflated pricing, the RTX 3090 Ti is priced lower than plenty of the current RTX 3090 GPUs you can find in the market. This should, in turn, drive down prices of GPUs that are currently out in the market even lower. At this point as well, retailers might not even be able to use the “stocks are still scarce” excuse to price their GPUs. There is enough GPUs to go around now, and prices should have come down to earth.  

Sure, a halo product like this will still come in limited quantities. It is, after all, the most expensive GPU you can buy in 2022. But it does mean that you can go out and buy a GPU. It signals to us that you can start haggling down prices of the GPUs that you want from the retailers, at least a little bit. It also means that you have enough GPUs to go around now. It is now almost a reasonable time to go out and buy a GPU.  

PR Newswire

Bricsys: BricsCAD® AX3000 MEP Suite Admitted to CITF’s Pre-Approved BIM Software List

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Government-Subsidized Discounts Now Available to Eligible Applicants

GHENT, Belgium, April 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Global software developer Bricsys (www.bricsys.com), part of Hexagon, today announced that BricsCAD® AX3000 MEP Suite has been admitted to the Construction Innovation and Technology Fund’s (CITF) Pre-approved BIM Software List.

The decision enables eligible applicants in Hong Kong’s construction industry to benefit from government-subsidized discounts on BricsCAD AX3000 MEP Suite – a solution for building mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering – through its Construction & Innovation Technology Fund (CITF).

The newly-approved BIM solution leverages specialised AX3000 modules that interact seamlessly with each other and BricsCAD to cover all aspects of building services engineering: ventilation, heating, sanitation, electrical, residential ventilation and fire safety and sprinkler systems.

Pat Williams, Vice-President of Sales, APAC at Bricsys comments: “We are delighted that eligible users across Hong Kong will enjoy access to this market-leading solution at a reduced price through the CITF. We believe the admission of our solution to the CITF Pre-approved BIM Software List is an endorsement of the powerful combination that AX3000 and BricsCAD represents as the construction industry continues to digitize.”

BricsCAD and AX3000 MEP are built on a familiar DWG file format. This enables engineers to seamlessly bring their 2D CAD drawings into the platform, rather than re-building them from scratch in a new environment. It is also based on an openBIM architecture, accelerates time to value and reduces hours lost to training.

Williams continues: “Some software packages require engineers to spend between nine and 18 months getting up to speed on their technology, UX and UI. In today’s fast paced business world, we recognise the need to shorten that learning curve and as a result of its familiar DWG environment, training on BricsCAD AX3000 MEP Suite typically takes between 10 weeks and three months.”

In addition, all IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) data created in BricsCAD is fully certified to openBIM industry standards and can be shared across different software platforms, facilitating the exchange of digital building models and extraction of required engineered drawings

About Bricsys 
Bricsys (www.bricsys.com), part of Hexagon, is the global technology company that creates the BricsCAD® family of computer aided design (CAD) products and the Bricsys® 24/7 project collaboration platform. We are relentlessly committed to the success of our customers by offering cost-effective, mission-critical CAD software with industry-leading product support.  Established in Belgium in 2002, Bricsys NV has approximately 300 employees around the world, partners in more than 80 countries and 1,200 registered application developers.