Dea Sujardi takes on Senior Advisor role; Kelly Ang takes on Investor Relations responsibilities
SINGAPORE, April 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Golden Gate Ventures, one of Singapore’s first VC funds, founded by Silicon Valley natives, recently announced a series of updates to its team, as it continues to invest in its top talent.
Dea Sujardi, former Head of Indonesia, takes on the role of Senior Advisor in Indonesia. Leveraging her deep local market knowledge, she will focus her energy on bringing to the firm deep insights about the fast-changing Indonesian landscape to help the investment team stay ahead-of-the-curve, and to give founders a finger-on-the-pulse, especially for those eyeing expansion plans into Indonesia.
After two years with the firm, Andri Wardhani, Senior Associate is moving on to a new adventure and Golden Gate Ventures is very excited for her to continue to have a positive footprint in the region.
As one of the oldest established VC funds in the region, Golden Gate Ventures sees itself as a catalyst to help nurture and develop great talent for the local ecosystem.
Building on her tenure at Golden Gate Ventures, Kelly Ang, will be expanding her responsibilities under an investor relations track, with the anticipated influx of investor capital flowing into the region. With the support of the firm, Kelly is on executive education classes with University of Colorado Boulder and University of Virginia. This is part of the firm’s continued talent investment strategy that has similarly benefited Partners Angela Toy and Justin Hall.
Meanwhile, Associate Freddy Shen will be moving to a corporate venture capital role after three years with the firm to focus on later-stage investment.
About Golden Gate Ventures
Golden Gate Ventures is a VC fund in Southeast Asia (SEA) founded by Silicon Valley natives. Since 2011, Golden Gate Ventures has launched four funds and invested in over 60 companies. The firm focuses on investing in the rising consumer internet class in Southeast Asia. Breakout companies include Carousell (mobile classifieds), Appota (Vietnam mobile publishing platform), Alodokter (HealthTech), Carro (Auto Marketplace), and Xendit (Payment Processing).
In writing this second part of the editorial, we had a little bit of a setback. We forgot to take photos of the first set-up process. We had to completely reset the device to document the first set-up and boot experience. We suspect we will be experiencing more of that later in this Chromebook journey.
We are still using the same Chromebook that Acer has provided for our experiment, the Acer Chromebook Spin 713. We spoke about it too in our previous editorial in this series. It is a powerful notebook with Intel’s 11th Generation Core i5 packed into the hardware. No dedicated discrete GPU anywhere within the Chromebook, you hardly need it anyway.
Reset – once you log in – everything restores
Resetting the Chromebook is a relatively simple process. You do not need to rummage around the settings to get to the ‘reset’ page. You just need to access settings and go to the bottom most tab on the left and you will find the reset button there. From there, it is just a matter of a few safety checks and you are good to go.
Unlike Windows devices, Chrome OS resets pretty much nearly immediately. It is as if nothing had happened, and your Chromebook is already wiped clean. You do not even need to keep it plugged into a power source. You get pretty much the same boot display as you would when you restart your Chromebook or boot it up from its ‘off’ power state. It is unusual, and uncanny.
The set-up process is as simple as it is before. There is a small difference now though. Once you logged in with Google, Chrome OS remembers your previous setup before and downloads all the apps and plugins for Chrome you previously had. It saved us a lot of time and effort to get things going the second round.
It will only work if you had a Chrome OS registered with your Google account. With a steady internet connection, most of the apps and plugins from before were installed within the next 30 minutes, and I did not have to do anything else other than sign into my Google account in the first five minutes.
Like Android, But Not Like Android
The only way we can describe the experience of the Chrome OS at this point is that it is a hybrid between an Android tablet and a PC experience. You get the best and nuances of both worlds. It is touch optimised, more so than Windows. The Chrome OS is also optimised for the mouse and keyboard experience which most Android tablets struggle with.
You get to use most, if not all your Android apps on the Chromebook. A lot of them would give you PC like interfaces but optimised for touch experience. The web browser is as it is, a regular Chrome browser you get on any PC.
Turning the 13.5-inch display into a multi-window experience is much easier to compared to an Android smartphone or tablet. There is a small caveat, you can only have two windows side-by-side. You simply drag any window to the edge of the display, and it snaps into place nicely.
Your Android device can also be integrated with the Chromebook. There is something called Phone Hub on Chrome OS that is rather painless to set up. It serves as a notification hub and limited control panel for your smartphone. You do not get screen mirroring experience as per Your Phone app on Windows, but we think simplified controls are still the way to go.
With the Phone Hub, your Chromebook is a remote work powerhouse. Chrome OS automatically prompts you to turn on wireless hotspot when it does not have any WiFi networks to connect to. You do not even have to manually turn on hotspot on your smartphone to get it connected privately, it just does. you disconnect, your smartphone immediately turns off its hotspot automatically, which is clever.
There is an issue here, however. Chrome OS works only if it is connected. Yes, apps installed on the device will still work. But most apps and even Chrome browser requires constant internet connection to work.
Before we move on, we mentioned that the YouTube App was indeed a webpage version of it. After the most recent update to Chrome OS (100.xx), the YouTube App is a standalone app that launches into its own window. It still retains a lot of its webpage features on the window, but it does not sit within the browser.
Breezing Through Work
For most of our work, we rely on Microsoft’s 365 suite. We rely on OneDrive for all our cloud storage needs, we also work plenty of Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. In fact, these editorials get typed out on Microsoft Word first before finally making it to the screen in front of you now. Of course, we also rely heavily on our emails to get the latest updates from brands you love.
Microsoft apps has been taken down from the Google Play Store for Chrome OS. While you can technically find a workaround in the form of apk format install files, we did not. We wanted to see if we could work with the browser version of Microsoft 365 apps on the Chrome OS. OneDrive is not taken down from the Play Store, but we ended up preferring the browser experience over the app.
For emails, we could technically rely on the Gmail apps that also offers a browser experience without the browser. It seems that Gmail only takes on Google accounts though, which also means that we had to access our emails through the browser. Accessing emails through the browser also eliminates the need for you to set-up POP3 or IMAP servers for your Chromebook. You can technically install other email client apps from Google Play Store, I was happy enough with accessing emails through the browser, so I did not bother with that.
Oddly enough, I did not miss Microsoft 365 apps all that much. So far, we have mostly been working with Microsoft Word on the Chromebook. While it would be nice to have an app to work with, we think that the mobile optimized app will not do any justice to the Chromebook’s display real estate.
The browser version of Microsoft Word feels very much like the full Windows and Apple version of the app that is fully optimized for mouse and keyboard input. In some ways we never really missed having the mobile-first app experience. The browser allows you to have multiple instances of Microsoft Word, or PowerPoint, or Excel, which is always a welcome for multitasking.
The only sort of complain we have in this case is the fact that you must launch the Microsoft 365 web app within the browser first before you get to access any of your files for Microsoft Word and such. It is quicker for you to access your files via OneDrive, so you might want to consider that.
More on Part 3
There is still much to explore on Chrome OS. While we have touched on Phone Hub, we felt that there is a little more that we can discover. Yes, Chrome OS needs to be connected all the time to. It is the same requirement as most smartphones today though.
While we did explore the gaming aspects of the Chromebook, we are not ready to make a conclusion on it just yet. Steam will also be making itself available for Chrome OS sometime soon, though we do not know when. In this case, gaming could be something worth looking into with Chrome OS thanks to many cloud gaming solutions you might find today. If you have a gaming PC at home, you can even game remotely in the house.
Working with the Chromebook is a pleasure though. Beyond the hardware, Chrome OS seems to be able to keep up with everything we need it to do. Sure, we have not put it through its paces with photo editing work on the go and such. Everything else, including converting or compressing our photos for publication is simple enough to do with a steady internet connection. If you have a smartphone data plan, it is good enough for you to set up your Chromebook into a remote workstation and get things done.
So far, so good. While we are a little peeved that we must constantly ensure that we are connected to the internet one way or another, we have not missed working with Windows laptops so far. Everything we need in a thin-and-light is in the Chromebook. We can appreciate its long battery life too; you tend to get a lot more battery life from the Chromebook than you do on Windows laptops. We will talk about its battery life in the coming weeks too, of course.
A few years ago, on Kickstarter and a few other crowdsourcing platforms, we saw something quite intriguing. We saw a small drone that is supposed to be sold to consumers. It is made to eliminate the need for selfie sticks, allowing self-portrait subjects a free range of movements in their own photos. It allows them to have a more flexible control on the frame of the photos. We thought that it was brilliant and odd at the same time. The idea never really took off anywhere though, at least until now. Snap, the people behind Snapchat (obviously), introduces a new hardware for Snapchat users, the Pixy.
The idea of Pixy is nothing new. Ever since DJI started selling consumer grade drones that is smaller than smartphones, the idea of using a drone to capture selfies has been born. It makes a lot of sense too since with a drone, you have a larger creative canvas anyway. You can push it further than you physically can with a selfie stick and bring it closer when you need it to. Like what DJI does with their drones, a flying camera can also be a personal vlogging camera that gives you the full motion of both your hands.
That is basically what Pixy is. It is a pocket-sized, free-flying personal camera that you can take with you anywhere you go. Unlike DJI drones, it does not come with a comprehensive remote. It is made to be used quickly and seamlessly, so we assume that you can control it with your smartphone. We suspect also that the controls on the smartphone could be limited since Snap has mentioned in their release that the Pixy can fly in four preset flight paths. Once you set the flight path, you should not need to look at your smartphone until you are done with it.
Unlike DJI’s devices as well, the Pixy is made with less powerful motors, because it is a simpler and lighter compact drone anyway. Because of that, they designed the Pixy to take off and land on your hands instead of the ground.
We also assume that the Pixy is going to be fully controlled via the Snapchat app. Snap says that the Pixy will be a companion device to the app in the future. All videos and photos from the drone can be transferred to a smartphone device wirelessly to be saved into Snapchat Memories. Everything captured via the Pixy can also be edited on the Snapchat app itself.
The Pixy is now available in the United States and France only. There are no mentions on its availability elsewhere, but we expect that the Pixy will at least make a few more markets in the North American and European regions. It will set you back US$ 229.99 (MYR 1,001*). If you are planning to get one somehow, do check with the local laws to ensure you do not get into trouble taking a selfie. More information on the Pixy can be found on their website.
*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.35 as of 28/04/2022 on xe.com
Samsung’s Galaxy S series has been the hallmark of its smartphones since it first debuted in 2010. It’s been the company’s “IT” device housing the latest in technological innovations and software. This year, with the Galaxy S22 series we saw Samsung do something a little bit unconventional for the smartphone manufacturer, we saw them stick to a signature design and fold their Galaxy Note into the Galaxy S series. It’s also the first series to release with the new RDNA powered Exynos SoC with Xclipse GPU. However, that version of the S22 series is only available in Europe.
With that said, the Galaxy S22 series as a whole holds much promise as Samsung’s latest flagship, but we’re zooming into the S22+, the middle child of the lineup. It’s a blown-up S22, but is it only that? Does it have something else that sets it apart from the S22? That’s what we’re breaking down in our full review of the Samsung Galaxy S22+.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S22+ is the epitome of a tick-tock strategy when it comes to design. It inherits most, if not all of the design language of the S21 series. Everything from the unique, two-colour colourway to the rounded edges of the smartphone makes a triumphant return to the smartphone. However, that doesn’t mean that Samsung didn’t make changes to the design at all. The biggest change when it comes to the S22+ is the less rounded edges of the screen, particularly where it meets the metal frame. While the S21 opted for a more curved design, the S22+ has a more angled design which is, ironically, more palmable. The sharper angle also allows you to have a better grip when holding the phone.
Aside from this, there really is nothing too significant when it comes to the overall design. While there are smaller bezels and thinner camera humps, these changes don’t really make an impact on the overall design. That said, the small tweaks that Samsung did do with the design make enough of an impact to make it feel totally different.
Perhaps the most impactful change is the change of materials from yesteryear’s glasstic to Gorilla Glass. The small change does make the smartphone feel a little bit more premium. The aluminium frame complements this pretty well and makes the smartphone feel like a true premium flagship. While we do commend the change, it does mean that it’s pretty much more of the same when it comes to design.
Hardware
While the design is more of the same, Samsung upped the ante when it came to the hardware of the Samsung Galaxy S22+. That said, the Exynos version with the new AMD RDNA based Xclipse graphics is only available in Europe. The rest of us get the version with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. It’s a real bummer we didn’t’ get to try out Samsung’s new Exynos, the Snapdragon version seems to be more than good enough to fill its shoes.
Accelerometer Proximity Fingerprint (Ultrasonic, under display) Gyroscope Compass Barometer
Miscellaneous
Dual SIM/eSIM
Retail Price (Malaysia)
MYR 4,099 (128GB) MYR 4,299 (256GB)
Retail Price (US)
USD$ 299.99 (128GB) USD$ 349.99 (256GB)
User Interface
Samsung’s Galaxy S22+ comes with the brand new One UI 4.1 based on Android 12. It brings together some of the best elements from One UI and stock Android. Samsung has adapted Android in a way that highlights some of the key elements of One UI and makes Android feel more fine-tuned than before. It really complements the premium feel of the Galaxy S22+ overall.
1 / 9
Samsung’s One UI 4.1 thoughtfully takes features like Dynamic Widgets, the Theme Palette and increased privacy controls and fine-tunes it for Samsung devices. Samsung makes the features fit overall One UI 4.1 more naturally than any other Android skin out there. The UI itself has been updated and refined to look and feel more premium.
That said, the software itself feels a lot more stable than before. Just last year with the Galaxy Z Flip and S21, the experience was initially somewhat compromised with random reboots and crashes. However, with the S22+ it didn’t feel that way. In fact, after using it for over 2 weeks, none of the apps we were using crashed nor were there any random reboots. The software feels lighter as well. It’s snappier and smoother. It feels like Samsung has optimised the animation and transitions from previous One UI iterations into the version we experienced on the S22+
Performance
Being a Samsung flagship, we’re expecting some of the best performance that we can get from the Galaxy S22+. To be honest, it does deliver but, like the design, it doesn’t feel as revolutionary as we were expecting. This could be due to the anticipation we had for the Exynos 2200 and the XClipse graphics. However, overall, the S22+ did provide pretty outstanding performance during our review period.
Multitasking & Productivity
Samsung’s flagships have become a mainstay when it comes to smartphones that allow you to multitask like a boss, and the Galaxy S22+ continues to build on that heritage. It brings along with it all the productivity features you can think of including Samsung’s DeX, an extended multiwindow mode and even split-screen multitasking.
During my time with the Galaxy S22+, it became my driver. I was getting WhatsApp and Telegram messages as well as emails from multiple accounts on it. It was safe to say that it was put to the test when it came to multitasking and to all its credit, I was able to multitask without much hassle. In fact, the experience was so much smoother than the Note10+ which was my daily driver before.
I was able to reply to emails and messages while copying and pasting between them. In fact, I could even do this while editing a slideshow or document without thinking twice. Samsung’s extended multiwindow allowed me to put my conversation in a floating bubble while I had my emails and Microsoft PowerPoint open. Speaking of Microsoft, Samsung’s Link to Windows is another boon when it comes to multitasking. I was able to reply to messages on my phone – SMS included – without looking at the screen on my Windows 11 laptop. In fact, I was able to use some of my Android apps in Windows natively. Of course, these were simply mirrored from my phone, but it helped when there was pertinent information in those apps that were needed.
Samsung’s DeX took seamless multitasking to another level. It allowed me to drag and drop items into my gallery or folders on my phone without needing to physically plug my phone into the computer. As a matter of fact, I was able to even work on a loaned laptop (with DeX installed) without opening or saving sensitive information on the loaned laptop thanks to DeX.
Call Quality & Connectivity
Connectivity and call quality are, unsurprisingly, one of the best we’ve experienced so far on a Samsung flagship. The calls coming in LTE and 5G are pretty crisp and clear. The audio was warm and felt pretty natural. Of course, this also depended on the quality of the connection. Since Malaysia is only in its rollout of 5G with its 3G network has been sunset, the connectivity on 5G was spotty and subject to the rollout. However, the quality of the 5G connectivity was pretty stable and speeds were quick where available.
When it comes to connectivity, the Galaxy S22+ comes with all the options you could want including Bluetooth 5.2, WiFi 6 and even GPS. All of them work splendidly with stable connectivity. In fact, Samsung’s smart connect feature ensured that I always have connectivity when it came to messaging. It would allow messaging apps to jump on 4G or 5G when the WiFi is unstable. This allowed my messaging apps to be automatically connected to the most stable connection available. WiFi6 support also meant that DeX was much more stable when connecting wirelessly.
Gaming
The Galaxy S22+ isn’t touted as a gaming phone but it should be. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the Adreno 730 give the smartphone enough juice to run even the most taxing games like Genshin Impact without much hassle. The high 120Hz refresh rate also lends itself to enhancing the experience on the Galaxy S22+. The dual speakers and Dolby Atmos sound allow an even more immersive experience, particularly when paired with a good set of wireless earphones.
During my time with the Galaxy S22+, gaming on the smartphone was enjoyable. Touch controls were snappy and responsive and this held true even for Bluetooth controllers. The high refresh rate and deep, vibrancy of the display also allowed for a more enjoyable visual experience. HDR compatibility meant that dark scenes were not just black but filled with detail.
For review purposes, I tried Genshin Impact, PUBG, Wild Rift and Pokemon UNITE on the S22+ and all of them played beautifully. There was no frame tearing in situations where the screen was filled with animation from multiple players like in Wild Rift and Pokemon UNITE. The animation was smooth and uninterrupted. The detail in the animation while gaming was also next level. It was able to render details I’m more used to seeing in console and PC level gaming.
The S22+ didn’t struggle with performance. However, when it came to cooling, it did get a little warm when gaming. While it didn’t overtly affect the gaming experience it did get warm enough to be noticeable and a little uncomfortable in my opinion. The heat was concentrated in the area immediately beside the camera enclosure. However, it did rapidly cool down after a few minutes post gaming session.
Battery Life
The new 4nm architecture of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 does lend itself to better power efficiency in the Galaxy S22+. However, I think most of the power efficiency we see in the S22+ comes from Samsung’s optimisations of One UI. One UI used to be notoriously power-hungry because of all the background processes it had. In One UI 4.1, that has been optimised to help with battery life. In fact, some of these optimisations come directly from stock Android 12. The software now intelligently puts programs and apps running in the background to sleep if you’re not actively using them. While this can lead to a small delay when it comes to chatting apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, the impact on battery life is significant.
During our review period, the smartphone consistently delivered between 10 to 12 hours of battery life with regular use. This included syncing multiple Gmail accounts, multiple chat apps and emails as well as light camera use and gaming in my case. Since we couldn’t go out much during the time, GPS and navigation use were pretty limited. However, it wouldn’t have impacted the battery life too much as it usually is plugged in when I’m driving. The battery managed to chug along for about 4 to 5 hours when it came to extended gaming sessions. Of course, the dip in battery life is thanks to the increased brightness, processor performance and refresh rate of the display.
Display
Like all of Samsung’s Flagships nowadays, the Galaxy S22+ comes with a Dynamic AMOLED 2X display. The panel is vibrant and has ample contrast. In fact, it seems like the panel is brighter than before but also seems to have better colour accuracy. During the review, I used the display in both its vibrant and natural modes. There is a huge difference between the two settings. The natural mode is more muted and natural when it comes to colour reproduction while the vibrant setting makes it more contrasted; more akin to the AMOLEDs of the past.
That said, when using the display for reading articles and comics, I preferred to use the natural setting as it felt less straining to the eyes. However, when it came to video content, the vibrant setting allowed more details to be seen especially in HDR-compatible content. When it boils down to it, the display of the S22+ is one of the more adaptable displays available on a smartphone. It’s able to accommodate the user when it comes to different content types as mentioned here.
It also enhances the immersiveness of content particularly gaming. The vibrant colours and HDR compatibility allow you to feel in the moment when gaming. The Ful HD resolution of the display strikes an important balance between resolution and battery life. While the Full HD+ resolution of the display is adequate, we feel like Samsung scaled too far back on the S22+ with the Full HD resolution. Instead, they should have used the same QHD+ display in the Ultra to further differentiate the S22+ and to add more value for the money spent.
Cameras
The Samsung Galaxy S22+ comes with a triple camera setup – the same we saw in the S21+. However, unlike the Galaxy S21+, it comes with a larger, 50-megapixel main sensor. Yes, I said larger 50-megapixel sensor. The overall size and pixel size of the S22+’s sensor is larger than the S21+’s 64-megapixel sensor. It’s an important distinction as the larger sensor and pixel size allow more light to be absorbed which translates to more detail and sharpness in the picture.
The pictures taken on the S22+ are notably sharp with a lot of details preserved even in low light. The smartphone processes the images to be vibrant and saturated. That said, the quality of the pictures changes from sensor to sensor. It goes without saying that the larger 50-megapixel sensor produced the best quality pictures.
Samsung has packed the camera with tonnes of features. This round they were focusing on low light photography, and they’ve made noticeable improvements when it comes to the quality and detail that is reproduced in the pictures taken. However, it feels like there’s a little bit more work needed to take the camera to where they want to be.
During our review, I used the S22+ as my main camera for events and even when spending time with my family. It performed well and was able to respond quickly which is really important when it comes to taking pictures of a toddler.
The video from the S22+ is also pretty good. Shooting at 4K and 1080p produced really crisp detailed videos in the correct lighting. In low lighting, the videos were dramatic but lacked some depth and detail which is expected in such conditions. However, it’s still one of the best performers when it comes to smartphones. To be honest, we’ve yet to see any Android smartphone which is on par with the S22+. What amazes us is that this isn’t their true technological flagship and they still managed to get the camera to perform this well.
A new flagship experience with more of the same outward design proving that fine tuning may do the user experience well
Samsung’s approach to the Galaxy S22+ series proves that they have the capacity to produce amazing user experiences in both the hardware and software of their devices. The Galaxy S22+ brought some of the most compelling software features and paired it with capable hardware that helps elevate the experience significantly.
The Galaxy S22+ is the sweet spot in the series bringing both the size in hardware and software and comfort when it comes to viewing and manoeuvring the phone. It’s the goldilocks of the three S22 devices we have today. With Samsung’s commitment to actually supporting the new S22 series for at least 5 years, the S22+ is an amazing proposition when it comes to getting something that will be able to stand the test of time. It’s also got the versatility to be your companion when you’re out having fun and your sidekick when you need to be productive.
SEOUL, South Korea, April 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — On April 28, 2022, SK Telecom Co., Ltd. filed its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2021 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The 2021 Annual Report on Form 20-F can be viewed on www.sktelecom.com, as well as from the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. Printed copies of SK Telecom’s complete audited financial statements (including footnotes) as of and for the year ended December 31, 2021 can be requested, free of charge, by written request to skt.ir@sk.com.
MANCHESTER, England, April 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ –The partnership between Bank Alfalah, one of the largest commercial banks in Pakistan and ACE Money Transfer, a leading online remittance provider, is all set to reach new heights with their latest marketing campaign. Overseas Pakistanis using legal remittance channels to the country will get a chance to win one of six KIA Sportage Alpha. ACE Money Transfer and Bank Alfalah, through the launch of this campaign, remain committed to facilitating overseas Pakistanis with fast, secure and convenient remittance options.
As part of this promotional campaign, customers sending remittances between 1st April to 30th June 2022 from the UK, Europe, Switzerland, Canada, and Australia to any Bank Alfalah account or for cash pickup at any of the 790 Alfalah branches across Pakistan will be eligible to win one of six brand new KIA Sportage Alpha.
Mr Rashid Ashraf, CEO of ACE Money Transfer said, “Pakistan remains a key payout corridor for us, and we are excited to continue our partnership with Bank Alfalah. Today’s customer is always on the lookout for a solution that provides security, and convenience and saves them time. With Bank Alfalah’s vast network of branches across the country and state of the art technology, we are able to provide seamless money transfer to millions of Pakistanis living around the globe.”
“Inward remittance is one of the backbones of Pakistan and Bank Alfalah is working persistently for its continuous growth,” said Saad Ur Rahman Khan, Group Head – Corporate, Investment Banking & International Business of Bank Alfalah. “We offer innovative and convenient solutions to our customers and encourage them to remit money through legal channels. This promotional campaign will reward our valued customers for sending remittances through ACE Money Transfer.”
ACE Money Transfer (registered name “Aftab Currency Exchange Limited”), based out of Manchester, the UK, is a growing remittance provider. It offers impeccable online money transfer services to millions of Pakistani expatriates with an extensive network of 350,000+ locations spread across 100+ countries worldwide.
About Bank Alfalah
Bank Alfalah is among the largest private banks in Pakistan, with a network of over 790 branches in more than 200 cities across Pakistan, with an international presence in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bahrain, and UAE. The Bank is owned and operated by the Abu Dhabi Group.
ZURICH and SINGAPORE, April 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the Swiss Secretariat for International Finance (SIF) and Elevandi announced the programme and speaker line-up for the inaugural Point Zero Forum, taking place on June 21-23 in Zurich, Switzerland. Point Zero Forum will serve as the starting point for engaging investors and policymakers with innovators to advance the future of financial services (FOFS).
The Forum is an exclusive invite-only, in-person gathering of select global leaders, founders and investors with the purpose of:
Developing new ideas to advance the FOFS – decentralised finance and Web 3.0, embedded finance, and sustainable finance.
Driving investment activity by bringing together leading founders with VCs, private banking clients, family offices, and PE houses.
Dissecting regulatory considerations related to each FOFS development by bringing together public and private sector leaders.
The Forum will be two days of in-depth plenary sessions, deep-dive private roundtables and workshops, and exclusive sessions between founders and investors focusing on two significant new market opportunities built on Web 3.0 architecture. The Forum will be graced by Heng Swee Keat (Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies) and Ueli Maurer (Switzerland’s Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Department of Finance).
The Crypto Market Opportunity: US$2.5 trillion market cap[1]: Sessions will explore the progress made by firms in building digital asset infrastructure, operating trusted digital exchanges, and unlocking the internet of value ; embedding financial services in customer interactions across sectors such as gaming and social networks.
There will be spotlight discussions on:
Cyber risk
Financial crime,
Regulatory compliance
The Sustainable Finance Opportunity: $35 trillion invested[2]: Sessions will explore the challenges and the progress of market solutions to address the infrastructure and service needs of enabling ESG compliance and boosting green financing.
There will be spotlight discussions on:
Accessing credible and verified data from the real economy
Building trusted infrastructure and regulatory compliance for data disclosure
Impact
ESG andCrypto Sector Influencers Include : Urban Angehrn, CEO of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA; Sam Bankman-Fried (CEO, FTX); Stephen Bird (CEO, abrdn); Agustín Carstens (General Manager, Bank for international Settlements BIS); Umar Farooq (CEO, Onyx by JP Morgan); Doug Feagin (Senior Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships and Investments, Ant Group); Ralph Hamers (CEO, UBS); Thomas Jordan (Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank SNB); Eric Lim, (Chief Sustainability Officer, UOB); Kris Marszalek (CEO, Crypto.com); David Marcus (Former Head of Novi and Messenger at Meta, Co-creator of Diem);Ravi Menon(MD, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)); Hiromichi Mizuno (Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary-General on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments); Roman Regelman (CEO, Asset Servicing and Head of Digital, BNY Mellon); Philipp Rickenbacher (Chief Executive Officer, Julius Baer); Julian Sawyer (CEO, Bitstamp); Julian Teicke (Founder and CEO, wefox); Jason Thompson (CEO, Partior); Dmitry Tokarev (Founder, Copper); Robby Yeung (CEO, Animoca Brands); Changpeng Zhao (CEO, Binance); Ben Zhou (CEO, Bybit).
Deep-dive private roundtables include:
‘Shared Responsibility: The Future of Green Financing’ Hosted by: Milken Institute Facilitated by: Hiromichi Mizuno, Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary-General on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments and Laura Deal Lacey, Milken Institute.
‘Multilateral CBDCs’ Hosted by: BIS Innovation Hub (BIS) Facilitated by: Andrew McCormack, Centre Head, BIS Innovation Hub Singapore, Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
‘Swiss Climate Scores – Introducing Best Practice Transparency on the Paris-alignment of Investments’ Hosted by: State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF) Facilitated by: Christoph Baumann, Head of Taskforce on Sustainable Finance at State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF)
‘Growth stage FinTechs’ Hosted by: Heng Swee Keat, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies Facilitated by: Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Economic Development Board (EDB)
‘Stablecoins’ Hosted by: Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Facilitated by: Jo Yeo, Head, Payments Development and Data Connectivity Office, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
Speakers include:
Agustín Carstens, General Manager, Bank for international Settlements (BIS); Ben Zhou, CEO, Bybit; Chen Leiming, Senior Vice President, Ant Group Changpeng Zhao, CEO, Binance David Marcus, Former Head of Novi and Messenger at Meta, Co-creator of Diem David Rutter, Founder and CEO, R3 Marc Bukki (CEO of Swissquote, Founder of Swissquote group) Dmitry Tokarev, Founder, Copper; Doug Feagin, Senior Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships and Investments, Ant Group; Dr. Gabriela Maria Payer, Vice-Chairwoman, Sygnum; Dr. Iwa Salami, Reader (Associate Professor), Centre of FinTech, Department of Law & Criminology, Royal Docks School of Business and Law; Eric Lim, Chief Sustainability Officer, UOB; Ericson Chan, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Zurich Insurance; Heng Swee Keat, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies; Hiromichi Mizuno, Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary-General on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments; James Smith, Founder, Elliptic; Jason Thompson, CEO, Partior; Jo Ann Barefoot, CEO & Co-Founder, Barefoot Innovation; Joanne Hannaford, Chief Technology & Operations Officer and Executive Board Member, Credit Suisse; Jos Dijsselhof, CEO, SIX Group; Julian Sawyer, CEO, Bitstamp; Julian Teicke, Founder and CEO, wefox; Kris Marszalek, CEO, Crypto.com; Manisha Tank, TV Anchor & Correspondent, CNN International; Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President & CEO, Women’s World Banking; Nicolas Bruegger, Senior Policy Advisor at State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF); Oliver Bussmann, CEO & Founder of Bussmann Advisory; Philipp Rickenbacher, Chief Executive Officer, Julius Baer; Pinar Özcan, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Oxford University Rahul Banerjee, Founder & CEO, Bondevalue; Ralph Hamers, CEO, UBS; Raphael Bianchi, President and Board Member, OpenWealth Association; Ravi Menon, MD, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS); Robby Yeung, CEO, Animoca Brands; Roman Regelman, CEO of Asset Servicing and Head of Digital, BNY Mellon; Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO, FTX; Stefan Klestil,General Partner & Head of FinTech, SpeedInvest; Stephen Bird, CEO, abrdn; Teana Baker-Taylor, Chief Policy Officer for the Digital Chamber of Commerce; Thomas Jordan, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB); Ueli Maurer, Switzerland’s Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Department of Finance; Umar Farooq, CEO, Onyx by JP Morgan
Fringe Activities: Brand-New Investor Day and Innovation Open Houses
On the first day of the Forum (June 21st), investors are invited to a closed-door session hosted by SIF and MAS. The session will serve as a precedent to the Forum, where investors will be able to gain a perspective on the global market trends and business opportunities that are shaping the FinTech scene, and how these topics will be addressed on the agenda during the main stage.
Also happening on the June 21st are open houses hosted by BIS Innovation Hub, Crypto Valley Labs, ETH Zurich, F10, University of Zurich and ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Registrations for these events are now open on the website.
Point Zero Forum is an invitation-only forum for investors, influencers, thinkers and decision-makers from government and regulators, financial institutions, technology companies, crypto and blockchain networks, and academia. The Forum is organised in cooperation with the BIS Innovation Hub, MAS, and SNB, and supported by Knowledge Partners including Bussmann Advisory, Ecosystm, Finance.Swiss, Milken Institute, Open Wealth Association and Switzerland Global Enterprise. To request an invite, visit www.pointzeroforum.com.
State Secretariat for International Finance
The State Secretariat for International Finance represents Switzerland’s interests in financial, monetary and tax matters not only vis-à-vis partner countries but also in the competent international bodies. It is committed to good framework conditions to ensure that Switzerland can have an innovative, interconnected and sustainable financial centre and business location that is among the world leaders. The State Secretariat is responsible for implementing the financial market policy of the Swiss Government.
Elevandi
Elevandi is set up by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to foster an open dialogue between the public and private sectors to advance FinTech in the digital economy. We work closely with governments, founders, investors, and corporate leaders to drive collaboration, education, and new sources of value at the industry and national levels. Our initiatives have convened over 300,000 people since 2016 to drive the growth of FinTech through events, closed-door roundtables, investor programmes, educational initiatives, and research. Our flagship product is the Singapore FinTech Festival alongside fast-rising platforms, including the World FinTech Festival and Point Zero Forum.
Before we go on; yes, Sony already had a 24-70mm lens with a G Master branding on it. Yes, it was also rather expensive. Yes, it shoots rather pretty photos. Also yes, it shoots nicer than the standard Sony 24-70 F4 G lens. So why do we need another 24-70 F2.8?
Because it is a better one than before.
More Compact, More Portable
Source: Sony
They call the new one the FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II, or code named SEL2470GM2. It is much lighter than before with about 20% of weight shaved off from the previous lens. It now sits pretty in your bag, or hand, at less than 700 grams.
If you put it beside the first iteration of Sony’s highly acclaimed 24-70mm G Master, you can see how much effort Sony puts into the Mk. II in terms of weight saving too. It is a much smaller lens overall. It is shorter by 16mm and much slimmer than before too, about 18% slimmer than before. With all the weight shavings, Sony can claim that this is the lightest and most compact lens of its kind, at least for the time being.
More Speed, More Performance
Source: Sony
Smaller size does not mean that Sony has compromised on its performance though. They have managed to first improve its autofocusing (AF) ability. It is still the same Extreme Dynamic (XD) Linear motors working on the AF mechanism, but iis now much faster than before. It can support up to 30fps in continuous still shooting and up to 4K 120fps in video recording mode. That might not sound like a lot, but it is mighty impressive to work with in this sort of lens. Sony also claims that the AF tracker is about twice as precise than before.
For the videographers, Sony is making the 24-70mm G Master an even better lens to work with. Thanks to a newly developed aperture unit (now with 11 aperture blades instead of 9), AF operations is quieter than before. The improved motors have also reduced focus breathing, focus shift, and axial shift when zooming to ensure that you get a nice, smooth, immersive video footages when it matters. Of course, you still can work with manual zoom if you want.
Better Elements, Better Images
Source: Sony
They managed to fit better glasses in this compact form too. Sony first treated the lens with a Nano AR Coating II. This is to reduce reflections on the glass that in turn reduces lens flares. The new glasses within the lens also allows the Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 G Master II to produce photos with beautiful depth effect in all sorts of zoom range. At the same time. The new lens also allows a shorter focusing distance at 0.21 and 0.30 meters at its minimum (@24mm and 70mm respectively) with up to .32x magnification.
All this is achieved through the five aspherical elements found in the lens. There are two high-precision extreme aspherical glass elements paired with two extra-low dispersion glass elements and one floating focus mechanism. The combination of elements also allows the lens to capture photos with high-resolution even at the edges of the photos.
More Precise, More Control
Source: SonySource: SonySource: SonySource: SonySource: SonySource: Sony
To top it all off, Sony has made improvements on the lens body itself to give users more control over the lens. There is a zoom smoothness switch on the zoom ring to adjust its smoothness now. There are two customisable focus hold buttons in the lens as well. At the same time, some work has been done on the focus ring to make it just a touch more responsive for better manual focus controls. They have also managed to shift the weight balance further back, toward the camera flange end to allow for better ergonomic and camera control in free-handed shooting conditions.
Price and Availability
The Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 G Master II lens will be available in Malaysia from 5th of June 2022 onward. There are no mentions on prices just yet. We are guessing that the price should not be too far off the current FE 24-70mm F2.8 G Master though. There could also be a price drop for the original standard zoom lens, so you might want to look out for a bargain for something that is still quite stellar. More information on the FE 24-70mm F2.8 G Master II can be found on their website.
With pre-built process templates designed for major industries and departmental use cases, the online Nintex Gallery is a valuable resource for digital transformation acceleration
AUCKLAND, New Zealand, April 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Nintex, the global standard for process intelligence and automation, today announced the addition of more than 50 new process templates to its online Nintex Gallery, an interactive portal featuring downloadable process maps, automation templates, workflows and connectors – all designed to speed the digitisation of work for organisations worldwide.
“Nintex process templates jumpstart sophisticated-to-critical automation projects by putting valuable pre-built components and solutions directly in the hands of people,” said Nintex Chief Product Officer Neal Gottsacker. “With our process intelligence and automation tools and templates, organisations can rapidly remove digital transformation barriers and automate faster.”
New capabilities available through the Nintex Gallery include direct integration with Nintex Workflow Cloud, the company’s next-generation cloud automation platform, which allows customers to directly import workflow templates into their environment so they can deploy digital solutions even faster. There are also a growing number of templates available for Nintex AssureSign®, Nintex Kryon® RPA, Nintex Drawloop DocGen®, and Nintex Forms.
Currently the Nintex Gallery features hundreds of useful templates that have accumulated since the initial launch in January 2020. Templates may be filtered and organised by capability, industry and department, and the latest release includes an advanced search function, refreshed user interface, and new template sets to accelerate the development of end-to-end automated business solutions.
Popular templates to support key use cases include:
Employee onboarding with Nintex Workflow Cloud
Invoice processing with Nintex Promapp®
Integrate Nintex RPA Central with Nintex K2 Five with connectors
Check processing automation with Nintex RPA
Template contributions are open to Nintex premier partners with a high-level of expertise and Nintex expert certifications, like top template contributors Protiviti Inc, Quadrion, and Optimum.
“Our highly skilled team of Nintex-certified experts work with clients to develop their business process automation strategy and assist with design, configuration and customisation of intelligent automation solutions,” said Protiviti Managing Director, Global Ecosystem, Claudia Kuzma. “The Nintex Gallery allows us to quickly and easily get our solutions to customers so they can experience the benefits immediately.”
Nintex is the global standard for process intelligence and automation. Today more than 10,000 public and private sector organisations across 90 countries turn to the Nintex Platform to accelerate progress on their digital transformation journeys by quickly and easily managing, automating and optimising business processes. Learn more by visiting www.nintex.com and experience how Nintex and its global partner network are shaping the future of Intelligent Process Automation (IPA).
Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
BEIJING, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Hello Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MOMO) (“Hello Group” or the “Company”), a leading mobile social and entertainment platform in China, today filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission its annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. The annual report can be accessed on the Company’s investor relations website at https://ir.hellogroup.com/ or on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov.
The Company will provide a hard copy of its annual report containing the audited consolidated financial statements, free of charge, to its shareholders and ADS holders upon request. Requests should be directed to the Company’s Investors Relations Department via email at ir@hellogroup.com or by mail at 20th Floor, Block B, Tower 2, Wangjing SOHO, No. 1 Futongdong Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100102, People’s Republic of China.
About Hello Group Inc.
We are a leading player in China’s online social and entertainment space. Through Momo, Tantan and other properties within our product portfolio, we enable users to discover new relationships, expand their social connections and build meaningful interactions. Momo is a mobile application that connects people and facilitates social interactions based on location, interests and a variety of online recreational activities. Tantan, which was added into our family of applications through acquisition in May 2018, is a leading social and dating application. It is designed to help its users find and establish romantic connections as well as meet interesting people. We also operate a number of other applications to serve different social and entertainment demands from our users.
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/people-moves-at-golden-gate-ventures-301536117.html
View original content:
View original content: