Yearly Archives: 2024

Computers, Reviews, Writer's Choice

HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U Review

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HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U logo lid
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U open
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U open diagonal
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U right ports

8.5/10

HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U (EY0027AU_01)

Pros

• Wonderful OLED Screen

• All metal chassis

• Light and Thin

• 1440p IR webcam with built in privacy shutter

• Affordable and great value buy when on sale

• Great general performance

Cons

• Speaker Design

• No Thunderbolt 4 support

• No SD or microSD card slot

• RAM is not upgradeable

The HP Pavilion Plus 14 (2023) AMD 7840U is a noteworthy mid-range laptop with integrated 780M graphics. The laptop includes a gorgeous 14” OLED 2.8k 120hz HDR display. This means watching the latest shows, movies, and anime is a blast.

A light and thin laptop, portability is quite good and should last you most of the day. With a 68Wh battery pack paired with an efficient Ryzen 7 U-series chip, expect 6-8 hours of mixed usage.

Great for general work (typing and browsing), photo editing, casual video editing, light to moderate gaming, traveling, and watching videos, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U doesn’t breaking the bank. Perfect for those who move about a lot for work and students, especially when on sale.

HP Pavilion Plus 14 Laptop PC Trio Hero 1

Comes in multiples colours: EY0027AU moonlight blue, EY0028AU tranquil pink, and EY0029AU natural silver

Specifications of Reviewed Unit

Price at time of reviewRM3,699 (Lazada Techmall)
CPU3.3GHz AMD Ryzen 7 7840U (8 cores)
GraphicsAMD Radeon 780M
Screen14 inch 16:10 2880 x 1800 pixel OLED HDR 120Hz
Memory16GB LPDDR5 6400 Mhz (onboard)
Storage512GB SSD
NetworkWi-Fi 6E / Bluetooth 5.3
Inputs/Connectivity2 USB Type-C 10Gbps signaling rate (USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge); 1 USB Type-A 10Gbps signaling rate; 1 USB Type-A 5Gbps signaling rate; 1 headphone/microphone combo; 1 HDMI 2.1
Operating SystemWindows 11
Battery68Wh cell with 65W Type-C power adapter
Dimensions31.39 x 22.71 x 1.75 cm (front) – 1.88 cm (hinge back) / 12.36 x 8.94 x 0.69 in (front) – 0.74 in (hinge back)
Weight1.4 kg (3.09lbs)

General Usage

HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U 65w power adaptor type-C
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U 65w power adaptor type-C

Coming in at 1.4kg and under 2cm thickness, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7 7840U, is a good thin and light laptop that fits the ultraportable category of laptops. The included 65W power adapter is relatively small and lightweight and is easy to carry. Though it should be noted that you could get away from leaving the power adaptor at home. Easily you should be getting a good 6-8 hours of general continuous usage with simple power management.

One thing to note about battery life, the OLED display is able to handle HDR content and has a refresh rate of 120Hz which can drain the battery when on full brightness of 400 nits. By default HDR doesn’t turn on if on the laptop battery and only turns on when plugged in. With HDR turned on, all screen settings on max, and while streaming hi-res video, battery life was about 5 hours. As for when trying to conserve power, we achieve 10+ hours. We are sure we can push more, but few want an overglorified type writer.

Design & Connectivity

HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U right side ports
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U right side ports
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U left side ports
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U left side ports

Coming to charging the laptop, the laptop has two USB Type-C ports for charging on the right side. Now we believe it would have been nice if HP had design the laptop with a Type-C port on each side. This would have been easier and convenient charging, but it is a relatively small nitpick. Luckily there is support for battery fast charge. This means the laptop can charge 50% in 30 minutes when the laptop is completely shut down. So no tether unless you are doing long gaming or binge watching sessions. Generally it took 2 to 2 and a half hours to charge the laptop fully when in light use.

HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U right side ports
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U left side ports
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HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U 65w power adaptor type-C
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U

Coming to the all metal chassis design, it is pleasant and sleek. We do wish there was a slight recess for easier one handed lid opening. The overall build quality is pretty solid, with good hinges. There was noted ability to flex for the screen lid, but nothing drastic or out of the ordinary. Some minor flex on the base of the laptop while using the keyboard. Nothing most would generally notice in daily usage.

The most notable thing about the connectivity is that the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U lacks thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps signaling rate) certification. This is something generally inherent of AMD laptops. The laptop comes with 2 USB Type-C 10Gbp (USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge), 1 USB Type-A 10Gbps, 1 USB Type-A 5Gbps, 1 headphone/microphone combo, and 1 HDMI 2.1 port. If thunderbolt 4 is a must, do look at the Intel variants with i7-1355U or i5-1335U from HP.

Work Usage

With the Radeon 780M, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 can handle most general media creation and light editing tasks. It will also edges out the comparable Intel variants of the HP Pavilion Plus 14 models.

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As for using the laptop included generously large touchpad and keyboard, we found it pleasant. Sadly there is special features and is pretty basic overall. There is no numpad for number entry but does come with dedicated page up and down buttons. The overall typing experience is nice but a bit basic, it gets the job done without any fuss.

HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U Webcam closed
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U webcam mid way
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U webcam open

Another huge plus point that makes the HP Pavilion Plus 14 a great laptop for work is its 5-megapixel 1440p video resolution webcam. It comes an with IR sensor (facial recognition login) and built-in physical privacy shutter. So not only will your web video calls/conferences be a better experience, but you can also ensure no one can see you when you don’t want them to. Additionally there are function keys on the keyboard to mute your microphone and sound. Both have a small led indicator light to easily see if they are on/off.

Multimedia Usage

For consuming media, this laptop does fantastically well with their gorgeous 2.8K 120HZ OLED display with HDR and 400 nits peak brightness. This basically translates to great vibrant colours, deep blacks and a pretty bright screen for your viewing pleasure. Clearly the star feature of this laptop, watching movies and tv shows is a super enjoyable experience. This does of course come at the expense of battery life. At full tilt streaming movies on max settings you should get about 5 hours out of the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7 7840U. 

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The only two real things that might mar your viewing experience are the reflective glossy screen and downward facing speakers. This is one laptop you can’t put on your lap or in bright lights. You will get muffled sounds and reflective glare easily. This is a laptop best used on a hard surface/table indoors. 

Sound overall is good for a mid range laptop and has good volume but lacks bass. Another issue is that while using the laptops keyboard we were able to feel the speakers vibrate and dampen if we put any weight onto the laptop bottom chassis.

Gaming

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As for gaming, the laptop will allow you to play most casual games and older titles without issues. I mean we don’t expect hardcore gamers to buy this laptop, but for integrated graphics, the Radeon 780M is probably the best at the moment. If you must, you can still play the newer graphically intensive games on the lowest settings at 1080P and get a respectful 20-30 fps.

Overall games like Hades will be a blast to play on the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7 7840U with a controller. With the OLED screen the colours really pop and the laptop has no problem playing the game smoothly. While playing Borderlands 3 we also noted that you definitely can’t use your native screen resolution.

20240213 182627.mp4 snapshot 00.07.000

As a side note on heat, we notice significant uncomfortable heating on the right side of the laptop keyboard when under high loads. Luckily for most gamers who need to use the laptop, the left side of the keyboard is unaffected. Using the WASD keys shouldn’t be a problem, just that it is still a laptop keyboard.

Benchmarks

*We are currently standardizing our benchmarking process into two parts. We test both in a controlled setting and via our hands-on experience through daily normal usage. For laptops, we use benchmarking software while plugged in and at max performance settings. We are currently using PCMark 10, PCMark 10 Extended, Time Spy, Wild Life Extreme, Cinebench 2024, and Borderlands 3.

Screenshot 1 1Screenshot 49 1CinebenchCinebench

In all the controlled testing, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7 7840U shows great performance as a laptop for general productivity, photo editing, video conference calls, and light video editing. With an average score of 6457 in PCMark10 and 5615 in PCMark10 Extended.

Screenshot 25Screenshot 17Borderlands HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U

Now in the gaming department, it is totally understandable that the 780M performance is lacking for a laptop. Though as an integrated graphics processor, its performance is top tier. The 780M is essentially the Ryzen Z1 Extreme found in ROG Ally and Legion Go, gaming handhelds running Windows OS.

Note that the Borderlands 3 benchmarking was run at the laptops native screen resolution of 2.8K

Final Thoughts

Overall the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7 7840U is a great light and thin laptop that has great overall productivity performance. Not a feature rich or gimmicky laptops, but a solid one that gets the job done well. The great OLED screen add much to the experience of this laptop. A highly recommend laptop to keep an eye on, especially when it goes on sale.

PR Newswire

10T Tech Introduces My10T Smart Orchestration: Revolutionizing eSIM Management to elevate the digital subscriber experience for Mobile Carriers

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — 10T Tech, a pioneering provider of consumer eSIM and eSIM orchestration platforms, proudly announces the launch of its latest innovation, My10T Smart Orchestration.

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, mobile carriers face a myriad of challenges in harnessing the full potential of eSIM technology. With eSIM poised to become ubiquitous in mature markets in the coming years, mobile carriers must adapt or fall behind the competition in their digital transformation.

Many carriers still struggle with feature differentiation and cumbersome onboarding processes, relying on outdated methods such as paper QR codes and expensive bespoke CRM solutions.

The emergence of new IoT eSIM standards also presents a pivotal opportunity for cellular IoT to realize its full potential, supported by 5G, cloud computing, security enhancements and low power consumption devices.

My10T Smart Orchestration offers the complete solution.

Full interoperability to complement and enhance your existing eSIM infrastructure

My10T Smart Orchestration offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to streamline and centralise eSIM management in a single control panel.

My10T Smart Orchestration is RSP agnostic, connecting to any GSMA-certified eSIM platform to enable an upgrade of eSIM management, digital subscriber journeys and customer support without replacing existing RSP infrastructure.

My10T Smart Orchestration also connects via standardized telecom APIs to CRM, BSS and VAS platforms to create a fully integrated, next generation eSIM management ecosystem.

“We are thrilled to unveil My10T Smart Orchestration, a game-changer in eSIM management for mobile carriers,” said Fredric Liljestroem, CEO of 10T Tech. “With its innovative features and capabilities, My10T Smart Orchestration empowers mobile carriers to navigate the complexities of eSIM technology with ease, driving operational efficiency and enhancing the customer experience.”

About 10T Tech:

10T Tech is a global leader of consumer eSIM and eSIM orchestration platforms, dedicated to empowering mobile carriers and enterprises to unlock the full potential of eSIM technology. With a focus on innovation and customer-centric solutions, 10T Tech is reshaping the future of connectivity and IoT device management. Since 2017 10T Tech has delivered eSIM solutions to over 70 mobile carriers globally and continues to be a leading innovator in eSIM ecosystem solutions.

PR Newswire

M31 Launches PCI-SIG Certified PCIe 5.0 PHY IP, Partnering with SSD Storage Chipmaker InnoGrit to Advance the Next-Generation PCIe 5.0

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HSINCHU, Feb. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — M31 Technology Corporation (M31), a leading global provider of silicon intellectual property (IP), today announced that the PCIe 5.0 PHY IP has obtained the official certification mark from PCI-SIG as a high-performance solution that complies with PCI-SIG standards. Additionally, the IP has been adopted by the globally renowned SSD storage chipmaker ­InnoGrit for use in next-generation SSD storage chips.

With the continuous improvement of processor performance, the demand for upgrading the read and transfer speeds of SSD storage chips has been driven by Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), which is used for the data transfer of solid state drives (SSDs), graphics cards, and other hardware, playing a crucial role in data transfer within storage chips and has become the mainstream transfer interface. PCI-SIG, as an open industry standard PCI specification alliance, consists of more than 900 leading industry member companies to formulate industry standard specifications that meet the needs of its members, and PCI-SIG official certification serves as a benchmark standard adopted by the industry for PCIe products. However, obtaining official certification from PCI-SIG is no easy feat, as it requires rigorous adherence to PCI-SIG’s strict consistency standard tests to ensure compliance with PCIe standards and interoperability and consistency among various products.

The PCIe 5.0 PHY IP developed by M31 provides high performance, multi-channel functionality and low-power architecture for high bandwidth applications, and has already completed 12-nanometer silicon validation, with maximum speeds up to 32Gbps. This IP integrates high-speed mixed-signal circuits to support a full series of PCIe 5.0 Base applications, and can accommodate both consumer electronics and enterprise-level server computing at significantly higher speeds. In addition, the design and development strictly follow the international PCI-SIG interface specification, and further pass the official PCI-SIG rigorous standards test, formally listed in the official PCI-SIG integration list. Therefore, customers can rest assured that they can adopt M31’s officially certified PCIe IP to meet their application needs.

Founder and CEO of InnoGrit, Dr. Zining Wu, stated, “InnoGrit is dedicated to advancing storage technology. By collaborating with M31 to adopt PCIe 5.0 IP, InnoGrit has launched a new generation of PCIe 5.0 SSD storage chips, which can significantly optimize the storage chips and improve overall performance, and comprehensively support data storage and transfer applications in artificial intelligence and big data centers.”

M31 CEO Scott Chang said, “M31 is pleased to have been working with InnoGrit on PCIe 4.0/3.0 IP for so long. We have now successfully integrated the latest PCIe 5.0 IP into InnoGrit next-generation SSD storage chips and have successfully mass-produced them. In the future, M31 will continue to work to build the PCIe 5.0 ecosystem together to support applications such as data centers, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, providing customers with faster and more power-efficient solutions.“

PR Newswire

Wondershare Edraw Introducing Wondershare Office Bundle: Unlocking the Power of Office Productivity

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VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Wondershare Edraw proudly announces the launch of its revolutionary five-in-one bundled membership – Wondershare Office Bundle. This comprehensive suite of intelligent graphic services is meticulously crafted to elevate productivity and propel professional endeavors for Wondershare software users.

Wondershare Office Bundle
Wondershare Office Bundle

With the Wondershare Edraw Bundled membership, users gain perpetual access to the top five Wondershare productivity software solutions: EdrawMax, EdrawMind, EdrawProj, PDFelement, and BoardMix.

EdrawMax, the cornerstone of this membership, offers unparalleled diagramming capabilities, enabling users to create intricate flowcharts, mind maps, and organizational charts with ease. EdrawMind provides a powerful mind mapping tool, empowering users to visualize their thoughts and streamline their ideation process.

For project management enthusiasts, EdrawProj emerges as the ultimate companion. With its comprehensive set of tools, users can efficiently plan, track, and collaborate on projects, ensuring seamless execution from start to finish. Meanwhile, PDFelement serves as the go-to solution for PDF editing needs. With its intuitive interface, users can seamlessly edit, convert, e-sign, and protect the PDF documents, saving valuable time and effort.

Wondershare BoardMix rounds out the suite, offering collaborative advantages through real-time whiteboarding and brainstorming sessions.

Iris Liu, Brand Director of Wondershare, underscores the significance of this launch: “Cost-effectiveness is crucial, which is why Wondershare Office Bundle offers exceptional value for money. By combining these five essential tools into one package, we’re empowering users to unlock their full potential.”

For a trial experience, please visit our official website or follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to learn more about Wondershare Edraw. 

About Wondershare:

Wondershare is a globally recognized software company committed to delivering innovative solutions for personal and professional use. With a focus on creativity and productivity, we have received prestigious awards from organizations such as The Shorty Awards, G2, and GetApp. Our mission is to empower individuals to pursue their passions and build a more creative world. With over 100 million users across 150 countries, we offer a wide range of software solutions for video editing, PDF editing, data recovery, diagram and graphics, and more. Together, we strive to provide high-quality, user-friendly software that enables individuals and businesses to bring their creative ideas to life.

PR Newswire

China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) in Taiwan Upgrades Smart Healthcare with Gen AI

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Establishing a comprehensive “AI-assisted Physician” using generative AI from Google Cloud, including MedLM

TAICHUNG, Feb. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) in Taiwan announced its collaboration with Google Cloud in mid-December 2023. Using Google Cloud’s generative AI technology, including MedLM, which is a large language model built on Med-PaLM 2, CMUH has developed a comprehensive “AI-assisted Physician” system which aims to assist healthcare professionals in disease diagnosis, treatment planning, patient education, and medical research, etc. 

Superintendent Der-Yang Cho of CMUH announced a collaboration with Google Cloud to develop a large language model, MedLM, based on Med-PaLM 2. CMUH is the first medical center in Asia to adopt Med-PaLM 2.
Superintendent Der-Yang Cho of CMUH announced a collaboration with Google Cloud to develop a large language model, MedLM, based on Med-PaLM 2. CMUH is the first medical center in Asia to adopt Med-PaLM 2.

The collaboration between CMUH and Google Cloud will introduce assistive tools designed to support medical professionals in precision cancer treatment. These tools, including “Customized Cancer Treatment Guidelines” and “Cancer Therapy Q&As,” aim to reduce the time spent searching for information and enable the quick capture of accurate data. This can aid professionals in developing cancer treatment plans, offering personalized treatment-related information to patients, and providing responses to patient health education inquiries.

CMUH is one of the first university hospitals in Asia to test MedLM. Through its collaboration with Google Cloud, CMUH is dedicated to driving AI innovation in smart healthcare to shape the future of healthcare in Taiwan. MedLM will help facilitate CMUH in the timely access of accurate medical information to establish the best Healthcare AI models for the Chinese-speaking market in Asia.

Prof. Der-Yang Cho, Superintendent of CMUH, pointed out that MedLM is advanced in its ability to provide precise and rapid data analysis for drug guidelines, disease gene sequencing, and medical records, among other areas. Such capabilities can significantly accelerate the discovery of new treatments for difficult-to-treat diseases by medical teams and assist in the rapid development of treatment plans to help patients. “We are excited about this collaboration, which positions smart hospitals in Taiwan at the forefront of providing more precision- and safety-oriented support to healthcare professionals and patients alike,” Prof. Der-Yang Cho said.

CMUH was already recognized as the world’s third smart hospital by the US. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in their 2022 Digital Health Indicator (DHI) ranking. Additionally, Newsweek named CMUH as one of the World’s Best Hospitals for 2023 and one of the World’s Best Smart Hospitals for 2024. With its widespread recognition, CMUH is deeply committed to advancing the diversification and precision of smart healthcare services.

“Life sciences problems are fundamentally data problems, and this is where AI can fully unleash its potential,” said Kathy Lee, Managing Director of Google Cloud, North Asia. “Generative AI solutions from Google Cloud can help healthcare and life sciences organizations operate more efficiently and improve patient outcomes. In this remarkable era of gen AI, we are excited to collaborate with medical industry leaders that drive innovation through AI like CMUH, and partner with them to build the future of healthcare in Taiwan.”

Aashima Gupta, Global Director of Healthcare Strategy and Solutions at Google Cloud, shared that healthcare professionals are committed to delivering the best care for patients, and gen AI can be a crucial ally in reducing their workload. Gupta pointed out that this technology will ease the cognitive burden for staff and improve personal care for patients. Furthermore, it will allow healthcare professionals at CMUH to devote more time to tasks that require human judgment and expertise. She mentioned that ensuring the safety and effectiveness of gen AI is fundamental to these benefits.

Greg Corrado, a Distinguished Scientist and Senior Research Director at Google Research, discussed how MedLM is designed specifically for the healthcare industry and is part of the growing family of gen AI technologies that have the potential to significantly improve the healthcare experience for professionals and patients. Corrado emphasized the importance of collaborating with healthcare institutions like CMUH in testing and implementing new gen AI solutions, underlining it as a critical step towards developing safe and effective AI technologies.

Prof. Oscar K. Lee, Vice Superintendent of CMUH explained that among global generative AI large language models, Med-PaLM 2 stands out in model performance. It scored 85% on MedQA-USMLE (US Medical Licensing Examination), reaching a level of excellence comparable to professional physicians. This makes it a pioneer among the world’s medical AI models in terms of outstanding performance. By training the model to analyze treatment guidelines and care cultures from various regions, MedLM will become even better at addressing the medical and healthcare needs of local populations.”

Currently, the collaborative applications between CMUH and Google Cloud include “Customized Cancer Treatment Guidelines” and “Cancer Therapy Q&As”. The “Customized Cancer Treatment Guidelines” are developed based on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines and are integrated with MedLM, enabling clinicians to quickly capture accurate information based on the patient’s cancer staging, treatment methods, and risk assessments, etc. It can also generate cancer treatment plans and provide personalized treatment recommendations for clinicians to review, edit and use with patients. Focusing on health education for cancer patients, the “Cancer Therapy Q&As” application incorporated the cancer care-related health educational content of CMUH into the MedLM model for training and optimization, resulting in a system with extensive medical knowledge and Q&A capabilities. Such advancement not only diminishes the time healthcare professionals spend searching for information but also provides comprehensive treatment options. Furthermore, it contributes to enhancing overall clinical efficacy, improving patient understanding and engagement, and enhancing the quality of healthcare, thereby fostering warmer doctor-patient interactions and steering us collectively toward a healthier future.

In addition, in terms of new drug development, CMUH is leveraging Google’s unique AI accelerators, TPU (Tensor Processing Unit), to assist in calculations related to protein folding and the development of new drugs. Preliminary tests at CMUH have shown that utilizing these resources can reduce the computation time for related programs by over tenfold.

With its robust research and development capabilities, CMUH’s Artificial Intelligence Center has provided over 20 distinct AI medical services in recent years, assisting doctors in making fast and accurate medical decisions.

Media contact: Carolyn Chen, 100709@tool.caaumed.org.tw

PR Newswire

The Royal Thai Police, Supported By ACE, Shut Down Major Torrent Website

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Simultaneous raids take place in Bangkok, Surin Province and Surat Thani.

BANGKOK , Feb. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Royal Thai Police’s Economic Crimes Department (ECD), with support from the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), has raided four locations in Bangkok, Surin Province and Surat Thani. Four Thai nationals have been taken into custody and are expected to be formally charged with copyright offenses in the coming days.

Siambit.me was the largest torrent tracker site in Thailand with average monthly visits of 5.5 million, and which provided access to a huge range of Hollywood, International and Thai content. The site had been in operation since 2005 and is known to regularly change its domain to avoid detection. According to statements by the Royal Thai Police, Siambit.me had over 100,000 VIP members and the operators were making an estimated 1.5 million baht (USD$41,000) on a monthly basis.

“We commend the ECD for their continued collaboration with ACE and for taking enforcement action against this large torrent site,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE. “Illicit torrent sites put consumers around the world at risk of unwittingly downloading malware such as spyware, remote access trojans and even ransomware. The ECD’s action helps protect the livelihood of Thai and international creators and distributors, and it helps shield consumers from such malware.”

Suebsiri Taweepon, President of the Intellectual Property Association of Thailand (IPAT), said, “We would like to commend the professionalism of the ECD and ACE in taking down this large torrent tracker site. Piracy sites such as Siambit undermine local and international investment in our country’s content sector, reduce tax contributions to the government, and stifle creativity.”

About The Allliance for Creativity and Entertainment

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal market and reducing digital piracy. Driven by a comprehensive approach to addressing piracy through criminal referrals, civil litigation and cease-and-desist operations, ACE has achieved many successful global enforcement actions against illegal streaming services and sources of unauthorized content and their operators. Drawing upon the collective expertise and resources of more than 50 media and entertainment companies around the world and reinforced by the content protection operations of the Motion Picture Association, ACE protects the creativity and innovation that drive the global growth of core copyright and entertainment industries. The current governing board members for ACE are Amazon, Apple TV+, NBCUniversal, Netflix Studios LLC, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and Warner Bros. Charles Rivkin is Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association and Chairman of ACE. For more information, please visit www.alliance4creativity.com.

PR Newswire

Creative Learning Platform Skillshare Helps Creative Professionals Maximize the Highly Anticipated Animation App Procreate Dreams™ with New Partnership and Exclusive Content from its Top Teachers

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Skillshare Top Teachers have created custom classes to help audiences expand their creative skills with the new animation software, Procreate Dreams 

NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Skillshare, the world’s largest online community for creatives, has teamed up with the new animation app Procreate Dreams™ to develop a customized series of content that teaches students how to use and optimize tools from the highly anticipated animation software.

As part of the collaboration, Skillshare has enlisted a group of top teachers to create content, both free and for subscribers, focused on how to utilize the software to create 2D animation and expressive video, and leverage powerful storytelling techniques.

Amongst the participating teachers, Danni Fisher-Shin, Mimi Chao, Smitesh Mistry, Lisa Bardot, Marie-Nöelle Wurm, Priscilla Adei-Cardwell, Rich Armstrong, Simon Ip, Iva Mikles and Siobhan Twomey, span expertise across illustration, animation, film and video production, and content creation. Each Skillshare teacher brings their own unique style and engages an audience of creative professionals and hobbyists who want to expand their creative skills.

“This partnership underscores the powerful synergy between Procreate and Skillshare, both dedicated to bringing creative education and exploration to the fore,” comments Alicia Hamilton-Morales, SVP of Content, Community and Marketing with Skillshare. “Together, we aim to empower individuals to explore and enhance their skills with the newly released app, Procreate Dreams. Procreate has been a highly popular subject on our platform for years and we’re excited about how Procreate Dreams will spark even more creativity among our students. Our goal is to demystify creative disciplines like animation by inviting students to explore classes taught by our exceptional teachers and ignite their passion for learning something new and innovative.”

Content began rolling out in November and will continue through 2024, including original content across participating teachers’ individual profiles, and the partnership homepage, alongside a series of free live sessions which can be accessed here.

Procreate CMO Nathan Clegg comments, “Procreate Dreams marks a major chapter for both Procreate and the animation industry. Over the past 5+ years we poured our hearts and souls into producing an animation app that is approachable for beginners and powerful for professionals. With an aim to unlock creative potential and empower the next generation of storytellers. We are thrilled to partner with Skillshare to help creatives get started and make the most out of Procreate Dreams.”

Procreate Dreams is available on the App Store for a single-time purchase of $19.99 USD. No subscriptions. procreate.com

About Skillshare:
Skillshare is the world’s largest online learning community for creativity. With more than 26,000 video-based classes exploring a wide range of creative disciplines from graphic design to photography to painting and illustration to interior design—taught by industry experts including Jonathan Van Ness, Aaron Draplin, Emily Henderson, Thomas Frank, Rebecca Minkof and Jeff Staple and more. Skillshare is both a publisher of original content and an open platform, where anyone who meets our standards and guidelines can upload a class and earn income. Skillshare’s mission is to build the world’s most valuable creative learning community. To learn more, go to: www.skillshare.com.

About Procreate® 
Procreate is dedicated to making exceptional creative tools for creative people by combining beautiful user experiences with high-performance engineering. Procreate for iPad is used by millions around the globe, has been the best-selling paid iPad app on App Store for the past six years, and has received two coveted Apple Design Awards. Procreate’s three apps — Procreate, Procreate Pocket, and Procreate Dreams — are placing more power in the hands of creatives, amplifying the company’s guiding principle: Art is for everyone. procreate.com

Follow @procreate on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X.

For all press enquiries, please contact:
Alicia Hamilton-Morales, Skillshare
press@skillshare.com

Sheila Lin, Procreate 
press@procreate.com 

First Look, Unboxing, Video

Acer Swift X 14 First Look & Unboxing

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Transcript

Acer’s Swift series has always been about being thin and light. Just recently, however, that formula is getting a supercharge with the Swift X lineup. The new Swift X series is marrying both portability and performance. You know the saying “X marks the spot”? Well, that might just be the case with this laptop.

So, the Acer Swift X 14 is a laptop that is bringing performance to the thin and light form factor. It’s not a brand new concept to Acer, in fact, this particular version is a refresh of the first-ever Swift X.

This version comes with a 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-13700H with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. It’s also got an NVIDIA RTX4050 Laptop GPU. This setup gives it enough power to do everyday computing tasks like Word processing, excel, PowerPoint without hassle.

Let’s not be coy about it, it’ll power through those tasks and then some. But where it will shine is when you jump into creative work like video editing, using the Adobe Suite or even rendering things on apps like Blender or AutoCAD. Thanks to the RTX4050 Laptop GPU inside, it’s able to run these graphically intense tasks smoothly. You’ll also be able to take advantage of things like DLSS and RayTracing. Another plus is that this laptop comes with NVIDIA® Studio drivers which provides more stability and access to tools that will make content creation easier.

Of course, the GPU and processor are nothing if you don’t have the correct display to use it with. This laptop has one of the best OLED displays I’ve seen on a laptop. The screen is a 14-inch 2.8K OLED with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s also colour accurate with a 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and it also has a VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification.

I know that seems like a lot of jargon. But essentially, what it means, is that the screen can produce deep blacks. On top of that, it will be able to reproduce colour more accurately and on a wider spectrum making it perfect for people who create content.

Of course, when it comes to content creation, we need our ports. The Swift X 14 has a full array of ports despite its thin form factor. It comes with two  USB-C ports that support charging, it charges at 5V; and 3A. So, you should be able to charge it with a 65W GaN charger in a pinch. Additionally, Thunderbolt 4 also supports high-resolution displays and up to 40Gbps high-speed data transfer.

When it comes to wireless connectivity the laptop supports WiFi 6E which should give you ample speed for uploading and working off the cloud. It’s also got Bluetooth 5.1 for fast file transfers or even connecting wirelessly to your smartphone or noise-cancelling headphones. It also comes with an FHD Webcam with Temporal Noise Reduction for your video conferences and presentations.

Acer claims that it has up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. Now we’ve got the specs out of the way, let’s talk about the build. It’s clearly a very pretty laptop. I’m definitely a fan of the finish Acer has given this laptop. It feels premium and sturdy. The aluminium chassis is definitely a plus here.

But one thing that I like about this off the bat, is that the premium feel of the laptop is also thanks to a significant amount of recycled materials being incorporated into the laptop.

And that’s the Acer Swift X 14. What are your thoughts on this laptop? Let us know in the comments below.

Gaming, News

Here’s What You Need to Know About Xbox After the Xbox Podcast

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Speculation has been rife since last week that Microsoft plans to move away from the current status quo of having exclusive games for its Xbox console. In fact, rumours hinted at the Xbox going the way of the dinosaurs. However, earlier this morning, Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty – three of the top execs at Xbox – took to the Xbox Podcast to set the record straight. In the podcast, Phil Spencer stresses that the information was already in the pipeline to be shared but was expedited due to the leaks last week.

Updates on the Xbox Business | Official Xbox Podcast

There were a number of things discussed in the 23-minute episode of the podcast, but we’ve summarised everything here. So here’s what you should know:

1. Xbox Exclusives are Here to Stay… for now

Phil Spencer cut to the chase during the podcast and addressed the elephant in the room head-on. In a nutshell, Xbox exclusives are here to stay. Microsoft is not pivoting its strategy to get rid of platform exclusives. Phil Spencer stressed that exclusives remain a key component of Xbox’s go-to-market strategy. That said, he did highlight that the games market as a whole seems to be moving away from exclusive – hinting at a possible future without platform exclusives altogether. However, Matt Booty made one point very clear: GamePass will remain Xbox exclusive.

This isn’t too surprising though. We’ve seen platform exclusives slowly shift to timed exclusives. One of the most obvious examples of this is Sony itself with IPs like God of War, Final Fantasy and even Horizon making their way to the PC after a period of exclusivity.

2. Four Xbox Games are Heading to PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch

With that said, four Xbox exclusives will be breaking exclusivity. These games will be heading to the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. While no specific names were given, the execs did highlight that these games are at least a year old and are – mostly – community-driven. Phil Spencer was very clear that Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones game will remain Xbox exclusives.

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Photo by Kamil S on Unsplash

The games that are making their way to other platforms are seen as either “smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives” or “first iterations of a franchise” that would benefit from being on other platforms. It seems pretty likely that these games are likely live-service games; particularly because Phil Spencer did mention that this move would justify further investments.

3. It’s All About Growth

The decision to take these games over to other platforms lies solely in growing Microsoft’s games business. With the closure of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the company is focusing on growing the business and sustaining the double-digit revenue growth it has seen. To achieve this, the four games need to grow their player base and that is only achieved through expanding the availability of these games.

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In addition to this, the move to make games more accessible is also aiming to create a larger awareness of the Xbox platform. Yes – they used the word “platform” instead of console. This is very likely how we can see the Xbox brand evolve in the future. Already, we have Xbox GamePass which covers the Xbox Console, XCloud and PC. The next generation of hardware is likely geared to take these experiences further. A cloud-based handheld Xbox anyone?

All in all, it seems like everything is still status quo at Xbox. However, it’s worth noting that the status quo at Xbox is very different than before thanks to the Activision Blizzard acquisition. The company’s growing footprint as a publisher is forcing it to grow beyond just Xbox exclusives. Studios like Activision Blizzard and Zenimax will continue to develop multi-platform games while Microsoft Game Studios continues to seek ways to grow its engaged user base.

PR Newswire

University of Technology Sydney (UTS) collaborates with Vietnamese university researchers to create water monitoring solution for aquaculture

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Thanks to a proven model of rapid technology transfer, an innovative real-time sea-water monitoring system is now supporting the aquaculture industry and environmental protection in Vietnam.

SYDNEY, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A groundbreaking collaboration between UTS, Vietnam National University and Ho Chi Minh University of Technology has led to the development of a real-time sea-water monitoring system in Xuan Dai Bay, Vietnam.

A water monitoring station in Xuan Dai Bay in Vietnam. Photo supplied.
A water monitoring station in Xuan Dai Bay in Vietnam. Photo supplied.

As the system is scalable and non-site specific, the technology has the potential to be used not just in further sites across Vietnam, but globally, and the team is actively seeking new partners to help them realise its full potential.

The project, funded by Aus4Innovation and part of UTS Rapido Vietnam, employs the latest Industry 4.0 technologies such as Internet of Things, data analytics, and mechatronics.

“Aquaculture is an important industry in Vietnam, generating an income of AUD$11 billion per year. But while it can have rich economic rewards for farmers and the regions they live in, it can be a precarious livelihood,” says Professor Eryk Dutkiewicz, the chief investigator of the project at UTS.

The system, launched in March 2020, monitors temperature, acidity, ammonia, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and turbidity, providing real-time data to farmers. The advanced technology withstands harsh conditions, offering alerts for timely decision-making. The monitoring stations, the first of its kind in Vietnam, are now permanent fixtures in the bay.

Mr Le Tan Ho is Vice President of Phu Yen province and was impressed with both the UTS team and the results of the project. He says the information it has provided has been invaluable for decision making.

“The data from the realtime seawater monitoring system allows the local government to assess and better plan aquaculture and other activities like tourism towards the sustainable social and economic development goals while protecting environment and coping with global climate changes, especially in coastal areas,” says Mr Le Tan Ho.

The research team hopes the application of IoT platforms for coastal water system management in Phú Yên will just be the start.

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is one of the top 100 universities in the world and a leading public university of technology with global impact. Visit discover.uts.edu.au to learn more.