After the success of Pokémon GO, it comes as no surprise that there are more augmented reality (AR) games being developed by Niantic. However, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Catan was the last game on your mind to get an AR edition. In collaboration with Asmodee, Niantic is bringing the popular board game to life on your mobile phone!
CATAN: World Explorers turns the whole world into a gigantic playable game of CATAN. As you might expect, if you’ve played the popular board game, you will be collecting resources: bricks, lumber, grain, ore and wool to trade with other players and building settlements into cities. You’ll also be playing in teams to collect Victory Points at local and global levels – similar to the team mechanic in Pokémon Go.
As you might expect from a Niantic game, CATAN: New Explorers uses the same maps from Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite to create interactive landmarks which become central to the gameplay. These real world locations are then pieced into a humungous, global map and playing board for an AR game of CATAN.
The new CATAN AR game is one of ten projects currently being developed at Niantic. The company has teased the projects in a new announcement blog post on website.
CATAN: New Explores is ready for its beta debut and has opened pre-registrations at its official website.
Xiaomi Malaysia has taken the covers off two new entry level devices: the Redmi 9A and Redmi 9C. The two new devices join the Redmi 9 announced earlier this month. They expand the Redmi line up with even more affordable, entry level devices which come in at a sub MYR500 price point.
Both entry level Xiaomi Redmi devices come with 6.53-inch HD+ Dot Drop displays with 400 nit brightness and certification from TUV Rheinland for Low Blue Light. The 9A and 9C are both powered by a 5,000mAh battery with support for 10W charging. Both come with a 3.5mm headphone jack. However, that’s where the similarities end.
Xiaomi’s Redmi 9C is the more supped up of the two new devices coming with a triple camera setup and a slightly more powerful MediaTek Helio G35 octacore processor. The camera setup consists of a 13-megapixel main camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. These specifications are supported by 2GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard memory expandable with up to 512GB of additional memory via a microSD card. The 9C also a fingerprint sensor for quick unlocking.
The Redmi 9A comes with a less powerful, octacore MediaTek Helio G25. It comes with a single camera setup with a 13-megapixel sensor. It supports AI face unlock and will be coming with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. Similar to the 9C, it supports up to 512GB of additional storage space via the use of a microSD card.
Pricing & Availability
The Redmi 9A will be available starting on July 7, 2020 as part of the annual 7.7 sale on both LAZADA and Shopee for a special first sale price of MYR319. After which it will be available in stores starting on 14 July, 2020 for MYR359. The 9A will be available in Granite Gray, Peacock Green and Sky Blue
The Redmi 9C will be available for MYR429 in Midnight Gray, Sunrise Orange and Twilight Blue starting the end of July 2020.
Official Specifications
Smartphone
Redmi 9A
Redmi 9C
Display
6.53” HD+ Dot Drop display 400 nit (typ) brightness Color contrast ratio: 1500:1 (typ) TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light certification Reading mode
6.53” HD+ Dot Drop display 400 nit (typ) brightness Color contrast ratio: 1500:1 (typ) TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light certification Reading mode
Rear camera
13MP main camera
13MP main camera, 2MP macro camera, 2MP depth sensor
Front camera
5MP front camera
5MP front camera
Dimension
164.9*77.07*9.0mm
164.9*77.07*9.0mm
Processor
MediaTek Helio G25 12nm process technology Octa-core CPU, up to 2.0 GHz
MediaTek Helio G35 12nm process technology Octa-core CPU, up to 2.3 GHz
So the trade ban with HUAWEI has been going on for several months now and nothing seems to be indicating that there would be an overturning of the decision. Every other person outside of the United States of America (U.S.A.) was hoping that the situation will get better and somehow the decision overturned though. Why? HUAWEI devices without Android is like eating Egg Mayo Sandwich without the Eggs. They are still good, just not as good.
It looks like all hopes for HUAWEI to be cleared of that trade ban is further and further away from reality though. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is U.S.A.’s version of MCMC for Malaysia, or if you are not in any of these countries – they are an independent body that regulates and certifies electronic items that involves communications. So your routers, modems, televisions, and even smartphones have to go through their certifications and ‘okay’ before being sold; they have declared HUAWEI and ZTE to be national security threats for the state. Sounds bad? It is bad.
While there were restrictions to HUAWEI telecommunication gears in the United States, there were no full ban to be set yet at the time. Thanks to the declaration from FCC, HUAWEI and ZTE items can no longer be purchased by all government linked companies or using the Universal Service Funds (USF) subsidy. That also means that we are not going to get Google’s Play Store on the HUAWEI devices anytime soon.
According to the chairman of FFC, Ajit Pai the Bureau has found evidence that both HUAWEI and ZTE having “close ties” to the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s military. But it is not just down to the links between the company and the government that becomes an issue. FCC also cited that the Chinese law dictates that these telecommunication giants that operates in China are obligated to share data and cooperate with China’s various intelligence services whenever the need arises.
If what FCC claims to have found is true, it becomes a huge privacy and data security breach potential. HUAWEI and ZTE have repeatedly denied the claims that they are a threat to the United States’ national security. To be fair, they have denied the existence of a certain backdoor that feeds information from all their telecommunication devices and services to the Chinese government. We do not know how much of the law aspect is true. We are not living in China after all.
Still, the biggest impact is still on HUAWEI’s smartphones. We have always enjoyed their smartphones. They have made great smartphones like the HUAWEI P40 Pro we recently reviewed. Sadly, the lack of Google’s Play Store on their devices crippled the devices so much that we find them an absolute nightmare to deal with on a day to day basis at times.
So far HUAWEI and ZTE has not responded to the claims. We remain hopeful to HUAWEI’s response to the claims. That, and also hoping that HUAWEI finds a way to get the Play Store ecosystem on their devices that are still running Android anyway.
Malaysia celebrates National Camera day annually on the 29th of June – a fact that not many people seem to know about! That said, Canon Marketing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (Canon Malaysia) has been hard at work making it an occasion to remember with their Canon EOS Youth Ambassadors.
Canon Malaysia has been hosting a slew of digital events and workshops for enthusiasts over on their Instagram (@canonmalaysia). Users can still view and follow the workshops done with Acacia Diana, Annice Lyn and Samuel Goh – their three EOS Youth Ambassadors – to get tips and tricks in getting the perfect shot! If you’ve missed your favourite Ambassador, their session will be archived on the Canon Malaysia Instagram TV (IGTV) page.
In addition, Canon is hosting an online photo contest which kicked off on June 8, 2020. Themed: “Capturing Moments”, the photo contest revolves around capturing moments in our everyday lives that end up being cherished memories. There are three categories for the contest: First Moments, Memorable Moments and Nature Moments. You can submit your entry by tagging Cannon Malaysia on Instagram and tagging your photos with the hashtags #CanonNationalCameraDay, #CanonMalaysia and #YourLifeWithCanon. The contest is happening on Instagram and remember to set your profile to public. Winners will be announced on July 12, 2020.
The events lined up kicked off on June 8, 2020 and will continue until July 12, 2020.
As nations begin to start emerging from COVID-19 induced lockdowns, businesses are beginning to resume in a new normal; one where remote work and social distancing are the status quo. These new work realities are creating new demands on businesses to adapt. One of the many ways they can, is by adopting new or pre-existing technologies that enable remote work in a secured, business friendly environment.
Nutanix, one of the larger cloud software and hyperconverged solutions providers, has created a solution which allows businesses to quickly adapt to the growing demands of remote work. Their new “FastTrack for VDI” service allows businesses to pivot to remote work realities quickly and reduce the time needed to onboard employees working remotely. VDI – Virtual Desktop Infrastructure – allows employees to access sensitive documents from a remote machine while keeping documents within a secured environment. This opens doors to businesses dealing with sensitive data to enable remote work and put their employees health and safety first.
The new initiative by Nutanix also allows businesses to quickly acquire and provision desktops within five business days. These desktops will come with configurations predefined by Nutanix enabling secure access for remote work employees. The service also gives businesses the flexibility to leverage existing hardware, select predefined Nutanix hardware or leverage managed cloud infrastructure from the company’s partners.
“In 2020, remote working has become our new normal. It is time for businesses to start planning for the long term and leverage technologies for a new business reality. Nutanix is committed to ensuring that Malaysian businesses have quick and easy access to the right solutions and technology to keep their staff engaged, efficient and productive throughout these unprecedented disruptions,”
Avinash Gowda, Malaysia’s Country Manager for Nutanix
With the new service, businesses who were already in the midst of their digitization journey will be able to continue and accelerate their efforts while those yet to begin are provided with a fast track.
Wearables are the rage these days. Well, they have been for the past few years. Of course they would be; they offer unparalleled flexibility and function to something as simple as a wrist watch. Your wrist watch is now your smartphone companion, your fitness tracker, your notification bell, your personal assistant, and your alarm.
The introduction of the new Apple WatchOS just about a week ago also marks a sort of new age for wearables. The same cannot be said, however to the aging platform that is Wear OS. Not that there is nothing new with Wear OS.
The latest Wear OS is technically still in its second generation (2.18 as launched in May 2020). You are already seeing the fourth generation of Wear OS devices in the market currently. The ones that has been pushing for Wear OS plenty is Fossil these days. They do have some pretty good-looking Wear OS devices on offer right now too, for not very much money.
There is another problem, however. The platform that they have been sitting on, the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear System on a Chip (SoC) that Wear OS rides on is also aging. To be fair, nothing much is really wrong with them. At the same time, they do leave a little bit to be desired.
Source: XDA Developers
2020 sees the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform. In this new line-up there are two processors unveiled. The top performing being the Qualcomm Snapdragon War 4100+ platform, and then there is the regular 4100 platform.
The headlines are pretty much expected. It is more powerful than the two year-old Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100. It is a lot more energy efficient too, making energy-efficient mode more colourful and functional. There is a whole slew of improvements in managing other features too, including a promised better GPS support. Oh, apparently there is better camera support too for whatever reason.
Of course, all these things are quite expected. To put them into perspective though, you have to look at numbers. Keep in mind that Wearable tech is still in its infancy and is still growing at an exponential rate.
The new 4100 platform is clocked 85% faster than the 3100 platform. Its memory clock is also that much faster while GPU performance is claimed to be more than twice faster than before. No, you might not want to use it for gaming still in a display no bigger than your webcam.
But that allows developers and Google more room for fancy animations, better looking interfaces, and generally plenty more functions to be loaded on top of Wear OS. Heck, it could even mean that you get different variants of Wear OS that fits form and function distinctly.
Source: XDA Developers
Apparently also the new 12nm Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform offers 25% more battery life compared to the outgoing 3100 platform. While that is still nothing to shout about, it is an improvement. Now you can have a Wear OS device that lasts to bedtime, rather than one that has to be charged when you get home after work. Or not, depending on what the watchmaker feels like fitting into their hardware.
There is a new 4G modem too in case you want the device to be an eSIM device. That also means you might be able to leave your smartphone behind during a jog in favour of a more secure, lighter package you wear on your wrist. Of course, new improved antenna also means better GPS coverage and tracking.
Currently nothing in Fossil’s line-up will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 platform. The first Wear OS device with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 platform will be the Mobvoi TicWatch line up. We can expect to see Fossil to follow suit later in the year. The Wear OS platform now might be worth a look.
Samsung has been hard at work revolutionising traditional living spaces with a touch of technology. They’ve done the living room and the outdoors with some impressive TV offering. Now, they’ve got their sights set on the kitchen with their new refrigerators. The new two door side by side refrigerators are imbued with technology to make life and meal planning easier.
The new Samsung side by side (SBS) Family Hub brings features that make grocery shopping and meal planning a breeze. The new fridge comes with a ViewInside camera which allows users to peek into the fridge without letting any of the cold air out. Not only is this convenient, it helps when it comes to maintaining the temperature of the fridge. It also helps with power efficiency.
The SBS Family Hub also gives you a screen that seamlessly integrates with any Samsung smartphone; allowing you to share precious memories on the screen. The screen can also act as a virtual bulletin board; bringing a traditional use of the refrigerator surface into the future. The Family Board feature also allows you to share music and images on an interactive screen.
The Family Hub brings connectivity to your kitchen like never before. As part of Samsung’s Smart Things ecosystem, it brings seamless connectivity to your kitchen. Interact with your other Smart Things enabled devices such as your Samsung TVs or even smartphones. Mirror your screens on the Family Board, bring your daytime soap opera to the kitchen as you get started cooking for the family or even put your favourite tunes on while you’re getting ready for your day with breakfast. The functionality isn’t device dependent, the Family Hub is able to support apps and independently run music streaming or video streaming apps.
Pricing & Availability
The Samsung SBS Family Hub is now available in Malaysia for MYR8,999.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) isn’t slowing down for anything! The company is making quick work of expanding the availability of their Outposts technology. The latest countries to join the fold is Thailand and India with the rollout coming near simultaneously with Malaysia’s.
The new AWS Outposts feature will bring the power of AWS into the on-premises arena in Thailand and India. This will give businesses the flexibility of adopting cloud infrastructure without sacrificing valuable time migrating their on-premises data to a new cloud server. Instead, they will be able to bring the power and flexibility of the AWS cloud to their on-premise data.
The highly flexible and adaptable system allows businesses to deploy all of AWS’s technologies including their EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Services), RDS (Relational Database Service) and more to help deploy and make sense of the large amounts of data they may have stored on-premises. They will also be able to keep sensitive data off the cloud while getting the benefit of being able to utilise them in computational and machine learning models. In addition, the close proximity of AWS’s many technologies and services also means that businesses stand to benefit from lower latency when it comes to deploying these assets.
The AWS Outposts on-premises hardware is a fully managed service. Businesses will not need to worry about downtime or learning a new interface. In fact, AWS Outposts shares the same interface as its online counterpart. This also removes the lag time required for staff to learn new platforms and interfaces.
ASUS’s VivoBook has come a long way since it’s first debut. The line up which started out by carving a unique niche for affordable laptops with respectable specifications, has evolved to one of the most personalisable ultrabooks available on the market. The line up has become known for its bold, bright colours, gorgeous finish and rather feature rich package.
The new Vivobook S continues this ethos. It comes in bright, vibrant colours that bring a renewed vigour to the line up with updated specifications and new colours. This year, the VivoBook S line up is bringing a whole new range of colours including the Resolute Red, Gaia Green, Dreamy Silver and India Black. These colours allow users to express themselves from the get go while infusing a pop of colour in any mundane environment.
That said, the VivoBook S has never been just about the looks; it has also been about pushing technology and design. The slim, 1.59cm silhouette of the line up belies its technical prowess. The new VivoBook S line up comes equipped with 10th generation Intel processors which promise faster performance and longer battery life. This paired with the NVIDIA GeForce 250MX and WiFi 6 capabilities allows the VivoBook S series to stride a fine line between performance and portability. This is further bolstered by the 512GB of M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD with 32GB of Intel Optane memory and 8GB of RAM out of the box.
Pricing & Availability
The new ASUS VivoBook S series will be available starting today, 30 June 2020 in retail stores with prices starting at MYR3,199 for the VivoBook S14 and MYR3,699 for the VivoBook S15. Both come with 2 years global warranty from ASUS.
If you are interested in getting one yourself, ASUS is offering an MYR100 discount with the voucher code ASUSVS100 on their official stores on LAZADA and Shopee. The offer is valid on a first come first serve basis on 30th June 2020 from 12pm till 11:59pm.
Intel® Core™ i7-10510U Processor 1.8 GHz (8M Cache, up to 4.9 GHz)
Display
14” LED-backlit Full HD (1920 x 1080) 16:9 Frameless four-sided NanoEdge display with 85% screen-to-body ratio 178° wide-view technology; anti-glare IPS panel display; NTSC: 45%
Intel® Optane™ Memory H10 with Solid State Storage (32 GB Optane™ + 512 GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD)
Wireless
Intel® WiFi 6 GIG+ (802.11ax) Bluetooth® 5.0
Camera
HD camera
I/O ports
1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type A 1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C™ 2 x USB 2.0 1 x HDMI 1.4 1 x Audio jack combo 1 x Micro SD card reader
Audio
Array microphone with Cortana voice-recognition support 3.5 mm headphone jack Certified by Harman Kardon
Battery
Fast charging: 60% in 49 minutes 50 Wh 3-cell lithium-polymer battery 65 W power adapter Plug Type: ø4 (mm) (Output: 19 V DC, 3.42 A, 65 W) (Input: 100-240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal)
Keyboard
Backlit Chiclet Keyboard
Fingerprint Reader
Yes
Colors
Dreamy Silver / Indie Black / Gaia Green / Resolute Red
Dimensions
Height: 1.59 cm (0.62”); Width: 32.49 cm (12.79”); Depth: 21.35 cm (8.40”)
Weight
1.4 kg (3.08 lb)
Retail Price
RM 3,699 (available on 30th June onwards)
Bundle in Box
ASUS Backpack, Limited Edition VivoBook stickers
Warranty
2 years global
[1] Specifications, content and product availability are all subject to change without notice and may differ from country to country. Actual performance may vary depending on applications, usage, environment and other factors. Full specifications are available at http://www.asus.com
ASUS VivoBook S15 (S533F)
CPU
Intel® Core™ i5-10210U Processor 1.6 GHz (6M Cache, up to 4.2 GHz)
Display
15.6″ LED-backlit Full HD (1920 x 1080) 16:9 Frameless three-sided NanoEdge display with 86% screen-to-body ratio 178° wide-view technology; anti-glare IPS panel display; NTSC: 45%
Intel® Optane™ Memory H10 with Solid State Storage (32 GB Optane™ + 512 GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD)
Wireless
Intel® WiFi 6 GIG+ (802.11ax) Bluetooth® 5.0
Camera
HD camera
I/O ports
1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type A 1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C™ 2 x USB 2.0 1 x HDMI 1.4 1 x Audio jack combo 1 x Micro SD card reader
Audio
Array microphone with Cortana voice-recognition support 3.5mm headphone jack Harmon Kardon Certified
Battery
Fast charging: 60% in 49 minutes 50 Wh 3-cell lithium-polymer battery 65 W power adapter Plug Type: ø4 (mm) (Output: 19 V DC, 3.42 A, 65 W) (Input: 100-240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal)
Keyboard
Backlit Chiclet Keyboard
Fingerprint Reader
No
Colors
Dreamy Silver / Indie Black / Gaia Green / Resolute Red
Dimensions
Height: 1.61 cm (0.63”); Width: 35.98 cm (14.17”); Depth: 23.38 cm (9.2”)
Over the years, misinformation has become more and more rampant on the social media platforms. Facebook, being one of the largest social media platforms the world over, has come under fire for the growing spread. Like many other social media platforms, Facebook has become one of the epicenters of a growing movement to battle misinformation.
In the past, the social media platform has introduced prompts and features to its platform across its apps and even on the web to help mitigate the spread of misinformation. In fact, Facebook is one of the only platforms which has a dedicated team and partnership to help verify the authenticity of articles shared across its platform. However, with the current, heated climate of the world amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the large number of countries gearing up for elections, the platform is introducing new features to help curb misinformation even more.
The latest feature being added is a prompt that will notify the user if they are about to share content that is over 90 days old. The new prompt will appear when users click the share button on posts or articles older than 90 days old. The new prompt will help users rethink sharing articles which are outdated by giving them a second and more context to the article. However, users can still opt to share the article.
The new feature comes on the back of News publishers having increasing concerns of legitimate, outdated articles being shared as current news. This prompted Facebook to address the need for article timelines to be added to the contextual information that is available to their users.
In Malaysia, the new feature comes in light of an online tabloid being called out on its horrible practices of rehashing old, outdated stories and blatant plagiarism of content from other publishers. This issue also highlights a possible gap in Facebook’s measures that the platform should take note of. Sites that are rehashing and publishing old news as new articles may not be picked up by the new prompt as the publication date would be up to date.
We’ll have to wait and see if and when Facebook looks into that specific issue.
