Category Archives: Podcast

Editorial, Podcast

[Podcast] Tech & Tonic Featuring Joshua Vergara & Isa Rodriguez: Motorola’s Big Comeback, Flagships v Affordability & Working from Home during the Pandemic

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This week we had the honour of having Joshua Vergara and Isa Rodriguez on the podcast! You may have seen them on the internet over the years.

Joshua Vergara runs his own tech and lifestyle YouTube channel, but you may recognize him from his days at Android Authority and for his current work at Pocketnow. He’s a veteran of the industry and has been making content on tech for many years. Aside from YouTube videos, Joshua Vergara also hosts multiple podcasts and delves into health and wellness via his social media platforms.

Isa Rodriguez is a tech Youtuber who has a unique view on tech. She takes everything we know about tech and approaches it with a fashionista’s eye. She brings a breath of fresh air in a niche that many have enjoyed over the years. She regularly pairs he tech reviews with out fit of the days and focuses on a lot of the features that everyone looks for, particularly the ladies.

This is her second time on the Tech & Tonic Podcast! She has joined us for a previous episode of the Tech & Tonic Podcast where we talked about cameras & smartphone cameras.

In the episode, we talked about one of the most exciting weeks we’ve had in the global tech scene in quite a while particularly of Motorola’s return to the flagship race with their new Motorola Edge and Edge+. Their return after a 3 year absence also brought up the question of whether they were still relevant and if consumers were still looking for flagships or affordable devices. We also spoke about some of the changes we’ve had to make with the world going into quarantine and also our must haves for working from home.

The episode was recorded as a livestream on Monday, 27 April 2020 on the techENT YouTube Channel. We are continuing our live streams throughout Malaysia’s Movement Control Order (MCO) period. We’re live at 11am every Monday.

Editorial, Podcast

Tech & Tonic Episode 10 – Apple and Google on the Same Page?

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In this week’s Tech & Tonic Podcast, which was also a livestream in the morning, it is just the two of us again. We explored plenty of things that came out last week though. We spoke about the collaboration between Google and Apple. We think that there is going to be a significant long-term benefit to the collaboration for the health care industry.

Apple also launched their brand-new Apple iPhone SE last week. The iPhone SE is meant to be their latest, and most affordable Apple iPhone. It still packs an A13 Bionic processor though, so it comes packing with power.

We also discussed about OnePlus’ new flagship, the OnePlus 8. In that, we spoke about how similar it is to another flagship that was launched earlier this year. Still, it seems like a good flagship contender for 2020.

We finally unboxed the HUAWEI MatePad Pro too (unboxing later this week). We discussed about how we actually liked the device. Of course, without Google’s Mobile Services, we feel that it is a little lacking somehow. Still, we like it.

That brought us to another topic of mobile ecosystems though. Is HUAWEI Mobile Services a good alternative to the Google Play ecosystem? Should you even consider it. We spoke about that, and more in the latest Tech & Tonic!

Editorial, Podcast

Tech & Tonic Episode 9 – Just the Two of Us

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It is already 9 weeks since our first podcast. To be honest, we are still experimenting with our contents. The 9th installment of the first season of the Tech & Tonic show has no guest.

What? No guest? That is absurd.

That might be what you are thinking. Thing is, we are going a little basic on the 9th episode of Tech & Tonic. Basic, and bare. We have decided to make it a little more relaxing and less structural. We spoke about plenty of things that happened in the past week, including the fact that the Malaysian authorities have extended the Movement Control Order period all the way to 28th May 2020. That is effectively making our state-imposed quarantine last to the end of the fifth month of the year 2020.

There are still some things to look forward to though for 2020. For one, Sony’ PlayStation 5 (PS5) will be released at the end of the year. We have not seen what it will look like yet, every other person wants to know how it will look like. After all, the Xbox Series X has broken the covers and shown itself in skin. What we got last week though was a closer look at its attached controller. It is not DualShock anymore. This time it is DualSense, which is pretty in-line with the whole immersion focus they are going with the PS5.

Speaking of PS5 we also got our copy of Final Fantasy VII Remake, thanks to Sony Interactive Entertainment. While we have not finished the game, we still can appreciate the smooth and clear graphics of the game. We spoke a little bit on the mechanics of the game in the podcast too.

For all of that and more, listen to the podcast.

Editorial, Podcast

Tech & Tonic Episode 8 Feat. Keegan Perez Tan – MCO Day 20 and We Are All Still Sane! We can Game and Game, and Game.

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In this week’s Tech & Tonic Podcast, we have a hotshot in our guest seat. Why hotshot? He used to be in the professional eSports scene. He is Keegan Perez Tan, a former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch eSports player. He is still an active gamer though and plays titles like Escape from Tarkov, Apex Legends, and even Dota 2. He is also currently a content producer for Technave, one of Malaysia’s largest tech news platforms.

In our stream we spoke plenty about the COVID-19 situation, like we have done since the beginning of Malaysia’s government sanctioned Movement Control Order (MCO). We caught up a little bit with Keegan about his activities at home for the past 20 days of quarantine. Of course, we will end up talking about games though. We revealed what sort of games we are most looking forward to. We also touched a little bit on the eSports community and growth in Malaysia.

Unfortunately, we cannot fit everything we spoke about in our morning livestream show on the Podcast. For extended and full contents, we recommend you head down to our YouTube page for the livestream that we are doing every Monday 11.00 a.m. at least for the MCO period (until 14th April 2020 at the moment). Our podcast is available on the most popular podcasting platforms, so do check out our other episodes. Let us know if we are not, so that we can try to get ourselves on the platform.

Editorial, Podcast

Tech & Tonic Episode 7 Feat. Stephen Francis

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In today’s Tech & Tonic podcast session, we have Stephen P. Francis of MyGroser.com joining us for a livestream on YouTube. Stephen is a multi-entrepreneur and has vast experiences starting up and running businesses in all kinds of field. His latest project is MyGroser.com, an online grocery shopping platform if you put it simply. The philosophy of the business though is to deliver products directly from suppliers, to their warehouse, and then to the customers. Produces comes directly from distributors and suppliers instead of other retail stores. The brand is growing from strength to strength and is now scaling up very quickly to fit the demands of the current day customers. You can find Stephen on LinkedIn.

In today’s podcast, we discussed about the new HUAWEI P40 series that made an appearance last week. That led us to speak a little bit about the smartphone industry that we know today. Since the main selling point of the HUAWEI P40 series is its camera, we poked a little bit about that too with Stephen.

Of course, last Wednesday, the government has announced that the Movement Control Order has been extended to the middle of April (14 April 2020). That also means we are all going to be working from home for a little longer than we might enjoy. Still, MyGroser.com can provide all the essentials for our survival at home. They have been a little overwhelmed by the events that has transpired in the past few weeks though. We poked Stephen’s brain a little on what is happenning in MyGroser.com and what they have been doing to ensure you get what you ordered.

Editorial, Podcast

Tech & Tonic Episode 6 Feat. Jeremy Teo and Natasha Hashim – Stuck at Home, We Talked About Sony PS5!

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In today’s episode of the techENT Tech & Tonic, we have a returning guest; Jeremy Teo, and new one, Natasha Hashim! Natasha Hashim, or TashBunny, as more commonly known to her stream fans, is a streamer and also content creator for IGN SEA! If you cannot recognise her, you should be watching more local eSports events, because she is one of the more bubbly host in the events.

We only have three mics in the office, but we are not in the office or studio at all today. We did a livestream in the morning, because all of us was stuck at home. So we talked a little bit about that. Since we were on the topic of catching up with stuff, we spoke plenty about games, and of course, the Sony PS5 “road to PS5” press conference. We shared what we were looking forward to with the new PS5, and what we were looking forward to with the games!

P.S. because it was recorded on a live stream software (OBS), we did not have the freedom to work with multi-track recording. Therefore, we had some audio issues in the beginning and did not notice it until someone in the stream mentioned it. We fixed in the later half of the show. Please do not turn your volume all the way up first.

Editorial, News, Podcast

Tech & Tonic Episode 5 Feat. Smashpop – OPPO’s New Flagship Impresses and Revisiting Smartphone vs Camera

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In this week’s Tech & Tonic Podcast, we have Jason Goh of @Smashpop! Jason Goh is one of the more prolific figures in the digital content creation industry. He has a vast experience in the field and is one of the guys behind Tricycle TV, a social media channel that focuses on reviewing tech in Bahasa Melayu. He is also very active in Social Media with @Smashpop across all platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. He is also on TikTok, but not very active; as he says. All good things must be shared, and that is why Jason also conducts workshops for you to better your Social Media presence and skills.

Last week saw one of the most anticipated smartphones (to us anyway) launch globally and in Malaysia. It is the OPPO Find X2 series, a flagship that is two years in waiting now. We had our hands on the OPPO Find X2 as well as Jason with the OPPO Find X2 Pro. We spoke at length about the device; what we like, what we do not like, and what we found interesting. Still, at MYR 3,999 (starting from), it is not what you would call ‘affordable’. Are the features enough to justify its price tag though?

On the subject of smartphones, we revisit the topic of smartphone cameras vs proper cameras. Fitting topic, since we have another very experienced content creator that focuses plenty of visuals. The OPPO Find X2 series also triggers the topic with its claim on topping the DX0Mark charts (OPPO Find X2 Pro). Of course, we would want to know what his opinion is on this subject. We did an editorial on this subject too.

Editorial, News, Podcast

Tech & Tonic Episode 4 feat. Adam Lobo – More COVID-19 Stuff and #BatteryGate

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In this week’s Tech & Tonic Podcast, we have Adam Lobo of Adam Lobo TV! Adam Lobo is the lead vocalist in the rap metal band Dragon Red. Adam Lobo’s gift does not just stop at his voice though. He makes great looking contents on his YouTube channel too when he is not jamming out with the band. His love and passion in tech led him to create his own YouTube channel where he reviews the latest gadgets you can buy in the Malaysian market. If you want to see devices in 4K detail, you should definitely check out his channel.

Last week we saw big events in the tech industry being cancelled. We say that they are being cancelled, most of them have moved things online (as in livestreaming) instead. Microsoft’s MVP conference, Facebook F8 Summit, Adobe Summit, Google Cloud Next, Google I/O 2020 are just the few events that has been cancelled due to COVID-19 (there is a new official name now) concerns. How is this going to affect the tech landscape? What about other industries?

We also saw the most valuable brand in the world getting into some trouble with the law. Apple has been caught up in their court battle for a while now and the court has decided that Apple should be fined and pay out almost half a billlion U.S. Dollars in compensation to the victims of their deliberate software throttling. As far as we know, this only applies to the U.S. market. There is more to this though.

Editorial, News, Podcast

Tech & Tonic Episode 3 feat. Isa Rodriguez – Camera or Smartphone Cameras?

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In this episode of Tech & Tonic, we have Isa Rodriguez of Isa Does Tech, her very own YouTube channel. As a tech reviewer, she is one of the more unique ones. She does not just review the tech, but also how it pairs with the lifestyle side of things. In that sense, it is a very unique and interesting approach to tech.

We spoke at length about the many smartphone launches that happened over the past week including the very anticipated and expensive HUAWEI Mate Xs. That is one eye catching device, since it is a foldable device and approaches the foldable device concept differently.

We also discussed about the Sony Xperia 1 Mk. II that really caught our eyes. We think that it is one heck of a device for creators. It is really Sony’s premium smartphone reloaded.

The war between proper cameras and smartphones continues though. Is it better to buy a super high-end smartphone, or is it better to spend some of that money to buy a camera, an interchangeable lens camera maybe. We all agreed that it really depends on what we are looking for in our smartphones or even cameras. Which is superior? Find out with Tech & Tonic Podcast.

Podcast

Tech & Tonic Episode 2 feat. Vernon Chan – Pre-Order, Cash, or Installment? Oh, Use Protection Everyone!

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Episode two of Tech & Tonic we have a featured guest who is none other than Vernon Chan! He will be joining us today to talk about a few key aspects of how the local tech market is, to security concerns with all the technologies that we are too dependent on. Also do listen to the end to find out why Vernon decided to delete his Facebook account!

A little more about Vernon, he hails from a creative background that spans over 20 years, and is the founder of boutique creative hotshop – scratchdisk creative. He’s an avid blogger/writer, Twitter-addict, foodie, technology and gadget enthusiast, animal lover, Steve Jobs groupie and petrolhead.

Mentioned in the title, we will be starting the podcast with what we think of pre-orders and how it is used to gauge the market dynamics of what phones or colours that could sell well. What are the pros and cons of getting a phone on pre-orders, getting it in cash and getting it on a installment plan with a telco. 

The second notable topic is data privacy. Why is data privacy important? How does it affect us and what can we do about it? Government policies should also be enforced for the data collecting and selling companies to ensure the citizens are protected. 

Most online services require the user to opt in to use the services. Mostly, it is for the convenience of using the services. How much are we willing to give up? How much is the government doing to protect us?

What can you do to protect yourself and your data online? Some tips and tricks from @vernieman himself on the measures he personally takes to protect himself even when he’s traveling around the world!