Tag Archives: Google Play

Toll Costs on Google Maps Coming Soon, Finally

3There is a huge debate between Google Maps and Waze users. Google Maps users prefer the cleaner looking interface with the enormous amount of detail you can get on their display without making their smartphone look like a mess of squiggly lines. You even get Google to tell you which lanes you need to take. Waze also adopted the lane guidance system by Google toward the end of last year, which was a hugely welcome addition to the app. Waze was one of the first few apps in the industry to allow for real-time traffic tracking and rely on user inputs to analyse traffic situations. But in some sense, its UI feels a little more clunky than the plain and clean looking Google Maps.

Since Waze added the lane guidance feature that was vital to Google Maps’ popularity though, it seems that Waze is leaping ahead. They had features that helped users really plan their journey out, complete with an estimate cost of the journey. Waze, at one point, was the only reliable app you could use to estimate your toll payment costs. Google Maps is now taking a backseat. Ironically, Waze is owned by Google as well.

Google Maps might be able to regain some foothold though with an upcoming feature to mimic Waze’s toll cost feature. In that sense, now you can use your Google Maps to really plan out your journey, costs included.

Since Waze’s acquisition, the Google Maps and Waze apps have been getting numerous updates that adds functionality in one way or another. While Waze’s app development has been largely driven by its users, Google Maps takes a slightly different approach. Still, some functions from Google Maps will make way into Waze and vice versa.

The feature update that is touted to come in the coming weeks is supposed to show estimated toll prices alongside the drive route. Before this, Google Maps recognises the existence of tolls on its route but does not display its estimated cost. Before you pick a route on Google Maps too, the app will tell you that you are going to be taking a route with tolls on the way. The update is expected to finally tell you how much you might need to spend for tolls on the route of your choosing. There are no clear indications on how Google Maps plan to collect toll price data for this function. The best guess is that Google would be using collected user data for the function to work. Or Google could just completely rip the feature off from Waze and dunk it into their app.

Whatever it is, it can only mean good things for users at both ends. Being able to plan your routes accordingly and accurately is not just important to cut down your travel times, but also important in making your journey a less painful one with a certain amount of predictability. In that case, we are looking forward to Google Maps finally having some new features. Google Maps and Waze are both available for free on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Popular Doesn’t Mean Safe – Google Pulls Apps from Play Store

Popular doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safe. That’s what we’re seeing from a new report which has led to Google removing nine apps from the Google Play Store. The nine apps recently surfaced in a report by security firm, Dr. Web, these apps were providing fully functional service while stealing users’ Facebook login information.

The apps in question had different malware variants in their coding. Their developers incentivised surrendering user information by offering a “free upgrade to Pro” when a user opted to log in with their Facebook account. Once the unassuming user did this, the app would intercept and hijack the login credentials. The apps, identified as trojans, used an intermediary server to spoof and collect Facebook information and cookies.

A total of five malware variants were found in these apps. All of them were classified under the same trojan by Dr. Web. Three of these variants were apparently developed natively for Android while another two were done using Google’s Flutter framework. The latter of the types pose an increased risk to users as the framework allows apps to be developed across multiple platforms. All of these malware variants shared identical configuration file formats and identical JavaScript code to steal data.

According to the report from Dr. Web. The apps in question are:

If you have downloaded any of these apps in the past or still have them on your phone. You should thoroughly check your phone for malware. Apps such as Kaskpersky and Malwarebytes are good options to help remove any malware from your device. It goes without saying that you should uninstall these apps immediately.

Google has since removed the apps from the Play Store. Ars Technica states that a Google spokesperson noted that the offending app developers have been removed and banned from the Play Store.

[MWC 2021] Samsung Shows Off One UI Watch for Upcoming Galaxy Watch 4

It has been nearly a month since Google’s I/O keynote. In that same time, we were reeling back from the shock we got from the keynote itself about Google and Samsung joining hands to co-develop Android Wear moving forward. That announcement also means that Samsung is abandoning their Tizen OS for future Galaxy Watches. It also seems like Samsung might give up on the idea of their own unique looking UI on their smart watches with the announcement. Now, it does not seem so.

They call it the One UI, and yes, it is based on Google’s Android Wear UI. At least according to Samsung, One UI is developed and built jointly with Google for the Galaxy Watch platform. It is meant to be a unified platform that combines the best of both Google’s wearable platform and Samsung’s Watch platform.

All this is meant to create a Galaxy Watch experience that is familiar but somewhat new to users. But at the same time, the new One UI platform is designed to be more integrated with your Android smartphones as well. That also means that you get a more unified experience between your smartphone and your Galaxy Watch.

Picture1
Source: Samsung

With the new One UI, the Galaxy Watch responds almost simultaneously with your Android smartphone. For example, if you change the information you want on your clock app on your smartphone, the changes will be reflected on your Watch as well. When you download apps with a complementing app for the Watch, your Watch downloads and installs the complementing apps at the same time too. When you block calls or messages from your smartphone, that gets directly translated on your Watch as well.

The biggest difference between the older Tizen OS powered Galaxy Watch and the new upcoming One UI powered Galaxy Watch is where you get your apps. One UI gets all its apps from Google’s trusty Play store. That should be good news to Galaxy Watch users though. It means you get access to popular apps like Google Maps, and YouTube music, finally.

Samsung is not the only one that gets the benefits of this partnership though. Samsung is bringing their clever watch face design tool for developers into the Android Wear ecosystem. That also means that designing watch faces for Android Wear is even easier now. More watch faces is always better, especially if you can get great looking watch faces from the Galaxy Watch ecosystem.

Picture4
Source: Samsung

Of course, the new One Ui unified platform from the Samsung and Google partnership will be featured in the new upcoming Samsung Galaxy Watch device. The full functionalities of One UI will also be announced and showcased in the upcoming Samsung Unpacked event. There are already leaks of how the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 floating around on the internet, and all of those gets us more excited about Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 that is coming soon.

Honor Devices Confirmed to Ship with Google Play Services

It’s been quite a journey for Honor in its recent emancipation from Huawei. However, it looks like the emancipation is coming with significant benefits. If you need a little refresher, Honor started off as a subsidiary brand of Huawei to address the growing Millennial and Gen-Z segment who were looking for affordable, power-packed devices. Honor had a big European debut with one of their first ambassadors being Brooklyn Beckham, son of Football Star, David Beckham and Spice Girl, Victoria Beckham. However, with the sanctions from the U.S. on Huawei, the brand began to ship their devices without Google Play Services and with Huawei’s AppGallery.

Earlier this year, the brand was spun off into its own company and it looks like that has been a boon to it. In a tweet from the Official Honor Germany account the brand confirmed that their latest flagship, the Honor 50 will be coming with Google Play Services. (The tweets have since been deleted.) This is a big win for the brand as we’re beginning to see Huawei slip from the top of the list of smartphone vendors. Most recently, the company noted a 41% year on year decline in smartphone shipments.

Source: Android Authority
Source: Android Authority

That said, with the sale of Honor to a Chinese consortium of companies, Honor is seeing positive momentum. In fact, the company has confirmed that their upcoming Honor 50 will be coming with the recently announced, Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G. The partnership wasn’t possible under Huawei due to the U.S. sanctions. In addition to this, the company has also revealed that an upcoming Honor Magic device will be coming with the “most premium Qualcomm chipset”. The current SoC which fits that description is the Snapdragon 888 unless Qualcomm has another chipset up its sleeves.

The last Honor Magic device was released way back in 2018. The line up is being reintroduced as part of the new portfolio. Previously, the Magic line up was Honor’s most premium line up with power-packed specifications and top of the line features. It looks like that isn’t changing with the company touting the upcoming device as a “premium flagship product featuring superb imaging quality”.

Google I/O 2021: Everything You Need to Know

Google I/O 2021 is happening right now. The three-day conference kicked off with a bang though. To put it bluntly, Google I/O 2021 kicked off with a two-hour keynote highlighting everything coming from Google in 2021. While two hours do sound like a lot of drag, the announcements do sound mighty interesting though.

Google Workspace for Everyone

Source: Google

They kick off with something that everyone is concerned about in the period of pandemic, working from home. For that Google has something called Google Workspace. Google Workspace has been one of the most popular and thriving services since the world has gone into isolation with the looming pandemic situation. In 2021, the suite is updated with something called Smart Canvas.

Smart Canvas is a collaborative workspace within Google Workspace built for project management and keeping track of a project with your team members. It is kind of like a private chat or conversation within the larger organisation, but much cleaner. You can create and share Google Docs, Sheets, and even Slides within the group and work on the files together in real time.

Workspace is also now integrated with Google Meet, Google Doc, Google Sheet, and Google Slides. That also means that you can have a meeting on Google Meet within Google Workspace, share your files across the chat, and even edit the files together with your team in the Meets room. It is all about making remote collaborative work as seamless and organised as possible. Google also said Google Workspace will be available for free later in the year.

More in Google Search

Source: Google

Google search can also bring contents or search results that comes from other parts of the world in different languages with the integration of Google Translate algorithm and Google Lens as well. On top of that, Google is improving their language understanding and processing algorithm that should benefit more than just Google Translate, Google Lens, and regular Google Search.

They developed something called Wavenet, to make Google Assistant sound more natural and more contextual. They put that together with something they call Multitask Unified Model (MUM). All these makes Google Search and Google Lens the most powerful search and item identification tool ever.

The technologies that got mashed together means that Google search is not just single words anymore. It could be a sentence, a photo, and even both. The results can turn to be more than just web suggestions too. The result can turn out to be top suggestions, a place, and even connect you to merchants to buy what you need. If you set up your Google wallet correctly with all your merchant memberships as well, Google can connect you directly to deals that might be tied to your memberships too. There is a bit more to that too with Google Chrome, where you can track back your shopping carts on various sites even after you close the page.

Cleverer Google Maps

Source: Google

Google Maps is technically the most popular navigation app in the world. But that does not mean the app is flawless. There is always room for improvements.

Eco and Safe Driving

For example, Google introduces an ‘Eco Mode’ into the app. That basically means Google will take you through the most fuel efficient and economical route to get you to where you want and need to be. It may not be necessarily the fastest though, just keep that in mind.

They also introduced ‘safer driving’ routes for Google Maps. Obviously, that is what we call it, not what Google calls it. The idea is to navigate you to routes that might avoid traffic with sudden braking points and overall a smoother, clearer ride. All these are obviously done with Google’s navigation algorithm, traffic analysis, and GPS data such as speed or acceleration that Google Maps itself can see and work with in real-time.

Better Live View

Source: Google

They have expanded on Live View too in this case. Google Maps Live View does not just include navigation data in Augmented Reality anymore. It now shows you street names so that you can navigate better. It also now includes points of interest, landmarks, and you can pull up information regarding a place including its reviews directly from Maps app itself. Google Maps is also introducing Live View indoors now. It starts with the major train stations and airport in Zurich for now. The feature will be introduced to Tokyo also next month.

More Details

If you are getting yourself around by driving though, Google Maps is also a lot more detailed. Major intersections with road crossings and traffic lights will now show on maps so that you are better prepared. With Google’s understanding on your behaviour, your routine, and your usual routes, Google can also highlight relevant information, landmarks, or points of interest for you. A breakfast takeaway for example, on a Monday morning drive to work.

On top of all of that, Google Maps can now be a tool to help you plan your day not just on the road. Google Maps can track or predict how busy and packed an area will be at certain times just so you do not have to squeeze into the area at that time. You could plan to go another day for example, or just not go at all if it is not important. This is important in this day and age where social distancing is a recommended practice.

LaMDA

Source: Google

LaMDA is meant to be a conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI). Google says they have been using and testing it internally and it is powered by everything great about Google’s search engine and linguistic programming. In its demo, it sounds like an amazing piece of tech that could keep you having conversations with it from day to night.

It is programmed to know everything there is to know about our current world and situation. But it is not built to answer you with data necessarily. It is built to have natural conversations about the weather in general terms like “you might want to bring an umbrella in the afternoon”, rather than “there is a 78% chance of a light rain at 2.00 p.m.”.

While the answers that we saw from the demo does sound a little metallic and robotic at times, we cannot wait for LaMDA to be introduced into things like Workspace, YouTube, or even Google Maps. It is like having your own version of Iron Man’s JARVIS in your smartphone, or PC, or whatever you fancy.

More Organised Google Photos

Source: Google

Google Photos is a little bit more than just your photo gallery now though. It is now something you can use to create photo collages, to understand yourself better, and sort of your memory bank. Google’s image recognition recognises your photo patterns and puts all of them together to tell you that you tend to take photos of a certain context or a certain look. It tells you that you might be attracted to a certain sort of colour for example.

With Machine Learning (ML) as well, Google Photos can stitch multiple similar photos taken in succession to create a moving photo or video for you, even if there are gaps. Organisation and searching for your photos are even more intuitive too when you can find photos associated to certain celebrations for example.

Android 12 and Wear OS

Source: Google

Trust us when we say Android 12 is a huge overhaul of the Android OS. There is nearly no difference in terms of function, to be fair. Most of the changes are in the way things look and gets organised, and even customised. They call all this Material You design.

In terms of looks, things are a lot more intuitive, most organised, bigger, and a lot less cluttered. You get more control in how your User Interface (UI) looks in total as well. There are supposedly about 22% faster animation, they say.

You get more control over your own security and even privacy, and they are easier to access and understand with Privacy Dashboard. With the new UI as well, IoT controls are more front and center than before. There is a new improved remote app for your Android TV too.

Wear OS is getting a fresh lease of life too, thankfully. They want to make Wear OS a major smartwatch platform competitor to Apple’s WatchOS. To do that they managed to strike a partnership with their long-time partner, Samsung to bring Tizen and Wear OS together to make a more robust wearable operating system (OS) for everyone to use. Fitbit will also be introducing their own Wear OS later in the year and lend their expertise and know how in health and fitness into the upcoming Wear OS.

Your Safety, Privacy, and Protection Matters

Source: Google

Google has also improved their Google Password Manager. While the app still functions the same as before, you can now transfer password information from older devices. That also means that your passwords can be stored on-device instead of on-cloud. With Android’s on-device encryption nature, saving your managed passwords on your device could be a more secure option. With compromise alerts, you know when your accounts are accessed, and you can easily change passwords for whatever you have quickly via Password Manager.

Privacy Core

Google also introduced something called their Privacy Core. It is Google’s effort in giving control over information shared with Google back to its users. Supposedly as well, thanks to Privacy Core, you Live Caption sessions or translations will not be shared back to Google.

But security and privacy are more than that as well. It spreads to your search history, and even browsing history. Google is including an option now to delete ‘recent history’ on your Google Chrome.

Even in Google Maps, you can tell the app to not track your location history just so that the app does not collect your location data. You can allow Google Maps to track you accurately, or just give Google access to your approximate location now, in different apps. Not allowing Maps to track your data and build a history data also means that you are not going to get recommendations or suggestions from Google though. A worthy trade off, we think, for more privacy.

Better Health, Better Quality of Life

Source: Google

Since Google’s expansion and changing their own corporate name to Alphabet, they have been hugely involved in medical research. One of the places they have been pushing on is in the field of Mammograms. Google’s AI push into the platform means that screening for breast cancer is more accurate than ever. Their AI also helps doctors in understanding Mammograms and the severity in the diagnosis helping the health institutes prioritise different cases.

That is not all though. Dermatology is one huge field that could be expanded even using your own devices. Because this field has more to do with skin conditions, Google Lens can be an early diagnosis tool. You can take a photo of your skin conditions and Google can possibly identify what you have to a certain degree. Of course, nothing replaces a doctor in matters of treatments and full diagnosis, so Google can direct you towards a dermatologist near you via your browser. This feature will be available in the EU region by the end of the year 2021.

Project Starline

Source: Google

Speaking of health, we cannot ignore the current pandemic situation. We are all recommended to stay at home as much as possible and avoid as much human interaction as possible. The COVID-19 pandemic, while has brought humanity together more than ever, ironically has isolated us even more too.

Project Starline is a video chat tool that uses multiple cameras to create a 3D image model and project that 3D image to another part of the world. While that means that the file packages from that implementation are so bug that our regular internet speeds will not be able to cope, Google is working to compress the image files to a more sensible package size so that the images can be transferred using our regular internet connection.

The function of that is to implement a 3D video chat experience. While regular video chat today has progressed further than before, nothing replaces a physical presence and interaction. The idea with 3D projection calls looks to bridge that gap a little. Although you cannot touch the person still, having a 3D representation of a person is as close as you can get in having a physical presence in today’s world.

Google I/O 2021

Source: Google

To wrap up, Google announced that they are committing to shift their entire operation to carbon free energy sources by 2030. While Google has been proud of operating entirely on renewable energy, they are taking the first steps in relying on clean energy that does not leave any footprints. The commitment has led them to invest into Geothermal energy currently.

As promised by Google, the Google I/O 2021 is the largest ever. It is not just based on attendance though. It is also about the number of things that Google is introducing for 2021. It is also about Google’s commitments for the future, and we are excited, especially for Wear OS. For more information on what happened in Google I/O, you can check out Google’s Blog.

Google I/O 2021 Full Schedule is Out – What to Expect from Google in 2021

Google’s I/O even is set to happen on the 18th of May 2021 onward (19th May 2021, following Malaysia time). Usually also, Google’s I/O is where Google announces their latest and greatest Android version. We can safely assume that the latest update to Android (Android 12) will be announced in Google I/O with Beta version rolling out immediately after.

According to their three-day conference calendar too, a new Android update is definitely on the cards with all the talk about “What’s new in Android”, and “What’s new in Material Design” talks. But Google I/O is more than just Android.  This year it really seems like Google’s biggest one yet.

According to the calendar also there seems to be a new Chrome OS lined-up for announcement with its own keynote. There is also a new update to Google Assistant in Google I/O. Smart homes ecosystem is getting some attention this year too at Google I/O with its own keynote segment. Google Play and Google Pay also get some new updates this year from Google I/O.

Oddly enough though there are no mentions of Wear OS within the schedule. While that also means that there should not be any update to Wear OS for the time being, do not discount Wear OS to be updated later in the year. Google’s acquisition of Fitbit will also not be addressed in Google I/O 2021, in this case. The Fitbit acquisition could also mean a new hardware announcement from Google in the wearable space though.

There are also numerous rumours surrounding Google’s upcoming or speculated Pixel device, the Pixel 5a. Alongside that, Google is also supposed to be announcing their new TWS earbuds in the conference. According to the schedule, there seems to be no acknowledgement on the hardware end of things. Most of the time though, hardware announcements are made in the first keynote of Google’s I/O. We are still expecting some new hardware from Google from Google I/O though. If you are too, keep your eyes peeled on Google’s I/O 2021.

It’s Not Just You… Google Services are down! [Update: Issue Seems to be Resolved]

Update 8:46pm: Google services seem to be coming back online. Sites like YouTube and Gmail are back. Google Play is still down, however. Discord is also back – it seems like the outage was unrelated.

Update 9:03pm: Pokemon GO is back online. No comment yet from Google. However, they have noted on their dashboard that, “service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change.”

Update 9:08pm: The Google Play Store is back online. It seems like the issue has been resolved.

If you’ve been trying to get into Gmail and other Google services like YouTube and failing, you’re not alone; while pretty rare, it seems like Google is experiencing a worldwide disruption of nearly all their services. Outages have been reported since 7:23 pm Malaysian time.

The disruption seems pretty extensive this time with services like GSuite for Business and Education also being affected in addition to Google’s new game streaming service, Stadia. YouTube is also down. If you’re on Android, the Google Play Store is also facing the same predicament. It seems like the outage is affecting more than just Google’s in-house apps. Apps like Pokemon GO and Discord have also been affected by the outage.

Reports are coming in are indicating that the outage may be more extensive with countries such as South Africa, the United Kingdom, India, the United States, Egypt, New Zealand, Romania, Russia and Thailand and Turkey also reporting the same.

The issue seems to be with account authentication as users are reporting that sites such as YouTube are accessible when accessed via an incognito window. YouTube Music is apparently still accessible on browsers at the time of writing. However, if you try to access the service through its app, you will only be able to access your downloaded content.

We will be updating this article as the situation develops.

Safeguard your Smartphone and Become a Cybersecurity Wiz

The question of ‘hackability’ and the overall security of our smartphones is one of those issues that seems to pop up in the news. After all, we use our smartphones for just about anything – sharing photos, ordering food, shopping online, sending emails and messages, banking and financial services, etc. – without realising all of the ways we could be putting our device and ourselves at risk, allowing cyber-criminals to get access to our sensitive data.

While many of us are better informed today about the potential dangers of being connected on our smartphones, hackers and cyber-criminals are also changing their methods of attack. As the global pandemic have left many of us stuck at home and more reliant than ever on our mobile devices, cyber-criminals have also adapted new ways to target users. Over the Movement Control Order (MCO), cybersecurity cases spiked by 82.5% compared to the same time last year, with 18% attributed to attacks against local companies and the remaining linked to home users and others[1].

Recognising Cyberattacks and the Need for Cyber-resilience

Among the new waves of attacks brought on by the pandemic are COVID-19 themed phishing lures, high-risk fake domains, and scams[2]. These new methods employed by cyber-criminals are aimed at taking advantage of the public fear of the virus, combined with heightened stress levels from unfamiliar ways of working. The most common attacks in Malaysia can be attributed to phishing attempts, the spread of malicious code via untrustworthy websites, and passwords, as below:

  • Phishing Emails – Reports have found that 91% of all attacks begin with a phishing email to an unsuspecting victim, with 32% of all successful breaches involve the use of phishing techniques[3]. While many of us have been educated on recognising phishing emails, these attacks are still effective, and can fool even tech-savvy individuals.
  • Malicious Websites – Compromised websites is a main avenue for spreading malware infections on mobile devices. Limiting your browsing activity to reputable websites can reduce the possibility of infection.
  • Password Security – A survey revealed that 59% of respondents use the same password for multiple accounts, citing convenience and a fear of forgetting their password as the reason for this practice[4]. However, this allows cyber-criminals to access all your accounts easily through one single credential. Therefore, it is advisable to use different passwords across accounts.

Cyberattacks continue to grow day-by-day, and it is crucial that we learn to minimise risk, with good cyber habits being a pivotal and essential first step in combatting threats.

Defending your Smartphone, the Moment it is Turned On

As such, while it is important to take steps and measures to protect yourself online, it is also crucial to have a strong security platform on your smartphone, helping you encrypt and secure confidential data. Most smartphone breaches happen because they may not be equipped with advanced security measures, have outdated systems that may not be able to withstand current attacks. Similarly, smartphone owners may also not consider the importance of securing their phones or performing regular security check-ups. However, there are certain devices that come with a safe and secure in-built mobile interface to keep your personal data protected.

For example, Samsung Knox sets a foundation of security to users at both the hardware and software level as a security platform that’s integrated within Samsung smartphones, tablets, and wearables to protect it against malicious threats. Whether it is protection against phishing attacks or potential malware infections, the Samsung Knox platform has security integrated into its DNA, providing multi-layered security with data encryption and run-time protection within Samsung devices to keep sensitive information safe from online threats. Users can safeguard passwords, save private files under a secured folder, and even secure mobile transactions with Samsung Knox. Getting to know your security platforms is just as important when considering the range of services that is available to ensure that it is updated to meet global information and technology security requirements. This helps its users stay ahead of the modern-day threats with its game-changing security features.

Photo by Zana Latif from Pexels

Given that smartphone usage has only grown exponentially over the past few years, it is important that we have more security platforms allowing us the freedom and peace-of-mind in staying connected. Similar to how Samsung Knox have.

On top of having a top-tier security platform for your data, having that protection extended to all the essentials in a mobile device is equally important. While many of us are familiar with installing apps on our phones, we may be unfamiliar with the authenticity of the sources producing these apps. Learning to identify unverified and suspicious sources can help users identify potentially harmful apps.

Similar to how Samsung devices come built-in with Google Mobile Services (GMS) to help ensure that your vital applications have the latest updates and patches from verified sources, using trusted sources from well-known app stores like Google Play can help protect you from downloading and installing apps that can harm your devices.

Staying Secure, Safe, and Savvy about Security

Cyberattacks are nothing new, the challenge is in identifying and combatting the updated approach that many cybercriminals are using when it comes to their targets and the frequency of their attacks. Whether it is a hacking attempt by a third-party app or a fraud email redirecting you to a malicious website, most cybercriminals have one common goal: exploit your personal data and use that data to make profit. As such, it is critical that we keep our sensitive information protected at all costs, with the help of a smartphone built with highly advanced security features to always keep you safe from unwanted threats.


[1] https://www.thestar.com.my/news/focus/2020/04/12/cybersecurity-cases-rise-by-825

[2] https://home.kpmg/my/en/home/media/press-releases/2020/04/cybercrime-and-scams-have-been-successful.html

[3] https://www2.deloitte.com/my/en/pages/risk/articles/91-percent-of-all-cyber-attacks-begin-with-a-phishing-email-to-an-unexpected-victim.html

[4] https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252440316/Password-practices-still-poor-despite-increased-threats

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

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!