It is January 2021 and we are back for another episode of Tech & Tonic podcast, the very first one for 2021 and it came from our own houses because Malaysia is under a second lock down (Movement Control Order). The global pandemic did not stop CES 2021 from happening though. Although everything is happening online.
The year kicked off with a bang though because Xiaomi now joins HUAWEI and DJI in the United States banned entities. Xiaomi does not have an official presence in U.S. though. They only stateside link they have is the Operating System they use (Google’s Android), their processors (Qualcomm), and few other components. In that case, what will happen to Xiaomi? We discusses a little further on this topic on the podcast.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 series just launched last week too. The renders look exactly the same as the actual device except that the device looks even more impressive. The Samsung Galaxy S21 flagship series packs Samsung’s latest Exynos with 5G capabilities. The Galaxy S21 Ultra even sports S Pen compatibility and up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. All of these comes with a price though. The Samsung Galaxy S21 starts at MYR 3,699 and tops out at MYR 5,899.
It is also the first Samsung Galaxy S21 series that sells without a charger out-of-the-box too. With all the shade that was thrown to Apple’s decision to not include a charger for ‘ecological’ purpose, we start questioning the motive behind not including chargers in smartphone boxes. We also discuss a little further on the fact that the S Pen now lives on in the Samsung Galaxy S21 series, a sign of death in the family of Samsung. All this and more on Tech & Tonic Podcast.
Samsung just launched their Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 5G device last week globally. It is coming to Malaysia soon too with the global availability. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 is probably the most anticipated and exciting devices to come out in these two years. Naturally, we are quite excited to see and review the device itself.
Before we can review the device though, we brought Jeff Sandhu in to our studio for a podcast. In this podcast we discuss all things foldable. When we say that, we mean smartphones and gadgets that are foldable, including the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2.
Jeff Sandhu was formerly from BFM. His 10 years experience in BFM includes producing his own talkshows featured on the radio channel itself. He joined BFM when the channel was only 2 years old. He recently left BFM to join a Sunway iLabs and Sunway Education Group initiative called 42 Kuala Lumpur. He is currently heading the media team in the initiative. He is an avid tech enthusiast like us though.
In this podcast we explore, with Jeff, some of the upcoming foldable devices. We discussed what we liked about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2, and what we do not like about the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
In this episode of Tech & Tonic Episode 21, we explored the wonderful world of noise cancelling headphones. Actually, we just watched Sony’s WH-1000XM4 announcement and discussed about the MYR 1,599 headphones.
We think that the headphones could be the best noise cancelling headphones the world will see. It will be at least until Bose releases their new one. This new Sony headphone comes with new material constructions though, to make it even more comfortable than before.
Will you get the Sony WH-1000XM4? Or should you get the older WH-1000XM3 instead? Come discuss with us!
The COVID-19 global situation is a big one. It changed so many things for us. It changed the way we live, and definitely the way we work and stay productive. At the back of it all, tech companies all over the world are becoming the backbones of plenty of organisations. The ‘work from home’ trend is booming in a way never before seen.
For a company like Red Hat, transforming from an office based workspace to home based workspace is not necessarily complex. It may not be as straightforward as they make it seem though. There are still plenty of considerations for them and their clients when it comes to the quarantine procedures and working procedures.
What happens to their clients? What happens to the ongoing projects with the Open Innovation Labs? What happens to Red Hat globally? What do we do, as companies in this age?
In this Tech & Tonic special, we sit down with Eric Quah of Red Hat to find out a little bit more on their efforts to normalise during the COVID-19 crisis. Of course, we want to know how we can work a little normally at this time as well. If we learnt a thing or two in this session, we believe you might as well.
Last week we saw a bunch of things being launched and released. We found out that the OnePlus Nord is coming to Malaysia. We also see the launching of Canon’s all-new, all-conquering their Canon EOS R5 and the Canon EOS R6. The Canon EOS R5 is capable of 8K video recording. It technically has become one of the best mirrorless camera in the market.
The big thing that happened last week though is the announcement of Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event happening on the 5th of August 2020. We can expect to see the Samsung Galaxy Note20 in this event. Based on the rumours and leaks too, we can expect Samsung to bring back the Copper colour. Based on the rumours too, the Samsung Galaxy Note20 series will come with 5G capabilities as standard.
The event will also see Samsung releasing their new Active Noise Cancelling earbuds. Alongside that is a bunch of new devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 and Galaxy Tab S7+. Of course, we also can expect Samsung to launch the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G.
In this episode of Tech & Tonic, we spoke a little bit about AMD’s newest version of their Ryzen 4000. We are reviewing one of their mobile versions in a brand new ASUS TUF Gaming notebook PC. They are going to launch a new desktop series of the Ryzen 4000 CPUs today, so we are excited. Stay tuned for our review though.
Last week also we saw some new developments from Xiaomi. Xiaomi launched their brand new MIUI 12 based on Android 10. There is no new Android just yet, so while there are some minimal changes to the User Interface (UI), MIUI 12 is more of a cosmetic overhaul to modernise the interface.
Speaking of an electronics company that started with smartphones and now doing smart home products. HONOR is looking to rival Xiaomi in that space. They just launched new 8K TVs for not very much money. They also launched a wireless vacuum, electric toothbrush and a bladeless fan. Of course, the highlight of their launch last week was their new HONOR MagicBook with Intel’s 10th generation Core i7 and NVIDIA GeForce MX350.
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.
This article is contributed by Varinderjit Singh, General Manager, Lenovo Malaysia.
In a staggering feat of modern construction, crews in Wuhan, China built two emergency hospitals in 10 days shortly after the coronavirus outbreak began to relieve an overburdened hospital system for this unprecedented pandemic. For a small group of Lenovo employees, those days in late January will be forever remembered as a time of rapid and meaningful collaboration alongside colleagues and friends to meet a devastating technical challenge.
Emergency Construction Begins
As hospitals in Wuhan became instantly overcrowded with patients, construction began on January 23 of the Huoshenshan hospital and again on January 27 of the Leishenshan hospital. The day after emergency construction crews broke ground on the first hospital, Lenovo created an epidemic prevention and control team that decided to donate all the IT equipment needed by Huoshenshan.
Source: Business Insider
Delivering hundreds of computers, tablets, printers, and more to the hospital in such a short time—and in a way that would be safe for everyone involved—posed an incredible challenge to the team. Still, the scale and operational experience of Lenovo made the team optimistic they could contribute all the necessary parts within the aggressive 10-day timeline.“We just want to do something, to help by providing whatever IT equipment the hospital needed,” said Lu Yuan, General Manager of Lenovo’s Commercial Customer Business of Hunan and Hubei provinces (Wuhan is located in Hubei province).
Round the Clock Coordination
Source: Lenovo
Getting the products to the hospitals through a largely quarantined city was the first task, followed immediately by assembling IT and maintenance volunteers needed to make it all work on site. Lenovo’s after-sales service engineers from across the country, Xu Tan, Senior Manager of Lenovo Customers of Hubei and Wu Zhiyuan, Senior Sale Manager of Commercial Solutions volunteered and worked non stop to better equip the front-line medical staff for a better fight.
“The complex environment is far beyond imagination,” said Wu. “Under normal circumstances, with the speed of Lenovo, 15 people and 500 sets of equipment can be fully installed and commissioned in less than 24 hours. However, the 24-hour, non-stop construction requires coordination from multiple parts, such as communicating with the hospital’s organizer, establishing the on-site network, and syncing with tech experts at Lenovo headquarters.”
Wu continued, “In general circumstances, one PC is equipped with one printer, but for the hospital each medical PC needs to connect to three printers: a wristband printer, a case printer, and a receipt printer, which is a tough challenge for compatibility. Huoshenshan alone has 500 desktops, and if we install the equipment one by one, the workload is beyond imagination. But with the help of Lenovo IDV [a desktop solution that can quickly install thousands of PCs] we installed the desktops of 500 computer terminals at once, enabling doctors and staff to use them immediately. Also any problems can be handled remotely, which is not only extremely efficient but also reduces the frequency of entering any contaminated areas.”
A group of Lenovo engineers and hospital support completed the installation and commissioning of more than 1,400 pieces of equipment at both hospitals in only a few days to ensure that the hospitals would be able to provide services to patients on time.
By February 2, all IT equipment donated to Huoshenshan Hospital was delivered, updated, installed, and put into use—just one day before its doors opened to patients on February 3.
This was the beginning of Lenovo’s efforts to support employees, customers, and communities as COVID-19 spread. In China, Lenovo’s efforts continue, bolstered by the friends from Lenovo all around the world.
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.
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.
