WWDC 2021 happened last week and it was huge. Taking the stage was not just one thing. The hour-plus long keynote turned out to highlight the many improvements Apple is bringing to all their devices. They started with the Apple iPhone’s iOS 15, iPad’s iPadOS 15, and the WatchOS 8. They also announced macOS Monterey in the keynote.
These are not small updates to your Apple devices though, mind you. They come with a whole bunch of feature updates and security updates to make their platforms the most user friendly ever in terms of privacy control. There was plenty to be excited about too with the new updates.
What are our highlights? Listen through to the podcast!
E3 is coming and we saw a few studios reveal some trailers and gameplay to their upcoming games. One of the most exciting games for us is Horizon Forbidden West, a follow up to one of our favourite PS4 titles of all time, Horizon Zero Dawn. Dying Light 2 was announced too, but with no gameplay reveal just yet.
Still, the biggest thing that happened last week was Next@Acer. At the global press conference, Acer introduced the Aspire Vero, a notebook PC that features a shell made with reclaimed plastics. It is the first of Acer’s unique product line-up to feature sustainable and reclaimed materials.
That brings up some questions for us though. Is the current trend and actions toward sustainable production and manufacturing heading to the right direction? Can we do better? Can the manufacturers do better? Are they doing it right currently?
Google I/O happened last week and there was a lot to take in and dissect even from the two-hour long keynote to kick the Google’s 2021 developers conference off. We highlighted our favourite moments and things that we learned from Google I/O 2021. What caught our attention this year was their WearOS partnership with Samsung announcement. Android 12 is getting a huge visual revamp too this year. At the end of the show, something else caught our attention, and that was the Project Starline.
Google’s Wear OS is about to get a revamp and overhaul thanks to their new formed partnership with Samsung. This also means that Samsung will be ditching their Tizen OS development and focus on developing Wear OS with Google. Funnily enough Fitbit is not really getting involved. While they spent a very small amount of time making the announcement, there is more to Wear OS and Samsung’s involvement than Google made it out to be though. Fitbit is also not entirely out of the picture at this point.
We also saw the new Android 12 with Material You design language. The UI is cleaner, more intuitive, and even more customisable now. It is technically more YOU, more personal. You can change your theme colours to fit YOU. You can tune certain UI features to YOU. It is even more personal too with a Privacy Dashboard. You can even turn off your camera and mic completely if you want to; even your camera app will not be able to access both functions.
Project Starline was amazing. In brought to life a concept that we though will never see the light of day until way later. The whole pandemic situation has isolated us even more, and with conditions expected to take a turn for the worse in the coming year, physical connection to other human beings is sorely missed. Project Starline is as close as you can get to a physical touch and interaction to others at this point of time. To be fair, the technology is still in its early development stage and brings 3D and holographic telecommunications to life. It was encouraging and exciting to see, but we wonder how practical it would be if you want to bring that kind of technology to your homes or offices.
This episode is brought to you by Acer. Pre-order your Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebook with AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU from Acer from the 10th May 2021 onward!
In this episode of Tech & Tonic, we discuss the growing number of streaming services. Disney+ Hotstar is finally making its way into Malaysia after a long wait. Disney+ Hotstar joins Malaysia’s long list of streaming platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Go, Astro Go, iflix, and a few others.
Is having more streaming services a good thing though? Does it still make sense for you to pay for Cable TV services like Astro in Malaysia, especially with certain channels being removed with the introduction of Disney+ Hotstar? Do we need more streaming platforms at this time? Would Disney+ be better than the rest of the platforms?
We discuss this and more in the Tech & Tonic Podcast.
Smartphone cameras have been on a roll in the past two years. OnePlus launches their OnePlus 9 flagship series in partnership with Hasselblad, OPPO’s Find X3 Pro comes with a microscopic lens, Samsung pushing technology with 108-Megapixel sensors, Sony even pushing the limits of their 12-Megapixel sensors with their Alpha camera knowhow. These are nothing new, to be fair. Co-branding smartphone cameras with big camera brand names started with Nokia and Zeiss. The phenomenon hit the main stage with HUAWEI and Leica’s big partnership since the HUAWEI P9.
With the advancement in camera technology on smartphones though, has these brands made proper cameras obsolete? While nothing bigger sensor still has its own advantages in terms of low-light performance and detail, smartphone cameras have progressed so much with the software that they are paired with that even low-light photography is a breeze with a smartphone. The advancement of smartphone technology also made it easier for you to get the shots you want in less time and less work than a DSLR or mirrorless.
What does this mean for dedicated cameras though? Does this mean we can replace these kinds of stuff with the small slate in our pockets? Or, should you still spend your hard-earned money on a proper camera that could set you back anywhere between half the price of a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra to multiple flagship smartphones? We discuss this in this episode of Tech & Tonic.
Pre-order your Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebook with AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU from Acer from the 27th to 29th April 2021!
Show Notes:
Apple’s iPad Pro launched last week and to everyone’s surprise, comes with Apple’s highly acclaimed M1 chip. The Apple M1 processor is the same M1 processor you can find on the latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. This also makes Apple’s iPad Pro one of the most powerful tablets in the world sporting iPadOS. The true potential of a computing class processor in a mobile device is still yet unknown. We are suspecting that Apple will reveal the benefits and unlock the iPad Pro’s ultimate potential in the times to come.
This brings us to the issue that is the current state of Android tablets though. There were only two tablets that could technically compete alongside the iPad Pro in its previous form. The two tablets are from Samsung, in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+, and HUAWEI in the form of the HUAWEI MatePad Pro. With the new generation iPad Pro with M1 chip though, those two tablets now look like regular tablets that compete with the regular iPad. So what is the problem with Android tablets? We discuss this on the new episode of Tech & Tonic.
In truth, there has been plenty happening in the past two weeks, and that is why there was an extra week gap between Episode 7 and Episode 8. Still, we open the week with a leak and rumours from Samsung’s camp. There is a certain foldable tablet that is in the works in their labs. At the same time, the prices of their foldable devices have dropped quite significantly. In that case, does it make sense for you to consider getting a foldable smartphone for 2021? Does the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 make more sense now that it is priced at only MYR 6,999, a whole MYR 1,000 less than before? What about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip that is now MYR 3,999? Should you bet your money on other folding devices even (save for laptops)?
We discuss this and more on this episode of Tech & Tonic Podcast.
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Disney+ is coming to Malaysia! Finally, we can watch all the #Marvel series legally. Here is the question though, is it worth subscribing to? Especially with all the services we have already subscribed to. Should we fork out extra money for more contents that we might not even watch?
This is #Disney we are talking about though, they are one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, if not the largest. They are going to have more compelling shows in their catalogue. Is this going to be the case of iflix vs. Netflix again though? Who will emerge the victor in the long run? We don’t know yet. Still we discuss about it and more in Tech & Tonic Podcast Season 2 Episode 6.
Ultra-thin, stylish and all the power to satisfy your mobile needs. We got our hands on one Acer Swift 3x. This ultra-portable package packs a powerful combination of the 11th Generation Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor and Intel® Iris® Xe MAX Graphics discrete GPU. All of these packaged in an all-metal chassis worth MYR 4,599 (as tested).
It is thin, not Swift 5 thin, but thinner than most textbooks. The Steam Blue colourway is also stylish. But does it give you all the power you need on-the-go though. We put it through its paces to find out if this ultra-thin, stylish package has all the power that you really need out of it. Of course, we want to know if its worth your MYR 4,599 too.
Samsung just unveiled their latest entries into their Galaxy A series which bring with them a totally new approach for their midrange smartphones. The new Galaxy A72 spearheads the line up with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G and 8GB of RAM. It also has up to 256GB of internal storage.
The new Galaxy A72 will be coming to the market in the next few weeks and will retail at EUR€449 internationally. In Malaysia, the smartphone will set you back MYR2,299.
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