This time around in TechNave NewsBytes of 2019, Facebook has some tips on keeping your account / business page safe, Huawei held their 1st developer day for Huawei Mobile Services and a whole bunch of stuff from Digi, MDEC and Celcom VDP 2.0 for entrepreneurs. Boost weighed in for eSports, Lenovo donated for charity, Honor and OPPO did well in 11.11, Garmin MARQ got introduced, LG PuriCare Mini is a portable air purifier and more.
Facebook tips on keeping your account and business page safe
Amidst all the hullabaloo of hackers stealing social media accounts and identity information, Facebook have weighed in with 5 tips to keep account and business page safe.
- Secure your Facebook account with a strong password and two-factor authentication
- Review Page roles and permissions
- Stranger Danger (or be careful about strangers who want to be friends)
- Watch out for suspicious links and malicious software
- Set up trusted contacts
If you think your personal account has been compromised in any way, please visit facebook.com/hacked to get help, and visit their Help Center for help with your Page security. You can also explore Privacy Basics for more ways to increase your account security.
Huawei Mobile Services holds 1st Developer Day
HUAWEI Mobile Services (HMS) held its first APAC HUAWEI Developer Day (AHDD) n Singapore with more than 150 of its industry partners from all over the APAC region. The event highlighted the company’s open ecosystem – an all-scenario, seamlessly connected digital living supported by progressive technologies such as its own HUAWEI Mobile Services open capabilities, HUAWEI devices, 5G Networks, and AI-powered apps.
At the event, HUAWEI introduced the HUAWEI Ecosystem, which to date, serves over 570 million global users in more than 170 countries. Currently, there are also over 1.07 million global developers registered with HMS, with more than 50,000 apps already integrated into HMS Core, which helps to create a version of an app that is compatible with all HUAWEI devices.
Digi and MDEC collaborate to boost 5G innovation for Malaysian entrepreneurs
Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (Digi) and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) announced today a collaboration to ensure more entrepreneurs, startups and developers obtain access to perform trials on next-generation 5G technology at Malaysia’s first 5G OpenLab in Cyberjaya.
Both parties agree that 5G will drive significant progress in emerging technologies placing entrepreneurs, startups and developers in the best position to test the limits of 5G and bring to fore new ideas for solutions and content. To this end, Digi and MDEC welcome more entrepreneurs, startups and developers to conduct trials in the 5G OpenLab to better understand and verify the technical requirements needed for the deployment of 5G in Malaysia.
Use cases should be related to the areas of smart cities, smart mobility, smart healthcare and digital creative content. Through the data collected, learnings can be applied to narrow down and identify which use cases will be relevant for the growth of 5G in Malaysia.
Digi’s 5G OpenLab is hosted at RekaScape, a community space by Cyberview in Cyberjaya. The Lab serves as a collaborative space for businesses, academics and developers to test their 5G use cases. The 1,102 square feet 5G-powered space is the first-of-its-kind in Malaysia and offers super high-speed, massive bandwidth and ultra-low latency connectivity for 5G use case trials in a live, controlled environment. Applications to participate can be submitted to their site.
ADA Invests MYR 60 million in Data and Talent to strengthen Malaysia’s Data Infrastructure
ADA (Part of Axiata Group), continued its expansion in the region with the launch of the ADA Centre of Excellence in Malaysia. ADA also unveiled a suite of Retail Business Insights Dashboards – these will allow businesses to precisely target consumers (including their competitors’ consumers) based on their behaviours. The event was officiated by YB Tuan Gobind Singh Deo, Minister of Communications and Multimedia.
The ADA Centre of Excellence is located at Axiata Tower in Kuala Lumpur and will support rising data and digital demands both locally and regionally across eight other markets – Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. In line with this, ADA also revealed that they will be doubling their investments in data-related solutions, and talent over the next two years.
OPPO Reached RM 4.6 mil Revenue Within 24 Hours During 11.11 sales + Intelligent Technology Park
OPPO recently celebrated the biggest online sale on 11.11 with its e-commerce partners, Lazada and Shopee. Within 24 hours OPPO Malaysia received RM 4.6 Mil worth of revenue from its e-commerce division. Among the popular smartphones that contributed to this sale was the F11 series.
On Lazada, the OPPO F11 Pro became the top selling smartphone SKU, selling 2000 units in the first 30 minutes. Another 5000 smartphones were sold in 24 hours. A record of 3x revenue growth was seen compared to 11.11 in the year 2018. A great achievement was also seen in Shopee as OPPO received no 1 as one of the top selling smartphones brands sold. OPPO saw 2,000% increase in revenue compared to daily sales and 8x revenue growth compared to year 2018.
Among the 3 bestselling smartphone in success to the 11.11 mega sale, were the OPPO F11Pro, F11 and A5s respectively on OPPO’s Official Store or on Shopee or Lazada. OPPO also received its top 3 bestselling accessories; the OPB-X Powerbank at first place followed by ODC-F Series Cable and 3rd the DDPai Mini 3.
In related news, OPPO also launched an Intelligent Technology Park in Chongqing, which is the company’s 10th global smart manufacturing hub. It is expected to have an annual production capacity of 100 million smart devices by 2024
Located in the Yubei district of Chongqing, OPPO’s smart technology park covers an area of 1,524 mu (102 hectares). With a planned construction area of 1.33 million square meters, the two-phase project will be completed by 2024.
The overall park layout features a central area surrounded by a 2.5km ‘eco-loop’ that connects four groups of complexes including R&D buildings. The tech park represents an ‘all-in-one’ supply chain that combines software and hardware R&D, mobile network, smart manufacturing and logistics - all in one campus.
Phase I of the park will bring in over 13,000 employees and boast an annual capacity of 30 million smartphones. Once fully completed, the tech park will have an annual capacity of 100 million smart devices and resulting in the direct employment of 35,000 people.
HONOR Malaysia Achieves 1000% Increase in Wearable Sales During 11.11 Shopathon, Plans 12.12 Deals
HONOR achieved a 1000% YoY (Year on Year) increase in sales during its 11.11 Shopathon for its wearable category on Hihonor alone. This includes sales of the newly launched HONOR Band 5 and HONOR Band 5 Sport.
The HONOR Band 5 Sport was officially launched on Singles’ Day itself at RM 79, and offers features such as Workout Form Guidance, Basketball Mode, and up to 14 days of battery life with phone pairing capabilities as well. It is also the first time that HONOR introduced an eco-friendly design, with the band made entirely out of recycled fiber or more simply understood as recycled plastic waste. The wrist strap is crafted with dynamic braided technology that is not only light but comfortable on the wrist or ankle too.
The HONOR Band 5 continues to prove its popularity, making up 50% of the total wearable sales during the Shopathon. Launched in September this year, the HONOR Band 5 is the epitome of the ultimate fitness band, featuring 24/7 health monitoring and offers up to 14 days of normal usage from a single battery charge on a 0.95-inch AMOLED illusion screen. It also comes with Pulse Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) monitoring, a feature rarely found in fitness bands in its range. As for the smartphone category, the brand’s flagship HONOR 20 proves that it is a hit with Malaysian consumers by making up over 60% of the smartphone sales during Shopathon, thus setting a new record high for its sale.
Giving e-Sports a Boost
Homegrown and leading lifestyle e-wallet Boost is sponsoring four out of six e-sports teams consisting of the nation’s nine top professional e-sports players who will be representing Malaysia at the upcoming SEA Games 2019 in the Philippines this December. The sponsorship is part of Boost’s initiative to contribute to the co-development of the local e-sports industry.
Presently, approximately one-third of Boost’s user base consists of gamers and entertainment content fans. The e-wallet serves as a digital platform that enables users to enjoy various gaming services including instant gaming credit purchase from Steam, Garena, PlayStation and Razer.
Boost is currently running a promotion where users enjoy RM5 cashback when they purchase game credits in the Boost app and if they pay with their e-wallet at selected online and offline partners. The e-sports athletes being sponsored by Boost include Zaba, Malaysia’s top Tekken 7 player, Ranger, Malaysia’s top Starcraft 2 player, WKYew, Malaysia’s top Hearthstone player and Seven, Drmcp, TaintedOnes, Kun, Ryo as well as Kc who make up Malaysia’s top Arena of Valor team.
Catch the Boost Pros as they take on the region’s best gamers on the big stage at the upcoming SEA Games.
Apple MacBook Pro features new AMD Radeon Pro 5500M and 5300M mobile GPUs
AMD recently announced that the latest Apple MacBook Pro features the new AMD Radeon Pro 5500M and 5300M mobile GPUs. Based on the powerful AMD RDNA architecture, the Radeon Pro 5000M series mobile GPUs offer superb performance and incredible visual fidelity for video editing, 3D content creation and macOS-based game development. As the first 7nm discrete mobile GPUs for professional users, the new Radeon Pro 5000M series offers up to 8GB of GDDR6 memory with up to 192 GB/s bandwidth – doubling the bandwidth of GDDR5.
Users will also benefit from up to 4.0 TFLOPS of single-precision floating-point performance and ultra-smooth, high-framerate visuals on the MacBook Pro Retina display. The AMD Radeon Pro 5000M series GPUs join the previously announced Radeon RX 5500 series graphics products. The gaming-centric Radeon RX 5500M and RX 5300M GPUs are expected to be available in systems from other notebook manufacturers this quarter.
For more information about the MacBook Pro, visit their site.
LG introduces LG PuriCare Mini portable air purifier
With clean air a commodity in high demand today, LG Electronics (LG) recently announced the world’s first filter-type portable air purifier designed for use on-the-go. With an innovative PM1.0 Sensor, the compact and cord-free LG PuriCare Mini helps deliver safe, clean air in the car, a baby’s nursery or even one’s office.
With LG’s 4-Step Air Filtration System, LG PuriCare Mini can detect and remove 99 percent particulates as small as 0.3 μm1. The first step involves the PM1.0 Sensor which quickly and accurately detects the quality of the air before the Dual Inverter Motor forcibly draws in the air at 5,000rpm in the second step. In step three, the high-efficiency Total Allergen Removal filter removes particulates in the air and in the final step, the powerful Twin Tornado Dual Fan disperses the clean air far and wide. The LG PuriCare Mini is not only highly efficient, it’s also fast, cleaning 50 percent of the air inside a car in 10 minutes.2
LG PuriCare Mini can go anywhere the user goes thanks to its small size and light weight, which makes it ideal for use on the go where plug-in models can’t go. Similar in size and weight as a 500-milliliter bottle of water, the wireless portable air purifier freshens the air for up to 8 hours at low speed or 2 hours at the highest setting on battery power alone. And its quiet operation – only 30dB in low setting – allows the LG PuriCare Mini to be used in an enclosed stroller without waking a peacefully sleeping baby.
PuriCare Mini utilizes a durable filter which lasts up to 2,000 hours or six months if used 12 hours a day. The free LG ThinQ app for both Android and iOS devices allows users to monitor the condition of the filter, check the battery status and control their LG PuriCare Mini via Bluetooth with a smartphone or tablet. The LG PuriCare Mini will become available in key markets of Asia, North America throughout the next several weeks into 2019. No Malaysia release dates or pricing details, but hopefully it arrives soon or at least before the next haze season.
Microsoft announces pre-orders of new Surface devices starting 14th November 2019
Microsoft recently announced the latest Surface line-up – Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro 7, which will be available for pre-orders in Malaysia today onwards from commercial authorised resellers and authorised retailers. With prices starting from RM 4499 for the Surface Pro 7 and RM 5499 for the Surface Laptop 3, both devices will be officially launched in the market on 9 December 2019.
The all-new Surface Laptop 3 retains its iconic slim, sleek and lightweight design. Now, it’s twice as fast compared to previous generations, with faster multitasking and improved graphics. Available in two sizes, the Surface Laptop 3 13.5-inch features the latest 10th Generation Intel Core Processor for improved speed and performance. The Surface Laptop 3 15-inch brings a larger display to the Surface Laptop family with an elegant, all-metal design and strong graphics performance powered by a customized AMD processor. For more details, head over to the Microsoft News Centre.
Garmin Celebrates Malaysians with the launch of MARQ Collection
Garmin International, Inc., in celebration of its 30th anniversary, has released the MARQ™ series – a collection of tool watches, forged from Garmin’s long-standing heritage in the aviation, automotive, marine, outdoor and sports markets in Malaysia. The Garmin MARQ Aviator, MARQ Driver, MARQ Captain, MARQ Adventurer, MARQ Athlete and MARQ Commander are designed and engineered for those inspired by their passion for flying, racing, sailing, exploring, sports and tactical performances.
The launch event, with its focus on Celebrating Malaysians, held a panel discussion with notable Malaysians who are at the top of their fields. These towering Malaysians public figures shared their success stories and experiences of making it to the top. Among the invited guests were Datuk Nicol David, retired world No. 1 women squash player; Chris Lau, freelance journalist; Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy, Olympic Athlete (Sailing); Datuk Captain Nik Huzlan, retired chief pilot at Malaysian Airlines; and Zen Low, international race driver.
An outward expression of our consumer’s aspirations, the MARQ series uses premium materials, design elements and unique features. Each watch is built with titanium, which is lightweight, yet incredibly strong for high performance in all activities and are constructed with sapphire crystal formed under extreme heat and pressure to create an extremely durable lens that’s over twice as hard as glass. All watches are engineered with a ceramic bezel inlay to protect the watch from wear and tear in the most challenging environments.
The watches feature an always-on, sunlight-readable display with GPS and premium smartwatch functionality, including built-in music storage, smart notifications, daily activity tracking, as well as wrist-based heart rate and a wrist-based pulse ox2 sensor. All watches are compatible with Garmin’s QuickFit solution for quickly and easily changing between different straps and bracelets. The battery life of the MARQ series ranges from 12 days in smartwatch mode to 28 hours in GPS Mode and up to 48 hours in UltraTrac™ mode.
The MARQ Collection is available for sale at selected authorised Garmin retailers and Swiss Watch Gallery from 13th November 2019 and has a suggested retail price ranging from RM7,999 to RM13,500. To learn more, visit their site.
Lenovo Pays It Forward To Over 400 Residents of Four Charity Homes
Lenovo celebrated its month-long celebration in October for Lenovo’s 35th Founding Anniversary in Malaysia with a donation drive which benefited over 400 residents of four charity homes in Klang Valley including the elderly and children. Pusat Penjagaan Kanak-Kanak Cacat Taman Megah, Pusat Jagaan Telaga Kasih Nur Muhammad, Lovely Disabled Home, and Shelter Home for Children had been hand-picked by Lenovo to be the recipient of Lenovo’s donation drive as these homes were in need of additional support.
Lenovo Malaysia collected and donated daily necessities such as dry food, powdered drinks, cleaning supplies and diapers from generous team members as well as through Lenovo funds allocated for this campaign. The items donations were based on the wishlist provided by each charity home. Pusat Penjagaan Kanak-Kanak Cacat Taman Megah were happy to receive over several bags of diapers which will help them ease their monthly expenditure as diapers are costly purchases.
Aside from dropping off the donation items, over 60 Lenovo volunteers also helped to unpack the items. While doing so, the volunteers also spent time with the residents and organizers to learn more about their needs and how Lenovo can continue to support them.
Intel Speeds AI Development, Deployment and Performance with New Class of AI Hardware from Cloud to Edge
Intel recently welcomed the next wave of artificial intelligence (AI) with updates on new products designed to accelerate AI system development and deployment from cloud to edge. Intel demonstrated its Intel® Nervana™ Neural Network Processors (NNP) for training (NNP-T1000) and inference (NNP-I1000) — Intel’s first purpose-built ASICs for complex deep learning with incredible scale and efficiency for cloud and data center customers. Intel also revealed its next-generation Intel® Movidius™ Myriad™ Vision Processing Unit (VPU) for edge media, computer vision and inference applications.
These products further strengthen Intel’s portfolio of AI solutions, which is expected to generate more than $3.5 billion in revenue in 2019. The broadest in breadth and depth in the industry, Intel’s AI portfolio helps customers enable AI model development and deployment at any scale from massive clouds to tiny edge devices, and everything in between.
The Intel Nervana NNP-T strikes the right balance between compute, communication and memory, allowing near-linear, energy-efficient scaling from small clusters up to the largest pod supercomputers. The Intel Nervana NNP-I is power- and budget-efficient and ideal for running intense, multi-modal inference at real-world scale using flexible form factors. Both products were developed for the AI processing needs of leading-edge AI customers like Baidu and Facebook.
Additionally, Intel’s next-generation Intel Movidius VPU, scheduled to be available in the first half of 2020, incorporates unique, highly efficient architectural advances that are expected to deliver leading performance—more than 10 times the inference performance as the previous generation—with up to six times the power efficiency of competitor processors. Intel also announced its new Intel® DevCloud for the Edge, which along with the Intel® Distribution of OpenVINO™ toolkit, addresses a key pain point for developers—allowing them to try, prototype and test AI solutions on a broad range of Intel processors before they buy hardware.
Shell launches Shell Eco-marathon access for Malaysian Students
The Shell Eco-marathon is one of the world’s leading energy efficiency competition programmes where students are challenged to design, build and test their energy-efficient cars on track. Recognising the value Shell Eco-marathon offers to students, Shell with the support from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, embarked on Shell Eco-marathon Access (SEM Access), a platform for future participating universities, seasoned teams, alumni and business partners to come together to discuss, design and decide on how to shape the future of energy together.
SEM Access, which was launched by Y.B. Dr. Ong Kian Ming, Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI), provides an avenue for our Malaysian university students to garner investment and mentorship for their participation in SEM Asia through collaborations with corporates and industry players. Students participate in a ‘Make Your Future’ pitch where a panel of business executives listen to their presentations and decide on the teams they want to collaborate with. The corporates and universities then enter into a partnership that provides student teams with the needed support that would enable them to represent the partners and Malaysia in the SEM Asia race.
Besides the pitching session, four workshops by subject matter experts will be conducted from now till Shell Eco-marathon 2020 in June next year for student teams to upskill and prepare themselves in their pursuit towards designing and building the most energy efficient vehicles and to confidently compete in an international arena.
For more information on Shell Eco-marathon, please visit their site.
Celcom launches Vendor Development Programme (VDP) 2.0
Celcom Axiata Berhad recently launched its Vendor Development Programme (VDP) 2.0, a new scheme of its VDP that aims at further enhancing the capabilities and competitiveness ecosystem of its vendors to meet the future opportunities and challenges of the fourth industrial revolution (IR4.0). With a focus on Nurturing Innovation, Celcom will provide and facilitate capacity building programs, access to funding and technology 'sandbox' whilst continuing to support business matching exercises for its vendors, locally and abroad.
Since its inception in 2016, a total of 50 local vendors are registered under the VDP programme; out of which two vendors were listed as local champions, and one vendor as regional champion. With this programme, Celcom also aims to create global champions soon. With the launch of its VDP 2.0, Celcom aims to increase and include new vendors, particularly those who are keen to venture into high growth and innovative enterprises.
Celcom’s VDP 2.0 is also aligned with one the six thrusts within the Government’s National Entrepreneurship Policy 2030 (DKN2030) - which aims to promote economic growth through innovation; part of a long-term strategy designed to set the direction of national entrepreneurship development in making Malaysia an entrepreneurial nation by 2030. Guided by this thrust, Celcom will be promoting adaptation of IoT and digitalisation, and further prepare SMEs towards IR4.0.
Celcom’s VDP 2.0 Framework encompasses an enhanced criteria of vendor selection which emphasizes on Shared Prosperity and Inclusivity, including a graduation programme for existing vendors to implement a multi-tier approach and to focus on Celcom’s business ecosystem comprising of network, IoT, digital services and content.
So that’s it for this issue of TechNave NewsBytes 2019. Let us know if you think your news should be featured as well and stay tuned to TechNave.com.
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