Today, our Prime Minister Muhyiddin has officially announced PEMULIH which is a new financial assistance scheme in this pandemic period. The target groups are those in the B40 (lower-income side) and M40 (middle-income) groups. Among the many highlights, here's what we learn about the tech side.

In an effort to build up internet connection across Malaysia, the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) has partnered with Telekom Malaysia Berhad to organise a special committee for it. The mission of the committee is to identify areas without internet coverage or poor access to the Teaching and Learning at Home (PdPR) program.

If you are a Fave user, you would be glad to know that a new Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) service called FavePay Later in Malaysia and Singapore. It will an interest-free credit which can be used to over 40,000 stores as a pilot. For now, it's rolling out on iOS users today, followed by an Android release in July 2021.

Another day, another phone from Jaringan Prihatin explodes. A couple of days ago, a 9-year-old student's phone battery caught on fire during an online class and the device is the YES Altitude 3 given by the Malaysian government. Luckily, nothing bad happened to anyone in the accident and the student was rewarded a Redmi Note 10 5G by Xiaomi afterwards as a replacement. Now, yet another device from the program exploded while it was charging.

Since our country has been placed under MCO, it's not easy for people to visit places. Although the government offices are operating in hybrid mode (80% staff working from home), it's better if we can do things online. And that should include paying for EPF.

Update: YTL Communications has reached out to us saying that the phone was jointly developed by YES and China Mobile (the world’s largest network operator) for use for education. The same model was given out by the YTL Foundation free to over 100,000 B40 families under its Learn From Home Initiative since the start of the first MCO last year. Prior to this news, there were no reports of any incident of safety relating to the phone. China Mobile has confirmed that the same battery used in this phone has been in production since 2018 and more than 4.5 million units have been shipped globally without any reported incident of this nature. However, the company take this reported incident very seriously as the safety of their products and users is of paramount importance and will investigate the matter fully.

Phones exploding are not an unusual case but perhaps in this news, the Malaysian government ought to take it more seriously. As you already know, every student now relies on either a laptop, computer or device to attend online classes. However, not everyone can afford a desktop PC so the device is the only affordable option.

realme Malaysia has officially announced that the realstudio fashion brand is now established in Malaysia, which will focus on developing trendy clothing apparel for the masses. With that in mind, they’ve unveiled their first realHYPE collection at the price of RM99 which will be available for purchase in Malaysia via Shopee starting from 18 Jun 2021 onwards.

Lazada Malaysia has officially announced that the Lazada app now comes with new Chinese-language interface support on both the iOS and Android, making it more accessible than ever before. If you’re interested in changing the interface language to Chinese, all you need to do is tap on the ‘Account’ button on the bottom right corner, select the ‘Gear’ icon, and select your preferred language.

iQOO might have finally decided to expand its market in Malaysia. It has been spotted that the brand has set up an official Facebook page recently. Not only that, but the page has also included the words "coming soon" on its cover image.

If you're still looking for a new gadget, perhaps you can consider Huawei Malaysia's Carnival 2021 mid-year sales. The campaign will begin from 18 until 30 June 2021 and for a limited time, customers can stand a chance to receive freebies worth up to RM189 with every purchase of the MateBook series, MatePad, Freebuds as well as the Watch series.