Singapore’s Government Technology Agency (GovTech) and Ministry of Health (MOH) have colloborated to develop and launch TraceTogether, a mobile app for contact tracing to combat COVID-19 spread.
Source: AvayaAvaya is making its Avaya Spaces cloud meeting and team collaboration app available at no charge to educational institutions and non-profit organisations worldwide until August 31, 2020.
Researchers working on sequencing the novel coronavirus and the genomes of people afflicted with COVID-19 now have a helping hand — NVIDIA is offering a free 90-day licence to Parabricks, which uses GPUs to accelerate by as much as 50 times the analysis of sequence data.
In a series of tweets, Razer Chief Executive Officer Min-Liang Tan has announced that his company has turned some of its existing manufacturing lines from producing gaming devices to making much needed surgical masks to be donated to countries around the world.
ZTE will launch the ZTE Axon 11 5G smartphone in China on March 23. The company has given little away from its announcement press release other than the fact that the ZTE Axon 11 will be compatible with both SA (standalone) and NSA (non-standalone) modes.
Source: AdobeAs schools shut temporarily because of the coronavirus pandemic, students have to turn to online or distance learning. Adobe is lending a helping hand by offering free access to Adobe Creative Cloud desktop apps for students till May 31.
NTT Docomo will launch its 5G service with a maximum data rate of 3.4Gbps in Japan on March 25. The downlink speed will increase to 4.1Gbps in June.
By Edward Lim
COVID-19 is hijacking life. From Facebook News Feed to printed newspapers, it’s everywhere. And it just seems to get worse with countries taking measures to prevent spread. Telecommuting has now become necessary for many.
Microsoft has announced the closure of all its stores across the global with immediate effect due to COVID-19 health concern.
Samsung eUFS UFS 3.1: 3x faster than previous generationSamsung Electronics has started mass producing the industry’s first 512-gigabyte (GB) eUFS (embedded Universal Flash Storage) 3.1 for flagship smartphones.
Huang: This is a time to focus on our family, our friends, our community.NVIDIA will not be making any product or news announcements next week, according to a NVIDIA blogpost.
In a surprising reversal, Apple has announced that the temporary closure of all its stores outside of Greater China to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It’s interesting in that Apple has just re-opened its China stores.
Education has been affected as some cities and countries have closed schools and universities to contain the spread of the coronavirus. One way to keep students engaged is through online learning. ViewSonic has stepped in by offering its myViewBoard distance learning tool free to K12, colleges and universities during this period.
By Edward Lim
Research firms have played a vital role in providing the industry with vital information on market trends and technologies. Reports based on past quarters contain valuable analysis that helps enterprises and consumers make better sense of the numbers.
Apple’s Shanghai store is among all that has reopened.After a month of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, Apple has reopened all its 42 stores in China. The closures had hit Apple’s revenue as China is the company third largest market.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses are letting staff work remotely as part of the social distancing efforts. Collaboration platforms have become increasingly popular with many turning to the likes of Webex and Zoom. Finland-based Glue Collaboration has taken this a step further with the introduction of the next generation of its VR-first collaboration platform.
The cancellation of SXSW EDU in Austin due to the COVID-19 outbreak may have affected its launch but Slido did not want to let the introduction of Slido for Education slide. Instead of a physical launch, it has announced online Slide Education, which aims to help lecturers stay connected with their students by powering two-way interaction during live and virtual classes.
Zendesk has added to its chat product new features that were developed by its Singapore team. The Singapore office, which is Zendesk’s Asia Pacific Commercial Headquarters, has led the end-to-end development of Zendesk Chat since April 2014.
It’s been a month of event cancellations due to COVID-19. NVIDIA has pulled the plug on the annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose and taking the show online. Just how much of the event will be held online is yet to be known but the definite go ahead is the keynote address by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.
Apple AirPods are hot in India.In a country that is known for loud road traffic, it is not surprising that ear-worn devices are in hot demand. According to IDC, earwear led the wearables market with 443.6 percent growth to 8.5 million units in 2019.
Mobile World Congress Barcelona may have been canned but the organiser has decided that the awards must still be handed out. It has announced the winners of its Global Mobile (Glomo) Awards.
HP is not taking the Xerox takeover bid lying down. Backed by strong Q1 results, it is striking back, even teasing a reverse takeover of Xerox instead.
5G will have a significant impact, according to 79 percent of respondents to an Accenture study. However, security concerns remain as countries explore the implementation of the next generation mobile technology.
COVID-19 is leaving a trail of cancelled events in its footpath. Two IT events scheduled this week in Singapore have been canned.
The popular IT Show in Singapore, scheduled to take place in March, has been postponed until further notice because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Source: ArmArm has launched the Cortex-M55, an artificial intelligence (AI) processor based on the Armv8.1-M architecture with Arm Helium vector processing technology for significantly enhanced, energy-efficient digital signal processing and machine learning (ML).
Xerox is pressing ahead with its HP takeover by launching a tender offer of US$24 per share for all outstanding common stock — that’s US$2 more than its original proposal — on March 2, 2020.
The list is growing. Amazon has joined Ericsson, LG and NVIDIA in pulling out from MWC Barcelona. Held from February 24 to 27, the leading mobile event is expected to see fewer participants this year because of the novel coronavirus situation.
IBM has chosen Arvind Krishna to be its new Chief Executive Officer from April 6. The current Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software will take over the reign from Virginia Rometty, who will remain as Executive Chairman of the Board and serve until her retirement at the end of the year.
EyeTech Digital Systems has launched EyeOn, an all-in-one, ultra-slim eye gaze tablet that enables people with mobility and motor impairments to use eye movement to select, type, and speak.
Digital identity solution provider ForgeRock has appointed David Hope as Senior Vice President for Asia-Pacific and Japan.
Netscape used to be the king of browsers in the 1990s until Microsoft came along and bundled Internet Explorer from Windows 95. This swayed many PC users to the Microsoft browser and marked the demise of Netscape.
5G is expected to boost smartphone sale, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, in 2020. Greater China and emerging Asia-Pacific will retain the top two positions globally with respective sales of 432.3 million and 376.8 million smartphones this year, according to Gartner.
Source: HuaweiSlowly but surely, Huawei is putting together the pieces for its Google alternative in the light of the US ban. The latest is a tie-up with TomTom for maps to replace Google Maps.
Despite a 0.7 percent drop in revenue, Intel climbed to the top of the global semiconductor market in 2019, according to Gartner.
Juniper Systems has released the Mesa 3 rugged tablet for use in rugged handheld computing and data collection.
Today marks the end of Windows 7. Microsoft is stopping support and updates for this highly-popular operating system.
Zini Mobiles has launched the Zanco tiny t2, dubbed “the world’s smallest mobile phone” at just a tad over 6cm long. The 31g miniature phone is intended for those who need an ultra-lightweight mobile device that can handle essential daily tasks, including taking photos with it’s 2.4cm display.
Sim Lim Square may be the go-to place for tech stuff in Singapore but the building has failed in its second attempt at an en bloc sale. According to The Straits Times, the tender closed on December 30 without receiving any bid.
Fuji Xerox is changing its corporate name to Fujifilm Business Innovation Corp on April 1, 2021. All Fuji Xerox affiliates and sales companies in and outside Japan will also change their names respectively on that date but their new names will be announced later.
The Beyond consortium led by V3 Group and EZ-Link has become the third player vying for a digital full bank licence in Singapore. It follows submissions by a Singtel-Grab team and another by Razer, Sheng Siong and four other partners.
China will lead in drones and robotics systems (US$46.9 billion) in 2020, according to IDC. Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan and China) (APeJC) will be the second largest region with US$25.1 billion in spending, followed by the US (US$17.5 billion) and Western Europe (US$14.4 billion).
Singtel and Grab have joined hands to apply for a digital full banking licence in Singapore. In a joint statement, the companies announced that they will form a consortium with Grab taking a 60 percent stake and Singtel 40 percent.
Having been rebuffed by HP Inc, Xerox is taking its bid for HP shareholders with a presentation entitled “Xerox + HP: A value-creating combination”.
Sweden-headquartered Snow Software has acquired Embotics will enable CIOs to understand and manage their full technology stack from software and hardware to infrastructure and applications, regardless of environment.
Chua: Combining operations and technologyOperations and technology must work hand in hand in order for organisations to gain better leverage and improve services.
Japan, India and Singapore are the top threee most sleep deprived nations in the world, according to a study. Thankfully, help is on its way for those who want to sleep better. Sleep platform Sleeprate is collaborating with Garmin on a mobile self-help sleep assessment and improvement program that aims to help consumers sleep better, track their recovery, and optimise workouts.
LG Electronics has reshuffled its top leadership with the appointment of Brian Kwon as its new Chief Executive Officer.
Nearly one million riders on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line will now be able to tap on the capabilities of Bebot, an AI chatbot.They will be able to access naviation and useful train information all along the line using the app
The Honor Pro has helped Huawei grow in Q3.Amid a 0.4 percent contraction in the global smartphone market in Q3 compared to the corresponding quarter last year, Huawei continued to stride ahead with 26 percent growth. It has narrowed the gap with Samsung at the top while pulling away from Apple in third spot.
Panasonic has totally moved out of the semiconductor business by selling its last plant to Taiwan firm Nuvoton Technology.
The award-winning Beat Saber is an easy to learn and addictive VR game.Oculus has acquired Beat Games, maker of the highly popular VR game Beat Saber, for an undisclosed sum.
From enhancing public safety to improving customer experience, intelligent video analytics (IVA) is shaping the way videos are used for more informed decision-making. The technology is the focus of AI Innovation Day, which will be held at Kent Ridge Guild House in Singapore on December 4.
Just days after Xerox threatened to make its takeover bid hostile by approaching HP Inc’s shareholders, HP Inc has issued a strongly worded statement, “We will not let aggressive tactics or hostile gestures distract us from our responsibility to pursue the most value-creating path.”
Singapore will have 100 more artificial intelligence (AI) architects and 1,000 more AI developers over the next three years — thanks to the newly-launched Huawei AI lab.
The D8 Thunderbolt 3 is compact and easy to carry around.
TerraMaster has unveiled the D8 Thunderbolt 3 high capacity storage drive for professionals working in mission critical productions.
HP board of directors halts Xerox bid.HP Inc has rejected a proposed acquisition by Xerox. In a letter sent to John Visentin, Vice Chairman and CEO of Xerox, HP board of directors unanimously concluded that the bid “significantly undervalues HP and is not in the best interests of HP shareholders”.
NVIDIA’s new reference design platform enables companies to build GPU-accelerated Arm servers for running a broad range of applications, from hyperscale-cloud to exascale supercomputing and beyond.NVIDIA has teamed up with Arm and a host of tech leaders to introduce a reference design platform for enterprises to quickly build GPU-accelerated Arm-based servers.
India’s PC market shipped 3.1 million units, rising 15.8 percent year-on-year in Q3, according to IDC. The key growth driver was the second phase of shipment to the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) under its ongoing initiative of free distribution of laptops in the state. The coming end of life of Windows 7 in early 2020 also contributed to the growth as corporate and enterprise users accelerated their upgrades to Windows 10.
Singapore has upped its stake in artificial intelligence (AI) with the unveiling of a National AI Strategy.
Entelechy Asia 