Motorola Solutions has unveiled highly advanced technology solutions to enhance the capabilities of nation-wide public safety networks at Critical Communications World 2017 in Hong Kong. These include mission-critical radio technologies, specialised software, mission critical broadband, command […]
Author: entelechyasia
Entelechy Asia is passionate about technology -- from the home to the enterprise, and telecommunications. We deliver news, views and reviews from Asia from the perspectives of practitioners and followers.
From professional skills to utilities
Robots driven by artificial intelligence (AI) are replacing workers in various labour-intensive and service sectors but doctors, lawyers and even IT professionals are at risk of being made redundant. Or at least, certain aspects of each of these practices.
According to Gartner, smart machines and robots may replace highly trained professionals in tasks within medicine, law and IT by 2022 — that’s just five years more!
“The economics of AI and machine learning will lead to many tasks performed by professionals today becoming low-cost utilities. AI’s effects on different industries will force the enterprise to adjust its business strategy. Many competitive, high-margin industries will become more like utilities as AI turns complex work into a metered service that the enterprise pays for, like electricity,” said Stephen Prentice, Vice President and Gartner Fellow.
Battle for the cloud
The battle for cloud dominance has intensified with key players all growing significantly in Q1. The worldwide cloud infrastructure services market grew 42 percent year on year to reach US$11.4 billion, according to Canalys.
Amazon’s AWS maintained its leadership, holding a stable global market share of 31 percent. It was followed by Microsoft, Google and IBM.
In terms of growth, Microsoft led with 93 percent while Google was up 74 percent, AWS 43 percent, and IBM 38 percent.
Deep Instinct is Most Disruptive Startup
Hundreds of thousands of computers in 150 countries have been hit by the WannaCry ransomware. While users are scampering around trying to fix their computers, the top of mind question is whether this could have […]
7 months with an Android box
By Kelly Aime
Last October, I took the plunge and decided to check out an Android TV box. It was not a spur of the moment decision but one prompted by the constant changing and removal of channels by my cable TV service provider.
The worst part of the changes is that users are often at the losing end. Whenever, the service provider’s contract with a particular channel deemed less popular is up for renewal, there’s that likelihood that the contract will not be renewed. And users have absolutely no say at all — even if the subscriber’s contract is still valid and the subscriber still wants to keep the channel.
Being at the mercy of my service provider pushed me to try out an alternative which can been around for a while — the Android TV box.
GTC draws the big guns!
As a sign of its coming of age, the GPU Technology Conference (GTC) held annually in San Jose, California since 2009, is no longer a niche event but one that is drawing the who’s who […]
Toyota cruises with NVIDIA Drive PX2
Toyota, one of the world’s largest automakers and renowned for its high standards and priority on safety, has picked NVIDIA Drive PX for its autonomous vehicles. It will use the AI car computer platform to power advanced autonomous driving systems planned for market introduction within the next few years
Engineering teams from the two companies are already developing sophisticated software that will enhance the capabilities of Toyota vehicles, enabling them to better understand the massive volume of data generated by sensors on the car, and to handle the broad spectrum of autonomous driving situations.
“Toyota has worked on autonomous driving technologies for over 20 years with the aim of reducing traffic fatalities to zero as an ultimate goal, achieving smoother traffic, and providing mobility for all. Through this collaboration, we intend to accelerate the development of autonomous driving systems that are even more safe and capable,” said Ken Koibuchi, Executive General Manager of Toyota.
Finally, the Big Bang for AI!
Artificial intelligence (AI) is not new. In fact, it has so many false starts over the past 60 years. The term went into hibernation for a long time.
Research into AI began way back in Dartmouth College in 1956 and was constantly associated with being the next frontier in the 1980s when mainframe computers ruled and supercomputers were a ginormous investment that very few could afford.
Despite the research put in over the years, the technology never quite took off and fell flat in many instances.
Voila, Volta!
NVIDIA has pulled yet another trick out of its always-filled hat of technology goodies with the launch of Volta, the world’s most powerful GPU computing architecture. At his keynote address at GTC in San Jose, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang dubbed it “the next level of computer projects”.
Volta is created to drive the next wave of advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) and high performance computing.
The first Volta-based processor is the NVIDIA Tesla V100 data centre GPU, which brings extraordinary speed and scalability for AI inferencing and training, as well as for accelerating HPC and graphics workloads.
The making of GTC
By Edward Lim I am attending the GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, California this week. It’s a massive conference with more than 7,000 participants from all around the world. After decades of covering and […]
NVIDIA to train 100,000 deep learning developers this year
Interest in deep learning is growing so strongly that NVIDIA expects to train 100,000 developers this year — that’s 10 times more than last year —through its Deep Learning Institute (DLI).
According to research firm IDC, 80 percent of all applications will have an artificial intelligence (AI) component by 2020.
Greg Estes, Vice President of Developer Programs at NVIDIA, noted that there is a hunger for deep learning training. He cited the example of a DLI training at India Institute of Technology (IIT) in India where people came at 7.30am to try to sign up for a fully subscribed course.
GTC keeps growing
GPU Technology Conference (GTC) kicked off today in San Jose with more than 7,000 participants. This year’s event will cast the spotlight on artificial intelligence, which is gaining widespread interest around the world.
Singapore goes big on AI
Singapore is banking big on artificial intelligence to provide solutions in finance, city management and healthcare. The National Research Foundation (NRF) will be investing up to S$150 million over the next five years in AI.SG, […]
Huawei smartphone strides ahead in China
Huawei has taken top spot again in China’s smartphone market, edging past Oppo after two quarters of trailing in second place. According to Canalys, the Chinese smartphone giant, which launched the P10 and P10 Plus during MWC, shipped close to 21 million units to secure an 18 percent market share in Q1.
Despite strong annual growth of 55 percent, Oppo fell to second place with shipments of just under 20 million units. Third-placed Vivo had the lowest annual growth of the top three, capturing a 15 percent share with its shipment of 17 million units.
“China’s smartphone market continues to grow, with shipments increasing by over nine percent year on year this quarter. But there is a clear indication that the market is consolidating. The top three vendors are pulling away at the head of the market, accounting for more than 50 percent of shipments for the first time this quarter,” said Lucio Chen, Research Analyst of Canalys.
Singtel identified as APAC leader in 2016-17
Singtel is one of four telcos identified as leaders in Asia Pacific (APAC) in 2016-17 by IDC in its report entitled IDC Telecom MarketScape for Next-Generation Service Providers 2016-17.
The report, which evaluates the leading regional and global telecommunications service providers (SPs) in APAC, also listed AT&T, BT and Orange alongside Singtel was “Leaders” of the next-generation telecom service providers in the region along with plenty of challengers in the market.
These service providers demonstrated a strong regional network presence, comprehensive suite of enterprise cloud and managed ICT service offerings, diverse portfolio of services in areas such as Internet of Things (IoT) and collaboration in the region, as well as a large base of mid and large-sized enterprises, multinational corporations (MNCs), and government clients across Asia Pacific.
Caffe2, anyone?
Facebook is developing new artificial intelligent (AI) systems to help manage the vast amount of information — such as text, images and videos — generated daily so people can better understand the world and communicate more effectively, even as the volume of information increases.
It has worked with NVIDIA on Caffe2, a new AI deep learning framework that allows developers and researchers to create large-scale distributed training scenarios and build machine learning applications for edge devices.
Providing AI-powered services on mobile is a complex data processing task that must happen within the blink of an eye. Increasingly, the processing of lightning-fast AI services requires GPU-accelerated computing, such as that offered by Facebook’s Big Basin servers, as well as highly optimised deep learning software that can leverage the full capability of the accelerated hardware.
No more IDF
After nearly two decades, Intel has decided to bring the curtains down on its annual Intel Developer Forum(IDF). Even the China edition has been canned. A highly anticipated and popular event, IDF was the platform […]
Rise of accelerated computing in data centres
Can’t say this was unexpected as NVIDIA retorts Google’s claim that its custom ASIC Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) was up to 30 times faster than CPUs and NVIDIA’s K80 G for inferencing workloads.
NVIDIA pointed out that Google’s TPU paper has drawn a clear conclusion – without accelerated computing, the scale-out of AI is simply not practical.
The role of data centres has changed considerably in today’s economy. Instead of just serving web pages, advertising and video content, data centres are now recognising voices, detecting images in video streams and connecting users with information they need when they need it.
Massive shift to hybrid infrastructure services underway
The growth of cloud and industrialised services and the decline of traditional data centre outsourcing (DCO) indicate a massive shift toward hybrid infrastructure services, according to Gartner.
In a report containing a series of predictions about IT infrastructure services, Gartner analysts said that by 2020, cloud, hosting and traditional infrastructure services will come in more or less at par in terms of spending.
“As the demand for agility and flexibility grows, organizations will shift toward more industrialised, less-tailored options. Organisations that adopt hybrid infrastructure will optimise costs and increase efficiency. However, it increases the complexity of selecting the right toolset to deliver end-to-end services in a multisourced environment,” said DD Mishra, Research Director of Gartner.
No devices for US-bound flights from 13 countries
The US authorities are forbidding passengers of airlines from 13 countries to bring any electronic or electrical device larger than a mobile phone. This means that all notebook computers, tablets and cameras are not allowed […]
APAC govt increasing investment in IoT technologies
Governments in Asia Pacific are notably vested in the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies because it enables a broad new range of citizen services, according to IDC’s 2016 Global IoT Decision Maker Survey.
Based on the survey, 40 percent of Asia-Pacific government organisations are investing on IoT solutions in the next 12 months while 50 percent of them are investing in an IoT solution in next 12 to 24 months.
“Improving productivity, improving time to market for products/services and improving energy efficiency reducing costs are the top benefits of an IoT solution. IoT enables access to new and granular data sources, empowered by swift connectivity and quick data gathering capability giving access to a wider range of information that enhances the quality of government services at a scale, which previously has been thought to be unattainable,” said Shreyashi Pal, Market Analyst, IDC Asia/Pacific Government and Education Insights.
Singapore universities deploy deep learning supercomputers
First, it was Singapore Management University (SMU). Now two other Singapore universities — Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) — have also deployed the NVIDIA DGX-1 deep learning supercomputer for their research projects on artificial intelligence (AI).
SUTD will use the DGX-1 at the SUTD Brain Lab to further research into machine reasoning and distributed learning. Under a memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month, NVIDIA and SUTD will also set up the NVIDIA-SUTD AI Lab to leverage the power of GPU-accelerated neural networks for researching new theories and algorithms for AI. The agreement also provides for internship opportunities to selected students of the lab.
“Computational power is a game changer for AI research, especially in the areas of big data analytics, robotics, machine reasoning and distributed intelligence. The DGX-1 will enable us to perform significantly more experiments in the same period of time, quickening the discovery of new theories and the design of new applications,” said Professors Shaowei Lin and Georgios Piliouras, Engineering Systems and Design, SUTD.
NVIDIA and Microsoft to accelerate AI cloud computing
NVIDIA and Microsoft are working on a new hyperscale GPU accelerator that will provide hyperscale data centres with a fast, flexible path for artificial intelligence (AI).
The new HGX-1 hyperscale GPU accelerator is an open-source design released in conjunction with Microsoft’s Project Olympus.
HGX-1 does for cloud-based AI workloads what ATX — Advanced Technology eXtended — did for PC motherboards when it was introduced more than two decades ago. It establishes an industry standard that can be rapidly and efficiently embraced to help meet surging market demand.
21b IoT devices with embedded OS by 2022
IoT faces new computing challenges, notably with deployment and scaling, according to ABI Research. Its future will rely in part on using embedded Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS), which support many IoT application features, such as small size, constrained processing resources, low power consumption, limited maintenance, and real-time computing.
ABI Research forecasts 21 billion IoT devices will ship with embedded RTOS by 2022.
“The tremendous expansion of the IoT revived the embedded RTOS market, with open source platforms springing up rapidly to jostle long-established proprietary players. While industrial demand for RTOS has a decade-long history, the development of new IoT applications in other segments, such as consumer, digital home, connected car, and smart cities, jolted demand for embedded RTOS,” said Michela Menting, Research Director of ABI Research.
New Jetson doubles performance
The newly-announced NVIDIA Jetson TX2, a credit card-sized platform that delivers artificial intelligence (AI) computing at the edge, opens the door to powerfully intelligent factory robots, commercial drones and smart cameras for AI cities. Jetson […]
RIKEN turns to NVIDIA supercomputer for deep learning research
RIKEN, Japan’s largest comprehensive research institution, will have a new supercomputer for deep learning research in April. Built by Fujitsu using 24 NVIDIA DGX-1 AI systems, the new machine will accelerate the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to […]
A typo error causes 4-hour outage
It’s amazing how a typo error can wreak havoc to a massive network. On Tuesday, thousands of websites using Amazon’s AWS cloud computing service were disrupted with broken links and partial functionality. And the cause is […]
NVIDIA launches the ‘Ultimate GeForce’
NVIDIA has just announced the GeForce GTX 1080Ti, which comes with 11GB of frame buffer to run today’s most demanding games. Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, dubbed it the “Ultimate GeForce” at a gathering of global media this morning.
Packed with extreme gaming horsepower, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti delivers up to 35 percent more performance than the GTX 1080.
NVIDIA designed the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti to handle the graphical demands of 4K and 5K gaming, DX12, HDR and immersive VR.
Youtube: 1b hours of viewing per day!
One billion hours! That’s a lot of time to spend watching video online. And did we say that it’s one billion hours per day. And for just one site. Of course, it helps that that […]
Hello, hello, it’s the Nokia 3310 again!
With a slew of product introductions now on at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, what’s amazing is that an old icon has grabbed loads of attention. Nokia has resurrected its 3310 phone, albeit in an […]
Fuji Xerox HK to accelerate IoT growth
Fuji Xerox (Hong Kong) aims to ride the Internet of Things (IoT) wave with the introduction of Smart Device 2.0, which comprises three key IoT components — cloud application, big data analytics and integrated business workflow.
The new-generation mobile document management smart device consisting of hardware, software and cloud applications is designed particularly for enterprises that handle and manage excessive documents, such as financial and banking, construction and legal industries.
Smart Device 2.0 also works for enterprises and small-to-medium businesses with staff who always work on their mobile devices, because it enables the same working environment regardless of where they are. This smart device is becoming a workplace necessity that streamline workflow; employees are no longer bound by geographical restrictions and can stay connected to their office all the time, helping enterprises save time and costs, and better use their resources.
Gunning for supercomputing supremacy in Japan
Tokyo Institute of Technology plans to create Japan’s fastest AI supercomputer, which is will deliver more than twice the performance of its predecessor to slide into the world’s top 10 fastest systems.
Called Tsubame 3.0, it will use Pascal-based NVIDIA P100 GPUs that are nearly three times as efficient as their predecessors, to reach an expected 12.2 petaflops of double precision performance.
Tsubame 3.0 will excel in AI computation with more than 47 PFLOPS of AI horsepower. When operated with Tsubame 2.5, it is expected to deliver 64.3 PFLOPS, making it Japan’s highest performing AI supercomputer.
HTC leads in China VR market
HTC has captured the top spot in the virtual reality (VR) headset market in China with 18 percent market share, according to Canalys. It shipped more than 50,000 of its Vive headsets in China.
Local vendor DeePoon came a close second, taking a 17 percent share with two headsets to compete with HTC. In 2016, almost 70 percent of DeePoon’s shipment were of its M2 smart VR headset.
Overall, around 300,000 VR headsets were shipped in 2016, making it the world’s second largest market with a share of around 15 percent.
China smartphone market hits record high
Everybody knows China is big but with nearly half a billion smartphones shipped last year, the market is massive — that’s one smartphone for every three person in the world’s most populous country.
According to Canalys estimates, China reached 476.5 million unit shipment, growing year on year at 11.4 percent, far exceeding the annual growth rate of 1.9 percent in 2015. China shipment reached 131.6 million units in Q4, which is the highest single quarter total in history, accounting for nearly a third of worldwide shipment.
Huawei took the top spot in the market with 76.2 million shipment, a small lead ahead of runner-up Oppo with 73.2 million units, followed by Vivo in third place at 63.2 million units.
Enter Pascal-based Quadro cards
NVIDIA has introduced a range of Pascal-based Quadro products that transforms desktop workstations into supercomputers with breakthrough capabilities for professional workflows across many industries.
Workflows in design, engineering and other areas are evolving rapidly to meet the exponential growth in data size and complexity that comes with photorealism, virtual reality and deep learning technologies.
To tap into these opportunities, the new NVIDIA Quadro Pascal-based lineup – the GP100, P4000, P2000, P1000, P600, and P400 – provides an enterprise-grade visual computing platform that streamlines design and simulation workflows with up to twice the performance of the previous generation, and ultra-fast memory.
Public cloud service in mature APAC region to hit US$10b in 2017
The public cloud services market in the mature Asia-Pacific (APAC) region — Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea — is forecast to grow 17.7 percent in 2017 to total US$10 billion, up from US$8.5 billion in 2016, according to Gartner.
By 2019, Gartner predicts that total public cloud services spending in these countries will rise to US$13.6 billion.
Public cloud services are shared, meterable, elastic and scalable multi-tenanted IT offerings delivered as a subscription-based service to external customers using internet technologies.
China phone makers dominate India market in Q4
While Samsung remained at the top, China smartphone makers occupied four of the top five positions to snare the lion’s share in India in Q4, according to Canalys.
Their extremely price-competitive devices pushed out India makers, who have been hit hard by the Indian government’s decision to demonetise the INR500 and INR1,000 (US$7.30 and US$14.65) banknotes.
“Local brands’ target customers typically buy in cash and from independent retailers. With the short-term liquidity crunch caused by demonetisation, these retailers are suffering a slowdown in consumer spending. Local vendors are losing out as retailers look to shift their stock to fast-moving, current devices. In Q4 2015, Micromax, Intex and Lava took second, third and fifth place, accounting for almost 30 percent of the market. One year on and all three vendors have dropped out of the top five, with their collective share falling to around 11 percent,” said Rushabh Doshi, Analyst of Canalys.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 verdict out on January 23
It’s official! Samsung Electronics will be announcing the findings of its investigation report of the Galaxy Note 7 in a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, on January 23, 2017, 9am. UPDATE: The problem was […]
The battery did it!
After months of investigation, it looks like the source of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 problem has been found. It’s the battery, according to a Samsung insider. It seems that the result of the investigation is […]
Mercedes and NVIDIA to bring AI-powered car to market
Many cars were on display at CES last week but perhaps one of the most significant announcements is the collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA to bring an NVIDIA AI-powered car to market.
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang (right) and Mercedes-Benz Vice President of Digital Vehicle and Mobility Sajjad Khan (left) talked about this new development at the Mercedes Benz Inspiration talk.
“When our teams came together there was instant chemistry, and we share a common vision about how AI can change your driving experience, and make it more enjoyable. Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA share a common vision of the AI car. At this point it is clear AI will revolutionise the future of automobiles,,” said Huang, who pointed out that the collaboration began three years ago.
Device market to remain flat till 2018
While the economic looks to be getting better in some instances, worldwide shipment of PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones are projected to remain flat in 2017.
According to Gartner, worldwide shipment for these devices are projected to total 2.3 billion in 2017, the same as 2016 estimates.
There were nearly seven billion phones, tablets and PCs in use in the world by the end of 2016. However, Gartner does not expect any growth in shipments of traditional devices until 2018, when a small increase in ultramobiles and mobile phone shipments is expected.
NVIDIA launches new Shield TV
NVIDIA has unveiled at CES a new Shield TV media streamer, which like its predecessors will not be available in the Asia-Pacific region. However, a separate version of Shield, with custom software optimised for China, will be available later this year.
The new device is an Android open-platform media streamer that is claimed to deliver unmatched experiences in streaming, gaming and AI.
Sporting a sleek, new design and now shipping with both a remote and a game controller, the new Shield delivers rich visual experience with support for 4K HDR and three times the performance of other streamers.
End of Galaxy Note 7
It’s the final farewell for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Samsung Singapore implemented on December 28 an OTA update that completely restricted the smartphone from charging past zero percent. That’s tantamount to rendering the device […]
1 in 5 user interaction with smartphone will be via VPAs in 2019
Advances in various technologies will drive users to interact with their smartphones in more intuitive ways, said Gartner. It expect that, by 2019, 20 percent of all user interactions with the smartphone will take place via virtual personal assistants (VPAs).
“The role of interactions will intensify through the growing popularity of VPAs among smartphone users and conversations made with smart machines,” said Annette Zimmermann, Research Director of Gartner.
Gartner’s annual mobile apps survey conducted in Q4 among 3,021 consumers across three countries (US, UK and China) found that 42 percent of respondents in the US and 32 percent in the UK used VPAs on their smartphones in the last three months. More than 37 percent of respondents (average across US and UK) used a VPA at least one or more times a day.
Pebble on the verge?
The Pebble Time may become a collector’s item if rumours of a Pebble takeover bid by Fitbit comes to pass. Fanning the reports is the utter silence in the Pebble campaign page on Kickstarter. The […]
SMU uses NVIDIA DGX-1 supercomputer for food recognition project
Singapore is renowned as a food paradise. And with so many mouth-watering dishes to pick from, sometimes even locals have difficulty identifying a specific dish.
Singapore Management University (SMU) is working on a food artificial intelligence (AI) application that is calling on a supercomputer to help with recognising the local dishes to achieve smart food consumption and healthy lifestyle.
The project, developed as part of Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative, requires the analysis of a large number of food photos.
Xiaomi: No money from smartphones
Many of us may know Xiaomi as a leading China handphone maker with its unique business model of selling in batches online. In an interesting revelation to Reuters, Xiaomi Global Vice President declared that the […]
Cloud services in India to soar to US$1.3b in 2016
Cloud services are soaring in India with projected growth of 35.9 percent to hit US$1.3 billion this year, according to Gartner.
The highest growth will come from cloud system infrastructure services, which is expected to grow 45.5 percent in 2016, followed by platform as a service projected to grow 33.5 percent.
“The overall global public cloud market will mature, and its growth rate will slightly slow down from 17.2 percent in 2016 to a 15.2 percent increase in 2020. While Brexit and other growth challenges exist, some segments such as financial SaaS applications and the PaaS user markets will still see strong growth through 2020,” said Sid Nag, Research Director of Gartner.
Fuji Xerox Hong Kong announces Smart Device 2.0
Fuji Xerox (Hong Kong) has launched Smart Device 2.0, a new document management smart device that lets businesses achieve smoother workflow as well as higher operational efficiency and productivity by 25 percent. It also helps companies address information technology challenges in a comprehensive manner.
Smart Work Gateway is a brand-new concept that swiftly interconnects cloud network, Smart Device 2.0 and user’s personal mobile device. Office employees can enjoy unprecedented convenience of connecting to their workplace anytime, anywhere. Work is no longer bounded by time or place.
“The all-new Smart Device 2.0, empowered by Smart Work Gateway, truly redefines the ‘smart workplace’ with user-centric and intuitive features, enabling enterprises to not only work smarter, but also build competitive edge and sustainable growth,” said Herbert Hui, Managing Director, Fuji Xerox (Hong Kong) (above).
As the next generation of Smart Device, the Smart Device 2.0 is analytics enabled, cloud enabled and business process enabled – all without the need for server support. Along with high scanning and printing speed, the redesigned multi-functional smart device features a brand-new Super EA-Eco Toner that delivers unrivaled print quality across large printing volumes, ensuring collateral produced will simultaneously achieve consistent quality, higher productivity and cost optimisation.
NVIDIA DGX SATURNV ranked most efficient supercomputer
NVIDIA’s new DGX SATURNV supercomputer is ranked the world’s most efficient — and 28th fastest overall — on the latest Top500 list of supercomputers.
Powered by new Tesla P100 GPUs, it delivers 9.46 gigaflops/watt — a 42 percent improvement from the 6.67 gigaflops/watt delivered by the most efficient machine on the Top500 list released last June.
Compared with a supercomputer of similar performance, the Camphore 2 system, which is powered by Xeon Phi Knights Landing, SATURNV is 2.3x more energy efficient.hat efficiency is key to building machines capable of reaching exascale speeds — that’s 1 quintillion, or 1 billion billion, floating-point operations per second. Such a machine could help design efficient new combustion engines, model clean-burning fusion reactors, and achieve new breakthroughs in medical research.
Move aside content. Culture is king!
In the age of the Internet, it is widely believed that content is king.
However, US strategist and serial entreprenuer Richard Nash (above) thinks otherwise. He believes that the 21st century will be about sorting demand and culture is king, not content.
At his keynote address at StoryDrive Asia, Nash said the book publishing industry should start modelling itself as a service, rather than a manufacturing business.
WhatsApp video call on the way
Last year, WhatsApp added voice to its messaging application. This year, it’s taking it one step further with video calls. WhatsApp video calling is on the way for more than one billion users on Android, […]
Worldwide services market to cross US$1 trillion mark by 2018
Global IT services and business services revenues are expected to cross the US$1 trillion mark for the first time in 2018, according to IDC.
Worldwide services spending totals for 2016 are expected to stay within the US$900 billion range and by 2020 expected to near US$1.1 trillion.
With more than US$100 million worth of spending each this year, the largest services markets will be key horizontal business process outsourcing (BPO) and systems integration services, which will also generate the largest revenue pools over the 2016-2020 forecast period. Business Consulting Services is forecast to outpace both markets in terms of growth.
Inaugural StoryDrive Asia to focus on transmedia
Singapore Book Publishers Association and Frankfurt Book Fair organiser Frankfurter Buchmesse GmbH are putting together the inaugural StoryDrive Asia, a symposium for angel investors, incubators and professionals in publishing, software and gaming, photography and filmmaking and digital media.
The focus is on transmedia, which is about storytelling across media. For example, The Assassin’s Creed is more than just a computer game. It’s also a novel, comic book as well as a movie that’s slated for release on December 21. That’s transmedia, which is gaining traction across the globe.
“It’s a very exciting moment for publishing in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia, where media are interrelating in new and fascinating ways, and local content is getting better and better. And even as transmedia trends take root, our industry and local stakeholders have realised the importance of promoting the reading habit in this new media environment. We believe the best way to capture these trends, and reinforce Singapore’s role as a hub for IP and the media industry, is to partner with Frankfurter Buchmesse GmbH for a new kind of event: StoryDrive Asia,” said Peter Schoppert, President, Singapore Book Publishers Association.
Alibaba Cloud rises 128% in Q3
Alibaba Cloud has outpaced cloud service provider leaders with growth of 128 percent to reach US$221 million in Q3. However, AWS increased its lead, accounting for 32.2 percent of total spend, followed by Microsoft Azure with 17.3 percent and Google Cloud with 7.6percent, according to Canalys. Both Microsoft (up 115.6 percent) and Google (up 79.6 percent) grew faster than Amazon.
Global cloud infrastructure services expenditure increased 53.1 percent year on year to reach US$10 billion for the first time in Q.
“Alibaba has established itself as the largest e-commerce business in China and is starting to dominate the provision of cloud infrastructure services in the country,” said Daniel Liu, Research Analyst of Canalys.
NVIDIA makes two masterstrokes with Microsoft Surface and Nintendo Switch
The Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Surface Studio are two of the exciting announcements in recent weeks. While one thrilled gamers, the other is set to transform the desktop.
What both have in common are NVIDIA GPUs.
The Nintendo Switch is powered by the NVIDIA Tegra, a high-efficiency scalable processor based on the same architecture as the world’s top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards.
Smartphone shipment up 6% in Q3
Three Chinese smartphone vendors — Huawei, Oppo and vivo — helped drive the global smartphone market in Q3. Together their shipment grew 60 percent while the overall global market just moved up six percent that quarter, according to Canalys.
The standout performer was Oppo, which had a stellar quarter, taking hold of the Chinese market from under the noses of its rivals. Its smart phone shipments grew around 40 percent sequentially and 140 percent year on year. Tough competition in China has affected Huawei’s global position, with it now looking increasingly unlikely that it will reach its annual shipment target of 140 million units.
Samsung continued to lead the market, but its issues with the Note 7 are starting to affect its business. It shipped just over 76 million units (excluding all Note 7s), down nine percent on the same quarter a year ago. In second place, Apple’s iPhone shipments also suffered an annual decline, falling five percent to just over 45 million units.
Fuji Xerox launches next-generation printers in Hong Kong
Fuji Xerox (Hong Kong) has introduced three printers — DocuPrint CP315 dw and CM315 z colour printers and the DocuPrint P365 d monochrome laser printer.
Designed for small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), they offer high-performance print technology, outstanding usability and flexibility, and features to reduce their impact on the environment.
“We are thrilled to introduce the DocuPrint C315 series and DocuPrint P365 d, which offer a host of new technology, productivity and cost-saving features for SMEs. Designed with the needs of SMEs in mind, the DocuPrint C315 series leverages Fuji Xerox’s award-winning CCSLED technology and includes a new Super-EA ECO toner to deliver unrivaled print quality in a small, stylish footprint. Meanwhile, with features that mimic those of large enterprise printers, DocuPrint P365 d provides the best of both worlds to ensure lower running costs and efficiency are prioritised,” said Lee Cheung, Director, Printer Channels, Fuji Xerox (Hong Kong) Limited.
Disappearing into thin Air
A noticeable absentee in Apple’s announcement last night was the MacBook Air. The thin ultraportable that awed the world when it made its debut in 2008 was not shown as the new line-up was revealed. […]
Gearing up for the next industrial revolution
By Edward Lim
It’s been a long time coming but the next industrial evolution, dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution is nearly, if not already here.
Each revolution since the first led by water and steam power used to mechanise production in 1784 has been driven by technology in various forms. The Second Industrial Revolution leveraged electric power for mass production while the Third Industrial Revolution used electronics and information technology to automate production.
The next revolution builds on an increasingly digital economy and the fusion of various technologies, including the Internet, which is shaping the way people live, work, play, and relate to one another.
Entelechy Asia 