Thailand has bucked an attempt by the United States to block Huawei by letting the Chinese telecom giant trial 5G in the country.
The day my Google Pixel died
By Edward Lim
When my trusty Google Pixel froze last week, I took it as a case of overuse and attempted a reboot. It proved to be a series of fruitless attempts as the Android-based smartphone simply could not be revived. The furthest I got was to the opening screen (see above) but there was absolutely nothing I could do there — the screen just froze again before launching into another reboot.
OnePlus 6T: Impressive, nifty and fun
By CY Lim
The OnePlus 6T has been out in the market for a couple of months now and as one who received it as a gift within the first few days of its launch, I am definitely glad I made the switch from my sluggish Oppo A77. Setting up and transferring data was a breeze especially since it was an intra-Android migration. Within an hour or so, I was ready to go.
Data scientists to get certification
Data scientist is one of the hottest jobs in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) where big data is king. IBM and The Open Group have come together to provide a certification programme for this highly-sought after job.
Singapore unveils AI governance framework
Singapore has released Asia’s first model artificial intelligence (AI) governance framework to provide detailed and readily implementable guidance to private sector organisations deploying AI solutions.
The age of AI in radiology is here
Speaking with a passion of an artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare evangelist, Kimberly Powell declared that the age of AI in radiology is here. And she has earned the right to say that because she has been championing this since she joined NVIDIA 11 years ago.
6th edition of EmTech Asia draws more than 800 participants
Emtech Asia has grown from strength to strength since its inception. The sixth edition of the conference on emerging technologies and their impact is expected to pull in more than 800 participants from around the world. Last year’s event drew more than 700 participants.
Google avails NVIDIA Tesla T4 GPUs on Google Cloud Platform in Singapore
The Google Cloud Platform running on NVIDIA Tesla T4 GPUs (above) has been beta launched in Singapore, availing the power of GPU cloud computing to customers around the region.
IBM and T-Systems team up on mainframe services
Remember the mainframe? It used to rule the world of computing and was presumed by some to be extinct when the advent of Intel-based servers and GPU-powered supercomputers. Presumed is the key word here because the mainframe is still alive and kicking though it does not command the clout that it did in the past.
SenseTime sets up autonomous driving site in Japan
Leading China-based AI company SenseTime has unveiled an autonomous driving park in Joso, Japan. The testing course will be used to develop autonomous driving technology and conduct road tests of autonomous vehicles.
Finally, an affordable ray tracing GPU from NVIDIA!
When NVIDIA launched on last August the first GeForce RTX GPUs with ray tracing capabilities, fans were excited but taken aback by the the price tag. Costing from US$499, the three cards — the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, 2080 and 2070 — were a little higher than most gamers were prepared to fork out.
Creative SXFI Air ready for order
The headphone version of Creative’s Super X-Fi is now available for order in Singapore. The Creative SXFI Air brings holographic audio to iPhones and other smartphones without the 3.5mm jack.
Apple misses Q1 revenue projection
Apple has lowered its revenue guidance for Q1 to US$84 billion, down from the earlier projection of between US$89 billion and US$93 billion.
Gojek goes nation-wide in Singapore
Indonesia-based Gojek is taking its ride-hailing service island-wide in Singapore from today. This follows a successful beta launch in November which covered the southern-central and eastern part of Singapore.
China: Quick adopter, widespread use of technology
By Edward Lim
In the early 2000s, I visited Beijing for the first time and was amazed to see a taxi using a global positioning system (GPS) to get me to my destination. To put things in perspective, this was before the arrival of smartphones and GPS wasn’t even used in Singapore.
Elephone debuts full screen smartphone for US$249
US-based Elephone has announced the PX, which it dubbed “The Most Affordable Full-Screen Smartphone” that is packed with top features for users on a budget.
Zhao becomes 1st female managing director of Samsung Electronics HK
Samsung Electronics HK (SEHK) has appointed Yiyin Zhao as its first female Managing Director. She was previously Vice President & Head of IT and Mobile Communication Business
Making 8K movie editing a reality
8K movie is the next big thing and an announcement by RED and NVIDIA is making editing such movies a reality. The partners have introduced the NVIDIA CUDA-accelerated REDCODE RAW decode SDK that gives software developers and studios a powerful new way to work with 8K video.
China bans some Apple iPhone models
Qualcomm has dealt a blow to Apple with Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court banning the sale of selected iPhone models in China. The move was for the violation of two Qualcomm patents.
HCL to acquire US$1.8b of IBM software assets
India software firm HCL Technologies has entered into an agreement to acquire a portfolio of IBM software products for US$1.8 billion. The transaction is expected to close by mid-2019 upon completion of applicable regulatory reviews.
OnePlus to launch first 5G smartphone in the UK
OnePlus has fired the first salvo in the 5G race. At a Qualcomm event in Hawaii, the China smartphone maker announced its intention to launch its first 5G handset in the United Kingdom.
NVIDIA unleashes powerful ‘T-Rex’ GPU
It’s no dinosaur but the newly-announced NVIDIA Titan RTX, dubbed T-Rex, is certainly very powerful — to the tune of 130 teraflops of deep learning performance and 11 GigaRays of ray-tracing performance.
Global wearable market to grow 26% in 2019
Worldwide shipment of wearable devices will touch 225 million in 2019, an increase of 25.8 percent from 2018, according to Gartner.
Samsung introduces second edition of Frame TV in Hong Kong
Televisions have come a long way since the days when one can be kept for decades and handed down to the next generation. The goggleboxes of old were also centre pieces that were much to be admired and where families and even communities gathered.
Amazon takes on big guns in machine learning
A new player has entered the machine learning arena. While big players such as Google, Intel and NVIDIA have been slugging it out, Amazon has thrown its hat into the ring with its newly-launched Inferentia chip.
SSMC opens S$300m clean room in Singapore
Semiconductor maker Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Company (SSMC) has opened a new S$300 million Annex 10 clean room in Singapore.
FXGear introduces next-gen virtual fitting solution
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” Well, if the clothing doesn’t make you the fairest, just swap to another. That’s what the FXMirror can do — bringing virtual fitting to another level by adding an avatar.
Arcadier to raise US$25m for blockchain e-commerce marketplaces
Singapore headquartered Arcadier, has launched Token Generation Event (TGE) Presale to raise US$25 million by Q3 next year for its Project ArcadierX blockchain-enhanced marketplace platform. A private sale has yielded US$1 million in investment.
NTU achieves highest Linpack score in global supercomputing competition
A six-person team from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has achieved 56.51 teraflops, the highest Linpack score — a measurement of a system’s floating point computing horsepower — in a global supercomputing competition held in conjunction with SC18 in Dallas.
Smartphone and feature phone neck-to-neck in India
For the first time, the smartphone market is on par with the feature phone market in India, according to IDC. Overall, the India market reached 42.6 million units for a 9.1 percent year-on-year growth in Q3.
Ecozen impresses at inaugural Rabobank Food Loss Challenge
Big data and artificial intelligence (AI) are not usually associated with food and agriculture but five startups have shown that such technologies can play a major role in minimising food loss. Some 1.3 billion tonnes of food are lost worldwide each year.
NVIDIA GPUs power a quarter of Top 500 supercomputers
The world’s top two supercomputers — – the US Department of Energy’s Summit, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Sierra, at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. — pack a combined total of more than 40,000 NVIDIA V100 Tensor Core GPUs, according to the latest of the Top 500 list released in conjunction with SC18.
ComfortDelGro to trial autonomous shuttle bus
In a first of its kind move by a transport operator, Singapore-based ComfortDelGro will be trialing an autonomous shuttle bus service
in real traffic conditions in National University of Singapore (NUS) in March 2019.
SoftBank targets US$21b mobile IPO
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank plans to raise US$21 billion for its mobile telecommunications unit, making it the world’s biggest IPO since Alibaba in 2014.
Hiwonder unveils Qdee programmable robot
Hong Kong-based Hiwonder has launched a micro:bit-based Qdee programmable robot with infinite shapes. Available on Kickstarter from US$39, the kit is compatible with Lego and designed to teach children about robotics.
The SXFI Amp: Creative’s 2nd coming?
By Edward Lim
Spending three days manning a booth in an IT show can take a toll on the body and mind. What more a constant repetitive blasting of sound from a booth just across the aisle. The vendor was an up and coming Singapore company called Creative Technology. The product was the Sound Blaster.
Saba Software acquires Lumesse
Talent development solutions provider Saba Software has completed its acquisition of Lumesse, a provider of talent acquisition, talent management, and learning experience technology.
Global smartphone shipment slides 6% in Q3
Smartphone vendors shipped 355.2 million units in Q3, down six percent from the corresponding quarter last year, according to preliminary estimates by IDC. This is the fourth straight quarter of year-on-year decline.
Taiwan hospital deploys NVIDIA DGX-2 for next-generation medical services
Taiwan’s Chinese Medical University Hospital (CMUH) has become the first healthcare provider in Asia to deploy and operate the NVIDIA DGX-2 AI supercomputer.
OnePlus 6T launches with world’s fastest fingerprint display sensor
OnePlus announced OnePlus 6T, its latest smartphone to a hall packed with enthusiasts in New York City on October 29 — one day ahead of schedule to avoid conflicting with an Apple event the next day.
IBM in “game-changer” Red Hat acquisition
IBM has announced its US$34 billion acquisition of open source leader Red Hat. The move has been dubbed a “game-changer” by Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, who added that it changes everything about the cloud market.
OnePlus deconflicts with Apple launch
UPDATE: Catch the launch live on Youtube at 11pm Singapore time.
OnePlus has brought forward its OnePlus 6T launch to October 29 to avoid a clash with Apple’s iPad Pro and Mac event the next day. The China smartphone maker had been first off the block with the October 30 date but Apple threw a curveball by announcing that its launch event will be on the same day in the same city.
Infineon gives startups a heads up with first Co-Innovation Space
Names such as Ampotech, Plunify, SHADO, and XNERGY may not ring a bell today but with a little help from Infineon, they may well become the successes of tomorrow.
Online marketplace Honestbee launches brick-and-mortar Habitat
It’s interesting how trends keep evolving. In the past decade or two, many supermarkets have opened up online stores to cater to changing consumer demands. On the other side, new companies set up online stores to challenge these traditional players. Yesterday, one of these, Honestbee, took the reverse route by setting up Habitat, its first brick-and-mortar outlet in Pasir Panjang, Singapore.
Huawei ups the ante on AI
Huawei has upped the ante with an ambitious US$140 million investment in developing one million artificial intelligence (AI) talents in three years. Under its AI Developer Enablement Programme, the China telecoms giant will work with universities and research institutions as well as partners and developers to build an ecosystem with AI resources, platforms, courses, and joint solutions to better support AI development.
Goodbye, Google Plus!
Google Plus aka Google+ will be no more — for consumers, at least. The search giant is shutting down its social media service after discovering security lapse that put the data of half a million users at risk.Newstead goes into liquidation
Singapore IT retailer Newstead Technlogies has gone into liquidation. Established in 1998 with its first outlet at Funan DigitalLife Mall, it was supposed to be the anchor tenant when the redeveloped mall re-opens next year.
The stuff of spy movies
Supermicro has become infamous overnight following an expose by Bloomberg quoting unnamed sources. According to the report, “the attack by Chinese spies reached almost 30 US companies, including Amazon and Apple, by compromising America’s technology supply chain.”
No more paper arrival card filling for visitors to Singapore
Looking for a pen to fill in an arrival card while travelling to Singapore will be a thing of the past when the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) completes its three-month electronic arrival card for foreign visitors next year.
Facebook to give SEA startups a leg up
Social media giant Facebook is partnering with Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore to give Southeast Asia startups a head start in developing data-driven technologies.
Qualcomm accuses Apple of IP theft
The legal tussle between Qualcomm and Apple has hit another level with the chipmaker accusing the smartphone giant of passing trade secrets to Intel. An earlier court battle, Qualcomm said that Apple breached an agreement for it to audit Apple’s use of Qualcomm’s source code.
Googles turns 20
By Edward Lim
It may have seemed like forever but Google just celebrated its 20th anniversary today. It’s not even an adult yet by human age but the search giant has grown massively over the past two decades.
Singapore launches unified payment QR code
The number of QR codes for payment is akin to the number of credit card offerings in the market — it keeps growing, making it more of a hassle than convenience for merchants and consumers. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has stepped in to solve this problem with the launch of the Singapore Quick Response (SGQR) Code.
The Weather Channel showcases realistic weather simulation
The weather wreaked havoc across the world last week with a number of hurricanes and typhoons. The Weather Channel leveraged the same technology used for computer games to create simulations that brought the impact of such weather into homes.
Smartphone prices soaring
The prices of top end smartphones are going through the roof. Apple announced yesterday that its new iPhone XS Max with 512GB of storage will cost a whopping US$1,449.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma walks the talk
By Edward Lim
It’s hard to let go when you’re one of the richest man in the world and leading one, if not the biggest, e-commerce company in the world. But, Jack Ma is a man of his word. A man who knows his time and a man who has shown what resilience is all about.
Facebook to build S$1.4b data centre in Singapore
Hot on the heels of Google’s announcement last month that it will build its third data centre in Singapore is Facebook, which declared today that it will be establishing its first Asia data centre in the country.
Pilot develops Rate My Landing app
Pilot John Rood has teamed up with mobile app developer eZoom to come up with Rate My Landing, which allows gamers to learn what it takes to land an aircraft.
NVIDIA GPU Cloud supports Microsoft Azure
NVIDIA and Microsoft have announced that Microsoft Azure is now supported on the NVIDIA GPU Cloud (NGC) platform.
China wins battle for AI investments
A battle of sorts is taking place in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). It has been widely reported that China is ramping up its focus on the technology that is expected to transform businesses and industries. Numbers from ABI Research point to a swing in favour of China.
Entelechy Asia 