The most used navigation app which most of us used is Google’s Map app and Waze app. Most of the drivers prefer to use the Waze app since it can display the detail information of the road conditions. However, sometimes when we stuck in the traffic we might feel stress by looking at the red taillights. Now, Google is rolling the Google Assistant feature to the Waze on Android phones in English.
At this moment, this feature is only available for users in the US only. Google will roll out this feature globally at a later time. What’s about Google Assistant in Waze? This might be your questions now. Well other than looking into the traffics, you can tell the Google Assistant to play your favorite music while you are driving. You can even send a message to your friends via hands-free. All of these features can be done without leaving the Waze navigation screen.
Other than that, we all know Waze is famous for reporting potholes and reporting police nearby. Now, you can simply say “Hey Google, report traffic” or “Hey Google, avoid tolls” and the rest will be taken care of by the Google Assistant. You can continue focusing your eyes on the road rather than on the screen.
In conclusion, by introducing this feature, Google believes the drivers can get less distracted and focus on the road mainly. This will help also to reduce road accidents. In Malaysia, we might get this update later this year probably. Once Google rolls out this update globally, we can give it a try too.
It has been one month since the United States government add Huawei into its Entity List. Google is the first tech company to stop providing software and security update. A few days ago, Google starts to argue with the US government stating that banning Huawei might lead to a threat to US national security. According to the XDA Developers, Huawei has started to invite trusted app developers to publish their apps on the Huawei’s AppGallery.
Few of the developers received the email as follow:
Subject: [OFFICIAL] Invitation to join Huawei AppGallery
Cher XXX team,
– In the last 2 years, Huawei shipped over 350M phones, about half of them in western markets.
– All Huawei phones have our official AppStore “AppGallery” preloaded globally, with 270 million monthly active users.
– We realized that your great Android App XXX is not yet published in our AppGallery.
– In order to guarantee a smooth usage of your App for our users, Huawei is committed to provide you with full support, to help you publish your App into AppGallery.
– We would therefore like to invite you to join our 560k developers community for free, in our Huawei Developer portal.
If you notice on the email on the left, Huawei is trying to convince the app developers by saying the AppGallery has 270 million monthly active users. Other than that, Huawei also claims their Developer Portal has 560,000 members. We are not sure whether these pieces of information is actually true.
As we all know Huawei is developing their own operating system called ArkOS. We can expect this operating system by next year. If Huawei’s AppGallery didn’t work well, Huawei has other alternative plans too. According to a report from Bloomberg, Huawei might be in the midst of negotiation with a 3rd party app store called Aptoide.
The only part we are curious of is what about apps made by the US developers? Is Huawei will be including these apps into their alternative app store? The writer of Ars Technica has revealed a small piece of information on his twitter account. He says that only two out of fifteen famous apps on the Google Play Store will be available to the Huawei devices. The remaining thirteen apps are made by the US developers.
This is what the Play Store top free apps would look like with the US apps crossed out.
In conclusion, if you notice at the image above, the two apps which will make its way to Huawei’s app store will be Spotify and TikTok. Users might not be able to download apps such as Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat. This is going to impact the end-users a lot. Let’s wait and watch how Huawei is going to tackle this issue.
Apart from Apple Watch, Samsung Watch is one of the expensive smartwatch available in the market. Today, Samsung is offering its most affordable fitness band starting from RM139. You can get both the Samsung Galaxy Fit and Galaxy Fit-e in Malaysia. These watches record your heart rate and track your daily activities.
The low-end Galaxy Fit-e
The cheaper version of the fitness band is the Samsung Galaxy Fit-e which is priced at RM139 only. The Galaxy Fit-e comes with a smaller display which should be sufficient to display the time and activity data. However, the Galaxy Fit-e lacks the gyroscope sensor.
First of all, the Galaxy Fit-e has a water resistance of 50 meters. It comes with military-level durability standard where you don’t have to worry about dust and rain.
Samsung has also included its Auto Workout Tracking where it is able to detect three types of activities such as walking, running and dynamic workout. Based on these workouts, it is able to send your heart rate to your Samsung Health app on your phone. From this app, you can monitor your heart rate status.
Other than that, Samsung also includes its smart notification feature into the fitness band. Next time when your phone rings, you can know who is calling. However, you might not able to reply to the notifications you receive. Your phone has to be connected to your fitness band in order to use this feature. According to the Samsung Galaxy Fit-e official website, the battery could last up to 7 days.
The high-end Galaxy Fit
On the other hand, the higher version of the Galaxy Fit is priced at RM369. The higher the price the better the features. The Galaxy Fit comes with a 0.95″ of full-color AMOLED display which has the resolution of 120×240 pixels. Most of the features such as the activity tracker and the smart notifications are similar. However, the Galaxy Fit able to track up to six activities whereas the Galaxy Fit-e is only able to track three activities.
Moreover, you can use your Galaxy Fit to reply notifications such as messages directly from your wrist. It only supports preset replies.
The Galaxy Fit also comes with a larger battery capacity of 1200mAh which can last up to 8 days of normal usage and 11 days of low usage. Apart from that, the Galaxy Fit can support both Android and iOS devices. On the Android devices, it supports Android 5.0 and above. For iOS, it supports iOS 9 and above.
In conclusion, these are the most affordable fitness band with amazing features. You can start to purchase your favorite fitness band today from Samsung Malaysia online store. Check out the Galaxy Fit and Galaxy Fit-e official website for more information. These devices will hit the store on 14th June 2019 onward.
Huawei Malaysia is trying to prove its generosity by launching multiple campaigns for its end-users. Today Huawei Malaysia is kick-starting its new RM99 battery replacement campaign at all Huawei authorized service centers nationwide. If your Huawei phone is having issues with the battery, you can get it replaced by Huawei for RM99 only.
At this moment, this campaign is only applicable to selected Huawei smartphone models only. You can take a look at the models below. You might be wondering how about the labour charges. Don’t worry the RM99 is inclusive of the battery replacement and the labour charge.
On top of that, Huawei Malaysia providing 30 days warranty for its new battery replacement. In case you have any problem with the battery within 30 days, you can walk-in to any of the participating Huawei Authorised Service Centers to get your phone fixed. According to the term and conditions, user’s can join this campaign as first come first serve basis and also depends on the parts availability.
In conclusion, start to walk-in with your Huawei smartphones to the Huawei Authorised Service Centers today to get a new battery for your phone for RM99 only. Check out the list of service centers nationwide. For more information visit the campaign website.
We are sure many of you might be waiting for Samsung to launch the Galaxy Fold since April onwards. Unfortunately, Samsung has to delay the launch of the Galaxy Fold due to the screen issue where the protective layer damages the Galaxy Fold screen.
After the issue is confirm by Samsung, Samsung delays the launch of this foldable smartphone. Now it appears that Samsung could launch the Galaxy Fold on July. This was first reported by Samsung high-ranking official on the South Korean tech news website. According to this person, Samsung is gearing up to have a media conference in June. At this event, Samsung will release to the media in advance.
Originally, this device is planned to release to the end-users on April 26 but before the launch date, Samsung has given away a few of the Galaxy Fold to the tech influencers. When the tech influencers such as MKBHD started to use the Galaxy Fold, they notice there is a problem with the phone display.
According to iFixit, the gaps around the hinges might allow the dirt to enter into the device easily.
We believe, after two months delay, Samsung has made an improvement to the Galaxy Fold to overcome the display issue. Samsung is adding an additional protective layer to the main body to overcome the screen damage issue.
In conclusion, we can expect Samsung to be on sale starting July onwards. Previously, Samsung Malaysia announces the Galaxy Fold will be arriving to store on 3rd May 2019. Since the delay, Malaysians can start to purchase the Galaxy Fold from the telco providers starting either in July or August.
In case you are planning to purchase a new Huawei smartphone you have to think twice before purchasing it. This is because Reuters has reported Facebook has ban Huawei too.
Huawei is not allowed to pre-install Facebook apps in its smartphone. This includes WhatsApp and Instagram. According to Facebook, the current Huawei devices which have been shipped out from the factory will still be able to pre-install with Facebook apps except for the devices which have not left the factory will be affected.
Other than Facebook apps, most of the smartphone usually pre-installs other popular apps such as Twitter and Booking.com. Most of the Huawei devices always comes with those pre-installed apps. However, at this moment, neither Twitter nor Booking.com has given their comments regarding this matter.
For now, Facebook has declined to comment on when the suspension will take place. You still can purchase Huawei smartphones until 19th August 2019 even Facebook bans Huawei. You can download the apps directly from the Google Play Store until the end of the 90 days temporary license expires.
Recap On The Entity List
In the mid of the May 2019, the US government has added Huawei name into its Entity List. After that, Huawei has been suspended from doing business with various tech companies in the US. Then, to give Huawei a small gap to breathe, the US government provides Huawei with a 90 days temporary license. As a result, Google has agreed to provide software and security updates until the end of 19th August 2019.
In conclusion, people who are not active in any of these social networks might be happy with the Facebook decision because their phone storage might not take up for these apps. However, people who are heavy users might have to head over to the Google Play Store to download these apps until the end of 90 days period. After 90 days, Huawei needs to come with its own plan to survive in the smartphone business.
One of the most awaited device during the WWDC event is Apple’s all-new Mac Pro. Before it announces the macOS Catalina on the stage, Apple announces about the Mac Pro. Since the announcement until now, this topic has been the topic of the day. Honestly, the Mac Pro is undoubted the most powerful and the most expensive computer we have seen before.
You got it right! This powerhouse computer is extremely expensive. You have to pay $5,999 (RM25,075) for the base model itself. This is the model which Apple displayed during the WWDC keynote event. The base model comes with the Intel 8-core Xeon with 32GB of memory and 256GB of SSD.
Coolest Specs Ever For A Computer
Talking about the specs of this all-new Mac Pro will be totally insane. First of all, this crazy speed computer comes with an Intel’s Xeon processor with 8 to 28 cores. The maximum memory the Mac Pro can support is 1.5TB. This is the highest capacity memory a computer can have. On top of that, Apple also adds 8 PCI Express slot where you can run two AMD Radeon Vega II Duo which gives you up to 128GB of GPU memory.
Other than that, for video editors, Apple is adding an accelerator card called Afterburner. This card allows you to edit 4K and 8K native video directly from the beginning itself. You don’t have to worry about time-consuming transcoding or errors during output. The Afterburner card is capable to decode up to 6 billion pixels per second. If you are working as a video editor then you should consider this insane computer for your post-production works.
Mac Pro Returns As The “Cheese Grater” Design
Whenever it comes to a product design, Apple is always the best at it. Until now no one can compete with Apple. Take a look at their website design itself you will know the quality of their product. For this new Mac Pro, Apple continues with the similar cheese grater design as the previous Mac Pro design.
This powerhouse computer is fully enclosed with a stainless steel space frame which allows you to lift up the casing completely. This will allow you to view 360-degree of the Mac Pro. The stainless steel frame allows you to move the Mac Pro easily around with the tire included in the bottom of it.
However, the lattice pattern in the front and back of the Mac Pro seems a bit off. This is due to the alien faces look alike which some of the users might have tyrophobia. According to Apple, the main purpose of this pattern is to maximize airflow ventilation to ensure quiet operation.
In conclusion, the all-new Mac Pro is absolutely a powerhouse computer. To use this insane device, you got to pay the price which when you purchase the high-end model will be around $45,000 (RM188,000) inclusive the Apple Pro Display XDR. This device is mainly for professional use only. If you think this device is suitable for your work, you can consider it. Find out more information about the Mac Pro from the official website.
After naming the macOS with mountain names, now Apple is naming it with island names in California. The later version of macOS is called Catalina. Catalina is an island situated in California. Apple launches a few new features and new apps for the latest version of the macOS Catalina.
Project Catalyst: Port Your iPad Apps To Your Mac
First of all, Apple launches a new feature for the developers called Project Catalyst. During last year WWDC, Apple announces they are working on a way to bring iPad app to the Mac. Today, they have finally announces through Catalyst, developers can ports their iPad apps into Mac within few clicks in the Xcode. During the demo session, Atlassian demo their Jira app for Mac. According to Atlassian, it took just few days to fully port their iPad app to the Mac.
iTunes Is Replaced With These Three Apps
After 18 years finally, Apple pulls the plug out of iTunes. In the new macOS Catalina, you could not find the iTunes app from the Dock. What Apple has done is it separates iTunes and introduces three different apps which are Apple Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV to the macOS Catalina.
Sidecar: Extend Your Desktop With iPad
One of the unexpected features which Apple announces for the macOS Catalina is the Sidecar feature. It allows you to use your iPad as the secondary display for the Mac. There is already third-party application on the Mac App Store such as Duet Display. However, everything changes when Apple announces its own feature.
Voice Control
Apple always thinks ahead for disabled people who use Apple devices. macOS Catalina now allows the disabled people to control their Mac entirely with their voice. It is one of the accessibility feature, where the disabled people can talk using the numbers which pops up on the screen. For example, if they want to send a message to a person, they can talk to their Mac and then a few numbers will be shown. From there, they have to say the number and the specific actions will occur. Take a look at the video below to understand more about this new voice control feature.
Find My App Come To The Mac Too
Apple is bringing the Find My app to the macOS Catalina too. Basically, it combines the Find My Friends and Find My iPhone apps into a standalone application. Next time when your Mac gets stolen, you can track it even the device is off. The technology behind is through Bluetooth. The Mac will send a secure Bluetooth beacon to the nearest Apple devices around the area. Then this information will be relayed back to your account.
In conclusion, these are the top highlighted features which we personally feel interesting. There are more features in the macOS Catalina which you can use it once Apple rolls out the macOS Catalina during the fall this year. Check out the official website for more information on the macOS Catalina.
Apple Watch has been one of the most used smartwatches today. When Apple launches Apple Watch Series 4, its sales skyrocket because of the watchOS 5 which comes with tons of features. Now, Apple is not stopping there. Apple announces its new watchOS 6 during today’s WWDC event. Here is the list of features of the watchOS 6 which we think all Apple Watch users are going to love it.
New Watch Faces
With the new watch faces, you can see more insightful information at a glance. You can customize the existing watch faces color to even gold color. These watch faces can be used for more functionalities or for better design purpose. According to Apple, there are many watch faces which can be switched according to your mood.
Apart from that, Apple also introduces a new feature to tell you the current time. Apple uses the Taptic Engine inside the Apple Watch to let you know the hour on your wrist. You can even set a chime for your Apple Watch so that every hour it will give a bird chirping sound. Apple also allows you to use your two fingers to tell out the time loudly by holding two fingers on the watch face. This feature will really help those disabled people to know the time easily.
Siri Gets Better For the Apple Watch
Apple has already integrated Siri into the Apple Watch last year itself. This round, Siri is getting better. You can start asking Siri questions such as “What’s song is this?” and Siri and Shazam will help you to tell what song is playing. You can even ask questions to Siri and it will respond to you directly by providing website links.
Apple Watch Get Its Own App Store
Previously, if you want to download apps for your Apple Watch, you have head to the Apple Watch app on the iPhone. From there only, you can search for the apps and download them. Using the watchOS 6, Apple Watch gets its own App Store where you can get the new app directly from your Apple Watch.
Other than that, Apple is also including three new apps for the Apple Watch which are the Audiobooks, Voice Memos, and the Calculator app.
The calculator app is one of the most awaited apps in the Apple Watch. You can even calculate your bill tips directly from the calculator app in the Apple Watch too.
Activity Trends
Apple allows you to check your daily activity trends on your iPhone. The current watchOS 5 shows the activity ring mainly. Now, with the Activity app, you can view your progress over time. If the metrics shows upwards that means you are achieving your goal. Unless if it shows downwards you need to work to turn it around. If you are not performing your exercise well, the Apple Watch even suggest you how to get you back on your track.
Cycle Tracking: Something Useful For Women
Apple is launching a new app called Cycle Tracking for women. This apps helps the women to gain better insight about their menstrual cycle so that they can know better about their overall health condition. This app also helps the women to track weird symptoms during their menstruation cycle.
Moreover, women can easily tap on the Cycle Tracking app to keep track of their daily menstrual cycle. Part of it is, Apple allows you to add the flow information, record symptoms such as headaches and cramps.
All this information will be used to predict your next period or fertile window will be starting. All these information are completely available as a graphical chart in the all-new redesigned Health app on your iPhone
Hearing Health: Care More For Your Earing
Apple is also introducing a new feature for the watchOS 6 called Noise. This built-in app gives you noise information. Assuming you are working on a construction site when the noise level reaches, your Apple Watch will notify you to move away from the site. With the all-new watch faces, you can directly measure the noise level from your watch face.
In conclusion, these are the amazing features which Apple announces today during the WWDC event. You can find more information about watchOS 6 on their official website. Apple will start to roll out the new watchOS 6 during the fall.
One of the unexpected launches of today’s event is the iPadOS. iPad has been part of iOS since the beginning era of iOS. Now Apple is making huge changes to the iPad by splitting the iOS to form a new OS for the iPad called iPadOS. This means tons of new features is heading towards the iPad alone.
The software it uses is still the same iOS 13, however, the iPad will have additional features where only the iPad is capable. Let’s list out the mind-blowing features that you can get from the iPadOS.
Slide Over And Split View
With iOS 12, Apple has already improved the multitasking feature. Now with iOS 13, Apple introduces Slide Over and Split View to the iPad. Using the iPad, you can switch to your favorite apps seamlessly without interrupting your other task. Assuming you are writing an email and you need to insert the attachment to it. Previously, you have to click on the Insert Attachment and then have to go look through it. However, now things changes. You can slide over the apps from the bottom right as shown in the image below.
When you are swiping from the bottom right this is how you can find for your favorite apps.
Just like in your desktop, you can work on two documents side by side with the new Split View feature.
A Newly Redesigned Home Screen
Although the iPad has a large screen, Apple did not make use of its large screen display. We are sure some of you might be disappointed of it. Today, Apple announces a newly redesigned home screen which make uses of the whole large screen display. Apple is adding a new feature called Pinned Widgets. This means you can pin all your favorite widgets into the Todays View panel. You can glance at it by swiping on the left of the Home Screen. As there are a lot of iPad apps which supports widgets, we are sure many of you will be using this feature most of the time.
Apple Pencil Gets Faster
Apple Pencil has been part of the iPad now. Previously only the iPad Pro supports the Apple Pencil. Now, the normal iPad also supports the Apple Pencil. When Apple launches Apple Pencil in 2015, everyone mocks it because of the price is expensive. However, later on many of the iPad users started to adopt to the Apple Pencil. Today, if you notice most of the designers and architects are using the Apple Pencil as their daily tool for working purpose.
Apple is making its Apple Pencil faster which has a 20ms latency previously. With the upcoming iOS 13, the Apple Pencil latency reduces to 9ms by using its advanced prediction algorithm. As the Apple Pencil gets faster, Apple has also redesign its tool palette.
Full Page Markup
Apple is taking screenshot feature to the next level by allowing its users to screenshot the entire webpage content. This includes documents and email. Apple also allows you to use the markup feature by using the Apple Pencil. Whenever you are having a business meeting with your customer or client you can use the Apple Pencil to markup the content.
Sidecar: Second Screen Support For The iPad
Apple is also introducing a brand new feature for the iPadOS. It is called Sidecar. Sidecar is a feature which will allow the iPad to connect to the latest macOS Catalina as a secondary display. It supports both ways via the cables or via wirelessly. However, it only supports at a distance of 10 meters only.
In order to for you to use this feature, you need the latest macOS Catalina. With the Sidecar, you can turn your iPad into a drawing tablet for your Mac.
Faster Text Editing
Another mind-blowing feature Apple announces today is the new faster text editing feature. iPadOS comes with several hand gestures which allow you to easily copy and paste content without looking through its magnifying glass. Using your three fingers, you can pinch in to copy and pinch out to paste. You can see those actions in the videos below.
Other than that, you can even swipe left with three fingers to undo the mistake and right to redo the actions. Previously, Apple only allows shaking your device to undo an action. Now with this feature, you don’t have to shake your device again.
In conclusion, these are the mind-blowing features Apple announces for the iPadOS. There are more features where you can find out from its official website. The iPadOS will be rolling out to everyone coming fall this year.
