According to a detikINET, Apple could possibly move the production of iPad and MacBook from China to Indonesia soon. During an interview the CEO of PT Sat Nusapersada, Abidin Hasibuan says his company will be collaborating with Pegatron. It is a Taiwanese company which manufacturers Apple products such as the MacBook and iPad.
At this moment, he cites they will start to manufacture a laptop and a tablet. Since it is still confidential, he did not mention the brand of it. However, he confirms the manufacturing will begin somewhere around June. The interesting part is he reveals it is an American brand where they will be supplying the laptop and tablet to the United States. By doing the math, we can confirm the American brand is Apple.
The main reason, Apple is moving its manufacturing plant to Indonesia due to the China trade war with the United States. Since the United States government bans Chinese tech company Huawei, there is a possibility for China to take revenge on Apple by banning Apple products in China. At the same time, the labor cost over at Indonesia is way cheaper than in China. This could be one of the reason too.
In conclusion, nothing can be confirmed until we receive an official press statement from Apple. Can we expect Apple to manufacture its product in Malaysia too?
Back on October 2018, Huawei launches its Mate 20 series smartphone by including a new generation expansion storage. Instead of microSD card, Huawei launches the NM Card. Now, we can see that Huawei might not be able to include microSD card slots into their devices. This means the only option Huawei has is the NM Card.
The main reason for this removal is the SD Association has removed Huawei from its list of members companies. The SD Association is established to set a standard for memory cards. This association is also responsible to promote newer SD card technologies. Since Huawei is officially out of this association, it won’t be able to produce any of their smartphones with SD card slot.
Image from Lowyat.net
If you notice its other smartphones such as the Huawei P30 Pro, it is using the microSD card slot for expandable storage. Most of its affordable smartphones come with the microSD card slot. We are suspecting the whole reason the SD Association removes Huawei could possibly due to the ban on Huawei.
In conclusion, this will really affect Huawei’s affordable smartphone market. Huawei will either include its NM Card technology or its next-generation smartphone will only have the internal storage. As for now, Huawei has not provided its official statement regarding this removal.
The US government gives a 90 days license for Huawei to continue its business with US tech companies. Google did say it will continue providing technical supports to Huawei. However, today seems like Google has already removed two of Huawei devices from Android official website.
Yesterday
Today
Previously, in the official website of Android, there is a section which shows the most popular Android devices. Although the Huawei Mate X is not officially launched yet, Google adds both the Huawei P30 Pro and Huawei Mate X into this section. If you notice it today, both Huawei devices are missing from the 5G phones section.
Yesterday
Today
In conclusion, despite Google agrees to provide technical support, it has removed the most popular smartphone from the Android.com website. Existing Huawei users wouldn’t have to worry about this because Google promises will allow all its users to use its applications such as YouTube and Google Play Store. We have to hope both this tech giant will come up with their own contingency plan else Huawei will be launching its own operating system soon.
Amazon is the world’s second company to reach a $1,000,000,000,000 valuation after Apple. Amazon constantly launches new products such as Amazon Echo and Amazon Dash. With the Amazon Alexa, Amazon has already known everything about a specific user. Now, Amazon is working on a new tracking wearable which can tracks a user’s emotions too.
How it works is, Amazon Alexa will be able to determine the user’s mood and responds back according to their feeling. For example, if a person feels sad, Amazon will tracks the person’s mood and then reply in a soft manner. Not only that, there are more other emotions such as happiness, anger, and boredom. Amazon has already patented it to let Alexa do the replying based on the user emotion.
According to Bloomberg, the emotion-tracking wearable device is a product of Alexa and Lab126 hardware team. As for now, Amazon research teams are testing this product internally with the code name “Dylan”. There is a possibility this product could be realized soon. This is because, Amazon’s’ Echo Buttons is one of Amazon experiment within its hardware team. There are some experimental products which did not pass the internal trial phase.
Amazon Echo Buttons
In conclusion, if you watch the movie Back to the Future, you might realize how technology has evolved within us. We might not expect an emotional tracker during those days. Now, it will become a reality where everyone will start to get one of those wearable devices soon.
Last week Huawei faces the worst time ever since the US government blocks Huawei from doing business with the US tech companies. Later, the US government provides a temporary license for Huawei to continue doing their business with US tech companies. Following this tragedy, Huawei finally comes up with its own contingency plan. Huawei will be launching its own operating system either end of this year or first quarter of 2020.
According to CNBC, this news is confirmed by Huawei’s head of consumer division. Surprisingly, Microsoft has also removed Huawei’s notebook from its product page. This means Huawei will be launching two operating systems for its devices which is for the smartphones and its notebooks. On Thursday, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei told that it has to prepare for plan B if plan A fails. Developing their own operating system is plan B now.
Imagine using Huawei’s phone without Android, that could be really devastating because all users download their favorite applications from the Google Play Store. According to its CEO, Huawei has its own app store which is known as the App Gallery. However, the population of users who uses the Google Play Store is higher, so Huawei has to think of a way to tackle this issue.
Issues Huawei has to face before creating their own operating system
User Experience
First of all, Huawei needs to focus on the user experience of the operating system. Its operating system has to match with Google Androids and Microsoft Windows. Huawei need to develop various kinds of applications which gives a seamless user experience to its consumers.
Security
The most important key point here is having a secure operating system. None of the consumers will be using Huawei’s operating system, if it is not secure. This includes user’s privacy and security. All the applications need to involve scanning and certification before rolling out to its operating system. According to Neil Shah, who is a research director, at Counterpoint Research says doing this huge task will be really challenging and requires tons of resources.
Huawei without ARM technology
The other issue is Huawei’s being suspended to use ARM technology. After ARM halts its partnership with Huawei, Huawei is facing issues to secure the critical components which are the SoC. Although Huawei creates its own Kirin 980 processors, the technology behind is the ARM technology. According to Shah, the operating system could be useless if Huawei can’t use the ARM processor.
In conclusion, if the US government insist to continue to block Huawei permanently, then we can expect Huawei’s own operating system to launch by end of this year or beginning of next year. Anyhow, we will keep our readers updated on it.
Everywhere you go the only thing people talk about is all about Huawei. Honestly, Huawei is really having a hard time now. After the US government adds Huawei into its blacklist, companies such as Google, Intel and Qualcomm have stopped all its supplies to Huawei. Even Microsoft has removed Huawei’s notebook from its page. Now, ARM is also suspending its partnership and all its deals with Huawei.
According to BBC, ARM instructs all its employees to cut all its current relationship with Huawei via a memo. This memo is circulated within its company. This includes Huawei’s sister company HONOR too. HONOR just launches its new series of smartphone, HONOR 20 and HONOR 20 Pro a week ago. Now with this issue, HONOR will be affected too.
Although Huawei builds its own SoC without the partnership of ARM, Huawei could not have launched the Kirin processor. If you take a look, most of the Huawei devices is using ARM’s technology as part of Kirin SoC. Other than that, Infineon also has stopped all its relationship with Huawei after Huawei is ban from doing business in the US.
In conclusion, its CEO says that the ban does not affect badly as we think. Huawei could have come up with their own contingency plan? If not, this is going to be a huge disaster for Huawei.
We all know, that the United States government has blocked all access for Huawei to continue doing business with US tech companies. After that, the US government provides Huawei a temporary license which allows the Chinese tech giant to continue business with US tech companies for 90 days. Now Google, has given its reply in a statement regarding this issue.
Below is the statement from the Google spokesperson:
Keeping phones up to date and secure is in everyone’s best interests and this temporary license allows us to continue to provide software updates and security patches to existing models for the next 90 days.
Google will only deliver all its security updates to Huawei until the end of 90 days period. After the 90th day, Huawei will not be able to receive any kind of updates from Google. This situation can be overturned only if the US government removes Huawei from the Entity List. The good news is all the existing Huawei users will be able to access to all Google services without any issue.
In conclusion, this is the temporary solution Huawei has until it figures out its own contingency plan. Can we expect Huawei’s own operating system anytime soon?
Google Glass is a failure when it was introduced in 2013. This is because of the price which is expensive and also due to its safety and privacy concern, Google had to stop this product. A few days ago, Google announces a new version of its Glass Enterprise Edition 2. The Glass Enterprise Edition 2 is priced at $999 (RM 4,181.21).
Google does not have any plans yet to sell Google Glass. Same as its predecessor, the Glass will not be available for sale to the consumers. This new Glass comes with a new processor with an improved camera. Other than that, the Google Glass also comes with a USB-C port which supports fast charging feature.
If you take a look at the new Google Glass the design still remains the same. However, few things such as the processor. The Google Glass is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 chip. This chip is designed mainly designed for augmented and virtual reality.
Other than that, Google also partners with Smith Optics to add a new safety frame. Since the new version of the Google Glass, will be used in the factory sector, this new safety frame will help to protect the worker’s eyes. Google Glass also runs on the Android operating system. Google also packs Google Glass with a bigger battery to support the processing power.
In conclusion, Google is not the main company which launches the business-focused augmented reality. Microsoft, Vuzix and Epson are working on business-focused augmented reality glasses too. At this moment, one thing for sure is Google has no plan to roll out Google Glass to a broader audience.
After Google, Intel and Qualcomm bans Huawei from using their hardwares and softwares, the US government has provide Huawei a temporary license for Huawei. Using this temporary license, Huawei can keep sending software updates to its smartphones until the next three months. This temporary license is given by the United States Commerce Department.
According to Reuters, this license will expire on 19th August. After that, Huawei cannot use the US tech companies services until the ban is lifted. This license also will allow Huawei to maintain its network equipment. Other than that, Huawei also can receive security vulnerability disclosures until the license expires.
On May 16th, the US government blacklisted Huawei from doing business in the US. Huawei can only continue its business with its US companies only after getting permission from the US government. Immediately, Google announces to stop providing Android services for all Huawei smartphones. However, Huawei can continue using Google’s open-source Android operating system. Later after the announcement, Google Android team says its services will be continuing as usual in the current existing Huawei smartphones only.
“The Temporary General License grants operators time to make other arrangements and the Department space to determine the appropriate long term measures for Americans and foreign telecommunications providers that currently rely on Huawei equipment for critical services”
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross
In conclusion, Huawei is really having a rough week right after the ban. Hopefully, now Huawei should plan on a contingency plan before 19th August.
A few weeks ago, HBO Asia announces to bring its streaming service HBO Go to Malaysia on the first week of April. For now, this service will be available to Astro subscribers exclusively. Yesterday, HBO Go can be accessed for all Astro subscribers who subscribe to Astro Movies Pack.
How to access the HBO Go contents?
Astro subscribers can only access to the HBO Go service via the website. First, you need to click on the Sign in now button as shown in the image below.
Then it will ask you to choose your local operator. You will have to choose Astro as your local operator and then it will redirect to your Astro Go website to sign in into your account using your existing Astro ID. Finally, you can start to enjoy watching series such as Game of Thrones on HBO Go.
In conclusion, the HBO Go service can only be access from its website only. Its native Android and iOS app are still not available for Malaysian users yet. We will update here once the app is available on both these platforms.
