It boasts a spacious reception area, five double treatment rooms and three river suites. Each suite offers panoramic river views and includes an oversized aromatherapy floral bath, a steam-and-shower room and a changing room.

One deluxe garden suite opens onto a private rooftop garden and the interior design is a Zen-like blend of smooth stones, water images and tropical plants.

The wide-ranging Thai and internationally inspired spa menu includes massages, body scrubs, add-on treatments and enhancements, waxing, and nail and foot care.

The signature Siamese Heritage Signature Journey features a luk prakob wrap, foot ritual, Thai herbal steam, luk prakob herbal ball massage and herbal refreshments with Thai delicacies.

Perfect for a couple relaxing together, another signature is the tailor-made Riverside Indulgence. It includes a foot ritual, choice of body scrub, choice of bath or steam, de-stress aroma massage and refreshments.

Book any treatment or buy a gift voucher using the promo code “FREEMASSAGE” between Friday and January 27 and you get a complimentary 30-minute foot massage and a chance to win a 60-minute Afternoon De-Stress Aroma Massage.

Go to Facebook.com/royalorchidsheratonhotel by Thursday.

Lung cancer is third most common among Thais and the second cause of death from cancer. Each year, 20,000 patients are diagnosed with lung cancer, the mortality rate of which is a massive 40 per cent. Efforts are constantly being made to reduce the frequency of the disease through anti-smoking campaigns and other means, the most recent being the Healthy Lung Thailand project, which was launched in July last year by Astra Zeneca (Thailand) in collaboration with Ministry of Public Health and healthcare organisations. The aim is to promote consciousness as well as improve diagnosis and treatment,

The project is now expanding to cover a wider region, namely Health Region 1 in the North, Health Region 8 in the Northeast, and Health Region 11 in the South, covering a total of 22 provinces.

The agencies involved have contributed towards creating awareness of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Health Region 1, which is comprised of eight provinces –Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Nan, Phayao, Mae Hong Son, Lampang, and Lamphun – and which has the highest prevalence of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the country.

In Thailand, 78,036 patients were diagnosed with COPD in the past two years, a high proportion of them resident in the North who suffer from air pollution as a result of biomass burning for agriculture and also smoke the traditional banana leaf cigarettes, both main causes of COPD. According to the Health Data Centre, out of 17,347 deaths in 2017 caused by asthma and COPD, more than 30 per cent were from the Bangkok area and provinces in Region 1.

“In the north of Thailand we have more patients admitted to the hospital in March and April, which is when farmers burn their fields to prepare for planting,” says Dr Thongchai Lertwilairatanapong, Inspector General of Ministry of Public Health Region 1.

Air pollution has also become a major concern Bangkok area after the amount of PM2.5 – airborne dust particles 2.5 microns in diameter or less – exceeded the safe level of 50 micrograms per cubic metre of air along roads on several occasions in recent weeks.

Chaleerat Direkwattanachai, the director of the Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Association of Thailand notes that even though pollution doesn’t cause lung disease, it does trigger symptoms in patients with pre-existing conditions.

Last year, Healthy Lung Thailand was successful in developing the knowledge base on asthma and COPD for 9,320 medical professionals nationwide, while also initiating development in effective treatment and care.

“After the launch of Healthy Lung Thailand in July, the number of COPD patients in Thailand increased by 20.4 per cent overall, 12 per cent of which were from Health Region 1. This increase definitely reflects the accomplishments of Healthy Lung Thailand in increasing the understanding of COPD in Thailand, while educating medical professionals so they can provide better diagnosis and care,” Dr Thongchai says.

The support in terms of medical equipment and drugs from the private sector during the project also played a role in correct diagnosis and screening compared to the past where medical staff were less experienced and didn’t have enough equipment for the proper diagnosis. Through targetted training and seminars, medical personnel now have better knowledge of lung disease.

Healthy Lung Thailand was initiated by Astra Zeneca Thailand, the BMA and the Medical Services Department, with academic support provided by the Department of Medical Services, Ministry of Public Health, the Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Association of Thailand, and the Paediatric Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Society.

This year, the project is being rolled out in Health Region 1, as well as Health Region 8 (the Northeast) and Health Region 11 (the South).

Dr Ekaphob Sirachainan, president of the Thai Society of Clinical Oncology says approximately 20,000 patients are diagnosed with lung cancer every year and 8,000 die from the disease.

“We are determined to improve the lung cancer situation in Thailand and the Healthy Lung Thailand campaign helps to educate medical professionals in accurately identifying and diagnosing lung cancer patients prior to admitting them for appropriate medical treatment. This will in turn reduce the death rates of lung cancer patients in Thailand,” says Dr Ekaphob.

“Respiratory illnesses, like asthma, COPD and lung cancer are rising rapidly across Asia. This presents particular challenges for most healthcare systems, which have historically focused on acute, short-term care. Effectively treating respiratory disease requires a lengthy, potentially life-long management with the patient at the centre,” adds Inge Kusuma, country president of Astra Zeneca Thailand.

Healthy Lung Thailand is slated to operate until the end of 2019 with three approaches from partnership with various organisations to increase awareness of the disease, capability and skill development, and better understanding of the disease leading to the development of effective treatment.

The goal of this project extension is to increase awareness and educate more than 8,000 medical professionals on lung cancer’s risk factors, prevention, identification and making differential diagnoses between asthma, COPD, and lung cancer.

Healthy Lung Thailand also aims to support Government’s five-year (2017-2021) strategic plan on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), where cancer and COPD are given high importance in the effort to reduce premature death from NCD by 25 per cent.

Healthy Lung Thailand is part of the greater campaign Healthy Lung Asia that has been rolled out in nine countries across Asia since 2017, namely India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand.

The region-wide programme has seen positive outcomes including helping to diagnose more than 425,000 patients of respiratory diseases, with 22,000 medical professionals trained while supporting the education of more than 24,000 patients. In addition, the programme has shaped 10 national guidelines and care pathways, and 956 respiratory centres of excellence have been developed. To date, three bilateral agreements have been secured with Governments across the Asia-Pacific region and 15 formal partnerships secured to improve respiratory care, reaching over close to half a million patients across the region.

In his role as the campaign’s presenter, the 40-year-old rocker is encouraging Thais to reduce and stop using plastic bags and turn it into a donation of Bt0.20 per bag to Siriraj Hospital to support the purchase of medical equipment for Navamindrapobitr 84th Anniversary Building.

Tanin Buranamanit, managing director and chief executive officer of CP All Public Company, which operates 7-Eleven in Thailand, explains that each time a customer says no to a plastic bag, the number of bags reduced will be recorded in the system. Both the number of the reduced plastic bags and the amount of donations made to the Siriraj account will be shown on screen at the cashier counter, and can be tracked real-time on the 7App mobile application and the 7-Eleven Thailand Facebook page.

The new TV commercial featuring Toon Bodyslam, which plays with the word “promise”, makes the point that the best promise is the one that is achievable. The TVC will be broadcast via both offline media (television) and online channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Line and YouTube), as well as through in-store communication at 7-Eleven stores nationwide.

“Toon Bodyslam is one of the most popular artists in Thailand thanks to his philanthropic efforts to improve Thai society and in particular, his epic charity marathon ‘Step by Step’, which successfully mobilised resources from Thai people to raise funds for public hospitals across the country. This is another campaign that intends to alleviate environmental problems while raising donations for Siriraj Hospital. We truly believe that Toon Bodyslam can help communicate the core message of this campaign to our target audience effectively,” Tanin said.

The campaign will raise funds for Siriraj Hospital until February 28.

At the launch event of campaign, CP ALL also announced it was joining up with 13 leading organisations to collaborate in reducing and stopping plastic bag use. They are: the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Department of Environmental Quality Promotion, the Pollution control Department, the Department of marine and Coastal Resources, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Department of Local Administration, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, Sustainable University Network of Thailand, the Green World Foundation, Mahasamut Patrol Thailand, Thailand Environmental Institute, Thai Volunteer Service, and Thailand Institute of Packaging and Recycling Management for Sustainable Environment (TIPMSE), and the Federation of Thai Industries.

WITH ITS imposing columned facade, hunting trophies and oil portraits, the Rand Club in Johannesburg’s city centre is a relic of South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past.

Founded in 1887 by British mining magnate Cecil Rhodes, it was the favoured venue for white businessmen and free-wheeling gold prospectors to strike deals and socialise in the hushed library or at the 31-metre-long teak bar, reputedly the longest in Africa.

But Alicia Thompson, a black woman born in Johannesburg, is seeking to reposition the club, which has struggled to stay open in recent years, by attracting the city’s “young hustlers” of today while preserving its heritage.

An oil painting of former South African president and Anti Apartheid icon Nelson Mandela is on the first floor of the Rand Club – the imposing Edwardianstyle club in Johannesburg’s vibrant centre that is a relic of South Africa’s colonial and apartheid history. /AFP

Thompson, a 46-year-old beauty business owner who is the club’s deputy chairman, says that she faced “not one iota of resistance” in her efforts to haul the club into the modern era.

“I grew up in Johannesburg, I frequented the city and I used to see this building that I was not allowed to enter,” Thompson recalls.

“It was this hallowed, ivory tower and I didn’t know what happened inside. Then I attended a wedding here in 2010, and I couldn’t believe that this gem was withheld from us for all our life.”

Thompson has seen the number of full-time members – paying $720 (Bt23,000) a year – grow recently to nearly 500 after years of decline, while the numbers of student and absentee members are also up.

“My attitude to members is just to make it your space,” she says.

The fumoir and the bar on the first floor of the Rand Club. In past centuries freewheeling gold prospectors, all white men who were followed by Churchill and Cecil Rhodes, gathered to strike deals, intrigue and drink../AFP

A life-sized portrait of Rhodes, an imperialist businessman and politician inextricably linked with racism and colonial exploitation, still hangs in a second-floor room.

But the room itself, which previously bore his name, has been renamed the Founders’ Room following an initiative by younger members.

Books from another era bearing the words “kaffir” (an offensive racial slur) and “native” still line the shelves of the library, alongside a fireplace, wingback leather armchairs and a typewriter.

“Some of our history is very unimpressive – but I’m not a ‘fallist’,” says member Lucky Dinake, 24, a black councillor from the main opposition Democratic Alliance party.

“Fallist” refers to supporters of the “Rhodes Must Fall” movement sparked in South Africa in 2015 by students seeking the removal of statues of Rhodes and other colonial symbols from university campuses.

Sello Chauke, the barman of the Rand Club leans on the bar./AFP

“Our history is our history. Our responsibility is to learn from it, move forward, not to tear it down,” Dinake adds.

Outside the library’s tall windows, workers hurry along the roads of the Marshalltown district while minibuses packed with commuters speed past.

Over the years, the club’s fortunes have reflected the mixed fortunes of the surrounding inner-city streets.

Unlike “clublands” in cities like London and New York in upscale neighbourhoods, Johannesburg’s city centre has grappled with businesses fleeing, rampant crime as well as derelict and illegally occupied buildings.

But work is under way to rehabilitate the area with high-end booksellers opening nearby in recent years as well as investment in public transport and policing.

“The club is becoming a lot more relevant and a lot more accessible to more people, taking advantage of our location. In Joburg, there’s a lot of renewal,” Dinake notes.

Alongside efforts to modernise the club and appeal to millennials, including the launch of a business networking club, some rules still honour tradition with phones and tablets banned in the club’s upstairs communal areas.

A waiter holds champagne glasses at the entrance of the bar./AFP

“The idea is to enjoy each others’ company. It’s good for the ‘personal’ – that’s what’s lacking on places like LinkedIn,” says Thompson.

“It’s not just stuffy businessmen and bullish miners anymore.”

Jane Germaner, the 33-year-old wife of a member, is full of praise for the club’s transformation policy.

“One of the beautiful things about it is you get to network with all these people you wouldn’t necessarily meet in your day-to-day life. You meet all kinds of characters,” she smiles.

Women were not admitted until 1993 but Germaner says she has never felt unwelcome.

Vestiges of the past like hunting trophies are also displayed less prominently than they once were. A portrait of Nelson Mandela, a member in his lifetime, takes pride of place above the sweeping staircase at the heart of the club.

Conventions like the dress code have been quietly relaxed over time as the club pushes to grow its membership base.

It has also begun hosting weddings, parties and functions which, along with a loan from three members, have put the club on a surer financial footing.

It came close to the brink of closure following a fire in 2005 and it went into “hibernation” in 2015 when its fate again hung in the balance.

“Now members are hustlers, they’re the entrepreneurs,” says Sello Chauke, a 34-year-old Soweto resident who tends the club bar.

APPLE IS not among the exhibitors at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show, but that didn’t prevent the iPhone maker from sending a message to attendees on a large billboard.

“What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone,” Apple says in the message seen by tens of thousands attending the Las Vegas tech show.

The message comes as gadget makers are concerned about data protection scandals and in many cases looking to make their own point about respect for privacy.

Some of the companies offered better ways of protecting internet routers or services without a need for an internet connection to reduce the potential for data leaks and breaches.

A monorail train passes by a billboard advertising Apple’s iPhone security during CES 2019./AFP

Dutch start-up Scalys is showing its Trustbox, a router that aims to protect the user’s connection as well as devices using it.

Another router from Chicago-based Winston stops tracking and surveillance and can also block ads and geolocation.

The data scandals “are like Christmas presents for us,” by prompting more consumers to look for better security, said Winston founder Richard Stokes.

“As we see more things being connected I think that you’ll definitely hear people talk about security more and really looking at how would you secure the data,” said analyst Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies.

“More companies are going to take kind of a cue from the marketing that Apple has been doing.”

An estimated 74 million Americans have smart speakers, according to the research firm eMarketer, with Amazon and Google controlling the lion’s share of the market.

One of the fears of customers is that these devices are always listening, potentially putting privacy at risk.

One device being launched at CES is called Mute from a start-up called Smarte, creating a layer of protection to stop the devices from picking up conversations not intended for queries.

French start-up Snips is offering its own digital assistant that can be installed on a device without an internet connection.

“Customers are turning to us because they don’t want to depend on Big Tech,” said Snips founder Rand Hindi.

Hindi said the argument from tech firms that they need user data to make things work is false.

“The only reason they need your data is to target you (with ads) to the maximum,” he said.

 One of the fears of people in the digital age is that their devices are always listening, potentially putting privacy at risk. /AFP

Analyst Bob O’Donnell of Technalysis Researchers said more companies are starting to wake up to issues surrounding privacy and data protection in light of the revelations on Facebook and others over the past year.

“We’ve all started to become painfully aware of how big (and far-reaching) the problem of data privacy is,” O’Donnell said.

IDEAL FOR anyone who likes the feel of paper in their hands or needs to submit a presentation in print rather than online, the Epson EcoTank L3150 Wi-Fi is an all-in-one ink printer that will save you a small fortune in ink.

That’s because the cartridge-free printer features an enhanced ink filling system that gives an ultra high yield of 7,500 coloured and 4,500 black-and-white pages for each set of ink.

Since the L3150 is compact with a footprint of 375x347x179mm and because it can be easily linked to your Wi-Fi router with its built-in Wi-Fi adapter, the printer and scanner are convenient to set up. It doesn’t even have to be placed near your computer but can be tucked into any corner once you’ve linked it to the Wi-Fi router. It does, however, have a USB 2.0 port for directly connecting to your computer if you feel more comfortable doing things the old-fashioned way.

I tested it by linking it to my Linksys EA8500 router and found that it connected to the router in a snap when I pressed the WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) button on the router and the printer.

I then downloaded and installed drivers to the Macbook Pro and the printer was ready to use and the scanner ready to scan.

The printer has good resolution of 5,760×1,440 dots per inch, using 180 nozzles for black, and 59 nozzles each for cyan, magenta and yellow colours.

The printer supports borderless photos in 4×6 inch size. It has a printing rate of 69 seconds per photo with border and 90 seconds per photo for borderless shots.

For normal A4 paper printing, the L3150 has a rate of 10 pages per minute printing for black and 5 ppm for colour printing.

During the test, I found that the printer took about six seconds for black and white printing on A4 plain paper and 20 seconds for colour printing. I clocked the printer when it started printing after it has received the print data wirelessly. The printing quality of the black page was good with sharp and clear text while the colour printing on plain paper was fine.

The L3150 is an all in-one machine because it has a built-in scanner that is used to provide a copying function as well.

The CIS scanner has optical resolution of 1200×2400 dots per inch and it can scan a maximum area of 216x297mm. The scanner has a speed of 11 seconds for monochrome scanning at the resolution of 200 dpi and 28 seconds for colour scanning also at 200dpi resolution.

The copying speed is more than adequate too, at 7.7pages per minute for a black and white page and 3.8 pages per minute for colour.

Epson EcoTank L3150 Wi-Fi all-in-one ink tank printer has a suggested retail price of Bt5,290. Each of four refill ink bottles – black, cyan, magenta and yellow – retails for Bt250.

Key Specs

Print Method: On-demand inkjet (piezoelectric)

Minimum Ink Droplet Volume: 3 pl

Nozzle Configuration: 180 x 1 nozzles Black, 59 x 1 nozzles per colour (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow)

Maximum Resolution: 5760 x 1440 dpi (with Variable-Sized Droplet Technology)

Scanner Type: Flatbed colour image scanner

Sensor Type: CIS

Optical Resolution: 1200 x 2400 dpi

Maximum Scan Area: 216 x 297 mm (8.5 x 11.7″)

Scanner Bit Depth (Colour): 48-bit input, 24-bit output

Scanner Bit Depth (Grayscale): 16-bit input, 8-bit output

Standard Paper Input Capacity: Up to 100 sheets-A4 / Letter Plain paper (80 g/m2); Up to 20 sheets-Premium Glossy Photo Paper 10 sheets-Envelope, 30 sheets-Postcard

Paper Size: Legal, Indian-Legal (215 x 345 mm), 8.5 x 13 inch, Letter, A4, 16K (195 x 270 mm), B5, A5, B6, A6, Hagaki (100 x 148 mm), 5 x 7″, 4 x 6″, Envelopes: #10, DL, C6

USB Interface: USB 2.0

Network: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct

Network Protocol: TCP/IPv4, TCP/IPv6

Network Management Protocols: SNMP, HTTP, DHCP, APIPA, PING, DDNS, mDNS, SLP, WSD, LLTD

Dimensions (W x D x H): 375 x 347 x 179 mm

Weight: 3.9 kg

ELECTRONIC DISPLAYS that fold, roll and bend have finally arrived after years of development, and tech firms are touting the technology as a potential source of growth and new applications.

At the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday, South Korean giant LG unveiled its ultra-high definition television that rolls into and out of a base stand and can be furled and unfurled on demand.

“It brings freedom of design to a space, without the limitations of a wall,” LG senior vice president of marketing David VanderWaal said while introducing the OLED TV R.

A demonstration showed that the 65-inch screen could disappear completely into the base, extend just part way to display photos, act as a control screen for smart devices, or rise completely for full viewing.

LG did not disclose pricing for the roll-up television.

David Vender Waal, senior vice president marketing at LG Electronics USA, presents LG’s rollable Signature OLED TV R to media at the 2019 CES. /AFP

Chinese start-up Royole meanwhile showed off what it claimed is the first foldable smartphone, which can fit into a pocket but unfold into a full-sized tablet computer, which is available in China and now is offered in the US for $1,300 (Bt42,000).

“People want mobility but they also want large screens,” Royole founder Bill Liu told a news conference as he showed the recently launched FlexPai device.

“It’s really a combination of a smartphone and tablet.”

Other device makers are expecting to introduce foldable handsets this year, but Liu said the technology using superthin layers with nano-sized sensors offered a lot more than just more convenient phones.

Royole founder and ECO Bill Liu speaks about the Royole FlexPai. /AFP

Royole showed how the same flexible displays could be used for automotive dashboards, wearables, and for various other commercial and industrial uses.

“We see this as the next generation of human-machine interface,” Liu said.

“It can change the way we connect to everything.”

Royole says its flexible sensor technology can be adapted for a variety of touchscreen applications with improved performance and lower costs than traditional screens.

Royole and LG were among the firms making media presentations ahead of the official opening of the Las Vegas event, which ended yesterday.

The two announcements could offer a spark to a smartphone sector that has seen sluggish growth over the past year.

CES features 4,500 exhibitors across 250,000 square metres of exhibit space showcasing artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, smart homes, smart cities, sports gadgets and other cutting-edge devices. Some 182,000 trade professionals are expected.

GlobalData research director Avi Greengart said the roll-up television appears “cool” and offers “unique technology.”

“Foldable phones is going to be a big trend this year,” Greengart said, noting that most of new product announcements of that ilk were likely to be saved for the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Samsung is widely believed to launch a folding handset sometime this year, possibly at the Barcelona event.

Greengart said he expected the challenge to folding smartphones to be on the software side, not with the displays, since applications will have to be designed to adapt to going from phone to tablet screen sizes.

IMAGINE WALKING into a store where a robot greets you by name, lets you know that your online order is ready, and then suggests other products you might want pick up.

Facial recognition is making that possible as the technology gains traction in a range of consumer products, automobiles, and retail and hotel services, in addition to its longstanding but controversial use in law enforcement and security.

At the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, exhibitors pointed to how facial recognition may be used to “personalise” experiences and enhance personal security.

Pepper of SoftBank Robotics, left, and Tally of Simbe Robotics, right, are teaming up to work with retailers: Pepper interacts with customers while Tally scans the shelves to monitor inventory levels in this demo from SoftBank at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. /AFP

While facial recognition has been on smartphones for some time, some newer uses include in care and entry systems for homes and offices, along with retail applications.

SoftBank Robotics chief strategy officer Steve Carlin, who showed CES attendees how the company’s Pepper robot could offer retail customers personalised attention, said the technology could also be used in hotels where an automated system could deliver a customised experience to a regular client.

“They should be able to say ‘Welcome back, you don’t need to stand in line, we’ve already checked you in and we’ve sent the key to your phone,’“ Carlin said.

Carmakers at CES were showing how facial recognition could improve and personalise the travel experience through music, entertainment and other preferences.

The Chinese-based auto startup Byton shows the oversized dash display screen of the Byton MByte electric crossover SUV that would be able to make useful recommendations based on facial recognition. /EPA-EFE

Abe Chen of the Chinese-based auto startup Byton said its vehicle, set to launch later this year, would be able to make useful recommendations based on facial recognition.

“It knows who is in the car, how long you’ve been on the road and what you like to eat, so it could make a restaurant recommendation,” Chen told a CES presentation.

Richard Carriere of the Taiwan-based tech firm Cyberlink said the firm’s new facial recognition being shown at CES is “very precise” and is being offered for retail, home and law enforcement applications.

Carriere said retailers can customise ads on digital signs by using this technology – so a teenage girl might not see the same message as an elderly man.

“If someone walks into a store, based on gender or facial expression or age group we can customise what shows up in the signage,” he explains.

Other startups were integrating facial recognition into home doorbells or security systems, enabling family members and friends to gain entry while alerting homeowners about potentially suspicious people.

“This is one more element of autonomy in your intelligent home,” said Bill Hensley of the security firm Nortek, who showed how its new Elan system can easily let people in and then customise the home environment.

 Ella Yuan of the Chinese startup Tuya shows how facial recognition can be used in a home security system to allow or deny entry. /AFP

Chinese start-up Tuya introduced its AI video doorbell using real-time facial recognition to identify family members, friends, couriers, property managers and even pets, and to create a “whitelist” of accepted people.

“You will be able to give people a one-time pass, and you can talk with them over a video connection,” said Tuya sales chief Sandy Scott of the device, which is to go on sale later this year.

Scott said the device could be used in assisted living homes to limit entries of unknown people, and also recognise if someone with dementia is wandering off. It stores data on the device to reduce risks of data leakage.

Other CES exhibitors including Procter & Gamble were demonstrating the use of facial recognition to enable customers to personalise skin care treatments.

Even as the uses for facial recognition grow, the technology remains controversial, especially regarding law enforcement building up databases.

Some critics worry about the accuracy of the technology and whether it means more kinds of surveillance and tracking.

Retailers and other firms “may already have every data point about me except my face,” Brenda Leong of the Future of Privacy Forum in Washington said.

“So you wonder, what is the value added?”

Equating the technology to online tracking, she said facial recognition means “your face as a cookie,” the tracking files used by online data collectors.

A Brookings Institution survey earlier this year found 50 per cent of respondents opposed facial recognition software in retail stores to prevent theft, and 44 per cent said using this software in airports to establish identity was unfavourable.

A different survey released this week by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation offered different results, finding just 26 per cent want the government to strictly limit facial recognition, and 20 per cent support limits on facial recognition if it would mean airports cannot use it to speed up security lines

“People are often suspicious of new technologies, but in this case, they seem to have warmed up to facial recognition technology quite quickly,” said Daniel Castro of ITIF.

SAMSUNG Galaxy A9 is a fast smartphone that comes with a four-camera system for the rear camera for those who love taking photos.

High-end phones of other brands and models have at most a three-camera system for the rear camera, but Samsung claims to be the first to introduce a four-camera system.

The four rear cameras are an ultra-wide angle camera with eight-megapixel resolution and 120-degree lens with f/2.4 aperture; a telephoto camera with 10MP resolution and 2x optical zoom lens; a main 24MP camera with f/1.7 lens; and a depth camera with 5MP resolution and f/2.2 lens.

The depth camera provides data for creating beautiful bokeh – blurred background – effects like beautiful portraits captured by a digital SLR camera.

During the test, I found the rear camera system could capture beautiful and good-quality photos.

The ultra-wide is good for capturing scenery shots and group photos and the telephoto camera allows you to zoom in to your subject. The main 24MP camera has very bright and fast lens with f/1.7 aperture.

You can choose between the three cameras by tapping on three zoom icons in the viewfinder for the wide, normal and telephoto cameras.

There are several shooting modes to choose form, including Pro, Beauty, Auto, Live Focus and Scene Optimiser.

The Scene Optimiser uses AI to optimise colours and other settings to get best results for scenes recognised by the AI. The AI can recognise 19 scenes, including sunset, backlighting, scenery, portrait, foods and macro photography.

The Scene Optimiser mode also has a Flaw detection feature. With Flaw detection, if a photo is taken poorly, the device will notify you to take the photo again. For example, when someone blinks or appears blurry in photos, or if there are smudges on the lens, a notification will appear after you take the photo.

The Live Focus mode is use for capturing outstanding subjects with blurred background. In this mode, you will be given a slide bar for adjusting the level of blurred background.

You can also edit the background blur level of a photo taken with the Live Focus mode. And if there are background lights, you can change the shape of the background lights into hearts, stars or flowers when you are editing the photo.

The Galaxy A9 also comes with a 24MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture. The front camera captures beautiful selfie shots. And there is also an AR Emoji mode for creating a set of emoji icons that look like you.

The front camera comes with several selfie modes, including Selfie focus mode that focus on your face by blurring the background.

I found during the test that the Live Focus mode captured beautiful portraits with blurred background.

The A9 has good performance as it is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 octa-core processor with four cores running at 2.2GHz and four others at 1.8GHz.

Enhancing the performance, the A9 is equipped with a hefty 6 gigabytes working memory or RAM and it comes with 128GB internal storage that can be expanded with a microSD card of by up to 512GB.

The Galaxy A9 runs on Android 8.0 and it has fast performance. Its touch screen and menus were responsive and apps ran fast and smoothly.

The Galaxy A9 also has fast Internet as it supports LTE Cat 9 4G connection. I tested it on TrueMove H’s LTE network and I found that it had very fast Internet connection.

Apps were downloaded very fast and my snapshots were backed up to my Google Photos cloud storage in no time. I used Ookla Speedtest app to measure the connection speed and I found that Galaxy A9 got the download speed of 102Mbps and upload speed of 38.4Mbps.

Galaxy A9 comes with 6.3-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display with 1080×2220-pixel resolution. The display is really beautiful for watching photos and HD movies. During the test, I enjoyed using A9 watching Full HD movies with TrueID TV and iflix apps.

The Galaxy A9 also features an Always On Display, which lets you view key information like the date, weather, time and incoming notifications in a flash on its wide screen.

Galaxy A9 comes with good security system to protect your data. You can use either Face Recognition technology to unlock the phone very fast. During the test, I found that the Face Recognition technology worked very efficiently to unlock the phone. I simply pressed the onscreen home button of the Always On screen and the front camera read and recognise my face and unlock the phone.

The Galaxy A9 also comes with fingerprint reader at the back for fast unlocking the phone with your finger.

The A9 comes with a large battery of 3,800mAh, which allowed me to survive a day after one charge.

Samsung Galaxy A9 is available in Caviar Black, Lemonade Blue and Bubblegum Pink for Bt19,990.

Key Specs

Network: LTE Cat.9

OS: Android 8.0

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 octa-core processor 2.2GHz, 1.8GHz

Memory: 6GB RAM

Storage: 128GB, expandable with microSD by up to 512GB

Display: 6.3-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED, 1080×2220 pixels

Cameras: Rear: quad camera: Main Camera: 24MP AF, F1.7, Telephoto: 2X optical zoom, 10MP AF, F2.4, Ultra Wide: 120 degree, 8MP, F2.4, Depth: 5MP, F2.2; Front: 24MP, F2.0

Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11ac MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, ANT+, USB Type-C, NFC

Locations: GPS, Galileo, Glonass, BeiDou

Sensors: Accelerometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor, Proximity Sensor, RGB Light Sensor

Battery: 3,800mAh

Dimensions: 162.5 x 77 x 7.8mm

Weight: 183g

The drinks include Teavana Iced Poached Pear Chamomile Tea, which combines healthy herbal chamomile, perfectly-poached pear and aloe vera for a sweet-scented tea that livens up the afternoon, and Teavana Iced Vanilla Black Tea Latte with Earl Grey Jelly, made from 100-per-cent microground black tea leaves for a flavourful and healthy drink without sugar. Vanilla syrup and Earl Grey jelly add refreshing notes that last all through the day.

Starbucks also celebrates the New Year with chocolate desserts and sweets in attractive packaging.

Chocolate Flourless Cake is a soft chocolatemousse cake made with rich dark and milk chocolate cream, topped with chocolate mousse and cocoa powder. A sweet treat at any time of day, this flourless cake simply melts in the mouth. Flower Pot Pudding is a rich and sweet chocolate pudding packed in a flower-pot shaped cup and topped with heart-shaped chocolate.

Also bringing luck for the Year of Pig, which kicks off on February 5, the latest Starbucks Drinkware Collection boasts such collectibles as the Zodiac Pig Mug, a coated ceramic mug in red embossed with a pig’s face and the Pig Mug with a Coaster with a cheerful pink pig design. Price range from Bt600 to Bt1,700.