The former, a mouse pad with wireless charging function that supports Qi, is a certified product and conforms to the international standard “Qi” formulated by WPC, and boasts a built-in charging pad on the right side of the pad. Up to 5W can be charged just by placing a smartphone that supports Qi standard. A smartphone with 3 mm or less thick case can be charged with the case.

It comes with an operation confirmation LED to indicate the status of standby / charging / error and its built-in safety function stops charging the smartphone when foreign matter such as metal is detected. The pad surface is made of a leather-like material.

Sanwa MA-WBL157BK / R is a wireless mouse with 2.4 GHz band connection. It can be charged simply by placing it in a Qi compatible charger, and in combination with the MPD-WLC11BK, it can be charged simply by leaving it unused. By using a highly sensitive blue LED as a sensor, operations can be performed even on glass surfaces. User can use it as a wired mouse with attached Micro USB cable. The mouse has 5 buttons and the dpi can be selected from 80 / 1,200 / 1,600dpi.Continuous operation time is about 60 hours.

The wireless system adopts 2.4 GHz RF radio system, which is resistant to radio interference, and stable data communication is possible over a wide 10m radius communication range. Sanwa Qi compatible wireless charging function mouse pad MPD-WLC11BK measures 325 x 244 x 6 mm, weighs 220 g. The MA-WBL157BK / R wireless mouse measures 69 x 121 x 38 mm and weighs 105 g.

An ECG is a medical test that detects abnormalities such as atrial fibrillation (AFib), which is a form of irregular rhythm in a person’s heart, by measuring the electrical activity generated by the heart as it contracts.

This test is usually done by a technician attaching 12 small electrode patches to the skin of a patient’s chest, arms and legs. But with the Apple Watch Series 4 smartwatches, the wearer only needs to stay still and hold the smartwatch’s Digital Crown for 30 seconds to get an ECG reading.

Singapore is the second market in Asia after Hong Kong, and the first in South-east Asia, to get the ECG feature, now available in 31 markets around the world. The Apple Watch Series 4 was launched in September last year.

The ECG feature needs the approval of a local health authority before it can become available in the market the Apple Watch Series 4 is being sold in. For Singapore, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) is the approving authority.

Dr Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president of health, told The Straits Times in a phone interview that HSA took time to review the ECG feature and understand it. “They were very positive about us bringing the feature to Singapore,” she said.

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One benefit of the Apple Watch Series 4’s ECG feature is “democratising health information so that individuals can really engage and empower themselves”, said Dr Desai, who is also a practising physician.

She added: “You now have the ability to take snapshots of what’s going on with your heart as you live your everyday life, so…when you go to your doctor, you have more information.”

She emphasised that the ECG feature of Apple Watch Series 4 will not replace physicians but rather provide another avenue of data for them to understand more about their patients.

“We really look at it as a way of augmenting the physician-patient relationship,” she said.

Apple emphasised that the ECG cannot detect a heart attack, blood clots, stroke or other heart-related conditions. If left untreated, AFib can cause blood to clot in the heart. If the clot is pumped out, it can lead to a stroke, heart failure or other medical conditions.

Dr Julian Tan, an interventional cardiologist at The Cardiology Practice, said: “For cardiologists, the key is the validation (and accuracy) of such portable ECG systems. Based on Apple’s white paper, I am quite confident of the usability and feasibility of such devices.”

Along with the ECG feature, the watchOS 5.3 update on Tuesday will also add irregular heart rhythm detection feature to all Apple Watch smartwatches from Series 1 to Series 4.

How to take an ECG reading with the Apple Watch Series 4 smartwatch

You can take an ECG at any time, when you are feeling symptoms such as a rapid or skipped heartbeat, or when you have other general concerns about your heart health. However, you have to be at least 22 years old to take an ECG reading using the Apple Watch Series 4.

1. Make sure your Apple Watch is strapped on snugly and that you have selected the correct watch-wearing wrist – either left or right wrist – in the Apple Watch app.

2. Launch the ECG app.

3. Rest your watch-wearing arm on a table or in your lap and keep it steady.

4. Rest your index finger – of the hand not wearing the watch – on the Digital Crown and hold it there. Do not press the crown.

5. The ECG recording takes 30 seconds. You will not get a reading if you remove your finger from the Digital Crown before the stipulated time. At the end of the recording, you will receive a classification. Tap Add Symptoms and choose your symptoms, which includes “fatigue”, “shortness of breath” and “chest tightness”.

6. Tap Save, followed by Done.

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Facebook terms such a scheme “Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior (CIB)”, which it deems abusive, and had resulted in multiple Facebook or Instagram accounts and pages removed, in an attempt to prevent Facebook and its services from being used deceptively to manipulate people regardless of the content involved.

Under Facebook’s rules in effect in recent years, CIB-related acts are banished through removal of accounts and pages, because Facebook, in an official but simple description put in its regular Newsrooms Post – “wants people to be able to trust the connections they make on Facebook”.

In a live video conference held on Thursday at noon at Facebook’s Bangkok headquarters connecting a number of Thai journalists with Nathaniel Gleicher, head of Facebook’s cybersecurity policy, the American expert said that multiple accounts and pages had been removed in four additional CIB cases in Thailand, Honduras, Russia, and Ukraine, on top of numerous removals in recent years.

The case involving Thailand presents details about local politics – under a channel fronting as a news outlet – protests in Hong Kong, the sour relations between China and United States as well as criticism of Thai pro-democracy activists.

Gleicher also warned Facebook users against involvement in CIB acts, saying that their authentic accounts will be removed permanently or deactivated temporarily if they are found to have been part of unproductive acts under CIB definition.

A computer scientist and lawyer, Gleicher works at the intersection of technology, policy, and law. Gleicher served as director for cybersecurity policy at the National Security Council (NSC) in the White House. At the NSC, he developed US government policy on key technology and cybersecurity challenges, including encryption, cyber deterrence, internet governance, and network security.

In other cases relating to CIB acts originated in Asian countries, actions termed as takedowns were taken in August 2018 against Myanmar military officials registered in Facebook, as well as banning 20 Burmese individuals and organisations from Facebook.

Another was a series of takedowns against hate groups and radicalisation forums based in Indonesia, whose content had already violated Facebook’s community standards regulations.

Facebook had coordinated with local authorities, together with local civil action groups for further possible legal actions against the people found involved in CIB-related acts, in case their activities are in violation of local criminal or civil laws.

To fix the problems, Samsung said the top protective layer of the foldable display has been extended beyond the bezel, making it apparent that it is an integral part of the display structure and not meant to be removed.

The Galaxy Fold also features additional reinforcements to better protect the device from external particles while maintaining its signature foldable experience, it said.

The top and bottom of the hinge area have been strengthened with newly added protection caps, while additional metal layers underneath the display have been included to reinforce the protection of the bendable display. The space between the hinge and body of Galaxy Fold has been reduced, too.

“We have taken time to fully evaluate the product design, make necessary improvements and run rigorous tests to validate the changes we made,” the company said in a statement.

Along with these improvements, Samsung has also been continuously working to improve the overall Galaxy Fold user experience, including optimizing more apps and services for its unique foldable UX.

The tech giant said it is currently conducting final product tests to make Galaxy Fold available to consumers from September in select markets.

The South Korean petrochemicals and energy solutions developer started receiving innovative ideas in the fields of petrochemicals, electronic batteries, advanced materials and biotechnology. Recruitment will run until Sept. 30.

Graduates and professional researchers in the aforementioned fields are eligible to apply for the contest via the firm’s homepage.

LG will select the most innovative ideas and viable technologies in December. Chosen teams will be offered up to $150,000 for research and development costs.

This year, LG Chem plans to invest its largest amount of 1.3 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in R&D and expand its related workforce from 5,500 to 6,200.

The company selected 17 teams that applied with new energy solution ideas and technologies at the first contest last year.

“CSL is an ICT service provider to more than 5,000 enterprises in a variety of industries including airlines, financial groups, and banks,” said Somchai Kittichaikoonkit, acting CSL chief executive officer and managing director/vice president for Marketing and Sales.

“We focus on providing superior services to corporate customers with more than 25 years of work experience. We understand the needs of each business very well, including having peopleware, which is the key to helping customers 24 hours a day. We can therefore discover the problem quickly, fix it fast and resolve it at the exact point. Today, we are ready to become the leader in one-stop ICT services, a full-service organisation that helps companies and the business sector in general move forward in this era of digital disruption,” Somchai said.

“Our strength is combined with the fact that CSL is part of the AIS group, which has the most reliable digital infrastructure, is the No 1 mobile service provider in the country and has more than 160,000 fibre-optic networks nationwide, while being the first to provide high-speed broadband Internet service using pure fibre-optic technology, accordingly making it ready to serve businesses in all regions throughout Thailand. Whether it is data transfer between domestic branches or international data, the company has the most extensive local bandwidth in Thailand, supporting domestic usage of up to 2.9 terabytes per second and international bandwidth that can accommodate 1.2 tbps. AIS also has an Internet of Things network in both the effective eMTC and NB-IoT networks covering 77 provinces nationwide, the first and only one of its kind in Thailand,” Somchai said.

Depa president Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin said the budget covered both operational costs and the development of six projects costing around Bt2.2 billion, which would begin in October and run through September 2020.

The six projects cover digital start-ups; the transformation of agricultural into smart agriculture; facilitating small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to use digital technology to support their business; developing the smart city data platform; setting up the Thailand Digital Valley and developing 40,000 digital staff to support market demand.

For digital start-ups, the agency will develop digital entrepreneurs in various areas such as edu-tech, tourism tech, health tech and digital technology in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and Internet of Things (IoT).

For smart agriculture, the agency will enable farmers to utilise digital technology to support their farms through, for example, soil and water management.

To assist SMEs, the agency will encourage them to use an open enterprise resource planning platform to manage accounting, inventory control and operation management so that SMEs will able to increase productivity and improve efficiency.

The agency will also set up smart city technology in Udon Thani, Mukdahan and Ubon Ratchathani provinces focusing on tourism while Krabi and Phang Nga provinces will focus on healthcare. The agency will also develop three smart cities in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwas with a focus on public safety.

The Thailand Digital Valley will be a hub of ideas and prototypes for new technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and software convergence.

The remaining budget on will be spent on an Internet of thing (IoT) institution in Sriracha district and Thailand’s presence at the World Expo 2020.

“I think that our projects will drive Thailand 4.0 and create competitiveness,” said Nuttapon.

Meanwhile, depa is also working on the “Digital Economy Go 2Gether” project, collaborating with strong partners and supporters to become an important cooperation network for driving the Thai digital economy forward and creating benefits for society.

Nuttapon noted that the project will create cooperation while also promoting and supporting the development of digital technology and innovative industries.

Through this partnership, the companies will accelerate breakthroughs in AI and reinforce OpenAI’s efforts to create artificial general intelligence (AGI). The resulting enhancements to the Azure platform will also help developers build the next generation of AI applications.

The companies will focus on building a computational platform in Azure that will train and run increasingly advanced AI models including hardware technologies that build on Microsoft’s supercomputing technology, and adhere to the two companies’ shared principles on ethics and trust. This will create the foundation for advancements in AI to be implemented in a safe, secure and trustworthy way.

“The creation of AGI is an important technological developmentwith the potential to shape the trajectory of humanity,” said Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive. “Our mission is to ensure that AGI technology benefits everyone and we’re working with Microsoft to build the supercomputing foundation on which we’ll build AGI. We believe it’s crucial that AGI is deployed safely and securely and that its economic benefits are widely distributed. We are excited about how deeply Microsoft shares this vision.”

“AI is one of the most transformative technologies of our time and has the potential to help solve many of our world’s most pressing challenges,” added Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft.

They come with adjustable hooks that can be perfectly fitted around the ear lobes as well as four sizes of ear tips, the former ensuring that the phones won’t fall off no matter how hard your exercise routine and the latter that they remain comfortable throughout.

Powerbeats Pro is the first in the Powerbeats series to be completely wireless. Its predecessor had a neckband cable linking the two earbuds.

To achieve the best possible fit on the widest array of ears, more than 20 configurations were electronically modelled and physically tested. The result is a completely new, ergonomically angled acoustic housing that nests comfortably in the ear thanks to an off- axis nozzle.

The phones are 23-per-cent smaller than their predecessor, 17- per-cent lighter and sweat- and water-resistant, so you can wear them comfortably during a workout without worrying about damage caused by sweat.

And the Powerbeats Pro are completely re-engineered from the inside out to boast an upgraded linear piston driver that leverages efficient, pressurised airflow to create a powerful acoustic response. Enhanced sound quality means incredibly low distortion and great dynamic range across the entire frequency curve.

During the test, I found the Powerbeats Pro reproduced impressive sound quality with outstanding mids and highs, resulting in good clarity of instrumental details. Amazingly, the small earphones delivered powerful bass too but you do need to properly select the ear tips to fit your ears to really benefit. I enjoyed listening to rock songs for hours during the test and I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all.

The earphones use Class 1 Bluetooth technology that offers extended range and exceptional cross-body performance, meaning fewer dropouts. Each earbud independently connects to your device, so you can choose to use one or both. You may wear both earbuds while you’re running on the treadmill at the gym but prefer one earbud at the office for phone calls throughout the day, for example.

The phones are powered by the new Apple H1 chip to deliver a faster and more stable wireless connection to your devices. The chip allows you to activate “Hey Siri” voice-activated assistance without having to reach for your iPhone.

The Apple H1 chip makes it easy to set up the earphones with your iPhone or any iOS device and your Mac computer. The earphones come in a charging case. You simply open the lid of the case for the first time and the Powerbeats Pro will automatically enter the pairing mode.

With the lid open, you simply hold the Powerbeats Pro within five centimetres of your unlocked iPhone or iPad and then follow the instructions that appear on your iOS device.

After the Powerbeats Pro are paired to one of your iOS devices, they will automatically be paired with any of your supported devices that are signed in to your iCloud account, including iMac or Macbook. The phones are also compatible with Android so can be connected to your devices even if you don’t use Apple products.

After the pairing is done, the earphones are ready to use anytime you take them out of the case. When you put them in your ears, your Powerbeats Pro automatically play the audio from your device. If you take one earbud out, audio pauses. When you take them both out, audio stops.

Controlling the music play and volume is easy with the provided buttons. Each of the earbuds come with a volume button. When you change the volume on one earbud, the volume also changes on the other.

And in a first for Beats, a speech-detecting accelerometer in each earbud and two beam-forming microphones per side target your voice and filter out external sounds such as wind and ambient noise. This means you can answer a quick mid-workout call at the gym with clarity and confidence.

You can use either of the Beats logo buttons, which are located on each earbud, to control your music. To pause or play music, you must press the Beats logo button once. To skip to the next track, press twice. To listen to the previous track, press three times.

When wearing the Powerbeats Pro as a headset for your smartphone, you can use either of the Beats logo buttons to answer calls. Press the Beats logo button once to answer or end a call. To answer a second incoming call and put the first call on hold, press the logo button once. When two calls are active, you can switch between the calls by pressing the logo button once. You can also reject an incoming call by pressing and holding the Beats logo button for one second.

Battery life is good too. Each earbud has up to 9 hours of listening time and more than 24 hours of combined playback with the charging case. With Fast Fuel technology, you get 1.5 hours of playback after just 5 minutes of charging and up to 4.5 hours after 15 minutes of charging.

Powerbeats Pro has been available in black since last week and the Ivory, Moss and Navy models will be here soon. The phones retail for Bt8,900,

Key specs:

Connectivity: Apple H1 chip, Class 1 Wireless; Charging case: Lightning connector

Sensors: Dual optical sensors, Motion-detecting accelerometer, Speech-detecting accelerometer

Height: 5.6 cm

Weight: 20.3 g

Form factor: In ear

Power: Rechargeable lithium-ion

Powerbeats Pro case:

Height: 7.7 cm;

Power: Rechargeable lithium-ion

Battery: Powerbeats Pro (single charge): Up to 9 hours listening time; Fast Fuel: A 5-minute charge provides up to 1.5 hours of playback

The tournament, which will be played over 35 matches, will kick off with 2 e-sports experts, actor Tack Pharunyoo and DJ Plakung.

It is estimated that the gaming and e-sports industries will be worth Bt67.8 billion baht by 2022 and Advice is all set to help that happen with its contest slogan “Advice wants Thai people to understand E-Sports”.

Chakkrit Watcharasakslip, chief product sales and marketing officer for Advice IT Infinite, says the firm has been pushing e-sport marketing strategy for the last year and has seen more than double the growth in the games and high-end computer market thanks to increased demand in the provinces.

Recently, Advice expanded its branches nationwide and by the end of the second quarter had 352 outlets nationwide.

A survey by PWC Thailand found that spending on games was approximately Bt22 billion in 2018, confirming that Thailand’s video games and e-sport markets are the fastest growing in Asia Pacific.

“Advice has fully realised the importance and support of e-sports marketing in Thailand in both promoting and organising e-sport activities. This year marks the second year we are raising the level of Thai e-sport through our competition” Chakkrit said.

This competition will be held over a total of 35 matches at 18 universities across the country and the Advice storefronts. Activities include the Caster Contest, which gives contestants the opportunity to become professional video game performers, PUBG and ROV game competitions and Modder Station, which offers knowledge about computer case modification and the installation of a heatsink set.