Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced a new Facebook feature designed to increase security for users.
“New update for end-to-end encrypted Messenger chats so you get a notification if someone screenshots a disappearing message,” Zuckerberg posted on his Facebook account on Friday.
The new feature is currently only available on the Facebook messenger app. Facebook users of other apps might have to wait a while before this and other new features are available.
Zuckerberg added. “We’re also adding GIFs, stickers, and reactions to encrypted chats too.”
The new security feature will let users know if someone screenshots their conversation without their consent. Capturing conversation without consent may violate the law while posting it might violate a separate law.
Diem Association is considering selling its assets to return the money to investors after Meta (Facebook) decided not to continue the Diem currency project as it was opposed by regulators, Bloomberg has reported.
In June 2019, Facebook revealed its plans to launch Libra after over a year of development and research. The project envisioned a stablecoin backed by fiat currencies that could be used worldwide as a means of exchange.
The move prompted an international regulatory backlash. The project was paused until lawmakers could come to grips with it.
Many of the original members left the project before it got started due to financial firms citing regulatory risks.
Libra Association tightened the project’s scope and announced in April 2020 that it would launch stablecoins that were backed by either a single fiat currency or asset instead. Libra Association was assembled by Facebook and changed its name to Diem on December 1, 2020 to distance itself from the original vision.
The group had announced that it was gearing up for a potential launch in 2021. The organisation had also finalised its leadership team with Stuart Levey taking the reins as chief executive officer.
Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith revealed on Monday that Thailand faces a delicate balancing act in its transition to electric vehicles.
Arkhom said the National Electric Vehicle Policy Committee is discussing all points carefully as EVs have a higher purchase price than conventional cars. Drivers would not switch to EVs if the price was too high, meaning the government will have to intervene to lower the price difference, he said.
However, the government must also weigh the benefits of changing to EVs against the competitiveness of Thailand’s automotive industry.
The government will also have to consider how the EV business will affect free-trade agreement (FTA) measures, Arkhom said.
He said the Finance Ministry has prepared tax measures for EVs including new import duties and an excise tax. Current import duties on EVs vary from country to country, ranging from zero per cent for Chinese vehicles to 20-80 per cent for Japanese EVs.
Arkhom added that the new tax measures will be issued early this year after thorough study by the National Electric Vehicle Policy Committee but said no date had been set yet.
Measures to promote the EV sector will include direct support and tax support, he said.
According to Thailand’s National Electric Vehicle Policy, EVs will comprise at least 30 per cent of total domestic vehicle production by 2030 as the country transitions to a low-carbon economy.
As many as eight organisations in Thailand have entered the virtual world of the Metaverse, offering consumers innovative experiences.
The “Metaverse” only caught attention last year when Facebook announced it was rebranding itself as Meta. In reality, the virtual Metaverse was created by technology and gaming companies more than a decade ago.
The Metaverse uses augmented and virtual reality technologies to create a digital world that provides consumers services and experiences like shopping, conference, investment, trade negotiations and entertainment.
Here are eight Thai companies that have started operations in the Metaverse:
1. Metaverse Thailand
Metaverse Thailand, handled by M Vision Plc, is the first company to kick off digital land trading in Thailand. Metaverse Thailand allows people to buy digital land, build structures and perform activities such as selling products, holding meetings or selling non-fungible tokens. They can also transfer or sell the land.
2. Nanyang
Thailand’s leading shoemaker has created the “Akhan Rongtao Tae” or the flip-flop building on its digital land in Metaverse Thailand. The company, which now has a stylish trademark, takes cryptocurrency for its products.
3. Wat Phra Dhammakaya
The exhibition dubbed “Muthita” takes you on a virtual, 360-degree journey through the temple and provides visitors with a glimpse into the lives of monks who were behind this new-wave Buddhist sect.
4. Ananda Development Plc
The property developer launched virtual influencer “Wunni” in December to help keep the company up to date with the Metaverse trends. Wunni acts as a company representative and communicates and shares experiences with consumers, especially those from Gen Z.
5. Torpenguin
Torpenguin is a community that meets up regularly and is cooperating with the Meta Warden to expand its community over the virtual world. Its aim is to promote knowledge exchange and create business opportunities.
6. Advanced Info Services (AIS)
This telecom giant has made “Irene”, a virtual influencer created by SIA Bangkok, its latest brand ambassador.
Irene, packed with the confidence of modern teenagers, will help promote a virtual world that is very similar to reality.
7. True Corporation
Like AIS, this telecom giant is using “Imma”, a virtual influencer created in Japan, to become its latest brand ambassador. Imma, created using computer graphic technology, provides experiences on lifestyle in the digital era.
8. Rayong Healthcare Hospital
This hospital is the first in Thailand to enter Metaverse so it can provide treatment to people more quickly and reduce congestion in hospitals.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) worth around US$40 billion were transacted around the world in 2021, according to market data, and now some footballers are also jumping on the bandwagon.
They include Luka Modric from Real Madrid, who has created his collection of NFTs, while Brazilian star Neymar, who plays for Paris Saint-Germain in the French league, has paid more than a million dollars through cryptocurrency for two interesting NFTs.
He acquired the two from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection with the OpenSea platform which is the largest NFT marketplace. He made the payment through the Ethereum (ETH) cryptocurrency.
He paid 159.99 ETH, equivalent to around $521,000, for one of the illustrations, and 189.69 ETH or around $624,000 for the other.
The purchase was done with the personalised wallet “EneJay” on the platform from his initials.
He explained later on his Instagram that he had done it with two partners. Neymar’s Paris teammates Leandro Paredes and Marco Verratti also reportedly paid a part of the sum but neither of them has posted any images on social media.
The pieces that make up the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection have also attracted the attention of other famous people such as rapper Eminem, NBA star Stephen Curry, and TV host Jimmy Fallon.
Last November, Neymar had signed an agreement with NFTSTAR to develop, sell and market collectible NFTs.
According to Investopedia, non-fungible tokens or NFTs are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other. Unlike cryptocurrencies, they cannot be traded or exchanged at equivalency. This differs from fungible tokens like cryptocurrencies, which are identical to each other and, therefore, can be used as a medium for commercial transactions.
Used car sales fostered new highlights in China’s automobile market in 2021, with the growth of trade volume and value both over 20 percent year on year, data from the China Passenger Car Association shows.
More than 17.58 million used cars changed hands last year, up 22.62 percent year on year, despite the challenges of the pandemic, extreme weather, lowered consumption expectations and surging risks of global supply chains, according to the association.
The combined value for the transactions soared 27.32 percent over one year earlier to top 1.13 trillion yuan (about 178 billion U.S. dollars) during the period.
The trade of used cars is key to invigorate China’s automobile market, which facilitates urban consumption upgrade and promotes consumption in the rural areas, the association noted.
It is optimistic about the market prospect, citing the country’s multiple policies on booming used car consumption, such as implementing preferential tax policies and facilitating cross-region transfer.
Technology will have a key role to play amid another year of extreme weather and record-breaking temperatures, posing challenges to humans, wildlife and nature, according to Telenor Research.
Despite the gloomy outlook, technological advancements and the accelerating digitalisation of society give reasons for hope, the research said.
“People everywhere are waking up to the need to act on climate change and environmental degradation. For us in Telenor, it is key to understand how technology can both avoid being part of the problem and help in the transition,” says Bjørn Taale Sandberg, head of Telenor Research.
The five tech trends are as follow:
Green cloud
As the digitalisation of society continues to accelerate, cloud computing has seen explosive growth. Moving data requires energy. Data centres globally account for more than one per cent of the world’s energy consumption. Edge computing, however, offers hope as it is expected to take over some of the workload in the coming year.
“We predict that 5G networks worldwide will have the capability to do local breakout of data traffic to and from Edge data centres,” says Sandberg. The data centres themselves can be made energy efficient in many ways, including through utilisation of excess heat and sustainable local power harvesting, using solar panels and small windmills.
“We believe that energy efficient Edge data centres reachable from mobile devices over 5G networks will start popping up, at an increasing rate, in 2022. As a result, energy will also be saved in data distribution networks since part of the data traffic and electricity will be transferred only locally,” explains Sandberg.
Green degrees and courses
Just as modern careers require people to upskill continuously, climate change will require people, businesses, and societies to adapt to lifelong learning on sustainability. Environmental policy and regulation will also increase the demand for green job skills in 2022, the research says.
“A growing number of businesses will implement green micro-degrees and courses as part of their ‘curriculum’ to slake the green knowledge thirst among employees. The businesses that fail to facilitate opportunities to acquire green online learning credentials on-the-job risk being perceived as less attractive in the eyes of new talent,” predicts Sandberg.
Therefore, a wave of micro-degrees with a green shape will flood out through learning systems like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Udacity, and Khan Academy, the same way we see more educational institutions embrace planet-friendly values in their programmes. We already see such online courses and degrees being offered and promoted by organisations worldwide, not least the United Nations and its agency Unesco, Sandberg adds.
Optimisation for energy efficiency
While ever greater numbers of electronic devices and solutions are enabling humans to lead more convenient lives, the International Energy Agency calls for smarter and more efficient electrical appliances. We believe the global need for greater energy efficiency will trigger an “optimisation of everything” battle between consumer electronics manufacturers, the research says.
“Devices consuming electricity now outnumber humans by four, and they will become even more dominant in the future. Since transforming our energy supply will take time, we need to optimise everything – not least the use of energy by our devices,” warns Sandberg.
Competition is already ongoing between chipmakers to reduce their products’ energy demand. One example is the M1 chipset used in Apple’s newest computers. “We expect that this will be taken up in the much greater PC market – offering both more efficient devices and devices that can run far longer on battery.”
“Going forward, more companies will put enormous sums of money on the table to acquire the knowledge and assets needed to come out on top of the optimisation battle,” says Sandberg.
Here come the ‘greenfluencers’
While most social media trends serve little purpose other than to entertain, some, like the #BlackLivesMatter, bring about profound societal changes. In 2022, with recent disappointments from the UN’s Climate Conference (COP26) and a grim outlook in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report fresh in memory, we expect to see a new movement shape the world of social media – ‘greenfluencing’, according to the research.
“An undergrowth of climate aware influencers and activists has emerged across niches on social media, and we believe their growing follower bases will be duly noticed by the influencer universe’s established elite,” explains Sandberg.
By tapping into both marketing and social considerations, the big social media stars in every sphere – from cooking and fashion to travel, makeup, and fitness – will start to greenfluence their millions of followers.
“Influencers who appear oblivious or indifferent to climate challenges will be perceived as outdated. Instead, followers will flock to influencers who demonstrate climate awareness regardless of niche. Marketers will turn their attention in the same direction,” predicts Sandberg.
Reaching out to the next generation
Companies that don’t take the next generation’s expectations seriously risk facing the great resignation.
During the continuation of the pandemic, it will be tough for the young to establish and grow a personal network and acquire a general understanding of the corporate lingo and culture, as forming new social relations using only digital communication is much more challenging.
“As a consequence, many companies will in 2022 find that large groups of young employees who never got a proper onboarding are likely to struggle – unless good leadership is exercised,” says Sandberg, and points to the following three tips on how to lead the next generation through the future way of work:
Bring joy to the office — engineer social interaction across generations through events that trigger joy, discussion, and knowledge and insight transfer.
With age and tenure comes responsibility — make it clear that the company veterans have a special obligation to include, mentor, and guide the new employees.
Make them shine — be vocal and public when praising the newcomers for their efforts and provide them with the opportunities to speak and find their voice.
Kristian Hall
Meanwhile, Telenor Group vice president of climate and environment Kristian Hall said the company has implemented climate goals to reduce carbon emissions.
He explained that climate goals are in line with the Global Science-Based Target:
Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from the company’s global operation by 57 per cent by 2030 compared to the 2019 baseline.
68 per cent of suppliers (by spend) within the categories Purchased Goods, Services and Capital Goods, to have set Science-Based Targets by 2025.
“As we are also aware of Metaverse that could emit more carbon dioxide, we will apply technologies to ensure Telenor’s energy efficiency,” added Sandberg.
Thailand’s space institute offered a close encounter with some of the most mysterious –and dangerous – objects in the universe on Friday.
The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) unveiled the secrets of asteroids through the lens – and mechanical arms – of Nasa probes currently hurtling through space. It said the spacecraft are used to study asteroids because they afford close-up encounters that are not possible with Earth-bound telescopes.
NARIT explained that asteroids are small rocky objects that orbit the Sun.
Most of them swirl around in the asteroid belt, a debris-filled region of space between Mars and Jupiter. The largest is Ceres, a dwarf planet about 950 kilometres in diameter.
The main reason for studying asteroids is to tap the secrets they hold as scraps that form planets – including our own. Asteroids may be the source of water and organic compounds that first sparked life on Earth 3.5 billion years ago. They could be a crucial resource for humanity in the future.
But they also present a potential catastrophic danger to Earth, as the dinosaurs found out when an asteroid 10 kilometres in diameter slammed into the planet 66 million years ago.
NARIT trained its lens on four Nasa missions that are unlocking the mystery of this ancient space rubble left over from the formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.
OSIRIS-Rex Its mission is to collect a sample of soil or rubble from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. One of Nasa’s first asteroid missions, the OSIRIS-Rex was launched on September 9, 2016. The probe touched down on Bennu on October 20, 2020 and successfully scooped up the sample. It is now hurtling back to Earth with a scheduled landing date of September 24, 2023.
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Its objective is to test a planetary defence system against asteroids. Launched on November 24, 2021, the probe will crash into the asteroid Dimorphos in a bid to deflect the 160-metre-diameter space rock off its course. The impact is scheduled for September 26, 2022.
LUCY Its mission is to explore the main asteroid belt and seven Jupiter trojan asteroids to analyse their colour, surface, mass and physical features. The probe was launched on October 16, 2021 and will spend 12 years in space.
PSYCHE Scheduled to blast off later this year, this mission will study the asteroid “16 Psyche” which orbits between Mars and Jupiter. 16 Psyche is a metal-rich asteroid composed of iron and nickel that is thought to hold clues to planet formation in the beginning phase. Psyche is set to launch on August 1, 2022 and reach 16 Psyche on January 31, 2026.
Thais are showing more interest in electric vehicles (EV) in line with growing global attention towards the environment, as Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor (GWM) learned in a recent workshop.
This trend is in line with GWM’s entry into the Thai automotive industry last year and its aspiration to become a leader in EV, Suparang Anuchapreeda, director of communications at Great Wall Motor Thailand, said.
“As a ‘global intelligent technology company’ ready to become an EV leader in Thailand, GWM aims to listen to customers’ voices and follow their movements to offer products, technologies and services that serve their needs in the best possible way,” she said.
“The workshop we conducted in collaboration with Wisesight Thailand has given us an insight into Thai consumers’ interests over digital platforms over the past year as well as a clearer picture of the trends and demands amid changing technology in 2022. One of the most distinct elements is that Thai consumers have been focusing more on sustainability since last year, resulting in higher popularity of electric vehicles.”
Suparang also said that GWM was committed to fulfilling an environment-friendly driving experience by offering “state-of-the-art technologies at reasonable prices to Thai people”.
Electric vehicle (EV) is a generic term that covers electromotive vehicles ranging from fully electric (xEV), hybrid electric (HEV), plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) and battery electric (BEV).
The GWM Tech-in-Trend Workshop was held recently at the GWM Experience Centre in Bangkok’s Iconsiam shopping complex.
The session unveiled a summary of Thai consumers’ online activities in 2021 and digital and technology trends for 2022, with indicators on how online content can be crafted to best serve Thai consumers’ interests.
“Changes in consumer behaviour are significant to GWM’s business direction and are aligned with the five elements which we aim to transform: products, distribution channels, experiences, aftersales services, and customer relations,” Suparang said.
“We are ready to bring innovations in all aspects, listen to consumer feedback, and embrace consumers’ ever-changing needs – all of which are GWM’s key business values,” she added.
Last year, GWM launched three new alternative EV models – Haval H6 Hybrid SUV, ORA Good Cat and Haval Jolion Hybrid SUV – which it said won a “warm welcome” from Thai consumers.
The Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding on cross-institutional enrolment at a meeting of the Council of Graduate Studies Administrators of Public and Autonomous Universities. Presidents of 25 state institutions also participated in the ceremony.
Ministry permanent secretary Prof Sirirurg Songsivilai said the MoU is a historic milestone in the higher education system and will greatly benefit students.
They will now have the opportunity to seek knowledge in their subjects of interest and gain a wide range of experiences from universities with different merits and excellence.
Each institution will also benefit from the integration of information and knowledge between universities.
Students will be able to register for courses across institutions and can use their credit as part of the credits they earn for courses being studied.
The 25 institutions that have signed the agreement are:
Kasetsart University
Khon Kaen University
Chulalongkorn University
Chiang Mai University
Thaksin University
King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Lat Krabang
King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi
King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok
Thammasat University
Naresuan University
Burapha University
Phayao University
Mahidol University
Mahasarakham University
Maejo University
Mae Fah Luang University
Ramkhamhaeng University
Walailak University
Silpakorn University
Srinakharinwirot University
Songkhla Nakarin University
Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University
Suranaree University of Technology
Ubon Ratchathani University
The National Institute of Development Administration.
Kristian Hall
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