True Move H is the first mobile operator to officially launch the Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) in Thailand, at a cost of Bt15,500. It is expected that the other two operators, Advanced Info Services (AIS) and Total Access Communication (DTAC), will later catch up.

The Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) will automatically switch to the most power-efficient wireless available.

It can connect to an iPhone when it’s nearby, a previously joined Wi-Fi network, or cellular. When the watch is connected to a cellular network, users can check the signal strength from the Control Centre or the Explorer watch-face.

True Move H is offering many package bundles with the Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular), including at Bt499 per month (200 minutes of voice calls and 4GB of data), Bt599 (250 minutes of voice calls and 6GB of data), Bt699 (300 minutes of voice calls and 8GB of data), Bt899 (400 minutes of voice calls and 15GB of data), and Bt1,099 (650 minutes of voice calls and unlimited of data).

There were 121.53 million mobile phone SIM cards used last year, of which 53.05 million numbers belonged to Advanced Info Service, 36.05 million to True Corp, 30 million to Total Access Communication, 2.32 million to CAT Telecom, and 0.11 million to TOT.

The huge jump was a result of the availability of more spectrum bandwidth to cellular operators, including the auction of 2.1GHz in 2012, and 1800MHz and 900MHz in 2015 to 2016, which enabled them to expand the wireless broadband service.

Samsung Electronics on Friday reported higher-than-projected earnings during the first quarter, with operating profit topping market expectations by around 1 trillion won on successful memory chip sales.

Operating profit in the January-March period likely jumped 57.58 percent on-year to 15.6 trillion won ($14.6 billion), while revenue was estimated to have increased by 18.69 percent on-year to 60 trillion won, the South Korean tech giant said in an earnings guidance report.

Samsung did not release performance and net profit estimate reports for each business division. It plans to disclose detailed earnings later this month.

The tech giant’s earnings guidance tops projections by FnGuide, a Seoul-based financial market provider, that Samsung would log an operating profit of 14.56 trillion won and revenue of 61.58 trillion won.

Market analysts had predicted that despite a strong performance by its main semiconductors business, the gains would be offset by losses linked to a downturn of the display business led by sluggish sales of Apple’s iPhone X made with Samsung-made OLED displays.

However, Samsung’s first-quarter earnings guidance has eased such concerns, as demand for Samsung-made memory chips appears to have been strong enough to set the Korean electronics maker on track for another profitable year.

Memory chips are expected to have accounted for about 70 percent of Samsung’s operating profit, as strong demand for DRAM chips used in computer servers offsets falling prices of NAND flash memory chips, according to market projections.

Samsung’s IT mobile communications business — pulled along by the early release of premium Galaxy S9 and healthy sales of older models — appears to have contributed to the first-quarter earnings as well, overcoming a slowdown in global smartphone sales, analysts said.

The Galaxy S9, which began selling in most markets from mid-March, was launched around one month than its predecessor S8 which begun sales from mid-April back in 2017.

According to market tracker IDC, worldwide smartphone shipments shrank for the first time in 2017, as customers were less likely to purchase the latest high-end devices due to the high price tags and slowing innovation.

Vietnam is among top 10 countries in which information of Facebook users may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, according to Facebook chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer.

Cambridge Analytica, a UK-based data collection and analysis company, was reported on March 19 to have wrongly collected information and data from about 50 million Facebook users around the world.

Mike confirmed in his Wednesday post on Facebook Newsroom the total number of Facebook users affected by the case has reached 87 million. The case has stunned the world in general and damaged Facebook in particular in regards of its share price and reputation in recent weeks.

In Mike’s post, Vietnam ranks ninth of the 10 countries in the list with more than 427,000 Facebook users that have unwillingly shared their personal data and information with Cambridge Analytica.

The top country is the US with more than 70.6 million users, followed by the Philippines (nearly 1.2 million), Indonesia and the UK (nearly 1.1 million each). Australia is the bottom one with around 311,000 users.

To improve the situation, Mike said Facebook will remove the authorisation of API apps, a software intermediary that lets two applications connect, from getting access to users’ personal data and information public in groups, pages, events, and call and text history.

In addition, Facebook on April 9 will “show people a link at the top of their news feed so they can see what apps they use – and the information they have shared with those apps,” Mike said.

“People will also be able to remove apps that they no longer want. As part of this process, we will also tell people if their information may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has denied claims alluding to his potential resignation as the head of Facebook amid the Cambridge Analytica case, but said that he takes full responsibility.

Yasmin binti Jaidin joined 20 other participants from Japan and Asean member countries to attend the week-long intensive workshop, which followed the theme of art, biotechnology, and culture.

Participants came from diverse backgrounds of expertise, ranging from aspiring artists that explore science and technology, engineering, biotechnology and nature/art conservationist.

According to Yasmin, the workshop encouraged extensive exchange and dialogue between participants. The workshop also gave them the opportunity to share their understanding of current issues, while searching for organic biotechnology design methods that can facilitate new ways of living.

“We were expected to work together by discussing concepts and themes, and presenting our views on these issues. The ambiguity of the theme of the workshop was intentional as participants were expected to come in with a completely fresh perspective,” she explained.

The participants learned of the philosophy behind the Japanese Garden by academic researcher and garderner Tomoki Yamauchi.

They also visited Shinjuku Gyoen National Park to get a better understanding on the conservation of endangered plant life, as well as the planning and research that goes into the annual Chrysanthemum Festival.

One of the highlights of Yasmin’s visit was the ‘MetaPhorest’ laboratory of the Centre for Advanced Medical Sciences, Waseda University – a practical platform for artists working on biological/bio media art and bio aesthetics.

“The artists (involved) made me think of what the conventions of fine art should or could be, where technology and science is already a huge part of our lives.Artists approach contemporary issues, break the rules and are in constant search for new ideas.

“It made me realise that we should not be afraid to experiment with the boundaries of technology in our practice,” she said.

American artist and scientist Joe Davis, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) made a statement that resonated with Yasmin, “The key to innovation is that the answer is always in front of you”, and described it as the epitome of the workshop.

“We progress as far as we allow ourselves to. As an artist working and living in Brunei, it has changed my perspective on how far innovation can take you.

“It is up to the individual to challenge their critical thinking regarding available resources – to see what we have in different perspectives to get to where we strive to be.”

The social network, which is under fire for enabling manipulation of its platform in the 2016 election, said the new policy would require any messages for candidates or public issues to include the label “political ad” with the name of the person or entity paying for it.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said the change will mean “we will hire thousands of more people” to get the new system in place ahead of US midterm elections in November.

“We’re starting this in the US and expanding to the rest of the world in the coming months,” Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page.

“These steps by themselves won’t stop all people trying to game the system. But they will make it a lot harder for anyone to do what the Russians did during the 2016 election and use fake accounts and pages to run ads.”

A separate Facebook statement said the changes would help improve transparency and accountability of the network around political campaigns.

“We believe that when you visit a page or see an ad on Facebook, it should be clear who it’s coming from,” the statement said.

To get authorized by Facebook, “advertisers will need to confirm their identity and location,” the statement said.

“Advertisers will be prohibited from running political ads — electoral or issue-based — until they are authorized.”

Facebook made the announcement as Zuckerberg prepared to appear before Congress next week to answer questions about the harvesting of personal data on 87 million users by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consultancy working for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The move also comes amid concerns that Russian-sponsored entities delivered Facebook ads designed to create discord and confusion ahead of the election and that firms like Cambridge Analytica created messages based on psychographic profiles gleaned from the platform to influence voters.

Sandberg’s apology

Separately, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg offered fresh apologies to users for failing to do enough on privacy and data protection.

“We know that we did not do enough to protect people’s data,” Sandberg told National Public Radio. “I’m really sorry for that. Mark is really sorry for that, and what we’re doing now is taking really firm action.”

Sandberg said Facebook first became aware in 2015 that Cambridge Analytica had obtained user data from a researcher who put up a poll on the social network.

“When we received word that this researcher gave the data to Cambridge Analytica, they assured us it was deleted,” she said.

“We did not follow up and confirm, and that’s on us — and particularly once they were active in the election, we should have done that.”

Sandberg was asked by NBC television’s “Today Show” if other cases of user data misuse could be expected.

“We’re doing an investigation, we’re going to do audits and yes, we think it’s possible, that’s why we’re doing the audit,” she said.

Sandberg said Facebook also should have been more proactive in dealing with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“That was something we should have caught, we should have known about,” she told NPR. “We didn’t. Now we’ve learned.”

The firestorm over the improper data shared has sparked calls for investigations on both sides of the Atlantic.

In Brussels, a European Union spokesman said Facebook confirmed that up to 2.7 million people in the EU may have been affected by the personal data scandal.

“We will study the letter (from Facebook) in more detail, but it is already clear that this will need further follow-up discussions with Facebook,” spokesman Christopher Wigand said.

The free instant messaging application, which lets people exchange messages, photos and videos in groups of up to 5,000 people, has attracted more than 200 million users since its launch in 2013.

Telegram is especially popular among political activists of all stripes, but has also been used by jihadists.

In September 2017 the FSB security service demanded encryption keys, Durov said, prompting a formal complaint when the request was rejected.

Durov wrote last year that the FSB’s demands are “technically impossible to carry out” and violate the Russian Constitution which entitles citizens to privacy of correspondence.

Roskomnadzor’s request is the latest move in a dispute between Telegram and the Russian authorities as Moscow pushes to increase surveillance of internet activities.

Last June, the watchdog threatened to ban the app for failing to provide registration documents. Although Telegram later registered, it stopped short of agreeing to its data storage demands.

Companies on the register must provide the FSB with information on user interactions.

From this year they must also store all the data of Russian users inside the country, according to controversial anti-terror legislation passed in 2016 which was decried by internet companies and the opposition.

The National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity on Tuesday warned all ministries and agencies that the official email addresses of about 2,000 central government employees had been leaked. This development underscored the government’s need to guard against cyber-attacks.

Each year, the Defense Ministry and Self-Defense Forces, which play a key role in national defense, face more than 1 million “attacks,” including those involving spam mail. Attacks utilizing targeted emails containing data-stealing viruses are particularly common, and there have been cases in which emails were sent from false accounts using the names of high-ranking government officials such as Shotaro Yachi, secretary general of the National Security Secretariat.

In the spring of last year, about 20 people in charge of countering cyber-attacks for the Joint Staff Office and Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces worked on computers in the basement of the Defense Ministry in Ichigaya, Tokyo.

The cyberdefense staff handled such questions as “I opened a targeted email. What should I do?” and “Something happened with my computer. Where I should look and check the records?”  This was their first training session, in which they competed to quickly and accurately respond to questions created by a private company, with the aim of enhancing the nation’s ability to handle targeted mails and other cyberincidents.

About 110 members of the Cyber Defense Group monitor information and communications networks, but their operations focus on defense. The group was set up in 2014.

A senior Defense Ministry official said, “The group’s training is mostly basic.” The Cyber Defense Group will see its headcount increase to about 150 by the end of this fiscal year, but they still face a personnel shortage.

According to the ministry, about 7,000 people work for North Korea’s cyber unit, while about 1,000 work for Russia’s. The Chinese unit, which handles space, cyberspace and electronic warfare, is said to have about 130,000 staff members.

According to U.S. information security firm FireEye, Inc., Russia, North Korea and China possess advanced cyber capabilities that threaten Japan’s defense.

In a cyber-attack, the attacker delivers new types of malware and other malicious materials, which forces the receiver to hastily analyze the problem and deploy countermeasures. This dynamic overwhelmingly favors the attacker.

North Korea is said to use cyber-attacks as a means of obtaining foreign currency. Cyber-attacks have also been used in live combat situations. When Russia annexed Crimea in southern Ukraine in 2014, it is believed to have utilized cyber and electronic warfare to disrupt Ukrainian operations.

The SDF possesses a degree of knowledge and ability in cyber-offensives. However, due to its defense-oriented posture, it has yet to obtain full offensive capabilities.

Whether Japan moves to acquire cyber-offensive capabilities will likely be a focus in the National Defense Program Guidelines to be devised by the end of this year and the Medium Term Defense Program. The guidelines represent a basic defense policy for a roughly 10-year period.

The Japanese government is also accelerating development of space-related measures along with its cyber-offensive measures.

In addition to information-gathering, satellites are used for such purposes as communications, the Global Positioning System and ballistic missile warning systems for unit operations.

A senior Defense Ministry official said, “If the nation falls into a situation in which a satellite cannot be used, it will fatally impair the operations of the SDF and U.S. military.”

China and Russia are also developing “killer satellites” that attack satellites, and antisatellite weapons that obstruct satellite functions using radio waves. In January 2007, China successfully conducted a test to destroy a satellite with a ballistic missile. However, the Japanese government does not possess the ability to attack satellites and instead prioritizes defensive measures.

In fiscal 2023, the government plans to launch a surveillance system to detect suspicious satellites and other devices in space. This project aims to enable Japanese satellites to avert suspicious satellites and space debris. Should its satellite be destroyed, the government is also considering launching an alternative satellite, and is studying a plan to establish a specialized space unit, though work on this has only just begun.

Modern warfare is expected to include cyber-attacks on command centers, electronic jamming and the destruction of satellites, among other maneuvers.

On March 20, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Research Commission on National Security drew up a “multidimensional defense concept” in the outline of its proposals for the new National Defense Program Guidelines. This concept also calls for the GSDF, MSDF and ASDF to work closely in the realms of space and cyberspace.

The nation needs to strengthen its ability to respond to a new battlefield.

Whether its pushing down turrets in Riot Games’ League of Legends or gunning down members of an enemy team in Blizzard’s Overwatch, eSports are capturing the hearts of fans across Southeast Asia.

Once considered a weekend hobby for bored teenagers, the thriving competitive video game industry now has 148 million players and will be worth US$905.6 million in 2018, The Straits Times reported, citing ESport research group Newzoo.

The new medium is even beginning to give its traditional cousins a run for their money, with 33 million viewers tuning in to the 2017 League of Legends World Cup, compared to just 20.4 million who watched the NBA finals.

The industry has experienced a whopping 38 per cent year-on-year growth – and according to a December 2016 article in Newzoo, the fastest growing region of all was Southeast Asia.

The region had 9.5 million Esports Enthusiasts in 2016, and this number was expected to double by next year.

The surge in interest in eSports – and its economic potential – have not gone unnoticed.

Gamers will be joining traditional athletes at the 2020 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China and may even be included in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, according to The Straits Times.

In Thailand, plans are underway to open an eSports arena in Bangkok and set up an eSports Academy in June where players can be trained, The Nation reported.

“The Thailand eSports Arena will be a digital-sport battlefield for everyone,” said Jirayod Theppipit, founder and chief executive of Infofed, the company building the arena.

“In 2022, eSports will be a part of the Asian Games. Opening the Thailand eSports Arena will pave way for Thai eSports athletes to take part in such regional and global tournaments,” he said, according to The Nation.

Singapore gaming and e-commerce start-up Garena, now known as Sea, has risen to become the country’s first billion-dollar tech start-up and was recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Popular online game League of Legends is among the games offered by the platform.

The island nation will also be hosting the inaugural Asean eSports competition at the Singapore Sports Hub in August this year.

Players themselves also stand to make a killing. For example, top League of Legends player Lee Sang Hyeok, better known as Faker, has raked in over a million dollars in earnings from tournaments, according to Esports Earnings.

Despite the earnings of top gamers, some believe eSports has a long way to go before it gains widespread acceptance and public appeal. The Nation notes that most Thais still feel ambiguous about electronic gaming, though eSports have been official recognised as a form of sport by the Sports Authority of Thailand.

Lester Hio makes a similar observation in his commentary for The Straits Times, suggesting that competitive gamers are still viewed with suspicion in success-oriented Singapore, where many are unwilling to acknowledge eSports as a viable career choice.

Though he notes that a new team, Chaos Theory, offers its players employment contracts, salaries and other perks that often come with a job such as medical benefits and even Central Provident Fund contributions, he asserts that infrastructural support alone will not be enough to change public perceptions.

The key, he suggests, is a complete image overhaul, with players viewing themselves as entertainment figures as well as gamers and behaving in a more professional manner.

“Being a professional gamer is not to sit around and play games all day long – it’s also to work on bettering themselves and the image of the eSports industry that they are helping to grow,” Hio finishes.

The social networking giant said Wednesday the data of up to 87 million people worldwide — including more than 300,000 Australian users — were shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook has been under fire over its handling of users’ personal information after reports the British firm harvested the huge amounts of data as part of its work on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

“The investigation will consider whether Facebook has breached the Privacy Act,” acting Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk said in a statement.

“Given the global nature of this matter, the OAIC (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) will confer with regulatory authorities internationally.”

Falk said under Australian law, all organisations had to take “reasonable steps” to ensure personal information was being held securely and that customers were notified about the collection and handling of their data.

The bulk of data shared with Cambridge Analytica is from the United States at 81.6 percent, with Australia ranked 10th after countries including the Philippines, Indonesia and India, according to Facebook, which has pledged to give people a clearer picture of how it manages personal information.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is due to testify before the US Congress next week, in what is expected to be multiple congressional hearings over the scandal.

The tech behemoth is also facing probes over the data breach from US consumer protection agency the Federal Trade Commission and from a joint New York-Massachusetts investigation.

The European Union has given Facebook until next week to answer questions over the harvested data, while the London offices of Cambridge Analytica have been searched by Britain’s Information Commissioner.

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