Techgoondu

22/01/2025

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21/01/2025

Rapidly growing AI adoption is transforming small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across the Asia Pacific, with 63 per cent of them using or experimenting with AI.

Among those leveraging AI, 90 per cent report revenue growth, according to a recent report by customer service management vendor Salesforce.

The study, which surveyed 3,350 SMB leaders across 26 countries, highlights that 75 per cent of SMBs globally are either experimenting with or actively implementing AI, citing its ability to boost revenue, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Singapore is a leader, with 94 per cent of SMBs actively deploying or testing AI solutions.

The report revealed a stark contrast between growing SMBs and their more stagnant counterparts. Thriving businesses placed a key focus on AI capabilities, while less successful ones focus mainly on cost.

Small and medium businesses in Asia-Pacific that have experimented with or adopted AI have seen revenues grow, according to Salesforce.

21/01/2025

For more than a year since they first grabbed the headlines, AI PCs have promised a lot – mainly, faster performance for AI tasks, and particularly for workloads that you can run right on your machine so you don’t risk your privacy by going to the cloud.

Despite the hype, consumers and businesses have been lukewarm to the concept of AI PCs, perhaps unconvinced that they should run AI tasks on their own machines, when services like ChatGPT or Midjourney are available on the Web.

Perhaps one way PC makers can sell AI PCs better is to look at how games are still so popular on gaming PCs and consoles, despite the availability of cloud gaming services.

Small handheld gaming devices, instead of turning to the cloud, are packing in more processing power to run PC games like they are run on full-fledged rigs.

You can buy LG TVs now that let you play games on the screen – the heavy lifting is done on the cloud for a subscription fee – but yet, most people have stuck with PCs and game consoles that sport energy-sucking, warm-running graphics cards.

The key differences from AI PCs are the apps and content. Plus, the seamless integration of the computing that’s done locally and what’s processed remotely on the cloud (or a server farm) to deliver the gaming performance on a PC.

AI PCs promise to do the heavy lifting of AI workloads but years of habitually offloading tasks to the cloud are hard to reverse.

14/01/2025

The HONOR Magic 7 Pro is the industry’s first commercial device that provides groundbreaking on-device AI Deepfake Detection technology that helps identify deepfake video calls.

As scams become a daily menace, especially in Singapore, where more than S$2 million are lost each day to such fraudsters, the anti-deepfake feature from HONOR will help protect against even more advanced threats in future.

To protect users from potential deepfake scams during video calls, the new HONOR phone employs advanced algorithms to identify manipulated content through analysing pixel-level synthetic imperfections, border compositing artifacts, inter-frame continuity, and more.

Check out the new HONOR phone's AI capabilities.

The HONOR Magic 7 Pro stands out from the competition by offering AI features that make a difference to everyday usage.

14/01/2025

As the new year arrived, many businesses that have listened to the gospel of GenAI and rushed in to experiment with it might be forgiven for rethinking their haste, given the somewhat subdued impact early pilots have shown in real-world situations.

Data management and trust in GenAI results have been the main obstacles for many businesses, points out Chris Walker, vice-president for solutions architecture for Asia-Pacific and Japan at Elastic, which provides enterprise search and observability tools.

Many organisations still struggle with vast amounts of data to be used for AI, while “hallucinations” from GenAI often undermine trust, he says.

Yet, businesses do recognise the impact of GenAI, he stresses, adding that cybersecurity is one area where it can help teams to protect, investigate, and respond to threats before damage is done.

“In the coming 12 to 18 months, GenAI also has the potential to provide organisations with greater observability of their IT infrastructure, thus improving resilience and uptime,” he tells Techgoondu, in this year’s first Q&A.

Data management and trust in GenAI results have been big obstacles for GenAI rollouts, says Elastic, which provides enterprise search tools.

14/01/2025

The United States has imposed sweeping regulations to control how advanced AI chips and related technologies could be exported and used overseas, including in countries with close military and trade ties, such as Singapore.

The measures, announced yesterday, are aimed at deterring China and other geopolitical rivals from accessing American technology for military and other uses. And they go far beyond existing measures.

By only allowing the free export of the most advanced chips to 18 of the US’ closest allies, such as Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, the move also seeks to push the rest of the world towards a global technology ecosystem led by the US.

In the short term, some "neutral" countries such as Singapore might grudgingly follow the US AI chip controls but they risk ceding American technology leadership to new rivals.

In technology, change cycles are shorter and things are a lot less sticky, unlike, say, the permanence of the US dollar in global finance.

Just as Nvidia was nowhere near its current position as the go-to AI chipmaker (despite being a big chipmaker) two years ago, the next AI champion could rise to prominence in a short span of time to dominate the market.

If China or any other country finds the next big breakthrough in AI or, say, in another evolutionary technology like quantum technology, then the AI trade restrictions imposed by the US today would look terribly shortsighted and hard to reverse.

In the short term, some countries might grudgingly follow the US AI chip controls but they risk ceding technology leadership to new rivals.

08/01/2025

The much-heralded Dell XPS line of premium laptops will be no more, as the PC maker rebrands its lineup of PCs and monitors in a major makeover that casts out decades of familiar names.

High-end models like the XPS 13 will now be called Dell Premium. The Inspiron series, a popular choice for less demanding users, will be categorised as either Dell or Dell Plus.

The much-heralded Dell XPS line of premium laptops will be no more, as the PC maker rebrands its PCs and monitors in a major makeover.

08/01/2025

AMD took the wraps off its new Ryzen 9 desktop CPUs – the 9900X3D and 9950X3D – that feature its 3D V-Cache that is highly sought after by gamers for the added performance.

Nvidia, as expected, finally unveiled its GeForce RTX 50 series that will feature the flagship RTX 5090 GPU. It promises as much as double the performance of today’s top-end GeForce RTX 4090.

If you’re building or buying a new gaming PC this year, know that there are important upgrades coming your way. In terms of CPUs and GPUs, the additional options will mean more choices, whether you want top-end performance or better value at the mid to entry levels.

AMD's new Ryzen 9 9000 CPUs and Nvidia's new GeForce RTX 5090 are among the most exciting hardware updates for PC gaming in 2025.

01/01/2025

Thank you for reading and supporting Techgoondu! Here's to a great 2025!

(video generated with Sora)

31/12/2024

By leveraging AI, the new ColorOS makes an Oppo Android phone feel more fluid and snappy, with smoother animations, quicker transitions, and faster overall responsiveness.

In addition to performance improvements, the update introduces new productivity tools that make multitasking easier and more efficient. Plus, advanced features and tools provide greater control and creativity for those who love to edit photos, making image editing faster and more precise.

As Oppo’s tech experts shared in a recent workshop, the new operating system promises a major transformation of how you use your phone. Here are some key improvements with ColorOS 15 and how to get started with the new features.

Oppo ColorOS 15 promises to change how you use your phone, through AI and other enhancements. Here's how to get started.

30/12/2024

While the shell of the building, known as the Micron Singapore Bendemeer (MSB) site to employees, comes from an era before PCs arrived in homes, its several manufacturing floors and clean rooms have undergone high levels of automation to make the advanced storage modules that enable today’s smart devices.

The building is a testament to the strength of the partnership that Singapore has forged with high-tech manufacturing firms such as Micron, despite competition from larger markets and lower-cost countries such as China and Malaysia.

It’s also a story of innovation, by making use of the limited space optimally and upgrading the facility even as it continues to be a live production floor over the years.

At a time when the focus is on the latest cutting-edge chips made by the most advanced semiconductor firms in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, this site in central Singapore is a reminder that the Republic remains a crucial cog in the global high-tech manufacturing industry.

Upgrades to the Singapore Micron facility in Bendemeer have enabled it to continue being a key part of the semiconductor supply chain.

26/12/2024

The initial AI frenzy has cooled, shifting from breathless hype to a more sober assessment of its capabilities and limitations. Yet, AI will remain a star player in 2025, promising to revolutionise industries and redefine our daily lives.

In the new year, businesses will begin to seriously consider automating workflows using GenAI. Figures from research firm IDC show that businesses in Asia-Pacific and Japan are leading the charge. By 2028, AI and GenAI adoption are projected to skyrocket to a US$110 billion industry.

This immense market potential has triggered a frenzy among tech companies, all vying to deliver their AI-powered solutions. In today’s tech landscape, a tech product lacking an AI angle risks irrelevance, if not outright extinction.

The buzz phrase for 2025 is AI agent. Closely intertwined with this are critical themes such as AI governance and responsible AI; multi-modal and multi-model large language models (LLMs); and the evolving job landscape shaped by AI.

While other trends will undoubtedly emerge, we have focused on six as the standout AI trends in the next 12 months. Check out what's next in AI, from agentic AI to the global AI race.

Six AI trends to watch in 2025, a pivotal year for AI as the transformative technology revolutionises work processes and everyday life.

25/12/2024

From the Techgoondu team: Merry Christmas and enjoy unboxing your new tech gadgets!

(Image created by Google Gemini)

23/12/2024

Unveiled a couple of months ago, the new DJI Air 3S is a prosumer-grade midrange drone that’s a worthy upgrade to its already impressive predecessor that will attract drone photography enthusiasts.

With the newer camera system, the Air 3S is probably closer to the performance of DJI’s Mavic 3 professional drone, yet the new drone is also compact for fun trips abroad.

With an upgraded camera sensor, night flying mode and easier piloting, the new DJI Air 3S is a prosumer drone that will delight travellers.

19/12/2024

While everyone’s gaze has been firmly on AI in the past two years, Google surprised the world recently with a quantum computing chip, called Willow, that could bring practical quantum computing closer to reality.

Google has been fast to state that a Willow-based quantum computer is still years away. What’s clear to those who have been watching the development of such breakthroughs is that it’s time to accelerate those quantum-safe efforts.

Google's Willow quantum computer chip brings encryption-breaking computers closer to reality. Quantum-safe networks are crucial in future.

19/12/2024

Playing Stalker 2 and seeing the familiar scenery is like reliving a half-remembered dream. The last game from the Stalker trilogy, Call of Pripyat, was released in 2009, which seems like a lifetime ago.

The Stalker series play as a survival horror first-person shooter which centres on the post-apocalyptic nuclear fallout zone of Chornobyl, reimagined with terrors of radioactive mutant monsters, rampant lawlessness as well as destructive yet lucrative anomalies.

Stalker 2’s highly detailed graphics and immersive environments make exploration fun and scary at the same time. Unfortunately, the multitude of technical issues and game-breaking bugs mar the enjoyment of the game.

On a positive note, the developers have been very proactive in fixing the game with frequent patches following the game’s launch.

Stalker 2’s highly detailed graphics and immersive environments make exploration fun and scary at the same time.

19/12/2024

More than two-thirds of Singaporean businesses are scaling back their artificial intelligence (AI) investment, despite 90 per cent of them viewing AI as key to achieving success, according to research by software firm Qlik.

The surprising finding comes from a survey of 4,200 C-level executives and AI decision makers worldwide, which also highlighted significant hurdles—including trust issues, data governance challenges, resource constraints, and a lack of skills—that are stalling AI projects in the city-state.

More than two-thirds of Singapore businesses are cutting back AI investments despite a majority seeing it as a key to success, says Qlik.

19/12/2024

It’s just days before Christmas and you are always the last-minute shopper. Well, worry not, as there are always tech gifts that you can get for your loved ones to bring a smile to their faces.

From laptops to drones, 2024 has been a year of big upgrades for many tech gadgets. AI PCs are now the hottest things for laptops while even small compact drones pack excellent cameras for budding pilots and cinematographers.

Looking for a gift for a music lover, instead? Or not sure what to give a gamer geek? We have that covered. Here’s a Techgoondu-approved Holiday Gift Guide for this season of giving!

Seeking a last-minute tech gift for the holidays? We got your covered with these Techgoondu-approved gadgets, from drones to foldable phones.