techENT Tech & Tonic

We left a big piece news out of our first Tech & Tonic Podcast of the year. We left it out for a good reason. We left out the whole Facebook and WhatsApp terms update situation. That is because we are going into a discussion on it with a former guest of the show, Kevin Reed.

Kevin Reed is the Chief Information Security Officer in #Acronis, one of the global leaders in cybersecurity today. In short, Kevin is their security guy, the cyber security expert. Obviously, he is the perfect person to talk to when it comes to the whole situation with WhatsApp and Facebook.

Over the past month or so, Telegram and Signal has gotten over 15 million downloads as more people are porting out of WhatsApp. But is this a good idea for you? Should you start relying on alternative messaging apps like Telegram and Signal? Can you still use WhatsApp and feel safe? What risks are you putting yourselves in when you switch, or stay? All that, answered in our Tech & Tonic Podcast Special.

It is January 2021 and we are back for another episode of Tech & Tonic podcast, the very first one for 2021 and it came from our own houses because Malaysia is under a second lock down (Movement Control Order). The global pandemic did not stop CES 2021 from happening though. Although everything is happening online. 

The year kicked off with a bang though because Xiaomi now joins HUAWEI and DJI in the United States banned entities. Xiaomi does not have an official presence in U.S. though. They only stateside link they have is the Operating System they use (Google's Android), their processors (Qualcomm), and few other components.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 series just launched last week too. The renders look exactly the same as the actual device except that the device looks even more impressive. The Samsung Galaxy S21 flagship series packs Samsung's latest Exynos with 5G capabilities. The Galaxy S21 Ultra even sports S Pen compatibility and up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. All of these comes with a price though. The Samsung Galaxy S21 starts at MYR 3,699 and tops out at MYR 5,899.

2020 is a year full of surprises and new beginnings. For us, it is the mark of our entry into the world of Podcasts with Tech & tonic. We want to first thank all of you listeners who have stayed with us and listened to our sometimes meaningless rambles about tech. We want to thank our supporters, new and old, that has been the kindle in our fires and the motivations we needed when we were wondering if podcasting was the right area to pursue. We have learnt plenty too from our first year and season in podcasting. Of course, we have enjoyed it alongside all our guest too. For that, we also want to thank all of our guests that has appeared on our show and has shown continuous support to our show. We are looking forward to 2021 and a bigger year ahead of us with new contents and expansion to new platforms. 

Back to today's very special and final episode of the year 2020 though. We explored some shopping ideas for Christmas to prepare us for 2021 and even beyond. We pick some things that we could easily buy online right now to gift, and even keep for yourselves this Christmas and New Year. Here are our top 5 list of things that you can buy for yourself or to gift your loved ones for the year ending celebrations of 2021!

In this week of Tech & Tonic Podcast, you are joining me, Darwin, and Jeevan again with another week in tech. Last week is still a quiet week in tech, but Acer launched a few things in Malaysia. We delve a little deeper into what we can expect next year. We are expecting the successor of the HUAWEI P40 series, the P50 series to be launched. The new device is rumoured to pack HUAWEI HiSilicon's latest 5nm processing chipsets. That, or the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 4G chipset. There are a couple of more interesting things to come with the HUAWEI P50 series from the rumours as well. Join us as we take the rumours of the HUAWEI P50 series apart.

In today's episode of the Tech & Tonic Podcast, we explore the world rumours around the Samsung Galaxy family in 2021. The Samsung Galaxy S21, or 30 will kick off the 2021 flagship race for Samsung. We explored the possible specs of the Samsung Galaxy S for 2021. There are also news surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S line-up will get the S Pen as well. Speaking of the S Pen, it looks like Samsung will wrap 2021 up with the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Flip line-up instead of the Galaxy Note line-up. This could be the end of the Galaxy Note series as we know it too. Rumours also say that the Samsung S Pen will also live on with the Samsung Galaxy Fold line-up too. 

Whatever it is, it sounds like a sad occasion for Samsung Galaxy Note fans out there. If you have gotten your hands on the Samsung Galaxy Note20 this year, you might want to hold on to it. All these emotions, in this week's Tech & Tonic. 

The past two weeks has been a little quiet in the tech industry except for AMD's very bold launch of the AMD Radeon 6000 GPU platform. A week later, last week AMD's latets Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs went out and land in the hands of reviewers around the world. Their tests and reviews show power from the CPU like never before. The new Ryzen is a vastly powerful CPU that devastated even its competition. What does this mean for AMD? What does this mean for PC builders? What does this mean for you? All that in Tech & Tonic Episode 25

In this come back of Tech & Tonic, we talk about the HUAWEI Mate 40 series that just launched last week. Somehow, we really like the HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro+ and what it can do. Unfortunately, it still does not come with Google's Play Store. There is still the brilliant EMUI 11 and ever growing AppGallery though. Are those enough to sway us into the ecosystem? We also had people reporting that someone has been using a name very close to the name of our show, Tech & Tonic. Some see it as a direct copying of our name with the name "Tech Tonic". Are we even offended? Should we even be? Even if we are, is it justified? All this, on #TechnTonicPodcast episode 24.

Trend Micro is one of the biggest cyber security firms in the world. They have over 30 years experience in creating security systems for both corporate and individual use. Recently, they announced a new approach to securing pertinent information in organisations called XDR or cross layered detection which allows organisations to better prevent and detect threats to their data security.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the incidence of data breaches has drastically increased. This hold true even for medical and scientific organisations. In fact, signifcant breaches have occurred in organisations such as the University Hospital of BRNO and even research organisations tasked with developing the vaccine. 

We sit down with Mr Goh Chee Hoh, Managing Director of Trend Micro Malaysia and Law Chee Wan, Technology Director at Trend Micro Malaysia to find out how our data may be at risk with all the contact tracing and how individuals and organisations can be more secure in the midst of the worsening global pandemic.

42 Kuala Lumpur (42KL) is one of the most interesting start ups that we have come across in this 2020. The program is initiated in Malaysia by Sunway iLabs and Sunway Education Group. Their goal? To fill a gap that has existed in Malaysia for a while now. It is the gap between digital workforce capabilities and the number of people available for the job.

42KL is technically an educational institute that focuses on building programming skills and other digital skills needed in the market today. With us in this podcast is one of the people behind 42KL, Jeff Sandhu. 

Jeff Sandhu started out in BFM about 10 years ago when there was only about 15 people in the team. With his background in video productions, he had to take on a new challenge and learnt the ways of the radio broadcasting. Throughout the years he has pioneered some of the talk shows and podcasts that are featured on the radio channel. 

He recently joined 42KL as the head of media and communications. We had an evening with Jeff to talk about his roles with 42KL and about 42KL itself. We spoke about the program itself, what it entails, and what kinds of potential it can unlock within you. 

42KL is an initiative by Sunway iLabs and Sunway Education Group. The initiative is a completely free educational platform for those interested in learning to program and develop skills for the current digital economy. The duration of the program, for selected candidates, will take about 12 intensive months. To find out more about 42KL, you can check out their website at https://42kl.edu.my/