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TECHNOLOGY

Amazon Web Services launches Interactive Video Service in PH, Indonesia

April 21, 2022 5:05 p.m.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the launch of their Interactive Video Service in two new countries, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The new service is aimed at helping customers meet the demand for rich and engaging interactive live video content streaming. IVS will provide a lower latency experience for viewers, making video content more seamless and engaging. 

Growing demand for online video

Video consumption has changed radically over the last two years as people found comfort by connecting through online video during the pandemic.

While pandemic restrictions are easing for parts of Asia Pacific, the popularity of video streaming continues to grow with more than 400 million people now using over-the-top (OTT) video streaming services in the region.

At the same time, consumer demand for personalization is driving organizations such as broadcast, pay TV, and OTT providers to look for new ways to deliver even richer interactive video experiences.

Interactive live video encourages a two-way exchange with viewers and is being adopted across a range of industries – from finance, travel and hospitality, to e-commerce – as enterprises look for new ways to engage their customers.

Today’s consumers– sports fans, entertainment buffs, shoppers, and gamers – want more out of their live streaming experiences, demanding outstanding performances on any device, quick start times, and no buffering.

To provide an optimal user experience, live-streamed interactive video requires minimal latency, which is the time video takes to go from the camera to the viewer.

Seamless and on-demand video streaming

Traditional video streaming required latencies of 20 to 30 seconds to accommodate for content preparation needed for high-quality viewing across multiple kinds of devices, getting the content uploaded to multiple content delivery networks, and finally making the “last-mile” connections to end users’ devices on their preferred networks.

“To help our customers in Indonesia and Philippines meet the demand for rich and engaging interactive live video content streaming at a lower latency, we are pleased to announce the launch of Amazon IVS Points of Presence (PoPs) in Manila and Jakarta,” said Shweta Jain, Head of Media and Entertainment Business Development at AWS in Asia Pacific. “Built on the same live streaming technology that powers Twitch, Amazon IVS is a fully managed service that makes it easy to set up live, interactive video streams for a web or mobile application in just a few minutes.”

By receiving and delivering video streams over local edge infrastructure that is optimized for live video ingest, processing, and delivery, the new Amazon IVS PoPs in Jakarta and Manila will enable end users to benefit from low latency – making video content seamless and more engaging for viewers.

With the Amazon IVS Software Development Kit (SDK) and APIs, customers can also build interactive features into their live streams such as virtual chat spaces, votes and polls, moderated question and answer sessions, and synchronized promotional elements without impacting live video download times.

Not just for media and entertainment

It’s not just traditional media and entertainment companies that are set to benefit from the new Amazon IVS PoPs. Traveloka is Southeast Asia’s lifestyle superapp with the mission to fulfill their customers’ lifestyle aspirations in a single platform, spanning across travel, local services, and financial services.

Founded in 2012, Traveloka was initially established to solve a central problem: to simplify travel from Indonesia to the world.

A decade later, Traveloka now offers more than 20 products and services, featuring more than 200 airlines, 1.8 million accommodation partners, and 111,000 inventories in over 100 countries. The Traveloka app has also been downloaded more than 100 million times by customers in the region.

“Traveloka uses Amazon IVS to accommodate our broadcasting needs for live streaming content related to our Flights, Hotels, Xperience, and Eats products. By using Amazon IVS Player SDK, we are able to significantly reduce the latency on our video content to 5 seconds, meanwhile Amazon IVS Broadcaster SDK allows our content creator partners to directly broadcast on our app,” said Adi Alimin, Vice President of Platform Product at Traveloka.

Since its inception, Traveloka has been leveraging AWS to scale its travel platform and recently adopted Amazon IVS to improve engagement with its customers by adding live streamed product promotions on its platform, including the recent Traveloka Salebrat10n birthday campaign.

Continuing infrastructure investments in APAC

Over the past 15 years, AWS has built out a global infrastructure that spans 84 Availability Zones (AZs) within 26 geographic regions across the globe.

In Asia Pacific, this includes AWS Regions in Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai, Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul, and Jakarta and further investments planned in Auckland and Hyderabad, and Melbourne.

The Amazon IVS PoPs in Jakarta and Manila follow its recent announcement to launch 10 new AWS Local Zones – a type of infrastructure deployment that places AWS compute, storage, database, and other services closer to customers – across Asia Pacific over the next two years.

“We are committed to bringing cloud technologies closer to more customers with further infrastructure investments across Asia Pacific and we look forward to supporting more customers in Jakarta and Manila to build engaging live streaming experiences,” said Jain.

TECHNOLOGY

SEA 2023: Cybercriminals clog business networks with financial phishing

6:36 p.m. March 18, 2024

In 2023, Kaspersky anti-phishing technologies detected nearly 500,000 attempts to follow a phishing link on businesses’ devices in Southeast Asia (SEA). Interestingly, this number only refers to phishing links related to finance matters – e-commerce, banking, and payment systems.

Phishing persuades users to take action which gives a scammer access to your device, accounts, or personal information. By pretending to be a person or organization the users trust, they can more easily infect the victim with malware or steal their information.

These social engineering schemes “bait” with trust to get valuable information. This could be anything from a social media login, to your entire identity via your social security number. These schemes may urge the user to open an attachment, follow a link, fill out a form, or reply with personal information.

“Financial phishing” is a type of phishing which refers to fraudulent resources related to banking, payment systems and digital shops. Payment system phishing includes pages impersonating well-known payment brands.

From January to December last year, Kaspersky solutions detected and blocked a total of 455,708 financial phishing attempts targeting companies of various sizes in the region. The statistics reflect clicks on phishing links placed in various communication channels, including emails, fraudulent web sites, messengers, social media, etc. 

“Phishing is a trusted technique for cybercriminals when it comes to infiltrating business networks because they usually work. The rise of generative AI helps cybercriminals to make phishing messages or scam resources more convincing. As a result, it becomes challenging for people to distinguish between a scam and a legitimate communication. That’s why the role of robust security solutions increases,” comments Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky. 

The Philippines logged the highest number of financial phishing at 163,279 attempts in 2023, followed by Malaysia with 124,105. Indonesia chalked up 97,465 incidents while Vietnam experienced 36,130 phishing attacks related to financial matters. Thailand and Singapore registered the least number of this threat at 25,227 and 9,502 respectively.

“Cybercriminals employ various tactics, including financial-related phishing, to deceive employees and trick them into falling victim to an attack Our recent study showed employee security violations can be as damaging as external hacking for companies in Asia Pacific which means the human factor continues to play a role in making businesses vulnerable. Tools to help safeguard against human error are a vital step forward, but they can’t exclude employee education, skills development, and overall strengthening of the company’s ability to detect and respond to cyberattacks,” adds Yeo.

To help companies protect their systems against the damages of a successful phishing attack, Kaspersky experts recommend:

  • To advance decision-makers’ understanding of the importance of cybersecurity and how best to distribute budgets to stay ahead of threats, engage them with Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation for enhanced C-level professional education.
  • Consider experts’ help. For example, Kaspersky Assessments family of professional services identifies security gaps in your system’s configuration, and the Security Architecture Design helps create an IT security infrastructure that’s a perfect fit for a particular company. Every step of implementation is grounded in real security needs, giving decision-makers convincing arguments to allocate budgets.
  • Install and use enterprise security solutions with anti-phishing software: The Advanced Anomaly Control feature within Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business Advanced, Kaspersky Total Security for Business and Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response Optimum help prevent potentially dangerous activities that are ‘out of the norm’, both undertaken by the user and initiated by the attacker who has already seized control of the system.  
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TECHNOLOGY

Revolutionizing social networking: Rili, groundbreaking AI-powered platform

6:11 p.m. March 9, 2024

Rili.ai officially launches its AI-powered app to redefine how individuals connect, interact, create, and communicate in the digital age. Thanks to voice cloning and lip-syncing, anyone can create their own digital twin (Rili) and interact with anyone, anytime, and anywhere.

Users can cultivate their digital twin, training it with content in over 100 languages to break down communication barriers and foster worldwide friendships. Whether you’re looking to expand your knowledge, gain insights and information from other individuals, or delve deeper into meaningful conversations with other users, Rili.ai is the app to do so effortlessly.

To train Rili, users can share knowledge and information through chat (written messages or voice audios) or by speaking into a microphone. Moreover, it is possible to integrate the digital print of anyone into Rili profiles with their existing accounts on platforms such as Twitch, X, and YouTube. Leveraging this integration, Rili.ai gathers personalized information from users’ public profiles on these platforms, ensuring a tailored experience based on their interests and preferences.

Features for Enhanced Social Engagement

The app offers various features designed to enhance users’ digital interactions. The explore feature allows users to effortlessly search for their favorite Rili users and discover others who share similar interests and preferences, fostering meaningful connections in a virtual community. With profile customization, users can tailor their Rili to reflect their unique personality and interests. The chat functionality allows users to initiate conversations with other “Rilis” and review their past chats, promoting seamless interaction and boosting engagement. Other features include creating favorite Rili lists, scoring conversations, adding likes to conversations or phrases, and sharing messages with anyone through different channels.

Through Rili, users have the unique ability to deeply connect with others, gaining valuable insights and understanding into their perspectives, experiences, and expertise. Rili.ai facilitates meaningful connections that transcend geographical boundaries and time constraints. With its advanced capabilities, Rili.ai offers an app for preserving digital heritage, allowing users to capture and preserve their memories, stories, and experiences for future generations.

“Rili is the new generation of social media platforms. Powered by AI and using the most relevant state-of-the-art technologies, its development will be a turning point for the history of communication. The creation of digital twins will give the opportunity to the society to expand their knowledge, connections and share of voice beyond boundaries”, highlighted Antonio Camacho, Rili Co-founder. “Rili’s mission is to fight against isolation, allowing people to connect with others you would not be able to reach”.  

Join Rili’s white list

The Rili alpha version is already live for anyone interested in joining the community. You can sign up for the white list and will be notified once you have access to create your own Rili. The app is available for iOS and Android.

Revolutionizing Social Networking: Introducing Rili, the Groundbreaking AI-Powered Platform for Sharing and Expanding Your Legacy

Rili.ai officially launches its AI-powered app to redefine how individuals connect, interact, create, and communicate in the digital age. Thanks to voice cloning and lip-syncing, anyone can create their own digital twin (Rili) and interact with anyone, anytime, and anywhere.

Users can cultivate their digital twin, training it with content in over 100 languages to break down communication barriers and foster worldwide friendships. Whether you’re looking to expand your knowledge, gain insights and information from other individuals, or delve deeper into meaningful conversations with other users, Rili.ai is the app to do so effortlessly.

To train Rili, users can share knowledge and information through chat (written messages or voice audios) or by speaking into a microphone. Moreover, it is possible to integrate the digital print of anyone into Rili profiles with their existing accounts on platforms such as Twitch, X, and YouTube. Leveraging this integration, Rili.ai gathers personalized information from users’ public profiles on these platforms, ensuring a tailored experience based on their interests and preferences.

Features for Enhanced Social Engagement

The app offers various features designed to enhance users’ digital interactions. The explore feature allows users to effortlessly search for their favorite Rili users and discover others who share similar interests and preferences, fostering meaningful connections in a virtual community. With profile customization, users can tailor their Rili to reflect their unique personality and interests. The chat functionality allows users to initiate conversations with other “Rilis” and review their past chats, promoting seamless interaction and boosting engagement. Other features include creating favorite Rili lists, scoring conversations, adding likes to conversations or phrases, and sharing messages with anyone through different channels.

Through Rili, users have the unique ability to deeply connect with others, gaining valuable insights and understanding into their perspectives, experiences, and expertise. Rili.ai facilitates meaningful connections that transcend geographical boundaries and time constraints. With its advanced capabilities, Rili.ai offers an app for preserving digital heritage, allowing users to capture and preserve their memories, stories, and experiences for future generations.

“Rili is the new generation of social media platforms. Powered by AI and using the most relevant state-of-the-art technologies, its development will be a turning point for the history of communication. The creation of digital twins will give the opportunity to the society to expand their knowledge, connections and share of voice beyond boundaries”, highlighted Antonio Camacho, Rili Co-founder. “Rili’s mission is to fight against isolation, allowing people to connect with others you would not be able to reach”.  

Join Rili’s white list

The Rili alpha version is already live for anyone interested in joining the community. You can sign up for the white list and will be notified once you have access to create your own Rili. The app is available for iOS and Android.

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TECHNOLOGY

The lightest smartphone with massive 6000mAh battery HONOR X7b coming to PH on March 9

4:34 p.m. March 7, 2024

HONOR Philippines never stops! After the successful launches of HONOR X9b 5G, HONOR Magic V2, and HONOR X8b, the leading global smart devices provider is expected to launch the HONOR X7b in the Philippines on March 9!  

“We, at HONOR, believe that technology is very inclusive, there is technology that caters to even the most unique requirement there is. We had HONOR X9b 5G that is ultra tough that can withstand harsh drops. HONOR X8b was recently introduced with a massive storage and great camera quality for those who value design and photography. Now, we are welcoming a new addition to our X Series, the HONOR X7b,” said HONOR Philippines Vice President Stephen Cheng. 

Welcoming the HONOR X7b 

HONOR X7b is the latest addition to HONOR’s X Series line-up, offering consumers a reliable, well-rounded device available to consumers at an affordable price. Delivering upgrades in hardware performance, battery performance, and photography capabilities, the new device promises an exceptional, uninterrupted user experience. 

Equipped with a 6,000mAh ultra-large battery, the HONOR X7b delivers the best battery life among all HONOR X Series smartphones to date. It can support various activities for up to 3 days  on a single charge, making it a reliable companion for users on the go. Thanks to HONOR’s innovative battery technologies, the HONOR X7b is the thinnest and lightest smartphone with a 6000mAh battery. The device’s battery maintains over 80% of its health even after three years of usage, ensuring exceptional longevity and reducing the need for constant recharging. 

The HONOR X7b boasts a 108MP Main Camera  with a 1/1.67-inch sensor. To enable the camera to capture bright and vivid shots even in challenging low-light conditions, the HONOR X7b supports 9-in-1 pixel binning, achieving a pixel  size measuring 1.92µm that ensures night colors are faithfully reproduced in images. 

For more information and announcements, you may visit HONOR’s website www.hihonor.com or social media platforms: Facebook (Facebook.com/HonorPhilippines), Instagram (Instagram.com/honorph/) and TikTok Shop: (Tiktok.com/@honorphilippines). To check out HONOR’s complete list of retail stores, go to https://www.hihonor.com/ph/retailers/

In the meantime, check out HONOR’s wide array of mobile phones, tablets, and laptops at any HONOR Experience and Partner Stores nationwide or online via Shopee (https://bit.ly/HONORPHShopee), Lazada (https://bit.ly/HONORPHLaz) and TikTok Shop (https://bit.ly/HONORTikTokShop)

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