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People who had never played games before the current crisis could now suddenly see how games could help them connect. Gentle, nonviolent games have—become one of our coronavirus isolation coping mechanisms. These games are more than escapist entertainment, though; they’re helping to reshape how we connect in a future where social distancing might become the norm. They are also easy to play, lowering the bar to entry. In Animal Crossing, it’s going to another island and playing with your friends, whereas “In Stardew Valley, it’s getting to know the villagers around you. These are parasocial relationships.” Kind Words is another game that helps players in lockdown communicate with strangers. In it, an avatar sits at a desk in a digital bedroom and types out questions about real-world personal problems. In return, other players respond with encouraging notes. The game takes place entirely within the space of a room, with players receiving and sending notes via digital envelope. h...

Xiaomi and Samsung together will bring the world’s first 150MP camera phone. The smartphone will be from Xiaomi, while Samsung will be supplying the 150-megapixel camera. The Xiaomi 150MP camera phone is coming in Q4 2020. The 150MP camera sensor will be a part of any of the flagship series, probably Mi MIX series or some new camera-focused smartphone. The 150MP sensor has a 1-inch footprint and will be using the same Nanocell technology as the company used for the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s ISOCELL Bright HM1 sensor. The 150MP sensor will be combining nine pixels into one to achieve a higher resolution picture. It will use light absorption technology to create final shots which technically will have a pixel count of close to 16MP. The 150MP camera phone may come to India if launched in China. https://trak.in/tags/business/2020/04/24/xiaomi-to-launch-150mp-camera-phone-worlds-first-150mp-camera-phone/

Customers can now get Tesco staff to do their grocery shopping on their behalf, using the hypermarket’s Order & Collect service. The service enables customers to send their shopping list to the store via WhatsApp, which will then be fulfilled by a personal shopper. According to the FAQ, orders can only be placed for essential groceries and fresh items due to limited resources at the stores. In the event a product is unavailable, the personal shoppers will contact customers to offer a suitable substitution. Customers may accept or reject the substitution. After completing the order, the personal shopper will send back an estimated collection time and personalised barcode for the total price via WhatsApp. Using the personalised barcode, customers can pay for the items at a dedicated checkout using cash, e-wallet, credit or debit card. Customers are required to pick up their order within 30 minutes of the collection time. https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2020/04/...

Starbucks and McDonald's are reportedly among 19 restaurants and retail shops that will be involved in testing China's central bank digital currency (DCEP) in the country’s Xiong’An new district. The move signals China's wider efforts to test the digital currency project, with state-owned commercial banks already developing wallet applications for the digital yuan, also known as DC/EP. The DCEP, used for consumption only in the first phase, works in the same way as a consumption coupon. On top of traditional payment applications such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, users will be able to pay by DCEPs in their DECP wallets. The DCEP will provide a more direct and effective monetary tool for PBoC to provide financial support to certain industries. A wider use of DCEP makes monetary easing more feasible in a broader context. The cost of monetary easing will become lower but the efficiency will be higher. The introduction of DCEP is expected to challenge the oligopoly of Tencent...

Grab will add five more markets across Selangor to its ‘Pasar by GrabMart’ service in its endeavour to empower and ensure that small traditional businesses and micro-entrepreneurs will not be left behind as the country transitions to a digitised nation. The initiative allows customers to buy fresh produce, spices, poultry, seafood and meat directly from the TTDI Market in the comfort of their home. Grab’s Ramadan partnership with local governments and organisations will also give it a larger stage to accelerate its support for small traditional businesses and micro-entrepreneurs. The company has been actively supporting restaurants with immediate cash flow through its zero-interest, ‘Deferred Commissions’ programme. It further introduced zero-commissions for self-pickup orders and absorbs all related transaction costs for orders received via social channels with a GrabPay payment option. The company also mobilised more than 100,000 GrabCar drivers not only to support the increase...

Dating site Moonit, is offering its “Immersive Virtual Dating” features for free until May 30. These fun, high-tech cyber environments give lonely singles more than one way to connect on a flirtatious, lighthearted, and even deep emotional level. Users can Play “Hot or Not,” or meet up for virtual dates in a 3D museum or nightclub. There are themed chat-rooms, voice chat, and video chat inside Moonit. And the most exciting part is the 3D dating aspect. You can have a ‘Street Date’ in your hometown, or travel across the globe to the Eiffel tower and meet your match. Moonit also has 3D games, so you can tic-tac-toe your way to love. The site’s Quarantine Features allow users to “Take off the Mask” metaphorically and physically where you can chat, hear, and see your matches — virtually and safely. https://www.aithority.com/technology/virtual-reality-technology/virtual-quarantine-features-in-dating-startup-moonit-close-the-gap-for-isolated-singles/

At the time of this article, Netflix is ​​the highest paid streaming video service to date. However, their position is being challenged by other platforms such as Disney +, YouTube Premium and later HBO Max . They have announced that they now have 182.86 million paid customers. This is an increase of 15.76 million compared to the 167.1 million paid subscribers announced last January. This amount is 15.76 million higher than the previous 7 million target. This unexpected increase was due to the Covid-19 curfew. While this is good news, Netflix has confirmed that their original content production is now affected by the same outbreak.

Whatsapp has rolled out a new update, enabling users to call up to 8 people in a voice or a video call. For Android users. the WhatsApp v2.20.133 beta version is the one they should be looking for while the v2.20.50.25 beta is the version that’ll bring the new functionality to iOS devices. Unfortunately, until all the participants a user want to include in the group call have got the latest update, they won’t be able to make an 8-person call. The participation limits in group voice and video calls placed by WhatsApp turned users to other platforms that had higher limits. The new feature should help WhatsApp retain a larger chunk of its users from heading over to competing platforms. https://in.mashable.com/tech/13334/whatsapp-voice-video-calls-now-support-up-to-8-participants

We've been trapped in the house for over a month. We believe many may start to miss their favorite IKEA meal. If you're like us food lovers craving for some good meatballs, the good news today is that you can order them right at home. Some of the dishes available are Swedish beef balls, Swedish chicken meatballs, salmon fish and carp. Orders must be made through the BUNGKUSIT app from 10am to 5pm daily. All orders will receive a 15% discount off the regular sale price. The complete list of prices and menus can be viewed through the link below. https://bungkusit.com.my/

Survey finds that Gen Z have had major areas of their lives and life plans disrupted by COVID-19, whether that be the cancelation of their high school or college graduations, summer internships, jobs, or changes in their living situations. While it’s for the greater good, staying home means missing out on major life milestones like graduation, prom, and life-changing dream internships—and the weight of that disappointment is crushing. It's not just the current losses Gen Z is mourning. Many Gen Zers expressed concern that “this sense of disappointment will be something that continues throughout their lives.” Many Zs are questioning and rethinking their standards for success, and what’s possible for them to achieve in their lives. Some are wondering if they’ve been told their lives would be better than they actually will be. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/gen-z-coronavirus-crisis-survey

Epic Games has previously come up with the popular Fortnite games offered on various platforms. except, for the Android version, they choose not to publish it on the Google Play Store because they need to share revenue for in-app purchases away from Google. However, now, after 18 months, Epic Games has been forced to submit to Google, and has released the Fortnite app on the Google Play Store. Previously they did not want to publish it because publishers had to give Google Play 30% of in-app purchase revenue. Epic Games in their statement says Google puts apps published outside of the Google Play Store at the slightest risk to users - since Google will be displaying security warnings and more. This is to prevent the installation of non-native applications, or malware by users. But for publishers like Epic Games that offer games outside of the Play Store, it may also cause users to worry about using them. Because of this, Epic Games has already released Fortnie on the Play S...

Google is rolling out BeyondCorp Remote Access, a new security service designed to allow remote access of internal systems without using a VPN. It uses a “zero-trust approach,” which would typically require some kind of additional authentication before granting access to an external source. When companies want to allow limited access to partners or contractors, it can be tricky to set up a secure but limited set of access rules. At the same time, when the number of remote connections suddenly soars, the VPN architecture may not be equipped to handle the load. Inside Google, BeyondCorp avoids the need for a VPN through a design that includes a database of every device authorized to connect, a security certificate installed on that device, and integration with a human resources database that includes information about usernames and group memberships. From the employee side, they enter the network remotely through a single sign-on system that authenticates them across the internal ...

Hordes.io is a 3D browser MMORPG with group oriented open world player-versus-player and player-versus-monster action. It features open world survival, trading, item upgrading, a party/group mode, clans, 4 classes, over 50 spells, 3 gigantic maps and beautiful graphics as well as sound design. You can even collect rare mounts! Players create a character and pick a class: Warrior, Mage, Shaman or Archer. They also pick a faction: Bloodlust or Vanguard. Players will automatically be friendly and able to group with faction-mates, and players will always be allowed to fight the other faction in PVP combat. In PVP combat, players can gain fame points and steal gold from slain players, creating a vicious and competitive mood, leaving players cautious about their surroundings at all times. In PVE combat, players can level up, fight monsters and rare bosses, as well as world bosses with exceptionally rare loot. Items can be dropped in various qualities. Monsters will also drop runes, w...

Google is gaining two million users a day on its video-conferencing service Google Meet, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Usage is growing 60 percent a day, and that daily usage is 25 times higher when compared to January. Interestingly, the service is most popular on Saturdays. This is surprising since Meet is directed towards workplace usage but indicates that it’s being used for social purposes as well. With Meet, organizations around the world can take advantage of the same secure-by-design infrastructure, built-in protection, and global network that Google uses to secure your information and safeguard your privacy. https://mobilesyrup.com/2020/04/13/google-meet-two-million-users-covid-19/

Throughout the years, there has been dozens of tools and techniques for you to use as a marketer to get out the gates running and not have to sit through all of the available options out there. That being said, some of these tools are geared more for small organizations or larger organizations, so I've put together my all-star list of digital marketing tools that I think can pretty much be used by any organization. First tool I have on my essential digital marketing tools list is Hootsuite. So once you get past just using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter directly, and you want a social automation tool, unless you have a reason to use another one, Hootsuite is the top dog, it's the best one out there, it's definitely the one to start with. When it comes to advertising, there are a number of different networks, however there's only one that's at the top of the pack, and that is Google. And you can use Google Ad Manager to do your search engine marketing, yo...

The free-to-play first-person shooter game "Valorant" broke Twitch records, with nearly 2 million concurrent viewers watching streams of the game. The game is currently in closed beta, as of this week, and the only way to get into that closed beta right now is through "drops" or by watching various streamers on Twitch with drops enabled, connecting Riot Games account to their Twitch account. The fact that popular streamers are hyping the game has certainly had a major effect, as well as the fact that several professional esports players have already jumped ship from their current games to go pro in "Valorant." "Valorant" isn't just about shooting — it's about carefully, tactically covering your angles, and working with teammates to make sure they've got your back, and vice versa. It's also about using each character's unique abilities to those ends. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-valorant-riot-games-twitch-str...

To boost local merchants in the Covid-19 hit Wuhan, Alipay has set up a special section, visible from the landing page of the Alipay app, to allow the platform’s 900 million users to easily locate merchants and their respective products and services in Wuhan. The section allows orders to be placed directly via the Alipay app for local specialty produce, and also enables users to access livestreams of tourist destinations across the city as it begins to open back up. While initially focused on Wuhan, Alipay plans to roll out the initiatives across China. Merchants can also use Alipay to apply for loans offered by the “Zero Contact” campaign jointly launched by MYbank and 100 banks in China. MYbank will waive interest rates for 360,000 offline micro merchants in Wuhan for the first month and cut interest rates by 20% for Hubei merchants outside of the city. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005876/en/

JD.com, a major Chinese e-commerce company, is looking to become the technology platform of choice for U.S. customers in a cloud computing market dominated by Alibaba. The company is now trying to build on the delivery and retail network with a new line of business in technology services, which covers logistics, advertising, and cloud computing. China is the world’s second-largest market for cloud infrastructure services, of which Alibaba Cloud accounts for 46.4% of total spend, followed by Tencent Cloud at 18%, and Baidu AI Cloud at 8.8%. The company aims to work with Fortune 500 companies that want to grow their operations in China, as well as help US and European technology companies’ products enter China. https://thepaypers.com/ecommerce/ecommerce-giant-jdcom-aims-to-surpass-its-rival-alibaba--1241459

Microsoft has teamed up with Plaid to let users automatically import their bank and credit card account data into a new personal finance tool called Money in Excel. Money in Excel features a Plaid integration, and the new capabilities essentially turn the spreadsheet software into a FinTech app. It allows users to securely connect their financial accounts, import the data within them, sync balances and transactions over time, and, ultimately, gain greater insights into their financial health. The collaboration works by providing Plaid with a permissioned connection to financial accounts from the Plaid Link inside the Microsoft Money in Excel system. Once the accounts are linked up, there will be access to transaction and balance history to help show an updated and whole financial picture. There’s a Monthly Snapshot as well which will have personalized graphs and charts to help users better understand spending behaviors. Money in Excel will be initially available to Microsoft 365 su...

Fintech Wollit, which aims to help with the financial wellbeing of freelancers, gig workers has brought forward the launch of Wollit Income Promise, its first product—which tops-up the monthly pay packets of freelancers and gig workers—by several months in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The service aims to regulate the incomes of those not in full-time work. Wollit provides customers with an interest-free cash top-up whenever they earn less than their average monthly earning. A £9.99 fixed monthly fee is the only cost to customers. So, if an individual agrees with Wollit that their average earnings are £2,000 a month, but one month they only earn £1,500, then Wollit will top up the £500. The top-ups are repaid when the individual earns more than the £2,000. A credit limit is agreed beforehand between the customer and Wollit. https://www.altfi.com/article/6367_london-based-fintech-brings-forward-launch-of-income-levelling-product-to-help-freelancers-and-gig-workers-hit...