This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 23, 2024 - September 29, 2024
GRANTS
MDEC opens applications for 2024 digital grants
The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has announced the opening of applications for three key grants: the Digital Content Grant (DCG) for 2024/2025, the Malaysia Digital Catalyst Grant (MDCG), and the Malaysia Digital Export Grant (MDXG).
The DCG aims to support the development, production and commercialisation of digital content products with three tiers for grand recipients: RM150,000 for the Mini Grant, RM500,000 for the Prime Grant and RM300,000 for the Marketing and Commercialisation Grant.
Each tier has its own eligibility criteria, and the full information can be found on https://mdec.my/grants/dcg.
The MDCG offers either RM1 million or 50% of project costs, depending on which cost is lower, to foster scalable, high-impact solutions and support projects within the Malaysia Digital (MD) promoted sectors for up to one year.
Lastly, the MDXG will be handing out the same offers as the MDCG but to support Malaysian companies poised for global expansion through high-value technological activities.
MDCG and MDXG are exclusively available to local or foreign-owned companies with the MD status.
For more information, MDEC will host two briefing sessions for the DCG on Sept 11 and Sept 24, and three sessions for the MDCG and MDXG on Sept 12, Sept 18 and Oct 2.
Applications can be submitted through https://malaysiadigital.mdec.my/ starting from Sept 9 and will remain open until the funds are fully committed.
EDITOR’S MUST-HAVES
Tune in, glow up
The HHOGene GPods are the world’s first wireless earbuds featuring customisable light effects. Offering over 300,000 colour combinations, these earbuds sync with your mood and music.
GPods use active noise cancellation (ANC) technology and feed forward topology to achieve brilliant noise control, reducing background sound levels of up to 25dB. Nearby sounds including voices are detected and filtered out without distortion through an AI system built into every GPod. At the same time, GPods also have a transparency mode feature.
The earbuds have a battery life of up to five hours on a single charge or up to 20 hours with their charging case and include fast charging support. With touch control for music, calls and lighting effects, GPods also feature a transparency mode to stay aware of surroundings. Power life is around three hours when light effects and the ANC system are in use.
The HHOGene GPods also boast Bluetooth 5.2 for stable connectivity, with a range of 10m. They feature IPX4 water resistance, making them suitable for workouts and outdoor use. The charging case supports both USB-C and wireless charging. Each earbud weighs just 5g, ensuring comfort during prolonged use.
With customisable light modules that attach magnetically, the GPods offer a unique, visually dynamic experience that sets them apart from typical wireless earbuds. Priced at US$109 (RM462), the earbuds can be purchased directly from https://hhogene.com/products/gpods?variant=45235229458736.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We developed Teen Accounts with parents and teens in mind. The new Teen Account protections are designed to address parents’ biggest concerns, including who their teens are talking to online, the content they’re seeing and whether their time is being well spent. These protections are turned on automatically, and parents decide if teens under 16 can change any of these settings to be less strict.”
— Instagram on its website
Meta, which owns Instagram, has introduced accounts designed specifically for teenage users with built-in privacy protections. The Instagram Teen Accounts come with built-in protections that limit who can contact them and the content they see and also provide new ways for teens to explore their interests.
“We plan to place teens into Teen Accounts within 60 days in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, and in the European Union later this year. Teens around the world will start to get Teen Accounts in January. We’ll also bring Teen Accounts to other Meta platforms next year. These are big updates that will change the Instagram experience for millions of teens and we need to make sure they work correctly,” it added.
The new updates are:
• Private accounts: With default private accounts, teens need to accept new followers and people who don’t follow them can’t see their content or interact with them. This applies to all teens under 16 (including those already on Instagram and those signing up) and teens under 18 when they sign up for the app.
• Messaging restrictions: Teens will be placed in the strictest messaging settings, so they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to.
• Sensitive content restrictions: Teens will automatically be placed into the most restrictive setting of our sensitive content control, which limits the type of sensitive content (such as content that shows people fighting or promotes cosmetic procedures) teens see in places like Explore and Reels.
• Limited interactions: Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. We’ll also automatically turn on the most restrictive version of our anti-bullying feature, Hidden Words, so that offensive words and phrases will be filtered out of teens’ comments and DM requests.
• Time limit reminders: Teens will get notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day.
• Sleep mode enabled: Sleep mode will be turned on between 10pm and 7am, which will mute notifications overnight and send auto-replies to DMs.
TECH BOOKS
Blood, Sweat and Pixels – The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier
Developing video games — hero’s journey or fool’s errand? The creative and technical logistics that go into building today’s hottest games can be more harrowing and complex than the games themselves, often seeming like an endless maze or a bottomless abyss. In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier takes readers on a fascinating odyssey behind the scenes of video game development, where the creator may be a team of 600 overworked underdogs or a solitary geek genius. Exploring the artistic challenges, technical impossibilities, marketplace demands and Donkey Kong-sized monkey wrenches thrown into the works by corporate, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels reveals how bringing any game to completion is more than Sisyphean — it’s nothing short of miraculous.
Taking some of the most popular, bestselling recent games, Schreier immerses readers in the hellfire of the development process, whether it’s RPG studio Bioware’s challenge to beat an impossible schedule and overcome countless technical nightmares to build Dragon Age: Inquisition; indie developer Eric Barone’s single-handed efforts to grow country-life RPG Stardew Valley from one man’s vision into a multi-million-dollar franchise; or Bungie spinning out from their corporate overlords at Microsoft to create Destiny, a brand new universe that they hoped would become as iconic as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings — even as it nearly ripped their studio apart.
Documenting the round-the-clock crunches, buggy-eyed burnout and last-minute saves in Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is a journey through development hell — and ultimately a tribute to the dedicated diehards and unsung heroes who scale mountains of obstacles in their quests to create the best games imaginable. — Amazon
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