Category: Trending Today

Written by Faizal Muhd Faxel Wel

After a tarnished reputation of Note 7 Smartphone last few months, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd launched a new Smartphone model Galaxy S8 and S8+ with fantastic design and wide display screen panel at New York, United States on March 29, 2017.

Samsung President of Business Mobile Communication, D.J. Koh believed this new Smartphone will become a new legacy for Samsung Smartphone after the incident of its Smartphone model Note 7 that had been condemned by the public. The reputation of Samsung has been tarnished due to the inconsistent incidents of Samsung Note 7 battery.

This new Galaxy S8 will meet Samsung smartphone fans with 5.8 inches screen while the Galaxy S8+ comes with 6.2 inches in Infinity Display and no button design for both of the model. This new design is the new no button model by Samsung Smartphone.

Galaxy S8 and S8+ is a stylish, compact yet wide-designed smartphone. It also features Corning Gorilla Glass 5 which is the new smartphone technology used by Samsung. On the other hand, this new model also has upgraded some element of its specifics technology such as premium camera of eight (8) megapixel F1.7 Smart Autofocus as a front camera and 12-megapixel F.17 Dual Pixel Power for the back camera.

Galaxy S8 also uses the 10nm processing which is the first technology of processing that smartphone industries use and that makes Galaxy S8 as one of the latest and fastest technology smartphones in town. Another few elements that Samsung has upgraded in the new product are; it is IP68 certified which allows the smartphone to be water resistant, the product is supported by 256GB MicroSD aside with 36GB built-in memory and wireless-fasting charger, which Samsung is quite well-known with recently.

This model will be open for public in Malaysia and the rest of the world on the 21^st April 2017. This new model comes in midnight black, orchid gray, arctic silver, coral blue and maple gold in colours.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjuE9jT04xM

7.5 M earthquake Pray for New Zealand

 

Written By: Natasha Sidek

The advancement of technology in the world does not surprise us anymore.  Drones have become common.  A drone is called as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).  It is a remote-controlled vehicle that has capability to fly.  It comes in many shapes and sizes with prices ranging from USD45 (RM200) all the way up to hundreds of dollars.

This unmanned aircraft has been widely used in other countries including America, Australia, Canada, China, France, United Kingdom, Malaysia and many more.  When it first came out in the market, people had questions on the purpose of using drones and the issue of privacy upon its usage.  Groups or individuals basically use drones to transport goods, save lives and to take aerial photography or for videography purposes.

Drones are legal in many countries including Malaysia.  There is no permit to own and use one unless it is a drone above 20kg then the owner has to apply for a permit/document on

it.  There are certain areas that are non-fly areas for drones such as the airspace of airports, high-rise buildings, and across the palace and army bases.  Drones are strictly prohibited to fly across these airspace.

Across the globe, there are various countries like France, the U.S., Japan and Thailand that enacted laws pertaining to the use of drones.  In France, Paris has been declared a no-fly zone for drones and if you are caught flying a drone there, you could be fined with a 75000 Euro and a maximum of five years in jail.  While in the U.S., drones are only allowed for recreational purposes and drones cannot be flown higher than 122m and the use of drones for commercial purposes is largely disallowed without the approval from the FAA.

Nowadays we can see many individuals or groups using drones in their activities.  But the questions of air safety have risen among the public.  How do they impact privacy?  The

drones might fly across prohibited areas or private lands of people including our homes. The videos made from the drones might be incursions on privacy of other people.

Fortunately, NASA claimed that not all persistent drones impose threats to privacy.  Drones are seen as new tools for studying hurricanes and other natural phenomenon.  It is also well-known that there must be some pros and cons of any new technologies invented and introduced to us.  The privacy issue can be solved when the legal system on it is implemented for the safety of the public as well.

Typical surveying of natural disasters like floods, earthquakes and landslides involves many tools to measure affected areas and it takes a significant amount of time and is also dangerous to mankind.  The use of drones in situations like these is believed to be a new method to measure disasters by utilizing the high resolution images that can be captured by drone technology.  As in Malaysia, a drone had also been used to help flood victims by sending them goods and monitoring the surrounding situation.  To view and point out the positive side of drones; it can be seen that the future of drones as humanitarian tools is getting brighter and more promising day by day.

Video Credit: YouTube Video Source

Video Credit: YouTube Video Source

Written by Mazida Mohd Desa

Terrorism has gained popularity and mass public attention mainly because of the globalization that brought together technological innovations. The Global Terrorism Index is a systematic attempt to rank the nations of the world conferring to terrorist activity. This attempt is essential so as to provide statistics and systematic reports of terrorism which could be of interest to researchers, policy makers, governments, authorities, etc. Terrorist groups which mainly come from the Islamic jihadist, seek to fear the audience for gaining political or tactical advantage or other purposes. The power of modern technology has been seen as a tool that can be manipulated by terrorist groups and act as an enabler of

such groups. There are a number of terrorist groups and one of them is Islamic State (IS).

Al-Qaeda has established the image of “protecting” the Muslims. As IS split from Al-Qaeda following the death of its leader, the rise of IS has resulted in the shift of global jihadist movement from defence to offence. It is seen that IS has manipulated jihadism into something more to empowerment than defence, which posed threats to regional states, society and the West.

This was greatly achieved through decentralized nature of social media that allows users to create and disseminate their own information and messages. This in turn, manipulated by the IS to crowd-sourcing its propaganda. The use of social media by the IS was first evident at the time Abu Bakr declared the Caliphate on 4 July 2014 that appeared on Twitter which then the full speech of his was uploaded on YouTube. The IS’s media department is very productive, where it blends out several media materials for the purpose of raising money, attracting potential recruits and promoting the image of the organization, or just circulating fear among its enemies. As the social media sites are increasingly supervised for offensive materials, The IS tried further in ensuring its material is disseminated as widely and as quickly as possible. For example, the creation of Twitter application known as Dawn by Palestinian affiliates, collating a huge amount of personal data from users and tweets numerous contents of IS without prompting Twitter function of “spam detection”.

Our today’s population especially younger generation has become more and more engaged and proficient in the use of social media and as IS organization actively utilizes social media as a platform to spread its materials and messages, these materials can be easily accessed by the public. Their videos of violence, beheading, etc spread and shared on various social media sites not only create fear to the audience but also may induce the culture of violence. Younger generation who is easily influenced by the materials they have seen could potentially mimic or imitate the violence. Besides, the IS psychological approach via the internet in recruiting individuals who have the abilities needed (physical and intellectual) is also seen as influencing and attracting the audience.

Apart from that, it attacks and terrors on those who do not comply or obey with its extremist and violent worldview, particularly when it misled the view of Islam and the war created on non-Muslim, thus giving a chance for hatred to emerge. This may result in non-Muslims hating on Muslims as the IS claimed itself as religious activist of Islam. Not only it gives bad image of Muslims but also fear among the true Muslims themselves because of the hatred they receive from the public. Besides, both non-Muslims and Muslims may be confused and they may misinterpret Islam especially when IS declared itself as “caliphate” – a state governed in accordance with Sharia, or Islamic law, by caliph, or God’s deputy on Earth. The war they declared, particularly on Western people will endlessly spread and develop the hates between each other; the countries, believers,

citizens etc. results in never-ending war between the Islamic State and other affected countries.

Those affected by this war majorly were innocent that lived in fear of their daily lives. As taken from the speech by President Francois Hollande in response to the attacks at the heart of Paris in which he stated France will show no mercy towards its response to the Islamic State militants. From this, we highly anticipated that there will soon be revenge by the French. However, we obviously can tell, those who will be affected by this revenge will also include the innocents as “bullets have no eyes”. The same thing happened in the Paris attacks, a number of innocent people died, mourned by their families, relatives and friends.

Terrorism happens due to several reasons and IS particularly declared itself as Islam Jihadist initially desires to “protect” the Muslim from oppression. However, due to the extreme and violent worldview, it became a terrorist group that is seen as misinterpreting the Koran and Hadith. The media, especially social media is highly utilized by this group in favour to spread and disseminate its worldview, to fear its enemies as well as for recruiting potential members and supporters nationwide as well as worldwide. This evident the relationship between media and global terrorism. Apart from that, the violence and spread of videos by IS online is seen affecting the audience; not only inducing fear and creating threats among them but also influencing violence and terrorism. I insist that freedom of speech, especially via the internet, should be reworked and re-looked at back. This is because such terrorism is successful in its agenda partly due to its establishment using media and the Internet particularly social media. If such freedom leads to negative impacts (i.e. terrorism) on individuals and world as a whole, it would be worthwhile to govern freedom of speech especially free speech via the Internet.

Written by Fatin Amalina

It is very obvious the fact that there is a lot of westernization going on in Malaysia lately. Some of us were even born and raise with the American culture and sometimes, we got confuse and think that their culture is ours! We eat what the Americans eat; we talk like how the Americans talk; we clothe like the Americans apparel.

At this point, there’s two important questions that we need to answer:  Do we love the culture that the American brings or are we indoctrinated by them? With the advent of American culture in the advertisement, it seems to sweep the entire continent changing in every appearance whether from economic to social frameworks. Let’s have a little glance of what they promote in general:

The American standard of beauty

Beauty can be interpreted in many ways whether in appearances, forms or intellectuality,

but how we as a Malaysian define beauty may not be the same as how the American did. What the Americans define beauty as is still very stereotyping from then till now. Thin, fair skin, heavy makeups, blonde and blue-eyed, aren’t these typical? How the America sells and promotes, their version of beauty has nothing much changed. Ever notice, the America has always idolized these lookalike icons, Marilyn Monroe in 50s, Farrah Fawcett in 70s, Madonna in the 80s, Scarlett Johansson during the early 2000 and Taylor Swift, today.

What made it worst, is the idea of selling their standard of beauty has become deceptive, a false advertisement that corrupts mind especially the youth. America’s medium such as advertisements, television, and magazines advocate the impression that the slimmer you are, the better it will be. In my opinion, the selling of this ‘ideal image’ in their heads has made the audience believe that being slim, using excessive makeup, poking needles in their faces and spreading on anti-aging cream at a very young age are all necessary beauty trends.

The real fact about the Americans, not every one of them is as what they describe. If we take body figure as an example, most of them are overweight. Earlier, TIME affirms that:

The researchers estimate that during that time period, 40% of men were overweight and 35% of men were obese. They estimate that 30% of women were overweight and 37% were obese. The numbers are similar to those estimated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)., which suggest that one third of American adults are obese (Sifferlin A. , 2015)

Sex

It’s a bitter fact that sex plays a very prominent role in the Americans entertainment industry. The America frequently inserts the element of sex because they believe that sex sells their product. But, why? Sex sells because it captures the attention of an audience. People are hard-wired to notice sexually relevant information, so ads with sexual content get noticed. Women have always been the number one tool for the American advertiser to misuse their ethical manners in an advertisement. A very sexual, erotic and sensual image of women in advertising are pervasive that is to be known as most efficient persuasion tools.

Even the America sells too much sex in other form entertainment. Sex and The City is a very basic example of American television hit sitcom which I conclude the entire show only talks about sex. The shows are repeatedly broadcast on HBO and can easily download from the Internet.

The ideal way of having fun

Today’s music video has crosses the borderlines. A lot of Malaysian teenagers today are acting immoral and is the substitute from the exposure of what America is trying to sell to us and make people believe the supreme way of having joy and fun through their music videos. Americanisation has contributed to the causes of the increase in the number of abortion rates, illegitimate children and the surge in the number of single parents in the Malaysian societies. Traditionally, Malaysian societies were very conservative and the above mentioned problems were uncommon and condemned. This shows that the American culture has indirectly affected the mentality mind of the locals.

References:

Sifferlin, A. (2015) More Than Two Thirds of Americans Are Overweight or Obese. TIME. Retrieved June 22, 2015, from http://time.com/3929990/americans-overweight-obese/