if you think marriage is expensive...

Local residents of Putian, a city in southern China’s Fujian province, have called for more effective government intervention in curbing the skyrocketing price of betrothal gifts that many families say now place an unbearable financial burden on them.⁠
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Last month, a Putian resident voiced complaints over the issue to the party secretary of Fujian on an online government message board. He claimed that the average cost of betrothal gifts in 2023 is now 780,000 yuan, and underscored that gifting in richer places like the towns of Zhongmen and Dongzhuang may even hit between 800,000 yuan and 2 million yuan soon.⁠

Man Sues Amoi For SGD$3 Mil For Rejecting Him, Amoi Friendzone and Reject Him

A man who wanted a romantic relationship with a woman initially threatened to sue her for emotional trauma after he found out that she saw him only as a friend.

The legal action was kept at bay after she agreed to take part in his counselling, but almost 1½ years later, Mr K. Kawshigan still could not accept that Ms Nora Tan did not want to be in a relationship with him.

After she cut off contact with him, he filed two lawsuits against her – a $3 million High Court claim for allegedly causing “damage to his stellar reputation” and “trauma, depression and impacts” to his life, as well as a $22,000 magistrate’s court claim for allegedly breaching an agreement to improve their relationship.

The latter suit was struck out earlier in January by State Courts deputy registrar Lewis Tan, who said Mr Kawshigan’s claim was “manifestly groundless and without foundation” and amounted to an abuse of the court process.

In the judgment published on Saturday, Mr Tan said: “Considered in totality, I find that the present action was intentionally initiated by the claimant with the ulterior motive of vexing or oppressing the defendant by requiring her to defend various claims that fundamentally stem from the same factual matrix in different forums.”

He added: “This court will not be an accessory to his calculated attempt to compel engagement from the defendant who, after years of massaging the claimant’s unhappiness, has finally decided to stand up to his threats rather than cower and give in to his demands.”

Ms Tan and Mr Kawshigan met in 2016 and became friends over time.

In September 2020, problems began to arise when they became misaligned in how they saw their relationship. While Ms Tan regarded Mr Kawshigan only as a friend, he considered her to be his “closest friend”.

Ms Tan asked for their interactions to be reduced, which displeased Mr Kawshigan, as he felt it constituted taking a step back in their relationship. Nevertheless, she emphasised the need for boundaries and urged him to be “self-reliant”.

On Oct 22 that year, Mr Kawshigan issued her a letter of demand, threatening legal action for “monetary damages arising from negligent infliction of emotional distress and possible defamation”.

Ms Tan tried to reason with Mr Kawshigan. She told him in a text message that her “discomfort (was) genuine”. He responded by saying she could either comply with his demands to deepen their relationship or suffer “irrevocable” damage to her personal and professional endeavours.

Mr Kawshigan’s counsellor then asked Ms Tan to participate in their sessions. She agreed, as she thought it would help him come to terms with her decision not to pursue a romantic relationship with him.

After 1½ years, Ms Tan stopped the sessions as she felt they had become futile.

In April 2022, she started harassment proceedings against Mr Kawshigan. In response, he alluded to a potential claim against her in a text message peppered with terms like “damage that has strong legal basis” and “make your liability worst”.

After back-and-forth discussions on the steps to be taken to better align their relationship, Ms Tan decided on May 14 to cease communications as she felt she could no longer deal with his requests for increased interaction and his inability to respect her personal boundaries.

On July 7, he filed a High Court claim against her. He alleged that due to certain remarks and negligence on her part, he suffered a loss in earning capacity and business partnerships, as well as costs incurred in rehabilitation and therapy programmes to overcome the trauma he suffered.

Ms Tan then obtained an expedited protection order against him and engaged lawyers to file her defence and counterclaim to the suit.

On Aug 27, Mr Kawshigan filed the magistrate’s court claim for alleged breach of the steps to better align their relationship.

He claimed that as a result of the breach, his earning capacity as an “active high-capital trader by night and a busy CEO by day” has been negatively affected, and that he has had to look for “deeper psychological assistance”.

Ms Tan then applied to strike out this claim.

The $3 million High Court claim is fixed for a pre-trial hearing on Feb 9.

Sim Wong Hoo, The Father Of Creative Sound Blaster Passes Away At 67

There was a time when you have to install a dedicated sound card in order to have audio coming out from your PC. You have a number of options but there was one particular name that dominated the scene for so many years and that name is Sound Blaster, for which you have Sim Wong Hoo to thank.

Earlier today, Creative Technology announced that Sim who was its Chairman and CEO passed away [pdf] yesterday at the age of 67. The role of interim CEO has since been assumed by the President of the Creative Labs Business Unit, Song Siow Hui while the company’s Lead Independent Non-Executive Director, Lee Kheng Nam has taken over as the acting Chairman.

After Sim established Creative Technology as a computer repair shop back in 1981, the company has then developed a series of PCs called Cubic between 1984 to 1986. However, things only picked up a few years later with the introduction of the Sound Blaster sound card in 1989. 

Being one of the first dedicated sound cards that were accessible to consumers, Sound Blaster’s dominance over the market didn’t really come as a surprise. It generally helped Sim to become Singapore’s youngest billionaire at the age of 45 in 2000.

The Sound Blaster’s dominance of the market generally ended not long after that though when integrated audio became the norm, driven by the introduction of the AC’97 audio codec by Intel in the late 90s. That being said, Sound Blaster was not the only product group that has put Creative Technology on the global map.

The company has also dabbled in the graphics card market before through Graphics Blaster and 3D Blaster cards that utilized chips from 3Dlabs, 3dfx, and NVIDIA. There were also the Blaster CD-RW drives, Encore DVD drives, Video Blaster webcams, and many other products that have the famed Creative branding on them.

Nevertheless, audio remained Creative’s strongest forte. The company was a pioneer when it comes to digital audio players through the release of Nomad, MuVo and Zen series.

Even though Apple’s iPod eventually overtook the market but not before they have to fork out USD 100 million to Creative in order to licence its patent in 2006. Meanwhile, Sound Blaster’s name is still being used today for various internal and external sound cards as well as speakers and gaming headsets but its critically acclaimed Super X-Fi technology is actually the one that is carrying the company’s mantle these days.

Despite being a Singaporean company, Creative does have a little bit of history with Malaysia given that the company set its manufacturing operation in Ayer Keroh, Melaka some years ago. In fact, it became Creative’s largest manufacturing facility in the entire world when it was officially launched in September 2002  but the factory has since been sold and became the Technology Campus of Universiti Tekniknal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM).

Sony Mocopi Can Be Your Very Own Motion Capture Kit

In today’s online world of YouTubers and live streamers, VTubers and VStreamers are starting to rise in prominence from what was once a ciche corner of the market. But having a virtual avatar instead of just revealing your real self has challenges of its own, primarily on the motion capture department. Sony has something that can be an affordable-ish solution, in the form of the Mocopi.

The Sony Mocopi is a motion capture kit that consists of six sensors, each about the size of, say, an Apple AirTag. Each measures 32mm across in diameter, and weights about 8g, and are labelled for which part of your body they are supposed to be strapped to – one for your head, one for your hip, one for each wrist and one for each ankle. They are also dust-proof and water resistant, with the usual IP65 / IP68 rating that you find on most of the brand’s smartphones. While we’re on the subject, the sensors also connect to phones via Bluetooth.

 

On the software side of things, the Sony Mocopi uses the company’s proprietary algorithm to translate physical motion into data. This can then be streamed to applicable software like VRChat. Or, should you prefer, you can also export your motion with an avatar as an MP4 video file. Being completely wireless, the Sony Mocopi set comes with a carrying case which also serves to charge the sensors. The company claims that each sensor has a battery life of up to 10 hours, and the case can charge each one up to full in 1.5 hours, or 90 minutes, via USB-C.

This is all pretty impressive-sounding, but there are a couple of issues that one can foresee some very specific use case issues with the Sony Mocopi. For one, there’s no indication on if it does finger tracking. The how-to video posted on YouTube indicated that there’s lip-syncing at least, but its accuracy remains to be judged.

Sony announced that it will be releasing the software development kit (SDK) for the Mocopi on 15 December, so that devs can get it to work on things like Unity and Autodesk MotionBuilder. A little later, consumers (in Japan at least) will be able to purchase it for JPY49500 (`~RM1600) in late January. No word on when or if it will be available elsewhere just yet.

Apple A17 Chip May Prioritise Battery Life Over Power

TSMC has recently started mass producing chips using its new 3nm process. As is the case with ever smaller processes, this will lead to more efficient chips, which will likely be a benefit to the iPhone 15 family that Apple will inevitably release next year.

As Bloomberg reports, “TSMC says that its 3nm processes offer better performance than its 5nm chips, while requiring about 35% less power”. And while the performance part is about as vague as can be, the efficiency part is probably something to expect from what Apple will probably call the A17 Bionic chip for next year’s iPhone 15 range.

With that being said, the devices most likely to benefit from the improved power efficiency are the Pro versions of the iPhone 15. Presumably, Apple is keeping the Always-On display exclusive to these models. While their actual impact on battery life vary from user to user, these would likely be the devices that need the improved efficiency to counter the increased battery drain.

This year, with the iPhone 14 range, Apple also only gave its newest chip, the A16 Bionic, to the Pro models. If the company continues this trend, as well as giving only these versions the Always-On display, then the improved efficiency of the new chips would be exactly what the iPhone 15 Pro models need.

Overall it sounds like good news for the Pro models of the iPhone 15 that is expected to be announced late next year. Not only is it getting a new chip made with a new process, the chip also happens to tout efficiency as one of its main improvements. Though if Apple decided to maintain the difference between the base and Pro models of the iPhone 14 in the iPhone 15 range next year, it still gives the impression that the non-Pro models are being sidelined. Not only will they be having one less feature, but they will also be getting a year-old chipset by the time of release.

Casio Edifice Sospensione Initial D x MF Ghost Watch Now In Malaysia For RM2,399

It may have been more than 27 years since the first chapter of Initial D was released in the Weekly Young Magazine but the popular manga and anime series continues to have a massive impact on automotive and pop culture today. Its legacy lives on through another manga series called MF GHOST and both titles have recently been honoured by Casio through a specially-themed Edifice Sospensione ECB-2000 watch that has just made its way to Malaysia.

The new watch was made possible through a collaboration with Shuichi Shigeno who was the creator of both highly acclaimed motorsports-themed series. For starters, the special edition Casio Edifice Sospensione ECB-2000MFG-1A is draped in the same red-black colourway as per the Toyota 86 GT that was driven by the main characters of MF GHOST, Kanata Rivington.

In addition to that, the name of the racing courses from MF Ghost is featured on the upper side of the Cordura-based watch band. Casio has also added the famed Fujiwara Tofu Shop name in Japanese on one of the band’s underside sections in the exact same font used on the Takumi Fujiwara’s Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86, the hero car from Initial D.

On the other underside section of the band as well as the background of the watch face, there is also a set of Japanese characters “ギャァア” that is a common view inside the manga of both series and is meant to represent the sound made by tyre screeching during corners. In addition to that, the watch’s metal band loop has also been laser-engraved with a tyre track, to further represent the motorsport vibes from Initial D and MF GHOST.

Furthermore, the Casio Sospensione ECB-2000 itself already featured a suspension arm design that was inspired by the suspension system on open-wheeled racing cars which further highlights the watch’s motorsport inspiration. Last but not least, the logo of both series has also been etched on the watch’s IP black case back.

When it comes to functional features, this watch features Tough Solar charging capability, a double LED Super Illuminator, and a sapphire crystal cover with anti-reflective coating, It also supports Casio Watches mobile app via the Bluetooth-based Smartphone Link functionality which allows users to perform several actions including automated time syncing, transfer stopwatch data, and locate their phone.

Price-wise, the Casio Edifice Sospensione Initial D x MF GHOST model carries a price tag of RM2,399. Being a special edition release, it can only be obtained at selected G-Factory, G-Shock Store, and Casio Authorized Dealers in Klang Valley, Kedah, Penang, Perak, Kuantan, Melaka, Johor, Sabah, and Sarawak that are listed here.