The First 100 Units of Nothing’s New Earbuds Now Available Through StockX

Even though the launch event will only take place on 27 July, you are now able to get your hands on the Ear (1) true wireless earbuds which are the first product from Carl Pei’s new company, Nothing. Well, at least the first 100 units of the earbuds as it has been made available by the company for bidding through StockX earlier this week.

As you may know, Carl is one of OnePlus’ co-founders but left the smartphone company last year not long after the launch of the Nord series. He then established Nothing in late October 2020 before officially announcing it to the world in January this year.

In March, the company then showed off the prototype of its true wireless earbuds which are called Concept 1 and are said to represent Nothing’s design principles. Fast forward to May, the Ear (1) was confirmed as its first product to be released into the market.

While the company originally said that its first product will be launched within the first half of the year, Ear (1) missed the mark by a month but nevertheless, the listing at StockX marked the first time that the Ear(1) is being made available to consumers. Nothing also took the opportunity to reveal the design of the charging case for the earbuds via the marketplace which is more known to sneakerheads and hypebeasts.

To make them special, each of these Ear (1) will be engraved with the number between 1 to 100 which signifies their nature as the first set of earbuds to be produced by Nothing. While Carl has said that the Ear (1) will be priced at US$99 (~RM419), the highest bid shown on the StockX listing is currently much higher at US$787 (~RM3,325) which in a way may signify the hype that Nothing may possess right now in anticipation for the launch of the earbuds later this month.

Lazada Shoppers Can Now Get Digital Financing Through Aspirasi CashNow

Lazada shoppers who’d like to stretch their spending limits can now apply for digital financing through Aspirasi CashNow. The service, offered by Axiata Digital’s micro-financing platform Aspirasi, is available to all Malaysians aged 18 to 65 who have an active Lazada Wallet account.

Aspirasi CashNow claims to be Shariah-compliant and provides financing amounts starting from RM500 up to RM2,500, with a low profit rate and monthly installment tenures (terms and conditions apply). Interested shoppers are promised a quick and easy application process that takes about 3 minutes.

Eligible applicants will receive their funds credited into their Lazada Wallet within 48 hours. They will also enjoy Aspirasi CashNow Protect, a complimentary micro-insurance that covers accidental death and permanent disablement as well as reimbursement on online bills (terms and conditions apply).

This isn’t the first time that Lazada Malaysia and Aspirasi have worked together. In 2019, they teamed up to provide financing support to micro-enterprises and SME merchants on the e-commerce platform. Through Aspirasi, merchants would obtain easy financing with micro-insurance as an optional benefit.

Aspirasi is a platform built by Axiata Digital, itself part of Axiata Group, which is better known for telco subsidiary Celcom.

For more information about Aspirasi CashNow, you can go here.

Miners Successfully Hack Through Mining Restrictions For NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

Back before the launch of the GeForce RTX 3060, NVIDIA announced its CMP, a GPU lineup specifically dedicated to mining crytocurrency. Additionally, it also announced that it would be limiting the hashrate of the RTX 3060, in hope that it would deter GPU miners from scalping or hoarding the GPU.

As the saying goes, life isn’t fair, and unsurprisingly, the so-called “mining restriction” that was put in place by NVIDIA has reportedly been broken by the very same miners. Japan-based tech site, PC Watch, confirmed that NVIDIA’s restrictions had already been “circumvented” via interaction with related parties.

The specific method isn’t mentioned by PC Watch, but the site states that bypassing the RTX 3060 restrictions does not require any modification to the card’s driver of BIOS, and a “little effort” is all it takes to get it to mine.

It also appears that the hack isn’t restricted to just one type of mining software. A group of developers by the name of Phoenix Miners, posted a reply on GitHub that it was working on a big update revolving around NVIDIA kernels. Another report points at a particular NVIDIA WSL driver – namely, a 470.05 Beta driver – that will, in fact, remove NVIDIA’s restrictions for Ethereum mining on the RTX 3060. However, it should be noted that this claim still remains unconfirmed.

As for the RTX 3060’s mining performance with the restrictions lifted, there are some videos of the card achieving hashrates beyond 40MH/s while mining for Ethereum and is even capable of sustaining those rates, even after nearly an hour of use.

You Can Also Now Register For COVID-19 Vaccine Through JKJAV’s Website and Hotline

The Special Committee for Ensuring Access To COVID-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) yesterday has opened up the COVID-19 vaccine registration through its official website. Alternatively, the public can also register themselves by calling a dedicated hotline that has been set up by the committee.

The two new registration method were launched slightly around a week after JKJAV activated the registration page on the national COVID-19 app, MySejahtera. Up till 3:00 PM yesterday, more than 2 million people have registered for their COVID-19 vaccine through the app which has since been updated further to show a much clearer vaccination progress timeline to users.

Based on our experience though, we can confirm to you that the registration information submitted through JKJAV’s website is not being crosschecked with those that already existed within MySejahtera’s backend system. This is because we managed to submit our details through the website even though we have registered ourselves via MySejahtera last week:

Then again, the form did say that users would receive confirmation SMS within 24 hours after submission which can be taken as a sign that there is some manual work involved in the registration process. Hence, if you have been using the MySejahtera app, we do recommend you to just register for the vaccine through it.

Nevertheless, in case you need to register yourself or your loved ones via the website, just head on to vaksincovid.gov.my. You can also do it by calling the National COVID-19 Registration Vaccination Line at 1800-888-828.

Don’t Let Your WhatsApp Account To Get Hijacked Through A Verification Code Scam

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has issued a warning regarding a scam that could make you lose access to your WhatsApp account. The scam generally revolves around the verification code for the popular instant messaging service.

As part of WhatsApp built-in protection policy, the service would send a verification code via SMS when someone tries to register a WhatsApp account using your phone number. Without the code, the individual that tried to access your WhatsApp account will not be able to proceed further.

Hence, the scammer who is attempting to take over your WhatsApp account would then try to obtain it by reaching out directly to you. According to MCMC’s advisory, there are several methods that the scammer has utilised including sending messages from hijacked WhatsApp accounts that belonged to your friends or family members.

The scammer could also make a direct call to you and claim that he or she is calling on behalf of WhatsApp itself. Not only that, the scammer could also leave an automated call inside your voice mailbox and make it sounds like a genuine call from WhatsApp requesting for the code.

Here is the thing: WhatsApp staff would never ask for your verification code, so you should not give the code to anyone claiming to represent the company. In fact, you shouldn’t share the code with anyone in the first place.

If you have encountered an attempt to hijack your WhatsApp account, check out this page on the company’s official website to learn the necessary steps that you need to take after such an attempt, regardless of whether it is successful or otherwise. MCMC also recommends reporting the incident to the police or the commission in order to protect yourself from the aftereffects of unauthorised access on your WhatsApp.