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However, Indonesia is fast emerging as a diverse economy that’s causing excitement for investors: It’s no wonder that it takes the ‘I’ in the CIVETS group (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa). Despite the challenges posed by being home to Southeast Asia’s largest population at 269 million strewn across the 15,000 islands that make up the archipelago, the country has seen impressive growth and shown economic resilience over the past 20 years....

Collectively, those eight companies are worth $7.267 trillion. To help put the sheer size of that number in perspective, that’s $2 trillion more than the combined GDP of the United Kingdom and France (in 2018). But as the coronavirus pandemic unfolded, the dramatic shift to remote work and education drove demand for online shopping, but sank Google’s advertising revenue. [Read: Bitcoin vs. NASDAQ 100: Watch them thrive during the pandemic] There’s also Tesla, the electric car slash battery wunderstock....

The new OS brings native support for AVIF, an image format based on AV1 that promises much higher quality per file size compared to good-old jpeg. To show just how effective the new format is, Google posted a comparison of a two roughly 20kB images created by Jake Archibald. First the JPEG: Yikes. But here’s the AVIF: Ahh, much better. Android 12 also brings support for easier copying and pasting of rich content like images and video....

There was a time when having an infotainment system and satellite navigation in your car was a luxury. Now, thanks in part to computer components being more affordable and open source mapping projects, in-car entertainment systems are far more common. Advanced infotainment systems are so common they can create a bit of a learning curve when getting into an unfamiliar car. What’s more, in-car systems often lack features that are common on other pieces of tech, like popular entertainment apps....

For as much as we love our iPhone or iPad or Apple TV, it’s like any piece of tech. It isn’t perfect and it’s subject to some occasional glitches now and then. Maybe it won’t charge. Or it could have a problem powering up. Maybe it isn’t syncing to iTunes. Or you could be freaked that it won’t load post the Apple logo or it’s stuck on that annoying spinning wheel....

The NY Representative is set to file an amendment to the House Appropriations bill which will prevent these military forces from using funds guaranteed by the bill to “maintain a presence on Twitch.com or any video game, esports, or live-streaming platform.” What’s the big deal? US military forces are said to have joined Twitch with a view to gather recruits from among the streaming platform’s young audience, though the Navy says it’s on there merely to “show that we play video games, literally....

It’s a cunning strategy: most of the gaming store wars thus far have pivoted on the number of familiar titles exclusive to the platform. While Arcade may not have a huge number of familiar names, it has enough to attract serious attention, and many of the original indies are getting an exceptional amount of attention from their Apple landlords. So before Arcade launches later this week, here’s a quick rundown of the kinds of games you can expect....

Apple built the feature into its apps using VaccineFinder, an online tool created by Boston Children’s Hospital. You can simply open up Maps and tap the ‘COVID-19 Vaccines’. Alternatively, you can ask Siri “where can I get a COVID vaccination?.” Tap on an eligible location, and you’ll be able to see operating hours, addresses, phone numbers, and a link to where you can sign up. And as before, Apple Maps still includes information on COVID-19 testing sites, and modified business hours due to lockdowns....

In 2018, Kuo predicted that by 2020-21, Apple will move away from Intel chips for Macs, and build its own chipset. The analyst’s new prediction resonated with it, and added the company is looking to release the product in the coming 12-18 months. The company already designs indigenous chips for the iPhone. Last July, it bought Intel’s modem business to stop relying on Qualcomm to supply components for its flagship phone....

This isn’t a big surprise, the original HomePod never truly captured the public’s imagination after all. But… I believe there’s hope for the premium side of the range; if the company releases a HomePod with a screen. We’ll get to that in a hot minute. First though, let’s talk about… Why the HomePod failed Contrary to some people’s views that the HomePod was “misunderstood,” it simply wasn’t an engaging or well thought out product....

In case you aren’t aware, yesterday Apple announced the new version of its true wireless earbuds. They feature noise-canceling tech, an ambient awareness mode (the company refers to this as “transparency”), improved sound, and removable ear tips — something you can read about in more detail here. But, what has got me convinced Mr. Tim Apple has been tracking me is how eerily similar these new updates are to an article I wrote earlier in the year telling Apple how they could’ve made the AirPods better....

Over the years, the iPhone has been the major force behind the Cupertino-based tech giant’s bottom line. More recently, its services business has also become an important contributor. Last quarter, services generated $18.2 billion in revenue for Apple, with 25.6% year-on-year growth. Last week, Daniel Ives, MD of investment firm Wedbush, said in an investor note that Apple’s services business could be worth $1.5 trillion: The company registered $68.2 billion in revenue in services for the fiscal year 2021....

Apple hasn’t officially confirmed any of the information disclosed in the Reuters reports that broke the news last week. And we are still missing many details on the company’s self-driving plans. Nonetheless, the news is significant, both for Apple and the self-driving car industry. Depending on how the situation unfolds in the next months and years, the fact that there’s a concrete date for Apple’s self-driving car plans can indicate the company is making a fundamental change to its product-development strategy....

If you’ve been living under a rock (oh, how I envy you), Apple announced its revamped MacBook Pro range on Monday. Overall, these appear to be excellent machines, but there was one major drawback: the display now has a notch. Yes, an actual notch. Like the damn iPhone. Unsurprisingly, this caused a bit of an uproar. People aren’t too happy about their screen space being violated this way. Thankfully, Apple responded to this outcry and reassured everyone that the MacBook Pro notch is actually super duper smart....

This year’s invite is a little more special than usual; the company paired it with a neat little AR easter egg which you can access by visiting the event site on an iOS device and tapping on the Apple logo. It’s basically an Apple-shaped portal to a California landscape. — Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) September 7, 2021 It’s looking to be a rather busy event for the company. Here’s some of what we think may make an appearance:...

Getting that access to rural and/or impoverished areas is one of the great technology challenges of our time. Unfortunately, the people who’ve stepped up the most are those hoping to profit from humanity’s problems at any cost. Currently more than half of all operational satellites orbiting the Earth are SpaceX satellites. The vast majority of which were designed and launched with little or no consideration concerning how reflective they are....

You younglings might remember much about the Atari CX40 joystick (The author of this piece was born over a decade after the release of said controller. –Management), but it was extremely ubiquitous in the 80s and was one of the first cross-platform controllers. The introduction of the Atari joystick port predates the computer mouse, just to give you some idea of how old and well-beloved this joystick is. So what would a VCS throwback console be without it?...

Because it wasn’t me. There has long been whispers about phone cameras secretly post-processing your selfies to make you “more beautiful,” with the iPhone XS “Beautygate” scandal perhaps being the most notorious instance of this trend. Critics have argued such automated edits fundamentally cultivate a culture of unobtainable beauty standards, which in turn leads to more extreme urges to manipulate our image — there are plenty of examples of pushing this beyond the norm in the popular Instagram versus Reality subreddit....

Yep, the car maker is investing in German rocket start-up Isar Aerospace in an attempt to ensure access to new space-based technologies, the Financial Times reports. The company is joining a group of new investors, HV Capital and Lombard Odier, by putting down $75 million, which brings the total Series B funding round to $165 million. Isar’s vision Despite its low profile, Isar aims to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin by offering (relatively) inexpensive low-earth orbit satellite launch services....

On April 22, Cars.com, an automotive digital marketplace, published a research monitoring the Americans’ interest in EVs. 66% of respondents (1,056 in total) in Cars.com’s national survey expressed an increased motivation to purchase an EV, following the president’s announcements. Nevertheless, 81% believe that there are still obstacles to be overcome. “Interest in EVs is growing, yet remaining barriers indicate mainstream adoption is still about a decade away,” noted Aaron Bragman, Cars....