Quick News

Restaurant-booking app Chope yesterday announced a S$18 million investment led by Square Peg Capital and joined by C31 Ventures and Moelis Australia, as well as existing shareholders, including SPH Ventures, NSI Ventures, Susquehanna International Group and DSG Consumer Partners.
The company plans to use the growth funding to build better products, enlist a larger sales force and enhance customer support.
Chope said it has more than 3,000 food and beverage clients across Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China, Indonesia and Thailand using its suite of technologies to manage bookings, queues, customer relationship management, promotions and pre-payments. – The Straits Times

Touch and go issue for iPhones
Future iPhones may no longer have Touch ID fingerprint sensors as part of their features.
According to a report on MacRumors, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that Face ID would be Apple’s new trump card over Android smartphone competitors.
Kuo predicts the company would leverage the technological advantage of the TrueDepth camera system when it comes to 3D sensing design and production.
On the flip side, a previous report by KGI stated that the Face ID feature would become a major bottleneck in the production of iPhone Xs. They predicted 30 million to 35 million iPhone X units would be shipped in 2017, a step down from an earlier estimate of 40 million.
Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi also hinted that the company may not be ready to fully transition away from fingerprint authentication just yet. This means some iPhones released in 2018 may still be equipped with Touch ID authentication. – Philippine Daily Inquirer

Cryptocurrency Group meets
The Khmer Crypto Foundation, a Cambodian assortment of over a 100 bitcoin and digital currency investors and enthusiasts, held its first general meeting with the aim to educate members about how to comply with potential regulations governing the use of blockchain technology, according to a press release on Sunday.
In Mean, lead developer of the Khmer Crypto Foundation, was quoted in the release as saying that group hopes to soon submit its own cryptocurrency framework to the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). Currently, the NBC is working with a Japanese firm to develop a national blockchain-based payment system. – The Phnom Penh Post

Sophia computes with UN leader
A robot called Sophia was bestowed the honour of speaking with United Nations deputy secretary-general Amina J. Mohammed during the day-long event “The Future of Everything: sustainable development in the age of rapid technological change”, in the Philippines
Sophia answered several questions asked by Mohammed, to the best of its abilities. However, it admitted it’s still learning.
One of the questions Mohammed asked involved the distribution of Internet access to the rest of the world. Sophia answered by quoting William Gibson, “The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.”
Sophia then proceeded to talk about the benefits of artificial intelligence. One benefit allows for a more efficient way of evenly distributing the world’s resources and technology.
Sophia was created by a Hong Kong-based company called Hanson Robotics. The company aims to humanise robots and calls this the “Sophia quest. – Philippine Daily Inquirer