When the COVID-19 outbreak began, some observers initially predicted that online dating would take a hit from the pandemic as many are staying indoors and practicing social distancing. However, media reports claim that dating apps are instead, booming.For instance, in the United States (US), between September and October 2020, data from market intelligence firm Apptopia show that major dating apps grew considerably.

If you have been on Facebook or Instagram lately, you would have surely seen a number of short clips of Rihanna’s music video Diamond, or any other videos for that matter – but instead of the celebrity’s face in the clips, it’s now one of your friends.Over the past few months, Deepfake video app Reface has garnered much attention online, bagging top download slots on the iOS App Store and Google Play in 100 countries.

Do 5G mobile telephones and networks pose health risks? Worries about the effect the technology has on humans and the environment have persisted as it has been deployed in various countries.

While Indonesia may not have the best internet connectivity in Southeast Asia, one thing it is certainly doing well compared to some other ASEAN member states is providing 4G availability to its estimated population of over 260 million. A 2019 report by London-based Opensignal titled, “The State of Mobile Network Experience” revealed that after Singapore and Thailand, Indonesia performs the best in ASEAN in terms of providing 4G availability.

The number of digital consumers in Southeast Asia is growing exponentially and in a much quicker pace than expected. Just last year, Bain & Company, a global consulting firm predicted that the number of digital consumers in the region will reach 310 million by 2025.

Southeast Asia has a growing fintech ecosystem which provides innovative services such as loans and payment platforms. Fintech fosters a financial inclusion strategy that can reduce the growing wealth gap and provide the poor with critical resources.A 2019 study by ValueChampion, a Singapore-based personal finance and consumer research brand, placed Singapore second after Australia as one of the ‘Best countries for women in fintech in Asia-Pacific’.

In recent years, smart technology has improved our lives for the better. ‘SMART’ refers to “self-monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology.” It is a technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and big data analysis to provide cognitive awareness to inanimate objects.Smart technology can be divided into a few different types, according to Rezaid, a Britain-based software firm.

While consumers across ASEAN are excited about 5G’s promise of faster home broadband speeds and mobile internet connections, it is the technology’s low network latency and power consumption that offers a variety of opportunities for businesses.About 20 times faster than 4G, everything from instant high-definition movie streaming to cloud gaming will be less than seconds away once 5G is commercially available across the region in the next few years.

With the advancement of smart technologies and digitalisation, it seems like the world is rapidly moving into the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0. The industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market, which some have called Industry 4.0, describes the widespread integration of information and communication technology (ICT), particularly cyber-physical systems (CPS), in industrial manufacturing.No industry is immune to the disruptions brought about by digital technologies.

Chinese entrants in the race to put autonomous vehicles on the road are bringing "robotaxis" online in hopes that a hired-car format can be the key to unlocking wide acceptance of the futuristic technology.It is expected to be years before cars that operate completely without human intervention are unleashed owing to lingering technological, regulatory, and safety hurdles.But as China challenges United States (US) tech dominance, Chinese players such as Baidu, Alibaba-backed AutoX a