ZipMatch eyes Southeast Asia expansion with $2.5M fresh funds

Real estate marketplace ZipMatch recently closed a US$2.5 million series A round for its expansion across the Philippines and Southeast Asia. It will also use the money to develop more products for homebuyers and brokers.

The round was led by Singapore-based venture capital firm Monk’s Hill Ventures. Existing investor 500 Startups also participated.

In an interview about the investment, Kuo-Yi Lim of Monk’s Hill Ventures said, “the team members bring different facets of real estate and internet expertise to the table. They are biased towards action, so we are confident that this team will be able to execute quickly and take advantage of the opportunity not only in the Philippines, but in the broader Southeast Asia region and beyond.”

This is one of Monk Hill’s first investments as a firm, and its first ever in the Philippines. Lim will join the ZipMatch board following the investment. Monk’s Hill Ventures is also led by managing director Peng T. Ong and partner Stefan Jung.

A ‘smarter’ homebuying experience


ZipMatch says it will use the fresh capital to recruit more talent and experts in real estate, computer programming, content creation, product development, and customer service.

The startup will also continue its work on creating tools to improve the homebuying experience.

ZipMatch says it offers a “smarter” process that helps consumers make confident decisions when buying their homes.

Unlike other platforms that focus mainly on classifieds, ZipMatch eliminates most of the online research and physical work done when searching for property. For one, the startup has been collecting and curating pertinent information about properties and this information is accessible in a single, interactive page. The information includes overviews, available listings and photos, virtual tours, property scouting, and user reviews.

For brokers, the company offers tools and programs such as a customer relationship management software to help them find prospective buyers and serve clients more efficiently.

The funding is supposed to help ZipMatch scale its processes to capture more markets in Southeast Asia.

Led by founders Chow Paredes and John Dang, ZipMatch has raised more than US$3.5 million in investments to date.

This post ZipMatch eyes Southeast Asia expansion with $2.5M fresh funds appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Cyanogen OS review

Cyanogen OS themes


Cyanogen, the US-based maker of an alternative Android-based mobile operating system called Cyanogen OS, announced today it completed a US$80 million series C round of funding. India’s Premji Invest led the round, followed by Twitter Ventures, Qualcomm, Telefonica Ventures, Smartfren Telecom, Index Ventures, Access Industries, Rupert Murdoch, Vivi Nevo and other undisclosed investors. Previous investors Benchmark, Andreesen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, and Tencent Holdings also participated, according to an announcement on the company’s website.

"We invested in Cyanogen because we’re big proponents of what they’re doing in opening up Android and supporting global and local ecosystem players," said Sandesh Patnam, technology sector lead of India’s Premji Invest. "Cyanogen is well positioned to become the 3rd leading mobile OS, and we’re excited to back them in growing their business on a global scale."

Cyanogen has navigated Asia well, first in China and then in India. Big developing markets like China and India are ripe with opportunity for Cyanogen, where many users are buying smartphones for the first time and aren’t yet tethered to the Google ecosystem (or are blocked from doing so, in China’s case).

Cyaongen OS comes pre-installed on the OnePlus One smartphone and some Oppo models from China, a market where local phone makers are prohibited from using Google’s version of Android. Chinese brands must cut out services like Google Search, Google Play, and Gmail, either by making their own Android skin (called a ROM) or co-opting an alternative like Cyanogen.

Tencent is currently testing its own Android fork called Tencent OS. This is the Chinese social giant’s second consecutive investment in Cyanogen.

India’s grass is greener


Cyanogen recently turned its attention to India. The company ended up spurning OnePlus when it agreed to an exclusive partnership with local phone maker Micromax. OnePlus had just entered India and was rattled by Cyanogen’s betrayal. OnePlus is now working on its own Android ROM to replace Cyanogen.

With Cyanogen at its side, homegrown Indian brand Micromax wants to beat back Xiaomi and take the top selling spot from Samsung in the burgeoning market. Micromax recently launched a new budget brand of high-spec smartphones, largely modeled on Xiaomi. The “Yu” line of phones sports Cyanogen out of the box. In an interview with FoundingFuel, Cyanogen founder Kirt McMaster said, "Yu plus Cyanogen will be the Xiaomi of India. There’s no question about that."

Micromax launched the first Cyanogen-powered Yu phone for just US$140 in December, but Micromax isn’t putting all of its eggs in one basket just yet. Google’s favor isn’t lightly abandoned; Micromax offers the Canvas A1 under Google’s Android One budget phone program.

Cyanogen is no stranger to brashness. Its founder, Kirt McMaster, has publicly challenged Google, the creator of Android, and aspires to beat the search giant at its own game. McMaster wants to ween Android off of the Google services that ultimately drive Google’s revenue, creating a distincitve and independent mobile operating system. In an interview with Forbes, McMaster boasted, "We’re putting a bullet through Google’s head."

Cyanogen has raised a total of US$110 million in funding to date.

This post India’s Premji and China’s Tencent back Cyanogen’s $80M funding appeared first on Tech in Asia.

TV01II RK3288 HTC vs. MX2 AML8726-MX ... AndroBench test ... flash memory speed & stutters

TV01II RK3288 HTC vs. MX2 AML8726-MX ... AndroBench test ... flash memory speed & stutters

My frustration reached top. 
People said about RK3288 boards, that stutters depends on the speed of flash memory! What?
I take out of the closet, my old player on Amlogic MX processor.

Results. Is not that interesting? 

AndroBench v4.0	TV01II RK3288 HTC (Rockchip) rom: v1.02 (HPH, mo123 for HTC)	MX2 AML8726-MX (Amlogic) rom: G-Box MX2 v1.2
Sequential Read	57.36 MB/s	22.0 MB/s
Sequential Write	6.42 MB/s	2.46 MB/s
Random Read	12.61 MB/s, 3256.62 IOPS	4.83 MB/s 1252.25 IOPS
Random Write	2.5 MB/s, 650.93 IOPS	0.71 MB/s 185.25 IOPS
SQLite Insert	80.23 TPS, 12.76 sec	13.56 TPS, 75.46 sec
SQLite Update	110.73 TPS, 9.24 sec	16.35 TPS, 62.62 sec
SQLite Delete	105.79 TPS, 9.67 sec	45.97 TPS, 22.27 sec
Youtube stutters	YES	NO
KODI stutters	YES	NO

Amlogic MX is a lot slower than HTC Rokchip, and works much better!
Please do not tell me, that it depends on flash memory.
Why it does not work for the player with Amlogic?

Welcome to the discussion.

TinyDeal and MaxConsole presents our Spring Break GiveAway Contest

Happy Spring Break From Everyone At TinyDeal and MaxConsole
!!! ENTER our CONTEST now to WIN !!!

As we break for Spring and wait for Easter to come in 2 weeks, there is nothing better to do, but enter our massive Easter Giveaway contest and try your luck at winning an amazing prize from TinyDeal.

Well it is that time of year again, the Christmas Holidays are long gone, and Winter has been blasting around making you all blue, but no need to worry because we here at MaxConsole are ready to cheer you up by launching another one of our massive GiveAway's with our wonderful Sponsor TinyDeal, just in time for Spring Break with the Five Lucky Winners to be picked on Easter Sunday, April 5th. 

That is right, you read it correctly there will be FIVE winners, so you better hurry and enter now as the next two weeks will fly by, and just look below at the amazing three prizes that TinyDeal was picked out for our lucky MaxConsole readers, not even the Easter Bunny would say no to this amazing giveaway contest, sure there is only ONE grand prize winner, but the four others will I am be sure happy also.

Here are the three prizes to be giveaway to the five lucky winners, check out the links to TinyDeal below for more info on each prize:

1st Grand Prize - TRONFY MXIII Amlogic S802 Android 4K TV Box - ONE Winner only 



TRONFY MX3 Google Android Smart TV BOX. Android 4.4 OS. Amlogic S802 Quad Core, DDR3-2GB/8GB Flash. 4K*2K HDMI Output , full 3840*2160 ULTRA HD 1080P video decoding and output. with a version of XBMC pre-installed, Full Web Browsing, Picture Viewing, Social Networking, make free phone calls with Skype, online video chat, Play Vedio Games, and so on. All Small things work out of the box.

TRONFY TV BOX Converts Smart TV into Smart PC, or regular TV into Smart PC. Your TV will become like a giant iPad, customize away, so many options! compatible with any TV (HDMI or AV(white-red-yellow cables)) or regular PC monitorwith HDMI jack. With external wifi antenna, enhance wifi signal. You can download apps from the Google Play Store, watching videos, playing games, surfing the internet, Skype, Youtube, Flicker, Facebook, etc.

TRONFY TV BOX is the absolute best and most versatile home media experience in the market. MX3 is the best small portable family computer programs, Had taken with the MINI PC network TV game at any time to share with friends, Your movies, TV Shows, Music all at your fingertips. Online forums, tutorials, and videos are plenty.

TRONFY TV BOX Comes with a remote/Charger/HDMI Cable/AV cable included. Has all the features to make your TV viewing experience the best ever. Amazing for college dorms, bed rooms, home theaters, anywhere you need some entertainment! Bult-in 2USB / AV / RJ45 / HDMI / SPDIF / OTG / TF Port.

TRONFY MX3 Android TV Box is the newest generation of multimedia player. The Quad core TV box is easy to set up and use to access online media and access social networking sites. Using the newest Android 4.4 Kitkat operating system you can download apps from the play store and play 3D games smoothly with it's Amlogic S802 Quad Core (Octa core ARM Mali-450 GPU up to 600MHz) up to 2.0GHz (Cortex-A9) graphics processor.

Product Features:

• Amlogic S802 Quad-Core Cortex-A9 2.0GHz CPU + ARM Mali-450MP Octa-Core GPU
• 2GB DDR3 RAM + 8GB Nand flash ROM (max support 32GB)
• 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless connectivity with Android 4.4 OS
• Support 2K or 4K ultra HD video playback
• Pre-installed XBMC, Miracast, DLNA, AirPlay

Special Features: 

• DLNA, AirPlay and Miracast, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 2.4/5.0 GhZ
• 1xEthernet, 1xHDMI 1.4, 2xUSB, 1xHDM, 1xSD card, 1xOTG, 1xSPDIF

Included in Package: 

• Tronfy MX3 TV BOX
• 1x 5V 2A Power Supply
• 1x IR Remote
• 1x HDMI cable, 1xAV cable, 1xOTG cable, 1x Manual

2nd Top Prize - IPEGA PG-9025 Bluetooth Game Controller - TWO Winners



Product Features:

• IPEGA PG-9025 multi-media wireless bluetooth 3.0 game controller
• Bluetooth 3.0 wireless transmission
• Supports different Android/ iOS/ PC games
• Support Android 3.2, iOS 4.3 above system
• Can be used when connected with the Bluetooth mobile phone and without any drivers
• Exclusive gaming application platform and the classic hand travel under control
• Built-in 380mAh lithium battery
• With the telescopic stand, the phone can be put in the stand (Max support for 5.5-inch mobile phone)
• With "volume +/ -, "last ", "next ", "Play/ Pause", total 5 multimedia function keys
• Support 6-8 meters wide range of control from the operation
• User-friendly software designed to enter the power saving mode with no connection state
• Compatible with iPod/ iPhone/ iPad as well as the vast majority of android tablet PCs

3rd Runner-Up Prize - Cheerson CX-10 Nano RC UFO Quadcopter - TWO Winners



Product Features:

• Cheerson CX-10 nano RC quadcopter UFO
• Lightweight airframe with nice durability
• Fine workmanship endows the aircraft with smooth and delicate appearance
• 6-axis design makes the gyroscope adjustable, promoting flying stability
• Flight time will be up to 4-8 minutes
• Model on Hubsan H111
• 3-level adjustable speed flip function
• Powered by a piece of rechargeable 3.7V 100mAh lithium battery (Included)
• So incredibly stable, perfect even for new pilots

So there you go, those are the three amazing prizes from TinyDeal to be offer up to five of our lucky MaxConsole readers.

Now the tough part, the CONTEST RULES:

1. Like, Comment, and Share the contest here: https://www.facebook.com/justin.td.777
2. The Grand 1st Prize will NOT be given out until we reach 50 participants
3. All Prizes will be given out randomly to contestants that Like, Comment, and Share the contest
4. Contest period is from March 22nd to April 5th
5. All contest winners will be notified in the comments, by email, and by private message

So that's all folks, good luck and happy easter egg hunting, because come April 5th, the bunny might just pick you as a winner!

1st Prize: MX III Tv box (via) TinyDeal
2nd Prize: Ipega game controller (via) TinyDeal
3rd Prize: Ipega game controller (via) TinyDeal

Our thanks to 'TinyDeal' for sponsoring this giveaway for our MaxConsole readers!

P9 5.0" Android 4.4 MTK6592M 8-Core 3G Phone

P9 5.0" Android 4.4 MTK6592M 8-Core 3G Phone

P9 5.0" Android 4.4 MTK6592M 8-Core 3G Phone

Enjoy your favourite games and movies as they run smoothly on the P9 powered by 1.4GHz Tru-Octacore Mediatek 6592m processor!

5.0" HD vivid display screen, nice and wonderful for game playing, video watching, reading, etc, beyond that, the screen made with Super AMOLED more reality more durable.

You don't need to buy any external memory card for canvas gold because its internal memory is quite enough to store your apps, games, pictures and songs. The canvas gold internal memory is 16GB which is sufficient for a normal work.

7.9mm ultrathin body and fashion appearance plus rounded cover design feeling the perfect handle.

The P9 boasts a heavy-duty 13 MP rear camera that gives you the power to capture your favourite moments as they were meant to be remembered.

P9 is equipped with WiFi display, allowing content of your phone to be wirelessly projected in HD to a television, another phone, or a tablet.
http://www.tinydeal.com/p9-50-super-amoled-android-44-mtk6592m-8-core-16gb-3g-phone-p-146332.html

Bluetooth keyboard leather case for PIPO W6 tablet

Bluetooth keyboard leather case for PIPO W6 tablet

$29.99 8.9" Protective Case for PIPO W6 Tablet

Product Features:

• Bluetooth keyboard leather case for PIPO W6 8.9" tablet
• Comfortable buttons for input
• Best way to keep your tablet in style
• Battery Capacity: 110mA
• Charge Time: 1~2 hours 
• Working Time: 40 hours of continuous use
• Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth 4.0
• Transmission Distance: ≤10m
• Color: Black
• Net Weight: 302 g / 10.65 oz
• Size: 242 x 165 x 20 mm / 9.53 x 6.5 x 0.79 inch
• Accessory ONLY, Tablet PC NOT included. 

http://www.tinydeal.com/protective-bluetooth-keyboard-case-for-89-pipo-w6-tablet-pc-p-146319.html

Report: No Lollipop for non Z-branded Xperia products. Really Sony?

The few. The proud. The furious. In the past few weeks Sony has inspired more than a few doom-and-gloom reports, though the latest bit of news, if true, would be a much more hot-headed affair. The beleaguered Japanese giant has finally clarified its Lollipop update plans (we knew it would be coming to Z-devices in the near future) and they are sure not going to please those who don’t have cash to burn.

@roi_rdzdal Hi Roi. The Android 5.0 Lollipop update is only going to be available for the Xperia Z series, we do apologise.

— Sony Xperia (@sonyxperia) March 6, 2015
​

While it’s true that one should never say never, this tumultuous Tweet has basically confirmed Lollipop won’t be appearing on any non-Z device. To make matters worse, there are actually a couple more reports with the same message (one even from the 4th) that eliminate the potential of misspeaking. Considering that Sony has just announced one such “standard affair” offering, it’s sure to make some people very angry, as it will cast a cloud over the potential [tech-savvy crowd’s] uptake of said product. Casual consumers as well, should they be aware, probably won’t be too thrilled with the “pledge” to drop support either.

Given that Sony’s mobile division isn’t exactly doing well, the absolute last thing it should be doing is angering potential or existing consumers. Still, given the fact that money is so tight, and the products in question aren’t exactly genre defying, spec-blazing miracles, the decision to drop Android update support isn’t hard to understand.