Indonesia
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Indonesia is blocking Elon Musk's X domain for its gambling and porn history
Indonesia is temporarily blocking Elon Musk's X.com because of the previous users' gambling and porn.
Indonesia restores access to PayPal, Yahoo and Valve services
The country blocked several platforms that failed to register with a government database on time.
Meta's 'free' internet is costing people money in developing countries
Some people using Meta's free internet service are being charged for it, and the company is still trying to fix the problem, according to documents shared with the Wall Street Journal.
Inside Indonesia's fight to save its most important soil
Often referred to as one of the world's most important ecosystems, it's also one that's rapidly disappearing in bogs across the planet. While Indonesia's peatlands store more carbon than anywhere else in the world, they have been severely degraded. Once it's dry, peat can burn.
Crash investigators fault 737 Max's design and approval process
The Boeing 737 Max had design flaws that were made worse by inadequate pilot training and a faulty approval process that led to the Lion Air accident, Indonesian investigators concluded. Their report confirms multiple stories about Boeing's faulty MCAS control system, why pilots weren't properly trained on it and how it got approved in the first place, according to the Washington Post. The October 29, 2018 accident killed eight crew and 181 passengers.
Luxury resort bans gadgets at swimming pool to create guest 'haven'
Look, as great as it is to have all these fancy laptops and smartphones around us, sometimes we can become too attached to them. And when you're on vacation, you just have to find a way to break free from technology. That's why a luxury resort in Bali, Indonesia is banning electronic devices from one of its swimming pools. With its "In the Moment" campaign, the five-star Ayana Resort & Spa wants to encourage its guests to unplug and fully enjoy their me-time, which it feels can be more easily accomplished if they're not worrying about calls, checking email or what's happening on social media.
Honda will use electric bikes to test swappable batteries
Honda has teamed up with Panasonic to start testing the swappable rechargeable batteries it debuted at CES this year. The partners are bringing Honda's Mobile Power Packs to Indonesia, where they'll be used to power electric mobility products, particularly electric bikes. Indonesia is the third largest motorcycle market in the world after India and China, and its government has been thinking of ways to reduce traffic and pollution brought by the rise of the two-wheeled vehicles. One of the solutions it came up with is to encourage the adoption of electric-powered vehicles, making the country one of the best places to test the batteries.
Bali plans to shut down mobile internet for its New Year
You might turn off your home internet or cell network on occasion to disconnect and have some down time, but it's likely that your country isn't doing it for you. According to The Guardian and the BBC, Bali is shutting off the net country wide for 24 hours this coming Saturday in recognition of Nyepi, or Balinese New Year.
Uber lands on BlackBerry Messenger, confusing everyone
The next time you whip out BBM, you'll be able to order an Uber from within the app -- which would be handy if anyone still used BBM. Well, it's evidently still a thing, at least in parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, anyway. Elsewhere, Blackberry's baby has long been forgotten. Now, more than two years since Facebook Messenger got Uber integration, BBM is catching up. Better late than never.
Uber launches internal probe on Asia bribery allegations
Among its many other problems, Uber is facing a federal probe to look into allegations that it broke foreign bribery laws. To figure out what happened exactly and to cooperate with the DOJ, the ride-hailing firm recently launched its own investigation focusing on the activities of local offices in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea. According to Bloomberg, Uber at least knew what happened in Jakarta from the start, but one of its senior members decided not to disclose it to authorities.
Google expands its offline YouTube Go app to Indonesia
Google is rolling out a flurry of products in Indonesia. Chief among the new additions are YouTube Go and Google Assistant. The announcements (made at its second annual Google for Indonesia event) tie into the web giant's plan to get its apps to the "next billion" internet users. Until now, this strategy has mainly focused on India. But, it seemed inevitable that Google would expand its reach to more emerging (mobile-first) countries.
Recommended Reading: Netflix has another winner with 'GLOW'
Feeling the 'GLOW' Mairead Small Staid, The Ringer Despite recent news of Netflix cancelling a few of its high-profile originals, the streaming service hasn't missed a beat. One of its most recent, GLOW, debuted last week and critics seem to agree that it's worth your time. Heck, we even recommended it in our monthly roundup. The Ringer offers a look at the series and the actual women's wresting promotion from which the show gets its name.
Indonesian government may ban over 80 LGBT apps and websites
While homosexuality isn't technically illegal in Indonesia, it's extremely frowned upon in society. That extends to the digital realm, like when the country's Information and Communications Ministry pressured social app Line to remove LGBT themes and stickers back in February. While that and other government statements reportedly stoked anti-gay sentiment through the spring, they began drafting a bill to ban pro-LGBT sites in March. Yesterday, officials from multiple agencies exited a closed-door meeting at the Communications Ministry ready to block over 80 apps and websites in the country in an unprecedented crackdown.
Indonesia blocks Tumblr because it hosts pornography
Indonesia has banned Tumblr, the internet's GIF factory and pizza pleasure palace, because the site hosts pornographic content, the BBC reports. Indonesia's Information Ministry apparently didn't consult Tumblr or its parent company, Yahoo, before blocking the site. "We must ban the site first and tell them later," Information Ministry e-business director Azhar Hasyim told the BBC.
Leaked teaser video shows off waterproof Galaxy S7, S7 Edge
Samsung isn't officially showing off its next flagship phone until the 21st, there's already a video of it available on a company YouTube channel. Imploring us to get ready for #TheNextGalaxy, the video shows off what we're guessing are the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. There's not much in the way of details and the design looks very close to the current S6 lineup, but a rainy segment would appear to confirm rumors of waterproofing. It also appears to have a flat back, confirming a Wall Street Journal report that it would ditch the protruding camera hump this time around.
Indonesia demands Line remove LGBT stickers from its app
Indonesia's Information and Communication Ministry spokesman Ismail Cawidu on Thursday has called on social messaging app maker Line to remove a selection of stickers depicting LGBT themes from its online store. While homosexuality isn't technically illegal in Indonesia (outside of the Aceh province), it is a taboo subject in the socially conservative nation. The stickers' presence generated a severe online backlash from the apps users, prompting Cawidu's demand.
Google's next Lollipop update shows up on an Android One phone
Well, it looks like someone forgot to the cue the fanfare. According to a recent report from Android Police, Android 5.1 is already floating around in the wild, just not where you'd expect. The new build - and its currently mysterious changelog - just made an appearance on a low-cost Android One device meant for sale in Indonesia later this month. To our knowledge, it's the first time Google has publicly acknowledged the existence of the update - all that's really left now is a big Google blog post commemorating the launch and a list of changes the release brings to the table.
YouTube launches offline playback for Android users in three Asian countries
YouTube has finally launched the offline viewing feature it promised in 2013 -- but you can only download videos to watch without internet connection if you're an Android user in India, Indonesia or the Philippines. Google says it's making "much of popular YouTube content" from within the region available to view offline (meaning, anything uploaded from the US and other countries is a no-go) but we honestly had a tough time finding downloadable videos. When you do find one, you merely need to tap the download button in the description and choose the playback quality you want. Anything you save will be accessible for 48 hours in the offline section on the left-hand sliding menu.
BlackBerry Z3 'Jakarta' coming to Indonesia in April for under $200
BlackBerry CEO John Chen is here at MWC and has some device news. The executive announced progress on the Z3, the phone codenamed Jakarta (shown off above), which will be coming out to Indonesia in April. The company plans to sell the 5-inch device, which is a collaboration between BlackBerry and Foxconn, for under $200. The initial model will be 3G-only, but Chen also tells us that there will be an LTE version coming out to other parts of the world at some time in the future; joking, Chen mentioned that it would come out "sometime before I die." We're also told that BlackBerry plans to do some interesting new stuff with BBM. Update: We got a few up-close photos of the Z3, which you'll find below. The Z3, which runs BB 10.2.1, definitely has the trademark look and feel of a BlackBerry. It's a sleek all-touch device with a ridged soft-touch back cover. Unfortunately we weren't able to hold it, so we can't speak to how comfortable it is. We're also told that we'll be quite happy with the long battery life, but no solid specs were given. BlackBerry has put up more info about the Z3 on its blog. Additionally, Chen also officially confirmed that a device known as the Q20, aka the Classic, is in the works, and will be coming out alongside BES 12 sometime before the end of the year. The Q20 will be a QWERTY device that will feature the "tool belt," which means you'll see a classic trackpad and function keys. Speaking of BES12, the new update will be backwards-compatible to older BlackBerry devices and will support iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Lastly, Chen confirmed that BlackBerry is working on a few high-end phones for later this year, but he was unable to offer any additional details at today's event. However, we shouldn't expect to see any wearables from BlackBerry anytime soon; Chen has no plans -- "at least, not yet."
Akamai: DDoS attacks increased since Q1 2013, Indonesia marked as biggest cyberbully
The latest Akamai report on the state of the internet is out, and it looks like DDoS attacks have spiked since the last one. What's more, China's reign as the number one perpetrator was cut short by Indonesia, which almost doubled its first-quarter malicious traffic from 21 percent to 38 percent. China's traffic dropped from 34 percent to 33 percent, but combined, the two countries still comprise more than half of observed attack traffic. The US on the other hand, stays in third place even though attack traffic dropped from 8.3 percent to 6.9 percent. There is a bright side to the research, though: Global internet speeds rose at a much higher rate since the last report. High broadband (any speed greater than or equal to 10Mbps) adoption rose to 14 percent worldwide quarter over quarter, while average-connection speeds rose to 3.3Mbps from the previous 3.1Mbps. If you've been keeping tabs on mobile device traffic numbers, cellular network traffic was about even between Android Webkit and Apple's Mobile Safari, coming in at just under 38 and 34 percent respectively. In terms of raw traffic across all network types though, Cupertino's ecosystem nearly doubled Google's, at 54 percent compared to 27.6 percent respectively. You're more than welcome to check out the press release and the source for full details, but we recommend putting on a pot of coffee first -- it's a heady read. Correction: We initially reported that DDoS attacks had dropped since Q1 2013, though in fact the report shows they have increased.
