2020 Kaleidoscope: Pandemic Does Not Stop The Advancement Of Technology

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the habits of humankind, from being indifferent to personal hygiene to becoming more aware of germs and viruses. From those who were free to travel, are now restricted to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Even so with social activities. Face to face so completely limited. The agenda that could have been done with physical meetings has now been replaced by online. However, this technology can all be resolved.

Changing human habits that go online in the pandemic era is a blessing for the technology world. Several applications that provide services to replace face-to-face activities are currently in a 'windfall' situation due to the large number of users.

The applications are Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, Houseparty, Microsoft Teams. However, from the list of applications, Zoom is the most widely used.

One feature that is widely used is because it can accommodate approximately 100 video conference participants. In fact, it is planned that the capacity will continue to increase.

In addition, several technological and scientific events have also occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the launch of the SpaceX rocket that carried four NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

Various kinds of gadget innovations also enliven 2020. For this reason, VOI tries to summarize a number of important events related to technological and scientific developments that have not been hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The name of this one video teleconference application has shot up, along with the number of office activities that decide to do work from home or WFH. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom only had 81,900 subscribers.

That number then increased by 89 percent in which, they used the Zoom service to work remotely. While 63 percent use it for conversations with friends and family.

Based on data from tracking company Apptopia, Zoom has repeatedly broken its download record. This application is the most downloaded application on the App Store.

The peak recorded more than 300 million users or an increase of four times over the same period last year. As a result, Zoom received a net profit of US $ 777.2 million (around Rp.10.9 trillion).

Not only Zoom, similar applications such as Skype and Houseparty have also benefited during the pandemic. Both platforms have recorded an increase in the number of users of up to 6.2 million and 5.1 million users.

On the other hand, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet are also entering the video conferencing application market. Later, Facebook also followed up with its Messenger Room.

Microsoft said that in April Teams had 75 million daily active users, up 70 percent in a month, Microsoft also said there were 200 million meeting attendees in that month. Followed by Google Meet, which announces about 3 million new users every day, and reaches more than 100 million participants in daily Meet meetings in the same month.

Apart from Zoom, TikTok's short video app has also benefited during the pandemic. Given that many people have to carry out independent quarantine and move from home.

This one application is also immediately popular with users. Not only popular with young people, this video sharing platform is also popular with adults.

Citing Sensor Tower data, TikTok has managed to get downloads of two billion times through the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. TikTok's new record was reached in just five months during the pandemic, or nearly 1.5 billion downloads, since the first quarter of 2020.

The largest market for TikTok is India with 30.3 percent of total downloads, followed by China 9.7 percent and the United States (US) 8.2 percent. This application made by Bytedance has also been downloaded 611 million times in South Asian countries.

The number of TikTok users has jumped up, along with the imposition of lockdowns in a number of countries. In fact, the total number of active users month TikTok in the US has reached more than 91 million people.

As a result of this achievement, TikTok has surpassed the Facebook family of apps such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger which broke a record of two billion downloads since January 1, 2014.

After nine years of continuing to board the Russian Soyuz rocket to orbit into space. In mid-May, NASA finally managed to launch the first commercial rocket made by SpaceX from the US mainland.

The success of SpaceX in delivering NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) is a milestone in itself for Elon Musk. Given that the start-up has successfully operated its rocket and spacecraft module for use by NASA.

Even using the same rocket module, SpaceX managed to send back four astronauts under NASA's Commercial Crew program. This proves SpaceX has the system readiness and their rockets to fly astronauts into space.

This partnership is changing the course of human spaceflight history by opening up access to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station for more people, more knowledge, and more commercial opportunities.

There are many gadgets launched throughout 2020. However, there are several lines that have caught VOI's attention to be named the Gadget of the Year 2020.

Apart from the innovation points of each product line offered, there is also the hype generated from fans of these gadgets. Starting from smartphones to console games, it is summarized in the 2020 Gadget of the Year.

- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Z Flip

Last year, Samsung successfully presented its first line using folding screen cellphone technology, the Galaxy Fold. Then at the Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event, Samsung again released the two latest generations of its flagship cellphone line.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Z Flip are the best cellphone creations presented by the South Korean vendor. Carrying improvements in various lines, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Z Flip are the most anticipated folding screen phones by fans.

For the Galaxy Z Flip, it carries a folding screen phone design with a clamshell model. Measuring 6.7 inches, this phone can be folded almost in half into a more compact size.

Meanwhile, the older Galaxy Z Fold 2 is an update line from the previous model. In terms of design, Samsung is giving this folding screen phone a new look.

The Galaxy Z Fold 2 comes with a 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and an Infinity-O Display punch hole design on the inside. While on the outside there is a 6.2-inch super AMOLED screen.

This folding smartphone is also equipped with Samsung Ultra Thin Glass. The cellphone body is also supported by the Hideaway Hinge, with a CAM mechanism and allows the device to be positioned like a laptop.

- Apple iPhone 12 Series

Apple devices are always awaited by their fans. Even though it was late in coming, the giant from Cupertino, California, USA has finally released four of the latest models of the iPhone 12 at the end of 2020.

Apple carries four iPhone 12 models, starting from the iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. The four iPhone 12 series are both powered by the Apple A14 Bionic chipset and have supported 5G networks.

5G support is claimed to be 10 times faster than 4G LTE technology. However, this iPhone variant comes with quite different specifications.

The lowest specification is owned by the iPhone 12 Mini, as the name implies, this phone comes with a screen size of 5.4 inches, while the regular iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro have a 6.1 inch screen. For the highest model variant there is the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which excels with a 6.7-inch screen.

For the highest model variant there is the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which excels with a 6.7-inch screen. iPhone 12 carries two rear cameras with a wide 12MP aperture f / 1.6 lens resolution and one 12 MP ultra-wide camera (f / 2.4).

The iPhone Pro and Pro Max models have three rear cameras, one of which has a 12MP telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom. Especially the iPhone 12 Pro Max is equipped with a wide aperture f / 1.6 camera with a 47 percent larger sensor and 1.7μm pixels for an 87 percent increase in low light conditions.

The cameras on the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max have a number of excellent features such as the Apple ProRaw, support for 4K 60 fps video recording, Dolby Vision HDR 60 fps recording mode, and a LiDAR scanner sensor.

- Xbox Series X and Series S

Not only smartphones, gamers around the world are also looking forward to the latest game consoles released by Sony and Microsoft. For Xbox successfully preceded the release of the Sony PlayStation 5 (PS5) by releasing the Xbox Series X and Series S.

These two consoles are present to be competitors for the Sony PS5 in the Christmas and New Year 2020 holidays. Xbox Series X presents a console capable of bulldozing games in 4K resolution up to 120 frames per second.

This next gen console also supports DirectX Raytracing technology which works with GPU power up to 12 teraflops. It also has a 1TB SSD for storing and loading next generation games.

The smaller Xbox Series S will run games at 1440p resolution at 60 frames per second, with support for up to 120 frames per second.

See how PlayStation celebrated PS5's global launch with iconic buildings and popular sites around the world: https://t.co/dPVR3gMV4O pic.twitter.com/zNMgAo8q9G

- PlayStation (@PlayStation) November 19, 2020

- PlayStation 5 aka PS5

It is undeniable that this one game console will attract gamers at the end of 2020. Where Sony released the latest generation of PlayStation 5 (PS5).

The successor to the PS4 was officially launched on November 12, 2020 or the interval of two days from the Xbox Series X and Series S. And the presence of this new console managed to score the highest sales in various countries, even the day before the launch was over.

There are two PS5 models sold by Sony, namely the PS5 Digital Edition which costs IDR 7.3 million and the PS5 with IDR 8.8 million Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive.

For your information, the PS5 is equipped with a custom processor and GPU from AMD, which uses the Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architecture.The CPU has 8 cores, and the GPU has the compute capacity of up to 10.28 TFLOPS. In addition, the PS5 is also equipped with 16 GB of RAM and an 825 GB SSD which can be added with an NVMe type SSD.