South Korean metaverse platform Zep announced a new partnership with Near Protocol. Using the Layer-1 blockchain platform Near Protocol, Zep aims to create online games in the metaverse ecosystem and onboard more users onto its platform. Zep is a joint venture between online game developer Supercat and creator platform Zepeto. It claims to have 1.3 million monthly active users and 8.3 million total users that joined its platform this year. In the coming months, Zep plans to expand internationally to the Japanese and Southeast Asian markets.
In a bid to help Zep create a diverse range of online games in the metaverse, Near Protocol’s offerings like large scale user-oriented services, user-friendly interface, and Web2-like stability will come in handy. It is because of these offerings, that Near-based Web3 apps have managed to rank 1st and 2nd among all blockchain applications as per DappRadar.
As part of their partnership, Near Protocol and Zep are looking to develop Web3 features that would not only make the metaverse experience more immersive for end users, but also assist developers in regard to the convenience of creating.
“Through collaboration with dApps in the content and gaming fields based on NEAR, we will assist ZEP’s business expansion in the Web3 domain,” Mark Mi, Gaming Director of NEAR Protocol said in an official statement. “
South Korea has been evidently supportive in terms of exploring the metaverse industry. Last year, South Korean lawmakers had spoken about plans of investing over $177 million (roughly Rs. 1,370 crore) in supporting metaverse projects that will also trigger job opportunities in the sector.
In February 2022, Seoul’s Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning of South Korea allocated KRW 223.7 billion (roughly Rs. 1,400 crore) towards the development of a national metaverse project.
In December 2022, Shinhan Bank, named among the top four lenders in South Korea, launched a metaverse site named ‘Cinnamon’, where people get to access an array of services from financial, as well as non-financial sectors.
This support for metaverse from South Korean industry mammoths coupled with a nudge from the government and a big online gamer base, Near Protocol can also attempt at reaping big benefits from expanding its platform’s presence there.
“Based on this collaboration, ZEP’s partners are expected to easily issue and distribute various Web3-based digital assets, allowing users to enjoy a convenient Web3 experience in the ZEP metaverse environment,” the official press release from Near Protocol said.
Red Magic 9 Pro series has been confirmed to launch soon. The phone is said to succeed the Red Magic 8 Pro, which was unveiled in China in January this year. The Magic 8 Pro was powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC and packed a 6,000mAh battery with 80W wired fast charging support. Meanwhile, the upcoming Red Magic 9 Pro was recently spotted on benchmarking and certification sites. Key details of the phone have also been tipped earlier. Now, Nubia has confirmed the launch date of the Red Magic 9 Pro series and the company president has teased some features of the phones.
In a Weibo post, Nubia confirmed that the Red Magic 9 Pro series will launch on November 23 in China at 2pm Beijing time (11:30am IST). The phone has also been spotted on Geekbench with the model number NX769J. It is tipped to come with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, 12GB of RAM, and run on Android 14-based RedMagic OS.
In another Weibo post, Nubia President Ni Fei stated that the Red Magic 9 Pro series will have “great surprises” in store in multiple aspects, including design, performance, battery life, and screen. Meanwhile, a Mydrivers report says that the phones are likely to come with hidden under-display front cameras and therefore, notchless displays.
The report also adds that the Red Magic 9 Pro series will come with a new ICE magic cooling system, which is claimed to be the industry’s first 3D ice-level VC heat dissipation system. It is expected to significantly improve heat loss efficiency over the usual single-chip VC and dual-chip VC systems.
Notably, the Red Magic 8 Pro came with Nubia’s ICE 11 system, that had a restyled 20,000 RPM fan to increase airflow. The phone was also equipped with the Cube Performance Optimiser that claimed to offer stable frame rates and low power usage.
Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 alongside the Galaxy Tab S9 series and Galaxy Watch 6 series at its first Galaxy Unpacked event in South Korea. We discuss the company’s new devices and more on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.