The funds will allow it to expand further across North Asia, the Middle East, the US & Europe

Singapore-based kids tech company myFirst has announced today (Mar 3) that it has raised over US$8 million in its Series A funding round. The round, led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, was conducted in a bid to scale myFirst’s ecosystem of devices and services designed specifically for children.

In a press release, the startup shared that the funds will support its international expansion across North Asia, the Middle East, the US, and Europe through partnerships with retailers and telcos, including Walmart and Best Buy.

It will also accelerate the development of the company’s kids tech ecosystem, combining devices, connected services, and a secure social platform for children’s first digital experiences in communication, creativity, and self-expression.

“Every child deserves their first digital device to be built just for them, at a price point that makes it accessible. This new funding will help us bring safer, kid-ready tech to even more families worldwide, while giving parents confidence in their child’s first steps into the digital world,” shared G-Jay Yong, co-founder and CEO of myFirst.

Jessica Koh, Senior Executive Director at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, noted a structural shift in how children are introduced to tech by their families. Instead of simply adapting products for adults, there is a demand for such gadgets made for kids.

“The global kids tech market is still under-penetrated, and with its integrated ecosystem and global reach, myFirst is well positioned to define the category at scale.”

One of the first-movers in the kids tech industry

myFirst was founded by Yong and Brian Tan in 2018, making them one of the first-movers in the kids tech industry in Singapore.

The duo first launched a kid-friendly digital camera, and has since expanded their range to include products and services, like the myFirst watchphones and myFirst Circle family app.

The Fone allows children to communicate safely with their family members, and it’s equipped with a built-in GPS, safety zones, and an SOS button for parental reassurance. On the other hand, the app provides a closed, ad-free environment where kids can share moments with approved family and friends, free from strangers and inappropriate content.

Beyond watches and apps, myFirst’s ecosystem now includes cameras, headphones, drawing tablets, and other devices, all designed to support safe, purposeful, and joyful digital experiences for children.

Since their launch, the startup has grown their customer base of over a million families in 60 countries, and plans to expand its reach in markets with larger child populations, including Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand, while maintaining a strong presence in established regions.

In a world where everyone is increasingly connected, children can stand to benefit from technology. However, one cannot deny the risks that are involved, including the exposure to inappropriate content and addiction.

As such, having ecosystems that provides safer environments for children to interact with technology matter more than ever.

“If kids are not allowed any exposure to tech, but yet all they see around them are grown-ups and their peers using tech, it would most likely feel tempt them and could spell trouble once they are allowed access. It could be really easy for them to over-immerse themselves and get addicted to their devices,” shared Yong.

• Learn more about myFirst here.
• Read more stories we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

Featured Image Credit: myFirst

After the pretty exciting Xiaomi 17 series, the Chinese maker announced the new Xiaomi Pad 8 Series, comprising the Pad 8 and the Pad 8 Pro. The devices are a blend of power and portability, offering a slim design along with a large battery. Indian consumers can expect the Xiaomi Pad 8 Series to go official on March 11.

The biggest highlight of the Xiaomi Pad 8 Series is the 11.2-inch 3.2K display, which is a significant feature of the tablet series. The high-resolution display ensures crisp text and image quality, and the 800 nits of peak brightness are helpful in outdoor conditions. In addition, the display’s 144Hz refresh rate makes it smooth, especially for gaming.

Furthermore, both models in the Xiaomi Pad 8 Series feature a large 9,200mAh battery, ensuring longer battery life throughout the day. Despite the slim 5.75mm body, Xiaomi has managed to include a bigger battery than previous generations. This makes the tablet reliable for travel, long meetings, and extended work sessions. Users can work, stream, or browse without worrying about frequent charging.

Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro

The Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro stands out as the most powerful model in the series. It comes with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform. This provides a significant boost to CPU and GPU performance for intensive operations. Moreover, it can handle video editing, multitasking, and other operations.

The device supports fast charging up to 67W. This device’s camera features a 50MP primary camera and a 32MP front-facing camera. Storage options go up to 512GB, and the Matte Glass option with anti-reflective coating is a professional’s dream come true.

Xiaomi Pad 8

The Xiaomi Pad 8 uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 Mobile Platform, offering reliable performance in running multiple tasks at once. It can run several apps simultaneously, stream, browse, and edit, all without any lag. It can be topped up quickly with 45W turbo charging.

For camera needs, the Xiaomi Pad 8 has a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front camera, making it perfect for photo shoots and video calls. Storage capacity can reach 256GB, offering enough room for most users without being too expensive.

For colors, the Pad 8 is available in Pine Green, Gray, and Blue, starting at a price of €449.9. The Pad 8 Pro is available in the same colors, starting at a price of €549.9. For a premium look, the Pad 8 Pro Matte Glass version is available only in Gray and costs €769.9 for the 12GB + 512GB version.

Alibaba has just taken a significant step forward by introducing a line of small AI models that will fit perfectly into your existing smartphone. Qwen 3.5’s smaller cousins pack a punch that used to take a full server configuration to deliver, and even the smallest of them will work flawlessly on your iPhone 17.

Alibaba’s Qwen team introduced four new models today: 0.8 billion, 2 billion, 4 billion, and 9 billion parameter versions. Built on the same upgraded architecture as the bigger Qwen 3.5 series, which launched in February 2026, these smaller versions were built for efficiency and can natively handle both text and graphics. The 0.8B and 2B versions are ideal for phones, laptops, and edge hardware where memory and battery life are critical, while the 4B is designed for lightweight tasks, and the 9B model approaches the capabilities of larger models in terms of reasoning, math, multilingual knowledge, and document analysis.

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The results are pretty mind-blowing, as Alibaba claims that the 9B variant produces results that are almost on par with systems with 120 billion parameters, implying that it matches (and in some cases outperforms) the capabilities of big hitters like ChatGPT and Gemini in a series of critical tests. In contrast, the 4B variation performs at levels comparable to prior 80B models. They may have sacrificed depth in favor of speed and resource economy, but they can still perform basic picture recognition and text.

Community testing has demonstrated that these models can be run on a mobile device using tools such as MLX, with some even managing to fit a quantized version of the 2B model into an iPhone 17. You receive lightning-fast responses without having to go online or pay for subscription fees or data transfer to servers. The 0.8B and 2B variants are offline-ready and compatible with normal phones, and users say that the 4B model delivers nearly as much power in real-world use as the larger models. Plus, with open-source weights on Hugging Face and ModelScope, deployment is quite simple using familiar frameworks. You can find them all here.

Ciaran Luttrell and George O’Mahony discuss Ireland’s cyber landscape and the impact of AI on the sector.

Late last week (26 February), managed detection and response platform eSentire awarded the fifth annual MTU Sean Hennessy Bursary to Bartosz Lipinski, from Fermoy, Cork. In partnership with MTU’s Department of Computer Science, the award was established as a means of honouring a former colleague and supporting young people in the security sector.  

SiliconRepublic.com spoke with Ciaran Luttrell, the vice-president for global SOC operations at eSentire and George O’Mahony, the head of the Department of Computer Science at Munster Technological University (MTU), to hear more about the bursary, Ireland’s cybersecurity sector and the skills needed to succeed. 

“The Bursary provides a huge opportunity for students to work in an international operations centre that supports thousands of customers, to refine their skills during their placement and then look at this as a career after they graduate,” explained Luttrell.

“This is the fifth year of the bursary, and it has been a great way to find and develop new talent. So far, all of the recipients of the previous years that have graduated have joined us full time and remain with the company and those that are still going through their studies continue to work with us on a part time basis.”

Next in line

According to O’Mahony, developing a pipeline of cybersecurity expertise is of key importance, not just for professionals based in Ireland, but worldwide. 

He said, “There is still a cyber skills gap, not only in Ireland, but across the globe. This is a global issue that is faced by both small companies and multinational organisations. There’s just not enough people available.” 

He stated, by building a graduate pipeline, for example like the programme at MTU, in collaboration with companies based in Cork and the wider south-west region, there is potential to develop a strong and connected ecosystem. But it can’t depend solely on the participation of graduates.  

He said, “Graduates are not going to fill the entirety of the skills gap. MTU has run the Cyber Skills Initiative as a lead institution. This is a collaboration between MTU, University of Limerick and Technological University Dublin, which is an HEA HCI Pillar III project that was awarded back in 2021. 

“The project has now been running for five years and has allowed us to expand access to cybersecurity programmes by looking at short courses and micro-credentials, which are all university accredited. 

“This allowed more people to upskill or reskill and these types of alternatives, at the postgraduate level, are really important in solving this talent gap, especially when aligned to international standards, like the NIST/NICE framework.” 

It’s an AI world now

Cybersecurity, like virtually every STEM role, has been impacted by AI advancements, with significant fears that artificial intelligence limits career opportunities for professionals young and older alike. 

O’Mahony is of the opinion that this is an even greater issue in academia as the onset of GenAI has had a detrimental effect on graduates. But it is, he finds, an opportunity to commit to robust hard and soft upskilling, with the professional at the core. 

He said, “AI will probably have an impact in automating some tasks within IT like vulnerability scanning, log analysis and others, that are important but also repeatable. 

“What will remain as valuable to the student or graduate is around critical analysis, critical thinking, problem-solving, and being able to reason in areas of uncertainty, like not knowing exactly what the attacker can do. And hence companies will still need graduates to understand and apply this skillset, while being able to use AI and take advantage of new technologies. “


For both Luttrell and O’Mahony, AI-literacy simply can not be ignored, especially among those expecting a career in a field as critical as cybersecurity. O’Mahony noted collaboration among educational institutions and companies is going to be vital in bringing young people up to speed on the topics that most affect cyber careers, such as emerging risks, as well as shifting regulatory and operational requirements.

He said, “With AI, some of the technologies that are affecting the market did not exist even months ago, so how can you help students understand what is involved or how to secure those new environments? At this point, we have to help them understand first principles and take a ‘life-long learning’ approach, so that they are able to apply their knowledge and skills in the most effective way.”

For Luttrell, “getting a foot in the door is a huge achievement”, but what organisations truly need to prioritise for their employees and long-term growth strategies, is a commitment to a mutually beneficial career progression plan. 

He explained, companies often worry about hiring early career professionals, as it may not seem like a strong investment. He said, employers bring people in, train them up and then if they choose to move on, it can impact the organisation. 

“The old mindset here is that you are spending on training and recruitment, then someone else sees all the benefits. It’s very much a zero sum mindset and I think it is the wrong one to take.

“More skilled people benefits everyone. The world is more connected and so any company that you work with or partner with can potentially affect your security as well. We have seen attacks through service providers and software supply chains, and so the number of skilled professionals in the market helps to improve the overall state of security for everyone.”

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Amazon has confirmed that three Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and one in Bahrain have been damaged by drone strikes, causing an extensive outage that is still affecting dozens of cloud computing services.

While the company didn’t provide further details on the incident, the attacks are likely part of Iran’s response to U.S. and Israeli strikes in the Middle East over the weekend.

Amazon says the drone strikes have disrupted AWS Middle East (UAE) Region (ME-CENTRAL-1) and the AWS Middle East (Bahrain) Region (ME-SOUTH-1).

“Due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, both affected regions have experienced physical impacts to infrastructure as a result of drone strikes. In the UAE, two of our facilities were directly struck, while in Bahrain, a drone strike in close proximity to one of our facilities caused physical impacts to our infrastructure,” the company said in a status page update on Monday, 4:19 PM PST.

“These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage. We are working closely with local authorities and prioritizing the safety of our personnel throughout our recovery efforts.”

At the moment, three availability zones (mec1-az2 and mec1-az3) in the UAE remain “significantly impaired,” while a third (mes1-az2) in Bahrain is still affected by a “localized power issue.”

Amazon is now restoring physical infrastructure, while also working on “multiple software-based recovery paths” that don’t require “underlying facilities being fully brought back online.” The company is also prioritizing restoring services and tools that would allow customers to back up and migrate data and applications out of the impacted regions.

Amazon also advised impacted customers to back up their data and migrate workloads to AWS regions unaffected by these issues.

“We recommend customers exercise their disaster recovery plans, recover from remote backups stored in other regions, and update their applications to direct traffic away from the affected regions,” Amazon added. “For customers requiring guidance on alternate regions, we recommend considering AWS Regions in the United States, Europe, or Asia Pacific, as appropriate for your latency and data residency requirements.”

On Monday, the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) also warned British organizations of a heightened risk of Iranian cyberattacks amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

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We’ve all got that “shelf of shame” — a graveyard of ancient laptops, tangled power bricks and printers that haven’t seen an ink cartridge since 2010. Letting this e-waste sit in your house is a waste of space, but most people assume that recycling tech requires a trip to a waste facility in the middle of nowhere. The reality is much simpler.

Major retailers like Best Buy and Staples have become drop-off hubs for your digital junk. You can walk into a store with a dead PC or a clunky old scanner and hand it over for free, regardless of where you bought it. Some of these places will even throw you a bone — like a discount on new gear or a trade-in credit — just for helping them reclaim the heavy metals and plastics that don’t belong in a landfill. It’s the easiest way to reclaim your storage space without feeling like a jerk for tossing electronics in the trash.

The only real “work” on your end is making sure you aren’t handing over your entire life history along with the hardware. Before you dump a device, you need to do a legitimate data wipe — not just drag files to the trash can. A 10-minute factory reset or a dedicated drive-scrubbing tool ensures your old tax returns and saved passwords don’t become someone else’s property. Stop acting like you’re going to “fix” that laptop from 2015 and let a professional recycler break it down for parts instead.

What to do before you recycle your old computer

Wherever you take or mail in your items to be recycled, you’ll want to protect your data by removing it as best you can. One way to do this is to perform a factory reset on your computer. Our guide walks you through the process.

Where to recycle your old printers and computers

Some retail stores will accept computers and printers for recycling, but it’s not always a free service. Policies vary by company.

Apple

You can recycle your old Apple computers, monitors and peripherals, such as printers, for free at an Apple store, but there’s a costly catch. According to the Apple Free Recycling program, you must purchase a qualifying Apple computer or monitor to receive this service. Need another option? A third-party company called Gazelle buys old MacBooks to recycle them. After accepting Gazelle’s offer, you print a prepaid label or request a prepaid box and ship the machine to them.

Read more: Phone and Laptop Repair Goes Mainstream With Push From iFixit

Best Buy

Best Buy generally accepts up to three household items per household per day to be recycled for free, including desktop computers and printers, as well as other items ranging from e-readers to vacuum cleaners. While three is the limit for most items, there’s a higher limit for laptops — Best Buy will take five of those per household per day. Note that rules for dropping off monitors vary by state, and it’s not always free to do so. Best Buy also offers a mail-in recycling service for select items, but that’s also not free. A small box that holds up to 6 pounds costs $23, while a large box (up to 15 pounds) costs $30. One CNET editor recently lugged in an old, nonworking tube TV-VCR combo for e-cycling, and was happy to pay $30 to be rid of it.

Office Depot 

Office Depot and OfficeMax merged in 2013. The retailers offer a tech trade-in program both in-store and online, where you may be able to get a store gift card in exchange for your old computers and printers. If the device has no trade-in value, the company will recycle it for free. Office Depot also sells e-waste recycling boxes that you can fill with electronics to be recycled and then drop off at the stores, but they aren’t free. The small boxes cost $8.39 and hold up to 20 pounds, the medium ones cost $18.29 and hold up to 40 pounds, and the large boxes cost $28 and hold up to 60 pounds.

Staples 

You can bring your old desktop computers, laptops, printers and more to the Staples checkout counter to be recycled for free, even if they weren’t purchased there. According to a Staples rep, the retailer also has a free at-home battery recycling box, which has led customers to recycle thousands of batteries per week, up from an earlier average of 50 per week. Here’s a list of everything that can be recycled at Staples.

Watch this: Give Your Old Phone a Second Life: The Right Way to Recycle and Reuse It

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Where to find electronics recycling centers

If you don’t live near a major retailer or would rather take your computers and printers to a recycling center, you can locate places near you by using search tools provided by Earth911 and the Consumer Technology Association.

Earth911

Use the recycling center search function on Earth911 to find recycling centers near your ZIP code that accept laptops, desktops and printers. Note that the results may also turn up places that accept mobile phones and not computers or printers, so you may have to do a little filtering.

Greener Gadgets

Consult the Consumer Technology Association’s Greener Gadgets Recycle Locator to find local recycling centers in your area that will take old items. The search function also allows you to filter the results to separately hunt for places that take computers versus printers.