Latest news with #FPS
RTHK
2 days ago
- Business
- RTHK
HKers can use FPS for payments up north from Sunday
HKers can use FPS for payments up north from Sunday HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue says Payment Connect will allow local residents to make transfers of small sums in a much simpler way. Photo: RTHK China's central bank governor Pan Gongsheng hails Payment Connect as a milestone in deepening financial connectivity between Hong Kong and the mainland. Photo: RTHK Residents from Hong Kong and the mainland will soon be able to use a new fast payment tool to conduct cross-border transactions involving small sums in real time from Sunday, with monetary authorities from both sides hailing the launch as a milestone in deepening connectivity. The announcement came after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's launch on Friday of the cross-border payment method, Payment Connect, which links its electronic payment network – Faster Payment System (FPS) – with the mainland's Internet Banking Payment System. The linkage allows cross-bank transactions using simply the recipients' mobile numbers or account numbers, with small-value payments settled instantly at any time. "I'm very much looking forward to Sunday when we will further connect the fast payment systems between Hong Kong and the mainland using Payment Connect, as it breaks through the boundaries of time and place," HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue said at the launching ceremony in Beijing. "Residents from both places will only need to click on our phones, enter the recipient's mobile phone number, and they can easily make small personal remittances or pay for various living expenses [using it], achieving simple and immediate transfers," he said, adding that the FPS system has been very popular among Hong Kong residents since 2018. Under the new service, residents can use FPS to transfer small sums of up to HK$10,000 each day per account to the mainland, while the total annual remittance limit is set at HK$200,000. And such transfers will not affect another 80,000 yuan of northbound daily quota set for local residents. While there's no limit set for mainland residents using the tool for southbound transfers, they will still be subject to the current annual foreign exchange quota of US$50,000 per person. The launch of the tool also comes as the number of FPS users closes on 17 million, with one million new accounts being set up in the first five months of the year. The number of registered users is far more than the total population of Hong Kong as an individual can have more than one account. For his part, People's Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng said the launch marks another milestone in the deepening of financial connectivity between Hong Kong and the mainland, as Beijing highly values the SAR as a global financial centre. "The cross-border Payment Connect, which is directly connected to the infrastructure of the monetary authorities of the two places, provides online fast bilateral local currency and bilateral renminbi remittance services for residents of the two places, which will further enhance the efficiency and experience of cross-border payments," he said. "It'll also provide conveniences for economic and trade cooperation as well as personnel exchanges between Hong Kong and the mainland, injecting new vitality into Hong Kong's development while further promoting the cross-border adoption of the renminbi," he added. The two sides have been working on the service since August. The new tool will see six SAR banks join the first batch of institutions to provide such services – Bank of China (Hong Kong), HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Bank of East Asia, as well as two state-backed lenders. There'll also be six mainland banks supporting the tool.
Geek Culture
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
‘Borderlands 4' Goes Back To Series Roots, Even As Gearbox Software Expands Core Concepts
In the crowded first-person shooter (FPS) genre filled with overly serious military simulators, hectic multiplayer PvP experiences, and nostalgic boomer shooters, one franchise stands out and above because of the absolute nonsense it brings to the battlefield – Gearbox Software's Borderlands . While many IPs struggle to find that balance between providing an engaging narrative alongside solid gameplay fundamentals, while not being too reliant on a multiplayer aspect to keep a player engaged in the long run, Borderlands' three mainline entries and two spin-offs have provided an addictive gameplay loop alongside an engaging narrative to boot, balancing equal parts humour and drama. Granted, some changes have sat better with fans since its 2009 debut, especially with the last mainline entry, 2019's Borderlands 3 , drawing criticism for its writing, in part due to the game's influencer-like main villain duo, the Calypso Twins leading the game's overall tone which tried to cater to a target audience that didn't exist. Well, fans would be glad to know that the criticisms did not go unnoticed by the studio, because with its upcoming sequel, Borderlands 4 , the studio is going all out to ensure that the highly anticipated outing not only makes an effort to ground the series to a level that fans can appreciate. ' Borderlands has always been in the borderland between drama and comedy, there's its centre line that has always been serious, and on the fringes it was ridiculous,' explains Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford during an exclusive interview with Geek Culture alongside an accompanying preview session. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford (far left), Gearbox Global Creative Executive Officer Andrew Reiner (far right) 'But it's neither, it's never been either a drama or a comedy, but it's both of that. It's this weird thing in between, and that's what Borderlands is, it's always the in-between space of things that don't belong together.' As a series, Borderlands has always leveraged its humour as a selling point, constantly ramping up the ridiculousness with every entry, and while this growth has seen its share of hits and misses, the team has taken it all as a learning experience. 'I think Borderlands 1 was probably the most serious version of Borderlands , and Borderlands 3 was probably the most ridiculous.' Pitchford adds, 'The more we've done, the more experience we have, and I think we now know the right place to dial in Borderlands 4 for where we are at this time and place, and that's where we're at now.' At the core of the Borderlands experience lies its jokes, an area where the third entry unfortunately fell flat due to its focus on quantity over quality. To this end, the game's narrative director, Sam Winkler, previously teased that the game would feature 'more situational' humour this time around, a point that we asked Pitchford to elaborate on. 'In the past, there was a moment when we felt like we would do a lot of jokes at once, because different jokes would hit for different people, and because not everyone has the same taste and humour, so we thought we'd just machine gun it,' Pitchford explains. 'And that kind of works, because if you tell 20 jokes, one of them will hit, but there's also something to be said for the experience of feeling the 19 that didn't.' 'So I think in this context, we've been a lot more surgical and measured this time around,' he adds. 'I think what Sam was speaking to is a better coordination between narrative storytelling and writing with natural elements like the environment, the situation and gameplay construction. And I think that's a really cool thing.' To put this into context, an example of the Bloodwing fight in Borderlands 2 was brought up. For the uninitiated, Bloodwing was the loyal companion of Mordecai, one of the four main characters in the first game, who was unfortunately captured and mutated by the second game's villain, Handsome Jack, forcing both Mordecai and the player character to fight and kill the corrupted beast, a moment that served as a significant emotional moment in the game. As messed up as the situation may seem, there was something innately humorous about the whole situation, infusing the series with a special kind of dark comedy that makes a player question why they were forced to fight such a well-known character, building on equal parts astonishment and disbelief in the moment to make players crack a regretful smile. According to Pitchford, it's this natural (and sometimes unintentional) integration of humour into moment-to-moment gameplay that will drive Borderlands 4's comedy forward. 'Every experience adds up,' says Pitchford, who admits that even though the development of Borderlands 4 was not affected by the rather poor reception of the third title, both its criticism and praise and their effect on the team were impossible to deny, who used these learning lessons to craft a much more formidable, and less annoying, villain this time around: The Timekeeper. Borderlands 4 takes place on Kairos, a once-hidden planet ruled with an iron fist by the mysterious Timekeeper, a being of immense power in command of a vast army of synthetic enforcers known as The Order. According to Pitchford, the Timekeeper marks the franchise's most serious antagonist to date, which is certainly an interesting twist in tone. 'I don't think he has ever told a joke. If this is a smile, the Timekeeper probably hasn't even done this.' Pitchford explains, as he cracks the most forced smile he could muster as a reference. 'He is intelligent, calculated, in your face right out of the gates, and a serious threat. He's no joke. Darth Vader? That guy cracks more jokes.' It will be interesting to see how a shift to a completely serious main antagonist will affect the game's overall comedic element, although chances are, it will be delegated to the four new Vault Hunters (Vex, Rafa, Amon, and Harlowe) and their interactions with their various allies and foes. It's this return to the traditional four pre-set characters that marks yet another way Borderlands 4 is doubling down on series roots, even as the team also expands upon this sequel's scale, story, and comedic elements. Alas, this means that the franchise's updated character customisation, introduced in 2022's Tiny Tina's Wonderlands spin-off , which allowed the tailoring of a character's looks, along with a player's ability to mix and match classes to suit every playstyle, won't be seen here. While it marked a refreshing and well-received switch by the fanbase, due to the added gameplay flexibility and personalisation it provided, the team decided to return to the traditional method of only allowing the choice between four pre-set characters. Why? For Pitchford, allowing players the freedom to create an original character diminished one important aspect of its story – the element of playing out a superhero fantasy. 'With Wonderlands , the strategy was leaning into what we fantasise about when we think about playing fantasy role-playing games, how part of the joy is crafting your character,' he explains. 'In Borderlands , we don't have that same wish. The thing we are offering instead is the ability to become one of the characters that are integral to the storyline, to be a superhero. If we could all create our own superheroes, then all of the superheroes would be diminished.' And while some fans might be disappointed that they won't be able to create their own Vault Hunter in the game, the logic is sound, considering the game's lore. Pandora was always a dangerous place, and Kairos looks to be even more so, making the four new Vault Hunters the proverbial cream of the crop, the only ones badass enough to survive and thrive in the harsh world where so many other would-be treasure hunter enthusiasts have failed. Having a choice of pre-set characters ensures that each possesses a unique personality, something that's difficult to pull off when opting for a creation system seen in Wonderlands . Furthermore, the team has also made steps to properly establish the player character's presence in the game's storyline this time around. And while Borderlands 3 faced criticism for leaving the player character on the sidelines, with its story playing out like it was independent of the main protagonist rather than them actively being a part of it, Borderlands 4 is set to focus heavily on the player character, and rightfully so. For the first time in the series' history, the player will not only physically appear in cutscenes, but also accurately reflect a chosen outfit, which will probably lead to hilarious interactions considering how wacky some of the game's costumes can get. With the improvements and reworks of its story, characters and humour, that leaves one other major aspect of the game that has been developed from scratch – its world. Instead of exploring the vast and diverse landscapes of Pandora, or in Promethea, Athenas or Eden-6, Borderlands 4 is shifting gears and dropping players on the brand-new planet of Kairos. And despite focusing on a single planet this time around, the game promises the most diverse and expansive environments to date. 'In terms of square footage, Borderlands 4 has more than all of the previous games added together – it's massive,' states Pitchford when asked about how the game's scale compares to Borderlands 3 , which back then was the franchise's most environmentally diverse title with its inclusion of multiple planets to explore. 'In terms of diversity of environment, well, again, Borderlands 4 is at the top of the game. Yes, each planet in Borderlands 3 had some different, distinct set pieces and environments, but that was integral to the game's story. Borderlands 4 is about this legendary planet of Kairos that's been locked away for thousands of years, which has more vaults than any other planet in the universe. So it's a whole different story conceit, everything happens on this planet, with the struggle between the dictators controlling the planet and everyone's desire for freedom being the backdrop.' So, how does this translate to more meaningful exploration and discovery? For Gearbox Global Creative Executive Officer Andrew Reiner, it's all about creating player agency within the game's sandbox. 'Another big distinction in Borderlands 4 is that we're not just creating vistas and backdrops,' he adds, 'You can physically get everywhere in this world. You see a crashed ship on a hillside? It's not just there as something to look at and say 'Oh, that's cool'. You can get up there if you want, everything is free to explore and experience.' Even from early impressions, it's clear that Borderlands 4 is doubling down on the franchise's madness. We've already seen this in effect via our extended gameplay preview, but this looks to be the case for its narrative elements as well, with all signs pointing to a title that will put the series back on track while making meaningful adjustments. Let's just hope that most of its jokes will hit this time around, and that Claptrap will remain just as annoying as ever. Never change, Claptrap. Borderlands 4 will launch on 12 September 2025 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, with a release on the Nintendo Switch 2 arriving later in the year. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. 2K Games Borderlands Borderlands 4 Gearbox Software Geek Interview
Hans India
4 days ago
- Business
- Hans India
Frustrated beneficiaries succumb to FPS dealers: Even sanna biyyam not insulated from black-marketing
Hyderabad: As the state government, with much fanfare, started distributing three-months' worth ration in June itself in view of the rainy season, many Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealers turned this laudable initiative into an opportunity to divert even the fine rice (sanna biyyam) to black market. That way, the FPS dealers are back to their old tricks and new ones practically with the connivance of 'beneficiaries' whose struggle to lay hands on the rice makes it easier for them to cash in on it at Rs 10 per kg at the FPS shop itself. Furthermore, several of those who have already received the fine rice are said to be selling the rice away for Rs 20 per kg in open markets! All this has made a mockery of the much tom-tommed initiative, which will cost the exchequer around Rs 13,523 crore annually. However, by making it very complicated for beneficiaries to access the fine rice, FPS dealers in several parts of Hyderabad, citing lame excuses like 'server down', are creating a situation wherein beneficiaries are forced to accept cash at Rs 10 per kg instead of waiting for a long time in queues. On record, the state government has rules and procedures designed to curb black-marketing of PDS rice; yet, even fine rice, despite its potential to become a political punchbag, is being illegally diverted to open markets. Further, ration shop dealers in some places are creating artificial scarcity in the wake of the three-months' ration distribution plan. For instance, in Tolichowki's Nizam colony, the beneficiaries queue up from the early hours and wait till the dealer arrives and opens his shop. Thanks to three separate authentications and weighing processes mandated for receiving the three-months' ration, the waiting period at the ration shops is around three hours. Even then, only the 'lucky' ones get ration while other beneficiaries are callously asked to visit again. Moreover, FPS dealers are turning beneficiaries away citing server issues, or worse still, unavailability of stock. 'It is a peculiar situation here as only a handful get the ration and others are asked to come during the afternoon or next day. Ironically, those who do not wish to stand in long queues and want money are being offered cash by the dealers. They jump the queue, provide their biometrics and take cash at Rs 10 per kg from the dealer. This is being encouraged at our FPS,' complains P Srinivas Goud, an apartment watchman. While in other places like the Film Nagar area, although things are much easier, there is a bleak chance of getting ration on the first day. The beneficiaries get a token with a date and time at which they may receive the ration. Interestingly, lured by the scope to monetize their ration quota, most people do not bother to stand in queues and await their turn, resulting in widened scope for black-marketing. Locals say even those, who have managed to receive sanna biyyam from ration shops, are preferring to sell it away at Rs 20 per kg in open markets. 'It is no longer a secret that people are selling this rice at Rs 20 in markets,' pointed out Rahmat Begam, a domestic help and resident of Film Nagar area. However, officials maintain that to ensure effective communication at the grassroots level, all FPS dealers have been instructed to clearly display or communicate the updated ration distribution schedule to the public through appropriate means at their outlets. Strict compliance has been directed, and field officers are supposed to monitor the implementation to ensure that accurate information reaches all beneficiaries. In April, Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the decision to distribute fine rice was taken after several studies revealed that the coarse variety distributed earlier was either left unused or sold in the black market. The government has targeted distribution of 30 lakh metric tonnes of fine rice every year. But sadly, FPS dealers are inventing new ways to divert the fine rice to open markets. It's high time the government plugs the leakages.
The Hindu
4 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Deadline for ration card holders to complete e-KYC extended till June 30
The deadline for the completion of mandatory Aadhaar-based biometric e-KYC has now been extended till June 30, in Mysuru district. According to the district administration, out of 23,00,380 ration card beneficiaries, 47,334 members are yet to complete the e-KYC process. Lists of such individuals have been displayed at their respective Fair Price Shops (FPS). To complete e-KYC, beneficiaries must visit the nearest FPS with documents such as ration card, Aadhaar card, LPG connection book and caste certificate. They should undergo biometric authentication at the shop. The administration has clarified that the entire process is free of cost. Deputy Commissioner G. Lakshmikanth Reddy has urged pending beneficiaries to complete the process promptly to avoid disruption in receiving benefits under the Public Distribution System.
South China Morning Post
6 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong man scammed out of HK$4,900 trying to buy Blackpink tickets
A 25-year-old Hong Kong man was scammed out of HK$4,900 (US$624) when trying to buy two tickets for Blackpink's pair of concerts in the city next year, as police received 200 reports related to online shopping scams in the past week. Advertisement The victims in those cases were cheated out of HK$5.5 million in total, according to the force's CyberDefender anti-scam Facebook page that posted an advisory on Saturday warning residents to be vigilant when making purchases online. Of the recent reports, 14 were linked to Threads, with 10 cases related to concert tickets, the force said. It cited one case in which a 25-year-old man fell victim to a scam while trying to buy tickets for Blackpink's concerts at Kai Tak Stadium next year. '[He] saw someone selling two Blackpink concert tickets on Threads and contacted the person through an associated Instagram account. The victim did not hesitate to transfer HK$4,900 to the other party's account via FPS in exchange for a dynamic QR code for the concert's e-tickets,' police said. Advertisement The force asked online shoppers to check the seller's account information including the date the account was created and comments posted by users, meeting in person to carry out the transaction when possible and calling off the deal if any doubts arise.
