Mongolia-Canada roundtable meeting held in Ulaanbaatar www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The 8th Roundtable Meeting on Intergovernmental Cooperation of Mongolia and Canada was held in Ulaanbaatar on June 4. The meeting was chaired by D.Sumiyabazar, Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry of Mongolia, and Donald Bobiash, Assistant Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Canada.

Hunnu Air leases Embraer E-190 aircraft www.news.mn

CDB Aviation has delivered an Embraer E-190 aircraft to Mongolia’s Hunnu Air to support the carrier’s domestic and regional operations. It is part of a fleet of four leased E-190s from CDB based on an agreement first announced in February 2019.

EU supporting Mongolian yak and wool production www.news.mn

An EU-funded initiative is to support the development of the yak and camel wool trade in Mongolia, helping to improve access to international markets and the formation of partnerships with foreign companies.

3x3 basketball players of 34 countries competing at the main square of Ulaanbaatar www.montsame.mn

The FIBA 3x3 U18 World Cup started at the Sukhbaatar Square yesterday on June 3.

Mongolia-Kazakhstan business meeting taking place www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Mongolia-Kazakhstan business meeting started today at Blue Sky hotel. More than 20 representatives of 11 companies from Kazakhstan in food production, heavy machinery, tech assembly, pharmacy, construction and automotive manufacturing are participating in the business meeting being held by the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI), the Foreign Trade Chamber of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development of Kazakhstan and the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan ‘Atameken’.

Mongolia's capital safer for foreign tourists with student volunteers www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, June 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of 40 selected students are working in the Mongolian capital as volunteers to provide information services for foreign tourists as part of local efforts to boost tourism, according to a local official Tuesday.

Digital Business Conference 2019: June 14, 2019 National Information Technology Park, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia www.mongolianbusinessdatabase.com

What kind of digital skills are required for competing in the digital era? Do you think you know how to get the best from your people? Or do you know how do investments in your employees actually affect workforce performance? Who are your top performers? Leading-edge companies are increasingly adopting sophisticated methods of analyzing employee data to enhance their competitive advantage. Digital Business Conference 2019 will cover latest topics addressing challenges facing HR managers today.

Apple dissolves iTunes into new apps www.bbc.com

Apple has announced that iTunes is to be replaced by Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV.

There had been speculation that the tech giant was planning to shutter the music service it launched in 2001.

The firm also revealed a number of new privacy measures at its annual developer conference in San Jose.

A new sign-in will be an alternative to logging into apps using social media accounts, hiding the user's email address and data.

iTunes will remain unchanged on Windows platforms.

The announcements were made at the WWDC conference, where the tech giant outlines its software plans for the months ahead.

Apple's new sign in includes an email address-hiding function
Apple announced several new privacy measures, building on last year's event where it pledged to jam Facebook's tracking tools.

"Privacy is a fundamental human right," said Apple's software chief Craig Federighi.

He said that there will be an option for apps which request location information to have to ask every time they require it, and they will be blocked from using other markers, such as identifying Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signals.

Apple is also launching a sign-in-with-Apple login, as an alternative to logging in to a service using a social media account.

Using this login, users can choose to hide their email address, with Apple creating a random alternative address which will forward to the real mailbox.

"The unveiling of 'Sign-in With Apple' will concern rivals, particularly the web giants," commented Ben Wood from CCS Insight.

"Existing sign-in services provide a simple means for single sign-in across the web. Privacy is the differentiator that will be heavily emphasised versus Facebook and Google, and represents a great marketing tool for Apple's broader privacy stance."

The next iteration of the iPhone's operating system - iOS 13 - includes a range of changes to its interface, as well as new functions.

The new Dark Mode enables iPhone apps to be viewed with a black background, while the Apple Maps app will come with a virtual tour experience similar to Google's Street View.

Other key features include the option to silence unknown callers and block senders within the Mail app, improved search in messages, and optimised battery charging.

Apple has also made improvements to its language keyboards, including the introduction of new bilingual keyboards and typing predictions for Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Cantonese, Vietnamese and the 22 official Indian languages.

The Find My iPhone and Find My Friends apps will now track and locate any Apple device, even if it is offline
Apple says it travelled 4 million miles by car and aeroplane in order to improve the detail on its maps app
The new Apple TV screensaver will feature 4K high definition images from under the ocean filmed in collaboration with the BBC Natural History Unit, which made Blue Planet
Improvements to Apple's Memojis - a form of 3D avatar - were demonstrated in a video made by beauty vloggers Desi Perkins and Patrick Starrr. They now include more accessories such as piercings and make-up

The Apple Watch is to become more independent from the iPhone with its own app store.

New apps for the Watch include a menstrual cycle tracker, with an optional fertility window predictor, and a noise level tool to alert Watch wearers when they are around noise levels that can damage hearing.

Apple said it would not record or store the noise data.

The tech giant also unveiled a redesigned Mac Pro complete with a 28-core Intel processor and 6k retina display screen, which is 40% larger than the current iMac display screen.

It will launch in the autumn with prices starting at $5,999 (£4,700) - this does not include the screen or stand.

And instead of buying additional monitors, existing Mac users will now be able to use the iPad as a second screen.

Tuong Nguyen, senior principal analyst at Gartner, said this year's event had a different feel to its predecessors, following on from Apple's last announcements which saw it reposition itself as a provider of services, rather than hardware.

"Typically at WWDC you might see it begin with something interesting, in terms of how devices are used or how apps interact, but this time it kicked off with a video that looked more like a movie trailer," he said.

"Is this the new way we should see Apple events, more rooted in the media content side of things, rather than the strong emphasis on technology and hardware innovation?

"Remember, the last event was all about services and content - this may be the new way that Apple differentiates itself."

Success in Asian Qualifiers crucial for Mongolia's progress www.the-afc.com

Mongolia have never advanced beyond the first phase of qualifying for either tournament and take on Brunei Darussalam over two legs on Thursday and Tuesday hoping to notch up a victory that secures the country a place in the draw for Qatar 2022 and the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.

The winners will join the likes of Australia, Japan, Korea Republic, Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia in the second phase and the prospect of facing one of the Continent’s giants, believes Souissi, will give the game a much-needed boost in the landlocked East Asian nation.

“If we can qualify for the next round then we will try to bring top teams so that the crowd can come and see them,” said the Tunisian, who was recently appointed by the Mongolia Football Federation.

“We need to make the sport popular and bring big names. Then it doesn’t matter about the results, we need to promote football by bringing good names and to be able to bring people to play. And we will find that hard if we don’t qualify for the next round.

“We have to qualify because if we don’t qualify, we won’t be able to find friendly games, or strong ones anyway.”

Growing the sport – from enhancing coach education and providing more opportunities for players at all levels – are among the tasks taken on by the 64-year-old in his role as technical director and Souissi is focused on laying the foundations for future success.

Key among those is increasing the number of coaches working within the game and introducing a licensing system for teams playing in the country’s first and second divisions.

“The biggest challenge is to make football really popular so that there is more practicing of the sport because football is not that popular, to be honest,” Souissi told the-AFC.com. “It is number one in the world but it’s not in Mongolia. It maybe comes seventh or eighth in the rankings, so for the time being it’s important to have a broader base.

“And we have started already with those who are going to teach the kids, doing a lot of coach education to upgrade the level and broaden the base and try to expose them to the international game. They lack that kind of exposure. This is a lengthy process and we have started already."

“I don’t see it starting to bear some fruit for two years, and I’m being a little bit optimistic when I say this. Talent-wise there is plenty of talent, contrary to what many people think. I was pleasantly surprised, but it is at a young age. We have to work systematically at a young age.

“We don’t have many coaches. All-in-all we have something like 120 coaches, which is nothing. So now we have done some refreshers and we now have another 40, so we have about 160. It’s a big job, but that’s what tempted me.

“The progress will be quick in the beginning and then it will slow down, but at the minute we’re progressing by leaps and bounds.”

In the meantime, national team head coach Michael Weiss and his side will host the first leg of the two-game play-off on Thursday at the MFF Football Centre in Ulaanbaatar, with the return in Bandar Seri Begawan five days later.

And, with so much potentially on the line for the future of the game in Mongolia, Souissi believes playing the first leg at home will give the Blue Wolves the upper hand.

“There’s a slight advantage for us playing the first game in Mongolia,” he said. “The good thing for us is that we are in competition, because the league has started already. The players have some competition in their legs, which is really important. They have had enough time to work together and I rate our chances as really good.”

Seoul-based Rhinos Asset Management launches Mongolian subsidiary www.theinvestor.co.kr

Seoul-based investment company Rhinos Asset Management said on June 4 that it had opened a wholly owned overseas subsidiary in Mongolia a day prior.