The hottest story in Singapore over the weekend was Jack Neo affair with the model Wendy Chong.
There isn't much online coverage of the whole incident online. It could be SPH wanted everybody to buy more evening newspaper. However, internet doesn't define the country boundary clearly. You can find more details in Malaysia newspaper.
梁智强漏夜搬家 住酒店避风头
This gives a pretty good idea of the related news.
Google has finally unveil the Nexus One android phone which it design together with HTC. The phone would carry the Google brand and also HTC brand. Google would sell the phone online and it is possible to ship to Singapore! for a cost of USD529.
Would you be tempted to buy? The phone offer some interesting feature such as live wallpaper, but there is nothing significantly different than those available on the market. The lack of new features and multi touch make engadget calls it unexciting. Read the review at engadget site.
Google participated in the design of total experience of the phone, hoping to improve the user experience. The hardware was managed by HTC. Despite of that, there is no distinctive cutting edge feature that would wow the crowd. Compare to Apple who manage the total experience in every single detail, Apple would continue to have consumer mind share.
The sugar price in Malaysia is set to be increased after government annouced the reduced amount of subsidy. The international price of sugar has increased a lot, but not in malaysia, due to the subsidy.
Another reason cited was to discourage excessive sugar consumption which contribute to illnesses.
In my view, the reduce or even abolishment of sugar subsidy is good for the long run. Although subsidy keep the price low, it distort the supply and demand. This in term, create other problems. Malaysian consume so much sugar, I think one of the reason simply is cheap. You look at the teh tarik, how sweet it is, you would know. For the man on street, this is of course not a good news. Who would like the price hike?
The worst part is this news served as trigger point of coffee price increase. Why a small amount of increment would make coffee more expensive by 10 cents? This is not a common sense. However, the coffee shop owner would tell you beside sugar, this and that have increased, therefore they need to hike the price. What can the poor consumer do?
The most interesting news for this week is the new iPhone launch for M1 and Starhub. After Starhub includes a 12GB data bundle, M1 and Singtel soon caught up. Of course the ultimate winner is consumer. Finally, competition brings advantage to consumer.
Looking at monthly price alone, M1 offers the best price which is just $36. Unless you call frequently, most people would opt for this plan.
I would consider my option later.
Looking at the response on the news so far, I guess not only I am surprised and worried about the incident(although I don't have starhub cable). The consensus is it is bad for consumer.
On the hardware,
You have to install both starhub cable set top box and mio tv box. You also have to juggle between the remote controls.
On competition,
It is definitely bad competition. A competition that does not benefit anyone, except the EPL telecast owner. Starhub would lose subscriber, Singtel lose money to lure subscriber, consumer pay the extra cost. Because they got the exclusive right, consumer is held to ransom, maybe not now but in the next few years. Somebody has to pay the bill right
On regulation,
MDA says they would look into the matter, but I doubt anything would be done on this. This is ultimately commercial decision, and it is free competition world. But, really, consumer would not benefit.
On future,
Judging at the public outcry, Singtel would keep the cost on par with old starhub fee for the moment. Then, gradually increase the price over the years. Another way is they use other way to milk the consumer. At the end of the day, somebody has to pay for it and it would be consumer. The overall cost would go up slightly, if you still want your existing starhub and you have to pay for the mio tv also. Of course, if you don't watch soccer, then congratulations, you are not part of the equation.
Overall, something has to be done to stop this unhealthy "competition".
Singtel won the right to telecast English Premier League (EPL) for the next three seasons. The soccer fan can look forward to some price increase, despite Singtel saying the price would be kept affordable and comparable to last time.
Over the years, EPL has grown as a money spinner. The club keep splashing money to buy star players and increase the attractiveness of their game play. This help them to sell more shirt and TV broadcasting right. More fans are attracted to the EPL which keep up the demand for live game telecast. The pay TV operator buy the exclusive telecast right to lock in the subscriber. However, at the end of the day, it is the soccer fans who are financing all these.
The two pay TV operator compete for the exclusive right to air the live soccer match, so they raised their bid. Once they won the bid, the fans are made to pay for it. This is a special case where competition does not introduce cheaper service. The more intense the competition, the more you need to pay for future viewing right.
Like it or not. After end of Sep, the Giro auto top up facility of ezLink no longer comes free. It has already cause some discontent, when people trying to take away free facility to become charging service.
1. The application would take 21 days, instead of almost instant application previously
2. It only works with DBS and POSB
3. The most important part is there is a convenience fee of 0.25 per top up, like the credit card
Of course, people can come up with reason to justify the fee. But, as a consumer, that is no good. Again, like it or not, it is a fact now and we have to do away with the auto top up.
The shocking football news of the weekend has to be Michael Owen moving to Manchester United. Because of the rivalry between the two clubs. The fans would have hard feeling that the previous idol has moved to the rival club.
But Owen as a professional and out of contract, the decision is not hard to make. When you are out and nobody wants you, you would bounce on every single chance, especially the big club like Man U. Therefore, he has became a Man U player!
All the best to him and next season would be an interesting one.
After the first iPhone, we know the mobile phone industry was never the same again. Sadly, the change is happened slowly than expected. As HTC launched the second Android in Singapore for all three carriers - Magic, consumer has more choices now.
The so called smartphone space is getting so much crowded now, with Palm Pre launched in US also. I am quite excited because 18 android phone is scheduled for this year. Excited in the sense that consumer has more choices and no need to pay the sky high price.
Waiting for the upcoming Android phone and more price slashed, before changing my current one.
Few weeks ago, if you ask me about swine flu, I would give you a stare. By now, almost everybody on this planet know what it is and the impact. Potentially, it could spread before being detected, that makes it more dangerous than the SARS. Everybody should take care of himself/herself, should not go to work when feeling unwell.
However, this swine flu, has nothing to do with pig. At least the pig hasn't got it. Don't know who named it swine flu, but the correct name should be H1N1 strain of virus which is a combination of pig+bird+human virus. Sounds sophisticated.
In Singapore, a place where things are expensive, where the food price and rent remain high, the transport cost is going down! It is hard to believe, but it is real and it starts on 1 Apr 2009.
The adjustment is as follow:
2cts down for single trip
10cts more for transfer
Transfer rebate used to be 25cts only, was hiked just recently to 40cts, but now is going to 50cts. That's a lot and it makes it worth to take public transport and transfer between mrt and bus. I think it makes sense, the price adjustment. After all, the oil price has dropped so much and ridership increased so much.
Make it cheap and attract more people to ride. Sell more advertisement and everybody happy.
In the current MWC (Mobile World Congress), the phone manufacturers show off many soon to release new models. Although the economy situation is getting worse everyday, the mobile competition only get hots up.
iPhone lead the pack two years ago, due to its usability and innovation. Finally, the others are catching up. Google have Android in the pocket, after HTC Dream, the next Magic is going to be revealed. Hopefully, more manufacturer would adopt the new OS and provide more choices for consumer.
Nokia end, they are working on symbian variance of the smart phone. The E-series is quite popular nowadays. There should be greater push from them to gain more market share. Even Palm also reveil their own version of new OS to counter the iPhone and Android.
The old dog Windows Mobile is fighting back with new OS version 6.5. To deliver functionalities that are better than the old version and work better with finger only. You have iPhone, Android, Palm, WM, Symbian, so many to choose from in the future.
I am still holding out for a "better" phone. If not better functionalities, then better price. The longer you wait, the more value you get.
It was in the news today. Serangoon is going to get a huge mall which is bigger than AMK Hub and Junction 8 combined. Following are the features:
24 hours retail and food outlet
10 screen cineplex
games arcade
pet lovers' enclave
big foodcourt
hypermarket
departmental store
The whole project is worth 1.3 billion.
Although I do not live there, but the news itself is interesting to draw my attention. Because where do you see a neighbourhood shopping centre which is this large? If you look at Lot 1 or old Northpoint, the floor area is actually very small. Maybe they think there is not many customer at the HDB.
I went to my friend's house at Kovan Melody. To my surprise, the Kovan mall has a huge crowd, although the mall itself is very very small. That might explain why are they building a big mall in Serangoon. Because there are many residents there? and the surrounding Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Hougang would supply customer also?
Anyway, I think it would be a huge success when it is completed. By the time, financial crissis might already end and everybody is ready to spend again!
People always say competition is a good thing. Looks like that's really the case with web browser. Remember the days where IE squeezed out Netscape, we are forced to rely solely on IE. There after, it came Mozilla with Firefox which "take back the web".
I have been using Firefox since version 1, till now, no regret. It is a piece of great work. The very recent firefox 3 even got a world record under belt. Compare to Firefox 3 vs IE7. Firefox is a clear choice. IE is too bloated, slow and more security problem. Although, browser like Opera, Safari are still in the game, the market share is still very small.
The entrance of Google might just change the game. They have come up with something new and relevant. They also got the marketing strategy right. That is to educate the user, what works behind the scene. Trying to get user to appreciate how good it is and cultivate the loyalty.
I just downloaded the Chrome browser, it looks pretty good and fast. Whether I would ditch my firefox remain to be seen. IE8 release is around the corner. Hopefully, as the competition intensified, we would get better user experience.
Malaysia is a country full of surprises. Now, the hottest topic in the country is about Proton Perdana maintenance fee. The story started when Terrenganu government wants to buy Mercedes as official car. They argued the car is of poor quality and 4 years maintenance fee is about 117 million ringgit.
The figure is stunning. Anyone with a logical mind would immediately think it is enough to buy how many new cars already? Can the car maintenance fee go to this extent? I think most probably everyone would have a common answer. We hope the truth would be revealed eventually. How could maintenance fee cost so much?
Another interesting issue that it brought up is whether Proton car quality. Is it so poor in quality?
The iPhone 3G is the one of the hottest topic in town. After one year of the original version, Apple has renewed itself by launching a new model which is highly anticipated. It is poised to take over the world by storm, because of the new feature and price. Who was pissed off by the price would now seriously consider it.
What has other manufacturer done to counter this? Little actually. 1 year since the original iPhone. Nothing has surfaced that could give Apple a run for its money. We actually didn't even see a close imitation of Apple unique interface. The multi touch screen is still sort of Apple only feature. Other brand still stop at the single touch and stylus base interaction.
Usability to them is still a "I give you" affair. They haven't really think how to make the user interface more intuitive. Although I would say the touch screen keypad isn't really so user friendly either. Well, we shall see, another year down the road and what would happen to the mobile market.
The firefox 3 would be released officially tomorrow. Should be tomorrow night I think, because it is US time.
I have been using the firefox 3 release candidate 1 for quite a few weeks. It was pretty stable and fast. So, the official version 3 should be good for everyone. For those that has never tried before, give it a try, you would ditch the IE afterwards.
Some new features include speed improvement, new download manager, smart bookmark and address bar, searchable bookmark etc. There is even a detailed guide for it : http://www.dria.org/wordpress/archives/2008/06/12/655/
Give it a try.
After a long wait, should be more than 1 year, the wall has fallen for the handphone number restriction. From now on, your number would follow you every where. Meaning that you can change the service provider as you wish, without having to bother about informing your friends.
This is a good news to consumer as we finally have full freedom to choose. You can argued that we can still change service company last time, but that was not without the hassle.
The competition is intense, but the new price plans do not seems to really match the hype surrounded by the event. I tend to agree to analyst command, change would be slow and sure to happen.
I am actually waiting for the iPhone 3G to arrive, before ditching my current phone. It is appealing that a convergence device that can do all the things you want. However, since it is heavily subsidized, we have to see the service plan cost first. I hope it would be something affordable. Just a few months more, we shall see more changes.
This was a remarkable week. Malaysia government decided to increase the oil price suddenly. We all know at some point, the price increase is inevitable. But, clearly, the timing of the event, disappoint everyone.
From the discussion of banning foreign vehicle for the cheap petrol to the methodology of imposing the ban, it shows again people talk loud without thinking. I think that's the culture embedded in the Malaysia administrative people now. When they see or thought something, they quickly shout it out, without careful thinking process.
First, the ban of foreign vehicle for the cheap petrol is difficult to execute. That brings a few round of hu ha. Then, out of sudden, the petrol price is to increase overnight. The outrage and the disbelief on the ground is high. The increase should be done gradually for people to at least plan for it. We have more to see in the August when further measure would be announced. Not sure what are they going to come up with.
For now, everyone should start to change their driving pattern. At the land of poor public transport system, driving is not really an option, it is a must. That's why everybody owns a car. To cope with the high oil price, people should start thinking of car sharing or downsize the car. Radical approach has to be taken to save the pocket. Or tighten the belt.
The photos were taken at the end of Mar when woodlands area was having traffic jam because of the tight security measure.
As early as morning 7:30am, the queue started to build well before the Woodlands centre area.
I alighted at the junction.
Walked some distance to reach the centre area.
Queue beside the centre area.
