You are here: Home / Archives for Tech

The Fiesta is Built Ford Sexy.

April 5, 2011 By View Comments

Backview. Photo taken by Tony Wong.

One morning, on my way to work, a bright orange Ford passed by that made me take a second look. I don’t remember Ford cars looking this good and I posted about it on Facebook. The next day, an email from the head of marketing at Ford Malaysia came asking if I would like to take it out for a spin and I eagerly said yes.

So after a weekend of the best Ford-play I ever had, I can tell you the Ford Fiesta is the sex. I can’t tell torque from cork but I can tell you the sound system rocks. There are two audio presets that can direct all the sound toward the driver and another that spreads it out evenly for all the passengers to enjoy.

The UI. Photo by Tony Wong.

First thing I did was paired my iPhone with the car so that I could play any song from my playlist via Bluetooth. I could also play any radio station in the world through an app called Tunein Radio. I also had Wolfgang’s Vault and Last fm going. Suddenly, the Fiesta wasn’t a car any more, it was a live rock concert in Madison Square Garden or a bar playing the smoothest jazz from Nawlins. It was incredible, I could stay in the car all day wishing the jam would last forever. Thunderstorm, bring it on.

Ford is also pushing all the right buttons by taking away a lot of the usual buttons, knobs and levers. There is no door lock thingy on each door. It’s centralized into one button on the command center (pimped out dashboard). One push and all doors are locked to outsiders but passengers can open their doors at any time. There is also no lever to open the gas tank which Ford didn’t tell me so I spent a good few minutes looking high and low for it at the gas station. The attendant helped me with it and we found that it opens from the outside and there is no cap to cover the tank, you just stick the nozzle in and pump away. Woot. No more forgetting, losing or struggling with the cap and breaking a few expensive french-manicured nails.

Talk button. Picture by Tony Wong.

I get a kick out of machines talking back at me. I only wish the voice was a guy’s, like Colin Firth’s. The Fiesta comes standard with a female voice in British accent. Kinda like the voice you hear from an answering machine, “For English, please press 1.” Voice recognition was ok. It had no trouble recognizing the numbers I say out loud but when it comes to names – slight problem, especially names in Malay, Chinese or Indian. It’s still great for answering calls, dialing numbers and talking hands-free. The voice control also lets you change radio stations, play a cd or play from an external device like an iPod, iPhone or Android. It is not Ford SYNC® but it’s close enough. No other car in this price range comes with a voice activated control.

“But what about the driving experience?” you ask. The car handles very well on the road. Pickup is gradual but fast and sometimes too fast with a little jerk forward. Have to learn how to press the accelerator. The steering is fantabulous. The few friends I have passed the keys to to test drive agrees. It was very responsive and stable at sharp corners. I could almost turn the wheel with a finger and yet it stays straight when I’m going straight.

So, do you have to trade-in a kidney to buy a Ford Fiesta? If you want to but it’s pretty a-ford-able. The only thing stopping you from taking one home today is the waiting list which can be up to 3 months depending on the color you choose. White and Aurora Blue are the best selling colors. Honestly, take the Chilli Orange. The Fiesta looks best in bright colors.

Built Ford Sexy. Picture by Tony Wong.

For more information on the Ford Fiesta, go to http://www.ford.net.my/.

Thank you Ford for a lovely experience in the Fiesta. Especially to E.S. Lee, Hazel, Steven Tan and Vivienne Huang from the Ford family. Thanks also to Tony Wong (who took photos), CW Loh, Ramesh V, Azizi J for the feedback and inspiration.

No more blind spots with this side view mirror.

Filed Under: Design, Feature, Reviews, Tech Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m Uniflying

March 19, 2011 By View Comments

Unifi high speed broadband is now in my area and I finally got it installed. What is so amazing about Unifi isn’t just faster Internet but I get what I am paying for, all 5mbps of it.

I registered sometime late February at a kiosk set up under a giant umbrella near where I live. It looked really dodgy but since the registration forms were in triplicate – typical semi-government paperwork, it must be legit. Thankfully, the registration process was fast. I was out of the umbrella in 5 minutes.

I was told I’d have to wait a month for installation. Then I got a call from TM this week (2 weeks later) saying they were bringing my installation forward and I would get it by this weekend. Nice. Thumbs up for TM. They called me again yesterday to remind me they would be coming today at 2.30pm and they called me again today at 3.30pm to see if the guys were here already. The guys did come on time and it was all done in 2 hours. Two worked on the broadband connection and two worked on the TV. Two thumbs up for TM. I am just wowed by the whole experience. I love a company with great customer service. You can never fail with great customer service.

Get Unifi, you’ll love it. Many things you can do with Unifi’s high-speed broadband:

1. Broadband TV / IPTV- 13 free channels including TED.com
2. Free VOIP calls to any fixed-line phone (yes, it’s still around) in the country.
3. Watch HD videos/movies/tv shows – streamed live on YouTube or downloaded for later

The only slack thing is the TV content. Though the channels are ala carte instead of packaged like the other pay tv station, it’s lacking in quality. Syfy isn’t what it used to be. Warner TV is probably the best of the lot. What I’d pay premium for is the Comedy Channel but I doubt we’ll ever see it on our TV. You get a few minutes of free preview into all the subscription channels before deciding on which one you’d like to subscribe to. If you have it or when you get it, let me know what are your favorite channels and happy flying.

Filed Under: Feature, Marketing, Reviews, Tech, TV Tagged With: , , , , ,

Fancy Fans

November 18, 2010 By View Comments

Sunflower Fan.

I just saw the coolest ceiling fan. Now this is what all fans should look like – which is not to look like a fan. This one here is called the sunflower fan. When not in use, the blades are folded in to look like petals and when you turn on the fan, the blades fan out into, well, a fan. Watch the video here. It looks really cool.

I’ve always imagined ceiling fans to be boring which was why I set out to buy a white ceiling fan so that it’ll blend into the white ceiling and disappear. The first shop I walked into, funny enough was called Fancy, in Uptown Damansara. They had fancy fans like this one and propeller looking fans with fancy prices in the thousands of ringgit. I was mesmerized, like a kid in Charlie’s Chocolate Factory. I wish I could take them all home but I had a boring white fan budget. Maybe one day I’ll have a fancy fan in each room of the house even though there’s an air conditioner there. I’d like them to stand out and make the ceiling look less boring.

Found a site that has more fancy fans. Check out G Squared Art. Here are two that I like.

The Artemis

The Cirque

Have you seen some really cool fans?

Filed Under: Design, Tech, video Tagged With: , , , , ,

Yes, it’s 4G.

November 11, 2010 By View Comments

Folks, the wait for YTL’s 4G service will soon be over, especially for those outside the Klang Valley and up north.

In a private event at Lot 10 last week, well, not so private after all of us checked in to Foursquare and told the world where we were, YTL Communications introduced YES, the name of the new 4G service.

It was pretty much a see-and-no-touch event. We got to see the logo and pictures of the 4 new modem/mifi/dongle/phone devices that will be rolled out with the service on November 19. What was immediately or available soon after the event was a page where folks could register for their Yes IDs.

As I was tweeting and updating Facebook with what’s happening I was getting feedback from friends. The noise was mostly on the service being called 4G. Dhillon K. wrote on my wall “It’s not 4g please don’t call it that….” Some folks on twitter started getting personally, putting all 4G service providers into a basket called blasphemy.

And today I read Zach Epstein’s article on fake 4G. He summed it up well “it’s not lies, it’s just marketing.” Yes, it’s a marketing ploy. What better way to say “new and improved” than calling it 4G. For 4G’s sake when it really comes I think it should change to a new series eg. 4X or something. Then 5X, 6X etc. The G series is kinda screwed.

So it’s fake 4G but let’s be real. I asked on Twitter, ‘Are people not going to subscribe to fake 4G even though it’s many times faster than 3G but no where near 4G standards?’

Replies:

@bytebot (Colin Charles): i think people care about speed. I don’t think people care about marketing messages. Call it whatever, just provide throughput

@yoonkit: I’m awaiting the sharp discounts / promos they do.

I agree. Speed and price will be deciding factors for a lot of us and we won’t care whether it’s called 3G, 4G or 10G. Could ITU be blamed for dragging their feet on the 4G definition? Possibly. Whether it’s 11mbps or 100mbps, the great unwashed can only understand “faster than what is currently available” and faster by how much? Like, Star-Wars-Princess-Leia-holographic-projection kind of fast or YouTube-HD-videos kind of fast? And what’s it going to cost? Whoever can deliver the value proposition clearly will win.

All that Yes has to offer will be revealed this November 19. Wing Lee, CEO of YTL Comms said Yes4G will have no strings attached. I wonder if that means no contract and no bandwidth cap. High speed broadband does not work with 3GB or 5GB bandwidth caps. If unlimited data is an unsustainable model, I hope to see the limit pushed much higher than what’s in the market now. I’ll be comfortable with 20GB – 50GB. What do you hope to see? What would make you sit up and say “now this is a broadband service that makes sense, sign me up”?

Filed Under: Business, Feature, Marketing, Tech Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Go Goggle it.

October 7, 2010 By View Comments

When Google launched Goggles this week, I had to read it twice. It looked like Google x 2.

You can find Google Goggles inside the Google Mobile App for the iPhone and the coolest thing about it is that you can now do searches by taking a picture with your iPhone. It also comes with voice search.

I’ll start with voice search. I’m not too happy with it so far. I did a search on KFC’s near me. The app had no problems hearing me but the result it brought back was KFC in Singapore, hundreds and hundreds of miles away. I was within walking distance, in fact, I was staring at a KFC and it wasn’t showing up in the search. Same thing happened when I searched for pizza. Next I searched for thechannelc and it started acting like it had trouble hearing. I got The Chelsea. One more time and I got Gretchen Rossi. Hmm. Ok, so it works very well for restaurant searches in a neighboring country now let’s try photo search.

I took a shot of a billboard and Google Goggles’ scan picked up the advertiser’s logo and instantly brought up the company’s webpage. Whoa. That was really impressive. Next I took a picture of my dog hoping Google will bring back some useful information about his breed, dog training tips or pet stores nearby but it could not recognize the image. It was my bad, I didn’t read the manual. Found out later, what works and what doesn’t from the app’s tutorial. It won’t work on animals.


I do think GG has a lot of potential. The picture search feature brings us closer to the augmented reality concept I read on Matthew Buckland’s blog where you can point your camera phone at someone’s face and see all his digital profiles like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin (including prison record) pop up on the screen. A bit like SoundHound, an app that listens to a tune and comes back with the name of the song, lyrics and a button to get it instantly from iTunes. I wonder why Google hadn’t come up with music search. Anyways, I think picture search from Google Goggles is awesome and I’m keeping an eye on it. I’m not too crazy about voice search but it’ll be interesting to see how it develops too.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: , , , , ,

I survived mass transit

August 1, 2010 By View Comments

Yesterday, I took a ride on the wild side – on a light rail transit. Here’s where you get your pockets picked, butt pinched and bag snatched – so I was warned. Thankfully, nothing like that happened even with me holding out my iphone as bait. People just turned away when I pointed the phone at them – was like vampires cowering away from a cross.

The traffic in Kuala Lumpur has gone from bad to worse or has it always been like this? I had to meet some friends in Mid Valley yesterday and I thought I’ll take the LRT instead. Last time I rode on the LRT was more than five years ago. Not knowing the train system very well, I downloaded KL Trains from the app store. I can tell you that $0.99 is a lot to pay for this app. More complicated subway maps for the iPhone are available for free. What would really add value is live notification of when a train is down and it could easily be accomplished with a feature to let users report it through the app. Other features I could think of are:

1. Letting your friends and family know where you are like Silent Bodyguard. $0.99

2. If you should fall asleep on the train, Wake Me Up Anywhere will turn on the alarm when you’re near your destination so that you don’t miss it. $1.99

3. Automatic check in to Foursquare at every train station, this may be spam to some but it’s actually a good way of telling whoever you’re meeting at a destination that you’re getting closer. No app for this yet but is it that hard to build? Once you check in to a train station, the app can pretty much remove every venue that’s not a train station and check you in to the station automatically, broadcasted to twitter or facebook or both.

And for the near future, I’d like to carry less cash and pay for my train tickets with PayPal or in some mobile currency.

Filed Under: Apps, Feature, Tech Tagged With: , , , , ,

Are we better off dead?

July 25, 2010 By View Comments

Has your loved one dreamt of owning that special home? Well she can, if not in this lifetime then there’s the next. Beautifully designed homes are now available through skea.com.tw that can be purchased online to be burnt as paper offerings.

▲ Thermal Green Hill House

▲ Bali Villa

Wherever your loved one’s soul may be after he has shuffled off his mortal coil, rest assured that the quality of her after-life is as good if not better than her living life. Material possessions, desires and addictions can all follow along. Letting go for the living could not have been easier too knowing the departed has been well provided for.

▲ Cancer in hell? Never happens.

The paper offerings industry is now making a killing as the objects of desire are updated to cater to today’s lifestyle. Gone are the mansions modeled after Ming Dynasty architecture unless the person had dreams of owning one while he was alive or she loved the period dramas on TVB. But to each his own. So why not park a yacht next to the ancient Ming styled villa. Is anyone going to question her taste?

▲ Luxury yacht

Today, you will find paper structures, modeled after designer homes complete with an SUV in the garage, jacuzzi, modern appliances like a dishwasher, 500 horse power air conditioner (we know it’s hot down there), LED tv, Sony PS3, Blu Ray player, jewelry from Tiffany’s, a wardrobe of branded outfits with matching accessories, Mac, iPad and stuff any living middle-class soul would envy. Is this really hell or paradise?

▲ Stuff to die for? You bet.

As a marketer, I keep an eye on what items have been added to the catalog. The items reflect the market segment’s needs, hopes or aspirations. Say you work for Apple Inc. and you see iPhone 4s flying off the shelves and into the fire, you know whatever you’re doing in marketing is working. Don’t need to question logic as to why a bill from AT&T (or any telco providing the data service) wasn’t burnt along with it. The living can always burn and send hell money for the dead to pay their own bills. This could really be a chore and lately with global warming on everyone’s mind, a better option might be an iPhone app call Hell Bank Notes.

The ritual of burning material items made of paper to a dearly departed has been an Asian practice for hundreds of years especially to Chinese who are Taoists.  The belief is that all life after death starts in hell, like purgatory rather than one giant torture chamber. The torture chamber is on the 18th level. There are many levels apparently though no one has been there and back to confirm this. In any case, it makes a great bedtime story.

If someone has been good while they were alive, their stay would be short before their number is called up for reincarnation. Otherwise their stay in hell could be longer than the life of planet earth itself. The best the living can do is to make sure their dearly departed soul’s stay below is as pleasant as possible so that everyone up here can sleep at night.

(This article was written by Carolyn Chan in collaboration with Chew Lin Kay – fellow explorer of life, and death?).

Filed Under: Feature, Humor, Marketing, Tech Tagged With: ,

The first local business with an offer on Foursquare

April 18, 2010 By View Comments

We finally see the first local business on foursquare to offer a mayor deal. I expected to see Starbucks or some other franchise but a food court business got there first. Amazing. Hidangan Pantai Timur, if you weren’t so far out in Kajang, I would go be mayor and support your bold move into Foursquare.

So I thought I’ll  interview the mayor to see what it’s like to claim the first Foursquare offer in Malaysia and I noticed the mayor of Hidangan Pantai Timur is also the owner of the stall, who has probably checked in no less than 19 times. If Seme continues to do so, would any of their customers be able to enjoy the offer? Seme, if you offer a mayor deal, the idea is for your customers to become the mayor, not the owner.

Some business owners have been checking in to Foursquare and using it to push out notifications and tips to promote their businesses.  Once you are ready to offer a mayor deal, could you perhaps delete your own and your staff’s checkins so that your customers can be rewarded?

Filed Under: Business, Marketing, Reviews Tagged With: , ,

iDiGi iPhone Plans – Can’t it be simpler?

April 5, 2010 By View Comments

When DiGi recently announced they would also be selling the iPhone, the community rejoiced and celebrated the end of Maxis’ monopoly and no more ridiculous wait for an iPhone. We waited patiently for DiGi to announce its plans. They assured everyone it would be a better deal.

When the plans came out last week, we couldn’t make sense of it. What the heck was going on? I have not seen a more complicated table of numbers. I decided to take a visit down to DiGi’s flagship store on Sunday with a journalist friend of mine. She’s pretty sharp and gets things pretty fast but after 10 minutes of listening to the customer service rep explain the plans, she got even more confused and needed to leave the store to breathe. We went and got something to eat to fuel up our drained brains before People vs iDiGi plan Round 2 but a headache had developed in both of us. I came home, took a nap and looked at the plans again to see if I could simplify it myself. And here’s what I’ve come up with.

Compare this with what DiGi has developed and you’ll wonder if DiGi’s trying to hide the fact that their plans aren’t that much better than Maxis.

By the way, do you really need to put an “i” in front of every word? You have iDiGi, iWant and iGet. iGet is not even a plan, why in the world do you want to trademark that?

The real deal on DiGi iPhone Price:

1. Upfront cost for a DiGi iPhone is much higher than Maxis because you have to pay for the phone plus 6 months’ subscription in advance.

2. The contract period is 24 months. I found this a bit absurd. Does DiGi not know The 4G will be announced in June and we’re guessing it’ll arrive on our shores by end of the year? Locking customers into a 24 month plan is not going to make a lot of folks happy when the 4G goes on sale by either telco. If you get the 4G from DiGi later this year, will you have to serve a total of 4 years locked in a horrible back to back contract?

Is DiGi out of touch with customer habits? People who buy smartphones rarely keep their phones for more than a year. Why are telcos or service providers forcing contracts on customers that are as long as a life sentence (24months is bloody long). Mobile technology changes too fast these days. Couldn’t they keep customers from leaving with a great product and great customer service anymore?

3. On the plus side (small plus) there is a 5GB data option – more than the 3GB limit from Maxis. Not great but not bad for the heavy data user. This is a very expensive plan and you don’t really need it if you already have a 3G mobile data plan with a dongle and you’re serving time on that subscription.

So is this a good deal? Check list (if you checked everything then this is a no-brainer, buy it today):
1. You’re very happy with DiGi.
2. You’re not going anywhere (another telco) for the next two years. It’s DiGi or nothing.
3. You hardly change phone less than 2 years old.
4. What’s a little more up front for a DiGi iPhone. You have spare change.
5. You can’t wait 1 month for an iPhone from Maxis.
6. You’ll never subscribe to Maxis, ever.

This may not be a great deal to switch from another telco, perhaps it’s a good deal for existing DiGi customers.  I’d be interested to find out from you if you’re a DiGi customer, does DiGi value your loyalty with an offer of a zero contract plan at least? You’ve been with DiGi for the past 5-10 years, surely they don’t think you’ll take an iPhone and run, right?

iDiGi Plans – can’t it be better also?

Filed Under: Business, Marketing, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts