Sales, Social and Tech

This is the sort of prank you can play with Apple's Siri on the iPhone. The Telegraph UK wrote  Charlie Le Quesne was trying out the iPhone 4S at a Tesco store in Coventry when it told him: "Shut the f*** up, you ugly t***. The boy had been using the phone's Siri system – which answers spoken questions – and had asked it: "How many people are there in the world? It seems someone used the ugly seven words as a name and that innocent question pop the name up. Tesco has send the bad-mouthed iPhone back to Apple for to wash the mouth piece with a little soap.

For more information on setting up a fan club, please email aaron(at)taggo.me. Rock and Ash was looking for a way to provide instant rewards for fans of their handmade burgers. They also wanted to increase their Facebook fan base from walk in customers. With Taggo, Rock and Ash was able to launch a fan club based on their existing Facebook Page within one hour and at minimum cost. Poster informing customers/fan of benefits of joining Fan Club How does it work? Customers visit Rock and Ash Singapore at Marina Square Link and see posters enticing them with a 20% discount to join the Rock and Ash Fan Club. Customers scan a QR code or enter the given URL ( http://taggo.me/RockandashSG ) to like the page and register their mobile phone number. Customers then tell the cashier their mobile number and the cashier enters it into the Taggo POS application. Once identified as a fan, the cashier will give the customer the 20% discount. What were the results? Rock and Ash new ...

The recent news that neither the National Environment Agency (NEA) nor the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) is responsible for the culling of mynah birds is quite a worrying sign in Singapore's preparedness for another possible and probable bird flu epidemic.   In Feb 2009,  a dead Crested Myna  found in Tung Ping Chau, Hong Kong, was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after a series of laboratory tests.  If mynah birds, in Singapore, were found to carry the bird flu or an even deadlier form of the H1N1 virus, are we to stay calm and wait for the official news release to inform the remaining surviving Singaporeans that a committee of inquiry will be set up to decide which department is responsible for the culling of the mynah birds? Wrote Ng Puay Leng, Channel NewsAsia ,  Crows come under the purview of the National Environment Agency (NEA) while the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) handles...

(Update: In an article at Today, PUB highlighted that the rain on Dec 23 "caused some parts of Stamford Canal to be full" and " At Liat Towers, rainwater that drained off from the roof and the back area of the building overflowed into the basement area from an internal drain, as the water could not be discharged into the canal, which was full". Read article here . The recent "ponding" at Liat Towers in Orchard Road has turned into a finger pointing match between the building's management and Public Utilities Board. However, a Facebook user spotted the colour of the "ponding" which immediately resolves all blame to one party. Wrote The Straits Times , A spokesman for the management of the shopping and office block, speaking to The Straits Times following a meeting with PUB, pinned the blame on an over-full Stamford Canal. PUB, on the other hand, is adamant that the build-up of water came from the heavy rain and the building not pumpi...

A blogging MRT train driver, who have gone by the name of Gintai, has been given a letter "advise" by his employers, SMRT, to stop commenting on company matters. Wrote  http://gintai.wordpress.com/ , When I told my No: 1 at TNM Crew station that I started a blog some time ago, he asked me if I could make money out of it? What’s the point of wasting my time writing blog posts? I retorted that at least I would have left something behind if I were gone tomorrow whereas he would have left nothing without any legacy. He smirked and snickered at my remark.  Alas! HR got wind of it. In no uncertain terms, I was “advised” to refrain from commenting on company matters. A letter of “advice” will be issued to me. My hands are now tied. No more blogging on my job or SMRT related matters. I do not wish to break my rice bowl. I hope the above will clarify my status quo. Henceforth, I shall still continue with blogging but on other interests or subjects leaving out my job aspect ...

Samsung recently mocked those who were stuck in a long queue for the iPhones, but the last laugh is on Samsung Galaxy S phone and tab users. It seems Samsung Galaxy S phone and tab users will be stuck with the 2.2 Gingerbread or 2.3 Froyo Android version for many years to come, even when Google is set to launch the Ice-Cream Sandwich version anytime soon. Wrote Business Insider, " Samsung  won't be rolling out an update to  Ice Cream Sandwich , Google's latest mobile operating system, for the Galaxy S and  Galaxy Tab  tablet because the devices don't have enough memory to run both ICS and Samsung's custom TouchWiz skin." Read more:   http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-says-no-ice-cream-sandwich-upgrade-for-galaxy-s-and-galaxy-tab-owners-2011-12#ixzz1hWK5EJDx Karma is a real bitch.

The year 2011 seems to be the year of apologies for PAP Members of Parliament in Singapore. However, in the process of apologising and defending their fellow MPs, the PAP government created so many pink elephants that keeps reminding people of the mistake. Take for example Minister Shanmugam's interview with the media yesterday where he defended Mr Seng Han Tong by saying that " Mr Seng Han Tong is not a racist ". The problem with the "not" is that it actually focus on the word "racist". This is an example of an unnecessary negative.  Even if the person reading this sentence in the papers live in the Stone Age with no access to the Internet, the person will wonder why Minister Shanmugam had to emphasis that Mr Seng Han Tong is not a racist.  Minister Shanmugam also gave The Online Citizen the limelight by highlighting the social-political blog for wrongly quoting Mr Seng Han Tong.  In the apology, both Mr Seng Han Tong and Minister ...

Member of Parliament (MP) Mr Seng Han Thong may have apologised for his remarks made on Blog.Tv, but he might be still wondering why he was the one receiving the back of the Internet whiplash.  After all, as a trained journalist, all Mr Seng Han Thong did was to quote a SMRT Public Relations person that " that some of the staff, because they are Malays, they are Indians, they can't converse in English well enough" during the Blog.Tv episode discussing the recent SMRT breakdown.  Well, Mr Seng, you are no longer an editor. You are a Member of Parliament and your role as Member of Parliament is to represent the people.  It is because you are an MP now, what you say, even as a quote from a source, represents the voice of those you were elected to represent. You incurred the wrath of fellow Singaporeans on the Internet because we do not agree with your representation by publicly parroting the quote by the SMRT Public Relations.  Furthermore, you are a MP, a ...

Oo Gin Lee has been appointed the new editor of Digital Life, the IT weekly pullout of The Straits Times, with the departure of Grace Chng to The Money Section of the same newspaper. Grace will be taking on a new role as senior correspondent at Money. The new appointments for Gin Lee and Grace Chng took effect on 5 December 2011.

Update - Hossan Leong has commented on this post to say " I'm not in trouble pls don't blow this out of proportion. Let it rest. It's getting silly. Thank you for your love and concern and I apologize for any misunderstanding." ~  Hossan Leong. Hossan Leong, a Singapore radio personality for The Gold Breakfast Show on Gold 90.5, was censured today for reporting on train delays on the Circle Line because he based the information on Tweets, rather than waiting for the official reports from the Circle Line operator, SMRT.  It is, however, unknown if the "warning" came from Mediacorp producers or SMRT. Tweeted Hossan Leong ,  OK...I reported it on air and now I'm getting into trouble for it?? The CC line is DOWN rite? I did nothing wrong rite? The SMRT Circle Line was reported to be down this morning during peak hours and started as early as 7am. However, local news only received official statement was received by the mainstream media at about 9...

Yahoo! SEA has filed it defence against Singapore Press Holdings (SPH)  copyright infringement suit  and has also counter claimed that SPH reproduced Yahoo! content on STOMP without permission. Wrote Yahoo! SEA , In its defence, Yahoo! SEA highlighted the fundamental principle that copyright law does not protect facts and information and that the public has the right to be informed of news and current events in Singapore.    The internet company also filed a counterclaim which alleges that on at least two known occasions over the last year, SPH had itself substantially reproduced Yahoo! content on its citizen-journalism site STOMP. I expected STOMP to bring trouble to SPH one day.

A headhunter is  looking for online editors/creators for an e-news paper that will be launched next year.   This is a new set up/team being built within a large brand with a strong presence in Singapore.   Key requirements will be to drive content and partners for key categories such as tech, travel, music, fashion, lifestyle, finance, property   The candidates must have digital media and online experience and be competent with twitter, facebook, social media in general plus you tube to drive campaigns. Please email aaronkoh(a)gmail.com if you are interested and I can make the necessary referral.

A SBS Transit took a different turn, as instructed by SBS Transit HQ, and got lost in the process. When passengers offered to advise the Bus Captain, the Bus Captain highlighted that he should follow instructions from HQ. As s a result, passengers affected were stuck in the bus for 2 hours. While many Singaporeans pinpointed the fact that it was a Foreign Talent PRC behind the wheel, the whole incident reminded me of the No U-Turn Syndrome, or NUTS, as coined by Singapore's entrepreneur and founder of Creative, Mr Sim Won Hoo. From Wikipedia , No U-Turn Syndrome  ( NUTS ) is a term first coined by  Singaporean  entrepreneur  Sim Wong Hoo , to prominently describe the social behaviour of  Singaporeans  having a mindset of compliance to higher authorities before proceeding with any action. In his book  Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium , he uses a comparison of  traffic rules  in Singapore to those found overseas...

This is one of the occasion I support a Government's move. The increase in property stamp fees is a good preventive against a possible influx of money overseas which will result in high inflation. For new Singapore buyers, this is good news for them. For sellers, not that good. For the  Real Estate Developers Association of Singapore, they were very disappointed with this increase stamp duties Wrote Channel NewsAsia , REDAS said the good take-up rate in the primary market is driven by the increased number of new launches and unique selling points of certain projects. It is not indicative of a return to a speculative market. REDAS believes given that the local economy is expected to slow down next year, the measures are untimely. REDAS must be suffering from short term memory lost. In the crisis of 2007 -2008, we saw the prices of property shoot up even when the Singapore slowed down. The flux of today's economic problem is that there is too much money chasing fo...

Stagflation is a situation when an economy faces low or no growth, coupled by high inflation. The Singapore government have been constantly highlighting that Singapore faces low growth or no growth in 2012 and will be followed by inflation. Stagflation seems unavoidable in 2012. The last time the world economy saw stagflation was in 1979. The solution was to drastically raise interest rate. This was proven effective in 1979 and the US economy recovered in 1983. One has to wonder if any central government will want to raise interest because bond prices have an inverse relationship with interest. So if interest rise, more would want to sell their bonds to take advantage of the high interest rates.  However, are Singaporeans ready for this possible raise in interest rates? Especially in the housing market.

A trip from Singapore to Batam island today only takes an hour to 45 minutes via ferry. Back in my grandmother's younger days, it took her two weeks to make that journey from Batam to Singapore on a sail ship to marry my grandfather. Communications between relatives on the Indonesian island was a rarity back then. Overseas call, if available, back then would have cost a bomb. If it was delivered by mail, it would take weeks, if not months, to arrive. Even today with cheaper IDD rates, telephone calls to Indonesia were limited as it could run up the phone bill. But technology last night made it possible from my grandmother to, not only talk with her father's sister's son (aka cousin) in Jakarta, but see the faces of his family on screen. "I can see you, but I cannot hold you," loosely translated from Hokkien as my grandmother described the video call on Skype. My grandfather recently celebrated his 90th birthday. My grandmother's cousin in Jarkata,...

The circulation for The Straits Times grew only 0.38% in year to year growth despite an aggressive subscription campaign in 2011.  The New Paper saw the biggest drop in circulation numbers as it fell 3.44% year to year. The biggest gain in circulation was for Tamil Murasu as it grew 16.22%, In May 2011, The Straits Times reported of its aggressive circulation drive. Wrote The Straits Times , ABOUT 4,200 readers have become new or converted direct subscribers since The Straits Times subscription campaign started last Thursday... ...Those interested can sign up or convert their subscriptions to direct ones through phone or e-mail. Mr Chua Wee Phong, executive vice-president of SPH's circulation department, which is helming the drive, said that the response has been very encouraging.