Key Performance Indicators

Good to see Singtel prepped for iPad data plans…

http://home.singtel.com/bbmobile/signup-ipad

getting the site map for page not found!

Good to AVH is still going – this is the ego-maniacal Java dude from Sun who went on to found Marima with Kim Polese – the wonder woman of Silicon Valley. I was just getting into Java at the time and at first I thought these were the coolest people until I actually them to find out how un-nice they all were. Maybe AVH has toned it down a bit.

This has me laughing my ass off:

After Revel ruled that Lohan had violated her probation in a 2007 drunken driving conviction by missing weekly alcohol counseling sessions, Lohan began sobbing as she addressed the court. “I did do everthing that I was told to do and did the best I could,” she said.

This looks like a slick app:

With the success of our iPad/iPhone offerings, our revenues for the past 12 months have crossed the $1M mark. We’re very proud of what we’ve built, and while we don’t believe revenues alone are a mark of success, we feel that they are a testament to the fact that our customers appreciate the work we’ve done, and believe that we do provide a unique solution that is built with quality.

Good to see you making some editorial/newsy strides with the new Upshot – but I must say that Alan Soon and team in Singapore did this first.

Prince just keeps getting weirder:

He says: “The internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.

“The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.

Singapore and Echelon still getting some love – nice!

http://www.e27.sg/2010/06/10/highest-ios-penetration-found-in-singapore-indonesia-among-the-lowest/:

Singapore with it’s tiny 4 million population has 402,992 iPhones, 76575 iPod Touch and 1,453 iPad’s  totaling  480,950 iOS devices. Contrast that to its counterpart, Android devices total up to 32,918. While considering the fact that, iPhone had a head-start in the Singapore market for a year before the first Android device was released, the sheer ratio of iPhone to Android is among the highest across countries.

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/06/18/guest-post-location-based-services-its-game-on/:

As a parting shot dear reader, if you are thinking about being the next Gowalla or Foursquare, think outside the box. The world is a very large, and spherical place, mapped by a long/lat address.

What about developing countries, where the penetration of mobile data usage far outstrips that of broadband, or even dial up modems?

99% of all location services I have seen are targeted squarely at Early Adopters. If you are looking for the next big thing in location, one that attracts people in the millions, look at the developing markets, because connecting people in disparate locations, and giving those people a way to share information is a great start.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127370598:

Carr admits he’s something of a fatalist when it comes to technology. He views the advent of the Internet as “not just technological progress but a form of human regress.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html?pagewanted=1:

While he managed to salvage the $1.3 million deal after apologizing to his suitor, Mr. Campbell continues to struggle with the effects of the deluge of data. Even after he unplugs, he craves the stimulation he gets from his electronic gadgets. He forgets things like dinner plans, and he has trouble focusing on his family.

His wife, Brenda, complains, “It seems like he can no longer be fully in the moment.”

This is your brain on computers.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5e37eb34-74e0-11df-aed7-00144feabdc0.html:

Though other headphones can compete on quality, what sets these ones apart is that they are gaining mass market appeal, reaching beyond audio geeks, thanks in part to the heavyweight talent behind them.

Since I am in Singapore I figured it was time to respond to the Koprol community and facilitate a meetup (kopup).

I talked to Meng Wong over at hackerspaceSG and they were happy to let us use the space.

You can see the details on upcoming.org.

This is non-structured and just a chance to put faces to names (koprol IDs).

Feel free to bring some snacks or drinks to share – nothing too serious.

cya there!

I have been so busy I have not had a time to re-cap my experience at Echelon. First off let me say thanks to Mohan and the team at E27 – nice work – awesome event! I wrote up something for the YDN blog and our slides are also there.

By any measurement the event was a smash. Great attendance, almost 700, good vibe, lots of locals, lots of non-locals, some heavy hitters and a sense that the region is happening with Singapore being a big part of it. I personally met so many new people and got to meet in person the people I have chatted with, admired or wished I knew. My personal network got a huge bump at the event.

This week in asia also did another live show which went over real well. That podcast is starting to take off and I am honored to be involved.

The world is slowly waking up to Asia and to Southeast Asia – it will be interesting to see how things go the rest of the year but I suspect more activity and lots of interesting startups.

see u at openWEBasia!

peace…

ps. also wanted to give a shout out to my buddy terence p – u da man:

Insync was one of the participating startups that exhibited at the recent Echelon 2010 web technology event in Singapore. Michael Smith of Yahoo!, better known as Smitty, had introduced him to the e27 folks, the organizers of Echelon 2010, and got him interested in the event. Terence says he met many ’smart and interesting folks’ there, and got plenty of feedback for Insync. Other participating startups had many good things to say about Insync. Serkan Toto of U.S.-based technology blog TechCrunch, who was at Echelon 2010, even called the Philippines-based startup as one of those who stood out from the crowd.

Being fairly new to Singapore I am learning the local ropes slowly but surely. The little nook and crannies that conceal the occasional taxi allowing me to get home without having to book one. The hawker stalls that the locals might be hanging out at versus the gawkers from the Lonely Planet. I am getting the hang of it but one thing about me already defined me as a local – the Singaporean craving for all things gadget like. Phones, mp3 players, in car TV systems, big screen TVs, stereos, remotes, and more phones. The statistics tell us that we must each have more than one.

Singapore is mad about mobile phones. When I first showed up to town with my little Nokia I bought used in Bangkok I knew right away I was out of depth. Fortunately on my first day at work I was given my trusty new BlackBerry. I was stepping up in the world but of course everywhere I went I was bumping into iPhones.

The local mobile phone companies all push iPhones with great calling plans and incentives to entice people into being a proud iPhone owner. Everywhere I go I see an iPhone and at times I have iPhone envy. iPhones in people’s hands, iPhones tethered to machines for surfing the web 3g style and iPhones being tapped on in the dark of the cold movie theater giving off a warm, inviting glow.  I won’t lie – there are times I have iPhone envy but I haven’t given in yet.

Not quite yet.

Being the tech hungry media junkie that I am though I was able to stave off my iPhone craving with a Nexus One from Google. Singapore is lucky enough to be one of the countries where you can pop online and buy a Nexus One directly. Unlocked and ready to go. Just pop your SIM card in and experience Google’s vision of the new smartphone. Of course I didn’t order mine. It was given to me for some testing I am doing for some mobile software products. What can I say other than it is cool but sometimes I still look at the iPhone’s in my friend’s hands and get a tad jealous but at least now I have a phone that I can swipe, pinch and touch. Makes my BlackBerry look at little old school but I still use that little keyboard profusely.

Apple keeps tempting me but so far I am holding my own against the tide – that is until I touched one.

I saw my first one at a conference. It was too far away so I just ignored it and pretended it had no effect on me. Another time I saw a whole stack of them in boxes. A good friend had returned from the states and brought five of them back with him. I wanted to open a box and see it for myself but I refused. There I was though. In a meeting and sitting right next to me was a co-worker reading his email on it. Zooming, flipping and engorging his email. I read my email all the time but he seemed to really be enjoying his email. Much more than anyone should.

I asked if I could touch it. He said go ahead – check out some web sites on it. Oh and here is the latest episode of Lost – plus check out the Keynote stuff. I had only wanted to touch it but I couldn’t help myself. Loaded up DaringFireball and marveled at the speed of the page loads. ITunes, TV shows and then Lost. The TV show has jumped the shark but watching it on the iPad made me feel like I was back in season 1 enjoying the magic. Then I popped into Keynote loaded up a PPT. A staid company presentation came to life and I was suddenly drinking up the corporate brainwashing and actually agreeing with the company line.

I set it back down on the table and slide it over. Like something forbidden that I wasn’t meant to cradle – let alone explore.

I keep telling myself I don’t need one. They are all over SimLim and I even have a friend selling a stack of them at US prices because he is an Apple fanboy wanting to spread the gospel without making a killing. I have refused – but it keeps getting harder to do so.

All was fine until I read the Apple press release stating, we knew it was coming, that the iPad is officially coming to Singapore in July. People are speculating as to the exact date, how much and will this include the 3g model as well. Which carrier will jump behind it and what wil the plans be – the discussion will peak in the ensuing months. I am positive we will hear more soon but I have to admit though that I may just have to pick up a 3g model knowing that I won’t be able to resist the call of the overgrown iPhone.

Can you?

Been a roving madman lately. Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, back to Singapore and now in KL.

Some events and stuff to be aware of. Today and tomorrow is BarCamp KL – http://barcamp.my/blog/

In Vietnam we were on a MSFT .Net tour showing Yahoo! integration.

See some of that here (Go Jimmi):

http://www.slideshare.net/kembaren/openidoauth-and-yql-with-net

http://yqldemo.codeplex.com/

Next big thing I am working on is Yahoo’s! presence at Echelon – http://echelon2010.com/

Should be an awesome event for the region – I suggest if you are in the area to come.

At BarCamp KL we are also doing TWIA live – should be fun. Stay tuned!

Food for thought: http://gigaom.com/2010/04/23/why-we-need-an-open-like-standard/ – more on that later.

cya

This post will have very little to do with the iPad. I can’t get one in Sing yet and I will be waiting till I can. If you want to read more about the iPad check out this article from GigaOM. I think it is a good take on how the iPad will change computing – simple as that.

Was hanging with some friends last night chilling, talking and socializing – something people just don’t do enough of these days. Hardly any of us was checking our phones, blackberries or devices of taste. We are all in tech but I think we choose to turn it off when it makes sense so. Usually that is never enough but such is life in this fast paced world.

I am always interested in vintage stuff and offline experiences. Motorcycles are a good example of that for me – I gear up, go on a long ride and just unhook from the wired world. I was strolling through my FT Weekend yesterday and came across this article about a guy reviving the Brough Superior motorcycle. For those who may not know what this bike is – might try watching Lawrence of Arabia – this is the bike the real T.E. Lawrence rode.

Well it seems a team of folks are recreating Brough Superior bikes to their original look and feel but with new technology. They are touring with some show bikes and these things look amazing. I could imagine that the coolest adventure in the world would be to buy one and go around the world. Heaven on earth for me.

Instead I will go back to tech product design, daydreaming about my BMW in Bangkok and be happy to be alive.

Well – finally happened. I made it back to This Week in Asia – I think I am the only returning guest that has appeared more thance once. I love what these guys are doing and hopefully they will make me a regular. I will keep up my campaign!

http://thisweekinasia.net/2010/04/this-week-in-asia-episode-22-google-domination/

I am also encouraging them to do some video and a live show from Echelon.

Enjoy!

From Infocomm: