December 30, 2009
December 27, 2009
Google's new venture, Nexus One, in comparison with a celebrity
I've been meaning to talk about the much anticipated Nexus One aka Google's very own phone, so here it goes:
If you've been following our Facebook fan page, you'd notice the excessive hype this Android powerhouse has been getting. This is Google's first attempt into producing their own hardware device to go in hand with their powerful Android OS, which has so far been running on many HTC models, the Motorola Droid, and so forth.
How's it gonna go down in 2010?
Here's a simple analogy I think WE ALL can relate to:
That's right, our very much loved Lady Gaga.
Before she went all Poker Face and Bad Romance, she was using her amazing song-writing talent for existing stars like Britney Spears, Pussycat Dolls, & Fergie.
Gaga's talent = Android OS
Exisiting stars = HTC, Motorola Droid, devices supporting Android OS
Gaga finally went solo with her talent and brought us The Fame, her own album with her own-written songs using her own voice.
The Fame = Nexus One
And was it successful? HECK YEAH! (even rumours about she being a hermaphrodite and having a lil' twinky down there didn't stop her from selling herself so well!)
This is probably the easiest analogy that I can put across for anybody to understand the possible outcome of Nexus One when it hits stores in January.
With Android's stability and powerful performance on third-party devices, its no wonder consumers are gearing up their wallets for Google's very own baby!
Can you imagine the possibilities?! Will we see a Google Nexus One vs iPhone in 2010?
Or will we see another uncontested year of a newer iPhone model?
Whatever it is, nothing's gonna excite me more than the possible unveiling of the iTablet/iPad!
With that said, have a great 2010!
December 20, 2009
December 19, 2009
Episode 11: We are back in the Game
After such a long time of being "Missing", we are now back!
Top searches by under-18's
I mean, SERIOUSLY!
Why would a child search up for GOOGLE!? You don't search Google, you search WITH Google!
Blog: Received our Festive Cards Yet?
If you're our Faceboon fan, you'll probably be receiving a personal card from us!
Haven't gotten it yet? Its probably on its way, but you have to accept the friend invitation by 'TipMedia Net TipMedia', because that's our mailing account. Don't ask about its weird name; Facebook doesn't allow us to get too creative with the name!
It's been a busy busy few weeks as we are beginning to see great advancement in our iPhone applications development. Boon created a simple yet addictive game that we're probably gonna display at the Business IT booth @ NP's Open House.
We've got plans to create more videos as we draw closer to our interactive stage of our journey.
... right after I get my Acer back from servicing :(
Once again, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
December 3, 2009
December 2, 2009
Blog: Young & Mad
Yeap, we behave like that in public. No surprise here.
November 26, 2009
November 23, 2009
Blog: Talk by Nike, Adidas and Hill & Knowlton
Last week Friday, 20th Nov, we attended a combined talk held by representatives of the companies mentioned in the title. The reps from Nike and Adidas are Ngee Ann Poly alumni, so it was nice to hear from those who came from the same mould for a change.
To be honest, I couldn’t really get anything from the Nike talk! It’s not that I wasn’t paying attention (I was!), but I guess Adidas kind of outdid them too well!
Marketing as the main objective, Alex Lim from Adidas put across his company’s marketing strategies plain and simple in 4 categories – Visual Mechandising, Go-to-market, Brand Communication and Sports Marketing.
Visual marketing can easily be seen in their retail stores. Such examples include their 2-fingers-spacing between hangers (consistency at its best!). Their products are arranged seasonally where during the peak point of football, such merchandises are placed at the back of the store while other sporting apparels are placed closer to the entrance. This is due to the idea that at the height of a particular sport, the consumer does not need to be enticed visually.
Go-to-market in a nutshell involves the product and pricing. Depending on the hype and marketability of the product, the pricing is allocated accordingly.
Brand Communication examples include Adidas House Party, Liverpool tour, and also the acquirement of non-athletic personalities (Gurmit Singh, Felicia Chin). You get my drift.
Sports Marketing is just advertising for events. Their more notable advertising are in your Winning Eleven game, Standard Chartered Marathon’s main attire provider.
Wrapping up the talk, “What are the 5Cs in marketing?” This was probably the crudest way of describing the marketing world, but it’s clear cut. And to prove to you, I’ll them all in one sentence:
COVINCE the consumers, and faced with heavy competition CONFUSE them with specs and benefits, which at times may require you to CON and CHEAT, well at least their feelings because at the end of the day you’ll always have to stay ahead of your COMPETITION!
Okay, so it’s a really long sentence with tons of commas, I know!
The final talk was by Hill & Knowlton, a renowned and established public company.
PR = Reputation.
Besides that and the many case studies that the dude talked about, another main point put across is Good Activation. This is plentiful of subtle branding during an event so that when the media takes a photo to use for publication, viewers will receive the brand.
That’s about all for this long post, and if you’ve read this far (kudos!), remember to check out our side project link at the top!
Mr Vivian Lines, President of Hill & Knowlton, Asia Pacific.
November 20, 2009
blog: Qian Hu & GardenAsia Entrepreneurship Trip
We attended a field trip to Qian Hu and GardenAsia on 18th November 2009 organised by SPRING Singapore. There were talks held at both places about entrepreneurship. Although one is dealing with fishes (Qian Hu) while the other in nature, both of them gave us a same answer to entrepreneurship:
Bam! Wet blankets came one after another, unlike what we expected to hear like “You can do it!” Instead, we heard “Behind those success, are many failures” However that’s the truth, and that’s why the saying goes, “It hurts to hear the truth”.
Both told us similar stories of their journeys, when it started so long back then when the government was making changes, causing Qian Hu that was originally a pig farm to change into a fish farm, and GardenAsia to shift to Lim Chu Kang. These are big changes to these companies.
Well you might say GardenAsia just moved to another location, what’s the big deal. Well… WHO THE HELL BUYS PLANTS IN LIM CHU KANG?!!
This shift caused GardenAsia to sell water features instead of plants and finally to their current agritainment. They have to cope with big shifts in the dynamic world, solving problems after problems.
Their biggest problem they faced (and still are, but not to a large extent) was the lack of LABOUR!
When we want to learn about entrepreneurship, the response was that if you want to learn you have to get your hands dirty! It’s a practical skill not a theoretical. Do it, go through the tough times that they had gone through and you’ll learn.
So what does it take for them to go through all that shit? Mr Kenny Eng said it is PHD.
Passion
Hunger
Drive
Passion; you need that love for it. So much so that you’ll sacrifices for it. Well, both entrepreneurs sacrificed their youth and family time for this.
Drive; the Determination to achieve your goal! That never-say-die spirit! Going full force no matter what happens. Keep going until you get what you want.
Adding on to the list are 2 more factors, Network and Luck. Networking is essential, knowing more people will open more opportunities. If you remembered the VISA advertisement where the young brother is going on a journey and the sister wanted to buy a bird to release for his journey. The shopkeeper said, “More birds, more luck…” So, if you are going on a entrepreneur journey we’ll say to you “More contacts, more luck…”
No Money
No Time
No People
These 3 things are affecting every company including us. We have no money. TIPMedia.net was started from being in debts; we are now trying means and methods to try to get money, cutting costs to continue our journey like getting iPhones & Macbooks. So “No Money, No Talk.” That’s reality.
No time; our time is limited too. We now have only 3 months left and we haven’t mastered the iPhone programming. Anytime now another developer could have developed the same idea we intend to build and create a barrier to entry for us.
No people; that doesn’t really apply to us much, as our team dynamic is fantastic. However, it is always good to have professionals helping us in developing so we can just concentrate on the business aspect of the company. Even if we have the people, we have to make sure that they have the same passion, same goals as ours otherwise they will be just another worker, rather than family.
In short, entrepreneurs will be facing with 3 obstacles almost everyday and that is No Money, No Time and No People. Without Passion, Hunger, Drive, Network and Luck, it is hard to sustain the business.
Mr Kenny Eng, CEO of GardenAsia
November 19, 2009
Ahh... the beauty of the washroom cubicle
I'm not gonna spoil it for you!
Give us your reviews, here or on Facebook!
November 17, 2009
Blog: Direct Marketing behold!
So what is Direct Marketing? Well it is basically an interactive marketing through media with measurable responses. Let’s take a McDonald’s coupon for example. It uses flyer as a media and it requires interaction when you use it. By passing it to the McStaffs and them counting how many coupons they received, they can measure the response. So there you go; a very simple example of direct marketing.
If I were to end here, you’ll probably never return to TIPMedia.net again right? Why not let me go deeper into the topic. Well let’s evolve it into Relationship Marketing.
What’s Relationship Marketing?
It’s basically an interactive marketing through media with measurable responses with your personal information in it. Hmmm, need more detailed explanation? Well if you have a magazine with you, flip to the subscription form. They are using the magazine as a media.
Let’s fill up the form. Guess whom you are now interacting with in the form? So up till this part, direct marketing is done, and your information will be added to the company’s database. With the information provided by you, the new customer, that now have the ability to send you updates of their latest products.
With the 2 points being clear, what about that measurable responses? Well, I’ll keep that for later, keeping you in suspense first. Why? It’s simple. I need to let you know about some important facts, before the last point becomes much more impactful.
In marketing world there is this quote by John Wanamaker “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.”
Are you getting a picture already? When companies put in marketing efforts, not all their efforts will yield results, and often they aren’t aware which of these are the ones. Therefore tracking is important so that we know which to invest and not invest in.
Now for the last point: How do they track?
Let’s take a look at the magazine, is there a serial number attached to it? If there is that’s tracking! From the serial number it can derive a couple of very important information about their marketing efforts, such as in which magazine does the subscription come from. If they go deeper into details they might even track to which area it came from. The company might want to test the market to see at what prices will consumers subscribe, and the serial number encodes it.
Now that Direct Marketing and Relationship Marketing have been explained, let me take you one level higher, into Database Marketing. Don’t worry; I’ll keep it short and simple, since the fundamental have been written.
Database Marketing basically is when your Relationship Marketing lands you with a lot of information. That’s seems like a whole lot of work to do right? But there’s always Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) to ease our load. CRM basically helps us optimize customer profitability.
After so much talk about this direct marketing stuff, don’t you wonder why do we need to do all these? The reasons are simple: We can use all these information to better manage marketing investments and customers. From generating sales leads to the sales team to sending the right message to the right customer.
Of course there’s one more reason, and that is that consumer power has increased significantly due to Information Technology. IT has evolved so quickly that information can be easily obtained by consumers and thus making them more POWERFUL! In this age, consumers are not king anymore… they are GOD!
And yes I’m referring to YOU!
November 14, 2009
Episode 9: Post Filming
Watch out for our next Side Project video!
By the way, we'll be going on a field trip to Qian Hu and GardenAsia next week!
Excited? Haha I don't really know
Or at least to avoid asking inappropriate questions.
November 5, 2009
Episode 8: Eyebags & Rick Rollin'!
This week was filmed in The Loft, some temporary student apartment in our school, thus the little tour at the end of the video.
Anyway, have you Rick Rolled someone today? ;)
November 2, 2009
Blog: Microsoft Imagine Cup Boot Camp 2009
October 29, 2009
Blog: TIPMedia.net has a new HQ!!
During the term holiday we had been using the level 3 of our school library as our office, one corner of level 3. It is peaceful and serene until school re-opens, of course the little corner is not fully occupied but the internet connection became a lot slower. Playing Mafia War on Facebook becomes 4 times slower than usual.
Library Level 3 (Office Number 1)
Thus when school term started, we shifted our office to that blue table in the underpass. Why? Because I have some CCA meetings and being at the underpass allows me to have my meetings and do TIP at the same time. The internet connection was a bit faster and I loved that table as there are 2 fans above it. However, at times it can be very noisy especially when lectures end and all the students excitedly exit the lecture hall.
Yesterday, we accidentally stumbled upon a very prestigious location where we know it would be a great place to locate our HQ. So that place became our headquarters, very quiet and their internet speed is way faster. YES, we are no longer using Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s internet, therefore we can play MMORPG if we want to.
The best thing about our headquarters is that, it has a swimming pool, gym and there are a few air-con food centers within reach. Well, when school term started, our school gym was packed full and we haven’t been able to work out much. Usage of the locker is 50cents per locker, so every visit to the gym costs us $1.
At our headquarters, Gym is never full, locker is free, so there you go - cost saving. I got so excited about moving to our headquarters yesterday that I couldn’t stop calling Illias and telling him, “We are moving to our new HQ tomorrow, wooooooooo!” By the way, it requires special privileges to gain access to this place; that’s why it is so peaceful in here.
Anyway, sorry about me BLAGGING (Bragging + Blogging) about our headquarters but I just want to share our excitement with YOU! So here are some pictures of our new ‘headquarters’.
October 24, 2009
Episode 7: Very quick update!
This is a super short, updates we will compensate with more blog posts.
October 22, 2009
Blog: First use of Macbook
This is what I did, when I bought the Macbook Pro!
Video editing with iMovie is fairly simple. It's functionality is way better than Window Movie Maker, and I felt that it is a professional movie editing software made easy to use.
October 17, 2009
October 15, 2009
Blog: GOOOOSSSEEEBUMPS!!!
You may remember her from Under One Roof, and your daily morning radio dj on Class 95 next to Glenn Ong and The Flying Dutchman. She's done dramas and stage works, and currently owns Eternally Yours, a wedding planning biz.
AND IT WAS AWESOME! She's really bubbly, down-to-earth, and full of humility!
Self shots to compose ourselves before meeting Vernetta. Sad.
Her biggest mistake as an entrepreneur? "Not paying myself for the first 2 years."
Thanks to Boon and his "grab the opportunity!!" attitude, we gained enough cahonies to fight the crowd (more like slide our way through) to personally meet her!
ONE OF THE BEST 5 MINUTES' OF MY LIFE!
AWESOMENESS! The creepy stalker on the extreme right was the emcee of the event
Don't really remember what we said to her, probably because we were too overwhelmed by her presence. I do account telling her she resembles a lot like Rachel from Friends, which she denies.
She sure is one of a kind. She's one local celebrity we're definitely proud of to be in our media waves!
Oh btw do support her charity organization @ ONE Singapore!
October 13, 2009
October 10, 2009
Sharing: Week 2 How to use compare function
We would like to share with you on how to use the compare function that is available in Microsoft Office 2007. It’s simple to use and will be useful if you have multiple author.
October 6, 2009
IT Awareness: IT Survey in Singapore
As part of IT Awareness side project, here's a survey on how well people in Singapore know about IT and some of the opinions they had. I'll let the video speak for itself!
Give your comments and spread the word!!!
October 4, 2009
Loose Video: Week 2 Journey on getting Macbook
First problem encountered: we need a Macbook to program for iPhones, but we only have PC.
This is our loose video on what we did in week 2, trying to obtain Macbooks. We try to get money through scheme which apparently will take a few months to process. We tried getting loans from our parents and also try borrowing one from our school through temporary loan.
During the week we also made cookies in preparation for Hari Raya, with an ancient food blender. I guess that is what happens when techies cook.
I spilled batter all over Illias’s kitchen a few times, and I learn something and I’m going to share it with you.
“If you are cooking for the first time, cook at your friend’s house. So you dirty his kitchen not yours!”
October 2, 2009
Loose Video: Week 2 Blessing in disguise
Illias is sad over the lost of TIPMedia.com at first but now we are very happy with TIPMedia.net.
October 1, 2009
Loose Video: Week 1, ideas generation journey
This is our loose video on our journey during the first week of TIP.
We travelled around Singapore in hope to get innovative ideas by broadening our view. We got lost, we got drenched but that did not stop us from moving on. We flipped magazines after magazines, visited website after website, and came up with a whole bunch ideas.
Illias tried to boomerang a card, although there are many unsuccessful attempts but he kept on trying and trying, and finally he succeeded. During our 6 months TIP journey we will face unexpected situations but we will keep going until we get what we want.
September 27, 2009
Episode 3: Fast week, Quick update
Recorded on 24th September '09... Word...
Really short on content this time, but we have excelled in digressing!
Hmmm... yeah...
So here's what that has been happening!
1# We made cookies! Tasted not bad i must say, for the fact that we went all innovative in mixing the cookie dough.
2# We've assigned an hour and a half each day to head down to the gym or go for a run. Hopefully it'll help us in some ways, and of course so that we don't get physically slapped around during National Service late next year!
3# By the mid of next week, we should have 2 MacBooks and 2 guide books so we're getting down to programming as of then.
4# Check out Simpleology.com. Really interesting site on seeing things in life and stay motivated. (We signed up but always avoided the 'ORDER NOW!'. The free stuff are useful enough!)
5# Boon enjoys irritating me! Haha crazy nutcase...
6# I'm still late for meetings!
7# Publicizing of TIPMedia.net has begun! We 'blog-napped' (Boon: Kidnapping blogs!), where we get our close blog contacts to post up a post about our blog. TRY IT if you're starting up a blog shop or u have an awareness u want publicized!
Oh and there's a video competition hosted by Singapore Health Promotion Board! Check it out here: http://www.50strongyears.sg
It's like an empty field on the blog! I know there are people out there! I CAN SEE YOU!!
If you think i can see you, comment! We wanna know u're there!
September 24, 2009
Trailer: TIP
This is our trailer of what is going happen in this coming 6 months! Thank you Illias for the very nice video editing. 2 of us will be walking this journey together, motivating each other. May the road be smooth or bumpy, we will stay strong for each other.
September 22, 2009
Blog: Time Management
Yes,we are doing on iPhone apps! Doing something that's cool!
I can say that Illias and I have lots to do, especially waking up early! We had been been sleeping late lately or should i say early as it is 2am. We are trying our best to tune back the bio-clock in our body so that we can sleep at 11pm and WAKE UP at 8am.
Talking about time, here's a Youtube video I would like to share with you. It's a lecture about time management by a professor Randy Pausch who does not have much time left on Earth. He is diagnosed with cancer and he is talking about managing time. It is more than an hour long lecture and he is a humorous guy. Illias and I will have to watch this video together someday! WE REALLY NEED TIME MANAGEMENT!
One phrase I love the most about what he said: "Good judgement comes with experience and experience comes from bad judgement, so if things aren't going well, than it means you are learning a lot and will go better later." So enjoy the lecture:
Episode 2: We've Confirmed Our Idea! But...
Recorded on 17th September '09. Sorry for the delay, all 7 of you out there!
It's official: We're working on iPhone Apps!
There are quite a number of ideas in mind, so we're getting somewhere... for now!
Our next quest probably is to start learning as much as possible about the iPhone SDK and how to program well with it.
Simultaneously, we'll also be planning ways to publicize TIPMedia.Net. We'll definitely update on what we intend to do!
AND and and if you happen to have any ideas on how we may do so, let us know in the comments section below! No idea is crazy, it's just whether we are crazy enough to do it!
September 18, 2009
Blog: Lesson Number 1
September 16, 2009
Blog: Ideas Generation and a Lesson Learnt!
And you definitely know you need a breather if you begin to even imagine that Angelina Jolie might name her next child WiFi or HSDPA.
(I don't even know where that came from!)
Boon's been doing most of the ideas generation, while i feel like i'm running on a really old 64MB ram during the daytime. The fasting is really getting to me, but i'm trying to catch up as much as i can in the night time by surfing on TED.com for anything that may inspire our project.
Haha Boon must be pissed with my constant naps during meetings!
OH OH OH DID YOU KNOW!!! That on the same day we were about to buy our domain, Tipping Media (probably some advert company) bought TIPMEDIA.COM just a few hours before???!! I was throwing a mini tantrum!!! It's a MINI tantrum because it's manly-er!
LESSON LEARNT: BUY THAT FLIPPIN' DOMAIN IMMEDIATELY WHEN IT'S UP FOR GRABS!
"Shit happens" ~ Murphy's Law reinterpreted by TIPMedia.NET
Here's an interesting video we want to share with you from TED.com:
Toodles!
September 14, 2009
Episode 1: Starting out PLUS a short intro
TECHNOPRENEURSHIP INCUBATION PROGRAMME (TIP)
Boon and myself have challenged ourselves to take up this heavy module (or light, depends on how one sees it) for the next and final 6 months of our Business IT course.
So how is it gonna roll? Honestly, I'm not really sure.. but here's what we can assure YOU!
That's right! YOU, the imaginary loyal reader of this blog that not only bookmarks but makes TIPMedia.net his or her homepage!
- We have 3 goals in mind - to complete the core project, a community service project, and IT awareness campaign
- Attempt to keep this blog as updated as possible, hopefully weekly vodcasts
- To have a kick-ass of a time!
- Illias
Only realized half way that he's blogging off the main acct