The Upper Storey » News & Awards

War Of Digital Publishing Between Apple And Amazon

Prima Wijaya — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:39:11 +0000

It appears that the sequel to the epic movie “Clash Of The Titans” arrived sooner than expected with Apple announcement’s regarding Textbook or Digital Publishing on Thursday, 19th January.

Apple intends to slowly wrest control of the book publishing industry from Amazon, by providing the tools and cloud interface for authors to create and then market their books directly to readers. In other words, I think Apple will reinvent the textbook industry as a stepping stone to eventually reinventing the entire publishing industry.
Amazon appears untouchable for book sales for now. Authors currently do their own marketing and distribution, while Amazon offers help with their efforts for a price. Cult of Mac suggests that Apple’s announcement will focus on making the world of digital publishing more attractive to authors. Think “GarageBand for eBooks”, according to Ars Technica’s sources. The entire industry seems to agree that Apple is ready to lead the way into a new frontier of digital textbooks through the iBookstore. There is not that much detail on what Apple has planned, but this announcement could be a big deal for Apple in the long run.

iOS App : Action Movie FX

jeremy.low — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:18:19 +0000

Action Movie FX has to be one of the best apps of 2011.With its simple user interface, anybody with an iPhone can now be a Visual Effects Artist. All you have to do is to simply film a scene and apply the desired effect to it.

However, the real fun comes from the times when the app is used in other, more creative ways – ones that the developers may not have intended it for. Try sending a missile to that dude who is taking way too long at the ATM machine?

With its new take on ‘tagging’ people, this app is just waiting to go viral.
Here are some sample videos of what people have been doing with this app.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfKANBiPnGc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-jLyQUsGuM&feature=related

I’d buy that for a dollar!

Edwin Leong — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:52:20 +0000

In a world where some of the most capably convergent entertainment devices are found right in your pocket, the traditional game console producers find themselves in a bit of a quandary. This is, of course, the fact that their margins are being eaten into by mobiles. After all, when most people find that they can get a whole lot more bang for a literal buck on the app store, it just becomes that much harder to charge hundreds for a portable game console, and another $50 or so per game. While this is not 100% attributable to the rise in mobile gaming, the numbers were somewhat lower than expected for the PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS.

The argument, though, is that the dedicated game consoles are for the hardcore. Big budget games, with a price to match, But as indie game and app sales show, there’s just as much to be made (if not more) from a low-cost yet high-volume product. But what can these console manufacturers do? For now, the new breed of portables are starting to offer phone-like features (as already seen with Skype implementation on the PSP). So too with low-cost casual, downloadable games, 3G implementation, AR features and apps of their own with all the usual suspects in tow. Well, I guess if you can’t beat them, join them, eh? It’d definitely be interesting to see how this shakes out.

Happy New Year from everyone at The Upper Storey!

Edwin Leong — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:29:01 +0000

Even as we bid adieu to the year that was 2011, we look forward to discovering the opportunities and challenges that promise to unfold in the next 366 days. Have a good 2012!

IE to Start Automatic Upgrades across Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

Chandra Barathi — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:22:24 +0000

This has to be the best news I have read today.

Today we are sharing our plan to automatically upgrade Windows customers to the latest version of Internet Explorer available for their PC. This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward. We will start in January for customers in Australia and Brazil who have turned on automatic updating via Windows Update. Similar to our release of IE9 earlier this year, we will take a measured approach, scaling up over time.

As always, when upgrading from one version of Internet Explorer to the next through Windows Update, the user’s home page, search provider, and default browser remains unchanged. – Ryan Gavin General Manager, Internet Explorer Business and Marketing.

Developers constantly struggle with different browser versions and limits them to push the web technology. With only one IE to worry about in the future more energy can directed towards R&D on one browser instead of writing many adaptation of scripts to support all the browser versions. QA time will be cut down tremendously. More info can be found at the windows blog.

“Lumia is the first real Windows Phone”

Chandra Barathi — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:27:20 +0000

“Lumia is the first real Windows Phone” – this were the words of Stephen Elop at Nokia World 2011 which took place from the 26- 27 of October in London. Being a huge Nokia fan I have been waiting all year for the release of the Nokia Windows phone and finally Nokia Announces Two New Windows Phones, Lumia 800 and 710.

“Eight months ago, we shared our new strategy and today we are demonstrating clear progress of this strategy in action. We’re driving innovation throughout our entire portfolio, from new smartphone experiences to ever smarter mobile phones,” said Stephen Elop,

Here’s some information about the two phones:

Nokia Lumia 800
The stunningly social Nokia Lumia 800 features head-turning design, vivid colors (cyan, magenta and black) and the best social and Internet performance, with one-touch social network access, easy grouping of contacts, integrated communication threads and Internet Explorer 9. It features a 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display blending seamlessly into the reduced body design, and a 1.4 GHz processor with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor. The Nokia Lumia 800 contains an instant-share camera experience based on leading Carl Zeiss optics, HD video playback, 16GB of internal user memory and 25GB of free SkyDrive storage for storing images and music. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 800 will be approximately 420 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies.

Nokia Lumia 710
The purposely built, no-nonsense Nokia Lumia 710 can be personalized with exchangeable back covers and thousands of apps to bring the Lumia experience to more people around the world. The Nokia Lumia 710 is designed for instant social & image sharing, and the best browsing experience with IE9. It is available in black and white with black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow back covers. With the same 1.4 GHz processor, hardware acceleration and graphics processor as the Nokia Lumia 800, the Nokia Lumia 710 delivers high performance at an affordable price. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 710 will be approximately 270 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies

Reggie Hutcherson, Director of Windows Phone Developer Experience for Nokia, and Brandon Watson, Senior Director of Windows Phone at Microsoft, shared the stage to answer some of the questions now that the first fruits of the partnership have begun to ripen at Nokia World. The mainly addressing the developers around the world. Microsoft has long been a market leader and innovator for software development tools, and, as Brandon noted, “We wanted to ensure that developers for the Windows Phone platform had access to our decades of experience in building great tools.”

More information on the event can be found at http://press.nokia.com

American Express Singapore is now on Facebook

Joanne Lee — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:27:38 +0000

Want to know more about American Express Singapore’s exclusive cardmember privileges and promotions? “LIKE” the newly launched American Express SG Facebook page to be in-the-know. In conjunction with the Singapore’s National Day, AMEX SG is running the “Snap your Singapore” contest which is open to ALL SINGAPOREANS RESIDING IN SINGAPORE.

All you have to do is submit a photo along with a caption of what / why you love most about Singapore and stand a chance to win great prizes – 2-night weekend stay at the Junior Theme Suite at Fairmont or the Premier Harbour room at Mandarin Oriental, Apple iPad2, Canon Camera, dining vouchers at Sauce, LG 3D Blu Ray DVD Player, spa vouchers or dinner for two at Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore.

Remember to share the contest with your friends and get them to vote for you. Good luck Singaporeans!

AdMonsters SE Asia Conference

Chandra Barathi — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:10:16 +0000

AdMonsters is the global community of ad operations and technology leaders. For the first time they are bringing their conference to Singapore.

I will be one of the speakers and my topic will be “Ad Operations – A Creative Agency Perspective”. Having had 10 over years in this industry, I will be sharing my experience in online ads development and some of the struggles that agencies today face and how to fix them together.

The new Mercedes Benz C-Class launch

admin — Thu, 19 May 2011 22:02:06 +0000

Tonight was the launch of the new Mercedes Benz C-Class at OverEasy, One Fullerton. The car has a number of features to assist drivers, making it even more agile and responsive. It also has a great new face lift.

The event was a big hit with 800 people, most of them going over the new cars with a fine toothcomb.

We are happy to help them with a program to support the upcoming Agility Challenge, which you can be a part of by registering at this site: http://www.agilitychallenge.com.sg/

AdTech 2011 talk

admin — Mon, 09 May 2011 01:47:35 +0000

This June I will be giving a talk at AdTech. The program mentions it is about ‘Swarm’, but in fact it has wider implications and scope than that. My joint talk with Damien Cummings of Dell will be more focused on Social Commerce and Group Buying, and its specific application to a company’s online marketing plans.

Swarm has now run for over two years. Well before sites like Groupon became well known. And with now two years data we have very good insight into the ‘truth’ about social commerce (in relation to consumer electronics).

1 – The In’s And Out’s Of Group Buying: Two Years Of Dell Swarm
Friday, June 17, 2011 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM

Group Buying is a global phenomenon cast into the spotlight with the explosive growth of companies like Groupon & Living Social. Central to these sites is the notion of facilitated sharing through social media channels, effectively spreading the word about great deals. Group Buying does come in many forms, and for different brands the relevance varies. A home-grown Singapore example, Dell Swarm, is now a global platform for Dell, having rolled out in various markets over the last 2 years. Its’ latest iteration, in Australia, helps sell a range of consumer electronics & PC products ranging from Digital Cameras to Printers to TV’s & Software. Group Buying makes the ultimate step with social media and web2.0 technologies to monetize consumer relationships and leverage the buying advantage for online consumers. However, where does it sit within a wider social media strategy for most brands? How can it help develop wider/deeper relationships with customers? This talk is a review of Group Buying today and the learning’s from Dell Swarm over the last two years across three markets. These learning’s have helped Dell to sell-out success of their Swarms in Australia, generating huge buzz with current and potential customers.