Skype at CommunicAsia 2010 (giveaway at the bottom!)

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CommunicAsia 2010
Skype at CommunicAsia 2010
Giveaway!

CommunicAsia2010 and BroadcastAsia2010 is Asia’s premier business event for the global infocomm technology (ICT), broadcasting and media industries. It’s held at Singapore Expo from 15 – 18 June 2010.

The exhibitions feature almost 2,000 exhibiting companies from 57 countries and regions, keen on unveiling their latest offerings.
(info from CommunicAsia’s press release)

On June 16 I had the privilege of attending the blogger’s session from Skype at CommunicAsia 2010. I have Daphne from XPR to thank for that.

I was so in love with the Skype booth. It’s so cheery, with sky blue and rainbows all around!

Isn’t that just pretty?

We were guided around the booth by Peter Parkes, social media lead of Skype, who explained to us the new features/functionalities of Skype.

Yes that’s me listening. Hehe.

Basically what Peter informed us is the availability on Skype on other platforms other than the more traditional computer (PC/Mac alike). Skype is now available for mobile devices (Symbian phones, iPhone), and even TV!

Yes, TV!

It actually supports HD video, and the camera/microphone combo has 4 microphones and is able to pick up sound from 45 metres.

Example of the video:

There was very little grain/noise. It was quite impressive.

However the Skype on TV is only available as embedded software within select TVs. Currently Panasonic Viera HDTV supports it, with the requirement of a communication camera (sold separately). Not sure whether it’s required to use Panasonic’s own communication camera or it’s possible to use other compatible cameras. Peter also mentioned Samsung and some other brand of TV to embed the Skype software. Not sure about the details.

And then of course there was Skype for iPhone and Symbian phones. Skype in the Nokia N900 is not even a separate application, it’s actually seamlessly embedded in the phone. When you scroll through your contact list, for example, you can see the option “Call using Skype” appear. Interesting! After the event, I just had to download Skype to my Nokia E72 and it’s pretty easy to use! It can also merge the Skype contacts and the phone contacts together, but it’s not yet seamless like N900′s.

Screenshot:

Peter also talked about Business usage for Skype. Basically Skype will help businesses (Peter mentioned especially small and medium businesses) save costs on communications. Makes sense, because Skype can enable people to call, chat, send files, and even do conferences/group callings at the same time! The new feature available at Skype Business is Skype Manager, which is a web application you can use to manage the usage of Skype inside your organization. For example – if you want to manage how much Skype credits to give to your employees. You may go to Skype for Business website for more details.

Oh, and I think the Skype Manager ad is so cute!

By now you might be wondering – even if it’s on mobile phones, how exactly can I call people without Skype? Understandably, Skype has traditionally been used for free Skype-to-Skype calls but apparently it can also be used to call landlines/mobiles. You can purchase Skype credits to do so, or even better, you can use Skype subscriptions for unlimited calls to countries/Europe/World. Pretty good deal I think! Sadly, the Skype subscription worldwide that I got excluded Indonesia (my home country), so I said good bye to my unlimited calls to home. Sigh.

Giveaway! (updated!!)

Yeay! Now it’s time for the giveaway!

I have 2 Skype iPhone covers to give away!

(They both have the same design, only different colours – white/black)

To enter the giveaway contest is simple!

1. Leave a comment at this post with your name and (valid!) email, stating what you use/you can use/you plan to use Skype for.

And that’s it! Yes, it’s that easy.

You can also have another chance by tweeting about this giveaway. Please see the directions at the first comment below!

Some T&Cs:

1. The last entry of the contest will be accepted at 23 June 2010 23.59 PM 25 June 2010 23.59 PM. Winners will be announced at latest by 30 June 2010.
2. This contest is open to people who reside at Singapore or have a Singapore mailing address.
3. Postage fee will be borne by me a.k.a postage is freeeeee
4. One person (with one e-mail) is allowed one entry via comment on blog post and two entries via Twitter (directions at the first comment below!).
5. There will be 2 winners. Winners will be chosen by random numbers (Random.org)
6. Colours will be determined by random too.

Looking forward for your entries!

Note:  A number of other blogs will be having the same giveaway, I’ll post links to their giveaway’s so you can have more chances of winning one!

When?

When did I run out of interesting things to write?

When did blogging becomes such a hard task to accomplish?

When will I come back to my blogging frenzy days?

When will people stop intimidating me by blogging every single day?

When will this blog be most alive again?

Leave what you want me to write about in comments. You want my boring mundane life? You want my school life? Anything. I need inspiration.

I can haz Innov8?

This is not a pun. I WANT SAMSUNG INNOV8 RIGHT FREAKING NOW. NOW!!

Ahem.

Ok, so I was invited to the Samsung’s first blogger night (after shamelessly e-mailing Daniel from Samsung to be included. WAHAHAHA. Srsly!)

I arrived late because I had class until 7 PM. After class I hurriedly checked gothere.sg for directions hahaha!

Apparently Vivocity is quite big I spent quite some time trying to find the Samsung Flagship store.

I finally found it and quickly sat on a sofa beside Rinaz and listening to the presentation. Was quickly impressed by the specifications.

Photo courtesy of Nicole.

I mean, seriously, 8 megapixels? With smile shutter and blink shutter? I WANT. My current camera Sony DSC T70 has it, but then it will be great if my phone has it so I don’t need to bring 2 gadgets (heavy!).

And the great news is.. It uses Symbian S60! Woohoo! If there’s one thing that always makes me hesitant to “jump ship” from my current phone manufacturer, it’s the operating system. I’m so used to Symbian and I think it rocks. Plus, using Symbian means opportunity to add applications developed for Symbian. Yeay to Symbian!

So after the presentation, came the most exciting part : The Game! (and when you remember about it, you lose)

Photo courtesy of Nicole.

Anyway, we were supposed to take 3 pictures with our cameras (remember they asked us to bring camera in the invitation?) about the things that inspire us about Samsung Innov8.

The entries were then pasted together on this board..

Photo courtesy of Nadnut

Ok I forgot to take a picture of my own submission Nevertheless here it is, created by ScrapBlog. Haha. I RULZ.

And.. And…

I didn’t win. Sighness.

Anyway, it was a fun night. It has a relaxed atmosphere and I enjoyed myself. It was my first blogger event ever and well, what an event! It’s not big or extravagant and stuff but it was fun, to the point, and no fluff.

And before I sign off…

I CAN HAZ INNOV8????

on the way to become a popular blogger

This post is to clarify that my previous post, Dear Bloggers, is not a response to a highly popular blogpost by Cowboy Caleb “How to be an irritating Singaporean blogger“.

Probably it’s the timing that makes it inevitable that people think it is, and I have to admit that in some way or other the post has triggered me to write “Dear Bloggers”. In any case you still think I’m lying or sort, I actually wrote about my concern of writing something “meaningful” and “valuable” almost 2 years ago in The Burden to Write.

My intended message in “Dear Bloggers” was actually this : Don’t be afraid to blog, don’t stop blogging.

Blogging is good, and it’s not discouraged to start young. Sure, your writing won’t be too good, but at least you try. Ever heard the cliche “You’ll never know until you try”? There’s a reason why it became a cliche : it’s true.

Doing writing constantly and practicing to express your thoughts will only do you good. Nothing bad will come out of that, really. If you don’t believe me, you can just browse my archives from years ago and compare it to now. You might see that my writing has improved.

And I think that I missed a point in Dear Bloggers. Being a blogger is one thing, but being a likable/popular blogger is another thing. “Blog what you want, blog responsibly” is just the basic of being a blogger.

So, you want to be a popular blogger? Or at least recognizable blogger? Well make your blog interesting, and take care of your readers. The first thing of all is to know your readers. Position yourself as the reader, and ask yourself, what do I want to see? What will interest me? If you’re not planning to make a niche blog to attract certain groups, the least you can do is to add some flair in every posts and always remember to give sincere effort to each of them.

My friend Isaiah just posted a comprehensive summary about how to be an interesting blogger (or at least be a person who has an interesting blog). Do read up, since it’s one opinion from a reader (hell yes there are bloggers who are not blog readers. Selfish.). Alternatively, I urge you to read up Problogger. This is THE ultimate resource of how to make your blog interesting. Visit there, and read the archives. No need to swallow it all in one day. Blogging in an interesting way takes time, as it’s a habit. Habit takes time to form.

So all in all, my message is simple, really. Don’t stop blogging. Don’t be afraid to blog. And remember the two things each time you’re going to update your blog : Blog what you want, but blog responsibly.

Cheers.

Dear Bloggers

Remember what defines you as a blogger.

If you have a blog and you update it regularly voluntarily (under no pressure of other people or rather money pressure), you’re a blogger.

This is my personal opinion, but after muddling around the blogosphere for years, this is the best term that I think defines a blogger.

And you better believe me rather than those people blogging since 2007 or later.

A blog is your space. Your personal space. Your proof of claim of that tiny space in the cyber world. It is yours. It’s read by everybody, but it’s yours. Your content is yours. Your words are yours.

And whenever you want to update your blog, there are only two rules:

1. Blog what you want.
2. Blog responsibly.

Yes, blog what you want. Blog about how you tried to trim your dog’s nails but it refused so it scratched your arm. Blog about your chance encounter with some hot guy in the fitness center. Blog about your grandma who told you her old stories from the war time. Blog about your hot night out with some friends.

No, blogging about technology stuff and gadgets doesn’t make you instantly cool. Blogging about social media doesn’t get you into the “top bloggers” list instantly. Trying to teach people about how to make money doesn’t make you compelling. Talking about the latest update in politics doesn’t make you smart all of a sudden.

Only blog about stuff because you WANT to. Sure, blog about that new gadget that catches your fancy because it has the cool feature you’ve been longing for. Blog about social media because you’re so excited that it can help your business’ next marketing project. Blog about making money scam you’ve encountered (oh come on, there’s a lot). Blog about politics because you study political science and you think what you studied doesn’t really apply in the real politic world.
(note that the reasons are not exhaustive, in case there are some real ahem… less intelligent people who think so)

Don’t ever feel forced. Don’t fall into peer pressure. You know what happens to the teenagers who took drugs because their friends took it too.

And secondly, blog responsibly. Now that you can blog whatever you want, be responsible. This mainly concerns your readers. Let’s just assume your blog has readers, unless it’s somewhere out there locked by password that only you know (now that, I don’t know if it’s still a blog). As I mentioned before, your blog is yours but your readers are not. And your readers’ perceptions are not yours either. And since the words are yours, they will always be attributed to yours and you can’t deny them.

Sure you had a boring day in office and your boss scolded you for not finishing your work. Well we all have our bad days don’t we? But saying “Working in ABandC Company sucks! Don’t work here” won’t be a responsible thing to say, no? Sure you met an annoying person in the bus this morning. But talking about the race of that person and labelling that race as inferior is not a wise move, right? Sure you had a big fight with your parents today but flaming them behind their back and letting out family secrets are not in any way good, are they?

You might eventually apologize and take down the post but in some readers’ memory (or in Google cache, or in screenshots), it will stay and you’ll still be labelled as irresponsible blogger.

Don’t defend your stand because of “It’s my blog and who the heck cares!”. In whatever you do, not only blogging, think about the impact of your actions. In either online world or offline world you don’t live alone, and stop pretending that you are.

There’s no gauge for good or bad blogger. There are only popular bloggers and they all have many different things that made them popular (sadly, preference to flame people and showcasing unnecessary skin included but no, you don’t have to do that, really)

I’m a blogger. You’re a blogger. Together we make the blogosphere. Not only 1 or 2 or 3 popular bloggers. We’re included too.

We are the blogosphere.

Late Post =P Yebber 1st Anniversary Bash

The reason why I posted this late is because I don’t have any camera (will somebody donate?) and I don’t have any interesting photos to be shared. So I waited ’til ppl upload their photos so I can “steal” them conveniently =P

Rinaz, Jean, and Claudia plus some people at Yebber, I hope you guys don’t mind me putting your pictures here. Your watermarks are kept intact!

ANd sooo…

I came to the bash after got specially invited by Claudia. It was a VVIP invitation, ok! *winks*

Here’s my photo with my name tag… “Sylvia aka Sylvdoanx”

Thx for the photo Rinaz! Damn chio!

Here’s my photo with Rinaz..

My fake Bottega Veneta bag is nice hor? My mother bought it for me from China. Hahaha!

And here’s one with the ever-so-popular Chillycraps..

Before anything starts.. There was a video presentation. And here’s the photo of the audience. (yes I only pick photos with me inside =P)

He was using Lessig Method of presentation! Meaning, each and every slides have only limited or even just one word/picture/anything. Hehehe. Yes I know the Lessig Method of presentation. In case you don’t know.. Lawrence Lessig is the founder of Creative Commons!

And after that.. The moment we’ve been waiting for.. Food!!!

The food is so yummeh. It’s a sad fact that I don’t really like seafood and/or vegetables. (I didn’t eat the salad and only took a small amount of the crabmeat linguini) No worries though. The chicken parmesan was yummeh I even took 2nd helping! HOhohoho!

After that was game time! It was bingo!

I’m sitting beside Daniel CerVentus who put his food on the floor, claiming that food tastes better after picked up from floor. LOL.

I didn’t win though. I was so close! 2 more numbers!! Grrrrr…

But it didn’t really matter coz after that there was a lucky draw!

This is Creative Zen Stone plus..

And….
Yeah, you’ve guessed it.

I WON!!!!

Mwahahaha. Didn’t think I would be so lucky. I’m usually very unlucky in lucky draws or something like that. Sigh. But I won!! Hahaha. I already have an iPod Nano though. So I’m gonna give it to my sister. (My sister’s reply in sms : “How come you’re so lucky??”)

All in all, I really had fun! Thx to Yebber (especially Claudia for the invitation!)! looking forward for next events =)

Blogged?

Somebody (I suppose) had submitted my blog to this website called blogged. Here’s the link to my page.

Well, since I’m shameless and all that, here’s the rating from them (supposedly from a qualified editors, they say).

Oh well. Thank’s for submitting my blog. Appreciate it.

On a side note, in case you don’t know it, the domain sylviagiacinta.com is owned by me and will redirect to this glorious blog.

7 weird things about me

I got tagged by Joycie~ And I think this is like the third meme that exposes my weird things. Or is it fourth? Hmm.. i don’t know.. I really can’t think about any more weird things about me.. Let me try..

Basically, I have weird “rituals” and “categorization”.
First off. I have my own rules for things to be put in my pockets (pants’ pockets). They are : handphone in left front pocket, my SMU card dangling in right front pocket, and EZ-Link card+cashcard+Kopitiam card in right back pocket. Sometimes I slip some money in the right back pocket also, along with coins that were used for change. The left back pocket is usually empty since I always carry my bag on my left shoulder (my right shoulder has a problem) thus disabling me to put/take anything from my left back pocket. This “categorization” is the reason why I always get confused when I’m wearing something without pockets, e.g. skirts.

I still buy CDs. And sometimes I have a desire to buy original DVDs (never happened). Of course it’s weird regarding the fact I used to live in Indonesia. Well… If you catch what I mean =P

I play piano with my mind wandering. Sometimes. And I still play. At least my fingers do.
Yes.. My fingers have soul… They are scary…. Wheeeeeezzzzzz (dunno how to make/type a spooky sound)

I can’t speak Mandarin fluently nor read/write Mandarin flawlessly
Of course it’s weird considering I’m of Chinese heritage.. Sigh..
But I can assure you my Indonesian is excellent =P

I like drinking orange juice but I dislike eating oranges
Basically I dislike eating food that requires peeling/spitting out the seeds/making hands dirty+sticky. There’s a reason why spoon/fork/knife was invented. Or why an occupation like chef was invented. Like helloooooo?

Ok. 2 more.. What else.. Let me think…

I have good memory and have troubles “deleting” those unnecessary memories.
I still remember my elementary school’s lessons. Like the history of Indonesia. Or the Moral subject (ew). I still remember my father’s first handphone number. I remember all the license plate numbers of the cars my family used to have. Like WTF, rite? I wish I can “clean up” those memories and replace them with some more worthy ones. Like people’s credit card numbers? *rolls eyes*

Oh that makes the seventh thing..
I remember people’s names, not faces.
Well so to say, don’t be offended if I don’t remember you while seeing your face. I’m quite a shy girl and sometimes I don’t look up/directly when talking with people I don’t really know. That’s why your face will be so hard to be registered in my mind. However if you tell me your name, I pretty much can tell everything about you (reference : the previous point).

And that was 7!

And I don’t wanna tag…..