Colin Charles Agenda

I love to buy stuff from Amazon, so why not try buying stuff from Lazada right? This was the case today for the purchase of a juicer (no, not for me). In the end, ESH, a physical store won. Why did I choose physical over e-commerce?

Seeing a list of juicers is great. But how do I know how they work? How do I know which one is easier to clean? How do I know if anecdotally, one comes back more for warranty claims? How do I know if a juice extractor can only juice 2 oranges at one go, then requiring a one minute break (maybe I can find this in the manual, but really, when was the last time a consumer looked at a manual?).

So, first problem – not being sure which juicer to buy. Lazada is new and lacks customer reviews. In fact, I’m not sure there will be quality customer reviews that will make me trust it anyway. Physical wins out totally here as you can touch the juicers and get guided.

Oh, but it’s surely cheaper online, right? Wrong. Every juicer in store had a retail price, but it also came with a “best price”. If you’re Malaysian, you also probably love to haggle – try doing that at an online store! Believe it or not, the best price matched the Lazada prices hands down.

Delivery times? 4-6 business days seems to be standard on Lazada. At ESH, I could walk out with the item immediately.

Payment? ESH like any good physical retailer accepts credit cards (Visa/Master only though). They also give you Bonuslink points. Lazada is no different, with B.Card points.

Warranty is a big deal. If something goes wrong, I can just walk into ESH and they’ll handle it for me. My family & I have been buying from them for decades. If something goes wrong with my purchase from Lazada, I’ll probably have to call up the individual manufacturer and work it out myself. After-sales service is very important – what has online done for improving this space?

Now, the juicer we finally settled on for the gift was a Philips HR1871. It was RM11 cheaper on Lazada at RM688 (we paid RM699, best price rate with no haggling today). However at ESH it came with another attachment: a juice extractor. It’s a whole other attachment, and if you buy it retail from other brands it would set you back RM130 or so (even on lazada). 

What did all this cost? A short drive (at most 2L of petrol burnt) as well as a RM0.60 sen parking fee. The time spent would have been the same, if not more online, as one would have to watch videos elsewhere, read reviews, etc.

Leaves a lot to be desired for online shopping when it comes to white goods. Notice that if I were purchasing a tablet or cellphone it would be completely different (I can take the cheapest price since I have some domain knowledge). 

I wonder what other experiences are…

It’s 2013, and my media consumption hasn’t changed much from 2011. I still like watching TV series as they come out or back-to-back (and Netflix is smart with House of Cards – back-to-back from the start). Attached to my TV is the same device I’ve owned for several years that decodes digital compressed video – I just transfer content to its hard disk, and play off the device.

Nowadays, you can buy an Apple TV in Malaysia, but it’s not something I’ve thought of picking up. I’ve thought now for over five years that YouTube is an MTV replacement. This being the MTV of yesteryear when the focused on music videos (not today with all their content play). YouTube is so much more now though – I can get educated, entertained, or just plain switch off watching it.

Amateur hour on YouTube is fast disappearing. Lots of professional created content exists there, and I’m happy to watch it. This is the first step to disrupting Hollywood.

So, I’ve got the choice of an Apple TV to watch iTunes based content. Or maybe I can AirPlay stuff from my laptop. Or I can continue to use my current setup which is loading the hard disk with data. This doesn’t allow me to enjoy YouTube and other stuff on my TV though…

Enter the EMAGINE. I was invited to the launch so I got to play with the device a little. Device costs RM399. It runs Linux (currently no sources online; no API information online for developers). I like that they support local content channels like Eumakh and more. Their company backing it, SelecTV looks interesting with minimal media hype from the usual channels (they are a Malaysian MNC with investment from MAVCAP + Intel Capital).

Their motto: “open platform to create a new experience in media consumption & delivery”.

They have figured out a way to play YouTube videos without showing the ads. I don’t know if this affects how content producers get paid out (because if it does, I’d rather watch the ads). One big problem I find with podcasts and youtube for example is there is no curated content. Sometimes I just want to lie back and see what’s on, not pick what to watch. This is where the cable experience still rocks. Luckily, they have curated channels on EMAGINE. 

All the demos were focused on YouTube. More great quality content is on Vimeo too. And other sites. Remember that YouTube has local peers in Malaysia, but the other services don’t. So even with a 5mbps cable connection, you may not rock hard. Buffering, etc. is going to affect the first time experience.

Some other interesting bits: Karaoke on the box with some 50,000 songs. This is a paid service. Great interface compared to going to a KTV, but I’d pass (I’m not the target market). The idea of shopping from your TV, i.e. using Lazada currently, is quite smart (I hope to see more TV shopping). The potential to get pay-per-view TV exists, but there is no content there because well, getting content is hard (er, expensive).

There’s no spinning disk so this isn’t a PVR. It comes with 3 USB ports, so I presume you can hook up your own hard disk and enjoy watching downloaded content. There is music options, but the company seems to only want to focus on video. It comes with Intel WiDi which may or may not support Miracast. Bottom-line: I want my Macbook Air or iPad or Nexus 7 sending content to my TV via wireless. If this stuff can’t work, advertising WiDi is a cop out.

I was told that the comparison might be to the cheaper Roku box. I don’t have one or haven’t played with one before, so I reserve comments here.

I like the partnership with Lazada. Its the only place you can order an EMAGINE box. It presumes you’re already internet connected. My ideal box is something I’d write about in another post, but in the meantime while I think about that, I may think about the EMAGINE. Of course, I myself don’t stay in front of my TV often enough so its still up in the air. 

Does having a critical mind require you to be a critic? Does being a critic long enough make you a cynic?

These are thoughts that have crossed my mind in recent times. As I’ve grown older, I realise that I’ve been overly idealistic in the past.

These days, I’m motivated to see the positive in things. Punditry overall is boring as it doesn’t create.

I’m motivated by Scooter Braun’s motto:

IMAGINE. CREATE. EXECUTE. DELIVER.

I think I’ll spend some free time going back and only looking at the positive side of things.

Today I was on a phone call when I hobbled onto Twitter to see that DigitalNewsAsia’s #disruptmy was happening (follow the money – more panelists) . I found a link to a Google Hangout, so I plugged in my external monitor and decided to watch. In the meantime, I setup Twitter to be a second screen. On my main screen I did tasks that needed to get completed: catch up on IRC backlog, reply to lots of emails.

What has Google Hangout done for me?

The event starts at 5.30pm sharp. I probably joined not long after and I didn’t feel like I missed much. Do you know what it takes to get to The Gardens at 5.30pm? Traffic jams in the country will mean that I probably should leave at 4-4.30pm at the latest to be there safely. No looking for parking. Not paying for parking. No driving.

What did I miss out? The potential to socialize with some of the panelists & attendees. However I’m willing to bet I know most of the folk in that room, or can be connected to them at best by one degree of separation if required.

Overall, these Hangouts are awesome as you’re going to save time. It’s a secondary thing, like watching TV while you get work done… or listening to a podcast. Very different experience to actually being there.

Come Q&A, I got pretty bored and could tune out relatively quickly (except maybe the part about not getting excited by the Techcrunch hype; I think it goes down to the fact that many people just don’t understand finance). Next up, Team DigitalNewsAsia remember to take Q&A via Twitter. Remember folk, events are fun & all, but don’t be a conference ho. Back to work!

“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” 

Harvey Dent (fictional character) said that in Batman The Dark Knight. Deep, and something we should often think about.

I just listened to Monocle 24, The Entrepreneurs episode #45 (forward 32:40-42:14). Short interview with Arnault Castel. He’s the man behind kapok, a brand gaining traction in Hong Kong. I think they just launched in Malaysia as well in the Gardens.

Why is this interview interesting? Quite simply because Castel ended up in Hong Kong by accident (from France), worked in banking (a French bank doing stuff overseas – he didn’t want to do military service after his business studies), built up Lomography Asia, continued his expansion to bringing in Moleskine/Rhodia/etc, and now does kapok. Key points to note? He did Lomo’s in 2001, Moleskine in 2004, and so on. He’s a retail trend spotter.

He’s also a bootstrapper: all his ventures started out of his home office.

The importance of frequent travel is probably brought up a lot in this interview too. Helps with the spotting.

He talks about building community & community marketing for Lomography.

Further reading.