Asus tweet from behind and then apologizes

"We apologise for the inappropriate comment on Twitter earlier. We will take steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again." This was from the tweeter account of electronics company Asus, referring to a previous tweet which has been found by some sexist. In that tweet, Asus said "the rear looks pretty nice. so does the new Transformet AIO" with a picture taken from behind of a booth babe demonstrating Transformer AIO tablet at Computex 2012 with a white gown (see the picture below):

"A company's misogynistic tweet admiring the 'rear' of a booth girl at a technology conference has ignited a sexism row in the technology industry as thousands of gaming companies descend on LA for the E3 conference. 

ASUS, a Taiwan-based electronics company, came under fire as it introduced widely-anticipated new versions of its Transformer AIO tablet at the Computex Summit in Taipei on Monday. 

The company’s Twitter account posed a photo from behind of a so-called 'booth babe' - a model hired by companies as eye candy for their products - holding one of ASUS's newest devices (a computer that is both a tablet and a laptop, thanks to a double-sided screen).
So-called booth babes have long been a fixture of technology conferences - with this week's industry leading event in Los Angeles being no exception."[1]

Promotional models, largely known as booth babes, have recently been heavily used in Asian Fairs and Festivals and has started to attract both crowds and critics.

Source : Yahoo News

[1] - Sexism row hits tech industry over tweet praising booth babe's 'rear'

Pod Hotels getting popular

Standard hotel rooms in New York are very expensive yet they are very small. But with the introduction of pod hotels in the city, which are inspired by Japan's capsule hotel, hoteliers now may have very small but at least relatively cheaper hotels.

Capsule hotels first appeared and are highly popular in Japan but they did not have the same popularity in other countries. On the other hand, they have inspired small cabin style hotels which are larger and often comes with their own private bath in first European airports and then other parts of the world. For example a standard cabin of the Yotel Hotel Gatwick Airport in London (Ground Floor Arrivals Concourse South Terminal Gatwick Airport)  is designed as a first-class plane cabin. Yotel has also 2 more pod hotels in Europe (Yotel Schiphol Hotel Amsterdam, Yotel Heathrow Airport London) and a hotel in New York at Times Square West.

These less than 100 sq ft hotel rooms comes with bare minimum to shower, sleep and rest but provides a very budget alternative to the typical hotel room of larger size. According to the New York Times, they are now gaining popularity in New York. New York Times report that the first entry in New York was the 345-room Pod Hotel in east Manhattan, which opened in early 2007 with room rates that start at US$ 89 a night. And it must be popular. The developer of the Pod, BD Hotels, plans to open another in Manhattan  some time this month and plans to open other Pod Hotels in other US cities like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington.

Yotel Cabin - Source : Telegraph.co.uk

In Manhattan New York city, there will also be 2 more pod hotels by 2014; Pod36 and Pod51 which offer tiny rooms with stylish, smart design. Unlike original Pod rooms, these will offer private bathrooms for each rooms. Both hotels will have bunk beds:

There are also several pod style accommodation options in Singapore, where hotel prices are the most expensive in Asia. One of them, Matchbox the Concept Hostel, provides pod-style dormitories in a very good and central location for only around SG$40 (US$31) per night. Another one is Wink Hostel, which also offers  “pod” style beds; from SD$50 (US$38) for single pod and SG$90 (US$70) for double pod per night. In Changi Airport, for transit passangers, there is also Ambassador Transit Hotel (Terminal 1, Terminal 2 and Terminal 3) which provides budget rooms with only TV and bed (shower and toilet common) for SG$47 (US$36) per 6 hours.

9 Hours Capsule Hotel Kyoto Teramachi (Japan)

9 Hours Capsule Hotel's philosophy is summarized in its name : A bare minimum hotel experience requires 9 hours : 1 hour to shower, 7 hours to sleep and 1 hour to rest. The hotel provides a very good capsule accommodation experience and is at a very good location (very near to Metro if you want to travel to Osaka after Kyoto and all key locations can be accessed from the bus station which is 5-10mins walk from the hotel).

9 Hours Capsule Hotel has a simple and clean design with a very modern and functional interior architecture. It is quite different and better from your typical capsule hotel. The intention of the design is to make the place so simple that the customer easily move from one step to the next taking all the extras out of the hotel experience. "Seeing old capsule hotels, I wondered; would this concept work in London and New York?" says Keisuke Yui, President of Cubic Corp. "Would people think this was a good thing? It seemed clear that they would not. The basic theory of a capsule hotel was fine. But for people today, it wasn't enough. The business itself needed to be redesigned."

"For a capsule hotel, this is actually quite good. the sleeping pod is quite spacious. clean sheets. provides many amenities. the individual lockers are small thou, if you have a large luggage, you will have to leave it at the reception, and bring along a smaller bag to keep your valuables with you." says a solo traveler from Singapore.

9 Hours Capsule Hotel - Source : 9hours.jp

Everything is provided in the hotel from sleeping wear to white towels and the shower and locker rooms are on their own floor. Sleeping floors are segregated by gender. Men and women even have separate lifts. [1]

Capsule style of hotel accommodation was first developed in Japan and only popular in Japan but some capsule style hotels also emerged in other countries.There are Western variants of these concept but almost always with larger accommodations and often with private baths. Capsule hotels greatly vary widely in size. Some capsule hotels have only fifty or so capsules while some may have over 700. The main draw of these hotels is of course the cheap accommodation they provide : you can stay in a capsule hotel for around ¥2000-4000 (US$25–50) a night.

[1] - 9 hours Capsule Hotel- A Monocle Report

Singapore housing oversupply may be on the horizon

Singapore has been exposed to artificial liquidity created by global major economies which has fuelled asset bubbles and inflation in the country. Near zero interest rates are temporarily making million dollar flats “affordable” and “mass market” and since the property prices and number of properties sold do not show any sign of retreat after rounds and rounds of cooling measures, there has also been a sentiment which can be summarized as “as long as a meteor do not hit the planet earth, Singapore property always goes up”. This makes people to bring forward their demand for property. The sales numbers and prices are still going up even though the global economic outlook does not look promising.  As in all bubble times, people are simply ignoring any party spoiler and behaving like they cannot even wait for a few months to see the clear future. Buy now or regret later!

But according to Wing Tai chairman Cheng Wai Keung, the situation may end up with a Singapore housing oversupply:

“Just as pent-up demand saw housing prices shoot up over the past few years, a reverse situation could be at play now, says Wing Tai chairman Cheng Wai Keung.

“People are bringing forward their decisions to buy property as they fear prices may rise. As a result, demand in subsequent years may be lower than what is projected based on current demand. This would worsen an oversupply situation. On the top of that if the economy is not so good at that time, it will compound the problem.”

“The current housing cycle has lasted more than I have expected” he adds. “The effects of five rounds of cooling measures have been short lived. And despite the fact that the government has increased supply for so many years, the property market has not subsided.” He attributes this to a cocktail of past undersupply, Singapore’s population growth and liquidity.[1]

West, particularly USA, is printing money to punish saving and force spending but since this money flows to Asia and creates a dangerous and damaging investment environment. Near zero interest rates here and persistently high inflation punishes money saved in bank and forces people to buy assets to hedge against inflation. This is fuelling the property demand and prices but any turn in this scenario like an increase in interest rates would take the floor below the Singapore’s property bubble.

 [1] – Housing oversupply on the horizon, says Wing Tai boss, The Business Times

Disclaimer

This blog article is to provide general information only and should not be treated as an invitation to buy or sell any property or as sales material.  Users of this report should consider this report as a one of the many factors in making their investment decision. Users should make reference to other sources of information and specific investment advice to obtain a more objective view of the property market. Asia Singapore shall not be responsible for losses suffered.

Budget flights from Singapore to Tokyo and Taipei with Scoot

Scoot Airlines, the long haul budget arm of Singapore Airlines, has just made its maiden flight yesterday and just after the flight the company announced new routes from Singapore: Tokyo (Japan) and Taipei (Taiwan). The flights from Singapore to Tokyo and Taipei are planned to start from the third quarter of 2012.

Scoot has already announced budget flights from Singapore to Bangkok (where it is competing with its sister company Tiger Airways), Gold Coast (Australia), Tianjin (China) and Sydney (Australia). Yesterday's flight was to Sydney and flights to the Gold Coast will start from June 12.

Long haul budget flight is a new concept which has found some success with Air Asia X and Jetstar in Asia and Scoot is hoping to cut a slice from this pie as Asia's middle class is growing:

Singapore Airlines' budget offering, Scoot, will begin operations later this year, joining Malaysia's AirAsia X and Australia's Jetstar, a Qantas subsidiary, in flying long-haul in the region. Scoot plans to fly to five destinations in Australia, Japan and China in its first year, before targeting other routes. Cebu Pacific, a budget carrier from the Philippines, will enter the market next year with a long-haul service targeting the Filipino Diaspora in the Middle East and further afield. 

Scoot CEO Campbell Wilson told CNN's Richard Quest that the low-cost market was rapidly growing in Asia. "In eight years in Singapore, it's gone from nothing to about 25% of Changi's (Airport) throughput. There's a market that wants to travel no frills and wants to travel further afield."
Source : Asia's budget airlines spread their wings with long-haul flights

Yesterday's maiden flight started with a 2 hours delay due to a technical problem but The aircraft landed smoothly at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport yesterday morning and received a water cannon salute.[1]

The airline has a web site named Flyscoot from where you can buy tickets and check promotions and latest news.

[1] - Scoot will fly to Tokyo, Taipei

Second-timers significantly improved on their chances for BTO says National Development Minister

The chances of second-time public housing buyers securing build-to-order (BTO) flats have improved significantly over the last seven months from application rates of 25.9 applicants per unit of November to 8.8 applicants per unit currently. Second-timers are those buyers who have already used public housing subsidized to buy a flat. In project releases, they are given a less percentage of flats compared to first time buyers, who are usually newly wed couples looking for a home to stay.

In non-mature estates, the application rate for second-timers is now 7.3, similar to 7.0 in March. These numbers are shared by National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday.[1] A long lasting under-supply of HDB flats in the last decade, which was a reaction to an oversupply in late 90's and early 2000's has left many first timers with repeated failure to get a public housing flat and formed long waiting queues lasting sometimes for years. Since 2011, new National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan has increased the release of new HDB flats from an average of 8,000 flats per year to 25,000 per year. In 2012, it is also planned to release 25,000 flats and HDB has already revealed that it has capacity to build up to 100,000 in the following years.

Compassvale Boardwalk, a popular BTO project - Source : http://www.h88.com.sg

In his blog article named Passing The Test, Khaw Boon Wan wrote:

"In particular, first-timers continue to enjoy a high chance of securing their first flat. The overall first-timer application rate is 1.6. This is lower than the 2.2 in the March BTO, and similar to the 1.6 in January earlier this year, and November last year. In non-mature estates, the first-timer application rate is even lower, at 1.3 compared to the rate of 1.9 in March. 

As planned, more second-timers, too, will be able to select a flat. Their application rate in non-mature estates is at a single digit level of 7.3, which is similar to the rate of 7.0 in March. The overall second-timer application rate is also at a single digit level of 8.8, lower than the rate of 10.8 in March. 

If first-timer application rates hold steady at below 2, I will be able to help even more second-timers get their new flats.  The May BTO test results give us confidence that we are making steady progress on this journey.  This is much to be cheerful about."

[1] - BTO flats: ‘Better chances’ for second-time buyers

Tree In Lodge Singapore’s first environmentally-friendly hostel

Tree In Lodge, Singapore’s first environmentally-friendly hostel located at Tan Quee Lan Street in Bugis, offers green hostel experience such as filtered water to fill up guest's water bottles as an alternative to buying bottled
water and a station where guests can give away or exchange unwanted items. The hostel, which has opened more than a year ago, has hosted more than 2,500 guests. It costs around 27-29 SGD (21-23 USD) to stay in one of the dorms but globetrotting cyclists passing through Singapore are entitled to 50% off the rates for each night’s stay (owners are cyclists themselves).

“I’ve been backpacking for quite a long time, and there are not many places that try to educate their guests like this place does. To find people that are this passionate is really rewarding to the guests as well.” says Canadian travel writer Ian Ord.  

“There are a lot of signs and exhibits on what you can do to save energy and water, and what you can recycle. Just walking around the hostel and seeing those little things, it just raises awareness,” said Mr Marco Eder, a guest from Germany.
Source : A green hostel stay

Tree In Lodge Common Area - Source : Tree in Lodge

The hostel is in the center of Singapore city; within 3 minutes walk to Bugis MRT Station (so you can reach the hostel from Changi Airport via MRT train). Tree In Lodge has recently won TripAdvisor's prestigious "2012 Certificate of Excellence" by travellers consistently commend the hostel with the highest praise and give on average 4.5 rating. This is important because according to TripAdvisor, only the very best in the business are awarded a Certificate of Excellence.


Tree In Lodge's co-onwer Tan Swee Kian, said: "Rather than building a new building out of featuring a lot of green features, we use an old building, fit it in with some facilities for going green and build in practices to make it a habit. I think it's more important because this goes back to the basics." An avid traveller himself, Mr Tan said he drew inspiration from cities in Europe, Japan and Taiwan that are known for their green lifestyles.

Providing filtered water for guests to fill up their own bottles as an alternative to buying bottled water and setting up stations for guests to give away or exchange unwanted items are among the many green practices they embraced in the hostel. To reduce its carbon footprint, the hostel's interior decoration is kept to a minimum.
Source : Green backpackers hostel provides eco-friendly accommodation for tourists

Scoot Airlines saves on fuel with in flight iPad

Scoot Airlines, the long-haul budget arm of Singapore Airlines, has started its flights today with a new innovation which cleverly cuts fuel costs while offering a great budget flight experience. Instead of carrying around tonnes of seat back entertainment system and wiring, Scoot offers iPad tablets loaded with movies, music, games and television shows, free to business-class seats and 22 Singapore Dollars (17 USD) to economy class seats.

The innovation helped Scoot to cut 7 percent off the weight of Boeing 777 planes taken from parent Singapore Airlines. This is even after a 40 percent increase in seating (the budget long haul flight on Boeing 777 carries up to 400 passangers). These savings will help Scoot cope with fuel prices that have jumped about 36 percent in two years.[1]:

The iPads are "a very smart move," said Corrine Png, JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Singapore-based head of regional transportation research. "If they can make the aircraft lighter, it does help improve fuel efficiency." 

The budget carrier will loan the iPads free to passengers in its business-class seats. It eventually intends to have users access content via a wireless system onboard planes. 

JetStar, Qantas Airways Ltd.'s budget arm, also offers preloaded iPads on domestic and international flights lasting longer than 90 minutes. Qantas's main unit began trialing a wireless iPad system in December.[1]

Scoot has already sold more than 100,000 tickets for its flights which have started today. Singaporean budget carrier Scoot's maiden flight was a little bumpy start and was delayed of almost two hours on Monday night due to a technical fault.[2]:

Source : relax.com.sg

The Boeing 777-200 jet was originally scheduled for departure at 11.25pm, eventually took off at about 1.05am, according to reports. 

The flight with a full load of about 400 paying passengers, guests and members of the media left Terminal 2 at Singapore Changi Airport 20 minutes later then scheduled. However, it turned back on the runway and returned to the boarding area at 12.20am. [2]

The airline has a web site named Flyscoot from where you can buy tickets and check promotions and latest news.

[1] - iPads on a Plane Let Scoot Save Fuel by Shedding Tons of TVs
[2] - Scoot makes maiden flight to Sydney

SingTel 4G smartphones are on sale today

SingTel, one of three telcos in Singapore, has become the first to launch 4G (Fourth Generation) smart phones in Singapore yesterday. The 4G service providers up to five times faster internet speed compared to the maximum speeds delivered on the 3G network! The 4G network technology is called LTE (Long Term Evolution) and  marketed as 4G LTE. It is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals.[1]

"LTE stands for long-term evolution of 3G and offers much higher data transfers compared with the 3.5G (HSPA) speeds most commonly used now. The theoretical speed of LTE is 75Mbps, more than three times faster than HSPA, which tops out at 21Mbps in Singapore. 

SingTel expects to provide between 3.4 and 12Mbps download speeds when the network is loaded with more customers on 4G plans."[2]

SingTel is currently offering 3 LTE enabled smartphones by June 5th: HTC One XL, LG Optimus True HD LTE and Samsung Galaxy SII (S2) LTE. LTE coverage in Singapore is currently available only in half of the island but will be available in 80 per cent of the island by the end of the year, and islandwide by early 2013.[3]

HTC One XL one of three 4G mobile phones available from SingTel  - Source : http://asia.cnet.com 

But the greater speed comes at a cost. New data plans offered for 4G are not "eat-as-much-as-you can" style:

Among SingTel’s new price plans — which would apply to both 3G and 4G customers from next month — the lowest data bundle for its Flexi Lite plan was at 2GB, down from the previous 12GB cap. Data usage caps for the other three plans — Flexi Value, Flexi Plus and Flexi Premium — were also cut to 3GB, 4GB and 12GB respectively.

 Charges for excess usage will be S$10.70 per GB and S$5.35 per GB for 4G and 3G subscribers, respectively. All excess usage charges will be capped at S$88 per month.[3]

This may look like bad news for some but it is actually a very very good news. Connecting internet on mobile network has been painfully slow in the past few years thanks to the large number of users and these unlimited data plans offered. In Singapore, 10 percent of all users are the download maniac minority and abuses these plans at the expense of the majority. According to SingTel CEO Consumer Singapore Yuen Kuan Moon, 90 percent do not use more than 2-, 3-, 4- or 12GB in their respective Flexi plans. But the last 10 percent of its customers consume 64 percent of the company's mobile data! By providing a tiered data bundle, the company hopes to improve the speed for the majority by giving heavy users a disincentive to consume too much data. [2]



[1] - LTE
[2] - SingTel announces LTE plans for mobile phones
[3] - Faster 4G is here, but at a cost


 it also unveiled plans that do
away with the “buffet-style” mobile
data bundles that consumers had become accustomed to.

HDB Launches 4,627 New BTO flats in Choa Chu Kang, Punggol, Sengkang and Kallang/Whampoa

Housing Development Board (HDB) has announced the launch of 4627 Built-to-Order (BTO) flats among 6 projects in 4 towns today. The flats offered are in  three non-mature towns (Choa Chu Kang, Punggol, and Sengkang) and one mature town (Kallang/Whampoa). The projects are in projects named Compassvale Boardwalk in Sengkang Town, Keat Hong Pride in Choa Chu Kang, Pungol Edge and Waterway Sundew in Pungol,  Bendemeer Light and McNair Towers in Kallang / Whampoa.[1]

Although the flats are called Built-to-Order, HDB currently releases the flats ahead of the demand due to a long wait list in the past few years. Since last year, , HDB has also changed its policy of not launching new BTO flats in mature estates. Previous launch was in March 2012,  where HDB has launched 8,000 flats in Bukit Batok, Bukit Panjang, Clementi, Geylang, Bedok, Toa Payoh and Bukit Timah. Next HDB offering will be in Jul 2012 with about , HDB will be offering about 3,900 new flats for sale in Bedok, Bukit Merah, Clementi, Geylang, and Punggol.

At least 95% and 85% of the BTO flat supply (excluding Studio Apartments) in mature towns and non-mature towns respectively will be set aside for first-time buyers. This launch is the 3rd launch in 2012 and HDB plans to release 25,000 flats in 2012, on the top of 25,000 released in 2011.

Artist Impression of Waterway-Woodcress, a new BTO project released in September 2011

Last year, Singapore government has announced that they are committed to helping newly weds to obtain their first build-to-order (BTO) flat as soon as possible and has stated that HDB is able to construct more than 100,000 flats in its current term:

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan mentioned this in Parliament, as he shared plans for the next two years. Recently married first-timers are getting Mr Khaw’s immediate attention. The government is building 50,000 HDB flats in the first two years and ‘if the demand remains strong, we have the resources and the capacity to build more than 100,000 HDB flats during this term of government’, he said. New flats may start coming up in Bidadari, which can potentially accommodate up to 12,000 units. 

The government will also start planning for Tengah town – with a capacity for 56,000 units when fully developed – although it will not launch BTO projects there in its current term. What it will do is start building infrastructure such as roads and drains, and the works will commence later than those at Bidadari.[2]

[1] - HDB Launches 6 BTO Projects Offering 4,627 New Flats
[2] - 100,000 new HDB flats over 5 years