Toluu

Media Geek Girl

Blogging movies, media and life in Singapore

Singapore's Newspapers - Dead Much?November 19 2008

Image via WikipediaRecently, it has seemed like not a day has gone by without an article appearing in my reader about the imminent death of newspapers. The Inquisitr has provided great coverage of the warning signs of print's decline, prompting Duncan Riley to change his forecast of broadcast television, as the first heritage media medium to fall, to print newspapers instead. Even media mogul Rupert Murdoch has made known his opinion that newspapers will shift from their physical format to the web, becoming 'news brands' instead of 'news papers'. The American Press Institute has certainly recognised the pressing need for change, with its closed door session last Thursday on the revival of the newspaper business. The crowning cherry must be Six Apart's offer of free Typepad blogs to professional bloggers and journalists who fear their jobs may be in j

But What About Us: Urging Meritocracy for the MajorityNovember 16 2008

Image via WikipediaThe impact of the internet tends to remind me of something a certain wise Jedi once sensed - a million voices crying out. But certainly not in terror. On the contrary, the internet has made it possible for anyone to be a producer or creator and have an access to an audience not previously possible.

However, it is no secret that just as with every other platform or marketplace in society, some have more influence than others. In social media, blogs like ReadWriteWeb and Mashable, and individuals such as Robert Scoble and Jason Calacanis have a certain credibility, not to mention a good dose of likeability, that gives them reach. This was recently driven home for me by Louis Gray's plug for this small and relatively young blog, which drove unprecedented pageviews and increases in subscriptions. (On that note, a warm welcome to all new readers and subscribers; please feel free to engage and comment as much as

IM Just Got InterestingNovember 8 2008

Image by jidnet via FlickrIM has never been that big of a deal for me. Most of my friends have been using MSN Messenger since they first got on the internet, and have never left. That was chat for me - a critical mass sitting on one client, with IM not seeming to offer up much functionality besides. The only other place my friends would perhaps consider chatting would be Facebook following the launch of its IM product. Unlike many others on the internet, barely any of my chat contacts used GTalk, despite having gmail accounts.

However, the introduction of Friendfeed's capability to be received and interacted with via IM a couple of days ago piqued my curiosity (cyjy in the blog announcement's example screenshot is me - how rad is that!). It has the very handy option of alerting you when your items are commented on, which though sadly is not likely for me at this point in time, is something I like to stay abreast of. Besides this, new feed items can be IMed directly to you, with the possibilities of viewing only posts, posts

Singapore's 'First' Movie Magazine Turns SixNovember 6 2008

The November issue of 'First' hit the stands a couple of days ago, bringing with it goodies to celebrate its latest milestone - the 6th anniversary of its inaugural issue. One side of its regular fold-out poster is covered in the covers of its past few years (the other side is the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull DVD poster - I guess they knew that not too many people would want to display that...), while a cardboard tear-out makes for a DIY popcorn box/kachang puteh container. I was shocked, actually, to see the 'Six Years' boast on its cover, and had to do a double-take. It seemed like just yesterday that I was seeing the first issue of First with its cover of the then precocious Harry Potter, when in reality that was all of 6 years ago (this must be something like watching your child grow up).

For those unfamiliar with 'First', it touts itself as 'asia's premier movie magazine' and looks kind of like UK's 'Empire'. When it debuted, it nicely met a need in the publishing landscape in Singapore, that had otherwise only seen the usual weekly entertainment mags and newspaper review columns. It's a magazine for movie buffs by people who genuinely get excited (and know something) about movies, and it show

Viewzi Brings a Breath of Fresh Air to SearchOctober 30 2008

Image by Travis Isaacs via FlickrSearch has become such a common part of our everyday lives that google is well on its way to becoming a verb. I use the search box built into my browser as frequently as the next person, and am well accustomed to the no frills google search results. Which is all well and good, but I never thought that search could be fun - until I encountered Viewzi.

Viewzi is a visual search engine that launched to the public around June this year. Currently, it offers 18 possible views of search results: the celebrity photo view, song view, album view, web screenshot view, simple text view, power grid view, google timeline view, site information view, photo tag cloud, video x3 view, photo view, 4 sources view, weather view, viewzi news view, amazon book view, everyday shopping view, recipe view and techcrunch view. According to its wikipedia page, there are still more to come including a celebrity gossip view, facebook events view and movie view (which I would love)!

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