Viddsee: The virtual place to go for Asian short movies

Good news for those who love to watch movies on Viddsee, but struggled with the website on a mobile device: The platform for Asian short movies just released it's first iPhone app (it runs on Ipads as well, just not optimised).

Of course I immediately  downloaded it and watched "Sunflower", a beautiful 30 minute movie from Malaysia. Strongly recommended to watch: The story of a young make up artist who got a very different job from what she expected.

The app seems flawless: Open it and start watching. I think you have to create an account (although I was miraculously logged in already) , and sharing is easy (although it didn't include the link on twitter, or at least it wasn't visible). Also, when you want to watch on Airplay, you have to use the iOS slider on the bottom of your device - for some reason they didn't include the Airplay button.

For some reasons you cannot search by text input, just browse categories. But you also can search by tags - I guess they force you to explore, and that might be even a good thing.

You can also watch movies offline (just add them to the Queue) what is a big plus since youtube is going after downloads apps. Viddsee seems to understand users, and those in Asia particular, where high speed internet isn't available everywhere. Would be nice to get a notification once a video is downloaded.

Three buttons on the bottom let you like a movie, share it or
In case you haven't been there and you are interested in Filmmaking, please give it a try. Viddsee is different from Youtube and Vimeo, because it is focussed on Asian films and it is curated.

Innovation, Design and a bit more from Thailand

When we lived in Laos we were hungry for design and often went to Thailand since this was the place to go for good and modern design in South-East-Asia. It certainly influences neighbouring countries. At the recent Thailand and Innovation and Design Expo at QSCC you got an idea about contemporary Thai design. And I like to talk  about design first, because the innovation part was not always so convincing.

The event is organised by the Department of International Trade promotion and the Ministry of Commerce, and as expected only few we met spoke English. Even the event flyer is mainly in Thai, and I witnessed two potential buyers struggling to communicate with the Thai seller.

But if there is a will there is a way, so we had a good time and got most of the information we were asking for. When it comes to furniture you can get really good stuff here, well manufactured, using best wood, and with creative designs.

 

Something are innovation and design, but still well done. One is a pet coffin, and the other thing is a rescue hood, that has two bottles with breathable air attached. Something anyone living in a condo should have.

Also quite nice was a toy kit that is kind like lego, just made out of plastic straps that can be put together using screws. You can even create moving 3 D objects with it. Well done and it looked like good quality too.

Supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a research project that aims to improve toilets. Students in the NATS project did actually a lot of research with wastewater management and invented three solutions for homes. The most sophisticated one separates the liquides from the non-liquid parts, disinfects them by using bacterias and even getting some cooking gas out of it. 

And then you could see some fails. One is a water faucet that will automatically recognise that you want get water out of the tab. I may have misunderstood the invention, but it looked quite, lets say, weird.

The next pictures shows a robot that is made to get autistic people into communication. It basically replaces the human factors and counts on curiosity of the patients to explore the thing. Personally I though a bit more thinking about the guys design would have done no harm.

And finally just some more pictures:

Noise: The sound carpet of South-East Asia

It isn't a matter of getting older for me - I was always sensitive to noise. Not all kinds of noise. I don't mind children playing aorund, dogs barking, cats fighting, cars passing by.  What I don't like - and guess most people feel the same -  is kind of sudden or unexpected  noise like some idiots motobike,  a bang.

But then there is Asian noise. This is a constant carpet of sounds, noise, music, speeches, all mixed together. The handymen cutting tiles, the village chief making announcments through the loudspeaker system, the sound check from the nearby concert (and the concert itself with bass frequencies carried kilometers). Look at Tesco Lotus: Not only the usual easy listening music, but also some promotions, TVs everywhere explaining you why you should drink this fruit juice, and nowadays two staff members with microphones shouting to customers that cashier 4 is now available.

In my coffeeshop where I am writing this post the waitress switched on the music (as told by the boss), but since it's a small shop and no customers (I don't count, I guess), she also watches TV on her phone - of course without headphones. (It also seems no problem to do this in a gym, by the way).

What is this Asian relation with noise? Even Laos, the relaxed and laid back country, is actually full of this kind of noise - there is always a wedding or funseral, and the loudspeaker towers look like they set up for the Rolling Stones. 

Studies (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1253729/) prove already that noise doesn't make you feel comfortable in a shopping mall, and that all this shouting through microphones decreases sales.  We also learned that noise is stressing us - but try to find a building in Asia that is proper build with walls no reflecting any sound. It is immpossible.

My guess is that the noise is the sound of the growth and development. It shows people that the economy is buzzing, that the city is alive 24 hours. It also helps you to get kind of lost, sounds distract your thoughts, makes you a good customer, but it also distracts you from the anonymity of the metropole.

More studies:

Urban Corridor Noise Pollution: A case study of Surat city, India http://www.ipcbee.com/vol12/28-C10015.pdf

The Effects of Store Environment on Shopping Behaviors: a Critical Review

http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=8468

Effect of backround music to customers behavior: http://moodmixes.com/images/EJSR2007.pdf

Double cheese icecream - why not?

There is always this thing about how you know you already quite a while in Asia. Today we had such a moment, when we passed by an ice cream shop inside the Tesco Lotus Plus mall at Srinakarin road. A sign saying "Double Cheese" caught my attention, I stopped immediately and told my wife what I just saw.

No doubt, this was something special and we had to try it. One scoop is 55 Baht, the vendor's name is Hokkaido milk and yoghurt. The ice cream is basically a sweet yoghurt ice cream with frozen cheese pieces. Quite delicious, actually.

Points, Discounts and Promotions

When I was a kid, my mum sent me sometimes to a small grocery store called Seifenplatz, and always insisted to not forget collecting the stamps. Not that she was passionate in writing letters, the stamps she meant were discount stamps. The more you have the more discount you get (or sometimes certain items for free). I thought it was ridiculous, but who will stand against mums order?

Now, about 35 years later, I find myself sitting at the kitchen table and sticking stamps from BIG C into the small brochure. I am quite close to get the whole knife set, made in Germany, for free.

Points and discounts are a very important sales technique, that works all over the world, but it seems to me that Asia is even more responsive to it. Purses of the average shopper are full of membership and discount cards rather than money. Park a truck full of cheap Chinese shirts on the street and shout "Discount", and the whole village is on gridlock. When I left BIG C a couple of days ago, an old women asked me for, no, not money, but the discount stickers.

It goes even further: Yesterday, after dinner at a restaurant, we queued up behind a big family at the cashiers counter. They ate a lot, but for some reasons decided to split the bill. But right before grandmas bill was payed, they spotted the sign: 10 percent discount if you pay with a credit card of a certain bank. Bingo, the whole family has accounts with this bank, so the poor cashier had to cancel all payments and bill it again, this time carefully watched if every bill has the discount on it. In the meantime we made friends with the Thai couple behind us, and already considered where to go for breakfast next.

People even cheat for points: When I was asked at TOPS if I have a member card and said "No" (of course I have one, but forgot it at home), she instead typed a different number (I guess her's) in the system, before start to scan the products. And the next guy, apparently forgetful as me when it comes to hardware, remembered his member number and told it the cashier. I saw similar incidents at TESCO LOTUS.

UPDATE : stupid me. They just give the phone number. And database connects to their account.

It is kind of fascinating that we do not remember the phone numbers of our family members anymore, since we just ask Siri to call them. Instead, we fill the empty room with membership numbers. Times are changing.