Eugene Fabian

Last call for this exciting event! We’ve been always a great supporter of Startup Weekend here in Singapore and we’re inviting everyone for the first Startup Weekend Woman’s Edition. It’s not yet too late to sign up. If you want to have an exciting time this weekend learning from entrepreneurs or getting your startup itch scratched, make sure you don’t pass on this event. Register at http://singaporewomen.startupweekend.org/

I’ve been a fan of The XX since they released their first album last 2009. Young artists, their songs are just a great escape from the usual regurgitated pop songs out there. Yesterday, the Internet Explorer blog posted their new collaboration with The XX. Creating a simple and beautiful HTML 5 site, The XX’s new album, Co-Exist, can be streamed for free from the plug-in free site. From here you can view how many people are sharing their new album all over the world, a testament to the global outreach of the world wide web. I love how The XX is embracing the web and streaming their album for free. You can still buy their album in different forms, (MP3, CD, LP) but I know streaming their album for free won’t affect their sales any one bit. And yes, I did pre-order the album ;) If this is your first time hearing about The XX, share with us what you think. You’ll only hear a song for the first time once so make sure you embrace the moment. Listen and share their album at coexist.thexx.info/

CONTEST ENTRY REQUIREMENTS Contest is open to all registered companies in Singapore. Participants may submit more than one application. Qualifying apps must be published to Windows Store by 21 Jan 2013. Other terms and conditions apply. JUDGING CRITERIA Design (50%) Engaging and fresh UI design Intuitive and responsive Touch focused (For app design guidance, refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh770552) Functionality (50%) Uniqueness of solutions Stability Utilize hardware/software capabilities HOW TO PARTICIPATE STEP 1 Submit the registration form below by 17 Dec 2012. (After submission, you will receive via email a starter-kit containing technical resources that will assist you in building Windows 8 app) STEP 2 Design and develop compelling Windows 8 app. (If you need technical assistance from Microsoft Singapore evangelism team, you may send a consultation session request to win8sg@microsoft.com) STEP 3 Submit your completed app to Windows Store and get it published by 15 Jan 2013. (Following the User Experience Design Guidelines for your application will increase your chances of passing the Windows Store app requirement) ...

Windows 8 is the next iteration of Windows. For those not as familiar, Windows 8 is a radical change as Microsoft is introducing the Metro design for Windows. You can find out more about Metro Design. With Windows 8, Microsoft is integrating a lot of its services to take advantage of its several platforms. Windows Phone, Xbox, Hotmail, Skydrive and other consumer services already uses one authentication via Live ID and it makes sense that the new OS will take advantage of this. If you’ve tried the pre-release versions of Windows 8, you can easily see the influence of this even from the login screen. With this integration, news of rebranding of some services like the Zune are abound and I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens. Anyways, if you’re using a Zune Pass, don’t fret as you can still access music just like before using the built in music app in Windows 8. As I wanted to maximize the integration of the services with my new Windows 8. I logged in using my hotmail account synced with Zune and lo and behold it actually works. The music app works just like the Zune app but some features are missing like the mixed view. Some of the navigation features are still missing and adding songs to the current playlist doesn’t exist. I know this is still an app preview so no surprises that these features are missing and I’m guessing that they are focusing on the main features so far. There’s a bit of getting used to in the Music App. For one, there’s a lot of scrolling and clicking going on. Just to know the individual songs in the album, I have to do twice the clicks compared to the Zune app. Because of the design of Metro apps that has to cater for different form factors like tablets, this limits power users like me to navigate the app like everybody else. Whenever I use an app extensively, I learn as much shortcuts as I can as I want to get to the action as fast as I can. Browsers, email clients, OSes and such allow you to do this, but once an app is designed for multiple purposes it loses this advantage. I know Windows 8 has several shortcuts for you to get to the settings, the app bar, etc, but if you are navigating on the content of the application yourself, the developer has to create shortcuts of their own. Overall, I’m very happy that the Zune will be continued (either as the Music app or something else) but I hope they empower the Music app just like the Zune. A nicely designed app that shows me what I want to see when searching and exploring new music. Come to think of it, the Zune app was one of the first applications to use the Metro language way back. A nice, cleanly made application that made great use of white space all through out. If you are using Windows 8 Release Preview and notice any gems like these, please comment on. Would love to know what you think of the apps and how you’ll be using it. PS. Super happy that Skitch is on Windows 8. Skitch is a photo annotating app on the Mac OS.

A few weeks ago, I was very lucky to have been invited by the NUS School of Computing to provide feedback to students for their project in Module CS4202. This module is focused on Human Computer Interaction and the teams were assigned to use the Kinect system for their projects. All of the teams used the Kinect to some extent. Of course some utilized it better than others and it really shows through the projects. It was interesting to see how the teams approached the problems given to them and how they thought of incorporating the Kinect. It reminded me of a video released by Microsoft sometime back after it noticed how people are innovating on the Kinect. A cheap, yet powerful sensor that has infinite uses only limited by one’s imagination. [youtube]http://youtu.be/T_QLguHvACs[/youtube] Prof. Sheng from NUS gave me the link to their blog and it shows all the projects that was presented. You can check it out here A couple of projects that stood out for me were Human Kinect Exhibit [youtube]http://youtu.be/mDweANoZAZk[/youtube] The Human Kinect Exhibit focused on providing a fun learning environment for children to learn about the human anatomy. The game they created was fun and engaging and provided a learning environment for children to learn some information about bones. On first glance the project seems like a simple game but what really fascinated me was the reaction and interaction of the audience once they have set the application up at the Science Museum. The feedback and the reaction of the users was very valuable for the team as this proves that their game is enjoyable and educational. For me, nothing beats getting your product out and getting people to try it out. ChopChopMirror [youtube]http://youtu.be/1kllEzn9Wgk[/youtube] ChopChop Mirror is a great concept. They treated the Kinect as an interface for your digital assistant. I think this will be a common feature in our bathroom mirrors as we enable more screens with touch and intelligence. The concept itself is in it’s infancy but I can really see intelligent houses in the near future once interfaces and components become cheaper. I liked the project because of their forward thinking and how they designed the interface. Aside from that, it also reminds me of one video from Microsoft envisioning the future. Microsoft releases envisioning videos every year, giving us a glimpse of what the future has for us trough the eyes of the largest software company in the world. This year’s envisioning video has something similar to ChopChop Mirror in some shape or form. [youtube]http://youtu.be/a6cNdhOKwi0[/youtube] I’m really grateful to have been invited by Prof. Sheng to his class. I saw some great projects and realized how much potential a student has given the right technology. Looking forward to their future projects!

You won’t find a more relevant discussion about the current state of startups in the United States than in Clt-Alt-Compete. The documentary, which is screening privately at the moment, follows the lives of 5 startup founders and their teams. While shot in the US, I think many of the issues raised, mindsets showcased, also reflect the attitudes of startups here in Singapore - minus the flamboyance and with a little less ego. I refuse to spoil the movie for you, because I’m insisting that everyone interested in the startup scene should watch it. The show is peppered with tonnes of great quotes from superstar entrepreneurs like Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Micah Baldwin of Graphic.ly, Ben Huh of Cheezburger and venture capitalist Mark Suster of GRP Partners (who is somewhat a demi-god VC author at Both Sides of the Table). Some of these scenes from Clt-Alt-Compete left a lasting impression on me, particularly: ...

Founder’s Institute (FI) Running for 2.7 years now, is a “global network of startups and mentors that helps entrepreneurs launch meaningful and enduring technology companies”. Founded by Adeo Ressi, an entrepreneur himself, FI aims to help entrepreneurs worldwide with the vision of helping launch 1,000 technology companies per year worldwide. Just finishing its fourth semester, Singapore is one of the first countries to have FI in Asia (if not the first) and I’m lucky to have been part of it. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“497” caption=“Founder’s Institute Singapore 4th Semester”][/caption] I formally joined the second semester as I have some ideas that I wanted to cultivate and it was a challenge that I wanted to conquer. Every week for four months, we were introduced to a new founder that will talk about a specific topic. There were tons of awesome founders that I met from really cool startups from the US and VCs from all over the world. I had the opportunity of meeting Phil Libin from Evernote and Aaron Patzer from Mint. They both had really solid talks and it was great meeting successful people talking about their previous failures. Those are the stories you rarely hear. Three months pass and sadly, I wasn’t able to graduate as I wasn’t ready to incorporate. Incorporation is one of the requirements to graduate the class and is one of the last milestones. Of course, your idea will be evaluated as it’s one of the first milestones aside from your commitment and dedication to the program. Founder’s Institute is of course always compared to other incubators or accelerator programs and Adeo himself has a good answer in one quora thread. They have positioned themselves well and it’s really up to you to find out if the program has value for you. For me, it was a good primer in knowing what to consider when forming a company. For first time entrepreneurs, the basics is always something we won’t know especially if we don’t have a business background. The network is another great value that is not so obvious to outsiders. Starting a company is a hard and lonely path; having a circle of supporters and friends is essential in ensuring your success. I’ve seen the FI family grow in Singapore and the diversity of people just makes the stew even more interesting every semester. Since the second semester, I’ve been supporting FI through my work in Microsoft. Being the lead for the BizSpark program in Singapore, it was just natural to work closely with the guys behind SGFI. Providing them with all the benefits and other cool stuff that BizSpark and Microsoft has to offer for startups. If you want to know more about FI or BizSpark, check out their sites and if you’re in Singapore and interested to know more, feel free to ping me.

Startup Asia is the years first big startup conference here in Singapore. Held February 2 and 3 at the Singapore Post Centre. Their tagline of ‘Pitches, Demos, Founders, & NO B.S." is quite straight forward as a reference to other startup events. From the details page alone, you can see that they have an impressive set of guest panelists, investors and attendees from all over Asia. Mobile giants, Gree and Dena as well as several Japanese and Chinese investors. A lot of local players as well representing different industries and sides of the startup world were present. ...

Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects. Startup Weekend Singapore 2 happened this weekend, from April 29 to May 1. This time we had over 40 participants spending the whole weekend building their startups, networking and having fun. The weekend started Friday night, with Joey from Startup Weekend and Meng Wong opening the night to get everyone warm and fuzzy, breaking the ice and getting their creative juices flowing. Six teams were formed and started hacking away to get their ideas up and running for the final presentation on Sunday night. ...

Startup Weekend is back. After last years’ success, Startup Weekend is back in Singapore. This time we will be joined by Joey Pomerenke from Startup Weekend to facilitate the event. We’ll also be joined by some awesome mentors from Singapore. Register here