Internat Explorer

Exploring the World Wide Web

[internatexplorer]

A break-up letter to Snapchat

Dear Snapchat,

I am leaving you for Instagram. No, it is not because of the new filters.

It is hard to fight for us and be loyal when it is only a one-sided relationship. Android phone users make up the biggest smartphone market share. Yet, it seems like we are always second to iPhone users. Dang it, my LGG4 takes better photos than the potato-quality snaps I am posting.

We had our good moments. You forced me to connect with friends and improve our -streak relationship. It was always exciting to see what filters you have in store for the day. I loved the sneak peek into celebs’ lives. Bitesized stories were always welcome after a busy day at work.

But the data and battery drain was a constant roadblock. When stickiness and user session duration is important to the business, you do not want people to ration usage like it is food during war.

When your IPO valuation was $20 billion, I was worried. How ever would a loss-making company ever reach up to that idealistic number? What will happened to all my archives when the unicorn tech bubble bursts?

Sure enough, Facebook cloned you. Its whole family added on your features. It may have had a rocky start, but they worked on their problems.

Yesterday, I deliberated between posting on Snapchat and InstaStories… well, you know my answer. For the first time, I had crispy photos. For the first time, I did not post on Snapchat.

I am deleting my app once I download all my archived photos.

Sorry, Snapchat. Goodbye.

[internatexplorer]

It is the little touches that gives a great customer experience.

[internatexplorer]

Observations of Pokemon Go in Singapore

Pokemon Go launched in Singapore on Saturday (Aug 6). It was something the nation had been waiting for. I had several messages from friends and coworkers excitedly announcing it.

I cancelled my plans to netflix season 3 of Orphan Black,and spent the next two hours hunting for Pokemon, and observing the people around me.

1. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY KIDS?

The first three Pokestops I went to had mostly teenagers between 13 to 18. I was the oldest person there. I swallowed my pride, and my inner 10-year-old trudged on. 

It was good to see that most heeded Singapore Police Force’s advice to not play alone. Actually, they obeyed it too well.

2. Teenagers hunt in packs

Those who complain that the game encourages kids to spend time on their screens, instead of going out to socialise, ,clearly did not go out themselves. There were several groups of teens out. The largest group I saw had almost 20 people. I applaud their ability to organise such a large outing so quickly. 

3. Family bonding

It was nice to see a lot of young families out playing together. Someone put a lure at a Pokestop near a supermarket. While hanging out there, I spotted a few parents playing with their young kids. Some split parental duties: Dad helped catch the pokemons; Mum has 30 minutes to shop in peace. 

4. So many 7th Month warnings

The release of Pokemon Go in Singapore coincided with the Hungry Ghost Festival aka Lunar 7th Month aka Chinese Halloween that lasts a whole month. Doesn’t help that someone found a dead body while trying to catch a meowth. My mother sent me a comic strip warning me to be careful of what I caught. While a coworker told me not to play it late at night, lest I see something on my screen. Well, it doesn’t seem to be Hungry Ghost Festival in Johto. I only caught one ghastly. 

5. People be crazy

My dad told me that the taxi driver told him about an odd passenger he ferried yesterday. The guy had no destination in mind, but made him drive around to all the Pokestops in his area. He chalked up $60 in fare.

6. Everyone wants a piece of it

Most people forget there is a group of hardcore gamers: Aunties. They are your mums aged 50 and above. They spend lots on Candy Crush and Farm Story. Now they are also on the Pokemon bandwagon. It seemed odd to see men and women in their 50s playing. Just 20 years ago, they were buying Gameboy Colour for their kids to play Pokemon.

My first impressions of the game is just basically Ingress with a Pokemon skin. I am not sure if it has enough to keep me playing for long. It is annoying with the constant freezing, GPS errors and heavy battery consumption. But it is fun to catch Pokemon in your neighbourhood. Give it a few weeks, and I will be back to my old Sapphire game to try and defeat the Elite Four. 

[internatexplorer]

My mother is a teenager

My mother has an Internet problem. She is behaving like a stereotypical teenager.

She does the following:

Asks if there is free WiFi at every restaurant we go to when overseas

Immediately goes on Whatapp and messages her friends non-stop

Takes photos of our food to post on Facebook for all her friends to see

Reaches for her phone the first thing in the morning

Uses her phone until she falls asleep at night

Switches between playing games and watching videos

I think most young adults with tech-savvy parents can identify. 

It is hard to study people in terms of age groups and generations, because lines blur and user behaviour cross. 

For every digitally in-tune teen, there is another adult in their 60s. And just because your age falls into the category of digital native does not make you one. 

Think we need to work on how we study user behaviour a lot better. If anyone has come across good research, please let me know. 

[internatexplorer]

90s kids + Nostalgia = Pokemon Go

My friend, who was 10 years older than me, asked me if I would play Pokemon Go when it came out in Singapore. My answer was probably similar to fellow 90s kids around the world. 

To us, it isn’t about FOMO or the hype. This is our childhood dreams coming to reality. When I was a kid, I wanted to marry Leonardo DiCaprio and be a pokemon trainer. Now I can fulfil one of my ambitions. 

I was ten when the anime premiered in Singapore, the very same age that Ash Ketchum was. Coincidence? I think not. 

My brother and I would share his Gameboy together and play—Him, the battle expert, and me, the adventure seeker. Gold was our very first version. We tried Ruby and Sapphire, before going back to good old Red. We even owned a book with all the stats of Gen 1 Pokemon. 

Even as the challenges of school work and age got to us, our love for Pokemon never fizzled. I remember the day in polytechnic when someone discovered you can play Yellow on your computer by downloading an emulator. 

That opened up a new world for us who didn’t want to have to learn what a ChimChar was. Being on Team Android also meant that you can play on your phone as well. 

When Google Maps had its April Fool’s Day joke, I seriously considered taking urgent leave. I chose to be an adult, and I regretted not catching ‘em all. 

The announcement of Pokemon Go got us all excited, but we didn’t know exactly what to expect. And then it hit Australia and New Zealand. We would be in hell for Envy. 

And the hype started building. And people who could not tell an ekans from a seviper, suddenly all wanted in. Older folks, who only knew what a Pikachu was, started writing commentaries and articles on the overnight sensation. Except it wasn’t.

It is something that we have been waiting 20 years for. And 90s kids got nostalgia as bad as someone in their 90s. We went from analog to digital faster than our bodies went through puberty. 

But how do you condense all that into one sentence for someone to understand? My 80s kid friend put it best: “It is like if Super Mario had an AR version like that for us.”

Niantic, you might want to branch out. Maybe Pacman is a lot easier to recreate first. 

[internatexplorer]

Pokemon Go everywhere. Ugh. It is not out in Singapore so I have a major case of FOMO. Whoever thought of capitalising nostalgia at Nintendo, you are a genius.

[internatexplorer]

The day I realised I don’t need Evernote

When there are heaps of apps and services out there offering the same service for free, is it a smart move to make your plans more expensive?

I found out about Evernote’s changes in their price plans yesterday when I tried to access the app on my laptop. 

I’ve got Evernote on 4 devices. And I’m not an abnormality in today’s multi-device world (unless of course, if you live in an emerging market). So I’ve got to decide which two devices to keep Evernote on. 

As a basic user (i.e. freeloader), I shouldn’t be complaining. But I found it bizarre to just take away something you’ve always given away for free. Even more bizarrely, Evernote increased its Premium user price from $5.99 a month to $7.99, and $49.99 to $69.99 a year. There doesn’t seem to be any new features added. 

On the one hand, Evernote has not been having a good time the past year revenue and leader-wise. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem to make good business sense to cut people off when you have so many competitors out there.

And as a passive user, I realised that actually I don’t need Evernote. I started using it because it was one of the IT apps many years ago. Google Drive didn’t seem as shiny compared to it. 

But save writing the occasional blog post or saving the random note, I use Evernote so little, that my phone keeps nagging me to delete it to save space. 

So I decided to export everything from my Evernote account to Google Drive. As an Android user, I have it on all my phones. And it works the same way, with the added bonus of having a spreadsheet. I can also supplement it with my OneDrive account.

So goodbye, Evernote. It was nice knowing you. Hopefully most of your users won’t jump ship like I did.

[internatexplorer]

Hide yo posts, hide yo Facebook Timeline

Facebook is rolling out a new feature that lets you hide a post from your timeline at the point of posting. This means that it will only appear on your newsfeed and the Your Posts section.

So far not everyone has this feature yet. In my informal poll of five colleagues, only one has it. I do feel like a special snowflake because it is rare that I get a new feature early.

Why this? Why now?

There are several theories.

1. Keeps your timeline clean in case you add co-workers in future or your potential boss may chance upon your profile and see something that may jeopardise your career.

Your timeline is curated, but your newsfeed is for you to share your thoughts.

2. Disappearing posts is in now. (From an ex-colleague)

Snapchat is popular among teens, and Facebook could be experimenting with “disappearing” posts. Except your post still exists on Facebook. It is still searchable. It is just a bitch to hunt it down.

3. Boost original content and increase stickiness (my theory)

Rumour has it that Facebook is worried about the number of fresh content being created as the bulk of activity is sharing. This will encourage more posting as people have more choices. Forget subtweeting, you can talk about someone without naming them on Facebook and just keep it off your timeline.

It may also encourage more rants. Given that it is harder to trace back, and on that note, it increases stickiness of FOMO people. I am hardly on Facebook. I log in once a day, and I spend probably 15 minutes max. (I spend A LOT of time on social media.) There are a few profiles that I check from time to time to catch up on the drama and rants. If they aren’t posting on their timeline, I would have to check the app more often. No more being clueless when someone asks “did you see what she posted”?

As a private person on social media, I do like this feature. But to be honest, I don’t see myself sharing more on Facebook than I already do. The platform is too loudhailer-like for me. One thing though, I will be spending more time on it and also unfollowing a bunch of people to create more visibility.

[internatexplorer]

Facebook’s Safety Check is a good breaking news alert

A bug in Facebook’s Safety Check alerted people who were nowhere near Pakistan of the bombing a few weeks ago. Many realised the social media platform’s potential for sharing breaking news. 

When I first read the article on Quartz, I hoped breaking news push alerts from Facebook won’t be a reality. I have had news apps before, and I found that annoying. I allocate pockets of time in my day to catch up on news. Unless there is a zombie apocalypse happening on my street, the news can wait for a friend to text me or I’ll see it on Reddit’s front page.

Yesterday, I first learnt of the earthquake in Myanmar on Twitter. I didn’t think much about it, until I reached for my phone to check my notifications before bed. I got a notification that friend from Bangladesh marked himself as safe. 

Yes, my geography knowledge is pretty rusty. I realised that when I clicked on it to read more. Bangladesh is pretty close to Myanmar. 

I think the Safety Check gives a more personal touch to what is happening around me. I’d admit that I am selfish and would only care about news that would impact me or things and values I care about. I was more invested in this because it involved a friend, and it saves me for searching for his profile to see if he is ok.

From an editorial perspective, I wonder how Facebook is going to draw the line on how to use this. What is big enough to warrant a safety check, and how else could they utilise it. 

Facebook is doing great with being on the pulse of major trending topics. The social media joke used to be that memes go on Facebook to die. But if you look at the trending topics under search, it is pretty timely. Would be great if we could toggle between locations like Twitter. Mine has been pretty UK-centric. 

I do hope that the Safety Check feature doesn’t deter you from still checking up on your friends. It is a thoughtful gesture and friendships are built on direct communication and not likes.  Being Little Miss Nerdy Pants, I do recommend to e-register your travel details with MFA if you are Singaporean. If shit’s going down when I’m overseas, the first person whom I want to know that I’m there is someone who can assist me. Would be cool if MFA can work with Facebook on that actually.

[internatexplorer]

I just discovered Facebook’s Live Map

I just discovered Facebook’s Live Map today. The feature was buried in my side bar. 

It is similar to Periscope. Click on any of the pulsating blue dots to view someone’s live video broadcast.

It needs a lot more work. 

The videos take forever to load. The quality is potato at best. 

Also if you are not friends with the person, you can’t comment or chat unlike with Periscope. You can only react with likes. 

It is pretty new and they are rolling out a bunch of new features. So I guess I will wait and see. 

For me, I stopped Periscoping because I had a bad case of FOMOitus. It is not fun when you are at work, and you get an alert for broadcast you want to watch, and can’t. Well, I can watch it later, but it is not the same as watching it live. 

Live Maps made me update my Periscope app to see how it has changed in the past couple of months. 

I love the Teleport function to watch a random video anywhere in the world. 

There are also a lot more celebs on it. (Hello, Brandon Urie.) I still like seeing comments and hearts on the video itself. 

The UI is a lot better looking. And content seems a lot better, because partly, I guess most people are the creator mindset vs just casually sharing a video.

I think I might just start Periscoping again. 

[internatexplorer]

Time to press the button

Come April 1 each year, Reddit has a new social experiment fun activity. Whether you are Team Periwinkle or a Knight of the Button, you spent hours supporting your team, dissing others, and tried to figure out what is the point.

This year has a new button...

Those who swore off pressing it from Button-induced FOMO end up ironically missing out on this year’s activity.

So far, when you click on the button. You send up in a chatroom with one other person. You are given three buttons to press to vote. The majority vote will determine what happens next.

Clicking Abandon will let you leave the chatroom when voting ends.

Clicking Stay will let you stay in the chatroom. If majority votes to stay, a new subreddit is formed for all the members. [Example here.]

Clicking Grow will merge your room with another. Currently, the largest room membership is 4166, but the chat has ended. The next in line has over 2k members. 

I joined in the fun just curious to see what will happen, and idealistically hoping it would turn out to be awesome. At first, it was fun. I met some people from Brazil and the US, and the conversations were friendly. And then we merged...

The other chatroom had very different dynamics. With more and more people added, it got messy and bad quickly. Just as /u/powerlanguage foretold.

I left the chat window open while I did other stuff, keeping an eye on the chat as it unfolded. With about four active users left, the chat got tamer and focused. People talked about games, what they do for a living, roleplayed...

Chatrooms aside, there are several private subs created with riddles. User created? A team you automatically get assigned at the end of all this? It is anyone’s guess.

But till then, keep voting grow.

[internatexplorer]

<insert mic drop>

Google has the best April Fools Day jokes. Nobody can top the Pokemon Google Map hunt. 

This year’s Gmail joke feature is so awesome that it should be permanent. 

Ever had an argument and wanted a way to rub your win in your opponent’s face? You can drop the mic in their inboxes today.

Who’s got the best arguments of all time?

[internatexplorer]

Did you update Snapchat today?

Snapchat’s major product updates are usually met with excitement. Lenses was awesome and spawned a resurgence of apps with fun filters. 

Today, its private chat got a host of features. You can send stickers, voice and video call, and also gifs of yourself. Best part: Team Android could be part of the fun.

Those features get my two thumbs up. I woke up to a message from my friend asking me to update my Snapchat so I could see. (In contrast, I updated Whatsapp and was disappointed that I could not format my messages. BOO.)

What I didn’t like was that now it automatically plays the next person’s stories in the list. I like to view my snaps in a specific order, so it bugs me once it switches. But it is convenient. 

Maybe I would give it more time. 

How do you feel about Snapchat’s new features?

[analyticisms]

Nicely done infographic about Gen Z’s social media usage.

[internatexplorer]

Love interactive stuff on Google. Updated Goggle Now just so I can throw colored powder at it. Happy Holi and can't wait to see what's for Easter

[internatexplorer]

It's Instagram's turn to have an algorithm

It seems that having a curated newsfeed is the hot favourite of 2016.

Instagram is running small user tests on its algorithm. According to the NYT article, the plans are to introduce it slowly.

It is a boon for those who follow too many people on social media and have crowded feeds. But for those who have a system, it is annoying to deal with a change disrupter. In my post about Twitter, I have said that I prefered reverse chronological order and hope that social media platforms let me toggle between the two.

I think the two ways of viewing feeds are similar to shopping styles. 

I am the type of shopper that will work my way clockwise around the shop, prerusing rack by rack. Eye-catching displays only serve to annoy me as it disrupts my orderly flow. 

My mother, on the other hand, flits from one random rack to another based on what catches her eye. There is no order to her shopping and if you want her to stay longer, you need to have stuff that will hold her attention.

I am curious to know which type of user behaviour has more brand loyalty and stickiness. And I just hope that at the end of the day, user’s choice is most important. 

On a happier note, Instagram now shows the actual date stamp of your posts. 

[internatexplorer]

My phone battery died during dinner and I wished I could show you what I ate

My phone battery died before my spot in the line ever made it near the door of the ramen restaurant. I wished it didn't, so I could show you how the queue was three times the length of the restaurant and how all the counter seats were empty but they didn't let us in. You would have been as puzzled as I was by how everyone was patiently waiting while I was indignantly questioning the hold up.

I wish I could show you the cheesy decor where we sat in front of a giant Japanese bell and four fat plastic samurai swords. You would have noticed the light bulbs were encased in little wooden crates or metal cages.

I wish I could show you the adorable pig on the sign telling customers that the hard boiled eggs are free. Its chef costume and enthusiastic expression made me laugh.

I wish I could show you the eggs: How some were white and some were beige. I wished there was a way to document my first time eating a white-shelled egg and how disappointing it was when it tasted so ordinary.

I wish I could show you how delicious our chicken nanban was. How its crispy golden yellow skin glistened in the light while dripping from honey soy sauce drizzled over it. How fascinating it was to watch the waiter prepare the egg mayo sauce for it with a special red utensil that had a spiral base for easy mashing.

I wish I could show you how he made the egg mayo sauce by adding Japanese pickles, shoyu, onions, pepper and Kewpie mayo to mashed egg. I wish I could show you how pretty the ingredients looked in their individual shot glasses with a colored base. If only there were a way to learn how to replicate it without shooting a video.

I wish I could show you how big my ramen bowl was when it arrived. How my pork charsiew and chicken charsiew looked so different from each other--one was sliced chicken parma and the other had alternating layers of meat and fat. You would have baulked at how clear my lobster ramen soup base was. If only I could claim the lost 'likes' on my #foodporn snaps.

I wish I could show you how much I had leftover because the giant bowl is meant for people who hadn't eaten one egg and three servings of beansprouts.

I wish I could show you how my dinner went, but without photographs, I guess my dinner didn't happen.