This week, we look at two big brain moves, two releases and one freebie that’s not too bad at all.
Free Audio House eCash Vouchers just by turning up
Audio House is doing an eCash red packet giveaway till 28 February so long as you visit their showroom above Ubi MRT station – yup, no purchase is necessary, though you to sign up as a member if you aren’t one already. Each member is entitled to one redemption, which gets you an electronic voucher ranging from $88 to $1,088 redeemable in the form of cashback. You get to offset $20 from your eCash for every $100 that you spend. Basically, you get a 20 per cent discount; which isn’t bad considering that Audio House prices are pretty reasonable. They do this pretty often as well, so it’s worth checking them out every now and then.
Big brain move, but not really
We know (or may not know) that some music artistes (or their labels) are exceptionally aggressive in blocking illegal playback of their music in user-generated content on social channels like YouTube and Instagram. But turning this annoying downside into an advantage is borderline clickbait levels of sensationalism. A couple of men in blue from Beverly Hills (almost) had something when they tried to play popular tunes (in this case, allegedly the Beatles and Sublime) while being filmed to get the videos blocked. It turned out that they were counting on an overzealous, over-listening Instagram algorithm to instablock posts from citizen/activists trying to record their interactions with da police. The operative word being, almost. Turns out that the feature doesn’t always work. Just to be clear, we’re not saying you should try it with your friends’ Instagram posts just to test it out…
Sauce: <em>Engadget</em>
Viewsonic projecting our desires?
I’m getting way too many projector pitches but I guess somebody out there must be wanting them. Who knew? Anyway, Viewsonic has just dropped four of them here: the M1+_G2 , the X10-4K , the M1 mini Plus , and the M2 . The oddly named M1+_G2 is mounted to a stand that lets you rotate the projector 360 degrees vertically, meaning you can project it against the ceiling easily. The X10-4K is a 4K LED projector that meets Rec. 709 standards (125%) and is portable enough to move it around the house. The battery-operated M1 mini Plus is a portable unit with a ceiling projection feature while the business-oriented M2 is portable as well but is better specced with 125% Rec. 709 compatibility and can be charged with a power bank.
Going viral? Go old school
How far are you willing to go to make a complaint?
For a Mr Aaron Epstein from Los Angeles, he was willing to put his money where his mouth is – all US$10,000 of it. Epstein was fed up with his troubled AT&T internet connection and after repeated attempts to resolve things the old fashioned way via tech support he did what any one of us would do: take it public.
We’re no strangers to airing our grievances on social media to get things moving, but Epstein didn’t know that he could, and unknowingly went one better. Did he do 10,000 times better, though? Probably not. But he certainly got more than his money’s worth in publicity. Epstein’s ten large went into two open letters to the CEO in print ad form: one in the Dallas, Texas edition of Wall Street Journal and the other in the New York edition.
It struck a chord with fellow sufferers and news outlets picked up on the story. And just as you’d expect, he promptly received his long overdue service recovery treatment. Just to be clear, we’re not advocating that you do this the next time you’re having a problem with customer support…
Sauce: News 10
Sharp’s manga product intros
Sharp now has a manga-style, Animated RPG-like video to introduce its latest products and I’m not sure what to make of it, because it doesn’t really tell you anything that you can’t get from a Google Search Results page. Nonetheless, they have two episodes done with more on the way: one on the AQUOS X8 TV and the other is on their Healsio Water Steam Oven . It’s got that product placement vibe, so I was already half-expecting a Raid: Shadow Legends segue at some point…
