Roadshows had been going on feverishly for the last weekend and it will probably continue to be so. For those who have not renewed their plans, this is probably the best time to get a good bargain. Of course, before heading down to your friendly roadshow, do give your operator a call for that extra $50 or $100 voucher for being such a loyal customer *and* at the same time, enjoy the great discounts that the telcos are giving.

I am not sure about you, but looking at this is making me salivate.

Now that I am done with the tenderizing, let’s get down to the economics of things. So, what happens if your contract hasn’t expired and you want to get your hands on that Diamond (HTC Diamond, I mean) or that Prada (LG Prada, that is)? There’s always the same old trade of paying for someone to renew their contracts plus tips. Yes, tips. Anything else would make it sound almost illegal.

Of course, in situations like this, the happier people will be the owners-to-be. The not-so-happy ones will be the current owners, where their resale value of their phone dropped almost by 50% overnight. But trust me, this probably won’t last long as long as you (the current owners who are dying to get rid of their phones) just keep it for a while longer before putting it up on HWZ or eBay - long enough such that the offers are no longer there, but not so long until it’s no longer desirable to own it.

Anyway, what’s in a phone? Isn’t it just to make phone calls, take pictures, play MP3s, play 3gps, act as a GPS, pretend to be an organizer…

Telcos slash prices for even the hottest cellphones

By Alfred Siew, Technology Correspondent

TWO weeks into the latest round of competition in the cellphone market and already customers are turning out to be the big winners.

All three telcos here are slashing prices for even the latest and most-wanted cellphones by as much as $600, in a bid to woo and retain customers.

Usually, telcos offer customers subsidies of about $300-$400 for mobile phones, but now, such subsidies have almost doubled in some cases.

SingTel, for example, priced the HTC Touch Diamond at $498 with a two-year plan - less than half its retail price of $1,098 - when the phone first launched about two weeks ago. At that time, StarHub’s price for the phone, the hot gizmo of the moment, was $598 while MobileOne sold it for $698.

The following week, both StarHub and M1 slashed their prices to match SingTel’s rate.

The HTC phone, which lets users navigate menus by sliding their fingers along the screen a la the Apple iPhone, has sold out at many cellphone stores in the past two weeks.

The ’street battles’ between the three telcos started building up right before full number portability kicked in on June 13.

Though users have not been rushing to switch telcos at the get-go, the fact that the new rules allow them to do so and still keep their numbers means telcos are being forced to work harder to retain subscribers.

Experts say the competition will intensify when other popular phones are launched here, such as Samsung’s Omnia, which hit the shelves last week.

This much-awaited iPhone alternative usually costs just over $1,000 but telcos were offering it for $500 to $600 last week, if bundled with a contract.

All three cellphone operators here said they have seen encouraging turnouts at recent roadshows, but declined to reveal sales figures.

All three claimed to have signed up ’switchers’ and also re-contracted existing users.

Analysts say the number of people switching from one telco to another may be small - 5 per cent to 15 per cent in the first year - but that does not mean consumers are not benefiting from the tougher competition.

Senior analyst Soh Siow Meng from Current Analysis said: ‘The fact that we are seeing new marketing strategies from telcos means they are competing hard for the consumer’s dollar.’

He predicts these price wars will go on for a few months before things start to stabilise once people sign new phone contracts.

One user who is waiting for the price wars to play out is manager Loh Wei Loong, 32, who said: ‘Phones have been way too expensive here, and this price war is surely a boon to consumers.’

siewtha@sph.com.sg

Source: Straits Times Interactive, http://www.straitstimes.com/Prime%2BNews/Story/STIStory_253076.html

Article extracted on 30th June 2008

While it’s not an easy feat to get a child at the age of 3 to read of the menu, reading this article makes me worry for my kids in the future. I hope to be quite sure that the kid picked up reading gradually on his own and I do agree with his mum that in such a competitive place like Singapore, headstarts in whatever things is an advantage.

What scares me is how parents are hoping to improve their kids’ memory, creativity and mathematics (counting?) at and early age. I don’t really dare to imagine how stressed my kid at Primary 1 will be, coming back and crying that everyone has superb memory and could do calculations in complex numbers. It’s no wonder the GCEs are beginning to be a poor gauge of a student’s academic ability because it will eventually only segregate the smart from the… not-so-smart. Perhaps the Special papers can now be used to pick out the very smart (and beyond) from the just-smart-enough, but at the rate things are going, we probably need a Really-Special paper in the near future.

I also foresee a Pre-primary / Kindergarten Leaving Examination (PPLE/KLE) in the near future to determine whose kids could go to which schools. Well, at least this may help to reduce some bickering from parents about the Primary 1 balloting. 

He can read the menu - and he’s only three

More parents are introducing their kids to reading at an earlier age

By Sumathi V. Selvaretnam

WHEN three-year-old Alastair Shee goes to a restaurant, he has a knack for wowing waiters by ordering off the menu.

The toddler, whose favourite a la carte dish is macaroni soup, can read simple words at an age when most of his peers are still struggling with their ABCs.

‘I started reading to him when he was three months old,’ said Alastair’s mother, Mrs Vanessa Shee, 35.

‘I did it to give him a headstart as it is very competitive in Singapore.’

Like her, more parents are eager to introduce reading to their newborns and interest in baby-specific books, DVDs and flashcards is booming.

Last year, branches of the National Library increased their stock of books for children under three by almost 25 per cent.

They also hand out up to 600 reading kits every month to expecting mothers.

The popularity of pricey infant learning kits is also on the rise, with one $570 package seeing a 50 per cent increase in sales in the last three years, said its distributor.

Parents are also flocking to workshops conducted by infant learning experts.

One held last month by Dr Robert Titzer, an internationally renowned childhood educator, drew 94 parents, double the expected turnout.

According to Dr Titzer, parents can start reading to their babies at two or three months old.

It is an age when, for the first time, newborns are able to follow things with their eyes.

‘The earlier the child reads, the better the child reads and it is more likely that he will enjoy reading,’ he said.

His approach uses flashcards, books and DVDs that stimulate a baby’s senses with simple words, actions and sounds.

Then, there are parents who are opting for the Shichida method, which is popular in Japan.

The classes offer activities that help develop a child’s memory, creativity and the ability to perform quick calculations.

The two centres in Singapore that offer the course have long waiting lists and parents sign up months before their children are born. Twelve lessons lasting about one hour and 15 minutes each cost about $745.

While there is no harm in starting early, parents should be careful not to overburden the child, said Ms Teresa To, a senior speech therapist at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

‘Parents don’t have to be too hung up about reading every single word on a page. Instead, they can look at pictures and describe them or sing songs and rhymes,’ she said.

Mrs Janaki Samikannu, 27, began reading to her 10-month-old daughter, Shria, when she was just two weeks old.

Like other parents, she said the sessions have other non-academic benefits.

She said: ‘I don’t know if she is picking up any words but it is just to get her into the whole feel and habit of reading. It also allows me to bond with her.’

sumathis@sph.com.sg

Source: Straits Times Interactive, http://www.straitstimes.com/Singapore/Story/STIStory_253022.html

Article extracted on 30th June 2008

Actually, if I have a passion for something, I may pay to learn so that I can volunteer - you know? First aid, fire safety and other life-long enrichments that can benefit others too. I am bringing this up because NParks has recently decided, or rather, proposed to provide training for nature guides and in the midst of it, charge them for certification.

If they are talking about commercial or private guides that introduce tourists or nature lovers to our green spaces for a fee, I would understand that. However, there are also many guides (and aspiring ones like myself) who do love nature and want to share with others our love for it - and having volunteers pay for training might just turn everything into another profit-raking job.

While I do admit that proper training in some aspects (safety? geology? history?) may be beneficial to both the guides and tourists, but perhaps they should consider some other means of "regulating" this. I may have no qualms about paying for "certification", but it just seem… a little strange - in a manner that I can’t quite describe.

Nature guides may soon need to be certified

Proposed NParks rule designed to raise quality of guides

By Shobana Kesava

BY THE end of next year, all nature guides who show local and foreign tourists around Singapore’s parks and reserves could need a certificate from the Government.

The proposed rule, designed to eliminate the risk of shoddy tours and ill-informed guides, would apply to the roughly 300 green spaces under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Board (NParks).

The list includes some of Singapore’s biggest and most popular parks, such as the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and Chek Jawa in Pulau Ubin.

NParks chief operations officer Leong Chee Chiew said: ‘We would like to standardise the quality of information given out to those who are interested in nature.’

NParks said a big reason for its proposal was the rapidly growing number of eco-tourists visiting its parks and reserves. The demand has prompted a need for more people - both volunteers and professionals - to get into the guiding game.

NParks said there are 1,600 registered volunteer guides, but it is unclear how many are active. There could be hundreds of other private volunteers, according to some estimates.

Most guides are nature lovers or members of conservation groups who offer free tours. But there are a handful of professionals who charge about $100 per hour for excursions.

Eventually all those conducting eco-tours will have to go for training, though the details of the programme have not been established, said Dr Leong.

NParks’ director of industry, Mr P. Teva Raj, said this will not apply to teachers and their students, or people who want to share what they know with friends.

‘This is meant to be a comfort to the public who want to engage a service, so they will know that the person doing the guiding has a consistently high level of knowledge,’ he said.

Seven experienced nature guides who spoke with The Straits Times agreed that training would be valuable.

But they were riled by the idea that they might require accreditation. Some see it as an insult after decades of promoting Singapore’s natural heritage, while others think it goes against the spirit of volunteerism.

A guide certified by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Mr Grant Pereira, 59, said: ‘I don’t see a reason for external guidelines. I am a certified guide by the STB, I am extremely good at the few guided tours I specialise in. Why is this necessary?’

It appears that not every eco-tourist needs licensed guides. Nature lover Nassera Guerroumi, 36, who is from France and came to live in Singapore two years ago, does not think certification is necessary beyond training in first aid.

‘Why formalise it? People who do this love nature or they wouldn’t bother sharing their passion. I don’t need Latin names of plants, or someone talking all the time, I just want to be safe and know where to go to have an experience,’ she said.

NParks has not come up with the cost of the proposed training programme, nor has it decided if there will be a difference in what professional guides and volunteers will have to pay for training.

Mr Raj, when pressed, said the fee would be more than $100 but would not be onerous. He said subsidies will be made available to locals.

President of the Nature Society of Singapore, Mr Shawn Lum, 45, said that, in principle, NParks’ idea is excellent.

‘It ensures that NParks, as a custodian of our natural heritage, has an idea of who are leading walks and if they’re being done responsibly. The devil is in the detail which stakeholders would want to help the authorities pin down. But this is worth it,’ he said.

Mr Raj said consultations will be held with eco-guides later this year before its plans are cast in stone.

skesava@sph.com.sg

Source: Straits Times Interactive, http://www.straitstimes.com/Singapore/Story/STIStory_253020.html?sunwMethod=GET

Article extracted on 30th June 2008