Are Smart Phones Taking Over The World?

The outside view at one of the flagship stores in London during the launch of the iPhone 5

iPhone 5 was launched in the USA, London, Japan and many other advanced countries sometime last week, driving enthusiasts to line up a week before to get their hands on the latest Apple product post-Steve-Jobs. It doesn’t matter how many iPhones you own; what matters is, you drool for the new one even though the differences are not that apparent. What is it about iPhones and smart phones that make people go ga-ga over them? Endless possibilities; so to speak. (Although it does end when you have no memory left on your phone, oh wait, they offer iCloud, so yes.. endless possibilities is the correct term)

My husband was in London when the iPhone 5 launched, the queue was very long and some had queued for 7 days.  

Not much difference, yet they are worlds apart 

Smart phones reinvented phones to not just be about calls and SMS anymore. Smart phones open up possibilities for people to reconnect with other people in the planet, to discharge time, to do work, to enjoy creative products, to learn new things, to snap photos of your food at all times, and the list goes on. The latest trend, which has been happening in much-advanced countries, is to turn your smart phones into your new wallet. Scan your phone and voila! You can pay for coffee, groceries, electrical items; you name it. Smartphones are not accessories anymore; they have become a part of us, attached to us at all times. We check on our children less than we check on our smartphones.

The trend is here to stay. While some claim they could live without their smartphones, majority of owners would be in a state of panic if their smartphones were not in sight.

Banking on the trend, FingerTec introduces TimeTec Mobile, an application that knows where you are, enables you to report attendance while online or offline, without you having to convince anybody of your whereabouts. The data then is processed in TimeTec Web at the main office for the human resource department as well as for payroll. How cool is that? All you need to do is to configure your phone and check-in through your phone whenever you are stationed to work outside of the office. The GPS coordinate and your time will be recorded accurately in the system.

Find out more about TimeTec Mobile, click here  

See, smartphones are about possibilities and TimeTec Mobile is just one of the apps that could better our lifestyle and businesses without having to invest much in it.

Now, I’m looking at my iPhone 4s and trying to convince myself that it’s enough that I have iOS 6 installed. The fact of the matter is, it is still not iPhone 5. Damn you, Apple!

  
by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

Logo Design: Trivial Much?

The Towers: Taken by yours truly while in the car in Kuala Lumpur

There was a big hoo-hah leading to the Malaysia Independence Day last Friday. From the logo to the song to the tagline introduced, all had received constant mockery by Malaysians, online and offline. The logo, designed by a phantom so-called designer, didn’t reflect the work of a professional and failed to carry the spirit of the nation’s 55^th year of Independence. Some equated the work to homework of a primary student who has just learned to use PowerPoint presentation in the 90s. The elements of the logo were not cohesive and even worse; an explanation about every element was offered in a table below the logo. To me, it was hilarious for a country that spends so much time talking about the development of ICT, our vision and mission to be a developed nation supposedly 8 years from now, to accept such level of work for a national level event. I reckon the designer and the people in charge were not even aware that this is year 2012 and that we have left 1992 twenty years ago.

Malaysian netizens from the world over came together in protest of this ridiculous logo designed for this auspicious day, forcing the government to drop the adoption of this logo totally. Many designers offered their alternative designs of the logo and not surprisingly, many are capable of producing far more artistic and memorable logos for the day.

These same designers were offended by the notion that logo design is trivial, and was treated as an “anybody-can-do” type of task. According to them, designing a logo involves a lot of creativity, as it has to be precise, compact, appealing and mesmerizing, and at the same time, be symbolic and reflective of a deeper meaning. A logo is an emblem of a brand, so to speak.

Apple does not use any alphabets in their logo, yet it grabs wide attention from its consumer market, so much so that people feel proud of owning an Apple-branded device. Mercedez has a three-pointed star inside a circle and when your car key also has that, it means something nice; simple yet so powerful.

When it comes to designing a logo, the question would be what kind of perception do we want to transpire from the logo.

TimeTec Web Implementation Made Easy with T-Box

FingerTec introduced its T-box recently and we are proud to present our newly designed logo for the product. The T symbolizes the TimeTec Web which centralizes the data in one place, and this T-box makes TimeTec Web deployment easy with preconfigured settings. What do you think about this logo?

T-box Logo

Malaysia marked its 55^th year of Independence last Friday with great celebration from morning till night. Everyone was proud to raise our Jalur Gemilang and we sang praises to our nation’s heroes. But this young country needs to do so much more for the challenging future. One thing to note though, self-praise and narcissism is counter-productive, impolite, and gets you no where - let the praise come from others. And in this Facebook era, don’t post something and Like it yourself. If you’ve posted it up for others to see, then you might as well let them be the judge of it.

I wish my country a prosperous year ahead and we should open to change for the better.

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ