News Flash: Geek Terminal featured on CNN

A lot of us will know where Geek Terminal in Singapore is. Lately, most of the biggest events, from BlogOut 2007 to Ping.SG first year anniversary and also showcases of Microsoft Remix 2007, are all located in this place. The coffee is one of the best in town, according to BL, who usually goes there to meet up with other entrepreneurs, technologists and fellow geeks. The interesting news of the day is that Geek Terminal is featured in CNN today.

We take some excerpts from the article Net surfing: Not just for ‘geeks’ in Singapore.

That’s what a Singapore entrepreneur hopes you’ll be asking on your business travels in a few years. Christopher Lee and his partners got fed up with the difficulty they faced trying to get connected to the Internet — and to electrical outlets — while on business trips.

The frustrations are familiar to many. A cafe or restaurant might offer free Wi-Fi, but then no electrical outlet, or vice versa — and the waitress gives you dirty looks for lingering. Or your hotel charges high connection fees. Or an Internet cafe is essentially an arcade, with loudspeakers blaring screams and explosions from violent online games — and every other customer is a teenage boy……

Technology partners provide gadgets if you didn’t bring your own — or if you just want to examine their latest products. You can use a cutting-edge laptop from Apple or Compaq, for instance, or a smart-phone from Nokia, or an all-in-one office machine from Canon. There’s usually no charge, except there might be a small fee for something like printing. High-definition TVs, VOIP phones, projectors and game consoles are also showcased — and usually available for free use.

For the technology partners, it’s a way to share their latest products in the right part of town to the right crowd of people. Geek Terminal is in the heart of the central business district. “Our location is a big selling point,” says Lee. “Many of our technology partners would love to have a showroom right in the middle of town but can’t afford it. We are helping to be their showcase.”…..

So … what’s the catch? For visitors, there isn’t one. That’s the odd thing about Geek Terminal. No personal information, like an e-mail address, is asked for. (At least not yet — Lee says that might be asked for in the future for announcing cafe events.)

This is in contrast to Singapore’s expanding Wireless@SG service. Driven by the government’s Infocomm Development Authority, this free Wi-Fi service covers much of the city-state’s central business district, but it requires registering with your name, cell-phone number, and passport or citizen ID number.

You can just sit down, plug in, and get to work, or play around with cutting-edge gadgets, and it’s all free. Yes, there’s food and beverage from an Illy’s coffee counter, but ordering anything is optional.

Of course, do check out the main article, and of course, SG Entrepreneurs wishes Geek Terminal all the best in the coming year.

In case you want to know where Geek Terminal is, go to the their main site at www.geekterminal.com. Their address is: 55 Market Street #01-01 Singapore 048941.

Comments