Welcome to the Futurelooks Dot Com Hong Kong Office!
Posted by Stephen on
June 17, 2007
Well, I can’t just take off and not keep things going so in addition to wandering all over Hong Kong, I’ve also setup a temporary office where I can work from till I come home in just over a week. Part of being a Dot Com Mogul is being able to work from anywhere, so I setup my office in my room at the Wan Chai Empire Landmark Hotel.
This laptop literally just came out and I’ll be one of the first ones to own it. I got a really great deal on it and saved about $650 after taxes from the CDN retail, and I even saved about $425 over Hong Kong retail. If you ever need a laptop, you need to buy it in Taiwan. Not only is it cheap, but you get the right power cord for North America and the ASUS shop in Taiwan offered to change the keyboard to English for me for free. I eventually got it changed in Hong Kong by ASUS, still free of charge, since they were out of stock in Taiwan. Look for a review soon!
When I need to venture out to visit people or party, I take my brand new DOPOD C500 smartphone with a flip out keyboard. This thing is no bigger than my Nokia 6670 and has the latest Windows Mobile 6.0. It’s also not available in North America and it looks like I have one of the first ones since it only came out a couple weeks ago. My favourite feature is the WiFi which supports both b and g. This allows me to sneak in Skype Calls and bypass the long distance charges. It also allows me to send emails and attachments as long as I have WiFi available. Since WiFi is pretty much free these days, I won’t have to pay for mobile data services when I get home. Man do I feel sorry for those Blackberry users now.
Finally, an office wouldn’t be an office without a network, so mine is tied together with a Linksys WRT54GC Travel Router. I should have bought it in Taiwan, but I can’t complain when it’s still half price compared to Canada in Hong Kong. The only thing that will need to be fixed is the UK plug that is attached to it, but I’ll have my adapters with me when I travel anyway. The router also allows me to give wireless access to all my devices without having to pay the hotel for service per device.
Last but not least, both Taiwan and Hong Kong have the widest selection of iced coffees. I’m really loving the variety and I’ve probably tried at least 12 different types by now, but my favourite is still Mr. Brown. Unfortunately, they don’t sell it in Canada and I’m not sure if I could keep it could enough to take some home. I’ve been buying so much iced coffee (It’s like $5.90 HKD which is roughly $0.80 a can CDN) that the lady at the Circle K across the street knows me now. Oh well. Guess I’ll just have to visit here more often 
That laptop looks pretty bad ass. I’ve seen Mr.Brown coffee before in Chinatown before, but it’s definitely not as cheap as HK. Wireless B/G on a cell phone is something I could get used to…like you said…Skype!!
The laptop IS definitely bad ass! It has like 6 - 7 hrs of battery life on two batteries that it comes with (one big, one small) and is like 0.5 kg’s. I love it!
Yeah, I’ve actually used skype already. It sounds pretty good on a decent connection
nice mobile setup man. That dopod cell looks awesome, how much was it? I need to get a better cell than this damn Razr, let me know I might have you pick one up for me!
It’s about $400 USD. However, they gave me an $80 trade on my Nokia 6670 that I was going to give away so you’re looking at more like $500 USD.
Ouch…I’m way too cheap to spend that much money on a phone. I usually go for whatever the cell companies are giving away for free at the time.
Optical drives are pretty much useless on laptops. How many CD’s do you pack in your back when you travel? The laptop I just bought lets you replace the optical drive with a second battery
They sell Mr. Brown in Canada…at like Yaohan and other Japanese (or rather…Japanese inspired…) grocery stores everywhere.
Probably just not in freakin’ Port Moody.
It’s probably not freakin’ 80 cents a can either and it’s probably only 1 or 2 kinds. I get like 6 kinds here! I drink it like water here
I wonder if T&T has it. I don’t remember seeing it there.
I love Mr. Brown coffees. The cans are too small though. Notice how tough the cans are too? I think they recycle them into Hondas
I’d be terribly tempted to hook my notebook into that LCD on the wall above…
Thought about it, but the resolution just isn’t there. My laptop has a higher res at 1366 x 768 with a finer dot pitch. Also, I think I’d hurt my neck staring up at the screen the whole time.
You’re wrong on two fronts there, Stephen.
First, the Dopod you have looks like the HTC Vox (a CDMA variant is available through Telus, though that version lacks WiFi). The Vox can be purchased through eBay for about $500 or so.
Second, Mr. Brown is widely available in Vancouver (and Richmond) and depending where you go, in a variety of flavors. I’ve seen coffee, cappuccino, blue mountain, and espresso to name a few. I’ve never paid more than 90 cents a can. And yes, I love Mr. Brown coffee too.
It’s actually an HTC Vox 710 to be exact and It isn’t available in North America. Well at least, not officially. I did see it on eBay though like you mentioned. The phone I have is also GSM Quad Band, not CDMA so that Telus phone will never leave the country. So no, you can’t buy it here in North America, but you can import it. I doubt any North American provider will release the WiFi function. It’s way too easy to NOT subscribe to their data services with it. Something that NA providers like to charge a lot for. The data services are so cheap here. ($7 / 60 MB)
90 cents with tax or without tax and deposit? If I actually wanted to walk to the supermarket, I can buy it for way less than 0.80 cents, but the lady at the Circle K helps me out if I get lost and its across the street and its chilled and ready to drink. Widely available is too vague for me. We talking places that are accessible like T&T? Van and Richmond aren’t exactly a short drive so it might as well be dead to me
I bought the HTC S710 about two weeks ago, it’s a pretty nice phone but unfortunately the WiFi feature eats a lot of battery life
I’m currently writing a review about the S710, should be ready by tomorrow
Yeah, the WiFi, if I forget I left it on, does get ravenous on the battery. They don’t have any hi capacity batteries aftermarket for it yet unfortunately. I was looking for a bigger one. The 1050 mAh one seems a little anorexic.