It’s no secret that Singaporeans love shopping online. The Covid-19 pandemic also made e-commerce the new normal, with more people adding their groceries and essentials to their shopping cart. But how exactly does online grocery shopping work? We went behind the scenes at Amazon Fresh’s fulfilment centre to see the magic behind their two-hour deliveries.
Illustration by Nadine Christmas for Lifestyle Asia Singapore.
Unless you’re undergoing a year-long digital detox, you would have seen photos with an oversaturated filter posted on every social network. The main culprit? Huji Cam. The photo-editing app is 2018’s answer to Kirakira+, and now sits dominantly on the home screens of over 16 million smartphones of millennials and celebrities everywhere.
Photo-editing apps are aplenty, with a majority of them dedicated to film photography. They are responsible for the dramatic light leaks, Polaroid frames, and classic timestamps that have swamped your Instagram feeds since the dawn of the App Store. In the age of digital, why are we so obsessed with all things retro? There are drones and 360° cameras at our disposal. What is this desire to time travel to the past?
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It’s no secret that nostalgia sells. For Apple’s inaugural “App of the Year” awards in 2010, the photo-editing app Hipstamatic shared the podium along with fellow relics Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies (remember them?). Photographer Damon Winter used it to capture riveting images from the Afghan War the same year, and simultaneously scooped up a prestigious award. Kodak is another household name that has made an indelible mark in the history books. In a bid to appeal to the logomania-obsessed generation, they just announced a partnership with fashion retailers Forever 21 for a collection bearing Kodak’s iconic colours from the 90s.
“The whole generation that used Hipstamatic grew up on the digital, so analogue is their ‘alternative’,” said acclaimed photographer Stephen Schaub, who interestingly shoots only on film. Schaub was in town recently for the art and photography fair X EDITION, where several of his pieces (including a four-metre-long print of Grand Central Station) were hung on the walls of the Regent Hotel. “This whole hyper-sharp clarity of digital is one thing. But I think that analogue is more human. It engages you in a different way.”
There is a rise in film photography thanks to the multitude of photo editing apps available on smartphones.
He isn’t wrong there. The masses today are chasing megapixels akin to how Formula 1 drivers chase that venerated spot on the podium. In this massive gold rush for who has the highest definition, there are those who are making a detour towards a medium that has more substance than just pixels.
“Film has an organic, yet imperfect quality to it,” said Schaub. The flaws of film, however, are its crux. A 4K television might be able to give you all the details of a movie, but that level of clarity is unforgiving in that it also can show you all your pores. On film, your skin just looks much better with the grain. The colour variances from a film reel also exude a natural vibrancy and dynamic no Lightroom or VSCO filter can emulate.
Is this film or digital? Photographer Ragnar Axelsson shot this on the Leica M Monochrom, a black-and-white digital camera. (Photo: Ragnar Axelsson/Leica)
This isn’t to say that film and digital can’t coexist. Schaub and his wife, Eve, coauthored a manifesto called the Figital Revolution – the fusion of film and digital. They argue that both mediums can be embraced simultaneously, and passionate photographers should not be influenced by an industry that only cares about the dollars and cents.
Looking at the emergence of photo-editing apps that embrace the gritty, imperfect nature of film photography, isn’t that the perfect amalgamation of film and digital? They effectively introduce millions to a photography medium that otherwise they might not have been privy to. Schaub also tells us that he manages to convert all his photography students to shoot on film whenever he leads a class. Apps that mimic the look of analogue photography might just be the catalyst film needs for it to make another appearance in our photo albums.
Perhaps this is the dawn of a new era for film photography, no thanks to one of their unlikeliest allies — the digital camera.
Photo: Apple
It has been nearly seven years since his death, yet Steve Jobs is still enriching lives through Apple. Not with the myriad of devices they’ve designed but through his pursuit of sparking creativity through a greater retail experience. During the announcement of the iPad 2 in 2011, Jobs famously said, “It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.” In that ethos, a collective of free educational sessions called Today at Apple was born.
Since its inception in May 2017, Apple now hosts 18,000 sessions weekly across 506 of its stores for millions of people. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have an iPhone or an iPad—everyone is welcome to attend.
To show their investors (and everyone else) how seriously they’re taking this, Apple has just announced an update to Today at Apple, introducing 58 new sessions globally.
Apple stores have now become modern-day town squares. (Photo: Apple)
All the new sessions (and existing ones) will be grouped into three formats: Skills, Walks, and Labs. They expand on the most popular sessions like sketch walks and photo labs while giving the entire program a more cohesive structure. It’s also the first time Health & Fitness sessions are offered. Last week, we were invited along with a group of reporters from around the world to Cupertino, California for a preview of these new sessions.
“Just like we update the software on our devices, we always talk about our physical stores as Apple’s largest product,” Angela Ahrendts, Senior Vice President of Retail at Apple told us in a cosy corner of their Apple Park offices. “Today at Apple is the software for the stores, and next week is the newest, largest release that we ever had for [it].”
“If we encourage people to connect more, then maybe that’s a part of enriching their lives,” Angela Ahrendts, SVP of Retail at Apple. (Photo: Apple)
The fact that all the Today at Apple sessions are free is what differentiates Apple from their competitors. Even as their numbers are slumping — Apple just posted their Q1 2019 earnings call showing a decline in revenue of 5 percent down to US$84.3 billion — they’re still gratuitously providing these free sessions. It’s all part of their ongoing diversification to be more than just a company that sells sexy hardware.
During our visit to Cupertino, we tried our hands at a couple of the new sessions. The most comprehensive was a Video Lab co-created with the award-winning videographer Zach King. Titled “Small Screen Magic,” we were given a peek into King’s world of viral content creation, and were even taught how to film our own little piece of small screen magic.
“Today at Apple is real social. It’s built to encourage human connection. If we encourage people to connect more, then maybe that’s a part of enriching their lives.”
Other sessions include a skill session with Garageband where we made our own drum patterns, and a walk around Apple Park capturing colours with an iPad Pro to turn into an abstract drawing.
“[Steve] was so ahead of our time because if you look at the future, it is going to be the liberal arts and the creative arts as technological advances,” mused Ahrendts when the conversation turned to Jobs’ vision. “That’s how so many people are going to make a living in the future. We keep all of these things alive, and that is the genesis, the purpose of Today at Apple.”
At the end of every session, participants are invited to share their work and celebrate the creations of their peers. (Photo: Apple)
While all the 58 new sessions will be available at each store globally, each store has the liberty to schedule them based on the needs and wants of the community. There could be photo and video walks planned around the city, for example. Talent-led sessions like that with King, Florence Welch, Chase Jarvis, and Foster + Partners are also in the lineup.
“To make sure that everyone is successful, we designed the sessions in a way that even if you’re a beginner or more advanced, you can enter and have fun and be successful,” said Karl Heiselman, who according to Ahrendts was the visionary behind Today at Apple. “Our mission is to inspire and spark that creativity for you to go forth.”
Today at Apple challenges participants to unleash their creative minds. (Photo: Apple)
This new direction that Apple is heading towards is crucial for the future of retail. We’re already seeing stores incorporating technology into the retail experience. Companies big or small can no longer depend on the backbone of physical sales alone. Like Apple, they need to give consumers more than a transaction. They need to augment the experiential factor and give people a reason to come to the stores beyond just buying a product.
But at the core of the future of retail, Jobs is right: technology alone isn’t enough to cut it. Apple’s marriage of technology, liberal arts, and the humanities is just the first step into making retail great again. After all, he said in an interview with Wired from 1996: “Creativity is just connecting things.”
Who knows what tomorrow at Apple will bring.
