If there is one word to describe the way people live, work and play these days it's multitasking. Just look into the car next to you next time you stop at traffic lights. Chances are someone in it is busy thumbing out an SMS on their handphone in the thirty seconds before the lights turn green. On the MRT the walkman has made way for the iPod or MP3-ready mobile phone. At cafés, people wait for their friends by catching up on missed calls. The marketing hype of the telcos is hitting on a peculiarity of our times: we maximise each precious minute to do things in parallel that we used to do in serial fashion before. While we are maximising our time, we also have less of it. Fewer people have time to digest the large volumes of information offered by dozens of media sources. With video recorders giving people the power to choose when to watch a particular program, the inevitable next step is to allow people to choose where to watch. This is why the mobile phone is fast becoming the most important device for tech-savvy Singaporeans. Technological barriers have finally fallen one by one and people’s eternal wish to choose what to watch, when and where they want, and to actually contribute to what is being offered, can finally be granted. Our children will wonder how our generation ever coped without having absolute control over the information and entertainment programs they consume in the same way that we wonder what people did before television. We are on the cusp of another revolution in the media, yet few people realise it because it is such a natural step. It is punctuated by the official launch of StarHub’s i-mode service in Singapore next month. The mobile internet, launched in Japan in November 1999, will over time bring to your pocket what you currently enjoy at home or in the office. There is plenty of room for other delivery mechanisms, such as the streaming and download services offered by Singapore Telecom and MobileOne. But i-mode has the power to render even your laptop or desktop obsolete. Hong Bao Media is proud to be among the first 50 content providers on the StarHub i-mode platform. You will be able to access information you previously had to read in research documents or the newspaper via your mobile phone. Together with our content partners at SIAS Research Pte Ltd we will present StockTips, QuickBites of information, US market reports and, of course, The Insider audio interviews with corporate chiefs of Singapore companies. Think of it as the CEO of an SGX-listed firm calling you on your handphone to give you a quick, private briefing. Perfect for those three minutes between meetings.