O3 Newtown – Side A: Insanely Affordable Coworking

rumour has it, someone •still• doesn’t know what, or where, the wi-fi password is.

In a previous story arc of my work life, I was a freelance contractor where I would’ve WFH if it wasn’t for the constant left to right, right to left hum of tires on gravel – or the occasional emergency siren – that leaked through my non-soundproofed windows 24/7.

In fact, the window doesn’t even shut completely. Here, look, I’ve slammed it closed. But place a hand close to the edge of the pane and the frame near the top corner there. Yeah, you feel that? A thin stream of cold, mid-July air.

…The damn thing isn’t even cut at a straight angle.

Therefore, it was quite the natural decision to main a laptop setup, as it allowed me to, well, WFAnywhere. So long as (a) it was quieter than my room,^[1] (b) there’s Wi-Fi, and (c) a power slot is available, you can consider me sorted.

As such, I’m always interested in visiting new, accessible workspaces to change things up a bit and satiate my curiosity. During that contractor gig, I rented out the cheapest dedicated^[2] desk at the most affordable place I could’ve found at the time. It was an incredible space full of SMBs, other solo teams of artists and perfumers, and monthly workshops with free lunches. The highly professional vibes made me feel like I was the special case there! 😅

Sadly, I’ve since started a new role much less degenerate than my 11-to-7 job. PM and AM respectively, of course. Pshh, who do you take me for?

But on a Saturday on the 18th of July, O3 _{(Google Maps)}, by name a café, soft opened where Gould’s Book Arcade in Newtown used to be in 2018 before they moved to a new spot. I vaguely remembered this old place as the long-closed shop with posters plastered on the shopfront’s unique ceiling.

News spread quickly. A friend of ours shared it in Discord on Monday.

Colouring me highly interested, I asked if I could hop on the bandwagon. Come that night, “tomorrow” started ending up looking improbable. Thursday, maybe?

Well, in that case, my work plans for Thursday was now gonna be more like a Teams video call with my co-worker. The next night, I let him know of my intentions to WFH – uh, *WFA – at a new spot.

I don’t know how the PR team cooked that good. Maybe they were established. Maybe there was solid word-of-mouth assistance, both offline and online, given its close proximity to various universities and the sheer number of visitors with their phones out, some slowly rotating their hips from one side to another.

But I heard through the grapevine it’s part due to a… polarising (?) social media presence, specifically Instagram or TikTok? Dunno, I’ll pass on investigating into that; what one does on social media can certainly rub individuals the wrong way, but my opinions on the place shouldn’t be swayed because of that (for now).

At any rate, the Discord server overlord was interested in what our thoughts were.

Well, in regards to my feedback and thoughts, I'm glad to say the admin (and whoever stumbles upon this – maybe even the O3 staff 👀) gets to enjoy a whole ass silphy-style essay. Enjoy!

An Interesting First Impression

Allow me to offer you a few moments to check out O3’s website, which should give you a solid^[3] impression of what they’re angling their space to be: a socially-focused study café. Emphasis on the fact that every word has equal weight (at least to me). That means it isn’t just:

• A coworking office (inaccessible for people who study. There is much, much more commitment required versus a coworking space)
• A Starbucks/GJ’s/something less basic etc (technically inappropriate for long study sessions; those are cafés, so some form of etiquette juggling is inevitable)
• A library (not social, and definitely not a hospitality venue)

Because of this, O3 can uniquely position themselves to be different from these places (an amalgamation?) Plus, it also addresses said shortcomings in various ways that work for their target market, i.e. students.^[4]

So for an unc like me, I can confidently say: positioned themselves uniquely, they did. I’ll just point out that the app, the profile page idea, and mandatorily specifying your MBTI is intriguing, to say the least.

A First Hit, Every Week

I cover the pricing model in more detail in my next article, but the short of it is that you get three hours staffed (i.e. 10:00 – 21:00) entry every week for free. Each level of paid tier offers more; the main reason one would upgrade to the next tier being:

• Free → Silver ($40/mo): Average weekly hours increased from 3 to 10; staffed entry restriction removed. Go whenever you want
• Silver → Gold ($80/mo): Time limit is removed. Go as much as you want
• Gold → Black ($200/mo): Pay more, but you’re refunded the entire value back in O3-use credits, technically making entry “free”

For the purposes of trialling it out, and that a weekly visit of three hours is as much as I can commit to given my current work circumstances, I’ve stuck with being F2P.

The Visit: As It Happened

Thursday morning, the day (read: evening) I planned to head out. Unfortunately, this week was going to be a solo adventure; my friend was not feeling it and decided to skip this week to go the next instead.

Previously having read last night the MBTI field was mandatory, I figured I’d get that sorted and out of the way first.

I’m sat down at the kitchen table with my dusted off iPad and the pen I last charged who knows how many months ago. To my right, a 700 mL measuring jug of milk coffee, ready and full. Last night’s leftovers next to that. Open on one side of the tablet, a 70-question quiz in Books. The other, Medibang Paint, with a canvas that I wrote my previous quiz answers in last saVED IN 2021?? What the hay, it’s been that long?¿¿

Checc yourself, before you –

Tallying up my scores with a sigh of relief that my type hasn’t changed for the past five years, but also simultaneously disappointed I didn’t get a tie on any of the four letters to add some ambiguous spice to my classification, I next read O3’s Terms of Use. Like y’all should. No, really.

The Terms clearly explains the rules for things like the following, in order of what I believe to be the most important first:

• Overtime: what happens when you exceed your available hours
• Plans: how and when they charge you, and what billing obligations you have
• House rules: conduct, food policies, photography
• Fair usage and IP: self-explanatory
• O-Coins: how to earn and use their in-ga – in-premises currency
• Handling of any exceptional circumstances to these Terms

Whatever rules I discuss here and in the next part is just me repeating things from these Terms. There are plenty of members who ask what happens when time runs out, and another plenty who reply with “that’s a good question”. Little did they know they just outed themselves as a fine-print skipper.

I noticed there was one stark omission that these rules didn’t seem to cover. I’ll also cover that in the next part, but for now I kinda want to leave it as a light puzzle to you to see if you can guess what that might be.

App setup

O3’s venues are protected with QR-scan turnstiles. It’s how they track your allocated time, tell you how many people are inside (sometimes it might get it wrong by a few, though), and determine and manage capacity.

As such, the app is your keys to the café. Enough users have downloaded the app in a short period that it has managed to shoot up to rank 9 on Australia’s Play Store’s charts for free social apps, only being beaten by the big names. Talk about free marketing right there.

To sign up, you’ll need:

• Your full name, which determines your unique user name, changeable later. It doesn’t have to be your real one, so you can do initials should you wish. Just be aware you might be stuck with it in the system, as there’s no way to change it later. I get it, you don’t want them data mining your info, but maybe it’s not such a smart idea to name yourself “Fuck You” when you need assistance changing it.
• Your “job title”, so you can show off to others if you’re a ceo, a game dev (hey it me), he/him, published writer, or you’re simply broke (aren’t we all). There may also appear to be an option to also specify if it’s a job (💼) or a degree (📚). Unlimited characters at signup, but 25 post-signup, so make it count.^[5]
• Your MBTI (lol). If you can’t be bothered, or you think that’s a lil’ too cringe to fill, there is an “Unknown” option. But you need to choose something.

Just keep in mind the email account you sign up with seems to be set. Changing it will have to be implemented by the devs, or alternatively involve a chat in-person.

You’ll then be asked to upload a profile picture, then decorate your profile page. Adjust, delete, scale (whilst inevitably rotating as a side effect 😠), and add to your desire. When I can be ceebs – as in, never – I’ll probably mock up some image assets to act as frames for other elements so it looks like a Linktree/Carrd etc.

Yeah. My portrait canvas is gonna be a professional makeshift landing page, and you can’t stop me. Haters be hatin’.

Once the signup process is complete, you’ll be automatically on the Free plan with three hours ready to be used the moment you scan in. Alongside that, there’s a not-so-subtly displayed focus study timer^[6] where you can disable your phone’s ability to switch apps for a specified time of your liking. The longer the duration is, the higher your odds of catching one of the many Oysters (the speech-bubble shaped mascots) to display on your profile.

But why should you care about a cosmetic gimmick? You’ll be informed those Oysters are a bit more than just that: 3☆ and higher rarities additionally attract permanent benefits at the café – for instance, percentage discounts, free upgrades, or a low chance to get something for free.

They’re not exactly outrageous deals you can’t afford to miss, but if you’re someone who frequently orders things from cafés, O3 hopes these perks and the dopamine hit from winning freebies can help sway your loyalty to them and save a bit of money per item in the long term.

If you’re looking for details and rates on how the Oyster (i.e. not café) gacha system works, don’t worry – I’ve got you covered in the next part.

Parking

Where I live, driving to Newtown is cheaper than getting public transport, fuel-wise. Ahh, how I miss the days of being a student and getting half-price Opal fares…

Finding a suitable fee-free spot to park for the amount of hours you need is pretty simple with some Google-fu and a willingness to walk around and explore. It pays to know your neighbourhood!

The best time to visit is after ~18:00 – 18:30, since that’s when most of the parking specifications on the signs lapse. Just keep in mind that until O3 gets 24/7 approval, which should be happening really soon, Newtown closes at 21:00. Perfect timing for the Free members; just don’t go too late. (Remember, Free members can only attend during staffed hours.)

Knowing my way around my usual parking spot, I guide myself back onto the moderate bustle of after-school but before-COB-rush King Street. The destination in question was situated on the north-east end, a few blocks before Astro’s.

The five minute tour

It was not long before I spotted the yellow Gould’s Video Library sign hundreds of metres ahead. Hand in my hoodie pocket with my phone, I swing it out and unlock it, tapping the QR icon in the app, ready to scan when I got close.

Upon turning the corner, I stop myself short of bumping into someone who had just scanned off. After a brief “oops, sorry” as she tilted her head down at the contraption I had in one hand, I let her walk out first.

Approaching the right gates, bypassing the somewhat out of place blue-tinted café counter amidst warmer hues from the interior’s lighting, I extend my left arm, hovering the display of my phone face-down over the QR reader on the left. A short beep sounds… as the LEDs of the left gates opposite me changed from red to green, swinging itself open.

Oh.

As a friend would put it, my “anti-rizz energy” was already on full leak.

Finally having a chance to lift my head up, I’m immediately presented with a pagoda-inspired main feature, upturned eaves being a prominent focus within the large hall overlooking the ground floor and the one above.

The selection of décor is evidently intentional; save for a plumbing pipe and some lampshades, there is virtually not a blue hue of anything to be found in this space. If there were, most of it comes from the screens of visitors’ laptops.

However, the lack of blue is due to the pond: a below-floor water feature underneath the centre elevated platform, covered by reinforced laminated glass. According to a photo _{(WEBP, 1.15 MB)} on their website, the pond had once been on full display, its highly saturated blue lights unnaturally standing out from its surrounds’ comparatively neutral palette. When I went, it was covered with synthetic grass and a sign stating the pond will be back.

My creative mind is telling me there’s a Very Big reason why this pond must exist and be the way that it is. There’s an inverted torii mounted off the roof, made most obvious by how the picture frame of the Oyster is correctly oriented upside-down. The torii holds a cultural metaphor I can just feel O3 was really proud of leaning into: the border between a cosy (and sacred, do I dare say) modern study space, juxtaposed with the bohemian/grungy aesthetic of Newtown, which the piles of books acts as a subtle, but constant, historical reminder of.

But… here’s where the pool gets deep.^[7] Should you look down at the reinforced glass, the torii would be reflected the right way up. And so by walking through the pond’s glass floor, your real self will have passed another figurative border into the study space’s incorporeal form. In fact, directly in front of the inverted torii are the red stairs to the real third floor, waiting for your other self to climb its inverted reflection.

But for now, it seems we are not quite ready to experience that next-level, out-of-body study space yet.^[8]

Putting the symb– chimbolism on pause, I decide to go left to begin my tour upstairs. A few visitors were sitting on stools at a narrow length of wooden table with an equally narrow walkway spacing, reminiscent of Asian supermarket aisles.

Mind you, that’s not as bad of a criticism as it sounds. In fact, I kind of like the claustrophobic feel of it and having to walk sideways to get past seated people like I would at said stores. Just watch out for any people on the other side and let them through if need be. Think one-way slow points.

At the back of the corridor, you’ll find a conference table capable of seating 20 if you squeeze and make room. On the side, there’s an enclosed room with another similar table to be found inside. Presumably, the idea was that this room would be the designated silent area, as no other spot in the venue effectively blocks the noise (and music) of the café downstairs.

On that day, the doors remained open the entire time I was there.

On the other side where the bookshelf is in the above pic, to the left is a small nook with a couch, chair, table, and a few beanbags, decorated with a CRT TV. This area might be suitable for a video conference where you need a neutral backdrop and a space a little more isolated from the rest of the busy areas.

Going back downstairs, I find an empty spot to set up my laptop near the back of the hall. Here, an army of beanbags and couches amongst old school wooden furniture and devices could be found. This was, without a doubt, the chill zone area of the study space.

At first, I select to settle down atop a radiogram, but upon kneeling down onto the floor, my head level with the gap on the underside of the oversized audio device, there was not a power point in sight.

Laptop in hand, I take my belongings and move to an empty table closer to the pond area. Remember that lady I bumped into at the entrance who looked at the thing I was carrying in my hand?

Uh huh. You damn bet you guessed right.

By 20:00, a fair amount of people were still around, so I wasn’t able to take photos of the chill zone area at the back. Neither was I able to take a photo of the pond; I’ll probably do that and add them here the next time I get a chance.

Alright. Before we get settled in to work, I need to get this rant off my chest.

Cleanliness

I would hope to think people have heard of, or at least kinda get, the principle behind leaving something better than one found it. So I was quite appalled to find not just a few, but many coffee/plastic cups or bottles left behind at desks, both upstairs and downstairs.

So that pad setup pic just above – see that water bottle next to the lamp? Yeah, that’s actually not mine. Someone left that behind.

And whilst you’re at it, try and spot the other leftover containers in that picture.

Like, sure, I get you – the line between a study space and café at O3 is blurred, so visitors might genuinely think it’s the baristas’, not the customers’, responsibility to clean up after them.

But it still goes back to the principle, and that the tables are undeniably more hot-desks than something to fulfil covers. How would a visitor like it if the only spot they could find was one of the upper floor side tables, but they had to clear up the leftovers and make themselves take an unnecessary trip through a walkway as narrow as that?

Oh, was the nearest bin a trek and a half away from where you were seated? Okay, but that doesn’t explain why one of the baristas had to clear a table opposite me full of rubbish into – get this – a bin placed right behind one of the table’s chairs. Pick up, take one step, rotate body, put down into bin sort of “right behind”. It was honestly comical, to me and to him.

So, the principle, y’all.^[9]

…and Courtesy

As important as it is to keep a place clean, the same applies to the things people use that aren’t theirs.

You may have also noticed a standing whiteboard behind the table in the image. At the time when I moved my setup from the radiograph to there, I found a whiteboard marker, one provided by O3, left on the table open without its lid.

Nothing sucks more when using a whiteboard to find that every marker available has been dried out or its tip flattened beyond use. The norm is that I would bring my own markers, so me complaining about this is zeroth world privilege thinking. But! One has gotta remember this is still equipment O3 has provided out of goodwill, so – ugh, ethics quotes. Here we go again.

Golden rule, y’all.

Internet and facilities

I propose O3 adopt a prophecy.

Daily, without fail, someone shall eventually ask for the Wi-Fi password in the live chat.

Pretty solid. The test was taken from that spot.

They’re team Ubiquiti, as evident in the lil’ ceiling-mounted router with the blue light ring you can spot in the upstairs photo. It was performed on my still very alive and running 2019 phone, so most chances they’ve actually got WiFi 6 (7 even?) support instead of the 5 you see here.

It’s a fair assumption the router is limiting each client’s speed, so ~120 Mbps is very likely as fast as you’ll get. But still, use your discretion and avoid saturating the bandwidth during work hours/after school. Maybe hold back on those Steam and gacha slop downloads to unstaffed degen hours.

In regards to electricity, not every seat has access to outlets. So do look out for a power strip before you settle down wherever you sit.

Also, it’s a good idea to bring some adaptors and/or cables to charge your devices. You might score yourself a free shout of something when someone is in need of it 😉 Though, if all fails, the café itself may also be able to help.

Planning my three hours

Laptop plugged in, pad leaned against the side of the table emanating the blue and green I set on its LEDs, and tablet ready in Concepts to draw some notes, I decided to split my (slightly less than) three hours into an hour of playtesting/charting, then an hour of actual work, and any remaining time further exploring.

Actual work: Due to how the café had music playing, on top of various layers of quiet chatter, the place was quite loud for a study or work space solely by virtue of numbers. It’s a no-brainer you’d need to come prepared with earphones or headphones.

Of course, that’s a given if I’m working with music like creating DDR/ITG content. But for, uh… normal work or study during days where headphones aren’t necessary, unless there’s the knack, concentration, or tolerance for filtering out background noise, I know it will be a struggle for some others.

Whilst it was possible to draw down plans and catch up on my work inbox, it was definitely happening at a slower pace at O3 than at home. My internal “job buffer” was running out frequently as I found myself mind blanking more often than I’d like to. Sometimes I would think for a while about what to do next instead of seamlessly flowing through my work. My hunch is that my head’s still in the clouds experiencing the honeymoon highs of the That New Place feeling. It’s not that the “bandwidth” of the space “wasn’t enough”; I just had a “bad connection”!

DDR/ITG Charting & Playtesting: I was making about the same, if not slightly faster, progress charting here versus at home. I enjoy making a little show with the dance pad, so my charting productivity gets a boost when I can feel eyes on me (active accountability?) However, I’m also very aware that the mini-pad can straight up cause an issue for other individuals, since those flashing lights, even under the table, are bright. It might be beneficial if I come prepared with a complete LEDs-off or alternative gentle white on input lighting profile next time I’m in.

I can control noise and vibrations to an extent. Relatively poorly, though; you can blame DDR for that, but it’s still better than nothing. Sitting down, cross-unders aren’t possible without really twisting my legs. Although, visually, the activity of simply vibrating my legs on a pad can itself be a big enough distraction, even if I’m on a chair. When Newtown eventually becomes a 24/7 venue for paid members to gain access to non-staffed hours, these times may be a much better option to perform such activities.

More exploration: Having finished most of my work with one hour left on the timer, I spent the last 15-20 minutes taking another slow tour around the space, especially taking note of the four whiteboards that are installed on the second floor.

Whiteboards

The whiteboards invite visitors to leave various thoughts. Going clockwise starting from the café stairs on the left, they cover:

• Appreciation/motivation (labelled “Make Someone’s Day”)
• Feedback
• Quotes (very full)
• Drawing cats (relatively full)

The one that caught my attention were the first two.

Hoooh kay, alright… now we’re starting to get to the good shit. ’Cause I have a LOT of things to talk about here.

So many, in fact, that whilst I was writing this article, it made more sense for me to split it into two parts. Consider the following to be a teaser of the kind of analysis you can expect me to get into the next part.

Here it goes.

Maybe I’m misreading between the lines, but O3 appears to be strong on the narrative in stating that it is a café first, not a coworking space first.

• In regards to success in getting council/community approval for 24/7 operations, I would’ve thought applying as a coworking space was way easier than applying as a café.^[10] Think noise levels, visitor parking requirements, etc.
• Actually, I struggle to see how that narrative holds up when the place screams to me coworking space first then a café on the side. To read O3 have been told they are “no different to an ordinary café” is surprising, because from my (a participating consumer) perspective, it has demonstrated it is anything but.
• This discrepancy has confused some people on the receiving end of such word-of-mouth marketing, via the effect of Chinese whispers:
  • The OP of a Reddit thread erroneously presumed O3 was just a café because they only purchased food at the front counter to take away without going into the “main part” because of the turnstiles.
  • Because it was described like that with no further context, the cautious, uninitiated Reddit lurker would think a café locked behind gates was absurd.
  • Such turnstile setup might even be treading thin ice due to fire safety regulations.
• Speaking of regulations, there’s a sign at the entrance specifying the maximum amount of patrons they can serve, totalling to something around 160.
  • This is correctly reflected as the 100% threshold in the O3 app.
  • I’ve only ever paid attention to these signs in the context of licensed venues, but now that I think of it, it doesn’t really matter if it’s a food venue or not.
  • The number might just be based upon things like floor area, crowd safety, and availability of toilet facilities.
  • The sign itself might be there because “the DA said so”, which would not be a hospitality thing.

Students find the pricing expensive, requesting for discounted plans or more Free tier hours.

• Hate to burst the bubble, but students are in for a shock when they look at the competition. As someone who has spent a fuckton more in one of the cheaper said competitive places, I disagree with the sentiment.
  • $40 for 40 hours a month is mind-bogglingly affordable,^[11] even when I was working a fairly low-paying job as a uni student many years ago.
  • A business has gotta somehow pay the Newtown rent and DA approvals, one way or another…
• The Free plan already provides 30% of the value of the Silver plan.
  • Increasing Free tier hours would disbalance and reduce the value/incentive to start paying for Silver, unless Silver, and maybe the other tiers respectively, increase their benefits too.
  • As game development experience reveals: offering is easy, taking back is hard – especially if it’s something they’ve paid for.
• My parents like to throw the Chinese expression 薄 (bó) 利 (lì) 多 (duō) 销 (xiāo) around when they criticise the cost of things going up. It translates as “small profits, large sales” – “small” as in meagre, “large” as in volume, not amount.^[12]
  • I think part of the logic behind why the naysayers think focusing on students isn’t profitable is (a) students are typically highly unreliable and equally meagre customers in regards to steady cashflow, so therefore (b) there’s an insanely high threshold of volume required to make up for a price that will satisfy them.
  • I mean, after all, someone seconded and thirded the comment on the whiteboard. It’s why we’re having this very discussion.
  • And so, O3 has done their homework and utilised many other techniques modern students “get”, in an attempt to better secure a conversion through other means.
• Make no mistake, though, I’m not that much of a fool to ever refuse more Free hours or a cheaper plan that’s available to me. So yes. Go on. DO IT 😁
• The CEO of O3 did ask in the live chat the possibility of further simplifying the coloured plans into student and professional tiers. I think the best way to approach this is to survey students what existing things they find the most valuable in paid plans, followed by what else they could compromise and ditch. That way, changes feel a bit more justified, than seemingly random, to work with a student’s study schedules and, most importantly, budget.

The consideration to open up the third floor^[13] when it’s ready.

• Probably a whole couple of new DA problems and a half to consider, but definitely agree. Could make that the silent floor.

And so with that, that covers my first two and a bit hours there. Overall, given my expectations, O3 left an excellent impression as a study space for what it is. The app and its social and gamification elements are what they are (neutral, as in NPS 6 neutral) but it’s something I feel like I can definitely warm up to.

Which leaves us with only one, and arguably the most important, question left to answer:

But can you actually dance game there?

To be fair, there weren’t many viable things around the space I could use as a bar that also wouldn’t be in the way of others, but this long table on the right side of the upper floor near the nook did the job.^[14] Bonus points for it being in prime view from the staircase as people go up.

Conclusion?

yeah, it’s silphy sertified sexy.

^[1] Okay, well, yeah… no. This place at peak hour certainly isn’t quieter than my room. But you get what I mean, right? …Right?

Some people actually concentrate better when there’s undiscernible organic chatter playing as their BGM. Not saying that’s me; I’m one of those no-music drivers (at least by myself – passenger seat always gets DJ privileges in my car).

But yes, I know what noise cancelling tech is. My earphones can do that. Noise is not the only reason why I don’t like WFH.

^[2] Dedicated spots are areas you rent at a coworking space that is reserved for your use only. That not only means a guaranteed spot to work at regardless of how busy it gets, but also you can put down your gear and leave it there. As such, security is very tight, and you of course pay for that premium – and the contents insurance too, if your gear can’t be afforded to be lost.

This is contrasted with hot-desking, where you don’t have the rights to a specific area. But at least you’re not hogging up space someone else could use whilst you’re not there.

^[3] Before the July 25 changes, I originally wrote that visiting the website would leave a “veeery clear impression” what vibes O3 was trying to evoke (social club). Since the de-focus on that aspect, it’s mellowed out a fair bit that the veeery qualifier has now been demoted to just solid.

^[4] I’ve read reviews that O3 is trying to be a paid version of something one can otherwise get for free, some even criticising the implementation of turnstile and mandatory app access.

Whilst I wholly agree with the sentiment as a bargain hunter, I think it’s worth keeping in mind the benefits that come with a security or pay wall, and how even a tiny hurdle is enough to filter out a significant portion of the public. Consequently, in turn, that should equate to better facilities.

^[5] The 25-character limit is not checked at sign up. However, changing your default assigned username to something else does also check for the job title’s length. So if you want your LinkedIn job title on here, now’s your only chance because you won’t be able to change it later!

(inb4 the devs come across this and it gets patched lmao)

^[6] If you physically move your phone around to activate the accelerometer, this will shake the current Oyster on the screen and send a few short bursts of vibrations to simulate it bouncing left and right.

Because my phone case’s fit is a tiny bit loose after many years of use, I low key thought the case was giving way by the second, until I realised what was happening.

^[7] As I was writing this article, I found myself coming across an uncanny amount of smart puns or references. I have strong reservations whether O3 genuinely managed to bake this many Easter eggs into their ecosystem, but something is telling me they truly might’ve cooked.

A word of warning (…see what I mean) – you’ll be coming across a lot of these, and I’ll be making them clear. None of these puns were intentional or actively thought up of to fit. I don’t have the time for that.

^[8] Wait… is O3 creating a meta-metaphor out of this, the green grass representing their new, first-week venture in Sydney whilst they’re ironing out the creases? Holy shit 🤯

^[9] What was the other hiking-related rule other than this one? Only take photos and memories, and leave – uh, good vibes. Not footprints, if you can avoid it. The staff will likely appreciate that.

^[10] Then again, it’s only the study space that’s meant to be 24/7, not the café, so in actuality there’s nothing implying they’re pitching as a café (until they actually do want to in the future). Phrasing it as a study space not only makes it easier to get approval, but it ensures the free plan’s “staffed hours” limitation still makes sense!

^[11] I would hope 10 hours of external study space a week on the Silver plan is plentiful for a student; otherwise Gold is $80. But hey, that’s still an incredibly good deal if you absolutely must work away from a free space.

^[12] The idea is that by sacrificing profits selling a product cheaper, such a competitive pricing attracts far more purchasing customers. Enough customers, that it outperforms the scenario if one hadn’t done so.

Of course, it highly depends on the product that’s being sold and the target market they’re appealing to, but one way to think of it could be like this: for a product that costs $1 to produce, to make $1000, it’s easier to rack up 1000 sales at $2 than it is 200 sales at $6.

There’s many follow-up implications from this, such as customer acquisition cost overhead to try to convince a kid to buy something for triple the price, the fact that a competitor could undercut you, and that 200 customers wouldn’t nearly be anywhere as effective with word-of-mouth marketing than 1000 would.

^[13] You can see in the upstairs floor picture there is a ceiling-height tree blocking the red stairwell to the third floor. It’d be incredibly remiss of O3 to not have an Oyster in the app that knows how to use Cut, or alternatively is in the shape of a badge.

^[14] That paper cup on the big table was originally left on the small table right next to the power strip when I set up here. Yet another example of people leaving their rubbish around 😒 I had to take it to the bin downstairs.