Tag Archives: MiddleEast

Out of nowhere, Samsung hits us with a gold GS4

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Out of nowhere, Samsung hits us with gold Galaxy S 4s

And just like that, Samsung Gulf has announced the gold-trimmed Galaxy S 4, complemented by either brown or pink plastic for the guys and girls, respectively (dare we say it). We don't know whether these fresh editions will ever come to markets outside the Middle East, but Samsung's timing couldn't have been better. Meanwhile, we're still waiting on that gold HTC One.

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Via: TheNextWeb, The Verge

Source: Samsung (Facebook), (Twitter)

Uber takes its car service to Dubai, enters first Middle Eastern locale

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Uber takes its taxi service to Dubai,

The folks at Uber have had a busy, globe-trotting summer. After plans to ride into China, India and other parts of Asian crept out in June, the private car service has taken its expertise to Dubai. Arrival near the world's tallest building marks the outfit's first entry into the Middle East. Interested customers can use the iPhone app to request a ride in vehicles like the BMW 7-Series with more cars being added on the daily. No word on plans to expand into desert-bound dessert delivery just yet, though.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Uber

Baidu and Orange launch mobile browser for Africa, Middle East

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Baidu and Orange launch mobile browser for Africa, Middle East

Not content to dominate internet search in China alone, Baidu and France Telecom's Orange are partnering to capitalize on African and Middle Eastern markets as well. Today they launched a co-branded version of Baidu's browser on France Telecom's Egyptian operator MobiNil -- it's essentially the same as the one released last year for the Chinese market but in English / Arabic instead (a French version is also coming). The browser is a pre-installed app on carrier-sold smartphones and features bookmarks for Orange and Baidu services. According to Orange, smartphone adoption in the region has become widespread due to the increased availability of 3G networks -- demand apparently doubled in Egypt in the second half of 2012 alone. With nearly 80 million potential customers at hand, Baidu could certainly give Google a run for its money yet again. You can peek at the full PR after the break.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Reuters, Orange

BlackBerry outage affecting users in Europe, Middle East and Africa (update: service restored?)

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BlackBerry outage affecting users in Europe, Middle East and Africa

While the two events are entirely unrelated, a major service outage coinciding with potentially the biggest mobile of the year hitting stores worldwide is just plain old unlucky. Users of RIM's BlackBerry service in the EMEA region are at the wrong end of a network problem affecting BBM, email and internet. At the moment it doesn't appear to be of the vast and crippling scale as last time, but small consolation if you're one of the unlucky ones. RIM has acknowledged the issue, and you can bet the farm on the fact there is more than a handful of slightly stressed engineers on the case, hoping to keep customers from making that impulse purchase. Let us know in the comments if you're affected.

Update: We've just received this official statement from RIM in the UK:

"Our apologies to any customers impacted by the BlackBerry service issue today. We can confirm that services have been restored and are now operating normally."

Update 2: RIM has now issued a statement from CEO Thorsten Heins on the matter, in which he also apologizes and notes that up to six percent of the company's user base may have been affected with a "maximum delay of 3 hours in the delivery and reception of their messages."

I want to apologize to those BlackBerry customers in Europe and Africa who experienced an impact in their quality of service earlier this morning. The BlackBerry service is now fully restored and I can report that no data or messages were lost. Up to 6 percent of our user base may have been impacted. Preliminary analysis suggests that those customers may have experienced a maximum delay of 3 hours in the delivery and reception of their messages. We are conducting a full technical analysis of this quality of service issue and will report as soon as it concludes. I again want to apologize to those customers who were impacted today.

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BlackBerry outage affecting users in Europe, Middle East and Africa (update: service restored?) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 06:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourceUK_BlackBerry (Twitter)  | Email this | Comments

RIPE NCC handing out its last block of IPv4 addresses, tries to fend off internet survivalism

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Europe's RIPE NCC handing out its last block of IPv4 addresses, tries to fend off internet survivalism

In a world where IPv6 lives and IPv4 addresses are scarce, network providers must fight for survival... or at least, claim their IP blocks quickly. The RIPE NCC, the regional internet registry for Asia, Europe and the Middle East, warns that it's down to assigning its last set of 16.8 million IPv4 addresses as of this weekend. That sounds like a lot, but we'd do well to remember that the registry churned through about 5.2 million addresses in just the past two weeks. What's left won't be around for long, folks. To cut back on the number of Mad Max-style battles for dwindling resources, RIPE NCC is rationing out IPv4 for local registries in 1,024-address chunks -- and only to those who both have IPv6 assignments as well as proof of a need for IPv4. With just a bit more than half of the RIPE NCC's customers currently on IPv6, that could still trigger a shortfall among networks that haven't prepared for the internet protocol apocalypse. We'd advise that companies stock up on IPv6 supplies before launching the raiding parties.

Continue reading RIPE NCC handing out its last block of IPv4 addresses, tries to fend off internet survivalism

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RIPE NCC handing out its last block of IPv4 addresses, tries to fend off internet survivalism originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Sep 2012 18:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Maps Navigation for Android hits nine MENA nations, adds Arabic voice search

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Google Maps Navigation for Android hits nine MENA nations, adds Arabic voice search

If there is one thing you can't say about Google's mapping team, it's that they are a lazy bunch. Update after update puts paid to any of that kinda talk, and again, here's another example -- navigation for Android is now available in nine more countries. It's the Middle East and North Africa that get the attention this time, with Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Qatar, Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE and Saudia Arabia all getting the update. The service comes complete with Arabic voice search as well as "search along route" for routes to near-by POIs that won't take you the long way round. You'll need Android 4.0 or above if you want in on the action, but it's available now for those that do.

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Google Maps Navigation for Android hits nine MENA nations, adds Arabic voice search originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 16:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Police  |  sourceGoogle Arabia Blog  | Email this | Comments

Avanti launches prepaid, Ka-band satellite internet access, wants us Yelping from the Alps

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Avanti launches prepaid, Kaband satellite internet access, wants us Skyping from the Alps

Avanti has been beaming satellite broadband to Europe for awhile, but it's been tied to a subscription through carrier deals. That's a tough sell to customers who, by definition, don't want to be tied to anything -- which is why the company just launched prepaid satellite internet access for the continent. Although the Ka-band service's 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream speeds won't have anyone dropping their 330Mbps fiber anytime soon, the pay-as-you-go strategy will let travelers and rural dwellers get broadband in a pinch, no matter how spotty terrestrial access might get. Imagine Skype calls during Swiss ski vacations and you've got the gist of it. Carriers will resell the data in healthy doses of 1GB or larger, and Avanti is adamant that there won't be any nasty throttling surprises waiting in store. While exact prices will depend on partners, the provider isn't waiting for those details before it covers much of the Old World: its upcoming HYLAS 2 satellite (what you see above) will share the speed with Africa, the Caucasus region and the Middle East as of August 2nd, making it almost too easy for us to update Google+ in Georgia.

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Avanti launches prepaid, Ka-band satellite internet access, wants us Yelping from the Alps originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceTechWeek Europe  | Email this | Comments