MyAdhan Blog

Link: Oman: Samsung launches new range of high definition products

Samsung Gulf Electronics, a global leader in consumer electronics and advanced technology solutions, has launched its latest innovations in audio-visual technology in the country. At a launch function held at the Barr Al Jissah resort yesterday, the company showcased its latest full high definition range of products in different categories. Speaking at the launch ceremony, Ashraf Sajed, general manager, Digital Media Business at Samsung Gulf Electronics said: “Through our comprehensive full HD product lineup, Samsung is developing products that demonstrate the company’s conviction to bringing its customers high-definition delight.”

Link: Pakistan: Technology can help police control mobile snatchings

Tracing and shutting down stolen mobile handsets have been made easy through new technology but the capital police - equipped with batons, teargas shells and rubber bullets - are not using this facility, adding to woes of the victims. The police were completely dependent on the PTA and mobile phone companies for tracing or shutting down snatched mobile phones and this process took months, a senior police official told Daily Times. Over 30 mobile phones have been stolen in the last 56 days and the police are still trying to arrest the thieves and recover the handsets. Police officials fear that mobile snatching will increase if the police are not equipped with modern technology. They said the police requested secret agencies or mobile companies to trace out stolen phones after registering cases. Every case takes months to be resolved, they said, adding that timely action against mobile phone thieves could bring down the rate of street crime.

Link: Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA, Bahrain) and Arab regulators discuss mobile roaming charges

TRA’s General Director, Mr. Alan Horne said that ‘International roaming is one of the areas where the value of regional cooperation could be felt most. International practice shows that there is not much that a single country could do in tackling the excessive rates for international roaming calls’. The meeting is hosted by TRA Bahrain on 19th and 20th November and attended by representatives from the regulatory authorities of Egypt, UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Link: Iran: How technology stole our neighbors

Today, in the world’s major cities, people are alienated from each other and are even unaware of what is happening in the lives of their neighbors. People living in the same apartment building are strangers and do not remember one other’s names. If they are lucky, someone may say hello to them in the parking lot, or elsewhere. According to sociologists, this antisocial behavior - that results in alienation - became prevalent across the globe following the Industrial Revolution…

…as mobile communications and media devices proliferate, the nagging problem continues to go unchallenged: gadgets like iPods, cell phones and laptops are producing an increasingly disconnected social environment. But the issue of the relationship between technology and society remains a stubbornly complex one, resting on a number of assumptions that ought to be considered a little more carefully. Most broadly, technology does not simply progress in some ineluctable, linear manner according to unbiased scientific advances, as British media critic Raymond Williams demonstrated many years ago. Technology is inseparable from culture and depends on the vested interests of those with power and resources.

Link: Pakistan: Pre-paid mobile services decrease LDI lucrativeness

The advent of pre-paid cellular services has decreased the lucrativeness of the Long Distance and International (LDI) calling cards business by seriously slashing profit margins, industry analysts say. Fake calling cards are also available in the market, leading for further skepticism from customers, who also complain that the inability to reach helpline operators adds to their woes since their problems remain unsolved. In recent years, most of the country’s largest payphone companies have sold off their shares, as the industry believes that it no longer holds any attraction for investors, thus decreasing chances of expansion.

Link: Egypt: Orascom talked with Vivendi about a tie-up

Naguib Sawiris, the billionaire head of Egyptian cell phone group Orascom Telecom, has approached Vivendi about a possible telecoms tie-up but the pair failed to agree on price, Les Echos said on Friday. Sawiris said earlier this month that the minute there was an opening in France “we will go there.” Vivendi declined to comment on the report. The French newspaper said Sawiris had proposed to Vivendi to either do an equity swap, sell part of its assets or take a stake in the Paris-based media and telecoms group. The paper added that Sawiris had borrowed 4-5 percent Vivendi voting rights from French bank Natixis to put together a complex deal. Vivendi controls Maroc Telecom and SFR, France’s number two mobile operator, while Sawiris’ telecoms investments span Egypt, Algeria, Pakistan, Tunisia as well as Wind, Italy’s third largest Italian mobile carrier.

Link: Kuwait poised to select mobile winner

Nine firms and consortiums have made bids for a stake in Kuwait’s new, unnamed, third mobile telephone firm, the company’s founding committee said on Wednesday, adding that the winner will be announced on Tuesday. “The bidders who met the minimum requirements … will be sent an invitation to participate in a public bid presentation, which will be held on November 27,” it said in a statement. “The winning bidder, that has submitted the highest bid for the 26% share, will also be announced.” The bidders include the Arab world’s largest telecom firm by market value, Saudi Telecom, UAE’s Emirates Telecommunications (Etisalat), and Turkey’s Turkcell, the committee said in a statement.

Link: Qatar says GSM licence winner to be chosen shortly

Qatar’s telecom regulator said on Wednesday it was close to selecting the winning bidder for its second mobile licence. Seven firms and groups, including AT&T, Vodafone and Emirates Telecommunications Corp, bid for the licence, which was due to be awarded in mid-November. “We are about a week behind in the process,” William Fagan, executive director of Qatar’s Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology, told Reuters from Doha. “We are in the selection process and hope it will be shortly.” The regulator said in September it would review technical bids before inviting companies to submit financial bids in an auction that was likely to happen in early November. “The process is still ongoing and the bidders are aware of what’s going on,” Fagan said, declining to explain why the selection had been delayed. Mobile penetration in Qatar, holder of the world’s third-biggest reserves of natural gas, exceeds 100 percent. Qatar’s population should grow to 1.3 million by 2015, driving mobile phone use, the regulator said in April.

Link: Azerbaijan: 142 companies will participate in Bakutel 2007

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. 13th “Telecommunication and IT” (Bakutel 2007) Azerbaijan International Exhibition will be held tomorrow in Sport and Exhibition Complex named after Heydar Aliyev. Iteca Caspian informed that 142 companies from 25 countries will participate in the exhibition and exposition area grew by 15%. “About 30% of participants is local companies, about 25% is CIS companies, 45% - foreign companies, and local representations of foreign companies. At the same time 27% of companies participated in the exhibition this year enters the market for the first time. National pavilions of Turkey and Korea will be presented at the exhibition for the first time.

Link: Glide Mobile launches in Arabic bringing advanced online mobile computing to the Middle East

TransMedia launched Glide Mobile, localized in Arabic for mobile phone users in The United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Western Sahara and Yemen.
Glide Mobile now provides Arabic speaking smart phone users with anytime, anywhere mobile access to all of their files on their Windows, Mac and Linux computers including photos, music, video, documents, contacts, calendars and bookmarks.