Salman al-Awdah

Ahram Online, KSA could face Arab spring-like spark of violence: Saudi Cleric "Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, a conservative who was imprisoned from 1994-99 for agitating for political change and has 2.4 million followers on Twitter, expressed his concerns in an open letter on the social media site." Accompanied by an internet derived photo of the Sheikh on his Mac:

 

First Islamic Banking iPhone app in the UAE?

CPI Financial | News | First Islamic Banking iPhone app in the UAE?  " "Emirates Islamic Bank claims it has launched the first Islamic Banking iPhone application in UAE, enabling customers using iPhone to access online banking from their mobile. The App which is Arabic-enabled may be downloaded from Apple’s App Store." 

Steve Jobs

Guardian, Steve Jobs obituary, 6 Oct 2011

Steve Jobs

Palash R. Ghosh, International Business Times, Steve Jobs: The Most Famous Arab in the World, 25 Aug 2011 "Jobs' biological father is a man named Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian who was a political science graduate student when he met Jobs’ biological mother, an American named Joanne Simpson."

This 'news' has generated substantial discussion on fora and elsewhere, for example:

Farrukh I. Younus, OnIslam, Apple: A Reminder on Innovation, 30 Aug 2011

"Numerous articles across the internet suggest that while he may not have been raised by Muslim parents, his Muslim-ness is in his genes. Ironically, the Qur’an is quite clear on the value of individual merit, shunning the view that recognition is based on a person's heritage. In a society increasingly confused between their wants and their needs, many of us have misunderstood the measure of productivity, with the knock-on impact being placed on how we measure value."

(Somehow, I missed this thread from a few weeks ago ...)

'Third Intifada' app

aljazeera.net, Apple removes 'Third Intifada' app, 23 Jun 2011 "Technology giant Apple has removed a pro-Palestinian mobile application from its roster of hosted programmes after Israel complained it incited users to violence.

"The "Third Intifada" application essentially reproduced the content from a website of the same name - 3rdIntifada.com - which posts news and opinion articles about Israeli aggression and the Palestinian cause."

The image on the left is from 3rdintifada.com (who may have received substantial extra publicity from this incident)

Cool tool: Yamli Transliteration Application

Mohamed Marwen Meddah, startuparabia.com, Yamli Transliteration Application Launched For iPhone And iPad, 4 Oct 2010 "Yamli, the startup that specializes in smart transliteration technologies for the Arabic Web, just unveiled its new official iOS application for the iPhone and the iPad, bringing their technology to their users while on the move on their mobile phones and tablets."



Details: iTunes: Yamli

Check out the startuparabia review for more info.  The app looks like $2.99 well spent (haven't downloaded it yet).

If you haven't seen it, also check my recent piece on apps which appears in Cyber Orient.

No Facetime on UAE iPhone

David George-Cosh, The National, UAE iPhone lacks video feature, 26 Sep 2010 "The latest edition of the iPhone does not carry Apple’s free video calls application in the UAE, a feature similar to the banned Skype service."

Potential Ping issues

arabcrunch.com, Apple’s Ping Censoring the Name Osama?, 6 Sep 2010 "We received a tip from one of our readers saying that Apple has censored the word Osama adding *** after the “O” and before the “a” in its new music social network Ping with iTunes."

Ping is the new social networking tool for iTunes, which comes with the latest update of the software.

Halal food app

Eli Milchman, Cult of Mac, App OKs Food For Halal Or Vegetarian Eaters (Non-US Only, Though), 18 May 2010

"Halal Scanner Islamic (featured in the clip above) prompts the user to take a photo of an item’s listed ingredients, scans the photo and checks each item on the list against a database of allowed ingredients, and then alerts the user if there’s a possible conflict; Vegetarian Scanner works the same way, but for vegetarians."




I've been writing about apps - hope to see the piece out shortly.

Aljazeera app

Gaith Saqer, arabcrunch.com, AlJazeera Launches Its Arabic Live Streaming iPhone App for Free, Makes its Symbian/WinMobile App Free, 2 Mar 2010 "The number one TV news station in the Arab world, Al Jazeera, has just launched its Arabic channel Live streaming iPhone app for free." I'll have to try this one out.

"Lebanese IPhone Apps"

Thanks to arabnewsblog.net, Lebanese IPhone Apps, 23 Feb 2010 for this one:

Qifa Nabki, The iPhone App Store Comes to Lebanon, 21 Feb 2010 "Wouldn’t it be great if Lebanon’s problems could be solved by saying, simply: “There’s an app for that?” Now they can."

Humour piece. Could easily be transferred to other contexts...

iPad

الآي-باد يدعم قراءة اللغة العربية, iphoneislam.com

Article discussing the iPad, suggesting that the product will read Arabic, but the keyboard will (at least in early versions) not be usable for Arabic.

Not sure if I'll be rushing to the Apple store for one of these; think I'll see what happens with early versions, and wait for one with full Flash etc. unless anyone wants to offer me a sample to test drive. They may want to re-name it for the Arabic market...

Also see Guardian, Apple iPad: the first review, 27 Jan 2010

iWait

kippreport.com, Mideast awaits Apple’s iTablet – or perhaps iPad, or iSlate, 26 Jan 2010 "The Apple tablet is expected to have a 10in touchscreen, and internet connectivity over Wi-Fi and 3G. It is likely to resemble a large iPhone, but with some extra bells and whistles to wow consumers. It won’t have a keyboard, but is likely to play movies and music, and work as an eBook reader." It's not just the Middle East that is waiting for this one.

Military apps

Brian X. Chen, Military Could Use iPhones to Track Friends, Enemies in War, 17 Dec 09

Bobbie Johnson, The Guardian, War? There's an iPhone app for that: American military contractor shows off iPhone application intended to help soldiers track and kill insurgents on the battlefield, 17 Dec 09

Not new stories (for example, see Newsweek, Apple’s New Weapon, 18 Apr 09), but some useful updates.

UAE iTunes?

The National, iTunes may be on way to UAE, 19 Nov 09 "The UAE is in talks with Apple, Amazon and Sony to allow residents to download music, books and films."

Apps

Guardian, The app economy, 29 Jul 09 "I also like two Islamic apps: Ela-Salaaty reminds Muslims when to pray, while Face Makkah also uses GPS to tell you where Mecca is in relation to you, so that you can kneel in the right direction during prayer."

Ela-Salaaty

Face Makkah

If you are interested in apps relating to Islam, then you can also check out iPhone Islam which carries a range of reviews and associated screenshots. That link goes to the English pages, but there is also a good overview of Arabic apps on the main iPhone Islam site

UAE iPhone

Gulf News, New iPhone may arrive in UAE in August, 10 Aug 09 speculation on cost/tariffs

Saudi Arabia: iPhone

iPhone

25,000 sign up for iPhone 3G within hours of launch in KSA "Mobily notched up 25, 000 subscribers within hours of its launch here Sunday of Apple’s iPhone 3G, arguably the most sophisticated touchscreen smartphone yet for making calls, sending emails and surfing the web even faster."

iPhone

tecfre.com, Etisalat to bring Iphone to UAE this month, Officially, 2 Feb 09 "Good news for Iphone lovers at UAE. Iphone is all set to debut in UAE this month, officially via Etisalat. However, unlocking an Iphone is no big deal as of now, but having it officially with a service provider, do give you some (or one ) extra options."

The Simpsons

Wikipedia, The Simpsons, Mypods and Boomsticks. This episode aired on Sky in the UK last night (was broadcast in US 30 November), and was notable for its approach towards Islam. It was apparently commended by the CAIR [Ayloush, Hussam (2008-12-03). "Thank you letter - Matt Groening, PDF].

Reaction to the episode: Daily Star, Fury at Simpsons' Muslim Terror Plot, 12 Jan 09

WENN, Groening defends Simpsons over Muslim plot, 12 Jan 09 "A spokesperson for The Islamic Cultural Centre & The London Central Mosque slammed the episode, telling the Daily Star, "I hope Muslims take no notice of the show."" I wonder if they saw it before commenting, given the CAIR comments above?

The episode was also significant for its satirical take on Apple (probably well overdue, even though I'm a loyal Apple user).