Storify Arabic version

The Next Web, Storify working with Middle Eastern initiative Taghreedat to translate the site into Arabic, 

"Storify has recently announced that it will be working in cooperation with Taghreedat to translate its interface into Arabic."

7 Arabic Tools From Microsoft Afkar

arabcrunch.com, 7 Arabic Tools From Microsoft Afkar Innovated by Cairo Microsoft Innovation Lab useful review. Maren Morph looks handy for specialists.

"Maren Morph is a powerful, highly-accurate and comprehensive Arabic morphological analyzer, made to help Arabic users enrich their Arabic language experience."

d1g.com

David George-Cosh, The National, Jordan portal to dig into Arabic social networking, 22 June 2010 "A Jordanian web portal is planning to tap into the social networking phenomenon by giving its users the tools to create their own version of Facebook.

"The move by d1g.com is designed to boost the amount of Arabic content online. It is estimated that only 1 per cent of all online content is in Arabic, despite there being about 300 million native speakers around the world."

According to my screenshot, cats would appear to be prominent on the mind of d1g.com users today:

Arabic apps

Khaled Rambles, Top Arabic Web Apps for '09 "Make sure to check this list of Arabic web sites, I mean apps, strange, in Arabic it’s مواقع = websites but it’s web apps = تطبيقات الويب."

Interesting list.

'Ibn Sina' the Robot

AFP/asiaone.com, Robots primed for 'are you being served' role in Arabic, 3 Nov 09 "A laboratory in the UAE has built what it says is the world's first Arabic-speaking robot which could soon go into mass production to serve as staff in shopping malls.

"Ibn Sina, named after the 11th century Islamic philosopher and scientist commonly known in English as Avicenna, was designed by a team at UAE University in the city of Al-Ain, which is part of Abu Dhabi emirate.

""It is the world's first Arabic-speaking conversational humanoid robot," Nikolaos Mavridis, assistant professor of computer science at the university who led the team, told AFP in an interview."

Tiba3a

Gaith, arabcrunch.com, Tiba3a: Unleashing the Beauty of Arabic on the Web, 26 Oct 09 "No one can deny that Arabic is one of the best looking written languages out there, it’s considered a highly sophisticated art form in addition of it being a communication medium.

"Yet the amount of Arabic fonts that are available on Windows, Mac, Linux and the Web is very few. This problem was a discussion topic about between some of the participants -including me- at BarCamp Lebanon event, we tried to do something to solve this problem, but not much work was done!"

More info: tiba3a.com

Jordan, technology and comedy

A couple of interesting tech related stories relating to Jordan:

Tom Gara, The National, Animated success for Jordan, 5 Oct 09 "A Jordanian animation studio has received a multimillion-dollar investment from a regional private equity fund in another success for the country’s community of technology entrepreneurs."

Tom Gara, The National, Arabic humour scores a hit, 26 Sep 09 "A Jordanian website that lets users view and share humorous Arabic-language content is one of the winners of a contest to find the most promising internet startups in Europe and the Middle East." This refers to Talasim:



Details: Talasim. This blog needs more (intentional) comedy, so I may return in due course to Talasim when I have time.

G.Ho.st in the machine

AFP, High-tech Israeli-Palestinian firm defies barriers, 15 Jul 09 "The software, called G.ho.st, makes use of cutting-edge "cloud computing" to allow users to create a virtual desktop -- complete with files and applications -- that can be accessed from any computer or mobile phone in the world." There's a screen shot of a desktop for G.Ho.st on the left (looks familiar). The product itself is potentially very useful, and available in many languages. See G.Ho.st for info on the Arabic version. As significant in this article is reading about the barriers the Palestinian developers face, and the obstacles the company has had to get over.

Google Ta3reeb Arabic Transliteration

Google Ta3reeb Arabic Transliteration



blogallalong.com, Google Ta3reeb Arabic Transliteration, 17 Feb 09

"Google Arabic Transliteration (ta3reeb) is another cool service by Google, that translates the Roman characters into Arabic and vice versa. Don’t we Arabs have numbers standing for our extra characters, and don’t we get non-Arabic speakers confused when we do so? We have it now as brand names even. Taw9eel.com, 6alabat.com, and others. But the confusion can be cleared out: ..."

Google Arabic Transliteration

eSpace

startuparabia.com, eSpace Integrating Yamli Transliteration Technology In Popular Online Text Editors, 9 Nov 08 "The company is currently taking another step to try to promote and simplify the use of the Arabic language on the internet, and that is by integrating Yamli’s award-winning transliteration technology, that enables users to type Arabic using Latin characters by converting their words in real time into Arabic text, as a rich text formatting option in a number of the most prominent and popular online text editors, such as FCKeditor, TinyMice editor, as well as in popular forum software like VBulletin and PHPBB."

Details: eSpace

Mrrha

startuparabia.com, Mrrha, A New Arabic File Mirroring Service, 5 Nov 08, "Mrrha is a new simple Arabic service that was just launched a few minutes ago from Egypt, and that aims to make the process of uploading files to the internet for sharing purposes and mirroring them on the most famous file uploading services a lot easier and faster."

Details: Mrrha. English service to follow.

Fascinating article in Saudi Aramco World: Saudi Aramco World, Keyboard Calligraphy, July/August 2007, "That reconstruction is at the heart of the new Tasmeem computer typesetting system, which makes it possible for the first time to set Arabic text in its full calligraphic glory. (Tasmeem means “design” in Arabic.) An example was in the Nieuwe Kerk exhibition, where a mock-up of a mosque interior is decorated with verses from the Qur’an in Milo and Somers’s Tasmeem, a perfect reproduction of the most beautiful Arabic calligraphy, coming not from the pen of a great Ottoman calligrapher but from a computer." A related search led me through to 29letters, Arabic calligraphy: Written by hand or type set on the computer, 15 January 2007. Full background can be found at Hiba, Talking about type... An interview with John Hudson. The Tasmeem: The Spirit of Arabic Writing product page is worth exploring, although the software may be outside of the budgets of everyday users! There are illustrations of the software in action, taken from Qur'anic verses, Al-Khansa' poetry, and Harawi's Guide to Pilgrimage.

gulfnews.com, Gulf Arabs emerge most active internet users and online shoppers, 20 July 2007 "Among the findings in the study is that the internet currently ranks second to word-of-mouth (55 per cent) when it comes to influencing people's purchasing decisions, with 43 per cent saying they used websites as a source of information, compared to 55 per cent who relied on people they know. Newspapers came in third with 40 per cent."

MEMRI, The Enemy Within: Where Are the Islamist/Jihadist Websites Hosted, and What Can Be Done about It?, 19 July 2007 "The briefing was based on a study prepared by MEMRI which highlighted the fact that all Islamist/Jihadi websites are hosted by Western - primarily American - Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The study also discussed the question of what can be done about it, and stressed the fact that most - if not all - ISPs do not know what is the content of the websites they are hosting, due to the language gap, since most of these websites are in Arabic." Also see CQ, Institute Offering Free Translation of Arab-Language Web Sites, 19 July 2007

localnewswatch.com, Ex-judge pursues terrorists on Web, 19 July 2007 Profile of Shannen Rossmillar: "Most of Rossmiller‘s work has focused on overseas suspects. By her count, she has handed over to the FBI more than 200 "packets" of information on terrorism trends and potential suspects, and at least eight people have been arrested, she said."

For the headline (non-tech): Telegraph, How I shared a curry with bin Laden, 20 July 2007 "Akhtar was not a formally trained cook, but the job required little skill beyond the ability to prepare bin Laden's favourite dish of mutton korma, for both lunch and supper. Breakfast would typically involve scrambled eggs."

New Statesman, Pink Planet, 19 July 2007 "When it comes to opposing gay rights, socially conservative Muslims and Christians seem happy to bury their theological differences. IslamOnline, one of the most popular Muslim websites, has a series of articles discussing homosexuality in "an Islamic and a scientific light", but the articles rely almost entirely on material from the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, a religious-based fringe psychiatric organisation in the US, which promotes "reparative therapy" for gay people." Article by Brian Whitaker.

CAIR/theamericanmuslim.org. Radio Host Neal Boortz Calls Islam a ‘cult’, Threatens to ‘Eradicate’ Muslims, 19 July 2007 "An audio clip of the program is circulating on anti-Muslim Internet hate sites. It is not known when the program aired."

haaretz.com, What self-hating Jews can teach Muslims, 20 July 2007 "... there are signs that Muslims in growing numbers are questioning the sheikhs, mullahs and ayatollahs who preach Muslim superiority and Islamic entitlement. The same Internet and satellite television that drove jihadist terror forward are serving as platforms for Muslims who question, critique and counter the extremists."