Surface Surfaces

BitShare - Microsoft may have just knocked the wind out of Apple "Is 'Surface' a major challenge for iPad? It certainly has a good video (linked in the article below). It probably won't challenge my loyalty to Mac, but I might have to get one for research purposes (it also links to XBox!)" There are implications in relation to my research, in terms of the pricing, and whether this opens up other markets to tablet computing.

'Iranian firms told not to use foreign email providers'

The Register, Iranian firms told not to use foreign email providers: Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, MSN et al face the chop, 13 May 2012 "Local weekly Asr Ertebatat claimed on Saturday that Iran’s telecommunications ministry is preventing banks, insurance firms and telephone operators from using the services of foreign email providers such as Yahoo!, Gmail and Microsoft."

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."

Middle East e-learning

Tony Glover, The National, Middle East is making the grade in e-learning, 6 May 2010 "Middle East students in higher education are becoming increasingly demanding of the technology used in teaching. Research by the US-based O’Reilly Radar reveals that the highest age demographic of Middle East users of the social networking website Facebook is between 15 and 25 years old.

"Many in this group are students who expect academic environments that allow the same level of interactivity and collaboration as that available on Facebook, YouTube or MySpace."

Report: ONI, Sex, Social Mores, and Keyword Filtering: Microsoft Bing in the "Arabian Countries"

AFP, Bing blocks online sex searches in Middle East: study, 6 Mar 2010 "The Open Net Initiative (ONI) on Friday said Microsoft's search engine Bing is more prudish than government censors when it comes to sex-related online queries.

"A January test of a Bing version tailored for users in Arab countries showed that it filtered Arabic and English words for sexually explicit content along with queries related to gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender material."

Here's the report page:

ONI, Sex, Social Mores, and Keyword Filtering: Microsoft Bing in the "Arabian Countries" "Microsoft recently added a new layer of complexity to the ongoing debate regarding the filtering and censorship practices of U.S. search engines via its own search engine, Bing. ONI testing reveals liberal filtering by Bing in one of the most censored regions in the world: the Arab countries."

ONI, Sex, Social Mores, and Keyword Filtering: Microsoft Bing in the "Arabian Countries" pdf

MENA gets Emoticonal

GlobalArabicNetwork, Emoticon pack - 51 million users across the Middle East and North Africa, 26 Feb 2010 "Microsoft Corp announced the launch of an Arabic themed emoticon pack available for free on its Windows Live Messenger instant messaging tool. The pack has been designed specifically for the 51 million users across the Middle East and North Africa region and features 10 3D animated emoticons which can be easily included in any Windows Live Messenger conversation."

Transliteration tools

Gaith Saqer, arabcrunch.com, Google Launches Native Windows Transliteration Application for 14 languages Including Arabic, Greek Hinidi [sic], Urdu and Farsi, 15 Dec 09 "Since Google launched Ta3reeb its online Transliteration for Arabic, which changes Latin letter into Arabic, it has been working in improving it ,as it has become more accurate and better in editing transliterated words. Google also launched an API for Ta3reeb and started integrating it with its online properties starting from Gmail, Blogger, Knol and its ejabat.google.com."

This is an interesting review. I'll to take a further look at these products in due course. It'll be useful to read further feedback on Google IME and Microsoft's Maren. I plan to test-drive them sometime, when I have a spare few days ...

Intellectual Property

meedan, The Arab League and Microsoft launch the first Arab website for Intellectual Property, "The Arab League of States, in collaboration with Microsoft Corporation, launched the first website in Arabic Language concerned with Intellectual Property rights on the legal side."

Also see Arab Intellectual Property Center

Bing

gulfnews.com, Microsoft means business in its Google challenge, 19 Jun 09 UAE focused discussion on Bing. I think the jury is out on bing at present. Interface is clean. Top searches were similar for 'Islam' (BBC still out on top).

Al-Jazeera Twitter+Maps > Gaza

Technology always advances in times of intense crisis. To update on my recent post, al-Jazeera have mashed Twitter and Microsoft Maps at Al-Jazeera, War on Gaza.

More on this on Noah Shachtman, Wired, New Gaza War Reports Combine Tweets, Maps, SMS, 5 Jan 09 "The effort, from Al Jazeera Labs, just got started; the reporting is still spotty, and the technology is very much in the testing phase. But the idea is for residents of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank to send quick updates about the conflict from their computers or mobile phones, through SMS or Twitter. The results are then verified, and posted to a Microsoft Virtual Earth map."

Digital Divide

ameinfo.com, Microsoft, Intel and DTK Computer launch 'Netbook' in Middle East "Microsoft Gulf, Intel and DTK Computer today announced the launch of a new ultra-portable, low-cost 'Netbook' in the Middle East in an aim to bridge the digital divide and increase computer penetration in the region." - designed as an accessible and inexpensive computer (spec looks ok) - this is an advertorial.

Turkey MSN

Hurriyet, Good morning - Turkey Press Scan on Mar 30 "When grandmothers who want to communicate with their grandchildren even turned to internet, Turkey has become the third in the world in use of MSN Messenger with its 25 million subscribers."

Microsoft Nigeria

Daily Champion (Lagos)/allafrica.com, Nigeria: Microsoft to Empower 2500 Youths, 27 Feb 08 "Operating Systems (OS) and productivity software giant, Microsoft Corporation,has concluded arrangement to empower 2500 Nigerian youths, as it warms up for the introduction of new products in the nation's market."

Gates of Arabia

Arab News, Microsoft Deal to Open Gates of IT World for Saudis: KEC Chief, 26 Feb 08 "Young Saudis may soon be knocking at the gates of the IT world as a result of a strategic partnership agreement signed yesterday between the Knowledge Economic City in Madinah (KEC) and Microsoft Saudi Arabia.

"“Young Saudis will soon be knocking at the gates of the IT world as a result of this strategic partnership,” Tahir Bawazir, CEO of KEC, told reporters at a press conference following the signing of the agreement at the Jeddah Hilton Hotel."