Ramadan 2012 apps

techinasia.com, Muslim Pro App for iPhone Updates, Wants to Be Your Ramadhan Helper "Muslim Pro is one of the many Muslim-themed apps we’ve seen recently. There are also other apps and services focusing on the Muslim need from all over the world, such as India’s Islamic phones, Indonesia’s Urbanesia Ramadhan app, and Canada’s iPray. Seeing the healthy growth Muslim Pro receives, we can definitely expect more developers jumping into the same market in near future."

Fatwa allows Quran reading on smartphones

The National, Fatwa allows Quran reading on smartphones, 29 Mar 2012 

"Now, officially, Muslims in the UAE are allowed to stay connected to Islam while keeping up with today's fast-paced lifestyle.

 ""There isn't just one specified way of reading the Quran," said the fatwa, released by the Ifta centre of the Abu Dhabi General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments (Awqaf)."

  Abu Dhabi General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments (Awqaf)

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.

"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...

"iPhone app of life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)"

"Keeping pace with current trends and technologies, Al-Khawarizmi brings to the world an Iphone application that lets you conveniently browse and read through the monumental life of our beloved Prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon Him)."

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.

apps and maps: Gowalla - KSA

Khaled A., Khaled Rambles, Add points of interest to the Saudi map using Gowalla, 28 Nov 09 "So I highly recommend using Gowalla to add points of interests in the Saudi map. It’s available as an iPhone app and you can read more about it at TechCrunch. A group of iPhone users in Saudi Arabia are already using Gowalla and we are slowly populating it with actual data!"

Al Mus’haf - iphoneislam

Gaith, arabcrunch.com, iPhoneIslam Launches Al Mus’haf: A Free iPhone Natural Book Flipping App Using Their iFlipePage Engine, 10 Oct 09 "iPhoneIslam the pioneering iPhone applications startup from Egypt that is best known for Arabizing the iPhone and developing Yahoo!Maktoob’s iPhone Dictionary app, has launched today a stunning free Quran app called ” Al Mushaf ” available on iTunes Store.

"Al Mushaf makes you feel like reading the Quran on a real physical Quran; it gives you a very realistic hands-on experience of flipping a paper-book by simply dragging the pages corner. It also has natural paper behavior and natural page reflection, shadows and realistic paper sound effects."



Details: iphoneislam.com

I'm going to write something on apps soon - 3G phone reception is poor in my location in Wales, however, which hinders research. Islamic Calendar would be high on my wishlist.



There's also a range of products at Guidedways, such as iPray:



Also see their Qur'an app:



More suggestions to follow.

Apps

Gaith, arabcrunch.com, An Arab/ Pakistani iPhone Success: After Reaching 1 Million Users, Bandar and Fahed Launches a Dead Simple 2Do App for the iPhone "After Reaching the 1 million user mark, the Arab/Pakistani iPhones duo who won the best User Interface award of 2009, has just launched a new great dead simple 2Do application for iPhone and iPod Touch." cool app

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

Cool iPhone app: Rumi>Jawi

Star Online, Mobile Jawi on the iPhone, 24 Jun 09

"Muthu Nedumara, the founder and chief technology architect of Murasu Systems Sdn Bhd is working on Mobile Jawi, an iPhone application that will translate Rumi (Malay text) to Jawi letters.

"“When a user wants to type the text ‘apa khabar’ in Jawi he can enter the text in our Jawi composer which will then convert the word ‘apa’ to Jawi the moment the user presses the space bar,” explained Muthu." For use in SMS/email.

UAE iPhone

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

iPhone: eating halal

Watan, iPhone helps American Muslims eat halal on-the-go "Ask dietary-cautious Muslims in the west what their major challenge is when it comes to eating religiously-permitted foods and they'll say finding a halal place on-the-go. But with Halalpal, an iPhone application that locates halal restaurants and eateries throughout the United States, sticking to a halal diet has become much easier." I write about related issues in iMuslims.












Details on Halalpal here.

UAE iPhone

just picked this up:

tecfre.com, Price does matter : Another Iphone failure story in UAE, 24 Feb 09 "Even though iPhone is a trend setter, but it is not world’s most feature rich phone and hence Price vs Value ratio for iPhone is very low. Consumer is not a fool to buy a phone at double the price for features which are available in other phones for half the price."

Afghanistan: mullah + iPhone

AP/Fox News, Mullah Embraces iPhone in Afghan Tech Boom, 3 Mar 09 "Beyond making life easier, some say the country's embrace of technology could help break the cycle of 30 years of relentless warfare. It puts at the tip of a finger many things that were strictly outlawed by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar — music, movies, pictures of people and games like chess.

"Young Afghans see the world differently from older Afghans because of their use of the Internet and mobile phones, and their participation in sports, said Shukria Barakzai, a female lawmaker and former newspaper editor."

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."