Traffic james is a major problems in condents Egyptian cities, there were several attempts to develop an application to tackle this problem.

Bey2ollak developed by a group of Egyptian developers tackles this problem at the heart it update users with traffic conditions in major egyptian cities and users themselves report conditions.

The site has an iPhone, BlackBerry، Nokia and Android app and is also available in web version and mobile web version. The app can get more useful if it can suggest alternative routs to jammed streets.

(Via ArabCrunch Arabic Edition)

Update: Zaid Tillawi from Jeeran Marketing told AC that Jeeran is not planning to shut down its blogging platform and that you can create a new blog when you sign up on Jeeran Places.

Amman, Jordan based Jeeran is in route to shut down its blogging platform, it has ended new registration ( registration did not work at our end, Update, you can create a new blog when you sign up on Jeeran Places.) and expected to shut down its blogging platform all together soon later. It has moved its Music site to bandoora. The site has redefined it self as a site for local reviews and discussions.

Now when going to Jeeran you can go to local communities in Amman the capital of Jordan, Riyadh , jeddah , Damam and Khubar in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in UAE and Kuwait city in Kuwait .

Each city site includes a directory of places in services, restaurants, electronics and so on. Users can review each place and join discussions about their local communities. All current Jeeran cities are in Arabic except Dubai and Abu Dhabi as foreign expats are the majority in these 2 cities.

Jeeran places competes with Saudi Startup Qaym in terms that it provides a section for restaurants reviews, Kuwaiti restaurant review site Yallawain and fast restaurants numbers finder Tasree3.

Jeeran is backed by investments from Intel Capital and Jordan based VC IV Holdings. To read about Jeeran’s history you can go here.

Is it a smart move for jeeran to end its blogging, video and photo sharing platform?

Since 1967 “Israel” has been confiscating land from the indigenes Palestinian inhabitants of occupied westbank and Jerusalem (Alquds)  and building settlements on top of them for new illegal jewish migrants.

Americans for peace now a US adjunct to Jewish Israeli Peace Now organization has launched an iPhone and web google maps mashup to track those settlements and their expansion called: APN Facts on the Ground Map Project.

Facts on the Ground enables users to view and filter Jewish Settlements based on areas that have full or partial control by Palestinian authority , view each Settlement, symbolized by little blue houses on the map, once clicked on one of them , icon gives its land area. A second click brings up a window with more details: the year it was established, population, ideology (or lack of), character (secular or religious), amount of ‘private Palestinian land’ it occupies, and a graph that tracks its population growth.

APN intends to update the map regularly with new information, including the establishment of outposts and their dismantlement, and violent incidents on the part of Palestinians and settlers. and plans to turn it into a real time info app.

The app is available English on for free the web and for the iPhone and iPad, Android and a hebrew version in the works.

Peace now says that their goal from this app “is to revolutionize the debate over settlements, breaking through polemics and spin, to anchor the discussion in the facts.”

This is another example how iPhone and google maps have been used for social causes.

Again we come to the area of location based services, Foursquare and Gowalla offers users to check-in at locations, add tips and so on. There are some differences between both in terms of the game playing elements and other features at Gowala where users can share pics and so on about a certain venue.

Yallawain from Kuwait revolves around the same concept which also the recent Jeeran places and what Yelp for the Arab world Qaym revolves around. But unlike Jeeran and Qaym yallawain is in english: you add a restaurant location, share your tips about the dishes a particular restaurant serve or add a review about your experience. And Yes, you can vote locations up or down follow users activities and so on.

When compared to Jeeran places or facebook places Yallawain has a better design and a greater usability and empashsais on the menu it self where you can vote dishes up or down, but we do not know if it can live long or gain traction in the face of facebook high adoption rate in the Arab world and Kuwait in particular where yallawain is focusing on. For now they have locations and tips around them, which helps in the time being users to find a place to eat.

And oh, the site is still in private beta, you need an invite.

The launch of facebook locations has taken lots of buzz, the service allows users to check in using their touch phones into different location, know where their friends are and get information about places and discover new ones. Facebook places competes head to head with startups such as NY based Foursquare, texas based Gowalla and Face2face ( our review of Face2face here.), Even though Foursquare and Gowala were appeased by beiing invited to show up at facebook launch event of facebook places and even though Foursquare , Gowalla, loopt, Face2Face and other social based localtion startups still preserve some differentiations such as badges and rewards while face2face focus is on privacy, But the entrance of a 500 pound gorilla into the locations business might killer to all of them as the facebook boost over 500 million active users.

Indeed, most experts agree that facebook locations might be a killer to Gowalla and Foursquare, but having a 500 pound gorilla competitor such as facebook is one thing, when compared to the gigantic new competitor to ArabCrunch represented by the US state department, least to mention facebook has no CIA agents, but the US federal government do have over a million, who could be “or already put” into “good use.”

Unlike the US market, Foursquare and gowalla adoption rate in the Arab world is somehow limited to a bunch of geeks and early adaptor but who seems to be in the rise, specially that Gowalla iPhone app is available in Arabic. which seems the reason behind Jordan based Internet company Jeeran decision to venture into the location market at the local level. As the site launched few days ago local Arabic social portal for the capital of Jordan Amman calling it: Jeeran Amman.

Jeeran Amman, has 2 features right now: Amman Places and discussions. Amman discussions provides a forum for users to discuss city wide issues, but Unlike facebook Locations, Gowalla and foursquare. Amman places does not depend on users checking-in online or via smart phones, there is no checkin but rather user can add review of the location and “like” it or “dislike” it. However the value of the Amman Places is providing information about the place and see what people think of it. Something that facebook has now with its location services but plus check-ins.  Also unlike facebook locations, Gowalla and foursquare. On Jeeran  Amman Places users can not add a new location, but are already added by Jeeran staff. and users can not share photos on that location or leave tips or gain points and badges, or see who of their friends are around them.

Jeeran places also competes also with Saudi Startup Qaym in terms that it provides a section for restaurants reviews.

We called Omar Kudsi, Jeeran’s cofounder 2 times to get more information about Amman Places and whether they will also launch iPhone app with check-ins and launch places in other Arab cities, But Omar did not answer our calls.

Jeeran’s venture into local sites comes after a series of new product launches: Jeeran Channels: news about cars, sports and so on. Jeeran improved it UI including a much better user profile, entered the Music business with Jeeran Music .

Jeeran was started in 2000 with an Arabic clone of Yahoo’s closed geocities then ventured into blogs, introduced social networking aspect: profiles, the ability for users to share photos and videos, launched a poetry social site sejaal.com along with an Arabic digg clone called Khabbr.
In an unpublished ArabCrunch video interview with Feroz Sanaulla Investment Director at Intel Capital which was made few month ago he said that Jeeran is the best performing company in his portfolio and wants them to over spend to gain more users. Intel Capital is the second investor in Jeeran.

But can Jeeran local social sites make a stand to Facebook Places which has around 16 million Internet users in the Arab world?

( Disclosure: Jeeran is also venture backed by Jordanian Internet venture Capital firm IV Holdings, IV Holdings mother company Accelerator Technology Holdings was approved a 25 Million USD fund from the US federal government, The US State Department to enter into competition with ArabCrunch)

AS the Muslim’s month of Ramdan is about to start, Nokia has launched recently a new range of mobile applications and content tailored for the holy month of Ramadan. This is the second year that Nokia launches such apps.

The new range of Ramadan applications 2010 are available for free on Ovi Store, and the last Ramdan applications has been updated with a new features.

Karim Moussa, Head of Marketing, Nokia Lower Gulf said that last year Ramadan apps has recived over 1 million downloads and this year’s app now support more Nokia devices.

This year’s Ramadan applications a include the Holy Quran, Prayer Times, Hadith, Boyoot Allah, Arabica, Mozzaker, and Makkah and Madinah. New features include Quran recitation from multiple recitors ( which we demanded last year) from which users can choose to download in MP3 format. Prayer timings and Qibla direction are provided for 1000 cities in 200 countries, along with the ability to add, remove, update and edit any location using the GPS.

The new Boyot Allah helps Muslims to locate the nearest mosque on Nokia’s free Ovi Maps and Navigation platform. The new mobile services also feature locations of Major mosques in the GCC and the world, such as the two holy mosques, Masjid Al Haram in Makkah and Masjid Al Nabawi in Al Madinah. Additionally users can also find locations of mosques all around the world using free Ovi maps available on Ovi store.

Boyoot Allah applications is the most useful addition as it helps Muslims around the world find Masjed’s near by whenever they go to a new area or city.

Ramadan applications for 2010 are compatible with a range of Nokia Symbian based  devices including Nokia N97 mini, Nokia E72, Nokia E52, Nokia X6, Nokia 5230, Nokia 5530, Nokia C5, Nokia 5235, Nokia 5800, Nokia E5, Nokia 6700 slide, Nokia 5233, Nokia X3, Nokia 6303i, Nokia 2710 and Nokia C3. The user interface for the applications is available in English, Arabic, Farsi, French and Urdu.

Nokia 2010 Ramadan Applications include the following:

• The Holy Quran: allows users to read, search, bookmark and listen to Quran recitation
• Prayer Times: provides prayer timings and Qibla direction for 1000 cities in 200 countries, along with the ability to add, remove, update and edit any location using the GPS
• Hadith: gives an easy and convenient way to read the Honorable Hadeeth from Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Riyad us-Saliheen, Holy Hadeeths and Arba’in An Nawawi
• Boyoot Allah: helps Muslims locate the mosques in different cities using Ovi free maps around the world.
• Arabica: helps non-Arabic speaking Muslims to read and understand Quran, Hadeeth and Dua in Arabic by self-learning or with the help of online teachers through their mobile.
• Makkah and Madinah: offers a mobile guide with multimedia content and the most famous places that people can visit during Hajj and Umrah
• Mozzaker: allows mobile users to listen, search and translate a large collection of of daily Azkar and selected supplications. People can also download more Azkar and share via SMS and MMS with friends and family

The Ramadan applications are developed by ASGATech, a Forum Nokia Premium Partner in the Middle East, with all content reviewed and approved by Al Azhar Al Shareef.

Great job Nokia but we are looking forward for a killer new mobile that can take on iPhone.

Today Jordanian startup Aqar Estate a real estate web listing site has organized a party at Bristol hotel in Amman, Jordan where they showcased to the real estate and web industry their upcoming version of the site.

The new site which is set to be launched the 1st day of the Islamic Month of Ramadan -around 20th of this month- will have a complete revamp and new features, focusing on social interaction and making finding relevant real estate information easier to the user.

Among the new features, the site will offer premium membership for real estate agents and real estate developers. Thus the business model now is based on advertising revenues which is now expanded with new offerings such as featured site and will also depend on premium membership.

During the event ArabCrunch had an Interview with the company founder, she is Hanan Khader an ex-Jeeran and ex-maktoob employee, she is one of the few women entrepreneurs in the web Industry in the arab world, her 2,5 years old startup is totally bootstrapped and is already profitable which lead her to leave her job at Jeeran and even expand her team. Hanan is a mother to young girls and pregnant with a new baby. Other players in web real estate web business include AqarMap

Here our unedited interview today :




While Aqara Estate a Jordanian startup founded by ex-Jeeran female employee Hanan Khader offers real estate agents in the Arab world and sellers the ability to list land, buildings or apartments for sales or rent. Aqaramap a Yamni startup that was launched last April came with emphasis on location by pin pointing the real estate address to the map.

MLS MENA an Egyptian startup that said will launch its alpha version next September wants to take the whole real estate market several steps ahead. Addressing that there is no standard integrated listing system similar to the MLS in USA and other developed markets.

The startup will work with governments and real estate companies to get the public records and use that data on its website :

The exact size of the property lots and the ownership, and the real historic sale prices. Plus offering user the ability to compare the estate to similar properties that got sold in the region recently.

MLS MENA promise also to bring relevant points of interest data that will be acquired from third parties, and historic trends that buyers and sellers can collect, sort, and analyze. Thus helping users make more informative decision before buying or renting.

“Users can buy/rent a property by searching our website and connecting with the agent or owner directly. We are just a marketplace for them to meet. ” Eng. Yusuf Shahen founder of MLS MENA told AC.

As per business model it will be freemium “we allow users to add listings for free, but they can add featured listings a for a premium price.” Yusuf added.

According to him MLS MENA has started a pilot program with the Cairo Agency for Properties. A prototype (alpha version) to be launched by September and public beta launch by the beginning of 2011.

The startup is seeking angel and VC investors.

There are no shortage in location based services, the leader is foursquare followed by Gowalla, But Face2face takes another approach.

After you download the app in your mobile device (iPhone, Android or BlackBerry) you do not need a to signup with a new user name, use your existing Facebook, linked, Twitter or Myspace accounts to connect and use the app.

What’s more the app allows you to aggregate your Twitter, Facebook linkedin and Myspace accounts feed in one place and comment on your friends social feed. And when your friends are near by you can chat with them or call them to meet.

What face2face pride its self with is privacy, your friends will know you are near by but not the exact location, face2face calls that ” proximity-based and social technology”. And unlike foursquare and gowalla you do not need to check-in anywhere, your location is updated in the background.

Another interesting feature that Face2face provides is the ability to find “Friends of Friends”  which I think this makes it easier for anyone to meet and network with new people who you have common friends with.

Face2face is available in iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and J2ME coming soon. I’ve tested it briefly using my friend’s Nexsus One Mobile (Android based mobile from google).

face2face is founded by Proximate Global a US/Pakistani startup. If you have an iPhone or an Android app, You can lets us know what you think of the app.

#Thanks Startupmeme for the tip.

The oldest independent browser company in the world Opera has released the final version of Opera 10.6 . We wrote about the beta version of 10.6 here but it had problems rendering some Arabic websites on Mac OS X such as ArabCrunch Arabic and Aljazeera Arabic, as it used to display Arabic letters without combining them . We informed  Opera directly about that and the team responded by fixing the problem, so many thanks to Opera and its desktop team.

The new browser comes the first built-in video playback with the open WebM format that gives you optimized video right in the browser on all platforms. Other Opera features such as offline applications let you work using web-based applications, without Internet connectivity.

Opera said via a press released that version 10.6 has anti-fraud systems and phishing protection and live feeds that supply fresh information on the latest web threats to the users and keep them in the know about potential malware, harm or scams. In certain regions, Yandex supplies user malware protection.

Other improvements and new things:

•       Appcache: Use in-browser applications such as word processors and spreadsheets even without an Internet connection by storing the necessary files locally.
•       More search: Opera 10.60 includes several search engines for the user to choose for themselves. Opera has added the Bing search engine as one of the choices, in addition to the default Google search.
•       Search suggestions: With websites such as Wikipedia, get instant search suggestions to complement your search experience.
•       Improved design: New design features such as an improved Menu button and icon tabs make day-to-day use of Opera even faster and easier.

•    Bug fixing of many issues of the beta version.

As Opera 10.6 comes with geolocation which can be turned on and off, Opera has created an interactive map to show real-time downloads of the Opera browser here:

Opera released Opera 10.60, saying it is 50% faster than its predecessor on selected JavaScript tests. In addition Opera 10.60 beta incorporates new web-standard features, such as Geolocation and WebM support for HTML5 video, as well as a polished and  more easy-to-use user interface. Opera 10.60 beta is available on all platforms and can be downloaded from here.

Here is quick view of what is new:

Performance: boasts a 50% faster online experience as compared to the previous version. (anyone wants to tests and tell us his/her feedback?)

Geolocation: Let your browser find it for you. Geolocation detects your location and maps while browsing. ( does it enable Twitter to detect your location? I will test and get back into this.)

Video: Opera now comes with high-quality, open video royalty free format WebM.

HTML5 Appcache and Web Workers: Appcache lets you use different applications, such as word processor, image editor, spreadsheets and much more, in your web browser even when offline. Web developers can now also use HTML5 Web Workers for doing heavy calculations without making the browsing slower for the user.

Search suggestions: Opera 10.60 beta makes search more efficient, introducing search suggestions for selected Opera partners in the Speed Dial and search box. You can test this in the beta with Wikipedia search.

Custom thumbnails for tabs: The interface in now more intuitive, as the previous thumbnails have been replaced with icons, making you a faster navigator.

Visual improvements: Speed Dial, tab previews and the Opera menu button have been improved with new graphics.

Opera also comes with more features, such as:
Opera Turbo – Opera Turbo comes to the rescue whenever you are surfing on slow, congested networks, for example, at an airport or at an Internet cafe. Tests show that Opera Turbo provides about 65% faster browsing on Edge and around 50% faster browsing speed on 3G networks.

Opera Unite – Share content immediately, without having to upload your files. Opera Unite combines the flexibility of a Web application with the capability of a Web server, easily accessible from your browser.

Since years Location based services (LBS) has been a hot topic that did not take off until recently. There were many attempts to tap into this market from brightkite to ArabCrunch demo 09 demoer wenear to Yahoo it self with fire eagle.

Many experts agree that location based and intention based advertising is the next big multi billion dollar market after Google’s contextual self service advertising platform adwords.

In USA foursquare has taken the lead in figuring out how to bring LBS to the mass with a carrot called Badges foursquare leadership is followed by gowalla.

But in the Muslim world koprol from Indonesia seems have gained some traction more than foursquare in that region.(With a population of around 230 million people, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, and has the world’s largest population of Muslims.)  Recently rumors around the web mentioned that Yahoo is looking to acquire foursquare for 100 Million USD, but today Yahoo announced acquiring koprol to further push into location based services, which I think they will use for the next location based advertising platform.

I tried to register to Koprol to test it but it did not work! The site says it allows people to checkin, see who is around you, share photos, join local discussions, and rate local restaurants.

koprol comes after around 10 month of Yahoo’s acquisition of Jordan based portal Maktoob  and after 1 day of Yahoo announcing a new partnership with nokia , it is interesting to see Yahoo push more into the Muslim world and emerging markets and if Yahoo! can remain relevant in the new Mobile world dominated by iPhone and Android phones.

#image Koprol’s blog.

As AC broke yesterday the heavy rains that stormed the Saudi capital Riyadh flooded many parts of the city, causing damage and putting human life in danger. Many were trapped and some unverified reports suggest incidents of death. As we reported Twitter was instrumental in almost everything related to this sad event.

Since ArabCrunch also writes about Social Media, today we put together a guide on how to use social media and the Internet for to save lives and help the residents of Riyadh. Thanks to everyone for supporting the people of Riyadh. ( I will update this post if we managed to get more online resources please leave a comment if you know any.)

• Stay updated and informed:

1- Retweet and share this guide on facebook or via email so more people can use it to save life and help out.
2- Use Twitter with hash tag #RiyadhRain whenever you report any incident or follow the same hashtag for live updates.
3- Use RiydhRain.com or Twubs for live update also we have a a widget at the end of this post.

4- Go to Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) early warning website for weather conditions though Twitter hashtag #RaidhRain is more realtime

• Ask for Aid or volunteer to save life

Residents of Riydh did a great job as many went and volunteered to save lifes, Saudi civil defense is asking for more volunteers

1- Ask for Aid by filling this app also if you are on Twitter via using hashtag #RiyadhRain #aid

2- If you are in trouble point your location using your mobile via Gowalla or Foursquare, also add hashtag #RiyadhRain.

3- If you would like to volunteer look for emergency requests here or call civil defense here: 014645260 ex 346 or via the facebook group “We are all the sons of Riyadh” or this app.

#volunteers apps via Jihad .

• Report and View Open or Closed Streets

Saudi Arabia startups Qayam has launched google maps mashup here http://www.qaym.com/rain/ enabling users to report and view opened or closed streets.

• Videos and Pics:

1- look at ArabCrunch Arabic post about the videos.

2- Ismaeil at picaso also Twubs.

3- saudijeans has some videos too.



#photos via y NaWaF0 and Yfrog

As  many Muslims strive to live according to Islam in their life and in their daily commercial dealings in the west and in non Muslim countries, a number of Muslim entrepreneurs provided the needed services via a number of useful websites.

Here is a list of 6 sites providing guides for Halal Restaurants, Muslims Friendly Hotels, Mosques and Islamic centers, videos and virtual community.

This list can also be useful for Jews as the food code are similar.

1-Muslim friendly hotels: HalaTrip

Offers Muslims and Jewish users (since many religious restrictions are shared between both religion.) Reviews for hotels around the world, from things such as: if there is a women-only pool or not, if the hotel does not serve Alcohol, if the hotel has a prayer room, plus the location of the hotel on google maps.

The founder of HalaTrip is Karim Saad who lives in Austria you can follow HalaTrip on ArabCrunch.NET here.

2-Halalfire Media LLC, headquartered in San Carlos, California is the home of one of the largest Muslim networks on the Internet, claiming over 27 million page views and over 7.25 million unique visitors annually.

3-Masjed and Islamic centers guide: Salatomatic:

Offers the largest list of Mosqoues and Islamic centers around the world. Useful site when you travel and want to find masjeeds to pray Jumaa. Besides offering basic info and the location of each masjeed. Salatomatic offers interesting facts about the availability of  near by parking and so on. Users can also leave their feedback and even follow the masjeed.

The site also has an iPhone app that returns a list of restaurants, markets, and mosques near you. with sharing information, reading reviews, retrieving contact information capabilities, and provides driving directions. The site also has plans for Windows Mobile ,android, BlackBeery and Palm Pre apps. (iPhone app price: : US$2.99.)

3-Zabihah: halal food guide worldwide.

From the same mother company of Salamatoc, Halalfire Media, Zabihah the site lists halal restaurants, groceries, business mosques and schools. The site offers a profile of each restaurant with basic info such cuisine type, halal authenticity, price, payment accepted, hours, phone, website and map location.
The site boost 3866 Restaurants, 2200 Markets, 171 Products  and 35084 Reviews.

4- halalapalooza: Halal e-commerce guide.

Also form HalalFire, halalapalooza is a comprehensive directory of Islamic e-commerce website categorized in: Multimedia, General stores, clothing, travel, cards and gifts, foods and Snacks, Charities and Children’s Item.

5-muxlim: Muslim life style.

Finland  based  startup covered on AC before, was originally a blogging  and a social network  platform, but recently it focused more into syndicating content with relevance to Muslims from around the web.

6- Halaltube:

A video sharing site that focus is primarily on Islamic lectures, users can post content from youtube and google video.

UPDATE: Jihad Alammar Founder of Qaym told ArabCrunch that Qaym Camels service was April’s fools thing. So the only real news is that Qaym launched its API.

Saudi Startup Qaym which is a social review website for restaurants like Yelp in USA but in Arabic with a local feel, is adding a new addition to it services: reviewing Camels.

According to its blog post, Qaym which means “review” in Arabic will enable users to share their experiences about Camels and Camels’ beauty. Qaym has launched its Application programming Interface (APIs) during Arabnet conference lats week.

Camels are a big business in Saudi Arabia as I was told.I do not know for sure if Qaym will keep restaurant reviews and just add Camels Reviews or focus on Camels only. I will get in touch with Jihad Alammar founder of Qaym and update you here with more info. (update: he said it is April’s fools day!)

Call it web 3.0 or Augmented reality (AR), the technology that overlays digital content such as text, graphics, or 3D models on real objects through any video output. A Technology that is changing the face of life because of the way it makes life easier.

In the last months of 20009 we saw a spike in startups and companies entering the AR space, however innovation is not near ending in this space as germany based metaio released a new version of its open augmented reality browser junaio 2.0 The version 2.0 is now available in the iPhone App Store offering Indoor usage, web- and user-based information channels and an open API for developers to an open browser platform enabling everyone to create and experience mobile augmented reality.

What is more junaio 2.0 is first to enable AR the possibilities indoors. By combining the GPS- and compass-based geo-information with the so called LLA-marker- technology that is patent pending- users now can experience augmented reality not only in the world outside but even within buildings. This feature can be used e.g. for museums where visitors can point their camera on the info next to the exhibits and gather information directly on their mobile phone. “

The feature can be experienced with the “scavengAR”-hunt by Porter Novelli at the famous South by Southwest Conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, UAS. Where visitors have to find clues in the real world throughout the SXSW venues, collect digital items on them and be the first to finish the augmented reality scavenger hunt and win prizes.

Social AR Channel Concept Meets Twitter

junaio 2.0 also introduceing a new way to arrange the location based content and LBS by offering mobile content channels in the real world via augmented reality. The currently include the categories: News, Culture, Shopping, Games, Travel or Food and for example help users to find the closest and best rated restaurant more easily. Furthermore every user can set up his/her personal channel and share posts, notes or points of interests with friends or make channels public to everyone. With this feature users can share their experiences, 3D objects, Twitter messages, website infos or recommendations of nearby locations with their friends and build the junaio-social community.

The first content provider channels included within the junaio 2.0 platform, will be a US-based transportation service provider (tba.) and the Eventful Channel.

In a move to counter Google’s Free navigation applications, Nokia just announced that starting March 2010, new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps www.nokia.com/maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, and that turn-by-turn voice guidance will be free for 74 countries in 46 languages.

The new version will also include traffic information for over 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for over 180 countries.   The nice thing about Ovi maps is that they come preloaded to your Nokia device saving you time and cost of downloading map data over the cloud.

Here is a video of Ovi maps on N900:




Winners of Nokia’s Calling All Innovators “Bil3arabi” 2009 contest, a developer competition for Arabic-language mobile applications, have been announced by Nokia.

The grand prize winner of $100,000 went to “Here I am” from Enpronomics in Egypt.  It is a geo-presence application with personal safety features that enables users to call for help in emergencies, share their location with family, close friends and know the location of their beloved.

In second place, and winner of $25,000 in cash, is Elmathbakh created by private developers Senai Refai and her husband Kamel Seghaier from Tunisia.  Elmathbakh is an application that helps people keep track of their daily calorie intake. Its various features have been designed especially for Arabic diets.

The other top 10 applications that have received the Judge’s Choice Award will get a one-year membership in Forum Nokia Launchpad, which enables members to receive access to exclusive resources and support to accelerate mobile application development and elevate developer’s business visibility in the mobile world.  These applications are OI2ot by Inficron, Arabian HawkGood by News 4 me, AlMoosiqar by Quirkat, Yoolki, Sarhan by Good News 4 me, Messagei, Wassal  by Inficron, Moodi by MT2, Konooz, and Frenzo.

In addition to the cash prize, the grand prize winner will receive a “spotlight” placement featuring the winning application for 4 weeks on the top page of Nokia’s Ovi Store; and paid travel to demo the winning application at a Nokia specified event.  The winning application will also be reviewed by Nokia for possible preload on future Nokia devices.  Second place will also receive a “spotlight” placement featuring the winning application for 3 weeks on a relevant category page on Nokia’s Ovi Store.

Mapping, GPS and Navigation devices are a very useful tool for any person, while the west and USA in general has more advanced solutions in this area than what is available in the Arab world. There has been local and International attempts to solve this issue.

On the web, google has done a good job in few Arab countries namely Dubai but its awesome Google Maps Navigation is only available for Motorola’s come-back mobile Droid. NDrive a Portuguese mobile developerlaunched last October navigation applications for the iPhone, for United Arab Emirates (UAE) , Saudi Arabia Morocco and Egypt, using TeleAtlas the same company that provides maps to Google Maps and Competes with Nokia’s Navteq.

From the region, Ayna the Lebanese company launched this year “Ayna Maps“that are also available via a number of mobile devices but unfortunately Ayna maps need internet connection to work, and since Mobile Internet connection is still costly Ayna maps is not an idle solution. In Jordan, Inside Jo from Jordan, developed an online map along with its own low cost GPS device that unfortunately did not get authorized by the authorities in Jordan!

Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition, The Affordable GPS Phone:

Nokia on the other hand, has went ahead faster than anyone, introducing mapping solution online via its Ovi maps and on its Mobile devices (From High End to Mid level). To push into mid and low market (the developing world), Recently Nokia unveiled the latest device in the company’s range focused on mapping and navigation, the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition. The new arrival is GPS enabled and pre-loaded with Nokia Maps, making it the most affordable GPS device in Nokia’s broad portfolio.
Relevant maps are included on the device to save cost and make sure that just because you don’t have an Internet connection, your device isn’t rendered useless, an essential element for mobile mapping in order to be used in mobile handsets by the main stream users since Mobile internet connections are pricey.

Nokia 2710 will be available in the second quarter of 2010 estimated to cost, before taxes and subsidies, EU 110.

Nokia 2710: has a GPRS handset, a 2.2-inch screen, 2-megapixel camera and enough storage for 1,000 phonebook entries. It also sports Ovi Mail and Instant Messaging and it’ll keep the tunes turning with an MP3 player and FM radio. It also has a 3.5mm AV connector. The device will go for up to 18 days between charges in standby mode and will give up to four hours and 20 minutes talk time.

Nokia Adds Jordan to Ovi Maps:

After Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, In the mapping and navigation availability, Nokia recently added Jordan to its Ovi Maps application. Adding rich local content and local maps that can be used directly on users mobile device turning them into a navigation systems.

“Having Ovi Maps on their device gives our consumers a new sense of their surroundings, with the possibility to discover new places and share them with their friends using SMS, MMS or Bluetooth.”said Bruce Howe, Head of Marketing Nokia Levant.

Ovi Maps application for your Nokia device is enhanced through additional features and services: high resolution satellite and terrain maps, rotation, tilting, night view and fly-overs and fly-throughs. Nokia’s Jordan Ovi maps was available during the month of November.

Walk from one place to another using WALK, the pedestrian navigation with routing optimized for those on foot, providing better orientation in a city or outdoors.

Or use DRIVE, the navigation takes you from A to B with visual turn-by-turn guidance. It helps you to locate yourself by giving information about the surrounding buildings, roundabouts and streets and in newer handsets points the direction in which you are walking using the handset’s built in compass for orientation.

Ovi Maps uses vector maps are provided by Navteq, which was acquired by Nokia in end of 2007. The map data of Jordan, is offered free of charge and includes detailed Road coverage of 28,621 Km covering 100 municipalities, including street names and street directions.

By this, Nokia has 100 percent of the total road network of Jordan covered including all the major highways connecting Jordan’s major cities. It also has 13.500 Points of Interests including hotels, restaurants, places of worship, shopping malls, petrol stations and many others.

Maps can be downloaded free of charge over the air directly to selected devices or by using the Nokia Map Loader on a PC. however since my Nokia 5800 died and I am currenlty testing now N900 which Ovi Maps is not supported on it yet, I could not test the new maps in Jordan. (See the video I recorded last month for a preview of Ovi maps in Dubai on N900.)

In addition, Nokia also launched a crowed sourced “Get to good things“website to Jordanian consumers, so that they can add their personal POI’s from Jordan and share with the world.

Ovi Maps for mobile is enhanced through additional features and services, such as:

• Better maps with hi-res satellite and terrain maps.
• Enriched Global POI information by Lonely Planet, Michelin and Wcities.
• Global Weather service with 24h and 5-day forecasts.
• Walk from a place to another – easy to use pedestrian navigation with routing optimized for pedestrians for better orientation in a city or anywhere outdoors.
• Drive with enhanced safety car navigation with enhanced safety features.

You can see Nokia’s Ovi Maps in action in dubai running on Nokia’s best and most powerful device to date -N900, via the below video presented by Nokia’s project manager during Nokia’s N Age Tour in Dubai lats month (Note: i will be posting in Arabic and English N 900 video review soon on ArabCrunch ):




(The video is a presentation of Nokia N900 by a Nokia Project Manager in Dubai. and I was asking him questions during the presentation. N900 has 4 desktop screens and Mac “Exposse” like view for multi view of all open applications.

N900 is a powerful mobile and considered Nokia’s top of the line:

N 900 Operating system is Maemo which is built using Linux, It has 600 Mhz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 1GB of app memory, 3D Graphics accelerator with OpenGL ES 2.0 support. Built in memory 32 GB, 3.5 G and WLAN, GSM GPRS and EDGE, Integrated GPS, 800 x 480 touch-screen, Hard QWERTY keyboard, G MP cam, Dual LED flash, 800 x 480 resolution video. Maemo Browser based on Mozilla.)

After many days of hard work, after over a year of full time dedication to help startups and techies like you, today AC reached a major milestone: ArabCrunch.NET First Online Social Platform in the Arab World focused on Startups & The Technology Industry. With this announcement, the social platform, was what you the passionate startup and tech community wanted AC to develop for you  and as I mentioned back on April that AC will do it! when I wrote about the ecosystem that we need to have in order to help grow the tech industry in this region and turn our economies into knowledge based economy. Today Our promise is delivered, Here is the ecosystem in one place

ArabCrunch.NET, Helping The Arab World Innovate

ArabCrunch Group Extends Technological Reach with First Social Network in the Arab World focused on the technology industry

Amman, Jordan and Silicon Valley, CA – Tuesday, November 10, 2009 – ArabCrunch Group announced today closing a round of funding and the launch of ArabCrunch.NET, the first social network dedicated to creating an environment that fosters innovation, entrepreneurship and mentorship for Arab entrepreneurs throughout the world. ArabCrunch.NET offers a dynamic platform for collaboration amongst the various stakeholders within the technological ecosystem from Berkeley to Bahrain.

The launch came during a press conference held by Arab Crunch in cooperation with Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship at the headquarters of the Royal Scientific Society.

“ArabCrunch.NET will facilitate knowledge transfer and enable veterans from Silicon Valley to work with and mentor young talent from the MENA region,” said Bassel Yassine Ojjeh, a former Senior Vice President of Yahoo!, Inc. USA, a serial entrepreneur and Board Member of ArabCrunch Group, who led the round of funding. “We’ve built ArabCrunch.NET to fuel innovation, create a knowledge based society and an environment for job creation in the region that will serve high tech professionals throughout the 22 Arab countries and the western hemisphere.”

“We’re thrilled at the opportunity to be the first dedicated group that focuses on accelerating the innovation cycle both here in Amman and throughout the Arab world,” said Gaith Saqer, Founder of ArabCrunch Group. “Ever since we launched ArabCrunch.com in 2008, we have been committed to finding the most compelling technological innovations that impact the Arab world – this next chapter allows us to help foster collaboration on a scale never seen before in our region. We have built a social platform that connects participants and helps them find crucial resources, build strategic partnerships and promote services.”

Since it’s unveiling in 2008, ArabCrunch.com has grown to one of the most widely read technology blogs in the Arab world with over 30,000 monthly visits. Founded on the principle of “professional blogging,” ArabCrunch.com has become the primary source of information about the latest technological advancements relevant to the Arabic world. An Arabic version based on “citizen journalism” was launched last month and has met with great success.

- END-

About ArabCrunch Group:
ArabCrunch Group’s mission is to inform, impact, inspire and create an Arab centric technology ecosystem that delivers information, and connects Arab entrepreneurs both in the region and throughout the world via its properties, ArabCrunch.com, ArabCrunch.NET and ArabCrunch.com/ar. About

Arab Crunch.NET:

The mission of ArabCrunch.NET is to help accelerate entrepreneurship and technology innovation in the Arab world by delivering an online social platform that connects participants of the technology ecosystem.
ArabCrunch.NET is the first online social platform dedicated to connect and support technology companies, entrepreneurs, techies, scientists, academia and investors in the Arab world. ArabCrunch.NET is a project from ArabCrunch, the publisher of arabcrunch.com and ArabCrunch Arabic Edition.

About Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship:
The QRCE is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established in October 2004 and is now a complement of El Hassan Science City. The center’s mission is to support economic development through offering a package of services to promote excellence and market technology. The centre particularly targets college students, researchers, inventors and initiators to enhance and build their personal capacities. QRCE offers this group consultation and works to develop their sense of excellence and initiative through a set of programs including Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Excellence Competition, Technology Commercialization Program, Connect Jordan and Princess Sumaya University for Technology’s Entrepreneurship Society (DART).

As7ab which means Friends in Arabic is one of first  Arabic social networks owned now by Yahoo! Maktoob, the social network  was launched around 2 years ago by Maktoob, since then it has been adding features gradually.

The new features As7ab has added is alerting users of people who work at the same company or study at the same school.

I could not find this on the main As7ab website, but I found about this via an email alert from As7ab telling me that Maktoob has lately added search capability to the site that would provide you with information about friends that you have something in common like workplace and school it also alerted me that there is one coworker at ArabCrunch.

As7ab maktoob has many features such as messaging, ta7di (challenge) like who is hot app on facebook but instead of who is hot, it has things like who is smarter and so on. other features include: celebrities were users can follow celebrities news, events, photos,, networks, free gifts app.

As7ab Maktoob competes with facebook which launched its Arabic Interface back in February 2009.

Looking at what the mother company Yahoo has done in the consumer social networking area, As7ab Maktoob looks better in terms of features, but needs some tweaking and opening their APIs, not to mention a portal wide integration.

Etisalats ,the Emarati Telecom company has launched today its own kids phone, the device is geared for families to monitor and stay in touch with their kids.

KidsPhone is a simple device that comes only with a 4 programmed numbers, GPS and SMS. The device will alert parents via SMS and email if their kids leave a predefined zone such as school, club or home.

Kids can only call one of these 4 numbers. In most cases, to their parents brothers and sisters. The device is ideal to keep kids safe. I like the fact that the phone does not offer a full-fledged phone which kids should not have.

About a month ago, my friend Zamil Safwan from Saudi Arabia, showed me a prototype for a similar device to Etisalat’s Kids phone, that his company “Jockey Electronics” has designed and developed. He aims to partner with Telecom operator in the region to launch it.

On the other front, as we said before on AC, Etisalat launched its own mobile branded phone, Etisalat 211 FM, a low cost mobile phone at the price of 265 AED (72.15 USD) that comes bundled with Etisalat Wasel SIM card with 165 AED of free airtime credit for international calls, over a period of 3 months.

Etisalat 211FM, is a mobile device that supports MMS, WAP and FM radio features. The slim device has a colored display screen and supports both Arabic and English languages. The device comes with a headset and one year warranty from Etisalat.
Etisalat 211FM, is the first series of self branded mobile devices Etisalat said it intends to launch.

Among what we do at ArabCrunch is profile Arab startups and technology companies and review them. As we said before ArabCrunch mission is to help entrepreneurs and help drive technology innovation and entrepreneurship in the Arab region while maintaining an objective coverage. Though most of the startups that we covered until now where from the Internet and software space. What about Arab hardware startups? Today we start exploring and uncover that hidden world.

Entering the Hardware and Telecom industry is not an easy task, it is not like PHP coding or online content that can reach the mass virally. Hardware products need special care, they need among other things, smart engineers capable of chip design and low level programming not to mention the manufacturing costs that is mostly outsourced to China or Taiwan and the branding investments they need plus the difficulties in dealing with the closed mind set of mobile operators such as what we see in the USA.

Younivate, from Amman, Jordan took that difficult route upon itself. The startup which was founded by the Jordanian Engineer Dr. Saed Younis has been around since 2004 and specializes in telecommunication and industrial engineering product and solutions.

It business is a mixture of end products tailored to the end consumers and Telecom operators and designing custom solutions to other clients per order.

In its product line Younivate has an array of USB modems and one PCI card under LinkVu brand (connecting your PC to the internet via your mobile operator), Fixed wireless Terminals under the ConnectVu brand. These products support the following networks: CDMA2000, 3G UMTS/HSPA+, 4G WiMAX and 4G LTE networks. (If you are not familiar with these terms they are data, voice and video wireless networks used by many operators worldwide, LTE is the latest one).

One of Younivate devices I liked from looking at its features set is the innovative LinkVu 3G EVDO USB Modem which allows you to connect the Internet via 3G network to your PC or laptop. Running on QUALCOMM Chipset the device has some nice features that turns it into multi purpose device with an FM Radio, microSD memory, 2.5 mm headset audio jack, SMS, softphone, and GPS. The device can also be used as a mobile audio player, FM radio receiver, mass storage of files which enables you to share your exact location with your friends via Google Latitude and turns your PC into a mobile where you can send and receive SMS messages and make phone calls.

On its GPS Tracking and GPS Monitoring product line, Younivate has YouniVu Live Fleet Management System and YouniVu Fleet Management System. For mobile operators Younivate has CoverVu Network Monitoring System a software that helps them to monitor their network with ease. It detects things such the network strength and power with no need for equipment or out-door engineers to go the location.

Younivate is self funded by its founder and has achieved partnerships with blue chip brands such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments.

In the marketing front, Younivate aims to reach major markets all over the world. However, currently some devices are sold in Iraq and Kuwait with some operators via OEM agreement. The company current distribution channel is based on reselling agreements with telecom operators with an ambition of direct sales in the future.

The company has competitions from China and Korea but differs itself with better performance, local support, and a competitive price as Mojahed Qashoa ,Younivate VP Sales and Marketing, told ArabCrunch.

Post Updated and edited . To see what the Twitter world has been saying about the event tune in here.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is opening now. KAUST inauguration is very significant because it is the biggest technology R&D center and university in the Arab world and is supported by a multi-billion dollar endowment (Islamic Waqeef), thanks to the great support of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. (The Live streaming video at the End of the post.)

The University which is open to men and women from around the world offers degrees in 9 fields of study:

1. Applied Mathematics and Computational Science (AMCS)

2. Bioscience (B)

3. Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE)

4. Computer Science (CS) 5. Earth Science and Engineering (ErSE)

6. Electrical Engineering (EE)

7. Environmental Science and Engineering (EnSE)

8. Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)

9. Mechanical Engineering (ME).

The state-of-the-art university will focus on key research fields:

• Resources, Energy and Environment;
• Biosciences and Bioengineering;
• Materials Science and Engineering;
• Applied Mathematics and Computational Science.

KAUST which its core campus is located on more than 36 square kilometers along the Red Sea at Thuwal in Saudi Arabia, has deployed Cutting-edge laboratories that will enable researchers to make major scientific breakthroughs.

Other research institutions in the Kingdom and the region will link to KAUST’s supercomputer and other laboratory facilities through the 10 gigabytes per second (Gbps) Saudi Arabian Advanced Research and Education Network (SAREN).

Some of the great massively heavy weighted gears you can find at the laboratories are:

Supercomputer: Shaheen — the Arabic word for peregrine falcon (Falcon also means Saqer in Arabic) — is the fastest supercomputer in the Middle East and one of the most powerful in the world. Developed with IBM, it is capable of 222 teraflops, or 222 trillion floating point operations per second. In non-technical language, this means Shaheen can solve 222 trillion complicated calculations per second.
• 16–rack IBM Blue Gene/P System providing 65,536 processor cores.

• Next-generation data center with scalability to achieve exascale computing requirements.

• High-performance storage and networking subsystems to support double precision peak performance with 64 terabytes of aggregate memory capacity.

• Petaflop capability within the next two to three years, with scalability for future demands.

• A storage subsystem composed of multiple storage building blocks providing 1.9 petabytes (one quadrillion bytes) of raw capacity and an aggregate bandwidth of 16 Gbps.

Visualization: CORNEA is a fully immersive, six-sided virtual reality facility that gives students and researchers the ability to turn data into 3D structures that they can interact with and examine. It was built in partnership with the University of California, San Diego.

• A Mechdyne-built VL6 with the world’s highest resolution (100 million pixels) and brightest (10,000 lumens) visualization environments.

• 24 Quad HD Projectors, the highest native resolution projectors available at 4096×2160 pixels each.

• An advanced spatial/surround sound audio system that adapts to match visual images – the only known research center of this type in the world.

• A multi-purpose room with a 32 million pixel digital cinema projection system that enables stereoscopic viewing for 75 people.

Nanofabrication, Imaging, and Characterization: A clean-room environment equipped with leading-edge tools to support research in advanced materials, biotechnology, electronics and photonics, and MEMS/NEMS.

The Imaging and Characterization Labs include a suite of 10 advanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers and facilities for scanning, transmission, confocal, and Raman microscopy, magnetic and thermal measurements, allowing scientists to examine nanostructure devices and surfaces down to the level of individual atoms.

Coastal and Marine Resources: Located next to the Red Sea, the Coastal and Marine Resources Lab facilitates marine research.

The facility builds and deploys modern oceanographic instrumentation and provides operational services to support research vessels for marine exploration, diving, and sampling. Indoor and outdoor seawater facilities allow researchers to culture marine organisms.

Analytical Core: These labs boast highly skilled staff focusing on spectroscopy, chromatography and mass spectrometry, trace metals analysis, wet chemistry, and surface analysis.

Biosciences and Bioengineering: These facilities include genomic and proteomic labs essential to the study of cellular molecules for DNA sequencing and genetic analysis, as well as the investigation of cellular processes. The genomics facility is equipped with robots and laboratory automation.

KAUST opening is a new dawn for Saudi Arabia, the Arab world and the world in general, as we will see the next break- through technologies coming from the land Two Holy Mosques.

Investing in R&D is what will bring the technology sector to its next level in the region and pave the way for the next generations of Tech Startups. And as my new friend told me, Thuwal might be their home base.

We at ArabCrunch have been asking Arab governments to get involved and to invest billions of dollars on R&D, But  today we see it  happing for real. Thanks to the King Of Saudi Arabia and thank you, for using calling it “Waqef” not an NGO, which shows how much you respect our past when Muslims used Waqef before the term NGO was ever there.

We hope the amount of Investment put into the Facilities, equipment and Human resources will bring US soon break-throughs that will solve real problems to Saudi Arabia the region and the world.

Here is the live streaming of the ceremony:
Update: Live video streaming is over here is a link to the recording.

(PS: thanks to TechCrunch for reporting about this event as I knew about it via a CrunchGear post, unfortunately my Saudi friends where kind of lazy to ping me before hand .)

Twtri.com developed by Laith Yousi from Iraq, was announced few days ago at GIGAOM‘s  Structure 09 event as one of 2 U.S. grand prize winners for Microsoft’s newCloudApp() – The Azure Services Platform Developer Challenge- . The contest winners were judged by 2 industry leaders Om Malik (founder of GIGAOM) and Michael Cote. ( Submission deadline is on July 9 for the International contest of newCloudApp() opens tomorrow.)

Twtri is a very simple why to keep our friends and family updated on twitter, facebook or email automatically with your flight status,  such as when your plane depart, arrived or if there is any delays in the flight. The web app is useful because it saves you the time and the effort of sending SMSs, Tweets or emails, especially if Internet and phone services were not available at the plane.

I asked Laith to give me an example of what type of info Twtri will update the user’s status with, he said:

“Before the flight depart it will show a message on your twitter like this “DL73 scheduled to depart John F. Kennedy International Airport @ 7:05 PM”

After it depart it will show:

“DL73 en route & scheduled to land on SFO International Airport @ 10:58 PM(earliar 5 Minutes)”

if the flight is delayed in the air, it will show:

“DL73 en route & scheduled to land on SFO International Airport @ 11:18 PM(delayed 15 Minutes)”

after it land it will show:

“DL73 Landed in SFO International Airport @ 11:20 PM(delayed 17 Minutes)”

So the process is keeping the status of the flight updated.

( DL73: flight number, 11:01is the airport time.)

He also said that it also updates if there is multi-leg flight (when ever your flight connects with another flight.)

As for the future plans for Twtri, he said he has plans to integrate it with other services as he sees needed. And plans to develop APIs so developers can provide the features of Twtri on their own services or websites. (Twtri currently gets its flight info from flightstats.com)

According to Laith, the monetization model will be: sponsorship on the website and the renting the service to clients who can have Twtri services as part of their offerings. However he said that it will be always free for users.

Kevin Rohling’s IMPULSELIVE a mobile GPS based exercises tracking and sharing service also shared the grand prize  of  newCloudApp  with Twtir. Azure is a .NET cloud platform where applications are hosted and run at Microsoft datacenters. Azure competes with Google App Engine, Heroku and RackspaceCloud.

(Note: I am not flying to Indonesia.)