in Arabic English and French. But the concentration is in Arabic. Especially the voice over:)Birdy Nam Nam is an iPhone/iPad game that was released by Lebanese developers Wryb Tech few months ago in beta mood as phase of collecting data and feedbacks.

Recently the game is officially launched the developers amended it, added more levels, weapons, character, they also amended the gameplay and revised the sound effects etc…

Here is the story of the game:

Early 2011, a group of Arab scientists in Dubai started experimenting a new drug on all kinds of birds; the drug was intended to turn birds into man’s best friend… They would clean the house, wash the dishes, do the laundry, cook healthy meals… Well simply make man’s life easier!

Everything was going well until something went terribly wrong, and the drug had a side effect which transformed those chicken into killing machines.

Without mercy, they fled the labs and started attacking Dubai, seeking for revenge. Their plan was simple : WORLD DOMINATION!

As the world was falling apart, people were crazily afraid and the fate of the human race was sealed: there was no escape from annihilation… Until a hero rose from the ashes, determined to fight back and save Humanity!

The player takes the role of the hero whose mission is to fight the birds invasion in a quest around the Middle East. The player will try to shote hostile birds, using many weapons and methods, even strategy for the advanced levels.

The game has 19 Levels including KSA, UAE, Beirut, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Qatar, etc.. We did not play the game because we do not have an iPhone but we liked it idea.

The game is available in iPhone and iPad iOS 3.2.2 or later on the iTunes app store. The game is in Arabic English and French. But the concentration is in Arabic. Especially the voice over:

And here is the game video from the developers:




Apple has resonated to Israeli demand to remove 3rd Palestinian Intifada iPhone app from the iPhone app store.

“Israel today” is reporting that “Israeli” Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein sent a letter to Apple requesting the app be removed, and a day later it was. he said “By its action, Apple has proven, as Facebook did, that it shares the values that oppose violence, incitement and terrorism.”

We did not look at the app, but like the 3rd palestinina intifada page we do not think it called for terrorism, with this move Apple proves that free speech and the right for palestinians to be free from Israeli occupation are not granted at Apple.

Cairo, Egypt based iPhoneIslam has developed a program to turn iPad into a working phone that also can run facetime.

The app has not been launched but iPhoneIslam says they will launch it soon. the program can send and receive calls and text massages iPhoneIslam says it needs jailbreaking to work:




Here is the video to demo iPhoneIslam achievement:

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.

Aramex the Jordanian based international delivery company has been always been in the forefront when it comes to utilizing technology and the web to add more value to its customers.

The company which was the first Arab-based international company to trade its shares on the NASDAQ stock exchange  ( now listed in Dubai Financial Market -DFM) has launched about yesterday its iPhone app to help its customers manage their Aramex shipments using an iPhone mobile.

The iPhone app has Shipment Tracking feature which allows you to add shipments to your list, show the current tracking update for each, give your shipments “nicknames” . You can also view the detailed tracking history for each of your shipments.

The app also comes with Office Locations features which allows you to quickly find the nearest Aramex office using GPS, you can also lookup the address and phone number for any Aramex office. The app requires iOS 3.0 or later.

Similar features of the iPhone app are already available on Aramex website.

Aramex has also shopNship a delivery service that helps residents in the Arab world buy from international e-commerce sites such as Amazon. The company has formed recently a number of partnerships with regional e-commerce startups offering their extensive delivery and logistics base of over 310 locations around the globe, not just to deliver goods but also to collect payments.

Aramex founder and CEO Fadi Ghandour is an active angel investor in many startups, he previously was one of Maktoob’s investors and made a nice exit with Yahoo’s buyout.

(Disclosure: Fadi Ghandour is a member of ArabCrunch Advisory board.)

Opera the oldest independent Mobile browser company today published it’s State of the Mobile Web Report World Cup Edition, a report that offers deeper inside into major mobile web browsing trends, this time the report focus is worldcup and Africa. In Africa Mobile phonepenetration is higher than PC penetration.

In june 2010 Opera Mini had over 59.4 million users, a 3.2% decrease from May 2010 but an increase of 124.7% since June 2009. Opera backs the slight decrease in key metrics “can be traced to certain countries where we have experienced some technical and political challenges that now are about to be solved.”

As for how many pagesviews Opera Mini users viewed the number was over 27.3 billion pages in June 2010. Since May, page views have gone down 3.4%. Since June 2009, page views have increased 161.8%.

According to the report Africa is seeing an explosive mobile browsing growth, where Sudan and Ghana lead the top 12 countries of the region in terms of page-view growth (4,645.6% and 916.5%, respectively). Sudan and Ghana also lead the top 12 countries of the region in growth of unique users (1,225.0% and 498.8%, respectively). Kenya leads the top 12 countries of the region in page views per user, with each user browsing 639 pages on average each month

The top 12 countries using Opera Mini in that region are South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Sudan, Libya, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Namibia, Mozambique and Mauritius. from June 2009 to June 2010, page views in the top 12 countries in Africa increased by 182%, unique users increased by 124%, and the amount of data transferred increased by 160%.

Other findings of the report:

- Facebook, Google and YouTube all do well in Africa. Facebook is the top-ranked site in six of the twelve listed countries, and Google is ranked #1 in the remaining six countries.

- Nokia remains the most popular handset brand in Africa, followed by Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and LG.

- iPhone is the leading handset for Opera Mobile users in USA fowled by BlackBerry 8330 (“Curve”) and then BlackBerry 9700 (“Bold”), Samsung SPH M810 (“Instinct s30”), Nokia 5130 XpressMusic ranks 9.

- Most Popular sites in USA: google, Facebook, youtube, wikipedia, yahoo, my.opera.com, accuweather.com, nytime, Twitter then Myspace.

- Russia:Nokia is the top handset first Nokia 6300 followed by Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, Nokia N73, Nokia 2700c. Topsites are vkontakte.ru then yandex.ru, google comes 5th.

-China: all tops 10 handsets are Nokia starting with Nokia 5130, top sites are : kaiqi.com then baidu.com, google comes third.

-Egypt: saw Unique-user growth since June 2009: 158.5%, all top 10 handsets are Nokia, top sites are google.com, Facebook, youtube, getjar, ketomob, yahoo, yallakora 7th.

- Sudan: saw Unique-user growth since June 2009: 1,225.0%, top 10 handsets all Nokia, tops sites: google, Facebook, youtube, ketomob, gear, live.com, bbc.co.uk. my.opera.com, yahoo.com and wikipedia 10th.

- Libya’s 10 top handsets are all Nokia top 3 sites: google.com, youtune and then Facebook.

- The top sports sites visited by Opera Minin users in June 2010: goal.com then, livescore, fifa.com, m.championat.ru, m.espn.go.com

Opera also held its first Opera Mini Mobile Web World Cup. Opera used per capita mobile browsing figures to determine the match winners. The results were quite different from the real games, with Chile and Argentina advancing to the final match. Chile squeezed by Argentina by just 4.1 pages-per-user on that day to win.

More stats on the report’s page here.

Number 1 social network in the world facebook has finally  updated its iPhone app making it compatibale with iPhone iOS 4 features , the new apps comes with the ability to do fast application switching. according to facxebook “While viewing the Facebook application, just click the “Home” button twice on your iPhone to quickly switch to another application (note: you must have iOS 4 running on your iPhone).

The app also take  advantage of the iPhone 4′s high resolution screen with optized the icons set. the app is avalible in English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish ( no Arabic version yet.). It can be downloaded from here.

It is worth mentioning that iPhone is hiring an Antenna Engineer-iPad/iPhone maybe to help fix the current bug in iPhone 4 which is losing signal when held in certain ways that seem to interfere with the device’s antenna.

At the Begging this month Sarmady the digital arm of Vodfone Egypt released thier first Arabic iPhone, iPod and iPad app FilGoal South Africa offering interesting features for FIFA Worldcup 2010 fans:

• Latest news from the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa
• Annalyses of games and exciting features and interviews
• information about the participating teams
• Fixtures, results and tables of all the groups
• A list of all the players participating in the tournament
• Live coverage of all the games, including goals, yellow cards and red cards
• FilGoal.com users’ comments on all the editorial material

The app has achived 11,000 downloads, while Shawweet BlackBerry App achieved 13000 downloads in 4 days since its launch.

I did not test the FilGoal app because until today I am iPhoneless , however today I tested quickly Eurosports worldcup English app for iPod using my friend’s iPad, the app looks interesting and has nice features such as live match coverage.

The Internet changed how people shop. Now, Augmented reality is changing how people will shop online.

YOUReality along with Germany based Metaio are introducing Online Retail Visualization 3D tool, which makes it possible for consumers to see products in their own space before they purchase them by integrating Augmented Reality into a suite of commerce applications. The new services will change the retails industry by allowing shoppers to make more better buying decisions, and help retailers sell more.

With YOUReality, customers can try before they buy, allowing consumers to visualize context sensitive products with life-like 3D models in a photo of their own home environment. The resulting image provides a realistic view of what the object will look like in that space with the ability to move the item around and change colors, styles, sizes and textures of the 3D object while viewing it in the photo.

“Retail Visualization takes the guesswork out of the visual aspects of shopping, such as selecting fabric choices, textures and colors, making the buying decision faster and easier because consumers can literally see furniture, electronics, appliances, even accessories, in their own space at the point of sale. Retail Visualization for e-commerce allows the user to visualize products in a web store and then add the selected items directly to the shopping cart to complete the transaction online,”says YOUReality Founder, Michelle Fallon.

YOUReality has a suite of 3D applications for brick and mortar and e-retailers, product manufacturers, designers and others .

All recent metaio and YOUReality applications will be available for live presentations at the Augmented Reality Event (ARE 2010) on June 2nd and 3rd in Santa Clara, CA, USA.

Here is a Video demos:




Ibrahim Qraiqe from Gaza, Palestine who lives in Norway launched recently his new iPhone application: Palestine.

The English/Arabic app features a lot of information about Palestine such as: Palestinian folksongs, Palestine Proverbs, Palestinian Cuisine ( for those who like to cook) Palestinian figures, the right of restrung, photos and facts.

The app is sold in the iTunes store for 1.99 USD.

Here is the Palestine app video overview:

Aljazeera just launched a new free iPhone website version that enables users to watch Aljazeera English from live via m.aljazeera.net ( click on LIVE on the top menu bar or on the LIVE banner further down.)

Aljazeera plans to add Arabic mobile website shortly with Live links. The only English news channel from the Arab world also plans to add different handset support in the coming future according to Safdar Mustafa head of AJ mobile unit.

11 days ago, the number 1 TV station in the Arab world has launched its Arabic channel Live streaming iPhone app for free and made its apps on Symbian and Windows Mobile free.

It took about one month since our last speculation about Orange Jordan launch date of the first 3G network in Jordan. But, today Orange 3.5G up and running and covering initially west Amman, Irbid and Zarqa. Mobile 3Gs comes inline with Orange late launch of iPhone 3Gs around 2 weeks ago.

To me and people who live in Jordan, even though the whole 3G rollup is late, this news is very exciting as the network speed is up to 7.2 Mbps and you can use it on your laptop or Mobile.
Orange Mobile 3G+ data plan starts with 19.90 Jordanian Dinners (JDs), with unlimited Internet and voice minutes to Orange mobile and fixed number. however Orange notes in its website”when exceeding the fair usage policy of 2GB,data consumption will be charged per MB at 4p/MB (local use only) .”The other 2 options for monlhty offers are:
* Mobile 3G+ X Large:
mobile data (internet) unlimited 1 voice minutes to all Orange mobile and Orange fixed numbers 1500 voice minutes to all other local networks 300 SMS unlimited 2 monthly fee 39.90
*Mobile 3G+ Unlimited:
mobile data (internet) unlimited 1 voice minutes to all Orange mobile and Orange fixed numbers unlimited 3 voice minutes to all other local networks unlimited 4 SMS unlimited 2 monthly fee 79.90.

As for pay as you go mobile offer 1GB  costs around 14.99 Jds.

Even though Orange’s mobile offer seems ok, its internet offer is not  feasible enough for me to switch my slow “Orange” ADSL to Orange 3g+ internet plan for laptops as its starts with 9.9 JDs for 1GB monthly data bundle, 1p/MB excess of bundle rate with a USB dongle price at 45 Jds.

Orange will have a monopoly for one year in Jordan over 3G, in which after that other operators can enter the market.

#Image by: cogdogblog

Few hours ago we live streamed Nokia’s major regional press conference where they announced the launch of ‘Comes with Music, ’which offers people a year of unlimited access to the entire Ovi Music catalog with the ability to keep all downloaded tracks even after the year is over.

The Arab world launch covers 11 markets that include Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestinian Territories, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. With the purchase of the new Nokia X6 16 GB Comes With Music edition, users will have access to a music catalog of an estimated four million tracks from the biggest international and regional labels that people will be able to download for free. The device with the service will be commercially available the first week of March, for an estimated price of USD 600, excluding sales taxes.

“ You can enjoy the music on the Nokia X6 device or your dedicated PC. The songs are yours to keep. So after the year is complete, the licenses do not expire and you can continue to enjoy all of your music,” said Jake Larsen, Head of Music, Nokia Middle East and Africa.

Music is provided by all major international and regional labels including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music, EMI Music, Rotana, Mazzika, Melody Music, Platinum Records, and leading content aggregator The Orchard, as well as thousands of independent labels. The content covers a cross section of Western and Arabic music, as well as among others, Indian, Pakistani and Fillipino catalogues.

Nokia X6:

Capable of playing up to 35 hours of music, the Nokia X6 is Nokia entertainment device, combining 16GB of on-board memory, ARM 11 434 MHz processor, with a TFT capacitive touchscreen 3.2” finger touch interface, and runs on Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5. Nokia pitch the device for “music lovers and social butterflies”, the Nokia X6 has a 16:9 widescreen. With direct access to Ovi Store, the Nokia X6 is integrated b with 20 friends and virtual communities, like Facebook, to your homescreen.

Nokia Comes With Music is now available on altogether 27 markets worldwide, including Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestinian Territories, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman, as well as Australia, Austria, Brazil, Finland, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, SA, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Spain and Russia.

Our Take:
Experts put iTunes Music store and its seamless integration with iPod, the main reason behind the success of iPod, which in turn helped push the iPhone. Apple has been neglecting the Arab region and until today only few Arab countries have a dedicated iTunes store ( more soon.)

Arabic Music is not available on iTunes as far as I know, so with this Move Nokia is set to dominate the Music Industry in the Arab world, they offer you one year free unlimited download with a prize of Zero and regional Music, Now Apple has to play the catchup game on this front not visa Versa.

Nokia did not reveal what will happen to users who wants to download Music after the one year nor when this service will be available on other Nokia devices, however I believe they will charge for downloading and what is important I think, Nokia has figured a away to enable e-payment in the Arab world, as until now credit card penetration is low. maybe, paying via SMS, Mobile bill etc.

Apple recently posted an updated Terms of Agreement for publishing applications to the App Store, and among the changes are newly added countries in which Apple’s iTunes Store is set to expand, these countries are: Jordan, Tunisia, Armenia, Botswana, Bulgaria, Kenya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal and Uganda.

In the Arab world iTunes is currently available in Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

While iTunes Store (and hence an App Store) still not available in these countries, this means it should open pretty soon. It took about a month the last time between them updating the agreement and the actual iTunes Stores opening, According to Amr Ramadan General Manager of VIMOV.

#Thanks Amr for the tip.