Below is the press release related to the impact of digital technology on the business practices in the Middle East region.

Dubai, May 22 – Middle East business will be transformed by digital technologies and companies not investing in that transformation face an existential competitive threat. That’s the message leading industry figures will be bringing to ArabNet Dubai, according to the event’s founder and CEO, Omar Christidis.

Ronaldo Mouchawar, CEO of leading regional e-commerce company Souq.com, points to the meteoric growth in digital: “e-commerce sales in MENA and Africa grew by 45% in 2012 to reach $15bn, and analysts forecast an annual growth over 20% over the next 3 years. That makes MENA one of the fastest growing regions in the world.”

New digital technologies like social media, mobile, and analytics are radically changing the economic landscape. Executives in every industry face a bewildering array of new digital opportunities – and challenges. “That growth in e-commerce, that’s not new money that’s appeared from somewhere,” said Christidis, “That’s a $15 billion industry that’s growing at the expense of traditional companies who aren’t moving to meet these new market conditions. It’s a compelling wake-up call.”

Setting out to make sense of these changes and their impact on business, the ArabNet Digital Summit, the largest annual digital event, will be held on June 24-26 at the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai. The Summit will bring together over 1000 regional and global industry professionals with over 100 keynote speakers. This massive event will host the Industry Track on its second day, where professionals will explore what fast-moving digital innovations mean for large traditional companies.

Key sessions on the Summit’s agenda include the digital developments in the travel sector.Recent figures estimate an increase of 22 percent in online bookings in the Middle East reaching $15.6 billion in 2014.Travel sector leaders from Expedia, Hilton, Hotels Combined and TravelStart, among others, will discuss the latest opportunities for suppliers and online travel agencies in the MENA travel market.

Further sessions at the Summit will address the digital disruptions to recruitment.  Employers and job seekers are increasingly relying on web and mobile; more than half of employers are utilizing the Internet for senior talent hiring, and over 70 percent of job hunters rely on social media to find their next job. At the Summit, representatives from LinkedIn, Elance,odesk,Bayt.com and other leading business-oriented networking sites will present platforms that focus exclusively on freelancers and discuss the changing nature of work.

The Industry Trackat the Summit will also explore how the real estate sector, one of the largest and strongest in the region, is being affected by the rapid changing habits of clients. According to Google and the National Association of Realtors, almost 50 percent of home buyers in the US use the internet to conduct their first search for homes and almost 70% of real estate buyers use mobile apps to scan the market for a good buy. The Summit will look at how real estate companies can leverage mobile and social media to attract customers and increase their sales. It will also explore the latest services and applications that cater to home seekers.

The ArabNet Digital Summit 2013 will delve into cutting-edge trends in mobile, commerce, and social media. It will explore investments in the MENA’s digital sector and exhibit the most comprehensive Digital Showcase of up-and-for coming enterprises. Also, the event will crown the region’s most talented programmer after a year-long Developer Tournament that covered four Arab countries. Most importantly, the Summit’s Industry Track will unveil how web and mobile are shaking up the core of traditional sectors. The Summit caters to every player in every sector, especially since “Businesses that do not hop onto the digital bandwagon will fail to speak to their clients, lose out on their competition, and eventually, struggle to survive,” according to Christidis.

Registrations for the summit are now open online at www.arabnet.me

About ArabNet

ArabNet is the hub for digital professionals and entrepreneurs to connect and learn. Our activities aimed at building the web industry and supporting entrepreneurship in the region include: an annual summit, widely acknowledged as the largest digital gathering in the MENA region, with a track record of bringing globally-renowned speakers to discuss the latest topics in the field, as well as successfully connecting entrepreneurs and startups with funding and incubation through the Ideathon and Startup Demo competitions; our ArabNet Roadshow which held free training workshops for over 1,500 entrepreneurs across the region to teach them to successfully develop their business plans; our newly launched Developer Program, which connects developers with potential employment at the region’s digital startups; The Startup Database Program, which connects startups with investors free of charge; and the ArabNet website, which has been redesigned to be the leading reference for digital businesses in the MiddleEast, featuring news, analysis and a growing database of startups, developers and entrepreneurs.

The article "ArabNet – Digital Technology Poised To Reshape Middle East Business [Press Release]", written by Azmi Sayadi appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

The ArabNet Digital Summit is considered the largest regional event for web and mobile business and it is centered around three days of talks, panels, and interviews by 100+ expert speakers, with more than 1,000 executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and developers from over 25 countries who are expected to attend. The table below summarizes the activities during the three days of the event.

The Forum is going to take place during all three days of the event and is going to explores the hottest trends in digital business, including social, mobile, commerce, media and advertising. The Digital Showcase, which is the growth platform for up-and-coming digital enterprises with the opportunity to showcase their products and services and connect with industry leaders, will also be featured during the whole part of the event.

Other activities can be summarized as follows:

• Day 1 is going go to feature The Startup Track, which features insights and stories from serial entrepreneurs, influential investors and the region’s top startups.
• Day 2 is going to feature The Industry Track, which highlights digital opportunities in traditional sectors like real estate, education, hospitality, healthcare, retail, and banking.
• Day 3 is going to feature The Developer Tournament Championship, which pits the top coders from Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the UAE in an exciting face-off.

The ArabNet Digital Summit Dubai is going to take place in Atlantis, the Palm. For registration, make sure to follow this link.

The article "Introducing the 2013 ArabNet Digital Summit", written by Azmi Sayadi appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

The article "Google I/O 2013 Pre-Registration Photos", written by Ali Ayoub appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

This will be a recap of the major announcements that were made during the keynote that took place on May 15th, 2013.

Android

Unfortunately, there was no announcement of a new version of Android, where it was expected that Google will reveal Android 4.3 (possibly called Key Lime Pie). So it seems that for now, we will settle with Android 4.2.2, which is yet to be available on all devices (especially the ones released in 2013), so hopefully this will allow more adoption of the latest iteration by all OEMs.

But still, this is a good year for Android, with 900 millions worldwide activation of Android devices till date, with 48 billion apps downloaded by users so far from the Google Play.

Google also introduced something called the Android Studio, which makes developing in multiple languages and for multiple screen sizes easier than ever.

Chrome

Google’s own browser still holds the lead as the number one browser in the world with 750 million users across the globe. Google emphasized during the keynote that Chrome is a platform upon which to build apps, which should encourage developers to benefit from its advantages.

Google Play Game Services

There have been so many leaks and rumors about the possibility of Google introducing a game center, this was confirmed during the Google I/O Keynote with core gaming features such as achievements, cloud saves, and synchronous multi-player. The APIs are made available to app developers on the spot, and Android gamers should see Google Play Games features in the near future.

Google+

Google’s own social network was one of the main recipients of updates and features, with more than 41 new features that were introduced to attract users and enhance their experience, with the focus being on the stream, communication and photos.

First of all, the stream has been redesigned into a three-columns look which are interactive and animated. Users should be able to see the new design of Google+ as of today.

Concerning communication, Google revealed the new update to its chatting service, Google Talk, which has been renamed to Hangouts, a cross-platform service that is aimed at unifying messaging, where users will be able to chat with friends through five different types of Google services: Gmail, Google+, iOS and Android devices, and the Chrome browser. Users will be able to  you’re able to send emoji smiley-face icons and photos, save their entire chat history between devices based on one (or more) people, and make video calls.

And finally, concerning photos, Google introduced some new tools that auto-enhance photos to improve their quality (fix exposure, focus on faces, smooth skin and so on), group them into highlights to show the best ones that Google “believes” should be on the front of a specific album, create animated GIFs through a feature called “Awesome” (if you take burst shots, Google will identify those and create a GIF out of them) and so on.

Google Play Music All Access

Google Play Music has been around for a while, allowing users to upload up to 20,000 songs for free and stream them through their Android devices or online from a web browser. Google introduced a new service called All Access, which is a subscription-based service ($9.99/month with a 30 days free trial and a discounted price of $7.99/month for those who sign-up before June 30), which allows users to listen to a queue of recommended songs, or rearrange the order of that list to their liking. Play Music: All Access builds off of the iTunes-like Music on Google Play service already available.

Google Search

Google after all is a search engine, and during the Keynote, they introduced the conversational search for desktop (within the Chrome browser), where, with an active microphone, all you have to do is say “OK Google” and the search will be launched. The search will also be contextual, where you can ask Google to “show you things to do in London” for example, or “how tall you need to be to ride on a specific roller coaster” and so on.

The main focus for search was to “Answer, Converse and Anticipate”.

There has been some enhancement to Google’s Knowledge Graph, which tries to anticipate what you will be looking for next, so it provides you with graphs and statistics related to your search.

Google search can also be used to look for your flight details, track packages, check restaurant and hotels reservations and look for files in your Google Drive.

Google Now also received its share of updates, which can now provide users with  public transit information, as well as details on favorite TV shows, books and video games. Users will also have the ability to create reminders to be activated based on time or location simply via voice actions.

Google Maps

Several leaks where going around on the net showing some revamped screenshots of Google Maps along with some new features, these were presented during the Keynote and were considered one of the main highlights of the event.

Maps will now be easier to use, to develop and to personalize, for all of Android, iOS and desktop. Users can now rate restaurants and other local businesses directly from maps, using a new five-star ratings scale instead of the usual 30-point Zagat scale. Also new in this version is an integrated Google Offers experience, which will make it easier to find free offers from Google’s daily deals service.

Users will get to highlight their favorite locations and Google Maps will provide recommendations based on the similarities of the interests.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition

Samsung latest’s flagship, the Galaxy S4, is already doing great worldwide with more than 6 million units estimated to have been shipped so far, and now, the S4 will be available for direct purchase from the Google Play Store (US Only for now) for $649, and it will come with stock Android installed on it (no TouchWiz customization from Samsung), 16GB of internal memory expandable via MicroSD card, unlocked bootloader and fast updates directly from Google. The device will be available for sale starting June 26 from the Google Play Store.

The article "Google I/O 2013 Keynote Overview", written by Azmi Sayadi appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

Watches and smartphones may seem redundant, especially if we’re talking about every day watches (not the luxury kind). This is why the only way to market a “Tech” watch is by building it the right way: it should augment smartphones with enhanced music controls, live sport scores updates and maybe more efficient GPS instructions for track & field monitoring or even hiking support. Do you see where we’re getting? Smartwatches can be really nice and useful; the key to their success is not to make them look like hipster out-of-this-world products. The secret is to make them melt away in the global Tech fashion scenery.

Google’s obvious stance on this is somewhat different. Smartwatches are futuristics gadgets of the past. Nobody will get excited about a watch beeping on your wrist. And a watch couldn’t possibly be the most exciting advancement Technology has to offer post-2013. This is why (partly) they opted for smart glasses. Google Glass has the ability to put the Internet straight into the pupil of your eye. Yes. Internet-augmented vision. For Google, the future of Tech is definitely wearable, but it is also definitely ocular.

Apple and Google are not the only ones to be jumping aboard the wearable Tech ship. Below are a few examples on what may lie ahead:

MYO Armband – Jawbone Up – O-Synce Screeneye X – Stick-n-Find Blutracker

The article "The Future Will Be Wearable: Gadgets Attack", written by Chadi Abou Nohra appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

To all Tech and Mobile lovers, whether you are Google, Android or Chrome admirers; This one is definitely for you and we’ll be eagerly waiting for you, to and we will be more than happy to discuss cool stuff, talking about our love for Android and Google.

GDG Beirut, Lamba Labs and Tech-Ticker are organizing hand-in-hand the extended version of Google I/O in Beirut. Find more about it by heading to our dedicated Facebook page.

You can also check details and reserve your tickets now by hitting the button below.

What exactly is Google I/O Extended? imagine all the fun happening in California being streamed live. Awesome code labs, allowing every developer to create applications or websites, will go on during the three days of the event. In addition to this, we will have some lightning talks from a variety of speakers about Google and Chrome apps,  discussions about the latest APIs, and brainstorming sessions about everything Google and development.

Many surprises will also be there: A small google corner displaying all Nexus iterations, some special giveaways and goodies too, oh… and we might be having our own Google Glass. Sounds pretty cool, no?

So I guess there are only four words left to say:

See you all there!

The article "Google I/O Extended – Beirut Chapter", written by Zaher Hallab appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

The article "Spotlight: Maya Zankoul Brings Us Wezank", written by Daniel Habib appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

The event’s description goes as follows: “Get an in-depth look at what’s next in iOS and OS X, and learn how to take your apps to the next level. With over 100 sessions, extensive hands–on labs, and engaging events, you’ll connect with Apple engineers and fellow developers for an incredible week of inspiration.”

The tickets will be available for worldwide purchase starting this coming Thursday, April 25th at 10 AM PDT (7 PM Lebanon time) at $1,599. To buy a ticket, you must be a member of the iOS Developer Program, iOS Developer Enterprise Program, or the Mac Developer Program as of the announcement of WWDC (5:30 a.m. PDT, April 24, 2013) and at the time of your ticket purchase. Developers between 13 and 17 years of age must have their ticket purchased by their parent or guardian who is an eligible member.

The WWDC is one of the most awaited events worldwide; with the launch of news version of iOS and OSX as well as hardware updates to Macbooks and possibly two new iPhones and iPads. We will be covering the event on Tech-Ticker so stay tuned.

Source: Apple

The article "Apple Announces the Dates for its Annual WWDC", written by Azmi Sayadi appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

So as we promised, ArabNet offered us a chance to interview a lot of industry leaders. Here, we present you with the second interview we were able to score. An interview with DPE Lead at Microsoft Corporation, Mr. Ghassan Chahine. Read below to see how people are adopting Windows 8, what developers can do with the help of Microsoft, and what is in store for the hopeful students in the region.

Malek Teffaha: Can you please give us a brief introduction about yourself?

Ghassan Chahine: I’m Ghassan. I’m the platform strategy lead for Lebanon and the neighboring countries. I deal with developers, developers who adopt microsoft technologies to be exact, not developers within Microsoft, but the outreach. We help these guys, along with startups and businesses develop apps on Windows Phone and Window 8 as well as the backend on Windows Azure. So an amazing architecture would to be to have the application/project/website on three screens. Laptop/Desktop on Windows 8, then on you mobile with Windows Phone, then on the backend with Windows Azure. This is mainly what I do. We are now working on Windows 8, we had software development companies build amazing apps on Windows 8, from startups or from ideas to actually having a full product up and running on the store.  We support these guys in the technical sense, we help them if they have any problems in addition to offering them user interface support. You know that Windows has been re-imagined with 8. From the chipset to the user experience. So we have a new design, and we have to help not only developers but graphic designers to help them create great interfaces that are appealing to users and foster a great image for the company that released this software, as well as the developer and Microsoft.

MT: Starting off with Windows 8, what can you tell us about the success of Windows 8 in the region, specifically in Lebanon and generally in the region, and the adoption rate in terms of both users and software developers, especially now that we are seeing a rise in Lebanese based software developers.

GC: Sure. Windows 8 has been earning great reviews from developers in the region. You have a new graphical user interface, a new start screen with all your applications there. In addition to having the same application run in the “Legacy” application system, where old applications can also work and run on Win 8 on the desktop side. We have gotten great reviews and as is known it is full of dynamic tiles. These “Live” tiles, they update automatically with new info and news regarding the content of each tile without having to open the application. So all i can say is that we got great feedback, and im sure Win 8 can make many developers adopt it and adopt the technology. As you know, any developer with any background knowledge in programming is able to develop on Win 8. For example, you are able to develop on Win 8 using, as an interface layer, HTML5. Then for the backbone, you will be able to utilize C/C++/C#/VB and also another instance you are able to use Javascript. It is very easy, anyone, any developer is able to develop applications on Win 8. And we can see this feedback from applications that are available in the store from Lebanon and from the region. We have a plethora of Lebanese apps on the store. Lebanese developers have created great applications on Win 8. You can also integrate businesses. And on the store, just type “Lebanon” and you will be able to see all the apps that were made here in the country.

MT: Moving on from Windows 8, to Windows Phone 8. Recently Nokia launched their Lumia lineup with Windows Phone 7.5 which is now updated to 7.8, and they have also launched Windows Phone 8 in the region. When will WP8 be officially launched in Lebanon?

GC: I dont have a specific date on when the OS will launch in Lebanon from Nokia’s perspective, but all im gonna say is that it is going to be available soon.

MT: Statistically, do you have a number by which you can give us that can paint a general picture of the Windows 8/WP7.5/WP8 adoption rate?

GC: I dont have numbers, all I can say is that in the first month or two, we have seen an upgrade of around 60 million Windows 8 licences worldwide.

MT: Of course with Win 8, we saw the release of the Surface Pro and the Surface RT tablet. Unfortunately, they are both still not officially launched in Lebanon. Any news in regards to that?

GC: In regards to the tablet market in Lebanon, we have a lot of tablets from OEM vendors like HP, Lenovo, Samsung available in the market. Not quite sure about Samsung, but all I can say is that a lot of OEM vendors have created tablets specifically for Win 8, and i am sure that users will love them. As for Surface, it is only sold through official Microsoft channels, through the official stores and online. I have no visibility as to when it will be available in the region or in Lebanon.

MT: Moving on from the hardware perspective in Lebanon, myself being an AUB graduate, I have seen Microsoft extend a hand to university students in terms of both helping them in programming techniques and offering a chances to compete in tournaments like the Imagine Cup. Can you briefly tell us what MS plans to do in the coming years in Lebanon, because we lack a proper software engineering background even though we have the brightest students when it comes to software engineering?

GC: Regarding Imagine Cup, it has been in Lebanon for the past 6 years, and it is one of the best technology competitions in Lebanon. Anyway, Imagine Cup is the student technology competition worldwide. Soon we will be having Imagine Cup 2013 in Lebanon. As for work with students, we have supported a lot of students in many programs. First being the Microsoft DreamSpark, where MS provides tools and software applications to technical students to help them create apps/websites/projects on top of MS technologies. Second we have the Imagine Cup initiative that we have talked about, but we also have the Microsoft Student Partners, called MSPs, where these guys are ambassadors of MS in their universities and communities. We have many people from AUB as well as other universities who became participating members of the MSP program where we help them unleash their creativity and create great projects on top of MS Technologies. Now, once they graduate, they either go to the business side, or go to the entrepreneurship side. We also have initiatives that help there. One is called Microsoft Bizspark. It is launched already, but we are helping people at Arabnet now and more to adopt and become members in this cool program, where we provide free development tools for startups for 3 years, and provide them with technical support and visibility.

MT: Excellent! One last question. Do you have any advice to any student who hopes of working with or developing for Microsoft devices (Windows 8/Phone 8/Xbox)?

GC: What I advise students on is not to rely on big companies in hopes that you might enter one of these companies. Just rely on yourself, create your own startup. Many companies, and I’m not talking about Microsoft alone, but many companies support startups and students/developers should unleash their creativity and create great startups. The startup business is not only a trend, but it offers people a chance to create truly great stuff.

MT: Thank you very much Ghassan!

GC: Thank you, and it is great to meet you here at ArabNet.

The article "Interview with Microsoft: Windows 8, the MENA Region and More…", written by Malek Teffaha appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

Since then, Gmail has evolved continuously and exponentially, with multiple changes in design, new addition of services, development of lab features and so on, all this while taking users’ feedback into consideration.

Apparently, it all started with a user complaining about the poor quality of existing email services, where she “was tired of struggling to find emails buried deep in her inbox” (you can read more about it here). So as a result of this complaint, and all the feedback received from users since its inception, Gmail has evolved into the leading email service available today.

In order to highlight the evolution of Gmail throughout the years, Google posted an infographic outlining the details of the changes during this time. The infographic can be found below, just click on it for a larger version.

Here’s for hoping that Gmail will keep on its steady pace of improvement and development.

Source: Official Gmail Blog

The article "The Evolution of Gmail", written by Azmi Sayadi appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

1.       How did you get into comics and the world of illustration?

I’ve been drawing ever since I was a child, it’s always been a part of who I am. As for comics, I had been exposed to the medium itself since childhood as well, but I recall really getting into them around 2001, when my mom got my brothers and me three random comics from the magazine rack. I got an issue of a Spider-Man series called “Peter Parker: Spider-Man”. It was issue #34, which I still own to this day… I grew up very interested in the concept and mythology of superheroes and created a lot of my own characters, each with their own story and everything. Over the years, my mom would feed my monthly hunger for a new issue, until at some point, the hunger was gone. I guess I grew out of comics for a while, until I was about 16, a switch flipped in my brain, and it all came back. Back then it was just Spider-Man, but by this time, I was more eager to explore titles such as Daredevil: Man Without Fear, The Incredible Hulk, Batman, The Flash, whatever was available in Lebanese book stores (back then at least…)

Then came the second death of my comic book-buying habit, but this time, it was more of a shift to a more advanced level than a death. This shift was brought on by my discovery of graphic novels. The idea of a comic being about something other than a superhero intrigued me. For example, I got this book called “Arrowsmith” by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco about World War I in an alternate reality Earth, where magic exists and the soldiers fly around on dragons using spells and potions to fight German vampires… Today I’ve got an appreciation for all forms of comics, but mainly stick to graphic novels and webcomics.

2.       From which particular comic book/artist do you draw inspiration?

I can list a lot of books and artists I’m inspired by, but when it comes to my personal work, the thing that inspires me the most are actually cartoons and animation. I’m a big fan of the programs from the 90s and early 2000s, such as Ren and Stimpy, Dexter’s Laboratory,  Codename: Kids Next Door, Invader Zim, more recently Adventure Time, and of course, The Simpsons, which features so much of what I like to use in my work: cynicism, parody, cultural criticism. In terms of comics, the more cartoonish ones I like include the Scott Pilgrim books by Bryan Lee O’Malley, the Johnny the Homicidal Maniac books by Jhonen Vasquez (who went on to create Invader Zim), and various Robert Crumb works…

3.       Who’s you favorite super hero and why?

That’s an extremely tricky one, but… I suppose I have to go with Spider-Man. I like his origins, his mission, his morals and ethics, his intellect, his struggles, and most of all, his humor: Spidey is one funny dude.  On top of all that, his design and powers are just awesome. He has this energy and dynamism to him, always swinging and jumping. No matter how old he gets, Spider-Man will always be that awkward teenager trying to do what’s right and cracking some jokes along the way.

4.       Are you a DC or a MARVEL man?

Well, I do like both quite a lot, but… I’m gonna have to go with Marvel on this one. I already mentioned why I like Spider-Man, and it doesn’t stop there.  Their characters and their stories just have some “edge” to them. For example, X-Men is about racism and tolerance, and The Hulk is about the dangers of excessive rage and losing self-control.  That doesn’t mean DC’s characters and stories are without substance, but to me, Marvel has been a bigger part of my upbringing than DC.

5.       Tell us about your comic book strip.

My comic strip is called “Joura”, and it is basically about “the ups, downs, and downs of a Lebanese comics artist”. I created it as a way to express my dissatisfaction with how the medium of comics is viewed in Lebanon, as something for kids with no substance, and poke fun at people’s lack of awareness of it, in an effort to actually raise more awareness and encourage people to give comics a second look.

“Joura” is Arabic for “pothole”, that are distinctly Lebanese problems. They are the obstacles the Lebanese face on the road to their destinations. In that, the potholes are metaphors for the obstacles within Lebanese society that the Lebanese comics community, fans and artists alike, face on their road to recognition.

The main character is Jad, an aspiring young comics artist hoping to make it big in Lebanon doing what he loves. No, he is not based on me… His two best friends are, Bilal, a gamer, and Tanya, an otaku (that’s a fan of anime, manga, and Japanese culture). I decided to make his friends belong to two other Lebanese geek cultures that are misunderstood or unappreciated, adding more variety to the mix.

A lot of events that have been (and will be) featured in the plot are actually based on experiences gathered from local comics fans and artists, as well as gamers, otakus, and myself.

6.       Are you interested into venturing into other genres of comic books creation in the future?

I’m open to trying new things, but I don’t see myself making a straightforward horror or sci-fi story. Even if I do, it’s still going to have the wit and silliness of Joura, that’s just my style.

7.        With the comic book culture on the rise worldwide how would you like to see Lebanon catch up to the trend?

Lebanon is a unique case, because it’s not like all we have are a handful of comic book publishers: we have none. That means, all local comics are graphic novels, produced either by one person or a small team of friends. That’s kind of noble. It makes the work unique and substantial, not just something churned out to meet a monthly deadline.

Surprisingly, there aren’t as many web comics as you’d expect there to be. Given the circumstances, the internet should be a relief for anyone with something they want to share but don’t have the means to. For this reason, I’d like to see artists come out of their shells and just put their stuff out there, add something to the mix, whether it’s a big narrative story or just a silly gag. You have to walk, before you can run.

But generally, I’d like to see a stronger more unified local comics community. As with a lot of fields here in Lebanon, there are lots of little cliques that keep to themselves, and that holds back progress. Whether you get everybody signed up to a Facebook group or you organize a big convention for everyone to meet up, we must unite and make our presence known.

8.       Tell us about your future projects and endeavors.

So far, all I know about the future is that I’d like to keep doing Joura and hope it becomes a local favorite among the comics community and geeks generally.  I’d also like to do something more random and unstructured, but that’s just a thought… even Joura can have its random and unstructured moments every now and then. Oh and, I’d like to find a job too.

For more info on Omar Al Fil, head here.

The article "Artist Spotlight: An Interview With Omar Al Fil", written by Daniel Habib appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

Luckily, and as you’ll notice after you finish reading this article, I’m not one of those “anymore”…

When the iPhone was demoed in 2007, many, including myself, called it “the blonde smartphone”.
It looked great, had a soft touch, shined like a diamond, yet lacked functionality the iPhone was expected to have, even if not all the “already available” smartphones had (I’m looking at you Blackberry, Symbian, Symbian UIQ & Windows Mobile…).

While many, including myself, were vainly yapping about how dumb the iPhone’s OS was, once we tried it, it turned out to be a heck of a game changer, and made many, including yours truly, reconsider.

What the OS lacked in functionality at first, it compensated in design, ease of use, stability and innovation.

And since “Good things come to those who wait”, those who invested in the iPhone watched the OS1 grow up little by little, add functionality and features “slowly but surely”, and take its baby steps towards becoming the fully functional iOS6 we now know and use on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad…

Many things have already been added, from the custom ringtones to Passbook, passing by “locate me”, the AppStore, the International keyboards, push email, cut-copy-paste, video camera, push notifications, Find my iPhone, home screen picture, “open in” fature, multi-tasking, folders, FaceTime, hotspot, HDR, AirPlay, AirPrint, iCloud, Notification Center, OTA updates, iMessage, Siri, Panorama, Guided Access and many more…

Throughout updates, the iOS has managed to change from the blonde OS to the Mobile OS on steroids while “trying” to remain as stable and as secure as possible…

I, a non-US citizen, living in a third world country and who uses an iPhone, have made a thorough and kind of personal exhaustive list that would include all the wishful functionality, features and fixes I’d like iOS to have in its 7th yearly update in order to make my iExperience the smoothest possible:

iOS7 Features Wishlist

A- iMessage:
- Ability to block users.
- Ability to choose the size of the photo/video being sent instead of being forced to send it in the huge full size it’s taken with the iPhone’s 8mpx cam (exactly like in mail.app).
- Ability to quit or block an iMessage group.
- Ability to choose in Settings if images & files should be received from contacts only or from everyone…
- Ability to choose in Settings to be asked before downloading files received via iMessage. (Especially if that file is a 50MBs video and you’re on a 500MBs plan).
- “Open in…”  feature to work for iMessages in order to send any file through it, not just photos, videos, sounds, location and contacts.

B- Messages (SMS/MMS):
- Ability to block SMS received from certain numbers or from bulk advertising companies… Especially with the rise of SMS spam.
- Ability to choose in Settings if notification should be for Messages from contacts only or from everyone (option already available for iMessage and should be added to SMS/MMS too).

C- Reminders:
- Use the iPhone to share a reminders list with other users, without needing to resort to the reminders.app on Mac or on iCloud.com.
- Allow the use of Locations from the Maps’ Bookmarks, not just from contacts addresses.
- Allow setting the radius of location aware reminders (an Android 3rd party app called “Checkmark” already allows that).

D- Contacts:
- Allow a contact’s location to be added as geographic coordinates instead of a street address and zip code, since OBVIOUSLY not everyone lives in the United States.

E- Siri:
- Open Siri’s API to developers and let them integrate their apps with it, this will give Siri many “skills” like the ones found in Shazam, Soundhound & iTranslate in addition to many others that one can only dream of right now…
- Make Siri and Dictation’s voice recognition at least partially offline…
- Add languages for Siri & Dictation (Arabic would be great, thank you)…
- If Yelp keeps on insisting on barely supporting 5 or 6 countries and not the entire world, Apple should consider using other alternatives that offer world wide support, Foursquare being one of them…
But of course, opening the API to developers would solve this issue, and each user would be able to choose the app that could find locations in his own country…

F- AirDrop, which would render any need for NFC outside payments obsolete… And would finally allow transfer of files between all Apple products without needing third-party apps like mover+ and instashare.

G- Finder.app…
A Native file manager is the only remaining thing iOS needs for everyone to consider iDevices as fully functional computers…

H- Third-party Widgets in the Notification Center and/or in the spotlight search page (think dashboard for Macs)

I- Multiple users/Accounts (especially for the iPad) with ability to make some apps and settings unavailable to some accounts…
Because Guided Access and General Restrictions of some of the native apps are not enough…

J- iCloud:
- Multiple administrators for Shared Photo Streams, which would allow many users to add and delete pics to a certain shared folder…
- iWork File sharing between multiple users allowing them to work as a group on the same document with ability to restore and check previous versions of the document…
- Contact group sharing between multiple users, which would allow all employees in a company to share all the contacts in a specific group…
- Make iCloud more developer friendly, since right now most developers have an iCloudphobia due to the amount of issues and bugs they face while implementing it in their applications…

K- Maps:
Apple needs to start realizing that not all Apple users live in the United States and the seven or eight other countries they support!
They keep working on the maps of these few countries, to fine tune them, while whole continents don’t even have city let alone road names or routing.
If they can’t do the job, they should roll back to google maps, at least for the countries they don’t support yet, or allow users, at least until they sober up, to use alternatives to Maps as the default location app…

L- Skeuomorphism:
A lot has been said about Scott Forstall’s departure and the minimalistic Jonathan Ive replacing him…
In my opinion, Skeuomorphism played an important role in Allowing the public masses to familiarize with technology, and to use it in their everyday life…
And now that the human fish have caught the technology bait, the design can start moving slowly but gently from excessive Skeuomorphism…
I said Slowly, because after all, we don’t want people to have the same Panic Attack they got when the Start button disappeared in Windows 8…

M- Passbook:
Credit Cards are the next big thing to be added to Passbook in my opinion.
With or without NFC, it could work, and I think Apple should target it…

Of course, and as I previously said, this was a personal exhaustive list. Many people would have other points to add to it, especially when it comes to the gaming field (a field I’m totally ignorant in).
And of course, while surely the majority of the list would be added to iOS in the right time, expecting it all in iOS7 would be totally far fetched…

but one can always hope…

The article "What iOS7 Should Look Like: A Fanboy’s Perspective", written by Wissam Chidiak appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

Elias Ghanem – PayPal

So as we promised, during our coverage of the ArabNet 2013 event, we managed to snag a couple of fantastic interviews with some of the biggest industry and market leaders. Here we present you with the first of many. An interview with PayPal MENA GM, Mr. Elias Ghanem. Read below to see whether the rumors of PayPal’s Lebanese arrival were true or not, and why is it taking so long, as well as offering fantastic insight into the difficulties of taking businesses online and advice on how to avoid major problems and issues.

NOTE: Ali Ayoub helped me conduct the interview.

Malek Teffaha: Can you please give us a brief introduction about yourself?

Elias Ghanem: Mar7aba! (Hello in Arabic). My name is Elias Ghanem, and I am the general manager of PayPal Middle East and North Africa.

MT: So, Mr. Elias, first of all, can we officially confirm that PayPal is coming to Lebanon at some point in 2013?

EG: **Laughs** No we cannot.

MT: Ok **Smiles back in shame** but it IS hopefully coming in some sense?

EG: So, PayPal has an expansion across the whole world. PayPal MENA is focusing on building the Middle East. Today, PayPal MENA is present in all the GCC, as well as Jordan, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The markets were PayPal is not present today are Lebanon and Egypt. As part of our global expansion, PayPal, hopefully (Nshallah soon), will be available in Egypt and someday in Lebanon as well.

Ali Ayoub: What are the main limitations/challenges/restrictions that are preventing PayPal from launching in new countries, especially in Lebanon?

EG: It is only two words. Product roadmap. PayPal has a global strategy of expansion, and we are opening new markets, one after the other. So just a matter of prioritization of country and taking it live.

MT: Mainly, what we have been hearing is that many governmental restrictions or nation specific restrictions are what prohibit PayPal from opening, for example in Lebanon. Is it true? If not, what took PayPal so long to approach Lebanon as a profitable market in the sense of expansion?

EG: There is no restriction. No legal restriction. We are engaging with all regulators around the world, including Lebanon and we obey all the rules. Let me make it very clear. There is no limitation per se, that prohibit PayPal to grow, it is just a matter of prioritizing markets as we go. Lebanon is on the roadmap. Many other countries in the MENA region as well as around the world are on the roadmap. There are plenty of markets in Eastern Europe/Asia/Latin America (Three emerging markets) that are not yet in PayPal and will come in soon enough. Lebanon is one of them. Again, there is no, and to against any rumours, there is nothing that is against PayPal in Lebanon or anywhere else.

MT: Excellent. We look forward to welcoming PayPal in Lebanon soon enough. Moving on, PayPal has expertise when it comes to online businesses. What advice can you give entrepreneurs or corporations that plan to take their business(es) online?

EG: I think what excites me a lot in this region is that there are plenty of people who want to take their business online. The only thing is that when i meet with them and ask them, and i push them a little bit, they don’t have depth. My first advice is that before you take your crazy idea online, test it. Ask people around you. And ask specifically three questions:

1. What is the customer’s experience?
2. What is the payment experience?
3. What is the reputation risk you might be taking by doing this business?

Let me drill it down some more. What is the customer experience? Well, if you are dealing with physical goods, it is different than dealing with digital goods. For the physical goods, what the delivery experience will be will decide if your projects dies or not. As for digital goods, what assurance do you have that the consumer will receive and open and use his service immediately, and what kind of solution is there for him to call you back if it did not work.

Payment is very important to monetize your service. It is very important to have multiple payment options. As you build your payment options, and you are discussing with any financial institution you don’t need to pay deposits, you don’t need to pay setup costs, you don’t need to maintenance costs. You definitely need to pay transaction cost because it is service provided, but push your payment gateways that gives you a service that does not charge setup costs, deposits nor maintenance, but only transaction costs.

As for reputation, as you build all the experience, what are the places that it can go wrong? And if it goes wrong, what is the impact on your business and your online reputation, especially since it is harder to deal with than offline reputation?

MT: Ok, so you being responsible for the MENA region, of course know that many businesses across the region have yet to take their products online, because some lack the experience and expertise, and some are simply scared. From your experience and what you have seen of businesses that have taken their business online, and abided by the three previously mentioned precautions? Have they succeeded? Or is there anything businesses should be scared of? In other words, is there anything you can say to soothe the fears that any person might have of taking their business online, since of course the way of the future is towards the online and the cloud?

EG: It is a big and tough question. I would say, one thing that you should not be scared of is failing. Failing is a fantastic learning experience when you take your business online. I encourage anyone wanting to go down the path of online businesses to do it. If you are crazy enough to not work in a bank, nor become an engineer, nor work as a doctor as your father might have told you to do, nor work for the government and decided to create your own company go for it. DO IT! Push for it. Now one thing i learned about in the region is that we always to after our friends’ and family’s money. That money is very easy to obtain, yet is extremely hard to give back. We all know about the problem of patronizing (or terbee7 jmeeleh), so it becomes an issue that is “as soon as i give you this money, you owe me for your life”. So my advice, to entrepreneurs, go and do it the hard way. Get the true professional money, and pitch your idea to the right investors, which would force you to make sure that sought after all the details. And then, after you pitch it, the moment of truth, the best moment arises. That is the moment of failing or succeeding. And pitch it, pitch it, pitch it, pitch it you will fail sometimes but you learn. Your failures teach you far more than your successes.

MT: Many people actually think that in the region, they fear pitching ideas, because they are not up to the standards of the investors, or that the investors simply aren’t interested. From your experience, have you seen many people actually invest in new ideas or ideas that were pitched by small startup companies, which would later become a multinational success stories?

EG: Modesty is important. Being humble is also very important, which we tend to lack in the middle east. Many of the entrepreneurs that i have met with come to me and say that they want to build a billion dollar business. Start with a hundred thousand, then get to the million and then to the billion. So humility is important. But i did see a lot of investments available. One that comes to my mind, and with whom we are partnered with in the communication sense is Wamda. Get in touch with them, they can greatly help. One thing that is very important to me is that people are afraid to pitch their idea because they are not ready. If you are not ready to pitch it, then don’t pitch it. You haven’t answered the key questions i brought up previously, about customer experience, about payment, about reputation. Once you do answer these questions, then go crazy and pitch it. Pitch it to the first one, learn from what went wrong, modify it and then pitch it to the second one. If you have a cool idea, people will buy it from you.

MT: Excellent! Would you like to add anything to our discussion? Or any added advice to any and all hopeful entrepreneurs?

EG: I would say good luck and count on PayPal to help you take your business online.

MT: Wonderful! Thank you very much Mr. Ghanem.

Elias Ghanem: No thank you. **Smiles**

The article "PayPal Interview – Dispelling Rumors and Online Expansion Advice", written by Malek Teffaha appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

Following a one-month nomination phase, during which more than 600 nominations were made over 32 categories, the results were announced during a press conference at the Phoenicia Hotel, Beirut and were lived-tweeted by attendees. The final results were also announced on the official Twitter account of SMA Beirut.

The judges panel is constituted of prominent public and online figures from all domains and it includes:

• H.E. Nicolas Sehnaoui| Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications
• H.E. Tom Fletcher | British Ambassador to Lebanon
• Mohammad Hijazi | Chief Collaborator Online Collaborative
• Darine Sabbagh | Digital Consultant & Marketing Collaborator Online Collaborative
• Nemr Abou Nassar | Comedian & Performance Artist
• Fida Chaaban | Editor in Chief RAGMAG Magazine
• Omar Christidis | CEO & Founder Arabnet
• Ziad Kamel | CEO The Alleyway Group
• Leila Khauli Hanna | Marketing Instructor at American University of Beirut (AUB)
• Octavia Nasr| Journalist & CEO of Bridges Media Consulting
• Maya Zankoul | Graphic Designer, Founder of Maya Zankoul Design
• Shada Omar |TV Personality & Journalist

For a full and detailed list of the nominees, please visit this link.

The final results will be announced during an event on April 29th, 2013 in Phoenicia hotel and will make sure to cover it with all the details.

So congratulations to all the nominees and thank you for the combined effort of the Tech-Ticker team that led our site to reach this position. Tech-Ticker is still growing, as it has only been fully operational for a few months now, but hopefully has great prospects and potential, with new innovations and ideas that are to be implemented in the coming months.

About SMA Beirut

The Social Media Awards will allow the Lebanese online community to nominate, vote for and award their favorite accounts in the Lebanese social media scene.

SMA Beirut Official Site

Image Source: RagMag.co

The article "Tech-Ticker Nominated for Best Technology Blog On SMAs – Beirut", written by Azmi Sayadi appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

After attending the touch Cloud PitchFest pre-event, I got some more information and details on how exactly this will work and what exactly the PitchFest event is. As stated, touch Cloud, in collaboration with Apstrata, is a collection of web tools available for developers to create and publish an app.

The aim of these tools is to speed up the process of mobile app development by offering a more efficient and streamlined experience through the presence of different API’s (application programming interfaces). In doing so, developers will be allowed more time to focus on other things to optimize their app and to include extra features. Speaking to some of the developers present, I learned that this is actually better than it sounds and many are grateful for its existence and accessibility. I also found out that this technology is also only found in Spain and being one of the pioneers of this truly puts Lebanon ahead in this race and by the looks of it, there’s a high chance that it can excel in it.

Now that we’re done with the webtools created by Appstrata, where does touch fall into all of this? touch is preparing to launch its very own appstore, to be called touch store. Much like Apple’s appstore and Google’s PlayStore, the touch store will offer a wide variety of apps which will mainly be created by the touchcloud. So again, where does touch benefit from all of this?

The answer is quite simple, direct operator billing: touch will offer its customers the ability to buy apps and any in-app purchases and charge those costs on the customer’s bill (if it’s a postpaid account) or to subtract the cost from the available credit (in prepaid accounts). This is great news for customers who don’t necessarily have a credit card or simply those who prefer not to use their credit cards online.

Another benefit for using this store is what was referred to as the whitelist; basically, a list of things touch will allow you to download without subtracting the amount from your internet quota. This will include any app downloaded through the touch store and possibly any in-app purchases as well. The touchstore is planned to release in the coming 2-3 months and will be available on iOS and Android devices, with no word on WP8 devices yet.

Lastly, the PitchFest. The PitchFest is an event organized by AltCity (in collaboration with touch and Appstarta) here in the city of Beirut which encourages local developers to present their apps to a panel of judges. The top 3 apps will be chosen and the first prize winner will receive 15,000$ in cash and consistent support from Appstart until the app start among other things. 33 teams have thus far registered but only 10 will make it to the finals. However, 3 of these teams have automatically made it to the top 10 and these 3 are the top 3 winners of the Hackathon event held earlier this month.

The PitchFest will be held next Saturday, April 6, at 5:00 pm in AltCity and Tech-Ticker will be there to cover it. Also, coming up soon is an interview with the developers of upcoming mobile app, la2ta, which was the first prize winner of the Hackathon.

The article "Touch Cloud PitchFest Pre-Event", written by Hani Farah appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

ArabNet Beirut 2013 officially kicked off the day before, but the beginning of the forum days marked a new hall within the Hilton Habtoor hotel venue, and ushered in a bigger crowd, even bigger panels and talks and wonderful stands and booths for us to try out the latest and greatest from the Arab developers on the show floor.

We were greeted at 9 AM by non-other than ArabNet founder and CEO, Omar Christidis followed by a speech on behalf of the President of the Republic, General Michel Suleiman, read by H.E. Minister Nicola Sehnaoui, and another speech by Dr. Raed Charafeddine, Vice Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon.

First up was “The Entrepreneurship Ecosystem” panel with moderator Ben Rooney from WSJ (Wall Street Journal), and it was hands down the best panel and an excellent start to the forum days. The topics discussed ranged from the problems facing venture capitals and angel investors, to helping entrepreneurs and start ups. I did find it surprising that no one brought up the notion of the “Kickstarter Revolution” but nonetheless the issues handled were quite compelling.

After which came the ideathon and startup pitches. What that basically means is that people from across the arab region go up on stage and get a 2 minute time slot by which they can present an idea or a demo of some sort of an app or project they have in order to gauge investor interest for funding or incubation facilities. Ideas ranged from our very own Darine Sabbagh, who went on stage to present a baby equipment rental solution, titled Baby Talk, to a gun shot locator app that might prove to provide vital safety information to innocent bystanders of the instability in our regions, to a presentation app, titled Presoly, that revolutionizes the way the interactive aspect of presentations to a wonderfully designed finance tracker app, titled Wally, among many other wonderful ideas. Winners of the ideathon and startup pitches would get a year of incubation space from Solidere through their Cloud 5 facilities as well as several other financial benefits from various partners. Be sure to check the list of winners below.

Up next was the wonderful interview with the insightful Minister of Telecom, Mr. Nicola Sehnaoui, moderated by Omar Christidis, which showcased a lot of the past achievements of the ministry, especially within the past year, and highlighted upcoming milestones across several projects, including the 4G/LTE infrastructure expansion plan as well as fiber optic and mobile antenna installations. Questions from the audience discussed topics that related to the safety and privacy of our information stored at the ministry as well as several other hindering problems or highlights.

Omar then proceeded to also welcome and interview on-stage, the General Manager of PayPal MENA, Elias Ghanem (Whom we also had the pleasure of interviewing), by which Mr. Ghanem confirmed that PayPal will be coming to lebanon in 2013 with further expansion to Egypt in 2015, as well as discussing other expansion plans in pipeline.

The remainder of the exciting day included talks like “Rules of Social Entrepreneur” by TigerLily Founder and CEO, Matthieu Chereau, “France 24 and Monte Carlo Doualiya’s Impact in the Arab World” by VP of New Media in France 24, Frederic Bonnard and “State of Digital” by President MEAP, ipsos MediaCT, Elie Aoun. In addition, panel topics that ranged from “Media – Print to Digital”, to “Online Food Delivery and Reservation”, to a panel appropriately named “Feed Me Content”. As can be noted, the first forum day marked a wonderful and fresh take across several highly interesting topics and domains in the arab and international markets and proved to captivate both locals and foreigners across the entire days in partaking in fruitful discussions.

At night we were invited to a social food taster of several food and drink outlets. And let us just put it this way, we were barely able to walk back home thanks to our full stomachs.

The second day kicked off with two concurrent panels. The first, “Mobile Music”, with speakers from the likes of Anghami and Yala Music and Vinelab, moderated by Qualcomm’s own head of Middle East and Central Asia,  Ziad Mattar (Whom we also had the pleasure of interviewing), was entirely captivating with talks ranging from the issues of premium vs freemium music services to notions of piracy and the length by which social media sharing does influence the spending trends of users. The other, which i attended and loved, was the “Enabling Game Development” Panel, moderated by Omar Christidis. Hearing the input from the likes of great minds from Corona Labs, the Jordan Gameing Task Force and Kiip all being poured over the notions of approach to mobile gaming and ad revenues in the gaming world as well as the demographic of mobile gamers (Females proving to be the more popular) proved to be quite the captivating start to the day.

As the day progressed we encountered talks such as “Startup Opportunities in the Apps Economy” by Microsoft’s own Hoda Younan and “Video Entertainment” by Google’s own Thabet Alfishawi, to panels ranging from “Digital Clusters”, to “Digital Innovation in Media and Advertising”, to “Case Studies in E-retail”, to “Social Entrepreneurship” and “Digital Advocacy”. However, what marked the day to be quite unique, were the workshops and case studies in social media with input from the likes of Touch Lebanon, to Just Falafel, Cleartag, Netizency, Digital Republic, Eastline Marketing and Make Sense and Lamba Labs members, adding to the unique flavor that only ArabNet satisfies.

The end of the conference was marked by the award ceremony to the winners of the ideathon/startup demo.

Startup Demo winners are:

1. Wally App (Finance spending track app)

2. eKeif (The Arab eHow)

3. Nafham (And e-learning tutoring and academic app) [Recipient of the Highest Social Impact Award as well]

And the winner of the ideathon was announced to be… Our very own Darine Sabbagh with her idea, Baby Talk.

With that we would like to thank all of our wonderful readers and followers for joining us on the amazing three days of ArabNet. And as has become accustomed of TT, we have exclusive interviews with Qualcomm, Microsoft, PayPal and Make Sense that we cannot wait to share with you. Just bare with us while we edit and fix them up and fine tune them.

A big thank you and shout out to the ArabNet team for the wonderful opportunity and superb organization. We cannot wait to see what you hold in store for us next year!

The article "ArabNet Beirut Forum Days Wrap-Up", written by Malek Teffaha appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

ArabNet Beirut 2013 officially kicked off at 9 AM early yesterday morning with Founder and CEO, Omar Christidis welcoming the crowd and attendees to the first day, officially termed the “Design+Code” Day. As the name clearly suggests, yesterday was all about developers and coders.

Alfa Telecom was up first with a brief talk outlining their 3G success and upcoming 4G launch plans as well as showing us a fun infograph detailing their users (Android was number 1, with Symbian then iOS then BB following lead). Furthermore, they formally announced the first details on their upcoming App Store that should help local developers by removing several of the hindrances in the submission and revenue  process people in the Lebanese sector might encounter from the traditional submission schemes. Phase 1 of the App Store should kick off in June with support on Android and iOS, with Phase 2 following in September with support on Windows Phone.

Second, we were greeted by Razan Sadeq, from ART+COM about Interaction Design. She showed us how simplicity and user feedback is key, quoting the Apple influencing Braun design guru, Dieter Rams, and even showcased a couple of her own inventions, such as a radio that plays music from a specific era in history you like.

And then we proceeded to the Lightning Talks, short five minute presentations done by various speakers. Speakers ranged from Stars of Science winner Hind Hobeika, to TT’s own Darine Sabbagh, to Lamba Lab’s hacker Donald Haddad and Anghami’s Salim Batlouni. The presentations were fun and concise and all served a purpose to push people to achieve better goals in their respective design and developing goals.

After that we proceeded to the coffee break, and then onto the three separated workshops. I personally attended the “Developing for Windows 8″ panel, but did ask around for feedback on the others. Microsoft experts came in to showcase the new offerings from Windows 8 and highlight the differences from past Windows iterations as well as demonstrate the ease and simplicity of developing using their various tools such as the Windows Azure and Visual Studio 2013 Suite. Other panels included “Digital Arabic Typography” by Monotype and “Responsive Design” by Koein, both of which i personally heard were entirely compelling and captivating.

We then proceeded to stuff our stomachs with the delicious lunch buffet the event had set up for us, and then proceeded to the second set of panels. I attended Google’s UX Design workshop, and i am quite happy to report that it was profoundly refreshing. Google’s approach to it was good old fashioned group team work, without the use of any electronic devices and relying only on old-school equipment such as post-it notes and cardboard sketches and brainstorming techniques. It was quite fun and compelling, however it was more targeted toward those with no knowledge in UX design, as people who were proficient in it found it to be a bit repetitive and dull. Other workshops included “Designing Mobile Games with Corona SDK” by Corona Labs, and “Branding for Startups” by Wolff Olins. Both offered unique ways in presentation and managed to captivate the audience and also refine their understanding more.

The day concluded with four workshops. I attended the “Developing for iOS” and Foo Solution, and “Product Management” by Youtube/Google, and found both to be entirely interesting, offering a profound insight into the realm of proper Apple app development on the one hand from industry veterans and experts (Foo has developed quite a handful of excellent iOS and Android apps) and going through the entire process of taking an idea and making it a reality with the likes of Google. Other workshops included “Developing Augmented Reality Apps with Qualcomm Vuforia SDK” by Qualcomm and “Developing for Windows Phone” by Microsoft.

And that marked the end of day 1. Quite an excellent way to start a new year of developments and experiences and to usher in a new wave of arab developers and professionals. Cheers to ArabNet and i can’t wait to go again tomorrow and after tomorrow.

Be sure to keep a close eye on twitter for the latest and greatest.

P.S.: Lots of juicy interviews coming up once we settle down a bit. Today alone we met with Microsoft and Make Sense. Be sure to keep an eye out for the interviews when they are published.

The article "ArabNet Beirut Day 1 Wrap-Up", written by Malek Teffaha appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

Sounds interesting, right? Well if so, then now you have the chance to participate in such an event happening right here in Beirut, Lebanon.

Introducing the DevAppLB Mobile App Hackathon! A 48-hours long event organized by AltCity and in collaboration with touch Cloud (part of touch) and Apstrata between the 15th and 17th of March, 2013.

The event is intended to support Lebanon’s mobile app development community, and increase the number of apps that are designed for and available to Lebanese mobile users. The hackathon will allow professionals and developers from all kinds to combine their efforts to build a mobile application for any mobile platform using the Touch Cloud, aa powerful “Backend-as-a-Service” platform that dramatically simplifies the work of web and mobile app developers. Participants can pitch their idea and form a team, or join a team at the event.

All participants will receive guidance during the Hackathon from technical, design, and business mentors, plus key action-oriented workshops during the event to accelerate the app development process. People are not required to take part in the Touch Cloud workshops before the Hackathon, but those workshops will certainly give them a head start in mastering the skills necessary to build a quality app in 48 hours.

Prizes will be as following:

• First – $1000 Cash + Up to 3 Samsung Smartphones (1/team member)
• Second – $500 Cash
• Third – $250 Cash
• All winners: Wamda Cards – 50% Discounts to attend Cisco Entrepreneur Institute Workshops – Free Job Listings at Bayt.com

Top 3 teams automatically qualify to the Pitchfest that will be held on April 6th with a chance to will $5000 in Cash + 3 months incubation + ANOTHER THREE Samsung Smartphones.

If you are interested, know that registration includes food & drinks, workshops, facilities and t-shirts.

Featured Image Source: APIEvangelist

The article "DevAppLB Mobile App Hackathon", written by Azmi Sayadi appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

The article "ArabNet Beirut 2013 Schedule", written by Azmi Sayadi appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.

And now the little secret is in the hands of little Jeremy Maxwell.

Oh come on! we too want to know, Jeremy, PRETTY PLEASE!!

Samsung teased us with an awesome video hinting “4″ the their new flagship phone. And yes, as we mentioned above, the secret is currently kept with a kid. Just see for yourselves.

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Teaser Video – 1

What do you think? As we can see, Jeremy was blown away. Will we be in his shoes? Or plastic will depress us again? I guess we will have to wait for March 14. Will keep you updated on any new hints and bits.

The article "Galaxy S4: So, What’s In The Box, Jeremy Maxwell?", written by Zaher Hallab appeared originally on Tech-Ticker.