Category: Digital life
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iOS7′s design: European minimalism triumphing over American quirkiness and fun?
Yesterday I had my first chance to use iOS7. I played with it for an hour on an iPad (actually my mother’s iPad which my younger brother has used to check out the iOS 7 beta releases). Before showing it to me, he showed it to my 10 year old son, who certainly can be…
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Nokia’s Lumia 920: a respectable presence, maybe even a comeback
Marko loves his Nokia’s devices. And he talks like a craftsman. But can this object mark Nokia’s comeback? Around a month ago I was given the Nokia Lumia 920 to review. I am expecting a call any moment now from the Nokia PR agency wanting their phone back. And I have to say: I am…
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Once upon a time HM King Abdullah II commented on a blog
It was just four years ago that HM King Abdullah II commented on The Black Iris, the well known Jordanian blog. You can see His Majesty’s comment here. In that comment the King said: “We are a country of freedom, tolerance, diversity and openness, and everyone has the right to express their thoughts – no…
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More from IFA and the future of TV: dual viewer screens, the war of 3D glasses and magic remotes
My previous post from my trip to the IFA consumer electronics show was all about OLED and 4K and what LG, who invited me to the show, were promising consumers for the years ahead in the field of TV. But I also wanted to share some of the other stuff I saw and give you…
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55″ OLED TVs and 84″ 4K screens: the next evolutions of TV are here
Trips to the local electronic superstores in Amman will be a frustrating experience for me in the coming few years. Why? Because I seen the future of TV screens at the Berlin’s IFA consumer electronic expo. That future is big, it’s high resolution, it’s 3D and it’s smart. LG invited me to the IFA consumer…
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The best of IFA 2012: Jordan’s tech reporters uncover the show’s best kept secret
Forget about 84″ screens with 4K resolution.. Forget about OLED and true blacks. Forget about 3D with active glasses, passive glasses and no glasses. Forget about tablets, smartphones and super thin laptops. You can even forget about wall mounting brackets.. Don’t believe the hype from all those electronics companies. Because your brave tech reporters from…
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Why am I joining the Jordan Internet Blackout
For the past decade and a half, a large part of my belief in Jordan as a homeland has been based on the fact that we had a free uncensored internet (yes I know about the Arabtimes.com exception, but let’s just agree that the net in Jordan was largely free and uncensored). What does the…
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Internet freedom in Jordan: the beginning of the end?
Whenever journalists, investors or ordinary people ask me: why has Jordan been able to shine in the region in the field of technology, web business and web content, one of my standard answers has always been: our relative freedom and our open internet policies. Over the past decade, Jordan has been steadily building a reputation…
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my new year’s book buying binge
Looks like Prime Books at Baraka Mall is doing a clearance sale. I was lured into the store by a “50% off” sign. I walked out with so many books, a shop assistant had to actually help carry them to the car. Most of these books will end on the shelves of company’s library. The…
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Google’s design mess: Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich adds to the problem
That lock screen looks promising, doesn’t it. That’s how Google’s newest version of Android looks. It is a major release of Android, and one of its major features was to supposedly make its design “lovable”. As Android’s design chief Matias Duarte himself said: people sort of respected Android, but no one loved it. Its latest…
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Upgrade your European Nexus S i9023 to Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.03
Happy to report that I have just successfully upgraded my European GSM Nexus S (i9023) to Android 4.03 Ice Cream Sandwich, manually. I didn’t want to wait for the Other The Air (OTA) update to be rolled out in my territory (Jordan). I was a little reluctant to use the instructions on Android Central because…
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Talent of community: sketch-a-talk videos animate Arab Spring themes on Ikbis
What happens when you interview a diverse bunch of Arab activists and new media geeks one Skype, edit all of it dow to a few minutes, get an amazingly talented cartoonist, mix in a video camera and some video and sound editing dudes? Ikbis has been experimenting with “community produced videos”. By pulling in different…