Month: November 2007
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Congratulations season: Jordanian hypocricy and waste of money
The financial managers of the major daily newspapers are very happy these days. They see a river of money flowing into their already overflowing bank accounts as they publish page after page of ads from companies and citizens congratulating the new government and parliament members. Prime minister Nader Dahabi specifically asked people NOT to publish…
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Government refuses to license Zarqa community radio station
I received the following press release from AmmanNet radio. I am republishing it here with The government rejected a petition to grant a local radio license for the third biggest city of Jordan, Zarqa. In one of its last decision the outgoing Jordanian cabinet rejected the application by AmmanNet to set up a community radio…
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George W. Palestine
If anything, this is one heck of a magazine cover. The Economist says: GEORGE BUSH is not likely to be remembered by history as the saviour of the Middle East. He botched Iraq, dropped his democratic “freedom agenda†when the Arabs started voting for the wrong people, and has spent most of his two terms…
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From Russia with LED: Optimus keyboard/super-gadget nears actual launch
I am sure a lot of you geeks out there have seen this gadget before. It’s the Optimus Maximus, a still unreleased super keyboard (priced at over US$ 1000) which will, when released, have a little color screen in each key, enabling it to display any language, icon or image you want. The possibilities are…
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Has Amazon cracked the eBook nut?
It’s called the Kindle (great brand name). It’s from Amazon. It’s being described by some as the iPod of reading. It looks weirdly un-hitech but is reportedly very user friendly. It doesn’t need a computer as it downloads books and other content from the net directly. It won’t work in Jordan because it come with…
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Open letter to the global media industry: embrace the Plastic Internet and give us $3 movies on DVD
Image from: China Expat To the global film, media, gaming and software industry: Your products are being distributed by the millions of copies and you’re not making any money in the process. I am talking about the container-loads of pirated DVDs that you can find in Amman, and any other city in the developing world.…
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The rise and rise of Ammoun News
Here is a remarkable fact: Ammoun News, a news site that is almost exclusively read in Jordan (or by Jordanians) has shot up to attain the rank of 3800 worldwide over the past few days. This means that this site has been probably been getting tens of thousands of visitors a day recently. In the…
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What’s Amman to you?
Amman. What is it to you.. Share with us three sentences that answer this question..
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Talking about The BOB and blogging: my interview on Al Jazeera
“As Seen on TV” I made an appearance (with my orange pullover) on Al Jazeera this morning to talk about The BOBS and why blogging is important.
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German court to T-Mobile: Sell the iPhone without a contract
Rivalry between Germany’s T-Mobile, the official iPhone carrier and Vodafone is getting ugly. Vodafone made a legal move against T-Mobile to force it to sell the iPhone without a contract and as an unlocked device. The court has apparently sided with Vodafone and has handed an order down to T-Mobile to sell the iPhone without…
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I voted
OK. Thanks for all the advice. I voted. I went to the same public school I voted at in the last elections. I took my 9 year old son with me so that he can see how the process goes. He was pretty impressed with the computer that displayed my full name when the “election…
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Samsung Croix/Qbowl/F700: How to NOT launch a phone!
Cool looking phone.. ha? As promising as this ‘iPod Killer” from Samsung looks it is not an iPod killer. The biggest flaw: no WiFi. One review [German link] I read also pointed out that the interface is nowhere near the iPhone’s usability and friendliness and that the touchscreen’s performance was not great. Welcome to the…