Zain originally has a 40% or 60% stake in Mada Communications, and it seems they are in the works to make it 100% at this stage. Mada has gotten a lot of good press for their WiMax services which they launch just before summer and the turbulent times of the Data Caps. Overall people are happy with their current services with Mada, they do have their issues when they update the towers, some times it increases speeds and sometimes they decrease the speeds drastically. Overall I think they have somewhat evened out, getting between 5 – 8 MB which is honestly really good but not the initial 10 – 11 MB that we used to get. The way their current system works is that they have a unit attached to every Zain Tower in a concentrated area that they cover, and each one has about a 2KM radius, that is why it is very different from location to location. Their Mada also provides other services but thats for corporate services that they give primarily to Zain. So it makes sense that Zain wants to buy them out but the question is will things change for the users?
Now the item in Question… Data Caps?
Since Zain has them, will they be applied under new management, what are exactly the implications we face. I’m not sure if the management will change but I do know how Zain are about their branding, what is theirs has to adhere to their rules. The system that Mada uses won’t put stress on Zain’s current 3G data network so I hope that they would let Mada’s current policies of no capping to continue and hopefully expand on it. Its always good to see services improve and expand and I hope its the case with this.
Group On has been talked about for the last two years, the next big thing in the web, the ones who refused Google, the ones who are going to take to the next level. I didn’t get how exactly they were making money or what they were doing, and then they got a lot of negative press, they lost their top management within months and the CEO and Chairman were till their messing about. From the hype of being of an untouchable company turning down a Google buyout of $6 Billion and then falling from grace with the expectations for its market cap had fallen from $30 billion to closer to $10 billion. There is big story behind the scenes, check out the story from Gawker from the link below.
Link: Gawker
Over the past decade I think people have somewhat gone crazy with Social Networking! I remember when Hi5 and MySpace were all that people talked about in Kuwait and thats even before the marketing companies in the middle east caught on, and MySpace is somewhat dead, and I don’t know what people used Hi5 for in the first place.
To tell the truth there is a lot of good that everyone is able to get out of some these social networking services, in Kuwait Facebook is a fantastic tool for supporting small businesses or big businesses to get in contact directly with their customers to get their feedback, and Twitter is an excellent for fast and short communication or throwing out ideas and getting instant reactions.
- Tumbler
- FourSquare
- Get Glue
Luckily I’m not on very many social networking sites and only recently got on Twitter a few months back and I’m happy I did, but at the same time I got on board with FourSquare and GetGlue and that was insanity for me. I would check into so many different locations on FourSquare and so many different shows on Get Glue, it was pure insanity, I wanted to keep my numbers up, I wanted to be come Mayor, I was obssessed! I would keep checking in with whatever I was doing constantly, it was like I was on crack or something, seriously addicted. At one point it was just taking too much time and too many times doing it, I even figured out small loopholes in it and how to trick it, but luckily by summer I gave up on the useless ones, they were pointless. There is a point to some of these social networking sites, you get tips from FourSquare when traveling and see what are some interesting shows with Get Glue but I just stopped them because it was taking too much time. I’m not getting on Facebook or LinkedIN anytime soon, probably because I see how much time people spend on them and I barely have enough time as it is.
Google Reader is my favorite RSS Agregator out there, my source of information, an organization to all the chaos that faces me on the interweb and now they ravaged it, Google what have you done. I feel like it has been stripped of its powers now longer in control of itself, an autonomous portal on the web. They wanted to streamline their products and at the same time killed off one of its best features, sharing with your friends. There are some people that I always share with on GReader that I don’t socialize with them online, always showing interesting topics that I might not have seen. I’m a fan of Google Plus but doesn’t mean everything has to be shared through, make it an option, not mandatory!
What I Dislike Severly About it:
- No More Friend Shares
- The Monochrome Colors On The Left, I Want My Colors Back
- Feels like its flat
Web site Geekaphone lets you check off the platform, price range, and features you want from a smartphone and tells you which phones match your criteria.
Geekaphone acts like most other “power search” functions you’d find on shopping sites, only it focuses on smartphone features and is incredibly easy to use. Just tell it what platform you want to use (Android, iOS, etc.), let it know your price range, and it will spit out a list of phones. I was impressed with the depth of the search features, you really go into every detail of the phone and specify everything to get what you want. You can then click on different features in the top row (like “hardware keyboard”, “4G”, or “front camera”) and it will narrow down that list for you, featuring the best phone at the top. Instead roaming about all the different sites to find the right phone Geekaphone can help you to choose your next phone, I’m still amazed how they managed to drill down on all the data & Specifications of a phone in a very simple way.
Link: Geekaphone
Its official, it has been over two weeks now and KEMS has been blocking torrents. The Data Caps were somewhat removed quietly and nobody made a fuss about it but it really does seem that Kems doesn’t care about its customers. Just a few weeks back they just went and turned on their traffic throttling and blocking torrents. Its very sad that they can change the terms of our agreements without any notification. Usually in normal situations we would be able to sue because what they are doing is illegal, when you pay for your service they are bound by that contract but in our case they are changing it whenever they want.
Kems was doing so well over the past 3 years and they keep getting better and better, they were really one of the best ISPS, consistent speed, quality connections, almost never down. But then the last 6 months they took a turn for the worst and attacked their own customers with their actions, even bad mouthing their own customers. I don’t know what they had in mind for their PR campaign but it wasn’t a good one.
The Movies:
- 1. Avatar (21 million downloads)
- 2. The Dark Knight (19 million downloads)
- 3. Transformers (19 million downloads)
- 4. Inception (18 million downloads)
- 5. The Hangover (17 million downloads)
- 6. Star Trek (16 million downloads)
- 7. Kick-Ass (15 million downloads)
- 8. The Departed (14 million downloads)
- 9. The Incredible Hulk (14 million downloads)
- 10. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (14 million downloads)
As expected Avatar topped the list but there are a few odd ones I wasn’t expecting on the list. Most of these are crazy blockbuster movies so Kick-Ass is odd man out, also I wouldn’t think that The Incredible Hulk would be there when it was the second movie and they forgot about the original. I expected The Dark Knight and Transformers, but surprised that Iron Man isn’t on the list. I remember The Departed to be a fantastic movie can’t blame it for being up there. Check on TorrentFreak below for more details.
Link: TorrentFreak
- Extremely Thin with High Specs
- Screen Sizes 11 & 13 inches
- Core i5 & i7
- 4 GB Ram
- USB 3.0
- SSD
- Extremely Reasonable Priced For The Power Your Getting
- Power Machine On Steroids
- 13inch Screen
- Win 7 64 Bit Premium to Ultimate
- Core i7
- USB 3.0
- SSD
- 4-8 GB Ram
- AMD Radeon HD 6650M (1GB) Graphics Card
- Very Nice Expansion Dock
- Most Expensize
- The Work Horse, Perfect For Business But Not That Powerful
- E6320
- HD not SSD
- Windows 7 Professional
- Core i7
- 4 GB Ram
- Mid Price Range
The Round Up:
There are a lot of great laptops that have come out over the last few months, some more interesting then the rest. If you are looking for a Windows laptop then this is a very good selection, there are other laptops to choose from but I went for more mobile and powerful. If you are looking for a good robust midrange workhorse then the Dell Latitude is the best option, if you are looking for the most powerful the Sony VAIO Z is top dog at the moment, and if you are looking for high specs but extremely mobile and light then the Asus Zenbook is the best option. From reading all the details regarding the laptops I would have definitely go with the Zenbook, the Sony VAIO is a great option if price is no issue.
VPN Services is simply a way to mask what you are doing online, sometimes its to get through ISP firewalls, or you want to cover your tracks. Sometimes you want to encrypt your BitTorrent traffic so the ISP doesn’t block it (KEMS), other times you want to get around government firewalls and use different services and visit certain sites. I for one use VPNs all the time so I can access US only services and register as if I am there, like Hulu Streaming and other media services.
I split them into two recommendations, ones specific to Torrent VPNs and the other just VPN service, but the Torrent VPNs are also good for VPN usage. VPNs do have an effect, they do slow down the connection just slightly but with some providers it slows down only 5% and with others it slows down 25%, for fast VPN connections I would go with StrongVPN but for BitTorrent specific VPNs I would go with BTGuard.
For BT VPNS:
VPN Serivces:
Check out the link to TorrentFreak to give you the break down of the VPN Services that really protect you.
A lot of us order lots of items from outside of Kuwait, and now with the arrival of the iPhone 4S people will be making a ton of orders to satisfy their Apple addiction, I for one am addicted to Amazon. Now things have gotten a lot worse then before with customs and I’m not sure if this will get any better.
Ministry of Information shutdown their desk at the Customs Airport Counter. So what does that mean, it means every package has to be taken from the Airport to the Ministry and checked out so the process was long before but now its even more ridiculous.
Previously:
- 3-5 Days International Delivery
- 3-5 Days Kuwait Customs Clear
Total 10 Days
Now:
- 3-5 Days International Delivery
- 3-5 Days Kuwait Customs
- 4-7 Days Ministry Of Interior
- 4-7 Days in Custom for the Delivery Company to Pick it UP
Total 24 Days
The Ministry of Information is going through to check what is or isn’t banned but they are going through everything and they don’t have a clue what anything is. I had a very difficult time explaining to them what Gears Of War 3 was, I don’t think they have seen a PS3 or XBox before.
Quick Update
Airport and Port Customs are on strike, good luck getting any of your packages any time soon.