http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/ Beep Beep RSS http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/08/uae-e-commerce-put-to-the-test.html Order at lunchtime, delivered by the time you get home from work - Boutique 1 means every day can be your expensive birthdayIt is pretty much conventional wisdom now that the next big, untapped market for web entrepreneurs in the... August 29, 2010 11:42 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/08/another-microchip-investment-from-abu-dhabi.html A "clean room" bathed in ultra-violet light at the Globalfoundries microchip plant in Dresden, Germany (Pic by Jeff Topping / The National)Can Samson slay Goliath? Taking its cue from the biblical tale of the underdog defeating the giant with a... August 16, 2010 11:23 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/08/network-neutrality-thy-end-is-near.html Fibre optic networks, like the one above, open up all sorts of possibilities for "fast lane" deals between telecom and internet companies. (pic by Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg)A big, big scoop in the New York Times last week revealed Google... August 8, 2010 11:43 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/08/full-rim-customer-statement-on-blackberry-security-issues.html Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry, issued the following statement to its customers yesterday in response to the security issues raised by India, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Although several news organisations have quoted parts of... August 3, 2010 12:06 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/08/free-iphones-for-uae-blackberry-subscribers.html UPDATED: There is some fine print on this; turns out you only get a totally free iPhone if you were on the BlackBerry "unlimited global" package (the most expensive one). Everyone else will need to pay an "add on" fee... August 3, 2010 11:33 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/07/the-web-20-get-rich-quick-circus-hits-dubai.html At the Automatic Cashflow Workshop in April, host Ernesto Verdugo (pictured) told attendees a new millionaire is born on the internet every 8 minutes. "No more thankless, unfulfilled pay for 40-60 hours per week for the rest of your life!"... July 19, 2010 11:30 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/07/what-will-be-the-next-arab-startup-to-exit.html July 13, 2010 6:42 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/07/video-iphone-4-with-uae-reception-issues.html UPDATE: Consumer Reports has put out a great video documenting this problem. What the world needs more of, is science. I've added their video at the end of the post.Someone in the newsroom bought an iPhone 4 while on holiday... July 12, 2010 4:18 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/07/inventor-of-the-cellphone-reveal-yourself.html July 11, 2010 2:33 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/07/dismantling-zain.html July 7, 2010 2:49 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/07/is-it-game-over-for-sms-spam.html The UAE has a problem with text message spamming - a big problem. Anyone with a mobile knows what we are talking about here - text messages advertising everything from fashion sales to nightclubs and spare car parts, sent at... July 6, 2010 3:17 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/07/nokia.html As we have posted many times before, Nokia has spent the last two years embracing its doom like a long-lost lover and rolling around on the floor with it. But the company's trajectory keeps getting uglier - I can now... July 4, 2010 11:56 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/06/flash-sales-for-the-fashion-forward.html June 29, 2010 11:10 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/06/hope-change-455-million-dollars-and-two-perspectives.html Barack Obama delivers the now famous/infamous Cairo Speech (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)Barack Obama's "Cairo Speech" is generally considered a brief high point in the US president's attempts to start a new relationship with the Muslim world (and more accurately, the Arab... June 27, 2010 5:16 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/06/a-review-of-last-nights-democamp---weve-still-got-a-lot-of-work-to-do.html If there is a word to describe last night's Democamp, "ambivalent" might probably work best. It was the second time that Democamp, an internationally recognized event that celebrates new internet startups, was hosted by Dubai Internet City at the Knowledge... June 24, 2010 3:44 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/06/how-to-win-dus-foursquare-prize-without-really-trying.html UPDATE - Du has responded to this blog post through its Twitter account noting that, "We're aware of this flaw, but there's nothing we can do about it since it's the way @foursquare works :)"---Du, the UAE's favourite monosyllabic telecommunications... June 22, 2010 5:53 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/06/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-skype-iphone-calls-less-than-youd-think.html It should be no surprise that Friday's front-page story on the UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority deciding that using Skype's iPhone app was illegal was one of the day's most popular stories. People in the UAE really want free, unregulated access... June 20, 2010 8:52 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/06/more-please-a-welcome-wave-of-e-commerce-in-the-uae.html It has been obvious for some time now that e-commerce is the next great land-grab opportunity on the Arab web. After cashing out of Maktoob, it's co-founder Samih Toukan has gotten into e-commerce in a big way. My bet is... June 17, 2010 4:26 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/06/zain-bharti-and-africa-it-aint-over-till.html Last week the Kuwaiti mobile operator Zain announced it had completed the $10.7 billion sale of its African mobile operations to Bharti Airtel, an Indian mobile operator. The announcement seemed to end a two-year saga on the future of the... June 13, 2010 3:52 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/06/boxing-day-reflections-on-nerd-christmas.html The day after Nerd Christmas is known as Boxing Day, named after the traditional public boxing matches that are held between those singing praises on the mysterious man from California and those disappointed by his wonderful new toys.Men (and the... June 8, 2010 11:37 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/06/as-nerd-christmas-approaches-we-watch-and-wait.html The many legends and myths surrounding Nerd Christmas cannot be verified, and the Magical Man who brings us toys is a figure of great mystery and comtemplation. Here, he contemplates himself, in the shadow of a larger Himself (Pic by... June 7, 2010 11:26 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/06/a-new-study-released-by.html A new study released by the UAE telecom regulator shows what most of us have known for a while - that the fight between du and Etisalat is looking more real than ever. For the first year of its life,... June 2, 2010 4:03 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/05/the-uae-enters-an-age-of-de-penetration.html The UAE may have welcomed 4 million new residents in the last five years. (Pic by Jumana El Heloueh / Reuters)A new report issued yesterday by the national statistics agency put the UAE's population at 8.2 million, a giant leap... May 30, 2010 2:03 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/05/telco.html - The Financial Times has a good overview of goings on in Egyptian telecoms, where Vodafone is preparing to say farewell to the market that has treated it very well over the years. Vodafone's new CEO, Vittorio Colao, is keen... May 25, 2010 3:03 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/05/15-million-people-that-havent-deleted-their-facebook-account.html Spot On PR, who have done a good job positioning themselves as the go-to people for smart thoughts about Middle Eastern social media, have released a new study on Facebook in the region. (We have blogged about their useful twitter... May 24, 2010 1:04 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/05/a-bill-would-be-ill.html Giving entrepreneurs access to the Gold Dispenser is not the solution to our problems. (Pic by Ali Haider / Bloomberg)At the Arab Economic Forum in Beirut this weekend, Mohammed Johmani, founder of the O2 Network (the Dubai-based marketing company, not... May 23, 2010 2:27 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/05/smart-pipes-can-be-dangerous-pipes.html The most interesting web / mobile news of the week, as co-editor David has blogged below, is Facebook partnering with telecom companies around the world (including du in the UAE) to offer a mobile version of their site that is... May 20, 2010 1:19 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/05/facebook-access-now-free-to-all-du-mobile-subscribers.html Facebook did a rather cool thing yesterday. The largest social networking website in the world announced that it made a version of itself available on any mobile device - accessible via 0.facebook.com - completely for free. That's right, free. Even... May 20, 2010 8:30 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/05/why-du-pulled-out-of-mecom.html du's brand remains all alone and away from this year's MECOM event - Photo: Jeffrey Biteng / The NationalAttending this week's MECOM event was a rather tepid affair. The amount of exhibition halls dropped to two from three the year... May 19, 2010 4:50 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/beep_beep/2010/05/there-will-be-a-third-uae-mobile-operator-except-that-there-wont.html The telecom regulator's chief, Mohamed al Ghanim, put a stop sign on the road to telecom competition in statements this week. (Pic by Ryan Carter / The National)The Mecom telco conference is happening right now in Abu Dhabi, and the... May 18, 2010 3:25 PM