Yes, it's true, Gitex, the biggest technology event of the year (in the Middle East), is just around the corner. Like some of you, I've had literally hundreds of e-mails, phone calls and press releases tossed my way for consideration, but true to any tech conference, there's only a handful of things the regular geek should really check out.

To leave you all in suspense, I've included my top five list of Gitex's things you shouldn't avoid after the jump.

(Photo: Will this year's event carry the same enthusiasm last year's Gitex had? Randi Sokoloff / The National)

As you can see on this page, du are now offering unlimited "unlimited" mobile data - really, properly, unlimited - for Dh360 ($98) a month. That's a 22% discount on Etisalat's price for an "unlimited" account, which is actually limited to 10 gigabytes of downloads with the 11th gigabyte costing a cool Dh3000.

(UPDATE: reader Gerald D tells us that du also limit their "unlimited" package to 10GB. That is disappointing coming from du, because at least Etisalat are open about their limited "unlimited" deal on their website)

Here's a screen grab of the new price structure:


A 2GB monthly package on du no costs Dh200, which is what you would pay for 1GB through Etisalat. What does this all mean, and why haven't du publicised these huge discounts? One theory spings to mind.

A group hug and general hip-hip hooray for two members of the Middle East startup community:

Woopra, in my opinion the most exciting internet startup coming out of the Middle East today, have taken their real-time web traffic monitoring system out of beta and unleashed it on the big wide world. Until now the service has been in trial mode, open only to beta testers on free accounts (more than 85,000 web publishers signed up, with a long waiting list). But as of last night, Woopra is now open for business - check this post on the Woopra blog for all the details.

And ArabCrunch, a great resource for the regional startup community, has also reached something of a milestone, launching a new Arabic-language site. Aside from being a translated version of the original site, it will cover international startup / dotcom news in Arabic, targeting an audience that still has plenty of room to grow. It is also open to contributions from the community.  Here's a post from ArabCrunch explaining the new site.

The UAE may dominate the Middle East twitterverse, and Jordan might be the only game in town when it comes to dotcom startups, but we all know that when it comes to blogging, the Egyptians are running the game. So congratulations to Noura Yehia of the cool design blog Noupe, whose site has been acquired by the web development / design mega site, Smashing Magazine.

I'd like to introduce you all to The National's new tech and telecom reporter, David George-Cosh.

David is an all round good guy and committed techie, who has been a co-author here on Beep Beep since we launched the blog. In a past life he covered the Canadian telecom scene for The National Post, so this is a man that knows his BlackBerries.

If you want to get in touch with The National for anything technology, internet or telecom related, David is now your man. You can email him at dgeorgecosh@thenational.ae

I'll still be blogging here, particularly looking at the regional startup scene, which is something I would keep on writing about even if I had to pay for the privilege. But my day job is changing over to a super-exciting new project at The National which is wonderful and cool and awesome. I can't wait to tell everyone about it.

So Beepers, give David a warm welcome, and PR people, be gentle with the fresh meat. Its been real. 

Etisalat has just announced cuts in its pricing of the iPhone 3G. As seen around the rest of the world, this is typically the move that happens in the weeks leading up to the launch of the iPhone 3GS - and syncs nicely with the rumours of a 3GS launch at the Gitex conference in Dubai.

Read on for the press release and new pricing info from Etisalat:

Nokia has extended the deadline for mobile application developers to enter its contest for the Arab world's best mobile application. The new deadline for entries is November 15. The winning app will get $100,000, second place gets $25,000 - both are a pretty nice payday for any clever Arab developers out there.

The "Calling All Innovators - Bil3arabi" ('in Arabic') contest was launched alongside the catastrophe that was the Nokia N97, and I can imagine that Nokia may be struggling to convince developers to build Symbian apps, given that is is looking fairly clear that Nokia's high-end internet phones of the future will use its Maemo operating system, based on Linux, not Symbian.

Read on for the press release from Nokia:

Today in a world beeping with joy and redemption:

Nabil Alyousuf, a former right-hand man to Sheikh Mohamed of Dubai, is now working on one of the Middle East's newest, and most interesting, hybrid venture fund / business incubators. One new company will act like a VC, but connect entrepreneurs directly with investors - a model designed to appeal to Gulf investors who want a closer connection to the business they are buying into. The advisory / support / incubation side will be handled by a sister company. All in all, a pretty interesting story.

Forget smartphones. I want a smart toaster, and Abu Dhabi's Masdar City is going to make it happen. And speaking of smartphones, Gulf News reports that Etisalat is having more BlackBerry issues.

The UAE's first phone powered by Google's Android operating system will be launched on Wednesday, according to a press release sent out yesterday. Etisalat will partner with HTC to release the HTC Magic handset, which has been getting pretty solid reviews. I'm getting pretty bored with my iPhone, could this be the one to switch to?

The keynote speaker at Gitex this year will be the head of Microsoft's OEM division, Steven Guggenheimer, who will be talking up the launch of Windows 7 (due to happen a couple of weeks after Gitex.)

Fear the grey goo! Fear it! Nanotechnology is coming to Abu Dhabi, Khaleej Times reports. Neopharma, a local pharmaceutical company, will use tiny tech to manufacture, among other things, "nutraceuticals," defined as "nanotechnology-based food supplements. Hail to our new shape-shifting nano-overlords.

A bit of a change of pace today, Beep Beep will be looking at the UAE media market, newspapers in particular. For a fairly small population of English speakers, the UAE English-language newspaper market is pretty saturated. Veteran papers like Gulf News and Khaleej Times lead the market, but they compete for stories, readers and advertisers with newcomers: The National, Business 24-7 and 7Days (which, in UAE terms seems like an old-timer, running as a daily since 2004.)

My employer, The National, is the newest of the lot, launched in April 2008.

Management at the Abu Dhabi Media Company, our publisher, recently commissioned Ipsos, the research group, to do a study on how the paper stands in the market now, 18 months after launch. The results are pretty interesting.