It has been talked about for some time, but appears to have finally happened. The UAE's various emirate-level schemes to back entrepreneurs have linked up and gone national.

We're been reporting on this process for a while - most recently here - and it is certainly good news. The National Network for Small and Medium Enterprises will be unveiled in Sharjah next Wednesday, with the federal Minister of Economy and the Ruler of Sharjah both taking part in the launch.

Today in Gulf News, Mishaal al Gergawi - who, as I argued in The National this weekend, has emerged as Dubai's most prominent critical thinker - calls for something that will have many entrepreneurs nodding their heads:

Section off a large government-owned development and offer its offices and shops, in shell and core state, to entrepreneurs and artists for a minimal all-in Dh5,000 licence fee, effectively deregulating entrepreneurship.

The logic is solid, and furthers a line of thinking on the future of Dubai that has been quietly emerging over the last year.

One of the weirdest and most annoying features of Apple's new iPad is that it does not accept that same kind of SIM cards that are used by every other mobile device on the planet. Instead, it takes a "micro-SIM," which is about half the size of a regular SIM card and currently in use by....nobody.

What this means, in short, is that if you want to connect your iPad to a mobile network for mobile broadband, you'll need to ask your friendly local operator for a new micro-SIM that they have made especially for the iPad. This gives networks huge power over their customers, because they can tie any terms and conditions and contract lengths they want to that micro-SIM.

More importantly though - who will actually have these new kinds of SIM cards available for their customers? It is a big question, so I did a bit of asking around here in the UAE.

Anyone reading this blog has already spend the last 24 hours immersed in a universe of news and analysis on Apple's new cancer-curing, famine-ending giant iPhone that can't make phone calls tablet computer. I have nothing to add and agree with everyone.

But in case you missed them, here are two YouTube videos that are worth watching (Warning: second video contains the occasional swear word. It also contains Adolf Hitler).

Out beyond ideas right and wrong, there is a field. I will meet you there.
- Rumi, Persian poet

Out beyond tablets and touchscreens, there is a wonderful place. Please, take me there.
- Tom, guy

The technology thinker, blogger, videographer and polymath of the digital age, Robert Scoble, made a video of a demo of the funkiest new technology I have seen in a while. Sure, it doesn't cure cancer or restore hope to Haitians like Apple's upcoming product. But not every gadget is plucked directly from a mystical pool of divine water by the Lady of the Lake, so don't get your hopes up. In the meantime, to tide you over until Nerd Christmas begins in about 7 hours, this is pretty cool.

A new competition framework for the telecom market will be launched by the TRA today. Beep Beep's David George-Cosh is there for the release, and you can expect stories later today.

We should all have high hopes for what comes out of todays launch, and there are a couple of interesting things about this whole situation that are worth mentioning.  

Earlier this month, we published a pretty interesting story about Etisalat introducing a service that would permit Indian expatriates to send money home using their mobile phone.

The service was to be launched sometime this month, according to Essa al Haddad, the group chief marketing officer for Etisalat.

Well, the month is almost over, so I called Etisalat for an update. Tens of thousands of Indian expatriates were likely holding their breath in anticipation for the services launch.

What I found it that the company's mobile remittance service will be delayed for two more weeks as officials tie up loose ends and get everything ready for launch, an Etisalat spokesman told me.

So, currency exchange houses will have a short reprieve on losing in on their lucrative US$10 billion (Dh36.7bn) remittance business.

As well they should. It doesn't take a genius to realise that sending money over a mobile device is infinitely more efficient that going personally to UAE Exchange and handing over your cold, hard cash. Wouldn't it be better to just top up your mobile balance, punch in a few numbers and - voila! - instant money transfer?

Indeed, that future will be here in a couple of weeks. Watch this space for more when the mobile remittance service launches.

Are mobile operators getting into the iPhone app game? You can bet there's an app like that. 

Yes, it appears that Etisalat is taking the iPhone app world quite seriously with a new free application targeting golf enthusiasts who will be taking in the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship next week.

I haven't seen it available on the iTunes App Store yet, but I'm sure that users will be able to get real time data, player profiles and course information, just like the company promises in its press release.

The operator has already got one iPhone app in the can, a Yellow Pages app that aids with finding addresses and phone numbers. Unfortunately, the only reviews for the current version of the app suggest that it crashes quite a bit, so caveat emptor.

The key thing here is that it is quite rare for telecom companies to develop iPhone apps, leaving the bulk of work to the software developers of the world. But operators are increasingly becoming more involved in the content side of the business and this announcement is definitely a sign of things to come.

A quick check on iTunes reveals that Etisalat appears to be the only Middle Eastern operator making iPhone apps, but that could soon change. We'll have more on this story at a later date.

And yes, an apology for the cheesiness of the first line there. I couldn't help myself.

More details from Etisalat after the jump. 

Abu Dhabi's push to become a real player in the microchip industry, led by the government-owned Advanced Technology Investment Company (Atic), has has taken it to Seoul. Today, Atic formed a partnership with the Korean Semiconductor Industry Association. And there was much rejoicing.

It is hard not to admire the story of South Korea's incredible rise from abject poverty one one of the world's most prosperous and advanced economies. Aside from semiconductors, which they make better than pretty much anyone, those plucky Koreans export a ton of amazingly complex things, from enormous buildings to nuclear power plants.

There's no doubt that Abu Dhabi's push into advanced industries like semiconductors, aerospace and renewable energy is inspired by small Asian nations like Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, whose citizens now live the good life (perhaps not quite the Abu Dhabi good life) despite almost no real natural resources. And it is good to see partnerships like this, which explicitly recognise that inspiration.

Read on for the full announcement: