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360east | design, media, technology (50 unread)

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March 07, 2010
9:50
Counterparts - Ammani House 28 in transition
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Photo: Dina Haddadin House 28 on the corner of Rainbow Street is in a state of flux. The old landlady and her old, bed-ridden husband have passed away. It seems like yesterday she was showing Ahmad Sabbagh and me through the apartment under the main house. That apartment became what I called the “SYNTAX house”. A succession [...]
March 06, 2010
15:12
The iPad is so 2010. Say “hello?” to the ePad..
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)
February 28, 2010
17:46
The NYTimess writes about Amman (and my fellow bloggers and tweeps complain)
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

I really love my fellow Ammani bloggers and tweeps. I really think that they are one of the best things that happened to us in the last ten years. I love that many of them have give a voice to Amman’s urban issues and urban activism. But sometimes they have me shaking my head with [...]
February 26, 2010
19:16
Who can revolutionize Arabic music? A bunch of people from Finland and their friends, perhaps?
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

I really wish I had a time machine in my basement. Here is what I would do: pay a visit to Cairo in the 1950s or 1960s. Here is one time destination I would travel to: 24 February 1966, Cairo. I would key-in time and place on the machine’s touch screen and seconds later would [...]
February 24, 2010
3:06
VIDEO: Zaha Hadid announced as winner to design new art and culture center in Amman
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Zaha Hadid was officially announced as the final winner of the long standing competition to design the King Abdullah II House for Art and culture in Amman. Mayor Omar Maani made the announcement in a special ceremony held a couple of days ago where he hosted Hadid and a group of dignitaries, cultural officials and [...]
February 22, 2010
16:31
SYNTAX wins Jordan’s best website prize at the Jordan Web Awards
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Check this out: the sweat and tears (almost) that the SYNTAX (and Spring) team poured into the Amman Centennial website paid off in a new way. It was a nice surprise that we won the Jordan Web Awards best site of 2009 prize. But there’s a catch: the trophy was so damn heavy, my arm almost [...]
16:19
How to swear in Arabic, using web and tech jargon!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

This video, the product of the “sick minds” at Kharabeesh was first shown at the Jordan Web Awards a couple of days ago. It was one of the highlights of the evening! So watch or I will RSS your face!
February 14, 2010
2:23
360east goes to Mobile World Congress 2010
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Yes, 360east is off to Barcelona tonight to attend the Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest get together for the mobile industry and a symbol of the world’s obsession of staying connected anytime, anywhere. The numbers of people alone is staggering: 50,000 professional will visit the event this year, including, supposedly 2,800 CEOs (are there so [...]
February 08, 2010
17:29
After the dust settled.. some iPad questions
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

The official release of the iPad is still some time away. Apple still has not disclosed all the details. And by the time the iPad hits the stores, developers would have already prepared a lot of great applications that will make the iPad very useful. Like many others I was wishing for a more OS X [...]
15:37
Firefox overtakes Internet Explorer on 360east
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

[Click to enlarge] I haven’t looked at my site analytics for a while, so this evening I checked out some of my browser stats. It turns out that Firefox users (37% ) have overtaken Internet Explorer users (34%) on this site. So next time when some Microsoft-centric web developer gives you a site that only looks [...]
12:33
Nokia N900: A monster. A good monster.
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Every object, every product, says something about the people behind it. In the old, pre-industrial days you would meet your carpenter, your blacksmith and your potter. People behind life’s object where more visible. Today, we don’t see the people behind the objects that define our lives. The creation of these objects requires the cooperation of [...]
February 07, 2010
7:48
I really like how the Combo4 lunch show is overlaid on Ikbis.com
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Just opened Ikbis.com during lunch time and finally saw the Combo4 overlay “live”.. Just thought to share this moment!
January 25, 2010
17:19
Nokia does it! Free navigation (in Amman) and all over the globe
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Now this is just AMAZING. Nokia has decided to stop charging for GPS navigation on its phones. Voice navigation for driving and walking is now FREE. If you have an NSeries, ESeries, XpressMusic 5800 (or a bunch of other devices which have maps/navigation) you basically have just been give a GPS navigation device that works all [...]
January 24, 2010
3:16
A Lebanese man walks in Amman..
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

This might sound like the the first line of a joke waiting for a punch line. But this Lebanese man is not the star of a funny joke but the writer Hazem Amin, who one evening found himself as “Amman’s only pedestrian, stumbling over its sidewalks“. That’s the title of his article in Al-Ghad today [...]
January 19, 2010
4:50
Web freedom in Jordan shouldn’t be sacrificed because of a bunch of sleazy rumor spreaders
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Watch this video by Aramram. Many of us defending web freedom in Jordan are doing it because we care about the country’s development and the benefits of free speech online for society, for government, for Jordan’s international image and for business and investment. After 15 years of liberal internet policy in Jordan, it would be shameful [...]
January 17, 2010
15:41
Abu Saleem Al-Almani Al-Ammani
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Any name that starts with “Abu-something” and ends with a “ni” or “we” sound, might remind us of militants is Afghanistan.. But this Abu is different. Meet Abu Saleem the German-i. He may be no turbaned militant. But he has a bit of a beard. And he’s fighting for a cause: Environmental awareness in Jordan! [...]
January 16, 2010
17:10
Keeping Jordan’s web open and free
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

One of the best things about Jordan is its liberal and open attitude toward the internet. In an Arab sea of restrictiveness (Lebanon is the exception) our open internet policy has enabled Jordanians to access all of the web (with the exception of one site: the US-based ArabTimes.com). This openness says something important about how the [...]
January 11, 2010
5:04
Jordanians want it easy!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

There are few certainties in life: the sun will rise from the east and set in the west. Objects tend to fall back down when thrown up. And Jordanian Tawjihi (Secondary final exam) student will complain about the ‘difficulty’ of the math test. Another certainty: they will find a journalist to write about the complaints. [...]
January 06, 2010
8:51
SYNTAX gets its own Word Guru
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

For me, design and writing are the same thing, and I do quite a lot of both. Sometimes I tell people that what got me into design was some weird passion for publishing (like doing a newsletter for our household when I was aged 12 or something like that). At our company SYNTAX, content and communication [...]
January 05, 2010
3:15
What to have for lunch? Combo4 from Ikbis.com!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Everyday around lunch time, Combo4 takes over the menu on Ikbis.com. Expect a satisfying meal of funny, strange and sometimes shocking videos, with fries or a small salad. Enjoy.
December 30, 2009
5:59
Say Happy New 2010 on Amman’s 1st Cricle tomorrow
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Welcome the the new year in the open air.. on Amman’s 1st Circle! We want to celebrate the new year the Ammani way Everyone is welcome. Be creative. When: Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 11:30pm to Friday, January 1, 2010 at 12:30am Details on Facebook (there aren’t really more details We just want to celebrate the [...]
December 23, 2009
18:25
My Amman: re-discovering, re-engaging, re-connecting our city
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

My AmmanView more documents from SYNTAX. I had the pleasure of being invited by Jordanian social entrepreneur (and self proclaimed “doctor of companies, governments and peoples”) Maher Kaddoura, to give a talk about ‘My Amman’ at the pilot of NewThink, an initiative to spread a culture of positive action, a can-do attitude and entrepreneurship [...]
December 17, 2009
9:10
HM Queen Rania mentions use of Watwet in Le Web keynote as example of digital activism
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Last week my TootCorp partner Mazen and I had a great time attending Le Web, Europe’s largest internet conference. You can actually watch the entire conference on the video archives of Ustream, who where streaming the sessions live. The pace of innovation we witnessed around the real time web, social networks is just and mobile apps [...]
4:53
The Steorn free energy story refuses to die as a new public demo is set up
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

They’re back! The guys from Ireland who claim to have created a magnetic machine that generates energy from nothing. It’s a story that refuses to die. Now the guys have set up a public demo in Dublin. Their failed demo in London a couple of years ago drew widespread ridicule. Now their ‘Orbo’ is spinning and [...]
December 03, 2009
15:32
Is this the future of magazines (on the Apple tablet)?
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)
November 18, 2009
15:54
Egypt x Algeria: Football, brands, the Arab national state and God in a snapshot
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

This moment I am lying in bed. I’ve been lying here for the better part of the last 48 hours, with a fever and a headache. It’s a common cold or a flu (apparently not of the swine variety). As I write this, the Nile has turned into a river of tears. A little while ago [...]
November 15, 2009
17:50
Shifting gears in Jordan.. Let’s talk entrepreneurship!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Going to the opening of the Global Entrepreneurship Week tonight was like going to group therapy. My partner Razan and I had just had an “afternoon from hell” dealing with extremely lame financial reporting issues at the office. It’s the stuff that makes one curse the day he or she decided to be entrepreneurial and [...]
5:42
Navigating Amman: Hands on with Nokia’s Jordan GPS maps!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Finally! I’ve been covering developments in getting Amman and Jordan mapped electronically for a few years now, at one point even suggesting that we as users just do it ourselves! This whole GPS maps and navigation business in Jordan was being held up for over a year by what seems to be [...]
October 12, 2009
5:25
Amman’s most colorful day: a city no longer ashamed of itself!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

For the past two years, the subject of Amman has been unavoidable for me. Not only do I live in this city, but I’ve also been, with my company SYNTAX, involved in the first big branding effort this city has undertaken. I am overdosed on Amman! The branding project has been completed but writing about [...]
October 07, 2009
2:54
Experience Amman and its story: the most comprehensive city history site ever
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

It’s been a long time in the making, but now its here. Never before has Amman’s story been presented to its citizens and guest so vividly and comprehensively. It’s still a work in progress that Ammanis and their guest will complete in the coming months and years. I am talking about the Amman Centennial website, branded [...]
October 05, 2009
4:03
Tweeting goes Arabic: Dubai Eye 103.8 and Business 27/7 cover Watwet.com
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

This morning I woke up at 6 am Amman Time, be interviewed by Dubai Eye 103.8’s Business Breakfast show about Watwet .You can listen to the interview here. This comes hot on the heels of an interview that Emirates Business 24/7 did with Watwet CEO Kareem Arafat. With the Twitter hype going mainstream in the region, [...]
3:51
The longevity of content: Iftah Ya Simsim, the Sesame Street of Arabia
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

I have three kids, aged 11, 6 and 3. So its obvious that a lot of children TV and content is consumed in our household. Kids today have an amazing array of media targeted at them: from Bluray quality Pixar movies in vivid detail, color and surround sound, to online Flash games and YouTube [...]
October 04, 2009
6:17
Scramled/fuzzy screen on your XpressMusic 5800? Just shine some light on it!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

In a previous post a month ago I explained that the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic’s screen goes fuzzy and scrambled when it gets cold, and that warming it up helps bring the screen back to normal. A number of people from around the world commented on that post, describing the same problem. In my desperation I was [...]
September 30, 2009
16:05
Grendizer creator Go Nagai coming to Amman!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

A flying robot.. An his creator.. ..are coming to Amman!! Go Nagai, the man behind Grendizer is coming to Amman and giving two lectures. 7 October at 11 am at the Princess Sumaya University 8 October at the Royal Film Commission. This is fantastic. Details here. When I blogged about Grendizer five years ago, the amount of comments I got was overwhelming. [...]
September 28, 2009
18:53
How disagreeing with the Jordan Times on Twitter will get you BLOCKED for their service!!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

UPDATED: I had a very friendly chat with the Jordan Times Editor in Chief (who was totally unhappy about what happened with me on Twitter). Obviously, The Jordan Times does not condone the blocking of users from their service nor the style of the communication that was used by the person working on their Twitter [...]
18:09
Google listens to feedback, changes “Egabat” to “Ejabat”
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

And they even created a video to celebrate the change.. When I blogged about Google’s new Arabic Q&A service a while ago, I received a comment from Wael Ghonim, Google’s MENA Product and Marketing man, noting with interest the issue I (and others) raised about the service’s name “Egabat”. Now, after surveying the community [...]
September 14, 2009
17:04
“Migrating to the Mac feels like immigrating to a first world nation”
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

A Facebook update by my friend Bilal Hijjawi inspired this “360east imitation” Click to enlarge a little bit
September 12, 2009
20:10
Amman’s new brand starts making an appearance
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Earlier this year, SYNTAX delivered the brand guidelines of the new Amman Brand to the Greater Municipality of Amman, which was the final delivery of a project that kept us totally immersed in Amman, its history, its people and its character for well over year. It was an intensive process of discovery, research, conceptualization, writing, [...]
September 11, 2009
18:19
Living without the dish: our family’s video-on-demand experiment
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Two months ago, my family moved house. Our satellite dish was left on the roof of the old house. Since the move, we’ve been living without a dish, resulting in a purely video-on-demand lifestyle. So how important is TV for you and your kids? And what happens when conventional satellite TV is absent? Every family is different, [...]
September 09, 2009
16:40
Suddenly, public transport is ‘cool’ for Arabs. Thank you Dubai.
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Dubai Metro by Gulf News Arabs are car crazed. This is one generalization that is safe to make. And Arab elites, are big car crazed. That’s another generalization safe to make. No wonder that public transport systems across the Arab world have not really evolved since the 1960s. Increasingly fueled by easy oil money, and increasingly alienated from [...]
September 08, 2009
19:06
More crazy stuff with an ‘Islamic’ label on it..
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

It’s Ramadan. Which is always a good time for the fanatics / forces of darkness / narrow-minded crazies, who have been in the driver seat of muslim culture for too long.. its a good time for them to come up with all kinds of stuff.. In Sudan, a woman was jailed, after a judge find her [...]
14:55
Google’s Arabic Q&A service ‘Egabat’: clever way to sniff the market (and what’s up with the Egyptian influence in its name ;-)
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Google today announced the launch of a new Arab focused question and answer service under the name Google Egabat (English: Google Answers), not to be confused with the now-defunct English Google Answers service which was shut down a few years ago. For more info about Google Egabat check out StartupArabia’s post. Its definitely exciting to see [...]
September 07, 2009
5:28
Video: From Amman to Zarqa, by train!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Ikbis.com’s very own video master Mohammad Jaradat took a ride on the ancient train from Amman to Zarqa, and came back with an FANTASTIC video report. The video speaks for itself. The train, the stations, the reaction of the people and the areas it passes through together tell a tough [...]
September 03, 2009
10:21
The Huffington Post on the Maktoob-Yahoo! deal: Giving hope.
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Faisal Ghori did an excellent story for the Huffington Post on the Maktoob-Yahoo deal. The story’s focus is on how this deal gives hope to entrepreneurs in the region where hope is in short supply. The story also highlights Jordan as the region’s leading tech startup base. I am happy that this notion is becoming a [...]
September 02, 2009
17:45
The Nokia N900 phone/tablet: very promising departure from Symbian
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Check out the really new video of the new Nokia N900. It’s officially an internet tablet, but its also a phone. Important fact: it’s not Symbian-based at all (which phones like the N97 and Xpressmusic 5800 use). No, this is Nokia’s “secret weapon” Maemo operating system (pronounced “My Mo”), which used to run on Nokia’s [...]
September 01, 2009
19:32
The funniest phone problem: Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic screen goes fuzzy when cold!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

In last couple of weeks, my Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic has been having a weird problem. The screen goes fuzzy (all the pixels get jumbled up). The only way to get the screen to display correctly after this happens is a restart or by pressing the on/off button while screen is in locked mode. I started looking [...]
August 31, 2009
17:30
Back to School (and the horrible schoolbooks Jordan’s children are given)
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Can a schoolbook cover look more depressing? A miserable boy, asleep at the desk, writing in his copy-book, ink bottle by his side. I want you to feast your eyes on the the photo above and the eleven other examples from 3rd grade government curricula schoolbooks, which I photographed three years ago (but always kept postponing [...]
August 29, 2009
15:53
SYNTAX seeking Business development wizard in the UAE
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

SYNTAX is shifting gears. If you are a business development wizard, but also a passionate believer that design can save the world, then you might want to check out this announcement on the SYNTAX blog.
August 26, 2009
18:42
Amman’s Google map now appears on mobiles!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

Last night was the first time I drive in Amman with a GPS map in my car! Yipee! In the end, it was Google who were first in providing this experience. As I mentioned in a previous post, Google Maps has, for the past few months, included a Amman map with main street names in Arabic [...]
6:31
The Maktoob-Yahoo deal: Shame on the Jordanian press that doesn’t understand!!
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology (jordan)

After the euphoria of yesterday’s news about Yahoo buying Maktoob for an estimated US$ 85 million, and after seeing the name of this Jordan-made brand on the pages and screens of every major international news outlet, and after the topic “Maktoob” made it to the top 10 topics of Twitter.. I was expecting to see [...]

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360east | design, media, technology (50 unread)