I must say I’m going to be kinda disappointed if this is all they’re going to announce. I’m hoping today will bring more announcements and I’m going to update this post if they announce more stuff. I hope they’re not thinking crushing the market means laying back and less innovation.

To start of, Kudos to Android for hitting the 900 million active Android devices, not too far from the 1 billion mark which equates to almost 12% of the planets population (if every person had 1 Android device from 900 million). I like that they’re investing into the education of kids with Google Play for Education. Google finally launched Google Play game services and unlike other competitors their service is cross-platform, it will be pretty cool to play against friends that use an iPhone or a BlackBerry. People that know me know I’m not a fan of TouchWiz and what he’s holding up there is a game-changer for me. I loved the Galaxy S4′s beast hardware specs but I didn’t want TouchWiz nor did I want to wait months for an update. So Google announcing a Samsung Galaxy S4 for KD ~185 with stock android (aka vanilla android) is a big plus for me. I might grab one unless Motorola comes out with something impressive.

To my surprise, Google does have a Nexus page designated for Kuwait (http://google.com.kw/nexus). The sad news is it’s showing the Galaxy Nexus, not the Nexus 4. Both the Saudi and the Emarati Nexus pages show the Nexus 4. When you click on Buy Now it shows you links to all Telecoms.

Zain redirects to a broken link, Wataniya redirects to their phone offer page which doesn’t have the Galaxy Nexus nor the Nexus 4 and Viva redirects to their promotions page which again doesn’t include any of the Nexus devices. So all links are practically useless, expecting them to be updated soon.

Here’s an interesting graph of each browser’s popularity since 2008. According to StatCounter, Internet explorer shifted from 89% market share back in 2008 to 35% on April 2013 while Google Chrome was 1.7% in September 2008, now 36% April 2013. Firefox is at a stable pace throughout the years.

I’m surprised Internet Explorer remains popular to begin with. I’m assuming at least 20% of  IE users are from corporates who are forced to use basic programs installed or their laptops. Maybe 5% comes from grandparents? I wouldn’t know but unless IE comes up with something revolutionary, it’s dead.[Source]

I came to Startup Weekend because I liked the concept. It’s an event that takes place worldwide where ideas and people who can make them come together. Developers, designers, entrepeneurs all come together in one place. Those with an idea had 60 seconds to explain their idea on stage. A few took stage to talk about business start ups like Dr.Naif.

Soon after that everyone with an idea stood in a selected area holding a big banner with the name of his idea. He would then be approached by people to join his team. I initially came to take a look but got so excited I was already in a team with an idea I liked before I knew it. Thought I might as well have a productive weekend.

Every group had the weekend to come develop a presentation of the full roll-out of how each group is going to make an idea a business. We kept getting approached by coaches, each giving us advice in a different category be it finance, marketing, design etc. What I loved about this whole concept is it teaches you how to make a business while you make one, not in a classroom where learning is one thing and applying is a whole different scenario.

I was the designer in our group, worked on the logo and layout of the application. The idea is to make an application where it lets you select the diet your on and the restaurant you’re in, then it selects which dishes are best for you based on your diet. MyDiet is the temporarily name of the application while we come up with something else, ideas?

At around 6p.m on Saturday it was time to present the idea with a presentation and preferably a prototype which we worked hard on. The judges rated the ideas on whether they would work or not, make money or not and how well they do against competitors. There were 11 groups in total each with a unique idea hoping to become a business.

We got 2nd place which I’m very happy with (Prize: 1st place: KD 1000, 2nd KD 750, KD 400). MeBlogging was actually part of the team who won 1st place with her concept Cameralized. It’s an online directory of all the photographers in Kuwait and their work, additionally if you like a photographers work you can book him online.

I have learned so much in so little time about starting a small business, how to maintain it and how to market it from this event. I recommend everyone with any skill to take part on their next event, even if you only have an idea. We’re going to continue with MyDiet app and we’re estimating a the launch to the app on Android an iOS in 3 months time.[Website]

I was impressed to find there’s a handful of Google Doodle’s celebrating iconic Arab figures. The biggest portion were from Eygpt, so far I couldn’t find any GCC figures who were brought up on a Google Doodle but I guess there’s going to be one soon. Feel free to point out someone I’ve missed out.

Google celebrating Mohammed Mokhtar‘s birthday

Google celebrating Khalil Gibran‘s birthday

Google celebrating Ibn Buttuta‘s birthday

Google celebrating Naguib Mahfouz‘s birthday

Google celebrating Taha Hussein‘s birthday

Google celebrating Ibn Khaldun‘s birthday

Google celebrating Ismail Yasin‘s birthday

Google celebrating Mohammed Al Mahdi‘s birthday

A Russian website has leaked information about the next Nexus and I have mixed thoughts about it. The specs were more than I was looking forward to. A quad-core 1.5 snapdragon processor, 2 GB RAM and an impressive 8 megapixel camera. What I’m not happy with however is the fact that you can’t change your battery and that it’s manufactured by LG.

I wouldn’t mind buying an LG TV, there make pretty good ones actually but I’m not sure about phones. I was happy to find out a while ago that there might 5 different Nexus devices from different brands but this rumour is slowly being crushed. If LG will be the only Nexus manufacturer I’m up for the adventure. The LG Nexus 4 looks almost identical to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus from the front but I’m loving the back cover. The device is expected to be officially announced at the end of October.

Googling something to us is as easy as flipping a switch, you whip out your phone and you “Google it”. Unfortunately not everyone all over the world shares the same life. We’ve gotten so use to it that we don’t see it as something additional in our lives. This is a touching story on how Google is slowly changing lives in Keyna, knowledge is power indeed.

All of us use Google but most don’t use it efficiently. Who knew you could cancel out words you don’t want showing on the search results by simply adding a minus sign (Example: “Deserts -caramel”). Knowing how to get exactly what you’re looking for from Google can make a huge difference for those doing research studies or finding data that is scarce. continue reading»