Category: Apple

Not sure if only Kuwait is affected by this bug but a reader made me realize that if you have iOS6 installed on your phone and you try to open an SMS you’ve received from your bank, telecom operator, shipping company etc.. you’ll get a blank message. Then, when you close the message it will disappear completely from your messages list.

The above picture is of a message I received from American Express, it showed as empty when I opened it and then when I clicked back it got deleted. The reader shot a YouTube video which shows this [Here]

That’s pretty messed up.

Thanks Ahmad

Update: OK there is some good news here. New messages from your bank, telecom etc. will display in iOS6 normally. I just received one from Aramex now and it was fine. But old messages that were there before updating to iOS6 won’t show.

The new iPhone 5 uses new “nano” sim cards that are smaller and slimmer than micro sim cards. Luckily it seems all local telecom providers will be getting nano sim cards and we won’t have to do any cutting or card slimming to get it working with our iPhone 5’s. Wataniya already posted on twitter that they will have nano sim cards and Viva just confirmed to me that they will also have nano sim cards available. I’ve contacted Zain as well but I’m still waiting for a reply from them.

If you want to order an iPhone 5 the easiest and most likely the quickest way right now is to get it from the UK Apple store. The UK Apple Store sells the iPhone 5 unlocked and you can ship it to your UK Shop & Ship or a UK Borderlinx mailbox. You don’t require a UK credit card, any local Kuwaiti card would work.

Price wise the 16GB costs around KD240 but then you would also have to add the shipping price to Kuwait and the 5% local tax both Aramex and Borderlinx are charging. It doesn’t come out very cheap in the end but if you’re in a hurry this is the best way to go about it and it’s what I did last year.

This year though I’m not in a rush to get it and instead I’m going to wait either for the US store to start selling the unlocked versions (they sell them cheaper than the UK) or for Viva to get them early like they did last year.

Here is the link to the iPhone 5 on the UK Apple Store. [Link]

I just found out from Jacqui that OSN have released an iPad App for their OSN Play service. OSN Play allows you to stream movies and tv shows on the go and now with the iPad App you’ll be able to stream the content onto your iPad wherever you are in the Middle East. It’s perfect timing with the olympics currently taking place.

But I can’t get the App to work for some odd reason. I logged into my account but whenever I try to stream anything I get the error “You’ve now registered the maximum number of devices for this account.” I have no idea what that means but I’m hoping its a technical issue from their side that will be worked out soon.

If you’re an OSN subscriber you automatically have free access to OSN Play and you can download the App from [Here]

Update: Turns out every time you log in to OSN Play from a different computer it adds that computer as a device. You can have maximum two devices which I already have which is why I couldn’t get OSN Play to work on the iPad. There is a workaround without having to remove an already added device. OSN Play allows you to have other members in the house create sub accounts so I just created a second account for myself and this should solve the problem.

The popular Kuwait guide iPhone app Urban Moon just got a major update yesterday. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is the speed of the app. My biggest complaint with their previous version is that once you launched the app you had to wait a few seconds for it to download the latest phone numbers. Now the downloads take place in the background so you can start using the app as soon as you launch it.

Another new feature is that the app will now contain reviews. Currently restaurants in the app have a generic description but they’ve already started writing reviews and soon they’ll be swapping out the generic descriptions with honest reviews of the restaurants. That I think could be interesting and maybe even more so if they allow people to submit their own reviews similar to the Yelp app.

You can check out the full list of improvements and features in the Apple Store [Here]

I know it took me long but I finally fixed the annoying bug that would crash the app on some iOS devices. So if the Kuwait Blogs App was crashing with you check the Apple Store ow and you should see a minor update.

The Kuwait Blogs App is an iPhone application that allows you to browse some of my favorites blogs all in one place. It’s free and you can download it from the Apple Store [Here]

iBadala is a local phone directory app on the iPhone and one that I use frequently. I’ve posted about them before [Here] and my biggest complaint back then was regarding the app’s design which looked prehistoric.

Turns out they read my post since I got an email from iBadala yesterday telling me that based on my feedback they’ve released a new revamped app with a completely new look. I downloaded the app awhile ago and the app does look better but more importantly the ease of use and speed is still there so they haven’t broken anything. In fact, they’ve made two minor changes to speed things up even more:

Search as you type
According to iBadala this feature was supposed to be in the original release but it never worked properly. What this feature does is it starts searching for results as you type so if you’re searching for “Open Flame Kitchen” by the time you’ve typed “Open” you already have two results displayed with the second one being Open Flame Kitchen.

Search results ranking
Another new feature to speed things up is how the results order changes the more people use the app. For example as I mentioned above a search for “open” will result in two results with Open Flame Kitchen being the second. If a lot of people are searching for open and then clicking on Open Flame Kitchen more than the first result which is Arab Open University, then the app will start displaying Open Flame Kitchen as the first result instead.

I was also told they’re releasing an Android version of the app in the next few days so that should please some people as well. If you want to download the iPhone version it’s available right now in the [App Store]

Last week I got the iControlPad to use with my iPad and after playing with it over the weekend I think it’s a great gadget for gamers. The iControlPad is a Bluetooth controller designed by the same guys behind the Open Pandora gaming device so you should know it was designed by gamers for gamers.

I was originally a bit worried that there would be a bit of lag between the control pad and the game but from my short experience with the device there doesn’t seem to be any lag whatsoever. It felt as if I was playing with a wired controller which is great, similar to the wireless Xbox and PS3 controllers.

The iControlPad works with a bunch of official games in the App Store but I actually got it so I could play SNES games using an emulator. Since I got an iPad 3 I’ve gone ahead and jailbroken my original iPad 1 into a gaming device. I’ve installed a SNES emulator on the iPad as well as some games and now with the iControlPad it’s a great portable Super Nintendo. The iControlPad actually has 6 buttons similar to the SNES except the top shoulder buttons (L and R) are located on the bottom of the back of the device which will take a bit of getting used to. Other than that I didn’t have any issues with it, it has a built in battery and charges via USB so it’s very practical.

The iControlPad I ordered came with a phone holder that attached to the rear of the controller. The holder fits not only iPhones but other phones as well including Android phones since the iControlPad works basically with both operating systems. The price of the controller is $74.99 and I ordered it from ThinkGeek but they’re out of stock right now. Your other option is to get it directly from the iControlPad website [Here]

I downloaded the Kuwait Times iPhone App last night and so far I think it’s pretty cool. Visually the app doesn’t look that great or appealing but I am finding it pretty practical to use. My favorite feature in the app is the ability to easily move over to the next article once you’re done reading it without having to go back to the main list. Sounds like a trivial thing but I’ve seen news apps that don’t have this feature for some odd reasons.

The app is free and you can download it from the App Store by either searching for Kuwait Times or by clicking [Here]

If you own an iPad you’ve most probably already downloaded Draw Something or Paper by FiftyThree. If you haven’t all you need to know is that they are two very popular apps right now that involve drawing. The regular way to draw on the iPad is using your fingertips but you can also use a stylus for a more natural feel.

I searched Xcite, Office Depot and Blink and ended up going for the Elago Slim Stylus from Blink. I thought from all the models I checked, the Elago stylus looked like something Apple would have designed themselves. The stylus weighs enough to feel comfortable and is made of metal but has a rubber tip. It also comes with an extra rubber tip in case you damage one for some reason.

Drawing with a stylus is a lot easier than drawing with a finger obviously. I won’t show you how my drawings improved using the stylus because I can’t draw for shit with or without the stylus. But it really does make a difference and if you’re having difficulty drawing properly with your fingers or if you’re serious about illustrating on the iPad then getting a stylus is a must. Their prices range from around KD3 and upwards. The stylus I got cost me KD7.250 which is very reasonable and just KD2 more expensive than amazon. It’s definitely worth getting a stylus.

I finally got around to fixing and updating the Kuwait Blogs app and it’s available to download right now in the store. Other than the fix to the thumbnails not loading I’ve also updated the blog list and now includes the following blogs:

2:48AM
2:48PM
360 Dewan
Aboflan
Ansam
Buz Fairy
Confashions
Danderma
Dusty Co.
Frankom
Grapevine
His & Hers
iLSul6ana
Ladies Who Do Lunch in Kuwait
Khaleejesque
Kuwait Music
Pink Girl Q8
Tidbit Du Jour
Trying to be Fahad
zDistrict

But all is not well. When I updated the app on my phone awhile ago it was freezing on launch. It was working perfectly fine when I tested before uploading to the store. It seems it’s working on some phones perfectly fine while others are facing issues similar to mine. Bare with me I’m not an expert in this. For now you can download it the way it is until I see if I can find a fix for it over the weekend. [US App Store Link]

If you could you please tell me in the comments if the app is working or not working with you that would be great. If you can include which iPhone you have and what version it is that would be even better. Maybe I could narrow the problem down that way.

Note: The included blogs might not all be the most popular but they are blogs I think are interesting and I’ve also tried to include a bit of variety in style and content.

The UAE Cabinet is now using iPads to “achieve speed and flexibility in decision making” says HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. [Source]

In other news the Angry Birds creator is working on a muliplayer version of the game for an undisclosed customer from the Middle East.

If you didn’t know already, Apple last night released an update to iOS 5. Among other things the update fixes the issue where sometimes the phone wouldn’t recognize the caller. So upgrade your phone to the latest version to fix that problem.

Update: With the 5.1 update Siri now can make phonecalls!

Two Kuwaiti guys have created an iPhone game called Negooshi which revolves around a kid who takes revenge on some school bullies by using a slingshot. I found the controls a bit difficult to use and the menu system hard to navigate and understand but I liked the Kuwaiti voice overs and the fact that the game is localized. If you’re interested, Negooshi costs $1.99 and is available in the iPhone store right now. [Link]

It’s been over a year since the young Kuwaiti iPhone app designer Abdulrahman al-Zanki created his game but he’s still making headlines, most recently in the New York Times:

It took Abdulrahman al-Zanki, then 14, a few weeks to develop his first game, Yellow Taxi, and upload it to Apple iTunes in 2010, learning from written instructions between school hours and homework. Since then, the Kuwaiti teenager has created 22 more iPhone games in less than two years, including the highly popular Doodle Destroy.

You can read the full article [Here]