Category: Geek

We’ve moved up from 104th place last year to 72nd. Hong Kong has the fasted download speed average in the world with 49.10 Mbps. [Link]

via BlogBaladi

Mapbox is a website that allows you to check out the geographical usage patterns of various mobile phone devices in Kuwait. iPhone and Android seem to be very close with the BlackBerry lagging behind the two. [Link]

Thanks Az

The Dubai Comic Con was held this past weekend and the Dubai based Brownmonkeys design collective designed some cool posters merging the Gulf culture with Western characters. My favorite was the Beavis and Butthead poster above.

Check them all out on the Brownmonkeys website [Here]

www.kuwaitpneumococcalvaccinationcampaign.com

via @nibaq

If you’ve got an iPhone 5 and are using Zain then you’re lucky because they just activated the service for your phones.

Thanks Essa

Note: Make sure you update to the latest iOS software

Creepstreams is a website that streams footage from certain models of Trendnet home security cameras from around the world that are known to have a security vulnerability. I just checked the website and noticed there is one camera in Kuwait that is currently streaming footage online without the owners knowledge. Sadly for us peeping toms the camera is located in what looks to be a paint shop. You can check it out [Here]

via The Verge

Update: Google has disabled the website

Truecaller is a popular phone app that will show you the name of anyone that calls you even if you don’t have their phone number saved. Not very cool especially if you value your privacy. Turns out there is a way to get your number unlisted from their database. All you need to do is is visit their “Unlist” page, type your number and within the hour your name and number will be removed from their database. Here is the [Link]

Note: If you want to check and see if your number is listed, just go to their main page and do a search for your number [Link]

According to the blog Qortuba Valley, Kuwait’s approved LTE frequency is 1800 MHz which means iPhone 5’s purchased from the UK will work in Kuwait while ones purchased from the US will not. [Link]

Update: Arab Times also confirms the approved frequency is 1800 MHz [Link]

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.

The next BarCamp in Kuwait is taking place early November and registration is now open. BarCamp is an event that takes place around the world at various times of the year. The subject in focus is technology and people usually present and share ideas or creations like the Bacon Vending Machine in the video below from BarCamp Kuwait 3. It’s more of a fun event than a serious one and if you’re into this it’s a great way to meet new people.

[YouTube]

Location: Ibtisam Hall at The Regency, Al-Bida’a, Kuwait
Date: Saturday, November 3, 2012
Time: 3:00 PM to 10:00 PM

For more information including details on how to sign up visit the BarCamp Kuwait blog [Here]

Late last month while at the Avenues I spotted the Vuzix Wrap at Xcite and since I’ve always wanted to try one of these before I contacted them so I could get one to review. The Vuzix Wrap is a video eyewear which basically means you watch video through tinny screens that are fitted inside the glasses. According to the package, watching videos using the Vuzix Wrap will feel like watching a 67″ screen siting 3 meters aways. After playing around with it for a week I have my personal opinion on video eyewear’s in general as well as this specific model.

The Wrap works with regular AA batteries which means you can use them wherever you are. The batteries are fitted into a small external compartment which you could keep in your pockets and the Wrap is connected to the batteries using a wire. The Wrap comes with earphones as well which you need to plug in separately into each side of the eyewear. Inside the box Vuzix also includes an adapter to connect the glasses to Apple devices like the iPhone as well as RCA cables so you could connect it to a videogame console or your TV receiver.

I downloaded Truth in 24 II from the Apple Store (which is the sequel to an incredible documentary btw) and watched it on the Vuzix. At first I was expecting it to feel weird and uncomfortable like trying to watch a 3D movie with 3D glasses but the experience was actually pleasant. I’m not sure if it felt like watching a 67″ screen from 10 feet away, but the screen definitely didn’t feel like it was 2cm’s away which is what I was expecting. These kind of glasses could be pretty useful when traveling on a plane since you can watch whatever you want in complete privacy and also zone out from your surroundings since once you have the glasses on you’re pretty much watching TV in your own little room.

But there are a whole bunch of things I didn’t like in the Vuzix Wrap. The video quality left a lot to be desired, other than the fact the screen resolution is low, I felt the contrast lacked with the blacks looking more like grays. I tried to adjust the settings as much as I could but I wasn’t able to improve on it that much. Another issue I had was with the earphones. First you can’t connect your own earphones which is a let down and second I found the included earphone wires to be too distracting. Each earphone plugs into a socket thats located in the front of the glasses so the wires were touching my eyebrow and face while on their way back to my ears. The eyewear along with the various attachments also felt very plasticky and cheap but the biggest issue I had with the Wraps were how stupid I looked wearing them. If you sit on a plane and put these on people are either going to think you’re Ray Charles or some douche with horrible taste who thinks its cool to wear sunglasses inside a plane. This is why although they would be practical to use while traveling, they might be better off being used in the privacy of your home where you can play Xbox on these glasses without having to hog the living room’s TV.

I’m pretty glad I finally got to try video glasses on and I kinda understand how Google’s Project Glass is going to end up working. Price wise Xcite currently have a special offer on these glasses until the end of the month and they’re selling them for KD89.900. If you want to check them out they have them on display at the Avenues branch OR even better you could try to win a pair. All you need to do is just leave a comment below and tonight I’ll choose a winner using Random.org. Good luck!

Rules: Only one entry per person and please make sure you use a working email since the winner will be contacted by email. If winner doesn’t respond within 24 hours another winner will be randomly chosen.

Update: Comments are closed and I had Random.org choose two numbers, a winner and a backup winner in case the winner doesn’t respond.

Winner is #94: Abdullah
Backup is #20: Ahmed

Originally I was planning to write a small post on my experience with the Synology backup drive and maybe compare it to my Drobo but in all honesty, the thing turned out to be a lot more than just a simple backup drive and so the tiny post has turned into a much bigger one.

Synology DS1511+ Web Interface

Firstly a quick brief about what the Synology DS1511+ is. In it’s most simplest form it’s an external backup hard drive that can take up to five 3TB hard drives and has data protection which means if one of the five hard drives fail my data is still protected. But the DS1511+ (from here on I’ll just call it the Synology) is also a mini server and so doesn’t require to be connected to a computer.

Xbench disk test

Performance wise the Synology turned out to be a lot faster than my Drobo. How fast? Copying a 2.48GB file from my computer over FireWire 800 to the Drobo took 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Copying the exact same file over gigabit ethernet to the Synology took just 42 seconds. That’s over 10 6 times as fast!

So yeah if you’re looking for a backup drive to put all your important files onto it and still have your data protected in case the drive fails, the Synology is great. But, the Synology is also more complicated to setup than the Drobo. Cost wise they’re selling the Synology drives in Kuwait for cheaper than Amazon and you can find them at either Blink (where I got mine from) or Cameo. Cameo also has the newer but slightly more expensive DS1512+.

Now that I got all that out of the way this second part is what REALLY makes the Synology cool. Continue below for the second part of this review.

Whenever I need anything computer related the first place I always visit is Limra Computer Center in Hawalli. It’s a small store (nothing close to being a “center”) located on the ground floor of Walla Complex. I used to be a Professional Computer fan (located one floor above) but somehow I started buying all my stuff from Limra a few years ago and since then I’ve been a regular. The place has character and the main guy (Shankar) is very knowledgable. Depending on when you pass by the place could be packed with people and you’ll have to wait outside the shop until there’s enough room for you to squeeze in. Check them out next time you’re in Hawalli looking for stuff, they’re very trustworthy. Their phone number is 22631043.

Anyone know who sells Drobo’s in Kuwait? I previously got mine from Amazon but paid around KD40 for shipping back in 2009 which mean it would probably cost me KD50+ with the current Aramex prices. 3gghead Electronics in Baitak Tower used to sell the Drobo for a good deal but they shutdown a long time back.

If you want to know what a Drobo is you can check out their [Website]

Update: Ended up picking up the Synology DS1511+ from Blink. They’re selling them for cheaper than Amazon [Link]

After trying out WiMD with unlimited speed I finally had to decide on what connection I was going to subscribe to and I decided to go with the 10Mbps. I originally wanted to go with 15Mbps but decided KD72 a month is more than what I was willing to pay. 10Mbps is KD523 a year which works out to KD43.5 a month and to me is a much more reasonable amount.

I’ve had this connection for 2 days now which is enough time to get a first impression. Browsing is still super fast and I managed to download torrents at speeds of around 1.3MB/s to 1.5MB/s which is pretty fast. I imagine with a 15Mbps connection you would get around 2MB/s to 2.3MB/s speeds. The best part is that even if I’m downloading torrents at full speed it doesn’t hinder my browsing experience. Not sure how that is possible but with all my previous connections I always had to limit my torrents download speed so I could still have some bandwidth left to browse with. With WiMD on the other hand I’ve got my torrents set to download at full speed and I browse with no slowdown.

Below are speedtest results. This isn’t very accurate because for example you have various speedtest servers in London and when testing one would give me a very low ping rate of under a 100 but the download rate would be around 4Mbps while another would give me a higher ping rate in the 300’s but with a higher download speed. Thats why I decided I would perform the test on all the servers and post the ones with the highest download speeds.

I really hope the connection doesn’t suffer in the long run once more and more users sign up. That’s actually my only concern but I’ll post an update 6 months down the line and let you guys now how things turned out. If you want to get a second opinion Marzouq over at zDistrict just signed up to a 20Mbps connection and posted about it [Here]