Category: Information

As of yesterday, the E71 has officially been announced by Nokia. While being successor to the E61i, the best phone I have ever owned, would make it worthy enough to be a great phone. Nokia have sealed the deal by throwing in longer battery life, 3.2mp (AutoFocus) camera, HSDPA, a faster processor in a package much slimmer than any previous Nokia offerings. [Link]

While the apple fanboys will be fumbling about trying to find a unlocked 3G iphone, you can catch the E71 at your local reseller next month for a little over 130KD.  (It also comes in white/stainless)

Posted by K.

TIME magazine has put together a collection of the 50 best websites for 2008. I initially thought the list would be filled with mainstream stuff but surprisingly its not. The list is actually interesting with lots of surprises, I mean even UrbanDictionary.com is on their list! [Link]

D*lush opened up a new branch in Salmiya yesterday behind Al Bustan mall. Also a new cookie store opened up at The Avenues food court called Crumbs and supposedly their cookies are really good.

I was at Kout Mall tonight and noticed that Marble Slab had opened up there. I first tried it when I was in Dubai at the Mall of Emirates and they now have a branch here in Kuwait. For those of you who don’t know what Marble Slab is, its an ice cream shop in which you choose the flavor of ice cream you want and then you get to choose what kind of topping you want mixed in with your ice cream. They have a gigantic collection of toppings to choose from but I always go for chocolate ice cream mixed with mini marshmallows. [Link]

Q80-Chill Girl just posted on her blog that she spotted a Moleskine stand at The Sultan Center. Judging by her picture above it looks like they have the city guides, hopefully they also have the plain pocket books and other kinds of Moleskines. Its great someone finally thought about bringing them to Kuwait but whats surprising is a supermarket brought them in instead of say a bookshop or an office supply store. Good move Sultan Center, now if only they can get a larger collection of salami… [Link]

I’ve been using my Eee heavily for 5 days now and I figured I would post a second impression. As I mentioned in my previous post, the Eee is tiny and thats why I am loving it so much. Its very light weighing around 900grams which makes it very easy to lug around and pick up with just one hand. I really can’t wait till my next business trip so I could carry this with me.

The Eee version I got was the Linux version which comes with a 20GB hard drive. The system OS is very easy to use because Asus have a very simple and basic interface setup by default. When you first turn on the computer it takes less than 30 seconds, maybe around 20 to boot up. You are then greeted with a colorful and simple icon based interface with tabs on top. If you want Internet apps you click on Internet, if you want work apps you click on work, very easy. Since I wanted a bit more control I installed the advanced interface which is similar to most Linux and Windows based systems.

Here are some quick tidbits: I’ve gotten used to the keyboard but the problem is I can’t type properly on other keyboards now! The battery life is around 4 hours with normal use while the speaker volume is surprisingly louder than my Macbook which is cool and the screen is really sharp and very viewable from a lot of angles. Its also as bright as any other laptop screen. Overall I can’t find much to complain about. Although its a 900mhz celeron the Eee is very snappy with most programs launching nearly instantly.

My only issue with the Eee I guess is that when its running on batteries the CPU speed drops to 630mhz to save power and I haven’t found a way to turn this off. Other than that I have no regrets whatsoever with this Eee, I would definitely recommend it.

Update: Just an FYI, I haven’t seen the Eee 900 in Kuwait. All the ones I’ve seen here are the 7inch screen version, this one is 8.9inch. I ordered mine from Amazon for around KD140 and paid around KD8 for shipping to Kuwait with USWS. It didn’t get held in customs, probably cuz the box is really small. Here are links to the Eee 900 on Amazon:
Asus Eee 900 with Windows [Link]
Asus Eee 900 with Linux [Link]

Last week I posted about Alshaya’s mystery shopper program and now I found out about another program by a company called Khayal Consultants. Best part is you can sign up to be a mystery shopper through their website by filling an online form and answering a few questions. No idea on how much these guys pay though and who their clients are. [Link]

Thanks Mai

I was just checking Alexa.com and I realized my site is now ranked the 315th most popular site visited in all of Kuwait. This means from all the sites people in Kuwait visit like Google, Flickr, NBK.com, whatever.. my site ranks 315th behind them which is pretty high up. I hit the top 500 mark back in March and since then have being climbing in popularity and hopefully will continue to climb until I hit the top 100. Anyway you can check my Alexa stats by clicking [Here] and if you want to see what are the top 100 most visited sites by Internet users in Kuwait click [Here]

A few days ago BBC Channel 4 aired the first live advert in the UK for Honda. When I say live I mean live. A group of elite skydivers jumped simultaneously from two aeroplanes and formed the letters H, O, N, D and A in sequence, within a three minute time limit to advertise the new Honda Accord. Really cool idea. [YouTube]

5car5 just posted photos of a new Ford Mustang thats being prepped to join the local police department soon. The Mustang is supercharged and will have 500HP so it should be able to keep up with all the super cars out there. Who doesn’t want to be a cop now? Check out the 5car5 website for more pictures. [Link]

A friend just signed up for the Alshaya secret shoppers program. I don’t know if its new or not but the work involved sounds pretty cool. Basically as a secret shopper you are required to shop at Alshaya stores every week and then write about your experience. You also get two meals at Alshaya restaurants every week worth KD14 which you also need to write about. Based on your feedback Alshaya then try and improve their service.

The pay seems pretty decent too once you get more experienced. New shoppers get paid KD75 a month while silver shoppers get paid KD150 and gold shoppers get KD300. I think more bloggers should participate in this since bloggers spend a lot of time writing about their experiences anyway.

How do you sign up for it? You can’t. Its a secret program which not many people are supposed to know about (ooops!). My friend was able to sign up because he knew someone who was already a secret shopper. So ask around I guess or give them a call and try your luck? I think its really great they have a program like this and more companies should do it if they aren’t already.

A video has been circulating by email and blogs showing a rat in the meat fridge in Carrefour Kuwait. Other than the fact there is nothing in the video thats proves its Carrefour or that it is in Kuwait, there are a couple of other copies of the exact same video circulating on YouTube that say the video was shot in Al-Ajman or Dubai.

So basically it definitely didn’t happen in Kuwait and it might not have happened at Carrefour or even in the UAE. [YouTube]

I hate Crocs because they look funny but I always wanted something similar for the beach. While in Munich I found an excellent alternative, the PUMA RS 100 INJEX. Pretty long but cooling looking name for what essentially is foam injected into a shoe mold. Its very comfy and much cooler looking than the Crocs. At $35 they are very cheap. [Link]

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet about Munich is the weather. It’s FREEZING, the temperature during the day is like 9 degrees and ever since I came its been raining a lot. Thats why when I passed by Puma in the evening and found their official Volvo Ocean Race gear I had to get a jacket. Pictured above is the official PUMA Race Team jacket which has a Gortex shell, a high collar and a packable hood. I wore it on the way back home in the rain and it was just fantastic.

I also managed to find Adidas Jeans by Diesel. Diesel and Adidas teamed up for this new line of jeans and the Adidas Originals store next to my hotel had some in stock. I ended up getting the pair pictured above. I am having a hard time shopping in Munich since everything closes early (8PM). By the time I finish with work and decide to do some shopping I don’t have time. Even supermarkets close at 8!

With voting set to start in less than 8 hours, it all comes down to 4 (or less) ticks on a piece of paper to choose the next batch of politicians to lead our country for the next 4 (or less) years. I am personally going to be voting for Tahalof, as their views echo mine (in respect to the other candidates).

For those of you who are heading to the ballot box tomorrow, I leave you with a fitting quote from Thomas Sowell:

“If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else’s expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves”

Posted by K.

(No more sms messages in the middle of the night, lost friends stuck at a maqar, surprise meetups in diwaniya, or endless phone calls demanding you vote for their cousin/brother/father.)