Category: Information

I know a lot of people will be traveling to Europe during the Eid so I just wanted to share some handy travel software that will work on Nokia phones and in some cases other smartphones, iPods and PDA’s.

I already previously posted about A-Z Maps which I purchased before I traveled to London for the first time last month. It was an incredibly easy to use software which allowed me to navigate London very easily as if I had been there before. The company has maps for other cities also including Paris, Barcelona and Helsinki. The map starts up instantly when you run it and then you just type the name of the street you are in and the software will show you where you are on the map. It’s also not expensive costing around KD10. More details on this software is available on the publishers website. https://www.lumisoft.net/

Another software I recently purchased in my preparation for my London trip later this month is Tube 2. When I was in Paris last month I had a hard time navigating the underground subway system and this software will be making my life a lot easier this time around. I purchased two versions of the software, the Tube 2 London and Tube 2 Paris. How it works is you type the name of the station you are in and then type the name of the station you want to go to and the software will visually show you your route on the underground map AND it will also give you step by step instructions. Here is an example of a trip from the Marble Arch to Waterloo station:

Marble Arch to Waterloo
Time: 13 minutes
Changes: 1

1. Marble Arch to Bond Street
Depart Marble Arch via the Central line (Eastbound) towards Epping for 1 stop.
Service runs every 5 minutes.

2. Bond Street to Waterloo
At Bond Street change to the Jubilee line (Southbound) towards Stratford for 3 stops.
Service runs every 5 minutes.

3. Waterloo
Arrive at Waterloo.

As you can see it makes things a lot easier. The software costs like KD3 and its available for the London, Paris and New York subway system. You can get more information from the software publishers website. They also have versions that work on iPods but they work differently. https://visualit.co.uk/

I thought a lot of people knew about this already but I am still getting emails from people telling me they tried ordering an iPhone from the Apple Store but that its asking them for a US shipping address.

What you need to do to order an iPhone from the Apple Store or any electronic item from Amazon for that matter is to set up a US forwarding mailbox. Basically its a mailbox thats located in the States and anything that arrives in it will get forwarded to your address here in Kuwait.

There are four companies in Kuwait that offer this service and I’ve tried all four of them, my favorite and the one I use the most is U Shop We Ship. The main reason I prefer it over the competition is the fact that signing up to their service can be done online and all payments for the shipments can also be paid online. This makes things really practical. Items usually take 3 to 4 days to arrive to Kuwait once shipped from your US mailbox.

I know a lot of people have tried ordering iPhones from the Apple Store and have had their shipments canceled. I don’t know why thats happening and why it works with some people and not with others. I myself have ordered 3 iPhones with the last one around 10 days ago and I haven’t had any cancellations yet. I’ve also received the iPhones quickly without paying any custom fees. I don’t have any advice or tips on how to avoid getting your order canceled, I guess it could be random thing.

update: To find out what firmware you have on an un-activated iPhone do the following dial *3001#12345#* and then push “Call”

If you see 03.12.06_G then your firmware is 1.0.0
If you see 03.14.08_G then your firmware is 1.02
If you see 04.01.13_G then your firmware is 1.1.1

Last month HSBC sent out a memo noting that they recently seized an unusually larger number of counterfeit KWD 20 notes. They have a PDF file explaining how to spot a counterfeit which you can download by clicking this [Link]

Thanks John!

A friend emailed me while I was in Beirut asking if I could help him out with something. For awhile now he’s been pondering what Banak really is and what its called in English. He did a bit of research online and all he found was another blog that was asking the same question. So does anyone know the answer?

Picture taken from COLoriya

For those of you who don’t know, Marzouq, Khalid, Bader and myself will be participating in this years Red Bull Flugtag which will be held at Marina Waves next month. Our team is called Imperial27 and we are planning to kick some major ass.

Our plane should have been done by now but getting stuff cleared from customs in Kuwait is really a big hassle specially since its Ramadan now. Well the guys (Khalid actually) managed to clear two boxes a couple of days ago which contained some parts we needed for the plane. We ordered them from Renault which although sounds really cool the parts themselves are actually pretty boring looking, they are part of the system that will be propelling our plane off the ramp. Problem is we (cough cough Bader cough) measured one part wrong and now it won’t fit so we are trying to find a solution. Once everything is sorted and put together it should turn out pretty cool.. if our theory and calculations turn out to be right that is.

The Imperial27 website is also nearly done and should be ready by next week. It will be located at www.imperial27.com and we will launch the site by revealing our plane there so in case we couldn’t finish putting our plane together by then we will have to push back the launch of the site. We are also trying to see if we could do a live broadcast of the revealing but we have some minor glitches that we need to work out. Anyway will keep everyone posted with any updates.

[YouTube]

A friend of mine is directing this new show on Bahry TV called Bhar w Bahar. It’s a cool Kuwaiti cooking show thats really fun to watch. The video above is of the promo while the second video below is of the pilot episode. The show is aired every Saturday at 4PM then re-run at 10PM and on Tuesdays at 9PM and Thursdays at 4PM. You can get the Kuwaiti station Bahry TV on NILESAT 10892H.

[YouTube]

I just checked out Amazon’s MP3 store and it turns out it works with Macs, iTunes and my iPod! The prices of the songs are cheaper than the iTunes store plus they are DRM free. You can try it out by visiting amazonmp3.com

Update: Ok now I am pissed, just tried buying a song and I got the following message:

We are sorry…

We could not process your order because of geographical restrictions on the product which you were attempting to purchase. Please refer to the terms of use for this product to determine the geographical restrictions.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Update 2: Ok I just tried it again and it worked. I had my primary address my UK mailbox for some reason so I changed it to my US address and it worked. I just purchased my first song and I am currently downloading it! You do not need a American credit card, I used my NBK one.

Update 3: Finished downloading. The tiny Amazon software automatically added it to my iTunes and the song included a high resolution album art cover. Purchasing this song was just tooo easy so I am kinda worried now that this is going to be addictive.

Moey took a picture of a Eureka ad in the newspaper for Eureka in which they are selling the 8GB iPhone for KD400! Thats over KD250 more expensive then if you bought it yourself off the Internet. If that wasn’t bad enough Moey also pointed out that the visual of their press ad was copied off a Deviant Art user! The picture above is of the Eureka advert side by side with the original artwork which can be found [Here]

Thanks Moey

Pearl, a fellow blogger sent an email to Jazeera Airways complaining about some problems she had with one of her flights. The response she got back from them was just unbelievable. The Jazeera Airways guy basically calls her a liar twice, accusing her of exaggerating and and making up facts.

I hope Pearl can post his email address and full name so someone at Jazeera can put some sense into him. [Link]

Update: Turns out I misread, someone left a comment on her blog on behalf of the airlines, it wasn’t a reply to her email which means there is no proof its from an actual Jazeera Airways employee. My mistake! [Link]

Although Halo 3 is being released in the US on September 25th its currently available and being sold in Kuwait. Game Center in Rihab complex in Hawalli is selling the regular version for KD25 while the limited edition is selling for KD30.

I got a lot of emails and some people left comments asking me how to unlock the iPhone. Well if anyone took 2 seconds to google it they would have found a ton of “how-to guides”. If you have a mac just download INdependence, activate the iPhone then copy anySIM to the iPhone and launch it to unlock it. It can’t get any easier and its free.

Update: If you have a Mac follow this guide [Mac Guide] and if you have a PC follow this one. [PC Guide]

According to a few readers and a post by K.thekuwaiti, Zain has acknowledged the issue with the iPhone and is trying to fix it. One comment on K’s blog even states the iPhone should be working with Zain by 3PM today. If thats true it would be perfect timing since Nat should be collecting her iPhone today from U Shop We Ship.

Update: It is now confirmed, as of 3PM today the iPhone started working with the Zain network. Thank you to everyone at Zain who helped out in updating the network to support unlocked iPhones.

I just noticed today that Sultan Center now carry Altoids! They had three flavors available, Cinnamon, Raspberry Sours and Tangerine Sours. The price? Not cheap at KD1.650 per tin!

My favorite thing about Ramadan is that I get off work at 3PM. This allows me to have a ton of free time to do stuff I wouldn’t usually do like riding my bicycle.

Yesterday I went riding with Nat and the weather was surprisingly great. We rode from Marina Mall to Scientific Center, a short route since we didn’t want to take a longer one in case our bikes had developed problems after a year of storage. Imagine riding all the way to the Kuwait Towers and then finding out the bike has a problem and you have to walk back all the way to Salmiya. It would suck…

Riding the bicycle is really different from the motorbike. For one thing falling off a bicycle is no longer a big thing. Nat crashed yesterday when her bicycle slid on a curve and she just got up and continued riding. When the same thing happened to me with my motorbike I ended up with road rash, a fractured wrist and a large repair bill.

There are two brands of bikes I would recommend people getting, Trek and Cannondale. I personally prefer and ride Cannondale. When it comes to road bikes I would go with Trek but for mountain bikes Cannondale all the way. The Cannondale dealer is located in Shuwaikh, you take the first right after McDonalds on Canada Dry street and once you reach the small round-a-bout the dealer would be on your right hand corner. Trek on the other hand is available at GoSport in The Avenues and eXtreme Sports at Marina Waves.

If you are looking for a place to ride, the Gulf Road is a good place to start. For a short trail you can start off at Marina Crescent and ride all the way to Scientific Center and back. For a longer trail you can go from McDonalds on the Gulf Road and head all the way to Souk Sharq and back. Both routes use a sea side trail away from dangerous car traffic.

Cannondale have soooo many hot bikes to choose from, my favorite being the Gemini but the prices can get ridiculous with models costing KD1000 and up. You can spend a lot less of course, a member in the forum recently purchase a Trek for only KD148 and you can even get bikes for under KD50 even although I wouldn’t recommend them at all. The difference between the cheap and expensive bikes is usually weight, quality of parts, the frame and the finishing. Cheap bikes are usually heavy, equipped with the crappiest brands and handle like crap.

There used to be a riding club that met up every Friday at like 7AM to go riding but I don’t think they do that anymore. If anyone knows of another riding club please leave it in the comments below.

Just a heads up to everyone who is thinking of purchasing an iPhone to use in Kuwait. Although you can unlock the iPhone now for free, it’s currently not working properly with the Zain network. You can send make but you can’t receive calls on your iPhone. K.theKuwaiti is currently trying to find a solution for this and once he does he will publish it online. Everything else works including sending and receiving SMS’s and GPRS.

Update: According to a reader the iPhone will work with the Zain network if you have a new 128K sized sim card. Does anyone know how one goes around to getting a 128K sim card from Zain?