I passed by the Gulf Road gas station to fill up when I spotted a bunch of young Kuwaiti guys and girls wearing fluorescent orange vests. One of the girls approached me and told me they were giving out this supplement pictured above called Mororiyat as part of traffic week. The supplement has a few articles on things you shouldn’t do and general driving tips. Not a bad initiative although I doubt a simple supplement would deter speeders from speeding. Plus most importantly, I didn’t find any article telling guys not to slow down in the middle of the Gulf Road to try and meet girls.
Remember the large mural (above) which I posted about awhile back? Well Cajie a reader of the blog took photos of the mural and stitched all the photos together to form one very wide image. You can check out the large image of the mural [Here]
I managed to get a hold of the new iPad 2 today courtesy of X-cite Electronics and I’m glad I did since there were a lot of questions I had which I managed to get answered after spending some time with the iPad 2.
The iPad 2 I got is the 3G version so the first thing I wanted to check is to see if the iPad was locked to AT&T or not. This time around there are two versions of the iPad 2 3G, there is the AT&T version and there is the Verizon version. The one I got was the AT&T version and it runs perfectly fine in Kuwait. I took out my micro sim from my iPhone 4 and placed it inside the iPad 2 and it worked right away and I was able to browse webpages and stream music from my favorite stations without a problem.
Now physically I was expecting there to be a lot more difference between the old and the new iPad but honestly I felt they were pretty similar. Sure the new iPad is 33% slimmer but it doesn’t feel that different to me (I’ve got big hands maybe?). I never felt the old iPad was actually thick so the fact that the new one is slightly slimmer is a bonus but not really worth upgrading from the old iPad. One thing I want to point out is the fact that I found it difficult to connect the iPad 2 to the keyboard dock due to the way the dock connecter at the bottom of the iPad 2 is on a curve. It took me a few tries the first time and I am guessing I would get better at it after a bit of practice.
The smart cover is pretty cool since it’s very minimal and easy to take off and put on. I didn’t like holding the iPad with the cover on but what’s great about the smart cover is you just pull it off to remove it so it’s very practical to put on and take off and when on it doesn’t add to the thickness by much.
Now I left what I think is probably the most important upgrade till the end and no it’s not the camera which I find useless but the new faster A5 processor. The new iPad 2 is a lot faster than the older iPad and games like Sim City and Red Alert for example run a lot smoother on the iPad 2 compared to the original iPad. Even when launching the apps the difference is very obvious as you can since in the video I recorded above (The iPad 2 is on the bottom).
If you still don’t have a tablet and are looking to get one I wouldn’t recommend anything other than the iPad (both original and 2). If you already own an iPad and are wondering if you should get the iPad 2, well personally I don’t think there is enough change to justify the upgrade. For me the only reason I might get an iPad 2 is if they come out with cool games that take advantage of the new faster iPad 2 processor but other than that I don’t think I would get one. Some people might need the camera or want the smart cover but I use my iPad to read magazines and play games and the original iPad will do both those nearly as good as the iPad 2. But a few months from now I will probably eat my words and end up getting the iPad 2 just because I’m an Apple fanboy.
You can check out the iPad 2 yourself since they are on display at the X-cite Avenues and Al-Rai branch. They are also taking orders and will be delivering them in a week or two. Here are the prices:
Red Bull is brining their Wanna Panna freestyle football event for the first time to Kuwait. I hadn’t heard about it before until my friend emailed me information on it. Here is a description of what Wanna Panna is:
Panna, Gate in Surinamese, is a type of street football in which fine dribbling counts rather than scoring a goal. Red Bull Wanna Panna will put candidates one facing another on a pitch measuring 6 x 6 meters in quick games lasting 4 minutes. The winner will be the one who manages to outdo his opponent in playing the ball through his legs. In case of a draw, an extra minute is added. If the score remains a draw, a panel of 3 judges will decide on the winner based on control and skills.
Date: Friday March 18th, 2011 Time: Starts at 2PM Location: Souq Sharq
For more information visit the Red Bull website [Here]
Abdulaziz is a 15 year old Kuwaiti kid that I believe has a lot of potential to become a great film maker one day. He’s currently got three videos up on his YouTube channel but my favorite is the one above. He’s still young but I already really like some of his framing and the way he pans his shots plus his choice in music really sets the proper mood. You can check out his YouTube channel over [Here]
I just found out about this new activity from a forum user. Flight Experience is a company that allows you to experience flying in the cockpit of a Boeing 737. The cockpit is very realistic and provides you with a 180° view of the outside world. You can choose to fly in out of 24,000 airports and you can even fly around famous landmarks like London Bridge or the Sydney Opera House. The sessions vary in length and are either 30mins, 45mins, 60mins or 90mins and each session is led by a trained flight simulator instructor (most of whom are actual pilots).
The sessions start from KD39 and they are currently in the soft launch phase and are preparing for their full opening sometime by the end of the month. You can also get a video of your flight plus a picture of you in the cockpit (at an extra cost). The picture on top of this post is of the actual flight simulator cockpit.
Flight Experience is located on the last floor of 360 right on top of TGIF. Here is a link to their website [Link]
As you already know by now I am currently being sued by the Las Palmas Restaurant Company who own Benihana and Subway in Kuwait. They’re suing me over my review which you can read [Here] in case you missed it. Anyway today was the first hearing and this is just an update of what happened.
My lawyer went to the court but I didn’t since it turned out I didn’t have to. At the court the Benihana lawyer basically stated their accusation which is the same one as the court order which is that I conspired with the company I work for against Benihana to benefit my company and their competitors which I mentioned in my post; Chocolate Bar, Maki, Wasabi and Pinkberry. They also submitted documents related to the case and now my lawyer has a month to study the documents and prepare our defense for the next session which is April 12th.
So there currently isn’t much to share other than that. Thank you everyone again for your support.
Note: I created a new category on the right which will contain all my posts related to the lawsuit.
Just to give you an idea on how much K’S PATH (Animal Friends) cares for animals in Kuwait this is a story I just received in their latest newsletter on a recent rescue:
Around the beginning of March, K’S PATH was notified that there was a stray Saluki in front of the UN building in Mishrif. When John, our Lead Capture Specialist, arrived to assess the situation, he discovered that the dog was suffering from the worst embedded collar he had ever seen. The wound was severe and was starting to rot.
Unfortunately, the Saluki proved to be a stealthy guy and not looking to be captured. The poor dog was clearly in a tremendous amount of pain and completely terrified. John spent many days setting traps, attempting to dart him and missing and sometimes just attempting to chase him down with no luck. The Saluki then went missing. About a week later, we received an e-mail from a supporter describing a dog that sounded exactly like our stealth Saluki a little bit South of where he was before. John was on vacation at the time but as soon as he got back, he went straight out to see if he could find the dog and there he was. On this occasion we were in luck and John was able to capture the dog. However, in process of rescue, the Saluki was hit by a car. John rushed the dog to the Royal Animal Hospital and amazingly he was deemed to have no broken bones or any other damage from the hit. Dr. Jill and her team then focused on removing the collar and treating the horrendous wound around his neck. The Saluki remained in hospital for 2 days and was then cleared to go home. He has come home with John and Ayeshah for some extra TLC while he is on his very long road to recovery.
They’re really doing an amazing job in Kuwait and if you would like to help them out they have a page setup on their website with information on how you can donate. You can even donate with Paypal if you want. [Link]
A few days back I posted about the fact that the architects Foster+Partners will be designing the new Kuwait Airport terminal. Some of you had questions which I didn’t have any answers to but an architect working on the airport project at the Ministry of Public Works emailed me with some more information regarding the project. This is hot off the grill since she had just come out of a meeting with Foster+Partners, the last meeting in the design development phase.
– The new airport terminal is a completely new construction and is designed fully by Foster+Partners while Gulf Consultants are only the local sub-consultant for the project
– The completion of the design stage is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2012 and the construction completion of the terminal and the soft opening by Mid 2016
They promised to send me renderings of the new terminal building as soon as the design phase ends but for now… below is a passenger that had just arrived to the new terminal (scale 1:5000 1:200 model) and below that is the A380 he boarded.
Just found out by mistake that there is a mini Olympics of a sort just for women that being held in Abu Dhabi for the next six days. Not sure if it’s been publicized or not but I just found out about it now and not sure if the games will be broadcasted on television or not. Kuwait is participating in the games as well as female athletes from Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE. They will be competing in athletics, volleyball, equestrian, taekwondo, bowling and shooting. Not sure who or how many from Kuwait are participating so if anyone has more information on this I will gladly post it. Here is a link to an article about the games. [Link]
Just an FYI, I’m going to be talking tonight at GeekFest about blogging in Kuwait and my Benihana lawsuit. I sadly won’t be there for the event but I will be presenting via Skype video. If you’re in the UAE and want to find out more about this event you can visit their website [Here]
I think they’ve arranged for a bus from Dubai to the venue twofour54 (hmmm) and there is more info on that in their Facebook page [Here]
I’m going to be in Dubai for the next couple of days and I won’t be taking my laptop so posting will be slow. Lets call it a small break. Will be back to Kuwait on the 2nd.
I received an email yesterday from a reader who told me that his internet provider had limited his DSL download bandwidth to just 1.6GB a day. He told me that according to his provider every internet provider in Kuwait will be doing the same thing to their customers in the next coming weeks as well. I thought he might have misunderstood and it could have been a problem he was having but I just read in the forum that another person also ran into a similar problem. His internet provider downgraded his speed from 2MB to 512kb because he was downloading on average 3GB a day.
This freaked me out so I called up my provider (Qualitynet) and asked them if they had implemented the same system and according to the customer support guy I spoke to they haven’t. He actually told me I could relax and download the whole Internet if I wanted to and I would be fine.
Thanks to one of my readers, below is a schedule of some of the events happening this weekend including time and location:
Thursday Feb 24th
– Kuwait Towers: Special Forces show at 3:30pm followed by fireworks at 6:00pm
– Marina Crescent: 5000 doves will be released in less then 5 minutes in an attempt to break a Guinness World Record at 3:30pm
Friday Feb 25th
– Anjifa Beach: Classic Car Show at 1:00pm. they will drive on the Gulf Road starting from Anjifa Beach to Kuwait Towers. Other cars can join.
– Kuwait Towers: Big fireworks at 7:00pm. This is a must see
Saturday Feb 26th
– Subiya Road: Military Parade that will include Coalition Forces as well at 10:00am. Subiya Road starts from the end of the 4th Ring Road heading towards Jahra. It is about 25min drive
Sunday Feb 27th
– Gulf Road: Carnival Parade starting from Shaab Park on the Gulf Road (Dunno what time)
Monday Feb 28th
– Marina Mall: Water Show at Marina Mall Beach around noon
