Category: Tools

Twitvid And TwitterFon To Bring Video Tweeting To iPhone 3GS

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twitvidTwitVid.com, the instant video tweeting service previously reviewed here, and TwitterFon, the most popular Twitter application for the iPhone, announced a partnership where the TwitVid video service will be integrated into the TwitterFon iPhone application, enabling its large base of iPhone users to easily Tweet mobile videos to their Twitter followers who can begin watching the videos instantly, even before the upload from the source iPhone is completed.

The partnership comes on the heels of Apple’s announcement at WWDC ’09 yesterday that the new iPhone 3GS will incorporate the possibility to capture and edit videos directly on the phone.

Kazuho Okui, CTO of naan studio, Inc., creator of TwitterFon, said that they chose to work with Twitvid and not other video uploading applications because it offers the best user experience and high-quality video, along with its unique ability to offer instant playback of Tweeted videos as soon as the video begins uploading, a patent-pending technology created by Eatlime, the company behind Twitvid.

Twitvid has been working on a number of new features ever since their release, among these are the following:
– The possibility to record videos directly from a user’s webcam.
– The conversion of uploaded videos to High Quality video.
– The ability to chat with people when watching a video.
– The Creation of playlists by uploading several videos at the same time.
– The possibility to send videos directly to YouTube after they’re uploaded on Twitvid.

The TwitVid enabled TwitterFon iPhone application will be available at www.twitterfon.com.

Etisalat Launches Own New Instant Messaging Service

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Etisalat MessengerEtisalat, the UAE telecoms operator, announced the launch of its own IM (Instant Messaging) service for its mobile phone and internet customers.

Etisalat Messenger is similar in concept to other chatting applications like Yahoo! Messenger, MSN and Google Talk, allowing subscribers to send messages in both Arabic and English between mobile phones and computers.

With this move, Etisalat aims to target the young generation in the UAE with whom instant messaging is one of the more popular forms of communication.

Conversations in Etisalat’s messenger can also include multimedia; for example pictures, video and sound clips. Messages sent while recipients are offline are delivered to them as SMS or MMS messages.

Etisalat Messenger comes in two packages; one with unlimited usage at a fixed monthly rate and another which enables users to send and receive unlimited messages for a fixed session period of 15 minutes at a per session cost.

For more details about Etisalat Messenger, pricing and activation; check the product page on the official site: Etisalat Messenger.

[Via: ITP]

Folowen, A New Social Media Search Tool (Private Beta Invites)

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folowenfolowen is a new social media search tool that just went live in private beta and enables users to search for the social profiles of different people and organizations on several social media sites, returning all found profiles in one search result.

The aim is to make it simpler for anyone to find and follow a person or organization’s social activities online, be it a Facebook profile, page or group; a Twitter account; a LinkedIn profile; a YouTube channel …etc.

Currently, folowen uses Google AJAX Search API to find  user profiles on 19 different social media sites including three Arab ones: Questler, Ikbis and Watwet.

Search is only the first piece in the bigger puzzle that folowen wants to build, and this ongoing private beta is concentrated on perfecting that to make sure that users are getting the right results for their searches. Once out of private beta, the search will be open to anyone without any need to sign up for the service. 

Signed up users also have the possibility of having their search history saved automatically so that they can go back to them and view their results at any time.

The next step after search will be to enable signed up users to link up folowen into some of the supported social services to be able to follow/connect right from folowen without having to go to that service. This obviously will only be available for services that have APIs that are open and allow this.

folowen

folowen doesn’t aim to be another social network now, or a social activity aggregator, just a facilitator to help people find and connect to each other over several platforms.

folowen is founded by the same team Jordan-based team that was behind Questler: Razan Khatib, Alma Khasawnih and Hassan Shahin.

If you’re interested in getting an invite to play around with folowen, just drop a little comment below and I’ll send you one as soon as possible.

Yamli Releases Beta Of Their Official Firefox Toolbar

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YamliYamli, the startup that specializes in smart transliteration technologies for the Arabic Web, just unveiled its new official Firefox browser toolbar.

A Yamli toolbar or extension has been a user request for quite a while now, and Yamli has answered with this toolbar that extends the possibility to use Yamli’s Arabic transliteration technology to any site or web application a user might need to type in Arabic in. By just going to the website and clicking on the ‘Enable Yamli’ button in the toolbox, all text input areas get the Yamli functionality activated for them. Another option is to just right click on the textbox you need to use and activate Yamli for just it.

Basic text input boxes and areas as well as rich text editors are supported and can be made to use Yamli with the toolbar.

The toolbar also includes a search box, enabling users to launch searches on the web using Yamli’s smart Arabic search functionality; Search is available for Web, Images,Video, News and Wikipedia.

Another interesting feature available through the toolbar is the possibility to send updates to Twitter and Facebook directly, using Yamli’s transliteration to write the updates in Arabic.

Yamli Toolbar

The toolbar is currently in beta, and is still being tweaked with more features to be added with the final release. It’s available for Firefox only at the time being; but an Internet Explorer version should follow soon.

On another note, other than the official toolbar by Yamli, the Arab Techies Code Sprint 2009, that was held in Cairo, has resulted in a couple of unofficial Yamli related projects: A Yamli bookmarklet that can be added as a link in any browser and used to yamlify any text inputs on a page, as well as a Firefox extension that automatically yamlifies all text inputs on visited web pages. All this possible through Yamli’s open API.

Twitvid.com, A Service to Tweet Videos Quickly And Easily

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twitvid

EatLime, the online video and file sharing service that was previously reviewed here, has gone on and released a new service call Twitvid.com that presents users with an easy way to post their videos to Twitter.

The service doesn’t just post a link to a video when the user tweets, but it uses the patent-pending EatLime technology to upload and stream the video in real time, in a way that a person’s followers on Twitter can start watching the video immediately while it’s still uploading, making it pretty much a live stream.

Users can upload their videos to the service either through the web interface, through their mobile phones (by sending an email or MMS), or through the service’s API.

Just as with other services like twitpic, the user can just login with their Twitter username and password and start uploading and tweeting their videos. Upon logging in, each user also gets an email address that they can use to email their videos directly from their mobile.

The system’s API also helps open it up, making it easy for other companies and developers to integrate the service into their own services and products.

twitvid

Among future plans is the ability to resume uploading if the connection is lost, enabling users to resume uploading from the exact point where it stopped.

EatLime, the company behind Twitvid.com, is a 5 person San Francisco based company, founded by Mohammad Al Adham from Jordan and Adil Lalani from Pakistan.

H2O New Media Announces SODA CMS With Support For Location Based Services

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H2O New MediaH2O New Media has just announced the availability of the SODA Content Management System which they describe as the first Web 2.0 Content Management system to support location based services.

These location based services should allow members of any social community built on the SODA content management system to send its users emails, SMS messages and alerts based on a users physical location.

Steve Vaile, CEO of H2O New Media, says that “The SODA CMS allows any community member to receive notifications either by SMS, MMS, Video or by email to their mobile phone based on their location. The development will enable our publishing and corporate customers to offer innovative new services and applications to their customers and internal based on location and vicinity on their mobile phone. Social communities should operate seamlessly between both web PC & mobile handsets, and with SODA taking advantage of location based services its really one of the first social media technology platforms to create a bridge between the online and the physical world.”

He continues to say that “with SODA a customer can deploy a social media platform that will allow its users not only to communicate with each other but to know where each other are, based on their preferences of course. For example if you are a member of a social community you can receive an SMS text when you are close to your friends, marketers can use it to message users are close to a store that has a promotional offer.”

H2O New Media provides social media applications based on software as a service (SaaS) model to corporate companies in the Middle East. H2O New Media clients include United Business Media, Sian Events, Channels Exhibitions, CSM, G2 Publishing and many other leading events and media companies.

Ras2Ras Releases New Version Of Their Comparison Service

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ras2rasRas2Ras, the comparison research service from Yemen; which is based on the simple of concept of putting any two comparable things against each other, and letting people vote on which they like best; has released a new version.

The new release comes with a slightly different new design and layout that still hangs on to the simplicity of the old one, but is just a bit more organized, more visually appealing and integrates their new features.

The service which is still in beta is looking more mature now, with the new design and a number of other previously hanging details ironed out.

Comparisons, or Battles as they’re called on the service, now end after 90 days. Then they can be found up in the site’s results section. Select battle results will also be highlighted by the Ras2Ras team on their blog and elsewhere on the web. 

Users can now also join discussions on battles, getting alerts whenever someone submits a reply on the discussion; making it easier for people to follow topics of interest to them.

Other little additions and tweaks have been added here and there, like the rotation of the latest comments on the homepage, the improved URL structure and the site becoming more search engine friendly.

# Ras2Ras

3zeema, An Arab Event Organization And Invitation Service

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3zeema3zeema is a new Arab service that was recently launched in its beta version to make it easier for people to organize events and invite their friends and contacts to them, whether it’s a personal or professional event.

The service is free and pretty simple to use; after signing up you can directly start creating events by following three easy steps: choosing a place to hold the event, either by selecting from the list of venues already existent in the site’s database or by specifying a new venue and locating it on a map; the next step is to add the friends and contacts that you want to invite to the event, either by choosing from your lists of friends or friend groups, both of which are administrable from seperate interfaces, or by adding your invitees directly through a little form; finally the last step is to put in the details of the event, confirm the invitation and have it sent out.

Invitations are sent by sms, providing invitees with the details of the event. Invitees can also use their phone number and invitation number to login and view more details about the event and the venue.

3zeema

As an organizer, you can also choose whether you want your event to be public, and thereby viewable by all site visitors, or whether you prefer it to be private. The same goes for the venue, as some people could be hosting the event at their homes, and don’t want to make their addresses public.

If the invitation is sent a long time in advance, it is possible to specify when you want the service to send a reminder to all invitees. It is also possible to specify if the event is a recurring one, inputting its periodicity so that the service automatically sends out reminders to invitees each time.

An events page for each user shows the events that they created as well as all the events that they were invited to.

3zeema was founded by Esam Alwagait, and its beta version was released earlier this month. The service is only available in Arabic and for events in Saudi Arabia for the time being.

# 3zeema 

Tools4Com Launches Facebook Application For Their Online Invoicing System

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Tools4ComTunis-based Tools4Com just released a new Facebook application for their online invoicing system Tools4Com OIS; that was previously reviewed here.

The Facebook application enables all Facebook users to generate invoices, quotations, pro forma invoices, and delivery notes in PDF format easily and directly from inside Facebook.

Users already registered with Tools4Com OIS can also access their list of documents and download them from the application as well.

Tools4Com OIS Facebook App

The Tools4Com OIS facebook application is available in French only for the time being. The full service through the Tools4Com website is currently available in French and German, with English on the way, and Arabic planned for the future.

# Tools4Com OIS Facebook Application

Jeeran Launches Web Statistics & Analysis Tool ‘Jeeran Visitors’

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JeeranJeeran, the Middle East’s largest UGC community, just announced the launch of a new web statistics and marketing tool called Jeeran Visitors that allows bloggers and users to get insights about the traffic on their blogs and content on Jeeran’s different services.

“Visitors”, features statistics and charts of the number of visitors each page/blog receives, with the ability to track number of pageviews, top viewed content, visitors’ countries, and much more .

Jeeran, Arabic for neighbors, is a pioneer Arab online community that offers a variety of web 2.0 services including blogging, photo and video sharing, as well as web hosting, aiding individuals to create their own presence on the internet, with minimum technical knowledge.

The launch of Visitors comes to complement Jeeran’s vision that aims to offer a unique and complete user experience to their users.

Commenting on the new tool, Laith Zraikat, Director of Innovation and Co-Founder of Jeeran.com, said: “We are so excited about Visitors as it puts our users in control, it’s very user-friendly and easy to operate, and it doesn’t need any installation or technical efforts.”

Mr. Zraikat also added: “With the growing popularity of user-generated-content communities such as Jeeran, bloggers and websites owners, as well as photo and video sharing enthusiasts, are in need for a free and reliable tool to evaluate their contribution to the web.”

Jeeran Visitors

Over the past few years, the community of Jeeran grew-up to host more than one million active users, in addition to 650,000 websites, and a growing community of bloggers that exceeded 120,000 blogs, the largest blog community in the Arab world.

Omar Kudsi, Jeeran’s President and Co-Founder welcomed the launch of Visitors, and quoted: “Our tracking system is user-friendly and comes in both Arabic and English, which offers a convenient Arabic-language tool to measure visitors and traffic.”

Mr. Zraikat pointed out that Visitors is already available for all users on Jeeran without the need of any installation, he also stressed on the fact that many features will be added to the system soon.

Kudsi concluded: “We strive to offer Arab users a top notch web experience that empowers them to contribute, communicate and interact, and Visitors is just the beginning of a series of features and products in the pipeline.”