Tag: Mobile Applications

CareZone: A New Mobile Check-In Service For Social Good

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Online services that push us to check-in and share the places we’re at, what we’re doing, what we’re eating, what we’re watching and pretty much every other daily activity we could possibly be engaged in are all around us these days, urging us to over-share our every single move with the world, in many cases for nothing but the sake of over-sharing.

CareZone is a new check-in service that aims to make a difference and add purpose, by creating a link between users’ check-ins and spending at different places on one hand, and channeling benefits to those in need on the other.

The platform offers a location-based mobile app that suggests and rewards users for choosing and checking in at a CareZone partner (shops, restaurants, …etc.) Users earn CareZone Coins for their check-ins; spending money at the CareZone partner’s business will earn them even more Coins.

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Arab Mobile Advertising Startup Noqoush Raises $3 Million

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Noqoush Mobile Media Group, an Arab mobile advertising and mobile media monetization startup, announced concluding its first 3 million dollar investment round a couple of weeks ago.

In a press release, the company stated that a group of Arab and Foreign angel investors invested in its technical capabilities and future visions aiming at developing a full-fledged mobile advertising platform and mobile media monetization solutions targeting the massive mobile growth in the Middle East.

This first round of investment is aimed at providing the company with the required liquidity to enhance its capabilities, boost its growth, and attract the needed skills and competences to meet the increasing demand on its mobile media solutions.

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Restaurant Review Service Qaym Releases Arabic iPhone App

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Qaym, the Arab website for user generated restaurant and coffee shop reviews, that was previously reviewed here, and recently received an investment from N2V, is announcing the launch of their iPhone application.

The online service enables users to rate and review restaurants and coffee shops, in addition to uploading pictures of them and their food items, discussing their positives and negatives and posting relevant information about them.

The newly released iPhone application provides users with the following features:

  • A list of the best ten restaurants in the city they’re in, based on the ratings of its users.
  • The possibility to drill down and find the best restaurants in the city by category or type of cuisine.
  • Access to the restaurants’ Qaym profiles that show the ratings, reviews and photos that other users who visited it shared and uploaded.

This first version of the application supports the following cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, Manama, Dammam, Khobar, Medina, Buraidah, Unaizah and Mecca. But more cities are planned for future releases of the application.

An Android version of the application is underway, and should see the light of day soon too.

The application is available in Arabic only, and can be downloaded for free from the iTunes store here.

Planet of the Apps Arabia 2011 – April 18-20th 2011 – Dubai (UAE)

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There’s no arguing that we currently live in a mobile world, and since the launch of the iPhone a few years ago and all the developments that have followed in the smartphone space, contributing to the spread of such devices around the world, mobile apps have taken over as the hottest innovation area in tech.

Planet of the Apps Arabia 2011 is an event that will be taking place at Dubai’s The One & Only Royal Mirage Hotel from 18th to 20th of April 2011, aiming to cover this fast growing and exciting space. It is organized as a two day strategic conference, dedicated developer masterclass and a technology showcase exhibition.

The aim of the event is to bring together the mobile application ecosystem in one location, and get insights into what the spread of mobile applications means for business from some of the industry experts.

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Yalla Apps: Microsoft’s MEA Windows Phone 7 Developer Portal

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Microsoft announced the launch of “Yalla Apps“, a regional Windows Phone 7 developer portal that Microsoft hopes will serve as an accelerator for the creation, availability and submission of local Windows Phone 7 applications from the developer community across the Middle East and Africa region (MEA), in addition to enabling them to be part of the growing global Windows Phone 7 developer community.

Through Yalla Apps, local developers can submit, participate and distribute their applications through the global marketplace for Windows Phone 7 and move towards monetizing their applications and creating new revenue opportunities.

Yalla Apps will also offer developers the opportunity to download Windows Phone 7 application templates, sample code and components to get a quick start in their application development. Moreover, developers can also upload their own code and share it with the community either on a free or paid basis.

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Mobily Launches Developers Community To Enrich Arabic Mobile Applications & Content

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Saudi Arabia’s second mobile operator Mobily (Etihad Etisalat) has launched a new project dubbed “Mobily Developers Community” that aims to help developers build mobile applications and software that support Arabic content.

It’s been a hot topic in almost every web or mobile event in the region that there is a big lack in Arabic applications and content, and Mobily hopes this project will play a role in enriching the offering of Arabic content available.

The program is focused on encouraging developers, both professionals and hobbyists, as well as software companies, to unleash their talents and develop quality apps with valuable content for the different smartphone platforms. They also wish for it to become a club for Arabian software talent where members can get their hands on all the resources they might need to create innovative mobile apps.

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Free Booths For Startups At TiE GITEX 2010 Start-up Showcase

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Dubai’s yearly GITEX Technology Week is just around the corner, taking place from October 17th to 21st in the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Plans for this year’s event are even bigger than previous years, and include a new really interesting track titled ‘GITEX Mobile Apps & Content World‘, which is focused on the sector of mobile applications and content, and aims to provide a high profile, dynamic framework for the mobile applications and entertainment market.

With a market worth an estimated US$30 billion, opportunities are immense, and there’s so much going on in this space as mobile operators and manufacturers scramble to open up their own apps stores as popular demand for apps to buy and download increases.

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Yamli Transliteration Application Launched For iPhone And iPad

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YamliYamli, the startup that specializes in smart transliteration technologies for the Arabic Web, just unveiled its new official iOS application for the iPhone and the iPad, bringing their technology to their users while on the move on their mobile phones and tablets.

The app is priced at $2.99, works mostly offline, and is pretty straight-forward in how it works. Once a user clicks on the purple Yamli logo, a text area opens up for the user to type in the text they want transliterated into Arabic; this text can then be sent as an SMS or an email message.

Using the app too, users can perform web searches, as well as specific searches on YouTube, iTunes and Maps. Obviously the search options would require an internet connection to work. Read More

ContactCars Launches Arabic iPhone App For Egyptian Car Market

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ContactCars, the Egyptian portal that provides news and car specs and prices in for the Egyptian market has gone on and launched an Arabic iPhone app for their service, aiming to make it easier for users to access the information they provide while on the go.

The application, just like the site itself, provides a variety of information about cars available in the Egyptian market, with the goal of providing the information a user needs to be able to choose the best car that suits his budget and needs.

It offers the possibility of checking the latest car prices and their features from the various car models out in the market, with photos of each car and its specifications, as well as a list of similar cars the user might be interested in. Cars can be browsed and searched through either by model or price.

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Jeddah Food, The Online Restaurant Guide Launches iPhone App

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Jeddah FoodJeddah Food, the English language online restaurant guide to restaurants in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, recently announced the launch of their new iPhone mobile application.

The application enables visitors to Jeddah, as well as locals, quickly find restaurants around the city, based on your current location, while on the go. It provides a search functionality to look for specific restaurants and cafes around Jeddah, as well as quick categories that enables users to click through directly and locate places by type of cuisine (e.g. Lebanese, Japanese, Burgers etc.)

For each venue, the application provides the venue details, phone numbers, website details, photo galleries, and maps.

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