Talking tech & life since 2002.
Only a few weeks left until I’ll be skiing in Dubai! Here are some pics from two weeks ago taken at Ski Dubai, a new indoor ski slope being built at The Mall of the Emirates. The mall itself opened in late September (largest outside of North America), but the ski slope has been delayed till late November or early December. I’m already looking for a ski rack for my car!!!
I stumbled across this picture on one of NASA’s websites featuring pictures taken by the crew of the International Space Station. This picture of the The Palm, Jumeirah was taken in April 2005 and shows the smallest of three Palm Islands being built in Dubai. The first homeowners will get to move into their houses and apartments in late 2006. Click the image above for a higher resolution version.
Here is another picture that gives another perspective on the construction of Palm Jumeirah as seen from Le Rêve Dubai, an incredible 50-floor luxury apartment building under construction in Dubai Marina. This picture was taken by my friend Andy Lemon in June of this year.
I’ve been using an i-mate SP3 as my mobile phone for just over a year now. With the launch of Windows Mobile 5.0, I started researching upcoming phones to find a replacement. I liked the SmartPhone form factor, but I get tempted by the first WM5 phone that went on sale in Dubai which is the i-mate JASJAR, an uber-PDA phone featuring a VGA screen, WiFi, Bluetooth, quad-band GSM, 3G (WCDMA), and an integrated keyboard.
Unfortunately, my biggest concern about this device was valid. It’s too big. It’s not easy to carry around in my pocket all day. And it has one major usability issue…it’s virtually impossible to use it one-handed to make or receive calls. It’s a great PDA and having 3G connectivity on a device with a pretty good keyboard means that I can have access to my e-mail, browsing, Remote Desktop, etc. where ever I go on a device which has better battery life than any laptop…but I can’t use it as a mobile phone.
After realizing this, it was time to go back to a SmartPhone. Luckily for me, i-mate launched the SP5 at GITEX and I bought one and have been happily using it since. It has decent battery life, Bluetooth, WiFi, quad-band GSM, EDGE, a high-res QVGA screen, and is very easy to use one-handed. The only thing that is missing is support for the new push technology which is featured in Microsoft Exchange 2003 SP2. The challenge is that client devices, which have to be running WM5, must also include a set of components called the Windows Mobile 5.0 Messaging and Security Feature Pack which will be distributed by device manufacturers, OEMs, or carriers as part of a device-specific ROM update. There is no announced timetable for the release of this, but late this year or early next year is a reasonable guess.
My father’s new 2006 Mercedes-Benz S500 (W221) was delivered a week ago. As it seems very few have been delivered yet anywhere in the world, I thought I’d post a few pictures. Read the rest of the post to see pictures of the interior including the new COMAND system.
The new Aston Martin V8 Vantage was in Dubai a few weeks ago on a tour of the Middle East. This is not the first time it’s been here, but this is first production version to come. It was a GCC spec car with Mercury Silver exterior and Kestral Tan interior.
I’ve just upgraded my site to MovableType 3.2, hoping that this will solve the problems of bad iframes being automatically inserted in portions of my website which cause the installation of spyware on visitor’s computers. That’s the main reason I’ve not posted anything for months because I lost faith in this blogging software. I’ll give it one more chance before giving up on hosting my own blog and move to one of the commercial ones like TypePad or MSN Spaces.
For as long as I’ve been buying Apple products, they have always been way overpriced in Dubai. My first Apple purchase in Dubai was an Apple IIgs, and since then I have bought all the rest of my Apple computers from the US. I could understand that being true fifteen years ago, but it’s still true today…except for the iPod. Here are some examples:
Mac mini (low end config):
United States: Dhs. 1,825 ($499.00)
United Kingdom: Dhs. 2,200 (£339)
United Arab Emirates: Dhs. 2,800
In the UAE price above, I have removed the 5% import duty to make the comparision fair.
So what is going on? How can there be a 50% premium for selling this product in Dubai when companies like HP and Sony are selling their computers for 0-5% premium compared to US retail prices? Compare this to pricing for iPods. An iPod shuffle can be had for Dhs. 410, which is about a $5 (1%) premium compared to the US…and that’s why you see iPods EVERYWHERE in Dubai…but Macs are rare. Not only are they more expensive than the other PCs on the market, but existing Mac users are confused by the unjustified price differential compared to the US or Europe.
In a trading hub like Dubai, silly premiums like this must stop. If Apple is serious about translating the success of the iPod into increased Mac sales, they need to poke their heads out of Cupertino and realize that they have ignored this market for too long. Apple has no direct presence in the region.
A new company called MacStore LLC is about to open a retail store called an Apple Center at the recently opened Ibn Battuta Shopping Mall in Dubai. There is a picture of the unfinished store below. I believe this store is a joint venture including Arab Business Machines (ABM), Apple’s Independent Marketing Company (IMC) for the region.
I know ABM very well and they have been involved with Apple for a long time and are really enthusiastic about their products. I owe them a lot for helping me when I was an annoying teenager trying to get my hands on System 7, PowerBook Duo 210, or PowerMac Quadra 900. They have a done a phenomenal job getting the iPod into the retail channel here, and I hope they have as much success with this new store; but without decent pricing Macs will never become popular here. ABM, Apple Europe, and sales team in Cupertino need to fix this situation. I’m fed up of it, and so are many other Mac users who I’ve spoken to. It’s very difficult for me to recommend Macs to my friends when I know the prices are not fair. The problem is probably due to too many middle men being invovled, but why it’s happening is not important to me or other Apple customers.
I hope some of my friends in Cupertino read this rant, and I’m sure to bring it up when I see them later this month. If Apple can get serious about this region, I think they can have a lot of success beyond what the iPod has brought them here. If not, then we Mac users will continue to suffer second class treatment and will eventually give up.
The Gulf News is reporting today that a juvenile whale shark spent most of the day yesterday in Dubai Marina before eventually finding its way back out to sea.
The last whale shark I saw was about twenty years ago when a full grown specimen washed up dead on one of the beaches in Dubai.
This one looked like it just got picked up from the airport, with European license plates still on it:
Most streets in Dubai don’t have street names. The major ones do…some of the names are official and some are just popular nicknames. Mail does not get delivered to your office/residence but only to post office boxes. Giving directions in Dubai is always in relation to some landmark. The few streets that have names have Arabic names…which is why I was surprised to see this today:
[click for larger image]
Well, I guess DaimlerChrysler deserves at least that after Dubai bought 2% of the company.