With Zain you have a choice of two plans, International or Local, with International you get an extra 10 MB for international use and unlimited local, with Local you get no allowance for international but you get unlimited local. With both plans you pay 6 fils per KB, with the international you get that fee once you go over the 10 MB monthly allowance. Now because of all the pricing and billing blunders that people suffered while traveling internationally with a local plan Zain switched off Blackberry Service for people who travel internationally but with a local plan. If you want Blackberry Service running but you want to keep your local plan you have to go to Zain and sign documents stating that you understand the bills against you. Now I can understand the billing issue but they seriously have to find a way to warn people when they are reaching their limits instead of just cutting them off. My friends just learned about this little change in policy while they were traveling, so even if they wanted to activate their Blackberry service they would have to go to Kuwait and sign the document and then they would switch it on, so no way to do it while you are abroad. But for those who don’t want to switch it on you can still use the Blackberry service internationally when you are connected to a Wifi connection.

Having an IPad 3G I wanted to take advantage of it while in the states next week. I have been looking online at T-Mobile & AT&T but I can’t seem to find any Pre-Paid Micro-Sim data plan. It’s always these contract plans, so I wondering what I would have to do to get a Pre-Paid Micro Sim for the iPad while I’m there for a few weeks.

I found this site called: iphonetrip but the pricing is ridiculous.

Anyone have any luck with this?

Seems there is a lot of talk about stopping Blackberry service in the GCC and some talk in Kuwait. Kuwait’s simple story is that they want to block some sites from being accessed as all internet, email, and messenger services are routed through Blackberry’s servers which circumvent most of the blocking requested by MOC from the ISPs. Now Saud is announcing they will stop BB service by this Friday, and UAE by October, so even if you are roaming there you won’t have Blackberry Service.

A lot of people love their Blackberry and can’t stop using it, but as soon as the service is disconnected they mentioned that they will switch over to the iPhone right away. I know a lot of people mentioned that all these smart phones have IM Clients that rival BBM but in reality none is simpler and more standardized then Blackberry, and it just won’t be the same in that case. I know that I have my Android and its a great phone but if they plan on disconnecting Blackberry any time soon I don’t think I would going back to SMS or enjoying the instant messaging as I do with BBM.

“With no solution available and in the public interest … Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry E-mail and Blackberry Web-browsing services will be suspended until an acceptable solution can be developed and applied,” Telecommunications Regulatory Authority director-general Mohamed al-Ghanim said in a statement carried on state news agency WAM.

I was surprised as anyone else for UAE’s and Saudi’s announcement that they will be cutting off all Blackberry Service of all kinds. Meaning that even if you have a service from another provider from another country it will not work in the UAE or Saudi.

There were announcements a few months back that they were contemplating shutting down the service in Kuwait, but luckily they are too lazy to go through the politics to do it, and it would be an damage many of the telecom company’s bottom end.

They cite security reasons as the main reason not censorship, but the reality is that they have no control over Blackberry services what so ever when people use them. In reality it’s very difficult to figure out someone from their Blackberry PIN, and so they can broadcast msgs, send items to people without having it intercepted or scanned. Blackberry came on fire over the past two years in the MiddleEast, everybody wanted the service, and it really took off. But the authorities weren’t to happy, in Emirates they have a lockdown on communications of all sorts, but this one seemed to have slipped them and they aren’t too happy about it, and the same goes for Saudi.

Now for the real interesting part, last year there was a little debacle with Etisalat trying to install spyware on their handsets through a Blackberry software update. That was really the Spyware product of SS8 which can monitor communications of Blackberry, but it was removed by RIM the manufacturer of Blackberry and people were pissed. Now here is the little details they fail to mention, SS8 develops products such as these but they have to take license proprietary software from RIM to use it. SS8 is only licensed to sell the software in the US, Canada, and the UK which they have to the governments, and they aren’t licensed to sell in any other country including the Middle East, that is why they were pissed about the Etisalat debacle in 2009. So I think the tactic of Saudi and UAE are trying to put pressure on RIM to allow SS8 to sell in the Middle East or the service will be shut down and they will lose a large amount of revenue. I don’t know if they do or don’t block the service in a few months but its going to be a hell of a blow to RIM’s income.

Stumbling onto this video at Crackberry is a good sign, I have had my Blackberry Curve 8900 for 1 year and 7 months now, and this thing is falling apart. The trackball is still faithfull and the phone is operating but it can’t read the micro-SD card anymore and hangs every once in a while. I’m surprised it lasted this long after what I put it through, and I have been waiting for Curve update, and here you have it. It will be running the 5.0 OS and now the rumored 6.0 OS which is fine by me. This isn’t a revolutionary phone but an overhaul of the phone to current technology, and I’m happy that they have mostly worked out the kinks in the new OS, so I’m hoping that it will be a smooth operating OS without any issues. The strange part is the guy on the video calling the Curve 8900, the “8500” which is new to me, other then that it looks like a good upgrade to the current phone, I just hope they don’t take too long to release it.

Just recently got my hands on the new HTC Desire, the HTC version of the Nexus One. Extremely similar specs but they have updated the software a bit as well as changing the trackball to a infra-red sensor which feels your fingers presence.

What really makes this such a different phone is HTC’s touch to the software. They have updated a few of the bugs, overall 3G is much smoother on it. Then there is the interface, which is what they call “HTC Sense”. It overlaps the Android software (Eclair 2.1) with their modified and smoother interface.

Whats Great:

• HTC Sense – Just makes everything smoother
• Better & Smoother 3G performance
• Same cool line of software
• Great Google Application Integration
• As soon as I registered my Gmail Account it updated all my contacts over a wireless connection as well as the pictures that I have associated with each contact.
• A bit heavier then the Nexus One but it does feel very solid

I have had the Google Nexus One for about 4 months now and really abused the hell out of this phone. Overall I am really enjoying the phone and its capabilities, Google has done a good job with the phone and OS overall but there is a lot of room for improvement. After using this phone for this period I wanted to point out the parts that need to be worked on objectively, its still one of the best phones to surf the net on, and I love how much you can really customize this phone but there are areas where I think they should work on it to develop a better experience for the user with Android and Google Phones.

OS Versions and Confusion

There are so many versions of the OS that some phones can’t support, from Android 1.5 to 1.6, and 2.0 to 2.1, and now 2.2 on the way, and I don’t even know their names. All these different version have their faults and limitations, and a lot of them don’t have compatibility between the other operating systems. And you can’t just auto-upgrade some of the phones as they have physical limitations to them that we don’t even know about. Even if you can upgrade them they don’t work on them quickly enough. There has to be a smoother process for people to enjoy the features of the new OS on phones they have already purchased, instead of feeling left out which is the case right now. A lot of the phones are very good phones such as HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and even the Nexus One but people don’t want to be left out of the new features of an upgraded OS.

Application Confusion

Google pushed so hard to have applications by the thousands available to people from day one. One very large flaw has come back to bite them in them in the ass, they let the applications get posted with almost very little review or check. Many of the applications crash constantly and don’t provide the service they promised. There is no genuine process to find the right application, there might be one out there but its like trying to find a grain of sand in the desert, its become huge and not clear. There are some popular ones and you can see reviews online but there is no mechanism for people to find the right application without some trial and error. Apple is stringent about their application publication procedure and Google went the complete opposite way of not even bothering, its easier to bring products to market and quicker but it turns the consumers and users into the test bed making it very annoying. They should have an external application so you can go through and take a look, a better ranking process, and thorough testing process. And one of the biggest problems at this point is application compatibility between different Operating Systems and Phones, might work on one and not the other and you would never know unless someone already complained about it in the comments. This is their biggest problem, people are only talking about the numbers, but I would want a lot less application if I can get better quality applications.

Nexus One 3G Issues

There is a genuine issue with the 3G connectivity of the Nexus One, its spotty and at times it just disappears and I can’t figure out why. When its connected its pretty damn fast, but Google took the route of dropping the issue which is very bad for them, leaving people regretting they go this phone. I’m doing fine without it but 3G connectivity for extra features on the phone is key. Google integration of all its services is great but whats the point if you can’t use it on the go. Other versions of Android phone seem to be functioning fine, but as the first phone directly from Google buying another phone isn’t a solution.

Multi-Touch or What

The legal battle for Multi-Touch has gotten out of hand and people are getting annoyed about it. Some phones have it and some phones don’t, some will get the upgrade and some won’t, some phones can’t even support it. The list is confusing OSes and different models and which can support it is insane.

Support

Google faltered in the beginning, for network support contact your operator, for hardware support contact HTC, for OS support contact Google but you really can’t. There was almost not support structure for the device or other machines in place. From what I have read online and my experience with HTC they are very good phones and very good support for their products, but somethings only Google can answer. If you want to deal with retail products and consumers then you have to have the support structure to deal with people, its not the same as just providing services, now they are providing products directly to people and they really do need to support it and work on it. Some people are saying too little too late, but I still think improving on services is critical for product success and people might say the Nexus One was a flop for Google but overall I think it taught them a lesson.

Overall

I do believe in the Android OS, for everyone who has Blackberry and iPhone they are excellent phones as well but Google is making up ground fast. Gone are the days of Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola, now the new three giants have risen above them. Google, RIM, and Apple are really taking over and providing services to customers and more areas of revenue, nobody has push telecommunication providers like these three have, knocking them around as they like. Google is pushing hard to flood the market and get more market share, even going to the point as bribing providers but they are loving and they have a good product. Now to see what will happen next with the new iPhone, and so many other machines coming to market.

Now this is a shocker, Sony Ericsson became synonymous with phones, I can only remember back in the late 90s and early 2000 when I had a few Ericsson phones then the joint venture took place and I don’t remember as anything else but Sony Ericsson. Its no secret that I’m a huge fan of Sony Ericsson, because they built quality phones which didn’t have too many software bugs and could survive a major beating. I switch from Nokia a little while back and loved the phone. Now this major surprise is a shock, they will cease operations in four months and all employees will be distributed between Sony and Ericsson. It seems the recession hit them hard as well and they couldn’t get out of it.

Sony Ericsson CEO, Bert Nordberg, says: “We truly did believe in the vision that was Sony Ericsson, we had an ambition to rise to the top, but sadly, our way towards there has been hampered in numerous ways during the past few years, both financially and strategically. We are saddened to announce that our parent companies, Sony and Ericsson have decided to quit the joint venture and put its reinstatement on hold indefinitely.”

Link: SEBlog

Voice Coverage:

• Zain is good, except for those dropped calls at quite a few locations
• Wataniya has good coverage, a few problem areas but overall good
• Viva seems to go from bad to spotty coverage, pretty much the worst of the bunch

With the new Google Phone its a very Data oriented phone with lots of different services and integrated items that require constant data usage. You can manually configure the APN details so that you can access 3G/Edge of your network. The biggest adopter and advertiser of Google Android phones currently is Viva, the other operators haven’t adopted Android Phones yet. Now the surprising part is this, I have used my Google Phone with Zain and Wataniya, the settings work automatically and I’m on the 3G network right away downloading data and it transfers to a wireless network that it recognizes if it connected to it previously. It puts the priority on normal wireless if its available before using 3G/Edge. Now the surprising part is Viva, the settings don’t download right away, speaking to the technical staff they run you in circles and they don’t even know. I even tried explaining to them the exact details but I honestly couldn’t get a coherent answer from them. With Wataniya and Zain they knew exactly what I was talking about and they provided me the APN settings and the exact details, IPs, and ports. Overall for voice services in Kuwait you either go with Wataniya Telecom or Zain.

This has probably been a disaster for any Zain subscriber over the last three days who has been using his or her phone outside of Kuwait. I got numerous calls from family members over the weekend from strange lines to check with Zain why did they disconnect their lines, I called up Zain to ask about different people and a few were even with Zero balance. Now they told me they were having a small glitch in their system and they will be back up in a matter of hours, I conveyed the message, usually that means 3 to 4 but even 10 hours later it was still the same situation. I called numerous techies of Zain and they kept telling me the nothing is wrong with the lines, but they are making a slight upgrade which could have had an impact on roaming Zain subscribers, so another story this time. The third time I just went to the one at the airport and those guys were swamped, turns out it was a company wide problem not just a few people for the last three days. Then the guy at the counter told people to contact the Ministry of Communication as it was their problem. So Zain did something to mess up all roaming calls, or pissed off somebody at the MoC, or MoC did something that damaged ONLY Zain’s roaming lines. Yet all Viva and Wataniya customers were working fine, for those who were expecting business calls or contacting family or any form of communication through a Zain line was practically out of luck. What ever the problem I’m surprised its still some what of an issue and at the end as usual the customers bore the grunt of the damage, I doubt Zain will offer them anything to compensate some of these damages.