Banana Kuwait Blog | Entertainment | Food | Fashion | Electronics

Recall Thuraya satellite phones? I remember seeing their TV ads many years ago but I thought they were abandoned already but today I read on the news that Ministry of Communication has set up a new tariff for Thurarya phones (500 fils/min). I remember Thuraya was first introduced back in 1997 and used satellites to provide phone service in remote areas such as deserts, mid of the sea or high up in the mountains which are not covered by normal telecommunication networks.

I find them useful for those who do long trips, but I wish if the per minute rate was even lower.

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iPhone 5 is almost here, I just saw that Apple announced 12th September (that’s a week from now) will mostly be the date for unveiling the most anticipated phone by many, well I’m not an Apple fan boy but I’m still looking forward to it. What are you expectations? Will it beat Samsung Galaxy SIII? Apple seems quite concerned from Samsung lately especially with all those lawsuits.

Update: iPhone 5 even will be start at 8:00 PM Kuwait time.

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I got my hands on the awaited smart watch i’m WATCH which has just arrived to Kuwait, first I liked that it has a touch screen and that it has a multi-tasking capability. It can be connected to iPhone,  Androids, and Blackberry via bluetooth and there were many functions like making phone calls, checking twitter account, facebook, read emails, listen to music, check weather, set appointments.

[Watch on YouTube]

There was an application that is compatible with Instagram that will be released soon, the screen was sharp and based on TFT display and the resolution was good.  As for the the size (see below) it was slightly big (I happen to like bigger watches) and weight was about 70 grams. 

It supports both Arabic and English and comes in black and white color but they said new colors will be available soon. The shortcomings are that it’s not water-proof and high price tag other than that it’s pretty cool. i’m WATCH is only available at EUREKA, the price is KD169

Read the rest of this post »

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I got iPhone 4 and my friend got Samsung Galaxy SIII and both of our screens got broken badly, so we went to Hawally to change them and to my surprise my screen costs KD15 while his screen costs KD85, that’s a big difference. Question is; why Samsung Galaxy S III screen costs much higher than iPhone 4S?

Basically iPhone screen comes in two parts; the top glass and the underneath touch panel and they are separated (see picture below), this is why iPhone screen keeps working even after it gets broken whereas Samsung Galaxy S III screen comes as single plastic piece and rarely works when broken badly. I think this is the same reason why Samsung Galaxy screen is more expensive. I hope Samsung will resolve this issue in their upcoming Samsung Note 2 phone.

Finally my iPhone screen was replaced with a new one, though I want to clarify that screens in Hawally are not original.

Thanks [Said]

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I’m in the process of making my own business card since I don’t have one yet, but instead of having traditional business card I’m working on a smart one that supports NFC. If you don’t know what NFC is all about, then let me briefly explain; it stands for Near Filed Communication and it allows people to share media files, data, URLS, phone numbers, emails… etc. instantly by tapping any NFC-Enabled devices together. All new smart phones come with NFC-option like Samsung Galaxy S III, BlackBerry, Windows phone, and I’m sure Apple will include it in their upcoming IOS 6 update.

A business card with NFC stores all your information like email, mobile, website, phone, address, P.O Box…etc. and can share them with anyone by simply tapping the business card with his phone or any other NFC-enabled device so all your data will be saved on his device, futuristic. The awesomeness doesn’t end here, imagine you are swimming in the pool or exercising in the gym and wearing a small NFC bracelet that has all your contacts stored so you can share them with anyone near you.

I’m sure NFC technology will change many things in our daily lives, we can use it to pay with our mobile phones or access data from civil ID cards or passports, the possibilities are limitless.

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The biggest mall in Kuwait, The Avenues, has just released their iPhone application, it took them long but finally it’s available now. I installed the app to see what are the benefits and advantages. First I liked how the app had user-friendly interface and clean design, it was also fast. I started the app and saw a menu consisting of Home, Stores, Map, Parking, and More buttons, below are the features:

Stores: Option to categorize the stores in the mall under fashion, food, sportswear, electronics… etc. or alphabetically, it also provides customers with the all the information related to any particular store such as the phone number, facebook, twitter, and where is the nearest parking spot to the store.

Map: An interactive 3D map for the Avenues Mall, it helps you locate any store or particular area of the mall, I liked how the multi-touch navigation works and the zoom in/out feature is terrific, you can also rotate the map for better visibility.

Parking: Great and really helpful option, you can use it to remember where you exactly parked your car (This is great option for me since I usually forget where I parked) by either taking a snapshot picture or writing down a note about where you parked.

More: It provides the mall contacts and links to their social sites (twitter, facebook, Instagram, Avenues Magazine… etc.). The app supports both Arabic & English languages, personally I classify the Avenues app as one of the best apps so far, and now we are looking forward for the Android version.

To get it search AppStore for “The Avenues” or click here

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Kuwait is all about expos and fairs whether they’re fashion, food, small businesses, real estate, talents, public services related. On average there’s an expo almost every 1-2 weeks, a group of Kuwaitis has developed a dedicated iPhone/iPad/iPod app that covers most of the upcoming/ongoing expos in Kuwait. I spoke with the developers and asked them about the app, they said that they feed the application on continues basis to include all the major expos and their details such as contact numbers, date, duration, location, and offers.

I installed the app, its free and simple to use and quiet helpful, if you are looking for a particular expo you can use the search option to look it up, you can also add your selected expos to the favorite list so you will be reminded later. Generally I liked the concept idea but I wish they further develop the app to include more expos and categorize them.

Get the app here

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Google has released Chrome browser for iPhone and iPad and I just installed it, I’m loving it so far because its fast and simple when surfing Internet. There are some nice features such as opening multi-tabs , bookmarks, most visited pages, and there’s this feature that lets you browse any website in private; meaning it won’t be saved in history.

It supports English and Arabic languages, seems Google is trying to eleminate Apple Safary browser just like they did with MS Internet explorer. To get it seach AppStore for “Google Chrome“.

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My brother purchased the Samsung SIII pebble blue color from Al Babtain electronics store, I was waiting for the blue version, price is the same as the white and black KD189.

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As promised I brought you a quick review for the new Nokia 808 phone, I was curious to see how the 41 MP resolution camera (As they claim) will be. The phone has almost the size of iPhone and comes with a 1.3Ghz processor, 512MB RAM and 16GB internal storage expandable to 32GB, there’s also HDMI output.

The software is still Symbian, I can’t get why Nokia still insists on it, they can go for Android and this can help them. 

The phone has 4 inch screen and uses AMOLED display, but it wasn’t as sharp as Samsung SIII or iPhone 4S display. Browsing the menu and settings wasn’t that user-friendly, again Symbian issue. Back to camera, I tried to take some shots but I noticed its only allowing me a resolution of 38 MP, the pictures had resolution of 7728 X 4354 but they looked somehow pale with unbalanced contrast, I tried to use flash/no flash but still get the same. 

[Watch on YouTube]

The zooming was good but it gets kind of blurry and losses quality as you zoom in, the video quality was HD 1080p and almost similar to iPhone 4s.

Note: Shots below were taken in Kuwait by Nokia 808 PureView. Some via [link]

 [Gallery not found]

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My friend told me about this new phone from Nokia, yes Nokia still lives, so-called 808 PureView that has a camera with 41 megapixel resolution, that even beats my Canon 600D DSLR camera. I think this is last-stand from Nokia since they’re trying everything and anything to make a come back to the phone market yet to no avail especially with big players like Apple and Android.

Though I must admit I’m quite curious to see how pictures quality will look with the 41 megapixel Carl Zeiss Sensor camera, sadly the software is still the Symbian. I’m planning to make a review about it in a few days.

So do you think Nokia has any chance with this phone?

[Watch on YouTube]

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