Archive for the ‘United Arab Emirates’ Category
DemoCamp Dubai 2 - Radisson SAS, Dubai Media City (May 27th)
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | May 11, 2008 – 12:24 pm |
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The second DemoCamp Dubai; the Dubai-based launch event for new products, technologies and companies; will be taking place at the Radisson SAS in Dubai Media City on May 27th at 7:30PM.
It comes only a couple of months after the first DemoCamp in Dubai, but this time around a bigger room was reserved so as to make the event open to everyone, so if you’re interested in attending, you’re more than welcome.
There are already two confirmed demos scheduled for the event, but there are still openings for a couple more; So, if you’re going to be in Dubai around that date, and you are working on an interesting new web application that you would like to present, then just send an email to: contact@spinbits.com or leave a comment on the blog post announcing the event.
Startups and web applications presented at DemoCamp Dubai will also be reviewed here on StartUpArabia.
Places.ae Release Places Answering Machine (PAM)
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | May 10, 2008 – 3:54 pm | 3 Comments
Places.ae, the cool Dubai location based directory, previously reviewed here, have released a new interesting feature called “Places Answering Machine (PAM)”, which acts as an interface for Places.ae with other communication channels on the internet, thereby enabling users to ask Places.ae for places directly through these channels without having to visit the website.
They’ve currently launched with Google Talk and Twitter support, and more channels should be added soon.
For Google Talk users, all you have to do is add places.ae@gmail.com in your contact list then ask PAM to find you something by sending a message in the following format:
find me <something> in <area> (e.g. find me pizza in jumeirah).
You can also use a search term without an area, using find me <something>.
If you’re using Twitter, you’ll have to start following the user places_ae, and once it starts following you back, you can send it a direct message to search for a place:
d places_ae <something> in <area> (e.g. d places_ae pizza in jumeirah).
PAM is still in the beta stage, and more work is currently being put into it’s communication skills and the layout of the sent answers. But it’s still a really nice feature, worth checking out and using for quick searches.
Places.ae, Dubai’s Location Based Directory
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | May 2, 2008 – 11:19 am | 4 Comments
Places.ae is one of those simple, small, but very useful services that we really wish we had more of all around the Arab world.
In short, and using their own words which I think say it best, places.ae is a location based directory for Dubai.
Integrating Google Maps, the website helps you find, positioned on a map, anything in Dubai by simply asking you what you are looking for, and the neighborhood you’re looking for it in; from businesses to restaurants to clubs to hospitals to any other place you would want to go to in Dubai.
The interface is very simple and really easy to use; you start typing what you’re searching for and the website helps by giving suggestions, and then it delivers a list of nearby places sorted by how far they are from the location you typed in.
You get to click on each one of these places to see it located on a map, find how other people who have been there rate it and read their comments on it.
Users can also add other places that they know of to the website, thereby giving the community the possibility to further enrich the service.
Places.ae currently only covers Dubai, but should be adding other emirates soon. The service is free, both for users and for businesses for the time being.
This very cool service is a product of the collaboration of code.ae and spinbits.
Muslim Heritage Images; Manuscripts, Artwork, People & Architecture
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | April 29, 2008 – 1:23 pm | No Comments
Dubai based Muslim Heritage Consulting recently launched the world’s first Muslim history image library online.
The library, at MuslimHeritageImages.com includes manuscripts from the 10th Century as well as contemporary images of people, architecture and museum artifacts.
Collections telling the story of Muslim civilisation have been brought together from museums, archives and private collections across the world. Many images recreate pivotal moments in history such as pioneering early surgical work carried out in the Middle East centuries before similar treatments were available in Europe.
The images are available for sale as downloads or prints, and with specific usage licenses, mainly a single country and single language licence for commercial users, suitable for print and publication use.
Images are organized by category and searchable by keyword; and detailed descriptions are provided for each image.
restate.ae, Dubai Real Estate Portal
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | April 24, 2008 – 8:57 am | No Comments
restate.ae is a web real estate portal dedicated to freehold and leasehold properties in Dubai, with the goal to act as a hub and bring people with different real estate needs together, whether they’re looking to live in Dubai, invest in real estate or sell properties.
The portal has a very nice, simple and usable design, integrating a wealth of features put together to provide users with in-depth real estate solutions, customized and advanced search to find what exactly suits their needs, access to other users’ opinions, neighborhood ratings, videos of properties and projects, the possibility to join discussions with other users, as well as the latest real estate news in the UAE.
restate.ae also offers agencies the possibility to list all their properties on the website, and through an administration interface manage their profiles, their properties, and assign agents to them.
All properties agencies list on the portal are then automatically republished to Google Real Estate.
It’s obvious that with the huge real estate boom taking place in Dubai, restate.ae has a really important and useful job to do, making life easier for everyone approaching this market.
restate.ae was launched in 2007 by Web 2.0 consultancy company SpinBits, and all its services are currently free, both for users and agencies.
Darrb, Community Powered Shipping And Delivery
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | April 22, 2008 – 8:38 am | 2 Comments
Darrb is a new and interesting service launched from Dubai, UAE, that aims to solve people’s shipping needs, at better prices and faster than the conventional methods of shipping.
The idea behind Darrb, which means “way” in Arabic, is to build an online community around an auction based marketplace, that connects people willing to send items from one location to another, with people willing to deliver these items and earn an income as a return.
When users auction their deliveries, deliverers (Darrbers) compete with each other by offering the lowest price and fastest delivery time in order to win the bid. This will ensure that users get the best rates and fastest delivery service.
Payments are arranged outside the system between the sender and the deliverer for each delivery, but a rating and reputation system is integrated into the system to enable senders to rate the quality, price and speed of service of the deliverers once the shipping is done, and help other senders compare and choose which people to work with in the future.
Darrb is a free service for all parties for the time being; People can add delivery orders for free and Darrbers can offer their delivery services without any cost. They do plan to start charging membership fees for Darrbers in the future though, but still have no plans to start taking commissions from users.
Halal Exchange, Marketplace For Global Halal Trade
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | April 6, 2008 – 9:30 pm | No Comments
Halal Exchange, a unique e-commerce platform aimed at facilitating global Halal trade, will make UAE the preferred hub of the $2.1 trillion-a-year global Halal market (according to Malaysian government estimates in 2007).
With UAE ideally positioned through its infrastructure and telecommunication network and its growing significance as one of the largest re-export centers in the world, Halal Exchange will facilitate the growth of Halal trade, both within the Middle East as well as globally.
Powered by vLinx, a web-based solution, which addresses the challenges of global sourcing, the Halal Exchange makes the costly and complex import-export process as simple as doing business across the street. The Exchange will provide a seamless business platform for the larger retailers and distributors as well as the small and medium-sized companies, which are currently responsible for nearly 80 per cent of the global Halal transactions.
Headquartered in the UAE, Halal Exchange is a joint venture between vLinx Inc. and RAK Investment Authority. The service is free of charge and accessible to registered clients anywhere in the world.
# Site: Halal Exchange
# Source: Mena Report
