The Information and Communication Technology Exhibition and Conference (Saudi ICT 2011) will bring together the principal companies and specialists in the industry, from across the Gulf and globe, to showcase their latest products and generate new business. The event will be held 11-15/12 at Jeddah Centre for Forums and Events (JCFE)

Profile for exhibit includes hardware, data warehousing, e-business, government, marketing and learning solutions, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, banking, finance and accounting solutions, human resource management, internet and e-commerce security, semiconductors and embedded devices, knowledge and information management solutions, telecom carriers, fixed, wireless and mobile operators, broadband operators, media content providers, wireless ISP’s, satellite operators, equipment manufacturers, network equipment providers, cable and fiber optics, testing and measurement solutions, software companies, and consultants.Exhibitors will meet with over 3,000 senior corporate decision makers, industry experts and the highest authorities in the Kingdom’s and the Gulf’s ICT industries. The Saudi ICT conference is dedicated to the major ICT issues shaping the Gulf’s booming economy and offers the ideal setting to cement fruitful and lasting business relationships.

STC launched the new BlackBerry Curve 9360 equipped with Blackberry operating system version 7 with the Blackberry monthly package for current and new customers with a one month starting from the day of purchase and with the option to purchase the device with monthly fee. Both packages offer customers a monthly free balance including voice and video calls, SMS, MMS, and an internet package.

The new Blackberry device is equipped with a 2.4 inch with a 360X480 clear display and a 800 MHz processor, 5 megapixel camera and a flash LED, 512 Ram Mb, 512 internal memory. The device is also equipped with an external memory SD Micro up to 32 Mb in addition to the device supports WiFi and Bluetooth.

The launch of the new BlackBerry Curve affirms the Company’s leadership is launching the newest and latest smart phones while at the same demonstrates the Company’s commitment to providing the latest in smart technologies. STC also uniquely provides its customers with promotions and offers for smart phones which is part of its customer centric strategy to provide the best services with the best prices, add to that the comprehensive support in terms of products, services and network.

Both STC and Research in Motion previously announced earlier a strategic partnership to provide a wide-range of content, applications, and smart solutions for Blackberry users in the Kingdom revolving around the exchange of expertise which will serve the mutual interest of both companies thus achieving customer satisfaction in terms of technologies and services.

Godudu.com, a Dubai-based multi-lingual social networking site, is designed to allow users to converse across language barriers.

New social networking site, Godudu, has developed a platform that allows users to communicate across language barriers, allowing instant language translation to a user’s preferred language on instant chat, wall posts and pages, according to Alibek Issaev, chairman of Godudu.com.

“Translation between languages is instant, if someone posts on a user’s wall, it will show in the user’s preferred language, but if a user wants to check what the original looks like in the original language, they can click the blue icon so they can see the original language. For users who are trying to learn languages, this is a new and entertaining way to do it,” said Abdulrakhman Zulumkhanov, Godudu.com project manager.

The site can only currently be used in Arabic, English or Russian, but Godudu hopes to add Turkish in January 2012 and other languages soon after.

Godudu.com has just signed a contract in Turkey with the Turkova group, which owns Turkcell and over 150 companies and the company is planning to have a big team of moderators and developers based in Turkey.

“Right now we are working on Turkish, we recently signed with partners in Turkey, so in January we are looking at rolling out the Turkish language support then after that we will look at Chinese and the popularly spoken European languages,” said Zulumkhanov.

According to Godudu.com, the social networking site currently has 1.3 million users with 15,000 to 20,000 new users registering on a daily basis. The site has seen a large number of registrations from within the Middle East region, with users from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and most of the GCC countries.

Issaev said that he decided to develop Godudu.com because people who use different social networks are limited from communicating with each other because of language barriers.

“We do not see a Russian person in a Chinese social network, but it is very important for people from different countries to communicate and share ideas and it is very important for people today to learn new things and to develop, and because of these language barriers this is a problem. This is where we came in with our solution and we want to break these social barriers and come together on one social platform and communicate and share things,” he said.

Godudu.com also features links to other social networking sources such as Twitter. The Twitter link allows Tweets from people Godudu.com users are following on Twitter to be directly translated into the Godudu.com user’s preferred language.

“The problem on Twitter is that if a celebrity or president tweets something, only people who speak that language can understand, then we have to get this information third and fourth hand. With our website, whatever they tweet, we can integrate it into the system and you can read what they say in your language as they write about it,” said Zulumkhanov.

The Godudu.com system was developed from scratch by Godudu developers and is a self-learning system based on AI technology. According to Godudu.com, it learns from what users enter into the social networking system, so the more internet users that use the network, and the more entries they post, the more the system learns and improves itself. “We are encouraging as many people to use the system as possible. Because we are a social networking website, we want to make it as easy and comfortable as possible for users to interact with each other so we encourage users to send us feedback about the website and we always pay close attention to what they say,” said Zulumkhanov.

The social networking site has its own team of developers who are currently working on games and apps to improve the content currently offered.

“We are working on a farm app where you can do a lot of things and incorporate it into your social networking, for example, you can grow a virtual flower and then send your flower to your Godudu network friends,” said Zulumkhanov.

The site’s API has also been made as universal and easy to use as possible, according to Zulumkhanov, so that any app developer can use it and come and develop their apps. The company said that it is currently negotiating with some of the biggest application developers to develop apps for the site.

Godudu.com has also just finished developing its first iPhone app and is in the process of finalising its iPad and Android apps.

Issaev says that he hopes Godudu.com will become one of the top social networking sites worldwide within the next 12 months.

Seems like Blackberry are fed up of all the hype on iphone´s design, they have teamed up with legendary Porsche Design for this upcoming release, the P´9981 smartphone. The sleek stainless steel phone is equipped with a full touch screen and a wide BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard for easier messaging and enhanced technology. It has a 1.2 GHz processor, 8GB of on-board memory, HD video recording and dual-band Wi-Fi.

Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is interested in buying a stake in Twitter, according to a Sky News report. The Prince is said to be eyeing a $200 million to $300 million investment and is looking to buy shares from a Twitter cofounder.  Kingdom Holding had no comment on the report; Twitter had not replied to Forbes as of press time, but is likely not to have a comment, either.

In its latest fundraising, Twitter reportedly raised $400 million over the summer at a valuation of $8 billion for the company. If Alwaleed were to purchase $250 million of shares, that would give him a 3% stake in the popular social media company. It is not clear whether Alwaleed would be buying shares from Twitter cofounders Evan Williams or Biz Stone. Sky News says Alwaleed is believed to have spoken with at least one of the cofounders about buying part of their stake. The exact ownership stake of the cofounders has not been publicly reported.

Alwaleed prefers to do most of his communicating via text message – I’ve seen him text while driving and bicycling –but his wife Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel is a fan of Twitter. She tweets regularly in English and Arabic and has more than 30,000 Twitter followers.

As an investor, Alwaleed has made bets on media and technology companies for many years. He owns 7% of the voting shares of News Corp. (not 7% of the company, as other media outlets have reported today), as well a stake in Apple and Middle Eastern media and music group Rotana (which is partly owned by News Corp). When Alwaleed listed his Kingdom Holding Co. on the Saudi stock exchange in late 2007, the prospectus also listed stakes in eBay, Motorola and Priceline.com.  So buying a stake in Twitter might well be in keeping with his previous investments. (forbes.com)

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 09/30/2011 – Sardeem LTD. launches Saudi Arabia’s premier online

concept store, www.sadashop.com, with a vision to lead as a pioneer in the local market,

offering design led contemporary accessories, fashion, home, electronic and children’s

products.

As Saudi Arabia’s consumers are turning to the world wide web for a convenient and expedited

shopping experience, this new e-shop, owned and operated by women, is focused on providing

local and international customers with quality products that are functional, unique and embody

original design.

“The market is ready and equipped for online shopping,” said Sadeem Al-Shehail, part-owner of

www.sadashop.com. “And it’s about time we offer Saudi consumers a local outlet for online

shopping that carries unique and outstanding products, one that is diligent on maintaining

international standards, and saving customers time and money on shipping and delivery”.

“Online sales from the Kingdom alone amounted to 3 billion US dollars in 2010 and 39% of

internet users engage in e-commerce. Market statistics indicate that we’re talking about a

young, tech-savvy consumer society with access to credit cards: essentially all the requirements

for an ideal online shopper. This new platform for retail is here and growing fast, and our hope

is that www.sadashop.com will launch as a leading example for the potential success of this

business model as a local start-up”.

Based in Riyadh, and started by design professionals with extensive expertise in the fields of

interior and fashion design, Sada Shop aims to embrace the growing attention to the design

industry in Saudi Arabia and across the Gulf, and seeks to further promote this passion for

design by offering its members hard-to-find products sourced from talented designers all over

the world.

Through this new user-friendly and innovative website, Saudi consumers now have their own

online shopping site to explore, which boasts itself as the “new destination for design”

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is exclusively introducing the latest smart devices to its customers by releasing the LG Optimus 3D, which is deemed the first smart device in the world equipped with a 3D screen and version 2.2 android system (Froyo) with the possibility of upgrading it to 2.3 (Gingerbread) and a Sim card with 5GB monthly for three months.

LG Optimus 3D is the ideal choice for the 3D technology lovers with no need to put on glasses.

The device has Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, Power VR SGX540 GPU, TI OMAP4430 chipset with 128.8 11.9 X 68 mm dimensions and weighs 168 grams.

It also has 8 gigabytes built in memory and 512 random memory.

What demarcates LG Optimus 3D is that it has a 5 megapixels camera but it is equipped with two cameras from the back, that allow 3D technology shooting with 720 pixels resolution, and normal 2D shooting with 1080 pixels.

By launching LG Optimus 3D, STC affirms that it always take the precession in presenting and providing smart devices and offers demonstrating high capabilities in being up-to-date with the latest developments in the world of technology, giving customers the opportunity to get it.

All this is part of the company’s customer-centric strategy and introducing class services at the best prices while exerting its best for the provision of latest high quality technology.

Jeddah, KSA: STC has announced new reductions on outgoing calls from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to all other countries of the world through Marhaba prepaid calling cards as well as from fixed phone lines and call cabins. The new reduced rates allows to customers to communicate with their families, friends and loved ones all over the world 24/7 at the lowest prices in the Saudi market.

STC’s Marhaba calling card isextremely popular among customers as it is the easiest to use. It is available in different rates including 2.6 USD, 5 USD and 13 USD at outlets in all cities and villages in the kingdom, which enables customers to choose the rate they want according to their need and affordability.

In addition, there are many other advantages including: the ability to call the numbers of internet service providers (Easy Net) by dialing the toll free number; control of call expenses by making calls within the calling card’s credit limit without any additional amount on the phone bill in addition to other fedatuers such as the validity of the card which has the longest duration compared to other cards, mergingcreditwith another card; and short codes of the card number.

The specially tailored MARHABA Calling Card enables customers to make all local, international and mobile calls from any land-line by calling the toll free number 8007008000 and entering the card number, enabling the card holder to directly call the dialed number without any need for the international zero in the customer’s land- line.

As continuation to services and packages recently released by STC in 4G LTE technology, since its antecedence in practically and directly introducing this service to customers, the company offered its customers subscription to Pro1 package with free Quick net modem, free 4G Sim card and 10GB free of charge for three months.

The offer is available in Riyadh at smart tower branch king Fahd Road, Al-Shamal branch and Al-Ghadeer district branch, in Jeddah at Cornice branch, Palestine Street, Prince Mohammed Bin Abdul Aziz (Tahliyah) Street and Prince Sultan Road, in Dammam it is available at Jarir branch and in Khobar at Shati and Muntazah branches.

This offer from STC comes as affirmation to its success in providing the service for customers in important cities in the kingdom. Services included in LTE technology has extremely high quality performance when moving in high speeds, with 3 to 4 double the capacity of HSPA in case of receiving and 2 to 3 double in case of sending data incarnating the next information revolution that makes qualitative change in the speed of data transfer anywhere, in speed up to 100mbps.

STC is proud that it owns the biggest infrastructure in the region; in addition to that it is one of the pioneer companies in the field of Fiber Optic networks and submarine cables and one of the main partners in the entire submarine cables that connect South-East Asia with Western Europe and North America through the Middle East.

STC also has a strong wireless network and infrastructure such as 3G network which the company was the first to launch in the region in 2006, it was also the first to upgrade parts of its network to HSPA+ technology being the first operator to introduce this technology in the region, to meet increasing demand on Quick net services which help customers to enjoy the new internet speeds up to 42mbps in order to upload data in covered places, in addition to the new 4G LTE network which effectively eases meeting customers’ needs to access internet.

Google plans to launch a series of events aimed at getting more Gulf firms online as it looks to increase its business in the Middle East, its regional managing director said.

The world’s largest internet search engine estimates that just 15 percent of GCC businesses are currently online. Google aims to bolster numbers by developing free websites for small-to-medium-sized firms (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia and offering advice on how to monetise their digital presence, said Ari Kesisoglu.

“The idea is that we want to help businesses get online. [We want to] make it extremely easy for businesses,” he said. “E-commerce is just in its infancy [in the GCC]…. Businesses need to be online before they can do any online business.”

The concept follows a pilot scheme launched in the UK that offered around 1,500 businesses in Liverpool one-to-one advice about building a website and maximising their search potential.

Google, which has rolled out a host of free initiatives in a bid to shake off allegations it has grown too powerful, said it would host its G-UAE Day on October 19-20in Dubai.

G-Days are Google-hosted developer and tech business days that aim to introduce the tech community to the latest technologies.

“One of the key things [about G-Days] is us brining the latest technology in the world to the region. We want to give people who are interested in doing things online and we want to help them. If at the end, we have a couple of new implementations of the latest technologies for the region that is a success,” said Kesisoglu.

The Middle East is one of Google’s biggest growing markets, spurred by its burgeoning youth population.  Two thirds of the Arab world is under the age of 25 and among the fastest adopters of new online technology.

Google told Arabian Business in June it was “aggressively” hiring staff and boosting investment in both its English and Arabic-language products in the region.

Google in February said internet usage in the Middle East grew 39 percent in 2010, to 86 million people, up from 64 million the previous year.

The digital advertising business – led by search engines, banner ads, mobile texts and social media, will swell to $170m this year (of a $3bn MENA advertising pie), up from $120m.