MENA
Latest
Seawater desalination will quench the thirst of a parched planet
Humanity has sought to make the Earth's oceans potable for thousands of years. The Norse tale of Utgarda-Loki tells of Thor being tricked into drinking from a horn connected to the sea, while Exodus 15:22–26 of the Bible likely describes Moses desalinating the water of Marah:
Google Maps Navigation for Android hits nine MENA nations, adds Arabic voice search
If there is one thing you can't say about Google's mapping team, it's that they are a lazy bunch. Update after update puts paid to any of that kinda talk, and again, here's another example -- navigation for Android is now available in nine more countries. It's the Middle East and North Africa that get the attention this time, with Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Qatar, Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE and Saudia Arabia all getting the update. The service comes complete with Arabic voice search as well as "search along route" for routes to near-by POIs that won't take you the long way round. You'll need Android 4.0 or above if you want in on the action, but it's available now for those that do.
The birth of the Middle Eastern MMO scene
Much of our coverage of the MMO industry at Massively is clearly focused on North America and Europe, with the occasional article about what's happening in Asia, but we rarely have the opportunity to point out what's happening in MMOs in the Middle East. Truth be told, we weren't aware that MMOs are operating in this region of the world until an article we came across today. Sanya Weathers recently got in touch with Fadi Mujahid, general manager of a Dubai-based company called Game Power 7 which has localized the free-to-play MMO Rappelz for the Middle East/North African (MENA) market. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, Game Power 7 is the first company to focus on the MMO industry in the Middle East and North Africa to date.Mujahid explains to Weathers how Game Power 7 made these first inroads to the MENA market, from market research to localization efforts (adding 'Middle Eastern touches' to the characters and other changes to make the game less offensive to the market's cultures), to getting the word out about the Arabic version of Rappelz.
