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Uber clears a key hurdle to buying its Middle Eastern rival
Uber is now much closer to becoming a major force in the Middle East. Egyptian regulators have approved the ridesharing giant's $3.1 billion acquisition of Careem, giving it the most significant clearance needed to complete the deal. There are still other approvals needed if the union is going to close as planned in January, but it now appears to be more a matter of time. However, this isn't a carte blanche approval -- Uber will have to abide by some conditions.
Migrating eagles flew to Iran and racked up huge roaming bills
Russian scientists were forced to launch a crowdfunding campaign after endangered Steppe Eagles ran up a huge data roaming bill. Equipped with SMS transmitters, they left from Southern Russia and Kazakhstan, but some went a lot farther afield than expected. One particular eagle called Min accumulated a pile of location data messages when it was off the grid in Kazakhstan. Then, it unexpectedly flew to Iran and sent them all off at 49 rubles ($.77) each, using up the team's entire tracking budget.
Facebook suspended Israeli PM's campaign chatbot for hate speech
Facebook has suspended a chatbot linked to the official account of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after it posted a message that said Israel's Arab politicians "want to destroy us all." It appears that the chatbot -- operated under the name of a campaign volunteer -- was trying to generate support for Mr Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party ahead of next Tuesday's election.
Uber is acquiring Middle Eastern rival Careem for $3.1 billion
Uber has confirmed it's acquiring its main rival in the Middle East, Careem, for $3.1 billion. The deal is the region's largest ever tech transaction, outside of Israel, according to the Associated Press. It gives Uber significant access to the greater Middle East's 600 million-strong population -- the majority of who are under-30 and live in urban hubs -- ahead of its IPO. Its biggest western rival, Lyft, is expected to commence trading shares as soon as this week. Uber said the $3.1 billion transaction consists of $1.7 billion in convertible notes and $1.4 billion in cash.
Uber is expected to buy its Middle Eastern rival Careem
After years of backing out of major international markets, Uber appears ready to go on the offensive. Sources talking to Bloomberg claim the ridesharing firm is poised to buy Careem, its chief competitor in the Middle East, for the equivalent of $3.1 billion in cash and shares. It's not certain just what Uber would do with its acquisition. However, you might hear about it very shortly -- stakeholders have been asked to rubber stamp the deal by the evening of March 25th, and a deal could be made public as soon as March 26th.
World's first all-electric propulsion satellite begins operations
Boeing has announced that the first satellite using fully-electric propulsion has begun operating. Dubbed the ABS-3A, this 4,300-pound telecommunications satellite will provide C- and Ku-band service to South America, the Middle East and Africa. Unlike, well most every other satellite in orbit, the ABS-3A doesn't rely on tanks of inert gas for propulsion and orbit maintenance. Instead it relies on the Xenon Ion Propulsion System (XIPS) which employs a magnetic field to push ions around and generate thrust. The satellite is expected to use just 11 pounds of Xenon annually over the course of its 15 year operational life span -- that's a tenth the amount of propellent that a conventional satellite would require.
The Evil Within also within Europe on October 14
While the big hitters sometimes arrive on the same day worldwide, typically a game's release schedule sees it launch first in North America on Tuesday, then Europe and other PAL regions two or three days later. That was the case with Mikami horror The Evil Within, which was due to launch in Europe on October 16. For whatever reason - maybe the kindness of its heart, a lost bet, or a throw of the die on the craps table of marketing - Bethesda's decided to bump that up to October 14, matching the release date stateside. The new date applies to Europe, the Middle East, India and South Africa, as well as both physical and downloadable copies across PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Bethesda also points out the game's still coming to Australia and New Zealand on October 16 and Japan on October 23.
Microsoft job cuts affect European Xbox division
Microsoft confirmed speculation that its Xbox EMEA team - that's Europe, the Middle East and Africa - would be affected by the company's biggest-ever round of job cuts. It's unknown how many layoffs were made at the EMEA division's UK headquarters, but an MCV source claims 75 percent of the team are to be let go, and staff have to reapply for the remaining 25 percent of roles. As revealed yesterday, Microsoft is laying off 18,000 employees from its 127,000-strong workforce following the acquisition of Nokia. "We eliminated a number of EMEA roles in the UK to gain efficiencies," a Microsoft spokesperson told MCV today."We remain very committed to the market and will continue to support our local development teams. We believe that the UK has exceptional games industry talent and we'll continue to focus on game creation ... through Microsoft Studios like Rare, Lionhead Studios, Lift London and Soho Productions. Also, Europe continues to be an important market for Xbox, and we're excited to launch Xbox One to fans in 13 mainland European markets in September."
PS4 travels to the Middle East on December 13
The PS4 has been pegged for a November 15 launch in North America and a November 29 launch in Europe, but the PS4 won't arrive in the Middle East until December 13. Sony announced the launch date and revealed a 1,699 AED ($463) price for the PS4 during the GAMES13 conference in Dubai, IGN reports. Sony is quite bullish on its PS4 prospects and has forecasted five million in sales by March, 2014. Recently, Sony confirmed the PS4's optional PS Eye camera would be capable of both facial recognition and voice commands. The PS4 also includes an entirely redesigned DualShock controller.
BlackBerry outage affecting users in Europe, Middle East and Africa (update: service restored?)
While the two events are entirely unrelated, a major service outage coinciding with potentially the biggest mobile of the year hitting stores worldwide is just plain old unlucky. Users of RIM's BlackBerry service in the EMEA region are at the wrong end of a network problem affecting BBM, email and internet. At the moment it doesn't appear to be of the vast and crippling scale as last time, but small consolation if you're one of the unlucky ones. RIM has acknowledged the issue, and you can bet the farm on the fact there is more than a handful of slightly stressed engineers on the case, hoping to keep customers from making that impulse purchase. Let us know in the comments if you're affected. Update: We've just received this official statement from RIM in the UK: "Our apologies to any customers impacted by the BlackBerry service issue today. We can confirm that services have been restored and are now operating normally." Update 2: RIM has now issued a statement from CEO Thorsten Heins on the matter, in which he also apologizes and notes that up to six percent of the company's user base may have been affected with a "maximum delay of 3 hours in the delivery and reception of their messages." I want to apologize to those BlackBerry customers in Europe and Africa who experienced an impact in their quality of service earlier this morning. The BlackBerry service is now fully restored and I can report that no data or messages were lost. Up to 6 percent of our user base may have been impacted. Preliminary analysis suggests that those customers may have experienced a maximum delay of 3 hours in the delivery and reception of their messages. We are conducting a full technical analysis of this quality of service issue and will report as soon as it concludes. I again want to apologize to those customers who were impacted today.
RIPE NCC handing out its last block of IPv4 addresses, tries to fend off internet survivalism
In a world where IPv6 lives and IPv4 addresses are scarce, network providers must fight for survival... or at least, claim their IP blocks quickly. The RIPE NCC, the regional internet registry for Asia, Europe and the Middle East, warns that it's down to assigning its last set of 16.8 million IPv4 addresses as of this weekend. That sounds like a lot, but we'd do well to remember that the registry churned through about 5.2 million addresses in just the past two weeks. What's left won't be around for long, folks. To cut back on the number of Mad Max-style battles for dwindling resources, RIPE NCC is rationing out IPv4 for local registries in 1,024-address chunks -- and only to those who both have IPv6 assignments as well as proof of a need for IPv4. With just a bit more than half of the RIPE NCC's customers currently on IPv6, that could still trigger a shortfall among networks that haven't prepared for the internet protocol apocalypse. We'd advise that companies stock up on IPv6 supplies before launching the raiding parties.
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.
Avanti launches prepaid, Ka-band satellite internet access, wants us Yelping from the Alps
Avanti has been beaming satellite broadband to Europe for awhile, but it's been tied to a subscription through carrier deals. That's a tough sell to customers who, by definition, don't want to be tied to anything -- which is why the company just launched prepaid satellite internet access for the continent. Although the Ka-band service's 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream speeds won't have anyone dropping their 330Mbps fiber anytime soon, the pay-as-you-go strategy will let travelers and rural dwellers get broadband in a pinch, no matter how spotty terrestrial access might get. Imagine Skype calls during Swiss ski vacations and you've got the gist of it. Carriers will resell the data in healthy doses of 1GB or larger, and Avanti is adamant that there won't be any nasty throttling surprises waiting in store. While exact prices will depend on partners, the provider isn't waiting for those details before it covers much of the Old World: its upcoming HYLAS 2 satellite (what you see above) will share the speed with Africa, the Caucasus region and the Middle East as of August 2nd, making it almost too easy for us to update Google+ in Georgia.
Modern Warfare 3's July content for Elite PS3 and Xbox 360 subscribers
Call of Duty Elite members on Xbox 360 will get a new content drop in Modern Warfare 3 on Tuesday, July 17: three new multiplayer maps and a Spec Ops mission.The multiplayer maps include a graveyard of derelict ocean liners called Decommission, an oil rig built for sniping called Offshore, and the remake of Modern Warfare 2's Terminal map, available to Elite members on Tuesday and free for the rest of Modern Warfare 3's Xbox 360 players the following day. In the Spec Ops mission, Vertigo, players must take down enemy troops and helicopters while perched atop the Oasis hotel.On Thursday, July 19, Call of Duty Elite subscribers on PS3 get to tussle with three new Face-Off maps and a Spec Ops mission, content released on Xbox 360 back in June. Multiplayer maps include a tornado-rocked town called Vortex, a dilapidated middle-eastern highway in U-Turn, an urban NYC-based map called Intersection, and the Spec Ops mission, Arctic Recon, which tasks players with assaulting a Russian warship.%Gallery-160351%
BlackBerry flagship store coming to Dubai, hopes you'll buy
While RIM's current fortunes are making plenty of execs nervously tug at their ties, there's still plenty of people cheerfully tapping away on BlackBerry keyboards -- especially in the Middle East. It makes at least some sense, then, to launch a big ole' flagship shop in Dubai. Teaming up with local carrier Axiom Telecom, the handset manufacturer is in the final negotiation stages for a 1,500 square-foot store. According to RIM, it's the first of several planned for the region and should mean plenty of places to snap up one of those (reassuringly?) expensive BlackBerry Porsche models on your next overseas trip. Business class, of course.
Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx set to hit Europe and Middle East in May
While Stateside folks have been enjoying the thicker, but longer lasting RAZR Maxx for a few months now, those from across the pond have been missing out. Good news is you won't have to wait it out on the sidelines much longer, as Motorola's announced the extra juice-packing Maxx is set to make its Euro and Middle Eastern debut come next month. However, Moto wasn't clear about how much you'll have to shell out to grasp onto this Droid, or which specific countries it'll make the trip toward. Whatever it may be, let's hope it's already been fed that Ice Cream Sandwich we spotted a while back...
Israel announces plans to build national broadband network, increases fiber intake
Israel is home to a burgeoning tech industry, but the country's broadband infrastructure hasn't really been able to keep pace. In terms of broadband penetration, in fact, Israel ranks just 21st out of 34 developed nations, according to statistics gathered by the OECD. All this may be changing, however, now that the country's state-run electric company has announced plans to create a new national broadband network. According to the AP, the forthcoming network will use so-called fiber to the home (FTTH) technology, which is capable of providing connections at speeds of between 100Mbps and 1Gbps. That would be about ten to 100 times faster than the connections most Israelis have today, and could offer obvious benefits to a wide array of businesses and industries. The electric company is aiming to have 10 percent of the country connected to its new network by next year, and to have two-thirds covered within the next seven years.
Orange offers free Wikipedia access to mobile users in Africa and the Middle East
There are more than 70 million Orange customers across Africa and the Middle East, but only about 10 million are able to access the web from their handsets. That gap may be narrowing, though, now that the provider has decided to offer free mobile access to Wikipedia for users throughout the region. Under the program, users with an Orange SIM card and a web-enabled phone will be able to access the site as many times as they want, without incurring any data charges. Heralding the partnership as the first of its kind, Orange says its new initiative should make it easier for emerging market consumers to access the online encyclopedia, which Wikimedia Foundation director Sue Gardner described as a "public good." The offer is slated to roll out across 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East, beginning early this year. Find more details in the press release, after the break.
Report: iPhone banned in Syria
According to a report by the German Press Association (via Haaretz), Syrian authorities have banned the use or importation of the iPhone into Syria in an attempt to crack down on protesters in that country. International media has been banned from Syria for months, so virtually all we know about the protests currently happening there comes from footage uploaded to the Internet, usually via protesters' cell phone footage of events. The BBC reports that other smartphones have yet to fall under the blanket ban, which seems curious at first; however, it's not so curious when it turns out there's actually an iPhone app dedicated to the protest movement. The iPhone's UI also makes it incredibly easy to upload video footage to YouTube, which the current Syrian regime also wants to suppress as it opposes -- often violently -- the protests against the government in Syria. The UN reports that more than 4000 people have been killed in Syria since protests began in mid-March. Like many other flashpoints in the Arab Spring movement of 2011, protesters have been heavily using iPhones, BlackBerrys, and other smartphones to communicate and co-ordinate their activities. Additionally, with camera quality in many smartphones approaching the level of low- to mid-range point-and-shoot cameras, and with many smartphones supplying simple methods of uploading those videos online, documenting government responses to protests has been easier than ever before. The Syrian government's ban on the iPhone is unlikely to measurably impact protesters' activities, as they will either start using iPhones more clandestinely or simply switch to an unbanned smartphone platform. Additionally, protest movements like the one currently taking place in Syria got along just fine before the iPhone came along, so if Syrian authorities are hoping that banning the iPhone will stop the protests, they are sure to be mistaken.
Google launches Person Finder app following earthquake in Turkey
In the wake of yesterday's devastating earthquake in Turkey, Google has launched a specialized Person Finder to help victims find missing loved ones. First developed in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Google's Person Finder has since been deployed to several other natural disaster zones, including post-tsunami Japan earlier this year. The idea behind the company's Turkish initiative remains as straightforward as ever: users can enter information on the person they're looking for, or add any details they may have on people who aren't already accounted for. Of course, all submitted records remain available for public search and viewing. If you've been affected by the earthquake or have any information on someone who has, you can find Google's Person Finder at the source link below.
