The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 is a 4-engine dual-camera WiFi-connected flying gadget that can be operated by a tablet or a smartphone, the Drone is compatible with Android-powered devices as well as iPhones and iPads, once connected to your device via the WiFi, the Drone is ready to fly and capture videos and photos with the help of the free mobile app.

The Drone comes with two hulls, personally I prefer the one with the apertures because it looks much cooler that the plain one, and it’s much safer in case of any accidents, but because of its design it shows more resistance to wind so you have to check the weather before hitting the park or the beach as it’s not advised to fly the Drone when the wind speed is more than 15km/h.

Both hulls can be easily attached to the Drone, and you should be choosing which one to use based on whether you’re flying it indoors or outdoors, according to the manual, the aperture hull is more suitable for indoor flying while the removable (plain) hull was designed for outdoor use, now using the removable hull indoors can be a bit dangerous as you might hurt someone or damage the gadget itself in case of any accidents, but I think this applies for outdoor use as well, I mean if you hit anything while using the removable hull you might damage the airplane.

The Drone can fly at a speed of 18km/h, but unfortunately not for a long time, the battery can power the airplane for up to 12 minutes only, so if you are a gaming fanatic it’s probably a good idea to bring couple of extra batteries to enjoy it more.

The mobile app turns your smartphone into a joystick, and at the same it functions as an education center where you can find tips, join the Drone Academy and watch videos shot by other users, you can also browse through the videos and photos that you’ve shot on your smartphone or tablet.

The app is divided into 4 areas, on the top you’ll find the menu where you can snap photos, activate video recording, switch between cameras and change the settings, while at the bottom of the screen you will find the take off/landing button. The controls are embedded on both sides of the screen, the one to your right helps you control the altitude of the Drone and allows to rotate it in both directions.

To your left you will find the controls that allow to move the plane in the 4 directions, you need to tilt the phone to determine the direction you want to move the plane into while holding the controls, tilting it away from yourself will move it forwards while titling it towards yourself will move it backwards, depending on the direction the front camera is pointing at, same applies for right and left movement.

The Drone is not just a big boy toy, it can be very useful if you are into making videos and films, it’s equipped with 2 cameras, the one in front can shoot with a frequency of 30fps at a resolution of 1280X720 pixels, while the one at the bottom can shoot with a frequency of 60fps at a resolution of 320X240 pixels. I believe there is a room for a lot of improvements on both cameras, but having all these capabilities at a reasonable price, AED1400, is a good thing.

At the beginning it’s better to play around with the Drone in a place with the minimum number of obstacles until you get comfortable with it, that’s when all the fun begins! And of course you should respect people’s privacy, all the time.

I would like to thank my friend Bilal Al-Ghazi from Shanasheel.com for helping me in this review!

One of the impressive things about South Korea is that technology is a culture, or at least that’s how I felt, supermarkets and tiny shops sell smartphones along grocery, vending machines are very smart and interactive, and museums are equipped with latest displays and technologies to add more excitement to your experience.

We started the first day of the tour with a visit to the Samsung Town in Seoul, where we met Samsung’s team along with local bloggers and representatives from Samsung’s ad agency Cheil, warm coffee was served with a warm welcome from our Korean hosts prior to the tour in the d’light shot, a true delightful experience and a playground for tech lovers!

The Samsung d'light Shop in Seoul

The Samsung d’light shop is a 3-storey center where you can stroll down memory lane and explore Samsung’s history while experiencing latest innovations and future vision of the company, and of course to complete the experience you can actually purchase products. My favorite parts of the d’light shop were the LED Lighting Drums, the Smart Window and the Smart Fridge.

The first time I saw a video of the smart window on YouTube I thought it was very far fetched but I got to use while I’m at the d’light shop and apparently Samsung has already started producing these windows and couple of contracts were already signed, watch this video:

The LED Lighting Drums experience was so awesome, touch the wall and thing will change, of course no video can capture the beauty of this experiment but you can watch here, and maybe if you’re in Seoul go experience it yourself.

This is a very amazing fridge, as you’ll see in the video is interactive and smart, you can explorer the stuff inside it.

Here is another example of how South Korea is so advanced when it comes to technology, I came across this vending machine in a museum, it displays video ads, shows more details about the products inside, such an amazing interface for a vending machine!

Some random photos I snapped at the Samsung d’light Shop:

Connectivity and Sharing
The DV300F is equipped with built-in WiFi that connects the camera to other devices including smartphones and computers, which allows you to share photos and videos to your social networks, as well as sending them through email, you can also transfer your files to smartphones, computers and clouds for storage purposes, or play back them on different devices like a TV. The Remote ViewFinder is another WiFi-based feature where you can use your smartphone to control the camera and snap photos remotely.

The camera supports sharing photos and videos Facebook, YouTube, Picasa and Photobucket, and with the use of the virtual keyboard, you can add comments and descriptions when you share your files to your networks. The camera doesn’t support some popular networks including Twitter, Pintrest, Tumbler and Flickr, it also doesn’t support sharing larger video files.

Samsung DV300F Smart Camera

Front LCD
We all try to take self-portrait photos but it doesn’t always come the way we’re expecting, this camera has a small LCD screen in the front so that you can see how the photo is going to look like, pretty useful. The front screen has other uses, if you are trying to get your child to smile for the camera, the DV300F plays a video that can bring some joy to the little ones. Another situation where the front screen can be useful is when are trying to shoot people while they jump, the screen will display a countdown followed by an arrow that tells people to jump, at that point the camera will snap 3 consecutive photos, or it can an animated GIF file.

The front screen is designed to work for three features; Self-Shot, Children and Jump Shot, but it can be activated at any point by pushing the “F.LCD” button, the one next to the power button.

Samsung DV300F Smart Camera

Filters and Scenes
If you are not a fan of setting up your camera manually, you can choose from a selection of pre-defined scene-modes; from sunset to dawn, to landscape and beach, to close-up and night shots. In addition, you can choose from a list of filters that can some interesting effects to your camera like Miniature, Vignetting, old film, fisheye, cartoon, sketch and more. Some of these filters are available for video shooting as well.

But you still have the option to tune the camera manually for both still and video shooting, you can play with the Exposure Value, White Balance, Focus, Metering, ISO and more.

Samsung DV300F Smart Camera

I shot this video of Dubai Fountain using the Samsung DV300F

Photo Editor
The DV300F offers a photo editor that helps in fine-tuning your photos, you change the brightness, contrast and saturation, you can as well do some retouches to the face or fix the red-eye. But the beauty of the editor is that you can add some of the above mentioned filters to your photo, and then save a copy and keep the original.

The DV300F is my travelling buddy now, it enjoys lots of capabilities, it shoots good videos and great photos, and it fits in my pocket!

The left side of the photo, marked with X, was edited using the Face Retouch feature in the photo editor

Salalah Oman

Burj Khalifa Dubai

Sunset in JBR Dubai using the Sunset Scene

The Old Film Filter

Small House, Big Satellite

The Empty Quarter Desert

The invitation was an attempt by Sky News to reach out to active bloggers and tweeps in the country, following the tour that was led by Nart Bouran, Head of Sky News Arabia, an open debat kicked off with different team members of the station, who were keen to listen to what can be the best digital practices that can help the Sky News Arabia to stand out.

Nart Bouran, Head of Sky News Arabia in a studio tour

Attention to tension
The Arab world is very rich in Oil, but it’s also very rich in news, even before the Arab Spring, a fact that enticed a lot of local and international players to venture into uncharted waters, with hidden agendas, or obvious ones. Countries like USA, England, China, France, Russia and Iran are present in the region through their own Arabic channels, but compared to their local rivals, Al-Jazeera (Qatar) and Al-Arabiya (Saudi Arabia), they are not that significant.

Al Jazeera is by far the strongest news channel in the region, perhaps the timing and the open financial support played an important role in their success, but personally I think the tone used by the Doha-based network boosted its image, Al-Jazeera managed to build an Anti-West, Pro-Arab image, although I believe they are not, they just tailor their news to suit the mentality of the vast majority. Al-Arabiya on the other hand managed to gain some momentum through its more-neutral attitude, the Saudi-owned Dubai-based station was launched 7 years after Al-Jazeera and doesn’t enjoy the same financial support as its Qatari rival but it seems to be catching up.

I’m not a fan of both Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya but I think Al-Jazeera is more professional, Al-Arabiya made few uncalled-for mistakes, and I’m not talking about core news, mistakes such as the “Microsoft launching Google Wave” statement to the news about the Dubai resident who paid AED1.1 Million to secure the first piece of the new iPad to the Gillette unbelievable baseball catch viral video that was aired on Al-Arabiya as if it was for real.

Sky News Arabia is the only news channel that was launched after the beginning of the revolutions in the region, soon it will be joined by Al-Arab channel, which is owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, Fox News partner in the region. Such difficult times could be so risky to start a news channel but it can an opportunity as well, a new horizon brings new challenges.

Social Media Presence
Sky News Arabia has a long way to catch up with Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, social media is one of the key tools to do so, being active on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube is needed but it takes time to expand your followers base. Below is a comparison between social media channels owned by these stations:

FACEBOOK: (only the official pages of the main brand, not including other pages like sports, economy.. etc.)
Sky News Arabia has more than 155 thousand fans compared to 2.1 million fans of Al-Arabiya and 3.5 million fans of Al-Jazeera (2.4M on Arabic page, 1.1M on the English)

TWITTER: (only the official accounts of the main brand, not including other accounts like sports, economy.. etc.)
Sky News Arabia has more than 40 thousands followers, compared to 1.28 million followers of Al-Arabiya and 3 million followers of Al-Jazeera (1.7m on the Arabic account, 1.3m on the English)

Both Sky News and Al-Arabiya use hashtags extensively, which is very important, unlike Al-Jazeera, which only uses them in English.

YOUTUBE: (only the official channel of the main brand, not including other channels like sports, economy.. etc.)
Sky News has more than 3,300 subscribers compared to more than 95,000 for Al-Arabiya and more than 467,000 for Al-Jazeera (267k for the English, 200k for the Arabic).

Sky News YouTube channel has generated close to 2.8 million views compared to almost 87 million for Al-Arabiya and close to 598 million for Al-Jazeera (395m for the English, 202m for the Arabic). Seems like English content is working for Al-Jazeera more than the Arabic.

All in all, I think Sky News Arabia has a good digital presence through a neat website and a collection of mobile apps, I also like their font both on-screen and on the website, I think it’s very nice and much more beautiful than the ones used by Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.

To end my post, I think Sky News Arabia is gaining some ground, but only time can tell how successful and independent they are, both Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya image was slightly damaged during the Arab Spring, which was and still a real test for the transparency of  news stations in the region.

Dubai-UAE: 17 July, 2012 – The use of social media continues to grow rapidly and influence cultural and societal changes in the Arab world. The number of Facebook users in the Arab world reached 45.2 million at the end of June 2012, marking an annual increase of 50 per cent and tripling since June 2010 while Twitter has registered over two million active users in the region. Additionally, more than four million Arabs use LinkedIn according to the latest Arab Social Media Report (ASMR).

Produced by the Dubai School of Government’s Governance and Innovation Program, the fourth edition of the Arab Social Media Report analyzes demographic breakdowns and usage trends of social media across the Arab region. In addition to exploring the changing behavior of Arab social media users towards civic empowerment and societal engagement, the report examines their views on community and identity. For the first time, the fourth edition of ASMR also gathered statistics on the usage of LinkedIn, the professional social networking platform.

Interestingly, the report reveals that the Arabic language is now the fastest growing on different social media platforms in the region.

Fadi Salem, Director of Governance and Innovation Program, DSG and co-author of the report, said: “Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube continue to serve as primary avenues for over 12 per cent of Arab population for raising awareness, disseminating information and mobilizing community.

“The increased use of Arabic suggests that social media in the Arab region has clearly outgrown the perception of being a platform for ‘the elite’. Notably, it has now become a tool for the masses for engaging in civil activities and influencing change in Arab societies.”

The report found that Arab social media users’ connection with, understanding of, and contribution to their societies and fellow citizens has enhanced through the use of social media.

Racha Mourtada, Research Associate with the Governance and Innovation Program and lead author of the report, said: “Most respondents thought that their ‘national’ identity and a sense of being a ‘global citizen’ were reinforced by social media. On an even more personal level, many among those surveyed claim that social media and its ability to expose people to a variety of ideas and opinions, has helped them become more open and tolerant towards different views.”

Twitter

Among other findings in the report, the Arab uprisings continue to be the primary discussions on Twitter. For instance, in March 2012, active Arab Twitter users generated over 172 million tweets, with ‘Bahrain’ and ‘Syria’ hashtags in Arabic and English remaining the top popular trends on Twitter across the Arab region. Furthermore, around a quarter of Arab Facebook users come from Egypt and another quarter are in the GCC countries with Saudi Arabia and the UAE making up 80 per cent of users in the Gulf region.

The Arab Social Media Report series is part of a larger research initiative focusing on social engagement through gathering information on social networking technologies for better policy, good governance and social inclusion in Arab states. The initiative specifically aims to study the potential of the platform for increasing collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation by fostering participation, whether within and/or between governments, citizens and the private sector.

Established in 2005 under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, the Dubai School of Government is committed to the creation of knowledge and dissemination of global best practices in the UAE and the region. The school conducts various programs that seek to enhance the region’s capacity for effective public policies.

The full report can be accessed at www.arabsocialmediareport.com

About the Dubai School of Government
The Dubai School of Government (DSG) is a research and teaching institution focusing on public policy in the UAE and the region. Established in 2005 under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, DSG aims to promote good governance through enhancing the institutional capacity for effective public policy. Toward this goal, the Dubai School of Government also collaborates with regional and global institutions in delivering its research and training programs. In addition, the School organizes policy forums and international conferences to facilitate the exchange of ideas and promote critical debate on public policy.

All web projects are admitted to the Red Apple MIXX competition – a separate interactive area within the festival Red Apple. The works of digital market players will be able to participate in “Interactive Tools” and “Campaign” contests. Competitions in the “international awards” will take place between projects of Russian agencies only.

The first brief of “Young Creators” competition named after Yury Zapol will be announced on August 29th. Five finalist teams will receive the second task during the festival.

All winners will be announced at the Award Ceremony to be held on September 20th.

Judging consists of two stages. At first jury will determine the shortlist by the online voting. It is divided into six segments: “Promotional Tools”, “Media”, “Interactive”, “Brand, design” and “Marketing Services”. Every segment includes about 10 representatives of the Russian and CIS’s advertising community according to the top 10 agencies in RACA’s Creativity Rating.

Competitors of the “Excellence in TV & Cinema Advertising” contest will be rated by the leading production studios recommended by Non-Commercial Partnership of Advertising Producers. Members of Jury from Ukraine, Belarus and Armenia proposed by the festival representatives in the CIS.

Formation of the international jury’s list that will select the best works from the short-list is almost complete. It will consist of about 10 persons from Asia and Europe, and one from the top-three agencies according RACA’s Combined Creativity Rating.

All foreign members of the jury will take their parts in the scientific program. This festival’s speakers and participants will discuss the hot topics of the world of advertising: “Integrated Campaigns”, “New technologies”, “Social Responsibility of Business”, “Music in Advertising” etc. Young professionals will be interested in master classes and performances of directors, producers and photographers.

Valentin Smolyakov, General Director of the Moscow Advertising and Marketing International Festival “Red Apple”, Executive Director of the Russian Association of Communication Agencies comments: “We don’t want to focus only on professional topics. We attract to participate into the program friends working in the areas close to advertising: directing, producing, photography, fashion etc. It’s important to establish and save a creative atmosphere at the Red Apple’s venue, where people will socialize, learn, get inspired!”

Festival Directorate wishes the creative inspiration, recognition of the industry and, of course, receiving their awards at the Moscow International Advertising and Marketing Festival “Red Apple” and urges to enjoy colleagues’ victories and to applaud as loud as possible for their success.

Moscow International Advertising and Marketing Festival - Red Apple

Deadline – 20 August. In 2012 Moscow International Advertising and Marketing festival will be celebrated on September 19 and 20 in conference hall “Digital October”.

Back in March 2010, we created a report about Facebook in the Middle East, at that time the total number of users was 11.1 million, 54% of the users where between 19 – 29 years old, 58% were male, 56% used English language and 62% didn’t define their relationship status. Today, Facebook’s population in the MENA region is somewhere around 40 million users, is it any different nowadays?

A recent report by The Online Project shows that it’s pretty much the same, Facebook is still male-dominated with an overall gap of 30%, unlike the female-dominated community in the USA, were male users are 10% less. Some of the interesting findings in this report is the gender gap variations in the region, while Iraq showed the highest gap that reached 45.8%, Lebanon enjoys a more balanced community with a gap of 4.6% in favor of male users. This is understandable in conservative communities in the Arab region, many female users tend to hide behind male accounts for cultural reasons, but on the other hand many guys create feminine ghost accounts to make things easier to approach girls through the social networks, I believe this brings some balance to the equation but probably not enough.

Some interesting facts:

• Palestine is the youngest Arab country on Facebook
• 85% of the users are interested in women
• Average number of friends in the Middle East is 59 compared to 133 in the USA
• Average number of profile pictures per user is 25
• Palestinians use Arabic language the most while Lebanese use it the least

Download a copy of The Online Project Facebook Marketing Report, you can also download a summary of the report.

The Online Project Facebook Marketing Report