Interview with Yah Satellite’s CCO

Yahsat recently announced that they will be bringing satellite broadband service to UAE, partnering up with Axiom Telecom and Sky Stream. We got a chance to interview their CCO, Mr. Shawkat Ahmed, about their current strategy and future plans for Yahsat within the region. Read on if you want to find out how and when can you see Yahsat in action and how this will change your browsing habits.

Please provide a brief description of yourself and your role at Yahsat.

Shawkat Ahmed (Chief Commercial Officer of Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat)

In my current role, I am responsible for driving the overall formulation and implementation of Yahsat’s marketing and business development activities. I manage Yahsat’s sales and marketing strategies, and define and implement our marketing plans in the countries of our satellites’ coverage area. I also look after our strategic alliances, including the identification of strategic partners.

I have a number of years of experience in the satellite industry, having worked previously at Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company in Dubai and for Telstra V-Comm, a leading Australian owned satellite communications provider, in India.

What makes YahClick unique and what advantages does it offer over existing Broadband services provided by du and Etisalat?

The principal advantage YahClick will offer is accessibility. YahClick will provide cost-effective, high-speed satellite broadband services across the Middle East, Africa and Southwest Asia region. It will bring efficient communication services to many remote and underserved regions that currently do not have access to terrestrial internet services. Through this unique market proposition, YahClick will be complementing terrestrial internet providers such as du and Etisalat.

For example, even here in the UAE, there are certain remote areas without access to high-speed internet through terrestrial broadband facilities.  There are also enterprise customers who want to have a redundant internet connection via satellite for path diversity. Our satellite service will ensure every person in the UAE, no matter where they live, will have the ability to access quality and affordable high-speed internet.
The Satellite launches in Q4 2011. When can consumers expect the service to the available to them?

After the satellite launches it will remain under the control of EADS for three weeks to ensure proper functionality and orientation. After this time, Yahsat will take control of the satellite and work to activate service as quickly as possible.

Will YahClick be available in only certain locations in the UAE?

Satellite broadband services do not have the same infrastructural requirements of terrestrial systems, such as fibre optic or copper lines. YahClick users will simply require a small satellite dish and satellite modem to be able to connect to the Internet anywhere that YahClick satellite coverage is available. YahClick will have border to border coverage in most of the countries it covers, including the UAE, making our services available in all locations.

Blue Snowball Microphone Review

When we started the podcast for Tbreak, the first question on everybody’s mind was what to use for recording. We had to have 4 to 5 guests every week, so that’s a lot of people to get individual headphones + mics for, thus we settled on getting one studio quality mic with omnidirectional sound recording. After a lot of research, the Blue Snowball microphone came to our rescue.

The Blue Snowball has a very retro look, and keeping things as simple and elegant as possible is what it’s all about. The white globe on top with a meshed grill and chrome plating makes the Blue Snowball look like something straight from the 50s. The big microphone itself is on a thin stand with tripod legs, also in chrome finish. The mesh grill surrounds the big microphone so sound is recorded from 360°, but the rear of the mic also houses the 3-slide switch and the USB input.

So, one of the biggest features of the Blue Snowball is its recording capability in different patterns. The ‘Cardioid mode’ is suitable for normal vocals as it concentrates on a specific direction for sound, giving a rich and deep audio for whatever is being recorded. The ‘Cardioid mode with -10dB’ is similar to the ‘Cardioid mode’ above, except the -10dB allows the Blue Snowball to pick up loud sound sources; perfect for recording musical instruments. And finally there’s the ‘Omnidirectional mode’ which basically picks up audio from 360°, good for recording environmental sounds or conferences. All three of these modes are activated from the 3 button switch at the back, from 1 to 3 respectively for each of the three modes listed.

Gaikai goes live, offers free demo streams for Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2

Gaikai CEO Dave Perry has announced that the streaming game demo service is now officially live and available to everyone to try.

Like OnLive, Gaikai offers cloud-based gaming service that allows gamers to play their favorite PC games from their browsers with the only requirement of having Flash and Java installed. No need for dual cores CPUs and 6x SLI graphics card to run your games, it’s all done on remotely for you.

Currently, Gaikai only offers demos of EA games including Mass Effect 2, Spore, and Sims 3. Interestingly, the service is the only place where users can try Visceral’s action-horror title Dead Space 2.

Perry promises more reveals at GDC, stating that the company “will show some really high-end, high-performance games running at 60Hz with no work needing to be done by the publishers/developers.”

The cloud service is free to try, though our attempts to get in on action have failed despite us being on a pretty high-performance network. Drop a comment below if you managed to have any success.

You can play Dead Space 2 here (after a short survey): https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F2QFNY7

You can play Spore here: CLICK HERE

You can already play SIMS with Gaikai here: http://www.thesims3.com/trial

You can already try Second Life here: http://maps.secondlife.com/ (Just wait and if your connection quality to our Server is fast enough, a pop-up will appear.)

Apple working on Android-like lock screen feature

9to5Mac has leaked images of an Android-like gesture-based lock screen for iOS devices that Apple is currently working on for the platform.

The interface is pretty similar, requiring users to connect-the-dots in a pre-defined gesture and then press ‘confirm’. The report says that Apple has already deployed the new lock system for internal use in the employee ‘Apple Connect’ application.

However, iOS end-users may never see the feature implemented on their devices considering Google probably holds patent rights over the lock system. But what is to say Apple  comes out with a unique lock screen system based on their experience with Android’s?

Check out the images below, courtesy 9to5Mac.

du bowls up Cricket World Cup package, offers entire tournament for cheap

UAE telecom du is offering its mobile subscribers to watch the ongoing Cricket World Cup on their 3G mobile phones.

Subscribers can purchase matches on a daily basis or get the full tournament package. Per match will you cost you AED 3, while the full tournament will cost you AED 25. To purchase, users can simple SMS WCD to 1155 for a single match or WC to 1155 for the entire tournament. The matches will not work on a WiFi connection.

If you would like to follow the match the ol’ school way, you can SMS SUB WC to 9137 for the tournament pack or SUB WC W to 9137 for weekly pack for SMS alerts every wicket, hat trick and schedules.

Gmail Makes a Boo-boo, Resets Thousands of Accounts

In what seems to be a rather size-able mistake on google’s part, Engadget is reporting that Gmail has accidentally reset the accounts of thousands of users. Initial reports claimed that up to 500,000 users had lost access to their inboxes. Google later released a statement where they vaguely stated that the numbers were larger than had initially claimed and that the issue would be resolved soon.

Google claimed that less than 0.08% of users had been affected (About 150,00 users) and else said:

“Google Mail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all      users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change.”

Engineers are working on a fix at the moment and should get users back to regular access soon.

RIM rep caught on camera confirming Android apps on Playbook

It was rumored back in January that RIM’s upcoming tablet would support Android apps when it releases in Q1 this year. Since then, although no official confirmations have come forth, similar claims have ricocheted multiple times from different sources. However, today a video taken at Mobile World Congress has dropped in that has a RIM rep slipping out that Playbook will support Android apps using the Dalvik engine.

In the video found below, at around 0:14 mark, the rep says “we will also support Android apps when we release the Dalvik engine on top of QNX” and then proceeded to show it on a Playbook.

While this cannot be called as an official confirmation, it does add some weight to earlier reports about the rumored feature.

Facebook app lets you ‘wait’ on a crush, then notifies them about you

Are you waiting on someone to break up and then play a chance for yourself when he/she is vulnerable? But you feel you won’t be man enough to pull it off? Well, Facebook has an app for that!

An app called WaitingRoom lets you send a notification to your crush, once they have broken up from their current relationship, that you are single and ready to mingle. The process is quite simple: you sign up for the app, pick your crush from your friend’s list, and once the crush breaks up from their relationship, they will be sent a sweet little message saying you were waiting for her/him all this while to break up so now he/she could have a chance with you.

Thankfully, the app will not make you look like a creep before the crush breaks up – it’s all anonymous. The app also doesn’t notify your crush until 48 hours after he/she has their relationship status. Possibly giving you ample time to pull out, if you can (which is always advisable *wink*). What’s more, the app allows you to ‘wait’ one more than just one person, in case one of them breaks up before the other, you want to have your field covered right?

The app is immediately available to sign up for on their website.

There is nothing like tell someone how much you like them from an auto-bot on Facebook. I would be flattered.

Etisalat offers double data for mobile subscribers

UAE telecom Etisalat has announced that it will be doubling up the allowed mobile broadband bandwidth for two months for new and existing customers.

Existing customers of 1GB, 5GB and 10GB will be automatically rolled into the promotion, while new subscribers are required to call 125 and follow the instructions or trudge along to a nearby Etisalat Business Center. The promotion last till April 20th, 2011.

Motaz Hashem, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Etisalat, commented: “Our customers’ affinity with mobile Internet for work and entertainment, as well as their interest in social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter is growing day by day. As a pioneer in innovative telecom solutions, Etisalat is continuously investing in the most advanced technologies to develop mobile broadband services that allow our customers to seamlessly enjoy the region’s fastest speeds on the widest network in the country. Through this promotion, we’re further meeting their thirst for data by giving them more freedom to use higher data volumes at no extra cost and by making technology-compatible USB devices even more affordable.”

The telecom has also announced price cuts on their USB modems, with the 7.2 and 21.6mbps packages now available for almost half of the price.

Razer Naga Molten SE MMO Mouse Review

The ascension of Deathwing (i.e. the release of Cataclysm) last year also heralded the release of the Razer Naga Molten Special Edition mouse as well. As with the release of any MMO, it takes some time for things to get sorted, the excitement to get satiated and everyday life play to get back to normal. And so today I’ll be looking at the Razer Naga Molten Special Edition MMO gaming mouse.

The Molten SE is basically the regular Naga MMO mouse, with a new cover and color specifically designed for the release of World of WarCraft: Cataclysm. The main palm rest area shows the Razer logo with cracked etching spread from the center towards the outer edges. The LED color is fixed, with deep red hues for the scroll wheel and the side buttons as well as the edges of the etched-in cracks, while the main Razer logo starts out with a dull orange glow. The whole look of the mouse is very cool, especially the pulsating light on the main palm rest.

The rest of the mouse is pretty interesting, if nothing else, to look at. There are 12 numeric keys on the left side, where the usual Forwards & Backwards buttons usually are on regular mice. The latter two buttons are now located on the top left of the left-click button. Of course, each of these keys can be customized to whatever you like as multiple profiles can be set from the main driver software. To right side is the finger-rest area which is glossy, unlike the rest of the mouse which has a matt (and slightly rubberized) finish on top.

Tags: cataclysm, fps, macro, mmo, naga, Razer, razer naga, razer naga molten, warcraft, wow

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