Last week Adobe held a ‘Digital Impact’ seminar where they showed off some of their tech available to firms for publishing digital content online. The focus of the seminar was actually magazine and newspaper apps on tablets, with some in-depth examples of such apps on the iPad.

Digital publications, i.e. online magazines, or ‘Folios’ as Adobe likes to call them, are actually standalone applications that can be sent out through their ‘Content Viewer’ to iPad (or BB PlayBook and Android tablets) where publications can create a multimedia rich and very interactive experience for readers. One of the examples in the seminar was Martha Stewart’s Living Magazine where cooking recipes are accompanied with videos, and with a simple click you can also email the recipe to anyone. Similarly there are infinite ways in which these mags can be  customized for a truly unique experience. In-app purchases, detailed analytics of customer reading habits, and an easy to to publish model from Adobe are just some of the features that were talked about. Another very cool benefit was the auto-update feature whereby any mistake or changes that need to be made to a published article can easily be pushed out to all customers who will simply download the update patch itself, rather than download the entire magazine again. Handy for malls who want to update new outlets being opened up.

Adobe’s InDesign is used to create the digital mags, with not a single line of code to be written. The whole magazine can be designed within InDesign CS5.5, with the ability to preview all the additions and changes that you have made to an existing project in real-time.

There are various tiers of subscription models that can be purchased through Adobe, as this service will be done through their Digital Publishing Suite. You can check out more information about Adobe InDesign and the Digital Publishing Suite on their respective links.

The Tbreak Developer Conference aims to bring industry experts from the areas of mobile development, video game development and web development in touch with University students and independent developers in the region.

The event will provide insightful information to future developers on platforms they can use while Platform providers can get in touch with the developers community and students to preach their solutions.

It will be a two-day event with various activities carried out throughout the day.

Day 1:
Keynote: 10am – 10:30am
Discussion Panels: 10.30am – 11:30pm
Developers Choice Awards: 11.30am ‐ 12pm
Lunch Break: 1pm – 2pm
Workshop Sessions: 1pm – 5pm

Day 2:
Developer Competitions: 10am to 12pm
Lunch Break: 12pm to 1pm
Workshop Sessions: 1pm – 5pm

The keynote and discussion sessions will explain the significance and purpose of the event, while giving insightful information into the development industry across Mobile, Games and Web.

Workshops will be held in three classrooms and are open to students and developers.

The first of the four-part series in 2011 will be held at American University in Dubai (AUD) on Wednesday 27.

This will be the last GeekFest at the old Shelter. The event will be moved to the “spunky new Shelter” whenever that happens.

Gamers will have the opportunity to try out new games that have not yet been released, participate in tournaments on both consoles and PC, as well as try out the latest gaming gear.

Presented by Sony PlayStation, GamesFest will be held at The Living Rooms Cafe at Dubai Festival City on 28th January 2011.

Event details:

Date and Time: 12pm to 10pm, Friday, 28th January 2011
Venue: The Living Rooms Cafe, Dubai Festival City
Entrance: Free entry for all. Space is limited and priority will be given to those who register.

GamesFest is organized by Middle East Gamers, the UAE’s largest gaming website. For more information on Middle East Gamers, please visit www.megamers.com.

Lenovo was also showcasing their LePad hybrid tablet/laptop that will finally be released in China this quarter. There were plenty of All-in-One PCs as well such as the slick 3D enabled IdeaCenter B520. Other devices such as an HTPC and their Smartphone were also on display. Enjoy the gallery.

Of course, being Apple, it does come with a catch- “Viewing requires either a Mac running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad.” What this means is that our PC and Android fans that don’t own an iDevice will probably be out of luck.

I wonder what has made Apple change its mind about streaming events. Will it be related to some kind of streaming service that they will be announcing tonight? Or was it the overload of their network at the iPhone4 event that caused the mightily iPhone4 to misbehave during its moment of glory?

Whatever, the case, I’m glad this is happening. Be sure to stick to your Mac, iPod or iPad screen tonight at 9PM UAE time. And feel free to comment on what you think will be introduced tonight. Rumors suggest that a new iPod and possibly a new Apple TV along with Netflix which sadly does not officially work in the region.

For the 30th anniversary, the platform promises even more added value for exhibitors and visitors, more knowledge exchange, additional networking opportunities, more products and information features plus a whole range of new initiatives from Gitex.

The Gitex will be attended by distributors and brands from all over the world like Dell, Sandisk, Lenovo, Emax, etc.

Gitex Technology Week begins on October 17 to October 21, 2010. Registrations can be applied here.

The event attracts visitors not just from the Middle East but also from North Africa and the Indian Subcontinent. GITEX Shopper 2009 welcomed 150,019 visitors representing an incredible 121 nationalities from around the world.

Recognised as the region’s largest and most popular technology retail event, GITEX Shopper attracts the biggest names in the retail sector, with unique launches and special offers across the best in technology, communication and entertainment products. Loyal buyers await this shopping bonanza year after year for exclusive deals and bundled offers which are not available anywhere else.

With a host of customer promotions, instant rewards on purchases, entertainment, gaming competitions, exciting, interactive visitor features and 8 days of shopping, GITEX Shopper is the most fun-filled retail platform for technology in the region.

You can follow Gitex Shopper & Consumer Electronics Expo on Facebook and Twitter.

To book your tickets, visit here.

Here’s what you can expect (courtesy of Fake Plastic Souks):

GEEKTALKS!

Talking Pandas Fadi Abu Ghali who runs Dubai based advertising and communications agency Aya Middle East along with Laila Abdullatif, the Emirates Wildlife Society in Association with World Wide Fund for Nature (EWS-WWF)’s Sustainability Coordinator are the some of the people behind the recent neat little animation for EWS-WWF that used some tricksy animation to remind us that we’re making an awful mess. They’re going to be telling us a bit about the problems the ad is intended to address, how they came up with the idea, the technical wizardry they used to create the animation and how they’re using social media and all that kind of stuff to spread the message.

Why Marriage is the Theme of My Life
Areeba Hanif needs no introduction. A lecturer in digital film making at SAE Institute and a director, writer and editor, Areeba founded her company to produce webmercials and documentary style wedding movies. she is also GeekFest’s official videoguru, making sure the GeekTalks are there on Vimeo for all to see. she’s going to be talking about her struggle with arranged marriages, one broken engagement, her feature script “Match Made in Parental Heaven”, My Big Day Films and finally the real reason for putting on the scarf.

Moving Ahead With Ramallah
TEDxRamallah is an independently organized conference (licensed by TED) happening in Ramallah where the theme is to showcase inspirational stories of Palestine. The event is taking place at Ramallah Cultural Palace on the 9th October 2010. TEDxRamallah is actively casting about for speakers with inspiring stories, from any field (education, business, art, science, technology, etc). The community are encouraged to nominate speakers as well. Ramzi Jaber is the dynamo behind putting this event together. He’s working closely with a group of volunteers to make it a successful gig – this talk’s a chance to throw in your ideas and stuff.

One girl’s quest to change the world using education
Masarat Daud is 26 years old. Belonging to India’s largest and most illiterate state of Rajasthan, she has lived in Dubai all her life. Last year, she realised that the world is not someone else’s responsibility and embarked on a journey to make the change that she wishes to see. This led to the creation of 8-Day Academy, a smart program that focuses on educating rural communities…in just eight days. Masarat will be talking about the Academy, about TEDxShekhavati – a TEDx event in rural India, and about her belief that village people can change the world.

Caution. This talk has a bitter/sweet ending.

Bean Bag Workshops!

A new feature at GeekFest, the Bean Bag workshops are a chance for small groups to share expertise in doing stuff. The idea’s to have a semi-circle of 10-12 beanbags and a presenter looking at ‘how to’ type topics. This is very much an experiment, so if it works we’ll do more of ‘em next time around.

8.00ish Blue Sky Thinking
Photographer and photoblogger Catalin Marin will be sharing ways of getting beyond the Dubai summer haze and taking that awful washed out, white sky effect out of your summer photography using some simple and smart Photoshop techniques. He’s here, by the way.

8.30ish Pump up your personal SEO
When was the last time you Googled yourself? Do you own you? Do you want to build your blog traffic by being higher up in search? Time for some SEO weight training, then! SEODubai’s Jon Santillan will be sharing some simple ideas and approaches that will help you to build your personal Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO.

ArtStuf!

Born in Nanjing, China, and raised between Bahrain, Dubai, and New Orleans, Lantian Xie is a visual theorist who utilizes interdisciplinary methodologies to investigate our contemporary relationships with time and space. His work is either hard-to-understand genius or just plain strange. But it’ll be projected at GeekFest, where Lantian will also be taking the opportunity to create another of his groundbreaking pieces of surreal video.

There’ll also be a slideshow of photography from blogger and well known social media gadfly Kinan Jarjous.

GameFest!

As usual, the slavering, snarling pack of gamers will be huddled around the FragZone at the back of The Shelter, hooked up together and killing each other and/or various alien life forms. Some Big Iron is apparently coming in this time around, so we’re arranging backup generators and asking people to turn off their televisions in the surrounding area.

TechnoCases!

Those nice chaps from Canon Middle East will be there with some cool cameras and printers and other stuff that goes ‘bang’ in a colourful sort of way. This’ll be interesting as GeekFest official videographer Areeba uses a Canon and Lantian’s going to be doing his stuff with one, too. It’s Canontastic, folks!

If you decide you want to do a TechnoCase, you’ve still got a week to get it together.