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New features in iOS 4.3 that the iPhone 3G will never have

Publié: mars 2, 2011, 11:28pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Along with the iPad 2 on Wednesday, Apple unveiled the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 4.3. Though these features were revealed back in a beta version in January following the launch of the CDMA iPhone 4, this is the first time Apple officially presented the new features.
According to Apple, iOS 4.3 will be available to iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM model), and third- and fourth- generation iPod Touch devices as a free software update on Friday, March 11.
This means the iPhone 3G and the second generation iPod Touch are now effectively retired. In honor of that fact, here are some features that iOS 4.3 provides that those devices will never get...
iTunes Home Sharing
Home Sharing is an iTunes-based music, movie, and TV content sharing system for local networks that lets users share their iTunes media library with any other iOS device on the same Wi-Fi network.
AirPlay update
AirPlay, the feature that lets iOS users wirelessly share content with their Apple TV, has been expanded in iOS 4.3 to include H.264/AAC video from third-party apps and websites, as well as videos from the Photos app and previews from the iTunes app. To prevent trouble with content owners, AirPlay looks for an authorization tag whenever it streams a file from third-party sites, meaning by virtue of adding a single tag, this feature can be blocked.
New Browser
The Nitro Javascript engine behind Safari's Webkit browser has been updated, promising a faster browsing experience.
Personal 3G Hotspot
This was one of the features that was revealed with Verizon's iPhone; it lets up to five devices tether to an iPhone 4's data connection. Unfortunately, five devices cannot all connect the same way, and any more than three connected devices must use a combination of Wi-Fi, USB, or Bluetooth.
Four/Five-finger gestures
In the beta of iOS 4.3, new multi-finger gestures were uncovered, one of which, the multi-pinch for closing an app and returning to the home screen, has caused some to speculate that future iOS devices would eliminate the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch's only button. Other gestures, such as the multi-finger upward swipe, and the multi-finger left or right swipes, are dedicated to cycling through running applications or viewing the multitasking bar.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Why is iPad 2 so much like last year's model?

Publié: mars 2, 2011, 9:17pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Today's iPad 2 launch came with a couple surprises: Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is on medical leave, officiated the media event. It's a smart way of quelling rumors about his health, without ever having to disclose any real information. The other surprise: The new iPad isn't remarkably different from the 1st generation model. Like many other second generation Apple products, the iPad 2 is evolution not revolution, a pattern of product development Jobs instituted long ago.
Apple typically develops its products incrementally, starting with a showstopper that Jobs often calls "one more thing." There is a consistent pattern: "One more thing" debuts with modest hardware features but something else nevertheless killer -- something people want, or think they do. During the launch event, Jobs performs his marketing magic, demonstrating how this "one more thing" will make peoples' lives better. Often the product lacks something compared to competing wares but offers something more elsewhere.
People pay more to be Cool
Once Apple releases that "one more thing," the company then iterates -- incrementally improves -- the product over time. The process is essential to Apple maximizing margins. "One more thing" products typically have initial higher selling prices or same as the replaced product(s). They're cool. People are willing to pay more, and Apple certainly doesn't discourage them from doing so.
"One more thing" is very much about selling the coolest thing. Plenty of buyers demand the newest, coolest product, and they're willing to pay a premium price to get it. To many of these buyers, the tech gadget is as much an accessory -- statement of their coolness, superiority -- as useful product. Apple engages in a tried-and-true retail practice. It's good business. Clothing stores take a similar approach. There are teens who must have the newest wears from Aeropostale, American Eagle, Gap or Hollister at full price; they can't wait for sales. They want to be cool. Apple sometimes charges more for fashion, just like clothiers. Remember the black MacBook, which cost $150 more than the white model, simply for the color?
However, as a product's lifecycle progresses and Apple maximizes margins at the front end, incremental improvements begin. The company typically starts by offering better hardware for the same price. Later, Apple adds substantially better hardware or features and cuts the price. Eventually, Apple retires the product and introduces another "one more thing."
The iPhone is a good example of this process. The iPhone 4's design somewhat differs from the "one more thing" model that went on sale in June 2007, but the user interface, basic features and most functions have only incrementally changed since. The original iPhone lacked 3G, video and MMS, but offered slicker user interface, a capacitive touchscreen, more enjoyable media playback and better calling features than comparable handsets. The iPhone was less and more comparatively, then. But buyers paid. Apple and AT&T sold the 1st generation iPhone for $499 or $599 at launch; Apple lowered the price to $399 a few months later. New models brought lower prices -- $199 and $299. The older 3GS is still available, now for 50 bucks. Apple has already maximized margins on the 3GS, which now exists to capture buyers unwilling or unable to pay more.
When Change isn't Enough to "Wow"
The iPad 2 clearly follows the approach of incremental development, by offering small improvements with substantial benefits, without dramatically changing basic form and function. The new model is 33-percent thinner than its predecessor but basically same height and width, but lighter (1.3 pounds). However, battery life is comparable, Jobs claims. LED screen size and resolution are unchanged from the original model. Apple's newest tablet packs a dual-core processor, which matches the trend among Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" tablets. There is now a gyroscope, two cameras and extra-cost accessory for connecting to HDMI cables. Apple also made many software tweaks, such as offering FaceTime video streaming and Mac OS X's Photo Booth feature, both supporting the addition of cameras. Apple also introduced some new apps, most notably Garage Band.
There are plenty of incremental tweaks, which as a whole should improve the overall user experience but not dramatically change it. If I were in the market for an iPad, I would take the original model at $299 (16GB WiFi) or $399 (32GB WiFi), if Apple were to offer such prices. Update: After I posted, Apple started offering 1st gen models for $399 and $499, respectively (they're not cheap enough). Hey, this incremental approach is why Apple can still successfully sell the iPhone 3G, even though it lacks hardware features found on iPhone 4.
Keeping with this incremental approach and maximizing margins upfront in the product development and distribution cycle, Apple kept the price for iPad 2 models the same as the originals -- from $499 to $829. I would expect any price cuts to come with the next product release, which likely will more dramatically improve features and functionality -- keeping with Apple's incremental design approach.
Measuring iPad 2's Incremental Improvements
How does the new iPad, which goes on sale March 11, compare to some other tablets?
iPad: 1GHz A4 processor (single core); 9.7-inch LED display with 1024 by 768 resolution; 16GB, 32GB or 64GB internal memory; accelerometer; ambient light sensor; compass; WiFi; 3G (on some models); iOS 4.2.
iPad 2: 1GHz A5 dual-core processor; 9.7-inch LED display with 1024 by 768 resolution; front-and-rear facing cameras; 16GB, 32GB or 64GB internal memory; 720p video recording; accelerometer; ambient light sensor; compass; gyroscope; WiFi; 3G (on some models); iOS 4.3.
Galaxy Tab 10.1: 1GHz dual-core processor; 10.1-inch TFT display with 1280 by 800 resolution; two cameras -- rear-facing 8-megapixels with LED flash; front-facing 2MP; 16GB or 32GB internal memory; Flash 10.1; 1080p video recording; WiFi; 3G, with support for HSPA+ 21Mbps networks; GPS; Android 3.0.
HTC Flyer: 1.5GHz processor; 7-inch display 1GB of RAM; 32 GB of internal storage, expandable with microSD to 64 GB; a 5-megapixel back-facing and 1.3-megapixel front-facing cameras; light sensor; velocity sensor; digital compass; Bluetooth 3.0; GPS; Android 2.4.
Motorola XOOM: 1GHz dual-core nVidia Tegra 2 processor; 10.1-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution; 1GB of RAM; 32GB internal storage, expandable with MicroSD card; 5-megapixel back-facing and 2-megapixel front-facing cameras; 720p video recording; 1080p video playback; HDMI and USB 2.0 ports; accelerometer; barometer; gyroscope; Android 3.0.
Which would you buy, if any of them?
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Apple unveils slim new iPad 2: release date March 11

Publié: mars 2, 2011, 8:29pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

At an event in San Francisco on Wednesday, Apple unveiled the second generation iPad, which Apple is simply calling iPad 2.
Typically, Apple's second generation product revisions don't deviate much from the groundbreaking debut product, and serve as an incremental update, increasing the feature set and putting a finer polish on its design. Apple again proved this to be true with today's unveiling of the new iPad.
The first and second generation iPods, for example, both used the same body design and screen size, but the second generation doubled the storage capacity, replaced the mechanical clickwheel with a touch-sensitive one, and added other minor design changes, like changing the beveled edges into rounded corners.
The same can be said for the first generation iPhone and the 3G model that followed it. Both models had the same screen size and resolution, the same 8GB and 16GB storage configurations, and the same 2 Megapixel camera, but the 3G version was slightly bigger all around with a slightly lighter-weight build, and as the name would suggest, added 3G wireless connectivity.
With over 15 million iPads sold in its first 9 months of availability, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said 2010 was "The Year of the iPad." This success means huge deviations from the proven iPad formula would be even less likely. So, with today's iPad refresh, Apple has kept the same shape and price of the iPad, but decreased its thickness and weight, improved the processor speed, and added some new bells and whistles.
iPad and iPad 2 side by side

Size
iPad:
Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
Thickness: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
Weight: 1.5 pounds (wi-fi); 1.6 pounds (3G)
iPad 2:
Height: 9.5 inches (241.2mm)
Width: 7.31 inches (185.7mm)
Thickness: 0.34 inch (8.8mm)
Weight: 1.3 pounds (wi-fi), 1.35 pounds (AT&T), 1.34 pounds (VZW)
Screen
iPad: 9.7" (1024 x 768) multitouch backlit LED
iPad 2: 9.7" (1024 x 768) multitouch backlit LED
Storage
iPad: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
iPad 2: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
Processor
iPad: 1 GHz Apple A4
iPad 2:: 1GHz Dual-core Apple A5
New Features iOS 4.3, Dual video cameras (720p 30fps back/VGA 30fps front,) Support for both GSM/CDMA 3G wireless, gyroscope, new magnetic screen covers "smart covers", HDMI video out with external cable that supports video mirroring "for all apps."
Apple will begin accepting orders for the iPad 2 on March 11, and shipping will begin shortly thereafter. Prices for the new iPad are the same as the first generation, starting at $499 for the Wi-FI only model with the least storage, all the way up to the $829 3G-equipped model with the most storage.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Google removes 21 apps from Android Market over malware

Publié: mars 2, 2011, 5:17pm CET par Ed Oswald

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

Some Android users are finding out the hard way the perils of an open platform, as Google was forced to take down 21 apps in the Android Market after it was found they contained malware. According to Android Police, which first broke the story on Tuesday, these apps may have been downloaded a combined 200,000 times.
The apps performed a variety of malicious activities, including root exploits, the stealing of phone data, and even acting as a Trojan horse to open the door for the device to download more malicious code. Google quickly pulled the apps from the store after being informed of the issue, and remotely wiped the apps from user devices.
Android Police said even though the offending developer and its apps were now gone, any extra code downloaded to the device after the fact would still remain. This would require a completely separate fix which would need to be downloaded to patch any created holes, which was said to be in the works.
Although a full list of apps has not been provided, the developer went by the name 'myournet.' The infected apps included 'Falling Down,' 'Super Guitar Solo,' 'Super History Eraser,' 'Photo Editor,' and 'Super Ringtone Maker.'
Instead of creating completely new apps, the developer copied popular ones and injected the malware code and republished on the Android Market. Unsuspecting downloaders may have mistaken these copies as the real thing. According to press reports, the malware-ridden apps were up for a period of four days.
This incident highlights the pitfalls of Google's open strategy. Whereas Apple individually inspects every app that is submitted for inclusion in the App Store, Google allows for a developer to publish apps freely to the Android Market once they have been registered.
Google does from time to time comb through apps to ensure they meet guidelines, but this is done after it has already been live within the Android Market.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Who loves or loathes iPad?

Publié: mars 2, 2011, 3:58pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

While geekdom holds its collective breadth waiting for Apple's 1 p.m. ET "special event," presumably the iPad 2 launch, I thought it would be interesting to see how people use the original model. Yesterday I asked "Do you still own iPad?" because I keep meeting people who sold or passed along to family their Apple tablets. Betanews readers certainly had answers. Either you love or loathe iPad; there is little response between the extremes.
"Nope, gave it away after a couple of months," Anthony Scott answered in comments. "The size was nice, but the performance was poke out my eyes slow. Grabbing an old netbook, that has about the same weight/size and battery life and running Excel at 100x the performance of the iPad Spreadsheet, is sad how underpowered Apple made the iPad."
This is sweet (and I'm not being sarcastic): "I bought one for my mother and she uses it constantly," FalKirk writes in comment. "When the new one comes out, I'm almost sure to buy one for the kids. More important than the unreliable anecdotal evidence that you're soliciting is the polling data which shows that 95% of owners are satisfied with their iPads (72 percent very satisfied, 23 percent somewhat satisfied). The iPad is not going away, Joe, no matter how fervently you and some of your readership wish that it would."
Oh? Who said anything about iPad going away? The ridiculous number of iPad 2 rumors coming into today's Apple event shows there is huge interest in Apple's tablet(s). I asked sincere questions to iPad owners. What should go away: Overly zealous Mac defenders who assume anyone who doesn't agree with their point of view is anti-Apple.
"I still have mine and will be getting the iPad 2 when it comes out," writes Jack Brown in comments.
"I own it, but rarely use," Frank Wick writes in comments. "I played Angry Birds this morning at Starbucks so I guess I still use it sometimes. The iPad has become a babysitting device at my house. I NEVER NEVER NEVER do work on it. The mail client is a pain. Safari is a horrible browser. blah blah blah. I have buyer's remorse and I expensed the thing!"
Rick Favaloro writes via email: "What I love my iPad for: plopped on my sofa reading books, writing books (you'd see incoherent blathers, I see exactitude-challenged Pulitzers in progress), watching video, making video animations, playing games, viewing paintings, drawing my own big weird zoomable things and everything else."
Commenter littlecay called the original iPad "an expensive paperweight -- no USB connectivity, no SD slot, no undo, terrible cut/copy/paste interface, no video out. I thought it was weird when I learned that I could add a lot of missing functionality by jailbreaking it. What?"
Commenter Digital Sin writes:
I've had mine for a couple of months now. Interestingly, I use it for mostly different reasons than I thought I would when I bought it. I expected I'd watch movies on it and listen to music, but I do neither of those. I also thought I'd bring it to work, maybe to take out during a meeting to take notes. I don't do that either. I thought I'd use it to read during my 4 hours of commuting each day, but I don't...
So does it lie around collecting dust? No way. I love this thing. I share it with my wife, and though it was a hard sell to get her to be on board with me plunking down the dough for it, she loves it. She uses it while in the kitchen for recipes and watching cooking videos while she's cooking. We both play games on it, and we both really enjoy reading on it. Also, we're both taking classes and use it quite a bit for studying. My son loves the interactive books on it and I love that he's not on my computer anymore. I feel like it's a lot safer (for both him and my computer) for him to use iPad for browsing and playing games on.
Mark Finch mainly uses his tablet for reading: "So my iPad sits next to my favorite chair at home, and I use it to read in the morning while having coffee and in the evening while having wine. In between times (and depending on what I want to accomplish) I use either a desktop Mac, a MacBook, an Ubuntu-powered Dell netbook or my Motorola Droid. My music lives on a desktop computer and also on an iPod; my photos are on a desktop computer and on a MacBook. For what I do with it, my iPad is perfect. It's just another appliance that makes certain things more convenient. Similarly, I don't really need a toaster or a gas grill -- I could make toast and cheeseburgers in my oven if I wanted to -- but I sure am glad I have them, and use them frequently."
Commenter mpuvvula: "I bought an iPad and returned it in 2 weeks (before the re-stocking fees applied). Its simply a brick! It didn't print, it was awkward to handle and it had no compatibility with MS Office (to do any real work). I couldn't play any media other than iTunes (VLC & Flash were removed). It was as bad as the iPhone. I figured its for people who love Apple, BMWs & Jaguars! I ended up with Inspiron DUO, WIN 7, 2 GB! Its not as snazzy as iPad, but it plays any video you throw at it on a flash drive (Divix, MPEG4, Netflix etc)."
"I got an iPad for XMas and use it a lot," commenter smist08 writes. "Best device for flying can do all the things you mention and is the right size for easy viewing and fitting in the space you have in economy class. Also ideal for meetings, don't have to lug my laptop anymore for reference and notes. I also like having it handy when watching TV for looking things up and social networking."
Commenter rhonin "bought an iPad via a special promotion for a cheap price (about 50 percent off retail). Not returnable. I have tried to make it more than an occasional media consumptive device. Sigh................ After a few months it has become the quintessential dust gathering paperweight I occasionally charge and use. To many of the posters here, I wanted a more PC-centric device."
The most unexpected response comes from Diane Carpenter: "[I] encourage anyone abandoning their iPads to donate them to a child or adult with autism. I wrote the attached story about buying my severely autistic adult daughter an iPad."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Google's Chrome OS laptop saved my butt

Publié: mars 2, 2011, 4:11am CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

My March started off badly today.
When I was a school kid in Maine, teachers said that if March roared in like a lion, meaning snowy stormy, it would go out like a lamb -- and vice versa. I got the storm in a faulty Snow Leopard rather than the Lion. This morning my 11.6-inch MacBook Air crashed and wouldn't reboot. If not for moving my computing life to the cloud, I would have lost an important day of productivity and lots of valuable data.
My problems started five days ago. Before driving up to the North County area of San Diego for a Sony event, I did something rare: Turn off my computer rather than put it to sleep. When I later hit the power button, I observed something not seen since the hard drive failed in a first generation MacBook Air -- June 2008: A grey screen with Apple logo and progress bar indicating a file system/disk check/repair. The Mac took about five minutes to boot up, because of the check, rather than the more typical 13 seconds.
Of Air and Clouds
Real trouble started a day later and escalated, through several stages of disturbing quirky behavior. Twice during the weekend, the computer shut down without warning; there was no Kernel panic. My main application, Chrome 10 beta, began behaving badly. Early on, tabs would crash, then the problem spread to the whole browser, which by Monday crashed quite frequently. Yesterday I tweeted: "I've never had a beta browser crash as often as Chrome 10. Anyone else? It's horrible on a Mac." But Chrome wasn't the problem.
By yesterday afternoon, other programs crashed, over and over. Everything about the problems felt like a drive failure. But how could that be? The Air has flash memory; there are no moving parts. This morning, I awoke the Air, quickly edited an informative Larry Seltzer story about QuickBooks and prepped it for posting. When I clicked the media pop-up window to add a photo, the computer locked up, except for the mouse/trackpad cursor. It was a frightening déjà vu experience. Before the 1st gen MacBook Air drive failed nearly three years ago, the computer exhibited similar quirky behavior, program crashes and fatal crash with the cursor remaining the lone function. Once again, just like the 1st gen Air, the 11.6-inch model booted to that grey screen and progress bar that failed to finish. It was 6:25 a.m. PT (-8 GMT).
In December 2010, I tested Google's unbranded Cr-48 laptop running Chrome OS. I used it for seven days, and wrote about the experience in seven parts. Since then, I only had used the laptop occasionally. This morning, the beta product saved my butt. When testing the laptop nearly three months ago, I moved most of my data either to an external drive or to the cloud. All my email is stored on servers, so I lost nothing there. More importantly, because of Chrome's data sync feature, I could work on the Cr-48 largely like I would the Air. All my bookmarks appeared where I needed them, for example. Despite the setback, which required putting Larry Seltzer's story back in the publishing system, I posted his story about 30 minutes after the Air fatally crashed. Before the morning was over, I had edited and posted another Seltzer missive and a great read by developer and Betanews reader Robert Johnson: "10 things I would like Steve Ballmer to do in 2011." I managed to post something myself -- "Do you still own iPad?"
Maybe it's time to update my original seven days stories with something new. Coming back to the Cr-48 is suddenly much better than using it the first go-round. I guess crisis will do that. It helps that I had bought, but not unboxed until today, a Logitech mouse. The Cr-48's trackpad is simply horrendous.
Air Asphyxiation
By comparison, the 11.6-inch MacBook Air is a brick. Despite being convinced by all the marketing and other hype about flash memory never failing (Hey, Titanic was unsinkable, too), I deferred to logic and experience. Everything about the crash felt like a drive failure. So I hauled the Air brick over to the local Apple Store for servicing. The Genius ran a check-disk utility that failed. He also booted up from an external drive so that I could recover any data from the ailing Air; I brought a 16GB thumb drive. But the Air was slow, copying sluggish and copying of any folder failing about halfway through.
Something else: The recovery utility delivered a cryptic -- at least to the Genius and his buddies -- error message: "AppleMCP89TMS:PowerGatingDown." He Googled the error, which brought back results for sites in Japanese and Norwegian. I later used Google Translate to wriggle English out of the Norwegian site. Apple replaced the motherboard on one computer giving this error. Another poster indicated drive problems. The Genius decided that the flash drive had in fact failed. The store didn't have one in stock (128GB), so it must be ordered before there can be in-warranty repair.
I chose the MacBook Air for two major benefits: portability and reliability -- particularly storage. With no moving parts, I expected the drive would last for years, worry-free. I now will likely sell my Air. The drive failed in my 1st gen Air after two months use. Apple Store replaced the whole computer. The hard drive failed in that MBA in September 2010; I replaced the drive with a 64GB SSD. So here I am on my third MacBook Air drive failure, which is about two too many.
Meanwhile, I'll be using Google's Chrome OS laptop as my production machine. I happen to be between Windows laptops right now. My regular Windows 7 machine is out on loan (some friends need a little experiential prodding to get off Windows XP). So it's the Cr-48 or swiping my wife's laptop. I best let hers be. :)
Google's cloud and Chrome OS saved my butt today. Where do you keep your data?
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Software and content in the Arab world: Moving beyond infancy

Publié: mars 2, 2011, 3:41am CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

In the late 90's, India, Israel, and Ireland (often called the "three i's") grew from having unremarkable software industries into major software exporting nations. According to the Taxonomy of New Software exporting Nations by Erran Carmel in 2003, they went from "infant" software exporting nations to almost top-tier major exporters in a relatively short time, a rare occurence indeed.
According to Carmel's thesis:
"Tier 4 nations are Infant Stage Software Exporting Nations. These nations have little impact on the global market in software. While there is some foreign investment in a number of these nations' firms, it is rare. Much of the software industry in these nations is still a cottage industry: firms are small, managerial processes are informal, and marketing is immature. Most Tier 4 nations are unlikely to move to Tier 3 because of their small size (which restricts their ability to grow large industries) and other unfavorable conditions (political instability, stage of economic development, etc.). However, many Tier 4 national industries have benefited from some recent governmental attention focused, specifically, on the software exporting sector."
Carmel listed: Cuba, El Salvador, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, and Jordan as these "infant" nations with conditions mostly unfavorable for a nascent software industry.
At the Game Developers Confrence this week, Mahmoud Khasawneh, former Chief Information Officer for the Jordanian government, and current founder and CEO of startup game company Quirkat spoke about software localization and the effect these perceived "unfavorable conditions" have had on a developing software industry.
According to Khasawneh, Jordan's software industry, especially the video game end, is actually at a point where it will soon snowball in growth.
"When you work in the Middle East, if you've succeeded at something, you suddenly get a lot of people trying to do the same thing," Khasawneh told us. "So five and a half years ago, we went into an area where not a lot of people had gone. Going into gaming in the Arab world was extremely challenging, it hadn't really been done before."
What were they doing that hadn't been done before? According to Khasawneh, it was designing and making games relevant to the Arab world that also had worldwide appeal. The company managed to do it in 2008 with the title Arabian Lords, a PC strategy game co-developed with Maryland-based company Breakaway Games. The title cost approximately $8 million to bring to fruition, making it an extremely ambitious project for a company that hadn't yet even secured its first round of funding.
So to say it was "extremely challenging" for Khasawneh and Quirkat even seems like a bit of an understatement. I asked him today if, for example, it was difficult to get investors interested in his company.
"I can't even answer that!" he laughed. "I have to express it with big hand gestures and everything... Yes. Very, very, very, difficult. We're in our sixth year and we've only just secured our first round of funding. We were among the first to do it, so it took investors a lot of time to meet us here."
Quirkat's prinicpal investor is Accelerator Technology Holdings, which concentrates on the Middle Eastern and North African Tech/Media/Telecoms space, and funds other Jordanian companies Gate2Play (a payment system for games,) and Wizards Productions (another company focusing on Arabic games.)
"As with everything else in the Middle East, suddenly there are a LOT of investors looking at game companies. They've suddenly woken up to the potential of the area," Khasawneh said. "It took us five and a half years to get funding, and it'll take the next startup three to six months...and they will probably get more than we got!"
Khasawneh isn't just optimistic because his company has finally won the first battle in obtaining funds, but because when he was CIO for Jordan, he got to see what assets the country had to offer.
"It was part of my job as Chief Information Officer to understand if we could, how we could, why we could or why we couldn't [become a strong software economy.] Our 22 universities churn out thousands of software developers every year, we're one of the countries that has local Microsoft, Google, Cisco, and Oracle offices. We are a center of interest for big players, and this is generating a whole new generation of programmers," Khasawneh said. "I don't have official statistics in front of me, but you see a lot of companies in every country in the Middle East, and the key players are Jordanian. This is especially true in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We export human resources, that's all we really have."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010