Posts tagged Impulse
Jeddah @ 50ᴼ Celsius (122 Fahrenheit)
Jun 21st

Today Jeddah, Saudi Arabia reached a high temperature of 50ᴼ Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). Can’t imagine how July and August will be like, Especially August.
So try to stay cool and hydrated. And please remember to drink lots and lots of water…. Go now, and grab a glass of it.

iPad Cake
Jun 18th
NOTE: If you’re excepting a tech related blog post then the answer is, No.
Today the 18th of June is my Birthday, and my lovely wife decided to throw me a special surprise birthday.
We geeks know that it is very hard to get us anything, especially when it’s a gadget. So while planning for a couple of days, and conspiring with my mother about the matter, I ended up getting this beautiful iPad cake.
I would like to thank the two angels in my life for such a great surprise.
PS. If you find this post fluffy, read the note on the top. The answer is still No!



آبل آيباد: حقيقة أكبر من خيال
Apr 11th

وأخيراً إنتهى الإنتظار والترقب، حيث قامت شركة آبل بتسليم الدفعة الأولى من أجهزة الآيباد للمشترين الأوائل، حيث وصل للمملكة جهازي المرتقب في الثامن من إبريل، مع العلم بأن جهازي زار مواقع عديدة خلال أربع أيام، فمن الصين طار للولايات المتحدة، ومن ثم لفرنسا ثم الإمارات العربية المتحدة، بعد ذلك إلتف ليصل للرياض وأخيراً وصل بسلام في يدي بمدينة جدة.
طبعاً أنا متأكد من أن الكثير منكم قراء العديد من المقالات والتحليلات عن الجهاز، مما يجعل إعادة الحديث عنها من محض اللت والعجن الممل. لكن ما أود الحديث عنه هي التجربة الأولى في حد ذاتها، وهذا ما قررت أن أشاركه معكم.
أول خاطرة ترد في ذهني عند رفع الجهاز من الصندوق هي “واو“ وبعد تشغيل بعض البرامج على الجهاز تداركت معنى إيجاد الجهاز في حد ذاته. فشركة آبل صرحت بأن هذا الجهاز ليس بديلاً عن الهاتف الذكي (أو آيبود بشاشه عملاقة)، ولا هو بديل عن أجهزة الكمبيوتر المحمولة. هذا الجهاز يُصنف تحت فصيلة جديدة من الأجهزة المتنقلة الخفيفة. وكما قال الرئيس التنفيذي للشركة ستيف جوبز “هذا جهاز وسطي بين الهاتف الذكي واللابتوب“.
إدعى البعض أن الجهاز ثقيل في الحمل، مما أعطى إنطباعاً بأنه غير عملي في التنقل، ردي على ذلك أن الجهاز متوازن في الوزن بالنسبه لحجمه، وذلك يعطي الإحساس بجودة الصنع العالية، حيث أنه غير مُصنع من قطع بلاستيك لُزقت بغراء رخيص.
كما قامت العديد من وكالات الأنباء الكبيرة بنشر أخبار عن عدم قدرة الجهاز على التواصل مع بعض شبكات الـWiFi، مما جعلني أجرب الإتصال بشبكات متعددة من دون أي صعوبات وبدقة فائقة تحاكي إتصال أجهزة الكمبيوتر المحمولة. في إعتقادي الخاص، وبما أن كلمة “iPad” من الكلمات المهمه في مواقع البحث هذه الأيام، أرادت بعض تلك المواقع الحصول على إنتباه الزوار من خلال نفخ بعض فقاعات الصابون من حالات فردية لم يتم التحقق من صحتها (يمكن أصحاب الأجهزة المتضررة زيارة أيٍ من صالات بيع أجهزة آبل، لكن لم يتم إثبات ذلك بعد).
لنكن منطقيين قليلاً في تفكيرنا، قامت آبل بإستثمار الكثير من الأموال والجهد لتطوير وتصنيع هذا الجهاز المرتقب من قِبل المستخدمين والمنافسين على حدٍ سواء، لا أظن أنها ستسمح بفرصة ثقب ترسانتها في مرحلة مهمه مثل هذه.
عنصر الإثارة
لإختصار الموضوع، فإن الآيباد أفضل جهاز كمبيوتر متنقل يتم تصنيعه حتى الآن. فهو أفضل متصفح للإنترنت (حيث يمكنك لمس المواقع كما لم تفعل من قبل)، هو أفضل مشغل وسائط صوتية، أفضل مشغل أفلام HD متنقل، أفضل جهاز للإبداع السريع مثل الكتابة أو الرسم، أفضل جهاز ألعاب (قريباً سيتغلب على البلاي ستيشن PSP والننتيدو DSi لما يتميز به الجهاز من قدرات فائقة لعرض الجرافيكس ثلاثية الأبعاد عالية الجودة)، كما أن الآيباد هو أفضل جهاز يمكنك أن تحلم بإقتنائه لقراءة الكتب والمجلات والصحف والمجلات الهزلية .
في الماضي تمكنت من السفر بجهاز آيفون مكنني من التواصل عبر البريد الإلكتروني والإنترنت، والآن يمكنني فعل أكثر من ذلك بالآيباد.
سألني البعض عن عمر البطارية، لم أقم بتجربة فعلية لكن من ملاحظتي إستخدمت الجهاز لمدة ٣ ساعات إستهلكت ما يقارب ٩٪ من طاقة الجهاز. آبل أعلنت عن ١٠ ساعات مشاهدة فيديو، وقام البعض بتحقيق ١١ ساعة من الألعاب والفيديو المتواصل.


جميع الحقوق محفوظة ٢٠١٠ مازن العنقري
The New BMW 5 Series @ Yas Formula 1 Raceway
Mar 21st

Just came back for a quick trip to Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where I tested the brand-new BMW 5 Series at Yas Marina Formula 1 raceway circuit. Since I am so tiered at the moment to write a review of this amazing car, you can watch this exclusive video shot on the tarmac of the raceway circuit.
All the shots and the video have been taken today, so this is as fresh as it gets





And here is the Video, which was shot on my iPhone 3GS, since my HD camcorder’s 4GB card is full with a 1hour HD video of the whole event. Enjoy
I would like to thank BMW Group and their Middle East Office for this great event and opportunity.
Copyright 2010 © Mazen Al-Angary, All Rights Reserved.
Is a Human Life Worth 3 Minutes?
Mar 5th
[This is has been the Editor's Note I wrote for What's Up Magazine on the Jeddah's 17th issue]
WARNING: This note is graphical, and highly descriptive. If you are sensitive or in a good mood, I don’t recommend reading it, since it might alter your current mood.
I was driving home the other day when I saw a traffic jam on the other side of the road, I slowed down ̵ since the cars in front of me forced me to do so ̵ to take a glance at the other side.
A young teenage girl with her little sister were standing on the sidewalk screaming in front of a car, that just hit their youngest brother, while they were trying to cross the road. The driver (a young chap) got out of the car to pickup the child from the hot-boiling asphalt, lifting him to his chest with his head to the side oozing blood from his mouth all over the black hot pavement .
I am sorry if I drew a grim, and graphical picture of what happened, but that little boy had a future that ended in a flash.
We should really sit and think seriously about this, is speeding really worth it, I will bet you… No wait I can get professional sports car racers to attest to this even. If you speed up trying to make it to an important appointment you won’t gain anything more than three minutes (yes 3 only) so do you think a human life is cheeper than being 3 minutes late?
Please drive responsibly, let’s start this new year with a better awareness towards driving behavior, and be extra careful navigated our way through the streets.
Before I let you go, here is one more thing that I have been thinking about for years and never found a logical answer to, you might help.
Why do ALL car manufacturers give us speeds that exceed the Maximum speed limits in almost all countries around the world? Why can’t they build a car that can never go beyond 100Km/h? If you’re going to get a speeding ticket driving over 120Km/h why do you even have the option to reach over 200Km/h in some cars? Where are you going to use all this speed?
It’s like asking for a pesticides to kill mosquitoes, and getting a flamethrower instead. Cars don’t kill people… irresponsible drivers kill people.
Please drive Safe, we wasted many lives already, to gain 3 minutes.
Mazen Al-Angary
Editor in Chief
What’s Up Magazine
Copyright 2010 © Mazen Al-Angary, All Rights Reserved.
wish-wish Ate My Cereal!
Feb 28th

My brother in law went on a vacation trip, so he asked me if I would be interested in watching over (babysitting) his new Lorikeets parrot.
I was excited since I entertained the idea of getting one myself, so why not test-drive one.
The Lorikeet is a very smart bird, I managed to teach it some discipline, yet I have a long way to go, but what was interesting the most, is the fact that when I get up in the morning the Lorikeet (which is called wish-wish) wants to get out of its cage and play around. So yesterday I woke up, got my cereal and glass of milk ready, sat down to eat it. While wish-wish went insane wanting to be freed, and since I didn’t get my regular shot of espresso (providing the noise it was making) I set it free to roam around while I fueled my brain cells.
It walked to me wanting to be pick it up off the ground, I thought “Ohhh he looks so cute” As soon as I did, wish-wish jumped on my cereal bowl and started to eat my flakes.
Speechless, I had to take a Kodak moment.
A Very Bad Start to A Very Good Day!
Jan 4th
Woke up this morning and thought “WOW what a great day this will be!”
I turn my phone on, and I get a “No Signal” sign.
“Huh that’s strange” I thought to myself.
Popped the SIM card out, got my backup SIM and popped that right in. I try to make a call, and the darn thing won’t work. So I call customer service, and I got that there was a bill on that secondary line, that I forgot to pay. Since I rarely use that card.
I turn my router on to get online so that I can pay the bill, and the GO network won’t go anywhere. I can’t get a network connection established.
Very very bad start to a very good day.
After six shots of espresso (yes the number that comes right after 5) I find a prepaid SIM card that I got with my Mobily iPhone, so I pop that in to discover that it has no credit. Just lovely!
Stranded in an urban setting, I have a flight to catch, I don’t have time to grab a new SIM before I fly, and I can’t connect to the internet to pay my secondary SIM bill, and the third card doesn’t have credit.
All the sudden the internet starts working… Great Now I can pay the darn bill, I log to my bank account (after tweeting that is) to discover that in order to pay the bill of the second card, I need to receive a confirmation code to the first damaged card. Ironic!
One Device that Does it All
Jan 3rd

When I travel I tend to carry so many gadgets with me, I even remember on one occasion where I had to fill a form in one country that required a list of all the electronic devices I had on me.
Here is the breakdown of my digital travel list:
- 1 MacBook Air.
- 2 iPhones.
- 1 iPod nano.
- 2 GPSr Units.
- 2 Battery packs for iPhone/iPod.
- 12 Rechargeable batteries for my GPS units.
- A bag chockfull of cables and USB thumb drives.
- Canon DSLR + 6 SD cards (4GB each, and it’s not like I shoot a lot).
Now I bet you might be wondering why would I need an iPod when I have two iPhones… And why two?
Another question would be, why would I need two GPS units?
There is an answer to all these questions (might start a FAQ page to answer them, but not today). Being such a neat freak, I find it easier to assign a task (or multiple tasks) to each device, to shift my brain gears when I operate it.
Now I am going on a trip, so I decided to try something new and different, going minimalistic (inspired by a friend
).
Here is the new and revised digital travel list:
- One iPhone 3GS.
Let’s see how I can survive with only that. The device that rules them all.
-18 In Jeddah, Did You Feel That?
Dec 28th

The other day I ran my AccuWeather app to get this screen, I sighed and thought of the possibility that we would ever see such a temperature… Ever.
A Quote for 2010
Dec 20th

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Steve Jobs from the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

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