Salam,

Believe it or not,
That rumor that kept going around the internet for years is now finally true.

RIM confirmed that the popular Blackberry Messenger will be available on iOS and Android phones this summer. It will work cross-platform and will have all its features on.

Not only that, But they are now creating what they call "BBM Channels" which is something similar to facebook pages. People can become fans of your channels and follow your updates. Think of it as twitter + facebook, in a Blackberry Interface maybe?

Who's looking forward to using BBM on their iPhones or their Android Devices?

Salam,
This post, expresses loads of things that come to my mind every February. 
And I really hope to get it out, not just as text but to get it to reach the minds of everyone.



What created Hala February? 
25th and 26th of February.

NOT brand names.
NOT foreign singers,
NOT shopping,
NOT water guns,
But love for this land. 

So.. how are we celebrating that it?

The "Maseera", which is changing throughout the years, from expressing love to Kuwait, and happiness, to harassing girls. 25th and 26th of February changed to become two days where pathetic guys can harass girls under the excuse of "We're happy and just having fun." 

Of course I am not talking about everyone who goes to "Maseera".. I am talking about the majority though, and that also goes for girls. Some go there to get attention. Some guys from neighboring countries even come with the excuse of "Celebrating with our Kuwaiti brothers!" while in fact, and they do not hide it but actually announce it in tweets and such, they come here to "hunt Kuwaiti girls" .. Because our pathetic guys would invite their friends and cousins to Kuwait and take them to harass girls, whether it was in Maseera or not, giving such a bad image to our girls. And of course our media, focusing on girls only, especially if doing something wrong like dancing in public. And all those watching think like "So those are Kuwait girls.." which of course is totally not true. Those are a few of them and do not represent the majority. But since the majority are not doing anything wrong none mentions them which creates that illusion.

So why ignore this?
Why keep having those "Maseerat" instead of doing something actually meaningful and expresses your love to your Kuwait?

What can you do, you ask?

We have loads of talents and hobbies here in Kuwait.
We have artists,
We have photographers,
We have stand-up comedians,
We have actors,
We have singers,
We have people who are amazing with musical instruments,
We have people who mastered the art of using shadows,
We have puppeteers,
We have magicians,
We have people who create masterpieces from copper molding and such,
We have poets,
We have people with amazing hand writing, so good that it can be called art,
We have people who love video games,
We have programmers,
We have writers,
We have bloggers,
We have face painters,
We have bikers,
We have collectors,
We have swimmers,
We have Jet Skiers, 
We have people who love fishing,
We have kiters,
We have people with amazing skills in controlling remotely controlled airplanes,
We have people who capture great time-lapse videos,
We have people who love training their pets to do awesome stuff,
We have people who love arts and crafts,

And loads more, some of which I forgot (Sorry!) and some of which I still need to find out about.
Why do I still need to find out about them? because they're hidden and not getting the support needed.

With all those hobbies and talents, do we really need to get people from abroad to entertain us?
Do we really need to gather in one street and just have music playing real loud? 
Do we need to see our girls harassed in the name of "maseera"?
No, we can do awesome stuff!
Even if there is no "support" for the time being, even if the officials do not see what we, Kuwaitis, can do.
We can show them no?

It is the 1st of May now, so you have TEN months to prepare. I think that wont be hard no?
Here is my vision, just a few ideas, which you can take, and work on.. or give even better ones.

Imagine, from the 1st of Feb. 2014, there'll be..

A photography exhibition, with photographs related to Kuwait from ALL sorts of photographers, be it professionals, amateurs, beginners, old, young or even children. 10 months of preparation, and participation from many people can create a massive Kuwait Photography exhibition.

An art exhibition, with all sorts of drawings/sketches/paintings that are about Kuwait, from innocent little kids to their grandfathers, skill does not matter, it is what you are expressing that matters. Where it would not be an exhibition for artists and those are interested in art only, but for everyone, the best artists and the totally beginner 5 years olds, an event where the whole family can participate, and visit, and enjoy. 10 months of preparation can create an awesome nicely presented exhibition all about Kuwait.

A mini stage, maybe on the beach, with daily performances of comedians, singers, pianists, guitarists, magicians, actors (comedy or not, acting can be creative no?), and they're all Kuwaitis! Maybe 3-4 acts per day for all of Feb. 2014.

A video games tournament with many teams, many games, for the whole month.

Bikers doing an awesome show while people watch on the sides of the street. Or the army doing a show or parading or airplanes stuff, or jetskiers.

Marathons, and races, along the Arabian Gulf Street

A campaign, to show your love to your Kuwait, and clean it!

Sports tournaments, not between sports clubs but between the people! between friends! between Kuwaitis! Be it football, tennis, or whatever, why not all of them?

Our major "theaters" .. or "masra7eyat" , why are they only held on Eids? Why not do them on weekends during Feb?

Competitions of all sorts! People love to compete! 

There are loads and loads of things we, Kuwaitis, can do to have the most fun during Feb. and express our happiness and love for our Kuwait. We can always start preparing.. we have 10 months, and don't think that you need to hold the whole festival thing! I mean, if you like to draw, try drawing something related to Kuwait, expressing your love to Kuwait in your own way. See that one drawing? If you created it, trust me, many others who love drawing and love Kuwait just like you have done the same. All that's left? is to gather them all and there you go, that is your art exhibition done in a week! 

And do you know what's the best part from all this?
Create all those things I mentioned, and more! All of them will be scattered around Kuwait! There is a certain event going on in Marina mall, another in Al Mohallab, another at the sea front, and another at Jaber Stadium, and another near Kuwait Towers, and another...etc

Heavy traffic? no, harassments? no, fights? no, mindless stuff that happen every year on "maseera"? no, instead people will be going everywhere, divided into those who want to see the photography exhibit on day 1, then on day 2 they want to enjoy a stand up comedy act, then want to join a videogames tournament on day 3...etc, while others want to start with video games on day 1, then go to the exhibit on day 2...etc

You get the idea, lol.

I hope that I was able to express what I think February should be like.
I hope that Feb. 2014 will NOT be about shopping, will NOT be about concerts, and will NOT be embarrassing like most of the things that stand out on our yearly "maseera"

I hope that it would be of accomplishments, of the youth finally getting the support needed, of talents being noticed, of families having fun, of people being civil, and of happiness and peace upon Kuwait.

If I was lucky enough to get you guys interested, and get you ready for the most amazing February festivities ever, whoever wants to participate, please, comment, or send me whatever you want to participate with via the "Contact me" link, or twitter @DonMusallam . I would love to gather them all, and maybe mention them in later posts, to help this campaign and get it to work. 

This way, the officials will notice it, they will know that Kuwaitis are up for it, and they will start to support us and help us out. 

Let's give our Kuwait what it deserves.

Salam,
Been a while!
Ace of Blogs is back though! :-)

And the first post is about my new Youtube channel


There are many videos, and new tricks in there.
There will be even more soon though.

I always had a problem with not having a camera man to help, or people not wanting to be in videos on youtube. But now I have a new idea, it is a surprise, and hopefully you'll enjoy it. :-) 

Visit the new channel, subscribe, like and support me please, and I'll hopefully not disappoint you in the new content. :-) Click here to visit the channel. 

The Z10 measures 65.6mm wide by 130mm deep by 9mm thick and weighs 137.5g. It has a High resolution 4.2" screen, no buttons at front, the volume buttons on the side and the lock button on the top. Also, the headset slot on top while the left side has the micro-usb and the micro-HDMI slots.




It has a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, along with 2GB of RAM, which is very nice and solves most of slowdown problems from the older blackberry mobiles. It also has a 16 GB internal memory, plus the ability to add up to 32 GB through SD Cards. The battery life is pretty decent. They did a good job on this one.

It comes with two cameras, a front facing 2 MP camera and an 8 MP camera on the back. The camera has a flash unit, image stabilisation and backside illuminated sensor for better enhanced low light pictures.





The Z10 comes with the new Blackberry 10 Operating System. It is a new OS built from scratch with a very nice concept. The Hub, The Peek and the Flow.



The Hub is where all your notifications would go, be it BBM, Email, Twitter....etc, and the Peek is a new way in BB10 OS, to literally "peek" at your notifications while you are in any app through a gesture. While peeking you can either choose something to read, or reply to, or you can just go back to the app you're currently working on. The Flow is the Blackberry 10's OS way to navigate through the menus and apps, through a set of gestures. And it is designed for one handed use. It is pretty impressive.

The browser is MUCH faster than the older one, and it can load pages that have so many elemetents in them smoothly. Also, it supports flash.

The onscreen keyboard is pretty nice, the predictive text technique used here is very nice. Instead of showing you words to choose from on top of the keyboard, it would show little words on top of several keys. If you keep typing nothing would happen, but if one of those words is what you're trying to type, you go to that key and swap it upwards to add the word. But what's most impressive about it is the existence of an invisible keyboard underneath the one you can see. The invisible keyboard learns where you usually press while typing letters so that it can improve the accuracy for you.



Blackberry Messenger has been updated to feature video calls, and even screen sharing. Both are pretty useful. But I think you'd be most excited to another type of change that is not about the features, but about Blackberry Messenger running on normal internet now. So yes, no need for "Blackberry Data Plans".. Get a normal data plan or use WiFi. I think this particular change would be the biggest selling point of the device.

The Blackberry World is your destination for blackberry applications. There is a wide range of applications available. And Blackberry Users.. Now you can actually play games on your blackberries! And I mean real games. 



I think they did a pretty good job on this one, and I can finally consider the Blackberry to be a smartphone!
But I still am waiting for Q10, when that comes out I am selling my Z10 and getting Q10. Blackberry has always been about the physical keyboard!