SaudiMac

Apple’s distributor is warning against hacked/unlocked iPhones in the region. Yet many stores in Saudi Arabia, some are actual authorized Apple resellers, are selling the iPhones at prices equal to $800.
A well known mall, HyperPanda, is selling the gray market iPhones at 2800SR. thats almost $800 as seen in this photo:

Many mobile phone stores are selling the iPhones at prices ranging from 2500-5000SR and ask for 200SR for crappy Arabic support.
This store is hanging an Apple IMC poster warning about fake Apple products, yet they are selling an unauthorized iPhone as well as iPod knockoffs from some unknown brand (almost all the “authorized resellers” are selling fake iPods on the same stand as regular ones).

I am waiting for Apple IMC Middle East, Arab Business Machines and Arab Computers responses regarding those sales. Will Apple persecute those stores for illegally importing the iPhones to the Saudi Market?

Apple released a new version of their Final Cut Express software, check the press release here.
It costs $199 for the normal edition or $99 for the upgrade. For more information check out the Final Cut Express 4 pagefor list of features and ordering information.

Apple released the first update for Leopard, version 10.5.1. Which includes many fixes for the new OS. You can find the full list at Apple’s site.
Apple also released what might be the final Mac OS Tiger update (10.4.11). You can visit the feature page at Apple’s site. It includes the final edition of Safari 3.0 and many updates. For some reason it did not appear on my software update so I have to download it manually.

I do have a small and quick rant about Leopard, a source told me that Apple’s Saudi Arabia distributor, Arab Computers (you can check their official, blank site here) have brought only 25 copies of Leopard to the Market. One of the Apple resellers asked for 250 licenses and they are only getting a literal handful of copies. Apparently the resellers were expected to make illegal copies of Leopard! And I know of at least 1 store that offers illegal install of Apple software.
While our friends in UAE are enjoying an actual launch event only 2 days after the official release of Leopard while we wait for the humble distributor here to actually provide enough licenses to cover to Saudi market (which is way bigger than 25).
I did not install a “downloaded image” of Leopard but I ordered one from Amazon and had it shipped to me. In case you did not get your copy of Leopard yet and you want to support our site, please consider buying it from Amazon through us (as we get a small percentage of the sale). You can buy it from this link: Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard.

Last topic was about the brand new Arabic localization of Mac OS X Tiger! While checking the rest of the website for the “Official” Apple distributor in the Middle East, here are my comments about it:

• The site is a copy and paste of the template of the old Apple.com site, needs a lot of improvements. And there is a missing tab that doesn’t take you anywhere.
• Outdated Quicktime page with version 6.5 (current is version 7) and 3 year old movie trailers. And notice the 3rd generation iPod!
• Homepage mentions the 3rd generation iPod nano and other new iPods. The iPod/iTunes page mentions the last generations. Notice the unavailable images. Clicking the older nano pictures takes you to the new nano pages.
• Apple TV being sold here but no iTunes store at all (not even a music store). And the link to the so-called “Terms of Sales” is dead.
• The Mac for Education page doesn’t have any real information, it just copies Apple’s site and provide no information for any Middle East based education!
• Mac OS X page is still in Tiger mode no information about Leopard.

Quietly, Apple’s “distributor” in the middle east, IMC Middle East, released an Arabic localization of the outdated Mac OS X Tiger. You can download it from their website linked here. At this rate I am expecting the Arabic Localized version of Mac OS X Leopard when 10.6 is released, probably 2009.

The thing is hard to type on. It’s too slow. It’s too big. It doesn’t have instant messaging. It’s too expensive. (Or, no, wait, it’s too cheap!) It doesn’t support my work e-mail. It’s locked to AT&T. Steve Jobs secretly hates puppies. And—all together now—we’re sick of hearing about it!

This article lists the advantages of the iPhone and why it deserve “Invention of the Year”. My favorite one:

It will make other phones better
Jobs didn’t write the code inside the iPhone. These days he doesn’t dirty his fingers with 1’s and 0’s, if he ever really did. But he did negotiate the deal with AT&T to carry the iPhone. That’s important: one reason so many cell phones are lame is that cell-phone-service providers hobble developers with lame rules about what they can and can’t do. AT&T gave Apple unprecedented freedom to build the iPhone to its own specifications. Now other phone makers are jealous. They’re demanding the same freedoms. That means better, more innovative phones for all.

Via TIME.

Apple release MacBook Pro software update 1.2, according to what Apple say, “This update improves graphics stability and is recommended for all 2.2/2.4GHz MacBook Pro Models.”

Apple also released an update for the new iMacs that fixes freezing problems, two versions are available for Tiger and Leopard.