SaudiMac

Apple released Mac OS X 10.5.3 update for Leopard, update is recommended for all Leopard users and improves the stability, compatibility and security of the Mac. On my second generation MacBook Pro the update was 198MB. While newer MacBook Pros need to download 420MB.
One of new features in this update is the ability to sync your contacts with Google.
For pre-10.5.3 systems, Security Update 2008-003 was released. For servers Apple also released the Mac OS X Server 10.5.3 update.

iPhoneIslam release the pro version of their Arabization software for the iPhone ( +Arabtaller Pro+ ). This will cost $20 and if you don’t want to pay you can still install the freeware edition ( +Arabtaller+ ) reported earlier by Waiel.
Main features as translated from the Arabic site:

• A better installation process
• A better handling of finishing Arabic letters of a word
• Support for UTF,Mac and Windows Arabic character encoding
• Using a standard for Arabic letters so that the text is readable on other devices (SMSing, emailing, etc)

iPhoneIslam also promises to provide free upgrades for future iPhone software. They are also selling it for $15 for the first 3 days of release.
You can get the software from their website here, which alos includes links to where to buy the application.

The admins at iPhoneIslam believe(3rd comment) that they had over 30,000 downloads of their ArabTallar application for the iPhone. The application that introduces best Arabic support so far on the iPhone as far as I’m concerned.
As for the countries visiting their site/downloading their Arabization software, they are the following, ordered by most visits:

1. Saudi Arabia
2. United Arab Emirates
3. Kuwait
4. Egypt: The first to announce the official iPhone release
5. United States
6. Qatar
7. Jordan: The second official iPhone announcement until now
8. Oman
9. Bahrain
10. Syria
11. United Kingdom
12. Singapore
13. Yemen
14. Lebanon

My MacBook Pro’s power adapter is almost dead so I had to buy a new one. Buying it online would cost $80 (300SAR) add to that tax and shipping. Contacted Global Store and they told me it’s 450SAR. And iStyle told me its 444SAR.
But when I went to their store to buy it. Which is at the new mall “Riyadh Galleria” on King Fahad Road. They first said the price is 444SAR but then they told me that the price was updated on their computer from the UAE to 480SAR.
Is iStyle authorized by Apple’s Saudi distributor, Arab Computers or UAE’s distributor ABM? If the UAE store raised the price why would the Saudi branch do the same?
Also to note, the $99 (380SAR) value (and even less on Amazon - $70) .mac service is being sold for 460SAR! Just buy it from apple directly or from amazon from my previous link.
Based on my experience I will most likely never buy from iStyle again. I only bought it because I was in a hurry and needed a power adapter urgently. That’s another reason why Apple should sell Macs in Saudi Arabia directly without relying on middlemen like (Apple IMC, ABM and Arab Computers) by the time the products reached the consumer the price would be so high.

Update: In the end, I just wanted a store to give me the price they actually promised a few minutes earlier. Giving me a price and immediately changing it because the head office out of Saudi Arabia decided so is against the consumer. So in the end don’t bother with this store. Any other Apple retailer will be just fine.

From the Associated Press: France Telecom’s Orange said in a one-sentence statement that it will sell the handset in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and African markets later this year.
This raises issues regarding the activation of the iPhone as well as accessing the App Store. Since the Middle East have no iTunes store how will Apple handle it?
Source: Yahoo News via Daring Fireball.

On Friday IPhoneislam.com released the long awaited Arabic language support for the iPhone and they called it “+Arabtaller+” i must say that it’s a peice of art and cleanly done. Photos available Here

If you would like to install it you can read the instruction in Arabic on their website : http://www.iphoneislam.com/?p=86

ArabComputers’s (Apple’s Authorized Distributor in Saudi Arabia) site is down with this odd error:

Fatal error: This file has expired. in /home /arabcomp /public_html /mysql.php on line 0

Apparently it was generated from a trial php application that expired. You can still access parts of the site using Google’s cache from here.
Update: Site is back online.

My friend told me that he saw the new iMacs (20-inch 2.4GHz and 20-inch 2.66GHz currently) being sold at iTechia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He did not tell me about the prices thought but it should be the same as last generation iMacs.

• Macworld review of the 2008 iMacs.
• Apple released the new iMacs at the end of April.

Following Vodafone’s announcements regarding iPhone deals with includes Italy. Italian carrier Telecom Italia (TIM) announced that they will release the iPhone later this year. This is the first country to have multiple carriers for the iPhone.
Via MacNN.

Vodafone announced that they signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone starting in ten of it’s markets. Which includes Egypt, Australia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. This is in fact the first official announcement of an iPhone release in the Middle East. With rumors of Chinese hand recognition do we expect to see full Arabic first party support directly from Apple? or will they just sell it with

English and expect the Egyptian customers to accept that? They have been doing this for the iPods for a few years now and no Arabic support was introduced for the iPod.

[Via MarketWatch]
Update: Vodafone’s press release.