آخر مستجدات التكنولوجيا

Most brands feel that their presence online is something they need to do but not necessarily want to. This often leaves customers disappointed if not disenfranchised by an inadequate digital identity for the brand that caters to customers’ e-commerce or research needs.

Doing digital right is a holistic approach that includes online, mobile and digital aspects of a company merging seamlessly to be readily available at any touch point a potential or existing customer might want to get in touch or informed. It’s often boosted by creating a community of users that help push the brand higher, by resorting less to the more traditional ad campaigns and cost-per-click methods.

Of course, doing digital and online right isn’t just about marketing, but also providing better services for your customers by utilizing new technologies and cutting-edge, tested methods. At its core, the digital and online strategy of a brand needs to make transactions easier, and maybe even enjoyable for customers. It’s also a field where a brand might do a great job gaining an edge over the competition, with services or features that help it stand out and build brand loyalty.

There are many examples of success stories, and even more of unfortunate failures. Today, we’ll be taking a few familiar giants and discuss how they’ve succeeded in their respective industries with their online strategy.

1. Amazon’s “Users Also Bought” Recommendations

Amazon might have been a trailblazer when it added customer reviews to each product you can order from their website, but they didn’t stop there. If you shop online on Amazon, you probably noticed a carousel of small photos of products that will probably be complementary to the item you are thinking of, under the details of the product you are browsing. It could be something like a laptop case that fits the model you were about to order, or other accessories like adapters and cables.
This is ingenious both to drive more sales from their customers, but also are a time-saver for users who don’t mind spending a little extra to have a combination that might make more sense to them and what they need them for, based on previous purchasing behavior of Amazon’s massive data.

2. Apple

It’s like almost every week, a new Android phone’s billboards are covering the streets on your commute home and pop up in your feeds as sponsored and boosted posts. However, you’ve probably never seen a simple campaign for Apple’s flagship: the iPhone. That’s because Apple’s approach to marketing disposes with the traditional splurging on traditional advertising, and instead uses carefully executed product placements to generate hype around a new product.

Apart from that, Apple relies on the mostly generous reviews of their products. Over the years, the company has succeeded in creating a significant emotional connection between its customers and the products they create. This means that the secrecy before every release, the grandiose and exclusive presentations at their California HQ and the lines in front of retailers help build the excitement online. It also drives much more favorable reviews than your average smartphone, with critics being able to put aside deal-breakers with other manufacturers, for carrying an Apple product that will always keep a user happy and satisfied, with a reliably simple interface and great build quality.

3. Starbucks

In 2016, almost 25% of all Starbucks transactions were done over their mobile app. Letting users pay for their coffee with an app made doing business with Starbucks easier for a considerable portion of their customers who prefer to pay via the app instead of card or cash.

Digital strategies need to make attracting new customers, and keeping old ones happy, easier. The Starbucks app is a good example of that, where users could not only make a transaction easier and more convenient, but also stay up to date with offers and even a store locator if a customer feels like a frappucino venti but isn’t sure where the closest Starbucks is.

4. Careem

In the age of Uber, Careem has been able to compete in the region by using the “local solutions to local problems” ethos. Today, Careem has over 1 million captains (drivers), in more than 120 cities in 15 countries.

Just like Souq.com, Careem faced several challenges the region posed for an app-based ride-sharing app. Careem’s focus on research and development helped them innovate features and services that Uber has copied over the years. Scheduling rides ahead of time, updating your location and destination as well as the option of cash payment helped make Careem the powerhouse it is today in the region.

Careem’s approach to digital and mobile was different, understanding that a faceless app interface wasn’t what many potential customers were comfortable with in the region. Instead, Careem sought offline ways to entice customers onto their streamlined, user-friendly app and ensured that their drivers are well taken care of and thus provided a better, safer experience for riders in countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Lessons one can learn from Careem is the local approach to local problems. No matter how big an offshore company is, the solutions it has might not always work in a specific part of the world. Careem has understood that perfectly and has been able to tailor-make online services that helped make ride-sharing commutes a vital part of many Arab cities in a relatively short amount of time.

5. Souq.com

Souq.com, especially after its historic acquisition by Amazon, is a textbook example of a company in the MENA region not only doing digital and online right, but actually helped create the region’s e-commerce ecosystem and its accompanying infrastructure. So much so, that Amazon paid a record-breaking 580 million dollars in 2017 to acquire Souq.com, instead of attempt to compete with it in the region.

A huge part of Souq.com’s success was understanding the different markets in the region, and innovating solutions to problems they were facing. Problems such as a lack of trust in credit cards and the logistical problems in countries with an underdeveloped transport system. Souq.com ended up spawning two companies, PayFort payment service and Q Express courrier service. Both of these separate entities capitalized on technology to solve problems that many other e-commerce experts felt would be impossible in the region. Today, Souq.com and the companies that it started have not just been successful, but have basically created the e-commerce ecosystem in the region.

هل شعرت يوماً أن حياتك مهددة بالخطر نظراً لاضطرارك إلى شحن هاتفك المتنقل كل ليلة بسبب ضعف البطارية أو نفاذها بسرعة؟ هل شعرت بالضيق كلّما نفذت بطارية هاتفك تحديداً في الأماكن التي لا يوجد فيها مصدر للطاقة أو التيار الكهربائي؟
يعاني الكثير من مستخدمي الهواتف المتنقلة، من مشكلات تتعلق ببطاريات هواتفهم والتي تؤدي بهم في بعض الأحيان إلى السخط، والرغبة المتزايدة لإستبدال هواتفهم بأخرى، ظناً منهم أنها قد تكون أفضل لناحية طول مدة الخدمة. لكن يوجد العديد من الطرق والوسائل البسيطة التي من شأنها أن تطيل عمر البطارية، وفي الوقت نفسه الوقاية من مخاطر تلف أو إنفجار البطارية بسبب الشحن المتكرر.

إليك بعض النصائح للحفاظ عل طاقة بطارية هاتفك:

إيقاف بعض البرامج غير المستخدمة على هاتفك المتنقل

أحدثت تقنية البلوتوث ثورة في استخدام الهواتف في السنوات الماضية، لكنها لم تعد ذات أهمية كبيرة مع ظهور تطبيقات جديدة مميزة يمكنها نقل الملفات بسهولة وسرعة فائقة كـ WhatsApp و Line وغيرها من برامج الدردشة التي يمكن عبرها إرسال واستقبال مختلف الملفات من دون عناء، وبالتالي فإنه لا ضرورة من إبقاء البلوتوث مفتوحاً لأنه يستهلك طاقة أنت في الغنى عن هدرها. وكذلك الأمر بالنسبة إلى قائمة برامج أخرى مثل وضع الطيران، إذ يمكن الاستغناء عنها لعدم وجود الحاجة إلى استخدامها.

الحد من إنارة شاشة هاتفك

إن شاشة الهاتف المنارة تستهلك مقداراً كبيراً من طاقة البطارية، ولمّا كان بالإمكان التخفيف من الإنارة دون التأثير على استخدام هاتفك المتنقل، فإنه من المفيد التخفيف من إنارة الشاشة ليس لتوفير الطاقة وحسب، وإنما للحفاظ على صحة العيون في الوقت نفسه.

وقف الاتصال بالانترنت

يستخدم الكثيرون تقنية الاتصال بالانترنت من خلال الواي فاي أو 3G و 4G، لذلك عليك أن تكون ذكياً كلما أردت استخدام هاتفك، فالمعروف أن هذه العملية تستنزف طاقة البطارية لذلك لا حاجة لك لإبقاء الاتصال بالانترنت من خلال 3G أو 4G إذا كنت متصلاً بالواي فاي.

التقليل من اعتماد تطبيقات تحديد المواقع

تُعد تطبيقات تحديد المواقع من البرامج الأكثر إستنزافاً لطاقة البطارية، لذلك يمكنك إلغاء هذه الخاصية من خلال وقف وصول التطبيقات إلى خدمات الموقع أو تعيين المستويات (في Android) لتحديد مقدار الطاقة التي يستخدمونها.

عدم ترك التطبيقات قيد التشغيل

تعمل معظم التطبيقات إذا ما تُركت في وضعية التشغيل، لذلك لا بد من إيقافها فور الانتهاء من إستخدامها. إذ تتيح معظم الهواتف الذكية حالياً إمكانية الولوج إلى أكثر من تطبيق في الوقت نفسه، لذا يجب التنبه إلى إغلاق كافة التطبيقات للحفاظ على عمر بطارية الهاتف.

الحد من تنزيل بعض التطبيقات ذات الإشعارات المتكررة

يعمد الكثير من مستخدمي الهواتف المتنقلة إلى تنزيل برامج وتطبيقات تقوم بإرسال الإشعارات المتكررة، لكن ما لا يعلمه هؤلاء هو أن هذه البرامج تؤدي إلى إستهلاك قدر كبير من طاقة البطارية، أما إذا كان لا غنى عن هذه التطبيقات فيمكنك على الأقل وقف الإشعارات غير الضرورية.

لا تلجأ إلى اعتماد وضعية اهتزاز الهاتف

بعض مستخدمي الهاتف المتنقل يحبّذون اعتماد وضعية الاهتزاز لدى استقبالهم للمكالمات الواردة والإشعارات المختلفة، لكن هذه الطريقة تؤدي إلى استهلاك طاقة البطارية لذلك لا تعتمد عليها إذا ما كنت تملك خيار استخدام النغمات الخاصة بهاتفك.

دفعت المخاوف الكثيرة، سواء المتعلقة بنفاذ البطارية أو احتمال إنفجارها، المختصين إلى إحداث ثورة في عالم بطاريات الهواتف. إذ تمكن علماء صينيون في السنوات الأخيرة من ابتكار بطارية ألمنيوم أيون خارقة يمكن إعادة شحنها بثانية فقط، وذلك باستخدام رقائق الكربون التي تبقى محافظة على 91 في المئة من قدرتها حتى إذا ما تعرضت للشحن لنحو 250 ألف مرة. كما تمكن العلماء من ابتكار بطاريات من مواد مختلفة كالماء والصوديوم الموجود في ملح الطعام، فيما لجأ آخرون إلى ابتداع طرق لشحن الهواتف من الطاقة الشمسية أو اعتماد البطاريات النووية التي تدوم لأعوام قليلة. لكن كل هذه الإنجازات والإبتكارات لم تجد طريقها إلى التنفيذ ولم يتم اعتمادها بشكل رسمي من قبل الشركات المصنّعة للهواتف المتنقلة على اختلافها.

Used for the purpose of terrestrial exploration and sending information back to earth, on December 3rd 2018, the Kingdom of Jordan took its first historical moment into space as it launched its first nanosatellite from California, USA.

Named the CubeSat (JYT1-SAT), the nanosatellite was named in honor of His Majesty the late King Hussein and his personal radio call that was known as JY1. The satellite was built by 18 young engineering students, five academic professors, and expert engineers from various universities. Under the supervision of the Crown Prince Foundation – Crown Prince Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II, the JY1-SAT was deployed to orbit the earth with an additional recorded audio message from the young crown prince that will be aired by the satellite in space to all terrestrial radio receivers around the globe.

This nanosatellite will be utilized in various sectors for research, development, and experimental activities. It will operate to boost tourism by broadcasting images of historical and heritage sites around Jordan, promote and develop satellite engineering and space travel, and further work to achieve Jordan’s development goals.

Jordanians making their mark in space

With positive and potential space ambitions under its belt, Jordan has now joined the list of Arab nations with several satellite operations and active space programs that include: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco.

This is a great and meaningful achievement, and this is only the beginning of Jordan’s dynamic journey into space. The JY1-SAT will further the nation’s knowledge on terrestrial exploration as the satellite will gather data as it roams and revolves around the world, to deliver information back to the country almost instantly.

Jordan’s ambitious space missions

Jordan’s interests in space missions is positively growing and initiating a CubeSat mission, such as this one, could create spacecraft projects and opportunities in the coming future. Further promoting opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math – while placing Jordan on the map – the Crown Prince Foundation (CPF) has been active in inspiring innovation in space technology for a while now. Its partnership with NASA brought about the NASA Internship Program initiative that provides Jordanian engineering students with hands-on-training and research at NASA’s own research center in the United States. Through this initiative, students in their fourth or fifth year of engineering study develop their skills in space engineering at NASA premises for a period of 10 weeks.

The NASA initiative and educational program established the Masar Initiative, that aims to inspire highly achieving engineering students with hands-on-training on space engineering, technology, and research. This initiative follows the objective to nurture, support, and develop the Jordanian youth talent present in the nation that have the irrefutable potential to lift their country’s economy and society in the future.

Taking the nation’s innovation to new heights

The JY1-SAT will open new doors for youth innovation especially seeing that this was under the supervision of the Crown Prince Foundation (CPF) and will increase and promote innovation around satellite technologies.

The JY1-SAT’s launch into space increases and promotes youth innovation around satellite technologies. The opportunities surrounding outer space are endless and this is the perfect opportunity to explore our terrestrial planet. This is also a vital step to unleash and inspire innovation across Jordan as a whole.

A historic moment, space technology offers the Jordanian youth a chance to enter this field, acquire and foster scientific goals, and expand on their scientific visions. This new and recent pursuit will further capitalize and develop Jordan’s human resources to take over any future and upcoming projects.

One of the most popular action cameras around on the market, the GoPro Hero 7 Black, has dramatically improved and is now even better than before. Super versatile, simpler, and faster than its predecessors, prepare yourself to create the most memorable and insanely beautiful and jam-packed videos and shots to share with those around you.

Number one for Hyper smooth videos

The GoPro 7 Black comes boasting 4K quality videos with its most momentous HyperSmooth video stabilization. Apparently, the company was requested to upgrade this by a number of its loyal fans and guess what? They’re now getting what they asked for. The GoPro 7 Black can withstand pressure and rapid and rugged movements and provide you with the smoothest and thrilling videos. It’s time to take this camera out for some hardcore action-packed activities.

Dip into rugged waters anytime and anywhere

The GoPro 7 Black is fully water proof, so you won’t have to buy the additional housing accessory like before. Get ready to dive as deep as 10 meters and if you’re into scuba diving then you can purchase the Super Suit to go as far as 60 meters to take some high quality compelling under water shots.

Built-in Voice Control

It’s always annoying when your hands are tied, and you miss out on the chance on taking some awesome footage. GoPro 7 Black now comes with built-in voice control – simply talk to your camera and voice out your command to take a photo, record a video, take a time-lapse video, shoot in burst mode and much more. Voice control is also available in multiple languages and accents all to make your experience seamless.

Live-stream your heart out

Get ready to start livestreaming videos straight from your GoPro 7 Black. Simply connect the camera to wi-fi and you’re ready to share any jam-packed experience with your friends and families. Connect to any of your preferred social media platforms and live-stream your heart out.

Powerful time-lapse videos on the move

There’s more room for creativity here with hyper lapse photography and video. Perfect for those who are on the go; simply select the TimeWarp option and the camera is smart enough to process footage according to your speed, providing you with fluid, smooth, and splendid videos.

It’s not photo, it’s Super Photo

This is when photos become easier to take. The GoPro 7 Black will automatically adjust settings like white balance accordingly, so you can have the most spectacular and breathtaking shots ever. It takes care of all the hard creative work so you can enjoy some memorable and vivid images.

The GoPro 7 Black is undoubtedly the greatest camera made to date and this goes to show how far the company will go to give avid adventure junkies what they want. Coming down to it, this camera is worth the money – you won’t miss out in documenting your memories ever again, especially sharing them at the right time with your friends.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an essential part of our lives, more so than ever before thanks to the vast amounts of data readily available today. Along with AI we often read about machine learning and specifically deep learning. Before delving into deep learning, let us briefly go through what AI is and how machine learning works.

Artificial Intelligence is whenever a machine can execute tasks that would normally need human intelligence and input. One way that AI develops is by machine learning, where software learns from experience after many trials and lots of data benchmarks fed into the self-teaching algorithms.

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that mimics human neurons and the networks they form in our brains. Deep learning works by feeding massive amounts of relevant data, which the machine then proceeds to use to repeat the desired task as many times as needed with tweaks to optimize the process, just like a human would learn from trial and error and experience.

Deep learning and neural networks are nothing new, and have been around for decades. However, before the Internet became ubiquitous in almost every part of daily life, the necessary amounts of data were nowhere near enough to create the desired outcomes. With social media and an increasingly connected population and environment, big data is plentiful and deep learning and neural networks can finally realize their potential and develop artificial intelligence capable of performing tasks like humans would do, using a similar decision-making logic, with little to no supervision from human handlers.

Perhaps the best way to understand the impact of neural networks in today’s world and tech is to give real-life examples that illustrate their current abilities and how these will develop in the very near future.

1- Autonomous Cars

Perhaps the most talked about and covered technology using AI deep learning, is self-driving cars. Tesla, Google, and even more traditional automakers are all already integrating at least partial autonomy in their cars. As the Internet of Things (connected cities, traffic lights, etc.) becomes more and more available in cities across the world, self-driving cars will be better equipped and “experienced” to more fully take over for human drivers, especially freight trucks that put a massive toll on drivers who work long hours with very little sleep and rest.

2- Healthcare

A big part of a physician’s work is tapping into his or her bank of knowledge on similar cases to decide the best course of treatment for their patients. Deep learning is a big improvement in the analysis of medical images and data to better diagnose patients in a fraction of the time it might take an overwhelmed medical team and with human error minimized in this process. Another place where AI can help in healthcare is doses of medication and anesthetic, which are among the top reasons patients die, or their situation deteriorates in healthcare facilities.

3- Voice Commands

Our devices seem to be becoming smarter by the week, with services like Apple’s Siri and Google’s Voice Assistant not only being able to understand speech but also beginning to get the context in which words are spoken, even when a sentence includes words from two different languages. This is thanks to neural networks that make speech comprehension similar to how humans understand it, and not just word-for-word translation and comprehension.

4- Image Recognition

If you’re prompted after signing in to identify “traffic lights” or “bicycles” in a photo grid, you’ve experienced first-hand what deep learning has allowed machines to do after endless hours of learning to identify objects, people, and even the weather. Image recognition might seem like a piece of cake, but if we think of a dog, it’s incredibly difficult for a piece of software to recognize that both a Chihuahua and a St Bernard are “dogs”, and that another four-legged mammal in between is not.

5- Image Captioning

This is where image recognition takes a turn to something even more impressive. After identifying objects and persons in a photo, another neural network can analyze what’s actually happening and create an appropriate caption. As early as 2014, algorithms of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) have been showing impressive results and writing stunningly accurate captions.

6- Colorization of Old Footage, Adding Sound to Silent Movies

Peter Jackson’s upcoming documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old” about World War I, with color and sound added to grainy black and white footage from the early part of the 20th Century, will become a lot more common and less time-consuming thanks to deep learning. AI can analyze different sets of data, such as the color of each army’s uniform, and color them automatically accordingly.
The cherry on top is when the AI can recognize what’s in the footage, and link it to sound clips or create sounds that correspond to things like leaves ruffling, guns firing or children giggling that were once silent and without color.

7- Advertising

This is perhaps the deep learning innovation that most users detest: personalized advertising. AI neural networks can tap into a wide array of data about individual users, such as location, income level, education completed, likes and dislikes, etc. and show them the most relevant ads, learning from the impact of each tweaked campaign and perfecting them over time and with more data. This maximizes return on investment, by targeting potential customers in real-time and avoiding users who the brand will probably not convert with a particular ad campaign.

8- Predicting Earthquakes

Apart from the work in healthcare diagnostics and treatments, there are other ways that deep learning can save lives and avert tragedies. Harvard researchers have been able to cut down computer calculations on potential earthquakes by a whopping 50,000%. This speed in prediction will undoubtedly help innumerable lives who will now have enough of a head start to get to a safe place and avoid being trapped or crushed under rubble.

Finally, even though neural networks are not something new, their effectiveness has only now become workable across different industries and technologies. Big data is how machine learning thrives, and deep learning makes it more and more similar to how our own brains think, with less need for human oversight on the decision-making process.

Neural networks are in your smartphones, your cars, your hospitals, your bank, and even institutes trying to predict earthquakes. In the coming months and years, deepa learning will redefine what we think of as AI. It’ll make our Siris and Teslas even smarter, more human-like in their thought process, only much faster and better informed.

With smarter designs, better audio quality, and versatile just as they are innovative, there are numerous headphones on the market that can make it insatiably confusing to pick the right one.

From noise cancelling, fitness, wireless, gaming, and just about anything you can think of, each one comes packed with features fit for what you need it to. Here are the top 8 headphones of 2018.

Top noise-cancelling headphones:

Bose QuietComfort 35 Series II

If you’d like to shut the world around you for a while, then these are the headphones you’re looking for. The latest wireless headphones from Bose are extremely versatile and come with a wonderful personality that has made them quite unmatchable to the rest on the market. What does that mean? The company added a new built-in ‘action’ button that automatically connects you to Google Assistant where you can also send and listen to messages all without having to touch your phone. You can also play around with the Bose app and adjust the noise-cancellation levels and settings – all geared to how you prefer your noise-cancelling to be.

Best for working out:

Jabra Elite Active 65t

When working out at the gym, you need comfortable earbuds with excellent voice quality and a secure fit so that they won’t randomly fall during your workouts. This is where the Jabra Elite Active 65t comes in: sweat-proof and a refined comfortable design with a powerful situational-awareness mode that automatically adjusts the volume of your music enabling you to have a conversation without taking them out of your ear. You can also adjust the volume and forward to the next track all through the earbuds, so you won’t have to touch your phone during your workout.

Best for everyday:

Apple AirPods

Apple AirPods don’t provide much features but what they do provide you with is convenience and you know what, that makes them great. Apple took the fuss out of the wires from their previous EarPods and provided us with wireless Bluetooth earphones with built-in microphones, perfectly fit for those busy days when you can’t physically talk on your phone. By tapping one side of your AirPods twice, you can access Siri and upon removing one, your music automatically pauses; put it back in your ear and it resumes again. This right here is convenience if you’re not looking for anything fancy in the market but is still fancy enough for you every day.

Top Gaming Headphones:

Kingston Hyper X Cloud

The Kingston Hyper X Cloud is one those headphones on the market that really surprise you. Great sound, comfort, and traditional design make them the perfect contender for your gaming sessions. You get a detachable microphone with clear sound and speech to go with it that you can do or do without it as you please during your game. Overall, it is the ultimate gaming headset that works on multiple devices for your gaming battles.

For athletes:

JBL Under Armour

What happens when a loudspeaker manufacturing company and a sportswear company partner up? You get the best earbuds fit for athletes. JBL Under Armour are light weight, comfortable, sweat resistant, flexible for any workout, and perfectly snug and fitting to the ear so that they don’t fall out. Made for hard core athletes that need music to keep them motivated, JBL Under Armour are the earbuds to go for.

Top Studio Headphones:

Sony MDR-7506

For editing and recording music you need a solid, crisp, and clear sound. The Sony MDR-7506 are incredibly powerful for their budget friendly flair. You get what you need and more for what you’re paying for. Selling for $100, these headphones are absolutely fantastic for new working professionals and experts alike.

For Sleeping:

Bose Sleepbuds

Just when you think there’s earphones for every occasion, Bose comes out with its new Sleepbuds, all designed to help you sleep better. The company went so far out to research and design the most beautifully crafted and comfortable earphones for sleeping in – because let’s face it, earphones are rarely ever comfortable to sleep in. They don’t come cheap – with a hefty price tag of US $249.95, these noise-cancelling buds mask out all outside noise, so you won’t be distracted at night. You can also download the Sleepbuds app for some soothing sounds right before you get a night’s sleep.

Top budget-friendly earphones

Skullcandy JIB Wireless earbuds

You’re probably familiar with the popular Skullcandy earphones and if you’re looking around the market for a basic lightweight and great sound quality earphone, Skullcandy just launched its new wireless earbuds and it’s surprising to say the least. For $35, you get impressive rich quality sounds that hit all the right notes you want. You won’t be disappointed.