Spotify is reportedly launching in Egypt and the MENA region this November. Spotify premium access will cost EGP49.99 per month, $2.7 approximately.
Spotify Premium will be available with the offer of a one-month free trial after users provide their credit card information. Afterward, the service is offered at a premium price of EGP49.99 a month.
Spotify is now available in MENA. I subscribed to the service for only 50 LE for one month.
Spotify Premium costs $9.99 in the US. However, Spotify made this huge cut in its pricing in Egypt and the MENA region to benchmark with Apple Music and the local music streaming app Anghami.
Apple Music and Anghami are offered at three different prices, ranging from $2.7 to $4.16 a month, depending on the number of devices able to stream simultaneously, whether individual or family. In addition, a discounted price of $1.4 for students.
While Anghami has more payment methods, including mobile credit, after securing many partnerships with mobile operators in the region, physical cards, PayPal, CashU, OneCard, traditional credit cards, iTunes, and google play.
The company launched its Arabic Twitter account last month, indicating that it’s coming to the MENA region soon.
Spotify App remains unavailable to download on AppStore and Google Play in the Middle East and North Africa. While its website has become available in Arabic, it also detects and recognizes if a user is visiting from one of the MENA countries by displaying their country flag in the footer area. This tells us that Spotify is launching very soon.
Operating across 65 markets, Spotify remains unavailable in many key territories, including Russia, the Middle East, and most of Africa.
Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2018 fourth quarter ended September 29, 2018. Apple services revenue reached an all-time high, as it grew from $7.9 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 to $10 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018, an increase of 27 percent.
The Company posted quarterly revenue of $62.9 billion, an increase of 20 percent from the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Source: Apple
“We’re thrilled to report another record-breaking quarter that caps a tremendous fiscal 2018, the year in which we shipped our 2 billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
“Over the past two months, we’ve delivered huge advancements for our customers through new versions of iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac as well as our four operating systems, and we enter the holiday season with our strongest lineup of products and services ever.”
“We concluded a record year with our best September quarter ever, growing double digits in every geographic segment. We set September quarter revenue records for iPhone and Wearables and all-time quarterly records for Services and Mac,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO.
“We generated $19.5 billion in operating cash flow and returned over $23 billion to shareholders in dividends and share repurchases in the September quarter, bringing total capital returned in fiscal 2018 to almost $90 billion.”
Apple has released an update to its iOS 12.1 today, introducing Group FaceTime to iPhone and iPad, adding over 70 new emoji, and including support for Dual SIM with eSIM for iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR.
Group FaceTime
Now you can make group video and audio calls with up to 32 participants simultaneously
Encrypted end-to-end so your conversations remain private.
Start Group FaceTime right from a group Messages conversation, or join an active call.
Dual SIM support
iOS 12.1 includes Dual SIM with eSIM which allows two numbers in one device for iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR.
Over 70 new emoji
Including new characters with red hair, gray hair and curly hair, new emoji for bald people, more emotive smiley faces and additional emoji representing animals, sports and more.
After a robust upgrade to version 2.0, the Vivaldi browser continues transforming users’ everyday interactions on the Web – boosting productivity and efficiency and adding fun to browsing. Today, Vivaldi 2.1 releases slick new additions to one of its flagship features, Quick Commands.
Vivaldi – An essential toolbox for every web surfer
“If you’d like to go beyond the vanilla browsing experience offered by the big-name browser makers, if you’d like to customize your browser in myriad ways, and if you’d like to have more control over your browsing experience, Vivaldi is well worth trying.” – Ars Technica
Vivaldi is a browser that anyone can use to navigate the Web with more control. Vivaldi’s real appeal is that it comes with a ton of productivity and organization tools already built-in.
As more and more people spend a significant amount of time online, options that help optimize the way they browse are always welcome.
“Vivaldi does not have a blanket approach to productivity. To be effective, a productivity tool needs to fit the specific needs of the users. And that’s where Vivaldi’s flexibility comes in”, says Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner. “After a phenomenal response to our massive update version 2.0, we are looking ahead to make Vivaldi even more efficient for you”.
Vivaldi’s Quick Commands
With Quick Commands, users don’t need to memorize a thousand different shortcut combinations. It lets them type in the action they want to gain access to any part of the browser, in addition to searching the Web.
They are easily opened using F2/⌘ E by default, closed by the ESC key, and accessible under Tools in the main menu.
Quick Commands help users work at lightning speed and save time in various ways, such as:
View a list of open tabs: Finding and viewing a particular tab can become hard when many tabs are open. Viewing a list of open tabs and getting the total count through Quick Commands is easy. Navigation is convenient through this list with arrow keys or Tabs to find what users are looking for.
Credit: Vivaldi Browser
Find a list of open tabs with relevant keywords: Scrolling through the list can get cumbersome with a zillion tabs open. Quick Commands are helpful as users can search their open tabs in the browser with matching keywords.
Search browsing History: Quick commands help track down past entries. It is a handy option when users cannot recall an entry that they had seen last.
Find a command: Quick Commands lets users access the Main Menu’s functionality. They can both search for and execute a command from the same interface. A clickable result (along with a display of its corresponding shortcut) will appear when searching for a command. With a simple click, the command can be executed.
Moreover, users can use the full Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet from Quick Commands and remind themselves of the shortcut to open it.
Fine-tune Quick commands in Settings: Easily customizable, users can choose categories in searches made through Quick Commands. For example, users can show results from History or Page depending on their preferences instead of using the interface to search Bookmarks.
Open Bookmarks quicker:
For frequently used websites, Quick Commands can speed up the process of opening Bookmarks helping users greatly. By enabling “Open on Nickname match” in Settings, users can instantly use Quick Commands with their assigned nickname without using the Enter key.
For example, “rd” can be assigned as the nickname for a bookmark for Reddit submissions (https://www.reddit.com). Entering “rd” into Quick Commands will allow the page to open immediately (either in a new or current tab, depending on your Settings).
Quick Commands and Notes come together.
Users can now create Notes through Quick Commands. Notes are available only in Vivaldi, another unique built-in feature that lets users jot down ideas in a small window embedded in the expanded Panel while browsing online.
To create a new Note via Quick Commands:
Open Quick Commands using F2/⌘ E (or the Tools menu).
Type the text of your Note directly in the Quick Commands interface; for example, in the video below, a new Note is added with the text “Add Notes quickly.”
Select “Create Note…” from the list of options shown.
The Notes panel will open automatically, displaying the newly created Note.
When users type in Quick Commands, it will also search Notes content and display the relevant ones in a list of results – another great way to find results quickly.
These new refreshing inclusions in day-to-day browsing work very well, especially for keyboard lovers, journalists, researchers, and all those who love to use Notes extensively.
Support for Quick Commands Parameter
Vivaldi offers users various ways to increase the UI Zoom if they find the UI elements too small. In this update, Vivaldi adds support for the Quick Commands parameter that can be used for both Page and UI Zoom.
Users can now change theZoom levels to any value according to their preference through Quick Commands.
The UI Zoom can be assigned with dedicated keyboard shortcuts. To assign shortcuts for UI Zoom, go to “Settings → Keyboard → View → UI Zoom In/Out.”
Similarly, Page Zoom can be assigned a new value and reset to default with shortcuts in the Settings.
For example, to zoom a page to 125% hit QC (F2/⌘E) and type “Page Zoom 125”. By typing “Page Zoom 100” or “Page Zoom Reset,” the default setting can be brought back.
“Users need their sense of freedom, and most of us want to do things ‘our way.’ This holds regarding navigation and how you interact with your browser. Quick commands allow you to grow into the browser without hunting for an extension”, says Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner.
There’s more in Vivaldi 2.1
This update brings video standards to the forefront of supporting Open media and Video1 (AVI).
AV1 is an open-source royalty-free video codec backed by industry giants and streaming services. As we advance, videos will work out of the box for every Vivaldi user, and imperfect proprietary media issues will get resolved.
Snappy, the company revolutionizing corporate gifting, announced that it had secured $9.7 million in funding to date after raising $8.2 million yesterday in Series A funding led by 83North with participation from Hearst Ventures.
Snappy was founded in 2015 by Israeli entrepreneurs Dvir Cohen and Hani Goldstein, with headquarters in New York City. The company allows employees to choose their favorite gift from a curated collection of personalized options, including local experiences like cooking and yoga classes, global getaways, and trending products like Amazon’s Echo Dot and drones.
Snappy’s concept is that companies are looking for creative ways to reward employees, but gift cards, paperweights, and other generic corporate gifts don’t make employees feel valued.
With record-low unemployment rates and high-growth companies putting company culture front and center, the competition to retain talented employees has created the need to invest in a program that recognizes their efforts like never before.
Gifts are sent via email or text in a fun, innovative way and are sourced from leading brands and retailers, with prices ranging from $15 to more than $1,000.
“We help managers reward and motivate their team members without settling for an impersonal and boring gift card,” Snappy CEO and Co-Founder Hani Goldstein said.
“By combining the traditional thoughtfulness of gifting with the choice and simplicity of a gift card, Snappy creates a simple, personalized solution, ensuring each team member feels appreciated and valued for their hard work while creating excitement and improving company culture,” he added.
Snappy will use the capital to meet current clients’ incredible international and domestic demand, accelerate the product roadmap and expand its global footprint.
83North, a global venture capital firm, General Partner David Buttress said, “The value that Snappy creates within organizations excites us,”
“We followed Snappy from its early days and were amazed by the consistent and positive feedback from employees once they got the gift from their employers. That kind of change in attitude toward your employer is only possible thanks to the use of this technology, which the Snappy team built over the last few years.” Buttress added.
Ken Bronfin Hearst Ventures, senior managing director and head of international investments, said, “It’s never been more important to retain exceptional talent, and, as employee demand for recognition grows, the market for the solution that Snappy provides is unprecedented,” he added “not only has Snappy identified an underserved market, but the accelerated growth of the company proves that when done correctly, employee appreciation and gifting is vital for companies.”.
The Labor Department reported the number of American workers who voluntarily left jobs increased to 3.3 million in May 2018. Compared to monetary incentives, gifts help employees feel more appreciated.
According to the Journal of Economic Psychology, it takes twice as much money to increase employee happiness at the same rate as a tangible gift.
Global studies revealed that 79 percent of people quit their jobs, citing ‘lack of appreciation as the primary reason; one of the best ways to foster loyalty among employees is to recognize their hard work and dedication.
Snappy’s approach to corporate gifting provides a seamless process for managers, who see the immediate impact through a thank you note feature built right into the platform.
Accept for payments and technology has announced that it has extended its services to the Jordanian market, in partnership with MEPS, a leading local acquirer in Jordan.
Accept has been operating in Jordan since May 2018. Since then, the company has been working on strengthening its offering in the Jordanian market by establishing various partnerships.
Established in 2017, as a subsidary company of Egypt’s FinTech startup PayMob, one of A15’s portfolio companies. Accept offers merchants payment solutions enabling them to accept various payment methods in order to help them grow their businesses.
“We believe that by serving the gap of convenient payment methods in the region, we are helping businesses reach their maximum growth potential. Many businesses fail to secure a sale due to the lack of convenience when it comes to the payment methods they support.
In the digital era, it is very important to not only digitize payments, but make sure that a business fulfills all market needs in order to steadily and securely grow.” said Shady El Tohfa, CCO of Accept for Payments and Technology.
With the rising tech ecosystem in Jordan and growing e-commerce landscape, Accept sees the market as a promising and sustainable opportunity that coincides with its main mission: to help businesses grow through technology and digitizing payments.
The company has also decided to further expand to more countries in the MENA region including GCC, aiming to tap into several markets by the end of 2018.
The expansion aims to contribute to the country’s GDP and to offer the region with sustainable financial and payments solutions that enable business growth by connecting several payment networks, technologies and providers together and providing merchants with one single offering.
Nokia 7.1 – the first smartphone to come with a PureDisplay screen is now available in Jordan. Said HMD Global – the company with the Nokia phone license.
The Nokia 7.1 comes in Gloss Midnight Blue and Gloss Steel and is available in Jordan in two variants – 3GB/32GB and 4GB/64GB. The global average retail price will be 319€ for the 3GB/32GB and 349€ for the 4GB/64GB.
Taking the viewing experience to another level with higher contrast and great clarity; revealing the detail in both light and dark areas as well as stunning vibrant colors. The Nokia 7.1 PureDisplay delivers higher contrast (1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio).
The phone’s camera is designed by ZEISS Optics, featuring rapid autofocus powered by two-phase detection technology to capture HDR photography.
Source: HMD Global
Patrick Harb, General Manager, Eastern Mediterranean, at HMD Global, commented:
“At HMD Global, we are always keen to create an exceptional personal user experience. The Nokia 7.1 will provide our consumers with a seamless video streaming and imaging experience thanks to our PureDisplay screen technology that is powered by a dual rear camera with ZEISS Optics. We are excited to bring this device to our fans in Jordan and remain committed to ensuring that a unique, premium experience is accessible to many.”
Enhanced Artificial intelligence (AI)
The Nokia 7.1 AI-enhanced front-facing camera introduces facial recognition to deploy animated 3D personas/masks and filters.
Pure, secure, and up-to-date, reinforced with Android One
The Nokia 7.1 joins the Android One family which is endorsed by Google. Offering enhanced storage and battery life right and come pre-loaded with the very latest in AI-powered innovations developed by Google.
The Nokia 7.1 will receive three years of monthly security patches and two years of OS updates.
In addition, Google Play protects scans all the apps on the store and on your phone to keep it safe from malware.
The device will always be up-to-date with the latest Google innovations including, Google Assistant and Google Photos with free unlimited high-quality photo storage.
The Nokia 7.1 is built ready for the Android 9 software update, which includes AI-powered features that make the device smarter, faster, and adaptable.
The Adaptive Battery feature limits battery usage from un-used apps, and App Actions predicts what a user is about to do so they can get to their next action quickly. These features further streamline the device’s functionality and experience.
New audio accessories
Complementing the premium viewing experience, Nokia 7.1 presents two new audio accessories: Nokia True Wireless Earbuds and the Nokia Pro Wireless Earphones.
Weighing a slight 5 grams per earbud, the Nokia True Wireless Earbuds provide clear audio playback and voice calls with up to 3.5 hours playtime and give fans the freedom to charge on the move with a pocketable charging case holding three charges (giving you a total of up to 16 hours of quality audio entertainment including the charging case power).
Source: Nokia
The Nokia Pro Wireless Earphones are perfect for our active on-the-move fans. Connected to a neckband that nestles comfortably around your neck, this accessory is ideal for commuting with up to 10 hours of playback time from a single charge. A built-in vibration function alerts users of incoming calls, and with the smart magnetic earbuds, users can simply separate them from each other to answer calls or play music without having to take the smartphone out of their pocket.
Source: Nokia
Key Specs
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 Memory: 4GB Storage: 64GB MicroSD Storage: Yes, up to 400GB Screen size: 5.84 inches Resolution: 2280 x 1080 Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, headphone jack Battery: 3,060mAh Size: 149.7 x 71.18 x 7.99 mm Weight: 160 grams (5.6 ounces) Operating system: Android 8.1 Oreo
Cairo-based buss booking startup Buseet has successfully raised an undisclosed amount of investment in a seed funding round by Cairo Angels, 500 Startups, and other international angel investors from Singapore and Gulf, according to a statement from Cairo Angels.
Buseet was founded in 2016 by Amr El Sawy, Khaled Mahmoud and Mohamed Emad to provide an easy to use, comfortable, and cost-effective technology solution for commuters.
This fund will be used to hire more talents to strengthen the product team.
The company plans to use the investment to increase its product offering and to grow to other markets in the MENA region.
“We’re excited about this round that will help us expand our team and strengthen our tech to offer a high-quality service for everyday commuters. Moving forward our focus is to shift more car owners to save time and effort wasted in driving to ride Buseet, hence improve their daily commute experience while reducing the number of cars and traffic,” said Amr El Sawy, Co-Founder and CEO of Buseet.
If you can’t see people’s avatars or photos, so don’t panic! Instagram is down.
Instagram app has stopped working for thousands of people since yesterday. As people are unable to see others’ avatars and photos.
Users are getting empty profiles and infinite loading while refreshing feed on mobile app. However, they still can use the app to post new photos, videos and stories.
The web version of the app has no issues, however, users are unable to post photos or videos using the web version.
The issue is affecting users in Europe, US, parties of Asia and Australia, according to the outage-tracking website Down Detector.
Instagram outage map – Down Detector
The problem comes in a difficult time for Instagram, as the company’s two founders left last week in a way that indicates disagreements with Facebook.
It also comes after the Facebook hack was revealed a week ago, which exposed over 50 million users’ data to hackers because of a vulnerability in Facebook’s code.
A security breach on Facebook compromised nearly 50 million users, gave hackers the ability to take over users’ accounts, said the social media company in a blog post yesterday.
Facebook engineers discovered the security breach on Tuesday, 25 September.
Attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted the “View As” feature*. This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens** which they could then use to take over people’s accounts.
*View As is a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else.
**Access tokens are the equivalent of digital keys that keep people logged in to Facebook, so they don’t need to re-enter their password every time they use the app.
Chief Executive Officer and Founder Mark Zuckerberg said, “we are taking precautionary measures for those who might have been affected.”
Strengthening Security Measures
Measures are underway to address the issue and prevent it from recurring, said Mark Zuckerberg, adding that the company has already taken some steps to address this issue:
1. Patched the security vulnerability to prevent this attacker or any other from stealing additional access tokens.
2. Invalidated the access tokens for the 50 million affected people, causing them to be logged out. These people will have to log back in to reaccess their accounts.
3. Notified 50 million users in a message on top of their News Feed about what happened when they log back in.
2. Temporarily disabled the “View As” feature with the security vulnerability until investigations are complete.
3. Logged out to everyone who used the “View As” feature since the vulnerability was introduced. This will require another 40 million people or more to log back into their accounts.
Facebook said that they don’t have any evidence that the other 40 million who used the “View As” feature have been compromised.
