Marko loves his Nokia's devices. And he talks like a craftsman. But can this object mark Nokia's comeback?

Around a month ago I was given the Nokia Lumia 920 to review. I am expecting a call any moment now from the Nokia PR agency wanting their phone back. And I have to say: I am kind of of dreading that moment. After all, I have been driving a top-of-the-line, ultra modern smartphone from Nokia, a company that know how to build great hardware.

Getting a Lumia to review gave me a bit of a strange feeling. First this is a "Nokia". The last Nokia phone I tested was the "legendary orphan", the N9. That was Nokia's last attempt to make a phone whose operating system, Meego, was developed by Nokia itself (in alliance with Intel). It was a brilliant phone (still is in many ways). But the whole Meego system was abandoned by Nokia in favor of a collaboration with Microsoft. All of Nokia's high-end smartphone now run on Microsoft's Windows Phone (Windows Phone 8 in the Lumia 920's case).

Which bring us to the other reason why I had an initial strange feeling reviewing this phone. I had, for the first time in my life, a Microsoft driven device in my life.

I am one of those people who is still furious at Nokia's decision to abandon Meego. It was hard for me to imagine a giant like Nokia, a company that basically put a mobile phone in everyone's pocket, to use another company's operating system.

Also I am someone who has never owned a Windows PC or Windows Phone. So this is my first long term "Windows" experience.

So the Lumia 920 is the child of two giants, but who have become underdogs in the smartphone market. It is the flagship of that alliance and almost the "last chance" for Windows phone to make a dent in the market.

So, how has life been with the Lumia 920.

Mostly great, I have to say.

The device turns heads. Its size and design presence, and the fact that everyone else is running around with iPhones or Galaxies, makes this device really special.

The industrial design of this phone is pretty amazing. It uses the same design concept invented for the aforementioned N9. It is carved out of a piece of hard plastic and the beautiful black glass screen gently curves out of it with amazing precision.

When I say plastic, don't get any ideas of cheapness. This is not Samsung plastic. This Finnish Nokia plastic! After a month of usage, without a cover, I cannot detect any scratching on the plastic or glass of the Lumia. The color of this device is not "painted" on the surface. The material itself is colored, which means scratches wont reveal an "unpainted" material beneath.

The first thing I noticed was the heft of the phone. It is heavy. A bit over 180 grams.

At first I thought: this is crazy. And it might be actually crazy to make a phone this heavy when the Galaxy S4, Samsung's new flagship device, weights a bit under 140 grams, even though it has a larger screen.

So let me get this weight issue out of the way. A week after using it I kind of got used to it. And some of my friends and colleagues who had it in their hands said they like how it feels. It certainly feels like something "grand" in your hand. But I still wish Nokia made their flagship device lighter. Holding an iPhone 5 in your hands after using a Lumia gives you shock actually.

So how is the Lumia 920 in actual use.

First of all this phone is super fast. The screen, which is extremely sharp, is very touch responsive. Not once in a whole month did I feel any lag or slowness using this phone.

This was also my first experience with Windows Phone. My normal phone is a Google/Samsung Nexus S. I have written before about Android's cluttered look. I am also an iPad user, which is not cluttered, but has too much of Apple's "real life objects" look (you know, leather backgrounds, wood, etc).

Windows Phone has a delightfully radical visual look. The graphic designer in me is still amazed that Microsoft, out of all companies, managed to do such a clean phone interface that has no "decoration" whatsoever.

Phoning, messaging, emailing, editing contacts all are accomplished with ease and logic. Sure there are still some "immature" things about the platform, but Windows 8, with its home screen of live tiles that show you how many message you have and give you updated news headlines or weather information in a neat grid look is really a usable and beautiful smartphone system.

The camera on Lumia 920 is great. You probably know that Nokia always takes care of the "imaging" aspect of their phones. Stable videos and good low light photos without flash are two hallmarks of this device. But I have seen comparisons that show that the camera on the iPhone 5 is, overall, as good as the Lumia's. So, yes, this is a great camera phone, but not revolutionary.

But there is one aspect where Nokia really shines, especially in the Arab region, and that is mapping. One of the "wow moments" using this phone was searching for a particular children entertainment center in Amman, finding it in a few seconds and getting the driving directions to it. Nokia has the best map of Amman. Period. It's not just about street names but also names of restaurants and other destinations. And Nokia maps (now branded as "HERE") download for free on you device and stay there. So you don't need an active internet connection to use these excellent mapping and navigation features. This mapping quality also holds true for European and other cities.

Things start getting more difficult for the Lumia when we look into the availability of apps. Sure, Windows Phone 8 has Angry Birds, Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp and Skype apps. But, for example, it doesn't have Instagram. Neither does it have Viber.

As I carry my iPad around wherever I go, I usually don't need that many apps on on my phone. But when I travel, especially to data-rich countries (in Europe, mostly), my phone comes alive with applications like Foursquare (allowing me to "check-in" to venues) and apps that give me public transport information. Foursquare is not available on Windows Phone, and a quick search for an app called Öffi, which provides up to the second information about all means of public transport in Germany, showed that the app is not available on Windows Phone (in fact it is available only on Android).

So here is my verdict: if you want a distinctive, fast, powerful, very well built smartphone that feels substantial in your hand, with a clean and fast operating system and that provides you with a great web browsing, messaging, email, photography, social media experience topped off with outstanding mapping and navigation services, the Lumia 920 is certainly an option to consider. So are the cheaper Lumias like the 820, 720, 620.

But if you are someone who really uses lots of apps, think twice. The app situation on Windows Phone is getting better. Microsoft and Nokia are pushing developers to produce more apps, and if the initial reports that say the Lumia 920 is selling quite well around the world persist, we can expect more developers coming to Windows Phone. But for now, heavy app addicts need to check the favorite apps' availability before switching to WIndows Phone.

Personally, I need to make a decision about my next phone purchase soon. My Nexus S has become quite old (and increasingly slow). As a self-declared Apple fanboy, people expect me to carry an iPhone, but I've never owned one, because I already have Apple's iPad and I like to experiment with other platforms.

I will miss the Lumia 920 once I give it back, because I have to go back to my messy slow Nexus S. Yet I still don't know what phone I will buy next. But that's just me.

UPDATE

There have been questions about battery life, camera quality and screen quality which I have addressed in the comments below.

But I keep getting asked by people: should we buy it. The question itself indicates that Nokia's marketing the phone's quality is "turning heads" and people are considering it.

Truth to be told, it is not easy to recommend this phone to an iPhone user or Android user who is happy with either platforms. Especially if that user has invested a lot in buying lots of apps over the years.

So the Lumia 920 (and the rest of the range) might be a great phone for first time smartphone buyers, or for people who don't worry about apps in general.

Occasional visits to my dentist in Shmeisani sometimes end with a walk retracing the footsteps of my teenage days in Amman, spent studying for exams or getting introduced to newspapers like The Guardian at Abdulhameed Shoman public library, meeting computer geek friends upstairs in the computer lab in same building, eating Shawerma at a corner restaurant, looking for foreign magazines in a bookshop that used to be housed in the entrance lobby of Matalqa Center, or buying music tapes at EMC (Electro Music Center).

Some years later, it meant ice cream at Frosti's or student outings at Milano, MammaMia or New York New York.

For around a decade that bridged the 1980s and 1990s, the blocks of Shmeisani's commercial center, sandwiched between the banks' headquarters on one side and the stretches of modernist villas on the other side, were the go-to place for middle class teenagers, long before Abdoun, before the malls and before the internet.

Despite its reputation for being Amman's "rich neighborhood" of the 1970's, Shmeisani can, in retrospect, be considered modest, especially when compared to the display of wealth in the new rich neighborhoods that came after it: Adbdoun, Deir Ghbar and so on.. Its commercial center was a tentative window to a globalized future that would later unfold with a big bang in other places in Amman during the second half of the 1990s and the 2000s. It represented a certain kind of modernity and "globalization" that was still in harmony with the urban fabric of Amman. Yes, the first Kentucky Fried Chicken of Jordan opened there in the 1980's, but it sat modestly between small groceries, local restaurants, a public library, wide sidewalks and just "normal" modern human-scale urbanity.

And while Shmeisani was certainly a place that welcomed cars, enabling the emerging habit of car cruising, it was also a place for pedestrians with its generous sidewalks. That's a far cry from today's new urban areas of Amman. The activities of Shmeisani can today be found in malls or in strips of shops along high-speed highways. The malls offer us privatized pedestrian life, where male teenagers can be shut out at will (contrary to the Shmeisani of my teenage years). And the strip malls along long highways don't even bother to have any pedestrian pretensions.

Yet, even as Amman is today rediscovering its old downtown, and its old neighborhoods like Jabal Amman's First Circle and Rainbow Street and Jabal Al Luweibdeh, the blocks of Shmeisani are undergoing a intriguing process of death and, I want say "rebirth" but that would be too optimistic. It's really a drawn out state of decline. It's the stubborn hanging on of fragments of its past mixed with hopelessness, and a new future looming literally on the horizon. Look towards the east and there, on the horizon are the towers of the Abdali District, that controversial moment of Amman's attempted Dubai-ification in 2000's

Every time I walk through Shmeisani I am baffled by its state of limbo.

Can someone explain to me how "Ata Ali", the icon of the 1970's Shmeisani, is managing to survive as a business? And why hasn't capitalism's creative destruction managed to sweep it off the landscape?

Can anyone understand how "New York New York", an 80's experiment by a couple of Jordanian entrepreneurs who gave Amman one of its first creatively designed restaurants (complete with huge Jackson Pollock posters), today is a bizarre joint called "New Yourk Nightclub" (yes Yourk not York!).

Who exactly drinks coffee at "Al Farouki", the once proud coffee house of Shmeisani?

As I walked up and down the streets on an early Saturday afternoon, the whole neighborhood didn't make any sense. Even the mobile phone trade that once flourished in Shmeisani in the mid to late 1990's seems on the brink of death. There where no customers in the mobile shops that still somehow managed to remain open. The owners seemed to console themselves by listening to the Holy Quran radio station. Maybe business is better on weekdays. But the number of shuttered or "for sale" shops told another story.

Loud Iraqi music (I think a live performance!) was blaring from a restaurant on a second floor of a building and I could hear enthusiastic shouts of ladies who apparently were having a very lively noon-time party there.

Milano was still there. Beside it a Babiche patisserie that seemed closed, yet on closer inspection was open. A hummus and falafel restaurant on the same street was full of Egyptian construction workers. And a "supermarket" was doing good business, and still advertising that 80's favorite: slush!

Shmeisani is dying a fascinating death.

Maybe Shmeisani's rebirth is being held back by the ongoing financial crisis, and our state of national depression, affording us a slow motion display of disappearance, to revisit our younger years in Shmeisani before the new chapter of its history is written.

Maybe it was simply chocked-off by traffic problems created during the construction of the Shmeisani super-interchange. No one wanted to even go to Shmeisani and its traffic jams during the past few years.

Even the conversion of the commercial district's main street into a semi pedestrianized "culture street" now seems bizarre. The only good that came from this project was that it became the unofficial headquarters of Amman's skateboarders (and rollerbladers). I wonder if they still congregate there..

Big developments like the Kempinski Hotel and, more recently, the Millenium Hotel, dominate the neighborhood. And later this year, when Abdali and its Boulevard open, Shmeisani will become the next door neighbor of a totally new and totally shocking form of urbanity.

One would think that these developments would have sparked a revival. Or even just some form of monstrous commercial takeover. But no. Walking down the broken sidewalks of Shmeisani to capture glimpses of my memories, I found traces of the 80's stubbornly refusing to leave, swathes of desolation and the typically Ammani habit of a city discarding its old cool places.

The urban structure of the Shmeisani commercial district, which once brought together commerce, culture, entertainment and a window to "the new" still holds so much potential.

A thoughtful city planner would seek to revive it as a genuinely "cool" and "locally-modern" counter-pole to the super-imposed, super-designed Abdali development. A symbiotic relationship could even be created between these two poles.

But I doubt that the Amman of today has time for such ideas.

JVTC (that's Jordan Video Tape Center): The king of the videotape age. Now peddling DVDs. And pay TV.

Technics: I remember this as the brand-name store for high-fidelity audio equipment. Then it became a tape shop. Then a CD shop, a mobile shop. Now closed.

The Jabri restaurant opened here in the late 1980s in a gleaming white marble-clad building. Now covered by alucobond. Seems largely disused now.

Babiche and Milano.

Milano still operates and it is still run by the family who started it. A rare survivor in the neighborhood.

Sandwiches, slush and yoghurt drink and Granada supermarket. The restaurant with the same name next door serves affordable meals to construction workers.

Even the name "Shoman" which used to dominate Jordan's banking sector (as the founding family of the Arab Bank) and the Shmeisani banking district, remains just a street name today.

Al Kayyali bookstore and Caesar's souvenir shop. Time seems to stand still in these shop fronts.

The once proud coffee house.

La Terrasse

Frosti: such a refreshing Jordanian brand in its heyday.

An elite shopping experience

The Jewel of Amman

When Jordanians only knew a handful of restaurant brands, this was the king of the market.

Presentation!

Granite is forever

Pioneering poets and progressive prime ministers

Another survivor

Surviving the 80's. 90's and 00's

The magazine store used to be here

I will use Bing for search.

I will use my Yahoo Mail or Outlook.com for email.

My company email also depends on GMail but I guess we can just revert to hosting our mailboxes with our web host

YouTube will certainly be missed but there will still be Vimeo, DailyMotion and others to keep me entertained.

I will NOT MISS Google+ at all. What was it for exactly?

I will have to look for a Google Analytics replacement. That would be a headache but I guess I will find some basic stuff to use.

I will no longer get checks from Google Adsense on this blog. But the amounts have become so low since I stopped blogging intensively that it will not really affect my income.

My Nexus S will be kind of frozen in time (no more App updates, and certainly no GMail). But that would not be the end of the world.

I would have to find a replacement to sync calendars across Mac and phone and iPad. But iCloud is there. So iPad/Mac problem is already solved.

But if Facebook disappears:

First of all, I would panic as I don’t have a “rolodex” with the names and contacts of all my friends and close acquaintances. Irreplaceable. (or I will have to sift through my Mac’s address book and create a “friends” group and also get the contacts of quite a number of people whose email and phone numbers I don’t have but with who I interact on Facebook).

I would lose tons of personal thoughts and memories accumulated over years. Irreplaceable.

I would lose my main source of local news. I guess Twitter can replace that to a certain extent.

I would lose access to several important groups and pages where I am active, engaged and connected to virtual communities. Irreplaceable.

I would lose touch with the stream of personal news of my friends abroad. Irreplaceable.

I would lose the daily interesting conversations that happen between me and my friends and sometimes strangers around important or unimportant subjects. Irreplaceable.

I would lose a very important messaging platform that is starting to replace my email. Could be replaced.

By and large, Facebook is irreplaceable. The fact that it has enmeshed itself so effectively into my life and a billion other lives, and that is basically a platform powered by humans makes it irreplaceable.

I don’t invest in stocks. But if I were to make a bet on one of the two companies as an investment I would put my money on Facebook.

In that comment the King said: “We are a country of freedom, tolerance, diversity and openness, and everyone has the right to express their thoughts – no matter what they are”

That was in 2008.

Tomorrow, our Parliament will vote on a law that, if passed, will basically make the Black Iris an illegal site.

As far as I know, the Black Iris’s blogger, Naseem Tarawnah, is not a member of the press syndicate. His site, which the government might deem as a “news site” is not registered and licensed by the government.

The new law basically gives the government the right to block Nassem’s site.

We all know that some Jordanian new sites are unprofessional and have cause many people harm. But the answer is not to put a law in place that attempts to kill our freedom of expression and kill our emerging internet content industry.

I can’t recognize this country anymore.

How did we get from the King’s comment in 2008 to here?

My previous post from my trip to the IFA consumer electronics show was all about OLED and 4K and what LG, who invited me to the show, were promising consumers for the years ahead in the field of TV.

But I also wanted to share some of the other stuff I saw and give you my take on some of the technologies on offer.

One thing we’re going to be hearing more and more about is the ability of TV screen to show different images to two people watching it. Now, for some this might sound like super anti-social. Imagine a husband and a wife sitting side by side on a sofa but each of them watching a different movie and hearing the sound on separate headphones. How romantic!

But wait, there is more to that technology, especially when it comes to gaming.

Today, playing two player racing games (and other games, obviously) meaning SPLITTING the screen. But the same technology that is used to display 3D images can be repurposed for gaming. With special gaming glasses, player 1 can see a full screen view of the game that is different from player 2.

Judging by the enthusiasm of some of the geeks at the demo stations of this technology, I think this might actually be a winning proposition.

This brings us to 3D glasses (and “dual viewing” glasses.)
There is a competition going on between active and passive glasses. Active glasses, like this you get with Samsung 3D TVs, actually are battery powered, because they have electronic shutters in the glass that open and close very quickly to show your right eye a different image from what your left eye sees and thus creating the illusion of seeing 3D image with depth.
Passive glasses, on the other hand, don’t need batteries. They use so-called polarized glass, much like the glasses you get in 3D movie theaters. Each of the two lenses of the glasses is polarized in a different direction. The TV screen itself has a patterned filter, essentially using half of the horizontal lines on the screen to show one image and the other half of the lines to show the other image.
LG has clearly decided to go with passive glasses, which are lighter and cheaper. LG is offering those in many design styles and as clip-ons for people who wear glasses.
For a deeper explanation of both active and passive 3D technologies, check out this great CNET article. Both methods have their pros and cons. Many consider the whole 3D thing more of a gimmick. But I think it’s a gimmick that will stay with us for a while.

Trips to the local electronic superstores in Amman will be a frustrating experience for me in the coming few years. Why? Because I seen the future of TV screens at the Berlin’s IFA consumer electronic expo. That future is big, it’s high resolution, it’s 3D and it’s smart.

LG invited me to the IFA consumer electronic show in Belin where it was showing off its latest TV innovations and I gladly obliged. Berlin is one of my favorite cities in the world, and, as I have no inclination to ever fly to Las Vegas for the big Consumer Electronic Show, I decided that a trip to The IFA is worth it.

Needless to say, all the big electronic companies where there (except Apple, which just doesn’t attend these shows). But my IFA experience started at the LG stand.

The race in television technology this year has been around two technologies mainly. The first is OLED screen technology and the 2nd is about bringing an 84″ “4k resolution” to the consumer market.

Every TV manufacturer at the IFA was aiming to dazzle. LG’s wow effect at its both was created by a massive, really massive video wall made out of hundreds of flat screens with really thin bezels. Everyone entering the Massive LG exhibition stand was asked to wear on of the company’s light weight “passive” 3D glasses. Then, the crowd was hit by a massive 3D experience on that incredible video wall.

We were assaulted by 3D renditions of everything from flying books to an exploding city to planets and I have to say the effect was quite amazing. One of my issues with the show is that it seemed to be more concerned with just dazzling you with one 3D scene after the other, with no real narrative or story. Still, it was something!

But while such 3D video walls might be an interesting demo, especially for the use in museums or other venues, I was there to see what kind of TV I can expect to have at home in the coming few years.

OLED: very thin design and very black blacks!

One of the answers from LG to that question is OLED: in the shorter term, the company will start to market its OLED TVs around the world. This will actually start towards the end of the year, but there was no firm release date and pricing for the Middle East.

But before we get into that, what is the big deal with OLED? OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode technology. This is a fundamentally different technology than your typical LCD TV. Both LCD and OLED TVs use millions of little pixels to create your TV image. But this is where the similarities end. An LCD TV has a so-called back-light, an array of light elements that are on all the time. In front of this back light there is a layer made of liquid crystal pixels that can be turned on and off to let light go through or stop it. The problem is that you cannot keep the light out completely. In practical terms this means that even if you are looking at a very dark night scene in a movie, the black sky will not appear totally dark on your LCD TV. LCD TVs have gotten better through the years at displaying darker blacks, but OLED basically blows the socks off LCDs in that area.

That’s because OLED TVs don’t have a massive backlight in the back. Each OLED pixel is like a tiny light bulb that can be turned on and off. So when it’s off it’s basically a deep, dark black.

Here is a good video that explains what OLED is all about

LG was showing off it’s gorgeous OLED TVs, and, as expected it was using demo films with lots of black backgrounds, against which all kinds of vibrant objects where displayed.

The deep back of OLED TV’s is really amazing.

Furthermore, OLED TVs can be manufactured as really thin screens. LG’s 55 OLED TVs are just 4mm thin. That’s half the thickness of the iPhone. It is quite unbelievable.

Have a look at this to get a sense of what I am talking about

That’s all the good news. The bad news is that these OLED TV’s will be expensive.

Judging from what I read around the web, I guess a 55″ OLED TV will be around JD 8000-9000 when released in Jordan.

But if you think that 30″ OLED screens cost twice that just a few years ago and if you remember how fast the price of big screen LCDs has come down in the last few 5 years, then you could predict that OLED TVs could become a mainstream item in the next 3 years or so.

Expect to see demo units of LG’s 55″ OLED TVs in Jordan and the Levant soon. And prepare to be dazzled (and frustrated if you can’t afford them!).

The race for 4K

The other big news for LG at IFA was its 84″ 4K TV. The company has released this as an actual consumer product in its home market Korea a little while ago.

You will hear the term “4K” a lot in the coming years, because that seems where the industry sees the next mile stone. So what the heck is 4K?

Well, imagine 4 full HD 42″ TVs stuck together as one huge screen. That’s basically 4k.

Hollywood movies, when shot digitally, are shot at 4K resolution. 4K TVs will bring that kind of cinema-like experience to the home. From what I’ve seen at the IFA I have a feeling that in 4 to 5 years that kind of experience will become more common, if not mainstream.

When I asked Ken Hong, LG’s Global Communications Director about why LG was bringing a A 84″ 4K to the market when in fact there are no 4K Bluray discs (or much downloadable content) for consumers to buy, he immediately answered that a company like LG will not wait for content to emerge, but instead will push the market forward aggressively.

Of course, you can watch conventional HD content (like a Bluray or a movie downloaded from iTunes) on a 4K TV. LG and others will all tell you that they have built special “upscaling” software into their TVs and/or Bluray players that enhance the appearance of a TV image stretched from 2 million pixels in a full HD frame to the 8 million of a 4K frame, but that’s, of course, just a temporary fix until movie studios come out with 4K content.

The race for higher screen resolutions is on. It’s not just on you TV screen. If you think that the iPad, with its small screen of 10 inches, packs a million more pixels than your 42″ TV FullHD screen you start getting an idea where all of this race is headed.

For now, a 84″ 4K TV from LG will cost you around US$ 20,000 in Korea. At that price, I only expect to see it in houses of the super-rich and maybe in the board rooms of big corporations. But at least we can say the next milestone of home-cinema experience is on the visible horizon.

I will be writing more posts about what I saw at the IFA in the coming few days, but for now I will keep it at that.

Don’t believe the hype from all those electronics companies. Because your brave tech reporters from Jordan have braved severe back aches, expensive trade show food, overcrowded subway trains and hordes of salespeople in suits to uncover the best of this year IFA consumer tech show in Berlin.

Behold.. The drawing robot!

360east has teamed up with TechTech’s Fouad Jeryes to bring you this world exlusive hands-on video of the technology that will change everything..

What does the internet have to do with my belief in Jordan and it’s future and my future in it?

The internet is our public arena.

It has helped Jordanians gain the world’s knowledge.

It is a platform for education. A totally new form of education.

It is where we are having our important political debates as we try to find a way forward for the country.

It is a medium where a new generation of Jordanian have learned the culture of self expression and the exchange of ideas.

It is a source of income and business opportunities for so many entrepreneurs and knowledge workers.

It was a symbol of hope that Jordan can someday be a truly free a democratic country.

But no.. The dark forces of moral lecturing and the dark forces of political authoritarianism just couldn’t handle that.

We have a Minister of Information Technology who wants to police us morally. And a Minister of Information who find no problem in proposing a law that allows the government to block news sites.

These are people stuck in the analogue world.

They are stuck in a mentality that dictates that citizens cannot be fully free.

These forces are taking away the last bright thing about Jordan.

We have a failing political reform process.

We have a government that thinks by putting a fence around the 4th circle is a solution for public protests.

And now they want to take the internet away from us.

Our silence would be criminial.

That’s why I am joining the Jordan Blackout tomorrow Wednesday!

Go to 7oryanet to joint too.

Over the past decade, Jordan has been steadily building a reputation in the region as the Silicon Valley of Arabia. Scores of web and mobile startups are mushrooming in the country. Social media companies are on the rise. A vibrant social conversation is evolving in the country.

But our free internet way of life, which we have enjoyed since the introduction of the commercial internet in the country since 1995, is now under threat. Real threat.

What started as an effort last year by some citizens, who are driven with a moralistic agenda against pornography, has now been turned into a dangerous government directive, initiated by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology . In recent days, Jordanian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have, in fact, received letters from the Telecommunication Regulation Commission (TRC), which oversees the world of telecoms in the Kingdom, directing them to take measures to ban pornographic websites.

Furthermore, there have been unclear statements by the Ministry that there is work underway with an “Australian company” to work on some system which seems to be aimed at giving the government the ability to ban pornographic sites.

All these statement have not been properly explained and are shrouded in an ambiguous language.

This development is extremely alarming, especially that Jordan’s sensible, open Internet policy has really allowed the country not only to shine as a potential “Silicon Valley” in the Middle East, but also stand out in the field of individual freedoms in a region that is known to be full of “Internet Enemies”. To the north, Syria has alway policed the internet in an aggressive manner, and to the south, Saudi Arabia, is notorious for its banning of not only porn sites, but also other political sites and blogs.

At a time when people in the region are coming out on the streets, demanding more freedoms and refusing to be governed by authoritarian regimes, Jordan should have been a model for the possibility of free, peaceful and civilised dialogue. Even in the days before the democratic opening in 1989 and before the internet, Jordan has always had a relatively liberal attitude to information flow.

Opening the door to a policy of banning sites, based on this or that “moral” agenda is a dangerous precedent. There always have been some voices in Jordan to pressure the government to go toward a “Saudi style” internet. These calls have never been effective as the general government policy was to encourage the spread of internet culture and to adhere to international standard for the free flow of information.

But it is only now that the government has acted, maybe driven by fear of grassroots action or to appease certain political powers in the street. Other observers see this as nothing more that a convenient excuse for the government to crack down on internet media in general. Jordan has hundreds of small news websites, some of which are critical of the government. They could be a target of future bans as well.

The anti-porn campaign has been able to gather around 34,000 supporters since it started in 2011. A couple of dozen of their supporters staged a small demonstration in front of the Ministry of ICT some weeks ago. They have been lobbying the government too, meeting with officials and generally hearing favourable comments on their efforts. The campaign’s agenda (supposedly “protecting the youth from porn”, etc, etc) is an easy way to sign up supporters. Jordan is a relatively conservative country, and some people who have not had the chance to think this issue through, can be easily convinced to “Like” such a campaign’s Facebook page or even sign a petition.

However, it is clear that a large segment of Jordanian society is against introducing internet bans and censorship.

A campaign promoting internet freedoms, advocating the concept of “self protection” and representing a clear stance against government filtering of the net was launched in April this year. This counter campaign has already amassed over 10,000 supporters on Facebook. As the discussion has risen to the level of op-eds in the national press in Jordan, the counter campaign is being acknowledged by writers and opinion leaders.

The discussion on Facebook clearly shows that many Jordanians know that government censorship of the net is bad for the state of freedoms in the country. They also know that such bans are ineffective as a way to “protect” kids.

But the government seems intent on reversing the Kingdom’s liberal internet policies. The Ministry of ICT said that an upcoming telecoms law will contain clause for a “clean internet”. It is the slippery slope toward losing our internet freedom. WHo determines what “clean” means? Parents and individuals at home or Big Brother at a government ministry?

A story about love and life in Amman unfolds on an outdoor screen on an unusually hot summer evening. Behind that very screen, the lights from thousands of windows glimmer. It is there, on those hills, where the story plays out.

But the hills of of Amman where not the only backdrop of the story of Monaliza, the sad office girl with an usual name and Hamdi, the cheerful egyptian “coffee boy”, who also fixes computers. As the curtains of this cinematic experience lifted, the emotional and mental backdrop of a city, a country, welled up in my heart and mind as I sat among the small audience that gathered at the Royal Film Commission’s outdoor cinema yesterday to watch the advance screening of “When Monaliza Smiled“.

Ammani films are a rare and precious thing. I tend to have my hand on my heart every time one comes out. It is just too easy to screw them up, given the way we, Ammanis, Jordanian tend to see ourselves and our society. But what writer/director Fadi Haddad has accomplished with his first feature film is nothing short of a stroke of genius.

“Monaliza” is full of little details and vignettes of Ammani life. In that sense, it resembles the work of Jordan’s most successful cartoonist, Imad Hajjaj. And in the same way Hajjaj makes us laugh while confronting us with our very real and very serious issues, Haddad makes us laugh and cry about ourselves and our city as he tells us a boy-meets-girl story in the context of Amman’s crumbling stairs, chaotic government offices, abandoned buildings, guest worker cafes and through intimate wounded conversations behind closed doors.

Going for a “romantic comedy” is, in itself, a brilliant decision, given the undertones of political, economic and social tensions that have been gripping us for the past couple of years. The last thing we need right now is more grimness. For that we just need to read the news websites and their reader comments.

The tears of laughter and sadness were shed yesterday over a reality that has been pushing many of us in this city to the edge, sometimes beyond. Monaliza is about the peaceful equilibrium of Amman that masks our wounded stories, behind our neutral faces. It is a story of everyday coexistence, constantly fragile, always under threat from a bigoted outburst. It is about the divisions in a country that has settled for a semblance of normalcy, but is stubbornly refusing to take the next step toward gentleness.

Monaliza’s Executive producer Nadine Toukan, Amman’s unrelenting good fairy of storytelling, believes films can change the world. We certainly need a film that can change Amman, that can change Jordan.

Maybe the boy from the Nile valley and the rose from one of Amman’s “Jabals” can tell us something about ourselves and maybe remind us to take off that stern mask and allow ourselves a moment of gentleness.

Looks like Prime Books at Baraka Mall is doing a clearance sale. I was lured into the store by a “50% off” sign. I walked out with so many books, a shop assistant had to actually help carry them to the car. Most of these books will end on the shelves of company’s library. The whole experience provoked some thoughts on how I view books. Read more on the SYNTAX CONTEXT blog if you care.

That lock screen looks promising, doesn’t it. That’s how Google’s newest version of Android looks. It is a major release of Android, and one of its major features was to supposedly make its design “lovable”. As Android’s design chief Matias Duarte himself said: people sort of respected Android, but no one loved it. Its latest release, called Ice Cream Sandwich (ICE) was supposed to change that.

There is a an interesting discussion going on in the mobile world these days. It is a discussion of design and style. Apple’s iOS changed the industry with the highly attractive and friendly iPhone user interface. Now that other operating systems are catching up with iOS, the word “design” is becoming central to the discussion.

Apple’s competitors are trying to describe iOS’s design as gimmicky and “fake”. You now: Apple uses leather, paper and wood textures here and there. It incorporates highly stylized icons. You even see a torn note paper on the iPad’s note taking app.

Then you have Microsoft and its relatively new Windows Phone. Even if you are a Microsoft hater you have to admit that they did an amazing job with Windows Phone 7. What they are adopting is what they call an “authentic digital” design style. No realistic looking icons. No leather. No torn paper. Just pure, modern typography and lots of empty space. It really appeals to the modern designer in me.

But Android’s design people claim they don’t want to be neither this nor that. They make fun of Apple’s cute icons and they claim that WIndow’s approach is too starkly modern.

Matias Durate went as far as saying “I give you the web” when he revealed Android’s ICE to the editor of a major tech blog. What he meant by that is: I give you the diversity of the web. It’s all about the diversity of content.

Interesting. Ha?

Google even designed a special modern font for ICE: called Roboto.

I was eagerly awaiting ICE’s update on my Nexus S precisely because I wanted to really experience that new, improved Android design philosophy.

But I have to say I was pretty disappointed.

The first signs of trouble appeared when I watched a promotional video about ICE. That video clearly shows that someone at Google/Android is totally in love with Tron! (droid on light bikes!). And lo and behold, ICE’s interface is full of Tron-ish references, complete with that electric blue/wireframe/glassy appearance.

To me, attacking iOS as gimmicky because of all the wood and leather, then adopting Sci-Fi gimmicks in your own phone interface seems a bit ridiculous.

To be fair, I feel that ICE is somewhat better designed. There is also a novelly factor in all this Tron-like stuff and it is obvious that some sort of design revolution has gone on in AndroindLand. My goodness, they even changed the key color from green to blue. Icons where changed. A lot was thrown out and new stuff was brought in.

But a revolution doesn’t always mean an improvement.

I think the icon situation in ICE is a total design mess. Android really looks a lot like Windows (for desktop computers). Too colorful. Too many shapes. Too many styles. Including a number of icons that adopt an illustrative 3D style (like the new Camera icon, see below).

One of the most annoying looking icons is the new “People” icon, with its simplistic round face. It makes an appearance all over ICE’s interface.

Even the shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen (which by default contains the phone, people, messaging and browser icons, as well as the apps icon in the middle) is a mess. I can count three design approaches there if I want to be kind.

This reveals a deeper issue at Google. Google has always been the no-design company. It’s interface where designed by techies/engineers. I even heard that they did not employ designers unless they knew how to write code!

Now, as the company operates in a web and a mobile world where design and branding plays an ever increasing role, Google is trying to catch up.

Their recent Google iPad app looks very promising, design-wise. The Google icons used in that app show off the new “matt” and subtly stylized icon design approach first used on the Chrome icon. There is a nice consistency across different icons.

But at the same time, I can now count 3 different icon design for Gmail alone across different Google properties.

Same goes for their News icon. And so on.

I’ve been living with ICE for a week now. I don’t think Android has become much easier to use. Yes, there is more attention to visual design, but I am not a big fan of the Tron look. And I just feel the whole thing is still inconsistent visually and even functionally. I feel that every time I go back to my iPad. And I felt it when I was carrying a Nokia N9 which runs Nokia’s (now-pretty-much-doomed) MeeGo. Now here is an OS that could tech both Apple and Google some design and user interface lessons.

I leave you with some screen shots and comments..

ICE’s dial pad. Looks quite neat. But the novelty wears off fast.

Android doesn’t have a specific icon shape. So you end up have all kind of shapes, styles and colors. To me, it looks messy.

See the glassy 3D Tron effect when you try to “pull” at the last home screen. You get a tilting animation, which looks kind of cool, but ultimately is very useless.

In the setting screen we suddenly get this 2D look and angular buttons

Just look at those Music and Camera icons. Then compare to the slightly stylized People icon with the simplistic face and then the other face on the almost flat Messaging icon.

Doesn’t this icon mix look like something straight out of the 1990′s?

This is the Gmail icon in Android..

And the Gmail ice on the Google iPad app.

Why can’t Android look like this? The icons on the Google iPad app.

Even more icons on Google’s web offering.

And yet another design language on Google+

And now look at the elegance of MeeGo Harmattan!

And for reference.. Windows Phone 7′s “digital modernity”..

And Apple’s iOS.. You can call it to cute. But it works damn well and people seem to love it.

If you read this far you are a true design geek. Congratulations!

I was a little reluctant to use the instructions on Android Central because they mentioned that the update was intended for i9020T T-Mobile Nexus S. But after reading on a Austrian site that people have used that same update for their European devices I decided to go ahead and do it.

It’s really super easy. The change in the look and feel of the Nexus S user interface is quite dramatic, right from the unlock screen. And by the way, the Nexus S now runs Android 4.03, while the newer Google flagship phone the Galaxy Nexus runs 4.03, so we Nexus S owners are one step ahead.

A very important aspect of this update is the addition of Arab language support to Android, officially. This was one of the glaring omission of Android Gingerbread. Yes I know that custom ROMs with Arabic support exist, but I really thought that it was crazy for Google not to support Arabic input so far. Androids Arabization, however, does not go as far as the Nokia N9 goes, which has full Arabic menus/user interface.

One little disappointment so far is that the Nexus S does not seem to have the face unlock feature that was shown as a cool feature of the Galaxy Nexus. Oh well..

Excited to explore this biggest upgrade of the Android OS so far.

Ikbis has been experimenting with “community produced videos”. By pulling in different talents from across the Ikbis community of creative and technical people it was able to produce these two videos for the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and the Arab Thought Forum in record time.

Have a look..

The Nokia N9 has a strange story. It’s an exciting story. It’s a sad story. It’s an amazing story that is still unfolding.

But if you walk today into any of the shops of Amman’s “mobile phone district” near the 7th Circle, you might not even feel that there is a whole saga around the Nokia N9.

To the casual observer, the N9 was, for the past few months, simply Nokia’s newest flagship phone. It is, till the date of this writing, being heavily promoted with huge posters and stickers in almost every big or small mobile shop in town. Try to browse the web in Jordan and N9 banners will pop up here and there.

Normal, you think. This is Nokia and it is trying to sell its latest flagship..

But nothing could be farther from the truth.

Ask any serious phone geek about the N9 and the word “orphan” will immediately be used. The N9 has NOTHING to do withe the N8. And if Nokia sticks to its declared strategy, this N9 will have no brothers, sisters, sons or daughters.

Here is what happened in a nutshell. Around a couple of years ago Nokia realized it is in deep trouble when it comes to smart phones. Apple, then Google’s Android, have eaten their lunch. Their Symbian operating system was a total mess and they seemed to be hitting a wall.

But, Nokia had something up its sleeve. Namely an operating system called Maemo which they used on some niche-market “internet tablets” but also on one phone: The legendary N900. Anyone with any sense could see that if Nokia wanted to save itself it should place all its bets on Maemo, a modern, fast phone system that had the potential to rival Apple’s and Google’s offerings.

But Nokia, being a big corporate giant and all, decided they need another step before unleashing Maemo. They partnered up with Intel to merge Maemo with another similar system called Moblin to create something called MeeGo: a linux based, open source 21st century mobile operating system.

This whole thing was taking too long. Nokia got nervous (for a good reason. They were being hammered by Apple and Google). The CEO and other big managers got shown the door and an ex-Microsoft executive, Stephen Elop became Nokia’s boss. He decided the mobile war was getting too big and that Nokia can’t fight it alone. So he threw the entire weight of Nokia behind Microsoft’s Windows Phone system. In the mobile world this was like an earthquake. It is like a superpower country declaring that it is giving up its sovereignty. Nokia, which at one point the absolute mobile superpower, was getting out go the phone operating system business.

But for some reason, maybe a miracle, or a mistake or something, the MeeGo people were allowed to finish their work. What they were working on was something amazing. Something very beautiful, something pure. That something was the N9.

During the past three weeks I lived with a black N9 review unit. I read countless articles about it. I even looked at some of the blog posts written by the some of the phone’s engineers. What an experience it must have been! At one point working so hard on what they thought was Nokia’s future, then at one point being told they are not Nokia’s future anymore, but still somehow they were allowed to bring out this one phone that showed their work to the world.

I really think a Hollywood movie should be made about that team and that project!

Do you understand now why it is strange that Amman’s mobile shops are heavily promoting this phone?

It is a phone, we are told by the experts and by Nokia itself, without a future.

A phone without a future means a phone without new applications. Mobile app developers will not waste their time writing software for a platform that has been abandoned.

I actually find it outrageous that Nokia isn’t even willing to treat MeeGo as a serious hobby, like Apple treats the AppleTV, or like Samsung treats its own Bada operating system. I mean, OK Nokia, go to war with Microsoft as your fighting buddy. But why not put a little bet on your own innovation. My goodness!

Anyway.. so the question is: should you buy this phone. After all, who wants a “dead” product?

But wait a minute. There is another way of looking at the N9.

This “dead” product has an amazing industrial design. Extremely modern, made out of a slab of hard plastic with an amazing screen embedded in it. With the N9, Nokia can teach Samsung a lesson or two in original industrial design. It doesn’t look like the iPhone. It doesn’t imitate other Android phones. The N9 has its own powerful personality.

This “orphan” product has a really, really great looking and highly functional operating system. It doesn’t have any buttons on the front. It uses one natural gesture, a swipe, to do things like moving between home screens, closing applications or chucking them out of view. Nokia can teach Android a few lessons in user interface design here.

The “lone” N9 has a great, very fast, 8 megapixel camera. Nokia are well known for their great camera phones. This is no exception.

This “abandoned” product has great Twitter, Facebook and Skype integrations. It even comes with a Foursquare app. Hell it even has a copy of Angry Brids on it!

This “dead end” product has the best map and navigation solution for the Jordanian (and maybe even global) market. The Nokia Amman map is great and voice navigation works as it does on other Nokias.

So..

Who should buy this product?

If you are a mobile gamer and you always want the latest games, don’t buy this phone. Go buy an iPhone.

If you are someone addicted to certain mobile apps don’t buy this phone. Get an iPhone or an Android phone.

But if you want a very distinctive smartphone to do web browsing, emailing, messaging and some social media stuff, you can actually consider it, especially if you are the kind of person who wants to be different. This is simply a modern smartphone that is well connected to the web, email and social media. Read some review before you buy it then decide for yourself if this could be a phone for you.

Then there is another kind of buyer for the phone. The total tech rebel. This phone is more open than Android. It’s basically running Linux. I actually got in touch with my inner geek last week: I rooted the N9 (for you who are not geeky enough to understand what that means, well, that’s your problem!) and installed a Debian file manager on it.

MeeGo as a project (which by the way co-run by a Jordanian Intel manager called Imad Sousou) lives on in the form of a new project called Tizen. Who knows where all of this will end up, but the N9 would be a great machine for experimentation. Read this inspiring article about the N9 to get a taste of the geeky thinking of some of its fans.

One of the comments I read about the N9 said that one should not worry about the N9′s “deadness”. Whatever phone you have today, will probably be replaced in a couple of years anyway.

At around JD 430, this is not a cheap phone. I personally would consider getting one after the price drops, maybe a a second phone. Or maybe just a souvenir cult object!

The opening of a major mall in Jordan in this post-financial-crisis era is certainly an event to watch. We live in very different times compared to, say, 2005, when we were awash in Gulf money and grand real estate dreams. Can developers and retailers pull off another mall in a market were people are under financial pressure and the political climate is uncertain.
Furthermore, I am always interested to see if major projects in Jordan can be delivered at a high level of quality and perfection or if we still are stuck in mediocrity.
Now, I honestly do not want to come across as a whining armchair critic here. As someone involved in designing and delivering projects of all sorts, I know how hard it is, anywhere, to deliver a perfect building, service or product. I also know how hard it is to deliver anything perfect particularly here in Jordan. One’s best intentions get compromised and compromised and compromised by a variety of factors, small budgets, sub-par craftsmanship and a work ethic that, frankly, sucks.
Developing a big mall like this one is not easy, especially given the climate of financial crunch.
Another thing: I am not a fan of the proliferation of malls in Jordan. I think we should stop building them and come up with other, more organic, more authentic, more sustainable and more outdoor urban experiences. But hey, who am I to tell people what to like. Jordanians still seem to love shopping in malls and so it seems we will keep building them.
To its credit, Taj Mall will introduce some novel concepts like outdoor spaces that will differentiate it from other closed-box malls. I think this is a great idea and I am pretty sure they will work nicely with the mild Amman weather. Once all the shops are open, Taj Mall will set a new milestone in Amman’s shopping scene.
But what kind of first impression does it make today?

First encounter

So, yesterday, 9 days after its soft opening, I went to Taj Mall with my wife.
A visit to a new, big mall always is an experience of anticipation. And I had quite a bit of expectations, even though I knew that the mall was not fully open yet.
But the “we-just-can’t-get-it-right” feeling started creeping in as soon as we approached the building. Against the advice of my wife who wanted us to “just park in one of the near streets and walk to the mall” I insisted we use the underground parking.
It is a well known fact by now that the huge Taj Mall already sits uncomfortably close to the Blue Fig bridge in Abdoun and that the street corner adjacent to it is narrow. “No Parking” signs have been installed on the street, but, you guessed it, the entire length of the street corner was occupied by parked cars.
I took the entrance road preparing to descend into the underground parking. Now remember, this was a Saturday morning, so there was no huge onslaught of shoppers, and things were moving along reasonably fast.
Of course, this being Jordan’s most important new mall, it has “security measures” to match. Get this: someone comes with the “mirror on wheels thing” to look under the car (for car bombs). Is this really necessary? It actually makes me sick because it is just a show. We could have hidden a bomb elsewhere in the car and I could have had guns in my pockets (more about that in a bit). This security check just slows down the process of entering and I don’t want to be there on a weekend!
I am no security expert: but what kind of message about the country do these mall security checks send? A constant reminder that we are unsafe? I don’t know.
Anyway, we made our way past the security check after they made sure we have no car bomb, and down into the parking we went. On the big ramp down the first signs of littering were visible. Yes.. on the ramp! That combination of “grandeur” and “imperfection” proved to be a constant theme of the visit.
Every few minutes during our visit we saw or experienced something odd.
The underground parking signs, which unlike the directional signs outside the mall, looked rather well designed, where covered by weird pieces of paper with additional information (see photo above). A week into operation and the first thing you use in the mall already feels cluttered.
We proceeded to the escalators. I went through the metal detector with pockets full of keys and mobile phones. I beeped like hell but the security man (and woman) just waved me through (seriously, what kind of employment “solution” is that and what kind of fake security does this provide?).
We saw construction workers with a big metal construction cart using the super slick panoramic glass elevators. That elevator was totally very. All its visible structures were covered in dust and its glass-mounted control panels smeared with silicon gel.
The elevators not only allow you to go to the still unfinished food court area (!) but also to the unfinished and potentially dangerous cinema floor (!!)
I won’t comment much on the level of architectural finishing. It is not horrible, but certainly not Dubai standards. And yes we had to see some unfinished wiring coming out here and there.
Our main destination was the H&M clothing store. It’s cool that we have that in Amman now. The prices are reasonable and the selection is good. But even H&M seems to have trouble keeping standards in Jordan. The store was crammed with too much merchandise, placed on racks that were randomly placed on the shop floor. There was something wrong with the sound system and certainly something wrong with the ventilation.
Oh yes, it so happened to be Spinneys opening day in Jordan. Spinneys is bringing its showy retailing practices to Jordan. I’ve seen their stores in the Gulf and Beirut. They are designed like temples dedicated to shampoo, milk and vegetables (and a million other consumer items on the shelves). It’s quite impressive. But even here, problems with craftsmanship and even floor cleanliness where evident.

A strange exit

The grand finale was when we made our way out of the mall. The exit signage consisted of pieces of A4 paper stuck on the walls with the word “exit” or the letter “E” scrawled on them with a marker. We found ourselves going up a tightly winding ramp up, then left, then right, then left again and out of what I SWEAR is something like a hole in the wall, opening onto a back street behind the mall. That experience was closer to leaving a military camp and certainly not an upscale retail temple.
Ironically, that back street puts you right into that area of Abdoun that is not posh. An enclave of humble concrete houses that stand in stark contrast with the imposing luxury of the Abdoun that has grown around them. Quite a surreal Ammani experience.
I always ask myself after such experiences: aren’t we living beyond our means in Jordan. I mean, this is the affluent, high end of our economy. And even there it is obvious that we have quite a long way to go to perfect the craft and management skills that are necessary to deliver Dubai-style shopping experiences.

Once it is finished, Taj Mall will be quite something (not withstanding the traffic jams it will create due to its cramped location). But today it is clearly a place that was opened to the public too soon, probably under the pressure of the big retailers who needed to open.
I am sure that the operators of the mall l will fix a lot of the problems over time. But why not deal with some of the avoidable stuff right from the start, especially when it comes to safety?
I declared above that I am not a mall fan. But you know what? I secretly wanted Taj Mall to be an example of perfection. Some proof that we in Amman can do something that reaches the best global standards.
But this conspiracy of rushed work, lack of tight management, unnecessary “security” practices and lack of maintenance was a sad reminder that we still end up occupying that strange middle ground between good and bad, that we are able to “do OK” but not achieve “amazing”.

In many shopping situations, one has to deal with one of the following traits (or a combination of them): unfriendliness, ignorance, rip-off, lack of empowerment, arrogance and sheer stupidity.

Take, for example, the latest shopping incident my wife had to endure.

Around a week ago she bought an item for one of our kids from a well know sports goods retailer in Amman. The item was priced at JD 18 (its price in the US is just US$ 10, or JD 7). Already she was feeling ripped off (by A. Government customs/import duties that are levied to help pay the salaries of a huge, ineffective government bureaucracy and the “retirement” salaries of a legion of ex-ministers, and/or B. The greed and shortsightedness of shop owners).

Then, yesterday, she found the same item discounted to JD 11 at a shop in a mall that gets its supplies from the above-mentioned store. She expressed her dissatisfaction to the guy at the shop, who advised her to call the main store. Fair enough.

She calls. The line is out of service! She calls again. And again. Then after a few hours, the store’s phone is working and someone answers. Of course, it is a totally non-empowered employee. He claims that the discount was ordered by the US manufacturer. After some back and forth, the dude says he is “just an employee” following orders and that the “manager” is now here and that she can talk to him.

Anyone with just basic customer service understanding (or basic human friendliness) should have turned this complaint into an opportunity to get my wife back into the store by offering a rebate or a discount voucher. But not in Jordan!

The manager repeats the “mother company” story and then goes on that this is just my wife’s “bad luck”! He tell her that he himself bought a piece of clothing once only to find it discounted some days later. Unfriendliness rears its head.

Then he tells my wife he has to end the call as there are other customers in the store. Arrogance. He doesn’t wait for her response and closes the line. Sheer stupidity.

* * *

Just a few days ago I went to a store to look at some electrical appliance. I saw merchandize on the shelves that not only was 3 years old, but priced almost at 3 times its price in Europe! I saw misplaced labels and prices. And I had to endure the salesman’s ignorance of product details and specifications.

Shopping, in this manner, is turned from fun to torture.

What this says about us is just sad.

There is a hit and run mentality. Merchants do not seem to be interested in long term relationships. They are only interested in charging the highest price possible.

There is false pride. Merchants are willing to sit on aging appliances for years and never think of just discounting them and getting fresh things onto their shelves.

There is an amazing lack of interest in the details of what is being sold, even by the younger generation of sales people.

The prevailing attitude is that of: this is what we have to offer. You don’t like it, farewell.

It boils down to a lack of community spirit. The buyer is already burdened by the inflated prices of imported goods. The seller maybe is unhappy about his/her low salary. The constant feeling of insecurity drives shop owners to try to extract the maximum amount of money from customers NOW, instead of thinking of relationships that last a lifetime. Despite the fact that Jordan has been stable for decades, the feeling is that of a temporary society. Strangers engaged in one time transactions.

The young salesman who knows nothing about that TV he’s selling you, probably doesn’t even want to be a TV sales man. He tries to get away with the minimum amount of effort. Why bother learning about the products he’s selling when most customers are ignorant anyway.

It’s like all of us want to be somewhere else, doing something else. Our transactions are burdensome. not joyous. More often than not, we are a bunch of opportunists instead of being proud and fulfilled members in a community.

A few months ago I was appointed as a jury member of an amazing global design competition. The aim: to create a universally accepted logo for human rights.

Peace has its symbol. Religions have their symbols. Global non profits and corporations also have their all-present symbols. But universal human rights, which have become part of the human struggle for freedom and dignity, still don’t have a universally agreed upon logo.

A staggering number of logo ideas have been submitted: 15,369 in fact. The was followed by an open vote which narrowed down the submissions to 100. Out of those the jury chose the 10 you see above.

Now we’re into the final stage: you can vote for your favorite out of the 10 finalists.

Goto the the competitions site now and submit your vote: humanrightlogo.net.

A while ago I was interviewed by Design Made in Germany magazine on this subject. I was asked: why do human rights need a logo? I said that..

..maybe because we need a shorthand expression for this evolving concept of universal human values. In the not too distant past, and even today, national pride or other narrow allegiances are deemed to be more important that human rights. As universal human rights gain more acceptance around the globe, a simple symbol can cement the meaning of these rights and emphasize their universality. Brands and their symbols are also an emerging language. In a more complex world with many choices, many media and information overload, simple symbols are like now words for direct, efficient communication.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

The Mac Mini (running Snow Leopard, updated) has a Bootcamp partition on which we have Windows XP installed. This seems to be the source of my troubles. Needless to say I read countless forums and blog post trying to resolve the issue and tried to follow multiple solutions until something worked.

The problem is the so-called “No Recovery HD” issue. Lion tries to create a small recovery partition on your hard disk which can be used to recover your mac if it crashes.

For some reason, Bootcamp partitions confuse the Lion installer. The Installation process starts, your are prompted to restart, then the installation commences, but then stops at minute 29 with an error saying the Recovery HD cannot be created.

I don’t know exactly what worked in the end but here is a list of stuff I did, all of which didn’t work (I will tell you what worked in the end, but all the other stuff I did might have contributed to the solution. Who knows?)

- Fixing permissions of my hard disk using Disk Utility - Freeing up hard disk space - Making the Mac partition slightly smaller then larger using Disk Utility - Installing Lion on an external USB drive and then booting into it (via restart while holding option key) then trying to install Lion on Main HD from there (tried this with copies of the Lion installer on both my main HD and the external drive). - Creating a recovery HD using Apple’s new Lion Recovery Assistant or whatever the hell its called, on a USB thumb drive, which stayed plugged in afterwards.. - And so on..

What worked in the end, after doing all the above and restarting a million times was to simply copy the Lion installer (make sure you make a copy afer you download it from the App store) on the external drive and installing Lion from there. I have no idea if this would have worked right from the start, but it’s worth trying.

Another thing I did just prior to the installation working was booting into Windows and back to MacOS. I did that as I was hoping to update Bootcamp. BTW I couldn’t upgrade to Bootcamp 3.1 from the Apple software update on Windows, as I got an ‘invalid signature error’.

I still have not tried to boot into XP after Lion worked but it’s too late and I need to get some sleep.

I know this blog post isn’t systematic enough. But maybe I might have saved myself hours of futile work and waiting had I just copied the installer to external drive and just installed it on my main HD from there. That’s why I am sharing this as maybe this would help someone out there.

Good luck!