I have no idea why Google needed all these years to get this on android but they finally releasing Chrome for Android. Google claims better smoother performance and now you can view your open tabs from your desktop (using Chrome for desktop of course) and also sync you bookmarks.

It is still in beta and doesn’t support all countries or devices but you still get it via installing the apk file.

Download it [here].

Source

If you didn’t know, the Spiderman movie series is being rebooted after the abomination that is called “Spiderman 3”. Andrew Garfield is the new Peter Parker/Spiderman and the Super Villain in this movie is Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard.

Movie should be out this summer.

I was trying to watch yesterdays English Premier League game between Chelsea and Manchester United online via Abu Dhabi’s online offering. Its much more convenient and I wanted to get some things done during the game rather than  just focus what I thought would be a boring clash (boy was I wrong). Plus, I paid almost 20KD for it I might as well use it.

The problem was the service I paid for just didn’t want to work. I stared at the black box for a solid 3-5 minutes before giving up and switching the TV on. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, it mostly happens during important/big games. It looks like that their servers cant handle the bandwidth required.

I kept the browser pointed at the games stream webpage and it started 8 minutes into the game but that wasn’t the end of it. The game didn’t run smoothly at all and was really stuttery throughout. It played for 15-20 seconds and then hangs for another 20-30 seconds. That wasn’t a fun experience.

The free streaming video that I got from a Russian website on the other hand played without a hitch. Which makes things even more frustrating.

This is going to be the final year I subscribe to the online portion of the EPL via Abu Dhabi. I had the same problem last year but was optimistic and thought they must have fixed what was broken.

in Xiangtan, China a man hand his 2 kids light a firecracker and tries to throw it down the manhole but the firecracker ignites the methane gas in the sewers and blows the manhole cover that travels to 3 stories high and partially crushes a balcony in the way down. The explosion was so intense the it took the fathers clothes off. It looks like they all lived.

For all of you who missed out on the 80’s, this music video gives a general idea on how it like back then. The Karate Rap. Damn, the 80s were weird.

Chris Kamara must be the funniest guy in football. The Soccer Saturday presenter usually on the field and has some funny moments.

Other Funny moments.

Kamara also provided commentary and basic motion capture for Chris Kamara’s Street Soccer released on the PlayStation back in 2000. It was one stupid game.

A back-heel kick from outside the penalty box is a bit excessive.

Don’t even think of joking on twitter as 2 British tourists got detained and deported due to a couple of tweets they made.

Leigh Van Bryan tweeted saying that he will “go destroy America”. Destroy, as Van Bryan tried to explain to US officials at LAX, was British slang for partying. But they didn’t seem to buy it.

They were then quizzed for hours, handcuffed and locked up overnight.

According to a report in the Sun the pair were held by armed guards and quizzed for five hours before being handcuffed, put in a van with illegal immigrants and locked up for 12 hours in separate holding cells before being put on a flight back home.

Source

This might be the most intense video on YouTube. Its was like watching executions without anyone dying. They still might die later from mercury poisoning though.

Last week I mentioned that I got the Asus Transformer Prime Android tablet but the keyboard was still stuck in my Aramex’s mailbox back in the States. Yesterday, it arrived and I hooked the keyboard to the tablet which was a easy process and gained some extra functionality.

The device looks great as I mentioned in my tablet post, it is wonderfully built and designed, the keyboard dock fits perfectly into the overall design. Asus did an excellent job.

I still think that the software is a bit lagging. Android ICS 4.0 was just released but also to take into consideration that the physical keyboard form factor isn’t standard. So we’ll se if the developers make use of it.

I still have to test it out thoroughly before passing final judgment, that might take a couple of weeks.

A few days ago I got an Aramex package containing some iPhone cases the I ordered a couple of months ago via Kickstarter. The i+Case reminds me a lot of the Element Case’s Vapor case for the iPhone that I previously owned. But the i-Case is more compact and I can use 3rd party chargers, A problem I hated when I was using the Vapor.

I really loved the high quality of the compact screwdriver and the fact it has button extensions. But as it is with this type of cases, you can’t take it off unless you got the miniature screwdriver with you.

I also dislike the mute button extension, its not as firm and secure in its position as the rest of the case, I’m not sure if its only a problem with that particular case or if it is a design flaw.

There is also a signal  loss issue according to some users. They confirmed that but its not that serious and I haven’t  noticed it that much. Especially since the iPhone is not my main phone.

All in all, I really love the case so far and haven’t got any major issues with it during the 18 hours that I have had it installed.

Last Thursday, my wife was lucky enough to be invited for the opening of Bayt Abdullah Children’s Hospice. The place is amazing and is a wonderful accomplishment. This was the graduation project of Mrs. Alia Al-Ghunaim, Hats-off to her.

Under the umbrella of Kuwait Association for the Care of Children in Hospital, we started a home care team to provide palliative care for children with life-threatening conditions in 2006, and have since supported over 80 terminally ill children, and their families.

The playful, child-friendly principles of the architecture of Bayt Abdullah were followed through in the design of the interiors by NBBJ of Columbia, Ohio who are leaders in the field of children’s hospital design.

With guidance from our International Scientific Advisory Board, by learning from and collaborating with established Centres of Excellence such as Great Ormond Street Hospital and Children’s Hospitals of Minnesota…

Bayt Abdullah Children’s Hospice will provide pediatric palliative care for children in Kuwait with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions.

A gymnasium and Hydrotherapy pool provide facilities for fun, games, rehabilitation and physiotherapy. Bayt Abdullah Theatre is professionally designed to accommodate different types of performances and entertainment and will also provide therapeutic activities such as Art, Music and Drama therapy.

… we have looked after made wishes to visit Disney Land but few could make the journey. Alia Al Ghunaim, the architect of Bayt Abdullah, decided to give all our children the opportunity to experience the thrills and fun of the fairground by incorporating a Ferris Wheel, Magic Carpet, Rooftop Walkway and Observation Tower in her design.

Eleven chalets give our families the opportunity to have short holidays away from home at a time when it may be difficult for them to travel.

Inpatient facilities are located on the first floor, above the library and cafeteria, overlooking the roofs of the chalets, and facing the sea. There are 6 mother and children suites and 4 mother and baby suites.

This is one of the most wonderful projects not just have been completed, but have been thought out in recent time. Its groundbreaking for Kuwait and the region.

It took 6 years for this project to become a reality while other major projects in the country are still in limbo.

The bedroom

Dr. Mohammed Al-Jassar, one of the many doctors at Bayt Abdullah.

Miami were there for the opening.

I heard a lot about Cafe Bazza but I haven’t been able to give it a try until last weekend.

The reason I went there was I had a couple of friends visiting from the UAE and we thought that it would be a great idea to take them to a restaurant that served Kuwaiti food. I was reluctant at first because I haven’t tried it before, but it didn’t disappoint.

All the people I know only tried their breakfast and no one tried there rice dishes. But the food that we ordered was pretty good, complete with spicy condiments. We got to try “Shrimp Rice – مربين” and white rice with “Okra Stew – مرق بامية” a both were very good.

We were too stuffed to try any of the deserts they had.

The atmosphere is very good and loved the decoration and the posters that they had up of old Kuwaiti proverbs.

Yesterday, I barely managed to pass by 360 mall to catch a glimpse of the Gulf Run 7 car show. The event gets bigger and bigger every year. The place was packed like people needed another reason to go to 360 mall. Some lucky winner managed to go home on a Vespa as a result of being the raffle winner.

They also managed to raise more than 7000KD for Hayat cancer foundation which is great.

The display inside the mall was also great with a 8 really cool cars being displayed like the Mercedes SLS, Audi R8 and a beautiful Backdraft AC Cobra.

I managed to get one of those elusive Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime more than a week ago but was too lazy/busy to even get it out of the box and play around with it.

As soon as I read that ICS upgrade was made available for the Transformer Prime (it ships with Honeycomb 3.2) I decided its time to test it out.

Asus did a great job with the Transformer Prime continuing what they did with the Asus Transformer. But this time around they made a much sleeker device. Weighing just 586 grams lighter compared to the iPad 2′s 601 grams (not that you’ll notice it) and is a hair thinner, The transformer prime is a great piece of hardware.

What I love about it is the microSD slot that is available on the tablet which makes transferring file and expanding the memory effortless. Also there are 2 cameras, a micro-HDMI port and a 3.5mm audio connection jack And thats just the tablet.

Plugging the tablet to the keyboard dock gives you access to a full size USB 2.0 port and also a full size SD card port aside from the obvious physical keyboard and mouse. And it also extends the battery life to almost 18 hours.

I’m in a love/hate relationship with the 16:9 aspect ratio screen. Its great for watching video and surfing the net, but feels a little awkward when held in portrait. The 1280 x 800 screen resolution is great and I really like it, especially when using widgets as every pixel helps.

The upgrade process was painless as it is with all android devices. Update is available, click install, wait for installation to complete and thats it. The whole thing took about 10 minutes including the download.

When the keyboard dock arrives, I’ll test the device as my main travel companion and see what it can and cant do for the on the go user and what will I miss in my Macbook Pro. Currently the Android tablets are lacking in the software department as it doesn’t have apps specially developed for the tablet, but I hope that will change as I think that developers stayed away from the Android tablet platform because Google themselves said that Honeycomb was a quick fix for the tablet problem.

I’m a few days late posting about this but I have been really busy the past couple of days. Last Thursday evening all the cars that are participating in the 7th annual gulf run had to go freshen up at Al-Flah Car Wash as they do every year. I arrived a little late and most of the cars were already done.

The cars usually go there to get washed, polished and get the stickers on. DJ had the music pumpin’ and it was a another great chance to mingle with the drivers, fellow bloggers and organizers.

I also managed to pass by the Car Show at 360 Mall and will be posting about it later.

More pics after the break.

And as with every gulf run event, there was food.

After mentioning time and time again that I won’t be getting the new MMO game Star Wars: The Old Republic, I finally gave in and purchased the game a couple of days ago. Ever since I got the game working (I had to download the whole 12 GB’s twice due to and installation error) I couldn’t stop playing the game. This is my first MMO since the City of Heroes 7 years ago. The game is huge and I couldn’t comprehend the vastness and the effort that went into the voice acting until I started playing the game. This game is going to screw up my schedule in the coming months.

Last Saturday, Me and my kids went to Sharq Market “سوق شرق” to get some stuff from Sultan Center. But while we were there, my wife suggested that we take a quick boat ride that I didn’t even know existed. It turns out that it is possible pay KD1 and get 15 minutes at sea (anyone under 2 years rides for free). The kids were super excited and had a blast.

The boat is docked right behind Debenhams and the play area in Sharq.

After having the problem with my SSD in my PC build a few weeks ago and having to order a new one. I kept experimenting with my “faulty” SSD and see if I missed something. After playing around with it for a few days  discovered that it ran fine as a data drive (opposed to a boot disk). So I thought I might as well try sticking it in my Macbook Pro.

I’ve opened up every computer I’ve owned but still I had to research the matter before diving into it. After a quick read it was confirmed that it was pretty straight forward and that I had all the tools necessary for the job.

After unscrewing the bottom of the Macbook Pro (I have the unibody 2010 edition) and popping it open, you can see the HDD in the bottom right secured by a latch. removing the latch and the SATA connector completely releases the HDD. And from there its just a matter of replacing the HDD and putting everything back together.

There are a number of benefits to having a SSD such as:

• Speed: boot time is 18 seconds from pressing the power button to read use and having 3 programs running (Pixelmator, Safari and MarsEdit).
• Silent: Because SSD has no moving pars it is virtually silent and also there is no vibrations.
• Slightly better battery life.

The 2 major and only disadvantages that SSD have in my opening are price and capacity. but in time we “should” get there.

This is the first day of using the MBP after the upgrade so I’ll be watching if it acts up.

After almost an18 months hiatus the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, is back on the TV screen. Two days ago BBC aired the first episode of their second season. The previous season was just 3 episodes, 90 minutes each. This season looks like its going to be the same.

The Devil Inside

January 6th

Contraband

January 13th

The Divide

January 13th

Coriolanus

January 20th

The Grey

January 27th

It looks like you don’t need a dedicated Technosat reciever do get MBC’s HD channels anymore. The Abu Dhabi TV Network just added the MBC package to their list of channels. Not sure how much you have to pay to get though. But that beats the stupid exclusivity that Technosat had that made no sense.

You can check you subscription and add the package by following this [link]

Even though Steam has a crazy sale going on at the moment, I’ve been persuaded by my brother to give LIMBO a try. I bought it a few months back when it was first available on Steam and didn’t manage to get any playing time on the game.

LIMBO is considered to be a puzzle/platform/adventure game but the puzzle part is where the game shines. It has one of the smartest puzzles I’ve played in a video game. You really enjoy solving them. Also the games art and style is wonderful and different than most other games and takes you back to the 2D era.

LIMBO is available on steam for $5 for Mac and PC. It is also available on the Mac App Sore for $10.

LIMBO

In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first ‘SUPER’ computer with a hard disk drive (HDD). The HDD weighed over a ton and stored a ‘whopping’ 5 MB of data.

Via The Next Web

Born in Stockholm, Sweden and acquired US citizenship in 1992. Bob Arno is considered by many as the world pickpocket king. watch the video above and see how he repeatedly keeps snatching items from victims that know what he will be doing and still cant do anything about it.

He also has a series of videos that help law enforcement agents identify potential pickpockets and help stop them.

There is a Ripley’s believe it or not segment and also a National Geographic episode about him that is 45mins long.

We have seen a lot of flash mobs before. All were about music and dancing, but not this one. This might be the most epic flash mob to date. Why? because its about a video game thats about Star Wars. EA is promoting their new MMO game Star Wars: The Old Republic by having a bunch of Sith lords battling Jedi Knights in the middle of Times Square. Damn you EA for not having this game on Steam.

So I just got my new SSD that is supposed to replace the defective one I had already installed in my latest PC setup. I really hope that the problem was with the previous drive and nothing else. I should have the new drive installed later today.

What Messi and Xavi are doing in real life is more amazing than some of the things that Captain Tsubasa did on his TV show.

At first I thought it was a joke, but then I saw the video.

The first trailer of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” was just released or leaked I’m not quite sure. The movie takes place in same “Lord of the Rings” universe. It should be released in December 2012.