Read My alternative view on the Egyptian Inar Tablet. in Ehab Heikal’s blog

Politics aside the amount of free publicity the first Egyptian Inar tablet got due to the political controversy around it was phenomenal. If I was the marketing manager in that company I would do this all over again. The Inar tablet got free publicity on every Egyptian media channel more than once because of the political bickering over 100% Egyptian label. There are no 100% one country products in the world any more, even if you get Egyptian cotton and make the t-shirt in Egypt, you use dyes from abroad, machines from abroad and more. Still if we just remember that selling this Egyptian inar tablet will put more money in the Egyptian economy than any “Chinese” tablet then we should be helping it. For every Egyptian product even if it is only 20% made in Egypt or 20% value added in Egypt gives more to our economy than an imported product.

All else aside I want to tell Egyptians one thing, if you do not have pride in products made in Egypt, then tell me why do you have pride in Egypt? If you do not buy Egyptian, then why are you Egyptian?

Read My alternative view on the Egyptian Tablet. in Ehab Heikal’s blog

Politics aside the amount of free publicity the first Egyptian tablet got due to the political controversy around it was phenomenal. If I was the marketing manager in that company I would do this all over again. The tablet got free publicity on every Egyptian media channel more than once because of the political bickering over 100% Egyptian label. There are no 100% one country products in the world any more, even if you get Egyptian cotton and make the t-shirt in Egypt, you use dyes from abroad, machines from abroad and more. Still if we just remember that selling this tablet will put more money in the Egyptian economy than any “Chinese” tablet then we should be helping it. For every Egyptian product even if it is only 20% made in Egypt or 20% value added in Egypt gives more to our economy than an imported product.

All else aside I want to tell Egyptians one thing, if you do not have pride in products made in Egypt, then tell me why do you have pride in Egypt? If you do not buy Egyptian, then why are you Egyptian?

Read Samsung Galaxy S4 Now in Egypt for 5777LE and Note 8 for 4,600LE. in Ehab Heikal’s blog

With a high price tag the Samsung Galaxy S4 is not available at most mobile shops and Egyptian online stores like nefsak for 5777LE with local distributor warranty. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is also available but in lesser quantities and some shops do not stock it still for 4,600LE. While the Note 8 works as a phone its size makes it nearly impossible to carry in your pocket, although from experience many women choose to use use large devices since they use their purse anyway. Although the Note 8 is new it uses the same processor that the older note 2 uses rather than the newer processor that that S4 uses. The new S4 in Egypt uses Samsung’s new 8 core processor that has 4 ultra high speed cores that make it as fast or faster than most if not all netbooks, and 4 processors that are slower to be used to conserve battery when speed is not needed. Also of note is that the S4′s touch screen is so sensitive that you can actually use it without touching it, for those situations where your hands are oily from the pizza slice you are eating.

Read Samsung Ativ Smart PC Pro 700T user review in Ehab Heikal’s blog

CompuME as well as others in Egypt now have the Samsung Ativ 700T in stock. This devices is one of the first Windows 8 devices that will show you the full potential of Windows 8. The device can be used as a tablet and can be docked to the keyboard to tun into a lightweight ultra book. The model they had was a higher spec model than you usually find in Europe which was surprising. For nearly 12,000LE you get a Core i5( dual core, 1.7 Gigahertz ), a super-fast 256GB SSD, and built in 3G modem with a mini sim slot, the rest of the usual specs for this device is a full HD 11.6 inch touch screen.

I am no fan of Windows 8 really but on such a device using Windows 8 is much more natural feeling than on a normal notebook. Still Windows 8 is very far from being good and the expected updated within a few months from Microsoft might make it better. Even though I hate Windows in general and Windows 8 in particular, this review is not really about windows 8 it is about the Samsung device.

Ativ PC Pro 700T next to the First Gen Ipad and the keyboard of the Ativ

Tablet.

As a tablet the Ativ Smart PC Pro 700T is nice. It is heavier about 200 grams heavier than the ipad, but then again it is bigger and has a 11.6 inch screen as opposed to 9.7 inches on the ipad this you can see in the photo above where the original ipad is right next to the Samsung Ativ 700T and its keyboard. The tablet is easy to carry and hold for short periods of time, but this is not the kind of device that you will want to hold in your hand for a half hour session of reading or browsing. Still unlike the Ipad you get a full sized USB port on the tablet itself. Unlike the ipad its main orientation is horizontal not vertical and that can be seen by the positioning of the home button. Although you can hold it in any orientation and the screen will revolve when windows 8 is in tablet mode, Microsoft is clearly telling you to hold windows 8 tablets horizontally.

Screen.

The Full HD screen is gorgeous. The resolution is amazing in such a small screen, and the colors are second to none really. In bright sunlight as with most tablets the ipad included you will find it hard to read the screen, but in the shade things are much better. The touch sensitivity is great, but when you need to work in windows mode you will find yourself reaching for the stylus. The s-pen stylus uses the same technology as that in the samsung note series of tablets and phones, as a matter of fact my Samsung Galaxy note 2 stylus works on the Ativ 700t and visa versa. The size of the styli is different, so you will not be able to put the phone stylus in the storage slot of the Ativ, but still this makes life easier if you are vested in the Samsung eco system like me.

Sound

The Ativ Pro 700 has amazingly good sound for a computer of its size,  I would say it sounds better than most computers and tablets. The sound is loud enough for a couple of people watching youtube or for listening to music at close range.

Keyboard.

First of all the best thing about this device is the keyboard and the worst thing about it is the keyboard. The keyboard is amazing for such a small device I can easily touch type and the keys have plenty of feedback that touch typists love. The bad thing about the keyboard dock has nothing to do with the keyboard itself but with the weight of the dock. The Tablet alone weighs about 880 grams but with the keyboard dock it goes up to 1.6kg! The Keyboard dock is a whopping 725 grams. This weight total takes it out of the high end Ultrabook weight range which should be up to 1.3kg. The reason for this is that the weight is needed to stabilize the tablet when it is put in the keyboard dock. See the whole computer is in the tablet, which is not the case with all notebooks and ultrabooks where the screen is the lightest part so when it is extended at an angle greater than 90 degrees the weight of the main notebook still maintains the balance and does not allow the notebook to fall back. This is common with these types of tablets that dock to become notebooks. But still it makes me crazy since really the computer is very light and I could get a bluetooth keyboard that is under 200grams easily and then I would need to move with only 1kg not 1.6kg.

3G

I tested the Ativ with etisalat and it worked quite well. The only problem is that you need to cut the sim to be a mini sim. I did that at a mobile shop that had the cutter and kept the cut part, this allows me to put the cut part back and turn it back into a full sim if I need to use the same sim with another device or usb modem.

Speed

Now for the wow. This little device boots in 7.5 seconds straight. The SSD and windows 8 work magic, and 7 seconds is nothing short of amazing. When it wakes up from sleep it only takes one to two seconds to become fully functional. In day to day usage I felt that it was responsive enough for my usage, in browsing it is fast. The graphical controller can allow you to play many games on low settings but this is not a professional gaming machine. I would not dream of putting World of Warcraft on it, but it is possible and I believe it will play at lowest settings well. To me the 7 second booting is the real deal with this device. And I am sure for anyone who’s main usage is email and office this machine will fit the bill.

Battery life

In my normal day to day usage and usage at the beach as a light browsing device, I could get between 3 to 4 hours of real world usage maybe a tad bit more. In stand by a full charge will last for a few days, I measured it as 1.5 hours of stand by for every 1% battery lost which would make 6.5 days of standby to loose a full 100% charge. Of note is the fact that the charger for this device is amazingly small for a computer but so are the chargers of most ultrabooks.

Problems

Honeymoon aside, as with any computer, device or human the Ativ 700 is not perfect. First of all the keyboard dock connection to the tablet is not 100% secure, ever so often even when the tablet is in place it disconnects and reconnects alone, you know this since it gives a beeping sound on connect and disconnect. This is not a major issue for me and happens very infrequently but others have reported more frequent disconnects. The touchpad also seems to hand frequently in a strange way, all I need to do to make it work again is remove my fingers totally from it and put them back again, to me this seems like a software issue and will most probably be corrected by an update.

My biggest issue with the device is the weight of the keyboard. A lighter weight but larger keyboard that has support behind the docking mechanism would have given better stability at a lower weight or alternatively a lightweight keyboard and a stand at the back of the tablet itself would have also solved the overturning issue and given us a stand to use in tablet only mode when you want to watch videos and place the tablet on a table by itself like the Microsoft Surface tablet does.

Who is this for?

Well if all you need is a tablet then a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 would fit your needs better and cost much less, if simplicity at the expense of features then ipad would also work better as a tablet. Both such devices have a longer battery life and are much lighter, and both have many keyboard accessories if that is what is holding you back. But if what you really need is a full computer on the go, that can also be a tablet, then this is the device to buy. I see this as a device for people that either need the full Microsoft office on the go or any other PC only software and are willing to sacrifice one of the core values of a tablet which is weight to get it. Let us not forget also that there is no comparison between even the highest end ipad’s 64Gig storage and the 256 Gig storage of this Samsung Ativ model. The Ativ is much more than a tablet, it is heavier but it is also faster, more flexible, has more storage and runs the real deal windows ( or Linux if you choose to install it ).

Read Keep your Agency Busy, or Not in Ehab Heikal’s blog

This is a post by a dear friend of mine Ahmed El Baz, his experience as a manager of international brands is first rate, his dedication and focus reminds me of the best boxers in the ring.

• A conversation that took place at an undisclosed time & place…
  Him: You gotta keep pushing your agency, keep them on the tip of their toes always
  Me: Why?!
  Him: We can’t afford to leave them until they get soft, or get busy with another client… They must always feel the urgency of our briefs… They gotta be focused on our business… We gotta win their hearts & minds
  Me: Ummmm… Ok, how about you lead this and show me how it’s done?
  Him: No, that’s your job… Besides, you’re the expert… The one with the advertising background
  Me: Exactly! That’s why I’m never gonna do what you’re asking me to do
  Him: Oh, that’s concerning ya Baz… Why?!
  Me: A million reasons… Do you have the time?!
  Him: (in a challenging manner)… Humor me!
  Me:Ok, here it goes… First off, my job means I do it my way… This is not my way… And, I regretfully tell you, it’s not a way to go in any professional manner… A client who is always I’m a hurry is a sloppy client… A client who always tries to mandate his way or the highway is a client who an agency would never want to keep, & would never give it it’s best people or service, cuz why put my best resources after a client who would drop me at any point in time… You do not win the hearts and minds of Creatives or Account Managers by being consistently around them, flooding them with requests, & amending their every submission as if they are “Machine Operators” sitting in front of their Apple computers to make your logo bigger, or create a confusion for the consumer by enlarging every single detail and element in the design, as if there is no damn communication objective written in your brief… Believe me, as a guy who spent years in the advertising kitchen, I would hate you as a client… Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are making fun of us in the Studio department now as we speak… They don’t wanna receive out calls… It now takes me 2-3hrs to reach any of the account team on the phone, and we have 3 people working on our account… An ad agency is your partner… Believe me, they love the brand and wanna make it a lovemark even more than you… Communication is all they own, they can’t afford to screw up there… When we have the product, the price, the place, and the promotion to control… They would be more passionate about our own brand than us if we ONLY give them some space and trust them… We always talk about “out of the box ideas”… Do you know what the box is ya _____? WE,… We are the box ya _____! You want a Talk of the Town campaign? Then stop imposing yourself and your ideas on the agency… Or, just go work at an agency if this is your passion… Give me some space ya ____ … Give me se space and trust me… Believe me, the agency will deliver great work… And, I promise you, if they don’t, I will make sure we deliver a campaign your way without any delays… I guarantee you!
  *** end***
  And we ended up delivering a kick ass campaign that soared with all the brand’s Tracker attributes through the roof

Read Is Paypal bad for the Egyptian Economy. in Ehab Heikal’s blog

Paypal has started operating in Egypt and this is big news. But the real question remains will this be a good thing for Egypt as a whole? Currently paypal in Egypt does not allow you to collect your received payments to your bank account.

This means that while you can spend money through paypal, paypal does not enable you to spend that money in Egypt. The over all effect is that currently paypal will tend to siphon money out of the Egyptian economy at a time when our economy needs inflow of foreign currency.

But if paypal opens the ability to receive money to your bank account then this will open a huge way for Egyptian businesses to sell their goods and services online easily and securely. It will also allow skilled professionals to sell their services on sites like fiverr or elance which could open a steady inflow of hard currency and help Egypt develop.

We have to wait and see if paypal will open up all its services to help the Egyptian economy, the ball is in your court paypal.

Read Paypal Egypt:Getting your account verified fast in Ehab Heikal’s blog

Paypal has started in Egypt and many of you will want a paypal account fast. While you can use your paypal account right away with your credit card, many online merchants require that your account be verified. For that paypal has a method to make sure you actually own the credit card you use in paypal. When you go into paypal there is a link called Verify account, you may need to go to view limits to get it. What paypal does is it charges your card 1.5 Euro ( this shows we are linked to the Europe offices of paypal not USA I guess ). The charge will be come from paypal and will have a 4 digit number with the paypal name. Now you need to get your credit card statement to get this 4 digit code. But there is usually a faster way. Call up your card issuing bank, and tell them you want to check an online transaction you just did. Go through the usual bank steps of verifying who you are to them and tell them to read you the four numbers next to the name of the company that charged you 1.5 Euros. Most banks in Egypt will do this, but most of them will only have that data for an hour or so after you made the transaction, so call them just a few minutes after you press the verify link.

Now after you get the 4 digit code go to paypal and enter that code and you are verified and the normal 350 Euro limit is lifted.

Read Samsung Galaxy Mega Annouced:Bigger than Note 2 but probably cheaper. in Ehab Heikal’s blog

Geek

It seems that the rumors of a 6.3 Inch screen size are true but it is not a Galaxy Note. Galaxy Mega will come in 5.8 and 6.3 inch sizes, the 6.3 inch will have the same 720P resolution as the Galaxy Note 2, the 5.8 Inch seems to have a 960X540 screen resolution which is significantly below the Note 2 and makes this a budget offering. Since both sizes will have a dual core rather than a quad core processor, it seems that this series will be positioned as a budget alternative to the Note series. Its availability in Egypt has not be determined yet, but these days Samsung devices in Egypt do not get delayed a lot relative to Europe.

Read Paypal in Egypt now, only sending for now. in Ehab Heikal’s blog

Just tried out paypal, it has been a long time waiting for this. Paypal can seriously help Egyptians that want to do small business online. Internationally it is the payment method of choice for many sites that allow people to do online jobs and tasks for a fee like fiver.com. It can open a whole world for web designers programmers and translators  in Egypt just to name a few.

Getting verified is easy, but it seems that there is no way to accept payments and be able to transfer them to your bank account till now. So you can get paid but it seems till now the money will stay in your paypal wallet.

Lets wait and see.

Read Sony Xperia Z now in Egypt: Take your phone to the pool in Ehab Heikal’s blog

The Sony Xperia Z phone is now available for purchase in Egypt, you can even order it online from stores like Jumia or e305o and get it delivered to your home. The phone costs around 5200-5300LE. Unlike Samsung phones I do not expect the price of a sony phone to change drastically withing the first 3 months.

What is unique about the Xperia Z phone is that it is water proof for up to 30 minutes. This is the perfect high end phone for active people, remember that a water proof phone usually is much better constructed than normal phones. This is the phone you can use in a Jaccuzi easily or the phone you do not worry about harming to touch with sweaty hands after a long workout at the gym.

The Xperia Z also has a Quad core processor that should make it fast enough for most uses, I would expect it to be between the S3 and s4 in terms of speed.

But what is spectacular about the phone ( beside it being water proof ) is that the 5 inch screen has full HD resolution ( 1080p ). This thing takes mobile screens to a whole new level, not only do you get a screen that is large enough for serious on the road productivity but the resolution makes text super sharp and readable.

What is missing now is the availability of the xperia z tablet, which should also be waterproof and have a HD screen ( 1920×1200 16:10 ), the price of the 3G enabled tablet is expected to be 10% more than the phone while the Wifi only tablet should be 10% cheaper than the phone.