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By Khaled A., on January 7th, 2010
STC was the first company to introduce an Android based cellphone in the region. The phone was the HTC Magic however native Arabic support is only available for Android OS 1.5 while the latest OS version for the Magic is 1.6 (HTC are working on 2.1 update to be released this year). Arabic support is not available in 1.6, 2.0 and 2.1.
I should contrast this to the iPhone: iPhone OS 3.0 added support for many languages including Arabic. You do not need to download additional software to add Arabic to the iPhone and you don’t need to change anything if all you needed is to read Arabic. Apple did that in less than 2 years and all of their iPhones support Arabic by now. As for Android you should be able to add Arabic by visiting a site such as XDA Developers.
 Which brings us to the ArDroid website that specializes in helping the Arabic speaking community use Google Android phones. They started a feature request to have better Arabic language support:
I bought an Android phone and I said since you already made the locale adding the Arabic language will be easy and fast , but now I have the phone for 5 months and no Arabic support still , we have two available Android phones in my country and two are coming in a few months , I had an iPhone but I sold it to buy an Android phone , so I think I’m wrong in selling the iPhone , anyway please Google add the Arabic support and Prove Me Wrong .
Support this by voting for this issue to be resolved which you can do by simply clicking the star on the left (you might need a Google Account for that).
I should remind Google that Nokia is a major market-share holder in Saudi Arabia, BlackBerry comes in second place. So they are the major competition for Android phones here, not the iPhone.
Image from here.
By Khaled A., on November 28th, 2009
I gave up on Google. After so many posts asking for Google to simply allow us to contribute to our own map, Saudi Arabia and UAE are still editable. The rest of the GCC: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman have been available for a while. Of course the only alternative is not even good for that.
So I highly recommend using Gowalla to add points of interests in the Saudi map. It’s available as an iPhone app and you can read more about it at TechCrunch. A group of iPhone users in Saudi Arabia are already using Gowalla and we are slowly populating it with actual data!
I hope to see Gowalla’s data being used in other databases, but right now it is the only acceptable method of adding points of interests.
By Khaled A., on March 21st, 2009
Last year we tried to ask Google to add Saudi Arabia’s map. They finally did but the maps are out of date an inaccurate. We need to ask Google to enable us to edit the Saudi Arabia map using the Google Map Maker.
Right now Google Map Maker supports 164 countries, but it is missing Saudi Arabia and UAE.
I have created a new post in the Google Map Maker group about adding Saudi Arabia. I will add the link to the post once it appears in the group. Here is the new Google Map Maker Group thread about Saudi Arabia and UAE.
If it did not go well we should just switch to OpenStreetMap.
By Khaled A., on March 13th, 2009
Google map maker has increased their list of supported countries to 164. Which includes Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar but for some unknown reason is still missing Saudi Arabia and UAE.
Unfortunately we have to wait even more and we know how slow google is to update their google mobile maps. The data on google maps mobile is is different than the regular desktop google maps. The iPhone 3G GPS function is useless in Saudi Arabia since you can’t install your own maps or use Google maps’ data. You can’t even use any form of navigation or driving directions for Saudi Arabia maps in google maps.
Saudis mainly use WikiMapia to add data on google maps at the moment. Google needs to listen to it’s users. We are still waiting, google.
By Khaled A., on January 31st, 2009
Google introduced “Offline Gmail” which allows you to access all of your Gmail content without connecting to the Internet. To enable it go to “Settings” then “Labs” then choose “Enable” in the “Offline” section. You need to install Google Gears which can be installed on most operating systems and web browsers.
Read more about it: 10 Good Things About Offline Gmail.
By Khaled A., on October 6th, 2008
Google is looking for engineers and managers in the Middle East region. The positions are listen on the Google Jobs site.
The available positions are: Engineering Site Director (Arabic Fluent), Product Manager, Tech Lead Manager and Software Engineer.
By Khaled A., on September 26th, 2008
Google Translate added support for more languages. The added languages are: Catalan, Filipino, Hebrew, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
In Saudi Arabia, only translating text a text box is available. But trying to translate an actual website, for education purposes perhaps? And it is blocked! The blocked URL: http://translate.google.com/translate is blocked and looks like there is only reason/category for blocking sites, categorydescriptionlist=Pornography! Yes! Pornography!
As usual, help us out by filling this unblock request form!
By Khaled A., on September 9th, 2008
Just thought I would share this email that I got from the Google Team regarding Saudi Arabia on Google Maps.
Hello Khaled,
Thank you for your email and your interest in Map Maker. Currently 57 countries are open for map editing on Map Maker. However, Saudi Arabia is not a part of the countries, for which content can be created or edited on Map Maker. We apologize for the inconvenience. We will make a public announcement when any new country will be open for editing.
Regarding your concern over the error on Google Maps, we appreciate the effort of you escalating this. You may also add the correct information using My Maps. Please visit the link below to know more on this.
If you have additional questions, please visit the Google Map Maker Help Center, where you will find answers to many frequently asked questions about Google Map Maker.
Sincerely,
Tasneem
The Google Team
By Khaled A., on September 6th, 2008
Google Maps finally added real maps of Saudi Arabia to replace the random lines that made no sense. The maps are provided by Navteq (I prefer TeleAtlas, they are more accurate with the Saudi Arabia maps). And you can even find some local businesses by searching at the site. But there are problems with the Navteq maps, they are still 4 years old and this is one of many examples:
View Larger Map
That new extended road as you see on the satellite image was added late 2004 and Navteq did not update their database until now. I already submitted the correction to the map reporter tool two months ago and Navteq did not fix it yet.
But this is progress, Google Maps is actually more useful for viewing Saudi Arabia maps than it ever was and hopefully it will continue to improve.
By Khaled A., on June 29th, 2008
Google added a service called “Map Maker” to help adding streets and locations in their database. This service allows you to add streets, businesses, and more information.
Unfortunatly this service only allows editing of the following countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Grenada, Iceland, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Pakistan, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Vietnam. No Saudi Arabia even though we have a very limited and outdated road maps of Saudi Arabia as you can see here.
This is the current list of editable countries. To help add Saudi Arabia to that list go to the Google Map Maker Google Group and make a post about adding Saudi Arabia to the list. Or just reply to this thread that I started.
[Found via Google Operating System blog]
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