Tag Archives | Lebanon

Top 20 Things To Do During Christmas Season This Year

By Rami on December 10, 2017 in Events

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Beirut with decorations at malls and on most streets! And with so much happening around town these days, it’s definitely an opportunity for you to get with family and friends to do something fun. So here are 20 event suggestions from Lebtivity all happening over the coming days for you to get inspired.

Lebanon To Introduce Biometric Verification for SIM Cards?

By Rami on December 6, 2017 in Telecom

Registration of SIM cards and mobile handsets is nothing new in Lebanon as you are currently required to present your ID card and have a photo of you taken on the spot when buying a new SIM, and handsets registration was introduced back in 2013 before getting canceled a year later.

However, it seems like the ministry of telecom is looking to up their standards of verifying SIM cards by planning to soon introduce biometric information which I find to be quite weird. I mean I totally understand using biometric checks for ID card or passports, but why would you want to do the same for something that is “mobile” in nature and can easily transferred from one person to another? The only logical explanation is that someone is simply arranging yet another corrupt deal. We’re nearing the end of year and they probably need to have their budget fixed… but then again, who are we to doubt their intentions! 😀

Anyway, what concerns me the most is why should we be forced to provide these critical information to two private companies who’s networks have been infiltrated by Israel a few years ago? (Anyone recalls the cases of Charbel Qazzi and Tarek Rabaa?) Such information about us should only be possessed by the government. And whoever thinks such measure will easily help identify suspect terrorists in the country is probably missing the fact that there a million other way to communicate securely other than using a SIM card…

In all cases, you can check this report by LBCI about the matter. If this thing gets into effect, you will be given a deadline to register your SIM at authorized centers, otherwise your phone line will be deactivated.

The Only Lebanese Fashionista Worth Following on Instagram

By Rami on December 5, 2017 in Funny

Just like almost everyone else, I spend my fair share of time on Instagram everyday and I come across all kind of “influencers” in my feed. From entrepreneurs with inspirational quotes on every photo, to gym rats, foodies, and fashionistas who are the worst of them all! And I simply hate the latters because of their artificial photos and all the fake stories they try to create around them.

Forget all about their sponsored posts because we all whore ourselves nowadays, but some of the posts are just unbelievable. Breakfast in bed? Wine in the bathtub? Joyful 9 months pregnancy shots? Happy family photos with 2 years old babies standing still? GIVE ME A BREAK!!!

Neither breakfast in bed nor wine in the bathtub are actually possible, chances are you will have breadcrumbs all over the bed sheets and soapy water in your wine glass… And don’t get me started about pregnancy and kids, the last couple of months during pregnancy are not all glam and glitter for women, and those family photos with happy toddlers in them are just a myth. Trust me, I’m a father of two little boys…

Thank u @dr_roy_moutran for always making me look beautiful ! You Rock !!! 🤜🏻

A post shared by Jenn Zee (@bloggerwanabe) on Nov 25, 2017 at 12:17am PST

So with all these “influencing fashionistas” around, I recently stumbled upon @BloggerWanaBe on Instagram which is a satirical account by Sara Zeaiter (AKA Jenn Zee) that aims to poke fun at all those fake photos and videos on Instagram. Some of her posts are actually quite hilarious and make you really wonder how much effort is put by other influencers into creating those “natural” photos and videos.

Judging by her posts and stories so far she seems pretty cool, and funnily enough she has all it takes to become yet another fashionista with a followers count that just keeps increasing… so I guess it will be hard for her to turn down sponsored deals in the near future! 😉

Anyway, make sure to follow her account @BloggerWanaBe because she seriously is the only fashionista worth following nowadays in Lebanon!

Nemr Abou Nassar Set To Appear on Showtime Comedy Club

By Rami on October 6, 2017 in Television

Nemr Abou Nassar is set to appear on Showtime Comedy Club tomorrow night (US time) in a special called “No Bombing in Beirut”.

The one hour performance tackles misconceptions western people have about us here in the middle east and was shot in both Lebanon and Los Angeles, however it was edited in a way to show people from both ends of the world laughing at the same jokes to prove that we have more in common than we would think. It is an absolutely great achievement for Nemr to be featured on Showtime and it’s great to see talents like him and Wissam Kamal making it big outside Lebanon.

The shows will air on Showtime tomorrow October 7th at 11PM Eastern Time (GMT -4).

Bid Farewell to Long Queues at The Mecanique Centers

By Rami on October 3, 2017 in Lebanon

No matter how smart you try to be about timing your car inspection visit to the mecanique center in Hadath, it is almost always guaranteed to be like a trip down to hell. I personally utterly hate to take a day off for the sole purpose of waiting endlessly in long queues to get that stupid task done. And I dare call it stupid because all cars end up driving on the Lebanese roads regardless whether they pass or fail.

However, a new service by “Blink My Car” (the app that made car washing a tap away) seems to have found a workaround for that as it currently offers sending one of their officers to have your car inspected.

I got in contact with them and was informed that the process takes an average of 3 hours and costs 50,000L.L (in addition to the 35,000L.L inspection fees). To benefit from it, all you have to do is to request an appointments through the app and provide the officer with the car registration license.

Once your car passes you will of course have to pay the mecanique fees which can be done at Naf3a, Banks, and some certified centers, but if you wish them to pay it on your behalf then you can pay an additional 25,000L.L and also have one of their officers pay it within 48 hours.

I believe this is pretty convenient for employees especially those with strict working hours, and the service fee is both fair and absolutely worth it.

For those who are not familiar with the app, the cool people at “Blink My Car” were kind enough to provide me with a free promo code for people to try their car wash service when I was inquiring them about the mecanique thing. All you have to do is download their app (for either iOS or Android) and enter the code “plus961free” to benefit from a free wash. There’s no limit set for the code so feel free to tell your friends as well!

9 Lebanese Startups Among The Arab World’s Top 100

By Rami on October 3, 2017 in Lebanon

Forbes Middle East released its list of the top 100 startups in the Arab World and Lebanon earned 9 spots with Anghami coming 2nd in the overall ranking thanks to $29M in funding. UAE based startup Fetchr was ranked 1st with a funding of $52M.

Here’s a list of the Lebanese startups that were mentioned (Full list available here):

#2 Anghami – Music streaming platform
#23 Scriptr – IoT application platform
#25 Falafel Games – Develops and publishes massively multiplayer online games
#31 Sqwirl Lab – Startup studio
#39 Energy24 – Alternative Energy storage and generator
#65 Blink My Car – Car care app
#72 Risk+ Solutions – Financial intelligence and risk management solutions
#77 Loop – Electric scooter sharing technology
#85 Myki – Cybersecurity

With the all the telecom infrastructure upgrades we are promised, I hope we get to see even more Lebanese projects and startups in the coming years.

On the other hand, a similar list was also compiled by Forbes for the top 100 Arab companies and 4 Lebanese banks made it to the list (Bank Audi, BLOM Bank, Byblos Bank, and Bank of Beirut).

Banque Libano-Française New Mobile App Commercial

By Rami on September 30, 2017 in Ads

It’s not everyday that Lebanese banks make funny commercials. This one was made for Banque Libano-Française’s new Mobile app (MyBLF 2.0) and the actress portraying the client is absolutely hilarious!

Make sure to watch the video till the end.

60 Years Old Fisherman From Tripoli Is The New Loto Billionaire

By Rami on September 28, 2017 in Random

This is definitely not the first time someone claims the grand prize in Lebanese lottery and I bet we all feel some envy every time someone does. But in the case of this man, Ahmad Dandash, I guess that you can’t but feel delighted it went for someone who really deserves it.

The 60 years old fisherman seems to have been going through some difficult times and was unable to afford helping any of his kids get an apartment until he scored the loto. Feel free to call it fixed or arranged, but the video and the whole thing is heartwarming.

“Bebalee” Is An Insult to Fayrouz’s Career

By Rami on September 26, 2017 in Music

Fayrouz’s new album “Bebalee” has been out for three days, but unlike her previous albums, this one is yet to make any buzz be it online or on radio stations.

I did listen to the album and was unfortunately quite disappointed. Adaptation of foreign songs using silly lyrics is the worst you can expect from an icon like Fayrouz, and the only one to blame is definitely her daughter Reema Rahbani who seems to have produced this album to just prove to her brother Ziad that she can actually create something regardless the quality or the artistic value. “Elak aw eli aw mish la shi, mish la shi, wala ayy shi” is exactly what you would in Arabic call saff 7akeh.

Fayrouz did perform songs with light lyrics in the past (e.g. Kifak enta malla enta) but in my opinion she never delivered something as mediocre as Bebalee.

I really hope she makes it up in the near future by working again with her son Ziad.

Mandatory IMEI Registration is Coming Back – Mobile Phones to Get More Expensive

By Rami on September 11, 2017 in Telecom

I was at a mobile phone shop in Beirut yesterday when I heard some people claiming that the Ministry of Telecommunications is bringing back the mandatory registrations of mobile phones IMEI in a new attempt to fight smuggling of mobile devices. (*ahem* Amhaz…)

As soon as I came back home I searched a bit and found that the thing is unfortunately real as per the below report by MTV (thanks Techie Dad), and it is quite surprising that the ministry didn’t bother alert the subscribers yet about the new decision!

For those who don’t know, a similar decision was taken in 2013 by the telecommunications minister back then Nicolas Sehnaoui and was cancelled by Boutros Harb in 2014 due to how complicated the registration process was. However, unlike now, the ministry back then launched an awareness campaign to let people re-activate their old handsets in order to keep them from being banned on the network once the registration process is put into work.

The MTV report mentions the risks of duplicate IMEIs but the ultimate purpose for enforcing IMEI registration will definitely be fighting smuggling of mobile phones, all at the expense of making our lives harder with the registration process and of course increasing the mobile phone prices (since they will all be subject to import tax and VAT), instead of tightening the controls at the customs.

It isn’t clear yet though when this thing will be put into effect but this guy on Facebook claims it will be as of September 15th. Still, let’s cross our fingers and hope the ministry thinks it over!

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