150 WORD REVIEW: Made With by John Grant

Made With book coverWhat Grant defines as the ‘Interland’ is one of the most fascinating, fastest growing regions in the world. Ranging from Turkey to North Africa and covering everywhere from the MIddle East right through to Indonesia, the Interland is a place where traditional thinking says that ‘East and West collide’. In reality, these are incredibly youthful societies going through some huge changes – socially and economically.

While most books and reports about this region are dominated by religion, conflict and general unpleasantness, ‘Made With’  focuses on creativity, brands and entrepreneurship. The result is a book that is an interesting primer, though perhaps one that perhaps would have benefitted from a tighter focus, more case studies and more interviews and interviewees. The sections featuring these are the ones that really shine, and it’s a shame there aren’t more of them. With that said, ‘Made With‘ is still well worth a look.

In the Lebanon… play and avoid flying shisha pipes for iPad and UNESCO

Lebanon-based iOS developer Game Cooks has launched its new game Run for Peace on the iPad and 5% of all proceeds will be donated to UNESCO.

The game sells for $1.99 so that’s 10 cents per download and follows the adventures of one Salim who ‘avoids dangerous obstacles on the way to bringing peace to the Middle East’ starting in Saudi Arabia and ending in Algeria.

The press release describes the difficulty of being a developer in the Middle East because of ‘fighting outside of (sic) your office’, which is a little melodramatic, have they never heard of South London?

However, the part that most appealed to me were the flying shisha pipes that Salim has to avoid. That’s GOT to be worth $1.99…

EA Games attacks Middle East with Nazara secret weapon

EA games has partnered exclusively with Indian games specialist Nazara to bring its most popular games to the Middle East.

The deal means that a market of more than 180 million customers will be able to play games such as Need For Speed The Run and FIFA 12 as well as other popular EA games.

Nazara has a big footprint in the terriotory and has deals with operators such as Du, Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) and Viva (Bahrain).