So, I waited for the Blu-ry release and ended up ordering this from Amazon. It was a great deal, 2 Blu-rays, a DVD and an UltraViolet copy for 20$, Shipped it through Aramex’s own Shop & Shop (Sorry for boring details, it gets interesting after few), then it was forwarded to Jordan Customs, allowed entry and cleared out in a day.

Which means it wasn’t banned to begin with, thank you local dealer (you’re a chicken).

Anyways as I was really looking forward to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ever since I learned that David Fincher had been attached to it. I usually do not like remakes but I didn’t see the Swedish verism anyway. So, I didn’t have any expectations. Fincher (who directed Fight Club, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and The Social Network) has a fantastic eye for filmmaking and has always impressed me with his movies (Se7en, hello?). In my humble opinion, this is one of the films of the year.

One thing might bother people was the moments where sexual violence appears on screen, some moments were really uncomfortable but I guess that’s the reason why these scenes succeed. They shock you and make you want to look away. And that’s good, especially when the themes of this movie as well as the source material were about this sort of thing, and the movie conveys it perfectly.

The story is really engaging and everything technical about this movie succeeds.

Overall: It was a great watch, it’s one that you should definitely check out. Out of ten, I have to be honest, I have to be honest and give it a 9/10 (didn’t enjoy the violence… much)

Get the movie from downtown for a hefty price of 1 JD/DVD or 3 JD/Blu-ray (won’t play on PS3 because of Cinavia – like my case), download the movie off torrents or invest and buy it for 20$ (good deal for 3 discs)

It suddens and shocks me that brands like Nokia send us their “leftovers” in technology, Yes…

Take the Nokia N9 for example (being marketed heavily in our markets with many telecoms), it was not released in the US or the UK because MeeGo (the operating system running on that device) was shut down and Nokia wants to focus on its Windows Phone initiative. So, the phone is only available in our region, and Australia probably.

Quoting them:

“At this time we will not be making it available in the US. Nokia takes a market by market approach to product rollout, and each country makes its own decisions about which products to introduce from those available. Decisions are based on an assessment of existing and upcoming products that make up Nokia’s extensive product portfolio and the best way in which to address local market opportunities.”

Now, the questions are…
“Who would buy a new phone that runs on a system that has been axed?”
“Do you think us Arabs aren’t smart enough to buy better phones?”
“Do you think we’re fascinated by your cheap App Petrol ads you run in the cinema or at the malls?”

It is obviously not going to be supported properly, and there will be no updates or apps. Better to not sell it than put it in the shops and promote it and then have the humiliation of no one buying it. Several more months before the Windows Phone models arrive, and the Android/iPhone market inflation.

That is a shame. This is a frightening example of a stagnating company with poor manangement trying to revitalise itself by taking on even worse management and a poor choice in software. Now it’s all too late and Nokia really has to bet the farm on the company with the worst record in the mobile sector.

Advice to Nokia: Keep thinking low of the MENA market and you’ll keep losing your shares, and guess what? Samsung, LG, Apple, Sony & others realized and appreciated the market. You’ve lost the game! It goes from bad to worse. Shame, you used to make some good phones.

Cheerio, Nokia. It was nice knowing you.

tl;dr summery

The Nokia N9 is one of the most tragic stories around because its a great smartphone that unfortunately launched at the wrong time (after Nokia killed its MeeGo software before releasing it). Nokia N9 runs on MeeGo, which Nokia announced would be replaced by Windows Phone in all of Nokia’s new smartphones before the Nokia N9 hit the stores (but for our region, the MENA region) That news led to the smartphone not being adopted by any operators in the UK or the US, which is a shame because it got excellent reviews across the board but the lack of a supported software.

I’d love to thank everyone at Prodigi for the great support, especially my team on this project. Ronza for being a one-of-a-king project coordinator and Tarakiyee for being one inevitable developer. I also want to thank Sarah and Dima from Seagulls for the great follow-up, contact and efficiency, Rob Stevens & Farah Madadha for the great work, effort and support. You guys rock! This wouldn’t have been this great success without you.