ArabWeeks

Sony Middle East and Africa (MEA) announced today that it will further expand the EXTRA BASS™ series to include four new portable wireless speakers designed to enable users to enjoy the intensity of deep bass notes in a variety of locations and scenarios. EXTRA BASS™ technology delivers powerful, clear bass sound where it’s hard to find – in a compact, portable speaker. All speakers feature easy, one-touch connectivity and music streaming with NFC and Bluetooth® compatibility.

Thanks to the compact size and long battery life of these speakers, they can be easily picked up and moved to where the action is. The perfect combination of style and portability, this newly expanded EXTRA BASS™ wireless speaker series looks and sounds great wherever you put them, indoors or out knowing that the IPX5 rated water-resistant design will protect them against splashes.

Speakers like the SRS-XB40, SRS-XB30 and the SRS-XB10 all feature a flexible two-way design which gives you great sound, wherever you place the system. Set it up horizontally, or flip it upright if you’re short on space.

The SRS-XB40, SRS-XB30, and SRS-XB20 Wireless Speakers – A Portable Party

The SRS-XB40 features lighting effects with an LED perimeter line-light, a strobe flash and speaker light. The line-light creates multicolor patterns, ranging from pure white to rainbow. Synchronising with the rhythm of the beat, the power and speed of the light display matches the music’s mood and atmosphere. The SRS-XB30 has a similar multicolour line-light and strobe, and the SRS-XB20 features a single color line-light which compliments the speaker color.

Wireless party chain featuring the SRS-XB40, SRS-XB30 and SRS-XB-20

Using the wireless party chain, speakers can be connected to each other to enable users to enjoy a performance featuring synchronised lights and great sound. Up to 10 units can be interconnected via Bluetooth® (mix and match the SRS-XB40/XB30/XB20 models) and used interactively. It is also possible to pair two speakers of the same model together to enjoy stereo sound. Stereo mode takes advantage of two independent audio channels in order to create the impression of sound being heard from various directions, similar to natural hearing.

The Fiestable app with the SRS-XB40

Other great features include Voice Guidance which announces important to know information, such as the battery life level of the device. These models also allow multi-device connectivity, meaning that more than one smartphone can be connected at the same time, enabling user to quickly switch between music sources. With the SRS-XB40 and SRS-XB30, it is also possible to recharge a smartphone by connecting it to the USB-A port on these devices via a USB cable which enables the speaker to be used like a portable battery when the user’s smartphone battery is running low on power. Plus, all four models can be used as speakerphones when paired with your smartphone.

SRS-XB10 Wireless Speaker – A Very Portable Party

For those really on the go, the SRS-XB10 offers EXTRA BASS™ sound, incredible loudness and punchy bass with a tiny body with a long battery life of up to approximately 16 hours.

Take advantage of its super-compact size and portability and enjoy the music anywhere. Two listening styles can optimise the users’ experience. In vertical mode, the omni-directional sound can be enjoyed by a group of friends. In horizontal mode, the music is directed straight to the listeners’ ears. The silicon strap becomes a stand for the tiny speaker to help direct the sound. The same strap can also be used to attach the speaker to a backpack or just about anywhere, so that great tunes are always in reach. And like the XB40, XB30, and XB20, the new XB10 features a water-resistant IPX5 design.

The sound from the SRS-XB10 can be directed using its silicon strap

The XB10 can also be paired with another of its kind, to provide stereo mode, which creates a broader sound space and the impression of hearing music from various directions.

Availability:

Available in Saudi Arabia, the SRS-XB40 retails at SAR 799; the SRS-XB30 at SAR 599; the SRS-XB20 at SAR 399; and the SRS-XB10 at SAR 199.

F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) today announced the availability of new, multi-cloud-ready application services for the Saudi Arabian market.

Designed to provide consistency in multi-cloud environments, the solutions empower companies with greater deployment flexibility, more effective security and faster time to market.

“The business imperative to deploy applications in multiple clouds – public and private, in colocation facilities, and in datacentres – is on the rise but many are struggling with the management of different development environments, toolsets, and orchestration technologies,” said Mamduh Allam, Saudi Arabia General Manager, F5 Networks.

“F5’s strategy is to ensure we address the complexity of crowd sprawl head on, tackling challenges related to managing application services, inconsistent policies, security, as well as results-driven performance optimisation. We want to give our customers the freedom to deploy any application – anywhere and at any time,” added Allam.

F5’s 2017 State of Application Delivery Report recently revealed that customers are increasingly investing in multiple cloud technologies. Eighty-six percent of the respondents indicated that they are committed to multi-cloud architectures, and 20 percent stated that they will have over half their applications running in the public and/or private clouds this year.

F5’s new offerings include:

New public cloud solutions that help deploy applications faster in any cloud

• F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) is available in the Google Cloud Platform. F5 is giving customers greater choices of cloud platforms, with new ‘bring-your-own license’ offers for instances ranging from 25Mbps to 5Gbps. With the inclusion of Google Cloud, F5 services are now available in all major public clouds. Available now at Google Cloud Launcher  in Good, Better and Best versions.  
• Cloud solution templates for Amazon Web Services, Azure, and Google reduce the complexity of deploying F5 services for applications in the public cloud. These new solution-specific templates simplify and automate common public cloud use cases. Cloud solution templates are also available for OpenStack private cloud environments. Available now on GitHub.
• Integrated marketplace solutions provide easily accessible, pre-packaged F5 services such as WAF and Office 365 federated access that are deployable directly from public cloud marketplaces, meaning companies can leverage their trusted F5 services easily for applications in the cloud. Available now at Azure Marketplace.

New private cloud solutions enable organizations to move to the cloud faster and with more confidence.

• Private cloud package gets customers up and running quickly with pre-tested, certified, and bundled F5 solutions that simplify and automate OpenStack private cloud deployments. Available now through F5 Sales.

Broad line of additional solutions deliver application services in new environments.  

• Lightweight Application Services Proxy gives customers flexibility in developing, testing, and scaling applications in cloud and container environments. Available now at DockerStore.
• Container Connector provides the easy provisioning of services for containerized applications, and simple integration of capabilities from management/orchestration systems including Kubernetes and Mesos/Marathon. Available now at GitHub and DockerHub.
• Application Connector delivers application services from the edge of the cloud by automatically discovering cloud-hosted instances and connecting them to the customer’s data center or hosted location. Available now through F5 Sales.

The Global Ceylon Tea party 2017 organized by the Embassy of Sri Lanka was held on 06^th July at 5.00 pm to 6.30 pm at the MENA Hotel Riyadh, celebrating 150 years of proud Ceylon Tea Industry of Sri Lanka. The most important feature of this unique event is that it was celebrated on the same day at the same time in every time zone from east to west across the World.

The main purpose to organize this event worldwide is to express Sri Lanka Tea Industry’s gratitude to all those people and organizations that shared this journey with Sri Lanka and whose history is entwined with Ceylon Tea over the years.

The Riyadh event was hosted by HE the Ambassador of Sri Lanka Azmi Thassim. The Ambassador delivered a special speech mentioning the history of Ceylon Tea Industry and special features of Saudi Tea Market. This event was attended by businessmen, Government Officials, Electronic, printed and social media Journalists, Investors, Travel Writers and other distinguished invitees.

The participants had the opportunity to taste traditional Sri Lankan foods namely Kiribath, Oil Cake, Kokis, Cake and patties with Ceylon tea. Also they had rare chance to taste the seven agro-climatic regions Ceylon tea namely NuwaraEliya, UdaPussellawa, Uva, Dimbulla, Kandy, Sabaragamuwa&Ruhuna.The Embassy of Sri Lanka, Riyadh also organized a mini exhibition at the venue to educate participants about special milestones of 150 years of Ceylon Tea Industry and Ceylon Tea Products available in Saudi Arabian market with market information. Further the Embassy had arranged to display Ceylon Tea product samples with company details who are looking for prospective buyers from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the moment.

The Global Ceylon Tea Party was hosted at Sri Lankan diplomatic entities in 37 countries, while partner tea companies, cafes, and homes across the globe are hosting similar parties on the 6^th of July 2017. Locations in up to 50 countries with populations in excess of half the world are targeted to celebrate this unprecedented event that will set a world record for the largest and longest global tea party ever.

Sri Lanka tea industry adheres to almost all the international conventions, agreements and certifications related with the environment including the Montreal Protocol to protect the Ozone layer. It is the first and only “Ozone Friendly” certified tea in the world. Use of agro chemicals is strictly controlled and ISO has declared that Ceylon Tea is one of the cleanest in the world. On the social front, as a signatory to the FAO protocols, Sri Lanka has completely banned child labour.

 Sri Lanka is the world’s largest exporter of orthodox black tea and Ceylon Tea has delighted tea drinkers in almost 150 countries.

The tea market in Saudi Arabia is considered as the most sophisticated within all Gulf countries due to the high purchasing power of the consumers who usually demand innovative products and gourmet packaging. Already, the tea bag segment of the retail market has exceeded 60% and growing further. The rapidly increasing health awareness has helped the tea consumption to grow more than 25% in Saudi Arabia during the past 05 years. Out of the 30 Million population, around 7.5 Million (a quarter) consist of Foreign Expatriates. The annual tea imports are registered at 37 Million kilos and mostly for the domestic consumption.

The Saudi society is traditionally brand loyal for most FMCG products. The major tea brands in Saudi market consist of multi origin blends. Therefore, direct exports from Sri Lanka constitute 15% to 20% share. However, re-exports from UAE which is the predominant supplier also contains another 5% to 10% of a Ceylon Tea component. So, Sri Lanka market share is around 25%. As the richest, populous and the largest tea market in the GCC, Sri Lanka extends a great importance to this destination.