The world is going gaga over the iPhone, yet again, thanks to the announcement that the iPhone 4 will be out at the end of June. Just my luck to have finally picked up an iPhone 3gs just a week ago, three days before they announced the new model! At first I felt bad, not because of the model upgrade but because Apple was cutting prices. But then I remembered – this is Israel, and I’m signed up with Orange – where the prices go up, not down, no matter what!
In Israel, iPhones really are for elite power users who have “resources” (ie money) to spare. It appears that the cellphone companies (Orange, at least) splits its “phone world” into two; iPhones and everything else. If you want to be in the iPhone world, be prepared to pay – more than you bargained for. In my case, it was (almost) the data network I had to pay for, without even realizing that I was being charged, and after doing everything I was supposed to in order to avoid the extra charges!
Here’s the story: Being in need of a couple of cellphones for members of the tribe (one to replace a broken device, the other for a new high school student traveling every day), I thought about upgrading to an iPhone, to replace my Nokia XM5800, which I had relatively few complaints about (and in fact outdoes the iPhone in some ways!). The reason is not because I consider myself to be part of some “cellphone elite”; so many of the companies I write about are doing apps for the iPhone (and Android phones or Blackberry, but not for Nokia’s Symbian phones) that I felt I was missing out on being able to write accurate stories about their technology. So things just sort of fell into place for a Shamah iPhone.
When I pick up my already ordered iPad in the States in a couple of weeks, I’ll have a whole Apple family – Dad (iMac), Mom (Mac Mini), a couple of teens and tweens (Macbooks, aluminum and white version), Junior (iPad), and Baby (iPhone)!
And the iPhone is everything they say it is – a beautiful screen, far advanced UI (light years ahead of the Nokia’s clunky UI), and an endless amount of apps that do anything and everything. While I really missed the lack of multitasking (a no-brainer on the Nokia, and a lack that will be resolved with the new iPhone OS due with the iPhone 4) and no ability to record phone calls (that one hurts!), it’s easy to see why people love their iPhones.
One big plus for me is the iPhone’s built in ability to tether its cellular connection to a laptop, enabling you to use it as a modem (I used a separate program for that, called Joikuspot, on the Nokia, but the iPhone’s implementation is far better). I use the modem program (known as tethering feature on iPhones) to connect to the net when the router goes down (an occasional problem where I live).
As it happened, the day after I got my iPhone, the internet was out for a few hours while I had “crucial” on-line work to do. So, I tethered my device to my Mac (that’s a story in itself, because I had to do a “mini-jailbreak” from the block Orange put on tethering!), and did my thing. Great connection via 3G – much faster than I ever had with Joikuspot on the Nokia! So I was happy.
But only for a little while. After about 2 hours (it was a long outage) I got an SMS from Orange saying that I had used up my internet surfing package, and would now be charged per megabyte. I thought it was strange that I had used up a full 150MB of upload/download time so fast – clearly it was the 3G, I thought – and realized I had to upgrade from my “middling” package (150 MB/NIS 47 per month, better than the free 30 MB they give you, but not as good as the 5 GB/NIS 88 a month I was planning to order). But that was for another day. For now, I went to settings, and turned off “Enable 3G” and “Data Roaming” on the Network settings.
Flash forward about a week. I still hadn’t gotten around to upgrading the package, but that was OK, because I seemed to be able to find a Wifi connection when I needed it (even when we ate out at a place in Herzliya for my wife’s birthday!). On that day (about a week after I got the phone), I got two phone calls from Orange – the first to try and sell me “screen insurance” (at NIS 47 a month I said no thanks), and a second from an Orange rep asking me if I liked the phone, did I have any questions, etc. (than in itself is a sign that they look at iPhone customers as being in a different league – no one called me when I had my Nokia, Sony, or any previous device!). Very helpful and thoughtful, I said to myself.
I said thanks, everything’s fine, and was about to hang up – when I figured that now would be a good time to order the 5GB wifi package. “Good idea,” he said. “You know you’re over the limit on your 30 MB connection package.” Whoa – 30 MB? Shouldn’t that be 150 MB? After all, they transferred my previous Nokia plan to the iPhone – or so they told me they would do in the Orange store!
But no – they apparently “forgot” to upgrade me, and now I “owed” them over 50 MB over my allocation! That works out to about NIS 95 that I was going to have to pay!
Unacceptable, I told the (now formerly) “helpful and thoughtful” fellow on the other end of the phone. In fact, it was impossible for me to have gone into such megabyte debt; did I not turn off 3G as soon as they warned me that I was now going to be charged for cell data connections, making sure to use only Wifi? After much hemming and hawing (and keeping me on hold for about 10 minutes), he came back with his best offer – Orange would knock off half the charges, and I would end up paying only NIS 45 (from my previous complaints to Orange, it appears that they have a stock policy of giving energetic complainers half off whatever charges they’re complaining about).
Nothing doing, I said – rather loudly, by this time. “It’s not my fault they didn’t transfer my 150 MB package, and anyway I was only using Wifi. If I still had my 150 MB package, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, because I only used 80 MB of allocation – and anyway, I was only using Wifi!” Unable to do more, he gave the number of customer service for data plans. I called, and spoke to another rep, who also listened, gave me an argument, then regave me the 50% discount – and then, after emphasizing numerous times my chief arguments and that I was not willing to pay a shekel for this – they knocked off the whole thing (or so she told me on the phone; it remains to be seen if they try to sneak the NIS 90 onto my final bill. As of now, it appears on my account usage page on the Orange site).
One of the reasons she gave me an argument was because of the following: Even if you turn off the 3G, you are still connecting to the data network via 2G, even if you’re just surfing Wifi! Accoourding to this Orange rep, you CANNOT connect to the internet without using a cell network, with just Wifi; the Wifi takes precedence, but if you move out of range, the 2G network AUTOMATICALLY kicks in – racking up the charges on your account, adding a phantom 50 MB in data usage. “The iPhone is the only device that does this,” she said. “You can connect using any other device using strictly Wifi, but not the iPhone.”
Needless to say, I though I was dealing with some ridiculous excuse to justify the charges – or some Orange-only scam (like disabling the internet tethering feature so they can charge you to open it!). Jumping to that conclusion makes sense, since Orange is very good at relieving you of your money in small increments (“nickel and diming,” they call it); the way the Orange website is organized gives you a clear indication of how they operate, but that’s a post for another day.
Anyway: Not believing this story, I actually called up Apple in the U.S., taking an educated guess that the device actually came from the U.S. (I was right, and anyone in Israel who wants can buy the Apple Extended Warranty for iPhone directly from Apple for $69! I don’t know how much Orange or iDigital sells it for, but I suspect it’s a tad more than that). And unbelievably, the Apple rep confirmed what the Orange rep said! Even if you turn off the 3G to save surfing megabytes, and even if you make sure to stay near Wifi hot spots at all times, you are STILL going to end up connecting to the cell data network!
The implications? If you have the iPhone, you are REQUIRED to have at least 500 MB in your data plan (since the next jump after 150 MB is 5 GB, that’s what you need to do, at least with Orange). Even if you plan on using just Wifi. Is this a “feature” Apple built in to help the cellphone companies it sells to? Why haven’t I heard this fact before (I did a lot of internet searching before calling Apple)? If this is the case, how can they let a customer walk out of the Orange store with only 30 MB in their data plan?
Once again, our local “business sharks” take what was supposed to be a nice, fun experience and use it as another excuse to shake down loyal customers. Lessons for the future: There is no way an iPhone is going to cost $200 (the price announced for the 16GB iPhone for last week) if you buy yours from an Israeli cellphone company. And two, when the iPad finally comes around, get ready to spend – $499 just isn’t going to do it. If they treat iPhone customers like millionaires who can throw money away on large data plans (who have no choice in the matter either), I can imagine what they’re going to do to the “super exclusive” iPad crowd!
The other day I cam across an article on an Israeli news website – a very well known one – that had an article the the word “iPad” in the title. When I clicked on the story, though, I discovered that the iPad really had nothing at all to do with the story. So what was “iPad” doing in the title?
The answer is obvious: Some SEO guy probably told the people at the site that using iPad in a headline will get them more hits from readers. While no longer at the very top of Google’s keyword ratings, there are still enough searches to drive readers to a story or post. It’s like “internet gold” – say the word “iPad” and all the diggers come running!
I know they are doing this because the same thing happened to me – inadvertently. I wrote about prospects of the iPad in Israel months ago, long before the infamous ban that the government imposed on it because of a phony “wifi issue.” The brouhaha, from about a month ago, was well publicized (if for some reason you didn’t hear about it, check out the story here). So I already had a couple of stories on the iPad’s presence, or lack of it, in Israel.
In fact, before the scandal broke in mid-April, my blog post, iPad in Israel? Don’t Hold Your Breath! was the first one you would get when you searched for “iPad” + “Israel” in Google. So when people started searching for information about the ban, thousands ended up on my blog, just because it was on top of the search results! Realizing what was going on, I put together a post on the ban itself – and my theory on why it was being banned – and sent it out to the world, putting a quick link on the original page. And then that post started getting thousands of hits!
It took the “big” sites that wrote about it, like the HuffPost and Pcmag, a couple of days to catch up (my original post is still on the first Google page, although it’s now on the bottom). Lesson learned: If you want hits on a site, make sure you stick in a buzzy, trending keyword.
OK – we knew that. But what if you don’t have anything to say about the subject at hand? No prob – you can easily, automatically generate a first class story that you can tweet, facebook, Digg, Redditize, etc., chock full of keywords and related content. Just go to the Story Generator at the “Dear Computer Generative Art and Interactive Evolution site,” and type in the keyword of your choice. The result? “A story is generated using random pieces of search engine results. Users participate in the interactive selection by saving interesting results.” While perhaps not the most scintillating prose, you get back some serviceable text that does the job.
As an experiment, I’ve generated text based on the number one search term in Google Trend‘ “hot searches” at this very moment – “Joe Cocker,” apparently fresh off his performance on the last episode of American Idol. Let’s see if it does any good!
PS – Is this considered manipulating search engine results by Google? Hope not!
Joe Cocker as generated automatically with Dearcomputer.nl
What a beautiful song from the movie, and she was all I needed as well but I lost her.
Top Ten. Subsequent efforts were less popular, and problems with alcohol (both on- and off-stage) reduced Cocker’s once-powerful voice to a croaking rasp.
The European release Hymn for My Soul, which features cover versions of songs by Stevie Wonder, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and John Fogerty, was issued on Parlophone in 2007. In the early 80s he made a brief comeback with a hit duet with Jennifer Warnes on “Up Where We Belong”.After a brief spell performing as Vance Arnold, and in the Joe Cocker Big Blues band, Cocker came to prominence with The Grease Band, formed with Chris Stainton.
In the early 80s he made a brief comeback with a hit duet with Jennifer Warnes on “Up Where We Belong”.After a brief spell performing as Vance Arnold, and in the Joe Cocker Big Blues band, Cocker came to prominence with The Grease Band, formed with Chris Stainton.
Joe screams his head off like a white Ray Charles on acid.
What is the first song you play? Trainwreck No. In 1959 he joined his first group, the Cavaliers, playing drums and harmonica.
They played Motown covers in northern England pubs until 1967, when producer Denny Cordell became Cocker’s manager and persuaded him and the band to move to London. The title track, one of many cover versions Cocker would record over his career, went to Number One in EnÂ?gland and Number 68 in the U.S. tour, Cocker met Leon Russell, who wrote “Delta Lady” and coproduced Joe Cocker!, the Grease Band’s swan song. He recorded regularly throughout the ’70s, but without much success.
His 1994 album, Have a Little Faith, hit the U.K. He hit number one in the U.K.
“Peace in our time,” or an underhanded Arab attempt to embarrass Israel? A spokesperson for Microsoft’s offices in Saudi Arabia announced Tuesday that the company would be releasing its Project Natal 3D controller in October – in time for the winter gifting season. According to this,
Speaking in an interview, Microsoft Saudi’s Marketing Manager, Syed Bilal Tariq, has confirmed that Project Natal will be releasing worldwide sometime in October… Tariq goes on to say that more information will be coming at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo, June 15-17).
Note, btw, that the interview is being broadcast on KSA2, Saudi Arabia’s English languageTV service, which I actually receive here in Israel, thanks to my non-YES satellite dish. Unfortunately, I missed the Saudi morning news today, so I’m glad someone recorded it
So what’s so weird? Just this: The Natal 3D controller, which is the key of the system, is 100% made in Israel, by a company called PrimeSense (look for my upcoming great interview with PrimeSense boss Inon Beracha, coming to an internet near you this week!).
PrimeSense has developed a wandless 3D technology that tracks tens of thousands of points in space at one time (as compared to the two points Nintendo Wii trackers can follow), and extrapolates the information to capture every move of anyone or anything that ventures into the sensor’s field of vision. “It’s like wearing a suit with tens of thousands of Wii points,” Beracha told me. Besides being far more effective, the PrimeSense box is extremely inexpensive to produce, meaning that prices on xBoxes could actually come down (or at least not go up!). Note that the video below is from an MS press conference in Tel Aviv last month demonstrating the PrimeSense technology.
One thought that occurred to me was that Tariq was hoping to embarrass PrimeSense by giving an unrealistic date for the system to be on the market, one that would be too early – thus making the Israeli company look bad, either by failing to supply the sensors on time, or by rushing them out to market and mucking up Natal. Fortunately, PrimeSense completed development on the sensor awhile ago, and they are all ready for market, Beracha told me.
So what’s the head of MS Saudi Arabia doing touting a great piece of Israeli technology? Does he have more loyalty to the corporation than to the “ummah?” And considering what an “Israeli outfit” Microsoft is (it’s home to the third largest MS dev team in the world), should a good Israel-hating Saudi even be working for the company?? And how is it that MS isn’t on the Arab boycott list??? Mr. Tariq, if you’re out there – the (Israeli) people want to know!
I’m always amazed at how Israelis can do so well raising money or selling stuff abroad with such poor English. Especially people, like angels who are trusting high-tech people with their money; angels are very picky when it comes to deciding with whom to invest money, and they make judgements based on all sorts of criteria that are more impression than fact (I got this from more than one angel).
So imagine my shock when an angel investor who has put money in a number of companies – ie he is a person of some means – makes a presentation in front of about 100 people, and in his slide show puts up a cute picture of a bear, with this caption:
“a vision without an action is mearly a dream”
Just looking at that sentence I can find five things wrong with it (“mearly” is the least of it!). This is a person who interfaces with lots of American and European investors, and you have to figure that if he could make such a mistake in a presentation he had to prepare for (he was invited, planned out his presentation, used PowerPoint to make the show, etc.), he’s probably making mistakes in spelling and grammar left and right!
Okay, maybe the guy was in a hurry. But what about the many websites I see by Israeli companies with atrocious English? Like this, from a website for a company that is a fairly large player in Israeli commercial VoIP (ie supplies equipment and services to many integrators):
Telephony and telephony related systems based on Voice over IP (Voip) technology had reached the stage in which it could be used in any business in order to reach maximum efficiency. . Voip based soft-switches as well as small office PBX’s are becoming to be the natural choice for businesses all over the world, supplying its owners with a vast variety of telephony functions without the burdening expenses and costs of the old ‘traditional’ analog phone systems.
Besides being boring, that text has several grammatical errors. It’s on their website, as part of their “window to the world.” And there are plenty of sites with much worse texts which are obviously translations of their Hebrew sites (some of them look like they ran the Hebrew through Google Translate and forgot to clean it up). If they’re not careful with the way they present themselves to the world, are they going to be careful with you, the customer?
Happy Passover from the Robots of the R&D Institute for Intelligent Robotic Systems, Computer Science Department, College of Management, Academic Studies, Rishon Lezion (thanks Marc!)
It’s amazing how even the most innocent tech story turns political in the Middle East. Take Gmail SMS chat – brand new in Israel.
In Israel, Gmail users can send free SMS messages to any Orange or Pelephone number for free (the recipient gets “charged” an SMS unit. There is now a “Send SMS” box at the left side of the Gmail page. You type in a phone number and a pop-up box where you can type your message, and choose the destination (Gmail SMS is currently available in four locations – the U.S., “Palestinian Territories” (see below), Israel or Ghana (!). The message gets sent (it went through pretty quick when I tried it with my phone) and when the receiver responds, you get a pop-up in Gmail, enabling you to chat with them. It’s great if you have a plan with lots of SMS messages – otherwise you might want to switch to Gmail if you’re going to be having a long chat (there are mobile versions of Gmail at http://www.google.com/mobile/).
You start out with 50 free messages, and every time someone sends you one back, you get five more free messages for a maximum of 50 (messages to/from North America don’t have a quota). And, according to the help page, “if your quota goes down to zero at any point, it will increase back up to one 24 hours later. So, you won’t ever be locked out of the system.”
So, everything’s cool, and make get even cooler: According to some entries I’ve seen in official Google blogs, the introduction of messaging services by Google in a market heralds a communication expansion – so we could (hopefully) get Google Voice here in Israel in the near future.
Attempting to figure out what the criteria were for Google’s choosing of these four locations for the introduction of this service, I came up with this: The U.S. because it’s the U.S.; Israel, because it was probably developed here; PA areas, because they’re more or less on the same network as Israeli cellphone companies.
And Ghana? That’s part of a Google commitment to spread technology in the third world. Ghana is about as third world as you can get: it’s got a 65% literacy rate, and a GDP of $1500 per capita. According to this article about a Google SMS service in Uganda, Google is promoting cellphone services in third world countries because many more people in such countries use cellphones than computers. Ghana would certainly seem to fit that model as well: According to this site, Ghana is 93rd of 117 countries in the world in broadband usage.
“In Africa, we’ve learned that mobile phones are easier to get to than internet connections and PCs, and that working towards our mission means working through mobile phones. At the beginning of 2008, there were over a quarter of a billion mobile subscribers on the continent. Mobile penetration has risen from just one in 50 people at the beginning of this century to almost one third of the population today.”
When it comes to Israel, though, someone always has to throw politics into the works. One of the few blog posts I found was here, where the author referred to “Israel” as being one of the places where Gmail SMS is being implemented. Explaining why, the “author” (whoops!) writes that
“I just would like to say ArabCrunch has no political views and we do our best to stay away from politics. As for me I only put “Israel” between ” ” to note that this is a area of conflict nothing more, i am not against anyone.”
I, too, will keep my opinions to myself, and will just cite facts: Israel was created in 1947 as a result of a United Nations vote that authorized the creation of a Jewish and Arab state in the former British mandate of Palestine. The Jews accepted that deal, the Arabs didn’t, and seven Arab armies attacked the newly formed state of Israel. The Arabs lost, and Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria (“the West Bank”). Only two countries recognized Jordanian sovereignty over those areas – Britain and Pakistan. In 1967, the Arabs again began a war against Israel (the blockade of the Straits of Tiran was a classic casus belli), again losing.
Unlike Jordan, Israel is administering Judea and Samaria, and has been for the past 43 years, because there is no entity currently legally responsible for those areas. As such, the term “occupied territories” is improperly used in this context, since there was no legally recognized sovereign in those areas after 1947. In 1994, the United Nations voted to recognize the Palestinian Authority (the inception of which was an Israeli idea) and that entity has observer status in the UN. The PA is considered a candidate as a possible sovereign in Judea and Samaria. These are all objectively verifiable facts, and use of the term “Palestine” as a national entity is inaccurate from an international legal point of view – as is the use of quotation marks around “Israel.”
Finally got around to seeing Avatar. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but count me among the (apparently) very few naysayers. If you hadn’t seen it already (which you probably have), I’d say don’t bother; you’ll have a much better time with a DVD of Disney’s Pocahontas, EXACTLY the same story as Avatar, but with nice music!
Nearly all the reviews I’ve seen said that story was no big deal, but the effects were… and they were, for the first hour. Maybe it’s because we were sitting in the first row of the theater, but I found myself getting a headache watching after awhile (I’m usually pretty good with not getting headaches). Or maybe it was the glasses, which I found rather clunky.
Yeah the effects were nice, but I thought the preview for Alice in Wonderland was a much better use of 3D than Avatar; the 3D didn’t really contribute much to most of the film (although there were scenes where it was indispensable). And who says that carefully handcrafted Pocahontas-style animation isn’t as good a medium as 3D? The similarities between the two movies are well documented and just too numerous to list, but the first hour and a half of Avatar – where the human Avatar learns the ways of the Na’avi – can be summed up much more efficiently and elegantly in the three minutes of “Colors of the Wind!”
Regarding articles like this one, in which the author bends over backwards to find connections between Judaism/Israel and Avatar (the “Na’vi,” etc.); Judaism is relevant even if it does not keep up to date with the latest Hollywood blockbuster, and trying to squeeze Jewish content from a pagan/eastern/new-age stone just makes us look desperate (interestingly, the author of the article makes a case for Titanic, another James Cameron blockbuster, as also being “Jewish”!)
Avatar’s “we are all part of the divine” philosophy is diametrically opposed to Judaism’s approach to kedusha, holiness – a word the commentators have defined as “separation.” The little “bracha” the Na’avi make over animals they kill for food (something like “thank you for giving up your life for me to eat – now you are part of me and I am part of you”) is a Chassidic/Kabbalistic concept via new age Madonna-style “Kabbala” (the Jewish concept has to do with the ascension of a creature’s soul to a higher level of existence, not the Na’avi’s pan-nature Zen-style “being-ness”). If you’re looking for religious similes to Avatar, look at Christianity, not Judaism, where a “divine being” comes down to the world to save it, (almost) dying to salvage a world damned by “the Law.”
In addition, saying that Avatar is somehow a “Jewish” movie based on James Cameron’s throwing some Hebrew/Biblical sounding terms (Na’avi means prophet in Hebrew, and the Aish article says that the Na’avi’s deity “aiwa” is related to the Hebrew term for the ineffable name of G-d) is the same as calling the Chumash Indians one of the lost tribes of Israel (“chumash” is the Hebrew term for the five books of Moses). And speaking of deities, Avatar’s plot was such a ripoff of Pocahontas that the “aiwa” deity was located in a tree – just like the prophetic oracle in Pocahontas, and another concept diametrically opposed to Judaism (a tree-deity is called an “ashera,” and worship of it is punishable by death). Avatar? Two and half stars, max (all for the effects).
So I clicked on my favorite oldies station in iTunes radio the other day – but instead of hearing the golden sounds of the Cousin Brucie era, I got instead a rather rude message, telling me that I could no longer listen because I lived outside the borders of the United States! The sponsors of the ad tried to make it sound funny (there was nothing funny about it), and suggested that I sign up for Last.fm. Which costs three bucks a month!
Of course, I have a personal interest in wanting to keep these streams free for everyone to listen to, but imho, I think the United States government is making a big mistake by letting these companies get away with this. Actually, the companies have every right to maximize profits and withhold their product from anyone they want, if they think they are going to make money this way, but I truly believe this is a matter of national security.
Let’s face it: The U.S. isn’t what it used to be, what with the outsourcing, the deficits, the endless inter-party fighting, and so on. America is behind the eight-ball in nearly every industry where it once dominated – except one, and that is entertainment. Nobody does movies like Hollywood, and no music is like American music. If the U.S. really wants to win hearts and minds, it’s got to do something to stop this creeping isolationism; it’s amazing how far a jolt of good old rock n’ roll goes to make terrorists and other no-goodniks think twice before blowing themselves up!
I don’t know Amal Jaraisy – in fact, I don’t know anything about her lawsuit against Google Israel other than what was written on several websites – but I do know that she has zero chance of getting her lawsuit certified. According to news reports, Jaraisy, a resident of Nazareth, is suing Google in an Israeli court for enrolling her in Google Buzz without her permission, and revealing information she wanted to keep private. Buzz apparently chooses users for you to follow, a la Facebook, and publicly displays the names of those you are following – based on your private Gmail correspondence, so everyone knows the people you’ve been e-mailing back and forth with – even if you’d rather keep that relationship private.
However, it is highly doubtful that a lawsuit against Google would go anywhere, since there are so many provisos and “outs” in the terms of service all users agree to when they sign up for a service. Regarding the use of Gmail contacts for a purpose other than email. A quick scan of the Gmail TOS, like all TOSes, basically gives Google the right to add, subtract, or otherwise alter the services it provides or doesn’t. One relevant line in the TOS is in paragraph 4.2, which reads: “Google is constantly innovating in order to provide the best possible experience for its users. You acknowledge and agree that the form and nature of the Services which Google provides may change from time to time without prior notice to you.”
Ms. Jaraisy is an intelligent young woman – here Facebook page says she attended the Technion, Israel’s top science school. One could assume she knows her way around a computer, and a TOS. So why is she bringing the lawsuit? And why is the first Google Buzz lawsuit being brought in an Israeli court? Wouldn’t it make more sense to sue in a California court, where Google is headquartered? After all, the Israeli office does not operate as an independent entity, and Google’s facilities in Israel are dedicate to research and development, not management.
I have some ideas on what the motivation here might be, but I need more information – and as soon as I find what I’m looking for (which I’m pretty sure is out there) I’ll let you know.
Israel is the world leader in hi-tech innovations. So many of the internet, cellphone, and gadget inventions that make our lives easier and more fun are born right here in Israel! Get the inside track on the newest ideas and innovations in our bi-weekly Digital Israel Newsletter. Sign up right here!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=2993c24b-299f-4974-ac01-31a692b1efe9)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a627b6ff-fc92-4e41-a1f2-1d5e14e3244c)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b25a6fa1-d61f-4f49-86fc-50dbfb9ea2db)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1b1e2521-c82b-4dc0-af21-b67c1ca598cc)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c113ead0-8cec-46b5-9f1c-fab01bac7260)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=eb41a002-eb09-4110-9274-84cf8bcda15a)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=875ee85b-d6b0-4d1d-82b7-200d9bc7e37c)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=144d31e8-0b7a-4b65-b10e-e74b84b696da)
Entries (RSS)