BlackBerry (BBRY) is testing whether the money-transfer business will help Canada’s smartphone maker keep users hooked on its instant-messaging service. BlackBerry is beginning a pilot project with PT Bank Permata (BNLI), the Indonesian bank partly owned by Standard Chartered Plc (STAN), to allow users to transfer money to their contacts over the BlackBerry Messenger service, executives of both companies said in interviews. BlackBerry is looking to Indonesia, a country of 249 million people where it’s the leading smartphone brand, to develop a feature it hopes can protect the messenger service from losing customers to WhatsApp Inc. and other rival services. The plan could lead the Waterloo, Ontario-based company into an industry dominated by Western Union Co. (WU) and MoneyGram International Inc. (MGI) “It’s tough to get into the market as you’ve got a lot of competition and there are a lot of compliance and logistics issues,” said Larry Berlin, an analyst at First Analysis Corp. in Chicago. “Could it be the right play if people like the phones? Yeah, but it’s not going to be easy.” More»

Proven experts provide consultation on best fit technologies, processes and IT skills needed by today’s organizations Global Knowledge (www.globalknowledge.com.eg), the worldwide leader in IT and business skills training announced today its Professional Services division has made significant strides in the Middle East and African (MEA) market.  Global Knowledge’s growing leadership in professional services is a testament to its seasoned capabilities and expertise in the latest technologies, processes and IT skills required by today’s organizations. With over 10 years of experience, the MEA Professional Services division offers technical IT consulting, project deployment guidance and outsourcing.  Projects are executed by certified technical teams skilled in the most advanced technologies and adept at handling complex mission critical issues.  Global Knowledge’s fully accredited teams also give guidance on how to best streamline processes and reduce IT investment costs, while each solution is vendor neutral and aligned with best-fit technologies. Global Knowledge’s team of experts also advises on optimal solutions regardless of industry vertical or business size. More»

The BBC tech team will be providing frequent updates to this page throughout Barcelona's Mobile World Congress to keep you up to date with developments. Monday 1100 GMT Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop talked up the new handsets at MWC The news from Barcelona is coming thick and fast although not all of it is happening on the ground. Samsung has chosen to launch its new Galaxy S smartphone on March 14 in New York, after apparently being bombarded with requests from US mobile carriers to launch it on American soil. More»

A fresh tablet from Samsung and a new Android handset from Huawei have been announced at the start of the Mobile World Congress (MWC). About 1,500 exhibitors are taking part at the annual event in Barcelona. Samsung's tablet features an 8in (20.3cm) screen with a resolution of 189 pixels per inch (ppi) making it slightly bigger and more detailed than Apple's bestselling iPad Mini. Huawei's Ascend P2 has a 4.7in screen with 315ppi, and a 13 megapixel camera. The Chinese firm said it also featured a facility called Magic Touch, which allowed it to be used while wearing gloves - similar to Nokia's Lumia 920. More»

HP's Slate 7 fails to impress It looks as though the earlier reports were true: HP is getting back into the tablet game, and this time it's operating system of choice is Android. HP inherited the webOS operating system with its acquisition of palm back in 2010, but  did little to advance the platform in the face of stiff competition from Android and iOS. Unfortunately, for those looking to once again give HP a chance in the tablet game, the specs for the new Slate 7 are very underwhelming -- even for its relatively low starting price of $169. The Slate 7 comes with a dual-core, 1.6GHz Cortex A9 ARM processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage space (expandable via microSD), and a 1024x600 display. Other lackluster specs include Bluetooth 2.1, a front-facing VGA camera, and a 3MP shooter on the back. The device runs a stock version of Android 4.1. More»

Samsung is expanding its Galaxy Note family this week with a fresh entry: the Galaxy Note 8.0. As its name implies, this new member features an 8" TFT display (sorry, no AMOLED here) with a screen resolution of 1280x800. Inside, you'll find a 1.6GHz Samsung Exynos 4 quad-core processor paired with 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.0, 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, microSD expansion slot (supports up to 32GB) and a 4600 mAh battery. The tablet/smartphone will run Android 4.1.2 with a dash of TouchWiz. Models being shown at MWC 2013 are equipped with HSPA+, but models destined for the U.S. in Q2 will feature LTE capability.Source:www.dailytech.com More»

Eng. Atef Helmy, Egypt’s Information and Communication Technology Minister will be meeting with the Turkish Minister of Transport and Communication, Binali Yildirim on the sidelines of  GSMA Mobile World Congress which will be held in Barcelona, Spain starting from 25 to 28 February, 2013. The meeting will discuss promoting the technological cooperation opportunities between the two countries, an official source from Egypt's ICT ministry, who refused to mention his name, told in a phone call to Turkish Anadolu News Agency. He said the two parties shall discuss making more partnerships between Egypt and Turkey seeking to boost the country's export opportunities and discover new and diverse markets. Egypt will take part in GSMA Mobile World Congress which will is organized by World Federation for GSMA operators. Egypt will participate within an official delegation headed by the ICT Minister, including 17 Egyptian technological firms. More»

Experts from Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, are scheduled to arrive in Jordan in March to train local programmers on developing apps and games that run on the BlackBerry 10 platform. "BlackBerry will send its experts to train Jordanian programmers on the new BlackBerry 10 platform in March...This will help local developers create apps and games that run on the new platform," Nour Khrais, chairman of the Jordan Gaming Task Force, told The Jordan Times on Thursday. "Usage of BlackBerry smartphones is huge in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the rest of the Arab Gulf states. Therefore, when Jordanian developers are trained on the new platform, they can create apps and games for BlackBerry that are in high demand in the region, especially in Arabic," said Khrais. Training will be conducted at the Jordan Gaming Lab at the King Hussein Business Park, he said. More»

ZAIN KSA has recently introduced a number of development and expansion projects which unsure its unique position in the field of communication and information technology in the region, adding that it has worked on updating and developing the data transferring technologies since the launch of its data services brand (speed 4G). The company said it lunched many 4G supporting devices, with data transfer speed rates that reaches up to 100 Mbit / second, allowing subscribers to enjoy downloading and sharing files, playing video games and using all sorts of applications, making it the first choice in the Kingdom for Internet users. The company also provided voice services subscribers with the ability of free 4G (LTE) data service enabling, by sending 4G to number 959, via their postpaid lines, or to number 700212 for prepaid lines. More»

 Waseem Arsany, CEO of LinkdotNet, one of the leading internet solutions and service providers (ISP) in Egypt, has revealed that the number of internet users have increased during the past two years between 30% and 35% of the total number of subscribers to all service providers in the market. He added that LinkdotNet acquires the second rank of market share of internet services in the Egyptian market, noting that LinkdotNet eyes to increase its network’s users in 2013 through providing new services that cater to the aspirations of users for higher speeds and lower prices. Moreover, Arsany emphasized that LinkdotNet cooperates now with Telecom Egypt in order to resolve the problems faced by the customers in some Telephone Centrals such as Nasr City, Maadi, and Heliopolis, explaining that they witnessed some bottlenecks in the last period due to the increasing demand for internet services and the relatively low capacities as compared to the volume of use. Furthermore, he asserted that the internet service providers in Egypt are looking forward to make Telecom Egypt finalizes the replacement of current copper cables with optical fiber cables that provide higher speeds so as to be in line with the government’s target to offer high-speed internet, achieve broadband strategy and keep up with global internet speeds by 2020. More»