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Tech news from the Middle East: What you need to know from the past month

Jun03
by on June 3, 2014 at 10:09 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Middle East, Roundups

Morocco
Here’s my roundup of some of the most important or interesting regional entrepreneurial news that happened in the last month. As always, if you’d like to draw my attention to an important regional story, please contact me on Twitter (@startupegypt) or by e-mail at omar@talkinsense.com. And a quick word of advice for those that contact me, I’m more likely to follow-up with those that make life easy for me, so include stats and info in the email body and cut out the fat. It’s tedious reading press-release attachments telling me how great the CEO or CMO is. Rant over. Investment…

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Opera 22 for Mac and Windows arrives with new themes, and ‘silent’ updates for Windows

Jun03
by on June 3, 2014 at 9:36 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider

Opera has released the latest version of its desktop browser for Windows and Mac today. With Opera 22, the Norwegian firm has introduced five new themes that “showcase the local scenery” from Norway. “They complement Opera and add a touch of Scandinavian style to your desktop,” the company continues. Opera typically rolls out new versions fairly frequently, with the previous incarnation landing less than a month ago. With that in mind, the latest refresh brings a new ‘silent-update’ feature to Windows users, which basically means you no longer have to suffer update dialogs while you’re browsing the Web. Opera says…

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Check out Valve’s latest VR headset prototype

Jun03
by on June 3, 2014 at 9:17 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Insider

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Although a number of Valve employees have jumped ship to Oculus VR, it seems the beloved video game developer and Steam overlord hasn’t given up on its own virtual reality ambitions just yet. A development prototype of Valve’s virtual reality headset was shown to budding developers at the recent ‘Boston VR Bender‘ gathering, and perhaps inevitably, a batch of photos have found their way to Reddit. The device looks vaguely familiar to the Development Kit 2 by Oculus VR, with a large, black plastic hood and a series of straps to keep it secure. The unit is also covered with white…

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Europe’s awash with cleaning startups as Rocket Internet’s Helpling expands to four new countries

Jun03
by on June 3, 2014 at 8:19 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

There’s flurry of activity in the ‘book a professional cleaner’ startup space in Europe right now. Case in point: Rocket Internet’s Helpling is today expanding to four new markets; France, Sweden, Holland and Austria. Helpling first launched in Rocket’s native Germany in April using the same ‘book a cleaner for a fixed fee’ model as US-based Homejoy (itself active in the UK and Germany). Other European startups using the same approach include Hassle, Mopp and Housekeep, all of which have recently announced funding rounds. It’s early days though, and it remains to be seen which of these will actually, uh, clean up in terms…

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Google Offers pulled from App Store and Google Play, as Zavers coupon service winds down

Jun03
by on June 3, 2014 at 8:10 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Google

closing down
Google has removed its Google Offers app from the App Store and Google Play as it begins to wind down its Zavers digital coupon service. Recode reported that Zavers by Google, a three-year-old service that lets shoppers collect online coupons for retail stores, is being closed down, and today’s withdrawal of the apps appears to be the first step to transitioning away from the service. TNW contacted Google for comment, and received the same response that the company gave Recode earlier this week: “We’re working closely with clients during the transition and remain focused on connecting shoppers with the brands they…

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