Yep – they’re on the way. Discovery TV and ESPN are already on board, and about ten more players are set to begin broadcasts later this year, according to an expert in the field. And that expert, Noam Shalev of Highlight Films, is ready for the world of tomorrow with a new and better – and cheaper – way to develop content for 3D TV broadcasts. In fact, he says, his company is already working on a deal to produce a 3D TV series for a “large nature broadcaster than is going to begin 3D broadcasts. The series will be filmed underwater, showing viewers a dimension of underwater life they have never seen before,” Shalev says.

Bet you won’t think you don’t need a 3D TV when that series comes out!

While you would think that 3D technology – whether in the production of the technology or the content for broadcasts – would be an affair for Japan and Hollywood, it turns out that Israeli ingenuity has gained an important foothold in several aspects, both on the hardware, software, and even content ends -  of the coming 3D revolution. For Shalev’s Highlight Films, that foothold comes in the form of a better – and especially cheaper – way to produce 3D content.

“The rule of thumb in the industry is that the cost of 3D production is at least three times the cost of standard, 2D production,” says Shalev. “Through judicious use and unorthodox tweaking of the available tools, software and hardware, we’ve been able to reach the same professional results that large studios have, at a much higher cost.”

Shalev, who has been in the movie production business for 19 years, both inside and outside of Israel, has been working with his head of production, Aviv Peres (no relation), to develop the unique workflow that enables them to deliver 3D content for as little as half of what other major players in the field can. “We deliver by far the best quality at a price no one can touch, from what I can tell, and I know the industry well,” Shalev says. Besides the aformentioned TV series on underwater life, Shalev is also producing a full-length 3D movie on the Dead Sea – the first ever made about that body of water – which will be Israel’s entry into the New Seven Wonders of the World contest.

It’s important to note, however, that Shalev hasn’t exactly invented something new; call him a technique innovator, instead. “The cameras and software that go into making a 3D production are very complicated, and new stuff is coming out all the time,” he says. “The only way to learn how to do what we do is to work with the equipment and software.” While, in time, he expects other producers to be able to duplicate his success, Shalev says that by that time he expects to move ahead of the pack, anyway. “Filming for 3D is much different than filming for 2D, and my camera crews are top-flight, so I would imagine that it would take awhile for competitors to catch up with us.” With that, Shalev is investigating whether his production methods are patentable.

Meanwhile, Shalev has begun producing promotional films and travelogues using his methods, and response has been great, he says, with TV channels and producers around the world expressing interest. You can view some of his movies on the Highlight Films site, although, Shalev says, the standard 3D red and blue paper glasses most people will have as they watch on a small computer screen won’t do his work justice.

An Israeli company that has invented something new in the 3D arena is Elrom Studios, the people that put Hebrew subtitles at the bottom of your favorite movies and TV shows. And, says Noam Gal, Director of the Support Department in Elrom’s Development Group, the company’s already popular ELR Studio package is even more popular, thanks to the addition of support for 3D subtitles.

While there are no plans for 3D TV broadcasts in Israel anytime soon, Gal says, there are plenty of other countries that need subtitling services and software for their 3D broadcasts – and Elrom is ready with a simpler, better and cheaper solution, eliminating the problem of “sinking” subtitles in 3D content. “As the 3D image deepens, the subtitles seem to move backwards, so the viewer feels something is ‘off,’ even if they don’t know exactly what it is,” Gal says. “Our technology more precisely positions the subtitle, keeping it consistent with the video.” It may sound like a minor technical fix, but it’s actually a very significant accomplishment in the subtitle business – an accomplishment that has been generating a lot of interest, Gal says.

And if you are someone who watches TV – or uses a video or stills camera, a computer monitor, or any other device with a screen, you might as well get used to the idea of 3D, Highlight’s Shalev says. “The whole video industry is working on this, and they have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in it already. It’s not just TV,” Shalev says, “it’s the whole array of video products.” And while, for now, you really do need glasses to get the full 3D effect, within two or three years we will begin seeing the first TV sets and screens that let you experience 3D without glasses, he says. It’ll be a whole small world in – not on – the small screen, coming to a screen near you, sooner than you think!

Related articles

• Why NOW is the wrong time to buy a 3D TV (lehsys.com)
• Poll: Can You See 3D TV? (wired.com)
• Sony, Japanese Broadcasters Offer 3-D TV Series (voices.allthingsd.com)

That coup is being led by a site called Groupon, which is to shoppers what Facebook is to teenagers. Groupon is a combination coupon/deal/advertising site that helps businesses recruit new customers, while providing signifcant deals for consumers.

Each day, Groupon features deals in various categories (many of them related to food/leisure/services/travel), with the “big deal of the day” offering consumers discounts on whatever is being offered – up to 90% off, in some cases. Consumers who want the deal buy the discount coupon in advance and redeeming it at the business. The catch: Groupon offers a set number of coupons (say, 200) for the product/service. If the minimum number of people buy a coupon, the deal is “on.” If not – everyone who paid gets a refund, and the business goes back to the drawing board.

Groupon was started by in Chicago by now 29 year old entrepreneur Andrew Mason in November 2008 – at the height of the recession (first lesson of Groupon: don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t make it, even when times are tough!). Today, Groupon itself provides deals in 150 markets in the U.S., and in four other countries – and that doesn’t even include the dozens of Groupon clones, both in the U.S. and abroad. Groupon started out with $1 million in funding – and several weeks ago, the company rejected an estimated $6 billion buyout offer from Google!

A healthy percentage of those Groupon clones are to be found right here in Israel; I counted at least a dozen at DailyD, which aggregates the deals from each of the Israeli group buying sites). There’s even a site, called Groopbuy, that appeals strictly to English speakers, with most of their deals located in Jerusalem. The biggest Israeli group-buying site is Deal Hayom, which features deals in five Israeli cities – Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Rishon Lezion, and Be’ersheva.

While the internet is worldwide, and certainly national, the trick with group buying sites – including Deal Hayom and Groupon – is to give it a local flavor, says  Dr. Eyal Felstaine, CEO of Deal Hayom, with whom I discussed the whole group-buying phenomenon. Group-buying sites have to give incentives to both consumers and businesses in order to get them on board  – and the way to do that, he says, is by micro-targeting the consumer and matching his or her need to the businesses. And the way to that, he says, is by building a good, old-fashioned mailing list. “That’s my biggest asset, and I am very careful not to misuse it. Everyone who signs up gets an email a day with a deal tailored to their needs.”

When he tries to sell a business on offering a deal, Felstaine says, he tells them that it’s not a discount they’re offering; instead, they’re actually entering into an advertising campaign. “I offer them a guaranteed audience for the product or service they’re targeting,” he says. “Remember that if all the coupons aren’t sold, the deal doesn’t go through, and everyone gets a refund. Thus the businesses are getting exposure to many new potential customers who will hopefully come back again, after the coupon expires.”

That’s one reason why the deal services work on the local level. “The business or service has to be convenient to consumers, otherwise they won’t bother. We can target potential customers by several methods, the most important being address. Residents of Be’ersheva, for example, might use a coupon for a restaurant in Tel Aviv on a one-time basis, but if they get coupons for Be’ersheva, they are much more likely to return to that restaurant in the future,” Felstaine says.

The question of whether or not customers will return once the deal is over – the loyalty question – is one that is asked by many business owners, much less computer journalists. When it comes to supermarket shopping, for example, even loyalty programs where the customer signs up for a credit card issued by the market fall by the wayside unless the store keeps the deals coming; if consumers see the store as too expensive, they just won’t go.

The loyalty question is a real issue for businesses, says Felstaine – and for that reason, he says he does not work with businesses that are not going to benefit from the group-buying model. “A store that sells Levis jeans, for example, is not going to benefit from this – and we wouldn’t even try to sell them on the service. The loyalty is to the jeans, not the store.

“But it’s different for a business like a restaurant or a spa,” Felstaine says. “If you want to go out with your spouse or friends, you are more likely to go to a place you’ve been to before, or that you’ve heard about from friends. You want to know the route, more or less, what to expect, whether there is parking, etc. For a business that caters to leisure needs, group coupon buying is an excellent resource. It’s like advertising for them – and for all I know, many of the people we work with may be using their advertising budgets to pay for expenses associated with their deals,” he adds. “The return on investment per user is 100% – ie the coupons are sold in advance, so the advertiser knows it works.”

For years, internet advertising was considered effective only for big-name, national and international business; if was just to difficult to sell to small business. The best a local business could do was use Google Adwords to target users, and cross their fingers. But it seems that Groupon and company have broken the code (Groupon is said to have about 35 million users; Felstaine says that Deal Hayom sells NIS 12 million a month, and has 110,000 users). People are going to go shopping, deal or no deal; why not take advantage and save some money?

That’s been the theory until now in Israeli policy-making circles – and it’s a theory that’s proved true, at least when it comes to Iran. The regimes in the Sunni Gulf, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are all deathly afraid of Iran’s Shi’ite tentacles, according to Wikileaks cables that have been published over the past several weeks – to the extent that some of them have even urged the U.S. to either directly attack Iran itself, or to encourage Israel to do so.

Why can’t they all just get along? The bottom line is that the Sunnis are running scared from the Shi’ite Iranians – which, it would appear, would be just another chapter in a history full of strife between the two groups. But after having thoroughly studied the TV broadcasts from the Arab world over the past months, I think I can say that it’s not the Shi’ites the Sunnis fear – it’s the Shi’ite’s fanatical resistance to modernization.

Although “fear of Shi’ism” and “fear of Shi’ite fanaticism” sounds like the same thing, it isn’t. The Egyptians, the Kuwaitis, Abu Dhabians, and Dubai-ites would certainly consider themselves to be as good Muslims as the Iranians; certainly, with a little goodwill, you’d think that the relatively small differences between Shi’ites and Sunnis could be bridged, and a united Muslim front could be established.

But they can’t – and won’t – get together. Iran and the majority of the rest of the Muslim world want two different things. If Iran ever did get control of the Muslim world, the leaders of the western-leaning states in the Gulf, Egypt, and even Jordan would find themselves on the firing line. Not because they’re Sunnis, but because they encourage a western lifestyle, at least to some extent, among their citizens. And, the more western-leaning the country, the more likely it was to speak against Iran, as quoted by American diplomats in the Wikileaks documents. It’s a package deal: The more a Muslim country seeks to modernize the more likely they are to speak out against Iran – and the more open their TV broadcasts.

Unlike in Israel or the U.S., most Arabic-speaking residents of the Middle East are treated to free TV broadcasts, via satellite. Of course, there are cable and DBS pay systems, but unlike many other places, residents of the Middle East can enjoy a rich diet of news, entertainment, movies, and TV series – both in Arabic and English. In fact, there are any number of TV stations, especially in the Gulf states, that could give YES and HOT a run for their money, broadcasting for free the same TV series and movies that Israelis have to pay to watch. The major satellites serving Arabic-speakers – Nilesat, Arabsat, etc. – carry about 600 channels, and each country’s stations have their own “personality” – with a direct correlation between the “modernity” of the broadcasts, the western-leaningness of the country, the fear of Iran by the country’s leaders, and their openness to dealing with Israel.  Here are some examples:

Dubai: Without doubt, the most Western of Middle Eastern states, Dubai is home to the MBC network, the premier free-to-air broadcaster in the region, and perhaps the world. While a private network, the fact that an ostensibly conservative regime like Dubai’s lets MBC broadcast the latest American sitcoms, dramas, and movies, with no censorship whatsoever (even rough language isn’t cut out) makes it clear where the regime stands on the question of how modern Dubai should be.

MBC channels run commercials, many for Western products like Ford cars, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Close-Up toothpaste, and a host of others.  If you turn down the sound, you will have a hard time believing you are watching commercials aimed at residents of a conservative Muslim country; none of the women are wearing veils (although some of the men are dressed in jalabiyas and the like), and there is plenty of physical contact between men and women. Dubai’s leaders have strongly advocated U.S. action in restraining Iran, and it’s “well-known” that Israel and Dubai have pursued relations on an unofficial level for years.

Egypt: Having signed a peace treaty with Israel decades ago, the Egyptians have stuck to the letter, if not the spirit, of that agreement. But despite leaving much to be desired when it comes to our relations with them, Egypt most certainly would prefer Israel’s company over Iran’s.

As the most populous and influential Arab country with a substantial fundamentalist population, Egypt treads a fine line, and comes off a bit more conservative than Dubai on TV. The country has only a couple of English-language free-to-air TV stations (one of them government-sponsored, with another dedicated to, of all things, horror movies!).

The Egyptian government runs the county’s main TV entertainment network, called Nile, which has a mix of comedies, drama, and sports, depending on the channel. Here the actors are dressed a little more conservatively, and the shows appear to be homey-type dramas with original programming (in Dubai, Kuwait, and other more modern places, many of the shows are from Turkey, dubbed in Arabic, and many are rather “racy”) that don’t fit the Nile formula. However, Egypt has several private networks as well, such as Melody Entertainment, which plays MTV-style music videos and Turkish dramas.

Saudi Arabia: You won’t find much on official Saudi Arabian TV, other than live broadcasts of services in the Mecca Masjid and Koran readings. But the largest entertainment network in the Arabic-speaking world, called Rotana, is owned by none other than Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. A media conglomerate, Rotana broadcasts everything from western movies and TV shows (in cooperation with the News Corporation’s Fox networks, a 9% owner of Rotana) to western music videos, to religious programming. The Saudis, as we noted, were the ones that called for the U.S. to “get Iran.”

I could go on, but you get the idea. When it comes to Iran, Muslim countries like Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Dubai, and others have much in common with Israel – and when it comes to TV, they have much more in common with our western lifestyle than with the Iranian alternative. Who says you can’t learn anything from TV?

First, the story, as it currently stands: Sometime last week, news reports began appearing in the Hebrew language news sites (Yediot, Nana, Mako, etc.) on a new, seemingly draconian edict: All packages arriving from abroad would be subject to new fees, due to “customs requirements.” Recipients of books and other items $50 or less in value would pay NIS 38 in “processing fees,” while items valued over $50 would be charged a processing fee, customs payments, and VAT. The move raised the ire of almost everyone, and threatened to deal a death blow to internet shopping for Israelis.

As the story developed, spokespeople for the Postal Authority said that the change was “being forced on them” by the government; the post office is the next public company in line for privatization, and as such, services it had received in the past from the government would now cost it money. One of those services that now had to be paid for, the spokespeople later said, was  Customs Authority inspection of letters and packages. Apparently in the past, Customs had stationed staff at the Postal Authority’s intake facility, conducting whatever checks they needed to on the spot (the arrangement was due to a special act of the Knesset). Now that the private Postal Company is to be in charge of the mail, it was decided that it would be unfair to provide the company with a service not given to private parcel companies, like UPS and Fedex. So, packages sent through the Postal Company would now require a payment of a “handling fee,” as the Postal Company now had to ship packages to Customs, pay them a service fee, etc. And now, all packages, not just those with a declared value of over $100 (as had been the “custom” until now) would have to be inspected.

After a week of really bad press – an editorial in the Jerusalem Post summarized the anger quite well – the post office people finally clarified/relented/surrendered. On Sunday, the deputy head of the Postal Company, Herzl Bar-Mag, told Israel Radio that “there never was a plan to charge for packages from abroad.” Actually, that wasn’t quite the case – what he meant, he said, was that 90% of packages would be exempt.

The company later that day released “corrected” information in a press statement (and, as of this moment, the stated policy on packages is as follows): Packages with a declared value of $50 or less ($70 for clothing and books) that are shipped to Israel in parcels that weigh two kilos or less, will not be charged anything – no duties, no handling fees. The fees (but not customs charges) kick in only on packages larger than 2 kilos. Packages valued at more than $50 will be subject to al customs/fees etc. According to Bar-Mag, Postal Company statistics show that 90% of the packages sent to Israel, whether from friends/relatives or from shopping sites like eBay, Amazon, and the ever-popular dealextreme.com (which ships free and has a slew of items under $2), would be exempt from any charges. And, by the way, he added, the fee is “only” NIS 35, not NIS 38. So, said Bar-Mag and the rest of the post office crew, the whole story was a tempest in a teapot, much ado about nothing.

Of course, none of us believe that. Anyone reading the talkbacks on the articles that appeared on this subject online would have been impressed at the fury normally compliant Israelis (when it comes to paying taxes and fees) displayed when their internet shopping and shipping was threatened. Petitions were signed (by tens of thousands, in a matter of days), Knesset members got into the act, and choice “expletive deleteds” were hurled at the postal people.

What got the Postal Company to back down? The question assumes that there really had been a plan to impose the charges, and that the company changed its mind after seeing the internet outrage. I rather think it was because of one particular tactic suggested by many talkbackers. If the Postal Company thought it could rake in a payday by charging NIS 35 for any and every package, a little consumer guerilla warfare was called for: Order lots of 99 cent items from DealExtreme, and “forget” to pick them up from the Post Office. By “donating” ten bucks, tens of thousands of Israelis could gum up the works in the Customs office, thus showing the “authorities” what happens when they mess with irate consumers.

That’s the story, in a nutshell – and here are the lessons (IMHO, YMMV, and all other usual disclaimers apply):

Internet Ignorance – The Postal Company claims this week that its plan all along was to exempt packages 2 kilos and under from the charge, but the stories last week, that claimed that all packages would be checked and charged, seemed to include copious comments from Postal Company officials. Like any other large business in this country, they no doubt have an official spokesperson who is supposed to stay on top of stories – or inaccuracies, if that was the case. Don’t they use Twitter over there? And if not, I think I see a job opening for a social media consultant looking for work!

Net journalism needs work – What applies to the Postal Company applies double to the news web sites that spread the story. The first story on the charges appeared on Yediot’s web site on November 7 – and it took until November 14 for a media rep (from Reshet Bet) to get one of the Postal Company’s people on the phone. For all I know, of course, the company was inundated with queries from journalists and bloggers on November 8 – but I tend to think that this was not the case.

How do I know? Because of the discrepancy in figures; it’s one thing to say a fee is being charged, but every story listed the wrong fee – NIS 38, instead of the actual fee of NIS 34.80. Notice the similarity in those numbers? I could see how a hasty conversation/copy and paste from a web site in the initial story could supply the wrong number in the first story, but for that number to still remain as the “official” fee later in the week means that nobody bothered to check with the Postal Company. Whether they backed off on imposing the fee on 2 kilo and smaller packages because of consumer protests is an open question, but I’m pretty sure the fee was NIS 34.80 from the start.

Having worked in both net and print journalism, I am pretty sure a story with an inaccurate number would never have gotten past the editor – probably even the first time, for sure the second time – in a print publication, if there had been no internet story first. The editor would have made us call up and check the information (the stories that appeared in the print media were basically reporting on the fees AND the net outrage; that actual “investigative journalism” work belonged to the websites that broke the stories).

Power of the internet, etc. – Talkbacks have an impact, the web as the new public square, yadda yadda. Those are the obvious points, of course, but perhaps a less obvious point is one on the psyche of Israelis. The fee story shows that they can quickly mobilize on an issue when they really feel pain – meaning that they haven’t felt the pain when they don’t mobilize en masse for a cause, no matter how worthy it is. That’s a lesson politicians might take to heart, and should be a source of comfort if (may it never come) we are faced with a truly serious national emergency. As for us, the real lesson is – you have until December 31 to take advantage of the old rules. Shop now!

Related articles

• A Reckoning Ahead for the U.S. Mail (businessweek.com)
• The postal services bill is bad for postal services and bad for us | Lindsay Mackie (guardian.co.uk)
• For many in Massachusetts, it’s a postal disservice (boston.com)

Israel’s “isolation” in this case has nothing to do with anti-Semitism; it’s because Israel’s telecommunications industry is so dynamic, chock-full of so many good ideas and technologies, it wouldn’t be fair to include us with any other international grouping; too many of the great ideas coming out of Israel would get lost in the shuffle if we didn’t have our own standing, and the other countries competing against us in the grouping wouldn’t stand a chance!

To celebrate the emergence of Israel as a world telecom development center, the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute, together with event organizers innaMotion, will be holding Innovation Tele.com 2010 – The Israel Telecom Mobile Brokerage Event – bringing top officials of a dozen foreign telecom companies to Israel for three days of fun, food, and hopefully, dealmaking. The conference takes place next week, October 26-28.

Although Israeli companies are at the forefront of telecom development, many of the companies that develop products here have a hard time getting the attention of international players, says Roy On of the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute. “Although the telecommunication industry is a very focused market, the limited sales and marketing expertise of many local vendors, along with getting access to the decision makers in foreign companies, makes closing deals very difficult,” On says. “Innovation Tele.com will make the experience of doing business with Israel into fun and full of value to the carrier and the vendor,” thus cementing Israel’s position as a top telecom power.

As part of the event, Israel will be hosting top officials from some of the world’s largest telecom companies in Europe and the Far East  – including from China Mobile, which has over half a billion subscribers! Other carriers set to attend include China Telecom Group, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Jaawal, MTS, NRJ Mobile, Orange France Telecom, P4 PlayMobile, Telecom Italia (TIM), Telekom Serbia, Vivacom, and Vodafone. In a unique approach, the visitors won’t just see Israel from the inside of a stuffy hotel conference room; they’ll be traveling around to different venues, including Old Jaffa, Jerusalem, and a full-day tour of the north, seeing the sites and visiting Israeli hi-tech companies at their home bases.

Potential customers will also get a chance to meet with vendors, and evaluate their sales pitches, with a grand contest to be held on the last day, where the top products will be chosen – and, program organizers hope, purchased -  by the visitors. The Export Institute and innaMotion are working with vendors to make sure they put their best foot forward, given that they’ve got a unique chance to impress an audience with some of the deepest pockets in the telecom world.

Over 40 Israeli companies will be represented at the conference, many of which have made a name for themselves in the industry – such as Waze, which is building a social network revolving around traffic tips, along with a road mapping feature that’s much more useful and accurate than Google Maps, imho; My6Sense, which makes an excellent social media aggregator for the iPhone, letting you control your Facebook, Twitter, and other posts; Worldmate, whose application keeps travelers on top pf their itineraries; MeCanto, an innovative service that puts your music in the cloud and lets you listen to it on your phone, wherever and whenever; and many more.

According to the Export Institute, there some 600 companies in Israel’s telecom sector.  Considering Israel’s population of about 7 million, that works out to one telecom-sector company for every 11,000 people – a pretty high rate, by anyone’s criteria. And considering that Israel has one of the world’s highest penetration of cell phone use per capita, it makes sense that telecom would be a major hi-tech industry here. That, along with the defense-related nature of much telecommunications work, guarantees that Israel is going to be responsible for some amazing telecom developments. Just how well is the sector doing? In 2008, telecom companies were responsible for $12 Billion in exports – half of Israel’s high tech exports and 15% of Israel’s total exports of US$80 billion.

And the sector is only going to grow, say experts. In a recent interview with the Israel Investment Newsletter, Gemini’s Carmel Sofer said that Israel has been responsible for some of the most dramatic cellphone innovations out there. “We’re now witnessing the emergence of the mobile Internet, and this is coming from Israel,” Sofer said. “The mobile phone is no longer being looked at just for its voice capabilities, it’s being considered as a data device. Many are trying to take web applications and make them work on the phone. Those companies, and many of them are located in Israel, who can start developing mobile applications from the ground up as they look how users will interact with the Mobile Internet are going to be the winners.” With sales mobile devices – especially smartphones – really set to shoot up in the coming months (thanks to continued strong iPhone sales, and especially to the phenomenal growth of Android-platform phones), companies  in Israel’s telecom industry are in the right place, at the right time!

Related articles

• Israeli Innovation Contributes $2.4 Billion To The Massachusetts Economy According To New Study (eon.businesswire.com)

The iSrael app has a nice interface, and includes information about hotels and special events. Currently, there are a number of blank sections in the database, such as lists of restaurants, recommended tours outside the center of the country, and other details, but one can assume they will be filled in over the coming days and sent on to those who downloaded the app. Currently, you can click on a phone number or email address to make a call or send a message to a hotel, organization, or other group featured in the listing you’ve been reading; hopefully the app will in the future provide maps and driving directions to the sites included in the app, taking advantage of the tight integration of the iPhone platform.

Unfortunately, I don’t have such high hopes for most of the other Israel-oriented apps in the App Store; most of them are very basic, lacking the useful information their publishers claim for them, while other apps that look promising are very buggy, and tend to crash.

Indeed, many of the apps could have been so much better, so much more useful: The app put out by a large Israeli supermarket chain could have, for example, let you see prices on products by using the iPhone’s video camera to upload UPC codes, like some supermarket apps in the U.S. do, but in its current form, the only thing you can do is make a basic shopping list – very basic, since you can’t even choose between competing brands, like Tara and Tnuva, when you click on “add milk” to your cart! There’s the Hasbara app that in its App Store description that claims to include all of Israel’s most important documents, symbols, and biographies – but falls far short, basically swiping Wikipedia’s pages on the subject. And then there’s the the business directory put out by one of the largest dispensers of information in the country whose app crashed nine out of ten times on my device. Pathetic!

But there are some standout Israel-oriented apps for the iPhone, many of which are very popular, practically guaranteeing they will be made available for other platforms in the future. One of the reasons you got a smart phone was so you could have information at your fingertips – and these apps, which you can download in the iPhone App Store, will hopefully make that information a lot more accessible and usable.

Visit-TLV: If the Tourism Ministry is looking for pointers on how to build a successful tourist app, they  ought to set up a meeting with the folks from the Association for Tel Aviv-Jaffa Tourism, the geniuses behind the free Visit-TLV iPhone app (there are Hebrew and English versions). Heavy on easy-on-the-eye graphics, the app tells visitors all about the things you really want to know when visiting the “Big Orange” – where the cafes, restaurants, pubs, museums, and activities are, and how to get to them. The app includes all the hotels in the city, a list of free guided or unguided walking tours, photos and descriptions of public art in the city – and phone numbers, web sites, and integrated iPhone maps and directions to make sure you get where you want to go. Visit-TLV is the kind of tourist application the iPhone was made for!

Sherut.Net (Hebrew): One of the ways large corporations defend themselves from nudniks is through the “phone tree.” Of course, they would say that a drill-down phone menu that you use to make selections that will eventually get you to the person you need to speak to is just a matter of efficiency, but we know better; it’s a tactic to wear us down, to make us compliant so we won’t complain about poor service or high prices.

That’s why Sherut.net, an iPhone app based on a website of the same name, is so useful. Let’s say your YES remote control doesn’t work; who do you call? Well, YES, of course, but negotiating that phone tree is such a hassle! With Sherut.net, though, you know exactly how to get to the appropriate representative: Dial *2080 (the YES phone number), then press 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 on the menu, in that order.  Sherut.net’s got the contact info and “phone tree formula” for nearly every large company or service in the country.

Food: There are a number of Israeli restaurant apps in the App Store, the most comprehensive of which is the free app from Rest.co.il, based on the website of the same address. Just like on the website, you can choose a location (region, city, town), type of food (Italian, Chinese, coffee shop), specify whether you’re looking for a kosher place – and the app will fetch all the restaurants meeting your criteria, with details, phone numbers, and maps (no driving directions, though). The Rest.co.il app has everything you need to know if you want to dine out anywhere in Israel, and the app’s interface is easy enough to use, but some of its “features” – for example, the app doesn’t “remember” well; you have to do a new search of the database every time you leave it, like when you click on a phone number in order to speak with the restaurant – could use some work.

For sheer fun, though, the Fiddme app can’t be beat. Fiddme is a restaurant/meal review site, where you can upload photos and reviews of memorable dishes you’ve had while dining out. As a result of all the reviews, the app (many of its features are now available on the site as well) now has a solid database of restaurants, mostly in the Tel Aviv area. Fiddme gives you the facts, but it also gives you editorial opinion, based on what its users think of dining establishments and the dinners they serve, saving you from the heartbreak – and heartburn – of making a poor dining choice!

Tweet Your Prayer: Alon Nil started taking “tweeted” prayers to the Western Wall last year, letting people send in their 140 character or less requests, blessings and pleas via Twitter; he then printed out the prayers and put them in the Kotel. Now, Alon has a free iPhone app, downloadable from the App Store or from his site, where the “iPhone challenged” can also tweet prayers from. In the iPhone app, you just type in your prayer, click on the “Amen” button, and you’re set. Imagine – being able to “pray” at the Kotel anytime, from anywhere. Talk about a useful app!

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What device should you buy? Which makes the most sense for residents of Israel? Which is the best buy, and can I buy it at Best Buy when I travel to the States? So many questions, so little space. Fortunately, I covered the e-book reader scene not long ago (check out the article here), but what good is an e-book reader without content to read? And until recently, content was a problem – which led me to suggest the iPad as the most practical e-reader for Israelis (albeit the most expensive).

Only the iPad’s iBook library gave you the ability to download content directly to your device, as Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook (the two major players in the e-reader market) did not allow you to access content from their bookstores in Israel. Apple doesn’t let you use an Israeli credit card at its bookstore either, but you can buy gift cards for the iTunes store and use that credit to buy content for your iPhone or iPad, including at the iBook store (you can even buy the cards online here in Israel.

That was then – but a new development at Amazon threatens to change the value for money balance significantly in their favor. You can now download content from Amazon directly to your PC or your Kindle right here in Israel, using your Israeli credit card. No more blocked content because your IP address is in the “wrong neighborhood,” and no more nudging your friends who had American credit cards to download content for you.

Unfortunately, the Kindle itself is not (yet) available in Israel, but now that the content is available, it would seem to be just a matter of time until the device is sold here, as it is in some 100 countries (the holdup may be in Amazon’s trying to make a deal with a cellphone service provider for a 3G connection). On the other hand, the Kindle isn’t readily available anywhere as of this writing, because Amazon was inundated with orders after cutting the price of some of the devices (the iPad is hard to get, as well). iPads are not yet being officially sold in Israel either, but that is likely to change at some point in the future, as well.

For now, users who want a device but don’t want to go to the States (or send someone there) to buy one can use a service like Mustop to order either device and have it hand-delivered to their address in Israel.

The Nook’s content is only available in North America right now, as is the device itself, and B&N has no immediate plans to begin distributing worldwide, as Apple and Amazon have been doing for awhile. Now that book content is no longer a problem for either device, the question of which one to buy – iPad or Kindle – depends on whether you want to use your device just for reading books, in which case you’d get a Kindle. If you want a device that can do other things as well, like video, web searching, presentations, and much more, you’d go with an iPad. Like they say in the commercials, “there’s an app for that” – whatever it is, and that’s a claim only the iPad can make at this point.

Note that you can also download a Kindle app for the iPad, allowing you to access the Amazon bookstore and download e-versions of the half million or so books available there. The app, which is free, turns the iPad into a virtual Kindle. There is also a Kindle app for iPhone, Android, and even Blackberry devices. Don’t count Kindle out of the app game yet, either. Amazon offers developers a kit they can use to develop apps for the Kindle. While it will probably take Amazon a while (a long while!) to build an app store that iPad and iPhone users would be willing to take seriously, the Kindle’s sub-$200 price (compared to more than double for the cheapest iPad) will definitely sway some customers in these recessionary times.

We’re talking here about content, and content really does dictate buying choices for e-book readers. Maybe you’re more adventurous, and are willing to spend money on a non-Apple or Amazon product, or maybe someone gave you an eGriver Touch as a gift. Can you get content for it? Where would you download books compatible with your off-the-beaten-path device? As it turns out, there are plenty of other e-readers on the market, and some of them may be better deals (ie, have better features, etc.) than any of the “big three.”

But the big three are just that for a good reason – they have the content. If only there were a way to convert e-book content between formats, enabling Nook users to buy Amazon e-books, or iPad users to get deals meant for Nook users. That would be a great hi-tech miracle, wouldn’t it? Well, miracles do sometimes happen, as we will find out in part 2 of the e-book content story, next time!

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In this, Israel is not unique; any American (even the ones that voted for Barack Obama) will tell you that the private sector is more efficient than the public sector. But Israel’s government inefficiency hasn’t just been a drag on economy; over the past several weeks, the government’s difficulties in explaining its case on the Gaza flotilla has cost us big-time.

Note that I said “difficulty,” not “failure,” as many others have claimed. There are those who just hate Israel (and Jews; Helen Thomas proves they go together), and nothing we can say will make them unhate us. But there are many people who are willing to give us a fair hearing – and unfortunately, these are the people we failed in the first days after the incident. It took at least 24 hours for word to get out about the violent attack on Israeli soldiers by the “terror activists,” and only three days later did Israel’s story get mainstream publicity.

Of course, hasbara has to take a back seat to real security, and sometimes you have few options; like with the Gaza flotilla’s Mavi Marmara – where IDF soldiers had no choice but to use real bullets to save the lives of their comrades, who were savagely attacked by knife and club wielding “peace activists” – you’re damned if you do or don’t. But if we know our story is right, and we’re convinced of it, why do we seem to have such trouble selling it properly – and convincingly?

Maybe what we need is a little private-sector ingenuity for our hasbara efforts. Look at the saga of the “We Con the World” video; as you’ve probably heard by now, the video, produced by Latma, which is edited by our own Caroline Glick, was pulled from Youtube, most likely because of complaints by anti-Israel viewers who were appalled that their story – of how big bad Israel attacked the innocent “activists” – was hijacked, with the world seeing the truth of the intentions of the passengers on the Marmara, because of a parody, of all things!

Of course, Youtube claimed that the reason for the video’s ban was that it was in violation of “a copyright claim by Warner/ Chappell Music, Inc.” the owners of the rights to the original USA for Africa “We Are the World” song and video, produced in the 1980s to raise money for hunger in Africa. But that can’t be right, because U.S. copyright law provides for “fair use,” meaning that existing works of art can be freely used for parody or education purposes. Just ask Lenny Solomon and “Weird Al” Yankovic, who for decades have been rewriting top pop songs for education (Solomon) and parody (Al) purposes!

The point of the story, though, is why Youtube was moved to remove the video – because it was making an impact, thanks to the 3 million plus hits it generated in barely a week. Now the genie is out of the bottle; “We Con the World” has spread too far and too wide, and is now available on all sorts of sites. In fact, doing a search for “We Con the World” at Youtube yields dozens of copies, now dubbed in all sorts of languages!

As many have said, “We Con the World” was one of the best pro-Israel hasbara pieces to emerge in a long time – and the government had nothing to do with it! The truth is, though, the marketing people at many  Israeli companies – startups and veterans – are just as talented as the people at Latma. Why not come out with a parody a week – or some other effective video, audio, or web campaign, that can tell Israel’s side of the story in a surprising, interesting – and successful – manner?

That’s exactly the question that came up when I recently interviewed an Israeli “captain of industry” (he remains anonymous for this story, in order not to mix politics and business). We met just a day after the flotilla story took over the media. By that time, the headlines worldwide castigated the IDF for boarding the Marmara and five other ships, with the resulting nine deaths. Meanwhile, nearly no one was paying attention to Israel’s side of the story.

Commenting on the seeming lack of ability of Israel to get its point across, I told this executive that it appeared that the tepid efforts by hasbara officials to explain Israel’s position was possibly the result of the game of “musical chairs” played by politicians in this country. You have the same people running different ministries and departments in various governments, while the actual day to day work is done by the bureaucrats who remain on the job, no matter who the boss is. “The minister spends years just learning the issues, while the bureaucrats have no incentive to change their ways. While that system may be acceptable for deciding on where to build a sewage treatment plant, it just doesn’t work in day to day hasbara,” we both agreed.

Then we brainstormed an idea; why not “outsource” hasbara? I don’t mean officially; no bureaucrats will be hurt in the execution of this plan. But if every successful hi-tech company, if every successful PR firm, non-profit marketing department, university information bureau, were to donate, say, an hour a week to a specific hasbara project, imagine how well Israel’s story would be told! The executive agreed; working on such projects, utilizing the amazing talent we have in this country, could be the solution we have long sought to the problem of getting the world’s attention. If “We Con the World” proves anything, it’s that good people around the world are indeed willing to give us a fair hearing. We just need to come up with something good for them to hear! The executive’s on board; how about you?

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That’s the part that concerns us today. For many people, the weather is the most important part of the news; notice how TV stations, even here in Israel, build a cult of celebrity around their weather presenters. The weather person is expected to have a bubbly personality, an ability to josh and banter, a nice, big smile – and the capacity to completely ignore the rest of the news, no matter how bad it is.

In other words, the weather exists in its own little bubble – unaffected by politics or world events. The same rule should apply on the internet, too – but unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the folks at Yahoo that you’re supposed to keep politics out of the weather forecast! And while we wouldn’t venture to argue with professional weather forecasters about troughs, inversions, and cold fronts, we do have some thoughts on the inappropriateness of dividing Jerusalem – not just the city, but the weather forecast! And, to add insult to Yahoo’s injury, even the part of Jerusalem that one would expect to be part of Israel – isn’t!

Hard to believe, but true. If you search for Jerusalem on the Yahoo weather pages, you get two choices – “Jerusalem, Yerushalayim” and “Jerusalem, West Bank.” Not a word about “Israel,” where the city, of course, is really located! That this differentiation is strictly political is evident from the contents of the pages. The weather forecast for both Jerusalems are identical – as one would expect. Meaning that there’s no reason – other than making a political statement – to have two separate pages. I can understand making a political statement, but via the weather? Two words come to mind – “petty” and “ridiculous.”

To be fair, I should point out that the “Jerusalem, Yerushalayim” entry is listed under “IL,” the international abbreviation for Israel. And where is “Jerusalem, West Bank” located? In PS, which one assumes to be the international abbreviation for “Palestine,” an entity that does not legally exist. Whether one likes it or not, the only legal entity in the areas beyond the green line are the IDF and the Palestinian Authority, as stipulated in the Oslo Accords.

Strangely, Yahoo isn’t even consistent with its politics. Both Jerusalem pages list the nearest weather station as being in “Jerusalem, Israel!” Wait, I’m confused; I thought it was “Jerusalem, Yerushalayim.” Does this mean there’s a third Jerusalem, the one with the weather station located in Israel? And those so inclined should not rejoice that Yahoo’s “PS” seems to be a tacit recognition of “Palestine,” a political entity that, for now at least, does not exist at all; according to the category menu, “Jerusalem, West Bank” is located in the “Palestinian Occupied Territories” – another legal fiction, and certainly a step down from “PS!” The inconsistencies just makes Yahoo look all the more foolish.

Unfortunately, the problem goes beyond Yahoo; it turns out that Yahoo’s politicized weather is the default forecast application for iPhones and iPod Touch devices (although I haven’t had the opportunity to check, on iPads, I would imagine that the same application is used). So, if you use an iPhone, as so many people do, you’re stuck with Yahoo’s silly, artificial – and foolishly inconsistent (they can’t even make up their minds!) weather pages.

Perhaps even more interestingly, the professional weather service that provides Yahoo with the forecasts – The Weather Channel – knows better than to play politics. On their site, and on their cellphone applications, Jerusalem – one, single united city – shows up in Israel; there are no political choices here. The Weather Channel itself is actually somewhat right-wing in its weather views, but not “radically” so; you can get the weather for Ariel, Israel, as well as Ramallah, West Bank. At least it makes sense! So it’s clear at whom the finger of blame points for the two Jerusalems; at Yahoo, and Yahoo alone.

Most other weather sites give readers what they came for, without any political baggage. Accuweather lists Jerusalem, Israel (no Ariel, though); so does AOL Weather, and Weather.org, home of the “Weather Underground.” Even the BBC – a news organization we might expect to take as left a view of the Middle East conflict as possible – avoids this problem, by eliminating country names altogether, for many places, not just in Israel, either (I couldn’t figure out the pattern, but it doesn’t appear to be political). So Jerusalem is just that – a stateless city, but a single stateless city. I suppose it’s the best we could expect from them.

Which brings us back to Yahoo. Out of all the major weather sites, Yahoo – and it’s adopted son, the iPhone – is the only one that makes political hay out of the weather forecast. Clearly, the staff at Yahoo needs to be re-educated on a couple of points; the political situation in the Middle East, the legal status of the entities in question, the meaning of the word “consistency” – and the inappropriateness of ruining the one part of the news everyone can enjoy without the headaches of politics butting in, Perhaps a few well-placed letters to the Yahoo folks to help them realize the error of their ways may help?

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“It’s like the Biblical ‘end of days,’” Ben-Zur says. “Computing power will be such that you’ll be able to have all the resources you need in one place. Transportation will be streamlined and things like power and food will be available for the same amount of money anywhere in the world. The result will be that there will be no need for countries to covet the possessions or resources of others – since there will be plenty for everyone, and there will be no need for anyone to invade the space of others. Thus, ‘nation shall not lift sword against nation.’”

It sounds fantastic, the naive vision of a facile optimist. But as chairman of a company that works with Israel’s largest software, hardware, internet, telecommunication, and software companies, Ben-Zur knows first-hand of the marvelous inventions and developments on the drawing boards, and in the workshops of hi-tech companies. And last week, Ben-Zur and Bynet treated thousands of visitors to the annual Bynet Expo, which gathers dozens of Israel’s largest tech companies under one roof to show off their wares and innovations. For those who worked in the computer industry abroad and wistfully remember the computer shows of old – with floor shows, T-shirts, keychains, “drop your business card in the box to win a laptop” contests, and a free lunch, Bynet Expo is as close as you’re going to get in Israel!

But of course, the main attraction at the show was the technology – of which there was much to see, too much for the day allocated to it. While there were numerous lectures and discussions on innovations in many areas of the computer industry, the main attraction, as it always is at such shows, were the booths set up by the biggest tech companies in Israel as well as many from abroad, including Cisco, IBM, Polycom, Audiocodes, Radware, etc.

Among the many things coming to a computer store near you is a better, faster way to do videoconferencing – in 3D! Thanks to a new generation of video transmission perfected by Radvision (a member of the RAD group, along with Bynet), called scalable video coding (SVC), which helps correct video transmission errors and enables superior forward error correction (ie anticipating when there is going to be packet loss and preparing for it) and faster transmission, with fewer bottlenecks. The transmission, coupled with superior 3D rendering software, enables users to have as realistic a video communications experience as possible, even from halfway across the world. And of course, no glasses are necessary.

According to Moshe Machline of Radvision, the system is good enough for the company that it was able to save nearly a million and a half dollars last year by enabling conferees to “meet” by video, instead of flying to meetings. “Eye contact is very important at meetings – you miss a lot the nuances on the screen, and that is one major thing that has held up adoption of videoconferencing. But with 3D videoconferencing, you can get a much better ‘read’ on everyone in the room, just as if you were actually there,” he says. The Radvision solution is sold by Bynet as part of a full videoconferencing solution.

Or take security – an area that unfortunately, in this period when the “end of days” has not quite yet arrived. Along with advances in video surveillance, Bynet partners have developed various technologies that enables the company to offer a unique solution for border patrols, police, and other law enforcement agents: a communication system capable of transmitting live, real-time video, data and voice communications via a single broadband connection, using a fast, secure, private network.

The key to the system is the high-speed wireless network, which allows fast transmission of high-resolution video and audio without any effort required on the part of the driver; the vehicle continues on its rounds or pursues a suspect, and the camera focuses, with an individual in the control center able to enhance the picture to see inside a vehicle even hundreds of meters away. Again, SVC and video correction and enhancement techniques are used, so observers get a full, uninterrupted view of the action. The network enables full transmission of the data with no bottlenecks.

And although the deployment of these technologies would seem to have little to do with the good and bountiful future Ben-Zur sees, the technologies that are being built today for prosaic and workaday needs will be the technology that supplies the future change, he says. “We’re coming into a period where there are going to be unlimited digital resources,” he says. “The bottlenecks that have prevented us from doing what we want are being eliminated, just as the problems of storage and standards were eliminated in earlier periods.

Once we get used to working with these resources, new uses for them will be developed – all of them making life easier,” Ben-Zur says. And the standardization and unlimited bandwidth that are coming won’t be used just for a faster Facebook connection; it will be used for things that really count, like delivering energy to far flung parts of the world, cheaply and safely. When that happens, he says, you’ll be able to stay where you are, and you won’t need to conquer the resources of others to fuel your economy. “When everything is available to everyone for a reasonable price and computers are doing most of the work – you have the building blocks for universal peace,” Ben-Zur says. It’s a vision even the most computer-phobic can embrace.

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