A snapshot from a lecture held by Tie Dubai group by Artour Severinov.

UAE telecom operator Etisalat has unblocked Skype, the VoIP calling service, in the UAE. Etisalat confirmed this via its social media accounts. “The long awaited app is finally available for all, Enjoy calling your long distance friends & family using #Skype,” the telecoms firm said. However, this isn't the first time that a Skype 'ban' has lifted in the UAE. The ban has seemingly been lifted on more than one occasion in the past, only to be blocked again.

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The first mobile phone call was made 40 years today, on April 3, 1973, by Motorola employee Martin Cooper. Using a prototype of what would become the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, the world’s first commercial cell phone, Cooper stood near a 900 MHz base station on Sixth Avenue, between 53rd and 54th Streets, in New York City and placed a call to the headquarters of Bell Labs in New Jersey.

The substance of the call is lost to history, but it probably doesn’t compare to the first telegram (“What hath God wrought”), first telephone call (“Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you”), or even the first text message (“Merry Christmas”). Cooper’s inaugural mobile conversation is remembered as, “I’m ringing you just to see if my call sounds good at your end,’ or something to that effect.”

Regardless, the call was a major step in the development of mobile technology, though it would take another decade for the DynaTAC to reach consumers and two more decades for cell phones to overtake land lines in worldwide usage. But today, “phone” is synonymous with “mobile phone,” and the latest trend is toward mobile devices that aren’t really phones much at all. Motorola’s mobile business, meanwhile, is now owned by Google.

Redesigning websites today isn’t just about changing the look and feel. With technology changing and different problems needing to be solved, redesigning and overhauling websites goes much deeper than just the way they look. The functionality, presentation, how they load, and how well they can be updated are all things that are prompting website redesigns on the daily basis.

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The Home Page of your website is the most important page. Think of it as you would the main entrance to your shop or reception to your office. With this in mind consider what you would expect to see in a shop window and the greeting you would be given by a friendly receptionist, and then make a list of things you should include on your Home Page.

If you need to focus on a project, make sure to limit your multitasking.

Studies show that only 2% of people can actually multitask effectively!