Whenever someone asks me about the Shoura Council, I quickly respond: “Shoura is dead to me.” I have lost hope that anything good for the people would come out of this institution. Some think I’m being too harsh on them but I beg to differ. Now this is old news, because a couple of days ago Dr. Fahad al-Aboud, a member of the Shoura Council since 2001, offered yet another reason to take the council less seriously.
In his weekly column for al-Riyadh daily, Dr. al-Aboud wrote about a new iPod from Apple. That confused me a little bit because last time I checked Apple’s latest iPod was introduced in September 2009. So I figured maybe he meant the iPad, which was unveiled by Steve Jobs last month. The “revolutionary device,” he said, is a “tablet” computer. Okay, it’s the iPad then, I thought.
But in the next paragraph he adds, “the new device is 3-in-1: a mobile phone, an iPod, and an internet browser.”
Um, I’m confused again. The iPad indeed includes an iPod app and an internet browser, but can’t make phone calls. The iPod Touch is, well an iPod, can browse the internet, but also can’t make phone calls. The iPhone, on the other hand, can do all that, but it’s not exactly a tablet. So what’s up Doc?!
Dr. al-Aboud, who holds a PhD in information sciences from Florida State University, goes on and on about the new mysterious iPod that we have not yet seen, saying the new nonexistent device has given Apple “a psychological victory over its peers.” He then asks the all important question: “how far this amazing technological advancement will go?” It is safe to say, he concludes, that the human brain will have a hard time keeping up with or following this advancement.
Well, I can tell you that my brain is exploding from all this gibberish that I’m reading.
But on a more serious note, I believe this article, in addition to showcasing the incompetency of Shoura members, also says a lot about the state of media in the country. The minister of information and top editors here keep talking about how blogs and internet websites lack professionalism and credibility, presumably compared to their newspapers, and then they go and run utter rubbish.
Publishing an article like the aforementioned shows clearly that these newspapers do no fact-checking whatsoever. Do they even know what fact-checking is? Have they ever heard of such thing? They should. They are, after all, professional.
Saudi Jeans 
The link says his MA not his PHD is from Wisconsin State University but no matter. The term ‘Wisconsin State University’ doesn’t really have a meaning by itself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_State_University#Former_Wisconsin_State_Universities. That being said, there is no way anyone even remotely familiar with Apple and Iphones could have made the mistakes you point out.
I apologize. I made a mistake, I fixed it. Thanks for pointing that out.
Oh dear. That’s why I hate the Apple media machine (no offense Apple fans). It fills the internet tubes with marketing junk, which ignorant people use to make even more junk. the iPad (or for that matter the iPod or the iPhone) is not technologically revolutionary in any way, shape or form. It’s just packaged in a cool way that attracts the fad loving public (again no offense Apple fans).
everyone could have mistakes, even if he have PHD! Steve Jobs have many many mistakes about Apple products go to youtube and search for it
Fahad Al Obood came again in his article and add comment that he apologize for this Misprint, like what you did in this article :)
you have hateful and have a bad impression of him and Shoura at all, thats why you see this misprint as Huuuuug problem and incompetency of Shoura members !!
indeed, it is misprint happen for all of us
be more wiser Ahmed :)
Hate? No, I don’t hate them. I just think they are doing a lousy job. As for his correction, it still doesn’t make this article correct actually. The iPad doesn’t have a phone function, and he failed to correct that.
On another note, I’m surprised how he’s praising the iPad without even mentioning that everyone else on the internet seems to be disappointed.
The majority of tech pundits have decried the devices lack of phone and multi-tasking capabilities and if anything, Apple has lost credibility in the tech world.
Of course, it would seem that Apple marketing can still sway the easily impressionable ;P
Now what? Our Shoura Council is nothing but a bunch of technologically-challenged airheads?
Awesome!
A fact checker is the person who checks factual assertions in non-fictional text, usually intended for publication in a periodical, to determine their veracity and correctness. The job requires general knowledge, but more important it requires the ability to conduct quick and accurate research.
The resources and time needed for fact-checking mean that this work is not done at most newspapers, where reporters’ timely ability to correct and verify their own data and information is chief among their qualifications. Publications issued on weekly, monthly, or infrequent bases are more likely to employ fact-checkers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fact-checking
And Ahmad, you DO hate the Shoura! Anyone who reads your blog knows that. I hope it’s not a denial case.
And I think you are overreacting to the dr.’s mistake.
If Steve Jobs himself made some mistakes about his own company’s product, would that be unexpected from anybody else?
I’m not justifying the mistake as much as I’m thinking that you took it a little over the top.
Sorry … what is he talking about again!!
With all due respect to Mr. Al Aboud, I believe he was only trying to say that ‘guys … I follow up on technology too’ … and I have a strong hunch that he was watching the Youtube video of Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone because I remember that he was describing the iPhone as 3 in 1 device by then!