Samsung expands Islamic Menu in New Budget Phone

Muslims who do not know the direction of Makkah in Saudi Arabia for their prayers in case they visit another area can simply locate it with one click on a new budget phone made by South Korea's electronics giant Samsung.

The B360E handset, which has hit the UAE market recently, gives extensive information to Islamic rites not found in most other budget mobile phones.

Besides Makkah (Qibla) direction, the services also include prayers times, Dua (religious psalms), an alarm for prayers, and information on Zakat (tax and alms paid by Muslims to the poor) in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries.

The 75 gm handset, retailing in the UAE at around Dh160-200, also has a full English-English dictionary and is packed with other features, including a 3.1 MP camera.

Muslims searching for the Makkah direction for their prayers can easily find it on the B360E device with just a click on the Qibla menu.

The click takes users directly to settings and an update to the direction, depending on which area they are. Users are told to just select the country where they are, hold the device in their hand and point a sun image in the phone straight up to the sun.

The direction says: "Point the image of the sun in the phone towards the physical sun horizontally and press update."

Once the user completes this task, an arrow appears on the phone’s screen pointing towards the Western Saudi town of Makkah, home to most of Islam’s holy shrines.

Another new service which is not found in most other mobile phones is the Zakat calculation. The handset asks the users first to select the currency which they want to use and print a figure on the size of their assets before clicking on a button to calculate how much money should be paid in Zakat annually.

According to Samsung website, the B360E is a dual-Sim handset, has Bluetooth and micro USB connectivity, supports image and video capturing, has FM radio and a 1,000 phonebook storage, and is equipped with a 1,000 mAh Li-ion battery that can provide up to 12hours talktime and 500 hours standby time. The phone measures 117.4x9.5x111.4 mm.