Fareeq el Atrash featured on TRACKS (Arte TV)

Our interview on Tracks (Arte TV) finally aired this month :) Watch the full report (French):

<Video Expired>

You can read the full article here (French)!

TCL Scripts Links Updated

I have updated the links to my public scripts in the original Public TCL Scripts by Opposing post. The scripts are now hosted on my dropbox account and the older 4shared links are still available as mirrors.

You can also find the scripts at www.egghelp.org (under alias: Opposing)

Transfer SMS Messages from Nokia (Symbian) to Android

Two months ago, I switched from my Nokia N8 to my new Samsung Galaxy S II handset. Of course, I had to move all my data from the old phone to the new one. Didn't know, however, that switching between Symbian and Android isn't very well facilitated. It was pretty easy to move contacts, pictures and media from Symbian to Android but the complicated part was moving sms messages. I found some helpful methods online such as this (I suggest you try it first before reading further and trying my method) but unfortunately it didn't work for me because my Ovi Suite version was new and not supported by the Nokia2AndroidSMS application (it failed to extract my messages). So, I had to figure out a different way to do this, which required some coding. I decided to share my method with the world as I'm sure lots of other users faced similar problems. This should work no matter what version of Ovi Suite you got:

1. Connect your Nokia handset and start Nokia Ovi Suite on your PC
2. Create a backup .nbu file (it doesn't matter what you select for backup, as long as it includes messages)
3. Download NBU Explorer (open-source program which allows you to explore .nbu backup files and export them)
4. Run NbuExplorer.exe > File > Open > Browse to your .nbu file and open it
5. Go to the Messages tab and click on "Export Messages" button located above the table on the right pane
6. in the "Save as type" field, select (*.xml) and save the file
• ATTENTION: As of version 3.0 of NbuExplorer, it now natively supports exporting messages in SMS Backup & Restore XML format, so you can export your messages in this format and skip to step 13. Thanks to Petrusek for adding this useful feature :)
7. I wrote a little tool which converts the .xml file to the format accepted by the SMS Backup & Restore Android application. Download XML2Android.exe
8. Save the tool in the same folder where you saved the .xml extracted file
9. Open the command line console (Win7: Start > type "cmd" and press enter)
10. CD to the directory where you saved the files (e.g. CD C:\my_messages\)
11. Execute: XML2Android <yourfile.xml> (e.g. XML2Android my_sms.xml)
12. This will generate a file called AndroidSMS.xml, copy this file to your Android phone
13. On your Android, download the SMS Backup & Restore app from Google Play
14. Now, simply run the app on your phone and Restore your old messages from the generated XML file. You're done!

Note: A user reported that he faced some problems with weird characters in the exported XML file from NBU Explorer. The XML2Android app will report the location of the invalid character(s) so make sure you modify the file using a text editor (I recommend Notepad++) to remove the bad lines and re-run the app against it (to avoid missing messages). Thanks to "Dr. Manjit M" who reported this problem below in the comments.

Note 2: The XML2Android.exe tool requires .Net Framework 3.5 to run, if you have Windows 7 it shouldn't be a problem (you might need to install the required framework on other Windows versions). Also, it is a basic tool which I wrote roughly without capturing any exceptions or false usage... Make sure you use it correctly before reporting any bugs

Edit5: Updated link to XML2Android.exe executable.
Edit4: Updated post with NbuExplorer's native support for exporting messages in the appropriate format
Edit3: Updated the XML2Android.exe tool to set empty values for missing elements (should reduce error possibility)
Edit2: Added exception handling to skip erroneous messages
Edit: There was a bug with the XML2Android.exe originally uploaded app. It has now been fixed

Lawein / Ba'ed Min Hon Music Video

Here it is, our first official music video released last month! Don't mind the thick eyeliners, it's not on purpose :P

Two songs in one video clip from Fareeq El Atrash's debut album "Fareeq El Atrash".

As a decade elapses from the 21st century and we look back to a very well documented 20th century, we take a moment to reflect on the events that have marked Lebanon, the Middle East, and the World. Fareeq El Atrash take us on a journey to remember a century of eccentric art and fashion, wars and dictators, actors and musicians...

Times have changed; the players have changed (most of them at least); however the events and the themes are recurrent.

Fareeq el Atrash AGT Semi-finals

So, it was definitely fun! Our performance looked and sounded real good in my humble opinion :) Check it out:


Arabs Got Talent - Semi-finals - فريق الأطرش Fareeq el Atrash.

Edit: Replaced mbc's youtube video with another one uploaded by someone else due to the first being removed.
Edit2: Added new uploaded video on Vimeo.

Fareeq el Atrash on Arabs' Got Talent (First Round)

Last week, the 5th episode of Arabs' Got Talent aired on MBC4. Here's an edit of Fareeq el Atrash's performance:


Arabs Got Talent - Ep 5 - فريق الأطرش Fareeq el Atrash

And if you wish to view a video with the judges' reaction (without the initial report), check this video:



Updated: Post updated with new link to vimeo video (better performance than metacafe).

Agmal Ehsas Beatbox

During a nice live interview on OTV in June 2010, promoting for Fareeq el Atrash's debut album release, I performed the "Agmal Ehsas" beatbox tune for the masses live on air. That was fun!