Al-quran For Psp

Al-Quran for Playstation Portable (PSP) Mention Playstation and the image of youngsters engrossed in playing video games is what come to mind. As such, it seems wildly incongruent to mention the holy book of AlQuran together with such a playful device. But that sum up the approach taken by Institusi Usrah of MMU Cyberjaya, bringing Islamic contents to gadgets that become youngsters’ constant companion. The flagship application is al-Quran for Playstation Portable, which is in version 1.4 now. To further explain about it, interviewing the lead programmer Ikhwan Nazri Mohd Asran seems a logical choice. He seems to be totally at ease at the café chosen for the interview, almost homely. He later revealed that he now lead Flavert Media Lab and enjoy working at mobile offices. So far, he counted 37 mobile office locations. Development The idea started in September 2006 when Nazri discovered that he can develop Flash applications for PSP. A master in Flash development, he proposed to his friends in Institusi Usrah to take on the Al-Quran for PSP project. Aided by 10 volunteers, the development of the first version took 5 months to complete. Among the volunteers are Shahrul Nizam B Mohd Fa’eek, Muhammad Naim B Mukhtar Shaib Rassul Khamir, Abd Karim Mohd Daud, Ummi Nadia Jaafar, Wan Liyana Naznim Bt Wan Omar Sukri, Farah Liana Bt Abu Bakar and Nurzalikha Bt Mohd Zaki. The other two only identified themselves as God’s Servant. The finished product features Quranic text with English translation and distributed freely over the internet. It also marked many firsts such as the first Flash application for PSP as well as the first Islamic application for the platform. They had been invited by Jamiyah Singapore to showcase al-Quran for PSP at the “One World Many Cultures” exhibition under Science and Technology category in 2007. Recently, the application is also showcased at the launching of MSC Malaysia Creative Innovation Centre and Incubation Centre together with Eidul Adha mobile magazine. The latest development of the application is the French translation that is contributed by Lionel Jamal-U-Dine. The Muslim community in France also gives their support by hosting the application at www.islamdefrance.fr. Response To date, al-Quran for PSP garnered a total of 18,000 downloads for the past two years. The recent French version only gained 640 download but Nazri is confident that many more downloads is recorded at the French Muslim community website.

The application received favorable comments from Muslim PSP users which had been waiting for Islamic content for their gadget. An avid fan even did a step-by-step video for installing the application and posted it online. However, there are sarcastic remarks from ignorant people such as “Now you can make bomb guided by your PSP”. It is evident that the bad press on Islam had made them believe that Islam is the religion of terrorists and consequently al-Quran is a manual on terrorism. On the technical side, the application had been praised by Flash experts at a conference in Singapore. Giorgio and Vassilis cite Al-Quran for PSP as a good example of Flash application for unconventional devices. Usually, Flash applications are only present in the form of web applications for personal computers. Future The most requested upgrade for the next iteration is Malay translation and audio recitation. The Malay translation is on track for the next version but there are several challenges for audio recitation. Firstly is the copyright issue of audio recordings as well as the memory limitation for Flash applications on the PSP. Nazri informed that Flash for Playstation 3 has no such limitation and hinted that the platform might be his next project. But first, he need to buy the gaming console yet he concerned he might end up playing more than doing the development. To solve it, he looking forward to further expand his multimedia development company and later on assign a dedicated staff for the development of Islamic contents.