15 Most Useful Apps for Living in Jakarta (2022)
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You can make your life in Jakarta much easier by downloading a few apps on your phone. They will be helpful in numerous everyday situations, from getting around the city to buying your groceries. There's even an app to order a massage! I've selected here my 15 favorites, most of them free. Please leave me a comment if you think I forgot one worth mentioning! Here are the most useful apps for living in Jakarta: Waze Owned by Google, Waze is a GPS navigator with real-time traffic information. For instance, it tells you if there are traffic jams, accidents, road repairs and even police stops on your way. It is an essential tool to estimate the length of your road trips within Jakarta. It can also give you excellent advice on the best routes from point A to point B. Alternative: Lewat Mana has webcams pointed at the main thoroughfares in Jakarta. Price: FREE Maps Me Maps Me is similar to Google Maps with one additional benefit: You can download the maps
The Internet in Indonesia is heavily censored. This means that thousands of websites are unavailable when you are staying in the country. To be precise, as of today, there are over 1 million blocked URLs in Indonesia, including some very famous ones such as Reddit, Tumblr, as well as all Torrent, Gambling, or Porn websites. They are blocked by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operating in Indonesia, following orders from the Ministry of Communication and Information Technologies (Kementrian Komunikasi dan Informatika). The ban is part of the "Safe Internet" initiative whose idea is to protect Indonesian users from visiting websites that do not follow the "moral, ethics and spirit" of the nation. Luckily, you don't have to worry about accessing your favorite site while visiting or living in Indonesia because the ban is very easy to circumvent. In the following article, I will show you how to unblock any website in Indonesia in less than 5 minutes.
In this review, I will explain how to bypass Internet censorship in Indonesia (mostly targeting porn websites) by using a VPN service (Virtual Private Network) . I will also give you tips on how to watch Netflix in Indonesia. Note : The VPNs I recommend here also work well for China, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos, etc. Most porn and torrent websites are blocked in Indonesia . This includes all the most famous ones like XVideos, YouPorn, PornHub, XHamster, KickAss Torrents, and The Pirate Bay. It is also not possible to visit some forums like Reddit or InternationalSexGuide. Same thing with the hook-up website Adult Friend Finder and the cam website Chaturbate . Some regular websites have also been banned, like Vimeo. Tumblr was shut down in March 2018 after its management refused to remove porn content from the platform. Another problem internet users are facing in Indonesia is the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions Act. This vague set of laws can make you
I had previously written an article to explain how to unblock Netflix in Indonesia. Indeed, for several years, Telkom, a government-owned company and one of the largest Internet Service Providers (ISP) in the country (under the brand IndiHome) had blocked Netflix. The official reason was that its content was deemed offensive to Indonesians, but the real motivation was to protect IndiHome's own streaming service called iFlix. Anyway, I deleted the content of this article entirely since Telkom/IndiHome finally allowed Netflix on its network. I guess it was bad for their reputation and they were losing customers to their competitors.
Within the past two weeks, both China and Russia have made VPNs illegal. This has made people worry that other countries might soon forbid them as well. In particular, we can wonder if Indonesia, where thousands of websites are blocked (because of porn, streaming, gambling, hate speech, terrorism, etc), will follow the lead. First, let me remind you quickly what VPNs are and why so many people are using them in Indonesia. VPN, an acronym for Virtual Private Network, is a technology that allows you to bypass internet censorship and to remain anonymous on the web. Basically, it connects your computer to a protected server in another country, from where you will be free to visit any sites you want. The best VPN companies do not keep track of your activity on their servers, meaning nobody will ever know what you did online.
If you've tried to access a porn website while in Dubai (or elsewhere in the United Arab Emirates), you've probably seen an error message that looks like this one: Porn websites are not the only ones blocked by the government. It is also the case with any website whose content is deemed to violate the country's values. It can be because of gambling, hate speech, nudity, vulgarity, or drugs. Censorship will also affect those who criticize the government or those who promote atheism. Actually, it is forbidden to help anyone to access forbidden websites. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if my own website gets banned one of these days! To make sure you can still read Jakarta100bars after you've landed, just make sure you follow these steps BEFORE arriving in Dubai:
If you've tried to access a porn website while in Qatar/Doha, you've probably seen the following message: "The webpage you are trying to access has been blocked by Internet Qatar as the content contains materials which are prohibited in the State of Qatar" This is actually part of a government effort to prevent Qataris to be exposed to obscene or indecent content. Considering Islam is the official religion of the country, it is hardly surprising they don't want their citizens to access the thousands of adult sites available on the World Wide Web in just one click. Unfortunately, some regular and inoffensive websites are also blocked, usually for political or religious reasons. For instance, if they criticize the government or if they promote atheism. Finally, it might be difficult to access online gambling websites, torrent websites, as well as escort services.
If you've tried to access a porn website while in Saudi Arabia, you've probably seen an error message that looks like this one: There is a special agency within the government of Saudi Arabia whose task is to track down any website with pornographic or erotic content. Even something very mild may be flagged and added to the "forbidden" list. Porn websites are not the only ones blocked by the government. Any website with "haram" content such as homosexuality, bestiality, nudity, vulgarity, drugs, or gambling will be impossible to reach in the country. The block will also affect websites that promote atheism, hate speech, and of course those who are opposed to the Saudi monarchy. In total, there are millions of websites that are blocked, which can be annoying for someone who is traveling to the country for a short period of time.
If you live in Indonesia (Bali, Jakarta, etc), you probably feel frustrated by the lack of options available to watch sports, and especially football. You can forget national TV channels. Some, such as RCTI, TransTV, and TVOne, will broadcast important events like the World Cup or the English Premier League. Yet, the image quality is often low and the commentaries are in Indonesian. Also, they won't hesitate to cut a few minutes of a game just to show commercials.