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Buying guides, explainers and tech news — alongside our video reviews.
From the Boardroom to the Ban Threat: The Rise and Fall of BlackBerry
BlackBerry went from a Waterloo startup to a global obsession, nearly getting banned in the UAE in 2010 over encryption before smartphones from Apple and Google ended its reign. Here is the full story, and what the company actually does today.
Careem's Strange Second Act: How Uber Is Quietly Buying Back the UAE's Biggest Super App
In 2019 Uber paid $3.1 billion to buy its Dubai-born rival Careem. In 2023 it spun the super-app business off to UAE telecom group e&. In 2026 Uber started buying it back — and the fine print points straight to full ownership by the early 2030s.
Masdar City Was Supposed to Fail. The Company Behind It Became a Clean-Energy Giant Instead.
Masdar City was announced in 2006 as the world's first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city, and it never came close to hitting that target. But the state-backed company behind it, Masdar, has grown into one of the world's largest clean-energy developers, with a 66.5-gigawatt global project pipeline in 2025.
Inside Stargate UAE: How Abu Dhabi Became the World's Biggest AI Infrastructure Bet Outside America
A new 1-gigawatt AI compute cluster called Stargate UAE is rising outside Abu Dhabi, backed by G42, OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco and SoftBank, alongside a separate $15.2 billion Microsoft-G42 buildout. Here's what's verified, what's under construction, and why the US granted the UAE rare access to advanced Nvidia chips.
The Slow Death of the SIM Card — and Why the UAE Is Living in the Future Already
The GSMA approved eSIM for consumer devices back in 2016, but it took the eSIM-only iPhone 17 Air in 2025 to make the physical SIM tray truly optional worldwide. The UAE, with instant free tourist eSIMs waiting at airport immigration, is already living in that post-SIM-card future.
Inside Stargate UAE: How Abu Dhabi Is Building an AI Campus the Size of a City
Stargate UAE, the 1-gigawatt AI compute cluster G42, OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco and SoftBank are building inside Abu Dhabi's 5-gigawatt UAE-US AI Campus, is on track for a 2026 first phase. Here's what's actually been built, verified, and negotiated so far -- including the US security conditions attached to the chips.
Inside Stargate UAE: How Abu Dhabi Is Building One of the World's Largest AI Campuses
G42, OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, SoftBank, and Cisco are building Stargate UAE, a gigawatt-scale AI compute cluster near Abu Dhabi, with the first 200-megawatt phase targeted for 2026. Here is what has actually been confirmed about the project, its partners, and why the UAE landed it.
The Go-Inspired Barcode: How a Toyota Parts Problem Gave the World the QR Code
The QR code wasn't built for smartphones or payments — it was invented in 1994 to solve a Toyota supplier's factory scanning problem, inspired by the board game Go. Here's how an open patent and a pandemic turned industrial plumbing into the interface behind everyday life in the UAE.
When the UAE Nearly Switched Off BlackBerry
In 2010, the UAE threatened to shut down BlackBerry Messenger, email and browsing over encrypted servers it could not access. The decade-old standoff previewed almost every encryption-and-sovereignty fight the region is still having today.
How the UAE Built a Space Program From Scratch — And Reached Mars in 15 Years
From a small Dubai satellite institute in 2006 to the Hope Probe orbiting Mars in 2021, a crashed lunar rover, and a 184-day ISS mission, the UAE has quietly built one of the world's youngest independent space programs. Here is how it happened — and what comes next.
Inside Stargate UAE: How Abu Dhabi Is Building an AI Campus Bigger Than Most Countries' Power Grids
Abu Dhabi is building a 1-gigawatt AI data center called Stargate UAE, part of a planned 5GW UAE-U.S. AI Campus involving G42, OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, and SoftBank. Here's what's been built since the May 2025 announcement, and why the Gulf has become a serious contender in global AI infrastructure.
The Day the UAE Almost Banned BlackBerry: Inside the 2010 Encryption Standoff
In 2010, the UAE came within weeks of switching off BlackBerry service nationwide over an encryption dispute with RIM. The crisis was resolved quietly and never fully explained — and the same fight over government access to encrypted communications has resurfaced ever since, from Apple vs. the FBI to today's cloud and AI debates.
From Mars to the Asteroid Belt: Inside the UAE's Expanding Deep-Space Program
Six years after the Hope Probe reached Mars on its first attempt, the UAE Space Agency has extended the mission through 2028 after it returned ten times its data target. The program is now explicitly framed as a bridge to the UAE's next, more ambitious project: a 13-year mission to land on an asteroid in the main belt.
Dubai's Robotaxis Are Already on the Road: What's Actually Running in 2026
Dubai's driverless taxi pilot has moved from strategy slides to paid rides, with Chinese operators WeRide and Baidu's Apollo Go running fully autonomous vehicles in Umm Suqeim and Jumeirah. Here's what's actually deployed, who's running it, and how it fits the RTA's 2030 target.
Smart Dubai: How Sensors, Apps, and AI Quietly Run the City Behind the Scenes
Traffic systems, self-reporting utilities, and data-driven planning — the smart-city infrastructure designed to be invisible when it's actually working.
Dubai's Solar Park: One of the Largest Single-Site Solar Projects on Earth
A desert climate is both the ideal setting and a real engineering challenge for solar power — and Dubai built one of the largest single-site solar projects on Earth there anyway.
Inside the Dubai Metro's Expansion: Building Transit for a City That Never Stops Growing
One of the world's longest driverless metro networks, built for extreme heat and a city still under construction — and still expanding to keep pace with it.
Dubai's Paperless Government: How the City Digitized Nearly Everything
Dubai set out to eliminate paper government transactions entirely — turning licensing, permits, and visas into phone-based tasks instead of in-person errands.
Social Media's Next Shift: Why Short-Form Video Keeps Eating Every Platform
TikTok's format spread to Instagram, YouTube, and even LinkedIn — reshaping platforms that were never built around video in the first place.
Why Every Tech Company Suddenly Wants to Be a Chip Designer
From Apple's M-series to cloud providers' AI-training chips, custom silicon has gone from a rare specialist choice to a real competitive advantage.
5G Was the Hype, 6G Research Has Already Quietly Started
5G's real-world impact took years longer than the marketing promised — and 6G research is already underway, right on the same decade-plus timeline.