News

Abu Dhabi Developer To Build World’s First Healthy Living Island

The exclusive resort will be situated halfway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and will feature a helipad, 86 residential villas, and 49 apartments.

Published

12 months ago

April 25, 2024

Nour Nasir

abu dhabi developer to build world's first healthy living island

Abu Dhabi-based real estate developer IMKAN has formed a partnership with the world-renowned SHA Wellness Clinic to construct a unique private island resort at Al Jurf, halfway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The development is known as SHA Residences Emirates and will combine a holistic health resort with 86 residential villas and 49 apartments — two of which will be penthouses. The “healthy living island” will also offer easy beach access, a fantastic climate, and even a former royal palace.

Raed Al Hadad, chief of marketing and sales at IMKAN, explained why the idyllic location was chosen: “We have turquoise water here, cooler temperatures, and breezes. This is the place where the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan used to come and reflect on key policies. This palace is where one of the first talks about the formation of the UAE took place”.

IMKAN is currently working alongside Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism to rejuvenate the historic palace and turn it into a tourist attraction.

Also Read: Abu Dhabi To Develop $1 Billion eSports Island Facility

Construction of the resort will begin in July and should be finished by 2025. The island will eventually be home to a full staff of doctors, therapists, yoga instructors, personal trainers, and world-class chefs. Residents and visitors will benefit from a full suite of services, including wellness programs, detox treatments, spas, and blood tests.

“Al Jurf as a destination has all the potential to promote wellness tourism. People from Saudi Arabia, India, and Russia are just a few hours away from this place,” Raed Al Hadad added.

The exclusive healthy living island will be accessible by road and also feature a helipad. Meanwhile the developers plan to add connections by water from Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

News

Google Releases Veo 2 AI Video Tool To MENA Users

The state-of-the-art video generation model is now available in Gemini, offering realistic AI-generated videos with better physics, motion, and detail.

Published

5 days ago

April 16, 2025

Nour Nasir

Google

Starting today, users of Gemini Advanced in the MENA region — and globally — can tap into Veo 2, Google’s next-generation video model.

Originally unveiled in 2024, Veo 2 has now been fully integrated into Gemini, supporting multiple languages including Arabic and English. The rollout now brings Google’s most advanced video AI directly into the hands of everyday users.

Veo 2 builds on the foundations of its predecessor with a more sophisticated understanding of the physical world. It’s designed to produce high-fidelity video content with cinematic detail, realistic motion, and greater visual consistency across a wide range of subjects and styles. Whether recreating natural landscapes, human interactions, or stylized environments, the model is capable of interpreting and translating written prompts into eight-second 720p videos that feel almost handcrafted.

Users can generate content directly through the Gemini platform — either via the web or mobile apps. The experience is pretty straightforward: users enter a text-based prompt, and Veo 2 returns a video in 16:9 landscape format, delivered as an MP4 file. These aren’t just generic clips — they can reflect creative, abstract, or highly specific scenarios, making the tool especially useful for content creators, marketers, or anyone experimenting with visual storytelling.

Also Read: Getting Started With Google Gemini: A Beginner’s Guide

To ensure transparency, each video is embedded with SynthID — a digital watermark developed by Google’s DeepMind. The watermark is invisible to the human eye but persists across editing, compression, and sharing. It identifies the video as AI-generated, addressing concerns around misinformation and media authenticity.

While Veo 2 is still in its early phases of public rollout, the technology is part of a broader push by Google to democratize advanced AI tools. With text-to-image, code generation, and now video creation integrated into Gemini, Google is positioning the platform as a full-spectrum creative assistant.

Access to Veo 2 starts today and will continue expanding in the coming weeks. Interested users can try it out at gemini.google.com or through the Gemini app on Android and iOS.