News
Apple Fitness+ To Launch In UAE On November 3
To get the most out of the Fitness+ experience, it’s necessary to have iOS 15.1 because the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system enables a feature called SharePlay.
Apple has announced that its on-demand fitness subscription service, Apple Fitness+, is coming to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other countries on November 3.
Fitness+ was first announced during the company’s September 2020 Special Event, and it launched the same year in December. The service revolves around the Apple Watch, which is used to gather real-time workout data that are overlayed on top of guided workout videos spanning many different activities, including strength training, yoga, dancing, cycling, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and others.
“We created Fitness+ so everyone would have a place they feel inspired and motivated, no matter where they are on their fitness journey,” said Jay Blahnik, Apple’s vice president of Fitness Technologies. “We are so excited to be available to millions more people as we bring Fitness+ to 15 new countries next week, and can’t wait for them to meet our welcoming trainer team”.
Apple
Here’s a full list of the countries where Apple Fitness+ will launch on November 3: Austria, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. In all these countries, the service will be available in English, with subtitles in Brazilian Portuguese, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.
To join a virtual workout session, you’ll require three things:
- Apple Watch Series 3 or later
- iPhone 6s or later
- Apple Fitness+ subscription
Two subscription options are available: a monthly subscription that costs AED 36.99 per month and an annual subscription that costs AED 149.99 per year. Fitness+ is also included in the Apple One Premier plan, which costs AED 84.95 per month for up to six family members and also includes access to Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and iCloud+ with 2 TB of storage.
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To get the most out of the Fitness+ experience, it’s necessary to have iOS 15.1 because the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system enables a feature called SharePlay. With it, up to 32 friends and family members can work out together using FaceTime to keep one another motivated.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
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The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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