News

Apple’s Latest Product Releases Make The Headlines

The Duo and Pro models will hit the UAE from October. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch’s conversation-recall tools are raising consent questions.

Published

2 months ago

September 10, 2026

Nour Nasir

Apple

The iPhone Duo, Apple’s first folding phone, took the headlines this week and will reach the UAE on October 23. It refines a category Samsung opened with the Galaxy Fold in 2019. The Apple Watch’s conversation-recall features are also new territory, with consequences for people who don’t ever plan on wearing the watch.

Starting with the foldable everyone has been waiting for: the Duo sports a 5.4-inch outer display that opens into a 7.6-inch screen, with a reinforced hinge containing more than 100 components by Apple’s count. At AED 8,499, with preorders from October 16, the hotly anticipated device certainly has a lot to live up to.

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max (arriving September 18 from AED 5,099 and AED 5,499) have been treated to more modest upgrades. The pair get a 48-megapixel main camera with a variable aperture and separate Pro controls for aperture, shutter speed and white balance. More consequential is Apple Reference Image, which the company says preserves a photograph’s signed sensor data as a reference for checking any edited version. As convincing AI images outrun verification, that is something that’s beginning to matter to journalists and photographers.

The Apple Watch Series 12 (from AED 1,599) and Ultra 4 (from AED 3,199, with everyday battery life up to 50 hours) also arrive September 18. Later this year both gain conversation recall: Siri Recap produces summaries of what was said, and Live Rewind turns the previous 15 seconds of speech into on-screen text. Apple warns the AI-generated text may be incomplete or inaccurate.

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Both features are optional and, Apple says, do not create or retain audio recordings. Live Rewind has to be switched on deliberately and warns those nearby with a chime, a full-screen animation and a microphone indicator. Siri Recap can be started manually or scheduled by time and location; Apple’s own documentation describes it as producing a brief, high-level summary rather than a transcript, without identifying speakers, and lists no equivalent cue for the people around the wearer.

Finally, AirPods 5 bring active noise cancellation to Apple’s cheapest open-ear earbuds from September 18, at AED 539, or AED 629 with wireless charging, on-stem volume controls and longer battery life; Apple claims up to 50% more external noise blocked than AirPods 4 with ANC.

News

Abu Dhabi’s Robot Kitchen Is Serving Up Biryani, Not Burgers

Circus SE wants to put a tiny automated factory inside the buildings where Gulf residents live and work, bypassing part of last-mile delivery.

Published

6 days ago

October 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

abu dhabi's robot kitchen is serving up biryani not burgers

Circus SE

The most telling thing about a new autonomous kitchen now running in Abu Dhabi’s Marina Square is what it won’t cook:

“We don’t do fast food,” says Nikolas Bullwinkel, Founder and CEO of Circus SE. “We’ve actively decided not to build a machine that can only do burgers”.

Instead, the CA-1 system is built around pot-based cooking: curries, pastas, soups and rice dishes. After experimenting with highly personalized recipes, Circus deliberately leaned back toward recognizable food. “We’re going with a chicken biryani because you know it,” Bullwinkel says of the AED 40 dish.

circus se ca-1 robot system

The Germany-based robotics and food technology company operates across eight countries, and Abu Dhabi is its first deployment outside Europe. More locations are expected there and in Dubai.

In Germany, its units can be placed in supermarkets, gas stations, airports and hospitals. In the Gulf, Bullwinkel wants them inside residential and office buildings, replacing some of the complexity of last-mile delivery. “We’re basically bringing a very tiny factory a few square meters into your building,” he says. Catering company Royal Prestige supplies the ingredients and knowledge of local tastes.

The CA-1 manages up to 36 refrigerated ingredient silos alongside automated induction cooking, robotic plating and a self-cleaning dishwasher. Two robotic arms move ingredients through the system with minimal human intervention. It can produce up to 120 hot meals an hour, and a meal such as rice and curry can take around three to four minutes.

Also Read: Ooredoo Qatar’s 5G+ Network Is Built For Machines As Much As People

Five cameras and multiple sensors monitor heat, temperature and consistency, an attempt to approximate what a chef perceives. “You can hear something gets burned, you can smell it, you can see it at some point,” Bullwinkel says. CircusOS, the company’s operating system, adjusts recipes in real time.

You might think of the platform as a threat to kitchen staff, but Bullwinkel frames Circus as a way for chefs to develop recipes and distribute them at scale. With that being said, rising labor costs and shortages are also part of his case for automation.