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

4 weeks 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

NEOPAY Wants To Follow Merchants Across Channels And Borders

A controlling 65% stake in noon payments would give NEOPAY access to marketplace sellers, online merchants and the payment flows they generate.

Published

1 day ago

October 5, 2026

Nour Nasir

neopay wants to follow merchants across channels and borders

It’s been a long time since checkouts were single defined places. A merchant might take payments at a physical register, on its own website and through an online marketplace, sometimes in more than one country. NEOPAY wants to follow those transactions wherever they happen.

The UAE payments company has entered into an agreement to acquire a 65% controlling stake in noon payments. NEOPAY already runs the acquiring infrastructure that lets merchants accept card payments, along with omnichannel acceptance and a merchant services platform. This new deal would add noon payments’ embedded payments platform, e-commerce gateway and merchant network across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. That would considerably expand both NEOPAY’s digital commerce capabilities and its regional reach.

For merchants, the attraction is a single provider for online and in-store payments, plus faster settlements, data and analytics, and value-added financial services.

“Payments should be simple, reliable, and built for the markets they serve,” said Faraz Khalid, CEO of noon. His counterpart at NEOPAY, Vibhor Mundhada, added: “We have built a strong payments business in the UAE, and our ambition is now to take that capability across the region”. The acquisition, Mundhada added, would “expand our footprint into Saudi Arabia and Egypt” while reinforcing NEOPAY’s position at home.

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NEOPAY is also keen to point out potential payment volume increases. The company says noon payments’ integrations with marketplace sellers and online merchants create high transaction density in some of the region’s fastest-growing digital commerce segments. It also believes control of the business would give it access to those merchant relationships and payment flows, and speed up the rollout of alternative payment methods and installment options.

The combined roadmap targets faster merchant onboarding, better payment performance, tighter fraud controls and embedded financial services. The deal could also strengthen cross-border payments and settlement along key regional commerce corridors.