News
Dubai Roads & Transport Authority Introduces Smart Solutions
A range of innovative digital services now aid mobility and improve efficiency.
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has introduced a range of smart technology solutions to automate services and make life easier and more convenient for citizens as the Emirate continues its digital transformation plan leading up to 2025.
Here are some of the services that have been improved using cutting-edge tech:
Smart Kiosks
Citizens can now renew vehicle registrations, pay parking fines, and recharge their nol cards 24/7 at 32 separate smart kiosks featuring biometric login. In total, 28 digital services are available, with payment options including cash, credit cards, and NFC digital wallets.
Taxi App
As well as an hourly rental service, residents and tourists can book taxis and limos 24 hours a day. The new Dubai Taxi Corporation app also features a “Lost and Found” section, along with location sharing, route details, and estimated arrival times.
nol Pay App
An updated version of the nol Pay app can now be used for transport fares, parking, tourist attractions, and even shopping. Instant balance top-ups are available, along with integration of digital IDs for simplified registration.
Driving Licenses
A “Click and Drive” initiative for obtaining driving licenses has digitized the entire admin process, reducing wait times by 75%. The new service even includes a mobile eye-testing facility.
Free Parking Permits
Parking permits are now available digitally and don’t need to be printed or displayed. The service allows users to add up to 5 vehicles, with each activated at a time through the RTA Dubai app.
Unified Booking
The RTA plans to streamline transport bookings and tickets over the next couple of years, unifying regulations across all providers, which currently includes the likes of Careem, Udrive, Uber, ekar, and Hala.
News
Nano Banana 2 Arrives In MENA For Google Gemini Users
Google brings its latest image model to Gemini and Search, adding 4K output and tighter text control for regional users.
Google has opened access to Nano Banana 2 across the Middle East and North Africa, pushing its newest image model into everyday tools rather than keeping it inside the exclusive (and expensive) Pro tier.
The rollout spans the Google Gemini desktop and mobile apps, and extends to Google Search through Lens and AI Mode. Developers can also test it in preview via AI Studio and the Gemini API.
Nano Banana 2 runs on Gemini Flash, Google’s fast inference layer. The focus is speed, but also control. Users can export visuals from 512px up to 4K, adjusting aspect ratios for everything from vertical social posts to widescreen displays.
The model maintains character likeness across up to five figures and preserves fidelity for as many as 14 objects within a single workflow. This enables visual continuity across scenes, iterations, or edits — supporting projects like short films, storyboards, and multi-scene narratives. Text rendering has also been improved, delivering legible typography in mockups and greeting cards, with built-in translation and localization directly within images.
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Under the hood, the system taps Gemini’s broader knowledge base and pulls in real-time information and imagery from web search to render specific subjects more accurately. Lighting and fine detail have been upgraded, without slowing output.
By embedding the model inside Gemini and Search, Google is normalizing advanced image generation for a mass audience. In MENA, where startups and marketing teams are leaning heavily on AI to scale content across languages and borders, that shift lands at a practical moment.
The move also folds creative tooling deeper into search itself, so that image generation is no longer a separate workflow. It now sits right next to the query box.
