News

Dukhan Bank To Launch Wristband-Based Payment Option

Published

5 years ago

February 18, 2021

dukhan bank to launch wristband-based payment option

VISA

Qatar’s leading retail bank, Dukhan Bank, has recently published a press release, announcing the launch of its new payment platform and companion wristbands that make use of NFC technology to facilitate contactless payment.

Called Dukhan Pay (D-Pay), the new platform is intended to meet customer’s growing demand for digital banking products and services. It can also help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus by providing a safer alternative to traditional payment options.

“The Dukhan Bank wristbands are entering the market at a time when there is an increased demand in safe, contactless payment. In addition to being safe, the wearables facilitate fast and easy transactions using blended technology that is both secure and fashionable,” commended Dukhan Bank.

Dukhan Bank

The wristbands are available in three colors (gray, pink, and blue), and they are compatible with any point-of-sale terminal with support for contactless payments, allowing customers to spend up to 1,500 QAR per day without touching the terminal.

“The initiative falls under D-Pay, a key cornerstone in Dukhan Bank’s digital transformation that seeks to absorb the latest technologies and online banking solutions to make banking simple, safe, and convenient for our customers,” the bank added.

Not long ago, Dukhan Bank launched contactless credit and debit cards. Other banks in the region are being similarly digital-forward. For example, the Qatar National Bank partnered with fitness tracker makers Fitbit and Garmin to enable contactless transactions via their smartwatches.

Also Read: Thales Deploys Its Security Solution At Bahrain International Airport

Even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, major retail chains had been adopting various scan and pay solutions to make shopping faster, safer, and more convenient. Airports are now widely adopting self-check kiosks to increase their capacity and reduce the number of transmission vectors for infectious diseases.

Indeed, the future seems to be contactless, and the technology to enable it is already here. The only question that remains to be answered is how well it will be received by customers.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

17 hours ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

Also Read: DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch

Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.