News

Hala Gives Drivers A Digital Wallet For Faster Tips & Bonuses

The Careem Pay digital wallet will help 17,000 drivers to fast-track tips, bonuses, and guarantees by the end of July.

Published

3 years ago

July 5, 2023

Nour Nasir

Hala

Hala, Dubai’s e-hailing platform launched in 2019, now accounts for over 30% of total taxi trips, with users booking their journeys directly from the Careem app.

Now, the company’s drivers will also benefit from Careem Pay, with a new feature allowing them to expedite more frequent payments of their tips and bonuses. The digital wallet will be gradually rolled out to every Hala Captain (driver), with over 17,000 benefiting from twice-weekly payments by the end of July.

Careem integration allows easier management of expenses, a simple way to recharge mobile plans, and enables drivers to transfer money directly to any bank account within the app in a single click or screen tap. In addition, as 70% of Hala’s drivers are of Pakistani origin, they will also benefit from improved exchange rates when sending money back to Pakistani-based bank accounts.

Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East

“At Hala, we are deeply committed to the well-being of our captains as we work to build a people-first culture. We have thus decided to launch this initiative for captains to be able to receive remuneration more frequently and with ease,” explained Khaled Nuseibeh, Chief Executive Officer at Hala, adding: “We are working with our partners to expand the remit further to ensure we are catering to everyone equally”.

As Dubai’s plans to modernize and improve its transport infrastructure continue at breakneck speed, the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) recently unveiled a plan to phase out conventional street-hailing of taxis in favor of e-hailing services — a move that’s sure to improve Hala’s fortunes over the coming years.

News

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 9 And Ultra 2 Specs Leak Ahead Of Unpacked

An 800mAh Ultra 2 battery and a switch from Exynos to Qualcomm silicon headline the expected changes for Samsung’s next smartwatches.

Published

1 day ago

July 15, 2026

Nour Nasir

samsung's galaxy watch 9 and ultra 2 specs leak ahead of unpacked

Samsung’s next smartwatches have little left to hide. A new leak reported by Android Authority has surfaced most of the remaining details about the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, just over a week before the company’s Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22.

The biggest change is an invisible one: Samsung is expected to drop its own Exynos W1000 chip in favor of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite SW6100, a chipset unveiled only this year, according to the outlet.

Battery capacity looks like the other notable upgrade. Citing a report from Winfuture, Android Authority says the Watch Ultra 2 could reach 800mAh, well beyond the 590mAh cell in the current Watch Ultra. The 44mm Watch 9 reportedly gets a 445mAh cell — the same capacity as last year’s Watch 8 Classic — while the 40mm model stays at 325mAh.

The 40mm Watch 9 will reportedly feature a 438 x 438-pixel panel, with the 44mm Watch 9 and the Watch Ultra 2 sharing a larger 480 x 480-pixel screen. Samsung leaker Ice Universe has separately claimed the Ultra 2’s display could reach a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. RAM and storage vary by model, topping out at 2GB and 64GB.

Also Read: Tamper With The Recording LED & Meta’s Glasses Kill Camera

The Ultra 2 keeps its titanium case and 100-meter water resistance; the standard Watch 9 remains aluminum, rated to 5 ATM. All models are said to include Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, and dual-band WiFi, with the usual LTE variants, and ship with One UI 9 Watch running on Wear OS 7.

A separate leak puts the Galaxy Watch 9 at €409 (about $468) for the 40mm Bluetooth model, rising to €489 (about $560) for the 44mm LTE version, with the Watch Ultra 2 LTE at €749 (about $857) — figures Android Authority said were partially corroborated by Winfuture. Confirmation arrives on stage on July 22.