News

iOS 17.2 Is Here With A New Journal App And Spatial Videos

The update also includes a host of smaller features for Weather and Messages, plus a translation option for the Action Button.

Published

3 years ago

December 12, 2023

Nour Nasir

ios 17.2 is here with a new journal app and spatial videos

Apple’s iOS 17.2 update has now arrived for recent iPhones. The update features Apple’s new Journal app, which includes prompts from data on your phone, as well as a new option to record spatial videos.

Apple has been dropping hints about the new journal app since the summer of 2023. It’s designed to encourage users to write about day to day events and accompany key moments with photos from your iPhone.

Meanwhile, there are also key additions to the camera, bringing Spatial Video to the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, as well as improved telephoto camera focus. In addition, the new Action Button also gains some new abilities, including the ability to access the Translate tool. This will enable easier conversations across languages or help users to quickly translate a page.

Updates have also come to Apple’s Messages app. There’s a new catch-up arrow that’ll take you down to the first unread message within a thread and Contact Key Verification so you know who you’re chatting with.

Also Read: Top E-Commerce Websites In The Middle East In 2023

The Weather app will now tell you how much it’s expected to rain or snow, while an improved selection of widgets adds things like wind speed, air quality, and a “feels like” temperature. There’s also a new wind map and an interactive moon calendar.

The update also features a bunch of improvements and bug fixes, including AirDrop enhancements in the Wallet app, while older iPhones now get support for Qi2 wireless charging.

How To Download iOS 17.2

You can access the iOS 17.2 update by tapping the Settings cog on your iPhone and then heading to General > Software Update.

News

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.