News
NEOM Announces Luxury Tourism Destination Epicon
The glistening coastal tower will be situated on the Gulf of Aqaba and is billed as “a gateway to the future”.
Planners of NEOM, the sustainable urban development being built in northwest Saudi Arabia, have announced a new addition to the project named Epicon, a luxury coastal tourism destination on the Gulf of Aqaba.
Epicon will “set new standards of hospitality and architecture”, according to a recent NEOM press release. Rising from the desert like a glistening mirage, the facility will feature two huge towers, one 225 meters tall and the second a massive 275 meters. The towers will house 41 ultra-premium hotels and luxury residences comprising 14 suites and apartments. A short distance from the hotel, a separate resort complex will blend “tranquility with indulgence” with another 120 rooms and 45 residential beachside villas.
In the press release, NEOM officials describe Epicon as a place “designed as a gateway to the future [providing] an opportunity to escape the stresses of the every day”. Whether relaxing at the beachside club, taking a wellness treatment at the luxurious spa, or exploring the surrounding nature, the coastal tower resort will offer guests an unparalleled experience, along with a wide array of culinary options from its many restaurants and bistros.
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Epicon will also offer residential apartments, giving unrestricted access to world-class facilities and views of one of the most desirable shorelines in the region. Amenities will include a state-of-the-art gym, high-tech workspaces, a library, swimming pools, and club lounges.
News of the Epicon facility follows the recent announcement by NEOM of Leyja, a sustainable tourism destination situated in a beautiful natural valley. Overall, it appears that the development of Saudi Arabia’s northwest region will soon make it one of the world’s most desirable tourist locations.
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.
