News

Sajdah Is The World’s First Smart Rug That Helps You Perfect Your Prayers

Sajdah features a built-in LED display, a speaker, and rechargeable batteries, allowing it to display the text of the Holy Quran and play voice prompts to guide you as you pray.

Published

5 years ago

May 6, 2021

Joanna Melki

Sajdah

The Middle East has always had a passion for technology and innovative solutions in general. When the coronavirus pandemic first hit, private businesses and public organizations in the region quickly implemented digital solutions to overcome the challenges presented to them.

While global vaccination efforts are accelerating and paving the way for the eventual transition to normalcy, it will still take a lot of time for the last social distancing measure to be lifted. Until then, millions of Muslims around the world will continue praying at home, not always being sure how to pray without directions.

Qatar-based Thakaa Technologies is now trying to solve this problem with their first-ever smart educational prayer rug, called Sajdah. The rug is available exclusively on LaunchGood, and you can get it with a discount of nearly 50 percent if you hurry up.

“Technology is entering every part of our lives. We’re using technology to communicate, learn, socialize, exercise, and organize our life,” said Abdulrahman Saleh Khamis, CEO and co-founder of Thakaa Technologies. “We hope everyone is as excited as we are and urge our Muslim brothers and sisters to log on to LaunchGood and pre-order Sajdah,” added Abdul Ali, the co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of Thakaa Technologies.

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Sajdah features a built-in LED display, a speaker, and rechargeable batteries, allowing it to display the text of the Holy Quran and play voice prompts to guide you as you pray. You can pair the rug with your smartphone through the Sajdah mobile app and use the app to pre-program the parts of the Quran you want to display during your prayer, control the speed of the prayer, and a whole lot more.

At the moment, prayer guides and Quran verses can be displayed in English and Arabic, but Thakaa Technologies promises to add support for more languages with future updates to Sajdah.

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.

Published

2 months ago

February 27, 2026

Nour Nasir

Google

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.