News

Visit Iconic Mosques Worldwide With MetaMosque VR

For those with disabilities or economic challenges, visiting the Great Mosque of Mecca is now a real possibility.

Published

1 year ago

April 5, 2024

visit iconic mosques worldwide with metamosque vr

For Muslims worldwide, visiting mosques is of crucial religious and cultural importance. Unfortunately, not everyone shares easy access to a local place of worship, and many Muslims certainly can’t afford a pilgrimage to Al Haram, the Great Mosque of Mecca — even just once in their lifetime. Now, a new virtual reality project is attempting to break down those barriers.

MetaMosque is a virtual app that enables users to experience mosques around the world. Through the platform, Muslims can take part in a spiritual journey to experience the wonder of some of the world’s most significant mosques, fostering a sense of belonging and connection to these vital religious spaces, regardless of circumstances.

Samera Abed, CEO and founder of MetaMosque, devised the project for her 90-year-old mother, who now struggles to attend a mosque by herself.

“So just like how I taught her to use an iPhone, I am teaching her to be part of a community,” Abed explained. “She can go to her childhood mosque whenever she wants”.

Also Read: Yango App Now Alerts Muslim Drivers To Prayer Times

Available on Meta Quest, the MetaMosques immersive experience offers an engaging virtual exploration of prayer halls and a close look at the fine architectural details of some of the world’s most iconic Islamic buildings. After a virtual visit, users are encouraged to share their experiences in online discussions that aim to grow the accompanying MetaMosque community.

“I also know that this will be a great gift for many Muslims in the world who have disabilities or are facing economic challenges,” Abed adds.

MetaMosque currently offers access to ten mosques and a Majlis. The app is available on multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, PC, and Meta Quest, with inbuilt AI that can answer questions on Islamic knowledge and the history of these mosques, along with personalized reminders for upcoming religious events.

News

Google Releases Veo 2 AI Video Tool To MENA Users

The state-of-the-art video generation model is now available in Gemini, offering realistic AI-generated videos with better physics, motion, and detail.

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2025

Nour Nasir

Google

Starting today, users of Gemini Advanced in the MENA region — and globally — can tap into Veo 2, Google’s next-generation video model.

Originally unveiled in 2024, Veo 2 has now been fully integrated into Gemini, supporting multiple languages including Arabic and English. The rollout now brings Google’s most advanced video AI directly into the hands of everyday users.

Veo 2 builds on the foundations of its predecessor with a more sophisticated understanding of the physical world. It’s designed to produce high-fidelity video content with cinematic detail, realistic motion, and greater visual consistency across a wide range of subjects and styles. Whether recreating natural landscapes, human interactions, or stylized environments, the model is capable of interpreting and translating written prompts into eight-second 720p videos that feel almost handcrafted.

Users can generate content directly through the Gemini platform — either via the web or mobile apps. The experience is pretty straightforward: users enter a text-based prompt, and Veo 2 returns a video in 16:9 landscape format, delivered as an MP4 file. These aren’t just generic clips — they can reflect creative, abstract, or highly specific scenarios, making the tool especially useful for content creators, marketers, or anyone experimenting with visual storytelling.

Also Read: Getting Started With Google Gemini: A Beginner’s Guide

To ensure transparency, each video is embedded with SynthID — a digital watermark developed by Google’s DeepMind. The watermark is invisible to the human eye but persists across editing, compression, and sharing. It identifies the video as AI-generated, addressing concerns around misinformation and media authenticity.

While Veo 2 is still in its early phases of public rollout, the technology is part of a broader push by Google to democratize advanced AI tools. With text-to-image, code generation, and now video creation integrated into Gemini, Google is positioning the platform as a full-spectrum creative assistant.

Access to Veo 2 starts today and will continue expanding in the coming weeks. Interested users can try it out at gemini.google.com or through the Gemini app on Android and iOS.