News

Yango Group Unveils Yasmina AI-Enhanced Smart Speakers For UAE

The Mini and Midi-sized models feature a bilingual AI assistant with personalized interactions and smart home integration.

Published

2 years ago

August 26, 2024

Nour Nasir

Yango

Yango Group has just introduced two new AI-enhanced smart speakers in the UAE. The Yasmina Midi and Yasmina Mini come equipped with a bilingual AI assistant with conversational skills in both Khaleeji Arabic and English, making interactions feel natural and culturally relevant.

Powered by Yango Group’s proprietary large language model (LLM), Yasmina can conduct lifelike conversations and even add a touch of humor with local jokes. The speakers’ features extend beyond basic conversation and can recognize up to four different family members by their voices and tailor content according to each individual’s preferences. By remembering users’ likes and dislikes, Yasmina can suggest music and other content based on personal tastes.

In addition, Yasmina can also display information such as the time and weather, while also conveying emotions through an LED screen. The dynamic lighting adjusts to match the ambiance of the music or the nature of the interaction.

Finally, for religious users, Yasmina can also recite surahs from the Quran, play Adhans, and provide the Hijri calendar date. Both speakers also offer prayer times for any global location.

Key Features Of Yasmina Smart Speakers

The Yasmina Midi speaker is designed for spaces up to 300 square feet, featuring three speakers, including a subwoofer and two tweeters, for a powerful, expansive sound. The more compact Yasmina Mini is ideal for smaller rooms up to 200 square feet, offering clear, balanced audio.

Also Read: Tribit StormBox Pro Portable Speaker Review

Both models prioritize privacy with a mute button that disconnects the microphones, preventing Yasmina from listening or responding to voice commands when activated. The speakers also function as smart home hubs, enabling users to control their environment using voice commands. Yasmina Midi includes Zigbee and Wi-Fi capabilities, while the Yasmina Mini connects to smart home systems via Wi-Fi.

Availability & Special Offers

Yasmina Midi and Yasmina Mini can be purchased from various retailers and online platforms across the UAE, including Virgin Megastore, Jumbo Electronics, Sharaf DG, and noon.com. The Yasmina Midi is priced at AED 449, and the Yasmina Mini is AED 279.

To enhance the smart speaker experience, Yango Group is also offering a 90-day free trial of Yango Play. With an active subscription, Yasmina can recommend and play content tailored to each family member’s preferences, making the listening experience more personalized.

Related Topics:Artificial Intelligence Yango Yasmina

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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.