Mar 17
Here in the U.S., the arrival of a new tunnel boring machine is huge news, warranting naming ceremonies
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Mar 09
All that cement and steel has to come from somewhere. In an amazing video by filmmaker Brandon Li, we get a chance to stroll through a world not many see: The dockyards of Dubai, where everything from food to construction materials arrive in the UAE city.
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Feb 11
Rent at the 163-story Burj Khalifa doesn’t come cheap. While a one-bedroom "only" costs $55,000 a year (according to CNN), it’s the $25,000 service fee that really gets you. Now, a fight over these fees may force tenants to make the climb home on foot.
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Feb 11
Back in December when Amazon announced that it wanted to use drones to deliver packages to Prime users in only 30 minutes, many folks thought that sounded farfetched. Word has now surfaced from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that the government wants to trial its own delivery service in Dubai using drones.
The service would feature drone aircraft to deliver items to citizens such as driver’s licenses and other government documents. A prototype drone was unveiled this week and the UAE government plans to test the drone for six months.
The battery-powered quadrotor will carry packages in an upper cargo compartment. It also will have fingerprint scanners and retina scanners to ensure delivery to the correct person. The team behind the drones says they could cost as little as $1100(USD) each, and carry loads up to 3.3 pounds distances up to 1.86 miles.
Assuming a successful test in Dubai, the government wants to roll the drone aircraft out to the remainder of the country in the next year.
[via The National via The Verge]
Nov 08
A new airport complex is taking shape in Abu Dhabi, where roughly 12,000 construction workers are on
Posted in: Today's Chili
A new airport complex is taking shape in Abu Dhabi, where roughly 12,000 construction workers are on-site daily to finish the massive structure, whose floor area is larger than that of the Pentagon. According to UAE paper The National, it will take 84,000 tons of steel to build the structure’s dramatic arches, designed by New York-based KPF.
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Jun 19
Earlier than expected (and a little pricier than we’d hoped), the BlackBerry Q5 will go on sale tomorrow in the UAE. We know that its radios are primed for AT&T 3G and while the build might not rival the flagship BB10 device, it’s another option for those who can’t relinquish the tactile joys of a physical keyboard. It will launch priced at 1,499 AED (just above $400), which nets you BlackBerry’s latest OS spread across a 3.1-inch touchscreen with the aforementioned keyboard nestled below. Interested in hopping on a red-eye flight for the third device since the company’s name change? Then we’d recommend reacquainting yourself with our first impressions.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry
Source: CrackBerry
May 03
Welcome to Japanese Technology from the Future Friday!
It’s already Friday west of the international dateline – here in Japan, it’s totally the future. The weekly JTFF is our somewhat technosnarky coverage of 2-5 particularly important, specifically Japan-related tech stories. Get yourself hip to the micro & macro that went down while North America was sleeping – check in with Akihabara News every Friday morning and BOOM! Ahead of the game, you win.
:: JTFF – May 3, 2013 ::
• New Pacific Rim Trailer for Japanese Audiences
The JTFF doesn’t often jump into entertainment stories, but since this one’s 1. about giant robots fighting alien sea monsters (“kaiju,” Japanese for “monster”), and 2. directed by Guillermo del Toro, it’s not only wildly relevant (perhaps you’ve noticed our recent renaissance in robotics coverage?), but also promises to maybe, just maybe be a decent blockbuster-scale robot movie. Jump through to see what the suits up in marketing decided to aim at the Japanese.
[PACIFIC RIM JAPAN TRAILER – DIGITAL JOURNAL]
• How Robots are Changing the Way We Age
Interesting and very comprehensive coverage of why and how robots will be all up the developing world’s aging process. Of course anyone worth their Robo-Dorky merit badge knows Japan’s aging society is the vanguard of the “Yeah so we’re getting old really fast and who’s going to take care of us ummm okay let’s do robots” club, and this piece provides a very nice contextual framework for how the issue’s addressed both here and in the rest of the world. For a primer, you might want to begin with our own coverage here.
[GETTING OLD WITH ROBOTS & STUFF – FISCAL TIMES]
• Japan’s Taking Nuclear Energy Tech to the Middle East
Not only is Japan funding off-shore wind farms in the eastern United States, they’re also taking J-Tech nuclear energy know-how to the UAE and Turkey. After Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pan-Arabian hobnobbing, a deal was inked for Japan to sell nuclear tech to the UAE, and this bodes well both for tech exports and maintaining Japan’s steady stream of UAE fossil fuels, for which it’s a platinum-level customer. Motivation and angles on the agreement with Turkey are not quite as easy to parse, but appear to be part of Japan’s ongoing efforts to boost technological exports in lucrative markets outside of the traditional electronics, automotive, etc.
[THINGS GO WELL FOR ABE IN THE UAE – UPI] – [TURKEY GETS SOME NUCLEAR J-TECH – JAPAN TIMES]
That was the JTFF, and live from the future – that is all!
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Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com, where the JTFF was born.
Tokyo at Night image via PhotoEverywhere.
Mar 19
Nov 27
Dubai is full of unbelievable things like the tallest building in the world and a mall with a ski slope. It’s pretty awesome, but you know what makes it even better? Skydiving over it. More »
Oct 05
Another week has come to a close and that signals the arrival of a brand spanking new issue of our weekly e-magazine. This time out, Darren Murph makes the trek to the United Arab Emirates to chat with Ahmad Zahran about how crowd sourcing has jumpstarted his company, Infinitec, for a second time. We also pay a visit to to the Paris Auto Show to take a gander at the latest in transportation tech, while Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite and the Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G get the full review treatment. “Eyes-on” tackles a suitcase full of sound, “Weekly Stat” offers a look at data consumption amongst Android users and NVIDIA’s Nick Stam tells all in the Q&A. Grab a spot in your favorite reading chair because the latest issue is just a few clicks away.
Distro Issue 60 PDF
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Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile
Distro Issue 60: Infinitec’s rebirth gets Kickstarted in the Dubai desert originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Oct 2012 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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