SAN FRANCISCO When it comes to dashboard displays that are more like smart phones, two things are clear: Customers want them, and automakers are intent on supplying them. But are they really a good idea? Car companies answer with an emphatic yes. They say outsized dashboard displays that behave more like smart phones will boost revenue and attract buyers. And they also insist the new screens will […]
|By TAP Staff| Over 30 local and regional airports have joined a growing coalition that is calling on the U.S. government to open consultations with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to address $42 billion in subsidies and other unfair benefits that the Gulf nations have provided to their state-owned airlines, violating Open Skies policy and threatening hundreds of thousands of American jobs. Airports from across the […]
UAE. Non-oil private sector firms in the UAE reported the weakest improvement in business conditions since August 2013 during June. Marked slowdowns in growth of output and new business were at the forefront of the overall deceleration, while employment continued to rise at a solid pace. Meanwhile, inflationary pressures from both input costs and output charges were negligible. The survey, sponsored by Emirates NBD and produced by […]
Oil prices tumbled their most in three months on Monday, with U.S. crude falling 6 percent, after Greece’s rejection of debt bailout terms and China’s rolling out of emergency measures to support its stock markets shook global markets. Adding to the pressure on oil, Iran and global powers were trying to meet a July 7 deadline on a nuclear deal, which could bring more supply to the […]
Oil price flux unlikely to hit long-term sector growth BEIRUT, 13 hours, 17 minutes ago The cyclicality of the oil and gas industry is unlikely to impact the long term trajectory of the sector, a report said, noting that the current fluctuations may speed up some of the trends that were already unfolding. The new report entitled “Oil and Gas Reality Check 2015” released by Deloitte, a […]
ME property market among world’s fastest growing NEW DELHI, 2 days ago Middle East real estate market revenues have augmented at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.7 per cent between 2009 and 2014, making it one of the fastest growing sectors across the world, a report said. Foreign real estate developers have infused billions of dollars into places such as Oman, Qatar, Dubai (UAE), Saudi […]
INTERNATIONAL. Greece’s seeming hour-by-hour descent into chaos at the end of the second quarter has fashioned an intensely uncertain framework casting markets at the mercy of headline risk. It is with that ever-changing caveat that Saxo Bank publishes its Q3 Outlook ahead of the Greek referendum on EU membership which, as things stand, will take place July 5. The outlook for Q3, therefore hangs in the balance, […]
Google’s new image-recognition program misfired badly this week by identifying two black people as gorillas, delivering a mortifying reminder that even the most intelligent machines still have lot to learn about human sensitivity. The blunder surfaced in a smartphone screen shot posted online Sunday by a New York man on his Twitter account, @jackyalcine. The images showed the recently released Google Photos app had sorted a picture […]
UAE. Short-term real interest rates (US) will remain near zero for more than three years, according to the majority of institutional investors, academics and policy makers polled at the AQR Asset Management Institute’s inaugural Perspectives event, at London Business School. At the start, delegates were asked how much longer they expected short-term real interest rates (US) to remain near zero, with 38% answering more than three years. […]
With an up-to-date Android or iOS device, YouTube users can now play back videos at 60 frames per second. Google-owned YouTube rolled out the HFR (high-frame-rate) option for desktop devices last fall, and expanded that to live streaming in May. For now, though, HFR live streaming remains available only on desktops, not on mobile devices. YouTube said 60 fps videos provide “silky smooth playback,” especially for video […]
If you’re sick of your smartphone’s shaky Web capabilities and its tendency to lose power after just a few hours, Apple is feeling your pain. According to reports, the company’s next iPhone might offer faster Web connectivity and better battery life, all thanks to a single component. The handset, which by most indications will be called the iPhone 6S, will launch with a chip called the MDM9635M. […]
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged more companies to make electronic and digital goods on Wednesday, reviving his campaign promise to bridge India’s digital divide backed by over $70 billion in investment pledges. Launching a “Digital India Week” aimed at popularising the government’s push to connect 250,000 villages by 2019, Modi spoke of the need to boost local manufacturing of electronics – the country’s largest import […]
Dubai real estate developer Limitless has taken a step closer to securing a second restructuring on debt outstanding from Dubai’s property crash six years ago. It said on Monday it would repay 2.07 billion dirhams ($564 million) to creditors and has won the approval of almost 90 percent of banks to extend its remaining debt to December 2018. Limitless is seeking to follow in the footsteps of […]
UAE. A new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm and the world’s leading advisor on business strategy, delves into the challenges faced by Exploration & Production (E&P) companies here in the GCC region. The fact is, these are trying times for E&P companies globally. Following more than a decade of strong financial returns, the industry has experienced several difficult years caused […]
Sophisticated attacks by an Islamic State branch in Saudi Arabia show the jihadist group is better established there than previously suspected, and that fueled by anger over Arab civil wars, Riyadh’s militancy problem is not going away. A sustained militant campaign could undermine stability in the world’s top oil exporter and birthplace of Islam, one of the few major Arab states that has so far mostly avoided […]
UAE. MENA’s digital market value is expected to reach US$35 billion in 2015, and overall digitization initiatives could add $820 billion to regional GDP, creating 4.4 million jobs by 2020. However, this rapid digitization and the resources of the region make MENA an attractive target for a wide array of cyber-threats, according to a study by Strategy&. The Strategy& study looks into national cyber-security efforts by the […]
PARIS — Palestinian leaders delivered files documenting what they say are Israeli war crimes on Thursday at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, broadening a new front in the Middle East conflict. The files include descriptions of military operations throughout the occupied territories and in particular last year’s war in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian spokesmen said. One set of papers covers killings of civilians and the […]
Five former members of President Obama’s inner circle of Iran advisers have written an open letter expressing concern that a pending accord to stem Iran’s nuclear program “may fall short of meeting the administration’s own standard of a ‘good’ agreement” and laying out a series of minimum requirements that Iran must agree to in coming days for them to support a final deal. Several of the senior […]
SANA, Yemen — For nearly three months, Saudi Arabia, along with its allies, has been bombing Yemen, its southern neighbor, hoping to force the retreat of Shiite rebels who have seized major cities and to return the country’s president from the Saudi guest mansion where he lives to the presidential palace. So far, it has not worked. The rebels, known as the Houthis, have gained ground, more […]
A BlackBerry Passport smartphone is shown at its official launching event in Toronto, September 24, 2014. Reuters/Aaron Harris/Files WATERLOO, Ontario BlackBerry (BB.TO) shares fell on Tuesday as doubts surfaced about the sustainability of the sharp growth the former smartphone pioneer reported in crucial software revenues, an area BlackBerry’s CEO said he will augment via acquisitions. The company’s shares were down 3.5 percent in afternoon trading. They had […]
|By K Raveendran| The trigger for Dubai’s property crash of 2009 had come in the form of a Standard & Poor’s report that warned of a serious price correction in the wake of a highly unrealistic boom. Six years later, the rating agency has issued another ominous report on Dubai’s property market, although there are not even the faintest signs of a boom present now. The warning […]
BAGHDAD — When Umm Ahmed returned to her Iraqi hometown, Tikrit, in recent days she found a city devastated by fighting with militants from the Islamic State: buildings burned, shops looted, schools shuttered and hospitals inoperable. Still, it was home, and it was good to be back. “Today, I am in the middle of Tikrit,” Umm Ahmed, 39, said last week, preferring to be identified by her […]
SHARJAH // Police have launched an investigation after a woman fell to her death from a 24th floor apartment. The 33-year-old Indonesian fell from the flat in a tower in the Al Majaz neighbourhood on Sunday morning. Sharjah central operations room received a report at 9am and dispatched emergency crews and police patrols to the scene. The woman died instantly, said police. Her body was taken to […]
