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Hearing is one of the five human senses that ensures that information is gathered, processed and interpreted effectively. Without sound, we would be unable to experience the world around us the way we do. New sensory experiences are transforming the way we consume sound today. From noise canceling headphones to high-resolution technology that enhances the quality of sound, we are surrounded by a plethora of options. There is definitely a growing demand for audio products capable of delivering high-quality sound.
As people travel this summer, many will be turning to their favorite playlists to keep them company. The need for high-quality sound is truly appreciated on the road. Sony is developing multiple technologies that allow users to enjoy high-resolution sound through a range of experiences — be it while relaxing at home, traveling through crowded airports or in trains. Here’s a look at cutting-edge Sony technologies that take the auditory experience to the next level:
If you fancy an immersive audio experience (similar to being at a music concert), Sony’s 360 Reality Audio transports you to a different zone. If you are listening to music on a stereo, sound sources — from vocals to instruments and effects — are each placed on a 360 degree sphere that surrounds the listener and creates an immersive experience. This means that you feel as if you are with the artist recording in a studio. With headphones, the experience is even more intense as sound materializes from all points around your head. Whether you are at home or out at your favorite café, you can relish superior sound quality. The new WH-1000XM5 headphones are 360 Reality Audio Certified that allow you to enjoy a custom immersive music experience with personalization.
Do you crave high-quality audio when you listen to your favorite tracks? Sony’s high-resolution audio products — from headphones to amplifiers, wireless speakers and home cinema systems — use a collection of digital processes and formats that allow the encoding and playback of music using higher sampling rates than the standards used in CDs. This means that you can enjoy the exciting world of high-resolution music no matter where you may be, and just as the music artist intended. Both new LinkBuds S and WH-1000XM5 headphones allow you to experience High-Resolution Audio Wireless, thanks to Sony’s industry-adopted audio coding technology, LDAC.
Sony’s Digital Sound Enhancement Engine is a technology developed by Sony to enhance the sound quality of compressed audio files by restoring high-range sound removed by the compression process. The DSEE (Sound Enhance) setting does not affect videos and FM programs. With the DSEE, you can hear a rich and natural sound, which is almost exactly like the original source. So, if you want to hear Adele’s latest album, you can get the same crystal-clear quality on your TV or music system.
If you are someone who needs extra bass on your headphones while working out at the gym or want to feel like you are at a live music festival at home without actually going to one, Sony’s Extra Bass series captures that full-body musical experience that goes beyond audio. To do this, Sony infused the conventional speaker function by simply reproducing sound with lighting and portable durability for a multi-sensory wireless speaker. Sony’s Extra Bass series is a fusion of thumping bass and smart, dynamic lighting, which goes beyond the traditional audio system to enable people to share the joys of music in larger groups, regardless of the location. So, the next time you have a house party planned, Sony’s Extra Bass series will give you the feeling of being at a nightclub, without actually going to one.
In recognition of the World Humanitarian Day, marked every year on Aug. 19, Rosewood Jeddah hosted 30 orphans from Albir Society at its Habsburg restaurant, in an event organized to celebrate the achievements of the charitable society in providing opportunities and safety for these children.
During the event, Mazen Allam, managing director of Rosewood Jeddah, said: “Rosewood Jeddah has been actively involved in giving back to society for the past decade. As an institution, our aim is to grow our role and involvement in improving the lives of everyone in the community we belong to. It’s a great honor for us to celebrate World Humanitarian Day with Albir Society and their wonderful children.
“I would like to extend great thanks to their CEO Mohieddin Hakami, who not only made this possible but with the support of his team managed to help us organize all of this.”
Allam also highlighted Rosewood Jeddah’s plan to continue its support to Albir Society in the future.
This year, World Humanitarian Day has been themed “It Takes a Village,” shining a light on the thousands of volunteers, professionals and crisis-affected people who deliver urgent healthcare, shelter, food, protection, water and much more.
On a day where we are reminded to recognize our fellow brothers and sisters in the world, Rosewood Jeddah looked to support the orphaned children, donating 30 stationery kits to prepare them for studies and their journey back to school.
“Every child has the right to dream, and the right to opportunity. It gives us great pleasure to be able to support these kids in their return to school and to continue supporting them to aspire and reach their goals,” said Allam, as he reaffirmed Rosewood Jeddah’s commitment toward their social responsibility.
Albir Society is a charitable society under the supervision of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development in Saudi Arabia led by Makkah Governor Khalid bin Faisal as the honorary chairman. For more than a decade, Albir has provided aid and support to families in need, patients and orphans in the community and surrounding environment. Albir society continues to encourage the complementary relationship between the government, private sector, and charitable entities to direct their social responsibilities to charity work.
Meanwhile, the award-winning Rosewood Jeddah, situated on the Jeddah Corniche, is ideal for both business and leisure travelers. Running parallel to the Red Sea for more than 20 miles, the Corniche is within easy reach of key business, diplomatic, government, and designer shopping districts.
Poco, a Xiaomi-affiliated technology brand, announced the launch of Poco C40 in the Saudi market, to deliver quality on-the-go, budget-friendly entertainment experiences ready for the spring-summer season.
Poco C40 offers a high-capacity 6,000 mAh battery and the biggest ever display on a Poco phone, for immersive viewing suited for an on-the-go lifestyle. It also couples outstanding audio-visual experiences with affordability, not to mention specs that will delight everyday smartphone users, to position the brand at the top of the entry-level segment.
“It’s our ardent hope that with the Poco C40, smartphones are made more accessible and intuitive for beginners. The launch of Poco C40 is in part the fulfillment of a larger brand ambition, to be the best offering in the entry-level segment,” said Angus Ng, head of product marketing at Poco Global. “We’re creating more options making consumer choices easier, and we simply won’t be beat in pricing and entertainment offerings.”
Boasting a 6.71-inch LCD Dot Drop display, the largest display ever featured on a Poco smartphone, users are fully immersed in the Poco experience. Built with Corning Gorilla Glass, the device is also scratch-resistant, making it the ideal companion for outdoor adventuring this summer.
The display has a brightness rating of up to 400 nits, complemented with features such as sunlight mode display, which smartly sets screen brightness in proportion to exposed direct summer sunlight. Furthermore, reading mode switches the screen to a warmer color temperature, easier on the eyes to reduce eye strain during long reading sessions.
Compounding on features that make it an entertainment powerhouse, Poco C40 has added a powerful loudspeaker to enhance users’ overall experience. The speakers open up a world of vibrant sound for clearer phone calls, more expressive music listening, and captivating audio-visual experiences to stay up to date while on the go.
The device is fitted with a dual back camera array, with a 13 MP main camera and 2 MP depth sensor, as well as a 5MP front camera. This setup comes with the added support of a wide range of innovative photography and videography features and modes, which capture each and every moment with clarity and precision.
Under the hood, Poco C40 carries JLQ Technology’s latest high-performance octa-core JR510 processor. Its mobile platform is built on an 11 nm process with eight Cortex-A55 cores running up to 2.0 GHz.
The Poco C40 comes in two colors: Power Black and Coral Green. It will be available in 4 GB + 64 GB at a price of SR599 ($160), exclusively on Amazon Saudi Arabia.
Aldar Properties PJSC has released its 2021 Sustainability Report, showcasing the continued evolution of its sustainability strategy, in alignment with international best practice and supported by enhanced governance and data collection. The report also highlights the progress the company has made across its four sustainability pillars of environment, economy, community and people.
By focusing on data quality, Aldar was able to close gaps in data collection and strengthen its capabilities and processes, paving the way for more detailed and stronger reporting of sustainability metrics. This included the launch of a new data management system to streamline reporting across the group and to track more than 500 non-financial KPIs across the ESG spectrum.
Talal Al-Dhiyebi, chief executive of Aldar, said: “The steps we have taken in 2021 to prioritize the environment and impose on ourselves greater accountability and transparency are fully aligned with UAE’s robust sustainability agenda and global international ESG standards.”
To bolster its commitment to the environment, the company has strengthened its alignment with sustainability best practices and the UAE’s net-zero targets and is working on its own Net-Zero Action Plan, the details of which are due to be announced later in 2022. In 2021, Aldar also took significant measures to reduce energy consumption across its portfolio by 20 percent. The group’s retrofit project is expected to remove 80,000 tons of carbon emissions annually across the company’s 80 hotel, school, commercial, leisure and residential assets.
Through its involvement with the national In-Country Value (ICV) program, Aldar prioritizes engaging with local contractors, consultants and suppliers (including SMEs) to reinvest in the local economy. During 2021, Aldar recirculated AED8.8 billion to the local economy through ICV. Aldar Projects also signed development project contracts worth AED8.5 billion, including 16 contracts with UAE‑based companies.
Last year, through its CSR programs, numerous initiatives were supported to benefit wider communities, which are managed in partnership with organizations such as Sandooq Al-Watan, Ma’an, UAE Team Emirates and Special Olympics UAE.
In 2021, Aldar also signed an MoU with Zayed Higher Organization to create opportunities and provide greater accessibility for people of determination.
Reflecting Aldar’s commitment to Emiratization, the company brought the percentage of UAE nationals in the corporate workforce to 35 percent from 29 percent in 2020. At the same time, the proportion of women employed at Aldar rose to 42 percent in 2021, up from 31 percent in 2020.
W Motors, a manufacturer of luxury hypercars in the Middle East, is all set for its entry into the metaverse and Web3 space. With Tokengate as a crucial partner, the company will become one of the first car manufacturers to use the metaverse and create an immersive and inclusive experience around their hypercars.
The W Motors metaverse will constitute a hub where like-minded members can come together as part of a digital community, offering users a digitally native update to the age-old experience of designing cars, building models, and playing racing games.
A unique collection of 10,000 “HyperWolves” NFT profile pictures will serve as a gateway for the W Motors metaverse and digital roadmap. These NFTs will represent the spirit animal of the W Motors cars, the Wolf.
Owners of HyperWolves NFTs will have exclusive access to the world of W Motors from track days, global motorsports events, and community-driven hypercar designs, to factory tours, where users will be able to follow the hypercars’ journey from the origination to the building process.
In addition, NFT holders will be awarded a virtual car designed by W Motors. The car will be selected from a series of exclusive, rare and never-seen-before hypercars, including the 110 Fenyr SuperSport and 7 Lykan HyperSport models — both of which were featured in the Fast and Furious 7 blockbuster movie.
HyperWolves owners will eventually be able to customize their hypercars and integrate them into the web3 blockchain games. At a later stage, W Motors is planning to create its own metaverse and game for NFT holders.
W Motors aims to establish itself as a precursor in the industry by redefining and bringing a whole new dimension to the automotive experience.
The W Motors metaverse will enable the company to push the boundaries of performance and design and create distinctive, limited-edition car designs on a brand-new digital landscape, without any constraints.
The metaverse-centric experiences will enable W Motors to win greater loyalty and drive strong engagement through personalized and authentic brand interactions. This new venture will revolutionize customer experience, allowing W Motors to connect to a new type of consumer within a new dimension, where members can meet, chat and share their interests.
Ralph Debbas, CEO of W Motors, said: “This is an exciting time for our brand as we unveil our move into the metaverse. We are staking a claim to the metaverse space as the first step in our digital web3 journey and we aim to offer a range of fascinating digital content for our customers. We will push the boundaries and create ground-breaking enhanced and exclusive digital experiences to elevate their membership in the W Motors universe.”
As the official partner of W Motors metaverse, Tokengate will allow the company to create and drive consumer engagement with delightful digital content and technical support. Nathan Kaiser, chairman of the board at Tokengate, said: “We are thrilled to be a partner of the W Motors metaverse and will enable them to offer customers a deeper, more engaging digital experience. We will help them through the uncharted waters of the metaverse and web3 space to create a digital W Motors universe that will represent their luxury hypercars.”
The metaverse is blurring the lines between our physical and digital worlds and W Motors is ready for its limitless potential to create user-driven, captivating experiences that prioritize ownership, creativity, and inclusivity.
Oman Air, the national carrier of Oman, has announced the launch of its new global sale campaign, offering discounts of up to 20 percent on business and economy class fares on selected international destinations.
The global sale is in line with Oman Air’s latest commitment to its loyal customers, offering irresistible choices to a wide selection of international destinations. Guests can enjoy savings on a range of selected international flights via the airline’s Muscat hub. The sale will run from Aug. 22 to 31 and travel will be valid from Sept. 15 to March 31 for both one-way and return flights.
To take advantage of this special offer, guests are encouraged to book early to experience the signature Omani hospitality accessible to guests on every flight. Bookings can be made through Oman Air’s website (omanair.com), the Oman Air app, the airline’s sales offices, call center and appointed travel agents.
Oman Air is renowned for its exceptional award-winning products and services, both in the air and on the ground. The airline offers wide-body service, including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus 330, in addition to the single-aisle Boeing 737.
Oman Air, which began operations in 1993, was initially founded to serve important domestic routes. It has since undergone rapid growth and is today recognized as a major international carrier connecting cities around the world to Oman’s celebrated natural beauty, captivating charm and genuine openness. A Five-Star COVID-19 Airline Safety Rating from Skytrax and two consecutive (2021 and 2022) Five-Star Major Airline Ratings from the Airline Passenger Experience Association are among its many industry accolades.
The airline has been instrumental in transforming Muscat into a popular travel destination in the Middle East, supporting adjacent commercial, industrial and tourism activities. Its fleet comprises, among others, the ultra-modern, fuel-efficient Boeing 737 and 787 Dreamliner aircraft, which feature luxuriously appointed interiors.
Continuous investments in new technologies, innovative products and enhanced guest services have solidified its position as a premium, multi-award-winning airline of outstanding repute.