Dubai does it again with WiFi Palms

Ooops, Dubai does it again! This time, by putting palms to good use offering free WiFi around the city.

I have been seeing a white palm on the beach next to Burj Al Arab while at the traffic light on Thanya Street going towards Beach Road, but I haven't been able to stop. So I had a poke online.

That’s how I found out it is a Smart Palm station, among others Dubai is planning to roll out around the city, to provide free WiFi in parks, beaches and other locations.

As I only have WiFi, I can’t wait until one of the Smart Palms is installed on the free beach I go to in Umm Suqeim.

The first Smart Palm was installed at Gate 6 in Zabeel Park a couple of months ago. There are plans to provide over 50 more of them this year.

Dubai Municipality recently installed the Smart Palm I see on the beach next to Burj Al Arab Hotel and plans to cover all open public beaches in Al Mamzar, Jumeirah and Umm Suqeim.

The UAE-made stations stand six meters tall in the shape of a palm tree. They have fast mobile phone charging stations and screens displaying information on Dubai’s attractions.

The WiFi palms are a venture between Dubai Municipality, Smart Palm creators D Idea Media, Du, Sun Tab Solar Energy and Promo Tech Gulf Industry. The project is in line with the UAE Cabinet’s decision to make 2015 the Year of Innovation.

The development took just 10 months from conception to delivering the finished product. After receiving its patent, Smart Palm began working with its partners who each contributed towards the overall functionality of the product.

The Smart Palms' 18-square-meter leaves run entirely on solar power and offer high-speed WiFi up to a range of 53 meters, supporting up to 50 users at a time. They have several phone and tablet charging points offering two-and-a-half times faster charging speeds than a regular plug. Two screens on each palm offer weather information, local news, a navigation application, general Dubai information -- and even a selfie camera.

Soaking up the sun during the day, these state-of-the-art palms store energy to be discharged after sunset. There are eight charging points and WiFi ranges on each palm.

Dubai Municipality Director-General Hussain Lootah said ”the structures are entirely self-sufficient thanks to their mono crystal solar panels, which provide up to 21 percent efficiency.”

From the pictures, they look even more impressive lit up at night.

Alya Harmoudi, director of Environment Department at Dubai Municipality, said the stations can display updates on events and activities on the beach and serve as a public announcement system. They also show beach rules, guidelines, tips and sea conditions.

“For us, it was important to translate the important cultural identity of the date palm from being a plant that provides shelter, building materials, shade and sustenance, to our Smart Palm, designed to provide data, connectivity, energy and all in a sustainable manner,” says Viktor Nelepa, Smart Palm's founder, in a press release.

A trip down to the beach at night to see the high-tech palm is now a must.

Anti-Discriminatory Law issued in UAE

His Highness Sheikh Mo (as the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is affectionately known) posted on Twitter earlier today that the United Arab Emirates has issued a new law against any form of discrimination on the basis of religion, caste, creed, doctrine, race, color or ethnic origin following a Decree by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

According to the Emirates News Agency (WAM)  the new law, No.02 of 2015, criminalizes any acts that stoke religious hatred and/or which insult religion through any form of expression, be it speech or the written word, books, pamphlets or via online media. The law also includes provisions for punishing anyone for terming other religious groups or individuals as infidels, or unbelievers.

The law is intended to provide a sound foundation for the environment of tolerance, broad-mindedness and acceptance in the UAE and aims to safeguard people regardless of their origin, beliefs or race, against acts that promote religious hate and intolerance.

Penalties for violation of the various provisions of the law include jail-terms of six months to over 10 years and fines from Dhs 50,000 to Dhs 2 million.

The Anti-Discriminatory Law prohibits any act that would be considered as insulting God, his prophets or apostles or holy books or houses of worship or graveyards. It also has provisions to fight discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of religion, caste, doctrine, race, color or ethnic origin.

The law condemns actions that would comprise hate speech or the promotion of discrimination or violence against others using any form of media, including online, print, radio or visual media.

Strict action will be taken against any form of expressions of hatred or incitement to hate crimes spread in the form of speech and published media.

The law also criminalizes any act that amounts to abuse of religion or vandalism of religious rituals, holy sites or symbols, and takes a serious view of violence on the basis of religious doctrines.

The law prohibits any entity or group established specifically to provoke religious hatred and recommends stringent punishment for groups or supporters of any organizations or individuals that are associated with hate crimes. It also bars any kind of events such as conferences and meetings within the UAE organized with the sole purpose of sowing seeds of discrimination, discord or hatred against individuals or groups on the basis of faith, origin or race. Receiving financial support for such activities is also punishable under the new law.

The law encourages anyone involved in any activity that violates the law to voluntarily submit themselves before the authorities and has provisions allowing the courts to waive penalties in such cases.

The new law does not contradict with any other existing laws meant to protect specially privileged groups in the society such as women, children and individuals with disabilities or others.

The Anti-Discriminatory Law in full, as published in Gulf News:

1. Criminalizes any acts that stoke religious hatred
2. Criminalizes any act that insults religion through any form of expression, be it speech or the written word, books, pamphlets or online
3. Punishes anyone for terming other religious groups or individuals as infidels, or unbelievers
4. Provides a sound foundation for the environment of tolerance, broad-mindedness and acceptance in the UAE
5. Aims to safeguard people regardless of their origin, beliefs or race, against acts that promote religious hate and intolerance
6. Includes jail terms of six months to more than 10 years for those who break the law
7. Includes fines of between Dh50,000 and Dh2 million for those who break the law
8. Prohibits any act that would be considered as insulting God, His prophets or apostles or holy books or houses of worship or graveyards
9. Makes it illegal to discriminate against individuals or groups on the basis of religion, caste, doctrine, race, color or ethnic origin
10. Prohibits any entity or group established specifically to provoke religious hatred
11. Recommends stringent punishments for groups or supporters of any organizations or individuals that are associated with hate crimes
12. Prohibits any kind of events such as conferences and meetings within the UAE organized with the sole purpose of sowing seeds of discrimination, discord or hatred against individuals or groups on the basis of faith, origin or race
13. Makes it illegal to receive financial support to fund activities that propagate hate
14. Encourages anyone involved in any activity that violates the law to voluntarily submit themselves before the authorities
15. Allows courts to waive penalties where people voluntarily submit themselves to authorities
16. Dovetails with other existing laws to protect specially privileged groups such as women, children and individuals with disabilities or others

Is the Web dying?

Illustration by Tim McDonagh

Every now and then you read an absolute gem online that says exactly what you have been thinking but don’t have the words to express.

An article by Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, published in Matter, is a case in point.

Is the web showing “a departure from a books-internet toward a television-internet?” he wonders, adding:  “We seem to have gone from a non-linear mode of communication — nodes and networks and links — toward a linear one, with centralization and hierarchies.

“The web was not envisioned as a form of television when it was invented. But, like it or not, it is rapidly resembling TV: linear, passive, programmed and inward-looking.”

His article, written after an absence of seven years in jail, gives a perspective on the web that we might have lost sight of in our daily interactions.

Yes, there was excitement about writing a blog all those technology years ago. Now it is a rush to post a photo of the food you are going to eat, the selfie, the cat… and the visual has taken over.

But Derakhshan says it much better:

“Maybe it’s that text itself is disappearing. After all, the first visitors to the web spent their time online reading web magazines. Then came blogs, then Facebook, then Twitter. Now it’s Facebook videos and Instagram and SnapChat that most people spend their time on. There’s less and less text to read on social networks, and more and more video to watch, more and more images to look at. Are we witnessing a decline of reading on the web in favor of watching and listening?” he writes.

“But the Stream, mobile applications, and moving images: They all show a departure from a books-internet toward a television-internet…”

“This is not the future of the web. This future is television,” Derakhshan notes.

“I miss when people took time to be exposed to different opinions, and bothered to read more than a paragraph or 140 characters. I miss the days when I could write something on my own blog, publish on my own domain, without taking an equal time to promote it on numerous social networks; when nobody cared about likes and reshares.

“That’s the web I remember before jail. That’s the web we have to save.”

Derakhshan’s article is a real gem and can be read in full here: The Web We Have to Save.