will.i.am x LG xboom: Where Music Meets AI and Style
This isn't just another portable speaker range. It's a statement.
will.i.am, the nine-time Grammy-winning artist and tech entrepreneur, didn't just lend his name to the xboom series, he was deeply involved in its creation. From the signature sound tuning to the custom audio cues, every detail carries his unmistakable artistic stamp.
Three ways to own the vibe
xboom Grab – Built for the wanderer. Compact, strap-and-go convenience with military-grade durability and IP67 water and dust resistance. Whether it's a beach day, mountain hike, or a bike ride through the city, it's ready to roll with you.
xboom Stage 301 – Party energy, anywhere. With 120W power, booming bass, and AI-driven lighting, this is the speaker that turns living rooms into mini-festivals. Karaoke mode and DJ mix options? Already included.
xboom Bounce – Your personal audio powerhouse. Designed for pure, feel-good sound, from sunny days at the park to late-night backyard hangouts. Dual dome tweeters and dual passive radiators make sure your beats are deep, clear, and full of life.
The AI difference
Here's where things get next level, these speakers listen to the room and adapt. AI sound calibration adjusts the audio to match the space and the genre, while AI lighting syncs visuals with your music's mood. The result? Every song feels like it was made for that exact moment.
In will.i.am's own style, xboom isn't just heard, it's experienced. Whether you're chasing sunsets, hosting friends, or finding your creative groove, there's a xboom for your rhythm.
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Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Bitcoin powers past $124,000, overtakes Google market cap
Bitcoin surged to a record high during early Asian trading on Thursday, breaking through $124,000 and overtaking Google parent Alphabet's market capitalisation, as a wave of institutional demand, corporate adoption, and pro-crypto policy in the United States fuelled optimism that the rally has much further to run. The world's largest cryptocurrency briefly touched $124,450 late on Wednesday before easing slightly, propelling its market capitalisation to $2.456 trillion — enough to rank as the fifth-largest asset globally. The move cemented Bitcoin's position above the $120,000 support level and underscored the momentum that has been building in recent weeks. Ethereum followed the upward trend, holding above $4,750, while Solana, Cardano, and Dogecoin all recorded double-digit percentage gains over the week. Only XRP lagged, staying near $3.24 and missing out on the rally. The price surge came on the back of record inflows into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, expanding balance-sheet allocations from major corporations, and a series of supportive policy moves from President Donald Trump's administration. For the year to date, Bitcoin has climbed more than 31 per cent and is up around 60 per cent from April's lows. Nigel Green, chief executive and founder of global financial advisory firm deVere Group, told Khaleej Times that the price action reflected 'multiple, powerful forces converging to push Bitcoin to new highs'. These include institutional capital pouring in through spot ETFs at record volumes, public companies treating Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset, the White House actively supporting the sector, and nation states now showing strong profits from their Bitcoin positions. 'These aren't isolated developments; they're part of a deep, systemic shift in the global financial system,' Green said. Data from the ETF market underscored the institutional interest. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) led daily trading volumes with $3.7 billion in turnover, followed by Fidelity's FBTC with more than $500 million. Analysts say such volumes are an unmistakable sign that large-cap and pension-fund investors are taking long-term positions. Corporate Bitcoin holdings have also swelled to record valuations. Michael Saylor's Strategy, the Bitcoin-focused firm formerly known as MicroStrategy, said its reserves are now worth $77.2 billion — more than $35 billion above its previous peak last year. Sovereign adoption is delivering gains as well. El Salvador's government disclosed that its Bitcoin reserves, purchased at an average cost of $300.5 million, are now valued at $768 million, translating into unrealised profits of about $468 million. In Washington, momentum is shifting further towards integration of digital assets into mainstream financial products. Last week, President Trump signed an executive order directing the US Labour Department to explore allowing 401(k) retirement plans to hold cryptocurrencies and other alternative assets, potentially opening the door for millions of Americans to gain exposure to Bitcoin through employer-sponsored savings schemes. For Green and other market watchers, the combination of limited supply and expanding sources of demand points to further gains ahead. Bitcoin's fixed issuance rate means that as more institutions, corporations, and sovereigns acquire and hold the asset, the amount available to trade shrinks. 'The scarcity factor is now being amplified by unprecedented demand from entities that buy in size and hold for the long term,' Green said. 'This is strategic positioning in an asset that is becoming embedded in both private and public sector portfolios.' The deVere chief has reaffirmed his year-end price target of $150,000, noting that while short- term volatility is inevitable, the structural drivers are 'overwhelmingly positive'. Pullbacks, he argued, are being met with heavy buying from investors with deep pockets and strong conviction. 'Even if we see profit-taking, every dip is attracting substantial inflows,' Green said. 'Institutions are committing long-term capital, corporate treasuries are diversifying into Bitcoin, and national adoption is delivering measurable returns. Washington is shifting from resistance to integration. This is why we are maintaining our $150,000 target.' Analysts say the macroeconomic backdrop is also working in Bitcoin's favour. With expectations rising that the US Federal Reserve will ease monetary policy in the coming quarters, assets perceived as stores of value stand to benefit from an environment of lower interest rates and increased liquidity. This combination of policy, adoption, and capital flows is reinforcing bullish sentiment across the crypto ecosystem. Market strategists caution that Bitcoin's rapid ascent makes it vulnerable to sharp corrections, particularly if risk appetite falters in global markets. However, they also note that the scale and nature of current buying — led by institutions, not retail speculation — suggest that any downturns could be shorter and less severe than in past cycles. With the $125,000 mark now in sight, traders are debating whether the next leg higher will come in a matter of days or stretch into the weeks ahead. For now, the momentum appears firmly on the side of the bulls. 'The trajectory remains higher,' Green said. 'The fundamentals are strong, the policy environment is supportive, and the buyers are there. For the time being, Bitcoin looks set to continue climbing.'
Khaleej Times
3 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
This app changes how UAE can hire musicians, artists, and even magicians
For three decades, Nizar Ahmadi operated in the upper tiers of global finance. Now, he's channeling that operational discipline into a mission that's decidedly human: connecting magicians, DJs, dancers, painters, and performers directly with the people who want to hire them — without commissions or gatekeepers. 'I've been in banking for over 30 years,' he says in a chat with City Times . The itch to build in the arts, though, never left. 'Music and entertainment, since I was a kid, I've been exposed to it through my parents, through friends, which I had loved… And it's always stayed in the back of my mind. And I always wanted to get involved in it. I just didn't know how.' Recommended For You The 'how' arrived after Covid. 'After Covid, when tech came in, the idea came and I actually spent about three, four months just with a blackboard in my room, putting the user journey together,' he said. That idea became MADE — short for Music, Arts, Dance, Entertainment — a Dubai-born platform where creatives can post video showcases, set prices, be vetted for authenticity, and connect with clients in minutes. Ahmadi's frustration with the old discovery model is visceral — those fleeting living-room moments where someone sings beautifully and then, nothing. 'What about the 99 per cent talents that are out there that are unseen?' he asks. The premise of MADE is simple: 'Let's have thousand people looking at the talents that are out there instead of a thousand talents being seen by one or two agents.' That extends to access. 'I needed entertainment to come into everybody's lives," he said. "It's not a rich man's game.' MADE allows a hotel with a tight budget, a restaurant just starting out, or a parent planning a birthday to find talent at transparent prices, fast. 'All they have to do is showcase their talent clearly, where we have to do a bit of vetting to make sure that they do have a talent… It's free for them to showcase their talent and post a free video.' The driver, he adds, is livelihood: 'A person can eat. A person can pay his rent that night and they're exposed.' UAE as a launchpad If MADE's ethos is global, its launchpad is intentionally local. 'UAE is such a melting hub for everybody… it's the best place to come in because entertainment is growing,' Ahmadi says, noting government-backed cultural momentum and an events calendar that needs talent at every price tier. 'We've launched four or five months ago. We've gotten a couple of thousand talents to begin with.' Early on, the team nudged creators to raise their presentation game: 'We had to filter some and clean up some posts and send them messages to upgrade the quality of the posts… you're going to stop to the ones that catch your eye.' A mentor gave him another shorthand: 'Basically this is the Uber of talents.' But he stresses the role: 'We're not competing with anyone. We're facilitating and connecting talent to talent seekers in minutes.' For all the tech, this is still about human habits. When asked about the challenges, he takes a minute to ponder. 'From many, many sessions that we've had… the main bottleneck for talents, they're lazy," he says. "I need them to come and put a profile and put a video.' Clients have habits too. He adds, 'For the talent seeker, they're wary because they're so used to having an events manager… They think it's already vetted.' MADE's answer is to keep the process simple but rigorous: vet profiles for authenticity and performance, then make contact instantaneous. 'The connection is instantaneous… Here, the pricing is right there. You see the pricing, you connect, you can meet them in an hour.' The platform also serves makers through a second track: 'On Made, you have two platforms. You have a performance platform and you have a made to sell platform… it's not an e-commerce, it's a one-to-one where they meet.' That covers independent fashion, jewelry, sculpture — work you might see at a pop-up or gallery, now discoverable without a storefront. Commission-free by design On monetisation, Ahmadi is explicit: 'We are not taking any commission.' Growth, he says, is about scale and simple paid tiers. 'We're looking at the scalability and the numbers game over the next couple of years.' Because MADE doesn't skim fees, there's no incentive to 'go behind our back' after a first booking. 'It's futile… we're not taking a penny. So why leave when you have a thousand people looking at you?' That philosophy underpins the mission: 'The philosophy we've built it to begin with is two things, is to empower talents, increase their livelihood, and expose talent seekers to talents that they never thought existed or they haven't seen.' Early traction matters more than press clippings. 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As for 'future-proof'? He adds, 'I'm not going to say future-proof… AI is a must. And we have to incorporate AI into certain angles to facilitate and make the user journey easier, friendlier. But using humans is extremely important.' What comes next? Geographically, the expansion arc is clear: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, then global hubs in Europe, South America, and the Far East. Strategically, the platform continues refining the 'supply of talent' and the speed of connection. Emotionally, the north star hasn't changed. 'Seeing the smile on their faces,' he says of newly booked performers, 'nothing happier than when a person has talent and he's been discovered'. And if you're looking for the founder's identity, he says, 'I see myself as somebody that just wants to empower talent. Just to be a small bandage in this world to bring out the talented people out there that are unseen and unheard and undiscovered.' husain@ Husain Rizvi is a Senior Features Writer who covers entertainment and lifestyle stories and has a profound interest in tech (games) and sports. When he's not working, you can find him at the gym, or finishing a boss fight in a video game.
The National
4 hours ago
- The National
Remembering the summer of Blur and Oasis … and the attention war that followed it
Thirty years ago, the UK was gripped by a battle of the bands – reminding us that the past really is a foreign country and they definitely do things differently there. Blur and Oasis, the pre-eminent Britpop music acts of the era, released their respective singles Country House and Roll With It on August 14, 1995. Such was the popularity of the two bands at the time that if the release dates of their songs had been staggered, then both would have claimed the coveted number one spot in the weekly charts. But when Blur and Oasis chose the same day for release, only one could claim top spot. In this pre-streaming era of 1995, weekly sales were the hard currency of the day and the Blur-Oasis contest ensured nearly 500,000 copies of the two singles combined were sold that week, a huge number in a time when about 70,000 sales pretty much guaranteed a number one hit in the UK. The rising tide lifted all the boats that week, as single sales raced to record heights for the decade. Country House won out, with the UK finding out the results through the Sunday evening radio broadcast of the chart countdown. Anyone old enough to recall the 'Britpop battle' in the UK will have a memory of the extraordinary late summer of 1995, when those two bands occupied the entire cultural space. Maybe your memory might be jogged still further when the moment is dramatised in The Battle stage play, which will open in the UK next year. The contest set up the most binary moment in households across Britain, particularly as it tugged at the class and geographic schisms of UK society, apparently pitting northern, working-class Oasis against southern, middle-class Blur – or surly Mancunians and chirpy Londoners, as some described it. Yes, the mid-90s really were a peak moment in derogatory labelling. John Harris's 2003 book, titled Britpop: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock, describes the week in which the bands locked horns as a period that birthed 'an outpouring of comment and coverage that turned Britpop into an inflated caricature of itself', while noting that the two singles in question were close to being their worst work of that era by both bands. Contemporary critics also described both singles as lacklustre – describing Country House as mod pastiche and Roll With It as stadium rock quality – not that it mattered much given those level of sales and the fevered interest in the bands. Decades later, Roll With It doesn't appear on Spotify's popular Oasis songs list, but Country House does show on Blur's streaming platform roll of honour. Oasis have been entertaining huge crowds on their revival tour this summer and have played Roll With It on every night so far, according to Set List data. Blur, meanwhile, played Country House to generous applause during their Abu Dhabi Grand Prix post-race set a decade ago, providing a relatively rare outing for the song. It didn't feature at all during their last live outings at Coachella in April 2024. Roll With It may be a firm fan favourite this summer, but it wasn't the favourite in that summer week of 1995. Blur claimed victory in the chart battle, but within months Oasis were said to have won the war, by dint of superior album and concert ticket sales. Less than a year later, the Manchester band were playing two huge sold-out concerts at Knebworth House, while Blur appeared to wear the spoils of that August 1995 victory wearily. Beyond the nostalgia and the moderately ripping yarn of that 1995 moment, what else is there to take away from a peculiarly British cultural moment? First, it reminds us how radically the metrics of success have changed over time. In the streaming era, the battle is almost irrelevant; it is the war for long-term dominance and overall consumption and attention that matters. And yet, in a playlist and suggested-for-you driven world, the individual song is as important as ever in the compounding nature of the subscription economy. Those millions of listens your favourite artist accrues every month are more likely to have been gathered from cleverly selected platform playlists than from the 20th-century tradition of listening to an album from start to finish. The mid-90s were a peak time for tribalism and the primary way of showing your colours was to actively go out and buy physical media. People still wanted to own the music they loved in those days, something far removed from the habits of now. As the relative popularity of those two songs on platforms shows us, there can also be unlikely twists and turns in the history of a popular release. Oasis's song for the ages, Wonderwall, released later in 1995, didn't make it to number one on the UK singles chart either, but is one of the top 3 most streamed songs from the 1990s, only bettered by a pair of songs that also did not top the charts when released. The 1980s provides other examples of the same trend and underscores, perhaps, that past performance is not indicative of future results. Back in 1995, a piece published in The Telegraph the day after the result was known compared it to the fuss to 30 years before, when the Rolling Stones and The Beatles were chart rivals and speculated that 'it seems unlikely that, in 2025, either Blur's or Oasis's offerings will have earned similar status in the rock n roll pantheon'. Some might say, predictions are a fool's errand.
