For obvious coronavirus-related reasons, Christmas this year is going to look noticeably different. But that doesn’t have to dampen your holiday spirit or wilt your winter wanderlust. In keeping with the 2020 custom of taking your experiences online, a new browser extension is letting people experience Christmas walks from around the world, albeit through a screen.
Tab With a View, a Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge extension, offers users the chance to take a walk down a snow-carpeted street in Germany, pass by festively-decorated houses, or down a boulevard with leafless cobalt-lit trees in Japan. All you have to do is open a new tab.
The extension, which will feature its Christmas edition until Saturday, December 26, currently offers more than 2,000 videos and photos from 83 countries around the world. The visual media has all been taken by users of Tab With a View. Flight information, as well as real-time Covid-19 statistics and visa requirements are shown with each respective photo or video. So, when the time comes to travel freely again, the project can offer more than a virtual vacation.
When Rahul Sharma, the project’s founder, first came up with the idea for Tab With a View in 2017, he of course didn’t expect a pandemic would bring the world to a standstill, leaving many around the world grounded for much of the year.
The project, instead, was meant to be a sort of inventory of places from around the world with a nice view, including hotels, restaurants and nightspots.
“My basic problem is that whenever I go on holiday, I like to have a room with a view or a go to a restaurant with a view,” the product manager, who lives in Germany, says. So, he decided to start a platform himself to help him quickly find the places with the best views, and in June 2019, Tab With a View was born.
“At first it was just a small circle of friends using it,” Sharma says. “It was really just for fun. But this year, after getting a lot of encouragement from friends and users, I decided to put more effort into it. And then the pandemic happened.”
The pandemic threw a wrench in Sharma’s plans, and he found himself trying to think of a way to reshape the project to better fit the times. It turned out he didn’t need to. Finding the extension offered them an escape from these claustrophobic times, people began downloading the extensions en masse. Soon thousands were using Tab With a View, and Sharma began receiving hundreds of videos from around the world to add to the project.
“It was really crazy. I wasn’t expecting it. Photos and videos were coming in from every corner of the world. Some were shot by handheld cameras, others by phones and even drones. There were videos from Africa to America, Asia to Europe. Sometimes I look at the analytics that we have and I get touched and overwhelmed,” he says.
Anyone can send a video or photo to be used on the extension, which will then go through a screening process to determine it meets the extension’s quality criteria.
“First of all it should be visually appealing, of course,” Sharma says. “That is they key criteria. We also require people share the exact location of the photo or video, otherwise it doesn’t work very well. We want users to be able to visit these places once we can travel again.”
The idea to feature a Christmas edition on the extension, Sharma says, came from users themselves. “Germany is under lockdown right now,” he says. “So there aren’t any marketplaces being held. A lot of people are missing that atmosphere. These videos help them get back in the spirit of things and remember how it was last year.”
At the end of the week, once the Christmas edition elapses, Tab With a View will return to showing regular videos and photos from around the world.
“I really want this to be a new way for people to plan their travels, once we can travel again, of course,” he says. “Those sending in their videos know their countries better than any tourist, so these videos are like suggestions of where to go and what to see. Places that we wouldn’t have known about otherwise.”
Tab With a View is available to download on the Google Chrome web store and the Microsoft Edge add-ons site.
Company%20Profile
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Teachers' pay - what you need to know
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 247hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm from 1,500-3,500rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 7.8L/100km
Price: from Dh94,900
On sale: now
Kathryn Hawkes of House of Hawkes on being a good guest (because we’ve all had bad ones)
- Arrive with a thank you gift, or make sure you have one for your host by the time you leave.
- Offer to buy groceries, cook them a meal or take your hosts out for dinner.
- Help out around the house.
- Entertain yourself so that your hosts don’t feel that they constantly need to.
- Leave no trace of your stay – if you’ve borrowed a book, return it to where you found it.
- Offer to strip the bed before you go.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company%20profile
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Paltan
Producer: JP Films, Zee Studios
Director: JP Dutta
Cast: Jackie Shroff, Sonu Sood, Arjun Rampal, Siddhanth Kapoor, Luv Sinha and Harshvardhan Rane
Rating: 2/5
SPEC SHEET
Display: 10.9" Liquid Retina IPS, 2360 x 1640, 264ppi, wide colour, True Tone, Apple Pencil support
Chip: Apple M1, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 64/256GB storage; 8GB RAM
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, Smart HDR
Video: 4K @ 25/25/30/60fps, full HD @ 25/30/60fps, slo-mo @ 120/240fps
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR, Centre Stage; full HD @ 25/30/60fps
Audio: Stereo speakers
Biometrics: Touch ID
I/O: USB-C, smart connector (for folio/keyboard)
Battery: Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi; up to 9 hours on cellular
Finish: Space grey, starlight, pink, purple, blue
Price: Wi-Fi – Dh2,499 (64GB) / Dh3,099 (256GB); cellular – Dh3,099 (64GB) / Dh3,699 (256GB)
Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
GYAN’S ASIAN OUTPUT
2011-2015: Al Ain – 123 apps, 128 goals
2015-2017: Shanghai SIPG – 20 apps, 7 goals
2016-2017: Al Ahli (loan) – 25 apps, 11 goals
Who is Mohammed Al Halbousi?
The new speaker of Iraq’s parliament Mohammed Al Halbousi is the youngest person ever to serve in the role.
The 37-year-old was born in Al Garmah in Anbar and studied civil engineering in Baghdad before going into business. His development company Al Hadeed undertook reconstruction contracts rebuilding parts of Fallujah’s infrastructure.
He entered parliament in 2014 and served as a member of the human rights and finance committees until 2017. In August last year he was appointed governor of Anbar, a role in which he has struggled to secure funding to provide services in the war-damaged province and to secure the withdrawal of Shia militias. He relinquished the post when he was sworn in as a member of parliament on September 3.
He is a member of the Al Hal Sunni-based political party and the Sunni-led Coalition of Iraqi Forces, which is Iraq’s largest Sunni alliance with 37 seats from the May 12 election.
He maintains good relations with former Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s State of Law Coaliton, Hadi Al Amiri’s Badr Organisation and Iranian officials.
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GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
MATCH INFO
England 2
Cahill (3'), Kane (39')
Nigeria 1
Iwobi (47')
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
