CONSTRUCTION & TECHNOLOGY

The PlayBook, which was showcased at a launch event at Dubai’s Armani Hotel, was released in the US on April 19. Canadian makers Research in Motion (RIM) were forced to recall around 1,000 of the devices in May after they were shipped with a flawed operating system.

Cities around the world take turns owning the title for the tallest skyscraper, the longest bridge or the deepest mine. Covering nearly every continent of the world, here’s our current list, which I’m sure will change over the next few years.

“Using a dynamo, we can demonstrate how LED lights, like the ones used to light up the Burj Khalifa, can be lit through kinetic energy,” 13-year old Aman Mihir said as his group mate Aiman Anees placed the dynamo against a moving bicycle wheel. The one-metre high model Burj Khalifa came to life almost instantly, as did the tiny LED street lights along the replica of Shaikh Zayed Road.

The Checkers kitchen is the third addition to Armani/Dada kitchen range, following its predecessors, Bridge & Calyx. True to the Giorgio Armani style, the design of Checkers is extremely simple, sober and linear language. Checkers is a functional kitchen, ordered and efficient in its technological apparatus and specialized appliances.

Last year marked the opening of the Armani Hotel in Dubai, Maison Moschino in Milan and Hotel Missoni in Edinburgh. Other examples include Paris's Hotel du Petit Moulin designed by Christian Lacroix, the Bulgari Resorts and Spas, and Armani's hotels, residences and resorts.

Last week, Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian maker of the popular smartphone, said the PlayBook was scheduled to go on sale here on June 12. The product was showcased during a glitzy function at the Privé nightclub in the Armani hotel at the Burj Khalifa

Dubai’s Burj Khalifa has become the latest building available via the Lego Architecture series. The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed tower, officially the world’s tallest building, has been reproduced in Lego bricks by Adam Reed Tucker.

After a lacklustre launch in North America in early April, the new BlackBerry PlayBook was rolled out for the first time outside of the Western markets at a special preview in Dubai. "This was positioned as enterprise, but it doesn't even come with some critical elements for business people," said one guest among Dubai's young tech set gathered at the Armani Prive in Burj Khalifa.

Emaar Properties has joined hands with the LEGO Group to unveil the Architecture Series model of Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. The unveiling celebrates the launch of the Burj Khalifa as a set in the LEGO Architecture series.

A startling number of planned sky-rises are poised to change the cityscape of India’s commercial capital within the next decade. The emblematic Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia are still some distance away—the former is over 600m tall, while the latter is nearly 457m—but Mumbai is fast catching up in reaching for the skies.