New Technology 2011 Gadgets, Best Gadgets, Desktop Gadgets

It has now been confirmed that Apple is going to announce iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud on Monday. Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be making these announcements in his keynote address at WWDC 2011, scheduled to start on Monday June 6th, 2011.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is still on a medical leave of absence from the company, will be taking the stage at WWDC 2011 and announcing these new services.

iOS 5 is going to be the platform on which the next generation iPhone, iPod touch and iPad is going to run on. Much has been speculated about the features that iOS 5 is likely to bring, and now, come Monday, we shall know what iOS 5 is all about. On the other hand, Apple is also going to preview Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release since the original Mac OS came out. Also, the much rumored Apple cloud service is also going to be formally announced, but now we do know that Apple was indeed behind iCloud all the time. Let’s see what services iCloud has to offer! On another note, full press release has been embedded below for your reading pleasure:

CUPERTINO, Californiaâ€"May 31, 2011â€"Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software â€" Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

And oh, if you’ve suddenly gotten the urge to buy WWDC 2011 tickets, you’re out of luck as the whole event has been sold out.

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If you’ve been a regular reader of this site, you’re probably aware of GEVEY SIM, a custom SIM card used to permanently unlock iPhones. We recently featured a tutorial on how to unlock iOS 5 Beta 1 using this method, yet Apple had reportedly made this method impossible in Beta 2. It turns out that an unlock is still possible using a slightly different method.

What you’ll need:

An iPhone.

The iOS 5 Beta 2 .IPSW, which you can get from Apple’s Developer Site, as long as you have an Apple developer account.

The latest version of Sn0wbreeze, which you can get from here.

A GEVEY Ultra SIM card, which you can get from ApplenBerry.

This method gets requires more user intervention than previous ones, but it should pay off.

Follow these steps:

Step 1: Downgrade your iPhone 4 from iOS 5 Beta 2 to iOS 4.3.3. Since Apple is still signing IOS 4.3.3 firmware, simply restoring from iTunes to 4.3.3 will do the job. This will also downgrade your baseband from 4.11.06 to 4.10.01 (required for GEVEY SIM to work).

Step 2: Create a custom iOS 5 beta 2 firmware without the upgraded baseband using Sn0wbreeze. If you’ve never used this tool, follow this tutorial. Then proceed to loading the custom .IPSW you’ve just created onto your phone.

Step 3: Do not activate your phone with Apple. Instead, get around the activation process like we’ve specified on an earlier write-up. Do not insert your GEVEY SIM at this point yet.

Step 4: Power off your phone if you haven’t already. Then, insert your GEVEY SIM, along with the SIM card you intend to use. Keep in mind that you might have to slightly cut your SIM card in order for it to fit the iPhone’s micro-SIM slot. Make sure the GEVEY SIM is placed underneath your SIM card.

Step 5: Once you’ve inserted both SIM cards, you’re ready to power your phone back on. Once it’s done booting up, wait for one signal bar to appear. Once it does, call 112. After two seconds, hang up. You don’t want to flood your town’s emergency services, do you?

Step 6: Access the phone’s settings and turn on Airplane mode. Leave it on for 45 seconds and ignore all the "No SIM card installed" errors that might pop up. Once you’ve waited 45 seconds, it should be safe to turn Airplane mode back off.

That’s it! Your iPhone 4 on iOS 5 Beta 2 should now be unlocked!

Many have questions the legality of calling 112 unless there’s an actual emergency. However, calling the number for 2 seconds shouldn’t cause any harm to the service. Either way, make sure your 112 call takes no longer than 2 seconds.

(kudos once again to Usman Rana for the tip)

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It’s rare that Google updates the looks of their home page or search engine result pages ( SERPs) but ever since Bing has stepped up the game with their different and useful designs, Google has been experimenting a lot lately. As part of their Google +1 release, they’ve accordingly made changes to other parts of their services, notably, Search.

The most notable change is the black bar at the top of the Google Search landing page. It now has quick links to important Google Search destinations and Services although I can’t understand why Videos is a part of it when YouTube is clearly the better video search engine. ( Google Video search sucks, more on that in another article ).

The page also shows the account sign in drop down panel which lets you sign into other accounts to switch to them or sign out. This first appeared in Gmail and other services. Search settings, advanced search and so on are housed under the gear icon in the top most right corner.

The buttons also look much cleaner and the voice search icon is embedded there in the text field.

 

The black bar shows on the results page too ( not shown in below screenshot.) There’s a shade of gray for behind the logo, search field and the big button.

The search selections in the left sidebar have changed with monochromatic colors. Red on selected but gray-ish when not. The usual search result filters are there. Another major change is the new Google Search button. I don’t remember the last time such a change took place. I predict this to be a major component of their design language and advertisement campaigns from now on â€" that is, if this is a permanent change.

Apart from this, shockingly, Google hasn’t been showing TOO many ads during my testing (The same thing they tell website not to do, which they do themselves. Just see Gmail and the 20 ads it shows around your email â€" we know who is the biggest spammer here)

Overall, it’s a welcome change and, we for one, like how it looks. Now, only if they can fix the Google Mobile site design too which they’ve seriously messed up. I could always go Bing though â€" they sure know how to create a better mobile search experience.

Related posts:

Google Releases Search App for Windows Phone 7â€"Download now!

Google Testing Full Page Previews

Google has a new search results UI in the works. Here is how it currently looks like:

guiGoog â€" excellent Google based search engine with one click filters

Will Bing Become a Better Search Engine After Yahoo-Microsoft Deal?

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Google is trying to go head-to-head with Facebook with their latest project, Google+. Just like Facebook has the option to download or backup all your profile data on your computer, Google+ also allows you to quite Google+ anytime with the addition of downloading all your Google+ profile and Google account data with Google Takeout.

Google Takeout allows you to download a copy of your data stored within Google products.

This is useful when you plan to quite using Google services for some reason, but still want a backup of your data. Google Takeout creates an archive of your data within Google services and gives you a link to download that.

You can even check online where most of your data is stored within which Google services. You can request a Google+ invitation here!

Download Your Google Data Archive with Google Takeout

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Tech Giants and Discrimination Against Pakistan

By Syed Talal · Thursday, Jun 30, 2011 48 Comments

Paypal is by far the most dominant way on the internet to carry out transactions. It’s safe, secure and protects from fraud. Not to mention that it is also universally accepted, and on many websites, it’s the only way to pay/receive money.

One would naturally assume that giants like Paypal would be offering their services in Pakistan. Surprisingly they don’t. They offer their services to around 190 countries which also include Ethiopia and Somalia.

Its not even like they haven’t expanded to this region yet, it’s available in almost all neighboring countries â€" and If you send them an enquiry, all you get is a preformatted letter about how they’re trying their best to expand to other countries without giving a proper reason.

It does not end here, it’s not only Paypal â€" even Google doesn’t operate an office here. But our neighbors India has four. Nokia is a household name here, and Pakistan generates substantial revenue for the phone giant. But it doesn’t even own a local website for our country. Bangladesh has one, but we don’t.

Its not only the examples I’ve quoted here, the trend is prevalent among many companies. But why is this so? Why don’t companies bother with having proper representation in Pakistan?

Maybe it is one of the downsides of being labeled as a terrorist country. The increasing number of bomb blasts and terrorist activities don’t exactly paint an appealing picture for the investors to start new business ventures.

We may believe that it could be deliberate act on the part of these companies but maybe they have a misconception that it simply isn’t worth to invest time and resources for Pakistan.

The conspiracy theorists amongst us might say that these companies not expanding to Pakistan is a politically motivated ploy. Internet trade is worth billions of dollars and if used correctly, it can really bring some massive money into the country â€" which some may don’t want to happen. And it suits some countries better if Pakistan remains debt ridden. So is it really the reason? We can only speculate.

Another possibility is that in Pakistan they don’t see an attractive option. It could be due to multiple reasons. In case of PayPal, It could be that they don’t think our banking infrastructure is stable enough; it could be that our legal structure isn’t solid enough to provide them security or maybe simply because of corruption.

Other fears might include enabling terrorist funding. Pretty much the same arguments can be made for many of the companies that don’t expand to Pakistan.

Google for instance is good to earn millions of dollars from the population of Pakistan, but they aren’t here in Pakistan â€" maybe to avoid any legal obligations, or to avoid taxes? (BTW I am not sure if Google is liable to pay tax if it earns money from a Pakistani business)

They don’t realize the potential. But the fact is that Pakistan is an emerging market and one of the most promising too. These companies need to get over their fears and the government should help in alleviating them.

We’re living in the internet age. Everything has a 2.0 attached to it. And whether it is that we lack the ability to deal in currency through PayPal or the absence of the most influential internet giants of this age, it needs to be looked into.

Moreover, it is also the responsibility of the media to highlight such matters of concern. It’s the media that has to play a key role (given our government is hell busy in deepening their pockets and quarreling each other), in alleviating the soft image of Pakistan.

Related Stories

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• PayPal in Pakistan â€" Looks Possible, but it May Take Time!
• An Open Letter by a Pakistani to PayPal/Ebay
• SMS may get blocked in Pakistan: Rehman Malik
• Payoneer Blocks its Master Cards for Pakistan
• Call Phones from Your Gmail

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It has now been confirmed that Apple is going to announce iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud on Monday. Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be making these announcements in his keynote address at WWDC 2011, scheduled to start on Monday June 6th, 2011.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is still on a medical leave of absence from the company, will be taking the stage at WWDC 2011 and announcing these new services.

iOS 5 is going to be the platform on which the next generation iPhone, iPod touch and iPad is going to run on. Much has been speculated about the features that iOS 5 is likely to bring, and now, come Monday, we shall know what iOS 5 is all about. On the other hand, Apple is also going to preview Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release since the original Mac OS came out. Also, the much rumored Apple cloud service is also going to be formally announced, but now we do know that Apple was indeed behind iCloud all the time. Let’s see what services iCloud has to offer! On another note, full press release has been embedded below for your reading pleasure:

CUPERTINO, Californiaâ€"May 31, 2011â€"Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software â€" Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

And oh, if you’ve suddenly gotten the urge to buy WWDC 2011 tickets, you’re out of luck as the whole event has been sold out.

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Chances are, assuming you haven’t been living in a cave for the last 12 months, that you have heard of Apple’s infamous ‘Antennagate’ debacle.

When Apple launched its iPhone 4 way back in June of 2010, reports quickly started to surface of a potential issue with the handset’s antenna design. Based on the aluminum running around the outside of the iconic handset, the iPhone 4′s antenna was deemed the cause for a perceived increase in dropped calls by new buyers. Much wrangling, arguments and counter-arguments later and Apple was forced to offer free cases or bumpers to iPhone buyers. The thinking being that the case would protect the antenna from any interference or ‘bridging’ caused by our fleshy hands.

The problem for many was that they bought the iPhone 4 because of its industrial design. Even today, fully 12 months after its initial launch, the iPhone 4 form factor is still regarded as one of the best looking phones on the market. People didn’t want to cover it up, and understandably so.

Enter CaseMate, with its new Titanium case.

Available for a spine-tingling $300, this case is made out of one solid piece of titanium and covers all side edges of any iPhone 4. Protecting the antenna while still maintaining the overall look of the iPhone 4, CaseMate has produced the nearest thing to a win-win situation iPhone 4 users can hope for.

For your $300, you’ll receive the case itself as well as a tool kit which includes a mini screwdriver, screws and the required volume and mute buttons. Obviously some self-assembly is required, but if you really must maintain the iPhone 4′s gorgeous looks, then we’re sure a few screws won’t stand in your way.

CaseMate’s Titanium Case is available to order now.

(via: 9to5Mac)

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Android tablets are know for their ability to run flash. As a matter of fact, that is everyone’s argument against the iPad and iPhone . However, Google is working on an app called Swiffy to convert Flash to HTML5.

The application is currently available in Google Labs as an experimental application and is described to import Flash and spit out HTML5 code. It is a webapp, so it will take a SWF and convert it so you can use it on your iOS device. Google themselves are not bragging about this new app, but why should they? That is their niche in the tablet market, the ability to run Flash. But now they have created an app to convert it for their competitor, giving them the ability to run Flash files.

Flash is currently on it’s way out, being replaced by HTML5. However, it is still very much a part of the internet life, and will be until developers have an opportunity to convert it with a more diverse HTML5 language.

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CBS and ABC to adopt HTML5 encoded videos for the iPad? Still no Flash?

Flash To iOS Safari (HTML5) Conversion Tool Released By Adobe [VIDEO]

Apple unveils HTML5 Showcase to show why it doesn’t need Flash

YouTube5 extension for Safari converts YouTube videos to HTML5 to avoid Flash and save CPU cycles

iSwifter Brings Flash On iPad Yet Again, Now Available In App Store!

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One way to install apps on an Android phone is through the Android Market, but what if you have an APK file and want to install that manually? Android allows you to install third-party apps on your phone, but with a little option that you have to check in Settings.

This is a very basic Android tip, but after going through various Android forums and discussions boards, I found out that many new Android users have no idea of these small tips and trick which, according to us, are a must-do steps after a new or a full reset of an Android phone. I have decided to share basic tips/tricks as well. Now, coming back to the topic.

How to Install Third-Party Apps on Android Phone

Just follow the simple steps below to enable your Android phone to install third-party APK files manually.

• Go to Settings.
• Now go to Applications.
• Check “Unknown sources” box. Tao ‘OK’ at the warning.

That’s it! You should now be able to install third-party apps on your Android phone!

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The Misery of Additional Charges by Celcos!

By Aamir Attaa · Wednesday, Jun 29, 2011 1 Comment

This story is old, damaging and not very pleasing (for the customers). The story is of additional charges which the cellular industry kept imposing due to reasons that we will discuss in below article.

It all started in August 2008, when we first heard of charges on helpline calls. It didn’t stop there, then we heard of 12 paisa charges on balance inquiry â€" this was August 2009.

Time kept on creeping and we came across 5 percent service charges on all reloads, this was July 2010. During the while, many free services were taken back, for instance, delivery reports.

Now it’s almost July 2011 â€" and mobile customers are told of new charges, 1 to 1.5 percent of all reloads!

With imposition of recent most 1 to 1.5 percent charges, cellular companies are likely to make Rs. 4 billion rupees in next fiscal year. Which is a huge money, I agree, but do you know that this money will not even cover the fuel cost â€" spent by cellular companies each year to keep the cell phone towers running during power outages?

For that let’s do a little calculation here:

• Cost of Diesel: Rs. 85 (Average) per liter
• Fuel Consumption of Diesel Generator: 3 Liters per hour
• Average Daily usage of Diesel Generator: 24 Liters (with 8 hours of min load-shedding)
• Average cost per year per site: Rs. 85 x 24 (liters)  x 365 (days) = Rs. 744,600
• cost for 30,000 cell sites: Rs. 22,338,000,000, i.e. Rs. 22.34 Billion (approx.)

Now that’s only the fuel, we didn’t include the electricity, maintenance, and other operating expenses.

You will also agree that this cost wasn’t there just 2-3 years ago. Electricity bills inflating, so is the case with procurement and other commodities that are required to run telecom businesses.

The proposition in such a scenario somewhat justifies these added charges, but one may ask a very valid question, which is: Why cellular companies cut the tariff plans if they had to impose charges to meet their expenses?

The answer to this question is the lack of vision at policy making level, which allowed our government to issue 5 cellular licenses for a market which could not accommodate more than 3 competitors.

In a cut-throat competition (like we have in cellular sector), businesses either collapse or they revive through additional levy on subscribers.

We have example of broadband industry, just look at it â€" how many operators have backed-off? while there are more to pull their hands up before the ongoing price war.

Analysts are predicting that same policy-mistake to happen again with the auction of 3G licenses. From what we have heard, PTA is planning to auction three licenses â€" which will leave other two operators 3G-less â€" or two new Paktel and InstaPhone in the making. Most likely, the remaining two 3G-less operators will wrap up their businesses and will go home.

Getting back to the additional charges, it’s time for cellular companies to take considerable steps to make sure that industry doesn’t get damaged. They must re-think their strategy of regularly imposing charges on customers, to nullify their own mistake of getting into price war.

Operators must devise ways of getting additional stream of revenues to coupe up with inflation and other economical burdens, such as by offering real-value added services or limiting their advertising spend â€" there are so many other ways available too.

Regulator, on it’s level, should look into the matter and must take measures to make sure that customers are not suffered, for the misdeeds they never committed.

Related Stories

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• Cellular Subscribers Pay 30% Taxes, But Why? [LTE]
• What Forced Telecom Operator to go for Solar Panels?
• Financial State of Cellular Companies in Pakistan â€" 2007/08
• Withholding Tax on Telecom Services Up by 1.5 %
• Some Facts about Pakistan Telecom Industry

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It has now been confirmed that Apple is going to announce iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud on Monday. Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be making these announcements in his keynote address at WWDC 2011, scheduled to start on Monday June 6th, 2011.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is still on a medical leave of absence from the company, will be taking the stage at WWDC 2011 and announcing these new services.

iOS 5 is going to be the platform on which the next generation iPhone, iPod touch and iPad is going to run on. Much has been speculated about the features that iOS 5 is likely to bring, and now, come Monday, we shall know what iOS 5 is all about. On the other hand, Apple is also going to preview Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release since the original Mac OS came out. Also, the much rumored Apple cloud service is also going to be formally announced, but now we do know that Apple was indeed behind iCloud all the time. Let’s see what services iCloud has to offer! On another note, full press release has been embedded below for your reading pleasure:

CUPERTINO, Californiaâ€"May 31, 2011â€"Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software â€" Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

And oh, if you’ve suddenly gotten the urge to buy WWDC 2011 tickets, you’re out of luck as the whole event has been sold out.

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Reports coming out of China today suggest that search giant Baidu is working on its own mobile operating system based on none other than Google’s Android.

Baidu, China’s largest search company is reportedly currently putting together the mobile OS, codenamed Qiushi acording to TechNode.

According to local report, Baidu is stealthily developing its own Mobile OS(codenamed Qiushi which means fruits in autumn) which is based around Android and will be released by year-end. Baidu dismissed the rumor by referring Qiushi to an under-developing mobile ad product.

Unsurprisingly, Baidu denied that they are building an operating system atop Google’s own, but such a move would indeed make sense for the company.

According to the TechNode article, Baidu wouldn’t be the first to use Android as the starting point for an operating system designed for new hardware. DianxinOS and MIUI are already hard at work, the report says.

Google’s Android’s biggest strength, and also its biggest weakness, is its open source status. Any carrier, manufacturer or hacker can get their hands on Android and make it into their own at will. It’s this freedom that has seen Android’s popularity balloon over the last two years, making Google a real player in the mobile market.

It is this open source mentality that has led to the fragmentation that is currently so troublesome to the platform.

With so many devices, and so many different specifications, it is hard for application developers to write apps while planning for all eventualities and hardware â€" a problem that Apple’s iOS developers do not experience. The best way to end fragmentation, if not end then minimize it, is to put a minimum hardware requirement on which an OS would run, in this case its Android. We don’t believe that Android iterations like Ice Cream Sandwich would solve the problem on day one, hardware fragmentation would still remain there, thanks to eager manufacturers minting money out of Android due to its superb “openness”.

Google can, however, point to the shear number of handsets as a sign that it’s decision to offer Android as an open source platform was the correct course of action.

Time will tell if, in the long run, whether open will be a boon or a hindrance for Android.

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A trusted source has reported that Microsoft is planning a Windows 8 RTM release in April 2012. There is a strong possibility of this rumor coming true as Microsoft wants to grab a piece of the fast growing tablet market as soon as possible with Windows 8 based tablets. In a recent conference, Microsoft has already unveiled the new WIndows 8 UI, which is based on Windows Phone 7 Metro interface. The company’s representatives also talked about their future plans of revealing more about it at the BUILD conference scheduled for September 2011.

The source claims:

“I’ve also heard from my contact that Microsoft’s game plan is to deliver a beta buildâ€" not a pre-beta or preview,”

It is believed that Microsoft is developing and testing a lot of new features for Windows 8, including deep Internet Explorer 10 integration, and is planning to release an early copy exclusively to the developers at the BUILD conference. Take a look at the new WIndows 8 UI if you haven’t already in the following video:

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[via WinRumors]

Related posts:

Microsoft Shows off Windows 8 at Computex

Mango update for Windows Phone 7 to bring Silverlight and HTML5 in Fall’ 2011 â€" ‘Apolo’ Windows Phone 8 expected in 2012

Microsoft creates a tool that allows your iOS app to be ported to Windows Phone 7

Windows 8 Build 7850 Leaks!

Metro Style Webcam App For Windows 8 Demonstration [Video]

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One way to install apps on an Android phone is through the Android Market, but what if you have an APK file and want to install that manually? Android allows you to install third-party apps on your phone, but with a little option that you have to check in Settings.

This is a very basic Android tip, but after going through various Android forums and discussions boards, I found out that many new Android users have no idea of these small tips and trick which, according to us, are a must-do steps after a new or a full reset of an Android phone. I have decided to share basic tips/tricks as well. Now, coming back to the topic.

How to Install Third-Party Apps on Android Phone

Just follow the simple steps below to enable your Android phone to install third-party APK files manually.

• Go to Settings.
• Now go to Applications.
• Check “Unknown sources” box. Tao ‘OK’ at the warning.

That’s it! You should now be able to install third-party apps on your Android phone!

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Google Health and Google PowerMeter weren’t popular enough, the company said
By Nancy Gohring
IDG News Service (Seattle Bureau)

SEATTLE (06/24/2011) â€" Google said on Friday that it plans to shut down two services that proved unpopular: Google Health and Google PowerMeter.

Google Health was designed to let people create and access a central repository for all of their health care information. It launched a beta of the service in mid-2008, about six months after Microsoft unveiled a similar offering called HealthVault. Skeptics wondered at the time if Google could secure the many partnerships it needed to make the project work, and whether users would entrust it with sensitive health data.

“Now, with a few years of experience, we’ve observed that Google Health is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would,” Google executives wrote in a blog post.
While some fitness enthusiasts and tech-savvy patients adopted the service, Google failed to translate that usage into widespread adoption, the executives said.

Google will operate Google Health through Jan. 1 next year, and people will be able to download their health data for a year after that, in formats including an XML file that can be imported into other services including Microsoft’s HealthVault.

Google will also soon down PowerMeter, a service that showed people information about their energy use as a way to encourage them to consume less electricity.

“Our efforts have not scaled as quickly as we would have liked, so we are retiring the service,” Google said in the blog post. It will be shut down Sept. 16.

Microsoft also has a service, called Hohm, that lets people monitor electricity use in their homes.

Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy’s e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com

Popularity: 1% [?]

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Traffic Stats of Cellular Websites

By Aamir Attaa · Tuesday, Jun 28, 2011 3 Comments

Websites have become the window of any business. In western countries, businesses use websites as their sales agent, while we don’t â€" due to lack of ecommerce infrastructure and other related limitations (which we may discuss some later time).

Businesses in Pakistan use their websites to promote their products, services and to interact with their customers through online support channels and dedicated FAQ pages.

Over the time traffic on cellular companies’ website has seen significant growth. In recent few months traffic on these websites has reached new limits, mainly due to their popular fan pages on facebook and increased online activity through advertisements, competitions and so on.

Information from insiders reveal that Jobs, members area and mobi-tunes remains the top visited pages.

While on other hands, customers tend to visit blogs to get information about cellular packages and other VAS, due to poor SEO of cellular companies’ websites and partially due to incomplete information provided by them.

Here we are presenting stats about the visitors these cellular companies get in a month. We have tried to remain as accurate as possible.

As you may see that Telenor has outrun it’s competitors, in terms of traffic on their website â€" yes that’s due to their career portal and weblounge.

These two segments on Telenor’s website get more than 70 percent of the total traffic received by Telenor.

Members area on Warid’s website get around 35 percent of total traffic.

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• Celcos Added 0.58 Million Subscribers in October 2010
• Want to Buy Cattle? Here is this Website Selling Them Online; Can be a Role Model for Other Businesses Too
• Financial State of Cellular Companies in Pakistan â€" 2007/08
• Rasta.PK will Offer Real Time Traffic Reporting
• Business Promotion Through Web and Social Media

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It has now been confirmed that Apple is going to announce iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud on Monday. Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be making these announcements in his keynote address at WWDC 2011, scheduled to start on Monday June 6th, 2011.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is still on a medical leave of absence from the company, will be taking the stage at WWDC 2011 and announcing these new services.

iOS 5 is going to be the platform on which the next generation iPhone, iPod touch and iPad is going to run on. Much has been speculated about the features that iOS 5 is likely to bring, and now, come Monday, we shall know what iOS 5 is all about. On the other hand, Apple is also going to preview Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release since the original Mac OS came out. Also, the much rumored Apple cloud service is also going to be formally announced, but now we do know that Apple was indeed behind iCloud all the time. Let’s see what services iCloud has to offer! On another note, full press release has been embedded below for your reading pleasure:

CUPERTINO, Californiaâ€"May 31, 2011â€"Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software â€" Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

And oh, if you’ve suddenly gotten the urge to buy WWDC 2011 tickets, you’re out of luck as the whole event has been sold out.

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It’s happened to the best of us. You sat there, jailbreaking your iPhone, iPad or even iPod touch for all its worth and something goes horribly wrong. Not only did you not successfully jailbreak your iDevice, but you also managed to end up with one that won’t start up. It’s time to reach for that all-too-difficult recovery mode â€" along with the hand-achingly irritating button combination needed to invoke it.

With the release of iOS 5, however, manually entering an iDevice into recovery mode may be a thing of the past â€" and you could be doing it wirelessly to boot.

According to a post on 9to5Mac, Apple’s latest beta of iOS 5, beta 2, now includes a way to enable recovery mode right from the command line, and without the need to fish out one of those pesky syncing cables that we all have hundreds of, but can never find when we want one!

You not only can sync your media wirelessly in iOS 5, but it appears you can enter Recovery Mode using ‘RecBoot, Etc’ from the Mac.

This could also lead to some interesting possibilities when it comes to jailbreaking software.

Imagine a jailbreak tool that can be used wirelessly, just by opening an app and hitting a button â€" no more entering into recovery mode manually, no more cables.

Granted this isn’t the biggest feature inside iOS 5, however, and there’s no guarantee it’ll even make it to the final, public release. The possibilities with this are just endless, literally! Its now up to the developers hard at work making jailbreaks for our iPhones, iPod touches and iPads to implement it in their future tools for jailbreaking. But we’re certain that the technique will highly likely be implemented in iOS 5 onwards, since iOS 4 does not support wireless syncing in any case, unless a jailbreak developer comes up with a technique to do so. Its also expected that p0sixninja will demonstrate the iPhone 5 jailbreak at My Great Fest which is to be held on September 17th in London (and Redmond Pie will be sponsoring it), featuring some prominent iPhone developers, including creator of Cydia, Saurik, developer of GreenPois0n, @pod2g, Elias Limneos, creator of several iOS tweaks such as FoldersInFolders; and the developers of iDroidProject, which aims to bring Android and Linux to iOS devices. We have our eyes peeled on the jailbreak technique which will be used to jailbreak the iPhone 5, if we’re lucky enough, it will be a wireless jailbreak, who knows!

You can follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook fanpage to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google and Apple.

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While most of us use and own at least a Smart Phone, and many others owning tablets, we are always looking for a stand or way to prop up our device. Sure, the iPad has the SmartCover that allows it to be used as a stand, but what about something that is more sturdy and when you don’t own a SmartCover?

That’s where the idea for InfiniteLoop came in. The designer, Tim Gushe, wanted a device to support his iPad anywhere and at all times. The stand is meant to be used for daily tasks like reading, watching a movie (perfect for an airplane), doing FaceTime, or just a place to keep it propped up when not using it.

The InfiniteLoop is made using patented co molded metal and plastic form that can easily bend to any shape you desire. It also includes Suction cups and adjustable clips that allow you to use any device, from an iPad, Xoom, Eee Pad, or any SmartPhone using the suction cup. Because you can form it to any shape, this will last forever. No matter what device you own or when a device changes design, you can just change the shape and you still have your stand.

The InfiniteLoop is currently a KickStarter project, so head over there and give them a donation to not only reserver your own, but help them get this project going! The more you donate, the better deal you get.

Subscribe to our RSS Feed and keep following us on Twitter, Facebook andYouTube for all the latest news, updates and more.

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IM+ Pro Updated to v4.4 For iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad, Brings VoiceOver And New UI

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HTC Flyer â€" the first tablet from HTC. We got our hands on of these and I must say, it is one solid device. It is a 7-inch Android tablet that has a layer of HTC Sense on it and below that you find Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The size may not be perfect, but it is still better than what we found on the Dell Streak, a 5-inch display. We did a quick hands-on with the tablet and looked around what it has in store for us.

HTC Flyer is powered by the 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (no dual-core), 1GB RAM, 32GB storage, 5 megapixels camera, front-facing camera for video calls and of course, Android 2.3 with HTC Sense â€" that certainly takes the Android experience on tablets to a whole new level.

HTC has confirmed that at sometime in the future, HTC Flyer will be getting a Honeycomb upgrade, but no definite time period for now.

You can check out the hands-on photos below. A very quick one, but I promise to bring a full review, with tons of photos and videos very soon!

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Google Health and Google PowerMeter weren’t popular enough, the company said
By Nancy Gohring
IDG News Service (Seattle Bureau)

SEATTLE (06/24/2011) â€" Google said on Friday that it plans to shut down two services that proved unpopular: Google Health and Google PowerMeter.

Google Health was designed to let people create and access a central repository for all of their health care information. It launched a beta of the service in mid-2008, about six months after Microsoft unveiled a similar offering called HealthVault. Skeptics wondered at the time if Google could secure the many partnerships it needed to make the project work, and whether users would entrust it with sensitive health data.

“Now, with a few years of experience, we’ve observed that Google Health is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would,” Google executives wrote in a blog post.
While some fitness enthusiasts and tech-savvy patients adopted the service, Google failed to translate that usage into widespread adoption, the executives said.

Google will operate Google Health through Jan. 1 next year, and people will be able to download their health data for a year after that, in formats including an XML file that can be imported into other services including Microsoft’s HealthVault.

Google will also soon down PowerMeter, a service that showed people information about their energy use as a way to encourage them to consume less electricity.

“Our efforts have not scaled as quickly as we would have liked, so we are retiring the service,” Google said in the blog post. It will be shut down Sept. 16.

Microsoft also has a service, called Hohm, that lets people monitor electricity use in their homes.

Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy’s e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com

Popularity: 1% [?]

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Mobilink Indigo Introduces HTC Sensation in Pakistan

By Ahsan Javed · Sunday, Jun 26, 2011 10 Comments

As we hinted earlier about anticipated launch of HTC Sensation by Mobilink: for all the die-heart fans of dual core smartphones, here you are with HTC Sensation introduced by Mobilink in Pakistan. Yes, HTC Sensation with this deal comes unlocked.

HTC Sensation in no doubt is about to give a tough competition to Samsung Galaxy S II which is scheduled to be launched here, this year.

1.2GHz dual core process with 4.3 inch qHD display and 8 MP camera, what more you need to call this a superphone? Also Mobilink is giving three month free GPRS with this handset.

Price:

• Mobilink is giving away HTC Sensation at a price tag of Rs. 54,999

HTC Sensation is available at following Mobilink customer care centres:

• Karachi: Ground Floor, Nice Trade Orbit Building (NTO), Near Nursery Shop, Shaharah-E-Fisal
• D-21/22, Block 8, Chaudry Khaliquzzaman Road, Scheme 5, Kehkashaan, Clifton Karachi.
• Lahore: Mobilink House , 5 P Gulberg II, Lahore
• Islamabad: 78 E Redco Plaza, Jinnah Avenue, Blue Area
• Faisalabad: Builiding # 1298/B, People Colony Near Saleemi Chowk, Satyana Road
• Multan: 60 Bridge Lane, LMQ (Lahore Multan Quetta) Road, Near Kutchery
• Sukkur:Plot No. 47,48 Muslim Cooperative Housing Society, Opposite: Red Carpet Hotel, Military Road
• Hyderabad: Plot No. D-1 and D-4 R.E.C.H.S, Main Auto Bahn Road, Unit No.2 Latifabad
• Peshawar: Mobilink Regional Office University Road Peshawar (Adjacent to Shiraz Gathering)
• Gujranwala: Mobilink House, Near General Bus Stand G T Road, Gujranwala

Terms & Conditions

• Handset is only available from the selected Mobilink Customer Care centers as listed above
• 3 month free GPRS is a limited time offer
• FREE GPRS offer only for indigo and Jazz customers in Pakistan
• Club indigo customers may contact their assigned Account manager for details
• Customers with BlackBerry services are not eligible for free GPRS offer

For detailed features and demo video, visit this.

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• Mobilink Rewards indigo World Cup Campaign winners
• Mobilink to Introduce HTC Sensation in Pakistan
• Mobilink Handset + SIM + Balance: Rs. 1575
• Mobilink Indigo Launches the Samsung Nexus S!

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It has now been confirmed that Apple is going to announce iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud on Monday. Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be making these announcements in his keynote address at WWDC 2011, scheduled to start on Monday June 6th, 2011.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is still on a medical leave of absence from the company, will be taking the stage at WWDC 2011 and announcing these new services.

iOS 5 is going to be the platform on which the next generation iPhone, iPod touch and iPad is going to run on. Much has been speculated about the features that iOS 5 is likely to bring, and now, come Monday, we shall know what iOS 5 is all about. On the other hand, Apple is also going to preview Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release since the original Mac OS came out. Also, the much rumored Apple cloud service is also going to be formally announced, but now we do know that Apple was indeed behind iCloud all the time. Let’s see what services iCloud has to offer! On another note, full press release has been embedded below for your reading pleasure:

CUPERTINO, Californiaâ€"May 31, 2011â€"Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software â€" Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

And oh, if you’ve suddenly gotten the urge to buy WWDC 2011 tickets, you’re out of luck as the whole event has been sold out.

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Now iOS 5 beta 2 has been in the wild for a couple of hours, reports are starting to flood in of what’s changed, what’s fixed and worryingly, what’s broken.

Along with the fancy new WiFi syncing, the second beta of iOS 5 brings with it a slightly different take on the new notification system we were just starting to get used to.

From the reports we’re seeing (the Redmond Pie iPhone 4 is still restoring a few hundred apps!) and the odd screenshot, it appears Apple has altered the way notifications are displayed on the lockscreen of iDevices.

In the first iOS 5 beta, notifications popped up already in a list just as they appeared in Notification Center, all grouped by their application. Now, though, this isn’t the case.

As shown in the screenshots, Apple’s new take on the humble notification means initially all notifications (at least on the lockscreen) pop up in a manner worryingly similar to the old, modal style of notifications we’ve endured up until the wonderful morning of Apple’s WWDC keynote. Once a new notification comes in then the old one gets pushed into a pull-down drawer that is hidden until accessed.

The newest notification is always shown in a bubble until the screen dims.

We’re not sure why Apple has made the change, and we’re even less sure whether we like it or not. Our only guess is Apple is considering security â€" devices will no longer show a long list of past notifications on their lockscreen, with the act of dragging down a window needed to accesses them. That doesn’t strictly ring true however, as it appears that once the screen has dimmed after the message has arrived, waking the device once again shows the same iOS 5 notifications we know and love.

It’s a bit of a mish-mash at the moment, and it’s almost as if Apple is hedging its bets, at least in this beta.

Other than that, we’re at a bit of a loss!

iOS 5 beta 2 is available to download now if you’re a developer, alongside the needed iTunes 10.5 beta2. Both can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Portal.

Check out our iPhone Apps Gallery and iPad Apps Gallery to explore more apps for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

You can follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook fanpage to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google and Apple.

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The newest release of iOS 5 has been jailbroken, within minutes of it’s release.

The same version of Redsn0w can be used, as with Beta 1. There are no additional downloads needed to perform the new jailbreak. The only gotcha, is that you will need to point Redsn0w to the Beta 1 ISPW when asked, and then you are ready to jailbreak. This is still a tethered jailbreak for the moment and will work on the iPod Touch 3 and 4G, iPad 1, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 (GSM & CDMA).

Get you Redsn0w file here (mac or windows)

Enjoy!

Subscribe to our RSS Feed and keep following us on Twitter, Facebook andYouTube for all the latest news, updates and more.

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How To Jailbreak iOS 5 On iPhone 4 / 3GS, iPad & iPod Touch With Redsn0w 0.9.8 [iOS 5 BETA 1]

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Jailbreak iPhone/iPad/iPod touch with iOS 4.2.1 using redsn0w 0.9.7b5 [Bluetooth Fixed!]

Jailbreak iPhone/iPad/iPod touch with iOS 4.2.1 using redsn0w 0.9.7b6 [Skype Fixed]

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HTC Flyer â€" the first tablet from HTC. We got our hands on of these and I must say, it is one solid device. It is a 7-inch Android tablet that has a layer of HTC Sense on it and below that you find Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The size may not be perfect, but it is still better than what we found on the Dell Streak, a 5-inch display. We did a quick hands-on with the tablet and looked around what it has in store for us.

HTC Flyer is powered by the 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (no dual-core), 1GB RAM, 32GB storage, 5 megapixels camera, front-facing camera for video calls and of course, Android 2.3 with HTC Sense â€" that certainly takes the Android experience on tablets to a whole new level.

HTC has confirmed that at sometime in the future, HTC Flyer will be getting a Honeycomb upgrade, but no definite time period for now.

You can check out the hands-on photos below. A very quick one, but I promise to bring a full review, with tons of photos and videos very soon!

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Google Health and Google PowerMeter weren’t popular enough, the company said
By Nancy Gohring
IDG News Service (Seattle Bureau)

SEATTLE (06/24/2011) â€" Google said on Friday that it plans to shut down two services that proved unpopular: Google Health and Google PowerMeter.

Google Health was designed to let people create and access a central repository for all of their health care information. It launched a beta of the service in mid-2008, about six months after Microsoft unveiled a similar offering called HealthVault. Skeptics wondered at the time if Google could secure the many partnerships it needed to make the project work, and whether users would entrust it with sensitive health data.

“Now, with a few years of experience, we’ve observed that Google Health is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would,” Google executives wrote in a blog post.
While some fitness enthusiasts and tech-savvy patients adopted the service, Google failed to translate that usage into widespread adoption, the executives said.

Google will operate Google Health through Jan. 1 next year, and people will be able to download their health data for a year after that, in formats including an XML file that can be imported into other services including Microsoft’s HealthVault.

Google will also soon down PowerMeter, a service that showed people information about their energy use as a way to encourage them to consume less electricity.

“Our efforts have not scaled as quickly as we would have liked, so we are retiring the service,” Google said in the blog post. It will be shut down Sept. 16.

Microsoft also has a service, called Hohm, that lets people monitor electricity use in their homes.

Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy’s e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com

Popularity: 1% [?]

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Ufone to Deduct 1.1 % Maintenance Charges from July 1st

By Aamir Attaa · Saturday, Jun 25, 2011 11 Comments

Ufone has announced to deduct 1.1 percent maintenance charges on all recharges (through Ushare/ topup/ scratch card) from July 1st, 2011.

Meaning that, anyone loading a Rs. 100 card will have to pay Rs. 1.10 as maintenance charges.

Here is the message that is being sent to Ufone customers, and is flashing on Ufone’s website as well:

Dear Customer, To further exceed your expectations, a maintenance charge of 1.1% will be applicable on every recharge from 1st July 2011 along with government taxes.

It merits mentioning here that all cellular companies are already deducting Rs. 5 plus tax as service charges, since July 2009.

At the time of account recharge, a service charge of 5% (on scratch card/utopup face value) + Government taxes will be applicable on all transactions via UTopup or scratch cards, effective from 1st July 2009.

Here is the list of charges/taxes a Ufone customer will have to pay after July 1st, 2011:

• Withholding Tax: 10 %
• GST/FED: 19.5 %
• Service Charges: 5 %
• Maintenance Charges: 1.1 %

We fear that other telecom operators will follow Ufone to apply similar charges.

If PTA remains quite, which it is, you can expect more charges from cellular companies, such as: Call initiation charges, call termination charges, spectrum access charges, miss call charges and more…

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It has now been confirmed that Apple is going to announce iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud on Monday. Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be making these announcements in his keynote address at WWDC 2011, scheduled to start on Monday June 6th, 2011.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is still on a medical leave of absence from the company, will be taking the stage at WWDC 2011 and announcing these new services.

iOS 5 is going to be the platform on which the next generation iPhone, iPod touch and iPad is going to run on. Much has been speculated about the features that iOS 5 is likely to bring, and now, come Monday, we shall know what iOS 5 is all about. On the other hand, Apple is also going to preview Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release since the original Mac OS came out. Also, the much rumored Apple cloud service is also going to be formally announced, but now we do know that Apple was indeed behind iCloud all the time. Let’s see what services iCloud has to offer! On another note, full press release has been embedded below for your reading pleasure:

CUPERTINO, Californiaâ€"May 31, 2011â€"Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software â€" Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

And oh, if you’ve suddenly gotten the urge to buy WWDC 2011 tickets, you’re out of luck as the whole event has been sold out.

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It’s the story that just won’t go away, but it seems once again we’re being forced to speculate over the possibility of Apple working on, and possibly even getting ready to release a television.

Citing a ‘former Apple executive’, DailyTech is reporting that the company is set to enter the TV business ‘later this year’ with an all-in-one solution that would marry a large flat panel display with innards similar to that of an Apple TV.

The former Apple executive, speaking with us on condition of anonymity, told us that that the company’s biggest upcoming product launch will be one that hasn’t been made official yet â€" Apple has plans to enter the TV business.

The suggestion is that Apple would use a partner to actually manufacturer the screens themselves, with Samsung the current favorites due to their existing relationship when it comes to parts.

A Fall launch is claimed by the former exec, which coincidentally is when we are expecting to get our hands on a final, public release of iOS 5. Could both be related in some way?

According to the source, "You’ll go into an Apple retail store and be able to walk out with a TV. It’s perfect."

This isn’t the first time rumors of an Apple branded television set have done the rounds. Over the last couple of years many have claimed a TV is in the works deep inside Apple’s Cupertino headquarters but as yet, nothing has materialized.

Apple has in the past called its Apple TV set-top-box a ‘hobby’, though the Apple TV 2 has gone some way to changing that â€" especially thanks to its AirPlay functionality when coupled with an iPad or iPhone.

We’re really not sure about this one here at Redmond Pie. An Apple TV (a real one, not the box!) has been rumored for so long now that we find it difficult to believe. After all, what would Apple gain from having their current Apple TV hardware integrated into a screen over the situation we live with now? What has Apple’s external box been preventing the company from doing so far?

Our guess is â€" not a lot.

Of course, if Apple does announce a TV this year, can we just forget we ever had this conversation?

No? Thought not…

(via 9To5Mac)

You can follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook fanpage to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google and Apple.

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With the release of Final Cut Pro X today, users are stating that the support document for the new software is recommending upgrading to Mac OSX 10.6.8, which we all know hasn’t been released yet.

So are we seeing a typo by a tech writer inside Apple, or are we being teased about the new update. With the Lion release coming very soon, we can only assume that 10.6.8 will be here very soon as well. Although Apple is recommending the update, users are stating that it is working fine with 10.6.7 as well.

With 2 developer builds being released back to back for 10.6.8 by Apple last week, it’s release should be coming. And quickly!

[image via 9to5mac]

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Apple Releases Security Update 2011-003 for Mac OSX

Over-The-Air Updates coming to iOS 5?

Mac OSX 10.6.8 build seeded to developers

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Firefox 5 is now available for download. We talked about the rapid fast development channel of Firefox, knows as Firefox Aurora â€" which now looks into action as the Firefox 5.0 is now already available for download after five weeks of testing on the Aurora channel and then another few weeks in five beta releases.

Looks like, soon after this we are about to see the Firefox 6 to hop on the Aurora channel and be ready for the final release soon. The first ‘nightly’ builds of Firefox 6 are already available for download since April.

We are still exploring for new features and changes in the all new Firefox 5.0. We’ll update as soon as we find something new and interesting in the latest release.

Download Firefox 5.0 for Windows, Mac, Linux

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As the prospects in Pakistan’s job market continue to look bleak and unexciting, more and more people, and this includes an increasing number of fresh graduates, are moving towards the entrepreneurial opportunities available to them. In order to promote this trend, the Institute of Business Administration, IBA and its Entrepreneurship Society, IBAES, has organized the Spark’11 event, with CIO Pakistan and PC World Pakistan as its Technology Media Partners.

 

Spark’11, like the IBAES provides a launch pad to students who wish to challenge the “status quo and take risks and challenges” to start their own businesses as trained entrepreneurs. Through a series of keynote sessions, interactive workshops and creative activities, the three-day Spark’11 conference hopes to prove to be “a stimulating crash course in the right way to start a new business venture and the various issues every entrepreneur must face.”

 

Furthermore, the conference will also guide all the participants through a step-by-step process on how to start a business, the sort of groundwork that must be done before the business is ready to be launched, how to deal with any changes that might occur in the economic scenario which could adversely affect their startup and finally how to turn their entrepreneurial venture into a success.

 

To do this, some of the presentations that will be conducted at the conference will be; ‘Hitting upon the Winning Idea: Spinning the Roulette Wheel’, ‘Financing the Startup: Unearthing the Monetary Wells’, ‘Conquering the Storm’, ‘Rocket Pitch Presentation in Main Venue with Mentors and MT’, ‘Entrepreneurship in an Internet Economy’ and Entrepreneurship: Reality Check. Two workshops titled ‘Creating the Realm of Idea’ and ‘Sales Cheetah’ and two panel discussions, ‘The Social Enterprise’ and ‘Dodging the Minefields’ will also be hosted at the conference for the benefit of the students.

 

Spark’11 aims to “ignite in all its participants the will to do more and go beyond being sedentary corporate slaves” while at the same time allowing budding entrepreneurs a reality check on what to expect when they launch a venture of their own. For more information regarding Spark’11, please visit: http://ibaes.iba.edu.pk/index.php

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MeeGo Based Nokia N9 Confirmed for 2011

By Ahsan Javed · Tuesday, Jun 21, 2011 9 Comments

Seemingly Nokia isn’t going to give up with smartphones. At the Nokia Connection event in Singapore Nokia CEO Stephen Elop confirmed that the company’s first MeeGo-based device Nokia N9 will be made available around Q4 2011.

Nokia is hoping that this new phone will be able to attract Samsung, HTC or even Apple’s latest product lovers who value elegance.

Nokia says that N9 will be a high end smartphone, built for those who value class and beauty and, arguably, can be termed as one of the best phones of Nokia till date.

Most calling feature of Nokia N9 is it’s design. The 3.9 inch curved glass AMOLED display fitted in unibody design provides a new experience. Practically there is no gap between the glass and the display giving new life to phone display.

Made from polycarbonate in one-piece, phone has no screws, no edges, seamless design. All you get is just the elegance and smoothness. In addition to the design, polycarbonate helps reducing the weight and results in better signal reception giving user the best out of it.

Another prominent feature of this phone is that you will not find any button on the front side of  the phone not even a home button which Apple always loves to add. Here the phone gives you new control experience which is identification mark for this beauty.

‘Swipe’ is the word that is chosen. To visit home screen from an application, swipe the screen from corner and to unlock the device, simply double tap the screen.

The Nokia N9 comes in three colours: black, cyan and magenta and with storage capacities of 16GB and 64GB.

Nokia claims to have  8MP auto focus camera with Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash and super wide 28mm lens, which as per Nokia  works faster from start to capture than any other manufacturer’s smartphone camera in the market.

HTML5 supported browser with Webkit 2 technology gives better browsing experience. Latest Nokia maps with voice guided navigation puts another feather in N9′s cap.

Downside of the phone is that it is still using MeeGo OS, which may not be very welcoming for the ones who are comparing it with other competitors. Unlike the other Nokia may be lagging on this point considering the application development on this platform.

Also this phones comes with 1GHz single core chip which in no way is going to compete the other giants in the market with Dual Core Processors.

Summing up, if you are looking for the beauty and class, N9 will welcome you with both hands but for those who are more interested in inside than the outer one, you guys really need to wait meanwhile Nokia launches something to compete Apple, Samsung or HTC.

For a complete web experience, you can visit: http://swipe.nokia.com/

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