New Technology 2011 Gadgets, Best Gadgets, Desktop Gadgets

With only just a very little time to go it is that time of the year, no technically that would be wrong, but well… it’s time for yet another Olympic showdown for all sorts of sports fans and people even remotely interested in games. The opening ceremony will be held today, tomorrow in fact according to our timings at approximately one in the morning. I for one am determined to stay up, even if it later means staying up till sehri, to watch it.

Occurring once every four years, the Olympics have always managed to draw huge crowds both to the actual venue of the game itself as well as across the world. Naturally, with advancing technology, it is only logical to assume that the role that the virtual world will be playing in this year’s Olympics will also be of greater significance than of yore.

For today, that was most obviously seen on the Google search page. With Google such an integral part of our lives, it is usually the first web page any regular web user will open when online. Google has welcomed the Olympics 2012 with a new ‘Olympic-Doodle.’ This doodle is set to change, presumably daily to be replaced by a new Olympic themed one. A Google Hangout was arranged with Usain Bolt before the Olympics, a video of which may be viewed here. The official London 2012 channel on YouTube will stream the opening ceremony live for millions of online audience across the world and so far, according to Google News, the top trending topics on this site are Usain Bolt and Olympic Flame in second and third place respectively, and Roger Federer, who will open the London Olympics tennis matches against Alejandro Falla, was in seventh position.

Furthermore, the stats on the official website show that the Olympics fan page on social media website already has 852 thousand likes while they have 1,001,765 and 980 users following the official channel on Twitter. There are also some apps available… altogether 15 free iOS and Android applications that interested fans may enjoy. And that is not just it. Already there are plenty of blogs, tweets, statuses, comments, and news articles online regarding this mega event. So if you are a fan, and if you, like us, are looking forward to the Olympics, what are you waiting for? Check out the live streaming on YouTube now! Happy viewing!

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The tablet market is one which is arguably already sewn up. It’s already done. Dead. Finished. It’s already Apple’s.

Or is it?

With Apple undoubtedly heading the charts in and around the $500 price bracket, there is plenty of room for manufacturers to play below that mark. As the netbook market showed years ago, if you can make something cheap, people will buy it, regardless of whether it’s any good or not.

So, with that business model firmly in mind, Amazon set about undercutting Apple’s iPad, and with the Kindle Fire, the online retailer changed the game. We’d seen plenty of cheap Android tablets before, yes, but this was the first time one was any good.

Now Google is doing what it tends to do with Android, and by releasing a Nexus device manufactured by ASUS into the market, the search giant will be hoping to set a new bar that the competition will need to work towards. The Nexus 7 is a new, 7-inch tablet that hopes to take the Kindle Fire head on whilst showcasing the very latest in Android â€" Jelly Bean 4.1.

In order to really understand the Nexus 7, we wanted to spend some time with one. We wanted to see whether that 7-inch form factor was large enough to be usable without being stuck in no man’s land between a large smartphone and an iPad. Is the 7-inch tablet filling a gap that doesn’t need to be filled?

Hardware

The first thing you notice when you get your hands on the Nexus 7 is its size. Around the size of a paperback book, the Nexus 7 feels great in the hand. Any concerns about the tablet being too small may be justified for some, but for us, this size tablet may actually be preferable to the larger, 9.7-inch tablet. Yes, you sacrifice some screen space, but you make up for that in portability and ergonomics. The Nexus 7 feels great in the hand.

The hardware itself is pretty standard fare. Up front there is that 7-inch, 1280×800 display. It’s a nice screen, and we had no complaints with black levels or contrast, and certainly never felt the screen suffered because of the low price point. Movies looked great, as did games like Dead Trigger. No complaints here.

The face of the Nexus 7 is button-free thanks to Android’s newfound hatred of hardware buttons. On the right side of the device you’ll find the sleep/wake button and the usual volume toggle. That’s your lot as far as buttons go.

Camera-wise, we have a 1.2 megapixel camera on the front, with no camera on the rear. We don’t really mind the lack of a rear camera, though we are sure some will. We’ve never been ones for taking photos or videos with a tablet, but that doesn’t mean people won’t lament the lack of the option, either.

The Nexus 7 also features NFC technology, allowing the use of NFC tags for all sorts of magic as well as Google Wallet. Android Beam also uses the NFC chip, making the sharing of files and photos as easy as possible.

The rear of the device is made of a kind of rubbery plastic. That may sound ‘cheap’ but, oddly enough, adds a feeling of quality to the tablet while also making it less slippery in the hand. We like it, even though we didn’t expect to!

Software

Google’s Nexus 7 is the first device to ship with the new Jelly Bean version of Android. Version 4.1, Jelly Bean brings the base of Ice Cream Sandwich and adds some more polish, while seeking to make the Android experience as buttery smooth as possible.

‘Buttery smooth’ is probably a very apt description, too. Google’s Project Butter is perhaps the most important addition to Android this time around. Apart from the mildly comical name, Project Butter is actually rather important.

Google is apparently well aware that the experience of using Android can sometimes be a little lacking in polish. With quad-core phones and gigabytes of memory the norm, many phone still find they cannot compete with the iPhone when it comes to slick visuals and animations. Google knows that iOS has the edge in the appearance of speed, and Project Butter aims to fix that.

We’ll be covering Jelly Bean in all its glory in another, dedicated post, so watch out for that coming in the next day or so. With the Nexus 7 offering the purest of pure Android experiences, what you see in Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, is what you get on the Nexus 7.

What we will say is this; the Nexus 7 is blessed with the best version of Android yet.

Battery Life and Performance

Inside the Nexus 7, ASUS and Google went for a quad-core Tegra 3 CPU with 1GB of memory. Coupled with that buttery smooth Jelly Bean experience, the powerful hardware inside the Nexus 7 means the tablet is responsive when switching between apps and playing high-end games. Multitasking is handled quickly and smoothly, and animations are flawless. At no point did we wish for more speed when using the Nexus 7, which is an impressive feat for the under $200 tablet. The Nexus 7 packs plenty of punch, and is a pleasure to use.

You’ll be able to use it for a good long time, too, because the battery life we experienced with the Nexus 7 was excellent. Google claims the Nexus 7 will sit in standby for 300 hours, while 10 hours of web browsing can be expected according to the specifications on Google’s website. We’ve no reason to disbelieve these numbers, and the Nexus 7 rarely needed charging in our tests. Playing power hungry games will always drain lots of power, though, so that battery life will obviously very much depend on how you use the Nexus 7.

Issues

With that out of the way, on to the elephant in the room. The build quality.

Google chose to enlist the services of ASUS to bring the Nexus 7 to market. Unfortunately, that decision appears to have left buyers with more issues than it really should.

A cursory glance at any tablet forum will show that there are one or two real issues that seem to be cropping up now that the Nexus 7 production has ramped up, and thousands of people are getting their hands on the device. The Redmond Pie Nexus 7 is not free of issues, either.

The most obvious issue relates to the screen, and how it is fitted to the Nexus 7′s body. Some buyers, and by some we mean lots of them, are reporting that the screen does not sit flushed with the tablet’s bezel, particularly on the left hand side. While that may be some overzealous people finding issues that are not there, it seems that ill-fitting bezels are just the beginning.

Again, on the left side, many screens are simply loose. Pushing down on the edge of our unit, for example, has the entire screen move inwards. The movement is accompanied with a click, which doesn’t sound great the first time you do it, and immediately has you wondering whether you just cracked your new toy’s screen. Luckily that’s not the case.

According to the various forums across the internet, removing the back of the Nexus 7 reveals a piece of foam on that left hand side that appears to push the screen outwards. When you push the screen like we mentioned earlier, that foam gets compressed. We are told that removing that foam can fix the issue, which makes us wonder why it is there in the first place, and what risk is being created by removing it. Still, if it works, it works.

We have also heard reports of screens that appear ‘washed out’ and lack color, as well as devices shipping with speakers that do not work. Admittedly, all tablets, smartphones and indeed any electronic equipment will have faults when manufactured on this kind of scale, but when the same issues crop up repeatedly for different people, then it’s worth mentioning.

Of course, the answer to any of these issues is to send the tablet back for a replacement, but we’ve heard of people going through half a dozen devices, all with the same issue, particularly the loose screen problem. Not great news at all.

Wrap-up

When all is said and done, the Nexus 7 is a $200 tablet. It is undeniably one of the best budget tablets on the market right now, especially when Jelly Bean is taken into account. It’s fast, looks great and comes in at the right price.

We can’t help but be put off by the potential issues, though, and if you can be sure to avoid them then the Nexus 7 is a very capable tablet. If you can forgive some manufacturing foibles on a $200 tablet then you’re going to be very happy with the Nexus 7. Unfortunately, poor quality control lets the device down in our eyes, which is a real shame.

Screen issues aside, though, and the Nexus 7 is a great little tablet.

For discussion on this topic: Check out the threads on Facebook or Google+.

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We are invited to a number of launch events and we have almost attended all of them, and being in Pakistan we have always been part of launch events for devices that are about to be launched in Pakistan.

Thanks to Nokia Pakistan, for the first time ever, a new Nokia phone announcement was made from Pakistan at a global launch event held at Marriott Hotel, Karachi last week.

This was a media event held just for the traditional media, newspapers/magazines and online media (this is where we come in!). Sizzled Core, along with a bunch of other bloggers around Pakistan were invited to be a part of this grand event.

Nokia’s decision to choose Pakistan for the global launch of their upcoming devices was a clear sign of how important Pakistani market is for Nokia. Nokia envisions to connect the next billion people with the newly launched Nokia 110 and Nokia 112. Great presentations, and overview of how strong the telecommunications industry is in Pakistan, dance, music, fireworks… This was all part of the Nokia event.

Nokia has the biggest app store in Pakistan which includes 2,000,000+ weekly downloads on average! Almost all of media fro mPakistan is accessible on the Nokia Store â€" apps include: Geo, Aaj TV, Dawn News, Express Tribune, ARY News, Radio Pakistan etc.

Some really cool local applications are also available, such as Cricket, Ludo, Toffee TV etc. Islamic apps on the App store have millions of downloads. There are over 400 local apps, with 200+ Pakistan developers contributing to the Nokia App store which bring the download count of the Pakistani content to over 17 million!

These statistics and figures were shared by the three key speakers of the main event â€" Imran Khalid Mahmood, Saulo Passos and Calin Turcanu. The event had global and regional spokesperson from Nokia to share their thoughts on emerging markets and the new devices. Let’s take a brief intro to each of these speakers.

Imran Khalid Mahmood

Imran Khalid Mahmood is the VP, Near East, Nokia Corporation. In his line of duty he is responsible for heading the sales strategy for Nokia in this region. He is the frontrunner of all measurable KPIs and maintains a strict vigilance over them which are the main reason for Nokia’s success and popularity in this region.

Saulo Passos

Saulo Passos is the Global Director Mobile Phone Communications at Nokia, based in London, England. As part of the global Mobile Phones leadership team, his main focus targets the Next Billion strategy, a Nokia effort to connect more people to the internet, using a mobile device as the leading path.

Calin Turcanu

Starting from August, 2011, Calin Turcanu is the Head of Mobile Phones Business Unit, Nokia India, Middle East & Africa and overseessales, marketing and business development of Nokia devices in the region. Calin is actively involved in developing business strategies to ensure market success of key Nokia devices and strengthen Nokia’s brand presence in the region at the same time.

Remember the dance and music I mentioned earlier? Check out the photo below.

We’ll try to get a full video coverage for you to watch it as well. This performance was just before the Nokia team unveiled their new Nokia 110 and Nokia 112.

These new devices will be available in Pakistan and soon after into rest of the world, starting from the end of May. Prices of these new Nokia phones were one of them ain concerns by the attendees there. Nokia 110 is priced at Rs. 3800 and Nokia 112 will be available for Rs. 4000. Very affordable, isn’t it?

Nokia is continuously working on making the value rich features affordable to all price points â€" Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 are great examples of how even the entry-level Nokia devices don’t just offer optimized and affordable internet but at the same time flaunt a stylish design that will cater to a variety of lifestyles.

These devices will prove to be a true enabler in providing the people of Pakistan and the consumers from other growing economies with their first internet experience on mobile phone. Having internet on mobile phone opens up doors for new opportunities for the masses and helps them follow their dreams.

Now, we expect Nokia to make a bigger global launch announcement from Pakistan next time!

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Saad Hamid on May 25, 2012

The highly anticipated version of Absinthe is finally out! The new version promises untethered jailbreak for all iOS devices on iOS 5.1.1 except the iPad 2,4.

It wouldn't be wrong to say Absinthe 2.0 is one of the easiest jailbreaks to use. Simply plug in your device, click 'Jailbreak' and wait for your device to restart to confirm the jailbreak process.

Absinthe 2.0 carries support for iPad 1,1 â€" 2,1 â€" 2,2 â€" 2,3 â€" 3,1 â€" 3,2 â€" 3,3 and iPhone 2,1 â€" 3,1 â€" 3,3 â€" 4,1 and iPod Touch 3,1 â€" 4,1 except the iPad 2,4. In layman, that's nearly every device that has the capability to run iOS 5 and above.

Please backup your device before using Absinthe 2.0 through iTunes or iCloud. Once the backup is complete, go to Settings â€" General â€" Reset â€" Erase all Content and Settings. This will make the jailbreak process much faster. Later, you can restore the backup once the jailbreak is complete.

Update: The Chronic Dev Team just released Absinthe 2.0.1 for Mac, Windows, and Linux  just to fix some bugs that was on 2.0. The jailbreak is just like before, with only minor updates to make it more stable

Use these links to download Abstinthe 2.0.1 for Windows, Mac or Linux.

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What’s more shocking than Samsung’s claims that they haven’t copied Apple? Someone claiming that Mountain Lion copies Windows features. We all know that if Apple has copied any features with Mountain Lion, it’s from iOS and Apple aren’t ashamed to say that this release make the Mac, iPad and iPhone work together better than ever. This is something that Microsoft only dreams to achieve with their ecosystem but has failed to do so in the past, except for in their concept videos.

Our friend, Manan, who  is actually a MacBook Air user, thinks that Mountain Lion ‘rips off’ Windows features. This is not a joke and you can read his complete article here. After a brief interaction in Facebook comments where Manan asked me about why I think his article is misinformed, I thought it’s better to put it all in a blog post rather than in comments.

It all starts with Manan claiming that Mountain Lion as an update is just a few apps rolled into an OS.  Apple has a huge list of features here but let’s go through the specific points he has mentioned in his article and see what we think about them.

Gatekeeper

When Windows Vista came out, it had a feature called UAC. The Windows users didn’t mind it, the hipster Silicon Valley bloggers who don’t use Windows had a fun time making fun of it. Guess what happened in Mountain Lion?! Apple introduced UAC like protection in Mountain Lion. And it’s half-assed.

Well, let’s take a history lesson here. Apple had UAC like protection before Microsoft introduced it in Vista. Heck, even other variants of Unix and Linux had it way before. Of course, it wasn’t as intrusive as the UAC that Vista had, which to be honest, was a major pain in the ass and completely crippled productivity. Now, Gatekeeper is nothing like UAC. It’s more like Microsoft’s SmartScreen filter for desktop apps. But, of course, Microsoft is coming up with it in Windows 8, which isn’t released to public yet, so they must have copied it from Apple’s Gatekeeper, right? If we go with Manan’s logic through out the article, this must be true.

What Gatekeeper actually does it, it lets you block applications from sources other than the Mac App Store if you want, for maximum security. Since the list of apps in the Mac App Store is curated and each app is reviewed before publishing, users have a much higher chance of staying secure if they use it as their only source. Of course, technical users like us should know about this and can easily switch this to allow app installations from just any source at all. But with Gatekeeper, Apple has attempted to provide the average joe an environment similar to that of iOS â€" you only get apps from one reliable source.

iCloud

It’s like SkyDrive. But for OS X. Without Office Web Apps.

This one ranks number one in the list of FUD in this article. SkyDrive is nothing like iCloud. It doesn’t even compete well against Google Drive yet if you pit them against each other, one to one. iCloud provides a complete back up and syncing solution for Mac and iOS devices as well as the apps installed on them while on the other hand, SkyDrive is simply online storage, and not a very good one either. Known the difference, Manan.

Notification Center

So far the only usefulness of Notification Center is the ability to tweet without going into the Twitter client.

You mean that a unified notifications center where you can come back later to catch up on what you missed, no matter the app is in your Dock or not is useless? Ok, I believe Manan was a part of the focus group which helped Microsoft decide that Windows 8/Phone 8 don’t need a notification center. That’s probably the same focus group which thought users don’t need screenshots feature.

Meanwhile, iOS, OS X and Android all have notification centers and users love them.

Power Nap

The hipster Valley bloggers and Apple advocates love to mock Windows Vista, but, Apple seems to be inspired by it. Power Nap is a combination of SideShow and Connected Standby in Windows.

No one remembers what SideShow is because it was a failure that died its own silly death. Also, Microsoft’s Connected Standby is a rip off of iPad’s capability to stay up to date and provide the latest notifications when user starts using them again. But oh wait, Microsoft didn’t copy the notifications center..

Game Center

Oh hi Xbox LIVE! And goodbye Windows Game Center.

Oh wow, just wow. Apple was the first to market with Game Center in iOS. This is before Microsoft could put them in a few user’s hands through Windows Phone.

And Windows Vista and 7 had a crappy game center which was useless. Not sure what Manan’s point is here but I bet it’s funny like the rest of the article.

Social Sharing

Clearly Windows doesn’t have anything like that! Oh, wait. Windows 8 Share Charm!

Clearly, iOS didn’t have anything like this. Oh, wait!

My point is, Mountain Lion is not a full OS. It’s a refinement to a less refined Lion. You know how Microsoft refines their OS? By introducing Service Packs. And these are free. I don’t mind the $20 because Mountain Lion does add features and make OS X snappy, but let’s not be irrational and say Apple is giving us a full OS at $20. Because Mountain Lion is not.

Weird. I thought Manan is well informed about Microsoft but even that’s not the case. Microsoft’s Service Packs have been a collection of bug fixes, security fixes and performance improvements. Whenever Microsoft has actually released new features, they’ve labeled them as Feature Packs. Microsoft has released a few of these for both their consumer and server versions of Windows over the past but I’d like to see an example of either that actually provided so many features.

From this article, I’ve learned something about Microsoft fan’s logic. Microsoft releases a shitty OS like Vista and fixes it with Windows 7 (while only providing a few new features) and charges huge amounts for both, it is justified for the fanboys. But if Apple’s providing OS updates like Lion and then Mountain Lion (that’s a total of under $50 for both compared to $260 + $220 = $480 for Vista and 7), they’re scumbags.

Cool story, Manan. I see what you did there â€" or at least I tried to.

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MoIT to Advertise for Hiring of Consultant to Expedite 3G License

By Mehwish Khan · Friday, Jul 27, 2012 5 Comments

In a development at PM house today, It was decided that Ministry of Information Technology will immediately advertise a job for consultant in the media to expedite the process of 3G license auction which has already got delayed considerably due to the unnecessary official procedures.

Earlier, PTA was suppose to advertise this job â€" however, it appears, government isn’t happy with the PTA and task has been handed over to MoIT.

In a briefing on 3G license by the Ministry of Information Technology, chaired by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, PTA was directed to seek list of experts from Ministry of Information Technology to evaluate Expression of Interest (EOI) from the consultant. PTA assured that the letter would be written to the Ministry for seeking the list of participants to be the part of the EOI/RFP committee in order to meet the imperative of transparency in absolute terms.

PTA Member Technical assured that after receiving the list from Ministry of Information Technology PTA would accord approval as per the provision of section 5 (2) (R) of Pakistan Telecommunication Re-Organization Act 1996

It was also reiterated in the meeting that it is the PTA’s responsibility to carry out the auction of 3G license in a transparent manner.

Information Memorandum on 3G will also be drafted from scratch, after the input of consultant that is supposed to be hired very soon.

The meeting was attended by Mr. Qamar Zaman Kaira, Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Minister for Finance, Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, Minister for Water and Power, Mr. Asim Hussain, Advisor on Petroleum, Secretaries for IT, Finance, Law & Justice and other government officials.

Related Stories

• PTA to Revise 3G Information Memorandum
• Ministry Asked to Speed Up 3G Auction Process, IM to Get Revised
• PTA Accused of Delaying 3G Auction
• Confirmed: 3G/4G License Auction in March 2012
• CEOs of Telecom Companies Meet PM, Fair 3G Auction Promised
• Prime Minister Approves 3G Policy in Pakistan
• Opposition Suddenly Wakes Up to Oppose 3G

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Saad Hamid on May 25, 2012

The highly anticipated version of Absinthe is finally out! The new version promises untethered jailbreak for all iOS devices on iOS 5.1.1 except the iPad 2,4.

It wouldn't be wrong to say Absinthe 2.0 is one of the easiest jailbreaks to use. Simply plug in your device, click 'Jailbreak' and wait for your device to restart to confirm the jailbreak process.

Absinthe 2.0 carries support for iPad 1,1 â€" 2,1 â€" 2,2 â€" 2,3 â€" 3,1 â€" 3,2 â€" 3,3 and iPhone 2,1 â€" 3,1 â€" 3,3 â€" 4,1 and iPod Touch 3,1 â€" 4,1 except the iPad 2,4. In layman, that's nearly every device that has the capability to run iOS 5 and above.

Please backup your device before using Absinthe 2.0 through iTunes or iCloud. Once the backup is complete, go to Settings â€" General â€" Reset â€" Erase all Content and Settings. This will make the jailbreak process much faster. Later, you can restore the backup once the jailbreak is complete.

Update: The Chronic Dev Team just released Absinthe 2.0.1 for Mac, Windows, and Linux  just to fix some bugs that was on 2.0. The jailbreak is just like before, with only minor updates to make it more stable

Use these links to download Abstinthe 2.0.1 for Windows, Mac or Linux.

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With a quad core processor, 1GB of RAM (2GB in certain variants), a 4.8” Super AMOLED HD display, 8 MP / 2 MP optics and being based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Samsung Galaxy S III is one hell of a powerhouse. The general public, it seems, has agreed to this fact as, according to sales figures, the Galaxy S III is selling like ice-cool lemonade on a hot day.

The news comes from our friends over at TheNextWeb in form of a short post in which they discuss a report published by Yonhap News of Korea. Yonhap’s reporters were told by Samsung Mobile’s President â€" Shin Jong-Kyun â€" that the Galaxy S III has “become a 10 million seller” since its unveiling at the end of May earlier this year, in line with its expectations.

While Jong-Kyun did not give specific numbers, this roughly comes out to be a whopping average of 190,000 Galaxy S III smartphones being sold every single day. Quite a number of phones to be moving if you ask me!

To put things into perspective, it took the Galaxy S II almost triple the time â€" just under six months â€" to reach the same number. Keep in mind that the S II was its own a pretty big hit when compared to other Android smartphones.

According to the report, the S III is expected to continue its momentum in the smartphone market until Apple releases their next iPhone which is expected to be in late September / early October.

Personally speaking, I’m not a fan of the Galaxy S III. It’s just too large and uncomfortable to hold, and Android’s scrolling lag* is just makes using scrolling-oriented apps (Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader i.e. most content consumption apps) a terrible experience. I don’t intend to go back to an Android smartphone unless and until they fix the scrolling lag.

*The list to be scrolled responds in a very unreliable way. Swiping up at the same rate results in slow scrolling one time and unpredictably fast the next.

You may also like to check out:

• Galaxy S III vs iPhone 4S vs Lumia 900 â€" The Comparison Between The Titans

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Jul 4, 2012

Many Android users would know that installing apps from sources other than the Google Play (formerly Android Market) is as simple as changing an option in settings. There’s no need to jailbreak your device as is the case with iPhones or install custom ROMs. For those who like to pirate apps, Android has been a piece of heaven. Developers have complained a lot about low revenues and losses due on the Android platform but it seems like Google has finally taken notice and starting with Jelly Bean, things are about to change.

Piracy is a big concern for all developers as no one wants to see their hard work being stolen and used illegally. Piracy is one of the reasons why Infinity Blade never came to Android either. Wired UK had covered Android piracy back in May with the Football Manager 2009 game facing a piracy to legal downloads ratio of 9:1 â€" that’s correct, for each legal download, 9 illegal installations took place. All thanks to the a simple change in settings to enable installations from third party sources as well as a simple Google search for apk files for any app since no DRM exists for the application packages.

However, announced at Google I/O 2012, one of the features for developers in Google Play for Jelly Bean is app encryption which should help developers in getting their deserved revenues by curbing piracy. Here’s what Google says about app encryption:

Starting with Android 4.1, Google Play will help protect application assets by encrypting all paid apps with a device-specific key before they are delivered and stored on a device.

In theory, if this works as intended, this would work similar to how iOS platform works. Unless app encryption is somehow broken, this will help to reduce piracy by a great amount although, there is still no way to make side loading of apps difficult for Android users. Although, from what we’ve read so far, apps are decrypted again before installation so whether the encryption would be effective in curbing piracy is yet to be seen. One inherent problem with Android is how only a small number of people use the latest versions. Ice Cream Sandwich still has very low adaption rate so Jelly Bean will take even more time to become the main Android OS. Perhaps, in a year or two, we might be able to see the desired results.

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We are invited to a number of launch events and we have almost attended all of them, and being in Pakistan we have always been part of launch events for devices that are about to be launched in Pakistan.

Thanks to Nokia Pakistan, for the first time ever, a new Nokia phone announcement was made from Pakistan at a global launch event held at Marriott Hotel, Karachi last week.

This was a media event held just for the traditional media, newspapers/magazines and online media (this is where we come in!). Sizzled Core, along with a bunch of other bloggers around Pakistan were invited to be a part of this grand event.

Nokia’s decision to choose Pakistan for the global launch of their upcoming devices was a clear sign of how important Pakistani market is for Nokia. Nokia envisions to connect the next billion people with the newly launched Nokia 110 and Nokia 112. Great presentations, and overview of how strong the telecommunications industry is in Pakistan, dance, music, fireworks… This was all part of the Nokia event.

Nokia has the biggest app store in Pakistan which includes 2,000,000+ weekly downloads on average! Almost all of media fro mPakistan is accessible on the Nokia Store â€" apps include: Geo, Aaj TV, Dawn News, Express Tribune, ARY News, Radio Pakistan etc.

Some really cool local applications are also available, such as Cricket, Ludo, Toffee TV etc. Islamic apps on the App store have millions of downloads. There are over 400 local apps, with 200+ Pakistan developers contributing to the Nokia App store which bring the download count of the Pakistani content to over 17 million!

These statistics and figures were shared by the three key speakers of the main event â€" Imran Khalid Mahmood, Saulo Passos and Calin Turcanu. The event had global and regional spokesperson from Nokia to share their thoughts on emerging markets and the new devices. Let’s take a brief intro to each of these speakers.

Imran Khalid Mahmood

Imran Khalid Mahmood is the VP, Near East, Nokia Corporation. In his line of duty he is responsible for heading the sales strategy for Nokia in this region. He is the frontrunner of all measurable KPIs and maintains a strict vigilance over them which are the main reason for Nokia’s success and popularity in this region.

Saulo Passos

Saulo Passos is the Global Director Mobile Phone Communications at Nokia, based in London, England. As part of the global Mobile Phones leadership team, his main focus targets the Next Billion strategy, a Nokia effort to connect more people to the internet, using a mobile device as the leading path.

Calin Turcanu

Starting from August, 2011, Calin Turcanu is the Head of Mobile Phones Business Unit, Nokia India, Middle East & Africa and overseessales, marketing and business development of Nokia devices in the region. Calin is actively involved in developing business strategies to ensure market success of key Nokia devices and strengthen Nokia’s brand presence in the region at the same time.

Remember the dance and music I mentioned earlier? Check out the photo below.

We’ll try to get a full video coverage for you to watch it as well. This performance was just before the Nokia team unveiled their new Nokia 110 and Nokia 112.

These new devices will be available in Pakistan and soon after into rest of the world, starting from the end of May. Prices of these new Nokia phones were one of them ain concerns by the attendees there. Nokia 110 is priced at Rs. 3800 and Nokia 112 will be available for Rs. 4000. Very affordable, isn’t it?

Nokia is continuously working on making the value rich features affordable to all price points â€" Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 are great examples of how even the entry-level Nokia devices don’t just offer optimized and affordable internet but at the same time flaunt a stylish design that will cater to a variety of lifestyles.

These devices will prove to be a true enabler in providing the people of Pakistan and the consumers from other growing economies with their first internet experience on mobile phone. Having internet on mobile phone opens up doors for new opportunities for the masses and helps them follow their dreams.

Now, we expect Nokia to make a bigger global launch announcement from Pakistan next time!

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(For PCWorld Pakistan)

Telenor to Discontinue Voice and SMS Bundle Offers on Eid

Like all the other Cellular operators, Telenor will suspend its voice and SMS bundle offers this Eid. It will also discontinue its Add-ons including Poora Pakistan and Location Based Offers.

Telenor made this decision owing to the anticipated heavy traffic in the last days of Ramzan. The company said that the decision was made to provide uninterrupted services during Eid days from 27th of Ramadan to 3rd day of Eid. However, the standard voice, SMS, and data charges will be applicable during the period.

Samsung Galaxy Hits 10 Million Mark

The new Samsung Galaxy S3 has registered sales exceeding 10 million sales mark within two months since its launch. Samsung Electronics of South Korea, the world’s top Smartphone maker, expects a record profit of 6.7 trillion in the second quarter with strong sales of its Galaxy Smartphones.

Samsung has seen high demand for its Galaxy S3 since its launch in May. The head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications division, J. K. Shin, said, “It appears that it (accumulated sales) has exceeded 10 million units.” Earlier, he expected S3 would surpass 10 million by the end of July with its availability in more than 140 countries.

The Galaxy S3 comes with face recognition; improved voice activated controls; a powerful processor; and can also detect eye movements. According to market researcher Strategy Analytics, Samsung has shipped about 44.5 million Smartphones in the first quarter, more than 35.1 million of Apple.

Samsung is competing with Apple in the Smartphone and tablets market and expects S3 to further deteriorate its market share before the launch of Apple’s iPhone 5 this year.

Kodak Loses Against Apple and RIM in Patent Case

In an appeal of a patent dispute over digital image preview technology, Kodak has lost to Apple and Research in Motion. The loss affects the company’s efforts to raise money in bankruptcy by selling patents.

The Photography Giant lost the case when a verdict by Judge Thoman Pender declared that neither Apple nor RIM had infringed Kodak’s rights in the so-called ’218 patent, which covers how digital cameras preview images. The US International Trade Commission supports the earlier ruling.

Kodak plans to re appeal to US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an attempt to recover $1 billion. It said, “The validity of the ’218 patent has been upheld in previous litigation at the ITC and was affirmed by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office in the face of two separate challenges. We are confident that its validity will ultimately be upheld.”

Kodak was granted permission to sell more than 1,100 digital imaging patents in order to repay its creditors as it shifts its focus to printing. These patents are for digital cameras, Smartphones and tablets.  These patents are part of Kodak’s digital-capture portfolio that has generated more than $3 billion in revenue since 2001. An auction is expected by Kodak as soon as the next month will begin.

Nokia to Revive its Marketing Strategy

Sources have reported that Nokia is considering an overhaul in its traditional mass marketing strategy before the launch of its new Windows 8 Smartphone this autumn.

Nokia is in secret negotiation with European Operators for the launch of its Smartphone. It is working to find an opportunity to use Windows 8 platform from Microsoft. Sources report that the France Telecom was in talks with Nokia although no deal has been finalized.

The new strategy will focus on creating dedicated support for Nokia’s Smartphones with partnership with one or two networks in Europe. An analyst informed sources that the relationship will offer a financial stake to the operator in the success of the range. Earlier, Nokia relied on getting as many sales as possible across all channels immediately.

Facebook New App Layout More Like Pinterest

The new Facebook Open Graph app’s layout seems much similar to the one on Pinterest. The new design makes app stories more prominent by building boxes in the users’ news feed. It also allows likes, comments, other actions like directing one to a third party page or website when clicking a photo. This is much like pinning items on Pinterest.

Facebook has introduced the new interface for a number of users and for Photo-heavy apps only. A spokeswoman for Facebook said, “We’re always testing new Platform features. But we have nothing further to announce.”

According to inside Facebook, Open Graph apps include Foodspotting, Ticketmaster, Sound Cloud, TripAdvisor, Rotten Tomatoes, USA Today, as well as Pinterest. It integrates websites and resources like recipes, music playlists, and other into Facebook’s Timeline, Ticker, and News Feed.

A spokeswoman for Pinterest has declined to comment on the matter. Pinterest is the third most popular social network in US and is gaining more popularity this year.

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Ufone is likely to snatch Amir Pasha from Zong to head company’s Public Relations department, we have confirmed with sources. Ufone hasn’t officially announced anything on this yet. According to information we have got, and confirmed with multiple sources, Amir Pasha will head Ufone’s Public Relation department and will report to Mr. Akbar Khan, Chief [...]

To read more, click: Ufone to Get Amir Pasha of Zong as Head of PR Department
ProPakistani.PK

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Saad Hamid on May 25, 2012

The highly anticipated version of Absinthe is finally out! The new version promises untethered jailbreak for all iOS devices on iOS 5.1.1 except the iPad 2,4.

It wouldn't be wrong to say Absinthe 2.0 is one of the easiest jailbreaks to use. Simply plug in your device, click 'Jailbreak' and wait for your device to restart to confirm the jailbreak process.

Absinthe 2.0 carries support for iPad 1,1 â€" 2,1 â€" 2,2 â€" 2,3 â€" 3,1 â€" 3,2 â€" 3,3 and iPhone 2,1 â€" 3,1 â€" 3,3 â€" 4,1 and iPod Touch 3,1 â€" 4,1 except the iPad 2,4. In layman, that's nearly every device that has the capability to run iOS 5 and above.

Please backup your device before using Absinthe 2.0 through iTunes or iCloud. Once the backup is complete, go to Settings â€" General â€" Reset â€" Erase all Content and Settings. This will make the jailbreak process much faster. Later, you can restore the backup once the jailbreak is complete.

Update: The Chronic Dev Team just released Absinthe 2.0.1 for Mac, Windows, and Linux  just to fix some bugs that was on 2.0. The jailbreak is just like before, with only minor updates to make it more stable

Use these links to download Abstinthe 2.0.1 for Windows, Mac or Linux.

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After two teaser trailers, The Dark Knight Rises mobile title is now rolling out for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users around the globe. The motion picture also hits cinemas today, and will conclude the trilogy of Christian Bale’s Batman.

Developers Gameloft gave fans a second taster a few days back after first announcing the title back in June, and now, the iOS version has just hit the New Zealand App Store. Depending on whereabouts in the world you reside, and which iOS device device you own at the moment, the game should be available to you at some point within the next 24 or so hours.

Given how it’s developed by Gameloft, with input from the likes of Warner Brothers and DC Comics, this is one title Batman fans will not want to miss. The last movie was a great watch, and although general interest was increased due to the unfortunate dismissal of Heath Ledger from the world, but it does appear as though this final movie will generate just as much, if not more publicity than its predecessor.

Some have suggested the third and final offering will be even more successful than the last movie, in which Ledger played the joker, and the mobile game is sure to ramp up general interest and thus, box office tickets.

The title allows you to be Batman, controlling his large inventory of tools in order to move around the city and defeat foes. As well as all the gadgetry, you get to drive the famed Bat-Pod, ideal for special vigilante missions, and all in all, it does look a riveting experience.

It’s quite a large download and weighs in at over 800 MB, but invariably with the larger titles, the graphics and quality of gameplay in general is higher, which is something we always crave for in a mobile title such as this one. Although we haven’t had the chance to try out the title ourselves, the trailers illustrate this is likely the case here, and we’ll update accordingly when the games do arrive.

Download Dark Knight Rises for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [iTunes link]

Be sure to check out our iPhone Apps Gallery and iPad Apps Gallery to explore more apps for your iPhone and iPad.

You can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple and the Web.

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Jul 4, 2012

Many Android users would know that installing apps from sources other than the Google Play (formerly Android Market) is as simple as changing an option in settings. There’s no need to jailbreak your device as is the case with iPhones or install custom ROMs. For those who like to pirate apps, Android has been a piece of heaven. Developers have complained a lot about low revenues and losses due on the Android platform but it seems like Google has finally taken notice and starting with Jelly Bean, things are about to change.

Piracy is a big concern for all developers as no one wants to see their hard work being stolen and used illegally. Piracy is one of the reasons why Infinity Blade never came to Android either. Wired UK had covered Android piracy back in May with the Football Manager 2009 game facing a piracy to legal downloads ratio of 9:1 â€" that’s correct, for each legal download, 9 illegal installations took place. All thanks to the a simple change in settings to enable installations from third party sources as well as a simple Google search for apk files for any app since no DRM exists for the application packages.

However, announced at Google I/O 2012, one of the features for developers in Google Play for Jelly Bean is app encryption which should help developers in getting their deserved revenues by curbing piracy. Here’s what Google says about app encryption:

Starting with Android 4.1, Google Play will help protect application assets by encrypting all paid apps with a device-specific key before they are delivered and stored on a device.

In theory, if this works as intended, this would work similar to how iOS platform works. Unless app encryption is somehow broken, this will help to reduce piracy by a great amount although, there is still no way to make side loading of apps difficult for Android users. Although, from what we’ve read so far, apps are decrypted again before installation so whether the encryption would be effective in curbing piracy is yet to be seen. One inherent problem with Android is how only a small number of people use the latest versions. Ice Cream Sandwich still has very low adaption rate so Jelly Bean will take even more time to become the main Android OS. Perhaps, in a year or two, we might be able to see the desired results.

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We are invited to a number of launch events and we have almost attended all of them, and being in Pakistan we have always been part of launch events for devices that are about to be launched in Pakistan.

Thanks to Nokia Pakistan, for the first time ever, a new Nokia phone announcement was made from Pakistan at a global launch event held at Marriott Hotel, Karachi last week.

This was a media event held just for the traditional media, newspapers/magazines and online media (this is where we come in!). Sizzled Core, along with a bunch of other bloggers around Pakistan were invited to be a part of this grand event.

Nokia’s decision to choose Pakistan for the global launch of their upcoming devices was a clear sign of how important Pakistani market is for Nokia. Nokia envisions to connect the next billion people with the newly launched Nokia 110 and Nokia 112. Great presentations, and overview of how strong the telecommunications industry is in Pakistan, dance, music, fireworks… This was all part of the Nokia event.

Nokia has the biggest app store in Pakistan which includes 2,000,000+ weekly downloads on average! Almost all of media fro mPakistan is accessible on the Nokia Store â€" apps include: Geo, Aaj TV, Dawn News, Express Tribune, ARY News, Radio Pakistan etc.

Some really cool local applications are also available, such as Cricket, Ludo, Toffee TV etc. Islamic apps on the App store have millions of downloads. There are over 400 local apps, with 200+ Pakistan developers contributing to the Nokia App store which bring the download count of the Pakistani content to over 17 million!

These statistics and figures were shared by the three key speakers of the main event â€" Imran Khalid Mahmood, Saulo Passos and Calin Turcanu. The event had global and regional spokesperson from Nokia to share their thoughts on emerging markets and the new devices. Let’s take a brief intro to each of these speakers.

Imran Khalid Mahmood

Imran Khalid Mahmood is the VP, Near East, Nokia Corporation. In his line of duty he is responsible for heading the sales strategy for Nokia in this region. He is the frontrunner of all measurable KPIs and maintains a strict vigilance over them which are the main reason for Nokia’s success and popularity in this region.

Saulo Passos

Saulo Passos is the Global Director Mobile Phone Communications at Nokia, based in London, England. As part of the global Mobile Phones leadership team, his main focus targets the Next Billion strategy, a Nokia effort to connect more people to the internet, using a mobile device as the leading path.

Calin Turcanu

Starting from August, 2011, Calin Turcanu is the Head of Mobile Phones Business Unit, Nokia India, Middle East & Africa and overseessales, marketing and business development of Nokia devices in the region. Calin is actively involved in developing business strategies to ensure market success of key Nokia devices and strengthen Nokia’s brand presence in the region at the same time.

Remember the dance and music I mentioned earlier? Check out the photo below.

We’ll try to get a full video coverage for you to watch it as well. This performance was just before the Nokia team unveiled their new Nokia 110 and Nokia 112.

These new devices will be available in Pakistan and soon after into rest of the world, starting from the end of May. Prices of these new Nokia phones were one of them ain concerns by the attendees there. Nokia 110 is priced at Rs. 3800 and Nokia 112 will be available for Rs. 4000. Very affordable, isn’t it?

Nokia is continuously working on making the value rich features affordable to all price points â€" Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 are great examples of how even the entry-level Nokia devices don’t just offer optimized and affordable internet but at the same time flaunt a stylish design that will cater to a variety of lifestyles.

These devices will prove to be a true enabler in providing the people of Pakistan and the consumers from other growing economies with their first internet experience on mobile phone. Having internet on mobile phone opens up doors for new opportunities for the masses and helps them follow their dreams.

Now, we expect Nokia to make a bigger global launch announcement from Pakistan next time!

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