PTA: Where is the List of Blocked Websites?

PTA: Where is the List of Blocked Websites?

By Aamir Attaa · Wednesday, Aug 29, 2012 17 Comments

Issue of blocked websites has been discussed countless times on this website. We, at ProPakistani, have always supported blockade of websites that contain obscene content or are blasphemous in nature.

In our viewpoint, blocking such websites is in accordance with the law and such procedures are protected by the court orders.

However, at the same time, we always proposed the authorities concerned to make the list of blocked websites public and the reasons for their blockade. This way, the criticism flowing towards PTA (for censoring internet) could be molded to a point that everyone would exactly know the reason behind blockade of any particular website.

This was specifically necessary to make the whole process (of blocking websites) transparent as Government’s ability of block websites in the country could otherwise be used for personal and political purposes.

Blocking Websites for Personal and Political Reasons:

Unfortunately, this has happened recently. Keep reading to know the complete story.

First, check below this letter that was sent by PTA to all ISPs last month:

Dear All,

You are requested to block the website links  in mention below file immediately at URL Level without disrupting the main websites. In addition also flush out system cache and confirm the blocking of the links (blocking must be ensured prior to confirmation),   through return email latest by 1600 hours today i.e. 4th August, 2012 , positvely, please.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkumTgc68NM
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5SxdubU2wo&feature=relmfu
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX1pdqKVG38&feature=relmfu
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhDN0rT3WXo&feature=relmfu
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7mCtWU4tW8&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rOr1EbEyVM&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGbyYdbL9ZM&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=civC1yVp4lc&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYBaHFOeDQU
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xrDOEqxKqU&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueaLUt1MSt0&feature=relmfu
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0THh7wMc90&feature=relmfu
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4Xf9WArwSA&feature=relmfu
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clztMR-YNII&feature=relmfu
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nntDytJbk8o&feature=relmfu

Regards,
_____________

Deputy Director (Enforcement),
Enforcement Division, PTA HQ,
F-5/1, Islamabad.

This enforcement letter from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had 15 YouTube links, that are currently blocked on majority of ISPs (that we have checked).

Interestingly, these YouTube videos were neither blasphemous nor were inappropriate in nature. Instead, these videos were coverage of a press conference of a TV host in which she alleged her ex-husband (who happens to be the MD of TV channel) for various misdeeds.

We are yet to ascertain what criteria was considered when it was decided to block these 15 URLs. It is also not clear that who exactly was responsible for taking the decision for blocking of these videos.

Only Allah knows how this MD of a TV channel was able to get 15 URLs blocked, most probably through high-level influence, but we have a proven fact now that blockade of websites is very much possible based on political and influential pressures from government and corporate bodies.

We aren’t sure how many such enforcement orders have been issued by PTA so far, which had directed the ISPs to block websites/URLs based on personal reasons.

It is about time that PTA should make a list available to public revealing each and every website/URL they have directed to be blocked on Pakistani ISPs. This is particularly important at a time when elections are just ahead and there are chances of massive website blocking for political reasons.

Related Stories

• PTA Blocks Ahmaddiya Controlled Religious Website
• Pakistan Blocks Thousands of Adult Websites
• ICT R&D to Finance National URL Filtering and Blocking System a.k.a National Firewall
• List of Blocked Websites in Pakistan [Blashphemy Crackdown]
• PTA Should Block Local Porn Sites, if Not All
• PTA Requires List of Po*n Sites to Get Them Blocked!
• ISPs Fear Slow Internet after Blocking Thousands of Websites

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E-Panorama

(For PCWorld Pakistan)

PTCL Introduces ‘VideoCon’ Nationwide

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has launched its video phone services nationwide by the name of ‘Videocon’. It is available for both corporate and private sectors.

Videocon will be the first video service in the country which will enable customers to have video conversation with family, friends, or clients. PTCL customers can make or receive video calls from their video phones with the service.

The service was introduced in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad in June last year. PTCL has extended the service now across the nation.

Ufone’s Eid With Children of SOS Village

In an attempt to bring joy to under-privileged children of the SOS village, Ufone recently hosted Iftar and Eid celebrations in Islamabad and Quetta. The celebrations were part of company’s CSR efforts for the under-privileged segments of the society.

Ufone management attended the event. The whole event was marked with different festivities enjoyed by the children. Also, UFone distributed gifts among the children to mark the celebrations of Eid.
Commenting on the occasion, Ufone’s President and CEO, Abdul Aziz, said, “The innocent smiles of the children reminded us that they are full of life and that they have full faith in their bright future under the supervision of an organized and professional SOS village management and staff. Ufone will stand shoulder to shoulder with SOS to provide full support as a corporate entity that cares for the future of the nation’s children especially the ones that are marginalized.”

The celebrations were followed by dinner, arranged for the children and staff of the villages in Islamabad and Quetta.

Hearing of Apple’s Request for Injunction due on Dec 6

December 6 has been set as the new date for Apple, which is seeking a permanent injunction on Samsung’s Smartphones, as ordered by a US Judge. The delay in the hearing may affect impact of Apple’s decisive legal victory.

Earlier, Apple has filed for preliminary injunctions on Samsung’s eight devices for which the hearing will take place on September 20. Apple will also file for a permanent sales ban.

September 20 hearing will be on Samsung’s request to dissolve a sales ban on its Galaxy tab 10.1 where the jury also stands with Samsung.

US District Judge, Lucy Koh, said in an order that it was appropriate that various post-trial motions be consolidated, owing to Apple’s preliminary injunction request. The request for permanent injunction will be considered in December after the attorneys file detailed legal arguments.

There were no immediate comments from both the parties involved in the matter. As far as money matters are concerned, a US court awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages a week back.

IBM Releases a Smaller and Faster Mainframe

IBM introduced a new mainframe computer that is anticipated to head off the competition from inexpensive PC-based servers. The new machine, called zEnterprise, costed about $1 billion and comes with 25% more powerful processing cores than earlier models.

The company said the redesigned model also features better security and data-analytics tools than previous models. Analysts believe that the mainframe market is witnessing a long-term decline.

The optimum used of mainframes takes place at big banks and organizations where large computers are used for heavy data processing. IBM is the biggest seller of mainframes for which prices start from $1 million.

Analysts believe that the improved security and speed will help IBM make its existing customers happy but would not earn the company new customers. Charles King, an analyst with research firm Pund-IT, said, “It’s going to be harder and harder for IBM to find new customers and new opportunities for the mainframe.”

IBM will start shipping the new mainframes in September. The market for mainframe is shrinking, according to market research firm, Gartner, which estimated that annual sales would keep falling this year and for the coming years. Now the companies rely on cheap PC-based servers for their data-processing needs rather than relying on mainframes.

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Nokia Global Launch in Pakistan: First Time Ever!

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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Instagram 3.0 Released – Brings Photo Maps, Infinite Scrolling and Redesigned User Profiles and Upload UI

Aug 17, 2012

Instagram seems like one of the most popular social networks along with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.  It has managed to gather a huge following who is willing to take low resolution photos and stylise them with easy to use filters, frames and effects. It’s recent release on Android has just skyrocketed its user base and new users as well as celebrities keep on joining it. Not to forget, the $1 billion purchase by Facebook also helped its popularity.

The small but hugely talented Instragram team has been working on incremental but useful updates meanwhile. Most of the point updates are performance or bug releases but with version 3.0, Instagram has taken on the geolocation game which already contains the likes of Facebook and Foursquare as its leaders.  Here’s a walk through of the new features and updates in Instagram 3.0.

Photo Maps

This is the major new geolocation based feature. Photos with location information can now be shown on a map in every user’s profile. For privacy concerns, Instagram lets you chose which photos you want to show and hide from the map since all photos on a map can be seen by anyone who can see your profile. Instagram also shows a check box on each photo upload asking whether it should be added to the Photo Map or not.

On first access, Photo Map reminds of the privacy concerns.

Photos can be selected/deselected to appear on the Photo Map. It’s always a good idea to chose wisely since you’re exposing you locations to the public.

Once images are added to the map, they can be seen as album stacks.

Double tapping an image stack opens up its images in a thumbnail view.

Here’s a video of Photo Maps

Redesigned User Profiles and Image Uploading

User profiles have gotten a nice facelift to accommodate the Photo Map button in the UI. Infinite scrolling is also included in the photo timelines, thought not an obvious feature unless you start scrolling down. This is a much needed addition to Instagram and reduces many extra steps to view photos.

Following the profiles, the image upload section has also been cleaned up and includes the Photo Map check box. Not much else has changed here apart from the design and layout.

Other updates include the ability to mark comments as spam as well as delete them. The app also feels snappier in general usage.

Instagram 3.0 is available for both iOS and Android and can be downloaded right away.

Download Instagram for iOS from iTunes

Download Instagram for Android from Google Play Store

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CamTime Adds Timer Button To The Native Camera App In iOS

The wild success of the iPhone isn’t any secret anymore. The sales figures speak for themselves, the unprecedented interest level in the next iPhone paints its own picture, and the fact that iPhone sales generate more cash than all of Microsoft’s products and services put together proves just how big of a smash hit Apple has on their hands with their iOS-powered smartphone. It isn’t just one thing that captures the imagination of users when it comes to the iPhone, the whole package manages to pull the punters in and that doesn’t seem to end any time soon.

We have already seen during an Apple keynote just how popular the embedded camera on the iPhone is. The late Steve Jobs loved to tell us that the most popular camera for uploading images to the Flickr network was that of the iPhone 4 and with the improvements made in the 4S, the popularity has significantly grown. Although the camera hardware on the iPhone is pretty impressive and the Camera app itself has also grown with recent updates of iOS to include things like native HRD features and in-album editing, it still doesn’t have all of the features that a true photography fan would want and need.

The CamTime package that has recently landed on the Cydia store is one developer’s attempt at enhancing the power of the native Camera app on an iOS device by adding the ability for users to start a countdown timer within the app before it actually snaps any images. This is definitely something that will prove to be extremely popular with a lot of users, and something that has been missing from the iPhone since 2007. Multiple apps in the App Store offer their own camera features with a timer included, and we’ve also covered a tweak before which brings the very same functionality to the iPhone, but CamTime adds the timer functionality without any sort of clutter. In short, CamTime is a plan alternative to the PictureMe tweak which already exists in Cydia.

When installed, CamTime doesn’t add any additional home screen icons, but does append the native Camera app with a new icon on the bottom toolbar. Tapping the icon invokes a user facing alert that allows the user to input time in seconds for the app to countdown before it takes the image. Perfect for self-portraits or taking photographs of family members where there is no one else available to take the image.

CamTime is available as a free of charge download from the BigBoss repository with no specific iOS version requirements being given.

Be sure to 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, 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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How to remove Macintosh HD drive from desktop in Mountain Lion

Saad Hamid on August 2, 2012

I just made a fresh upgrade to Mountain Lion on my Macbook Air and the first thing that I noticed was the Macintosh HD drive appearing on my desktop.

Although I admit that when it comes to usability, shortcuts are useful. But for some reason I believe the Macintosh HD icon appearing on the desktop just interferes with the clean design and decided to get rid of it, here are the steps.

Click on Finder and open Finder's preferences pane.

There in General tab, uncheck "Hard disks" under "Show these items on the desktop" to clear away the icon.

That's it. The same can be done to remove icons of external disks, connected servers or any CDs, DVDs and iPods connected to your Mac.

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Block (Prepaid) SIMs, Wrap Up Businesses and Go Back Home [Part 2]

Block (Prepaid) SIMs, Wrap Up Businesses and Go Back Home [Part 2]

By Aamir Attaa · Friday, Aug 24, 2012 45 Comments

As promised, I am back with part 2 of this multi-part post in which we are discussing Rahman Malik’s intention of blocking prepaid SIMs to enhance law and order situation in the country.

Part 1 can be read here.

The Problem: Unregistered SIMs

Before we move ahead, it is learned that blocking of prepaid SIMs is still on the cards, to make sure that all unregistered SIMs are eliminated from the country. It is said that a decision is likely to be taken next week during a scheduled meeting at Pakistan Telecommunication Headquarters where representatives of all cellular companies will meet under the headship of Chairman PTA to discuss the matter.

Business Recorder has reported:

Meeting would decide whether to block SIMs in a step-by-step manner or to regularize them with proper checks and balances. If the meeting decided to block illegal pre-paid cellular SIMs, all mobile companies would have no option but to comply and immediately block all connections issued on fake Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs).

About 80 percent of all mobile phone SIMs are issued on prepaid accounts and according to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, nearly two million of these SIMs were issued on fake documents.

As you have rightly read, PTA believes that 2 million SIMs (out of 120 million) are issued on fake documents, while another official source, i.e. Mr. Ahmed Chinoy, chief CPLC Sindh opinioned that 70 percent of all SIMs are fake.

Mr. Chinoy was speaking with Karman Khan of Geo TV last night. In the same show (can be watched here) Mr. Rahman Malik was also shown as saying that mobile phones are responsible for 75 percent of crimes in the society.

Though the facts observed by various official sources differ a lot, but indeed we are in problem. Everyone will agree that menace of un-registered or illegally documented SIMs is cause of unrest for all kinds of crime, ranging from wrong calls to bomb blasts.

History of Unregistered SIMs

At this point of time, one might be interested to know the basic cause of these unregistered SIMs. For that let me take you back to 2005-06 when first time the issue of unregistered SIMs had surfaced.

Total subscriber base was then hovering around 30 million subscribers with Mobilink at top with around 10-12 million subscribers. That was the time when cellular boom was initially sensed by those who were to reap the benefits in years to come.

Cellular companies, back in 2005-06 and later on too, vigorously sold SIMs even without asking the customers for ID cards or getting the registration forms filled. That was the time when sales manager were busy, round the clock, in selling SIMs and making their commissions. Franchisees were part of this, or let me say they were the front end or working hand of this whole game. They sold SIMs without documentation for commissions they are still living upon.

Franchisers had given SIM cards to mobile phone repairing shops, karyana stores, general stores, book stores, Net Cafés, Naswar Walas, Music Stores and to every possible outlet that could sell SIMs.

These un-official outlets were never concerned about registrations of SIMs, instead they just contented with Rs. 25 they could make with each sale.

Franchisers, then, had to hire special staff to just fill the forms, who would fill thousands of fake registration forms (of SIMs that were sold at un-official outlets) against an unknown CNIC. One CNIC was often used for thousands of registrations.

Just to recall our readers, that was the time when crossing of photo-copy of CNIC was first introduced, to make sure that copy of our CNIC isn’t used by some mobile phone franchisee for fake registrations.

In short, mobile phone SIMs were sold in every corner of the country without registration with only one target in mind: Increase the number of subscribers.

In addition to fake registrations, mobile phone operators found it valuable enough to self-activate the SIMs â€" meaning that SIM weren’t issued to any customer but they were activated without any use to make them counted as a subscriber (even when they had to pay activation charges from their pockets) to increase the subscribers’ base to please their bosses back in their head-offices aboard and to increase companies’ stock value.

PTA’s Role in Stopping Illegal Sale of SIMs

Its not that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority wasn’t aware of the situation. Thanks to “Wrong Calls” the issue was identified very early and was highlighted in media too. But there was very little that PTA did to stop cellular companies from selling large-scale un-registered SIMs.

PTA’s then Chairman, Maj Gen (R) Shahzada Alam was enjoying the feather in his cap for selling GSM licenses and then taking the cellular subscriber base from under five million to eighty million in just four years. He was rewarded nationally and internationally for this achievement.

But who knew then that this achievement of Mr. Alam was a suicidal growth that would one day give Mr. Rahman Malik a chance to kill the communication in whole country.

PTA, after Dr. Yasin became the chairman, introduced various methodologies, SOPs (including 789 system, 668, end to pre-activated SIMs and so on) to curb illegal sale of SIM, but those helped only with the registration of new SIMs. Despite all the measures, already sold SIMs (in earlier years) were never registered and the problem persisted.

PTA, mainly on pressure of Rahman Malik, blocked millions of fake SIMs in various phases to make sure that no illegal SIM existed. But, for that, they had to rely on cellular companies â€" who never wanted to decrease their subscribers’ base.

What Next

As described above, it is understandable that we are in a severe situation. There are un-registered SIMs available in our vicinity plus there are ways of obtaining new SIMs without proper registrations.

This must end. This must end now.

Just for the record, I have been saying: “This must end, This must end now” for over 4 years (ever since I started this blog) but I can tell you that problem remains there. Apparently, no one is taking interest (to completely eliminate illegal SIMs from the country) for reasons obvious to everyone.

Every 4 to 6 months, Rahman Malik comes in and issues statements for curbing illegal SIMs, in response to which PTA blocks few million SIMs and that’s it. Everyone gets back to their lives â€" leaving the problem there as it is.

I am confident that this time too PTA will block few million SIMs and then everyone will get to their routine work. Un-registered SIMs will remain there as they are.

Do we have a solution?

If you are wondering that we are in middle of no where, and blocking prepaid SIMs is the only solution then you are wrong. Fortunately, we have case studies available with us where countries revived from exactly the same situation which Pakistan is facing today. Those countries successfully resolved the problem of un-registered SIMs and are now enjoying hefty growth.

We will discuss those case studies in later parts of this series.

Stay with us.

Related Stories

• Franchisees Allege Cellular Companies for Pushing them for Fake Sales
• 3rd Round of Blocking Unregistered SIMs Soon, But Complete Solution is still a Distant Dream
• Block (Prepaid) SIMs, Wrap Up Businesses and Go Back Home [Part 1]
• All Unverified SIMs To be Blocked by May 17: PTA
• One SIM Per Single CNIC in Balochistan: CJP
• SIM Owners to be Held Responsible for any Unlawful Communication
• Blocking Handsets with Duplicate IMEI Can Go Ugly

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E-Panorama

(For PCWorld Pakistan)

PM Orders Mobile Services Security

In a statement, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Raja Pervez Ashraf has asked the Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, to take measures to address the mobile service security issues. The orders were given at a meeting with Rehman Malik at the PM house.

It was advised that measures should be taken to avoid any further disruption in the cellular services as mobile has become an important requirement of daily life.

The Interior Minister briefed the Prime Minister about the security measures that were taken on Eid-ul-Fitr to avoid any potential threats. The cellular services were blocked in Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Quetta on the auspicious occasion of Eid.

The Prime Minister praised the efforts of Interior Minister in maintaining the peace during Eid-ul-Fitr.

Pakistani Social Activists Caused Social Unrest in Assam, Claims India

In an on-going cyber war between India and Pakistan, India accused Pakistan for causing unrest in Assam through the social networking websites.
Sources have reported that Indian Home Minsiter, Sushilkumar Shinde blamed that the Pakistani elements on the social networking site are circulating morphed pictures and false comments. He has asked Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Mr. Rehman Malik, to take action. Mr. Malik has denied the allegations and demanded evidence in turn.

India alleged Pakistan for causing the disruptions in Assam where clash between Muslims and Bodo tribes has caused thousands to abandon their homes after receiving death threats from Muslim groups. Nearly hundreds of people have been killed in the violence that erupted a month ago.

Sources have reported that Indian security agencies have found Pakistan’s involvement in uploading morphed images on social networking websites and other web pages hosted in the country.

Indian Government has also asked Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to remove the controversial content from their networks. Facebook and Google acknowledge their participation; however, Twitter and some other websites have not confirmed it yet.

Pakistani authorities demanded the evidence to prove the accusation. Indian government has given 90 days time period to its security agencies for collecting the evidence.

Pakistani Interior Minister, Mr. Rehman Malik, responded to the scandal this way: “Pakistan has policy not to interfere in the internal matters of other countries.”

Apple Wins Battle Over Samsung

Apple has recorded a major win over its arch-rival, Samsung, in the greatest patent battle ever between the technology giants. The US court ruled in favor of Apple saying Samsung violated several patents of Apple’s iPhone and iPad. The court ordered the South Korean Company to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages.

The verdict will result in banning of key Samsung products and will make strong the position of Apple in the Smartphone and tablet market. The victory is also a big blow for Google, responsible for Android Software in Samsung products.

The jury took three days for deliberations on seven Apple patent claims and five Samsung patent claims before the final verdict. Since the jury found it ‘willful’ infringement, Apple could seek triple damages.

Samsung termed the outcome of the verdict as “a loss for the American consumer”. Apple has filed lawsuits around the world to block the copying of its inventions.

A professor at Santa Clara Law School, Brian Love, termed the verdict a crushing victory for Apple. He said, “This is the best-case scenario Apple could have hoped for.”

6th September’s Event by Amazon Sparks Speculations

Speculations are high that a new Kindle fire will be revealed after Amazon.com sent out invitations for a Press Conference to be held on September 6. The world’s largest retailer has not disclosed the nature of the conference to be held near Los Angeles, but the event will be organized by its Kindle business.

A tablet analyst, Pete Finalle, at Frost and Sullivan said, “There’s been a lot of rumors about another potential Kindle tablet.”

The company intends to expand its mobile platform. According to Demos Parneros, President of US Retail for Staples, the company will introduce up to five or six tablet SKUs ( Stock Keeping Units), including a 10-inch model.

Amazon had launched its Kindle Fire in 2011 that eventually became the second best-selling tablet in the market. Recently Google launched Nexus 7, which is seen as tough competitor for Kindle Fire. Finalle said, “The existing Kindle Fire is due for an update given Google’s new tablet. The hardware could use a refresh.”

He also said, “It might be beneficial for Amazon to have more than one tablet device in their repertoire. Having a larger tablet that comes in at a lower price point than Apple’s iPad would be particularly beneficial.”

It has been a year since speculations are high that Amazon will launch a tablet that will compete directly with the iPad, with several blogs reporting the device is code-named ‘Hollywood.’

 

 

 

 

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Nokia Global Launch in Pakistan: First Time Ever!

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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Instagram 3.0 Released – Brings Photo Maps, Infinite Scrolling and Redesigned User Profiles and Upload UI

Aug 17, 2012

Instagram seems like one of the most popular social networks along with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.  It has managed to gather a huge following who is willing to take low resolution photos and stylise them with easy to use filters, frames and effects. It’s recent release on Android has just skyrocketed its user base and new users as well as celebrities keep on joining it. Not to forget, the $1 billion purchase by Facebook also helped its popularity.

The small but hugely talented Instragram team has been working on incremental but useful updates meanwhile. Most of the point updates are performance or bug releases but with version 3.0, Instagram has taken on the geolocation game which already contains the likes of Facebook and Foursquare as its leaders.  Here’s a walk through of the new features and updates in Instagram 3.0.

Photo Maps

This is the major new geolocation based feature. Photos with location information can now be shown on a map in every user’s profile. For privacy concerns, Instagram lets you chose which photos you want to show and hide from the map since all photos on a map can be seen by anyone who can see your profile. Instagram also shows a check box on each photo upload asking whether it should be added to the Photo Map or not.

On first access, Photo Map reminds of the privacy concerns.

Photos can be selected/deselected to appear on the Photo Map. It’s always a good idea to chose wisely since you’re exposing you locations to the public.

Once images are added to the map, they can be seen as album stacks.

Double tapping an image stack opens up its images in a thumbnail view.

Here’s a video of Photo Maps

Redesigned User Profiles and Image Uploading

User profiles have gotten a nice facelift to accommodate the Photo Map button in the UI. Infinite scrolling is also included in the photo timelines, thought not an obvious feature unless you start scrolling down. This is a much needed addition to Instagram and reduces many extra steps to view photos.

Following the profiles, the image upload section has also been cleaned up and includes the Photo Map check box. Not much else has changed here apart from the design and layout.

Other updates include the ability to mark comments as spam as well as delete them. The app also feels snappier in general usage.

Instagram 3.0 is available for both iOS and Android and can be downloaded right away.

Download Instagram for iOS from iTunes

Download Instagram for Android from Google Play Store

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Facebook Messenger For iPhone And Android Updated, Features Emoji Support, Active Friend Notifications And More

The guys over at Facebook could be forgiven for going into the weekend expecting to have a nice relaxing time, considering the amount of effort that has been expended by the company in the last couple of days by pushing out updates to their mobile software. Both Android and iOS users have benefitted from the world’s largest social network, eventually getting themselves into gear with a spree of updates, beginning with a new version of Facebook for Android that brought more efficient image handling and closer control of the creation of events through mobile.

The Android update was quickly followed up with the release of Facebook 5.0 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users. The company refrained from giving the app a lick of paint, instead choosing to make minimal changes to the user-interface and focusing on rebuilding the app from the ground up to be a truly native experience with massive speed and reliability improvements. Not wanting to rest on their laurels, Facebook have now updated their standalone Facebook Messenger mobile app for both iOS and Android.

The company has gone down the path of equality and chosen to be fair to both iOS and Android users with Facebook Messenger getting an update on both platforms. As part of the Messenger update, Facebook has brought additional support for the use of emoticons and Emoji type images, something which users seem to crave and will bring dynamism to those outgoing messages. Although the Messenger and official app are two separate entities, it seems Facebook is bringing a more unified experience across the two offerings with users now being able to tap on a friend’s name in the Messenger app to quickly invoke the main app and view their timeline.

All of those additions are all well and good and definitely brings a little more functionality to the Messenger app. However, the most talked about feature and probably the most important is the new found ability to see whether or not a friend is currently active in chat, meaning that if someone ignores you when you say hi, you can actually find out if they were ignoring you or just not available for chat. It’s about time we saw some activity in the mobile space from Facebook, other than purchasing apps, and with rumors that the Facebook for Android app is going to get a large overhaul soon, times are good in Palo Alto.

• Download Facebook Messenger for iPhone and iPod touch [iTunes link]
• Download Facebook Messenger for Android [Play Store link]

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

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How to remove Macintosh HD drive from desktop in Mountain Lion

Saad Hamid on August 2, 2012

I just made a fresh upgrade to Mountain Lion on my Macbook Air and the first thing that I noticed was the Macintosh HD drive appearing on my desktop.

Although I admit that when it comes to usability, shortcuts are useful. But for some reason I believe the Macintosh HD icon appearing on the desktop just interferes with the clean design and decided to get rid of it, here are the steps.

Click on Finder and open Finder's preferences pane.

There in General tab, uncheck "Hard disks" under "Show these items on the desktop" to clear away the icon.

That's it. The same can be done to remove icons of external disks, connected servers or any CDs, DVDs and iPods connected to your Mac.

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Using ValueInjecter With ViewModels and Entity Framework in ASP.NET MVC

If you decide to use ASP.NET MVC with the Entity Framework, you will quickly come to see that the perfect one entity per view scenario that most of the examples show is not realistic. Enter the need for ViewModels. The ViewModels are specially shaped classes that act as an intermediary between the 1...n entities that will eventually comprise a single view (or partial view).

The challenge is when it comes to repopulating the original 1...n entities that comprised the ViewModel upon the user making an insert or an update. In our perfect one entity to one view scenario, MVC model binding takes care of all the work repackaging our entity in the controller, and it is a matter of a few lines of code to add that object to the EF context and save the changes. Code in this scenario would be as straight forward as the following:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(Contact contact)
{
    if (ModelState.IsValid)
    {
      using (var context = new AdventureWorksEntities())
      {
        //Add the model bound object to the context and save:
        context.Contacts.AddObject(contact);
        context.SaveChanges();
        return RedirectToAction("Index");
      }
    }
    return View(name);
}

When using ViewModels, a convenient option to help reduce any manual mapping back to entities is to use an open source product named ValueInjecter. You can download the binaries from CodePlex located here.

Value Injecter allows us to easily map properties from a source object to a destination object without what would be normally required to rehydrate the multiple entities. The main method we will use is the exposed InjectFrom() which will allow us to inject the values from the source to destination object. Once complete, we can then persist our entities back to the data store using EF with only a minimal amount of additional coding.

To begin let's take a look at the following ViewModel class I created based on (3) different tables from the AdventureWorks database: Contact, Employee, and EmployeeDepartmentHistory. The idea here is that we need to add a new employee record here that spans these (3) tables. The focus here is not on the schema from the AdventureWorks database but rather just to display how Value Injecter can be used to persist data to these (3) entities. As you can see below the ViewModel class has fields from each of the tables; however for brevities sake I have kept the class small. In reality there are quite a few more required fields that would have to be defined.

namespace Mcv4ValueInjecterSample.ViewModels
{
  public class EmployeeViewModel
  {
    [StringLength(50), Required]
    [Display(Name = "Employee First Name:")]
    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    [StringLength(50), Required]
    [Display(Name = "Employee Last Name:")]
    public string LastName { get; set; }

    [StringLength(50), Required]
    [Display(Name = "Email Address:")]
    [DataType(DataType.EmailAddress)]
    [RegularExpression(@"[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,4}", ErrorMessage="Please enter a properly formatted email address.")]
    public string EmailAddress { get; set; }

    [StringLength(25), Required]
    [Display(Name = "Phone Number:")]
    [DataType(DataType.PhoneNumber)]
    public string Phone { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [Display(Name = "Birth Date:")]        
    public DateTime BirthDate { get; set; }

    [StringLength(50), Required]
    [Display(Name = "Title:")]
    public string Title { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [Display(Name = "Employee Start Date:")]
    public DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
  }
}

Next I have an EmployeeController class with a Create() method that takes in my ViewModel type as its parameter. I am going to inject the values from the model bound ViewModel object data into the individual underlying entities and then save the changes.

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(EmployeeViewModel employeeViewModel)
{
  if (ModelState.IsValid)
  {
    using (var context = new AdventureWorksEntities())
    {
      var contact = new Contact();  
      //Inject the values into a Contact entity using ValueInjecter                  
      contact.InjectFrom(employeeViewModel);

      //Do NOT use the title submitted by the client, 
      //but rather override with a default value
      contact.Title = string.Empty;

      var employee = new Employee();  
      //Inject the values into an Employee entity using ValueInjecter                  
      employee.InjectFrom(employeeViewModel);
        
      var employeeDepartmentHistory = new EmployeeDepartmentHistory();
      //Inject the values into a EmployeeDepartmentHistory entity using ValueInjecter
      employeeDepartmentHistory.InjectFrom(employeeViewModel);
        
      employee.EmployeeDepartmentHistories.Add(employeeDepartmentHistory);
      contact.Employees.Add(employee);

      context.Contacts.AddObject(contact);
      context.SaveChanges();

      return RedirectToAction("Index");
    }
    return View(employeeViewModel);
  }
}

Note the explicit assignment of the Title property on the Contact object above. In the Adventureworks database, both the Contact and Employee tables have a Title field. My Employee view had an input for the client intended to fill out the Employee's title and not the Contact's title. Value Injecter by default will not discriminate and simply hydrate the destination object based on the matched property name (as designed so this is OK). Just make sure to intervene where needed if you run into a situation with identically named properties on objects.

That's it! There is actually a lot more functionality to ValueInjecter than what was shown here so I encourage you to look at the Documentation section on its CodePlex page. However even just this example can be scaled nicely to large legacy or existing databases where the 1:1 view per entity scenario rarely occurs. In this case consider using ValueInjecter to save on a lot of additional coding when using ViewModels in ASP.NET MVC.

Ufone Offers HTC One S for Rs. 48,000

Ufone Offers HTC One S for Rs. 48,000

By M Mathar · Monday, Aug 13, 2012 7 Comments

After HTC One Y, Ufone has announced the availability of HTC One S for its customers at its service centers.

Ufone said that it is offering HTC One S for Rs, 48,000 and deal comes with a free car charger and free 30 MB data bucket for 6 months (only for prepaid customers).

HTC One S is member of HTC One series android smartphones that was announced in April this year.

With 1.7 GHz of dual core processor, HTC One S will run on Android ICS. HTC One S boosts a Super AMOLED 4.3″ inches screen and 540×960 pixels. HTC One S from Ufone will come with 1 GM RAM and 16 GB of internal storage with option to add up more with memory card.

It has a primary camera of 8 MP with a front VGA camera too.

Here are some specs of HTC One S:

• 1.7 GHz dual core processor
• 1 GB RAM and 16GB internal storage
• 4.3 inches Super AMOLED Gorilla Glass touch-screen
• Beats audio enhancement
• 8 MP camera, 1080 HD video and imaging
• Android OS v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense 4.0
• Censors:
  • Gyro sensor
  • G-Sensor
  • Digital compass
  • Proximity sensor
  • Ambient light sensor
• Connectivity:
  • 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
  • Bluetooth with aptXâ„¢ enabled (Bluetooth® 4.0)
  • Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11b/g/n
  • DLNA® for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to a compatible TV or computer
  • micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port with mobile HD video link (MHL) for USB or HDMI connection
• Battery: 1650 mAh
• Price of HTC One S in Pakistan: PKR 48,000

 

Related Stories

• Ufone Launches HTC Incredible S
• Cheap Dual-Core Android Phones in Pakistan
• Ufone Introduces Huawei Horizon in Pakistan
• Galaxy Note to be Showcased in Lahore, Karachi
• Huawei Announces Availability of its Android Smartphones In Pakistan
• Ufone to Launch HTC Flyer in Pakistan
• Ufone Launches 3 Android Handsets [Pix+Video]

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How Significant is BYOD to a Company’s Buying Strategy?

(By Shafaq Rizvi)

While developing an IT buying strategy, the CIOs usually look for the technology that is best and suitable in all respects. As soon as the decision is made, the CIO starts fretting about integration and acquisition costs. Their consternations are mainly related to security issues and whether the technology they are purchasing is capable to fulfill their needs. A great deal of time is often given to carrying out a cost-benefit analysis and identifying the most best-fit vendor, but is it enough on the CIO’s part?

Essentially, this is what seems to be all that is wanted from CIOs. While making a purchase decision, however, there is something, which requires equal attention, but is not always taken into account. It is the employees’ input.

Employees’ Wants: Do they Matter?

It is generally believed that employees are the backbone of an organization. Although the concept is theoretically a maxim to management, it is ignored much the same in IT Procurement as is in other organizational practices. It is a fact indeed that a satisfied employee is the prolific employee, however, to drive satisfaction it is essential to understand and fulfill the wants and requirements of employees, but are CIOs catering to the wants of employees?

As the technology advanced, it replaced the conventional desktops and laptops with hardware conveniently mobile. Proliferation of iPads, iPhones and Androids has changed the way things used to be done at workplaces and elsewhere before. At present, employees prefer to work through devices and technology that they want and find easy and this has led to the concept of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), which allows employees to bring in to the office self-owned devices to access resources of a business and perform business functions.

As, Mr. Adam Hurting, stated in the article “Tools They Want to Use”, providing tools to the employee that they want to use can have positive effects on the performance of an employee and success of the company.  Seeming to be asserting on and supporting BYOD policy, he believes that employees, at present, oppose the dictated environment.  According to him, the employees don’t want to use the technology that is defined to them. If the employees are compelled to use a predefined technology, this influences how they work and also affects the success of company. The matter of choice, thus, could lead to discontentment in employees. [1]

When a company develops a buying strategy the focus is usually on analyzing costs, the extent to which the new acquisition is safe and fits the needs, but one thing that is overlooked by the company is for whom this acquisition is being made by the company. They keep in mind the purpose of acquisition and purchase, but some how ignore the fact that for whom this purchase is being done and who will be directly related to and can be affected by the new acquisitions/technology. Purchasing a sophisticated technology will not generate any benefit unless it is understandable and easy to use at the users’ end. Companies have two options here. Either purchase a technology without analyzing users’ wants or allow the employees/users to bring the technology they want to choose.

The second option may be sounding feeble, senseless, and absurd, but it is not. Imagine the costs that the company will have to incur if they acquire a technology without considering how easy it is for users. Wouldn’t the company have to incur training costs anyways? Here the CIOs can play a critical role in suggesting the right path. Based on the benefits, as suggested by Mr. Adam Hurting, it seems BYOD can drive many benefits at company’s end.

Significance of BYOD

IT specialists and innovators seem to argue that providing employees the devices they want to use will result in better performance, more productivity, and success of the company[2]. They seem to believe that imposing on them the  technology CIOs or the companies want them to use will only affect the ability of employees to pan out. .

However, as mentioned above, when a company is planning to acquire a technology, the choices and wants of employees and how much a technology is user-friendly and desirable are overlooked by the CIOs. In this situation, the CIOs need to act differently. They need to act as marketers.[3] When CIOs takes on the role of a marketer their perspectives change and they think in a different manner. It is when the employees become consumers/customers of the CIOs. When CIOs start acting as marketers, they only focus on things that are desired by their internal customers (employees). The extent to which the desires and wants of the internal customers are fulfilled decides that profits and success of the company, which is the case of organizations too. Whether the employees work within the company or from different geographical locations, it is the responsibility of the CIO as marketer to identify their needs/wants and fulfill them as desired.

Therefore, CIOs need to change their perspective as providing employees the devices and tools of their choice can lead to enhancements in the business processes. Changing perspective implies seeing employees as customers and fulfilling their requirements. It is about winning them just like companies try to win their external customers to expand business and generate profits,  but does winning employees imply gaining?

Under the BYOD policy, employees use tools of their choice. This way, the employees consider and use the device as their own property, which saves money for the company. This saving, in turn can be used at later stage while procuring a new technology or in important investments made by the company.

In addition to this, employees feel empowered and work actively and perform beyond the superior’s expectations. Nevertheless, BYOD policy can become less effective if it goes outside the premises of the workplace. Moreover, before implementing BYOD policy, it is important to see if it has clash with the company’s policy on monitoring, task allocation and reporting. Here, we’d like to relate to certain findings from State of the CIO Survey 2012. A part of the survey addressed companies, belonging to the local industry, on their policy on task allocation, monitoring, and reporting and if they operate from more than one geographic location. Following were the results:

Geographical Location:

• 36% (19) companies were found to be operating from more than one location intercity, intracity, and internationally with around 10 branches.
• 15% (10-50) companies suggested they operate intercity, intracity, and internationally with 10-50 branches.
• 34% (18) companies were found to have more than 50 branches operating intercity, intracity, and internationally
• 15% (8) companies were found to have no branches, operating form one geographical region.

Company’s Policy on Task Allocation, Monitoring, and Reporting:

• 77% (41) companies suggested they use Centralized Organizational Structure
• 19% (10) companies told they have Decentralized and Distributed Organizational Structure
• 4% (2) companies commented “Other”

The results indicated that within local industry, 77% companies have centralized approach towards task allocation, monitoring, and reporting, which explicitly suggests that BYOD policy cannot be applied to these organizations as the processes are centrally controlled â€" not in control of employees. However, it can work here the structure is distributed and decentralized.

As far as geographical location is concerned, most of the companies operate from more than one location. In that case, BYOD policy could be applicable but costly for companies as employees may be working in different time frames, beyond official working hours using the same network. Therefore, BYOD is not always cost-effective, however can be made.

Mixing the survey findings and nature of BYOD, companies, which aim for better control over organizational issues and processes, cannot opt for BYOD. Such companies only believe in directing things to employees and allow the use of only those technologies that they find cost-effective, advanced, and right for their company. This controlling nature of some companies clashes with the nature of BYOD. BYOD can yield more in less-controlled environments, where importance is given to employees’ choices, ease, and ideas.

CIOs need to think differently. By ensuring simplicity and ease at employees’ end, one can make certain the success of the business. Instead of purchasing expensive solutions, applications, and tools, letting employees work according to BYOD policy will save the companies from high-priced purchases and enable the employees to investigate some useful applications for the company. Nevertheless, under BYOD policy, the company loses control of the devices, which it has otherwise and this raises a menace to security of company’s important and confidential information.

[1] “Tools they Want to Use,” pg. 18 CIO, May 2011, Vol.2, no. 10

[2] “Tools they Want to Use,” pg. 18 CIO, May 2011, Vol.2, no. 10,

[3] “Tools they Want to Use,” pg. 18 CIO, May 2011, Vol.2, no. 10,

 

 

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Nokia Global Launch in Pakistan: First Time Ever!

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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