iPhone 6 Concept

If you are a fan of TouchID fingerprint reader, you might be thrilled by the prospect of Apple building it into the home button of the iPhone 6. Apple’s TouchID was previously built into the home button on the iPhone 5 which offered a blend of ease and safety to iPhone 5s users.

ZTE to Put a Modular Phone Up for Retail

In the coming two or three years, who knows, you might be playing with a modular phone of your own, courtesy of ZTE.

At CES 2014, the company had plenty of prototypes on display, called Eco-Mobius. The prototypes consist of a central plastic case, with voids that are filled with all the essential components of a Smartphone, namely the display, CPU, GPU, RAM, camera, storage, battery and more.

Nokia Releases the Lumia Black Update Worldwide

Nokia has released its “Black” update for Lumia Smartphones worldwide. The update brings several enhancements and nifty, little features for people using the Finn’s Windows Phones.

The first among them is the App Folder, which allows you to group several common apps of the same kind under one large Live Tile on the Start Screen. Bluetooth Low Energy is enabled for the complete Lumia range. Glance 2.0 makes an appearance, giving you an overview of even more activity straight from the lock screen, and in more colors.

This Smartwatch Might be Your Next Phone

If you’re one of the kind of people who don’t like Pebble’s blockbuster Pebble smartwatch, and want your smart watch with as many features as possible, then probably the Neptune Pine running on Android 4.1.2 will be your next purchase.

Unlike the Gear or the Pebble, the Pine is massive, literally. That is mainly because of the 2.4″ touchscreen display with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. It’s obviously a color display, accompanied by 3 capacitive buttons and a VGA front-facer (along with an LED Flash).

Sony Announces the 4K Shooting AX100 Camcorder

Getting a camera/camcorder to shoot 4K videos is an expensive business, but Sony is now trying to get things under control with its new FDR-AX100 camcorder. Priced at $1,999, the AX100 is a comparatively cheaper solution for getting your hands on a next-Gen shooter.

It comes with a 20 megapixel 1″ Exmor R CMOS sensor which doesn’t sound too big, but its maker is promising quality results nonetheless. Its 29mm wide-angle Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens supports up to 12X optical zoom.

The Best Smartphone Yet: Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Samsung recently launched the Galaxy Note 3 along with Galaxy Gear Smartwatch in Pakistan. It’s a big phone with a big price tag, which narrows the target market, but still it is one of the best Android Smartphones available in the market.

Ufone Offers Sony Xperia Z1 and Z Ultra with Free Bundles

Sony Xperia Z1 (Left) and Sony Xperia Z Ultra (Right)

Ufone is offering Sony’s flagship devices to its retailers in Pakistan with free voice, SMS and Internet bundles for one month.

Below are offering details:

• Sony Xperia Z1: PKR 74,400
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra: PKR 63,000

Sony’s Xperia Z1 runs on a quad-core SnapDragon 800 processor alongside Adreno 330 graphics and 2 GB of RAM.

The main attraction of the Z1 is undoubtedly the camera at the back. It shoots 20.7 megapixel photos and 1080p Full HD 1080p videos at 30fps. The 1/2.3 inch Exmor RS sensor with f/2.0 aperture is 70 percent larger than most phones, yet keeps the phone amazingly thin at just 8.5mm. Sony’s own G Lens technology and BIONZ image processors are used. There’s also a 2 megapixel Full HD camera in front.

Samsung Announces the Cheap Tab 3 Lite

Samsung has announced a new tablet for the budget-conscious audience with the new Tab 3 Lite. The cheaper version of the already-cheap original Tab 3 comes with a 7″ display, dual-core processor and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The display comes with a mediocre resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels (welcome back 2011). The tablet is also quite mediocre in terms of looks and aesthetics, as is usual with products at this price point.

Sony Announces the Dual SIM T2 Ultra: Phablet for the Masses

Sony has announced its first phablet targeted towards the more modest households and audiences in the new T2 Ultra. The phablet comes with a 6.1″ display, a quad-core SnapDragon processor and a 13 megapixel camera.

The phone comes with Sony’s TRILUMINOS and Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 technologies, apart from carrying 720p resolution. Like the other Sony ultra-large Smartphones, this one isn’t water-proof but will instead come in either single-SIM or dual-some configurations

Underneath, a quad-core SnapDragon MSM8298 processor clocked at 1.4GHz, along with 1 GB worth RAM, Adreno 305 GPU and 8 GB internal storage, which is also expandable.

Ufone Kicks Down Telenor

Telenor recently kicked off a campaign (read war) against all other operators by accusing them of stealing balance from mobile phone users.

Telenor, with its blunt TVCs, claimed that all operators steal the balance of their customers while Telenor, according to its TVC, is the only operator with most honest and transparent practices.

In response to Telenor, Ufone has come up with a service that sends customers one SMS a day with a daily summary of all the costs and charges that were deducted from the account of the previous day.

This service, called Hisaab SMS, is sent to customers daily with not only call and SMS costs, but details of all charges associated with any value added services (that a customer is subscribed to) are also shared.

Sony Announces the Budget Xperia E1 Smartphone

Sony is announcing a new budget-phone for the music-loving crowd with the Xperia E1. The phone is its first in a long time to come with a dedicated Walkman key and a crazy loud loudspeaker.

The display you get upfront is 4″ large and comes with uninspiring 800 x 480 resolution, which only reaffirms the phone’s starter status in the Xperia line-up. The 12mm thick body and the absence of a front-facing camera further clears any doubts left.

Zong Internet Package

Zong Telecom introduced new mobile internet package for it’s prepaid customers living in Lahore, Sialkot, Gujrat and Daska. Zong customers can subscribe to Mobile internetpackages using GPRS at affordable rates.

Glow24: A New Package by Glow for Calls, SMS and Mobile Internet

After a long time, telecom consumers are today offered a new package and it comes from Glow by Warid.

Warid, moments ago, announced the launch of ‘Glow 24’, a daily package which allows its users to enjoy daily 100MB Mobile Internet, 100 free minutes on friends and family numbers and 100 SMS every day.

The package offers mobile internet, voice minutes and SMS against one lump-sum amount of Rs 14.99 in which all taxes are included.

Warid Launches Vocabulary Builder

Ever stuck up with a word that you don’t know the meaning of but urgently need to know or a phrase that is hanging incomplete in your head and bothering you?

The word Vocabulary builder is a one-stop solution to all your English vocabulary needs.Just use Warid Vocabulary builder facility that can be obtained through both texts (SMS) and orally (IVR) means to obtain meanings, pronunciations, synonyms and antonyms or if you want a specific word to be used in an example sentence for better understanding. Moreover, you can subscribe to daily quotes or test yourself with a smart quiz, to prepare for all sorts of language tests.

Huawei Announces Tron, its Android-Running Game Console

Huawei has entered the low-end game console market with its first game console, the Android-running Tron. The sci-fi name blends with its high-tech look quite well and is announced right after its home market, China, lifted the ban on the gadget category.

Running on Android version 4.2.3, the Tron comes with a Tegra 4 processor, 2 GB worth RAM, 16/32 GB internal storage WI-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 3.0 for connectivity with up to four controllers, a full-sized USB 3.0, cable interface and HDMI for TVs of up to 4K resolution

Zong Introduces City Specific or LBC Mobile Internet Packages

ZonG has taken another step to drive telecom industry growth by introducing city specific packages for mobile internet.

UBL and Tejari Pakistan Join Hands to Offer Procure 2 Payment Solution

Third from left Shehzad Shabbir Dahar, Chief Operation Officer (COO), Zahdan Group, Fourth from Left Murtaza Hashwani, Chairman & CEO of Zahdan Group, Fifth from left Syed Javed, Head of Strategic Business Planning, UBL, Sixth from left Aameer Karachiwalla, Chief Operating Officer, UBL at the signing ceremony between UBL & Tejari Pakistan to offer Procure2Pay Solution.

United Bank Limited (UBL) and Tejari Pakistan have entered into an agreement to offer ‘Procure to Payment Solutions’, that meet sophisticated supply chain management needs of corporate organizations.

Mobile Companies to Get Free 3G Licenses for Three Months for Testing

In a new development that can be regarded as a confirmation that 3G is finally and surely coming to Pakistan, mobile phone operators will get a trial 3G license for test purposes – starting later this month – before the actual auction of the 3G licenses in the country, we have confirmed with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.

This trial 3G license will be granted to all five mobile operators, who can hard-test their services to improve their preparedness before its complete adoption.

Warid Brings 50% Discount on Blackberry Smartphones

Warid brings you a super discount offer on your favourite Blackberry Smartphones.

Now Warid Postpaid customers can get 50% off on Blackberry Q10 and Blackberry Z-10. Not only this, you can also select your own package and payment duration along with a convenient package plan for the payment of your desired handset.

Stakeholder Collaborations for Cyber Secure Pakistan 2014

Today’s cyber threats are becoming increasingly more targeted and sophisticated with criminal networks operating across the world, coordinating complex attacks against targets in a matter of minutes.

Due to the complexity of the cyber-threat landscape, cyber crime investigations are profoundly different in nature than the traditional crimes, requiring high-level technical expertise and large-scale cross-jurisdictional investigations.

Samsung's Smart Home will Let You Control Your Home Appliances via Your Phone

Samsung has announced a new platform – Samsung Smart Home — which brings all the technologies you interact in one place.

It is a new service which consists of a single application installed on your mobile device, which will forward messages to other appliances in your home, be it a Smart TV, air conditioner, refrigerator or a vacuum cleaner.

Acer Announces the World's First Android Tablet With 4:3 Aspect Ratio

Acer has announced its new tablet line-up running on Android, consisting of two tablets. Both of them are in the rock-bottom category both in terms of specs and price. The B1-720 is an average offering with hardly anything exciting. The A1-830 though, is an interesting product.

It comes with a 7.9″ display with 768 x 1024 resolution. However, it also is one of the world’s first Android tablets with a 4:3 aspect ratio, which (almost) places it in the same territory as Apple’s iPad Mini.

Mobilink to Offer iPhone 5s Gold to its Consumers

Mobilink offers Apple iPhone 5S Gold to its customers via lucky draw According to this offer all the new subscribers to GPRS package 1 can enter into a lucky draw. GPRS Package 1 is only available for postpaid members of Mobilink so this offer is also only available for the postpaid community of Mobilink.

Google Makes 98% of Profit From Play Store via In-app Purchases

In a new report by analytics firm, Distimo, it has been proven that how powerful the bloodsucking Freemium modelling of apps is. A mammoth 98% of revenue that Google makes from the Play Store comes as a result of in-app purchases from these free apps.

Piracy has always been a huge issue on Android and while this method is a pain to live with, it has also proven to be a great way of combating privacy. As you would expect, the remaining 2% money comes in from paid apps and in-app purchases on these paid apps.

Biometric Verification of Cellular Consumer Database in Pakistan

Hence the government, in year 2013, has planned to totally revamp the whole cellular connection database with them to update the records and everything. Secondly, the whole concept is to verify all the consumer database of telecommunication networks, making sure with biometric methodology, that each and every number running in the country is registered on the name of a real person, not a fake identity.

Cutting it short, every telecommunication subscriber will have to get the number verified and this compulsion not only lies by the ones who are new to it, but those as well who are existing customers once in order to avoid any interruptions in the services.

Shared Lets You Quickly Share Files and Offers 100GB of Free Storage

File storage and file sharing were moved to the next level by the introduction of Cloud services. It helps users to access their files from anywhere on the web. We have plenty of cloud services and cloud data management apps available online. We have both cloud based file sharing services and disposable file sharing services. Both of them are important for us to do quicker file transfers. Today I came with a new cloud based file sharing service called “Shared”, which comes with a 100GB of free storage for all the users.

2013 for Smartphones!

The year 2013 may have brought quite a lot of new things to the table in the case of smartphones, but as a whole it has been evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Sure, technologies like 4K video recording, curved displays and 2K resolution displays are quite an achievement for which manufacturers should be proud but even they are overhauls and steps build upon from previous years.

Telecom Revenues Reach Rs. 446 Billion During 2012-13

Revenues generated by Telecom operators in Pakistan in a single fiscal year reached all time high at Rs. 445.7 billion during 2012-13, said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s annual report on telecom industry.

Report said that revenues of telecom operators grew by 8.9 percent during 2012-13 and reached Rs. 445.7 billion, up from Rs. 409.2 billion during same duration previous year.

Report said that increasing revenues from the telecom sector indicate the strength and size of the market despite the economic difficulties and tough competition, especially in the cellular sector.

Moreover, revenues of LDI operators grew by over 200 percent, all thanks to ICH.

Not to mention, telecom operators are now exploring new avenues to earn from, reducing dependence on the voice channels alone. It is expected that influx of 3G technology into the telecom market will further boost the revenues of the sector.

PTCL EVO Tab Launched in Pakistan

PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited) launched its product throughout the country back in 2011, named ‘Evo Tab’. This is a handheld tablet computer provided by the company, with an adequate hardware to support a competitive performance when compared to other tablets available.

Pakistanis Exchanged 316 Billion SMS During 2012-13

Pakistani mobile phone users exchanged staggering 315.7 billion text messages during July 2012 to June 2013 or 865 million SMS messages a day, said a report prepared by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.

Telecom sector has witnessed substantial growth for SMS traffic over the years. Thanks to unlimited SMS packages by cellular operators and increased adoption of SMS services, the country is now among the top SMS trafficked countries in the world.

In year 2012-13, the total SMS traffic grew 13.68% from previous year, though the growth rate is lower than corresponding period of previous year but the total figure of SMS exchanged is impressive.