Apple Announces the New iPad Air, More Sleeker, Powerful and Fresh Than Ever!

Apple has announced the 5th generation iPad last night, which doesn’t just bring a major change on its feature set, but also in its name. The latest iPad is called the ‘iPad Air’. The inspiration for this possibly came from the MacBook Air, another Apple product acclaimed universally for its design.

Statistically, the new iPad is 28 percent lighter than before, weighing 469g compared to 653g before, and is 20 percent thinner at 7.5mm. The bezels are also an incredible 43 percent lesser than before. These statistics make this tablet the lightest full-size tablet in the world.

The screen remains at the standard 9.7″ inch size and comes with a Retina Display of 1536 x 2048 pixels. The tablet comes with iOS 7.0.2 pre-installed.

On the hardware side, as expected, it comes with Apple’s 64-bit A7 processor (8 times faster than before, 72 times faster graphics) which debuted on the on the 5s, along with M7 motion co-processor. PowerVR G6430 Graphics are used, while the storage options are set at 16/32/64 or 128 GB.

The iPad Air comes with a 5 megapixel camera on the back, capable of shooting Full HD video at 30 fps, along with a 1.2 mp camera on the front and dual microphones.

Perhaps a disappointment for many could be the lack of Touch ID, which hasn’t made its way to any of the iPads.

Connectivity options with iPad Air include Bluetooth 4.0, Lightning Port, Wi-Fi (twice faster with MIMO 802.11) and optional LTE. A 32 Whr battery powers the tablet for up to 10 hours.

Finally, the price. The new iPad Air will start at $499 for the base 16 GB model when it will go for sale on November 1.

The 32, 64 and 128 GB models can be obtained for $599, $699 and $799 respectively. Color options will be either Silver/White or Space Grey/Black. The new Smart Covers, which feature the ability to get folded backwards, will come for $79. iPad 2 will be kept alive at $399.

The iPad Air’s not the cheapest tablet in the market, by far. What you do get is the brilliant ecosystem which is second to none and that, according to most, will be something which will give it an edge over others. That justifies the extra price too.

USF Telecenters to Offer Biometric SIM Verification and CNIC, Death/Birth Registration Services

Telecenters  — to be rolled out in rural areas of Pakistan under the supervision of Universal Service Fund – will host variety of services for the community, including biometric verification of SIM cards, Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC), birth/death registration and computer training for the youth of the nation.

This was decided during a meeting held in Islamabad. The meeting was chaired by Ms. Anusha Rehman, while other officials who attended the meeting include Mr. Akhlaq Tarrar, Secretary IT, Senior Officials from USF, and a team of senior officials from NADRA led by Mr. Tariq Malik Chairman, NADRA to further discuss the implementation of the Telecenter Project.

During the meeting it was decided that Telecenters, so established, would offer several e-services such as e-health, e-learning, e-commerce, e-agriculture etc. to facilitate people of unserved, underserved and far flung areas.

It is likely that telecenters will create local employment and entrepreneurship opportunities and extend broadband to provide distance education and ICT literacy.

PTCL Posts Rs. 100 Billion Revenues for Nine Months of 2013

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) today announced consolidated revenues of Rs. 100.5 billion for nine months period that ended on September 30, 2013.

The financial results for the period ended September 2013 were announced today at the Company’s Board of Directors (BoD) meeting held in Islamabad.

PTCL group posted a revenue growth of 16% with Net Profit amounting to Rs. 11.3 billion for the period under review, while Gross Profit stood at Rs.  35.98 billion.

PTCL’s revenue stood at Rs 60.7 billion and showed a significant increase of 31%, with Net Profit standing at Rs.  9.3 billion, while Gross Profit was recorded at Rs.  20.8 billion.

Walid Irshaid, President & CEO PTCL expressed his pleasure at this strong performance of the company adding that,

Our results reflect the strength of our business model and strong commitment of our team.

Our business decisions are geared towards adding value for our stakeholders while continuously seeking avenues for innovation in terms of our products and service offerings

PTCL is on a growth trajectory and our revenues are increasingly being driven from broadband services. We have been investing heavily to build broadband infrastructure over the last two years and this investment has started to bring dividends.

The company continues to increase its market share in both wireline and wireless broadband as well as specialized telecom solutions segments by introducing state-of-the-art products and unmatched affordable services.

PTCL is also steadily bringing ICT services to urban and rural areas of the country.

Nokia Announces Three Asha Phones, Two Lumia phones and a Tablet

Today at Nokia World in Abu Dhabi, Nokia unveiled six new devices alongside new accessories, Nokia experiences and third-party developer applications.

Nokia introduced its first ever Windows tablet, the Nokia Lumia 2520, along with two other Lumia devices – both offering 6 inch large display –  the Lumia 1520 and 1320.

Nokia today also unveiled three new Asha models namely the Asha 500, Asha 502 and Asha 503.

With about half a dozen new devices, Stephen Elop, Executive Vice President, Devices & Services at Nokia said,

“Today we’re inviting people around the world to switch to Nokia. With our latest range of Lumia and Asha products, we’re delivering industry leading design and imaging innovation to bigger devices at more accessible prices.

The quality and value that Nokia products deliver continues to grow as we partner with developers to introduce app experiences that are unique to Lumia and Windows Phone.

And clearly, with Lumia and Asha smartphones enjoying quarter-on-quarter volume growth in Q3 2013, that quality and value is resonating with consumers around the world.”

Lumia 2520

Nokia has finally stepped into the tablet market. With Lumia 2520 the focus is mainly on the mobility. The Stephen Elop said that they specifically made sure that the first tablet from Nokia with 10.1 inch HD display works amazingly well in the outdoors, in burning sun particularly.

Lumia 2520 boosts both 4G LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity, a 6.7MP camera, and for the first time ever on a tablet, ZEISS optics, letting people take beautiful pictures – even in low light.

The Lumia 2520 runs on Windows RT 8.1, and also features multiple color choices and fast-charging capability – providing up to an 80% charge in one hour.

The Lumia 2520 also comes with a number of unique software experiences that are exclusive to the Lumia family, including the exclusive “Dragons Adventure” interactive game developed in partnership with DreamWorks Animation.

Additionally, the Lumia 2520 includes Nokia Storyteller, a Nokia developed application that introduces a new way to curate and relive images and videos as a story on a map, as well as Nokia Video Director, which offers the ability to edit and get even more creative with videos shot on the Lumia 2520 – as well as content from Lumia smartphones.

The tablet also includes an exclusive version of Nokia Music with Mix Radio preinstalled.

The Lumia 2520 pairs with the Nokia Power Keyboard. Offering up to five extra hours of battery life and two built-in USB ports, the Nokia Power Keyboard makes battery life worries a thing of the past. A protective and wraparound cover, the Nokia Power Keyboard includes a fully functional keypad with gesture trackpad, so typing feels as natural as on a laptop.

With Microsoft Office and Outlook preinstalled, getting more done on the go is easier than ever.

The Nokia Lumia 2520 will be available in red and white in a glossy finish as well as cyan and black in a matte finish, and is expected to start shipping in Q4 2013 with an estimated price of USD499 before taxes or subsidies.

Nexus 5: The Leaks, Rumors and Expectations

In the entire Android world, no gadget is more awaited than Samsung’s latest flagship and the newest iteration of a Nexus phone. Every year during October Google takes its turn to announce the latter and this year, the expected date is 28th.

For the second year running, the dice has fallen in LG’s favour, perhaps to challenge Samsung’s supremacy. This is how the new Nexus 5 might turn out, based on rumours and leaks.

We have gathered all the leaks and rumours to put Nexus 5 a shape. Here’s how it is likely to look like:

Display and Design

The display of the Nexus 5 will most-probably be a 4.95 inch IPS unit with Full HD 1080p resolution. The name itself seems to indicate a 5 inch screen.

The design is still a matter of speculation but Nexus 5 seems to have bid farewell to the exquisite but fragile glass-back of its predecessor. There’s also a landscape NEXUS logo written at the back but that should change in the final version as well. It will be available in White and Black.

Hardware

Smartphones from Nexus series are best-known for offering a juicy spec-list at a price which comparatively more people can afford. The Nexus 5 will most probably come with hardware specs similar to the LG G2, namely a SnapDragon 800 processor with 4 Krait 400 cores clocked at 2.3Ghz, 2 GB RAM, Adreno 330 GPU and 16 or 32 gigs worth storage, non-expandable of course.

The back camera will be an 8 megapixel unit with LED Flash, Optical Image Stabilization and Full HD 1080p video recording.

Considering how mediocre the Nexus 4 camera was, this unit here might feature some special effects or bells-and-whistles. There will be a 2 megapixel at the front.

Software

This one is another no-brainer. Android 4.4 KitKat will be making a debut alongside the Nexus 5 and common sense says that it will come pre-installed on the phone in Vanilla form. The official Nestle Kit Kat page has been teasing about the announcement for long enough and has already confirmed that the latest OS will come in October.

Miscellaneous:

The phone might use the new Wi-Fi standard 802.11ac and microUSB 3.0 (which debuted on Note 3). LTE versions will be coming shortly after. Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, USB-OTG and a few other exotic connectivity options might also make an appearance.

Battery capacity is expected to be 2300 or 3000 mAh.

Pricing and Availability

We are actually quite sure about the pricing, thanks to a leak on Play Store courtesy of Google. The device made a mysterious appearance for a few minutes there, costing $349 for the 16 gig version. The 32 GB model, hence, should cost $399.

Availability is not properly known but the phone should hit the markets at the end of this month or during the first few weeks of November.

We won’t say that this phone is cheap but compared to competing products, it sure is tempting. It will be a pain to find at a reasonable price in the first few months of its availability but prices should settle down in the coming few months after its release.

Here are few leaked images of the device as well: