Ufone's M. Shabbir Iqbal Wins PM Golf Open 2013

Salman Wassay, Chief Commercial Officer, Ufone, handing over a congratulatory cheque to Pakistan No. 1, M. Shabbir Iqbal for winnering the Prime Minister Golf Open 2013

Golfers from all over Pakistan flocked to Rawalpindi for the much anticipated Prime Minister Golf Open, each looking to win laurels and respect of their fellow golfers. Professionals were seen two days prior to the tournament practicing and taking in the feel of the course in their practice rounds. The tournament kicked off on the 22^nd of Oct and the fervor of each golfer participating was clearly evident. Day 1 ended with Pakistan No.1 M. Shabbir Iqbal leading the elite golfers closely followed by Pakistan No.2 & a member of the Ufone team Matloob Ahmed.

The two fought it out over the three day tournament with Shabbir continuing to increase the gap between the 1^st and 2^nd position alas he ended the tournament 15 under par (-15) and Matloob who secured 2^nd position was 5 under par (-5).

Speaking about his win Shabbir said “ I am fortunate to have held the No.1 position for a number of years and till date I feel the pressure from other professionals in each tournament we participate in. Winning the Prime Minister Open is indeed a moment of pride for me but at the same time I am extremely excited that Ufone too decided to give me Rs.100,000/- for this memorable win. Ufone has played an active part in golf over the last year and has encouraged each member of Team Ufone to bring out our best on the course”.

“Before the tournament, Ufone announced to us that they would be giving away a cash prize to each of those who secure the top 3 positions in the tournament which encouraged me to focus harder on my win, hence Matloob too will be given a cash prize for his great performance.”

“Ufone  is the only organization in Pakistan to take such a big leap in the sport of Golf, in July this year Ufone organized a children’s golf clinic at the Karachi Golf Club which I participated in as a coach and was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the children. We as golfers look forward to the development of the sport and an honored to be a part of such a positive initiative.”

Warid Brings Intro Me Service

Yes, you are no more an “Unknown Caller”, as Warid brings this service for its customers that will allow you to introduce yourself to those receiving your call for the first time.

Normally people hesitate to answers calls from unknown numbers as they find attending these calls as waste of time. With this new service by Warid, caller will be able to send a quick introduction the receiver by making an introduction message and make a call to all people who do not have their number and the Intro message will appear on the screen so that the receiver can know who’s calling.

This service is available for Warid’s both Prepaid & Postpaid customers.

To initiate the call, the subscriber will dial the desired number with prefix 77 e.g. 7703212345678. Warid customer will send SUB in SMS to 7272 or can dial *272# to subscribe the service and can send UNSUB in SMS to 7272 to unsubscribe.

Commenting on this new offer, Warid Telecom’s Chief Commercial Office, Mr. Younas Iqbal Sheikh stated, “Warid’s always aim to facilitate its customers by introducing innovative and unique services. It has introduced many products, which are first in the industry. This service will be a great tool, especially for those people who are working as sales in Insurance, property or banking sector.”

Telenor Pakistan Announces Two Representatives for Youth Summit 2013

Telenor Pakistan has announced Saad Hamid (right) and Awais Imran (left) as representatives from Pakistan at the Telenor Youth Summit 2013 in Oslo, Norway, which is being organized in collaboration with the Nobel Peace Center.

Telenor Pakistan has announced Saad Hamid and Awais Imran as representatives from Pakistan at the Telenor Youth Summit 2013 in Oslo, Norway, which is being organized in collaboration with the Nobel Peace Center.

The two winners of the qualifying competition will also get a chance to attend the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony and Concert.

The competition attracted over 260 entries towards bringing positive social change through the use of mobile communication and internet. As per the judging format, more than 100 shortlisted ideas were displayed on the djuice website for public voting, the entries received a total of 6,670 votes. 11 top voted ideas were presented by the candidates to a jury comprising Badar Khushnood, Pakistan Country Consultant for Google Inc., Jehan Ara, President Pakistan Software Houses Association and Usman Javaid, Director Marketing, Telenor Pakistan.

The two winners – Saad Hamid and Awais Imran were triumphant for their ideas titled ’60 second education project’ and ‘Learning a new language using Mobile ICT’ respectively.

Atifa Asghar, Director Corporate Communications and Responsibility, Telenor Pakistan lauded the enthusiasm of all the contestants and said; “We at Telenor believe that mobile internet will continue to serve as a catalyst for growth and create opportunities for all. The competition, in line with our ‘Internet for All’ campaign, helped us find young future leaders and presented their dynamic ideas to deal with pressing societal issues. The global summit will provide these two winners with an opportunity to be heard at a global level.”

The Telenor Youth Summit, which will be held from December 9 to 11, is a new global initiative of Telenor Group.

It is conceived as a place for exchanging opinions on ways in which mobile communication technologies stimulate growth and change the society. The host of the Summit will be Jon Fredrik Baksaas, CEO of Telenor Group.

During the Summit, young people from 13 countries of Telenor operations together with Telenor Functional Experts and already established Change Makers will further develop the ideas to be presented at the Nobel Peace Centre, as well as at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2014.

u-blox, an LTE Equipment Manufacturer, Opens Office in Lahore

u‑blox, a large scale manufacturer of cellular, positioning modules and integrated circuits announced the opening of its new LTE software design centre in Pakistan.

The center will be the company’s R&D facility focusing primarily on protocol stack development for embedded 4G cellular communications, said a statement issued by the company.

The inauguration of the new R&D facility, which is located at the Arfa Karim Software Technology Park in Lahore, was attended by professionals from the technology sector and senior management team from u-blox.

Commenting on the occasion Mr. Andreas Thiel, Head of Wireless Products Development at u‑blox, said: “Our LTE software team in Lahore is a key part of our overall embedded 4G strategy; Expanding the center bolsters our goal of end-to-end ownership of key intellectual property for LTE, a technology that has now become the fastest growing standard in the history of telecommunications.”

Company statement said that new office is already staffed and operational. The facility has enabled u-blox to expand its headcount to over 100 people.

With the opening of the new facility, u-blox plans to double its LTE R&D capacity in the location.

The centre complements u-blox’ 4G LTE baseband chip design international facilities located in Switzerland, United Kingdom and Belgium. The expansion of u-blox in Lahore, Pakistan will accelerate the company’s growth in the global wireless industry, the statement said.

Via PR

iPad Air Spec Comparison With Other Tabs in the Market

Tim Cook with the new iPad Air during the launch event of iPad Air during last week.

Apple’s much-anticipated iPad Air comes with several new performance and design boosts, plus a new name but is it the best tablet on the market? We check that out via a spec sheet.

To make things interesting, we even threw a Surface Pro 2 which, many will argue, is a full-fledged PC and that’s true too.

	iPad Air	Nokia Lumia 2520	Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014)	Sony Xperia Tablet Z	Surface Pro 2
OS	iOS 7.0.2	Windows RT 8.1	Android 4.3 Jelly Bean	Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean	Windows 8.1
Dimensions	240 x 169.5 x 7.5 mm	267 x 168 x 8.9 mm	243.1 x 171.4 x 7.9 mm	266 x 172 x 6.9 mm	275 x 173 x 13.5 mm
Weight	469g	615g	540g	495g	907g
Design	Aluminum Unibody	Polycarbonate Plastic	Plastic and leather-like finish	Matte Plastic	VaporMg
Display	9.7 inches	10.1 inches	10.1 inches	10.1 inches	10.6 inches
Resolution	1536 x 2048 pixels	1080 x 1920 pixels	2560 x 1600 pixels	1200 x 1920 pixels	1080 x 1920 pixels
Processor	64-bit 1.3Ghz Apple A7	2.2Ghz Qualcomm SnapDragon 800	2.3Ghz Qualcomm SnapDragon 800	1.5Ghz Qualcomm SnapDragon S4 Pro	1.6Ghz Intel Core i5-4200U Haswell
RAM/Storage	1 GB; 16/32/64/128 GB	2 GB; 32 GB expandable	3 GB; 16/32/64 GB expandable	2 GB; 16/32 GB expandable	4/8 GB RAM; 64/128/256/512 GB expandable
Rear-Camera	5 mp; 1080p video at 30 fps	6.7 mp; 1080p video at 30 fps	8 mp; 1080p video at 60fps	8.1 mp; 1080p video at 30 fps	1.2 mp HD
Front-Camera	1.2 mp HD	2 mp HD	2 mp Full HD	2 mp Full HD	1.2 mp HD
Connectivity	MIMO Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, Lightning Port	Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 3.0, NFC	Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0,microUSB 2.0, IR Blaster, USB-OTG	Wi-FI, NFC, microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0, IR Blaster	MIMO Wi-Fi, USB 3.0, microSDXC, MiniDisplay Port,Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0
Water-proof	No	No	No	IP57-certified	No
Battery	32.4 Whr	8000 mAh	8220 mAh	6000 mAh	48 Wh
Price	Starts at $499	Starts at $499	Starts at $549	Starts at $499	Starts at $899

The iPad Air, at least on paper, is lagging behind the competition in several aspects but again, Apple has never tried to compete in a numbers race and that is the best part. As usual, the iPad Air is perfect in doing the basic things, plus, it is unmatched when it comes to ecosystem.

It may not be the most productive but the free suite of iWork apps has drastically improved that too. With a competitive price and a strong backing from the App Store, it remains the tablet to beat (at least when it comes to sales).

Again, its better to look for only the things which are important to you before making a decision regarding buying anyone of these.