Report on Pakistan’s online future launched

KARACHI: The impact of the Internet in a local context
particularly in relation to the state ‘compulsion’ to regulate and
control the cyberspace was discussed on Friday at the launch of a
comprehensive report about Pakistan’s online future.



While the blocking and filtering of content on the Internet by the
state resulted in numerous violations of fundamental rights, especially
the right to access to information, people successfully circumvented
these blocks by using proxy servers and virtual private networks, said
Jahanzaib Haque, author of the 28-page report ‘Pakistan’s Internet
Landscape’.



Presenting report’s main findings and recommendations to the
gathering, Mr Haque said that although the blocking and filtering of
online content was becoming increasingly organised, it continued to be
inconsistent.



He added that the blocking and filtering was mostly directed at the
content that was deemed blasphemous or obscene, even though these terms
were not properly defined. He cited examples of some educational
websites that were incorrectly defined as ‘obscene’ and therefore banned
by the authorities. Some members of the audience added to the
discussion by relating anecdotes of students who had experienced
difficulties in learning, because the Youtube ban restricted them from
accessing useful lectures and other study materials on the website.



Talking about the problems of hate speech and extremism in his
presentation, Mr Haque, web editor at The Express Tribune, said there
had been very specific and targeted attacks on well-known personalities
in recent years. In this regard, he cited the hate campaigns that
started in the wake of the deadly attack on Malala Yousafzai in October
2012, and those hailing Mumtaz Qadri as a hero for killing former Punjab
governor Salman Taseer in January 2011.



The presentation was followed by a lively, rather informal panel
discussion on the report’s findings, and their impact on the freedom of
expression in the cyberspace and Internet rights in Pakistan. Panellists
included Wusatullah Khan (senior journalist), Sabeen Mahmud (founder of
PeaceNiche/T2F), and technologist Aleem Bawany, along with Shahzad
Ahmad, Country Director of Bytes for All, Pakistan, as well as the
author of the report.



The complete report — produced by Bytes for All Pakistan (B4A), a
human rights organisation focusing on the Information and Communication
Technologies — is available online for the public to read.



The research paper provides a detailed outline of the Internet
control mechanisms deployed by the government, and describes the
existing legislative measures and their applications to the Internet. It
also provides a historical view of Internet censorship in Pakistan, and
the state’s attempts to ‘criminalise legitimate expression’ in the
cyberspace. The report also explores the current situation of Internet
surveillance, its purpose, the method used, and the effects caused by
such monitoring.



The event was attended by media practitioners, journalists, human
rights activists, members of the civil society, politicians,
researchers, as well as major stakeholders in the cyberspace.



The event concluded with the screening of a light-hearted video
titled ‘Hugs to Youtube’, starring a person dressed as the Youtube logo,
and carrying a sign stating “Hug me if you want me back”. The video was
an initiative by the #KholoBC Pakistan for All campaign that opposes
all forms of state oppression and regulation of content on the Internet.




The viewing was followed by a note of thanks by the moderator.

All hail the phablet! Jumbo phones finally going mainstream While there were only a handful of phablets at the Consumer Electronics Show, they're poised to have a more substantial presence in the market this year.

The ZTE Iconic Phablet will be heading to the US eventually.

(Credit:
Lynn La/CNET)

LAS VEGAS -- It seemed like only yesterday that we mocked the idea of holding up a 5-inch smartphone to your ear for a call.

Now, we're not even batting an eye at 6- and 7-inch displays on smartphones.

Such is the quick ascent of the "phablet," the official name for jumbo
phones that lie between a traditional smartphone and the larger
tablet.
Phablets are no longer a niche product: Accenture found in a recent
survey that more than half of people who were asked about their next
smartphone said they would prefer the bigger phone.

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At the Consumer Electronics Show here, three phablets popped up: the Huawei Ascend Mate 2 4G, the Asus ZenFone 6, and the ZTE Iconic Phablet.

In a show where phones often take a backseat to other consumer
electronic products such as televisions, speakers, and now wearables,
having three of the higher-profile mobile devices be phablets says a lot
for how the category has grown, and the increasing tolerance for larger
sizes.

"With television and movies, a larger screen size seems more
appropriate," John Curran, a consultant at Accenture, said while at CES.


Accenture, which surveyed 6,000 people from six countries, found 52
percent of respondents preferred a phablet for their next smartphone. In
the US, where phablet adoption has been slower, the number drops to 45
percent. It's a lower number, but fairly significant.

Curran said he was surprised by the response to phablets, and named it
as one of his six top categories for early this year. He added his
survey didn't even ask about phablets last year, a testament to the
quick rise in the popularity of the category.

Credit Samsung Electronics for getting phablets into the mainstream. The original Galaxy Note,
which had a 5.3-inch display, was widely slammed for its large size,
and ended up as a niche product. But Samsung aggressively pushed the
product, readily handing out review units and marketing it heavily, and
only doubled down with the Galaxy Note 2 and a larger 5.55-inch display.

With the
Galaxy Note
2, Samsung got even more aggressive in seeding the units to the media
and high-profile fans, throwing a number of lavish launch events,
including one in Manhattan in which it rented out the old Post Office
headquarters so Kanye West could hold a concert.

When the Galaxy Note 3
came out with an even bigger 5.7-inch display, no one even batted an
eye, with CNET editor Brian Bennett calling it the most compelling case
for a supersize phone.

The three smartphones announced at CES are all even bigger, with the
ZenFone 6 rocking a 6-inch display, the Ascend Mate 2 4G coming with a
6.1-inch display, and the Iconic Phablet with a 5.7-inch display. Of the
three, only the Iconic Phablet is coming to the US, although it's
unclear whether it will be through a carrier or unlocked.

These devices follow high-profile launches from late last year, including the HTC One Max and Nokia Lumia 1520. LG's curved G Flex, which has a 6-inch display, will launch on AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile later this year.

More jumbo phones are likely on their way, with Mobile World Congress
kicking off at the end of next month, and increasing chatter that Apple
is considering different larger screen sizes for its next iPhone.

The phablet trend doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon, and indeed, looks to be ramping up.

Pretty soon, we're all going to have a massive phone mashed up against the side of our head. And it will be the new normal.

When iPhone met world, 7 years ago today

Steve Jobs introduces the first iPhone.

(Credit:
CNET)

Steve Jobs was right when he declared the iPhone a revolutionary
product. It redefined the smartphone category and put a powerful
computer in the hands of more than a billion people around the world.

Seven years ago, on January 9, 2007, the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs
took the stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco to introduce the
first iPhone. "Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone," Jobs
proclaimed:

This is a day I've been looking forward to for
two-and-a-half years. Every once in a while, a revolutionary product
comes along that changes everything. And Apple has been -- well, first
of all, one's very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in
your career. Apple's been very fortunate. It's been able to introduce a
few of these into the world. 1984, introduced the Macintosh. It didn't
just change Apple. It changed the whole computer industry. In 2001, we
introduced the first iPod, and it didn't just change the way we all
listen to music, it changed the entire music industry. Well, today,
we're introducing three revolutionary products of this class. The first
one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a
revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet
communications device. So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch
controls; a revolutionary mobile phone; and a breakthrough Internet
communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator.
An iPod, a phone...are you getting it? These are not three separate
devices, this is one device, and we are calling it iPhone. Today, Apple
is going to reinvent the phone, and here it is. No, actually here it is,
but we're going to leave it there for now.

He wasn't kidding. The iPhone, like the Macintosh and
iPod
before it, redefined the category. The smartphone revolution started by
the iPhone has put a powerful computer into the hands of billions of
people around the world.

"iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone," said Jobs said in the press release.
"We are all born with the ultimate pointing device--our fingers--and
iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since
the mouse."

The iPhone didn't ship until June 29, 2007, however. On January 9,
the iPhone was still buggy and prone to crashes. Even after several days
of rehearsals, Jobs was walking a tightrope on stage, using prototype
iPhones set up with workarounds to avoid glitches and crashes.

"It's hard to overstate the gamble Jobs took when he decided to
unveil the iPhone back in January 2007. Not only was he introducing a
new kind of phone -- something Apple had never made before -- he was
doing so with a prototype that barely worked," wrote Fred Vogelstein in
his book, "Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution."

The crowd at the Apple store in San Francisco on June 29, 2007.

(Credit:
CNET)

But Jobs managed to get through the demos without embarrassment, and
Apple's engineers managed to eliminate the critical bugs over the next
several months. Nearly 1.4 million iPhones were sold in the first three
months of its existence. For its fiscal year ending September 29, 2013,
Apple sold more than 150 million iPhones worldwide and generated over
$90 billion in sales.

Despite a horde of worthy competitors and declining worldwide market
share, the iPhone still has a 40 to 50 percent share of the U.S.
smartphone market, led by the success of the
iPhone 5S. And, the
iPad,
which followed the iPhone as another breakthrough, category-redefining
product, maintains a strong market position. Whether Apple can continue
its streak of reinventing product categories remains to be seen, but
Jobs' January 9, 2007 introduction of the iPhone will remain one of the
important milestones in computing history.

Make it beautiful: how the fashion industry is giving tech a hand

For the fashion-conscious, wearable gadgets are currently not
wearable. But at CES 2014, fashion moguls and global tech authorities
are finally chatting about how to fix that problem. Design as a function
isn't a new idea, but the fashion industry thinks about it differently —
and the tech industry is starting to listen.

On Monday, Intel shared
the stage with Barneys New York, the Council of Fashion Designers of
America, and Opening Ceremony as they announced a collaboration between
the fashion industry and the tech industry to make wearables more
beautiful as they become more ubiquitous. That, Barneys New York COO
Daniella Vitale says, is more opportunity than challenge. "One of the
greatest opportunities for wearable technology as a concept to be
successful is fairly simple," she said. "Design a beautiful accessory
that our customers would desire."

Vitale mentioned nothing
about functionality, connectivity, or specs. She knows while design can
aid functionality by helping a product do what it was made to do, it can
also be a function. Fashion isn’t about specs and features, it’s about
aesthetic and personality — how something looks, how it looks on you,
and how it makes you feel when you're wearing it. "The things we wear
are personal reflections of ourselves," said Ayse Ildeniz, vice
president of business development and strategy for Intel's New Devices
Group. "We somehow get emotionally connected to them." With the way
wearables are designed today, they do not evoke the same personal
attachment as, say, a Ferragamo blazer or J Brand pants. Wearables say
"look at me, I'm tech-savvy" rather than "look at me, I'm fashionable."

But things are changing.
There are clear examples at CES that tech companies are starting to
think about fashion and design. The Netatmo June bracelet is made with Louis Vuitton and Camille Toupet-designed jewels that tracks your sun exposure. There’s also the MetaWatch,
designed by ex-Fossil engineers and made with premium metals and
classic leather wristbands. But the most noteworthy wearable at CES was
the Pebble Steel smartwatch.
It’s designed to be worn with either a stainless steel band or a
genuine leather strap, forgoing the ostentatious sportiness of the
original for a modern, sleek look. Pebble designer Steve Johns said that
the new design was influenced by both traditional watches and modern
technology like cellphones — a balance that’s previously proven elusive,
but that Pebble is quickly finding.

Traditional and modern design can make fashionable devices

Pebble knows it needs to
be fashionable to stay relevant in the wearable market (not to mention
staying competitive among wristwatches), but Johns says that sometimes
technology lags behind what’s required to fit beautiful designs. "It
seems to me that designers don't have any challenges designing beautiful
concepts," Johns says, "but most of the time the technology is never
mature enough to meet those demands. But wearables are a growing
industry so I can see the manufacturers making it more of a priority to
design into small devices."

Designers are also making it a
priority to reach out to tech companies to put their stamps on gadgets.
FitBit announced a collaboration with Tory Burch to make fashionable
necklaces and bracelets for its activity-tracking devices — and Burch
approached FitBit, not the other way around. Unfortunately, only a
prototype is ready right now, but even if the finished product isn’t
available yet, it’s yet another example of how fashion professionals
know that they can contribute to technology using their design eyes, and
how eager they are to do so. It’s also another way for designers to
reach out to new customers who might have never purchased one of their
regular accessories. On the tech side, wearable companies now don't have
to focus on perfecting the basics; they can take the time to make
pieces of beauty that are also functional gadgets.

"Designers
don't have any challenges designing beautiful concepts, but most of the
time the technology is never mature enough to meet those demands."

Collaboration or not,
it’s really the mentality of the tech industry and consumers that must
change — and it is changing, slowly. Aesthetics may have moved up on the
priority lists of gadget companies, but tech specs still rule. For all
its good looks, what’s most celebrated about the Pebble Steel
is what the watch does. If tech companies and consumers can start
thinking about aesthetics the same way they think about specs, it’ll
open up a new range of opportunities for fashion-forward devices.
There's no reason why wearables still look like "wearables" — they
should be Vacheron Constantin watches, Tiffany bracelets, and Warby
Parker glasses.

That was the sentiment
expressed by Intel’s fashion partners this week. "I think a lot of the
functionalities are going to be very appealing, but I do think that the
design element will be very paramount," said Matthew Woolsey, SVP of
digital for Barneys New York, at a CES panel this week. "The quality of
the design speaks to us first, and I think it speaks to our customer
first, so I think that achieving on the design will allow the customer
to start to build that emotional relationship in a way that maybe hasn’t
happened yet with wearable technology."

"What we’re looking for
is to emphasize the technological aspects of the piece, but to make
something that doesn’t feel like a piece of hardware," agreed a
representative from Opening Ceremony. "[Something] that feels like a
piece of jewelry or a covetable object in and of itself that we’ll be
excited to wear." Specs and features have historically been the
technology industry’s primary targets, and even something like the
Pebble Steel clearly prioritizes its functionality. It’s clear that that
will have to change if wearables are to take off outside their most
obvious demographics.

Variation in design is crucial for successful fashion

A greater level of
variation in design is also crucial for smart fashion to be successful.
Now, if something is a hit, everyone wants it, lots of people buy it,
and with so many people wearing the same thing good design becomes a
commodity. For fashion, an industry that places so much value on
originality, that's a huge problem. If everyone wears the same shirt,
eventually we'll all look the same — and being the "same" is equivalent
to fashion death.

This is where the tech
industry can do what it does best: innovate. It’s gotten to the point
where technology companies have innovated with wearables so much that
the standard is pretty accessible; it’s relatively easy to make a fairly
decent wearable now. Not all technologies can match all great designs
yet, and vise versa, but the talks between technologists and designers
will speed that process up. And if technology can be distilled down to
its purest form so it can be applied to any accessory or piece of
clothing, that will be the gateway the fashion industry needs to do what
it does best — make it look good. Make it beautiful. Make it work.

Sam Byford contributed to this report.

American Singer Jennifer Grout Converts To Islam

American singer and contestant of Arabs Got Talent show Jennifer
Grout has converted to Islam, according to media reports. In a video which
is circulated on internet Jennifer Grout is seen in the video where she
is reciting the Shahada, or declaration of faith, saying, “there is no
god but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet.”



Jennifer also recited Surat Al-Fatihah in front of two men. Jennifer
converted to Islam during her stay in Morocco to study Arabic language.
In a video posted on YouTube on 5th January, a man asked Jennifer “do
you know how to say Shahada in Islam on which Jennifer Grout recited
Shahada.

However still Jennifer Grout has to confirm this and reply from
Jennifer in this regard is still awaited. The 23-year-old Jennifer Grout
is originally from Boston, US and she has come to Morocco to learn both
the Amazigh language and Moroccan Arabic.

Many people in Pakistan after watching the video and hearing about this news has congratulated Jennifer on social media.

Britain Government Takes Steps against Forced Marriages

London: country government has warned doctors, faculty lecturers and
landing field workers to stay high alert on the increase of the forced
marriages within the country particularly throughout the summer
vacations. In a political candidate report, suspicion are sharp-sighted
upon that the forced marriages occur largely throughout the summer
vacations once the boys take ladies on date while not revealing to them
the important motive. thence doctors and also the lecturers particularly
got to learn of the problem so they'll extend their co-operation with
the young males and females which may facilitate them to play vital role
in dominant the rising menace.

A Survey wiped out association to prevent the forced marriages within
the country last year showed up four hundred marriages throughout the
months of June and August. consistent with estimation virtually around five,000- 10, 000 females,
below the cohort sixteen fall prey to the unwell observe per annum. the
govt. has begun the initiative by current pamphlets bearing the names
Marriages: Your right to pick out and by providing a utility for
counsel. These forced wedding is legendary among Muslim families.


In context country Minister for Anti-Criminal Activities aforementioned
that these activities accelerate throughout the summer vacations once
the ladies square measure forcedly married to the lads they're not
acquainted with. He any declared that this is often sheer unjust observe
and violence of the human rights. we have a tendency to square measure
formulating strict plans to manage it and that we would be terming it
such observe illicit.


The Scottish government to affect the matter has obligatory 2 years
imprisonment on the fogeys on committing the illicit act. If country
government conjointly takes imperative stern penalties then same penalty
would be practiced within the country.

A yearly British embassy report publication showed that forty % victims square measure Pakistani ladies.

However the protestors of the forced marriages have expressed positivism
over the planned call of country government basic cognitive process
that the young males and females would avoid committing the illicit
observe to save lots of their folks.

P.Chopra’s Super Man !

Priyanka Chopra has a long list of benchmarks that she has set for her prospective life partner.

But she says she wants that her man should be a male version of herself.

“I have a very long list and very high standards. He has to
be a gentleman, he has to be intelligent, someone I respect and funny,
not stupid funny but witty funny, charming. Basically, a male version of
me,” the 31-year-old said.


Priyanka added that it does not matter whether he is an actor or not.


“He needs to be an achiever, it doesn’t matter if he is an
actor or not an actor. I would never respect a guy who is not an
achiever,” she said.


Priyanka will soon be seen in Yash Raj Films