It is really nice to see local businesses in Pakistan finally launch some mobile applications. PTCL has recently launched its Android application named SmartLink.

SmartLink Apps allows PTCL Broadband users to use the WiFi on their smartphone to make and receive landline calls. The application not only allows you to make high quality voice calls, it also allows you to engage in instant messaging and/or video calls with your SmartLink buddies. Apart from this you can also watch Smart TV channels on your smartphone using this application.

The app is currently available for users from following 5 cities: Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Faisalabad and Peshawar. Support for other cities will be added soon.

The application is available for free at Google Play Store. You can click here to download it. Once downloaded open the app and tap “Register”. You will be required to enter some basic details like Name, CNIC, PSTN #, Account ID, Email & Cell Number. Once you have fill the required details, they will be verified. You should expect a call from PTCL contact center within 24 hours to validate your subscription. Alternatively you can call 1236 for verification.

Some of the main features of the App are listed below.

Features:
• Enjoy free voice calls and video calls whenever and wherever you are
• Make unlimited Video Calls to SmartLink buddies
• Stay in touch with all your buddies through Instant Messaging and voice Calls to any landline or mobile
• Watch 150 PTCL Smart TV channels on your phone
• Now PIA flight enquiry is at your fingertips
• Now access your mobile contact directory for calls and messages

The application is free with no subscription and monthly charges.

There are a lot of VPN softwares out there which allow you to visit websites which are blocked in your country or allow you to surf websites anonymously. Regardless of the reason why you are using VPN, bottom-line is that VPN are useful. But most of them require you to install software which you need to run before you can start browsing over VPN.

ZenMate, a browser extension, simplifies the VPN for you. All you need to do is install extension/plugin on your favorite browser. Get registered for the first time by entering your email address and selecting a password. And thats it! Once installed you will have a shield like icon next to your address bar. You can click on it to toggle on/off. The best part being that it is free and lets you effortlessly toggle VPN on and off when required.

ZenMate offers you a list of five countries to choose from. Just click on the currently set country, and it will give you option to change location. Select the desired country from the list and now your ip has changed to that country. The current list of offered VPN spots is: Germany, Hong Kong, Switzerland, UK and US.

It is a highly recommended extension for your browser. Click here to view the official website.

Apple has rolled out an update for OSX Yosemite. The update contains plenty of bug fixes with main focus on wifi issues. It is always highly recommended that you backup your system before updating. Do not interrupt the installation process once you have started to update your system by canceling or restarting.

Following are the key improvements:

• Improves Wi-Fi reliability
• Improves reliability when connecting to a Microsoft Exchange server
• Resolves an issue that may prevent Mail from sending messages through certain email service providers
• Addresses an issue prevents connecting to remote computers using Back to My Mac
• Resolves an issue where sharing services, Notification Center widgets and Actions may not be available
• Addresses an issue that could cause Notification Center settings to not be retained after a restart
• Addresses an issue that might prevent the Mac App Store from displaying certain updates
• Addresses an issue that could prevent some Mac mini computers from waking from sleep
• Resolves an issue that might prevent Time Machine from displaying older backups
• Addresses an issue that might prevent entering text in Japanese

Source: Apple

When I was purchasing my Macbook Air everyone told me that 128GB is too less of a space but I was adamant of the fact that it is enough for me. Guess what I was wrong. After a couple of months I started to feel the pain when I started getting alerts telling me that I was out of memory. Now it was too late to do anything about it.

But hey wait, my Macbook Air comes with a memory card slot. Trust me I never thought this slot was ever going to be useful. It has turned out to be a life saver for me. I am currently using SD card to expand my computer’s memory.

I placed an order at Aliexpress and purchased a SD Card Sleeve. It took its time (50 days) before the sleeve was delivered. The only drawback of this sleeve is that you can install a maximum of 64GB SD card. But it is better than having nothing. And it wasn’t an expensive memory purchase either. It costed me a total of USD $ 40 (including SD Card).

So if you are having storage problems with your Mac, make use of that SD Card Slot.

Apple has rolled out update for iOS 8. So if you are running iOS 8, you should get a notification in Software Update section about the latest update. In case you aren’t sure where the Software Update section is, simply tap the following icons on your screen.

Settings > General Software Update

Please make sure you backup your phone before applying the update.

NOTE FOR JAILBREAKERS: If you have jailbroken you device, stay away from this update until there is an update from Pangu team. As of right now, if you move to iOS 8.1.1 you will lose jailbreak.

The good thing about this update is that iPhone has still not forgotten iPad 2 and iPhone 4s. And this update focuses on these old devices in order to improve the iOS 8 experience.

Nokia, once an industry leader in the cellphone arena slowly saw its market share crumple at the hands of iOS and Android. While competitors dented  Nokia’s abysmal operating system and UI, Nokia is still believed to be amongst the top when it comes to hardware, build quality and durability. Symbian just could not compete with these newly emerging mobile platforms that offered far greater functionality and integration. For me Nokia’s decision to pair up with Microsoft for its OS came as a shock when the already struggling company decided to adopt a dying OS. Android had just been born and the device chosen to be the torch bearer (HTC G1)  left much to be desired.

The decision to pair up with Microsoft might have culminated from its successful Pocket PC division which was the most mature platform at that time. However, given that how Apple had shook the whole mobile industry with the introduction of iPhone, and how android was evolving as the next big platform, it would have been really wise to adopt Android which could have really saved the Finnish company or even brought it back to the top of the board. Things sadly did not turn out well for Nokia as Microsoft struggled with its OS dubbed Windows phone 7 and companies offering Windows phones quickly adapted to the market by slashing these variants and focusing on Android. We all thought that was it and most jumped the quickly evolving smartphone bandwagon.

Recently however, Nokia has taken the world by surprise as it has unveiled not a smartphone but an Android tablet. Running Lollipop, Android’s latest iteration, Nokia N1 features a sleek design with few OS tweaks including a custom launcher which would be available for other users in the Android family to downloaded. Surprising since until now we have seen companies lock down their proprietary UI such as HTC Sense, Samsung Touch Wiz to distinguish it from Vanilla Android and competitors. The body design looks more like an iPad mini given its smaller size with the exception of the camera that sits flush with the body.

Specs for the device are as follows:

Manufacturing: Outsourced to Foxconn

Design: Aluminum Unibody with Stereo Speakers, weighing 318g

Screen: 7.9″ , Gorilla Glass 3,  2048×1536 pixels, IPS Panel

Internals: 2.3Ghz Intel Z3580, 2GB ram

Camera(s): 8MP rear, 5MP front

Storage: 32Gb

Battery Capacity: 5300 mAh

Click here to visit Nokia N1 website for more details

Water is one of the most essential tool when it comes to cycling. All that exercise makes you sweat, making your body feel dehydrated hence the need of water. Normally we are obviously on a limited supply of water. So long rides can either mean no water or access to not so good quality of water, especially if you are cycling in a country like Pakistan.

Kristof Retezàr, industrial design student at University of Applied Arts Vienna, has recently developed Fontus, a bike-mounted device that converts air moisture into water using solar power. In simple words, the device collects the moisture contained in the air, condenses it through thermoelectric cooling and stores it as safe drinking water. It can produce up to 0.5 liter of water in an hour’s time under the ideal climatic conditions.

According to Kristof his “goal was to create a small, compact and self-sufficient device able to absorb humid air, separate water molecules from air molecules and store water in liquid form in a bottle”.

Source: James Dyson Foundation

In a recent announcement, Twitter has shared how its has achieved its long-standing goal of allowing people to search through every Tweet every published. We all have had moments when we have shared latest happenings or tweeted about weird feelings. Now thanks to this recent update which will be rolled out in next few days, it is all searchable.

Twitter had to scale its systems, and using its already real-time index it has managed to not only sort old posts since 2006 but also those which were published during the up-gradation process.

The full index project was led by Yi Zhuang and Paul Burstein. The full index is a major infrastructure investment and part of ongoing improvements to the search and discovery experience on Twitter. “We built a search service that efficiently indexes roughly half a trillion documents and serves queries with an average latency of under 100ms,” Twitter’s Yi Zhuang explains in a blog post.

Source: Twitter
Via: Engadget

If you are registered as an Apple Developer, by now you should have received an email from Apple announcing release of WatchKit. WatchKit is the toolbox required to develop apps for the next-generation wrist-wear. Even though you won’t be able to publish your apps until next year since the Apple Watch hasn’t been launched yet, but you can start experimenting today.

WatchKit provides three opportunities to extend your iPhone app to Apple Watch: WatchKit apps, Glances, and actionable notifications.

Following is a getting started video posted by Apple Developer.

Source: Apple Developer

Yosemite, Apple’s latest update to OSX has addressed many bugs and introduced noticeable new features such as “handoff”. However it did have its fair share of problems. Following reports of WiFi connectivity issues which Apple was quick to patch, there have been reports of apps such as mail crashing/ quitting unexpectedly when users try to use finder functions such as save as or while attempting to open a file.

Dropbox one of the most popular cloud storage services is amongst the apps affected and causing crashes. Not surprising due to its heavy reliance on finder functions. Today however, Dropbox has sent out emails to its users urging them to update to Yosemite 10.10.1 which addresses the app crashing issues caused by apps utilizing Finder Integration.

The update reportedly fixes app crashes in Yosemite.

Here is a screenshot of the email:

There were times when Yahoo was the place to visit to search anything over the internet. And then Google came along. Things might change once again for Yahoo with its recent partnership with FireFox under which Yahoo will be set as the default search for users in USA.

Both companies have recently announce a five year deal under which Yahoo will be the web browser’s default search engine, replacing Google which has been since 2004. Mozilla says that it is part of its strategy to provide a more local experience to its users. From now on the default search engine will vary region-wise though the users will have an option to switch to another search engine if they wish. Under this new plan, Yahoo will be default search engine for United States, Yandex Search for Russia and Baidu for China.

Source: Mozilla Blog

Via: Engadet

It is still a mystery as to what Apple plans to do with Beats Music which it recently not long ago. There has been a report in Financial Times which sheds some light on the possible plan of folks in Cupertino. According to this report the Beats Music (or whatever the service might be called in future) will be bundled with future versions of iOS. Even though the app will be pre-installed but it still will be a paid service. According to the report, people familiar with this matter expect this to happen as soon as March just around the time of debut of Apple Watch.

Source: Financial Times

Via: Macrumours

Amazon, the e-commerce giant, is likely to roll out a new ad-supported video service that will be separate from its current $99-a-year Prime membership, which includes a video service, according to the New York Post. This service is similar to something Wall Street Journal reported earlier in March which was later denied by Amazon.

“If they do an ad-supported service, they will decouple it from Prime and that is a Netflix killer,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said. “It won’t be $99 a year.” Pachter suggested Amazon would undercut Netflix’s current monthly price of $7.99.

Any such service which is being offered at a lower price will post a serious challenge to streaming rivals such as Hulu and Netflix

Source: New York Post

Even though the smartphones today are kind of resistance to scratches but unfortunately they aren’t resistant to biggest issue, a shattered display. One of the most common reason of getting your phone fixed is shattered display because you dropped it. Thankfully, people at Corning are concerned about our miseries and are working on a new screen to tackle accident-related damage. Their this new innovation is known as Gorilla Glass 4.

The newly formulated glass is designed to survive collision with rough services, at least 80 % of the times. In other words, this doesn’t mean you can drop your phone carelessly and you will be fine. Corning says it is already sending out test sample shipments, so we can expect to see this new glass anytime soon in one of the upcoming smartphones.

Source: Corning

Via: Engadget

Image Source: Engadget

Get ready to go sideways Ken Block style with Need for Speed: No limits, scheduled to hit your tablets and smartphones sometime in 2015.  A super smart move on EA’s part to affiliate the game with Ken Block who has gained massive popularity after his Gymkhana videos. His precision driving and astounding dexterity was even featured on Top Gear which is considered the Holy Grail of every car enthusiast.

Developed by Firemonkeys, the studio behind Real Racing 3, Need for Speed: No Limits looks very promising in terms of graphics, sound and gameplay. Here is a video to give you some sense of where the franchise is headed:

You can follow the official website to keep posted on release dates and further teaser videos.

Uber has recently launched its Momentum Partner Rewards program offering additional perks to its drivers. It aims at boosting its driver base through deals that offer convenience and feasibility. After all the service is heavily dependent on drivers and Uber needs as many as it can get. Still reverberating from the journalist fiasco and customer spying, Uber is trying to keep its focus straight and work towards improving itself.

Uber’s blog gives us a little flavor of what drivers should expect. They have divided rewards into three categories, starting with Personalized health recommendations. The company has partnered with Stride Health which would be helping drivers make an informed choice by providing a breakdown and comparison of insurance options available. Second are auto maintenance/repair discounts  which can save drivers as much as 15% , some the partnering stores include Jiffy Lube, AutoZone and Firestone. Lastly, Uber will also be offering discounts on cellphone carriers that include AT&T and Verizon. Eligible drivers can save upto 18% off phone plans. Here is a screenshot from the official blog post:

To be eligible for these rewards however, drivers need to have driven 30 to 50 hours per quarter. These rewards are unlocked using a points, which are awarded after every completed trip. To accumulate points faster Uber drivers can drive during rush hours to get extra points. Here is a break down of eligible hours:

Monday – Thursday: [7am – 10am] , [5pm – 8pm]

Friday: [7am – 10am] , [5pm – 3am]

Saturday: [9am – 3am]

Sunday: [7am – 7pm]

Source/ Image Source: Uber blog

Most of us search for plugins and apps which help us preserve our privacy. And saving our browsing history is definitely not on the list. But on the other hand there are times when you wish you had some way to search your browser history to find that interesting article you read earlier since you can’t find it anymore. Same keywords don’t return same results either on search engines after sometime as the ranking of websites keep on getting updated.

So for times like these, Fetching.io has launched an application for your computer. It caches every single webpage you visit, creating your own personal search engine where you can search solely what you’ve seen in the past.

There are two ways to use the app. If you use Mac, you’ll have the option to download data onto your own mac’s hard drive, so nobody else can access it. But Windows users have to rely on cloud version of the service. Both versions aren’t risk free as they are capable of getting exposed to hackers.

You can however always disable the plug-in and delete that data you have stored any time you want. Fetching respects the incognito or private tab, and doesn’t save anything while you are browsing in that mode.

Via: Wired

Source: Fetching

Image Source: Fetching

When working from remote locations or even when collaborating while not sitting at same place where you can sit down and talk in person, chats come in real handy. Google Drive has already introduced this handy chatting featured making it easy to collaborate. According to WinSuperSite, Microsoft will be introducing a similar feature to its web-based productive suite to help you collaborate with your team better. Office Online will be getting those sidebar convos in the coming weeks, a feature they are calling document chat. For now, it has been learned that only World And PowerPoint will be getting this useful feature along with notifications that will alert you to respond as needed. This will allow users to learn about real-time changes.

Source: WinSuperSite

Image Source: WinSuperSite

If you are someone who likes saving your documents and other stuff on cloud storage, Google has come up with a huge incentive to convince you to pick its Chromebook this holiday season. Google is now offering 1TB of free Google Drive space to anyone who purchases a Chromebook between now and the end of 2014. The storage is otherwise approximately valued at USD $ 240 which you can now get free, with this offer, by spending as little as USD $ 199.

Source: Google Drive Blog

Whoever said Twitter doesn’t have a long term plan to earn money might be feeling foolish already. Apart from simple advertisements, Twitter is finding new avenues to turn Twitter into a marketplace. Twitter is already offering promotional services for e-commerce but recently they have just stepped into offering services for Brick & Mortar stores.

In a recent announcements Twitter has announced that users can claim discounts right from an advertiser’s tweet. In order for this to work, they will have to link their credit/debit card with Twitter. The Twitter user can then redeem the offer by paying with the same card at the retailer’s physical store.

Twitter initially plans to earn money by charging the advertisers to promote the tweets. Later once it has enough traffic and sales being generated through this mechanism, I am sure Twitter can convince the retailers that it won’t be a bad idea to start paying a percentage of the sale too.

Twitter expects advertisers to target deals to people based on a variety of factors, including their location.

Source: Recode

Image Source: Recode