3G Telecom Technology – Pakistan Can Earn Billions of USD by Just Selling Air

Pakistan passed the 100 million subscriber milestone in Oct 2010, with five operators fighting for the market share day in & day out, but  still waiting for the introduction of 3G WCDMA technology (High Internet Speed Mobile Access with International Roaming),  to take the telecoms market to the much needed next level.

The 3G Licenses auctioned last year in our neighboring country fetched multi billion dollars, in license fee in addition to a similar amount of foreign direct investments, creating a spree of jobs for not only the highly educated, but also for the less educated  skilled hands, working on things like tower construction.

The question remains why we are shying away from this golden opportunity, to give the much needed life saving shot to our economy?

May be the reason lies in the situation, where the current operators are shying away from the investments that they would have to make, when the licenses are made available and are just keeping a few individuals at the right places “happy”, so that it is deferred, as long as they wish.

With the 3G services available in most of the countries of South Asia and even Africa, why  we are being deprived of the technological and economical benefits and playing the catch up game?

The 3G License or Spectrum auction, which is just like selling “air” is the easiest way to slightly mitigate the ever increasing unemployment rate in the country. Our peoples representatives in the both the houses should take this up seriously, to expedite the ever delayed process.

source 

By A. Muiz Khan
http://www.snayyar.com

Android to overtake iOS and become the top mobile platform for developers

Google's Android will become the preeminent platform for developers over the next 12 months, edging ahead of Apple's iOS, according to a study by research firm Ovum. Nearly all developers, however, will support both platforms.

Ovum's call comes as Android continues to suck up market share, with more companies using the platform to crank out a wave of mobile devices. While iOS has seen its market share growth slow in the recent years, it has always been seen as a more lucrative location for developers to make money. As a result, most apps came to iOS first, and the other platforms second.

That, however, could all change in the coming months, Ovum said. Android's prevalence is getting hard to ignore, and developers have incorporated new business models such as advertising and in-app purchases to spur revenue.

Ovum also said there is growing developer interest in Windows Phone and BlackBerry OS. The results come as both Microsoft and Research in Motion attempt to woo developers over to their respective camps.

"The growing momentum behind Windows Phone indicates that Microsoft has managed to convince developers that its platform is worthy of investment; its challenge now is to persuade consumers," said Ovum analyst Adam Leach.

The study also said developers are abandoning mobile-centric development tools such as Java, Flash and WAP, and moving to HTML5, a Web-based standard that can run across multiple devices and platforms.

by Roger Cheng
source 

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes from Greek τεχνολογία (technología); from τέχνη (téchnē), meaning "art, skill, craft", and -λογία (-logía), meaning "study of-".^[1] The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include construction technology, medical technology, and information technology.
Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species' ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. The human species' use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The prehistorical discovery of the ability to control fire increased the available sources of food and the invention of the wheel helped humans in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear weapons.
Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many societies, technology has helped develop more advanced economies (including today's global economy) and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products, known as pollution, and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of the Earth and its environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and new technology often raises new ethical questions. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the challenge of traditional norms.
Philosophical debates have arisen over the present and future use of technology in society, with disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar movements criticise the pervasiveness of technology in the modern world, opining that it harms the environment and alienates people; proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-progressivism view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition. Indeed, until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was restricted only to human beings, but recent scientific studies indicate that other primates and certain dolphin communities have developed simple tools and learned to pass their knowledge to other generations.

Google+ Users Estimated at 62 Million

An enthusiastic Paul Allen (not the Paul Allen of Microsoft fame, but founder of Ancestry.com) predicts continued adoption of Google+, the social network which launched earlier this year, saying that it is on track to reach 100 million users by the end of February 2012. Allen penned this forecast as part of a post on Google+, where he also released an independent estimate that the site now has 62 million users worldwide.

Allen, whose verified name on Google+ lists him as founder of Ancestry.com and "unofficial Google+ statistician," has reportedly been tracking the number of new users who sign up for Google+ and adjusting how he and his team count when Google releases official statements on the number of members. On October 1, Allen says his estimates pointed to about 38 million users; not two weeks later on October 13, Google pronounced the figure at more than 40 million.

Google+, which first appeared as a beta social network in late June of this year and finally opened up to the public in September, garnered a lot of early attention for its potential to become an alternative to Facebook. However, despite the numbers, activity on the social network hasn't lived up to expectations. While a small number of users seem to be use the site fervently, Google+ doesn't have as much social activity or connectivity as its primary rival—so far.

Another one of Allen's predictions for Google+ in the year ahead is that the Network Effect will take hold, meaning the more people use Google+, the more valuable the site will become for everyone on it. However, there's a big difference between using the site and joining, which has been the primary reason for lackluster response to date.

source : www.pcmag.com
By Jill Duffy

Laptop

A laptop, also called a notebook,^[1][2] is a personal computer for mobile use.^[3][4] A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device (a touchpad, also known as a trackpad, and/or a pointing stick) and speakers into a single unit. A laptop is powered by mains electricity via an AC adapter, and can be used away from an outlet using a rechargeable battery.
Portable computers, originally monochrome CRT-based and developed into the modern laptops, and were originally considered to be a small niche market, mostly for specialized field applications such as the military, accountants and sales representatives. As portable computers became smaller, lighter, cheaper, more powerful and as screens became larger and of better quality, laptops became very widely used for all sorts of purposes.

Mobile phone

A mobile phone (also known as a cellular phone, cell phone and a hand phone) is a device that can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile phone operator, allowing access to the public telephone network. By contrast, a cordless telephone is used only within the short range of a single, private base station.
In addition to telephony, modern mobile phones also support a wide variety of other services such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, gaming and photography. Mobile phones that offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.
The first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing around 1 kg.^[1] In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first to be commercially available. In the twenty years from 1990 to 2010, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12.4 million to over 4.6 billion, penetrating the developing economies and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid.^[2][3][4][5]

Nicolas Steno Google Logo Honors Geologist's 374th Birthday

Google's homepage logo on January 11 was transformed to celebrate the 374th birthday of Nicolas Steno (1638 - 1686), a pioneer in the fields of geology and botany.

This Google doodle features a stylized animation of the earth's layers, with green plant life and animals sitting atop sediment embedded with fossils.

The Washington Post explains how the logo reflects Steno‘s most famous contributions to science:

The strata illustrate Steno's "principle of original horizonality," which essentially says that rock layers form horizontally -- and only appear differently if later disturbances cause the deviation. And the fossils in the lower stratified rock help illustrate Steno's "law of superposition," which -- simply put -- says that the oldest rock layers are sequentially deposited on the bottom unless otherwise disturbed.

Born in Denmark, Steno began his professional career studying human anatomy. But it was his examination of shark teeth that led him to question science as the world knew it. He noticed that the teeth resembled shapes he had seen in rocks, and he concluded that those shapes were the remains of ancient animals. According to the University of Vermont's profile of Steno, his discovery marks the birth of modern geology.

"His observations contributed to the fundamental observations that bind together the study of geology, which over time provided the framework that would allow fellow scientists to use fossil evidence to examine how life evolved on Earth," writes UVM.

In 1667, Steno converted to Catholicism and moved on from scientific pursuits to religious study. "He was ordained as a priest in 1675," according to the University of California's Museum of Palentology. "In 1677, he became a titular bishop, and spent the rest of his life ministering to the minority Roman Catholic populations in northern Germany, Denmark, and Norway."

Take a look at the doodle (below) and click through the slideshow to see our favorite doodles ever.