brandsmagazinepakistan-blog

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Brands Magazine

http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/apple-safari-bug-can-crash-iphone/

This Apple Safari bug can crash your iPhone

Apple may claim to have overall better security than Android, but it’s not immune to all kinds of sophisticated attacks. Researcher Sabri Haddouche on Saturday tweeted out a webpage that will cause iOS devices to freeze and reboot when visited. The reason? Apple’s Safari browser contains a flaw that can be exploited to grind the memory processes to a halt.

Safari uses a browser engine called WebKit to render a website’s content and images. However, Haddouche found that WebKit will struggle to render a webpage when its computer code has been written to include a massive number of HTML elements.

“The attack uses a weakness in backdrop filter, a CSS property that uses 3D acceleration to process elements behind them,” he said. Backdrop filter is designed to blur and shade colors across a webpage.

While the code can crash an iOS device, and it could be used by others to cause someone’s iPhone or iPad to crash by including the lines in a message, it is a mostly benign vulnerability in WebKit. Haddouche notes the code cannot be used to execute malware or to perform attacks that could steal a user’s data, but it is difficult to stop the attack from happening once those lines are loaded.

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http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/edotco-terminates-deal-acquire-13000-towers-pakistan/

Edotco terminates deal to acquire 13,000 towers in Pakistan

Edotco Group Sdn Bhd, the Malaysia-based telecom infrastructure services firm, and Pakistan Mobile Communication Limited (PMCL), commonly known as Jazz, have scrapped a $940 million deal, involving acquisition of 13,000 cellular towers, after a long approval limbo, officials said on Monday.

edotco Group, a subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad, introduced immediately that they won’t be shifting ahead with the acquisition of 13,000 towers from Pakistan Cellular Communications Restricted (“PMCL”) in Pakistan. The deal, if it had gone ahead, could have probably introduced in $940 million in direct funding into Pakistan.

“It was bad luck, but there was no option other than cancelation of the deal,” a senior official at Jazz said while talking to The News. The Jazz official said both the companies were attempting to complete the transactions for the last one year and had engaged the authorities concerned for approvals. “However, due to unwanted delays the deal was cancelled by both the parties,” he said.

The transaction was topic to quite a lot of circumstances and terminated because of the non-fulfillment of the circumstances precedent to the SPA inside the stipulated timeframe, specifically the regulatory approval for the ensuing change of management contemplated beneath the SPA.

Edotco mentioned that it stays dedicated to Pakistan and can proceed to develop its current enterprise beneath Edotco Pakistan, comprising of the towers acquired by Tanzanite Towers earlier this year.

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http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/whatsapp-plans-roll-dark-mode-feature/

WhatsApp plans to roll out ‘dark mode’ feature

Social messaging service WhatsApp is expected to roll out a new dark mode feature in its upcoming update.

The new User Interference (UI) will provide a dark background to the traditional WhatsApp interface; this can be useful at night, as it reduces the strain on users’ eyes.

According to WABetaInfo, the new UI will require several improvements before an official update is rolled out and this is the first major cosmetic change in the app since 2009.

I’m happy to exclusively give the good news: WhatsApp is finally working on a Dark Mode! It’s a dream 😍 There are many important secret references in recent updates!

Be patient to see it out, hoping it will be FULL OLED friendly for Android phones, iPhone X and newer!

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) September 14, 2018

Moreover, the Facebook-owned company is also likely to roll out swipe to reply feature in its Android application.

The new feature allows Android users’ to swipe the message to reply instead of tap and hold the message.

The Swipe gesture has been available in iOS for quite some time now.

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Brands Magazine

http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/amazon-investigating-employees-deleted-reviews-sold-sales-data-sellers/

Amazon is investigating it's employees for deleted reviews & sold sales data to sellers

A report that revealed that sellers have bribed Amazon employees to get access to internal sales data or to delete negative reviews, and that the company has launched an investigation into the practice.

According to the report, middlemen use social media sites like WeChat to track down Amazon employees, offering them cash to turn over internal information or to delete negative reviews. The WSJ also reports that it costs roughly $300 to take down a bad review, with brokers “[demanding] a five-review minimum” per transaction. Amazon employees have also been asked to provide e-mail addresses of customers who left negative reviews, or to provide sales information to give sellers an edge against their competitors. To combat the behavior, an Amazon spokesperson told the WSJ that it has implemented “systems to restrict and audit what employees can access.”

The practice “is particularly pronounced” in China, although the company’s investigation extends to US employees as well.

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http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/oneplus-getting-tv-business/

OnePlus is getting into the TV business

OnePlus is getting into a new line of business: making TVs. Best known for its phones, China’s OnePlus also has a small catalog of really good accessories like wireless earphones and surprisingly awesome backpacks, though nothing as complex or expensive as a television set. In announcing the news on the OnePlus online forums, company chief Pete Lau describes it as “the first step in building a connected human experience.”

Every hardware manufacturer is now looking intently at ways to monetize the smart home space. Samsung and Huawei recently announced smart speakers, Apple and Google already have the HomePod and Google Home, respectively, and Microsoft and Sony are old incumbents with their Xbox and PlayStation consoles. OnePlus has decided to make its entry point into this market the TV itself, which has always been at the center of home entertainment, though often with the help of other connected devices. Reading Lau’s teaser announcement, the OnePlus TV which so far only has a project name, no timeline or specs have been revealed will serve as the connectivity hub for OnePlus’ future vision of the smart home.

The OnePlus smart TV will be developed by a new division within OnePlus, led by Pete Lau himself. Still at the earliest stages of development, OnePlus is currently seeking input from its fans, as it often does, about what their priorities with a future smart TV will be

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Brands Magazine

http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/samsung-galaxy-s10s-claimed-significant-changes/

Samsung Galaxy S10s claimed to having ‘very significant’ changes

According to latest brand updates, Samsung  has claimed to launch the S series flagship Galaxy S10 with ‘very significant’ changes in design.

According to CEO Samsung, he said that the flagship smartphone will come with major changes. However he did not provide any further detail on the kind of changes.

On a separate design note, the CEO has revealed that there will be very “amazing” colors on offer when it comes to the Galaxy S10.

The South Korean tech giant is expected to unveil Galaxy S10 at MWC (Mobile World Congress) 2019 in February.

Galaxy S10 is expected to come in three variants and the largest of the three will feature five cameras (three on the rear and two up front).

The other two, on the other hand, are expected to stick to a singular sensor up front and just two on the rear. Internally, however, all three will be powered by the same Exynos 9820 processor.

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http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/time-magazine-acquired-salesforce-founder-marc-benioff/

Time Magazine acquired by salesforce founder Marc Benioff

Time Magazine is being sold by Meredith Corp. to Marc Benioff, a co-founder of Salesforce, and his wife, it was announced Sunday. Meredith announced that it was selling Time magazine for $190 million in cash to Benioff, one of four co-founders of Salesforce, a cloud computing pioneer.

Meredith had completed the purchase of Time along with other publications of Time Inc. earlier this year. The deal is expected to be completed within 30 days, according to a press release.

“The Benioffs are purchasing TIME personally and the transaction is unrelated to Salesforce.com, where Mr. Benioff is Chairman, co-CEO and founder,” according to the release.

The Benioffs “will not be involved in the day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions, which will continue to be led by TIME’s current executive leadership team,” the release said.

The move thrusts the brash 53-year-old entrepreneur, who helped lead the shift of software to an on-demand model, into a new role. It’s a transaction reminiscent of Bezos’s $250 million acquisition of the Washington Post in 2013. That purchase brought Bezos a Pulitzer Prize-winning, 140-year-old newspaper but also put him in the cross hairs of President Donald Trump, who has called the Post an “expensive lobbyist” for Amazon.com Inc.

Benioff, who has a net worth of $6.5 billion, serves as the co-chief executive officer of Salesforce, but the deal is unrelated to the tech company, according to the statement. The Benioffs are buying the media brand personally.

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Brands Magazine

http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/google-mistakenly-altered-battery-settings-android-phones/

Google 'mistakenly' altered battery settings on android phones

A mix of people who own Google Pixel phones and other devices running Android 9 Pie noticed that the software’s Battery Saver feature had been switched on seemingly all by itself. And oddly, this was happening when the phones were near a full charge, not when the battery was low. As reported by Android Police, initially it was assumed that this was some kind of minor bug in the latest version of Android, which was only released a few weeks ago. Some users thought they might’ve just enabled Battery Saver without realizing.

This wasn’t just limited to Pixel phones, however; devices including the Essential Phone, OnePlus 6, Nokia handsets, and others running Pie switched Battery Saver on without any user action. According to Google, when active, Battery Saver:

Stops apps from refreshing content until you open them

Stops use of location services when the display is off

Prevents apps from doing things in the background

Delays some notifications

So that might’ve resulted in some frustration for users who didn’t even realize it was on.

The company posted a message on Reddit last night acknowledging “an internal experiment to test battery saving features that were mistakenly rolled out to more users than intended.” So Google had remotely — and accidentally — changed a phone setting for a bunch of real-world customers. Several staffers at The Verge experienced the issue. “We have now rolled battery saver settings back to default. Please configure to your liking,” stated the team before apologizing for the error.

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http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/two-ways-put-team-productivity-overdrive/

Two ways to put your team productivity into overdrive

A typical day in the life of a professional team consists of an endless number of to-dos. Unless there’s a plan in place to tackle them, the items on the checklist pile up fast. The right kind of project management becomes essential: It can prevent confusion and improve productivity. Here are some simple but effective ways to help your team remain on top of the workflow.

Invest in the right to-do list app for your team.

Sometimes, especially if you are just starting out, a simple to-do list app is all you need. You don’t need a full-fledged project management tool, just an effective checklist app that simplifies task management for your employees. The latter has its advantages; as a long-time user of Google Keep, my reliance on the app means I can’t go a single day without using it. In an office setup, however, you need something more professional. We have many excellent choices in this field to help users organize their tasks and navigate through busy days and projects.

  Use mind maps to boost creativity.

It would be reductive to say that a mind map is essentially multiple to-do lists in one. The reason: A mind map is so much more than that. It’s a detailed drawing that allows users’ creativity to flow. It’s an excellent brainstorming tool, and it’s something I highly recommend all businesses invest in. Use it to start the conception journey for a project and see your productivity jump. Not just your productivity, but also the quality of your ideas. With the right kind of mind-mapping tool, teams can visualize complex tasks in great detail, zero in on the gaps, see obstacles and predict outcomes that might otherwise be easy to miss.

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Brands Magazine

http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/apple-hasnt-put-effort-new-iphone-names/

Apple hasn't put in any effort for their new iPhone names

This year, Apple reached the end of its iPhone X (read: ten) names. Next year remains a mystery. Apple has gone through all the numbers from one through ten, skipping two and nine for its own reasons. Now, for better or worse, next year, it’ll likely need to figure out a new naming scheme.

Apple hastened its way toward a dead end last year when it decided to switch to Roman numerals rather than continuing with numbers as it had done in the past. A report at the end of August indicated that the people behind the names struggled to come up with names that would work. Since this year’s iPhones didn’t really change many things beyond last year’s, they didn’t seem compelling enough to grant a whole new name. The cheapest iPhone is also bigger than the midrange option, so Apple namers had to take that into consideration, too and aim for a name that wouldn’t confuse consumers.

The final results still seem kind of bad. For some reason, Apple went with an iPhone XS Max, instead of just going for an iPhone XS and an iPhone Max. Personally i think that’s just being lazy however Apple says there is a distinction they wanted to send a message that the two phones are related in some way.

But to the average person, the iPhone XS Max just sounds like a pretty bad name. Why didn’t they go with iPhone XS and XL? That just makes logical sense, and since we’re used to seeing those letters represent sizes, it’s not as unfamiliar and difficult to say as XR and XS Max and XS. Try saying that five times fast.

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Brands Magazine

https://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/google-v-s-alibaba-cloud-computing-war/

It's Google v/s Alibaba in the Cloud Computing

As the competition intensifies in the cloud computing space around the globe, two titans Google and Alibaba collide.While the tech company Google has disclosed its plans for expansion, the Chinese firm Alibaba had announced its entry into the market in August too.

The already crowded cloud market has a stellar line of players operating in the segment, which includes Amazon’s AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, Oracle and Alibaba. A huge number of Chinese players like Huawei and Tencent are expanding their reach in the cloud market too. Not just the big companies but the growing dominance in the market has driven the telecom companies to go beyond the traditional technologies like SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. The market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC) says that China is the biggest spender in Asia cloud market. Spending on public cloud services in the Asia region excluding Japan has hit $15 billion in 2018, representing an increase of 35% over the year before

Google has its cloud operations in five regions in the Asia market, which includes Singapore, Mumbai and Sydney.  Since its first launch 18 months ago, the tech company has gained ground in other parts of the Asia region. The cloud supplier claims substantial growth in Asia-Pacific and is upping the ante on partnerships and infrastructure investments across the region. While the Chinese tech giant Alibaba will be launching its data centers in Singapore and Japan, Google already counts the likes of AirAsia, Go-Jek, Mahindra and Mizuho Bank as clients. Alibaba already operates five data centers in China and Hong Kong. The company has partnered with giants like Singtel, Intel, Equinix and Towngas for its expansion in cloud space.

Google Cloud’s APAC managing director, Richard Harshman, said the company would “double down” on partnerships with regional systems integrators and enterprise technology companies. “We’re really seeing that taking shape in India where we have than 4,000 technology partners,” he said at the Google Cloud Summit in Singapore. Google is also ramping up its infrastructure investments in the region. By the end of 2018, Harshman said, enterprises would have six Google Cloud regions across Asia, including Tokyo, Taipei, Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai, as well as Hong Kong in the later part of the year.

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Brands Magazine

http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/artificial-intelligence-take-away-28-million-jobs-2028/

Artificial Intelligence could take away 28 million jobs by 2028

Recent reports say The rapid advancement in technology is a serious worry for business leaders like Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.ecent reports say The rapid advancement in technology is a serious worry for business leaders like Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Certain industries are experiencing job losses due to the emergence of new technologies like automation, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. A  recent study by Cisco and Oxford Economics shows the impact of AI on workers in some of the largest economies in the world.

Over the next decade, innovations in digital technology will present vast opportunities for economies to boost their productivity and prosperity. The more widespread adoption of existing technologies, coupled with advances in the use of AI through software, hardware, and robotics, has the potential to transform business capabilities, says the study. However, the digital transformation will also mean that many of the region’s workers face considerable disturbance. To better understand these opportunities and challenges, Cisco has worked with Oxford Economics to explore what the next decade of technological change will mean for workers. A multidisciplinary team of experts were assembled from across the globe to advise on the future role of technology in different industries and occupations. The study leveraged data on 433 occupations across 21 industries to model the impact of these technology adoption patterns on the 275 million full-time equivalents workers. The study finds that, by 2028, 28 million fewer workers across many economies more than 10 per cent of the current workforce will be required to produce the same level of output as today. This constitutes substantial productivity gains from more widespread technology adoption, which will drive growth and create new demands for workers.

In contrast, many sectors will experience a net increase in their demand for jobs by 2028, because of the rise in spending power through increased productivity more than offsets the jobs directly displaced by technology. The sectors projected to see the greatest rise in demand for new workers are wholesale & retail (1.8 million new FTE jobs), manufacturing (0.9 million), construction (0.9 million), and transport (0.7 million).

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http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/spacex-announces-new-plan-send-tourist-around-moon/

SpaceX announces new plan to send tourist around Moon

SpaceX recently announced a new plan to launch a tourist around the Moon using its Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), a massive launch vehicle that is being designed to carry people to deep space.

“SpaceX has signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle – an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of travelling to space,” the company said on Twitter.

This is not the first time the California-based company, headed by Internet entrepreneur and Tesla electric car CEO Elon Musk, has touted plans to send tourists around the Moon.

In February 2017, SpaceX announced it would send the world’s first two space tourists around the Moon in late 2018. That plan called for them to ride on a Dragon crew vehicle, similar to the cargo ships that SpaceX routinely sends loaded with supplies to the International Space Station.

However, the company has remained quite about those plans in recent months.

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https://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/samsungs-first-8k-tv-possibly-launch-month/

Samsung’s first 8K TV possibly to launch this month

Samsung Electronics is set to unveil the Q900R QLED 8K screen, its first foray into 8K displays, which also uses artificial intelligence for upscaling, at the upcoming IFA 2018 in Berlin.

“We’ve worked tirelessly over the years to move the industry forward when it comes to premium picture quality, and the introduction of our QLED 8K with 8K AI Upscaling is an integral component as we look to the future of displays,” says Samsung Electronics Visual Display Business senior vice-president Jongsuk Chu in a press release.

He adds the technology is a part of the company’s long-term vision of pushing 8K quality as the most accurate and life-like screen resolution on the market.

To achieve high resolution images, the screen features Real 8K Resolution capable of 4,000 nit peak brightness – a standard met by most film studios – which Samsung claims allows the TV to produce four times more pixels than a 4K UHD TV and 16 times more pixels than a full HD TV.

The QLED 8K is expected to be available in stores from end of September, although there is no official word on the specific date or which models will be available.

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http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/much-average-pakistani-need-work-buy-latest-iphone-xs/

How much does an average Pakistani need to work to buy the latest iPhone XS?

The launch of Apple’s new iPhone models has moved people to look out for financial resources to clinch the novel gadget, with data curated to the extent that how much one needs to work to buy the handheld device.

An interesting data shows that an average Pakistani needs to invest 88.6 days in his profession to buy latest iPhone XS 64 GB, falling at the second last spot in the table devised in terms of work days needed for citizens from across the globe.

Interestingly, despite having to work for so many days to buy the Apple rollout, there is no official store of the US tech giant in Pakistan and only third-party resellers offer the product; an increased price up to 20 or 30 per cent is charged from an average Pakistani due to non-availability of the official store.

Tabulated by Picodi, the data shows that professionals in the Philippines need to work for 156.6 days to purchase Apple’s iPhone XS – which was released on September 12.

Argentina comes at the third last spot with citizens needed to work for 60.1 days to procure iPhone XS, the price of which is $999 for the 64 GB variant.

Interestingly, the iPhones are designed in California, however, its citizens are not at liberty when it comes to buying the product. An average American needs the earnings from 8.4 days to buy the phone.

On the other end, Swiss people top the chart as they only need 5.1 days’ earning to clinch the iPhone model, succeeded by citizens of Luxembourg with earnings of 6.9 days to bag the gadget.

Sources: DailyPakistan

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http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/govt-likely-increase-duty-mobile-phone-imports/

Govt likely to increase duty on mobile phone imports

With the new government taking over there are certainly some major changes bound to happen. Finance Minister Asad Umar has expressed that the government is planning to introduce necessary changes in the Finance Act 2018 to make it more relevant to the current economic state of the country. The previous government had imposed a levy of up to Rs 5000 on importing mobile phone handsets in the budget 2018-19 which came into effect from July 1, 2018, through Finance Act 2018.

According to the Finance Act 2018, smartphones of different categories are charged under the following criteria:

The levy is zero where the import value of handset (including duties and taxes) does not exceed Rs10, 000.

There is a levy of Rs 1000 per set where import value of handset (including duties and taxes) exceeds Rs10, 000 but does not exceed Rs 40, 000.

There is a levy of Rs 3000 where the import value of handset (including duties and taxes) exceeds Rs 40, 000 but does not exceed Rs 80, 000.

There is a levy of Rs 5000 where the import value of handset (including duties and taxes) exceeds Rs 80,000 per set.

According to the Finance Act, a levy of Regulatory Duty (RD) @ Rs175/set on completely knocked down (CKD)/semi-knocked-down (SKD) kits of mobile phones had been imposed.

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http://www.monthlybrands.com.pk/apple-advanced-iphone-last-decade/

How Apple has advanced iPhone in the last decade

Apple every year releases new iPhone models. So, here’s a look at some of the iconic features of iPhone that changed the smartphone forever.

Apple Multi-Touch Interface

The first generation iPhone introduced a multi touch interface for the masses in 2007.

Safari Web Browser

You can install other browsers from the App Store, but the default web browser that is in built in every iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad is Safari web browser. On January 7, 2003, at Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced that Apple had developed their own web browser, called Safari. A Windows version, now discontinued, was available from 2007 to 2012.

Speed Upgrade

In Apple’s third handset iPhone 3GS, “S” stood for speed. The new features of this model were internal changes related speed

World’s Thinnest Smartphone

With iPhone 4, Apple regained the crown as the thinnest smartphone in the world. It was also the first iPhone model to have two cameras for making FaceTime video calls. The model received generally positive reception, with critics praising its revamped design and more powerful hardware in comparison to previous models. While it was a market success, with over 600,000 pre-orders within 24 hours

New Accelerometer and Gyroscope Technology

Steve Jobs gave a quick display of iPhone 4 to show off its new gyroscopic capabilities. Gyroscopic capabilities included keeping iPhone 4 competitive with new handheld gaming systems, along with other iOS-enabled devices that Apple produces in the future.