Telenor Caught Sending Spam Emails, Disowning Them Now!: ProPakistani

Telenor Caught Sending Spam Emails, Disowning Them Now!
Emails Retrieved From Benazir Bhutto’s BlackBerry Phones Unveil Shocking Evidences
Ufone Package Conversion Fee Go Up by 50-100%
Win Prizes with PTCL World Cup Challenge
Dual Core Processors To Empower Next-Gen Mobile Devices

Telenor Caught Sending Spam Emails, Disowning Them Now!

Posted: 09 Feb 2011 12:35 AM PST

Telenor Caught Sending Spam Emails, Disowning Them Now! is a post from: ProPakistani

Telenor Pakistan, best known for ethics, has strategically stepped into SPAMMING Business.

This is probably what we were destined to see after CMO's change, the company has gone beyond its policies and allegedly hired a local Google Group moderator to send unsolicited emails to those internet users who never subscribed to the service.

Telenor, in a communication with ProPakistani, has disowned this email and said Telenor never sends unsolicited emails to anyone.

Telenor said it has nothing to do with the email in question, as evident from sender's email address (obviously it's group owner's email id) – it must be someone's effort at individual/personal level.

However, in contrary to what Telenor claimed, the Google group owner (his cell number was mentioned at the bottom) confirmed that Telenor had hired him to send this email to his group members.

When specifically asked if Telenor's office hired him or some franchiser/retailer at individual capacity got the service, he replied "Telenor Pakistan officially contacted him for the bulk email service".

Moreover, the link back provided in the email lead us to Telenor's official website, the page is now broken, however, it was opening few hours ago.

No man in this world will pay thousands of rupees to advertise a website which is not in his ownership and benefits.

On other side, even if Telenor didn't hire this bulk email solution officially, it's Telenor's responsibility to cap their franchisers in doing so. I am sure they have at least this much control over their franchisers/retailers.

Telenor's this SPAM email is in connection to company's growing efforts to sell postpaid connections. According to latest report, Telenor Pakistan has some 227,000 postpaid customers out of total 25 million subscriber base.

This is not the first time any multi national company has indulged itself into spamming business. Nokia and HP were found doing similar practices in past.

It merits mentioning here that sending SPAM email is a crime punishable under the law as Electronic Transaction Ordinance section 36 and 37. Their prosecution may go severe if PECO is given a go ahead from parliament.

Emails Retrieved From Benazir Bhutto’s BlackBerry Phones Unveil Shocking Evidences

Posted: 09 Feb 2011 12:33 AM PST

Emails Retrieved From Benazir Bhutto’s BlackBerry Phones Unveil Shocking Evidences is a post from: ProPakistani

benezir Emails Retrieved From Benazir Bhuttos BlackBerry Phones Unveil Shocking Evidences We have seen cell phones being produced as evidences in very crucial historical cases, this time, it's the Blackberry phones possessed by assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Recently, 2 Blackberry phones, belonging to Benazir Bhutto were handed over to the joint investigation team conducting an inquiry into her murder on Thursday, reported Express Tribune.

Today, the newspaper broke another news which claims that data from the blackberry has been retrieved by the investigation team which reveals that Benazir Bhutto was promised Prime Minister's slot from highest authorities in both Pakistan and the United States that.

Paper claims that close to 60 e-mails, dozens of text messages and close to four hundred contact numbers have been retrieved from both the BlackBerry phones.

Express Tribune has produced few emails of Benazir Bhutto as following:

"Respected Prime Minister (Benazir Bhutto), the United States confirmed that a crucial message had been sent to intelligence agencies of Pakistan, specifically not to interfere in party affairs and stay away from the electoral process. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and director-general Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) have done a secret deal for your (Benazir Bhutto) premiership.

Congratulations Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and warm regards," read an e-mail sent by a leading PPP leader on October 23, 2007, to Benazir Bhutto calling her "Respected Prime Minister".

An email was sent by Benazir to Ron Suskind, an American journalist, some days prior to her assassination. The former prime minister, while referring to the then president of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf said that he wrote to his friend that he (Musharraf) gave her an alarming message:

"You (Benazir) should understand that your security is based on the state of relations between you and me (Benazir and Musharraf)."

In another e-mail, dated October 26, 2007, the slain PPP leader wrote a letter to her advisor in Washington DC, Mark Siegel, in which she expressed dissatisfaction over her security.

She wrote:

"Nothing will happen, just wanted you to know. If it does, in addition to the names in my letter to President Musharraf, I would hold Musharraf responsible.

I have been made to feel insecure by his minions and there is no way what is happening in terms of stopping me from taking private security or using tinted windows of four police mobiles to cover all sides could happen without him (Musharraf)."

Bhutto also sent an SMS message to Daphne Barak, a famous interviewer who often writes for Mail Online. In reply to an SMS message, Barak wrote:

"Bibi, you are going to Pakistan. It's a trap for you now. But you are insisting to go back."

Ufone Package Conversion Fee Go Up by 50-100%

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 09:18 PM PST

Ufone Package Conversion Fee Go Up by 50-100% is a post from: ProPakistani

U Logo Ufone Package Conversion Fee Go Up by 50 100% Ufone has announced a 50-100 percent increase in package conversion fee for its prepaid customers to be charged from 5 March 2011, said Ufone's official website.

Dear Customer, Package conversion fee will be revised on 5th March 2011. Conversions of Rs 5 and Rs 10 will be charged at Rs 10 and Rs 15 respectively.

Telecom Recorder says it received an official statement, according to which, the package conversion fee will be revised to Rs. 10 from Rs 5 on different of its packages (100 percent hike) whereas Rs. 15 will be charged on the change of multiple packages, which is currently charged at Rs 10 (50 percent hike).

The charges will be applicable on all local and international voice packages and offers.

The hike in fees has been decided to earn revenues from the customers, who regularly switch over their different packages for availing benefits, said Telecom Recorder.

Ufone has introduced more than dozens of packages over a period of time in order to attract maximum customers towards its network and towards utility of services.

The increase in fees is a rare thing in the highly competitive telecom sector of the country. Though cellular phone operators are quite wise to impose different charges side by side of tariff cuts on their services.

Win Prizes with PTCL World Cup Challenge

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 09:11 PM PST

Win Prizes with PTCL World Cup Challenge is a post from: ProPakistani

To add to the excitement of World Cup 2011, PTCL presents World Cup Challenge service across all consumer products / services offered by PTCL.

The challenge includes a cricket quiz that challenge your wits and expands your knowledge. Winners of this competition will quality for a raffle and could win precious prizes like tickets to Colombo, professional cricket kits, EVO dongles, branded wrist watches and branded hot steel mugs, T-shirts and P-caps and one Bumper prize trip for two to an exotic destination etc.

The winners will be announced through five lucky draws on selected dates. Customers will be approached by CSRs and prizes will be awarded in a ceremony at their nearest One Stop Shop (OSS).

Once the World Cup starts live match commentary will also be available along with World Cup challenge quiz on 1216.

PTCL Landline/Vfone Customers:

All PTCL landline and Vfone customers can participate by dialing 1216. an IVR will guide you to live commentary or World Cup Challenge Quiz. The service would be charged Rs 1 / minute (Exclusive of tax) If you are VFONE customer, you can subscribe for Cricket SMS alerts for Rs. 5/Match or Rs. 50 for entire world cup

There's no subscription required, you just have to dial short access code 1216 to access this service with no monthly recurring charges.

EVO World Cup Promotions

Buy a new Evo connection on Unlimited Package
Upgrade your existing package to Unlimited.

Mega Prize – Tickets to Colombo for Semi Final

Upgrade your package during the Cricket World Cup Challenge.
- Day Pass =>1GB, 2GB or 5GB
- 1GB =>2GBor 5GB
- 2GB =>5GB

Terms & Conditions:

This promotion is valid from 8^th February till 2^nd April 2011.
Only those customers can qualify for Mega Prize who purchase a new Evo connection on Unlimited or Evo Max package.
Existing Customers upgrading their package to Unlimited or Evo Max package will also qualify for Mega Prize.
Existing customers upgrading to all other packages will be entered into a raffle to win other prizes.
All customers purchasing new Evo connection on Unlimited or Evo Max package or upgrading their packages will qualify for the Bumper Prize.

PTCL Broadband Pakistan Promotions

Upgrade or get a 2 Mbps or Higher Connection.
Upgrade or get a student package or 1 Mbps package to qualify for special prizes & qualify for the luck draw.
Only those customers qualify for Mega and Bumper Prize who upgrade a 2Mbps or higher connection.

PTCL Smart TV Promotions

Get a Smart TV connection during the World Cup & qualify for the luck draw.Also get 50% discount on the STB.

Prizes:

Mega Prize – 5 luck winners will get Tickets to Colombo for Semi Final

Bumper Prize – Trip for 2 to a surprise exotic destination.

Other prizes include: 50 professional cricket kits, 50 EVO dongles and much more

Terms & Conditions

PTCL employees or business partners are not eligible for this promotion.
Decision of PTCL regarding the announcement of winners shall be final.

Dual Core Processors To Empower Next-Gen Mobile Devices

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 09:00 PM PST

Dual Core Processors To Empower Next-Gen Mobile Devices is a post from: ProPakistani

Not long ago (5 years only), desktop computing encountered the same problem where mobile computing is headed today i.e. high power consumption for increase in processing power.

Problem was tackled with the introduction of multi-core processing allowing optimum performance with lower power consumption.

Similarly, the concept of mobile computing has reached to a whole new level with all new demands – with the introduction of mobile devices with processing power up to 1GHz. The trend is gradually shifting towards having desktop like web-browsing and video recording/playback experience on mobile gadgets. After all, if your device is capable of encoding/decoding 720p HD videos and can output it over HDMI then you'd probably prefer your pocket-sized portable device over a dedicated player more often.

After the release of Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab last year, mobile industry is speculated to see a lot of new tablets from different manufacturers this year. The expectations would be high in terms of performance and manufacturers will have to live up to them if they want to be in the contention.

Of course, they'd need capable hardware components to accomplish the tasks and offer support to different application developers.

What's the Need of Dual Core Processing?

If an OS (Android, iOS or WinMo) running on top of 1GHz processor with dedicated hardware accelerated graphics chips, providing snappier UI performance than ever before and almost delivering desktop like web-experience on mobile devices then why is it all of a sudden that much necessary to switch to multi-core processing? Why not just enhance the processing power to let's say 1.5 or 2 GHz to cater for the high end demands?

Think about browsing a website (over WiFi) containing ActiveX/JavaScript menus and having Adobe Flash contents, sending text messages to a list of recipients and social network application clients running in background, also having several OS specific processes running in parallel.

Single core processors can handle this level of multi-tasking but it'd be too much of a task. Since ActiveX/JavaScript codes require separate processing, Flash content also needs to be processed independently and there can be more than one instances of Flash objects, additionally, SNS applications clients are running with other processes in parallel so it's obvious that under these heavy circumstances single core processor will be operating at its maximum frequency.

Higher the operating frequency of a semiconductor device, higher will be the power consumption (which actually defines the battery backup of mobile devices in our example).

Now, let's think of having same processes but on a dual-core processing device. OS can easily distribute the jobs among the cores and both processors will be operating at normal frequency (no over-loading or operating at maximum frequency), thus, there'll be no high power consumption.

This is, certainly, not the only case where dual-core processors will be required. There're numerous examples where a multi-core processor is the next-best-thing to have e.g. 1080p HD video encoding/decoding, multi-threaded web browsers and applications, online gaming, support for stereoscopic cameras for 3D video capturing and 3D (glasses-free) video playback etc.

General Architecture, Manufacturers & Benefits of Dual-Core Processors:

Unlike desktop processors, mobile processors are based on System-on-a-chip (SoC) concept. An SoC, typically, has a processor, a dedicated graphics processing Unit (GPU), memory blocks, support for external connectivity interfaces and voltage & power management circuits.

A multi-core SoC consists of more than one processor cores or Digital Signal processor (DSP) cores, GPU, L1 & L2 cache blocks and also supports different features offered by the manufacturer.

Currently, three manufacturers are offering Dual-Core SoC based on ARMv7 Instruction set processor architecture.

nVIDIA's Tegra-2, Qualcomm's Snapdragon (3^rd generation chipsets) and Texas Instruments' (TI) OMAP-4 platforms offer dual-core processors with dedicated GPUs and manufacturer specific implementations of low power consumption algorithms. Both Tegra-2 and OMAP-4 based chips have ARM Coretx-A9 processor cores while the cores in Snapdragon platform chips have been designed by Qualcomm based on ARM architecture.

One of the major advantages of multi-core processing is the implementation of Symmetrical Multiprocessing (SMP) technology. SMP is being extensively used in desktop computing and ARM has introduced this concept to handheld devices with the introduction of Cortex-A9 Multi-processors. SMP architecture consist of two or more identical processor cores on a single chip with all cores sharing a common memory and controlled by a single operating system. All cores can work independently or in load-sharing mode whenever required.

In example, discussed above, OS is exploiting SMP to distribute the tasks among two cores keeping the device within power limits. Multi-threaded application and games can be benefited greatly by multi-core processors having SMP support since OS can assign multiple threads of an application to one or multiple cores depending upon the workload and type of activity thus optimizing performance. If required OS can even turn off other cores and utilize only one core for a specific operation. SMP can also enhance device UI experience for faster response since multiple applications running in background, at times, on a single core processor system result in delayed response to input commands.

Devices With Dual-Core Processors:

LG Electronics has taken the initiative to introduce world's first dual-core mobile phone in the form of LG Optimus 2X, which is powered by nVIDIA Tegra-2 platform.

Motorola ATRIX is the other device sporting same dual-core hardware processing capabilities. Samsung have announced that successor of their coveted and highly successful device (Samsung I9000 Galaxy S) will also feature a dual-core processor.

It's just the beginning of new generation of mobile phone; called SuperPhones by nVIDIA. A lot of new devices; including but not limited to mobile phones, featuring dual-core processors are expected to be announced at Mobile World Congress 2011 (Barcelona from 14-17 Feb 2011).

Final Words:

SMP supported Dual-core processor devices provide unparalleled opportunities to manufacturers and application developers.

They're aimed at providing optimum performance and unprecedented user experience with support for cutting-edge technologies. Application developers have now lot of room available to effectively utilize the hardware capabilities of devices as multi-threaded support will greatly benefit their applications and games. While, current release of mobile OSes (Android for example) may not be optimized for multi-core devices but device performance can expected to be better when compared to single-core alternatives available.

Note: For further details on architecture and performance enhancements by multi-core processors, please refer to these whitepapers by nVIDIA and TI.

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