PAKISTAN:
Govt to set up a $75 million fund for giving loans to entrepreneurs:
The government, through State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), is setting up a fund for startups in the country. Startups and budding businesses will not be getting it for free, they are only allowed to borrow from the $75 million fund. The government will be disbursing the amount to credit lending institutions and micro-finance banks, which will then loan it to startups.
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Not to trade in bitcoin, cryptocurrencies: SBP
State Bank of Pakistan has issued a warning to all banks, payment services providers and the general public not to trade in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. The State Bank of Pakistan cites cryptocurrency investment as highly risky due to its volatile nature and highly unstable as their prices are based on speculations. In a statement, SBP has said that trading of Bitcoin, PakCoin (a local market coin), Lite Coin is illegal in Pakistan and they have not issued licenses for any of these entities.
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Facebook to help in upcoming elections
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook‘s CEO has announced that the company will be using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and employment of a large number of people, to help strengthen its security features. The company plans to keep the platform’s focus centralized on the confidentiality of upcoming elections in Pakistan and other countries. Zuckerberg added that several countries, including Pakistan, will hold elections in the coming months of 2018 and therefore, his company is working on focusing on confidentiality and prevent abnormal data such as fake news to be used. This will allow fairness and transparency in the upcoming elections.
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Honor adds new face unlock feature for 7x and 9 lite:
Honor, the leading smartphone brand under the Huawei Group, is rolling out the Face Unlock feature in their recently launched phones: Honor 9 Lite and Honor 7X. The feature only requires a software update as the Honor team has already considered and baked in the hardware requirements for the new feature.
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Xiaomi Mi band 3 will have a touchscreen:
Xiaomi’s wearables manufacturing subsidiary, Huami, has confirmed that they will soon unveil Mi Band 2’s successor, the highly anticipated Mi Band 3.
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Huawei posts a 28% increase in profits:
HUAWEI has released its audited financial results for 2017, reporting solid business growth. The company’s total annual revenue was $ 92.5 billion, an increase of 15.7% over 2016. Net profits were $7.3 billion, an increase of 28.1% year-on-year.
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These photos show off Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s’ dual cameras:
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S was launched around a week ago and just like its excellent predecessor, Mi Mix 2, it marked itself as the company’s new bezel-less king. The phone came with top of the line hardware paired with an ultra-premium design. Compared to the Mi Mix 2, not many things changed in terms of design and build, however, the Mi Mix 2S has an all-new dual-camera set up on top of Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 845.
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List of Android phones supporting google project treble revealed:
Android’s fragmentation issue has been a sore point of discussion for Google. This issue leaves a large number of new features – that each new version of Android brings – unavailable on most phones. However, Google is trying to fix that with Project Treble. Project Treble tries to ensure that phones, other than Google’s own Pixel, come with easier upgrades to new software versions.
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Sony’s Xperia XZ2 series beats galaxy S9 and Iphone X in battery life tests:
When it comes to battery life, the smartphone world seems to agree to a universal standard of single-day battery life. A recent report from Strategy Analytics compares the recently launched Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact with other smartphones with a similar battery capacity. It was followed by the LG G6, while the more mainstream rivals, the iPhone X (32:20), Huawei P10 (32:08) and Galaxy S9 lagged behind. In particular, the S9 at 26 hours, 52 minutes, and Oppo R11 at 16 hours and 36 minutes came as a major surprise.
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These drumheads are one trillionth the size of human eardrums:
Researchers have developed a tiny eardrum, which is a trillion times smaller than a human one, with “cat-like” sensitivity. As the communications needs of the world continue to evolve with our gadgets, this new mechanical eardrum promises to outpace even the good old human ear when it comes to accuracy.
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Huawei Honor 7A brings modern features at an entry level price:
Huawei has unveiled a new entry-level phone in its Honor brand. The Honor 7A comes with a 2.5D glass display at the front, with a dual-camera setup on the back. The display at the front is a 5.7″ 2.5D panel, with 2:1 aspect ratio. It does come with a slightly below-par HD+ (720 x 1440) resolution, even though its competitors have long graduated to Full HD+ (1080 x 2160).
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INTERNATIONAL:
Whatsapp introduces locked recordings:
WhatsApp the most popular messaging application, has introduced “Locked Recordings” button, as well as ‘Preview Recordings’ on its beta, build version 2.18.71 that many of us have been waitingr for a long time. This feature will enable the possibility to record voice messages without having to hold down the record button.
Whatsapp developers are busy working on some brand new features in the last few weeks. With “Locked Recordings” feature, users will be able to lock the voice recording button instead of holding onto to it as seen in the current version of WhatsApp. The ‘locked microphone’ button will appear once users press and hold the ‘mic’ icon in the chat for 0.5 seconds.
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Youtube shooting: three shot at California HQ, female suspect dead:
A woman shot and wounded three people at YouTube’s headquarters in Northern California before killing herself, police say. Police have named the suspect as Nasim Aghdam, 39, and say they are still investigating a motive. They say there is no evidence yet that she knew the victims, a 36-year-old man said to be in a critical condition, and two women aged 32 and 27.
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Apple watch provides murder case clues:
Police in Australia have presented data gathered from an Apple Watch as evidence in a murder trial. Grandmother Myrna Nilsson was wearing the device when she was killed in 2016. Her daughter-in-law Caroline Nilsson is accused of staging an ambush, after claiming she was tied up by a group of men who entered the house.
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Zipline blood delivery drone applies for US trial:
Drone delivery firm Zipline has revealed a new aircraft that it says will let it make up to 500 deliveries every day. Zipline operates a commercial service delivering blood supplies in Rwanda. The new drone weighs 20kg (44lb) and can carry 1.75kg of cargo. It can drop its delivery to an area about the size of two parking spaces.
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Snapchat adds 16-person group video calls:
Snapchat has launched a feature that enables up to 16 people to take part in a live chat together, using either video or just their voices. The app’s members can also start tagging each other by username, using the @ symbol in their posts.
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Half of European flights delayed due to system failure:
The organisation responsible for co-ordinating European air traffic says it has fixed an earlier fault which led to widespread flight delays. Eurocontrol earlier said that delays could affect up to half of all flights in Europe – about 15,000 trips. It said the faulty system was restarted at 19:00 GMT, and normal operations had resumed.
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Tesla shares higher after model 3 production boost:
Shares in electric car firm Tesla have risen after it announced a boost in production of its cheaper Model 3 cars in the first quarter. The firm said it had “by far the most productive quarter in Tesla history” after it built 34,494 vehicles, 9,766 of which were Model 3s. Tesla’s profitability is reliant on increasing its Model 3 production.
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Facebook’s Zuckerberg fires back at Apple’s Tim Cook:
Facebook’s chief executive has defended his leadership following criticism from his counterpart at Apple. Mark Zuckerberg said it was “extremely glib” to suggest that because the public did not pay to use Facebook that the firm did not care about them. Last week, Apple’s Tim Cook said it was an “invasion of privacy” to traffic in users’ personal lives.