Microsoft Pakistan Inspires Young Girls Towards IT Professions

Microsoft Pakistan recently conducted DigiGirlz Camp 2013 to foster Information Technology related education among young women of Pakistan.

DigiGirlz is a Microsoft Youth Spark Program which is a signature platform to invest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education for young women and build a pipeline of future workers ready for the challenges of the global economy.

The Microsoft DigiGirlz High Tech Camp was developed to provide girls with a better understanding of what a career in technology is all about. This exciting experience provides high school girls with opportunities to learn about careers in technology, talk with Microsoft employees about their life experiences, and enjoy hands-on computer and technology workshops.

The camp includes experiential work with robotics, demonstrations of the use of simulation technology, experiences with technology like Windows 8 touchscreen slates, sessions on branding to teach the girls the importance of branding themselves the way they want to be known, speed networking sessions with Microsoft employees, Geoteaming Scavenger Hunt and many other unique experiences highlighting teamwork.

Speaking on this occasion, Amir Rao, country manager, Microsoft Pakistan said, “Today Information Technology is an inherent part of our society; it impacts all elements of society and infuses every aspect of the society and thus forms the basis of modern innovation .For that, DigiGirlz as part of our Youth Spark program helps provide young women with the skills they need to be able to fill the jobs of today and tomorrow and to be able to understand the impact they can have on the future society they belong to. This program aims to encourage and support young women to pursue education in high demand areas such as computer science, build their skill set and to incite them to find jobs in the IT sector in which they can have an essential role and contribute heavily in its growth.”

This was first ever Microsoft’s DigiGirlz camp in Pakistan.

The New ThinkCentre Edge 62z is a Budget AIO PC from Lenovo

Budget All-in-one PCs. How often do you spot machines with both of those traits on the market? The answer’s obvious: not often. But Lenovo is here to break the ice once this time, offering the ThinkCentre Edge 62z.

The new AIO PC will be available at a (relatively) low cost of $549 or around Rs. 60,000. Instead of hardcore gamers, this system is targeted mainly towards offices and moderate users.

The specs

The machine will come with an 18.5 inch LCD display. That is said to be 65 percent less space-consuming than a 20 inch monitor.

Inside the machine beats an Intel Core i3 processor, but you can go all the way up to a crème de la crème Core i7 one. The amount of RAM you can get tops out at 8GB, and for the hard drive, 1TB is the limit.

The number of USB 2.0 ports (C’mon its a budget system after all) set is 6. A DVD burner is added in the mix too. Above the display, there’s a webcam. The ThinkCentre Edge 62z also comes with Integrated Intel HD Graphics.

An interesting thing to note here is that this thing comes with Windows 7. Its not the latest version but will be fine enough for a PC with no touchscreen. And a bit old hardware. The PC will be released in May for $549 or around Rs. 60,000 this year.

BlackBerry Reports Profits and Loads of Optimism

BlackBerry has finally announced its quarterly earnings after its name change. The new report comes with good news and hope of the arrival of better times.

To start off, BlackBerry said it earned profits of $94 million on $2.7 billion revenue, which may sound tiny compared to the 10 or even 11-digit figures of the industry leaders but is none-the-less a good start.

The no. of devices sold topped out at 6 million but out of those only around 1 million were BB10 products, namely the Z10. It is worth noting however that the Z10 has only just been launched on some crucial markets. Over 370,000 units of the PlayBook tablet were sold too.

Not everything is as rosy though. The company has said that its total no. of subscribers actually dropped, from 79 million to 76 million. A good bit of news however was that 55 percent of people coming to BlackBerry were coming from other platforms, while only the remaining ones were first time smartphone owners.

That surely is a good news as it indicates that the company has finally started to incur some pressure on the competition.

As it is turning out, the fight between Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 will be the one to watch out. Both the companies, BlackBerry and Nokia (because WP is essentially about Nokia) have shown good, encouraging progress towards better times and will be ones fighting to get the third spot behind iOS and Android, or the spots above it in the long run, who knows.