Google to Launch Galaxy S 4 with Stock Android

At its famed I/O Conference, Google, instead of announcing a new Nexus smartphone, Google has announced that it will be selling the Galaxy S 4 instead with stock Android OS. The phone will come with the same specs as the original Galaxy S 4 with the only difference being the original, skin-free Android UI instead of Samsung’s own Touchwiz with Nature UI.

The phone will also lose the exclusive Samsung apps but will come with an unlocked bootloader so there won’t be any end of possibilities. And of course, the updates will be coming to this phone before any other existing Android device on the market, thanks to Google’s trusty, uncompromised support.

The phone will come with 16 GBs of expandable storage and will be available for $649 or Rs. 70K at launch. The version of Android running is unknown though as Google might announce a new version of Android in the very conference this phone was announced it but we can’t say that for sure.

The phone will be available at Google’s own Google Play Store initially.

In case you’ve forgotten, these are the specs of the Samsung Galaxy S 4:

• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean customized with Samsung’s Nature UI
• 5 inch display with Full HD resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels
• Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and super sensitive screen
• 7.9mm thick
• Weight: 130 grams
• Octa-core Exynos processor with 8 cores and PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU
• 2 GB RAM with 16/32/64 GB expandable storage
• 13 megapixel rear-camera with HDR and 1080p Full HD video recording
• Optical Image Stabilization
• 2 megapixel 1080p Full HD front-camera
• Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0, USB-OTG, IR Blaster, Wifi Hotspot, GPS
• 2600 mAh battery
• Available in White Frost and Black mist colors

YouTube Ban Challenged in Peshawar High Court

A lawyer from Peshawar has challenged the ban on YouTube in Peshawar High Court, by maintaining that the ban on the video sharing website should be un-blocked.

Petitioner,Mian Mohibullah Kakakhel, said that its in the larger interest of general public to access the YouTube.

He mentioned that authorities concerned, i.e. PTA and MoIT have failed to block the specific URLs that contain blasphemous content – unlike they claimed at various occasions – and that blocking whole website is not a solution.

Petitioner is of the view that YouTube contains countless useful videos that can not be found on any other resource. He said that nature of videos available on YouTube includes topics such as history, culture and religious importance besides music, sports, movies, news, animal planets, cartoons for kids and sermons of Islamic scholars.

He claimed that YouTube was the only website containing education contents, which encouraged students and citizens to learn technical things like making new software, robots, mechanical engineering, software engineering, how to install a hardware, advance cell phone usage and installation of software. He said that most of the software might not be provided here, or if available, a hefty amount of fee was demanded.

Petitioner said that YouTube ban is violation of basic human rights and their right to access to information that is available Publicly.

PTA through its Chairman and Minister for MoIT were made respondents to the case.

It maybe recalled that YouTube was banned in Pakistan on September 17th, 2012 when blasphemous videos on the website had triggered worldwide protests from Muslims. Pakistani authorities – during the while – tried several time to contact Google and get the access of these videos blocked in Pakistan, but they failed.