Shahbaz Sharif Uses Dozens of Government Websites to Promote His Facebook and Twitter Profiles

Shahbaz Sharif, the Chief Minister of Punjab and also known as Khadim-e-Alaa, uses over two dozen government websites to promote his personal Facebook page and Twitter profile.
These websites – that are owned by government of Punjab and not by Mr. Sharif – are vigorously and shamelessly used by the chief minister to promote a Facebook page and a Twitter profile that he uses for official, personal and political motives.
It maybe recalled that the Facebook page and Twitter Profile in question are personal properties of Mr. Shahbaz, that he will retain even after completing his service term.
Instead of encouraging all these provincial government departments to have their own social media profiles, so that users may follow their updates and they may retain accounts even after the government is over, Mr. Sharif opted to promote his own profiles as if these government websites are his personal perperties.
These government websites range from Punjab Police to Punjab Pension Funds, Daanish Schools to Health Department. Almost every such website has a link to Shahbaz Sharif’s Facebook page and Twitter Profile, encouraging users to become his follower on social networking websites.
When we last checked Shahbaz Sharif had 343,349 fans on Facebook and close to 75,000 followers on Twitter.
It merits mentioning here that there might be more Government Websites used for the same purpose but we could find only 20 such websites – screen of which are attached below:

Video Games Help Children Develop Cognitive Skills than Watching TV

According to a new study by the researchers in the Games Research and Interaction Design Lab at Queensland University of Technology it is better for parents to allow their young children to play video games as compared to letting them watch television. The researchers checked the effects of both games and television shows on children of very young ages from 2 to 5 years old. In their study, they categorized these two media into different categories of passive and active. Active content stimulated children both physically and mentally, whereas passive content did not engage them.

Since while playing video games, users are both active physically and mentally, it stimulates them more than a television show does, which can only make us feel things emotionally, rather than compel us physically or mentally. Television sure is a good means to provide information, but as far as stimulation of the mind is concerned, it does not engage us to think or plan.

Whereas, video games fulfill these things, although there are reports by many researchers that even video games having negative content creates negative emotions and tends to effect human mind negatively, but allowing children to play games like Angry Birds will engage them positively without making them hate or be bias against others.

Video games are very helpful for young children in developing their cognitive skills and thus positively impact their academic and comprehension skills. Researchers have also found that it makes them emotionally better too as their self-esteem improves. Besides, with the kind of way the world events are happening, it is rather advisable that little children be prevented from watching too much television and their time could be well spent on video games.

Mobilink Introduces New Pro Plans for Business Customers

Mobilink has introduced five new Pro Post-paid plans for small, medium and large sized business customers or those who want freedom for making limitless calls against a monthly line rent.
All new Pro Business Plans come with following features:

• Free minutes for All network
• Free SMS for network
• Free data volume for monthly usage
• Free circle minutes

Pro Series plans for Business Customers

• Best value Pro plans for users with low calling and mobile internet use.
  • Pro 300
    • Line Rent: Rs. 300 plus tax
    • 300 Minutes – all Networks
    • 300 SMS – all networks
    • 30 MB Data
    • 300 Minutes – Business Circle
  • Pro 600
    • Line Rent: Rs. 600 plus tax
    • 600 Minutes – all Networks
    • 600 SMS – all networks
    • 60 MB Data
    • 600 Minutes – Business Circl
• Worry-free talking and texting. The Pro plans that offer great value.
  • Pro 1200
    • Line Rent: Rs. 1200 plus tax
    • 1200 Minutes – all Networks
    • 1200 SMS – all networks
    • 120 MB Data
    • 1200 Minutes – Business Circle
  • Pro 1800
    • Line Rent: Rs. 1800 plus tax
    • 1800 Minutes – all Networks
    • 1800 SMS – all networks
    • 180 MB Data
    • 1800 Minutes – Business Circle
• The Pro plans for unlimited communication with your team — call, SMS and email with out running out
  • Pro Unlimited
    • Line Rent: Rs. 3,000 plus tax
    • 3000 Minutes – all Networks
    • 3000 SMS – all networks
    • 300 MB Data
    • 3000 Minutes – Business Circle

Business Circles:

In addition to free minutes for all networks, there are free minutes for calling colleagues or Business Circles. Customers can set up their business circles when a signs up for a business account with Mobilink. Each connection in a company account comes with free Circle minutes included in their monthly pro plan. Circle minutes can be consumed for calls made within your business circle
Mobilink’s new postpaid Pro Plans for business customers come in three categories and five plans in total. Keep reading to know the details:

Bolt-Ons

All Mobilink Business Pro postpaid plans come with Bold-Ons that can be added to your Pro plan for additional voice, SMS and data usage.
Details of Bolt-Ons are as following:

• Voice Bolt-Ons
  • Biz Time Basic: 100 Minutes (9am – 5pm weekdays) for Rs. 100
  • Biz Time Max: 300 Minutes (9am – 5pm weekdays) for Rs. 300
  • Weekend Plus: 1000 Minutes (All days on Sat & Sun) for Rs. 200
  • Favorite 1: 1000 Minutes (at one favorite Mobilink number) for Rs. 200
• SMS Bolt-Ons
  • SMS Standard: 1000 SMS (All Networks) for Rs. 100
  • SMS Ace: 2500 SMS (All Networks) for Rs. 150
  • SMS Max: 6000 SMS (All Networks) for Rs. 200
• Data Bolt-Ons
  • Data Plus: 50 MB for Rs. 100
  • Data Double: 200 MB for Rs. 300
  • Data Max: Unlimited (5GB) for Rs. 500
  • BIS: Rs. 1,000
  • BES: Rs. 1,500
• Business Circle Bolt-Ons
  • Circle Basic: 250 Minutes for Rs. 100
  • Circle Standard: 1,000 Minutes for Rs. 250
  • Circle Max: 5,000 Minutes for Rs. 500

Businesses can setup Pro business plans for their entire staff while signing up. They can setup customized bill payment method for their staff, select and customize calling plans for each resource according to his/her needs.
Moreover, Mobilink has this a new simplified activation process in place to make it easy for you to join. That’s not all, Mobilink says that there will be a dedicated account manager for all your queries to meet your communication needs.
You can get to Mobilink Account Managers or request a call back from Mobilink to get things going.

Pakistan imported 29.2 million mobile phones and 0.28 million laptops in FY12

Despite economic crunch and shaky state of affairs, mobile phonehandset usage in Pakistan increased witnessed a huge a surge. In the Financial Year (FY) 2012 Pakistanis imported 29.2 million mobile phones amounting to $ 688.4 million registering 137% growth over FY 11.

According to statistics released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP),  in FY11 number of mobile phone imported were 12.3 million whereas the import figure stood at 11.0 million and 3.8 million  units in FY10 and FY 09 respectively.

The report does not disclose information about Chinese as well as smuggled mobile phones which is also a huge chunk of the pie.

Similarly laptops import in the country grew by 242% reaching 282,559 laptops imported in FY 12 by spending $ 72.1 million.

Analysts are of the view that this sudden increase in laptop growth was mainly caused by Shahbaz Sharif Laptop Scheme in which 100,000 laptops were distributed in the first phase and further distribution of 100,000 laptops among the top ranking students of Punjab is underway.

Import of selected technology item

Source: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics

SBP has shown disappointment over the lack of manufacturing in Pakistan such as opportunities in mobile phone sector which couldn’t convince a local investor to start manufacturing mobile phones in Pakistan despite huge demand as shown by import figures.

Report further says, in F13 government hopes to achieve a fiscal deficit target within 4.7 to 7 percent to be more realistic. In this regard, government of Pakistan is again optimistic on receiving outstanding $ 800 million from Etisalat and conducting 3G auction as soon as possible which can possibly raise a billion dollar revenue. Government is also eyeing considerable revenue from opening of NATO supply routes and Coalition Support Fund.

Apple gets a trademark for their retail store design

Apple has been granted a trademark for the distinctive design of their chain of retail stores. Although the claim was rejected twice in the past, Apple managed to successfully convince the US Patent and Trademark office the third time with a lengthy, 122-page document detailing the reasons.

The trademark includes use of items such as a paneled facade of glass, recessed lighting units and lined rectangular tables, but as usual, the trademark is for the sum of parts rather than any individual item.

While it’s easy to look at this and scoff, it’s fairly common practice for companies to get a trademark on a distinctive design that they have come up with, with examples such as the shape of the Coca-Cola bottle or the Swiss Federal Railways watch face that Apple was recently found using in iOS. A trademark by definition is a ‘recognizable sign, design or expression which identifies products or services of a particular source from those of others’ and differs from a patent. But while other store designers can still use individual elements of Apple’s store (as many do), if the final result ends up looking exactly like an Apple Store, they better lawyer up.