Apple announces new Macbook Air, Mac Pro for 2013

Apple must’ve been very busy at their famed WWDC event of this year again. And for good reasons. Among the important announcements done by Apple was that of the new Mac laptops and systems for this year.

Apple has updated the MacBook Air with the new Haswell CPUs and improved battery life. The Mac Pro desktop system has been updated with a considerably trimmed down design for the first the first time in its life cycle.

MacBook Air

The new MacBook air features the same design as its predecessors. As said earlier, it comes with the new 4^th generation Intel “Haswell” chips which promise up to 40% faster graphics and power efficiency. They’ll be available in i5 & i7 flavors with 4 GB RAM and Intel HD 5000 graphics.

They also come with the new 802.11ac Wifi which is said to be 3 times faster than normal ones. USB 3.0, Thunderbolt port, Facetime HD camera and dual-microphones are included as well.

Battery life is improved too. The smaller, 11 inch model sees its battery life improve to 9 hours and the larger 13 inch one, to 12 hours. The standby time is also over 30 days now. They also wake up faster from standby mode, in 1 second.

The two models will be available in 128 and 256 GB SSD storage options which will be 45% faster too. The two models of the 11 inch laptop will be available for $999 and $1199 respectively while those of the larger model will be available for $1099 and $1299 respectively. The new MacBook Air will start shipping today.

Mac Pro

This is the first redesign that the Mac Pro has seen in its lifecycle. The new Mac Pro comes in a new cylindrical design which, according to Apple, is just 1/8th the size of its predecessor. It will now come with an AMD GPU and Intel XEON processors.

The Mac Pro also features 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports and 4 USB 3.0 ports (both of whom have been missing until now), along with HDMI out, Gigabit Ethernet and Motion Sensor. It will be available this fall but its price is still kept in the dark. I for one have some doubts though, that Apple might’ve just redesigned the Mac Pro just like the failed Power Mac Cube again but we’ll see.

Samsung Galaxy Star Hits Pakistani Stores at Rs. 9,999

Samsung’s Galaxy Star – a budget Android phone – has made its way to Pakistan. Competing at price, Samsung Star is aimed for young aspiring users who want to switch to Android at an affordable price.

Powered by a decent 1 Ghz processor, Samsung Star boosts 3 inch QVGA display. There is 512 MB of RAM, probably not enough for various users – but considering the price one must remain contented with the package. There is another 4 GB of internal memory as well, that can be expanded with card if required.

There is a 2MP camera on the back of Galaxy Star. Users are likely to struggle with Galaxy Star’s battery.

Specifications of Galaxy Star:

• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean customized with Touchwiz
• Cortex A5 1GHz Processor
• 3 inch QVGA display – 320 x 240 with 65K internal colour depth
• 100.5g heavy and 11.9mm thick
• Optional dual-sim
• 2mp rear-facing camera with QVGA video recording
• 512 MB RAM with 4GB expandable internal storage
• Bluetooth 4.0, Wifi, Accelerometer, FM Radio
• 1200 mAh battery
• • Stand-by: 320 hours
  • talk time: 7 hours

Game payments to be shifted to local currency by Facebook

Facebook is moving the payment system on games from the existing credits format to local currencies. Developers are given the deadline till September 12, 2013 to shift the payment procedure according to the new method. Facebook has already begun looking into local currency payments for games and will launch the local currency API for developers soon.

Online gaming is one of the greatest sources of revenue for Facebook as it mentioned in its quarterly report and the social media is of the opinion that shifting payments to local currency method will ease out the process for end users in addition to providing a faster transaction process for the developers.

TIPA award LG’s True Color IPS Monitor as “Best Photo Monitor” of 2013

LG’s Monitor 27EA83 was given one of the highest awards of the imaging industry: “Best Photo Monitor” of 2013 by the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA). The monitor features features In-Plane Switching (IPS) display technology combined with a high resolution and a wide color palette which makes it perfect for filmmakers, photographers and graphics professionals.

Il-geun Kwon, senior vice president of LG Electronics’ IT Business Unit said that the company was highly honored at receiving recognition by TIPA and it reaffirms the qualities provided by LG in its products.

The LG ColorPrime boasts WQHD (2560 x 1440) resolution with the ability to accurately reproduce 99 percent of the Adobe RGB color space. The monitor can also be rotated 90 degrees, enabling users to choose the screen orientation that best suits the specific needs.

TIPA, comprising of 29 magazines from 13 countries, is one of the most influential photographic and imaging press associations in the world.

FBR Freezes PTA Accounts to Recover Rs. 2 Billion

Large Tax-payer Unit (LTU) Islamabad of Federal Board of Revenue yesterday recovered Rs. Rs 2.038 from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority under the head of unpaid taxes by freezing its accounts in Islamabad.

According to sources, bank accounts were held and then freed after the recovery of unpaid taxes from year 2006.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and LTU Islamabad are long running this dispute over taxes.

There was a time when PTA hadn’t paid any taxes for ten years valuing over Rs. 10 billion. PTA claims that it is a government body itself and must pay all the revenues to government exchequer itself, however, LTU Islamabad is of the view that taxes must be collected from the revenues that PTA generates – in accordance with law – and this way the money will ultimately go to government exchequer.

LTU Islamabad had attached PTA accounts last year as well for similar reasons, and had recovered Rs. 3.6 billion.

FBR had collected PKR 3.43 billion in 2010 by carrying a similar action against the telecom authority.

It merits mentioning here that PTA collects various license fee and other dues from Telecom operators, which according to FBR are termed as revenues and must be taxed.