PASHA Announces LauncPad Events for Start-ups to Pitch Products and Ideas

P@SHA has announced the its LaunchPad events in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad where start-ups will be given a chance to showcase their products or just the ideas to win hefty reward.

P@SHA has said that purpose behind the launchpad is to create a platform where young people with great ideas, and where early-stage companies with innovative products, can have the opportunity to pitch their ideas in front of people who ask relevant questions, make suggestions to help develop the idea or product, assist with market identification, mentoring and possibly investment.

Who Should Participate:

• A new startup with a product or service that you have been working on and wish to launch
• A young person/team who have an idea for a product or service that you want to pitch
• Anyone who has a product or service idea that uses technology for Social/Community impact

What Can you Get:

• Startup entrepreneurs and young people with Ideas will be put in the hot seat where some of the most successful entrepreneurs and business executives will grill them in front of an audience of their peers.
• You can win a cash award of Rs. 200,000 and will be highlighted by PASHA on as many platforms as possible.

What you Need to Have:

• One startup product/service ready for launch and
• One innovative idea
• A social impact product/service

Deadline for Entries:

Deadline for entries is June 18, 2013.

How to Participate:

Fill in this form http://goo.gl/UsVUR and PASHA will let you know by the June 19, 2013 if you have been shortlisted to participate. If you get shortlisted, then you will have to make a 5 minute presentation at the events as per following schedule.

• Karachi on June 22
• Lahore on June 25
• Islamabad on June 27, 2013.

There is no participation fee, the entire process is completely free and everyone is invited to register.

Of all the Galaxy S4 Variants, Which One is for You?

As of now, Samsung has launched as many as 5 major variants of its Galaxy S4 flagship so it can be a bit of a headache to decide which one is worth buying for you.

So for the sake of comparison and to make the decision a bit easier to make, here’s a table comparing the features of all the existing Galaxy S4 versions:

	GS4 original (octa-core)	GS4 US (quad-core version)	GS4 mini	GS4 Active	GS4 Zoom
Availability	Released	Released	Coming soon	Coming soon	Coming soon
OS	Android 4.2.2	Android 4.2.2	Android 4.2.2	Android 4.2.2	Android 4.2.2
Dimensions	136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm	136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm	124.6 x 61.3 x 8.9 mm	139.7 x 71.3 x 9.1 mm	125.5 x 63.5 x 15.4 mm
Weight	130g	130g	107g	153g	208g
Screen size	5 inches	5 inches	4.3 inches	5 inches	4.3 inches
Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 3	Corning Gorilla Glass 3	Not specified	Corning Gorilla Glass 2, Water and dust resistant	Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Resolution	1080 x 1920 pixels	1080 x 1920 pixels	540 x 960 pixels	1080 x 1920 pixels	540 x 960 pixels
Processor	1.6Ghz quad-core Cortex A-15, 1.2Ghz quad-core Cortex A-7	1.9Ghz quad-core Krait SnapDragon 600	1.7Ghz dual-core SnapDragon 400	1.9Ghz quad-core Krait SnapDragon 600	1.5Ghz dual-core Cortex A9
RAM & storage	2 GB, 16/32/64 GB	2 GB, 16/32/64 GB	1.5 GB (3G model), 8 GB	2 GB, 16 GB	1.5 GB, 8 GB
Card slot	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Rear-camera	13 megapixel, LED Flash	13 megapixel, LED Flash	8 megapixel, LED Flash	8 megapixel, LED Flash	16 megapixel, 1/2.33” sensor size, Xenon Flash
Video	1080p Full HD	1080p Full HD	1080p Full HD	1080p Full HD	1080p Full HD
Front-camera	2 mp, Full HD	2 mp, Full HD	1.9 mp	2 mp, Full HD	1.9 mp
Connectivity	Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0, IR Blaster, USB-OTG, NFC	Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0, IR Blaster, USB-OTG, NFC	Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0, IR Blaster, NFC	Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0, IR Blaster, USB-OTG, NFC	Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0, IR Blaster, USB-OTG, NFC
Battery	2600 mAh	2600 mAh	1900 mAh	2600 mAh	2330 mAh
Price	Rs. 60,990	Around the same as S4 Original	$630	The same as S4 Original	Unannounced

It’s worth nothing though that the GS4 i9505 quad-core SnapDragon version is the phone targeted mainly towards the American market so finding it may prove to be more difficult than you’re thinking. Also the Octa-core version edges it (even if slightly) in benchmarks. Its worse when it comes to battery life though and the i9505 may be more expensive due to shipping costs, duties and taxes imposed while importing.

The GS4 Active is distinctive in a way from the others because of its tough build and waterproof & dust resistant nature. Also it looks better than the regular Galaxy S4. The Galaxy Zoom, however, is for people who mainly take photos using their phone cameras. It’s basically the Galaxy Camera at its heart but with phone capabilities. It’s not very portable and suitable for usage as your normal smartphone, though, due to its huge lens.

It all then comes down to the user, what do they want. It is important to keep your needs in check while buying the suitable version of the phone.

Nokia to Stop Shipping Symbian Phones After this Summer

Earlier this year when Nokia announced its quarterly earnings report, it made this clear that the lifespan of its Symbian devices is coming to an end in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phones.

Now Nokia has said that it all will finally come to an end this summer. The support of the devices will continue till 2016 at least though, so software updates will most-likely be rolled out until then.

The news of the ditching of Symbian smartphones comes as no surprise because Nokia’s Windows Phones sales finally caught up with the miserable sales of the the aging products, which were mainly pushed because of ground-breaking camera phones the N8, the later Belle devices and 808 Pureview.

According to the last quarterly report, only 0.5 million Symbian devices were sold compared to 5.6 million Lumia and 5 million Asha devices. After the discarding of the OS, Nokia has got only a single way to go: Windows Phones. Even if that fails then all is not over as the company has been hinting Android-running devices, saying that the doors are not completely being closed on them.

But even if you’re not a fan of the Symbian OS, you can’t help but be misty-eyed at the sight of the news. After all, its such an old OS and a vital part of our tech lives.

Alienware Announces Three New Gaming Laptops

Alienware, the gaming-laptop manufacturing giant owned by Dell has announced 3 new and striking gaming laptops. The Alienware 14, 17 and 18 are welcome additions to company’s line-up for this year and feature new designs.

The striking 10 LED lights found on each laptop can be lit in 20 colors and change their color accordingly with the game state. Apart from that, the design is almost 60% aluminium and magnesium alloy. Under the hood, the machines are powered by Intel’s 4th generation Haswell chips.

Alienware 14

The Alienware 14 comes with a 14 inch display with resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels for the base model which can be upped to 1920 x 1080 pixels.

The amount of RAM can be a maximum of 16 GBs (8 GB comes with the base model) while the hard drive memory can be increased to 512 GBs. It also has the ability to have up to 3 hard drives.

• 4th Gen Intel^® Core™ i7 processors
• Windows^® 7 Home Premium (64bit)
• Up to NVIDIA^® GeForce^® GTX 765M with 2GB GDDR5
• Incredible Balance of Power and Mobility
• Starting at $1,199

Alienware 17

The Alienware 17 comes with a 17.3 inch display with resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels but you can have a 3D display with resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels as well. It can have up to 32 GBs of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. The Alienware 17 can hold up to 4 hard drives.

• 4th Gen Intel^® Core™ i7 processors
• Windows^® 7 Home Premium (64bit)
• Up to 32GB* 1600MHz memory performance boost
• Optional 3D display for an immersive experience anywhere
• Starting at $1,499

Alienware 18

The Alienware 18 is the best laptop of the trio. Packed with a 18.4 inch display with resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, it can have up to 32 GBs of RAM and a giant 1.5TB hard drive. It can also have up to 4 hard drives.

• 4th Gen Intel^® Core™ i7 processors
• Windows^® 7 Home Premium (64bit)
• Optional Dual NVIDIA^® GeForce^® GTX 780Ms with 4GB GDDR5
• Enthusiast desktop-class gaming performance from an 18.4-inch laptop
• Starting at $2,099

Intel Core i7 processor powers up the three systems but the Alienware 14 will have a Core i5 version too. Buyers can select either go with Windows 7 or 8 as their choice of OS. All the laptops come with optical drives but you can have Blu-ray readers too. They all use Bluetooth 4.0. The Alienware 17 and 18 also have the new Wifi 802.11ac. The new Nvidia GeForce 700 series GPU is used by the three laptops.

The trio is available for buying right now but should be available in Pakistani market later in the year.

Samsung Announces Yet Another S4 Variant: the S4 Zoom

The list of phones in the Galaxy S4 range is mind-boggling in itself. Following from the original international Galaxy S4 and the quad-core SnapDragon versions, we got theS4 mini and then the water-proof S Active and now, for the cameraphone fans, the S4 Zoom with a 16-megapixel sensor, a 10x optical zoom, and a Xenon flash.

Galaxy S4 Zoom is targeted specifically towards people who use their phone cameras as their primary photo-taking tools.

Weighing at 208g, Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom sports a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD super AMOLED display with a resolution of 540×960 pixels covered with a sheet of Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

Running on the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system, the phone is powered by a 1.5GHz dual core processor (which will vary to markets according to Samsung) along with 8GB of internal storage and 1.5GB of RAM that’s expandable via microSD card slot.

Connectivity options include WiFi a/b/g/n as well as Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC along with A-GPS and GLONASS, an accelerometer, digital compass, proximity sensor, gyroscope, and light sensor. The battery is a 2,330 mAh pack, even though Samsung is not saying how long it will last.

At back, there is a full-fledged camera of 16-megapixel CMOS sensor with optical image stabilization, 24-240mm 10x optical zoom, with an F3.1-F6.3 lens along with 1.9-megapixel camera for video calls.

The smartphone camera hybrid comes with a fanatical shutter button .There’s a Xenon flash, rather than the usual LED, allowing up to 4fps burst photography with autofocus and support for recording up to 1080p30 HD video.

On the software front, as well as TouchWiz on top of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Samsung has added quite a few new camera-specific features including up to 25 smart mode options. These smart modes are namely Beauty face, Best photo, Continuous shot, Best face, Kids shot, Landscape, Dawn, Snow, Macro, Food, Party/Indoor, Action freeze, Rich tone (HDR), Panorama, Waterfall, Animated photo, Drama, Eraser, Sound & Shot, Silhouette, Sunset, Night, Fireworks, Light trace and Smart mode suggest.

Another novel feature embedded in this device is Samsung Zoom Ring, which, if twisted when in a call, automatically kicks into camera mode allowing you snap a photo as well as sending it via MMS to whoever you are talking to.

However, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom will go on sale this summer in United Kingdom and then will move to other regions, though the company is yet to confirm pricing.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom key specifications

• Android 4.2.2 with Samsung’s Nature UX
• 15.4mm thick
• Weight: 208g
• Voice calling capability and 4G LTE supported
• 24mm wide lens with 10X Optical Zoom
• 16 megapixel camera with Xenon Flash
• Full HD 1080p video recording at 30fps
• HDR mode and Optical Image Stabilization
• 1.9 megapixel front camera
• 4.3 inch Super AMOLED display with qHD resolution
• Gorilla Glass 3 protection
• 1.5 Ghz dual-core processor
• 1.5 GB RAM with 8 GB internal expandable storage
• microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, Infrared, GPS, Wifi Hotspot
• 2330 mAh battery

The S4 Zoom will be available in Q3 of 2013. The price is unknown right now though.