Algerian govt. pushing VimpelCom hard to buy stakes in Djezzy

Algerian government is pushing the Russia-focused VimpelCom in a corner and wishes to buy controlling stake of 51 percent in VimpelCom’s Algerian Mobile business Djezzy. The government wants to nationalize Djezzy though Reuter reports that talks between both parties have not yet failed.

VimpelCom declined to comment on the matter and the Algerian Finance Minister Karim Djoudi, who has been handling the issue, also informed the reporters earlier that he would not comment until a deal was concluded.

Djezzy was taken over by VimpelCom in 2010 when it bought 51.92 percent stakes of the Egyptian telecom operator Orascom in a $6 billion deal. Djezzy is Orascom’s most lucrative asset.

A main point of conflict was the ban on foreign exchange transfers implemented by Bank of Algeria in 2010 on Orascom Telecom Algeria (Djezzy) which prevents it from buying equipment abroad.

Moreover, Djezzy was fined $1.3 billion by the government in March 2012 for violating the foreign currency regulations, souring the talks and prompting Vimpelcom to announce it would seek to international arbitration against Algeria.

Two-step authentication introduced by Twitter

Twitter has started a new authentication system to help save its users from illegal and unauthorized use of their accounts. The new two-step authentication system requires you to know your username and password and have your cell phone with you as Twitter will send you a code via SMS that would be required to log in.

If your cell phone is missing, dead or out of range or there is any other issue due to which you cannot use your cell phone, there is an alternative: Google Voice.

Instead of registering your actual mobile number with Twitter, you can register a Google Voice number. Google Voice is free and easy to set up and lets you forward text (SMS) messages and phone calls to several phones so that an incoming text or call can be answered or viewed from any of the phones associated with your Google Voice account. So now you can only get the SMS on your mobile via Google Voice but also can view it on the web when required.

Twitter had recently suffered massive attacks on its site which resulted in compromise of data for a number of users.

Qualcomm shows off 5.1-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 resolution Mirasol display

Qualcomm showcased a couple of new implementations of its Mirasol display technology at the SID Display Week. One of them was a 1.5-inch panel used on a smartwatch and the second and more interesting one is a 5.1-inch panel with an astounding 2,560 x 1,440 resolution.

At 577 ppi, the latter easily has the highest pixel density of any smartphone display currently on the market. The image quality, however, was described as being inferior to current generation LCD or OLED panels and the display has a silvery tint to it.

Mirasol is essentially Qualcomm’s trademark for interferometric modulator display technology, where instead of using liquid crystal with backlight or self-illuminating OLED panels, it utilizes reflective surfaces designed to reflect a specific wavelength of light to form an image using ambient light. The panel requires power only while changing state so it can remain on permanently and not consume any power at all, similar to e-paper displays. In fact, it is said to consume around 6x less power than a traditional LCD and OLED panels.

The technology is still being developed and nowhere close to production.

Social Media Trends in Pakistan [Infographic]

Internet users in Pakistan are still hovering around 10 to 15 percent of total population in the country, with less than just 2 percent connected with high-speed broadband internet.

Despite the fact, the growth in 2012 for social media usage stood at 50 percent and digital marketing spend by corporations grew by at least 45 percent during the year.

These indicators hint the surge in social media usage in coming days, when more and more people with be socializing online. Facebook remains the top platform with around 27 percent of Pakistani online population registered with it, hinting that there is still huge room available to fill for established social media networks and the new entrants alike.

The whole situation can get a lot different with over 120 million mobile phone subscribers and good chances of 3G coming into the country later this year, hinting three figure growth in social media usage in coming years.

Ayesha Sajid, a communication professional, has put together following infographic, detailing the social media trends in Pakistan. We are presenting it for our readers as it is:

Flickr gets a redesign, offers 1TB of free space to everyone, updates Android app

Flickr has gone through a major redesign that completely changes the look of the homepage and your photostream. Your homepage now has large photos from your friends as well as from other Flickr users that you can like and share without even having to open the image.

Your photostream also has received a major upgrade. You now have a large cover image up top and your photos span the entire width of the screen in a tiled pattern. Open an image and it takes up a major portion of the screen and the image information is placed below while giving more prominence to the image, the way it should be. There is also a beautiful new slideshow mode.

The new Flickr really comes to life with large, high resolution images. Which is why you will be glad to know that Flickr is now providing 1TB of free space to everyone so you don’t have to worry about running out of space and can upload your images in full resolution. The previous concept of regular and pro accounts doesn’t exist anymore. Everybody gets all the features but if you want to get rid of the ads you have to pay $49.99 per year. If you want to double your storage space to 2TB, then it is $499.99 per year.

Lastly, Flickr has also released a new app for Android. The app has also undergone a major redesign and now looks even better than the iOS app that was released last year. Unlike the iOS app, the Android app hides all the buttons in a neat drawer on the left side of the screen letting the photos take over the majority of your screen. You can choose to display photos from your contacts, groups or explore photos from other users. The app does a wonderful job of spreading images across the screen with minimal space in between.

Thanks to the new UI redesign and increased storage, Flickr has once again become a viable option for new users to upload their images. The beautiful new app also makes accessing and uploading photos on the move feel a lot better.