Fraudsters Are Using Phone Number Masking Technology to Loot Millions From Citizens:
The number of cases involving fraudsters depriving citizens of millions of their hard-earned money through online transactions by using ‘phone number masking technology’ is on the rise across the country. The victims of this fraud belong to all walks of life who came to know about it after millions of rupees were transferred from their bank accounts within minutes.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Spotlighting Tech Stars With P@SHA ICT Awards, A Quick Chat With Talha Bin Afzal, Director MarCom:
Watching P@SHA for the past couple of years we can see the 2-decade old association has been playing a robust role at the policy advocacy level while pushing lobbying for the tech industry. When Covid hit, there was a massive pivot in the making and this is where real policy work came into play with a lot of stakeholders involved. Aqsa and Imran have a quick conversation with Talha Bin Afzal, Director MarCom at the P@SHA secretariat and the lead for the P@SHA IT Awards edition being staged in Karachi on the eve of the 23rd October 2021.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Redmi Note 11 and Redmi Watch 2 Will Have AMOLED Screens:
The Redmi Watch 2 and Note 11 are launching on October 28 and both of them are going to feature AMOLED screens. This was only a rumor earlier this week but has now been confirmed by Redmi itself. The news comes from new promotional posters shared by Xiaomi on Weibo. Redmi Watch 2 will flaunt a 1.6-inch color AMOLED screen and the poster above shows a new color option for the wearable. Previous leaks had shown a black as well as a blue option for the smartwatch.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Oppo’s First Foldable Phone to Launch Next Month:
Oppo’s first foldable has been popular in the rumor mill lately. It was expected to arrive sometime this year, but we never had a clear launch date. However, according to the latest rumor originating from a Chinese tipster, Oppo’s first foldable phone may launch as soon as next month. It is expected to have an 8-inch main display with a 120Hz refresh rate on top of an LTPO panel made by Samsung. This means that the screen will have variable refresh rate support to save battery.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
NEPRA Hosts Seminar on Cyber Security:
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), in line with its monumental initiative called ‘Power with Security,’ hosted an in-house seminar on Cyber Security today at NEPRA Tower. The main objective was to create awareness about power assets of Pakistan among NEPRA Professionals on Cyber Security with special emphasis on the protection of the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system — a computer-based system used for gathering and analyzing real-time data — to monitor and control equipment dealing with critical and time-sensitive materials/events, and then roll out the same initiative by engaging NEPRA’s Licensees and other Stakeholders.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Pakistani Startup Wins Top Category Awad at GITEX Future Stars 2021 in Dubai:
MyTM, a startup of the National Incubation Center (NIC), Islamabad has won the Supernova pitching challenge, beating UK’s ‘Save my Wardrobe’ in the creative economy category at GITEX Future Stars held in Dubai. The Lahore-based startup has become the first Pakistani startup to win the supernova Challenge Final held every year at GITEX since 2015 The startup, funded by Ignite National Technology Fund, Ministry of IT and Telecom, is the first Islamic Fintech in Pakistan that empowers retailers and consumers by simultaneously providing them a one-stop solution to cater to the financial needs of the banked, unbanked, and under-banked.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Here’s a Breakdown of New 3G/4G Users in Pakistan This September:
The number of 3G and 4G users in Pakistan reached 104.71 million by the end of September 2021 compared to 103.12 million by the end of August 2021, registering an increase of 1.59 million, revealed Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) data. The number of cellular subscribers in Pakistan increased by 0.82 million to 186.39 million by the end of September 2021, compared to 185.57 million by the end of August 2021.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
PTA to Procure Web-Based GIS Portal for Population Coverage & Planning:
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has decided to procure a web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) Portal for population coverage, planning, and the quality of service. These include installation, configuration, customization, data migration, training, maintenance, and support (services). The web-based Geographic Information System portal is aimed at overlaying the population data (at the UC, tehsil, district, and provincial levels) along with Base Transceiver System data and cellular sectors along with coverage data layers (containing 2G/3G/4G and/or 5G when available) for the purpose of including coverage versus population estimation, complaint resolution, and visibility of cellular infrastructure-population density, Licenses Quality of Service Key Performance Indicators (QoS KPIs), etc.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
CricWick and Daraz Partner to Provide In-App Fantasy League for T20 World Cup:
South Asia’s leading online marketplace, Daraz, has joined hands with CricWick to bring the ‘CricWick Fantasy League’ on Daraz App during the T20 World Cup. The anticipated cricket season is geared to be one of the busiest home seasons in Pakistan, with the series starting off on 23rd October 2021. On top of gaining exclusive T20 live Match streaming rights for the entire international cricket tournament, Daraz, in partnership with CricWick, is set to offer fans an immersive cricket experience to play fantasy league on the app too.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Jazz Tops PTA Complaint Charts Once Again:
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority received 16366 complaints from telecommunication consumers against different telecommunication operators in September 2021. The operators include cellular operators, PTCL, LDIs, WLL operators, and ISPs, and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said that it was able to get 97 percent (15873) complaints resolved.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Will Apple be the last US tech giant left in China?:
There was a time when the US tech giants were all in China – even Facebook. Today, Apple’s huge presence in the country looks increasingly conspicuous. Last week Microsoft, which still operates in China, announced it was to shut down its social network, LinkedIn, there. The company said having to comply with the Chinese state had become increasingly challenging – so it pulled the plug.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Twitter’s algorithm favours right-leaning politics, research finds:
Twitter amplifies tweets from right-leaning political parties and news outlets more than from the left, its own research suggests. The social-media giant said it made the discovery while exploring how its algorithm recommends political content to users. But it admitted it did not know why, saying that was a “more difficult question to answer”.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Amazon sees fresh push to unionise in New York:
More than 2,000 Amazon warehouse workers in New York City hope to hold a vote to unionise, in the latest labour push at the firm. It’s the second organising effort at the online shopping giant this year, and comes amid a pick-up in union activity across the US. The workers, from four Amazon sites in Staten Island, want higher wages, safer working conditions and longer breaks.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
The world in 2031:
Will robots take over most tasks from manual workers over the next decade? Will we find innovative new energy sources to help us battle climate change? And will we really all be living in virtual worlds? This week Tech Tent gets out its crystal ball and asks some big thinkers to work out what the world will look like a decade from now. If Mark Zuckerberg is to be believed, by 2031 we will all be living and working in the metaverse, a series of virtual worlds which will become the most important new technology platform since the arrival of the web.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Twitter says Online Safety Bill needs more clarity:
Government plans for social media regulation need “far more clarity”, a Twitter boss has told the Media. Katy Minshall said the draft Online Safety Bill fails to answer key concerns and risks leaving the regulator Ofcom to “muddle through”. She also said plans to fine rule-breaking companies posed an “almost existential” threat. But the culture secretary has said the bill would make the UK “the safest place in the world to be online”.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
YouTube terminates Addy A-Game and Street Attraction channels:
YouTube has deactivated two channels run by “pick-up artists” after a BBC investigation into the online industry. It has removed hundreds of videos from accounts linked to Addy A-Game and Street Attraction for violating its rules on nudity and sexual conduct. In September, Adnan Ahmed, who ran the Addy A-Game channel, was convicted of threatening and abusive behaviour towards young women.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
British entrepreneur sells company to Twitter:
British entrepreneur Nick D’Aloisio, who sold the mobile app Summly to Yahoo for $30m (£21.73m) at the age of 17, has sold his latest company to Twitter. The Sphere group chat app was founded by Mr D’Aloisio and Tomas Halgas. Sphere, which connects strangers interested in common topics, has been sold for an undisclosed amount and will close in November. Its 20 or so staff will join Twitter to integrate their community features into the social network.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Elon Musk’s Tesla reports record sales and profits:
Electric car maker Tesla has brushed off supply chain issues and the global microchip shortage to report record quarterly sales and profits. Revenues rose to $13.76bn in the third quarter of the year, up from $8.77bn 12 months earlier. The company, led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, posted a net profit of $1.6bn and sold 241,391 cars. “We achieved our best-ever net income, operating profit and gross profit,” Tesla said.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Labour Relations Agency apologises for data breach:
The Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland has apologised for sharing the email addresses and, in some cases the names, of more than 200 service users. The agency deals confidentially with sensitive labour disputes between employees and employers. But when it attempted to email 213 clients it made their email addresses visible to all the other recipients.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Nearly 45 million received scam calls in three months, Ofcom says:
Almost 45 million people in the UK were targeted by scam text messages or phone calls over the summer, according to telecoms regulator Ofcom. About half reported getting a scam call or text at least once a week. A survey of 2,000 adults in September found that almost a million people had been misled by a message or a call which they received. Text scams are most common among 16 to 34-year-olds, with two-thirds receiving one between June and August.