Top 10 Most Interesting Facts About Android

In the wake of Android's announcement regarding the latest version of their operating system – Android KitKat – here are 10 of the most interesting facts about this popular mobile OS.

• It is often assumed that Google created Android  themselves, but in reality it was really just a smart investment from the internet giants. They bought the Android start up in 2005 from the original creators Andy Rubin, Rich Miner and Chris White. The purchase price was approximately $50 million and up until early this year one of the original developers, Andy Rubin, stayed involved with the project as head of Google's Android Division, a job which is now held by the head of the Google Chrome division Sundar Pichai.

• Google chose the Android platform largely because it was developed entirely on Linux rather than Windows which is of course the brainchild of rivals – Microsoft company. Although Apple is often seen as Android's main rival, it seems Google had the foresight to realize that Microsoft would eventually move into the mobile market. Windows Phone is becoming just a rival to Android as Apple has been. However it’s a question whether it will gain such a large amount of users as those two.

• Based on recent polls, as many as 45% of all smartphone users have chosen an Android device to become their first smartphone. Fun fact: of those who chose an iPhone, 8% will later switch to an Android device instead.     

Awesome Tips to Speed up your Android Smartphone

One might face a lot of unexpected lags while using an android device. If the phone has become old or has been used too much, there are chances that it might become very slow and as a result give interrupting performances. One will definitely hate such type of delays. Hence some ways have been found out to avoid such delays in performance and keep the phone in proper speed. Here are some listed below:

Wanna-be's but never Will-be's: The Pakistani Diaspora

Credits: Mirsub Ali Fazlani. Yes, I know I wrote Diaspora wrong. Silly me.

This is a Guest Post by Feriha Jazeb.

Life is full of endless twists & twirls but how you whether through them defines who you really are.

Enough has already been penned and reported on the issue, but we just don’t seem to come out of this eloquence.It seems baffling at first, the substance that GENERALLY, we trend to think that dwelling in another domicile, being international, is appealing all the time, but yes, ethics cannot be confined to an entire race, culture or civilization (States are not Planets Of Hats). Those who are sweating to adhere with Brits (This is the good idea), you will feasibly fail instead of whatever preparations you try, but you can do a fairly good job if you are entirely focused.

Let's turn on steam at Pakistani people living abroad,who had implanted themselves as British citizens, would never dump their British nationalities. Although by their tone, language, convention and customs, they are Pakistanis but by passport they are British nationals. They are modernized and adapting to western society. They have compensated their cultural tradition, heritage and identity for a western custom (Black on the outside, white on the inside i.e; coconut). They remain un-uttered about their national pedigree, just to avoid useless trouble. After every effort they made to hook up with Brits they are still not accepted and are sabotaged by western society. They in fact are marginalized. For British society they are “too black” or “too Asian and back home (i.e.,Pakistan) they are anticipated as “too white” or “too western\"(chocolate coated westerners). As we look further into this behavior, we realize that they do have genuine reasons. Pakistani Diaspora being slurred in their workplaces; our students being slammed and contra-distinguished against in the developed world, Pakistani passport raises eyebrows at airports. I can personally uphold for the straight stuff that anyone who is not a local or a gora, is subject to serious injustice, and Pakistanis too are pierced in a meticulous manner.

Edward Snowden: Whistleblower

An example of a decent human being.

This is a guest post by Tristan Ryan.

Before I begin, I’d like to apologize for my sub-par writing 
skills. Although I’m not the worst out there, I don’t do this often, and what you get might be more of a rant or something very rough (perhaps both!) than anything. On top of that, I have my nephew in the same room as me playing with my dogs. I love him to death, but god, he can be distracting.

Anyways, if you’ve been keeping up with current events recently, you might know about all sorts of things happening in America and across the globe, from that verdict in the Trayvon Martin case that let another child murderer get away to Edward Snowden and his noble work to put information and power into the hands of the people. Today, instead of racial tensions emerging from the Trayvon Martin case, I’ll be focusing on our good ol’ pal, Edward.

I’ll give a quick summary for those who haven’t been keeping up with current events recently or just haven’t learned about this yet. Edward Snowden was an intelligence contractor and system admin for the NSA (National Security Agency) who exposed the USA and UK’s spy programs, called PRISM (US) and Tempora (UK) that were (and still are) violating the privacy of not only their citizens, but citizens of other people from other countries. When he leaked this data, a cocktail of people got pissed for a cocktail of reasons. The people and other governments got pissed for being spied on and having their privacy violated, and the governments that were spying got pissed for having their privacy violated (because they honestly seem to care about privacy).

Stuck in a rut: Pakistan's Political Scene

This is a guest post by Usama Guddar. (hey, I came up with the title).

With Raja Pervaiz Ashraf getting the premiership, I decided not to worry about Pakistan anymore. I was determined to move from here as soon as I find an opportunity. However, today again I feel like I should post something. It's all about the "selection" 2013. (Yeah you heard that right! Not election, I said selection)

Starting from the fiascoes of the PPP government to Nawaz Sharif's so called opposition party, to Pervaiz Illahi's becoming the deputy premier (that was an invention, btw) to Imran Khan fever among all the kiddos of the country, I have a lot to say. Lets not talk about PPP or Nawaz Sharif and confine ourselves to Imran Khan today. Allow me to talk about the "Jinnah" of this gumrah-kun nation.

Imran Khan rose up with such a momentum that we all thought he will clean sweep this time. Those music concerts, t-shirts posing IK as the revolutionist of the century and the heated speeches of him (not to mention those memes) are still up on my mind. To tell you how much our people got obsessed by him, those idiots started comparing him with Jinnah. I got this text from someone counting the similarities between the two. Jinnah was in the Hall of fame of his university and so do Imran. Jinnah did this and Imran also did the same. Guess they wanted Imran's photo on the currency notes instead of Jinnah's. Isn't it too much?

Automated Traffic Fines? Vehicle-To-Vehicle Communication

The Internet police have cracked down on peer-to-peer file sharing as a result of pressure from the music and recording industries. Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication would be music to the ears of municipal police and drivers if it works the way developers plan.

The Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan, along with the U.S. Department of Transportation, began a project last fall to study the effectiveness of V2V communication in real-life situations. The $25 million in-vivo experiment follows the driving activities of 2,800 local residents who volunteered to have their vehicles equipped with the the transmitters and receivers. The vehicles will not only communicate with their drivers via audio and visual alerts, but also with devices installed at various street corners and intersections. The study is scheduled to last through the summer of 2013.

How It Works

Ray LaHood, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said smart cars could ultimately reduce traffic accidents by up to 80 percent. The dedicated short-range communication technology allows equipped vehicles to warn drivers of road hazards, of imminent collisions and can even tell a red light to turn green when no other traffic is around.

LaHood told Annarbor.com that the study will determine whether a federal mandate can be implemented requiring every vehicle on the road to be equipped with the technology. The biggest hurdle, besides the effectiveness of the program, is cost. But Consumer Reports noted the price is nothing compared to the savings on medical bills (which it estimates to be $99 billion annually) and the lives saved because safer cars of V2V communication.

Automated Traffic Fines

Researchers at Carlos III University in Madrid said the automated systems could work with existing V2V technology to send driving violations directly to the vehicle through municipalities. The ticket-administration program, known as Communications and Information Technologies (CITs), would allow drivers to report who is breaking the law, while allowing offenders to communicate with nearby drivers to ask them to act as witnesses. According to an Arizona car dealership, some cars are already being equipped with communication systems for emergencies.

The Sarabjit Conundrum: India-Pak tensions rise again

This Amateur artwork is presented by yours truly, Mirsub. Microsoft Paint, you have saved me once again.

Note: As admin, I've seen this whole drama unfold on Twitter and in the media and it's simply ludicrous. Strayed from the Punjab? Yeah, O.K.
-Mirsub

Guest blog by Fatima Sajjad. She writes for the Tribune.

I am not a blogger or writer and never have I tried my hand at it but the Pakistan India topics are always an interesting choice to begin with! Moreover the Sarabjit Case and the false potrayal of him as 'just a farmer' has forced me to let it out.

I am not an anti-Indian but the way they have reacted to this situation and similar ones has changed my view of them. Lets start with what their very well know and learned people had to say about Pakistan, Javed Akhtar called Pakistan a 'petty establishment' after the death of Sarabjit and others termed Pakistan as an insensitive nation. I ask them,if Pakistan is a petty establishment why did they release several other prisoners convicted of terrorist activites,examples can include Gopaal Daas and Surjeet Singh who were recently pardoned and sent back home safe and sound! If Pakistan is a petty estabilishment why did our soldiers send the little Indian girl,that too with new clothes,candies etc,back to India with full safety! Also,is not India a petty estabilishment too as after the Sarabjit Incident one Pakistani prisoner was attacked by his inmates in Jammu and just by the way he has been struggling for a living as well why is this not telecasted?

The Most Annoying Posts on Facebook

We all loved Facebook when it started (OK, not all of us...). It was agreat way to keep in touch with all our friends -- even the ones we weren't intouch with any more. For a reason. But we loved it anyway because it meant thatwe could spy on them and secretly judge them without having to actually beinvolved in their lives in any real way. That included frienemies from college,old flames, former co-workers and grade-school chums that we were glad to findworking at a Burger King and growing bald after picking us relentlessly (Idigress...).

BUT all that schadenfreude started to turn against us when we found thatin addition to lamentations about how much it sucked to work at Burger King,that same former grade-school chum also posted cute cat video after cute catvideo. Instead of being a source of amusement, your news feed became a reasonfor you to want to poke your own eye out every day.

Besides the cat videos, here are some of the most annoying posts you arelikely to find on Facebook (even with the most stringent requirements for whoyou let on your friend's list):

"My kids just say the darnest things..."

Yeah, we know: Your little angel is just HIGH-larious! Except she's not.And we don't need to hear about every precocious observation she has made in her adorable little lisp -- carefully typed out phonetically so we get the full effect. Save it for someone who cares: Grandma.

"My lifesucks :("

Otherwise known as #smh. Or FML. Or "I tried." These are the short, cryptic, woe-is-me posts that are crying out for you to ask "What's wrong? What happened?" but they are inevitably answered with "oh nothing" or "I don't want to talk about it" Then stop posting it on Facebook and move on!

"Click' Like' If You..."

Click "like" if you love the Lord and aren't afraid to show it. Click "like" if you support autism awareness. Click "like" if you're a Southern girl. The only reason these posts exist is self-indulgent navel-gazing. I'd like to be able to click "you are ridiculous," but it's not an option.

Self-Affirmations

Sometimes, these are actual status updates that someone wrote out themselves. Sometimes, they are meaningful quotes stuck on a photo -- usually of someone famous (usually of Marilyn Monroe). They say something like "I may be stupid and ugly, but gosh darn it! people like me -- or at least they should." Maybe it's more eloquent than that, but the sentiment is the same, and it's one that needs to be shared in group therapy, not the place you come to connect with people you haven't spoken a real work to in decades.

Duck Face

I don't know how this trend started -- or why any woman ever thought it was sexy in any way -- but it needs to end now and forever. Photos taken of yourself sticking out your lips need to never be shared. In fact, they shouldn't be taken in the first place. Actually, since we're on the subject,just stop taking photos of yourself period. Nothing looks more ridiculous or posed than that "Who me?" look paired up with the reflection of your self holding the camera.

Running Commentary

We get it: You're excited about the game, or the presidential debate, or the final episode of the Real Housewives. But you don't have to try to be the first one to break the news about whatever big thing happened. By the time you post, everyone already knows what happened. Your constant posts aren't funny or clever, they're only annoying.

Between the "Hey do you know that this celebrity died today?" posts and the requests for you to come play on a virtual farm, Facebook is starting to be a virtual minefield of annoying posts. You can hardly escape one before you go stumbling onto another.

These are my pet peeves on Facebook. What are yours? What are some ofthe most annoying posts you see? Share them in the comments!

(Heres one from the Owner of the site too..)

"1 like= 1 support"

I liked the the idea of this guest post so much that yours truly, Mirsub couldn't help to resist to add a little "something something" of his own. You see this all over the place, you think we're f**** dum? Yes I love Pizza, Eminem, cuddly wuddly kittens and what-not but you must be out of your mind if you think you're gonna fool me in your futile/desperate attempts for "likes". And oh, one more thing; sorry to burst your bubble but doctors don't get paid in "Likes".

About the Author:

Alexis Bonari writes for one of the largest open databases of collegefunding opportunities. Specific topics like schoolgrants are described in detail to provide multiple resources for students.

Dabbling in Too Many Things At Once

Like most people in this tech-savy and demanding world, I'm getting wrapped in too many stuff. Sometimes it's this blog, sometime's it's my music, twitter etc. Let's not forget the
god-forsaken homework that teachers feel the need to give and...I have my exams. Just bundles of joy I tell ya'.

It all gets a bit too much handle at times, but some-how I manage. I persevere no matter how severe (yes, that was supposed to rhyme). It's like I have all these plethora of things to do and if focus on one, it has repercussions (like this blog, which went from having a Alexa rank of 300,000 to 1,100,000). Sometimes I feel like I should just let go but something keeps holding me back...

Job in Faisalabad – Employers & Employees Perspective

Faisalabad, the third largest city of Pakistan had given a lot of business to the country, but has faced a downfall over the years. Faisalabad has a strong industrial base including the industries of textiles, jewelry, manufacturing, furniture, pharmaceuticals and other small business enterprises. My focus in this article is on finding a job in Faisalabad. I'll discuss perspective of both job seekers and employers.

7 Questions to Ask a Prospective Social Media Consultant

Internet is the right way to take your business to new horizons. While so many other options exist in online marketing and business, social media marketing is known to have its own benefits. It has a strong presence in the online marketing industry. When social media is becoming more powerful the social media consultant should be able to answer the following questions with no reluctance.

What is your Experience?

You need to know how long they have been into the industry. Every business is a learning process. Thought the expertise of the consultant cannot be measured with the yardstick of experience, you cannot expect the novice to be as good as the experienced consultant. A few years of experience would do.

Are there any references?

As said earlier, only experience isn’t expertise. Even with a couple of years’ experience the consultant can be great in the field of social media marketing. How to find if the consultant is worth hiring? Ask the consultant if he or she can tell you other works done. If the consultant had come out successful projects, he or she could tell you as many references as possible even if the consultant has only 3 to 4 years of experience. Do not get satisfied with the references shown to you. Always only best works are shown. Ask for current projects of the client.  If confidentiality agreements exist between the consultant and clients, you may get no references.

Karachi. Here we go again.

Karachi is up to it's same old antics again. Another week, another bombing; the residents here have become used to this. So used to it that we tend to forget that these are not mere stats and figures but people. With lives. 

Some of us rush to social media sites expressing our 'grief' and school-going kids go contemplate whether tomorrow shall be a holiday or not. Let's not forget the good ole' media sensationalizing this by playing un-authorized dramatic soundtracks from movies showing or showing mother clutching their dead sons to their chest.

But as-always the residents of Karachi shall stay strong. Now I've lived in Karachi for almost half my life, if it's one thing it has. It's hope.

Best Video plugins for WordPress

As the field of blogging is growing, it is becoming hard to get listed on the first page of Google, and to get traffic. When we talk about quality, the experts advice to produce quality content. I totally agree with the fact that 'Content is King'. There are many blogs that are running for the purpose of making money only. Such blogs can't go long in the blogging.
If you want success with your blog, then you must focus on producing quality content for your blog. You must make use of images, videos in your blog posts to make them informative. Talking about the videos, many bloggers think it as complex task to do. This might be, but not for the bloggers having their blog on WordPress. If yours is also on the same, then you will be pleased to know that many plugins can do the work easy for you. Here is the list of best plugins for WordPress that make the video insertion task easy and fun.

Smart YouTube
This is the best plugin that is simple to use, and lets you insert YouTube videos with ease. Some other popular video sources are also supported. The reason why this plugin avails the no.1 spot in this list is its simple user interface. You can insert videos in your blog posts, RSS feed, comments etc. This is one of the most downloaded video insertion plugins for WordPress.

The Chronicles of an Insomniac Pakistani Teenager

Another day, another sleepless night. These are ramblings of every insomniac. Speaking of Insomnia, I'm writing a book with the same title as this post.

I always found it funny when it's 11 p.m, I can barely in myself to keep myself awake but by the time it's 2 a.m I'm jumping all 

I am so frickin' high right now.

over the place like some bunny rabbit whose high on cocaine.

Usually I'm raiding the fridge in my (usually fruitless) quest of a midnight snack or I'm walking around aimlessly with earphones plugged in wondering what I should do. As an avid gamer, I spend my nights wrapped in blanket playing video games till the crack of dawn (which by then, I'll sleep). Though, there's only so much COD you can play and currently I've pretty much finished most my single player campaigns. 

 

A Compilation Of My Funniest Tweets (February 2013)

For those of you who don't know or are new to this blog, every-month (starting from June) I used to make a compilation of my funniest tweets of a particular month. 

The tweets were selected 0n the number of re-tweets, mentions I got and the help of some of my friends. And did I mention it was a pain in the ass manually looking for each and every tweet and than embedding them here?

But as you know, Humans are prone to mistakes and I forget to keep making these compilations sometime around August 2012. Yeah...oops.

*please note. Some of these tweets are a few months old to make up for the other months I forgot to make compilations in.

So. Here goes nothing: 

Hacking.....BEWARE!

So I received an email from Allison Morris, a fellow blogger, I'm assuming. It's had this amazing info-graph, which I thought I'd share with y'all on the dangers of hacking or in his words:

"A graphic I helped create which looks at the increasing rate of Cyber-crimes and dangers associated with hacking" 

Here you go:

Messiah's, Assassinations and What-not!?

Hey there guys, sorry for not posting again after some time. Blogging been taking a bit of a back-seat for me lately. Started making music again (After almost year, due to school).

Anyways, back to topic. The past few weeks for Pakistan have been volatile to say the least. Another MQM official shot dead in Karachi, and Tahir Ul Qadri; a Pakistani-Canadian Sufi Scholar turned Politician/Messiah is taking the centre stage. 

His call for a "million-man march" in favour of reforms and against corruption has propelled cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri to the status as the champion of Pakistan's middle class. Although the protest in Islamabad will achieve little, it casts a spotlight on the population's growing displeasure and it's dwindling faith in Pakistan's mainstream political parties. His liberal views, his open condemnation of terrorism does have my support; though not sure on his motivation for suddenly returning to Pakistan. If he is what he says he is, then he might just turn things around or be another let-down.

Long Vacation

Hey guys, I've been taking a long break.This blog will be back on track soon. I've noticed the Alexa rank for this blog has went up, which is bad. Hopefully I'll get everything sorted out. Pakistan's been in a bit of a turmoil these past weeks and I really wanted to blog on that. But meh, don't blame me I was vacation.

I was gonna write more for this post but I need to start researching for a MUN (Model United Nations). To be more specific, I'm taking part in MUNIK 2013 held at IBA university in Karachi. Wish my delegation luck!

This is Mirsub Ali Fazlani signing (or should I say blogging) out!