Islamabad: PTA has directed all concerned operators to shut down website www.youtube.com in view of growing sacrilegious contents on it. It may be mentioned that PTA after all possible avenues were used within its jurisdiction, including using regular channels available on the FACEBOOK and YOUTUBE to launch protest, to avoid appearances of derogatory material available on their websites - which increased in numbers as time passed by, that PTA decided to completely shut down these sites from being viewed within Pakistan. PTA has so far blocked more than 450 links on internet containing derogatory material.
It was not only in line with the Constitution of Pakistan, the wishes of the people of Pakistan but also an extension of the court orders passed by the honorable High Court of Pakistan and directions of the Government of Pakistan. PTA has already announced a phone number and a complaint number to receive complaints on the issue.
The attitude of administrators at FACEBOOK and YOUTUBE was in contravention to the WSIS Resolutions and their own policies advertised on the web for general public. PTA would welcome the concerned authorities of FACEBOOK and YOUTUBE to contact the PTA for resolving the issue at the earliest which ensures religious harmony and respect.
Just yesterday, we saw yet another daily build of what Opera Software was calling its "pre-alpha" of the Opera 10.5 Web browser, a product that the company certainly wanted folks to test, even though they were warned it wasn't even ready for daily use. With various software publishers' development schedules being organized so differently from one another, it's difficult enough distinguishing "previews" from "alpha previews" from "preview alphas" -- just yesterday, for example, Mozilla finalized a public "developer preview" of Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1, closing off its "Alpha 1 preview" track before starting, on the same day, its "Alpha 2 preview" track
But Opera, perhaps breaching etiquette altogether and going for the sinister "Triple Dog Dare," this morning skipped right over Alpha 1 -- which we were all expecting -- and officially dubbed the latest build of 10.5 "Beta 1." In so doing, Opera also removed what it had been calling "10.2 Alpha 1" off of its list of test builds, and replaced it with 10.5 Beta 1 on its "browser/next" page.
There are a few elements of this new beta that still have a certain "alpha" flavor to them: for example, a button on the search bar that doesn't search for the contents already in the text box, but only after you type new text into the box. And a JavaScript control problem on a very simple conditional loop still forces an error condition on one of our basic JavaScript tests -- an error that one can excuse in a "pre-alpha."
That said, Opera is now officially back in the hunt for Web browser performance supremacy, warts and all. Today, after a huge set of Patch Tuesday updates forced a slowdown of our index browser (Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista), and even a slight speed gain in IE8 on Windows 7, triggered a reset of all our Windows 7 browser test scores slightly higher, Opera 10.5 held on to the lead over the latest development build of Google Chrome 5.
But the lead is much narrower than it was last week, by almost 44%. With the wind in Chrome 5's sails now, Opera has to paddle as fast as it can to maintain its distance from what has become the fastest evolving browser chassis in history.
We'll get back to performance in a bit; first, a look at some of the other new Opera 10.5 features we're noticing. Last December, we showed you the completely revised Opera front-end, which made us wonder why this wasn't being called "Opera 11." For Beta 1, we've noticed a few tweaks: First, there are fewer buttons in the Address bar than in the first "pre-alpha." Back and Forward are now paired, and a new "fast-forward" button (there's no textual name for it that we can see) is capable of paging ahead, within sequences of pages that haven't been loaded yet. We tried it with Betanews articles, and it works quite well -- you can get to Page 2 from Page 1 even if you can't find our page button.
The tweaked, but still revised, front end of Opera 10.5 Beta 1, with the tab bar opened up to show thumbnails.
The Search bar has been tweaked, and now bears the logo of the search engine you're using (Google remains the default). The search button has been moved to the right, but as we mentioned, there's times when it didn't function for us in the first beta build.
The Side panel is back in 10.5 (it wasn't working for us in the pre-alpha), and it remains the most convenient way for us to pull up bookmarks. One of our favorite Firefox add-ons is the All-in-One Sidebar, but as we've been reminded any number of times, its design inspiration comes from Opera.
The tab bar can still be slid open to reveal thumbnail previews, though in the beta, Web pages' icons ("favicons") have returned to accompany their title bars. When you hover over a tab or a little thumbnail, Opera 10.5 pulls up a big thumbnail, along with more space for the page's title and URL. The tab button with the picture of a tab in it, that didn't convey its meaning very well, has been replaced with a "recycle bin" button that makes more sense. From here, you can re-open closed tabs.
Controls along the bottom of the new Opera window are now rendered in their own tabs; and this is smart, because the tabs themselves are opaque. Opera has been joining the trend toward embracing the translucent window frame in Vista and Windows 7; in the pre-alpha, you could only see the charcoal-grey feature icons when the window was in front of something white or chalky-colored.
Version 10.5 is Opera's first to follow Firefox's lead in supporting the HTML
-- the ability (theoretically) to show streaming videos from the Web using a codec built into the browser. Unfortunately (and this isn't Opera's fault by any means), the biggest open test of the functionality of the HTML5 tag comes from YouTube, where the test uses the proprietary H.264 codec. While both Firefox and Opera can try to run these tests, they're geared (for now) for Google Chrome 5 and Apple Safari 4.
With pages using the Ogg Theora codec for the
tag -- the one Web standards architects intended -- Opera's built-in player performance appeared stable in early tests. Streaming movies did appear a little "mosaic-ed" for the first few seconds, almost like a JPEG image that's half-loaded. We did notice problems with 10.5 Beta 1 and the Flash codec, especially in YouTube. When a new video player is repeatedly loaded into the same space as the one that initially inhabits a page, Opera has a tendency to blank out the reloaded viewer. You can hear sound, but you see nothing but the page background.
We're impressed by an Opera 10.5 feature that's out of the ordinary for any other browser, and potentially less of a security risk for users: Pop-up windows, including message boxes, are rendered by the JavaScript interpreter as part of the active page, not as separate Opera windows. That means you can't drag a pop-up window outside the page area, which might possibly become an inconvenience in some situations. But it reduces the opportunity for the type of cross-window spoofing that has characterized exploits of Internet Explorer and Firefox, because pop-ups are run in the context of the active page -- a much tighter sandbox.
We're not impressed with the first beta's upload ability: In fact, the browser does tend to crash following an upload. The built-in session manager (one less add-on you need to attach) does pick up where you left off when you reload the browser.
novaPDF is a PDF printer driver that allows you create PDF documents from virtually any Windows program. You may use the software to convert web pages, emails, Office documents and any other file into the PDF format by simply selecting the “Print” command from the associated application.
There are a couple of reasons why you want to install the novaPDF driver on your system. For instance, it can automatically append the PDF output to an existing PDF file — this comes quite handy when need to collection snippets from multiple web pages / documents into a single PDF file.
If you intend to share PDF documents on the web, you’ll find novaPDF useful since it lets you add meta information (like title, subject, etc.) to PDFs that will ultimately help in improving the search rankings (SEO) of your PDFs. The generates PDFs have embedded fonts so they will look the same everywhere even if the fonts are missing on the other computer.
novaPDF works with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows including XP and Windows 7. Unlike other free PDF printers, novaPDF offers a standalone installer so you don’t have to install extra software (like GhostScript or the .NET Framework) for generating PDFs. How to get novaPDF PDF Printer for Free
Here’s how Digital Inspiration readers can receive a free license of novaPDF:
1. Go to this page and request a license key for the software.
2. Once you receive the registration details via email, download the installer from novapdf.com [direct link to .exe file] and install the application.
3. When the setup has completed, you will have a printer called novaPDF in the Devices and Printers page (or ‘Printers and Faxes’ window depending on your Windows version).
You can now access this PDF printer directly from the Print menu of any Windows application that supports the Print feature.
Windows 8 Pre Xtreme Edition x86/x64 (Reupload 02-10-2010)
What is Windows 8 xTreme ™? Windows 8 xTreme ™ its a System based on Windows 7 Final- Windows 8 xTreme ™ doesn't have any components removed from Original Windows 7 Image so you wont lose any compatibly with software hardware or miss any stuff at all.
- Windows 8 xTreme ™ its a Clean Windows 7 Image with a compilation of the best tweaks and a new integrated look ... keeping all new features like superbar, etc ...
- Windows 8 xTreme ™ has been tested in a real machine with a compilation of over 200 softwares ...
- All default applications are silently installed before StartUp ...
Tweaks:
* UAC Disabled
* Take Ownership
* Show File Extensions
* Automatic Defragmentation with Diskeeper
* New Cmd File to Right Click
* Enabled Search System Folders in Search
* ClearType
* Windows Will Tell You Exactly What it is Doing When it is Shutting Down or is Booting
* Increase Network Throughput
* ... many tweaks for IE8
* ... many more tweaks for W7 ...
Design:
* New Windows 7 Themes
* New Start Button
* New Cursor 3D
* New Hd Wallpapers
* New Hd System Icons Integrated In System
* New User *** Pics
* New Windows Scheme Sounds
* New Logon Screen
* ... and more
Extra Toos Integrated In System:
* SPTD
Extras:
* Cursor Fx + Cursor 3D (separate optional)
Now we can finally put the rumors to rest. Apple has finally unveiled its new tablet product, called the iPad. Apple CEO Steve Jobs today said the company aimed to make the product better than a laptop at browsing the Web, sharing photos, videos, music, playing games, and reading e-books; but in an all-touch form factor smaller than a notebook, and just larger than an iPhone.
As expected, the device is actually quite a lot like a big iPhone; as such, it can run all of the existing apps in the iTunes app store. The added bonus is that it can run them in their normal mode or in "2x" mode to fit the larger screen. The device has a custom user interface and will launch with its own exclusive software such as e-reader application "iBooks," touch-paint program "Brushes," and a totally re-designed touchscreen version of iWork.
The iPad starts at only $499 for the 16GB model with no 3G. The 3G-enabled 16GB model costs $629. The top of the line iPad with 64GB of memory and 3G connectivity will run $829. These prices are much lower than the rumors had said, but they actually fit in with the rest of the industry's tablets and convertible notebooks. Preliminary Specs:
1 GHz Apple A4 Chip
16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of Flash storage
9.7" capacitive multitouch screen (LED Backlit)
.5" thick chassis
1.5 lbs
Custom iPhone OS 3.2 (beta available today to registered developers)
802.11n Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR
Optional 3G connectivity with AT&T, (unlimited data $29.99 per month, no contract necessary)
NEW YORK – AT&T Inc. is paying $18 million to settle claims that it imposed unfairly high fees on wireless customers who wanted to end their contracts.
The settlement covers customers from as far back as 1998. Those who were charged an early termination fee, or ETF, could get as much as $140 back, if they canceled a two-year contract just before it was about to expire. Those who canceled earlier would get less.
Those who were never charged an early termination fee can get an AT&Tlong distance phone card with up to 200 minutes, or if they have a AT&T contract, choose to have the ETF changed from a $175 flat rate to one that is prorated.
AT&T used to charge an ETF of $175, regardless of how long the customer had left on the contract. Like other carriers, it started prorating the fee in 2008, so customers canceling after a year of service paid less.
Early termination fees recover some of the subsidies that carriers pay to reduce the price consumers pay for new phones. But in several suits AT&T and other carriers faced around the country, customers claimed the fees were illegal because they bore no relation to the carrier's actual costs, and discouraged customers from switching carriers. The consumers also complained that carriers would extend the contract periods, sometimes secretly, when customers asked to change minor provisions in their contracts.
Dallas-based AT&T said it "strongly" denies any wrongdoing, and said no court had found it at fault. It's settling to avoid further litigation, it said. Sprint Nextel Corp. settled similar claims in August for $17.5 million.
On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission sent letters to AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Communications Inc., T-Mobile USA Inc. and Google Inc., asking whether they give customers adequate notice about ETFs.
Charles Dunstone, the chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, has said he could be prepared to fight the Government in court should the anti-piracy clauses of the Digital Economy Bill become legislation.
Charles Dunstone, chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, has managed to collect nearly 32,000 signatures for his web campaign against the Government's internet disconnection proposals to reduce piracy.Photo: Eddie Mulholland
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Dunstone, whose company owns and operates the internet and telephony provider TalkTalk, said he refused to send his customers who were suspected file-sharers warning letters about their supposed activity or disconnect them, even if these clauses of the bill became law.
He explained that he may choose instead to fight the Government in court, if his lobbying fails and that his company would “consider all its options” should these clauses in the Digital Economy Bill go through
TalkTalk has publicly opposed the Government proposals to combat web piracy since the publication of the Digital Britain White Paper in June 2009, launching an online petition, ‘DontDisconnect.Us’ which now has nearly 32,000 signatures.
Mr Dunstone hit out at the music industry, saying: “I think there is a problem if an industry thinks its business model will be saved by legislation. While the music industry focuses on getting these laws through, it won’t be concentrating on reinventing its business– which it obviously needs to do as its model is out of date. Its customers have gone on strike and turned to piracy because the old model doesn’t work.
“There is no need to pursue this letter-sending and disconnection policy, when it can just individually prosecute people who have violated copyright rules.”
Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of UK Music, the music industry’s trade body, told The Telegraph that the proposed legislation would buy the music industry some much needed “breathing space” and was never intended to solve all of the music industry’s problems. “The Government made it clear since day one, that the solution to the music industry’s issues would come from the market.
“Clearly because of the sheer volume of peer to peer filesharing going on, it is having to compete with the level of free. The industry needs some breathing space to be able to figure out the best ways to compete with that pressure and develop the market.
“This process was never about disconnection – it was about reconnecting music fans with the true value of creativity.”
TalkTalk’s position is a contrast to that of fellow Internet Service Providers – Virgin Media and Sky – which have both supported the bill’s clauses, committing to sending out warning letters to web pirates and launching their own legal music subscription services. However, Mr Dunstone said that this was because both providers were more reliant upon their relationships with the music industry as they both run music services – whereas his company concentrates solely on being ‘the pipe’ by which consumers received broadband and telephony services.
The Digital Economy Bill, which is still going through the House of Lords, but expected to reach the Commons by late February, proposes a several step solution, which begins with a warning letter sent to those illegally downloading from their Internet Service Provider and could end with that person’s internet connection being temporarily suspended.
Mr Dunstone was speaking today at an event entitled ‘Principalities and Practicalities of Copyright Protection', which his company organised and used to air their views, while giving a platform to consumer rights group Which?, Liberty, the Open Rights Group and Consumer Focus, which all shared similar concerns with the bill’s proposals regarding piracy
Sky was originally seeking £709 million in compensation from the data provider over the £48 million contract.
But there will be a further hearing over damages in February after Sky's lawyers have examined the judgment.
Mr Justice Ramsey said: "I find that there was liability on the first defendant (Hewlett Packard) to the claimant (BSkyB) for fraudulent misrepresentation giving rise to damages."
The broadcaster hired Electronic Data Systems, later taken over by Hewlett Packard (HP), in 2000 to build a new customer services system.
The contract was ended in March 2002 after a "woeful" performance, the judge had been told.
Lawyers for Sky told the judge the project eventually took six years to complete and if the contractor had been honest about its abilities, BSkyB would have chosen a different company.
A spokesman for HP said of the ruling: "This is a legacy issue, dating back to the EDS business in 2000, which HP inherited when it acquired EDS in 2008.
"We are pleased the court dismissed the majority of the allegations made. While we accept that the contract was problematic, HP strongly maintains EDS did nothing to deceive BSkyB. HP will be seeking permission to appeal."
Some people want the Apple Tablet to run Mac OS X's user interface. Others think its UI will be something exotic. Both camps are wrong: The iPhone started a UI revolution, and the tablet is just step two. Here's why.
If you are talking hardware, you can speculate about many different features. But when it comes to the fabled Apple Tablet, there are basically three user interface camps at war. On one side there are the people who think that a traditional GUI—one built on windows, folders and the old desktop metaphor—is the only way to go for a tablet. You know, like with the Microsoft Windows-based tablets, and the new crop of touchscreen laptops.
In another camp, there are the ones who are dreaming about magic 3D interfaces and other experimental stuff, thinking that Apple would come up with a wondrous new interface that nobody can imagine now, one that will bring universal love, world peace and pancakes for everyone—even while Apple and thousands of experts have explored every UI option imaginable for decades.
And then there's the third camp, in which I have pitched my tent, who says that the interface will just be an evolution of an existing user interface, one without folders and windows, but with applications that take over the entire screen. A "modal" user interface that has been proven in the market battlefield, and that has brought a new form of computing to every normal, non-computer-expert consumer.
Yes, people, I'm afraid that the tablet will just run a sightly modified version of the iPhone OS user interface. And you should be quite happy about it, as it's the culmination of a brilliant idea proposed by a slightly nutty visionary genius, who died in 2005 without ever seeing the rise of the JesusPhone.
Today, Eastman Kodak filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission and a suit in the Western District Court of New York that claims Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices both violate Kodak's digital imaging patents.
Equipped with a fresh legal precedent from the suit it won against Samsung last month, Kodak spokesmen say the company isn't trying to disrupt sales of the iPhone or BlackBerry devices, but rather, it's seeking compensation for use of Kodak's patented technology.
On December 17, Samsung was found to be in violation of Kodak's 1997 patent for color image preview on digital LCD screens.
"We remain open to negotiating a fair and amicable agreement with both Apple and RIM, which has always been our preference and our practice with other licensees," Laura G. Quatela, Chief Intellectual Property Officer, and Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company, said. "We seek to avoid litigation in our licensing programs whenever possible. But when the infringement is persistent, we will act to defend the interests of our shareholders and licensees, and to promote the fair compensation that is the bedrock of innovation."
In October, Finnish Mobile phone leader Nokia sued Apple for not paying for licenses of certain wireless technologies used in the iPhone.
I’ve been waiting a long time for a desktop system that can handle more than two monitors. (In mid-2008, I got some great suggestions from readers, but none of them were worth the hassle or expense.
Finally, two weeks ago I found an HP Pavilion Elite m9600t at an irresistible price. The i7-920 processor and capability to expand to 12GB of memory were nice, but what sealed the deal was the presence of two PCI-Express x16 slots. The system came with an Nvidia 9600GS display adapter. I cannibalized an Nvidia 8600 GT adapter from a system that I had previously used as a Media Center and, voila! Here’s what I’m now using: two 24-inch LCDs at 1920×1200 and a 23-inch unit at 1920×1080.
I expect my productivity to zoom to unheard-of levels in the next few months.
That fourth DVI connector is looking a little forlorn. Should I pick up a touch-enabled LCD for it?
Windows Mobile 7 is more than a year behind schedule, and Windows Mobile 6.5 has been dismissed by practically everyone in the media as a poor stopgap in Windows Mobile's hastened transition from an enterprise smartphone platform, to a smartphone platform for everyone.
But now that it is only two months away from its grand unveiling, Microsoft really isn't talking about Windows Mobile 7 specifically. However, Microsoft gave Betanews today a number of clues about what to expect toward its release, which show us what we can expect in the new, more consumer-oriented (and more than a bit tardy) mobile operating system.
"You're going to see more from us about the platform in general, to try to do a better job explaining the value proposition to consumers," Microsoft's Greg Sullivan, Senior Marketing Manager, Windows Phone told Betanews today. "We've seen Apple and others come in and get a lot of attention for shipping a feature that we've had for years. So I guess it's on us to kind of describe [the value of Windows Mobile]."
The issue with the platform, of course, is the huge pile of legacy devices and software versions which continued to affect its design up to Windows Mobile 6.5.
"Our fragmentation issue is primarily around screen resolutions and assuming a minimum CPU and storage. So it has been a little bit challenging, because that choice, that flexibility, that freedom that people have to build any kind of device and use any kind of device: touch, non-touch, keyboard, soft key, has required a little bit extra effort in some cases for developers to target apps that run across a wide array of devices," Sullivan said.
"But the (HTC) HD2 is a great early example of our new approach...We've got capacitive and multi-touch support in a Windows Phone, and that's because we did the platform work while working very closely with HTC to do the hardware/software integration."
"I think we'll see over the next few years when the smartphone space grows to the hundreds of millions per year, and looks more like the PC space, the horizontal market that we have will really have even more benefits for end users, because the devices will be more affordable and they'll continue to have the choice [of device types]," Sullivan continued.
"So how are we having our cake and eating it too? We're going to continue the horizontal market, but work very closely with our hardware partners to provide more guidance on the platform so we don't have nine different display sizes that independent software vendors have to target...maybe just two...
"We're going to continue investing in the user experience, and the legacy pocket PC 1999 UI that still kind of shows up if you drill down pretty deep? that's another thing that's changed."
So when we see Windows Mobile 7 finally come to market, it will be on fewer devices, which are designed in close collaboration with manufacturers, and thankfully, the legacy OS architecture looks like it will be retired.
Some people want the 
