Pakistan win Team of the Year award

Pakistan was named as the Best International Cricket Team in the 2011-2012 season at the CEAT cricket awards on Friday while India batsman Virat Kohli bagged the International Cricketer of the Year award.

Kohli, also the vice-captain of the side, beat the likes of Australian captain Michael Clarke, former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara and consistent South African opener Hashim Amla to clinch the top honour at a glittering function. Kohli, however, could not make it to the event and former Pakistan captain and bowling legend Wasim Akram collected the award on his behalf. “He is a special player. One of the best batsmen and fielder in the world cricket. He should be groomed as the next T20 captain of the Indian team. He is the right choice for the position,” said Akram of Kohli.

Akram also collected the award on behalf of the Pakistan team and said: “It’s an honour for me to collect this award on behalf of the team. They really played some good cricket this season and I congratulate them for emerging the winner.” Former Pakistan batting great Zaheer Abbas received the Lifetime Achievement Award. In the special India-Pakistan award category, legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar lifted the Best Test Batsman trophy while former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq was honoured with the Best ODI Batsman award. The 1983 India’s World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev was adjudged the Best Test bowler, Akram received the Best ODI bowler award.

CEAT Audience Choice Awards 2011-2012 went jointly to former Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar and Indian opener Virender Sehwag. Kapil, while awarding the International Best Cricket Team award to Pakistan said: “They deserve the award as they played good cricket.” Asked about Indian team’s dismal show against Pakistan in the ongoing series, Kapil said it would be better to not talk on the issue.

“If we don’t talk about it, it would be better for us. I just hope that on Sunday (third ODI at the Ferozeshah Kotla) we see better cricket. The Indian team has the reputation of making a comeback so I just hope they play well. I would just like to congratulate the Pakistan time for playing a fantastic cricket. They have a fantastic bowling line-up and there batsmen are also coming good. You deserve to win,” he said.”

Kapil, while getting nostalgic about the Indo-Pak rivalry, said: “Whenever you entered the field, you just wanted to win. It was like just go there and win. I can’t explain in words the rivalry between the two nations. Sometimes the pressure situation, the tense atmosphere didn’t let you to play the natural game.” The first-ever CEAT young Indian cricketer of the year award was received by India U-19 World Cup winning captain Unmukt Chand, who collected the trophy from Gavaskar. “I am happy to have been chosen for this award. That was a special win for all of us. That particular day when I lifted the World Cup trophy was a special moment.” Former Pakistan captains Saeed Anwar, Rameez Raja and Inzamam along with Kapil, Ajay Jadeja, Gavaskar and Yashpal Sharma graced the occasion.

Ramiz and Shonali Nagrani played perfect host to the evening reminding the present dignitaries of the excitement attached to the Indo-Pak rivalry over the years.

 

Pakistan beats India winning first One day series of 2013

Great start to year

Pakistan outclassed India in virtually every area of the game – from the batting of Nasir Jamshed, who scored his second century in as many matches, to the pace bowling of Junaid Khan and Umar Gul, and the wily spin of Saeed Ajmal.

India must now beat Pakistan in the third and final match in Delhi on Sunday to avoid what would be a humiliating whitewash. A victory would restore a small measure of pride after Thursday’s thrashing, but there’s no denying that Indian cricket is going through a rough patch – in all formats.

The ODI defeat is the latest in a run of results that have pushed Indian cricket fans to despair. The World Cup triumph of 2011 and number one Test ranking are now distant memories.

This tour by Pakistan followed a heavy Test series defeat to a touring England side. That was the first time the English had won a Test series here since 1985, and capped off a poor year that started with a Test whitewash in Australia. Wins at home over New Zealand and, in late 2011, the West Indies, barely papered over the cracks. The failure to get to the late stages in the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka showed all was not well in the shortest format too.

Established players such as Rahul Dravid stepped down last year, leaving a gaping hole in the Test team. Even Sachin Tendulkar could be on his last legs, announcing his retirement from ODI cricket just ahead of this Pakistan tour. But it’s unlikely that the Little Master, who remains available for the Test team, would have rescued India in Kolkata given his troubled form.

The only man showing any real fight for India, at least in this ODI series against Pakistan, is the captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who scored a battling 54 not out Thursday.

 

MICROSOFT GOES TOUCH

With Friday’s release of the touch-centric Windows 8 software, Microsoft continues more than three decades of making operating systems for personal computers.

Microsoft Corp. got its start on PCs in 1981 through a partnership with IBM Corp. Microsoft made the software that ran IBM’s hardware, and later machines made by other manufacturers. That first operating system was called MS-DOS — for Microsoft Disk Operating System. It required people to type instructions to complete tasks such as running programs and deleting files.

It wasn’t until 1985 that Microsoft released its first graphical user interface, which allowed people to perform tasks by moving a mouse and clicking on icons on the screen. Microsoft called the operating system Windows.

Windows 1.0 came out in November 1985, nearly two years after Apple began selling its first Macintosh computer, which also used a graphical operating system. Apple sued Microsoft in 1988 for copyright infringement, claiming that Microsoft copied the “look and feel” of its operating system. Apple lost.

Microsoft followed it with Windows 2.0 in December 1987, 3.0 in May 1990 and 3.1 in April 1992.

In July 1993, Microsoft released Windows NT, a more robust operating system built from scratch. It was meant as a complement to Windows 3.1 and allowed higher-end machines to perform more complex tasks, particularly for engineering and scientific programs that dealt with large numbers.

Microsoft had its first big Windows launch with the release of Windows 95 in August 1995. The company placed special sections in newspapers, ran television ads with the Rolling Stones song “Start Me Up” and paid to have the Empire State Building lit up in Windows colors.

Comedian Jay Leno joined co-founder Bill Gates on stage at a launch event at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash.

“Windows 95 is so easy, even a talk-show host can figure it out,” Gates joked.

The hype worked: Computer users lined up to be the first to buy it. Microsoft sold millions of copies within the first few weeks. Windows 95 brought built-in Internet support and “plug and play” tools to make it easier to install software and attach hardware. Windows 95 was far better — and more successful — than its predecessor and narrowed the ease-of-use gap between Windows and Mac computers.

At around the same time, Microsoft released the first version of its Internet Explorer browser. It went on to tie IE and Windows functions so tightly that many people simply used the browser over the once-dominant Netscape Navigator. The U.S. Justice Department and several states ultimately sued Microsoft, accusing it of using its monopoly control over Windows to shut out competitors in other markets. The company fought the charges for years before settling in 2002.

The June 1998 release of Windows 98 was more low-key than the Windows 95 launch, though Microsoft denied it had anything to do with the antitrust case.

Windows 98 had the distinction of being the last with roots to the original operating system, MS-DOS. Each operating system is made up of millions of lines of instructions, or code, written in sections by programmers. Each time there’s an update, portions get dropped or rewritten, and new sections get added for new features. Eventually, there’s nothing left from the original.

Microsoft came out with Windows Me a few years later, the last to use the code from Windows 95. Starting with Windows 2000, Microsoft worked off the code built for NT, the 1993 system built from scratch.

The biggest release since Windows 95 came in October 2001, when Microsoft launched Windows XP at a hotel in New York’s Times Square. Windows XP had better Internet tools, including built-in wireless networking support. It had improvements in media software for listening to and recording music, playing videos and editing and organizing digital photographs.

Microsoft’s next major release didn’t come until Vista in November 2006. Businesses got it first, followed by a broader launch to consumers in January 2007. Coming after years of virus attacks targeting Windows machines and spread over the Internet, the long-delayed Vista operating system offered stronger security and protection. It also had built-in parental-controls settings.

But many people found Vista slow and incompatible with existing programs and devices. Microsoft launched Windows 7 in October 2009 with fixes to many of Vista’s flaws.

Windows 7 also disrupted users less often by displaying fewer pop-up boxes, notifications and warnings — allowing those that do appear to stand out. Instead, many of those messages get stashed in a single place for people to address when it’s convenient.

In a sign of what’s to come, Windows 7 was able to sense when someone is using more than one finger on a touchpad or touch screen, so people can spread their fingers to zoom into a picture, for instance, just as they can on the iPhone.

Apple released its first iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. Devices running Google’s Android system for mobile devices also caught on. As a result, sales of Windows computers slowed down. Consumers were delaying upgrades and spending their money on new smartphones and tablet computers instead.

Windows 8 and its sibling, Windows RT, represent Microsoft’s attempt to address that. The new software is designed to make desktop and laptop computers work more like tablets.

Windows 8 ditches the familiar start menu on the lower left corner and forces people to swipe the edges of the screen to access various settings. It sports a new screen filled with a colorful array of tiles, each leading to a different application, task or collection of files. Windows 8 is designed especially for touch screens, though it will work with the mouse and keyboard shortcuts, too.

 

Microsoft and PC makers alike have been looking to Windows 8 to resurrect sales. The campaign to promote it is of the caliber given for Windows 95 and XP.

But Apple is releasing two new iPads, Amazon.com Inc. is shipping full-sized Kindle Fire tablets and Barnes & Noble Inc. is refreshing its Nook tablet line next month. Microsoft and its allies will face competition that is far more intense than in the heyday of Windows 95 and XP.

 

Jelly Bean on the Samsung Galaxy S III

When Google unveiled Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at Google I/O a couple of months back as the latest version of its Android operating system, Samsung was one of the first OEMs to take center stage and make public its Jelly Bean plans for the devices in its portfolio. During its announcement, the Korean electronics giant confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S III would be the first Samsung handset to get a taste of Jelly Bean. The manufacturer however did not release any specific timeframe as to when exactly this will happen.

 

A couple of weeks back, we already saw the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update land on the Samsung Galaxy S III in Poland followed by a couple the Korean version of the handset. In addition to that, the update also made its way to handsets in some of the countries in the European continent. Today, Jelly Bean has landed on the unlocked version of the Samsung Galaxy S III in the UK after it hit several carrier-branded versions of the handset last week.

If you happen to be a loyal subject of the Queen living across the pond and rock a BTU (British unlocked) variant of the Samsung Galaxy S III, you will definitely be interested to know that the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update is now being rolled out via OTA or Samsung Kies for your handset.

 

 

The Jelly Bean update weighs in at approximately 284 MB and aside from cranking up the Samsung flagship device to the latest version of the Android mobile operating system, the software update will also bring a couple of enhancements and new features to TouchWIZ, the custom user interface overlaid atop the Android OS of the handset. These features include a blocking mode for better control over your notifications along with a new “Easy Mode” for the handset’s home screen launcher. Of course, you also get Jelly Bean-specific features such as the new Google Search app with Google Now along with improvements to the performance of the handset courtesy of Google’s Project Butter.

Eligible for an upgrade? Check your eligibility here!

If the notification still hasn’t showed up, you also have the option of manually checking for the update by going to Settings > About device > Software update and hope that it comes back with something tangible.

As for the handset, the Samsung Galaxy S III is the Korean electronics giant’s gold mine after selling 20 million units of the device in just one hundred days after the handset made its debut in the shelves back in August. The handset packs a QualComm MSM8960 SnapDragon chipset under the hood which comes with a dual-core Krait processor clocked at 1.5 GHz along with a staggering 2 GB of RAM. Storage space on the handset ranges from16GB to as much as 64GB while its display on the other hand is a massive 4.8-inch SuperAMOLED HD panel made from Gorilla Glass 2 with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. The camera department of the handset is also remarkable with its rear 8MP shooter and front 1.9MP snapper.

 

Apple launches new iPad mini

APPLE have launched their eagerly awaited iPad Mini, which will be available next month.

The tablet, which can be held in one hand, is 7.2mm thick and weighs 0.68lbs. Its arrival was announced at an event in California.

In the US, it will cost $329 (£206) for the wifi-only 16GB model and will be available on November 2.

The iPad Mini will compete directly with similar sized tablets from Google and Amazon.

In 2010, late founder Steve Jobs described such tablets as being “too small”.

But pressure from competitors appears to have forced a change of heart. Amazon’s new 7in Kindle Fire HD costs $199 (£159 in the UK). And Google’s Nexus 7 has a price tag of $250 (£159).

 

Pakistan Starts in Style …ICC World Cup 2012

Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed cashed in on a below-par performance from New Zealand in the field, putting together an impressive partnership during which their timing and apparent effortlessness in building on an aggressive opening stand stood out. The depth and variety in Pakistan’s bowling, Hafeez’s miserly spell and New Zealand’s questionable tactics in the chase combined to put a target of 178 beyond reach, producing a winning start to Pakistan’s tournament.

New Zealand had their chances. Hafeez decided to give his inconsistent batting the first go under sunny skies but in conditions where bowlers had assistance. Kyle Mills found early swing and should have had an initially-tentative Hafeez third ball, but Ross Taylor fluffed a straightforward chance at slip. Having dropped his Pakistan counterpart, the New Zealand captain was left flapping his lips when Hafeez launched Daniel Vettori for a six over long-on the next over.

Imran Nazir looked the more assured of the openers, using the depth of the crease well to dispatch Mills’ two short deliveries for boundaries on either side of the ground, and continuing the treatment against Jacob Oram’s half-trackers. Nazir fell in the last over of the Powerplay, caught and bowled by Tim Southee, but by then Hafeez had got into his groove with a couple of flowing drives and was about to be joined by a partner who wasted no time in keeping the momentum intact.

Tall, well-built and powerful, Jamshed was nowhere near brutal in his style of play. He didn’t have to rely on sheer power to achieve what timing, placement and a sound technique did. Against Nathan McCullum‘s round-the-wicket line, he drove inside out, lofting the ball in the vacant space behind extra cover and clearing the ropes twice. He was equally wristy, clipping the ball square and through midwicket and slicing Mills over point for four. Mills was again unlucky, as a perfectly-positioned Rob Nicol at deep square leg spilled a chance off Jamshed, making matters worse by palming the ball for six when the batsman was on 42.

As Jamshed attacked at one end, Hafeez was content to rotate the strike, collecting runs down the ground, jabbing, steering and nudging the ball around for singles and even bludgeoning Nathan McCullum for six over midwicket. He was bowled trying to pull James Franklin in his first over but the 76-run stand with Jamshed had set an excellent launching pad.

New Zealand, though, pulled things back, dismissing Kamran Akmal and Jamshed in successive overs that yielded just 10. But Umar Akmal and the rest counterattacked in the last four. Even though Southee conceded just three in the 18th over, with third man and fine leg inside the circle, a generous dose of length, and misdirected, deliveries helped Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik score 42 in the last four.

New Zealand opened with Kane Williamson, a solid but less-attacking option, and played Vettori, busy, accumulative but not renowned as a big hitter, at No.3. The batting order suggested a strategy that relied heavily on the ammunition in the middle order to lead the surge in the late overs. Though that surge did come, and gave Pakistan plenty of anxious moments, it arrived at a time when the required-rate had reached 14 an over and, in hindsight, a touch too late.

Williamson made 15 in 13 but he had a fluent Rob Nicol at the other end. Nicol showed early intent, charging out to Sohail Tanvir and smacking him over long-on, and going over the top against Yasir Arafat with mid-off inside the circle. Pakistan bowled just one over of spin – from Hafeez, who conceded just 15 in his four-over spell – inside the Powerplay, and their slow bowlers stifled the innings once the field spread out.

Afridi mixed it up well and even found turn but Nicol was dislodged while attempting to cut one that went on straight. Williamson was run out shortly after, and the five overs after the Powerplay produced just 26 runs, with Vettori and Brendon McCullum at the crease. Saeed Ajmal’s first over ended the deadlock with Brendon McCullum, who reverse-swept, stepped out and also cut well, picking him for boundaries. But with the asking rate climbing, the wickets came, Ajmal dismissing Vettori for 18 off 16 and Umar Gul yorking Brendon McCullum, who left his team with 70 needed off 29 balls. By then, Hafeez had completed his spell, with his first three overs only going for five runs.

It was too much to get in the end, despite Oram and Franklin’s quick cameos and Taylor’s assault of three fours in a row against Gul that brought down the equation to 22 off 9 balls. He was run-out brilliantly, courtesy a flat throw to the striker’s end from the deep from Umar Akmal next ball, and the biggest threat in Pakistan’s way, at that point, was eliminated.

 

Samsung complaints “Apple’s new iPhone 5 violates its patents”

Newest Apple smartphone will be drawn into legal battle in California courts

Apple’s new iPhone 5 has been drawn into the patent battle under way between the company and Samsung in US courts.

 

Samsung Electronics announced on Sept. 20 that it submitted a document to the San Jose Divisional Office of the California Northern District Court the previous day stating that it considers the new model to violate its own patents and plans to add it to its previously filed suit.

As a next step, it plans to present a document detailing the specific patent infringements after examining the detailed product specifications and services.

The previous suit the company referred to was filed in April over the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, the third generation iPad, and the iPad2. Samsung Electronics is claiming that Apple products and services violated two standard patents and six commercial patents that it owns. But since the iPhone 5 has yet to have an official release, it is still unknown just which of the eight patents Samsung believes the product violated. What is known is that it does not include Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, which was the focus of particular industry attention among the eight patents at issue in the suit.

An official with the company called the decision “inevitable.”

 

“We prefer market competition based on innovation to lawsuits, but we made the decision that we had to respond in some way to protect continued innovations and intellectual property rights at a time when Apple is limiting market competition with lawsuits,” the official said.