Facebook To Be Blocked In Pakistan

The Lahore High Court has directed Pakistani authorities to block access to all websites, including Facebook, that are involved in "spreading religious hatred" and to submit a compliance report by October 6.In an order issued on Monday, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed directed the Information Technology Ministry to "deny access to all websites in Pakistan involved in spreading religious hatred".

Pakistan, which was into the news last year for blocking Facebook over a “Draw Mohammad Day” competition, is seeking to ban the social network again due to the second round of the same competition.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, presiding over the Lahore High Court, ordered the Ministry of Information and Technology to block access to Facebook nationwide on the charge of “spreading religious hatred on the Internet”. The court also directed the ministry to police the Internet and block all other websites that were found guilty of the same charge, but it spared search engines like Google

the judge directed the ministry that access to Google or other search engines should not be denied.He directed the authorities to submit a report on the implementation of the court s order by October 6. The offensive group was titled “2nd Annual Draw Muhammad Day – May 20, 2011” and has since been removed by Facebook. However, it does not seem like that action is going to have any effect on the ban. Of course, freedom of speech campaigners form only a tiny part of Facebook

Of course, freedom of speech campaigners form only a tiny part of Facebook; the banning of the site can have a significant impact on the life of Pakistan’s citizens who depend on it to keep in touch with their family and friends, and Pakistani developers of apps for the platform.

The high court has not specified any date for the lifting of the ban, so it remains to be seen when, and if, the people of Pakistan will be able to use Facebook again.

Google To Face The Senate

Google Inc. is taking no chances as its executive chairman,Eric Schmidt, prepares to face a Senate hearing Wednesday on whether the company is abusing its dominance in Internet search. Google's Eric Schmidt, the online search giant's point man for all things Washington, goes before a Senate panel this week to argue the company is not a rival-abusing bully, but in fact is struggling to stay on top. Google Inc controls more than two-thirds of the global search market. But Web technologies such as social networking and smartphone applications offer new ways for people to find information putting pressure on the company.

The state of the case

The hearing carries risk for Google because the panel is looking at its most important product search, says Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial in New York."It's never a positive to have to testify on antitrust on the Hill," said Gillis. "The best-case scenario is that things continue as they are."Gillis added there was an outside chance Schmidt would make a damaging mistake.

"He's opening his mouth and he's speaking and there's always the possibility that something will come out of it that he thinks is logical and that the committee may not like," he said. "It's not likely to happen, but it's always possible."Schmidt could also discuss other factors that can bring down a website's ranking, such as whether there are errors on the site, like broken links; the speed of the site and whether the site appears to have malware.











Google says it is reaching out to webmasters, letting them know about problems that could affect their search ranking.Schmidt has been defending Google in Washington for years and is well aware many antitrust experts are skeptical that Google always plays fair.Democratic Senator Herb Kohl, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel, is one of several lawmakers expected to press Google on the issue of search.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who led investigations of Google when he was the Connecticut attorney general, called Google a "great American success story," but says he will have questions.


"Concerns have been raised by both regulators and competitors over whether Google has used its dominance of the online and smartphone search markets to impose extra costs on consumers, unfairly preference its own products, or disadvantage competitors through a variety of means, including its search and advertising systems," Blumenthal said in a statement to Reuters.

Republican Senator Mike Lee, who is also on the subcommittee, has expressed concern about Google's purchase of ITA travel search software. Competitors such as Expedia Inc have worried Google would abuse its new dominance in travel search.
Executives representing Expedia as well as Yelp, another Google rival, will testify at the hearing after Schmidt.

Samsung To Ban Apple i Phone 5

Samsung Electronics Co has filed a counter claim in an Australian court, accusing Apple of infringing its wireless patents related to the US firm's iPhone and iPad products. The move comes after Samsung last month delayed the launch of its latest Galaxy tablet computer in Australia over a global patent dispute with Apple.

The report quotes a senior Samsung exec saying that just after the arrival of the iPhone 5 here (in Korea), Samsung plans to take Apple to court for its violation of Samsung's wireless technology related patents.

The claim says Apple infringed seven Australian patents owned by Samsung related to wireless communications standards by Apple's iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad 2 products.It also says the patents that Apple relied on in its claims against Samsung in relation to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 were invalid and should be revoked by the court, according to the statement.

Samsung has previously counter sued Apple over patents in South Korea, Japan and Germany.An Apple spokeswoman in Australia could not immediately be reached for comment.Samsung and Apple have been locked in a battle over smartphones and tablets patents since April as Apple seeks to rein in the growth of Google's Android phones by taking direct aim at the biggest Android vendor, Samsung.

Samsung filed the claim with the Federal Court of Australia, New South Wales Registery, on September 16, a media statement released by Samsung Electronics Australia said. Samsung has previously counter sued Apple over patents in South Korea, Japan and Germany. Apple scored a legal victory in Germany earlier this month, when a German court barred Samsung's local unit from selling its Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Europe's biggest economy. Samsung has since announced it will appeal the court's decision.

Samsung Bada OS hits the Streets

During the end of August this year Samsung officially announced their new Bada OS based devices. All these upcoming smartphones from the Korean manufacturer run the latest version of their proprietary OS which is Bada 2.0. The devices include the Wave 3, Wave M and Wave Y and for detailed look at these smartphones you can check out this post.


Interestingly, most of the development for Bada OS is taking place at Samsung research and development facility in Bangalore, which apparently is the company’s largest R&D facility outside Korea. The company has also mentioned that the Bada OS has a got a very strong response in the Indian market and the new Bada 2.0 based smartphones are expected to hit the stores sometime in the month of October.