BlackBerry bails on Pakistan after refusing to hand over users to the government
This is how companies should behave when faced with unreasonable government demands when it comes to customer information. BlackBerry have, as of today, pulled out of Pakistan in response to a demand by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, issued in July this year, to all mobile carrier to shut down BlackBerry’s Enterprise Service. But, according to BlackBerry, “The truth is that the Pakistani government wanted the ability to monitor all BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) traffic in the country, including every BES e-mail and BES BBM message. But BlackBerry will not comply with that sort of directive.” Hence BlackBerry’s not going to be doing business in Pakistan any more. It’s a shame that the company had to lose another market but it speaks volumes about their commitment to customer security at the same time.
Source: BlackBerry via The Next Web
Bugatti’s Veyron sequel, the Chiron, will be showing up in Geneva in March 2016
Bugatti’s Veyron has long been one of the fastest production cars on the planet but the company is looking to supplant it with another, faster model that we’ll probably only see in March 2016. But we will see it, at the Geneva Motor Show, with Bugatti putting rumours of the car’s existence to rest with their recent announcement. There’s talk of some of the specs – a W12 engine, 300mph (484km/h) top speed, a higher horsepower rating than the Veyron (because of course they have to do that) but we should see everything in the first quarter of next year. Getting one will be hard, though. As expensive as it will undoubtedly be, there are already 100 order placed. Lucky buggers.
Source: The Verge
A big tablet needs a big processor – Apple’s iPad Pro A9X CPU features 12 GPU cores
We love tech but are usually satisfied without having to poke too deeply into the nuts and bolts, provided it works. Apple’s especially good at that but that’s what makes the work done by Chipworks and AnandTech to examine the processor inside the iPad Pro all the more remarkable. Apple have gotten their supplier to include a monster 12 Imagination Technologies PowerVR Series 7XT cores, which is a slight bit of overkill for a tablet. Even one as big as the iPad Pro. The teardown also includes info on the CPU itself but Apple have gone for some serious gaming muscle this time around. Hopefully we’ll see it in the iPhone soon too.
Source: via Ars Technica
Nokia’s Ozo VR camera is up for pre-order, the specs are all known
Nokia announced their Ozo 360-degree camera for filming VR content a while back, and the company have now put the camera up for pre-order, announcing the specs at the same time. The Ozo will use eight 2K x 2K sensors, working in sync. The cameras record to a 500GB solid-state drive, which holds 45 minutes of footage. The cam runs off a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery, which should work for at least 45 minutes, we hope. There are other numbers in there as well. If you’re looking to secure an Ozo for yourself, you’re going to need $60,000 (R865,000).
Source: Nokia
The fastest man alive and Telkom’s internet – How are these two related?
Did you notice, a while back, that Telkom have teamed up with sprinter Usain Bolt in order to promote the company’s fibre-to-the-home offering which will be getting more widespread in 2016? We’ve got the promotional advert, filmed in Jamaica, above (check the site if you can’t see it). The offering will be called Boltspeed and it seems, on the surface, to be a very good idea. Pair your product with someone really, really fast and hope that people make the association. But is a record-holding Olympic sprinter what Telkom really needs before anyone’s actually seen Boltspeed in action? Probably not, in terms of money spent, but we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now. Maybe they have a decent plan for their fibre rollout after all and this is just the icing on top.
Source: Tech Central