PakTechnical

You must have heard of the Blue Whale Challenge by now. If not, here’s why you should know about this most dangerous fad. It is a game where the player is challenged to do different tasks by an administrator for 50 days, ranging from seclusion, to self-harm, and eventually suicide. This game is believed to have originated from Russia, created by a psychology student who is in prison now. Reports say that it has claimed over 100 lives in Russia and Europe. It first appeared on Russian social networking site VKontakte. Why is the Game Named Blue Whale Challenge? Often times, blue whales kill themselves by washing up ashore on a beach, committing suicide in a manner of speaking. It allegedly caused its first suicide in 2015 and only yesterday, a 19-year old from India also committed suicide and left a note which read: “Blue Whale – This is not a game but danger. Once you enter, you can never exit.“ What are the 50 tasks? They say prevention is better

Nothing like a good news to start your day. Xiaomi is reportedly preparing to reveal its first physical store in Pakistan. The company’s presence till now has been either as an online store or at select Zong dealerships and customer care centers. Need For Offline Presence A dedicated physical store is a necessity in Pakistan. Despite the increasing penetration of e-commerce sector in the country, people are still cautious about buying anything online. Most of Xiaomi’s competitors (Huawei, Oppo etc) have brick and mortar stores and an extensive presence in Pakistan which makes Xiaomi’s move all the more important. Based in Faisalabad This was announced by Xiaomi Pakistan’s official Facebook page: The post mentions that the store will be located in Faisalabad and will be unveiled at 7 pm tonight. This store is also just the first of many that Xiaomi has planned to launch in Pakistan. According to the Google Maps, the store appears to be located between Sitara Mall

Apple is still new in the augmented reality world and is yet to unleash a mainstream product aimed at it. It revealed its first AR kit a few months back at WWDC. This kit facilitates developers, helping them easily embed AR features into their apps with iOS 11. Some apps compatible with AR on iOS: Take On Me type of music video A virtual pet game A restaurant app that can show virtual food on the plate and many more such apps. All of these apps are pretty cool and Google, which has been developing hardware and software for AR, has obviously been impressed by Apple’s take on promotion of AR. The search giant is all set to release its very own AR kit by the name of ARCore. What is ARCore? ARCore is going to be very different from one of the older Google’s AR projects, Tango. Tango requires hardware, like depth sensing sensors and cameras, but ARCore is completely different. All it is going to need is a regular smartphone. Google’s kit is already available in the ma

The Emmy Awards is responsible for honoring the very best in United States’ prime time television shows every year, but did you know that technology companies can also get an Emmy for feats of Science and Technology? While the two, fiction and science, may seem like polar opposites, there is a connection that makes one responsible for making the other possible. Ever wondered how the fire-breathing dragon in Game of Thrones looks so terrifyingly real? Or what equipment makes it possible to capture a complete panoramic view of the whole scene? All that (along with a lot more) is made possible, with a combination of Science, Technology, and artistic flair. The National Academy of Technology, Arts, and Sciences (NATAS) has now announced the recipients of the 69th Annual Technology, Arts and Sciences. From creating more innovative ways to interacting with your TV in “Contextual Voice Navigation for Discovering and Interacting with TV Content” to implementing better methods of ens

Instagram is finally adding a much-requested feature to its platform. You can now choose the format of the pictures you upload in your Instagram album, with both landscape and portrait modes supported. Previously, you could only upload a picture in a square frame. The new feature The app introduced its album feature in February that lets you add up to 10 photos or videos in a single post. You can now upload landscape or portrait photos and videos to your album without being restricted to only squares. The previous restriction required you to either post photos in a row or let it be cropped. Limitations Exist The new feature, although an improvement, does have a restriction: you can only post photos in a shared format. So you can’t upload landscape and portrait photos in the same album. The company says this limitation is “to keep the experience smooth and consistent” across the app. The new update is on the roll The app is slowly making improvements to its clunk

Each year Samsung launches a flagship, and it outperforms all of its rivals. Or at least it tries to. This month again Samsung has outed its flagship, the Galaxy Note 8 and it comes with the best display ever available on any smartphone. DisplayMate, a company which specializes in testing displays for color accuracy and calibration, has released a comprehensive report of the display found on the new Galaxy Note 8. This year’s Galaxy S8 already had the crown for the best display but it seems like the Note 8 has stolen it and it has also been given its first ever A+ rating on a smartphone. Highlights While the report itself is a long one, we’ll just summarize it and list the important findings from it. According to DisplayMate, coming in at a record brightness of 1,240 nits, it’s the brightest display around. This makes the the Note 8 22% more brighter than the Galaxy S8. This improves display performance and screen readability in challenging indoor and outdoor

Google and YouTube are planning to redesign their mobile and desktop apps. Recently, YouTube has decided to restyle its logo and turn it into something meaningful. “We have the word tube in a tube. This is weird. No one know what this is”, says Christopher Bettig, the head of YouTube’s art department commenting on the previous logo. In order to rectify that issue, the online video streaming service has introduced a new logo – which consists of the play button placed above the red outline of a CRT TV – as part of its redefined look. The icon is situated on the top left of the website. Its going live all around the world so you may see it in a couple of days. Here are the other changes YouTube made in its Mobile and Desktop versions. Mobile App changes Navigation Tabs, new Library and Account sections are updated in the YouTube mobile App. Now a user can also speed up and slow down playback on the Mobile App, which was only available as a feature on the w