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 ...

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...

Canon is updating the EOS M10 in October. Called the EOS M100 the new mirrorless camera includes a number of changes compared to the original model. The EOS M100 is a mirrorless camera with an upgraded 24.2 MP APS-C sensor (was 18 MP on M10). The burst mode has also been slightly improved, going from 4.6 fps to 6.1 fps. It can now record 1080p video at 60 fps (was limited to 30 fps on the M10) however there is no support for 4K. It has a built-in, manual pop-up flash which means you won’t need to buy one separately for the EOS M100. The camera weighs in at 266 g with the body only and 302 g with the battery pack and a memory card. Bigger ISO Range, Better Image Processor The M100 will come with a Dual Pixel, 49-point autofocus and a DIGIC 7 image processor (same as the M5 and M6). ISO ranges from 100 to 25,600 (previously 100-12,800). It has a 3″ TFT LCD screen, tiltable up to 180°. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC are also added in the EOS M100. For storage options, SD/SDHC/SD...

Samsung has launched yet another mid-range smartphone for the masses. Samsung Galaxy J7 Core (known as J7 Nxt in international markets) is now officially available at retail and online shops in Pakistan. The phone comes in at a price of Rs. 24,999 and comes in black and gold colors. Design and Display Like other mid-range Samsung phones, the Galaxy J7 Core features a similar design with a home button below the screen flanked by back and recent apps buttons. Displays are Samsung’s forte and the Galaxy J7 Core showcases that. The phone features a 5.5 inch Super AMOLED 720p (1280 x 720) resolution screen. The icons may appear pixelated when viewed up close however the colors are punchy with plenty of contrast. Internals and Storage On the inside, J7 Core is powered by Samsung’s own 1.6 Ghz Exynos 7870 octa. It has 2 GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage with a microSD card slot. The phone is dual SIM by default and comes with Android 7.0 Nougat with Samsung’s Tou...

The Xiaomi 90 Minutes All Weather Bag, originally launched in June this year is now available on sale for 199 Yuan ($30). The aesthetic bag-pack with a reflective outlook is well designed for outdoor activities, vacation, and travel, as well as for daily use. About The Backpack The bag has an origami structure that features a minimalistic design. Here’s what this multi-purpose bag has to offer: The bag pack comes with a removable chest strap and a belt to share the load. For night–time safety, the bag has shoulder straps with reflective material. The bag is durable and water resistant. The waterproof coating ensures that the bag can resist rain while keeping your valuables in the bag safe from water. The bag is light weight and clings well on the back. This eases your movement while travelling. The bag comprises of separate compartments for your gadgets such as: laptop, smartphones, tablets etc. The power bank too has a separate compartment. The ba...

Dell is giving XPS 13, arguably its most popular laptop, a refresh. The new XPS 13 comes with an eighth-generation quad-core Intel Core i5 or Core i7 Kaby Lake processors. The former is clocked at 1.4 GHz with turbo to 3.4 GHz, while the latter at 1.8 GHz with turbo to 4 GHz. The processors are said to bring up to 40 percent better performance than their Kaby Lake counterparts. Other than that, you get up to 16 GB RAM, PCIe-based storage of 128, 256 or 512 GB capacity or a 1 TB hard drive. There are still older 7th-generation options available for people who want something within a tighter budget. You also have the option of getting a dedicated GTX 1070 graphics card, though the base models will have to make do with Intel HD Graphics 620. Smallest 13-inch Laptop in The World Design-wise, Dell calls it the smallest 13-inch laptop in the world, thanks to its small bezels. That’s not all, as Dell has still fitted a QHD+ (3200 x 1800) display on the front, still supporting bat...

Dell is stepping onto the Windows Mixed Reality platform full-time with the announcement of its new Visor headset. The ‘Visor’ is being released as an accessory for some of the gaming systems that Dell produces. The company is pretty much mum on all of the details as of now. However, we do know that the display part consists of two 1440 x 1440 LCDs, which is the norm for the industry. Comfy Headset Hands-on impressions of the headset point towards a pretty comfortable experience, not a surprise given the excessive amounts of padding you can see in the design. It can be worn over glasses and has a clip at the back for securing all the wires connected to the glasses. There’s also the faceplate we’ve seen before that allows you to look around without having to remove the headset itself. The weight distribution is also on point. The headset doesn’t require any additional cameras to work, which adds to its appeal to casual gamers. Still Early These are still early days...

Fitbit has finally entered the smartwatch market after hesitating for some time. Fitbit has made fitness bands before, though the new Ionic is its first which can go toe-to-toe with most modern smartwatches. On the front, you get a 1.42-inch display with 348 x 250 resolution and is said to offer accurate, punchy colors. The brightness level here is said to reach up to 1000 nits. The OS runs on the new Fitbit OS, making the Ionic the first device to run the operating system. Fitbit also packs some new fitness-focused programs for the smartwatch, the chief among which is Fitbit Coach, a paid service with a training program tailored for you. The watch comes with ability to track SpO2 levels, which makes it more accurate to measure your fitness regime. You can track sleep, swimming, heartbeat and more. Connectivity The Ionic comes with support for waterproofing by up to 50 metres in depth. For connectivity, you get Bluetooth, GPS, and NFC. Like a regular smartwatch, it can also...

You might not have heard of this one. YotaPhone 3 is now officially available featuring dual screens. The one on the back is an e-ink display, the kind you see on e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle. YotaPhone 3 will cost you $360 for the base model and $460 for the 128 GB version. Design and Display The design of the phone comprises almost entirely of displays. You get a 5.5 inch 1080p AMOLED display on the front. On the back sits a 5.2 inch 720p display E-ink display, aided by three capacitive buttons. The fingerprint sensor is located on the home button at the front due to a lack of space on the back. In a way, it gives you a phone and e-reader at the same time, if you don’t mind the small size. Internals and Storage Internally, you get an octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor with 4 GB RAM and either 64 or 128 GB of storage, which is likely non-expandable. Yotaphone is Dual SIM by default. The phone comes with Android 7.1.1 Nougat with a custom skin (Yota OS 3.0) ...

Infinix is known for some of the best mid-range smartphones available in Pakistan. This time around they’ve released an entry-level phone called Infinix SMART. The phone comes at a price of Rs. 9,499 and is available at various online stores and retail shops. Design and Display Infinix SMART looks plain from every angle. On the front the phone has stereo speakers which is the only thing worth noting about its design. SMART uses a 5 inch 720p IPS LCD display with a 293 PPI pixel density. It should be sharp enough and you won’t notice individual pixels up close. Internals and Storage A quad core MediaTek MT6580 processor powers the phone which should be just enough for light multitasking. It has 1 GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage. Storage is expandable via a dedicated microSD card slot. The phone is Dual SIM by default and comes with Android 7.0 Nougat with XOS custom skin on top. Camera and Battery The primary camera features an 8 MP sensor with ...

Nikon’s new full frame DSLR, the D850, targets not only the most ardent of professionals in the field, it also marks the 100th anniversary of the company so you know it is special. The outcome is a product which aims to achieve the best in every possible area and mostly succeeds. It comes with a 45.7-megapixel sensor on the front, compared to 36.2 on its predecessor, being the first DSLR by Nikon to come with a BSI CMOS sensor. It is complemented by the new Expeed 5 image processor, offering ISO range from 64 to 25,600 and an optical low-pass filter (OLPF) or anti-aliasing filter for sharper images. The increased speed results in shooting modes of up to 7 frames per second (9 with the $399 battery grip), with a 51-fps image buffer for 14-bit RAW files (or 170 fps at 12-bits). There’s a new silent shooter mode (doing exactly what you think it does), with 6 fps shooting modes at peak resolution. It features a 153-point autofocus system with 99 cross type sensors. Video Record...