Technology

SAN FRANCISCO: The latest leaps in artificial intelligence in everything from cars, robots to appliances will be on full display at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opening on Thursday in Las Vegas. Forced by the pandemic to go virtual in 2021 and hybrid last year, tens of thousands of show-goers are hoping for a return to packed halls and …

Good things come to those who wait and for Pakistan’s tech ecosystem, the wait finally seemed to be over in 2021. Funding surged over 5x to $366 million and tech exports crossed $2 billion. Big shot investors entered the market, things were on the go and optimism was all abound. But that cliched saying doesn’t really mention anything about good …

KARACHI: Governments over the past years have attempted to have social media companies maintain an on-ground presence in Pakistan. They employed a carrot-and-stick approach — offering incentives of increased revenue and, when that failed, drafting legislation to force them into opening offices. Over the years, officials clai­m­­ed multiple times that compan­ies have agreed to establish their presence in Pakistan, but …

ISLAMABAD: It was a tough year for the IT sector, with telecom operators and users taking the brunt, especially after a change of government in April and the belt-tightening that followed. Call and internet rates jumped and yet the service quality worsened and speeds slowed in 2022. Network outages intensified thanks to ‘connectivity load-shedding’ in the wake of hours-long power …

ISLAMABAD: Telecom operator Zong became the latest entrant to the digital payment-solutions market with the launch of ‘PayMax’, on Friday. PayMax has been launched by Electronic Commerce Company Limited (ECCL), a fully-owned subsidiary of China Mobile Pakistan (CMPAK), the parent company of Zong. The service — which is Zong’s answer to services such as JazzCash and EasyPaisa offered by other …

Twitter Inc suffered a major outage on Wednesday, leaving tens of thousands of users globally unable to access the popular social media platform or use its key features for several hours before services appeared to come back online. The incident is the social media site’s first apparent widespread service disruption since billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter as CEO in …

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Monday that the company is now close to having 100 active Starlinks, the firm’s satellite internet service, in Iran, three months after he tweeted he would activate the service there amid protests around the Islamic country. Musk said, “approaching 100 starlinks active in Iran”, in a tweet on Monday. The billionaire had said in …

ISLAMABAD: The officials of the Information Technology (IT) ministry on Monday said the payment issue with Google has been resolved.  The statement came in during the meeting of the Senate standing committee on Information Technology held here in Islamabad. The officials said on the directions of Prime Minister Shehabz Sharif, payment has been made to the Google companies and the …

NEW YORK: Twitter Inc restored a feature that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, after coming under pressure from some users and consumer safety groups over its removal. A news agency reported on Friday that the feature was taken down a few days ago, citing two people familiar with the matter, who …

ISLAMABAD: An enhan­ced version of the biometric verification system has been designed to thwart the sale of fake SIM cards. The Multi-Finger Biome­t­ric Verification System (MBVS) will be used by telecom companies to verify users’ identities before issuing a new SIM. A contract was signed be­­tween Nadra and telecom ope­rators at PTA headquarters on Friday. The move was necessitated by …