Be Pakistan

Google brings e-books to mobiles

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Google is making its vast online library of books available for mobile phones.

“We are excited to announce the launch of a mobile version of Google Book Search, opening up over 1.5 million mobile public domain books in the US (and over half a million outside the US) for you to browse,”

the company said.

Google Mobile E-Books

The Internet search giant, in a post on Thursday on the Google Book Search blog, said mobile versions of the books could be read on devices such as the Apple iPhone or T-Mobile G1, which is powered by Google’s Android software.
“These new mobile editions are optimized to be read on a small screen,” Google said. “With this launch, we believe that we’ve taken an important step toward more universal access to books.”
To access the mobile version of Google Book Search a user needs to type http://books.google.com/m into the Web browser of their iPhone or Android phone.
Google’s announcement comes just days ahead of the expected unveiling by Amazon of a new generation version of its popular electronic book reader, the Kindle, at a New York press conference on Monday.
Amazon is also planning to make its online store of e-books for the Kindle available on mobile phones, the New York Times reported on Friday.
“We are excited to make Kindle books available on a range of mobile phones,” Drew Herdener, an Amazon spokesman, told the Times. “We are working on that now.”
The Amazon spokesman did not provide any further details.
Google will initially only be offering books in the public domain — those which are not under copyright — for mobile phones.
Amazon, on the other hand, offers the latest releases and 230,000 titles in all, including 103 of the 112 current New York Times bestsellers.

Source

Pakistan on Top in SMS Growth

SMS

With cellular phone penetration exceeding 50%, the Pakistan mobile market is continuing to experience rapid subscriber growth with thousands of customers signing up every month. The growth in subscriber rate has consequently led way to triple digit growth in messaging traffic over last year, according to Acision, a major international player in the mobile messaging business.

A total of 6.37 billion text messages were sent through Acision messaging systems across Asia Pacific over the 2008/2009 Christmas and New Year period. The top five countries with the highest SMS traffic processed over the festive season were the Philippines, again leading the ranking with 2.36 billion messages, closely followed by Indonesia (1.193 billion), Malaysia (1.075 billion) and Pakistan (763 million), according to the PC World.

While Pakistan ranks fourth in the total number of text messages sent during Christmas-New Year season of 2008-2009, the country tops the list with 253% annual growth in traffic volume, followed by Philippines (65 percent), Australia (57 percent), Indonesia (27 percent) and Malaysia (13 percent).

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Mobile Operators VAS War is on in Pakistan

Just a few years back in Pakistan someone holding a cell phone was seen like someone from a whole other world. And business for mobile operators in Pakistan was like a heaven, but the situation seems to be changed quite a lot these days. Mobile operators VAS (Value Added Services) war in on in Pakistan. Cell phone users are much more aware and technical as compared to the users few years back. Telecom industry like IT industry is some of major progressing industries in Pakistan from last one decade or so. Almost all TV channels in Pakistan are earning a heavy amount from mobile operators VAS (Value Added Services) commercials. A competition can also be seen in mobile operator’s commercials as well.

I am looking forward for the progress of mobile commerce in Pakistan.