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Watch Hajj 2011 Live

If you are looking for Hajj 2011 stream live from Makkah, here are a few options for you. I’ll update this post as i find more links. Youtube is the most reliable feed source, hence I embed it here. Click on the video below to watch. More live TV links are found at the bottom of this post. May Allah bless us all. Hajj and Eid-ul-Azha Mubarak to all Muslims.

These are a few more live feeds that you will find interesting.

KSA -1 : Broadcasting live right now from Makkah

KSA-2 : Broadcasting a different feed or at time same feed as KSA-1

Sunnah TV

Al Majid TV

Ekhbariya TV: A news Channel

Al Hurra TV : Another news Channel

Please do remember me in your prayers.

How to use Nintendo Wii controller with your Nokia Phone

Just did bit of a trick and it feels so good to control this Nokia phone running Symbian with Nintendo Wii controller. The feel is even greater when you play a game using this remote when your Phone is connected to a TV via TV-out cable. Please note this solution only works on Symbian S60, Symbian ^3 and Symbian Anna and has been tested on a Nokia N8 with Symbian Anna installed on it.

Here we go and Best of Luck!

Hardware used in experiment

  1. A Nokia N8 smart phone with Symbian Anna
  2. A Wii remote controller RVL 003 (Don’t have one? Click here to buy)
  3. A USB desktop keyboard or a standard Bluetooth keyboard (Only for touchscreen-only phones. Optional for phones with physical keyboards).

How to connect

  1. Install a simple application named MOBIPad (link at the end of the post).
  2. Run Mobi Pad and from options menu choose to connect to Wiimote
  3. Press 1 and 2 simultaneously on the Wii controller and wait till the app says connected
  4. Done! The remote now works all across your apps and everywhere in the OS.

Catch for Touchscreen users

Touch screen phones like Nokia 5800 ExpressMusic or Nokia N8 do not have a physical keyboard and hence Options menu cannot be launched to start connection with the wiimote. You can use a Bluetooth keyboard or a normal USB keyboard to access the menu. Simply connect the Bluetooth keyboard via bluetooth, or use the USB connector that came with your Nokia N8 to connect a desktop USB Keyboard to your phone. When you run MOBIPad, press Windows/Menu key to open the menu and there you are with a working app on touch-screen.

You can download MOBIPad application from this link.

Note: Please note this program is provided as is. I’ve found it working and apparently it doesn’t do anything wrong to the phone.

What’s kept me busy at gaming?

I know this is a weird post with an older game but this is what has kept me busy for quite some time now. It’s Gameloft’s Modern Combat 2 – Black Pegasus. Sounds crazy but I’ve spent hours and hours of online play after I completed the rich single player story. Awesome game with amazing game play and guess what I did after playing this? I was about to upgrade my desktop PC (i3 processor and an Nvidia 8800 GT), I dropped the idea of upgrading it and sold the poor desktop as well. I’ve truly gone mobile-gaming now 🙂

You can get a copy for yourself on Android as well as on iPhone if you are interested. Every dollar spent is worth it, guaranteed!

Still not convinced? Watch the video trailer here:

And now a Designer Blackberry

BlackBerry 9980You’ve used designer dresses, bags, pens and other items that cost you quite a bit. Time to welcome BlackBerry 9980, a designer smartphone designed by Porche Design! Yes, you read it right, and the launch date is not far. BlackBerry 9980 is being announced on October 27th in an exclusive event at Burj Khalifa, Dubai. Looks like a pretty sleek device and I hope it doesn’t cost me a fortune 🙂

You can read more about the device and watch a leaked video here: http://www.gsmarena.com/porsche_design_and_blackberry_team_up_for_the_9980-news-3296.php

Is it Microsoft vs Apple all over again? HP Pulls the plug on Web-OS.

The news is spreading fast that HP is discontinuing the Web-OS device operations. While this news needs more detailed analysis and we have a long way to go but we are left with lesser number of players when it comes to operating system for the hand-held devices. Google, Apple, RIM and Microsoft are the four major operating system developers. While RIM and Google are no naive souls, I can’t rule out the possibility of a Microsoft vs Apple battle again a few years down the road if these two can eliminate Google and RIM from the race. With Microsoft’s strategic alliance with Nokia and Apple’s discontinued success story gives rise to the support for this possible traditional rivalry coming to the Smartphone and Tablet’s world soon.

Will PTCL slash Internet prices this 14th August?

Here it is again, 14th August, Pakistan’s independence day. PTCL historically has been slashing Internet bandwidth prices on 14th August. I really wish they do it this time as well especially when they’re offering a 50 Mbps connection, it’ll be great to pay half the price. While their customer support and technical support has usually been a nightmare, their service just works. Just pray that you don’t get a problem in your connection and then your nightmare begins 😉

Come on PTCL, let’s go 50% on bandwidth prices.

Get a 50 Mbps Broadband Connection on PTCL today

PTCL - 50 Mbps VDSL2 Bonding connection

No, PTCL doesn’t pay me for this but its out of sheer excitement, I just came across the least advertised but certainly available broadband connection by PTCL. We did hear about it earlier in April but now the connections are silently available. No ads, no hype and no big buzz. May be this launch is like that by design (not a home/consumer product yet?)

What do you need?

Ok, so here’s the deal. If you want a whopping 50 Mbps connection at home or at office, all you need is a pair of copper PTCL connections ( yes you need two lines), a modem/transceiver that does the magic and those PTCL guys helping you connect through the big bandwidth.

How does it work?

They call it VDSL2 Bonding technology. It’s a few steps ahead of the normal ADSL we’ve been using with additional bonding and aggregation of two copper line bandwidth to attain more than double the bandwidth. You can read more about the technology here.

How much does it cost?

There are three packages available with speeds 10 Mbps, 20Mbps and 50 Mbps and cost Rs. 9,999 , Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 20,000 respectively per month. There’s an additional (one time) installation cost of Rs. 10,000 when you get a new connection. Yes, that’s costly for a home user but may be very much affordable for small/medium businesses and corporates.

What next?

I’m looking around for anyone who has signed up for the service and will get back to you guys with a review, so stay tuned. If you or anyone you know is using this service, please do let me know.

How to get it?

Call 1236 and figure it out 🙂

Difference between BlackBerry 9900 and BlackBerry 9930

So many people asked me this, I thought I’d rather make a post out of it. BlackBerry just released five different handsets this week and Bold 9900 and Bold 9930 are two of them. While it is a valid question, the answer is very simple. BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry 9930 are exactly identical in features and hardware except only one difference. BlackBerry Bold 9900 is a GSM phone that operates on GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 networks while BlackBerry Bold 9930 also supports CDMA. Bold 9930 works on CDMA 800/1900 networks in addition to the GSM 850/900/1800/1900. In simple words for example in US, BlackBerry Bold 9930 will work on Verizon and Sprint Nextel while 9900 will work on rest of the networks.

Yes 9930 works on both GSM and CDMA, so if you want to switch back and forth from CDMA to GSM and back, it’s better to grab 9930.