WhatsApp brings five new features for iPhone and Android fans.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

It’s been a busy month for WhatsApp. Since July, the chat app has dropped several new features – some of which users have been waiting a long time for. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest updates and upgrades which are set to make your life a whole lot easier.

Joinable calls

Rolled out in late July, this feature provides a very useful addition to video and voice calls that lets users jump into a chat after things have begun. People who miss the start of a group video conversation will be able to join at any time during the call – just like in Zoom or Google Meet – or even leave and come back whenever they like. Before this, letting a new person into a call meant hanging up and restarting the call for everyone, which was a bit of a pain.

To make it even smoother, WhatsApp added a new call info screen to show who’s already on the call and who was invited but hasn’t yet joined. Anyone who hits the ignore button when the call starts can simply join later from the calls tab in WhatsApp.

Smart Switch

Ever been frustrated when upgrading your phone by how difficult it is to switch between Android and iOS? The operating systems make it as much of a pain as possible to cut down on users jumping ship. However, WhatsApp has just announced a new feature to smooth the road.

Previously, there was no way to move your chat history from one system to another. Years of chat history, data and photos could be lost. But this week the Smart Switch feature made its debut to give users a simple way to backup your chat history and files and transfer them to a new phone. It will be coming to all Samsung phones that run Android 10 or higher in the next few weeks, followed shortly by all Android and iOS devices.

Multi-device support

It’s been years coming but WhatsApp users can finally use the app without needing a phone. Until now, using the app on your laptop or PC meant keeping an active connection to your smartphone – useless if your phone was lost or out of power.

Now, you can use WhatsApp on up to four devices at once as well as your phone. Even better, you don’t need to have a phone connection at all. All your messages and data including stickers, new contacts and starred messages will be shared seamlessly between devices. You can start and answer calls from any device.

Disappearing messages

Snapchat was the first to introduce photos and videos that can only be viewed once before disappearing. Now, WhatsApp has adopted the feature with its “View Once” option. Photos and videos sent using this feature will be deleted straight after being opened and viewed. WhatsApp says the feature will be useful for sending temporary information, like passwords. It’s also handy for those who don’t want every off-the-cuff snap they send to live on forever in their friends’ hard drives.

To send one of the disappearing messages, load up a picture or video as usual. Then tap the “1” button in the lower right corner to enable View Once mode.

Archived chats update

Finally, WhatsApp rolled out an important change to archived messages. Previously users could select to hide chats with groups or individuals from the main conversations screen. But whenever someone replied to an archived conversation, it would pop straight back up. This wasn’t ideal if you were truly trying to avoid an irritating contact – like that group chat for a stag party that’s still over a year away.

With the new update, archived chats will stay safely tucked away in their own folder, even if someone sends a new message. And it couldn’t be simpler to bring them back to the main chat screen through the Settings menu.

President Arif Alvi & Wife received warm welcome by Kuruluş Osman’ team in Turkey.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DesK)

President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi and wife, Samina Alvi arrive at the sets of Kurulus-Osman to meet with the cast and crew of the show.

The duo, which is currently on a three-day official visit to Turkey, joined the cast and crew of the hit drama series on Tuesday.

Photos and videos of President Arif Alvi visiting the sets of Turkish historical series Kuruluş: Osman with his wife are doing the rounds on social media.\

Kuruluş: Osman is the sequel to the popular series Diriliş: Ertuğrul. The photos show the president and his wife having a chat with the cast and taking photographs in tribal clothes and jewellery shown in the series.

Dirilis: Ertugrul, comprising 179 episodes, was dubbed in Urdu and aired on PTV last year daily at 9:10pm on the instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan. The series is based on Ertugrul, father of Osman I, who founded the Ottoman Empire. It instantly became a massive hit in Pakistan, crossing millions of views on YouTube.Kurulus started airing in Pakistan in Ramazan this year. The new episodes were announced by Senator Faisal Javed.

FBR thwarted the ‘Cyber Terrorism’.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-Desk)

On Pakistan’s 75th Independence Day, the official website of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBE) has been hacked by unknown hackers and the cyber attack affected “virtual environment of data center” primarily.

The FBR’s website is temporarily down for scheduled maintenance,” read the website when it was opened. An FBR official said, “It is cyber terrorism on our Independence Day, adding that the attackers have not yet been identified.

The hackers were making attempts to break the data rooms for the last few days and there was also a warning issued that a serious cyber-attack might take place soon, he added. He said Pakistan contacted Microsoft that was helping to recover it from the attack.

“Since the virtual environment has been damaged, we are trying to create a new virtual environment that may take up to two days,” said another official from the information technology department.

“We are trying to restore the websites by tomorrow afternoon and the essential data centre by tomorrow evening, as we do not want to cause more damage by shifting data in haste.”

However, the revenue collecting authority released a press release regarding in-progress service optimization activities at the FBR House Data Center, Islamabad.

The release read, “A technical team is currently migrating services. The completion of this migration shall result in the increased overall productivity of FBR IT Operations. This migration is necessary to facilitate the up gradation of the system in order to enhance the best services to our clients, the statement added.

“The stakeholders, who are being provided services from the data centre, are informed that there were unforeseen anomalies during the migration process, which has resulted in the unavailability of services, since early hours of the last night. The FBR team is ensuring restoration of services as soon as possible to keep the downtime to a minimum. This activity is expected to be completed in the next 48 hours.

“FBR regrets and apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused and appreciates continued cooperation of the stakeholders.”

 

Shahid Afridi wants ban on TikTok. Asked Shahzad Roy to raise his raise for it

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Former cricket star Shahid Afridi has demanded singer-cum-social activist Shehzad Roy raises his voice to ban the popular video-sharing app TikTok, once and for all. The cricket star expressed his despise towards the app while sharing the screen with the singer during a private TV show and stressed banning it once and for all instead of repeatedly banning and un-banning it.

“You raise your voice for every issue, so you should get TikTok banned,” said Afridi while addressing Roy.

Permitting and then restricting the use of the app, again and again, is not an option, he said.

He declared TikTok a “major social issue” and said that people must have “appropriate awareness and knowledge about certain things.”

“Many areas in our country don’t have the facility of education but yet, they have the facility of Wifi for which the people were supposed to have an awareness,” said Afridi.

He further stated that people don’t know that why and in what way they should use the app, and how much time they should spend on using it.

According to Afridi, age should be defined for the use of mobile phones.

“My daughter has just turned 19 years old and I have allowed her to use the phone now,” said the Boom Boom star.

Samar Khan becomes first female cyclist to reach K2 basecamp.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Samar Khan made history after becoming the first female cyclist to reach the K2 basecamp on a mountain bike. Khan announced the feat about five days ago on her Instagram, where she had been regularly updating her followers with pictures and lengthy posts about her journey. Terming the final leg of her quest as ‘Journey to Chogori’, Khan said, “The stage where prayers are answered or sometimes delayed, where I got to see the clear face of majestic Choghori, standing with grace.”

Chogori is the unofficial local name for K2, the second-highest peak in the world.

Khan started her journey towards the end of July, taking off on a mountain bike from Skardu on July 31. “This ride will be bumpy, rough and heavy but I have trained myself enough mentally and physically,” she had said.

She also shared why she wanted to cycle her way on a mountain bike through treacherous terrain, explaining, “Because, bicycling should be the way to commute around mountains, to cut our carbon footprint and to preserve our natural assets like glaciers and peaks.”

Updating her followers through her journey with ‘stage updates’, Khan offered insight into her cycling route, which included crossing the Baltoro glacier at 4000+meters at Urdukus, and battling extreme weather sickness at the height of 4319 meters at Ghoro 2.

“The path towards Urdukus brings the magnificent Baltoro Glacier, with its endless ups & downs covered with rocks and deep crevices… many water streams along the way with the flow and pressure of a huge river, waist-deep or sometimes more. And the water comes straight from glaciers, freezes ur feet in seconds,” she shared.

The last stage update ‘Doorway to Chogori’, as mentioned above, includes pictures of Samar standing tall with her mountain bike with the mighty K2 in the background. “After a long night of chasing oxygen and silent prayers, the morning brought me face to face with K2, with a lot of injuries and shivering cold but with a magnificent sight.”

 

 

COVID kills 95 more people in Pakistan as infection rate stands at 6.68.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Covid-19 has further claimed 95 more lives on Tuesday’s 24-hour period in Pakistan taking the death toll from the global pandemic to 24,573.

The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) has tweeted the daily figures citing 48,181 COVID tests conducted in the same period that resulted in 3,221 fresh infection cases.

The cases today mark 6.68 per cent positivity ratio in the country that is about the same as yesterday, according to the NCOC figures.

Key to note that Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health, Dr Faisal Sultan said just yeterday that the Covid-19 situation has improved in Karachi as the number of daily coronavirus cases continued to decline in the provincial capital of Sindh.

The spread of the coronavirus Delta variant reached alarming levels in Karachi, as public and some private sector hospitals ran out of space which had forced the provincial government to impose partial lockdown in the port city on Aug 9.

He said that a surge in coronavirus cases was witnessed in some districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province and federal capital.

“Islamabad has witnessed a surge in coronavirus cases in past few days,” said Faisal and urged people to follow SOPs and get themselves vaccinated against Covid-19.

SAPM Faisal further said that the upcoming two weeks are very important in the country’s battle against the novel coronavirus amid the fourth and deadly Covid wave

Environmental Play Performed by Ajoka Children 

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-Desk)

Ajoka Children’s Acting Camp gave an impressive and endearing performance of Shahid Nadeem’s short play “The Last Tree” last week at Ajoka premises in Lahore. The short play was about the importance of trees for the environment, seen from the perspective of a young child Gudoo. The five-day Acting Camp consisted of children between ages 6-11 who practiced their acting skills under the mentorship of Ajoka Institute’s director Nirvaan Nadeem, assisted by Yusra Irfan and Luke Kelvin. The open air performance was attended by a select audience of parents and Ajoka members and will be posted on social media soon. The children were awarded certificates by Ajoka Chairperson Zara Salman.

Nirvaan Nadeem while introducing the performance said that Ajoka was committed to the cause of socially relevant arts and environmental issues were a major challenge faced by the society. He appreciated the hard work and enthusiasm for the children and the support provided by the parents to enable the performance in such a short time.


The Last Tree was written by the Climate Change Theatre Action network and published in an international anthology of climate change plays. The play has been performed in several countries across the world.e cause of socially relevant arts and environmental issues were a major challenge faced by the society. He appreciated the hard work and enthusiasm for the children and the support provided by the parents to enable the performance in such a short time.


The Last Tree was written by the Climate Change Theatre Action network and published in an international anthology of climate change plays. The play has been performed in several countries across the world.

Atif Aslam wished to sing for Shah Rukh Khan

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Pakistani star singer Atif Aslam has revealed that he is not busy for Indian star Shah Rukh khan and always available to sing for him. While giving interview to BBC Atif talk about in detail about reports alleging he refused the offer to sing for a Shah Rukh Khan film, Aslam clarified, “No, no, there was nothing of the sort. I’ve just come across him once in my life and he was a wonderful person.”

He also added that SRK never personally asked him to sing the song. “His team got in touch with us and we recorded the song and sent it back but I don’t know what happened. Something happened that was not conveyed to him. Next thing I know, Shah Rukh Khan is saying Atif Aslam is too busy for my song, maybe he’s too busy singing for a Chinese film,” laughed Aslam, adding, “If Shah Rukh Khan sees this, I was not busy, I can never be busy for you! I’d love to sing for you anytime.”

While promoting his film Dilwale, in one interview, SRK made an interesting revelation. About the film’s love anthem Gerua, SRK confessed that Arijit Singh was not his first choice. “We had approached Atif Aslam to sign Gerua first. But he did not have time for me,” claimed the superstar. When the interviewer quipped that Aslam was not singing Pakistani songs either, SRK laughed and replied, “Then he must be singing for Chinese films now.”

Mahira Khan to play Lt Gen Nigar Johar in upcoming biopic

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Last year in June, Major General Nigar Johar made history by becoming the first female officer to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general owing to her spectacular performance in different leadership and administrative appointments/roles.

Now, a series highlighting her achievements is in the works, with superstar Mahira Khan playing the lead. Ek Hai Nigar will tell the tale of the Lieutenant General. Mahira, on the other hand, is ecstatic to have bagged the role. The Humsafar star announced the same on her social media accounts.

Taking to Twitter, Mahira shared a teaser of the drama serial, Eik Hai Nigar, and penned, “Honoured to be able to play a woman I admire so much. Pakistan Army’s first female three-star General. ‘Aik Hai Nigar’ traces the life and career of Lieutenant General Nigar Johar.”

She added, What a life, what a story… to know her, is to know one of the greatest we have amongst us.”

Mahira’s Superstar co-star, Bilal Ashraf, will also be seen in a pivotal role in the drama serial. Written by Umera Ahmed and helmed by Motorcycle Girl famed director Adnan Sarwar, Ek Hai Nigar will be a treat to watch.

Lt Gen Nigar is also a recipient of Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Military) and Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal for her meritorious services in Army Medical Corps from the prime minister.

Born in Panjpir village in Swabi district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to a Pashtun family, Nigar received her early education from the Presentation Convent Girls High School, Rawalpindi in 1978 and graduated from the Army Medical College in 1985.