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BlackBerry will remain in Pakistan after gov withdraws demands

The Canadian handset manufacturer had said it would step out of the country before revealing its customer data.

BlackBerry has now announced that it will be continuing its operations in Pakistan after the government of that country agreed to withdraw its demands that would require the company to hand over access to all its customer data.

The smartphone maker had developed a plan to leave Pakistan if the government continued the requirement.

Chief operating officer of BlackBerry, Marty Beard, explained in a blog post that the Pakistani government had now taken back its previous order to shut down the company’s services after the company and the government were able to complete “productive discussions”. The shutdown order was originally issued by the Pakistani government back in July 2015 when it said that “security reasons” were behind its decision. A few months later, on November 30, BlackBerry announced its decision to leave the country because it was unwilling to provide access to private customer information to the government.

The Pakistani government had demanded a vast range of backdoor access to BlackBerry customer information.

Blackberry - PakistanAmong the information that the company would have been required to hand over included access to BBM chats and BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) emails. The smartphone manufacturer said this was “a compromise we are not willing to make.” The initial order from the government was that the company would have to shut down on November 30. However, that deadline was extended to December 30.

According to the company, there are up to 5,000 BES customers currently in Pakistan. It reported through Beard’s blog post that the authorities in Pakistan yielded to the resistance the company had placed against the demands for access to customer information and records. He wrote that “We are grateful to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and the Pakistani government for accepting BlackBerry’s position that we cannot provide the content of our customers’ BES traffic, nor will we provide access to our BES servers.”

BlackBerry has not always been as driven or successful in the face of requirements from other national governments for access to user data. For example, in 2013, it gave access to the Indian government. It was able to view emails, BBM chats and internet service customer browsing habits. Reportedly, the company has also established data sharing agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Hand-cranked portable charger case wowed at CES 2016

The demo given by AMPware was a genuine attention-grabber at the Consumer Electronics Show

The first hand-cranked portable charger case for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S received considerable positive attention at the end of last week during CES 2016 in Las Vegas where it had to battle for notice from among over 20,000 products being demoed by over 3,600 exhibitors.

The fact that a hand-cranked power bank could shine at such an event clearly shows the importance of backup chargers.

The AMPware case is not yet on the market, but people who are interested in a hand-cranked portable charger can pre-order this mobile device so they can be among the first to receive it upon its release in March 2016. It has a limited capacity at only 1,000 mAh but the main advantage of this case over other tiny capacity power banks is that this battery pack can be cranked back up to full power using a fold-out handle.

The AMPware demo of the portable charger at CES 2016 claimed that it must be cranked for 5 minutes.

AMPware portable charger hand powered This hand powered battery pack needs to be cranked for five minutes and this will offer about an hour of normal use on an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6S. This seems to place the device in a position somewhere between solar chargers and the traditional form that can be plugged into the wall. While it does offer far faster juice than a solar cell phone charger – needing only 5 minutes per 1,000 mAh – it doesn’t even approach some of the better quality iPhone battery pack options currently available.

AMPware hand cranked battery packMoreover, using this device isn’t simply a matter of plugging in the USB cord as it needs to be cranked up, first, to make sure it actually has power to provide. It looks as though this would be better for someone who is worried about running out of charge during a power failure or a long trip or someone who finds that their cell phone battery is nearly good enough for their needs, but sometimes fall short by less than an hour of usage.

As the crank is built right into the case, it does make this a convenient option because no additional storage is necessary but external portable charger devices still compete with that convenience in their work-free power availability. Still, for consumers looking for backup power that is generated for free, always available and eco-friendly, this could be a very appealing option.