Club with most fans in Spain

Real Madrid is the club with the most fans in Spain, according to a study carried out throughout 2012 by the Association of Research for Media Companies (AIMC). The study's findings reveal the club as number one in number of followers.

The result of the poll also reveals that although Madrid has more fans, it is Barca that sells more shirts in Spain. According to the data presented by the AIMC, football continues to be the most popular sport, while Real Madrid was chosen as the team supported by 23.8% of those polled. In second position came Barcelona with 18.2% and in third Atlético de Madrid with 3.7%. In fourth and fifth place came Valencia (3.1%) and Athletic de Bilbao (2.7%).

Prepaid customers: Telenor launches life insurance scheme to widen user base

Prepaid customers can opt for the service without paying any fee and will be entitled to it as long as they are consuming monthly credit of Rs200. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: 

In a bid to attract low-end mobile service users, Telenor Pakistan launched on Thursday life insurance for its prepaid customers, offering their heirs up to Rs100,000 in case of death amid increasing competition among industry players to expand their customer base.

Telenor, which according to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is the second largest player after Mobilink, announced the Telenor Talkshawk Mohafiz Zindagi Beema for its prepaid customers consuming a minimum monthly balance of Rs200.

Telenor’s customer base at the end of May stood at 31.7 million, capturing one-fourth of total subscribers, according to the PTA.

The scheme has been launched in collaboration with Jubilee Life Insurance Company and MicroEnsurer Pakistan. It is the first such free life insurance policy launched by a telecom company to lure lower-end prepaid customers.

Prepaid customers can opt for the service without paying any fee and will be entitled to it as long as they are consuming monthly credit of Rs200, said Usman Javaid, Director Marketing of Telenor Pakistan.

In case of death, the policyholder will be entitled to a minimum insurance of Rs20,000 to a maximum of Rs100,000, depending on his monthly mobile usage, he added.

Post-paid customers have been excluded from the scheme, which has been launched with commercial objectives and is not part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

Telecom companies are struggling to enhance their base, as the industry is reaching the saturation point due to absence of advanced third generation telecom services.

They are also facing the problem of dormant customers. On an average, every telecom customer is spending Rs210 to Rs215 per month on mobile services, which is considered low compared to international standards.

Telenor has linked the insurance facility with consumption of a minimum credit of Rs200 in a month. However, the Competition Commission of Pakistan Act 2010 bars enterprises from bundling their products and services.

Replying to a question, Javaid said Telenor has taken care of legal aspects of the policy and it is legally covered.

He said the service will be free of charge and is distinct from all other life insurance services on three accounts. In addition to having no premium, life insurance is without any exclusion policy and is paper-free.

However, the company has not covered post-paid customers in the insurance scheme.

Javaid said unlike Telenor life insurance, other life insurance facilities are not available in case of death due to bomb blasts or suicide attacks. But terrorists and extremists who die in sabotage activities will not be entitled to the life insurance.

Endowment: WFP to help save wheat stocks

WFP’s programme of work aims to assist 8.3 million people between 2013 and 2015 at a total cost of $535 million. PHOTO: FILE

LAHORE: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has provided 165 high density polyethylene stack packages (known as Gunji kits) worth Rs14.7 million to store 58,000 metric tons of wheat, to the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) in a joint effort to reduce post-harvest losses. Previously, WFP supplied 500 kits along with 10 wheat cleaning/grading machines to Passco in 2012.

During a ceremony organised at Passco headquarters in Lahore on Thursday, WFP Representative and Country Director, Lola Castro, handed over these kits to the Acting Managing Director, Lt Col (Retd) Muhammad Younis.

Chief of Provincial Office at WFP in Punjab, Shahzada Rashid, and senior Passco General Managers and officials were also present on the occasion.

According to recent studying, post-harvest losses in Pakistan are estimated at 10 -15%. About 78% of wheat is stacked in the open, making it the main reason for the losses. Passco has started to gradually improve its storage capacity in order to protect the wheat and obtain improved shelf-life and quality.

“The contribution of kits over the past two years is part of WFP’s co-investment with the government of Pakistan in achieving enhanced and effective storage of wheat, in order to reduce post-harvest losses due to spoilage and infestation,” said Lola Castro.

“This initiative has the added benefit of improving food security in Pakistan by increasing the amount and quality of wheat available for consumption by the population,” Castro further added.

“The kits provided by WFP will enhance protection of wheat stacked in areas where Passco is unable to. Since the tarpaulin using to cover the grain with, are no longer resistant to climatic conditions, these Gunji kits are very useful and will last for at least two years. We are very pleased to acknowledge the support provided by WFP which will enable Passco to further improve its wheat storage capacity and  the quality of wheat”, said Managing Director of Passco, Lt Col Retd Muhammad Younis.

WFP works in close collaboration with the government of Pakistan, and aligns its strategies with national priorities, addressing food security and nutrition concerns in the country.

WFP’s programme of work aims to assist 8.3 million people between 2013 and 2015 at a total cost of $535 million. It seeks to improve economic opportunities and promote social inclusion in Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The programme also intends to boost community resilience in disaster-prone areas, and address nutrition and education issues in the country.

WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting against hunger worldwide.  Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries.

Driverless cars set to roam Milton Keynes from 2017, says Vince Cable

Pod cars in action. They will be introduced to Milton Keynes from 2015 Link to video: Driverless robot pod cars to chauffeur customers on Milton Keynes roads

Driverless cars will transport people through the streets of Milton Keynesfrom 2015, in the biggest test yet of the futuristic vehicles in Britain.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, announced that 20 of the vehicles will travel on special pathways separated from pedestrians around the Buckinghamshire town's shopping centre.

By mid-2017 it is planned that 100 fully autonomous cars will be in operation, sharing pathways with pedestrians and equipped with sensors to avoid collisions.

The driverless pods, which can carry two people each, will be able to travel at a maximum speed of 12mph and come with screen that allows passengers to check email and browse the internet while being ferried to their destination.

"By 2050, very few – if any – new cars will be powered solely by the traditional internal combustion engines, so it is important that the UK car industry is at the cutting edge of low-carbon technologies," Cable said.

"Driverless cars are another invention that has the potential to generate the kind of high-skilled jobs we want Britain to be famous for, as well as cutting congestion and pollution and improving road safety."

Cable unveiled the £1.5m project on a visit to Northampton on Thursday, where he also announced a £75m fund to produce and test low-carbon engines.

While the exact specification of the pods is yet to be finalised, a prototype image of the vehicle has three wheels and a see-through lid that flips up for passengers to step in or out. Each journey could cost £2, although that will be subject to a study next year.

Initially the driverless cars will ferry passengers from the town's rail station to its shopping centre just over a mile away – currently a 20-minute uphill walk.

One person close to the project said the exact make and model of the cars was yet to be decided, but that one option under consideration was the EN-V by General Motors, dubbed the "bubble car", which was first unveiled in 2010.

Most big carmakers – including Nissan, Toyota and Volvo – are already developing self-driving technology and incorporating it into models on Britain's roads.

Volvo claimed a first in August when it tested a car with "steer assist", which took control of the brakes, engine and steering from the driver at the press of two buttons.

In California, Google has claimed that its driverless cars have travelled 400,000 miles without a crash.

But it is not the technology behind autonomous vehicles that is problematic, according to Professor Martin Spring of Lancaster University, it is how they will fit into the existing road system.

"This is an important experiment to have, but we could miss an opportunity by trying to make it fit into a system designed for humans," he said, describing insurance claims as one area of uncertainty for self-driving cars.

Geoff Snelson, strategy director at Milton Keynes council, said there was some trepidation about the plans – "some have said 'Crikey, it'll never be safe'" – but that it added to the town's reputation as a place to experiment with novel technologies.

"Locally the immediate reaction has been overwhelmingly interest and excitement," he said.

"We've had questions about how it will work in practice but the initial response is people are very, very excited. We're hoping people will be queuing up to use the cars and will see it as a point of interest to come visit Milton Keynes."

The early collaborators on the project are engineering consultancy firm Arup, Transport Systems Catapult, the Automotive Council UK and Cambridge and Oxford Universities.

Toca Boca reaches 50m downloads of its iPhone and iPad apps for kids

Toca Boca's most recent app is Toca Mini.

Children's apps developer Toca Boca has reached a new milestone on Apple's App Store: 50m downloads of its apps since launching in 2011.

The company, a subsidiary of Swedish media group Bonnier, says that the US is its biggest market, accounting for 18.3m of those app downloads, followed by the UK with 3.7m.

Toca Boca has not revealed how many of its total have been sales of paid apps, versus downloads of free apps. The company has released 20 apps so far for iPhone and iPad, with a mixture of paid and free titles, and occasional promotions that make paid apps free for a limited period.

"50m downloads is testament to the fact that both kids and parents love Toca Boca products," said chief executive Björn Jeffery. "To have reached this point in two and a half years is an achievement of which we are all incredibly proud, and we are excited about what the future holds."

Toca Boca launched its first apps in March 2011, and reached 5m downloads by January 2012, 10m by May 2012, and then hit the 40m mark by June 2013.

As the latter milestone was announced, Jeffery told The Guardian that Toca Boca had posted "a healthy profit" in 2012, while warning of the difficulties building a sustainable business in the children's apps market.

"We've been profitable for a while, but I think that's very rare, unfortunately, at least from what I hear from industry colleagues. There is a very small head and a very, very long tail. And the angle at which the head drops to the tail is very steep," he said.

"You're either doing pretty good, or not doing well at all. There is some great stuff out there, but the problems are more related to discoverability. It doesn't matter if something's good if no one ever finds it. The sheer amount of things that come out is overwhelming for developers, but also for parents."

The latest 50m-downloads announcement is specifically for iOS, although Toca Boca has expanded onto Android in 2013 with three paid apps available on the Google Play store.

Toca Hair Salon 2 has been installed (i.e. bought) between 50,000 and 100,000 times on Android, Toca Kitchen between 10,000 and 50,000 times, and Toca Builders between 5,000 and 10,000 times according to Google's stats.

That means total sales of between 65,000 and 160,000 on Android's official app store, although Toca Boca also has five apps available on Amazon's rival Android app store, with an unknown number of sales there.

"We've always considered Android, but before we always thought it didn't have a sufficiently strong paid ecosystem, which after all is our business model. If people wouldn't buy our app in sufficient quantities, it made no sense to be on there," Jeffery told The Guardian in June.

"To a certain degree, those problems still exist, but it's grown to a size at which we think one of our apps can make a fifth of the revenues on Android that it does on iOS. If you can do something that will increase your business by 20%, it's worth considering."

Instagram acts after BBC finds site users are advertising illegal drugs

Photo sharing application Instagram seen on a smartphone. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

The photo sharing service Instagram has taken steps to block certain hashtags in a bid to stamp out the sale of illegal drugs via its users.

The social networking site – where people post and comment on photographs and videos – announced the move after a BBCinvestigation, which found users were showing narcotics and advertising their sale.

Most of the drug sales appear to have taken place in the US, according to the #BBCtrending strand on the broadcaster's website.

Among the illegal drugs advertised on Instagram were MDMA and other amphetamine-related substances.

One ad posted below an image of bags of marijuana said: "Just getting a few packs ready for tomorrow morning … Place your order today, it gets shipped out at 8am tomorrow."

Another photo displayed a selection of pills with the caption: "$2 a pop for xans, $10 a pop for roxys " – a reference to Xanax, a psychoactive anxiety treatment, and Roxicodone, an opiate used to treat pain.

Both drugs are available on prescription in the US and the UK, but are also traded on the black market.

The BBC reported that many deals were finalised via instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Kik, allowing messages to be kept private.

Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has a policy of acting on reported inappropriate activity.

But it told the BBC it would be impractical and invasive to actively search for such material.

Its terms of service state: "You may not use the service for any illegal or unauthorised purpose."

A spokeswoman told the BBC: "Instagram has a clear set of rules about what is and isn't allowed on the site.

"We encourage people who come across illegal or inappropriate content to report it to us using the built-in reporting tools next to every photo, video or comment, so we can take action.

"People can't buy things on Instagram, we are simply a place where people share photos and videos."

Google's Nexus 5 Play Store price undercuts wholesale cost

Google's Nexus 5 offers a premium Android smartphone experience without at a lower cost than competitors. Photograph: AP

Google is selling its Nexus 5 Android smartphone at around a £50 less than other retailers can buy it, according to one retailer.

The much-anticipated new flagship smartphone costs £300 directly from Google’s own Play store.

While it is unknown how much Google pays for each unit of Nexus 5 from its manufacturing partner LG in South Korea, other resellers are "able to buy the phone from LG for around £350" according to a retail source talking to the Guardian – £50 more than Google is currently selling the phone for on the Play Store.

Familiar ground

“We saw the same thing with the Nexus 4,” explained Ben Wood, mobile analyst with research firm CCS Insight. “With the Nexus line, Google always goes for very aggressive pricing with its manufacturing partner.”

The advantage of being part of Google’s Nexus programme is early access to new versions of Google’s Android operating system, which gives device manufacturers a leg up on the competition and Google leverage over their partner.

HTC enjoyed success as one of the first Nexus partners, and Samsung’s participation within the programme with the Galaxy Nexus was arguably part of the reason why the Samsung Galaxy S III sold so well.

Nexus programme put LG smartphones back on the map

For LG, Google’s current manufacturing partner, the Nexus programme put its smartphone back on the map, although it still has some way to go to match its South Korean neighbour, Samsung.

“Although it is unlikely Google would sell the Nexus 5 at a straight loss, it is highly likely that it would sell it at around cost or with very little margin,” said Wood.

“Google will only sell around 1-2m Nexus 5s, but they will be bought by key people – Android evangelists, developers and influencers – spreading the Android brand,” Wood concluded.

Despite apparent high demand due to stock shortage, the Google Nexus 4 sold under 400,000 units in three months in January, according toanalysis of phone serial numbers.