The APO Production Unit Inc., has reportedly foiled fixers that pull off scams regarding the application of passports — resulting to about two to three months of scheduling online appointments.
Inquirer.net reports that APO Production, a government-owned printing facility, believe that these scammers are backed by syndicates and earn as much as Php2.5 million by intentionally blocking out passport application slots. Rates start at Php5,000 and could increase in value depending on the chosen date and time slot of the applicants.
Dominic Tajon, Sales Manager for APO Production, mentions that IT experts have uncovered this illegal operation while installing a new security feature in the DFA’s online passport application last June.
To avoid this form of corruption, APO has already signed a memorandum of agreement with the DFA which allows them to handle the passport processing.
“The days of fixers are numbered because the Department of Foreign Affairs has allowed APO Production to handle the end-to-end passport processing in the next two months,” said Tajon in an interview with the diplomatic press corps on Thursday.
Tajon added that the public can expect ease in getting online appointment by September, when applicants under the old system would have been accommodated.
More details on Inquirer’s report at the source link below.
The APO Production Unit Inc., has reportedly foiled fixers that pull off scams regarding the application of passports — resulting to about two to three months of scheduling online appointments.
Inquirer.net reports that APO Production, a government-owned printing facility, believe that these scammers are backed by syndicates and earn as much as Php2.5 million by intentionally blocking out passport application slots. Rates start at Php5,000 and could increase in value depending on the chosen date and time slot of the applicants.
Dominic Tajon, Sales Manager for APO Production, mentions that IT experts have uncovered this illegal operation while installing a new security feature in the DFA’s online passport application last June.
To avoid this form of corruption, APO has already signed a memorandum of agreement with the DFA which allows them to handle the passport processing.
“The days of fixers are numbered because the Department of Foreign Affairs has allowed APO Production to handle the end-to-end passport processing in the next two months,” said Tajon in an interview with the diplomatic press corps on Thursday.
Tajon added that the public can expect ease in getting online appointment by September, when applicants under the old system would have been accommodated.
More details on Inquirer’s report at the source link below.
A technical error is reported to be temporarily preventing US visas and passports to be issued outside of America.
Those who applied for a passport outside US after May 26, 2015, is affected by the glitch. It is still unclear what the cause of the technical difficulty is, but the State Department has already dismissed the idea of a cyber attack. Coincidentally, visa applications sent after June 9, 2015, will also be put to halt because of a hardware failure, The Hill reports.
“There is no evidence the problem is cyber security related,” State Department spokeswoman Julia Straker said in a statement to The Hill. “We are working urgently to correct the problem and expect the system to be fully operational again soon.”
There were no dates disclosed as to when the operations will be up and running again. Individuals who have an upcoming trip are advised to get an emergency passport by contacting the nearest embassy. Again, the applicants affected here are those residing outside US. Applications made within the country will have no problem.
Some of the specifications of BlackBerry’s square smartphone, the Passport, have already been revealed but the folks over at N4BB details it down. Below is the full specs list of this first-ever handset with a touch capacitive physical button.
BlackBerry “Windmere” Passport specs:
Display 4.5-inch LCD display @ 1440 x 1440 resolution, 453 ppi 10-point multi-touch, 24-bit color depth, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 1:1 aspect ratio, RGB pixel arrangement, in-cell touch panel
Rear Camera 13MP AF camera with BSI, OIS, and LED flash 5-element f2.0 lens, 5x digital zoom 1080p Full HD video recording, 6DOF video stabilization
Front Camera 2MP fixed-focus with 3x digital zoom 720p video recording, image and video stabilization
Notification Tone Vibrate On-screen or LED indicator
Ports and Connectivity USB 2.0 fully supported with standard microUSB 2.0 cable (included) USB 3.0 client interface supported with custom BlackBerry cable (not included) Cabled-Video Out supported with standard SlimPort adaptor (not included). SlimPort adaptor cables exist to support the followingvideo protocols: HDMI, VGA, DisplayPort 1.1, DisplayPort 1.2, DVI NFC Universal BlackBerry Connector with SlimPort enabled
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n for 2.4GHz 802.11 a/n for 5GHz 802.11 ac for 5GHz 4G Mobile Hotspot Wi-Fi Direct Miracast IEEE 802.11r IEEE 802.11k Neighbor Reports Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) Server
Bluetooth v4.0 Low Energy (LE) Profiles: Hands free Profile 1.6 (HFP) Object Push Profile 1.1 (OPP) Phone Book Access Profile 1.1.1 (PBAP) Bluetooth Stereo (A2DP 1.2 / AVRCP 1.5 support) Serial Port Profile 1.1 (SPP) Bluetooth Message Access Profile 1.1 (MAP) Personal Area Network 1.0 (PAN) Remote SIM Access Profile 1.1 (rSAP) Human Interface Device Profile 1.0 (HID) Device ID 1.3 Multi-Profile 1.0 (MPS) [Planned]Low Energy Services Device Information Service Immediate Alert Service Link Loss Service Tx Power Service Battery Service Current Time Service Next DST Change Service Low Energy Human Interface Device (HID) [Planned]Bluetooth Radio Specifications Single band support: ISM 2.4 GHz Power Class: Bluetooth Class 1 Transmitting and receiving frequency: 2402 to 2480 MHz
GPS Assisted, Autonomous and Simultaneous GPS Enabled with preloaded BlackBerry Maps application and for e911capabilities Both User Plane & Control Plane GPS is supported GLONASS Support OTDOA
Sensors Accelerometer Magnetometer Gyroscope Time of Flight (ToF) Ambient Light
SIM Nano SIM card (4FF) Supports 1.8V and 3.0V cards
Battery 3450mAh non-removable battery
In addition, below is a video demonstration of the device’s physical keyboard that can be used as a touchpad.
