(Reuters).Two Pakistani girls shot by a Taliban hit squad trying to kill their classmate, Malala Yousufzai, returned to school on Thursday under tight security.

A gunman attacked Yousufzai, who campaigned for girls’ education despite threats from the Taliban, on October 9 as she was leaving school in Pakistan’s Swat valley. She was wounded in the head and her two school friends were also wounded.

The shooting provoked widespread outrage and brought Yousufzai, who is recovering in a British hospital, international admiration for her campaigning.

On Thursday, police escorted her teenaged classmates, Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramazan, back to school.

“I am very excited to resume my studies once again in the school, but I will definitely miss Malala,” Kainat, who was shot in the arm, told Reuters.

The two girls will have security escorts indefinitely, police said.

The attack on Malala, 15, followed years of campaigning that had pitted the girl against one of Pakistan’s most ruthless Taliban commanders, known as Maulana Fazlullah.

Fazlullah and his men took over the Swat Valley and blew up girls’ schools and publicly executed those they deemed immoral or tried to stand up to them. Eventually, the army launched an offensive to drive the militants out.

Though Fazlullah and his men have fled over the mountains, Swat remains tense and it seems inconceivable that Malala, who has become a symbol of resistance to Taliban efforts to deny women education, will be able to go home and back to school.

Her father has said in late October she would “rise again” to pursue her dreams after medical treatment.

Tens of thousands of Britons have called on the government to nominate Yousufzai for a Nobel Peace Prize for her activism.

Pakistan has 5 million children out of school, a number only surpassed by Nigeria, the U.N. cultural agency said in a report published this week. Two-thirds of those children are girls.

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The HTC 8S the Windows Phone 8 handset won’t be coming to U.S. market ,HTC official told Engadget. HTC 8S doesn’t get much boost as compared to its shores powerful sibling, the HTC 8X. 

The HTC 8S is a budget phone based on Windows OS and don’t has a front-facing camera, has lower display resolution (480 x 800 pixels, 4.0 inches) and also has a weak rear camera (5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash). It’s processor is a bit slower and has less RAM (512 MB) as compared to HTC 8X. 

HTC is mainly focusing on its HTC X Windows Phone 8 phone. HTC X is sold with carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon wireless. 

According to Javelin Strategy & Research’s latest consumer survey (the group polled 3,000 consumers this quarter), Google’s Android smartphones and tablets now claim 48% of the U.S mobile market, up from 34% last year. Apple’s mobile device market share is 32% this year, up from 27% last year. (RIM dropped from 25% last year to 12% this year; Windows Mobile dropped from 13% to 8%.)

Despite these market changes, 92% of financial institutions provide Apple apps, Javelin researchers say, while 84% have an Android offering; this is roughly the opposite of what you’d expect. This may reflect nostalgia and a design preference for the Apple iOS, which for some banks was what lured them into providing mobile banking in the first place. There’s also an ease of use issue, according to Monahan.

“The iPhone is simple, it’s an easy platform to service,” she says. “The Android is a messy platform to service, the banks have to be dragged kicking and screaming to develop for it.” With so many OEMs manufacturing Android devices, there are many different models and versions of Android and it can be hard to create an app that will render properly on all of them. “With the iPhone there are just a few models and screen sizes,” she points out. Apple is also good at getting customers to upgrade to the latest version of its operating system, Monahan says, while Google has been less successful at that.

But neglecting the Android world is a risk for banks. “Lack of access is becoming an increasing irritation to consumers,” Monahan says.

Javelin’s 2012 Mobile Banking Financial Institution Scorecard, the report that came out Wednesday, found that overall, 33% of smartphone-toting American adults now conduct banking on their mobile device; this is up from 24% last year.

Among other findings, mobile banking offerings for businesses shot up this year: 68% of banks offer it today, where only 25% did in 2011. “It really makes sense for business executives to have the ability to check in with their mobile phone at all times,” Monahan says.

Mobile deposit also has gained in popularity, according to the report. “One of the biggest things consumers complain about it is that they want it and don’t have it,” Monahan says. Currently 48% of banks offer mobile deposit.

Monahan also believes the ability to automatically pay a bill by taking a picture of it with a smartphone camera will be important going forward, as will letting people enroll in mobile banking by snapping a photo of their driver’s license. Today, only 8% of banks offer mobile enrollment; most require the consumer to register for online banking first. Some consumers don’t have a desktop computer or are uninterested in banking on it.

Javelin declared Chase’s mobile banking offerings — SMS, mobile browser and native apps — the best of the 25 large U.S. banks it studied this year. “They were one of the first to come out with mobile apps, and they keep perfecting them,” Monahan notes. “They have near-real-time actionable alerts, P2P transfers, and mobile deposits.”

One example of an actionable alert from Chase is if a customer is about to overdraw on an account, the bank will send that person a text message. The customer can text back a message asking to move funds from another account to cover the purchase. (Americanbanker)

Sony announced that it sold over 160,000 PlayStation Vitas during Black Friday week. The play station was launched in US in month of February. Sony also revealed that it sold over 250,000 3DS handhelds and standard DS 275,000 units. Sony sold over 525,000 PS3s during the Black Friday week.

Sony says that its sales for the Play Station 3 including software, hardware and accessories rise by 9% as compared to the same period last year.

Jack Tretton, CEO and President of Sony in a statement said that its PlayStation generated significant revenue on year to year basis and it focuses on gamer’s desire by improving hardware and digital entertainment

Microsoft on other hand sold 750,000 Xbox, 360 video game consoles. Nintendo’s Wii U at 400,000 consoles were sold.

Apple further firms its grip over China smartphone market and has announced officially that the fourth-generation iPad Mini (Wi-Fi versions) will be available in China on December 7 (Friday) and the iPhone 5 on December 14 (Friday). 

The gadgets will be available for Consumers in China through Apple Online Store, through Apple retail stores.

Apple is generated about 15 per cent of its revenue that is $23.8 from China smartphone market for fiscal year ending in September.  Tim Cook, CEO Apple said that Apple was already projecting launch of iPhone 5 in China in December quarter.

Apple faces a number of vibrant competitors in China and recently droped out of the first five smartphone vendors in China

As far tablets are concerned Apple in the third quarter had 71 percent share in smartphone market in China where as Lenovo had 10 percent shares, reported by research firm Analysys International.