Acer Iconia Tab A500 to get Android 3.1 on 5th of July, at least in Deutschland
June 23, 2011 No Comment
The Iconia Tab A500, Acer’s ” better choice ” tablet, is set to join the ranks of Android 3.1 slates on the 5th of July, according to the company’s German Facebook page. That’s a little later than the June timeframe we’d initially been promised, but the precision of giving an actual date this time around inspires confidence that the OTA goodies will indeed be delivered. So far, we’ve only seen Acer announce this news on its German portal, so please keep your optimism in cautious gear if you reside outside the Bundesrepublik. The only certain Android update is the one that’s already on your device. Acer Iconia Tab A500 to get Android 3.1 on 5th of July, at least in Deutschland originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jun 2011 04:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Churchill Downs, the longtime home to the Kentucky Derby, was hit by a possible tornado Wednesday. The high winds damaged property, but did not injure any humans or horses at the track, officials said. (June 23)
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James “Whitey” Bulger, a notorious Boston gangster on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list for his alleged role in 19 murders, has been captured near Los Angeles after living on the run for 16 years, authorities said Wednesday. (June 23)
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After scoring an NHL-best 50 goals, Anaheim’s Corey Perry won the Hart Trophy Wednesday night as league MVP. The awards ceremony was held in Las Vegas. (June 23)
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From Gilbert & George to Stella McCartney, Central Saint Martins has trained the country’s coolest artists and designers, but can it retain its radical edge now it is moving out of Soho and into King’s Cross? In a studio that reeks of chemicals above London’s Charing Cross Road, a small group of second year students are putting on a fashion show with a twist. Danish designer Henrik Vibskov , who is wearing voluminous black trousers and unsuccessfully trying to open the window, has commissioned them to express the concept of a panopticon prison through the medium of menswear. Two young men stand motionless in front of a screen. One is wearing trousers in violently clashing prints and a hat that looks like it was made of broken white clay pipes; the other has donned a baggy navy jumper with a ochre splodge on it. A short film is projected over them that goes from black-and-white close-ups of a male nude to threatening psychedelic fuzz. They’re “clothes for a distorted body”, explain the students, pointing to bits that stick out at the elbow and the knee. Christopher New, head of BA fashion menswear, admires the jumper’s intricate weave and asks about the meaning of the yellow blob. “Sometimes we do classic tailoring as well,” he tells me, moving on to the next group of students, whose interpretation of the panopticon concept involves the recreation of a rave in the college’s basement. This is Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (CSM), which for decades has been the place where Britain’s brightest young creatives have come to develop their talents (it evolved into its present incarnation in 1989, when the Central School of Art and Design merged with Saint Martins School of Art). It was at Saint Martins that Gilbert met George in 1967 , the Sex Pistols played their first ever show in 1975 and Jarvis Cocker met the Greek girl who “had a thirst for knowledge” and inspired Pulp’s Common People . In the mid-80s, the Charing Cross Road building became renowned as the furnace in which the world’s leading fashion designers were forged, a reputation that persists to this day. Sarah Burton and Riccardo Tisci , 2011′s most talked-about designers, both studied here, as did Alexander McQueen and John Galliano , the men they replaced (or are poised to, in Tisci’s case) at McQueen and Dior. A list of other CSM alumni would take up the rest of this article, but includes such cutting-edge artistic talents as Polly Harvey , MIA , Sade , Mike Leigh , Lucian Freud , Frank Auerbach , Jonathan Saunders and three-quarters of the Clash . This week marks the end of an era, as CSM leaves its two buildings in central London and moves to a new premises in King’s Cross, just across the road from the Guardian. The move won’t be welcomed by Professor Louise Wilson, legendary course director of MA fashion, who believes that the very grottiness of the Charing Cross Road building has helped drive her students – from McQueen to Christopher Kane – to succeed. “You feel that you’re better than this corridor,” she says. “In the new building you want to hide. All our secretaries loved it when they saw it and I thought: ‘Yeah, you would.’ I
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Driver Zhang Jinsong among several associates who disappeared with freed Chinese artist Police are to release Ai Weiwei’s cousin and driver, who went missing days after the world famous artist, according to relatives. Ai was released on bail on Wednesday night after 81 days of detention “because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes” and a chronic illness, Xinhua news agency reported. The 54-year-old told the Guardian he was happy to be back with his family , but was unable to comment further. He appeared tired and considerably thinner than before his disappearance. Friends and supporters have remained concerned for the fate of several associates who disappeared shortly after Ai was stopped by officials at Beijing airport on 3 April. Gao Ying, Ai’s mother, said she had been told her nephew Zhang Jinsong would be released on bail on Thursday afternoon. She added that she would collect him shortly. “Of course I am very happy, since he got into the case because of my son. After two months, finally he is out,” Gao added. The 43-year-old, known to friends as Xiao Pang, travelled and worked closely with Ai . The Xinhua report on Ai’s release said: “The decision comes also in consideration of the fact that Ai has repeatedly said he is willing to pay the taxes he evaded, police said. The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, a company Ai controlled, was found to have “evaded a huge amount of taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents”, police said. Chinese officials have said that the case was nothing to do with human rights. But Ai’s family believe the accusations were retaliation for his social and political activism and that his friends and colleagues – who, apart from Wen Tao, showed little interest in campaigning – were drawn in because of their connections to Ai. Shi Jing, Wen’s girlfriend, said his family were still none the wiser about where the 38-year-old was or what would happen to him. Hu Mingfen, 55, the accountant for Fake Design – the company which handled Ai’s affairs – remains missing. So does Liu Zhenggang, 49, a designer who worked at the studio. Ai did not respond to a request for comment. On Wednesday night he told the Guardian that he was fine and “very happy” to be home, but added that he could not say much because he was on bail. Professor Jerome Cohen, a leading expert on Chinese criminal law, said in a blog that security authorities sometimes released suspects pending further investigation “as a face-saving device to end controversial cases that are unwise or unnecessary for them to prosecute “. “Often in such cases a compromise has been reached in negotiation with the suspect, as apparently it has been here…. As part of the agreement and as a consequence of long incommunicado detention, the released suspect is usually subdued in any public remarks made upon release,” he said. He added: “This outcome makes clear that great international public pressure plus significant domestic and personal guanxi [connections] can be a potent combination even in the case of someone who went further than anyone before him in openly thumbing his nose (and other body parts) at the Communist regime. Undoubtedly, Ai’s star talent, his family history and global support from the artistic community helped a lot.” China Ai Weiwei Human rights Protest Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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There will be no free ride back to Antarctica for a young Emperor penguin who apparently got lost, but then defied the odds by swimming all the way to New Zealand. Wildlife officials said Wednesday they will let “nature take its
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Georges Tron denies allegations by two former female colleagues that he assaulted them French prosecutors have opened a judicial inquiry into alleged rape and sexual assault by a former minister and asked that he be charged. Georges Tron, who has been in custody for two days this week, resigned as junior minister for civil service after the allegations surfaced last month. A judicial official said on Wednesday the prosecutor in Evry, outside Paris, opened an inquiry targeting Tron and his assistant. The official wasn’t authorised to be publicly named. The 53-year-old Tron has denied allegations by two former female colleagues that foot massages he administered evolved into sexual assaults. The women said assault charges in New York against prominent French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn inspired them to speak out. France Europe guardian.co.uk
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Boston crimelord and FBI informant was inspiration for Jack Nicholson character Frank Costello in Scorcese’s The Departed James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, a notorious Boston gangster on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list for his alleged role in 19 murders, has been captured near Los Angeles after living on the run for 16 years. Bulger, 81, was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang and a top-level FBI informant when he fled in January 1995 after being tipped off by a former Boston FBI agent that he was about to be indicted. He was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday evening at an apartment complex in Santa Monica after a period of surveillance, according to a local policeman. Bulger will appear at a federal court in LA facing a series of federal charges including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, narcotics distribution, extortion and money laundering. The FBI has endured a public perception that it had not tried very hard to find Bulger, who became a huge source of embarrassment for the agency after the extent of his crimes and the FBI’s role in overlooking them became public. Prosecutors said he went on the run after being warned by John Connolly Jr, an FBI agent who had made Bulger an FBI informant 20 years earlier. Connolly was convicted of racketeering in May 2002 for protecting Bulger and his cohort, Stephen ‘The Rifleman’ Flemmi, also an FBI informant. Bulger, who was the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s character Frank Costello in Martin Scorcese’s 2006 crime thriller The Departed, provided the Boston FBI with information on his gang’s main rival, the New England Mob, in an era when bringing down the Mafia was one of the FBI’s top priorities. But the Boston FBI office was sharply criticised when the extent of Bulger’s alleged crimes and his cosy relationship with the FBI became public in the late 1990s. During his years on the run, the FBI received reported sightings of Bulger and his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, from all over the US and parts of Europe. In many of those sightings, investigators could not confirm whether it was actually Bulger who was spotted or simply a lookalike. FBI Massachusetts United States Mark Smith guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The Acorn A7000+ portable mod is what your MacBook looks like in an alternate universe
June 23, 2011 No Comment
Aside from its attempted rebirth as a laptop manufacturer back in 2006, we haven’t heard all that much from Acorn Computers in the past, oh, two decades or so. And if you’re not a UK native, there’s a pretty good chance that you didn’t hear all that much about the “British Apple” before then either. But while the company’s more official attempt to go portable was nothing to write home about, its late-period A7000+ desktop has now seen a successful second life at the hands of a British modder as the A7KP. The Acorn’s innards have been stuffed into a five pound (relatively) portable setup, featuring a 10.4-inch LCD, 4GB of flash memory, and a battery that offers up three hours of RISC OS-based fun. It’s enough to make you wonder how you ever played Lemmings on anything else. The Acorn A7000+ portable mod is what your MacBook looks like in an alternate universe originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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