Apple remains ahead of the pack with the iPad 2, which offers faster web browsing, better graphics – and a really clever cover Apple chief Steve Jobs made a point of knocking rivals’ “copycat” tablet computers at the iPad 2 launch earlier this month. Samsung, RIM and Motorola “aren’t even catching up with the first iPad”, he said. Apple didn’t need to launch a second-generation iPad. The original commands around 80% of the US tablet market. It is less than a year out of the box. But when Jobs can improve on one of Apple’s products, you can rest assured that he will. Thinner, lighter and faster than its predecessor, the iPad 2 has a smaller footprint than the original – plus two cameras and extra software such as GarageBand. At 241mm tall, 186mm wide and 8.6mm thick, Apple’s iPad 2 is the sleekest tablet computer on the market. Its minimalist outer shell is complemented by a new “smart cover” that removes all the smears that come with thumbing and prodding the screen. Unlike its older brother, the iPad 2 has rounded edges, meaning it can be held more comfortably for longer. And at 100g lighter, it is noticeably more comfortable to hold than its predecessor, which could become uncomfortable if held in the same position for more than 10 minutes. The greatest departure from the original iPad is its speed. Apple claims that loading apps, playing games and browsing the internet are up to up to twice as fast as on the original. Certainly, internet browsing is the most striking difference. Fixtures on the average internet page tend to load all at once – Flash excepted, of course – and sometimes five or six seconds ahead of the original iPad. As an owner of the original iPad, I’ve never felt that performance was lagging (then again, I also own a 20-month-old iPhone 3G), but the iPad 2′s A5 dual core processor makes it much more responsive to touch. The graphics upgrade is really only noticeable when playing £5.99 shoot-em-up games or streaming long-form programming such as the iPlayer. For most people, I suspect the greatest immediate draw to the iPad 2 will be the cameras. Apple was slammed when it didn’t include them in its first edition and later claimed it to be users’ most-wanted function. Sadly, the cameras on this device are left wanting. Leaving aside the question of whether people really want to wave a 10inch x 7inch computer around in public, the VGA-quality front and rear-facing cameras – for video and stills – are pixel-poor and not flattered by the iPad’s high-quality screen. The rear-facing camera is put to best use with FaceTime, Apple’s video-calling function. Which leads us to software. The iPad 2 includes a string of media apps which first-generation owners won’t ever get a look at. Apple’s popular music-making software GarageBand (which iPad 1 users can get if they upgrade to iOS 4.3) is great fun and a boon for those with rambunctious young kids knocking about the house. Warning: it doesn’t come with headphones so don’t turn the volume up too loud. Apple’s movie-making app, iMovie, also finds a new home on the iPad 2. Precision editing was never one of the iPad’s strong points – writers bemoan spending hours hovering over misspelt words before the cursor would respond to the change – so the iPad seems an unnatural home for iMovie. Frankly, uploading to the web or to a synced Mac is so painless that iMovie could happily gather dust for most users. (A new hall-of-mirrors-style app called Photo Booth is so pointless it wastes good real estate – it can’t be deleted.) Despite the faster processor and enhanced graphics, the iPad 2′s battery life is on a par with the original; long-life performance is one of the device’s strongest selling points. My one qualm has to be the amount of time it takes for the iPad to charge – inordinately long compared with drain time. Apple’s attention to detail shines through with the new “Smart Cover”. At the iPad 2 launch, Jobs spent so much time demonstrating this magically magnetic clip-on sheath that I thought it would inevitably be a flop. In fact, the Smart Cover promises to shut out all the third-party manufacturers that churned out dog-eared cases for the iPad 1. Overall, the iPad 2 offers a string of incremental but important improvements on its predecessor. It remains a stretch ahead of the pack – though not quite “lapping the competition”, as Apple would like to make out – and it is hard to find any serious shortcomings with the second-generation tablet. However owners of the original iPad should not feel too sore about the upgrade: you don’t need to buy a new tablet. Those waiting to buy their first tablet could do much worse than the iPad 2. iPad Tablet computers Apple Computing Digital media Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
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Apple remains ahead of the pack with the iPad 2, which offers faster web browsing, better graphics – and a really clever cover Apple chief Steve Jobs made a point of knocking rivals’ “copycat” tablet computers at the iPad 2 launch earlier this month. Samsung, RIM and Motorola “aren’t even catching up with the first iPad”, he said. Apple didn’t need to launch a second-generation iPad. The original commands around 80% of the US tablet market. It is less than a year out of the box. But when Jobs can improve on one of Apple’s products, you can rest assured that he will. Thinner, lighter and faster than its predecessor, the iPad 2 has a smaller footprint than the original – plus two cameras and extra software such as GarageBand. At 241mm tall, 186mm wide and 8.6mm thick, Apple’s iPad 2 is the sleekest tablet computer on the market. Its minimalist outer shell is complemented by a new “smart cover” that removes all the smears that come with thumbing and prodding the screen. Unlike its older brother, the iPad 2 has rounded edges, meaning it can be held more comfortably for longer. And at 100g lighter, it is noticeably more comfortable to hold than its predecessor, which could become uncomfortable if held in the same position for more than 10 minutes. The greatest departure from the original iPad is its speed. Apple claims that loading apps, playing games and browsing the internet are up to up to twice as fast as on the original. Certainly, internet browsing is the most striking difference. Fixtures on the average internet page tend to load all at once – Flash excepted, of course – and sometimes five or six seconds ahead of the original iPad. As an owner of the original iPad, I’ve never felt that performance was lagging (then again, I also own a 20-month-old iPhone 3G), but the iPad 2′s A5 dual core processor makes it much more responsive to touch. The graphics upgrade is really only noticeable when playing £5.99 shoot-em-up games or streaming long-form programming such as the iPlayer. For most people, I suspect the greatest immediate draw to the iPad 2 will be the cameras. Apple was slammed when it didn’t include them in its first edition and later claimed it to be users’ most-wanted function. Sadly, the cameras on this device are left wanting. Leaving aside the question of whether people really want to wave a 10inch x 7inch computer around in public, the VGA-quality front and rear-facing cameras – for video and stills – are pixel-poor and not flattered by the iPad’s high-quality screen. The rear-facing camera is put to best use with FaceTime, Apple’s video-calling function. Which leads us to software. The iPad 2 includes a string of media apps which first-generation owners won’t ever get a look at. Apple’s popular music-making software GarageBand (which iPad 1 users can get if they upgrade to iOS 4.3) is great fun and a boon for those with rambunctious young kids knocking about the house. Warning: it doesn’t come with headphones so don’t turn the volume up too loud. Apple’s movie-making app, iMovie, also finds a new home on the iPad 2. Precision editing was never one of the iPad’s strong points – writers bemoan spending hours hovering over misspelt words before the cursor would respond to the change – so the iPad seems an unnatural home for iMovie. Frankly, uploading to the web or to a synced Mac is so painless that iMovie could happily gather dust for most users. (A new hall-of-mirrors-style app called Photo Booth is so pointless it wastes good real estate – it can’t be deleted.) Despite the faster processor and enhanced graphics, the iPad 2′s battery life is on a par with the original; long-life performance is one of the device’s strongest selling points. My one qualm has to be the amount of time it takes for the iPad to charge – inordinately long compared with drain time. Apple’s attention to detail shines through with the new “Smart Cover”. At the iPad 2 launch, Jobs spent so much time demonstrating this magically magnetic clip-on sheath that I thought it would inevitably be a flop. In fact, the Smart Cover promises to shut out all the third-party manufacturers that churned out dog-eared cases for the iPad 1. Overall, the iPad 2 offers a string of incremental but important improvements on its predecessor. It remains a stretch ahead of the pack – though not quite “lapping the competition”, as Apple would like to make out – and it is hard to find any serious shortcomings with the second-generation tablet. However owners of the original iPad should not feel too sore about the upgrade: you don’t need to buy a new tablet. Those waiting to buy their first tablet could do much worse than the iPad 2. iPad Tablet computers Apple Computing Digital media Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
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Labour leader says coalition policies driving wedge between rich and the poor, public and private sectors and north and south The government is putting Britain on a path back to the 1980s by adopting the “politics of division”, the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has said. Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s anti-cuts march in London – expected to be the biggest national demonstration since the 2003 march against the Iraq war – Miliband said the coalition’s policies were driving a wedge between the rich and the poor, the public and private sectors and the north and the south. He described the London demonstration as the “march of the mainstream”, arguing that the cuts were uniting everyone from the small businessman to the public sector workers to families affected by the government’s policies . “I grew up in the 1980s. Now, I thought some of the music of the 1980s was quite good. But I thought the politics of the 1980s were rotten,” he said in Nottingham. “I thought they were rotten because they divided our country, and I fear we are seeing our country divided again. I fear that this government is practising the politics of division. “They’re saying to the bankers, well you can have a tax cut this year and you can carry on getting your bonuses – but they’re saying to everybody else, you’re going to have to pay the price of the economic crisis that the bankers caused. “They’re saying people in the public sector and people in the private sector should somehow be at odds. They’re saying people on benefits should be resented by those in work. They’re saying we should set north against south. That is the politics of division, and we can’t go back to that.” Miliband will address a rally in Hyde Park at the end of the three-mile march from Embankment tomorrow in what will be one of his most high-profile speeches to date. The TUC organisers said they were preparing for as many as 200,000 people to join the march. The TUC has worked closely with police to try and ensure the event goes smoothly, but police say they were expecting a “small but significant” minority of people who could cause trouble . Greg Hands, the Conservative MP for Chealsea and Fulham, said: “This march is being organised by the TUC with Ed Miliband as the star speaker. “Having decided to bring thousands of their supporters onto the streets, [they] have a duty to ensure that their march does not become a focus for disorder and law-breaking. “Ed Miliband should use his influence with the unions to ensure that the march … is not taken over by extremist groups. There must be no repeat of the violence we witnessed at several student marches last year.” Nigel Stanley, the TUC head of campaigns, said: “Tomorrow will see thousands of good-natured protesters gathering to say no to deep, rapid and unfair spending cuts. “Months of planning, close working with the police and well over a thousand trained stewards will ensure that this is family-friendly event – a powerful voice, but peacefully expressed.” Ed Miliband Labour Liberal-Conservative coalition Economic policy Trade unions guardian.co.uk
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Number of bombs and missiles fired by British military small compared to US and France • Libya and Middle East unrest – LIVE coverage Britain is playing a prominent political and diplomatic role over Libya but a remarkably modest one in the military campaign, an initial analysis of available information of the first week’s action suggests. The Ministry of Defence, in marked contrast to the Pentagon and the French armed forces, declines to say how many bombs or missiles have been fired from RAF Tornados or how many Tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired from HMS Triumph (a Trafalgar-class submarine which the MoD declined to identify until David Cameron named her in the Commons). However, defence sources say a total of seven Tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired from Triumph, compared to at least 168 fired from US submarines and ships. Liam Fox, the defence secretary, said Tornado aircraft on Thursday launched “a number of guided Brimstone missiles at Libyan armoured vehicles which were threatening the civilian population of Ajdabiya”. He described Brimstone as a “high-precision, low collateral damage weapon optimised against demanding and mobile targets”. This was the first time the Tornados – whose home base is RAF Marham in Norfolk but which now fly from the southern Italian base of Gioia del Colle – had fired weapons at Libyan targets since Saturday, the first night of the campaign. Four Tornados were involved, probably firing no more than two bombs or Storm Shadow missiles each. The following night, the Tornados’ bombing run was aborted because a number of civilians, later identified as including western journalists, were found to be in the “intended target area”, the MoD has said. It is possible that no more than about eight bombs or missiles had been fired from RAF Tornados before the Brimstone attacks on Thursday night. That contrasts with hundreds of attacks by US and French aircraft, with, in one reported incident, US planes firing 40 missiles at one Libyan air base. William Hague, the foreign secretary, said on Thursday that the RAF had flown 59 missions over Libya. The large majority have been reconnaissance missions. They have also included what the MoD emphasises were the first Eurofighter/Typhoon aircraft deployed in what it described as “hostile airspace”. The 10 Typhoons are only suitable for air-to-air combat, according to the MoD. The ground attack version apparently is not ready to take over the Tornados’ role – though defence sources point out that the high profile the Tornados are enjoying will make it much harder for the government to scrap them as soon as it would otherwise like to. The RAF is responsible for policing the “no-fly zone” over eastern Libya, the rebel stronghold. Actively engaged in Afghanistan, it does not have any more aircraft available to take part in the Libyan operations. Libya Military Middle East US military France Liam Fox United States Europe Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …If you’re an American who hasn’t joined Facebook, you’re now in a minority, according to Edison Research . A full 51% of Americans over the age of 12 now have profiles on the social networking juggernaut, find a study carried out by the firm, noting that year-on-year growth has been especially…
Continue reading …A woman who sexually abused her own toddler daughter while streaming it live over the Internet was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison. “I never meant to hurt anyone in my family, and I have regretted it ever since,” said Maine mom Julie Carr, 33. She was convicted of…
Continue reading …An ingredient commonly found in curry powder could make the world a safer place as well as a spicier one, researchers say. Circumin, the main chemical in the spice turmeric, can be used to create a cheap way of spotting explosives, according to research presented to the American Physical Society….
Continue reading …A gasping, rock-hard-bodied Serena Williams might be slamming balls against an opponent in S&M duds in a new video, but the message is loud and clear: Sex . In fact, the champ’s new ad for Wii’s Top Spin 4 video game is so hot that the game manufacturer has decided notto…
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Nazareth in Colombia says travellers don’t spend much and show little respect to indigenous people The small Amazonian town of Nazareth is a traveller’s dream. Wildlife prowls the surrounding jungles and the indigenous inhabitants practise ceremonies that long predate the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores. But it may be advisable for tourists to give the place a wide berth. Villagers here have declared their town off limits to travellers, even though this stretch of the Amazon river is playing host to more visitors than ever. Their main complaint: tourists’ behaviour, and that only a fraction of the money they spend trickles down to the indigenous. “What we earn here is very little. Tourists come here, they buy a few things, a few artisan goods, and they go. It is the travel agencies that make the good money,” said Juvencio Pereira, an Indigenous Guard, Nazareth’s unofficial volunteer police force. The town of 800 people, a 20-minute boat ride from the tourist hub of Leticia, takes its ban seriously. At the entrance, Pereira and other guards stand armed with their traditional sticks ready to deter unwelcome visitors. Nazareth resident Grimaldo Ramos feels that some tourists can’t distinguish between the wildlife and the Amazon’s residents, snapping photos of indigenous families as if they were another animal. “Tourists come and shove a camera in our faces,” he said. “Imagine if you were sitting in your home and strangers came in and started taking photos of you. You wouldn’t like it.” Nazareth’s actions reveal a split among the indigenous communities that live along the river about what role tourism should play in the region’s development. With the rise of eco-tourism, this part of the Amazon, which joins Colombia, Peru and Brazil, has seen a flood of travellers arriving to experience the world’s most biologically diverse region. Tourists swim with the Amazon’s pink dolphins, fish for piranhas, hike through the rainforests and take in the sunsets over the mighty river. According to the tourism office for the Colombian province of Amazonas, the 35,000 people who trekked to the region in 2010 represent a fivefold surge in numbers over the past eight years. But as Nazareth complains, the indigenous people have so far seen little of the benefits, mostly just the sharp end of tourism. A common concern among indigenous leaders is that local children are adopting the outsiders’ ways. A stroll through the riverbank towns of Macedonia, Puerto Narino and even Nazareth itself shows many children are more comfortable in “western” dress and listening to the imported music of reggaeton and Colombia’s vallenato. And then there are the inevitable misunderstandings of two cultures interacting. What a tourist may consider polite curiosity about indigenous culture can seem to some here intrusive and even an attempt to gain sacred tribal wisdom. “We don’t like it when they ask members of the community about our traditional knowledge and the medicines we possess,” said Pereira. Other communities, however, take the view that the number of visitors to the region is only going to rise, so they might as well profit from it. A couple of hours downriver lies Puerto Narino. It hosts a steady flow of visitors, but all must use the travel agencies based in the town. Puerto Narino’s mayor, Nelson Ruiz, understands Nazareth’s worries, but says that if tourism is well regulated it can help lift these communities out of the poverty that troubles much of this zone. “Other communities fear tourism can damage culture, damage our water resources with trash, destroy the environment, we don’t want that,” he says, adding visitors are expected to abide by certain rules, such as no drug-taking and no sexual tourism. For the residents back in Nazareth though, the loss of tourist revenue is a trade-off worth making. “We feel good here without tourists, there are no little annoyances,” said Ramos. Indigenous peoples Amazon Biodiversity South America Colombia Colombia Toby Muse guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Nazareth in Colombia says travellers don’t spend much and show little respect to indigenous people The small Amazonian town of Nazareth is a traveller’s dream. Wildlife prowls the surrounding jungles and the indigenous inhabitants practise ceremonies that long predate the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores. But it may be advisable for tourists to give the place a wide berth. Villagers here have declared their town off limits to travellers, even though this stretch of the Amazon river is playing host to more visitors than ever. Their main complaint: tourists’ behaviour, and that only a fraction of the money they spend trickles down to the indigenous. “What we earn here is very little. Tourists come here, they buy a few things, a few artisan goods, and they go. It is the travel agencies that make the good money,” said Juvencio Pereira, an Indigenous Guard, Nazareth’s unofficial volunteer police force. The town of 800 people, a 20-minute boat ride from the tourist hub of Leticia, takes its ban seriously. At the entrance, Pereira and other guards stand armed with their traditional sticks ready to deter unwelcome visitors. Nazareth resident Grimaldo Ramos feels that some tourists can’t distinguish between the wildlife and the Amazon’s residents, snapping photos of indigenous families as if they were another animal. “Tourists come and shove a camera in our faces,” he said. “Imagine if you were sitting in your home and strangers came in and started taking photos of you. You wouldn’t like it.” Nazareth’s actions reveal a split among the indigenous communities that live along the river about what role tourism should play in the region’s development. With the rise of eco-tourism, this part of the Amazon, which joins Colombia, Peru and Brazil, has seen a flood of travellers arriving to experience the world’s most biologically diverse region. Tourists swim with the Amazon’s pink dolphins, fish for piranhas, hike through the rainforests and take in the sunsets over the mighty river. According to the tourism office for the Colombian province of Amazonas, the 35,000 people who trekked to the region in 2010 represent a fivefold surge in numbers over the past eight years. But as Nazareth complains, the indigenous people have so far seen little of the benefits, mostly just the sharp end of tourism. A common concern among indigenous leaders is that local children are adopting the outsiders’ ways. A stroll through the riverbank towns of Macedonia, Puerto Narino and even Nazareth itself shows many children are more comfortable in “western” dress and listening to the imported music of reggaeton and Colombia’s vallenato. And then there are the inevitable misunderstandings of two cultures interacting. What a tourist may consider polite curiosity about indigenous culture can seem to some here intrusive and even an attempt to gain sacred tribal wisdom. “We don’t like it when they ask members of the community about our traditional knowledge and the medicines we possess,” said Pereira. Other communities, however, take the view that the number of visitors to the region is only going to rise, so they might as well profit from it. A couple of hours downriver lies Puerto Narino. It hosts a steady flow of visitors, but all must use the travel agencies based in the town. Puerto Narino’s mayor, Nelson Ruiz, understands Nazareth’s worries, but says that if tourism is well regulated it can help lift these communities out of the poverty that troubles much of this zone. “Other communities fear tourism can damage culture, damage our water resources with trash, destroy the environment, we don’t want that,” he says, adding visitors are expected to abide by certain rules, such as no drug-taking and no sexual tourism. For the residents back in Nazareth though, the loss of tourist revenue is a trade-off worth making. “We feel good here without tourists, there are no little annoyances,” said Ramos. Indigenous peoples Amazon Biodiversity South America Colombia Colombia Toby Muse guardian.co.uk
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