Application for state department funding to combat censorship in countries such as China and Iran is greeted with derision • BBC World Service to sign funding deal with US An application by the BBC World Service Trust for US government funding to help combat censorship in countries such as China and Iran has met with a furious response in America. Some figures within rival US international broadcasters such as Voice of America are said to be “deeply angry” that, at a time when the Congress is embroiled in a delicate budgetary standoff with the Obama administration, the World Service Trust is hoping to receive US tax dollars. One Washington source said that the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the US government agency which distributes about $760m of public money annually to five US international broadcasters, should receive the funding and not the BBC World Service Trust. “We are deeply angry here in the States. The Voice of America is the US government’s international broadcaster and needs support,” the source added. “This is coming at a time when the US government is cutting funding for the BBG as well as National Public Radio and people are angry that money is going to the BBC World Service Trust. “The sums which the trust is now seeking are puny but it’s the symbolism that’s important. Americans are trying to conserve resources and our money is going to something which supports the work of a foreign broadcaster – it’s infuriating.” The US state department said no decision had yet been taken on the BBC World Service Trust’s proposal for funding – believed to be a low six figure sum – for anti-jamming technology. Courtney Austrian, office director, policy planning and public diplomacy at the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said: “To clarify the situation, earlier this month the BBC World Service Trust, along with many other organisations, was invited to submit a proposal for funding in the area of internet freedom to the state department. “This invitation was extended based upon a statement of interest the World Service Trust had previously submitted. We have not yet received a full proposal from any organisation and no funding decisions have yet been made.” A spokeswoman for the BBG, which funds America’s five international broadcasters – Voice of America, Radio & TV Marti, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and Middle East Broadcasting Networks – declined to be drawn on the row. “Competition for funds from the state department is ongoing,” she said. News of the BBC’s application for the grant from the US state department to develop anti–jamming technology in repressive countries such as Iran and China, revealed by the Guardian , has also met with a critical response in America. Under the heading “Your tax dollars funding a second left wing radio network: the BBC”, Thomas Lifson wrote on the American Thinker blog : “The BBC has a problem with political bias at least as bad as that of NPR. But that is no obstacle to shipping money, borrowed from China, to yet another left wing network. Don’t worry: we’ll just let our children pay for it when the Chinese come to collect.” A diary item on the New York Magazine’s website added : “Just wait til the anti-NPR brigade gets wind that U.S. funds are going to foreigners.” However, BBC World Service sources insisted that American money will be going to the World Service Trust – which is the corporation’s international charity – and not to the World Service, the international broadcaster. “It is quite reasonable that project by project work by the trust could apply for state department and US funding,” said a BBC World Service Trust source. The BBC World Service Trust has previously received $4.5m in US international development funding for an ongoing media and development project in Nigeria and is bidding for another $293,000 for similar work in Burma. •
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Sana’a protests agitate for Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign as he accuses defecting generals of trying to stage a coup Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has accused defecting generals of trying to stage a coup against him, saying the country would descend into a bloody civil war if he were forced to step down. “Those trying to wrest power through coups should know that this is impossible,” Saleh said in a defiant speech on television on Tuesday. “The fatherland will be made unstable, there will be war, a bloody civil war. They should carefully reflect on this.” Saleh, who has been president of Yemen for 32 years, is under mounting pressure to step down following seven weeks of anti-government protests and defections among the ruling elite. He announced on Tuesday that he would accept a proposal for an early departure from office, in January 2012, though it remained unclear when or how a transfer of power would take place. Previously he had offered to leave only by 2013. The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), Yemen’s opposition coalition, said they would accept nothing short of immediate resignation. “The opposition rejects the offer, as the coming hours will be decisive,” said opposition spokesman Mohammed al-Sabri. Scenes of jubilation among protesters at Sana’a University quickly dissolved into anger and frustration as news of Saleh’s speech spread. Demonstrators have been living in tents on the campus for the past five weeks demanding the president’s resignation. Tribesmen from Yemen’s eastern desert province of Marib set fire to a towering pile of placards bearing pictures of the president on hearing that he would not be stepping down. “Like our brothers in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, we have one simple request – that the president steps down now. If he doesn’t I think there will bloodshed,” said Mahmud Saeed, 21, who was dousing the smouldering heap of wood with petrol. Saleh’s defiance was unexpected. The fate of the embattled president now looks to be sealed as high-level officials, including senior army commander Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, abandon him and throw their support behind the protesters. Seventeen foreign diplomats, including the Yemeni ambassador to the UK, also resigned on Monday. Saleh suffered a further setback when Abdel-Malik Mansour, Yemen’s representative to the Arab League, told Al Arabiya television he was backing the protesters. Abdul-Rahman al-Iryani, the minister of water and environment, who was dismissed with the remainder of the cabinet on Sunday, also said he was joining “the revolutionaries”. In his letter of resignation on Tuesday, Iryani said: “It is becoming ridiculous that every member of the regime is now joining the revolution, when in fact they should surrender themselves to the revolution for trial for crimes that they committed against the people or looked the other way while these crimes were perpetrated on the people. Also, they should pledge not to occupy any public office in the future.” Military units appeared to have taken sides in the capital, with the Republican Guard protecting the palace of the president and soldiers from the 1st Armored Division under Ali Mohsen protecting the throngs of protesters in Sana’a. Late on Monday Yemen’s defence minister, Mohammad Nasser Ali, set the scene for possible military confrontation between the two, saying the army would back Saleh against any coup attempt. Analysts are worried that if a political agreement is not reached soon a violent military showdown will ensue. “The situation we face at the moment is untenable,” said Abdulghani Iryani, a political analyst. “With two army factions facing off in the capital the risk of a spark is huge. “Saleh has started waving the threat of a civil war in the hope that it will buy him enough time to make an honourable exit. In reality, he has days left before things turn very violent here.” Clashes broke out on Tuesday between the Republican Guard, an elite force led by the president’s son, Ahmed, and Yemen’s regular army, in the southern city of Mukalla. Two soldiers died. Yemen is under a 30-day state of emergency called by Saleh following a sniper attack by plain-clothed government loyalists last Friday, which left 52 protesters dead in the capital and caused even the president’s own tribe to demand his resignation. The United States has long viewed Yemen as a key partner in the fight against al-Qaida, yet Barack Obama has called for a “peaceful transition” in the country; it is not exactly clear what that would entail given that there is no obvious successor to Saleh. Analysts warn that the important issues in Yemen go far beyond that of Saleh’s departure from the presidency. “What’s at stake in Yemen is not just the risk that the country’s unity could disintegrate, but the very real danger that Islamist extremists, like al-Qaida, will take advantage of Yemen’s divisions to turn it into a veritable sanctuary for international terrorists,” said Harry Sterling, a former Canadian diplomat, who worked in Yemen. Yemen Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Tom Finn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jared Lee Loughner needs to have his head examined ASAP, according to a federal judge. US District Judge Larry Burns ordered a psychiatric evaluation yesterday to determine whether the alleged Tucson shooter is fit to stand trial, the AP reports. The evaluation must be carried out no later than April…
Continue reading …Guatemala’s first couple appear to be trying to keep power in the family—by splitting up the family. President Alvaro Colom and wife Sandra Torres de Colom have filed for divorce “by mutual consent” to allow her to stand for election this fall to replace him, the Telegraph reports. Guatemala’s…
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The new tablet will go on sale from 5pm on Friday in the UK and 24 other countries – at lower prices helped by the favourable exchange rate. Meanwhile, Samsung is back in the fray with 9-inch and 10-inch tablets. It’s a day for tablets. First RIM announced US prices and dates , though not UK ones, for its Playbook tablet. Now Apple has announced the price for the UK version of the iPad 2, which will work out cheaper – even after the VAT rise introduced in January – than the first version. Prices are, including VAT: Wi-Fi only: 16GB: £399.00 (£332.50 ex 20% VAT) 32GB: £479.00 (£399.17 ex 20% VAT) 64GB: £559.00 (£465.83 ex 20% VAT) Wi-Fi and 3G: 16GB: £499.00 (£415.83 ex 20% VAT) 32GB: £579.00 (£482.50 ex 20% VAT) 64GB: £659.00 (£549.17 ex 20% VAT) Those compare to prices last year respectively of £429, £499, £599, £529, £599 and £699. Calculating the differences, the retail (with VAT) price has fallen by between 4% and 7%, with the average being 5%; the ex-VAT price (the one you would normally compare against the US price) has fallen by between 5% and 9%, averaging 7.4%. That is Apple unveiling its next weapon – price – in this battle, where everyone is using every trick that they know to get an edge. Or is it? It turns out that what’s happening is that Apple is indeed cutting prices, but doing it with the help of the exchange rate. At the moment $1 = £0.6191 ; back in May 2010 (when the iPad launched in the UK and other countries) it was $1 = £0.682452 (20-day average) , so the dollar has weakened against the pound (you need fewer pounds to buy a dollar now than you did). The dollar, in fact, is about 10% lower now than it was against the pound last May. In turn, that means that $499, the iPad price in 2010 and 2011, equated in 2010 to £340.54, but is now £304.69. (In other words: it takes fewer pounds to get the $499 that Apple wants to get for each iPad sold.) So it might seem like Apple is doing everyone an enormous favour by cutting the price (and it certainly won’t hurt sales), but it is actually benefiting from the movement in exchange rates – in fact, it’s going to make more profit from iPad sales this year than last year, even with a lower price. A couple more interesting wrinkles to the iPad 2 launch internationally: sales won’t start until 5pm in the evening of Friday, or 1am that day if you’re ordering online. Why has it chosen such a time of day to do it? No word on that (we have called Apple but got no response), but there’s the faintest possibility that it’s to discourage the people who made the lives of would-be iPad buyers in the US hell – buying up loads of them in order to ship them off to the Far East. And another clue that that is the motive comes from the fact that sales in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea won’t start for another two weeks, even while the other 25 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) get theirs. (Though that won’t really dissuade them – they’ll just come back at the weekend, surely.) And just to add to the tablet fun, at CTIA Samsung has announced (or possible re-announced) its tablets and pricing. There will be the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (guess the screen size), to be released on 8 June – running Android 3.0 (“Honeycomb”). Prices: $499 (16GB), $599 (32GB). The Galaxy 8.9 will be priced at $469 (16GB), $499 (32GB), and be released in “early summer”. So is this iPad competition? Well, Honeycomb is certainly nice, and that’s price-competitive with the iPad, at least in the US. UK prices haven’t been set (or suggested) and the release date is only “later this year”. Samsung didn’t want to share sales figures either: “those are only for internal use,” we were told. (The press release and details haven’t made it to Samsung’s online press releases .) The list of tablets that have been announced is thus growing ever longer, but the list of those actually seen in the wild in the UK remains extremely short – the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab (and now @Dirkbruere’s Advent Vega) being the principal ones. Anyone else got a tablet not in that list that they’ve bought in the UK this year? And what do you think of it? iPad Apple Tablet computers Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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The new tablet will go on sale from 5pm on Friday in the UK and 24 other countries – at lower prices helped by the favourable exchange rate. Meanwhile, Samsung is back in the fray with 9-inch and 10-inch tablets. It’s a day for tablets. First RIM announced US prices and dates , though not UK ones, for its Playbook tablet. Now Apple has announced the price for the UK version of the iPad 2, which will work out cheaper – even after the VAT rise introduced in January – than the first version. Prices are, including VAT: Wi-Fi only: 16GB: £399.00 (£332.50 ex 20% VAT) 32GB: £479.00 (£399.17 ex 20% VAT) 64GB: £559.00 (£465.83 ex 20% VAT) Wi-Fi and 3G: 16GB: £499.00 (£415.83 ex 20% VAT) 32GB: £579.00 (£482.50 ex 20% VAT) 64GB: £659.00 (£549.17 ex 20% VAT) Those compare to prices last year respectively of £429, £499, £599, £529, £599 and £699. Calculating the differences, the retail (with VAT) price has fallen by between 4% and 7%, with the average being 5%; the ex-VAT price (the one you would normally compare against the US price) has fallen by between 5% and 9%, averaging 7.4%. That is Apple unveiling its next weapon – price – in this battle, where everyone is using every trick that they know to get an edge. Or is it? It turns out that what’s happening is that Apple is indeed cutting prices, but doing it with the help of the exchange rate. At the moment $1 = £0.6191 ; back in May 2010 (when the iPad launched in the UK and other countries) it was $1 = £0.682452 (20-day average) , so the dollar has weakened against the pound (you need fewer pounds to buy a dollar now than you did). The dollar, in fact, is about 10% lower now than it was against the pound last May. In turn, that means that $499, the iPad price in 2010 and 2011, equated in 2010 to £340.54, but is now £304.69. (In other words: it takes fewer pounds to get the $499 that Apple wants to get for each iPad sold.) So it might seem like Apple is doing everyone an enormous favour by cutting the price (and it certainly won’t hurt sales), but it is actually benefiting from the movement in exchange rates – in fact, it’s going to make more profit from iPad sales this year than last year, even with a lower price. A couple more interesting wrinkles to the iPad 2 launch internationally: sales won’t start until 5pm in the evening of Friday, or 1am that day if you’re ordering online. Why has it chosen such a time of day to do it? No word on that (we have called Apple but got no response), but there’s the faintest possibility that it’s to discourage the people who made the lives of would-be iPad buyers in the US hell – buying up loads of them in order to ship them off to the Far East. And another clue that that is the motive comes from the fact that sales in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea won’t start for another two weeks, even while the other 25 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) get theirs. (Though that won’t really dissuade them – they’ll just come back at the weekend, surely.) And just to add to the tablet fun, at CTIA Samsung has announced (or possible re-announced) its tablets and pricing. There will be the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (guess the screen size), to be released on 8 June – running Android 3.0 (“Honeycomb”). Prices: $499 (16GB), $599 (32GB). The Galaxy 8.9 will be priced at $469 (16GB), $499 (32GB), and be released in “early summer”. So is this iPad competition? Well, Honeycomb is certainly nice, and that’s price-competitive with the iPad, at least in the US. UK prices haven’t been set (or suggested) and the release date is only “later this year”. Samsung didn’t want to share sales figures either: “those are only for internal use,” we were told. (The press release and details haven’t made it to Samsung’s online press releases .) The list of tablets that have been announced is thus growing ever longer, but the list of those actually seen in the wild in the UK remains extremely short – the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab (and now @Dirkbruere’s Advent Vega) being the principal ones. Anyone else got a tablet not in that list that they’ve bought in the UK this year? And what do you think of it? iPad Apple Tablet computers Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The new tablet will go on sale from 5pm on Friday in the UK and 24 other countries – at lower prices helped by the favourable exchange rate. Meanwhile, Samsung is back in the fray with 9-inch and 10-inch tablets. It’s a day for tablets. First RIM announced US prices and dates , though not UK ones, for its Playbook tablet. Now Apple has announced the price for the UK version of the iPad 2, which will work out cheaper – even after the VAT rise introduced in January – than the first version. Prices are, including VAT: Wi-Fi only: 16GB: £399.00 (£332.50 ex 20% VAT) 32GB: £479.00 (£399.17 ex 20% VAT) 64GB: £559.00 (£465.83 ex 20% VAT) Wi-Fi and 3G: 16GB: £499.00 (£415.83 ex 20% VAT) 32GB: £579.00 (£482.50 ex 20% VAT) 64GB: £659.00 (£549.17 ex 20% VAT) Those compare to prices last year respectively of £429, £499, £599, £529, £599 and £699. Calculating the differences, the retail (with VAT) price has fallen by between 4% and 7%, with the average being 5%; the ex-VAT price (the one you would normally compare against the US price) has fallen by between 5% and 9%, averaging 7.4%. That is Apple unveiling its next weapon – price – in this battle, where everyone is using every trick that they know to get an edge. Or is it? It turns out that what’s happening is that Apple is indeed cutting prices, but doing it with the help of the exchange rate. At the moment $1 = £0.6191 ; back in May 2010 (when the iPad launched in the UK and other countries) it was $1 = £0.682452 (20-day average) , so the dollar has weakened against the pound (you need fewer pounds to buy a dollar now than you did). The dollar, in fact, is about 10% lower now than it was against the pound last May. In turn, that means that $499, the iPad price in 2010 and 2011, equated in 2010 to £340.54, but is now £304.69. (In other words: it takes fewer pounds to get the $499 that Apple wants to get for each iPad sold.) So it might seem like Apple is doing everyone an enormous favour by cutting the price (and it certainly won’t hurt sales), but it is actually benefiting from the movement in exchange rates – in fact, it’s going to make more profit from iPad sales this year than last year, even with a lower price. A couple more interesting wrinkles to the iPad 2 launch internationally: sales won’t start until 5pm in the evening of Friday, or 1am that day if you’re ordering online. Why has it chosen such a time of day to do it? No word on that (we have called Apple but got no response), but there’s the faintest possibility that it’s to discourage the people who made the lives of would-be iPad buyers in the US hell – buying up loads of them in order to ship them off to the Far East. And another clue that that is the motive comes from the fact that sales in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea won’t start for another two weeks, even while the other 25 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) get theirs. (Though that won’t really dissuade them – they’ll just come back at the weekend, surely.) And just to add to the tablet fun, at CTIA Samsung has announced (or possible re-announced) its tablets and pricing. There will be the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (guess the screen size), to be released on 8 June – running Android 3.0 (“Honeycomb”). Prices: $499 (16GB), $599 (32GB). The Galaxy 8.9 will be priced at $469 (16GB), $499 (32GB), and be released in “early summer”. So is this iPad competition? Well, Honeycomb is certainly nice, and that’s price-competitive with the iPad, at least in the US. UK prices haven’t been set (or suggested) and the release date is only “later this year”. Samsung didn’t want to share sales figures either: “those are only for internal use,” we were told. (The press release and details haven’t made it to Samsung’s online press releases .) The list of tablets that have been announced is thus growing ever longer, but the list of those actually seen in the wild in the UK remains extremely short – the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab (and now @Dirkbruere’s Advent Vega) being the principal ones. Anyone else got a tablet not in that list that they’ve bought in the UK this year? And what do you think of it? iPad Apple Tablet computers Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The new tablet will go on sale from 5pm on Friday in the UK and 24 other countries – at lower prices helped by the favourable exchange rate. Meanwhile, Samsung is back in the fray with 9-inch and 10-inch tablets. It’s a day for tablets. First RIM announced US prices and dates , though not UK ones, for its Playbook tablet. Now Apple has announced the price for the UK version of the iPad 2, which will work out cheaper – even after the VAT rise introduced in January – than the first version. Prices are, including VAT: Wi-Fi only: 16GB: £399.00 (£332.50 ex 20% VAT) 32GB: £479.00 (£399.17 ex 20% VAT) 64GB: £559.00 (£465.83 ex 20% VAT) Wi-Fi and 3G: 16GB: £499.00 (£415.83 ex 20% VAT) 32GB: £579.00 (£482.50 ex 20% VAT) 64GB: £659.00 (£549.17 ex 20% VAT) Those compare to prices last year respectively of £429, £499, £599, £529, £599 and £699. Calculating the differences, the retail (with VAT) price has fallen by between 4% and 7%, with the average being 5%; the ex-VAT price (the one you would normally compare against the US price) has fallen by between 5% and 9%, averaging 7.4%. That is Apple unveiling its next weapon – price – in this battle, where everyone is using every trick that they know to get an edge. Or is it? It turns out that what’s happening is that Apple is indeed cutting prices, but doing it with the help of the exchange rate. At the moment $1 = £0.6191 ; back in May 2010 (when the iPad launched in the UK and other countries) it was $1 = £0.682452 (20-day average) , so the dollar has weakened against the pound (you need fewer pounds to buy a dollar now than you did). The dollar, in fact, is about 10% lower now than it was against the pound last May. In turn, that means that $499, the iPad price in 2010 and 2011, equated in 2010 to £340.54, but is now £304.69. (In other words: it takes fewer pounds to get the $499 that Apple wants to get for each iPad sold.) So it might seem like Apple is doing everyone an enormous favour by cutting the price (and it certainly won’t hurt sales), but it is actually benefiting from the movement in exchange rates – in fact, it’s going to make more profit from iPad sales this year than last year, even with a lower price. A couple more interesting wrinkles to the iPad 2 launch internationally: sales won’t start until 5pm in the evening of Friday, or 1am that day if you’re ordering online. Why has it chosen such a time of day to do it? No word on that (we have called Apple but got no response), but there’s the faintest possibility that it’s to discourage the people who made the lives of would-be iPad buyers in the US hell – buying up loads of them in order to ship them off to the Far East. And another clue that that is the motive comes from the fact that sales in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea won’t start for another two weeks, even while the other 25 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) get theirs. (Though that won’t really dissuade them – they’ll just come back at the weekend, surely.) And just to add to the tablet fun, at CTIA Samsung has announced (or possible re-announced) its tablets and pricing. There will be the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (guess the screen size), to be released on 8 June – running Android 3.0 (“Honeycomb”). Prices: $499 (16GB), $599 (32GB). The Galaxy 8.9 will be priced at $469 (16GB), $499 (32GB), and be released in “early summer”. So is this iPad competition? Well, Honeycomb is certainly nice, and that’s price-competitive with the iPad, at least in the US. UK prices haven’t been set (or suggested) and the release date is only “later this year”. Samsung didn’t want to share sales figures either: “those are only for internal use,” we were told. (The press release and details haven’t made it to Samsung’s online press releases .) The list of tablets that have been announced is thus growing ever longer, but the list of those actually seen in the wild in the UK remains extremely short – the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab (and now @Dirkbruere’s Advent Vega) being the principal ones. Anyone else got a tablet not in that list that they’ve bought in the UK this year? And what do you think of it? iPad Apple Tablet computers Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The new tablet will go on sale from 5pm on Friday in the UK and 24 other countries – at lower prices helped by the favourable exchange rate. Meanwhile, Samsung is back in the fray with 9-inch and 10-inch tablets. It’s a day for tablets. First RIM announced US prices and dates , though not UK ones, for its Playbook tablet. Now Apple has announced the price for the UK version of the iPad 2, which will work out cheaper – even after the VAT rise introduced in January – than the first version. Prices are, including VAT: Wi-Fi only: 16GB: £399.00 (£332.50 ex 20% VAT) 32GB: £479.00 (£399.17 ex 20% VAT) 64GB: £559.00 (£465.83 ex 20% VAT) Wi-Fi and 3G: 16GB: £499.00 (£415.83 ex 20% VAT) 32GB: £579.00 (£482.50 ex 20% VAT) 64GB: £659.00 (£549.17 ex 20% VAT) Those compare to prices last year respectively of £429, £499, £599, £529, £599 and £699. Calculating the differences, the retail (with VAT) price has fallen by between 4% and 7%, with the average being 5%; the ex-VAT price (the one you would normally compare against the US price) has fallen by between 5% and 9%, averaging 7.4%. That is Apple unveiling its next weapon – price – in this battle, where everyone is using every trick that they know to get an edge. Or is it? It turns out that what’s happening is that Apple is indeed cutting prices, but doing it with the help of the exchange rate. At the moment $1 = £0.6191 ; back in May 2010 (when the iPad launched in the UK and other countries) it was $1 = £0.682452 (20-day average) , so the dollar has weakened against the pound (you need fewer pounds to buy a dollar now than you did). The dollar, in fact, is about 10% lower now than it was against the pound last May. In turn, that means that $499, the iPad price in 2010 and 2011, equated in 2010 to £340.54, but is now £304.69. (In other words: it takes fewer pounds to get the $499 that Apple wants to get for each iPad sold.) So it might seem like Apple is doing everyone an enormous favour by cutting the price (and it certainly won’t hurt sales), but it is actually benefiting from the movement in exchange rates – in fact, it’s going to make more profit from iPad sales this year than last year, even with a lower price. A couple more interesting wrinkles to the iPad 2 launch internationally: sales won’t start until 5pm in the evening of Friday, or 1am that day if you’re ordering online. Why has it chosen such a time of day to do it? No word on that (we have called Apple but got no response), but there’s the faintest possibility that it’s to discourage the people who made the lives of would-be iPad buyers in the US hell – buying up loads of them in order to ship them off to the Far East. And another clue that that is the motive comes from the fact that sales in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea won’t start for another two weeks, even while the other 25 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) get theirs. (Though that won’t really dissuade them – they’ll just come back at the weekend, surely.) And just to add to the tablet fun, at CTIA Samsung has announced (or possible re-announced) its tablets and pricing. There will be the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (guess the screen size), to be released on 8 June – running Android 3.0 (“Honeycomb”). Prices: $499 (16GB), $599 (32GB). The Galaxy 8.9 will be priced at $469 (16GB), $499 (32GB), and be released in “early summer”. So is this iPad competition? Well, Honeycomb is certainly nice, and that’s price-competitive with the iPad, at least in the US. UK prices haven’t been set (or suggested) and the release date is only “later this year”. Samsung didn’t want to share sales figures either: “those are only for internal use,” we were told. (The press release and details haven’t made it to Samsung’s online press releases .) The list of tablets that have been announced is thus growing ever longer, but the list of those actually seen in the wild in the UK remains extremely short – the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab (and now @Dirkbruere’s Advent Vega) being the principal ones. Anyone else got a tablet not in that list that they’ve bought in the UK this year? And what do you think of it? iPad Apple Tablet computers Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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Met keen to avoid repeat of battles at student protest as 4,500 assigned officers to be monitored by human rights group Frontline police awaiting deployment to Saturday’s demonstration against government cuts have appealed for clear instructions about what to do in the event of disorder. Peter Smyth, chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, told the Guardian that operations – which have degenerated into pitched battles between demonstrators and the police – have been hampered by ambiguity as orders are relayed down the chain of command. About 4,500 police officers are being assigned to the demonstration, which is expected to be the biggest mass protest the UK has seen since the march against the war in Iraq in 2003. Off-duty officers are also expected to join the march to protest about planned cuts of 20% to police budgets. “If you are the officer and the order comes down to clear the streets, that can mean going up to people and saying: ‘Excuse me, it is time to go, and can you move along please’. Or it can mean a baton charge. Sometimes that is not clear,” Smyth said. “Officers need to be given clear instructions about what is expected of them. That is a problem, and senior officers have been a bit guilty of issuing ambiguous orders.” On the Guardian Focus podcast , Smyth said that officers are hoping for better this time. The Met was particularly stung by criticism after rioters at last November’s student march were permitted to cause damage and invade Conservative party headquarters at Millbank. “The Met says it has listened. Clearly Millbank was a complete disaster for the Met. They underestimated the protest and weren’t ready when violence broke out. I think this time they will be ready, and I’m really hoping it will be a peaceful protest,” he said. Smyth said some members will attend the demonstration while off duty. “There will be a number of police officers joining the march so we have a bit of a common cause with the TUC on this one,” he said. The federation has previously voiced concern for its members when violence breaks out. In January, an editorial in its magazine, Metline, demanded immediate answers to “some pretty fundamental” questions. “Does the requirement to facilitate peaceful protest override the police’s duty to prevent disorder? How many police officers are allowed to be injured before those who are left are deployed with the correct protective equipment? How much criminal damage is acceptable before the police are allowed to act?” The editorial called for those in charge to set an example. “It is time for the leadership of the police service to shove their heads above the parapet and start leading; telling those officers who will be policing these protests whether to stand back and keep their fingers crossed or come forward and ensure that the law is upheld.” Assistant commissioner Lynne Owens, responsible for public order policing at Scotland Yard, said officers from the Met and those seconded from forces in the home counties will have a full day’s briefing. “Our expectation is that they come expecting to police a peaceful protest, but if we have to intervene against violence I am confident that officers will do that. There is an expectation that they will use force if they have to, and it will be the minimum force required to meet our lawful aims.” She said officers will be fully aware of what is expected. “I am very confident that because of the planning and conversations we have had, [all], down to the constable on the ground, will be very clear about expectations on the day.” The police operation is to be scrutinised at close quarters by the human rights group Liberty, whose officials have been allowed to sit in with police and TUC representatives during the weeks of planning. Liberty will also line the route with 100 legal observers and will have access to the police control room. During the march itself Liberty says the agreement will allow it to better fulfil the monitoring function, but the move has attracted criticism. Activists within the Network for Police Monitoring accuse Liberty of undermining its own independence. The network plans to deploy its own group of trained legal advisers to monitor events and provide advice to demonstrators on the day. Police Protest Tax and spending Anti-war movement Cuts and closures Budget Hugh Muir guardian.co.uk
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