Add More RAM to the Lenovo IdeaPad S10

When it comes to adding RAM, Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 netbook is incredibly easy to upgrade. All you need is a DDR2 PC5300 SODIMM in 512MB, 1GB, or 2GB capacity, a mini philip's head screwdriver, and five minutes of spare time.

Before you go buying a new SODIMM, you should be aware that the S10 has 512MB soldered onto the motherboard and only one DIMM slot. If your S10 comes with more than 512MB preinstalled, chances are that there's already a DIMM sitting in the slot and you will have to remove it if you choose to upgrade.

The motherboard also cannot recognize more than 2GB in total, including the built-in 512MB. So, if you add a 512MB DIMM, you'll have 1GB while a 1GB DIMM will give you 1.5GB. A 2GB DIMM will give you 2GB, not 2.5GB, because the last 512MB will be ignored. Still, it may be worthwhile to spend a few dollars on a 2GB DIMM, just so you can max out your RAM.

http://www.laptopmag.com/advice/how-to/lenovo-s10-ram.aspx?

Abbott and Costello Go Computer Shopping

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.

ABBOTT: Your computer?

COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.

ABBOTT: Mac? COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.

ABBOTT: What about Windows?

COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?

ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?

ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.

ABBOTT: Software for Windows?

COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?

ABBOTT: I just did.

COSTELLO: You just did what?

ABBOTT: Recommend something.

COSTELLO: You recommended something?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: For my office?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yes, for my office! A

BBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.

COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: Word in Office..

COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?

ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue 'W'.

COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue 'w' if you don't start with some straight answers.. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.

COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?

ABBOTT: Yes.. No extra charge.

COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer?

How much?

ABBOTT: One copy.

COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?

ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.

COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT! (A few days later)

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?

ABBOTT: Click on 'START'..............

Robot teachers to invade Korean Classrooms

Here comes the bots into the classrooms. According to South Korea's etnews, the country has announced plans to put robotic teaching assistants in up to 400 pre-schools by 2012, and expand to a full 8,000 pre-schools and kindergartens the following year.

Those apparently wouldn't be in charge of the class (yet), but they would be used to do things like recite stories, and could let parents check in on the classroom and send messages to their children. If that trial program proves to be successful, the robots could then be expanded to elementary schools, and the Korea Institute of Science & Technology (the folks responsible for the bots) is apparently already eyeing international possibilities.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/22/robot-teachers-to-invade-korean-classrooms-by-2012/

The Barber Pole Once Symbolized Bloodletting

The modern barber pole originated in the days when bloodletting was one of the principal duties of the barber. The two spiral ribbons painted around the pole represent the two long bandages, one twisted around the arm before bleeding, and the other used to bind is afterward. Originally, when not in use, the pole with a bandage wound around it, so that both might be together when needed, was hung at the door as a sign. But later, for convenience, instead of hanging out the original pole, another one was painted in imitation of it and given a permanent place on the outside of the shop. This was the beginning of the modern barber pole.
"Bloodletting" was the popular method of curing all ills. The clergy who enlisted barbers as their assistants first performed this. Barbers continued to act as assistants to the physician-clergy, until the 12th century. At the council of Tours in 1163, the clergy were forbidden to draw blood or to act as physicians and surgeons on the grounds that it was sacrilegious for ministers of God to draw blood from the human body. The barbers took up the duties relinquished by the clergy and the era of barber-surgeons began. The connection between barbery and surgery continued for more than six centuries and the barber profession reached its pinnacle during this time.


More here:

http://www.barberpole.com/artof.htm

99 Barber Still Clipping with Surgeon-Steady Hands

Anthony Mancinelli, who turns 99 on March 2, the world’s oldest barber. He started cutting hair when Calvin Coolidge was in the White House. He was 12.

“When I started, a haircut and shave cost you two bits — a quarter,” Mr. Mancinelli told a customer for 25 years. “A while later, it was 25 cents for a haircut and 15 cents extra for a shave.”

Now, a haircut from Mr. Mancinelli costs $12 and, his repeat customers say, his fingers are just as nimble.

“He’s the fastest barber I know, and he still cuts very straight,” said Mr. Mike Jaffe, 60, whose 4-year-old-grandson, Anthony Colonna, also was getting a haircut from Mr. Mancinelli. “To many of us who have been coming here for a long time, he’s like family. I hope he’s still my barber when he’s 125.”

Another longtime customer, Peter LeRose, 60, of Newburgh, N.Y., who was waiting for a haircut along with his 90-year-old father, Peter, paid Mr. Mancinelli and his surgeon-steady hands an even bigger compliment. “He might be pushing 100,” Mr. LeRose said, “but he still gives the best shaves around.”

Watching as Mr. Mancinelli worked his side of the barbershop, Antonio Mugnano, the owner, said with a soft smile: “On a busy day like today, Anthony will take care of 25 to 30 customers. He’s nonstop, has a lot to say and always has a smile on his face, which is why people here love him.”

Mr. Mancinelli, a razor-thin man with a full head of white hair who once owned his own shop on Liberty Street in nearby Newburgh, is now stationed at Antonio & Pasquale Barber Shop, where an old fashioned pole with red, white and blue swirling stripes is mounted outside the front door, and a dizzying array of Italian accents swirls inside.

“My father was only making $25 a week working in a felt mill and he had seven kids to feed, so we really needed the extra money,” said Mr. Mancinelli, who grew up in Newburgh and still lives there. “At that time, learning to become a barber was just a way to make four or five extra bucks a week.”

But Mr. Mancinelli took a liking to the craft — “I enjoy talking to people, it’s the best part of the job,” he said — and for nearly nine decades has been holding forth on topics both mundane and momentous, including the Great Depression, World War II, the Beatles and 27 Yankee championships.

“He’s like a walking history book,” Mr. Mugnano said.

After dusting off Mr. Jaffe’s neck with a brush full of talcum powder, Mr. Mancinelli seated another man, telling him how old-school barbers like himself “were once like doctors.”

“I used to have a bottle of leeches on my counter, and I would put them on people’s skin to drain blood,” he said, not noticing that half a dozen men waiting for him and three other barbers were hanging on his every word. “In those days, while giving a haircut, I would put a leech over a black eye to bring down the swelling, or on the arm of someone who had high blood pressure because the thinking was their pressure might drop.”

Joe Annunziata, one of the four barbers at the shop, called Mr. Mancinelli “my inspiration.”

“Look at the shape the man is in. I mean, he’s never worn eyeglasses,” said Mr. Annunziata, 69. “He even cuts his own hair — now that’s talent.”

Mr. Mancinelli, a widower, works at the shop two or three days a week. “I would work every day if they let me,” he said, “but we have a full staff of barbers here.” He attributed his staying power to “eating well and never drinking or smoking.”

Mr. Mancinelli walked to the back of the shop and returned with a copy of Guinness World Records 2009.

“Look here,” he said proudly, pointing to a page in the book that he shared with other record setters: John Simplot, who was the world’s oldest billionaire until he died in 2008 at age 99 at an estimated worth of $3.2 billion; Jeanne Louise Calment, who was 122 and the oldest living actress when she died in 1997; and Bill Wallace, who killed a man in December 1925 and became the oldest living prisoner after serving 63 years in an Australian psychiatric hospital before dying there at the age of 107.

Later in the day, Mr. Mancinelli gave a lollipop to Anthony, Mr. Jaffe’s grandson, patted his head and wheeled around to find the next customer in his chair.

“I’m proud to say that I cut the hair of young boys and their fathers’ hair and their grandfathers’, and sometimes even their great-grandfathers’,” he said. “I still feel like I’m in beautiful shape, so I’m not even considering retirement because coming to work is what keeps me going.”

Why All Road Trips Must Begin With ZZ Top

As any intelligent person knows, any decent road trip will start with ZZ Top

This top 100 list of rock era songs is from John Sandford's thriller, Broken Prey - featuring middle-aged Minneapolis police officer Lucas Davenport - Revealing his music-loving side, Davenport's wife gives him an iPod and he sets out on a quest to compile the best 100 rock songs recorded.

These are in no particular order.
ZZ Top Sharp Dressed Man ZZ Top Legs Wilson Pickett Mustang Sally Crash Test Dummies Superman's Song David Essex Rock On Golden Earing Radar Love Blondie Heart of Glass Jefferson Airplane White Rabbit Jefferson Airplane Somebody to Love Derek and the Dominoes Layla The Doors Roadhouse Blues The Animals House of the Rising Sun Aerosmith Sweet Emotion Aerosmith Dude (Looks Like a Lady) Bruce Springsteen Dancing in the Dark Bruce Springsteen Born to Run Bruce Springsteen Thunder Road The Police Every Breath You Take Tom Waits Heart of Saturday Night The Who Won't Get Fooled Again Gypsy Kings Hotel California Tracy Chapman Give Me One Reason Credence Clearwater Revival Down on the Corner Eagles Lyin' Eyes Eagles Life in the Fast Lane Dire Straits Skateaway (Roller Girl) Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Mary Jane's Last Dance Janis Joplin Me and Bobby McGee The Doobie Brothers Black Water Joan Jett and the Blackhearts I Love Rock 'n' Roll John Mellencamp Jack and Diane Pink Floyd Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) Pink Floyd Money Billy Joel Piano Man Eric Clapton After Midnight Eric Claption Lay Down Sally AC/DC You Shook Me All Night Long AC/DC Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap The Hollies Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress) Bob Dylan Like a Rolling Stone Bob Dylan Knockin' on Heaven's Door Bob Dylan Subterranean Homesick Blues The Rolling Stones (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction The Rolling Stones Brown Sugar The Rolling Stones Sympathy for the Devil Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK Grateful Dead Sugar Magnolia The Pointer Sisters Slow Hand Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) Elive Presley Jailhouse Rock David Bowie Ziggy Stardust Bob Seger Night Moves The Everly Brothers Bye Bye Love Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze The Kinks Lola Jackson Browne Tender in the Night The Kingsmen Louie, Louie George Thorogood and the Destroyers Bad to the Bone Metallica Turn the Page Lynyrd Skynyrd Sweet Home Alabama Queen We Will Rock You The Allman Brothers Band Ramblin' Man Led Zeppelin Rock and Roll Tina Turner What's Love Got to Do with It Steppenwolf Born to be Wild U2 With or Without You Black Sabbath Paranoid Foreigner Blue Morning, Blue Day Billy Idol White Wedding Guns N' Roses Sweet Child o' Mine Guns N' Roses Paradise City Guns N' Roses Knockin- on Heaven's Door Lou Reed Walk on the Wild Side Bad Company Feel Like Makin' Love Def Leppard Rock of Ages Van Morrison Brown Eyed Girl Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels Devil with a Blue Dress On Aretha Franklin Respect John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt I'm in the Mood James Brown I Got You (I Feel Good) The Righteous Brothers Unchained Melody Prince Little Red Corvette Chuck Berry Roll Over Beethoven The Byrds Mr. Tambourine Man Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young Ohio Buddy Holly Peggy Sue Jerry Lee Lewis Great Balls of Fire Roy Orbison Oh, Pretty Woman Del Shannon Runaway Run D.M.C. Walk This Way Otis Redding (Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit Paul Simon Still Crazy After All These Years Bo Diddley Who Do You Love? Brewer and Shipley One Toke Over the Line Ramones I Wanna Be Seduced The Clash Should I Stay or Should I Go Talking Heads Burning Down the House Dimitri Shostakovich Jazz Suite No. 2; Waltz 2 (you'd have to read the book)

Snowmageddon from Space

NASA's Terra satellite, which just celebrated ten years in space recording climate change, took this image on Sunday, click on it to expand.

Super Bowl Dethrones ‘M*A*S*H’ - “The Super Bowl is the last big media event.”

New Orleans’s 31-17 victory in the Super Bowl on Sunday on CBS generated more viewers — an average of 106.5 million — than any other television program in United States history, defeating the 1983 broadcast of the final episode of “M*A*S*H.”

Alan Alda, the star of “M*A*S*H” and the director of its two-and-a-half-hour finale, wrote in an e-mail message: “I’m happy for New Orleans. I want to see that city come out first in every way that it can, even if it means giving up a record that ‘M*A*S*H’ held for a long time.”

For a program to attract more than 100 million viewers today is nearly miraculous. There are 114.9 million TV households now, nearly 32 million more than when the final “M*A*S*H” attracted 106 million viewers. But the media universe is fractionalized now, with many more TV channels and other ways to amuse ourselves.

CBS, ABC and NBC held 80 percent of the share of prime-time viewing in 1983 when there was no Fox; the three command 28 percent now, with Fox adding 9 percent. The average home in 1983 had 10.3 channels; it now has more than 10 times as many. And sometimes, the best thing to watch is still a “M*A*S*H” rerun.

Ratings for big events were higher then than they are now. The final “M*A*S*H” generated a 60.2 rating (the estimated percentage of TV households tuned to a program); Sunday’s Super Bowl produced a 45.0. But a larger population means a lower rating can yield more viewers.

The Super Bowl is virtually immune to the altered TV landscape.

And New Orleans and Indianapolis had the stirring story of one city’s fight to recover from Hurricane Katrina and the other city’s status as home to one of the N.F.L’s perennially elite teams.

Sunday’s game featured two of the best quarterbacks in the league, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning, with the added features of Brees’s personal connection to New Orleans’s revival and Manning’s familial link to the city.

Both teams were No. 1 seeds and were undefeated until late in the season. “The national appeal of teams in any particular year is more important than the size of their markets,” McManus said.

The snow in the Middle Atlantic states kept inside some people who otherwise might have gone out.

Still, something else is at work. The N.F.L. had a great year. CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN had terrific seasons. Playoff ratings bordered on the astonishing. Football is engaging us more than ever.

The Super Bowl is the only sports event that many people watch entirely for the ads, giving it two natural constituencies: sports fans and casual viewers who will endure the game to watch the commercials.

nytimes.com

Flying Without a Net - The First Untethered Spacewalk

The first untethered spacewalk was by American Bruce McCandless II was on February 7, 1984, 26 years ago, during Challenger mission STS-41-B, utilizing the Manned Maneuvering Unit. He was joined by Robert L. Stewart during the 5 hour 55 minute spacewalk.

Spacewalks are dangerous for many reasons, mainly the possibility of a collision with space debris. The Velocity while orbiting 300 km above the Earth is approximately ten times the speed of a bullet. Nearly every space mission creates more orbiting debris, so this problem will continue to worsen. Other risks include an astronaut becoming separated from his or her craft or suffering a spacesuit puncture which would depressurize the suit, causing anoxia and rapid death.

22 Useful Lists of Mac Applications, Tips and Tricks

Here's a link to a boatload of Mac tips, tricks, and apps...

http://www.usingmac.com/2008/8/1/22-useful-lists-of-mac-applications

Apple's New Chip on the iPad

The fruits of Apple’s 2008 acquisition of P.A. Semiconductor finally saw the light of day when Steve Jobs unveiled Apple’s iPad. Underlying the sleek user interface and minimalist hardware is the Apple A4. The A4 is a system-on-a-chip (SoC) running at 1GHz. No mere CPU, the A4 includes integrated 3D graphics, audio, power management, storage and I/O interfaces.

The A4 is actually built around a CPU core based on the common ARM Cortex A9 CPU, a 32-bit core that comes in several different flavors, with different numbers of cores. In typical cases, companies like Apple actually license the CPU design -- rather than paying $278 million to acquire the whole company! -- then are free to modify and integrate it as they see fit. It’s much different than the model for Mac desktop or laptop computers, in which the CPUs are wholly Intel products.

One of P.A. Semiconductor’s key principles was to design high levels of power efficiency into all their CPUs, which is probably one of the key reasons for Apple’s interest in the company. Getting 10 hours of continuous battery life out of a 1GHz CPU using a 25Watt-hour battery requires aggressive power management. Indeed, the entry level MacBook is rated at only 7 hours with a 60Watt-hour battery.

Apple hasn’t disclosed many specifics about the A4, so it’s unclear as to how many CPU cores it actually has. The A4. The graphics and audio components are likely licensed from PowerVR, including the PowerVR SGX GPU and PowerVR VXD for audio and video. These are all integrated into a single chip, although flash memory, networking and other components are on separate chips. The A4 is actually built by Samsung, most likely using a 45nm manufacturing process.

The PowerVR SGX is a capable GPU, offering pretty decent 3D graphics. However, the iPad’s relatively low resolution (1024x768) is probably tied to a combination of limited video memory, and the fact that the chip’s raw pixel-pushing performance just isn’t up to pushing pixels at acceptable frame rates above that 1024x768 resolution. That said, at this resolution the SGX is a solid performer, and the iPad is likely to offer substantially better gaming performance, and a more robust gaming experience, than an iPhone. It’s quite possible that gaming will be the iPad’s killer app.

The ability to integrate custom features and functionality onto a single chip is what allows the iPad to be as compact as it is. While pundits have quipped that the iPad is just a big iPhone (or iPod Touch, depending on model), that’s not far from the truth. The internals of the iPad have more in common with a smart phone than a Mac.

The iPad, which essentially replaces much of the function of a low-end PC, needs other chips as well, of course. There’s storage -- in the form of flash memory -- plus Wi-Fi networking, GPS and 3G wireless cellular network capability.

So What Does This All Mean?

Using the A4 gives Apple -- legendary for wanting to tightly control its hardware and software destiny -- even more control over its hardware. Future iPads will almost certainly use descendants of the A4.

The use of the A4 inside the iPad also strongly suggests that the next iPhone will use a derivative of this chip. Designing a custom SoC isn’t cheap, so it makes sense for Apple to take further advantage of its $278 million investment. We’ll likely see higher resolution displays and higher clock speeds in even thinner and lighter form factors over time. However, some of these advancements will also be dependent on the evolution of other technologies -- like better displays.

It’s also likely that the A4, or some derivative, will be used in the next generation iPhone. Over time, this would allow Apple and its developers to develop to a single code base, rather than having to manage multiple different versions for different CPUs.

So that’s the story on what could happen. But what’s not likely to happen? First, the A4 won’t show up in future MacBooks or iMacs. MacBooks and iMacs will still use Intel-compatible CPUs, not some version of the A4. While Apple does like to control its destiny, modern Mac applications require very high-performance CPUs and higher-end graphics than is likely capable with a system-on-chip.

Also unlikely: you won’t see an Intel Atom in an Apple system of any kind.

Breaking Out of Voice Mail Jail

Use this website to get through to a real live person...

http://gethuman.com/

"Your call is very important to us"

More iPad Fever !

After months of feverish speculation, Steven P. Jobs introduced Wednesday what Apple hopes will be the coolest device on the planet: a slender tablet computer called the iPad.

For all the hoopla surrounding it, however, the question is whether the iPad can achieve anything close to the success of the iPhone, which transformed the cellphone and forced the industry to race to catch up.

Apple is positioning the device, some versions of which will be available in March, as a pioneer in a new genre of computing, somewhere between a laptop and a smartphone. “The bar is pretty high,” Mr. Jobs acknowledged. “It has to be far better at doing some key things.”

Half an inch thick and weighing 1 1/2 pounds, the device will vividly display books, newspapers, Web sites and videos on a 9.7-inch glass touch screen. Giving media companies another way to sell content, it may herald a new era for publishing.

But the iPad, costing $499 to $829, also lacks some features common in laptops and phones, as technology enthusiasts were quick to point out. To its instant critics, it was little more than an oversize iPod Touch. A camera is notably absent, and Flash, the ubiquitous software that handles video and animation on the Web, does not work on the device.

Another thing missing is an alternative to the AT&T data network, which is already buckling under the strain of traffic to and from iPhones. Some versions of the iPad can, for a monthly fee, use a 3G data connection like cellphones, but the only carrier mentioned was AT&T.

The event, in typical Apple style, was tightly scripted and heavy on theatrics and hyperbole. But the success of the iPhone, and the hive of rumors and leaks surrounding the iPad, raised expectations and made this perhaps Mr. Jobs’s most highly anticipated product unveiling yet.

It was one that he clearly cared deeply about. Mr. Jobs, a consummate showman, presented the iPad to an enthusiastic crowd of around 800 employees, business partners and journalists, some of whom shoved their way in when the doors opened to grab the best seats. It was only his second public appearance since a leave of absence for health reasons last year.

Mr. Jobs posited that the iPad was the best device for certain kinds of computing, like browsing the Web, reading e-books and playing video.

The iPad “is so much more intimate than a laptop, and it’s so much more capable than a smartphone with its gorgeous screen,” he said in presenting the device to a crowd of journalists and Apple employees here. “It’s phenomenal to hold the Internet in your hands.”

One question Apple faces is whether there is enough room for another device in the cluttered lives of consumers.

“I think this will appeal to the Apple acolytes, but this is essentially just a really big iPod Touch,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research, adding that he expected the iPad to mostly cannibalize the sales of other Apple products.

Mr. Golvin said book lovers would continue to opt for lighter, cheaper e-readers like the AmazonKindle, while people looking for a small Web-ready computer would gravitate toward the budget laptops known as netbooks.

But other analysts say they have heard similar criticism before — once aimed at the iPhone, which has now been bought by more than 42 million people around the world. These believers say Apple’s judgment on the market is nearly infallible.

“The target audience is everyone,” said Michael Gartenberg, vice president for strategy and analysis at Interpret, a market research firm. “Apple does not build products for just the enthusiasts. It doesn’t build for the tens of thousands; it builds for the tens of millions.”

Apple says the iPad will run the 140,000 applications developed for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, but the company expects a new wave of programs tailored to the iPad.

One of the most significant applications for the iPad may be Apple’s own creation, called iBooks, an e-reading program that will connect to Apple’s new online e-bookstore.

Mr. Jobs said Apple so far had relationships with five major publishers — Hachette, Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan — and was eager to make deals with others. Publishers will be able to charge $12.99 to $14.99 for most general fiction and nonfiction books.

Apple’s announcement that it was diving into the growing e-book business put the company on a collision course with Amazon. Mr. Jobs credited Amazon with pioneering e-readers with the Kindle but said “we are going to stand on their shoulders and go a little bit farther.”

John Doerr, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who serves on Amazon’s board and is also an adviser to Apple, said there could be room for both companies, noting that Amazon sells many books to iPhone owners who use its Kindle application, which will also work on the iPad.

“I don’t think Jeff Bezos is going to leave the e-book business,” he said, referring to Amazon’s chief executive, “and I don’t think it will be confined to the Kindle.”

Three models of the iPad, $499 to $699, will connect to the Internet only via a local Wi-Fi connection. Three other versions will include 3G wireless access and will be available later in the spring, costing an additional $130 and requiring a data plan from AT&T. Owners of the iPhone who already pay at least $70 a month to AT&T will not be getting any breaks.

Other companies have sold tablet computers for years, but they never caught on with consumers. In 2001, Bill Gates predicted at an industry trade show that tablets would be the most popular form of PC sold in America within five years.

“The fact that he and Microsoft didn’t deliver is surprising,” said Tim Bajarin, a longtime industry analyst. “It has taken Apple to bring this to consumers and make it work.”

Apple has been working on a tablet computer for more than a decade, according to several former employees. Improved technology has helped the company to finally bring a model to market, as has the ubiquity of wireless networks.

The success of the iPhone and its cousin, the iPod Touch, have shown a path for tablets. People have been willing to pay to customize those devices with applications, turning them into video game machines, compasses, city guides and e-book readers.

The iPad will be a big opportunity for software developers, said Raven Zachary, president of Small Society, an iPhone development company based in Portland, Ore. “Although I think some of us were a bit surprised we only have 60 days until it launches to develop for it.”

Steve Jobs unveils Apple iPad tablet

• 
• 
• 
• Apple Messiah Steve Jobs has announced the iPad, the firm's long rumoured tablet device.

Apple Messiah Steve Jobs has announced the iPad, the firm's long rumoured tablet device. Jobs said that there is room for a third device between the smartphone and the laptop, but it has to be better than both of them at tasks such as web browsing, email, photos, e-books and videos.

"Some thought that netbooks were the answer, but they aren't better at anything," proclaimed Jobs.

The iPad is powered by a 1GHz Apple A4 processor, which is probably based on ARM technology, but Jobs didn't elaborate. In terms of wired connectivity, there's a 30-pin dock connector, as well as speaker and microphone sockets.

When it comes to wireless connectivity, the iPad includes 802.11n wireless and Bluetooth 2.1 support. Some models will also have built in 3G capabilities - UK pricing hasn't been announced, but it'll be $14.99 for 250MB per month or $29.99 for unlimited data and there's no contract in the US. Instead, you can activate directly on your iPad and the tariffs also include free use of AT&T wireless hotspots.

It weighs 680g and is half an inch thick, but battery life hasn't been compromised - you'll get 10 hours in use and over a month in standby. There's a 9.7in capacitive touchscreen too with a high-quality IPS LCD panel. There's also an accelerometer built in, which means Apple considers the iPad as much of a gaming platform as the iPhone and iPod touch - you tilt the iPad to control games.

The interface is very similar to the iPhone's and looks to be running a modified version of the iPhone OS - we'll have to wait and see if there's a new version of iPhone OS announced later in his keynote. As a result, it runs all of the 140,000+ applications in the App Store right from the get go - what's more, you'll instantly be able to use applications you've already purchased for your iPhone. These can either run in a window pixel-for-pixel or be zoomed to 200 per cent in full screen mode.

Developers can also target the iPad's screen size directly if they want, thanks to the introduction of the new iPhone OS SDK which is released today.

It'll come in 16, 32 and 64GB storage capacities. Prices will start at $499 for the 16GB WiFi-only model, going up to $599 for the 32GB and $699 for the 64GB model. With built in 3G, prices are $629, $729 and $829.

Worldwide availability will be in 60 days for the WiFi model and 90 days for 3G models.

In terms of accessories, there are two that Apple is announcing today - the first is a standard dock, the second is a keyboard dock and the third is a case.

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/laptops/275416/steve-jobs-unveils-apple-ipad-tablet

The iPad Finally Arrives !

Steve Jobs finally introduced Apple's new tablet computer, called the iPad.

The question now is whether regular consumers will buy the iPhone-like device, which starts at $499 and can cost as much as $829.

Mr. Jobs, appearing energized but gaunt, a result of his continuing health challenges, unveiled the iPad at a press event here on Wednesday morning. Its features and specifications, once the stuff of Internet myth, are now sharply in focus: The half-inch thick, 1.5-pound device will feature a 9.7-inch multi-touch screen and is powered by a customized Apple microchip, which it has dubbed A4. The iPad will have the same operating system as the iPhone and access to its 140,000 applications.

The price of the device will start at $499 for the most basic model, with a Wi-Fi wireless connection. More expensive models will be offered with more memory and with 3G wireless access from AT&T, which will charge up to $30 for an unlimited monthly data plan.

Wi-Fi-only versions of the device will be available in March, Apple said, with the more expensive 3G models coming 30 days after that.

The most expensive models, with 64-gigabytes of memory and 3G connectivity will cost $829.

However, the device lacks a camera, the ability to make phone calls and does not work with the ubiquitous Flash software that runs many Web sites. Apple is selling accessories like a stand and a keyboard.

Mr. Jobs positioned the iPad as a device that sits between the laptop and the smart phone — and which does certain things better than both of them, like browsing the Web, reading e-books and playing video.

The iPad “is so much more intimate than a laptop and its so much more capable than a smartphone with its gorgeous screen,” Mr. Jobs crowed. “It’s phenomenal to hold the Internet in your hands.”

Mr. Jobs also dismissed netbooks, another interstitial computing device seeking to fill that role. “Netbooks aren’t better at anything,” he said.

But perhaps the most significant application was its own, called iBooks, an electronic book store that turns the iPad into a direct competitor to Amazon’s Kindle. Apple said it would sell books in the open ePub format. That conceivably means that e-books sold by Apple would also run on other devices that support ePub, like the Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

Mr. Jobs said Apple has struck relationships with five major publishers, Hachette, Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan, and was eager to establish relationships with others, including textbook publishers.

The announcement puts Apple on a direct collision course with Amazon. Mr. Jobs credited Amazon with pioneering the category with the Kindle, but said “we are going to stand on their shoulders and go a little bit farther.”

Gerry Purdy, an independent analyst who keeps a close eye on the e-reader industry, said, “Reading a book on an iPad isn’t necessarily going to be that much better — a whole lot better — it will still be in black and white. The Kindle still represents a good vehicle for people who only want an e-reader.”

“Right now, it will have some effect on the Kindle market but it won’t be gigantic,” he said. “There will still be people who want to buy the Kindles or the Nooks.”

Scott Forstall, an Apple senior vice president, said that developers can modify their apps to take advantage of the large touch-screen display, just as Apple did with its calendar, iTunes, e-mail and YouTube apps. The iPhone SDK, a set of programming tools for developers, will be enhanced to support development of the iPad, and the new SDK will be released today.

“We think its going to be a whole other gold rush for developers as they build apps for the iPad,” Mr. Forstall said.

Among the partners at the San Francisco event that showed off new software compatible with the iPad: Gameloft, a game developer, which demonstrated a first-person shooter game on the iPad; Electronic Arts and The New York Times.

Apple has been working on such a tablet computer for more than a decade, according to several former employees. But early prototypes, which used PC microchips, quickly drained batteries, and Apple executives could never figure out how or why people would want to use such a device, which lacks a traditional keyboard and computer mouse.

Other companies, like Microsoft, have also sold tablet computers for years, but the category has never caught on with consumers.

But advances in technology have since made tablets more feasible. Battery technology has improved, and the ubiquity of 3G networks and Wi-Fi now allow such devices to remain tethered to the Web at all times.

Traditional QWERTY keyboards have also, to many people, become expendable. In 2005, Apple acquired Fingerworks, a company founded by two researchers at the University of Delaware to develop gesture based computer interfaces. Their work has been integrated into the iPhone and now, the iPad.

In 2008, Apple acquired a semiconductor company, called P.A. Semi. That group is responsible for the development of the A4 chip in the iPad.

The remarkable success of the iPhone and its cousin, the iPod Touch, have also shown a path forward for tablets. People have been willing to pay to customize those devices with a large pool of third party tools, called applications, turning them into video game machines, compasses, city guides and e-book readers. There are now more than 100,000 applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which are expected to generated $1.4 billion in revenue in 2010, according to an analysis by Piper Jaffray

from New York Times

O’Brien Tells NBC Good Night

NBC may control its airwaves, but apparently it does not control Conan O’Brien.

Less than a week after NBC told him it intended to move his “Tonight Show” to a new time, 12:05 a.m., Mr. O’Brien said he would not agree to what he considered a demotion for the institution of “The Tonight Show” — and his own career — by going along with the network’s plan to push him back a half-hour to make room for his most recent predecessor, Jay Leno.

Mr. O’Brien’s statement Tuesday said that he so respected the institution of “The Tonight Show” that he could not participate in what “I honestly believe is its destruction.”

Pointedly, Mr. O’Brien did not resign or indicate he would not show up for work. But an executive at the network who declined to be identified because of continuing negotiations said that Mr. O’Brien would leave once a financial settlement was reached.

“For the record,” Conan O’Brien wryly noted in a statement addressed to “People of Earth” outlining his refusal to host NBC’s “The Tonight Show” if it was shoved back half-an-hour, “I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.”

This is the week of the television winter press tour from Pasadena, when the networks traditionally roll out their offerings for midseason replacement shows. But there’s only one replacement show that anyone here is talking about: an NBC family drama bloodier than “The Tudors” and more inexplicable than “Lost,” a tragedy about comedy featuring an imperious emperor and his two dueling jesters in a once-mighty and now-blighted kingdom.

As NBC reeled from the fallout of Jeff Zucker’s tacit admission that his attempt to refashion the customary way Americans watch prime time had failed, Hollywood was ablaze with baldenfreude.

In a town where nobody makes less than they’re worth, and most people pull in an obscene amount more, there has been a single topic of discussion: How does Jeff Zucker keep rising and rising while the fortunes of NBC keep falling and falling?

The 44-year-old is a very smart guy who made a success as a wunderkind at “The Today Show,” but many in the Hollywood community have always regarded him as a condescending and arrogant East Coaster, a network Napoleon who never bothered to learn about developing shows and managing talent. At a moment when Zucker’s comedy double-fault was smashing relationships in L.A., he showed the talent of a Mafia boss for separating himself from the hit when he went and played in a New York City tennis tournament. (He lost in the first round.)

“Zucker is a case study in the most destructive media executive ever to exist,” said a honcho at another network. “You’d have to tell me who else has taken a once-great network and literally destroyed it.”

Zucker’s critics are ranting that first he killed comedy, losing the NBC franchise of Thursday night “Must See TV,” where “Seinfeld,” “Friends” and “Will & Grace” once hilariously reigned; then he killed drama, failing to develop successors to the formidable “ER,” “West Wing,” and “Law & Order”; then he killed the 10 o’clock hour by putting Jay Leno on at a time when people expect to be told a story; and then he killed late night by putting on a quirky redhead who did not have the bland mass-market appeal of Leno and who couldn’t compete with the peerless late-night comedian NBC had stupidly lost 16 years ago, David Letterman.

Zucker is a master at managing up with bosses and calculating cost-per-hour benefits, but even though he made money on cable shows, he could not program network to save his life. He started by greenlighting the regrettable “Emeril” and ended by having the aptly titled “The Biggest Loser” as one of his only winners.

Certainly, Zucker greatly underestimated the deeply ingrained viewing patterns of older Americans, who have always watched the networks in a particular way. The kids come home, do their homework, the family has dinner. They’re in front of the TV by 8, and 8:30 is known as the dog-walking slot. At 9, it’s time for more comedy. As they get tired, they like to watch a fictional drama that leads into the real drama of the late local news. And then they like to laugh again so that those images of war or a local murder are not the last thing they see before bed.

America has been watching a very specific sort of guy at 11:35 p.m. for half a century, one who chuckles as Mary Tyler Moore or Sarah Jessica Parker tells an amusing story and lets us drift off by the time some stand-up comic or blow-up starlet tells a salacious joke.

Zucker rolled the dice because he wanted to show Jeff Immelt that he could get beyond his Ben Silverman debacle and get prime time to stop bleeding money (a problem he created). But he learned the hard way that it is a lot to undo.

As Mark Harris wrote in New York magazine in November, “Zucker has often behaved like the grudging caretaker of a dying giant. ... As much as Jeff Zucker would like to cast the blame elsewhere, substituting number-crunching defensiveness for enterprise, adventure, and showmanship is what helped get NBC into this mess.”

Consumed with the NBC game of musical late-night chairs, Hollywood machers play a game of trying to figure out the last time there has been a blunder of such outlandish proportions. Despite everything, Zucker just got his contract renewed for three years with the Comcast acquisition of NBC. “Not since J. Pierrepont Finch in ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’ has an executive failed upwards in so obvious a fashion,” marveled one TV writer.

Another called the Leno experiment the worst mistake made by anyone in television since an ABC Entertainment executive told the Chicago affiliate chief that the network didn’t want to own and broadcast the new daytime talk show hosted by a young black woman. Her name: Oprah Winfrey.

By Hollywood standards, Mr. O’Brien’s letter was an extraordinary gesture — releasing a statement to make public his anger at the company paying him tens of millions of dollars before he even reached a settlement.

The closest episode in history may be when Jack Paar walked off the set of “The Tonight Show” in a huff over corporate censorship.

Mr. Paar returned to the show within a month in 1960, but few are predicting a reconciliation between Mr. O’Brien and the network.

NBC executives continued Tuesday to work toward a financial settlement, though some indicated increasing impatience with Mr. O’Brien’s effort to blame the network for the three-car pile-up in late night.

The host, who saw his brief run as host of “Tonight” cut short when NBC decided to restore Mr. Leno to the 11:35 p.m. time period, has been increasingly upset about how he believes he was treated by NBC’s management.

A representative of the host said Tuesday that Mr. O’Brien finally reached the point on Monday where he “sat up all night drafting the statement.”

The statement also took NBC to task for not giving the show more time or supplying stronger lead-in audiences, which could be interpreted as a shot at Mr. Leno’s poor performance at 10 p.m. (Though Mr. O’Brien mentioned Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon in his statement, he never referred to Mr. Leno by name, only by the title of his show.)

“After only seven months,” Mr. O’Brien wrote, “with my ‘Tonight Show’ in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime time by making a change in their long-established late-night schedule.”

He hosted the show Tuesday night, even as negotiations, which one participant described as intense, continued throughout the day. But Mr. O’Brien did not hold back on criticizing NBC during his performance.

“Welcome to NBC — where our new slogan is, ‘No longer just screwing up prime time,’ ” he said.

He was also self-effacing in his jokes. “Hello, my name is Conan O’Brien, and I may soon be available for children’s parties.”

Though some rumors appeared saying NBC might be lining up guest hosts, NBC quietly dismissed that notion. Indeed, such a move could have legal implications because it might be interpreted as NBC firing Mr. O’Brien, which could lead to a bigger settlement for him.

Jeff Gaspin, the chairman of NBC Entertainment, who broached the idea last week of shifting the late-night lineup, said he was motivated by trying to retain both stars, not to drive Mr. O’Brien away. But other NBC executives indicated privately that they would be satisfied with a new late-night lineup with Mr. Leno back at “The Tonight Show” at 11:35 and Mr. Fallon settling in at the “Late Night” show at 12:35.

Those executives will apparently get their wish. But questions will linger about whether Mr. Leno will return automatically to his former position of dominance at 11:35 against Mr. Letterman’s show at CBS.

“You have to wonder if Jay is damaged goods after all this,” said one former longtime network programmer who did not want to be identified criticizing the network. “But if they give him ‘The Tonight Show’ back, maybe it ends up all right after a while. But it just seems so unfair to Conan.”

The release of Mr. O’Brien’s statement complicated an already messy legal and programming situation. NBC executives have quietly complained for at least a month that Mr. O’Brien himself was responsible for declining ratings on the show because he had not broadened his appeal from his days hosting NBC’s 12:35 a.m. show, “Late Night.”

NBC has also made it clear that it does not believe it breached Mr. O’Brien’s contract in any way because it offered him the chance to continue on “Tonight.” NBC executives said that Mr. O’Brien’s contract did not include any language that guaranteed the show had to begin at 11:35 p.m.

The counterargument from Mr. O’Brien’s representatives has been that no such language was necessary in this case because “The Tonight Show” has followed the late local news in cities across America for 60 years.

Plenty of money is involved. Mr. O’Brien is owed about two and a half years on a contract that pays him $10 million to $20 million a year.

Mr. O’Brien expressed hope in his statement that the issue could be resolved so “that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.” But though the Fox network has made its potential interest in Mr. O’Brien public in comments this week, Mr. O’Brien said, “I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next.”

There would be questions, too, about Mr. O’Brien’s potential at another network after the disappointment at “Tonight.”

Mr. O’Brien’s future could also be complicated by how his contract is settled. Even if NBC settles with him, it could enforce a clause that keeps him off television for a year or more.

from New York Times

Sarah Palin Campaign A "Train Wreck"

Fresh details emerged today of the backroom dramas as Sarah Palin alarmed her campaign managers with a string of gaffes during her run for vice-president in 2008.

Race of a Lifetime, a new book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin which is serialised in The Times this week, reveals that advisers to John McCain were taken aback by how little Mrs Palin knew about politics and history when she was confirmed as Mr McCain's Republican running mate after a cursory, 12-hour selection process.

"You guys have a lot of work to do," Steve Schmidt, Mr McCain's campaign chief, is said to have told the experts he had recruited to tutor her. "She doesn't know anything."

Heilemann and Halperin write: "Palin couldn't explain why North Korea and South Korea were separate nations. She didn't know what the Fed [the Federal Reserve] did. Asked who attacked America on 9/11, she suggested several times that it was Saddam Hussein. Asked to identify the enemy that her son would be fighting in Iraq, she drew a blank. Later, on the plane, Palin said to her team: 'I wish I'd paid more attention to this stuff'."

The authors say that, after "cramming furiously", writing newly acquired facts on white index cards that she studied at night, Mrs Palin managed to emerge intact from an interview with Charlie Gibson on ABC News, a "success" that led to the unwise decision to grant Katie Couric of CBS News the right to conduct a multi-part television interview. The move was a public relations disaster for the McCain camp.

"When Couric asked her to name examples of McCain's efforts to regulate the economy, Palin said: 'I'll try to find some and bring them to you'. Asked about the relevance of Russia's closeness to Alaska, she replied: 'As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the USA, where do they go? It's Alaska'," the authors relate.

Yesterday, in the first serialised extract in The Times, it emerged that Mrs Palin became so overwhelmed by her preparation for one of the Couric interviews that she announced, "I hate this make-up". She smeared it off her face, "messing up her hair, complaining that she looked fat".

Today the authors reveal that the failures affected Mrs Palin's nerves. "Palin flew to Philadelphia to spend the next week concentrating on debate prep. The next two days were a total train wreck. Never before had Palin's team seen her so profoundly out of sorts for such a sustained period. She wasn't eating (a few small bites of steak a day, no more). She wasn't drinking (maybe half a can of Dr Pepper; no water, ever). She wasn't sleeping (not much more than a couple of hours a night, max).

"The index cards were piling up by the hundreds, but Palin wasn't absorbing the material written on them. When her aides tried to quiz her, she would routinely shut down – chin on her chest, arms folded, eyes cast to the floor, speechless and motionless, lost in what those around her described as a kind of catatonic stupor."

Asked if the preparations weren't worth it for the prospect of power, Mrs Palin is said to have replied darkly: "No. If I'd known everything I know now, I would not have done this."

One of her advisers sent an urgent SOS to McCain headquarters, the authors continue. "They began discussing a new and threatening possibility: that Palin was mentally unstable."

She cheered up when she was plucked out of the fetid hotel room where the failed cramming session had taken place to the more comfortable surroundings of Mr McCain's ranch, with a doctor on hand, the authors relate. But Mrs Palin continued to alarm campaign managers with her howlers as she prepared for her head-to-head debate with Joe Biden, the Democrat vice-presidential candidate.

"She continued to stumble over an unavoidable element: her rival's name. Over and over, Palin referred to Obama's running mate as 'Senator Obiden' – or was it 'O'Biden'? – and the corrections weren't sticking." In the event, Mrs Palin famously strode on stage, stuck her hand out and said: "Hey, can I call you Joe?"

Soon Mrs Palin began to show a still more disturbing propensity, the authors write. "It wasn't long before the signs appeared that Palin was going rogue. She thrashed Obama for 'palling around with terrorists'. Palin said that Obama's pastor, Rev Jeremiah Wright, should be fair game and implicitly criticised McCain for not leading the charge."

They write that Mr McCain was shielded from the full force of his own campaign team's dismay at Mrs Palin's unfitness for office, but that his staffers held serious discussions about what to do if he won the election, placing Mrs Palin's hands on the levers of power.

"Some in McCainworld were ridden with guilt over elevating Palin to within striking distance of the White House," the authors claim, adding that while Mrs Palin's fans in the US public continued to cheer her on, the national media and political establishments – once so ready to give her a chance – dismissed her as "a hick on a high wire".

More than a year on, Mrs Palin remains hugely popular in the US, particularly with members of the grassroots "tea party movement' of disaffected conservatives who fear that Mr Obama is leading America towards socialism. She has more than 1.1 million Facebook followers.

In July she stepped down as Governor of Alaska, a move that surprised her supporters and fuelled speculation on her next career step – with predictions ranging from seeking the presidency in 2012 to hosting a conservative talk show.

She told Barbara Walters in an interview in November that a presidential bid in 2012 was not on her radar, but did not rule out playing some kind of role in the next US presidential election. She has recently enjoyed success with her best-selling memoir Going Rogue, which was published four months after she left office.

Today it emerged that she is to take her conservative message to Fox News as a regular commentator. The US cable channel said that she would offer political commentary and analysis on its TV programming, its website, radio network and business cable channel.

She also will host occasional episodes of Real American Stories, a new series intended to feature inspirational tales about Americans who have overcome adversity.

"Governor Palin has captivated everyone on both sides of the political spectrum and we are excited to add her dynamic voice to the Fox News line-up," Bill Shine, executive vice president of programming, said in a statement.

Mrs Palin said in a statement posted on the network's website: "It's wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news."

Race of a Lifetime, published yesterday, is based on more than 200 interviews with the 2008 candidates and their staffs, and has already caused controversy in Washington.

It forced Senator Harry Reid into a humiliating apology to Mr Obama at the weekend for describing him as a "light-skinned" African-American with "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one".

from The London Times