Heat get rings, then win over Celtics, 120-107

From left, Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade, left, Chris Bosh and LeBron James pose with their 2012 NBA Finals championship rings during a ceremony before a basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

From left, Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade, left, Chris Bosh and LeBron James pose with their 2012 NBA Finals championship rings during a ceremony before a basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra argues a call during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers reacts to a foul call during the first half of their NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Boston Celtics' Kevin Garnett (5) backs down Miami Heat's Udonis Haslem (40) during the first half of their NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

MIAMI (AP) ? LeBron James got cramps, Ray Allen was snubbed and Dwyane Wade was steaming.

None of that spoiled the Miami Heat mood on ring night.

Wade scored 29 points, James finished 26 points and 10 rebounds while missing much of the second half because of cramps in both legs, and the reigning NBA champion Heat beat the Boston Celtics 120-107 on Tuesday night in the season opener for both teams.

There were actual fireworks before the game to close the ceremony where the Heat got their championship rings and raised their title banner. There also were plenty of figurative fireworks late, first with Boston almost digging out of a 19-point hole and, after the outcome was decided, Rajon Rondo flagrantly fouling Wade by wrapping his arms around his neck on a drive.

In the end, though, the first Celtics-Heat matchup of this season was like the final one of last season ? with Miami winning.

"It was good to cap this night off with a win," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "It was an emotional time for all of us in our organization."

Even for the newcomers, like Allen. He scored 19 points ? needing only seven field goal attempts ? in his first game with Miami since leaving Boston over the summer. Chris Bosh had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Miami.

Allen got chants from the Heat crowd, which is nothing new. Except this time, they were positive.

"Never thought I'd hear that here," Allen said.

Paul Pierce scored 23 points, Rondo finished with 20 points and 13 assists, and Leandro Barbosa scored 16 for Boston. The Celtics, who lost to the Heat in last season's Eastern Conference finals, were not on the court for the ring ceremony.

They almost wrecked the festive mood with a late comeback.

An 11-2 run late in the fourth quarter got Boston within 111-107 on Courtney Lee's layup with 2:09 left. That was the last Celtics' hurrah ? Bosh scored the game's next seven points, sealing it for Miami.

"I thought they were the aggressor the whole game," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "They got on the floor where they wanted to get on the floor. They took us out of stuff that they wanted to."

Rashard Lewis scored 10 points for Miami, which held on even while James, last season's MVP of both the regular season and NBA Finals, was in the locker room for the second time because of the cramps, first in his right leg and then his left.

"It's not an all-the-time thing," James said. "I'm not too worried about it."

The Heat got their championship rings from owner Micky Arison before the game, then watched the banner get hoisted to the rafters. More emotion came late, when Wade drove past Rondo ? and the Celtics guard grabbed Wade around the neck. Wade appeared as though he was ready to throw the ball at Rondo in retaliation, and stopped himself.

"I thought he hooked me," Rondo said.

Wade had a different opinion.

"It was a punk play by him," Wade said. "The league will take care of it. He clotheslined me, with two hands."

So Rondo raised eyebrows by putting hands on Wade. Kevin Garnett made news by not offering his hand to Allen.

As Allen entered the game for the first time, he trotted toward the Boston bench, exchanging a handshake, embrace and a few words with Rivers, who hasn't hidden his displeasure about his former shooting guard's decision to sign with Miami and didn't sound certain before the game how he would react when he saw Allen in Miami colors. Allen then briskly shook hands with a few assistant coaches.

But when Allen tried to engage Garnett, the mutual pleasantries ended. Allen tapped Garnett on the shoulder as he sat on the Boston bench; Garnett didn't even flinch, staring straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge the gesture in any way.

"I was just trying to focus as much as I could. I am such an intense person," Garnett said. "It was a blank. Obviously he's on the other side. It's time to play the game, man."

Allen didn't seem flustered. His first shot in a Miami uniform was ? what else? ? a corner 3-pointer, which swished.

"He was by himself in the corner," Rivers said. "You'd think we'd know better."

Miami controlled much of the first half, taking a 62-54 lead after James went by Pierce and Garnett for a two-handed dunk and yell for the crowd.

The first Heat angst of the season came in the third quarter, when James walked slowly to the bench after a timeout with 4:40 remaining, favoring his right leg and then headed out the tunnel toward the locker room.

When he left, the Miami lead was 79-70.

When he returned to open the fourth quarter, the lead was 93-76. The Heat scored the final eight points of the third, with Bosh, Allen, Mario Chalmers and Lewis all scoring in the final 2:17 to give the Heat their biggest lead of the game.

James ? who was dealing with a cramping issue, like he experienced at times in last season's NBA Finals ? opened the fourth quarter with a jumper to extend the run to 10-0, and Miami seemed well on its way. But he returned to the locker room a short time later, the cramps having flared up again.

"Once you start cramping, there's nothing you can do about it," James said.

Jeff Green, who had season-ending surgery for an aortic aneurysm last January, played in a game that counts for the first time since May 11, 2011 ? also in Miami, when the Heat ousted the Celtics from that season's playoffs. Green finished with three points in 23 minutes.

NOTES: Wade passed the 15,000-point mark for his career early in the second quarter, becoming the 123rd player in NBA history to reach that mark, according to STATS LLC. ... Rondo had at least 10 assists for the 25th straight regular-season game. ... The Celtics allowed 62 points in the first half; they gave up 62 or more only seven times in 379 regular-season and playoff games over the past four seasons. ... Miami players wore sneakers with gold somewhere in the color scheme; James' were primarily gold ? in honor of the ring ? and trimmed in white and red.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-10-31-Celtics-Heat/id-a5d85ed4447b4d718c87fcb20e90176d

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Syrian jets target strategic city held by rebels

BEIRUT (AP) ? Air raids by regime forces collapsed expanses of buildings on Tuesday in a rebel-held city that straddles a key supply route from the capital Damascus to Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a main front in the civil war.

While residents dug the bodies of the dead and wounded from the rubble, forces loyal to President Bashar Assad clashed with rebels south of the city targeted by the airstrikes, Maaret al-Numan. Rebels captured the strategic city earlier this month and have been disrupting the flow of military supplies to Assad's forces fighting for control of Aleppo, the country's commercial capital.

Assad's regime has been hammering away at Maaret al-Numan with heavy airstrikes since it was captured on Oct. 10. The battle for the city in many ways reflects the wider civil war. Lightly armed rebels are holding the ground while the regime, with its superior weaponry and numbers, has been unable to dislodge them despite repeated bombardments from the air that kill fighters and civilians alike.

In the past weeks, anti-regime activists say about 150 people have been killed on average every day in fighting. Since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, they say 35,000 have died.

Tuesday's airstrikes came a day after what activists called the heaviest and most widespread bombing campaign nationwide on what was to be the final day of an internationally sanctioned truce that never took hold. Maaret al-Numan was hard hit Monday's strikes as well.

The death toll for what was supposed to be a four-day cease-fire ending Monday exceeded 500, and activists speculated that the government's heavy reliance on air power reflected its inability to roll back rebel gains, especially in the north of the country near the border with Turkey's where rebels have control of swathes of territory.

The international community remains at a loss about how to stop Syria's violence. The U.S. and other Western and Arab nations have called on Assad to step down, while Russia, China and Iran continue to back him.

Tuesday's airstrikes on Maaret al-Numan, 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Aleppo, left rebel fighters and residents coming through expanses of rubble for bodies, according to activist videos posted online.

One video showed a man holding up the dead body of a small girl in a red and white shirt and baby blue pants. Other videos showed men carrying bloodied women and children from destroyed buildings.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the day's airstrikes on the city killed at least seven people, four of them children.

One video showed the bodies of three girls wrapped in white shrouds. Nearby, a man dripped water on the face of a dead older man with a white beard, saying: "Go to heaven dad. May God take revenge."

The Observatory said at least one rebel fighter was also killed in clashes south of the city with regime forces trying to bring in reinforcements from further south.

Activist claims and videos could not be independently verified because of restrictions on reporting in Syria, but the videos appeared genuine and corresponded with other Associated Press reporting on the events depicted.

Violence also flared in and around Damascus, the capital. The Observatory said missiles fired from a fighter jet struck the capital's Jobar neighborhood ? a rare hit in the capital's municipal area. Most of the fighting around Damascus for the past few months has been in suburbs and outskirts, where rebels have managed to challenge the regime.

Syria's state news agency said an "armed terrorist group" had assassinated a high-ranking air force general. Maj. Gen. Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khalidi was gunned down while getting out of his car in the mostly Kurdish neighborhood of Rukn Eddine.

The government views the rebels as terrorists and accuses them of being foot soldiers in a foreign plot to destroy Syria.

Anti-regime activists also reported air raids on several Damascus suburbs, including Arbeen, Zamalka and Douma.

Early Tuesday, Syrian troops clashed with rebels in the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees on the captial's south side. No casualties were reported, and it was unclear if Palestinians fought with either side. Most Palestinian refugees in Syria have tried to remain outside of the conflict, though some have joined the fight.

In Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu expressed "great sadness" that the cease-fire called to coincide with a Muslim holiday had failed and said government was done talking to Assad's regime.

"Unfortunately the attacks continued and the Syrian people spent the holidays suffering great pain," Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara. "There would be no meaning to forging a dialogue with a regime that pressed ahead with such a massacre even during the holidays."

___

Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed reporting.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-jets-target-strategic-city-held-rebels-183116258.html

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Japan's rebuilding money spent on unrelated jobs

In this Oct. 9, 2012 photo, the foundation of a house is seen in a deserted land near the Arahama beach, severely damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

In this Oct. 9, 2012 photo, the foundation of a house is seen in a deserted land near the Arahama beach, severely damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

In this Oct. 9, 2012 photo, with a backdrop of leaning pine trees, part of windbreak forests severely damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, construction works continue near the Arahama Beach in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

In this Oct. 9, 2012 photo, construction works go on along the Arahama beach, severely damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

In this Oct. 10, 2012 photo, a yellow crane sorts out the rubble of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, at the rubble collection site near the Arahama beach in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

In this Oct. 10, 2012 photo, a yellow crane is seen in the heap of the sorted out rubble of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, at the rubble collection site near the Arahama beach in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

SENDAI, Japan (AP) ? About a quarter of the $148 billion budget for reconstruction after the March 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster has been spent on unrelated projects, including subsidies for a contact lens factory and research whaling, a Japanese government accounting shows.

The audit documents released last week buttressed complaints over shortcomings in the reconstruction effort. More than half the 11.7 trillion yen ($148 billion) budget is yet to be disbursed, stalled by indecision and bureaucracy, while nearly all of the 340,000 people evacuated from the disaster zone remain uncertain whether, when and how they will ever resettle.

Many of the non-reconstruction-related projects loaded into the budget were included on the pretext they might contribute to Japan's economic revival, a strategy that the government now acknowledges was a mistake.

"It is true that the government has not done enough and has not done it adequately. We must listen to those who say the reconstruction should be the first priority," Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said in a speech to parliament on Monday.

He vowed that unrelated projects will be "strictly wrung out" of the budget.

But ensuring that funds go to their intended purpose might require an explicit change in the reconstruction spending law, which authorizes spending on such ambiguous purposes as creating eco-towns and supporting "employment measures."

Among the unrelated projects benefiting from the reconstruction budgets are: road building in distant Okinawa; prison vocational training in other parts of Japan; subsidies for a contact lens factory in central Japan; renovations of government offices in Tokyo; aircraft and fighter pilot training, research and production of rare earths minerals, a semiconductor research project and even funding to support whaling, ostensibly for research.

Some 30 million yen ($380,000) went to promoting the Tokyo Sky Tree, a transmission tower that is the world's tallest freestanding broadcast structure. Another 2.8 billion yen ($35 million) was requested by the Justice Ministry for a publicity campaign to "reassure the public" about the risks of big disasters.

Masahiro Matsumura, a politics professor at St. Andrews University in Osaka, Japan, said justifying such misuse by suggesting the benefits would "trickle down" to the disaster zone is typical of the political dysfunction that has hindered Japan's efforts to break out of two decades of debilitating economic slump.

"This is a manifestation of government indifference to rehabilitation. They are very good at making excuses," Matsumura told The Associated Press.

Near the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, which suffered the additional blow from the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, recovery work has barely begun.

More than 325,000 of the 340,000 people evacuated from the disaster zone or forced to flee the areas around the nuclear plant after the March 11, 2011 disaster remain homeless or away from their homes, according to the most recent figures available.

In Rikuzentakata, a fishing enclave where 1,800 people were killed or went missing as the tsunami scoured the harbor, rebuilding has yet to begin in earnest, says Takashi Kubota, who left a government job in Tokyo in May 2011 to become the town's deputy mayor.

The tsunami destroyed 3,800 of Rikuzentakata's 9,000 homes. The first priority, he says, has been finding land for rebuilding homes ? on higher ground. For now, most evacuees are housed, generally unhappily, in temporary shelters in school playgrounds and sports fields.

"I can sum it up in two words ? speed and flexibility ? that are lacking," Kubota said. Showing a photo of the now non-existent downtown area, he said, "In 19 months, there have basically been no major changes. There is not one single new building yet."

The government has pledged to spend 23 trillion yen ($295 billion) over this decade on reconstruction and disaster prevention, 19 trillion yen ($245 billion) of it within five years.

But more than half the reconstruction budget remains unspent, according to the government's audit report.

The dithering is preventing the government, whose debt is already twice the size of the country's GDP, from getting the most bang for every buck.

"You've got economic malaise and political as well. That's just a recipe for disaster," said Matthew Circosta, an economist with Moody's Analytics in Sydney.

Part of the problem is the central government's strategy of managing the reconstruction from Tokyo instead of delegating it to provincial governments. At the same time, the local governments lack the staff and expertise for such major rebuilding.

The government "thinks it has to be in the driver's seat," Jun Iio, a government adviser and professor at Tokyo University told a conference in Sendai. "Unfortunately the reconstruction process is long and only if the local residents can agree on a plan will they move ahead on reconstruction."

"It is in this stage that creativity is needed for rebuilding," he said.

Even Sendai, a regional capital of over 1 million people much better equipped than most coastal communities to deal with the disaster, still has mountains of rubble. Much of it is piled amid the bare foundations, barren fields and broken buildings of its oceanside suburb of Arahama.

Sendai quickly restored disrupted power, gas and water supplies and its tsunami-swamped airport. The area's crumbled expressways and heavily damaged railway lines were repaired within weeks.

But farther north and south, ravaged coastal towns remain largely unoccupied.

More than 240 ports remain unbuilt; in many cases their harbors are treacherous with tsunami debris.

Like many working on the disaster, Yoshiaki Kawata of Kansai University worries that the slow progress on reconstruction will leave the region, traditionally one of Japan's poorest, without a viable economy.

"There is almost no one on the streets," he said in the tiny fishing hamlet of Ryoishi, where the sea rose 17 meters (56 feet). "Building a new town will take many years."

Even communities remain divided over how to rebuild. Moving residential areas to higher ground involves cumbersome bureaucratic procedures and complicated ownership issues. Each day of delay, meanwhile, raises the likelihood that residents will leave and that local businesses will fail to recover, says Itsunori Onodera, a lawmaker from the port town of Kesennuma, which lost more than 1,400 people in the disaster.

"Speed," he says, is the thing most needed to get the region back on its feet.

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-30-Japan-Disaster%20Reconstruction/id-83ccd1cb44ef4f97abee153f1f7215dc

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REVIEW: The iPad Mini Is A Five Star Device - Business Insider

Remember the iPod mini? When Apple launched that in January 2004, at a time when a huge swathe of the fast-growing digital music player market was still up for grabs, people thought Apple was crazy. Only 4GB of storage ? less than in the original 5GB model launched in 2001? A $249 price tag ? only $50 less than the base level "iPod". Well, said the critics, Apple had finally messed up after a couple of years of getting it right. It was doomed.

Turned out it wasn't; the iPod mini became the best-selling iPod (until the iPod nano in September 2005).

Why point this out? Because much the same critique has been applied to the iPad mini, Apple's 7.85in device. It's just smaller (though nobody seems to be calling it "a big iPod Touch" ? perhaps that wore thin after the first few thousand times following the original iPad's launch). It's too pricey; there are others which are already in the market.

As I've said earlier, there are some key differences between the iPod market of 2004 and today's mini-tablet market. The key one is that in the 2004 market, all the rivals needed to make a profit on their hardware; they couldn't make it up from selling music. This time round, Amazon and Google in particular can sell the hardware at a loss in order to goose their market share, if not immediately their profits. So Apple has a fight on its hands in pricing, not just design.

But let's by dealing with the iPad mini as it is, on its own terms.

Build quality: seamless

Jonathan Ive doesn't like seams. He doesn't like any sort of break in the surface of objects, even manufactured ones. One of the notable things about the first iPod was that there was no obvious way to break it open, and the trend in all of Apple products ? including the computers ? is the same.

You'll do well to get a scalpel blade between the iPad mini's screen and its bezel. There's no flex in the body; it's really solid. I was using a black model; it isn't obviously metal until you touch it. As with its bigger sibling, the headphone jack is on the top ? unlike the iPhone 5, where it has migrated to the bottom.

Dimensions

This is worthy of mention because everyone has been focused on the Amazon Kindle Fire in comparison to the iPad mini (and of course Google Nexus 7). I compared an iPad mini beside a Kindle Fire, and was surprised to find that they're almost exactly the same size in both width and length, though the iPad mini is thinner.

Similarly, compare it with the Nexus 7. Here are the figures for the iPad mini: 199mm x 133mm; the Nexus 7, 198.5mm x 120mm. You get 1.3cm ? that's half an inch - width difference between the Nexus 7 and the iPad mini. This surprised me ? I thought that the iPad mini would be substantially wider. But it's not, and at that width you can slip it into an outside jacket pocket or a roomy coat pocket or, of course, a bag.

How though does the iPad mini manage to be so small if it has a 7.85in screen, while the others have just 7in screens? By having a much thinner border along the long edges. It's 20mm wide at the short edges, but just 5mm on the long ones. This isn't just a shrunk-down iPad, where the borders are 20mm and 17mm (short, long). Apple has made a definite effort to create something that can be slipped into generous pockets.

Weight

What will surprise you is the weight. The specs already show that the iPad mini is lighter than the Kindle Fire, 308g v 395g (and 340g for the Nexus 7); even if you add on a Smart Cover, it's still lighter than the uncovered Kindle Fire. It's thinner too. This is a device that will be ideal for holding in one hand for reading on train rides or other commuting; or you might even forget it's in that coat pocket.

What the iPod mini demonstrated, and what the MacBook Air demonstrated, and pretty much every breakthrough in mobility demonstrates, is that lighter is better ? and if you can do lighter and bigger, you're really onto a winner. (This is part of how the Samsung Galaxy S3 has done so well: big screen, light phone.)

The iPad mini (308g) feels like it isn't really there. Certainly you'll not get tired of holding it, which could happen with the iPad (652g).

Battery life

As with previous iPads, battery life is easily in the nine-hour-plus mark. Charging is via the new Lightning connector, and as with the iPhone, the iPad now recharges very quickly ? half an hour will easily add four or five times as much use. I didn't get a chance to try it out on a 4G/LTE network, so don't know how that affects battery life. (Mobile versions sold in the UK will initially be compatible with EE's 1800MHz network, and Three's next year.)

Screen

It's not a retina screen! It's only 1024x768, so that the resolution is 163ppi. This has been a big complaint (or snark, in some cases) that I've heard from people who haven't laid eyes on this device. If all you read is specifications, then the iPad mini screen is far worse than the Kindle Fire's or Nexus 7's, right?

Well, put them beside each other, and the story changes. Web page rendering on the Kindle Fire is, frankly, awful. It's blocky, and there's a yellowish cast which personally I dislike. The iPad mini is bright, and white, and the text rendering is good ? and there's no obvious pixellation. Kindle books look as good on the iPad mini as on the Kindle Fire. (The latter is optimised for reading those, but not for the web; Amazon would rather you bought books than surfed the web.) Icons on the iPad mini look sharp; on the Kindle Fire, not really.

Scrolling

With long lists, it's smooth and untroubled; this is something Apple has prioritised. Again, the comparison with Android, where scrolling has always been a bugbear, is stark; get a long article with lots of comments on a website, and you'll get a smooth scroll. That's not always the case on Android devices, where some will give jerky performance, no matter how many cores their processor has. Specs, eh? They can lead you astray.

Setup experience

If you have an iOS device already ? iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad ? then you can log into your iCloud account and all the apps and content you've already bought, plus all your settings including alarms can be transferred wirelessly. (If you've got multiple devices backed up, you get to choose which it's restored from. Alternatively, you can just use a wire and an iTunes backup.) Android tries, but doesn't quite get to the granular level that iCloud does, and that's a big difference in user-friendliness.

User accounts

There aren't any. This is the biggest failing in iOS at present. Now that Google has announced that Android will support a form of user accounts on tablets, and Windows Phone 8 offers "Kids Corner" (fenced-off apps you can let the kids use), and Windows RT tablets support multiple signins, iOS is starting to look like the odd one out. One tablet per person is great for Apple, but it's not so great for the squeezed middle. Single-user iPhones yes; multi-user iPads, yes please.

Keyboard

Of course, there isn't an inbuilt keyboard. But the question is, is the onscreen version too small to type on? No ? used in landscape or portrait, the keys are large enough even for my hands. Despite the smaller screen, touch targets aren't too small either. In short, you can still type quite accurately (and certainly more accurately than on an iPhone) and manipulate onscreen objects. I don't think that many app developers will be redoing their existing iPad 2 apps.

In fact, games developers are quite excited by the idea of the iPad mini, because they reckon it will mean more players using the device in landscape mode who will be able to span the bottom of the screen with their thumbs (personally, I could) ? something that was impossible with the iPad, which anyway gets too heavy.

Cameras

Available front and back ? here's an example shot with the camera on the back. There's no Panorama option with the rear camera, which is a strange omission.

Apps

Existing iPad apps work perfectly well. I tried the Brian Cox Wonders app, which includes videos. I criticised the Nexus 7 for the extent of letterboxing on its 16:9 screen, so will I do the same for the iPad mini?

Yup ? you get some pretty hefty letterboxing here too. Here's the thing, though: because the border around the long edges is so much thinner than at the edges, the overall effect is no worse than the Nexus 7; given that proportionally less of the space is lost to the border, you could argue it's a less compromised experience.

For comparison, here's the Nexus 7 letterboxing:

It might not be immediately obvious, but if you look closely then you can see that the physical border is much wider in the Nexus 7 than on the iPad mini.

iPhone apps' behaviour can be hit-and-miss: some fit the screen neatly when expanded to the "2x" size, others overlap the edges (I'm looking at you, Tube Deluxe), others just look blocky (hello, Amazon ? though there is a proper Amazon iPad app). There isn't the spare room that the larger iPad has around the edges when you expand the size of the iPhone app on the mini's screen. Then again, with the huge number of iPad apps available, this probably won't be a problem.

Price

Yes, let's talk about the price. As mentioned above, Apple isn't looking to race to the bottom on price, because its objective (make a profit on hardware) isn't aligned to that of Google and Amazon (sell hardware near cost, profit on content or from users' web browsing). That said, at ?269 ($329) for the 16GB model, you're getting an impressively light, small tablet which (if you buy the connectors, or have them) can take your camera pictures, or just take pictures itself. There's AirPlay, the wireless audio and video connection ? if you have an AppleTV (?99) ($99) then you can run iPlayer on the iPad and "throw" it over to the AppleTV and watch it on a big screen; no wires. And it's not hugely more expensive than the Nexus 7, though the Kindle Fire is much cheaper. If price is your only consideration, though, an iPad probably hasn't been on your shopping list anyway.

Conclusion

Those in favour: excellent build quality; very light, comparatively large screen, not significantly wider than competition (for putting in coat pockets), excellent text rendering, huge selection of apps, music, books and films, pain-free setup from iCloud backups for existing accounts; 3G/4G LTE option; fast-growing range of accessories.

Those against: price is higher than rivals ? at ?239 ($329), it's ?40 ($130) more than the 16GB Nexus 7; no expandable storage; letterboxing of films; no HDMI out (though AirPlay is a wireless equivalent).

Lining those pluses and minuses up against those for the Nexus 7 ? which garnered four stars ? there's no doubt that this is indeed a five-star device. The 20% difference in comparative price is more than made up by the difference in build quality and software selection.

Apple is going to sell a lot of these ? quite possibly more than the "large" iPad ? in this quarter. The only way Apple could improve on this product would be (as some people are already agitating) to give it a retina screen and somehow make it lighter. That might happen at some point. You can wait if you like; other people, in the meantime, will be buying this one.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/review-the-ipad-mini-is-a-five-star-device-2012-10

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STEVE HACKETT Genesis Revisited II music review by huge

What a pleasure to hear some of those classics with a new breath of life attached, though some of the vocalists perhaps leave a little to be desired' The fact that modern technology has delivered this take on the originals should be the overriding factor and it does produce in spades.

Additionally the inclusion of some of Hackett's solo projects getting the 'modern' treatment is a great bonus ' but where is 'Spectral Mornings'? But each to their own I suppose ' everyone will have some missing gem'

And is it really sixteen years since that last outing?

With twenty one tracks and the inclusion of 'Supper Ready' that have been set in such a way that the listener is taken on an epic journey; from 'Nursery Cryme' through to 'Wind and Wuthering' with the added solo material. I believe it would be unfair to single out favourites as this would differ from other followers' viewpoints, however most of the tracks have benefited from the 'update' and serve as a beacon (hopefully) for the current generation to aspire to, equally it will allow aforesaid generation to see what all the fuss was all those years ago.

But for those undecided about this venture, clear those preconceptions and enjoy what is arguably Hackett's best outing in many years.

An emphatic 4 star rating.

huge | 4/5 | 2012-10-28

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