- Everyone wants to topple the iPad as the dominant tablet
on the market. Google has tried several approaches and on Wednesday, the search
giant dove back into the pool with the unveiling of the Nexus 7 tablet at its I/O
developers conference in San Francisco. Built by noted maker of chintzy
computers Asus, the seven-inch tablet will sell for $199. It went on sale Wednesday
in the Google Play market and it will begin shipping in mid-July. The Nexus 7
seems more positioned to battle the popular 7-inch Amazon Kindle Fire tablet,
which also sells for $199,, and will feature content like magazines, books and
movies. A home page widget called "My Library" features tiles with the latest content
a user has read or watched and by tapping on the “My Library” tile, users can
launch that content right where they left off. The Nexus 7 weighs 12 ounces,
two ounces lighter than the Fire, and it also sports an improved HD screen and
a faster graphics chipset. Just one year ago at the same event, Google launched
the high-end Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet and it has been an unmitigated disaster.
Apple sued Samsung because their tablets were so much alike and on Tuesday,
Apple won an injunction to prevent further sales of Samsung's device in the
United States. Microsoft also entered the fray last week when it unveiled its
Surface tablet, which will be priced comparably to the iPad. Low-end tablets
have not fared well thus far and the iPad continues to dominate the tablet
market with an estimated 62 percent of tablet sales this year. Research In
Motion has failed miserably with its BlackBerry Playbook for around $200 and
there are few indicators that a better screen and improved graphics will help
the Nexus 7 fare much better. Google’s quest for world domination appears to
have hit a snag and perhaps the search titan has reached a bit too far this
time……….
- Groups, organizations and causes that believe billboards
are still a great way to launch a campaign for or against an issue are quite
pathetic. Unless the world just jumped back in time four decades and Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Skype and Pinterest don’t exist, dropping one’s
message onto a billboard and hoping it changes the world view of multitasking
motorists whisking by at 65 mph is pitiable. That message would have been
helpful to the Wisconsin-based
Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is battling against the Catholic
Church on the issue of contraception. The organization has rented a billboard along
I-30 in Arlington and posted a message that scolds bishops and urges Catholics
to give up the church. It reads, "Put Women's rights over bishop's wrongs.”
Freedom From Religion Foundation, which doesn’t seem to think too highly of
organized religion of any kind, chose the Arlington location because both the
Fort Worth diocese and the Dallas diocese are suing the Obama administration
over the contraceptive mandate. The billboards have ruffled a few feathers in
the area and local diocese officials say they have received a few complaints. "We
have taken calls mainly from women who are angry and offended," said Dallas
diocese spokeswoman Annette Gonzales Taylor. FFRF also has plans to place
billboards in several other cities, including Chicago and St. Louis. Those
additional billboards are scheduled to go up in place about 30 days, coinciding
with the date the contraceptive mandate goes into effect………
- Apparently, offering a man an amount of money to play
football that nears the gross domestic product for some Third World countries
can also be construed as negotiating in bad faith. So says the NFL
Players Association, which has asked the NFL to investigate if the New Orleans
Saints are negotiating with their franchise player in good faith. Drew Brees
and the Saints have struggled through negotiations during the offseason, with
the two sides remaining far apart. They have until July 16 to agree to a
long-term contract or Brees must play under his one-year franchise tender in
2012, worth $16.371 million. In its letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell
asking the league to check into the Saints' negotiations with Brees, the NFLPA
vowed to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board if the league
doesn't start an investigation before the July 16 deadline. Why would a team
jerk with its most important player, a legitimate MVP candidate and the man who
led the franchise to its first Super Bowl win? Apparently some members of the
NFLPA believe the Saints might be punishing Brees for the vocal role he took
during last year's lockout. He was one of the 10 named plaintiffs on the antitrust
suit filed against the league during the work stoppage, but the Saints’
reluctance to give him the new deal he wants seems to reek more of being cheap
than vindictive. The union specifically wants the NFL to investigate whether
the Saints had violated Article 49, Section 1 of the collective bargaining
agreement, which states: "No Discrimination: There shall be no
discrimination in any form against any player by the NFL, the Management
Council, any Club or by the NFLPA because of race, religion, national origin,
sexual orientation, or activity or lack of activity on behalf of the
NFLPA." Saints general manager Mickey Loomis submitted a revised proposal
to Brees' representatives earlier this month, but the offer was not enough to
break the stalemate. Mix in a grievance hearing that took place Wednesday
morning with arbitrator Stephen Burbank to determine the designation of Brees'
franchise tag was legal and it’s fair to say that a seemingly simple struggle
over a player wanting north of $20 million a season has evolved into a much
bigger issue……….
- The multinational indie rock outfit known as Guillemots
are an ambitious lot. In a time when most artists are content to release a
single 10-song, 38-minute album every two years, Guillemots are aiming higher –
much higher. The band plans to release four albums over the course of the next
six months. While they may not be Grateful Dead-length efforts, the four LPs
are still a sizeable undertaking in a six-month span. The first of the four
albums is entitled 'Hello Land!' and is out now. Described by the band as an
"ode to springtime," it was produced by Jonas Raabe and features the
Norwegian Flute Ensemble. Yes, a flute ensemble and a Norwegian one at that. Making
the album all the more eclectic and inherently indie, the band have said that
the music has all been made in the Norwegian countryside in "our little
Narnia.” A fuller description of the LP was offered on the band’s official website,
Guillemots.com. “We decided last year that we didn't really want to make
another record in the traditional cycle where you record an album, as a press
campaign builds up to its release, and then tour it for months afterwards,” the
message explains. "It feels way more exciting to make as much music as we
can, put it out as soon as it's ready, and let people gradually find out about
it through the year." Still, at the end of the year all four albums will
be released in a box for those who still prefer to have an album in a more
traditional, collective form………
- Now THAT is how opposition groups accomplish important
goals. As the civil war rages on in Syria and despot Bashar al-Assad continues to deny
that his forces are murdering civilians and obliterating cities, ordinary
Syrians are rising up and fighting back. On Wednesday, a few of those ordinary
Syrians took the fight to a pro-government TV station Wednesday near the Syrian
capital, Damascus, and stormed the building. Inside, they killed seven
employees and sent a clear message as world powers prepared for a high-level
meeting that the U.S. hopes will be a turning point in the crisis. Special envoy
Kofi Annan will host a gathering Saturday in Geneva for the five permanent
members of the U.N. Security Council — including Syrian allies Russia and China
to discuss what can be done to prevent further bloodshed in the conflict. Russia
continues to be the poop in the ice cream of conflict resolution by refusing to
agree to any sort of outside intervention in the crisis or to removing the
decades-old Assad family control of Syria. Assad has magnanimously taken to
admitting his country is in "a genuine state of war," but has warned
that any military involvement from other nations would have dire consequences.
He also continues to deny there is any popular will behind the uprising, which
is in its 16th month. Witness accounts of the attack on the Al-Ikhbariya TV
station in the town of Drousha, about 14 miles south of Damascus, told of
bloodstains and bullet holes around the compound. The attack damaged the five
portable buildings used for offices and studios by Al-Ikhbariya, which is
privately owned but strongly supports the regime. Information Minister Omran
al- Zoebi went with the party line in describing the attack, blaming
terrorists, or at the rest of the world calls them, rebels against fascist
regime. Only a small number of staffers were at the complex during the attack,
which occurred just before 4 a.m. Several guards were reportedly taken hostage
by the rebels. The station was back on the air within a few hours……….
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