Acer Iconia Tab A700

Following the success of the New Apple iPad?($499, 4.5 stars) with its 2,048-by-1,536-pixel Retina display, Android tablet?manufacturers are getting the picture?the high-definition picture, that is?and packing in the pixels. Much like Asus, with its Transformer Pad Infinity TF700?($499, 4 stars), Acer's Iconia Tab A700 ($449.99 list, 32GB) is nearly identical to the existing Iconia Tab A510?($449.99, 3 stars), but adds a high-resolution 1,920-by-1,200-pixel display. The A510 couldn't keep up with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201?($499, 4 stars), and the A700 falls short of the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700. And both tablets are playing catch-up with the new iPad and its vast selection of tablet-centric and Retina-display-optimized apps.

Design and Features
The Iconia Tab A700 is physically identical to the lower-resolution Iconia Tab A510, from its dimensions (6.9 by 10.2 by .4 inches, 1.47 pounds) to its button and port placement. While that was fine for the thin (0.33 inches) and light (1.31 pounds) aluminum-clad Infinity Pad TF700, which was nearly identical to the Transformer Prime TF201, the Iconia Tab A700 remains as clunky and uninspiring as its plastic predecessor, the A510. At least the rubberized back is comfortable to hold.?

One welcome holdover is the micro USB to full-sized USB adapter and USB host mode capability. The tablet supports FAT32-format external storage devices, as well as USB keyboards and mice. This is pretty useful, and I was able to use a USB splitter to connect both a mouse and keyboard to the A700. Asus's keyboard dock accessories for its Transformer tablets add the same capabilities, and they emulate a laptop form factor while adding extra battery life, but they are also more expensive than using the peripherals you already own. Flanking the micro USB port are two speaker grilles that get moderately loud, but lack low-end oomph.

A Wi-Fi only tablet that connects to 802.11b/g/n networks, the A700 works on the 2.4GHz frequency band only. You also get Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and GPS, both of which worked fine in my tests. The A700 is available in black or silver, but only in a single 32GB configuration. A microSD card slot, hidden behind a plastic flap on the right panel, accepts cards up to 64GB. On the left side is a 3.5mm headphone jack, with a microHDMI port on the right for output to HDTVs.

Display, Apps, and Android
The high-resolution display is the main draw here, and it's looking like 1,920-by-1,200 is the new standard for 10-inch Android tablets. The A700's 10.1-inch display matches the Infinity TF700 in terms of sharpness, but the Asus wins out with its ultra-bright Super IPS+ display. Viewing angle and color saturation are similar on the two displays. At 224 pixels per inch, they both look incredibly sharp and clear. Text and high-res images look fairly comparable between the A700, TF700, and the new iPad, which packs 264 pixels per inch. During testing, I noticed that applying mild pressure to the A700's screen caused some unusual rippling under the glass surface. It didn't affect responsiveness and was very difficult to see with the screen on, but it's worth noting.?

The real difference is in the apps and even a lot of websites, where the iPad's dominance means developers are actually paying attention and optimizing specifically for that display. For example, article text in The New York Times looks comparable on the A700 and the new iPad, but some site graphics look sharper on the iPad's screen than they do on either of the two Android tablets'. The difference isn't in the hardware, it's that developers are writing their websites to detect the iPad and push higher resolution elements its way. That hasn't yet happened for Android.

That same problem carries over to apps, where Android dominance still belongs to the smartphone market. Apps are written for smaller screens and, generally, look pretty bad on 10-inch screens, with a lot of wasted space and/or stretched-out elements. Text almost always looks better on the A700 than the A510, but don't expect graphics to suddenly look much clearer. Android app developers have yet to take advantage of the high screen resolution. The App Store over at Apple offers more than 200,000 apps written specifically for the iPad, many of which are written with the Retina display in mind. The Google Play store, on the other hand, has a small section for recommended tablet apps, and even some of those are made for smartphone screens. There are also alternative app portals, like the Tablified Market?($1.49, 4 stars) or Nvidia's Tegra Zone, that offer well curated, but relatively sparse, selections of tablet apps.

The A700 runs Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with Acer's Ring UI, which is a generally light skin, but further from stock Android than you'll find on Asus tablets. A virtual button at the bottom of the screen brings up the Acer Ring, which presents you with five customizable quick app shortcuts, Web bookmarks, and volume controls. The lock screen also features a ring of four customizable quick app shortcuts. You'll also find Acer Print, which lets you connect to Wi-Fi enabled printers, and the clear.fi DLNA media server for wirelessly pushing media to capable devices like HDTVs. Rounding out some of the more useful apps are Aupeo, an Internet radio app, McAfee Antivirus, and Polaris Office for Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Acer also tweaked the Android browser, adding the ability to display URLs as QR codes for sharing?though I don't know anyone who uses QR codes. One feature missing from the A700's browser, which can be found in the Asus tablets, is the ability to always request desktop sites. You can still check the 'Request Desktop Site' box in the browser's settings, but having to do that every time is pesky.

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Veteran campaigns to adopt bomb-sniffing dog

Former sergeant Logan Black and yellow lab Diego worked together in Fallujah, Iraq, from 2006 to 2007, sweeping for IEDs, ammunition, firearms, grenades and raw bomb materials. Now back home and out of the Army, Black is trying to adopt his old friend.

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Red Hat Summit: Does Innovation Start There?

Jim Sinur
Research VP
2 years at Gartner
42 years IT industry

Jim Sinur is a vice president in Gartner Research after a short stint with a BPM vendor. Prior to that, Mr. Sinur was with Gartner 15 years and helped establish the BPI/BPM areas at Gartner and is considered a thought leader. His research and areas? Read Full Bio

Coverage Areas:

by Jim Sinur ?|? June 27, 2012 ?|? Submit a Comment

Here in Boston, I attended my first day of the Red Hat Summit and came in with a burning question. Is this going to be a ?geek fest? or is there something that business should take notice of now? I do have some answers. First off, there were more business casual folks than ?Linux Penguin T shirt? folks, so I was curious about the innovation that Red Hat was talking about.

Paul Cormier led it off with a comment about ?IT has no right to exist? and then went on to describe how IT infrastructure tools, provided by Red Hat, would make IT better?? Consistent cloud architecture with bottom up bespoke applications running on middleware. Well this is not really new other than it is more open than the other ?buy the stack Jack? proprietary vendors. IT innovation, maybe business innovation; NOT. It?s like having new underwear under the same old clothes. I?m unmoved.

Ifran Kahn from SAP then talked about decision latency that leverages the kind of infrastructure that is needed. It requires high speed over big data sources online in the cloud. Real time insights that requires speed now makes me warm up.

Adam Burden from Accenture then talked about their commitment to 40000 JAVA developers to build, leverage and convert? applications. I would have been fine had Adam talked about Pace Layering leveraging process in a surround strategy, but that didn?t happen. Unmoved again.

I think I?m not going to have a good day. IT, IT & more IT. Then the tone switched to financial performance(really boring, but positive potential for Red Hat) and press announcements on cloud and storage. Still no BPM and business innovation, but I?m hoping for a better rest of the day.? The next sessions are more ?one on ones? with the BPM folks and they went well. The next blog will summarize where the real Red Hat business innovation will come from going forward. It isn?t just open IT infrastructure in the cloud, but? that is a good base to start.

Category: Applications BPM Cloud EA ERP IT Governance Optimization Technology Virtualization ? ? Tags: Decision Management, events

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Gas prices poised to drop below $3 a gallon, as Fourth of July holiday nears

Gas prices in South Carolina are already at $2.98 a gallon, while the national average on Wednesday was $3.38. A decade-high number of travelers could hit the road for the Fourth of July holiday.

By Ron Scherer,?Staff writer / June 27, 2012

A man fills up the tank of his truck at the Ballingers Gas station on Union Ave in Memphis, Tn., on June 26.

Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal/AP

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South Carolina is the first state to see its gas prices drop below $3 a gallon ? the first time a state price has been that low since January.

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AAA, the national motorists? organization, forecasts that within the next week, the Palmetto State, whose average gasoline price is now $2.98 a gallon, might be joined by Mississippi (currently at $3.05 a gallon), Alabama ($3.06), and Tennessee ($3.06) ? just in time for the Independence Day holiday. Prices in those states are dropping by about a penny a gallon per day.

It?s not out of the question that yet other states might crack the $3-a-gallon level by Labor Day.

Nationally, the price has a little further to fall to get below the $3 level. The national price of regular gasoline on Wednesday was $3.38 a gallon, which was 26 cents a gallon lower than a month ago and 18 cents a gallon lower than a year ago, according to AAA.

And the price decline is accelerating, says Michael Green, a spokesman for AAA. ?This is great news as we move into the middle of the summer driving season,? he says.

The falling price of gas is a key reason that AAA predicts a decade-high number of travelers ? some 42.3 million ? on the road for the Fourth of July holiday. This would be up 4.9 percent from last year.

?Declining gasoline prices are motivating a lot of people to get on the road. And because the holiday is on a Wednesday, a lot of people are planning to take off the entire week,? Mr. Green says.

Gas prices are an important factor in how consumers feel about the economy. Many people know how much they paid for their last tank of gasoline. In addition, they see the price advertised at gas stations every day.

Tumbling gasoline prices is one reason that consumer confidence has held up, says chief economist Dennis Jacobe of Gallup, the polling organization.

On Tuesday, the Conference Board, a business research group, reported that its Consumer Confidence Index had fallen modestly for the fourth month in a row.

?Confidence would be a lot lower if not for falling gasoline prices and the benefits they are providing,? says Mr. Jacobe.

If gas prices continue to fall, he says, it should help President Obama and other incumbents. ?Obama gets hurt when they are going up,? he says. ?But he gets the most pickup with an improving economy.?

In theory, the decline in gasoline prices should become a significant economic tail wind this summer, says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody?s Analytics, in an e-mail.

A decline in the price of oil, if sustained, will save households about $35 billion over the coming year, Mr. Zandi estimates. That would be equal to one-third of the payroll tax cut enacted this February.

?And I would expect prices to fall further in coming weeks,? he writes.

However, Zandi says, consumers have not yet decided whether to spend their extra cash because they are worried about their jobs and are wondering what the falling stock market might portend. In May, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off by about 6 percent. It has since had a modest rebound of 1.5 percent.

At the same time, corporations are wary about making new hires until they determine how the European debt crisis and the slowing Chinese economy are affecting their sales.

The global economic slowdown is reflected in the price of oil, which has fallen 27 percent since May 1. A portion of the oil price decline is related to the increasing value of the US dollar as investors flee the euro and invest in US Treasury bills, says Paul Kavanaugh, a senior wealth manager at PFG Best in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

?This is all related to the turmoil in Europe,? Mr. Kavanaugh says. ?The market hates uncertainty, and there is a lot of uncertainty around.?

Oil traders have even ignored the upcoming deadline for Iran to open up its nuclear facilities or face the possibility of total sanctions on its oil exports. According to an estimate by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Iran?s oil production is expected to drop by 850,000 barrels to 2.7 million barrels per day by the end of 2012 because of previous sanctions. The new sanctions could reduce Iran?s production further.

If sanctions against Iran do take place, they will come at a time when the demand for oil is falling. Recently, IHS Global Insight lowered its estimate for world GDP growth by 0.5 percent, which could translate into a reduced demand for oil of 400,000 barrels a day.

On the other hand, the supply of oil is rising. In the United States alone, crude oil production is up by 600,000 barrels of oil per day. ?That growth is mainly from onshore production in oil fields using new technologies,? says Tancred Lidderdale, an energy analyst at the EIA.

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Obama pledges to bring jobs back to US

President Barack Obama stops at The Varsity restaurant, Tuesday, June 26, 2012, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama stops at The Varsity restaurant, Tuesday, June 26, 2012, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama places an order at The Varsity restaurant, Tuesday, June 26, 2012, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama shakes hands with patrons during his visit to The Varsity restaurant, Tuesday, June 26, 2012, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama picks up a boy as he visits The Varsity restaurant, Tuesday, June 26, 2012, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Fulton County, Ga., Chairman John Eaves as Dekalb County, Ga., CEO Burrell Ellis and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed look on, upon Obama's arrival on Air Force One at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Tuesday, June 26, 2012, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Paul Abell)

ATLANTA (AP) ? Sustaining his attacks on rival Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama pledged Tuesday to bring back jobs that have moved overseas and portrayed his challenger as the type of wealthy investor who would pollute, outsource jobs and take down unions to maximize profits.

For the second day in a row, Obama targeted Romney, emphasizing that the contest between them is a choice between ideologies, not a referendum on his own performance.

"The question is not whether we need to put more folks back to work or whether we need to see the economy growing faster or whether we need to bring down our debt," he told a crowd of donors in Atlanta. "The question is how do we do it."

The president built upon his campaign's recent attacks Romney's business record. The Obama team says the private equity firm Romney formerly ran invested in companies that sent jobs to China and India.

"His basic vision is one in which if wealthy investors like him, folks at the very top are freed up from any kind of regulations, if they are maximizing their profits, even if they are polluting more, or offshoring jobs or avoiding taxes or busting union, whatever the strategy is ? if they are doing well, then everybody else is automatically doing well," Obama said.

The president spoke at a 500-person fundraising reception, with ticket prices started at $500 per person. He had additional fundraisers planned later Tuesday in Florida.

His remarks were on the second day of a fund raising trip that comes as Obama and his team raise alarms that Romney and his Republican allies will outspend him during the presidential campaign.

In an e-mail to supporters Tuesday, Obama bluntly stated: "I will be the first president in modern history to be outspent in his re-election campaign, if things continue as they have so far."

The urgent tone is designed to spur more giving. Until last month, Obama had been by far the leading fundraiser in the presidential contest. But Romney, after securing the nomination, has consolidated his support.

Romney raised more than $76 million last month for his presidential campaign and for the GOP, compared to $60 million for Obama and the Democrats. Obama's advisers say they expect Republican-leaning super PACs to pull in $1.2 billion before the election, posing a big-money challenge for the president. Obama has more than $100 million in his campaign account, but Democratic super PACs have struggled to raise money, making it possible that an incumbent president will be outspent.

Obama has now raised the stakes, saying that even without the help of GOP-leaning super PACs, Romney could still outspend him.

Obama was to collect more than $2.3 million at fundraisers in Atlanta and Miami on Tuesday following top-dollar events Monday night in Boston.

"They will spend more money than we have ever seen in American history, and their message is very simple," Obama said Monday in Boston. "They will just tell you that the economy is not where it needs to be, the economy is bad, and it's all my fault."

Obama was holding the fundraisers at the start of a pivotal week for his campaign. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on Obama's health care overhaul law this week, passing judgment on the most significant piece of legislation during his presidency.

The president was holding two fundraisers in Atlanta, followed by two events in Miami Beach, including a performance by singer Marc Anthony.

Associated Press

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Red Cross chief exits after taking on Bush, Bashar

GENEVA (Reuters) - He struck a unique deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, fought what he viewed as excesses in the U.S. "war on terror", compiled reports that exposed U.S. mistreatment of detainees in Iraq, and fought for inmates' rights at Guantanamo.

Jakob Kellenberger, who describes himself as "the negotiator of last resort", steps down on Friday after 12 years as president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The independent aid agency's 12,500 staff perform frontline humanitarian operations, delivering food and medical care in war zones from Syria to Somalia.

Kellenberger's tenure was marked by conflicts triggered by the Sept 11, 2001 attacks and U.S. efforts to capture or kill al Qaeda militants abroad, including by drone attacks. It ends with the prospect of Syria descending into full-blown civil war.

"When I look back, it was a very central issue, the whole issue of what the (President George) Bush administration called the global war on terror," Kellenberger, 67, said in an interview in his office in the ICRC's Geneva headquarters.

"The basic balance between military necessity and humanity and respect for human dignity was broken in some places and in other places it was in serious danger. I had really the feeling that you had to fight against this from the start," he said.

Noting that many of his files relate to fighting in Afghanistan and the Middle East, he added: "It's almost a bit symbolic that it ends with this region, with Syria, but before it was Lebanon, Israel, the (Palestinian) territories."

The Bush administration, which invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 and Iraq in March 2003, openly questioned the relevance of the Geneva Conventions to al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, a challenge to the ICRC which is the guardian of the 1949 rules of war that aim to protect civilians and prisoners of war.

In Afghanistan, the ICRC quickly gained access to visit U.S.-held detainees in Kandahar and Bagram, and to those sent to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, without being charged.

Its confidential reports on U.S. mistreatment of detainees in Iraq, including at Abu Ghraib, appeared in the Wall Street Journal in 2004, sparking an international outcry.

"It was very difficult for us, it was a typical dilemma of confidential issues. What came out after in photos, what became public, was in fact already part of the ICRC reports from visits to Abu Ghraib to the end of 2003 but were confidential reports, for U.S. authorities and nobody else," he said.

CONFIDENTIAL ACCESS

Worldwide, the ICRC visited more than 540,000 detainees last year in 75 countries.

They included Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who was captured on the run in the desert, and former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo.

The only international agency to deliver assistance in Syria, the ICRC has visited prisons in Damascus and Aleppo. It is still seeking access to all detainees held by both sides.

Kellenberger has gone to Syria three times in the past nine months to negotiate better access, and has held two meetings with Assad. The ICRC has said that local civil wars have raged in Hama, Homs and Idlib, but that there is not yet an overall civil war, a view some politicians feel is too qualified.

"I'm really afraid that political efforts will be too slow ... I am afraid that we go down the way to a country-wide internal armed conflict," he said.

On Tuesday, aid workers from the ICRC and Syrian Red Crescent were on their way to Homs to evacuate trapped civilians and wounded from the old city, but negotiations were still under way to secure safe access.

That task now falls to Kellenberger's successor, Peter Maurer, another senior Swiss diplomat, who takes over on July 1.

The ICRC's internal rules stipulate that its interviews with inmates - meant to evaluate their treatment and conditions of detention in a bid to prevent torture - are private. In exchange, the agency only shares its findings with the detaining authorities.

"I do continue to strongly believe that in the long-run confidentiality as a tool remains extremely important to have access to detainees but also to have access to certain regions," Kellenberger said.

"But I have also to admit it is clear that the publication of what happened in Abu Ghraib had large effects, in the good sense. Because I mean in some quarters of the American authorities they became very much aware that there were things to be changed."

Kellenberger, who held talks with George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld on Guantanamo and other issues, said that Washington had been open to discussions, even to "very critical dialogue".

Despite "deep divergences of view on legal and protection matters" the United States never threatened to pull the plug on the ICRC, to which it is a major donor, he said.

Two months ago, Kellenberger held talks with President Barack Obama about concerns over U.S. detainees and other issues.

"That was a very positive meeting. In fact I said to him that I felt very grateful that they were always so supportive even if I was aware that I was a very difficult guy.

"Then he told me, 'Please remain difficult'," he recalled with a laugh. (Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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