Lenovo IdeaTab A2109

The Google Nexus 7 ?and the New Apple iPad ?are our two top-rated tablets, representing the best combinations of price, performance, and features in small- and large-screen sizes. The Lenovo IdeaTab A2109, with an uncommon 9-inch display but a fair $299 (16GB) list price, falls somewhere in the middle. Its solid aluminum build and capable quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor are all well and good, but a chunky form and mediocre screen hold this middle-of-the-road tablet back.

Design and Features
The IdeaTab A2109 is attractively designed, with a brushed aluminum body and distinctive concave edges. But at 9.3 by 6.5 by 0.46 inches (HWD) and 1.26 pounds, it's not exactly sleek. Along the left edge is a 3.5mm headphone jack, a tough-to-slide Orientation Lock switch, and Volume buttons. The bottom panel is bare, while the right side is home to micro USB and micro HDMI ports. Up top is a Power button, and a long plastic strip along the top of the aluminum back houses two speaker grilles and the rear-facing camera. The plastic strip is removable, revealing a microSD card slot, but the flap is very difficult to remove?so much so that it required a small flat head screwdriver to pry open. Once I accessed the slot, my 64GB SanDisk card worked fine to ratchet up the 16GB of onboard storage.?

The 9-inch size is uncommon, with most Android tablets using 7- or 10-inch displays?the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9?is one of the few tablets with a similar sized screen. With a 1,280-by-800-pixel resolution, on paper, the screen is on par with competitors using the same resolution on slightly larger displays. ?It's sharp and bright, but looks like a lower-quality display than the one found on the Asus Transformer Pad TF300, which shares the same resolution, but looks brighter with more vibrant colors.?Also, the screen has a very poor viewing angle, which makes anything off-center look washed out.

For pictures and video, you get a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.?While the cameras will suffice for stills in a pinch,?producing poor images that suffer from considerable noise and general lack of sharpness,?video is almost unuseable.?The rear-facing camera is capable of 1080p, but the resulting video is about as bad as I've seen on a tablet. Frame rates top out at 12 fps outdoors and drop below 10 indoors, with blurry, out of focus, and choppy video.

As far as connectivity, the IdeaTab A2109 is a?Wi-Fi-only tablet that hooks into 802.11b/g/n networks on the 2.4GHz band. There's also Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS on board, both of which worked fine in my tests.?

Performance and Software
Powering the A2109 is Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 processor clocked at 1.2GHz with 1GB RAM. This seems to be the new standard for mid- to high-end Android tablets, which is good, since the chip generally produces fast and responsive performance in all of the devices it powers. The A2109 scored on par with the Nexus 7 in every benchmark, and the tablet felt fast in actual use. Gaming is also solid, and unlike its Qualcomm-powered sibling, the IdeaTab S2110A, it has access to all the exclusive Nvidia gaming titles. It's also much smoother than the S2110A in general, with more polished animations and app transitions. ?

The tablet runs Android 4.0.4 "Ice Cream Sandwich" with the same modifications found on the S2110A. You get the somewhat-gimmicky 3D cube animations, but they're a lot smoother on the A2109. The home screen is populated by various Lenovo widgets, ranging from local weather to calendars and notepads. Preloaded apps include Norton Security, Evernote, Docs To Go, and some games like Cut the Rope HD. And there's a shortcut on the system bar that brings up five options for tweaking the tablet's settings.?

For video, the A2109 supports Xvid, DivX, MPEG4, H.264, and AVI videos at up to 1080p resolution. For audio, MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WAV, and WMA files all played fine. The speakers, while branded with an SRS WOW HD tag, sound weak and lack any substantial bass response.

In our battery rundown test, which loops a video with the screen brightness set to maximum and Wi-Fi switched on, the A2109 lasted an underwhelming 6 hours and 46 minutes. For comparison, the 7-inch Nexus 7 lasted 10 hours, 37 minutes, while the larger screen TF300 lasted 7 hours, 53 minutes on the same test.

Conclusions
The Lenovo IdeaTab A2109 doesn't do enough to stand out. Its unconventional screen size may appeal to those torn between the 7-inch and 10-inch form factors, but the low-quality screen should be a concern. And while it's buoyed by a Tegra 3 chip, its overly thick build makes it less appealing. The $299 price point puts it between the $200 Nexus 7 and the $380 Transformer Pad TF300, both of which I'd recommend over the A2109. Both the Nexus 7 and TF300 offer better screens, thinner designs, and the newest version of Android, 4.1 "Jelly Bean." The A2109 isn't a bad choice per se, but there's really no reason to settle for mediocrity when better options abound.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/zYlzu8oa-Q4/0,2817,2411061,00.asp

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Violence breaks out at Greek anti-austerity demo

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Hundreds of youths pelted riot police with petrol bombs, bottles and chunks of marble Thursday as yet another Greek anti-austerity demonstration descended into violence, less than a month after more intense clashes broke out during a similar protest.

Authorities said around 70,000 protesters took to the street in two separate demonstrations in Athens during the country's second general strike in a month as workers across the country walked off the job to protest new austerity measures the government is negotiating with Greece's international creditors.

A 65-year-old protester suffered a fatal heart attack during the demonstration but efforts to revive him failed. The organizers of the protest march he participated in said the man had fallen ill before any rioting had broken out.

The measures for 2013-14, worth ?13.5 billion ($17.7 billion), aim to prevent the country from going bankrupt and potentially having to leave the 17-nation eurozone.

Riot police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades in the capital's Syntagma Square outside Parliament as protesters scattered during the clashes, which continued on and off for about an hour. Another general strike in late September had also seen limited, but much more intense, clashes between protesters and police.

Four demonstrators were injured after being hit by police, volunteer paramedics said. The Health Ministry said two of the protesters were treated in hospital and that their injuries were not serious.

Hundreds of police had been deployed in the Greek capital ahead of the demonstration, as such protests often turn violent. Police said about 50 people were detained Thursday.

A similar demonstration by about 17,000 people in the northern city of Thessaloniki ended peacefully.

Thursday's strike was timed to coincide with a European Union summit in Brussels later in the day, at which Greece's economic fate will likely feature large.

The strike grounded flights, shut down public services, closed schools, hospitals and shops and hampered public transport in the capital. Taxi drivers joined in for nine hours, while a three-hour work stoppage by air traffic controllers led to flight cancellations. Islands were left cut off as ferries stayed in ports.

Athens has seen hundreds of anti-austerity protests over the past three years, since Greece revealed it had been misreporting its public finance figures. With confidence ravaged and austerity demanded, the country has sunk into a deep economic recession that has many of the same hallmarks of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"We are sinking in a swamp of recession and it's getting worse," said Dimitris Asimakopoulos, head of the GSEVEE small business and industry association. "180,000 businesses are on the brink and 70,000 of them are expected to close in the next few months."

Higher taxes expected to be levied in the new austerity program will destroy many of the struggling businesses that have managed to weather three years of the crisis so far, he said.

"In 2011, only 20 percent of businesses were profitable. So these new tax measures present small businesses with a choice: Dodge taxes or close your shop."

The country is surviving with the help of two massive international bailouts worth a total ?240 billion ($315 billion). To secure them, it has committed to drastic spending cuts, tax hikes and reforms, all with the aim of getting the state coffers back under some sort of control.

But while significantly reducing the country's annual borrowing, the measures have made the recession worse. By the end of next year, the Greek economy is expected to be around a quarter of the size it was in 2008. And with one in four workers out of a job, Greece has, along with Spain, the highest unemployment rate in the 27-nation European Union.

The country's four-month-old coalition government is negotiating a new austerity package with debt inspectors from the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank. The idea is to save ?11 billion ($14.4 billion) in spending ? largely on pensions and health care ? and raise an extra ?2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) through taxes.

After more than a month and a half of arguing, a deal seems close. On Wednesday, representatives from the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, said there was agreement on "most of the core measures needed to restore the momentum of reform" and that the rest of the issues should be resolved in coming days.

Greece is also seeking a two-year extension to its economic recovery program, due to end in 2014. Without the extension, it would need to take ?18 billion worth of measures instead of the ?13.5 it is currently negotiating.

Athens hopes to get the next loan installment around mid-November. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has said the country will run out of cash by the end of that month, meaning Greece would most likely have to default on its debt and potentially end its membership of the euro currency.

___

Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, and Elena Becatoros and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/violence-breaks-greek-anti-austerity-demo-104017376--finance.html

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Victim of fatal Dumaine Street shooting is identified | NOLA.com

The New Orleans coroner's office has identified a man fatally wounded in a shooting in the 2600 block of Dumaine Street late Tuesday. Joshua Short, 25, died at Interim LSU Public Hospital about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, some nine hours after he had been shot in the face, according to coroner's chief investigator John Gagliano.

Tuesday was the local Night Out Against Crime, during which residents in various neighborhoods throughout the New Orleans area met law enforcement officials at events and shared strategies for making their streets safer. One such gathering was organized for the 2600 block of Dumaine Street and was scheduled to last from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., information from the New Orleans Police Department shows.

Short was shot at about 10:30 p.m.

The 2600 block of Dumaine Street, between North Broad and North Dorgenois streets, has become one of New Orleans' most violent street blocks in recent years. There have been at least six killings there since Hurricane Katrina.

Short was among three people shot in separate incidents Tuesday night. In the 14400 block of Peltier Drive, a 75-year-old man exited his car in front of his residence to open the gate when three men armed with handguns approached him and demanded money, NOPD said. The septuagenarian was shot in the left elbow and went to Interim LSU Public Hospital for treatment.

Elsewhere, about 9:45 p.m. in the 2200 block of St. Anthony Street, a 58-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to his left leg. He was taken to Interim LSU Public Hospital in good condition, police said.

Investigators have not discussed many details on suspects or motives in any of these shootings. Anyone with information on the cases is asked to call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll-free at 877.903.7867.

People can also text tips to C-R-I-M-E-S (274637); text TELLCS then the crime information. Callers or texters do not have to give their names or testify and can earn a $2,500 reward for information that leads to an indictment.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Dumaine Street homicide victim's last name was Sharp. In fact, it is Short.

Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/10/victim_of_fatal_dumaine_street.html

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Diet soda may be doing these 7 bad things to your body

Pop quiz! What's the single biggest source of calories for Americans? White bread? Big Macs? Actually, try soda. The average American drinks about two cans of the stuff every day. "But I drink diet soda," you say. "With no calories or sugar, it's the perfect alternative for weight watchers...Right?

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/49469482#49469482

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The Importance Of Saint Petersburg Drivers ... - Wilsey Auto Service

Today in our Wilsey Auto Service, Inc blog, we?re going to talk about following recommended service intervals. Your SUV isn?t the only aspect of your life in Saint Petersburg with recommended intervals: Let?s start with twice yearly dental cleaning. And physical exams. How about laundry, mowing the lawn and paying the bills?

Now, what would happen if you didn?t follow these intervals? Well, you?d get more cavities. You?d probably not become aware of health issues that benefit from early detection and treatment. And you?d have to wear dirty clothes, be embarrassed by your overgrown lawn and have your utilities shut off.

We all realize there are some things in life that we have to take care of regularly. If we don?t, there are negative consequences. Our quality of life takes a hit and it inevitably costs more money.

So why is it so hard to remember to follow regular preventive maintenance on our SUVs? Probably a couple of reasons. One is that automotive maintenance items just don?t seem that urgent. Everyone in Saint Petersburg can see our dirty shirt, but no one knows how dirty our transmission fluid is. It?s easy to put off. The other reason is that we?re just not as familiar with automotive maintenance, so it?s a bit intimidating.

From a practical standpoint, Saint Petersburg people don?t need to memorize their SUV owner?s manuals. You can let your Wilsey Auto Service, Inc advisor remind you of the manufacturer?s recommendations: he has checklists of what the manufacturer recommends and can find potential problems when he inspects your SUV. You really can rely on Wilsey Auto Service, Inc professionals to help you make good car care decisions.

For Saint Petersburg drivers who want to be more proactive with their SUV care, here are some simple ways to remember what has a maintenance interval.

First: Fluids. If it?s liquid, it?s got a replacement schedule. Oil, transmission fluid, coolant, power steering fluid, brake fluid, differential fluid, etc.

Then think tires. They need air, rotation, balancing, and alignment. And while you?re thinking tires, think brakes and shock absorbers.

And what makes your SUV go? Air and fuel. Air filter replacement, fuel filters and fuel system cleaning. Of course there are more items, but if Saint Petersburg car owners remember to take their car or truck in to Wilsey Auto Service, Inc for these things, their service advisor will help them with the rest.

And if you don?t follow recommended service intervals? You use more gas, your SUV doesn?t perform as well, your safety is compromised and you?ll spend more money in the long run. So it?s the same as everything else: The quality of your motoring life takes a hit and it ends up costing you more.

Reason enough for me to follow recommended service intervals.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2012 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Maintenance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://wilseyauto.autovideotipsblog.com/2012/10/18/the-importance-of-saint-petersburg-drivers-following-service-intervals/

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Ask the Lawyer: Defense Available for Troops Unknowingly Absent from Military

By Mathew B. Tully

Q. What happens if you?ve been AWOL for a long time without knowing it?

A. It?s not common, but it does happen: Service members unknowingly fall into absence without leave or deserter status.

Such situations sometimes arise after a service member gets in trouble off base and leaves civilian confinement.

In such instances, troops may be able to raise a mistake-of-fact affirmative defense. To understand how this defense plays into AWOL and desertion, it?s important to understand the nature of these crimes.

AWOL is a general intent crime, where a service member is not where he is supposed to be at a given time. Desertion is a specific intent crime, where the service member is not where he is supposed to be at a given time but has a specific intent to stay away from the military.

As the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals noted in U.S. v. Campbell (1986), the mistake-of-fact defense can be raised by service members when an honest, mistaken belief led to a specific intent crime, such as desertion.

A service member must have had both an honest and reasonable mistaken belief to raise this defense in a general intent crime, such as AWOL. This is because, the court continued, the ?ignorance or mistake must have existed in the mind of the accused and must have been reasonable under all the circumstances.?

The Campbell case involved a Navy Reserve sailor who was convicted by special court-martial of desertion for 9? months and of AWOL for five days.

The sailor had left his ship without authorization shortly after Christmas and was apprehended by civilian law enforcement officers about 10 months later.

Thirty days into his unauthorized absence, his shipmates told the sailor that he had been discharged in absentia from the Navy ? which was a mistaken belief shared by his command.

Considering what the sailor?s shipmates told him and the fact that he continued living and working in the local community openly ? as opposed to going into hiding ? the court concluded the sailor had a valid mistake-of-fact defense that the government failed to rebut.

However, the court upheld the AWOL conviction because the sailor did not have a mistaken belief when he initially left his ship without authorization.

Regardless of the length of absence from the military, service members who are AWOL or listed as deserters should consult with a military law attorney who can help them explore possible affirmative defenses, such as mistake-of-fact or duress.

Mathew B. Tully is an Iraq War veteran and founding partner of the law firm Tully Rinckey PLLC. Email questions to askthelawyer@militarytimes.com. The information in this column is not intended as legal advice.

Source: http://www.tullylegal.com/articles/ask-the-lawyer-defense-available-for-troops-unknowingly-absent-from-military/

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Middleboro Remembers: 3 Developers Salivate to Invade Springfield

PENN NATIONAL GAMING

A rendering shows the proposed casino plan from Penn National Gaming.

Three well-known casino ?developers met Thursday?s deadline to submit a formal proposal and a $50,000 fee to the City of Springfield and will compete for the city?s support in pursuit of ?casino development rights in Western Massachusetts.

MGM Resorts, Penn National Gaming, and Ameristar will battle for the city?s favor, each proposing a gambling resort development approaching $1 billion.

Hard Rock International, which had expressed interest in Springfield and pursued land downtown, did not submit a proposal and will not compete in the city.

The 2011 state casino law ?allots one resort casino license for Western Massachusetts. In addition to the three companies in Springfield, the operators of the Mohegan Sun casino in ?Connecticut have proposed a ?resort in Palmer. The state gambling commission will eventually decide which project will be ?licensed.

Mayor Domenic Sarno has set up a local contest to evaluate the casino projects in Springfield. His administration set the Thursday deadline for casino operators to submit financial information about their companies and rough outlines of their projects. The city will demand more detailed information about each project later, and Sarno is expected to choose one or two winners with whom to negotiate the terms by which the city would agree to host a gambling ?resort.

The host agreements would then need the endorsement of local voters in separate ballot questions before the winning companies may apply to the gambling commission for a state license.

Also on Thursday, Penn ?National released details and an artist rendering of its proposed $807 million casino and entertainment complex in Springfield?s north end. The cost estimate is just slightly higher than the $800 million proposed in August by?MGM, which wants to build in the city?s south end. Penn denied any intentional one-upmanship, though the size of the investment will be an important factor in the public campaign to win support for each project.

?Our proposed $807 million destination casino resort will be the centerpiece of a ?revitalization of the city and bring thousands of new permanent jobs, significant union construction jobs, and millions of tax dollars to the ?region,?? company chairman Peter Carlino said.

Penn National?s proposal calls for 3,000 to 3,500 slot machines, poker rooms, up to 100 live table games, and a ?hotel with 300 to 500 rooms. The plan would create new restaurants, a spa, parking ?garage, and up to 45,000 square feet of meeting and convention space. The complex would be called Hollywood Casino Springfield.

Penn, in partnership with Peter Picknelly, a Springfield businessman and operator of Peter Pan Bus Lines, plans to build on 13.4 acres near the city?s downtown. The development would include land now occupied by?The Republican newspaper,?which would relocate if the project wins a ?license. The newspaper?s current building would then be torn down.

The newspaper?s publisher, George Arwady, said in a Globe interview Thursday that the paper will not be an investor or owner in the casino proposal. ?Our main function is to get out of the way,? he said. ?We are selling the property, pure and simple.?

Terms of the possible sale have not been released. ?Arwady said the newspaper has a ?handshake agreement? to sell and is still negotiating a formal option deal for the sale of its building and land.

Penn irked fellow competitor Ameristar in its announcement, by saying the company would be willing to help develop the 41 acres Ameristar owns in east Springfield, where Ameristar proposes its casino resort.

?If Ameristar is not successful, we?d want to step up,? said Eric Schippers, a Penn National spokesman. ?We have ?offered to bring in a third party to revitalize that site.?

?That should be fairly easy to do,? shot back Troy ?Stremming, an Ameristar ?senior vice president, ?given our great location and easy ?access from the highway,?

On Thursday, Ameristar ?released some details of its proposal: a $910 million development with 3,300 slot ?machines, 110 table games, a 500-room hotel, parking for 4,300 cars, plus restaurants, a spa, pools, and meeting space.

The company will reveal further details and renderings soon, Stremming said.

Source: http://middlebororemembers.blogspot.com/2012/10/3-developers-salivate-to-invade.html

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