iPad Mini Quick Review

Apple’s latest and cheapest iPad offering is out: the iPad mini has been introduced to address two issues that users care about: a smaller form-factor and a new price segment now just above $300. 

After initially dismissing smaller tablets under the direction of Steve Jobs, Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook decided to venture in new waters to counter a growing threat from Google and Amazon who have introduced tablets far below the $499 price of the iPad. At $329, the iPad mini cannot match the pricing advantage of its rivals, but instead, Apple has wowed to add enough value to justify the $129 price difference (64% above the $199 Nexus 7) to prospect iPad mini buyers. In this review, we will go over the pro and cons of the iPad mini to see if that would work for you.

Technical highlights

	iPad mini	iPad 2	iPad 4	Nexus 10	Nexus 7
Display size	7.9	9.7	9.7	10.05	7
Display resolution	1024×768	1024×768	2048×1536	2560×1600	1280×800
Display type	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	Super PLS LCD	IPS LCD
Processor	Apple A5	Apple A5	Apple A6X	Exynos 5250	NVIDIA Tegra 3
Storage GB	16, 32, 64	16	16,32,64	16, 32	16
Battery capacity	16.5Wh	25	43Wh	9000mAh	4325mAh
Camera back MP	5	0.6	5	5	N/A
Camera front MP	1.2	0.3	1.2	1.9	1.2
Weight (lbs)	0.68	1.33	1.43	1.32	0.75
Dimensions (inches)	7.87×5.3×0.28	9.5×7.31×0.34	9.5×7.31×0.37	10.38×6.99×0.35	7.81×4.72×0.41
Price	329	399	499	399	199

Industrial design

The goal of the iPad mini was to introduce a smaller, more portable iPad which addresses both the size and the absolute price of the device. To date, this is the cheapest iPad, although not remotely the cheapest tablet at all. The industrial design of the iPad mini has achieved the goal of producing a smaller, yet functioning iPad. However, there are legitimate questions that users may have and we’ll try to address them here.

From left to right: Kindle HD, iPad mini, Nexus 7

First, the build quality: no photo can tell a proper story, so here’s our take on it: although the overall quality is very high for this segment of the market, I find it to be lower than the iPad 2 or the iPad 3. We’ve worked on this review with the black iPad mini, and I found that the softer touch of the back does not feel as “high-end” as the aluminum from the regular iPad. The black also tends to attract fingerprints at a higher rate than I would have thought, which is not so hot. One important design point: the iPad min is significantly thinner than the Nexus 7 or the Kindle HD.

The iPad mini is thinner than the Nexus 7. No question here.

Secondly, a lot of people are asking if the thin bezels on the left/right can induce accidental touch actions. The answer is ”mostly not”. Apple did a good job of detecting that you are not intentionally pressing the touch display when you hold the device and when your thumb accidentally touches the screen. However, in some cases, apps like Netflix would think that you’re trying to zoom in, and would scale a video. I would not be surprised to see this happen in other apps too. It’s a minor issue for now.

The Apple website shows the iPad mini as a one-handed device in portrait mode, and that’s not how I think of it. The iPad mini is not comfortable at all to hold in portrait mode with one hand as shown by the picture above (I wear “M” men’s gloves, just to give you an idea). 

Apple does a good job preventing accidental touchscreen action in the software

In practice, it’s also not obvious to hold it with one hand from the side because you want to avoid touching the screen with the thumb, even if there are no accidental touch action. I found myself using it with two hands most of the time. To its credit, the new width makes it very easy to thumb-type – we’ll talk about that later.

Other than that, it pretty much has the overall feel of an iPad: the buttons are in the same place, and the camera is too. The speaker is located at the bottom instead of the back, and of course, the iPad mini comes with the new lighting port for which it’s hard to find cheap cables. Just a matter of time, but the prices are ridiculous.

Display (low density, outdated, works “OK”)

Left: the Nexus 7, and right: iPad mini

iPad mini critics have been quick to point out that the iPad mini uses the same resolution than the iPad 2: 1024×768. By today’s standards, it is low-definition (4X less than the iPad 3 and iPad 4). However, many of the same folks were just fine when it was used on the iPad 2. Of course, I can understand that from a specs standpoint, it is lame, especially when $199 tablets like the Nexus 7 have 1280×800 displays.

So why did Apple do this? Simply because iOS and iOS maps don’t handle 1280×800. One of the issues is that apps don’t scale and because iOS uses bitmaps everywhere that won’t scale properly. Apple had to choose between 1024×768 or 2048×1536. The latter was a non-option given the cost and battery requirements, so 1024×768 it is…

The more important question is: “how is it visually”? Well, let’s put it this way: first, it remains the larger of all low-end tablet displays. Secondly, if you thought that the iPad 2 was OK, then this is a bit sharper than iPad 2. it’s not HD, and it’s certainly not high-DPI, but it gets the job done. I hope that I have set your expectations properly.

Killer apps

Note that most of the apps are identical to what you can find on iPad 2. For those who are not familiar with iPad apps, I’ll get into some details here, but if you’ve had an iPad before, you can probably skip this paragraph.

Windows 8 is NOT supported by iTunes today: this may be important if you plan on using your device with a Windows 8 computer, or if you plan on upgrading to Windows 8. While it is possible to install iTunes, the iPad mini will not show up. I’m not sure what’s going on, but no iOS device will show up in iTunes when connected over USB. It seems like one of those idiotic things that Apple has seen coming, and did nothing about. You’ve been warned. 

Virtual keyboard: 

The virtual keyboard is identical to what you may have seen on iPad or iPhone before – no news here. However, the shorter width of the tablet makes it very decent thumb keyboard in portrait mode. In that respect, I prefer typing emails on the iPad mini, even if it comes nowhere close to the Surface RT in terms of overall productivity. In landscape mode, the keyboard is very decent too, but it gets closer to a regular iPad experience.

Email: This is the classic email application from iOS, and I’ve set it up with a Microsoft Exchange server. It works well enough for a secondary machine and I don’t have any particular complaints about it. If you’re going to use it for the first time, you should know that attaching photo/video files can be done by a press and hold gesture, which makes an “insert photo/video” menu option appear. This is really non-intuitive, but once you know it, it’s not so bad.

There’s also a VIP category for your contacts, and I typically use it to get notifications for emails coming from certain contacts. This is handy, although I should really try to sync these over iCloud because right now, I need to rebuild the list for all my devices.

Entertainment (very good)

In virtually every aspect of entertainment, the iPad mini is an iPad 2. The obvious downside is that it is smaller, and keep in mind that the 4:3 aspect ratio of the screen induces big bands on 16:9 movies. That’s a pity because most of the extra surface is wasted when watching anything “cinematic”.

When watching 16:9 movies, a lot of the display surface is wasted with black bands (right: Nexus 7)

Video playback works really well, and it’s not a surprise. With only 0.7M pixels to handle, the video decode is fast and smooth. The iPad mini’s A5 processor can do that easily. As usual, it’s easiest to buy/rent videos from the store, but if you want, it is possible to copy your own movies to the tablet via iTunes, if you can get a format that makes iTunes happy (.mp4 usually works for us).

If you have never used an iPad before, you should know that downloading movies (1GB or SD and about 4GB for HD) can be VERY slow with iTunes. Your luck may vary but I think that it is fair to say that if you plan on downloading 3 or 4 movies before going on a trip, you will need to “prepare” that ahead of time. I Typically download that overnight.

Gaming: Again given that the iPad mini has iPad 2 specs, so all the games that one found great on iPad 2 will work just as well – that’s quite a lot of them. Not the latest technology, but games will routinely work at 30FPS and casual games should not be a problem at all. Now, I would not recommend playing high-end titles like Infinity Blade 2 if you want a decent framerate.

Speaker-quality: the speaker is surprisingly powerful for a device this size, and this is one the area where Apple has done better and better, even it most reviewers think of it as low-key. I believe that audio is 50% of the multimedia experience, so this is a big deal. On the downside, it is pretty clear that the more powerful the speaker gets, and the more it is obvious that the sound is coming from only one side of the device.

Apple has put on some decent spatialization efforts in, but at the end of the day, the sound is coming from the bottom. Newer tablets like the Galaxy Note 10.1 or the Nexus 10 have chosen to place the speakers in the front, which is the best possible spot. However, with a small design, this probably proved too difficult.

Digital Imaging

A photo shot with the iPad mini on a cloudy day

Having digital imaging capabilities really sets the iPad mini apart from the 7″ Android tablets, which have front web chat cameras, but no rear HD camera. With its 5 Megapixel rear camera, the iPad mini can capture 2592 x 1936 still photos or 1080p 30FPS (17Mbps bitrate) mpeg4 videos.

The photos tend to be a bit noisy and slightly over-exposed, but overall, I think that the quality is very decent in absolute terms and I would call it very good for this particular category of tablets. In low-light situations, don’t expect miracles, but again, having an “OK” solution trumps having none at all.

The video pretty much reflects the same observations. The quality is very good in reasonably lit environments, and OK for darker settings.

Battery life

I’m still running some overnight battery depletion tests, but overall, the iPad mini’s battery life reminds me of the iPad 2 battery life, which was excellent. The final numbers have yet to be in, but by the looks of it, users will be pretty happy with it.

Keep in mind that battery life varies a lot depending on the apps that run in the background, your network reception, your local network density and the amount of time that the: display is ON. You can always refer to the Android battery report to see what is consuming the power. Finally, keep in mind that network transactions generated by apps can appear as “Android” as it is ultimately the OS that handles those transactions.

Conclusion: not a slam dunk

The iPad mini is not an obvious choice to make

Although Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs once said “10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps”, Apple has recently seen the light and identified the sub-10” tablet market as viable, compelling and worth fighting for. To that end, the iPad mini was introduced, and at the end of the day, it is simply a small iPad 2 with a better camera.

With a very potent competition priced at $199, the iPad mini ($329) is most definitely not an obvious choice, and how well it will work for you really depends on what you intend to do with it. I’ll cover what I think are the most common cases:

Easy choice: If you don’t care about the budget and like this product, go for it. If you have already used an iPad and you want the same functionality (including front and rear cameras) in a smaller, more portable form-factor: this is a perfect match, just do it. Also, If you are looking for the cheapest iPad, this is it as well, but it’s far from being the best iPad too. 

Intermediate choice: you are familiar with iOS because you own an iPhone, but not an iPad. Should you go for the smaller form factor or the regular 9.7” one? Most people use their tablets at home, so take a minute to think about what you are going to do with it. If it is for home or in-flight entertainment use, the 9.7” version is more expensive but much better in terms of user experience and performance.

Impossible choice: you don’t own a tablet or an iPhone, but want a great tablet for home use or for travel entertainment. If watching movies, listening to music, basic email and web browsing are your main interests, you could get a much better deal with the Google Nexus 10 tablet ($399+) which obliterates the iPad mini for $70 more, or the Google Nexus 7 ($199) which is comparable to the iPad mini for $120 less. For a mere $20 more than the iPad mini, you can get a larger Asus Transformer TF300 tablet. Finally, you can also check Amazon’s Kindle HD devices, if your life revolves around consuming Amazon services.

As always, I hope that this review of the iPad mini gave you a good sense for how it is to use it in the real-world. Thanks for stopping by, and share this page if you liked it!

source:ubergizmo

The 10 most surreal places in the world

I came across a blog by Emiel van den Boomen and find his travel to some of the world most surreal place magnificent. I would love to visit some of them in the future. 

If you think we can add more surreal places to visit, feel free to leave a comment with picture or link. What place do you know is of true surreality?  or what places do you miss on this list? Easter Island, the Star Wars film set in Tunesia, Golden Temple in Kyoto, Red Dunes in Namibia, Grand Canyon? You see, our world is full of surreal places...God's creation is really marvelous!

Just scroll down the list and enjoy the photos. They are just a dream away…

1. Socotra Islands, a small Yemeni archipelago of four islands in the Indian ocean.

2. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia’s stunning salt lakes

3. Plain of Jars, Laos – Carved by hand from solid rock, no one knows for certain who made the jars, what they were used for, or how old they are, although they are thought to be up to 2,500 years old. There are hundreds scattered around the plain of jars.

4. Coastal dunes in the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (Brazil) – A landscape consisting of dunes up to 40 metres high, interspersed with lagoons of clear fresh water which form during the rainy season. The wind from the Atlantic Ocean creates the impressive scenery. 

5. Crystal caves in Naica, Mexico – The cave contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found: translucent gypsum beams measuring up to 36 feet (11 meters) long and weighing up to 55 tons.

6. “NPO Energomash” named after academician V.P.Glushko, a company developing rocket engines for space launch-vehicles. This is an abandoned factory that reminds me of spaceships in movies like Alien.

7. Chand Baori, – A famous stepwell situated in the village Abhaneri near Jaipur in Indian state of Rajasthan. 

8. Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, France.  What you see on the picture are bomb craters from D-day, World War II.

9. Nazca lines Peru. Giant sketches drawn in the desert of western Peru by ancient peoples. Purpose? Nobody knows.

10. Cappadocia, Turkey. A region of exceptional natural wonders, in particular characterized by the fairy chimneys.

Lomo Camera Saves Film Photography

It was a nervous time for film photography when digital cameras took off in the 1990s, and seemed set to take over entirely. But with some help from Vladimir Putin - then deputy mayor of St Petersburg - the little Lomo camera became a retro cult classic, and showed film had a bright future.

In 1991, a group of Austrian art students on a trip to nearby Prague found, in a photographic shop, a curious little camera.

Black, compact and heavy, the camera was rudimentary. The lens was protected by a sliding cover. Loading, focusing and rewinding were all done by hand.

Lomo camera

After developing the shots, the students found it produced pictures unlike anything they had seen before.

The colours were rich and saturated, an effect heightened by the lens's tendency to darken the corners of the frame to create a tunnel-like vignetting effect, and there were dramatic contrasts between light and dark. The Austrians were hooked, and so were their friends when they showed them the results back home in Vienna.

The little camera was the Lomo LC-A - Lomo Kompact Automat, built in Soviet-era Leningrad by Leningrad Optics and Mechanics Association (Lomo) - and very soon a craze was born. It was an analogue Instagram in the days before digital photography.

Lomography

This Lomo craze may have ended up helping save film photography from an untimely end.

In 1992, the students set up Lomographic Society International, exhibiting shots taken on unwanted Lomos they had bought up from all over Eastern Europe.

Then, in the mid-90s, having exhausted the supply of left-over Lomos gathering dust in Budapest, Bucharest or East Berlin, they went to the camera's manufacturers - still making optics in St Petersburg - and persuaded them to restart production. The negotiations were helped along by the support of the city's then deputy mayor, Vladimir Putin.

On Friday 23 November, Lomography is celebrating its 20th anniversary, by starting a series of parties in some of its 36 stores around the world.

The movement's art-school ethos is enshrined in 10 golden rules of Lomography, with an emphasis on spontaneity and experimentation - and a rejection of some of photography's basic laws of composition and focusing. It's common for Lomographers to "cross-process" slide film in negative chemicals, which gives an additional boost to colours and contrast, and to play around with colour filters.

The original LC-A has been joined by a range of other cameras, some of which are redesigns of the LC-A, but there are also various models of plastic-lensed "toy" cameras, the Sprocket Rocket, which exposes the film around the winding sprockets, and the Spinner, which revolves as it shoots, taking a 360-degree picture. The most recent addition is a retro medium-format bellows camera, the Belair.

As former giants like Kodak and Agfa's film ranges have dwindled, Lomography has also rescued old emulsions from extinction or created new ones. There has been much speculation that Lomography may buy the rights to some of Kodak's extinct emulsions if the photography giant - now in bankruptcy protection and likely to focus in future on its printer business - sells off its film division.

It's not the biggest player in the film market, but it's the most vibrant, and it's been there all along - unlike Ilford, which went under, and was resurrected.

Courtesy of Toby Mason

The rise of digital photography is widely supposed to have made film photography redundant. Rather than burn through rolls of film, digital photographers can instantly review and tweak their pics. Lomo cameras have also been derided by some as a fashion accessory, bought by people more concerned with trends than any real love for the art of photography.

Lomography has its celebrity fans, too, from Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood to garage rock band The White Stripes.

Courtesy of Kevin Meredith

When all around us other people are looking for an instant fix, instant results, and images that you just take, look at and delete in a flash, then Lomography is doing something great by going against the grain.

There is also one kind of excitement that most digital photographers have forgotten, or will never experience - the wait for the film to come back from the lab!

Microsoft computer genius dies after epileptic fit aged just 16

Microsoft's youngest professional has died, aged 16.

Condolences have poured in from around the world after the passing of promising young computer genius Arfa Karim Randhawa, from Faisalabad, Pakistan.

The teenager died on Saturday night after complications resulting from an epileptic stroke.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who offered to pay for Karim's treatment, told the family he was sad to learn of her death and the loss of such a rare talent.

Young genius: Arfa Karim Randhawa, from Faisalabad, Pakistan, became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional at the age of nine in 2005

Funeral prayers were offered on Sunday in Lahore before her body was taken to her native village Ram Dewali, Faisalabad for burial.

Karim pictured with Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 2006

Scores of people, including Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, ministers, politicians, friends and Karim's fellow students gathered to support the grieving family during the procession. Karim went into a coma on December 22 after suffering an epileptic attack and cardiac arrest.

She was admitted to treatment at Combined Military Hospital in Lahore and was on life support at the Intensive Care Unit when she suffered a tracheotomy complication on Saturday evening that resulted in bleeding in her throat.

Despite earlier reports of her progress had improved, doctors were unable to save her.

Karim rose to international fame when she became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional - a title awarded to those who master Microsoft programs - at the age of nine in 2005.

After earning the CCP title, Karim was subsequently invited to visit Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington

The company website notes adults often use the certification to further their careers in the tech field.

After earning the certification, Karim was subsequently invited to visit Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington by founder Bill Gates. Karim, then ten, met with Gates and other Microsoft executives during the visit, undoubtedly impressing them with her knowledge of programming at such a young age.

After Karim's hospitalisation, Gates in January reached out to the family and offered to pay for her medical care. It was reported he also proposed moving Karim to the U.S. for better treatment, although doctors decided it was against her best interest given Karim was on a ventilator.

In her honour.

Her father, Amjad Karim, thanked the Microsoft founder for his efforts, and said that his daughter was a spark that 'got attention and love from everyone on the globe.'

The young girl indeed made her country proud, representing Pakistan around the world with her incredible aptitude and skill.

Karim received the Fatimah Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of Science and Technology, presented by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2005, and was also the recipient of the President’s Award for Pride of Performance.

Youths light candles to pay homage to Arfa Karim during a ceremony in her memory held in Peshawar

In November 2006, she was invited by Microsoft to be a part of the keynote session in the Tech-Ed Developers conference in Barcelona. She was the only Pakistani among over 5,000 developers in that conference, themed 'Get ahead of the game'.

A permanent monument is also to be erected in her honour.

The IT Media City in Karachi will be renamed after the computer prodigy, and will now be known as Arfa Karim IT Media City, Karachi.

How to Notice a Difference Between Real and Fake Breasts

Here you will see one really educative video about breast difference...I stumble upon this video when I blog about giant wasp and I find it interesting... I can bet that many time in your life you have argued with your friends about this. But after seeing this video, hope everything will be clear to you ;) Enjoy! but be careful when you try to figure out whether someone's fake or real =)

Giant 'warrior wasp' discovered with jaws longer than its legs

It sounds like a creature envisioned in a B-grade horror movie: a giant, predatory wasp with jaws so large that they drag when it walks. But that's exactly what entomologist Lynn Kimsey of the University of California, Davis, encountered during a recent expedition to the remote Indonesian island of Sulawesi
Dubbed the 'Komodo dragon' of the wasp family, the males of the species measure two-and-a-half inches long.

The warrior wasp was found on the remote Indonesian island of Sulawesi. It has been named 'Garuda' after the part-human, part-eagle mythical beast

Entomologist Lynn Kimsey of the University of California, Davis, encountered the wasps during a recent expedition to the island.
The UC Davis Department of Entomology said they picked the name warrior wasp because of its huge ninja-like mandibles.

The wasp has jaws longer than its legs

Ms Kimsey, who is also director at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, said: 'Its jaws are so large that they wrap up either side of the head when closed. When the jaws are open they are actually longer than the male's front legs. I don't know how it can walk.'
Luckily the species prefers to dine on insects, but if threatened I believe it could leave a sizeable mark on human flesh too.

How the common British wasp (vespula vulgaris) compares to the newly discovered warrior

Ms Kimsey plans to name it 'Garuda' after the part-human, part-eagle mythical beast that is well-known as a national symbol in Indonesia.
The wasp was discovered in the Mekongga Mountains in south-eastern Sulawesi, a little-explored Indonesian island between Borneo and New Guinea.

The male (left) and female (right) wasp

Ms Kimsey described it as one of the world's top three islands for biodiversity alongside Australia and Madagascar.
Aside from gigantic wasps the island is also home to dwarf buffalo called anoa and colonial spiders whose webs can stretch for acres.

Dwarf buffalo, Anoa

Ms Kimsey and a team of researchers have received a five-year, £2.5 million grant to study the island's rich biodiversity.
So far in her three trips to Sulawesi, she estimates that hundreds - maybe even thousands - of new species could be catalogued.
She hopes that the discovery of the warrior wasp and other surprising new creatures will help raise awareness about just how unique and precious the region is.
'There's talk of forming a biosphere reserve to preserve this,' she said. 'There are so many rare and endangered species on Sulawesi that the world may never see.'

Apple to release cheaper iPhone 4 with a smaller memory 'within weeks'

Apple has begun manufacturing a lower-priced version of its phenomenally popular iPhone 4 with a smaller 8GB flash drive.

The flash drive for the 8GB iPhone 4 is being made by a Korean company, a source told Reuters, declining to name the company.

Apple currently sources its flash drives from Japan's Toshiba and South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

Apple, which demands high levels of secrecy and security from suppliers and employees, declined to comment, as did Samsung.

The existing iPhone 4 was first launched in June 2010 with 16GB and 32GB versions, with a white version added to the line-up in April.

The 8GB version is expected to launch within weeks.

Some analysts said the cheaper 8GB iPhone 4 could help Apple boost sales in emerging markets.

Bonnie Chang, an analyst with Yuanta Securities, said: 'Apple may want to push into the emerging market segment where customers want to switch to low to mid-end smartphones from high-end feature phones.

'So Apple will still need a completely new phone with low specifications for the emerging markets.'

In addition to the launch of the smaller iPhone 4, Apple is thought to be launching the iPhone 5 next month.

The new iPhone, which some call the iPhone 4S because of its largely identical appearance to the existing iPhone 4, will have a bigger touch screen, better antenna and an 8-megapixel camera, a source revealed.

The iPhone 5's two manufacturers have been told to prepare production capacity for up to 45million units altogether.

Apple sold 20.34million iPhones in the second quarter and is increasingly looking to Asia to boost future earnings.