Apple's new iPad

The iPad's new screen is a stunner. That's really all you need to know about the new iPad (yes, that's the name). That, and a reminder that pricing still starts at $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi model, with 4G starting at $629.

Forget all of the minor tweaks and incremental updates Apple has made to its third-generation tablet. The faster processor, the upgrade to 4G data, the improved camera--it's all housekeeping. It's the stuff it had to do. It's the stuff any manufacturer could have done.

Now, increasing the iPad's screen resolution to 2,048x1,536 pixels that exceeds any current tablet or laptop--that's a move only Apple has the scale and industry muscle to pull off.

The tablet's glass and aluminum construction is still 9.5 inches tall and 7.31 inches wide. Thickness is now 0.37 inch, weighing in at 1.5 pounds. You get the same home button on the bottom of the screen, and a volume rocker on the right side along with the mute switch/rotation lock. Up top you have the sleep/wake button and headphone output, and the bottom edge retains the 30-pin port.

Apple knocked the camera quality up to 5-megapixel with 1080p video recording and backside illumination. The front-facing camera remains the same.


The screen

The new screen packs 2047×1536 pixels, or twice the resolution of the iPad 2. While this resolution is essentially the 3:4 aspect ratio equivalent of the widescreen 1080p (1920x1080px) format, Apple is right to tout that an iPad packs many more pixels than even 1080p devices do. Supposedly this will improve the viewing experience dramatically, as demonstrated by Apple many times, though we played with a high-resolution Asus Transformer Infinity recently and didn’t notice too much of a leap. However, that was not iOS and not an iPad.


Apple is also bringing back the term “Retina display,” which was used to describe the 960×640 pixel resolution of the iPhone 4 and 4S. However, the scale for what constitutes a “retina display” has slid downward with the marketing. While the iPhone 4 has a 326ppi (Pixels Per Inch) display, which means that a normal person (said Steve Jobs) wouldn’t be able to distinguish pixels at 10 inches away). The new iPad may have a much higher resolution, but it’s also a much larger screen, giving it a 264 ppi.

iPhoto comes to Apple's third-generation iPad. A Facebook update is no more convenient on an iPad 3 than on any smartphone, but the Maps app on the iPad confers a feeling of omnipotence no other mobile device can match. Games, movies, photos, and magazines all take on a realism that seems almost absurd on a handheld device. It's only a matter of time before someone gets motion sickness from this thing. 

 

What else is new?

The iPad's processor has been upgraded to an A5X. While the CPU remains dual-core, the graphics processor has been beefed up to quad-core. This seems to be a necessary measure for juggling four times the pixels of the previous model.

We never thought the idea of Siri on the iPad was as natural a fit as it is for the iPhone. Luckily, Apple feels the same way. While Siri won't be coming to the iPad, voice dictation will. That said, voice dictation on a tablet still strikes us as weird.we are assuming that you won't jog with your iPad and want to transcribe your every brilliant utterance, the way you would with an iPhone. Also, if someone asks you where to find great Thai food nearby, your phone is likely to be your first point of reference. Still, voice dictation is a welcome addition, and we suspect it will come in handy for dictating e-mails and bypassing the touch-screen keyboard when searching for information online.

Bluetooth 4.0 is another feature that has trickled over from the iPhone 4S. With it comes the promise of one-touch pairing, and huge improvements in battery efficiency.

And finally, for all of you jet-setting, mobile-data-devouring types, the iPad is now available in a 4G LTE model. Prices for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB come in at $629, $729, and $829, respectively.


What's missing?

As far as disappointments go, Apple could have been more aggressive with its processor performance, or perhaps brought the iPad's cameras up to iPhone 4S specs. Perhaps it could have gone thinner or done more to extend its lead in battery life, which Apple claims is still 10 hours, or 9 hours on 4G.

Heck, let's also throw in the age-old complaints about Apple's reluctance to include microSD memory expansion, a dedicated port for video output, or a truly universal charging connection. Oh yeah, and Adobe Flash support while you're at it.

Sources:
http://news.cnet.com/
http://www.digitaltrends.com
http://beta.techradar.com
http://mashable.com

Hackers seized control of NASA computers

Hackers targeting sensitive NASA computers have gained access to employee credentials and taken control of systems at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, among other things, a federal report says.

The space agency's inspector general, Paul K. Martin, cited one case involving hackers with IP addresses in China. In that case, intruders gained "full system access" to change or delete sensitive files and user accounts for "mission-critical" systems at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he said in a report issued this week."In other words," Martin said, "the attackers had full functional control over these networks."

In another attack, hackers stole credentials for about 150 NASA employees, the report said.NASA reported that it was the target of 47 sophisticated cyberattacks - the report calls them "advanced persistent threats" - in 2011. Thirteen of those 47 attacks successfully compromised NASA computers.

"The individuals or nations behind these attacks are typically well organized and well funded and often target high-profile organizations like NASA," Martin said in his report, titled "NASA Cybersecurity: An Examination of the Agency's Information Security."

In total, the space agency reported 5,408 incidents "that resulted in the installation of malicious software on or unauthorized access to its systems" in 2010 and 2011. "These incidents spanned a wide continuum from individuals testing their skill to break into NASA systems, to well-organized criminal enterprises hacking for profit, to intrusions that may have been sponsored by foreign intelligence services seeking to further their countries' objectives," Martin said.

NASA has conducted 16 investigations over the last five years that led to the arrests of foreign nationals from China, Great Britain, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and Estonia.

These intrusions "have affected thousands of NASA computers, caused significant disruption to mission operations, and resulted in the theft of export-controlled and otherwise sensitive data, with an estimated cost to NASA of more than $7 million," the report said.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk

http://security.blogs.cnn.com