The Pirate Bay Will Promote the Winners

Within the past few months, not only anti-piracy outfits have been hunting The Pirate Bay. The entertainment industry strongly believes that the website is just a group of pirates who are doing nothing else than downloading illegal content. However, the largest BitTorrent tracker in the world is proving different by announcing a contest to promote indie artists.

Frequent users of the tracker might have noticed that the pirates sometimes replace their front page logo with others, either linking to interesting political news about online censorship or to some independent artists they like. Now The Pirate Bay decided to improve this feature and asked everyone to send them an email and tell them what they have and where they want it to be shown.
Using their front page, The Pirate Bay is going to promote musicians, film companies, comedians, and others. The contest page, called The Promo Bay, encourages people around the globe to send their submissions, by sending a logo of their online resource and its link. The tracker will then link to the selected submission’s page and post their logo to its own front page.
In other words, the entire idea is that the pirates will allow their creative users to borrow the TPB’s homepage for a couple days, in a few countries. The front page will show their logo that will lead to the Bandcamp, YouTube channel or site. According to The Pirate Bay, there are too many undiscovered musicians out there while there’s too much crap flooding the top charts. Thus they provide everyone a chance to be discovered by the world. The rules of the contest are easy: The Pirate Bay addressed some cautionary words for people who want to submit logos and links, saying that on their website, the applicants must have their songs or videos or anything else available for download or streaming.
The BitTorrent tracker is OK with people trying to sell CDs and shirts if they want to, but the entire idea of the contest is not just about making them rich. The rules demand that the participants offer easy access to their works, without any conditions such as likes on Facebook to be able to listen. The pirates believe that public should be offered a simple and easy play button for the musicians’ works.
This move is considered worldwide as one of the many steps which could encourage more and more content creators to accept digital distribution and other alternative methods to promote their works. Tech.li pointed out that The Pirate Bay received about 5.000 entries.

MegaUpload Trial May Never Happen

The US authorities were told that the criminal charges against MegaUpload’s owner Kim Dotcom may never get to trial in their country: according to New Zealand judge, the efforts of American authorities to extradite Kim are fruitless.

Liam O’Grady, the federal judge, has commented at a hearing over the cyberlocker’s content, saying that he frankly didn’t know whether they were ever going to have a trial in that matter. In fact, the American authorities have failed to formally serve New Zealand’s court of law with criminal papers, as the local media points out.

Meanwhile, Kim Dotcom’s attorneys explain that this new development may shelf the extradition case. Indeed, this wasn’t the first time that paperwork mistakes were made – New Zealand’s authorities seized the MegaUpload’s owner’s property without giving proper notice. Although this error was formally corrected a few days ago, the issue of serving papers to extradite Kim in the United States is just another embarrassing error. The federals’ lack of service meant the cyberlocker was “kind of hanging out there”, according to the judge.

Kim Dotcom’s attorneys claim that the FBI haven’t done this just because they can’t. MegaUpload’s lawyers do not believe that the service can be served in a criminal matter as it isn’t located within the jurisdiction of the United States at the first place. They confirm that a key defense against extradition was the claim by the owner of the service and others that they were charged with offenses that weren’t covered by the law on extradition.

In response, prosecutor Jay Prabhu told during Virginia court hearing that it might not matter, because Kim Dotcom owned 68% of MegaUpload. Meanwhile, there are still legal negotiations being held about returning jewelry and personal effects belonging to Dotcom’s wife.

ACTA in America and Europe

ACTA is an international treaty meant to enforce existing copyright legislation on a broader scale. The agreement itself is regarded by many as an offense to people’s democratic rights, because it bypasses all existing laws related to your privacy online, while lacking any meaningful input from national parliaments or their citizens.

Last October, U.S. Trade Ambassador signed the treaty during a ceremony in Tokyo. Since 2008, the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office has been trying to convince the people that the treaty was initially negotiated as a “sole executive agreement” under the President’s power to conclude agreements over issues delegated to the President which won’t need the Congress’ review or approval. However, this kind of thinking was criticized by famous U.S. Constitutional Law professors and the Electronic Frontier Foundation on several occasions. In addition, Senator Ron Wyden also raised a number of problems in his letter to the President. He pointed out that the statement by the U.S. Trade Ambassador actually confuses the issue by conflating two separate steps of the process needed for binding the United States to international agreements, the first of them being entry, and the second – implementation. Although it may be possible for the country to enforce the treaty, once validly entered, without legislation, if it doesn’t imply any change in U.S. law, the ACTA’s executive branch still doesn’t have constitutional authority to enter a binding international agreement that covers issues being delegated by the Constitution to Congress’ authority, absent congressional approval.

If the agreement is regarded as a treaty, it would need the approval of 2/3 of the Senate to be ratified. A suggestion to negotiate the treaty as a sole executive agreement can be regarded as an act of abusing power.

This February the Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted a FOIA request to the county’s State Department, seeking a copy of the “Circular 175” memorandum for the treaty, and the accompanying Memo of Law, which generally includes a discussion and justification of the designation of the suggested agreement.

Taking all this into account, you should understand that ACTA is still a matter of huge importance for both America and other European countries involved into negotiations.

Piracy Religion Crossed into America

21st century has shown a few cargo cults whose believers were people looking for god in the form of technology. On top of them you will find Apple, with its worship of Steve Jobs and its swirling queues around sacred places of worship (apparently, Apple stores).

Nevertheless, a new religion is now rising up to challenge Apple in its own latte belt. The talk is about the Swedish “online piracy religion”, which is now seeking official recognition in America. Calling itself “Kopimism”, the religion says that any act of copying data is sacred and therefore can’t be limited by any human legislation.

It was introduced back in 2010 to a 19-year-old philosophy student named Isak Gerson. Unlike other religions that have crucifixes, Kopimism holds Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V as sacred symbols. As for the name of the religion, it was inspired from a mistranslation of 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Copy me, my brothers, just as I copy Christ himself”. Actually, the original verse really says “follow me” instead of “copy me”, but it seems that Koptics haven’t read the rival religion’s texts.

Meanwhile, Kopimism has already set branches in eighteen counties, and has recently been registered in Illinois, USA. The American branch of the church is now doing its best to get federal recognition and tax status.

This may appear a bit tricky, provided that the United States is considered by many the home of the Great Satan of Kopism – pro-copyright industry. Entertainment industry is the key persecutor of all pirates, and the religion believes that if it had its way, all pirates would have been crucified in public places.

The American branch is led by Christopher Carmean, a student at the University of Chicago. He has told the local media that almost 500 people have already registered in his church, while 30 of them are already actively participating in congregations. Although there haven’t appeared to be any martyrdoms, it’s still early days yet.

Although the religions usually need a founder (most preferably if he or she dies while carrying his or her mission), and even Apple is still leading the pack on that one, Kopimism doesn’t have any.

In the European Union, the Pope is the biggest enemy of Kopism, claiming that this religion was a send up of religion, of copyright and of the government to register such an outfit as religious.

নকিয়াকে টপকে শীর্ষে স্যামসাং

সম্প্রতি স্ট্র্যাটিজি অ্যানালিটিক্স জানিয়েছে, প্রথমবারের মতো বিশ্বের সবচেয়ে বেশি মোবাইল ফোন বিক্রি করে নকিয়াকে টপকে গেছে দক্ষিণ কোরিয়ান কোম্পানি স্যামসাং। খবর রয়টার্স-এর।

সূত্র জানিয়েছে, নকিয়া টানা ১৪ বছর শীর্ষস্থানীয় হ্যান্ডসেট প্রস্তুতকারকের স্থানে থাকলেও সম্প্রতি স্যামসাং ওই স্থানটি দখল করে নিয়েছে। গত তিন মাসের হিসেবে স্যামসাং মোবাইল বিক্রি হয়েছে ৯ কোটিরও বেশি। এতে পুরো বিশ্বের মোবাইল ফোন মার্কেটের ২৫.৪ শতাংশই চলে গেছে স্যামসাং-এর হাতে।

অন্যদিকে এই সময়ে নকিয়া বিক্রি করেছে ৮ কোটির কিছু বেশি মোবাইল ফোন। তাদের শেয়ার ছিল ২২.৫ শতাংশ। একইসঙ্গে গ্লোবাল মোবাইল ফোন মার্কেটে অ্যাপলের শেয়ার ৯.৫ শতাংশ বলে জানিয়েছে স্ট্র্যাটিজি অ্যানালিটিক্স।

এখন জিমেইল ১০ গিগা

সম্প্রতি বিনামূল্যে জিমেইল ব্যবহারকারীদের অ্যাকাউন্টের ধারণ ক্ষমতা বাড়িয়ে ১০ গিগাবাইট করেছে সার্চ জায়ান্ট গুগল। গুগলের ক্লাউড স্টোরেজ সেবা গুগল ড্রাইভের উদ্বোধন উপলক্ষেই ব্যবহারকারীদের জিমেইলে এই বাড়তি জায়গা দিয়েছে তারা। খবর দি নেক্সট ওয়েব-এর।

সূত্র জানিয়েছে, এর আগে যে কেউ বিনামূল্যে জিমেইলে অ্যাকাউন্ট তৈরি করে প্রায় সাড়ে সাত গিগাবাইট জায়গা পেতেন। গুগল তা সম্প্রতি ৩৩ শতাংশ বাড়িয়ে ১০ গিগাবাইট করেছে। জিমেইলের লগইন পেইজেই বরাবরের মতো এই তথ্য দিয়ে রেখেছে গুগল।

দি নেক্সট ওয়েব বলছে, গুগল ড্রাইভের পাশাপাশি জিমেইলের এই বাড়তি জায়গাও ক্লাউড স্টোরেজ হিসেবে ব্যবহার করা সম্ভব। কেবল একটি ফাইল অ্যাটাচমেন্টে জুড়ে দিয়ে নিজের ঠিকানায় ইমেইল করলেই তা ক্লাউডে সংরক্ষিত থাকবে। অর্থাৎ, কেবল জিমেইল আর গুগল ড্রাইভ থাকলেই যে কেউ ১৫ গিগাবাইট জায়গা একেবারে বিনামূল্যে পেয়ে যাচ্ছেন। সেই সঙ্গে ইউটিউব আর গুগল প্লাসে ভিডিও ও ছবির জন্য সীমাহীন জায়গা তো রয়েছেই।

আকাশছোঁয়া মুনাফার ঘোষণা দিলো অ্যাপল

সম্প্রতি ক্যালিফোর্নিয়ার কোম্পানি অ্যাপল চলতি বছরের প্রথম তিনমাসে বিরাট অংকের লাভের ঘোষণা দিয়েছে। এই মুনাফা গত বছরের তুলনায় বেড়েছে শতকরা ৯৪ ভাগ। জানা গেছে, এই ঘোষণার সঙ্গে সঙ্গেই শেয়ারবাজারে অ্যাপলের শেয়ার মূল্য সাত শতাংশ বেড়ে গেছে। খবর টাইম ম্যাগাজিন-এর।

সূত্র জানিয়েছে, চলতি বছরের মার্চ পর্যন্ত তাদের আয়ের অঙ্ক ছাড়িয়ে গেছে ১১শ’ কোটি ডলার। মাত্র এক বছর আগেও এই অঙ্ক ছিল ছয়শ’ কোটি ডলার। এ ছাড়া কোম্পানির নিট লাভও গত বছরের তুলনায় ৫৯ শতাংশ বেড়েছে। একইসঙ্গে শেয়ার প্রতি দাম বেড়ে দাঁড়িয়েছে ১২.৩০ ডলারে। এক বছর আগেও এই দাম ছিল ৬.৪০ ডলার।

টাইম জানিয়েছে, গত তিন মাসে অ্যাপল সাড়ে তিন কোটিরও বেশি আইফোন বিক্রি করেছে। অন্যদিকে আইপ্যাড বিক্রি করেছে এক কোটির কিছু বেশি। অন্যদিকে প্রায় ৪০ লক্ষ ম্যাক কম্পিউটারও এই তিনমাসে বিক্রি করেছে অ্যাপল।

বিশ্লেষকদের সঙ্গে এক কনফারেন্স কলে অ্যাপলের সিএফও পিটার ওপেনহাইমার জানিয়েছেন, বিশ্বের সবচেয়ে বড় দেশ চীনে আইফোনের বিক্রি গত বছরের তুলনায় পাঁচগুণ বেড়েছে। গত তিনমাসে কেবল চীনেই আইফোন বিক্রি থেকে আয় হয়েছে প্রায় নয়শ’ কোটি ডলার।

অ্যান্ড্রয়েড ও ক্রোম প্রযুক্তির লাইসেন্স মাইক্রোসফটের!?

সম্প্রতি মাইক্রোসফট জানিয়েছে, তারা তাইওয়ানের অন্যতম বৃহত্তম ইলেকট্রনিক্স সামগ্রী প্রস্তুতকারক কোম্পানি পেগাট্রনের সঙ্গে চুক্তি করেছে। এর ফলে গুগল-চালিত অ্যান্ড্রয়েড এবং ক্রোমে ব্যবহৃত প্রযুক্তির লাইসেন্স করে নিয়েছে প্রতিদ্বন্দ্বী এই প্রতিষ্ঠানটি। খবর ম্যাশএবল-এর।

সূত্র জানিয়েছে, গুগলের পণ্য হওয়ার পরও এতে মাইক্রোসফটের পেটেন্ট ব্যবহার হওয়ার বিষয়টি অনেককেই অবাক করতে পারে। কিন্তু অ্যান্ড্রয়েড অপারেটিং সিস্টেম ও গুগল ক্রোম ব্রাউজারে ব্যবহৃত একাধিক প্রযুক্তিই সরাসরি মাইক্রোসফটের পেটেন্ট করা। আর এসবের কল্যাণে প্রতি বছর অ্যান্ড্রয়েড ও ক্রোম থেকে মাইক্রোসফটের পকেটে যাচ্ছে লাখ লাখ ডলার।

পেগাট্রন তাওয়ানের অন্যতম ইলেকট্রনিক্স ডিভাইস প্রস্তুতকারক যারা অ্যাপল, এইচপি, এইচটিসি ইত্যাদি বিভিন্ন কোম্পানির পণ্য অ্যাসেম্বল করে থাকে। মাইক্রোসফটের সঙ্গে স্বাক্ষরিত নতুন চুক্তির প্রভাব পড়বে এই কোম্পানির তৈরি করা যে কোনো অ্যান্ড্রয়েড অথবা ক্রোম-চালিত ই-রিডার, ট্যাবলেট এবং স্মার্টফোনে। ম্যাশএবল জানিয়েছে, এর ফলে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রে ব্যবহৃত সব অ্যান্ড্রয়েড ডিভাইসের ৭০ শতাংশ চলে আসবে মাইক্রোসফটের লাইসেন্সে।

তবে এই চুক্তি সম্পর্কে বিস্তারিত তথ্য দু’পক্ষের কেউই জানায়নি

৯ জুলাই বিচ্ছিন্ন হচ্ছে ইন্টারনেট সংযোগ!

সম্প্রতি জানা গেছে, জুলাইয়ের ৯ তারিখে বিশ্বব্যাপী হাজার হাজার কম্পিউটারের ইন্টারনেট সংযোগ বিচ্ছিন্ন হয়ে যেতে পারে। পিসি ওয়ার্ল্ডের বরাত দিয়ে ম্যাশএবল এই খবর জানিয়েছে।

সূত্র মতে, পিসি এবং ম্যাক কম্পিউটারের জন্য ২০০৭ সালে ছড়িয়ে পড়া এক ট্রোজানের কারণে জুলাইয়ের ৯ তারিখে ইন্টারনেট থেকে বিচ্ছিন্ন হয়ে পড়তে পারে হাজার হাজার মানুষ। ডিএনএস চেঞ্জার নামের এই ট্রোজান মূলত আক্রান্ত কম্পিউটারের ইন্টারনেট সেটিংস পরিবর্তন করে ফেলে। এর ফলে কোনো ওয়েবসাইটে ঢোকার সময় সঠিক ঠিকানা চাপলেও ট্রোজান যারা তৈরি করেছে তাদের ডিএনএস সার্ভার হয়ে ওয়েবসাইট আসে। এতে করে হ্যাকাররা ইচ্ছেমতো আক্রান্ত কম্পিউটারের ব্যবহারকারীকে তাদের ওয়েবসাইটে পাঠিয়ে দিতে পারবে।

ম্যাশএবল জানিয়েছে, গোয়েন্দা সংস্থা এফবিআই অনেকদিন আগেই এই ট্রোজান যারা তৈরি করেছে তাদের গ্রেফতার করেছে। একইসঙ্গে তাদের ডিএনএস সার্ভারগুলো বন্ধ করে দিয়েছে। কিন্তু প্রচুর কম্পিউটার এই ট্রোজানে আক্রান্ত হওয়ায় এফবিআই ব্যাকআপ হিসেবে নিজেরাই কিছু সার্ভার বসিয়েছে। 

ট্রোজানের সার্ভার বন্ধ করে দেয়া হলেও সূত্র জানিয়েছে, এখনও বিশ্বব্যাপী হাজার হাজার ম্যাক ও উইন্ডোজ কম্পিউটারে এই ট্রোজান রয়েছে। এফবিআই-এর ব্যাকআপ সার্ভারের মাধ্যমেই ডিএনএস রাউটিং এখন পর্যন্ত ঠিকঠাকভাবে চলছে। তবে জুলাইয়ের ৯ তারিখ এফবিআই এসব সার্ভার বন্ধ করে দিচ্ছে। ফলে ট্রোজান আক্রান্ত কম্পিউটারগুলো সঙ্গে সঙ্গেই ইন্টারনেট থেকে বিচ্ছিন্ন হয়ে পড়বে।

সূত্র জানিয়েছে, মাত্র চার মাসের জন্য এফবিআই ডিএনএস সার্ভারগুলো চালু করা হলেও আদালতের নির্দেশে সেগুলো এতোদিন ধরে সক্রিয় আছে। তবে এবার জুলাইয়ের ৯ তারিখেই এগুলো বন্ধের তারিখ নিশ্চিত করা হয়েছে।

ব্যবহারকারীরা তাদের কম্পিউটার এই ট্রোজানে আক্রান্ত কি না তা পরীক্ষা করার জন্য ডিএনএস চেঞ্জার চেক-আপ নামের এই ওয়েবসাইটটি ভিজিট করতে পারেন। ঠিকানা-

http://www.dns-ok.us/

যদি ট্রোজান খুঁজে পাওয়া যায়, তাহলে যেসব অ্যান্টি-ভাইরাস টুল দিয়ে তা বিদায় করতে হবে তার তালিকা পাওয়া যাবে এই লিংকে http://www.dcwg.org/fix/

বিশেষ এই ট্রোজান বিষয়ে অদূর ভবিষ্যতে আরো দিক নির্দেশনা পেতে নজর রাখুন ব্লগ-এর পাতায়।

Toshiba's jumbo tablet, the Excite 13, garners early kudos, scorn

New tablet has 13.3-in. display and weighs 2.2 lbs.; goes on sale in June

The tablet market is already populated with dozens of models of various sizes, many close in size to Apple's highly popular iPad, with its 9.7-in. screen.

                           The Toshiba Excite 13 tablet has a 13.3-in. screen, the largest for a tablet computer. (Image: Toshiba)

So how does a vendor distinguish its tablets from the competition? One way could be introduce a model with a radically different screen size, like Toshiba this week.

Toshiba expanded its Excite family of Android tablets with three new models, but the one getting all the attention, and already some scorn, is the Excite 13, which features a 13.3-in. display that offers 1600-x-900-pixel resolution and more than 75 square inches of viewing area.

The other tablets that Toshiba announced are the Excite 10, with a 10.1-in. screen and more than 43 square inches of viewing area, and the Excite 7.7, with a 7.7-in. display and more than 25 inches of viewing area. All three tablets run Android 4.0 and use Nvidia Tegra 3 quadcore processors.

The Excite 13 boasts the largest screen of any tablet on the market. But at 0.4-in. thick and weighing 2.2 lbs., it's not as bulky and heavy as you might expect it to be.

Toshiba emphasized that it's not just trying to stand out by offering a jumbo tablet; its goal is to provide a range of sizes to meet a range of user needs. "One size does not fit all, so we are carefully considering how and where people are using tablets and [will] design form factors to best suit various needs," said Carl Pinto, Toshiba's vice president of product development, in a statement.

Jack Gold, an analyst at J.Gold Associates, defended Toshiba's approach with the 13-in. model. "There is no ideal tablet size, just like there is not one size of car, TV, refrigerator, mattress or even PC screen," he said.

"At 13.3 inches, it is probably not terribly portable in the sense of putting it in your pocket, like you might with a 7-in. or smaller size, but it is probably great for uses like looking at X-ray images in a medical setting or detailed schematics and diagrams in certain work situations, " Gold said.

The display is the most expensive element in any tablet, and the larger the display, the higher the price tag, Gold said.

The Excite 13 will go on sale June 10 at prices of $650 for the 32GB model and $750 for the 64GB model. Toshiba will start selling the 10.1-in. Excite 10 on May 6, charging $450 for the 16GB version, $530 for the 32GB model and $650 for the 64GB device. Toshiba's smallest tablet, the Excite 7.7, will also go on sale June 10 at prices of $500 for the 16GB version and $580 for the 32GB version.

While Gold suggested the Excite 13 could be used in the workplace, Toshiba described it as "ideally suited for the home" for tasks such as sharing photos, surfing the Web, playing games and watching movies with a group. It is powered by a quadcore Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, has 1GB of memory, and is marketed as a gaming and multitasking device.

Despite such qualities, a few experts said the Excite 13 will be seen as being too big. "The problem with big tablets is that the bigger they are, the harder they fall," noted Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner. "There's a direct correlation between size and the frequency of being dropped."

Toshiba said the three new tablets all have sturdy aluminum shells and scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass displays to make them durable, although the analysts noted that "durable" doesn't mean the devices are drop-resistant like some ruggedized tablets that cost hundreds of dollars more.

Dulaney said Toshiba is probably trying out different tablet sizes to see how well they do in the market, just as Samsung has done with its tablets, including the Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1), which has a 10.1-in. screen, and the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0), which has a 7-in. display. Still, Samsung has resisted building a table with anything larger than a 10.1-in. screen, and that makes the Excite 13 all the more unusual.

Ultimately, Dulaney argued that tablet manufacturers "will conclude that the 10-in. tablet is the best size, just like we have concluded that 8.5 by 11 is the best size for a sheet of paper."

Steven Buehler, an analyst at IDC, called the Excite 13 "intriguing," but he also said it is "among the experiments that manufacturers are trying as they attempt to stay in front of the market."

Buehler said tablets, even models as large as the Excite 13, are not ideal for fine detail work, because they require people to use a finger on a touchscreen. And even if a tablet is paired with a keyboard and mouse, the result is still not as effective as using a PC, he added.

"Only time will tell whether users adopt the [Excite 13] form factor, but to me it seems too big to be a good tablet and too tablet-like to be a good PC," Buehler said.

First BlackBerry 10 smartphone to launch in October, reports say

        Timing might give RIM a chance to set a better course

Reports indicate that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphone will be announced by mid-August and will be launched in October, somewhat earlier than expected.

An October launch would give Research in Motion several weeks' advantage with holiday sales, which are much needed by RIM, especially in North American markets.

The website N4BB.com reported the October launch on Wednesday, citing an unnamed source who claimed the first BlackBerry 10 smartphone would be touchscreen-only. That source said a BlackBerry 10 device with a physical Qwerty keyboard, possibly a slider style, will be released in the first quarter of 2013.

BGR.com noted Thursday that the October release conforms to its own earlier reporting for a BlackBerry 10 smartphone, code-named BlackBerry London, that would be launched in September or early October.

RIM didn't respond to a request to comment on the BlackBerry 10 smartphone release.

RIM's BlackBerry World conference starts next week, but analyst say RIM isn't likely to discuss specific release details beyond CEO Thorsten Heins' earlier statements that the BlackBerry 10 device would appear in the second half of 2012.

RIM's smartphone market share has slipped, in part because the smartphone maker has fallen behind on new smartphone releases.

Last year's RIM network outage and product delays have forced some IT managers to adopt new policies to allow smartphones on iOS and Android into their workplaces.

Tablet priced under $100 with Android 4.0 surfaces

A first-of-its-kind tablet with Google's Android 4.0 priced under $100 is now available in China, and will reach other countries soon, according to companies that helped build the device.

Ainol's Novo7 tablet has a 7-inch capacitive screen and runs on a 1GHz single-core MIPS processor, said MIPS Technologies and chip maker Ingenic in a joint press release. The tablet's battery lasts eight hours on watching video, seven hours when browsing the Web and six hours when playing games.

Ainol's Novo7 tablet

The tablet runs on Google's Android 4.0, code-named Ice Cream Sandwich, which is the successor to Android 3.0, code-named Honeycomb, which is found on the more advanced tablets today.

For its price, the tablet also has a vast feature list. The Novo7 includes cameras on the front and back, 3D graphics capabilities, 1080p video decoding and an HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) port to connect the tablet to high-definition TVs.

"I'm thrilled to see the entrance of MIPS-based Android 4.0 tablets into the market. Low cost, high performance tablets are a big win for mobile consumers and a strong illustration of how Android's openness drives innovation and competition for the benefit of consumers around the world," said Andy Rubin, senior vice president of mobile at Google in a statement.

The tablet is available only in China through Ainol Electronics, but will come to other countries within the next several months under brands including Leader International and OMG Electronics. New tablets with 8-inch and 9-inch screens will also become available in the future, MIPS and Ingenic said.

The tablet has acquired Google certification to run applications such as Google Maps, Gmail, Google Music and Google Talk. However, Google does not provide official Android market access in China, so the device lacks that feature, said Jen Bernier-Santarini, a MIPS spokeswoman. Access to Android Market is an ongoing concern for inexpensive tablet users.

"Android Market access is provided by Google through negotiations with carriers and OEMs as part of Google Mobile Services in other geographies. So Google will need to work with U.S. OEMs on this for future releases of the product," Bernier-Santarini said.

However, the tablet can access other third-party app markets such as Amazon, from where apps like Angry Birds can be downloaded.

The sub-$100 price is a breakthrough for users looking for new tablets with the latest Android OS. Most inexpensive tablets come with versions of Android 2, which is for smartphones, while notable tablets that come with tablet-optimized Android 3.0 are priced above $250. Other device makers are also announcing tablets with Android 4.0, which has already been ported to the ARM and x86 processors.

The Novo7 is also a showcase tablet for MIPS, a chip licensing company that is battling ARM and Intel for smartphone and tablet market share. Tablets using MIPS processors include Velocity Micro's $139 Cruz Tablet, but MIPS processors have not found wide acceptance in the tablet market dominated byApple's iPad, which runs on an ARM processor.

The original development of Android 4.0 revolved around ARM processors, but Intel and MIPS quickly ported the OS to work on their processors after Google released the source code last month.

MIPS dominates the embedded market, with processors found in set-top boxes, TV sets and other embedded devices. The company believes the smartphones and tablets are a natural extension from the embedded market. The company's processors are also being used by the Chinese government in chip designs.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) review: A nice price, but where's the 'wow'?

Android devices -- both smartphones and tablets -- are getting increasingly affordable. With its new Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) tablet, which goes on sale on April 22 for $250, Samsung is obviously hoping to claim its piece of the budget-price pie.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)

However, while the price is new and noteworthy, there's not much else about the tablet that's fresh or exciting.

Don't get me wrong: The Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) is a perfectly fine device. It has an attractive form and solid performance. The problem is that it seems like a step sideways -- or, in some ways, backwards -- from the 7-in. tablets Samsung already has available. And by simply recycling and remixing an existing concept, Samsung has doomed the product to being quickly outpaced.

The many faces of Samsung's 7-inch Tab

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) stands alongside two other current 7-in. Samsung Galaxy tablets: the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, available for $350, and the Galaxy Tab 7.7, which comes with LTE connectivity and sells for $500 with a two-year Verizon data contract (or for $700 with no contract). Generally speaking, choice is a good thing -- but lined up next to Samsung's other 7-in. offerings, the only significant distinguishing feature the new Tab can claim is its price tag. To be fair, the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) does look a little different from its predecessors. The tablet has a gray plastic back and is slightly thicker than Samsung's other 7-in. devices, measuring in at 0.41 in. compared to the 7.0 Plus model's 0.39-in. size and the 7.7 model's even svelter 0.31-in. waistline. It weighs 12.2 oz., the same as the 7.0 Plus tablet and 0.2 oz more than the 7.7.

The tablet feels good in your hands; it's not at all slippery and is comfortable to hold, at least in the horizontal position. Because of its size, I found the tablet a bit awkward to use vertically; in that orientation, it's slightly too big to hold in one hand and slightly too small to hold naturally with two.

The display itself is good but not breathtaking. The Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) has a 1024 x 600 PLS TFT screen -- the same kind as the Tab 7.0 Plus. It's easy on the eyes and certainly nothing to complain about, but it's also far less impressive than the high-quality screens we've seen on other recent devices -- including Samsung's own Galaxy Tab 7.7, which uses one of the company's newer Super AMOLED Plus (1280 x 800) displays.

Hardware and performance

Under the hood, the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) has a 1GHz dual-core processor along with 1GB of RAM. Curiously, Samsung won't divulge exactly what type of processor the tablet uses -- a spokesman told me he couldn't comment on the matter -- but I independently confirmed that the chip is not Nvidia's Tegra 2 processor, which powers many of the current dual-core Android tablets.

Compared to Samsung's more expensive 7-in. tablets, the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) is a bit of a downgrade in terms of pure processing power: The Tab 7.0 Plus runs on a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM, while the Tab 7.7 uses a 1.4GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM.

Regardless, the difference is fairly minor and the tablet performed well in my hands-on tests. Apps loaded quickly, Web browsing and page-zooming were fast, and the system generally felt speedy and responsive. My only issue was with swiping through the five home screens, which felt far less fluid and snappy than I've come to expect from using similarly powered devices.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) comes with 8GB of internal storage, though my device showed only about 4.3GB free immediately after initialization (with no nonsystem apps installed). Samsung originally said the Tab 2 (7.0) would be available in three storage options -- 8GB, 16GB and 32GB -- and its consumer website still reflected that multitiered lineup as of this writing. However, a company spokesperson told me that the 8GB model I tested is the only version that will be available at launch.

At a Glance

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)

Samsung 

Price: $249.99 

Pros: Affordable; comfortable to hold; ships with Android 4.0; microSD card slot 

Cons: Underwhelming display; some lag in home screen swiping; limited internal storage space

Fortunately, the Tab 2 (7.0) has plenty of supplementary storage options. The device has a microSD slot that supports cards up to 32GB (no cards are included with the tablet at purchase). It also comes with a one-year subscription for 50GB of cloud-based storage from Dropbox, but take note: If you want to keep that subscription beyond your first year, it'll cost you $10 a month or $100 a year. Without extending the subscription, you'll be defaulted back to Dropbox's free storage level, which gives you 2GB of space.

In terms of cameras, the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) has an adequate but not exemplary 3-megapixel rear-facing camera and a VGA-quality front-facing camera -- the latter of which is a step down in quality from the 2-megapixel front-facing camera found on the other two 7-in. Galaxy Tab models. The Tab 2 (7.0) also has a built-in IR port that, combined with the preloaded Smart Remote app, allows you to use the tablet as a remote control for your TV. I found the function to be easy to configure and novel to use.

A new flavor of Ice Cream Sandwich

The Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) ships with Android 4.0, a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich -- the latest version of Google's mobile operating system. Samsung did modify the OS with its proprietary TouchWiz skin, as it typically does, but the changes here are far less severe and regressive than what we saw recently onSamsung's Galaxy S II smartphones.

A "Mini Apps" button, which Samsung added at the center of the bottom of the screen, brings up a menu of applications.

With the Tab 2 (7.0), for the most part, you're getting the actual ICS-level interface with some arbitrarily changed colors and fonts that make it look a little less classy and polished. Samsung added a handful of features, too, such as a "Mini Apps" button -- found at the center of the bottom of the screen -- that brings up a menu of applications, all of which can be loaded in small overlay windows from anywhere in the system.

Samsung replaced the stock ICS Camera app with its own, too -- a cosmetic change, more than anything -- and added a somewhat intrusive screen-capture icon to the main system navigation area. (Ice Cream Sandwich has a native screen-capture command that can be activated by pressing the volume-down and power buttons together, making Samsung's addition rather redundant.)

The Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) has Samsung's usual sets of Hubs (interfaces for buying and managing music, games, multimedia files and news/magazine content) and bloatware as well, but Ice Cream Sandwich gives you an easy way to disable and hide most of these if you don't plan on using them and want them out of your way.

Bottom line

All things considered, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) is a pretty good tablet at a really good price. However, I find myself wondering why Samsung bothered creating it. The tablet bears no real improvements over its eerily similar predecessors; the few changes that it does have are either lateral or marginally regressive.

If the company's goal was to offer a respectable 7-in. tablet at a lower cost, I think a far more customer-centric approach would have been to deliver an ICS upgrade and a $100 price drop to its existing 7.0 Plus model (which is still awaiting Android 4.0, with a vague promise but no specific time frame for delivery). As it stands, the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) lacks any "wow" factor and leaves Samsung's existing Tab users looking like second-class citizens in a waiting game with no end in sight.

(A similar situation may unfold with the company's upcoming Galaxy Tab 2 10.1-in. model, which is slated to be released on May 13 at a price of $400. Although review units weren't available at press time, it appears that, like the 7-in. model, the Tab 2 (10.1) will offer few significant changes over its predecessor -- which has also yet to be upgraded to Android 4.0.)

In addition, Google's I/O developers' convention is just over two months away. Asus has already discussed plans to release a $250 quadcore 7-in. tabletbetween now and the end of June, and Google is rumored to be working on an ext-gen 7-in. tablet that will cost in the $150 to $200 range and could be available this summer.In short, anyone in immediate need of a low-cost 7-in. tablet would do well with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0). But with tomorrow's technology almost upon us at budget-level prices, it's hard to recommend dropping that cash on yesterday's technology today.