Rumors of new iPads heat up as 2012 arrives

You may have just unwrapped your new iPad 2, but rumors are already swirling about the iPad 3.

The always-fertile field of Apple rumors is once again blossoming furiously, as tech observers pore over the most minute tidbits of information to speculate on the future of the market-leading Apple tablet.

While much of the chatter is just that, there are a few details to be gleaned in all the usual fervor that precedes an Apple "iLaunch."

It was January 2010 when Apple unveiled the "magical" iPad,introducing much of the general public to the concept of a tablet computer for the first time.

With the massive Consumer Electronics Show set for January 10-13 and MacWorld/iWorld -- billed as "the world's ultimate fan event" for Apple lovers -- scheduled for January 26-28, observers are wondering whether Apple could soon roll out the third generation of the device.On Thursday morning, the conventional wisdom in the blogosphere seemed virtually sure that Apple would do so. But by Friday, many tech pundits were saying there's no way it will happen.

Tomorrow? Who knows?

"We've entered a post-iPhone news cycle, when iPad rumors are surfacing with full force," wrote Leslie Horn for PC Magazine. "Of course the launch date has been discussed quite a bit, as it goes with any anticipated Apple device. ... But the reality with an Apple gadget is that we'll have to wait and see."

Other tidbits making the rounds? That a new model will be rolled out February 24, which would have been Steve Jobs' birthday, or in March, the same month the iPad 2 was introduced.

Richard Shim, an analyst at research firm DisplaySearch, told CNETthat a January release date might be wishful thinking.

January is "a little suspect," Shim told the blog. "When they make them available they want to have as many as possible. And my sense is that they will wait rather than make them immediately available."

But from folks who monitor the supply chain of Apple components in Asia and other analysts, a few plausible details have emerged:

Faster processor. Several reports have suggested that the new iPads will have a new, faster processor that will offer quicker browsing, gaming and other activity.

Apple recently started using a plant in Austin, Texas, to manufacture computer chips, according to a Reuters report and other sources. Analysts have speculated that facility, owned by Samsung, could be the source of the new processors.

Sharper screen. It's also a relatively safe bet to expect a higher-resolution screen, an upgrade that's been a staple in most new permutations of Apple's mobile products. Reports of a much stronger battery have also surfaced in multiple places and seem to have some merit.

Voice control. One can't help wonder whether Apple will add Siri, the iPhone 4S's voice-control "virtual assistant," to the new iPad as well.

A cheaper iPad. Also possible is that Apple will attempt to address, in some way, the recent success of the smaller, simpler Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon, which costs $300 less than the entry-level iPad 2.

No single tablet computer from Apple's competitors had gained much traction until Amazon rolled out the Fire this holiday season. The company says it sold more than 4 million Kindles in December, and most of those are believed to be Kindle Fires.

How Apple may address that competition has prognosticators split.

Taiwan-based DigiTimes, which sparked much of Thursday's speculation with a report that the new iPad will be unveiled in January, also reported that the company will roll out two new tablets and that the iPad 2 would get a price cut to let it compete more directly with the Fire.

(It should be noted that DigiTimes has a somewhat spotty track record, doing pretty well with reports out of its native Taiwan but missing the mark more often on other news).

The same site quoted unnamed sources just two weeks ago saying that Apple would be unveiling a 7-inch tablet to match the Fire, a departure that would seem unlikely unless it was in the works well before Amazon's new gadget was announced.

Shim attempted to throw cold water on the concept that Apple will take a step back in features to try to snuff Amazon.

"They don't want to create any hint of a second-class product," he told CNET. "They have no reason. They're selling as many as they can make. And this next-generation device is going to reinforce that supply-demand dynamic."

Canada-US border crossed by man using iPad as ID

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A Canadian man who forgot his passport has said that he managed to cross the border into the US using a copy of the document he had scanned on to his iPad.

Mr Reisch says he scanned the passport in case he lost it while travelling
Martin Reisch, from Montreal, presented the US border office with
his digital device after realising near the border that he did not have his passport.

He said he told the official that he was heading to Vermont to deliver Christmas presents.

But US Customs said he crossed using a driving licence and birth certificate.

"The assertion that a traveller was admitted into the US using solely a scanned image of his passport on an iPad is categorically false," US Customs spokeswoman Jenny Burke said in a statement.

"In this case, the individual had both a driver's licence and birth certificate, which the CBP officer used to determine identity and citizenship in order to admit the traveller into the country."

Mr Reisch, who denies that he was carrying his birth certificate, said he believed the officer had made an exception for him.

"I thought I'd at least give it a try," Mr Reisch said, the Associated Press reported.

"He took the iPad into the little border hut. He was in there a good five, six minutes. It seemed like an eternity. When he came back, he took a good long pause before wishing me a Merry Christmas."

The 33-year-old said he believed that the reasons for his trip, as well as his driver's licence, helped him get across the border to deliver the gifts last week.

Mr Reisch, who successfully managed to re-enter Canada later the same day, has said he will not forget his passport in the future.

However, he hopes one day scanned identification will become the norm.

"I see the future as 100% being able to cross with your identity on a digital device - it's just a matter of time," he said.

Since 2009, Canadians have needed more than a driver's licence as a form of identification for US land border crossings.

Canadian citizens can only enter the US at land crossings using a passport, an enhanced driver's licence or a Nexus pass, the Canadian Border Services Agency advises.

Microsoft celebrates IE6 death as Google downranks Chrome

Microsoft has celebrated the imminent demise of version 6 of its Internet Explorer browser by baking a cake.

The software giant held the light-hearted celebration as it revealed that the program was used by less than 1% of US internet surfers.

It is keen to kill off the old version of the browser and persuade users to move to IE8 or 9.

Meanwhile rival Google has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown on the promotion of its Chrome browser.

Chrome climbdown

It has downgraded Chrome in its search listings after the discovery that a marketing campaign paid bloggers to promote a video about it.

The search giant has distanced itself from the campaign, blaming third-party marketing firm Essence Digital.

The issue was discovered by Aaron Wall, who wrote in his SEO Book blog, how he found that a search for "This post is sponsored by Google" threw up more than 400 pages written as part of a marketing campaign.

Search expert Danny Sullivan said the revelation was "jaw-dropping".

"Google, the company that has been fighting against paid links and 'thin' content seems to be behind a campaign that's generating both on behalf of its Chrome browser. File this under 'what were they thinking?'" he wrote on his SearchEngine blog.

Google told the BBC that it had never commissioned Essence Digital to approach bloggers and place sponsored links.

In its own statement, Essence Digital said: "Google never approved a sponsored-post campaign. They only agreed to buy online video ads. Google have consistently avoided paid postings to promote their products, because in their view these kind of promotions are not transparent or in the best interests of users.

"We apologise to Google who clearly didn't authorise this."

Celebration

Over at Microsoft headquarters, the mood was more upbeat.

"Time to pop open the champagne because based on the latest data from Net Applications, IE6 usages in the US has now officially dropped below 1%," blogged Roger Capriotti, Microsoft's director of Internet Explorer marketing.

"We hope this means more developers and IT pros can consider IE6 a 'low priority' at this point and stop spending their time having to support such an outdated browser," he added.

In dropping below 1% of usage, the United States joins Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, which have already seen usage fall to very low levels.

In the UK, IE6 usage remains at about 1.4%, although some countries have far higher usage levels. In China, for example, it remains at about 25%.

Richard Edwards, a principal analyst at research firm Ovum, is unsurprised Microsoft is glad to see the back of IE6.

"I think it was rated one of the worst software products of all time by one tech magazine at the time of its release," he said.

The browser was plagued by security issues which has its own knock-on effect, he thinks.

"In many ways, corporate computer networks have been locked down since partly because of the vulnerabilities found in IE6," said Mr Edwards.

Mobile battleground

Industry watchers have predicted that despite Google's current marketing woes, Chrome could overtake IE as the leading global browser in 2012.

Many had previously said that Mozilla's Firefox would be the most likely candidate to end Microsoft's dominance.

According to data from measurement firm StatCounter, Chrome increased its market share from 15.6% in January 2011 to 27% by the end of the year. At the same time, Microsoft dropped from 46% to 38.6%. Firefox also fell, from 30.6% at the beginning of 2011 to 25.7% by December.

Mr Edwards is more cautious.

"As long as Windows dominates, IE9 will remain the number one browser," he said.

He added that the browser wars were moving to mobile.

"That will be the next battleground. That's where Microsoft has to focus because that is its Achilles heel. Its mobile browser is some way off those for Android and iOS devices," he said.

Herath spins Sri Lanka to famous win

Sri Lanka in South Africa

As predicted the Durban Test was a one-sided affair, except that it was the no-hopers from Sri Lanka who were doing the dominating. A year that has gone rapidly downhill for Sri Lanka since their World Cup final appearance in April, including an interminable run of series defeats and a bankrupt board struggling to pay players, ended on the most unexpected of highs as they secured their first Test success in South Africa.

A Sri Lanka victory that will rank alongside the path-breaking one at The Oval 15 years ago as the greatest in their history was within reach as South Africa's batting crumbled after lunch on the fourth day at Kingsmead. The parties in Sri Lanka were delayed by a long stand between AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn, who batted out most of the final session before Rangana Herath struck minutes before close to ease any anxiety building up. The final three wickets went down in four deliveries and a fantastic year for Test cricket ended with the biggest upset of 2011.

South Africa's batting had been solid in the morning, and they would have been satisfied with the start to their attempt at a world-record chase of 450 despite losing the wicket of Graeme Smith. With Hashim Amla in imperious form, South Africa had reached a reasonably comfortable 86 for 1 by lunch, but over the next hour they lost four wickets and even their flimsy hopes of ending their three-Test losing run at Durban evaporated.

The collapse began in the first over after the break, when Jacques Rudolph's resistance ended - and with it perhaps his recently-revived Test career, temporarily at least. As so often in his second coming at the Test level, he was caught in the slip cordon - this time nicking a wide delivery from Thisara Perera.

Jacques Kallis has been in patchy form recently, including a duck in the first innings, but his record in the second innings of Tests is unimpeachable. If South Africa were to salvage something from the Test, they needed another Kallis special. Unfortunately for him, there were no match-turning heroics as he top-edged a sweep on to his helmet to give short leg a catch. In his 149th Test, he bagged his first pair.

If that blow left South Africa unsteady, they were on the mat soon after as Amla, till then producing a masterclass in off-side strokeplay, was run out after attempting a kamikaze single. He punched the ball straight to mid-on and dashed across for the run though Ashwell Prince showed no interest, and stayed firmly at the non-striker's end. Prince, with his Test career on the line, then had to face a lifter from Dilhara Fernando, that he could only glove towards slip. With South Africa at 116 for 5, the fans could start partying in Sri Lanka.

The Prince dismissal was an almost exact replica of Smith's earlier in the day. Fernando, used as early as the ninth over this time after his delayed introduction in the first innings, started with his usual no-ball, raising snickers, but there was no laughing later in the over when he got a delivery to leap at Smith. The batsman attempted to ride the bounce, instead of dropping his hands and letting the ball through, and could only glove a catch to slip.

Besides Fernando, South Africa's main worry was the left-arm spin of Herath. On Wednesday, South Africa had been given a glimpse of what was to come when two successive deliveries from Imran Tahir spun and kicked off a length to comfortably beat the batsman and the wicketkeeper. With the ball turning, Herath varied his flight and angle, to relentlessly probe the South African batsmen's techniques. He was rewarded with the huge wicket of Kallis, and just before tea he added the scalp of Mark Boucher, another man whose place in the side is under scrutiny.

AB de Villiers gamely fought on, but there was little he could do to lift South Africa from their hopeless situation. He and Steyn defied the bowling for 34 overs - another reminder to the batting unit that failed twice in this match that the surface wasn't unplayable.

Steyn had been central to South Africa's promising start to the day as well. In the first innings, he had gone wicketless in a completed innings for the first time since 2008, and he responded second time round with his 17th Test five-for to bring a quick end to the Sri Lankan innings.

There was some classic tail-end batting from Sri Lanka in the morning but their resistance lasted only about half an hour. It didn't matter much, given how far ahead Sri Lanka had already got after the first three days of the Test.

The biggest monkey on the back in the game, if measured by column inches, would be Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international hundred, but the bigger one is Sri Lanka failing to win a Test for nearly a year-and-a-half since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan. They have got that off their backs - in style and on a great stage - setting up a tantalising decider in Cape Town.