Apple to Sell 'Cheap' iPad to Fend Off Android: Report

Black and white versions of the new iPad 2.When Apple [AAPL  Loading...      ()   ] releases its new and enhanced iPad next week, the company will also re-launch a less expensive version of its current iPad 2 to combat cheaper tablets running Google’s Android operating software, according to a JPMorgan analyst report out of Asia.

“Expect higher resolution new iPad, but also a cheaper iPad 2 to defend against Android Tablets,” wrote Gokul Hariharan of JP Morgan in a note today. “PC vendors like ASUS have issued aggressive guidance on cheap Android Tablets. If Apple comes out with a multi-pronged pricing strategy for iPads, then Android tablets may again find it difficult to gain traction, except for very low-end ones like Kindle Fire.”

Shares of Apple are up more than 30 percent this year in anticipation of the iPad announcement next Wednesday. The device is expected to have 4G capability and even more enhanced features. Meanwhile, shares of Google [GOOG  Loading...      ()   ] are lower for the year and Amazon’s stock is up barely 3 percent for 2012.

It is not unprecedented for Apple to keep selling older models under a new pricing structure in order to take market share on the lower end. After introducing the iPhone 4S last October, Apple announced it would keep selling the iPhone 4 for $99, as well as an iPhone 3GS for free when accompanied with a two-year contract.

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Infochimps Tame the Big-Data Elephant

Infochimps aims to be the Noah's Ark of Big Data stack components. (Photo: Flickr/garlandcannon

Infochimps has tamed the Big Data elephant, and now it wants to hand the reins to you.

The Austin, Texas company has rolled out its internal Big Data management tools as a product. Infochimps Platform makes it easier to build Big Data stacks made up of Hadoop (known by its elephant symbol) and a variety of database systems, including HBase, Cassandra and MySQL.

Infochimps originally built the tools to manage its own data-set marketplace. Infochimps Data Marketplace offers 15,000 data sets from 200 providers. The data sets range from OkCupid dating service questions and answers to Northern Ireland Neighborhood Information Service info. Infochimps uses the platform to serve terabytes of data.

Building and operating Big Data systems involves coordinating rapidly evolving technologies and getting them to work at large scales. This was a major pain point for Infochimps, says Flip Kromer, the company’s CTO. “Big Data operations is just brutal.”

The Infochimps platform pulls data from the web, external databases and the Infochimps Data Marketplace, organizes it in a database management system, and processes the data in an on-demand version of the Hadoop open source data analytics tool. The heart of the platform is Infochimps’ Ironfan management system. Ironfan connects the platform’s components and makes it easier to schedule and configure workflows.

Big Data applications are all about crunching huge amounts of data from large science experiments or data mining applications. A Big Data workload typically runs on large server clusters. It can also run on virtual machines in the cloud such as Amazon Web Services. Ironfan simplifies and speeds “spinning up” and “spinning down” these virtual clusters.

The Infochimps Platform reduces the technical knowledge required to build Big Data systems. The platform provides visual tools to connect and control the pieces of the system. “It’s your system diagram come to life,” says Kromer. “The thing you would draw on the chalkboard, that’s the level of description you need to give.”

The platform allows data scientists with minimal programming skills to build the Big Data systems they need on their own, says Kromer. “We built tools that made Hadoop and these things really easy to use, which let us do things like recruit data scientists straight out of college or, in fact, often before they graduated.”

Infochimps is aiming the product at small startups and small units within enterprises — Big Data users who don’t have a lot of resources. It’s also offering a more hands-on service for enterprises. The Infochimps Platform is available as a on-premises system or platform-as-a-service.

Infochimps platform customer BlackLocus provides a service to e-commerce vendors that monitors the Web for competitors’ pricing.

Going forward, Infochimps plans to automate the process of building data flows. Instead of connecting the components of the system, a user would focus on moving data using interactive tools. “Ultimately you’re taking a data flow, constructing it with visual tools, and binding it to the stuff that executes it and the resources it runs on,” says Kromer.

Eric Smalley writes for Wired Enterprise. Got a NEWS TIP related to this story -- or anything else technology-related? Please email him: eric.smalley at gmail.com.
Follow @ericsmalley on Twitter.

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Museum seeks royal plane wreckage

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
24 February 2012 Last updated at 10:06 GMT Maharaja Hanwant Singh died in a plane crash in 1952 A museum in India's Rajasthan state has asked Jodhpur Central Jail to hand over the wreckage of an aircraft that crashed in 1952, killing Maharaja Hanwant Singh and his mistress.

The remains of the light aircraft were found in the jail's cellar last year, nearly 60 years after the crash.

Officials think the wreckage was kept in the jail because it was bad luck.

The museum is yet to decide what they will do with the plane's wreckage once they get possession of it.

The Maharaja of Jodhpur, Hanwant Singh, died in the plane crash with his mistress Zubeida while he was campaigning in newly independent India's first general elections in 1952.

The light aircraft, a Beechcraft Bonanza, was the flying maharaja's favourite.

Though he was married to royal princess Krishna Kumari, he spent his last days with Zubeida.

Popular museum

The wreckage was left unattended in the Jodhpur jail for decades.

According to the jail officials, the wreckage was found when staff there looked through a pile of rubble.

"First we thought it could be a wreckage from the Indo-Pak war, when Pakistan bombs hit the city and some inmates were killed. But later we found it is the wreckage of the late Maharaja Hanwant Singh's plane," a senior officer of the jail told the BBC.

The Mehrangarh Museum Trust, founded in 1972 by Maharaja Gaj Singh has sent a formal letter to the jail authorities seeking possession of the wreckage.

Jodhpur Jail Superintendent AR Niazi told the BBC the issue would be referred to the government for the final decision.

The director of the trust, Mahendra Singh Nagar, said it was not clear what they would do with the wreckage, "but it will be part of the museum trust".

The wreckage is kept in the jail

The Mehrangarh Museum draws a large number of tourists - over 70,000 foreign visitors and 400,000 Indians, annually.

Hanwant Singh fielded candidates in the country's first general elections and gave the Congress Party a tough challenge.

He himself won a state assembly seat as well one in the Indian parliament.

But he died in the plane crash before the results were declared.

Noted film producer Shyam Benegal's film Zubeidaa highlighted the mistress's story. It was written by Zubeida's son Khalid Mohammed.

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Apple Is Expected to Unveil iPad 3 Next Week

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Power Players: Using Obama’s words against him

A few weeks ago Spinners and Winners went through the top five things Mitt Romney has said that Democrats would use against him if he wins the Republican nomination. Now the flip side: The top five things from Barack Obama you can be sure Republicans will use over and over again in the fall campaign.

The president's opponents will hammer some of the wildly optimistic predictions the White House made about the stimulus program, and some economic promises that Obama has failed to deliver.

"Fourteen days after I signed our Recovery Act into law, we are seeing shovels hit the ground," Obama said in March of 2009. Last year, when it was clear the stimulus did not create the 4 million jobs analysts had predicted it would, the president back-tracked, joking at an economic forum, "Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected."

In February 2009 Obama said, "I'm pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office." After Obama uttered those words, the deficit actually shot up to $1.4 trillion dollars in 2009. It then came down to $1.3 trillion in 2010, then stayed flat for 2011. The Congressional Budget office estimates 2012's deficit will be $1.1 trillion dollars -- a far cry from cutting the deficit in half.

Republicans will attack not just his words, but also his actions, making hay out of the president bowing to foreign dignitaries.

The number one quote that Republicans will likely play over and over again was said nearly three years ago, in an interview the newly-inaugurated president gave to NBC's Today Show.

"If I don't have this done in three years, then there is going to be a one-term proposition," Obama said.

Mitt Romney already talks about this all the time.

"He said if he could turn the economy around in 3 years he would be looking at a one term proposition, well we're here to collect," Romney told a crowd in Grand Rapids, Mich., in mid February. "We're here to collect."

Watch the full show for the full top five.

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India workers in general strike

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
28 February 2012 Last updated at 06:05 GMT Unions want universal social security cover for workers in India's vast unorganised labour sector Indian workers have begun a strike against high inflation and to demand better working conditions and an end to selling off state firms.

The strike has the support of most of India's major trade unions and thousands of smaller unions from across the political spectrum.

Banks, transport, post offices and ports are thought most likely to be affected by the industrial action.

But services on India's rail network are not expected to be disrupted.

States such as West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, where the communist parties have greater influence, had been expected to be most affected by the strike.

Most roads in Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal, are deserted with very little traffic, says the BBC's Amitabha Bhattashali.

Public transport is thin and most shops are closed, our correspondent says. Many people stayed back in their offices on Monday to make sure that they could attend work on Tuesday.

However, the city's metro railway network was running normally and flight operations from the domestic and international airports were on schedule, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

"Everything has been normal so far. Things are going on well. Tight security arrangements are in place with 400 police pickets set up in various parts of the city," police commissioner RK Pachnanda said.

TV channels reported that the strike was having little impact in Delhi and Mumbai.

Although India's inflation rate dropped from 9.1% in December, it remains stubbornly high at 7.5%.

Growth for the financial year ending in March is also expected to be around 7%, lower than the previous forecasts of about 9%.

The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is trying to cut its budget deficit by selling stakes in state-run companies - something the unions object to.

Other demands include measures to curb inflation, universal social security cover for non-unionised workers and enforcement of labour laws.

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Gunmen open fire on bus in Pakistan, 18 killed

In 2012, Yahoo! News will tell the nation’s story through the experiences and views of real Americans like you. Watch the first Remake America video »

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