Cowboys Stadium gets 1st playoff championship game

FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2011, file photo, fans cheer as the St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys play in an NFL football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press that Arlington, Texas, has beaten out Tampa, Fla., in the bidding to be the site of the first title game in the new playoff system. The game will be Jan. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2011, file photo, fans cheer as the St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys play in an NFL football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press that Arlington, Texas, has beaten out Tampa, Fla., in the bidding to be the site of the first title game in the new playoff system. The game will be Jan. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 19, 2009, file photo, the Dallas Cowboys new football stadium Cowboys Stadium is shown in Arlington, Texas. A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press that Arlington, Texas, has beaten out Tampa, Fla., in the bidding to be the site of the first title game in the new playoff system. The game will be Jan. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam, File)

Bill Hancock, executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, introduces the new name - College Football Playoffs - and competition framework of what will replace the BCS in 2014 at a meeting of the football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Bill Hancock, executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, introduces the new name - College Football Playoffs - and competition framework of what will replace the BCS in 2014 at a meeting of the football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Bill Hancock, right, executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, introduces the new name - College Football Playoffs - and competition framework of what will replace the BCS in 2014 at a meeting of the football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. He is joined onstage by, from left, commissioners Mike Slive of the Southeastern Conference, Britton Banowsky of Conference USA, Bob Bowlsby of the Big 12, and Larry Scott of the Pac-12. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) ? The grandest stage in sports was too much for the guys who are putting together the College Football Playoff to pass up.

The BCS conference commissioners announced Wednesday that Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, edged Tampa, Fla., in the bidding to be the site of the first championship game in the new playoff system.

"The stadium itself was the biggest determiner," BCS executive director Bill Hancock said about the $1.2 billion dollar, 100,000-plus seat home of the NFL's Cowboys and the Cotton Bowl. "It's still THE stadium with a capital 'T.'"

The College Football Championship Game will be held Jan. 12, 2015.

"We couldn't be more excited about bringing college football's biggest game to Cowboys Stadium," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement. "Rest assured, we all pledge to do everything we can to make sure this game exceeds everyone's highest expectations."

The final three sites for the semifinal rotation also were announced during the second of three days of meetings at a resort hotel a few miles from the Rose Bowl. And Cowboys Stadium came up a winner again. The Cotton Bowl will be part of the six-bowl rotation, along with the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta and the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz. The Holiday Bowl in San Diego also bid for a spot in the semifinal rotation, but couldn't pull the upset.

The Rose, Orange and Sugar bowls are already part of the semifinal rotation. The Rose and Sugar will host the first semifinals Jan. 1, 2015,

The next season, the Cotton and Orange bowls will host the semifinals on New Year's Eve. The semis will be played in the Fiesta and Chick-fil-A bowls after the 2016 season.

In the years those games do not host a national semifinal, they will stage a major, BCS-type bowl game played on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. That means two days of huge college football triple-headers.

For the Cotton Bowl and its organizers, landing a spot in the rotation and the first title game is the culmination of a long slow return to prominence for a game with a rich history.

The game dates to 1937 and has hosted some of the most memorable matchups in college football, including Notre Dame's stirring comeback victory led by Joe Montana against Houston in the 1979 game.

But when the Bowl Championship Series was implemented in 1998, the Cotton Bowl was left out and lost much of its luster. Organizers for years tried to break into the BCS, but couldn't overcome the limitations of their antiquated namesake stadium in Dallas.

Things turned for the Cotton Bowl when it moved out of the old stadium at the fairgrounds in 2010 and into Cowboys Stadium.

When the conference commissioners announced last year that the BCS would be abandoned for a four-team playoff starting in 2014, with the championship game bid out like a Super Bowl, it was all but assumed the Cotton Bowl would be part of the new system and that Cowboys Stadium would be a strong candidate to eventually host a championship game.

They didn't have to wait long to accomplish both goals.

"The Cotton Bowl did it right," Hancock said. "Kept the Cotton Bowl a terrific event, bided their time and now they're back among the top group."

Tampa made a strong push for the first championship game to be played at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL's Buccaneers and the Outback Bowl. But Jones' football palace was too much to overcome.

"They were very close. Tampa won a lot of hearts and minds of the commissioners," Hancock said.

Raymond James' capacity is listed at 65,857, but seated about 71,000 for the Super Bowl. Hancock said neither bidder guaranteed a specific amount of revenue.

"Obviously, with 20,000 more tickets certainly there are better revenue opportunities," Hancock said.

As for filling out the rest of the rotation, the sites that got the nod were no surprise.

The Fiesta Bowl has been part of the Bowl Championship Series from the start, though its place among the elite bowls was threatened when the Arizona Republic reported in December 2009 allegations of a political-contribution scheme being run by game organizers. It also was revealed the bowl officials were misusing funds.

The scandal was an embarrassment to the BCS and the conferences that run it, but the Fiesta Bowl overhauled its front office and implemented reforms that allowed the game to stay in the good graces of the commissioners.

"This is a confirmation that that's all in the rearview mirror," Fiesta Bowl executive director Robert Shelton said.

In the heart of both the SEC and Atlantic Coast Conference, Atlanta gives the College Football Playoff a second game in the East, joining the Orange Bowl in Miami.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl, formerly the Peach Bowl, has been played in the Georgia Dome since 1992.

"For 16 years, we've made this our goal," said Gary Stokan, president of the Chick-fil-A bowl.

A new domed stadium is in the works for Atlanta and the Chick-fil-A bowl will move into that when it opens in 2017.

The new postseason system was named the College Football Playoff by the conference commissioners Tuesday, the first of three days of meetings at a resort hotel a few miles from the Rose Bowl.

Now that the sites are locked in, the only major remaining issue to tackle for the commissioners is the composition and structure of the selection committee, which will pick the teams that play for the national championship.

That won't be finalized at these meetings, but it's on the agenda and they would like to leave California with a framework in place.

___

Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-24-BCS%20Changes/id-5633838c140143928cea2934a0fe4e66

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HTC: Nokia's injunction doesn't apply to the One

In an email to press, HTC took the opportunity to make a few clarifications about the injunction filed by Nokia this week regarding the dual-membrane microphone in the One. The preliminary injunction claims that the high-amplitude mic, which HTC uses in its flagship device, was supposed to be manufactured exclusively for the Finnish company (and currently used in the Lumia 720). If you've been wondering how this particular action would affect sales of the high-end HTC handset, spokespeople assure us that it's business as usual for the company. According to its official statement, the One is not the actual target of any injunction in The Netherlands -- in actuality, the legalities of the matter are apparently only between Nokia and STMicroelectronics, the supplier of the component in question. HTC tells us that Nokia's attempts to institute a recall of the One failed; since the products were purchased in good faith, the ruling states that HTC can continue to use microphones that were already bought. The Taiwanese manufacturer plans to make a transition to "improved microphone designs" as soon as its current stock of STM inventory has been sold. Head below to see the full statement.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, HTC, Nokia

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/24/htc-nokia-injunction/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Pro-Kremlin youth hunt down 'spice' pushers

MOSCOW (AP) ? Two men in their early twenties lie face down in the snow, hands tied behind their backs, heads doused with dark red paint. A dozen young men, some wearing surgical masks, wreck a car with hammers and axes. One sets fire to a plastic bag filled with a greenish powder and a stack of cards that read: "Aroma. Smoking mixes."

The powder is a synthetic drug known as "spice" that is Russia's latest scourge. The pair on the ground are pushers. And the hammer-wielding men? Vigilantes fighting the drug's spread with widespread public approval, admiring television coverage ? and, according to critics, the Kremlin's tacit blessing.

The anti-drug gangs roaming streets in Moscow and other urban centers are an offshoot of the pro-Kremlin youth movement Young Russia. The vigilantes, who call themselves the Young Anti-Drugs Special Forces, have tapped into rising public outrage over the spread of drug use in Russia, and the impotence of law enforcement to stop it. They are also stirring concerns about President Vladimir Putin's perceived tolerance for extralegal actions against forces considered harmful to the regime or to public order.

Young Russia and a half dozen other pro-Kremlin youth groups were formed in the mid-2000s, analysts and opposition figures say, to prevent street protests similar to those that ushered pro-Western opposition forces into power in three ex-Soviet states: Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Russian authorities are accused of encouraging violence, or the threat of violence, by youth gangs when dealing with what they see as threats to stability. The vigilantes' free hand indicates that the spice epidemic is seen as one of such threats.

The Interior Ministry, which controls Russia's police, declined comment to The Associated Press on the gangs. The head of Russia's anti-drugs agency, Viktor Ivanov, criticized the group's actions as illegal and "nothing but noise."

Spice consists of herbs coated in chemicals that mimic the effects of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine. In recent years, millions here, mostly teenagers, have smoked various kinds of spice, attracted by its cheapness, availability and reputation for being harmless, officials and anti-drug campaigners say. Reliable figures on usage are not available because of the variety of kinds of spice on offer and the lack of official studies on the phenomenon.

Pushers sell bags of spice for less than $15, in schools or online, from bulletproof cars and shops with barred windows and metal doors. Their phone numbers are often scrawled on walls or sidewalks, or printed on business cards that carry messages such as "100 percent harmless smoking mix" and "Smoke and go to paradise." Some pushers never see their customers and text message the whereabouts of a spice stash after getting a money transfer.

Spice is mass produced in China and Southeast Asia and exported to Russia as bath salts, incense and slimming additives, often in mail packages.

Ivanov, who heads Russia's Federal Drug Control Agency, said fighting spice is nearly impossible, because banning one or more ingredients means manufacturers simply change the molecular structure of the chemicals or replace the herbs to skirt the law.

"There are 900 versions of it, and every week they come up with a new one," Ivanov told The Associated Press.

And that's where the masked men with hammers come in. The Anti-Drugs Special Forces, widely known by their Russian acronym, MAS, was formed last year and includes dozens of activists in Moscow, many of them with a background in martial arts. Leaders say the group gets funding from donors and small city-run construction projects that its volunteers work on.

And the group has its own formula for hunting down spice traders. They track down a pusher. One of them uses a hidden camera to videotape a "control purchase." And then a dozen or more attack, while one or two of them shoot video.

They sometimes face no resistance from lone pushers who beg to be released and swear never to sell spice anymore. Other times, they fail to break into their fortified shops, leaving after painting the doors and bullet-proof windows with graffiti saying: "Drugs are sold here" or "They kill your children with impunity." On rare occasions, pushers fight back or call their bosses ? burly men with guns and knives.

An Associated Press reporter observed the Moscow attacks on the two pushers who were doused with red paint in the snow.

Screaming obscenities and threats, more than a dozen vigilantes wearing masks and holding hammers surrounded a man with a baseball bat who had just jumped out of a parked car. The man moved backward, swinging his bat as several masked vigilantes closed in. The driver sat in the car, face convulsed with fear.

The attackers broke a window of the car and threw in a smoke candle, forcing the driver out. They punched and kicked him, tied his arms and legs with duct-tape and threw him to the snow, dousing his head with paint. From the car's front seat, they took a plastic bag with spice and set it afire. Seconds later, the first man was tied up and also soaked in paint. The assailants smashed the car with metal bars and hammers and turned it on its side.

The group admits that its methods are illegal.

"We're walking on the edge, but you have to understand that fighting drugs is a serious thing," said group leader Alexei Grunichev, fair-haired and gaunt, while showing raid videos on his laptop at the group's headquarters in several decrepit rooms. "We also understand our guilt for what we do, but I think that what we do is right and we will fight, keep fighting using these methods until law enforcement agencies, authorities can put everything under control."

The group claims to have conducted more than 300 raids over the past year in Moscow alone, and posts many raid videos online. These short clips are the backbone of the group's reputation and popular support ? despite the violence, obscenities and property damage they contain. They are available on YouTube, the website of their mother group, Young Russia, and on the group's page on vl.com, Russia's most popular social networking site.

Hundreds of Russians leave encouraging messages on the group's webpages, young rappers praise them in songs and Russian television networks run reports on the group's raids.

"People often say, 'You should just kill those pushers,' although that's not the way we work," says Arkady Grichishkin, an agitated 21-year-old martial arts student often seen on the group's videos as a leader of raids.

The Federal Drugs Control Agency said it does not condone the group's raids.

"We cannot welcome it," said Ivanov. "It lies beyond law ? first of all. And secondly, it makes nothing but noise." The vigilantes, however, appear to see Ivanov as an ally, posting his portrait on the walls of their headquarters.

Users say that the high they get is extremely intense and hallucinogenic. After several weeks of using spice, the drug causes sleep and weight loss, hypertension, seizures and can even lead to schizophrenia, according to officials, health experts and studies in Russia, EU and the U.S.

Users' parents also appear to be worried.

"Eighty per cent of phone calls our hot line gets are about spice," says Alexander Bysov of the Moscow-based Sodeistvie ? or Assistance ? anti-drugs fund that has a hotline for drug addicts and their parents and runs a rehab. "Parents are already crying SOS."

___

Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr. contributed to this report

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pro-kremlin-youth-hunt-down-spice-pushers-064422126.html

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Family tree Alpha - Free Family tree Download at Downloadplex.com

from Stefan Fl?ser

Create your own family tree with java.

Family tree is a lightweight application built in Java that you can use to create your family genealogical tree, save it to your computer or export it as an image file.

Family tree allows you to add all the family members and specify the relationship types. Based on the input data, the application automatically generates the family tree, enabling you to zoom in and out or set its dimensions.

System Requirements:

Java
Program Release Status: New Release
Program Install Support: Install and Uninstall

Source: http://www.downloadplex.com/Windows/Home-Hobby/Genealogy/family-tree_514778.html

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HTC: Injunction will not affect current One phones, new mic design in progress

HTC sets the record straight about the court actions in the Netherlands -- there is no injunction against HTC, there will be no recall of smart phones

HTC has released a statement today concerning the recent court hearings between ST Microelectronics and Nokia. In case you didn't catch it, Nokia sought an injunction over part of the microphone assembly used in the HTC One provided by ST Micro. The courts found in Nokia's favor, but agreed that HTC was "blameless" and no action was taken against them. 

In light of several misleading stories regarding a recent injunction obtained by Nokia against STM (a supplier of components to HTC in The Netherlands) HTC looks to clarify the following points:

• Nokia has NOT obtained an injunction in The Netherlands, or anywhere else, against the HTC One.
• The Dutch proceedings were brought by Nokia solely against STM.   HTC was not sued by Nokia in the Netherlands.
• The Dutch injunction prohibits STM from selling certain microphones to any company other than Nokia for a limited period.
• The judgment against STM states that HTC can continue to use microphones already purchased from STM in its products, because they were purchased in good-faith. Nokia's attempt to obtain a recall of microphones already sold to HTC failed.
• HTC will transition to improved microphone designs once its inventory of STM microphones is exhausted.

Most interesting is the "improved" microphone design they will be moving to. We'll keep an eye out for that one. 

The reception of the HTC One seems to have been very good, and this is good news for everyone who wants to pick one up.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/U8Dj6lK9XFo/story01.htm

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Boston attack's impact on immigration debate

Tamerlan Tsarnaev waits for a decision during the 2009 Golden Gloves National Tournament??The immigration status of the Boston bombings suspects may become a stumbling block for a new bill that seeks to legalize nearly 11 million immigrants and increase the number of legal immigrants to the United States.

Opponents of the bill?which was crafted by a bipartisan "Gang of Eight" in the Senate?and even some supporters, say the process of reforming the country's immigration system should be stalled until all the facts about the suspects' interactions with the immigration system are known.

Both Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the two brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombings, emigrated to the United States legally from Russia as refugees a decade ago when they were children. The Tsarnaev family, which is ethnically Chechen, was granted asylum because it feared persecution in its home country, according to media reports.

Tamerlan's application for citizenship was put on hold in 2012 by the government, because he had been questioned by the FBI at the request of the Russian government for possible ties to Chechen terrorism, the New York Times reported. Dzhokhar's citizenship application was approved, and he naturalized in 2012.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over the bill on Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended immigration officials' handling of the Tsarnaevs, saying the process for granting asylum is rigorous.

"In the past four years we have increased both the number and the coverage of the vetting that goes on," Napolitano said. As things currently stand, she noted, those who seek asylum must go through multiple screening interviews and submit biometric data to be checked across government databases. If granted asylum and legal status, immigrants must go through two more interviews if they want to become citizens when they become eligible five years later.

(Asylum applicants must show that they face government-sanctioned persecution in their home country stemming from their race, religion, nationality, political views or membership in a particular social group.)

Napolitano argued that the immigration reform bill would make the country safer because the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country would be brought "out of the shadows" and screened. The bill requires immigrants to pass a background check before they are eligible for temporary legal status. They must pay fines and back taxes and enroll in English classes to gain permanent legal status.

Opponents of the immigration bill have argued that the Tsarnaevs' alleged crime suggests that the current immigration system is unable to weed out potential terrorists, and that the process of crafting the bill should be slowed down to address that. If the bill is stalled until next fall, opponents hope it will be close enough to the next election that on-the-fence lawmakers will withdraw their support, effectively killing the bill. President Barack Obama has said he hopes the bill will pass this summer.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, one of the most prominent opponents of legalizing immigrants, said at Monday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the legalization process in the bill could present a national security threat.

"The background checks in this bill are insufficient from preventing a terrorist from getting amnesty," Kobach said.

Supporters of the immigration reform bill say the argument is a specious excuse to delay the legislation.

"Unless we are able to design an immigration background check that can get into the minds of people and predict the future, then we won't be able to solve problems like this through immigration screening alone," said Lynn Tramonte of America's Voice, a pro-immigration advocacy group.

It's also unclear how the immigration system could have known what two children seeking asylum with their family would do 10 years later.

But even some lawmakers who have indicated their support for the bill have raised concern about the Boston suspects.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has been a vocal supporter of immigration reform, wrote in a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid that the immigration reform process should stop until all the facts are known about the intersection between the immigration system and the Tsarnaev brothers.

"Why did the current system allow two individuals to immigrate to the United States from the Chechen Republic in Russia, an area known as a hotbed of Islamic extremism, who then committed acts of terrorism? Were there any safeguards? Could this have been prevented? Does the immigration reform before us address this?" Paul asked.

He said Congress should debate whether immigrants from "high-risk" nations should face more "scrutiny" and whether student visas for people from certain "high-risk" countries altogether should be discontinued.

Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., said on ABC on Sunday that he hopes lawmakers will put the immigration debate "on hold" because of the bombing.

Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, a group that opposes illegal immigration and wants to dramatically lower rates of legal immigration, said he thinks it's significant that Paul and Coats have called for slowing down the bill.

"The Boston bombing gives them a little more of a public reason to try to get this to slow down," Beck said.

If the bill is delayed until the fall, Republicans and red-state Democrats might think it is too close to election season to support it, Beck predicts.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/bombing-suspects-immigration-status-emerges-reform-bill-talks-160951186--election.html

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Coby MID1065

Coby's latest crop of Android tablets offer decent performance at rock-bottom prices. That's been the company's M.O. for years. The big news here is Google certification?a first for the company?which means the newest tablets have access to the Google Play app store. The MID1065 ($209.99 list) is one of the least expensive 10-inch tablets on the market, and aside from the predictably pedestrian performance, there's actually a lot to like here. You get a clean, albeit increasingly dated, version of Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich," microSD card expansion, mini HDMI out, and a relatively sharp IPS display. It's not going to match some other high-end Androids on performance and features, but it's a nice budget alternative to more-expensive tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire 8.9 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1).

Editors' Note: The Coby MID1065 is virtually identical to the MID7065?and MID8065 except for screen size and price, so we're sharing a lot of material between these three reviews. That said, we're testing each device separately?and comparing it with the competition in its size/price range.

Design and Features
The MID1065 closely resembles the aforementioned Galaxy Tab 2, but in a surprising twist, it outdoes Samsung's tablet with a sturdy metal back rather than flex-prone plastic. At 10.2 by 7.1 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and 1.3 pounds, the MID1065 is on the thick and heavy side of 10-inch tablets. Along the bottom panel are the power connector, mini HDMI out, and micro USB port for syncing, but not charging. The Power and Volume buttons sit along the top left edge, with a microSD card slot along the bottom left edge. There's a 3.5mm headphone jack along the top edge (opposite all the other ports), with dual speaker grilles and a rear-facing camera on the back of the tablet. It's a healthy selection of ports and adds value to the already-affordable tablet.?

The 1,280-by-800-pixel IPS LCD might not be full HD, but it's reasonably sharp at 149 ppi and offers a very wide viewing angle, which you don't always see on budget tablets, including Coby's own MID7065 and MID8065. The display is bright, text looks crisp, and colors appear accurate.

The MID1065 is a Wi-Fi only tablet that connects to 802.11b/g/n networks on the 2.4GHz frequency only. There's also Bluetooth 2.1, which is a nice bonus at this price. The MID1065 comes in a single 8GB-capacity model, but our 32 and 64GB SanDisk microSD cards worked fine.

Android and Performance
The MID1065 is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Amlogic Cortex A9 processor with 1GB RAM and a MALI 400 GPU. It's not the fastest setup, but it bested the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) with its dual-core 1GHz Cortex A9 processor in all of our benchmarks and matches the performance of the 7-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HD. Unfortunately, benchmarks don't tell the whole story for the MID1065. While the tablet has a sharp display and more than capable components to run Android 4.0 smoothly, I experienced some choppiness with certain actions in my testing. Swiping through home screens and scrolling on websites introduced some frustrating stutters. The problem seems to be the touch-screen digitizer. It feels like there are virtual click-stops built in, which turns a smooth swipe across the display into a stuttering mess. That said, apps open reasonably quickly, and switching between multiple apps didn't cause much lag. Games that don't require touch input, like Riptide GP, played smoothly and without issue. A game that requires a lot of swiping and touch input, like Temple Run 2, was a bit more frustrating as touch input seemed delayed as well. On top of that, I noticed a delay between when the Power button is pressed and when the display actually wakes up.

Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" is now two versions behind the latest 4.2 "Jelly Bean" build, but Coby leaves the OS unskinned, which might make this tablet appealing to Android purists with tight budgets. Newcomers, however, might be better served by the more polished, easy-to-use custom Android skins like Samsung's TouchWiz or the heavily modified version of Android featured on Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets.

While previous Coby tablets were burdened with second-rate app stores like GetJar, the MID1065 offers up full access to Google Play with more than 800,000 apps and a healthy selection of books, videos, and music, as well as top-notch built-in Google apps like Gmail and Maps.?

For media support, the MID1065 handles Xvid, DivX, MPEG4, H.264, and AVI videos at up to 1080p resolution. For audio, you get MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WAV, and WMA support. Screen mirroring worked fine using a mini HDMI cable, and the tablet was able to output video at 720p or 1080p resolution. Like most tablets, the cameras are underwhelming: The 2-megapixel rear-facing camera takes dimly exposed, grainy pictures in low light, while good lighting conditions still produce waxy pictures that are sapped of fine detail. The front-facing 0.3-megapixel camera is suitable for Skype calls, but not much else. Video is limited to 640-by-480-pixel resolution and choppy frame rates that hover around 15 fps.

In our battery rundown test, which loops a video with screen brightness set to max and Wi-Fi on, the MID1065 lasted an unimpressive 4 hours, 37 minutes. To compare, the 10-inch Galaxy Tab 2 hit 6 hours, 17 minutes and the Asus Transformer Pad TF300 was able to last 7 hours and 53 minutes in the same test.?

Conclusions
Coby's latest line of MID tablets is a notable step forward for the company. The addition of Google certification and app store access brings the brand out of the cheap, generic drug-store tablet fray. And the MID1065 is the best of the bunch, with a surprisingly sturdy design, connections galore, and a sharp IPS display. Unfortunately, it's hampered by an imprecise touch screen that leads to frequent choppiness. Still, for $200 it's hard to beat the combination of features you get with the MID1065, and it's worth checking out as an alternative to more-expensive mainstream options like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) or even the Kindle Fire HD 8.9", if you're on a strict budget and need a tablet with a large screen.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/_vrgkYZz1F8/0,2817,2417880,00.asp

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