Facebook Search Engine on 10/12/2012 at 7:23pm (UTC)
Report: Apple may unveil iPad mini this month
With the iPhone 5 now available on store shelves, the rumor mill shifts focus to another potential Apple device: the iPad Mini.
Apple will reportedly unveil a smaller version of its popular iPad tablet during an invitation-only event on Oct. 23.
According to the report from All Things D, the event will likely take place at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. The announcement is also three days before the launch of Microsoft's Surface tablet.
Although most of Apple's product announcements take place in San Francisco, the company has revealed several notable devices on its campus, including the iPhone 4S.
Rumors of an iPad Mini have picked up momentum as more competitors roll out smaller, more affordable tablets. The iPad Mini has been reported to feature a screen measuring under 8 inches and a price tag between $200-$250, which falls in the range of Amazon's Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus tablet.
Among the other iPad Mini rumors making the rounds: it will only support a Wi-Fi connection, and it will feature a 7.85-inch display with a lower resolution than Apple's latest iPad.
Led Zeppelin regroups for one last 'Celebration Day'
Facebook Search Engine on 10/12/2012 at 7:20pm (UTC)
Led Zeppelin regroups for one last 'Celebration Day'
Thirty years ago, they were part of one of the greatest, loudest and most outrageous rock bands in history. Today, the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin qualify for senior passes on London buses. Their faces are lined, their hair grizzled.
But these aging rock legends, who dominated the 1970s with their thundering, sexually charged songs and offstage mayhem, are proving themselves relevant more than three decades after the band's breakup.
Tickets are selling briskly ahead of the Oct. 17 theatrical release of Celebration Day, the film version of Zeppelin's acclaimed 2007 reunion concert at London's O2 Arena. The concert also will be released on CD, DVD and Blu-ray (Swan Song/Atlantic Records, $19-$45) on Nov. 19, with vinyl to follow Dec. 11. Critically scorned in its heyday, the band will receive a Kennedy Center Honor, one of the world's most prestigious cultural awards, on Dec. 1.
"We were the worst. We were the face of excess in every way," says Zeppelin bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, 66. So the acceptance "is very nice. We moved out, but we moved back."
In exclusive in-person interviews with USA TODAY, Jones, singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page dismiss talk of a tour, concede that they may not have made it big if they had started today and fondly recall their 2007 reunion.
It was the band's "destiny … to have one more show," says Page, 68. "It's in our DNA to play that music."
After Zeppelin was founded in 1968, the band's powerful guitar riffs, bashing drums and mix of lyricism and brutality enthralled a generation. At its peak, the group was playing to U.S. audiences of some 70,000 screaming fans. Zeppelin has sold 111.5 million albums in the United States, making the band the USA's fourth-best-selling artist, after The Beatles, Elvis Presley and Garth Brooks.
The band also broke new ground for its lurid exploits, from cocaine use to vandalism to dalliances with underage groupies. Zeppelin's self-destructive image was sealed when drummer John Bonham, 32, died after an alcoholic binge in 1980, leading to the band's demise.
In the years since, two of the three Zeppelin survivors have plunged into projects that might shock and disappoint their head-banging fans.
Jones is writing an opera based on a 1907 drama by Swedish playwright August Strindberg. He'll tour Britain next month with Norwegian experimental group Supersilent, traveling in a humble "splitter van" — gear in the back, a few seats in front — that's a far cry from the Starship, the luxurious jumbo jet that Zeppelin flew to gigs in the 1970s.
Does he miss the pampered treatment of his Zeppelin days? "Yes, of course," Jones says. "But I'd rather do that and play music I enjoy than start an artificial situation with a supergroup."
Plant, 64, has strayed almost as far from Zeppelin as Jones, entering an unlikely collaboration with bluegrass star Alison Krauss. Their Raising Sand album earned five Grammy Awards in 2008, including album of the year, and sold more than 3 million copies worldwide. Now Plant is about to tour South America with his own band, which melds blues, world music and rock. He has left his Zeppelin days so far behind that he had to struggle to recapture the old swagger for the 2007 reunion concert, a tribute to the late Ahmet Ertegun, the Atlantic Records founder who signed the band to its first recording contract.
"The kind of attitude that went with some of those songs is something I can remember," Plant says. "But it's a different place. To jump back in there and have that attitude … was a tough equation."
Page's current musical career is quieter than those of his former bandmates.
"I love playing live, and I had intended to be playing live by this point," he says wistfully. "I certainly hope to be playing live by this time next year." He has played in public only sporadically in the last few years, representing Britain in the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and playing with old friend Roy Harper at a London tribute in 2011.
They've gone their separate ways, but their 2007 concert proved that the chemistry hasn't died. In a two-hour show, the trio, joined by Bonham's son Jason on drums, gave a taut, energized performance that made the critics swoon, though the three had played together publicly only a handful of times in the previous 27 years.
"Playing with Zeppelin is a bit like riding a bike," Jones says. "Once you got in the situation, lots came back."
Plant, on the other hand, says his performance was colored by "fatigue, fear. … It had to be good because we'd all worked so hard," he says. "And the anticipation was so great."
The band never intended to release a recording of the concert, but as it became clear that another reunion is unlikely, the need to satisfy fans became more urgent.
"It became apparent that (the footage) should go out because there wasn't going to be anything else, any other shows," Page says.
"I can't see it," says Jones of a reunion. "Robert has changed his style, and he doesn't want to sing like that anymore."
But the band members will regroup in December, this time in Washington, D.C., to pick up their Kennedy Center medallions. Even Plant, who skipped the 2005 ceremony for Zeppelin's Grammy lifetime achievement award, will show this time. He wants to shake hands with President Obama, whom he admires even though Obama's musical preferences in the 1970s ran to Stevie Wonder and Earth Wind & Fire.
"He needs to go back and get a bit of better taste," says Plant, unaware that one of his bandmates shared the president's leanings.
"Driving to Zeppelin sessions when we were recording, I played Stevie Wonder almost exclusively," Jones says. "Earth Wind & Fire, too, I'm afraid."
Their reputations are now assured, but they say Zeppelin may have been relegated to insignificance if they had started today.
"We would've ended up in the attic or something like Xfm," a U.K. alternative station, Plant says. "It would be very hard to get Kashmir (an eight-minute-plus Zeppelin classic) on maximum rotation. It was a long time ago."
Alex Rodriguez benched for decisive Game 5 vs. Orioles
Facebook Search Engine on 10/12/2012 at 7:16pm (UTC)
Alex Rodriguez benched for decisive Game 5 vs. Orioles
Alex Rodriguez's epic playoff struggles compelled New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi to do what was once unthinkable: Bench his $29 million third baseman.
Rodriguez will not start tonight's decisive Game 5 in the American League Division Series, the latest turn in what's been a running postseason soap opera for much of Rodriguez's nine-year stint with the Yankees.
Rodriguez is 2 for 16 with nine strikeouts in the series, and has looked particularly bad in the most crucial spots, compelling Girardi to pinch-hit for him in both Game 3 and Game 4 of the series.
He's 0-for-11 with nine strikeouts against Orioles right-handers in this series.
What's more, Rodriguez's track record in decisive games is about as bad as it can get: 0 for 13 in his career as a Yankee, dating to Game 7 of the 2004 AL Championship Series.
Girardi could not weather such limitations in the late innings of an elimination game.
"I think he's just going through a difficult time," said Girardi, who said he made the decision at 1 p.m. on Friday, and informed Rodriguez via telephone. "He's meant a lot to our organinzation. But he's struggled against right-handers in this series. So I made the decision to start Chavvy today."
Rodriguez has looked particularly bad against the Orioles' late-inning relievers, striking out three times against sidearming Baltimore set-up man Darren O'Day in three of the games. The Game 4 sequence was particularly crucial: O'Day fanned Rodriguez with the potential go-ahead runs on second and third, and the game dragged into extra innings, where Rodriguez was retired by Pedro Strop on a grounder in the 11th.
Chavez will start at third tonight, and bat ninth, with Robinson Cano in Rodriguez's typical third spot. Ibanez gets the start at designated hitter with Derek Jeter able to return to shortstop after a foot injury.
It worked out fine in Game 3, when Raul Ibanez struck a game-tying home run and an eventual walk-off shot. With Ibanez already used in the 13th inning of Wednesday's Game 4, Girardi benched A-Rod again in the key spot, pinch-hitting reserve third baseman Eric Chavez, who lined out to third to end the Orioles' 2-1 victory.
Girardi's action is the most drastic with Rodriguez in A-Rod's Yankee tenure. Former manager Joe Torre caused a considerable stir when he dropped a free-falling Rodriguez to eighth in Game 4 of the 2006 Division Series against the Detroit Tigers.
Now, Rodriguez will get his first look at playoff baseball from the bench.
Contributing: John Perrotto in New York
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