A Minute With: Rapper RZA putting on “Iron Fists” for new movie

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Rapper and music producer RZA is best known as the leader of the hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan which also includes such popular members as Method Man, Ghostface Killah and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

RZA branched out into film, taking on small acting roles and scoring music, including the soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino‘s “Kill Bill: Vol. 1.”

Now, nearly a decade later, 43-year-old RZA has combined his childhood love of martial arts movies to co-write with Eli Roth the feature film “The Man With the Iron Fists,” which he also directs and acts in the title role.

Shot on location in China, and co-starring Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu, Iron Fists is set during the 19th century and sees several groups of warriors and assassins descend on a village in search of gold. The quiet and unassuming local blacksmith (RZA) ends up being the village defender.

RZA, whose real name is Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, sat down with Reuters in Hollywood to talk about the film and the future of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Q: You had to pull double duty, working simultaneously in front and behind the camera. How did you balance that?

A: “My spirit had to be extra strong to pull this off. It was difficult because in the morning (as the director) I’m worrying about everybody else, I’m talking fast. Then I have to get ready for the scene and I gotta sync my voice down to this guy. I gotta sync my spirit to him. He doesn’t smile once in the film. I smile. I’m not this morbid dude. He’s almost empty.”

Q: This is your biggest acting role to date. What did you learn as an actor?

A: “The thing about playing him that I could attest to as an actor was that I was lonely in China. I was personally lonely. And I think that shows on screen (in the character).”

Q: You’re in an exotic location with Russell Crowe and some of the biggest names in martial arts. How could you be lonely?

A: “I had no love, yo. You know what I mean? Going into a massage parlor is not gonna give you no love. I was yearning for it. For a brief minute there, I learned why actors fall in love with their co-stars.”

Q: How’s that?

A: “Because the only girl I had was (co-star/love interest) Jamie Chung. We all went out one night after shooting and Jamie had a guy friend with her. I looked over and I was so jealous. I felt weird. I told my buddy, ‘I’m about to punch this guy in the face!’ In that moment, I just felt that she was my woman. And the sad thing for me is, it would have been a one way street because she wasn’t interested in me at all.”

Q: Looking back on your first experience directing a studio movie, what do you think?

A: “It was hard work. It was 18 hour days. It was cold. The food was terrible sometimes and the language was an issue. But I kept it fun. I didn’t let nothing deter me from this path. I’m grateful and happy I had a chance to learn this craft and express it. I feel that out of everything I do as an artist – I make music, I write lyrics, I’m into fashion and clothing – filmmaking is the perfect medium and accumulates it all. I found what I should be doing. I matured into being this kind of person.”

Q: So many members of the Wu-Tang Clan are doing their own thing. Will you be assembling again soon for another album?

A: “Only time will tell. For now, I will say Iron Fists is Wu-Tang. We have all the members participating on the soundtrack. And if you look closely, you’ll notice that when (Rick Yune’s character) needs a second suit of knives, there are W’s on that second suit. You gotta look closely though. So the Wu-Tang is there. I made it subtly into the film so fans can enjoy it and feel the energy.”

Q: Some groups have their time in the spotlight and disappear. Others manage to evolve and stay relevant. Where is Wu-Tang at?

A: “To me, film is the medium that Wu-Tang needs to be at. I don’t think Wu-Tang needs to be in clubs while we gettin’ drunk and dancing. We need to be in theaters now where we sitting with our families and really appreciating our childhood in a different way. This is the reason why (movies like) ‘Iron Man’, ‘Captain America’, ‘Thor’, ‘The Avengers’ all work. Because we are adults who read comics and now we want our children to understand what we love.”

Q: So Iron Fists is the beginning of that for Wu-Tang – having others understand and appreciate the martial arts you all love?

A: “If Iron Fists goes over well and people accept it, we got great ideas for part two already. We’ve got a great sequel for all the characters and back stories that are so remarkable.”

Q: Sounds like you’re creating your own Marvel universe in a sense.

A: “Essentially, yes.”

(Reporting by Zorianna Kit, editing by Jill Serjeant)

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Many women stop their asthma meds while pregnant

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Almost a third of women on asthma control medications stop using them during the first few months of pregnancy – despite advice that a mother’s uncontrolled asthma is more dangerous to the developing fetus than the drugs, according to a new study from the Netherlands.

The researchers could not determine why moms-to-be stop taking their asthma meds, or whether it led to any negative health effects, but the findings are concerning, said Lucie Blais, a pharmacy professor at the University of Montreal, who was not involved in the study.

“Some studies show that uncontrolled asthma is bad for the fetus. You can have babies that will be small for their gestational age or low birth weight,” Blais told Reuters Health.

Both the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) and the U.S. National Asthma Education and Prevention Program recommend that women continue taking asthma medications throughout pregnancy, because the risks of exacerbated asthma are greater than the risks of the medication.

A lack of oxygen during development, known as hypoxemia, is one of the dangers to a fetus when its mother has uncontrolled asthma.

According to the GINA guidelines, there is not much evidence showing that asthma medications are harmful to the fetus, and “using medications to obtain control of asthma is justified even when their safety in pregnancy has not been unequivocally proven.”

To see how well pregnant mothers stick to their prescriptions, Priscilla Zetstra-van der Woude at the University of Groningen and her colleagues used information on more than 25,000 pregnancies from a prescription database in The Netherlands.

More than 2,000 of those pregnant women (about 8 percent) received a prescription for an asthma medication at least once during the study period, from 1994 to 2009.

Between 1994 and 2003, the women’s rate of asthma control medication prescriptions held steady before, during and after pregnancy.

From 2004 to 2009, however, the researchers saw a drop of 30 percent in the rate of asthma prescriptions filled in the first three months of pregnancy, compared to a woman’s pattern in the months before becoming pregnant.

When Zetstra-van der Woude’s group looked at the types of medications that women were cutting out, they saw that long-acting bronchodilators and combinations of these drugs with inhaled corticosteroids – used to keep moderate to severe asthma under control – were less popular during pregnancy than shortly before.

Prescriptions for these drugs declined by about 50 percent during the first trimester, from roughly 1.2 percent of pregnancies in the database down to 0.6 percent.

“Long-acting bronchodilators are usually prescribed for patients with more severe asthma, and discontinuation could lead to severe symptoms of respiratory distress,” the authors wrote in their report in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Zetstra-van der Woude’s study could not say whether the drop off in asthma medications had any negative effects on the mother or baby, and it’s possible that women did not have any worsening of symptoms.

“The course of asthma often changes during pregnancy and some women may experience a relief of asthma symptoms, and as a consequence can do with less or with no medication at all. This is no problem as long as the asthma is under control,” Zetstra-van der Woude said in an email to Reuters Health.

“Doctors as well as women themselves should be informed about the importance of adequate asthma control during pregnancy and about the risks of poorly controlled asthma…for the unborn child,” said Zetstra-van der Woude.

Blais said asthma patients are not especially good at sticking to their medications to begin with, and pregnancy could add an extra hurdle because women might be afraid of taking any drugs during pregnancy.

On the other hand, pregnancy could serve as an opportunity to get women to become more adherent to their prescriptions if it means keeping their asthma in check.

“Maybe pregnancy could be a period in a woman’s life where she might listen more to the recommendations because it’s about her health, but also the fetus’s health,” she said.

SOURCE: http://tinyurl.com/9uuelcy The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, online October 15, 2012.

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Canadian dollar ends near flat after GDP data shows contraction

TORONTO (Reuters) – The Canadian dollar weakened below parity against the U.S. currency before clawing back to end little changed on Wednesday after data showed the Canadian economy contracted unexpectedly in August.

The currency weakened to a session low shortly after the gross domestic product data pointed to slower growth in the third quarter and supported the Bank of Canada‘s message that interest rate hikes are not imminent. It later pared those losses.

“We are pretty much ending unchanged from where we started the day, but we saw a 50-point range and that’s the largest we’ve seen in a week,” said Dave Bradley, director of foreign exchange trading at Scotiabank.

The Canadian dollar ended the North American session at C$ 0.9990 to the greenback, or $ 1.0010, compared with C$ 0.9993, or $ 1.0007, at Tuesday’s close.

Bradley said the market was still suffering from poor liquidity due to the absence of many U.S. traders recovering from monster storm Sandy.

“Despite the U.S. equity markets opening again, a lot of New York based participants are out of the market … I think liquidity and general flow is at a minimum,” Bradley said.

With October 31 marking the end of the financial reporting year for Canadian banks, Bradley noted the Canadian currency was virtually unchanged from a year ago within a few basis points of parity.

Mark Chandler, head of Canadian fixed income and currency strategy at Royal Bank of Canada, said the currency could be weighed down by the August GDP numbers, which showed a 0.1 percent contraction, through to the end of the week.

“It’ll linger for a little bit, the only thing that could change the tune on this is we have payrolls,” he said.

Canada and the United States are set to release monthly employment data on Friday.

U.S. equity markets were mostly flat on Wednesday, opening for the first time this week after shutting their doors ahead of Hurricane Sandy. <.N>

With the GDP data backing up recent Bank of Canada comments that rate rises are “less imminent”, the price of Canadian government debt turned positive after the data, especially at the front end of the curve, and outperformed U.S. Treasuries.

The two-year bond was up 5 Canadian cents to yield 1.076 percent, while the benchmark 10-year bond rose 20 Canadian cents to yield 1.788 percent.

Overnight index swaps, which trade based on expectations for the central bank’s key policy rate, showed that after the data traders pulled their bets on the possibility of a rate hike in late 2013.

(With additional reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson and Chizu Nomiyama)

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Clinton calls for overhaul of Syrian opposition

ZAGREB (Reuters) – The United States called on Wednesday for an overhaul of Syria‘s opposition leadership, saying it was time to move beyond the Syrian National Council and bring in those “in the front lines fighting and dying”.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, signaling a more active stance by Washington in attempts to form a credible political opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said a meeting next week in Qatar would be an opportunity to broaden the coalition against him.

“This cannot be an opposition represented by people who have many good attributes but who, in many instances, have not been inside Syria for 20, 30, 40 years,” she said during a visit to Croatia.

“There has to be a representation of those who are in the front lines fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom.”

Clinton’s comments represented a clear break with the Syrian National Council (SNC), a largely foreign-based group which has been among the most vocal proponents of international intervention in the Syrian conflict.

U.S. officials have privately expressed frustration with the SNC’s inability to come together with a coherent plan and with its lack of traction with the disparate internal groups which have waged the 19-month uprising against Assad’s government.

Senior members of the SNC, Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other rebel groups ended a meeting in Turkey on Wednesday and pledged to unite behind a transitional government in coming months.

“It’s been our divisions that have allowed the Assad forces to reach this point,” Ammar al-Wawi, a rebel commander, told Reuters after the talks outside Istanbul.

“We are united on toppling Assad. Everyone, including all the rebels, will gather under the transitional government.”

Mohammad Al-Haj Ali, a senior Syrian military defector, told a news conference after the meeting: “We are still facing some difficulties between the politicians and different opposition groups and the leaders of the Free Syrian Army on the ground.”

Clinton said it was important that the next rulers of Syria were both inclusive and committed to rejecting extremism.

“There needs to be an opposition that can speak to every segment and every geographic part of Syria. And we also need an opposition that will be on record strongly resisting the efforts by extremists to hijack the Syrian revolution,” she said.

Syria’s revolt has killed an estimated 32,000. A bomb near a Shi’ite shrine in a suburb of Damascus killed at least six more people on Wednesday, state media and opposition activists said.

NEW LEADERSHIP

The meeting next week in Qatar’s capital Doha represents a chance to forge a new leadership, Clinton said, adding the United States had helped to “smuggle out” representatives of internal Syrian opposition groups to a meeting in New York last month to argue their case for inclusion.

“We have recommended names and organizations that we believe should be included in any leadership structure,” she told a news conference.

“We’ve made it clear that the SNC can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition. They can be part of a larger opposition, but that opposition must include people from inside Syria and others who have a legitimate voice which must be heard.”

The United States and its allies have struggled for months to craft a credible opposition coalition.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has said it is not providing arms to internal opponents of Assad and is limiting its aid to non-lethal humanitarian assistance.

It concedes, however, that some of its allies are providing lethal assistance – a fact that Assad’s chief backer Russia says shows western powers are intent on determining Syria’s future.

Russia and China have blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at increasing pressure on the Assad government, leading the United States and its allies to say they could move beyond U.N. structures for their next steps.

Clinton said she regretted but was not surprised by the failure of the latest attempted ceasefire, called by international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi last Friday. Each side blamed the other for breaking the truce.

“The Assad regime did not suspend its use of advanced weaponry against the Syrian people for even one day,” she said.

“While we urge Special Envoy Brahimi to do whatever he can in Moscow and Beijing to convince them to change course and support a stronger U.N. action we cannot and will not wait for that.”

Clinton said the United States would continue to work with partners to increase sanctions on the Assad government and provide humanitarian assistance to those hit by the conflict.

(Additional reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; editing by Andrew Roche)

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RIM starts carrier testing on BlackBerry 10 devices

TORONTO (Reuters) – Research In Motion has started carrier testing of its new line of BlackBerry 10 devices ahead of the launch of the devices in the first quarter of 2013, the company said on Wednesday.

“In the last week, BlackBerry 10 achieved lab entry with more than 50 carriers, a key step in our preparedness for the launch of BlackBerry 10 in the first quarter of 2013,” said RIM’s Chief Executive Thorsten Heins, in a brief statement.

Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM is seeking to turn around its faded fortunes with the launch of the BB10 devices, as its aging line-up of BlackBerry devices loses ground to Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s line of Galaxy products, especially in the key North American and European markets.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Janet Guttsman)

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Disney to make new ‘Star Wars’ films, buy Lucas co

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A decade after George Lucas said “Star Wars” was finished on the big screen, a new trilogy is destined for theaters after The Walt Disney Co. announced Tuesday that it was buying Lucasfilm Ltd. for $ 4.05 billion.

The seventh movie, with a working title of “Episode 7,” is set for release in 2015. Episodes 8 and 9 will follow. The new trilogy will carry the story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia beyond “Return of the Jedi,” the third film released and the sixth in the saga. After that, Disney plans a new “Star Wars” movie every two or three years. Lucas will serve as creative consultant in the new movies.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said Lucas, chairman and CEO of Lucasfilm Ltd. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger said Lucusfilm had already developed an extensive story line on the next trilogy, and Episode 7 was now in early-stage development.

The Walt Disney Co. announced the blockbuster agreement to buy Lucasfilm in cash and stock Tuesday. The deal includes Lucasfilm’s prized high-tech production companies, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, as well as rights to the “Indiana Jones” franchise.

Iger said in a statement that the acquisition is a great fit and will help preserve and grow the “Star Wars” franchise.

“The last ‘Star Wars’ movie release was 2005′s ‘Revenge of the Sith’ — and we believe there’s substantial pent-up demand,” Iger said.

Kathleen Kennedy, the current co-chairman of Lucasfilm, will become the division’s president and report to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn.

The deal brings Lucasfilm under the Disney banner with other brands including Pixar, Marvel, ESPN and ABC, all companies that Disney has acquired over the years. A former weatherman who rose through the ranks of ABC, Iger has orchestrated some of the company’s biggest acquisitions, including the $ 7.4 billion purchase of animated movie studio Pixar in 2006 and the $ 4.2 billion acquisition of comic book giant Marvel in 2009.

Disney shares were not trading with stock markets closed due to the impact of Superstorm Sandy in New York.

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Compounding Pharmacies Feeling the Effects of NECC’s Errors

Closing the barn door after the horse has escaped doesn’t help those it might encounter, but it does protect people from the many other horses that remain in the barn. This is analogous to what’s going on with compounding pharmacies in Florida and Massachusetts, now that the unsanitary conditions of the New England Compounding Center , NECC, have been linked to the current fungal meningitis outbreak.

Massachusetts Takes Action Against Compounding Pharmacies

The New York Times reported that after Massachusetts’ health officials performed surprise inspections at some of the compounding pharmacies located in the state, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based Infusion Resource voluntarily surrendered its license over the weekend. The license surrender followed an Oct. 23 inspection that found the environment in which medications were being made revealed sanitation issues and perhaps as importantly, this pharmacy had been administering intravenous medications to patients, a clear violation of their license.

Infusion Resource is the third compounding pharmacy in the state to have its license suspended.

Florida Takes Action Against Compounding Pharmacy

Rejuvi Pharmaceuticals was the first compounding pharmacy in Florida to have its operations suspended after an inspection of the facility by the Florida Department of Health, according to Reuters . State officials visited Rejuvi Pharmaceuticals on Oct. 26 as part of a routine inspection rotation and found a number of violations, ranging from cleanliness of areas related to medications to record keeping issues.

Role of Compounding Pharmacies

A compounding pharmacy’s main role is to make a drug or drugs as prescribed by a physician for a specific patient. These prescriptions may call for formulations or dosages of medications not available through the usual route from drug manufacturers.

As WebMD explained, perhaps a person is allergic to an ingredient in a manufactured medication. The compounding pharmacy would create the needed medication absent the allergy-causing ingredient. When a specific strength or dose is not available in manufactured medications, a compounding pharmacy is called upon to create what is necessary for that prescription, for that patient.

Where NECC Fell Short

In addition to the unsanitary conditions at NECC, in addition to the pharmacy violating its own regulations of awaiting test results on purity of product before that product is shipped, the NECC erred in manufacturing and distributing vials of medication that were not patient-specific in nature, such as the three lots of recalled methylprednisolone acetate linked to the fungal meningitis outbreak.

Bottom Line

No one is suggesting that compounding pharmacies shutter their doors, because the role their products play in health care is an important one. Compounding pharmacies have thus far escaped the same scrutiny and standards to which standard pharmaceutical companies are held. In Massachusetts, for instance, according to the Associated Press, a compounding pharmacy is inspected when it opens, if it moves, or if a complaint is received about it.

More inspections and improved regulations may prevent another public health dilemma, but improved vigilance will also cost more money. That may be the sore point with taxpayers/consumers.

Smack dab in the middle of the baby boomer generation, L.L. Woodard is a proud resident of “The Red Man” state. With what he hopes is an everyman’s view of life’s concerns both in his state and throughout the nation, Woodard presents facts and opinions based on common-sense solutions.

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Wall Street closed for second day

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The stock market was closed for a second straight day on Tuesday as cash equity trading was canceled in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Tuesday’s shutdown was the first time weather had resulted in a two-day market shutdown since the Great Blizzard of 1888. Exchanges expect to reopen on Wednesday.

NYSE Euronext said the New York Stock Exchange would open, although it will switch to fully electronic trading if necessary. Nasdaq OMX‘s Nasdaq Stock Market will also be operating on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter said.

Index futures stopped trading electronically at 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday (1315 GMT) and ended the session largely flat. S&P index futures ended 0.2 percent higher.

Futures will reopen at 7 p.m. ET (2300 GMT) for the overnight session during European and Asian hours, closing again at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Sandy, a mammoth storm, slammed into a large swathe of the densely populated U.S. eastern seaboard on Monday, forcing hundreds of thousands to seek higher ground, halting public transport and closing schools, businesses, financial markets and government departments. At least 18 people died and more than eight million homes and businesses were without power.

Investors expect heightened volatility when markets do reopen as the two-day closure creates pent-up demand.

Certain sectors are seen as especially tied to the fallout from the storm, which caused major flooding from storm surge during high tides, along with extensive damage from high winds and lashing rain. Disaster-modeling company Eqecat estimates Sandy caused between $ 10 billion and $ 20 billion in total economic damages, with $ 5 billion to $ 10 billion in insured losses.

Construction sectors as well as retailers such as Home Depot may see a boost from the eventual rebuilding effort, though airlines, which were forced to cancel thousands of flights, could see sharp falls. Insurance companies will also be in focus.

“With winds 75 miles per hour along with flooding in the most populated area of the country, you could have an unparalleled loss picture for insurance companies,” said Joe Heider, a Cleveland based wealth manager at Rehmann.

Compounding the issue, Sandy arrived in the middle of the corporate earnings season. While some companies, including Pfizer Inc , delayed releasing their results until the storm passed, others released theirs on schedule, including Ford Motor and TD Ameritrade .

With their results out but investors unable to trade on them, those stocks may see particular interest on Wednesday.

(Editing by James Dalgleish)

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Hurricane’s death toll rises to 65 in Caribbean

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — As Americans braced Sunday for Hurricane Sandy, Haiti was still suffering.

Officials raised the storm-related death toll across the Caribbean to 65, with 51 of those coming in Haiti, which was pelted by three days of constant rains that ended only on Friday.

As the rains stopped and rivers began to recede, authorities were getting a fuller idea of how much damage Sandy brought on Haiti. Bridges collapsed. Banana crops were ruined. Homes were underwater. Officials said the death toll might still rise.

“This is a disaster of major proportions,” Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told The Associated Press, adding with a touch of hyperbole, “The whole south is under water.”

The country’s ramshackle housing and denuded hillsides are especially vulnerable to flooding. The bulk of the deaths were in the southern part of the country and the area around Port-au-Prince, the capital, which holds most of the 370,000 Haitians who are still living in flimsy shelters as a result of the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Santos Alexis, mayor of the southern city of Leogane, said Sunday that the rivers were receding and that people were beginning to dry their belongings in the sun.

“Things are back to being a little quiet,” Alexis said by telephone. “We have seen the end.”

Sandy also killed 11 in Cuba, where officials said it destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of houses. Deaths were also reported in Jamaica, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico. Authorities in the Dominican Republic said the storm destroyed several bridges and isolated at least 130 communities while damaging an estimated 3,500 homes.

Jamaica’s emergency management office on Sunday was airlifting supplies to marooned communities in remote areas of four badly impacted parishes.

In the Bahamas, Wolf Seyfert, operations director at local airline Western Air, said the domestic terminal of Grand Bahamas‘ airport received “substantial damage” from Sandy’s battering storm surge and would need to be rebuilt.

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Nexus 10 Costs $100 More Than Kindle Fire, Has 10x the Apps

Amazon appears to be positioning its Kindle Fire lineup of tablets as the Pepsi to Apple‘s Coke, as John Gruber put it earlier this week. The various iPad models are better made and have more apps, but lack a handful of features and cost a lot more.

How does the 8.9 inch Kindle Fire HD compare to Google’s new Nexus 10, however?

Smaller and cheaper

The Nexus 10′s 10-inch display puts it ahead of even the iPad’s screen size, and the enormous bezels make it wider as well (although it’s thinner and lighter than the iPad and right up there with the smaller Kindle). On the other hand, its $ 399 price point puts it in between the $ 499 iPad and the $ 299 Kindle Fire.

While the Nexus 10 is only available in a 16 GB model, though, for $ 384 you can get an 8.9 inch Kindle Fire with 32 GB of storage and without “special offers” (read: ads). That’s still $ 15 cheaper than the Nexus 10. Amazon has long competed on price, thanks in part to its inhumanely efficient warehousing system, and the Kindle Fire continues to beat its competitors here.

More than ten times fewer apps

As of the time of this writing, there were 56,971 apps in the Amazon “Appstore for Android,” the only store Kindle Fire owners can buy their apps from.

Every one of those apps is available on the Nexus 10 and other Android tablets, however, because they can get to the Amazon Appstore too. Meanwhile, according to Ian Sherr and John Letzing of the Wall Street Journal, the Google Play store just reached a total of 700,000 apps, putting it roughly on par with Apple’s App Store and many times ahead of the “Appstore.”

Not quite that simple?

In reality, many of those “apps” are wallpapers and experiments. Most of the “big name” apps, like Facebook and Evernote, are available on both the Kindle Fire and Google Play. The Appstore’s selection and app versions still tend to lag, though, and neither store has many apps designed just for tablets compared to the iPad’s selection.

The unique features each offers

Beyond their price tags and raw volumes of apps, each tablet offers unique features. The Nexus 10 lets you personalize your home screens with custom app selections and widgets, while the Kindle Fire uses a “Cover Flow” style carousel. The Kindle Fire lets you stream movies from Amazon Instant Video if you have an Amazon Prime subscription, while the Nexus 10 has the latest Google apps like Google Earth and the Chrome browser.

The biggest ways that the Kindle Fire shows its cheap pricetag? It’s packed full of ads, on the lock screen and even in the corner of the homescreen (removing them costs $ 15 extra), and its slow, laggy performance has been widely panned by reviewers. In contrast, Google’s last Nexus tablet benefitted from performance enhancements which made animations and scrolling extremely smooth, and the Nexus 10 should as well.

Available when?

The 8.9 inch Kindle Fire is available for preorder now, and goes on sale on Nov. 20. The Nexus 10 will be available for purchase on Nov. 13.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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