Author: Serkadis

As with the Porsche Cayenne, when the Porsche Panamera made its debut last year it was met with great skepticism due to its somewhat oddly shaped body.

Well, just like the Cayenne, the Panamera has proven skeptics wrong. The Panamera sedan was launched in the U.S. market in October 2009, and has been received positively by American customers. Last month, Porsche sold a total of 534 units of the Panamera on the stateside in January, helping Porsche report sales of 1,786 units in total.

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Porsche said it sold 503 units of the 911 model and 590 units of the Cayenne. However, 159 units from the Boxster family, to which the Cayman coupe belongs, were sold; this is 40 percent less than in the same period last year.

Check out videos of the Porsche Panamera at egmCarTech Videos.

Read more news on the Porsche Panamera.

Refresher: The $89,800 Porsche Panamera S is powered by a 400-hp V8 allowing for a 0-60 mph time of 5.2 seconds with a top speed of 175 mph. $93,800 Panamera 4S is powered by the same 400-hp V8. The $132,600 Porsche Panamera Turbo is powered by a turbocharged V8 making 500-hp allowing for a 0-60 mph time of 4.0 seconds with a top speed of 188 mph.

2010 Porsche Panamera:

– By: Kap Shah

Google is always working on new products and updates and some of the things it reveals turn out to be quite unexpected. But Google Store View, a take on Street View only for interiors? Seems a little a little hard to pull off, yet there are now several reports that Google is indeed working on something like this and has been taking in… (read more)

McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler praised his colleagues for their fiscal conservatism during his sixth annual State of the County address Tuesday, but warned them that more belt-tightening may lie ahead.

In a speech intentionally light on new proposals for 2010, Koehler said McHenry County is weathering the economic crisis better than most of its peers in Illinois.

“We’ve been flexible in both our governance and finances in response to what many call the Great Recession,” he said.

“And, like many units of government, McHenry County has felt the pressure of the economic slowdown. But unlike many other government entities, our sound financial management has put us in a strong position to respond to the continuing economic challenges we will face in 2010.”

Koehler spent much of the speech recapping accomplishments of 2009, including the completion of the Algonquin Road expansion through Algonquin, Lake in the Hills and Huntley; the completion of the county’s first new comprehensive plan since 1993; the creation of the McHenry County Housing Commission; and its use of stimulus-related bonding authority to help communities like Cary, Fox River Grove and Crystal Lake.

“Through the tough times of 2009, we continued to move forward to improve the quality of life for county residents,” he said. “We have accomplished much over the past year.”

Although Koehler did not bring forth any new major proposals, he said the economic downturn should not lead to inaction. He listed efforts to address flooding woes in some parts the county, working with municipalities to fix roads and expanding broadband capabilities through the county as work that can be done while remaining fiscally conservative.

“The county can do a lot without jeopardizing its finances,” he said.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

The Chinese state-owned automotive group Chery Automobile plans to invest $35.2 million in the development of an R&D center which will help the manufacturer achieve its 700,000 units sales target set for 2010.

Chery has decided to achieve this ambitious goal by introducing 17 new models in 2010 through its 4 brands. The most important cars to come to the market during the current year are the M14 coupe, Riich G3, Riich G6, Reely X3 and Reely X5. For example, the upcoming Riich G3 will be a c… (read more)

Analysts had been looking for 10.0% unemployment, so this 9.7% number looks decent.

Still, nonfarm payrolls were lower by 20,000 this month, compared to the flat number analysts had expected.

However there are some measurement changes that affected the number, so that’s an issue.

And the internals are ugly. Check out how long people are staying unemployed.

Overall, the takeaway is mass confusion.

However, stocks are picking up a bit on the news.

From the BLS:

In January, the number of unemployed persons decreased to 14.8 million,
and the unemployment rate fell by 0.3 percentage point to 9.7 percent.
(See table A-1.)

In January, unemployment rates for most major worker groups–adult men
(10.0 percent), teenagers (26.4 percent), blacks (16.5 percent), and
Hispanics (12.6 percent)–showed little change. The jobless rate for adult
women fell to 7.9 percent, and the rate for whites declined to 8.7 percent.
The jobless rate for Asians was 8.4 percent, not seasonally adjusted.
(See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

This release includes new household survey tables with information about
employment and unemployment of veterans, persons with a disability, and the
foreign born. In January, the unemployment rate of veterans from Gulf War
era II (September 2001 to the present) was 12.6 percent, compared with 10.4
percent for nonveterans. Persons with a disability had a higher jobless rate
than persons with no disability–15.2 versus 10.4 percent. In addition, the
labor force participation rate of persons with a disability was 21.8 percent,
compared with 70.1 percent for those without a disability. The unemployment
rate for the foreign born was 11.8 percent, and the rate for the native born
was 10.3 percent. (The data in these new tables are not seasonally adjusted.)
(See tables A-5, A-6, and A-7.)

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See Also:

• Fragile Market Awaits HUGE Payrolls Numbers At 8:30

The Federal Reserve’s $1.25 trillion mortgage-backed security buying program is slated to end on March 31st.

But Federal Reserve president William Dudley just made it clear that it would likely be restarted if the mortgage market started showing signs of weakness whereby mortgage rates rose too much.

A screaming invitation to Housing Bubble 2.0 punters:

WaPo:

In interviews with the Nightly Business Report and the Associated Press, Dudley said the time is right to end the program because the economy is growing and because expanding the purchases would make it harder for the Fed to unwind its support down the road.

But he said the Fed might reconsider if rates rose sharply. “Obviously, if mortgage rates were to back up a lot and if that had a big consequence for the economy, then we very well could rethink the issue about whether we wanted to buy more mortgages,” Dudley told the Nightly Business Report.

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See Also:

• Hey Taxpayers! Get Ready To Bail Out The FHA
• Paul Krugman Finally Comes Through With An Incredibly Tepid Endorsement Of Bernanke
• Rosenberg: Forget The "Flat" Pending Home Sales Number, Here’s The Real Disaster

Despite the few critics received by Bridgestone from some drivers during the 2009 Formula One championship – regarding the one-compound gap between tire allocations throughout last year’s campaign – the Japanese tire manufacturer announced it has no plans to change their policy for the season to come.

Consequently, Bridgestone will continue to keep the gap between tire compounds during the grand prix weekend throughout 2010, with the sole exceptions of street circuits. Basically, the gap will… (read more)

Filed under: Gaming, Hardware, Rumors, Software, Apple

Sega surprised everyone last night with the reveal of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 — apparently the newest game in the series will be a download-only episodic title coming to the Xbox and PS3 later this year. And the iPhone, too? The very end of the trailer, as you can see above, has a blank rectangle after the XBLA, PSN, and WiiWare logos, which some presume is a space for the App Store logo eventually. In addition, various graphics were found on the official site that hint at an iPhone release as well. The game, which you can see in the trailer linked above, is a colorful return to the series’ 2D roots, but even the updated 3D graphics are probably enough for the latest versions of the iPhone to handle.

And of course there’s the iPad — considering that the game is called “Episode 1″ (so presumably Sega is going to be releasing a few of these), Sega will probably want as big an install base as possible. Just widening the display of an iPhone app might not work so well, as these simulator screenshots on Gadget Lab show, so it’s very possible that one of the launch games for Apple’s tablet could be a sweet, high-resolution old school Sonic sequel. We’ll keep you updated — just watch out for the drool.

TUAWSonic 4 coming to the iPhone/iPad? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jim Cramer said markets would rally if Scott Brown were elected Senator from Massachusetts, because markets love gridlock.

But markets HATE gridlock if they sense the gridlock will put an end to reckless, temporarily beneficial stimulus spending. In this environment, gridlock is the last thing investors want to see, because gridlock means the economy might have to stand on its own two feet.

So even before today’s open, which is expected to be lower, the S&P 500 is down 7.6% since the January 19th close, and the official beginning of the Scott Brown era.

Thanks Scott!

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Soros: Scott Brown Will Create A Double Dip Recession
• Here’s What Will Happen To Healthcare Stocks If Scott Brown Wins Tomorrow
• Jim Cramer: Markets Will Surge Wednesday If Coakley Loses

By Ty McMahan, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

There was a lot of bellyaching last year about an online advertising market meltdown. Most of it was justified, as many advertisers’ budgets seemed to involve money that jingles rather than the kind that folds.

Research firm eMarketer reported that U.S. online advertising dropped by 4.6 percent in 2009, the first decrease since 2002.

However, recent news coming from three Internet start-ups shows not everyone dependent on advertising shed tears on their financial statements.

This week alone, local online advertising provider Yodle Inc. announced a $10 million funding round on the back of a 135 percent revenue climb in 2009; female-focused ad network Glam Media Inc. said it grew revenue by 35 percent and raised a whopping $50 million Series E; and online video ad network BrightRoll Inc. declared it doubled revenue and raised $10 million.

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Shin Jon-kyun, Samsung’s President of handsets, made an announcement to The Korean Herald about his company’s mobile platform venture known as “bada.” “Currently, bada does not have a prominent presence in the market. But we plan to launch our first bada phone in late March or early April globally… we seek to make a big success with bada.” Will it be on the mysterious device that popped up on our radar screens last November? Who knows. Samsung has been very stingy with details on the new OS; what we do know is that it will have the TouchWiz interface, support multitouch screens, and be built for — initially anyways — all touch screen devices. Looks like we’ll be welcoming bada to the mobile OS family sooner rather than later.

[Via Gizmodo]

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Mosquitos are still a leading cause of the spread of malaria and other diseases in many parts of the world. While we know that mosquitos find humans through smell, the details of their olfactory abilities hadn’t been worked out. A new study in Nature describes how researchers isolated the olfactory genes of mosquitos and expressed them in fruit flies to see how each responds to certain smells. They found that mosquitos are attracted to certain chemicals in human breath and sweat, even in small amounts—knowledge they could use to build better repellents and traps.

The type of mosquito tested, A. gambiae, is the biggest spreader of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. The fact that mosquitos detect humans through smell is well-known, but the molecular basis of their ability to sniff us out is not, even though the mosquito genome was sequenced several years ago. 

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They’re often criticized by motorists, but a traffic roundabout could be the fix for backups at a much-traveled Lake County intersection, transportation experts said this week.

The circular boulevard is planned for the intersection of Riverwoods and Everett roads in Lincolnshire.

It will be designed differently than the notorious traffic circle at Wolf and Golf roads in Des Plaines that has frustrated motorists for years, said Marty Buehler, Lake County’s transportation director.

For example, motorists face stop signs at the Des Plaines circle, but only will have to yield for oncoming cars in Lincolnshire’s roundabout, Buehler said. Additionally, traffic approaching the circle will be limited to 20 mph.

When it’s done, people are going to love it, Buehler insisted. The roundabout will move drivers through the area more effectively than traffic lights would, he said.

Lincolnshire Mayor Brett Blomberg is aware of the infamous Des Plaines traffic circle’s reputation but backed the county’s plan.

“It will be interesting to see how it works,” Blomberg said.

The project will be driven by the county transportation department. The county board on Tuesday is expected to approve an agreement with the village board to build the roundabout.

Village officials already have greenlit the partnership with the county. A construction firm has not yet been hired.

The effort is expected to cost $2.9 million, Buehler said. Eighty percent of the cost – roughly $2.3 million – will be covered by federal funds reserved for air-quality improvement projects, Buehler said.

About 16,000 vehicles drive through the intersection every day, Buehler said. The work is needed, he said, because vehicles regularly stack up at the intersection, which now has stop signs at all corners.

The lines are so long, people sometimes have trouble getting to popular North Park, which is on the intersection’s southeast corner, Blomberg said.

“If you’ve got a practice or a game (there), you could be late just because of that northbound traffic backed up on Riverwoods Road,” Blomberg said.

The work could begin this summer and wrap up in the fall, Buehler said.

County transportation officials are planning four additional roundabouts at:

• Hunt Club and Wadsworth roads in Old Mill Creek.
• Hunt Club and Millburn roads in Old Mill Creek.
• Cedar Lake and Monaville roads in Lake Villa.
• Roberts and River roads in Lake Barrington.

Tuesday’s county board meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. at the county government center in Waukegan.

It is open to the public and also is viewable live online at lakecountyil.gov/iwantto/watch.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

There’s been plenty of buzz around Spotify, the online music service that is available in Europe, but not in the US. Having played with the product, it’s really nicely done, but there’s always been a huge concern over whether or not there’s a real business model there. The record labels have been notorious for burdening any useful startup with ridiculous licensing terms that make it close to impossible for any such business to survive (let alone profit). Spotify had said it was going to launch in the US, but hasn’t been able to, and while the company keeps saying it’s close, other reports suggest that the major labels still haven’t reached agreements with the company.

However, what’s much more interesting is this interview with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, where he suggests the company wants to branch out well beyond the subscription/ad-based business models and start enabling musicians to offer other business models that sound an awful lot like the CwF+RtB business model we talk about here:

“We want a platform where we can [allow] lots and lots of experimentation. We don’t know what will work for an individual artist. Some will benefit from scarcity. Some will benefit from it being widely available, even free. They might make their money by giving away all their music for free … In the best of world, Spotify will become the platform where you manage your music and because you do that, we will figure out what kinds of offerings you’re interested in. For certain types of artists, you might be interested in something unique. You might do a meet-and-greet. It might be that you want it on vinyl because it feels better. Or just go and see the show. Or have the merchandise.”

Who knows if Spotify can pull it off (and if it will build this itself, or partner to do so), but this is a much more ambitious play than what’s been talked about in the past, and while it’s risky, seems like a much better long-term bet.

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CHICAGO  — There’s something in the air, and it’s making Chicagoans sick.

As CBS 2’s Pamela Jones reports, the National Weather Service has issued an air quality alert through the day Thursday. It means you may have to limit your time outdoors.

The problem is tiny particles, smaller than the width of one human hair. And it could put the health of people in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin at risk.

“It is pretty rare. Normally we hear about air pollution action days in the summer, but in the winter time there can be higher levels of particulate matter in the air, and the cold weather can cause that,” said Katie Lorenz of the American Lung Association.

Some people say they’re already noticing changes in the air. Kelly Helling walks to and from her job in downtown Chicago every day. But today, she noticed it was harder for her to breathe.

“Yeah, the past couple of days, it seems like it kind of could have been something in the air,” Helling said.

The National Weather Service says higher pollution levels may be why.

It’s prompted the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to issue an air quality alert – warning people that outdoor activities like brisk walking and running could make them sick.

But why are pollution levels suddenly higher?

“It’s a factor of largely weather and what we put out every day,” said Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health programs for the Respiratory Health Association of Greater Chicago.

Every day, dangerous fine particulate matter is pumped into the air by cars, trucks, coal-fired power plants, and factories. But on most days, we have wind or rain that moves the pollution away and spreads it out, so it doesn’t stay concentrated at unhealthy levels, Urbaszewksi said.

Right now, the weather is not cooperating to protect us.

“What’s happening now is we have a high-pressure system, which basically means that the air is sinking so that all the population is being compressed into the ground and concentrated, and we don’t have any winds today,” Urbaszewski said.

“So we’re being forced, essentially, to breathe what we produced.”

So will people be able to heed those warnings?

“Well, I work a lot, so between working and then going home afterwards, I’ll probably just stick to working out inside the gym then instead of going outside, which is unfortunate,” Helling said.

There are three main chemical categories that most fine particulate matter falls into, Urbasewzki said. Carbon particles can come from sources such as diesel exhaust.

Sulfate particles can come from coal-fired power plants, because the sulfur generate by the combustion of the coal comes out of the plants’ chimneys to the tune of thousands of tons per year.

Finally, nitrate particles form from nitrogen oxides that come out of cars, trucks, power plants, furnaces and other sources.

However, Urbaszewski said: “It’s not necessarily what makes up the fine particle. It’s the size of the particle that makes it dangerous.”

Each particle is less than 2.5 millionths of a meter in diameter. By comparison, a human hair is about 80 to 100 millionths of a meter across, Urbaszewski said.

Such tiny particles in the air could pose a lot of problems, especially for those with illnesses like asthma or allergies. Doctors say people shouldn’t ignore the symptoms.

Dr. Lindsey Buswell-Cleary of Michigan Avenue Immediate Care says to see the doctor “if you’re having trouble breathing, if you feel like your chest is tight, you can’t fully take a deep breath or you’re having a cough that’s just persistent.”

The Illinois EPA suggests that people try to cut down on pollution during these action days, by carpooling or taking public transportation. And if you have to drive, try running errands in the evening.

For more information, click the links below.

• National Weather Service: Air Quality Alert
• Partners for Clean Air

CBS 2 Web Producer Adam Harrington contributed to this report.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Socialite and Super Bowl WAG (Wives & Girlfriends of High-Profile Football Stars) Kim Kardashian introduced her new self-titled fragrance to fans at Sephora in South Beach, Miami on Thursday. One overly-excited fan had to be comforted by the reality star after she broke down in tears. Don’t ask….Another touched follower presented the curvy beauty with a stuffed teddy.

The Italian minister of economics summoned Fiat and its four unions to a Rome meeting in an attempt to settle the conflict which started when the Italian automaker announced it will close its Termini Imerese plant in Sicily, says just-auto.com.

The minister hopes to find a solution in order to terminate the strikes the unions started across Fiat plants across the country. The automaker has serious arguments for closing the plant and moving the Lancia Ypsilon production to Poland: according to… (read more)

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 has had an extremely rocky road to the market, especially on the Vodafone network, where in UK the device has been completely cancelled, despite being exclusive to the network.

It seems this has not stopped Vodafone, which is a global network, launching the device in other countries.

The Xperia X2 has just been launched on Vodafone Spain, and will be available to purchase from Monday next week.

The smartphone will run at EUR 700 without contract but will also be available cheaper on an 18 month contract.

According to Magnus Ahlqvist, general director of Sony Ericsson Iberia, the 8 megapixel handset will remain exclusive to Vodafone for 3 more months following the launch.

Via TradingMarkets.com

Filed under: Convertible, Coupe, Performance, Ford

The latest Ford Racing email newsletter contains some juicy stuff for Mustang fans. It confirms that the 2011 Shelby GT500 will be revealed this coming Monday, February 8, at 1:30 PM Eastern time via a live webcast, during which FoMoCo VP for global product development, Derrick Kuzak will also run down the SVT product strategy with Jost Capito, Ford’s director of global performance vehicles. The newsletter includes a link to FordMediaLive.com, which is counting down the seconds to the webcast in real time. We recommend you click on the system test button, because doing so gives you a teaser reel of the 2011 Shelby GT500 (shown above), and if you’ve been following the leaked developments so far, it’s pretty revealing. (Note: Ford has since pulled down the old test/teaser reel and replaced it with generic nature scenes.)

As you know, the Shelby GT500 order guide found its way onto the web last week. Among the new-for-2011 features mentioned (beyond the aluminum block for the blown 5.4-liter V8), are the glass roof option, which is installed on the car in the video, and the new SVT Performance Package, which is also equipped. Visual giveaways that differentiate the performance pack cars are readily evident: the hood stripes are skinnier than the ones on the standard GT500, and the body-side stripe is solid (it’s bisected on the regular GT500).

Even more obvious are the different wheels, 19 x 9.5 inches in front, and 20 X 10 inches in back) that are exclusive to the SVT Performance Package. Finally, in the shot of the car’s rear end, the spoiler with Gurney flap is plainly visible. Regular GT500s don’t get the flap.(Never mind; I forgot that the 2010 GT500 rear spoiler had the flap, too. – Nunez) As specified in the leaked order sheet, the performance pack cars also get upgraded to a 3:73 rear axle ratio over the base GT500’s 3:55s.On top of all that, The Detroit News reports this morning that the tweaked, aluminum-block 5.4 gets another 10 horsepower over the iron-block version, raising total output to 550 HP.

There’s more to tell, but unfortunately, we’re sworn to secrecy until 1:30 sharp on Monday. What we will say is this: The Mustang V6 and GT aren’t the only ponys in the stable that get better for 2011. As good – great, even – as the 2010 Shelby GT500 is, the 2011 improves on the formula. Stay tuned for some pretty hot stuff on Monday. Thanks to Murray for the heads-up, and to commenter Mike for the Detroit News link.

Update: The teaser video has been posted to YouTube, and is now embedded after the jump.

[Source: Ford Media Live via TeamShelby.com, The Detroit News, YouTube]

Continue reading Sneak Peek: 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 w/ SVT Performance Package [w/video]

Sneak Peek: 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 w/ SVT Performance Package [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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