Author: Serkadis

Ferrari has every reason to be excited with the first day of testing on Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo Circuit, as Felipe Massa topped the overall timing sheets yesterday with the best time of 1:12.574. The Brazilian driver took his brand new Ferrari F10 to the track on both sessions of the day and ended each on top of the standings.

This was the first time he took part in an official testing event following his accident in Hungary last season, that left him sidelined for the second part of the 200… (read more)

As a national sponsor for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Munich, German carmaker BMW announced it has chosen Katarina Witt as its ambassador for the event. Now aged 44, Katarina Witt is the two-time Olympic figure skating champion, winning the gold medal in Sarajevo in 1984 and Calgary in 1988.

Witt will be making public appearances on behalf of the BMW Group, will attend the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and will also chair the Munich 2018 Bid Committee.

The BMW Grou… (read more)

While its parent company Toyota struggles to find the best way to fix its global safety recall, Lexus continues its normal business with a new launch, this time in the Middle East. The company has just introduced the new GX460 SUV, a model that is already available in other sides of the market, including the US.

In the Middle East, the car will be offered with three interior colors, according to automiddleeast.com. A 17-speaker system is offered as standard on the top version, as well as with… (read more)

The wait is over…Renault’s new coupe-convertible, the Wind, has been revealed ahead of its Geneva debut. This is no scale model…it’s the real thing.

The wind is underpinned by the Twingo’s platform, also sharing some exterior design features and the engines with it.

The car’s most interesting feature is its high-tech retractable roof system: unlike most other cars that use hinges for the retractable roof’s mechanism, the Wind uses a central pivot. This is not just marketing, as the sys… (read more)

By Heather Havrilesky, Blogger, Salon.com, I Like To Watch

After 15 years of bloviating, looks like we’ve finally entered the information age. Back in 1996, when I worked at Suck.com in the offices of HotWired, the online offshoot of Wired magazine, our brightly hued warehouse was abuzz with overcaffeinated worker bees high on the limitless possibilities of the Internets. Every 20-something in San Francisco went from being unemployed (post-recession) to dreaming big.

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By Bobbie Johnson, Technology Correspondent, The Guardian

Apple’s (AAPL) new iPad tablet computer could hamper innovation and cause long-term damage if it becomes a hit, according to experts.

Just as Steve Jobs tries to wow the world with the “magical” new device – unveiled on Wednesday at a media-saturated launch event in San Francisco – leading industry figures have told the Guardian that the machine marks a fundamental shift in the way the computer industry works.

The iPad, a 10-inch touchscreen computer that will cost upwards of £300, was greeted by many admirers as a significant step forward.

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By Mike Masnick, Editor, Techdirt

While Beyonce and Taylor Swift may have outshone Lady Gaga at the Grammy’s, it doesn’t change the fact that Gaga has become quite a music industry sensation. But similar to what we saw with Mariah Carey, the details behind Lady Gaga’s business model success shows how even today’s superstars are embracing more nuanced business models that make use of free music and focus on selling unique scarcities. When it comes to free music, apparently that’s been a huge part of Gaga getting attention:

In fact, much of Gaga’s audience got her music for free, and legally.

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By Dave McClure, Blogger, Master of 500 Hats

I’m on a redeye to NYC, supposed to be working on a presentation I’m giving in a few hours… but fuck it, i can’t get this outta my head, so here we go.

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By Eliot Van Buskirk, Contributor, Epicenter, Wired.com

Amazon (AMZN) may have created the market for online book sales and fueled the growth of e-books with its Kindle device. But to the publisher Macmillan, Amazon is just another retailer who wants to resell Macmillan’s books.

The companies’ squabbling over book pricing this past weekend was an annoyance to consumers and an affront to Macmillan’s authors, who saw their books yanked from the Amazon store and sales grind to a halt.

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Lisle’s human resources director, Patricia Cavalier, has resigned her post effective Jan. 29, Village Manager Jerry Sprecher said in a written statement.

Cavalier, 50, who also worked with the village’s Character Counts Coalition, was charged last week with misdemeanor retail theft after authorities said she tried to steal $140 worth of clothing and household items from a department store in Woodridge.

Cavalier held her village post since 2001.

Read our earlier story here.

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As the US is getting ready for the start of the 2010 NASCAR season of February 14, all eyes now turned to the non-points precursor of the Daytona 500, the Budweiser Shootout. Now in its 32nd edition, the shootout promises to bring, thanks to the changes announced today by NASCAR, more excitement than ever before.

The Shootout takes place this weekend, on February 6, at the same Daytona track. It will be a 75 laps/187.5 miles race and will include, as NASCAR already announced in December last… (read more)

HT 4Sight is not in fact available on Android 

Footage shot from helicopters is popular with law enforcement and TV stations but, so far, that feed has been directed to a ground station where it is viewed on a PC or re-broadcast to TV sets. A new mobile technology product called HT 4Sight promises to bring live, encrypted video feeds direct from air crews to smartphones on the ground.

“Usually aerial images are sent to a command center and then attached to a voice feed,” says Ron Magocsi, chief technical officer of Helinet, a company that got its start by offering aerial charter services. “But now everyone has a cellphone and we wanted to find a way to distribute these images easily so you can get it wherever you are.”

Helinet uses a gyro-stabilized high-definition camera system from Axsys that is mounted on a helicopter. A camera operator can either control the camera system directly or set some co-ordinates for the camera to lock on to.

Once the data stream is received on the ground it is decompressed and then down-converted from HD to standard definition video. The video is also cropped so viewers can see it on their phone without significant distortion. Ultimately, this video is streamed via the internet using the JPEG 2000 compression standard.

“For viewers, what this means is that when they are accessing the video, they are accessing our server through the internet,” says Magocsi.

Viewers can use either cellular or Wi-Fi networks to view the video feeds. And they can monitor up to four live video feeds on a single device. They can even tilt, zoom and pan the camera to get different views, similar to what you would do with Google Earth.This kind of multi-casting also allows for hundreds of viewers to log in simultaneously to watch a feed.

Helinet is focusing on offering the technology to security officials so they can respond better to crisis situations because of their ability to access real time intelligence anywhere. But it’s easy to see how the idea can work for sports broadcasts and other specialized events.

The technology is only available for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices at present.

Via Wired.com

Opel/Vauxhall CEO Nick Reilly said in a statement that there is no plan to go beyond the initial 8,300 job cutting plan in Europe, despite claims from unions that approximately 2,000 more employees are at risk. After a meeting with the company’s European Employee representatives, Reilly emphasized that the 2,000 extra job cut was only concerning the "employees who had already signed up to a pre-retirement part-time program in 2006 in Germany".

Some of the actions we need to take are… (read more)

Here’s a look at the famous wasabi green interior trim that the Audi A1 is set to have. Apparently it will be just a splash here and there of the colour, used in the seams, for exmaple. Audi has actually built a pilot car using this colour as the internal trim (with white exterior body), and according to Audi “it looked terrific”.

There’s plenty of design theory discussed in the video, and while Audi says it wants to reach people looking for freshness, we suspect it’s more to do with a flashy sports style. We’ll hold off judging the wasabi green until we actually see an example of it, although we hope that’s not the only weapon they’ve got against the Mini or Alfa MiTo…

Giancarlo Fisichella may not have found a race driving role with any Formula One team prior to the start of the 2010 season, but the Italian has great plans to continue his racing career elsewhere. According to the official site of the Le Mans Series, the 37-year old Roman will contest in the 2010 edition of the championship on a full programme.

However, the site did not give any details on the team or car that he will contest for this year, or the class that he will submit his entry to. Also… (read more)

NYIAS announced that Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally will once again open the event to the media, after he has done the same in 2007. The Show’s opening press {Ad}event kicks off the 2010 NYIAS, which will feature numerous world and North American new vehicle introductions.

Under Mulally’s leadership, Ford recently reported a full year 2009 pre-tax operating profit of $454 million, a $7.3 billion improvement over a year. The company says it also expects to be profitable for full year 201… (read more)

Everyone is creating app stores ever since the success of Apple’s AppStore, which has generated 3 billion downloads in a couple of years.

It’s only natural to think the app phenomenon will spread. So Google is developing its own app store aimed at selling business software, according to a stories citing unnamed sources in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Google already has a solutions marketplace where users of Google Apps can find add-on software and support. It also operates the Android Marketplace for mobile phone apps for its Android-based cell phones. But this new store will help Google’s business partners promote Google Apps. The store is aimed at helping Google to better integrate with its partners and to make it easier for users to buy new services. An estimated 20 million people use Google Apps. Salesforce.com operates its own app store for businesses.

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At the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, you’ll be able to control the lights at major landmarks by using the power of your thoughts alone.

Welcome to the age of thought-controlled computing, courtesy of a Toronto company called InteraXon. The company has created a headset that measures the electrical activity in your brain. These are so-called alpha and beta waves that your mind generates when you’re in a certain state of mind. By changing your thoughts, you can send signals to the measurement device, which translates them into digital signals. You can thus control something like the intensity of lights on big buildings just by changing your thoughts.

InteraXon’s demo, sponsored by the Ontario provincial government, will light up displays on Toronto’s CN Tower, Ottawa’s Parliament buildings, and Niagara Falls. Users will be able to experience the thought controls at InterAxon’s Bright Ideas installation at Ontario House during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

InteraXon’s CEO Ariel Garten says the controls will let you control something without touching a button and extend your influence beyond your physical self. If you relax, the brain will generate alpha waves. If you concentrate on something, then your brain will generate beta waves. InteraXon’s custom software marries the user’s thoughts to lighting controls on the various displays. The changes to the lighting in Toronto, Ottawa and Niagara Falls will be projected onto a big screen at Ontario House for big crowds to see.

The three-person company, which was spawned by research at the University of Toronto, is one of a number of companies trying to bring thought-controlled computing out of the research labs into the mainstream. The technology has considerable implications for disabled people. Thought-controlled wheelchairs and prosthetics are already a reality. And Mattel launched a thought-controlled toy, Mindflex, last fall, using technology from NeuroSky.

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La primera gran disputa sobre el precio de los libros electrónicos entre los nuevos intermediarios – representados por Amazon – y las editoriales de siempre – en este caso Macmillian – se ha librado este fin de semana con victoria de la segunda, que ha conseguido que sus obras no vendan a precio fijo en formato digital. El interés de Amazon de vender a precio fijo de 9.99 dólares se enfrentaba al deseo de la editorial de que sus novedades tuviesen un coste mayor, llegando a los 14.99; se reedita el enfrentamiento entre iTunes y las discográficas en versión “libro digital”. En aquél caso, tras años queriendo subir el precio de las novedades frente al modelo de precio de Apple (desde 2005), lo consiguieron cuando se levantó la imposición de añadir DRM. Claro que Amazon ha transigido en tan sólo dos días, tras haber adoptado la lamentable técnica de quitar los libros físicos de Macmillan también de la venta.

Aunque no estoy de acuerdo con todo lo que apunta Mariano (esto no es el fin del modelo iTunes para los libros, de hecho la propia Apple acabó renegociando el precio único), pero sí en dos puntos, Amazon pierde porque esto va en contra del impulso del mercado de libro electrónico y del liderazgo de Kindle y las editoriales se pueden pasar de frenada no queriendo trasladar el ahorro de costes al precio final. La percepción de valor del libro digital es mucho menor que la que tenemos respecto al libro físico, por lo que el movimiento de Macmillan sólo se entiende desde el punto de vista estratégico, no quieren colaborar en la transición y no quieren en ningún caso quedar atrapados con un sólo intermediario que pueda fijar precios y márgenes.

Al menos queda una buena noticia para Amazon, le economía del libro electrónico actual la hace perder dinero por unidad vendida, con las obras de esta editorial empezará a ganar dinero. Lo que pierde es mucho mayor, claro, posibilidades de configurarse en el gran creador de este nuevo mercado y convertirse con Kindle en un intermediario imrpescindible.

Relacionados: Editoriales y tiendas de libros ante el espejo de la industria de la música, Un día las editoriales se pueden despertar y descubrir que Amazon es el gran editor global.

Streaming video site Ustream has just pulled in a massive new round of funding: $75 million. This second round was led by SoftBank, a Japanese telecom giant. Previously, the site had raised just below $13 million in funding, which came from its Series A in 2008 and its angel round in late 2007.

Perhaps even crazier is that the service is saying that additional funding commitments are pending from other investors in the U.S. and Asia, so the round will likely actually be larger than the $75 million, which is all from SoftBank. We’re hearing reports that there was quite a bit of competition to be involved in the round, and apparently all the dust hasn’t settled yet.

So why on Earth does Ustream need $75 million+? CEO John Ham says in the release that the money will be used to expand on the other side of the world, particularly Japan (obvious, given the SoftBank involvement), China, Korea, and India. Mobile video is particularly hot in some of the Asian countries where their faster wireless networks allow for more functionality than the comparatively slow ones in the U.S. Ustream will open offices and hire staff in all those countries, apparently.

Alongside this new round, we’re also hearing that the founders of the company, Ham, Brad Hunstable, and Gyula Feher were able to sell some shares as a reward.

Just a few days ago, Ustream launched a new desktop client to help video producers give their work a more professional feel. Prior to that, in December, Ustream made headlines by being the first big video streaming site to offer that (recording) functionality on the iPhone.

Ustream says that its iPhone apps has been downloaded over 1.5 million times to date (it has had other apps before the live streaming one was available too) and notes that 3.8 million people tuned into the service to watch the inauguration of President Obama in January of last year.

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