Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Aftermarket, Coupe, Performance, Japan, Scion, Toyota

Be still our hearts. A Toyota post that doesn’t involve a recall. Instead, we’ve got an unsurprising report about ToMoCo’s plans to start a new, in-house performance division dubbed “Gs” sometime in 2010.

Earlier this month, Toyota trotted out three models wearing a new line of performance parts at the Tokyo Auto Salon under the “Toyota G Sports” moniker. While a bodykitted Prius isn’t exactly our cup of Earl Grey and the tuned Mark X is about as interesting as a fire-breathing Camry, the (supposedly) turbocharged Toyota FT-86, fitted with a complete aero kit, suspension and brake mods kicked our salivary glands into overdrive.

Unlike the forthcoming Volkswagen R line, BMW’s M division or Mercedes-Benz‘ AMG unit, the Gs line would be a joint collaboration between Modelista – which has been developing and supplying exterior components to the automaker – and TRD, which will handle engine, suspension and brake development with the help of Gazoo, the firm that helped to create the hybrid Mk. III MR2 for TAS.

G’s will focus more on high-end components developed for the street and will likely sold as either a complete model (think Toyota FT-86 Gs) or available as separate components, similar to the Lexus F Sport line.

Whether these components or full models will make it Stateside remains to be seen, but when the FT-86 makes it to U.S. shores, we’d suspect Toyota – or more likely Scion – will offer similar equipment.

[Source: InsideLine]

Report: Toyota ‘Gs’ performance division in the works originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Convertible, Tesla, Electric

You read that right. Tesla Motors will stop building the Roadster in 2011.

Wired’s Autopia was digging through the papers filed by Tesla to the Securities and Exchange Commission for its IPO and came across with this nugget:

“We do not plan to sell our current generation Tesla Roadster after 2011 due to planned tooling changes at a supplier for the Tesla Roadster.”

As everyone’s aware, the current iteration of the Tesla Roadster is built in Hethel, England by Lotus using Elise/Exige underpinnings. Judging by the quote above, that means the Elise/Exige is due to be replaced by a new model (good news for enthusiasts), but that leaves Tesla up a creek without the proverbial paddle.

The other telling line is this:

“As a result, we anticipate that we may generate limited, if any, revenue from selling electric vehicles after 2011 until the launch of the planned model S…”

The Model S is due to come out in 2012, which means Tesla might not have any revenue coming in until the all-electric sedan goes on sale. If there’s a snag with anything in the launch of the sedan – design, production, engineering, you name it – then Tesla’s in serious trouble. That might make investors wary when the upstart automaker finally begins offering shares.

So, bottom line: If you want the current Roadster, order now, or wait until the all-new Roadster goes on sale in 2013.

[Source: Autopia]

Tesla to kill the Roadster in 2011, new version coming in 2013 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every indication we’ve had out of Microsoft is that Windows Mobile 7 is on track for a grand unveiling at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, and indeed, Fox Business has none other than CFO Peter Klein on record saying as much — the closest thing we’ve had to a confirmation outside of Robbie Bach’s analyst remarks a few weeks back. At the 4:07 mark of the video, Klein says that the company is “heads down” on WinMo 7 and expects to have “much more to say” about the product out in Spain, which would mark the one-year anniversary since the announcement of 6.5 at the same venue. Considering the brutal response that last version endured over the better part of 2009, let’s hope they’re coming to the table with something much, much more delicious this time around.

Microsoft CFO says ‘we’ll have much more to say’ about WinMo 7 in February originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

A study released today by Ernst & Young shows that 53 companies submitted the necessary paperwork during the fourth quarter of 2009 to hold initial public offerings—the highest number of new registrants in a quarter since 2007.

At of the end of December, Ernst & Young counted 54 companies in the U.S. that were ready to go public—and are seeking to raise a total $10.3 billion. There have been quarters with many more IPO filings over the past two years. And there have been quarters in which companies sought to raise more capital.

But the sharp increase in the number of companies seeking to go public was viewed as a resurgence in IPO activity by Jackie Kelley, Ernst & Young’s Americas IPO leader, based in Irvine, CA. “This is probably one of our most optimistic quarters in the past two years,” Kelley says. “The more that register, and the more that are in the pipeline means that more deals are likely to get done.”

Of the 54 companies waiting to go public, 18 are based in California, including two in the San Diego area. Maxlinear, a Carlsbad, CA-chip design company, disclosed on Nov. 6 that it plans to raise about $100 million in a stock offering. San Diego-based Trius Therapeutics, a biotech developing a new antibiotic for treating life-threatening bacterial infections, also disclosed in a Nov. 6 filing that it plans to raise $86 million. Both companies are still waiting.

Kelley says she’s encouraged because the average deal size is smaller, at $191 million. A year ago, the average deal size was almost $278 million, about 45 percent higher, according to Ernst & Young data. She says that reflects the fact that the larger and more mature companies were better able to access the IPO market.

Kelley says Ernst & Young also has been meeting recently with many more companies that are exploring the requirements for an IPO. “We’re having a lot of discussions with companies right now,” Kelley says, indicating IPO activity will continue to step up this year.

Having talked with a bunch of music execs recently, as well as a few different companies that do analytics in the music space, one thing became clear: unlike most other industries, record label execs tend not to be particularly data or analytics-driven. Let’s just say they didn’t get into the recording industry because they were good at math. There are a few exceptions, obviously, but getting many industry execs to think logically and examine data isn’t particularly easy. This isn’t that surprising, given how many examples of actions by big record label execs that make little to no sense when thought about analytically.

Yet another study has come out suggesting that the industry has pricing all wrong, pointing out that the increase in sales from dropping the price of music would increase profits. And yet what has the industry been trying to do? That’s right: trying to raise the price. The study suggested that the “optimal” price for music might be closer to $0.60 per track. That still seems way too high to me when you look at how people flocked to services like Allofmp3.com, but in general I think the basic concept makes sense. You can maximize revenue by dropping prices, but it doesn’t seem like many record industry execs have realized that.

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Go to Amazon.com. Search for any publication by Macmillan, one of the world’s largest publishing firms. The Prince of Silicon Valley, perhaps, or Sarah’s Key. Or last year’s huge #1 bestseller The Gathering Storm.

Gone. We found Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, but his new novel Makers and his popular debut, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, are gone. You get links to other sellers. But Amazon has stopped carrying them.

Robert Jordan’s entire Wheel of Time series is gone, except for 2005’s The Knife of Dreams.

Neither Amazon nor Macmillan have replied, but I’ll update with more info as I get it. I’m guessing the titles you can still find are ones that were missed in the removal process.

Macmillan is one of Apple’s announced partners for the iPad, heavily hyped as a Kindle killer. But we’re not sure that’s the connection. Please email us with any tips.

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Alok Kejriwal, chief executive of Indian game firm Games2Win, shared a couple of interesting charts with me that describe a way to rank social games by benchmarking how they stack up in a variety of important features such as the quality of the game play, the virality in the game that makes it spread faster, how original it is, whether it has international appeal, and how addictive or habit forming the game is. Kejriwal’s own internal game creators set up the ranking system, which they dub Victory, and ranked some of the world’s most popular social games using the system. The top chart shows the rankings of games such as Zynga’s FarmVille, and the other chart explains the ranking system itself. It adds some interesting perspective on what the top games share in common. If you’re making social games, you might want to be sure that your game rates high on these measures, which are undoubtedly subjective but still useful.

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Filed under: Recalls, Safety, Toyota

We’re all gearheads here at Autoblog, with varying degrees of mechanical competence. But when the time comes to get technical – really technical – we inevitably hit up our own Sam Abuelsamid to get into the nitty gritty of modern automobiles.

Sam spent the better part of two decades working on anti-lock brake, traction and stability control systems, which means he brings a particularly keen insight to the recent Toyota recall. So Mr. A sat down with AOL Autos‘ Reilly Brennan and the accelerator pedal from a 2009 Toyota Camry for an impromptu deep-dive into what’s causing the unintended acceleration issue and what owners of the affected models can do if their throttle pedal is pinned to the floor. Check it out after the jump and be sure to share it with anyone you know who’s manning one of the eight recalled vehicles.

UPDATE: Based on the comments about the advice we gave on what to do if you experience this problem, we’ve recorded a short followup video after the jump. In brief, we recommend that you hit the brakes, put the transmission in neutral and steer to a stop before shutting off the engine.

Continue reading UPDATED: Video: In-depth look at Toyota’s sticky accelerator

UPDATED: Video: In-depth look at Toyota’s sticky accelerator originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The guys of ManCrunch.com aren’t the only ones being dismissed by CBS. GoDaddy.com, which annually airs several ads during the Super Bowl, is inviting consumers to view its latest rejected ad — which ironically has some heavy homosexual overtones — after network bosses deemed the spot too “inappropriate” to be broadcast during next weekend’s big game.

The ad, entitled “Lola,” features racing beauty Danica Patrick.

GoDaddy says it was completely blindsided by the rejection. The company contends that of the five spots it submitted for consideration, this was not the one they would have expected to be turned down.

“GoDaddy was one of the first advertisers who set out to capitalize on the fact that ads get rejected and that there’s a PR opportunity in that,” said Tim Calkins, marketing professor with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “GoDaddy is one of the PR masters of the Super Bowl.”

Recently dual booting became easier for Windows Mobile devices, and now NRG has a ROM that’s just for that. The new ROM series has been named “Energy Android Super Lite ROM” and is a naked ROM that has the Dual booting software built in and nothing else. The ROM it self is only 58MB and when you flash that, you will need the Android files which can be found in a CAB file that is provided by Reefermattness and is a very large 85MB. It seems if you own a Touchpro2 and have been looking at Android, it could not get any easier than this, since everything comes in a cab, so get the links and tell us how you like it.

 

ROM, Android CAB file

Filed under: Aftermarket, Coupe, Performance, Japan, Scion, Toyota

Be still our hearts. A Toyota post that doesn’t involve a recall. Instead, we’ve got an unsurprising report about ToMoCo’s plans to start a new, in-house performance division dubbed “Gs” sometime in 2010.

Earlier this month, Toyota trotted out three models wearing a new line of performance parts at the Tokyo Auto Salon under the “Toyota G Sports” moniker. While a bodykitted Prius isn’t exactly our cup of Earl Grey and the tuned Mark X is about as interesting as a fire-breathing Camry, the (supposedly) turbocharged Toyota FT-86, fitted with a complete aero kit, suspension and brake mods kicked our salivary glands into overdrive.

Unlike the forthcoming Volkswagen R line, BMW‘s M division or Mercedes-Benz‘ AMG unit, the Gs line would be a joint collaboration between Modelista – which has been developing and supplying exterior components to the automaker – and TRD, which will handle engine, suspension and brake development with the help of Gazoo, the firm that helped to create the hybrid Mk. III MR2 for TAS.

G’s will focus more on high-end components developed for the street and will likely sold as either a complete model (think Toyota FT-86 Gs) or available as separate components, similar to the Lexus F Sport line.

Whether these components or full models will make it Stateside remains to be seen, but when the FT-86 makes it to U.S. shores, we’d suspect Toyota – or more likely Scion – will offer similar equipment.

[Source: InsideLine]

Continue reading Report: Toyota ‘Gs’ performance division in the works

Report: Toyota ‘Gs’ performance division in the works originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Air superiority hasn’t been top news in a while. But Russia’s got a nifty new stealth fighter jet they’re showing off. Video after the jump.

The Sukhoi T-50 was created jointly between Russia and India, and seems to be aimed at rivaling the United States’ F-22 Raptor. The proposed feature list looks pretty impressive:

• All-weather flight
• Ability to use a take-off strip of just 300-400 meters
• In-flight refueling capable
• Advanced avionics
• Simultaneous attacks on air and ground targets.
• Minimal radar cross-section

But not everyone is raving over it. Military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer only said, “It’s just a prototype lacking new engines and a new radar.” No specifications out yet, and we’ll have to wait on a few more flights to see how it really handles.

[BBC]

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No small margins here. It seems that the iPad, while certainly not a cheap device to make, will end up lining Apple’s pockets considerably — if they sell any. A bill of materials analysis puts the cheapest iPad’s manufacturing cost at just over $270, which of course sends $230 in Apple’s direction. The 3G radio runs for around $36, and of course they sell it for $130.

Now, I know we were all pleasantly surprised by the price, but we were all unpleasantly surprised by the limited capabilities of the device, so I think the surprises kind of cancel each other out. A real tablet computer by Apple would have a higher price point and better parts, and would have a smaller margin since Apple would stand to make money on software and OS sales for it. I mean, the iPad really uses no crazy parts — not a lot of innovation on the actual hardware except for the high-density capacitive screen.

It also leaves a lot of room for taking a bite out of the price if necessary. I doubt Apple will lower it any time soon, as that would be an admission of failure, but I foresee holiday sales and such. Right before they release iPad 2.0, of course.

This is only an estimate, however — iSuppli is going to put their opinion in the pile soon as well, we’ll keep you guys informed on that.

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Filed under: Apple Financial, Apple, iPhone

I thought Apple sounded a tad bit defensive about China on the conference call Monday, but Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty says there’s nothing to worry about: she expects Apple to sell up to four or five million iPhones in China per year. Apple told us on Monday that they’ve activated about 200,000 iPhones in China so far, but Huberty claims that there’s a market for maybe 50 million iPhones over there, and echoes Tim Cook’s assertion that price is the main issue. “Hardware pricing, service plan pricing and the large up-front payment,” she says in her report, “were cited by 85%, 66% and 56% of respondents respectively, as reasons they were not likely to purchase an iPhone.”

Keep in mind that the four to five million figure is a top end — in the first year, Apple has said that they’re aiming for more like one or two million. But there is definitely a solid market to be found in China, and significant sales there could help buoy Apple earnings reports over here for sure.

TUAWAnalyst: There’s a market of four to five million iPhones a year in China originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even as the movie business has had yet another record breaking year at the box office, we still hear claims from Hollywood that online downloading of unauthorized movies is going to kill the movie business. And yet, where there’s demand, new business models will be created. ethorad points us to the news that UK retail giant Tesco is getting into the business of producing movies itself based on the books of some very famous authors. The movies will be direct-to-DVD and direct-to-the-internet, but the idea is for Tesco to use these movies to generate more traffic to their stores (both online and off). In fact, if you look at the retail business, music and movies have long been used as a loss leader of sorts, to drive traffic to get them to buy other, much higher margin, goods. This is really an extension of that, but all the way to the point of helping to fund the production of the movie itself. Also, while it will have a window of exclusivity at the beginning, it sounds like Tesco is quite open to other stores selling the movie as well. Either way, it’s interesting to see other third parties recognize that they benefit from having movies made, and thus are willing to partially fund the production of those movies.

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The classic Aliens vs. Predator Gold Edition is now available on Steam, but fans have had to forgo multiplayer until now. That changed today, with a brand new patch that brings back the original game’s online component.

The re-integrated multiplayer enables players to invite and join friends via the Steam Overlay, and will also use host migration. At the moment, dedicated servers are not supported or planned.

If you’re planning on jumping into some classic AvP, be warned — certain weapons like the Marine Smartgun are murder on the poor Xenomorphs. With luck, things will be a little more balanced when the new Aliens vs. Predator hits next month.

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Electronic Arts is leaving no stone unturned in their quest to make the most of the upcoming World Cup. Hot on the heels of the announcement of 2010 FIFA World Cup, we have FIFA Online, which will be free-to-play this summer.

Players with a broadband Internet connection and a decent computer should be able to access the title, which will contain more than 30 licensed leagues and 500 clubs. As with the mainline FIFA games, players will be able to acquire players, upgrade skills and build up their dream team.

Like most “free” experiences, there is a micro-transaction angle. Users will be able to acquire unique apparel for their players for a little extra cash, and “additional content will be designed for the game based on feedback by fans.”

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If you have yet to join the Pine Trail party, how about this multitouch tablet netbook from Lenovo? Word has it that you can now order the IdeaPad S10-3t with Atom N470 processor (along with 250GB HDD, 2GB RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit) billed at $649 — $100 more than its N450-equipped sibling (160GB HDD, 1GB RAM and Windows 7 Starter). Mind you, the page does say that it won’t be shipped for at least four more weeks, and this spec isn’t even listed on the main product page yet, but the source link’s there for you reckless venturers.

[Thanks, OneLove]

Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t multitouch tablet up for order with Atom N470 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man, Adobe is not letting up here. In addition to releasing a terse, carefully worded response to the Apple iPad’s apparent lack of Flash, the official Flash Blog took a much more truculent approach. Exhibit A: a post entitled “The iPad provides the ultimate browsing experience?” followed by several mockups of sites laden with the infamous Blue Lego Block of Ambiguity[TM]. Adding to the conversation in the comments, platform evangelist Lee Brimelow accuses Apple of not wanting the Flash player to succeed, and that the company’s tried to work with Cupertino since the iPhone. ”
They don’t want you to go to Hulu or play Flash games because they worry that you won’t buy their apps,” he says. Frankly, we wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case, and while we understand Adobe’s frustration, this probably isn’t gonna help relations between the two tech firms. Hey Adobe, trust us, we feel your pain — we really want Hulu on the iPad, too.

In other, more amusing news, it seems Apple’s official iPad promo has slipped up a bit in showing off what the tablet can really do. Namely, one clip of the New York Times and an article on 31 places to go in 2010. Here it clearly shows a Flash-based module up top, inaccessible without the plugin. We’re not thinking this is a sign of things to come — if anything, it’s probably just a mistake by the producers. Don’t get your hopes up, folks.

Adobe ups passive aggressive stance on iPad, while Apple promo forgets its limits originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Aftermarket, SUV, Etc., Hummer, Specialty, Design/Style

In 1948 American born artist Man Ray wrote, “There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love. There are simply different ways of doing it.” This is nearly 30 years after he glued some spikes to the bottom of an iron and called it art. And you know what? We couldn’t agree more. Meet Jeremy Dean. He’s a New York-based artist that began reading about “Hoover carts” during the recent economic bad times. Turns out that Hoover carts were broken down old cars that horses used to lug around during the Great Depression.

With that in mind, Mr. Dean decided to turn a “perfectly good” Hummer H2 that he purchased for $15,000 into a horse drawn cart. We’ll let the artist explain the why:

At this time of record financial gains, the auto industry began producing ever extravagant cars and these huge American gas guzzlers became a status symbol in society leading to increased demand for oil and fuel prices soared. So with our very American idea of Manifest Destiny, we meddle in any country that has oil and send our men and women into harms way so that we can continue consuming almost 80% of the worlds resources. But how long can that last?

My own satirical prediction of the future: Unless we come up with alternative fuel sources and rethink our reliance on a hyperinflated consumer based economy, we may be left with no other options than to hook our cars up to a horse. As a symbol of this I [will] take either a Cadillac Escalade or HUMMER H2, which have become monuments to America’s consumption, greed and arrogance, and convert it to a horse cart. The cart will maintain all its former glitz and glamour: chrome rims, GPS, working sound system, DVD player, and TV screens. But [it] will be pulled by a horse.

Hey man, horses need jobs, too. As for Jeremy Dean, he has apparently sunk his entire life savings into this project and is hoping to sell it to recoup his costs. We can only wish him good luck and ask one question: Isn’t purchasing art for what we can only assume costs an entire briefcase full of Franklins just as much of a “status symbol” as big, ungainly luxury SUVs? Video of the art making process after the jump.

[Source: Back to the Futurama via The Car Connection]

Continue reading Artist transforming Hummer into horse cart, i.e. why we love modern art [w/video]

Artist transforming Hummer into horse cart, i.e. why we love modern art [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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