Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Sedan, Performance, Europe, Plants/Manufacturing, GM, Saab, Spyker, Luxury

We had an interesting chat with a Saab mechanic in Hollywood yesterday. Naturally, he was overcome with great joy over the fact that Spyker saved Saab. What made the conversation interesting was his asking us if there will be a 2010 Saab 9-5? Dunno. Er, didn’t know. But that was then. Today we feel pretty confident that there will not be a 2010 Saab 9-5. kind of exactly how there’s no 1983 Corvette, minus the haggard sales saga.

However, according to a report by Edmunds Auto Observer, there will in fact be a 2011 Saab 9-5. Spyker is set to ramp up production of the new car in April and begin selling Saabs to us American types at some point during the second quarter. Did we say Saabs? We meant to say Saab Spykers, as the new cars may be called. Regardless, anything introduced to the market during May or June of a given year will be labeled as next year’s model. Hence, the 2011 Saab Spyker 9-5.

The Auto Observer is also confirming that the Saab (Spyker) 9-4 will also go on sale at some unspecified future date. The 9-4 and 9-4X are based on General Motors‘ Theta Premium architecture – the same platform used by the Cadillac SRX. Since so much parts sharing will be going on (the 9-5 will come with at least three General Motors engines), GM will continue supplying parts to Saab Spyker for many moons, and as such have a vested interest in the new company doing well. Not too well of course, as Saab will now be free to compete head-to-head with GM brands Buick and/or Cadillac.

One last thing, and this is a plea from our Saab mechanic friend more then anything else: here’s hoping Saab Spyker has the good sense to remount Saab motors longitudinally and backwards, rather than sideways, especially when a new 9-3 shows up, as that set up really is a trait of the Griffin.

[Source: Auto Observer]

Report: Saab 9-5 sales will start in U.S. in the second quarter originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As if this day wasn’t shaping up to be craptacular enough as it is….. Zelda Rubinstein — star of ’80s cult classics Poltergeist and Teen Witch — passed away early Wednesday.

She was 77.

With several of her organ shutting down, Rubinstein spent more than a month hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles before she was taken off life support in December.

A longtime companion of the actress’ broke news of her death this afternoon:

“At 1:59 this morning Zelda left us. She was very much at peace when she finally rested. I’m so sad right now, but I’m glad I was here to be with her and hold her hand. Even though she won’t be with us physically, I have so many good memories To hold on to for the rest of my life! The world has definitely lost someone very special today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With great sadness, XXXX”

Article Tags: Steve McIntyre

One of the more interesting knock-ons of the opportunistic IPCC reliance on WWF and similar “authorities” is that it may compromise the ability of the U.S. EPA to argue that IPCC peer review meets the statutory standards required of EPA peer review.

In this respect, I refer to the Climate Audit submission to EPA last June, which considered this specific issue in considerable detail. See submission here, covering post here and first post on the topic here.

Click source to read FULL report by Steve McIntyre

Source: climateaudit.org

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A few years ago, you may recall that Universal Music issued a takedown for a 29-second video involving a little kid dancing to a Prince song playing on the radio in the background. While the woman issued a counternotice and had the video put back online, the EFF sued Universal Music, claiming that it had filed a false DMCA takedown, since it did not take fair use into account. Universal Music tried to claim that it it shouldn’t have to consider fair use, since fair use is just a defense, not a right. While the court eventually did (much to many people’s surprise) say that copyright holders do need to take fair use into account, it’s not really clear what sort of punishment there is for those who do not. In fact, we’ve seen that it’s quite difficult to get any actual punishment for those who file bogus DMCA takedowns.

With that in mind, it’s interesting to see that the EFF is now trying to recover its legal fees in the case, claiming that Universal’s actions violated section (f) of the DMCA, and thus it should be liable for attorneys fees. Universal claims that there is already a “remedy,” which is the counternotice process. But if that were the only remedy, then why does the law allow for legal fee recovery. Furthermore, if the only remedy is a counternotice process, there is nothing to really stop the filing of bogus DMCA notices, since there is no punishment for such activity.

In the linked article, Bennett Haselton argues that paying legal fees like this might not actually make sense, and worries about the legitimate content holder who accidentally files an incorrect DMCA getting hit with a big legal bill. But, again, I’m not sure how that applies. Shouldn’t we be just as worried about the completely innocent individual hit with a DMCA takedown and the process they need to go through to get their legal content back online? Given how massive the damage awards can be for simple (even incidental or accidental) copyright infringement, the fact that there is barely any real punishment for bogus copyright claims seems incredibly one-sided and unfair.

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You’d always expect the rich and middle class to have a more positive economic outlook than the poor.

But in typical times, you’d expect sentiment to move in similar directions. Generally they do.

However, new data from The Conference Board, charted in a morning note from Waverly Advisors shows an economy going into two directions.

In just the last week, the middle class and above have seen a rebound in sentiment, while those below have seen sentiment deteriorate.

Watch this trend.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• WEAK: Consumer Sentiment Misses Again
• CHART OF THE DAY: Here’s Why The Discretionary Spending Freeze Is A Joke
• COUNTER-TREND ALERT: Real Estate Industry Cutting Online Ads And Spending More On TV, Newspapers

So long, Betty!

ABC has cancelled the once popular television dramedy Ugly Betty. The show features Becky Newton, Vanessa Williams, and America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, a spectacled fashion mag assistant and aspiring writer. Inspired by the saucy telenovelas popular in Latin America, Betty won Ferrera a Golden Globe Award in 2007. The series will wrap at the end of its current fourth season, the network announced in a somber statement issued Wednesday.

As a lead-in for the hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, Betty was a Thursday night ratings leader in its inaugural season. But the show began to falter with audiences during Season 2 and was hit hard by a move to Fridays last fall. Ugly Betty now occupies the timeslot once reserved for the defunct Eastwick. The series will continue to air Wednesdays at 10 ET/PT until its departure in May.

“We’ve mutually come to the difficult decision to make this Ugly Betty’s final season, and are announcing now as we want to allow the show ample time to write a satisfying conclusion,” says ABC chief Steve McPherson in a statement. “We are extremely proud of this groundbreaking series, and felt it was important to give the fans a proper farewell.”

Ugly Betty will tape its series finale in April.

Ariel “Sass-master 2000″ Adams has some great shots of the new Panerai monster. This watch, just for reference, costs more than ten of my cars.

The watch is made of black ceramic and it uses Panerai’s tourbillon calibre behind a skeletonized face. You’ll notice a second’s hand, an AM/PM indicator, and a GMT hand front and center. It is 48mm wide and limited to 30 pieces.

I’m not amazed by this thing but I’m amazed by the price: 109,000 euros. Clearly we’re all in the wrong business.

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Okay, so it exists. What do your favorite tech personalities, the CrunchGear team, have to say about Apple’s latest opus? Join us as we pass judgment on the device sight unseen — though of course more in-depth analysis is forthcoming.

Devin: It’s a big iPod. That much is clear — it’s not really a tablet computer. Of course, the benefits of a giant iPod are manifest: you can check email easily, movies and shows will look nice (though not full HD), and the e-books looked great. But the fact is you’re limited by Apple in every way they can limit you. It’s got all the same fetters as an iPhone and has no expandable storage or USB port. Until you hack it to run Chrome OS, you’re going to be using this thing exactly the way Apple tells you to. It’ll be nice if that’s what you want, but it’s not the universal tablet I was hoping for. Nevertheless, I see every secretary and PA carrying one of these in a month.

Matt: Sorry, Apple. I was going to buy it until I found that the iPad doesn’t have an SD card slot. You’ve failed me again.

John: It will be definitely be something I’m getting but I’m worried that it will be just “one more thing” to carry around. That I definitely DON’T need.

Doug: It looks really cool, aesthetically, but the battery life and screen can’t replace my Kindle, the lack of USB ports and expandable storage can’t replace my netbook, and I already have an iPhone 3GS. So it’d basically be $500+ for a bigger screen, a slightly faster CPU, and an external keyboard that I’d never carry around with me. I might buy one in a year or two once they’ve gone through a couple revisions.

Dave: I see the iPad as a great little device. Not as a music player, but as a portable movie player and web browser. I also use my iPod Touch to tether my DLSR when I’m taking pictures – the iPad would be ideal for this use.

Greg: I refused to let myself get hyped up about the slate, simply because we’ve seen time and time again that the rumor mill sets expectations impossibly high. Even with my expectations set rather low, however, I walked away disappointed.

I’m guessing some of the other guys will tear into Apple for not including an SD slot, so I’ll leave that topic alone; the absence of a camera, however, I can’t avoid touching on. Now, I don’t care about the camera for taking pictures, as there isn’t a single situation I can think of where I won’t have my dedicated camera or iPhone but I WILL have this big ol’ 10″ beast. The sole reason I’m disappointed: it means no augmented reality. The iPhone has proven that AR is a concept worth playing with, but it falls a bit short on that device due to screen size. The iPad could have ushered in a whole new type of gameplay, but not without a camera.

As a developer, I’m excited about it. As a consumer, not so much.

Nicholas: I mean, I already did a whole spiel on CNN (what?!) why the iPad is sorta “meh” in my eyes, but to recap: I simply don’t get it. It’s not an iPhone replacement because it’s not a phone (duh); it’s not an iPod touch replacement because it’s not portable; and I already have enough “real” computers that I don’t need a tablet. I understand I’m not Mr. Average Consumer, but the iPad seems to fill a void that I simply don’t need filled. Maybe as an e-reader, but that entirely depends upon the book selection, which isn’t clear right now. For now, though: meh.

There you have it. We’ll have hands-on video soon and of course a review once we’ve gotten our hands on one and put it through its paces. In the meantime, what are your thoughts? Apple phoning it in? True on-lap computing? Expectations too high? Sound off.

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Another year, another release of iLife. This time, though, with full iPadsupport. Yes, Apple showed off iLife 2010 at its big press conference today, and the updates are about what you’d expect from the application suite: incremental and filled with one or two things that make you say, “Wow, neat.” That being the multi-touch support.

The three applications that make up iWork—Numbers, Pages, and Keynote—will be sold separately for $10 a pop on the iTunes Store. So, if you only want Keynote, if for no other reason than to makes a slide-show presentation using your fingers, then you’ll only be out $10.

Of the three, Pages seems to benefit the least from the multi-touch. Plain old text entry does just fine with a keyboard.

And yes, all three applications will be available for non-iPad Macs.

We’re guessing the new iWork will be released alongside the iPad, but hard info is a little hard to come by right now. Let the dust settle for a little bit.

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This eight minute video should answer any remaining questions you have about the iPad. Watch it in high-res at Apple.

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In another of its legendary product-launch events, Apple unveiled its long-rumored tablet computer Wednesday. If the legend plays out the way the launches of the Mac, the iPod, and the iPhone did, the iPad tablet will reshape the landscape of its competitors.

That landscape could include the emerging categories of netbooks, e-readers and other tablets, all of which have seen a flurry of product releases in the last few months — at least some of which were in anticipation of Wednesday’s event.

‘The Internet In Your Hands’

The presentation at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco followed the form of previous Apple launches, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs appearing in his trademark black turtleneck and jeans.

He said Apple wanted to kick off the new year with a “truly magical and revolutionary product” to go alongside laptops and smartphones, and he described the iPad as “a third category of device.” Jobs told the packed auditorium that surfing the web on the iPad is like “holding the Internet in your hands.”

At half an inch thick and 1.5 pounds, the iPad builds on the success of the iPod touch and the iPhone, and runs an updated version of the iPhone operating system. The device features a 9.7-inch LCD touchscreen and is optimized for movies, games, books, web browsing, and other media.

There’s a built-in calendar and address book, access to iTunes, a built-in e-mail client, and an on-screen QWERTY keyboard. There is also a new iPad Keyboard Dock, so the user can employ a regular keyboard.

The device is based on a custom Apple-designed one-GHz chip, called the A4, and features 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, an accelerometer, a speaker and mike, and a 10-hour battery.

The pricing of the device has been the subject of much discussion, with many expecting a price…

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In a move that could transform the IT industry, Oracle on Wednesday announced it has finalized its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Oracle held an all-day event to offer more details on its plans, which include delivering open and integrated systems where all pieces fit and work together out of the box.

Oracle’s initial plans are to invest in Sun’s hardware business, which includes adding 2,000 new sales and engineering professionals. The other side of the labor coin is that Oracle will lay off less than 2,000 of Sun’s 27,596 employees over the next few months. Long-term layoff plans have not bee revealed.

Oracle will focus on UltraSPARC Solaris-based servers, along with storage and networking products and clustered offerings around Intel and AMD x64 solutions. Oracle also plans to continue supporting existing Sun product lines.

“Given their 20-plus-year history and numerous shared customers, surely Oracle ‘gets’ Sun’s technologies and company culture in ways that other vendors cannot. Right? Maybe and maybe not,” said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. “On the plus side, the pair’s long, close association should aid their integration and help drive new and future synergies and product development. In other words, the pairing looks good technologically.”

A Challenging Marriage

Despite the plus side, King said truly merging Oracle and Sun will have its share of challenges. For starters, there are sharp differences between the software and hardware businesses. Oracle has never demonstrated much understanding of the hardware business, King said, and a successful merger will depend on experienced people who not only have that understanding but who can also navigate the personnel issues on the Sun side.

There’s also the challenge of Sun customers thinking UltraSPARC is on a short road to nowhere. In the short term, King said, falling faith in Sun hardware would impact
Oracle’s bottom line — not to…

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Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs has unveiled the iPad, a tablet-style computer that resembles the iPhone, but larger.

“It’s so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone,” Jobs said Wednesday at the device’s highly anticipated debut in San Francisco.

Apple had kept its “latest creation” tightly under wraps, though many analysts had correctly speculated that it would be a one-piece tablet computer with a big touch screen, larger than an iPhone but smaller than a laptop.

The iPad has a 9.7-inch touch screen. It is a half-inch thick, weighs 1.5 pounds and comes with 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of flash memory storage. The device comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology, but no mention was immediately made of a data connection through a wireless carrier.

Jobs said the battery lasts for 10 hours, and that the device can sit for a month on standby without needing a charge.

The CEO demonstrated how the iPad is used for surfing the Web with Apple’s Safari browser. He typed an e-mail using an on-screen keyboard and flipped through photo albums by flicking his finger across the screen.

Jobs said the iPad will also be better for reading books, playing games and watching video than either a laptop or a smart phone. The iPad comes with software including a calendar, maps, a video player and iPod software for playing music. All seem to have been slightly redesigned to take advantage of the iPad’s bigger screen.

No price or information on availability was immediately announced.

Tablet computers have existed for a decade, with little success. Jobs acknowledged Apple will have to work to convince consumers who already have smart phones and laptops that they need this gadget.

“In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be…

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The Transportation Department said Tuesday it is prohibiting truck and bus drivers from sending text messages on hand-held devices while operating commercial vehicles.

The prohibition, which applies to drivers of interstate buses and trucks over 10,000 pounds, is effective immediately, the department said in a statement. Truck and bus drivers who text while driving commercial vehicles may be subject to civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750, the department said.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia already prohibit all drivers from texting behind the wheel, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. Another 10 states restrict texting by novice drivers.

Trucking and bus industry officials said they support the texting ban.

“A lot of our members already have policies in place. It’s just safe and smart,” said American Bus Association President Pete Pantuso.

The prohibition doesn’t apply to onboard devices that allow dispatchers to send text messages to truck drivers, but most of those devices have mechanisms that prevent their use while a truck is in motion, said Clayton Boyce, a spokesman for the American Trucking Association.

The trade association for the wireless industry, CTIA, also supports a ban on texting and e-mailing while driving, said Amy Storey, a spokeswoman for the association.

“While mobile devices are important safety tools, there’s an appropriate time and an inappropriate time to use them,” Storey said.

Research by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shows that drivers who send and receive text messages take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds while texting, the department said. At 55 miles per hour, this means that the driver is traveling the length of a football field, including the end zones, without looking at the road, the department said.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has been campaigning against texting and cell phone use while driving….

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Now that GM has agreed to sell Saab to Spyker Cars, what is the next car to come out from the Swedish brand? According to John Smith, GM vice president of global planning and alliances, the new 9-5 flagship sedan will begin volume production in April with U.S. sales to begin in the second quarter.

Smith said that the 9-4X crossover based on GM’s Theta Premium platform will be produced soon; however, he wouldn’t confirm when Saab plans on beginning production. It was reported yesterday that the 9-4X has already entered production with 147 units already built.

Spyker will pay GM a total of $74 million for Saab and will give the Detroit automaker $326 million worth of preferred shares in the merged company. Spyker also has a third financing package with a $550 million loan from the European Investment Bank.

2010 Saab 9-5:

– By: Omar Rana

Source: AutoObserver

Even if Google’s stand against censorship leads it to close its search engine in China, the company still hopes to maintain other key operations in the world’s most populous Internet market.

Google Inc. is in delicate negotiations with the Chinese government to keep its research center in China, an advertising sales team that generates most of the company’s revenue in the country and a fledgling mobile phone business.

Both sides are torn by conflicting objectives.

Google says it’s no longer willing to acquiesce to the Chinese government’s demands for censored search results, yet it still wants access to the country’s engineering talent and steadily growing online advertising and mobile phone markets.

Chinese leaders are determined to control the flow of information, but realize they need rich and innovative companies such as Google to achieve their goal of establishing the country as a technology leader. Even some Chinese media that rarely deviate from the party line have warned that Google’s departure could slow technology development and hurt China’s economy.

Analysts are split on how the current impasse will be resolved, with some resigned to Google having to pull completely out of China for the foreseeable future while others envision a face-saving compromise that preserves a toehold in the country for the company.

Robert Broadfoot, managing director of Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in Hong Kong, is among the camp that expects Communist leaders to bend their rules to keep Google in the country.

“They’re hardly going to close the door on the innovator. They are very interested in what (Google is) innovating, because they may want it for themselves,” said Broadfoot, who has advised companies on China since the 1970s.

Google said Jan. 12 it might close its China-based search engine, Google.cn, because it no longer intends to censor the results as it has for the past four years….

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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Truck, Etc., Work, Ford, GM

Well this is just too bad. As you may recall, Pickuptrucks.com was chatting with Tom Stephens, GM’s vice chairman of global product operations, about GM’s new heavy duty pickup trucks. Suddenly Stephens said something quite interesting:

“You know what I want to do to prove it? I want to take our truck and Ford‘s [new Super Duty] and chain them together back-to-back. Then I want to have them pull against each other. I know our truck will beat theirs.”

How cool would that have been? Supremely cool. However, Ford chooses to think different. Via twitter, Ford was asked by a Pickuptrucks.com reader if they’d accept the challenge. Ford said, “We typically don’t respond to challenges. We let the vehicles speak for themselves.” Ford ended their statement with this link illustrating that the Ford F Series has been America’s best selling vehicle for 33 years straight. As we used to say in 4th grade, “Oooh! Burned!”

Still, we would have really loved to watch a tug of war. Who would have won? Probably a Dodge. On a semi-related note, Pickuptrucks.com’s Mike Levine was bragging via Facebook about the Ford SVT Raptor he’s driving this week. We asked him if he would like to chain it to the 470-hp Jaguar XF Supercharged we’re driving this week and have ourselves a little tug of war. Levine’s response, “Only if we do it in mid-air.” Touché.

[Source: Pickuptrucks.com]

Ford turns down Heavy Duty tug of war challenge with GM originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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»  SlingPlayer 2.0 for Windows Mobile is now in widescreen. [MobileTechWorld]

»  IDC predicts the Android OS will overtake BlackBerry and yes, even iPhone by 2013. [Pocket Gamer]

»  Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) plans to finalize Windows Mobile 7 code by summer and work on a new line of phones. [CNET]

»  Launch of BlackBerry Tour 9650 may be around the corner as RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) teases fans on Facebook. [CrackBerry.com]

The members of heavy metal band Metallica are “profoundly saddened” by the death of a young woman who disappeared from one of their concerts last fall.

Virginia State Police have confirmed that skeletal remains found in a remote farm field are those of missing Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington. Harrington, a 20-year-old junior at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, hadn’t been seen since October when she was separated from her friends at a Metallica concert in Charlottesville. Her remains were discovered Tuesday morning on the farm by owner David Bass.

The band — who had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading about Morgan’s whereabouts — are now urging anyone with information about her death to call Virginia State Police.

In a note on the band’s site, they say:

“Our most sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of Morgan Dana Harrington, the 20 year old Virginia Tech student who was last seen while attending our concert at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, VA. Sadly, Morgan’s body was found yesterday ending her family’s three month vigil hoping and praying for her safe return. Mere words cannot express the anguish and grief that we know her parents Dan and Gil are feeling, and our thoughts are with them…..”

A lot of people at Gizmodo are psyched about the iPad. Not me! My god, am I underwhelmed by it. It has some absolutely backbreaking failures that will make buying one the last thing I would want to do. Updated

Big, Ugly Bezel
Have you seen the bezel on this thing?! It’s huge! I know you don’t want to accidentally input a command when your thumb is holding it, but come on.

No Multitasking
This is a backbreaker. If this is supposed to be a replacement for netbooks, how can it possibly not have multitasking? Are you saying I can’t listen to Pandora while writing a document? I can’t have my Twitter app open at the same time as my browser? I can’t have AIM open at the same time as my email? Are you kidding me? This alone guarantees that I will not buy this product.

No Cameras
No front facing camera is one thing. But no back facing camera either? Why the hell not? I can’t imagine what the downside was for including at least one camera. Could this thing not handle video iChat?

Touch Keyboard
So much for Apple revolutionizing tablet inputs; this is the same big, ugly touchscreen keyboard we’ve seen on other tablets, and unless you’re lying on the couch with your knees propping it up, it’ll be awkward to use.

No HDMI Out
Want to watch those nice HD videos you downloaded from iTunes on your TV? Too damned bad! If you were truly loyal, you’d just buy an AppleTV already.

The Name iPad
Get ready for Maxi pad jokes, and lots of ’em!

No Flash
No Flash is annoying but not a dealbreaker on the iPhone and iPod Touch. On something that’s supposed to be closer to a netbook or laptop? It will leave huge, gaping holes in websites. I hope you don’t care about streaming video! God knows not many casual internet users do. Oh wait, nevermind, they all do.

Adapters, Adapters, Adapters
So much for those smooth lines. If you want to plug anything into this, such as a digital camera, you need all sorts of ugly adapters. You need an adapter for USB for god’s sake.

Update: Why stop at 8? Here are more things we are discovering that suck about the iPad.

It’s Not Widescreen
Widescreen movies look lousy on this thing thanks to its 4:3 screen, according to Blam, who checked out some of Star Trek on one. It’s like owning a 4:3 TV all over again!

Doesn’t Support T-Mobile 3G
Sure, it’s “unlocked.” But it won’t work on T-Mobile, and it uses microSIMs that literally no one else uses.

A Closed App Ecosystem
The iPad only runs apps from the App Store. The same App Store that is notorious for banning apps for no real reason, such as Google Voice. Sure, netbooks might not have touchscreens, but you can install whatever software you’d like on them. Want to run a different browser on your iPad? Too bad!

[This post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of others at Gizmodo]