Author: Serkadis

You have to love a good clash of legitimate titans, and they don’t get much bigger than Google and China. After deciding to stop censoring its Google.cn results, the Mountain View company of evil-non-doers has stepped up its offensive with the announcement that two Android phones — one from Samsung and one from Motorola — which were slated to make their arrival on China Unicom on Wednesday have now been postponed. We’ll read between the lines and guess that the phones will be “postponed” if China plays nice, or “never gonna happen” if it doesn’t. Google seems intent on demonstrating the full impact of its potential withdrawal from China, and this show of its sway with mobile manufacturers will hardly go unnoticed.

[Thanks, David Casteneta]

Google’s spat with Chinese government causes ‘postponement’ of Android phones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whoa, we just hit yet another major performance milestone in removable storage. Silicon Power is touting the world’s first 128GB 400x Compact Flash card with write speeds of 90MBps and support for PIO Mode-6 (as defined by CompactFlash spec 2.0) and Multi-Word DMA 4 (as defined by CompactFlash spec 2.1) transfer mode in quad-channel configurations. In other words, it’ll play nice with new HD video capable DSLR shooters. Unfortunately, the card is only being announced today — no price or ship date in the press release. Sigh.

Silicon Power crams 128GB into 400x Compact Flash card: a world’s first originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh, this is as tasty as it is salacious. Acer founder and former chairman (now retired) Stan Shih has come out with the bold prediction that US computer brands are on the way out — if they do not adjust to the new reality of a PC market focused on low cost. When asked how he foresees Acer and ASUS establishing their brand credentials in the USA when they’re engaged in constant price wars, Shih resolutely stated that lowering costs and prices is the way to do it. Drawing an analogy to the fate of US television brands (pow!), Shih pointed out his belief that American vendors aren’t capable (slap!) of delivering the sort of affordability that the market is set to permanently demand. As harsh as his words may be, let’s not forget Acer recently jumped Dell for the number two spot in volume of global sales, so let’s not ignore what may in fact be prophecy rather than mere prattle.

CE-Oh no he didn’t! Part LXVI: Acer founder predicts extinction of US PC makers within 20 years originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Paramount Studios has hired Saw VI director Kevin Greutert to step behind the camera for the eagerly-anticipated Paranormal Activity sequel, The Hollywood Reporter said Tuesday. Paranormal Activity 2 hits theaters Oct. 22, going head to head against the latest Saw movie at the box office this Halloween.

Oren Peli, who directed the original Paranormal Activity as an independent film, will produce the follow-up.

Paranormal Activity – who was shot on budget of just $15,000 — grossed more than $150 million at the international box office last year after gaining momentum via an online campaign. The critically-acclaimed horror hit is the most profitable film in Paramount’s history.

Mobile payments for micro-transactions on the web are steadily gaining traction. This morning, the space received more validation as several prominent venture capital firms made a significant a investment in recently launched mobile payments startup, Boku. Boku has raised $25 million in Series C funding led by DAG Ventures with previous investors Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, and Khosla Ventures participating in the round. This brings Boku’s total funding to $38 million since the startup’s launch in June. Boku’s marketing chief Ron Hirson tells me that the startup is also rebranding its consumer platform as Paymo, but will retain the name Boku on the merchant and publisher side.

Boku, which acquired competitors Paymo and Mobillcash in June, doesn’t require users to have a credit card or bank account to make a micropayment. Users enter their cell phone number on the site, reply to a text message and then all virtual charges are automatically charged to the user’s monthly cell phone bill. As we’ve said in the past, it’s ridiculously easy. Because of its acquisition of Paymo and Mobillcash, systems that had significant international reach, Boku gained a strong base of users around the world.

Today, Boku’s reach extends to 58 countries and 190 carriers, with two more countries (Latvia and Lithuania) being added by the end of the week. Carriers in Brazil and Argentina will also be added shortly and is expected to bring a large amount of users because of the high mobile phone usage stats in South America. Hirson says the new cash will be used to further the companies international growth and expand product offerings.

The startup is also seeing success on the publisher side, announcing 12 new partnerships with online game developers in the past month. In fact, since June, the company has developed mobile payment relationships with over 1,000 game and app developers to help power payments for virtual goods and currencies on many of the top social networks, including Facebook and MySpace. The startup currently powers mobile micropayments for both Playdom and Playfish, which was acquired by Electronic Arts.

One potential obstacle to mobile payments platforms is the high fees that mobile carriers charge to the payment systems (which are then passed on to the publisher). Boku told us last June that different cell phone carriers charge varying fees that range between 10% to 50% of the purchase price, which is a hefty amount in transaction fees. But it looks like Boku is on its way to remedying this problem. Hirson indicated to me that the company is in negotiations with carriers to bring fees. He said that carrier fees in parts of Europe will come down first and hopefully roll out to the Americas and remaining parts of the world.

Of course, its worth mentioning Boku’s main rival in the mobile payments space, Zong, which struck a large deal last year with Facebook to pay for the social network’s virtual currency. Zong also recently launched an alternative payments system, called Zong+, which lets users bill microtransactions to credit, debit and prepaid cards.

With $25 million in the bank, its hard not to imagine that Boku could snap up a few smaller players in the mobile payments and microtransaction space. When asked about the possibility of further buyouts down the line, Hirson said that while acquisitions aren’t currently part of Boku’s immediate strategy, he couldn’t rule out the possibility in the future.

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VoIP services juggernaut Skype has seen its share of international calling minutes jump to 12% in 2009, a 50% increase compared to the year before. And as you can tell from the pie chart below, 54 billion minutes out of 406 billion in total were accumulated by users calling each other Skype-to-Skype last year. Are you listening, carriers?

The numbers hail from a report published by TeleGeography, a benchmark research service for the international long-distance telephony industry.

TeleGeography says international call volume from telephones has grown at an annual rate of 15 percent over the past 25 years, but that growth has been slowing for the past few years. In the past two years, specifically, international telephone traffic annual growth has reportedly slowed to a mere 8 percent, growing from 376 billion minutes in 2008 to an estimated 406 billion minutes last year.

Skype’s traffic, however, has soared. The service’s on-net international traffic (between Skype users) grew 51 percent in 2008, and is projected to grow 63 percent in 2009, to 54 billion minutes.

TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert refers to Skype’s estimated volume of traffic as “tremendous” and goes on to say that Skype is now by far the largest provider of cross-border communications in the world.

Just yesterday, Skype Journal reported that the service has seen an all-time record number of concurrent logged on users: 22 million people signed in to Skype at the same time.

Or what the disruption of an industry looks like in figures and charts.

Tomorrow, eBay is set to release its latest quarter earnings, which means we’ll be able to match these traffic growth numbers with reported revenue figures. In October 2009, we reported on Skype hitting 521 million users and $185 million in quarterly revenue.

(Via Skype blog)

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Sweden has been one of the leading countries when it comes to anything having to do with the Internet. It is one of the countries with best broadband deployment in the world and its citizens as well as the authorities have had quite a progressive view on how to handle the inherent changes brought by the web. Last year though… (read more)

Some blogs rank Hollywood celebs by how fashionable they look on the red carpet. We just rate them by how hot they look, damn the fashion.

The annual Golden Globes award show – which was held Sunday – is always a great venue for spotting the hottest starlets in the sexiest outfits. Unlike the Oscars, where the stars try to look classy, there’s always lots of boob and leg shown off at the Globes.

Here are the five sexiest starlets from this year’s 2010 Golden Globes:

5. Salma Hayek. Salma shows off her golden globes in a low cut number:

4. Halle Berry. Halle was another star not afraid to flash the flesh in a racy number that showed off her stunning front and backside:

3. Penelope Cruz. The lovely Penelope showed off her figure without giving away the store:

2. Olivia Wilde. The House star looks like a sex kitten in this plunging, glittery dress. We’ve got even more sexy Olivia Wilde photos.

1. Jennifer Aniston. How is it possible that Jennifer Aniston keeps getting hotter the older she gets? Giving new meaning to stepping out on the red carpet, Jennifer showed off her toned legs in a super sexy black gown:

Related posts:

1. The World’s 20 Sexiest Nerds
2. The Sexiest Rolling Stone Covers Ever
3. This is Why Olivia Wilde is the Hottest Woman Around

I hate the telephone.  I hate voice mail.  I’ve tried hard to simplify how this works in my world.  I only have two phone numbers (my cell phone and my work phone, which is an IP phone that rings in all the different houses / offices that I have), schedule all phone calls, and use PhoneTag as my voicemail transcription service (both my cell phone and my desk phone forward to it when I don’t answer.)  I never listen to voice mails (everything is an email), rarely get phone calls during the day, and have done a pretty good job of getting rid of phone interruptions in my life given how busy I am.

Even though I’m in a reasonable stable state, I have one thing that bothers me.  I still have two phone numbers – one for my cell phone and one for my desk phone.  When my assistant Kelly schedules a call, she does a pretty good job of using my cell phone when I’m on the road and my desk phone when I’m in my office or at home (my cell phone doesn’t work in my house in Eldorado Springs at all and barely works in Keystone – thanks AT&T).  However, she still has to do the manual translation of my location to phone number (blech) and I occasionally (well – regularly) end up somewhere other than expected.

I thought Google Voice might be the solution.  However, I don’t want to have to tell the world a new phone number.  Plus, a lot of people call me back via caller ID so when I call on various phones they just call me back on that phone.  So I came up with a hack to try.  I’d forward my desk phone (call it 4) to my Google Voice number.  Then I’d give out my desk phone to everyone going forward.  Google Voice would then ring all of my other phone numbers, including my cell number.  On no answer, Google Voice would transcribe my message and email it to me.

Problem #1 happened when Amy emailed me from Keystone (when I was in my office in Boulder) and said “your phone is ringing off the hook today – make it stop.”)  I have an extension 4 phone in Keystone.  Easy fix – I changed my IP phones so Keystone was 1, Eldo was 2, my office was 3, and the 4 just forwarded to Google Voice.  I then set up groups in Google voice to easily forward only to the phones where I was (e.g. when I wasn’t in Keystone, 1 didn’t ring).  Problem #1 solved.

Problem #2 happened the next day when I got an email from a regular caller saying the phone “just rang and rang” and voice mail never picked up.  I heard of this from a few more people – the only thing I could come up with was that Google Voice wasn’t answering every now and then or there was some kind of forwarding black hole that I hadn’t figured out.  I’ll give Google Voice the benefit of the doubt on this one, but I still couldn’t figure out the black hole.

Problem #3 was a delay that I was starting to notice when talking on my cell phone.  The forwarding from my desk phone (4) to Google Voice to my cell phone was introducing enough of an IP delay to be noticeable.  I tried to mentally adjust for it but it was unpredictable.  This gave me a headache (a physical one, not a virtual one).

Problem #4 was caller ID wasn’t coming through correctly.  Again, I’ll give Google Voice benefit of the doubt – I think I probably could have figured out how to hack our phone system to forward to caller ID to Google Voice which would then forward it on.  But I didn’t.  And the Google Voice intro that announced the caller often was either blank (presumably the caller didn’t say anything), it was cut off (possibly due to the forwarding), or it was hard to understand.  Regardless, I found myself feeling less comfortable that I knew who was calling.

Problem #5 was the Google Voice transcriptions were unreadable.  I find the PhoneTag emails to often be entertaining, but they are never incomprehensible.  In contrast, I found myself having to listen to three out of four of the Google Voice messages because the transcriptions made no sense.

But Problem #6 sunk me.  Suddenly, I was getting a lot more phone calls!  My previously silent phone was ringing more often.  I hadn’t really thought this through but in hindsight it was obvious since I was generating so many more ring points.

At some level, I could bit the bullet and just try giving out the Google Voice number and see what happens.  But, after a week of being back in my old routine, where my phone rarely rings and when I get a PhoneTag email message I can quickly see who called and why, I’m sticking with the old way for now.

Nicole Scherzinger wants to be a Bond Girl.

The Pussycat Dolls frontwoman recently split from Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton after almost two years of dating to focus on furthering her acting career, and Nicole has set her sights on taking on the lead female role opposite Daniel Craig in the next movie 007 epic.

A Scherzinger source revealed to Hello!: “She has lined up some meetings in Hollywood. Nicole is very athletic and sees herself in action movies. She has even said her ideal role would be to star as the next Bond girl. Why not? She has the looks and the physique for it.”

The 31-year-old beauty hasn’t turned her back on the music industry; she is currently writing a number of songs for her solo album, as well as a new LP with The Dolls.

Suzuki’s British division recently announced that a new online-only reservation process for the limited edition 25th anniversary GSX-R750 will kick-off on January 23, 2010, following the machine’s unveiling at the International Motorcycle and Scooter show last November.

There are only 25 machines available and all reservations will be handled exclusively through www.imgsx-r.com from mid-day on the 23rd January and operated on a first come, first served basis. The reservation system will be op… (read more)

The following is an edited version of the diary of 36-year-old Helen Hawking, from the UK, who has been working in Haiti for Oxfam as a health promoter since July. This is her story of the first four days after the earthquake struck.

Tuesday 12th January
It had been an average day in the office; conference calls, report writing, fighting off mosquitoes. My clock showed just 10 minutes until it was time to leave for the day, when the ground made slight movements, which rapidly became violent. The earth shook harder than I have ever felt before, I ran to the door but could not get out. I hid under my desk, my hand pressed up against the surface protecting my head, hoping it would hold up two stories falling on it. If I were buried under debris, would I ever get rescued? Was this the end for me?
As quickly as the earthquake started, the violent tremor stopped. Covered in dust, I scrambled over the rubble and made it out to the safety of the street. People were coming out stunned, some crying, some injured. A count of heads showed one member of the team was missing, stuck under the rubble. Companions brought him out and carried him unconscious to the nearest hospital, where he died. Several hospitals collapsed. Homes, schools, offices – the buildings we spend our lives in become our greatest danger.
Cars were left abandoned, roads were impassable. We walked the long way home not saying much, amongst people praying, crying, hysterical. It was surreal. We made a large detour around the petrol station that had exploded. A couple of people were wailing outside a collapsed building, the broken sign showed it had been a university.
I had no way of letting my family know that I had survived and hoped that they wouldn’t hear about the earthquake until tomorrow.

Wednesday 13th January
Last night we walked home in the dark and tried to sleep in the space in the garden least likely to have a wall or building fall on it. I lay feeling the aftershocks through the night under a beautiful sky heavy with stars.
Today we walk back to the office. We pass a man carrying his dead child, repeating that he has his beloved dead child in his arms, not knowing where to go. We pass people being carried on makeshift stretchers, doors, blankets or whatever they can get their hands on.
We went up and down the main road six times, each time more corpses appeared, some covered in sheets some just lying contorted and stiff and coated in dust. I wonder if their families know where they are?
In Canape Vert Park, hundreds of people are sitting on the street. The smell of urine and excreta is strong.
Supermarkets have either collapsed, been looted or are closed for fear of aftershocks. The only food for sale is some unappetizing fruit a group of women are selling. The cost of water has gone up. I wonder how long we can last on the food we have at home, maybe two or three days? I am concerned about the possibility of unrest related to the lack of food.
We attend an Oxfam staff meeting; we are a small organization yet seven people had their homes destroyed. Haitians are heeding the advice that it is dangerous to sleep in their beds because of the aftershocks. Most are sleeping on the street.
We go to the meeting with a group of organizations who work in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene to coordinate the WASH response. In an emergency many organisations come to help so we need to work together and organize who does what and where.
Streams of people with suitcases are leaving to stay with friends and family in other parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The earth moves almost constantly. I feel queasy. Just before midnight a large noisy trail of people pass our house, worried that a Tsunami is coming. It´s raining a little. Tonight Port au Prince is spending its second night sleeping under the stars.

Thursday 14th January
Haiti is not known for having a good security record. We hear that all the inmates from the huge local penitentiary who were not killed by the earthquake have escaped.
Today we do a rapid appraisal of the communes where we have recently trained teams in emergency WASH response. Visiting the open areas, the main needs are drinking water, food, medicines and latrines.
Several private water companies are offering their services to provide water to key locations in the city, which is wonderful news. These organizations will provide 80 trucks full of water. The international organizations including Oxfam need to organise storage and management of the water, an enormous task.
Unfortunately we also find out that our emergency stocks have become inaccessible following the quake. This is a huge setback, as tomorrow we want to start distributing water. People are hungry and thirsty.
The most disturbing sights of today were not the piles of debris, but the bodies. A neat row of 16 bodies carefully wrapped in sheets, the group of 20 at the Canape Vert roundabout, a pile with no sheet covering them and the two bodies on the corner of a street, an adult motionless under a dead child.
We are told that a plane is sending emergency materials for us and it should arrive tomorrow! This is great news.

Friday 15th January
Today was spent preparing to distribute water. I visited a golf course, currently home to about 10,000 people. There are a lot of sick and injured people sleeping out here. I was looking for an appropriate place to mount a portable water storage container.
I am really curious about why people are walking around with thick white cream smeared under their noses. I imagine it must be something sweet smelling to counter the bad smells here. In fact it is toothpaste put there supposedly to stop them getting ill!
We are still sleeping outside. I am not sure what I miss more; sleeping in my bed or eating cooked meals! Tomorrow we will start installing the water points and distributing drinking water.

Although Mikko Hirvonen’s participation in this year’s Monte Carlo Rally was regarded as mostly a preparation event prior to the official start of the 2010 WRC season, the Finn made it very clear that he aims for the victory in this week’s event.

Unlike in the WRC, Hirvonen will drive the newly-developed Ford Fiesta S2000 car during the Monte Carlo event, which will mark the season opener in the International Rally Challenge. He will not be the only driver competing on a Fiesta for M-Sport, a… (read more)

If you’re a fan of the gangster scene from the 1930s then the 39th Annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale has something special in store for you. The auction will feature the 1930s Ford Model A used by John Dillinger in 1934 to outrun cops.

After Dillinger was killed as he exited the Biograph Theater in Chicago, the Ford Model A was impounded by police and returned to Robert Johnson, the original owner of the vehicle until he was robbed by Dillinger’s gang. The bullet-bruised vehicle was left parked and nearly untouched for three decades, after which a man by the name of Alfred Love bought it from Johnson. Love eventually passed on the Model A to his son Mark Love, the current owner.

In 2007, the Ford Model A was carefully restored to appear in “Public Enemies” a movie starring Johnny Depp who portrayed Public Enemy No.1, John Dillinger.

Seems like a true piece of America History.

Press Release:

THE 1930 FORD “MODEL A” THAT CARRIED GANGSTER JOHN DILLINGER TO SAFETY WILL CROSS THE BARRETT-JACKSON BLOCK IN SCOTTSDALE

* 1930 Ford Model A that John Dillinger used in an escape to be sold at Barrett-Jackson at No Reserve
* The car also starred in the recent blockbuster “Public Enemies” with Johnny Depp
* The Model A (Lot #1309) includes meticulous documentation from the current owner

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Jan. 4, 2010 – The 1930’s Ford Model A (Lot #1309) used by the notorious gangster John Dillinger and later in the blockbuster 2009 movie about his life, will be sold at No Reserve during the 39th Annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale on Jan. 18-24, 2010 at WestWorld. The Ford, which carried “Public Enemy” number one to safety in 1934 while Dillinger sprayed pursing cops with his Tommy gun, will cross the block as the world watches on SPEED.

“While Bonnie and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson were media celebrities, none were more famous than John Dillinger,” said Barrett-Jackson Chairman/CEO Craig Jackson. “His daring robberies and hold ups fed the nation’s hunger for sensationalist news. His ability to elude capture and escape by using fast, reliable cars with seeming impunity made him a folk hero.”

Dillinger and his gang raged throughout Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin during the Great Depression. One of Dillinger’s most memorable escapes took place at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wis. on April 22, 1934. Dillinger, Homer Van Meter and John “Red” Hamilton, his two top lieutenants, escaped in the 1930 Ford Model A coupe offered at Barrett-Jackson.

“This car is a piece of American gangster history and as much a part of Dillinger’s legend as his Tommy guns and Colt automatics,” stated Steve Davis, president of Barrett-Jackson. “Not only did this particular car get the famous gangster out of a fix with the cops in hot pursuit, it was used in the recent Johnny Depp movie about Dillinger. So it’s played an important role in history and cinema emulating history.”

After a series of robberies, Dillinger and his gang hid out at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters. The proprietors, Emil and Nan Wanatka, recognized them and managed to tip off the authorities to the gang’s location.

Upon arrival, the Feds perforated the Lodge with bullets until Dillinger, Van Meter and Hamilton bailed out of doors and windows, rushing through the woods until they found the Model T nearby. The gangsters politely but firmly commandeered the Ford and its owner, Robert Johnson, to drive it.

Johnson was let out near Park Falls, Wis. The trio of crooks eluded law enforcement and drove to Hastings, Minn., over 200 miles away from the Lodge. There, they were once again identified and fled in a high speed pursuit. Hamilton was fatally shot in the hail of gunfire. Dillinger, it is said, smashed the Ford’s rear window with his Thompson and sprayed his pursuers with bullets as he escaped.

Heading for the anonymity of Chicago, they dumped the bullet-riddled Model A in favor of a stolen 1934 Ford V8. Just three months later, Dillinger was killed as he exited the Biograph Theater in Chicago.

Bullet pocked and blood stained, the Ford was impounded by the police. Files from the Division of Investigation (now FBI) identified it as “1930 Ford coupe, 4 cylinder, Model A, Wisconsin license #92652, Motor #2980001.”

“The Model A was eventually returned to Johnson who determined that it wasn’t worth repairing and parked it for nearly three decades,” noted Davis. “The car ended up in the barn of Alfred Love’s mother in-law, where Johnson rented a bungalow. Love bought it from Johnson and eventually passed it to his son, Mark, the current owner.”

The Ford was carefully restored in 2007 to appear in “Public Enemies”, preserving the original bullet holes and dimples under body filler and carefully documenting the original appearance including the upholstery soaked with blood. This car is comprehensively documented with its transfer paperwork, articles, books, before-restoration photographs and a selection of documents copied from the federal files.

“This Ford was at the center of one of the most famous shootouts in gangster history,” added Jackson. “It is, more than any automobile and even firearm, identified with Dillinger. It’s been owned by only two families since it played a crucial role in the Little Bohemia Lodge escape. The Dillinger Ford Model A coupe would be an incredible addition to a collection, museum or attraction that commemorates the history of Ford, the Model A or American history.”

About The Barrett-Jackson Auction Company

The Barrett-Jackson Auction Company was established in 1971 and headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., Barrett-Jackson specializes in providing products and services to classic and collector car owners, astute collectors and automotive enthusiasts around the world. The company produces the “World’s Greatest Collector Car Auctions™” in Scottsdale, Palm Beach, Fla., Las Vegas, and Orange County, Cali. Barrett-Jackson also endorses a one-of-a-kind collector car insurance offering for collector vehicles and other valued belongings. For more information about Barrett-Jackson, visit www.barrett-jackson.com or call (480) 421-6694.

– By: Kap Shah

Ke$ha makes Courtney Love “go all maternal.” (Her words, not ours.) Now that the State of California has snatched her own daughter away from her insanity, the Hole frontwoman has turned her focus to “saving” the “Tik Tok” party girl-turned-pop sensation before her image is ruined by the music industry.

(Who’s going to save us from Ke$ha’s bad singing?)

Courtney is a big fan of the singer but wants to “school her” because she fears record company executives will try to “mold” her into a family friendly act.

In a series of posts on her Twitter.com page this week, Courtney writes:

-”Ke$ha is in dire need of a vibe that matches her… shes (sic) being molded into something not her that will fail. I want to save her… f**k Ke$ha I need to school her… Ke$ha I will save you…..”

-”(Ke$ha) sweetheart you make me go all maternal, I want to save you from the jaws of impermanence and soul death…

-”When I watched the Youtube (video) of (Ke$ha I saw) a lost little soul… the u (You) tube had a lady from (record label) RCA /Jive/(CEO) Barry (Weiss)’ nightmare correcting her every time she spoke, they grabbed pushed and she’ll be gone…..”

Google’s announcement that it may close down operations in China if it can’t start running an uncensored search engine in the country has had reverberations in all sorts of places and provoked responses from other companies and officials alike. One company that spoke out on the matter was Yahoo and its statement was seen as su… (read more)

Ford debuted the new S-MAX and Galaxy at the 2010 Brussels Show, two models that will go on sale in European markets in the upcoming months. Since the only things we got were a couple of pictures showing the two models, here is a recent photo gallery rolled out by Ford showing both cars interacting with the real world.

"S-MAX and Galaxy are the first European Ford models to benefit from our global EcoBoost family of direct-injection, turbocharged, petrol engines delivering more power and… (read more)

Now that Apple’s tablet debut date is officially, officially confirmed (old news for All Things Digital readers), we can move on to the next round of speculation. For instance, which media partners will Steve Jobs be working with when this thing launches?

There are lots of media companies who are anticipating the tablet — the entire magazine industry, for instance — and Apple (AAPL) will eventually want all of them on board. The wondertablet is supposed to be a showcase for media, after all.

But very few media companies seem to have any kind of real information about the device. And only a small number will have new stuff to show off at next week’s unveiling.

Like who? Here’s a starter list of likely and unlikely suspects:

• The New York Times (NYT) is a good bet. Executive Editor Bill Keller riled up the Web with a passing reference to an “impending Apple slate” in October, but wouldn’t say more. Last week I asked him again about his paper’s Apple plans, and he stayed mum again. So did Martin Nisenholtz, the paper’s digital boss. “No comment”s don’t equal “we’re cooking something up”, of course. And I’m not convinced that an Apple demo would be directly tied to an announcement about a new pay wall strategy, as New York Magazine speculated on Sunday. But I do expect to see something next week.
• Don’t expect much from the big music labels. Jobs courted Big Music when he opened up the iTunes store in 2003. But label sources I talked to this month said the company had only recently begun briefing them about the tablet, primarily as a “courtesy”. Recall that Apple already has the labels on board with the “iTunes LP” format, which would lend itself quite nicely to a tablet. One label official told me Apple has expressed an interest in selling higher-quality audio files via iTunes, and I’m sure the labels would be happy to do so, if they could charge a premium for them. But that discussion didn’t seem to be tethered to the tablet.
• Do expect to hear about “enhanced e-books”. In the past, Jobs has been dismissive about dedicated e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle (AMZN) and reading in general — “people don’t read anymore“. He has apparently changed his mind about the latter idea: The Wall Street Journal confirmed earlier stories yesterday with a report that News Corp.’s (NWS) HarperCollins is negotiating to bring some of its titles to the platform. Presumably other publishers — all of whom are eager for viable Kindle competitors — want in, too.
• Video? Duh. But who? The most obvious suspect here for an initial launch would be Disney (DIS) and its affiliates. In part because Jobs is the company’s largest individual shareholder, and a board member. But also because Disney CEO Bob Iger has made a point of trying out new digital distribution strategies. Here’s a non-stretch: Disney is already negotiating with Microsoft (MSFT) to bring some of its programming and games to the Xbox 360. What about something similar for the tablet?

A crucial point here is that if the tablet works with the iTunes store — and it should — then it’s most likely that all of the Apple’s existing iTunes media partners will automatically be on the new device from the start, whether or not Jobs showcases them next week. That is: If you can buy “Cars” and watch it on your Mac, iPhone or iPod, then you should be able to watch it on your tablet, too.

But we’re in pre-Apple announcement mode now, and simply porting old media to a new device just won’t sate our needs! So consider this a work in progress, and a speculative one at that. I’ll be updating if and when anything new comes to light.

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	Is the Obama Administration calling the shots in Detroit? Newsweek says yes But they don’t make a convincing argument.		Toyota’s Koei Saga: “I think we will never abandon the internal-combustion engine” Well, that’s one opinion.
	Report: General Motors CEO says Volt will be in low 30s and be profitable Sounds good, but it’s a little vague for us at this point.	Other news: Not gonna let it die: Felix Kramer issues detailed response to anti-plug-in vehicle report Got cells? Battery supplier CEO warns of limited battery supply for electric vehicles Report: Bosch helping Tata develop tiny diesel engine for Nano

AutoblogGreen for 01.19.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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