Neuralieve, maker of a portable, non-invasive device used to treat neurological problems, particularly migraines, has brought in $3.9 million of a targeted $7.5 million round of equity, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., the company includes a managing member of MedVenture Associates on its board of directors.
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Oorja Protonics, maker of methanol fuel cells used to charge batteries used to power forklifts, pallet loaders and other industrial vehicles, has raised $450,000 in debt, warrants and rights, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Fremont, Calif., the company is backed by Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, Artis Capital Management, McKenna Management, Northshore Partners and Spring Ventures. It raised $500,000 in September 2009.
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Chinese online game firm Shanda Games has purchased Flash game platform company Mochi Media for $80 million in cash and stock.
Shanda is one of the biggest online game publishers in China, with more than 70 online games in operation. Mochi Media, based in San Francisco, operates an ad network that helps hobbyist game developers make money. It does so by inserting ads into Adobe Flash-based web games, which are often played by the millions. Mochi Media makes money as advertisers pay it for every gamer reached, and Mochi Media shares revenues with the developers. In this way, even hobbyist game developers can become professionals. Mochi Media’s ads run in 15,000 Flash-based games played by 140 million users.
“The Shanda deal shows the global nature of gaming,” said Ping Li, a partner at Accel Partners, which is one of Mochi’s backers. “It’s nice to see it to this move to the next level.”
The acquisition is one of Shanda’s biggest moves in the U.S. Li said we can probably expect to see more of that in the future as Chinese game companies become more global players. Mochi Media raised $14 million in two rounds. Li said he was pleased with the exit valuation and said it was a good fit.
Jameson Hsu, chief executive of Mochi Media, said in an interview that the deal is a landmark transaction between a Chinese game company and an American one.
“We liked them because they have some of the best content and we want to be associated with good quality,” Hsu said.
Hsu said the company will operate independently within Shanda, but the companies will have collaborative projects in the future. Besides Accel, Mochi Media’s backers include Shasta Ventures.
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More Lancia than Chrysler, here are the first pics of the Chrysler Delta model seen at the Detroit show. We don’t have any official details of the Chrysler Delta as yet, although it looks very similar to the Lancia Delta with a chunkier rear and a changed front grille and bonnet. We’ll have more details to follow, but you can compare the Chrysler Delta to our gallery of the Lancia Delta after the jump. What do you think?
Source | Jalopnik
More news from the social network Friendster. The site, which was acquired in December by Malaysian payments company MOL Global, has struck a deal with Yahoo Southeast Asia. The purpose of the deal is to integrate product features and cross-promote across both Friendster and Yahoo. Both Friendster and Yahoo stand to gain from the partnership as Friendster has a significant Asian audience and Yahoo also has a steady following in the regional area for certain web services.
Friendster, which was sold for just under $30 million, has over 90 million registered users and 90 percent of its daily traffic coming from Southeast Asia today. The partnership will involve a a new social application built by Friendster that will be prominently displayed on Yahoo Southeast Asia properties and a cross-promotion of Yahoo products on Friendster.
Yahoo Search will also feature results from Friendster user profiles and fan profiles, similar to the deals struck with Twitter and Facebook by the search giants. Friendster users will also be able to link their Friendster account to their Yahoo! account to share their Friendster network activity updates and inbox via their Yahoo accounts. So, users can check their Friendster account and send updates directly from their Yahoo homepage. Users will also be able to publish their Friendster network activity to Yahoo Messenger and other Yahoo applications.
The cross promotion between Friendster and Yahoo has already been implemented but the search results and activity update integration will be rolled out over the next few months.
Friendster, which was founded in 2001, has raised over $45 million in venture capital to date, and is sitting on some potentially lucrative IP. Friendster is no longer hot in the U.S. and still has members in the Asia/Pacific region. The social network, which just rolled out a much-needed redesign, appointed Richard Kimber as its new CEO, who used to head Sales and Operations in South East Asia for Google.
The partnership makes sense; and Friendster should be doing everything it can to try to own the user base in Southeast Asia, considering that the social network is performing poorly in other parts of the world.
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Chennai Sangamam (Tamil: சென்னை சங்கமம்) is a large annual open Tamil cultural festival held in the city of Chennai. The festival is organized by the Tamil Maiyam and Department of Tourism and Culture of the Government of Tamil Nadu with the intention of rejuvenating the old village festivals, art and artists[1]. The festival is centered around the occasion of Tamil harvest festival of Pongal and takes place for a week long period. The festival is conceived to be the longest and biggest open Festival in India[
The festival is organized at various places in Chennai including beaches, parks, corporation grounds, college / school grounds and shopping malls. The idea to have it in the open parks, beaches and streets was an inspiration from the Bangaluru Habba celebrations[4]. The events that mark the festival include traditional and folk music shows, folk dances, martial arts, classical music and dance performances, street plays, drama / theater etc… Apart from these, food component got added in the second edition of Chennai Sangamam in 2008 where food outlets catering traditional Tamil cuisine also became part of the celebrations. More than 2,000 performers take part in the event which accommodates around 4,000 performances annually
21st Century Complete Guide to Hydropower, Hydroelectric Power, Dams, Turbine, Safety, Environmental Impact, Microhydropower, Impoundment, Pumped Storage, Diversion, Run-of-River (CD-ROM) (CD-ROM)
By U.S. Government
Homebrew coder Actarus has released the final version of iDeaS 1.0.3.3, the ever-popular Nintendo DS emulator for Windows and Linux. .The latest update of the great emulator includes a couple of bug fixes, code cleanups and various
The Internet is becoming more and more a part of the world around us: our homes, our neighborhoods, our communities.
Services such as BuildingBulletin and Neighborgoods allow us to be efficient and productive neighbors and homeowners. A new service we just found takes that one step further, allowing users to put their entire moving process online. Using online tools to streamline real-world processes is nothing new, but we think MoveIdiot is a particularly useful application.
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The app is a free web-based service set to launch this month. It allows users to manage their moving experience from a central location online. Users can track boxes, manage budgets, keep track of their belongings and manage to-do lists.
With its pre-made moving checklists, MoveIdiot reminds users of every imaginable circumstance, need or errand, such as notifying one’s doctor or bank of a move, changing one’s address with the DMV or even planning a farewell party.
MoveIdiot further allows users to track their moving budget, with fields for each expenditure and category, such as travel, hotels and rentals.
Finally, one of the most interesting aspects of MoveIdiot (and one that, if enhanced, we’d actually pay for) is the ability to track one’s belongings. The site lets users upload and organize data on all their possessions, so users know exactly where each item is packed. MoveIdiot has pre-fabricated lists of common household goods, and users can also input items themselves. The app allows users to print the packing details as well as box labels.
Then, MoveIdiot’s box tracking feature lets users upload or e-mail tracking information from multiple shipping companies and then view real-time updates on an interactive map. If this feature also included RFID tags from MoveIdiot itself, that would provide an interesting value add for users making cross-town moves, as well, or using moving companies that don’t have thorough tracking systems.
According to MoveIdiot, tens of millions of people move each year. The MoveIdiot application provides these folks with a central and intuitive application for managing this process. It speaks to the growing trend of using online and mobile tools to manage, simplify and expedite one’s day-to-day life.
And with the right mix of features, such as the aforementioned RFID tags and a good mobile suite, we can see a freemium model going over very well. We also wonder if MoveIdiot has considered enterprise applications for corporate moves or the same kind of labeling and tracking for items in storage.
What do you think, friends? Would you use a free web app to help manage your next move? And what features do you think would be worth paying for for such an application? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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Durante o Rally Dakar, a Volkswagen Veículos Comerciais recebeu no sábado, (9/1) uma visita importante na cidade chilena de Antofagasta: Rudolf Schenker, fundador da Banda Hardrock alemã “The Scorpions“, que fez um test-drive com a nova Volkswagen Amarok durante a corrida no deserto. O parecer profissional da estrela do rock sobre a pick-up: “Simplesmente fantástica”.
O guitarrista estava especialmente impressionado pelo baixo consumo deste veículo robusto. A Volkswagen Amarok consome apenas 7,8 litros de diesel em 100 quilômetros, ou seja, 12,8 km por litro.
“Para mim é uma grande aventura, sempre achei o Rally Dakar emocionante, mas nunca havia participado”, disse Schenker.
“É impossível usar minha roupa de couro aqui”, brinca o roqueiro. Junto com o cantor dos Scorpions, Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker teve a oportunidade de, no final do ano passado, dar uma olhada exclusiva na pick-up novinha em folha na fábrica da Volkswagen Veículos Comerciais.
O carro chega primeiro ao mercado sul-americano e estará disponível também na Alemanha no verão europeu. As estrelas logo se empolgaram com o novo produto. “A Amarok tem muito estilo e chama tanta atenção, que a gente quer mais é sentar-se ao volante e se mandar, é um veículo muito animal”, diz Rudolf Schenker. “Para mim, uma pick-up destas significa aventura, liberdade e prazer”, destaca a estrela do rock.
“Eu iria a qualquer lugar com este carro, ele é simplesmente cool, não é presunçoso e nem exagerado, mas algo para homens de verdade”, complementa Klaus Meine.
A história mostra que os Scorpions têm uma estreita ligação com a Volkswagen, pois após a formação do grupo em 1965, o primeiro veículo da banda foi uma Kombi. Rudolf Schenker, que acaba de publicar seu livro “Rock your Life“, se entusiasmou quando soube que a Volkswagen Amarok seria o veículo acompanhante oficial do Rally Dakar.
Em dezembro de 2009, ele se ofereceu espontaneamente a Stephan Schaller, porta-voz da diretoria da marca da Volkswagen Veículos Comerciais, para testar a pick-up durante o dia de descanso do rally. “O meu livro trata exatamente sobre isto: ver a vida como aventura, aceitar cada desafio e ter simplesmente prazer nisto”, explica o artista sobre sua motivação.
A Volkswagen Veículos Comerciais é o “Fornecedor Oficial” do Rally Dakar, e para o evento esportivo disponibilizará ao todo 35 Amaroks, assim como outros veículos, entre eles também a Multivan PanAmericana. Nos últimos 40 anos, a banda Scorpions lançou 22 álbuns, vendeu 80 milhões de discos e recebeu cerca de 100 discos de ouro e de platina.
Fonte: Volkswagen
Filed under: Concept Cars, Detroit Auto Show, Sedan, Cadillac, Luxury
For the past decade, Cadillac has been transforming itself from a brand that built big, floaty old-school luxury cars for old-school customers into something much more contemporary to compete with the best premium brands from Europe. Unfortunately for General Motors, the process has been only partially successful. The Escalade has been a huge sales success for the brand and the CTS has achieved both critical and commercial acclaim. The STS and the first generation SRX, however, never quite struck a chord with the market and the DTS is just old.
A new SRX debuted last year, but now it’s time to flesh out the rest of the lineup. The CTS in sedan, coupe and sportwagon forms is one of Autoblog’s favorites. It’s time to spread that goodness to both a smaller and larger sedan. Last August we saw styling concepts of both those cars, dubbed the ATS and XTS during a visit to the GM design studios. GM isn’t publicly showing the 3 series-sized ATS just yet, but the XTS is debuting today at the Detroit Auto Show. The XTS Platinum concept is a preview of Cadillac’s new flagship that’s expected to start production in early 2012. Read on after the jump to learn all about it.
Gallery: Cadillac XTS Platinum concept
Continue reading Detroit 2010: Cadillac XTS Platinum concept ready to replace STS/DTS?
Detroit 2010: Cadillac XTS Platinum concept ready to replace STS/DTS? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you haven’t yet heard of the Livescribe Pulse smartpen, it’s a pen that both electronically saves everything you write and draw and records sound, such as a lecture or a business meeting. You can save what you’ve jotted down to your computer. And if you later touch the pen to your written notes, any audio recorded at the time you worte it will be played back for you. Pretty nifty technology, but what else can it do?
Plenty, say Livescribe’s executives who are rapidly building a developer community around the device. Close to 6,500 developers have registered and downloaded a Java-based software development kit to start creating apps. And Wednesday night, Jan. 13, Livescribe is hosting a global developer conference to enlist more developers and to tout the platform.
People can attend the conference at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., or view a Web cast of it at www.livescribe.com. Cash prizes will be awarded March 7 for the best apps developed for the Pulse. The company has invited developers to upload 30-to 90-second videos demonstrating how their apps work.
Livescribe has recently loaded two applications onto the Pulse to whet the appetite of other developers, said Jim Marggraff, founder and chief executive officer. One is a translation app that lets the user to, for example, write the word “please” on a piece of paper, set the pen to translate to Spanish and hear the words “por favor” come from the pen’s speaker and see them spelled out on a display screen. With the other app, the user draws the lines for sheet music on the page and fills in notes for the keys of A, B, C, etc. The pen’s built-in camera recognizes where the notes are on the paper and plays those notes through the speaker.
“People started to play with it and they say, ‘There’s some cool stuff here,’” said Marggraff, who calls the platform pen-based computing. “This is where it’s going now with a set of applications that are only the beginning of a multidimensional [number] of apps that we’re creating.”
Livescribe, based in Oakland, introduced the first Pulse smartpen in 2008 and now offers two models, one with 2 gigabytes of storage for $169 and another with 4 gigabytes for $199. Just like any computer it has inputs and outputs, he said. A camera mounted at the pen point and a microphone are the inputs. The speaker, display screen and a USB connector to a computer are the outputs.
The Livescribe application store currently has about 30 apps available, a mix of free and for sale products. Livescribe gets 35 percent of the sales revenue while the developer gets the rest.
Despite the niche nature of the Livescribe Pulse, it’s attracting a diverse group of developers, said Byron Connell, chief marketing officer. According to a recent survey of Livescribe developers, 70 percent have experience writing Windows PC-based applications and another 30 percent have written smartphone apps, primarily for the Apple iPhone and iPod devices. Some game developers have also joined the Livescribe community. While about 40 percent of them plan to develop consumer apps, another 18 percent are targeting the education market and 14 percent the enterprise market.
The Pulse works with specially printed paper, called “dot paper,” with navigational icons preprinted on it, such as the “pause,” “play” and “stop” functions for the audio recorder. The device recognizes the keys on a preprinted image of a calculator and performs the calculations. One of the present applications allows a user to print their own dot paper on their own printer.
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This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen a sugar fuel cell, but gosh darnit, it just might be the sexiest. Chinese designer Daizi Zheng has conjured up a vision for a soft drink-powered cylindrical Nokia of the future that pounds Coca-Colas to stay juiced: just screw off the top, pop the can, and pour. Daizi estimates that that a single can of the stuff could outlast a traditional lithium ion battery by three to four times — never mind the obvious ecological benefits — but don’t you dare steal our caffeine the next time you need a charge, alright?
[Thanks, Rob]
Sugar-powered phone concept robs us of perfectly good Coke originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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UK-based Scissal created these beautiful raised feeders with sensitivity toward how they are manufactured. The company founders felt strongly that quality pet products should not be manufactured in countries with poor animal welfare records. Therefore, these feeders are designed and manufactured in the UK. Makes sense, why should a country benefit from pet product manufacturing revenues when that country doesn’t treat its own animals humanely.
The Scissal feeders are made from sturdy acrylic with removable stainless steel bowls. Choose from freestanding or wall-mounted feeders in a variety of colors. Both single and double feeders are available ranging from 59.00 to 182.00 Euros. Looks like they only ship to the EU for now.
via ohmycat.fr
Mochi Media, a Flash game advertising network and payments platform funded by Accel Partners and Shasta Ventures, has been acquired by Shanda Games for $60 million in cash and $20 million in equity. The company has raised $14 million over two venture rounds.
The deal will be announced shortly.
Shanda is China’s largest operator of online games, with nearly 10 million active accounts. The company hosts so-called MMORPGs, or massively multi-player online role-playing games, under which users pay monthly subscriber fees as well as purchase items within the game. The company went public on NASDAQ late last year and has the enviable ticker symbol GAME.
As of June 2009 100 million people were playing games that included Mochi Media. They also launched a payments platform for game developers last year.
The company was close to being acquired last year, but an internal battle between the founders and investors led to a scrapping of that deal. Shortly afterwards the hired executive team left to other ventures. And the Mochi Media founders took over management of the company again.
Shanda also acquired Goldcool Games earlier this month, a Shanghai-based online game developer and operator. Goldcool Games currently operates two MMORPGs, “Hades Realm” and “Dukes and Lords.” The company also has several MMORPGs in the pipeline, including “Dragon Heir,” “Zodiac Tales,” “Martial Glory” and “Hades Realm II.”
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This post is part of the IT Innovation series, sponsored by Sun & Intel. Read more at ITInnovation.com.
Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.
I’m always quite skeptical about huge numbers that come out of studies, such as the “losses” claimed by the entertainment industry due to piracy. So I was pretty skeptical of a story (found via Slashdot) claiming that IT failures cost $6.2 trillion per year worldwide. If true, that would be a staggering figure. I have no doubt that IT “failures” are costly, but that number seems extreme. Just glancing over the report itself, it’s definitely not based on any kind of stringent methodology, and seems to count any IT project failure as a total loss, and then adds in “indirect costs” which sound suspiciously like “ripple effects” which, as we’ve demonstrated before are actually ways to double- or triple-count the same dollars over and over again. It seems that many others see huge problems with the original report as well, even to the point of suggesting that its orders of magnitude off.
While the debate rages on over how to properly count the “cost” of such failures, I’m beginning to wonder how useful such a number is. Isn’t a more useful discussion on how to prevent or minimize the impact of any such failures? The aggregate number may look good in being able to see some big number, but aggregate numbers can hide important details inside. For example, back in the early (and even late) 90s there were lots of reports about how computerizing your business was not shown to have added any productivity. A poor conclusion from this was that computering your business was not a smart idea. But the problem was that this was aggregate data. It failed to realize that many, many businesses had boosted productivity through the use of computers, and many of the large failures that wiped out the aggregate “gains” were from a few big businesses that did a really poor implementation. It didn’t mean that computerizing was necessarily a bad idea, but that some of the biggest early players just did a bad job of it.
So, if we’re going to be discussing IT failures, why not step away from that aggregate info and try to focus in on ways to actually minimize the impact of whatever IT failures might occur?
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The latter half of the 1990s was a dark time for the company then known as Apple Computer, Inc. Windows 95 had dashed any remaining hopes of mass-market desktop dominance for Apple. The big profits of the earlier part of the decade had given way to some huge annual losses. The future of the entire company was in doubt.
Like injured animals, corporations are adept at hiding the true magnitude of their injuries. As grim as things appeared from the outside, few Apple enthusiasts knew at the time just how close the company came to fiscal ruin. But the software picture was always crystal-clear—clear, and terrifying.
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Tomorrow, at the second press preview day of the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, General Motors will show its new Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept. The concept hints at a future full-size luxury sedan from Cadillac and also shows some technological features, including a plug-in hybrid system.
GM says that the XTS Platinum Concept was designed to re-imagine the luxury sedan segment as your “personal headquarters.” While it carries most of the exterior design elements seen on other Caddys, inside the XTS Platinum is all about comfortable luxury design and technology with a different approach to in-car electronics.
Power on the Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept comes from a 3.6L V6 direct-injected gasoline engine mated to a plug-in hybrid system. Working together, the system provides a total output of 350-hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. The XTS Platinum also gets Magnetic Ride Control (MRC) to enhance handling and performance.
The plug-in technology builds on what Caddy has learned from its Escalade Hybrid and Escalade Platinum Hybrid models. GM doesn’t say how many miles you’ll be able to travel on electric power alone, but the Detroit automaker says that the XTS takes roughly five hours to reach full-charge.
We’ll get more details for you tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Make sure you join us tomorrow morning as we continue our live coverage of the 2010 Detroit Auto Show.
Click through for the press release and the high-res gallery.
2010 Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept:
Press Release:
Cadillac Unveils The XTS Platinum Concept
– A new study re-imagining the luxury sedan, showcasing the progression of the Cadillac Art and Science philosophy
– Designed from the inside out, featuring a new concept for the interface between the driver and the auto electronics
– Plug-in hybrid system is matched with a 3.6L V-6 and all-wheel drive for dynamic and efficient performance
DETROIT – Cadillac unveiled the XTS Platinum Concept at the 2010 North American International Auto Show, suggesting a new paradigm for the luxury sedan of the future. The concept showcases Cadillac’s emerging top-of-the-line Platinum series of models, emphasizing new expressions of luxury and technological features, including a plug-in hybrid propulsion system.
The XTS Platinum Concept was designed from the inside out, re-imagining the luxury sedan as a personal headquarters, built for efficiency, luxury and connectivity. The concept introduces a new approach to in-car electronics that improves the form and function of the car’s entertainment, navigation and information systems.
“The XTS Platinum concept is the next expression of Cadillac’s Art and Science execution philosophy, reflecting our drive to deliver the latest innovations in the most artful manner,” said Bryan Nesbitt, Cadillac general manager. “We envisioned this concept as an automotive personal headquarters, using advanced technology to enable new levels of connectivity and luxury.”
The XTS Platinum Concept uses Cadillac’s 3.6L V-6 Direct Injection gas engine, paired with a plug-in hybrid system. The plug-in technology enables the battery to fully charge from a standard electrical outlet, enabling pure electric propulsion in many driving situations, especially urban commutes in which fuel efficiency may double that of a conventional hybrid.
Traditional luxury sedans were defined by elegant interiors and Cadillac’s XTS Platinum Concept propels that formula into the future. It delivers new approaches to luxury within a design that combines fine craftsmanship with customer-driven innovation. Like the current Platinum Edition products, such as Escalade Platinum and the STS and DTS Platinum sedans, the interior is based on hand cut-and-sewn materials. The XTS Platinum Concept injects more contemporary forms and themes into the interior design, including the use of Organic Light-Emitting Diode (O-LED) displays in place of traditional gauges and screens.
The concept previews a new integration philosophy guiding the development of future models with respect to in-car electronics. The intent is to progress Cadillac’s intuitive in-car electronics systems, typified by the deployable touch-screen navigation system that has been highly acclaimed in the brand’s CTS and SRX product lines. The XTS Platinum Concept previews this strategy via the minimization of traditional buttons and switches. Designers blended the display screens into a flowing instrument panel. They call it a “dead front” design, because the panels appear black until the car is turned on and the screens illuminate. The instrument panel itself reflects the XTS Platinum’s other focus – uncompromising luxury and attention to detail on the interior.
“The Platinum distinction in Cadillac means the fullest extent of luxury and technology and we’ve tried to reach even further with this concept,” said Clay Dean, Cadillac design director. “Just as the technology pushes the boundaries of what a Cadillac can offer, so do the details that make the XTS Platinum Concept an uncompromising experience.”
The interior takes inspiration from nature, specifically the intricate layers of petals that combine to form an orchid. Cadillac designers translated that into a layered and detailed interior. Light cream is the cabin’s primary color and is contrasted with darker elements, such as the steering wheel and an overhead console motif that runs the length of interior’s roof. The console is made of a richly finished wood and houses lighting features.
Premium leather seats include a new style of automotive suede, with a laser-etched pattern. The patterned material adorns the center sections of the seats and accents the door trim. Thoughtfully detailed stitching is used throughout the interior, including the seats, instrument panel and door panels. Passengers in the spacious rear compartment of the XTS Platinum Concept also have access to the car’s connectivity feature, along with a range of infotainment choices.
“We never lost sight of the fact that a large luxury sedan needs to be spacious and accommodating,” said Dean. “Passengers will find generous headroom, legroom and knee space, along with the technology elements that make the drive more productive.”
A new proportion
The XTS Platinum Concept has a distinctive proportion that transcends the traditional aesthetic of luxury sedans and carries the brand’s Art and Science design in a more progressive manner. The unique proportion supports the “inside out” design priority, while creating a sleek profile that complements the car’s advanced technology elements and necessary aerodynamics.
“The XTS Platinum Concept design artfully conveys its focus on functionality through technology,” said Dean. “It is the antithesis of the conventional three-box sedan, suggesting the active evolution of Cadillac’s design language.”
A sweeping profile culminates in a short, high deck lid that meets the XTS Platinum Concept’s aerodynamic needs – including a rear spoiler mounted on the deck lid, incorporating the center high-mounted stop lamp. A high, sloping beltline gestures the vehicle forward, suggesting motion, while the fenders flare outward wrapping tightly around 20-inch wheels and tires. The wheel-to-body proportion was carefully tailored to visually communicate the car’s all-wheel-drive chassis.
Like the interior, the exterior elements are precisely tailored and elegantly detailed. Brushed billet aluminum trim is used selectively and the 20-inch, 11-spoke wheels feature a brushed aluminum face accented with bright inserts within the spokes. The wheels are wrapped with special Bridgestone tires that were created specifically for the XTS Platinum Concept.
Signature elements essential to Cadillac’s Art and Science design language include vertical headlamp and taillamps, with integrated light pipes and richly detailed lighting components. The headlamps feature light-emitting diode technology for bright illumination that requires less energy, as well as Cadillac’s Adaptive Forward Lighting technology, which turns the headlamps with the direction of the front wheels for greater visibility in turns.
Purposeful and efficient performance
The XTS Platinum concept’s plug-in hybrid electric propulsion system (PHEV) builds on the experience Cadillac has gained with the Escalade Hybrid and Escalade Platinum Hybrid flagship models. The plug-in capability boosts the car’s electric-only driving capability, offering additional battery energy capacity and enabling it to recharge from a standard external electrical outlet. The key benefit of external plug-in recharging is that in many situations – such as overnight parking – the battery can fully recharge in roughly five hours while the car is not in use. The plug-in system operates at maximum efficiency when operating on power the battery has drawn from the electric grid. In some conditions, such as urban commutes, drivers can experience efficiency that doubles that of conventional hybrids.
At higher speeds or when conditions demand it, such as brisk acceleration, a combination of engine power and electric power or engine power only, propels the vehicle. The combination of the Direct Injection V-6 engine and the PHEV system featuring fully electric variable drive provides a spirited driving experience. The system provides an estimated 350 horsepower (260 kW) and 295 lb.-ft. of torque (400 Nm).
Magnetic Ride Control (MRC) enables the XTS Platinum Concept to deliver superior road-holding performance while maintaining luxury car composure in “regular” driving conditions. It uses shocks controlled by advanced magneto-rheological technology, rather than mechanical valves, to greatly accelerate response time and precision.
MRC uses electronic sensors at all four wheels to literally “read the road” every millisecond, making constant adjustments to damping to create virtually instantaneous and extremely precise control of body motions.
An advanced, specially calibrated all-wheel-drive system ensures optimal traction in wet and slippery conditions, and helps deliver maximum traction while cornering. Four-wheel disc brakes, with four-channel ABS, StabiliTrak stability control and full-function traction control complete the drivetrain details.
“The XTS Platinum Concept was designed to deliver an engaging driving experience without compromising the functional features, space and comfort customers seek in a luxury car,” said Nesbitt. “It is a new vision of luxury that uses advanced technology to deliver functionality efficiently and rewardingly.”
CADILLAC XTS PLATINUM CONCEPT SPECIFICATIONS
| Vehicle type: | luxury sedan concept |
| Wheelbase (in / mm): | 111.7 / 2837 |
| Length (in / mm): | 203.5 / 5170 |
| Width (in / mm): | 74.8 / 1900 |
| Height (in / mm): | 59.1 / 1500 |
| Track (in / mm): | 62.6 / 1589 (front); 62.8 / 1594 (rear) |
| Powertrain: | plug-in hybrid system with 3.6L Direct Injection gas engine (with variable valve timing); lithium ion battery |
| Suspension: | four-wheel independent with Magnetic Ride Control. |
| Brakes: | four-wheel disc with electric park brake system |
| Wheels: | 20-in front / 20-in rear |
| Estimated power: | 350 hp (260 kW) / 295 lb.-ft. (400 Nm) |
– By: Omar Rana
Heading into the second half of the season, Harper’s men’s basketball team has a record of 7-8, and Head Coach Anthony Amarino is encouraged as his team begins conference play.
“We finished the first half very well, winning 4 of the final 6 games,” said Amarino. “We made it to the championship round of the Illinois Valley Tournament (losing to Waubonsee, 75-66, in the championship game.), and we’ve been in contention in our games.”
“Our most consistent player has been Brandon Bolger (Sophomore –
“Overall, we’ve taken advantage of our opportunities, and our freshmen have made a positive contribution,” adds Marino.
As an always difficult conference portion of the schedule begins, Amarino will looks to start 2-3 freshmen in his line-up. “With half a season behind them, our freshmen have matured to the point where we can count on them.”
Google has just announced that its powerfully social Friend Connect features are now available for open-source content management systems Drupal and Joomla.
Google Friend Connect (GFC) allows sites with these CMSes to integrate many social features without having to write any code. The impact of the integration has the potential to be significant, as Drupal in particular is one of the most widely-used content management systems in use on the Web today, powering sites from WhiteHouse.gov and NASA.gov to TheOnion.com and websites for celebrities and musicians like Britney Spears and Eric Clapton. Joomla is used by such institutions as Harvard, MTV and Citibank.
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Friend Connect essentially allows site visitors to become site members by using profile information from services such as Google, Yahoo!, Twitter and more. With user accounts authenticated via OpenID, site administrators can add Friend Connect’s social bar, a site members gadget, the Friend Connect comments gadget or recommendations in any part of the site they choose.
In addition to adding social gadgets, Friend Connect also allows site admins to conduct polls, monitor community growth, create and distribute email newsletters, run ads through AdSense, export user data for a site’s entire community (as XML or JSON) or create their own apps using the GFC APIs.
“Even site owners without programming experience can add these plugins,” writes developer and open-source aficionado Mauro González in Google’s Social Web blog post. “Now that Friend Connect is integrated with these popular open source CMS platforms, site owners can make registration easier for users and offer them a set of social features – all without writing a single line of code.”
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