(TUAW Tablet concept, designed by reader Juan Secin)
Scott Moritz over at The Street has new information about the tablet today (though bewarned: Moritz isn’t first in the hearts of Apple crystal-ball gazers): he says that the tablet does not include any Intel chips inside, and that Apple has instead elected to go with another provider for the little pieces of metal and plastic that will power what many expect to be the new revolution in portable computing. He cites Apple’s “design manufacturing partners” as sources, although of course neither Intel nor Apple have anything to say about the subject.
And elsewhere in the tablet rumorscape, John Gruber has a followup to his big tablet speculation post that’s worth a read. He says that yes, of course, the App Store will deliver apps to the platform, that yes, there may be an SDK delay (although don’t forget, we’ve already heard about a possible new SDK going around), that yes, the new tablet may offer up non-app iTunes content from indie providers, and finally that no, the tablet probably won’t have Flash, for the same reasons that the iPhone doesn’t.
Which all sounds legit, though even Gruber admitted in his other post that his theories were based on reasoning more than any secrets he’d heard. We’re getting a pretty good picture of the tablet as we go along here — odds are it’ll get even clearer before we see the thing on stage.
Apple released a Bonjour update today that is suppose to improve the connections between iTunes and the Apple TV. For those who have downloaded it and own an Apple TV, have you seen any improvements? Please let us know in the comments.
Bonjour Update 2010-001 is available now via Software Update. It is not yet available through Apple’s support downloads site.
2010 Chevrolet Aveo RS – Click above for image gallery
We’re just a few hours away from the official release of the 2010 Chevrolet Aveo RS, but that hasn’t stopped a few low-quality images from leaking out before tonight’s unveiling. All the details will be revealed when the embargo lifts tonight, but color us impressed so far.
Check back at midnight for all the official information.
Massow Concept Motorcycles Jaguar – Click above to watch the video after the jump
Happen to be a Jaguar lover with a hankering for unique motorcycles? If not, we can’t imagine that you’d want to ride around on a massive Leaping Cat sculpture capable of hitting speeds of 50 miles per hour, but that hasn’t stopped Massow Concept Motorcycles from creating just such a beast. Called the NightShadow, the foundation of the motorcycle is an air-cooled Buell S3’s 1200cc V-twin powerplant.
We first saw the Jaguar-shaped motorcycle back in August of 2008, and it seems as if the bike is now completely operational. We like to think of Autoblog as a family-friendly site, so we won’t say what it looks like to ride. Regardless, if Jaguar isn’t your cup of tea, Massow has designed a slew of other concepts that take well-known logos and turns them into something resembling a motorcycle. Check a few of them out in our gallery below and click past the break to see the Jaguar Leaper motorcycle in action.
Jan 07, 2010 (Congressional Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) — Washington, D.C.-. Continuing efforts to position Oregon as a leader in the renewable energy industry, U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D- Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D- Ore …
An earthquake that registered a 4.1 on the Richter Scale hit the Bay Area Thursday morning at 10:09 a.m., about seven miles from Milpitas. The earthquake did not appear to have caused significant damage or injury, though reports of the quake quickly traveled around the area.
The earthquake was felt on campus and did not cause any damage to the University. Students that were awake reported a minor stir, while those who didn’t have morning class may have slept through it.
The San Andreas Fault has an 11-percent likelihood of a 6.7-or-greater quake within 30 years, according to The San Francisco Chronicle and U.S. Geological Survey seismologist David Oppenheimer.
“Can’t a bitch take a break from grieving?!” pint-sized psycho Tila Tequila Tweeted as she smiled, climbed trees, and posed for photogs outside her Los Angeles on Thursday. Tila seemed rather upbeat despite the recent passing of her socialite “wifey,” Casey Johnson — heiress to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical empire.
I am no psychologist, but I’d like to know why this girl is allowed to walk the streets without medication? It doesn’t take a Rhode Scholar to see that Tila’s got some mayjah issues. Bipolar maybe? Crack perhaps?
Since you can now Twitter from basically everywhere, FoMoCo figured to add Tweeting to its vehicles. At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, Ford revealed plans to offer a new web-connected dashboard technologies the include OpenBeak, a mobile Twitter application formerly known as TwitterBerry.
Joining OpenBeak, Pandora and Stitcher will also offer their apps as the Dearborn automakers first partners to enable their services to be controlled by SYNC.
“To use OpenBeak, Pandora or Stitcher in the car right now, drivers have to take their eyes off the road and manually control the device,” explained VanDagens. “Recent research shows that activity that draws drivers’ eyes off the road substantially increases the risk of accidents. By allowing drivers to control the app through SYNC’s voice commands and steering wheel buttons, we can hopefully reduce distraction for millions of drivers wanting to enjoy these apps during their commutes.”
Pandora is the most popular Internet radio service in the world, while Stitcher allows users to create personalized, on-demand Internet radio stations with news, talk and entertainment programming.
Hit the jump for the press release.
MyFord Touch / MyLincoln Touch:
Press Release:
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7, 2010 – Ford Motor Company today announced Pandora, Stitcher and Orangatame’s OpenBeak (formerly TwitterBerry) are the first partners to enable their apps to be controlled in the car by SYNC using the new application programming interface (API) in the SYNC software development kit.
“SYNC’s open platform approach is unique in the industry and allows us to capitalize on the ever-improving capabilities of mobile devices,” said Doug VanDagens, director of Ford Connected Services Solutions Organization. “Smartphone mobile apps are experiencing explosive growth, and consumers are becoming dependent on them for news, entertainment and information, so we’re excited to be working with some of the most popular apps on the market, OpenBeak, Pandora and Stitcher, to showcase the potential of the SYNC API.”
The SYNC API is being created in conjunction with a related software development kit (SDK) and associated hardware that will include a Ford radio head and related SYNC components configured to operate outside of the vehicle. The entire package is planned for broader rollout later this year and will allow developers to modify existing mobile applications and create all-new apps that can interface with Ford’s popular SYNC voice-activated in-car communications system.
By enabling developers to integrate the SYNC API into their apps, Ford is providing customers with the capability to access the applications they use most while in the car. Leveraging SYNC’s safer voice commands and steering wheel controls, drivers are able to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. Using an open API model allows Ford to leverage the mobile device as an operating system and processor, while using SYNC to access the vehicle controls.
Ford is joining millions of customers in embracing the app marketplace. Studies show what was a nonexistent niche just three years ago is expected to blossom into a $4 billion industry by 2012. The App Store, run by Apple, is one of dozens of application marketplaces and already boasts more than 100,000 mobile apps and more than 2 billion downloads.
Similar sites serving other mobile operating systems, such as Android and BlackBerry®, have experienced the same explosive growth. Analysts predict the mobile device will become the No. 1 source for Internet access by 2020, surpassing the home computer. Ford and SYNC will answer the consumer demand by offering the only platform available for drivers to safely manage their mobile applications.
Customers will be able to download SYNC-enabled mobile apps through the same app store interfaces consumers currently use. As SYNC-enabled versions of existing apps are released into the app stores, users will be prompted to download the latest version upon connection. Also, as developers grasp the notion that the vehicle interior has opened to them, a new dimension of apps designed from the outset to maximize the unique in-car environment will follow.
OpenBeak OpenBeak is a mobile client for posting updates and reading messages on Twitter. It works over the data network, so users don’t need to use Short Message Service from their mobile phones. OpenBeak is the evolution of the original Twitter app for BlackBerry smartphones, TwitterBerry, which was launched in 2007. OpenBeak reflects the app’s expansion beyond its original functionality.
The SYNC application will take the Twitter experience to a whole new level, with safety while interacting in the vehicle as the main goal. Timelines, direct messages and friends can be read out loud. While listening to a particular tweet, the display indicates the user and elapsed time since the tweet was written. Also planned is the capability to retweet a post, be notified when new messages are received or tweets appear in a user’s timeline and, upon startup, present the total number of new tweets. Steering wheel controls will skip to the next tweet or go back to the previous item in the timeline.
Pandora With more than 40 million users, Pandora is the most popular Internet radio service in the world. Users simply enter a favorite song or artist into Pandora and the app quickly creates personalized radio stations, based on that musical style. The use of Pandora’s thumb up/thumb down feature allows listeners to further curate their stations and enjoy a stream of great music, perfectly suited to their taste – new and old, well known and obscure.
Pandora’s mobile audience, 17 million strong and growing rapidly, is ripe for the SYNC application, which will allow them to further extend their listening into the car. With the SYNC-enabled Pandora app, listeners can use vehicle controls to pause and skip songs, and use voice commands to thumb up or down songs, switch between Pandora stations, or create a new station from a currently playing artist or song.
Stitcher
Focusing on the mobile market, Stitcher allows listeners to create personalized, on-demand Internet radio stations with news, talk and entertainment programming. Within the Stitcher app, users choose the programs they want “stitched” together, and the app then streams that content to the user’s mobile device. Stitcher also will recommend new programs that come online if they match with the types of programs the user already has chosen.
Since its release in 2008, Stitcher has received numerous awards including a People’s Choice Webby award for mobile news, a Best of ’09 award from San Francisco magazine and a PC Mag Top 10 App of 2009.
Additional apps to come
Working with new partners, Ford is completing beta-testing on the SDK. Once the kits are out of the beta-testing stage, a broader release of the development tools is planned for late 2010. Initial reports have been positive, with one of Ford’s development partners creating a SYNC-enabled version of its app just three days after receiving the development tools.
“We’re really encouraged by the rapid development time and positive feedback we’ve seen from our first partners,” said VanDagens. “Getting app functionality inside the vehicle, controllable through vehicle interfaces, will be huge for customer convenience and for helping drivers complete their tasks while keeping their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.”
SRINAGAR, Jan 7, 2010, 2010 (IPS/GIN via COMTEX) — With its vast renewable energy potential, South Asia can lead the world in achieving energy security. But sources within the region said it needs technological and financial support from the …
The Boxee Box will be based around a dual-core Arm Cortex A9 chip that should let it to zip around various multimedia apps with ease. As for the Beta, its available for OS X, Windows and Ubuntu (but not Apple TV). They also mentioned they’d like to have version 1.0 finished for CES next year.
And lastly, they hacked together a little bookmarklet for Boxee fanboys so that you can add web videos to your Boxee queue when you’re browsing the internet outside the app. Neat stuff. [Boxee]
Preshocks in the Housing Market – Alpha – The housing markets took an earthquake in 2007 and 2008, which then slammed into the broader financial markets and the global economy. Today, there are some additional vibrations, and it’s unclear whether these are (benign) aftershocks, or troubling and more likely, preshocks for a 2010 earthquake. … I’d say we’re only in the 5th or 6th inning of the deflationary collapse (barring the eventual inflationary exit)… … – has thoughts – Risk Over Reward Blog
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Private Equity Groups Investing in Mortgage Operations – by C.M. “Corky” Watts, CMB – MortgageNewsDaily ————
NAR Pending Home Sales Plummet – by Daniel Indiviglio – … Its Pending Home Sales Index dropped a whopping 16% in November compared to October. It’s still 15.5% higher than it was a year ago, but the month-over-month decline is troubling since the trend had been consistently positive for some time. … – this is significant has reasons – The Atlantic
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10 great charts – A New Year’s Guide of 10 Key Charts To See Before You Buy A Home – Michael White – New Observations
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Beth Court Series – Optimism Is Fresh Arrival in California Cul-de-Sac – By JENNIFER STEINHAUER – … Pockets of America are haltingly on the mend, and the Beth Court cul-de-sac here is one of them. A dozen lives unraveled on the block during the recession; now the empty houses are full, and Mr. Winkler and the other fathers are working again. … – NY Times
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Prime mortgages are next hurdle – Rising joblessness is undermining homeowners with the best credit – By Kathleen M. Howley and Mike Dorning – … an increase in mortgage defaults among prime borrowers in 2009 is likely to accelerate this year, slowing the real estate recovery even as Americans become more optimistic about the economy, said Robert Shiller and Karl Case, the economists who created the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. … – Boston.com
Sick of eReaders and Bluetooth headsets? Witness the Ed Hardy booth! They call their iPhone cases “Icing” for some reason and have two plasticky bikini-clad booth babes. If you’re the kind of person who likes Ed Hardy, you’ll love it.
Fed may re-enter MBS market later in 2010 – Market News – The Federal Reserve is discussing re-entering the mortgage-backed securities market later this year if its buying power is needed to hold down interest rates, Market News said on Tuesday in a story citing Fed officials – Reuters
and The Fed Is Preparing QE 2.0, MBS-Only Edition – Submitted by Tyler Durden – We all knew it would happen, and now the Fed is implicitly confirming it – Quantitative Easing 2.0 is on the docket, with a sole purpose of purchasing of MBS, reports Market News. As the private MBS market is dead and buried, much more on this coming in a post later today, the Fed can not afford to abandon MBS and the GSEs in March. If it does, it is game over for interest rates, mortgages, and the stock market. Period. … – Zero Hedge
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possible strategy – Bernanke’s Fed Bills coming to a bank near you… – How the Fed proposes to issue its own debt – Submitted by EB – … We suspect the Fed will wait until the US Dollar index rallies to at least 81 or 82 before announcing the next round of long term Treasury purchases. … – Zero Hedge
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Rep. Barney Frank: Lenders Fannie and Freddie now a ‘public policy instrument’ – By Michael O’Brien – … “Remember now that Fannie and Freddie have been converted,” Frank said during an appearance on CNBC. “Part of the losses of Fannie and Freddie are that since the housing collapse, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have become a kind of public utility.” … – The Hill ————
Fannie Mae expedites REO sales – Offers may be accepted without notifying loan servicers – ... To speed up sales of foreclosed properties, Fannie Mae says after beginning the property disposition process by obtaining opinions on the market value of a repossessed home and listing it with a real estate broker, it may now accept a purchase offer without first notifying the servicer, whether or not a final decision has been reached with respect to the review…. Inman News
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Derivatives Look Set to Escape Any Serious Regulatory Reform – The United States and United Kingdom have apparently backed away from previous commitments to forcing most OTC derivatives transactions onto centralised exchanges, Oxford Analytica notes. Given the high importance of the US and UK capital markets globally, this climb-down essentially guts a regulatory aim flagged by the G20 as a rhetorical priority. – Research Recap
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Lobbying Blows Back on Mortgage Lenders, Shareholders – By Alain Sherter – The researchers show that mortgage companies that lobbied intensively in the years leading up to the financial crisis had higher loan-to-income ratios; more aggressively securitized those loans; and had faster growing loan portfolios. These same lenders subsequently saw a higher rate of defaults, and their stock price fell more than average in 2007 and 2008. Put another way, the firms that lobbied the most took the biggest risks. – Bnet
Paper download: A Fistful of Dollars: Lobbying and the Financial Crisis at IMF website
The new MyFord Touch system has the specs to revolutionize the way we interact with our vehicles, and we finally get some hands-on time with the SYNC’s sexy successor.
Get ready for another season of Simon and Paula’s signature bickering — on the US adaptation of The X Factor.
Paula Abdul has allegedly inked a $4.5 million contract to bring her loopy commentary to the judges panel on an American version of Simon’s hit UK talent show, The X Factor. That’s interesting, considering the star walked away from her post at American Idol because she failed to secure the $10 million-a-year payday she was vying for.
Apparently, Paula isn’t very good at gambling, is she?
A FOX tipster revealed to The National Enquirer’s Mike Walker: “Simon flew Paula to London and wined and dined her relentlessly over the course of several days, even introducing her to everyone who works on X Factor. But what really clinched the deal was Simon’s pledge that she wouldn’t have to deal with all the nonsense and infighting that she hated on Idol.”
San Diego-based Prometheus Laboratories, which develops specialty pharmaceuticals and diagnostic tests, says today it has secured $260 million in financing that consists of a $210 million loan and a $50 million line of credit. The company says proceeds will be used to finance the acquisition of more therapeutic and diagnostic products, and to refinance existing indebtedness.
With the increasing computing power available to even casual users, the security-conscious have had to move on to increasingly robust encryption, lest they find their information vulnerable to brute-force attacks. The latest milestone to fall is 768-bit RSA; in a paper posted on a cryptography preprint server, academic researchers have now announced that they factored one of these keys in early December.
Most modern cryptography relies on single large numbers that are the product of two primes. If you know the numbers, it’s relatively easy to encrypt and decrypt data; if you don’t, finding the numbers by brute force is a big computational challenge. But this challenge gets easier every year as processor speed and efficiency increase, making “secure” a bit of a moving target. The paper describes how the process was done with commodity hardware, albeit lots of it.
Their first step involved sieving, or identifying pairs of prime integers; that took the equivalent of 1,500 years on one core of a 2.2GHz Opteron; the results occupied about 5TB. Those were then uniqued and processed into a matrix; because of all the previous work, actually using the matrix to factor the RSA value only took a cluster less than half a day. Although most people aren’t going to have access to these sorts of clusters, they represent a trivial amount of computing power for many organizations. As a result, the authors conclude, “The overall effort is sufficiently low that even for short-term protection of data of little value, 768-bit RSA moduli can no longer be recommended.” 1024-bit values should be good for a few years still.
Given that these developments are somewhat inevitable, even the authors sound a bit bored by their report. “There is nothing new to be reported for the square root step, except for the resulting factorization of RSA-768″ they write. “Nevertheless, and for the record, we present some of the details.” Still, they manage to have a little fun, in one place referencing a YouTube clip of a Tarantino film following their use of the term “bingo.”
Palm stole the show last year at CES when it revealed the Palm Pre and webOS, the company’s new flagship smartphone and Linux-based mobile software platform. It was a bold Hail Mary from a company that many industry observers thought was already out of the game. Palm’s press briefing this year was less daring, but still delivered some significant evolutionary advancements for the company’s mobile vision.
Palm is boosting its hardware lineup, augmenting its software platform, and expanding its developer ecosystem. The biggest news is a pair of new devices—incremental updates of the company’s existing Pre and Pixi smartphones. The new handsets, called the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, will be available later this month from Verizon. The Pre Plus got a minor facelift with a simplified design that ditches the front navigation button. It will also have more memory.
Apple released a 
Joining OpenBeak, Pandora and Stitcher will also offer their apps as the Dearborn automakers first partners to enable their services to be controlled by SYNC.
Boxee just confirmed that their upcoming 
