Volvo seems to have had a great year. After finally finding an interested buyer, things are looking quite good for the Swedish car manufacturer. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), Volvo had a sales increase of 4.49% in comparison to 2008’s full year sales. Its market share in the UK also went up 12%, from 1.56% to 1.75%.
Volvo, the only premium manufacturer to experience sales growth in UK sales, managed to sell 34,857 cars last year, as Britain’s … (read more)
I’ve got one reason the Nexus One will succeed. Take a guess, go on, I’ll wait…No, it’s not the slick design of the hardware although it so smooth and charming. It’s not the speedy clean Android software either. Nor is it the fantastic voice commands feature, or the free navigation software with internal GPS, or the 16,000 applications you can easily download from the Android App store.Instead, the Nexus One has the best ‘in-store’ product placement of any phone, in the history of mobile phones. It’s front and center on Google.com. Right below the words ‘Google Search’ and ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’.
via One Reason The Nexus One Will Succeed – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com.
It’s really stunning how frequently we see companies (and individuals) twisting and abusing copyright law to do things way beyond the obvious intentions of the law itself. I had been unaware of this particular case, but Michael Scott alerts us to a legal dispute between Omega (the watch makers) and Costco that the Supreme Court is considering taking, which could have massive implications for whether or not you could legally buy products in the US that were released in other countries. The link above to IP Watch does a really fantastic job explaining all the details clearly, so if you want to dig in, go there, but I’ll try to give a quick summary.
Basically, lots of companies try to restrict distribution of their goods, even after they’re sold — often with things like authorized distributors and such. Many have tried to use trademark law to claim that others cannot sell their goods, but as the law has evolved, a pretty robust first sale right has been established in many places that effectively says that the manufacturer has no right to control what’s done with a product after they’ve sold it to someone else. Thus, they cannot restrict later resales. One of the ways companies try to get around this is to claim that the products are “different,” since first sale rights only apply to products that are the same. But how can a product be different? Well, for example, some companies claim that when they sell through authorized channels, it includes a warranty — but the unauthorized channels do not include the manufacturer’s warranty (even if they include a different warranty) and thus they are “different.” Sometimes (bizarrely) this argument works, though other times it does not.
In this case, though, Omega tried a different strategy altogether. Rather than claiming it’s a trademark issue, it’s using copyright law. Copyright law also has a well-established first sale right, but here’s where Omega gets tricky. As Steven Seidenberg at IP Watch explains:
There is, however, one significant difference between the first sale doctrines in US copyright and trademark law. Copyright law has an added qualification. Its first sale doctrine, Section 109(a), applies only to copies “lawfully made under this title.”Omega argued that because the copies of its watch design were made outside the US, they were not made under US copyright law and were thus not covered by the first sale doctrine. Costco argued that because the copies were made by the US copyright owner, they should be considered “lawfully made” under US copyright law.
Of course, being astute readers, you should be asking a very important question: what copyright is there in a watch? Ah, again, Omega gets sneaky:
The watchmaker inscribed a tiny, 0.5 cm globe design on the underside of its watches. This design is invisible when the watches are worn, so individuals are unlikely to purchase Omega’s high end watches in order to obtain copies of this inconspicuous design. Because this design is copyrighted, however, it may enable Omega to stop the import of grey market watches into the US.
Yes, it put a tiny, barely noticeable engraving on the watch, claimed copyright over that design and is using that copyright claim to try to keep certain watches from being resold in the US. In this specific case, it was a set of Omega watches that were legally sold in Europe (where Omega sells its watches at a much lower price than in the US). The buyer then sold that shipment of watches to Costco in the US, who offered them for retail sale. Hence the lawsuit.
This appears to be a dual abuse of copyright law — first using copyright law to try to apply to an entire watch, when its really just a minuscule design that most people probably don’t notice, and second in trying to route around copyright’s well-established first sale doctrine with this convoluted argument that goods made in Europe aren’t covered by the first sale right.
The really scary part? The 9th Circuit Appeals Court (known for some wacky rulings) overturned a district court ruling that had sided with Costco, and said that Omega’s arguments made sense (pdf). If the Supreme Court does not overturn this ruling, it will likely mean that plenty of companies will use similar tactics to bar the sale of products originally sold outside the US from being resold in the US. This clearly is at odds with the very basis of copyright law and the concept of first sale rights. Hopefully, the Supreme Court recognizes this, though it doesn’t have a very good track record on copyright cases.
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Filed under: Cool tools, Snow Leopard
I recently wrote about Ross Carter’s Snow Leopard Creater Code discoveries and his solution, LaunchCodes. It turns out there were a few issues with the initial implementation, such as Apple Events not being passed along. Normally when you find a file in Spotlight, a PDF for example, opening it launches Preview and the query that was used to locate the file shows up in the search field in Preview. This was no longer working in LaunchCodes, though Ross says he’s working on that right now. In the meantime, Michel Fortin has produced Magic Launch, and it solves the majority of the issues that have been presented.
Magic Launch installs as a System Preferences pane, and you can drag and drop applications to it to register their file type. Then, you can choose a default application, but optionally specify that it should launch in it the application which created it, when possible. Probably the coolest feature, though, is the rule handling. Similar to rules in Mail.app, you can set up a series of criteria to determine when a different app should open the file. You can have multiple rules, and each rule can check things like file location, file name or extension, text contents, hex contents and/or ASCII contents. That’s pretty nifty, and goes beyond the default functionality that was available before we even needed apps like this.
Magic Launch is free to try out, and costs $14US for a license. If you’re still finding documents annoyingly launching the wrong applications, go download it and give it a try.
TUAWSnow Leopard Creator Codes: one more time, with feeling originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Performance, Technology, Lotus
“Simplify, then add lightness.” Those are the famous words spoken by Sir Colin Chapman, the father of Lotus and one of the automotive world’s great geniuses. Speaking of genius, the dual-clutch transmission (at a sane price point) is a major step forward. It combines the automaticness of an automatic with the manualness of a manual and the speed of a bullet. The trouble is, dual-clutches are complex and heavy. But what if the company Colin built had their way? What if you could simplify a dual-clutch, and make it lighter?
“What if” indeed. Lotus has reportedly filed a patent application for some sort of dual-clutch. We say “some sort” because not only are we not patent attorneys, the “oily bits” in a dual-clutch are a little bit Greek to us. Besides, patent apps are meant to be a bit vague – they don’t want to give too much away. Anyhow, long story short – do we want a track-burning Exige that can swap gears in mere milliseconds? Yes, we most certainly do. Text of the application after the jump.
[Source: Jalopnik]
Continue reading Report: Lotus files patent application for new dual-clutch transmission
Report: Lotus files patent application for new dual-clutch transmission originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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When I watched James Cameron’s Avatar movie, I noticed how the three-dimensional sound really popped and made the movie seem more immersive and realistic.
That’s music to the ears at Dolby Laboratories, which is trying to get its cool sound technologies into all sorts of digital entertainment devices. At the Consumer Electronics Show, where everything focuses a little too much on visual entertainment, Dolby has a lot of reminders about the importance of sound.
The company is getting its technologies into web-connected TVs, Blu-ray movie players, PCs, smartphones, set-top boxes and game consoles. It’s part of a campaign dubbed Dolby Everywhere. Part of the effort is Dolby Volume, a technology adopted by Motorola and others that reduces the noise level of TV commercials so they’re not as jarring.
The company is also demonstrating Dolby Mobile to help make smartphones sound better, with richer sounds and cleaner, powerful bass sounds. Vudu, the set-top box maker, is using Dolby Digital Plus to deliver 5.1 surround sound for its service on a variety of TVs. More than 2,000 TV models from 19 TV makers use Dolby Digital Plus. More than 50 set-top boxes from 26 manufacturers also use it. Dolby has also launched surround sound voice chat for online games, dubbed Dolby Axon. Those are just some of the various Dolby technologies on display at the show.
If there’s competition for Dolby, it isn’t anything on a grand scale. Rather, it’s that users who0 are using things like phones, games, and other devices haven’t learned to appreciate things like surround sound or higher quality. It’s Dolby’s job to teach them what they’re missing.
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Universal Pictures has released the first images from the big screen adaptation of Saturday Night Live’s sketch parody MacGruber — a spoof of the ’80s television hit MacGyver. Drawing on the success of other SNL-inspired movies like Coneheads and A Night At The Roxbury, the blockbuster comedy boasts an impressive cast of Hollywood stars, including Will Forte, Ryan Phillippe, Kristen Wiig, Val Kilmer, Powers Boothe, and Maya Rudolph.
MacGruber opens April 23.
Cooliris, provider of photo and video software on multiple platforms, has added Android to the mix by providing the Media Gallery application for the Nexus One. Google partnered with Cooliris to develop this new media gallery.
Media Gallery provides core functionality to browse, edit, and share photos and videos on your phone. The interface is exceptional and provides the the ability to flip through photo albums and easily sort by time or geolocaton. Want to find all of the photos taken at your office? It is no problem with this app. (more…)
For many Super Bowl advertisers, it’s not just about game day.
With pre-game buzz, online marketing components and social media integration, marketers can stretch their ad investment beyond a 30-second spot.
Despite the hefty price tag, many new and perennial advertisers have purchased Super Bowl ad time in hopes of increasing sales and brand awareness.
Marketing professors and students from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University will revisit the age-old question about Super Bowl ads – is it worth spending between $2.5-3 million for a 30-second advertisement?
What: The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, regarded as the world’s No. 1 business school for marketing, will conduct its sixth-annual Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review.
Marketing faculty and members of the Kellogg Marketing Club will convene in Evanston, Ill. to watch the event, rate the advertisers using a set of academic criteria known as ADPLAN and produce a final ranking of the most – and least – successful advertisers.
ADPLAN is an acronym for Attention, Distinction, Positioning, Linkage, Amplification and Net equity.
Kellogg marketing professors will lead the 2010 Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review, serving as non-biased resources to address pressing topics surrounding television’s most watched event.
Who: Kellogg School of Management Professor Tim Calkins leads the Review. A clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School since 1998, Calkins teaches courses in marketing strategy and acts as co-academic director of the school’s branding program.
Each year, he provides a well-received Super Bowl advertising review for students and alumni. Calkins is co-editor of Kellogg on Branding (John Wiley & Sons, 2005) and is the author of Breakthrough Marketing Plans (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) as well as numerous Kellogg case studies.
Professor Derek D. Rucker, who also leads the Review, is an associate professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management. Professor Rucker’s primary research focuses on the study of attitudes, persuasion, and social influence. In addition to his ongoing research, he teaches the advertising strategy course at Kellogg.
A Kellogg School faculty member since 2005, Rucker has been published in a number of academic journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the Journal of Consumer Psychology.
Professors Calkins and Rucker will continue to blog about Super Bowl advertising, offering insightful commentary on an ongoing basis.
Please visit the blog at kelloggsuperbowlreview.wordpress.com.
When: Professors Calkins and Rucker are available for comment in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. They are also available the night of the game, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010, and all day on Monday, Feb. 8, 2010, for interviews via e-mail, phone or in-person.
More info: To schedule an interview or learn more about Professor Calkins, Professor Rucker and the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review, contact Aaron Mays or Molly Lynch at the contact information below.
To learn more, visit kellogg.northwestern.edu/news/superbowl.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Aaron Mays, 847-491-211
[email protected]
Filed under: Performance, Japan, Hatchback, Subaru, Tokyo Auto Salon
Following in a line of successfully hotter Impreza variants, Subaru has announced the all-new “R205” version of its latest hatch, and in keeping with tradition, it won’t be coming to the States.
As it’s done in the past with other “Road Sport” Imprezas, Subaru has raided the Spec C parts bin and fitted all the good kit to the Impreza STI R205, including six-pot (front) and four-pot (rear) upgraded brakes with slotted rotors and cast 18-inch aluminum wheels shod in specially designed Potenza RE070 (245/40R18) tires. Inverted strut and coil springs soak up the bumps in front, with similarly STI-tuned dampers and coils out back, while a front strut tower bar and lower arm stiffening brace help keep the front wheels planted and the steering speaking to the driver.
Naturally, engine mods are part of the package, and with a retuned ECU, new exhaust and turbo, the R205 cranks out 316 horsepower and 319 pound-feet of torque.
A few plaques, a bespoke black front grille, new front and rear diffusers and a black spoiler set the R205 apart from run of the mill JDM Imprezas, and if you’re fortunate enough to live in the Land of the Rising Sun, it can all be had for 4,510,000 yen (just under $49k). But act quick, Subaru only plans to produce 400 examples when the S205 goes on sale today. Hit the jump for the press release.
Gallery: Subaru Impreza WRX STI R205
Continue reading Subaru Impreza WRX STI R205 continues the tradition, still not coming Stateside
Subaru Impreza WRX STI R205 continues the tradition, still not coming Stateside originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Volkswagen will introduce its Golf GTI in China this March and production will be handled by its local joint venture, FAW-VW. China Car Times suggests that the GTI will come with a price tag of around 220,000rmb ($32,200) and will be powered by a 2.0-liter TSI engine fitted with a six-speed DSG transmission.
Earlier rumors claimed that the China-bound GTI will be very similar to the European flavor, including exterior and interior specifications. The 2010 Golf GTI is able to sprin… (read more)
In August 2009, Google announced that it had agreed to acquire On2 Technologies for – then – roughly $106 million. At the end of last year, On2 – not for the first time – postponed a meeting at which it had hoped to get shareholder approval for its purchase by Google.
A new shareholder meeting is scheduled for February 2010, but this morning Google and On2 released a joint press release announcing their agreement to amend the merger agreement.
Under the revised terms, each outstanding share of On2 common stock will receive 0.0010 of a share of Google Class A Common Stock for each share of On2 common stock, as previously announced, plus an additional $0.15 per share in cash.
Google and On2 had initially said they expected the merger to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2009. If the deal is not completed by March 31 2010, either party can terminate it.
The companies say the revisions to the terms serve to address the fact that the market value of Google’s Class A Common Stock has increased significantly since the initial merger announcement was made last August, while the value of the acquisition has remained fixed for On2’s stockholders. By increasing the consideration by an additional $0.15 per share in cash, On2’s stockholders are to receive additional value for their On2 common stock.
At the reconvened Special Meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, February 17, 2010, On2 common stock holders will be asked to vote upon the merger proposal and the adjournment proposal as set forth in the SEC proxy statement/prospectus that will be filed by Google shortly.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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Jamendo, a community of free, legal music published with Creative Commons licenses, is actively looking to sell to or merge with another company, TechCrunch Europe has learned. Jamendo CEO Laurent Kratz has confirmed rumors that had made their way to Twitter earlier this week.
The reason is fairly simple: Jamendo is running out of money after failing to raise a follow-up round of venture capital. The startup was looking to raise 1.5 million euros (roughly $2.15 million) after securing a ’significant amount’ in Series A funding back in June 2007. The company failed to come to an agreement with Mangrove Capital Partners, its original backer, and a potential new investor.
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Good news from Land Rover, which at some point looked really affected by recession. During the October-December period, its UK sales have grown 93 percent year on year.
The main reason Land Rover sales have gone up is that the automaker has launched a new 2010 model range, so the cars benefit from a more advanced technology. Overall sales in 2009, however, were down 10.8 percent compared with 2008.
"2009 has been a very hard year for the motor industry – parti… (read more)
So Who Will Win?
Complete list of nominees;
http://www.grammyawards.com/nominees
Beyonce leads the charge with 10 nominations (a record equalling number for a woman), Taylor Swift :ohno: has 8…
I’m a bit surprised that Lady Gaga only has five…and Kanye West has 6 nominations :nuts: what exactly has he done apart from crash the VMAs?
As a big Beyonce fan, I’m hoping she can bring it home. I think she can win 6/10 and become the first woman to win more than 5 Grammys in one night.
That Megan Fox just can’t catch a break: The Transformers star — who only last week was voted the “Sexiest Worst Actress of 2009″ — has been blasted by health experts for hailing the benefits of swigging vinegar. Dieticians have warned weight loss junkies against taking advice from the simple-minded stunner.
“It just cleanses out your system entirely…It will get rid of … for women who retain water weight from your menstrual cycle and all that … it gets rid of it really fast,” Megan recently revealed when quizzed about how she keeps her famous body in tip-top shape. “I’m not one for dieting or exercising, because I’m lazy and I have a really big sweet tooth, so I have to do cleanses every once in a while ’cause of the amount of sugar I take in.”
However, experts have pooh-poohed Megan’s claims as rubbish, insisting there is not a single form of vinegar in existence that will help dieters lose weight.
“As attractive as it sounds, there is no magic pill, lotion or potion for a quick fix to weight loss,” dietician Lucy Jones explained in a interview with The Sun this week. “The body, including the liver, is a well-oiled detoxing machine, which will not be improved by vinegar, whether it be organic, apple cider, unfiltered, or your bog-standard malt vinegar.”
HTC has released another hotfix for the HTC HD2 (why they don’t include a client on the device to download them directly I have no idea).
The latest hotfix is likely to affect only the few who still store contacts on their SIM card, which apparently does not display properly on devices with ROMs lower than 1.59.
This software is suitable for the following devices : HTC HD2
Update for HTC HD2 SIM Contacts
This update for HTC HD2 allows for contacts stored on your SIM card to be properly displayed on your phone along with Phone and Exchange Server contacts
Note: This update is only for ROM versions less than or equal to 1.59.XXX.X.
The hotfix can be downloaded here.
PS: It seems HTC has let go their engineer who wrote their more flowery bug descriptions. Do you miss him? Let us know below.
In Kerala, majority of the general public depends on the private and KSRTC buses to commute to and fro their work places. The latest bus strike in the series is likely to leave a double blow to the commuters as a section of the KSRTC bus employees are also striking work this time to press their various demands including the release of their DA arrears. The meeting with the Transport Minster failed to reach a consensus on the various issues raised by the private bus operators including scrapping of students concessions and hiking the ticket fares among other demands.
Today, Kerala has the highest ticket fares in South India. States like Tamil Nadu still has the minimum fare of 2 rupees while in Kerala it was revised to Rupees 3 .50 almost an year ago. An imminent price hike on the cards would make it overly costly and will not serve the public. With the prices of the daily commodities spiralling out of control, life for common man is already a night mare. Being burdened with a fare hike at this stage would only add up to the miseries of the public. Anyone in the upper echelons of the power corridor listening?
Convenor of Bus Operators’ Federation T Gopinath said the strike was being called off in view of the “promise” given by the Chief Minister that the demands including fare hike and increase in students’ ticket rates would be considered favourably.
According to sources, the government is likely to effect an increase of 50 paise in the minimum charge from the present Rs 3.50.
Earlier in the day, the bus onwers’ association leaders had discussion with members of the Ministerial sub-committee set up to deal with the issue.
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Jabra, suppliers of goods to people who like to jibba jabba, has launched a pair of of gizmos that use Noise Blackout technology to cut out annoying non-verbal umska when you’re on the move. Cruiser, above, and Extreme, below.
Both devices use a pair of microphones each, digital signal processing and automatic volume control to reduce background noise by as much as 24 decibels. The Extreme, which comes with two different sizes of eargels (one for you, one for the Shrek you’re with, I guess), will be available this month for $80, while the Cruiser costs $100.
Microsoft’s Patrick Dengler, a senior program manager on the Internet Explorer team, revealed this week that Microsoft is joining the W3C’s Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) working group. In a post on the official IE blog, Dengler says that Microsoft hopes to collaborate on future versions of the SVG standard.
This move reflects Microsoft’s growing involvement in the industry-wide effort to advance open Web standards. Internet Explorer has a notoriously bad track record on standards compliance and interoperability, but Microsoft is gradually remedying these issues and has been attempting to engage more productively with the standards community. The company took a big step last year when it began participating in the HTML 5 editing process and expressed support for HTML 5 audio and video elements. Joining the SVG working group is another big step forward—one that will likely be welcomed by Web developers.
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