Author: Serkadis

We’ve been hearing for some time now that Mercedes-Benz is planning a true C-Class Coupe to replace the confusing lineup of the CLK (which was based on the C-Class priced at an E-Class level) and the CLC. Mercedes-Benz started clearing things up earlier this year with the introduction of the E-Class Coupe, which replaced the CLK. The CLC is scheduled to be replaced by a true C-Class Coupe sometime in 2011.

According to Inside Line, Mercedes-Benz plans on going head-to-head with the BMW 1-Series with the C-Class Coupe.

Power for the C-Class Coupe will come from a new family of 3.5L DOHC direct-injected V6 powertrains including a 300-hp twin-turbocharged. Sources say that hybrid version is also in the works.

Later on down the road, Mercedes-Benz will also introduce an AMG version with a new 5.5L twin-turbo V8.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Inside Line

We’ve been told by one of our VZW connects that the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi are both starting to appear in Verizon Wireless’ inventory systems. In addition, we’ve also heard from the same source that Verizon placed an order for approximately 200,000 Palm Pre handsets as well as 200,000 Palm Pixi handsets.

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Absolutely brilliant. The British Army has produced a series of podcasts (hence the story’s appearance here) designed to get you, the average loaf-about, into tip-top shape. Let’s give ‘em a listen, shall we?

So the podcast is free, of course, and is called Army Fit: Personal. The podcast is divided into several levels, and I’m listening right now to level one, beginner.

Oh god yes, there’s a dance beat in the background. It sort of sounds like Menu music from Wipeout for the PlayStation. I guess that’s the difference between the Brits and their American cousins: whereas the U.S. Army would have used something like Metallica in the background, the Brits are skipping along to pop-trance. Plus 200 DKP.

There’s a British man yelling at me. “Every minute counts!” and “You can do it!” and “I can see your sweat!” and “Believe and you’ll achieve!”

See, if I had a video camera I could have made a fun two-minute video out of this. Jogging around in the snow and whatnot.

Yes, we’re sorta in a holding pattern till CES starts up tomorrow and Wednesday.

Recent pic of Hulk Hogan from the WrestlingObserver message board. He’s on TNA tonight! (But Bret Hart is on WWE. What to watch?!)

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It looks like Viliv has a lot planned for CES 2010 this week. In true Internet fashion, most, if not all, of Viliv’s upcoming products leaked out today. The only thing missing are the prices and release dates. At least we have the specs for not only the multi-touch convertable S10 Blade netbook and N5 clamshell, but also all the info on the OLED, Android-equipped P3 and 10809-capable HD5 PMPs.

To be honest, most of this info was out previously. The S10 Blade debuted over the summer and then Viliv somewhat announced the N5 a couple weeks back. But no matter, the rest of the specs are here for your enjoyment.

S10 Blade – Convertable Multi-Touch Tablet

• Intel Atom Z530 (1.6GHz) / Z550 (2.0GHz)
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• 10.1 -inch 1366 x 768, WXVGA, multi-touch, swivel screen
• SSD capacity: 32GB, 64GB, 128Gb
• 1Gb DDR2 SDRAM 533
• 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• HSPA/TD-SCDMA/EVDO/WiMAX Connectivity options
• Camera
• 2 USB Host, 1USB link
• 10 hour max battery life
• Dimensions: 260[W] x 185[L] x 17-26[H]mm
• Weight: 1.21Kg / 2.67 lbs

N5

• Intel Atom Z52 (1.33 GHz)
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• 4.8 WSVGA [1024 x 600] touchscreen
• SSD 32GB
• 1Gb DDR2 SDRAM 533Mhz
• 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• HSPA/TD-SCDMA/EVDO/WiMAX Connectivity options
• Camera
• GPS Sirf Star 3
• QWERTY keyboard
• 1 USB Host, 1USB link
• 5 hour max battery life
• Dimensions: 172[W] x 86[L] x 25[H]mm
• Weight: 399g / 0.88 lbs

Viliv HD5

• 5-inch 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen
• Full HD / 1080p MKV playback
• Windows CE 6.0
• 8GB, 16GB, 32GB
• HDMI port, SDHC port
• Optional T-DMB / DAB
• Size: 83[W] x 130[H] x 13 [T]mm

Viliv P3

• 3.7-inch AMOLED 800 x 480 Capacitive touchscreen
• 1280 x 720p support, HD / 720p MKV playback
• Coretex ARM 800Mhz
• Windows CE 6.0 & Android dual booting
• WiFi / G-sensor / Vibration motor
• 8GB, 16GB, 32GB SSD
• MicroSD slot
• Optional T-DMB / DAB
• Size: 116[W] x 62.5[H] x 9.8[T]mm

[Blog.Naver.com via UMPC Portal]

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Filed under: Apple Corporate, Odds and ends

Well, you can’t say the company isn’t persistent. Nokia has already sued Apple over GSM patents, and last week Nokia filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission, which asked the commission to ban the import of Apple mobile products including the MacBook, iPhone and iPods.

Now, our sister site, Engadget reports Nokia has filed another federal complaint against Apple, alleging that Curpertino is violating 7 more Nokia Patents. Nokia says these violations are all implementation patents, or features that differentiate Nokia products from the rest of the market.

Nokia claims that the infringing technologies are present in the iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPod touch, iPod Nano and Classic, as well as the Mac Pro, the Mac Mini, the MacBook and the MacBook Air.

Whew! Nokia wants a jury trial, and an injunction against Apple for allegedly violating the patents.

Not to be outdone, Apple is already counter-suing Nokia from its earlier suits, claiming essentially that Nokia missed the boat on updating mobile phone technology and wants access to Apple patents, while slowing Apple growth.

The big winners in all this will likely be the lawyers. Keep watching this space. We’re following all the bloody details.

[Via Engadget]

TUAWNokia brings more legal complaints against Apple originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail, Apple Financial, MacBook

Apple typically reports their 1st quarter financial results in late January, so we’ll have to wait a few more weeks for the official word. However, the analysts have begun to share their estimates and the numbers are very impressive.

Brian Marshall at Broadpoint.AmTech has estimated that Apple sold 3.3 million Macs during the last quarter, according to MacNN. Here’s a little perspective: Apple’s all-time sales record for Macs, set during the previous quarter, is 3.05 million. That record was a 17 percent jump from the 2.6 million it sold in the same quarter a year ago. Marshall also suggests that laptop sales could be up as much as 19 percent year-over-year at 865,000 units.

Meanwhile, Philip Elmer-DeWitt has begun gathering estimates of iPhone sales and posting them at Brainstorm Tech. They range from 11.30 units sold (Brian Marshall at Broadpoint AmTech) to 8.17 units (Mark Moskowitz, J.P. Morgan). The interesting thing is that the low estimate, 8.17 million iPhones sold, would represent a 10.8% increase from the last September’s record of 7.37 million if true.

Despite would could have been a rocky year for Apple — Steve Jobs was out for serious health reasons and a lousy US economy — they did very well. Are you optimistic for 2010 or waiting for the other shoe to drop?

TUAWEstimates emerge of Apple’s Q1 iPhone, Mac sales originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bullish sentiment has hit almost a two-year high according to a sentiment survey from the American Association of Individual Investors. (shown to the right)

The Big Picture: If you take this together with the fact that the Investors Intelligence (II) Bull/Bear Ratio has also hit its 2007 peak (see Bullishness at Record Levels), some might say that bullish sentiment has reached a contrarian extreme.

What's odd here is that this AAII sentiment metric appears at odds with many other measures in the market, such as fund flow data based on mutual funds and certain proprietary sentiment models such as those from Citi's Tobias Levkovich (shown below, note how sentiment in blue seems to be at the lower end of the range).

Perhaps the difference is due to the fact that many un/under-invested investors have suddenly become bullish, thus have yet to invest based on their newly bullish beliefs. Or it could be giant global conspiracy. Either way, it'd be interesting to know what exactly causes the disconnect...

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See Also:

• Citi: Stock Sentiment Collapsing Even As Markets Rise
• WEAK: Consumer Sentiment Misses Again
• Citi: Sentiment Slips Into Panic Mode

Continue reading Samsung’s YP-R1 gets firmware update, some of it will cost ya (video)

Samsung’s YP-R1 gets firmware update, some of it will cost ya (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Helium Digital straps your wrist with HDBT-990 Bluetooth communicator originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the words of one Ice Cube: “Today was a good day.”

The DJIA gained a massive 1.5%, closing at 10583 whilst the NASDAQ and S&P 500 ended up 1.73% and 1.6%, respectively.

Nearly every sector was up, with the exception of “home improvement” and some utility companies. One of the biggest problems on the Street today was the Rambus (RMBS) “fat finger” fiasco in which all trades below $20.73 a share were canceled.

Overall, the bulls reigned king and picked up right where they left off last year.

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See Also:

• Bulls: The World Is Coming Unglued, And We’re Down Less Than 1%
• The Dollar Bulls Are Multiplying Like Rabbits
• Black Friday Is A Day For The Bulls

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

An 11-year-old British Columbia boy is alive and well after being saved from a cougar attack in his backyard by his family’s protective golden retriever.

Austin Forman was collecting firewood from the yard of his family’s home outside Vancouver on Saturday when a cougar viciously charged him.

Lucky for Austin, Angel — the family’s 18-month-old pooch — was right by his side, quickly moving between him and the wild cat. The cougar was killed by local police and the dog sustained puncture wounds around her head and neck and a swollen eye is the scuffle. She is expected to make a full recovery.

We still can’t understand why Fox studios acted the way it did over the leak of the Wolverine movie. There were so many better options that didn’t involve freaking out and eventually wasting FBI resources. We did note, when the movie was released, what a fantastic opening weekend it had. Of course, some argued that it would have had an even better opening weekend without the leak, but, of course, no one knows for sure.

However, Ross Pruden points us to an interesting analysis by Reid Rosefelt trying to more carefully analyze the leak’s impact on Wolverine. Rosefelt compares Wolverine’s opening weekend to lots of other highly touted movies, and then even breaks out the movies that were “the latest installment of a very lucrative franchise” (of which there were a bunch this year). In that class, Wolverine earned a lot more than any of those other similar movies, with the exceptions of Twilight and Transformers — and, again, it’s worth remembering that Wolverine got dreadful reviews. But it is worth noting that Wolverine outgrossed other highly touted “franchise” movies like Harry Potter’s latest and Star Trek — both of which got much better reviews.

Rosefelt also does a nice job pointing out how silly Hollywood’s new favorite line is whenever anyone points out the record year at the box office. We’ve seen it from our usual cast of Hollywood insiders who frequent the comments here, where they say that the box office doesn’t matter. Piracy is really impacting DVD sales and that’s what will kill Hollywood. Of course, this is funny on a variety of levels, starting with the fact if Hollywood had had its way, the DVD player would never have existed, because home video machines (you may recall) were the “Boston Strangler” to the movie industry. It’s also amusing because Hollywood has been working hard to prevent one of the biggest DVD buyers, Redbox, from buying its DVDs. Rosefelt points out that the data does show that DVD sales are down, but notes that rentals are way up. It appears that people just find it easier to rent than to buy — and a large part of that may be uncertainty over HD format (and the ridiculous price put on many Blu-ray discs). Once again, it’s looking like the decline in DVD sales might not be the fault of piracy, but of the industry and its own practices yet again.

Again, none of this shows for certain that the Wolverine leak helped at the box office, but it’s hard to take seriously any argument that it was harmed. Wolverine did massively well at the box office and outshone many other movies from equally popular franchises, which received much better reviews.

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Top Gear has rung in the 2010 with Richard Hammond’s review of the new Lexus LFA supercar followed by a lap of the Top Gear track by The Stig. You can check out both in the two videos posted after the jump – but be sure to do it quick before copyright infringements force YouTube to pull the video offline.

Click here for more news on the Lexus LFA.

Refresher: Power for the Lexus LFA comes from a 4.8L V10 engine that makes 552-hp with a maximum torque of 354 lb-ft. Mated to a 6-speed Automated Sequential Gearbox, the LFA goes from 0-60 mph time of just 3.5 with a top speed of 202 mph.

Follow the jump for the videos.

2011 Lexus LFA:

2011 Lexus LFA:

– By: Kap Shah

Online retailer Plemix.com is now offering the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 for £474.44.  The much delayed handset was expected around November last year, but was most recently scheduled for release in early January.

The 8 megapixel Xperia X2 has been set to be released exclusively on Vodafone UK, but of note is that the phone no longer appears on the Coming Soon section of Vodafone’s online store, and is also not available in the store itself.

The Xperia X2 is significantly improved over its predecessor, with a larger screen, better keyboard and better camera, but the older generation Qualcomm processor it uses has not endeared it to many reviewers.

Via Softpedia.com