Last time we heard of a custom Triton motorcycle was the one specially commissioned for Chanel in July, so we were quite excited to find out that another one was recently unveiled by the French designers Frank Charriaut and Vincent Prat from Southsiders MC. The customized Triton was built by Daniel Delfour, one of France’s leading motorcycle builders.
As English motorcycle fans, we choose to use a Norton featherbed frame and a Triumph 750 Bonneville engine, said Prat. But we didn’… (read more)
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Despite the state of the economy Amazon is doing great bringing in record revenue. Another area where Amazon is flying high is e-books, which are quickly entering the mainstream thanks to the very successful Kindle. This holiday season, the Kindle was one of the most popular gifts in the US, and certainly the most popular on Amazon, by the company’s own accounts. Now Amazon is releasing an interesting statistic claiming that, on Christmas day, it sold more electronic books through the Kindle store than it did physical books.
“Kindle has become the most gifted item in Amazon’s history. On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books,” the company said in a statement.
“We are grateful to our customers for making Kindle the most gifted item ever in our history,” Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com said. “On behalf of Amazon.com employees around the world, we wish everyone happy holidays and happy reading!”
This may sound like a great breakthrough, and it certainly is from a certain perspective, but the sales came under some very special circumstances. First of all the sales counted were only on Christmas day, when a lot of people got a Kindle as a gift. It’s pretty obvious that the first thing anyone would do when getting a K… (read more)
Kia and its partners at Hyundai continue to move ahead on fuel cell technology, and Kia has released new footage of their latest fuel cell prototype, the Borrego/Mohave FCEV (the Borrego is badged as Mohave in the Korean market).
While the base Borrego is a rear/all-wheel drive body-on-frame SUV, the FCEV drives the front wheels through a 110 kW AC electric motor. The fuel cell stack is located under the passenger compartment and puts out 115 kW. Interestingly, Kia claims its stack is designed to work with air at ambient pressure, eliminating the need for a compressor, a major component of other FCEVs. Kia also claims its fuel cell can utilize 98 percent of all the hydrogen to produce power.
Electrical energy from regenerative braking is stored in a super-capacitor module and then released for an extra power boost when needed. Kia does not say what the capacity of the 700 BAR hydrogen storage system is, but the range of the vehicle is claimed to be 425 miles. Kia still plans to produce the FCEV in low volume series production in 2012, with mass production three years after that. Watch the video after the jump and check out our First Drive report of the last-gen Borrego FCEV.
Gallery: Kia Borrego FCEV
[Source: Kia]
Continue reading VIDEO: Kia remains committed to fuel cells, shows more of Borrego FCEV
VIDEO: Kia remains committed to fuel cells, shows more of Borrego FCEV originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Bob More wrote:
1—Increasing use, validation and acceptance of surrogate endpoints for clinical trials.
2—Novartis’ imatinib (Gleevec). The first drug for specifically inhibiting an enzyme causing cancer rather than killing fast dividing cells….
3—Human papillomavirus vaccines. This is both for innovative science, and innovative treatment of a vaccine for a virus tied to cancer.
4—Robotic surgery. (Intuitive Surgical)
5—Growing organs in a lab (Tengion, etc)
[Editor’s Note: As the decade comes to an end, we’ve asked Xconomists and other technology leaders around the country to identify the top innovations they’ve seen in their fields the past 10 years, or predict the top disruptive technologies that will impact the next decade.]
Source: Piper Jaffray
InfoWorld’s Randall C. Kennedy thinks not. Sounding a sour note about Apple’s anticipated tablet plans, InfoWorld’s Randall C. Kennedy says that even clever engineering can’t overcome fundamental limitations of tablet computing,
“Tablet PCs suck,” says Kennedy, categorically, elaborating that tablets are underpowered, only marginally portable, and awkward to use in anything but a traditional seated position at a desk or table.
Kennedy observes that Microsoft and various PC makers have been trying for years to create market traction for the tablet computing experience, and have failed miserably. He contends that to believe Apple can somehow succeed where all others have failed is to ignore some fundamental realities of tablet computing.
“The lap doesn’t work as a desk,” declares Kennedy, especially if you’re in motion on a train or aircraft, and he suggests that typing on the anticipated onscreen keyboard would quickly degenerate into an exercise of hit or miss.
I work with clipboards a lot, and still do a lot of my composing longhand with pen and paper before using MacSpeech Dictate to enter it as computer text, but he’s got a point about touchscreen keyboards, which I personally revile. As he notes, with a real laptop keyboard the user’s lap and palms act as stabilizing influences and the positive tactile feedback of electromechanical keyswitches is a distinct advantage when working in mobile environments.
Personally, I would prefer to see the iTablet feature some sort of slide-out keyboard of the sort used by various smartphone designs, but given Apple’s stubbornness about such things, I join with Kennedy in doubting that’s very likely. However, I would council Cupertino (not that they’re likely to put much stock in my advice) to at minimum incorporate Bluetooth and/or USB RF input device support.
As for pen-based or stylus input, Kennedy says he types a lot faster than he can write with pen and paper. Me too, but I often think better with pen in hand, so I don’t agree that the “prehistoric world of dragging and scratching” with a traditional writing instrument is hopelessly anachronistic. On the other hand, a tablet screen is not nearly texturally satisfying as paper, and again I have to agree that entering serious quantities of data with an onscreen keyboard or stylus will soon get tedious.
Possible workaround: voice input. If the iTablet turns out to be a full-fledged Mac, it should support Dictate, which is amazingly accurate once you get it trained. Even the mediocrities of touchscreen would be made more tolerable in most environments, though not in trains and other shared spaces.
However, Kennedy suggests the biggest obstacle to iTablet success is the increasingly ubiquitous netbook. Some newer examples incorporate the advantages of conventional notebooks, especially near full-sized keyboards, and Kennedy contends that compared to an iTablet, devices equipped with these advantages simply make more sense to consumers.
He may be right. I’m a tablet skeptic too, although I’m open to persuasion, and it’s a fool’s game second-guessing Apple’s prowess at product direction choices. Lots of folks predicted failure for the iPod, iPhone and iTunes as well.
What do you think? Will the iTablet prove the skeptics mistaken again?
Snow hit a lot of countries in Europe, so traveling by car became more and more difficult. As most drivers have the option of canceling the trip or just go by train, there are still some who need to drive for a living.
Some van drivers are part of this category, so they have been warned about the serious snow and bad road conditions now present in the UK. Swinton, one of UK’s most important van insurance retailers, recommends van drivers to keep an emergency kit.
… (read more)
A giant Hong Kong property auction just delivered a dose of reality to the city’s soaring property market.
Bloomberg: Sino Land Co. and K Wah International Holdings Ltd. together paid HK$10.4 billion ($1.3 billion) for two waterfront sites in Hong Kong’s New Territories, falling short of estimates for the auction.
…
“Apart from Sino Land, which owns sites nearby,” no one had an interest in pushing the price, said Conita Hung, head of equity markets at Delta Asia Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong. The two 20,925 square meter (225,000 square foot) plots in the Tai Po district were the largest properties offered at auction since September 2007, according to Lands Department records.
Missing price estimates is a sharp departure from a market where home prices jumped 30% this year alone. Property stocks slipped in Monday trading. Read more here.
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Shortly after the rumors surrounding the Sprint and LG event at CES just days away, we were greeted with this little screen shot in our inbox this morning. It looks like Sprint will be getting a LG Android handset pretty soon (though we’re not ruling out the possibility of a WiMax WinMo phone being announced there, too). We’re not sure what the LS680 is just yet, but given the OS we know that it will have a large touchscreen and possibly a QWERTY keyboard as LG likes to do with its LX series. Details are scant for now but we’ll be sure to give you guys all the goods as soon as it comes our way.
Thanks, Javy!
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Toyota is the undisputed world leader in hybrid vehicle sales, so it’s no surprise the company dominates the charts when it comes to patents for “electric propulsion vehicles.” A recent study conducted by the Japan Patent Office on global trends in the EV industry found that 76 percent of the 16,670 patents filed for electric propulsion vehicles (here defined as pure electric vehicles, hybrids and fuel cell vehicles, yet excluding railroad vehicles) came from Japanese companies.
As you can see in the tables above (unedited version here), Toyota has filed dramatically more patent applications than anyone else. What’s surprising is this this list only takes into account patent applications filed from 2001 to 2006, which is after the Prius debuted. Many more applications were filed in this time frame than in 1995-2000, and the numbers are still climbing.
[Source: Tech-On]
REPORT: 76% of “electric propulsion vehicle” patent applications come from Japan originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Owners of 2005 – 2007 Chevrolet Corvette and 2006 – 2007 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 with a removable roof may have the unpleasant surprise to lose the roof entirely due to a bad roof and adhesive binding the roof panel to the frame. At least this is what Chevrolet says, as it announced it is recalling 22,000 Corvettes to fix the issue.
"General Motors is recalling certain model Corvette and Corvette Z06 equipped with removable roof. The adhesive between the roof panel and the fr… (read more)
Goldman Sachs plans to launch a bevy of emerging markets exchange-traded funds (ETFs) according to regulatory filings. These new funds could track the Brazilian, Chinese, Indian, and Korean stock markets, in addition to others.
As we understand it, they would be the first ETFs directly from Goldman, though Goldman already has some Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) and there are also ETFs that currently exist following Goldman-constructed indices as benchmarks.
It’s an interesting move that shows how ETFs are increasingly being marketed to the big boys. We doubt Goldman is simply trying to build up its retail trader client base. These ETFs will likely be for institutions to replace smaller fund managers, we speculate. If a large U.S. fund wants some Brazilian exposure, they’ll be able to invest in a Brazil-tracking Goldman ETF rather than hire some plain vanilla Brazil fund who would simply track the benchmark anyways.
Index Universe: However, the filing only mentions index-based ETFs—not actively managed ones—which is interesting, given that Goldman is better known for its active management strategies.
Both the equity and fixed-income funds will also be allowed to utilize cash and in-kind redemptions, which should help keep spreads narrow. No mention was made of fees or what indexes would be used. A 40-APP is not a definitive signal that a firm will begin launching ETFs in the near future, but it does seem likely that 2010 could see the first ETFs from Goldman hit the market.
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We’ve already seen that early builds of Google’s Chromium OS can be hacked onto existing machines, but those Chrome OS netbooks that the software giant has planned for next year have remained curiously elusive until now. According to both IBTimes and Netbook News, the company is in talks with a number of outfits in order to bring at least a few sub-$300 options to the market that are well suited to power through its first non-mobile operating system. For starters, we’re told that the 10.1-inch machine will be ARM-based, while NVIDIA’s Tegra platform (likely the second generation) steers the graphical ship. There’s also promise of a multitouch panel (1,280 x 720 resolution), 64GB SSD, WiFi, 2GB of RAM, integrated 3G connectivity, Bluetooth, an Ethernet jack, an undisclosed amount of USB sockets, webcam, 3.5mm audio jack, a multi-card reader, a 4- or 6-cell battery and optional GPS. Wilder still, a $200 configuration could very well pop up, and it looks as if (at least initially) Google will sell the device(s) directly through its own website — much like Fusion Garage has done with the Joojoo tablet. ‘Course, it’ll still take some arm twisting to get the low-end crowd to try anything not labeled “Windows,” but if anyone can do it, it’s the company that inexplicably kept Gmail in “beta” for over five years.
Google’s Chrome OS-based netbook specs leak out, look good originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Retail sales are up 3.6% for November 1st to Christmas Eve compared to last year.
Good new!
Alas, we only improved 1% from last year if strip out the extra holiday shopping day we had.
—————————————-
AP: U.S. stock futures crept higher Monday as investors returning from a long holiday weekend were heartened by good news on retail sales.
Overseas markets were also higher. The dollar weakened against other currencies, giving commodities prices a boost. Bond prices fell.
Data released Monday showed shoppers opened their wallets more this season, a good sign that consumers are feeling better about the economy.
Figures from MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, which track all forms of payment, show retail sales rose 3.6 percent from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, compared with a 2.3 percent drop a year ago. Adjusting for an extra shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the number was closer to a 1 percent gain.
Consumer spending is one of the biggest drivers of economic growth and is vital to a sustained recovery.
Investors will also be keeping a close eye on airline stocks after a failed attack on a Northwest flight on Christmas Day. Another incident on the same flight to Detroit from Amsterdam on Sunday raised further alarm.
Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc., which owns Northwest, slipped 14 cents to $11.63 in premarket trading. UAL Corp., which operates United Airlines, fell 42 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $12.67.
Stocks are currently at their highest levels of the year, and in the absence of any bad news, analysts say the market is likely to drift higher during the final days of 2009. Trading volume has been extremely light due to the holidays, which can exaggerate price swings. Markets were closed on Friday for Christmas and will be closed again this Friday for New Year’s Day.
Ahead of the market’s open, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 4, or 0.04 percent, to 10,470. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures gained 1.20, or 0.1 percent, to 1,123.20, and Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 4.25, or 0.2 percent, to 1,872.25.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 1.3 percent to its highest close since late August, boosted by encouraging news on factory production. In afternoon trading, Germany’s DAX index rose 0.7 percent, while France’s CAC-40 rose 0.8 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 was closed for a holiday.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.85 percent from 3.80 percent Thursday.
Commodities prices rose as the dollar fell. Commodities are priced in U.S. dollars, so when the greenback is weak they become more attractive to foreign buyers.
The ICE Futures U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar against other major currencies, slipped 0.1 percent. Oil prices gained 35 cents to $78.40 a barrel in electronic premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold prices also rose.
Major stock indexes ended a holiday-shortened session Thursday at new highs for the year following upbeat reports on unemployment and durable goods orders. This week, readings on home prices and consumer confidence are among the few economic reports expected.
Stocks have managed to grind higher this month despite lingering concerns about the economic recovery. But the gains have been more subdued than in recent months as investors have held back on taking risks heading into the end of the year. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up 66.5 percent since hitting 12-year lows in March.
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Weak GDP growth, a soaring government deficit, and lack of credible plans to correct anything has led to growing concerns that the British pound could collapse — becoming less valuable than a euro.
The U.S. dollar looks like a star in comparison given higher expected GDP growth in the U.S. and more relative credibility in the government’s ability to control spending in the longer term.
While the pound/euro currently sits at 1.11, the next stop could be parity.
The Times: Douglas McWilliams, the chief executive of the Centre for Economics and Business Research (cebr), said that the British economy was walking “five yards away from the edge of the cliff” and could be toppled by an “unexpected gust”.
The pound is trading at 1.10 against the euro after hitting a low of 1.02 a year ago. However, currency markets are reflecting the expectation of a win for the Conservatives in next year’s election, raising hopes of tougher action to tackle the deficit. Any signs of Labour closing the gap ahead of the election would result in the pound plunging, according to the cebr.
“If I had to bet, I would bet on the side of parity being broken,” said Mr McWilliams, adding that there was significant downside risk for the euro as a result of the divergent economic performances of countries such as Germany and Greece.
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‘Distinctive brain
patterns could become the latest subject of biometric scanning after EU
researchers successfully tested technology to verify identities
for security checks. The
experiments, which also examined the potential of heart rhythms to
authenticate individuals, were conducted under an EU-funded inquiry
into biometric systems that could be deployed at airports, borders and
in sensitive locations to screen out terrorist suspects.
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‘As many as 20,000 town hall snoopers
have assumed powers to enter people’s homes without a warrant and
search for information, a survey revealed last night. The
research details for the first time how a raft of intrusive laws has
allowed council staff to barge into homes and businesses uninvited.
The bureaucrats are benefiting from the
1,043 state powers of entry in primary and secondary legislation
– more than 400 of which have been created by Labour. These
include checking for fridges which do not have the correct eco-friendly
energy rating, making sure a hedge is not too high and inspecting a
property to ensure ‘illegal or unregulated hypnotism’ is not taking
place.
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‘Neither the Christian communities or
the Jordanian Ministry of Holy sites in Jerusalem asked the
“IAA” to do anything in the Holy Sepulchre Church, and what
the Israel Antiquities Authority did in the place was a deliberate
attack and the desecration of the sanctity of the holy place. The
“IAA” was not cleaning or renewing the Christian holy
place, as it is not their responsibility to do that. The IAA stole the
holy gate and removed holy stones, and then sealed the place after the
theft, in order to hide the crime.
“Israel’s measures are
illegal and violate international laws, because Israel is the occupying
force in the West Bank and East Jerusalem”, the official said.’
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According to the past few months’ sales reports for the Indian market, Hyundai’s i10 hatchback has taken the title of the company’s best-selling car, overtaking the Santro, Economic Times wrote.
To make things clear we must mention that the Hyundai i10 was launched in October 2007 and it replaces the Santro in every market on the globe except India, where the latter is still being sold as a low cost alternative.
The i10 has recorded an average sales figure of 12,000… (read more)
‘Do you believe
everything the government tells you? Economist and statistician John
Williams sure doesn’t. Williams, who has consulted for individuals and
Fortune 500 companies, now uncovers the truth behind the U.S.
government’s economic numbers on his Web site at ShadowStats.com.
Williams says, over the last several decades, the feds have been
infusing their data with optimistic biases to make the economy seem far
rosier than it really is. His site reruns the numbers using the
original methodology. What he found was not good.’
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