Author: Serkadis

Interested in writing for TheAppleBlog? We’re looking for a few new folks to bring on board and would love to talk to you.

A few notes about writing for TAB:

• You MUST have previous Apple-related writing experience. No exceptions.
• We’re looking for people who are great at writing either how-to/tutorial articles or more in-depth, analytical, commentary-based writing than anything else. If you only write app reviews…sorry, not interested right now.
• Interacting with the folks who comment on your articles is a must, so be prepared to put in a little extra time conversing with our little community on the web.
• It is indeed a paid gig.

Writing for TAB is certain to bring you fame and fortune¹, so just apply via this page or the form below. And our apologies, but due to the large number of applications we typically get for this, we aren’t able to respond to everyone. If we think you’d be a good fit, we’ll follow up with you.

1. This may or may not be entirely true.

If you’ve been waiting to get one of the ultra cool Hollywood Franklin Tower Cat Trees, here’s a little extra incentive. Now through April 1, 2010, the tower is 15% off! This discount is for the brown stain with cayenne carpet only, which is the best selling color combo.

Download the price list here.

There’s a great post about a recent Clay Shirky talk that highlights one of the key reasons why I think so many people have trouble understanding the economics of abundance. In the talk Shirky points out that, as a society, we’re not really hard-wired to deal with abundance:

Abundance breaks more things than scarcity does. Society knows how to react to scarcity.

Indeed, if you look at all of human history, probably 99.999999% of it has been about dealing with the issues of scarcity. In fact, our entire original economic philosophy (which is really just two and a half centuries old) was based on “resource allocation in the presence of scarcity.” Historically, abundance just hasn’t been an issue that we’ve had to deal with very much. And the problem is that people try to apply the mental rules of scarcity to abundance and they basically kick out an error message. It’s a “divide by zero” sort of problem. You get infinity as a result, and you think it’s wrong.

So the response is almost always the same. Rather than actually trying to deal with what abundance enables, people try to force abundance back into a feeling of scarcity — which they’re comfortable with. That is, they try to apply artificial rules and restrictions to make the abundance feel like it’s scarce, so that they can understand it again.

But, that’s not how disruption works. Disruption changes the old models — and abundance can be disruptive in very significant ways. And disruption doesn’t happen in an orderly transition, such that those who are stuck on the old models can gracefully and gradually learn about and switch over to the new models. As Shirky says:

It’s easy to say “preserve the best of the old and combine it with the best of the new,” but in revolution, the best of the new is incompatible with the best of the old. It’s about doing things a whole new way.

Indeed. This is a point that is brought up by our critics a lot. They claim that content creators and the like shouldn’t even try to shift over to the new models while the old models still have some life in them or while the new models aren’t really well proven. There’s this belief that they can hang onto the old, and gradually add some elements of the new, and then eventually make the jump. But, what Shirky points out more eloquently than I ever could, is that much of the new stuff is really incompatible and very much in conflict with the old. If giving away your content increases new opportunities, how do you square that with an old business model that was built entirely around the scarcity of content?

No one doubts that this is difficult, and at times requires a big leap of faith. But there’s no question that there are many things today that are abundant, where they used to be scarce. And that presents a huge challenge. Yet, time and time again, we’ve seen that when something becomes abundant it is not a bad thing — but an opportunity to do something even larger. It’s just that it’s incredibly difficult to do that if you’re still hanging on to the old ways.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

For the longest time, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars had been an unsung great in the Nintendo DS lineup, but not anymore. The Pocket Gamer Awards have once again named the best games on portable platforms, and

More evidence that things are coming back in this economy.

Here’s the latest from Fitch:

U.S.  subprime  RMBS  prices  reverse course this past month, with most vintages increasing in value, according to Fitch Solutions in its latest CDS of RMBS indices results.

Fitch  Solutions’  U.S. Subprime RMBS Total Market Price Index increased by  just  over  6% month on month to 7.63 as of March 1 (up from 7.17 at  Feb.  1).  All  vintages  increased  in  value,  with  the  2006 vintage
performance  the  strongest with a 17% increase.  Additionally, the 2005
and  2004  vintages increased by 9% and 3% respectively, month on month.The  lone outlier was the 2007 vintage, which declined by 2% hitting its lowest ever value at 2.06.

  Recent  loan level analysis conducted by Fitch Solutions on the indices’ constituents  found  that  declines in both the Constant Prepayment Rate (CPR)  and  Constant  Default Rate (CDR) drove the rise in value for the 2006  vintage.  Three-month  CPR  fell  to  1.8%  from  2.4%,  while the
  three-month   CDR  declined  from  26.3%  to  25.7%.  Historical  60-day delinquencies also decreased from 1.77% to 1.65%.

  ‘The  different  performance  of the CPR and CDR across diverse vintages reinforces  the  need  to drill down and extensively assess each vintage from  a broader perspective,’ said Thomas Aubrey. ‘This explains why the 2007 and 2006 vintages are showing such different pricing movements.’

Declines  in three-month CPR were also the primary drivers for the value increase  in  both  the  2004 (from 4.8% to 4.3%) and 2005 (from 3.2% to  2.4%) vintages.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Here Comes A Wave Of European MBS Offerings From RBS, Lloyds, and SNS
• FITCH: Check Out The "Payment Shock" ALT-A Mortgage-Holders Are About To Feel
• Fitch Immediately Downgrades Iceland As President Vetoes Bank Payback

Here’s a blast from the past. I want to take you back to 1999 when the Gillette Mach 3 Challenger motorcycle broke the land speed record running on hydrogen peroxide and aluminum and hit the record mark of 365 miles per hour at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

In the past, I’ve talked many times about the merits of hydrogen peroxide or H2O2 as a potential future fuel for cars. It is already being used in race cars, race motorcycles, rocket ships, jetpacks and for some batteries.

Recently I’ve talked about the merits of water or H2O plus aluminum creating hydrogen for cars. In fact, many times over the past 4 years I’ve talked about this same subject. But, the last time I had talked about H2O2 plus aluminum creating hydrogen for vehicles was 2007.

Now, high purity hydrogen peroxide (90-percent plus) as opposed to low purity (10-percent) that you buy at the pharmacy, can be corrosive and unstable and must be handled with extreme care. In fact, some would argue that H2O2 is not safe enough to put directly into a vehicle other than a race car, rocket ship or jetpack. Tell that though to the Chinese who produced a prototype called the Habo No. 1 which did use hydrogen peroxide for fuel.

But, what if instead, hydrogen peroxide and aluminum (instead of silver or platinum) were used at the fueling pump to create hydrogen on demand for cars? Or at least it could be produced nearby and the resulting hydrogen could be piped or trucked only short distances.

In this regard, the people who handle the hydrogen peroxide would be the trained professionals who deliver it to the fueling stations or at the nearby off-site production locations. As in splitting H2O, the only byproduct of splitting H2O2 is a little steam and heat.

Anyway, I keep coming back to this point because I see potential in the idea but not a whole lot of development. Any hydrogen fuel producers want to take me up on this challenge?

Google has been on a roll lately with Street View. After a boatload of new Street View images went live in the UK, practically making any road in the country available online, the company is launching the service on the other side of the world as well, in Hong Kong. So, if you’re planning to take a trip to one of the Orient’s most ‘western’ cities and ce… (read more)

Filed under: Car Buying, Marketing/Advertising, Toyota

As Toyota’s recall issues hit a fevered pitch over the past few months, customer confidence faltered and sales predictably suffered. We were wondering how Toyota would react to the comparative dearth of showroom traffic, and the answer was to take a page out of the domestic’s tattered handbook: big-time incentives.

On March 1, Toyota announced zero percent financing, subsidized leases and free maintenance for two years, and the early results appear to be extremely favorable. Automotive News reports that analysts are seeing big-time gains for the Japanese automaker, with evidence that sales are up 50 percent so far for the month. A 50 percent sales increase for the month would more than wipe out Toyota’s depressing January and February, but analysts like Edmund’s Jessica Caldwell reportedly feel sales will level out to a predicted 30 percent rise by March 31. “Incentives work best in the early going, but they start to peter out as the month goes along.”

So does news of a Toyota sales increase means that Americans are tuning out the recent influx of bad news including a pair of reported runaway Prius hybrids in the interest of saving money? AN reports that analysts like Caldwell and George Magliano at IHS Global Insight feel Toyota loyalists are jumping at the company’s big-time incentives, and the brand will have to try new things to attract new customers in the months ahead. That may be true, but we’re thinking Toyota must be more than a bit relieved that customers are coming back to showrooms, at least for now.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req. | Image: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images]

Report: Toyota sales may bounce back big time in March originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Stocks were down most of the morning but have since managed to break into green territory. Let’s take a look at how the S&P is holding up:

Gainers:

• Huntington Bancshares Inc (HBAN): $5.54 / +5.52%
• GameStop Corp (GME): $19.10 / +4.49%
• Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc (DPS): $35.00 / +4.01%
• First Solar Inc (FSLR): $114.86 / +3.52%
• Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB): $13.32 / +2.78%

Losers:

• Western Digital Corp (WDC): $36.81 / -3.31%
• Analog Devices Inc (ADI): $29.23 / -2.83%
• Deere & Co (DE): $56.96 / -2.62%
• Texas Instruments Inc (TXN): $23.97 / -2.52%
• Altria Group Inc (MO): $20.30 / -2.50%

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Connecticut Senate Candidate Dick Blumenthal Suing S&P And Moody’s Over Tainted Ratings
• RBS: We’re Shorting The S&P While Going Long Greek Debt
• Gartman: Here’s Why Europe Is About To Dump Lots Of Gold Onto The Market

Last year, we wrote about how the University of Oregon cracked down on a great student video supporting the school’s football team, because the team’s mascot was in the video. Why should that matter? Well, it turns out that the team’s mascot looks quite a bit like Donald Duck, whose trademark is (of course) owned by Disney. It turns out that Disney and the University of Oregon had a long-term handshake agreement made with Walt Disney himself, that said the University could use the duck as its mascot, but had to get agreements from the company to use it in any setting outside of the agreement — hence the university freaking out about the student video. But, in some surprisingly good news, Maurice Troute alerts us to the news that Disney has now agreed that it has no trademark claim over the mascot. Apparently, printed logos and t-shirts and such still are covered by the Disney agreement — but the physical mascot has been set free:

In an agreement finalized this week, Disney acknowledges that the “current incarnation of a costumed character featured at the University of Oregon’s athletic and promotional events (the ‘Oregon Duck’) is not substantially similar” to Disney’s Donald Duck character.

Kudos to Disney for apparently being willing to not just respect a decades old handshake agreement on this, but to recognize when it should no longer try to stretch the trademark and let a clearly distinct usage go free. Given that Disney has a history of being really aggressive over such things, this is a nice surprise.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Many like to think that markets are treating Greece unfairly when it comes to its creditworthiness.

Speculators are being blamed for making the situation look worse than it is and ratings agencies are being demonized.

But here’s why the whole concept of Greece being treated unfairly is pure baloney.

Greece’s credit rating is still in the ‘investment grade’ category, despite the nation’s massive financial problems and mass protests from a society that thinks it doesn’t have to tighten the belt when money runs out.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, there is Indonesia.

It has a giant, young population with its most productive years ahead. Its GDP is growing rapidly, and the country weathered the recent crisis remarkably well. It is rich in natural resources and rides the rise of China. Moreover, it has a debt to GDP ratio of just 30% according to the CIA World Factbook… while Greece is at 109%. Most importantly, the trends for each nation are likely to go in opposite directions due to opposite GDP growth prospects.

Yet get this… Indonesia isn’t even considered ‘investment grade’ yet by ratings agencies. The nation is still trying to receive the lofty credit rating of Greece:

Business Times:

Indonesia should be able to reach investment grade within one year, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Tuesday, in a more confident assessment than many analysts who still see obstacles for South-east Asia’s biggest economy.

‘We are still optimistic that this can be achieved within one year,’ Indrawati told foreign correspondents. ‘There is no signal we are going to depart from that path . . . I am optimistic (it will be) one or at most two years. I am expecting it within one year.’

Read more here >

Indonesia is far from perfect and has tons of problems like many nations, and yes we are aware of the 1997 Asian crisis, but it is in far better shape financially than Greece.

Thus if anything, Greece is being treated far too leniently by credit markets. The only thing that accords the nation a shred of confidence from credit markets is the prospect of a bailout from the Eurozone. Otherwise, markets would be dumping its debt and asking for highly punitive interest rates. That’s because it should have a credit rating far below Indonesia, and nowhere near investment grade, if judged on its own merits alone.

Which means that Greece’s ridiculously strong credit rating is proof of the fact that markets expect the nation to get a free ride from its Euro relatives. Beyond that ‘trust funder’ factor — long Indonesia, short Greece.

Check out Indonesia and the other MAVINS >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Indonesian Mob Wants Blood After Treasury Secretary Spends A Fortune Bailing Out Banks
• Another Saudi Headache: Nigeria’s New President Could Ramp This MAVINS’s Huge Oil Production By 50%
• Did We Only Include Australia In The MAVINS Because We Needed An "A"?

What you’re looking at hear are said to be the first “official” patent drawings of the upcoming Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster.

The SLS AMG Roadsters is expected to make its debut alter this year at the 2010 Paris Motor Show – so stay tuned for the first batch of official high-res images.

Check out a video of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG in Action.

Click here for more Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG news.

Refresher: Power comes from a 6.2L V8 making 563-hp with a maximum torque of 479 lb-ft. Mated to an E-SELECT system that controls the AMG SPEEDSHIFT DCT 7-speed sport transmission, the SLS AMG can go from 0 to 62 mph in just 3.7 seconds (with the Race Start launch control system) with a top speed of 196 mph.

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster (Patent Drawings):

2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG:

– By: Kap Shah

Schedule of Events
156th IEA-NEA Representative Assembly
March 18-20, 2010
Hyatt Regency O’Hare
Wednesday, March 17, 2010

2010 IEA RA Schedule of Events

When Leanne moved into her own home she had reservations and fears about how she would cope. But Selby Adult and Community Services telecare support has provided her with the confidence she needs to go about her daily life.

Leanne, 24, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2001. In 2007 she decided to leave her parents’ home and go to live alone. At first Leanne struggled with some day to day tasks such as bathing and shopping. Rarely able to leave her home, she lost self-confidence and began to feel low.

“I let myself go a bit” says Leanne. “I didn’t feel nice about myself at all. I wasn’t cooking, I was scared of what might happen, I might drop something. I wasn’t getting in the bath a lot. Everything went to pot in here.”

Leanne’s GP recommended she speak to an occupational therapist (OT) and a telecare co-ordinator who were part of her local Adult and Community Services team. Having assessed her needs, telecare support was set up in Leanne’s home. Leanne is very positive about the impact it has had on her life.

“It’s made me feel a whole lot better about myself, a hell of a lot better on my own,” she says. “I haven’t got any bad words for the support team, they’re absolutely brilliant.”

Adult and Community Services aims to provide care, enablement, specialist assessments and Telecare to ensure that an individual gets the support they need to remain in their own homes and look after themselves. 

Leanne’s package includes a watch and lifeline-system, connecting care workers to Leanne in case of emergency, and a system that is triggered by any abnormal activity such as fire, dramatic heat increases or a fall.

A new bathroom has also been put in to Leanne’s house following her assessment. The support team (including Housing Support) also pay regular visits to Leanne to check the system is working and assess her ongoing needs.

Leanne has been using the system for just over a year. She now has the freedom and confidence to carry on with her day to day life, safe in the knowledge that the system would alert someone to help if there was a problem.

“I know if something does happen somebody’s at the end of a phone,” she says. “I can do more in my house. I know that I can go out with my head held high.”

At first, Leanne felt that telecare was something for older people, and she was concerned how it would be seen by others. She feels differently having used it.

“The stuff that I’ve got doesn’t look old, it’s got everything. Its absolutely fantastic because I feel tons better about myself,” she says. “It’s not just for the elderly. It’s not just for people with disabilities, it’s for everybody who needs it.”

Leanne is unwaveringly enthusiastic about the impact telecare has had on her day- to- day life.

“When I was at my Mum and Dad’s I would rely on them to get me things,” she says. “But now I’ve got this and I think, I’ve got to do it myself, and if anything happens I know that [the telecare support] is there. It’s a bit of responsibility for me. I know I’ve got to get up for something.

“Before, I felt like I didn’t have a life. I felt like I was existing. That’s all. Now I feel better about my flat, and you know, I’m proud of myself. It’s nice.”

And Leanne has ambitions to take other challenges next – to give up smoking, and to speak to others at the MS society about the care and support she is getting from the telecare and her carers.

Over 2,000 people in North Yorkshire and their carers benefit from a range of technology and support and Leanne is very keen to encourage others to take it up, especially young people.

“I’m more independent now. It’s made my life easier. I think that’s why I want to get other people to come forward and get the support,” she says.

Filed under: Etc., Videos, Fiat, Celebrities, Humor

Lapo Elkann is the grandson of Fiat founder Gianni Agnelli and is said to be heir to several Fiat thrones. While courtside at the Staples Center in Los Angeles watching the Lakers play the Toronto Raptors, Yahoo Sports reports that Elkann interfered in a play that gave LA the win.

With the score tied and only seconds left, the Raptors’ Jose Calderon (pictured) was chasing a ball headed out of bounds when Elkann swiped it away. The Lakers were given possession and Kobe Bryant did his game-winning thing. You can see a recap of the event in the video after the jump, and for you rightfully sore Raptors fans, Elkann later apologized. Thanks for the tip, Jeffrey!

[Sources: Yahoo Sports, Goal.com]

Continue reading Video: Fiat heir makes game-winning assist at Lakers-Raptors?

Video: Fiat heir makes game-winning assist at Lakers-Raptors? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

A few weeks ago we went to a birthday party out on Treasure Island for our friend Lloyd Taylor. The best part, aside from singing happy birthday and having cake and getting to know new friends was being in a working studio.

Google’s Labs experiments have proven quite successful and quite a hotbed for innovation. With the Labs feature, Google developers feel more at ease experimenting with wild features and tools knowing they won’t ruin anyone’s experience by doing so. The company has been adding the Labs section to all of its main products, most recently to Go… (read more)

Look at what we found in our mailbox to make our cloudy Thursday morning a little brighter – our friend Chris Harris from EVO Magazine has just dropped us a two part video of his latest segment where he tests the new Bentley Continental Supersports against the Aston Martin DBS and the Ferrari 599 HGTE.

Click here to get pricing on the Bentley Continental Supersports Coupe.

Check out the two part video after the jump.

Refresher: Power for the Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible comes from a 6.0L W12 twin-turbocharged engine producing 621-hp with a maximum torque of 590 lb-ft. Mated to ZF 6-speed Quickshift automatic gearbox, the Continental Supersports Convertible goes from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds with a top speed of 202 mph. The Continental Supersports Convertible is flex-fuel capable, meaning it can run on either gasoline or E85 ethanol.

2011 Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible:

Part 1:

Part 2:

2011 Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible:

– By: Omar Rana

Source: EVO

A review in the February 2010 issue of Gastroenterology cites viral resistance against new medications as incentive for using triple therapy to treat Hepatitis C.

Resistance Likely to Develop With New Hepatitis C Drugs
Addition of drugs to interferon and ribavirin treatment improves efficacy

THURSDAY, Feb. 25 (HealthDay News) — New drugs that block the replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) are likely to lead to resistance if given as monotherapy and should be given in combination with pegylated interferon and ribavirin, according to a review in the February issue of Gastroenterology.

Continue reading this entire article:
http://www.modernmedicine.com/modernmedicine/Modern+Medicine+Now/Resistance-Likely-to-Develop-With-New-Hepatitis-C-/ArticleNewsFeed/Article/detail/658994?contextCategoryId=40142