Author: Serkadis

Engadget has published this hands-on video of the Toshiba TG02, a device which fixes many of the issues of the TG01, including making it smaller, getting rid of the ridiculous Stripe UI of the device, and adding a capacitive screen.

If the TG02 remains cheaper than the HTC HD2, will you consider buying it over the older device?  Let us know in comments.

See some pictures after the break.

 

 

More pictures at Engadget.com.

Filed under: Concept Cars, Hybrid, Sedan, Geneva Motor Show, Europe, Peugeot

Despite the ridiculous name, the “5 by Peugeot” concept is the inspiration for the next 508 sedan, Peugeot’s competitor the Ford Mondeo and Vauxhall Insignia.

Coming in at 191.3 inches long and 74 inches wide, with a wheelbase of 110 inches, the 5 by Peugeot is rather staid looking compared to the French automaker’s previous offerings. Aside from the overly-stylized headlamps, the front fascia looks surprisingly production ready, incorporating a massive front air dam with a combination of brushed aluminum accents and a chromtastic grille. Out back, it’s pure Peugeot, with taillights that stretch into the rear quarter panels, an Insignia-esque trunk and dual exhausts.

Underneath the marque-specific hood bulge lies a 163 horsepower 2.0-liter HDi FAP diesel which, combined with a rear-mounted, 37-hp electric motor, brings output up to 200 hp. The system, dubbed Hybrid4, sends power to all four wheels and, according to Peugeot, will allow the new 508 to run on electricity alone for an unspecified range. Naturally aspirated gasoline engines are expected to be included on the all-new 508 when it hits the market, and judging by the near-production ready exterior, we’d expect Peugeot’s new midsizer to arrive in European dealers late this year or in early 2011. Make the jump for all the details and check out the gallery below for a host of high-res images.

Continue reading Geneva Preview: 5 by Peugeot foretells the future of the 508

Geneva Preview: 5 by Peugeot foretells the future of the 508 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good news for those looking forward to Red Eagle’s Wheel of Time games. The company recently announced that they’ve tapped the talents of RPG veterans Obsidian Entertainment to help them with game development.

Article Tags: ClimateGate

Malcolm Shykles posted the following comment on our “Submit your tips” page, and thought it was worthy of sharing on the front page.

The Independent Climate Change Email Inquiry gives links to:

The Royal Society
The Met Office
Directgov
BBC Weather
Wikipedia

All of the above sites strongly endorse Anthropogenic Global Warming

The BBC gives out a totally misleading explanation of the greenhouse effect by failing to explain that water vapour also needs to be present. The other sites are also strongly biased in favour and hardly point out that it is an unproven theory.

Also in “Classic Chemistry Demonstrations” published by the Royal Society in 1995, an experiment which is supposed to demonstrate the Greenhouse Effect only appears to work, but is reliant on CO2 being 1½ times heavier than air. Carbon dioxide heated in a beaker via an infra red lamp will get hot because its density is too high to get convection going in an atmosphere of air. The equivalent beaker of air stays cool.

The only reliable data can come from space and the only non NASA paper utilising data from space is from the Russian segment of the International Space Station. And here it says: “The increase in greenhouse gases concentration is not the reason of global warming, but on the contrary, the result of the rise of temperature caused by prolonged increase in the TSI.” (total solar irradiance)

Therefore the Independent Climate Change Email Inquiry is certainly not independent. It is a total waste of effort.

Source: climategate.com

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Filed under: Geneva Motor Show, Europe, Crossover, Toyota

Joining the FT-86 Concept, redesigned Auris and Prius plug-in hybrid at this year’s Geneva Motor Show will be a facelifted version of the Euro-spec RAV4, and if it looks oddly familiar, that’s because it’s a subtle variation of the JDM Vanguard, a long-wheelbase version of the cute ‘ute.

Early reports indicate that the interior will be restyled to up the luxury ante and the 2.0-liter gasoline-powered four-cylinder will be tweaked to increase fuel efficiency and decrease C02 emissions. The redesigned front fascia benefits from a new grille, more angular, drawn headlamps, foglight surrounds and a sporty front lip. We’ll have more details on the 2010 RAV4 in two week’s time and don’t be surprised to see the new nose making an appearance on North American models later this year.

[Source: Autoweek.nl, Carscoop]

Geneva Preview: Redesigned Toyota RAV4 leaks out originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article Tags: David Henderson

A litany of climate climate science flaws can’t be ignored and highlight the need for an open review and evolutionary policies.

TWO recent episodes have given rise to concerns about the quality and reliability of expert advice on climate change.

First was the unauthorised release of a mass of emails from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia: the contents have put in question the conduct of CRU scientists and some of their correspondents.

Second is the discovery that statements made in the fourth and most recent assessment report (AR4) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were based on sources that should not have been given weight. In relation to what was said about Himalayan glaciers, the IPCC has issued a formal admission of error.

The concerns raised by these episodes are well founded. However, Climategate and Glaciergate are not to be viewed in isolation. They are instances of a more fundamental and deeply entrenched phenomenon.

Click source to read more

Source: theaustralian.com.au

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Interesante noticia la que nos llega desde la ciudad de Barcelona. La policía local acaba de recibir una nueva flota de vehículos que les ayudará en su tarea diaria. En total, han recibido 200 unidades del Seat Altea XL.

Todos los modelos hacen uso de un motor diésel 2.0 TDI de 140 CV y la iniciativa ha sido promovida por la propia marca española con el fin de proveer los automóviles a las principales instituciones de los mercados en los que está presente.

La carrocería esta pintada con los colores oficiales de los vehículos policiales de Barcelona, además, cuentan con conexión Bluetooth, portaobjetos, pantalla de 7 pulgadas, puerto USB, toma Aux in para iPod, airbags laterales posteriores, asientos delanteros con calefacción y navegador con pantalla táctil.

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In order to think younger, General Motors is looking to hire engineers in their 20s and 30s, which are largely absent from the company’s North American and European operation, according to Karl-Friedrich Stracke.

The company is missing the perspective of younger engineers on how people in their 20s and 30s use computers, both in vehicles and on the job, says Rick Spina, 50, vehicle line executive for GM’s full-sized trucks.

Spina says that GM also needs to start training younger engineers to take over his and his peers jobs when they retire.

“We’ve still got a lot of talent, but we don’t have young people,” Spina says. “You’ve got a chunk of the U.S. population, the world population, that we’re not well-represented in. Is that going to hurt us long term? Absolutely.”

As a part of the Detroit automaker’s restructuring, GM cute more than 12,000 salaried jobs in the United States.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

Xbox LIVE games and Zune music and video service coming to HTC phones in 2010

Press Release: BARCELONA, Mobile World Congress – February 15, 2010 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today announced plans to bring Microsoft’s next generation of Windows ® Phones, the Windows Phone 7 Series, to market later this year.  The revolutionary new software offers a fresh approach to smartphones by bringing web content and applications together to create a phone experience that is very personal, relevant and connected.  With this news, HTC builds on its Windows Phone leadership and extends its commitment to offering customers the most innovative mobile phone experiences available. 

“Windows Phone 7 Series is a significant milestone for Microsoft, the industry and ultimately people looking to do more on their phones.  HTC is working closely with Microsoft to bring the unique HTC experience that customers love,” said Peter Chou, chief executive officer of HTC Corporation.  “Microsoft has clearly listened to feedback from people and brought a new, fresh approach to the smartphone experience that is beautiful, powerful and compelling.”

Announced today at Mobile World Congress 2010, 7 Series offers a new approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the web and applications.  For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together the Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience to the mobile phone, exclusively on 7 Series phones. 

“People are moving faster than ever, juggling more priorities and turning to technology to manage it all.  Windows Phone 7 Series simplifies common tasks by bringing together related content from the web, applications and services into a single view to make life easier,” said Andy Lees, senior vice president of Mobile Communication Business at Microsoft. “We are pleased to work closely with HTC, a global leader in mobile phone technology and design, to bring new Windows phones to customers around the world.”

BMW acaba de anunciar por primera vez en la historia del BMW M3 novedades en toda la gama. Los cambios estarán situados tanto en el exterior como en el interior, admeás, podremos adquirir un pack deportivo de manera opcional si así lo deseamos.

Con respecto al exterior, podemos destacar la incorporación de LED’s. Por otra parte, debemos hacer incapié en la llegada del sistema StartStop, inédito en este modelo. Gracias a este sistema se ahorrará un consumo del 8%.

En cuanto a la motorización, no sufrirá cambios y seguirá siendo un motor V8 de 4.0 litros con Cambio DKG. Por último, BMW también ofrecerá un pack llamado “Performance” con muelles 10 mm más cortos, llantas de 19 pulgadas y un programa Sport.

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Naughty Dog is reminding PS3 gamers that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is getting a title update today in preparation for the game’s upcoming Trophy patch. The update is supposed to go live at 10:00 AM PST

What’s up with Vivendi? We’re still amazed that the French conglomerate that own Universal Music didn’t step up and fire CEO Doug Morris back in 2007 when he came out and confessed that not only was he clueless about the most important change in the music business (the rise of digital), but that he was too clueless to even know how to hire people who could help:

“There’s no one in the record company that’s a technologist,” Morris explains. “That’s a misconception writers make all the time, that the record industry missed this. They didn’t. They just didn’t know what to do. It’s like if you were suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove his kidney. What would you do?”



Personally, I would hire a vet. But to Morris, even that wasn’t an option. “We didn’t know who to hire,” he says, becoming more agitated. “I wouldn’t be able to recognize a good technology person — anyone with a good bullshit story would have gotten past me.” Morris’ almost willful cluelessness is telling. “He wasn’t prepared for a business that was going to be so totally disrupted by technology,” says a longtime industry insider who has worked with Morris. “He just doesn’t have that kind of mind.”

How does any board of directors let that person stay in place as CEO, in charge of guiding the largest music label in the world into the modern era, when that CEO admits he’s so clueless on the most important thing impacting the industry that he doesn’t even know who to turn to to help?



Well, now, it looks like Universal is finally getting a new CEO — but not because Morris has finally been given the boot — he’s still sticking around and gradually easing out of his role as he “mentors” incoming CEO Lucian Grainge, who has headed the company’s international division until now. So, what’s Grainge’s take on the future?

“I believe that the CD will out-survive me as a format,” Mr. Grainge said in an interview.

Yeah, good luck with that. Between you and Warner Music opting-out of online streaming services, it’s as if the major record labels are simply trying to accelerate their own demise. Have they taken out life insurance policies on themselves? In the meantime, Vivendi, who’s watching over Universal Music these days?

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Indian Prairie Unit District 204 hopes a little shame goes a long way toward making the state pay its growing debt.

Every sign at each of the district’s 33 schools now tells anyone who passes by “The state of Illinois owes District 204 $7.8 million.”

The $7.8 million was due to the district by the end of the 2009 calendar year, and officials believe the state’s $13 billion debt will force the legislature to further reduce payments to individual school districts.

For Indian Prairie, the estimated $500 to $700 reduction per student will result in $14 million to $20 million in additional budget cuts, which Superintendent Kathryn Birkett said likely will result in program cuts and the release of some nontenured teachers.

“I’ve asked every school to add this to their signs because I think it’s important that our community knows the state is now $7.8 million in arrears to us,” Birkett said.

“Every parent, every citizen, needs to know that.”

State representatives who serve the district – which covers portions of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield – say they recognize the effort to let residents know the reason for the budget crunch.

“I’m OK with their signs and I like that they’re engaged in the political process, but we’re asking them to sit tight until we have the cash flow to write those checks,” Naperville Republican Rep. Darlene Senger said Friday.

“They can keep the signs up as long as they think they need to, but the money is on its way.”

School board member Dawn DeSart, a Democrat who will challenge Senger for state representative in November’s general election, said she has been asking Birkett to put the signs up for weeks.

“The state owes us that money and people need to know that,” DeSart said.

“I was chosen by the voters to sit on the school board and that’s my top priority. The state needs to take care of our kids and our schools.”

Democrat Rep. Linda Chapa La Via of Aurora chairs the House Appropriations Committee for elementary and secondary education; she hopes the signs don’t give the wrong message.

“I get why they feel the need for the signs, but I’m afraid it makes us look like we don’t want to give them the money,” Chapa La Via said. “We’d love to be in a situation to give it to them, but we can’t give what we don’t have.”

So she offered an alternative.

“The other side of those signs should be telling people to call their legislators and demand that we work together to get this crisis fixed before we get into a hole we can’t get out of.”

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Como todos sabemos, en el año 2006 Michelin abandonó la Fórmula 1 en favor de Bridgestone terminando la guerra por ser el suministrador único de neumáticos en la máxima categoría. Además, Michelin también perdió el papel de proveedor oficial del Mundial de Rallyes.

Tras esto, al finalizar la pasada temporada conocimos la triste noticia de que Bridgestone abandonaría la Fórmula 1 tras terminar la temporada 2010. Ahora sólo nos queda saber que hará la FIA, si recurrir otra vez a Michelin o buscar otra alternativa.

Podríamos pensar en volver, pero hay algunas condiciones a tener en cuenta. Mostrar el rendimiento que pueden aportar, sobre todo en términos de ahorro de combustible y reducciones de CO2.

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WASHINGTON — Pingponging across the airwaves, Vice President Joe Biden and predecessor Dick Cheney bickered Sunday over terror trials and interrogations, credit for success in Iraq and the long-running effort to contain Iran’s nuclear program.

Biden called Cheney “misinformed or he is misinforming” on current national security strategies. Cheney said President Barack Obama wasn’t taking the al-Qaida threat seriously.

But, in a marked change of tone, the former vice president acknowledged that the Bush White House struggled with how to bring suspected terrorists to justice.

Highly partisan public skirmishes between the Obama White House and Cheney — the result of the former vice president’s unusual public criticism on a successor administration — have become standard fare.

And the back-and-forth that was set up in Sunday’s sequential appearances of television talk shows did not disappoint.

Biden struck first, declaring that Cheney’s attacks on Obama’s commitment to fighting terrorism ignored the facts.

“We’ve eliminated 12 of their top 20 people. We have taken out 100 of their associates,” said Biden.

“They are in fact not able to do anything remotely like they were in the past. They are on the run. I don’t know where Dick Cheney has been. Look, it’s one thing, again, to criticize. It’s another thing to sort of rewrite history. What is he talking about?”

Cheney did not answer directly, instead insisting that Biden was “dead wrong” to assert that a fresh Sept. 11-style strike was unlikely, calling a nuclear or biological attack by al-Qaida “the biggest strategic threat the United States faces today.”

Even so, Cheney appeared to dial back the rhetoric, acknowledging that the Bush administration too was divided on whether terror suspects should be charged and tried in federal civilian courts or taken before military tribunals.

“I can remember,” Cheney said, “a meeting in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House where we had a major shootout” — one that he said he lost — about civilian versus military trials for terrorist captives.

“We never clearly or totally resolved those issues. These are tough questions, no doubt about it,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Biden got in the first licks on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview taped late Saturday in Canada, where he was attending the Vancouver Olympic Games.

On Cheney’s assault on the Obama administration, Biden said “his assertions are not accurate.”

Cheney demurred on that allegation, choosing instead to take on again Obama’s decision to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In doing so, he admitted for a second time that he had been at odds with the majority of Bush administration officials on the decision to release prisoners from the military lockup to their home country when cases against them were determined to be legally untenable.

“I didn’t think that releasing anybody was the right thing to do, unless you had evidence that, you know, there was a mistake of some kind,” Cheney said.

On Afghanistan and Obama’s decision to increase U.S. forces in the 8-year-old war, Cheney gave Obama high marks. But he derided Biden for giving the Obama administration credit for winding down the war in Iraq without acknowledging the work of President George W. Bush.

However, Biden had said: “We built on the positive things that the Bush administration had initiated. And we have jettisoned those things that were negative.”

“For them to try to take credit for what happened in Iraq is a little strange. It ought to go with a healthy dose of ‘thank you, George Bush,’” Cheney said.

On other disputed topics:

–Biden acknowledged that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the professed Sept. 11 attack planner, still might face trial in a military tribunal, despite the administration’s earlier decision to take him before a civilian federal court in New York.

That now seems unlikely given hot opposition from city authorities and members of Congress. Cheney said he believed Mohammed should and eventually would be tried by the military at a military facility.

–Cheney advised the Obama administration against ruling out a military attack on Iran even as it works for a new set of United Nations sanctions. “I don’t think you want to eliminate the military — the possibility of military action. I think that’s essential to give any kind of meaning at all to negotiations over sanctions,” he said.

The back and forth began with Biden on NBC, moved to ABC’s “This Week” with Cheney and ended with Biden appearing live on CBS’s “Face the Nation.

There Biden got in the last word over Cheney: “Thank God the last administration didn’t listen to him in the end” on how to handle terrorism suspects.

Declaring that Obama was acting on the precedents set in the Bush White House, Biden said of Cheney, “His fight seems to be with the last administration.”

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services