Goldman Sachs is getting into the ETF game, but they lag behind even the pretenders and may not even make an impact on the highly competive market.

While Goldman already traded ETFs, this is their first foray into ETF creation.

American Banking News argues thas this is an unimpressive entry as Goldman is not dramatically changing the industry and looks to make little money off a product that requires limited management and makes small fees.

Many other firms, including the bond house PIMCO, have recently entered into the industry creating managed ETFs. Goldman’s ETFs would be index tracking, not the managed ETFs which have become all the rage in the industry.

Goldman intends to focus on Brazilian, Indian, Chinese, and Korean stocks at the outset, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

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See Also:

• Goldman’s Jim O’Neill: Easy Money And High Oil Prices Make Russia The #1 BRIC For 2010
• Goldman Loves These 50 Stocks With Heavy BRIC Exposure
• Marc Mobius: Here Comes Another 40% Surge For The BRICs

Filed under: Car Buying, Hyundai, Toyota

In a U.S. News and World Report story distributed via Yahoo dubbed “The 10 Best Discontinued Cars,” author Rick Newman spoke with an unnamed analyst at Kelley Blue Book in an effort to help new car shoppers find exceptionally deep discounts on new cars. Here’s where it gets hazy: As part of that process, Newman sought to:

“…identify models likely to be discontinued over the next couple of years. For some of these models, the manufacturers have confirmed that the car is being axed; others made the list because of strong indicators that they’re being discontinued, such as manufacturing changes or declining shipments to dealers.”

Note the word usage of “likely” and “next couple of years” coupled to that very misleading title. To Newman’s credit, he notes “unconfirmed” when discussing vehicles that haven’t been officially killed off, but to our eyes, the title is misleading and the execution of the list itself strikes us as disingenuous, particularly as it mixes vehicles that have already been officially nixed (Honda S2000, Mercury Sable, Pontiac G8, Saturn Sky, Volkswagen Jetta GLI) with end-of-life models that are likely to be replaced or die out in due time (Chevrolet Colorado, Lexus SC430), as well as nameplates that have been facing declining or slow sales (Toyota Matrix and FJ Cruiser, Hyundai Veracruz). We spoke with Curt McCallister, Toyota’s Midwest Public Relations Manager about the fate of the Matrix and FJ Cruiser, and he offered us the following guidance:

“There are no plans to discontinue either model. The Yahoo story is erroneous in that it was based on conjecture from unnamed analysts from Kelley Blue Book. The reporter (Newman) was informed of the factual errors in his story, multiple times yesterday. He was also questioned on why we weren’t allowed to confirm or deny these assumptions. It was poor reporting that unfortunately has an Internet reach.”

Click through to the jump for the rest of the story, including a comment from Hyundai.

[Source: U.S. News and World Report via Yahoo]

Continue reading Toyota, Hyundai refute report of discontinued models

Toyota, Hyundai refute report of discontinued models originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hybrid, CES, Technology, Chevrolet

It’s time for the Consumer Electronics Show and so it’s also time for the techiest cars on the road (and those which haven’t quite made it there yet) to strut their stuff. General Motors and OnStar took a little time last night to show off the Volt mobile apps that will launch with the car, which were formally announced last night, and we were there to try them out and capture a little video. Worth getting excited about? We think so, but read on to find out for yourself.

Continue reading GM and OnStar unveil Volt mobile apps, we try them out [w/videos]

GM and OnStar unveil Volt mobile apps, we try them out [w/videos] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T made several announcements today that it hopes will boost the apps and phones on the company’s mobile network. Chief among them were the addition of devices using Google’s Android operating system and a new “Apps for All” initiative, which will make it easier for developers to build non-smartphone apps.

Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, made the announcements on-stage at the company’s developer summit in Las Vegas today. AT&T will soon add Android phones built by Motorola, HTC, and Dell — in fact, Motorola is giving out free Android phones to summit attendees later today. Also falling under the network’s goal to “continue supporting the smartphone apps revolution,” AT&T said that with the addition of Nokia’s Ovi and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile app stores, it should now support most major smartphone operating systems and stores. It’s also launching a site for emerging devices, like e-readers and navigation devices, on the AT&T network.

AT&T said its next major goal is to “spur the apps revolution beyond smartphones.” Its “Apps for All” program is aimed at mid-range “quick messaging devices,” which don’t have all the features of a smartphone, but do have QWERTY keyboards and mobile web browsers. They’re used chiefly for text messaging, and make up 30 percent of the devices on AT&T’s network. Now the company is teaming up with Qualcomm to allow developers to build applications using the BREW platform that will work across all of the quick-messaging devices on AT&T’s network.

“Two-thirds of the devices that we’re selling today are not smartphones,” De La Vega said, so this initiative should help solve the “developer’s dilemma,” where a small developer, especially, wants to make their apps available on multiple phones, but doesn’t necessarily have the resources to build the app over and over again.

De la Vega also touched on two other goals: to enhance developer programs and continue investing in its network. The company’s announcement earlier today that it has upgraded its towers on the 3G network is presumably be part of that last piece.

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Jan. 5, 2010, 5:31 PM William Wei

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Remote tech support company, iYogi has secured $15 million in third-round funding led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and including return investors Canaan Partners, SAP Ventures, and SVB India Capital Partners. The new money will be used to improve its current offerings and expand its global team.

Similar services, like Geek Squad, require consumers to either bring in their computers to a physical store or have an on-site visit for repairs. iYogi uses remote specialists around the world to access consumer computers remotely.

After permission is granted by the user, an iYogi specialist can diagnose a problem and fix it, even from a great distance. Consumers get unlimited support for $139.99 a year — which includes around-the-clock attention, anti-virus and anti-spyware protection, and various tools to keep your PC running fast. The company also provides technical support for printers, MP3 players, digital cameras and other software applications.

The company says that it actively relies on platforms made by companies like HP, Microsoft and Cisco in order to provide its special brand of remote technical services. It has also recently bagged a couple of big name retailers as customers, including Amazon and Walmart.

The India-based company previously raised two rounds totaling $3 million in 2007 and $9.5 million in 2008.

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Luke Timmerman wrote:

Stratos Genomics, a Seattle-based company developing faster and cheaper DNA sequencing technology, has been granted three months of access to a microfabrication laboratory operated by the Washington Technology Center on the University of Washington campus. Stratos’ proposal is to create a “Nanopore Noise Reduction Project” that “creates, encodes and measures surrogate molecules derived from DNA targets to produce DNA sequence information,” according to a statement from the Washington Technology Center. The award is the first that the WTC has granted under a technology stimulus program for small businesses in Washington.

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Cloud-based online gaming startup Gaikai has raised $5 million in funding, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The company is headed by longtime game veteran David Perry, maker of games such as the Matrix and chief creative officer at video game publisher Acclaim. The company declined to comment on the filing, which does not identify investors. But one of the company’s directors is Mitch Lasky, a partner at Benchmark Capital.

Like its rivals OnLive and Otoy, Gaikai is planning to create a service that can deliver games on demand, without the need to install or run software on a computer or game machine. Rather, it runs the game on servers in the cloud and shares constantly updated video images of the action with the gamer.

While seven-year-old OnLive has raised much more money and has partners like AT&T, Gaikai is smaller and has less ambitious plans. For instance, Perry told me that Gaikai could be used to give users a better way to shop for Flash-based games by showing them a live preview of how the game works when a user hovers over an icon in an appstore. But it could also be used to provide games directly to end users via digital distribution and make an end run around physical game retailers, as OnLive is doing.

“Our goals are really simple, to remove all the friction between hearing about a game and trying it out, to help reduce the cost of gaming, to grow video game audiences, to raise the revenue that publishers and developers can earn, and (most importantly) to make games accessible everywhere,” Perry said in an interview last year. “If the iPhone AppStore has taught us anything, [it’s that] when you make it easy to check things out, you get a billion downloads.”

Perry didn’t reveal Gaikai’s business model. But the advantages of playing games stored on servers and not on home computers are myriad. First, gamers can buy the games on the spot and play them almost immediately. The gamers can also play high-end games on relatively low-end hardware. Perry said gamers could use Gaikai to play high-speed racing games such as Need For Speed on low-performance netbooks (web computers which are smaller than laptops). Since retailers aren’t involved, the games could either cost less or publishers can keep more of the money. And gamers never have to download patches or other upgrades. They just need a decent broadband connection to be able to play. That opens even hardcore games to a broader audience.

Based in the Netherlands, Gaikai’s co-founders include Perry, Andrew Gault and Rui Pereira.

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Casey Johnson was heiress to the multi-billionaire dollar Johnson & Johnson empire — but allegedly couldn’t pay her bills.

The pharmaceutical heiress died owing Porsche Financial Services $105,740.93, according to court records obtained this week.

The 30-year-old socialite and mother of one was found dead in her West Hollywood mansion by a maid on Monday. For weeks prior to her death, Casey reportedly hid her leased Porsche Cayenne SUV in a garage to keep the company from repossessing it.

Aggregate Knowledge, developer of a platform that analyzes the performance of online display ads in real time and allows marketers to easily tweak their content to better target certain audiences, has brought in $9 million in a third round of venture funding led by OVP Venture Partners.

Based in San Mateo, Calif., the company employs algorithms based on machine-learning to parse massive volumes of data about what people are looking for and buying online. This allows it to give both brands and web publishers the insights they need to better tailor their campaigns. Aggregate says it will use its new funding to fine tune its product, making it even more helpful for advertising agencies.

The emphasis on display ad analytics is actually a bond new move for Aggregate, which previously focused on providing recommendation engines to e-commerce sites. It provided tools to consumers on these sites that would tell them what other products they might want to buy based on previous purchases. In that space, it competed with the likes of Strands, Loomia, and of course Amazon. Now it finds itself in the same company as AdReady, AdXpose, Adometry and Mpire.

Aggregate Knowledge shifted course last July when it launched its Audience Discovery Engine for display advertising, allowing its customers to track which ad campaigns are working with which demographics and why.

The company has now raised $34.5 million to date. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and DAG Ventures also participated in the recent round. In the past, it has taken funds from First Round Capital and NetService Ventures as well. It has 26 employees.

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Should incarcerated felons be allowed to vote? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals answered the question yesterday in the affirmative, announcing a 2-1 decision recognizing the voting rights of convicted felons.

According to the court’s majority, Washington State’s felon disenfranchisement laws “cannot be explained in race-neutral ways,” violating the federal Voting Rights Act. Washington has been at the forefront of felon disenfranchisement debates since last April, when the legislature passed a bill to extend convicts the right once they serve their time and are no longer on parole or probation. That legislation left in tact, however, another law that prevented current prisoners from voting.

According to The Sentencing Project, 5.3 million Americans cannot vote because of a felony conviction, resulting in roughly 13% of Black men being excluded from making their voices heard in our democracy. The disparate impact that these laws have on people of color is no coincidence; felon disenfranchisement laws are historically rooted in the Jim Crow era. It’s only appropriate, then, that the Voting Rights Act — a landmark piece of legislation intended to sweep discrimination at the ballot box into history books — is now being successfully wielded by felons seeking to renew their commitment to society and participate in our democracy.

(more…)

A study of 50 million Wi-Fi networks around the world by WeFi — the company claims to have “the world’s largest community-based global Wi-Fi network” — found that 40 percent of the American Wi-Fi networks examined by WeFi were unprotected. No password. Open to everyone.

Is that bad, or is it good?

People seem to be irreconcilably divided on whether open networks are good or bad. In 2002, I attended a panel discussion where experts who had briefed then-czar of cybersecurity Richard Clarke didn’t even debate the merits of open networks. They stamped them a potential “terrorist tool.” Al-Qaeda, they said, was going to camp out in your company’s parking lot and launch attacks on the Internet if you didn’t lock down your Linksys box with 128-character passwords.

I’m in the other camp: Passwords suck. Free Wi-Fi boosts America’s productivity. Whenever I find an open network, I spend a minute trying to figure out who operates it so I can send them a thank-you mail.

WeFi’s study says that the most open countries for traveling Web surfers are Thailand, Israel, Brazil, Argentina and especially the Bahamas, where 69 percent of networks were open to the pubic.

By contrast, only 25 percent of observed networks in Europe were open. For now, WeFi hasn’t drawn any conclusions on why, or on what it all means. These stats are the first released numbers from a more detailed report the company plans to publish later in the first quarter of 2010.

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Decorated rally racer and DC Shoe co-founder Ken Block, one of Subaru’s most valuable assets in catapulting them to the height of their popularity, is now working for Ford. Famous for his stunning X-Games performances and Gymkhana viral videos (featured after the jump), Block’s legacy within the motorsports circuit is well known by even the most casual of fans and Ford has essentially landed themselves the golden marketing ticket.

Beyond the scores of devout broskies that worship in his wake, Block will also bring to Ford the street cred of a second-generation fanboy. “I am stoked to be rallying in a Ford. They are an impressive force in the sport,” said Ken Block. “From the days of the 1970s Escorts to the Group B RS200 to the modern-day Focus and now the Fiesta, Ford just does an excellent job at rally and I couldn’t be happier to now be part of this amazing heritage. Not to mention my dad would be proud. He was a dedicated Ford guy.”

Equally excited is Ford, who has gained another invaluable asset in promoting the highly-anticipated rally-bred Fiesta. “Ken Block has established himself as an action sports competitor and a rising star in the world of American rally racing,” said Jamie Allison, director Ford North America Motorsports. “We are excited to have him on our team to help promote our new global products, the 2011 Ford Fiesta and 2012 Ford Focus.”

Block’s first rally appearance with Team Ford will be in the 2010 FIA World Rally Cup Championship, full-length coverage of which will be available from Discovery Channel HD. For those of you broke bastards who aren’t about to spend $50 extra for the premium cable package, WRC TV also provides live (FREE) coverage at WRC.com.

Check out Ken Block in action

Source: PRNewswire

Wackiness

"I also found child's play – stuff that was not considered serious, but goofy – was the stuff I liked to do, so I still do it as an adult." ~ Matt Groening

Preface:  Random Acts of Kick Arse is a movement to bring more of {monthly theme} into our lives, and the lives of those around us. 

December Theme:  Wackiness.  Find ways to incorporate a bit of wackiness into the world.

The Results:  Wacky.  Hmmm….this seemed easy, and then…this seemed really challenging.  I kept over-thinking it.  Racking my brain, how could I incorporate a bit of extra wackiness into life. 

Nothing.

And then (does it pay to have wacky friends?), Carla from MizFit was hosting a Virtual Talent Show, and invited me to participate.  The only thing – what talent did I have?  And…holiday travel plans would be putting us on the road that day. 

Then, as serendipity would have it, two things happened.  Another wacky friend, Josie, suggested I try to top her cheesecake flavored water talent stunt.  And, a major Wisconsin snowstorm changed our travel plans for Christmas.  And so, I present to you, nothing with any talent behind it, although I do think it just may qualify as a bit wacky:

We finished off the holiday season with a family picture, and everyone showing that wacky is a bit of a family tradition around here:

So there you have it.  A little bit of wackiness from here in the jungle…

Once I stopped trying so hard to be a little bit wacky, what I found was that it just sort of happened.  The lesson here for me is that it's really about being ourselves, and what might appear normal to one person, can be a little skewed (or wacky!) to the next person.  And that's okay.  In fact, that is better than okay – that's great!  It's great because, we are all unique.  And letting that uniqueness shine – be it wacky, or goofy, or serious, or odd, or funny, or whatever it happens to be – that is the true YOU shining through.  And nothing is better than that!

Be YOU!  Wackiness and all…

What is Random Acts of Kick Arse (RAOKA)?  With the idea that there are so many ways we can do small things to change the world for good, Sami, from Life, Laughs, and Lemmings took an idea she had and created this movement.  The movement:  A new theme to focus on each month, bringing a little more good to the world.  The movement started in October 2009, with a core group of participants:

Melissa from Operation NICE
Lori from Jane Be Nimble
Dani from Positively Present
Brandi from Joy Rebel
Zeenat from Positive Provocations
Sami from Life, Laughs, and Lemmings

Each month a topic will be chosen to focus on, and then at the start of the next month, the participants will write about their experiences from the previous month.

Interested in joining the movement?  Contact Sami for details.

January Theme:  Gratitude (as chosen by Melissa from Operation Nice)

Logo courtesy of Melissa from Operation NICE

With innovation clubbed with environment sensitivity at its peak, a new stadium at Zaberg designed by Croatia-based njiric+ arhitekti is unique in its own right. It is an amazing volcano shaped piece of architecture, circular, made of light-weighted materials, the ‘Blue Volacano’ as it has been nicknamed rises a little above the ground surface to surround the area within. Not giving it the heavy look, the building is made of light materials such as steel cables, EFTE membranes and a polycarbonate dome. An artificial hill holds up the building and is made up of recycled rubber. Some kind of ‘floating cloud’ covers the stadium. This cloud generates power for the stadium because of the light weight photovoltaic panels on its surface. There have been several eco stadiums developed in the past few months like the The Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya and many more. This is not just any other eco stadium; it definitely is a ‘smart’ eco stadium.

[Inhabitat]

The House of Viktor & Rolf’s men’s collection closely adheres to the mixture of both casual and luxury in their Spring/Summer 2010 range. We see the emergence of tuxedo tops in a more dressed down approach in combination with relaxed slacks and summer footwear. There’s also matching pattern ties and shirts, as well as summer trousers and light fabric button ups. There’s a sense of luxury and comfort in the combination of items, where outfits can easily move from day to evening for the warm weather months.

Continue reading for more images.

Source: A Shaded View