Category: News

Don’t worry Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3, we didn’t forget about you — even if we are totally smitten with the your futuristic sibling the IdeaPad S1 Hybrid. The 10-inch S10-3 throws away the design of the S10 and S10-2 for a thinner body and a decorated lid, and we’ve got to say the 2.4 pound netbook felt quite light and sturdy in our hand. Under the lid we’re loving the same chiclet style keyboard that we saw on the Skylight, though the touchpad with integrated mouse buttons looks a bit small for our tastes. For $399 ($379 on Amazon) the S10-3 seems like it could be quite a worthy 10-inch netbook competitor, though we will have to see what its Intel Atom N470 and three-cell battery (there’s an optional six-cell) provide in terms of battery life.

The $499 S10-3t tablet version is going to take a bit more of a sell though. The convertible netbook (fine, netvertible) is thicker and heavier than the S10-3 largely due to its hinge and thicker touchscreen. But regardless of the somewhat awkward design (especially with a protruding six-cell battery strapped to its back), the capacitive touchscreen was quite responsive to our touches and gestures, and we’re pretty impressed with Lenovo’s Natural Touch interface that its got running on top of Windows 7 Home Premium. But don’t take our word for it, hit the break for a look at the finger-friendly fun in action.

Continue reading Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 and S10-3t hands-on

Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 and S10-3t hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• iP90 Clock Radio/Audio System: This is the latest clock radio from the company, displaying a sleek design (pictured above) that’s much more visually appealing than the last one we saw and, interestingly, sports a sync button that will suck the time right out of your iPhone and use it to set the device. No more swearing at yourself for scrolling too quickly past 9:54pm.
• iP42 Dual Alarm Clock Radio: This version (pictured after the break) slims things down a bit and, honestly, uglies them up a bit compared to the iP90, but adds the ability to manage two alarms at once. Sync button makes an appearance here, too.
• iP39 Kitchen Timer and FM Alarm Clock Radio: Wrapping things up is a cooking companion, featuring stainless steel accents that are said to provide “the look and feel of a premium kitchen appliance.” Sadly we have no images of this Bertazzoni wanna-be, but we do know that it’s designed to be easy to clean, also sports an alarm clock, and adds a dual bake timer into the mix as well.

Continue reading iHome’s new clock radios will ensure neither you nor your iPhone ever sleep too late

iHome’s new clock radios will ensure neither you nor your iPhone ever sleep too late originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[Thanks, Freddy]

Continue reading Modder merges Bose headphones with inline Apple remote, shows you how (video)

Modder merges Bose headphones with inline Apple remote, shows you how (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony NW-A845 Walkman slips into European hands, too thin to be noticed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can’t wait to get the faster, theoretical 4.8 Gbps data transfer speeds in your laptop promised by USB 3.0? Seagate is happy to help get you there with the BlackArmor PS 110 Upgrade Kit. The $179.99 package includes a portable Seagate USB drive with 500 GB of storage with included data backup software for Windows computers. A certified USB 3.0 cable tags along as does a unique way to “upgrade” your laptop to USB 3.0. The company estimates the actual throughput to be three times faster than a USB 2.0 solution.

Since we can’t all just rip open our notebooks and swap out USB interfaces, Seagate’s upgrade kit provides a PC Card adapter with a USB 3.0 port. That means this solution is fairly limited since only laptops with PC Card slots can take advantage of it, but if you’ve got one, this upgrade kit will work as advertised. I’d call this one for the early adapter crowd, but ironically I’d estimate that most early adopters have moved beyond PC Card slots by now.

If you’re bullish about Brazil, Russia, India, and China, then don’t forget there is an entire second tier of less-appreciated-but-giant economic growth stories — the MAVINS.

Commodities play a major role for these economies.

They are uniquely positioned to feed and benefit from global economic growth via their relative commodity advantages, yet at the same time, they have massive domestic market expansion opportunities due to a surplus of under-utilized land or people.

With the right policies, these nations are likely to blow away expectations over time and become leading powers in their regions. The MAVINS combined economies could easily equal 60% of today’s America by 2020, over 200% of today’s America by 2050, and then keep growing robustly thereafter.

Meet the MAVINS — >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The BRICs Will Power A Huge Year For Base Metals
• Russia Is The One BRIC Energy Companies Aren’t Interested In
• Goldman Sachs Likes BRICs, Leverage, And Cyclicals

Filed under: Convertible, Coupe, Smart, Design/Style

Not digging the Smart ForTwo‘s two-color paint palette? Think you can do better? You’re in luck. Daimler, Smart‘s German parent company, has announced a contest where customers and budding designers can customize their own ForTwo. Hit up styleyoursmart.com and you can… well, style your Smart.

You have until February 23rd to post your own smarty-pants design, and the winners will be announced three days later. America’s tiniest automaker promises prizes totaling about $7,200 (€5,000), which, we imagine, is plenty of money to turn your design into a reality… assuming you already own a ForTwo.

At this point, the contest has just begun and there don’t seem to be too many contestants just yet, so we grabbed the most colorful option for our lead image above. We briefly considered plastering our own Fortwo with the Autoblog logo, but thought better of it. Perhaps if they’d finally fix that transmission… Press release after the break.

[Source: Smart]

Continue reading Visually Challenged: Daimler encourages you to design your own Smart, results vary

Visually Challenged: Daimler encourages you to design your own Smart, results vary originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gov. Pat Quinn today signed a bill into law that will provide greater consumer protection to Illinois residents with health insurance.

The new law ensures that all denied health insurance claims can soon be reviewed and decided upon by a qualified, independent doctor.

“This important consumer protection legislation will improve health insurance in Illinois and help people fight back when claims are unfairly denied,” said Gov. Quinn.

“This new law guarantees the right to an independent review of denied claims for everyone with health insurance in Illinois.”

Under current State law, only Illinois health consumers who are enrolled in a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) have the right to an independent, external review when claims are denied.

However, millions of Illinois residents, with other types of health insurance coverage, do not have this important right.

Effective July 1, House Bill 3923 extends the right to an independent review of a denied claim to all Illinois residents with health insurance coverage.

The new law will allow Illinois residents to submit their health insurance claim for an external review after it is denied by their insurer.

The external review will be conducted by a qualified, independent doctor, who is selected by a nationally-accredited and Illinois Department of Insurance-approved Independent Review Organization.

The external review is binding and must be completed within 20 business days. In certain urgent cases the review must be completed within 72 to 120 hours.

Also under the new law, insurance providers that cover small businesses must accept a standard insurance application by Jan. 1, 2011.

This new requirement means small businesses, which usually do not have dedicated human resources departments, will not have to fill out long and often complex applications that differ from one insurer to another.

The standard application enhances insurer competition and makes it easier for businesses and individuals to shop around for the best and most affordable insurance, according to the Illinois Department of Insurance. This law also applies to individuals who will now be able to use a standard health insurance application.

The standard application will be developed by a committee of consumers, small business owners, insurance agents and insurance company representatives. The committee will work with the Illinois Department of Insurance.

Last week, when you were making sure your champagne was chilled to celebrate the demise of the awful first decade of the 2000’s, GMAC also had reason to rejoice. On December 30th, it got its third bailout from the government. Given the timing, you might have missed this news. Well there’s some more this week: GMAC expects to post a $5 billion loss. For just the 4th quarter. It’s very disappointing to see the government continue to plow money into such a flawed firm.

Let’s quickly review the bailout tally for GMAC thus far. Its fresh $3.8 billion bailout from last week adds to its prior $13.5 billion. This also increases the U.S. government’s stake to 56.3% — a majority share. So congratulations American taxpayers: you now own GMAC too.

And how about the firm’s recent performance? Its full-year loss is now expected to total around $10 billion.

Since I’ve already made the argument that GMAC should be allowed to perish, I guess there’s not a whole lot else for me to analyze on this front, other than just to shake my head in disgust.

It’s doing so poorly mostly because of its terrible mortgage portfolio. Why keep the firm alive? Do we really need it to originate new mortgages? No, we have plenty of other banks to do that. Do we need it for auto loans? No, GM can go elsewhere to get its auto loans financed. Maybe I’m missing something; I still need some help on this one.

The firm doesn’t appear to pose systemic risk to the economy. But its failure probably poses significant risk to Washington’s fundraising efforts. Luckily for those politicians, the news of the latest bailout was neatly drowned out by the New Year’s holiday.

After watching all the ads,  you’re finally thinking about getting a new smart phone but not sure what to get. Maybe price is an issue, or maybe it performance. Ether way I hope that this is a help to your new year shopping. It seems that the guys at BillShrink have put a nice article together on what is the overall cheapest phone today.

In terms of “new generation of smart phones”, it’s nice to see two Android handsets on the list.  Do you think the Nexus One can be the flagship phone they’ve been waiting for?

Hironobu Sakaguchi and the rest of the Mistwalker crew might’ve promised more info (qjnet/news/mistwalker-to-divulge-more-details-about-new-game-spring-of-next-year.html) coming this spring about their new project but we’re not waiting for the snow to melt before they spill some beans. A

Remember the Noble supercars? Lee Noble, one of the men that helped grow the Noble brand left the automaker a while ago and decided to produce a supercar of his own. The company is called Fenix Automotive and their first car is already being built at their headquarters in South Africa.

The new car is a mid-engined two seater with a new design and a chassis built by Lee Noble himself.

"The M12 was hugely successful, but we needed to move the game on in terms of… (read more)

A vessel carrying vehicles from Hyundai and its sister company Kia was hijacked by Somali pirates last week. The ship, known as Asian Glory and operated by EUKOR Car Carriers, was hijacked on New Years day while on its way to Saudi Arabia after departing from Ulsan.

According to statement today from South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritimes Affairs, the vessel was carrying a total of 2,405 vehicles including 2,388 from Hyundai and Kia.

“As soon as the vessel embarks, all risks related to the vessel are the responsibility of the distributor,” Hyundai said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg. “All payments for the cars have been made, while the cars are also insured.”

The hijacking of the vessel was among the first successful attacks on merchant ships in the 500-mile security corridor since July.

Hyundai Motor and Kia have asked for a quick and safe return of the crew, the Korean automaker said.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Bloomberg

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Coupe, Performance

Last year, the HP2g E85-powered Mustang was at the Detroit Auto Show, and things were looking pretty good for Doug Pelmear and his 110 miles-per-gallon equivalent plan. He was participating in the Automotive X Prize and was confident he would at least win the popularity portion of the AXP thanks to the classic looks of his entry vehicle.

Fast forward a year and things haven’t turned out quite as well as Pelmear had hoped. In June, he and his team acrimoniously dropped out of the X Prize, and while the HP2g Mustang still made a few appearances, the company’s next vehicle – the Revenge Verde Super Car – was supposed to be at the LA Auto Show last month. It wasn’t. Thankfully, when the Detroit Auto Show kicks off next week, Pelmear will be on hand at the NAIAS Green Zone with the Revenge Verde from Revenge Designs Inc.

Like the Mustang, the Revenge Verde uses the V8 HP2g engine that is supposed to get 110 mpg. We’ll get more information from Cobo Hall next week, but what we’ve heard before says that the V8 engine puts out 400 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque with CO2 emissions under 200 g/km. Stay tuned for more.

[Source: HP2g]

Continue reading Detroit Preview: HP2g Revenge Verde Super Car

Detroit Preview: HP2g Revenge Verde Super Car originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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