Category: News

Well we know where Redmond’s inheritance is going — straight the nearest dope pusher…..

Redmond O’Neal has been arrested on drug charges for the millionth time.

The only son of Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal was taken into custody Dec. 29 on a felony charge for allegedly scoring heroin while on a 24-hour pass from rehab, RadarOnline revealed on Tuesday.

O’Neal began rehab at the Impact Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center in Pasadena in September. He was ordered to undergo treatment at the facility for one year after a January 2008 drug arrest and a probation violation in September 2009.

Redmond is being held without bail at the Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail and is scheduled to appear in court this afternoon. He faces up to six years behind bars.

Filed under: Truck, Nissan

If you want to be a full-line automaker here in the United States, your dealership lots must be stocked with fullsize pickup trucks. Apparently, despite meager sales of its current Titan pickup, Nissan is committed to doing battle on a level playing field with Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and Toyota. That means remaining in the truck business here in our pickup-loving country, which in turn means a replacement for the stagnant Titan is sorely needed.

Unfortunately for the Japanese automaker, Chrysler’s bankruptcy proceedings allowed the company to divorce itself from its previous agreement to provide Nissan with a Ram-based truck platform for the next-gen Titan. As such, Nissan spokesman Scott Vazin tells USA Today that the automaker is “pretty much going it alone” on its fullsize truck replacement.

Until that next-gen truck is ready – at the moment, no production date has been announced – Nissan will continue to build the current Titan at its factory in Canton, Mississippi.

[Source: USA Today]

Report: Nissan doggedly pursuing Titan replacement, “pretty much going it alone” originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Starting this spring, you won’t need to gather the whole family around a 15-inch laptop screen to talk with cousin Joe on the other side of the country. As a matter of fact, you won’t even need to get up off the sofa after the evening news, because Skype is coming to the big screen – the big TV screen, that is.

Skype announced today that they have been working with LG and Panasonic to embed Skype in Internet-connected widescreen HDTVs.

Sponsor

Skype claims it is listening to its customers who (gasp!) want to get away from their computers once in a while.

“We know that Skype users are increasingly interested in conducting video calls away from their computers,” said Skype CEO Josh Silverman in a press release. “With Skype, consumers […] will now be able to participate in rich, real-time video conversations from the comfort of their couch.”

According to Skype, up to 5 million Skype-enabled TVs will be delivered during 2010, but the TV alone will not do it. In addition to a high-speed connection, users will need to purchase a specially designed web cam, which Skype spokesperson Jennifer Caukin told us would run about $150. Caukin said the web cam is designed to pick up audio from a greater distance, so Skype TV users will be able to remain seated instead of huddling around a microphone. It will also provide high-definition video capabilities.

Skype will be embedded on LG’s NetCast series and Panasonic’s VIERA CAST series of HDTVs.

Discuss

Google’s Nexus One announcement went smoothly as planned — Nexus One confirmed, Android 2.1 detailed and T-Mobile as the launch partner confirmed. All done, all good, except for the little bombshell that was presented at the end. The Nexus One will be hitting both Verizon Wireless and Vodafone this Spring! All you folks who eschewed the Eris and waited on the DROID will get you just reward in a few months. Any DROID or Eris owners out there just throw their handset through the window in disgust?

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Potentially some good news for those T-Mobile fans out there. T-Mobile has completed a scheduled 3G upgrade to its entire network, an upgrade which boosts HSPA speeds from 3.6 Mbps to 7.2 Mbps. T-Mobile had initially promised the speed bump by the end of 2009, but hey, better late than never when it comes to bandwidth. T-Mobile is also promising another upgrade is in 2010 to HSPA+ with peak speeds of 21 Mbps; a trial is already underway in Philadelphia. In our own, very rudimentary, tests here in Boston, we aren’t seeing the 7.2 Mbps type speeds we were hoping, 1990 Kbps down and 200 Kbps up, but we’re keeping our hopes up. Any T-Mo users out there that can report faster 3G speeds?

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Android 2.0 is very much looking like it was just a beta for Android 2.1, which seems, quite frankly, awesome. Let’s take a look at everything it has to offer.

A few non-visual things to know about Android 2.1. Everybody will get access to it when it goes open source in a few days (hurray!). There’s still no multitouch in Google apps. But! The internal storage limit on applications will be going away soon with an upgrade Google mentioned.

It’s on the Nexus One, which Google’s selling right now, first.

The big question: Will your Android phone get it? The official response is that they intend to upgrade every device to the best software version they can support. Not all phones and chips can support all software revisions, like not all old computers can run Windows Vista or Windows 7.

We know every phone that was slated to get Android 2.0, like the HTC Hero, is going direct to 2.1, though.

Green Energy Reporter’s ranking of the top ten players in green energy for the month of December is out! Not surprisingly this month’s ranking focuses on Copenhagen and the disappointing outcome of the much-anticipated UN Climate Change Conference.

New inductees include the dead-on-arrival French carbon tax and the promising but challenging quest to develop utility-scale geothermal power. Not returning this month, after two showings, each justified by his company’s substantial green investments and his controversial pro-carbon tax position, is Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson– (number five in the November ranking and number four in October).

As you know this GER ranking is based on the players’ influence over green energy policy and their ability to move the debate. Other factors that we take into account in making our monthly selection include industry and popular support for their positions, access to capital to fund innovation and the success of their ventures.

5: EnvironmentGuardian.com, the Guardian newspaper

From the start, the Guardian’s environment beat reporters, led by editors John Vidal and James Randerson, got the pulse of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, providing readers coverage that went way beyond the bureaucratic UN press releases. A case in point was the paper’s scoop during the first week of the conference, when it got its hand on a controversial draft binding agreement whose content angered developing nations because it walked away from key Kyoto principles, including the notion that rich nations bear the primary responsibility for cutting emissions. At a time when the newspaper industry is going through a deep existential crisis, the Guardian’s environmental pages and its combination of opinionated features and traditional, hard-boiled reporting from Copenhagen demonstrated that good [environmental] journalism remains a necessity.

4: U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.)

The Oklahoma Republican has never once, in his whole entire life, said anything correct about climate change. His opposition to science, reason and the country’s best interest when it comes to green energy is infuriating. But…

His views represent a large number (though by no means a majority) of Americans, who are distrustful of government-created carbon markets and, well, science. If nothing else, his obstructionist tactics, such as going to Copenhagen with a “truth squad” to protest the U.N. climate summit, provide an excellent foil for the more reasonable voices out there. And as long as he’s out there making noise and getting on Fox News, he’s a player.

3: General Electric

Large cap companies are scrambling to get ready for the green energy future, whether by making sure they don’t take a hit from a cap and trade program or trying to get a piece of the green pie. General Electric, on the other hand, is already firmly ensconced in the green energy business and is doing quite well.

The prototypical industrial giant flexed its muscles in December with the $2 billion megadeal at the Shepherd’s Flat wind farm, for which it will provide 338, 2.5-megawatt wind turbines. The company’s presence in China is also growing by the day.

But GE’s isn’t just a story of industrial might. The company’s Energy Financial Services division is also investing in the wind farm and stands to have a staggering $6 billion invested in the sector by the end of 2010. No wonder Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt is pushing for a climate change law.

2: Ed Miliband, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change

He called the Copenhagen climate change conference “a farce” and blamed the G77 developing nations, in particular China, Brazil and India, of “hijacking the conference.” Throughout the UN climate change summit, which concluded last month, the young British minister called a spade a spade, providing reporters spin-free commentary, all in an effort to get developing nations to back a binding agreement to fight climate change. On the Guardian Website, Miliband noted that despite the disappointment, Copenhangen was a first step that could lead to an eventual binding and effective global climate change agreement. He wrote: “Today many people will be feeling gloomy about the results of their efforts. But no campaign ever wholly succeeds at the first time of asking. We should take heart from the achievements and step up our efforts.” In Miliband, the climate change movement has found a young, fiery, articulate spokesman who’ll hopefully continue to push for a comprehensive climate change agreement well after his tenure at the energy and environment ministry ends.

1: China’s climate change negotiators

The Copenhagen climate change summit became China’s coming-out party as one of the world’s new power brokers. In Copenhagen, China and its team of negotiators became the defacto voices of the world’s developing nations. The fact that its economy is many times larger than some of the countries it spoke for was a fact overlooked by most. If there is a winner left standing after the disappointment that was Copenhagen, it’s China. It came to Denmark not wanting a global binding agreement and left with exactly that. In reaching that goal, it even played hard ball with U.S. President Obama as it met behind his back with South Africa and India to craft their own agreement. Moving forward, China has anchored itself as THE unavoidable hurdle — ahead of other BRIC countries like India and Brazil — standing in the way of a comprehensive climate change agreement.

Photo Credit: The White House via Wikimedia

Adapted from “Dealing with a Spoiler? Negotiate Around the Problem,” by Robert C. Bordone, Clinical Professor, Harvard Law School, first published in the “Negotiation newsletter.”

At one time or another, most of us have confronted a fellow negotiator who seemed intent on blocking even our most reasonable requests and actions. This was the situation faced by Alexis, the CIO at a midsize publishing company. Phil, the company’s CEO, hired Alexis to create an online information system tailored to the needs of their largest customers. Phil promised to support Alexis as she implemented the new system and restructured the IT department. The two met on many occasions to negotiate issues related to cost, increased staff needs, impact on customers, and coordination challenges.

Despite his promises of cooperation, in almost every meeting with Alexis, Phil proved to be a barrier to her problem-solving efforts. He repeatedly denied her request to increase the size of her staff, limited her authority, and delayed making important decisions. To her frustration, Alexis faced huge project delays, rising costs, and low credibility throughout the organization. She felt stuck between two unhappy choices: accepting the status quo or starting another job search.

When interpersonal and tactical strategies fail to win over someone whose approval is essential to your goals, the negotiation may seem hopeless. Fortunately, there is an option of last resort. Consider crafting a workaround—a strategic approach to getting what you need without the involvement or support of your adversary.

Here’s one way. If your counterpart is holding out simply because the cost of doing so is low and the possible benefits are high, consider building coalitions that exploit what professor James Sebenius of Harvard Business School has termed patterns of deference, or the tendency for parties to follow influential others on a particular course. By increasing the number of players in the game, you can restructure talks in your favor.

To begin, make a list of current and potential parties who may be able to influence the spoiler on your behalf. Next, consider each party’s interests and the patterns of deference that exist among them and with the target. Map these relationships backward to your target and construct an optimal sequence of approach. Finally, make your case to these individuals. By the time you reach your target, you should find that you’ve amassed a strong coalition.

Attempting such a workaround, Alexis listed key individuals inside and outside the publishing house who might be affected by the IT department’s ability to deliver the new online system, including several department heads and the buyers for a number of chain bookstores. After assessing these parties’ interests and likely patterns of deference, Alexis concluded that Phil, the CEO, had great respect for David, the firm’s marketing director. David, in turn, was extremely sensitive to the needs of the firm’s largest customers.

Alexis approached a buyer’s rep with one of the bookstore chains, someone she had worked with in the past. She discussed the benefits of the new system to bookstores and explained that internal challenges could stall implementation. The customer was persuaded to lobby David to get the system up and running. Alexis then met with David and explained that her project was strapped for resources. To her relief, David agreed to speak with Phil. Two days later, Phil gave Alexis the green light to hire the technical staff she needed to get the job done.

A workaround based on coalition building comes with certain risks, especially when it leads you to violate traditional channels of communication within your organization. Alexis’s decision to approach an important client about sensitive internal issues could have backfired. For this reason, enlist only those you know and trust to your cause.

ESPN has long been the leader in live HDTV and the network is about to stay ahead of the curve yet again by launching its own 3D network early this summer. But this network is just a test and ESPN is only committing to it through June 2011. So if you really want your kids growing up watching live 3D events, you better support ESPN’s effort.

The initial broadcast will be a World Cup soccer match, followed later on by the Summer X Games, NBA games, and collegic football and basketball. It seems like ESPN really doesn’t know how this is going to pan out. There are apparently a lot of questions about how subscribers will get the stations, if they will have to pay a premium, and if anyone besides sport’s nerds will really watch it.

But props to ESPN and Disney for at least trying something new instead of taking a backseat while some other network potentially loses a crapton of money in 3D.

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The Nexus One event is in the books and it’s time for everyone to chime in with their impressions.  What did we learn today?  Anything new or that wasn’t already predicted/leaked?    Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Looking for a reason to register at Boise State? Just take a look at the major they’re offering safety Jeron Johnson!

Remember that awesome Philips LivingColors lamp? Well, the Yantouch might be even better—and it looks like a UFO with a disco inside it.

What makes it even more unique is the touch panel interface that you can use to cycle between colors and brightness levels. You can also set the lamp to automatically cycle through colors or illuminate only the undercarriage—resulting in a cool backlighting effect. We are not sure if the Yantouch will ever make it to the States, but it is available now in Japan for the equivalent of $160. [Yantouch via Impress via Technabob]

Filed under: Accessories, Software, iPhone, App Store

Here’s an app from among the App Store’s stranger selections. Much like the Zippo Hand Warmer, PocketHeat [iTunes link] is meant to keep your hands warm.

it works by making the iPhone max out 100% of its power processing capacity. A slider lets you adjust the temperature and illuminate the “heating elements.” According to several App Store reviews, it doesn’t work so well.

We don’t know just how hot it gets, but we imagine there are safeguards to prevent serious overheating. According to the Apple Knowledge Base, the iPhone should be operated “…in a place where the temperature is between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F).” Prolonged exposure to extreme heat will produce the temperature warning screen. The app got approved (somehow), so we assume it’s safe. But I’m not installing it.

We don’t know why you’d want to run your undoubtedly-still-on-contract iPhone at 100% capacity — buried inside a confined pocket — for any length of time, but that’s up to you. At the very least your battery would drain in no time. At worst, well … let’s not find out. You can get PocketHeat now for $0.99US.

Or just buy gloves.

TUAWApp warms your hands by overheating your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Americans’ car fleet dropped by a sizeable four million vehicles in 2009, the only large decline since the Department of Transportation began keeping records in 1960, The Globe and Mail reports.

Americans bought 10 million cars but sent 14 million to the scrap yard this year, bringing the total down to 246 million nation-wide.

Analysts have come up with an eclectic list of factors that could be responsible for the drop, from high gas prices and the expansion of municipal transit systems to the popularity of networking websites that make it easier for teenagers to socialize without leaving home.

Auto sales for the month of December, however, were expected to be the second best month of the year after August, when the “cash for clunkers” rebate program temporarily revived the auto industry.

The Earth Policy Institute, an environmental think tank based in Washington, on Wednesday will issue an analysis stating that the drop in 2009 is not a recession induced fluke, but the beginning of a long-term decline that will see the U.S. fleet drop by another 25 million by 2020.

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See Also:

• Even Without Cash For Clunkers, Americans Keep Bingeing On Cars
• Cash For Clunkers May Have Altered Car-Buying Permanently

General Motors said Monday that it sold a record 1.83 million vehicles in China last year, a 66.9 percent jump over 2008, AFP reports.

GM also expressed optimism that 2010 will see even more sales. The company’s market share was up 1.3 percentage points to an estimated 13.4 percent.

GM China Group president Kevin Wale noted that China, whose car sales surpassed the U.S.’s for the first time last January, would play a leading role in driving GM’s overall sales.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the Asian giant’s total auto sales for the first 11 months of 2009 reached 12.23 million units.

Shanghai GM, a joint venture with China’s largest auto maker SAIC Motor Corp, saw sales rise 63.3 percent from the previous year to 727,620 units in 2009.

Back in November, the auto giant announced that it would begin paying back bailout funds before the end of 2009.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• GM Will Crank Cars 24-Hours A Day In Bid To Surpass Toyota In Efficiency
• GM Says It Will Begin Paying Back Government Loans By Year End
• Rattner: You Won’t Believe How Incompetent GM’s Management Was

Google this week is taking two dramatic steps to try to catapult devices using its Android mobile operating system into stronger competition with Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry in the battle for supremacy in the super-smartphone category.

First, the search giant is bringing out a beautiful, sleek new Android phone, the Nexus One, built to its specifications. Second, it has decided to offer the new phone—and future models—to consumers directly, unlocked, via the Web, and then invite multiple carriers to compete to sell service plans and subsidized versions of the hardware.

One carrier is ready to support the Nexus One on day one: the U.S. arm of T-Mobile, a longstanding Google partner. The new Google Phone, built by HTC of Taiwan, will cost $529 unlocked direct from Google, at google.com/phone. It will cost $179 from T-Mobile online with a two-year contract that will set you back $79.99 a month.

Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and Vodafone in Europe will sell the Nexus One eventually at subsidized prices that haven’t yet been announced. All of this will take place on a Google-hosted Web site, a much easier way to buy a phone and service than is typical today, and one that promises to further weaken the power of the carriers.

The company also plans to sell the costlier, unsubsidized version to consumers in the U.K., Hong Kong and Singapore immediately. Like Americans who buy this unlocked version, these customers will have to purchase carrier service separately, something they should be able to obtain right away by just buying and inserting a SIM card from a carrier with compatible technology. (This initial unlocked phone won’t work with Verizon or Sprint in the U.S., nor on AT&T’s 3G network, only the latter’s slower network.)

I’ve been testing the Nexus One for a couple of weeks and I like it a lot. It’s the best Android phone so far, in my view, and the first I could consider carrying as my everyday hand-held computer. It is a svelte gray device with a 3.7-inch, high-resolution screen; a thin strip of buttons underneath for home, back, menu and search; and a trackball.

The Nexus One finally has the right combination of hardware and software to give Android a champion that might attract more people away from their iconic iPhones and BlackBerrys. It has a larger screen than Apple’s phone, and is a bit thinner, narrower and lighter—if a tad longer. And it boasts a better camera and longer talk time between battery charges.

Also, because it will be available on the large, well-regarded Verizon 3G network, the Nexus One could tempt American iPhone users, tired of problems with AT&T, to switch.

The iPhone still retains some strong advantages. It boasts well over 100,000 third-party apps—around 125,000 by some unofficial estimates—versus around 18,000 for the Android platform. And it has vastly more memory for storing apps, so you can keep many more of them on your phone at any one time. On the Nexus One, only 190 megabytes of its total 4.5 gigabytes of memory is allowed for storing apps. On the $199 iPhone, nearly all of the 16 gigabytes of memory can be used for apps.

In fact, the $199 iPhone 3GS has roughly four times as much user-accessible memory out of the box, though the memory on the Nexus One can be expanded via memory cards. Apple also has a more-fluid user interface, with multitouch gestures for handling photos and Web pages.

As for the BlackBerry, its user interface looks older and clumsier with each passing day, but it has a beautiful physical keyboard many users love, while the Nexus One has a virtual, onscreen keyboard.

The Nexus One is packed with its own tricks. Its version of Android is essentially the same improved edition as the one that appeared on the Motorola Droid back in November. But it has a few new features, including an experimental dictation capability. You just press a microphone icon on the keyboard and start talking, and the words appear. In my tests, this worked only adequately at best, and very poorly at worst, but Google insists it will learn and improve.

The phone also has handsome new visual features, including “live wallpaper,” with waving grass or pulsing colored lines; and a new zooming effect when you want to view icons that aren’t on your main screens. In addition, you can now view miniatures of your five main screens to help you navigate to the one you want.

The Nexus One also has all the key software features introduced in the Droid, including free turn-by-turn voice-prompted navigation.

In my tests, overall, the Nexus One worked very well. The latency I had seen in earlier Android phones is gone, due to a slicker version of the operating system and faster chips. The phone feels good in the hand and the screen is magnificent, with much greater resolution than the iPhone’s.

I like very much the way social-networking information, including status messages, is integrated into the contacts app. One tap on a person’s picture in Contacts lets you quickly choose whether to call, email or message her, or map her address—all without opening the contact card itself.

I also liked the pictures and videos I was able to take with the five-megapixel camera and flash, which I preferred to my iPhone’s camera. You can even view a photo slideshow or listen to music when the phone is in the optional desktop dock.

But there are some downsides to the Nexus One. Like all Android phones, it relies too much, in my view, on menus that create extra steps, including some menus that have a built-in “more” button to display a secondary menu of choices.

I also found the four buttons etched into the phone’s bottom panel sticky and hard to press. In addition, although the Nexus One claims seven hours of talk time versus five hours for the iPhone, most of its battery-life claims for other functions are weaker than Apple’s.

For instance, Google claims just 6.5 hours of Wi-Fi Web use per charge, versus nine for the iPhone, and 20 for music playback versus 30. Google claims this is because, unlike Apple, it allows the simultaneous use of third-party apps, which can drain the battery faster.

In addition, the Nexus One, and other Android devices, still pale beside the iPhone for playing music, video and games. The apps available for these functions aren’t nearly as sophisticated as on the Apple devices.

Finally, the iPhone is still a better apps platform. Not only are there more apps, but, in my experience, iPhone apps are generally more polished and come in more varieties.

But, with its fresh phone and bold business model, Google is taking Android to a new level, and that should ramp up the competition in the super-smartphone space.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at [email protected].

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at [email protected]

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Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The North Sea’s wind farms could meet 10 percent of Europe’s energy needs It’s set to be the biggest transnational power network of its kind. Europe is planning a massive electricity grid to run under …