Category: News

The generl consensus is that november retail sales, including Black Friady and subsequent days, were something of a flop.

But maybe consumers were just sitting on their hands. Maybe.

Goldman Sachs retail analyst Michelle Tan thinks there’s reason to believe that December may have salvaged the season, as shoppers returned to malls.

—-

GS/ICSC Weekly Sales Index: Pickup last week from last minute
Holiday shopping
The ICSC Weekly Index is a long-standing, proprietary statistical measure compiled by the
International Council of Shopping Centers, now in collaboration with Goldman Sachs. The
index:
• Incorporates data from broadlines and mall-based retailers, past weekly spending
patterns and a weekly shopper survey. 
The raw yoy change in the index closely correlates with monthly same-store sales results
(Exhibit 4), while the seasonally adjusted data smoothes out fluctuations due to calendar
shifts, weather, and other extraneous factors to offer a better picture of the underlying
health of retail sales.

Month to date, the raw GS/ICSC index is +2.5%, above November which averaged
+1.0%. After seasonal adjustment, the GS/ICSC adjusted index was +2.3% last week,
well above the prior week but below November (which averaged +2.9%). 

Mall traffic, in particular, is clearly picking up.

December-to-date mall traffic still above November 
Weekly mall traffic is tracked by ShopperTrak using a proprietary traffic projection
methodology. The SRTI Enclosed Mall Index captures traffic from a sample of enclosed
malls and projects it to the total base of enclosed malls. The correlation between year-on-
year changes in the SRTI Mall Traffic Index and our comp sales indices is low, partly
because mall traffic does not reflect changes in conversion trends. Notwithstanding this,
over time there is some relationship between directional changes in year-on-year mall
traffic and comp sales of mall-based apparel retailers and department stores. Month to
date, mall traffic is +1.2% compared to the November average of -1.6%. 

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Christmas Retail Rally Could Be Toast
• Why The Tough November For Retail Doesn’t Mean A Bad December
• Holiday Sales Figures Aren’t Completely Horrible

Filed under: Budget, Sedan, China, Chevrolet

The Chinese-market Chevrolet Sail has had quite a life, at one time being a rebadged Opel, at another time being built in China, at another time being called the Buick Sail. The 2010 model has been spotted – which was at one time thought to be the new Chevy Lova – and it’s plastic fantastic. Honestly, when we look at it we don’t even think Aveo, we think Cavalier, and then feel bad for anyone who might have to live through that experience.

But that’s our own flashbacks; the car has sold well and appears to have a solid reputation in China, and the 2010 version should continue the trend. Engine options are said to number two: a 1.2-liter with 78 horsepower, and a 1.4-liter with 96 hp. They will work through a five-speed manual or perhaps a four-speed auto in an upper trim. The price in China is expected to be less than $9,390.

[Source: Autohome (translated) via Autoblog Spanish (translated)]

New Chevrolet sets Sail for China originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With a $99 price tag, the Apple iPhone 3G is perfect for the person that doesn’t need the extra storage space, processor enhancements, or other goodies that come with the 3GS model.  That being said, another model is rumored to launch in June, so it’s assumed that the low-end model will be refreshed.

According to a report by Gizmodo, a German user reported receiving a replacement for his 8 GB iPhone 3G.  Though the device was in fact a standard 3G model, the box clearly indicated “iPhone 3GS, 8GB.”  So we’re either looking at a typo on the box, or a complete mismatch between old and new packaging.  One thing is for sure: launching the 3GS at the $99 price point would re-raise the bar on other sub-$100 smartphones in the arena. 

Perhaps we’ll hear more at the Apple event on January 26th.  Any speculations out there?

Via: PhoneArena

With a $99 price tag, the Apple iPhone 3G is perfect for the person that doesn’t need the extra storage space, processor enhancements, or other goodies that come with the 3GS model.  That being said, another model is rumored to launch in June, so it’s assumed that the low-end model will be refreshed.

According to a report by Gizmodo, a German user reported receiving a replacement for his 8 GB iPhone 3G.  Though the device was in fact a standard 3G model, the box clearly indicated “iPhone 3GS, 8GB.”  So we’re either looking at a typo on the box, or a complete mismatch between old and new packaging.  One thing is for sure: launching the 3GS at the $99 price point would re-raise the bar on other sub-$100 smartphones in the arena. 

Perhaps we’ll hear more at the Apple event on January 26th.  Any speculations out there?

Via: PhoneArena

When a startup files an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch an initial public offering, it opens up info galore about the private company’s history, finances and strategy. We dug through the more than 230-page document filed yesterday by biocatalyst developer Codexis, and found tidbits on just how much the startup […]

Black Grape Resveratrol is a diet pill that claims it will help you lose weight and improve your life (website). However, this Black Grape Resveratrol review will expose the truth behind Black Grape Resveratrol so you know what to expect.

Black Grape Resveratrol Ingredients

The only ingredient listed on the Black Grape Resveratrol website is black grape. I contacted Black Grape Resveratrol customer service (via email since they do not have a customer service phone number). I specifically asked what ingredients are contained in Black Grape Resveratrol. Unfortunately, after 3 days I still have not heard back from them. Therefore, there is no way of knowing what other ingredients (if any) are contained in Black Grape Resveratrol.

There have been very bold claims made about black grape. The truth is it is a fad just like acai. It is an excellent antioxidant, but there is no scientific evidence to prove black grape will actually cause weight loss.

Black Grape Resveratrol Customer Service

In an attempt to find the complete list of ingredients in Black Grape Resveratrol, I contacted their customer service. Unfortunately, they do not have a customer service phone number. The only way to contact them is through email. I specifically asked for a list of ingredients, but they still have not responded after 3 days.

Black Grape Resveratrol Return Policy

Black Grape Resveratrol has one of the worst return policies I have ever seen. You have 7 days from receipt of the product to return it. In addition, the package must be unopened. This means you can’t even try it before you return it.

Therefore, if you try it and it doesn’t work you are just out of luck. Seven days is not nearly long enough to return a product. Companies should give 90 days and allow you to return opened packages.

Black Grape Resveratrol also has a 15% restocking fee, something you will only find in the fine print.

Black Grape Resveratrol Cost

Black Grape Resveratrol costs $34.95 per bottle (a one month supply). They claim this is much less expensive than the price of most products that include black grape. While this may be true, there is no reason to believe Black Grape Resveratrol diet pills will actually cause weight loss. Therefore, this Black Grape Resveratrol review finds $34.95 is too much to pay for Black Grape Resveratrol.

Black Grape Resveratrol Claims

The Black Grape Resveratrol website makes some interesting and misleading claims. They claim Black Grape Resveratrol is “pharmaceutical grade.” However, they do not explain what that really means. Products containing black grape are sold over the counter, so why do they advertise it as being pharmaceutical grade?

They also claim that Black Grape Resveratrol exceeds the standards set by the FDA. The way it is worded as well as the way it is presented on the website makes it seem that Black Grape Resveratrol diet pills have been approved by the FDA. However, the FDA does NOT approve any diet pills.

Black Grape Resveratrol Conclusion

This Black Grape Resveratrol review finds Black Grape Resveratrol is overpriced. There is no reason to believe it will cause weight loss. Do yourself a favor and go with a diet pill that includes proven ingredients in the appropriate amounts.

There is one area where multi-touch is definitely useful, and that is emulating the multiple buttons needed in game emulation, especially on today’s hardware button deficient devices.

Blutz on XDA-Developers have been working on getting the Morphgear game emulator to work better on the HTC HD2, and has recently added real multi-touch to the mix, and it certainly looks like its working pretty well.

Read more about this feat at XDA-Developers here.

Gosh, what ever shall we talk about tonight on PalmCast Live? How about the little webOS update that could? Yes, that’ll do.

8pm Eastern, tonight. If you have questions, we’ll endeavor to answer them. Just tweet it out and be sure to include the #palmcast hashtag.

We like to give stuff away almost as much as you like to get free stuff. We figure there are enough folks with new devices that could use a Touchstone and enough folks who wouldn’t spit on a second (or third?) Touchstone, so that’ll be the prize tonight, complete with a battery door to go along with it, be it for Pre or Pixi.

That’s the story, 8pm Eastern tonight. We’ll see you there.

Everybody has a damn iPhone app nowadays, and why should NCAA programs be any different? Row27 Studios, a design firm that has 58 NCAA clients including the Cal Bears, UNC Tar Heels and Florida Gators, has begun to fill that void. They’ve created an iPhone app that is perfect for University sports programs, and provides them with a way of reaching their fans through the mobile device we all know and love (or not). They launched their first app for the University of Kansas Jayhawks, and it boasts great features such as live scoring, RSS feeds of team news and a couple cool minigames to occupy you during half-time.

The Kansas Jayhawks app is just the first iteration of this platform, which can be re-purposed for any other NCAA sports program. According to Creative Director Jonathan Dusing, due to Row27’s close relationships with other NCAA sports teams, their iPhone app will probably soon be appear under many other college sports names.

Perhaps even more interesting than the launch of the app is the fact that Row27 didn’t spend a dime of its own money on development. The app was built as a custom project for Kansas University and Row27 managed to keep the rights to re-purpose the same application for other college sports teams. Besides being a great way to run a business, it also means that no other sports team has to take the risk KU did when requesting development of the app. Granted, KU bit the bullet – but they also got the special attention of getting to decide all the features and the specifics of the app themselves. It’s a win-win.

The app itself is pretty cool. Besides features that are available elsewhere such as live scoring and in-depth game-by-game statistics for all major sports, the app also has tons of additional features perfect for a University-specific sports application. For example, you can chat with other KU fans within the app – a great way to ask questions such as “What’s the best happy hour after the game” or “How do we make sure Cal doesn’t upset us during our game tomorrow?” Furthermore, it’s connected to KU’s news feeds so fans can get all of the sports news their hearts desire.

But one of the real benefits is for fringe sports – if you’re interested in Volleyball, Soccer, Softball and Baseball, it can be hard to get real-time sports statistics at the collegiate level on mobile. Because this is a University-sanctioned application, Row27’s app can provide data that no other application can. They are integrated to the standard NCAA statistics management system (Stat Crew) so they can stream statistics for any game that have live statistics.

It’ll be interesting to see if such turn-key branded applications do well on the App Store. With football season gone, it may be a while until the Kansas Jayhawks app will do a couple thousand sales, but I have no doubt that you’ll soon see branded apps across most NCAA programs. It’s just a matter of time.

UPDATED: I previously wrote that the app was named “Kansas University app.” Now changed to “Kansas Jayhawks app.” Furthermore, per a commenter, it is “University of Kansas” not “Kansas University.”

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

We didn’t do it then

We need to do it now

But then was now

And now becomes then

And the question remains

When?

I’ve just spent a long time perusing our site, trying to compile just a few of my favorite posts of 2009. In doing so, I’ve taken peeks at several different continents, numerous countries, and ingredients of all varieties. And surprisingly, considering my cheesemonger leanings, none of them are cheese-related, all thanks to the diversity of our editors’ interests.

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Mode gives us a closer look at Acne’s Spring/Summer 2010 offerings. The Swedish label turns to a more relaxed and laid back look with neutral hues and softer fabrics. Light leather jackets are the highlight pieces for now, but the more simple items such as button downs, sweaters and trousers are also worth the look. As for footwear, we see a very interesting play on design especially with animal prints and contrasting colors.

Photographs by Daniel Troyse.

Continue reading for more images.

Source: Mode

Article Tags: Kenneth P. Green

In the aftermath of the Copenhagen Climate conference, it is clear that the United Nations-driven process is a bust, and that any similar process requiring economic suicide and massive wealth transfers will go nowhere. It is long since time to drop this charade, take the question of climate change out of the hands of the U.N., and implement more reasonable policies.

Fostering the resilience of societies around the world in case climate disaster strikes would be a start. Central to this process is for governments to stop making things worse, as they do when they subsidize risk-taking.

One reason that predicted damages from rising sea-levels and more powerful storms are so high is because of the popularity of coastal locales for high-density business and upscale residential development. As a result, damages from extreme coastal weather events have been fantastically expensive. The damages from Hurricane Katrina for example, reached over $150 billion. The question, however, is why there was so much value that was so badly protected against completely predictable events? Why were levees and sea-walls so under-designed? Why were so many houses and businesses uninsured? As Charles Perrow observes in “The Next Catastrophe,” “Even in areas known to be hazardous, only about 20% of homeowners purchase flood insurance, and less than 50% of businesses purchase flood and earthquake insurance in risky areas.”

Source: online.wsj.com

Read in full with comments »   

When China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group takes over FoMoCo’s Volvo next year, it will leave the Swedish luxury brand untouched. According to Li Shufu, the founder and chairman of Geely, Volvo’s production, research and development facilities, union agreements and dealer networks will be left intact.

“If the deal succeeds, nothing will change for Volvo, except the boss turns to Li Shufu,” Li said. “Volvo and Geely will be two independently-managed brands.”

Li said that Geely’s purchase of Volvo will help his company develop new energy vehicles, and that Geely would help Volvo reduce production costs and expand in the Chinese market.

“But based on current investment in research and development, China will be left far behind the pace of developed countries,” he said.

Ford announced last week that it has settled all substantive commercial terms to lead to the sale of Volvo to Geely. The sale is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2010.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Reuters

It’s Tuesday and that can only mean it’s time for our weekly feature, the BlackBerry Buzz. The BlackBerry is old in phone years, as RIM started moving from producing pagers to entering the corporate phone business a decade ago. The BlackBerry has been one of the most successful product lines in any business, and the look back that engadget has taken is an interesting read. They cover the last ten years, including landmarks for RIM such as hitting the one millionth subscriber back in 2004. The article is a must-read for all BlackBerry enthusiasts.

BlackBerry owners were no doubt beside themselves over the holidays as another service disruption hit that prevented web access. This latest outage was so soon after the prior outage that pundits are wondering what RIM can do to prevent them from happening so often. My newbie Crackberry spouse was almost frantic from the web disconnection, something amusing to watch as she’s only had a BlackBerry for a few weeks. This was her second major service disruption.

The Tour is a nice BlackBerry, although some wished it had better specs. Information about the Tour2 is emerging, and it looks like it will be a nice improvement of what is already a pretty good phone. The processor is beefed up and the cool trackpad and keyboard are still quite good. This looks like it will be a good refresh of the Tour.

Filed under: Government/Legal, Toyota

Remember the case of Dimitrios Biller versus Toyota? The lawyer and former Toyota employee accused the Japanese automaker of withholding evidence in rollover crashes and claimed to have boxes full of evidence that would make his case.

Well, Toyota is still dealing with Biller, but one of the side cases that sprung up as a result of Biller’s allegations appears to be going away. The New York Times reports that Todd Tracey, a lawyer with a history of suing Toyota, is dropping his plan to reopen 17 cases against the automaker. Tracy reportedly went through Biller’s stash of evidence and found that “I did not see any type of concealment, destruction or pattern of discovery abuse that affected my cases that I had sought to reopen.”

That’s a far cry from the “rise up to get Toyota to tell the truth about its hidden crash safety data” rhetoric Tracy unleashed a couple months earlier and one less headache for Toyota to deal with in what appears to be a very busy 2010. True, it’s likely Toyota will still have to deal with Biller, but Tracy’s public statement that the evidence wasn’t enough to justify opening old suits shows is less than a vote of confidence for the former Toyota employee’s chances in the court of law.

[Source: New York Times | Image: Joe Raedle/Getty]

REPORT: Lawyer Tracy withdraws lawsuits against Toyota originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this year at the SemTech conference in San Jose, I sat down with Wolfram|Alpha‘s Russell Foltz-Smith. Wolfram|Alpha bills itself as a "computational knowledge engine," a nerdy and unfortunately not very intuitive description. Because it’s hard to grok, most people have categorized Wolfram|Alpha as a new type of search engine. The site got a lot of press when it launched in May, as many pundits saw it as a challenger to Google. However in our own extensive tests of the product before launch, we concluded that it isn’t a "Google Killer" and that it has more in common with Wikipedia.

Even now there is still confusion about what Wolfram|Alpha is and what its main use cases will be. In this interview with Russell Foltz-Smith, we discuss what people are using Wolfram|Alpha for now; and more importantly what its uses will be in the near future.

Sponsor

Editor’s note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we’ll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year – and ahead to what next year holds – we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It’s not just a best-of list, it’s also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb!

Wolfram|Alpha: What is it Good For?

Wolfram|Alpha is a product that was built on top of founder Stephen Wolfram’s Mathematica product, a software tool for mathematicians that was initially released in 1988. The aim is to allow users to type human-like statements and have computations done on those. Wolfram|Alpha was first conceived and started development about 4 years ago, and just 6-8 months ago the team gave serious consideration to taking the product to a wider consumer audience.

I started out by asking Foltz-Smith what the Wolfram|Alpha team thought of all the media hype around their product, particularly about the "Google Killer" theme which many media outlets reveled in. Foltz-Smith replied that they were expecting to be compared to Google, but not to that extent. Their team was a little surprised there wasn’t more discussion around Wolfram|Alpha’s similarities to Wikipedia and Freebase (although he noted that ReadWriteWeb certainly covered that!). Regarding the Google comparisons, Foltz-Smith said that they didn’t give into the hype – they stuck to what their goals were.

I remarked that many people still seem confused about what Wolfram|Alpha does and what it can be used for. Foltz-Smith said that people will use it for different things. The crux of the product though is that it allows people to compute and calculate things.

But will mainstream people use Wolfram|Alpha? Right now, it seems to be focused on mathematicians. Foltz-Smith replied that yes, eventually Wolfram|Alpha will find a mainstream audience. It has started specific, but it will go broader. First, he said, it has to "pass a test" with "serious users" – by which he means academics and computational users. If it’s useful for them, claimed Foltz-Smith, it will then go mainstream.

Use Case: Education

One real-world use case we talked about was using Wolfram|Alpha in education. Russell Foltz-Smith said that Wolfram|Alpha could be used to automatically generate problem sets for students, and then research those sets.

A recent article in education website Chronicle.com argued that Wolfram|Alpha may have a less desired effect: encouraging cheating and laziness in students. This is because Wolfram|Alpha not only solves complex math problems, it "also can spell out the steps leading to those solutions."

Stephen Wolfram told Chronicle.com that computer-algebra systems like Wolfram|Alpha actually improve education – because they allow students to explore complex problems on their own and intuitively determine how functions work, rather than just learn rote processes. Wolfram claimed that "it’s better to let them [students] stand on that platform and go further."

Either way, it’s clear that Wolfram|Alpha and similar computational software will force the education system to adapt and change. Students now have a new (and certainly easier to use, as it’s on the Web) platform on which to compute things. There’s no point in the education system pretending it doesn’t exist. If you’re interested in tracking the progress of Wolfram|Alpha in educational settings, there is a wiki devoted to ‘Teaching Undergraduate Math with Wolfram|Alpha.’

Use Case: Computational Journalism

This one was described to me as "anomaly spotting." For example with the current interest in swine flu news, Wolfram|Alpha could be used to fact-find and compute interesting trends. As Foltz-Smith described it, Wolfram|Alpha could "automatically enhance news."

Foltz-Smith noted that CNN and other major networks do this already (analyze data), but that it’s expensive to do. The end results on CNN are added value things like interactive maps and fancy diagrams. Wolfram|Alpha could make this type of data gathering and analysis presentation inexpensive and common place amongst all kinds of news operations – including good old blogs.

Use Case: Sports Watching

Imagine sitting in your sofa in the lounge, remote control in one hand and your favorite beverage in the other. You’re watching the Friday night game on TV, it’s a close game and you’re curious about which team has the better chance of winning. Why, check Wolfram|Alpha of course! In real time, Wolfram|Alpha could compute statistics about not just the history of the two teams – but the history of the location of the game, the weather, the season so far, etc.

As Foltz-Smith explained it, Wolfram|Alpha would be able to do "chained queries" – queries made up of multiple parts. For example: which quarterback had the best winning record in games played in the rain during the 1970s.

Other Use Cases

We also discussed medical and scientific use cases. Although there are early examples of Wolfram|Alpha in health, such as a nutrition label generator, Foltz-Smith was generally cautious about medical uses – because a lot of health data "can’t be wrong." He noted that in use cases like medical research, the issue of data fidelity is key. For example with the human genome, you have to take great care of that data and associated algorithms. Also he explained that as something like the human genome scales, how do you do QA?

Foltz-Smith admitted that the Wolfram|Alpha team is still working on these and similar issues. But they have a lot of people devoted to solving this problem. Some types of data could be crowdsourced, e.g. in linguistics, but other data needs different approaches.

Conclusion

It was interesting to hear about some of the potential uses of Wolfram|Alpha. We at ReadWriteWeb think this product has a promising future. If Web 2.0 was about creating data (user generated content, to use the most familiar term for this), then the next generation of the Web is all about using that data. Wolfram|Alpha is premised on using and computing data.

Let us know in the comments what use cases you see for Wolfram|Alpha, and whether you’re aware of similar computational web apps.

See also:

• Wolfram|Alpha: Our First Impressions
• Wolfram|Alpha in Action: Our Screenshots
• Mixed Emotions: Our First Hands-On Test Of Wolfram|Alpha
• Wolfram|Alpha Launch: Here’s What You Need to Know
• Wolfram Alpha Gets Its First Update

Discuss

Para el año que comienza en pocas horas y hasta el 2012, Audi planea invertir unos 7.300 millones de Euros para ampliar su gama de modelos, invertir en nuevos combustibles y efectuar mejoras de fondo en sus plantas de Ingolstadt y Neckarsulm.

De todo ese dinero, aproximadamente el 80% se dedicarán al desarrollo de nuevos productos y a la optimización de las directrices convencionales y al desarrollo de modelos eléctricos e híbridos.

Además la ya prolífica marca aumentará el número de modelos, de los 34 modelos actuales hasta 42. Esto ocurriría en el año 2015 de seguir adelante como hasta ahora con el nuevo plan de inversiones anunciado.

Si desde hace rato que nos parece que Audi está creciendo de manera desmesurada, esta noticia lo confirma. 42 modelos en catálogo de una marca de coches no es poca cosa y me gustaría saber si no será más contraproducente que beneficioso para la marca de Ingolstadt.

Vía | Audi Prensa