More interesting ReMIX France news. Apparently according to IDC Microsoft will sell 30 Million Windows Phone 7 licenses by the end of 2011 with 1.6 million of them in France only.
Part of the reason such large numbers are expected is due to the massive expected growth in the smartphone market, to around 40% of the overall phone market, which would exceed more than 400 million handsets.
The sad truth therefore is while IDC’s prediction initially appears pretty optimistic, the reality is that the company is predicting Microsoft achieve less than 10% market share in 2011, and given the growth of the overall market possibly much less.
El BMW M5 ha sido tradicionalmente una de las berlinas de referencia en el mundo de las berlinas de lujo y superdeportivas. El Audi A8, el Porsche Panamera y otros luchan con él directamente pero hay que admitir que el M5 es una referencia respecto a la deportividad y al aspecto agresivo.
Ahora BMW ha lanzado el primer boceto del nuevo BMW M5, con un diseño bastante atractivo (sobre todo mejor que el anterior, que en mi opinión es un horror en comparación con una de las líneas más elegantes que haya hecho BMW nunca, el M5 e-39) y con ligeros toques respecto a la versión de calle. Aún es un preliminar, nada definitivo.
Está pensado, como siempre, para poder desplegar la máxima potencia al instante y a su vez para poder ser utilizado a diario y alojar cómodamente a 5 personas para trayectos cortos, medios o largos. El diseño interior será muy similar, con alguna modificación y con el cambio DSG firmado por Motorsport.
Seguirá en la línea de Efficient Dynamic en su nuevo motor 4.4 de 578 cv de potencia derivado del actual M5 y M6. Al ser una mejora y con el sistema Start & Stop promete progresar en las prestaciones deportivas y a su vez reducir el consumo, muy de moda últimamente pero tremendamente eficaz a la hora de vender vehículos.
Obama Family in Marine One on Thursday taking off from the White House South Lawn en route to Chicago (photo by Lynn Sweet)
Obama family–President Obama, First Lady Michelle, Malia, Sasha, Marian Robinson leaving White House to board Marine One en route to Chicago (photo by Lynn Sweet)
Obama family boarding Marine One on South Lawn of White House en route to Chicago.
WASHINGTON–President Obama, First Lady Michelle, Malia, Sasha and Marian Robinson are flying to Chicago on Thursday evening, the First Family returning to the city for the first time since Valentine’s Day, 2009.
According to the pool report, Bo, the family dog, traveled to Air Force One earlier. White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod is with the family on Air Force One.
Google just released a list of the top 1000 websites in the world, something they’re uniquely suited to rank, since most traffic funnels through them first. Google left themselves off (they’d be #1), so Facebook and Yahoo are close together at 1 and 2. To save you time, we’re at 540, edging out Pandora, Intel, that site you use to do currency conversion and the California government. Suck on that Costco and the web standards website. [Top1000 via Erin’s Twitter] More »
This Heart’s on Fire points us to Spanish menswear designer Eduardo Rivera’s Fall/Winter 2010 collection. There’s a unique concept here that plays on both luxurious and casual styles. Blazers, loose slacks, outerwear, and accessories, especially the scarves make up the range that gives off a new modern take on menswear.
What I like most about this? That if Mailer Daemon were an actual person, you’d be able to take out your frustration much more satisfactorily than bashing your head against your keyboard. [Buttersafe via The Next Web] More »
Yes, it’s been 20 years since McLaren unleashed its F1, the fastest normally aspirated production car in the world (still holds the title today).
Exactly a month ago, McLaren Automotive celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the start of the F1 program by inviting a bunch of F1 owners to come down hang out and dine at the McLaren Technology Center in Woking, England. McLaren then put together a display of 21 McLaren F1 road and race cars, the largest number of F1 cars ever assembled in one place.
“The F1 is a technological tour-de-force and a real triumph in terms of packaging and design,” said Ron Dennis, McLaren Automotive Executive Chairman. “Whether endurance racing or on road, it is supremely fast, agile and yet comfortable. Its styling is enduring and will never fade. I enjoy driving mine more today than ever before because I find its technical purity highly satisfying; the F1 remains one of McLaren’s proudest achievements.”
Check out the history of the McLaren F1 in the press release after the jump along with photos from the celebration.
McLaren F1 20th Anniversary Celebration:
Press Release:
McLAREN AUTOMOTIVE CELEBRATES 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LEGENDARY McLAREN F1
* McLaren F1 is still the fastest normally aspirated production road car in the world.
* McLaren F1 GTR secured McLaren’s position as the only car manufacturer to win the Formula 1 World Championship, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours
* McLaren F1 was first production road car to use a full carbon fibre monocoque
* 20 years of carbon pioneering behind McLaren’s launch of the new MP4-12C in 2011
In 1988, McLaren took the decision to expand from Formula One and design and build “the finest sports car the world had ever seen”. In March 1990 the team that was to create the F1 came together for the first time. In its 20th anniversary year, the McLaren F1 is considered by most people to be one of the greatest cars of all time. Its exclusivity, technical innovation, racing provenance, revolutionary packaging and extraordinary driving experience have made it an icon.
Just two years later, the McLaren F1 road car was launched to the world on 28th May 1992 in Monaco, with the first production car delivered to its proud owner in December 1993.
The F1 defines the McLaren road car DNA
McLaren is a carbon pioneer. The McLaren Formula 1 team was the first team in Formula 1 to use a carbon fibre chassis in 1981. Nine years on, these Formula 1 techniques were developed to create the carbon monocoque for the McLaren F1: the resulting structure weighed just 100kg whilst offering the highest levels of strength and safety. The bare carbon fibre passenger doors weighed just 7 kg each (which included the weight of the side intrusion beam).
The F1 defined the McLaren road car DNA: low weight, low polar moment of inertia, clever packaging, superb quality and innovative design, resulting in an outstanding driving experience.
The F1 bristles with innovative design. The central driving position, which ensures superb visibility and no compromise on control positions for the driver; the pannier side lockers providing unprecedented levels of luggage capacity in a car of this type; the patented suspension system to provide both control and ride quality.
The F1 was launched at a price of £540,000 in 1994, and over the course of the next four years 64 F1, 5 F1 LM and 3 F1 GT road cars were produced, together with 28 F1 GTR race cars. An additional six prototypes were produced.
In October 2008, a delivery mileage F1 was sold at auction for £2.53 million, underlining the F1’s status as one of the great motoring icons.
Taking a road car to the track
In 1994, after pressure from owners, McLaren developed a racing version of the F1 road car to run in the FIA GT1 category in the 1995 season. Despite a design and development period of just 3 months, the F1 GTR swept all before it, winning not only the 1995 GT1 Championship, but also the 24 Heures du Mans on its debut. McLaren not only won, but dominated the rain-soaked endurance race, finishing in 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 13th places.
The Le Mans winning F1 GTR was piloted by J.J. Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya. Lehto’s performance through the night on a treacherous circuit has been hailed as one of the great racing performances of all time, taking up to 10 seconds a lap off the cars in front of him. The winning car is proudly displayed at the McLaren Technology Centre in exactly the condition that it finished Le Mans in 1995.
Thus the F1 GTR secured for McLaren a unique position in motor racing history, as the only manufacturer to win the Formula 1 World Championship, the Indianapolis 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours.
McLaren decided to celebrate the extraordinary result at Le Mans by creating 5 F1 LM road cars, one for each F1 that finished this most grueling of races. Launched in McLaren Orange, as used on Bruce McLaren’s race cars the 1960s and 70s, and with a derestricted race engine, the LM is not only the most powerful of all F1 variants, but also the most valuable. Formula 1 fans will recognize this as the car which Lewis Hamilton has set his heart on owning.
In 1997, the final iteration of the F1 road car project was built. The F1 GT was built solely to fulfil the new homologation rules for the 1997 GTR race car, of which 10 examples were produced in the same year. Both the GT road car and the 1997 GTR race cars became known as the ‘Longtail’, because of the longer front and rear overhangs for improved downforce when racing. Although McLaren only had to build one car for homologation purposes, two more were built following requests from existing F1 owners.
In 1998, with a total of 106 of all variants built and its production run complete, the McLaren F1 went on to achieve its greatest feat outside competitive motorsport. McLaren development and race driver Andy Wallace took XP5, the fifth and final prototype F1 with some 45,000 hard test miles on the clock, to the Ehra-Lessien proving ground in Germany. It was here on 31st March 1998 that the howling V12 propelled him to an amazing 240.1mph. Over 12 years later, this remains a world record for a naturally aspirated production car.
Back to the F1 future
On 27th April 2010, McLaren Automotive celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the start of the F1 programme by inviting F1 owners past and present to a celebration dinner at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England. The following day, after an insight into McLaren Automotive’s exciting plans for a future range of high performance sports cars, the owners were treated to a display of 21 McLaren F1 road and race cars, the largest number of F1 cars ever assembled in one place.
With the launch of McLaren Automotive as a new car company announced in March 2010, the company begins production planning for an entire range of high performance sports, designed and built in-house by McLaren. The first in this range will be the MP4-12C.
The 12C shares much of the design philosophy that was applied to the McLaren F1. Starting with the new car’s MonoCell, a one-piece carbon fibre chassis that is stiff, light and ensures occupant safety, every component has been designed to ensure the car is lightweight, nimble and able to deliver ultimate performance. When the 12C launches in 2011, it will be the first in the ‘core’ sports car sector to offer a carbon chassis, and the first road car ever with a one-piece, moulded carbon chassis.
From the outset, the 12C has been ‘designed around the driver’. Outstanding aerodynamic efficiency and bespoke technologies including Proactive Chassis Control, Seamless Shift dual-clutch Gearbox (SSG), Brake Steer and the 12C’s unique Airbrake feature in a car which has been developed using Formula 1 simulator technology. The new high performance sports car from McLaren will be sold initially through 35 retailers in 19 different countries around the world from Spring 2011.
McLaren’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of the F1 will continue throughout the year.
McLaren enthusiasts will have the opportunity to see both the F1 and 12C together at this summer’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, which takes place at the famous English motorsport venue from 2-4 July 2010.
Technical specifications of each McLaren F1 derivative are detailed below.
Model
F1 Roadcar
F1 GTR Racecar
F1 LM Roadcar
Year of production
1993-98
1995
1996
Examples built
64
9
5
Engine
BMW V12
BMW V12
BMW V12
Cubic Capacity
6064 cc
6064cc
6064cc
Engine Management
TAG 3.12 Ignition/Injection
TAG 3.12 Ignition/Injection
TAG 3.12 Ignition/Injection
Power output (bhp)
627
600
680
Transmission
Transverse 6-speed Limited Slip Differential
Aluminium case transverse 6-speed, LSD
Transverse 6-speed Racing Unit, LSD
Chassis
Carbon fibre reinforced composite monocoque
Carbon fibre reinforced composite monocoque
Carbon fibre reinforced composite monocoque
Body
Carbon fibre composite panels
Carbon fibre composite panels
Carbon fibre composite panels
Front Suspension
Double wishbones, Ground Plane Sheer centre sub-frame light alloy damper/co-axial coil spring, anti-roll bar
Double wishbones, light alloy damper/co-axial coil spring, anti-roll bar
Double wishbones, light alloy damper/co-axial coil spring, anti-roll bar
Troubled former child star Gary Coleman is in critical condition in a Salt Lake City hospital after suffering a head injury in a fall in his Utah home on Wednesday, KTLA is reporting.
The former Diff’rent Strokes actor, 42, was admitted to a medical facility and underwent emergency surgery after the accident, according to Gary’s brother-in-law.
Coleman — who suffers from a congenital kidney disease which requires frequent dialysis and suffered two seizures early in the year — recently reunited with his young wife Shannon following a brief estrangement.
At the Nissan LEAF battery plant groundbreaking yesterday in Smyrna, Tennessee, I made it a goal to squeeze as much detailed information as I could out of Nissan regarding the LEAF and what kinds of equipment it will ship with.
To this point — as is usually the case in the echo chamber that is the internet these days — nobody (including myself… mea culpa) seems to have been able to get it right about two things: whether or not the LEAF will have a Level 3 fast charge receptacle when it ships and if it will be able to use a Level 1 standard 3-prong outlet.
Saab Story: With the clock ticking loudly, Saab’s new owner dusts off some old names.
In the 20 years that General Motors owned Saab, it failed to turn the Swedish automaker into a profitable business. Last year, when GM spiraled toward bankruptcy, it was faced with killing off unprofitable brands or selling them. So Saab—that sometimes innovative, strangely stylish, and somewhat professorial brand—went on the block.
So, you know how magicians never wanna let the cat out of the bag and reveal how their tricks work? Well, there’s an awesome iPhone app called iForce which turns out to be a fun magic trick. The problem, though, is that it is so good that magicians purchase it and then rate the app with one star in the App Store. It isn’t because they don’t like it, as their actual comments are nothing but glowing—they rate it one star so that people think the app sucks, and therefore won’t buy it, and therefore won’t know how it works when a magician uses it on them. Yeah, sneaky, we know.
Here’s the thing though—someone took the time to write the app and submit it to the App Store for purchase. These magicians are not only enjoying the app, and it obviously gives them a chance to seem cooler than they are, but they are limiting the income potential of the guy who wrote it, all in the name of selfishness. Since they’ve been at this, the app has dropped from having 5 stars to now having 3.4, and as such, sales have dropped sharply. This is as pathetic as when companies try to find their competitors in the App Store and give them bad ratings just to people will buy their apps instead.
If you wanna check out a cool app, give iForce a shot – it’s $2.99. If you like it, how about helping out the creator, Grigor Rostami, by giving him a good review? You can see a demo of the app up top.
Think that tanning bed is safer than the evil ol’ sun? Not quite. A new study from the American Association for Cancer Research has determined that frequent use of tanning beds can quadruple your risk of skin cancer. But, hey, you’ll look great, and isn’t that the first step to good health?
Consumer Reports Health sheds some sunlight on the news:
Eager to soak up the sun, or at least look like they have, some folks are getting their bronze on early—indoors. But indoor tanning beds can increase the risk of melanoma up to four times, according to a new study released by the American Association for Cancer Research. The bottom line: Melanoma risk goes up with frequent indoor tanning, regardless of how old people are when they start using tanning beds.
According to the report, the pursuit of a bronzed body has become so popular that the indoor tanning industry estimates that some 30 million Americans visit tanning salons each year. That figure is nearly double that of the early 1980s. Last year the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified tanning devices as carcinogenic.
The FDA is currently considering banning teens from using tanning beds; teenage girls and young women are the largest users of tanning salons.
Netflix expects its DVD-by-mail business to peak in 2013, at which point it believes its Watch Instantly streaming service will be driving its growth. That’s the gist of a slideshow posted on the company’s jobs site that details its plans to transform itself into the leading streaming subscription service for TV shows and movies.
According to the Netflix Business Opportunity slideshow, the company sees streaming as a “huge potential market,” pointing to the 100 million households that have pay-TV subscriptions in the U.S. Netflix had 14 million subscribers by the end of the first quarter, a number it expects will rise to 17 million by the end of the year. And it believes that as both it and the Internet improve, it can get boost that figure even more.
“To have profitable growth in such a huge market, you find a segment in which you can gain and maintain leadership,” the slideshow says. “Netflix [sic] segment is consumer-paid streaming of movies and TV shows.”
With greater adoption of streaming video, Netflix says it can put more money toward building the catalog of content available through its Watch Instantly service. Its cost of goods sold in 2009 was $1.4 billion, of which more than half was spent on postage and handling. But as the company’s DVD-by-mail business peaks — which it expects to happen around 2013 — Netflix will be able to spend more money on licensing content. By 2020, if it can continue to aggressively grow its subscriber base, it expects to be one of the world’s largest licensors of movies and TV shows.
The goal, it says, is to “have content so broad, engaging and affordable that everyone subscribes to Netflix.”
All that said, Netflix has a detailed list of the competitive threats it faces in the online streaming business, which includes cable, satellite and IPTV providers that are bundling on-demand video services through TV Everywhere initiatives; cable programmers like HBO and Epix that could go straight to the consumer with their premium original content; Hulu, which is expected to launch subscription services any day now; and giants like Apple and Amazon, which could launch subscription services of their own.
The company also says it faces potential threats from piracy, $1 DVD rentals, ISPs increasing the price of their broadband services, high CPM-targeted advertising, very cheap pay-per-view services and content producers selling their content directly to consumers.
Despite all these competitive threats, Netflix believes it still has a winning value proposition for leading the subscription streaming business. But at the end of the day, the company boils down its success to one key messag: Its business depends primarily on keeping its customers happy. “It’s pretty simple,” the slideshow says. “If subscribers keep raving about Netflix, we will prosper.”
The Apple iPad is taking over the world, okay we’re just kidding. However, soon it will be taking over Mercedes-Benz dealerships. The automaker will be putting iPads in 40 of its dealerships with the company’s MB Advantage application that will allow dealers to answer a customer’s financial questions and kick of the purchasing process.
“We wanted to bring the mobile revolution into the dealership,” Andreas Hinrichs, vice president of marketing, told The Wall Street Journal. “The iPad is consumer centric but there is a business side to it as well.”
Using the MB Advantage app, the sales staff will be able to start the loan application right from the iPad. Mercedes-Benz says that employees may also use the iPad to help customers return a leased vehicle by entering the condition of the car.
Three collectibles to help you forget the doggy years.
America’s “Lost Generation” of doggy cars (1974–1990) officially came to an end with the introduction of the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 in March 1989 in Geneva, Switzerland. Suddenly, fast was good again and an 85-mph speedo was 100 percent too slow. The performance cars produced during the 1990s are new enough, safe enough, and well built enough to drive daily. Two decades later, their prices are bottoming out and collectors are snapping up the best. Here are some choice picks:
The numbers are in and it’s official: No one cares about Idol.
Last night’s Season 9 finale drew its lowest audience since the talent show’s first season finale in the summer of 2002; only 22.8 million viewers tuned in that year. An estimated 24.2 million viewers tuned in to watch dark horse paint salesman Lee DeWyze beat projected winner Crystal Bowersox to victory, according to preliminary ratings figures issued Thursday. Despite a grand finale that served as Simon Cowell’s swan song as the bitter voice of reason on the judge’s panel, the Idol audience shrank from 28.8 million last year and 31.6 million in 2008.
“We will speculate on the real events behind the scene on a day of Cyber Meltdown: spectacular Dow Crash by the magnitude of 1000 point in fifteen minutes. We will develop a very strong argument in favour of Inflation and its cost based on PhD Thesis: At what point price of Oil becomes prohibitive to use Helicopters by Ben Bernanke in his open market operations. We will draw some lines on How Lithium, Gold and price of Oil are connected and what it means to be grounded. In the end we will leave you with the question: Where to invest – In Ben Bernanke, Ink Factory, Helicopters, Oil or Gold and Lithium? Our memories from 2008 meltdown and the last deflation strike in March of last year are still too vivid for us to stay rational amid recent market panic of this week. Was it the fat finger, Cyber Meltdown or revenge of the Government Sachs, which was striped of its Olympus glamour is not so important – the most important message is the reaction of the Market itself and actions of the people in charge to follow.”
We have further confirmation of US Dollar Bearish reversal with double Top in the making now. We need to clear 85.17 on the down move to make it decisive. China’s confirmation of confidence in Euro was the last shoe to drop for Green Fellow levitation: as you can see below it was a very expensive exercise. Markets were again in a free fall and they better stop now at the key technical levels. Second Deflation Scare episode is almost over and price will be paid by further debasement of all currencies against the Gold, Silver and Oil amongst other commodities.
Dow is in Bullish Reversal now at the key technical level confirming the third test of the lower band of recent trend. We have a very bullish candle two days ago and yesterday the level was retested by late day selling. Today’s action provides another confirmation for Deflation Scare to be subsiding and Euro panic is slowing down with news from China, declining review of SAFE Euro holdings. Fear index below is confirming its Reversal and appetite for Risk assets will be coming back with further improvement in indicators fooled by flood of liquidity provided. Euro bail out with almost 1 Trillion in USD terms and QE on the run have shadowed domestic bills for another 30 billion in Job support program and further requests for capital from bottomless Freddy and Fannie.
Risk appetite is coming back and this Summer can be really Hot in some sectors, we think that Oil starting from 70 USD now after this Second Deflation Scare on sovereign default will provide necessarily catalyst for the move above 90 USD. Our Lithium play will be enjoying next bull leg up with oil passing north of 80 USD.
“Recent Oil Spill shows the real price for Oil and leaves no doubt for us that there will be no more cheap oil: offshore drilling is costly now, it will be even more costly later. Relatively cheap Oil is in the hands of state owned companies in not so friendly to U.S. places. Oil squeeze will come from diminishing production rates and rising Inflation. The move will be even more explosive than in the Gold market – in the end only minority of people is effected by the gold price even now, Oil is the underlining of all Western Energy Diet. It is not sustainable. Emerging markets are taking more and more share of world wide production, oil producing countries are spending more at home. If you account all cost to produce, deliver and protect Oil supply to U.S. corp the price is already above 150 USD/barrel. “Peak Oil and Lithium: Joint Operating Environment 2010 Please pay attention, this report is written by those who knows the Real Price of Oil. If you account all military needed to protect Oil supply lines and cost of wars to get more oil, price will be well above 150 USD/barrel already. Now we all have another problem: there is simply no more oil enough for all. Will future wars for oil be the only answer?” Another “liberation” operation like Iraq, this time against Iran will break the camel’s back with no return point. Competition for Oil is heating up and aggressive move by China into Electric Cars leaves no other options for US than to follow. In order to keep power China needs gradually improve standard of living, it will bring upside pressure on labor cost. Electrification will not only provide Energy Security to China, but will significantly reduce the cost of its transportation element and provide another opportunity to stay among low cost producers. Situation is completely different to U.S. – they have capital to invest in Electric Mobility CAPEX now and rip the rewards of lower cash cost on transportation side later. We will refer you to the Economics of Electric Cars. Recent Ash Cloud events in Europe brought a very sobering sense of the feeling to be grounded. It is amazing how many things are taking for granted. This time it is Ash Cloud – what will happen with oil above 150? Electric Cars is the only commercially viable technology today to sustain mobility world wide with rising Oil prices. Lithium is at the heart of Green Mobility revolution – it is an industry adopted standard for batteries and billions of dollars are invested into battery technology and upcoming by the end of this year Electric Cars on a mass market scale. This Bull market is still very young – only a year or so from the beginning after the crash of 2008. We will provide you with few links to study the subject further:”
We prognosticate on six new cars that take their family trees in new directions.
It’s got to be that automotive brand shepherds get bored from time to time. How else to explain out-of-left-field cars such as these? Pumping out car after car all pulled from the same basic mold gets tiresome, so someone decides to move in a different direction with a particular product.
To predict the success (or failure) of six of the latest brand-benders, we looked at them in the context of automotive history’s best and worst precedents.
Ford’s incendiary pony car loses a whole lot of weight underhood and gets the performance and handling it has always deserved.
No matter how good the Shelby GT500 has looked on paper, the car has always fallen short in reality, not unlike LeBron and the Cavs. Part of the reason could be its live rear axle, a component junked by virtually every carmaker decades ago, and rightly so—it’s awfully hard to get a car to handle and ride optimally without an independent rear suspension.
Kelley Blue Book ace and Autoblog pal James Bell and his team brought a slew of vehicles to Santa Monica, California for some analysis on KTLA channel five’s morning show. The aim was to showcase 10 great road trip vehicles, but instead, one of the nation’s largest local TV audiences received a lesson in parking law from a particularly dedicated meter maid.
While Bell and KTLA reported Gayle Anderson were live on the air, the Santa Monica parking enforcement began rifling off $50 tickets for each vehicle on display. In the footage, Anderson asserts live on air that the parking spots have been paid for, adding that she has receipts, but that’s apparently not enough to stop Santa Monica’s finest from making with the carbon copies. Bell’s comment? “If we can afford the Porsche (Panamera), you can afford the ticket.” Unless, of course, that Porsche is a press car. Pretty funny stuff. Hit the jump to watch first-hand video of KBB and KTLA’s amusing $500 parking faux pas.
