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Howard Lovy wrote:
With everybody spending more time with their smart phones, and more time in their cars, it is only inevitable that Detroit-area automotive companies and suppliers would want to find a better way to join those two worlds. Delphi, the Troy, MI-based auto parts supplier, and OnStar, General Motors’ in-vehicle communications subsidiary, are both working with smart phone manufacturers and application developers to make drive time more productive—or, at least more entertaining.
For OnStar, it’s about leveraging its already-existing, centrally managed, persistent connection to cars and using it to experiment with the soon-to-be released Chevy Volt electric vehicle. This week, OnStar announced that it is working with Google on smart phone apps that allow Volt owners to access information about, and release information to, their cars.
OnStar had already been working with smart phone developers from Verizon, Apple, and others in a collaboration that the company announced back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show. This week’s announcement brings Google onboard with access to maps and directions, says Tim Nixon, executive director of engineering at OnStar.
Enter a proposed destination on your phone while you’re in your home or office, the app beams the information to OnStar, which then comes up with a route that it sends to your car. For some, it might be more convenient to do it remotely rather than wait until after they’re in their car to plug a destination in to a GPS. It’s a simple thing, really, but Nixon sees this as only the beginning of experimentation to see what information and services car drivers want on their mobile phones. The release of the Volt seemed like the perfect opportunity.
“I think the Volt represents a groundbreaking new vehicle from a General Motors perspective,” Nixon says. “We recognize that we can, at OnStar, bring some of the unique capabilities to the Volt to differentiate it from the marketplace.” The app is a simple perk that Volt buyers will receive automatically when they purchase their vehicle. With it, they can also see how much of a charge their car has left, whether it’s plugged in, and where exactly it is in the world.
Nixon says he expects customers’ critiques. “We’re going to learn from what customers do because this is brand new for us and brand new for Volt customers,” he says.
But what OnStar does not yet do is link your phone directly to your car. That’s where Delphi comes in. The auto parts maker, fresh out of bankruptcy and eager to jump into the world of automotive connectivity, is planning to install a central console in cars that can give customers access to everything on their smart phones.
Bob Schumacher, Delphi’s general director of advanced product and business development, says the company is developing what it calls a “connectivity computer” with a touch-screen, flat display facing the driver and a fairly fast 32-bit processor on the back. Along with it will come the ability to connect your smart phone via Bluetooth, WiFi, or USB port. The idea is that it will be completely seamless—anything you can do on your phone …Next Page »
UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS
SENIOR EDITOR FOR NEWS BOB GRITZINGER: The bigger, badder, beefier Tundra still seems like a poor stepchild to the offerings from the Detroit-based automakers, even though this truck offers strong torquey power and seems capable enough. I like that, even with the heavier-duty towing capacity, which makes the unloaded ride feel choppy, the steering and front suspension keep the truck pointed in the direction you want to go. That’s a plus, because it feels and drives like a big truck.
This truck hasn’t been in the market that long, but it is already feeling dated, like it is better equipped to compete with the previous-gen Ford F-150s, Chevrolet Silverados and Rams and not the current crop of redone trucks offered by those companies. This truck might be fine if Toyota was just selling to contractors in California, but the company’s aspirations for this vehicle run deep into every red and blue state in the union. With this kind of uninspired offering, making those inroads won’t be easy.
SENIOR WEB REPORTER GREG MIGLIORE: This truck did nothing to change my rankings of big trucks. The F-150 still reigns as the complete package, followed by the Ram (pure badass fun), the Silverado, then the Tundra.
It’s not that this is a bad truck, it’s just the Detroiters are very good. And there’s a lot to like in the Tundra. It’s one of the most controlled rides you can get from a big truck, with good handling and not too much roll in tight cornering. The steering has a nice weight to it too, which makes piloting this beast fun.
I found this suspension to be quite bouncy. The roads around here are bad, but the suspension was pretty springy in some situations. It’s better than needing your fillings replaced, but still a little lively.
There’s plenty of power here. I had no problems getting this beast up to speed in all situations. And the transmission shifts smoothly to add an element of refinement.
It’s a fairly quiet cabin at idle (for a truck). The interior is nothing special. It’s laid out well, but hardly inspiring. That console is about as big as a kitchen table I had in one of my first apartments, and it’s a nice spot to easily place your morning coffee.
Big trucks are fun in my opinion. I don’t have a reason to own one, but if I did, this wouldn’t be my first choice.
EXECUTIVE EDITOR ROGER HART: I cannot quibble too much with Migliore’s ranking– although I might be a bigger fan of the Ram than Greg–only to say that with the Tundra, all four trucks are now separated by less than a tailgate. This is a good truck, the best attempt at a pickup yet for Toyota. And this doesn’t even have the big motor.
The interior is comfortable, and this truck is as quiet as any other. The ride is trucky, but put a few hundred pounds in the back–like I did hauling some shingles back from the lumber yard–and it’s a different ride altogether.
Truck buyers have never had a better selection of top-quality trucks to buy. And at this price, I think this truck, with all its capabilities and features, is a bargain.
2010 Toyota Tundra Double Cab
Base Price: $29,490
As-Tested Price: $30,934
Drivetrain: 4.6-liter V8; 4WD, six-speed automatic
Output: 310 hp @ 5,600 rpm, 327 lb-ft @ 3,400 rpm
Curb Weight: 4,580 lb
Fuel Economy (EPA/AW): 16/18.1 mpg
Options: Tow package including increased max-tow capacity to 8,300 pounds, 1,515-pound payload capacity, hitch receiver, supplemental transmission, cooler, 4.10 rear differential with 9.5-inch ring gear, 130A alternator, transmission, temperature gauge, seven-pin connector, trailer-brake controller prewire ($660); bedliner without deck rail system ($345); cold-weather package including heavy-duty battery, heavy-duty starter, windshield wiper de-icer with timer, front and rear mudguards ($160); 18-inch styled steel wheels with P255/70R-18 tires ($110); daytime running lamps ($40); power heated outside mirrors ($30)
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Google has been making so many announcements for these past couple of days that it’s hard to keep up with all of them. One tidbit of information Google revealed on the first day of the Google I/O 2010 conference merits more attention, though. It seems that Google Chrome has now reached 70 million active users, a very solid number for the relatively n… (read more)
Uma nova versão esportiva do Peugeot 308 GTi foi lançada na Europa, com um visual mais suave que é direcionada para o consumidor tradicional que não gosta de um carro muito chamativo. Tirando a parte visual, não existem muitas diferenças em relação à versão comum do 308.
A nova versão possui rodas esportivas de 18 polegadas, um pequeno aerofólio traseiro e uma nova saida de escapamento. Outras modificações podem ser notadas nos para-choques do carro. Internamente, o Peugeot 308 recebeu um novo acabamento no painél, e novos bancos.
A simplicidade do veículo, entretanto, está apenas na parte visual, pois o 308 GTi possui um motor 1.6 THP, o mesmo que é usado no RCZ. Também existe um turbocompressor que deixa o 308 GTi com 200 cv de potência, e um câmbio de seis velocidades. Vejam mais imagens a seguir.
Via | Carplace
Capstone projects are always a great way for seniors to demonstrate what they have learned during their undergraduate years at Case Western Reserve University. Paul Salamon hopes his project might be even more significant than that.
He visualizes a lasting legacy – a real estate development adding vitality to Cleveland’s University Circle area.
Under the direction of Jennifer Johnson, associate professor of marketing and policy studies at Weatherhead School of Management, Salamon produced a housing development plan for students at Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) and also for Weatherhead grad students or future lawyers at CWRU School of Law.
He envisions CIA students having studio spaces right where they live and a glass-enclosed gallery where they can publicly exhibit what they create.
The 21-year-old management/finance major’s senior project also validates his fascination since childhood about how real estate developments happen; they start with a good idea and grow through inspiration, planning and creativity. Salamon says private investment tends to flow if all other factors are in place.
“I know the direction I would like to go in the future, which is becoming a developer,” he says, although law school, possibly at Case Western Reserve, probably will happen first.
A resident of Amherst, N.Y., near Buffalo, Salamon insists he has been intellectually and emotionally captivated by University Circle’s potential, which now is emerging in through its Uptown economic development project. He says his plan for a unique housing structure close to CIA and CWRU, marketed to students, has excited him enough to either stay in Cleveland or keep coming back.
The senior project “has been a learning experience for me along with the hope of eventually pursuing this venture,” he says, with a look of determination. Salamon says privately owned and managed student housing could complement CWRU dorms and be a needed alternative to off-campus rentals.
“I’ve learned a lot about property laws, acquiring financing and doing market research,” he says. “But I think this can really help CIA and help with student life experiences, creating a better atmosphere and increasing the vitality of this neighborhood.”
Greg has a question for the world travelers and expats who are part of the Consumerist hive mind. He writes that he has about $2,000 worth of Chinese yuan, in cash, from his first year as a teacher in China. He’s back visiting the US for a few weeks, and can’t figure out what to do with his giant pile o’yuan.
I just finished my first year teaching in China and I’m back in America for a few weeks of R&R. I managed to save about $2000 in yuan (all cash) during my time there and thought I’d have an easy time converting it at my bank, Wells Fargo, when I returned. Not so much. When I went the other day, the bank was selling at a rate of $1:6.35CNY and buying at a rate of $1:7.69. My credit union doesn’t convert foreign currency and Travelex offered an even worse rate.
I knew coming in that I’d have to pay some sort of premium (mostly for bill verification), but a 21% markup is excessive. The money I’m losing converting to dollars here could fund a nice inter-China trip with my ladyfriend. So, my question is: should I blow the money I saved on something epic like hiring the ingredients for a Bloomsday party bus (driver, wait staff, bus, monkey trainer, cases of Guinness), bite the bullet and drop it in my bank account at a loss or schlep it all back to China in search of a better exchange rate?
My vote: blow it all at Walmart.
I was just given some copies of Zuki Luminosity Premium theme for our readers, so another contest it is. We’ve had some really neat giveaways coming your way. We try to bring you the most unique and original themes we can that deserve the attention of our readers. You’ll love this colorful theme that will paint your BlackBerry and will keep you visually entertained. The catch? Keep reading…
I have twenty copies of Zuki Luminosity Premium theme so here’s the guidelines to the contest. In order to qualify for a free theme, you have to tell us what your first BlackBerry theme was and why you downloaded it. Was it free? Was it paid? What was it about the theme that attracted you to it? Share with us and you get a free theme.
Good luck and let the comments begin!
You’re reading a story which originated at BlackBerrySync.com, Where you find BlackBerry News You Can Sync With…
This story is sponsored by the new BlackBerry Sync Mobile App Store. Grab your free copy today at www.GetAppStore.com from your BlackBerry.
Giveaway: Your Chance To Light Up Your BlackBerry With Zuki Luminosity
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On May 27, thousands of students are graduating from Harvard. Each has a successful past to relate, and a promising future to embrace. In a series of profiles, Gazette writers showcase some of these stellar graduates.
There’s ice-skating, and there’s poetry. And then there’s ice-skating poetry written by a former professional athlete who is a pre-med English concentrator. Loren Galler Rabinowitz is all of the above and — if you can believe it — more.
Galler Rabinowitz, who grew up in Brookline, Mass., and Barbados, already has lived a full life. From the ages of 2 to 20, her home was on the ice, where she eventually traveled around the world competing professionally with her skating partner David Mitchell, garnering acclaim as U.S. Junior Champions and 2004 bronze medalists at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. But, she said, she always knew she’d eventually land at Harvard.
“I think one of the most important things for me as a professional athlete was that I always took school very seriously,” said Galler Rabinowitz, who attended high school full time, even after training for four hours each morning. She deferred enrollment at Harvard to compete professionally for two more years after graduation, taking up residence at Adams House in 2007.
“One of the things that I knew I was going to miss when I stopped skating was the constant creative outlet,” said Galler Rabinowitz, “so I signed up for a creative writing course as a freshman.”
She eventually was chosen as a thesis advisee by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jorie Graham, the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, from nearly 100 creative-writing thesis applications.
Her 70-plus-page manuscript, “The Invisible Encyclopedia of Dance,” recalls the tenuous stake on which glory rests, and evokes dance moves using the skater’s trademark measured precision — only on the poetic line. In “Ice Dancer,” Galler Rabinowitz writes: “The position must be maintained. / There is only up or down. / There are only laurels or sorrow.”
The poems also delve into headier matter, such as sickness and death. In the fall of 2008, Galler Rabinowitz began shadowing a pastor at Mount Auburn Hospital. Her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor and 50-year New Orleans resident, had died in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “I was very interested in how people deal with loss,” recalled Galler Rabinowitz.
“One of the things that most draws me to becoming a doctor is a sense of compassion and being a humanitarian,” she said. “That’s missing from medical education now. It’s sort of technical and diagnostic. I want to make the experience of going to the doctor’s office enjoyable and not terrifying.”
Now Galler Rabinowitz is considering medical schools and eventually wants to enter pediatrics. Medicine wasn’t always a career goal, but her parents are also physicians, and, she said, “They’re so passionate that it’s infectious.”
But medicine might wait a few years, too. Galler Rabinowitz is eyeing some of Boston’s M.F.A. programs in creative writing and may divert elsewhere, at least for a little while.
But this juggling is nothing new. Even at Harvard, Galler Rabinowitz coached youth ice skaters, waking every morning at 5:30 to meet them on the ice. That quickly led to her tutoring them and advising with SATs and college prep.
“One of the things that’s so interesting is how much of my skate training — discipline, work ethic, attention to detail, creativity — has been applicable to my activities at Harvard. I really like being able to show my young students the ways they can apply what they learn on the ice to all sorts of things they’re doing,” she said. “I think a lot of my successes at Harvard were due to that very specific training.”
Galler Rabinowitz is also adamant about giving back. Every Christmas she runs a charity event at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, raising money for Globe Santa and even teaching a few skating lessons. “I get to do good things and wear a sparkly dress,” she said. “What could be better?”
And then there’s less glamorous fieldwork. Galler Rabinowitz frequently volunteers at her mother’s Barbados-based clinic that treats malnourished children. She’s also taught creative writing classes in a shelter for abused women and children there.
Though her classmates often looked her up on Wikipedia, there’s no sign any of her well-chronicled achievements have gone to her head.
“I’ve had the privilege of competing at the highest athletic level and attending Harvard,” Galler Rabinowitz said. “And I didn’t really anticipate being able to merge my love of writing and being a future physician, but it really worked out that way.”
Next in the series: Cheng Ho and the tragedy that changed his life.
“Norwegian designer Daniel Rybakken has installed LED panels replicating daylight on a dark staircase in Stockholm. Called Daylight Entrance, the walls of the staircase are lined with solid surface material. Recesses were milled out from behind the material to accommodate panels of LED lights.” See more photos here.
Filed under: Performance, Europe, Hatchback, Peugeot
As Europe’s second largest automaker, it’s no great secret that France’s PSA has got the Volkswagen Group squarely in its sights. As if the on-track rivalry between Peugeot and Audi in Le Mans racing weren’t enough, the Lion brand recently launched its offensive against the likes of the Vokswagen Scirocco and Audi TT in the form of the RCZ coupe. Now the French are taking another shot, this time against the Volkswagen GTI with… their own GTi.
Not only is the name the same (save the discrepancy of the lower-case I), but the specs follow a similar formula as well: The VW packs a 2.0-liter turbocharged four with 200 horsepower. The Peugeot? A 1.6-liter turbocharged (and direct-injected) four with – you guessed it – 200 horsepower. Even torque is also on a (relatively) level playing field, with the Volks offering 207 lb-ft and the Pug 202. The heavier Peugeot, however, takes 7.7 seconds to get up to highway speed, compared to the seven seconds flat it takes the Volkswagen.
The engine in the 308 GTi – co-developed with BMW – is the same that debuted on the RCZ, this time powering a five-door hatch and mated to a six-speed manual. There are other suspension, aerodynamic and trim upgrades to differentiate the 308 GTi from its bread-and-butter stablemates, more of which you can read about in the press release after the jump and view in the gallery below. The ultimate question is, after listening to its customers and doing an about-face on its plans to get out of the hot hatch game altogether, does the Peugeot deserve the GTi badge? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Gallery: Peugeot 308 GTi
[Source: Peugeot]
Continue reading Peugeot takes on VW yet again with the new 308 GTi
Peugeot takes on VW yet again with the new 308 GTi originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 21 May 2010 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
People really have an incredible ability to assume that only they could possibly have a very common idea. Lots of people have pointed out that James Cameron’s Avatar seems similar to all sorts of stories. In fact, the site io9 put together a giant list of books and movies that some claimed were copied by Cameron. And, of course, we’ve already mentioned two separate lawsuits. Well, now we can add Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
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[JURIST] The US Senate [official website] on Thursday passed the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 [S 3217 materials], focused on increasing regulation in the financial sector following the recent economic crisis [JURIST news archive]. The bill creates a new regulatory council to monitor financial institutions in order to prevent the companies from becoming “too big to fail.” It also gives the Federal Reserve [official website] the power to supervise the largest financial companies and report to the government any risks the firms may pose to the economy at large. Additionally, a new consumer protection division will be established within the Federal Reserve to enforce rules against certain business practices like abusive mortgage lending and some credit card practices. As a final protection against future bailouts, the government will have the ability to seize and liquidate failing financial institutions before their collapse can have an adverse affect on the entire economy. US President Barack Obama [official website] praised the reform [press release], stating, “[o]ur goal is not to punish the banks, but to protect the larger economy and the American people from the kind of upheavals that we’ve seen in the past few years. And today’s action was a major step forward in achieving that goal.” Opponents of the bill, however, expressed concern that its passage will stifle the economy. Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) [official website] stated [press release], “[i]n its current form, the bill will do considerable damage to our competitiveness as a nation, not to mention harming job growth and our economic recovery.” The Senate bill has to be reconciled with the bill passed last December [JURIST report] by the US House of Representatives [official website] before Obama can sign it into law.
Thursday’s passage of the bill marks the end to a long struggle in the Senate over financial reform. The Senate Banking Committee [official website] proposed a bill [text, PDF; JURIST report] in 2009 that was met with resistance and resulted in the committee’s development of the current bill. One provision in the bill that has been the source of much debate is the creation of a consumer protection agency. The US House Financial Services Committee [official website] had approved a bill to create the agency in October, after originally delaying [JURIST reports] it at the behest of financial industry leaders in July. The creation of the agency is a key step in achieving the Obama administration’s stated goal of tightening financial industry regulations. Last June, the administration proposed a broad series of regulatory reforms [press release; JURIST report] aimed at restoring confidence in the US financial system.
Harnessing energy out of green sustainable sources is getting better and more efficient day-by-day. It’s now wave energy generation that will receive a push up, with Aquamarine Power’s Oyster 2. This wave harnessing machine converts hydraulic power to electricity. To be built in Scotland, the 800-kilowatt model will produce 250% more energy than previous models. Just like its predecessor, the Oyster, the Oyster 2 does not use underwater turbines or buoys for energy generation.
It uses pistons set into motion by ocean waves that create water pressure and pumps the pressurized water in an underwater pipeline to the shore, which is then used to juice up a hydroelectric generator. Off the coast of mainland Scotland, three Oyster 2 machines have already been installed. These will be connected to an onshore 2.4-megawatt hydroelectric turbine. 20 machines will be set up in the future by Aquamarine Power, which will help lighten up 12,000 homes, using waves.
[Cnet]
Fuel efficiency of a car could never get better than this. The car by Team Polyjule Polytech Nantes from France broke quite a few records with its astounding fuel efficiency, 4,414km on a single liter of fuel. The 2010 Shell Eco-marathon saw this incredible feat being achieved by the Prototype car that broke the “3,836 kilometers on a single liter of fuel” record set by ETH Zurich of Switzerland.
Racing day kicked off a day earlier at the Shell Eco-marathon event. The car also faced a bit of trouble, breaking down on the fifth trial run, though still managing to break the record. The Polyjule Team is made up of students from Polytechnique de Nantes, a third-level engineering school, and Lycée La Joliverie, a second-level institution, who aimed for perfection to chisel out this awesome fuel efficient vehicle. Hopefully, our day-to-day cars of the future drink this less.
[Shell]
As a BlackBerry user, I’m not sure how I feel about 1,500 UK binmen being given BlackBerrys for work. I don’t want to be elitist, but if a binman wolf-whistles me and asks if I’m on BBM, I’d die. More »
BlackBerry – Smartphone – Handhelds – Wind – Wallpapers and Themes
Police cars are have gone from SUVs to Sedans to Hatchbacks. And now, to shrink them up a bit further, they turn into little four-wheeled contraptions, that somewhat look a lot like an infants pram. You top a pram with flashing lights, pedal power, five gears, a siren, full Hampshire Constabulary livery and a roll bar to protect the driver and you have a little “patrol car”, with a top-speed of 20mph, unlikely to catch up with a getaway car that easily. Anyways, this isn’t a serious step taken by the Police, it’s just a community project organized by local bobby Keith Waller, and it won’t be doing any chasing.
The car took 40 hours to build with help from children aged 13 to 16 from the Ringwood Comprehensive School. This explains the size factor. The tiny 6-foot long “patrol car” will take part in the British Pedal Car Grand Prix on July 11. The lovable Mr. Plod from Noddy’s Toy-Town is sure to love this cop car.
Luke Timmerman wrote:
Most biotech firms toil as obscure private companies for years to prove their ideas work in the clinic. They have to hustle non-stop for venture capital to keep the doors open just long enough to someday cash out with an IPO.
Steven Quay is betting he’s found a shortcut.
Quay, the veteran Seattle biotech CEO, is trying to cut straight to the IPO chase with his new gig. He’s the CEO and founder of Seattle-based Atossa Genetics, with his own patented invention and his own seed capital, which he’s now hoping to parlay into a $15 million initial public offering. If Quay can raise that money, Atossa will be able to start selling an FDA-approved diagnostic test which could be used along with mammograms to predict a woman’s future risk of getting breast cancer.
Atossa described its unusual origins in a March 30 investor prospectus that I, and pretty much everybody else in the media that I can see, missed. But Atossa’s IPO paperwork is clear that it is seeking to sell 5 million shares at $3 each. The filing doesn’t list any underwriters, although Quay says he is in discussions with several. It has a law firm (Cassidy & Associates of Newport Beach, CA) that I haven’t heard of, and an accounting firm, KCCW Accountancy, that also doesn’t ring any bells. Atossa plans to trade as an over-the-counter stock, which I must say isn’t the place most people look to find the next Genentech.
That said, Quay is a well-known character in the Seattle biotech scene and on the NASDAQ circuit. He was previously the CEO of Bothell, WA-based Sonus Pharmaceuticals in the 1990s, and was CEO of Bothell, WA-based Nastech Pharmaceutical (now MDRNA) for most of the last decade. Both of those companies made a lot of shareholders unhappy. Sonus flamed out under Quay’s successor a couple years ago, and was later absorbed by OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: OGXI). MDRNA is still alive, but has limited cash reserves, and a market capitalization of less than $50 million. Quay left that company in the fall of 2008 with a severance package worth $1.7 million.
Steven Quay
The roots of Atossa Genetics go back to the late ’90s, during an interim stint Quay had between Sonus and Nastech. In 2000, Quay invented a technology which he says can be used to screen millions of women early for their future breast cancer risk, potentially saving lives, like the Pap Smear test has done for cervical cancer. Pap smears have helped bring the annual death rate from cervical cancer down by 90 percent over the past 50 years, and the same potential exists for early breast cancer screening today, Quay says. About 192,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, and about 40,000 die from it annually, according to the American Cancer Society.
“While we have this conversation, women are dying every minute from breast cancer,” Quay says.
The technology has had quite a few commercial twists and turns. Atossa’s test is designed to analyze nipple aspirate fluid, a sample of fluid from the milk ducts in the breast that’s filled with cells and molecular markers that are thought to be early signs of cancer. The technology was obtained by Nastech when Quay became CEO of the company in 2000. But it didn’t really go very far there. While at Nastech, Quay championed a strategy of creating nasal-spray delivery formulations of drugs which received support at various times from partners like Procter & Gamble, Novo Nordisk, and Merck. Those partnerships eventually dried up, and Nastech reinvented itself as a developer of RNA interference technology, and renamed itself MDRNA.
While most investors weren’t watching, the breast cancer diagnostic won FDA approval in 2003. The commercial rights were later held by Cytyc and Hologic, who did some patent and development work, but handed the product back under license terms to MDRNA in 2008, Quay says. While it’s been cleared for sale by the FDA for seven years, the test hasn’t yet been marketed.
Why didn’t those other companies commercialize the technology? One potential reason …Next Page »
UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS
A plant in Fremont, Calif., that was closed last year because it was too inefficient will now be used by partners, Toyota Motor Corp. and Tesla Motors Inc., to make electric vehicles. The New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. facility will be acquired by Tesla and will be manned by 1,000 workers.
The two companies made the announcement in Palo Alto, Calif. Toyota President Akio Toyoda said that Tesla’s entrepreneurial spirit is admirable — a quality that he hopes all Toyota employees will take on, considering that Toyota began as a venture business decades ago. Continued after the jump!
He also said that he anticipates that Toyota will learn quick decision-making and flexibility from the venture. To prepare NUMMI, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the company will spend “a couple of hundred million dollars.”
Earlier this year, NUMMI (a former joint venture between Toyota and General Motors) shut down amid heavy criticism from the UAW work force. Musk revealed that the negotiations to obtain the plant had concluded earlier this week.
The facility will produce about 20,000 units a year for the Model S, Tesla’s next model that will debut in 2012.
But Musk said that the other models that will follow will be based on the Model S platform. Toyota will invest $50 million in Tesla in exchange for the electric carmaker’s common stock when it completes its planned initial public offering.
Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots
Ever dreamt of riding a dolphin, riding up and down the waves of the deep blue ocean? Well, now there’s a greener way to do that, without troubling dolphins. Part the waters for the Green Samba, a Personal Water Craft V 3.0 powered by electricity. This is the fastest sit-down PWC of its kind. The Green Samba’s handling and agility is far better than the usual standup-up PWC.
With a 65mph straight line performance and 260bhp, the Green Samba uses twin direct drive electric propulsion pods, keeping the hydrocarbons, CO2 and NO2 at bay. Besides being clean and green, this Samba is also noiseless, which keeps the marine life undisturbed. The Green Samba is sure to catch the attention of those who love riding waves and the Special Forces, who forever have been looking for silent crafts like these.
[Gizmag]
