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2011 Maybach 62 Premiere Night, Beijing 2010

At the 2010 Beijing Motor Show, Daimler unveiled the new facelift 2011 Maybach. This may be the last ever Maybachs coming out of Daimler because it seems like the executives refuse to sign off development on new models.

The Maybach 57 and 62 are still powered by a V12 542-hp engine with better fuel-economy. The 2011 Maybach 57S and the 62S get an extra 18-hp for a total of 630.

There are some styling changes to the exterior including a chrome radiator grille, which is different in style between the standard 57 and 62 models and the S versions, a redesigned bonnet, a reshaped front bumper, modified side-view mirrors and a new rear light design.

Designers also added 11mm to the car’s length and 17mm to its width.

2011 Maybach 57/62:

– By: Kap Shah

Healthcare having a hard day, but everything else is roughly flat.

U.S. Markets:

• DJIA: Up 9.37, or 0.08%, to 11134.29
• NASDAQ: Up 14.46, or 0.58%, to 2519.07
• S&P 500: Up 2.74, or 0.23%, to 1208.67

Commodities:

• Oil: Up 0.06, or 0.07%, to 83.74.
• Gold: Down 4.50, or 0.39%, to 1142.50.
• Silver: Down 0.09, or 0.53%, to 18.

Now here’s what you need to know as you leave work today

• Amazon and Microsoft report earnings after today’s closing bell. Follow our coverage at SAI.

• This crisis in Greece is continuing to escalate, with the risk of default growing by the minute. RBS has come out saying that default is unlikely, because it would bring the end of the euro altogether as a result.

• President Obama’s speech to the banking community in New York is getting positive reviews, as the momentum is turning towards passing financial reform. Democratic leader Sen. Reid plans on moving the financial reform bill to the Senate floor as early as Monday.

• The Thai capital of Bangkok is under siege at the moment with 70 hurt and 3 killed in bomb blasts in the city. The military is blaming anti-government protesters, who are fighting to have former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra brought back to power.

• U.S. housing sale numbers boomed today, beating expectations in March. Homebuilders are reaping the rewards, with the industry ETF (XHB) rising nearly 4% today.

• The SEC’s case against Goldman Sachs is continuing to deteriorate, with the deal’s structurer, ACA, being found out as the root of much of the deal’s losses. That removes some of the blame from Paulson and Co.’s mortgage selections, which were pushed for by Goldman Sachs.

• A health care percentage on a restaurant bill, in San Francisco. Is this the future?

Join the conversation about this story »

Is it too late for WellPoint to get into the Worst Company In America competition? A new report says the insurance giant and its subsidiaries have been deliberately targeting policyholders recently diagnosed with breast cancer and going to great lengths to have their policies nullified.

According to Reuters, WellPoint, who cover 33.7 million Americans through its numerous subsidiaries, “used a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies.”

After being singled out by the computer, their policies were canceled “based on either erroneous or flimsy information.”

WellPoint has been singled out before by Congress for being a major practicer of “recission,” the process of weeding out policyholders after they’ve been diagnosed with a medical condition that could cost the insurer a significant amount of money.

In a statement to Reuters, WellPoint said that “various specified criteria trigger rescission investigations, including certain types of medical claims.”
WellPoint swears, hand-on-heart, that it changed its rescission practices to ensure they are handled appropriately after a 2006 review.

To show just how much they care about the health of their policyholders, WellPoint even went so far as to add a doctor to the committee that makes decisions on recissions.

In recent months, another insurance company, Assurant was caught targeting and then dropping HIV-positive policyholders.

Of interest: Assurant lost out in the first round of Worst Company in America to Anthem Blue Cross Blue shield, which is a major subsidiary of WellPoint.

Exclusive: WellPoint routinely targets breast cancer patients [Reuters]

Testing began for the new T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide earlier this month, but the carrier has not officially announced the device yet. Early rumors placed the phone launching around May 17th, but new information suggest the release date has been pushed back a couple weeks. TmoNews is reporting the myTouch 3G Slide is now scheduled to appear around June 2nd.

T-Mobile is also set to launch the Android-powered Garminfone this spring so it will be interesting to see which phone hits first. Both devices feature similar hardware specs (600 MHz ARM11 with 3.5 inch display), but the Garminfone runs Android 1.6 while the Slide includes the new Android 2.1.

The Slide has generated the most buzz for an upcoming T-Mobile phone, while customers have been unimpressed with the Garminfone. We should be reviewing both phones in the next couple of months so we will put them head to head. For more details on the Slide, check out our early impressions and the screens from the Espresso UI.

Related Posts

• Which upcoming Android phone is black, red, or white and features a Genius button?
• T-Mobile myTouch Slide details slip out
• First images of the T-Mobile myTouch Slide
• New screens leak from the myTouch 3G Slide
• Hands on T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide

Filed under: Etc., Technology, Audi, BMW, Porsche

The practice of opening the hood at every fuel stop used to be routine. With an oil-soaked rag in hand, the worker reached over and pulled out the hot metal dipstick, and after a quick cleaning swipe, the dipstick was plunged back into its tube and pushed down into the sump of scalding oil. Withdrawn again, a tell-tale black film in the middle of the scored lines marked the oil level very accurately.

Today, many late model vehicles are running sans oil dipstick. Electronic oil level senders have replaced the metal rod – to the bafflement and frustration of the few remaining hands-on enthusiasts everywhere.

In an effort to find out who exactly is responsible for the dipstick-abolishing movement, Autoblog contacted Audi, BMW and Porsche – three respected German automakers who have embraced the technology for several years. All three gave us the same answer. Contrary to Internet rumors, the elimination of an inexpensive metal rod is not a cost-cutting measure, nor is it an environmental issue (word on the web said each check of a dipstick introduced ounces of polluting dirty oil into the ecosystem).

Quite frankly, the automakers point out that we simply don’t need dipsticks anymore. Why? Because owners don’t use them. While they don’t specifically say it, those who engineer and assemble our new cars (and guarantee new vehicle warranties) are much more comfortable knowing that a silicon chip is monitoring the oil level – not a consumer who hasn’t checked tire pressures (or even opened the hood) since the last time the Vikings won the Super Bowl.

Today’s comatose driver expects everything to be automated – and it is. Look no further than the myriad of digitized warning lights on the dashboard when the key is turned (um… make that the start button). Don’t blame the automakers for the disappearance of the dipstick – blame the public at large.

Photo by Michael Harley / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Technology alert: The dipstick’s demise is blamed on dilatory drivers originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Pandora

Success, they, say has many friends. Tim Westergren (founder) and Tom Conrad (chief technology officer), the guys who are the public face of the much-in-demand online music startup, Pandora, would undoubtedly agree. After struggling for most of its life, the company, whose service allows you to create a radio station based on the music you like, is suddenly a Silicon Valley darling.

Such adoration was made clear at the f8 conference yesterday, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg singled out Pandora’s service and its tight integration with the social networking site’s new platform. He’s not the only one who’s fallen in love with Pandora. A few weeks ago, it was showcased by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the launch of iPhone 4.0 OS. Phone companies and even Ford talks about it in reverential tones. In short, Pandora is everywhere.

And why not? According to Appitzr, Pandora is the most popular free app on the iPhone platform; it’s among the most downloaded and used apps on the Android platform as well. Pandora has more than 50 million listeners, nearly 40 percent of which access the service on mobile platforms.

Which is somewhat ironic given that the company, which is 10 years old, was until recently always a half-step away from being in trouble. Whether it was running out of money or faced with draconian royalty rules, Pandora seemed like a Silicon Valley tragedy.

But I have known Westergren and Conrad for a long time and as such, have learned a lot about them as people. And I believe that much of their success can be attributed to their never-die (and sometimes foolish) optimism.

Westergren looks like a surfer dude; he has a totally chill vibe. When things got really hard back in 2008, he kept his wits about him, never once letting his emotions get the best of him — all while managing to keep Pandora up and running. We entrepreneurs should learn from that.

Tom & Tim at Apple's iPhone 4.0 OS launch event.

Did you know, for example, that he did more than 300 meetings with venture capitalists, most of which resulted in bupkiss? Of course, all that changed with the arrival of the iPhone and Pandora’s iPhone app. And in July 2009 the company raised $35 million. With total sales of about $50 million last year, it is well on its way to being profitable and has investors lining up to give it more money. There’s even talk of an initial public offering.

I bumped into Westergren and Conrad at f8 and joked about the company’s darling status. They just looked at me, grinned sheepishly and excused themselves. Amazingly, all this success hasn’t changed them.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Forget Syncing, Let’s Put Music in the Cloud!

A few days ago, we applauded Sprint for the way they were promoting their 4G service in conjunction with the launch of the iPad with their Sprint 4G Case. Obviously marketed towards the iPad buyers to get them to choose using a Sprint Overdrive 4G device rather than AT&T’s 3G plan, Sprint teamed up with Best Buy to give these cases away for free to anyone who’d purchase an Overdrive mobile hotspot at a participating Best Buy location.

Since we are in a 4G-enabled area, we figured we’d head on over to Best Buy to see if we couldn’t finagle one of the Sprint 4G Cases from the store. We weren’t going to be buying an Overdrive hotspot (we already have one,) but we were willing to just pay for one if that’s what needed to happen. The first surprise came when Best Buy told us that we certainly could just buy one outright, and that it would cost us a full $0.01. A penny. For an iPad case! We gladly paid for it, and were on our way.

Now, I didn’t recall exactly what the case that was advertised from Sprint looked like, but we did immediately think “Huh, this feels kinda cheap – I thought it would be better than this.” When I got back, I took a look at the Sprint 4G Case promo again, and it was obvious – the case that Sprint is promoting on the site is not the same case that you will actually receive at Best Buy.

Gallery: Sprint 4G Case for iPad review

Continue reading Sprint 4G Case for iPad review

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You know iFixit from their Mac repair guides and parts. (They estimate they’re the second-largest supplier of Mac parts next to Apple.) Now they’re expanding to create repair guides and manuals for everything. More »

One of US telcos’ favorite talking points is the “free ride” that Google and other content providers get on their networks. It’s fundamentally wrong, since Google and others obviously pay their bandwidth bills, but it’s also conceptually flawed, as telco execs seem to think it’s their networks, rather than the content which travels over it, that consumers value. The stupidity isn’t bounded by this country’s borders, though, with the head of a UK broadband-via-satellite provider saying that “Neither consumers or providers are bearing the cost” of data traffic over broadband networks. With that, we’d like to extend our usual challenge to the exec: if neither consumers or content providers are paying, how about paying their bandwidth bills for a month?

The exec contends that broadband providers will all eventually move to usage-based pricing, and in a letter to the Financial Times, says that when they do, “content free loaders will suddenly find that demand falls dramatically”. Perhaps it’s just a typo, and he meant to say “broadband providers will suddenly find that demand falls dramatically”? Once again, the exec fails to understand that people don’t buy network access from his company just for the sake of it, they buy it for access to content. If he, or any other provider, starts putting walls up between consumers and the content they want to access, whether through walled gardens or usage-based pricing (really just a code word for “much higher fees”), they will reduce the value of their customers’ connections, and subsequently what they’ll pay for it. So if the end result of a shift to usage-based pricing is decreased usage — and subsequently no real change in providers’ revenues — what good is the shift?

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Turns out that Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein is upset with the SEC because the Suit will “Hurt America”.

Lloyd Blankfein on Wednesday attacked the Securities & Exchange Commission’s fraud charges in telephone calls to clients as Goldman escalated its campaign to stem the damage to the bank’s reputation.

One person who received a call from the Goldman chief said he was told the regulator’s case against the bank was politically motivated and would ultimately “hurt America”….

“He was very aggressive,” said one person called by Mr Blankfein on Wednesday. “He feels that the government is out to kill them, that they are under attack and the whole thing is totally political.”

And yes, he believes what he is saying because from his perspective, serving the shareholders and the “purposes of society” is the supreme purpose of Goldman Sachs.

“Is it possible to have too much ambition? Is it possible to be too successful?” Blankfein shoots back. “I don’t want people in this firm to think that they have accomplished as much for themselves as they can and go on vacation. As the guardian of the interests of the shareholders and, by the way, for the purposes of society, I’d like them to continue to do what they are doing. I don’t want to put a cap on their ambition. It’s hard for me to argue for a cap on their compensation.”

So, it’s business as usual, then, regardless of whether it makes most people howl at the moon with rage? Goldman Sachs, this pillar of the free market, breeder of super-citizens, object of envy and awe will go on raking it in, getting richer than God? An impish grin spreads across Blankfein’s face. Call him a fat cat who mocks the public. Call him wicked. Call him what you will. He is, he says, just a banker “doing God’s work”.

Making it harder for Goldman Sachs to pillage and loot their customers and the American public will make it harder for them to do “God’s work” in the future. After all, they are the masters of the Universe and owed their rightful due. And the rest of us that object to paying off their gignormous bets just have to shut-up and stuff it according to Blankfein.

More EcoBoost™ Engines Will Drive the Future for Ford

The Ford EcoBoost™ engines will power as much as 90 percent of the company’s North American nameplates by 2013.EcoBoost is available now in the Ford Flex and Taurus, and Lincoln MKS and MKT.

EcoBoost will be expanded to 11 global nameplates with the addition of three new variants.

The next three EcoBoost engines include a:

•1.6-liter four-cylinder that will be offered in the European Ford C-Max
•2.0-liter four-cylinder for the next-generation Ford Explorer and Edge
•3.5-liter V6 for the Ford F-150

Ford engineers have upgraded the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 for rear-wheel-drive applications. In the F-150, the EcoBoost is expected to deliver best-in-class fuel economy along with the power and towing capability of a V8.

EcoBoost technology combines direct fuel injection, variable cam timing and turbocharging to reduce fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and cut vehicle weight, while giving drivers the performance of a bigger engine.

While Ford is rolling out the first generation of EcoBoost engines, researchers are studying ways to create smaller future EcoBoost engines, while preserving performance and raising fuel economy.

“We are trying to get in front of the pack in leveraging EcoBoost for fuel economy,” Kapp said. “It’s going to be a trend in the industry, and we can’t rest on our laurels for one minute.

We are going to keep wringing more efficiency out of EcoBoost.”

EcoBoost is a key technology that will enable Ford not only to fulfill the company’s goal to be among the leaders in fuel economy in every segment, but also to meet the federal government’s new 35.5 mpg fuel economy standard, which takes effect in 2016.

Read more

Some good thoughts from Morgan Stanley analyst Sophia Drossos on the tight link between Asian and US economies, and implicitly why you should be freaked out if Mr. and Mrs. American consumer ever tire of spending..

The main message from the BoC and other central banks
seems to be that the external environment is becoming more
positive as the drivers of the global recovery broaden out. 
Increasing strength in the US economy is augmenting the
strong growth observed in EM, suggesting more durable
prospects for the global economy.  The influence of improved
US growth can be seen indirectly in some of its trading
partners.  Indeed, the rebound in Canada, Mexico and AXJ
economies hints that the US economy may have more
forward momentum than many currently believe.  Decoupling
was disproved during the financial market crisis as EM
economies succumbed to the growth slowdown in the
developed world.  If decoupling didn’t hold on the way down,
why should it hold on the way back up?

Though it is true that Asian growth has led the global
economy out of the recent recession, historically, AXJ growth
is very tied to US growth too.  As Exhibit 1 shows, AXJ growth
has a strong relationship with US growth.  Strong trade ties
between the two regions help to explain a significant portion
of this, as US consumption fuels the Asian production cycle. 
This point is underscored by the strong relationship between
AXJ exports and US GDP.  It is notable that industrial
production (YoY basis) in some of the US’ main trading
partners has rebounded to pre-recession levels.  Given this
production is typically bound for developed markets, and the
US comprises the largest part of that, circumstantial evidence
of the improvement in the US economy continues to mount
(Exhibit 2).  

Our US economics team projects US GDP at 3.25% this year,
strong enough to trigger Fed rate hikes in Q3.  While many
market participants continue to doubt the sustainability of the
US recovery, the circumstantial evidence is building.  In that
vein a repricing of US growth and interest rate differentials is
likely.  Long USD/JPY (target 109 by end-2010) and short
EUR/USD (target 1.24 by end-2010) offer good ways to
position for an upside surprise in US growth prospects.  In
addition, we suggest going long currencies with strong trade
ties to the US, such as MXN and CAD.  We still favor long
CAD vs short AUD given that the global growth engine is
likely to be increasingly powered by the US economy rather
than Asia this year.  With a lot of good news priced into AUD,
it is likely to cede ground to CAD.

Join the conversation about this story »

This hurts: DataViz has come right out and said that DocsToGo for webOS is no longer under active development, which is to say we have no idea when or if we might expect it happen on webOS. So writes Kathleen McAneany of DataViz:

We are continuing our efforts to work with Palm to clear the path for a full editing version of Documents To Go. However, given the current environment at Palm, as well as the necessary collaboration with the device manufacturer that is required to bring an app like ours to a platform like webOS, our Documents To Go editor product for webOS is essentially at a standstill.

As soon as we have any additional information, we will inform you immediately.

Thanks for your passion surrounding our solution.

We’ve gone from hope, to hoping for Early 2010, to ‘no ETA,‘ to a ‘standstill.’ This is a big blow for Palm, since true document editing was one of the missing pieces for making it a true business phone. We don’t want to parse words too closely here, but when we read ‘given the current environment at Palm,’ we’re not exactly filled with warm feelings. Pretty hard to see this as anything put DataViz putting the ball in Palm’s court.

DataViz makes it a little clearer on Twitter: "[…] we can only work so hard without help from the manufacturer. Tough to write an robust office suite all in javascript."

If nothing else, this news puts an exclamation point on the interest in X-Server/Open Office and other community-based attempts to build an office suite for webOS.

Thanks to miles4000 and Colonel Kernel for the tip!

Since the release of this lightning quick browser for Android, many users wanted to use this as their default browser. I don’t really know why Opera didn’t add this feature to the app but you couldn’t do it. There is now an app that will make this possible.

(more…)

A British astrologer claims Britney Spears’ team has approached him about providing his services to the pop tart.

Spears is apparently interested in getting guidance from renowned stargazer Russell Grant.

“I got an email from Britney Spears’ office,” Russell tells The Sun (Yeah, I already know….) “Apparently she wants a reading. I need to check out its validity.”

Britney, 28, has been dating her manager Jason Trawick, 38, on and off for the past year.

Welcome to the one, the only, South African restaurant in Atlanta: 10 Degrees South.

The menu here, with all its unusual words, seems to be talking to you in a foreign language.

But the flavors speak a language you know — that of staid, familiar Continental cooking. Throw in some easygoing sweet-and-sour sauces and a basketful of South African wines, and you’ve got a nice, non-challenging, date-night kind of spot with a slightly exotic sense of dress.

Consider these cheerful  sosoties ($11) — an appetizer portion of skewered beef tenderloin served with a tangy, balanced apricot curry glaze. I was impressed that the first flavor wasn’t sugar. That said, 11 bucks seems a little steep for four bites of beef.

I had to order this sliced beef sausage ($9) after hearing the waiter carefully pronounce it with the right accent, sounding the “w” like a “v.” Boer-VUHRS.

You know what it was? Beef sausage swimming in a brown sauce that brought a strong whiff of Worcestershire as soon as …

Ford Start Concept

Foto