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  • Driven to Destruction – The Cost of the Car Culture

    Consider the following statistics:

    1) There are 115 million households in the United States.

    2) 58.1% of American households have at least two cars.  20.1% have three or more.

    3) The IRS currently estimates that it costs 50 cents a mile to maintain a personal automobile.

    4) The average American vehicle drives 12,334 miles each year.

    Do the math, and you’ll discover that if every American household with more than one car gave up one of its cars, the total savings would be nearly 412 billion dollars per year. What if our country embarked on a ten-year program to build a high-speed rail system, and we used the money that we’re spending on our additional automobiles? We could finance a system worth over 4 trillion dollars.

    Admittedly, in today’s political climate, such a program will never happen. But the hypothetical exercise reminds us how wasteful our “one-person, one-car” system of transportation is, and how much better things could be if we could break out of the car culture that has gripped the United States for over 60 years now.

    In the coming months,  there will be a series of articles on the Seminal called “Driven to Destruction.” It will unearth some of the sordid history of how the country became so car-dependent, how this dependency has become harmful in so many ways, and how we can begin to move forward to a more sane and sustainable system of transportation.

    Please come along for the ride!

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  • Newegg Deal: Garmin nuvi 780 GPS with MSN Direct and free case

    Garmin nuvi 780 gps

    has a nice promo code sale on the Garmin nuvi 780 GPS device, which includes 9 months of MSN Direct service thrown in at no extra charge, as well as a free case. If you’re unfamiliar, the nuvi 780 is a pocket-sized GPS with a 4.3-inch touchscreen display. MSN Direct gives you up-to-the-minute traffic details, so that the nuvi 780 can take that into consideration when planning your route. The nuvi 780 also has Bluetooth built-in, along with an FM transmitter, and you can even use it as a hands-free speakerphone. You can pick up the Garmin nuvi 780 from Newegg for $169.99.

    As always, you can find all sorts of Newegg promo codes and deals on our forums.


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    Newegg Deal: Garmin nuvi 780 GPS with MSN Direct and free case originally appeared on Gear Live on Sat, April 10, 2010 – 3:00:22


  • Bad 3D Will Be the Death of 3D [Blockquote]

    Variety recently talked to Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, about the state of 3D film making. Katzenberg promptly released the Kraken on Clash of the Titans. Here’s why he thinks it could spell the end of 3D. More »







  • Apple’s Game Center: More Opportunities for Social Games Developers

    Most of the initial buzz surrounding Apple’s announcement on Thursday of its new operating system, iPhone OS 4, centered on the support for multitasking. While this feature has been long anticipated by users and developers alike, another important but less discussed aspect of the update involves Apple’s Game Center – a social gaming network to be launched for iPhone and iPod Touch later this summer. Similar to the networks already prevalent in console gaming, Apple’s Game Center will allow friend invitations and multiplayer game-play and will include matchmaking and high-score tracking.

    Sponsor

    The Game Center may be Apple’s attempt to compete with Facebook’s dominance over the hugely popular and incredibly lucrative area of social gaming. A report released this week suggested that the gaming company Zynga, maker of six of the seven most popular social games, is worth over $5 billion.

    Unlike Facebook, Apple does not currently have a social network upon which to automatically connect players and friends, although implementation of the Game Center may well bring this about. Details about the Game Center were not explicit in Thursday’s announcement, although the beta release of the operating system will include a developer preview of Game Center and contain a set of APIs so that mobile game developers can build apps that take advantage of the social gaming network capabilities.

    Echoing the popularity of gaming on the iPhone, initial analytics since the iPad release point to the continued domination of the App Store by gaming and entertainment applications. The updates to the iPhone OS could provide an opportunity for mobile and social game developers and for entrepreneurs in the gaming industry.

    Discuss


  • Mitt Romney wins SRLC straw poll by one vote over Ron Paul, 439-438

    Mitt Romney won the straw poll at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans with 439 votes, followed closely by Ron Paul with 438 votes.

    Below is an excerpt of Ron Paul’s speech at the conference. The full speech will be posted later.

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    Related posts:

    1. If Ron Paul Wins Another Straw Poll Republicans May Stop Using Them! Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll earlier this year….
    2. Ron Paul Wins CPAC Presidential Straw Poll Ron Paul wins this year’s straw poll at the Conservative…

  • Verizon NFL app officially launching Monday, but you can get it today

    You read that right. Starting Monday, Verizon reportedly is launching its NFL coverage after wrestling away rights from Sprint. [via Gizmofusion] Included will be live streaming video of draft coverage, Thursday night games, NBC Sunday night games, and live audio of every NFL game. Combine that with player stats, Red Zone videos, and fantasy football integration and you’ve got yourself a winner.

    This is available for the Motorola Droid and Devour, and the HTC Droid Eris. The app is free for the 2010 season but will become a paid app starting Jan. 11, 2011. There are no additional fees to use the service (yet, anyway), but note that it does count against your data usage. 

    Oh, and if you can’t wait until Monday, the app’s already leaked out and is available at Droid-Life.

  • Smartphone sensor could detect toxic chemicals

    A diagram illustrating how the Cell-All system would work

    Our smartphones can already surf the Net, take photos and videos, play games, and even make phone calls, so why not… have them smell the air? That what America’s Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate would like to see happen. The Cell-All initiative would see cell phones equipped with a sensor capable of detecting deadly chemicals. In the event of a terrorist chemical attack, the device could conceivably save numerous lives…

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  • Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 MR1 update a disaster?

    Sony Ericsson Xperia x2 MR 1 disaster

    We received this very interesting e-mail from Dominik telling us about his woes with the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 MR1 update, which has been lauded for being comprehensive, with many improvements and has even been called “the best update ever”.

    It seems everyone spoke well too soon.

    Dominik writes:

    Few days after X2 upgrade this is a disaster.

    This device is a biggest shame I’ve seen in my life.

    Basically this is unpredictable, unstable, unfinished and not proper piece of “crap”. Things randomly keep stopping working, device freezing constantly without any reason. The device has BASIC operation problems like camera not working, memory card not seen by the device – all needing soft resets.

    Current behaviour of X2 is like a first firmwares I’ve seen on P990, few years back.

    After upgrade I’ve had like 10 freezes through 48 hours.

    Freezing without any reason – just with normal, ordinary actions I d, switching panels etc..

    The software is completely not optimized at all, looks like a not finished.

    I was a fan of SE smartphones (used P800, P910, P990, P1, X1). All of them served well.

    As regarding X1 people experiences were very different, but generally feedback was good and deserved.

    X2 has huge negative feedback right now and I’m not alone.

    What is strange, the device did not behave this way before the update.

    Please observe the issue. I think if SE will react ASAP, The information should be widely spread around.

    You have to agree – this is just completely unacceptable from such a company!

    A quick look at the update thread on Sony Ericsson’s blog, which started of rather optimistically, shows that Dominik is far from alone.

    Jolo writes:

    Even with MR1 applied, this phone is useless with this low level of stability and speed. I’m sorry Sony Ericsson but the Software quality of your products is a shame.

    Schaotan on XDA-Developers write:

    Like many others, I’m disappointed by the upgrade.
    Phone is faster, surely, but random freezes are still occurring. I’m trying to troubleshoot, adapt my phone usage habits to prevent freezes, but its really bothersome and of little to no use.
    Probably a brilliant strategy by Sony to get me to spend even more upgrading to the X10. Though why i let myself be repeatedly suckered by Sony is beyond me.

    It appears that the MR1 update, while late, was still rushed out without proper testing. leaving even formerly satisfied users very unhappy indeed.

    Have any of our readers applied the update? Let us know your experience below.


  • Will $90 Oil Kill The Recovery?

    From Professor Hamilton at Econbrowser: Do rising oil prices threaten the economic recovery?

    Ten of the 11 recessions in the United States since World War II have been preceded by a sharp increase in the price of crude petroleum. Oil had been holding around $80/barrel over the last month, but traded as high as $87 last week, leading the Financial Times to ask whether oil could give the “kiss of death to recovery.” Here is how I would answer that question.

    See Hamilton’s post for his analysis with several graphs. He concludes:

    $87 oil is certainly not helping the recovery. But I would be very surprised if it proves to be the kiss of death.

    And with the opposite view from the Financial Times article:

    Olivier Jakob, of Swiss consultant Petromatrix, said in a note that the “recovery of 2009 was fuelled with crude oil at $62 a barrel, not at $90 a barrel or $100 a barrel. We fear that the latest run on WTI will be the kiss of death for a global economy that was trying to avoid the possibility of a double-dip recession.”

    I tend to agree with Dr. Hamilton. However I also watch vehicle miles driven from the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the DOT recently reported that vehicle miles driven in January were down from January 2009:

    Travel on all roads and streets changed by -1.6% (-3.7 billion vehicle miles) for January 2010 as compared with January 2009. Travel for the month is estimated to be 222.8 billion vehicle miles.

    Here is a repeat of the graph I posted last month:

    Vehicle Miles YoYClick on graph for larger image in new window.

    This graph shows the percent change from the same month of the previous year as reported by the DOT.

    As the DOT noted, miles driven in January 2010 were down -1.6% compared to January 2009, and miles driven have declined 2.9% compared to January 2008, and are down 4.7% compared to January 2007.

    If miles driven continues to decline, I’ll be more concerned about oil prices.

     

     

    This post is reprinted from Calculated Risk.

    Join the conversation about this story »

  • Opera Mini 5 Beta: A Browser Worth Singing About

    Opera Mini has been available for Android for quite some time now, but with the beta release of Opera Mini 5 came some significant improvements. The Opera Mini browser works on almost all mobile platforms, providing fast page renderings and requiring less CPU processing compared to a native web browser. Opera Mini does this by transcoding the page you requested on its servers, independent from your phone. Upon entering a URL, the request is first processed on Opera’s servers and the page is converted to a more “lightweight” version. The page is then sent to the handset via the Opera Mini browser. This results in faster load times, as much of the work has already been done, but some websites may not be rendered correctly.

    Some improvements made to Opera Mini in this release are an enhanced UI and the ability to remember passwords. New features include a very sleek tabbed browsing interface, a “visual dial” homepage which arranges bookmarks in a 3×3 grid of icons, a download manager which allows you to pause and resume, and the ability to synchronize bookmarks via Opera Link.

    Upon a web page loading completely, you’ll notice that it is completely zoomed out so that the entire width of the page fits within the screen. Although at this point the font size is infinitesimal, the viewer can quickly navigate by swiping to a general area and double-tapping to zoom in. The address bar and Google search bar stay at the top of the page, unless you hit the Menu key. I prefer choosing “Fullscreen Mode,” in which the address bar and bottom controls stay hidden until you press Menu.

    Pros:

    • Most pages load up very quickly, even on 2G networks.
    • The “Speed Dial” is a great home page for keeping your favorite websites one click away.

    Needs improvement:

    • Many complex websites are not transcoded correctly by Opera’s servers, and therefore are not rendered correctly during page loading.
    • Several mobile sites I tested did not load correctly either. Problems ranged from awkward page renderings to content not appearing at all.
    • Some sites will not let you view the mobile site, and some mobile sites will not let you view the regular. Opera seems to be in control of deciding which version of the site it will render for you.

    Final Verdict: With the best user interface I’ve seen yet in a free Android browser, a clean, intuitive menu, and fast page load times, Opera Mini 5 beta is a keeper. But most users will have to switch back and forth between browsers because of page rendering errors, which can be a nuisance. If Opera can give the user more control over which sites are transcoded and which aren’t, Opera could have all the features one needs in a mobile browser.

    Note: App tested on T-Mobile MyTouch3G



    Note: This review was submitted by Shane Manning as part of our app review contest.

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  • The Final Copyright Consultation Numbers: No Repeat Of Bill C-61

    Professor Michael Geist has an interesting note that puts the 8,300+ submissions in the context of some numbers. Very informative stuff. Take a quick look.

    “The Final Copyright Consultation Numbers: No Repeat Of Bill C-61“. Here is a brief excerpt,

    “Position
    Number of Supporters
    Submissions against another Bill C-61 6138
    Submissions in favour of shorter Copyright terms or against extending Copyright terms
    5520
    Submissions against anti-circumvention or in favour of limiting DRM/Digital locks 6641
    Submissions in favour of stronger personal use/copying and backup protections including format shifting and time shifting rights
    6242″

    Filed under: Canada, copyright, FairCopyright, Law

  • Gov. Perry: I’m Focused on Texas, Not 2012

    Texas Governor Rick Perry tells Fox News he is not running for president in 2012. During an appearance on America’s News Headquarters, the republican governor, who is running for re-election this November, responded to fresh criticism from his democratic opponent Bill White that Perry is more focused on a 2012 presidential run than the needs of his home state saying, “My name is not on the straw poll. I have no interest in the presidential election personally.”

    Perry’s speech at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference Friday night had some national media pundits talking about Perry for president in 2012. White’s campaign spokesperson Katy Bacon capitalized on that press — and released a statement that read, “Bill White spent his day meeting with Farm Bureau leadership and the Chamber of Commerce in Waco. Rick Perry spent his day campaigning in Louisiana, talking about Washington.”

    Governor Perry fired back on Fox News and said he’s the one looking out for Texas, not White. Perry said his presence at the conference, held in New Orleans, was a recruiting trip. The governor says he’s trying to recruit Louisiana businesses to move to Texas. Perry added, “I’m for the Texas way of doing business.”

  • Missed Call: Micromanage your notifications

    My Droid needs to know something. Green is not the favorite color of every human being in the world. In fact, according to the Internet, the world’s most favorite color is blue. That said, I hate both of those colors. Personally, I enjoy yellow.

    Don’t get me wrong! Android is a great OS and the phones that run it are getting better and better. You are constantly updated on new e-mails, text messages, tweets, and a variety of other notifications… which is awesome! But, despite all that awesome, there is one flaw to the system. With the exception of the Facebook application (which, by the way, apparently got it right with the blue) all of your notifications produce the same boring blinking green LED. If you’re like me and normally have your phone on vibrate, a blinking green light isn’t enough to tell you what kind of notification you’ve got.

    Enter Missed Call: a free app from the Android Market. Missed Call does more than it’s name may entail. It allows you to set up profiles for a good amount of notifications you might get on your phone, including everything from missed calls and SMSs to your low battery status. This then gives you the ability to set a handful of options for things your phone should do upon receiving these notifications like the LED color, the length and type of vibrations, the ringtone used, and whether or not the notification should repeat. Some of the services, however, have less options than these four. Specifically, things like the low battery service can’t change the LED color from the default red, which I think is okay.

    The process is pretty simple. You add a service from the main menu. Then you go into the settings for that particular service. For some services, like the SMS service, you have the option to set general settings for all of the notifications, as well as settings for individual contacts. After choosing the group you are trying to edit notifications for, you are then presented with the options you can change.

    Pros:

    • The ability to fine tune notifications
    • Several options to customize the response to several notifications your phone can generate
    • Easy to use and manage interface

    Needs Improvement:

    • Have to turn off the internal notification settings for some of the services before the app will work
    • The notification sound selector seems to be buggy (won’t select the right sound sometimes)
    • Control over other notifications, like getting e-mails and linking into specific applications are non-existent. Hopefully these will be included in the future, though.

    Final Verdict: So, if you want to be able to micromanage your notifications this is the app for you; if you just want to be able to change the LED color from green, this is also useful. All in all, this is a pretty nifty little app that gives you access to options that probably should have been in the OS to begin with, and allows you to add that extra bit of color back into your life.

    Phone Version: Droid with 2.1



    Note: This review was submitted by Peter Janak as part of our app review contest.

    Related Posts

  • Interactive IBM Ad Changes Color To Match Your Outfit [Interactivity]

    If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then this new interactive sign from IBM really, truly wants to get on your good side. It changes its appearance based on what the viewer is wearing. More »







  • World leaders in Washington for Obama nuclear security summit. List

    THE WHITE HOUSE
    Office of the Press Secretary
    _______________________________________________________________________________________
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 10, 2010

    Below and attached is a list of world leaders and Heads of Delegation attending the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on April 12-13:

    People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
    His Excellency Mourad Medelci
    Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

    Argentine Republic
    Her Excellency Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
    President of the Argentine Republic

    Republic of Armenia
    His Excellency Serzh Sargsyan
    President of the Republic of Armenia

    Australia
    The Honorable Senator John Faulkner
    Minister for Defense of Australia

    Belgium
    His Excellency Yves Leterme
    Prime Minister of Belgium

    Federative Republic of Brazil
    His Excellency Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
    President of the Federative Republic of Brazil

    Canada
    The Right Honorable Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.
    Prime Minister of Canada

    Republic of Chile
    His Excellency Sebastián Piñera
    President of the Republic of Chile

    People’s Republic of China
    His Excellency Hu Jintao
    President of the People’s Republic of China

    Czech Republic
    His Excellency Jan Fischer
    Prime Minister of the Czech Republic

    Arab Republic of Egypt
    His Excellency Ahmed Aboul Gheit
    Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt

    European Union
    His Excellency Herman Van Rompuy
    President of the European Council

    Republic of Finland
    Her Excellency Tarja Halonen
    President of the Republic of Finland

    French Republic
    His Excellency Nicolas Sarkozy
    President of the French Republic

    Georgia
    His Excellency Mikheil Saakashvili
    President of Georgia

    Federal Republic of Germany
    Her Excellency Dr. Angela Merkel
    Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany

    Republic of India
    His Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh
    Prime Minister of the Republic of India

    Republic of Indonesia
    His Excellency Dr. Boediono
    Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia

    International Atomic Energy Agency
    Mr. Yukiya Amano
    Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency

    Israel
    His Excellency Dan Meridor
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy of Israel

    Italian Republic
    His Excellency Silvio Berlusconi
    President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic

    Japan
    His Excellency Yukio Hatoyama
    Prime Minister of Japan

    Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
    His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein
    King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

    Republic of Kazakhstan
    His Excellency Nursultan Nazarbayev
    President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

    Republic of Korea
    His Excellency Lee Myung-bak
    President of the Republic of Korea

    Malaysia
    The Honorable Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak
    Prime Minister of Malaysia

    United Mexican States
    His Excellency Felipe Calderon Hinojosa
    President of the United Mexican States

    Kingdom of Morocco
    His Excellency Abbas El Fassi
    Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco

    Kingdom of the Netherlands
    His Excellency Dr. Jan Peter Balkenende
    Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

    New Zealand
    The Honorable John Key
    Prime Minister of New Zealand

    Federal Republic of Nigeria
    His Excellency Dr. Goodluck E. Jonathan
    Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

    Norway
    His Excellency Jens Stoltenberg
    Prime Minister of Norway

    Islamic Republic of Pakistan
    His Excellency Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani
    Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

    Republic of Philippines
    Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
    President of the Republic of the Philippines

    Republic of Poland
    His Excellency Radoslaw Sikorski
    Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland

    Russian Federation
    His Excellency Dmitry A. Medvedev
    President of the Russian Federation

    Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
    His Royal Highness Prince Muqrin bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud
    President of the General Intelligence Presidency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Republic of Singapore
    His Excellency Lee Hsien Loong
    Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore

    Republic of South Africa
    His Excellency Jacob Zuma
    President of the Republic of South Africa

    Spain
    His Excellency José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
    President of the Government of Spain

    Sweden
    His Excellency Fredrik Reinfeldt
    Prime Minister of Sweden

    Swiss Confederation
    Her Excellency Doris Leuthard
    President of the Swiss Confederation

    Kingdom of Thailand
    His Excellency Trairong Suwankiri
    Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand

    Republic of Turkey
    His Excellency Recep Tayyip Erdogan
    Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey

    Ukraine
    His Excellency Viktor Yanukovych
    President of Ukraine

    United Arab Emirates
    His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
    Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces

    United Kingdom
    The Right Honorable David Miliband, M.P.
    Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

    United Nations
    His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
    Secretary-General of the United Nations

    United States
    The Honorable Barack Obama
    President of the United States

    Socialist Republic of Vietnam
    His Excellency Nguyen Tan Dung
    Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

    ##

  • U of Toronto engineers honoured for Apollo 13 aid

    CBC News, “U of Toronto engineers honoured for Apollo 13 aid“

    CP, “A team of University of Toronto engineers helped save ill-fated Apollo 13 crew“

    First hand account in a 2008 UTIAS article, “An Account of UTIAS Involvement in the Rescue of Apollo 13“.

    Filed under: Canada, Science & Technology, Toronto

  • MTM Audi R8 GT3-2 gets rear-wheel-drive, 560 horsepower

    While we wait on the arrival of that hotter Audi R8 (which will remain AWD) we heard about yesterday, tuner MTM is offerings some rear-wheel-drive, 560-hp fun for current Audi R8 owners.

    Known as the MTM R8 GT3-2, this Audi R8 gets rear-wheel-drive with differential lock and new adjustments.

    Click here to get prices on the 2010 Audi R8.

    MTM also supercharged the 4.2 FSI engine to make a total of 560-hp and 428 lb-ft of torque. That allows the R8 GT3-2 to go from 0-62 mph in 3.9 seconds with a top speed of 197 mph. The extra power is enhanced with strong sound coming from a special exhaust system.

    We’ll keep dreaming about driving the MTM R8 GT3-2 one day.

    Make the jump for the high-res gallery and the press release.

    MTM Audi R8 GT3-2:

    Press Release:

    The questions are legitimate and short: A Street-legal Audi R8 with rear wheel drive? And with a 560 HP supercharged engine? The answer is also short. Yes it exists! At MTM! The snow is hardly gone from Germany’s streets that the noble tuner from Wettstetten is announcing their latest project: the MTM R8 GT3-2, with the last digit standing for the number of powered wheels. The car that has 560 supercharged HP, accelerates from 0 to 100 under 4 seconds and goes easily beyond the 300 km/h barrier is no “Quattro” but a modified R8 with rear wheel drive from the Audi refiner MTM. This new concept promises a complete new driving experience behind the Audi steering wheel and pure driving pleasure, which comes up with a lot of technical details and finesse and creates a perfect and exceptional sportscar.

    The most exciting fact about the MTM R8 GT3-2 is definitely the rear wheel drive concept. It was developed by the technical specialists around Roland Mayer. With differential lock and new adjustments, the GT3-2 floats presently with its driving concept as the only one RWD Street-legal Audi, in the footsteps of the Audi high powered cars that are challenging the DTM or the GT Series. Those who are searching for an “Ingolstädter” with four rings and rear wheel drive have to look back more than four decades ago.

    MTM from Wettstetten/Ingolstadt would not be one of the leading Audi-refiners in the world if they didn’t care for technical details in order to provide maximum driving dynamics. The first thing to be mentioned is the supercharged 4.2 FSI engine, producing 560 HP (412 kW) at 7.750 RPM and a torque of 580 Nm at 5.500 RPM. Enough power to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds and take the speedometer needle up to 317 km/h. The sound goes together with the power, thanks to a special exhaust system in export version – without rear pipes and without throttle valves. Unmistakable.

    So much power needs a MTM suspension kit, which has several settings options, also in the built-in condition, and which is well adjusted with the lightweight and solid MTM forged wheels on Dunlop Sport Maxx GT / Michelin Cup Sport tyres. The 20″ rims in the size 9×20 ET 42 (front axle) and 12,5×20 ET 60 (rear axle) shelter the 380 x 34 mm – punched, ventilated – MTM brake system.

    With the R8 GT3-2, MTM has also worked on the exterior appearance, which is very particular for the technical specialists from Wettstetten, who usually only make slight optical changes on their sports cars. In this case, the carbon fibre front spoiler, side skirt and rear wing ensure a better air flow.

    This MTM offer not only refers to new cars – also people who already own a R8 have the possibility to convert it into a R8 GT3-2. For more information, please contact MTM in Wettstetten.

    – By: Kap Shah


  • SMS Backup: Save your text messages in Gmail, clean out your inbox!

    SMS Backup is a great app for someone who texts often but chooses not to delete their messages, and saves them for future records etc.

    This app enables you to backup every text message you send and receive into your Gmail account online.

    During initial set up, you save your Gmail login details, and manually backup all your previous messages until you’re up to date. Backups can be done in batches of 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200 at a time. Once you’re up to date, you can then set the app to automatically update texts as they come in and go out.

    What makes this app great is that once your texts are stored in Gmail, you have permanent records that are easily searchable.

    On phones such as the G1, memory can also be a concern as your phone fills up with more and more messages, so it’s great to be able to free up more memory by clearing your inbox, without worrying about losing vital information.

    If you’re someone who has a rooted phone, and you’re constantly wiping, this is obviously a great way to ensure that you never lose your text messages.

    Pros:

    • Option for automatic backups once the initial backup has been completed
    • There’s an option available to mark the SMS’s as read as they’re uploaded into your inbox.
    • The app automatically creates an SMS label in Gmail.
    • Free!

    Needs Improvement:

    • Support for MMS. Currently, the app only backs up Text messages.
    • Ability to select specific contacts to backup instead of everything.
    • Ability to keep the conversation in one bundle and not in bundles of the amount backed up.

    Special Notes: IMAP must be enabled on your Gmail account. See Settings –> Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

    Final Verdict: If you find it difficult parting ways with your text messages in order to clear clutter and memory, this is the app for you! Very stable and easy to use!

    Reviewer’s Device: Rooted G1 running Cyanogen 4.2.15.1 (Android 1.6)
    App Version: 1.1.1

    For more information, visit http://code.google.com/p/android-sms/wiki/UserGuide




    Note: This review was submitted by Gareth Tiedt as part of our app review contest.

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  • Edmunds.com shuts down fake websites, warns of scamming

    Filed under: ,

    Danger, car shoppers – no longer content to try and convince the gullible that a deposed African ruler needs help storing his millions, internet scammers are now using the Edmunds.com name and logo to try and swindle money away from car buyers. According to Edmunds, the company has already shut down two sites that were hawking a supposed Edmunds-backed escrow service. Once you handed over your hard-earned money to what was supposed to be a trusted third-party, the crooks dropped off the face of the planet.

    Edmunds doesn’t offer an escrow service at all, so if you see an ad for a vehicle that suggests using the company to hold your cash, steer clear. You should also report the ad or any other sites boasting similar Edmunds-backed deals straight to the companies that host them. As always, if you think you’ve been taken advantage of, contact your bank as quickly as possible to try to stop the transaction.

    [Source: Edmunds]

    Continue reading Edmunds.com shuts down fake websites, warns of scamming

    Edmunds.com shuts down fake websites, warns of scamming originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 10 Apr 2010 16:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Honda Ridgeline Dead in 2012?

    Honda Ridgeline

    Back in 2005 Honda decided to take a stab at the North American pick-up market with it’s new Ridgeline light duty truck. The Ridgeline, although nice looking, always struck me as more of a car than a truly versatile truck. It did, and still does possess some pretty cool features. It was the first truck to incorporate an independent rear suspension, a unibody design and a tailgate that opened both like a car door and a traditional fold down pick-up style tailgate. Pickuptrucks.com has now reported that the Ridgeline may in fact be meeting its demise in 2012 due to languishing sales. When first released in 2005 Honda was hoping to sell 50,000 + units but alas, they fell far short of their goal. 2009 saw just 16,464 units sold, which in all honesty does not really warrant a refresh. Only time will tell, but I think the writing is on the wall for the Ridgeline.