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Filed under: Convertible, Sedan, Bentley, Rumormill, Luxury

The current Bentley Azure may have only been in production for four years, but the platform that underpins it goes back to 1998. Developed back when both Bentley and Rolls-Royce were under Vickers ownership, it’s the same platform that formed the basis for the Arnage saloon and Brooklands coupe. But with the introduction of the Mulsanne – as we reported back in September – the old platform is set to be retired altogether.

Now that Bentley is concentrating its efforts on the Mulsanne, the Azure is reportedly the next to be discontinued. But if you’re super-wealthy and looking for a way to shuttle yourself and your company around the Riviera in open-air opulence, fret not, because a replacement is on the way.

According to new reports, however, the next-generation Azure (or whatever name Crewe selects for the model) may gain a couple of doors. If so, it would – not withstanding the likes of the Maybach Landaulet or Jeep Wrangler – bring back the long-dormant body-style of a four-door convertible, thus separating itself from the Rolls-Royce Phantom DropHead Coupe with which it will be competing.

[Source: BurlappCars.com]

Bentley Azure ending production… to be replaced by four-door convertible? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Slashdot points us to a story of a kid who is got his mom charged with harassment over his Facebook account. While the Slashdot version (and the opening of the news article) make this sound like it was filed over posts from his mom on his profile, the details suggest something quite a bit different. This isn’t him being upset that his mom wrote stuff on his wall (hell, he could just block her or unfriend her), but about her apparently hacking into his account, changing his password and posting “slanderous” things as him. That seems a lot more like hacking and unauthorized access, rather than “harassment.” Update: According to some, the son had left a computer where he was logged in, and the mother access his account that way.

But, alas, it appears that in Arkansas, where this is taking place, is one of those states that has passed some sort of cyberbullying/cyberharassment law that make it illegal “to harass, annoy or alarm another person without good cause.” These laws tend to be way too broad, and risk criminalizing very minor activities (basic trolling, for example). So while it seems clear that, if the son’s story is true, the mother clearly deserves some form of legal punishment, it’s still troubling that the choice here was to use a harassment law, rather than a hacking law.

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The CIO.com daily newsletter had a lot of cyberwar coverage today, and there’s plenty to think about when contemplating the future of national security.

Here’s highlights from three articles.

First up, is the U.S. the most at-risk nation in the world vis-a-vis cyber attack? Facts on the ground ought to give a little pause.

From the link:

Although the United States likely has the best cyberwar capabilities in the world, “that offensive prowess cannot make up for the weaknesses in our defensive position,” one-time presidential advisor Richard Clarke argues in his forthcoming book Cyber War.

Clarke — who served as special advisor to the president for cybersecurity in 2001 and now teaches at Harvard’s Kennedy School for Government and works at Good Harbor Consulting — fears that any outbreak of cyber warfare would spill over into more violent conflict.

“Far from being an alternative to conventional war, cyber war may actually increase the likelihood of the more traditional combat with explosives, bullets and missiles,” Clarke writes in his book, which is due out April 20.

Next up, when the cyber attack happens here, what’s the chain-of-command and other protocols? Not as easy to answer as I’d like because of the widespread nature of cyber attack and the likely integral involvement of private enterprise. It’s akin to bombing a factory without the obvious military-based response.

From the link:

Because possible return fire could come from traditional military, intelligence, diplomatic or economic agencies — and perhaps even from private business — the United States needs a set of policies and procedures for cyberwarfare that are still in the making, experts say.

The president’s top cyber adviser, Howard Schmidt, has said in interviews that the responsibility for cybersecurity is a shared responsibility between public and private sectors. And within the government it will be shared among government agencies but not in a well-defined way. “Who’s in charge?” asks Jamie Sanbower, the director of security for Force 3, an integrator that works with the federal government. “That’s the number-one challenge we’re facing right now.”

And finally more analysis of the Google/China issue, and does it signal the beginning of a public cyberwarefare age? If nothing else, with a very concrete example to turn to, expect a lot more mainstream coverage of cyberwar issues

From the final link:

Many see the attacks as evidence that the U.S. is already in the midst of an undeclared cyberwar, with attacks against government targets estimated to have more than doubled in the past two years. Just last week, a top FBI official called cyberattacks an “existential threat” to the U.S. On Friday, two U.S. senators now pushing cybersecurity legislation in Congress reiterated those sentiments.

And Mike McConnell the former director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and director of national intelligence during the Bush administration, recently said in a Washington Post (WPO) column that the U.S is not only fighting such a war, it’s also losing the battle.

Inspired by familiar flip-flop beach sandals and the graceful lines of an orca, designer Liu Yi has created an ergonomic mouse concept design for people with upper limb disability. As the name might suggest, the Toe Mouse is gripped by the big and second toe and moved around to guide the pointer. Sensors at each toe position determine click action…

Tags: Disability,
Ergonomic,
Input Device,
Mouse

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It’s the not-really-a-holiday you’ve all been waiting for: Draw a Picture of a Bird Day! (Part of us knows days like Draw a Picture of a Bird Day, National Puppy Day, National Poultry Day, National Pig Day, Squirrel Appreciation Day, Penguin Awareness Day and others of their ilk are pretty silly. But a bigger, louder part of us thinks "Why the heck not?" We love celebrating and we love animals, so what’s not to love about psuedo-holidays that combine those two passions?)

There’s not a whole lot of information out there on the origins of Draw a Picture of a Bird Day (or "DAPDay," as it’s sometimes acronymized), but some hypothesize — although most can’t quite put their finger on why — that it’s a tradition that began in the U.K. during World War II. We haven’t been able to confirm that suspicion, but if any trivia-champion readers out there have further details, we’d love to get your input!

If you, your child or an artistic cat you know draws a bird today, we’d love to see it! Share a photo or digital scan of your artwork at The Times’ photo-sharing site, Your Scene. Looking for ideas? Check out Penguin Books Australia’s flickr set of bird drawings it received from fans via Twitter.

— Lindsay Barnett

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Video: MagicTears205 via YouTube

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is announcing today the latest version of the iPhone operating system, which will come with at least 100 new features, like five times zoom in the camera. But Steve Jobs says there’s seven major updates coming today. Here’s the list in real-time:

1. Multi-tasking: This is the big one that everyone has been waiting for: Apple is enabling multi-tasking. It allows people to flip between different applications at once and allows them to run in the background. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs said: “We weren’t the first to this, but we will be the best…just like cut and paste.” To access other applications running in the background, hit the home button twice, and a small scroll bar appears at the bottom, displaying all of the applications that are running, like mail, the browser and a game. This feature won’t be available for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2nd gen, as well as older models of each device, as their hardware isn’t able to support it. Several tasks are now enabled with multi-tasking:

—Background audio: this enables services, like Pandora, to run while users browse the web, or go into iTunes to buy a song they like.
—VoIP: This enables you to receive Skype calls when the applications is closed.
—Other background services revolved around location, push/local notifications, task completion and fast-app switching.

2. Folders: People currently have to flick from page to page to find all the apps they are downloading. Now, people can store a few apps within a folder.

3. Unified Inbox: Now users can access all their own email accounts in one mail client, including multiple exchange accounts. You can now open attachments using an app from the app store.

4. iBooks: They are making the iPad bookstore available on the iPhone. You can buy on either one, and read on the iPad or iPhone.

5. Data protection: Now there’s better encryption in email, including attachments. Mobile device management, and wireless app distribution (no longer do employees have to plugin to iTunes to get enterprise apps.).

6. Gaming preview: There’s more than 50,000 games on the iPhone. Apple is adding a social gaming network, so you can play with your friends, or match-making (so you can play with strangers).

7. iAd: Apple’s new mobile advertising network. Jobs: “We think most of the mobile advertising really sucks. We thought we might be able to make some contributions. This way you can keep your free apps free.” With this unveiling, Apple directly targets Google (NSDQ: GOOG). Jobs said people aren’t searching on their phone, they are using apps. iAd is in the OS itself. “We have figured out how to do interactive and video content without ever taking you out of the app. People will be a lot more interested in clicking on these, because they don’t have to find their way back to the app.” Apple is going to sell and host the ads, and developers will get a 60 percent split.

Video of the presentation (in Quicktime).

Related

• Steve Jobs: Here’s How Apple Will Beat Google At Mobile Advertising
• The Latest iPad And iPhone Stats
• Five Things We’ll Be Watching For At Apple’s iPhone Announcement

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and 2008 presidential candidate isn’t attending the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, which kicks off tonight in New Orleans.

But that isn’t stopping his backers from pushing for a win in the SRLC Straw Poll.

All you have to do is open the 80 page color glossy program, right there on page 2 is a full page ad taken out by the 537 group Evangelicals for Mitt.

It reads in part:

“In 2012, we don’t have to choose between moral values and economic expertise.

Mitt Romney has it all.

So vote for Mitt and use the SRLC straw poll to let him know.

even though he’s a yankee, Southerners love him.

Evangelicals should unite — early — behind the right candidate.

He’s pro-life, pro traditional marriage, and the guy knows how to balance a checkbook.

Join us.”

No other candidates have an ad advocating for them in the program.

Most of the rest of the ads in the program are of the inside political baseball variety, such as for services to help with get out the vote efforts, fundraising and email marketing.

Romney is not the only candidate who has groups shilling for straw poll votes however.

The Campaign for Liberty, a group that backs Ron Paul bought 800 tickets to the SRLC.

There is also sign urging people to vote for Sarah Palin in the hallway outside the ballroom.

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Today marks the beginning of the great Apple-Google war. Contrary to what some other people will write, it’s not advertising competition but something more fundamental. This clash of the titans is about competing worldviews — whether the future mobile Web will be about the browser or applications.

There have been skirmishes over these opposing worldviews, but Apple’s iAd platform is finally a declaration of war — not because it could compete with Google’s search-based advertising platform but because it provides a better way for mobile applications to make money. Somebody has to pay for all those free mobile apps. Apple will offer developers the advertising platform and give them a 60-percent cut.

Worldviews Apart

Businesses fundamentally seek to make money, but corporate cultural worldviews determine the means. Terms like philosophy or principles are often overlooked by bloggers or journalists writing about corporations and competition among them. Perhaps these concepts are more the study of academics, but they shouldn’t be. These operational principles overreaching corporate philosophies shape the worldviews the companies bring to the marketplace.

In December 2009 post “Google’s ‘Open’ definition: Simply brilliant business, but is it evil?” I explained the differences between Google and Microsoft worldviews. Quickly recapping, Microsoft’s model presumes that companies produce something and are paid for it. The thing produced belongs to the producer. By comparison, Google’s so-called “open” model presumes everything should be free, around which third parties profit indirectly and from things they didn’t necessarily create or control.

The Apple-Google worldview clash is similar but different. Like Microsoft, Apple’s business is about platforms and applications. Google’s business is about information and services. Apple profits directly from products it develops and sells to businesses or consumers. Google mostly profits indirectly from content or information someone else created. Its intellectual property is tied to the means, not the end.

In approaching the mobile Web, Apple leverages its strengths as an end-to-end hardware/software developer. By comparison, Google already offers services in the cloud via the browser. Apple’s worldview is more applications-centric while Google’s is more Web-centric. Apple wants to pull computational and informational relevance to applications, while Google seeks to shift relevance to the Web.

The Problem with Free is Free

Where these two worldviews clash is the mobile device, such as the smartphone. HTML5 promises rich Internet applications consumable in a browser, which favors Google’s worldview and search-and-advertising business model. Mobile applications favor Apple, which tightly controls the hardware-software platform — and applications development by the APIs it chooses to expose and the terms dictated to developers.

By comparison — and only by comparison — Apple’s mobile platform is fundamentally more closed than Google’s. Apple’s platform is narrow, built around devices, software and services it controls. Google’s platform is deep, with search and advertising services spanning the Web and an open-source mobile operating system (Android). Google has built a huge economy around search, keywords and advertising.

Until today, iPhone OS developers sold their applications or gave them away for free. The problem with free is free. How do developers make money from free stuff? There is no pervasive Google search and advertising economy on iPhone OS devices, because most of the activity takes place in applications not in the Web browser. Apple tightly controls the applications stack, which is a Google-free zone. With iAd, Apple will provide developers another way to monetize their applications, which will be more important to content publishers like the New York Times or to developers giving away stuff for free.

Apple is not interested in the browser-centric mobile Web, regardless of Safari’s presence. During the Q&A following today’s iPhone OS 4 event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs affirmed there would be no support for Adobe Flash or for Java. Their absence reflects Apple’s app-centric approach. Flash and Java belong in the Web-centric world, and Flash is a developer platform. Apple doesn’t want competition from another development platform on iPhone OS devices. The application-centric mobile Web keeps Apple in control.

Closed vs Open Approaches

In his April 2 post “Why I won’t buy an iPad (and think you shouldn’t, either)“, Cory Doctorow astutely identifies what’s wrong with Apple’s mobile platform: It’s closed. He writes about Apple’s content lockdown:

For a company whose CEO professes a hatred of DRM, Apple sure has made DRM its alpha and omega. Having gotten into business with the two industries that most believe that you shouldn’t be able to modify your hardware, load your own software on it, write software for it, override instructions given to it by the mothership (the entertainment industry and the phone companies), Apple has defined its business around these principles. It uses DRM to control what can run on your devices, which means that Apple’s customers can’t take their ‘iContent’ with them to competing devices, and Apple developers can’t sell on their own terms.

From earlier in the post:

What does Marvel do to ‘enhance’ its comics [on iPad]? They take away the right to give, sell or loan your comics. What an improvement. Way to take the joyous, marvellous sharing and bonding experience of comic reading and turn it into a passive, lonely undertaking that isolates, rather than unites. Nice one, Misney.

By comparison, Google’s worldview favors a more open approach to content, information availability and software and services development. The Google free economy (supported by search, keywords and advertising) has turned my industry, journalism, on its head (Man does that hurt!). But information remains free. Rich Internet Applications consumable in any browser are freely available. Software development and cloud services use more open standards and development tools. The majority of this kind of Internet, in its mobile form, is consumed in the Web browser — even as applications’ role increases on Android and competing handsets.

So, Apple and Google mobile device worldviews differ in two fundamental ways: Closed/tightly controlled versus more open/loosely controled and applications versus browser centricity.

Which platform wins remains uncertain, despite all the hobgoblining around from Apple defenders insisting it will be iPad/iPhone/iPod touch. There also are hints Google is directionally changing towards Apple. Google is unifying applications and services and offering more mobile apps for different mobile platforms. Google also is integrating apps and services around Android handsets. The winning platform, if one is to dominate will make lots of people rich. While I’ve focused here on Apple and Google as titans, Nokia is still the reigning mobile device maker by a huge margin, Research in Motion dominates the smartphone market and Microsoft is plotting a comeback. There are plenty of platforms in play, but Apple and Google are the most opposing.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Smoking will be banned on all U.S. Navy submarines, no later than Dec. 31, Navy officials in San Diego announced Thursday.

At the discretion of individual commanders, smoking had been allowed in the engineering space near the ventilation system. But a yearlong Navy study of nine submarines found that nonsmokers were still being subjected to secondhand smoke throughout the crafts.

The Navy has 57 submarines, including six based in San Diego. The submarine force has 13,000 sailors.

To help smoking sailors, the Navy will offer stop-smoking classes at shore stations and will provide nicotine patches and nicotine gum, officials said.

"What we want to discourage is smokers turning to alternative methods of tobacco use such as chewing tobacco," said Capt. Mike Michaud, submarine force Atlantic surgeon.

–Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo; Seawolf-class attack submarine Jimmy Carter. Credit. U.S. Navy

For those that like their entertainment as personal as possible, iTVGoggles has released an update of its ITG-Vidix video glasses. Along with offering a virtual screen of 50” and up to three hours on a single charge, they also feature 2GB of internal memory, a MicroSD slot and a built in media player. ..

Tags: Entertainment,
Glasses,
Multimedia,
Video,
Virtual

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By Matt Holdridge

From The Hill:

Fundamental changes to the federal budget will be needed to rein in unsustainable deficits, Congress’s budget watchdog said Thursday.

“U.S. fiscal policy is unsustainable, and unsustainable to an extent that it can’t be solved through minor changes,” Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Elmendorf told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

Spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, plus defense programs and debt interest, will exceed the rest of the federal budget in 10 years if most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are extended, as President Barack Obama has proposed, Elmendorf said.

“It’s a matter of arithmetic,” Elmendorf said of getting record deficits under control.

“Government would need to make changes in some set of the large programs, large parts of the tax code that we think of as the fundamental parts of the budget.”

The article goes on,

The deficit would bottom out in 2014 at a level equal to 4.1 percent of gross domestic product, which is higher than the 3 percent level considered to be sustainable by the White House and independent economists. Deficits would again rise after 2014.

The debt-to-GDP ratio would go from 63 percent this year to 90 percent by 2020, the CBO said. A “select group of countries,” including Greece, which is facing a fiscal crisis, have debt levels that high, which is “worrisome,” Elmendorf said.   

Given the CBO’s track record, it’s difficult to tell whether they’ll be correct or not. However, one thing is certain, Washington is addicted to spending and that won’t end anytime soon. 

Filed under: Concept Cars, Misc. Auto Shows, Alfa Romeo

Particularly astute (and Alfa-fanatical) readers may have noticed something missing from the Geneva Motor Show last month. With Alfa Romeo celebrating its centenary this year, the stoic Italian brand was reported to be commissioning three of Italy’s finest design studios to produce concept cars for the brand. But cool though they were, only two showed up at the Geneva Palexpo: the Pininfarina 2uettottanta and the Bertone Pandion. We chalked it up to an error in the initial reports, but now it seems like we’ve discovered what happened to the third.

According to reports, Zagato – not ItalDesign Giugiaro – will be rolling in to the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este this year with an Alfa Romeo concept of their own. Reportedly named the TZ3 Corsa, it follows the path of the original TZ1 and TZ2 (pictured above) which Zagato built on the basis of the old Alfa Giulia. Sources say it’s made up of a carbon-fiber frame, with the 4.7-liter V8 from the 8C Competizione providing motivation.

If it looks half as good as the Perana Z-One (and twice as nice as the less fortunate Ferrari 550 GTZ Barchetta), we could have a real stunner on our hands. We have a feeling we won’t mind the wait.

[Source: OmniAuto.it (translated) | Image: Brian Snelson via CC2.0]

Zagato reportedly to unveil new Alfa Romeo TZ3 Corsa concept at Villa d’Este originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A chance encounter with a Courant reporter Thursday afternoon provided a sign of how Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz’s mind is occupied with her ongoing lawsuit to be declared eligible to run for attorney general.

It happens that Bysiewicz encountered Courant Capitol bureau chief Chris Keating in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford on the same day that videos were released of her testimony in a recent deposition — which was part of her ongoing fight to convince a judge that her 11 years in office count as the the practice of law.

A state statute says you need to have 10 years’ “active practice” in the legal profession in Connecticut to run for state attorney general – and the Republican Party’s lawyer spent hours in the deposition trying to show that Bysiewicz doesn’t. A number of observers have noted that she doesn’t seem too happy about the whole thing.

So, anyway, Keating was walking down a flight of stairs in the LOB while Bysiewicz walked up from the bottom alone, talking on a cell phone. As they passed halfway up the stairs, he greeted her but she didn’t respond as the phone stayed glued to her ear.

Once she reached the top, she turned and called down to him: “Pardon me.  I’m actively practicing law.”

By Nauman Farooq

The auto industry is a roller coaster, with plenty of ups and downs. Just take auto shows as an example. Less than a decade ago, these shows were bigger and offered much more variety. Nowadays, due to the weakened economy, many car companies have become very selective about which auto shows to take part in.

As an example of these budget cuts, Ferrari and Maserati decided to skip the 2010 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS), which is strange because one would think Manhattan, N.Y. would be the ideal place to market high end exotics.

One could say the absence of such car companies would be the “Worst” part of this show, but then there was one car present there that I am sure many would wish wasn’t there at all.

I am talking about the 2011 Scion tC coupe. Scion (which is a division of Toyota) likes to say the 2011 tC is an all-new car, but the fact its wheelbase is exactly the same as the last tC, says that this is mostly just a re-skin.

At least the old tC was good looking. The new tC looks like it wasn’t styled to attract young people, but instead to attract those of retirement age, which is strange because Scion is a brand that was created to cater after the first time car buyers.

Making matters worse, the new tC is powered by the same engine you’ll find in a Toyota Camry, one of the most boring cars on the planet. It has a 2.5-liter; four-cylinder engine which produces 180 hp. Power goes to the front wheels via a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic gearbox.

Toyota plans to launch the Scion brand into Canada later this year, so unfortunately our roads will one day be filled with these ugly duckling coupes.

Personally, I’d prefer to see our roads filled with the latest (and “Best”) version of the Lamborghini Murcielago. It’s called the LP 670-4 SV, and it is the last version of the Murcielago (a replacement model is coming next year).

SV, which stands for Super Veloce (Super Fast in plain English), features a 6.5-liter, V12 that produces 670 hp and 487 lb/ft of torque. Power is sent to all-wheels via a six-speed paddle shift gearbox they call E-gear. As you’d imagine, its performance numbers are quite stunning. 0-100 km/h is dealt with in 3.2 seconds, while top speed is 342 km/h.

However, there are two big reasons why you won’t see many Murcielago SV’s running around town. First is due to its limited production numbers, since Lamborghini is only producing 350 SV’s, out of which Canada may get around 5 cars. And secondly, with a price tag of about $525,000 it certainly isn’t cheap either.

However, if I could have driven any car out of this years NYIAS, it would have had to be this one.