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Durante los últimos días, dos eventos han acaparado la atención en cuanto a competiciones en el mundo de la cuatro ruedas: el
GP de Malasia de Fórmula 1 y el Rally de Jordania del WRC. Dos pilotos de similar nombre se alzaron con los triunfos ya que si en Fórmula 1 era Sebastian Vettel el que ganaba, en Jordania era Sebastien Loeb el que subía al primer cajón del podium.

Comencemos esta vez por el WRC. Entre el miércoles y el sábado se disputó el Rally de Jordania, tercera prueba puntuable del campeonato. Tras el dominio de Latvala en la primera jornada, Loeb se puso al mando en la segunda y acabaría alzándose con el triunfo. La victoria fue muy importante para el piloto de Citroën ya que Mikko Hirvonen, su principal rival por el título, sufrió un accidente en la segunda jornada y no pudo puntuar.

En la clasificación de Jordania, Loeb fue primero seguido por Latvala y lidera el Mundial. Tras ellos se clasificaron Petter Solberg y Dani Sordo en una prueba donde la última jornada se convirtió en una lucha de estrategias que han llevado a los pilotos a pedir cambios en la reglamentación relativa al órden de salida a los tramos.

Desde Jordania volamos a Malasia para contar los más importante del GP disputado en Sepang. Como sabéis, Sebastien Vettel se hizo con el triunfo en un gran fin de semana para Red Bull en el que Mark Webber completó el doblete. Nico Rosberg sigue siendo superior a Schumacher y esta vez completó el tercer cajón del podium.

En cuanto a los intereses españoles tuvimos la decepción de Fernando Alonso. El asturiano acabó abandonando en una carrera en la que el asturiano estuvo desde el principio casi sin embrague y que el mismo calificó como la más dificil de su carrera deportiva. También tuvo mala suerte Pedro Martínez De la Rosa al que su Sauber dejó tirado antes del comienzo de la carrera.

La nota positiva en Malasia la puso Jaime Alguersuari que consiguió sus primeros puntos en la Fórmula 1. El piloto de Toro Rosso estaba feliz tras la finalización de un día muy importante en su carrera deportiva.

También deben estar felices en Hispania Racing, ya que la escudería española consiguió llevar a sus dos monoplazas hasta la bandera a cuadros.

Por último, comentaros que el GP de Malasia también sirvió para comenzar a trabajar en la reglamentación de 2011. La FOTA se reunió allí y tres temas estrella estuvieron sobre la mesa: la vuelta del KERS, permitir repostajes en carrera y decidir qué hacer con los neumáticos, ya que ahora mismo la FIA no tiene proveedor oficial tras la marcha de Bridgestone.

Vía | Recta de Meta

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Performance, BMW, Specialty, Racing

Formula DRIFT is recognized as the North American professional drifting championship series. As the first official drift series in North America, Formula DRIFT has taken competitive motorsports to the extreme, attracting fans and car enthusiasts from all walks of life. This high-skilled, high-powered motor sport has drivers intentionally maneuvering their cars into well executed, controlled sideways slides at high speeds through a marked course. Judging is based on execution and style-rather than who finishes the course in the fastest time. Autoblog has been invited behind-the-scenes with GSR Autosport, and their driver Michael Essa, as the team builds, tests and campaigns a V10-powered BMW 350R during the 2010 racing season. This is the first in a regular series as we follow the team throughout the build, testing and race season. With that out of the way…

The idea is mildly deranged, but everyone around the table is wildly grinning. Someone has just suggested mating a BMW 3 Series Coupe to a V10 engine ripped from a BMW M5 and then entering the beast into the 2010 Formula DRIFT series. A few nervous laughs. Then, a bunch of nodding heads. The plans are set.

Common folk – that would be most of us – think this sort of absurd talk is pure madness. To drifters, this type of deliriousness is simply considered being competitive.

Continue reading GSR Autosport BMW 350R: Part I – We help build a Formula Drift racecar

GSR Autosport BMW 350R: Part I – We help build a Formula Drift racecar originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Luke Timmerman wrote:

Kineta, the Seattle-based developer of treatments for autoimmune diseases, said it has received a two-year, $600,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to do work that could enable clinical trials of a new drug for Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases. Kineta said it plans to start clinical trials on the drug in the second half of 2010.

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The iPad makes a perfect coffee table book and photo browser but a new application called Art Authority sends the touchscreen interface back through centuries of humanity’s finest imagery.

Built by 1980’s Apple engineer Alan Oppenheimer, Art Authority (iTunes link, $9.99) is a beautiful way to get some art education and ponder the human condition while flipping through more than 40,000 historic works of art on your iPad. Oppenheimer calls the app a public domain and web art browser. It makes good use of Wikipedia, has a great breadth of Western art and is the kind of app that just makes sense for this platform.

Sponsor

The app isn’t perfect, Oppenheimer reminds us almost no one has developed iPad apps on a real iPad yet, but it’s pretty good and will presumably get better. If you need a guaranteed 100% crash-free experience for viewing Van Gogh and Botticelli in your lap, you may want to wait a while on this app. It’s not a big deal, though. The resolution of the art ranges from fabulous and sharp to a little disappointing, but is generally satisfactory.

Some additional settings would be nice; like the ability to change the duration of caption overlays and to save favorite artists and images in the app for later enjoyment. Artists from outside the Western world and a better sculpture section would be great, too.

The iPad’s interface is just big enough and just sharp enough, and these images are just clear enough, that it can be frustrating to be so close and yet so far away from the art. It certainly isn’t the same as standing in front of the great paintings of the world – but let’s not fool ourselves: browsing the world’s museums in your lap is an experience unlike any other and is not to be missed. Personal computing has come a long way in a hurry if our expectations can be higher still for a whirl-wind tour of centuries of human expression. You’ll definitely get more than $10 worth of art appreciation and personal growth out of this app as it is already.

Discuss

So we were among those questioning the idea that the iPad would somehow revolutionize the media business by suddenly getting people to pay for content again (though, amusingly, nearly all the criticism on that post focused on whether the iPad would be successful, not about the media business models the post talked about). While it’s way too early to make any sort of judgment on this particular issue, the early data certainly suggests that media companies have their work cut out for them. That’s because while big media players appear to be doing well on free apps, in the paid apps category, the big media brands simply aren’t topping the charts. This isn’t really a surprise. If you look at the details, it looks like games and specific utilities are topping the charts. As has been noted over and over again, since the iPad comes with a full browser, the media players need to offer something really, really special to actually get people to pay — and at the prices being offered, most people are just not likely to be interested. It seems likely that the prices will start dropping quickly, though we wonder what these publications will do for the few suckers who paid up early.

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Looks pretty cool.

[via pcworld]

Filed under: Computer Science, design

The much-hyped launch of the iPad underscored just how much mobile data Apple’s customers will generate and consume in the coming years. But today that data often flows through the domain of the company’s arch-frenemy, Google, leading industry analysts to predict that Apple would do well to create a mobile search engine of its own.

Dating back to sunnier days in the relationship between the tech giants, Google services are tightly integrated with Apple’s mobile devices, providing maps and default web browser searches. That gives Google highly valuable data on the behavior of nearly
half of all mobile users in the United States.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster thinks there is a 70 percent chance that Apple will come out with its own search engine in the next five years — an extension of the nascent war between Apple and Google over the lucrative mobile advertising market.

Munster added in a research note that Apple could even offer a better experience than Google by leveraging data from its App Store and utilizing its devices’ touch interfaces to display results in a more user-friendly way.

Just a little friendly advice, if you’re shortchanged at the register — don’t flip out and throw coffee and food at the McDonald’s workers.

Police in Des Plaines, IL say that a man is accused of kicking a register (good flexibility, we guess) and card swiping machine, then throwing coffee and food that struck employees.
From the Sun-Times:

The man became enraged after accusing an employee of shortchanging him $10, said Cmdr. Nick Treantafeles, of the Des Plaines Police Department.

“That’s what set this guy off,” he said.

The man was identified by his license plate, but is refusing to turn himself in, according to police.

There’s now a warrant for his arrest on battery and criminal damage to property charges. Perhaps next time try a strongly-worded letter to corporate?

Man threw food, coffee at McDonald’s employees: cops [Sun-Times]

Thanks to a deal with Apple, books from Smashwords, the e-book self-publishing service for independent publishers and authors, will be featured in the new iBookstore on the iPad. There are already about 2,000 Smashwords books in the iBookstore today and as the company’s CEO Mark Coker told us, the company plans to add another 2,000 to 3,000 books in the next few weeks.

Interestingly, Apple – which is famous for strictly controlling the content of the App Store – seems to be more than happy to abdicate control over the inventory in the iBookstore to its partners.

Sponsor

Self-Published Books in the iBooks Store: Apple’s Deal with Smashwords

Authors and publishers simply have to follow a straightforward set of guidelines for making their e-books iPad read. All of these are related to the formatting of the books. It’s worth noting that Apple will get the same feed of books from Smashwords as Barnes & Noble, Sony and Kobo. Publishers and authors will be able to set their own prices and after Smashwords and Apple take their cut, authors will get 60% of the digital list price.

Other iBooks Deals

Apple has made a number of direct deals with large publishing houses to supply their books to the iBooks store. Besides Smashwords, there are currently only a few other e-book content aggregators that work directly with Apple right now. One of these is LibreDigital, which Apple has certified as a trusted e-book aggregator for the iBooks store. LibreDigial works with larger publishers and has already delivered thousands of e-books from companies like Harper Collins and Hachette to the iBooks store.

Who Controls the iBooks Store?

Given the vast number of books on the market, Apple obviously can’t control the iBooktore to the same degree as it controls the App Store. Censoring books, too, would create a far larger outcry than banning a few apps. As far as we know, Apple is currently only filtering a few “naughty” words out of some e-books’ descriptions.

It is interesting that Apple is taking a very hands-off approach here, especially with regards to a self-publishing company like Smashwords. While Smashword’s catalog includes a number of great books from well known authors who simply decided that they wanted to bypass the publishing industry and publish their own books, it’s worth noting that Smashword’s requirements for including books in the iBookstore are currently just mechanical.

Are Apps Different?

While it isn’t linked directly from the iBookstore’s homepage, it is also worth noting that a large selection of erotica is already available in the store – some are from Smashwords, but quite a few are from larger publishers like Harper Collings and Penguin as well. Apps with similar content to these books would have never made it into the App Store.

What About Parental Controls?

Given that parental controls on the iPad don’t apply to e-books and that there is no ratings system for these texts, it’ll be interesting to see if Apple will decide to create its own ratings system and force publishers to adopt this if they want to be published in the store. Apple, after all, is notorious for trying to control every aspect of the user experience on its devices.

Discuss

Take a look at the latest marketing video for the HP Slate, the tablet computer that should be launching fairly soon from HP. As you can see in the video, it appears that HP has built a program that runs in Windows 7 to give a custom tablet appearance, but when all is said and done, this is really just a touchscreen tablet running a full version of Windows 7, not a mobile operating system. Some will, of course, see that as a plus.

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Noah emailed me the other day, asking what I thought of the iPad so far. I responded with some first impressions, and he said: Post it on PhoneDog. And when your editor-in-chief tells you to do something, you do it! So here you go. Not a full review, but some first impressions after having spent a day and a half with this tablet. (I organized it with subheads for easier perusal.)

A Day and a Half with iPad

The media’s been gushing like schoolgirls with crushes over this thing. I couldn’t wait to see for myself whether this lived up to the hype. Now maybe because I’m an iPhone user, the iPhone editor here and run an iPhone-oriented site, some people think I’m a fangirl who’s pre-programmed to like anything from Apple. That’s almost laughable to me. I’ve spent as much time criticizing Apple and lamenting over missing iPhone features as covering anything positive. (And no one blinks when I wax poetic about WebOS or Android. Well, anyway…)

So you asked about the iPad. Even though I couldn’t wait to check this out, I had reservations about it just being a hackneyed retread, like anyone else. Now that I have it in my hands, I find that I do miss some key stuff here — and yet, I can’t seem to put it down. (When I do, my husband grabs it and won’t give it back!)

As far as pros and cons are concerned, here’s what’s topping my list so far:

Cons
I see what the critics are saying, and I don’t disagree. I didn’t expect this to be as powerful as a laptop, but as I use this, I find that I do miss a usb port or a built-in camera. I’d like to log into Tokbox, and vid chat with my girlfriends, like I do on my computer. And in bright sunlight, forget it. The screen’s not meant to handle that, so sitting by a window and reading my fav iBook or e-magazine on the iPad isn’t going to cut it for me. (I get enough headaches without inducing more.)

I also find that screen’s almost too sensitive. Since there’s more real estate here, I’m prone to errantly hitting things. But sometimes, it seems to freeze up and not respond to inputs. These things only happen occasionally, but it’s enough to annoy me.

And oleophobic coating? That’s totally fiction, I think. My finger smudges are shmeared everywhere on this. (I could go on about lack of sd card slot, swappable battery, etc… While these are extremely valid concerns, I wasn’t expecting those things on an Apple mobile device. I think the techie crowd will miss this stuff. But I think most mainstream consumers may not care, notice or think it’s a dealbreaker.)

I would’ve liked more hard drive storage, though, for the price. Having an easier way to get docs, pics and stuff on my tablet, rather than rely on iTunes, would’ve been great too. Did I expect it to be any different? Nah. I knew the score. But I still find it a pain in the neck at times. 

I’m not that freaked about the lack of multitasking yet. An OS update could change everything, and you know the gossip is that it’s coming. We’ll have to wait and see. [UPDATE: We’ll hopefully know more when Apple’s April 8 event starts at 10am PST. Depending on what’s revealed, it could be meaningful for new iPad owners as well as iPhone hopefuls.]

Pros
Most of the gripes are about hardware, clearly. (Except for battery life. That’s awesome. Hours and hours of play, online and movies.) Software-wise, I have few complaints.

So Apple may have not made a perfect device or a beast of a spec’ed out machine, but I think it made a good product. But I think the credit really belongs more with the developers than with Apple. They are the ones who are taking a good device and making it great. Seriously, some of these apps are simply outrageous on this tablet. And more are coming.

Clearly, the iPhone OS itself hasn’t had a huge makeover, but for the most part, the designated iPad apps that run on this aren’t just iPod Touch/iPhone apps blown up for a larger display. They take advantage of the extra real estate on the screen to put better, more beautiful graphics, aesthetics and forward-thinking usability into the design. Some of these programs almost feel like completely different apps. Development has been incredible, and it’s still early. (Netflix, ABC Player, magazine apps like GQ, not to mention the games — these are good on this device. Like ridiculously good. And did you see The Weather Channel app? That is flat-out glorious.) 

I can’t wait to see what the creative fringe developers will bring to the table.

(I started shooting some vids for TiP comparing iPhone apps and their iPad versions. In some cases, the changes are really remarkable.)

I knew the tablet would be faster than the iPhone as well. Obviously, the 1Ghz A4 chip has something to do with that. Also, I have an 802.11 N router here. My iPhone isn’t compatible with that, but the iPad is. And these things make for a really fast experience.

Once “mainstream” Americans see what it can do, I do think it will be a break-away hit. [UPDATE: Press release this morning confirmed 300,000 units sold on Saturday alone. Read more here.]

Assessment
So I understand both the criticism and the gushing. Really though, I think what it may boil down to is this: The iPad (mostly) makes several key things easier for people. That’s all there is to it, really. Does it make that an amazing device? From a tech standpoint, no. From a usability standpoint, yes.

Convenience and ease-of-use can’t be underestimated. (It’s why some people pay for maid service, buy a dishwasher, take their auto to the car wash, etc… They could do all that themselves, and maybe wind up with better results, but people opt for it because it’s easier.)

It’s been said multiple times: This is not a laptop or even a netbook replacement. This really is a new category of device. (Well, maybe not new, but potentially industry defining.) I think that some of the “haters” aren’t wrapping their heads around that, so they compare this to existing tech. Of course it comes up short, in that regard.

I know some fankids will grab this just because it has the Apple logo on it. And some Apple haters will refuse for exactly the same reason — or perhaps out of some sense of tech snobbery. (Hey, I’m not judging — I’ve been accused of being a gadget snob too, and at times, it’s even true.)

But as for everyone else, i.e., mainstream consumers: I think a lot of them — even those who are still confused over what this is at the moment — will eventually flock to the tablet once they see it in action. Like this guy I met recently.

I was at a diner a couple of days ago, and a middle-aged gentleman overheard me talking about the iPad. He asked me about it, and I asked if he was getting one. He said he really couldn’t understand what role it would play in his life. Then he said something interesting: “I think when I see others using it and see what it can do, then I can make a decision. But right now, I just don’t get it. And I’m not wasting hundreds of dollars on something I don’t get. But it’s interesting, and I want to see how real people use this thing.”

He represents a bigger audience than the haters or fankids, that’s for sure.

I’m a mobile lifestyle editor, right? Well, I think lifestyle has everything to do with this tablet.

There are small things, like being able to sit and physically share something with a friend on the couch — without us uncomfortably leaning into a small smartphone screen or dragging out the laptop and perching it on our laps. This, I think, will appeal to people.

I also see:

• Kitchen computer (Epicurious app is awesome)
• Mobile blogging (WordPress iPad app is a joy compared to the iPhone version)
• Obviously multimedia — both at home and on the go. (It’s nice to watch vids with my earbuds in bed, while the hubby’s watching TV. We can be in the same room, without my having to sit through Legend of the Seeker. Again. By the way, I rented a movie on iTunes and watched it on my iPhone on the flight to Las Vegas. Squinting at a little screen for two hours nearly brought on a migraine.)
• Digital photo frame. (I’m not kidding. I know people don’t flock to this, but now that many will have one built-in, I guarantee they will use it. And parents will love it.)
• Mobile office work. (iWorks, etc… Which I’m ticked off about having to buy again. But I’ll pay for it and use the heck out of it, I know.)
• Students are going to love this, especially if they can get some of their textbooks via iBooks/elsewhere. Did you see the item on Seton Hill University giving all FT students an iPad this fall? That’s crazy. (My laptop’s 5.5 lbs. I’m no student, but I’ll probably be toting the 1.5 lbs-iPad around as well.)
• And gaming is sick on this! That’s been covered a million times already.

So whatever success the tablet has gotten thus far is just the tip of the iceberg, I think. There’s a big group of untapped consumers yet, who are sitting on the fence. They want to see firsthand how others are using this before they jump in. But once they do, I believe they’ll dive in head first.

And if I were an Android hopeful waiting for my Tegra 250-powered tablet to finally hit the scene, I’d actually be pulling for the success of the iPad. If tablets grab a ton of consumer attention, wouldn’t it prompt others to put their wares out into the field faster too?

Anyway, that’s it for first impressions. Hit me up after I’ve had a solid week with this thing, and I’ll let you know if any of this has changed.

[NOTE: Noah’s got a Part 1 Review lined up, so for more in-depth analysis, check back to the site soon. He’ll have it up today!)

Though Sprint users have had the Samsung Airave femtocell (coverage booster) for some time now, the device only offers 1X connectivity.  In other words, if you’re a heavy data user living in a low-coverage area, the experience has probably been less than stellar.  Fortunately, Sprint appears to be working on the issue – and with another manufacturer, to boot.  Landing at the FCC today, the Airvana-built Airave unit offers EVDO and a landline jack for VoIP connectivity, though there’s no word on whether Sprint will enable the service (if they do, I would imagine it to be similar to T-Mobile’s defunct Hotspot@Home service).

No pricing or release information just yet, but passing through the FCC is typically a positive sign of an impending release.  It wouldn’t surprise me if we saw it soon.

Via Engadget

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Today, Apple announced modest launch-day iPad sales of 300,000 units, which include preorders. On March 26, in post “Of course media bias favors Apple,” I put launch sales at about 330,000 — based in part on over-widely reported rumors. Five days earlier, in post “Be smart, don’t buy into iPad hype,” I warned that bloggers, journalists and Wall Street analysts had gone bonkers over the device, losing some common sense along the way. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is among them. Over the weekend, he revised first day iPad sales to 600,000-700,000, leading to today’s admission he got it wrong. Munster also lowered full year sales estimates to 4.3 million from 5.6 million. Forrester Research forecasts 3 million iPad shipments.

Modest initial sales aren’t surprising, even though some Apple watchers will wonder if 300,000 units live up to the hype. As I explained on April 2, modest early sales follow the pattern of most other new-category Apple products, including Macintosh, iPhone, iPod and iTunes Store. Distribution is limited to the United States and the 3G model isn’t yet available, which also mitigate early sales.

In looking at iPad early sales — and having seen the device closeup at Apple Store — one question comes to mind: Is this a proof-of-concept device? My answer is “Yes!” (Please share your opinion, particularly if you bought an iPad, in comments.) My reasoning:

1) The v1 device is a misfit, fitting uncomfortably between smartphone and laptop (or even netbook). The iPad replaces neither. Something more is needed.

2) The primary usage scenario is content consumption, which is closer to consumer electronics devices than to smaller PCs. A future iPad with more powerful graphics and bigger storage could conceivably replace a netbook or laptop; that’s where Apple should take the device. Something more is needed.

3) Apple has done some remarkably transformative work on the user interface design and user experience (UX). From that perspective, iPad is just a starting place, extending from iPod touch and iPhone. Last week, Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps expressed that  “in three years, we’ll look back and marvel not at how many units Apple sold, but at the way Apple changed computing.” Concepts for you as the natural user interface are in place, but something more is needed.

Proof-of-concept isn’t necessarily negative, as some readers might assume. I’m not saying that it is. For years, a so-called “version 3 syndrome” has followed Microsoft — the idea being the company gets products right on the third try. For example, Windows 1.0 clearly was a proof-of-concept. Windows 3.x got it right. Internet Explorer 2 was another proof-of-concept product — for version 4 (v1 was proof of nothing).

Companies have to start somewhere with new product categories, and Apple’s development objectives clearly are much larger than the actual v1 slate. Among them:

• Moving computer users to a new portable PC/device paradigm
• Establishing a new platform for consuming professionally produced content
• Transforming how people interact with personal computers and related devices

Based on those goals, iPad is a work in progress — a proof-of-concept. By getting out the device now, Apple can secure publisher and other content creator relationships, give developers time to create and extend applications, build sustainable mindshare through marketing and iterate iPad improvements over a couple generations.

The question: Should you pay for proof-of-concept iPad? I consider the original iPhone to be another proof-of-concept device, for which early buyers paid more than those coming later on. The v1 device initially sold for between $499-$599. Apple quickly lowered the v1 price and, again, to $199-$299, when releasing iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3G is still available, for just $99.

At Fast Company, Gina Trapani asserts: “First-generation Apple products are for suckers. Only lemmings with no self-control and excessive disposable income buy first generation Apple products, especially in a new gadget category. When they do, they pay the double the price for immature hardware and software.”

Is that you?

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Traders have been huffing and puffing for several days now that the Federal Reserve might choose today to increase the rate it charges on emergency loans to banks, commonly known as the discount rate. The Fed didn’t do so. But this never should have been much of a worry to investors in the first place. Here is why:

• 1) Fed loans from its discount window were down to $7.6 billion in late March from more than $100 billion at the height of the crisis. At current levels, loans directly from the Fed to commercial banks amount to about 0.06% of the total liabilities of the commercial banking sector. If the Fed raises the interest rate it charges on these loans from the current charge of 0.75%, it won’t have much impact on broader credit market conditions because the Fed isn’t providing as much direct support to banks through these loans now that the crisis has waned. Fed officials have said this repeatedly in the past few months, but investors seem not to be paying much attention.
• 2) The Fed’s more important lever for managing interest rates is the federal funds rate, which is a rate banks charge each other on overnight loans. One might infer that an increase in the discount rate means an increase in the more-important federal funds rate, now near zero, is right around the corner. But Fed officials have said before that changes in the discount rate have no implications for their plans for the federal funds rate. They’ve said it very flatly. When the Fed raised the discount rate in February from 0.5% to 0.75%, it said the increase did “not signal any change in the outlook for the economy or for monetary policy.” Fed officials actually mean this when they say it. The only signal meant from a discount rate hike is that they want to make it a little less appetizing for banks to turn to Uncle Sam for emergency loans.
• 3) Fed officials are aware – and puzzled by – the bond market’s odd focus on the discount rate. They don’t want to surprise jumpy investors because they see the market and economy as fragile. That’s why they gave fair warning before their February discount rate increase. It was flagged in minutes from a Fed meeting that appeared a day before the hike, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said it was likely a few days before that, and other officials had been talking about it before Mr. Bernanke’s public comments about it. Officials are unlikely to try to sneak another one in there without given investors similar warnings.

The melodrama in markets about the discount rate, in other words, says a lot more about Wall Street’s fragile nerves and attention deficit issues than it does about the Fed’s own planning. The Fed will likely signal clearly before it wants to raise this rate again, and will likely again offer reminders that this is the wrong rate to obsess about.

We had Schwab strategist Liz Ann Sonders on TechTicker this morning.  She made a great call on the recession ending last summer, back when everyone else thought the world was going to end.  She’s looking for a “choppy” year this year, but notes that right now, we’re in a v-shaped recovery.

Aaron Task: There is “a momentum building up” in the U.S. economy and the odds of it faltering have “fallen very significantly,” former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan declared Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” program.

Generally speaking, Liz Ann Sonders agrees.

“I’m amazed people still say it’s not a ‘V’-shaped recovery, which to means they’re simply not looking at the charts,” says Charles Schwab’s chief investment strategist, who called the current recovery last summer — long before it was evident to most of her peers. And by “charts” she doesn’t (just) mean the stock market but trends in both leading and coincident economic indicators, industrial production, and inventories. “They’re all ‘V’,” she says, suggesting many observers are overestimating the impact of consumer spending on both the 2008 downturn and the recovery to date.

Even leading indicators of jobs, including jobless claims and temp hiring, are pointing to growth akin to the strong 1983 recovery vs. the “jobless” recoveries of the early 1990s and 2001, Sonders says. Friday’s report showing 162,000 jobs created in March “doesn’t mean we’re off to the races” but the “natural precursor to job growth is there.”

Rather than questioning the recovery, the “more valid debate” is whether the V-shaped pattern that’s emerged is “the left side of a ‘W’ or [part of] a square root sign,” Sonders says. “More likely the worst-case scenario is a square-root type recovery. Other than some massive policy mistake akin to the 1930s…the risks of a [‘W’-shaped double-dip] are relatively low.”

So what does that mean for investors? Stay tuned for part two of our interview with Sonders.

Join the conversation about this story »

[Ed. Note: David and Spencer have additional reporting on these revelations. Be advised, the video at right contains disturbing images.]

Brave New Foundation’s Rethink Afghanistan project has been following the story about a night raid in Gardez by U.S. and Afghan forces (see video), and today those forces made a major admission about their responsibility for civilian deaths. In a press release issued on Easter (gee, I wonder if they hoped people would be distracted), the U.S. and allied forces under General McChrystal’s command, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), admitted they killed three innocent Afghan women, two of whom were pregnant.

KABUL, Afghanistan (Apr. 4) – A thorough joint investigation into the events that occurred in the Gardez district of Paktiya Province Feb. 12, has determined that international forces were responsible for the deaths of three women who were in the same compound where two men were killed by the joint Afghan-international patrol searching for a Taliban insurgent.

The two men, who were later determined not to be insurgents, were shot and killed by the joint patrol after they showed what appeared to be hostile intent by being armed. While investigators could not conclusively determine how or when the women died, due to lack of forensic evidence, they concluded that the women were accidentally killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men.

ISAF had already admitted they killed the two innocent men.

Recall that on March 15, ISAF’s spokesperson, Rear Adm. Greg Smith, said:

“The women, I’m not sure anyone will ever know how they died.” He added, however, “I don’t know that there are any forensics that show bullet penetrations of the women or blood from the women.” He said they showed signs of puncture and slashing wounds from a knife, and appeared to have died several hours before the arrival of the assault force. In respect for Afghan customs, autopsies are not carried out on civilian victims, he said.

Now wait just a minute. NATO has strenuously denied any cover-up in this incident while smearing journalists who challenged their initial, untrue story. Yet somehow, we’ve gone from knowing enough about the condition of the bodies to say that there were puncture and slashing wounds from a knife to conclusions “that the women were accidentally killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men.” NATO then expects you to believe that all the bad information in this story was due to “a lack of cultural understanding by the joint force and the chain of command.”

Someone please explain to me the cultural misunderstanding responsible for Smith’s implication that women were killed by knife wounds when they were in fact killed by gunfire.

These are not errors of cultural understanding. They are intentional lies meant to allow someone to escape responsibility for killing three women, two of them pregnant. Smith was lying before when describing the bodies or repeating lies he was told. ISAF was perpetrating a cover-up, and Smith participated in it, either willingly or unwillingly. Until ISAF admits that they did, in fact, attempt to perpetrate a cover-up, they are still lying to you.

I said it last week and I’ll say it again:

Starkey’s reporting and ISAF’s reaction to it shows that their natural inclination to escape accountability remains strong and operative when they think they can get away with violent mistakes under the cover of darkness.

This incident shows why it’s important to push back against the ISAF/Pentagon message machine. If you want to help, a good way to start is to become a fan of Rethink Afghanistan on Facebook.

UPDATE: I want us all to do some thinking about the timeline here. According to both Jerome Starkey (who’s primarily responsible for initially blowing up NATO’s official story on this), and to the New York Times’ Richard Oppel, someone tampered with the evidence at the scene, most likely the special operations forces conducting the raid. The tampering ranged from digging bullets out of walls to digging bullets out of people and then washing the wounds with alcohol.

Remember that survivors of the raid said that the special operations forces denied the wounded medical treatment and prevented survivors from going to get medical help for an extended period of time, during which one of the women and one of the men who were mortally wounded died.

That means special operations forces were busy digging bullets out of walls and/or people to cover their asses while the innocent people they shot bled to death.

Heads. Roll. Now. Please.

UPDATE II: In the above, I asked how ISAF went from talking about “knife wounds” to knowing about deaths from gunfire. Alive in Afghanistan’s Brian Conley just emailed me with an observation that makes this all snap into place: You know what you use to dig out a bullet? A knife. Think about that for a second. While Conley thinks this shows only “the likelihood that ISAF did a sloppy job reviewing the events,” I think it shows a great deal more. In light of the accusations of special operations forces digging bullets out of the bodies, somebody needs to ask Smith, on camera, who told him about knife wounds on the corpses.

I do our taxes using TurboTax’s pricey business edition, since we have a ton of freelance income, but it’s worth noting for those who may not be aware that the IRS has a Free File program which allows people making less than $57,000 to use any of a dozen different services to file their taxes for free.  If you’re under the income cap, and you don’t have anything more complicated than a mortgage and a couple of dependents, you should definitely check it out.

It’d be great to inhabit a world where all economic growth were positive sum. They grow, we grow, everyone’s happy.

But where there’s a shortage of key resources, not everything is so rosy.

This chart, put together by HedgEye, shows a nice correlation between Chinese oil imports (measured in tons) and the price of oil, though obviously the price of oil swings more wildly.

If China keeps growing — and really, how will it not? — oil seemed destined only to go in one direction.

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We’re reviewing as many iPad apps as possible LIVE and updating throughout the day. If you have a specific app you want reviewed, let us know in the comments. So many apps that we had to start a second post! More »

For the past few days, almost every tech site has been writing about the iPad which was released to public a day before Easter. It is not that iPad is out of the news yet, but HP has just released a video of the upcoming HP Slate on YouTube and from the looks of it this one is a definite beauty.

HP Slate, which will run on Windows 7 has a camera for video support, multi-touch support with pinch to zoom, USB ports, SD memory expansion, Adobe Flash support and more. With all these features and possibly more, PC World has dubbed the device as an iPad killer, however, it is really too early to call anything a iPad killer yet.

However, there is no denying of the fact that the HP Slate as of now is a superior device than the iPad with the Slate adding several pieces of hardware missing from the iPad. The HP Slate also runs on Windows 7 which would make it compatible with a lot of software already available for Windows. In addition to that, inclusion of a camera in the Slate along with USB ports makes it a much closer replacement for the netbook as opposed to the iPad, which lacks both of these.

HP Slate is not yet ready for sale and there is no release date available right now, however, considering that iPad just launched it would be critical for HP to get the device out as soon as possible to capitalize on the user interest in tablets.

Watch a sneak peek review of the HP Slate embedded below to see the beautiful device in action.

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