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We knew it was coming, and we knew when it came – what we didn’t know, however, was that one was going to show up on our doorstep today.

I’ll be giving Aliph’s latest-and-greatest headset Bluetooth headset a runthrough over the next few days, so expect a full review within the week. In the mean time, feel free to peruse our quick little gallery of the deboxing process after the jump.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

(This post originally appeared at Yahoo Tech-Ticker)

A big week of bank earnings accelerates midweek with results expected from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo on Wednesday, followed by Goldman Sachs, American Express and Capital One Financial on Thursday.

So what should investors expect? More revenue disappointments, such as those already posted by JP Morgan and Citigroup, according to Chris Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics.

“Right now the total egg – credit — is shrinking,” Whalen says. “The bank side is not a source of growth. Can you pull it out on the capital market side? Maybe, but I’m not sure where that comes from” given many of the big banks have loaded up on low-risk securities in the aftermath of 2008’s bloodbath.

Speaking of “bloodbaths”, I asked Whalen if he’s sticking by the gruesome forecast he made here back in October. The answer is “yes”, albeit with some caveats.

“Loss rates for the industry will be very high,” Whalen says, forecasting record charge-off rates, higher loan loss reserves and a lot of “minus signs” for banks’ bottom lines.

Still, the Fed’s program of buying toxic securities means “everyone gets a pass on market-to-market,” with the biggest banks getting a disproportionate benefit, he says.

Editor’s note: Click here for Whalen’s analysis of Citigroup’s results and check the accompanying video to get Whalen’s take on:

• Why US Bancorp is his favorite big bank. (Whalen doesn’t own or short individual bank stocks; IRA doesn’t do investment banking.)
• Whether Morgan is a better trade right now vs. Goldman Sachs, as many have proposed.
• The outlook for new CEOs at Morgan Stanley (James Gorman) and Bank of America (Brian Moynihan).

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Whalen: Person Of The Year, My Foot! Bernanke Has Made A "Pig’s Breakfast" Of This Whole Thing
• Christopher Whalen: Citi Still Queen Of The Zombie Dance Party
• Whalen: Nationalization Of Citi and BOFA "Inevitable"

As I reported last week, the BlackBerry Curve 8910 is indeed real – in fact, it’s taking a little walk through the FCC’s headquarters at present.  Considering the lack of 3G and the fact that it falls in the 89XX family, my guess is that RIM is continuing the migration from trackball to trackpad, and is simply upgrading the Curve 8900 series with a slightly modified look, a trackpad, and OS 5.0 out of the box. I would expect AT&T and T-Mobile to pick this up in the coming months as a replacement to the Curve 8900. 

Does it matter?  Is the update worthwhile, given the lack of 3G connectivity?

Via FCC, Engadget Mobile

The wait might’ve been too long for those who’ve kept eyes and ears out for the Western release of Yakuza 3, but yes, it’s on its way and it’s joining the fray of big titles coming out

Now that FoMoCo has finally decided to beef up the Mustang GT, we’re wondering if you would buy the new pony from Ford over the Camaro SS given that you’re in the market (or fantasy market) for a new muscle car.

Just as a quick comparison, the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS is powered by a 6.2L V8 making 426-hp with a peak torque of 420 lb-ft and comes standard with a 6-speed manual transmission. Prices start at $30,945.

The 2011 Ford Mustang GT is powered by a new 5.0L V8 making 412-hp with a maximum torque of 390 lb-ft. It is mated to a 6-speed manual as standard. According to leaked pricing from yesterday, the 2011 Mustang GT will start at $29,645.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

– By: Omar Rana

This is the second edition of my chat with the fabulous Nicole Gelinas, author of the phenomenal must-read, must-own After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street and Washington.  (Part one is here.)

What was a reasonable alternative to TARP?

We were never going to escape this debacle without pumping massive amounts of taxpayer money into the financial system. By 2008, the erosion of market discipline and prudent regulations (which go together) had left the economy vulnerable to a historic financial disaster. The proverbial black swan would have been if we not gotten the crisis.

Washington could have deployed TARP funds better than it did, though. Bush-era Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s first mistake was in thinking that he could use TARP finds to hide financial-industry losses. That is, he wanted TARP to buy up bad securities from banks at higher-than-market prices. As the S&L crisis proved nearly two decades ago, the economy can’t recover until bad assets find their real market price. Yet more government distortion just delayed that process.

What Paulson and, later, Geithner eventually did was better: pumping capital into banks so that they could withstand at least some of their losses on mortgage-related securities and other investments. Still, though, Washington used TARP to shield bondholders to the TARP banks from their losses – meaning that “too big to fail” lives another day.
How would a conservatorship of a TBTF firm work?

No firm should be “too big to fail – so it really would be a conservatorship for failed financial firms.

We learned in the Great Depression that some firms cannot fail through the normal bankruptcy process. Bank failures caused unacceptable economic panic and social harm. The FDIC was the elegant solution. It protected small depositors from losses and from service interruption, muting financial panic in a crisis. But it also allowed markets to discipline bad banks, because uninsured lenders still took their losses.

The task of a conservatorship for failed financial firms should be the same: to enforce market discipline of failed financial firms in an orderly manner – with creditors taking their losses – while protecting the economy from the disordered panic that we saw after Lehman.

A conservatorship could carry on operations at a failed financial firm, just as the FDIC does with failed banks when it cannot find a buyer. But lawmakers must make clear that the conservator’s goal is liquidation: to spin off good assets into more competent hands, with creditors responsible for any shortfall, just as they are in bankruptcy.

With AIG, the government has never made clear whether it’s trying to save AIG or wind it down. So we have the bizarre situation of AIG executives saying that the company stock is worthless even as it trades on public markets in the double digits. Meanwhile, private-sector insurance companies must compete against a government-guaranteed behemoth.

A conservatorship won’t work, though, unless lawmakers and regulators enact other rules to make the economy better able to withstand financial-industry failure. I talked about some of this in my answers to your other questions. The main goal is to insulate the economy somewhat from the natural excesses of financial-industry optimism and pessimism, without micromanaging finance. Borrowing limits mute optimism, because they prevent investors from bidding assets up with no money down (think housing in 2005, stocks in 1928).

Other regulations can mute pessimism. When the old uptick rule governed “short sales,” stock sellers couldn’t sell a stock down to zero. Pushing financial instruments onto exchanges, too, can mute panic — again, look at AIG.

Filed under: Etc., Safety, Technology, Toyota

Toyota cars are being equipped with brake override systems, that’s a fact. The reason behind it isn’t the recent and as-yet-unsolved runaway car issues that have plagued the automaker. At least that’s what Toyota says; the company maintains that the change was already under development. While other companies have seemingly figured out brake override, Toyota has been busy perfecting its own setup. All of this is according to what Toyota’s quality general manager, Hiroyuki Yokoyama, tells Automotive News.

In the interview, Yokoyama admits that part of Toyota’s recent quality problems stem in part from from the automaker’s rapid growth as it overtook General Motors as the world’s biggest-selling automaker. More to the point, Toyota’s increase in production numbers and proliferation of model lines made quality harder to bake-in to every product. The competition has also improved in quality, closing the gap between Toyota and its rivals. Yokoyama also challenges the accusation that there are underlying problems with Toyota’s electronic throttle systems, citing the number of sensors and failsafes already designed into the system. Nevertheless, Toyota is looking at its pushbutton start/stop, admits Yokoyama. To shut the engine down, the button must be depressed for three seconds, a safety feature to prevent accidental shut-offs, but perhaps that’s longer than might be intuitive in an emergency.

Regardless of the reason for Toyota’s plan to equip all new models with a brake override system – be it due diligence, face saving or thinly-veiled panic – the immediate priority is to avert any further reputation hits and fix whatever they find.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req. | Image: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty]

Report: Toyota claims it’s not fitting throttle overrides because of sudden acceleration scandal originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Published Jan. 18, 2010
By the Tri-City Herald Editorial Board

From interracial friendships and integrated schools and neighborhoods to the present occupants of the White House, this country is far, far better off today than it was April 4, 1968.

That was the day, of course, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.

Dr. King is widely regarded as the best orator of his time, perhaps in American history.

But his oratory was in second place to his heart. He was an earnest believer in his faith, in volunteerism and in the rights of man.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a national holiday in 1986.

Today at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, there will be the annual bell ringing at the King statue on campus, plus the awarding of the Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award, as has become a tradition.

Unlike Presidents Day and some other holidays, most people need no reminding what this day is about. It’s not just another day off from work but a day to remember a great leader for America and, incidentally, the youngest person, at 35, ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

King had traveled to Memphis and arrived late to give one of the addresses for which he was in constant demand.

His plane was delayed by a bomb threat.

When he arrived, he gave what was to be his last speech.

It was, of course, the speech that became even more famous as his “Mountaintop” speech.

We reprint part of it here that addressed the spirit that had brought about the bomb threat:

“And then I got to Memphis,” he concluded after mentioning the delay.

“And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead.

“But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will.

“And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Accolades continued to be showered on King after his death.

His principles of peaceful protest continued to be challenged for awhile by white supremacists here and there.

But we have now reached a point that is a long way short of perfection, but it is so much better than the day he was taken from us.

He made as big a difference in this country as any man since Abraham Lincoln.

And remember that King, unlike Lincoln, did not have an army at his back.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

Published Jan. 16, 2010
By John Trumbo, Tri-City Herald staff writer

KENNEWICK — Nearly 400 people came to the Three Rivers Convention Center on Friday to celebrate the successes in promoting equality and diversity in commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

But they left with a different feeling: knowing that the struggle must continue.

“Civil rights means nothing without civil engagement and responsibility. It is the hard work we have to do in society to ensure there is equality,” said Kimberly Camp, chief executive officer for the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center.

Camp was one of six panelists who shared their views about Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is being observed Monday.

“To me, it’s a day to stand up for others,” said Paul Strand, an associate professor of psychology at Washington State University Tri-Cities, who was moderator.

“It’s about love, truth and equality and the right for everyone to have equality under the law,” said Martin Valadez, Columbia Basin College vice president for diversity and outreach.

The third annual community conversation was sponsored by WSU Tri-Cities Multicultural Club with support from the African American Community Cultural and Education Society, the Engineering Club, Business Club, Northwest Collegiate Ministries and Associated Students of WSU Tri-Cities.

As a panelist, Kennewick Police Chief Ken Hohenberg said he appreciates the progress the nation and the community have made in fostering equality and diversity, but there is “a long ways to go.”

He said there are effective ways to help young minorities not end up in the criminal justice system, but it requires community service and citizen volunteers who will intervene to make a difference in the youths’ lives.

Mark Nathan Lee, a panelist who is director of the Vista Youth Center in Kennewick which works with youth on lesbian, gay and bisexual topics, said more needs to be done to achieve acceptance on sexual diversity too.

“I meet youth who feel unsafe in their schools. We need a safe space at our schools with an advocate who they can talk to, independent of the school system,” Lee said.

Panelist Norma Rodriguez, an attorney in Kennewick, said her family struggled but worked hard to attain the dream.

“Martin Luther King Jr. provided opportunities to help us fulfill our potentials and reach goals. My parents were migrants. They had dreams they couldn’t fulfill, but their children did,” she said. “We all have to do our own part.”

The event included a buffet dinner and live music afterward.

There also were awards recognizing individuals for their efforts in promoting diversity and equality in the past year at WSU Tri-Cities. They included university teachers Dee Posey, Robert Bauman, Stephanie Bauman, Susan Pramschufer, and Rachael Tengbom, who founded Voices of Hope to help Maasai women in Kenya.

Also honored were Harvey Gover, adviser to the university’s Multicultural Club, and representatives of the African American Community Cultural and Education Society.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

Published Jan. 17, 2010
By Drew Foster, Tri-City Herald staff writer

Upon receiving the news he’d been named 2010 Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award winner, Herald Publisher Rufus Friday said he realized how President Obama must have felt when told he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Are you sure?” Friday said he told the caller on the other end of the line. “There’s so much more to be done.”

Friday will receive the 21st installment of the award during a noon bell-ringing ceremony Monday at Columbia Basin College in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

CBC President Rich Cummins said Friday’s community involvement and ability to foster discussion through the Herald’s editorial board led to his selection.

“I think he has vision, I think he’s a courageous man,” Cummins said of Friday.

Friday, 48, credited his parents for his success. His mother and father, who each had a middle school-level education and raised him in a 12-person house — two parents, nine children and a blind uncle — considered education to be the great equalizer.

“It comes back to what my parents taught me,” Friday said, “and that is wherever you go, make a positive difference in someone’s life.”

Friday, who became the Herald’s publisher in 2005, sits on numerous boards, including United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties, the Washington State University Tri-Cities Advisory Council and the Tri-City Development Council executive committee.

He’s also co-chairman of a group raising money for the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center.

“I look back at what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream was, and it was all about making positive social change in your community and country,” Friday said.

He believes much of King’s dream — social change, equality, respect — has been realized. Still, he said there’s work to be done.

“We can’t forget where we came from, but we have to celebrate the accomplishments we’ve made,” he said.

Friday both remembers where he came from — Gastonia, N.C. — and relishes his accomplishments, which he said pale in comparison to previous award winners.

Still, he said the recognition is the result of his upbringing and praised his parents’ sacrifices, work ethic, optimism and constant support.

Friday said he looks forward to continuing his work in the community and at the newspaper.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

Stan Shih, founder of Acer, has made a bold prediction with a cowardly timeline: that US computer brands aren’t competitive enough to stick it out another 20 years. That’d work out just great for, let’s see… oh, right, Stan Shih!

Shih’s claim is that US manufacturers are incapable of putting lower priced products on the market, and so will die off like so much chaff. BUT: while companies like Lenovo and Acer have made strides recently, in the PC market there’s still high demand for top-tier products, and Dell and HP are still huge—and hugely popular—companies.

The bigger problem, of course, is that in twenty years anything can happen. Maybe we won’t be using laptops at all by then. Maybe we’ll do all our computing from the Google chips implanted in our brains. So before Stan Shih gets too excited about 2030, maybe he should focus first on making laptops that don’t melt in 2010. [PhysOrg]

Here’s some good clean fun courtesy of our friends at Coca-Cola and Wieden + Kennedy. This commercial imagines a scene before the Winter Olympics in Vancouver where athletes engage in a little snowball fight. It’s all a misunderstanding, though, because a bunch of snow falls on one of the Canadian athletes, prompting him to drop his Coke. Then, in a surprising move (surprising because Canadians aren’t known for their hot-headedness), his teammate hurls a snowball at the Swedish team, and then France surprisingly gets pulled into the action (surprising because they usually like to sit out conflicts), and then, before you know it, all hell breaks loose in what reminded me of the famously deleted pie-fighting scene from Dr. Strangelove. The spot ends with the original athlete finding a vending machine to get his Coke fix. The creative continues to build on the notion of a magical Coke machine that dispenses happiness, or in this case, restores world order.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

It didn’t take long after I picked up a Magic Mouse for use with my MacBook before great suggestions started pouring in pointing to utilities that make the mouse even more useful. I have spent some time playing with a couple of them, and it does seem like you can take the multitouch capabilities of the Magic Mouse to new levels with either.

The first app I tested was BetterTouchTool, and I found it to be a very powerful tool. It allows total configuration of the Magic Mouse, including swipes, clicks and gestures. There are so many settings I admit it’s a bit daunting to explore, and will require some extended testing to find what works best. This tool also provides configuration over the MacBook trackpad, which some may find useful.

The second tool I tried seems to be a better fit for me. MagicPrefs is written to provide complete control over the Magic Mouse, and makes it possible to configure up to four finger touch events to trigger different things. It can handle taps, clicks, swipes, drags and pinches, which makes for a very personal mouse usage tool.

I would have no qualms using either of these utilities, as they both are very well done. For now I’m sticking with MagicPrefs, as much to try to get it fully customized the way I want it as for any other reason.

While writing this post I had a situation develop that may have had something to do with the mouse utilities. The Magic Mouse lost connection to the MacBook, and nothing could bring it back. Over the course of futzing with that, the MacBook’s trackpad went dead, leaving me with no good way to control things.

I rebooted the MacBook (after saving the draft post), and when it came back up no Bluetooth hardware was detected. I had to do the old Command-Option-P-R trick to get it back. I’m thinking that switching between these two utilities, both of which control the mouse and/or trackpad, that something got confused. It may be that one or both of them don’t cleanly quit when instructed to do so, and perhaps both were fighting over the mouse at the same time.

Berkshire Hathaway shareholders will vote Wednesday on a 50-to-1 split of the company’s Class B shares to finance a $26 billion purchase of Burlington Northern railway. Chairman Warren Buffett has described this purchase as an “all-in wager on the economic future of the United States” that, while potentially incurring short-term losses, will benefit Berkshire Hathaway over time. This reasoned, patient approach is trademark Buffett — the kind of investing that has spawned countless imitations. If tomorrow’s vote goes through, as the Wall Street Journal reports it likely will, average investors will no longer have to resort to crude mimicry of Buffett’s strategy–they’ll be able to purchase shares of his company. 

Historically, Berkshire Hathaway shares have been split into Class A, which closed at $97,500 each on Friday, and Class B–known as “Baby Bs”–which closed at $3,247. These lofty prices discouraged small retail investors and the high-frequency traders who can buy and sell millions of shares in a millisecond. A 50-to-1 split of the B shares would drop their price to around $65, enabling an influx of new investors and making the company eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500 index (Berkshire Hathaway is the largest corporation excluded from the index). 

Since Buffett has previously expressed concern that a share split would discourage long-term investing, the Burlington deal must have been attractive enough to change his mind. Opening up Berkshire to a new cadre of investors may puncture the legendary aura surrounding Buffett’s company, but it also exemplifies the pragmatism responsible for creating the aura in the first place. 

The newest addition to the Sony α family of DSLR cameras teams flawless imaging with generous creative options. Powerful yet brilliantly easy to use, the DSLR-A450 (available early next month) is a perfect all-rounder when you’re ready to take your passion for great pictures to a more advanced level. Ideal for active shooters moving up to their next DSLR, it’s at home in any shooting situation, from relaxed portraits to fast-moving sports action. However, but looks to be an European only release and will not come to the USA as confirmed by a Sony rep at CES 2010.

Inside the α450 is a high-resolution 14.2 (approx.) effective megapixel Exmor CMOS sensor. It’s teamed with the powerful BIONZ processor to deliver highly detailed, ultra-low noise images. Sensitivity extends right up to ISO 12800, allowing you to capture beautifully natural handheld images in low light without flash. With a generous 95% field of view, the bright optical viewfinder makes framing and composition a pleasure. As an extra refinement, Manual Focus Check Live View previews clear, bright full-resolution images on the 6.7cm (2.7”) Clear Photo LCD screen. With selectable 7x/14x on-screen image enlargement it’s ideal for confirming pin-sharp focus with portraits, still life, macro and architectural scenes.

The powerful BIONZ image processor enables high-speed continuous shooting at up to 5 fps (maximum – approx. figure). In Speed Priority mode (with AF and AE set at start of burst) this increases to an amazing 7 fps (maximum – actual speed depends on shooting conditions and media card). It’s more than enough to catch sports and fast-moving action with ease.

Creative options are enhanced with Auto HDR mode that accommodates bright highlights and dark shadow details in a single frame. Two successive frames shot handheld at different exposure values are merged automatically by the camera. The result is a detail-packed High Dynamic Range image – with no need for a PC image editor and specialists skills. In addition to fully automatic operation, the exposure difference between frames can be manually set up to 3EV, in 0.5EV increments.

Featured right across the DSLR line-up by Sony, SteadyShot INSIDE offers up to 4 steps of anti-shake correction with the full range of 30 α lenses and two teleconvertors, as well as compatible A-mount optics by Konica-Minolta.

The α450 also offers the most impressive shooting stamina of any DSLR camera by Sony to date. The high-capacity battery allows up to 1,050 shots between charges* – plenty for a busy weekend’s sightseeing.

Slots for Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo and SD/SDHC memory cards (sold separately) are offered to suit users’ personal shooting preferences.

Connect the α450 to any HD Ready TV for a breathtaking big-screen view of your photos. PhotoTV HD optimises still image reproduction on compatible BRAVIA™ models, while BRAVIA™ Sync allows control of slideshow and other camera playback functions using your TV remote. Supplied software includes Image Data Converter SR; Image Data Lightbox SR; and PMB (Picture Motion Browser) for easy image management. The α450 is also compatible with the wide range of high-quality DSLR accessories by Sony, including flashes, carry cases, batteries and chargers, GPS and more.