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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Spy Photos, Sedan, Chrysler, Luxury

If you plan on visiting the 2010 Detroit Auto Show when it opens to the public, head to the Chrysler display, specifically the area where they’ve cordoned off the Chrysler Lancia concept. Behind that rebadged Lancia Delta is a large video screen playing a Chrysler promotional video. Nothing special, right? Wrong. The video in question is apparently showing sneak peeks of future Chrysler models. We were too busy asking Chrysler spokespeople why the Lancia was even at the show (to which they offered little insight) to even notice.

While a few different vehicles/concepts are shown in the video, the most obvious and interesting is what could be the next-gen Chrysler 300. From what little we can see of it, the car appears to be a concept version of the next-gen 300 that we may see unveiled in the near future, possibly at the Chicago Auto Show in February or New York Auto Show in April.

While we don’t have the video itself, there is some hand-held footage of the Chrysler Lancia concept on YouTube with the video playing on the wall in the background. That’s after the jump, but you can also view some screen grabs in the gallery below. Thanks for the tip, Joseph!

[Source: YouTube, Picasa]

Continue reading Next-gen Chrysler 300 previewed in auto show video?

Next-gen Chrysler 300 previewed in auto show video? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A big thank you to everyone who has supported our Haiti appeal so far. Oxfam is now beginning to get aid through despite immense challenges. Our staff in Haiti are currently providing shovels and picks for local civil workers to clear rubble to search for trapped victims in the capital, but the destruction continues to severely hamper aid efforts. Our immediate priorities will be providing safe water and shelter materials for the people who have lost their homes.

A horrific picture of need, and the vast obstacles to getting aid to people in need, is emerging. While international efforts are focused on dispersing aid in the capital, the actual epicenter of the quake was in the countryside. There is no access to rural area, so no picture yet of the disaster there and scale of people’s needs.

Oxfam are planning a response costing several million pounds, and I’d like to ask you to do anything you can to help, and to do it as soon as you can. Could you contact your local supermarket, rail station or theatre and see if you could hold a collection there? You’ll be amazed at the generosity of others, especially while the earthquake is at the front of everyone’s minds.

One of our volunteers, Charli, spent Wednesday afternoon baking cakes. Yesterday, she went round the office block asking for donations in return for cakes – and made £137! This morning, she had just four left to sell – and from these four cakes, she made another £45 – amazing!

Our heartfelt thanks go to Charli and everyone else who is working so hard to raise money for Haiti. You can donate online at www.oxfam.org.uk. Whether you bake cakes, hold a raffle at work, shake a collecting bucket or organise a fundraising event, you can make a real difference – thank you. If you’d like any materials or advice on fundraising, please do give me a call on 07917 323 538.

When it comes to fantasy sports I’ll just be up front about it – I’m a tinkerer, a point-and-click guy, a pick-up junkie. I’m generally among the add/drop leaders in any pool I play in, and with that in mind it’s a good time to examine some rules of thumb as we’re trying to find good stuff cheap – help on the free agent wire.

• Follow the shots: Show me a guy who’s consistently firing the puck at the net and I’ll show you a guy who’s going to have fantasy value, even if the points aren’t falling his way right now. The Patric Hornqvist(notes) breakthrough was foreshadowed by a SOG spike, and the same goes for Niclas Bergfors(notes).

• Sort through the trash: Any free-agent trolling should always start with the recently-cut list of players; while some of those discarded guys clearly don’t hold any current value, you’re also likely to stumble on a few gems, guys who were cut because they were caught up in a numbers game from one of your deeper competitors. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as getting a producer for nothing and spiting your arch rival in the process.

• Pedigree matters: Be constantly on the lookout for a fizzled first-round pick that might be starting to put things together, or a highly-touted kid who’s finally getting a shot on a deep roster. And be aware that some positions take longer for players to mature; this is almost always true of taller defensemen and goalies as well.

• Cut many times, point and click once: Forget the seasonal stats when you’re strolling along the waiver wire; it’s more important to track what’s happening lately. Make sure you’re constantly looking at the leaders over the last month (and occasionally the last week), and make sure you also sort the FA list by any stat categories you might be light in. And again, when all else fails, shots on goal are a good way to break the tie.

• Life in a parallel universe: One of the advantages of being in too many leagues is the knowledge you can pick up by analyzing and comparing the player movement from pool to pool. The emerging forward you just missed out on in League A might be free for the taking in League B.

• It’s all about the power play: About a quarter of the scoring in the league comes on the man advantage, so it’s critical that you know who’s getting a chance on each team’s first and second units. Just monitoring the time spent on the PP has a value, it’s basically each head coach telling you how he feels about his personnel.

• When in doubt, get to the rink: There’s no better way to scout a player than to see him with your own eyes, whether it’s on TV (hopefully in HD) or in person at the arena. And don’t be afraid to give the radio guys some time, at least when you’re in the car; the announcers in this medium know they have to tell a more-detailed story and often the radio scouting tips are better than the stuff you hear on TV.

These are just a few of the ways we do what we do; what’s on your hit list? Let’s share some ideas in the comments.

Time and again, we get asked which cellular network is the best. The answer is: it depends completely on you and on varying factors outside of your control. Location, other network users in your area, and activities on the network at a given time all impact the experience. In the past, I’ve seen customized Google Maps where users can report local coverage conditions. But after speaking to the Root Wireless team at last week’s CES, I think there’s a better way to research and report cellular coverage data.

The company’s beta product is a small background application that runs on BlackBerry, Android and Windows Mobile devices for now. While so many of us focus on throughput, it’s only part of the equation — equally as important is the signal strength, dropped calls, and failed data connections. Combined with throughput, these factors help equate the experience.

With so many possible data points, how then is the information useful to consumers? That’s where the crowdsourcing concept enters in. Root Wireless aggregates data from the reporting handset clients to create detailed, low-level coverage maps. All data is self-reported, so there’s no input or other steps required from the participants, although users can “record” coverage in areas to help report dead zones. Root Wireless currently reports this data with all four major U.S. carriers in 16 different metro area maps, found here. The Root Coverage maps are interactive, so it’s easy to compare coverage by carrier or by signal, data or voice in a given location:

As part of the Consumer Electronics Show, Root Wireless used their own product near the Las Vegas Convention Center for six hours a day throughout the show. With just limited data, the company was able to create a useful graph of each carrier’s data performance. In fact, it verified something we repeatedly said throughout the show as our iPhones became useless bricks. Here’s the summary report from Root Wireless:

• Over the four days tested, AT&T’s rank fell from first to last.
• The first two days, Sprint’s data service provided faster service than recorded in greater Las Vegas in December.  Then its download speeds slowed each of the following two days.  Nonetheless, its service was among the fastest recorded Wednesday – Friday.
• T-Mobile’s service never recorded the fastest download speeds, but it provided consistent performance day-to-day.
• With the exception of Wednesday, Verizon Wireless outperformed its results recorded in December, and Verizon provided the fastest downloads on Thursday and Friday, presumably the show’s most congested days.

I think an automated crowdsourcing approach such as this is far more valuable that the various ambitious attempts to manually test the networks. There’s simply no way one person or one organization can test enough data points. But when you open the doors for millions of devices to test them for you, you really begin to gain some meaningful and useful data.

Evolver.net and Burners without Borders present:
Evolver Spores: Give It Up

Thurs Jan 21st
Swan River Yoga Downtown
2130 Chartres St, in the Marigny
8:30-10:00

Debt-based currencies controlled by closed syndicates of private banks are not the only way that humans can make an economy. Many tribal cultures have organized themselves around an entirely different way of exchanging value: The gift. Where our financial system expertly moves resources from the many to the few, gift-based cultures like to share what they have – as writer Lewis Hyde noted, “The gift moves toward the empty place.” At a time when billions are enslaved by passionless work while inequity reaches new historic heights, we are seeing a postmodern revival of sharing and gifting, with examples ranging from the open source movement to the annual Burning Man festival.

In this Spore, we explore the abstract theory and practical dynamics of gifting, the challenges of implementing this innovative, yet archaic, way of getting what you want and wanting what you get. We invite fellow Evolvers to bring their precious gifts – whether it be witticisms or wood-carved totems to the Spore and spread them around. Local Spores can screen “Burn on the Bayou,” a mini-documentary chronicling Burners without Borders gifting efforts during seven months of relief work in the Katrina-battered Gulf Coast towns of Biloxi and Pearlington, MS. Since that time, BWB has grown into an international, grassroots organization whose projects are based on the principle of gifting.

We will have Summer Burkes as a presenter. She is a longtime worker for the Burning Man festival outside Reno, Nevada, moved to New Orleans on April Fool’s Day of last year. Anyone who toils in the hot sun for three months at a time — staying in a van / tent / trailer in a landscape so harsh it harbors no living things — to help build and strike a temporary city of 60,000 people … learns a peculiar skill set, to say the least. Inspired by her crowd’s “Do Stuff” philosophy, and interested in seeing how the things she learned at That Place In The Desert could translate into the real world, Summer chose to migrate back home to the South to see what was up in the Lower Ninth Ward and how she could help. Currently, she has started working with Burners Without Borders and the Lower Ninth Ward Village to initiate a program called “Where’s Your Neighbor?”… and they need volunteers!

More info here. Be there or be L-7.

In an effort to add one more story to the list of reasons why Facebook already rules the world and can stop trying, we find that Facebook is the social-network-login of choice by nearly 2-to-1.

Widget provider Gigya sent us some numbers from their social network login tool and in a three company competition, Facebook came away with 65% of the traffic, Myspace with 18% and Twitter with 17%.

Sponsor

Gigya provides a number of widgets, from tools to share Web pages on social networks, to logging in to third party sites with your social network identity. Their widgets can be seen on sites like the Disney Store, ABC, Turner and Audible, and reach more than 250 million people each month.

Gigya also shared with us the numbers when two major email and search providers, Yahoo and Google, are thrown into the login mix. Facebook still comes out with a majority, 53%, of the logins, while Twitter takes second place with 14%. Google and Yahoo! sneak in with 12% each and Myspace stumbles in with only 9% of the take.

In their note to us, they made sure to mention that when a site offers more options for logging in, more people do, providing a greater variety of data on its customer base.

We’d like to see if and how these numbers might change as more companies come out with competition to Facebook Connect and become more noticeable.

Discuss

Today at the 2010 Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota, in conjunction with its Gazoo Racing development team, launched the GRMN Sports Hybrid concept car (that last link is to a Japanese page that is translated with Google translate… some of the translation is a really good laugh).

Reportedly, the car is based on the outgoing MR2 platform and packs a serious punch by combining a 3.3 liter V6 to drive the rear wheels and an electric motor to power the front wheels using the company’s THSII hybrid system. The 4WD sports car develops 392 horsepower and apparently can go from 0-60 in under 4.5 seconds. Not only that, Autocar UK is reporting that the car has the ability to drive in electric vehicle mode in the city.

Read more of this story »

Emerging from a media firestorm over racially-charged comments he made during the Obama campaign, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate majority leader, has turned the spotlight back onto passing an effective climate bill. The move comes after nearly a month of post-Copenhagen malaise.

The failure to produce a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions seems to have left Congress deflated. On top of that, health care reform still isn’t in the bag, and passing any legislation that could potentially hurt local economies is even less popular in 2010, an election year.

That’s one of the biggest arguments against setting targets for slashing emissions (or capping carbon) — that it will hurt employment and growth in states dependent on fossil fuels and traditional power plants. Just look at Max Baucus (D-Mont.). A moderate Democrat, he still shied away from throwing his weight behind drafts of a climate bill because Montana is a major coal producer.

Even though it has these odds against it, the climate bill may still come to a vote on the Senate floor this spring, at least if Reid has anything to say about it. Not only is he certain that it will make it onto the agenda before the summer, but that it will pass after winning broader bipartisan support. Already, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has been outspoken about the need for emissions reductions.

Strong words from Reid, delivered to geothermal energy supporters in New York, were partially motivated by a new amendment introduced to another bill by Senator Lisa Murkowski (D-Alaska) that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing any limits on greenhouse gas emissions. In December, during the U.N. climate talks in Denmark, the EPA announced that it had declared emissions a danger to human health, placing them under the jurisdiction of the executive branch. The Murkowski amendment seeks to wrest away this new power.

But Reid isn’t being purely altruistic in his endorsement of a climate bill. He wasn’t speaking in front of a geothermal crowd for nothing. He told the audience that he hopes to include tax credits and federal funds for research for geothermal projects in whatever climate bill finally comes to a vote. His home state, Nevada, is prime territory for geothermal development, which could boost the state’s economy and employment rates.

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Burberry will once again take elements from militarism for their Fall/Winter 2010 collection. As evidence from these preview images, the large military issue coats such as bombers, naval peacoats, and other frontline outerwear will get the Burberry Prorsum treatment. Military influenced designs will always be present every season, and Burberry has found away to make the look all their own for Fall. With Fashion Week just around the corner, we’ll be sure to see more of how this collection will unfold.

Continue reading for more images.

Source: 00o00

Can you really play high-end games on your modest PC, with no downloads?

That’s a multi-billion dollar question. Entrepreneur Steve Perlman wants to make money by giving you a way to do that. Last year, he announced OnLive, a service that lets you play high-end games “on demand,” that is, over the Internet from a conventional low-end PC, and with no download. He has stirred the pot, and we couldn’t be happier that he will be the keynote speaker at our upcoming GamesBeat@GDC conference on March 10 in San Francisco.

Perlman is one of those rare technology pioneers who has stayed in the innovation game for decades, always trying to come up with disruptive technologies. We’ve already announced that John Schappert, chief operating officer of Electronic Arts will speak at a fireside chat at the event.

Perlman’s Palo Alto, Calif. company is still polishing his product — a service where gamers can play high-end games on any equipment that they own. The games are played over a network, with virtually no download required. A bunch of people say this can’t be done. But Perlman, chief executive and founder of OnLive, is betting big time that it can be done. And a number of rivals have surfaced — Otoy and Gaikai — that are pursuing the same dream.

If its technology works, OnLive could give consumers the freedom to play high-end games on low-end machines, eliminating the need to buy expensive PCs or game consoles. And it could help digital distribution take off, giving game publishers an alternative to selling their games in retail stores.

He announced OnLive a day before GamesBeat and the GDC last year, and it became the talk of the show. It’s taking a long time to pull this off, and that’s why some people wonder if Perlman can do it.

He founded OnLive in 2002, built it to more than 100 employees, and has filed thousands of pages of patent applications for it. His backers include AT&T, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Autodesk, Maverick Capital, and Lauder Partners.

Perlman himself holds over 90 U.S. patents and has more than 100 applications pending. Previously, he created startups such as Mova, whose face-capture technology is used to create realistic animated faces in games and movies. (It was used to create the photorealistic computer-generated face of Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). He also founded Moxi, a new user interface for cable TV which was sold to Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures. He was the co-founder of WebTV, which Microsoft bought for $425 million. He is known as the developer of Apple’s QuickTime multimedia technology. And he remains the head of Rearden, a technology incubator that does research in a wide variety of fields.

Not all of the businesses were successes. But Perlman always tries to swing for the fences. OnLive is one of his biggest bets yet. And it’s one of the things that makes it so fun. Please be sure to catch his speech at GamesBeat@GDC.

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The U.S. State Department told reporters today that it will deliver a formal statement to the Chinese government in the next few days, denouncing a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” through which the Gmail accounts of Chinese political activists were tapped. (For a detailed run-down of how the attack worked, see security software maker McAfee’s blog post.)

Google has already threatened on Tuesday to pull out of China, which would mean closing its offices there and shutting down the google.cn website. A new Bloomberg report says Google executives tried unsuccessfully in December to get the heads of other companies to side with Google in calling attention to the attacks. One fund manager told Bloomberg, “The reluctance of companies to join Google in its initial announcement illustrates the pressure on them to protect their business in China, the world’s third- largest economy.”

Now, the U.S. government has gotten involved. Reuters reports that an unnamed senior diplomat met with a Chinese diplomat on Thursday. In the next few days, the U.S. will deliver a démarche — a formal diplomatic communication from one country to another — expressing America’s disapproval of the break-ins.

A State Department spokesman said at a press conference this morning, “It will express our concern for this incident and request information from China as to an explanation of how it happened and what they plan to do about it.”

Separately, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told Bloomberg on Thursday that exiting China is “not something we’re thinking about” at Microsoft.

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The TommyKaira tuning house has taken the Nissan GTR (R35), taught it its philosophy and is now releasing it to the world today at the Tokyo AutoSalon, as gtrblog.com reports.

There are two packages available: one is a complete kit for the whole car while the other only gives the supercar a revised front end. Both of them exclusively consisting of carbon fiber elements.

The first one restyles the front of the car with a new front bumper, front grill cover, front lip spoiler and front unde… (read more)

Filed under: Gaming

NPD: Wii leads video game industry to ‘biggest sales month ever’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Want to blast some BRAVIA Internet Video Link content from your PS3 to your million-inch Sony-built 3D OLED TV this year? Well, you’re half in luck. Sony’s bringing the Internet Video Link service to the PS3 (which seems to us to provide little that isn’t already possible on the PS3, but who are we to judge?) but won’t do any new OLED TVs this year. The problem is, naturally, cost, but hopefully 2011 will bring better things in sizes larger than 11-inches — LG won’t have a 30-incher until 2012 at least, and that seems too long to wait. Sony COO Stan Glasgow, in his interview with Sony Insider that turned up these nuggets, also is refreshingly non-bombastic about 3D. He points out that Sony’s doing 3D-capable TVs for essentially zero price differentiation, with separate glasses and emitters that can be bought after the fact, and calls the 3D channel rollout “complex.” But who knows, perhaps he’s just never seen enough of Taylor Swift in 3D to know what he’s missing?

Sony’s COO says no new OLED TVs in 2010, BRAVIA Internet Video Link is coming to PS3 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Desperation time in the Bay State.

Jonathan Martin at POLITICO reports that with about 72 hours to go until the Tuesday special election, Barack Obama will fly to Massachusetts on behalf of embattled Democrat Martha Coakley.

The future of healthcare hangs in the balance. We’re not too surprised.

Read here for more on how Martha Coakley got into this mess.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• How Martha Coakley Blew It
• Massachusetts Democrat Senate Campaign Thug Roughs Up Reporter
• Massachusetts May Drag Feet On Seating Republican If He Wins To Save The 60th Vote On Medicare

Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance Award Recognizes DCEO’s Energy Efforts

Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) honored the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) with its Chairman’s Award at the sixth annual Inspiring Efficiency Awards gala last night.

The 2010 Inspiring Efficiency Chairman’s Award is presented to a member organization that has provided exemplary leadership in energy efficiency and support to MEEA throughout the organization’s history.

DCEO, formerly the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, was one of the founding members of MEEA. The organization has served on MEEA’s Board since its inception in 2000 and has provided oversight and strategic direction to help MEEA grow and flourish.

“The guidance provided by DCEO since MEEA’s formation has been instrumental to the success and continued growth of the organization,” said Wendy Jaehn, executive director for Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.

“We’re proud to recognize DCEO’s commitment to energy efficiency and educating the community and businesses about energy efficiency and other important energy issues.”

Throughout MEEA’s existence, DCEO has consistently sponsored programs including:

• Change A Light, Change the World Campaign,
• Illinois Residential Lighting Program,
• Building Operator Certification Program,
• Lights for Learning™,
• Illinois Residential Market Assessment,
• Regional Refrigerator Rebate and Recycling Program,
• Double Your Savings with ENERGY STAR Clothes Washer Campaign,
• IL Energy Education Outreach Program,
• Home Performance with ENERGY STAR Program Development, and
• American Reinvestment and Recovery Act ENERGY STAR appliance program.

Several of these programs served as the foundation for energy efficiency programs prior to the passage of the Illinois electric and natural gas energy efficiency resource standards. DCEO also was instrumental in supporting passage of electric and natural gas Energy Efficiency Program Sponsors (EEPS) in Illinois.

“DCEO is pleased to accept this award from MEEA, an organization that shares our commitment to demonstrating the economic and environmental benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy through programs and services,” said Agnes Mrozowski, Deputy Director, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Office of Energy and Recycling.

DCEO’s Office of Energy and Recycling promotes the efficient use of energy resources through a variety of technical and demonstration programs.

The division also teaches residents, students, teachers, and community and business leaders about important energy issues through educational outreach and energy conservation programs.

About Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance – The Source on Energy Efficiency

The Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (mwalliance.org) is a collaborative network advancing energy efficiency in the Midwest to support sustainable economic development and environmental preservation.  MEEA bridges the gap between policy adoption and program implementation.

MEEA promotes the market transformation of energy efficiency technologies, processes and best practices within a 13-state area, through policy advocacy, program design and facilitation and piloting of energy technologies.

Energy efficiency is the critical first step in meeting our nation’s myriad energy challenges due to low entry costs, proven and emerging technologies, ease of implementation, fast return on investment and measurable results.

Through our diverse network of members and regional allies, MEEA possesses the practical experience and informed vision to effect positive change today by supporting the region’s stakeholders to achieve their efficiency goals for the future.

January 14, 2010 – This morning Narcotics Division filled the courtyard in front of the Pubic Administration Building for their formal inspection. It’s not often the men and women of Narcotics Division have the opportunity to get suited and booted in their class “A” uniforms but today they were shined from head to toe in blue and black. 

Due to Narcotic Division being primary an undercover detail, many were not recognizable to other fellow officers since majority of them have not been clean  shaven or have received haircuts in years but today marked a new day and a new look for many.

Chief Beck along with other command staff walked the many rows of detectives and officers inspecting approximately 250 uniformed personnel. Chief Beck laughed and briefly chatted with several rank and file during the inspection as he recognized many old partners and friends.

After 45 minutes of standing at attention, the large group gathered around the Chief to hear a brief but powerful speech.  Chief Beck started out saying, “Thank you for the hard work you put in today, I appreciate what you do, I respect what you do and I am honored to be here today.”  He continued by stating, “This is going to be a great year and I have the privilege to lead it.” The inspection ended with a group photo in front of the Public Administration Building.