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General Motors said Monday that it sold a record 1.83 million vehicles in China last year, a 66.9 percent jump over 2008, AFP reports.

GM also expressed optimism that 2010 will see even more sales. The company’s market share was up 1.3 percentage points to an estimated 13.4 percent.

GM China Group president Kevin Wale noted that China, whose car sales surpassed the U.S.’s for the first time last January, would play a leading role in driving GM’s overall sales.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the Asian giant’s total auto sales for the first 11 months of 2009 reached 12.23 million units.

Shanghai GM, a joint venture with China’s largest auto maker SAIC Motor Corp, saw sales rise 63.3 percent from the previous year to 727,620 units in 2009.

Back in November, the auto giant announced that it would begin paying back bailout funds before the end of 2009.

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See Also:

• GM Will Crank Cars 24-Hours A Day In Bid To Surpass Toyota In Efficiency
• GM Says It Will Begin Paying Back Government Loans By Year End
• Rattner: You Won’t Believe How Incompetent GM’s Management Was

Google this week is taking two dramatic steps to try to catapult devices using its Android mobile operating system into stronger competition with Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry in the battle for supremacy in the super-smartphone category.

First, the search giant is bringing out a beautiful, sleek new Android phone, the Nexus One, built to its specifications. Second, it has decided to offer the new phone—and future models—to consumers directly, unlocked, via the Web, and then invite multiple carriers to compete to sell service plans and subsidized versions of the hardware.

One carrier is ready to support the Nexus One on day one: the U.S. arm of T-Mobile, a longstanding Google partner. The new Google Phone, built by HTC of Taiwan, will cost $529 unlocked direct from Google, at google.com/phone. It will cost $179 from T-Mobile online with a two-year contract that will set you back $79.99 a month.

Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and Vodafone in Europe will sell the Nexus One eventually at subsidized prices that haven’t yet been announced. All of this will take place on a Google-hosted Web site, a much easier way to buy a phone and service than is typical today, and one that promises to further weaken the power of the carriers.

The company also plans to sell the costlier, unsubsidized version to consumers in the U.K., Hong Kong and Singapore immediately. Like Americans who buy this unlocked version, these customers will have to purchase carrier service separately, something they should be able to obtain right away by just buying and inserting a SIM card from a carrier with compatible technology. (This initial unlocked phone won’t work with Verizon or Sprint in the U.S., nor on AT&T’s 3G network, only the latter’s slower network.)

The Nexus One has a larger screen than Apple’s phone, and is a bit thinner, narrower and lighter—if a tad longer. And it boasts a better camera and longer talk time between battery charges.

I’ve been testing the Nexus One for a couple of weeks and I like it a lot. It’s the best Android phone so far, in my view, and the first I could consider carrying as my everyday hand-held computer. It is a svelte gray device with a 3.7-inch, high-resolution screen; a thin strip of buttons underneath for home, back, menu and search; and a trackball.

The Nexus One finally has the right combination of hardware and software to give Android a champion that might attract more people away from their iconic iPhones and BlackBerrys. It has a larger screen than Apple’s phone, and is a bit thinner, narrower and lighter—if a tad longer. And it boasts a better camera and longer talk time between battery charges.

Also, because it will be available on the large, well-regarded Verizon 3G network, the Nexus One could tempt American iPhone users, tired of problems with AT&T, to switch.

The iPhone still retains some strong advantages. It boasts well over 100,000 third-party apps—around 125,000 by some unofficial estimates—versus around 18,000 for the Android platform. And it has vastly more memory for storing apps, so you can keep many more of them on your phone at any one time. On the Nexus One, only 190 megabytes of its total 4.5 gigabytes of memory is allowed for storing apps. On the $199 iPhone, nearly all of the 16 gigabytes of memory can be used for apps.

In fact, the $199 iPhone 3GS has roughly four times as much user-accessible memory out of the box, though the memory on the Nexus One can be expanded via memory cards. Apple also has a more-fluid user interface, with multitouch gestures for handling photos and Web pages.

As for the BlackBerry, its user interface looks older and clumsier with each passing day, but it has a beautiful physical keyboard many users love, while the Nexus One has a virtual, onscreen keyboard.

The Nexus One is packed with its own tricks. Its version of Android is essentially the same improved edition as the one that appeared on the Motorola Droid back in November. But it has a few new features, including an experimental dictation capability. You just press a microphone icon on the keyboard and start talking, and the words appear. In my tests, this worked only adequately at best, and very poorly at worst, but Google insists it will learn and improve.

The phone also has handsome new visual features, including “live wallpaper,” with waving grass or pulsing colored lines; and a new zooming effect when you want to view icons that aren’t on your main screens. In addition, you can now view miniatures of your five main screens to help you navigate to the one you want.

The Nexus One also has all the key software features introduced in the Droid, including free turn-by-turn voice-prompted navigation.

In my tests, overall, the Nexus One worked very well. The latency I had seen in earlier Android phones is gone, due to a slicker version of the operating system and faster chips. The phone feels good in the hand and the screen is magnificent, with much greater resolution than the iPhone’s.

I like very much the way social-networking information, including status messages, is integrated into the contacts app. One tap on a person’s picture in Contacts lets you quickly choose whether to call, email or message her, or map her address—all without opening the contact card itself.

I also liked the pictures and videos I was able to take with the five-megapixel camera and flash, which I preferred to my iPhone’s camera. You can even view a photo slideshow or listen to music when the phone is in the optional desktop dock.

But there are some downsides to the Nexus One. Like all Android phones, it relies too much, in my view, on menus that create extra steps, including some menus that have a built-in “more” button to display a secondary menu of choices.

I also found the four buttons etched into the phone’s bottom panel sticky and hard to press. In addition, although the Nexus One claims seven hours of talk time versus five hours for the iPhone, most of its battery-life claims for other functions are weaker than Apple’s.

For instance, Google claims just 6.5 hours of Wi-Fi Web use per charge, versus nine for the iPhone, and 20 for music playback versus 30. Google claims this is because, unlike Apple, it allows the simultaneous use of third-party apps, which can drain the battery faster.

In addition, the Nexus One, and other Android devices, still pale beside the iPhone for playing music, video and games. The apps available for these functions aren’t nearly as sophisticated as on the Apple devices.

Finally, the iPhone is still a better apps platform. Not only are there more apps, but, in my experience, iPhone apps are generally more polished and come in more varieties.

But, with its fresh phone and bold business model, Google is taking Android to a new level, and that should ramp up the competition in the super-smartphone space.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at [email protected].

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at [email protected]

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Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The North Sea’s wind farms could meet 10 percent of Europe’s energy needs It’s set to be the biggest transnational power network of its kind. Europe is planning a massive electricity grid to run under …

Apple today announced that users have now downloaded over three billion iPhone and iPod touch applications from the company’s App Store since its July 2008 launch.

“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months — this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

With the App Store having reached two billion downloads just over three months ago, the new milestone represents continued acceleration of growth for the store as Apple’s handheld devices continue to attract significant numbers of customers. The App Store continues to be available to customers in 77 countries, offering applications in 20 categories.

Read more from MacRumors

by Tom Philpott

As health care, finance, and climate bills lurch through Congress, buffeted and compromised by the very industries they seek to rein in, the question of whether our political system is actually capable of real reform arises. Could it be that corporate lobbies are so powerful that current dysfunctions are entrenched? Are we doomed to be a society that lets its sick suffer and its bankers create the effective equivalent of Ponzi schemes, while fossil fuel industries pump greenhouse gases into a warming atmosphere?

These questions are critically relevant to the food system. True, the next farm bill doesn’t fall until 2013; but early this year, Congress and the President will have to reauthorize the school-lunch program. Will they continue to fund it at current miserly levels, dooming public school children to consume stuff like hamburgers adulterated with an ammonia-laced filler known in some industry quarters as “pink slime”? If the past year’s legislative battles have taught us anything, it’s that true school-lunch reform, under current conditions, will be difficult to achieve.

Michael Pollan has for a while now been pointing to a way out of the reform stalemate caused by the power of lobbies: that space for reform opens when powerful lobbies turn against one another. Pollan appeared last night on the Daily Show, promoting his new book Food Rules. He made a point he has made before: if even a modicum of health care reform passes, one that bars insurers from denying coverage to sick people or purging them when they get sick, than the interests of the mighty insurance industry will turn against those of the mighty agribusiness/processed-food industry. The insurance industry, forced at least on some level to deal with the chronic illnesses caused by the U.S. diet, will join the food-reform movement, Pollan predicts. Backed by a well-heeled industry lobby, the movement will be empowered to create real change.

It’s a path to reform that owes more to the ideas of Machiavelli than to those of Thomas Paine, but if it works …

Related Links:

Russ Parsons on launching a civil, inclusive food-system debate

Lessons on the food system from the ammonia-hamburger fiasco

Ask Umbra on judging greenness

I’m at the annual winter American Astronomical Society meeting, and just left an interesting address by the new NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. He’s a former astronaut (he was on the initial Hubble Shuttle mission back in 1990) and Marine corps pilot, but now he’s the top guy at NASA.

It’s a tradition for the NASA head to speak at the AAS meetings. I’ve heard talks from ex-Admins Dan Goldin, Sean O’Keefe, and Mike Griffin, and this one was very different. NASA is at a very tumultuous point in its history, with the Shuttle winding down, the future of the Constellation rocket program uncertain and under fire, and even the direction of the agency itself unclear. Because of this, and because President Obama has not made a public policy statement about these issues yet, Bolden could not give a nuts-and-bolts speech, which is understandable. For those of you who weren’t following my live comments on Twitter during the talk, here are some of the highlights.

He was very clear that we all need to do what we can to inspire kids about science. In a remarkable turn, he literally choked up on stage while talking about putting together a telescope with his granddaughter, and saying we need to get more kids to look through eyepieces. “Look at this!” he said, “This is what we do!” That resonates with me, of course; I’ve made that exact comment on this blog dozens of times.

He also said that manned space flight would not be paid off the back of science. This generated applause from the audience. However, I’ve heard that before, just a few years ago from Mike Griffin… and then saw science missions’ funding cut back to pay for the lunar exploration program. So while I agree with Bolden’s sentiment, I don’t know if he can pull that particular feat off. I sure hope he can.

When asked about the issues with delays in the Shuttle replacement, he stated that “This President won’t be the one who presides over the demise of the manned space program.” (quoting from my memory of what he said). He also stated how strongly Obama supports science; something we already know but it’s damn good to hear it again.

He also said, “If you had told me 20 years ago that we wouldn’t be back on the Moon by now, I’d have said you were smoking dope.” That was great to hear! I know a lot of us outside of NASA have been saying that for years, but it was refreshing and wonderful to hear the head of NASA saying it, and saying it so frankly. He even repeated the statement to make sure we got it. Very cool indeed.

Overall, Bolden reinforced how committed NASA is to science — something that needs to be said when addressing 1000+ astronomers, who traditionally and by large majority tend to support unmanned robotic exploration over the much more expensive and usually less-scientifically oriented manned flight. He stressed that we all need to be teachers, and we all need to be the inspiration for the next generation. I agree in general, and certainly in specifics about inspiration.

So this first date with the NASA chief went as a lot of first dates go. Hopeful, with some reservations on promises made based on the delivery of further evidence, but… hopeful.

[During the talk I sat next to my dear friend and woman-full-of-awesome Pamela Gay, who has posted her thoughts on this as well.]

I love you Google. Thank you for the Nexus One Phone.

Massachusetts, US | Museums and Collections

Nantucket is usually known for it’s historic whaling voyages, the intricate craft of scrimshaw, and as a popular vacation spot. In the 19th century, however, one scientist added a curious wrinkle to the small island’s rich history. Born to a Quaker family in 1818, Maria Mitchell nurtured a love for astronomy whilst growing up on the island. She turned her interests into an illustrious career that eventually culminated in the founding of Nantucket’s first and only scientific institution, the Maria Mitchell Association.

Under the supervision of her schoolteacher father, Mitchell developed her observing skills early in life. As a teenager, Maria assisted sailors in navigating the seas by making complicated calculations. On land, the young astronomer spent nights looking through a telescope on her rooftop. Her hobby soon became a career and in 1847 she gained recognition for her discovery of a telescopic comet (a comet that is invisible to the naked eye). This achievement even earned her a gold medal from the King of Denmark.

In 1865, following Mitchell’s recent fame, the newly-found Vassar College hired the astronomer as its first professor. Mitchell spent the rest of her career educating and conducting research at the New York women’s college. After her death in 1889, Mitchell’s friends, family, and students founded the Maria Mitchell Association, dedicated to educating the public about science in her hometown of Nantucket. For over a century the association has grown and today it includes two observatories, an aquarium, a natural science museum, an historic house, and a research library.

The two observatories include the main Maria Mitchell Observatory near downtown, and the Loines Observatory about one kilometer away. The Astronomy Department houses a collection of over 8,000 glass photographic plates of the sky, constituting observations made between 1913 and 1995. Researchers still use the plates today as a reference to newer images. By comparing photographs of the same patch of sky taken decades apart, astronomers may study changes in celestial objects. Realizing the plates’ usefulness, the scientists at MMO became the first to digitize their entire glass plate collection and make their data available to astronomers worldwide. The Loines location features an antique 8-inch Clarke telescope used for public education as well as a 24-inch research-grade telescope.

The association also runs its own seasonal aquarium. Each year, a variety of local marine life is collected from the shores for a temporary stay at the aquarium before being released back into the ocean. More exotic life can be found at the aquarium too, as the Gulf Stream will occasionally carry tropical fish north into Nantucket waters. In addition to maintaining the aquarium, the staff lead Marine Ecology Walks where participants can observe the feeding habits of nocturnal sea creatures or assist in the collection, identification, sorting, and counting of specimens. In the winter, marine scientists also lead excursions to Muskeget Island where the birthing of hundreds of Gray Seal pups can be witnessed.

Similarly, the Natural Science department operates a museum that features local flora and fauna. There you can learn about the research done on the island, including the tracking of a male Osprey through the use of a solar-powered GPS transmitter placed on the bird. Using information relayed by the device about the bird’s location, altitude, flight speed and direction, scientists monitored its progress on a flight to South America. In one month, the bird covered 4000 miles, about one eighth of the Earth’s circumference. The department also leads Nature and Bird Walks and hands-on workshops in which participants can take part in the scientific research of the association staff at various remote sites around the island.

A historical look at the island and its culture is provided at the Mitchell House and the Mitchell Schoolhouse, both operated by the association. The former was built in 1790 and documents Nantucket life in the 19th century, featuring family artifacts including Maria’s original Dolland telescope. The schoolhouse, where Maria’s father taught, is located next door and houses the association’s Archives and Special Collections. Here visitors can peruse Maria’s manuscripts, 19th century scientific books and journals, and original documents pertaining to the family and association.

A complete Mitchell-family experience of Nantucket must also include a visit to the Meridian Stones. These two stones, located downtown, long perplexed the island’s inhabitants. However, the MMA’s research uncovered the mysterious stones’ origin and purpose. Using astronomical calculations, Maria’s father erected the stones to represent the true geographic meridian, or north-south line. The stones were used to monitor variations of a quantity called “magnetic declination,” defined as the angle between the lines pointing to the true North pole and magnetic North pole. Since surveyors of the time used compasses (which measure direction relative to the magnetic poles), accurate determinations of the magnetic declination were necessary to create geographically correct maps.

The so-called “Mitchell Meridian Line” was one of the first of its kind in the country, preceding the court-mandated construction of similar instruments by three decades.

Socialite sisters Kim and Khloe Kardashian slap their stamp of approval on Quick Trim for a new commercial advertisement promoting the weight loss system.

“SEXY! U can see our QuickTrim commercial on QTdiet.com FIRST before it airs on TV!” Kim Tweeted just an hour ago.

Kim and Khloe are showing off their svelte new figures in the super-sexy new spot. Kim, 29, and Khloe, 25, appear on screen wearing buttoned-down white collared shirts before ending up poolside in bikinis.

“You can change the way you look…create the body you deserve,” a tantilizing Kim tells the audience.

These Klipsch LightSpeakers may be ugly as sin, but the idea of having speakers and LED lights in the same light bulb unit should appeal to haters of wires and unnecessary gadgetry.

The LED light bulb fits 5 and 6-inch light fixtures and is completely dimmable, meaning you can replace the usual bulbs you use with a set of these Klipsch ones, which will last for 40,000 hours apparently. Pipe music wirelessly through to the lights, which contain a 2.5-inch wide dispersion driver and uses up 20 watts. The LightSpeaker kit comes with a transmitter, which connects to a PC, CD player or iPod and sends the audio to up to eight of the light bulbs with two separate zones.

The two LightSpeakers, transmitter, remote and cables cost $599, with individual LightSpeakers on sale for $249 at the end of the month. [Klipsch via BusinessWire]

Tributes.com has just posted their 2009 Year in Review, Known for their Celebrity obituaries, as well as those for the lesser-known folks, Tributes does a great job of reminding us of those who’ve passed on.

In looking through the many prominent people who died during 2009, I note that many of these folks were my contemporaries, if not my “heroes” at some point in my life.

Yes… Life is a fleeting thing.

Check out Tributes’ 2009 Year in Review.

Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (PEI) ( PLA, PLAA) today announced that it named Matthew Doyle Playboy’s photo director.

Doyle will be responsible for the acquisition of photography for Playboy magazine as well as oversight for acquisition and quality judgment on all still photography for the corporation.

His position reports to Playboy founder, Editor-in-Chief and Chief Creative Officer Hugh M. Hefner and Playboy magazine’s Art Director Rob Wilson. He will be based at the company’s headquarters in Chicago.

“In our increasingly visual world, Matt understands the significance of exceptional photography and imagery for print media,” said Wilson.

“His experience with still life, advertising, celebrity, and documentary photography has developed his keen eye for compelling images.”

Doyle, 37, joins Playboy from Complex magazine, which he helped launch in 2001 and where he was photo director and chief photographer.

Prior to that, Doyle was engaged in freelance photography. He has worked creatively with many of the hottest stars of music, film, and fashion, and his photography has been featured in national magazines and advertising campaigns. He has over ten years of experience as a professional photographer.

“The pages of Playboy bring a modern visual style to readers that expect the highest quality images and editorial content,” said Jimmy Jellinek, editorial director of Playboy magazine and Playboy.com and chief content officer for PEI.

“Matt’s ardent sense of composition and style will complement Playboy’s aesthetic.”

“As a photographer and photo director, I have long admired the visual quality of Playboy,” said Doyle. “Under Hef’s guidance and with the creativity of Rob and Jimmy, Playboy has extraordinary visual appeal. I’ve been given a unique and wonderful opportunity to work with them and Playboy’s creative team to continue a long tradition of excellence.”

Doyle is a graduate of Bernard Baruch College with a degree in journalism.

About Playboy Enterprises, Inc.

Playboy is one of the most recognized and popular consumer brands in the world. Playboy Enterprises, Inc. is a media and lifestyle company that markets the brand through a wide range of media properties and licensing initiatives.

The company publishes Playboy magazine in the United States and abroad and creates content for distribution via television networks, websites, mobile platforms and radio.

Through licensing agreements, the Playboy brand appears on a wide range of consumer products in more than 150 countries as well as retail stores and entertainment venues.

Gungnir. Odin’s legendary spear and stuff of so many video games that have anything to do with a spear…or not. That’s exactly the name of the latest trademark spotted, filed by Atlus.
 
 
 

Filed under: CES, Technology, Kia

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas kicks off this week and the first major announcement from the automotive world comes from Kia in the form of its UVO (short for “your voice”) infotainment system.

Co-developed by Microsoft and based on the Windows Embedded Auto software, UVO is similar to Ford’s beloved SYNC system, offering users the ability to rip music from CDs and integrate an MP3 player, with a heavy focus on voice commands. Utilizing Microsoft’s next generation voice technology, two distinct profiles are stored in the system allowing users to access different elements of the UVO system through voice commands or through the 4.3-inch color touch screen. A back-up camera is also included in the setup, however, it appears that UVO won’t be available without the screen, unlike Ford’s system.

Although pricing has yet to be announced, UVO is set to launch on the 2011 Kia Sorento this summer and is expected to filter throughout Kia’s line-up over the coming year. Make the jump for the official release.

Continue reading Kia UVO details released, like SYNC circa 2008

Kia UVO details released, like SYNC circa 2008 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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