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Mobile-Review has spotted the Phillips D908 Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional smartphone. 

The device, which comes in at a chunky 14.8 mm, claims to have 1 GB RAM and 2 GM flash storage, and features a 3.2 inch WVGA touch screen display, GSM and CDMA/EV-DO connectivity, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, 5MP camera and MicroSD card support (up to 32GB). The specs appear on Microsoft’s Chinese website here.

The smartphone is expected to launch soon on China’s biggest network, China Telecom.

Via Unwiredview.com

The newest big thing in solar power is a set of solar panels so small that they could be mistaken for specks of glitter.

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have produced “microcells” that are thinner than a human hair, which are made from crystalline silicon and use 100 times less material to generate the same amount of electricity as standard solar cells made from 6-inch square solar wafers [Inhabitat].

What’s more, the tiny solar cells could be attached to flexible materials like plastic or cloth, letting inventors dream of a solar power tie that could recharge your cell phone, or a tent that could run electric lights at night.

Says lead researcher Greg Nielson: “With this technology, one can envision ubiquitous [solar-powered] devices.” … In the lab, these hexagonal microcells have achieved photovoltaic efficiencies of about 15 percent, denoting the percentage of light shone on them that is converted into harvestable electricity. High-end commercial-grade solar cells can reap about 20 percent currently, though Nielson thinks the microcells can more than match this [LiveScience].

Even though the tiny solar panels are made of relatively expensive silicon rather than the cheaper materials being used in emerging thin film solar technologies, researchers say that mass-production of the microcells should keep costs low.

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DISCOVER: Introducing the Most Efficient Solar Power in the World
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Image: Murat Okandan/Sandia National Laboratories

Filed under: Budget, Plants/Manufacturing, Hatchback, India, Tata

When you’re talking about the Tata Nano, you’re talking about the cheapest car in the world. And on the Subcontinent’s booming economy, lots of folks are looking for their first automobile. When we say “lots” we mean millions, maybe tens or even hundreds of millions. All of which would make the Nano a highly logical choice, sort of like when Americans couldn’t stop buying Ford’s Model T. Only thing is, old Hank Ford ensured that there was a very steady stream of cheap cars for people to buy. Tata appears to be struggling with a different approach.

As a result of slow deliveries, the Hindustan Times notes that 15% of Tata Nano orders placed so far have been canceled. To put that in perspective, just over 200,000 people have placed orders for the bare bones transportation device. Meaning slightly more than 30,000 people have canceled their orders. Unlike the Model T, India’s market is currently flooded with alternatives. Sure they cost more, but as one dealer points out, “People don’t mind shelling out a bit more to get their car immediately.” For their part, Tata is blaming capacity issues at its Pantnagar plant, but officials say they will deliver 100,000 cars by Q4 2010.

[Source: Hindustan Times]

REPORT: 15% of Tata Nano reservations being cancelled due to slow fill rate originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UK Conservatives say it was a “spectacular display of economic incompetence”.

Then Chancellor, Gordon Brown sold 400 tonnes of gold at historically low prices, and cost the country $10 billion.

The TimesOnline UK reports:

Brown sold the bulk of the Bank of England’s gold at an average price of $275 an ounce. Had he sold the metal this year, he would have raised $13.8 billion.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• If Gold Goes To $5000, John Paulson Could Become The Richest Man In The World
• How China Might Buy More Gold Than America Owns
• Look What Commodity Has Trounced Gold This Decade

by Auden Schendler

Most of us should be giving away more money. (Yes, you should be. If you have any doubt, please stop reading this blog and pick up Peter Singer’s book The Life You Can Save.) And many of us WANT to give but can’t pull the trigger for a host of reasons: basic cheapness (guilty!), a feeling that you don’t know where to give, a sense that most charities waste your money.

So I’m going to make it simple by telling you where you should give your money away. Or, more generously, I’m going to offer some good suggestions based on my own extensive vetting. Here goes:

Poverty

I work on climate change, but my wife and I give most of our philanthropic contributions to health and poverty causes because we feel obliged to keep people from dying and to make basic health care widely available. The two causes I give to are Partners in Health, a brilliant NGO whose philosophy is that allegedly “untreatable” health problems can be addressed effectively, even in poor settings. PIH works globally and rates at the top of the scale on all charity rating systems, including the extremely rigorous www.givewell.net. This group is so remarkable and deep in its thinking about poverty that it’s worth reading Tracy Kidder’s book Mountains Beyond Mountains, about the founder, Paul Farmer. (The book is worth getting even if you just want a good read, and don’t care about philanthropy at all.)  

My wife and I also give to a lesser known group at the University of San Francisco called FACES. The cool thing about FACES is that they aren’t just providing help on AIDS in Kenya, they are working with government agencies to make sure the services reach as many people as possible and are durable. This is a key element sometimes missing from anti-poverty groups.

Climate

I’ve worked closely on the ground with two groups that are rocking it on climate action. They are the CERES BICEP group (Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy) that is effectively bringing business leaders in to lobby for aggressive climate action. I also like and work with the folks at the NRDC climate program, who often help businesses leverage big opportunities on short notice. (We filed an Amicus Brief on Mass. V. EPA thanks to NRDC’s tip.)

Colorado and the West

If you live in or care about Colorado, and also care about environmental issues, you know that the state has recently gone from red to purple to blue. But that status is tenuous, and if Gov. Bill Ritter loses to the reactionary Scott McInnis in the gubernatorial election, we’ll see major reforms (like controls on natural gas drilling) wiped clean and key positions (like the Dept. of Health and Division of Natural Resources) filled by vastly less progressive individuals. We’ll also see an end to Colorado’s leadership on the clean energy economy. We can’t let that happen, and the best way to stop that is to support Colorado Conservation Voters. I recently joined the board of this group because I believe that most environmental causes in CO are toast without the right governance. And CCV is the group to ensure good government. They are small, smartly run, incredibly efficient with your dollars, and do a shocking amount of work on a surprisingly small budget.

I also give to High Country News which is the standard bearer for smart, independent journalism in the West. This is also a small group that uses money efficiently and is a vital cog in protecting the West’s environment. Full disclosure: I interned there 20 years ago and the experience has been paying dividends ever since.

Last note: One of the coolest new vetting tools for some NGOs is www.givewell.net, which uses the rigorous approach of hedge fund analysis to vet nonprofits. They only do a few groups, but it’s worth checking out their site. Happy giving!

Related Links:

Ask Umbra on judging greenness

Which green groups should get your last $100?

Top green stories of the ‘00s

Looks like one more Android-phone wanted to sneak onto the radar before 2009 was over, though we’re probably not going to hear much more about it until CES next week.

Spotted in the depths of Sprint’s inventory system, there’s only so much to be said about it thus far: it’s made by LG, it’s running Android, and the model number is the oh-so-non-descript LG LS680. Considering that just about every Android device in existent runs behind a touchscreen, that’s probably a safe bet; throw in some wishful thinking that it also has a physical QWERTY keyboard and, as PhoneArena points out, we might just be looking at a CDMA version of the LG GW620, pictured below.

[Source: BGR]

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Sustainable Power Corp. Board of Directors Appoints Michael Garjian as …CNNMoney.com (press release)… glass manufacture and fabrication, plasma physics, high energy electronics, alternative fuels, biofuel production, biofuels in transportation, ……

Cada vez la historia de Saab me recuerda más a la caída del MG-Rover y el renacimiento de la marca en China. Porque poco a poco se van conociendo más datos de la venta de tecnología de Saab a BAIC. Según cuentan desde Autoblog, BAIC creará una nueva fábrica para producir 100.000 unidades anuales de una nueva marca con la que venderá productos con base Saab.

La gama de la nueva marca contará de tres a cinco modelos que utilizarán plataformas suecas, porque recordemos que BAIC tiene tecnología del Saab 9-3 y las patentes completas de la anterior generación del Saab 9-5. Pero lo más curioso de la noticia es que BAIC también contará con los famosos motores sobrealimentados de Saab, sin duda toda una insignia de la marca sueca.

A estas alturas que no tenemos ninguna noticia más por parte de GM que confirme un cambio en la situación de Saab, me temo que es muy posible que acabe vendida a trozos, o incluso que estos modelos de BAIC puedan llegar a Europa porque dispondrían de una buena plataforma y unos buenos motores.

Vía | Autoblog en español

The media coverage spawned by the health-care overhaul has taken many forms, but one of the most popular vehicles — according to our less-than-scientific observation — has been that venerable journalism standby, the Q&A.

Editors love the question-and-answer format for offering up lots of factoids about complex data in bite-size chunks. Deliver it in a conversational, reader-friendly tone and you’ve got a winner, the thinking goes.

So in case you share a hankering for Q&A’s, here a sampling from the many we’ve seen lately on newspaper and other journalism sites. We’ve included the first question in each Q&A to provide a flavor of the topics covered:

LA Times: Why require everyone to buy insurance? Also: Would insurance companies still be able to offer abortion coverage?

Kaiser Health News: What are the biggest disputes [between the House and Senate over their approved bills]?

USA Today: What aspects of the health care legislation would be implemented right away?

Reuters: What does the Senate healthcare bill do?

WSJ: Would the law force me to buy health insurance?

BBC: How is the US healthcare system currently structured?

Image: iStockphoto

Another must-read for Martin Armstrong fans, this time tackling the question of Western Civilization and its future.

Via Nathan’s Economic Edge

Subtitled, “Has Western Society Come to an End?” Armstrong presents some key historical figures who believe that nations/ societies have life cycles. He then goes on to discuss how our country came into being and how “We are now coming up on the cyclical turning point for THE USA. It is either an opportunity to make an advance in civilization, or a collapse into self-interest and war. The choice is ours!”

Most who believe in economic cycles believe that we are destined to make the same types of errors as those who preceded us in history. In fact, much of Armstrong’s own writing counters his last sentence that “The choice is ours!” Everyone likes to believe they have some choice, some control, over events and indeed I believe that we do.

The Decline of the West–Has Western Society Come to an End 12!09

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Martin Armstrong: Wild Inflation Coming, New Highs For Gold And The Dow
• Amazing New Yorker Piece On Martin Armstrong
• Martin Armstrong Explains Why The Gold Standard Is Implausible And Useless

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There isn’t a mass exodus from Facebook over the privacy settings, but it is responding with messages like this sent to users to assuage their fears: “Worried about search engines? Your information is safe. There have been misleading rumors about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true…”

Several thoughtful Web 2.0 users have blogged about their decision in the last week to leave Facebook and two different “suicide” sites exist.

Sponsor

This guest post was written by Kaliya Hamlin, also known as Identity Woman, who has been working on cultivating open standards for user-centric identity since 2004. She co-founded, co-produces and facilitates the Internet Identity Workshop, the primary venue for collaboration on identity standards amongst large Internet portals, large enterprise IT companies and small innovators.

This thoughtful post written by Nick Barron, who is based in the Washington D.C. area, talks about meeting Facebook in college and falling in love and understanding this new form of communication in social networks would be transformative for people and business. He believed, “at the end of the day, that Facebook was here for you and me. It was our social network, and while technically being a large company, it was a company of people just like us who wanted a more advanced way of building and maintaining relationships.

“I feel there are no good alternatives for me, except going along with whatever scraps of privacy Facebook is graciously willing to hand me from their table… Facebook has me by the balls. They have you, too, and they know it. They know you have too many friends and family, photos and videos, games and other applications on Facebook for you to leave now. And where would you go? Where would I go?… I am not committed to Facebook anymore. I am looking for a way out, while still being able to do my job. Can a social media pro leave Facebook? We may soon find out.”

Others are more blunt:

“Simply put, I don’t trust my information being on Facebook anymore. I have deleted the Facebook app from my iPhone and I will shut down the page in about a week.” I’m Leaving Facebook by Steve Scherer.

“I am not a privacy hawk, nor a fear-monger, nor a neo-luddite; in fact, those of you who know me well know that I am a technology enthusiast and a generally a booster of any technology related solutions that could potentially make our lives easier.

In this instance I’m morally and intellectually opposed to Facebook’s cavalier attitude with what amounts to, for some of us, data that relates to a significant portion of our (online) lives.

See also: Why Facebook Changed Its Privacy Policies

A visit to the privacy settings pages and FAQs reveals a great many soothing platitudes. While these may fulfil their legal obligations it is ultimately disingenuous for Facebook to suggest that anyone actually reads any of these when in reality the vast majority of users likely accept the default “Everyone” setting. ““Why I’m Hitting the “Delete” Key on Facebook” by Narain Jashanmal.

Early adopter and tech journalist Dan Gilmor is among those who have committed “suicide.” He started a new account with his old Facebook URL and checked out the new default privacy settings that he describes as “un-private.” He highlights the conflict as, “What’s in the corporate interest, however, doesn’t necessarily match what’s in my interest, or yours.”

If you want to commit “Facebook suicide” you have two options. One is Seppukoo.com, which likens the act of killing your digital self to:

Discover what’s after your Facebook life. We assist your virtual suicide.

You are more then your virtual identity. Pass away and leave your ID behind.

Seppukwho? Testimonials and Frinds. Discover who has committed seppukoo.

Impress your friends, disconnect yourself. Join the world wide suicidal network.

The site was created by Les Liens Invisibles, which creates playful 2.0-style media artworks. Two people make up this imaginary art group, Clemente Pestelli and Gionatan Quintini. You can see Gionatan’s RIP memorial on the site; it highlights friends that have joined him in the Facebook afterlife along with those still left.

The process works like this: 1) you give the site your login credentials, 2) you create last works and a skin for your customized memorial page, 3) you enjoy your Sepppukoo – the platform will send all your friends your last words and customize your memorial page – and 4) you get a score – every friend you convince to Seuppukoo will increase your score on the site.

This version of Facebook suicide is not permanent – you can just login to Facebook.

Sepppukoo does have a cease and desist from Facebook, although dated Dec. 16. One of the main points is that they “collect Facebook’s users’ content or information using automated means such as scripts or scrapers without Facebook’s permission”

The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine offers “suicide” for Facebook, Myspace and Linkedin. It highlights its time saving nature taking just under one hour vs. over nine hours to go through the process manually with 1,000 Facebook friends.

The tool lets you watch your “virtual suicide” as it happens.

They have 134 people they say have committed suicide using their tools. You can see the list along with their last words and how many friends they lost.

You can see a video by Moddr_ of it in action. “Liberate your newbie friends with a Web2.0 suicide! This machine lets you delete all your energy sucking social-networking profiles, kill your fake virtual friends, and completely do away with your Web 2.0 alterego.” He say in the video, “my interent life is dying and my real life is starting,” and closes with” Get your life back – sign-out forever”

Their FAQs are great.

If I start killing my 2.0-self, can I stop the process? No!

If I start killing my 2.0-self, can YOU stop the process? No!

What shall I do after I’ve killed myself with the Web 2.0 suicide machine? Try calling some friends, talk a walk in a park or buy a bottle of wine and start enjoying your real life again. Some Social Suiciders reported that their life has improved by an approximate average of 25%. Don’t worry, if you feel empty right after you committed suicide. This is a normal reaction which will slowly fade away within the first 24-72 hours.

Why do we think the Web 2.0 suicide machine is not unethical? Everyone should have the right to disconnect. Seamless connectivity and rich social experience offered by web2.0 companies are the very antithesis of human freedom. Users are entraped in a high resolution panoptic prison without walls, accessible from anywhere in the world.

Whatever you think about the bleak humor of a Facebook “suicide, those who’ve left – or are thinking about leaving – are talking about their decision in terms of freedom.

“I made the decision yesterday to ditch Facebook. Their privacy options are too intrusive. Glad twitter isn’t like that.” @ReetaLuthra

“I actually feel more wholesome after leaving Facebook. I didn’t expect that.” @sansian

“I think it’s the feeling of loss of control that I don’t like, that something is set in such a way that I can’t reset it myself, and thus info is getting out/posted online/is otherwise being used in such a way that I don’t want. I’ll have to think about it… I’m just tempted to take what seems to be the path of least resistance and just ditch Facebook entirely. I’ll have to think about it… “Considering Leaving Facebook

We even found a Muslim perspective (translation) on the virtues of leaving the virtual world for the real world.

This recently popped up: Facebook is hiring for its Advertising Privacy Counsel to work on a “cross-section of fascinating legal issues”. I am wondering if maybe they should have done more hiring before they changed privacy policies, which may have broken the law and and has lead the Electronic Privacy Information Center to file a complaint with the FTC.

Face book photo by Massimo Barbieri.

Discuss

IBM CEO Sam Palmisano had some questions of his own in response to a question by a Barron’s writer about Google in the enterprise.

The quote appears in a Barron’s story about IBM’s comeback. The actual story requires a subscription to view. Here is what Palmisano had to say:

“Is Google going to become the computing platform for the enterprise? Is a bank going to run itself on Google? Is an airline going to run itself on Google? Is IBM going to run its supply chain on Google? Is Bharti Wireless going to run themselves on Google? Is the banking system of China that we’ve built going to be on Google? Is the Russian Central Bank that we’re building going to be on Google? No.”

Sponsor

It’s often perceived that a threat really is a threat when a smaller competitor is acknowledged by a much bigger rival. Is that the case, here? Palmisano does appear to infer that Google is not up to the task of handling the work required of major operations. By making the comment, it opens up questions about how much of a threat IBM sees in Google.

There is no doubt that Google has made noteworthy strides in developing an enterprise suite of products. And why would a company like an airline not consider Google? Of course, Google does not offer the technology to perform core transactional task or much less in-flight software. But day-to-day office tasks can well be handled with Google applications.

Google does not pose any threat to IBM. Google dominance is not at hand. But Palmisano does appear to acknowledge that Google has a place at the table.

Discuss

Filed under: Hybrid, Government/Legal, Technology, Mazda

Are there any among us that wouldn’t prefer a meaningful boost in fuel mileage from our current car or truck, all other things being equal? Sure. And the good news is that there are a couple of easy ways to achieve that laudable goal, starting with adding stop/start technology to the car’s powerplant.

In case you’re not familiar with the fuel-saving tech, we’re basically just talking about automatically shutting off the engine when it’s not needed, which requires little more than some computer controls along with a slightly more powerful battery and starter motor (though some systems are admittedly more complex). Not exactly rocket science, but at an estimated cost of $500 per vehicle, it does cost a rather substantial amount. Either way, it does sound pretty intriguing, right? So, why don’t we see more of these cars in the States?

You can add head Mazda engineer Robert Davis to the list of those who think stop/start should spread throughout the States and according to Automotive News, and he’s got a theory as to why it hasn’t: the Environmental Protection Agency’s fuel economy testing procedures. Naturally, an engine needs a chance to idle for the stop/start-equipped car’s computer to switch it off, and the EPA’s current test cycle only allows that to happen one single time.

We don’t know about you… but our city driving patterns usually include way more than one single stop. By way of comparison, the Japanese city cycle is programmed to allow the engine to idle much more and cars with stop/start technology boast a significant mileage improvement – from seven to nine percent, according to Davis. Besides, most of the start/stop systems we’ve sampled on foreign-market cars include an override button for those who find the technology objectionable.

So, if there’s a problem with the way the technology jibes with the government’s testing methodology, what’s the solution? The EPA is currently accepting public comment and is seeking input on how to modify its fuel mileage testing procedures. Davis is calling for an “industry wide” agreement on a procedure that would help highlight the benefits of stop/start technology. Is that the right direction to go? Feel free to sound off in the comments.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]

REPORT: Stop-start tech saves fuel, so why can’t we get it in the States? Blame the EPA originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So-called socially responsible funds may actually be higher risk than their plain vanilla brethren. According to the firm Audit Integrity, if you take two socially responsible funds as an example it appears that their ‘socially responsible’ holdings contain companies who practice some pretty risky companies from an aggressive accounting or corporate governance perspective.

For the Domini Social Equity Fund and the FTSE KLD 400 Social Index, 50% of their holdings have been ranked as ‘Very Aggressive’ by Audit Integrity’s metrics, as shown below.

 

This is a pretty substantial shift in governance risk when compared to Audit Integrity’s entire universe of stocks under coverage, for which only 9% are bad enough to receive ‘Very Aggressive’ ratings. 

Obviously any such accounting or corporate governance ratings system is only as good as the methods employed. Maybe one has to look closer at how Audit Integrity actually scores companies. Yet given the wide divergence between the two charts above, the relationship likely still stands even after accommodating some room for error.

The larger question we feel is why some socially responsible funds might inadvertently be exposing investors to higher governance risk. Perhaps it’s because the socially responsible label makes people less skeptical. Or perhaps socially responsible funds are less diligent in checking companies beyond their standard social criteria. Yet you’d expect that good governance was part of being a socially responsible investment. Thus our message is that socially responsible investing, as a label, might be pretty misleading.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Socially Responsible Fund Outperforming The S&P
• "Better" Corporate Governance Made Banks Riskier
• Good Corporate Governance, Bad Results In Latest Crash

Earlier, I noted that the Federal Reserve’s decision to stop purchasing mortgage-backed securities (MBS) should cause an increase in mortgage rates. But that won’t be the only thing driving up long-term rates: the Treasury’s trouble going forward in selling debt will also contribute to higher mortgage rates, according to a Morgan Stanley economist. Here’s what he says, via Bloomberg:

Yields on benchmark 10-year notes will climb about 40 percent to 5.5 percent, the biggest annual increase since 1999, according to David Greenlaw, chief fixed-income economist at Morgan Stanley in New York. The surge will push interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages to 7.5 percent to 8 percent, almost the highest in a decade, Greenlaw said.

Yikes! Those are some pretty high mortgage rates — and much higher than we’re used to seeing over the past several years. They should cut significantly into the demand for refinancing and even new home purchases. Rates like that could also worsen the foreclosures crisis, as many adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) have benefited from historically low interest rates. Once they adjust to near, or over, double-digits, many more homeowners with ARMs will be force to fold.

The cause of this increase in mortgage rates comes from what this economist believes will be a higher yield demanded for government Treasury securities. Those are generally considered risk-free rates, so any mortgage bearing a similar long-term coupon will consist of its default risk premium added to that risk-free rate.

Bloomberg explains that the government debt will become more expensive because of both supply and demand:

The U.S. will face increased competition from other debt issuers, spurring investors to demand higher yields as the Federal Reserve ends a $1.6 trillion asset-purchase program, according to James Caron, head of U.S. interest-rate strategy in New York at Morgan Stanley. The central bank was the largest purchaser of Treasuries in 2009 through a $300 billion buyback of the securities completed in October.

The Treasury will sell a record $2.55 trillion of notes and bonds in 2010, an increase of about $700 billion, or 38 percent, from this year, Morgan Stanley estimates. Caron says total dollar-denominated debt issuance will rise by $2.2 trillion in the next 12 months as corporate and municipal debt sales climb.

So in addition to the pressure that I mentioned earlier stemming from the Fed’s departure from the MBS market, the broader investment community will likely drive rates higher on long-term debt as well. While bad news for the housing market, this is probably good news for sensible investing.

Dear major record labels: when we suggested you learn how to embrace “free” in your marketing and promotions, this isn’t quite what we meant. Consumerist points out that Interscope (part of Universal Music) has put together a promotion with Best Buy, whereby if you buy a CD from certain Interscope artists, you get a free copy of the software Tweetdeck. Well, that’s nice… other than the fact that Tweetdeck is already free. Great deal! Now, to be fair, the copy of Tweetdeck you get is a special “customized” version that automatically has you following 16 Interscope artists (even if you only bought a CD from one of them). Of course, you could also just follow any of those artists yourself (again, for free), so it’s not quite clear what the promotion is. But, they sure seem to suggest it’s a big deal in the Best Buy newspaper ad:

Now, I guess, to some extent, we should note that it’s a good thing that a major record label is admitting publicly that “free” can act as a good promotion — so kudos to Interscope for taking that big step. It’s also nice to see Interscope recognize that an infinite good (software) can potentially help sell more scarce goods (CDs). But, on the whole, it definitely seems like this promotion could have been handled a lot better. Pumping up the “free” aspect of something that’s already free just doesn’t seem that compelling.

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It has definitely been a year full of scandals, splits, sudden celebrity deaths and scintillating news stories. Parade.com polled the American public on what they felt were the top headlines of 2009.

George Clooney beat out his buddy Brad Pitt by a wide margin (56 percent to 16 percent) in the category of what celebrity would you choose to kiss under the mistletoe. Jennifer Aniston defeated her ex-husband’s current lover, Angelina Jolie (50 percent to 24 percent). Other celebs voters wanted to kiss include Bradley Cooper (10 percent) and Robert Pattinson (8 percent); Beyoncé (13 percent) and Rihanna (7 percent).

For a complete list of winners, visit Parade.com.

Filed under: Technology, Videos, Toys/Games

Are you starting to wonder if Gran Turismo 5 is ever going to see the light of day? We are, but at the very least we understand why it is taking Polyphony Digital over five years to release the latest edition of its standard-setting racing series. Every video we see shows more detail, more tracks and greater diversity of motoring types. The newest video comes courtesy of the Asia Gaming Expo 2009 show, and it provides a glimpse at some of the many race tracks coming our way when GT5 finally graces us with its presence.

Hit the jump to watch some pretty amazing footage that was unfortunately shot by a consumer grade-camera capturing images via projection. Most of the 1:45 video isn’t in-game footage, but it does show some pretty amazing new courses and some breathtaking rally shots. There is footage from Madrid, Rome, Indianapolis and Tsukuba, plus NASCAR, Super GT and more. Among the shots that make this video worth the watch is footage of a race at the airport that features a large passenger jet following close behind a pair of LeMans racers. Wow. The video is bad and the audio cuts off after about 30 seconds, but if you’re dying to get your hands on GT 5 we’re sure you’ll click through to watch the video. Thanks for the tips, everyone!

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading VIDEO: New Gran Turismo 5 trailer confirms new courses, general awesomeness

VIDEO: New Gran Turismo 5 trailer confirms new courses, general awesomeness originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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