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A year ago Apple launched iWork.com in beta, which allowed users of their office suite of applications to publish documents online. It’s a light feature set compared to Google Docs and Office 10 – just viewing and commenting. But a job posting suggests Apple may be creating a true collaborative cloud based version of the iWork apps.

The job posting popped up on CrunchBoard on December 22. Apple is looking for a mid level engineer to “be part of the core development team” and “engage in an area from design to development” of a new javascript rich internet application for the iWork team:

The Productivity team (i.e. iWork) is seeking an energetic, highly motivated software engineer in building a scalable rich internet application. The person will be part of the core development team and engage in an area from design to development of the software system.

Besides exceptional programming skills and devotion to creating great software, we look for one or more of the following kinds of expertise or experience:

• JavaScript language and browser technology – understanding from inside-out, or
• Computer graphics – the mathematics, algorithms and programming, or
• Experience developing scalable rich internet application, or
• Experience developing presentation/collaboration or word processing projects

BS or better in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering

Apple has job postings all the time. But what caught our eye on this one is the language around building an application, from design to development. That suggests something different than just joining the existing team. Apple is putting together a whole new team, for a new project, and they need outside expertise.

Want the job? Apply here.

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If you’re on the hunt for a new job, check out our CrunchBoard. We’ve added nearly 50 new jobs from leading internet businesses in the last two weeks, including three jobs here at TechCrunch. Here’s a quick sample:

• Conferences & Events Producer
  TechCrunch – Palo Alto, CA

• Director of Technology
  Dictionary.com – Oakland, CA

• Senior Product Manager
  Playdom – Mountain View, CA

• Senior Product Manager
  GetGlue.com – New York, NY

• Rockstar Senior PHP Developer
  KickApps – San Francisco, CA

As Mike just noted as well, Apple has also posted a job posting for their iWork team.

Also, don’t forget that we’re looking for a Conferences & Events Producer, Account Executive and CrunchBase interns here at TechCrunch!

For job hunters in Europe, check out our Europe CrunchBoard.

Click here to see all the jobs on CrunchBoard.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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L-am vazut de cateva ori.De fiecare data cand il vad,imi place mai mult.Nu are un subiect complex. Cu toate astea,simplitatea lui creaza tot farmecul.
“O cosmeticiana din America (Fran Drescher) este din greseala luata drept profesor academician, de reprezentantul unui dictator est european (Timothy Dalton). In urma confuziei, ea este rugata sa devina meditatorul particular al copiilor dictatorului. In timpul sederii sale, tanara incearca sa schimbe mentalitatea tuturor locuitorilor tarii.”

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This week ReadWriteWeb will run a series of posts detailing what we think are the five biggest, most cutting-edge Web trends to come out of 2009. We’ll be posting one trend analysis per day. Then at the end of the week we’ll publish a major update to our standard presentation about web technology trends.

The first major Web trend we’re looking at is Structured Data. In prior presentations, this has sometimes been referred to under the umbrella term of ‘Semantic Web’. However the way 2009 has panned out so far, it’s become clear that this trend is much more than the Semantic Web. In this post, we’ll analyze the developments in Structured Data this year and provide you with 3 product examples: OpenCalais, Google, Wolfram Alpha.

Sponsor

Editor’s note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we’ll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year – and ahead to what next year holds – we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It’s not just a best-of list, it’s also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb!

Web of Data, Not Documents

Tim Berners-Lee said in February this year that we’re now in a Web of Data, rather than a Web of Documents. The organization that Berners-Lee heads, the W3C, has heavily promoted two key initiatives that are helping to build this Web of Data: the Semantic Web and more recently Linked Data.

However over the past few years, we’ve seen that there are many other ways to structure data and enable others to build off it. The best current example is surely Twitter, whose API has historically been responsible for around 90% of Twitter’s activity – via third party apps.

The basic principle of the Web of Data is still the same as what Alex Iskold articulated on ReadWriteWeb back in March 2007: “unstructured information will give way to structured information – paving the road to more intelligent computing.”

Example 1: OpenCalais

Our first example product, OpenCalais, is probably the best current example of Linked Data (which is a type of structured data endorsed by W3C). Thomson Reuters, the international business and financial news giant, launched an API called OpenCalais in Feb ’08. In a nutshell, OpenCalais turns unstructured HTML into semantically marked up data. It orders data into groups such as ‘people,’ ‘places,’ ‘companies’ and more. This way, third party applications and sites can build interesting new things from that data – one of the defining principles of Linked Data.

For a full explanation of Linked Data, read Alexander Korth’s technical introduction The Web of Data: Creating Machine-Accessible Information from April 2009. I also explained the background and benefits of Linked Data in a May ’09 post entitled Linked Data is Blooming: Why You Should Care.

Example 2: Google Rich Snippets

In May this year, Google added structured data to its core search, in the form of a feature called ‘Rich snippets.’ Essentially this feature extracts and shows useful information from web pages, by way of structured data open standards such as microformats and RDFa. On launch in May, Google invited publishers to mark up their HTML. While it will take a while for this markup to become widespread, the fact that a huge company like Google implemented it shows the increasing importance of structured data on the Web.

Other big companies are also heading in this direction – in particular, Yahoo was an early leader.

Example 3: Wolfram Alpha

Ever since Wolfram|Alpha‘s much hyped launch in May, we’ve been tracking this innovative product closely. It’s a self-described “computational knowledge engine” and while it’s not quite the Google killer some predicted, it has many potential uses.

Wolfram|Alpha has a search engine-like interface, allowing you to type natural language statements into it. But the main part of the product is the computations you can do on data. The product is premised on using and computing data. If Web 2.0 was about creating data (a.k.a. user generated content), then the next generation of the Web is all about using that data.

Conclusion

We can see from the above three examples that structured data is rapidly becoming a feature of today’s Web. Companies like Thomson Reuters and Google are enabling data to be structured, and new types of products (like Wolfram|Alpha) will make use of structured data in ways we perhaps can’t imagine right now.

ReadWriteWeb’s Top 5 Web Trends of 2009:

1. Structured Data
2. The Real-Time Web
3. Personalization
4. Mobile Web & Augmented Reality
5. Internet of Things

Discuss

So, what did Santa bring you this year?

Yay! Measles!

Image credit: Ironically, ABC Family.

Filed under: Peripherals, Features, Bluetooth, iPhone, iPod touch, Jailbreak/pwnage

A few days ago, the BTStack keyboard package was released to Cydia. This package, which we posted about recently, allows owners of jailbroken iPhones to use a Bluetooth keyboard with their iPhone 3G or 3GS, or 2nd generation or later iPod touch. The package is available for US$5.00 from Cydia.

Since the iPhone was first introduced, there have been efforts to bring support for external accessories. The iPhone 3.0 external accessory framework allowing accessories that connect to the universal dock connector or use Bluetooth has been closed, and only a few companies have developed accessories using the framework. The BTStack project by Matthias Ringwald offers a more complete and open Bluetooth stack for jailbroken iPhones. The stack has even been used with an iPhone and a Wii Remote over Bluetooth. To use a Bluetooth keyboard for quick and easy data entry into your iPhone, you’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone, which can be done with an application like blackra1n.

Read on to find how I set up my iPhone to use the Apple Wireless Keyboard, and how it works with the iPhone.

A few days ago, the BTStack keyboard package was released to Cydia. This package, which we posted about recently, allows owners of jailbroken iPhones to use a Bluetooth keyboard with their iPhone 3G or 3GS, or 2nd generation or later iPod touch. The package is available for US$5.00 from Cydia.

Since the iPhone was first introduced, there have been efforts to bring support for external accessories. The iPhone 3.0 external accessory framework allowing accessories that connect to the universal dock connector or use Bluetooth has been closed, and only a few companies have developed accessories using the framework. The BTStack project by Matthias Ringwald offers a more complete and open Bluetooth stack for jailbroken iPhones. The stack has even been used with an iPhone and a Wii Remote over Bluetooth. To use a Bluetooth keyboard for quick and easy data entry into your iPhone, you’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone, which can be done with an application like blackra1n.

Read on to find how I set up my iPhone to use the Apple Wireless Keyboard, and how it works with the iPhone.

TUAWUsing a Wireless Keyboard with an iPhone using BTstack Keyboard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By ANDREW BARY | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

A PESSIMISTIC BUSINESS FORECAST BY THE management of Burlington Northern Santa Fe as the railroad considered Berkshire Hathaway‘s merger proposal in late October may mean U.S. industrial activity will be less robust in 2010 than many on Wall Street anticipate.

Railroads, which transport more than 40% of the country’s freight, are an excellent gauge of economic activity. If Burlington’s (ticker: BNI) outlook proves accurate, the nation’s other major railroads — CSX (CSX), Norfolk Southern (NSC) and Union Pacific (UNP) — also could see subpar results. Shares of all three have rallied since Burlington’s Nov. 3 announcement of its acceptance of Berkshire’s (BRKA) $34 billion proposal.

After Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett made what proved to be a successful $100-a-share bid to Burlington CEO Matthew Rose, Burlington management sent the railroad’s board four potential financial scenarios to consider as it weighed Buffett’s proposal. The most optimistic — that Burlington could earn $5.06 a share if the economy and the company’s business recover in 2010 — was at odds with Wall Street’s far more upbeat 2010 consensus earnings estimate of $5.50 a share, according to the preliminary proxy for the merger.

Management thought it more likely the economy wouldn’t start to recover until 2011 and that the railroad would earn a depressed $4.40 a share in 2010. The other two scenarios were even more bearish: Either there would be no recovery and unit growth would be flat for five years, or the economy would enter a “deeper recession.”

These forecasts suggest Berkshire overpaid for Burlington. Wall Street thinks Buffett paid a full but not excessive price, especially as 40% of the deal price will be paid in Berkshire shares.

At 99,000 each, Berkshire’s Class A shares are little changed since the merger was announced Oct. 23. The stock is up 2% this year and trades for 1.2 times our estimate of year-end 2009 book value of $84,000 a share, below an average multiple of 1.6 times book in the past decade.

Berkshire looks attractive, given its low valuation and the company’s enhanced earnings power, which stems from several well-timed investments Buffett made during the financial crisis, including stakes in preferred stock and warrants of Goldman Sachs and General Electric.

IF BERKSHIRE IS UNDERVALUED, Burlington holders are getting a particularly good deal. The Burlington board’s quick approval of the transaction suggests it believed Buffett is paying a full price. Besides, the board determined it had few other options; a merger with another big railroad would have raised antitrust issues. It was told private-equity buyers were unlikely to bid because of the difficulty of financing such as a large purchase.

Burlington is an atypical Berkshire acquisition because it doesn’t generate a lot of free cash flow, owing to the costs associated with maintaining its large rail network. The company spent $3 billion last year on locomotives and other capital equipment, more than double its depreciation expense. Burlington shares now trade at 98.40, a slight discount to Berkshire’s purchase price. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010.

Buffett takes a long view and he called the Burlington deal an “all-in wager on the economic future of the United States.” It also bespeaks his confidence in the American West. Burlington and Union Pacific are the dominant rail carriers west of the Mississippi, with Burlington a major hauler of coal from the Powder River basin of Wyoming and Montana. It’s also a big carrier of agricultural commodities.

WALL STREET IS PLAYING DOWN the importance of Burlington management’s bearish 2010 forecast.

“We believe the Burlington board is probably conservative in its approach and economic outlook, which would encourage management to provide scenarios that are also somewhat muted,” wrote JPMorgan railroad analyst Thomas Wadewitz in a report titled “Thoughts on BNI’s proxy: Were 2010 Scenarios Conservative or Cause for Concern?” Wadewitz thinks Burlington’s forecasts “may not provide a good read for other railroads.”

Burlington and other major railroads report weekly car loadings, and Burlington’s performance has been the worst of the bunch in recent months. Its shipment volume is down 14% in the fourth quarter, against a 7% drop for Union Pacific. Coal traffic, which accounts for about a quarter of Burlington’s revenue, has been weak because utilities, the major coal consumers, recently were sitting with 77 days of supply, compared with a normal level of 45 days at this time of year.

“There is no V-shaped recovery at this point. The recovery is shallow,” Dan Keen, the assistant vice president of policy analysis with the Association of American Railroads, said in our D.C. Current column last week.

At a time when major market indexes are at or near 2009 highs and valuations on many industrial stocks are signaling a significant recovery, the cautious view of Burlington’s management is worth heeding. It could mean 2010 will be tougher for the markets and the economy than Wall Street expects.

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It’s pretty simple: Apple’s iPhone OS is basically the only major smartphone operating system without an official or unofficial Google Voice client. We used to have GV Mobile and VoiceCentral, but as we all know, those were abruptly removed from the App Store and even Google’s official client was turned away. Well, at least Apple didn’t Amazon your iPhone and take away the Google Voice applications you already bought/downloaded, right? They might as well have as GV Mobile was rendered useless after a Google Voice-side update, and with no way of updating existing user’s applications, anyone who had been a GV Mobile user up until that point in time was out of luck.

GV Mobile is now available for jailbroken iPhone devices for free, but there’s something better coming up… GV Mobile 2.0. We’re really excited to tell you about it, too. It has been polished and refined — it had an injection of features — and we love using it, even in its non-final and beta form. For starters, dialed calls connect almost instantly, your iPhone contacts and favorites are accessible right within the app, there’s voicemail transcription viewing, and even multiple Google Voice account support. Advanced features like call forwarding phones, do not disturb settings as well automatic syncing, and even Growl support are on the to-do list, but for now, we’re just happy to have GV Mobile back on our non-jailbroken iPhone. Hopefully Apple reverses course and lets this version through their pearly gates when it is finished, though we wouldn’t bet the farm on it. Couple application shots after the break!

Super shout out to Sean Kovacs for hooking us up!

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Filed under: Chrysler, Fiat, Lancia

Another morsel to come out of Fiat’s 2-year plan is the short term product plan for Lancia, a brand that the parent company has been accused of neglecting for quite a while. In addition to the usual refreshes and facelifts, the truly juicy bit is that Fiat plans 17 new vehicles over the next two years, and Chrysler platforms will provide the basis for four Lancias.

Next month’s Detroit Auto Show is expected to host the first “new” Chrysler product: a rebadged Lancia Delta. An SUV is expected to follow sometime next year, then a midsize sedan and convertible, a luxury sedan, and a minivan in 2011. The real meat that we’re still missing is how these vehicles will really be created. How much of the initiative will be badge engineering, and how much will be genuine, clean-sheet engineering.

Fiat wants Chrysler’s global sales to more than double by 2014, to 2.8 million. If that number is accurate, that would mean Sergio Marchionne expects Chrysler to account for more than half of his targeted five million global sales for the entire Fiat Group by 2014 — and that group just grew thanks to Fiat’s swallowing up Zastava. Marchionne is said to be thinking about a successor because he “can’t work 24/7 forever.” With plans like these, we can’t imagine he’ll be sleeping or stepping aside any time soon.

[Source: Carscoop via GM Inside News]

Lancia’s near future to be built on Chrysler platforms originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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December 26, 9:20 Bill Freehling

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett will lend his star power to help promote his friend Hank Paulson’s upcoming book “On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System“

Paulson, the former U.S. treasury secretary, is set to release his book about the financial events of last fall on Feb. 1. The full title is “On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System.”

Buffett is a good friend of Paulson’s from the latter’s days at Goldman Sachs. The two communicated frequently during last year’s crisis, Andrew Ross Sorkin shows in his excellent book about the crisis, “Too Big to Fail.”

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Buffett will appear with Paulson at a Feb. 9 event in Omaha sponsored by the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

The two men will talk about the economy and take questions. Paulson will talk about the book.

The meeting is less than a week after Paulson’s book is set to be released and is sure to draw ample publicity that should help with sales of “On the Brink.”

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Your post-Christmas update looks at the Blazers’ backcourt and updates injuries for Camby, Billups, KG, Tyrus, and Artest among others.

• The Jerryd Bayless(notes) roller coaster continued Friday, as he followed up
31 points in 42 minutes on Wednesday with eight points on 2-of-10
shooting in 30 minutes on Christmas Day. It wasn’t all negative,
however, as he also had seven assists and played the entire fourth quarter
in an impressive 107-96 win over the Nuggets. Bayless’ promotion within
the rotation has coincided with the team winning six of seven games,
but his overall numbers haven’t exactly been stellar for fantasy
purposes – in the seven games, he’s averaged 15.3 points on 39-percent
shooting, 1 three, 80 percent foul shooting (6.4 FTA), 2.4 boards, 3.6
assists, 1.4 turnovers, and 0.3 steals in 28 minutes. With that said,
he’s certainly worth rostering in most formats in the event that he can
get his shot to fall more consistently.

By necessity (thanks to injuries), the Blazers have been utilizing a small lineup in recent games, meaning Bayless, Andre Miller(notes), and Steve Blake(notes) have all been seeing around 30 minutes per game. Miller’s averages over
the past seven games include 27 minutes, 10.9 points on 38-percent
shooting, 84-percent foul shooting, 2 boards, 4 assists, 1.1 turnovers,
and 0.9 steals. Blake’s include 28 minutes, 8.7 points on
50-percent shooting, 2.3 threes, 2 boards, 2.4 assists, 0.9 turnovers,
and 0.6 steals. Miller isn’t likely to get demoted any time soon, but he’s also not likely to take back many fourth quarter minutes from Bayless or Blake. A trade seems like the path of least resistance in terms of helping everyone’s fantasy impacts, but there are only so many teams that need a veteran point guard (signed through next season at ~$7M per) and only so many centers available. Brad Miller(notes) seems like a great option, but his salary ($12.3M) and the Bulls having little use for Miller would necessitate a third team getting involved.

• Marcus Camby(notes) played only 10 minutes Friday because of his sore left knee. He hyper-extended it on Tuesday and tried to give it a go despite some lingering soreness and swelling, and he’ll have an MRI Saturday to determine the specifics of the injury. There’s a decent chance he’ll be out for at least Sunday’s game (BOS), and Craig Smith(notes) would likely be the recipient of surplus run for however long Camby would be out.

• Chauncey Billups(notes) played 20 minutes – all in the first half – in his return from a groin injury Friday. He had no setbacks and his not playing in the second half of the 107-96 loss was strictly precautionary, as the team has a set of back-to-backs on Sunday/Monday (DAL, @SAC).

• Kevin Garnett(notes) left Friday’s game late in the fourth quarter after a hard fall to the floor. He’ll be checked by the team before they travel for Sunday’s game (@LAC), but KG said he could have re-entered the game if it were necessary and a headache is expected to be the worst of it.

• Leandro Barbosa(notes) returned Friday, after nearly a month off because of an ankle sprain, and scored 12 points in 21 minutes during the 124-93 blowout of the Clippers. What remains to be seen is how the minutes break down for the Suns’ reserves with Barbosa back in the mix and if Barbosa can get enough consistent run to warrant universal ownership (he’s currently at 60%). Goran Dragic(notes) has performed admirably while Barbosa has missed time (19 minutes, 47% FG, 41% 3PT in December) and Jared Dudley(notes) has been very solid all season (24 minutes, 9.1 points, 50% 3PT).

• Two notes for the Bulls on Saturday: Tyrus Thomas(notes) was a full participant in practice Thursday and is expected to return to the active roster. His minutes will come from Brad Miller and Taj Gibson(notes), although he’ll need some time to get back to game shape … Kirk Hinrich(notes) will replace John Salmons(notes) as the starting shooting guard for at least Saturday’s game, in an effort to provide some kind of spark to the 10-17 Bulls. The move should mean a few less minutes for Salmons, but it won’t exactly hurt his fantasy impact if it helps him get untracked (38% FG). Hinrich has also struggled (36% FG, 70% FT) and should be monitored in the event that the move is mutually beneficial.

• Ron Artest(notes) suffered injuries to his head and left elbow after tripping and falling down a flight of stairs at his home on Friday night. He won’t be in the lineup Saturday and we should have a specific update regarding his further availability by Sunday morning.

• Tracy McGrady(notes) won’t play in either of the Rockets’ back-to-back games this weekend (Saturday @NJN, Sunday @CLE), with team general manager Daryl Morey saying it was because "Tracy didn’t feel like this is working in terms of working him back in" and adding that they’ll try to work with McGrady in terms of "what’s next" once the team returns to Houston. It’s no coincidence that the move comes on the heels of T-Mac saying his minutes need to increase "over the next couple of games." What is fairly obvious is that the team has no interest in his taking on a role of any significance at any time, but what remains to be seen is if there is a trade opportunity out there or if the team would consider a buyout.

• Ryan Gomes(notes) will return to the active roster for the T-Wolves Saturday, after missing six games with a high ankle sprain. In seven games prior to the injury, Gomes averaged 20.3 points on 59-percent shooting, 1.2 threes, 93-percent foul shooting, 4.8 boards, and 1.6 steals-plus-blocks in 35 minutes.

• Both Andris Biedrins(notes) (groin/abdomen) and Ronny Turiaf(notes) (knee) are slated to return to the active roster for the Warriors Saturday.

• Chris Douglas-Roberts(notes) missed Wednesday’s game and is not expected to play Saturday because of a right ankle sprain. 

• And no, still nothing specific regarding Jose Calderon’s(notes) availability. The best we’ve got is still speculation from a beat reporter that he could return on December 30.

—

Photos via Getty Images

I like to take a look around for places to use for storage and am a big fan of the Wasted Spaces television show, which had a lot of great tips for utilizing space you already have for storage. My first house was the poster child for their television show, with tons of built ins and cubbies. It was only two bedrooms and very small in square footage, but I actually had more storage space than I needed and never even looked in my attic space.

From there, I moved to a house that had virtually no storage and, boy, did I miss my tiny house. If you have all the square footage in the world and you don’t have shelving and cupboards, you can feel more disorganized and cluttered than you did in a lot less space. So, I began a hunt for storage space. Here are five of my favorite places to put storage:

• Under a bench – I have five matching baskets tucked under my hall bench, which is about six feet long. The baskets are really handy and hold shoes, gardening stuff, etc. in a very organized fashion. Guests walking into the house see five tidy baskets instead of a bunch of loose stuff.
• Under the stairs – We have a small closet under the higher stair treads in the hallway. I lined it with narrow shelves and now I have space for all my canned goods. (There wasn’t a pantry, probably because the former owners flipped the living room and kitchen around and who builds a house with a pantry beside their living room in 1902?)
• On top of cabinets – Some people like to build their cabinets in or choose cabinets that go up to the ceiling. I like that extra foot of space empty so I can put vintage pottery and a few other display pieces up. If you do have a soffit, you can still take advantage of the space by putting in a narrow piece of plate rail molding to display some of your favorite plates.
• Under beds – Just putting some boxes under your bed can make things less organized instead of tidier. Putting an under bed system with pull out drawers under the bed is a whole new experience.
• Inside furniture – Choose a footstool that holds blankets or toys, an island with drawers and cupboards, etc.

Where do you find unexpected storage opportunities?

Photo: SXC

Post from: Blisstree

Five Places You Can Use for Storage

We know discussing things involving “arteries” and “coronary plaque” generally don’t do much for one’s appetite, but being the holidays and all, we honestly can’t think of a more fitting way to remind you not to pig out this evening. Up first is a MEMS-based sensor designed by downright enlightened researchers at the University of Southern California, which is used to “distinguish between stable and unstable atherosclerotic plaques in coronary arteries.” The idea here is to more easily determine whether a patient needs immediate surgery or simple lifestyle changes in order to remedy artery issues, though the process is still awaiting clinical approval before it can be used en masse. In related news, Pathway Medical has just received European clearance to sell its Jetstream G2 NXT coronary drill overseas (or “peripheral atherectomy catheter,” as it were), which does exactly what you’d expect it to: clear clogged blood vessels in the treatment of PAD. If you’re not already grossed out, feel free to tap the links below for more information on head past the break for a couple of video demonstrations. Mmm, honey ham!

Continue reading Arterial tandem: coronary drill gets cleared for use, MEMS sensor distinguishes between kinds of plaque

Arterial tandem: coronary drill gets cleared for use, MEMS sensor distinguishes between kinds of plaque originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article

Filed under: Chrysler, Fiat, Lancia

Another morsel to come out of Fiat’s 2-year plan is the short term product plan for Lancia, a brand that the parent company has been accused of neglecting for quite a while. In addition to the usual refreshes and facelifts, the truly juicy bit is that Fiat plans 17 new vehicles over the next two years, and Chrysler platforms will provide the basis for four Lancias.

Next month’s Detroit Auto Show is expected to host the first “new” Chrysler product: a rebadged Lancia Delta. An SUV is expected to follow sometime next year, then a midsize sedan and convertible, a luxury sedan, and a minivan in 2011. The real meat that we’re still missing is how these vehicles will really be created. How much of the initiative will be badge engineering, and how much will be genuine, clean-sheet engineering.

Fiat wants Chrysler’s global sales to more than double by 2014, to 2.8 million. If that number is accurate, that would mean Sergio Marchionne expects Chrysler to account for more than half of his targeted five million global sales for the entire Fiat Group by 2014 — and that group just grew thanks to Fiat’s swallowing up Zastava. Marchionne is said to be thinking about a successor because he “can’t work 24/7 forever.” With plans like these, we can’t imagine he’ll be sleeping or stepping aside any time soon.

[Source: Carscoop via GM Inside News]

Lancia’s near future to be built on Chrysler platforms originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’d never believe it, you never would know, that Christmas had come, at least not by the snow. All the geeks in the Valley were typing away, forced to take a short breather on this year’s Christmas day. So read on for info, this update, dear friends, as Christmas is over and a new year begins.

In time for Christmas, in technology news, Walt opened his column on product reviews. It seems, I am told, that holiday travel, with two screaming children can make brains unravel. So what could one bring, on a holiday trek, to keep little ones smiling and not cause a wreck? In a guest post by Nick, Wingfield’s his name; we saw the iTouch, the best in the game. He talked PSPs, and Nintendo DSs, but versatile and thin, iPod Touch got the yeses.

At the Mossberg Solution, Katie was typing, a fresh new post to help holiday griping. For if in through your window, this holiday season, a new Mac has drifted, you might have a reason. The keyboard is different, and programs wont close, all those whoosits and whatzits, no one really knows. But Katie was there, she did not take a rest, to show you the way to make your new Mac the best. Remember to “Quit”, on that Mac she said, ‘cause those little red x’s won’t put the program to bed. And one final thought, if it doesn’t seem rude, Katie recommended a new attitude. You see on the Mac, once they’ve been detected, to remove those hard drives, they must first be “ejected”.

It was all about Boom Town, this week in the news, as Kara looked at upcoming interviews. She’s worked much to hard and now they’ve said yes, but the lineup is set for our CES. With Hastings and Rubin and Rubinstien all, we’ll get their big scoops at the big techie ball. If tech shows are cold, with their gadgets galore, Kara posted a post about what’s in store. She traveled to Twitter and talked with Biz Stone, who thinked up some thoughts on how tweeting has grown. He pensively pondered, and stroked his cute chin. Some thoughts on the future, he gave with a grin. Kara was waving goodbye, flying off to the sand, to spend time with her family, mai-tai in hand. But before she got buckled and the jet engines roared, she solved a small mystery while climbing aboard. It seems, oh you see, that she’d gotten some news, about MySpace, Flixter and movie reviews. The two have been talking, oh talking some talk, with Rotten Tomatoes along for the walk. So she boarded the jet, all shiny and tall, waving goodbye to BoomTown for some vacation, if small.

At Media Memo HQ, it was Peter this week, opening the media door and taking a peek. Over at TMZ, they are all talking sports, it seems they are thinking, a new venture of sorts. The connection makes sense, though the idea is small. They might thank Tiger Woods for starting it all. And just when you thought you’d bought all your gifts, Peter covered that thing that’s on every geek’s lists. It seems to Peter, that maybe, perhaps, the new Apple (AAPL) tablet would need giant tablet-sized apps. That’s just what he found, when looking this week; some big app developers had given a tweak. They’ve made everything bigger, for what we don’t know, but whatever it is, the screen sure did grow. Peter covered it all, including abuse. There were gremlins, not elves, about, on the loose. While most new tech startups were shopping for backers, the biggest of bigs were snorched on by hackers. Amazon (AMZN), Wal-Mart (WMT), and more in the cloud, got hit by bad geeks, doing things not allowed. They recovered it quickly, and locked up their gate, making sure all your packages still wouldn’t be late.

So as you relax, and come down from the Yule, whether frozen at home or splayed out by a pool, Weekend Update is here, as is AllThingsD, to keep you informed when you’ve got places to be. Please leave us your comments, thoughts, queries and questions. We’d even adore your most helpful suggestions. And enjoy those around you, this holiday season. It’s friends, family and loved-ones that give our lives reason.

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Filed under: Software

We covered Flickery a while back, and it’s been through a couple of big updates since our initial article. Flickery is a Mac-based client for Flickr that provides extensive search, browsing, uploading, and downloading capabilities. I’ve been using Flickery since its release as my primary means of working with the Flickr photos and videos for me and my friends. It’s good-looking and has been a great time-saver.

Version 1.6, which came out at the end of October, brought batch editing of photos, video trimming, CoreLocation integration for photos taken within Flickery, faster pre-loading when browsing, and a lot of other new features. The latest version, 1.7, brings an impressive list of additional features which build upon the 1.6 release, including a new preferences panel, auto-resizing of uploaded photos, “Set as desktop picture” and “Download to Aperture” options, drag and drop integration with Finder and more. I’ve never had many problems with stability in Flickery, but the latest releases also include dozens of fixes for potential crashes and bugs.

There’s a holiday sale on Flickery running until January 1st that brings the price of the application down to US$13.99 (a 25% savings). Normal pricing resumes tomorrow, so Flickr users in search of a solid desktop client should take a look as soon as possible!

TUAWFlickery 1.7 offers even more Flickr fun originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile advertising is poised to become a huge growth area, with research firm Kelsey Group seeing the market grow from just $160 million in 2008 to $3.1 billion in 2013. eMarketer projects mobile advertising spending in the US will balloon from $648 million in 2008 to over $3.3 billion in 2013.

While some believe search will account for the biggest chunk of the market, others expect geo-aware advertising, another way of bringing “relevant” ads to users, to have a bright future, too. This is where AdLocal, a location-based, self-service mobile ad platform that (re-)launched yesterday, comes in.

Offered by Sunnyvale-based Cirius Technologies USA, the platform has been around in Japan since 2006, currently commanding the largest share of location-based advertising in Japan’s $1 billion [PDF] mobile ad space. And now Cirius is ready to utilize the years of experience the company gained in the world’s most competitive mobile market in the US (AdLocal isn’t available outside America and Japan at this point).

AdLocal allows advertisers to manage their campaigns and publishers to add their mobile sites or applications by themselves through a Web-based dashboard. By locating a mobile user’s physical location via GPS, cell identification and other methods, the mobile ad network can tell when a consumer is close to a specific business address and then serves up ads for that business in real-time.