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Wow, look at the spike the big healthcare stocks made the morning after the big late night “reform” vote.

The gains have moderated a bit, but it kinda tells you all you need to know, doesn’t it? (via @tpcarney)

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See Also:

• Sorry, Haters, The Healthcare Bill Actually WILL Reduce Costs
• Senate And House Healthcare Bills May Be On Impossible Collision Course
• Healthcare Stocks On Fire As Investors Wake Up And Realize Healthcare "Reform" Is A Giant Sellout

Filed under: Europe, GM, Saab, Earnings/Financials, Spyker

Here’s the skinny: Saab isn’t totally dead yet. As the weekend showed, there’s (a little) hope for both Saab and its Dutch suitor, Spyker. As our man Ramsey laid out yesterday, Spyker submitted a renewed eleven-point plan to General Motors that they (Spyker) hopes will allow them to take ownership of the deeply troubled brand. And yes, being pronounced dead four days ago counts as “deeply troubled.” As Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt pointed out, all this dead/not dead uncertainty has been throwing Saab employees, “between hope and despair.”

Meanwhile, a (perhaps) unintended consequence of Spyker’s eleventh hour rebid is that their stock has soared up 23.5 percent. Now, as some of you well know, Spyker isn’t very big. They sold just forty-three cars last year and their market cap was just 26.6 million euros before the stock shot up. Still, if Spyker plays their cards right, this spike in value could have long term benefits, but only if they secure a deal for Saab.

Says one anonymous analyst to Reuters, “The stock’s value is close to nothing but if they succeed to buy Saab, invest, and turn the company around then the shares can become valuable.” Trouble is, GM only has until 5:00 pm EST today to sell Saab. For we’re not sure why, but Spyker is making this a very limited time offer. If we had to guess, it’s in order to force a deal. For its part, General Motors is “reviewing several new expressions of interest” for Saab, one of which according to Saabs United is Merbanco.

Should the Spyker deal (and all other deals) fall through, 3,400 Swedish workers will lose their jobs, and the 1,100 Saab dealerships worldwide will be forced to shutter. The Swedish government is in crisis talks with Saab officials right now should such a worst case scenario transpire. As for now, the Saab remains the same – i.e. mostly dead. One last thing, here’s an interesting reflection on the demise of Saab by AB pal Jack Baruth.

[Sources: Reuters; Saabs United; Speed:Sport:Life | Image: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty]

REPORT: Spyker stock soars on word of Saab sale reconsideration originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kyocera isn’t exactly one of the larger players in the cellphone arena, and their offerings fail to impress the masses most of the time, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a honest, hardworking company. Well, perhaps the tide might turn in their favor with the announcement of two new cellphone launches – the Kyocera Laylo and Domino phones which will be available from MetroPCS, making it to retail stores just in time for the holiday season to show off to your family members and friends that you have finally decided to ditch that monochrome display handset without a digital camera built in. The Laylo will come in a slider format, boasting an eye-catching red color with a soft-touch finish and a reflective twist. A quick slide downwards will open to reveal a hidden vanity mirror, which more or less places this in the domain of the ladies. Know of any guys who would want to carry a vanity mirror with them wherever they go? Well, the Domino will take on a candybar form factor instead, where it will also sport the Yuletide color of red while offering features that are a notch above other handsets of similar price levels. A further search shows that the Laylo comes with a 2.2″ contoured high-resolution display and a 1.3 megapixel camera apart from the aforementioned discrete vanity mirror. You get a relatively generous keypad within with excellent tactile and visual separation of the keys for faster, easier typing. Other features include Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, a WAP 2.0 browser, BREW 3.1.5 and a paperless user guide to get new users started while saving some trees in the process. The Domino, on the other hand, also comes with a large display with legible and large fonts. Other features like Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, a WAP 2.0 browser and BREW 3.1.5 are also thrown in to offer more bang for your buck. Any takers for a new phone this holiday season?

© 2007 Freakitude dot Com.

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Codemasters is letting everyone know that a new Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising DLC pack is going live on the Marketplace today. PS3 and PC gamers will have to wait a bit. Details past the jump.

Bonny Doon, US | Inspired Inventions

Preston Boomer is the science teacher you always wished you had.

Mr. Boomer, who goes by the nickname “Boom,” has taught science at the San Lorenzo Valley High School for some 53 years. However for Boom and his students, the fun of learning extended beyond the walls of the high school and into a magical world of science, music, history and epic water battles, all created by Boom and his students over the last half century.

Known as “Boomeria,” it is set amidst the quiet redwoods on Boomer’s property in Bonny Doon, California. Of course it isn’t so quiet when Boom and his crew of students known as the “Brotherhood of the Natural Philosophers” are there. A kind of medieval science kingdom, Boomeria has its own castle, cannons, catacombs and a huge pipe organ.

Among the earliest additions to Boomeria was the pipe organ, a 1879 model, rescued by Boom and repaired by him and his studants beginning in 1953. Today the pipe organ, which nearly fills the entire chapel built around it, has been much improved and has 40 ranks and some 2,500 pipes offering nearly every kind of organ sound. The organ is nearly exactly like a medieval organ, with the only modern upgrade an electric pump. So impressive is the home built organ that music lovers come from many miles around to hear the organ at the “Boomeria Extravaganza,” a fundraiser for the Baroque Festival.

However, the organ and chapel is only one element of the massive Boomeria. Nearby is a three story castle, with a 140 meters of catacombs and mock dungeons below it! The catacombs let out into various other parts of Boomeria including the pipe organ chapel, and make a convenient way to travel across Boomeria.

The tunnels, castle, and various outposts are used in huge water battles in which students try to overtake the castle from Boom with water cannons, water balloon launchers, and water guns. All of which serves to illustrate the science of water pressure, and the tactics of medieval battles. The students shouldn’t get their hopes of winning up too high however, for even when King Boom loses, as his motto goes, “the King always wins!”

Among the many other amazing items in Boomeria, are a working Guillotine (presumably locked up for safety reasons), an engine room complete with stations to man the huge water cannons, and a antique laboratory with testing stations, dozens of chemical samples (many quite old having been inherited from Boom’s grandfather), a working telegraph to communicate across Boomeria, and a working steam engines.

While Boomeria is a private home, Boom opens it up to the public for the Santa Cruz Baroque festival, and occasionally to private groups. Recently, 45 Google employees got a tour of Boomeria and a chance to traverse its secret passages, and play with the myriad toys, and scientific instruments.

Boomeria is a testament to what 50 years of building, teaching, and the construction help of the “Brotherhood of the Natural Philosophers” can produce. More information can be found at Boom’s site Boomeria.org

Kynetx offers developers a single platform for building extensions for multiple browsers. Developers write their code in Kynetx’s own rule-based language and the service builds the actual extensions. Originally, Kynetx only supported Firefox and Internet Explorer, but a few days ago, the company also announced support for Google Chrome. Thanks to this, developers can now use Kynetx’s AppBuilder tool to build and deploy custom extensions for the three top browsers that offer a built-in plugin architecture.

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For now, of course, only the Windows version of Chrome supports extensions, but extension support for the OSX and Linux version is scheduled to arrive soon.

Kynetx is a universal browser extension that has a few similarities to Greasemonkey. The programming language for the extension is the Kynetx Rule Language (KRL) and the company offers an online editor for writing apps on top of Kynetx.

We should note that Kynetx doesn’t allow users to build every type of extension. The system is best suited for building plugins that add additional information to a website. Kynetx’s extensions use Action Cards to augment these sites. One example for such a plugin is this app that reminds users when a company offers a discount through the U.S. automobile services group, AAA.

For some more details about the company, have a look at this video interview Robert Scoble did with the company’s founder and CTO. The company also offers a good tutorial and documentation here.

Discuss

I recently read the book, Plum Wine, by Angela Davis-Gardner, which was a beautiful exposition on two people, one American and one Japanese, coming to terms with themselves against the canvas of the aftermath of Hiroshima as the Vietnam War was ramping up. One question asked was how western and eastern religions saw the essential nature of humankind. One young Japanese student explained how the west explained the human condition by the concept of original sin whereas in the east, humans did not start out in the state of sin.

Though I do not have personal memory of bombing my family and city and fellow people are affected in most horrible way to befall humans and other creatures since beginning of time on our planet. Yes, Japan to her shame was aggressor in war both in China and America and this ending was brought upon us for this reason. But I think worst thing is use of split atom, human discovery of nature’s secret, to destroy. Perhaps Japan would have dropped same type of bomb on Washington if possible. You asked me, what is Japanese idea of sin. For Japanese there is no original sin. In Buddhism, belief is that human in original state is pure and our effort should be to return to pure nature. Wrongdoings are committed through ignorance and lack of compassion. We are all brothers, ne? There is the saying, that dog could be your mother. This suffering woman could be yourself.

However there is some interesting point in your Adam and Eve myth of human curiosity which I have been thinking of. Maybe we can say that split of atom caused by human curiosity is the original sin of mankind. Other things may be done or learned from same curiosity for good or bad reason. But Adam is like atom, do you agree? The tragic result of split atom will affect all people from now until end of time.

So, what is the basis of sin? It seems to me to that the Buddhist explanation of ignorance and a lack of empathy and compassion and also a lack of awe for the world in which we live are the roots that best explain sin. Curiosity in itself is not bad, it is when the actions that arise from curiosity are made without regards to others that it becomes dangerous.

Man, that was a surreal headline to write. Two baked goods in one sentence, and we’re not even talking about Android.

With over 10 million units pushed, the Cookie is LG’s best selling device ever. It should come as no surprise, then, that it’s getting a sequel.

According to information leaked to PhoneArena, the second coming of the Cookie is tentatively titled the “Muffin”. We’re not sure when it’s set to come out of the oven – but when it does, it’ll reportedly pack a 3″ capacitive touchscreen, 5.0 megapixel camera (as compared to 3.0 on the original), WiFi and HSDPA, Dolby Mobile Sound, and LG’s signature S-Class user interface.

If LG’s going about the Muffin with the same mindset as the original, we can probably expect this to launch somewhere between $250-$350 before taxes and carrier subsidies.

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

Dark Helmet was the first of a few to send in a Chicago Tribune article looking at redlight camera accident rates and seeing (as many other reports have shown before) that in many cases the number of accidents went up. The report looked at fourteen intersections. Seven showed increases in accidents, two stayed the same, and five dropped. Even more interesting: at one of the intersections the number of t-bone “broadside” collisions (the ones that defenders of the cameras insist decrease) went up significantly. That was just one intersection, though. Others saw the more traditional decrease in broadsides, but significant increase in rear-end accidents as drivers slam on their brakes. The other interesting finding from the data: contrary to the claims of camera defenders, over time the rate of accidents did not appear to decrease “as drivers learned about the cameras.”

Once again, we’re left wondering why people still claim the cameras increase safety, when there appears to be no evidence to support that at all. There is a clear and proven way to increase safety though: (1) increase the length of the yellow and (2) increase the delay (or, for places like California which have no delay, put in a delay) when lights in all direction are red, before switching the new direction to green. Any municipality that puts in redlight cameras without doing those two things above, and then claims its about “safety” is lying. Bizarrely, though, the supporters in the Chicago area are still defending their system:

Even if not reflected in accident statistics, Belwood Police Chief Robert Collins Jr. said he sees drivers being more cautious as they approach stoplights. “Driver behavior has definitely changed,” Collins said…

Changed for the worse, apparently. Are we to believe the police chief’s anecdotal insistence or what the stats actually say?

Roger Pawlowski, a division chief at the Oak Lawn Police Department, said the benefits of red-light cameras can’t always be extrapolated from crash statistics.

Ah, then what are we to extrapolate the benefits of redlight cameras from? Checks cashed by the city?

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Back in March 2001, about a year before the start of the so-called commodities supercycle – an event that would blow off across the 12 months commencing mid-2007 – BHP Billiton ranked as the world’s No 2 mining stock, by market value, after Alcoa, the US-based aluminum giant. Today, BHP Billiton has long ranked as the world’s biggest, in all senses, diversified resources stock; Alcoa has slipped to No 31 among global mining groups.

For investors, the different roads followed by these two, and many other, mining groups have had profound results. In early 2001, BHP Billiton commanded a market value of around US$28bn. That soared nearly ten-fold by the middle of 2008, and after recovering following the great 2008 markets scare, today sits around US$189bn, well ahead of No 2, Vale, the Brazilian supergroup that can overwhelmingly attribute its success to specialising in iron ore.

Even that dynamic has changed; in early June 2009, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton announced that BHP Billiton would pay Rio Tinto US$5.8bn “for equity type interests at financial close” to take its interest in the two companies’ Pilbara, Australia iron ore joint venture from 45% to 50%.

Read the whole story at MineWeb >>

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See Also:

• Gold Weakness Wipes Out Six Months Of Gains At The Miners
• Massive Construction Boom Causes Saudi Arabia To Run Out Of Sand
• Despite Gold Boom, Major Miners Like Barrick, Newmont, And Harmony Have Been Bleeding Free Cash

I’m starting to get the impression that 2010 will be a very strong for the Playstation brand in the home console arena. The reason I state this is because I don’t see Nintendo and Microsoft hitting the market with another console until 2011. Microsoft has an “Ace Card” they showed off at E3 for the XBOX360 called Natal, which many of you have probably seen before. It’s a very exciting prospect from an established giant in tech, and is basically a camera system that can read your movements and allows you to play games with those movements instead of using a controller. The videos were so exciting that many thought they were witnessing the second coming of a great evolution in gaming. What could go wrong?

Well, things can go wrong if Natal has lag – with one developer and now one of the largest technology blogs stating so. Gizmodo writes, “Jon Burton, director of Traveller’s Tales (makers of all those LEGO titles), has confirmed that “Lag on the input and lack of physical buttons is really going to restrict the kind of games that can be done [for Project Natal].” Gizmodo also went on to note that Natal was “accurate, but an ever-so-slight delay to the movement caused us to question whether it could be used for hardcore gaming apps.”

Both consoles are starting to stagnate a little bit. The Wii has filled its niche very nicely, but hardcore gamers overlook it quickly. With explosive success of Modern Warfare 2 – which made $550 million in its first five days of retail –  we are reminded you simply can’t miss out on immersive HD gaming. The XBOX360 is still very strong, has incredible online features and services but it does lack something these days in comparison to the PS3. You can tell its end of life, despite the fact that Microsoft has brilliantly extended the experience with a great software and social media experience.

Honestly, the PS3 feels like a canvas to me, as if there is still great growth within it. There are two huge things coming for the console in the next six months – a super accurate motion controller and the ability for any PS3 to play 3D games. How can you not be excited about that?

Filed under: Technology, Ford

The SYNC system offered by Ford in most of its models just got a lot more interesting. In addition to giving vehicle owners super simple connectivity with virtually any phone or music player and the best voice recognition in the biz, the next generation of SYNC will add mobile internet compatibility to its USB ports. What does this mean? It means that if you’ve got one of those fancy 3G modems for your laptop, you can plug it into the USB port of your SYNC-equipped Ford and voilà! Your entire vehicle is a WiFi hotspot. Imagine the effect of adding easy in-car WiFi to a family of five’s cross-country trip in a Ford Flex and you get the idea.

In-car WiFi has been around for a couple of years already, but all instances have required extra dealer-installed hardware (a receiver and router, specifically) and an additional monthly fee. General Motors announced just last week that it’s adding optional in-car WiFi to seven Chevy models, but like most systems, you’ll have to pay $500 up front ($199 after mail-in rebate through December 31st) for the hardware and $29/month for the service. With a simple software upgrade of SYNC next year, Ford customers will be able to use the 3G modem they may already have and get the same effect, without having to pay extra for new equipment and, most importantly, another monthly fee for internet. It’s also an easy way for Ford to get WiFi in the car for SYNC’s upcoming mobile apps.

SYNC was already a big reason for infotainment-obsessed car shoppers to consider a Ford, but at least when it comes to browsing the internet in your car, SYNC 2.0 with in-car WiFi just leap frogged the entire auto industry. Not only is the technology impressive, but this new feature actually saves the customer money rather than asking for more. Ford’s official word on the matter, plus a video of SYNC 2.0 broadcasting its pirate signal, can be found after the jump.

[Source: Ford]

Continue reading SYNC FTW: Ford adding mobile internet compatibility to USB ports

SYNC FTW: Ford adding mobile internet compatibility to USB ports originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New York City media and web guy Rex Sorgatz just Tweeted the following:

Now, fortunately for people in this predicament, our Bianca Male just published a how-to on hiring app developers.

But beyond the practical points here, there’s a deep economic lesson in Rex’s tweet.

Let’s back up.

See, Keynesian economists argue that there’s really no chance of inflation because we have plenty of slack in the economy. They call this slack the “output gap.”

So, for example, we have millions of idle workers and idle factories just waiting to come back into the producing world, and until they come back there’s no chance of any kind of wage or resource pressure.

That’s true, but only to the extent that the demands of the new economy match what that idle capacity is capable of producing.

The problem that folks like Paul Krugman don’t acknowledge is that this spare capacity doesn’t match demand. If there were an insatiable thirst for, say, new houses and new office parks, we’d be all set! But that’s not the case.

In reality, demand is popping up in new areas, like iPhone apps and sadly, all those laid off construction workers aren’t (nor will they ever be) capable of matching that demand.

In areas where there’s actually growing demand, there’s no output gap at all. In fact, we’re at a shortage — which explains Rex’s tweet and the need for our guide.

The problem with the Keynesian version of macroeconomics is that it treats all production as uniform glop. You have these vague concepts like supply, demand, growth, production, etc. and ideally you have more and more of it.

But in the real world, there are specific needs, and not all supply and demand are equal. Thus while it may appear we have a gigantic output gap — under the old measure — in reality we may have a shortage in the things we really need.

Don’t miss: How To Hire A Great iPhone Developer

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See Also:

• How To Hire A Great iPhone Developer
• The Output Gap Model: Fatally Flawed
• Fed Governor Slams Krugman’s "Output Gap" Argument

Unlike here in the States, the iPhone exclusivity deal for the UK wasn’t a big pile of absurd. O2 got exclusivity for 2 years. Once that was up, it was an open game where just about any carrier was free to hop on the iPhone – and hop they have.

Looking to stay competitive with the likes of O2 and Orange UK, Vodafone has just officially confirmed that they’ll be launching the iPhone on January 14th of 2010. £35 a month will get you a free 8GB 3G, while a 32GB 3GS will set you back an additional £239 up front.

[BBC via EngMo]

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

In another good move on the Reader front, reports are stating that Sony is now embracing relationships with nearly 19 new content partners for regular download and wireless distribution to its Reader devices. The Financial Times has mentioned its own publication along with the Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune will be available immediately. The other partners are also excellent – “the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor, metropolitan dailies such as the Denver Post and the San Jose Mercury News, and the New York Review of Books and Barron’s, two weekly titles.” For those of you skeptical of pricing, no worries, its fairly moderate. The FT continues, “three News Corp titles under which the Wall Street Journal will be available for $14.99 a month, MarketWatch.com for $10.99 and the New York Post for $9.99. Sony said, however, that Reader users would be able to buy single editions of the FT, the LA Times and the Tribune, as well as monthly subscriptions.”

So there will be many options. This is a good thing.

Where’s the magazines, though? That’s really up to the publishers themselves. However, I have seen some demos of magazines and newspapers in a special tablet format that is really something. Are magazines skipping the E-Ink craze and going in this direction? It’s hard to tell, but I’m starting to think so. There’s no advertising model in the Reader at this moment and that turns people off quickly. A handheld touchscreen tablet with rich multimedia capability could most certainly have advertising capabilities.

One thing that disappoints me with the Reader experience is that Sony has no way for bloggers to offer their content to reader devices. Amazon has enabled the Kindle to show blogs (in a converted format I assume) for publishers that sign up for its Kindle Publishing for Blogs service. I even signed up Sony Insider for this service, because it’s such a cool idea. It would be so awesome if future Reader devices came with subscriptions to blog services available from the Sony Electronics Community, SonyStyle, Sony Insider and other relevant domains..

In the Bluetooth round-up of headsets, one of my favorite items was the MoGo Talk for iPhone. That got me thinking about other really cool accessories for the Apple handset (and there sure are a lot). We’ll be reviewing our hearts out with apps and accessories when our latest network site, TodaysiPhone.com, launches. But in the mean time, here are a few iPhone-related picks that would make great last-minute holiday gifts.

Gorillamobile for 3G/3GS
Joby, makers of the Gorillapod for digital cameras, is at it again! The Gorillamobile is a multiply jointed tripod that’s made to work with the iPhone 3G/3GS. It has a low-profile, take-anywhere iPhone case that snap into the stand, so users can set it up on a desk, wrap it around bike handlebars or put it anywhere else they need a steady shot. It also comes with additional fixtures for other devices, including a universal camera adapter (with standard-size threaded screw) and adhesive clips for securing other gadgets. Joby also came out with a free iPhone app called Gorillacam (link opens iTunes), which offers users a timer, a time-lapse feature, and bubble level for snapshots. $39.95. Joby.com

Mophie Juice Pack Air
We all wish our phones had better battery life, so having some portable juice is incredibly handy, especially for power iPhone users. Set in an iPhone case, this accessory keeps extra power in hand at all times. Personally, I loved the original Juice Pack for my old 2G, but it was large and kept charging the phone (signaled by a vibration) whenever the built-in power levels dipped even just a little — which meant it kept shaking in my hand all the time. With the Juice Pack Air, though, Mophie seems to have solved a lot of those issues. The case is slimmer, and there’s an on-off switch for powering up. It also has a pass-through USB, which means users can charge and sync the phone while still in the slide-on case. Although it’s still a little larger than a standard iPhone hardshell, the Juice Pack Air virtually doubles the battery life of a handset between charges, so for a lot of people, the extra bulk will be totally worth it. $79.95. Mophie.com

iPWR SuperPack
The highly pocketable iPWR external 1800 mAh Lithium polymer battery is super small and thin — at just a half-inch in thickness and 1.5 oz in weight — and hardly takes up any space. And since it has an on/off switch, it holds a charge really well (which means that it can just stay in a briefcase, suitcase or backpack as emergency power), for as long as weeks or even months. I’ve seen other batteries that look the same — as if they were all made in someone’s low-rent, third-world shack — so I was skeptical of it at first. But after a few months, this is still going strong. Although charging it fully isn’t blazing fast (it takes 2.5 hours), even a few minutes offers enough juice for a quick phone call or text. (Or just use the phone with the battery attached; the device will draw from the battery first.) It’s also compatible with a wide range of devices: 3G/3GS, 1st gen, iPod Touch (1G/2G), iPod nano (3rd, 4th, and 5th gen), iPod with video and the classic iPod. $59.95. iPwr.com

Pogo Stylus
Well okay, this accessory may seem a little goofy to some people, since the whole point of a capacitive display is that a stylus isn’t required for it. But even so, others actually like the Pogo a lot. Why? Because users with long nails or big fingers are sometimes challenged using a touchscreen. (And this winter, I am actually finding it especially handy, since I can use this to operate my phone without taking off my gloves!) The electrostatic tip of the Pogo Stylus works really well on iPhone displays, as well as the trackpad on my Macbook Pro (for when I occasionally need a little pen/tablet functionality). Best of all, this really helps when playing games that require more pinpoint accuracy than my nubby little fingers can provide. $14.95. Ten One Design

MyFrogz hard shell case
iPhone cases are one of the biggest sellers during the holidays. But how do you know what color your gift recipient will really love? It’s a challenge that the MyFrogz case (from iFrogz.com) meets head-on, with personalized two-tone (or single color) cases that snap together. If your chosen color combo isn’t a big hit, the loved one can exchange it hassle-free. Better yet, when you purchase the retail box at an AT&T location (which has a purchase code inside), the user can use that code to go online and customize his or her own combination. So you actually have something physical to wrap and hand over, and the loved one is guaranteed to wind up with something he or she likes. (See mine above? Yep, I happen to like PhoneDog green.) And unlike other custom products, these ship the same day as the order, so there’s no excruciating month-long wait to receive the goods. $34.99. iFrogz.com

So that’s the short list of my favorite iPhone accessories of the moment. If you like these kinds of items, or are intrigued by stuff like an iPhone attachment for gaming and even a hard case with telescopic photo lens, be sure to stay on the look out for TodaysiPhone.com, which will feature all this and more when it goes live in the coming weeks. (And we just may have a few giveaways up our sleeves too!) In the mean time, if you have a favorite accessory or are eyeing one that you’re curious about, send us a tip! We’ll get you the scoop on what it is, how it works and if it really is hot or not.

You can post suggestions down here in the comments. Or, for a chance to win the green and white MyFrogz item shown above, follow me at @PhonedogAdriana and Tweet your suggestion. (The first Tweet wins — that is, if you don’t mind my name on the packaging 🙂 But the case itself is pristine and ready to hold your 3G/3GS.)

Happy holidays, everyone!

OKAY, MAYBE JUST ONE MORE: Once you start looking at accessories, it’s tough to quit! So here’s an additional honorable mention: I just recently got a WallDock, and I have to say — it’s a pretty handy wall charger in a cute, itty bitty little package. If you have anyone on your list who travels often or just wants an extra charging station in the house, this little $24.99 item will make them happy and won’t break your piggy bank. Check it out here.

Dry bulk vessel over-supply is finally taking its toll, the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) has gone into a nosedive as shown below. US-listed dry bulk stocks such as DryShips (DRYS) and Eagle Bulk (EGLE) have been drifting lower.

While the current index level is still equivalent to historically strong rates, continued strength in 2010 is entirely predicated on continued growth of Chinese dry bulk raw material imports. While November iron ore imports were encouraging and 2009 was a year of surprising strength, with China it could all disappear in an instant.

Bloomberg (Dec 11th): Iron ore imports by China, the world’s largest buyer, rose 12 percent last month as steelmakers increased production to meet demand from makers of cars and appliances. Imports of the steelmaking ingredient were 51.1 million metric tons, the customs office said on its Web site today. That compares with 45.5 million tons in October and a record 64.6 million tons in September, according to Bloomberg data.

….

Emirates Business: “In 2009, the potential for a much steeper decline was offset by a notable surge in the seaborne trade of iron ore – the largest single dry bulk commodity, accounting for 27 per cent of total cargoes – which actually increased by about three per cent y-o-y,” it said. Strong Chinese demand for the material proved vital to this growth.

China’s iron ore imports increased by more than 20 per cent y-o-y in 2009 as its share of the seaborne iron ore market rose from 58 per cent in 2008 to 66 per cent, offsetting the reduction in volumes shipped to other major import markets such as Japan and South Korea.

While a number of factors are reported to have caused this unexpected surge – the fall in global commodity prices; falling output by domestic mines; and rampant stockpiling by steel mills and speculators…

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See Also:

• No, The Baltic Dry Index Doesn’t Forecast Oil Prices
• Freight Forwards Curve Warns Of Baltic Dry Index Collapse
• Way Better Than The BDI: Watch Chinese Iron Ore Demand Falling