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Filed under: Aftermarket, Sedan, Performance, Mercedes-Benz, Misc. Auto Shows

2010 Brabus B63 S – Click above for a high-res image gallery

Don’t have enough money for Brabus to swap out the V8 in your E63 AMG for a V12? Not to worry. Today at the Essen Motor Show, the German tuner officially launched its B63 S performance package for 6.2-liter V8 in the four-door Benz. The upgrade consists of dual “sport” air filters, high-flow catalytic converters, and revised program for the engine and results in a 30 horsepower increase.

Brabus is also offering other modifications for the E63 AMG as well, including a carbon fiber aero kit, wheels in 18 to 20-inch sizes, and various interior trim pieces like stainless-steel scuff plates, a new 225 mph speedometer, and wood or carbon fiber inlays. For the most part ,we’d skip the visual bits and stick with the engine upgrades. Hit the jump for full details in press release, or check out the high-res gallery below courtesy of Brabus.

[Source: Brabus]

Continue reading Essen 2009: Brabus tweaks the 2010 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG

Essen 2009: Brabus tweaks the 2010 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Japan, Technology, Nissan

A while back, Nissan scientists helped to develop a paint clearcoat called Scratch Shield that can self-repair light scratches overnight or over the course of a week.

Now the Japanese automaker is spreading the love, licensing the technology to Japan’s largest wireless company, NTT DoCoMo. The clearcoat uses a special top layer of highly elastic resin that gives the coating a ‘flexibility’ that reportedly means that it can prevent or “heal” 80% of surface marks. The coating itself is also tougher, so it is less susceptible to marks in the first place. Official press release after the jump.

[Source: Nissan]

Continue reading Nissan’s self-healing Scratch Shield paint to be applied to mobile phones

Nissan’s self-healing Scratch Shield paint to be applied to mobile phones originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Everyone knows that Twitter has been reluctant in seeking revenue streams too aggressively and has just recently moved in this direction, signing deals with partners like Microsoft and Google and announcing some sort for Twitter ads come next year. What most people don’t know is that the Japanese version of the service not only has ads, and for quite a while now, but it’s also close to launching a form of premium accounts, perhaps as early as January 2010. But, they’re not the premium accounts we’ve been hearing of for the better part of this year, rather they offer the users an option to get paid for their tweets by charging subscriptions for their streams.

DG Mobile, a subsidiary of the local company which partnered with Twitter to offer the service in Japan, Digital Garage, has announced that it will roll out subscription services for Twitter users. Those running services like breaking news or which post mostly original content on the microblogging platform can now monetize by charging for their tweets.

There will be several options for the subscribers, they can pay a monthly fee to get full access or they can buy a prepaid ticket which they can use how they see fit. The can also pay for access on a tweet-by-tweet basis. The pricing will vary depending on what the content provider deems fair, but is ex… (read more)

Capacitive screens are not very precise, and if your software is not designed to take this into account you can get pretty funny results.

This video by YouHTC.ru shows the effect on the TouchFlo3D tabs on the HTC HD2, where the device does not quite know which tab it should come to rest on, despite the finger being still .

According to YouHTC HTC intends to modify their software to fix this issue, hopefully not with the result of making the interface less responsive.

Read more at YouHTC here.

Editors’ note: This review is part of our 2009 Retail Laptop and Desktop Holiday Roundup, which covers specific fixed configurations of popular systems found in retail stores.

The $680 Pavilion P6230y is another midrange HP desktop PC that looks good on paper, but can’t keep up with the competition in price and performance. It can certainly handle its own in day-to-day use, but the competing Asus Essentio CG5270-BP004 makes this Pavilion look slow and overpriced.

Not a whole lot has changed on the P6230y since we reviewed its cheaper sibling, the p6110y. Most of the desktops that take a turn through our labs have a similar black, glossy case; but HP adds flashy accents like a soft-blue LED-lit power button and a sliding panel on the face of the system that conceals the media card reader and front USB 2.0 and audio ports. Aesthetically speaking, we’re confident that this system will fit anywhere without causing a stir.

The most glaring difference in a side-by-side comparison with the Asus Essentio CG5270-BP004 is the HP’s diminutive quad-core AMD chip, which is left in the dust in performance and power efficiency tests by the Asus’s quad-core Intel CPU, even despite a slightly faster clock speed. For $30 less than the HP, Asus offers more storage room to offset the lack of built-in wireless, which can be easily had thanks to the Asus’ ample expansion space.

Since the Asus actually costs less than the HP, the Pavilion P6230y essentially offers less computer for more money than the competition. Thankfully, HP is more generous with its port offerings than its computing power. You get two USB ports on the front of the tower, with six more ports around the back, along with 7.1 analog audio, coaxial digital audio, FireWire, VGA, DVI, Ethernet, and a built-in wireless networking card. Neither system has an eSATA port nor do we suspect that most users would miss it. However, you can definitely find it on other PCs in this price range.

Cinebench test
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Multiple CPUs

Single CPU

ZT Affinity 7334Ma

12,742

3,502

HP Pavilion P6230y

10,825

3,021

Asus Essentio CG5270-BP004

10,792

2,997

Gateway DX4300-11

10,199

2,872

Gateway SX2800-01

10,085

2,773

Before you make a buying decision in favor of HP, consider that the P2630y comes in second to the Asus in almost every test except for the Cinebench tests that give credit to the highest clock speeds. The only system that gives Asus a run is the ZT Affinity 7334Ma, but keep in mind that the extra processor speed will cost you $120 more than the HP and $150 more than the Asus.

Upgraders still intent on buying this PC for whatever reason will find ample room inside the tower for future upgrades. You get a free 16x PCI Express graphics slot, three 1x PCI Express slots, and room for one more hard drive if you can get past the awkwardly placed cage that stands vertically against the back wall of the interior. Also, keep in mind that if you plan to upgrade memory down the line, you’ll need to discard the existing RAM since all four slots are currently occupied.

Juice box
HP Pavilion P6230y	Average watts per hour
Off	0.49
Sleep	1.72
Idle	61.04
Load	111.61
Raw (annual kWh)	239.148
Energy Star compliant	No
Annual energy consumption cost	$27.14

The HP Pavilion P6230y fares well against the competition in the energy cost required to keep it running for a year. Coming in at just a few cents more than $27, HP manages to keep costs low, although the P5230y doesn’t have much hardware inside to threaten your monthly energy bill. With a video chip integrated into the motherboard that handles all standard desktop applications and a newer AMD chip, we’re not surprised that HP trends toward the more efficient end of the power draw spectrum.

We used the Asus system as this HP’s primary competition because their prices are identical and they have similar features sets. We’d say Asus won the hardware match-up; however, service and support is a different story. HP’s support offerings, on par with Dell or Gateway, give you one year of parts and labor warranty protection, as well 24-7 toll-free phone support. We also appreciate its vast array of support help online, including live support chat. At least for now, HP has the upper hand in customer service.

Find out more about how we test desktop systems.

System configurations:

Asus Essentio CG5270-BP004
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit; 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300; 8GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 32MB Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics chip; 1TB, 7,200rpm hard drive

Gateway DX4300-11
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit; 2.5GHz AMD Phenom II X4 805; 8GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics chip; 1TB, 7,200rpm hard drive

Gateway SX2800-01
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit; 2.3GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 32MB (shared) Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics chip; 640GB, 7,200rpm hard drive

HP Pavilion P6230y
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit; 2.6 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 810; 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 256MB ATI Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics chip; 750GB, 7,200rpm hard drive

ZT Group Affinity 7334Ma
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit (SP2); 3GHz AMD Phenom II X4 945 Quad Core ; 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 384MB (shared) ATI Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics chip; 1TB 7,200rpm Seagate hard drive

Source

After you’ve gotten your Dubai fill, take a break and check out the situation in Greece.

Here’s the Telegraph from earlier this week:

When the European Central Bank’s Jean-Claude Trichet said last week that certain sinners on the edges of the eurozone were “very close to losing their credibility”, everybody knew he meant Greece.

The interest spread between 10-year Greek bonds and German bunds has jumped to 178 basis points. Greek debt has decoupled from Italian debt. Athens can no longer hide behind others in EMU’s soft South.

“As far as the bond vigilantes are concerned, the Bat-Signal is up for Greece,” said Francesco Garzarelli in a Goldman Sachs client note, Tremors at the EMU Periphery.

The newly-elected Hellenic Socialists (PASOK) of George Papandreou confess that the budget deficit will be more than 12pc of GDP this year, four times the original claim of the last lot. After campaigning on extra spending, it will have to do the exact opposite. “We need to save the country from bankruptcy,” he said.

Good luck. Communist-led shipyard workers have already clashed violently with police. Some 200 anarchists were arrested in Athens last week after they torched streets of cars in a tear gas battle.

Read the whole thing >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Mobius: Even If We’re In A Bull Market, Dubai Could Spark A 20% Correction
• JP Morgan: Stop Freaking Out, The UAE Can Easily Save Dubai
• Potential Dubai Default Rocks Financial Markets, While Dollar Soars On Panic Buying

Templeton’s Mark Mobius, who runs $25 billion in emerging market investments, remains a long-term bull.

Yet he thinks that the Dubai debacle could easily trigger a 20% global market correction, given that it’s about time for the bull market to take a breather.

“How serious will the fall out be?”

“…I think it will be pretty serious. If Dubai were to default, it would cause a wave of defaults in other areas.”

“How should investors be looking at emerging markets?”

“…There’s no question about an ongoing bull market, that’s certain. But we will certainly see corrections and this may very be the trigger for the markets to pull back.”

“…A 20% correction is not unusual in such bull markets, that’s quite possible. So we should be ready for that kind of correction.”

See Bloomberg’s video interview with Mark Mobius here.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Marc Mobius: Here Comes Another 40% Surge For The BRICs
• JP Morgan: Stop Freaking Out, The UAE Can Easily Save Dubai
• Black Friday: Asian Markets Walloped After Dubai World

Look what the amazing flood of dollars all around the world is doing to poor real estate brokers north of the border in Toronto.

Toronto Star: Competing lines of real estate agents waiting to buy new luxury condos turned ugly on Bloor St. this morning with jabbing, shouts, threats and accusations of queue-jumping

Some of the agents, who lined both sides of Bloor at Bedford Ave., had been waiting for more than a week to buy units in the X2 development at Jarvis and Charles Sts. Others arrived last night.

By this morning, there were three separate lines of potential buyers, each claiming the right to have first crack at the condos.

Curbed, which spotted, the article couldn’t believe this line:

“It’s our job with a hot market nowadays,” broker Amir Geran said before dawn as he stood in the north-side lineup, the one that ended up getting priority. “You have to line up for condos like this.”

Mortimer, we’re back!

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Foreign-Currency Buyers Making Huge, Bulk Purchases Of Distressed Florida Condos
• Spend Your Bonus Money On Brooklyn’s Most Expensive Condo
• Miami Condo Glut Starts To Ease

David Rosenberg hasn’t wavered a bit on his view that the economy’s still in horrendous shape and the 70% market boom of the past eight months has been a violent bear-market rally.

But even Dave is now having to admit that the jobs picture is getting better, albeit slowly. 

The current rate of initial claims, Dave says, is consistent with modest job growth.  So we could see payrolls growth as early as December.

[This week’s initial jobless] claims number cannot be dismissed out of hand despite the help from some aggressive seasonal factors. 

For the week ending October 24, they were at 532,000; on October 31, they were 514,000; on November 7, they were 505,000; on November 14, they were 501,000; and as of November 21, they
had declined to 466,000.  So the trend is clearly down — falling now for four weeks in a row.  This is the lowest level on claims since the week of September 13, 2008 and this figure has not been below 500,000 since the opening week of 2009; and as an exclamation mark, the four-week moving average also dipped to 496,500 from 513,000 — first time below the 500,000 mark in a year. 

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey data did show yesterday that in November people were having a tougher time finding a new job than at any other time in the past 26 years, so keep in mind that the claims numbers reflect firings, not hirings.   The firings have now abated, but it remains to be seen how the job market evolves with a record 9.3 million Americans working part-time who would rather have a full- time job (double the norm) and with the workweek at a record low of 33 hours.  All companies have to do is take the workweek back up to where it was when the
recession began and right there it would create the equivalent of two million new jobs (but without actually adding headcount); or take the number of people that were furloughed into part-time back onto full-time, which would also be equivalent to de facto job creation of two million jobs.   

The firings have now abated, but it will be interesting how the job market evolves with a record 9.3 million Americans working part- time and the workweek at a record low of 33 hours.

If we see confirmation of this 466,000 number in next week’s data, it would be a pretty safe bet to say that claims have finally gravitated into a 450,000- 475,000 range, which in the past was consistent with very modest job growth, but growth nonetheless. 

Economists have had trouble this cycle because of the nature of the recession being a credit contraction and asset deflation phase as opposed to a garden-variety inflation/excess inventory downturn, so relying on the past has been tricky and faulty.  Be that as it may, look for upward revisions now for the December 4th release of Street estimates for nonfarm payrolls (the consensus is currently at -120,000, which that could now come down to -100,000 or lower) and talk will soon grow of a positive-print as early as the December or January Nonfarm payroll reports. 

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Jim Rogers: Tim Geithner Has Been Wrong About Everything His Entire Career
• Gold Tumbles, As Nervous Investors Want Greenbacks Instead
• JP Morgan: Stop Freaking Out, The UAE Can Easily Save Dubai

With Black Friday around the corner, we all want to know beforehand what kind of deals retailers have readied for us and here is a piece of juicy info for those of you who live nearby Sony Outlet Stores. Also watch out for Sony Outlet Online deals and check out their Twitter page. For now though, see if any of these offerings will attract your wallet:

DoorBuster Deals

TVs:

KDL-32L5000 $309.99 (First 25)

KDL-40S504 $564.99 (First 25)

To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

• We always like it when governments sell off those things that can be better operated by the private sector, so we were pleased to read that Connecticut has sold off its 23 freeway rest stops.  Private equity firm The Carlyle Group paid the State $178 million for the right to re-build and operate them.  Most rest stop bathrooms are pretty gross, so maybe they’ll do something about them.  They also plan to put a Dunkin’ Donuts at each rest stop.

• Remember how Apple’s share of the PC market dropped to a low of 4.4% a few years back?  Well, they win the Comeback Player Award with a 9.2% market share now.

• Here’s an interesting office building.  It’s the corporate offices of an Ohio company that makes baskets.
  
• Way too many companies we visit let the doc-draw person send docs to escrow without a second set of eyes taking a look at them.  We were in a shop 5-6 years ago where this was the case, and here’s what happened: They were doing a lot of 2-1 arms with a 4.5% rate for the first two years and 2% & 5% caps thereafter.  The doc-draw person assumed that a 5% life cap meant the loan could never go above 5%, which does sound pretty logical, so as a result of no one checking her work, she sent to title a ton of loans which were 4.5% for two years and then 5% for the next 28 years.  Rates were quite a bit higher back then, and these loans had to ultimately be sold at 88.5 for an 11.5 point loss.  If you don’t have a second signature before docs go out, you should probably start doing so.
• Lenders who’ve gone totally paperless tell us that their loans get purchased a minimum of one day faster!  It was weird walking through San Francisco-based Bay Equity the other day and seeing literarily no loans files.
• To go paperless, we like what DataTrac has and we also like DocVelocity. Most of the companies we’ve seen successfully make this transition have used the DataTrac piece, but there are other vendors we just haven’t run across yet.
• Venezuelan Idiot-in-Chief Hugo Chavez is showing his true colors.  He recently praised Carlos the Jackal, the terrorist who murdered innocent people for years throughout Europe, then praised Zimbabwe ’s Robert Mugabe and Iran ’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  To show the world that he’s completely psycho, he then said that Uganda ’s Idi Amin was a good guy who was simply misunderstood.
• Take a look at the attached Ten Keys to Survival in Tough Times. Are there any specific ones you should pay attention to?  We wrote this in 2007 when the mortgage world was falling apart, but we think it applies just as much today. Number two is critical (Maintain maximum liquidity) as is #7 (Commit to better financial reporting).  When we look at it, though, they all still apply.
• Congratulations to MVP winners Joe Mauer and Albert Pujols.  To those who nostalgically look back on previous decades as the good old days of baseball, today’s kids will someday look back on the current era as their good old days.  Watching Pujols has to be just as exciting as having watched Ted William s, Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig 60-70 years ago.
• We just read a 1954 book about lawyers, and it made us wonder what corporate attorneys charged back then. Maybe $25 an hour, maybe $50?   And now $400 is totally normal, and some New York firms can charge up to $800-900.  What’s the most you’ve seen?
• We used to think highly of Frontier Bank up in the Seattle area, but we just noticed that their Texas Ratio is 335%.  Once you go over 100%, it’s quite possible you’ll fail, and at 150% it’s highly probable you will.   A very simplified explanation of the Texas Ratio is that 100% means that your capital + your loans loss reserves is exactly equal to your bad loans. There’s more to it than that, but that’s enough to help you understand that for every $100 of capital & reserves at Frontier, they have $335 of “bad” loans.
• If you’re on the Board of a bank that’s in trouble, you need to be very careful.  The FDIC is going after Directors of failed banks by sending “claim letters” informing them of the intent to sue.  And don’t assume that your D&O insurance policy will protect you.  Many of these policies have exclusions that don’t pay on suits brought by regulatory agencies.  We get asked occasionally to join various bank Boards, and this is a pretty big part of why we decline such invitations.
• Someone wrote us about the whereabouts of Rod P. of Capitol Commerce infamy, telling us that he lives in the multimillion dollar house that Capital Commerce “built”. is wearing a Mohawk haircut, probably looks like an idiot, races cars, and is apparently living the good life. Question:  Why isn’t this bank robber in jail?
• Including mortgages in foreclosure, total FHA non-performing loans increased to 17.7% from 17.4%. Subprime delinquency rates increased to 26.4%.  None of this is good news.
• Have you noticed that the stock of Hormel Foods is up 52% in the past year?  Hormel makes the world’s greatest breakfast food, Spam, and generates over $6 billion in revenue a year.  Bacon and eggs is nice, but Spam and eggs is heaven.  In Hawaii they serve Spam sushi.

We used to think that we would end up someday with only three national papers, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and the New York Times.  We can probably exclude the Washington Post now, as they just closed their remaining bureaus around the country.  This symbolic retreat from being a truly national newspaper was evidenced by their statement that they need to “… concentrate our journalistic firepower on our central mission of covering Washington … and the region.”

We were in Columbus, Ohio again last week, and we really like it!  A clean, vibrant downtown, nice neighborhoods and friendly people.  Next stop, two days in Seattle where we seem to go at least twice a month. If you have a company or bank in New Hampshire , Vermont , Hawaii or the Virgin Islands , call us and maybe we can give you a special deal. These are all beautiful places we’d like to visit.

Garrett, Watts & Co.

Helping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.

Corky Watts  ([email protected])

Joe Garrett ([email protected])

Mike McAuley  ([email protected])

Norman adds “flight simulator support” to his desk.

“I moved across the country and did not bring any furniture with me, only belongings. I was looking for a desk to house my computer, but had some criteria. I like to flight sim on the PC therefore I had a yoke and throttle unit that I had to accomodate. Also, the yoke and throttle clamp onto the desk in such a manner that if there was a lip on the front edge of the desk it does not clamp well. I also didn’t have too much room and did not want a huge elaborate solution. In addition many dedicated gaming-desk type setups are quite costly compared to the price of what I got. Compactness, simplicity, and ease of assembly/modification (no access to a workshop here!) were important to me in my choosing. I spent quite a while at the nearest Ikea until I thought up the following solution:

– The desk pictured is the Mikael computer workstation.
– I merely assembled the bottom half of the desk as instructed. I didn’t want the top pieces, however, because I like to have a lot of open desk space I just left the top half off. The thick, lip-less pieces of the desk surfaces provide ideal clamping for my yoke and throttle.
– To accomodate the throttle quadrant in a “realistic” position, I merely took the very top piece (with the filing “stands”) which fortuitously is just about the same width as the CPU cabinet. Therefore, simply taking that piece as a large plank and installing a few L-brackets in the CPU cabinet I was able to get it to stick out as a platform on which I could mount my throttle.
– I used a total of 8 L brackets, four installed in the “L” shape and four in the “7” configuration. This means the plank is not held into the desk by screws, and can be easily slid out if you need to for example access the computer, or want to store it away for a neater appearance. Now that there are two monitors on my setup I don’t really pack it away anymore though.
– Since my PC is a small form factor it is low and fits perfectly in its little “cubby” on the bottom. If I had a bigger tower I don’t know that this hack would work.
– Later on I purchased a larger monitor and moved my old LCD down to the platform as a secondary display, providing further realism to serve as a second “instrument panel”. You can see that the secondary monitor is bent far down enough such that you can pull out the desk and access the contents with no interference issues. As the monitor is pretty easily adjustable I can stand it straighter or fold it down depending on preference/need to get into the drawer.

As far as cable management goes, because the pieces of the desk are quite thick, I bought some of the Ikea cable tubing and nailed it to the rear of the desk. Therefore all the cable runs kind of follow the contours of the desk on the rear thus you can’t really see wires if you’re looking at the desk despite the fact that there is no backing material to hide cables behind.

Like I said the hack is absurdly simple, especially it only requires 8 L brackets in addition to whatever you get in the Mikael pack.

In all I found it’s worked out quite nicely, I get enough desk space on the top surface and have a great little compact but very effective flight sim setup. The “correct” positioning of the throttle levers helps increase the immersion factor and the secondary monitor there adds to the experience as well. In reality I found the Mikael workstation (without the top) to be a great compact computer desk for any need. I admit that my little modification might not have a lot of use for a lot of people but I’m sure in typical IKEAhacker like fashion others might find inspiration to expand on the concept… Something similar would probably work well for people who have racing wheels on their computers as well.”

Facebook is taking a harder stance on what third-party app developers can do to make money, more specifically, what ad-networks they can and can’t use, with emphasis on the latter. In light of all the recent scandals and controversy over some practices developers employed to monetize their apps, especially the so called ‘offer-ads’, it’s no surprise that the social network, which was also criticized for its lax approach in enforcing its own policies, has finally taken a clearer stance. Facebook has issued a list of “monetization providers” which are banned from the site and says that any app doing business with them is liable to be banned as well.

“In an effort to keep you informed on the best ways to adhere to our policies and principles, while continuing to grow your business on Facebook Platform, we’ve created a list of monetization providers that are no longer permitted to operate on Facebook Platform or Facebook.com. These providers have violated our policies and/or principles,” Nick Gianos, from Facebook’s Platform team, wrote.

Facebook says that the list can change at any time, so the developers should regularly check to see if their ad network hasn’t been added to it to avoid any problems. At the moment, four providers have been singled out, Gambit, Social Hour, Social… (read more)

The HTC HD2 now available on T-Mobile Germany. Price without contract 599 €. Various options like a monthly (think it was a 24 month contract) fee of around 35-41 € and 229€ immediately. I remember also some cheaper ones (279€ immediately, lower monthly fee)

-Update: Today they changed their ad again and the price and contract options disappeared..
Sorry,  forgot to copy pictures yesterday…

See T-Mobile Germany here for the latest.

This post was submitted by quserdy.

One day, we may see a shock economic event, which causes investors to dump dollars and rush to the safety of gold.

But we’re not there yet. For now, we still live in a world where, in times of nervousness, people rush to the familiar green currency that we can make more and more of, and which so many people think will be as valuable as toilet paper.

Reuters: Gold prices tumbled nearly 5 percent to a one-week low below $1,140 an ounce on Friday as investors fearing debt default in Dubai sought safety in dollars and cash.

Other precious metals also slipped. Silver hit a two-week low of $17.66 an ounce, while platinum and palladium touched one-week lows of $1,418.50 and $351 an ounce respectively.

Read the whole thing >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• JP Morgan: Stop Freaking Out, The UAE Can Easily Save Dubai
• Just How Scroomed Are HSBC And Standard Chartered On Dubai’s Default?
• Potential Dubai Default Rocks Financial Markets, While Dollar Soars On Panic Buying

We know a good percentage of our readers prefer resistive over capacitive touch screens, and for those Stantum’s technology holds the main hope of bringing capacitive advantages such as sensitivity, clarity and multi-touch to resistive screens.

The above video is not on a smartphone, but still shows at least that the company is kicking around still and is working on bringing its technology to the market.

Now if they can just hurry up and marry the best of both worlds, 100% of our readers would be happy.

Via Engadget.com

The latest beta version of Mozilla’s extremely popular browser Firefox 3.6 Beta 4 was recently pushed to testers and eager users worldwide. It’s mostly a bug fixing release, unsurprising at this stage in the development process when the focus is on rounding out the rough edges. Still, there are a couple of new features geared more at developers, but which will potentially improve the user experience significantly, like the brand new support for the HTML 5 File API.

Mozilla says a total of 100 bugs have been fixed from the previous beta version and it looks like Firefox 3.6 is now very close to a final state. Firefox 3.6 Beta 4 should be the final beta release, and a release candidate version and also the final build are expected to come by the year’s end. The new release focuses on add-on compatibility as 3.6 is considered a major release so add-ons have to be upgraded to support it.

There was talk of labeling 3.6 as a minor update, which would have meant developers wouldn’t have had to update their add-ons, but it looks like those plans were dropped after several developers complained it would create confusion about the versioning system. Still, Mozilla claims that about 70 percent of the add-ons available in the online gallery have now been updated, and it is urging users to help the developers by i… (read more)

The SPRINGTEST T1 series is a very simple and economical system for checking compression springs in one point. The force gauge gives the force applied, the displacement sensor on the side shows the flexion or height measured under load. With its revolving hand crank, it is designed to perform tests from low capacity (10N) to high capacity (2000N) with quick results. The manual test stand features a small footprint, durable design, portable and a optional a digital travel display. Combined with our Centor force gauges, the SPRINGTEST T1 can measure any compression spring in production or laboratory for an affordable price. The parallelism of the lower plate can be adjusted to ensure correct seating for the spring.
Complete system ready to measure.

Most likely you have met him before. When occasionally you use an ATM machine, card reader, drink or other vending mache, he most certainly was at your service.

He is part of a group of silent heroes that do their work in icy conditions as well as in the heat of a summer day, unobtusively and reliably. Without any complaints, without maitenance. He is our 1.61.065, and most likely you have heard of him.

Inconspicuousness is his trademark. For many engineers his greatest advantage may be: Install him, lean back and forget him, because everything on him is focused on durability and reliability.

In addition, this DC gear motor from Bühler Motor has all kinds of other superior features. For example, it is compact. Including the gear, it is 29 mm wide, 40 mm high, 43.3 mm long. Depending on whether the gear is designed as a 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 step variation, max. Torque of 63 to 420 mNm can be achieved.

A strong performer, who will find work nearly anywhere. The show-stopper: No matter which variation of speed and torque is used, the dimensions of the gear motor stay the same. This is made possible by placing the gear box next to the motor.
Depending on the required torque, the gears may be made from plastic or metal. The special design of the gear box enables shaft operation from both sides. Addition of an encoder via an additional shaft directly out of of the motor makes for very high performances.

6V, 12V, 18V and 24 V versions are available, plus numerous customer-specific modifications. From torque adjustment through winding changes to alternative contact points, modifications of shaft extension and shaft form, to adding additional components, like extra gears, worms, flywheels and weight, all the way to adding adapter and mounting plates, a lot can be done. Upon special request, ratios of 6.4, 10.2, 2132 and 4406 can be achieved. The ratio variations readily availabable from stock are 27.4 – 1,031.6.
The combination of compact design, variability, and quality make our silent hero a first choice, not only in vending machines. Valve adjustments, printing of plastic card, or paper handling in large plotters, are Bühler agent’s 1.61.065 specialities. He’s the designer’s favorite, when a simple fulfillment of important tasks is needed.

The IR series is a range of sealed pushbutton switches with diameter 16 mm bushing.

A latching action electrical function has recently been developped for the standard version. Illuminated or non-illuminated, available with solder lugs, flying leads, straight PC or quick-connect terminals.

APEM’s new IR series can be easily customized. Among the possibilities, round flat actuators can be marked. Also, the LED resistor can be integrated on flying lead versions.

Common features
• Sealed to IP67
• Illuminated and non-illuminated
• Tactile feedback
• Wide choice of bezel and actuator colours
• Wide choice of illumination colours