Blog

After RIM’s release of the BlackBerry Pearl 8220 flip-phone it was hard to tell what direction the former candy bar style handset was headed, and rumors of the models demise began to circulate around intertubes. However, the rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated as an updated 3G Pearl has been whispered for months, and it looks like RIM has gone back to the Pearl’s form-factor roots with its latest spin on the classic, the BlackBerry Pearl 9100 — code name Striker or Stratus. The 9100 prototype in question is a GSM device with RIM’s now standard optical trackball, SureType keyboard, 3G, Wi-Fi, and BlackBerry OS 5.0; it also incorporates many of the stylistic changes of the BlackBerry Bold 9700. We’ll stay on top of this one and provide you more details as they become available, but for now there is a short teaser video from salomondrin.net all queued up for you after the bounce.

[Via CrackBerry]

Read

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Sony yesterday discussed its plans to open a download shop similar to iTunes or Amazon Digital Downloads.

Reportedly given the tentative name “Sony Online Service,” the online store would make the many different types of Sony digital content available in a single place. The company has a number of content portals already, but each is geared toward a related piece of hardware and run by a different business unit of the giant Sony conglomerate.

For example, PlayStation 3 and PSP users can download new games, movies, and TV episodes from the PlayStation Network, but users of the Bravia Internet Link on Sony’s HDTVs get content directly from Sony Pictures services such as Crackle. Users of Sony’s e-Reader family can get content in The sBook Store from Sony, but users of Sony’s Walkman family of portable media players are encouraged to get their music from Sony MusicPass, which was launched to replace the defunct Connect music download shop that closed in 2008. There is also a substantial overlap in content with Sony’s mobile phone joint venture Sony Ericsson and itsPlayNow arena..

Kazuo Hirai, Sony’s executive vice president for networked products and services, says the service will be modeled after the popular PlayStation Network, which now has more than 33 million registered users. Hirai however, expressed doubt to Businessweek that users of PlayStation Network would actually migrate over to a new service.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) has hit the highest point all year, staging a stunning rebound that is earning dry bulk shipping companies substantial amounts of profit for the time being. The latest BDI rally has been particularly spectacular given the massive amount of new vessel supply, which generally sinks rates all else equal, it has overcome.

The sudden spike in new vessel supply this year is well by this chart from Johannes Moller at Danske Bank. Note the BDI rallied against this upward slope. This has been due to remarkably strong demand from China, plus some contribution from the grains trade which is seasonally strong right now.

Yet while dry bulk stocks have rallied to some extent, they haven’t experienced the same strength as they have in the past when the BDI was at such high levels.

For example, DryShips (DRYS), Eagle Bulk Shipping (EGLE), and Genco Shipping (GNK) are trading below their highs for this year, and dramatically lower to where they’ve been in the past when the BDI was above 4,600. The same is generally the case for dry bulk shipping companies in Asia. So what gives?

While forecasting the BDI is a bit of fool’s game, the stocks haven’t run like in the past due to concerns that we may be set up for a massive BDI head-fake in 2010. This is because that supply chart you see above isn’t set to get any better. It is set to worsen.

Danske Bank: We believe this [supply] trend should continue into 2010 when we believe quarterly deliveries are likely to be in the range of 15-20 m dwt, which is equal to an annualised fleet growth in the range of 13-18%.

The dry bulk freight forwards curve confirms this. It is forecasting a decline in rates, especially around the second quarter of 2010:

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Way Better Than The BDI: Watch Chinese Iron Ore Demand Falling
• The Baltic Dry Index Soars On Voracious Chinese Commodities Demand (DRYS, EGLE)
• Baltic Dry Index About To Break 3,000 Again

Another week, another refusal by Texas to reconsider a death row case. Actually, make that two refusals.

Robert Lee Thompson, 34, was executed last night in Huntsville, just an hour after Gov. Rick Perry had declined to commute his sentence to life. Perry was presented a rare commutation recommendation from the state’s Board of Pardons and Parole, which had voted 5-2 in favor of a life sentence for Thompson, who was convicted under the “law of parties” — meaning he participated in the crime but didn’t pull the trigger. Perry decided to ignore the board and authorize the execution.

In another case, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals yesterday rejected an appeal from Max Soffar (left), who has been on the state’s death row for 28 years for a crime he says he didn’t commit. Soffar, who is mentally ill, was convicted of killing four people in 1980 after giving what he and advocates say was a false confession.

(more…)

Filed under: Chrysler, Nissan, Renault

With all the trials and tribulations General Motors has endured during the past year, we almost forgot that the Detroit, MI-based automaker nearly got itself tied up with Renault-Nissan. Back in 2006, the two companies discussed joining forces to become a singular global automotive juggernaut, but in the end, GM felt it was in its best interests to go it alone and face the quickly disintegrating global automotive market by themselves.

While GM’s situation ultimately improved via bankruptcy and a $50 billion helping hand from the U.S. government, Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn still thinks the partnership would have been “without a doubt” in everyone’s best interests. Ghosn reportedly made the comments during a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations, adding that “there was a possibility to create something that would be extremely competitive.”

Ghosn then went on to say that he wasn’t happy the two companies didn’t end up working together after GM nearly collapsed because “when you see the disaster and the waste of energy and skills and talent, nobody can be happy.” The charismatic CEO also said that Renault-Nissan was very concerned about GM’s precarious position earlier in the year due to the fact that his company uses many of the same suppliers. If GM had gone down, it would have probably taken more than a few suppliers with it, and Ghosn says that as a result, Nissan wouldn’t have been able to make a single vehicle in North America.

While we can definitely understand why Ghosn would have preferred that the marriage of his company to GM was consecrated, we still don’t see how it would have helped The General in the long run. GM still would have been in a very uncompetitive cash situation, and Renault-Nissan doesn’t have much in the way of technology or platforms that the General doesn’t already the equivalents to.

[Source: The Detroit News | Image: Raveendran/AFP/Getty]

REPORT: Ghosn still thinks Renault-Nissan should have partnered with GM in 2006 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Over the past few years it seems like I’ve talked about hydrogen fuel cells ad nauseam. I’ve spoken about fuel cells that are being developed with platinum nanowires, carbon, nitrogen, iron, doped nanotubes, mushroom enzymes, polymers, plastics, nickel, hydrazine hydrate and other enzymes.

What I’ve neglected to talk about over time, however, is how researchers and manufacturers are supposed to test hydrogen fuel cells so that they may keep improving the size, weight, durability, life cycle and materials used.

A company called FuelCon has developed an advanced testing system for the proton conductivity of fuel cells. According to FuelCon, “With the ‘TrueXessory-PCM Proton Conductivity Measurement’ market launch FuelCon provides a testing system for the development of more efficient fuel cell membranes. The new product allows highly reproducible in-plane measurements of the proton conductivity of PEM and DMFC membranes under defined humidification and temperatures up to 200°C. Designed as a tabletop system, complex hardware like a complete test station including gas supply is not required.”

One of the problems that fuel cells for hydrogen cars have had in the past is a short life cycle. Some earlier prototype GM models had fuel cells that were only rated for around 50,000 miles. The U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) has stated that hydrogen fuel cells for cars will be ready for prime time when they have a durability of 5,000 hours (or roughly 150,000 miles).

By having the tools to quickly test new methods and materials for creating fuel cells, the development time should be shortened considerably. Also, improved conductivity means more power and smaller fuel cells, which impact the weight of the vehicle and where the fuel cell system can be placed. Having the right tools to bench test hydrogen fuel cells is a positive step towards commercialization that should not be ignored.

---

For all the difficulty of measuring inflation, most countries use something similar to our CPI to do it.

Obviously, though, the components are totally different, and so they provide a nice insight into what people are buying and eating all around the world.

The food component of the Chinese CPI should be particularly amusing to most Westerners, who would think that carp is a key food item, and they certainly wouldn't think to differentiate two kinds of carp. (Americans use much more boring items like breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, and chicken).

Courtesy of the Chinese Government's excellent and transparent economic statistics page, we present our 14 favorite items and what they cost.

See the food >>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• China's 14 Dominoes Of Destruction

---

Sony recently released the 3.10 firmware update for the Playstation 3 (PS3), which adds several interesting new features. It also is the foundation for the Playstation embracing social media services, beginning with Facebook. Many of you may be disappointed to learn there isn’t the full Facebook experience, but Sony has done well by binding your Playstation Network account to Facebook. Any trophies you earn, Playstation Store purchases you buy, or in-game achievements you experience will be published on your Facebook profile. You can specify which of those you wish to have noted on your Facebook as well.

Here is a video from the Playstation Blog demonstrating these new features:

Full details of the update:

Photo

Displaying photos in a grid

The thumbnail images for photos under [Photo] are now displayed in a grid.

PlayStation®Network

Linking feature for Facebook™

You can now share information on Facebook™ about items such as trophies you have earned and content you have purchased in PlayStation®Store. > See details

Facebook™ is a service that helps you connect and share with the people in your life. Visit http://www.facebook.com for more information. Facebook™ is a trademark of Facebook, Inc.

Other new or revised features in version 3.10:

Settings

• The PlayStation®Network sign-in ID and password (for the user who is currently logged in) have been added as items that can be deleted when using [Restore Default Settings].

Friends

• You can now change the background color of your profile screen.

Filed under: Car Buying, Saab, Earnings/Financials

When the automotive history of the last ten or so years is written, one of the most curious chapters will be why big, flush with cash American car companies purchased relatively diminutive, relatively oddball Swedish brands. Ford and Volvo, while still not a match made in heaven, at least gave it a go, sharing platforms and technology. The merger has yielded some good results, too. Anyone that’s driven cars like the Flex or new Taurus can attest to how well Ford skin draped over a Volvo-based chassis works – especially when motivated by a twin-turbocharged, direct-injected motor.

General Motors acquisition of Saab on the other hand, was basically a complete and total disaster. Saab suffered mightily at the hands of the General, being forced to accept Opel underpinnings with hard points that prevented hatchbacks and therefore alienated the brand’s five-door loving base. The 9-5 (formerly the 9000) languished and essentially died on the vine. The Saabaru (9-2X) proved the no one wanted to pay a $5000 premium for a WRX with nice seats, and the 9-7X was for all intents and purposes a Chevy Trailblazer with the ignition key stuck between the seats. Worse, with Saturn morphing into the American branch of Opel, Saab was the afterthought after the afterthought.

According to an article in Sweden’s di, GM lost $5,100 on every Saab it has sold over the last eight years. The how is murky, but the why is that they spent a lot of money to purchase Saab and then didn’t sell very many of them. Moreover, it’s costing GM a pretty penny to unload Saab. Just about $900,000,000 to put a number on it. All in, General Motors lost nearly $6 billion dollars with Saab in the eight years they spent together. A total waste on both sides of the Atlantic. Here’s hoping for better things from the (still pending) Koenigsegg marriage.

[Source: di.se via TTAC]

Swedish Pickle: Study says GM lost $5,000+ on each Saab sold over the last 8 years originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The X2 should be out shortly, and for those who are a fan of the X1, it should be an okay update. It’s still using the MSM720X chipset though it is apparently more solid than its predecessor.

Gtrab over at XDA-Developers has posted a variety of videos of the X2, including an unboxing.

Via XDA-Developers and Pocketnow.

---

Google Chrome OS may be getting all of the attention today, but such a huge company doesn’t revolve around just one product. And it’s still very much a search company so it can’t afford to get too distracted from its main bread winner. In fact it’s anything but, Google will be launching a rather significant refresh of its search engine’s design later today for limited set of users. The changes go pretty deep and are meant to make the whole experience more consistent.

Google is well known for constantly tweaking and updating its products and its search engine has seen its fair share over the years. Most of the time, those changes are subtle and unnoticeable, but little by little they have contributed to a lot of inconsistencies in the features. Marissa Mayer, Google VP of search and user experience, has had enough and is looking to give the search engine a complete do-over.

“I don’t like jazz, because you never know what’s going to happen next,” Mayer told Search Engine Land comparing the issues with the search engine to the musical style. “I’ve been calling this problem ‘user interface jazz.’ This result looks this way, and that result looks that way [something much different], and it really does slow you down.”

So Google got to wor… (read more)

In case you missed it, treasury bill yields went negative yesterday (to -0.03%) which means investors were willing to lose money in order to own them. This is a very rare occurrence.

Even simply keeping cash under your pillow would earn a higher return, in either an inflationary or deflationary environment. So negative yields, no matter how small, clearly don’t make any investment sense.

When this happened back during the end of last year, Post-Lehman, one potential reason was that institutional investors were so panicked that they simply wanted to protect the value of their capital as much as possible. The only way to do that within their scope of options was to buy U.S. treasury bills, even if they had to accept a small negative return.

Yet investors certainly aren’t as panicked as they were last year. So what’s going on this time?

The FT (via FTAlphaville) ‘The growing appetite for short-term government debt reflects an effort by banks to present pristine year-end balance sheets to regulators and investors – a practice known as “window dressing” on Wall Street, analysts said.’

And…

Across The Curve: Typically as the year end approaches clients tend to unwind profitable trades and reduce balance sheet. I think that some of that deleveraging process has created new piles of cash and that money needs a place to park.

Others are preparing to beautify their balance sheet by having some pristine government paper on the books over year end. Some of that trade has begun as investors purchase paper which will carry them into 2010.

Thus this time around it appears there is simply too much money that wants to sit tight and look respectable come year-end. Which means that we shouldn’t read too much from the negative T-Bill yield and this will eventually rebound back to at least 0%, once the year-end regulatory dance comes to an end.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Post-Lehman Deja Vu As T-Bill Yields Turn Negative
• Demand For Yield Caused The First Bubble, And It’s Happening Again
• CHART OF THE DAY: Investors Are Only Interested In High-Yield Junk

Looks like the latest battle over copyright extension is about to take place in Japan, where the new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has vowed to extend certain copyrights. Specifically, he says that posthumous copyrights for compositions should last 70 years, rather than 50. This makes no sense, no matter what basis you judge copyright on. Copyright is supposed to serve a simple purpose: to encourage the creation of new works. It never makes sense to extend copyright on existing works, because those works were already created. In other words, the social “bargain” that was offered in terms of the limited times of protection available were clearly sufficient. But, it’s making a pure mockery of the law to specifically single out posthumous copyright protection to be extended because, as far as I know, the dead no longer have any incentives to create new content, no matter how long the copyrights on their old content lasts. The only explanation for doing so is to create a special welfare program for songwriters and composers. But, if that’s the case, let’s make it clear this is a welfare system, rather than anything to do with copyright.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

No More Heroes is making the jump to the PS3 and Xbox 360. We already saw some shots of the new versions in the Famitsu scan we posted a couple of day…

The following excerpt is from the blog “Surviving In Argentina,” by Fernando Ferfal Aguirre. 

Ferfal lived through Argentina’s economic implosion in 2001.  Here, he shares some of his secrets to survival.

So, guys, things don’t look good.

It pains me to see America going through this and the consequences it will bring.

These are critical days.  Now is when we’ll get a better picture of how bad things will actually get, how long until we see the economy back on its feet. Instead of trying to guess what will happen, let’s go through some things you should to right now, if you haven’t taken care of them already.

First, how about what NOT to do?

*Don’t open your big mouth!

It’s ok that you feel all nice and warm about the 1/5/whatever year food supply you already have, but there’s no need to talk about it with the guys at work, the neighbors, friends or even family that is not directly related.

Other than my wife and kids, these are things that we simply do not talk about with people that know us, know our faces, names and know where we life.

Next thing you know someone’s knocking on your door, asking for favors you simply can’t afford.

Not long ago a friend asked if I could lend him a gun for self defense… yes, right.

Here, the owner of the gun is responsible for it and is not allowed to lend it to other non licensed persons. Other than my brother, I’m not giving a gun away to just anyone.

*Don’t waste your money!

How many times have we read about paper money only being good for TP after a crisis?

Though it may have happened in some extremely primitive nations, or countries destroyed by war, do not expect that to happen in USA. It won’t.  Rather the other way around, you’ll consider it a precious commodity even more. As prices go up, you’ll save every penny.

If you already have savings you want to protect, buy precious metals, or if you have enough money, buy real estate. It’s a buyer’s market right now.

A small apartment would be a good investment.

Give it a few months, you’ll see rent prices go up in no time.

People can’t get loans to buy or they don’t have the money, so people start renting more. More demand, prices go up.

*Don’t run for the hills

This isn’t a hurricane or flood, you can’t run from this.

Running to your bug-out location and “living off the land” is a terrible idea, almost as stupid as thinking about quitting your day job to start growing corn.

If you are a farmer and that’s what you do for a living, that’s just perfect. But if you are doing it as part of preparedness for the end of the world, you need to think things a bit better. For a farm to be a profitable, you need a margin of production large enough to make it economically sustainable.

Farming as a way of producing your own food is a terrible mistake.  Spending an entire day to produce the food equivalent of what you can buy with 15 minutes of your current salary isn’t smart.

Yes, inflation, I know about it, as a matter of fact I know about it very well, but the solution isn’t growing your own food, building your own car, building your own house, digging your own petrol site or fixing your teeth yourself. 🙂

The solution is making more money and reducing expenses as much as possible.

Money ( in one form or another) makes the world go around and it’s been this way for more than 10.000 years, wont change any time soon.

No more toys, guys, at least for a while.

Ok, now for things to do…

Keep reading at Surviving In Argentina >

See Also: SocGen: We’re On The Verge Of Global Economic Collapse

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• SocGen: Prepare Yourself For The Worst Case Scenario!

Filed under: Concept Cars, Hybrid, Hatchback, Lexus

Lexus introduced its LF-Ch concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September and it’s believed to be a shoe-in for production for the European market. However, in a new Detroit Bureau interview with the brand’s general manager, Mark Templin, it is confirmed that Lexus is seriously considering bringing a production version of the hatchback to the U.S. market as well. If it does come here, it would be the smallest Lexus and would compete against the likes of the Audi A3, BMW 1 Series, Volvo C30 and Mini Cooper – only the latter of which has managed to sell in big numbers. The Lexus concept will be shown again at the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show as well as in Detroit, where Lexus officials will be evaluating reactions to a premium priced small car.

Such cars are already well accepted in Europe and the idea of smaller premium cars may yet hold some appeal in the U.S. – especially if fuel prices rise. Lexus has no intention of decontenting the LF-Ch to keep the price down if it does come to the States. While the Detroit Bureau cautions that a production LF-Ch is likely to have a conventional powertrain as standard fitment, a hybrid will probably be needed to compete with the A3 TDI and a possible 1 Series hybrid or diesel down the line.

[Source: The Detroit Bureau]

REPORT: New Lexus small car may be headed for U.S. by 2012 – perhaps sooner originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments