Oracle’s $1.3 Billion U.S. Verdict Against SAP Thrown Out

Oracle’s $1.3 Billion U.S. Verdict Against SAP Thrown Out: Oracle Corp.’s $1.3 billion copyright-infringement verdict against SAP AG, the largest maker of business-management software, was overturned by a federal judge who called the award “grossly excessive.”.

Source : Google Reader

TSMC’s Chang Says Weakening Economy Will Affect Chip Market

TSMC’s Chang Says Weakening Economy Will Affect Chip Market: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Morris Chang said his customers’ confidence in the global economy has weakened.

Source : Google Reader

U2’s Bono Defends Jobs After Criticism About His Philanthropy

U2’s Bono Defends Jobs After Criticism About His Philanthropy: Bono, U2 rock band’s lead singer, defended Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs after a New York Times columnist wrote the former chief executive wasn’t a prominent philanthropist.

Source : Google Reader

Permira Said to Be in Talks to Buy Alcatel-Lucent Genesys Unit

Permira Said to Be in Talks to Buy Alcatel-Lucent Genesys Unit: Permira Advisers LLP, the London- based buyout fund, is in talks to buy Alcatel-Lucent’s Genesys software unit after deciding against a takeover of its entire enterprise business, said a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

Source : Google Reader

Fuel Doctor Finale: No, It Really Doesn’t Work. At All

Fuel Doctor Finale: No, It Really Doesn’t Work. At All:

A few months back, we looked at a number of fuel-saving devices and found out that, not surprisingly, none of them worked. The Fuel Doctor FD-47 was one of these devices. After we published the story, Fuel Doctor president and CEO Mark Soffa repeatedly contacted us to challenge our testing methodology and claim that the FD-47 works as advertised. In the end, we conceded that the Fuel Doctor claims to work on vehicles more than two years old and our test was performed on newer cars. We promised to follow up.

Our next round of testing revolves around the actual function of the FD-47. The explanation of how the Fuel Doctor works boils down to three essential points: 1) As a vehicle gets older, the electrical ground deteriorates; 2) The deterioration of the ground causes electrical noise and interference that diminish the performance of the fuel injectors and/or ECU; and 3) The FD-47, plugged into a 12-volt port in a vehicle’s interior, conditions this noise and improves vehicle performance.

Left: A 13-volt DC current with the FD-47 disconnected. Right: The same 13-volt DC signal from the amplifier (orange) and across the FD-47 connection point (green). When connected, the FD-47 introduces about one volt peak-to-peak of noise.

It all sounds pretty far-fetched. ECUs are shielded from noise, both with respect to the ground wire and the other electrical components. But for the sake of argument, we decided to accept the theory that you can actually affect an engine’s ECU through the 12-volt power port. If this noise does occur, and that noise affects the ECU, and it can be fixed through the 12-volt port, does the FD-47 actually cancel any of it?

Left: The two signals superimposed, showing that the noise is slightly higher at the source (the FD-47). Right: A close-up look at the noise blips introduced by the FD-47.

No. Not at all. In fact, the FD-47 makes things worse. We bought a brand-new FD-47 Platinum from the Fuel Doctor website and sent it to an engineer for an automotive supplier to test the noise-damping characteristics of the device. Basically, we tried to recreate the graph shown on the “How it Works” page of the Fuel Doctor website. (At the time of publishing this, Fuel Doctor’s How it Works page is down; you can see an archived version here.) Our results, as you can see in the images here, show the exact opposite of the Fuel Doctor’s claims. To quote our engineer: “We concluded that the FD-47 does nothing to clean up the power noise in a vehicle, and in fact adds more noise.”

Left: A 0.5-volt peak-to-peak random noise signal with the FD-47 disconnected. Right: The same 0.5-v peak-to-peak noise signal with the FD-47 connected. The FD-47 (green) fails to filter out the white noise and in fact introduces the same additional noise seen before.

For reference, the test equipment consisted of a Hewlett-Packard 33120A waveform generator, Techron 7570 amplifier, Hewlett-Packard Infinium oscilloscope, and a Fluke 87V multimeter.

Superimposed images of the white noise plus the additional noise of the FD-47.

Still not convinced the FD-47 is a scam? Consumer Reports also performed an early test, also was challenged by Fuel Doctor, and also repeated its testing. In the second CR test, all of the recommended procedures were followed, including using older vehicles, and no meaningful improvement was found.

In short: Save your money instead of wasting it on the Fuel Doctor. Or waste it on something cool like this.

Source : Google Reader

Lotus: In Even Deeper Than You Realized

Lotus: In Even Deeper Than You Realized:

At last year’s Paris auto show, Lotus CEO Dany Bahar surprised the assembled press with six concept cars to show the way forward for the brand, complete with specs and production plans. Skeptics were puzzled about the unprecedented bean-spilling, which resembled an investor pep rally more than a press conference. There was a city car—later christened Ethos—a new Elise, a new Esprit supercar, a new Elan to be positioned between the Elise and the Esprit, the Elite front-engine sports car, and a sedan called the Eterne. Or, to be more accurate, there were styling mock-ups of these proposed vehicles.

We couldn’t help but wonder about this procession of cars, whose styling is just as indistinguishable as their names. Nor did we understand the decision to desert the current positioning of the Elise at a time when other carmakers are beginning to gravitate toward its light-weight, low-cost approach, or how Lotus would pay for the development and engineering of an entirely new vehicle family brimming with the latest technology.

Subsequently, we’ve been treated to a flurry of news releases regarding partnerships, sponsorships, and celebrity plant visits. The very latest releases announced Bronx-raised rapper “Swizz Beatz” being hired as “vice president of creative design and global marketing,” and the all-important partnership with the Norwich City soccer team. We are not kidding.

Meanwhile, what’s happening with the new cars supposed to be rushed into production? Bahar himself announced in a simulated interview published by his press department that the Elan would be “delayed, not canceled,” giving him more time to make sure that “the quality of the Evora matches its undeniable performance.” That’s good news, if a bit late in light of the fact that the Evora was unveiled in 2008.

German journalist Thomas Geiger, who was present at an event at the company’s headquarters in Hethel, U.K., a few weeks back, reports that the presentation consisted of “PowerPoints instead of prototypes.” According to Lotus, the Esprit is still slated for a debut in 2013. The next-generation Elise—which will be far heavier and more expensive than the current model—the four-seater Elite, and the four-door Eterne (of which just an exterior mockup exists so far) will have to wait until 2015. The Elan has supposedly been pushed back until 2017.

Rumor has it that Lotus tried to peddle the Evora to Caterham, but the maker of kit-car-like Lotus Seven derivatives politely declined. Now it seems the slow-selling Evora, powered by a Toyota Camry engine, will be built by Lotus until the Elan appears in 2017.

And then there’s the two-seater city car; it will be equipped, says Lotus, with an “alternative powertrain.” Of course it will be. On a roll now, Lotus also announced that it will offer every one of its two-door sports cars in several versions: a sporty “R” model, a lightweight derivative, and a roadster. For the most powerful cars, Lotus will develop its own 4.8-liter V-8 with around 570 hp. This is instead of the company’s original plan, which was to use supercharged Lexus engines—a plan that Lotus apparently failed to share with Toyota before announcing it to the public. But that’s not all: To keep its engineers from twiddling their thumbs, Lotus promises hybrid versions of all its cars as well.

Oh, and Bahar promises a €100-million investment into Lotus’s production site, which is supposed to crank out 8000 cars annually, up from 2500 right now. How far has the ambitious project progressed? “Fresh paint and a few excavators,” according to Geiger.

Who is going to pay for all of this? Proton, of course, the Malaysian carmaker that owns Lotus Cars and relies on Lotus Engineering for its own cars—far more than necessary, given the choice of competent global research-and-development consultancies. At a recent visit at Lotus headquarters in Hethel, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak endorsed the sports-car maker’s plans. But even he admitted to “a small degree of skepticism due to the level of investment” when he first learned of Bahar’s plans.

Indeed, Bahar has spent vast amounts of money on staff and advisors, not to mention private jets and sponsorship deals, fantastic money at a point in time when Proton is so short on cash that vital new mainstream product and component programs are being delayed or canceled. One of the casualties is an extremely promising scalable-engine program co-developed with Ricardo that would have given Proton a significant edge over the competition. What’s more, it could have delivered the troublesome (and incidentally, Lotus-engineered) Campro engine a well-deserved final blow. But Proton spent the money on Lotus instead, and, for good measure, on a hideously costly electric-vehicle program with British firm Frazer-Nash Research. That partnership has produced little more than a few prototypes, mostly inoperable, and could go down in flames at any time.

If Proton’s patience runs out, Lotus’s prospects for bringing all five sports cars, plus the city car, onto the road in the proposed time frame are slim to none. “At best, Bahar might get one car out—in a non-U.S. version,” an insider tells us. Perhaps some extra money will come from U.K. authorities. Bahar has made it clear that Lotus could move operations abroad, to France, or India.

Even the skeptics will admit that changes at Lotus were necessary: The pre-Bahar working attitude at Hethel was described to us by insiders as operating in a comfort zone, with little attention paid to cost efficiency, and an overall “mindset that sent the company into a slow spiral to death.” Lotus was unable to turn a profit for many years, but neither did the company gobble up cash at the current rate, which is a direct result of Bahar’s “turnaround plan.” But another switch in Lotus’s top management won’t be easy. Bahar, we hear, has an elaborate contract with Proton that would make his discharge prohibitively expensive, or could see him walk away with a significant chunk of the company. “Auditors at Proton,” a confidant tells us, “are pulling their hair out.”

Why don’t they just chill and listen to their new VP? Mr. Beatz has got some fine lyrics for them: “Where the cash at?”

Source : Google Reader

McLaren Special Operations Will Outfit an MP4-12C to Your Personal Specs—and Even Paint it a Special Orange

McLaren Special Operations Will Outfit an MP4-12C to Your Personal Specs—and Even Paint it a Special Orange:

McLaren has announced the creation of a Special Operations personalization arm, allowing current and future customers to add unique touches to their McLaren sports cars. The small automaker says it already has “the knowledge and capability to design, engineer, and produce almost anything a customer may desire for their 12C.” Only now, McLaren has packaged all that know-how into a formal factory customization program.

To give current and potential McLaren customers a taste of what Special Operations could do for them, the team brought an exclusive MP4-12C sports car to last week’s Pebble Beach Concours weekend. The special 12C features matte “Volcano Orange” paint, which contrasts with a gloss-black roof and wheel inserts. The door sills, steering wheel, fender louvers, and engine cover vents are rendered in carbon fiber. Aside from its matte finish, the orange paint looks similar to the normal “McLaren orange” hue that seems like the color to buy MP4-12Cs in. Heck, each of the 12Cs we drove for a recent comparo and on our first drive wore a similar searing orange.

McLaren wasn’t too specific on what, if any, limits there were on what Special Operations could do for its customers, but we assume its lack of specificity belies a lack of reasonable boundaries. Short of murdering someone for you and burying their body in a leather sack crafted from upholstery that matches that of your Phantom Drophead Coupé, Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke program will do just about anything for its well-heeled clientele. We figure McLaren’s Special Ops will be equally happy to oblige your requests, and accept your money to do so.

Source : Google Reader

Toyota Motorsport GmbH Sets New Lap Record for EVs at the Nürburgring

Toyota Motorsport GmbH Sets New Lap Record for EVs at the Nürburgring:

The battle for the quickest lap around the Nürburgring Nordschleife has become nearly bloodsport among automakers like Porsche and Nissan, who most recently duked it out after Nissan’s GT-R beat the 911 Turbo around the ‘Ring. Toyota isn’t immune from a little Nürburgring name-dropping itself, though, and today its Motorsport GmbH subsidiary announced that it has set a new lap record at the famed circuit—in an electric car.

The record that Toyota broke wasn’t held by the Radical SR8LM or the Gumpert Apollo—or even a Porsche. The bar set for Toyota was much lower, but no less significant: Toyota Motorsport GmbH set out to run an EV around the fabled Green Hell in less than eight minutes, which would handily thump the previous EV record of 9:01.338 held by Peugeot’s EX1. Toyota’s TMG EV P001 did the deed in 7:47.794, indeed trumping the Peugeot and nosing EVs into a realm of Nürburgring performance they’d never before seen. It is important to note that while the TMG EV’s lap time is supremely quick, it is more than a minute and a half off the times of the quickest gas-powered production cars.

How did Toyota Motorsport’s TMG EV accomplish this feat? Light weight and a high top speed (for an electric car). The P001 is powered by two electric motors that together produce 375 hp and kick the P001 to a top speed of 161 mph. The car weighs a claimed 2138 pounds; the battery pack alone is 772 of those pounds. The pack is an advanced lithium-ceramic unit, and has an energy capacity of 41.5 kWh. The chassis actually is a modified Radical unit, which definitely explains why the TMG EV looks pretty similar to a Radical SR8LM. The car features a doorstop-like profile and an open cockpit—and a giant rear spoiler—and achieved its record lap time using street-legal tires.

Source : Google Reader

2013 Audi S7 Debuts at Frankfurt Auto Show: 420 hp Makes This Hatchback Even Hotter

2013 Audi S7 Debuts at Frankfurt Auto Show: 420 hp Makes This Hatchback Even Hotter:

A new twin-turbo V-8 adds to the S7’s hotness.

Audi’s presence at the 2011 Frankfurt auto show will be brought to you by the letter S: The German automaker is rolling out its high-performance S6 sedan and Avant, S8 flagship, and this beautiful S7 hatchback. (Plus its Urban Concept and Urban Concept Spyder, but when we’ve got this much turbocharged horsepower staring us in the face, electric city cars tend to fade into the background.) What the S models lack in exterior flair over their conventional siblings, they make up for with forced-induction V-8s.

Keep Reading: 2013 Audi S7 4.0T Official Photos and Info – Auto Shows

Source : Google Reader

2013 Audi S8 4.0T Official Photos and Info: Trading Cylinders for Turbos

2013 Audi S8 4.0T Official Photos and Info: Trading Cylinders for Turbos:

The Audi S8 trades cylinders for turbochargers.

The idea of a high-revving Lamborghini V-10 in an executive sedan still sounds pretty ridiculous, but that’s exactly the formula Audi followed to create the last S8. It’s a car of which we have fond memories, excepting perhaps our long-term example’s costly facial rearrangement (our fault) and propensity for bent rims (the Michigan DOT’s fault). This next-generation S8, however, eschews the exotic engine for one with roots in an ultra-luxury brand: It was developed in tandem with fellow VW Grouper Bentley.

Keep Reading: 2013 Audi S8 4.0T Official Photos and Info – Auto Shows

Source : Google Reader

2013 Audi S6 to Debut at Frankfurt Auto Show: Twin-Turbo V-8, 420 hp, 406 lb-ft

2013 Audi S6 to Debut at Frankfurt Auto Show: Twin-Turbo V-8, 420 hp, 406 lb-ft:

Audi introduces the next generation of its moderately sporty A6 model.

Car enthusiasts are an impatient lot. No sooner had we first seen Audi’s all-new A6 than we and many “Audisti” worldwide began speculating about the S6 variant. We had a pretty good idea of what it would look like—Audi’s S models tend to be pretty conservative—and what it would have underhood. (We also tortured ourselves dreaming of the sedan’s inevitable accompanist, the not-for-the-U.S. S6 Avant.) Finally, as it unveils the 2013 S6 at the 2011 Frankfurt auto show, Audi has provided all the details, if not fulfilled our wagon dream.

Keep Reading: : 2013 Audi S6 4.0T Official Photos and Info – Auto Shows

Source : Google Reader

Ford Evos Concept: Pointing the Way to Future Ford Design

Ford Evos Concept: Pointing the Way to Future Ford Design:

Good genes: Ford’s Frankfurt debutant defines a new design language for its global products.

At the 2005 Frankfurt auto show, Ford’s stunning Iosis concept car debuted the company’s “Kinetic” design language, which shortly thereafter debuted on non-U.S. models like the Mondeo, European Focus, C-Max, and Kuga. Our first taste of Kinetic design came more recently with the 2011 Fiesta and 2012 Focus models. But now Ford’s look is evolving, with another Frankfurt concept—the 2011 show’s gorgeous and aptly named Evos—previewing the next evolution (get it?) of Blue Oval design.

Keep Reading: Ford Evos Concept – Auto Shows

Source : Google Reader

Land Rover DC100 Concept Debuts at Frankfurt Auto Show: Meet the Next Defender

Land Rover DC100 Concept Debuts at Frankfurt Auto Show: Meet the Next Defender:

You thought reinventing the Beetle or Mini was tough? Try the Defender.

Land Rover will need to make use of its renowned off-road prowess to extract itself from the dilemma on which it’s now metaphorically high-centered. The company’s core product, the Defender, is due for replacement in 2015, but its archetypical appearance has historically evolved at a glacial rate. Land Rover’s boffins are taking a first stab at reinterpreting Britain’s Wrangler with the DC100 concept you see here, but design director Gerry McGovern emphasizes that this is not a “production-ready” concept—it’s not even close. Rather, it is the “beginning of a four-year journey to design a relevant Defender for the 21st century.” Considering that the Land Rover Defender and its three predecessors, the Series I, II, and III, weren’t so much styled as they were formed from molten SAS commandos, McGovern’s task is taller than Mount Elbrus.

Keep Reading: Land Rover DC100 Concept Official Photos and Info – Auto Shows

Source : Google Reader

2013 Mazda CX-5 First Drive: Fun, Lively, and Oh, So Good

2013 Mazda CX-5 First Drive: Fun, Lively, and Oh, So Good:

Beyond its role as Mazda’s anchor SUV, this new model is also the stalking horse for the brand’s future.

We could all live without another compact SUV; the dozen or more already on the market suit every imaginable purse and purpose. So what’s the Mazda CX-5’s reason for existing? The simple answer is that Mazda’s new bouncing baby bear is a smaller, cheaper model intended to round out the brand’s set of SUVs—well, and that the small-SUV category is a sales mine and no company can afford to sit it out. But proving that nothing is ever as simple as it first seems, the CX-5 embodies two ulterior motives: This is not only our first look at two major Mazda initiatives, it’s also an accurate preview of other models scheduled for near-term introduction.

Keep Reading: 2013 Mazda CX-5 – First Drive Review

Source : Google Reader

Tata/Jaguar Synergies Finally Realized at 51 Buckingham Gate with Themed Hotel Suite

Tata/Jaguar Synergies Finally Realized at 51 Buckingham Gate with Themed Hotel Suite:

In Western automotive circles, Tata’s primarily known for its cheap cars, including its recent bucks-down mobility device, the Nano. When the Indian conglomerate purchased Jaguar/Land Rover, many scratched their heads. Imagine for example, if General Motors had actually tried to use its tinny, buzzy J platform to underpin a Cadillac! Perhaps saddled with a name like “Cimarron!” Ah, but Tata does know luxury. The highly-regarded Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai is the flagship of the concern’s Taj Hotels divison. And in fact, we’ve been quite smitten by the revised interiors in post-Ford Land Rover products.

Now, however, the synergies are flowing the other way. Taj’s London boutique hotel, 51 Buckingham Gate, has sourced the talents of Jaguar designer Ian Callum to outfit a Jag-themed suite. The perks? How about a living-room wall covered in Italian leather? Or Jaguar-themed wallpaper in the two bedrooms? Perhaps a clean-fuel fireplace meant to evoke the shape of a Jag’s rear window? As long as the place wasn’t wired by Lucas, we’re down for a test drive. Call us, Tata. It’s been a while since we’ve seen London.

Source : Google Reader

Piranha Spotted at Laguna Seca! [Motorsports Reunion Weirdness]

Piranha Spotted at Laguna Seca! [Motorsports Reunion Weirdness]:

One can look back at practically any decade in the history of the automobile and think, “What a bizarre time!” Take the 1910s, with huge-displacement engines cranking out horsepower numbers similar to one of today’s hot hatches. Or the 1950s, an era of fins and chrome and chrome with fins and finned chrome with chromed chrome and finned fins. And, of course, the impact-bumpered sloths of the 1970s that seemed bent on returning large-displacement engines to horsepower-per-liter numbers not seen since 1914. (Plus two opera windows in every garage and a landau in every carport!) But the 1960s might just have been the weirdest decade of them all, with offbeat experiments in styling and production happening all over the globe. Racetracks were filled with specials of every stripe and configuration, and television and film were making great use of the skills of California customizers who had set up shop in Los Angeles during the 1950s. Into the middle of all that fell the Piranha.

Developed by Marbon Chemical, a division of automotive supplier Borg-Warner, as a way to sell automakers on the efficacy of its new body-grade plastic, Cycolac, the CRV (Cycolac Research Vehicle) concept car caught the attention of plastic-model manufacturer AMT. The Michigan-based company decided to get into the life-size car business with the help of customizing legend Gene Winfield, and intended to produce 50 Corvair-powered versions of the CRV per year. The car got a real name—Piranha—and AMT commissioned a Cycolac-bodied dragster powered by a 1400-hp 392 Hemi to promote it. That, not surprisingly, isn’t the car you see here. This is the sports-racing version, powered—like the roadgoing variant—by a Corvair engine and campaigned in various SCCA events in 1967 and 1968 by Dick Carbajal.

Carbajal eventually sold the car. At some point later, it was converted to road duty and wound up under a tarp in Santa Clara, California, which is how Livermore resident Frank Zucchi ran across the curious beast. Zucchi restored the car to its former glory and has been campaigning it at various races since 2006. We happened upon the car while stumbling around the paddock at this year’s Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca, a font of “who-knew-this-existed?” oddness if ever there was one. As for the Piranha project as a whole? It fell apart not long after Zucchi’s car originally went racing. GM killed the Corvair, drying up the supply of engines, and AMT found it too hard to meet the $5000 price point it had set for the street versions. Only a few were built, most notably a version featured on The Man From U.N.C.LE., leaving Zucchi’s racer one of the stranger footnote vehicles from a racing era full of them.

Source : Google Reader