2011 BMW X1

ConsumerGuide:

"BMW fields its first baby SUV with a spinoff of its new 1-Series compact car. With smooth 6-cylinder power, available all-wheel drive, and "ultimate driving machine" cachet, it could be the new star of a fast-growing market class.

Premium compact SUVs are popping up everywhere, so much so that Consumer Guide has put them into a class of their own, separate from lower-priced models at mainstream brands. BMW's X3 helped plow this field a few years back. Acura has since weighed in with the RDX, the Infiniti EX was new for 2008, and Lexus is said to be prepping a contender, likely based on parent Toyota's RAV4. New for 2009 are the Audi Q5 and Mercedes-Benz GLK.

All this new competition poses a big challenge for the X3, which is one of the larger compact SUVs. Because of that, and in line with an announced expansion of its model line, BMW has confirmed a new X1 to slot below the X3 in size and price. The new baby-Bimmer SUV will be based on the company's 1-Series compact car.

Dimensionally, the X1 will be visibly smaller than the X3, Acura RDX, and Infiniti EX, but close in size to the Land Rover LR2. X1 will also be lighter than the X­3, so it should be just as quick, if not quicker, and probably more agile too. Of course, it won't be as roomy as its bigger brother, but it should be adequate for four adults and maybe a week's worth of luggage.

Despite its lower pricing, the 2011 BMW X1 should come with all the standard features expected from this brand. That means antilock brakes, traction/antiskid system, front side airbags, and curtain side airbags.

All import brands are fighting to hold the price line against a weaker dollar, so BMW will be extra picky in deciding X1 standard content. On the other hand, most BMW buyers don't skimp with options, so the baby SUV should list most of the major goodies available for the X3. These include the inevitable Sport Package with firm suspension and upsized wheels and tires, navigation system (bringing with it BMW's irksome iDrive controller), rear-obstacle detection, rear side airbags, and amenities like leather upholstery, heated seats, high-end audio, and steering-linked headlamps. While none of these features are notable nowadays, especially for a premium brand, we wouldn't be surprised if BMW came up with some gee-whiz exclusive for the X1, though we have no idea what that might be."

FF: "I want this car with the panorama roof :)"

2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost

Car Driver:
"Rolls-Royce has announced at the Shanghai auto show that its new Bentley Continental–fighting sedan, which was previewed by the 200EX concept at the 2009 Geneva auto show and has been known only as the RR4, will be called the Ghost. Production will commence later this year at the company’s Goodwood plant in the U.K., and European deliveries will begin shortly after. Sales in the U.S. and Asia will wait until the second quarter of 2010. Base price for the Ghost here will be $245,000, plus taxes and delivery.

Rolls also announced final specifications for the new car. The 6.6-liter turbocharged V-12 will pump out 563 hp and 575 lb-ft of torque and will mate to a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission. Zero to 60 mph is said to take 4.8 seconds, and the top speed will be governed at 155 mph. Likely to be shown in production trim at the Frankfurt auto show in September, the 2010 Ghost will slot below the current Phantom range and gives Rolls-Royce a more attainable model to compete against the Bentley Continental Flying Spur, as well as the upcoming 2010 Aston Martin Rapide. At 212.6 inches long—with a 129.7-inch wheelbase—76.7 inches wide, and 61 inches tall, the new Rolls is slightly longer and taller than the Bentley, but a smidge narrower. The Continental lineup also includes GT coupe and GTC convertible versions, and we expect two-door and droptop iterations of the Ghost to launch after the sedan.

Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purves said the Ghost name is fitting for the new model because it evokes a sense of “adventure and technical innovation,” as well as “flair and style.” The latter elements shouldn’t be an issue, as the Ghost will share the Goodwood plant’s paint, wood, and leather workshops with the Phantom (vehicle assembly will be handled by a separate production line). Stay tuned for more details closer to the unveiling."

FF: "6.6-liter turbocharged V-12 will pump out 563 hp and 575 lb-ft of torque, v.nice~"

Introducing the Google Chrome OS

Sundar Pichai:
"It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer."

FF: "Yes, I need an OS to be fast and lightweight, and being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, luv Google"

Mercedes debuts airbag-laden S-Class ESF hybrid concept

Engadget:

"Apparently not content to simply build a hybrid vehicle that's both energy-efficient and luxurious, Mercedes has now gone the extra mile with its new 2009 S-Class ESF concept, which packs more than a dozen different safety features including airbags inside and out. That latter outside-the-car airbag is actually a giant braking bag that deploys under the car when it "senses an imminent crash," which not only creates some added friction to slow the car down, but lifts the front of the car up about 80mm to compensate for brake dive. Other uncommon safety features include curtain airbags between the seats, airbags in the seatbelts, reflective tires, and "inflatable metal structures" throughout the vehicle, which apparently both saves space and increases crash protection. Unfortunately, there's no word on any further improvements to the hybrid side of things, but Mercedes' existing S400 Hybrid isn't exactly too shabby of a place to begin with."

FF: "Airbag deploys under the car? seems fun~ :)"

Hong Kong second best Asian city to live in

The Standard:

"Hong Kong ranks second behind Osaka in Asia among the world's easiest cities to live in.

But Hong Kong ranked far behind the 13th place Osaka secured in the Economist Intelligence Unit's liveability poll. coming in at joint 39th with Madrid.

Singapore was even further back at 54th, while Seoul was four places behind the city-state.

Vancouver is the world's easiest city to live in while Harare is the toughest.

Canadian and Australian cities hold six of the top 10 slots in the Economist Intelligence Unit's liveability poll, which ranks cities on five factors: health care, stability, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

''At the other end of the ranking, most of the poorest-performing locations are in Africa or Asia, where civil instability and poor infrastructure present significant challenges,'' said the survey's authors.

In ratings ranging from zero (intolerable) to 100 percent (ideal), Vancouver scores 98 percent, ''benefiting from strong Canadian infrastructure,'' while Harare languishes on 37.5 ``thanks to the unfolding crisis in Zimbabwe.''

At the top end of the global easy-living scale, Vienna is in second place followed by Melbourne, Toronto, Perth, Calgary, Helsinki and Geneva, with Sydney and Zurich in joint ninth place.

Tokyo is at joint 19th with Frankfurt.

European cities where life is generally not hard include Stockholm and Hamburg, Germany, in 14th place, as well as Paris in 17th spot, Frankfurt in 19th, Copenhagen in 21st and Berlin in 22nd.

''With the exception of high scores in Australasia and some Asian centres, most of the better-scoring locations are based in the more developed regions of western Europe and North America,'' said the study."

FF: "For living YES, but i wanna go clubbing in London :)"

Windows 7 box art confirmed, product page now live on MS Store

Microsoft Store:

"There's a new product page for Windows 7 on the Microsoft Store. And while there's no word on official pricing yet, there are pictures showing what the Windows 7 retail packaging will look like. And wouldn't you know it, it looks exactly like the leaked images that were first found floating around the web last month.

The product page also has a list of reasons to buy the new operating system, including the fact that it's faster and more responsive than Vista, allows users to stream media over a network, and has a a new and improved taskbar. No surprises there, but I have to agree, these are all pretty good reasons to upgrade from Windows Vista, as are the other highlights listed on the product page. Whether they'll be enough to get holdouts to upgrade from Windows XP remains to be seen."

FF: "The boxes of the newest version of Windows... so exciting :)"

Michael Jackson's children unmasked for the first time

Mirror:

"Here's real piece of pop history – as one of Michael Jackson’s three children is unmasked for the first time.

Jacko’s head might be partly hidden under his brolly. But elder son Prince Michael I, 12, faced up to full scrutiny as the two walked through the parking lot at a Los Angeles recording studio.

His fresh-faced daughter Paris Michael, 11, was also maskless.

The pair, born to Jacko’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe, got shy as they left later – once more wearing the masks that usually keep them shrouded in mystery.

Enough was seen, though, to show they resembled each other but not the superstar singer, who begins his residency at London’s O2 Arena on July 13.

Prince and Paris surely won’t be on such display at any of the 50 gigs – while also kept from prying eyes will be seven-year-old Prince Michael II, aka Blanket, who is much darker than his siblings.

But Jacko still insists he fathered all three ..."

FF: "well well well, I think he needs unmasked to play Cooking Mama"

Windows 7 release date: October 22nd

Download Squad:

"Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will be commercially available on October 22nd, 2009. In other words, that's the date when you'll likely be able to walk into a store and either buy a computer with the operating system preloaded or buy a boxed version of the software to install on your existing computer.

The company has been indicating that it hopes to have Windows 7 out in time for the holiday shopping season, and an October launch certainly fits the bill. But if you're in the market for a back-to-school computer this fall, it looks like you're going to have to stick with Windows Vista, XP, OS X, or Linux."

FF: "I want my new laptop preloaded with Windows 7"

Facebook Cheat code: ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A enter

Rubbishcorp:

"If you enter the Konami code ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A ENTER after logging into Facebook (not in a text box) you’ll get a lens flare effect anytime you click, scroll or type anything. Also, if you scroll to the bottom of the page on the left language selection, you can choose ‘English (Pirate)’ to change Facebook to pirate.

The Konami Code, known in Japan as the Konami Command (コナミコマンド), is a cheat code that appears in many Konami video games. The code also appears in some non-Konami games. The code was first used in the 1986 release of Gradius for the Nintendo Entertainment System but was made famous in North America in the NES version of Contra, for which it was also dubbed the “30 Lives Code”. While pausing the game or during the title screen, the player could press the following sequence of buttons on the game controller."

FF: "Its fun, i want more cheat code on Facebook~"

Microsoft: web to 'overtake TV by 2013'

techradar: "New research by Microsoft suggests that in just four years' time, TV will no longer be the dominating force in home entertainment, with internet set to overtake as the main source of content for consumers in the home.

"Based on current growth trends, Microsoft projections estimate that internet consumption will outstrip traditional TV in June by 2010, averaging 14.2 hours per week against 11.5 hours for TV," The report, titled 'Europe logs on: internet trends of today and tomorrow', suggests.

If the rather precise report is right (why June?) this means that in 2013, Joe Public will be wiling away 2.5 days a month on the internet.

Interestingly, the report also says that internet use on PCs will drop from 95 per cent to 50 per cent in five years.

This prediction points to a move away from computers to web-enabled TV sets, mobile phones and games consoles.

When it comes to mobile web browsing, it is expected that 30 per cent of all mobile phone users in 2013 will watch some sort of video on their handsets. This will be up from 19 per cent in 2008.

The growth of video-capable handsets will be massive too, with Microsoft predicting that 76 per cent of phones will have video capabilities by 2013, up from 31 per cent in 2008.

With all this time spent surfing the web, it's lucky that Microsoft also predicts that 3D internet will soon be a reality, "with consumers able to virtually experience a holiday resort before they book, students will be able to attend virtual lectures and shoppers will be able to see how an armchair would look in their living room before they buy it."

So, it's exciting (virtual) times ahead, if the futuroligists at Microsoft have anything to with it."

FF: "Yes, FTV will become the main source of content for HK people~"

Hong Kong Tenants Play ‘Hardball,’ Pushing Rents to 2-Year Low

bloomberg: "Raif Cabbabe said his property agent thought he was crazy to offer only HK$20,000 ($2,600) a month for a two-room apartment in Hong Kong’s trendy Soho district. The flat went on the market two months earlier for HK$45,000.

Bargaining for the 900-square-foot (84-square-meter) home worked. Cabbabe said he sealed the deal in November at HK$25,000 for the 2-year-old pad, which has a 250-square-foot terrace. Since then, prices have fallen further, with January capping six straight months of declines, according to data from real estate agency Centaline Property Agency Ltd.

“The property market has fallen off a cliff, so people are playing hardball now,” said Cabbabe, 28, a steel trader who moved to Hong Kong from Australia. “My friends renegotiating their rents are telling their landlords, we’ll just walk away if you don’t give us a discount.”

Rents began falling in the city in August, a month before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sparked off a global banking crisis. Home leases may fall as much as 15 percent to 20 percent this year, said analysts including Simon Lo at Colliers International Ltd. Hong Kong slid into its first recession since 2003 in the third quarter, leading companies to rein in costs by firing workers.

Unemployment in Hong Kong jumped 0.5 percentage points to 4.6 percent in the three months through January, the largest increase in a decade, as companies such as Citigroup, HSBC and PCCW Ltd. cut staff. Gross domestic product may shrink 2 percent to 3 percent in 2009, Financial Secretary John Tsang said yesterday. He said the government will refund taxes, suspend property rates and boost spending on infrastructure to mitigate the slump. "

FF: "Property market its time to fall, where banks including HSBC Holdings Plc and Citigroup Inc. have their head offices, dropped around 96 percent in March from a year earlier"

Cecilia Cheung lashes out at Edison Chen over sex photos

Danny Cheng: "I think it's good to see Cecilia Cheung break her silence, and face the reality"


channelnewsasia: "A Hong Kong actress at the centre of an Internet sex photo scandal has broken her silence about the incident, lashing out at the pop star who took the compromising pictures, a report said Saturday.

Cecilia Cheung, one of several local celebrities shown in the photos with Hong Kong-Canadian actor and singer Edison Chen, said he had never apologised, and that she was still reeling from the ordeal a year later.

"He has never apologised to us personally," Cheung told iCable in an interview broadcast late Friday, according to a report in the English-language South China Morning Post.

"He should at least have called us to say sorry if he genuinely admitted his mistake."

She added: "The photos are still circulating online. How can we live a healthy and happy life? How can we put ourselves back on our feet?"

The photos -- showing Chen in compromising positions with various celebrities including Cheung, Canto-pop star Gillian Chung and former actress Bobo Chan -- became an Internet sensation when they were posted a year ago.

Cheung said she decided to break her silence after Chen gave evidence earlier this week in a Canadian court in the case of Sze Ho-Chun, a computer technician charged here with illegally posting the explicit photos online.

The 28-year-old Chen for the first time identified Cheung, Chung and Chan in the Vancouver court as some of the women in the photos, but said later outside court he wanted to "protect" them and that they had "suffered enough," the Post reported.

Cheung, also 28, angrily retorted: "You should not have come out (now)... saying one thing but doing another in a bid to win the public's forgiveness whilst hurting us."

Chen, one of Asia's biggest stars in film and music, saw his career destroyed by the appearance of hundreds of the sex photos, which caused a storm in celebrity-obsessed but culturally conservative Hong Kong.

The scandal forced him into early retirement and sent him fleeing to his childhood home of Canada."

Eco-Neighbuzz Apartment Buzzer Converts Your Building Into a Local Facebook Directory

gizmodo: "Door buzzers/intercoms are one of those fugly things in your house that nobody pays attention to. Which is precisely the contrary of this Eco-Neighbuzz, a beautiful intercom that allows you to exchange messages with neighbours.

You can think about the Eco-Neighbuzz as a way to build a local Facebook in your own building. Neighbours would be able to drop messages into your unit and viceversa, enabling an ongoing communication with the people around you, and opening the possibilities to collaboration between everyone in the building. As designer Korhan Buyukdemirci explains: 'Eco-neighbuzz is an apartment buzzer & intercom system with additional features. Today's existing intercom systems work only between outside door and flat. However, we can improve this system to support the existing community inside the building. Even though today we are living in tall concrete blocks built in big metropolises, we are not communicating with our neighbours as we did years ago. Sometimes we even don't know who is living in the building and what they are doing.'

It's a good idea. On one side I like this building community system, but do we really need to blow one of the few opportunities we have to interact with humans face to face? And even if we agree that this could help communication, I don't know if people would be interested in doing it. Example: I know that the four hot girls next door won't be happy about me stalking them via intercom messages too."

FF: "HK apt sud have this, then we can use the intercoms to lend and borrow PS3's games"

LightLane

Yanko Design: "A close brush with a distracted driver is enough to intimidate any avid bicycler from riding at night. You’ve probably seen small blinkers and flashers tucked just below the seat but that isn’t enough. As a daily driver in a very bike friendly city, I can attest I usually don’t notice those blinkers until I’m within a few hundred yards of the bicycler. That leaves very little distance and time to react if I were to collide with them.

Only a small fraction of streets have dedicated bike lanes, and with an installation cost of $5,000 - $50,000 per mile, we shouldn’t expect to find them everywhere anytime soon. LightLane projects a crisply defined virtual bike lane onto pavement, using a laser, providing the driver with a familiar boundary to avoid. With a wider margin of safety, bikers will regain their confidence to ride at night, making the bike a more viable commuting alternative. I want one now. Evan and Alex, make it and call me!"

FF: "It's useful, 5D make it and sell it @ my online store"

Scratch Notes On A Plank Day And Night

Yanko Design: "We need to get innovative with the way we display our feelings. Leaving Post-its or texting is getting a bit outdated don’t you think? The classic is of course; leaving a message on the fogged-up bathroom mirror, but that is about to get superceded with the Daywriter, Nightwriter. Both of them are essentially elongated three-dimensional scratchboards that you can use to write messages on.

Touting itself as the world’s first interactive furniture, the Daywriter (as the name suggests) is used for displaying messages during the day. But the story gets brighter with the Nightwriter. This one is like a florescent glow-in-the-dark type of board. Scratch on the words and watch them glow! Naturally you can erase all your messages and get creative everyday."

FF: "Its easy to use, looking gd, i sud sell this @ my online store"

Solar panel-packin' sunglasses power your gizmos

Engadget: "Before you get all "Oh, that comment was so heartless" on us, we will say that the spectacles you're peeping above are still a concept for now, though we wouldn't be surprised at all to hear that Kanye himself eventually funds their commercialization. At any rate, designers Hyun-Joong Kim and Kwang-Seok Jeong should be mighty proud of their concoction, which integrates dye solar cells into fashion-forward sunglasses in order to power your pocketable gadgets. Put simply, the SIG (Self-Energy Converting Sunglasses) convert the sunlight that they'll obviously see into usable energy, though it should be understood that these could give the impression that you're rockin' a head-mounted display. And we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

FF: "Great Idea... and its a fashion-forward sunglasses, but HK ppl only hang out at night time, barely see the sun tho, hahaha"

GPS Angel promises to keep watch on red light and speed cameras

Engadget: "There's certainly no shortage of devices out there that promise to alert you when you're approaching a red light or speed camera, but if you're looking to keep things as simple as possible, you may want to consider this new so-called GPS Angel device, which pares things down to a couple of buttons and blinking lights. As with similar devices, you're also able to sync it up to your PC to ensure you have all the latest camera locations (Mac users are on their own, unfortunately), and you don't have to worry about a monthly or yearly subscription fee for the service. Head on past the break to check it out in action, and get ready to fork over $129 if you think it'll do the job for you."

FF: "locate with GPS.... will it work @ Hong Kong?"

NiceTranslator, a fast, easy to use online translator

Download Squad: "Planning a trip around the globe and need to make sure you know how to ask for directions to the train station in two dozen languages? Nice Translator can help.

Nice Translator is powered by Google Translate, so you get the same results from Google. But the interface is incredibly easy to use. Just select the languages you want to translate text into and start typing. Nice Translator will convert your words as soon as you type them."

FF: "Nice interface~"

Nokia N97 breaks the way mobile communication was being served

S60: "The latest Flagship device from Nokia is the Nokia N97 which breaks the way mobile communication was being served. It goes by the mantra “My Phone Should Have Everything”. From Internet to Movies to Music, the device is capable of anything. We finally see a BP-4L 1500 mAh battery capable of 37 hours of non-stop music. The video can be found here. With that said lets take a quick look at the specifications of the device. To download the complete datasheet click here."

FF: "I want this, its lovely~"

BMW of 2015

Lifestyle: "Two international design students, Jai Ho Yoo and Lukas Vanek, designed the BMW ZX-6 concept car as part of the Istituto Europeo di Design of Turin (IED) Thesis "Designing the BMW of 2015".

Students involved were asked to create a car reflecting the needs and wants of a person who would be turning 35 in the year 2015. They were encouraged to use natural shapes and forms as well as abstract ideas common in music and the arts. Thirty-five students in all participated, but the ZX-6 caught our eyes.

With its wave-like curves and almost 360 degrees view, the door and seats are one unit, allowing an almost open-air concept. We also think it must look great in black!"

FF: "Creative"