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"Unauthorized use of assigned or unassigned USB Vendor ID Numbers and associated Product ID Numbers are strictly prohibited."
The implication here is that Palm believes Apple is violating this stature by disallowing certain Vendor IDs -- namely, Palm's -- from using iTunes. So how'd Palm manage to "fix" that syncing hole Apple managed to fill? From the looks of it, by misrepresenting its own Vendor ID, so that the Pre now shows up as a iPod / mass storage device made by Apple (ID 0x05ac) as opposed to one by Palm (ID 0x083) -- hence the complaint. Of course, lying about your own ID would seem to break with the aforementioned rule, too, so what we're left here is some muddled grey area and Palm apparently being okay with fudging some data to correct what it sees is an injustice. If anyone's curious, DVD Jon points out that the root USB Node is still identified as "Pre," so we very likely could see another round of these shenanigans in the not-too-distant future.
Finally, now's as good of a time as any to take a look at some of the peripheral casualties from this war of attrition. In an essay on his personal site that's been circulating the interwebs, Marc Deslauriers outlines the pangs he and the Linux community have felt over the years trying to use iPods on the open source platform, surmising that Apple is intentionally and repeatedly seeking ways to block non-iTunes programs from syncing in any way with its devices. This story is far from over, and as ugly as it looks now, it's probably only gonna get worse.
link title
:shades:
TM
But, I sure wouldn't rule out Nokia just yet.
Dropped my Palm on the concrete this evening... it's fine, but scarred for life with a couple nasty dings and scrapes. It's inevitable, but it always bothers me more than it probably should. I hate dings... on my cars, phone, sunglasses, you-name-it.
TM
I know exactly what you mean. There are only a few things that I have serious OCD about, and that's one of them. By far the worst though is speaker placement. Any audiophile will tell you that locking in the sound just right can come down to literally an inch here or there of toe-in or rake, and back when I had lighter speakers, particularly stand mounted monitors, I would get really aggravated if anyone accidentally bumped or nudged them. Fortunately the Josephs are big and heavy enough that I don't have to worry about that issue anymore. Definitely one of the positives of big floorstanders.
No kids are allowed in the listening room though, as a Pearl tweeter is not exactly cheap to replace if someone decides it looks like a big button and should be pushed. That and all of the cords are held off the floor with Dark Field elevators just high enough to trip on and hit your head on a 100lb. aluminum block of amplifier.
Given prices lower than Prius I actually wonder why sales have been poor so far....
Give Honda a little more time. They will get it right. The front end appearance of the Insight is far more attractive than the Prius... As the picture I posted clearly shows.
Also, Honda has the upcoming CR-Z hybrid next year and the upcoming Fit hybrid to give Toyota a few headaches.
TM
I had installed a calibrated THX-certified 7.1 surround system (with 73" high-def TV) in my house (which I just sold... escrow is closed)... But I am certain it is nothing even close to your obsessive compulsive system. Sounds fanstastic!... Literally! What kind of music? Beethoven? I imagine it is all studio quality. You are a lucky man.
TM
Nice post, TM. BTW, Honda Blue is nice, IMHO.
Looking forward to a CR-V H.
Regards,
OW
The child is 14 YO now and has indelible memories of my response...she still says hello to me but the glimmer in her eye dates back to that day!!
Regards,
OW
My neighbor put in a $100K Theater (110" screen and $13K projector) in his 2,600 sq. ft basement back in 2003 with all the bells, 8 recliners on ascending platforms, bar, and LED stars on the ceiling.
Nice but too rich for me at this time!
Regards,
OW
BTW, that CR-V looks terrific in blue. Always take a second glance when I see one on the road that's been polished up. Sweet.
TM
My better half wants a simpler beach house also. We probably will look down in the Carolinas real soon. First, more income, please!
Regards,
OW
On the Factory Front
Inaba said building Scion and Lexus models as well as the Toyota Prius hybrid in the U.S. are possibilities as Toyota attempts to become more American by building well over the current 60 percent of vehicles it builds in the U.S.
However, with the current low rate of sales, Toyota has an excess of factory capacity in North America, which is being examined.
Hopefully, they figure out how to out-BMW BMW...their quality is better, although slipped slightly according to JDP...I think their strategy will be to be the Old GM in North America.
To bad for them Hyundai has a better marketing approach than them all. Little by little, the big guns will revert to customer-centricity, or one could only hope.
Regards,
OW
It's amazing, but it was predictable, that companies like Audi and Hyundai would be the ones to kick butt. I remember the Doc, who used to post here, bragging on Toyota all the time, as if they were invulnerable. He pooh-poohed Hyundai and Audi. I tried to tell him, but he wouldn't listen. Now look.
Toyota will, however, get their game back, and Honda will too. Ford is so impressive to me, considering what they have gone through.
We've seen the VW/Porsche soap opera unfold, GM emerge from bankruptcy, and we now have Tesla, and are about to have Fiskar.
What is Chrysler's fate?
Go down the list. Change is everywhere... some of it positive and some of it negative. Some of it yet to come, close at hand.
TM
Toyota needs to think more than just what Lexus is in US, how about "how can we add character into our cars so we can have our own identity" ?
On a reflective side, everytime I see a Cayenne on the streets I'm always reminded of how cars can look totally different in real life vs. what you see in pictures. True it still looks kinda funny at times, but overall its much better looking in real life, especially in black with 19-20" Porsche wheels.
Audi, Hyundai and Ford have good stories so far...
Regards,
OW
Anyone here invests along with the Fool Pro? I have to learn how to invest properly, so I consider joining them.
Indeed it does. Fortunately I think I'm finally at the level with it where I just don't need to spend huge amounts of money on it anymore. Given the room its in, I think it's about as good as its going to get - though there's always the possibility of selling the Pearls if something comes along in the future that really knocks my socks off. I'm sure my wife will love that idea.
I listen to lots of different music on it, Beethoven, Bach, Coltrane, Miles Davis, Diana Krall, The Stones, The Doors, Ulrich Schnauss and William Orbit; it's an extensive list.
I have a fairly basic 5.1 Paradigm surround system in the living room, but I've never had much of an urge to go any further with it. I find surround sound overall to be somewhat boring. Once you get past showing your friends the bullet scene from The Matrix, what do you do with it? I don't watch too many movies these days, and almost all of them are just using the center channel 90% of the time anyway.
In my experience, once you get past the $10K/pr level, you don't need surround as just a pair of speakers is more than capable of filling the room. Around $20-25K/pr is about as good as it gets for an average sized room. There are certainly much more expensive speakers than the Pearls, or the Revel Salon2s, or the KEF Reference 207/2s, or the Wilson Sasha W/Ps that all sell in that price class, but most are either designed for humongous rooms, or wont actually sound much if any better, and the additional money is better spent on amplifiers and source equipment.
It's about the same as the Camry hybrid's, which has basically the same engine. It's not bad, but it can't approach the Prius in terms of mpg.
I am definitely not interested in the HS if it drives like the Camry hybrid.
Regards,
OW
I merely have a Denon amp, equalizer and those 3-way floor standers my brother built with amazing crossovers and 15" woofers.
Regards,
OW
Trane lives!
If I had to choose between, say, driving a BMW M5 but never again hearing Coltrane & driving a '78 Ford Granada while listening to "Coltrane Plays the Blues", "Giant Steps" & "Soultrane" every day, I'd suck it up & welcome the Granada to my garage. Cars come & go, but Coltrane is immortal.
Hahaha, very well said. If you have a high-end audio dealer anywhere nearby, take a few Coltrane albums and listen for a few hours. It's definitely worth it. Most of the good dealers will basically leave you alone and let you listen for as long as you like.
What should be interesting is Hyundai's Sonata hybrid, which presumably will be available on the next gen car due in a year or so. They've been making a lot of claims about how their new LoS battery is the next big thing.
I recently lost my digital Sony camera in London England so I will use my iPhone.
An IMA-like hybrid is handicapped when compared to a far superior Toyota HSD system.
Batteries alone does not make a better hybrid. Toyota is smart not to race towards mainstream production of lithium ion hybrids . Lithium ion batteries are still not perfect since they are not as durable and more prone to buring incidences as witnessed with those lithium ion poweerd laptops.
Try test driving an Insight and you may find out why.
Rear seating is clausaphobic, interior feels far cheaper than a Honda Fit and does not even come close to a Prius. Also the interior is even smaller than a Fit, mileage is subpar comapred to a Prius and it has far less gizmos.
Even a cheaper Insight is far overpriced for what it is.
The only benefit for Honda is that a Insight makes a Fit look compelling in terms of value.
"The system, which Hyundai calls Blue Drive, is a conventional parallel hybrid system but will use 30 percent lighter, 50 percent less volume and 10 percent more efficient lithium-polymer batteries from LG Chem instead of traditional nickel-metal-hydride packs. Hyundai says the packs have 175 percent greater volumetric efficiency so that they can devote less space and weight to the battery pack. And Hyundai says the batteries can hold their charge 20 times longer. Krafcik expects the Sonata hybrid to "stretch beyond current in-market competition." He says, "It's a pretty safe bet to say we will beat the current Camry hybrid."
"So why lithium polymer and not lithium ion? Well, Hyundai says its packs are more durable, cost less to produce and have a higher energy density. And lithium polymer is said to offer more thermal robustness—think back to those lithium-ion laptop batteries. Hyundai wants to make sure that these packs will last at least 10 years and 150,000 miles. "
Since the current Ford Fusion Hybrid pretty much trounces the TCH in every measurable category, Hyundai might want to redefine their benchmarking market leaders. If Ford can do it, it might not be such a hot target, eh?
Every IMA-like hybrid had a glowing press release before their introduction and every single one of them was a failure.
As Toyota/Ford lowers the cost of HSD then IMA will become a pointless technology. Why waste good superior batteries on an inferior IMA system? It's like mixing an expensive red wine with Dr. Pepper.
Whoa... wait just a darned minute. I've been able to agree with your points for the most part, but Mercedes S-Clas hybrid will be an IMA-type of hybrid, and so far, the pre-release car seems to be excellent. Perhaps it took some good German engineering to get an IMA type of system further tweaked. I think it's safe to say that it won't be a failure. And, I spent a good deal of time behind the wheel of the Honda Civic Hybrid (my friend owns a Honda dealership... he let me drive it for a while when it first came out). The car was terrific... worked like a charm and got fantastic mileage. The Honda handled so much better than the Prius I rented, and the interior ergonomics of the Prius wouldn't match the Honda's at all. The Prius, with all the driver's information sitting all off-center to the right, instead of just above driver's eye level. Weird... just plain weird.
But, I do expect that ultimately the IMA approach as well as the dual mode approach will yield to all-electric. So... as long as both hybrids work well in the meantime, the whole point of which is better becomes less important, as they are both transition technologies anyway. Now, to be clear, between the two, I am of the opinion that the preferable system is the true dual mode hybrid, but I believe that at the end of the day, the IMA system will be shown by both Honda and Mercedes that it can work well... even better than it does currently.
That said, Mercedes will soon market their dual mode system that it jointly developed with BMW, GM, and Chrysler... which will be seen in the upcoming ML hybrid.
Thank goodness that owning a Prius (after that bad BMW experience) hasn't made you biased, or anything like that.
TM
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/automobiles/autoreviews/26cadillac.html?_r=2&h- pw
What's interesting is both BMW and MB are now washing their hands completely of the joint project two mode system. I think both will release one car with it, and that will be the end.
Most of the reviews I've read says the same thing: nice to look at, not so nice to drive. The article is wrong about one thing though. Cadillac can't lure buyers back from Lexus or BMW showrooms with cars that are "equal". That's not good enough for consumers who still consider the brand to be cars for either drug dealers or the Ft. Lauderdale brigade. They have to be better, and they have yet to show they are capable of that. The STS and the DTS can't compete with anybody but Lincoln, the XLR was a total failure, and while the CTS and to a lesser extent the new SRX are nice enough vehicles, neither is a class leader.
I completely agree.
Maybe, maybe not. Mercedes press release praises that dual mode system. But, then again, that's just a press release, and it has little to do with what they will actually sell. They also highly praise their light hybrid (IMA-type system) that will be in the S-Class. It does seem to me that Mercedes light hybrid is rather efficient, given the weight of the S-Class. There are things to like about IMA. It is simple and efficient, and it seems comparably cost effective. The drive is nice because the engine doesn't completely stop rotation, and when the IMA actually kicks in, it is fairly seamless, as oppposed to the more noticeable on again and off again, back and forth sensation that the dual mode system can't totally escape. Both systems seem to have their pros and cons. I just wish that there was a dual mode hybrid system comprised of powerful electric motors married to a small diesel engine, utilizing nano battery technology.
TM
Tag,
For what it's worth, our new RX450h is hardly noticeable when shifting between the ICE and the battery/motor mode and vice versa. There is a significant difference in this regard between the RX400h and the RX450h. The 450h is much less noticeable.
Well, somehow I doubt the phrase "this is an orphan car, and we're never going to use this system again" would appear in a MB PR piece designed to hype the car
This is what I read last week: "Automotive News [sub] reports that Two-Mode co-developers BMW and Daimler will probably end their participation in the ill-fated alliance by year’s end (Chrysler is AWOL). BMW will launch a Two-Mode X6 globally and Daimler will bring a Two-Mode ML stateside this year, and then . . . basta. “None of the other hybrid development work in our company is based on the two-mode technology,” say BMW sources."
Regards,
OW
Regards,
OW
Every IMA-like hybrid had a glowing press release before their introduction and every single one of them was a failure.
That's what makes the choices confusing. Everything sounds really good on paper, until you find out that the current contender/leader still number one a couple of years down the road.
Hmmm... I am fairly sure that driving car a that is the current number one leader does not matter to Dewey. Afterall, when he bought his 3-Series BMW, it had been the top rated leader in its class for a very long while. And, we all know what happened to that car. :lemon:
Eventually, however, innovations and improvements do actually come... and when they do, there will be press releases to tell us about them. So... sometimes a press release is actually an awesome announcement about something really terrific, but all too often it is just a bunch of marketing hype.
TM
That's good to know. I do wonder if the mechanicals and software are really any better... or if we are just talking about a quieter and more isolated cabin, thus reducing the driver's awareness of the shift between ICE and electric??
TM
Since you guys are chest thumping and dropping names, I'll bring it back down to common man levels and list my low end gear:
Mitsubishi 73" HD DLP TV
Dish ViP-722 HD-DVR Satellite Receiver
Yamaha RX-Z9 A/V Receiver
Pioneer Elite DVD Player (can't remember the model #)
Pioneer CLD-D790 LD Player (AC3)
Pioneer CD Player
Atlantic Technology System 350THX speaker system
XBox
Xbox360
Sega Saturn
Sega Genesis
JVC S-VHS VCR
I learned a long time ago that trying to have the latest and greatest in A/V gear is the fast track to the poor house. So I gave up trying.
But here's the fact: A IMA system is inferior to a two mode system in terms of fuel efficiency and it is fuel efficiency which is the prime objective of most hybrid buyers.
Yes, I know MB and Honda and GM and all those others are saying their providing an alternative that is more practical, cheaper, simpler and so on which makes the market for hybrids more interesting.
But here's the reality. MB and BMW know they cant compete with Toyota with their HSD system so that is why they gave up. Honda knows they cant compete with Toyota's HSD so they do the old fashioned thing and cut prices for their second rate technology.
The fact that MB has a litihium ion hybrid that is not much better than a diesel version is testament enough of the mediocrity of their hybrids.
There is one reason and only one reason many automakers like MB and Honda are racing to introduce hybrids at the cheapest and lowest technological way possible and that is regulations. In London England I never saw so many Priuses and RX400Hs in my whole life. That is due to the city's emissions tax and many automakers are losing a big chunk of their market share as a result. So out of desperation they will cook up on an ad-hoc basis a sub-par hybird that will at least be considered in the eyes of regulators as a low emission friendly vehicle. Nobody in MB or Honda marketing is going to admit this harsh truth so they just give you the spin about the cherished simplicity of their hybrid systems.
In Toronto there is talk and rumors about a similar tax as London. All over the world there is talk about stringent low emissiosn regulations. Toyota is 10 years ahead of everyone( except Ford ) and now all auto makers are eating the dust left behind Toyota and as a result all automakers are trying to hide that hard truth with their marketing.