BMW adds extra sportiness to its i-series lineup, unveils i8 Concept Spyder

We've swooned over BMW's i3 and i8 plug-in gasoline electric hybrids for some time now, so naturally our hearts raced today when the company announced its latest addition to the series, the i8 Concept Spyder. What you're looking at is essentially a sportier version of the i8 Coupe, with the appropriate accents and design tweaks to match. So, what's different in this variant of the nearly gull-winged wonder with a 96 kW / 131hp electric motor up front and 164 kW / 223hp gasoline engine on back? BMW notes that the vehicle features a shorter wheelbase and overall length (all while maintaining its 50-50 weight distribution), a slighter darker interior and refreshed paint job on its exterior, topless roof and even a pair of matching folded kickboards(!) that stow in the back. BMW hasn't mentioned when they'll be showing this Spyder in flesh, but as Autoblog notes, the New York Auto show is only a week way -- and we'll be sure to let you know if we spot it ourselves. In the meantime, you can zip over to Autoblog and the press release after the break for the details.

Continue reading BMW adds extra sportiness to its i-series lineup, unveils i8 Concept Spyder

BMW adds extra sportiness to its i-series lineup, unveils i8 Concept Spyder originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa profit rises 178%

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hong-kongs-hutchison-whampoa-profit-rises-178-140648281.html

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Xerox Mobile Scanner

Nearly identical to the Editors' Choice Visioneer Mobility ($199.99 direct, 4 stars), the Xerox Mobile Scanner ($249.99 direct) adds a single feature to justify its higher price: an Eye-Fi card that can automatically send scan results to your Android or iOS phone or tablet by WiFi as you scan. As with the Visioneer model, this solves the key issue for scanning without a computer: it lets you see the scan quality while you can still rescan if you need to. The Mobile Scanner's Eye-Fi card is a more expensive solution than the Mobility's USB cable, but it's also a lot slicker, making the Xerox Mobile Scanner just as much an Editors' Choice.

Eye-Fi cards, like the Editors' Choice Eye-Fi Mobile X2 ($79.99 direct, 4 stars) are separate, standalone products. The size of an SD card, they slip into a card slot to provide various amounts of memory, and WiFi capability. They're also meant to be used with the Eye-Fi Web site, which I'm basically going to ignore for purposes of this review.

Although Eye-Fi cards are generally used with cameras, you can buy one separately to use with the Visioneer Mobility if you like. According to Xerox, however, the version that comes with its Mobile Scanner is available only with the scanner, adding support for PDF as well JPG files. In addition, the Xerox version of the scanner itself includes firmware changes to work more efficiently with the card. So if you got a Visioneer Mobility and a separate card, you still wouldn't have quite a match for Xerox Mobile Scanner.

The Basics
The Mobile Scanner, like the Visioneer Mobility, is a little large and heavy for a portable, at 2 by 11.7 by 2.7 inches (HWD) and 1.5 pounds. Keep in mind, however, that it eliminates the need to bring along a computer for scanning, which would be even heavier. The scanner comes with a soft protective case to make it easier to carry.

Basic setup for the hardware consists of charging the battery. Beyond that, you have several options, depending on how you want to scan. You can plug in a USB memory key or standard SD card to scan to, you can connect by USB cable to your computer to scan to your PC, or, of course, you can plug in the Eye-Fi card to scan to it. For my tests, I used the Eye-Fi card.

Setting up the card isn't as easy as it should be. There are no instructions in the printed quick start guide, and trying to jump back and forth between the PDF User Guide in one window and the setup screen in another window is annoying at best. The actual setup isn't all that hard, however, and once you get through it, the card works as promised. As you might guess, part of the setup includes downloading a free app to your phone or tablet.

Eye-Fi offers a variety of setup options to choose from. For my tests, I set the card to talk directly to my Android phone, and also automatically upload the files over the Internet to a designated folder on my computer. With this setup, I could check the quality of each scan immediately after scanning, and then find the files on my system later to work with them, without any additional steps.

Scanning
Scanning with the Mobile Scanner couldn't be easier. The one setting option lets you scan to a color JPG file, a black and white PDF image file, or a color PDF image file, all at 300 pixels per inch (ppi). Turn the scanner on, choose the file type, feed paper into the front slot, and the scanner will grab it and scan. After a short wait, you can use the Eye-Fi app on your phone or tablet to look at the scan, and optionally send it elsewhere manually. If you've set it to upload the scans to your computer, however, that part will happen automatically.

The programs that come with the scanner are among the best available for their individual applications. PaperPort 12, in particular, offers excellent document management capability. In fact, it's responsible for the Mobile Scanner getting as a high a score as a manual feed, simplex (one-sided) scanner can get for document management. Also included are Nuance OmniPage 17 for optical character recognition (OCR) and NewSoft Presto! BizCard 5 for business cards. All of these programs can import scanned files to work with.

Results
The combination of the Mobile Scanner and OmniPage 17 did a remarkably good job on text recognition. In my tests, the scanner read both our Times New Roman and Arial test pages at sizes as small as 5 points without a mistake. It also did will with BizCard for business cards, making one or no mistakes on the vast majority of cards, and synching with Outlook without problems. The only potential issue for business cards is that BizCard can read JPG files only, so if you accidentally scan to PDF format, you have to rescan.

The Xerox Mobile Scanner offers everything that made the Visioneer Mobility an Editors' Choice, and more. Setup could be improved, simply by including printed instructions for the Eye-Fi card, but that's a one-time issue. Once you've set everything up, any frustrations quickly fade into the past. And although using a USB cable with the Mobility scanner and a smartphone is far from onerous, not having to connect it and still being able to see the scan results is better. The Mobility is still Editors' Choice material, but if you don't mind spending a few extra dollars, the Xerox Mobile Scanner is better, making it a higher-end Editors' Choice.

More Scanner Reviews:
??? Xerox Mobile Scanner
??? Epson WorkForce DS-30
??? PlanOn SlimScan SS100
??? Canon imageFormula P-215 Scan-tini Personal Document Scanner
??? Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/wAIINLC0JFA/0,2817,2399341,00.asp

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Laptops, iPads stolen from Romney staffers

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/laptops-ipads-stolen-romney-staffers-031000992.html

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Fiji seizes control of Air Pacific from Qantas

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fiji-seizes-control-air-pacific-qantas-043910187.html

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US trade upgrade may worsen relations with Russia

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stand together at the end of a bilateral meeting at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stand together at the end of a bilateral meeting at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration wants Congress to remove Soviet-era trade restrictions that have been a sore point in U.S.-Russia relations for decades. But the conditions lawmakers are demanding to make the change may only worsen America's increasingly shaky relations with Moscow.

Republicans and Democrats are trying to tie the easing of the so-called Jackson-Vanik restrictions to a measure imposing sanctions against Russian officials linked to human rights abuses. That would infuriate Russia and would be the latest hitch in what administration officials consider a major foreign policy success: improved relations with Russia after a sharp downturn during the Bush administration. They call it the "reset."

Obama administration officials are trying to keep the rights and trade measures apart. They are concerned about retaliation and do not want to aggravate relations further. Tensions have been growing over issues like missile defense and the international response to uprisings in Libya and Syria. But the U.S. still hopes for a degree of cooperation with Russia on other matters, such as stopping Iran's nuclear program.

"We want to deal with trade issues in one sphere and democracy issues and human rights in another sphere," said Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia.

The administration first wants to deal with trade. It has powerful allies in the U.S. business community supporting the repeal of Jackson-Vanik, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which calls the repeal its top trade priority this year. Russia soon will get more opportunities for international trade when it joins the World Trade Organization. If the U.S. doesn't repeal Jackson-Vanik, American companies could be at a competitive disadvantage.

But it's a delicate matter in an election year. Republicans are reluctant to offer Obama any perceived victory by unconditionally repealing the restrictions. And President Barack Obama doesn't want to appear too critical of the rights measure, which has support from both parties. His likely Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, has attacked Obama for signing a major nuclear arms treaty with Russia.

Obama's handling of relations with Russia became a bigger political issue Monday after he told outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more flexibility to deal with the contentious issue of missile defense after the November election. Obama apparently did not realize he was being recorded.

Republicans seized on the remarks, demanding an explanation. And on Tuesday, Obama denied having a hidden agenda. "I want to reduce our nuclear stockpiles. And one of the barriers to doing that is building trust and cooperation around missile defense issues," he said.

Jackson-Vanik has long been a thorn in US-Russian relations. It was introduced in 1974 to pressure the Soviet Union to allow Jews to emigrate. Named after its congressional sponsors, Jackson-Vanik denies normal trading relations with communist countries that restrict emigration or punish those trying to leave the country.

Russia calls it anachronistic, even though the legislation has had little practical effect since 1994, when the United States began waiving its application. Still, previous calls to repeal it have found little traction among lawmakers critical of Russia's human rights record.

Those rights concerns prompted two Democrats, Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts and Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, to propose the Magnitsky bill, which would make it difficult for Russians suspected of abuses from doing business, including using credit cards, outside their country. It also calls for publicly identifying Russians tied to abuses, a significant escalation that the administration worries could rile relations. The measure also is backed by prominent Republicans, including Sen. John McCain.

The bill was named for lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, who died in a Russian jail in 2009, when the pancreatitis he developed was left untreated. Proponents of the bill say the death and allegations of torture highlight corruption in Russia's judicial system.

Prospects were uncertain for getting the measure passed as a stand-alone bill. But with the administration and business groups pushing hard to get Jackson-Vanik repealed, senators saw an opportunity to boost its prospects by tying together the two measures, underscoring the link between trade with Russia and human rights.

The administration tried to defuse the issue last year by issuing travel bans on 60 unnamed Russian officials believed to be responsible for Magnitsky's imprisonment, torture and death. Russia later responded by saying it had banned unnamed U.S. officials it claims were involved in abuses related to U.S. counterterror policies.

If Congress insists on linking the two bills, the administration wants to drop the provision calling for the naming of rights abusers. They argue that such disclosure would be inconsistent with State Department practice and counterproductive, because it would remove the uncertainty that human rights violators already face about whether they are on a U.S. blacklist.

Human rights advocates, though, fear the administration may go too far to avoid upsetting Moscow.

"If the Russian leadership is going to throw U.S.-Russian relations over the side because we are going after Russian officials who engage in gross human rights abuses, then the reset isn't very solid to begin with," says David Kramer, president of the human rights advocacy group Freedom House.

___

Follow Desmond Butler at http://twitter.com/desmondbutler

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-03-27-US-Russia-Trade/id-c2fd722db3b04cb8b300b56f1823ef45

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