MOTORTREND - July, 30 2008

Kinda like putting the big M in Mini: The Mini John Cooper Works returns

By Todd Lassa

Nothing Mini offers cuts through the cuteness like John Cooper Works. The JCW version returns in coupe or Clubman form, with two fewer ponies from the new, twin-scroll turbocharged aluminum 1.6L engine versus the old supercharged iron block.

Now integrated within Mini, like BMW’s M, JCW builds the cars at the factory, eliminating dealer-installation fees. For just under $30K, you get a JCW Challenge car for the road, featuring more robust engine parts, including new pistons. Compression ratio is 10.0:1, down from to 10.5:1 to reduce knock. New turbo housing is made of a stronger material. This allows JCW to turn up boost from the Cooper S’ 0.9 bar to 1.3 bar. BMW’s Dynamic Traction Control and Dynamic Stability Control are adapted for FWD, but the smoothest way around a twisty road is to turn them off and rely on the new electronic locking rear differential.

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CNNMoney - Last Updated: July 31, 2008: 5:28 AM EDT

Some workers are actually in demand right now at top financial firms. But the inexperienced need not apply.

By David Ellis, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — No one would dare go so far as to say that the Wall Street job market is bright.

Through June, financial firms of all stripes have shed an estimated 63,000 jobs over the past year, according to the latest employment figures from the Labor Department. That’s due in large part to the housing slump and credit crisis.

The pain is particularly acute on Wall Street. Investment banks and brokerages have shed an estimated 7,600 jobs, or roughly 4% of their workforce during the past year, according to the latest figures from the New York State Department of Labor.

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BUSINESSWEEK - Market Views July 31, 2008, 12:01AM EST

With market psychology so negative, it’s easier for positive developments—like falling oil prices— to lift investors’ spirits

by Alec Young From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

After coming in like a lion, July went out like a lamb. The beauty of a bear market is that investor psychology gets so negative, and forward-looking assumptions become so dire, that it’s easier for future events to exceed investors’ lowered expectations.

The price of crude oil is a case in point. Its 17% retreat since peaking on July 11 has been a welcome reprieve, given that the market sell-off from June through early July was, in our view, predicated in part on soaring energy prices. In addition, while second-quarter earnings per share for companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index were down 19% year-over-year (through July 22), we believe many investors had been bracing for worse.

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InformationWeek - Jul 30, 2008 08:16 PM

Posted by Thomas Claburn

Google (NSDQ: GOOG), via the YouTube blog, on Wednesday said that it has purchased Omnisio, a California-based social video start-up.

Omniso allows users of YouTube and other video sites to share videos in a variety of ways, annotate them with comments, edit videos, add and synchronize slide shows, and generally add information to videos to enhance the viewing experience.

The acquisition marks Google’s second such deal this month. About two weeks ago, Google bought ZAO Begun, a Russian contextual advertising company, for $140 million.

Google would have to acquire 14 more companies by the end of the year to match the 16 it purchased in 2007. But perhaps the organizational indigestion that arises from trying to integrate too many companies has encouraged a more measured approach.

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CNNMoney - July 28, 2008: 6:25 PM EDT

After nearly a decade, these growth stocks are finally showing some signs of life.

By Michael Sivy, Money Magazine editor-at-large

(Money Magazine) — Blue-chip growth stocks are a great foundation for your portfolio because steady, superior earnings growth usually produces above-average returns.

But you’ll find the number of large, seasoned growth companies with great financial strength is surprisingly small - fewer than 150. Winnow that down to a core of leaders in a range of industries and you have the Sivy 70 list of blue-chip growth stocks for the long run.

Unfortunately, as a group these stocks haven’t kept up with the rest of the market in years. Many were overvalued at the height of the growth-stock boom of the late ’90s.

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InformationWeek - July 30, 2008 02:36 PM

The operating system is being designed from the ground up to support Internet-based computing and multicore architectures.

By Paul McDougall

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) researchers are developing a new operating system that’s designed from the ground up to support Internet-based computing and multicore architectures and which could one day replace the company’s storied Windows franchise.The operating system, which currently goes by the development name Midori, is being built to solve problems that are beyond the scope of Windows, a so-called fat OS that was first developed before the Internet came into widespread use and most PCs had only a single processor.

It’s possible that Midori is being designed for use in cloud computing scenarios, in which business applications reside on centralized servers and are accessed through the Web. Microsoft researchers also are building the OS with an eye to achieving better performance on multicore PCs, company documents show. To date, developers have had little success creating software that’s able to fully harness the power of computers that feature two or more cores on a single chip.

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BUSINESSWEEK - Technology July 31, 2008, 12:01AM EST

The field is crowded with efforts to build open source software for cell phones; the players would get more mileage—and better compete with Apple and Microsoft—by working together

by Olga Kharif

When it comes to cell-phone software, open is the new black. In less than two years, no fewer than three coalitions have formed with the intent of building mobile handset operating systems with input from all comers. Suddenly the business of developing mobile software—once handled by coders working behind closed doors for a single vendor or group—has gone open source.

To recap, there’s the Google-led Open Handset Alliance (BusinessWeek.com, 11/6/07) that draws together dozens of companies to work on an operating system called Android. “The first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices” is how Andy Rubin, director of mobile platforms at Google (GOOG), described the effort, unveiled in November 2007. Then there’s the LiMo Foundation, a coalition formed early last year that’s already proved successful in getting the Linux open-source operating system onto mobile phones.

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