asdfgh

Nvidia today rolled out its next-generation 200-series GPUs, the GeForce GTX 260 and GTX 280.

The series name is at last a concession to the bewildering naming scheme Nvidia has played with in the vast array of GeForce graphics chips. That is — starting now. Customers will still wade through the convoluted model numbers with older offerings.

The 200-series GPUs are fabricated by the Taiwan foundry, TSMC, on a 65nm process that uses 1.4 billion transistors. It's an enormous 576 square millimeters chip and the largest GPU that TSMC has manufactured to date. To compare, the G92 chip (used in the GeForce 8800 and 9800 GPUs) measures 330 square millimeters.

Jones Apparel Group Inc announced that it has formed a joint venture with Rachel Roy, Damon Dash and TSM Capital, LLC to develop, market and license the New York-based fashion brand, Rachel Roy. Under the terms of the agreement, Jones owns 50% of the joint venture interest.

The remaining interest is owned by the two founders, Rachel Roy and Damon Dash, as well as TSM Capital which acquired a minority stake in the business last November. Jones will assume operations of the existing designer collection business under license with the new joint venture.

Handbags have evolved into a woman's most indispensable accessory; The New York Times recently termed them as the new JewelryThough bags appear on Egyptian hieroglyphics, the handbag as we know it came into being from the 1900s when women started to use it as an accessory. Handbags now reflect the personal taste of the wearer and make as much of an individual statement as a calling card.

In the 1950s, popular handbag designers included Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes. Today these three brands are still popular, along with Gucci, Christian Dior, Fendi, Prada, and Kate Spade.

It is a large market segment with a lot of space and new brands are challenging the dominance of the established brands.

Nokia announced the launch of a high end business phone E71 to meet the needs of the corporate world. E71 has a 320×240 screen which is very clear and a 3.2 mega pixel camera. E71 supports GPS navigation, Bluetooth 2.0, Edge and GPRS. E71 contains single speaker which is clear enough for ring tones and supports loud music. The battery used in E71 is a 1500mAh battery which does not go down even if constant phone calls and emails are done.

Shares of Motorola Inc. fell sharply Wednesday, as gloomy comments from one of its Chinese cell-phone contract manufacturers magnified ongoing concerns about the health of handset manufacturers.

In afternoon trade, Motorola's shares were down 6.3 percent, or 54 cents, to $8.06. Earlier in the day, the stock hit a new 52-week low of $7.61.

QuickerTek’s newest Apple Juicz product uses the sun to power the battery on your MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, but it will cost you $500, at least. To help defray the cost, QuickerTek is throwing in a free backpack to help you carry the flexible, foldable cell array.

The Apple Juicz comes in three “flavors,” if you will: 18 watt, which recharges a MacBook Air battery in 14 hours; 27 watt, which recharges a MacBook Air in eight hours; and 55 watt, which recharges your MacBook Air in five hours. They cost $500, $600 and $1,000 respectively.

That may sound absurdly expensive, given that the replacement cost of an Apple laptop AC adapter is just a fraction of that price. But QuickerTek president Rick Estes said that it’s right in line with what the market will bear for such a device. “It’s certainly not cheap,” he admits.

Research In Motion (RIM) lived up to its plan of launching a flip phone within the year through its very first Blackberry clamshell, the Blackberry Kickstart.

What many thought to be just plain rumor and hoax has actually come to life. The Kickstart, launching on T-Mobile, came as a pleasant surprise to consumers who were expecting to see a more design-challenged flip phone. Although not svelte and sexy, it does have that standard look that one can expect from contemporary flip phones.

The Kickstart makes use of a SureType keypad, and has internal and external LCD’s sized 320 x 240 and 160 x 128, respectively. Menu navigation is through TrackBall, and it sports a 2 mega-pixel camera. It lacks 3G, but has Wi-Fi connectivity. The whole package runs on a 4.6 Operating System.

Apple has settled a patent-infringement lawsuit over the visual voice mail system used in the iPhone by signing a license for the technology in question.

Klausner Technologies sued Apple and AT&T last December over the visual voice mail feature inside the iPhone, which lets you select and listen to voice mail from a list of messages, just like an e-mail in-box. Reuters reports that Apple, AT&T, and eBay are all now licensees to Klausner's technology, although financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Warmer weather and U.S. income tax rebates have begun to fuel demand for clothes and shoes made by Jones Apparel Group Inc (JNY.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the company's chief executive said on Monday.

Sandals, T-shirts and lightweight dresses have been selling particularly well over the past couple months, Chief Executive Wesley Card told the Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit.

"We saw a definitive pickup as the weather turned. I wouldn't categorize it as really robust, but there is less inventory in the channel," Card said, meaning that retailers were taking on less stock to avoid having to take big markdowns to move unsold merchandise.

A million pieces of stainless steel toy parts assembled into a nearly seven-story model skyscraper glimmered under the hot sun in New York on Tuesday, in American artist Chris Burden's latest project.

The 16,000-pound (7,250-kg) "poetic interpretation" of the 30 Rock Building at Rockefeller Center was made of replicated Erector set pieces from the toy created by A.C. Gilbert in 1912, Burden said.

"He was inspired by the buildings to build this toy system and I used this toy system to build a building," Burden said.

"It's a poetic interpretation of 30 Rock, it's not a model of it. It references all the tall buildings in Manhattan," Burden said, standing near his 65-foot (20-metre) tower.

The European Union (EU) filed reports on cases of substandard toys from China last year 117 percent more than in 2006, affected by a new EU directive on toy safety and massive recalls by U.S. toy makers.

    The EU members filed 398 notifications about toys through Rapex-China, a rapid alert system for non-food consumer product safety between the EU and Chinese governments, according to a work report given by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China (AQSIQ) to Xinhua on Tuesday.

    The report said the large increase was partly due to the implementation of an EU directive that prohibited the use of phthalate (an additive that affects the flexibility of plastic) intoys and child care articles from last January.

Jakks signs four year, worldwide deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship organisation.
The firm has been named as the master toy licensee for the UFC martial arts brand, adding to its portfolio of licenses.

The firm, which also hold the WWE master toy licence, has been tasked with producing a collector-focused product line, to include role-play items based on the mixed martial arts brand and star fighters.

Stephen Berman, president and coo, Jakks, said: "The UFC is a perfect match for Jakks, given our sxtensive expertise in developing and marketing collector driven sports action figures.

A raft of Mattel brands continue to grow outside of the toy aisle, as licensing partnerships are signed and extended.
New licensing partners and details of deals for a host of Mattel brands have emerged from the Licensing International expo being held in New York.

Outdoor Play

Fisher-Price is teaming up with ToyQuest and 360 Consumer Products Group to bring to market new ranges of play equipment and inflatables.

Cougar Golf is set to launch Hot Wheels golf equipment this Christmas, including clubs, balls, tees, ball-markers and a visor, building on the Barbie range.

A Report by the European Commission claims that weaknesses are still visible in the Chinese toy industry.
The report claims that smaller Chinese manufacturers are struggling to ensure their products meet the standards required, as they lack knowledge of proceedures and staff training.

In recognising that the Chinese authorities have made a lot of progress in tightening testing proceedures and tackling abuses of the system, the report has made a further 50 reccommendations on how to tighten up safaety procedures, including warning about the dangers posed by magnets in toys.

European consumer affairs commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, is due to show the report to Chinese officials next month.

The European Union (EU) filed reports on cases of substandard toys from China last year 117 percent more than in 2006, affected by a new EU directive on toy safety and massive recalls by U.S. toy makers.

The EU members filed 398 notifications about toys through Rapex-China, a rapid alert system for non-food consumer product safety between the EU and Chinese governments, according to a work report given by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China (AQSIQ) to Xinhua on Tuesday.

The report said the large increase was partly due to the implementation of an EU directive that prohibited the use of phthalate (an additive that affects the flexibility of plastic) in toys and child care articles from last January.

I know it's advisable to talk to plants when growing them, but isn't Sega Toys overdoing it just a bit by actually manufacturing toy plants people can talk to? Yeah sure, it's a bit cute at first, but five minutes into the "conversation" and I'll probably opt not to speak at all. Pekoppa is a toy plant with a built-in IC chip which identifies intonations and rhythms of human speech. Whenever someone starts talking near it, the plant bends to mimic the very human action of nodding; creating an illusion that someone's actually listening to your woes. In fact, Pekoppa's marketing tag line is: "Heal yourself with this plant, which is a good listener!"

China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said auto sales in China were expected to exceed 10 million units this year which would represent a full year sales growth of 14%.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers car sales reached 3.02 million units including 2.23 million sedans, 179,200 sport-utility vehicles and 93,200 multi utility vehicles in the period.

Xinhua reported that passenger car sales in China in the first five months of 2008 up by 17.41% YoY over the same period a year earlier.

Subaru has issued a stop-sale order, suspending sales of all 2008/2009 cars equipped with its 2.5 liter turbocharged engine until they can be inspected. Cars that have already been sold are being brought back for inspection.

The point of concern is engine knock that develops due to premature big-end connecting rod bearing wear/failure. The engine knock results under power when ignition drives the piston and con rod hard into the crankshaft journal, rather than the force being carried by the journal bearings' hydrodynamic lubrication.

RBC Bearings Inc., which makes ball bearings, said Monday it completed its acquisition of Precision Industrial Components LLC for $6.6 million in cash.

RBC will also assume some of Precision Industrial's liabilities.

The acquisition allows RBC to offer a wider array of products to customers, the Oxford-based company said.

Shares were unchanged in aftermarket electronic trading, from their regular session close at $36.49.

China Jiangsu Golden Horse Steel Ball, Inc., a leading Chinese manufacturer and supplier of ball bearings, has announced unaudited consolidated operating results for the three month period ended March 31, 2008 ("Q1 2008"). Highlights for Q1 2008:

According to the report, Fang Wei, Deputy Mayor of Wuxi City, met the President of Japan JTEKT Corporation and other company members at Hubin Hotel.

JTEKT Corporation mainly dedicates on the manufacture and sale of steering systems, bearings, machine tools, driveline components, electronic control devices, home accessory equipments, etc.

Koyo, one of two members of JTEKT Corporation, has successively set up 8 companies in Wuxi since 1989 with a total investment of more than $100 million.

Reportedly, both parties had good communication on their cooperation of 20 years.

WD Bearing and its employees feel deep condolence for the victims of the earthquake and sincerely hope for the swift recovery of the people and areas affected by the earthquake.

WD Bearing Group organised one collection activity on May 15th. Total donation reached RMB700,00 which expressed WD's attention to people in disaster area.

Breif introduction for WD Bearing:

Starting from representing predominant bearing manufacturers in China, we, WD Bearings has set up its own brand WD in the world and taken the mission to change the prejudice on the Chinese bearings.

Newmont Mining Corporation, owner of Minera Yanacocha, had signed the contract for the goldmine expansion project with ABB in early 2006.

ABB successfully completed commissioning of a 16.5 MW gearless mill drive (GMD) system for a 32 feet SAG (semiautogenous) mill at Minera Yanacocha. The mine, located in Cajamarca, Peru, is the largest gold producer in Latin America.

ABB and Newmont have had a long and successful collaboration, including various drives orders over the years. Kim Hackney, Project Director at Newmont Yanacocha said: “The mill achieved commercial production with 70% availability, throughput and gold production within the first month. This is fantastic and we are confident that ABB will make sure our GMD at Yanacocha continues to deliver the best performance and be top of the line over its life span. For the completion of this project, I would personally like to thank ABB on a job well done within this hugely successful project.”

Engineers have created a way to use cell phone Bluetooth signals to determine how long it takes vehicles and pedestrians to travel from one point to another. The method envisioned by engineers at the Indiana Department of Transportation offers a low-cost solution for everything from the speed of the morning commutes to the sluggishness of airport security lines.