BMW to Introduce Scooters to U.S.

BMW plans to bring their first scooters to the United States. At the International Motorcycle Shows event in Long Beach, the company says it plans to introduce next year to their U.S. lineup the C 600

     Sport and C 650 GT.

     For LA Times, BMW Motorrad USA vice president Pieter de Waal said these scooters are a “step in  the dark” for the company that has produced motorcycles since 1923. He said BMW expects 70 percent of its scooter sales to come from Italy, France, and Spain, where BMW has garnered “overwhelming support” from the market to produce the two-wheelers.

Pricing hasn’t yet been announced either, but De Waal estimates that the scooters will cost about $10,000 when they enter the U.S. market next fall, most likely as a 2013 model.

The two scooters share the same 647 cubic-centimeter two-cylinder engine. The 2-cylinder inline engine of the C 600 Sport and C 650 GT is an all new development by BMW Motorrad with a displacement of 647 cc. In both models, its rated power output is 44 kW (60 hp) at 7500 rpm, and its max torque of 66 Nm is available at 6000 rpm. The power is transferred via a directly integrated CVT, or continuously variable transmission.

 They’re capable of reaching a top speed of 100 mph. By comparison, the most powerful Vespa you can buy has an engine less than half as large and makes just 22 horsepower.

The differing characteristics of the concepts behind these two maxi scooters appeal to a wide target group: the C 600 Sport for the riders with sports ambitions, and the C 650 GT for customers attaching greater importance to comfort and touring ability.

The BMW C 600 Sport has a taller seat, flatter handlebars, and sportier styling. The C 650 GT will differ by having a larger saddle, higher handlebars, and adjustable backrests.

How they’ll do in the U.S. is “a step in the dark,” said Pieter de Waal, vice president of BMW Motorrad USA. Scooters aren’t nearly as commonplace in the U.S. as they are in Europe, and their sales are correlated with gas prices.

LG Debuting 55-inch Ultra-Thin OLED TV at CES, May Sell Later This Year

 LG Debuting 55-inch Ultra-Thin OLED TV at CES, May Sell Later This Year

 Jumbo-screen TV lovers, hide your checkbooks — it sounds like LG will be the first electronics manufacturer to sell a monster-sized 3D organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV later this year. Hey, what better way to celebrate 2012 (you know, the year the world ends!) than by earmarking a bunch of money to fill your living room with 55 inches of “emissive electroluminescent” resplendence?

Look for the OLED TV to make a splash at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas next week, says LG spokesperson Ken Hong (via Bloomberg). Contrary to some reports, it won’t be the world’s largest TV — that distinction still goes to Panasonic’s 152-inch 3D Plasma TV, which’ll set you back $500,000 — but it’ll certainly be the biggest OLED screen in the offing.


A quick refresher: OLED tech uses organic carbon-based compounds that display red, green or blue light in response to electric current. Unlike an LCD screen, OLED screens don’t require crystals that “twist” and “untwist.” They tend to produce sharper, cleaner images, have ultrafast refresh rates and since they don’t need a backlight (to illuminate the crystals in LCDs) they use considerably less power and can fit in thinner frames.

Speaking of thin, LG says its 55-inch OLED display is a trifling four millimeters thick and weighs just 16.5 pounds. Read that again: four millimeters. Note to James Bond and Jason Bourne: Don’t bother clobbering bad guys with one of these, because you might as well use tissue paper.

And just in case: Don’t confuse OLED with LED screens — LED TVs are just a different kind of LCD TV. They’re still using LCD tech for the picture, but with LED backlighting instead of “cold cathode” (CCFL) illumination. They’re a midpoint between LCDs and OLEDs, using less power (LED backlighting) and allowing for thinner display bezels without charging OLED prices.

In other words, don’t expect LG’s 55-inch OLED TV to be cheap. NPD DisplaySearch estimates it’ll cost a whopping $8,000 when it goes on sale, probably sometime in the third quarter of 2012

Go Daddy looses 21,000 domains in 1 day

Go Daddy looses 21,000 domains in 1 day

It appears that companies supporting SOPA are starting to understand that support for the act could cost you alot of customers.
Simply put the act would criminalize any use of any copyrighted information without explicit permission from it’s owner.  Meaning say you decided to post a video that has music in it, if you didn’t pay a fee to the owner you could be prosecuted for threat of the property.  This bill is BAD NEWS and should die.  Several other Bills are circulating that are better and would handle issues better.

Social media platform Reddit is at the forefront of objections with this Act.  It’s users have called for folks to close their GODADDY accounts.