The Comics take on the GOP this week!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Proton, Electric Car, May Be Here Next Year?
From the AP: Electric Cars
KUALA LUMPUR, March 30, 2009:
Detroit Electric Holdings Ltd and PROTON Holdings Berhad today announced a strategic partnership to mass produce Pure Electric Vehicles. Detroit Electric will integrate its patented electric drive systems into the vehicles.
Under the agreement, Detroit Electric will license two Proton vehicle platforms and contract the company to assemble the electric vehicles that will be marketed under Detroit Electric’s brand.
This agreement will provide Detroit Electric with its first manufacturing base. The announcement came at a signing ceremony officiated by Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
“Today’s agreement with Proton will put Detroit Electric on the fast track to bring a full line of innovative, practical and affordable pure electric vehicles to the global market,” said Albert Lam, Detroit Electric’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We chose Proton due to its state-of-the-art production facility, commitment to research and development, cost efficiency, and stable, high-quality workforce.”
By 2012, Detroit Electric plans to sell more than 270,000 Pure Electric Vehicles in Europe, UK, China and the United States. The vehicles will be priced between USD 23,000 and USD 26,000 for the city range model and between USD 28,000 and USD 33,000 for the extended range model. Styling changes will distinguish Detroit Electric’s vehicles from Proton’s existing line-up.
The vehicles will be based on Detroit Electric’s unique, patented electric drive system that greatly reduces the electric motor’s size and weight. The underlying Magnetic Flux Motor Technology and well-proven Lithium Polymer Battery Technology allow pure electric vehicles to achieve a single-charge range of 180km (111 miles) for the city range model and 325km (200 miles) for the extended range model.
Detroit Electric is in the final stage of setting up two subsidiaries: Detroit Electric Energy, which will produce the battery technology, and Detroit Electric Advanced Propulsion Lab, which will manufacture the motor and controller.
The Detroit Electric Advanced Propulsion Lab and Manufacturing Plant is targeted to be in Malaysia close to the vehicle assembly facilities of Proton. By 2012, the two production plants will produce more than 400,000 electric drive systems, creating thousands of jobs and supporting Detroit Electric’s internal demands as well as third-party OEM’s needs.
Proton, which currently produces a total of 270,000 vehicles of various models in Malaysia, edged out a host of international brands when its popular Persona was named Malaysia’s Best Model of the Year in the 2008 Frost & Sullivan ASEAN Automotive Awards. The company is also Malaysia’s largest investor in research and development, spending USD 1.2 billion (RM4.6 billion) between 1993 and 2003.
“We are proud to be able to integrate our electric drive systems upon one of the best cars out of Asia. Our customers around the world will enjoy the level of quality and comfort offered by Proton, an award-winning manufacturer,” said Lam.
Detroit Electric will be responsible for the homologation of the vehicles and for vehicle certification in the U.S. and European markets, where models are targeted to be sold in the first quarter of 2010 EU, UK, China and closely followed the US. Detroit Electric will assume all warranty and liabilities for the Electric Vehicles, while Proton will warranty the vehicle’s build and standard components.
“Our vehicles will be reliable, meet all quality and safety requirements, and quite simply outperform internal combustion engine vehicles of the same class. They will be affordable as we look at the competitive market and come without the polluting carbon emissions,” said Lam.
Today’s agreement also initiates the test and validation program in which Proton will evaluate Detroit Electric’s electric drive system with the intent to license the rights to distribute, market and sell vehicles under the Proton brand in Asia.
Detroit Electric is looking to repeat similar contract production partnerships with manufacturers in Europe and the United States. This will allow the company to extend its range of models very quickly to meet demand in the different automotive segments in these markets.
“When you are trying to redefine the automotive industry, you need to bring many partners along,” said Lam. “Our contract manufacturing business model will breathe new life into current manufacturers, leveraging existing unutilized global resources and accelerating the technological advancement of pure electric vehicles.”
On the current global downturn in automotive markets, Lam expressed confidence that Pure Electric Vehicles will attract a diverse base of consumers despite the tightening credit market, lowered consumer confidence, unstable oil prices and stricter fuel economy regulations.
“Our target audience are those who purchase practical and affordable vehicles. This makes our products fit the pockets of a very wide audience – from professionals and executives, to mothers, students and small business owners.”
-End-
About Detroit Electric:
Detroit Electric Holdings Ltd is one of the leaders of the electric car revolution. We manufacture efficient and environmentally friendly, high performance, long range Pure Electric Vehicles and drive-systems to the global marketplace. Detroit Electric's product plans range from high performance sports cars to stylish sedans capable of driving over 320 km / 200 miles in a single charge.
Detroit Electric Holdings Ltd invented and patented the Magnetic Flux Motor Technology for the motor drive train. The company also owns the intellectual property for the Motor Controller Program. Since its launch, Detroit Electric has been dedicated to developing new technologies and establishing strategic partnerships that leverage existing manufacturing capacities in the marketplace.
About Proton:
PROTON, established in 1983, is Malaysia's largest manufacturer of automobiles. With operations in key market centers from UK and Western Europe to the Middle East, and across South-East Asia and Australasia, PROTON produces cars to suit a range of consumer demands and preferences. The offerings include versatile and reliable four-door family vehicles, two-door hatchbacks for the young-at-heart, luxurious and stylish executive sedans, as well as the world-renowned sports cars from Lotus.
PROTON’s inception as a key driver of national development has seen the brand accelerate its learning curve through technology transfer with strategic partnerships and technical collaborations. PROTON cars are now steadily on track to achieving the mission for the future, gearing up to achieve the promise of a marque which build cars with passion and soul; cars which are a delight to drive and a pleasure to own.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Can OnLive really revolutionize gaming?
 MSNBC.com |
Can OnLive really revolutionize gaming?
Startup company promises the holy grail: lag-free, on-demand gaming
By Kristin Kalning
Games editor
updated 7:42 a.m. CT, Tues., March. 31, 2009
Will OnLive change gaming as we know it? Or will it go the way of other promised on-demand game services — into the ether?
OnLive, a new streaming game system announced at last week’s Game Developer Conference, was arguably the biggest news of the show. Built by Steve Perlman, the guy who created WebTV (and sold it for a cool $500 million to Microsoft), OnLive promises to stream games live, over the Internet, with no lag.
Let me say that again: No lag. That’s a bold claim. If you’ve ever done a video conference at work or a Skype call, you know what lag looks like.
But Perlman, who also was involved with creating QuickTime for Apple way-back-when, knows data compression. And he says he and his 100-person team have, through seven years of trial and error, perfected a system that streams first-run, top-tier games to any entry-level PC, Mac or TV. All you need is broadband, and, if you go the TV route, a slender little MicroConsole.
The holy grail of gaming?
If true, OnLive could be the holy grail of gaming. It lets publishers give the finger to GameStop and other retailers, and distribute their games directly to consumers. It would eliminate piracy. And it makes the console war a moot point.
Perlman says he was initially inspired to create OnLive for this very reason. The successive generations of consoles are becoming way too pricey for consumers — evidenced, he says, by the $400 PlayStation 3’s struggle to gain widespread traction.
“If you can’t achieve the next-generation game systems by building hardware for the home, because it’s just way too expensive … where are you going to build it? It has to be in the cloud,” he says.
It's in the cloud
Cloud computing is a concept that’s gained widespread interest thanks to Google Apps and other Web-based software. It means, in essence, that you can use applications and software over the Internet, without pesky discs or downloads. OnLive extends this concept to games.
This isn’t the first time that a company has tried to free gamers from the shackles of — hardware and software. The long-promised “Phantom” on-demand game service was just that an apparition. Trion World Networks — whose name evokes images of some fictional “Austin Powers”-esque conglomerate — has raised $100 million for its server-based, real-time games. But OnLive, which goes into public beta this summer with a targeted end-of-year launch date, could be the first product to market.
Network log jams made worse?
OK, but wait a second here. If OnLive shifts the burden to the Internet, won’t that make network log jams even worse? Service providers like Comcast are already screaming bloody murder about high network usage — some ISPs are even charging customers that go over data-transfer limits.
But Perlman says that unlike peer-to-peer systems, which swamp ISPs limited traffic, “OnLive is only high-bandwidth downstream, with only a trickle upstream.”
Still, naysayers — and they are vocal — pooh-pooh this crazy notion of lag-free, on-demand gaming. They point out that today’s online games are only sending player data across the transom — and those games experience hiccups all the time.
'Not your father's servers'
Ah, but OnLive’s different, says Perlman. The system takes input from your controller (or keyboard) and connects the player to the OnLive service. Then, lickety-split, the service’s custom game servers — “these aren’t your father’s servers,” he jokes — render your game graphics. A super-secret video-encoding technology shoots back low-latency video, running Barry Sanders-like patterns through whatever routers and firewalls you’ve got going, and — bam. It’s like playing off a disc, says Perlman.
Still, he’s not expecting gamers to abandon their consoles en masse. “People have made a huge investment in those things and we expect them to play out that investment for a long time.” Initially, he says, OnLive will be, as he puts it, “additive.”
Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan, agrees that OnLive isn’t going to steal away massive market share anytime soon.
“I don’t think these guys are getting 20 percent of the market tomorrow, I think they’re getting half a percent of the market within a year-and-a-half of launch,” he says. “And I think that’s meaningful enough to signal to us, directionally, that digital distribution is here.”
No announcement on price
As for the cost of the system, that hasn’t been announced. Perlman says that the subscription fees will be comparable to what Microsoft’s charging for Xbox Live ($50 per year), and the MicroConsole will either be sold at a price “vastly less expensive than the ($250) Wii,” or given away with a long-enough subscription.
Despite this being a potentially money-saving proposition for gamers, not all are welcoming the OnLive announcement with open arms. Nick Bredon, of the enthusiast site ShackNews, wrote that he saw “blocky pixels” playing “BioShock” over OnLive, and proclaimed it “unquestionably inferior to playing from a disc.” Those who commented on blog postings ranged from cautiously optimistic to nastily disdainful.
The publishers are excited, though — Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take Two Interactive and Warner Brothers among them — are jumping on board with OnLive. The only notable holdout is Activision Blizzard, publishers of “World of Warcraft” and “Call of Duty,” two extremely popular multiplayer games. And, of course, OnLive isn’t going to get a crack at console-exclusives such as “Halo” or “Metal Gear.”
But Pachter believes the target market — at least today — is not the hard-core player with a console. They see OnLive as just another platform, with games they’ve already got.
“We in the industry think the world revolves around the hard-core (player), but for this product, it’s about the next generation of hard-core players, who can’t afford it yet,” he says.
© 2009 msnbc.com Reprints
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29961804/
Friday, March 27, 2009
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