You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
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It all starts tonight with South Korean exports at 8 PM ET. This data release is referred to as the "economic canary in the coal mine" because South Korea sends a lot of its exports to China, the health of which is critical to the global economy.
Following that is the official China manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers Index), out at 9 PM ET. All eyes will be on this release following a lackluster set of first-quarter economic data published a few weeks ago and the recent collapse in the commodity complex, which many ascribe to fears over Chinese growth.
Economists expect the index to tick down to 50.7 from 50.9 in March. Any reading above 50 on the PMIs indicates expansion, so 50.7 would signal continued, but slowing growth in Chinese manufacturing.
Overnight, we will also get the latest manufacturing PMI readings from Japan, Russia, Indonesia, Ireland, the Netherlands, the U.K., and Australia.
Then, Wednesday morning, we get a ton of new data on the U.S. economy.
Then, the main event on Wednesday at 2 PM: the Federal Reserve's FOMC monetary policy body will announce its monthly interest rate decision. Market participants will be listening closely for any acknowledgment of the recent slowdown in U.S. economic indicators, especially those that track inflation, which by various measures has been falling in recent months.
Lately, the conversation has shifted away from tapering of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program in light of these developments, so any comments from the FOMC may prove to be illuminating.
In addition, global automakers will be reporting monthly auto sales all day on Wednesday. Analysts predict total vehicle sales were 15.22 million units at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate in April, unchanged from March. Autos ? along with housing ? have led the U.S. economic recovery, so a slowdown there would be a bad sign.
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Wednesday night, the fun begins again with more manufacturing PMI releases ? starting at 9 PM ET with South Korea and featuring HSBC's China PMI at 10:45. Overnight, we will get more PMI releases from Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Poland, and Turkey.?
Thursday morning, the PMI releases continue with important readings on the health of manufacturing sectors around the euro zone.
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Spain is first at 4:15 AM ET, followed by Italy, France, Germany, and Greece, as well as a euro area-wide reading.
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Right after those releases, the European Central Bank will announce its monthly interest rate decision (at 7:45 AM ET).?
The consensus expectation among market economists is that the ECB will cut interest rates for the first time since July 2012, lowering the benchmark refinancing rate to 0.50% from 0.75% on the back of weak economic data out of the euro zone in recent weeks.
In the U.S., there are two key releases on Thursday morning, both at 8:30 AM ET:
It's definitely not over on Thursday. Arguably, the best is saved for last.
Friday, at 8:30 AM ET, the U.S. releases its monthly nonfarm payrolls report. Economists estimate the U.S. economy created 148,000 nonfarm payrolls in April after creating only 88,000 in March. The unemployment rate is expected to stay unchanged at 7.6%.
To round out the week, March factory orders data and ISM's non-manufacturing (services) index are released at 10 AM. Factory orders are expected to have contracted 3.0% in March after growing 3.0% in April. ISM's non-manufacturing index is expected to tick down to 54.0 from 54.4 in March.
So get ready.
Follow all of the data LIVE on Business Insider >
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-next-72-hours-are-going-to-be-insane-2013-4
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By John Seiler
As Bill Clinton might put it, it?s in the math.
In the lead up to the November 6 election last fall, CalWatchDog.com ran several articles on Proposition 30 and pensions. We warned that?the $7 billion tax increase would go not to schools, as advertised by Gov. Jerry Brown and others in TV ads, but to teacher pensions and other spending. I?ll quote some below.
The news now is that this is exactly what is happening. David Crane, a Democrat who was a budget adviser to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has the facts in a Bloomberg article:
?Most Californians would be surprised to learn that 100 percent of education?s share of the tax increase proposed by Governor?Jerry Brown?will go to pensions instead of classrooms. But that would be no surprise to longtime observers of the?California?State Teachers? Retirement System, which administers teacher pensions.
?Here?s why: After retirement, teachers are unconditionally guaranteed lifetime pensions by their school districts. Everything works out fine if?Calstrs, as the retirement system is known, earns the investment returns it forecasts and from which upfront contributions are derived.
?But if they fall short, school districts must make up the difference. Because of compounding, the failure to earn forecasted earnings translates into huge deficiencies down the road.
?Unfortunately, ?down the road? is where school districts are now.
He noted something Katy Grimes?reported here in March on a Legislative Analyst Report, which found that the California State Teachers Retirement System needs $4.5 billion a year in new funding to keep afloat. Prop. 30 now is pected to bring in $7 billion in new revenues. Crane noted that, because of Proposition 98, about 40 percent of any new revenue must go to schools. He wrote, ?[T]hat means?almost $3 billion a year for the schools to use for pensions, or two-thirds of the Calstrs $4.5 billion request. A good start to meeting pension costs, but none of the tax increase will benefit students.?
So the pensions will eat up all the $3 billion from Prop. 30 going to ?schools? ? plus another $1.5 billion from other general-fund dollars.
How did CalSTRS get in the mess? Crane explained:
?In short, it failed to take?Warren Buffett?s advice. In 1999, Buffett said that long-term investors, such as pension funds, should assume investment returns of roughly 6 percent a year, not far from the actual return earned since then. Had Calstrs used his figure for its projections of the fund?s growth, it would have required larger contributions from school districts, employees and the state, and Calstrs would be healthier now.
?But the retirement fund?s board ? made up of the state?s chief financial officials and others ? chose to forecast much higher investment returns that, as Buffett later pointed out, implicitly predicted the stock market portion of the Calstrs portfolio to perform 10 times better than stocks did in the 20th century.?
All of this was known to readers of CalWatchDog.com before the election because we reported on it.
I wrote on Sept. 12?in an article?titled, ?California Budget Project analysis of Prop. 30 slights slam to business, jobs?:
?Being pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown and the state?s powerful government-worker unions, Prop. 30 would increase sales and income taxes taxes by from $6 billion to $8.5 billion a year. Supposedly the money would preclude cuts in K-12 and college education. But there?s no guarantee the higher taxes wouldn?t go toward the state?s burgeoning pension costs for retired government workers. All government money is fungible.?
I ?also wrote on Oct. 27?in an article titled, ?Yes, Prop. 30 would fund pensions?:
?If Proposition 30 passes, the $6 billion it would soak from taxpayers would just go straight to public-employee pensions?.
?In sum, the $6 billion from Prop. 30 would go to pay $6.4 billion in state pension payments.
?Everything else is a deception.?
On Oct. 31, Steven Greenhut wrote?in an article titled, ?Pay soars in the public sector?:
?Californians are stuck watching those dreadful union-financed campaign TV ads supporting?Proposition 30, which would push our highest income-tax rates to the stratosphere and boost sales taxes. The main rationale for high taxes, we?re told, is that California is slashing public school funding and laying off teachers?.
?What will happen if California voters approve Prop. 30? Check out the many bills that moved through the Legislature this session, as legislators crafted new proposed programs and benefit increases for their public-employee constituents.?
On Nov. 2, Wayne Lusvardi wrote in an article titled, ?Prop. 30 would make budget roller coaster more scary?:
?Declaring that K-12 public school budgets would have to be cut [unless Prop. 30 passed] is the way the state socially constructs and manages a budget crisis.? It is never portrayed that it is the Medi-Cal or public pension funds that are running a deficit. Public school children are used as poster children every year for any revenue shortfalls in health and welfare programs, pensions, or bond debts?.
?In the above table [in the Lusvardi article], it appears that the hole in the state budget is in the Bond Fund. This would include the liability for public pensions. Retirement benefit costs have increased from $1.4 billion in 1999 to?$6.5 billion?this fiscal year.?
For reference, here?s one of the misleading TV ads the Prop. 30 campaign ran:
Tags: David Crane, Jerry Brown, John Seiler, Prop. 30, tax increase
Source: http://www.calwatchdog.com/2013/04/29/pensions/
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This undated image made available by Google shows "Google Now." Google is trying to upstage Siri, the sometimes droll assistant that answers questions and helps people manage their lives on Apple's iPhone and iPad. The duel begins Monday, April 29, 2013, with the release of a free iPhone and iPad app that features Google Now, a technology that performs many of the same functions as Siri. (AP Photo/Google)
This undated image made available by Google shows "Google Now." Google is trying to upstage Siri, the sometimes droll assistant that answers questions and helps people manage their lives on Apple's iPhone and iPad. The duel begins Monday, April 29, 2013, with the release of a free iPhone and iPad app that features Google Now, a technology that performs many of the same functions as Siri. (AP Photo/Google)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Siri may be feeling a little job insecurity. The sometimes droll assistant that answers questions and helps people manage their lives on Apple's iPhone and iPad is facing competition from an up-and-coming rival made by Google.
The duel began Monday with the release of a free iPhone and iPad app that features Google Now, a technology that performs many of the same functions as Siri.
It's the first time that Google Now has been available on smartphones and tablet computers that aren't running on the latest version of Google's Android software. The technology, which debuted nine months ago, is being included in an upgrade to Google's search application for iOS, the Apple Inc. software that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It's up to each user to decide whether to activate Google Now within the redesigned Google Search app, which is available through Apple's app store.
Siri tried to dismiss the competitive threat. When asked for an opinion about Google Now, Siri responded: "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather Google later."
Mike Allton, a St. Charles, Mo., resident who has owned an iPhone for four years, could hardly wait to check out Google Now, even if Siri might interpret it as a betrayal.
Siri "is looking a little green with envy," Allton, 36, said with a laugh after he installed Google's new app. "I love Apple products, but I like to see the competition because it probably will lead to even more improvements. I believe this technology is going to be even more deeply ingrained in our lives a few years from now."
Other iPhone users ? even those who have grown fond of Siri ? welcomed Google Now's arrival to iOS in mostly enthusiastic and sometimes amusing remarks posted on Twitter and Google Plus. One person joked that Google Now is so helpful that the technology prompted him to wash his hands after using the bathroom. The biggest gripe was about the possibility of Google Now's location-tracking features draining a device's battery more quickly.
Google Now's invasion of Siri's turf marks Google Inc.'s latest attempt to lure iPhone and iPad users away from a service that Apple built into its own devices.
Google quickly won over millions of iPhone users in December when it released a mapping application to replace the navigation system that Apple dumped when it redesigned iOS last fall. Apple's maps application proved to be inferior to Google's ousted service. The app's bugs and glitches made Apple the butt of jokes and fueled demand for Google to develop a new option.
Apple has been losing to Google on other fronts in a rapidly growing mobile computing market, an arena that was revolutionized with the iPhone's release in 2007. Smartphones and tablet computers running Google's free Android software have been steadily expanding their market share in recent years, partly because they tend to be less expensive than the iPhone and iPad. In 2012, Android devices held about 69 percent of the smartphone market while iOS had about 19 percent, according to the research firm IDC.
Android's success has been particularly galling for Apple because its late CEO, Steve Jobs, believed Google stole many of its ideas for the software from the iPhone. That led to a series of court battles over allegations of patent infringement, including a high-profile trial last year that culminated in Apple winning hundreds of millions in damages from Samsung Electronics, the top seller of Android phones. That dispute is still embroiled in appeals.
The rise of Android also is squeezing Apple's profit margins and has contributed to a nearly 40 percent drop in the company's stock price since it peaked at $705.07 last September around the time that the iPhone 5 came out.
Android's popularity is good news for Google because the company's services are built into most versions of the operating system. That brings more traffic to Google services, creating more opportunities for the company to sell ads ? the main source of Google's revenue.
Siri is billed by Apple as an "intelligent feature." Since the technology's release in October 2011, Apple has made it a centerpiece of some marketing campaigns that depict Siri and its automated female voice as an endearing and occasionally even pithy companion.
Google believes its Siri counterpart is smarter because Google Now is designed to learn about a user's preferences and then provide helpful information before it's even asked to do so. The technology draws upon information that Google gleans from search requests other interactions with the company's other services. Knowing a person's location also helps Google Now serve up helpful information without being asked.
"This concept of predicting your needs and showing you them at the right time is unique to Google Now," said Baris Gultekin, Google Now's director of product management. "We want computers to do the hard work so our users can focus on what matters to them so they can get on with their lives."
If the technology is working right, Google Now is supposed to do things like automatically tell people what the local weather is like when they wake up to help decide what to wear and provide a report on traffic conditions for the commute to work. During the day, Google Now might provide an update on the score of a user's favorite sports team or a stock quote of a company in a user's investment portfolio. On a Friday evening, Google Now might offer suggestions for movies to see or other weekend events tailored to a user's interests. For international travelers, Google Now might provide currency conversion rates, language translations of common phrases and the time back home.
Most of this automatic information is provided in summaries that Google calls "cards." Like Siri, Google Now also is equipped with voice technology that allows it to respond to questions and interact with users, though it hasn't shown the wit that delights some of Siri's users.
The Google Now app for iOS isn't as comprehensive as the Android app, which only works on devices running on the latest version of Android ? known as "Jelly Bean." Some of the Android features missing from Google Now's iOS app include cards for showing airline boarding passes and movie tickets bought though online vendor Fandango. Both of those options are available on the iOS through Apple's built-in Passbook feature that's designed to be a digital wallet.
Google Now's expansion on to the iOS underscores Google's ambitions for the service. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., views it as a pivotal tool in its effort to peer deeper into its users' brains. In doing so, Google believes it will be able to provide more useful services and also show more relevant ads. For Google Now to become more intuitive, it needs to widen its availability.
"The more you use Google Now, we will have a better chance of understanding what your needs are and providing you with the right information," Gultekin said. "It's a virtuous cycle."
Shawn Jacob, a student at the University of North Texas, activated Google Now on his iPhone Monday and was startled by how much the service already knew about him when he logged in for the first time. "I was blown away," Jacob, 21, said. "It made me wonder if I really want Google to know this much about me. It's like Google wants to take over the world."
Gultekin declined to discuss whether there are plans to make Google Now apps for mobile devices running on Microsoft's Windows system. He also refused to comment on speculation circulating in technology blogs that a Web version of Google Now will be offered as a replacement for iGoogle, a tool that allows people to encircle the Google search engine with a variety of services suited to their tastes. IGoogle is scheduled to close in November.
___
Online:
http://www.google.com/landing/now/
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- Investment to increase capacity for production of torque converters for new generation, fuel-efficient nine-speed transmission
- Company's total investment in U.S. facilities over $5.2 billion since June 2009
April 26, 2013 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - Chrysler Group LLC announced today that it will invest $19.6 million in its Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg, Ohio, to increase capacity of the torque converter it's machining for the nine-speed transmission. With this announcement, the Company's total investments in its U.S. operations since June 2009 increase to over $5.2 billion.
The new torque converters will be paired with the next generation, fuel efficient nine-speed front-wheel drive transmission being assembled at Chrysler Group's Indiana (Kokomo, Ind.) Transmission Plant I. The new transmission will debut in the 2014 Jeep? Cherokee.
"The new nine-speed transmission is a critical part of our strategy to meet fuel economy requirements over the next several years and Toledo Machining will play an integral role in bringing this transmission to market," said Scott Garberding, Senior Vice President, Manufacturing, Chrysler Group LLC. "Securing this additional investment is a testament to the dedication and commitment of the plant's workforce and helps secure its future long-term."
The investment will fund the installation of new equipment and tooling for additional machining and assembly capacity. Installation is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2014 and will be completed by the end of 2014.
In August 2011, a $72 million investment in Toledo Machining was announced to modernize the plant to produce the eight- and nine-speed torque converters on two new production lines and a new steering column for the Dodge Dart and Jeep Cherokee. These installations will be complete in the third quarter this year.
"We're very pleased that Chrysler is once again investing in the Toledo Machining Plant and the skilled workforce there," said General Holiefield, Vice President and Director, UAW Chrysler Department. "This will help preserve and enhance jobs in the area and give a greater measure of security to our members and their families well into the future."
In February, the Company announced that it was investing $374 million in several of its Kokomo, Ind., facilities, including establishing a new manufacturing site in Tipton, Ind., to increase production capacity of the nine-speed transmission.
Toledo Machining currently produces torque converters for Kokomo Transmission (Ind.), Indiana Transmission I and II (Kokomo, Ind.), Sterling Heights Assembly (Mich.), and Toluca (Mex.).
The plant also produces steering columns for the following assembly plants: Warren Truck (Mich.), Belvidere (Ill.), Sterling Heights (Mich.), Toledo Assembly Complex (Ohio); Windsor (Ont.), Toluca (Mex.), Saltillo (Mex.), Arab American Vehicles (Egypt) and Carabobo (Venezuela).
Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2013/04/28/chrysler-investing-20m-in-toledo-plant-to-support-9-speed-auto/
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By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
Police said Saturday they were investigating what a Muslim advocacy group described as an act of vandalism against an Oklahoma City mosque that may have been part of a backlash after the Boston Marathon bombings.
Words were spray-painted on the mosque before dawn Saturday, said Lt. Arthur Gregory, a spokesman for Oklahoma City police. He said he did not know the nature of the words.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement that the words were obscenities. It wants the matter investigated as a hate crime and wants state and federal law enforcement to determine whether the vandalism was a reaction to the bombings.
The surviving suspect in the marathon attack, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has told investigators that he and his brother set off the bombs to defend Islam after the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The council said that the same mosque was targeted by paintballs last year, and said there have been other acts of violence against American Muslims since the marathon bombings.
In Malden, Mass., two days after the blasts, a Muslim woman wearing traditional Islamic hijab told police and The Boston Globe that she was punched on the street by a man who cursed at her and shouted, ?You are terrorists.?
This story was originally published on Sat Apr 27, 2013 9:31 PM EDT
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When it comes to major news, we didn't expect to hear much from Google in the run-up to I/O, but clearly, the company just couldn't wait that long. Google Now, a service that Android users have enjoyed for a year, just became available on iOS devices in the form of an update to the Google Search app, confirming those leaked videos we saw a few weeks ago. It won't have integration with notifications or alerts at launch -- it may come in a future update, but the company wasn't willing to divulge its future plans -- so you'll need to enter the app and swipe up to refresh your list of cards. The iOS version won't have every type of card that you'll find on Android, either: boarding passes, activity summary, events, concerts, Fandango and Zillow aren't included this go-round. Improvements and additional features will likely trickle in over time, but it's certainly better than nothing for iOS fans who've looked at Jelly Bean users with a slightly jealous eye. We've included Google's blog post in its entirety below, and you can jump to More Coverage to download the app.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Apple, Google
Source: The Official Google Blog, iTunes
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/IfRW3CkQ4nQ/
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