Toyota suspends sales of Lexus GX 460 worldwide

Toyota has suspended sales of its 2010 Lexus GX 460 worldwide after a US consumer magazine warning and said it would test all of its other SUV models.

The move came a day after it halted Lexus deliveries to the US and Canada in response to concerns by Consumer Reports that it could roll over.

The last time it judged a vehicle’s performance unacceptable was in 2001.

Announcing roll-over tests on its other SUV models, the Japanese carmaker said it would not suspend their sales.

The other models include the Land Cruiser, Land Cruiser Prado and Rav4.

Outside the US and Canada, the 2010 Lexus GX 460 is sold only in the Middle East and Russia.

Toyota spokeswoman Mieko Iwasaki announced the suspension of all 2010 Lexus GX 460 sales in Tokyo.

Earlier, the company said it remained confident its vehicle was safe.

The carmaker has recalled over 8m cars globally due to safety fears over faulty accelerators, floor pedals that stuck in mats and braking issues.
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Microsoft debuts ‘social’ phone

Microsoft has launched a phone called the Kin aimed at younger users and geared towards social networking.

The software firm says the phones have been created specifically to help people who like to stay in touch with friends and share content.

Fitted with a high-resolution camera, the phone is also the first to access Microsoft’s Zune music service.

The launch is designed to counter rivals such as Apple, Google and Research In Motion’s Blackberry.

Made by Sharp, the two Kin handsets will go on sale in the US in May. In Europe, the Kin models will be available on the Vodafone network and will be launched in Autumn 2010. No prices have yet been given.

“This is a phone that knits together a tight community of kindred spirits…, the phone personifies true kinship between people, technology, friends and customers,” said Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division at Microsoft.
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Launch pad

Apple’s iPad will help persuade consumers that a tablet is a must-have

GIVEN all the hype ahead of the arrival of Apple’s new tablet computer, the debut on April 3rd of the iPad in America was perhaps inevitably going to feel like something of an anti-climax. There were long lines at the company’s stores before daybreak and, as the doors opened, would-be buyers were met with rapturous applause from Apple staff. But many reports suggested that by mid-morning the fervour had died down in most places. At the Apple store in San Francisco late on Saturday afternoon, it almost felt like any other shopping day—except, that is, for the small scrum that had formed around the table where iPads were being tested.

Not that this means Apple’s latest innovation is destined to be a flop. The devices on sale this week are WiFi-only iPads; many people will be waiting for the mobile-wireless ones that are due to go on sale in late April. Moreover, customers were able to order iPads online from mid-March for home delivery beginning April 3rd, which meant they didn’t need to traipse to a store. And Apple agreed to let Best Buy, a big electronics retailer, offer iPads on the same day as its own stores, which siphoned off some traffic from Apple’s outlets. Your correspondent was able to pick up his own iPad from a Best Buy store mid-morning without even having to queue for it.
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Devolving Volvo

For both buyer and seller, the deal is worth the risks

IT TOOK more than a decade for Ford to create what it called its Premier Auto Group around a bunch of classy European brands—starting in 1987 with its purchase of Aston Martin, followed by the acquisitions of Jaguar, Volvo and then Land Rover. It all proved a terribly expensive distraction. Now, it has taken Ford three years of tricky negotiations to dismantle the group, selling the European marques at a considerable loss. Aston Martin went to a British-led consortium in 2007, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) was snapped up by Tata of India in 2008 and, on March 28th, a deal was signed to sell Volvo to Geely, a small but vastly ambitious Chinese carmaker.

The sticker price is $1.8 billion, a fraction of the $6.45 billion that Ford paid for Volvo in 1999. The cost to Ford is worse even than those figures suggest: it has had to support the Swedish carmaker through years of losses and even now it faces further expenses associated with the sale to Geely that will eat up much of the meagre sum it is getting for Volvo.

Over the years Volvo’s design and production have been closely integrated with Ford’s, so much so that it will take years to unstitch them. The sale agreement, which both sides hope to finalise in the third quarter of this year, includes a promise from Ford to continue providing Volvo with such things as engine and powertrain technology for the time being, just as it promised Tata that it would continue to support JLR.
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Steel trap

The Rio trial leaves unresolved questions about China’s rule of law

WHEN the trials of four Rio Tinto employees opened in Shanghai last week, their guilty pleas to the first of the charges, of bribe-taking, dampened hopes that the matter might be settled without any severe penalties. Even so, the harshness of sentences handed down on Monday March 29th was unexpected. The mining giant’s four executives—three Chinese, one an Australian of Chinese descent—were jailed for between seven and 14 years for bribery and theft of commercial secrets (only one of them admitted the second charge). Australia called the sentences tough “by any measure”. But it appears there is little it is able or willing to do about them.

That the trial began with confessions came as a surprise. Rio had previously said an internal examination had turned up no wrongdoing. However, denials of guilt can lead to far harsher treatment by the Chinese courts. As a result of his confession the Australian defendant, Stern Hu, had his sentence reduced from 12 years (seven years for accepting bribes, five years for receiving commercial secrets) to ten. Admissions of guilt are also said to enhance the prospects of being shown clemency in the future.
An acrimonious period

The court accepted the prosecution’s argument that the four men’s actions had damaged China by forcing it to accept higher prices for imported iron ore during last year’s annual negotiations. It is more likely that the cause of the price increases was rising demand, especially from China. But the Chinese went into negotiations last year intent on capping the rises and were enraged by their inability to do so. The defendants were detained in July, during an acrimonious period when prices had bounced sharply off the lows hit earlier in the year, and after Rio had just backed out of an agreement in which Chinalco, a Chinese state-controlled company, would have increased its stake in the mining firm.
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Apple exhausts supply of iPads for pre-order

Existing orders will still arrive Saturday; new orders won’t ship until April 12

Computerworld – Apple has exhausted the supply of iPads slated to arrive at customers’ doorsteps this coming Saturday, according to the company’s online store.

Starting early yesterday, Apple’s store noted that pre-ordered iPads might not ship until April 12, more than a week after the tablet goes on sale. People who placed orders before the cut-off of March 27 will still receive their iPads next Saturday, April 3, an Apple sales representative said today.

Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad on March 12, when it also allowed customers to reserve the tablet for pickup at Apple retail stores. At the time, it promised to ship pre-ordered iPads so that they would arrive April 3.

Retails stores contacted by Computerworld said that they had also exhausted their supplies of iPads available for pick-up next Saturday. However, a salesperson at a Portland, Ore. store said that reserved iPads that are unclaimed by 3 p.m. local time would be put up for sale to walk-in customers.
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Report: Google-China decision on Monday

Hong Kong, China (CNN) — Google will make an announcement on its plans to leave China on Monday, according to a Friday report in China Business News.

The Shanghai-based publication reported that Google is expected to announce on Monday it would shutter its China operations on April 10, quoting an unnamed Google employee and a Chinese sales agent for the company.

A spokesperson for Google in China wouldn’t comment on the report.

The news comes as speculation continues to rise in China over whether the Internet giant will pull out of the market and what the ramifications would be for the world’s largest online market.

Google has threatened to leave China and briefly quit censoring its Web site there in January. Chinese law requires Internet operators to censor information for sexual or political content.
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Baccarat, the Chinese way: Rituals you won’t see in Vegas

Macau, China (CNN) — Baccarat is not just for James Bond anymore. It is the game of choice for Chinese gamblers from mainland China and Hong Kong. Both groups make up the majority of gamblers in Macau. And they bring some unique, superstitious rituals with them that you won’t see in Las Vegas.

If you watch many Chinese gamblers play baccarat in Macau, there is a good chance you will see the players squeeze the cards tightly between their fingers, slowly peek at the cards by lifting the vertical end just enough to see the suit and number, then turn the card horizontally to peek at the number again.

Each time, they crease the cards rendering the cards unusable for another round (Macau casinos seem to tolerate this). The slow dance of peeking and creasing is to increase the suspense as the player hopes for a good pair of numbers that close in on the magic number: 9.

Some Chinese players even blow on the cards, hoping to “blow away” bad numbers. At one table with a sizeable group, a woman exclaimed “hoi, hoi,” (“turn it over, turn it over”) as she watched a player perform his ritual.

“Sometimes, you almost believe that they can actually change the outcome of a card by the way they squeeze the card. So there’s a lot of superstition,” said Scott Milburn, vice president of table games at City of Dreams.
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AIG selling overseas business to rival MetLife

AIG is selling an overseas insurance business to rival MetLife for $15.5bn (£10.3bn), as it continues to raise funds to pay off a federal bail-out.

MetLife is paying $6.8bn in cash and $8.7bn in shares for American Life Insurance Company (Alico), which operates in more than 50 countries.

The announcement comes a week after AIG agreed to sell its Asian business AIA to UK group Prudential for $35.5bn.

AIG is seeking to repay $182.3bn of loans from the US government.

“This came quicker than expected – normally you’d expect a company to take a breather after a deal like the AIA sale,” said Antony Gifford, portfolio manager for North American equities at Henderson Global Investors.

“But MetLife already announced it was in negotiations on 2 February, while the AIA deal was still going on. Perhaps the timetable was driven by the US government.”
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Europeans offered browser choices

From 1 March, Microsoft will ask millions of Europeans if they want to use a web browser other than its own.

Windows users will be offered the choice as part of a deal Microsoft struck with the European Commission.

The agreement resolves a long running case in which the software giant was accused of abusing its market position.

A pop-up window will prompt people to choose and install one of 12 different browsers or let them stick with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Install options

The browser choice software will be delivered as part of the Windows Update system Microsoft usually uses to distribute security patches.
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