Too Few Women In Tech? Stop Blaming The Men. Or At Least Stop Blaming Me.
Success in Silicon Valley, most would agree, is more merit driven than almost any other place in the world. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what sex you are, what politics you support or what color you are. If you idea rocks and you can execute, you can change the world and/or get really, [...]
Patent Suit Day Continues: Microsoft Takes Fight With i4i Over XML To The Supreme Court
While not the biggest Microsoft-related lawsuit news of the day, Microsoft just announced that it wants to take its patent infringement case against Canadian technology firm i4i to the highest level, seeking review by US Supreme Court. Last May, a federal court of appeals upheld the decision of a lower court that Microsoft had in [...]
TweetDeck’s Underground Project: Allowing TweetDecks To Talk To Nearby TweetDecks (TCTV)
Now that TweetDeck’s Android app is out in beta mode, with its multiple streams (notably Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Google Buzz) and blended options, many users want to know when TweetDeck will overhaul its iPhone app. The company’s CEO and founder, Iain Dodsworth, who dropped by TechCrunch’s headquarters on Wednesday, says it could be a “good [...]
Keen on … Net Neutrality: Is America Losing its Edge? (TCTV)
Is America losing its edge? This was the rather depressing subject of this year’s Aspen Forum, the annual event put on by the DC-based Technology Policy Institute. Attracting speakers as illustrious as former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, Intel CEO Paul Otellini, Verizon EVP of Public Policy Tom Tauke, Intuit CEO Brad Smith, the author the [...]
The 12 Best Ways To Customize Your Facebook Pages
When a service such as Facebook limits users’ creative freedom, it is inevitable that other add-on services will overcome this limitation. This is why then, we see more and more Facebook tab apps that give us more control and freedom when it comes to customizing a fan page or a personal profile. I can’t really [...]
Chart Your Growth With YC-Backed Chart.io
YCombinator-funded database analytics company Chart.io launches today, giving businesses access to enterprise level analytics tools that they need to rock their databases in realtime. In the same space as Metricly and Stats Mix, a tool like Chart.io would have been unnecessary 10 or so years ago, but now co-founder Dan Levine says, “It’s easier than [...]
Brand Affinity Technologies Raises $20M To Match Celebs With Endorsement Deals
Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), the company that creates a technology that matches celebrities with endorsement deals, has just raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Miramar Venture Partners, with existing investors Newport Coast Investments, RimLight Capital, Fulcrum Venture Capital, CGI Opportunity Fund II, and Ad Pepper Media International also participating. This brings the [...]
Chatroulette Couldn’t Get It Up
At one point the Chatroulette V.2 anticipation was so thick over at TechCrunch HQ that even we were, how you say, premature. But not as premature as the folks over at Chatroulette themselves, who ominously lured us in yesterday in with, “The experiment #1 is over for now. Thanks for participating – Redesigned and updated [...]
Fast Family Cars for High-Performance Parents
August 24, 2010 by Joe Brown
Filed under Business, Daily News World
Product: Fast Four-Doors
Manufacturer: Roundup:
Wired Rating: 0
Just because you have a toddler strapped in back doesn’t mean you can’t peel out. With ample legroom, cupholders—even Latch child-seat connectors—high-performance family car is no longer an oxymoron.
1. Mercedes Benz C63 AMG
We’ve driven Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bugattis, and pretty much every other fast four-wheeler available, but the C63 is what we can most see ourselves owning. A pitch-perfect symphony of performance, luxury, and utility make it a realistic option for everything from a trip to the grocery store to melting tires in block-long burnouts. Its only major flaw is a serious case of petroleum abuse.
WIRED Mild- mannered looks let you cruise by cops without attracting a motorcade. Nasty exhaust note. Tight, balanced handling. Best traditional automatic transmission on the market.
TIRED Terrible V-8 gas mileage (we got around 10 mpg). Interior is tight for larger folk.
$66,500, mbusa.com
2. Cadillac CTS-V</strong
With about 100 more horsepower than any other car in the test, the CTS-V could be the best dollar-to-pony value on the planet. So we were ready for it to be a tire-spinning monster. We weren’t, however, expecting the well-appointed interior and taut chassis. Around town, the CTS-V is perfectly civil. In a straight line, it’s nearly unbeatable. And around corners, it blasted away our preconceptions with incredible handling.
WIRED Giddyap—556 hp! Grippy racing seats keep your butt in place.
TIRED Some rattles. Automatic transmission sucks: slow to react and shifts at all the wrong times (six-speed manual is an option).
$68,445, cadillac.com
3. Porsche Panamera 4S
“Four-door Porsche” may be car-guy-speak for “brand dilution,” but the boys of Stuttgart did a nice job bringing Porsche panache to the carpool lane. It’s a lovely machine whose only real sin is not being as much of a driver’s car as its lineage might suggest. Though it’s a bit of work in parking lots and traffic, the Panamera is a pleasure on the highway.
WIRED Fantastic interior: Every seat is like a cockpit. Dual-clutch seven-speed transmission is the world’s best.
TIRED Porsche ruined the world’s best transmission with overthought steering-wheel-mounted shifters. Tiny sunroof. Everything behind the side mirrors is a blind spot.
$107,040, porsche.com
4. Aston Martin Rapide
If we judged on looks alone, the Rapide would score 42 out of 10. Too bad aesthetics are only part of the equation. Despite its lofty price, the Aston was the slowest in the group, the interior was uncomfortable, and the handling was uninspired.
WIRED OMGorgeous. Righteous exhaust snarl. Awesome Bang & Olufsen speakers. Interior swaddled in enough leather to outfit Judas Priest. Trick “swan” doors open upward.
TIRED The worst stereo and navigation interfaces we have ever tried to use. Center console looks like it was plucked from a Scion. Long and front-heavy, the car fights you around corners. You call that a trunk?
$210,095, astonmartin.com
AngelPad: Seven Ex-Googlers Are About To Launch A New Incubator
Thomas Korte Thomas is an active angel investor and startup advisor. Before investing in web technology startups, Thomas was a longtime Product Evangelist for Google and the company’s first international product marketing manager responsible for European advertiser and partner acquisition. Richard Chen Rich is an active investor and board member with several technology startups. Previously, [...]
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