products

In order to meet consumer demand for truck and bus tires, Bridgestone Americas announced it will invest $36.6 million in its Warren County, Tenn., plant. The investment will boost production to 900 truck and bus tires a day, the company said in a press release.

Bridgestone's planned expansion is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2013, and will create 50 new jobs, the company said.

This is one part of a $1.2 billion investment Bridgestone is making in its U.S. manufacturing operations. The company is also expected to create more than 900 new jobs … Read more

Altair ProductDesign announced a partnership with Studio X-Gene to develop a new electric concept vehicle, the Avant GT.

The Avant GT is the brainchild of Taiwan-based Studio X-Gene along with partners Delta Electronics, Wistron, and Qisda.

Altair ProductDesign joined the project to offer engineering development of the vehicle. "Altair was given responsibility for providing a simulation driven design approach for the vehicle's crash, durability, vibration, vehicle dynamics, and computational fluid dynamics drag evaluation along with supporting Studio X-Gene during the architectural design phase," an Altair spokesman said in a press release.

The Avant GT, described as "… Read more

Production of Apple's next iPhone is said to be in full swing, with the company on track to have some 5 million to 6 million phones ready by the end of the month, according to a new report.

Citing anonymous industry sources, supply chain tracker DigiTimes today said original equipment manufacturer Foxconn Electronics, which has made Apple goods in the past, is currently producing 150,000 iPhone 5 units a day.

DigiTimes added that Foxconn is joined by Pegatron Technology, which will produce around 15 percent of the devices for Apple, but those units may not ship until 2012. … Read more

Update 3:25 p.m. PT: As of 3:10 p.m. Pacific Time, users from locations around the world are reporting the services are coming back online. Google's Apps Status Dashboard is still showing that Docs and Drawings are not working.

Update 3:35 p.m. PT: The status dashboard has been updated to reflect that all services are back online. Apparently, the word processing and drawing apps (Google Docs and Google Drawings) and the main document listing page (Docs List) were nonfunctional during the outage, but other files, in particular spreadsheets, were still available for people who … Read more

Cisco Systems has acquired Versly, a private startup that specializes in developing software and solutions for more effective collaboration and productivity.

Versly's primary tool is a plug-in on Microsoft Office applications that enables collaboration on documents, spreadsheets, presentations and e-mail.

So far it appears all of Versly's employees will be moving over to Cisco when the deal is complete.

Cisco has said that collaborative solutions will be a top focus for the company as it continues to reprioritize--especially as the San Jose, Calif.-based enterprise sees this field as an addressable market worth $45 billion. Consumer devices don't meet these requirements … Read more

In this day and age, there is so much talk about the cloud solution and how you can share files in a snap. Well, that's great and all and I'm a huge fan, but what if you don't want to share your files in the cloud? For example, my mom loves to send me photos of her outings with her friends and my adorable nephews and niece--except that she literally sends out 10 e-mails with at least 10 photos attached to them. So, how can I help her help me, so I don't have 100 pictures, … Read more

More than any design group at any computer technology company, Steve Jobs understands product design. Of course, all CEOs say they get what consumers want. But Jobs has a gift.

In addition to his taste (making products that appeal to people) and technical mastery (making products that work), he has an uncanny sense for imagining products that carry a powerful and unique emotional payload.

The itch these gadgets scratch is satisfying at a level below consciousness and intellect. But the products that reach iconic status don't all do it in the same way. They're not all Eames chairs: ever present and coolly smart. One Apple product can be implausibly beautiful. Another, retro without being twee. Another, playful. But usually not all at once, since that could be confusing, like a psycho lover.

Click on the slideshow below to see the five Apple products that most successfully tap into our emotions. And be sure to share your own thoughts (and feelings) in the comments section below.

… Read more

Pouring cold water on reports that Apple intends to launch the next version of the iPad this year, a new report says the company has yet to hit the trial production phase of the device.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Apple is still in the process of pulling together parts from various vendors for a trial production of the device, which the Journal says is expected to begin sometime in October. A release is said to follow sometime early next year.

Previous reports hinted that Apple might surprise with a new model in time for this year's … Read more

Well it's not September 7 (or is it October 7) yet, so there's still time for some crazy iPhone 5 fever to spread around the Web. Today's installment brings a leaked photo reportedly depicting factory workers preparing iPhone 5 screens.

Two unfortunate details exist about this photograph however. The first, is the stunning lack of clarity in its framing. Nowhere in the photo is there anything to suggest that this is even an iPhone, let alone an iPhone 5. The second, and perhaps more gratuitous error is the lack of a source on the part of Cult … Read more