9 diesel cars and trucks that will save you money

Diesel vehicles get remarkable fuel economy, but it’s sometimes not enough to make them a better value overall than their gas counterparts.

The main reason is the higher pricetag: on average a diesel is $5,045 more than a gas-powered version of the same model, according to Vincentric LLC, a research firm in Bingham Farms, Mich.

Beyond the purchase amount, diesels also end up costing a little extra to own and maintain. That’s partly because some new diesel vehicles are required to have a reservoir of urea, which gets injected into the exhaust and neutralizes some of the pollutants.

With this so-called “clean-diesel” technology, emissions are now cleaner than what comes from many gasoline vehicles—which is a major role reversal. But there is added maintenance involved in replenishing the reservoirs and making sure the more complex diesel engine is running properly.

“We found that diesels typically have slightly higher insurance, repair and maintenance costs,” says David Wurster, president of Vincentric, which specializes in calculating total cost of ownership and chose diesels for its most recent alternative fuel analysis.

“An additional noteworthy point is that on a percentage basis, diesels have lower depreciation, but because they cost more to purchase, their total dollars of depreciation are higher,” Wurster says. (Some might argue that diesel is not technically an alternative fuel, but it’s not exactly mainstream in the United States either, given that only a small fraction of vehicles use it.)

The Diesel vs. Gas Showdown

Vincentric analyzed 23 diesels on sale in the United States—11 of them classified as commercial vehicles and 12 as consumer vehicles. It looked at overall cost of ownership for five years, with 15,000 miles driven annually. Based on this analysis, nine diesels had five-year ownership costs that are lower than equivalent models with gasoline engines. We list them in descending order based on overall savings versus their gas equivalents.

Vincentric, a research firm in Bingham Farms, Mich., specializes in calculating cost of ownership for vehicles and tracks more than 2,000 models. Nine factors go into its cost of ownership calculations: purchase price, depreciation, financing, fees and taxes, fuel, insurance, maintenance, repairs and opportunity cost. The price it uses for fuel is a weighted national average for the previous five months, to better reflect market trends, rather than market extremes.


2012 Mercedes-Benz GL350 Bluetec 4Matic

Overall savings compared with the gas-powered GL450 4Matic: $10,128
Fuel savings: $4,750

The GL-Class is Mercedes’ largest crossover. It was refreshed for 2012 with minor styling changes. The GL350 Bluetec has a 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel that puts out 210 hp and gets an EPA-estimated 17 mpg city, 21 mpg highway and 19 mpg overall.

Its substantial fuel savings** of $4,750 helps the GL350 Bluetec achieve the highest total savings of any diesel vehicle for which Vincentric calculated five-year ownership costs. Vincentric estimates that the purchase price* is only $101 higher than that of the gas-powered GL450 4Matic.


2012 Mercedes-Benz S350 Bluetec 4Matic

Overall savings compared with the gas-powered S550: $6,015
Fuel savings: $4,003

The Mercedes S350 Bluetec 4Matic is the least expensive S-Class model. It is one of just a few diesel vehicles in Vincentric’s study with a lower purchase price relative to its gas-powered counterpart.

Just going on the suggested retail price, the diesel S350 is $2,450 less than the S550, which has a V-8 engine that runs on gasoline. But Vincentric, which tries to ascertain what buyers are actually paying, pegs the S350 purchase price* at $3,418 less.

The S350 is the only S-Class model with all-wheel drive. The others are rear-wheel drive, which makes its fuel savings** of $4,003 more remarkable. It has a more powerful version of the 3.0-liter V-6 turbodiesel that’s in the Mercedes GL350 Bluetec. The engine produces 240 hp and gets an EPA-estimated 21 mpg city, 31 mpg highway and 25 mpg overall.


2012 Volkswagen Touareg TDI

Overall savings compared to gas-powered Touareg: $4,447
Fuel savings: $2,840

The VW Touareg Diesel is a pricey midsize crossover with rugged capabilities. Its 240-hp V-6 gets 19 mpg city, 28 mpg highway and 22 mpg combined, according to the EPA—respectable for such a large and heavy vehicle.

Its purchase price* is $3,322 higher than the gas-powered Touareg. But taking into account its five-year cost of ownership, Vincentric estimates that the diesel will end up saving owners a total $4,447 over the gas model—including a $2,840 fuel savings**.

2012 Audi A3 2.0T TDI

Overall savings compared to gas-powered A3 2.0T: $3,583
Fuel savings: $3,793

The A3 is the smallest car Audi sells in the United States. It’s only available as a four-door hatchback. Vincentric estimates that the purchase price* of the diesel A3 is $1,630 higher than the comparable gas-powered version.

The A3 2.0T TDI is less expensive to insure and maintain versus the gasoline version of the A3. That combined with fuel savings** of $3,792 make for a lower five-year cost of ownership. The EPA estimates fuel economy of 30 mpg city, 42 mpg highway and 34 mpg combined.


2012 Mercedes-Benz R350 Bluetec 4Matic

Overall savings compared to gas-powered R350 4Matic: $3,181
Fuel savings: $1,832

The R-Class is Mercedes’ version of a minivan, except with rear doors that swing out, rather than slide open. The diesel R350 Bluetec 4Matic has a purchase price* $844 lower than that of the gasoline R350 4Matic. Vincentric also calculates significantly lower depreciation for the diesel version versus the gasoline one, saving owners $2,142 over five years.

The R350 Bluetec 4Matic uses the same 210-hp 3.0-liter V-6 turbodiesel as the GL350 Bluetec 4Matic. The EPA estimates fuel economy of 18 mpg city, 23 mpg highway and 20 mpg combined. Sales of the R-Class have been sluggish ever since its introduction for the 2006 model year. After 2012, it will no longer be available in the United States.


2012 BMW X5 xDrive35d

Overall savings compared to gas-powered Touareg: $4,447
Fuel savings: $2,840

Never mind that BMW X5 xDrive35d has an awkward name—this midsize crossover is a good value. It’s one of only three diesels with a purchase price* as calculated by Vincentric that is lower than that of its gas-powered counterpart, the BMW xDrive35i, albeit just $597 lower.This lower price has a positive domino effect on five-year ownership, allowing for lower depreciation, finance and other associated costs. Only insurance and repairs are higher with the diesel X5, but not by much. With fuel savings** of $2,405, the diesel handily beats its gasoline counterpart, saving $2,751 over five years. The X5 xDrive35d features a 3.0-liter six-cylinder turbodiesel engine with 265 hp. It gets an EPA-estimated 19 mpg city, 26 mpg highway and 22 combined.


2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 Bluetec 4Matic

Overall savings compared to gas-powered ML350 4Matic: $2,473
Fuel savings: $2,336

Mercedes’ midsize ML350 Bluetec crossover gets the 240-hp version of the company’s 3.0-liter V-6 turbodiesel, with an EPA estimated fuel economy of 22 mpg city, 27 mpg highway and 22 mpg combined.

Although its purchase price* as estimated by Vincentric is $1,397 higher than that of the gas model, the diesel saves owners $2,336 in fuel costs** and $767 in maintenance over five years of ownership. Factoring in slightly higher finance, insurance and repair costs versus the gasoline version, the ML350 Bluetec saves owners a total of $2,473 over five years.


2012 Mercedes-Benz E350 Bluetec

Overall savings compared to gas-powered E350: $2,204
Fuel savings: $3,145

The gas-powered midsize E-Class sedan is one of Mercedes’ most popular models. The E350 Bluetec diesel sells in far fewer numbers. It costs $1,965 more to purchase* than a gas-powered E350. Besides that, the diesel E350 Bluetec has marginally higher costs in nearly every category that Vincentric tracks, including most notably finance and repairs.

But its impressive fuel savings** of $3,145 help compensate for it all and result in savings of $2,204 over five years of ownership when compared to its gasoline counterpart. The E350 Bluetec has a 210-hp 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel that gets an EPA-estimated 21 mpg city, 32 mpg highway and 25 mpg combined.


2012 Ford F-350 Diesel

Overall savings compared to gas-powered F-350: $1,131
Fuel savings: $1,999

Of the seven full-size, heavy-duty diesel pickup trucks Vincentric studied, the Ford F-350 is the only one with five year ownership costs that are lower than that of its gas-powered equivalent.

The Ford F-350 Diesel has a 400-hp 6.7-liter V-8 turbodiesel engine. Although it only has 15 hp more than the gasoline 6.2-liter V-8 also offered in the F-350, it has almost double the torque, at an impressive 800 lb.-ft. What that means in practical terms is that the F-350 Diesel is more capable at towing and hauling heavy loads. It also depreciates less, according to Vincentric, retaining $822 more of its value over five years of ownership than the gas-powered F-350. That and its impressive fuel savings** help the F-350 Diesel overcome its $5,355 higher purchase price* and higher ownership costs, resulting in savings of $1,131 over five years of ownership compared with its gas counterpart.

Forget 3D. Your dream TV should be 4K

The 3D-TV fad seems to be fading -- and giant, cinema-style 4K sets are the newest cutting-edge tech marvels destined for your living room.

A truckload of new TVs, with screen resolutions four times greater than so-called full HD screens, are being unveiled at this week's IFA technology show in Berlin. The screens -- referred to as 4K or ultradefinition -- were among dozens of new gadgets on display for the 250,000 people who descended on Berlin's conference halls.

The show features gear ranging from big-screen smartphones to self-stirring cookware, but the big buzz this year is about 4K. The first sets should be available for preorder this fall. There were still plenty of 3D screens, including a 103-inch Panasonic set that doesn't require viewers to wear 3D glasses. The excitement over them, however, seems to be dying down.

The new 4K sets from LG, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, and Toshiba show a level of detail you'd expect on a movie screen; their resolution equals that of professional cinema cameras, like the Red One. The detail is stunning, and viewers can comfortably sit close to the screen. Even from only a few inches away, it's impossible to discern a single pixel.

Sony claims that chips in its flagship set can scour normal Blu-ray films and display extra details, producing pictures far sharper than what normal sets can offer. In demonstrations, films looked stunning on the new screens.

Not to be outdone, Panasonic teamed up with Japanese broadcaster NHK to create an 8K set -- with resolution four times greater than its rivals' and 16 times greater than Full HD.

There is just one problem, of course: storage. There is no media suitable for storing 4K films just yet. Normal Blu-ray discs aren't designed for the new format. In Berlin, most tech companies demonstrated their sets with slow-motion landscape videos.

Other TV tech impresses, too

Another new screen technology – OLED, or ‘organic light-emitting diode” -- made a splash at the IFA tech show. The ultrathin sets produce a much crisper, brighter image than a typical HDTV. The technology has become standard in smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S3, but it's only starting to make its way to bigger screens. Unlike conventional TVs, this one has no backlight. The pixels themselves light up, allowing for deeper blacks and sharper contrasts. At IFA, Samsung introduced a 55-inch TV, the world's biggest OLED set.

Samsung showed off other TV tricks, as well. One lets two people watch two different shows at the same time. The images for one show alternate with the images for the other at an extremely high speed. Each person wears 3D glasses that have tiny shutters inside that flicker in time with their show's images.

Samsung's new models also have motion controls, courtesy of a tiny camera that catches movement. Viewers can control the TV's volume and even play video games by simply moving their hands.

Smart appliances and a self-stirring pot

The IFA also showcased gadgets that let people control smart appliances from a tablet.

Panasonic's new refrigerators, air conditioners, washers, and dryers will all be app-controlled. Users can switch them on and off from anywhere, and monitor their usage for peace of mind.

Samsung unveiled apps for its Galaxy tablet to control dishwashers, air conditioners, and other appliances.

Philips brought out celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to demonstrate its vision of "Jetsons"-style kitchenware: a high-tech pot that chops, stirs, and heats food on its own. The Home Cooker is a computer-controlled food processor and pot all in one. The device can stir risotto and even cook a curry in the base of the unit while steaming rice above it.

The IFA was also packed with computers, and there was a lot of buzz around a laptop-tablet hybrid that runs Windows 8. The slim, light gadget is essentially a touch-screen tablet with a keyboard that snaps or slides into place.

Dell's XPS Duo machine looks particularly glamorous, with a superslim Ultrabook body that swivels out to become a tablet. HP and Toshiba also unveiled dual-purpose machines.

Hundreds of companies will show off their wares tomorrow at IFA, with gadgets ranging from the lustworthy (new high-end Sennheiser headphones) to the slightly ridiculous (dancing robots fromVietnam's Tosy Robotics). The best of the bunch may end up in your living room not too far down the road.

7 Ways to Dress Up Your Company's Facebook Page

PCWorld's Facebook page without custom tabs (upper left) and with tabs added (lower right)Facebook can be a great marketing tool and communications outlet, but there is only so much that you can say in brief status updates and plain-text fields on your About page. If you really want to put Facebook to work for your business, you'll need to explore the option of adding tabs—clickable images of extra pages—to your profile. Done creatively, tabs encourage visitor engagement and showcase your content. They let you post quizzes and polls, and they can display your content from other social networks, such as Twitter and Pinterest.

If you lack the coding skills to create custom tabs using Facebook's development platform, the following Facebook apps can help. Some enable you to apply fully customized Web pages as additional tabs—a great way to add content about your products, services, and company culture.

1. Iframe Apps

The IFrame App is among the simplest for dressing up your Facebook presence.Iframe Apps is one of the simplest custom tab wizards, letting you add two tab pages to your Facebook Page. You can either specify an existing URL or insert text and HTML to display on your custom tab, and define a specific frame height to fit the length of your content. The "fan gate" feature lets you display an image or custom text to encourage visitors to “like” you before viewing the main content.

Keep in mind, though, that to insert HTML code with images or videos you’ll need to upload the files elsewhere since Iframe Apps doesn’t offer online storage.

The free service displays its logo on your page footer. The premium services, starting at $9.90 per month after a free 7-day trial, allow you to remove ads.

2. FanBuildr

Hosted iFrame offers a WSIWYG editor.FanBuildr is a more advanced app that lets you add up to ten tab pages to your Facebook Page. The free service is available to all pages with 25,000 fans or less, and shows a small promo on the footer of your custom tab page. Its premium services, starting at $5 per month, remove ads and let you create unlimited tabs.

When inserting your text or code for the custom tab, you can define different content to display to visitors, depending on whether they "like" your page. A WYSIWYG editor lets you format text and add links or images, with both code and visual views. You can upload up to 25MB worth of files per page—or 250MB and beyond if you subscribe to the premium services. You can also enter your Google Analytics code to track traffic to your Facebook tab.

3. Static Iframe Tab

Check out Static Iframe Tab for adding 20 or more tabs.The Static Iframe Tab from Woobox lets you add over 20 tabs to your Facebook page. The basic functionality is free, and free of Woobox branding.

What do you want to display on a tab? You can choose a URL, an image, or HTML code. You can also specify a nonfan page source. A WSIWYG editor enables formatting and edits, letting you switch between the code and visual view. The free service includes visitor analytics to display stats for page views, visits, and likes, segmented both by fans and nonfans who view your tab.

Their premium services, starting at $10 per month, allow you to limit access to the tab page—for instance, you can require users either to fill out a form or to have a certain number of Facebook friends who like your page.

4. Extended Info

Extended Info lets you add a tab that’s similar to and alongside the usual About page, but with more details—so you can display things, such as products, with text, HTML code, or videos. You can organize the content via bulleted, numbered, or paragraph lists, each with a custom heading name.

5. Twitter Tab App

Extend your tweets to Facebook with Woobox.Need to publicize your Twitter presence to your Facebook fan base? This free app from Woobox adds a tab to your Facebook Page displaying your Twitter Profile and Tweets, with a small ad link on the bottom of the tab.

In the Twitter tab settings you can choose to display all tweets or only those containing a given search term. You can also optionally hide Tweets that start with @ and hide your Twitter profile background. Additionally, you can enable the fan gate so only Facebook users who “Like” you can see your Twitter tab.

6. Pinterest Tab

Here's a great way to share your Pinterest content to Facebook users who aren’t on Pinterest. This free app, also from Woobox, puts a tab on your Facebook Page showcasing your Pinterest boards and pins, with only a small ad on the bottom. Facebook visitors can browse your Pin boards, and click on them to view your Pins inside your Facebook tab page. When they click on a Pin it opens a new browser window to the Pin on Pinterest.

You can choose to have your Pin tab show all or only select Pin boards—and enable Facebook Like & Send buttons on Pins, to encourage visitors' sharing to their Facebook friends. The Fan Gate feature allows only Facebook users who "like" you to see your Pinterest tab.

7. Fan Appz

This free platform helps you add content and analyze your Twitter and Facebook traffic. Fan Appz lets you post updates to both social sites at once, target specific countries and languages, schedule posts in advance, and create and publish quizzes and polls. Image-based polls let you give users a list of images—maybe of your products—and they can share their preferred top five.

The premium services, designed for larger fan pages, let you create and publish promotions, including special offers, sweepstakes, challenges, and rewards. You can create a gift store and games, and manage your Places and Events. You’d also be able to view the analytics of your posts, engagements, and promotions—all with support for Google Analytics.

You Can Write, But You Can't Hide: Big Data Knows Your Writing Quirks

As I wrote recently, data scientists have been able to decode unstructured data to accurately predict where violence will occur in Afghanistan. Now, they can also mine unstructured data to determine the identity of a document’s writer. All of us, it seems, have a “write-print” as unique as our fingerprint.

According to forensic linguists, the experts who investigate a text’s originator, if they have an individual’s known writings, they can detect with up to 95% accuracy that person’s authorship of any other document. Forensic experts have been called as witnesses in the high profile lawsuit by Paul Ceglia, who has sued Mark Zuckerberg, claiming he owns half of Facebook. They’ve also been expert witnesses in murder trials.

While the field of forensic linguistics predates the advent of big data, the sheer volume of data being generated on the Internet is opening new business opportunities for automating the analysis. A company pursuing these opportunities claims it can pinpoint a document’s author and determine everything from the gender, age, and education of a writer to the veracity of the document’s content.

But some analysts don’t even need to have access to known writings of a person to determine a document’s authorship. Using hundreds of thousands of publicly available emails from Enron employees, a group of computer scientists from Concordia University in Montreal tested their approach of clustering documents of unknown origin to identify those written by the same person. While they note that more research is needed, these scientists believe their clustering technique can be used by investigators of cyber crimes where all they have as evidence is a massive amount of suspicious e-mails, text messages, or other written material.

Although no forensic linguist would claim that their analysis is equal to comparing a person’s DNA for identification purposes, they are confident they can find those stylistic quirks in our prose that makes us all individuals—even if the writer is trying to intentionally obfuscate who he or she is by, say, pretending to be illiterate when, in fact, the writer is a college graduate.

Big data is boosting forensic linguistics as a tool to be used in criminal investigations and the courts to seek justice. It’s one more way analytics is improving modern life.

Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 Review: Full-Tilt Digital Media Maven

Windows 8 is getting closer to release and the amounts of quality all-in-one desktops are on the rise; the Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 is a strong choice. The A720 offers a 10-point multi-touch screen, making it ready for Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

Big, Beautiful Screen

This 27-inch system ($1599 as of 8/23/2012) strongly resembles a TV; being a digital media machine is its strongest attribute. A Blu-ray drive is included and HD content looks great on the high-definition, 1920-by-1080 resolution screen. As with many all-in-ones that double as a television, a remote control gives you easy access to the Media Center features, and the optional TV tuner gives you access to other TV functions. The A720 uses Dolby Home Theater 4, which produces more-robust sound quality from tiny stereo speakers. However, bass content is lacking since no subwoofer is included. The A720 strives to be in the center of the living room rather than just a PC on the corner desk.

The A720 stops being just a TV once you get your hands on it—literally. It supports 10-point multi-touch gestures and can be angled anywhere from -5 degrees to a 90-degree flat plane. There are few TVs that can claim to be a touchable table, though I don't recommend eating or setting drinks on it.

Having a big, fancy screen is well and good, but it won't mean much if performance is lacking. Luckily for the A720, the included Intel Core i7-3610QM runs at 2.3GHz but can boost itself to 3.3GHz when needed, thanks to Intel’s Turbo Boost technology. And 8GB of DDR3 RAM helps performance by improving response times.

Performance

The A720 managed to score only a 78 on our strenuous WorldBench 7 benchmark suite. This score means the system is approximately 22 percent slower than our baseline system.

The true culprit behind the lower score is the slow 40-second boot-up time caused by the 1TB 5400-rpm hard drive, a problem that's exacerbated by the tons of preinstalled apps that load up when Windows starts. This shouldn’t be a huge issue if you rarely shut down your computer, but it's something to keep in mind if you transfer a lot of data to and from your hard drive.

A key characteristic of all-in-one desktops is their slim profile. This system promotes itself as the thinnest 27-inch all-in-one in production (just 0.97-inch thick). Though extremely thin, it still comes packed with a discrete Nvidia GeForce 630M mobile GPU on top of Intel’s integrated graphics. While that may suffice for less-intensive games, DiRT 3 and Crysis 2 displayed at a maximum resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels barely managed 29.8 frames-per-second and 13.8fps, respectively. The A720 does manage to reach 60fps on DiRT 3 at a resolution of 1680 by 1050 pixels and low quality settings; but the closest it gets on Crysis 2 at 1024-by-768 resolution with low quality settings is 48.1fps.

Gotta Love Those Apps

Lenovo loves apps, from Lenovo’s signature Lenovo Rescue System to some interesting organizational tools. Lenovo’s Vantage Tools (shortened to LVT) provides two stacks of “cards” that resemble on-screen index cards. These cards represent entertainment and maintenance. All of the A720’s popular applications are there, sorted by category. Think of it as a fancier, touch-enabled quick-launch toolbar. However, it’s slow to launch and not very intuitive. Another of Lenovo’s touch apps resembles a less-refined Windows 8: IdeaTouch 4.5 gives a menu that lists everything from photos to your eBooks in a tile format for some quick touch-based media selection.

Of course you can’t talk about apps without talking about games. There are plenty of fun little time-wasting games that take advantage of the multi-touch screen. Air hockey also spotlights the flexibility of the machine. Laying the system down as a flat table-like surface and situating a second player on the other side nicely simulates a miniature version of those fun nights in the arcade. Most machines like this take pride in being a family-friendly machine. ArcSoft’s PhotoStudio Paint is a more glorified Microsoft Paint for kids that lets them unlock the inner artist. Flipping through the applications page will yield tons of fun little things like these for showing off or killing time.

The A720 comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard that have surprisingly little media capability. They work fine at a distance, but you must use the function button to pause or play. The system also comes with a front-facing 720p camera and a built-in microphone for easy and clear video-chatting or recording fun home movies with Lenovo's “Camera Fun Zone.”

For connectivity, the A720 comes with a standard 802.11n wireless adapter and a Gigabit Ethernet port with Bluetooth enabled. On the base of the system are two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a flash memory card reader, and a TV Tuner. Both HDMI-output and -input ports are also included. Hook up a console, or use the A720 to play a movie on a big screen—the ports gives you plenty of options.

If you’re looking for more of a bargain and are willing to sacrifice a little graphics power and screen size, the Sony VAIO L24 would be a good alternative. The L24 costs $1400 (as of May 24, 2012) and scored higher on our benchmarks. It has a 7200-rpm hard drive for quicker booting and file transfers, but it lacks a discrete graphics card, relying on Intel’s HD Graphics 4000 from its Intel Core i5-3210M. The screen is still multi-touch–capable and features high-definition 1920-by-1080 resolution, but it's only 24 inches. Of course, not every room needs the larger screen, and the 3-inch deficit may prove to be worth the $200 savings.

The Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 is the perfect machine for a media-deprived room. If you're on a budget, there are better options out there; but if you want the whole shebang (with the exception of a quick hard drive and graphical power), you will be very happy with this purchase.

How brown became the red-hot color for new cars and trucks

Silver was the most popular exterior car color in America for nearly a decade. But while it remains beloved by automotive designers for best showing off a car's styling, its unstinting argent reign was finally overthrown this year. By white. According to Sandy McGill, BMW Designworks' lead designer in color, materials, and finish, this is Steve Jobs' doing. "Prior to Apple, white was associated with things like refrigerators or the tiles in your bathroom. Apple made white valuable."

Valuable, yet boring. So while the rise in white's snowy stock may be good news for the luxury market — white is high maintenance, thus luxurious — it's a pale palliative for those of us with a bit more pigment in their palette. Fortunately, our expert interviews and analysis reveal that more enticing colors are emerging.

Light blue's ascension is connected to environmental wellbeing: clear skies, clean water. Crisp oranges are migrating from the world of high-end outdoor equipment. New paint technology may finally allow fashion's passion for fluorescents to flow from the runways onto the highways. And, as always, the smart money's on gold: as its price and profile have skyrocketed, so has its demand as a coating.

But the most enticing color trend, from our perspective, is the return of brown. After all, what could be more compelling to unicorn-riding Rainbow Brites like us than the hue derived — as any child left too long at an easel will readily demonstrate — from combining every shade in the visible spectrum?

As recently as 2008 articles and experts were prognosticating the "extinction" of brown as an automotive exterior color: it was too rooted in the malaise of the 1970s, it blended in too well with the scenery, it lowered resale value. Even the aesthetically-bereft American Automobile Association (AAA) danced on brown's loamy grave, claiming, in their Car and Color Safety dispatch of 2004 that, "brown, black, and green cars [are] roughly twice as likely as white cars to be involved in crashes resulting in serious injury."

But, like every cinematic hero, the very moment of brown's alleged eradication presaged its incipient resurrection. According to paint giant PPG's Global Color Manager, Jane Harrington, brown's latest uptick is based in its ability to convey stability and comfort, as well as the kind of authenticity that consumers— especially luxury consumers — seek. "Think of the experience of good coffee, good chocolate, great pieces of wood," Harrington told us, referencing the entire field of upscale umbric goods. "You're seeing it across the crafts industry: more genuine materials, something that has longevity. The handmade quality people are looking for in luxury."

High end car makers like Mercedes, BMW, Mini, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, and Bentley have all begun investigating what brown can do for them, with each marque offering at least two — and in the case of Bentley, a full half-dozen — earthy shades on their contemporary offerings. But we're also starting to see brown trickle down into the lower ends of the automotive marketplace. Ford now offers its Taurus sedan and Escape SUV in Kodiak Brown, as well as proffering a caramelly Golden Bronze dip on its best-selling F-150. And Toyota, though famous for producing cars that are both literally and figuratively beige, has also began to polish the mahogany, offering a quartet of browns on models like the Venza, Avalaon, RAV-4, and Tacoma (though, ironically, you cannot purchase a Sienna in brown.)

But brown's delightfully filthy insurgency isn't based solely on its connection to the composted topsoil used to grow your heirloom radishesm or the Kopi Luwak coffee beans pooped out by a Sumatran civet cat and roasted for your artisanal espresso. Nor is it merely surfing the aspirational wave a few coats may bring to the mass-market. It's also fueled by a deep-seated fondness for the past.

Or, at least that's what Alex Nuñez thinks. As Senior Automotive Editor at Consumer Search, and Weekend Editor at Autoblog, he is an industry expert. But it's his role as founder of Facebook's Brown Car Appreciation Society — which now includes nearly 600 members, mainly automotive writers, analysts, and pundits — that catalyzed our interview. "I think it's a nostalgia thing for guys our age. I'm 40, and we grew up at a time when you had all these brown cars in active use," Nuñez said. "Maybe it's that a lot of people who are in decision-making positions in the car industry are of that age, and this stuff is sort of subliminally ingrained as a feel good thing — these browns and earth tone colors."

Experts like Jane Harrington and Sandy McGill are hard at work tracking the next big incipient color trend — bronzes, with their patinaed implication of history and refinement; aluminum flakes that make metallic paints more silky; even digital OLEDs that can display anything, like an automotive iPad. But when we asked Nuñez if there were other color trends he was stalking, he didn't hesitate. "Not really." He is interested only in seeing brown deepen its fecund reign. "I'm disappointed that you can't order a Mustang Boss 302 in brown, or a brown Camaro. So there's still opportunity for expansion."

Sony reveals a Windows 8 hybrid tablet, a next-gen Xperia smartphone, and an 84-inch 4K TV

Today at the 2012 IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, Sony pulled the curtain back on what it has cooking in the world of personal technology. From a massive 4K TV to personal 3D headsets, the company seems to have a lot up its sleeve for the coming year, so let's break it down.

Vaio Duo 11 Slider

Vaio Duo Slider
Sony is already well-known for its innovative designs — the Tablet S and Tablet P are great examples. That trend continues with the Vaio Duo 11, an Ultrabook with a sliding design that makes it at once a notebook and a tablet. Running Windows 8, the Slider can be used with just your fingers, or you can choose to slide the screen up at an angle, revealing a full qwerty keyboard for composing longer form text. The Slider comes equipped with either a 128GB or 256GB solid state drive, 1080p widescreen display, and your choice of Intel i3, i5, or i7 processors. No price has yet been revealed.

Xperia Tablet S

Xperia Tablet SUtilizing the same design cues that made the original Tablet S such a pleasure to play with, the Xperia Tablet S is definitely the most capable Android tablet ever to come out of Sony's walls. With a large, 9.4-inch display, aluminum body, and splash-proof design, the new S should be a worthy competitor to the iPad, especially for fans of the company's previous tablets. The new slate will come equipped with Ice Cream Sandwich installed, and its 3-cord Tegra 3 processor should make using apps and other tablet tasks a smooth and enjoyable experience.

Personal 3D Viewer

HMZ-T2 Personal 3D Viewer
Sure, massive HDTV screens are all the rage these days, but what if you want a more up-close-and-personal viewing experience? Sony's new Personal 3D Viewer may be just what you're looking for. The futuristic headset lets you watch 2D or 3D content — including movies and video games — on high-resolution OLED displays, along with built-in 5.1 virtual surround sound. To combat the eye fatigue that can often be a problem with viewing screens so closely, the device automatically adjusts its color output to be easy on your peepers.

84-inch Bravia 4K TV

84-inch Sony Bravia 4K TV
How many 4K TVs are out there readily available for sale right now? We bet you can't name more than the your fingers in one hand. Sony just announced a new addition to the very short list of 4K TVs on the market: the 84-inch Bravia KD-84X9005. It boasts a 3,840 by 2,160 pixel resolution — four times the resolution of high-definition (HD) displays — and comes with a technology that makes upscaled HD content fit for 4K viewing.

Vaio Tap 20 table-top PC

Vaio Tap 20 table-top PC
Aside from a new laptop-tablet hybrid called Vaio Duo 11 (that's turning out to be a common design for Windows 8 tablets), Sony also updated its Vaio line with the Tap 20 table-top PC. Tap 20 is literally a humongous Windows 8 multi-touch tablet with a screen that measures 20 inches. Unfortunately, the model shown at Berlin has a screen resolution of 960 x 640 pixels, which is disappointingly low. But we hope it undergoes further tweaks because there's nothing quite like playing Angry Birds on a 20-inch screen.

Sony Xperia TX

Sony Xperia TX
Meet the company's newest smartphone flagship that runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The device has a large 4.6-inch screen that boasts a 720p HD resolution, NFC functionality for mobile payments, and a 13-megapixel rear camera.  No word on price or availability yet, but this phone probably won't come cheap.

Argentines plan to shoot gulls to save the whales

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  What began as bizarre bird behavior has turned into something out of a horror film for threatened whales in Argentina, where seagulls have learned that pecking at the whales' backs can get them a regular seafood dinner. Seagull attacks on southern right whales have become so common now that authorities are planning to shoot the gulls in hopes of reducing their population.

Environmentalists say the plan is misguided and that humans are the real problem, creating so much garbage that the gull population has exploded.

Both sides agree that the gull attacks in one of the whales' prime birthing grounds is not only threatening the marine mammals, but the region's tourism industry as well, by turning whale-watching from a magical experience into something sad and gruesome.

Seagulls around the city of Puerto Madryn discovered about a decade ago that by pecking at the whales as they come up for air, they can create open wounds. Then, each time the whales surface, it's dinner time: Gulls swoop down and dig in, cutting away skin and blubber with their beaks and claws.

The problem has only grown more severe since then as more gulls caught on and the bird populationexploded due to easy access to human detritus — not only open-air garbage heaps but fish parts as well, dumped directly into the water by fishermen and a seafood packing plant.

"It's not just that the gulls are attacking the whales, but that they're feeding from them, and this way of feeding is a habit that is growing and becoming more frequent," said Marcelo Bertellotti, who works for the National Patagonia Center, a government-sponsored conservation agency. "It really worries us because the damage they're doing to the whales is multiplying, especially to infant whales that are born in these waters."

Whales also are changing their behavior in response: Instead of breaching the water and dramatically displaying their tails, they rise just barely enough to breathe through their blow-holes before descending to safety, Bertellotti said.

Bertellotti's answer: Shoot the gulls that display this behavior with air rifles and hunting guns, and recover each downed bird before they are eaten along with the ammunition, causing still more damage to marine life. His "100-day Whale-Gull Action Plan" was approved by the government of Chubut, and provincial officials came out Tuesday in defense of it.

"We are preparing a pilot plan that seeks to stop the damage from the gulls that pick at the flesh of the whales, because this is putting at risk the resource. It will be a minimal intervention to protect the life of the southern right whale and thus provide a response to the complaints of the sightseeing businesses that operate in the place," Gov. Martin Buzzi posted on his Facebook page.

Whale-watching is big business for Chubut. Southern right whales have recovered to about 8 percent of their original population since becoming a protected species worldwide, and hundreds come to the relatively calm and warm waters of the gulf formed by the Valdez Peninsula to give birth and raise their newborns each July to December.

Seeing them surface from nearby boats can be a magical experience, and gull attacks were rare until about eight years ago, said Milko Schvartzman, who coordinates the oceans campaign for Greenpeace in Latin America.

But more gulls have caught on, and their population has boomed to the point where whales are attacked at least every fourth time they surface, he said.

Now the tourists are suffering along with the whales. "It's not so pleasant anymore," Schvartzman said.

Environmentalists say the only way to effectively reduce the seagull population is to deny the birds food by closing open-air garbage dumps around the gulf and stopping people from dumping fish parts. Activists have been lobbying Chubut for many years to develop plans to reduce, recycle and properly contain garbage and strictly regulate fishing, but politicians have resisted, Schvartzman said.

Chubut's environmental minister, Eduardo Maza, blamed the problem on previous governments, and said the province is now working on permanent solutions. Shooting the gulls "is surely not the most pleasant measure, but it's necessary to do something to control a situation that has been growing after many years of inaction," Maza said.

"At year's end, we're going to inaugurate garbage-separation plants," Maza said. "All the garbage in the protected Peninsula Valdes area that isn't recyclable will be properly disposed of, which will enable us to mitigate the open-air garbage dumps."

Schvartzman said that if humans don't solve the problem quickly, the whales will simply stop coming.

Super Hi-Vision 8K TV standard approved by UN agency

A new high-resolution television format has been approved by the UN's communication standards setting agency.

Broadcasts in 8K will offer a resolution of 7,680 by 4,320 pixels - roughly the equivalent of a 32 megapixel photo.

That is 16 times as sharp as current HD TVs offering about 2MP resolutions.

Japanese broadcaster NHK showed off the technology in London during the Olympics, where audiences said it gave them a sense of being at the events.

The firm has developed three cameras that can capture the higher resolution - which it calls Super Hi-Vision - at 60 frames per second but aims to double that to 120 frames per second.

By contrast the BBC currently broadcasts HD TV programmes at 25 fps.

"The experience of viewing and listening to live sports and entertainment coverage is dramatically enhanced by Super Hi-Vision, and Ovum envisages it representing the logical next step in TV transmission technology, following on from regular HD," wrote the consultancies'analyst Jonathan Doran in a report.

"In our view, it is a far more significant development than 3D, which offers a limited range of use-cases."

Mega screens

The UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) discussed the standard in May and offered broadcasters the opportunity to file objections. Because no-one did, it sent out letters at the end of last week confirming the format's approval.

A press release from NHK said the specification would "reproduce the feeling of life and offer a sense of being present" in a way that had been impossible to do before. The news was first reported by Techworld.

NHK has used a 145-inch (3.7 metre) prototype display co-developed with Panasonic to show off its footage.

But it will be some time before such models become commercially available.

TV makers are currently focusing efforts on launching 4K enabled devices offering half the resolution. This is the format currently used by most digital cinema cameras.

LG unveiled the biggest 4K television set to date earlier this week - an 84 inch screen costing more than $22,000.

But manufacturers are likely to want to offer 8K screens by 2020 when NHK aims to begin its first experimental broadcasts in the standard.

Photographers' friend

One analyst said the displays would probably remain beyond most people's budgets for more than a decade.

"I suspect that we won't see this become available to consumers below $10,000 until 2025," Paul O'Donovan, principal analyst at the tech consultancy Gartner, told the BBC.

"Those will be in sizes 55 inches and above. You will still get a benefit at that size because it offers a greater colour depth and contrast as well as a sharper picture.

"But when the screens are even larger you get a sense of being there - it's like looking through a window.

"Beyond better looking TV programmes they will also appeal to photographers. Many people have cameras with lots of megapixels and this gives them a way to see their pictures back at the same resolution they took them in."

'Clot nets' help stroke recovery

Using small nets to extract blood clots from patients' brains may be the future of stroke care, according to two studies.

Clots block blood vessels, starving parts of the brain of oxygen, which leads to symptoms such as paralysis and loss of speech.

Two studies, presented in the Lancet medical journal, suggest extracting clots with nets could improve recovery.

The Stroke Association said it was very excited by the treatment's potential.

There are already techniques for reopening blocked blood vessels in people's brains.

Some patients will be given "clot-busting" drugs, but this needs to be in the hours just after the stroke and is not suitable for everyone.

Clot extraction

Other techniques have been developed to extract the clot. Some procedures pass a tube up through the groin to the brain. There the wire passes through the clot, forming a coil on the far side and then pulling the clot out. However, this is far from routine practice.

The latest methods involve a tiny wire cage instead of a coil. This pushes the clot up against the walls of the artery and enmeshes the clot in the wires, allowing doctors to pull the clot back out of the groin.

Two similar devices were compared with the current coil methods. One trial of 113 patients showed 58% had good brain function after three months, compared with 33% of those treated with the coil method, as well as a lower death rate.

Another study in 178 patients showed almost double the chance of living independently after treatment.

One of the researchers involved, Prof Jeffrey Saver from the University of California, Los Angeles, told the BBC that these techniques would become more common, as they are more likely to clear clots than drugs.

"Clot-busting drugs only partially reopen 40% of large blocked arteries. These devices partially reopen 70-90% of large blocked arteries.

"Second, these devices can be used in patients in whom it is not safe to give 'clot busting' drugs, such as patients taking anticoagulant medications, patients who had recent surgery, and patients who are between 4.5 to eight hours after stroke onset."

In the long term he can see drugs being used as a first option and then clot removal if the drugs fail or cannot be used.

'Major steps forward'

Responding to the research, the Stoke Association's Dr Clare Walton said clot-busters did not work for all patients so new techniques could help many patients.

She added: "Clot retrieval devices have the potential to be used with more stroke patients and are better at removing blood clots than clot-busting drugs.

"We are very excited about this potential new treatment and look forward to further developments."

Dr Philip Gorelick, from Michigan State University, said the studies were "major steps forward in the successful treatment of acute ischaemic stroke, and pave the way for new treatment options".

The research was published to coincide with a European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich.