April 2010 Archives

2011 Ford -v- 2010 Dodge Ram

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Note: I'm a huge Dodge CTD (Cummins Turbo Diesel) fan and was eager to see this review.


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Original Site (MotorTrend) :Comparison: 2011 Ford F-250 Super Duty vs 2010 Ram 2500 HD


The battle lines have been redrawn. Ford and Dodge (now Ram) have been duking it out with each other in the heavy-duty (3/4- and one-ton) pickup market for what seems like forever, but in recent times Ford has been winning the biggest percentage of market share while the Ram HD has the highest all-important diesel take rate in the segment, almost 85 percent. These trucks are made for hard work and hard play. And even though sales for full-size pickups have dropped as much as 40 percent in some segments, OEs understand there will always be buyers for work trucks. And here we've decided to pit two of the latest -- the all-new 2011 Ford Super Duty and the Ram 2500 HD -- head to head, equipped with the all-important oil-burner.

Diesel connoisseurs have been waiting for this confrontation for ages. The 2010.5 federal emissions regulations essentially forced all three of the 3/4- and one-ton work-truck makers to dig deep and come up with clever ways to provide the most pulling power possible with a much cleaner NOx and particulate emissions rating. The 350-horsepower, 650-pound-foot 6.7-liter Cummins I-6 was updated three years ago and was the first of the HD diesel engines to meet the stricter 2010.5 regulations. Unlike the Cummins, Ford's all-new 6.7-liter, 390-horse, 735-pound-foot V-8 Power Stroke (now built in-house) uses a urea-based aftertreatment emissions system.





Note: I've known for some time now that the US Military has been putting private birds into orbit. It's no surprise. Now we'll see if we get charged for GPS services.
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On April 1, 2010, The US Department of Defense announced its intention to give up ownership of its GPS Satellite Network, citing concerns about the mix of consumer and military traffic, and the cost to maintain the system as it experiences record growth in use.  

The GPS Satellite Mobile Phone Consortium, a group of the 24 largest telecoms worldwide, is expected to take ownership of the satellite network.  

The so-called 'GPS Satellite Mobile Phone Consortium' will combine 24 of the world's largest mobile carriers, including America Movil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, mobilkom Austria, MTN Group, NTT Docomo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, TeliaSonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, VimpelCom and WIND. The four operators in the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) mobile apps initiative - Vodafone, China Mobile, SoftBank and Verizon Wireless - are also included.

Under the terms of the agreement, the mobile phone group will lease the satellites currently in operation and be responsible for the cost of launching any new ones. It is expected that GPS will be completely under their control by 2012. By that time, a GPS device will need to use a cellular identifier to decode GPS signals.   

Department of Defense officials declined comment on the future of the use of GPS in military applications, citing security concerns. It is speculated that the military has been launching a new satellite network strictly for its own use. 

Not all are happy with the move. High on the list of  consumer complaints is that the perception that mobile phone companies, in their typical fashion, will levy monthly fees for a GPS signal that used to be free.

In response to this criticism, the Mobile Phone Consortium stressed their intention to make the technology affordable and available to all. The Consortium itself will levy no fees for GPS use, but choices of pricing will be left to the individual telecoms.

The question comes up also of the future of GPS receivers that don't have a mobile phone component. While the number of mobile phone gps receivers has now overtaken these in number, there are still millions of these in existence. The GPS Satellite Mobile Phone Consortium says they are willing to license their technology to these manufacturers, and companies such as Garmin and Magellan may even join the consortium.    

Resistance to the idea of a mobile phone owned GPS network has gone beyond words. Programmers who preferred not to be identified announced their intention to hack the new network as soon as it was launched. If they succeed, exploits will be posted widely around the internet, with the goal of keeping the technology free for all. 

If you are concerned about this transfer of GPS ownership, add your name to those concerned by taking a short survey at this web address:

Respond to Mobile Phone Ownership of GPS




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This page is an archive of entries from April 2010 listed from newest to oldest.

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