About a year ago, Volkswagen announced its new "People's Car Project" (自造车) in China. The idea was to crowd source unique concepts from Chinese Internet users. About 120,000 ideas later, VW chose three and displayed them at the Beijing Auto Show in May. One of those three ideas was a VW "Hover Car" (磁悬球形车).

That car is now here. Kind of… It's just one more piece of VW's massive push. 

VW Beetle, meet the VW "Moth."

In a promotional video shot in the Chinese city of Chengdu, VW introduces the Hover Car and allows the parents of "Dark520" to take a spin. Dark520 is the handle of the People's Car Project user who suggested the hover project. Continue reading...

Coursera roars into BRIC countries with online classes.

ESPN introduces campaign that focuses on value of Monday Night Football.

Facebook HQ gets a Main Street.

Goldman Sachs escapes U.S. charges in mortgage crisis.

Ikea values its brand at $11 billion.

JCPenney reports loss, raising more questions about strategy.

JPMorgan Chase outlines damages from "London Whale" trading blunder.Continue reading...

It’s complicated, the whole issue of personal privacy in an era of social media transparency, and the fact that the first female astronaut, Sally Ride, who this week died at age 61 from pancreatic cancer, came out publically in her obituary, listing her partner of 27 years, Tam O'Shaughnessy first, as a survivor, is stirring the pot of comment and prejudice.

"Could she have helped the cause? Maybe," says Fred Sainz, VP of communications for the Human Rights Campaign. "For her not to have shared an incredibly important aspect of her life — being in a committed long-term relationship with a woman — meant many Americans did not get to see a dimension of her life that would have helped them understand us (gay people) and our contributions to society.

Ride was open in her personal life, "She just didn't want to go public with it during her lifetime. And that's a big difference," said Sainz. "There's no question that Sally Ride could have been fired if she'd come out while she worked for NASA.”Continue reading...

AT&T slashes price of Lumia smartphone.

Aereo online-TV service expands in U.S.

Bank of England chief denies New York Fed chief gave warning on rate-rigging.

Richard Branson considers bid for Virgin Records.

Coca-Cola beats estimates with international sales up 5%.

Famous Dave's expands beyond U.S..

GM likely to retain Opel brand despite brand's woes.

Gap eyes Lululemon's Athletica stores with its own Athleta store openings.Continue reading...

With less than two weeks left before the XXX Olympics (hold your snickers) kick off on July 27th, brands that paid big bucks to be involved are getting their names out there in every way possible while those who didn’t unload their wallets are keeping busy figuring out how they can capitalize on all those eyeballs without getting themselves into any kind of trouble. But first, a word from an Olympics sponsor:

McDonald’s Succumbs to Chip Pressure

Britain, of course, is known for its fine fish and chips so it seemed like blasphemy, especially to the workers at this year’s Games, that the only fries that would be available in Olympic venues would be sold by American fast-food giant McDonald’s — which is, of course, an official IOC sponsor — at its temporary restaurants on the Olympics site. Following an outcry, the London 2012 Organizing Committee has agreed to allow other vendors of chips on the premises, which comes as good news to the 800 food vendors who can now sell their chips to Olympics visitors and personnel. It's not a huge chip off the shoulders of McDonald's UK, which projects that revenue from Olympics sales will represent less than 0.1% of its annual sales.Continue reading...

As Wall Street embraces the inevitable tide of social media, fiduciary responsibility is taking on new parameters.

In a different kind of security risk as Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is stepping up its social media reach, granting its 17,000 financial advisers partial access to Twitter and LinkedIn over the next several months. The move expands a year-long experiment with 600 employees to test whether social media would be a helpful tool for its employees.

Of the 600 advisers involved in the trial, 40% cited new business through their social media use and of those 240, 60% said those new customers had more than $1m worth of assets. “The big takeaway is that it works,” commented Lauren Boyman, director of digital strategy at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, to the New York Times.Continue reading...

Amazon buys publisher of romance and mystery books and cools down its warehouses.

Bona Film Group of China talks with Hollywood outfits.

Coca-Cola's Australian JV says cheers to beer.

Cosi tries for dramatic turnaround under new CEO.

Disney to restrict junk-food advertising on its shows.

EA offers much of new Star Wars game for free.

Goldman Sachs outlook dims.

Google buys Meebo to bolster Google+ as its battle with Apple expands to mobile maps.

Groupe Danone fails Chinese entry inspection for Evian water.Continue reading...

The historic day came and went as Facebook, eight years-old, with more than 901 million members, roughly 1 in 8 people on Earth, went public, issuing actual stock certificates in a retro move. As of 3:07 pm EST, Facebook had traded 460 million shares, setting a record for trading volume for a U.S. stock the day of its IPO. Facebook's stock opened around $43 and quickly slipped to under $39, after pricing on Thursday at $38 a share.

The social giant chose Nasdaq over NYSE Euronext, not surprising as the former is more closely associated with Silicon Valley. Due to a technical delay at Nasdaq caused by the sheer volume of share orders which began at 10:45 am EST, the stock opening took place at 11:30 am instead of 11:00 am, with some 82 million shares traded in the first 30 seconds. Seven minutes after the opening, 110 million shares had traded, with the stock eventually reaching a high of $45 a share. All in all, the highly anticipated public debut proved more of a whimper than the bang that was expected.Continue reading...