Filed under: New York Auto Show, Sedan, Subaru

We were smitten with Subaru‘s Impreza Concept from the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. The production version will certainly be toned down for normal road use, and a report from Inside Line states that we could see the next-generation Impreza bow sooner than expected. In speaking with IL, Subaru of America’s executive vice president, Tom Doll, confirmed that the 2012 Impreza will go on sale in the United States in August, meaning that an official reveal at April’s New York Auto Show is very likely.

Like the current model, the 2012 Impreza will be offered in both sedan and five-door hatchback body styles, powered by the automaker’s revised 2.5-liter Boxer flat-four that debuted in the 2011 Forester. We hope that Subaru keeps many of the Impreza Concept’s lines intact for the production car, especially since we drool at the thought of what the STI-fettled version will look like.

Photos copyright (C)2011 Drew Phillips / AOL

[Source: Inside Line]

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Video: VW releases Darth Vader commercial’s deleted scenes, bloopers

Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Videos, Volkswagen

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There are only two car commercials from the Super Bowl that we’re still talking about two days later. The first is Chrysler’s two-minute-long love letter from Detroit to the rest of the country starring rapper Eminem, and the other is Volkswagen’s Darth Vader commercial. Searches on Autoblog for the new Passat, which the commercial happens to be advertising, jumped 270 percent on the day after it aired.

VW wants to make sure we’re still talking about its new brand ambassador, six-year-old actor Max Page, a little while longer, so the company has released this cute video of bloopers from the commercial shoot and deleted scenes that didn’t make the final cut. Follow the jump to see Max slip and fall, be interrupted by a Roomba and finally worshipped by his parents who now fully understand his power.

[Source: Volkswagen]

Continue reading Video: VW releases Darth Vader commercial’s deleted scenes, bloopers

Oh look, what’s this? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the iPad 2 has entered production — which exactly lines up previously rumored manufacturing schedules. According to the WSJ, the new edition of Apple‘s tablet will have a faster processor with a better GPU and more memory in a thinner, lighter package. There’s also said to be a front-facing camera for video conferencing, but the much-discussed display resolution will remain ‘similar’ to the current iPad — which actually goes along with the most recent information we’ve gotten from our sources, who say that the next iPad will indeed stay at the current resolution, and that the higher-res display we’d heard about earlier may have actually been for a future model. As for availability, the WSJ says the new iPad will be on Verizon and AT&T, which certainly makes sense — although it’ll be interesting to see how Verizon handles positioning it against the upcoming Xoom, which Motorola is marketing in an aggressively anti-iPad manner. In any event, between the iPad 2, the Xoom, and whatever Palm has to offer tomorrow, this spring is about to get very, very interesting.

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Filed under: Sedan, Marketing/Advertising, Chrysler, Celebrities

It took guts on many levels. Chrysler created a two-minute ad for the Super Bowl in just the last couple of weeks to promote its new 200 sedan. Cost: About $10 million give or take.

The ad, starring Eminem and showing scenes and sites of Detroit that many outside Southeast Michigan won’t even recognize, is a love-letter to the city of Detroit as much as an introduction of a new risky ad tagline for the brand: ‘Imported from Detroit.’

It’s unlikely that any car company has ever used ‘Detroit’ in an ad slogan. It is even more unlikely that any company would think about it now given the awful image the city has not only in the rest of the country, but even within the state of Michigan.

The ad and the strategy is the work, ironically, of Portland, Oregon-based ad agency Wieden & Kennedy, which is perhaps best known for its long-running Nike work, as well as work for Coca-Cola. It is also the brainchild of Chrysler chief marketing officer Olivier Francois, who also holds the title of CEO of Chrysler brand.

Click through the jump to watch the video and to continue reading…

Photos copyright (C)2010 Drew Phillips / AOL

[Source: Chrysler via YouTube]

Continue reading Opinion: Chrysler advertises Detroit with Eminem during Super Bowl, chooses wrong car [w/video] *UPDATE

It’s been a painful two days, hasn’t it? If you’re a Windows user looking for an untethered jailbreak for your iDevice, the answer is most certainly ‘yes.’ The Chronic Dev Team has just let loose the greenpois0n untethered jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1, but unlike the build released 48 hours ago, this one’s meant for Wintel boxes. The team’s site seems to be down at the moment (shocker!), but there’s a download mirror linked below if you just can’t wait to get going. As always, we’d caution you to back up your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone before doing the deed, and since it’s the first of its kind (for this version of iOS, anyway), we’d be ready to see a few bugs along the way. Minor details, we know.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We saw it teased right around 48 hours ago, and now Motorola’s full Xoom Super Bowl ad is out and about for the world to see. It aired just moments ago during Super Bowl XLV, and it’s fairly obvious where it took inspiration. It’s easily one of the best tech spots we’ve seen in quite some while, and as much as Motorola has been hyping its Honeycomb-based superslate, we’d say it better sell quite a few to recoup what it’s already lost in marketing — even at $800 a pop, it’ll still take a boatload. The real question, however, is this: will today’s America even get it? Hop on past the break and mash play if you missed out.

P.S. – Missed our coverage of Super Bowl Media Day? Catch up here!

Continue reading Motorola’s Xoom Super Bowl commercial tips hat to Apple’s ’1984′ spot (video)

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Sony Ericsson has finally stopped teasing, winking, and nodding knowingly and has just come clean — the Xperia Play is most definitely real and it’ll be one of the first devices announced at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We’re treated to a date and time, February 13th at 6PM GMT, a pair of full frontal shots of the Gingerbread-running, gamepad-wearing smartphone, and the full version of that creepy ad we saw for it a couple of days back. Missed it on the Super Bowl? Scope it out after the break.

P.S. – Missed our coverage of Super Bowl Media Day? Catch up here!

Continue reading Sony Ericsson makes Xperia Play official in Super Bowl commercial, full launch coming February 13th

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This shelf tag was apparently spotted this weekend at a Best Buy in Houston, and it speaks for itself: white iPhone 4, AT&T, $599.99 off contract (the same price as the black). Of course, we all know this thing is coming within the next few weeks at this point — there’s just too much evidence pointing in that direction — but the fact that we’ve got big box retailers printing and placing tags for it now suggests that it’s coming sooner rather than later. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, that QR code link is dead at the moment — we’ve linked it below in case you want to give it a shot.

Update: Looks like The Source (Canada’s version of Radio Shack) is also making room. See for yourself after the break. Thanks, Anonymous!

[Thanks, Joel P.]

Continue reading White iPhone 4 starts to get Best Buy, The Source shelf space

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