Late Night Coffee

How do you hang onto your brightest young talent and prepare them
to lead? Simple: Recruit your more experienced employees to help coach and
guide them.

Edmunds’ Inside Line quotes Lexus’ corporate product planning manager as saying the price of the new Lexus’ LS-F price will “begin with a 2.” We’re guessing the V10 supercar won’t be $29,995. In honor of this news, I’ve hit up the thesaurus: brainsick, off, daft, absurd and whack. See also: dismal failure, stillborn. Newsflash to Lexus. You’re not Ferrari. This won’t be a performance halo car (reference Acura’s NSX and the amazing effects it had on making people think the RL was sporty). Also, people buying summer Sunday cars for $200k aren’t motivated by factors like “reliability,” especially when this hand built carbon fiber monster will likely not maintain the brand’s hallmark reputation for non-breakage and low maintenance. And, because I especially don’t care for this LF-A supercar, here’s a list of cars that cost half as much with better looks (extrapolating), heritage or fun: Porsche 911 Turbo ($135k), Nissan GT-R ($70k +  ?), Corvette Z06 ($77k), Corvette ZR1 (estimated $100k), Ford GT (slightly used, $150k), Ferrari F430 ($175k), Aston Martin DB9 ($175k), and BMW M6 ($100k).

Word on the street — and by “street” we mean “the internet” — is that Apple will begin exclusive use of LED BLUs for displays in all of its MacBooks come 2009. According to the Chinese-language paper Economic Daily News, the computer-maker’s Taiwanese supplier of LED backlight units, Kenmos, will increase shipments in the coming year of the brighter, longer-lasting, better dressed components. Of course, the paper could be making this all up to toy with our emotions and break our little hearts… but why would they do that?

RIM’s hotly-anticipated BlackBerry Bold has only been received by a select few, but the fortunate folks over at Howard Chui managed to snag a pre-production unit and give it a good lookin’ at. Aside from showering us with a plethora of snapshots from a variety of angles, we’re also told that the plastic used “feels a little cheaper” than that on the 8800, outgoing sound quality “is terrific,” incoming sound quality could use some work and reception seemed much improved from the 8800. We know, it’s not a full-blown review or anything, but it’s still apt to whet your appetite until the real deal shows up en masse.

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