Car Smart: New Kia Soul offers spirited ride, features

The 2014 Kia Soul 2.0 L is a five-seat wagon with an oddball shape and quirky angular front windows. It looks like anything but a luxury automobile. However, it's equipped like a car twice its cost, boasting some features seen only in high-end models.

This Soul is loaded to the core.

Heated and ventilated seats in this "urban hatchback" keep you the right temperature year-round. The ventilated seats work so well you can even go easy on the air conditioning on a hot day.

The Soul's navigation system has a substantial 8-inch display, but its two-dimensional display will not show a third dimension until a destination is entered.

Also driven by the big touch screen display is the Infinity sound system, which cranks deep rich bass to its eight speakers including a center dash speaker and sub-woofer. The speakers also glow with the music for some mood lighting.

Controls for the audio system are mounted on the leather-wrapped steering wheel as well as on the touch screen.

The Soul has a power panoramic roof with a power sunshade which helps give an open feel to this small car with big features.

Sleek 18" alloy wheels complement its textured front grille and smart- looking headlights.

Kia also equips this car with a backup camera that is among the best. It provides clear detail of the area behind your bumper as you back in and out of those tight parking spots the 13-foot-7-inch Soul can squeeze into.

Rounding out the Soul's nice features is a 6-speed automatic with manual overriding paddle shifters commanding a spirited 2.0-liter inline-4,
164 -horsepower engine.

The Soul sips gas, getting 23 mpg in the city. It is responsive and fun to drive around the city, but the city is where the luxury similarities are left.

While the Soul gets 31 mpg on the highway, I found the 10-way adjustable driver's seats uncomfortable for longer drives. I'd like to see the headrest re-engineered so it is more adjustable and not pushed as far forward as the testers.

Its rigid chassis and tight suspension keep a snug connection to the road, but at higher speeds this car gets bounced around by bumps in the road, possibly because it is so lightweight.

Kia equips this car with a horn that nobody can possibly respect. This is not to suggest that smaller cars should have foghorns, but when other drivers hear such a wimpy sound, it barely gets their attention.

The hands-free phone performance is a major shortcoming, especially these days given the need for full concentration on the road and laws in most other states requiring hands-free cellphone use.

Essentially, the Soul is a well-equipped inexpensive compact wagon that is better for city driving than cruising on the highway in spite of the great mileage it gets.

2014 Kia Soul 2.0 L

• MSRP: $17,695
• As tested: $21,295
• MPG: 23 city, 
31 highway

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Amazon’s big stock slide shows strategy’s shaky

Time for Amazon to hit the Mayday Button.

Investors are beginning to wake up and realize that maybe this whole thing about putting long-term profits over short-term profits isn't as enchanting and magical as CEO Jeff Bezos once made it seem.

Amazon's stock plummeted an astonishing 
10 percent in a day after the announcement of a $126 million quarterly loss on Thursday — the latest in a long string of losses for the e-commerce beast.

For consumers, Amazon's prices seem impossibly low. And that's because they are, in fact, impossible. You can't sell items that cheaply. No company could ever make a profit by selling goods at or below cost, and that's exactly what Amazon has done for as long as anyone can remember.

Bezos is a puzzling man. The delivery drones. The atomic clock. The Washington Post. Who can figure this dude out? Some commentators have wondered whether Amazon was set up to function as a de facto consumer charity. I've wondered that myself. I've come to quite the opposite conclusion.

Amazon won't raise its prices until it has achieved a majority of the market that brick-and-mortar retailers currently occupies. An entire generation of locally owned small businesses — and mid- to large-sized businesses — hang in the balance.

"The current investment cycle layers in increased technology and content costs as Amazon seeks to build itself into a complete consumption, payment and advertising platform for physical and digital goods," wrote analyst Colin Gillis of BGC Financial in a note to investors yesterday.

In other words, all this taking over the world ain't cheap!

Currently valued at 
$147 billion, Amazon is the 28th largest publicly traded company in the United States. And in the past 48 hours it lost $15 billion of its market value.

Investors are getting antsy.

I'm all about encouraging that sense of angst. Although Amazon's convenience and prices are hard to beat, I find myself spending a little more offline lately: shopping local, paying a little bit more here and there, and chalking it up to charity. You too can help keep Amazon stockholders worried and a little ticked off. You know what to do.

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Survey finds Twitter fills movie theater seats

There's a reason there's so much chatter from Hollywood about Twitter: it sells tickets.

According to a new study by Nielsen, 87% of Twitter users said their most recent decision to see a film in the theater was influenced by tweets.

Twitter users are also a captive audience for movie-related information, with an estimated 65% of Twitter users saying they follow a film-related account, which includes specific titles, theaters and actors.

And 88% of Twitter users take action after seeing a tweet about a film, either through watching the trailer (44%), tweeting or retweeting about the film (41%) or chatting about the pic or searching for showtimes and tickets.

The Nielson study was conducted through exit polls of U.S. moviegoers age 13 and over who had seen one of the four big summer films on opening weekend.

Results suggested that studios start reconsidering their current marketing practices (that rely heavily on promotional pushes a month before their release), considering 30% of Twitter users want information about a film a few months before their release; 20% want it a month before the launch.

Not surprisingly, given the purpose of the Twitter platform, its users are a vocal bunch.

Around 58% of Twitter users share their thoughts on a film online after they leave the theater; 56% planned to do it via Twitter.

They're more tech savvy, with 62% going online or turning to mobile apps to find out about upcoming movies. Around 45% of Twitter users had seen an ad, promotion or Tweet about the last film they watched at the multiplex (higher than the 25% among non Twitter users).

And they rely on outside voices.

An estimated 47% are most influenced by recommendations by friends or family on Twitter.

So what should studios offer potential moviegoers via Twitter?

More trailers were the top choice at 32%, followed by tweets from a movie's cast (31%) and behind-the-scenes videos and photos (27%).

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Comic-Con: How going Hollywood paid off for Wired Magazine

When Wired decided to go to Comic-Con six years ago, the magazine came up with an interesting way to be part of the annual fanfest without having to actually join the masses that pack the San Diego Convention Center: come up with a space that lets you avoid the crowds.

The company's Wired Cafe, situated on the rooftop deck of the Omni Hotel in the city's Gaslamp Quarter, quickly became a respite for celebrities who are asked by studios and TV networks to promote their movies and TV shows.

While the nightly party scene during Comic-Con becomes a miniature version of Hollywood with its exclusive VIP parties held poolside on the rooftops of area hotels, there were few options during the day.

That gave Wired an opportunity to not only promote its publication, but also incorporate marketers that are looking to connect with celebrities the way Hollywood is trying to get in front of consumers at the Con.

"Originally, we wanted to find places to put the Wired brand on display that would allow us to stand out but in an organic way," said Wired publisher Howard Mittman. "We are trying to provide an oasis in the center of Comic-Con for VIPs without creating another generic photo opportunity."

The Wired Cafe's guest list is limited, given the venue's size that only allows 350 people at a time, but thousands stop by the space during the week to mingle or grab some food. In turn, the velvet rope invites helped elevate Wired's profile and turn the space into a highly in-demand destination among attendees and those trying to get the coveted passes.

"The level of exclusivity is only aided by how many A-listers are (sharing their experiences via social media platforms)," Mittman admits. "There's a great reciprocal response from fans" as a result that gives them "access to experiences they might not otherwise have."

Talent stopping by the Wired Cafe in the past has included the casts of "True Blood," "Game of Thrones," "Arrow," "Vampire Diaries," "Teen Wolf" and "Twilight," as well as Hugh Jackman, Joss Whedon, Seth Green, Thomas Jane, Rachel Bilson and Zachary Levi. This year, confirmed attendees include Ben Kingsley, Mike Judge, Evangeline Lily, Melissa Leo, Rob Lowe, Freddie Prinze Jr., Robert Rodriguez, Shane West, Kellan Lutz, Kevin Smith, Tyler Posey, Matt Walsh, Bree Turner and Wesley Snipes.

A little self-promotion by stars also takes place. This year, "True Blood's" Stephen Moyer is introducing WEEV, a social video app he created. Moyer will be on hand Friday to demo the app.

But the Wired Cafe isn't exclusively for celebrities. Since the beginning, Wired has touted the cafe as a haven for journalists and bloggers looking for a quiet place to file their stories. Wired, after all, is a magazine.

"There's a huge blogging component of the cafe," Mittman said. "That's been a big part of its success -- as a place that offers free Wi-Fi, food, drinks and a place to work."

HBO has sponsored the venue's bar multiple times, turning it into Merlotte's from "True Blood," for example. This year, the theme is the ice wall from "Game of Thrones'," recent season to replicate the snowy location from the series. The Ommegang Brewery will have a new craft beer on site developed for the series.

"Comic-Con itself is an inherently visual experience," Mittman said, and "given the visual nature of Instagram, it makes it a natural" for themed installations like the "Game of Thrones" ice bar. "We try to make things as photo friendly as possible so they can be captured and shared."

That injection of creativity has helped attract sponsors, including Subaru and Patron in the past. This year, Ben & Jerry's will serve up its newest ice cream flavors and create a concoction with Ommegang beer, while Oculus Rift, whose virtual reality goggles are being used by Warner Bros., Legendary and Fox on the convention show floor to promote "Into the Storm," "Pacific Rim 2" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past," will provide a demo that offers a 360-degree view of "Games of Thrones'" world.

MakerBot will showcase its largest 3D printer to produce giveaways such as a Wired Cafe logo, while American Airlines will pay for the free Wi-Fi available to guests.

Wired Cafe hasn't been alone in trying to provide a respite from the convention center.

In the past, 20th Century Fox's homevideo division has offered similar lounge-like spaces. This year, Samsung, Xbox and Marriott have their own. With the right location and promotion, another brand could easily give Wired a run for its Conde Nast money.

As long as Hollywood continues to spend millions to take its projects and related talent to San Diego, those destinations aren't expected to go away anytime soon.

"What we took note of was that so much of what was happening at night were competing parties, but no one was trying to find substantial opportunities during the day for VIPs, the 5,00 actors, writers, directors, agents, musicians that come to Comic-Con," Mittman said. "Wired started the cafe to court those people and give them a place to relax and get away from the masses. It's been a success from year one and become one of our most popular programs."

Mittman says the end result has helped create "an affinity toward Wired in how we tell stories" and a "sensibility of the brand."

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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FAA lifts ban on US flights to Tel Aviv airport

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration lifted its ban Wednesday on U.S. flights in and out of Israel, which the agency had imposed out of concern for the risk of planes being hit by Hamas rockets.

The decision was effective at 11:45 p.m. EDT.

"Before making this decision, the FAA worked with its U.S. government counterparts to assess the security situation in Israel and carefully reviewed both significant new information and measures the government of Israel is taking to mitigate potential risks to civil aviation," the FAA said. "The agency will continue to closely monitor the very fluid situation around Ben Gurion Airport and will take additional actions as necessary."

The FAA instituted a 24-hour prohibition Tuesday in response to a rocket strike that landed about a mile from the airport.

The directive, which was extended Wednesday, applied only to U.S. carriers. The FAA has no authority over foreign airlines operating in Israel.

The FAA's flight ban was criticized by the Israeli government and by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who questioned whether President Barack Obama used a federal agency to impose an economic boycott on Israel.

Delta Air Lines, which diverted a jumbo jet away from Tel Aviv before Tuesday's ban by the FAA, will not necessarily resume flights to Israel even if U.S. authorities declare the area safe, the airline's CEO said before the FAA lifted the ban.

CEO Richard Anderson said Delta would of course obey FAA orders but would continue to make its own decisions about safety.

"We appreciate the advice and consent and the intelligence we get, but we have a duty and an obligation above and beyond that to independently make the right decisions for our employees and passengers," Anderson said on a conference call with reporters. "Even if they lift" the prohibition on flying in and out of Ben-Gurion Airport, "we still may not go in depending on what the facts and circumstances are."

Anderson declined to discuss specifically how the airline would make the decision to resume the flights and spoke only in general terms. He said the airline decides whether flights are safe to operate "on an independent basis, so we will evaluate the information we have and we will make the judgment that our passengers and employees rely on us to make for them every day."

The CEO of Middle East carrier Emirates said after the shoot-down in Ukraine of a Malaysia Airlines jet last week that global airlines need better risk-assessment from international aviation authorities. Delta, however, seems more inclined to go it alone.

"We have a broad and deep security network around the world," Anderson said. "We have security directors that work for Delta in all the regions of the world, and we have a very sophisticated capability and methodology to manage these kinds of risks, whether it's this or a volcano or a hurricane."

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European carriers suspend more Tel Aviv flights

BERLIN — Air France and Germany's two largest airlines on Wednesday canceled more flights to Tel Aviv because of safety concerns amid the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Lufthansa and Air Berlin extended their cancelations through Thursday and Air France said it was suspending its flights "until further notice."

The European Aviation Safety Agency late Tuesday said it "strongly recommends" that airlines refrain from operating flights to and from Tel Aviv. It said it would "monitor the situation and advise on any update as the situation develops."

EASA acted after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration prohibited American-based airlines from flying to the airport following a Hamas rocket explosion nearby. The FAA dropped the ban just before midnight Wednesday.

Lufthansa said its decision applies also to its subsidiaries Germanwings, Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines. In all, 20 flights from Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Vienna and Brussels were cancelled for Thursday.

The airline initially had suspended flights for 36 hours through the end of Wednesday. Those cancelations were extended because "at the current time there is no sufficiently reliable new information that would justify a resumption of air operations," Lufthansa said.

Air Berlin said it is continuing to evaluate the situation to determine whether further cancelations are necessary.

KLM, Alitalia and Scandinavian Airlines were among other European airlines that also canceled flights Tuesday and Wednesday. Polish airline LOT said it would suspend flights to Israel through July 28. Iberia said it had cancelled its Wednesday night and Thursday morning flights to Tel Aviv, and UK-based budget airline easyJet cancelled its Thursday services between its European bases and Tel Aviv.

British Airways, however, said Wednesday it hasn't canceled any of its twice-a-day Tel Aviv flights and had no immediate plans to do so.

A spokesman stressed that British Airways wouldn't fly to Israel if it thought it was unsafe, adding that "each airline draws its own conclusion" on safety.

Aviation security expert Chris Yates said British Airways would have assessed the situation with input from the intelligence services and ultimately concluded there was an acceptable level of risk. He said this may be because the rockets from Gaza "are fairly rudimentary and can't be targeted easily at planes in flight."

Yates said other airlines might have cancelled flights fearing the possibility that rockets could strike their plane on approach or take off, but that Israel's Iron Dome defense system makes that very unlikely.

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Biotech raises $30M for disease-treating bacteria

A new Cambridge biotech startup has raised nearly $30 million for the development of synthetic microbes that can treat disease.

Synlogic is developing "synthetically engineered, therapeutic microbes with the potential to make significant advancements in the treatment of disease," said Ankit Mahadevia, Synlogic's chief executive.

In a statement, the company said it has developed a way for bacteria to "sense physiologic conditions, perform a therapeutic action, and deactivate themselves."

While the company did not specify what diseases it will focus on, it did say its technology could be used to deliver drugs targeted at diseases where traditional methods have been ineffective, and that a focus on the gastrointestinal system "could have merit."

Founded last fall, Synlogic raised $29.4 million in equity financing, led by Atlas Venture and New Enterprise Associates.

Mahadevia founded the company as part of the Atlas Venture incubator.

"The time has come to fulfill the promise of synthetic biology for patients," said Ed Mathers, a partner at New Enterprise Associates.

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Asia stocks bolstered by US earnings, home sales

SEOUL, South Korea — Asian stock markets posted moderate gains Wednesday, bolstered by solid U.S. earnings and home sales. Indonesian stocks advanced after the official vote count showed Joko Widodo the clear winner of a bitterly contested presidential election.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.6 percent to 23,933.73 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7 percent to 5,588.90. Stocks in mainland China and Southeast Asia also rose. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was little changed at 15,331.66 and South Korea's Kospi was steady at 2,028.57.

Markets have been roiled the past week by heightened tensions between Russia and the West after a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over an area of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russia separatists, killing all 298 people on board. The tensions eased Tuesday after the separatists released a train packed with bodies and handed over the aircraft's black boxes.

The focus of investors was returning to earnings, with hundreds of U.S. companies set to report quarterly results this week. Many of the U.S. earnings reports have been positive so far, easing jitters that stock prices have climbed too high in the past several months.

Indonesia's benchmark was up 0.5 percent after the country's election commission said Widodo, the governor of Jakarta, won 53 percent of the vote. He was the first candidate in a direct presidential election in Indonesia with no ties to the former dictator Suharto, who ruled for 30 years before being overthrown in 1998.

Widodo's rival, former general former Prabowo Subianto, withdrew from the contest shortly before the final numbers were released by the commission, saying there was massive fraud during the election, and that it was unfair and undemocratic.

On Wall Street, stocks advanced as big companies, such as Chipotle Mexican Grill and Comcast, reported forecast-beating quarterly earnings. The Standard & Poor's 500 added 0.5 percent to 1,983.53 and the Dow Jones industrial average finished 0.4 percent higher at 17,113.54. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained 0.7 percent to 4,456.02.

After U.S. markets closed, two tech giants again boosted investor sentiment with their better-than-expected earnings reports.

Apple Inc. reported a 12 percent increase in its quarterly profit for the three months ending June 28, exceeding analysts' estimate. The company said its iPhone shipments rose 13 percent over a year earlier, showing consumers still snapped up its devices even as the next version will likely to come out this fall.

Media reports have said Apple's Taiwanese contractors are ramping up production of its next iPhone models which are expected to feature a bigger screen than its predecessors. Microsoft's CEO painted a rosy vision for the company's future after saying its profit excluding items related to the absorption of Nokia was higher than forecasts.

U.S. home resale numbers also bolstered sentiment. Sales of previously owned homes rose 2.6 percent in June, a third straight monthly gain and the highest level in eight months. The report from the National Association of Realtors provided the evidence that housing is regaining lost momentum.

In energy markets, U.S. benchmark crude for September delivery was down 30 cents to $102.09 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The August contract, which expired Tuesday, fell 47 cents to $102.39 a barrel on Tuesday.

The euro edged lower to $1.3465 from $1.3466 late Tuesday. The dollar fell to 101.42 yen from 101.47 yen.

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Flight sharing set for Boston

For the harried traveler tired of spending interminable amounts of time in traffic before taking a ferry to get to the Vineyard or Nantucket, the Uber of the air could offer a new way to get away.

MassChallenge finalist AirPooler, a web-based, flight-sharing service that hopes to launch in Boston this summer, was founded last August by Steve Lewis and Andy Finke, who both came from backgrounds in travel technology — Lewis from ITA Software, a Cambridge company with an airfare-pricing-and-shopping system, and Finke from Zipcar.

"We were thinking where the new frontier would be," Lewis said. "There had been tremendous progress in making researching places and planning travel easier and more enjoyable. But when it came to actually getting around, it was still a huge hassle."

The two decided to launch a website where private pilots of light aircraft with vacant seats could list their flights, and people going to the same places could arrange to fly with them in exchange for sharing costs such as fuel or plane-rental fees.

Leaving out of Logan International Airport in Boston, a roundtrip flight on a Cessna 172 with three people, including the pilot, for example, would take approximately 1.1 hours at a cost of $47 per person to Martha's Vineyard, 1.4 hours at $60 per person to Nantucket and 3.1 hours at $132 per person to Bar Harbor, Maine.

All of the costs are estimates and could be recalculated by the system to reflect factors such as time spent waiting on the runway, or alterations to a flight plan that added or subtracted distance to or from the trip. Passengers also would pay AirPooler's 20 percent fee.

For the time being, however, AirPooler's plans to launch locally are on hold while it awaits a response to a May 19 letter it says it sent to the FAA, requesting that the agency confirm that any pilots who might list flights on the company's website would be in compliance with FAA regulations since they would be sharing the cost of flights, rather than profiting from them.

Until it receives that confirmation, AirPooler has suggested that pilots refrain from listing flights on the West Coast, where it launched earlier this year.

In a statement Friday, the FAA said only that it had not been contacted by Air Pooler about beginning operations in the Boston area.

Asked what the company's plans are if the FAA does not give it the legal interpretation it's seeking, Lewis said: "We really haven't thought about that. We recognize this is a difficult issue for the FAA. The regulations in question were issued long before operations of this sort were possible, and the agency needs a reasonable amount of time to evaluate the legal implications. But we're confident they will respond in the near future."

In January, two Northeastern University students launched a similar flight-sharing website called
Flytenow.

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Electric locks make doors hard to open if power fails

I was shocked to see a news broadcast of a man whose car caught fire and he couldn't get out because the electric door locks were inoperative. He was saved because someone was able to bend the top of the door and break the glass to pull him out. This seems to be a big problem in some modern cars. I was recently at a Chevrolet dealership that had a one-year-old Corvette convertible in the showroom. It was locked, but the top was down so I attempted to pull the door lock knob up to get in. No luck. I didn't have the key fob. I also read about some cars that can only be opened by finding some elusive handle to manually open a door when the car has an electrical failure. I find it hard to believe that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would allow cars to be manufactured this way. I own a 2005 Buick LeSabre and a 2010 F-150. Both have electric locks. Should I be concerned about these two vehicles?

The C6 Corvette you mentioned — I have one — has electrically operated door unlatch mechanisms that are operated by electric buttons on the inside and outside of the door and the BCM (body control module). Your two vehicles have electrically operated door latches operated by the keyless entry fob and the BCM, but also have mechanical unlatch mechanisms on the inside and outside of the doors.

The Corvette has no door-mounted mechanical release levers or buttons. Instead, it has a manual door unlatch mechanism that mechanically unlatches the door latch via a cable inside the door and a lever located on the floor between the seat and door. Pulling up on this lever unlatches and opens the door.

If some type of complete electrical failure disabled both your remote keyless entry fob and the electrical door lock switches on your door, you would open the door by manually unlocking it, then pulling the mechanical release handle on the door itself.

The same electrical failure on the Corvette would require you to pull up on the release lever on the floor to open the door. The only real difference is the location of the mechanical release system.

One other interesting difference. Because the Corvette, like a number of newer vehicles, utilizes electric switches rather than a mechanical linkage to open the door from the outside, if the battery is dead with the doors and rear hatch locked, the only way into the car is to use a special key that's part of the fob to mechanically unlock the rear hatch and pull a release handle to unlock the door.

Maybe the real question is this: Does this new technology add to or improve the functionality of the vehicle? What do you think?

I have a 2011 Chevy Silverado LT. Every time I have it serviced they claim it needs a front-end alignment. I mostly drive in city or on paved highways. Is this common? I have never had this problem before. I am 87 years old if that makes a difference.

Your age makes no difference — except perhaps to a service agency that may think you are an easier "up-sell" during routine service. Unless you've been pounding off-road, sliding into curbs, finding every pothole in your area or some other alignment-ruining scenario, your truck's alignment certainly should not need "regular service."

Are the tires on your truck wearing relatively evenly? Does the vehicle exhibit any alignment issues such as lead, pull or instability in a straight line.? GM says some light "feathering" on the outer edge of the tread is normal for this vehicle. Regular tire rotation can help maximize tire life and minimize unusual wear.

If your vehicle exhibits none of these issues, you may want to align yourself with another service agency.

Paul Brand, author of "How to Repair Your Car," is an automotive troubleshooter, driving instructor and former race-car driver. Readers may write to him at: Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn., 55488 or via email at paulbrand@startribune.com.

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