Malibu’s loss of coolant turns into a torrent within

My husband and I have a four-cylinder 2006 Chevy Malibu with 137,000 miles on it. Since the fall of 2012, the car has been leaking coolant. It's not leaking to the ground and it's not leaking into the engine — oil is clean. Five shops including a Chevy dealership looked at the car but have been unable to find a leak. They've done their pressure tests but the car passes and they can't tell where the leak is located. One or two mechanics suggested the head gasket as a potential culprit. Six months ago we added a sealant product to the radiator that seemed to resolve the issue temporarily, but after a few months the cooling system was clogged and the car was starting to overheat. Within the past couple of weeks the car has started to hemorrhage coolant. In the last couple of days we've gone through a gallon of coolant. We need to figure out the real issue and fix it. We would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions you may have for us!

At this point, you've got a big problem. Sample the coolant with a coolant test strip for the presence of hydrocarbons — anything more than a trace would indicate that combustion gases are getting into the coolant. The most likely causes for this are a failed head gasket, cracked head or cylinder.

A second test can be done in one of two ways. With the engine cold, remove the coolant pressure cap and start the engine. If coolant bubbles up and out of the reservoir, combustion pressure is entering the cooling system.
 The more involved test involves removing spark plugs and installing an air fitting adapter in order to introduce air pressure into the cylinders one at a time. Seeing or hearing bubbling in the coolant confirms this type of failure.

Check for a leaking heater core, although this might produce a hot coolant odor in the cabin. Make sure to check the transmission fluid as well. If the cooling chamber in the radiator for transmission fluid is leaking, the two fluids can mix to some degree, and since there's pressure in the cooling system, coolant can be forced into the transmission.

When I brought my 2013 Subaru Outback in for an oil change, the dealer suggested a 15,000-mile checkup that involves changing fluids, filters, etc. at a cost of $450. Even the service person suggested waiting until 30,000 miles. Are those expensive "checkups" really necessary? I realize the need for changing fluids and filters, but it seems that such services every 15,000 or 30,000 miles are a bit too often. How often should one get those expensive checkups?

Looking in my Alldata automotive database at Subaru's recommended maintenance under normal driving conditions, I find the following; oil/filter/tire rotation every 7,500 miles, and replace the cabin filter at 15,000-mile intervals. Subaru recommends including engine air filter and brake fluid changes at 30,000-mile services.

All other components of Subaru's recommend services are "inspections" like fluid levels, brakes, CV-joint boots and the like, many of which you could do yourself.

Unless there's a warranty eligibility issue, I'd stick to the basics and do as much as possible yourself.

The transmission in my 1997 Volkswagen Jetta is beginning to slip and I don't know how to add fluid because there is no dipstick. Any suggestions?

That's because this transmission is effectively sealed and the fluid must be checked or changed through a rather involved process best done at the dealership or professional shop.

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. Please explain the problem in detail and include a daytime phone number. Because of the volume of mail, we cannot provide personal replies.

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Targeting individual health

In 2014, expect medicine to get personal.

Doctors and researchers around Boston are working to make drugs and health care delivery more individualized than ever. And patients will play a bigger role both in medical research and in their own health care, experts told the Herald.

"With personalized medicine, we're going to know what drugs work on certain people and what drugs don't work on certain people," said Robert Coughlin, president and chief executive of MassBio, the state's biotech industry group.

"I think you're going to see that for all therapies going forward," he said.

At Brigham and Women's Hospital, researchers in the year ahead will hone in on what's known as precision medicine — decoding genes to identify people at risk of developing diseases and treating them before they get sick.

The hospital is expecting an uptick in the number of patients — sick and healthy — who get their genomes decoded to find out their risk levels for a variety of diseases, said Dr. Christine Seidman, director of the Biomedical Research Institute at Brigham and Women's.

Researchers also plan to spend more time simply talking to patients as they work to develop new, life-saving therapies.

"We've really incorporated patients into the mix," Seidman said. "Having patients be involved and saying, 'I can help 
here' is huge."

Patients also will be expected to play a bigger role in tracking their own health with apps that record exercise and blood pressure. "There's an interest now all of a sudden in activity tracking," said Dr. Joseph Kvedar, director of the Center for Connected Health at Partners HealthCare. "So many of the chronic illnesses — diabetes, high blood pressure — would all be improved if patients were just a little more active every day."

Changes in health care delivery are rippling down to the labs where medical devices are invented. Device makers must make sure their products fit into a health care industry where everything — including patient records — is going digital.

"Medical device developers are looking at ways to make sure the device is accurate but also can support the health care delivery system by storing data," said Tom Sommer, president of the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council.

Coughlin said 2014 will shape up to be a healthy year for medical research, with as many as a dozen Massachusetts biotech companies going public. "The fact that Wall Street's coming back is only adding more cash when it's needed," he said.

But as some companies mature and thrive, other researchers are suffering from the loss of a crucial source of funding.

The federal government slashed research dollars last year as part of a round of budget cuts called sequestration.

"There's a great fear right now… of research money drying up," said Kevin O'Sullivan,

president and CEO of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, a biotech incubator in Worcester. "There's such instability in the federal government."

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DPU may generate regs for electric vehicle charging

The state Department of Public Utilities has started investigating the possible regulation of electricity as a motor vehicle fuel.

Though there isn't a huge number of electric vehicles on the road today, the DPU considers their widespread adoption as an integral part of its electric grid modernization efforts. And Gov. Deval Patrick in October signed a multi-state pledge to increase the use of zero-emission vehicles, including electric cars.

"We're driving in that direction in terms of policies," said Ann Berwick, the DPU's chairwoman.

The DPU will look at how electric vehicles get charged — at people's residences, at businesses for a fee, or whether utility companies should be allowed to own charging systems. It also will consider metering policies and rate structures that incentivize off-peak charging for residential customers with electric vehicles.

"If you had a whole lot of electric vehicles charging at once, then you'd have questions about whether the electric grid at the moment can accommodate that," Berwick said. "There are all kinds of questions related to how they charge, when they charge, what they pay for charging and whether they have special rates."

The DPU also will study whether it should regulate a local hotel or mall with a so-called "juice bar," for example, where customers can plug in their electric cars for recharging.

"Should we regulate it differently depending on whether they're charging for the power or not, or whether it's a fee versus a kilowatt-basis charge?" Berwick asked.

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Boeing contract cuts into local labor influence

SEATTLE — A new labor contract that was approved in a close vote by Boeing machinists secures a major airplane contract for the Seattle area, but it also moves workers away from pensions.

National union leaders, the state's governor and the company all hailed Friday contract approval — which defied local union bosses — as a vital boost to the region's economy.

The tight count exposed deep rifts in the once-powerful union, but with plenty of states lining up to give Boeing exactly what it wanted to get work on the 777X, the aerospace giant had a tremendous advantage.

"It shows that even a strong local is vulnerable and has a limited defensibility to slow the tide of concessions that has been going on across the country," said Leon Grunberg, a sociology professor at the University of Puget Sound who co-authored a book, "Turbulence: Boeing and the State of American Workers and Managers."

He added Saturday, "This is happening with a company that's doing very well financially."

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers approved an eight-year contract extension late Friday by 51 percent, a turnaround from November when the same workers voted down a previous offer by 67 percent.

The passing margin was about 600 votes of about 23,900 counted, according to Wilson Ferguson, president of a local unit of District 751.

Ferguson said Saturday that the vote diminished the local union's power since it conceded some hard-fought benefits they won't be getting back.

Foes of the contract opposed the idea of freezing the machinists' pensions and moving workers to a defined-contribution savings plan.

"The very fact that Boeing was making these demands in the first place just has to be seen as discouraging for average workers," said Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor at the University of Washington who has a forthcoming book "What Unions No Longer Do."

"This is a very strong union, and if you have a strong union, being forced into givebacks of this sort ... then you can just imagine how little leverage other workers have when negotiating," he added.

But Richard Gritta, a finance professor at University of Portland, said Boeing needed to gain these concessions to remain competitive in the "dog-eat-dog industry" that has seen Boeing and Airbus trade dominance.

"It's a very tough industry. To gain these concessions from labor is critical," he said Saturday.

Local union officials had urged their 30,000 members to oppose the deal, arguing that the proposal surrendered too much at a time of company profitability. They had opposed taking a vote at all but were overruled by national leaders in the Machinists union.

A number of political leaders, including Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, praised the vote, which supporters said keeps thousands of well-paying jobs in the state and solidifies Boeing's presence in the Seattle area, where the company built its first airplanes nearly a century ago.

Inslee, a Democrat, said the vote secured Washington state's "future as the aerospace capital of the world."

Some local elected officials had said there was no other choice but to vote "yes."

Grunberg, the University of Puget Sound professor, said, "Everybody was scared about Boeing moving this huge new production out of state, so I think there was tremendous anxiety about losing this production."

More than 20 other states moved recently to bid for work on the 777X, an updated version of Boeing's best-selling 777. Boeing has said the 777X is expected to carry as many as 400 passengers and be more fuel efficient than the 777.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., on Friday said the decision wasn't an easy one and workers' concerns about income and retirement security were legitimate. But the Democrat also said the agreement guarantees "thousands of good-paying jobs and billions of dollars in economic growth."

Under the terms of the contract extension, Boeing said the 777X and its composite wing will be built in the Puget Sound area by Boeing employees represented by the Machinists union.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner said Friday that "the future of Boeing in the Puget Sound region has never looked brighter."

Lynne Dodson, with the Washington State Labor Council, the largest labor group in the state with 450,000 members, didn't see Friday's vote as an indication of declining union influence. "It's an indication of just how far Boeing will go," she said. "It's more a reflection of corporate greed than of union power."

Ferguson, the local union leader, said Saturday morning: "This was a turning point in the labor movement. Pensions were hard-fought battles to get in the first place. Once they're gone, they're gone."

"Their fear and intimidation worked," he added.

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Price of bluefin tuna nosedives at Tokyo auction

TOKYO — Sushi restaurateur Kiyoshi Kimura paid 7.36 million yen (about $70,000) for a 507-pound (230-kilogram) bluefin tuna in the year's celebratory first auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji market on Sunday, just 5 percent of what he paid a year earlier despite signs that the species is in serious decline.

Kimura's record winning bid last year of 154.4 million yen for a 222-kilogram (489-pound) fish drew complaints that prices had soared way out of line, even for an auction that has always drawn high bids. Kimura also set the previous record of 56.4 million yen at the 2012 auction.

The high prices don't necessarily reflect exceptionally high fish quality.

"I'm glad that the congratulatory price for this year's bid went back to being reasonable," said Kimura, whose Kiyomura Co. operates the popular Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain.

Environmentalists say growing worldwide consumption of bluefin tuna is leading to its depletion, and that those in charge of managing fisheries for the species are failing to take responsible action to protect it.

Japanese eat about 80 percent of all bluefin tuna caught worldwide, though demand is growing as others acquire a taste for the tender, pink and red flesh of the torpedo-shaped speedsters of the sea.

Stocks of all three bluefin species — the Pacific, Southern and Atlantic — have fallen over the past 15 years amid overfishing. Stocks of bluefin caught in the Atlantic and Mediterranean plunged by 60 percent between 1997 and 2007 due to rampant, often illegal, overfishing and lax quotas. Although there has been some improvement in recent years, experts say the outlook for the species is still fragile.

According to a stock assessment released last year by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean, the bluefin tuna population is at less than 4 percent of its unfished size.

"The population has effectively been decimated," said Amanda Nickson, director for global tuna conservation for The Pew Environment Group. "Over 90 percent of bluefin tuna are caught before they reach reproductive age. You have to wonder if this remotely sustainable."

So far, governments and management bodies have failed to take measures to protect the species that reflect the seriousness of its decline, she said.

There were 1,729 tuna sold in Sunday's first auction for 2014, according to data from the city government, down from 2,419 last year. The 32,000 yen ($305) per kilogram paid for the top fish this year compares with 700,000 yen per kilogram last year.

Prices for bluefin tuna imported from other regions are much lower. A 189-kilogram (417-pound) farmed tuna imported from Spain sold for 662,000 yen (about $6,400) on Sunday, or 3,500 yen ($34) per kilogram, compared with a price of 4,800 yen ($46) a kilogram for the same type of fish sold at last year's first auction.

"You have to wonder what the last fish is going to cost," Nickson said.

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Associated Press writer Miki Toda contributed to this report.

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Fed chairman, farm bill on Congress' to-do list

Congress' agenda for 2014 extends from must-passed legislation and nominations to several maybes in a politically charged election year.

MUST DO:

—Senate confirmation of Janet Yellen to become chairman of the Federal Reserve. A vote is scheduled for Monday and the Senate is expected to approve President Barack Obama's nominee. Yellen would be the first woman to head the Fed, replacing Ben Bernanke. His second four-year term as chairman will end Jan. 31.

—A short-term spending bill to keep the government running. The current measure ends Jan. 15. The budget bill passed last year gave House and Senate Appropriations Committees time to work on an omnibus, trillion-dollar-plus measure to run the government through September 2014.

—Raising the nation's borrowing authority, which the Treasury Department says must be resolved by late February or early March. Obama has said he won't negotiate with congressional Republicans, but the GOP is seeking concessions on spending.

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TANGLED UP, VOTES POSSIBLE:

—Renewal of the nation's farm bill, the five-year, roughly $500 billion measure. Compromise has been elusive for months as the House and Senate disagree over cuts to the $80 billion-a-year food stamp program. The House-passed bill would cut $4 billion annually; the Senate bill $400 million.

—Legislation to delay increases in flood insurance for policyholders. Sen. Mary Landerieu, D-La., and other lawmakers representing coastal states have pushed for the measure.

—A new round of penalties against Iran. Twenty-six senators back legislation that could raise sanctions on Iran and compel the United States to support Israel if it launches a pre-emptive attack on the Iranian nuclear program. Obama has pleaded with Congress to hold off, fearing it would undermine the nuclear deal that world powers reached with Tehran last year.

—An extension of unemployment benefits. An estimated 1.3 million people were cut off when the federally funded unemployment payments ended Dec. 28. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has scheduled a vote Monday night on whether to move ahead on legislation by Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., to extend jobless benefits for three months. Some Republicans are looking for the cost of extending benefits to be offset with spending cuts elsewhere.

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TO BE DETERMINED:

—An overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. The bipartisan Senate bill that would provide a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally and tighten border security has stalled in the House. Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has spoken about a piecemeal approach, but some Republicans fear that will lead to negotiations with the Senate and an inevitable final product with some sort of citizenship.

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Dubai developer Nakheel to pay $1.1B debt in 2014

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The indebted builder of Dubai's palm-shaped islands says it plans to make early debt repayments of 4 billion dirhams, or $1.1 billion, this year.

Nakheel said in a statement Sunday that strong real estate growth and improved economic conditions in Dubai boosted its finances.

The company says it plans to pay another 3 billion dirham, or almost $817 million, in 2015 when the original first installment of 6.8 billion dirham was due.

The company owes $2.15 billion in bank debt and promises to repay trade creditors $1.23 billion in Islamic bonds that mature in 2016.

Nakheel's credit problems were a key trigger of Dubai's 2009 financial crisis, which prompted multibillion-dollar bailouts by the Abu Dhabi-based federal government.

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Selling social media clicks becomes big business

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Celebrities, businesses and even the U.S. State Department have bought bogus Facebook likes, Twitter followers or YouTube viewers from offshore "click farms," where workers tap, tap, tap the thumbs up button, view videos or retweet comments to inflate social media numbers.

Since Facebook launched almost 10 years ago, users have sought to expand their social networks for financial gain, winning friends, bragging rights and professional clout. And social media companies cite the levels of engagement to tout their value.

But an Associated Press examination has found a growing global marketplace for fake clicks, which tech companies struggle to police. Online records, industry studies and interviews show companies are capitalizing on the opportunity to make millions of dollars by duping social media.

For as little as a half cent each click, websites hawk everything from LinkedIn connections to make members appear more employable to Soundcloud plays to influence record label interest.

"Anytime there's a monetary value added to clicks, there's going to be people going to the dark side," said Mitul Gandhi, CEO of seoClarity, a Des Plaines, Ill., social media marketing firm that weeds out phony online engagements.

Italian security researchers and bloggers Andrea Stroppa and Carla De Micheli estimated in 2013 that sales of fake Twitter followers have the potential to bring in $40 million to $360 million to date, and that fake Facebook activities bring in $200 million a year.

As a result, many firms, whose values are based on credibility, have entire teams doggedly pursuing the buyers and brokers of fake clicks. But each time they crack down on one, another, more creative scheme emerges.

When software engineers wrote computer programs, for example, to generate lucrative fake clicks, tech giants fought back with software that screens out "bot-generated" clicks and began regularly sweeping user accounts.

YouTube wiped out billions of music industry video views last December after auditors found some videos apparently had exaggerated numbers of views. Its parent-company, Google, is also constantly battling people who generate fake clicks on their ads.

And Facebook, whose most recent quarterly report estimated as many as 14.1 million of its 1.18 billion active users are fraudulent accounts, does frequent purges. That's particularly important for a such a company that was built on the principle that users are real people.

Twitter's Jim Prosser said there's no upside. "In the end, they're accounts are suspended, they're out the money and they lose the followers," he said.

LinkedIn spokesman Doug Madey said buying connections "dilutes the member experience," violates their user agreement and can also prompt account closures.

Google and YouTube "take action against bad actors that seek to game our systems," said spokeswoman Andrea Faville.

Dhaka, Bangladesh, a city of 7 million in South Asia, is an international hub for click farms.

The CEO of Dhaka-based social media promotion firm Unique IT World said he has paid workers to manually click on clients' social media pages, making it harder for Facebook, Google and others to catch them. "Those accounts are not fake, they were genuine," Shaiful Islam said.

A recent check on Facebook showed Dhaka was the most popular city for many, including soccer star Leo Messi, who has 51 million likes; Facebook's own security page, which has 7.7 million likes; and Google's Facebook page, which has 15.2 million likes.

In 2013, the State Department, which has more than 400,000 likes and was recently most popular in Cairo, said it would stop buying Facebook fans after its inspector general criticized the agency for spending $630,000 to boost the numbers.

In one case, its fan tally rose from about 10,000 to more than 2.5 million.

Sometimes there are plausible explanations for click increases.

For example, Burger King's most popular city was, for a few weeks this year, Karachi, Pakistan, after the chain opened several restaurants there.

While the Federal Trade Commission and several state attorney generals have cracked down on fake endorsements or reviews, they have not weighed in on clicks. Meanwhile, hundreds of online businesses sell clicks and social media accounts from around the world.

BuyPlusFollowers sells 250 Google+ shares for $12.95. InstagramEngine sells 1,000 followers for $12. AuthenticHits sells 1,000 SoundCloud plays for $9.

It's a lucrative business, said the president and CEO of WeSellLikes.com.

"The businesses buy the Facebook likes because they're afraid that when people go to their Facebook page and they only see 12 or 15 likes, they're going to lose potential customers," he said. The company official spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he recently moved his company offshore to avoid litigation or cease-and-desist notices.

In Indonesia, a social media-obsessed country with one of the world's largest number of Facebook pages and Twitter users, click farms are proliferating.

Ali Hanafiah, 40, offers 1,000 Twitter followers for $10 and 1 million for $600. He owns his own server, and pays $1 per month per Internet Protocol address, which he uses to generate thousands of social media accounts.

Those accounts, he said, "enable us to create many fake followers."

During an interview at a downtown Jakarta cafe, Hanafiah — wearing a Nike cap, blue jeans and a white T-shirt — said large social networks can boost a business' public profile. "Today, we are living in a tight competition world that is forcing people to compete with many tricks," he said.

Tony Harris, who does social media marketing for major Hollywood movie firms, said he would love to be able to give his clients massive numbers of Twitter followers and Facebook fans, but buying them from random strangers is not very effective or ethical.

"The illusion of a massive following is often just that," he said.

The fake click market has generated another business: auditors.

Robert Waller, founder of London-based Status People, helps clients block fakes. "We have had a lot of people who have bought fake accounts, realized it's a stupid idea and they're looking for ways to get rid of them," he said.

David Burch, at TubeMogul, a video marketing firm based in Emeryville, Calif., said buying clicks to promote clients is a grave error. "It's bad business," he said, "and if an advertiser ever found out you did that, they'd never do business with you again."

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Associated Press reporters Julhas lam in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Ali Kotarumalos and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this story.

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Follow Martha Mendoza at https://twitter.com/mendozamartha

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Wave of wearable gadgets expected at CES event

LAS VEGAS — Will 2014 be remembered as the year wearable computing took off?

Upstart entrepreneurs and major manufacturers such as Samsung, Qualcomm and Sony certainly hope so.

Gadgets that you snap, buckle or fasten to your body are already marketed to fitness freaks obsessed with tracking every possible metric their bodies produce. There are countless smartwatches for tech nerds who'd rather glance at their wrists to check messages than reach for their smartphones. And thousands of people are already seeing the world differently with the help of the Internet-connected eyewear, Google Glass.

Even with the possibilities these devices offer today, gadget lovers can expect technology companies to stretch the wearable concept further this week in Las Vegas at the International CES event, the industry's annual trade show.

Several companies are expected to unveil wearable devices that are easier to use, extend battery life, and tap into the power of gestures, social networks and cloud computing.

The wearables wave is still in its early phases. Many of the technologies on display will offer a glimpse of the future —not necessarily products that are ready for the mainstream consumer.

These new gadgets are "like the first generation of the iPod," says Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association, the group that has hosted the trade show since 1967. "It was bulky and it wasn't that pretty. Look what happened. It got slimmer. It got better."

Industry analysts' estimates for the growth of wearables are rosy. Research firm IHS says the global wearables market — which also includes health products like hearing aids and heart-rate monitors — could top $30 billion in 2018, up from nearly $10 billion at the end of 2013.

While some of the growth will come from an aging population that requires more health-related monitoring at home, devices like the Fitbit Force activity band — which tracks a wearer's steps, calories burned, sleeping patterns and progress toward fitness goals — are also expected to gain popularity as deskbound workers look for new ways to watch their waistlines.

At this week's show, companies are likely to introduce improvements in wearable screens and battery life, says Shane Walker, an IHS analyst. The two are linked because the more a device tries to do, the more battery power it consumes. This creates demand for innovative low-power screens, but also for ways to interact with devices that don't rely on the screen, such as using hand gestures and voice.

"With wearable technology, it's all about battery consumption," Walker says.

What's driving the boom in wearable device innovation is the recent widespread availability of inexpensive sensors known as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). These are tiny components like accelerometers and gyroscopes that, for instance, make it possible for smartphones to respond to shaking and for tablets to double as steering wheels in video games.

There are also sensors that respond to pressure, temperature and even blood sugar. Toronto-based Bionym Inc. will show off its Nymi wristband at CES. The gadget verifies a user's identity by determining his or her unique heartbeat. The technology could one day supplant the need for passwords, car keys and wallets.

Waterloo, Ont.-based Thalmic Labs Inc. plans to show off how its MYO armband can be used as a remote control device to operate a quadricopter drone. The band responds to electricity generated in forearm muscles as well as arm motions and finger gestures.

Co-founder Stephen Lake says the MYO is more akin to a mouse or keyboard that controls activities than the latest line of smart wristbands that simply track them.

"We've seen this shift away from traditional computers to mobile devices," Lake says. "Our belief is that trend will continue and we'll merge closer with technology and computers. New computer-human interfaces are what can drive these changes."

Wearables may not gain broad acceptance until sensors advance to a point where they can track more sophisticated bodily functions than heart rate, says Henry Samueli, co-founder of Broadcom Corp., the company that makes wireless connectivity chips for everything from iPhones to refrigerators. Monitors that measure blood sugar, for instance, still require test strips and pin-pricks.

"If you can monitor your blood chemistry with a wearable, now there we're talking about something pretty compelling," Samueli says. "Then I think the market will take off in a big way."

Companies are also expected to tweak the business models for wearable gadgetry as the devices become more mainstream. Fitness-focused wearables could one day help lower your health-care premiums if your insurer can verify your exercise regime. Always-on wristbands that know who you're with —and their preferences— could become vehicles for location-based restaurant advertising.

"I think you're going to see a lot of maturity in 2014 in the way companies think about their business," says J.P. Gownder, an analyst with Forrester Research.

Right now, the market is a swirling cauldron of ideas and products. Eventually, a winner may emerge.

Josh Flood, an analyst with ABI Research, says "the killer app" for a wearable product with the right mix of form, function and price "hasn't been identified yet."

Forrester's Gownder concurs. "It's a bit of a hype bubble," he says. "But so was the Internet in 1999."

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Plane slides off runway at NYC's JFK; no injuries

NEW YORK — A plane from Toronto slid into snow as it turned onto a taxiway after landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday, leading the airport to temporarily suspend flights from taking off and landing because of icy runways.

No injuries were reported after Delta Connection 4100 landed shortly after 8 a.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. The CRJ2 aircraft was turning off the runway onto a taxiway when it slid into the snow, she said.

The plane was then towed to a gate with passengers on board, she said.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, said 35 people were aboard the plane.

The airport suspended operations for domestic and international flights for about two hours because of slick runways, leaving passengers at crowded gates. Flights resumed after 10 a.m. on two of the airport's four runways, but residual delays for passengers were expected.

The landing came two days after a major snowstorm dumped a half foot of snow in New York City, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights and stranding passengers both in the city and throughout the world who were heading to New York. Passengers from canceled flights continued to fill the few remaining seats on many planes already crowded by holiday travelers.

The Delta Connection flight by Endeavor Air originated in Toronto. Endeavor Air was formerly Pinnacle Airlines.

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