Facebook, Google hit on changes

Privacy advocates were dealt a one-two punch as Google announced plans to sell some of its users' information for use in ads, and Facebook said it's removing the privacy setting for Timeline searches.

Google yesterday said beginning Nov. 11, some of the ads it displays will include users' names, photos and endorsements they've made on Google services.

Google did not return calls, and Facebook declined to comment. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said users "should not have to restore their privacy defaults when Google changes its business model."

And Facebook announced it's finishing removal of a setting that controls if Timelines can be found with a name search.

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Davis Cos. nabs building in Seaport

The Davis Cos. is the new owner of Tower Point @ A Street, and CEO Jonathan Davis has a long list of reasons why the Fort Point office complex in the Seaport District is a great buy at $43.4 million.

The six-story, brick-and-beam 154,143-square-foot office property at 27-43 Wormwood St. is "in the most dynamic redevelopment area in the city," according to Davis.

"When you walk to the Seaport District, the change is palpable," he said. "The property was a little bit on the fringe, historically ... but the development that's going on … is clearly moving in our direction."

Formerly owned by Scarsdale, N.Y.-based Meritage Properties, which purchased it for $32 million in 2008, Tower Point is
77 percent leased in a market that's 90 percent leased, according to Davis.

"So there's an opportunity for some value-add there," he said. "With additional investment and improvement, we should be able to improve the performance of the property."

The Davis Cos. owns and manages a real estate portfolio totaling about 10 million square feet. Its Tower Point purchase was made under the 
$414 million Davis Investment Ventures Fund II, a second real estate investment fund that it finished raising in November.

Tower Point is the third Seaport District property bought by the Boston company. It first acquired the Boston Design Center for $36 million in 1998 and sold it for $96 million in 2006. Last year, it purchased the 75,000-square-foot building at 24 Farnsworth St. for about $14 million. The Unitarian Universalist Association next year will move its headquarters there from Beacon Hill.

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Five top vehicles that’ll get you there in style

As hundreds of motorists hit the road in the spirit of explorer Christopher Columbus this long holiday weekend, there's plenty of options for getting there in style, and in comfort.

As new vehicles continue to roar off dealers' lots, car expert Mike Magrath, features editor at Edmunds.com, has put together a list of five top cars capable of exploring anything, short of crossing an ocean.

"It's about getting there," Magrath said.

With plenty of cargo space and the power to get over rough terrain, these cars will be sure to find adventure all over the globe.

And if you're not so hot on exploring, check out Monday's Herald for a look at five top cars that are perfect for settling down and settling in.

A return to form for the crossover genre, the X1 will handle the rough roads and get you where you need to be. With the right options, Magrath said, "It's almost quicker than it needs to be, which is fun when you are exploring."

At the same time, the X1 is still a BMW, with a quality interior, Magrath said. "It's a good partner for whatever activity you'd like to do." (Base price: $30,900)

The Traverse is "one of the absolute best large crossover SUVs," Magrath said. With "immense" cargo space and a quiet ride, the Traverse will carry seven adults in comfort, and has plenty of ground clearance. (Base price: $30,795)

•  2014 Mercedes-Benz GL-Class

One of the most flexible cars in its class, the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class offers plenty of options, from a fully adjustable off-road suspension to a diesel engine.

"Where the GL really shines is the flexibility and power," Magrath said. "That diesel motor will pull you through any amount of muck and snow." Also available is a V8 engine in multiple sizes. (Base price: $63,000)

An incredibly drivable pickup, the 1500 is a truck you can drive every day, but is more than up to the task when it comes to hauling and towing, Magrath said. The 1500's rear-coil suspension, which replaced the antiquated, but still widely used leaf spring system, sets it apart "when you need this truck to be a truck," Magrath said. (Base price: $24,200)

Big and roomy, the Forester is a "traditional go out there and get things done" car, Magrath said. The flexible cargo space seems tailor-made for muddy boots and a dirty dog, he said.

"Every bit of the Subaru feels like it was designed for rough Vermont winters, and driving it proves that," he said. (Base price: $21,995)

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Gear needs to watch out for the competition

Samsung's new Galaxy Gear — the latest entrant to the nascent smartwatch wars — is a big win.

Not for Samsung — but for its chief rival, Apple.

That's because the Gear, debuting at $299 with a variety of color options, is just good enough to pique consumer interest in the new product category. But it's not good enough to justify a purchase at the current price. It just opens the door to a red-­carpet rollout for Apple's ex­pected Next Big Thing, the iWatch.

The Gear I tested is from AT&T, where it recently launched. It becomes available through Verizon today. To be sure, the Gear is a handsome piece of hardware. Understandably larger than conventional watches but hardly an eyesore, the Gear has a touchscreen interface and a single button on one side.

It pairs easily via Bluetooth with the Galaxy Note 3, currently its only compatible smartphone. This makes some sense due to the size of the Note, a smartphone/tablet hybrid that is too big to carry on a run. The third iteration Note is an excellent device unto itself, especially for business travelers.

Users can answer, screen or make calls with the Gear. The sound quality is surprisingly good. And a tiny camera will make you feel like James Bond. Though more apps will come, the Samsung store has only 13 mobile apps for the Gear. One standout is our hometown's own Runkeeper, which logs your distance and workouts using the Gear's built-in pedometer. The only social networking app for Gear is a little-known but excellent service called Path. So while the watch will alert you to a pending notification from services like Facebook and Twitter, you have to take out the phone to see the content. Voice recognition is a bit shoddy.

At about half the price, many may prefer the Pebble Watch, the Kickstarter-­funded smartwatch that is compatible with both Apple and Android. But I wouldn't shell out the dough for either unless you're a hardcore gadget geek.

The world of smartwatches has much in store for con­sumers, especially those in the market for fitness-tracking wearable technology. The ability to read and dictate email, post to social networks and other­wise serve as a tiny, on-the-go smartphone are likely all part of that future.

But the Gear is clearly a first-generation device, and if Apple plays its cards right, it could end up pretty similar to the tablets that came before the iPad.

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Nobel winner has ‘CHARMM’

The Harvard professor and two other scientists who yesterday were awarded this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry led the use of computers in molecular modeling, transforming the development of new drugs and other advances in chemistry.

Beginning in the 1970s, Martin Karplus and fellow Nobel laureates Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel showed it was possible to replace chemists' traditional stick-and-ball-plastic models and test theories by first simulating them on a computer.

"Today, the computer is just as important a tool for chemists as the test tube," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement announcing the Nobel Prize winners. "Simulations are so realistic that they predict the outcome of traditional experiments."

In 1983, Karplus and his colleagues released a computer program called CHARMM, the first molecular modeling program that was able to handle protein-sized molecules to determine how a potential drug can interact with a protein to treat disease.

"Our original objective was to learn how these biological molecules functioned," the 83-year-old Austrian native said yesterday at a press conference at Harvard.

Michael McManus, who was a graduate student at MIT at the time, remembers being "fascinated" by the idea.

"Proteins at that time seemed unapproachable because they're too big," said McManus, an organic chemist today and senior vice president at Knome, a human genome interpretation company in Cambridge. "They contain hundreds of thousands of atoms, and Karplus figured out a way to do it."

Today, the molecular modelling tools that Karplus and his colleagues developed have evolved and are used in a wide range of diverse applications, he said. Pharmaceutical companies use computer modelling to calculate the binding energy of millions of possible drugs with molecules they target in the body to determine the best candidates, saving them millions of dollars, said James Skinner, director of the Theoretical Chemistry Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Molecular modeling has also been used to design new materials for harnessing solar energy, Skinner said.

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Asia stocks mixed as US budget deadlock drags on

BANGKOK — Asian stock markets were mixed Thursday as a partial shutdown of the U.S. government dragged on and the threat of a possible default on its debt increased.

Many investors remained on the sidelines ahead of expected testimony by U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew before lawmakers in Washington on Thursday.

Officials said he was expected to reiterate that Congress needed to raise the government's borrowing limit, the so-called debt ceiling, to preventing an unprecedented and potentially disastrous default.

President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders have failed to reach an agreement on raising the limit that the government can borrow.

The Treasury has warned it will run out of money if Congress does not agree to raise a $16.7 trillion cap on borrowing by Oct. 17 and allow it to issue more debt. That has raised the specter that the U.S. won't be able to pay interest on its debt.

The Treasury says a default on bond payments could freeze global credit, spike borrowing costs and trigger a collapse worse than the Great Recession.

Republicans say they won't allow more borrowing unless Democrats agree to restructure benefits programs or cut the deficit; the White House has ruled out negotiations tied to the debt cap.

Congress also hasn't taken any discernible steps to end the partial shutdown of the federal government.

The government was forced to furlough workers and halt some services after Congress, bitterly divided over Obama's health care law, refused to approve a short-term funding measure to allow the nation to pay its bills as it entered a new fiscal year this month.

"Lack of advance despite President Obama speaking with senior Republicans induces caution," said Vishnu Varathan of Mizuho Bank Ltd. in Singapore.

Japan's Nikkei rose 0.6 percent to 14,127.55. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.1 percent to 2,000.69. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.2 percent to 5,143.10. Benchmarks in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand rose while mainland China fell.

Wall Street stocks rose slightly on Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.2 percent to close at 14,803. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.1 percent at 1,656. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.5 percent, to 3,677.

Benchmark crude for November delivery rose 7 cents to $101.68 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.88 to close at $101.61 a barrel on the Nymex on Wednesday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3497 from $1.3517 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar rose to 97.71 yen from 97.54 yen.

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Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

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Starbucks promo prods lawmakers to 'come together'

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wants lawmakers to come together to resolve their political gridlock. And he's giving away free coffee to customers who set an example how to do it.

From Wednesday to Friday, the coffee chain is offering a free tall brewed coffee to any customer in the U.S. who buys another person a beverage at Starbucks.

The offer is a way to help fellow citizens "support and connect with one another, even as we wait for our elected officials to do the same for our country," Schultz said in a memo to staff on Tuesday.

Schultz wrote that he wants to do something about Americans' uncertainty over the federal government shutdown, the pending debt and default crisis and waning consumer confidence.

"In times like these, a small act of generosity and civility can make a big difference," says an ad being published in The New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today on Wednesday. "Let's see what can happen. #payitforward."

It's not the first time Schultz has waded into the national political debate. In 2011, he asked other chief executives to join him in halting campaign contributions until politicians stopped their partisan bickering. The CEOs of more than 100 companies, from AOL to Zipcar, took the pledge.

Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at The NPD Group, said the latest campaign won't likely have much political effect because it lacks the kind of punishment that makes lawmakers think twice, like an impeachment drive.

But it makes for great marketing, especially since many people, especially younger ones, care about brands that have a strong social conscience, Cohen said.

"Will it work on the political level? No. Won't make a dent. Will it work on the commercial end? Absolutely," he said.

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Oil hovers below $104 as IMF cuts growth forecast

BANGKOK — The price of oil fell slightly Wednesday, a day after the International Monetary Fund lowered its forecast for global growth through the end of next year.

Benchmark crude for November delivery fell 3 cents to $103.46 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 46 cents to settle at $103.49 on the Nymex on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the Washington-based International Monetary Fund said it was cutting its global economic growth forecasts for 2013-14, primarily due to slowing growth in China, India, Brazil and other developing countries.

Michael Hewson of CMC Markets said in an email commentary that oil prices, while posting gains Tuesday, "remain capped somewhat by concerns that a slowdown in emerging markets could well weigh on demand."

The IMF also warned that the U.S. would harm the world economy if it fails to raise its borrowing limit. If Congress doesn't raise the limit on the amount of money the country can borrow by Oct. 17, the nation could face an unprecedented default on its debts.

Oil prices have bounced around between $101 and $104 a barrel after the U.S. government was forced to partially halt operations last week. The shutdown occurred when Congress failed to agree on short-term funding for the nation past the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Brent, the benchmark for international crudes, fell 19 cents to $109.97 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

— Wholesale gasoline rose nearly 0.1 cent to $2.6393 per gallon.

— Natural gas rose marginally to $3.72 per 1,000 cubic feet.

— Heating oil fell slightly to $3.0306 per gallon.

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Wal-Mart splits from India partner; retail on hold

MUMBAI, India — Wal-Mart Stores said Wednesday it is splitting from its Indian business partner and suspending plans for its own retail stores in India because strict government regulations on sourcing from local small businesses make it impossible.

The move by the world's largest retailer represents a blow to India's attempts to attract foreign investment in the huge but underdeveloped retail sector. Wal-Mart already runs a wholesaling joint venture in India and will continue that business, buying out partner Bharti Enterprises.

Despite a potential market of 1.2 billion people, no large foreign chains have formally applied to open supermarkets and other multibrand stores since the government changed the law last year to allow them to invest more in the $400 billion sector previously reserved mostly for Indian companies. The new law allows international companies to open multibrand retail stores with 51 percent ownership and an Indian minority partner.

Opening the door to foreign retailers like Carrefour, Tesco and IKEA was hugely controversial in India, with opponents saying it could ruin millions of small traders and family-run shops where most Indians now buy their goods. To soften the blow, the new law requires foreign retailers to source 30 percent of the products they sell from small and medium-sized Indian businesses.

Wal-Mart Asia CEO Scott Price said this week that the rule of sourcing from local small and medium businesses is the "critical stumbling block" to opening its trademark consumer stores.

"I don't understand how this 30 percent small and medium enterprise can be executed," Price said in an interview Monday at the APEC summit in Bali, Indonesia.

He said Indian retailers are not forced to follow the same rule — which makes it too difficult to make money because no enterprise small enough to meet the government's requirements has the capability to produce on the scale that a giant retailer requires.

"If you were to look at any large scale, domestic retailer there is none can comply to a 30 percent SME rule," Price said. He added, "So it's a bit of a level playing field issue here."

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart has long had trouble with its joint venture with Bharti Enterprises, and rumors of an impending split have been rife for months.

In June, Bharti-Walmart's CEO left and was replaced. In November, the company suspended several workers as part of an internal corruption investigation.

In a joint statement Wednesday, Wal-Mart and Bharti Enterprises confirmed they would dissolve the partnership.

Wal-Mart will buy Bharti's stake in the Best Price Modern Wholesale cash and carry business that has at least 20 stores across India and continues to operate it in India. Bharti will take 100 percent ownership of the retailing joint venture Easyday.

"Bharti is committed to building a world-class retail venture and will continue to invest in Bharti Retail across all formats," said Rajan Bharti Mittal, Bharti's managing director. "We believe that with our current footprint of 212 stores, we have a strong platform to significantly grow the business and delight customers."

Price also said that while Wal-Mart's plans for stores are on hold, he is still meeting with Indian officials in hopes of finding a way to meet the sourcing conditions.

"We want to serve India and its people, and continue to make important social and environmental contributions to the country," he said. "We will continue to advocate for investment conditions that allow FDI multibrand retail in India."

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Kurtenbach reported from Bali, Indonesia.

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Landmark to get $500M remake

A $500 million Landmark Center expansion and renovation would add three residential buildings with 550 units to the rapidly growing Fenway neighborhood and a new food hall anchored by the city's first Wegmans supermarket.

Developer Samuels & Associates yesterday released the in-depth look at the proposed project, which also would bring 110,000 square feet of additional retail space to the center.

"The expansion of Landmark assures the continued residential vibrancy of the neighborhood, supports its growth as a commercial center and introduces Wegmans as another amenity that is easily accessible to the entire city via the MBTA," Steve Samuels, chairman of Samuels & Associates, said in a statement. "This project allows us to continue to knit together the neighborhood."

A five-level parking garage would be razed to make way for the three residential buildings that would rise 10 to 12 stories above the two new floors of retail space and the 75,000-square-foot Wegmans. Parking for 1,500-plus cars would be underground.

"We want to create another actual front to the building," said Peter Sougarides, a Samuels principal and executive vice president of development, referring to the Fullerton Street back side of the center, where Wegmans would be located.

Samuels, whose completed and ongoing projects have helped reshape Fenway, bought the 950,000-square-foot Landmark Center for $530 million in 2011. Constructed in 1928 as a distribution center and warehouse for Sears, the brick and limestone Art Deco building was converted into retail and office space in the late 1990s by former owner the Abbey Group.

The food hall would run the entire length of the existing center, from Park Drive to Fullerton Street, providing access through the building that doesn't currently exist.

"The building is this great old concrete warehouse that has really great bones and a really great aesthetic, so we will have many different food vendors, retail shops and restaurants," Sougarides said. "It will really be a unique experience … that doesn't exist in the city today."

The project also would include a 25,800-square-foot public plaza fronting Brookline Avenue. Existing surface parking spots would be replaced with landscaped public open space and outdoor restaurant seating.

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