by Joshua Topolsky, posted May 23rd 2008 at 3:37PM If you’ve been bored by your limited all-electric vehicle choices, we’ve got just the thing for you. After a year of development, Advanced Mechanical Products (or AMP) is taking orders for a limited run of 300 converted Saturn Sky Roadsters, which will be 100 percent electric. The cars can travel roughly 150 miles on a single charge, go 0 to 60 in under six seconds, and can reach a top speed of 90 MPH. The cost of the conversion and vehicle comes to around $50,000, making this one of the more affordable high-performance options around. (Read the full post about ‘AMP offers converted all-electric Saturn Sky in limited run’…)
by Donald Melanson, posted May 22nd 2008 at 4:02PM The folks at Advanced Lumonics sure seem confident in their new EarthLED EvoLux R LED light bulb, with them even going so far as to flatly declare it the “world’s most advanced light bulb.” Helping it earn that self-proclaimed distinction is the 13 watt LED at the heart of the bulb, which provides the equivalent output of a 100 watt incandescent bulb, and its EvoDim feature, which will let switch between three different output settings (250, 750, and 950 lumens) without a special dimmer switch. Of course, all those light bulb bragging rights don’t come cheap, with each bulb setting you back a hefty $100, although the company promises that’ll work out to less than $6 per year by the time the bulb finally gives up. (Read the full post about ‘EarthLED EvoLux R LED light bulb lets you choose your lumens’…)
The Airis T482 is a GPS phone offering a 2-megapixel camera as well as the following features: * sold with or without navigation software * quad-band GSM support * GPRS / EDGE connectivity * 416MHz Marvell PXA270 processor * 64MB of RAM * 3.2-inch QVGA display * microSD slot * SiRFStar III GPS receiver * Bluetooth 2.0 * 802.11b/g WiFi * FM tuner * rechargeable Li-ion Via Engadget. Tags: TV, design, computers, gadgets (Read the full post about ‘Airis T482′…)
And you thought that only comic book covers receive variants - Sony Ericsson’s highly sought after (at least, before the HTC Touch Diamond was released) XPERIA X1 will be receiving a couple of variants in the near future, where the XPERIA X1a will arrive on US shores under the AT&T banner, taking advantage of its 3G network. As for the rest of the world, they will have to settle for the XPERIA X1c. What’s the difference between the two? Why, choice of 3G frequency support, that’s all. The X1a will sport a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900Mhz) radio and a tri-band (850/1900/2100Mhz) UMTS/HSPA radio for 3G data connectivity, whereas the X1c relies on a tri-band (900/1900/2100Mhz) UMTS/HSPA 3G radio instead. (Read the full post about ‘XPERIA X1 Variants’…)
by Nilay Patel, posted May 22nd 2008 at 6:00PM Pentax has been cranking out waterproof Optio point-and-shoots for a while now, and the company’s latest, the W60, doesn’t really break from the company’s successful basic formula. The 10 megapixel shooter packs a 2.5-inch LCD, 5x optical zoom that doesn’t ever extend out from the main camera body, 720p movie mode, ISO 6400 sensitivity and face, smile, and blink detection. Oh, and it works in depths up to 13 feet in temperatures of just 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and is JIS Class 5 certified against dust and sand. You know, just in case. (Read the full post about ‘Pentax kicks out the waterproof Optio W60′…)
Don’t know what you’re getting dad this Father’s Day? Why not pick up the MoGo mouse for him if he’s a frequent traveler who spends more time on the road than at the office (or even home)? Released more than a couple of years ago, MoGo has decided to update this special Father’s Day edition by throwing in a sticker on it that says #1 Dad. Other than that, everything else about the MoGo mouse remains the same, including Bluetooth connectivity as well as the ability to function as a Media Remote or a presenter. Tags: gps, Ogg, design, DVD (Read the full post about ‘MoGo Mouse for Dads’…)
Teijin DuPont Films Japan Ltd has successfully developed a new film technology that projects images on a large transparent screen, enabling future vehicles to project navigation and safety information among others on the vehicle windshield. A specially formulated PET film was interposed in the windshield in order to make a heads-up display possible. This PET film can polarize and scatter light incident from a single direction, whilst transmitting light from other directions that result in a highly transmissive screen with excellent visibility. No idea when will such technology finally arrive in our vehicles, but it would definitely usher in a new era in vehicle design where the dashboard is totally revamped. (Read the full post about ‘Film Displays Nav Info on Windscreen’…)
The privately released iPhone Software 2.0 Update features a bunch of new preferences as well as what is the beginning of geo-tagging support that integrates nicely into the magical cell phone’s Camera application. Build 5A292g as it is also know, will not ask the user’s permission in location-aware services such as “Maps” and “Camera” before transmitting data used to identify their current geographical location. Apple has also thrown in a toggle under the general preference pane which gives the option of enabling or disabling Location Services across the entire system. We ordinary mortals will just have to wait until sometime next month when iPhone Software 2.0 is released, hopefully alongside the 3G iphone. (Read the full post about ‘iPhone 2.0 Beta has Geo-tagging’…)
Back in January of this year,at the CES show, there was a large amount of attention focused on Hitachi’s “1.5″ inch HDTV. Since then we have not heard all that much about that beautiful and very impressive slim HDTV. Now, Hitachi have taken the wraps off of the 1.5 inch ultra thin models and announced them into two different series.
(Read the full post about ‘Hitachi Ultra Vision V | UT47V702, UT42V702, UT37V702′…)
Completely impractical and yet utterly beautiful, Forkless is a completely scratch-built custom chopper with, you’ve guessed it, no forks. The steering is done via a series of linked rods running around the frame from the handlebars to the front hub (reclaimed from a wheelchair). Chopperolli, the artist/engineer behind Forkless, has posted a Making Of photo essay on the Ratrod Bikes forums. The highlights: The rims came from a moped and had to be drilled to take more spokes, the rear hub is a modified-coaster brake hub which now only rest on a single fork (what is a single fork called? A tine?) and to keep the whole bike pure white, Chopperolli even hand carved new rubber inserts for the pedals. (Read the full post about ‘Hand Built, Forkless White Chopper’…)
