Month: November 2012

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From Engadget: Tesla Model S electrifies Motor Trend judges, unanimously voted 2013 Car of the Year

Tesla Model S electrifies Motor Trend judges, unanimously voted 2013 Car of the Year

Tesla’s Model S roadster has nabbed Motor Trend’s 2013 Car of the Year award, making it the first electric car to garner the prize. The EV was voted in unanimously by the publication’s judges while beating out the formidable likes of BMW, Porsche and Lexus. In announcing the award, the editors proclaimed the vehicle to be sporty, efficient, spacious and “as smoothly effortless as a Rolls-Royce.” Meanwhile, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk opined that gaining the prize over the gas-burners was a “critical step towards the widespread adoption of sustainable transport.” Now all the automaker needs to do is ramp up production and it might start to generate cash as well as awards.

Continue reading Tesla Model S electrifies Motor Trend judges, unanimously voted 2013 Car of the Year

from Engadget

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From Autoblog: Toyota recalling 670k Prius models in US, 2.77 million vehicles worldwide

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Automotive News reports Toyota is recalling a total of 2.77 million vehicles worldwide for faulty water pumps and steering system issues. A total of 670,000 of those are 2004-2009 Prius hybrids sold in the US. Those vehicles are headed back to the dealer, where technicians will inspect the intermediate shaft in the steering column for deformed splines and replace the shaft if necessary. Around 350,000 of those same models will also be inspected for a faulty electric water pump. In some cases, the motor driving the pump could stop, causing the electric motor to overheat and stop functioning while being driven.

Toyota has not received any reports of accidents as a result of either problem, and says the inspections and replacement work should be completed in around one hour.

The recalls also affect 496,000 vehicles in Europe and a further 1.5 million in Japan. All told, the steering shaft recall covers 10 models worldwide, including the Corolla and Wish models manufactured in Japan between 2000 and 2009. Five models are affected by the water pump recall, though we’re still waiting for confirmation from Toyota as to which they are. You can read the full Toyota press release below, covering the US-spec Prius issues, for more information.

Continue reading Toyota recalling 670k Prius models in US, 2.77 million vehicles worldwide

from Autoblog

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From Droid Life: Samsung Sells 30 Million Galaxy S3 Units in 157 Days

We expected the Samsung Galaxy S3 to be a hit, just like the Galaxy S2, but I’m not sure that anyone expected it to be this big of a hit. According to Samsung, they sold 30 million units in 157 days. If you look at their mini infographic, that number of phones is the weight of 100 humpback whales, the surface area of 12 Colosseums, and the height of 29 Mt. Everests. It’s also equal to one Galaxy S3 being sold every 0.45 seconds. So in the time you just spent reading this, another 100 or so are being activated.

I don’t know about you, but I see the Galaxy S3 in public as much as I do iPhones these days. You can tell that Samsung’s marketing efforts have paid off. In fact, my better half and I were at happy hour last week before the Blazers home opener, and the bartender was excited to see that we both had a Galaxy S3, because that meant we could do that “tapping together thing.”

Are you all still loving your Galaxy S3? I have to admit that it’s my favorite phone of the year, by quite a bit. After all of the phones that I have reviewed, I keep coming back to it.

Via:  Samsung Tomorrow

from Droid Life

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From Ars Technica: Netherlands highways will glow in the dark starting in mid-2013

Studio Roosegaarde

A smart road design that features glow-in-the-dark tarmac and illuminated weather indicators will be installed in the Netherlands from mid-2013.

“One day I was sitting in my car in the Netherlands, and I was amazed by these roads we spend millions on but no one seems to care what they look like and how they behave,” the designer behind the concept, Daan Roosegaarde, told Wired.co.uk. “I started imagining this Route 66 of the future where technology jumps out of the computer screen and becomes part of us.”

The Smart Highway by Studio Roosegaarde and infrastructure management group Heijmans won Best Future Concept at the Dutch Design Awards, and has already gone beyond pure concept. The studio has developed a photo-luminising powder that will replace road markings—it charges up in sunlight, giving it up to ten hours of glow-in-the-dark time come nightfall. “It’s like the glow in the dark paint you and I had when we were children,” designer Roosegaarde explained, “but we teamed up with a paint manufacture and pushed the development. Now, it’s almost radioactive”.

from Ars Technica

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From Geeks are Sexy Technology News: Judge to Apple: Don’t get smart with me

Last week I commented that Apple’s attempts to take severe liberties when posting an official statement clearing Samsung of violating their patents were a “skillful piece of public relations writing.” It turns out the judge who ordered the statement to be published strongly disagrees.

Apple was forced to put the statement on its site after losing a court case in which it claimed Samsung’s products such as the Galaxy Tab infringed on the design of the iPad.

Once the appeals process was over and the case finally lost, Apple did so. But rather than just print the statement, it added a few choice extracts from the judge’s ruling in which he said the Tab wasn’t as cool as the iPad, along with a note that Apple had prevailed in similar cases in other countries, meaning that “… other courts have recognized that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung willfully copied Apple’s far more popular iPad.”

Judge Robin Jacob didn’t see the funny side and — contrary to how I interpreted it last week — concluded that the notice didn’t meet the letter of his ruling. He said “I’m at a loss that a company such as Apple would do this. That is a plain breach of the order.”

Jacob and two fellow judges have now ordered that Apple publish the statement that Samsung was found not to have breached the patents — and nothing else. Apple must also include a link and notice on their UK homepage, in at least 11 point text, noting that the original statement has been corrected.

Apple asked for 14 days to make these changes. Jacob rejected that request and is quoted as saying “I would like to see the head of Apple make an affidavit setting out the technical difficulties which means Apple can’t [immediately] put this on their website. I just can’t believe the instructions [its lawyers] have been given. This is Apple. They cannot put something on their website?”

Crafty as its handling the original statement was, it does seem fair to say Apple is going to have to admit the game is up now and move on.

from Geeks are Sexy Technology News