Microsoft’s Surface technology has many uses, but one interesting way to use it is how it is being used by BMW. Here is a video that shows you how rich slobs can explore BMW cars with just their delicate and un-calloused fingers
“The Ultimate Driving Machine” being optimized with “BMW Product Navigator”. The touch screen system lets snooty BMW buyers configure their new car in a whole new interactive way. The exteriors and the interiors can be reviewed even before the car is purchased. That includes the color of the car.
The Richy Riches of the word can now feel like a Sci-Fi star. Consider it sort of a Build Your Own Penis Substitute system. Very fitting that a mid-life crisis should require a man to use touch in order to compensate for his own shortcomings, where touch has also been a factor most of his life.
[Carscoop]
Written by Conner Flynn on November 30th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on BMW and Car and Microsoft and Surface Computing and design and surface.
You may or may not have a place in your car to place a gadget charger conveniently. That’s where this charger, shaped like a coffee cup, comes in handy. Chances are you have a cup holder, so just plug it into your cigarette lighter and sit in your cup holder. It converts the DC power from your vehicle into two 120-volt AC outlets and a USB port.
You’ll always have a spot available to charge up. Fits in any standard cup holder. This great solution is only $29.99. Hopefully you have two cupholders so you can still have your coffee too.
[Thinkgeek]
Written by Conner Flynn on November 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Car and Chargers and Gadget and USB and charger and coffee and cup and cup holder and power.
Helios was clearly inspired by the Jurassic era, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Helios is a concept design for an off-road electric solar-powered vehicle. When you take a break from your off-roading and stop the vehicle, the car will spread its “wings” which are made of photovolatic panels, in order to capture the sun’s rays and charge up the battery.
You’ve seen the concept in nature, where some animals have stretchable skin that absorb heat and light. A lizard might stop on a rock to take a breather and as he does, he opens up his extra skin and recharges. Same thing here. The Helios Concept won the Best Use of Technology at the Interior Motives Design Awards 2008. Pretty awesome.
[Carbodydesign]
Written by Conner Flynn on November 6th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Car and Concept and Concepts and Helios and Jurassic era and Off-Roader and solar and vehicle.
You might know him from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. You might know him from his solo work. Hell, most of you own at least one CD with the man’s songs on it. Soon you’ll know him for electric cars.
Turns out he really has a heart of gold. Neil’s started a company called Linc Volt to develop electric car technologies, and he knows a little something about it since he already converted his own ‘59 Lincoln. The subject of an upcoming documentary. According to Young, he’s mostly focused on developing the technology. Linc Volt will provide instructions and it will also be performing the actual conversions. Pretty nice when famous people with some power set out to innovate.
[autobloggreen]
Written by Conner Flynn on November 4th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Car and Company and Linc Volt and automotive and conversion and electric and neil young.
While I’d rather have a lifesize Optimus Prime, I might just have to settle for this R/C robot that can transform itself into a car, truck or tank.
The RCRC Transforming Robot from AOK can go from ‘bot to vehicle with a quick flick of two joysticks on the included remote control.
When in car mode, the remote lets you drive forwards, backwards, left or right. Flip back to upright mode, and the robot can spin left or right.
In all, the RCRC offers four driving modes: robot, truck, sports car, and “hip-hop dance”, whatever that means. The robot has a built-in rechargeable battery, which should give you about 30 minutes of run time per charge. Check out the video below to see the RCRC in action:
Click to view the embedded video clip.
Boy, somebody clearly needs to go back to driver’s ed. Hopefully you can do a better job steering the RCRC than the guy in the video.
You can get one for yourself over at Hammacher Schlemmer
for $89.95 USD.
Written by technabob on October 28th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Car and RC and Technology and Wireless and remote and robot and transformer.
Yesterday we told you about Marty Mcfly’s jacket showing up on ebay. Well, remember Griff Tannen’s hover BMW from the second installment of the futuristic trilogy? Jeff Chabotte never forgot. He tracked down the original movie car, bought it and gave it a complete restoration. Sadly there wasn’t a thing he could do about it’s ability to fly. Chabotte spent a lot of time and money on the project, not to mention the usual blood, sweat and tears. Yep. He loves BTTF and it’s cars just that much. The end result should probably be in a Movie memorabilia museum somewhere. Click the link for a ton of pics.
[Jalopnik]
Written by Conner Flynn on October 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on BMW and BTTF and Back To The Future 2 and Car and Griff Tannen and automotive and hover and marty mcfly.
Want to send a message to the driver that’s been glued to your bumper for the last 5 miles? Just hang this light-up hand on your car’s back window, and you can express your true feelings without getting physical.
Available from Perpetual Kid, the remote-controlled electroluminescent sign ($40) can be set to display a multitude of digit combinations. You can even animate the fingers in sequence. But there are only a couple of signs that I think would be of much use for most of my roadtrips.
I suppose if you’re more mellow than me, you might tell the a-hole behind you to “hang loose”, or you could flash the subtle “L” sign to let them know what a loser they really are. But who are we kidding? I’m pretty sure most of the time you’ll set it to flip the bird to the driver in your rearview mirror.
Speaking of flipping the bird…
Click to view the embedded video.
Written by technabob on October 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Car and Finger and Gadgets and RC and Wireless and filp the bird and hand and just plain fun and remote.
Most of the USB memory card readers I come across are rather pedestrian. Conversely, this one is rather automotive.
ElectroJoe’s Motor Maniac is a 16-in-1 memory card reader that looks like a (slightly deformed) little red race car. Now it’s anyone’s guess why the wheels are sticking out at a weird angle, but you still get the point that it’s a vehicle.
Just plug it into any spare USB port, and you’ll be able to read flash memory cards from pretty much any digital camera or portable media player you can throw at it. And while data is transferring from card to computer, the vehicles headlights illuminate. As an added bonus, it also doubles as a USB hub, adding 3 extra 2.0 compliant ports.
The Motor Maniac can be found over at UK Electronics giant Play.com for £17.99 (appx. $31 USD).
Written by technabob on October 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Car and Gadgets and USB and automobile and card and flash and memory and red and storage.
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