Electric Vehicles & Cars - Page 87

Rumors about an upcoming Apple iPad Mini refuse to die. This week, rumors are point to Apple releasing another new iPad even though the iPad 3 came out less than a month ago. This new iPad is dubbed the iPad Mini and, pretty obviously, would be smaller than the current generation of iPads.

The current 3rd generation iPad features a 9.7-inch screen and a resolution of 2048 x 1536. The rumors place the new iPad mini with a 7.85-inch screen and a 1024 x 768 display. This is likely so that Apple can sell a version of the iPad at a cheaper price and better compete against the upcoming Windows 8 tablets.

A site is claiming that reports out of China that manufacturers Foxconn and Pegatron both started receiving orders from Apple for the smaller iPad. If you believe this site, the factories will have 6 million iPad Mini units ready to go by Q3 of this year meaning that you could have one in your hands by early- to mid-summer.

Everyone, I'm sure, remembers that little fender bender that Google's self-driving car was involved in in August 2011. The vehicle has now been tested for over 200,000 miles and company employees finally felt it safe to unleash it onto the public roads. The car took Steve Mahan who is the CEO of the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center out to Taco Bell. I guess the car's a cheap date!

There were some legality issues that had to met for this to happen. First, Google had to get permission from the local police department since Mahan doesn't have a drivers license. Second, self-driving cars haven't exactly been approved for use in California. To solve this, the Morgan Hill police placed Sergeant Troy Hoefling in the car with Mahan for the duration of the trip.

In the video, Mahan states:

CES 2012: It's not all consumer electronics to be used indoors at CES, there's also ourdoor-y type in the form of a car from Ford. Ford have just announced their 2013 Fusion, which is an all-new car packed to the rim with gadgets and tech like adaptive cruise control and comes in gasoline, hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants.

Effiency for the mid-sized sedan ranges from 26MPG city and 37MPG highway in the gasoline variant to 44MPG city and 44MPG highway for the lithium-ion-packed hybrids. The Fusion Energi plu-in sports an estimated 100MPGe, which is 7MPGe better than the Volt and 13MPGe better than the Prius plug-in. Not only that, the Fusion is actually bigger than the two models mentioned.

It can also drive for 20 miles on electricity before starting its engine, and will accelerate all the way up to 62MPH on battery power alone. This is a great feature for those who just want to duck out to the shops, or go out to dinner or see a movie.

Starting from a rest on four wheels -- the main powered wheels and the front two "safety" wheels; we never touched the back two to the ground -- the contraption shoves itself up onto two wheels quite gracefully, with the passenger compartment moving slightly independently from the wheelbase and floor. It was a bit odd, but not at all unpleasant, and we were soon zipping down the road. Since the P.U.M.A. is self-balancing, we felt way less force when accelerating and decelerating than we would in a car, since our body was being "leaned" into it instead of pulled along. Turning on a dime is quite fun as well, and we could see this thing making itself quite at home on city streets.

The "CarPC", an integrated device with a special designed power supply and thermo technology, features Shuttle's cross field design. Using car power supply, the system will auto shutdown after turning off the ignition key without losing data or system crash. Also, Shuttle's exclusive "fin flake chassis" radiate heat effectively. CarPC is not only for car use but also for difficult environments.