Saab chooses UQM motors for its 9-3 ePower EV, will be carving Alp twisties soon
February 4, 2011 No Comment
Saab announced it was working on an all-electric version of its 9-3 wagon late last year, dubbing it the ePower. Now we’re learning what’s driving it. The vehicle will be powered by a 135kW UQM Technologies PowerPhase system, an equivalent of 181hp that will propel the car to 60 in 8.5 seconds — no Huayra but pretty peppy for an EV. Top speed is 93mph and the car’s range is expected to be 200km, or about 125miles. Interestingly Saab is eschewing more advanced water-cooled battery tech, like that found in the Volt or Model S , and going for an air-cooled design, despite even the classic 93 of the ’50s being water cooled. The company has indicated this will cut costs and promises the battery will still operate at full power even when temperatures drop below -22F. We’ll find out soon, as early cars are set to hit Swiss roads sometime in the coming months. Continue reading Saab chooses UQM motors for its 9-3 ePower EV, will be carving Alp twisties soon Saab chooses UQM motors for its 9-3 ePower EV, will be carving Alp twisties soon originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 11:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …DARPA working with Local Motors to crowdsource next-generation combat vehicles
February 4, 2011 No Comment
A next-gen Hummer isn’t going to build itself, and these days we can’t trust our government bodies to come up with all the cool ideas. DARPA is looking for some help, and if you’re feeling up to it that can be you. Our favorite Advanced Research Progects Agency has selected a chassis from crowdsource car designers Local Motors (the same one found inside the company’s Rally Fighter) and is asking civilians of all shapes and sizes to figure out what shape and size the Experimental Crowd-Derived Combat-Support Vehicle will be. Sure, XC2V doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like ” Flying Humvee ,” but it sure does sound a lot more practical. If you want to have your say (and a chance at the $7,500 prize) you’d better hurry up, because submissions are due by March 3rd. Sadly, designs drawn in Crayon on the back of homework are not eligible, otherwise you’d all be fighting for second place. DARPA working with Local Motors to crowdsource next-generation combat vehicles originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 10:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We’ve been ribbing the Pre 2 lately for being so far past its prime that a launch of any kind on Verizon is starting to seem implausible — but it looks like these guys might still be willing to throw it out on shelves for a little while. The latest rumor, via an internal product page at a third party retailer, says that the phone will launch in “all channels” on February 17th… just in time for it to be made even less appealing by whatever new gear HP shows off at its event on the 9th . Wrong place, wrong time, wrong hardware — but hey, if you absolutely must have webOS 2.0 as soon as possible on a carrier-branded device on the States, this thing is still your only way to ride. [Thanks, anonymous tipster] Palm Pre 2 launching on Verizon February 17th? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 10:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Mitsubishi creates giant curved OLED, probably won’t fit in your living room (video)
February 4, 2011 No Comment
Display companies like Mitsubishi still don’t make a big-screen OLED we can buy, yet look at this, a curved display created by the company that looks to be about four feet tall and maybe 10 feet around. Okay, so a 3mm pixel pitch wouldn’t look too great standing anywhere within about 20 feet of the thing, but that’s why it’s designed for malls and big stores, places where its 1,200 nit brightness can shrug off ambient light. It was unveiled at ISE 2011 and there’s a video of it doing its thing after the break, but surely it won’t be long before they’re all over Las Vegas. Continue reading Mitsubishi creates giant curved OLED, probably won’t fit in your living room (video) Mitsubishi creates giant curved OLED, probably won’t fit in your living room (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 10:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Who do you trust to “do what is right?” Your answer to that question will depend on how you interpret it, though we don’t think there’s too much room for ambiguity with the latest results from Edelman’s 11th annual Trust Barometer survey. It shows the tech industry a clear 10 percent ahead of the rest of the corporate world in terms of trustworthiness, with the automotive (another favorite of ours ) and telecommunications ( really? ) sectors following up in second and third. The results come from the polling of 5,075 “informed” members of the public from 23 nations. We reckon all the companies involved in making the business of chipmaking quite so reputable should pat themselves on the back — unless their names are Motorola , Samsung or Sony Ericsson , those guys’ failures with Android updates haven’t really contributed to the credibility of their industry at all. Tech industry is world’s most trustworthy, says new survey originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 09:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Virginia pilot program halves electricity bill for charging EVs overnight
February 4, 2011 No Comment
Regardless of whether the internal combustion engine gets snuffed out this century, EV chargers aren’t going to replace gas pumps at the rate they’re presently rolling out, so it’s quite likely new Leaf and Prius PHEV owners will need to charge at home. How might that affect one’s electricity bill? It’ll probably go up, but a Virginia utility says that a full tank of juice might not cost all that much. Dominion Virginia Power is volunteering to cut its rates by more than half for off-peak charging as part of a proposed pilot program, whereby 750 lucky EV owners will get enough electricity for a 40-mile commute for just 35 cents so long as they charge overnight. The utility’s not talking kilowatt-hours here, but it says it typically gets $0.86 for the same amount. The deal requires the installation of a specially-approved charging station, but Virginia’s looking at a second scheme too — if those 750 agree to pay a flexible off-peak rate of between $0.33 and $0.41 per 40-mile dose, they can power the rest of their house using the budget volts as well. PR after the break. Continue reading Virginia pilot program halves electricity bill for charging EVs overnight Virginia pilot program halves electricity bill for charging EVs overnight originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Microsoft announced months ago that the artist formerly known as Vail — now officially known as Windows Home Server 2011 — was dropping Drive Extender functionality. Though we were given hope that the feature might be reinstated, the release candidate of WHS2011 went out to testers today… sans Drive Extender’s ‘drive pooling for dummies’ capability. In its place, Microsoft has included a Move Folder Wizard that alerts you when a new hard drive has been added (for those who were visited by the HDD fairy without their knowledge, no doubt) and walks you through formatting and partitioning your new drive. However, partition size is limited to 2TB for it to work with the server backup feature, so your massive collection of ripped Blu-rays will require a veritable alphabet of drive letters. Not all the news is bad though, as the dev team has enabled Shadow Copy in the OS to allow data time traveling in case you accidentally delete something. If that sounds good to you, hit the source link below and get your download on. Vail is now Windows Home Server 2011, Drive Extender’s officially dead originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Nokia releases Symbian update for N8, C7 and C6-01, it’s not the one you’ve been waiting for
February 4, 2011 No Comment
What we once knew as Symbian^3 was simplified into ” just Symbian ” a few months back, ostensibly to make updates faster and easier for Nokia to execute. Well, huzzah huzzah, here’s your first update. Version 1.1 of the new Symbian enhances communications by allowing you to accept meeting requests straight from an email and also integrating maps so that you may view the location as well. Besides that, N8 users get killer new features in Quick Office 6.4 like zooming in and out of Word documents along with three “high quality” games preloaded on new devices (which were already freely available in the Ovi Store). Excuse our overwhelming sense of disenfranchisement, but where the hell is our portrait QWERTY keyboard , split-screen text input, or those much-needed browser improvements? In the rubbish bin next to Symbian^4? Nokia releases Symbian update for N8, C7 and C6-01, it’s not the one you’ve been waiting for originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 06:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Now that the Android Market website has finally launched (and stabilized ) we’re beginning to see reports of rooted devices running custom ROMs not being recognized by the website. We’re having the very same issue ourselves, where a pristine Desire Z running a factory installed copy of Android 2.2 Froyo is listed on the “My Device” page while an old HTC Hero hacked to run Froyo courtesy of FroydVillain ROM does not, even though it’s logged in and syncing using the same Google login ID and the Android Market has been recently used from the device (as Google recommends on the “Trouble Downloading” help page). So what about you oh reader, oh rooter… what are you experiencing? View Poll [Thanks, Florian] Does Google’s new Android Market website ignore custom ROMs? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo named and previewed in one fell swoop, bringing Gingerbread to MWC 2011
February 4, 2011 No Comment
We said it at the Show and we’ll say it again, Sony Ericsson just doesn’t know how to keep a secret. One of its phones set for launch at Mobile World Congress 2011 has just slipped the net ( again ) and this time we have its full product name to boot, the Xperia Neo. You’ll be familiar with this Android 2.3 handset already from mobile-review ‘s thorough preview a couple of weeks ago, though at the time it was known under its codename of MT15i. This latest hands-on look at the hardware is similarly positive about the Neo, describing it as a well constructed phone and praising Sony’s Android modifications as restrained and actually useful. Talk about a 180-degree turn from the way things used to be . There’s another reason to be excited about this phone, however. Back in December, Sony Ericsson registered trademarks for Xperia Arc , Xperia Play , Xperia Neo, and… an Xperia Duo. We expect all four to be out and about at MWC this year, and we may have already seen the latter device in yet another bit of leaked photography . Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo named and previewed in one fell swoop, bringing Gingerbread to MWC 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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