scooter

Would you pay $30 to screen a new-release movie on your television at home? Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, and Walt Disney are all in talks with cable TV networks to offer wide-release movies streamed to your TV, so you won't have to wait the three months for titles to show up on demand or on Netflix.

Cable providers like Comcast are already testing this service, but Disney also has plans to stream films on Web-connected gaming devices like the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, with movies ranging from $20 to $30, depending on consumer interest. The services look to solve Hollywood's recent decline in DVD movie purchases in the face of online piracy.

Last year, physical disc sales dropped 13 percent over the previous year's sales. Although there's no word yet on when companies will officially release the solution, won't this just open up self-pirating to anyone with a living room TV and a HD Flip video camera?

In case today's show title spawned dirty thoughts in your head, Pink Kisses is really just a paid service that helps newly single women get through a rough breakup. The Texas-based company offers clients a variety of chocolates, personalized text messages, e-mails, flowers, and even virtual gifts to help women set new goals for their lives and forget about the man (or woman) that broke their heart.

Prices range from affordable all the way up to an unbelievable $272 services that offers three days of encouraging text messages, two "life coaching session," flowers, and "better than sex" truffles. It sounds kind of depressing until you consider how simple the NSFW male equivalent of Pink Kisses would be.

We're running out of call backs and voice mails, so there's no Calls From the Public Segment today. Give us a ring at 1-866-404-CNET and say "This is ____ from ____, and you're listening to The 404, the show where ___insert random comment here___." If it meets Jeff's standards, he'll play it on the show, so make it good!

BMW today unveiled the Mini Scooter E, an all-electric concept vehicle that was originally scheduled to make its debut at the 2010 Paris Auto Show next week.

The German automaker apparently decided to give a preview of the vehicle during London Fashion Week, employing model Agyness Deyn to make the introduction.

As predicted, the scooter is an all-electric plug-in vehicle with an onboard cable that can be plugged directly into a standard household outlet.

BMW also incorporated some quirky high-tech gadgets into the compact gadabout vehicle.

For starters, the scooter has an enclosed docking station for a smart phone. Instead of using a key, or an electric key fob, owners unlock their Mini Scooter E by securing their smartphone into the docking station on turning it on.

Once the car is on, the smart phone--integrated with BMW software--acts as the scooter's GPS device, music player, and a hands-free phone via embedded Bluetooth. It's an innovative, but not entirely unexpected next step in the evolution of vehicle communications.

However, BMW takes things one step further. BMW's GPS software also alerts drivers to other Mini Scooter E drivers nearby and will even automatically flash the scooter's headlights when met with another Mini Scooter on the road.

There will be three versions of the Mini Scooter E, all incorporating the retro circular instruments and speedometer on BMW's current Mini cars. But BMW takes that nostalgia one step further using actual chrome trim on the scooter body, which is, of course, reminiscent of the original Mini Coopers that came out in the 1959 and were popular throughout the 1960s.… Read more

Small-car rivals Mini and Smart intend to get even smaller with new electric scooter concepts to be shown at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.

The scooters are rumored to have similar specifications, using lithium ion batteries for a range of 60 miles. A more intriguing tidbit of information is that the Smart scooter will come with an airbag.

Mini will show off three versions of its electric scooter with retro styling. The company released sketches of one of its scooters on its Facebook page.

The scooters will be shown as concepts, with no definitive production plans, during the Paris Motor … Read more

On those occasions when you have to carry your electric bike, instead of the bike carrying you, it certainly can't hurt for the two-wheeler to fold up nice and neat.

With this in mind, we give you the VeloMini fold-and-carry electric bike from ELV Motors, released Wednesday.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company already has a significant lineup of electric bikes, scooters, and hybrid motorcycles. The VeloMini adds to the array a 32-pound electric bike that reaches a top speed of 12 miles per hour.

The lithium-ion battery that powers the VeloMini gives the bike a range of about … Read more

After years and years of failed coffee mugs, we decide to air out the dirt on the ones that suck... and possibly even cover a few things that could be considered "technology" too.

All The Mugs We Have Tried OXO “liquiseal” coffee mugs

Planetary Design Tumber Mug

Contigo AutoSeal http://bit.ly/cgDqaS

Thermos Sipp

This one looks good: Bodum Anywhere Travel Mug… Read more

WAKO-SHI, Japan--Honda Motor unveiled on Tuesday an all-electric scooter that will mark its first attempt at mass-marketing zero-emission motorbikes, with an eye to eventually taking on rivals in the massive Chinese market.

The EV-neo, similar in size to a 50cc scooter, will be aimed at commercial users in Japan, with a range of more than 30 kilometers on a full charge. Lease sales will begin in December in Japan, the world's top motorcycle maker said.

Toshiyuki Inuma, general manager of Honda's motorcycle operations, said the automaker had no immediate plans for a launch outside Japan but that China was in its sights, with annual demand for electric bikes in that market estimated at 17 million units.

"We'll need to work on the cost and performance further to make it commercially viable," Inuma told reporters at a test-ride event for the prototype model. … Read more

LONDON--A new hydrogen-powered fuel cell hybrid electric scooter will enable city commuting ease without harming the environment, the chief executive of Intelligent Energy said at the bike's launch here.

The Suzuki Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter, made by clean power systems company Intelligent Energy and Suzuki Motor, will be tested in Loughborough from this month, with further road tests planned for London later this year.

"We see a market pull for more energy-efficient products and there is a real drive to bring hydrogen vehicles to market en masse by 2015," Henri Winand, Intelligent Energy's chief executive, told Reuters in an interview Wednesday.

Motorcycle manufacturers face a clampdown on air pollution and climate-warming emissions in the European Union, and the industry says it is ready for pan-European rules.

Climate officials of the 27-country bloc have put transport emissions at the top of their agenda for 2010 as the EU pursues its goal of cutting carbon dioxide to a fifth below 1990 levels over the next decade.

Hydrogen has long been touted as an alternative energy source to carbon-hungry fossil fuels but one of the biggest obstacles to wider adoption of fuel cell vehicles is the lack of hydrogen fueling stations.

The Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter is fueled by a cylinder of hydrogen, which reacts with oxygen to produce electricity and water. A lithium-ion battery and fuel cell provide the vehicle's power and the only gas emitted through the exhaust is water vapor.

Unlike other fuel cell vehicles, the battery does not need recharging. It can recharge itself when accelerating or decelerating and continues to produce power as long as it has hydrogen and oxygen. … Read more

Just as carmakers develop electric cars, motorcycle manufacturers also see the writing on the wall, showing off a collection of electric bikes at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show. The Tokyo Motor Show has always played host to a substantial display of motorcycles, and this year is no different--except that the highlights of the show all have a green angle. Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki all brought concepts to the show that could spell the future of riding, and possibly a new way for future commuters to get to work.

Check out photos of electric scooters and motorcycles at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show. … Read more

Sometimes function can successfully follow form. That may be the case for Japan's Veda International Robot R&D Center, whose electric wheelchair for the immobile and elderly might be giving scooters and electric cars a little competition in the looks department.

The "universal vehicle" Rodem (model number M1-1) operates for about four hours per charge. My favorite feature, though, is the accelerator (of course, in electric vehicles, there are no "ignitions" or "gas pedals"), which a very smart person decided should come in the form of a joystick, thereby titillating the gamers … Read more