fusion

Ford making Sync standard on Fusion, Flex

Ford is making it easier for a lot of its drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road.

The auto manufacturer announced yesterday that it will make its industry-leading Sync voice-activation system standard on all trim levels of the 2013 Ford Fusion sedan and and Flex crossover. Sync is Ford's hands-free system for making calls or accessing the audio system. When used with Sync Services, which is free for the first three years and $60 per year thereafter, drivers can use voice commands to get turn-by-turn directions or listen to news headlines, sports … Read more

Browse in classic style with Nautipolis for Firefox

The ancient browser wars have nothing on the current competition for top honors. Firefox has responded to stiff challenges with a variety of changes and upgrades, but here's the thing about changes: Not everyone likes them. While no one's calling for a performance downgrade, those users who prefer a more classic look can indulge their retro (or retrogrouch) impulse with Nautipolis for Firefox. This free theme for Mozilla Firefox uses high-quality icons from art.gnome.org to give the Firefox interface a sleek, retro-inspired look without sacrificing up-to-date rendering and features. Nautipolis also supports a wide range of … Read more

Fusion Garage's latest feat: It seems to have vanished

In the beginning there was the CrunchPad--a browser-in-a-tablet device proposed by TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington in July 2008, well before the dawn of the iPad era.

Arrington partnered with a company called Fusion Garage to turn his brainchild into a shipping product. But shortly before it was supposed to hit the market in late 2009, according to Arrington, Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan decided to proceed with the project without Arrington's involvement.

Fusion Garage renamed the tablet the JooJoo. After several delays, it started selling it on its own for $499 at the same time the iPad went on … Read more

Ford recalls about 129,000 Fusion and Milan sedans

Ford Motor today announced the recall of about 129,000 Mercury Milan and Ford Fusion sedans that may suffer wheel stud fractures, causing the vehicles' 17-inch steel wheels to fall off.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the recall affects 2010 and 2011 models built from April 1 through April 30, 2009, and from December 1, 2009, through November 13, 2010. (To see the recall notice, click here and search on NHTSA campaign ID number 11V574000. No permalink, unfortunately.)

The recall announcement states that while the car is in use, "multiple stud fractures could occur at the … Read more

Buy a DeLorean flux capacitor at the parts store

2011 would be a good year for Doctor Emmett Brown's DeLorean to break down. He can just call up his local O'Reilly and see if it has part numbers "121G" and "121GMF" in stock.

O'Reilly Auto Parts lists a Flux Capacitor and Mr. Fusion Upgrade from EB Enterprises in its online catalog. The parts are compatible with 1981-1983 DeLoreans.

The flux capacitor product listing includes a warning as to the dangers of time travel. Unfortunately, O'Reilly doesn't carry plutonium. You will have to contact your local supplier. … Read more

VMware Fusion update offers graphics and compatibility improvements

When it comes to virtualization on OS X there are three basic solutions: Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, and VirtualBox from Oracle. While VirtualBox is developed more as a free hobby and experiment package by Oracle, the other two are commercial packages that have been neck-and-neck in competition in the areas of speed, stability, and compatibility.

In its past few versions, Parallels Desktop has been significantly faster than VMware Fusion for a few tasks, which Parallels has regularly blogged about.

Today VMware released a new version of its Fusion virtualization software (available through its built-in updater) that in part offers a … Read more

Memory maker Virident raises $20 million

Virident, a Milpitas, Calif.-based company creating flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs), has raised $20 million in its third round of funding and landed Cisco and Intel as new investors. Virident has raised $50 million to date.

The five-year-old company says today's funding will fuel the creation of a new memory solution called FlashMax that it claims will run databases ten times faster than older drives.

Virident hopes to create partnerships with large data centers, businesses such as systems integrators and consulting firms, and potential investors. Besides Cisco and Intel, the company also has an unnamed investor who is a &… Read more

HP announces business-targeted Slate 2, HP 3115m

Remember the HP Slate? It's back.

HP's tablet that's not the TouchPad was originally released in 2010 as a Windows-based tablet aimed at offering business users an iPad-esque experience, albeit with a capacitive screen that works with an included stylus. The new Slate 2 is still Windows-based, and still business-targeted, with embedded security including a TPM chip.

The 1,024x768 resolution 8.9-inch-screened tablet weighs 1.5 pounds, and has specs like a Windows Netbook: a 1.5GHz Intel Z670 processor, up to 64GB mSATA SSM storage, and a promised 6 hours of battery life, an improvement on the original Slate.… Read more

Fusion Garage Grid10: Complete review of an incomplete tablet

When I first saw the 44-page reviewer's guide that shipped with Fusion Garage's Grid10 review unit, I knew at the very least that I was in for an interesting experience.

Now, I love new and innovative technology. Well, I'm supposed to love it at least. Truth is, I only love new and innovative when it's executed well. New and innovative can go stuff it if it's frustrating to use.

The Fusion Garage Grid10 tablet has a unique OS interface, but...OK, I won't bury the lead here. It's not well-executed. … Read more