tech

General Motors seems to be waking up to the idea that there might be something in this whole small-car thing. Unveiling three new minicar global concepts this morning at the 2007 New York International Auto Show, GM's design chief Bob Lutz disclosed the blindingly insightful revelation that "small cars can be cool, bold, stylish, and fun." GM used the first press conference slot of the show to unveil three Korean-designed compact cars: the Chevrolet Groove, Beat, and Trax concepts.

The four-door Groove features an upright front windscreen, flared fenders and a short snout, which according to Chevy, … Read more

Volkswagen, Honda, and Toyota picked up the laurels at this morning's IAG Automotive Advertising Awards at the kickoff event for the 2007 New York International Auto Show. Commercials for the Volkswagen Passat Wagon, the Honda Pilot, and the Toyota Yaris won the awards for most-liked ad; best nameplate launch, and best new nameplate launch, respectively.

We're going to be wrestling the crowds at the Javits Convention Center here in Manhattan to bring you the scoop on the latest models as they are unveiled.

We've barely managed to get our breath back following our review of the 2007 Shelby GT500, and now Ford has unveiled a more powerful version of its resurrected muscle car. The 2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR (the last two letters stand for "King of the Road," in case you were wondering) will make its official debut at this week's New York auto show. The GT500KR will feature a tweaked version of the GT500's 5.4-liter supercharged V-8, capable of an estimated 540 horsepower.

According to Ford, the KR's advanced ignition timing, cold air intake system, … Read more

According to Engadget, Nike President and CEO Mark Parker has unofficially announced (via an interview) that all future Nike running shoes will be compatible with the Nike + iPod Sport Kit by 2008. For those of you who aren't familiar with the setup, that basically means that one shoe of every pair will have an aptly sized notch cut out in order to accommodate the wireless transmitter that comes with the Sport Kit. This hardly solves the problem for joggers who prefer not to run in Nike shoes, but this simple and inexpensive hack sure does.

Say hello to perhaps the least aerodynamic, solar-powered car in the world. With a top speed of about 30 mph and a total length approaching 20 feet, the car is powered by batteries, which are charged by four 170-watt solar panels. Despite being a two-seater, its top speed is less than half that of the solar-powered golf carts we recently saw in Florida.

The car, built in Dubai, has no air conditioning, just "like a Formula 1 car," according to its designer, Bin Saif. We're not sure that the parallel is warranted.

Source: Gulf News via Autoblog Green… Read more

It's St. Patrick's Day, of course, and we must pay homage accordingly. So even though this doesn't exactly qualify as a traditional gadget, we're guessing that it will be of some interest on this hallowed occasion.

The lighted beer dispenser is arguably a safety device as well as a practical home appliance, for its illumination can help prevent injurious mishaps. "A beacon for the thirsty," as Ubergizmo calls it, standing more than 21 inches tall.

The dispenser comes in a choice of black or chrome to avoid clashing with the rest of your decor. (… Read more

Mercedes-Benz is getting into the crowded portable navigation market, and we have just taken receipt of its latest device, the SL550. On first impressions, we have to admit that we're not overly impressed. The SL550 portable GPS receiver has a very plain, black-plastic design with hard buttons down either side of its 6.5-inch color LCD display. Unlike the Garmin StreetPilot c580 or the Delphi Nav200, the SL550 is not a touch screen, so destinations have to be input using a four-way cluster of buttons on the bottom right of the unit. Programming the system is intuitive, but it … Read more

This really takes the stupidity cake. Looking at the first few pictures, I thought the "Skycycle" in Okayama, Japan, was a sort of bike-ride-meets-skyway. You know, something that you could pedal around on at a nice, leisurely pace to get a birds' eye view of sights on the ground. But, no. It's a roller coaster. You get on it, and you pedal, and you go wheeeeeee.

This is scary for a number of reasons. Okay, so it might be eco-friendly because it's all done by manpower. But personally, I like my roller coasters to be automated. … Read more

Sure, so your car can communicate with your iPod, your cell phone, your USB thumbdrive, even your hand-held engine-monitoring device. But where to put all these gadgets to prevent them from flying around the cabin as you attack corners or launch forward from the stop lights?

Fortunately, French automaker Renault has come up with a solution in the form of the Grass Mat in-car gadget holder. Unveiled at this week's Geneva auto show, the Grass Mat is essentially a Koosh-ified dashboard that can hold all of those in-car gadgets while still leaving them accessible. It will also give front … Read more