tech

The 2007 Detroit Auto Show ends on Sunday, and if you didn't get a chance to see it, you can enjoy the concepts, new models, and exhibits through our coverage. We've just posted our last video on the show, wrapping up the most important announcements and unveilings. For even more depth, take a look at our slide shows and blog entries about the show.

Click here to watch the 2007 Detroit Auto Show wrap-up video.

File this in the "not there yet" folder. A bunch of blogs have covered a new, solar-powered system for NEC monitors, yet none show how it looks. My mind's eye pictured a tidy, laptop-size solar panel. But when I received this photo from NEC, I couldn't stifle a chuckle. Who wants to claw their way to a corporate window seat only to have mammoth solar panels block the view? Oh, and try not to kick that battery pack.

The equipment is designed for big businesses that aim to cut costs with clean, off-the-grid energy sources, but … Read more

Dresser Wayne is working on a gas pump with Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit that would allow you to download music while waiting for your gas to finish pumping. The Ovation iX fuel pump would connect to the Internet and transfer the songs to your media device or a car stereo system via Wi-Fi. The media/fuel pump complete with touch screen was featured at CES 2007, according to Gizmag.

The device could be a good service for truckers with long hours to kill, but how would you get the full-service gas station drivers in New Jersey to use it?… Read more

A Vespa Granturismo might get 64 miles per gallon, but this little guy sure one-ups it. I read about it on ThisNext: it's called the GreenEmotor, or GEM (there does not appear to be any relation to the GEM electric car brand), and it's a zero-emissions electric scooter that gets the equivalent of 1,350 miles per gallon. More specifically, you'd get 1,350 miles of electric charge (a single charge will cost about 12 cents on your electric bill) for the $3 that you'd spend on a gallon of gas. The various GEM models range … Read more

Convergence is the name of the digital game at CES 2007. Music players become phones, phones become GPS devices, and GPS devices become music players. In the latest effort to combine two previously distinct products, JVC Mobile has integrated an 3.5-inch color LCD screen into the faceplate of a in-car stereo head unit to provide drivers with movies, music and directions in one after-market device.

The KD-NX5000, on display at CES for the first time, is an impressive product. Its 16GB hard drive-based navigation system contains 13 million points of interest and comes with a built-in RDS-TMC traffic tuner … Read more

On the other end of the spectrum from the C250, Mio has also announced the full-featured Mio C520 portable navigation device. Unlike the C250, the C520 goes beyond turn-by-turn driving directions with integrated Bluetooth for hands-free calling and advanced multimedia capabilities. The stylish device also has a large, 4.3-inch touch screen and a new, useful split-screen view, which presents your current location and a map on one side and allows you to get route information, upcoming points of interest, and address lookup on the other side. All maps are preloaded on the device, and there is an expansion slot … Read more

Though Mio has recently made a push to market its portable navigation systems as more than GPS devices (for example, the Mio H610), the company is going back to basics with the Mio C250. The entry-level C250 is purely focused on navigation (though it may have the ability to play music; the company is still undecided) and features a 3.5-inch touch screen. Maps of the United States will come preloaded onto an SD card, and additional SD cards with maps of other regions will be available around April. The Mio C250 is expected to ship at the end of … Read more

You know, we track some wacky trends here on Crave. There are the Color-Changey Things, and the Stupid USB Devices, and of course Anthropomorphic Audio. And recently I've been spotting another one: things shaped like UFOs. There's that bug-killing gadget that flies, and a cute little saucer to manage hands-free electronic activity in cars. The latest in this emerging trend is the Neues Licht UFO Light, a German lighting concept that is shaped like something that might have appeared in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The Neues Licht UFO is made mostly out of glass fibers, … Read more

There are plenty of ways of hooking up an iPod to a car stereo: generic auxiliary input jacks will do the trick (if you're desperate); a connection via USB might transfer some data to the head unit display; while dedicated full-speed iPod harnesses have been the best option to date. Well, now there's a car stereo that's tailor-made for Apple fanboys. The Alpine IDA-X001--getting its debut here at CES 2007--is so iPod-centric that it doesn't even have a CD slot. Instead, it has a USB input to allow drivers to connect digitally to their fifth-generation iPods. … Read more