i3

How does a car manufacturer whose motto is "the ultimate driving machine" sell a front-wheel-drive car that takes 8 seconds to hit 60 mph and tops out at 93 mph? By shifting attention from under the hood to inside the cabin, focusing on the urban-electric lifestyle.

BMW opened its first dedicated BMW i Store in London this week. The BMW i3 isn't scheduled to enter production until 2013, but the company is taking advantage of the Summer Olympics to boost the new vehicle line's presence. The store serves as a showroom for its upcoming line of … Read more

If you, like us, used to spend hours sitting in front of the TV playing Tetris on your Nintendo Entertainment System, you're going to love T-Crisis 3 100% A.I. It's not a clone of the original, but that's OK; we daresay it's even better.

The program's interface is easy to navigate, but we had to do some experimenting to figure out all the game's features; there's not much in the way of instructions or descriptions. T-Crisis supports up to three players, and when you don't have friends playing along, the computer … Read more

Waiting patiently for the next-generation of laptops with Intel's latest silicon? Well, deets have leaked that expose future Ivy Bridge chips in all their wattage and gigahertz glory.

Intel is placing greater emphasis on power-efficient chips (designated with a "U" or "M" suffix) for the emerging ultrabook category as well as Apple's popular MacBook Air line. Intel's most power-efficient chips draw less than 20 watts, a veritable trickle of energy compared with the traditional desktop computer.

There's a trade-off of course. Generally, the lower the wattage, the lower the performance. For example, … Read more

Green Car Journal dubbed the Ford C-MAX Energi winner of the 2012 Green Car Vision Award yesterday at the Washington Auto Show. This is the second consecutive year Ford has won top honors; the Ford Focus Electric garnered the award last year.

The Ford C-MAX Energi, which will be available in late 2012, is built on the same global C-car platform as the Ford Focus and future Ford models, the automaker said.

The C-MAX Energi bested four other finalists, including the BMW i3, the Cadillac ELR, the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell, and the Tesla Model S.

"The C-MAX Energi delivers … Read more

Green Car Journal announced five finalists for the publication's annual Green Car Vision Award. The award recognizes innovations in fuel efficiency, low emissions, alternative fuels, or electric power.

To be considered for the Green Car Vision Award, vehicles must be in demonstration on public highways today or nearing commercialization but not yet widely available to consumers, Green Car Journal said in a press release.

The five finalists include the BMW i3, the Cadillac ELR, the Ford's C-MAX Energi, the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell, and the Tesla Model S.

The 2012 Green Car Vision Award winner will be announced at … Read more

BMW's newest concept cars say one thing: dramatic change is coming.

BMW points at the next generation of vehicles that look toward efficiency more than luxury with these i3 and i8 concepts. The shapes are barely recognizable as BMW, and the power trains even less so. But for a company with its track record for technical innovation, we should expect nothing less.

(CNET's full coverage of the 2011 Frankfurt auto show)

Here's one strictly for the rumor hopper: Apple was on the verge of coming out with a MacBook Air packing a processor from Advanced Micro Devices.

The reasoning put forward by chip-centric Web site Semiaccurate is that AMD offered better graphics horsepower. Today, the Air--and all the MacBooks--use Intel's Sandy Bridge processors.

"If you are wondering why the Air wasn't really revamped much this last time, it is because you are looking at plan B. Plan A was basically a low power [AMD] Llano in an Air shell, and that would have been a really tasty … Read more

Staples has begun selling the 11.6-inch Samsung Series 3 laptop for $619 after "instant savings," one of the least expensive ultraportables based on Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processor.

The Series 3 presages sub-$800 Ultrabooks likely to appear in 2012 from PC makers. Though--with a maximum thickness of about 1 inch--it's not as thin as Ultrabooks are expected to be, the weight is about right at 2.8 pounds.

The silicon is similar to Ultrabooks too. In this case, an ultra power efficient Intel Core i3-2357M Sandy Bridge processor.

Unlike the Samsung Series 9 (which … Read more

BMW revealed two new electric car concepts that will be launched under its new i brand in Germany early this morning. The BMW i3 city car and the BMW i8 will be the auto manufacturer's first production vehicles designed from the ground up as electric or plug-in hybrids, rather than starting as an existing model and swapping the gas engine for an electric motor.

The BMW i3 is an electric vehicle designed for urban environments. Formerly called the MegaCity Vehicle, the EV is powered by a 125 kW electric motor that offers drivers an 80-mile electric driving range. The … Read more