Gadgets
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Want a sports car or muscle car but don't want the expense of higher fuel bills and insurance costs? Want to enjoy the rumble of a big V8 but don't want to wake the neighbors every morning when you leave for work? Your wishes have just been answered, and for only $40. What you need is the Vroominator! As you can imagine, $40 won't get you the performance of a proper sports car, but it'll get you some of the noise. Plug the device into your car's DC adapter and it syncs with the alternator signal to provide your car with a rowdy soundtrack, albeit one that can only be heard inside the car. So...
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Greater Interaction With "Sticky" Touchscreen Display Tech
Touchscreen displays have revolutionized our gadgets, both in and away from our automotive lives. Now, they're set to get even better to use. From iPhones to satellite navigation systems, many of our electronic gadgets use the technology, and that's only going to increase as makers strive for ever...
Antony Ingram -
Pioneer Reveals Augmented Reality Satellite Navigation System
Electronics giant Pioneer has revealed the latest in the world of automotive satellite navigation technology, with its new AVIC-VH09CS double din unit showcasing the first production example of an in-car ‘augmented reality’ system. Using a wireless windshield-mounted camera, the system...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Green GPS Picks Fuel-Saving, Lowest Emissions Routes
GPS navigation systems and internet-based route planners allow you to pick the quickest or shortest route to your destination. However, until now there hasn't been the option to pick the greenest route, allowing you to use the least fuel and reducing your journey's emissions. Researchers at the...
Antony Ingram -
Plug-n-Play LED Lighting On The Way, Gets Brighter, Cheaper
If you spend a lot of time driving you won't have failed to notice the distinctive shape of high intensity LED daytime running lights on some modern vehicles. As for LED tail-lights, those are even more common. Only a small selection of vehicles features entirely LED-based headlights though...
Antony Ingram -
Tired Of eBay, Craigslist? Sell Your Car With Copart App
Online car sales sites have transformed the way we buy and sell cars. Whether you're selling to the highest bidder on an online auction site or setting your price and waiting for the calls on sites like Autotrader, you can not only add far more photos and details than ever before but reach a...
Antony Ingram -
In the good old days all you needed for a road trip was a car, some buddies, and a sense of adventure. Even a map was optional. These days you can have it so much easier with the latest downloadable apps at your fingertips telling you everything from where to sleep to providing your tunes. Here is AllCarTech's run-down of the apps you need for your next epic road trip. Pandora Who needs a huge collection of CDs taking up valuable space in your car when all you need is a smartphone equipped with Pandora, offering free personalized internet radio? Just type in one of your favourite artists and...
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Rolls-Royce Phantom Gets Its Own App
Rolls-Royce is the latest automaker to launch a downloadable app for Apple’s range of mobile devices, offering it for users of the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The app allows clients and Rolls-Royce enthusiasts to create highly bespoke virtual Phantom models, including the ability to apply...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
MINI Connected 'Enhances Driving Fun' With Social Networking
Cheeky styling and endless personalization options already mark out the MINI as a fun and sociable vehicle, but now a new App from MINI called MINI Connected will give drivers, in MINI's words, "an even more intense experience of limitless driving fun". Normally for this sort of experience you'd be...
Antony Ingram -
Video: Self-Healing Polymers, The Future Of Car Paint Tech?
The moment when you buy a new car is always something to be savored. Only a handful of digits on the odometer, that 'new car smell', and of course a smooth, glassy finish to the paintwork. Sadly it rarely lasts, and all but the most fastidiously-maintained vehicles will soon pick up scratches and...
Antony Ingram -
Powerdecal: The Sticker That Turns On And Off With Your Car
Fed up with bumper stickers and window stickers that nobody else can see at night? Want to show off your allegiance to a particular sports team or college even in the darkest of nights? What you need is the Powerdecal. This 4" sticker can be affixed on the inside of any window and uses three AA...
Antony Ingram -
Toyota Announces 'Ideas For Good' Finalists: You Can Help Pick The Winners
Last fall, we told you about Toyota's "Ideas for Good" competition. If you read about it or saw the TV commercials (including the controversial one that was censored by the NFL), you know that the contest encouraged folks to envision new applications for five Toyota technologies, like the company's...
Richard Read -
Nobody, save for perhaps stunt drivers, likes to crash. Even if you're lucky enough to escape injury, accidents invariably mean months of insurance nightmare, dozens of phone calls to people you dislike conversing with, considerable expense and almost certainly time off the road. General consensus then is that crashing is something best avoided. The latest luxury cars can virtually do this for you, with systems such as radar-guided cruise control allowing the car to constantly maintain a safe distance from the car in front, or emergency braking systems such as those offered by Volvo that...
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Aston Martin Launches New ‘Experience’ App For iPhone
Following on from the success of its previous ‘Explore’ app released for the Apple iPhone back in December, Aston Martin has now launched a new and updated version dubbed ‘Experience’ that comes with a few new touches. Unlike the Explore app, which was offered for free, the...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Got A Great Idea To Make Driving Easier/Greener/More Fun? Enter The Connected Vehicle Tech Challenge
There are thousands of tech developers out there, trying to make driving more fun, more efficient, and less frustrating. Apps like DriveSafe.ly, Parking In Motion, and Waze are the fruits of their labor. But there are just as many folks with great ideas for improving the roadways who don't have the...
Richard Read -
Hot Wheels Ad Offers Freeway Loopty-Loop: Image
Using bits of the environment for creative ad campaigns is nothing new, but it is certainly entertaining--or can be. Case in point: this ad for Hot Wheels from Bogota, Colombia, which to onlookers like a vertical loop has been placed in the freeway. A sign next to the loop, though not the first...
Nelson Ireson -
Timepiece Titivation: 5 Watches For The Tardy Gearhead
Some things in the motoring world are inexorably linked. Classic car enthusiasts often have an interest in other classic transport - boats, aircraft, motorcycles. The glitz and glamour of Formula 1 racing goes hand-in-hand with champagne. Many motorsports though have a timepiece connection. In...
Antony Ingram -
Entire Volvo Range Now Offered With Portable Garmin GPS Navigation
Automakers have been working closely with electronic component suppliers over the past couple of years in order to develop a new generation of low cost navigation and infotainment systems designed for both vehicle and personal use. Harman International previously confirmed plans to supply a...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad, a lot of people got angry. "What are we supposed to do with that?", they asked. "It's not a computer, it's not a phone, it's just another expensive gew-gaw!" Then came iPad apps and magazines and a slew of competitors using the Android platform, and today it's clear that tablet computers are much more useful than many first thought -- for some folks, they're indispensable. Now, a company called MountMe (terrible name) has created a case/mount combo that lets those people use their tablets in more places, including the car. We've seen car mounts for the iPad...
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Watch: Barnes & Noble Nook Hacked, Becomes In-Dash Stereo & More
There are lots of gizmos on the market -- gizmos designed to meet the needs of nearly every consumer. And yet, a handful of consumers are never satisfied. They take matters into their own hands, poking, prodding, and modding until they get what they want, just as they've done for millennia. Now...
Richard Read -
Consumers Want Simpler Gadgets; How About Simpler Cars?
They say that the simple things in life can bring the most pleasure. Though not everything simple automatically brings happiness to your life, there's certainly a joy to be had from machines and gadgets that operate with economy of movement. A recent survey by Accenture has revealed that more than...
Antony Ingram -
Powermat Car Charger Rolls Out To Other Cars (Not Just GM Models)
Last month, we told you that GM cars would soon feature built-in charging devices from Powermat and that the Chevy Volt was first in line for the goods. Now, Powermat has announced that it'll soon offer a version of its wireless charger for cell phones and other mobile devices that will fit any...
Richard Read -
Asus Launches Lamborghini-Branded Hard Drive
Car-themed IT gadgets are no rare occurrence these days, and a multitude of gadgets with luxury car themes have hit the market in recent years. The latest is from Asus, which has just launched a new Lamborghini-branded external hard drive. Like the actual Lamborghini cars, the focus on the Asus...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Monster iMotion CarPlay 3000 Turns The iPod Into An Xbox Kinect
Let's assume you're a safe driver. You keep your eyes on the road, your hands and 10 and 2, and Big Gulps in the oversized cupholder. You enjoy listening to tunes on your iPod and/or iPhone, but you'd never look down to fiddle with the controls. Still, you wish there were a way to safely...
Richard Read