Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Here is how to take the ubiquitous car remote and bring new ideas to it.  Add in a screen with Kindle-like E Ink and you’ve got a notice you are low on gas, maybe your tires are low, or your oil life is nearly depleted.  This is just one of the cool things ultra low power E Ink can bring.

This specific device by Delphi, allows users to locate their vehicle in a sea of look-a-likes; turn on the car, adjust the climate in the car, and more.  Interesting and fun, who doesn’t love that?  Delphi says in volume, E Ink device can be made economically. 

The flexible shape of the E-Ink screen means this kind of innovation is coming to more and more devices like microwaves, refrigerators and remotes.  Where else would you love to have a simple screen for data?

Read [BusinessWire] via [dvice]

So what does an auto loan lender do when borrowers forget to pay? Give them a really annoying box that beeps when payment is already due and prevents the car from starting. Sub-prime borrowers can no longer give an excuse that they forgot to pay because this box won’t fail to remind. 

Called the “On Time” this gadget is installed in the car and blinks when payment is near the due date and beeps on the date itself. When payment still isn’t made, the car won’t start, leaving you without a car to use until you have settled your bills. If payment has been made, the auto-loan lender will give the borrower a code to reset the box and stop being annoyed by all the beeping and the blinking. 

Lenders say that they missed payments have been down by 30%. I wonder if mortgage lenders should do the same for houses. Install a similar device, only no beeping and blinking...just a recorded voice that nags every morning and night. Now that would be really cool and yeah, so annoying. But at least, people will be motivated to pay.

Read [The Consumerist]

Software giant Microsoft and Korea-based car company Hyundai reportedly have partnered so the former could provide music for the latter’s cars. By 2010, Hyundai cars to be distributed in North America only are expected to feature a voice-controlled system that is connected to the vehicle’s stereo and other mobile devices.

No official specs have been revealed yet but it is safe to say that Bluetooth connectivity will be present aside from the direct cable connections that we usually find in car’s audio system to play portable devices such as the MP3 players and mobile phones. SlashGear even made a prediction that text messages could be read out loud by the system. 

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If you’re going to be catching a Continental Airlines flight out of Boston anytime soon, you’ll have a chance to test their new electronic boarding pass system. Any passenger with an Internet enabled cell phone or PDA will now be able to receive their boarding pass via an email with a link to a special web page that will display an encrypted bar code. The code reveals their name and flight info when scanned at the TSA check point and boarding gate. The agents doing the scanning are forbidden to actually touch passenger’s devices, fearing liability issues if they are damaged or broken.

“We don’t want to drop it,” said Kevin Anzalone, a TSA supervisor at Logan. “Next thing you know is we’re discussing how to replace it, and it’s $600 or $700.”

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To combat air pollution, noise pollution, and the constant rise of gas and oil prices everywhere, a little-known company called Pipistrel started work on possibly the world’s first commercial electric powered light aircraft, and they’re calling it the Taurus Electro. It’s a kick-butt two-seat ultralight aircraft with a 15 meter wing-span and is also intended for glider pilots. Right now, they’re still few steps behind completing the project but if they keep on it, the Taurus Electro just might start hitting runways everywhere by the end of 2008.

Tine Tomazic, the company’s test pilot, has confirmed that Pipistrel indeed has the technology to create such a thing already in their hands. And according to Pipistrel CEO Ivo Boscarol, the Taurus Electro’s battery pack recharges (yes, it’s rechargeable) at about the same time that it takes a cellphone to charge, and works just as efficient as its gasoline-powered counterpart.

All in all, the technology behind the Taurus Electro seems simple. It uses a lithium-polymer battery pack weighing 101 pounds for power, and with a wingspan of about 15 meters it achieves enough power to climb up to 6,000 feet up into the air, at a rate of 560 feet per minute. Pipistrel says that this still unpatented electric aircraft technology is costing them almost 1 Million EUR now, but once the final product comes out, you’ll be able to bag one of these babies for yourself at only $100,000 a piece (give or take a couple thousand). Continue reading for a video of the Taurus Electro in action.

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Suzuki has recently announced that they will be incorporating a free Garmin GPS in every 2009 SX4 as a standard option. Within the car will be a special compartment called “T.R.I.P”, in which the GPS will be housed. T.R.I.P stands for Travel, Real-time traffic, Information and Play, hey that’s clever, Suzuki. Otherwise, the GPS comes with Bluetooth functionality, for hands free calling, traffic updates, and MSN Direct, however, the MSN Direct feature is still unconfirmed as of now. Some speculation is that this Garmin GPS is a customized Nuvi 780. If you don’t want to purchase this car, and get another car, the same type of GPS will set you back $500 when purchased by itself. This sounds like a good plan to me to boost Suzuki car sales, however, I doubt people would be buying the car just for the GPS. Although, for customers on the fence about this car, throwing in the GPS might make people go for it. More important hopefully other car makers will see this as a good move and follow with similar offerings.

Via [NaviGadget]

The TomTom 2nd Edition Rider is a GPS for people who mostly use a motorcycle as their means of transportation. TomTom did not add a lot of key features present in their normal, automobile GPS models, and so, with this update comes many features missing in the 2nd Edition Rider.

Some of the main features included in this update are Map Share, the Help Me! menu, which is a safety feature to try and help when needed, map guarantees, and Tele Atlas maps which cover Western and Eastern Europe, and they come pre-installed. Another cool update is that you can find out the stats of your trip, such as average and max speeds, total distance traveled, as well as the distance from the starting point. If you plan on buying a 2nd Edition Rider now, it would come with all of these new features. However, you might be wondering if you can still get these features if you already own this GPS or the 1st Edition Rider. The answer is yes, all you have to do is download the software from TomTom Home, and it’s free. 

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This really has never happened to me, but Japanese Honda manufacturers seem to think it happens pretty often. They believe that their built-in GPS units often lead you to the “bad section” of neighborhoods. So, the executives and the people responsible for creating the GPS units of Honda are revamping their line-up to make sure it doesn’t lead to you someplace you would rather not be.

These engineers are hard at work with the police in Japan, working together to try and figure out just where the bad sections are located and where to not have the GPS direct them. Basically, this includes areas that are prone to high auto theft and vandalism. I’m sure there are some people who probably think this is a silly option, and that you should use common sense and not follow your GPS blindly, but remember this the next time you hear of someone driving off the road because their GPS told them to.

Something to consider though, what happens if you live in the so called “bad section” of town, will the GPS never take you there? Anyway, with certain improvements, I’m sure this could work, and hopefully something similar will follow in the States. For now, it is exclusive to Japan.

Via [Switched]

Shawn Fanning, who rose to fame as the founder of the legendary music sharing network Napster before crashing back to earth thanks to the likes of Metallica and the RIAA, has turned up in a new role as a Volkswagen spokesperson. The new ads from the German automaker portray a classic 1964 Volkswagen Beetle named Max hosting a talk show. His guests have included Leonard Nimoy from “Star Trek”, David Hasselhoff from “Baywatch” as well as Bobby Knight and Heidi Klum. Each guest discusses a particular trait of the Volkswagen brand.  Max, the Beetle talks about how Fanning brought music sharing to the world and Fanning talks about how the Volkswagen has developed clean diesel fuel. When Max argues that Fanning’s thing is cooler, Fanning wryly replies “Yeah but your thing is legal and trust me, legal is cooler!” Not surprisingly, the word Napster isn’t actually mentioned at all but it didn’t have to be. Everyone knows what “free music sharing service” is being talked about! Keep reading to check out the video…

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At first, I thought I was reading a story in a web site dug up from the Internet Archive, but apparently, Motorola has just officially launched the Smart Rider In-Vehicle Phone, a fixed in-vehicle offering with features that would shame most cellphones and even a few navigation devices. This device was first leaked by the FCC, and now confirmed by the Motorola itself. I can already see the million people lining up in stores to get one of these things. Kids wildly dreaming about owning one when they grow up. This device could the world by storm… back in the ‘90s, that is!

The spec sheet seems OK, even commendable. Motorola managed to include a large enough (and hopefully bright) display, evenly spaced keypad buttons and navigation controls. It boasts Bluetooth, a built-in mic and speakerphone, GPS navigation, and voice-activated features under the hood. The GPS also has voice-guided instructions, detailed maps, real-time traffic reports, automatic re-routing, location based services (LBS) and fleet management applications included. It seems that Motorola got everything right with this one. Except there’s problem. It’s not portable. And last I checked, the next-generation was supposed to go towards mobility and portability, not obsoletesville (which, by the way, is where all the original in-car phones have all went, in case you don’t know)!

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