Hasta La Gadget!

Italian automaker Tazzari has lifted the covers a bit more on the Zero, the company’s stylish electric city car for the masses, AutoblogGreen reports. The Zero will be about 113 inches long—that’s two and a half feet shorter than the Mini Cooper, or about half a foot longer than the Smart ForTwo. More significantly, the Zero will weigh just 1,200 pounds, an incredibly light figure for a car carrying 312 pounds worth of lithium ion batteries.

The company said that the Zero has a range of 88 miles on a single charge, and can be fully recharged in nine hours—not that impressive, except that Tazzari said you can get an 80 percent charge in just 50 minutes. (Really? Another eight hours for an extra 18 miles of range?)

Amusingly, there’s no specified 0-60 time because the Zero can’t do it; its top speed is just 56 mph, although it can hit 30 mph in five seconds, putting it somewhat behind the average Vespa according to the report. So it’s not a performance car. It sure looks great, though. Tazzari is targeting a rather high 20,000 Euro price point for the thing, and plans to sell the eco-friendly vehicle in Europe and in the Caribbean starting later this year. (Romantic ocean-side rendering after the jump.)

(Credit: Equinux)

If you’re like my colleague Eric Franklin, who’d rather watch Speed Racer on his iPhone than on a big screen, you’re in for some good news.

Equinux, the company that provides the TV-watching solution The Tube for Mac, announced Wednesday its all new hardware TV …

Riding a bicycle at night may have just gotten a bit safer. Designers at Altitude have unveiled Lightlane, a gadget that mounts on a bicycle and shoots two bright red laser beams and the universal symbol for a bicyclist on the pavement below the bike, according to Autopia. The idea is to remind motorists behind the bicyclists to leave a little room for the bike as they approach.

“Clearly one of the biggest benefits of bicycle lanes is that there is an established common boundary that both drivers and riders respect and must stay within,” designer Evan Gant said in the report. “However, this requires a great deal of resources and planning to implement, so we decided to focus on the fact that the bicycle lane establishes a safety buffer outside of the bicycle’s footprint.”

Gant was quick to point out that the Lightlane is no substitute for actual bike lanes, which cities clearly need more of—especially since the Lightlane only works at night. But at $50, this looks to be one safety accessory that could rank up there with headlights and helmets if it works as advertised.

Looking for a surefire conversation piece or guaranteed nightmares for weeks on end? Then you may want to take up Little Island’s offer to create a tiny, custom robot version of you, which can apparently even be used as a VoIP phone of sorts to freak out family members when you’re away. Unfortunately, the “robot” doesn’t appear to actually have many true robot abilities, although it does have a built-in camera to let you check out its surroundings via a connected computer, and it’s apparently able to do a few basic tasks like read your RSS feeds or check the weather. The bot is also essentially just a plush PC itself (complete with a 500MHz Geode processor), so there’s certainly plenty of opportunity to expand its capabilities for those so inclined. At over $2,000, however, it doesn’t exactly come cheap, and you’ll have to wait upwards of six weeks after sending in your picture to receive it.

[Via The Raw Feed]

Filed under: Robots

Little Island promises to craft you in creepy robot form originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic’s Toughbook notebook is the Jason Statham of the PC industry–a rugged, action star that just refuse to give up even when the car goes belly up.

Turns out that the Toughbook has some soft corners. Panasonic’s Toughbook-52 model will come with a 13.3-inch touchscreen display. The standard version of that model comes with a 15.4-inch widescreen.

Apple’s iPhone has made touchscreen a standard fixture among cellphones. But notebook makers have been slower to catch on to that trend.

In November, HP launched a new convertible notebook with multi-touch technology. Rival Fujitsu has a touchscreen in a dual-screen notebook. In addition to the regular laptop screen, Fujitsu has nestled a 4-inch touchscreen in the keyboard area. Mostly touchscreens have been confined to tablet PCs rather than clamshell-style notebooks.

Usability analysts say touchscreens are limiting for most notebook users and offer little extra value beyond the mouse and keyboard. Touchpad interfaces are unlikely to
make a dent in the way users interact with their computers, Anthony Andre, professor of human factors and ergonomics at San Jose State University told Wired.com earlier.

It could be a reason why Panasonic is taking it slow. It has made the touchscreen optional for Toughbook buyers.

Panasonic Toughbook-52 Product Page

[via Electronista]

Photo: Panasonic Toughbook-52/ Panasonic