Hasta La Gadget!

Daddy doesn’t have to take the T-Bird away, he can just take all the fun out of driving it. That is, if the T-Bird is actually a Taurus. Ford’s MyKey system has been engendering teen resentment since the release of the 2010 Focus, allowing parents to limit max speeds and cap radio volume, but parental control doesn’t stop there — the 2011 MyKey can selectively block radio stations. Starting next year, parents will have the option to block 16 Sirius radio channels from the car’s dial, among them Howard Stern, Playboy, and Hip-Hop Nation. Optional radio censorship isn’t the only new feature for MyKey, which allows owners to program a key to fit their specific level of paranoia — the new version allows parents to set top speeds between 65 and 80mph, instead of the previous fixed cap of 80mph. Other controls carrying over from the original system include a chime that sounds at 10mph intervals, starting at 45mph, and an advanced notice when fuel levels are low. The new features will come standard issue on the 2011 Ford Taurus and Ford Explorer, and will eventually reach across both the Ford and Lincoln brands.

Continue reading Ford MyKey adds radio censorship to further control teen driving habits

Ford MyKey adds radio censorship to further control teen driving habits originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 07:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you live in a technophile city like Taipei, you’ll have been enjoying underground 4G for a long time now, but in London the rule is that you have to bid adieu to your mobile connectivity when diving into a tunnel. The city’s Mayor has been active in encouraging (forcing?) the major British carriers to install the necessary equipment to provide coverage on the Tube, and now we’re hearing that ambition has stretched beyond the nation’s borders as well. The Daily Telegraph reports that Vodafone, O2, Everything Everywhere, and Three from the UK along with Orange, SFR and Bouygues from France have agreed to share the cost of putting together a £20 million ($30.8m) project for making cellular coverage possible while traveling through the 31.4-mile Channel Tunnel between the two countries. The goal is to get things up and running by the Olympics in 2012, though we’ve no indication as to what speeds those wireless data transfers will reach. Still, having some bars is better than none, right?

UK and French carriers working on cellular coverage for Channel Tunnel, aim to finish by 2012 Olympics originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 06:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can’t say we had the best of times with Grace Digital’s Allegro, but the dawning of a new year means the dawning of a new effort. Three efforts, in this case. Poised for an official unveiling next week at CES, the outfit’s new trio of internet radios have all been upgraded with color displays. Up first is the Solo Touch, a $249.99 device with an expansive 4.3-inch touchpanel, bundled remote, Ethernet connection, RCA outputs and a headphone jack. Stepping down a notch, there’s the Bravado X ($179.99), which offers a 2.7-inch color display, RCA in / out and a USB connector. Finally, the $169.99 Mondo packs a 3.5-inch color display, a full-on alarm clock (with snooze!) and a USB port of its own. The whole lot can be controlled via a free iPhone app, and they’re each capable of tuning into iheartradio, Pandora, Sirius XM, WeatherBug, CBS Radio, MP3Tunes and more. Now, off to Vegas to see if those user interface quirks have been cleared up…

Continue reading Grace Digital adds color displays on new Solo Touch, Bravado X, and Mondo WiFi radios

Grace Digital adds color displays on new Solo Touch, Bravado X, and Mondo WiFi radios originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 06:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve been keeping an ear to the techie ground, you’ll probably have heard some analyst chatter suggesting RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook may be delayed due to issues relating to its supposedly poor battery life. That scuttlebutt has now turned out to be mostly unfounded, with RIM clarifying the situation through a communiqué sent to Erictric:

“Any testing or observation of battery life to date by anyone outside of RIM would have been performed using pre-beta units that were built without power management implemented. RIM is on track with its schedule to optimize the BlackBerry PlayBook’s battery life and looks forward to providing customers with a professional grade tablet that offers superior performance with comparable battery life.”

To be sure, it’s not an outright denial that there may be PlayBooks floating about with disappointing battery performance, but the immaturity of the software on them is clearly such as to invalidate any conclusions drawn. Perhaps more important than the imprecise discussion of battery longevity (what does “comparable” even mean in this context?) is the note that the company is still on track to complete its software optimizations and deliver its first tablet on schedule. Guess we can all quit worrying now.

RIM: BlackBerry PlayBook battery life is still being optimized, won’t cause delays originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 04:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you buy any of LG’s latest HDTVs, you’re pretty much assured it’ll have a big sticker saying “Smart TV” somewhere along its fascia assuring you of its internet connectivity and compatibility. But, if you’re still rocking some old school piece of visual tech that isn’t yet past its “watch by” date, you’ll be needing a set-top box of some kind to get on the web without leaving your couch. Naturally, LG would like to be the one to Smarten up your viewing habits there too, and so it’s just unveiled its new ST600 sidekick for older television sets. It adds DLNA connectivity for some wireless media transfer fun, grants access to a “vast range” of premium content as well as local programming, throws in a web browser, and finishes things off with LG’s TV Apps selection. Of course, this is the week of the pre-CES announcement, hence we’ve no pricing to share yet, but the way the company’s talking about it, the ST600 sounds like it might make an aggressive MSRP its standout feature. Sadly, that’s a bit of a distant hope for now as this Upgrader isn’t expected in shops until Q2 2011. Who knows if we’ll even be watching TV by that time?

Continue reading LG ST600 Smart TV Upgrader brings DLNA, apps, and a web browser to formerly dumb displays

LG ST600 Smart TV Upgrader brings DLNA, apps, and a web browser to formerly dumb displays originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 03:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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