Will rental car companies ding you for returning half-charged electric vehicles? Enterprise won’t.

Here’s a shocker in more ways than one. Earlier this month, Enterprise Rent-A-Car announced that it would soon be offering Chevrolet’s Volt at the company’s Mark Christopher Auto Center in Ontario, California, and we reasonably assumed that renters best watch out for any unforeseen charges that may arise from returning it with a dead (or near-dead) stash of batteries. For anyone who has rented a gasoline-powered automobile in the past score, you’ll know that returning a whip with a fuel tank that’s just 90 percent full won’t quite cut it, and you’ll be stuck ponying up for your oversight. Thankfully — at least at Enterprise — a similar surcharge setup will not be applied to electric vehicles. Lisa Martini, a spokesperson for Enterprise, got in touch with us to clarify the outfit’s plans, and they’re shockingly consumer-friendly:

“[Enterprise] does not plan to charge customers for bringing back EVs without a full charge. Enterprise is installing charging stations at locations that will offer EVs, and plans to charge the vehicles once they’re returned.”

That pretty much sums it up for at least one major rental company, and we can only hope that everyone else publishes similar intentions before their accountants publish something to the contrary. Power to the people, eh?

Will rental car companies ding you for returning half-charged electric vehicles? Enterprise won’t. originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Engadget Podcast, live at 2:30PM EST! (update: it’s done!)

It was a rough week after CES, full of debilitating sickness and Verizon iPhones. We think we’ve got it pretty much under control, however, so we hope you’ll join us for this Special Weekend Edition Podcast. Check out the stream and the chat after the break, we’ll get rolling around 2:30PM EST. That is, if none of us die before then.

P.S. And don’t forget that Ustream has Android and iPhone clients as well, if you’re out and about and you can’t join in on the Flash-based fun below.

Update: And it’s over! Don’t worry though, the podcast will be posted to the site shortly!

Continue reading The Engadget Podcast, live at 2:30PM EST! (update: it’s done!)

The Engadget Podcast, live at 2:30PM EST! (update: it’s done!) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 12:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Send Text Messages To Any Cell Phone For Free Using Google

This article was written on February 02, 2006 by CyberNet.

Send Text Messages To Any Cell Phone For Free Using Google

Google has been introducing a lot of cool features that many people don’t even know exist. We try to get the word out so that everyday people will realize how Google can simplify their lives. One of the most recent features we found out about was sending text messages using Google. All you have to do is enter in the phone number to send it to, select the carrier, and then enter the message you want to send. This will eliminate any charges that you could normally incur from sending a message but the recipient may still get charged depending on whether they have a text messaging plan.

Send A Text Message Using Google

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FitnessClass packs a personal trainer into your iPad

Harden those abs! Tone those arms! Kickbox that, um, air! This iPad app lets you choose from over 200 professional workout videos. It’s a winner.

Originally posted at iPad Atlas

World sends 107 trillion emails in 2010, most of them about enlarging your stock portfolio

Hold on to your seats, stat lovers, 2010 is about to hit you with the full force of its quantifiable web exploits. Web monitoring site Pingdom reports that last year we all sent 107 trillion emails to our loved and unloved ones, which breaks down to 294 billion per day, though only 10.9 percent of those weren’t spam. There are now 1.88 billion email users around the globe and when they’re not too busy communicating, they’re surfing one of the net’s 255 million total sites (21.4 million of which are said to have arrived in 2010). The compendium of numerical knowledge wraps up with a look at social media, where Twitter still has a way to go before catching up with email — there were only 25 billion tweets last year — but continues to grow like mad, having added 100 million users during the year. Facebook added even more, 250 million users, and its thriving population is sharing 30 billion pieces of content (links, pics, video, etc.) each and every month. This isn’t madness, this is the internet.

World sends 107 trillion emails in 2010, most of them about enlarging your stock portfolio originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 11:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AFP (PhysOrg)  |  sourcePingdom  | Email this | Comments

Nokia X7 press shot emerges with AT&T branding, subsidized hopes and dreams

Is AT&T seriously gearing up to sell a subsidized Nokia smartphone once again in the US of A? Given the company’s long absence from being included in any US carrier’s smartphone section, it still feels more like a dream than an impending reality, but that image above is certainly hard to ignore. According to Pocketnow‘s sources, the first press images of the Nokia X7 are legitimate, and the AT&T branding isn’t by accident. Purportedly, the Symbian^3-based phone will be hitting Ma Bell’s shops as early as this month, bringing along an eight megapixel camera (with dual-flash), four speaker grilles (two of which have drivers underneath) and a ClearBlack display. Hit the source link for a look at the rear.

Nokia X7 press shot emerges with AT&T branding, subsidized hopes and dreams originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 10:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pocket-lint  |  sourcePocketnow  | Email this | Comments

Lost Philip K. Dick android back with loud shirts

Once lost on a plane, author Philip K. Dick’s android head is back to test the limits of AI research. Looks nearly as good as a Nexus-6.

This week in Crave: The mind games edition

This week wasn’t just about the Verizon iPhone. We also played a game using our brainwaves, tested Sandy Bridge, and tried to stay warm.

NTIA says LightSquared proposal could pose national security threat

Last summer it looked like Philip Falcone’s LightSquared was on the path to a democratic LTE solution: a coast-to-coast network, incorporating satellite connectivity to cover the entire country. It’s an ambitious goal to be sure — perhaps too ambitious. In a letter to the FCC, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) warned that the wholesaler’s wireless network, which would operate on the MSS spectrum, could interfere with systems like Department of Defense communications. Here’s the snag: last year the FCC approved the company’s initial proposal to create a network that would incorporate both terrestrial and satellite services. Now LightSquared wants to offer the option of terrestrial-only phones to their clients. According to the NTIA, such a system would require far more land-based stations, causing potential MSS overcrowding and increasing the risk of interference with everything from aeronautical emergency communications to Federal agency systems. The FCC has yet to make a decision on the revised proposal, and LightSquared hasn’t made a peep, leaving us to wonder whether it was all too good to be true.

NTIA says LightSquared proposal could pose national security threat originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 08:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Holy reverse KIRF Batman! Meizu M9 ROM ported to HTC EVO 4G

Some industrious hackers have created a port of the Meizu M9 ROM for the HTC EVO 4G, bringing a little KIRF flavor to Sprint’s favorite jumbo phone. The port is still in the developmental stages, but most of the M9 functionality appears to already be working, with only the port from GSM to CDMA and tweaks to screen resolution left to do. After a little spit-shine to make sure the build is stable, EVO owners can finally see what the Meizu M9 fuss is all about without having to actually buy one. Of course, why you’d actually want to do this to your perfectly functional Android phone is a question that may never truly find a legitimate answer.

Holy reverse KIRF Batman! Meizu M9 ROM ported to HTC EVO 4G originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Ali Waqas  |  sourceMIUI-Developers, xda-developers  | Email this | Comments