Hasta La Gadget!

ITC patent ruling against Apple will stand, Kodak nods approvingly originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 05:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sitting in the backseat of a car while your parents are taking you somewhere can be a bore for a young, energetic child. As a parent, having a jittery son constantly pestering you with questions like “are we there yet?” definitely tests tests your nerves. Toy Toyota, Toyota’s new division that aims at creating innovative projects directed towards families, has worked with Party, a new creative super-group set up by some of Japan’s leading creative artists to develop an interesting iPhone app that allows children to join in on the driving experience.

The “Backseat Driver” uses GPS to let kids follow their “daddy car” in their “my car,” driving along the same path as their parents are in real life. Given the ability to steer left and right, users are awarded points when making correct turns and passing through landmarks and famous sites which appear as little objects on the road. The rarer the landmark, the more points that are rewarded, which can then be converted into unique designs for the car in a “garage.” Users can then share with friends and family their customized car and travel routes via Twitter, showing off the “cool” places that their parents had taken them, including the new candy store down the road.

The video below is an ad launched by Toy Toyota introducing this new app, available for free download on iTunes. It is interesting that the ad uses their Prius, their iconic hybrid vehicle, closely tying into their CSR activities.

Innovative apps like the Backseat Driver prove to be a great way of keeping the kids entertained on a long road trip. Although I’m not particularly sure if children at this age would have a Twitter account, if Toyota believes this young generation to be intact with the SNS trend, this would certainly be a huge marketing opportunity for sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Toyota seems to be heavily invested in CSR activities, evident in their announcement today to create several new in-house schools in the Tohoku region (where the 3/11 disaster struck) to train junior high school students the basics of manufacturing before actually hiring them.

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It’s been months since the first Fisker Karma came forth from the factory, and in the time since, the sleek saloon’s production timeline experienced a delay or two along the way. Yet, here we are, and the next six production Fiskers have finally been constructed. Unfortunately, those with open wallets will have to wait to get one of the elusive EVs, as the sextet of Karmas is bound for a nationwide barnstorming tour — so that the masses may caress the car’s curvy lines and perhaps take one for a spin. Details are scarce regarding the test drives, but OC Metro reports that 44 fortunate cities and 3,000 people will get to cruise in the performance EV over the next three months. Now that’s some good Karma.

Six Fisker Karmas roll off the production line, coming soon to a city near you originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Haven’t settled in to 3D PS3 gaming just yet? Too bad because Sony’s ready to leapfrog that industry buzzword with another once-vaunted, immersive tech of yore — virtual reality. Announced ahead of Sony London Studio chief Mick Hocking’s Develop conference “3D post-mortem speech,” comes word the Japanese electronics giant is underway with R&D testing for a head mounted display. Shown off at CES earlier this year, the unit incorporates twin-OLED screens that put you closer to the game, fried eyeballs and all. If any of this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s all very 1995. Still, Hocking seems pretty optimistic about the company’s lessons learned dipping its toes into three-dimensional waters, and has even created a so-called “3D 10 Commandments” to ensure quality product output. Hit the source below for the UK division head’s full 3D musings.

Sony London Studio chief talks 3D lessons, promises VR headsets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 02:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There were some mumblings that T-Mobile’s OG Galaxy Tab would come packing a Micro SIM, but that rumor never came to pass. Now a similar tale is being spun about Verizon’s LTE-sporting Galaxy Tab 10.1. Android Central got its green, fingerless arms on a purported image of Big Red training docs that reveals the Honeycomb slate will not use the standard-sized 4G SIMs found in the Thunderbolt, Droid Charge, Revolution — instead, it will come stuffed with a tiny 3FF card. The company has already made it abundantly clear that there will be no LTE roaming with its devices, perhaps now it’s trying to discourage users from swapping a single SIM between a phone and tablet to save cash. Or, maybe Samsung chose the format due to space constraints. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see — which hopefully won’t be much longer.

Verizon’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 may pack Micro SIMs, force Charge owners to break out the scissors originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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