Hasta La Gadget!

An unfortunate traffic accident brought Rafael de Mestre’s electric trek across the globe to an abrupt halt today, stopping his Tesla Roadster a scant 600 miles from the finish line. “Game over,” the world traveler wrote on Facebook and Twitter, posting a picture of the damaged vehicle and assuring readers that he survived the ordeal. Since then, he’s only offered a small update, lamenting the loss of his faithful electric carriage and sharing a short video of the accident’s aftermath. Lend the dejected driver some moral support (or just engage in digital rubbernecking) at the source links below.

Update: We initially reported that Rafael was just a kilometer from the end of his race when he crashed, but he in fact wiped out 1,000km from the line — still very unlucky considering he’d traveled 24,000km unscathed.

Filed under: Transportation

Tesla driver fails to complete world tour after crash on the home straight originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 11:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More than a decade ago, I decided to learn how to touch type. I didn’t use any tools or special programs, I just placed my hands on the keyboard and tried to find the right keys without looking at it. It took some time, but these days my hands flutter across a keyboard very quickly indeed, but I can see the reason for a keyboard like the Smartype.

Smartype includes a full-color LCD screen, that reminds me of some of electronic typewriters, that shows you what your are typing. If you’re not a touch-typist, it stops you from constantly glancing at the screen and back to the keyboard. The creators claim that the Smartype keyboard will even make touch-typists more productive. That seems somewhat counterintuitive to me, but maybe the visual cue will help.

The display on the Smartype keyboard promises also to run widgets including minimal versions of Twitter and Facebook so that you can share things without even having to open a full-fledged app on your tablet, smartphone or browser. You’ll also be able to run other handy apps like a PC status bar or e-mail and calendar notification apps. Unfortunately, though, the Smartype is only planned for Windows computers at this point, and it doesn’t have a numeric keypad either.

The Smartype will be available for pre-order soon, but no official price has been announced. For now, you can register your interest over on their website.

[via The Verge]

I’ve attended assemblies where some people had to sit on the stairs at the sides or on plastic stools because the auditorium was just jam-packed full of people.

I’m sure there are a whole lot of schools with auditoriums where people are being seated too close (or too tight) for comfort. Which is why those establishments that are just about to build theirs might want to consider installing these JumpSeat chairs instead.

They’re innovative and neat, but most important of all, they’re compact. That means you can fit more seats into the same amount of space, thanks to a unique folding mechanism which uses wood ribs layered over metal. Each seat folds up to less than four inches thick, too, so maintenance can sweep through each aisle with ease.

The JumpSeat was designed by Ziba Design for Sedia Systems.

[via Chair Blog]

As we head towards the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, we’re closely watching both candidates to see what they’re doing for the environment. The Obama administration scored a major win for fuel-efficient cars this week by finalizing new standards that will increase the fuel economy of cars to the equivalent of 54.5 mpg by 2025. But what about the cars that are currently on the road? This week we test drove a 2013 Ford Focus Electric through the streets of San Francisco (we admit, we did get a bit of range anxiety). And in one of the most interesting automotive stories from the past week, the world’s first 3D-printed car — the Areion EV– reached a top speed of 141 kph.

Continue reading Inhabitat’s Week in Green: go-kart made of Lego bricks, TOTO toilet bike and the launch of ‘Willow Glass’

Filed under: Misc, Transportation, Science

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: go-kart made of Lego bricks, TOTO toilet bike and the launch of ‘Willow Glass’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Smartwatches can have some pretty useful functionality, but maybe you don’t want to broadcast to the world that you’re wearing one, or maybe you just prefer good old-fashioned analog. The Citizen Eco-Drive Proximity was made with you in mind. More »