Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ve ever had a flat tire on your motorcycle, scooter, or ATV, you know how helpless you can feel. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no help coming, especially if you’re stuck somewhere without cell service. This can mean a trek back to civilization, or waiting for some help. This will never happen with this ATV.

The Polaris Sportsman WV850 HO ATV will stand up to any punishment you feel fit to deal upon it. It’s built to military specifications, and features the industry’s first non-pneumatic tires, which will never get flats, tear, rip or puncture. They can actually stand up to a .50-calibre round and still work for another 350 miles.

 It comes equipped with a steel exoskeleton, racks, a large towing capacity, and powered by a 77 hp engine.

All this military technology doesn’t come cheap, as you’ll have to fork over at least $14,999(USD) to get yours. Think about how much money you’ll save on flats. Ok, it’s probably not that much, but this thing is still pretty damned impressive.

A step up from traditional ATVs, this dune buggy (aka “sport UTV”) from Polaris will let you go pretty much anywhere you please. You’ll have the benefit of almost car-like behavior in something that was meant to scale dunes in the desert.

The Polaris RZR XP 1000 comes with a 1000cc engine that delivers 107 hp. Its peak torque is delivered at 3500 RPM, so you’ll be speeding ahead of your buddies, no matter what they are driving. The RZR XP 1000 comes with dual-piston calipers and 248mm ventilated disc brakes on each of its wheels.

If you are looking for something with a bit more power and versatility in the off-road market, then this Polaris was meant for you. It sells for $19,999(USD).

And if you want to see what the XP1000 can do when fully tricked out, check out this customized version, called the XP1K:

[via Hispotion]

According to folks in the know who’ve spoken to Bloomberg and The New York Times, Apple’s oft-rumored streaming radio service is set for a late arrival. The reason is because of snails-pace negotiations with the publisher Sony/ATV for music licensing deals. As the Times notes, Sony no longer lets outsiders like ASCAP dole out licenses, leaving itself as chief point of contact for such agreements on its content — this apparently got Pandora locked into a twenty five-percent increase on royalty payments to Sony. Prior to today’s reports, Bloomberg stated that Cupertino was aiming for a Q1 release for this year, and the NYT notes Apple hoped that launch would’ve happened near the Grammy Awards. If you’ll recall, Apple’s service is said be direct competition to others like Pandora rather than Spotify, as it would be ad-supported for revenue. As usual, take all of this with a grain of salt, and don’t get too thirsty for an Apple-curated streaming music service just yet. More info at the source links.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Internet, Apple

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Source: New York Times, Bloomberg

About a month ago we talked about a cool amphibious vehicle that was a sort of cross between a four-wheeler and a jet ski. That vehicle is called the Gibbs Quadski and laid claim to the title of the world’s first high-speed sports amphibian. That vehicle has now gone into production inside 54,000 ft.² assembly plant in Detroit.

The Quadski vehicle is capable of reaching speeds of 45 mph on both land or water. The vehicle can transition from land mode to water mode in about 5 seconds. When the plant is in full production later next year it will employ about 200 people.

As we mentioned before, this sounds like a very cool and fun vehicle to own, but it has some caveats. One of the major caveats is the price; the Quadski will sell for about $40,000. The second caveat is that it’s only able to carry a single person.

That means for $40,000 you can’t even enjoy amphibious cruising with a friend. When the Quadski transitions from ATV to water mode, the wheels retract into the fender wells, exposing a boat-like hull. I still don’t see this being successful due to the price and the state of the economy today.

Gibbs Quadski production kicks off in Detroit is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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