Hasta La Gadget!

If a vehicle outfitted with Audi Connect has found its way into your garage, T-Mobile has a pair of new data plans for you to consider. Dropping $450 nets car owners 30 months of “full data services” to power the infotainment system, which packs features including Google Earth, real-time Sirius XM Traffic info and even WiFi for up to eight devices. Drivers who aren’t in the market for such a long term commitment can pony up $30 every month instead. Hit the jump for the full press release from Audi and the UnCarrier.

Filed under: Transportation, T-Mobile

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Fisker Automotive founder Henrik Fisker has resigned from his post as the firm’s executive chairman. An email said to be sent by Henrik cites several unspecified “major disagreements” with the company’s executive management on business strategy as the primary reason for abandoning ship. Reports suggest the decision was sparked by the firm’s purported consideration of selling a majority stake to China’s Geely Automobile, which would put much-needed cash in its coffers. For its part, the company says that it’s strategy hasn’t changed, and that it doesn’t expect its namesake’s departure to have an impact.

Filed under: Transportation

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Via: Forbes, Reuters

Source: Fisker Automotive

It’s cold outside, but the cars at this week’s North American International Auto Show were positively sizzling — and Inhabitat sent several writers to report on the latest green cars to be unveiled at the show. Among the standouts at this year’s auto show were Acura, which unveiled its sleek new NSX hybrid sports car, and Tesla, which showcased its all-electric Model X. Also on display in Detroit was Cadillac’s 2014 ELR extended range EV with its gorgeous new interior. Want to see all the hottest rides from NAIAS 2013? Check out our roundup of the top seven hybrids and EVs from this year’s show.

While we were mostly preoccupied with the shiny new cars in Detroit, there were also plenty of exciting green architecture developments this week. Ronald Lu & Partners just announced that ZCB, the first net-zero energy building in Hong Kong is now open to the public. Meanwhile in China, the 2013 Harbin Ice Festival just kicked off in Zhaolin Park near the Songhua River — and it features some absolutely stunning castles made entirely from ice. And Wendy, the spiky blue pavilion from NYC-based architecture firm HWKN, made its debut in Abu Dhabi, and an Inhabitat reporter was on the scene to tour it.

Last week was a good one for renewable energy news. Japan announced that it will soon build the world’s largest offshore wind farm near Fukushima to compensate for scaling back its use of nuclear power since the 2011 meltdown. Electronics giant Panasonic unveiled the next-generation Ene-Farm, which is the world’s most efficient home fuel cell. Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed a device that detects weak or defective silicon wafers, which could save the solar industry billions of dollars. And the California Public Utilities Commission announced that California installed an impressive 1 GW of solar power by the end of 2012 — the most of any state in the country.

Inhabitat also reported on a wide variety of green products last week, starting with the iRock, an ingenious rocking chair that recharges your iPad using kinetic energy. Industrial designer Max Gunawan unveiled the Lumio, a hardbound book that opens up to become a gorgeous low-energy lamp. A group of University of Toronto grads launched the NanoLight, which they claim is the world’s most efficient LED light bulb. Rethink Robotics, a Boston-based robotics firm created a $22,000 humanoid robot named Baxter, which the company thinks can help revive American manufacturing. And finally, in case you missed it, Inhabitat recently launched a photo contest with LightCollector — enter now for your chance to win $1,000!

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Cars wired with ethernet may conjure thoughts of roving internet hotspots, but that’s not what Hyundai and Broadcom have in mind in this case. Traditionally, infotainment consoles, safety systems and the like are built on multiple in-car networks, but the duo will rig vehicles with modified ethernet cables to unify some of the disparate systems on a single network. Dubbed BroadR-Reach, the tech uses a single pair of unshielded wires to offer 100Mbps connection speeds and could scale up to 1Gbps. Though Hyundai and other automakers joined with Broadcom’s standards group for the technology last year, the firm is now the second car manufacturer to pledge that its autos will get the tech. As of now, there’s still no word on which models will be lined with ethernet or when they’ll roll off assembly lines.

Continue reading Hyundai to wire cars with Broadcom ethernet tech, put infotainment and security systems on one network

Filed under: Transportation

Hyundai to wire cars with Broadcom ethernet tech, put infotainment and security systems on one network originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 07:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shenzhen-based Innotrends has been pushing infotainment systems for a while now, and though standalone solutions like the Ca-Fi seem rather clunky when you can buy a Focus with Sync baked in, not everyone can count a flashy new “connected” model as their set of wheels. Today the company announced the latest version of its Android-powered infotainment system. The new Ca-Fi 621000 Universal runs Android Gingerbread and packs a 1GHz CPU with 512MB of RAM. It also sports a capacitive touchscreen rather than the resistive display of versions past, and there’s an OBD2-USB cable, plus the pre-loaded Torque app for keeping tabs on your vehicle’s health. If sprucing up your sedan is more in line with your budget than the 2013 BMW 7 Series with iDrive Touch and 3D maps, you can nab the Ca-Fi 621000 for $999 starting at the end of August — just make sure your car has the requisite double-DIN slot first.

Continue reading Ca-Fi 621000 brings infotainment to cars with double DIN / without Connect or Sync

Filed under: Transportation

Ca-Fi 621000 brings infotainment to cars with double DIN / without Connect or Sync originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 04:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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