Hasta La Gadget!

Back in 2007, Apple set a goal of one percent of mobile phone market share when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. Recent ABI Research data indicates that Apple achieved its goal sometime in 2008; by the end of the year, the iPhone achieved 1.1 percent of 1.21 billion mobile phone shipments worldwide, according to Ars Technica.

That figure means Apple is currently number eight in cell phone vendors worldwide, in terms of market share. Nokia is on top with 38.6 percent, with second-place Samsung far behind at 16.2 percent; LG and Motorola are each tied for third place with 8.3 percent a piece. Apple’s 1.1 percent figure is tied for eighth, actually, with HTC, and just ahead of Sharp.

The report brings up a now-embarrassing quote from Palm CEO Ed Colligan, who said in 2006 that “PC guys are not going to just figure this [market] out. They’re not going to just walk in.” Eating crow lately, Colligan?

Ford Motor Co. and Canadian-based Magna International are working on an electric vehicle that Ford plans to bring to market in America by 2011, putting it in potential competition with GM’s Chevy Volt due around the same time, according to the Detroit News.

The report said that Magna surprised Ford back in September, following months of talks, by driving up one day in a Ford Focus that Magna had converted to battery power on their own in secret. “It was a phenomenal car,” said Lisa Drake, Ford’s chief engineer for hybrid programs, in the report. “We were highly, highly impressed.”

Fast forward four months: Executive chairman Bill Ford Jr. told the press gathered in Cobo Arena plans to bring a car based on that prototype to market in 2011. Ford has been racing plug-in hybrid versions of the Ford Escape on testing grounds, but is now pursuing this joint venture with Magna in a pure battery-powered vehicle in tandem.

The report said that the production vehicle being developed with Magna will be based on the new global Focus platform, due out in 2010. “The electric version will have no gasoline motor, but will be limited to a range of 100 miles on a single charge—enough, Ford says, because most motorists in America average less than 40 miles a day.”

iVOICE Technologies (www.theivoice.com) has announced the R1 Bluetooth Handsfree Kit , a new hands-free mobile speakerphone for the car. The R1 claims to offer up to 30 hours of talk time on a single charge, and 800 hours of standby time (which is about a month, give or take).

The R1 also features dual-microphone noise-cancellation, with one mic optimizing speech intelligibility while the other works to remove background noise—that’s a similar arrangement to what Aliph, Plantronics, and Motorola use in their latest high-end Bluetooth headsets. The R1 also has a 3-watt speaker, so you can hear callers over the sound of your Subaru WRX STi with a cat-back exhaust at 5000 rpm.

The R1 comes with a carrying pouch, a visor mount, a mini-USB power adapter, a car charger adapter, and a wall adapter. No price or release date has been announced as of yet.

Commuters on the road in Austin were in for an interesting surprise yesterday morning, as hackers took over two road signs and changed the usual traffic-related messages to warn of zombies instead, according to Austin News. A city spokesperson said in the report the hacked messages were only up for a few hours—and that someone had to cut a padlock and break into a password-protected computer inside in order to change the messages.

“Even though this may seem amusing to a lot of people, this is really serious, and it is a crime,” said Austin Public Works spokesperson Sara Hartley in the report. “And you can be indicted for it, and we want to make sure our traffic on the roadways stays safe.”

“I thought it was pretty funny,” said University of Texas sophomore Jane Shin, who saw the signs on Lamar Boulevard, in the article. “We wondered who did it.”

Vectrix has introduced two new electric scooters at the New York Motorcycle Show, according to AutoblogGreen. The lower-cost $8,495 VX-1E features a new lead-acid battery pack that allows the company to sell the thing for $1,500 less than its existing VX-1, but at the somewhat major cost of reducing acceleration, top speed, regenerative braking, and range. Given that electric vehicles are already a compromise even with today’s latest lithium ion technology, the VX-1E doesn’t sound like the greatest idea—even if it’s less expensive.

The other new model is the VX-2, a smaller and less ambitious electric scooter sourced from China. It also uses lead acid batteries and is good for a top speed of 30 mph and a range of 45 to 50 miles. Next up for Vectrix according to the report: a three-wheeler using technology developed by Piaggio.