Hasta La Gadget!

Next month, Aston Martin’s hydrogen-fueled Rapide S will attempt a new record at the 24 Hours Nurburgring race in Germany. The company’s opted to get a head start on headline grabbing, though, taking a prototype vehicle on a zero-emissions lap around the course, with CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez behind the wheel. The test has gone off without a hitch, and Aston Martin appears to be confident that the vehicle will survive the grueling 24-hour marathon, which is set to run from May 19th through the 20th. The four-door sports car, which is based on the Rapide S model that’s soon to make its way to consumers, will operate on a blend of hydrogen and gasoline with zero CO2 emissions. It’ll be the first hydrogen-powered car to compete in such an event, according to the manufacturer. The lengthy race is an impressive feat for any motorist, and we’re glad environmental concerns haven’t taken a backseat to friendly (and exhausting) competition — for this one entrant, at least.

Filed under: Transportation

Comments

Source: Autoblog

Lenovo’s ThinkPad Helix has had one of the rockier roads to the US market, having been promised for February only to be delayed to April. Things are getting smoother, however, as the first units of the are rolling off the production line — and there are already customers waiting at Seton Hall University. Keeping up its recent practice of handing out gadgets to junior students, the school expects to test the dockable Windows 8 tablet within a few weeks, and then deliver about 2,000 units to newcomers starting in June. The turn toward a hybrid lets the university settle on one PC design for the fall rather than divide its attention between tablets and Ultrabooks, Seton Hall’s Drew Holden says. As for the general public? Lenovo hasn’t officially put the Helix on sale through its own store, but a handful of customers say they’ve already received theirs through other channels. In any event, keep a close watch on third-party stores if you’re willing to part with $1,499 for a ThinkPad convertible.

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Lenovo

Comments

Via: Ultrabook News

Source: The Setonian

Inhon first attracted attention with its amazingly thin Blade 13 laptop, a 13-inch laptop that weighs in at less than 2-pounds and is only 0.39-inches thin. According to the folks at Engadget, following very closely on the laptop’s heels is the Inhon Tablet, which has an optional keyboard that immediately makes one think of the Surface. The tablet will be launched in Taiwan at an unspecified date.

It’s a rather unique concept – when folded, the device looks and functions like your average everyday tablet running Windows 8. It is portable, and can be used with a stylus, for example. There are bound to be times, however, when you need to do something more hardware-intensive than a tablet can handle. Instead of switching to a laptop or desktop, the Inhon Tablet has a built in sort of Turboboost mode.

On the half of the tablet/laptop hybrid that doesn’t hold the screen, there’s said to be USB 3.0 and Mini DisplayPorts, as well as a cooling fan that is exposed when the device is opened up. As such, the increased cooling is used in conjunction with a TurboBoost of the processor (overclocking?) that gives users a big jump in processing power.

Because it can no longer be used as a tablet once it is unfolded, the Inhon Tablet can be used with an optional accessory that looks very similar to a Touch Cover, functioning as both a trackpad and a keyboard. When it hits shelves, the quasi-tablet will be priced between NT $29,999 and NT $39,999, which is roughly $1000 to $1300 USD.

[via Engadget]

Inhon Tablet has fold-activated CPU boost is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Protean Electric is a company that performs a lot of research and development in the in-wheel electric drive market. In-wheel electric motors are exactly what they sound like, small electric propulsion units that fit within the wheels of an automobile. Protean Electric has unveiled its production in-wheel motor at the 2013 Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress.

The Protean technology is designed to be an integral part of the hybrid powertrain system and paired with a traditional internal combustion engine. However, the manufacturer says that the technology is also capable of providing enough power to be the only source of traction drive in a fully electric vehicle. The motors are designed to reside in the space behind the wheel and produce torque and power exactly where the driver and automobile need it.

Protean says that its new production motor provides a 25% increase in peak torque compared with previous generations of its technology. The new electric drive motors can generate 735 pound-foot of torque and 100 hp each. That is a huge amount of torque for each electric motor with such a small physical footprint designed to fit inside your typical wheel.

The motors also weighing only 68 pounds each and Protean says that the electric motors are able to improve fuel economy up to 30% in hybrid configurations depending on the battery size. The design of the electric motors allows of 85% of the available kinetic energy to be recovered during braking to recharge the battery. I would love to see an all wheel drive electric vehicle using these electric motors producing over 2800 pound-foot of torque.

[via Protean Electric]

Protean debuts production in-wheel electric motor is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The good people over at Engadget have managed to snag a hands-on of the a hybrid device that was inspired by the Toshiba Satellite U925, which has been dubbed to be a Windows 8-based hybrid product. Since this particular device is obviously a hybrid device, it comes with a keyboard that can be detached from the touchscreen itself, and whenever you have no need for any kind of typing to be done, all you need to do is detach it, and the entire shebang will be transformed into a tablet – nifty, no?

It seems that Toshiba displayed this hybrid tablet at the Intel Developer Forum that happened this week, where some quarters have called it the Portege Z10 instead, which so happened to have passed through the FCC’s tests recently without missing a beat. The alleged Portege Z10 will also have a rather generous hinge that definitely comes in handy to ensure the screen remains in place whenever it is used as a notebook. Hardware specifications include a 10” display, a USB 3.0 port, a micro-HDMI socket in addition to a SD memory card slot for expansion purposes.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Adobe Launching Primetime To Tackle TV Everywhere, iPad Embedded In Car Bumper And Still Works,