Hasta La Gadget!

Everyone knew Ferrari was cooking up its first hybrid, and that it would be very quick when it was pegged as an Enzo successor. Still, we didn’t quite expect the sledgehammer that is the LaFerrari. Never mind the very redundant naming scheme: there’s a 789HP V12 mated with 160HP of electric power, the 949HP combination of which takes the supercar to 62MPH in less than 3 seconds and makes it the overall fastest Ferrari to date. There’s a nod to eco-friendliness with relatively low emissions, but the hybrid component mostly powers a KERS system that fills out the few weak points in the torque band. You won’t have the chance to buy the LaFerrari — all 499 units of the €1 million ($1.3 million) flagship are spoken for — but there’s already talk of future hybrids that will run solely on electric power some or all of the time.

Don’t be too forlorn if you have money to burn on a tech-centric Ferrari, though. The Maranello crew is also showing the very first results of its Apple collaboration through an upgraded FF. The four-seater GT now has Siri voice integration and ships with a pair of iPad minis to keep backseaters entertained when the 652HP V12 somehow isn’t exciting enough. Ferrari hasn’t said how much the upgraded FF costs, although we imagine that the iOS-linked costs are drops in the bucket next to the vehicle itself. Chairman Luca di Montezemolo hints that it’s just the start of the Apple relationship, too, as Ferrari will be “more precise” about the union in the months ahead.

Filed under: Transportation, Apple

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Via: Autoblog, Bloomberg

Source: Ferrari

Canalys is still staking its market share estimates on the view that mobile tablets are as relevant to PC market share as desktops and laptops. If we accept that interpretation, Apple was easily on top of the heap during the fourth quarter. Combining iPads and Macs would give it 27 million computer shipments in the fall, or 20.1 percent of the 134 million computers that left factories — the first time it would have had more than a fifth of the market. Not that Apple was the only one having a good time, however. HP reportedly took back second place from Lenovo by shipping 15 million PCs and claiming 11 percent of the market, while Samsung stepped into the top five for the first time at 11.7 million PCs and 9 percent share.

The upswings may have masked deeper problems. Apple and Samsung benefited from the iPad mini and Galaxy Tab lines, but they, Amazon and other tablet makers were reportedly propping up the market. Canalys doesn’t believe Windows 8 or RT moved the needle for demand, noting that laptop shipments were flat year-over-year where tablets surged 75 percent. It was a tough market for most conventional PC builders — just ask Dell — and there’s no immediate signs that it will be any easier for them in 2013.

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Apple, Samsung, Amazon, HP, Lenovo

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Source: Canalys

As we begin 2013, we’re stuck in a kind of tablet limbo. Most companies rushed to get devices out for the fall, while the models we saw at CES 2013 aren’t yet shipping. As such, it’s a mostly familiar deck, with Apple, Google and Microsoft once again striving for the top spot. That said, there are new entries from Amazon and ASUS, and many of us who didn’t score some sweet loot this holiday season have a slate-sized pile of cash to spend. If you’re in that situation, continue on for our first tablet guide of 2013.

Note: If you’re looking for tablets with an Atom or Core i5 CPU, you’ll find those in our forthcoming laptop buyer’s guide, since they have the same guts as notebooks (or netbooks, in some cases). For the purposes of this tablet guide, we define tablets as slate-type devices with low-power ARM processors.

Filed under: Tablets, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, ASUS, Google, Amazon

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America is the land of the SUV and so it’s no surprise that Volkswagen came here to launch its CrossBlue plug-in concept. The SUV features a front-mounted diesel engine paired with an electric motor in a traditional hybrid configuration, plus a second, more powerful electric motor in the rear to drive those wheels in the back. This configuration gives it all wheel drive and also allows the ECU to either send power to or retrieve power from (in the form of regeneration) either motor to recharge the on-board battery pack — which can also be juiced up by plugging into the wall.

The system is said to deliver an estimated 85MPGe efficiency, which is pretty amazing for an SUV, and 14 miles of pure electric driving should you wish. As it’s a concept, it’s anybody’s guess just how it’ll actually perform when it goes into production, but we couldn’t help but notice something very much available today in the back seats: iPad minis. Yes, one was embedded in each of the headrests, rear-facing for maximum efficiency in keeping the kids busy during a long cruise. Again, this is just a concept, so no guarantees we’ll ever see this on the road, but a VW rep commented that they hope to see this in production in a year or two.

Continue reading VW unveils CrossBlue plug-in SUV with iPad mini headrests and 85MPGe efficiency (eyes-on)

Filed under: Transportation

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Synthesizers are notoriously expensive, especially some vintage models, but how’d you like a Korg Polysix for the bargain price of $14.99? Well, as long as you’ve got an iPad (or a mini), that’s now possible with the iPolysix app released today. The ’80s-era analog polyphonic synth is “fully replicated,” with plenty of additional tools for tablet composers — the new Polyseq step sequencer, dual Kaoss Pads with chordal support, and a “production environment” with two synths, a drum machine and mixer. You can also publish your creations and remix tracks with other users via the SoundCloud-integrated Polyshare feature. If you’re hemming and hawing about a purchase, make up your mind soon, as the app’s price doubles on January 1st. You won’t find it in the Play store, but the Android Polysix app we saw running on Miselu’s Neiro prototype leads us to believe Google’s OS won’t be excluded from the jam session entirely. Advert / app demo after the break.

[Thanks, fsk1138]

Continue reading Korg’s iPolysix synth app takes your iPad back to the ’80s (video)

Filed under: Tablets, Software

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Via: Korg (Japanese)

Source: iTunes Store