Hasta La Gadget!

Ford was quick to embrace in-car mobile app integration through its AppLink technology, but it wants a true industry standard to boost adoption. The company is tackling this problem this today by acquiring Livio, best-known for its Livio Connect in-car app gateway. Valued at under $10 million, the buyout will help Ford create a single app interface that any automaker could use. Mobile developers would only have to support one format to reach many infotainment units — as long as Ford’s rivals are willing to set aside their own platforms, of course. In the meantime, Ford is being cautious. It intends to keep Livio as a separate brand that will serve GM and other existing customers for the foreseeable future.

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation, Mobile

Comments

Source: Ford, Livio

It’s a small miracle that you can open up your laptop and surf the web while soaring through the air in a metal tube some seven miles above the ground, but the experience is inconsistent, and when it works, the connection is often frustratingly sluggish. That’s about to change.

Once focused on undercutting the competition, JetBlue is now best known for its in-flight product: complimentary snacks, 36 channels of free DirecTV and friendly flight attendants. This year, the airline is undergoing a service alteration of sorts. The traditionally all-coach carrier will soon cater to business travelers with a bed-equipped premium cabin, and by the end of next year, all customers will be able to surf the web from 36,000 feet with speeds that rival (or often exceed) what we’re used to on the ground. That new service, powered by ViaSat, is called Fly-Fi, and it’s hitting the skies this November.

We spent a day with JetBlue’s subsidiary, LiveTV, the company responsible for providing in-flight entertainment (IFE) on more than 600 aircraft, including 188 JetBlue planes and some 200 United 737s. If you’ve watched DirecTV while flying either of those airlines, it’s LiveTV that put it there, and soon, the Florida-based firm will be responsible for getting you online, too. Fly-Fi, and its to-be-named United equivalent, will deliver up to 12 Mbps of data — not to the aircraft, but to each and every passenger on board. Join us aboard JetBlue’s first Fly-Fi-equipped Airbus A320 after the break.%Gallery-slideshow90014%

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless, Internet

Comments

If “fighter pilot” was your desired career, you’d better hurry up now that Boeing is looking to replace you with a robot. The company has retrofitted a retired F-16 fighter, which had laid dormant for 15 years, into a drone for combat training missions. Rather than risking life and limb in the cockpit, two test pilots can maneuver the craft, now called QF-16, from Florida’s Tyndall Air Force Base — presenting rookie flyers with a target that can hit 9G and supersonic speeds. There’s an explanatory video below, which explains the benefits of computer controlled planes but… wait a minute, isn’t this the plot of Stealth?

Filed under: Transportation

Comments

Via: The Register

Source: Boeing

If there is one major drawback about electric powered cars, it would be this – their range is not exactly what you call worth checking out if you plan to travel long distance without having to make too many stops along the way. Having said that, this does not mean that research and advancements in the field of electric cars have come to a screeching halt. No sir, Tesla Motors has decidedly defied conventional thinking by having patented a battery which is supposedly able to keep your ride running for a cool 400 miles, all on a single charge.

It is not too surprising to hear that Tesla Motors are the ones behind this patent, considering how the company has been on the cutting edge for such a long time already, not to mention that they are the ones churning out highly desirable electric cars in the first place. In fact, Tesla Motors has declared that they have every intention of building a trio of self-driving cars in three years’ time, while the Model S EV should be able to have its whole battery pack swapped out in a matter of 90 seconds. All in all, if a 400 mile battery can be achieved, then it should be a hot seller at the right price.

Tesla Patents Battery Pack That Could Hit 400 Miles original content from Ubergizmo.

Just what kind of public transportation do you think the future will hold? We have seen our fair share of flying cars and buses, but how about something smaller and more intimate as well as compact? This is where the nThree comes in, and from the name itself, you can infer that it will arrive with three wheels attached to it. The nThree concept will be powered by a solitary electric engine which will be able to drive power to the rear wheel. To steer the nThree around, it is as simple as a turn of the wheel, and motorcyclists would find it to be a pretty natural switch. The two front wheels will tilt as they turn, offering you a tighter turning radius.

The nThree’s frame design might be lightweight but it is sturdy, after being modeled after the natural strength of a bird’s beak. This might seem to be a design variant of Tron: Legacy’s light cycle designs, but the nThree will hopefully cost just a fraction of other similar rides. Needless to say, this is but a conceptual idea at this point in time, so keep your fingers crossed that someone or an entity would see the need to come up with a sum of money to see it materialize in our world.

nThree Conceptual Ride original content from Ubergizmo.