Hasta La Gadget!

Tesla Roadster to return in 2014, 3-Series fighter in the works originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Oct 2011 05:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just a few meters from the entrance to Nokia World at London’s sprawling ExCel Exhibition Centre, we found a Toyota iQ compact with Nokia branding on the door. And in the dash was Toyota’s new Touch Life smartphone integration system, complete with Nokia Drive compatibility and display mirroring via MirrorLink. In addition to mirroring your Symbian Belle (or MeeGo) display on the 7-inch touchscreen, Touch Life also provides a driver-friendly interface, including enormous icons to control music playback, or to place calls to contacts by tapping their name and photo, or by using the jumbo telephone keypad. It also integrates with the Nokia Drive app, with a very simple (and also oversized) navigation interface. The concept is simple: access basic smartphone functions as you drive while limiting distractions. While you’re parked, you’ll have unrestricted access to your phone’s interface, but non-critical features are disabled as you drive.

The demo unit we saw is still a few months away from hitting production, so there were a few hiccups. After connecting the Nokia 701 to the system, the smartphone’s display appeared on the in-dash screen within a few seconds. We had full access to all of the phone’s features until shifting into drive, when a much simpler screen popped up, with Call, Drive and Music modules. Everything worked rather seamlessly until we neared the end of the demo, when an “Enjoy the sound while driving” message appeared on screen, where the navigation window had been just a moment before. There isn’t a firm release date in place, and the demo unit only appears to work with Symbian Belle at the moment — though MeeGo support (and likely Windows Phone as well) will be available after launch. Jump past the break to see how it works from behind the wheel.

Continue reading Nokia Drive with MirrorLink on Toyota Touch Life hands-on (video)

Nokia Drive with MirrorLink on Toyota Touch Life hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What good is an Ultimate Driving Machine if it can’t get a little help from its friends? A new hazard-dodging system from BMW could help these Bavarian autos get a bit more chatty, each vehicle talking to nearby traffic across long-range wireless networks. In a series of video demonstrations, the car maker shows how the car-to-x system could give advance warnings of traffic, emergency vehicles and weather hazards by enabling one car to beam warnings directly to others. BMW hopes to connect the system to mobile phone networks as latency times improve and possibly even access data from traffic light systems. Sure, GM and Ford got there a bit earlier, but you can see BMW’s implementation demonstrated after the break, and check out the via link for more videos of the world’s most boring game of GTA.

Continue reading BMW presents car-to-x communication, wants vehicles to talk more (video)

BMW presents car-to-x communication, wants vehicles to talk more (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Day Bag is made from old, popped car airbags

After you crash your car, but before you decide you’d be better off getting around by bike, you might consider ripping out the now-spent airbags and making them into a tough and light duffel bag.

Or you could skip the whole crashing business altogether (although you should still ditch the car) and just buy one of E13’s SRS Day Bags.

The bags are made from “upcycled” airbags which have popped their last. The resulting Day Bag looks like a skinny duffel, and has a detachable shoulder strap which gets its own pocket to stow it when you don’t need it. In fact, pretty much every part comes from a dead car: The outer layer is a driver-side airbag, the lining is from the passenger-side bag, and the handle and strap are recycled seat belts.

Capacity is six liters, the length 17.5 inches and the diameter 6.25 inches. There’s also an 8 x 5-inch pocket inside.

For a recycled bag, it’s pricey at $120, but then again, think about what you’re now saving on gas since you swapped your car for a bike.

Day Bag product page [E13 via Core77]

See Also:

• Rickshaw Bagworks Lightweight iPad 2 Messenger Bag
• Timbuk2 Hidden Messenger Bag
• Money for Old Rubber: Tread Gadget Bags Made from Old Tires …

If you drive, and if you read Engadget (which…you do), there’s a good chance you’ve spent some time using an iOS device in the car. You’ve probably also spent some of that time wishing there were a better way to integrate your phone or pod with the car itself. There have been devices to help you bring Pod and vehicle together in an unholy union of distraction since that first physical scroll wheel hit the scene, from maddening tape adapters and FM tuners to more integral solutions like Ford’s Sync system. The whole time, we were kind of just wishing they’d figure out a way to let us mount the thing directly in the dash, and have our way with it as we do in all other situations. Pioneer’s AppRadio approaches that — it looks unapologetically like a bigger iPod in landscape mode, complete with minimalistic physical controls and a laid-back, no-nonsense look about it. Does it, in fact, make the iPhone more useful while you’re in the car? Turns out, it’s a yes and no kind of thing.

Continue reading Pioneer AppRadio review

Pioneer AppRadio review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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