Hasta La Gadget!

Smartphone integration is the next big thing that’s happening right now, but it isn’t quite happening the way Denso is doing it. This is the company’s dashboard of a future, with its most predominant feature being an iPhone embedded right in the steering wheel. That drives an infotainment system and a small, circular LCD above with a bunch of widgets you can bounce with a touch from the phone to the display. Most interesting is one that communicates with traffic lights to let you know how fast to go if you want to miss ’em all. The idea is to save fuel by not stopping and starting, but we’re thinking this could also do a lot to ease hypertension rates nationwide.

Another thing the dash can do is tell when you’re about to drowse off. One of those widgets is a cup of coffee that empties as you’re getting sleepy. An all-seeing webcam perched atop the dash tracks your face and eyes to know just how alert you are. Drop below a threshold and the dash starts blinking red. It’s time for a nap — or maybe more coffee, for goodness’ sake.

Continue reading Denso dash with iPhone steering wheel knows when you are sleeping, knows when you’re awake (video)

Denso dash with iPhone steering wheel knows when you are sleeping, knows when you’re awake (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on September 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

You may remember an application called Yod’m that we wrote about back in March. It brought the famous 3D Linux virtual desktop manager over to the Windows side, but it was pretty rough around the edges. Well, I’m proud to say that a lot of work has been done to make it a lot better, but there’s a catch.

Otaku Software, the creators of the popular TopDesk application, snatched up the Yod’m developer shortly after the free version was released. Now to get the software, renamed to DeskSpace, you’ll need to plop down $19.95 for use beyond the 14 day trial. It might be worth it after you checkout the features:

• Work and play on multiple desktops.
• Display multiple desktops in stunning 3D.
• Quickly switch between desktops using the mouse and keyboard.
• Drag windows between desktops by moving them to the sides of the screen.
• Display desktops in 3D on multiple monitors.
• Configure the hot keys and mouse buttons used to switch between desktops, and how DeskSpace displays and manages desktop.
• Use DeskSpace in multiple languages.

Personally I’ve installed virtual desktop managers before, and often times forget to use them. For that reason I didn’t even try this out, and definitely wouldn’t spend the money on it. Although I know it would impress a lot of my friends.

Here’s a quick video I grabbed that shows DeskSpace in action:

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The five-door Ford Focus is an eminently practical vehicle, and the Electric version will be as well. However, we’re now learning that it won’t be quite as practical as we’d hoped. We didn’t get the chance to pop the rear hatch on the thing when we were exploring it at CES. Here in Detroit we did and you can see what we found above. That’s definitely a big ‘ol box, putting a hurting on cargo space, but ultimately a small price to pay for rolling totally fuel- and emissions-free.

Ford Focus Electric pops a hatch and shows all that battery junk in its trunk originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toyota made no bones about the fact that more Prius models were to be unveiled in Detroit for the North American International Auto Show, even throwing advertisements up around town asking whether it’s supposed to be Priuses or Priii. (We, as you can see, chose to side-step the debate.) Now we know what’s coming, first being the Prius V. It’s the MPV the company has been teasing, basically just a taller version of the four-door sedan with a hatchback and a whopping 60 percent more cargo space — 32 cubic feet, which is more than most compact SUVs. It’s to be rated 42mpg city, 38 highway, and 40 combined, which is a surprising 10mpg lower than the sedan model. That’s perhaps a bit disappointing, but availability this summer is a pleasant surprise.

Next is the Prius C, naturally for “concept,” which is aimed at “young singles and couples.” It’s definitely funkier and way cooler than the current model, looking to have a nose very similar to the car’s FT-86 concept. We hope the production model looks quite close to this, and while that’s always a doubtful proposition we won’t have all that long to wait, with it hitting dealerships in the first half of 2012. Toyota also showed off the Prius Plug-In, the very same one we test drove last year, said to be coming first to the western and eastern coasts of the US first, and re-affirmed the “patriarch” status of the current-generation Prius sedan, having sold 230,000 cars since 2009. It’s good to be the king.

Filed under: Transportation

Toyota debuts new Prius models, family-friendlier Prius V and funkier Prius C originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, we’ve seen an iPad on a dashboard. Ready for some in-car PlayBook action? Recent RIM acquisition QNX is all over it, showing off what it calls simply QNX Car. It’s a basic reference implementation of some technology that will be running the infotainment systems of cars in the coming years — though they’ll surely look very different than this by then. QNX is showing how it can pull media from multiple sources, like an iPhone, use Message Access Protocol Bluetooth to pull data from a BlackBerry, and even use Terminal Mode to replicate the UI of something like the PlayBook. Plus, the PlayBook was able to change climate control settings in the car.

The company is also working on what it’s called the Simple UI Protocol. It’s basically a lowest-common-denominator smartphone integration — something like Ford’s AppLink that, in theory, will work regardless of the app or the hardware on the car. It’s very limited, allowing just two lines of text and a few icons to be sent from the phone to the car, and just two buttons (left and right) to be sent back to the phone as controls. The idea is to remove any aspect of driver distraction and to provide AppLink-like functionality in a standard, non OEM-specific way, which we like. But, it’s so limited in scope we’re not sure just how useful it would be. See for yourself after the break.

Continue reading QNX Car concept with PlayBook integration hands-on (video)

QNX Car concept with PlayBook integration hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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