Hasta La Gadget!

The new Toyota Prius delivers on its promise: better than 50 mpg in everyday driving. I found it was easy to beat 50 mpg in a mixture of city and highway driving and approach 60 mpg in suburban driving. Add in more efficient hybrid technology, a roomier cockpit, a raft of high-technology offerings such as active cruise control and lane departure warning, more comfort, and you’ve got one of the world’s most desirable hybrid cars when it goes on sale in late spring. With even fewer hybrid quirks this time around, you might consider a Prius if you want a great midsize car, regardless of its hybrid drivetrain. You might even forgive Toyota for a couple blunders such as the lack of iPod adapters and funky, hard-to-read instruments. It’s available in late spring as a 2010 model and probably little changed in price.

Hop in, press the start button, the instrument panel comes to life, and a small ready indicator shows it’s okay to drive off after you push the stubby shift lever (now on the console) into Drive. If you like, choose one of the three dashboard engine management buttons that suits your driving style: EV, ECO, or PWR. Press the EV (electric vehicle) button and can you travel up to one mile at 25 mph before the gasoline engine kicks in, which is a nice trick for creeping away early in the morning or late at night without waking anyone or for annoying all the cars stacked up behind your self-satisfied, hypermiling self as you pull away from a traffic signal. The Prius defaults to ECO (economy) with smooth acceleration, or you can press the PWR (power) for more aggressive performance. If you need full power, you get it in any mode by flooring the throttle pedal. And there’s more PWR to be gained for 2010 by flooring it, 134 hp total from gasoline and electric combined vs. 110 in the 2009 Prius. It now breaks 10 seconds 0-60 mph (9.8) which at least isn’t embarrassing.

Honda has finally announced pricing for its 41 mpg Insight LX hybrid, the company’s five-passenger, five-door powered by a 1.3-liter i-VTEC gasoline engine and a 10-kilowatt electric motor. The car will start at $19,800, which undercuts the Prius by several thousand dollars as expected. It’s also almost $4,000 cheaper than the Honda Civic Hybrid.

Along with the LX model, Honda will also launch a premium EX version for $21,300. That one adds Vehicle Stability Assist—a feature that should have been on the base car—along with alloy wheels, cruise control, steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters, an upgraded audio system with six speakers, a USB audio interface, a center console with armrest and storage compartment, and heated side mirrors with integrated turn signals.

Honda’s Satellite-Linked Navigation System is also available as an option on the EX. It features a 6.5-inch screen, voice recognition, and a database of seven million points of interest within the continental United States. The nav system also includes Bluetooth and steering wheel-mounted controls.

Not like you didn’t already know everything there was to know about the 2010 Prius, but in all seriousness, here’s a snippet we’ll bet you weren’t aware of. Autoblog has pointed out that Toyota’s next-generation hybrid will sport an all new Touch Tracer Display that will enable steering wheel commands to appear atop the speedometer whenever a button is pushed. The upside? Rather than glancing down at your wheel (and thus, away from oncoming traffic), you’ll be able to see the options while keeping your head up and eyes on the road. Naturally, we’d expect this little innovation to spread far and wide across Toyota‘s fleet in the not-too-distant future.

Filed under: Displays, Transportation

Touch Tracer Display gives 2010 Prius speedometer a new look originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Details have been trickling out about the 2010 Toyota Prius for months, with the largest of course being the unveiling of the production version. But now AutoblogGreen has learned that the car will achieve its 50 mpg average EPA rating—four more than the current generation—with a 49 mpg city / 50 mpg highway split. That latter number is significant, because it’s five more than the 2nd generation Prius and the first time the car has a better highway rating than city.

Toyota announced that production of the new Prius will begin in late-April, with the first cars going on sale in late spring. The report said that Toyota is forecasting sales of around 100,000 3rd-gen units through the end of 2009 (as a 2010 model), and 180,000 sales for 2010.

As known before, the new version is also slightly faster, has a solar panel on the roof to help keep the car cool inside during the summer, and has slightly sharper and more aggressive styling, along with revised interior LCDs and safety features including Lane Keep Assist, Dynamic Cruise Control and Lane Departure Warning.

While we still prefer the Micro Four Thirds approach (we love lens selection, so sue us), Samsung’s conceptual NX Series is still looking pretty boss for those needing a true (or close to true) point-and-shoot frame. Announced here at PMA, this new “hybrid” camera maintains the slim stature of a standard pocket cam, yet includes an APS-C sized image sensor that is traditionally found on DSLRs. In layman’s terms, that means this camera will boast a larger surface area “to gather light and produce higher-quality images than comparable digital camera systems.” In order to keep things thin, the electronic viewfinder (EVF) replaces the DSLR mirror box, but details beyond that are scant. The good news, however, is that Sammy plans to commercialize the NX line and have ’em shipping by the second half of this year. Is the P&S-DSLR gap finally being bridged? Guess we’ll find out (not so) soon enough; per usual, the full release is just after the break.

Update: It looks like the NX-series does have interchangeable lenses — a press shot we just received shows what look to be a couple different zooms.

Continue reading Samsung’s hybrid NX Series camera: point-and-shoot with DSLR-like image sensor

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Samsung’s hybrid NX Series camera: point-and-shoot with DSLR-like image sensor originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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