Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

You've got to hand it to Tesla: the company does a great job of staying in the headlines. Sometimes, that's for laudable things--like the opening of the company's first European showroom, or receiving a sizeble loan from the Department of Energy. Then again, sometimes it's because the company's CEO has a penchant for calling journalists douchebags. Today's news falls into the latter category. Lucky us.

Quick recap: Tesla was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, both engineers. They were joined in 2004 by Elon Musk, whose substantial investment in Tesla made him the company's primary shareholder. In 2005, Musk became the...

•    What is it: AT&T's attempt to displace portable navigation systems with Apple's iPhone and its cell network •    Key facts: Turn-by-turn navigation with voice prompts; also stores favorites and fetches routes by dialing numbers •    On sale: Now •    Price: Application is free on iTunes; $9.99 monthly subscription

GPS navigation comes in many flavors for drivers: there are standalone units from makers like Garmin and TomTom,  operater-assisted navigation instructions from GM's OnStar, and navigation programmed into cell phones for on-the-fly directions that depend on cell phone connections to update data and maps.

AT&T's...

Nissan may have the most aggressive plans of any major automaker to produce fully electric cars. The company has said it expects to sell up to 100,000 EVs globally by 2012, using lithium-ion cells from its joint venture with electronics powerhouse NEC Corp.

While Nissan provided us with a first drive of the 2012 Nissan EV powertrain, it has released no details of the electric car itself. Now, Autocar magazine says the car will be a midsize five-door hatchback, with dedicated styling not used for any other Nissan.

The design is likely to be unveiled at either the Frankfurt Motor Show in September or the Tokyo Motor Show in October. But ...