San Francisco, San Jose and Palo Alto, California were all too happy to endorse Better Place's electric vehicle infrastructure two years ago, but now the powers that be have invested some cash to get this show on the road. The Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission has dropped $6.9 million to purchase and build 61 electric taxis and four robotic battery swap stations to put freshly juiced cells in place -- just like Better Place has been doing with Tokyo taxis since April 26th. Yellow Cab Cooperative and Yellow Checker Cab will operate the zero-emission vehicles, though CNET reports that they've yet to choose a particular type -- perhaps we'll finally see Mitsubishi's i MiEV with a steering wheel on the left-hand side? PR after the break.
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MTC Awards $33 Million in New Grants to Spur Innovations in Emissions Reduction
17 Bay Area Projects Selected
OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 27, 2010 - The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) today approved 17 grants totaling $33 million through its Climate Initiatives Program to promote breakthrough techniques for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle-miles traveled around the Bay Area. The commitments include 13 Innovative Grants totaling $31 million to support electric-vehicle fleets, encourage alternatives to solo driving, institute dynamic pricing for parking, promote bicycle sharing, allow ocean-going ships to turn off their diesel engines while loading or unloading cargo, eliminate the need to transport hot asphalt for pavement rehabilitation projects, and upgrade signalized intersections to detect and count bicycles. The Commission also approved four Safe Routes to Schools grants totaling $2 million for programs designed to encourage walking or bicycling to school. These grants will supplement $15 million already distributed to the nine Bay Area counties for local Safe Routes to Schools programs.
"The stiff competition for these grants shows the spirit of innovation is alive and well in the Bay Area," said MTC Chair and Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, noting the Commission received 75 initial project requests totaling $250 million at the start of the two-step evaluation process. "But the spirit of partnership and collaboration among the applicants is equally strong. We ultimately selected the projects that have the biggest potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and that can be replicated regionwide. And because many of the original project sponsors ended up joining forces with other applicants, good proposals got even better."
The biggest of the 13 Innovative Grants is a nearly $7 million award to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the city of San Jose and Palo Alto-based Better Place to demonstrate electric taxis in San Jose and San Francisco. Other grants for electric vehicle programs included $2.8 million for a national demonstration project led by Alameda County which includes the purchase of 90 electric vehicles and accompanying Level 2 chargers for use by public agencies in Alameda, Marin, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties; and $1.7 million for a team led by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority to deploy 19 electric vehicles in the City CarShare fleet in San Francisco and the East Bay.
A partnership involving the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, SamTrans, the San Francisco MTA and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District received almost $4.3 million for a pilot bike-sharing program through which 1,000 bikes will be available for use at 100 kiosks in San Francisco, San Jose, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City and other cities along the Caltrain corridor.
The Port of Oakland won a $3 million grant to install the infrastructure needed to allow ships at one of its 18 international berths to turn off their auxiliary diesel engines and plug into the electrical grid while loading or unloading cargo. This Shore Power initiative is planned as the first step in the eventual transformation of all the port's international berths and its eight marine terminals.
The city of Napa teamed with Sonoma County to win a $2 million grant to demonstrate cold-in-place asphalt recycling, which eliminates the need to produce new paving material or transport it to the worksite. The demonstration will include roadway rehab projects in both Napa and Sonoma counties.
The city of San Jose received $1.5 million to test eight different bicycle detection and count systems at signalized intersections around the city. Each test will last at least three months. The city will conduct outreach to bicyclists to identify the best technology, and then implement the system on two major travel corridors with existing bike lanes.
The city of Berkeley received a $2 million grant to implement a pilot program for dynamic pricing of parking spaces in the Southside and Elmwood districts, to enhance parking enforcement to manage spillover into adjacent residential neighborhoods, and to implement various transportation demand-management (TDM) strategies to help reduce the number of auto trips in the city.
SamTrans got nearly $1.5 million to implement car-sharing, short-distance vanpools and other TDMs in and around downtown Redwood City. The San Francisco County Transportation Authority received $750,000 to establish a forum for implementing TDM tools such as parking cashout programs and a Muni Partners shuttle. A partnership between the Sonoma County Transportation Authority and the city of Santa Rosa got $600,000 to restructure Santa Rosa's Guaranteed Ride Home program, its commute pass and youth pass programs and other TDM strategies. Another partnership led by the Sonoma County Transportation Authority received a $1.5 million grant to demonstrate dynamic ridesharing technology in Sonoma, Marin and Contra Costa counties.
The four Safe Routes to Schools grants approved by MTC included $867,000 to a partnership spearheaded by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority for a climate change curriculum and competition in schools in Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties; $500,000 to a team led by the Alameda County Transportation Commission for a mobile truck that workers will use to promote walking and biking, and to provide bicycle repairs and bike repair and bike safety lessons; $383,000 for a group led by the Transportation Authority of Marin that will use social media to promote "Green Ways to School;" and $250,000 for the Solano Transportation Authority to develop geographic information systems (GIS)-based route-to-school maps with safety coded routes.
MTC is the transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. A complete list of projects approved for funding through the Climate Initiatives Program grants can be viewed here (PDF).
Better Place to Bring Electric Taxi Program to the San Francisco Bay Area
October 27, 2010
Palo Alto, Calif. – (October 27, 2010) – Better Place, with support from the U.S. Department of Transportation via the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, today announced a commitment to bring a switchable battery, electric taxi program to the Bay Area in partnership with the cities of San Francisco and San Jose to further cement the region's position as the "EV Capital of the U.S."
Taxis are a high-mileage, high-visibility segment that can serve as the on-ramp for technology transfer to the mass-market. Over the next three years, the program will deploy and operate four battery switch stations in the San Francisco to San Jose corridor that supports a fleet of zero-emission, switchable taxis. This fleet will offer many thousands of Bay Area residents and visitors their first EV experience. The program also has the potential to help California and the Bay Area meet their aggressive energy and climate policy goals when scaled to the entire region.
Electric taxis are the gateway to clean cities. While gas-powered taxis are fewer in number than personal cars, these high-mileage vehicles are disproportionally responsible for harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) and other tailpipe emissions, so electrification of this fleet is essential to making a real impact on air quality and oil consumption. Since taxis drive nearly continuously, they require instant charge of their battery to maintain quality of service and continue serving the public. Given the taxi business, waiting three to four hours for standard charge is not an option. Battery switch is the only option that allows the driver to recharge in less time than it takes to refuel, the means of range extension for today's gas-powered taxis.
Better Place has been successfully operating an EV taxi program in Tokyo, supported by the Japanese government. The pilot project began on April 26, in cooperation with Nihon Kotsu Co., Tokyo's largest taxi operator, and focuses on the feasibility of an automated battery switch process as means for taxis to have instant, zero-emission, range extension. In the first 90 days of the trial, the EV taxis drove over 25,000 miles using battery switch as the primary means of "instant charge" or range extension.
"Today marks a significant milestone in our march towards accelerating the mass adoption of electric cars in the Bay Area. This program will enable us to reach a broad audience and demonstrate a solution that offers drivers a more convenient option than today's gasoline cars," said Jason Wolf, VP of North America for Better Place. "The battery switch model is gaining momentum globally. Our Tokyo EV taxi program has proven to be an example to major metropolitan areas around the world, and we are pleased that the MTC recognized this and the Bay Area is taking a leadership position in the U.S."
This program will be developed in partnership with key regional stakeholders and organizations that are working together to build Bay Area EV leadership, including:
• Taxi operators and car sharing programs: Yellow Cab Cooperative, Yellow Checker Cab Inc.; • Regional and state agencies: Bay Area Air Quality Management District • Consumer and EV organizations: Plug-in America, AAA Northern California; • Leading regional business/community organizations: Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Bay Area Council, Bay Area Climate Collaborative, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, and others; • San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
"In November 2008, I was joined by Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and Better Place in calling for making the San Francisco Bay Area the EV Capital of America," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. "This partnership with Better Place to build the first electric taxi program with switchable battery EVs in the U.S. helps make this a reality."
Better Place remains on-track in developing and deploying countrywide networks of charging and battery-switching infrastructure in its first two markets, Israel and Denmark, for commercial launch in late 2011. Better Place will begin its initial network deployment in Canberra, Australia in late 2011 as part of a nationwide infrastructure roll out.
Perhaps we were being unfair with Oakley's $150 3D shades -- that company, in fact, just didn't go far enough. Cut to Gucci with "optically correct" Real D frames of its own. No wraparounds, it's all glass forward, and like we said last time, you'll be the absolute most fashionable person in a crowded room full of people decidedly not looking in your direction for the entire duration of the glasses' applicable use. Look for these to hit your local US Gucci boutique -- if you have to ask where, it probably wasn't on your purchase list anyway -- for $225. Your move, Louis Vuitton.
Our friends from ZatzNotFunny and Liliputing spotted Roku at a recent event showing off the next version of software for its media streamers: version 2.8, which should add several UI improvements including the updated Channel Store seen above. Also spotted was a special fall-themed skin and placeholder for the soon-to-arrive Hulu Plus access. The DLNA we've been expecting since our Roku XDS review still hasn't made an official appearance but we'll keep our fingers crossed until the update is offical and we have a changelog in our hands.
Apple's iPod touch can't make cellular calls -- at least, not without aspecialcase -- but it did look enough like the similar iPhone to foil one would-be predator. A Delaware suspect asked a 12-year-old girl to get into his van in front of her middle school, but quickly fled the scene, when the girl reportedly put her iPod against her ear and told him she was dialing police. The local authorities did eventually get called and are still looking for the suspect. If you see a "white male, 35-45 years of age, with a dark crew cut styled hair" suspiciously eying the headphone jack placement on devices in your local Apple Store, perhaps you'd best stay away.
MSI stops short of calling the graphics switching technology within the FX600MX "Optimus," but it's pretty obvious what's behind the curtain. The outfit's latest 15.6-incher is equipped with a Core i3 or i5 CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory and a 320/500GB hard drive. There's also a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 310M GPU, and MSI has thrown in a handy control panel to make switching from discrete to integrated a lesson in simplicity. Moving on, you'll find a DVD SuperMulti drive, two USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 card reader, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, gigabit Ethernet, an HD webcam and a conventional six-cell battery. You'd be wasting your time hoping for a price and release from these guys, but usually a proper announcement means it'll be on shelves soon.
For a while now, there has been a conversation going on in certain circles (you know, space circles): namely, if the most prohibitive part of a manned flight to Mars would be the return trip, why bother returning at all? And besides the whole "dying alone on a hostile planet 55-million-plus kilometers from your family, friends, and loved ones" thing, we think it's a pretty solid consideration. This is just one of the topics of discussion at a recent Long Now Foundation event in San Francisco, where NASA Ames Research Center Director Pete Worden discussed the Hundred Year Starship Initiative, a project NASA Ames and DARPA are undertaking to fund a mission to the red planet by 2030. Indeed if the space program "is now really aimed at settling other worlds," as Worden said, what better way to encourage a permanent settlement than the promise that there will be no coming back -- unless, of course, they figure out how to return on their own. Of course, it's not like they're being left to die: the astronauts can expect supplies from home while they figure out how to get things up and running. As Arizona State University's Dr. Paul Davies, author of a recent paper in Journal of Cosmology, writes, "It would really be little different from the first white settlers of the North American continent, who left Europe with little expectation of return." Except with much less gravity. See Worden spout off in the video after the break.
Could it be a Verizon iPhone? The white iPhone 4? Perhaps a surprise Core i3 ULV in the 13-inch MacBook Pro? We can't tell for sure, but our money's on none of the above, folks. We'll be sure to dig through for changes as soon as the house that Jobs built is up and running once more.
Update: The store's back up, but contrary to popular belief nothing of import seems to have changed -- the white iPhone 4 option had been removed and the Core i7-640M made available in the larger MacBook Pros a while back. We're hearing from an internal source that it may have just been scheduled maintenance.
Dashboard, that is. You've already seen the new Xbox 360 dashboard update right here and thousands of you have tried its flatter, faster interface for yourselves, but if you've missed out, it's looking like your Halloween candy bag may include a full-scale rollout. Xbox Live subscribers are getting the above message in their inboxes right now, indicating that November 1st will bring a service update of some sort, after which point "You will notice a change to the layout of the Xbox LIVE Dashboard, a new color scheme, and new fonts being used." That doesn't necessarily sound like a cornucopia of Netflix Search, ESPN, Kinect and Zune Music to us, but it's not like you have a choice -- it's mandatory, and you'll lose all Xbox Live functionality unless you comply. We for one welcome our new gaming software overlords. Unlike some of the competition's updates, these at least add functionality.
It seems that Microsoft's taken the camera to heart following its dismissal of the pen -- the company bought 3DV, collaborated with PrimeSense on Kinect, and today it's apparently finalized a deal to acquire 3D CMOS camera chipmaker Canesta as well. In case you've already forgotten, the latter company is the one that made an paid actor look particularly smug last year, by allowing the gent to control his television with a flick of the wrist. Things have progressed a good bit further than that, however, as you'll see in a demo video after the break, and Canesta president and CEO Jim Spare says he expects the company's stuffs to "see wide adoption across many applications that embody the full potential of the technology" under Microsoft's reign. Press release after the break.
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CANESTA ANNOUNCES DEFINITIVE AGREEMENT TO BE ACQUIRED BY MICROSOFT
SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA – October 29, 2010 – Canesta, Inc. today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to have its products, technology, intellectual property, customer contracts, and other resources acquired by the Microsoft Corporation. Canesta is a leader in 3-D sensing technologywhich is critical to making Natural User Interfaces (NUI) possible.
According to Jim Spare, Canesta president and CEO, "This is very exciting news for the industry. There is little question that within the next decade we will see natural user interfaces become common for input across all devices. With Microsoft's breadth of scope from enterprise to consumer products, market presence, and commitment to NUI, we are confident that our technology will see wide adoption across many applications that embody the full potential of the technology."
Canesta is the inventor of a leading single chip 3-D sensing technology platform and a large body of intellectual property. With 44 patents granted to date and dozens more on file, the company has made breakthroughs in many areas critical to enabling natural user interfaces broadly across many platforms. Some of these include the invention of standard CMOS 3-D sensing pixels, fundamental innovations in semiconductor device physics, mixed-signal IC chip design, optics, signal processing algorithms, and computer vision software.
No details of the agreement have been disclosed. The acquisition is expected to be completed before the end of this year.
Evidently missing the first two games of the World Series was about all Cablevision thought it subscribers could take, as news just hit the wire: the fourteen-day standoff is over and both tonight's game three of the World Series and tomorrow's Jets vs Packers game are available to subscribers. While these carriage disputes are pretty common, it is very rare for channels to be pulled and downright unheard of for a channel as popular as Fox. It came to this because Cablevision was very unhappy about News Corp's new terms and after many pleas to the FCC and politicians to intervene, an advertising campaign, and eventually an unaccepted offer to match the price that Time Warner Cable pays, a deal has finally been done. Not exactly all's well that ends well, though, as Cablevision released the following statement: "In the absence of any meaningful action from the FCC, Cablevision has agreed to pay Fox an unfair price for multiple channels of its programming including many in which our customers have little or no interest." Talk about sour grapes. Well at least we can hope that Cablevision's efforts paid off a little bit and your cable bill won't go up as much as it would've if the outage never occurred to begin with. We can hope.
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FOX PROGRAMMING RETURNS TO CABLEVISION
BETHPAGE, NY, October 30, 2010 – Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) today reached agreement with News Corp. to return Fox programming to Cablevision. The channels will return to Cablevision immediately and in time for tonight's World Series game and tomorrow's NFL match-up between the New York Jets and Green Bay Packers.
The company released the following statement:
"In the absence of any meaningful action from the FCC, Cablevision has agreed to pay Fox an unfair price for multiple channels of its programming including many in which our customers have little or no interest. Cablevision conceded because it does not think its customers should any longer be denied the Fox programs they wish to see.
Cablevision thanks its customers for understanding the reasons for the dispute and for staying with us. We are also grateful to the 175 government leaders who raised their voices to urge government intervention and binding arbitration to prevent this blackout. It is clear the retransmission consent system is badly broken and needs to be fixed.
In the end, our customers will pay more than they should for Fox programming, but less than they would have if we had accepted the unprecedented rates News Corp. was demanding when they pulled their channels off Cablevision."
The channels returning to Cablevision are Fox 5 (WNYW), Fox 29 (WTXF), My9, Fox Business Network, National Geographic Wild and Fox Deportes.
The differences between the HP Envy 14 Beats Edition and the plain ol' Envy 14 have been primarily aesthetic -- it's got a black Beats branded lid and red backlit keyboard -- but HP's also included that set of Monster Beats Solo headphones you see up there. Sadly, that last differentiator is no longer. We'd heard from a few readers that their Envy 14 Beats Edition laptops arrived sans headphones, and HP has confirmed for us that due to "supply constraints" the Dr. Dre Solo from Monster headphones are no longer included with the snazzy black and red laptop. Hopefully those customers that paid full price for the laptop and didn't receive the Solos will get a refund, but we're told by HP that the price has been lowered by $100 since the cans went out of stock -- the starting price was originally $1,249.99 and is now $1,149.99. We're not entirely sure why you'd pay $150 more for the Beats version now, considering you get the same audio experience with the standard $999.99 Envy, but what do we know? There may be tons of diehard Beats Audio fans living amongst us.
We're still trying to understand why Entourage has chosen the Home Shopping Network of all places to reveal its new Pocket Edge, but at least we now know that the previously spied dualscreen tablet / e-reader lives! Although the 1.35-pound device has been shrunken down with smaller displays -- a 6-inch "Wacom Penabled" e-ink panel and 7-inch LCD -- it actually doesn't appear like much else has been changed from the original. Unfortunately, that means our biggest complaints about the device are very much present -- it's got a resistive touchscreen and appears to run an older version of Android. If it's any consolation, the trackball on the right edge has been replaced with an optical touchpad and there are now red and black color options. Spec-wise, it still boasts 4GB of storage, a 2 megapixel camera (hopefully there's software now that takes advantage of it), 802.11 b/g, a USB port, and micro-SD slot. It is, however, more affordable -- though it's originally priced at $499, HSN has a sale running that puts it at $399. Of course, no word on if a 3G version will be arriving at Verizon as we've previously heard, but we're sure this thing will get its official unveil sometime soon. Until then feel free to keep yourself preoccupied with the gallery below and at the source link -- just don't get lost in the cookware section.
What happens when you punch the phrase "Droid" into a Costco sales terminal? If Boy Genius Report's sources are right, you see the Motorola Droid 2 Global ring up (in black and white!) for $199.99. Considering we're also seeing the 1.2GHz quad-band worldphone on a Verizon rebate sheet, it's a pretty safe bet the handset's coming out soon -- and if Verizon also lists the phone for that price, it could be the death knell for the A955. (We've gotten several tips today that the original Droid 2 has been marked for end-of-life at Best Buy.) There's also a T-Mobile Comet pictured above, also known as the Huawei Ideos, a low-budget Android smartphone whose $149.99 price will almost certainly be free of two-year contracts. Of course, in the spirit of Costco you probably won't get off that easily -- subliminal messaging will surely compel you to purchase the $24.99 Ewoks and Star Wars Droids Adventure Hour on DVD.
By now you've probably read our Desire HD review and you've seen how HTC's latest Android flagship stacks up against its Windows Phone 7 sibling, the HD7. But how does it fare against the original Android giant, Sprint's EVO 4G? The devices share common displays (4.3-inch WVGA) and cameras (8 megapixel with dual LED flash) -- but they use different radios (HSPA+ versus CDMA / WiMAX) and processors (first-generation Snapdragon in the EVO, second-gen in the Desire). In fact, the two phones actually have very different personalities when you consider the Desire HD's aluminum unibody case and the EVO 4G's HDMI output and kickstand. Take a look at these mighty beasts side-by-side in our gallery -- along with a video after the break!
Note: In the video we mention that the Desire HD features a front facing camera. This is incorrect.
What, you didn't think Apple was just going to sit around and take it after Motorola first sued for patent infringement and then asked to court to declare some 20 of Cupertino's patents weren't applicable to its products, did you? Apple's fired back with two lawsuits claiming that Motorola's Android phones, including but not limited to the Droid, Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq, Cliq XT, BackFlip, Devour A555, Devour i1, and Charm, infringe a total of six multitouch and OS patents. That would be pretty much par for the course -- you sue me, I sue you -- but there are a couple interesting strategic wrinkles to note:
We've only seen Apple litigate one of these patents before: #7,479,949, Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics. You should remember it well -- it's the patent covering scroll behavior on multitouch screens that was hyped as "the iPhone patent" and triggered a press frenzy over a possible Apple / Palm lawsuit. As we predicted at the time, that hasn't yet materialized, but old '949's gotten pretty popular: Apple's asserting it against Nokia and HTC as well.
Apple might be suing over six patents in these two cases, but ultimately Apple will claiming Motorola's devices infringe a total of 26 patents -- part of Apple's defense to Motorola's 20-patent lawsuit will be to claim that that Moto's in fact infringing each of those patents. That's a lot of patents across a lot of devices, and it'll just take one finding of infringement to cause a lot of pain.
Apple's filed its two cases in the Western District of Wisconsin, a patent "rocket docket" that tries cases quickly and are often perceived as being plaintiff-friendly. (Part of the Apple / Nokia lawsuit is happening in this same court.) Moto's obvious next move will be to try and consolidate all these cases into a single proceeding at one court, a procedural tactic that will take likely take months. And that's just the first step. Don't expect these cases to be decided for at least a year -- probably many years -- unless Apple and Motorola decide to settle, which is always possible.
Apple's now seriously engaged in litigation with the two largest Android handset makers (HTC and Motorola), largely over OS-level patents. At some point Google has to get involved, if only to indemnify its partners against further liability for using Android, and we can't help but think Apple and Google are eventually bound to face off directly. Or perhaps not -- by suing Android handset makers, Apple's essentially putting a tax on Android without having to further muddy up its complex competitor / partner relationship with Google by adding in a major lawsuit.
We've added in a list of the patents after the break, if you're interested -- and we know you're interested, right? It's not like it's a beautiful Saturday afternoon or anything.
7,812,828, Ellipse Fitting for Multi-Touch Surfaces
Looking to spend a little quality time with your ride this weekend? If you just plunked down for a 2011 Chevrolet or Cadillac, and you just so happen to own an Android or iOS-based phone, you can now download the myChevrolet, myCadillac, and OnStar MyLink mobile phone apps that were duly introduced last month. We're told that the Buick and GMC versions will be launched in November, with the whole crew enabling owners to access vehicle-specific information, vehicle diagnostics, and even lock / unlock the doors. There's still no word on widespread Facebook integration, but hey, baby steps... right?
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myChevrolet and OnStar MyLink Apps Now Available
Free apps for iPhone and Android platforms combine convenience of smart-phone applications with power of OnStar
2010-10-29
DETROIT – Beginning today, owners of 2011 Chevrolet models can access their vehicle information and OnStar services right from their smart phones. The myChevrolet and OnStar MyLink applications, available as free downloads, provide drivers with unprecedented connectivity to their vehicles from their Android or Apple iPhone device.
"This is a great example of how we are focusing on smart technologies that address customers' needs," said Chris Perry, vice president, Chevrolet marketing. "With myChevrolet and Onstar MyLink apps, customers can search their owners' manual, find their parking spot, and even unlock their car – right from their phone."
Features of the apps fall into three categories: location-based services, vehicle-specific information, and OnStar connectivity features.
The location-based services include a parking reminder that allows drivers to save their parking location to a GPS-enabled map, set a timer to track how much time they have on the parking meter, and even add a note or photo with details about their parking location. If they return to a flat tire, the driver can use the app to request roadside assistance or to locate the closest Chevrolet dealership and schedule a service appointment.
Vehicle-specific information is accessible after scanning the vehicle identification number using the smart-phone camera. These features include searchable content for the most-commonly accessed information in the owner's manual, such as directions saving radio presets. The app also provides explanations of warning lights and indicators on the vehicle instrument panel at the touch of a button.
In addition, myChevrolet integrates with the OnStar MyLink app to access exclusive OnStar technologies. Through OnStar's unique connection to the vehicle, owners can send remote vehicle commands such as unlocking or locking the doors, and starting the engine. In addition, owners can access key diagnostic information, including fuel tank level and range, remaining oil life, current and recommended tire pressure and lifetime average miles per gallon. The diagnostic information is current as of the last vehicle start, giving OnStar subscribers an up-to-date health report of their vehicle anytime they need it.
myChevrolet and OnStar MyLink are currently available for download, free of charge, from www.apple.com, or from www.android.com.
MSI stops short of calling the graphics switching technology within the FX600MX "Optimus," but it's pretty obvious what's behind the curtain. The outfit's latest 15.6-incher is equipped with a Core i3 or i5 CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory and a 320/500GB hard drive. There's also a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 310M GPU, and MSI has thrown in a handy control panel to make switching from discrete to integrated a lesson in simplicity. Moving on, you'll find a DVD SuperMulti drive, two USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 card reader, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, gigabit Ethernet, an HD webcam and a conventional six-cell battery. You'd be wasting your time hoping for a price and release from these guys, but usually a proper announcement means it'll be on shelves soon.
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