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If there’s one product outside of the computer and portable electronics markets we wish Apple would design, it’s a car.
Spot Cool Stuff is a big fan of nearly everything Apple. Yes, their products aren’t inexpensive. But they are almost universally well designed, well built and user friendly—not to mention cool-looking. If Apple were to bring their prowess an automobile design . . . well, we can only imagine.
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Wow! What kind of car is that?!
That was the question drivers rolled down their windows to ask us every few blocks as we were test driving the 2011 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet through downtown Dallas, Texas. On the highway, cars adjusted their speed so to drive alongside us for a closer look. When we stopped in a Starbucks, we overheard customers entering the coffee shop talking about what a sleek set of wheels we had.
Nissan flew Spot Cool Stuff to Dallas for their media unveiling of the world’s first all-wheel drive crossover convertible vehicle1 in advance of the vehicle’s April sales launch. From the moment we saw the Murano CrossCabriolet we knew it would be a head turner—it’s unlike any other vehicle on the market today. But is it worth its $46,390 price tag? Our review:
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Add yet another use for a smartphone: radar detector. That thanks to Cobra and its Cobra iRadar, the first radar detector with phone connectivity.
The way it works is: You mount the compact iRadar unit on the dashboard of your car and then pair it via Bluetooth to an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch running the iRadar app. The iPhone then works as the radar detector’s display.
So how well does this marriage between smartphone and radar detector work? Our overview of the pros and cons:
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spot cool stuff TECH
The Transition is fueled by the same unleaded gasoline used by your typical earth-bound car.
The reality in 2009 is not the future people envisioned in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Where’s our colony on Mars?! Where’s our talking robots that will do all our household chores? Where’s our flying cars?!
We’re still far off from building a city on another planet. The closest we’ve coming to affordable chore-performing robots are the Looj and Rumba. But the flying car is no longer science fiction.
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This is not another post about some futuristic electric concept car that exists only in artistic renderings. This post isn’t about a car prototype or about a car that’s scheduled for production. The MyCar, from the NICE Motor Company, is an electric car that’s in showrooms today. You can take it for a test drive and purchase today. At least, you could if you lived in London.
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There’s a race on to develop the technology that will power the next generation of cars.
Some of the biggest and smartest car companies, such as Honda and BMW, are making huge bets that hydrogen is going to replace oil as the car fuel of choice. (To wit: The Honda FC Sport we recently reviewed). Another group of car companies, mostly small start-ups based in the greater San Francisco area, think the next automotive paradigm involves electric power.
Of that second group of car companies, one of the most promising startups is Aptera and its soon-to-go-into-production 2e model.
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Most concept cars—and all of the bizarre and purposely “futuristic” looking ones—never seem to become production models. Which is why we feel confident predicting that the Honda FC Sport, unveiled in concept form at the 2008 Los Angles Auto Show, will never be sold in any showroom. Headlines touting this as “The Car Of The Future” strikes us enormous exaggerations.
But what’s noteworthy about the hydrogen-powered FC Sport concept car is that, while the car design is a concept, the “hydrogen-powered” part is real. The FC Sport’s hydrogen technology is being used today in a car that is available in a showroom: The Honda FCX Clarity sedan (see photo, below).
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