Venturi showed off its new self-powered car, the Venturi Eclectic, at the Paris Motor Show (which runs through October 15th). The Eclectic is an "autonomous energy vehicle," powered independently of any natural energy reserves. It runs on a small 22-hp electric motor charged by solar cells or wind turbines; it's equipped with NiMH (NIV-7) batteries that are liquid-cooled.
The Eclectic's funky design resembles a golf buggy or a souped-up horse carriage more than a conventional car. It has a range of 50 km (about 31 miles) on one charge, and reaches an electrically restricted top speed of 50 kmh (about 31 mph).
The vehicle's roof is covered with 2.5 square meters of solar cells and an integrated wind-turbine, which allows the car to recharge while standing idle. The share of solar recharging is approximately 7 km (4.3 miles) per day of exposure. In the absence of sunlight, the Eclectic can drive on wind power alone for 15 km (9.3 miles) after a full day of charging. If all else fails, you can still plug the Eclectic in at home and charge it from a standard connection.
The Eclectic goes into production next summer and will sell for 24,000 euros, or around $30,486.
Anyone looking to buy a home in today's real estate market knows that finding a good deal is tough. That's why I was shocked to learn that New York City has been sold for just $18,000! (Click the picture at left to enlarge.) What's the catch?
Well, the money is real. Repeat: The money is real. The property is virtual, however. It's part of a new site called Weblo, a combination of Monopoly and eBay, where users can buy the virtual equivalent of real-world cities, states, and countries. The $18,000 that was paid for New York might seem high; after all, the Dutch paid only $24 for Manhattan, and they bought real land. But the founders of Weblo say that owners can earn profits from their properties, and charge rents to other Weblo citizens who decide to live there.
Virtual property isn't the only thing for sale. Weblo is also selling domain names, so if you missed out on cyber-squatting opportunities a decade ago, you can now get in on the ground floor. (I checked, though, and trademarked domains such as Walmart.com and PCMag.com aren't available.) Even stranger is the ability to "own" your own celebrity; you can build their Web sites and somehow make real money with them. I'm not sure the designers convinced the various celebrities to take part, but the idea almost makes me happy I'm not famous!
Will people really want to spend this kind of money to own stuff that isn't real? It'll be interesting to see how Weblo fares.
Description: Have you washed your keyboard today? Unotron has answered office geeks' prayers by offering a slew of washable products! We tested the Washable Wireless Keyboard. The keyboard is protected by a patented SpillSeal surface, allowing you to run the keyboard under water when you spill something on it. It's also dust-proof.
How It Works: To set up the keyboard, turn it over and install the included batteries. Set the keyboard upright, and then connect the 2.4GHz wireless receiver to your computer's USB port (system requirements: Win 95/98/2000/XP). The receiver will then flash yellow and red lights to set up the keyboard's ID code. After ten seconds, the keyboard should be ready to use. No software required to set it up either! Like most keyboards, it offers 15 multimedia and hot keys, such as Favorites, E-mail, Mute, Calculator, and Refresh.
Performance: I'm used to typing on my Microsoft ergonomic keyboard, so typing on the Unotron Keyboard took some getting used to. And now for the real test: Can you really wash it? Placing the keyboard in our office's kitchen sink, we decided to spill some hot coffee and Entenmanns' Marshmellow Devil Food Cake on it. I made sure that I smeared the icing from the cake all over the keyboard too, so that it would get caught in the crevices. Then, I turned on the warm water and poured some dish soap into the sink to soak the keyboard.
After a couple of minutes, I used a sponge and started scrubbing the keyboard. At this point, Blogging Molly and I didn't think the keyboard was going to survive! I managed to get all of the crumbs out of the keyboard, and then laid the keyboard on the dish rack to dry. The next morning, I came in and crossed my fingers, hoping that the keyboard still worked.
Verdict: After an intense wash and scrub, I'm happy to report that the keyboard still works! In fact, I'm typing on it now as I'm writing this. So Unotron, I believe you when you say, "Can withstand being immersed in antibacterial solutions and rinsed under a tap."
Overall: If you're accident prone, or just a germ-a-phobe, then I highly recommend the Unotron Wireless Keyboard for your cube or office. I'm always eating over my keyboard, and I wish that I could just run my regular keyboard in water to clean it, not to mention get rid of those nasty germs lurking on it.
Three and half years ago, I bought a Panasonic SA-HT67 home-theater-in-a-box, with 5.1 sound and a 5-disc DVD changer for about $250. A year and a half later the engine burned out, rendering the DVD player useless, and the machine was demoted to basic receiver duties.
My next DVD player was a CyberHome CH-DVD 300 that I picked up on sale at Best Buy for $15. It's been two years since I bought it, and it just stopped working last night. And the only problem I've ever had with it is sometimes I need to clean the disc before the player will read it. Guess what I'm going to be replacing it with.
Thanks to Online Associate Editor Kyle Monson for this brief but instructive post!
Shine up those 9v batteries and beg your mama for change, because the DVD Rewinder is in town! It promises to rewind your discs faster than you can say "useless." Imagine a tech enthusiast without this black-and-fluorescent-green piece of technological immortality, and I'll show you a loser.
The DVD Rewinder comes with an exclusive Centripetal Velocity Spindle, which will spin those discs backwards in a circular frenzy unlike anything you've seen before. And don't think for one minute that the DVD Rewinder is silent. When the disc speeds up, it makes a "rewind" sound that, if you're anything like me, will take you right back to the days of VHS and far too many whiskey shots. (Well, maybe only one of those, unless you're me.)
One of the things we all come to love about Windows XP is that the OS will lock down if it's not activated within 30 days. Windows Product Activation(WPA) will be carried over to Windows Vista, of course, to prevent piracy like that's gonna happen. In addition, Ars Technica just came out with an article on a new feature called Reduced Functionality Mode.
Instead of locking you out of the system completely, Microsoft will allow minimal use of the OS after your 30 days are up. This means you won't have to scramble for your credit card right away to get back into your system, but you will be severely crippled. Internet Explorer 7 will work for an hour before Microsoft interrupts the session. As expected, Aero will be disabled and all the "extras" built into Vista Ultimate and Premium will also be locked down. You won't be able to edit Microsoft Word and Excel files, but you can view them by using the browser. So how is this different than a complete lockdown? Well, Microsoft is limiting usage to just the browser, which is better than nothing.
From Thursday (Oct. 12) through Sunday (Oct. 15), Ziff Davis Media is hosting the third annual DigitalLife show in New York City, at the Javits convention center. The two prior DigitalLife shows have been a blast: Vast quantities of enthusiastic tech fans, from newbie to nerd, show up to see all kinds of amazing products. This year promises to be even bigger and brighter.
So along with the DL.TV guys, Gearlog is hosting a meetup! It'll take place Saturday the 14th, from 5 PM on, in the Press Lounge at the show. Jim Louderback tells me beverages will be provided. Let's hope he has something more potent than Red Bull in mind!
We'd love to see our faithful readers there; even readers who don't like us much are welcome. (I shall be found weeping in a dark corner if it's all DL.TV people.) If you think you'll be able to make it, leave a comment below. See you soon in the BA!
UPDATE: To get a free ticket to the show, enter this promotional code at the DigitalLife Web site: DLFRIEND.
Tonight is the season premiere of ABC's drama "Lost", and I know I'm going to be anxious all day until I watch it! I'm dying to know what Season 3 has in store for dedicated viewers!
To celebrate, I wrote a story on PCMag.com about the show and the kinds of gadgets I thought each character should have with them on the remote island.
For example, we all know that Jack is the leader of the pack. He's the guy everyone goes to when they need help or advice. Being a leader must be a tough job too, that's why I recommend he use emWave's personal stress reliever. Either that, or ask one of the women on the island for a massage! And if he and Kate ever do kiss again, he's going to need the Kiss Me Meter to detect bad breath (we wouldn't want Kate getting grossed out now!).
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