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Japan's big players plan a jolt of electrics

Japan's three largest automakers are making a push to extend their alternative-fuel power train offerings in the next two years.

Toyota Motor will bring two electric and six hybrid-electric models to market in the next 24 months, including a plug-in Toyota Prius. Lexus will move into entry-luxury with the CT 200h hybrid hatchback in 2011.

Nissan Motor will launch the all-electric Nissan Leaf sedan in five markets in December. Infiniti will introduce the M35h hybrid next spring and an all-electric four-seater in late 2012 or early 2013.

Honda Motor engineers are working on a hybrid platform for such large … Read more

Gran Turismo 5's 'GPS-track day' feature demoed

Last week, we showed you Toyota's FT-86 G Sport concept and highlighted a very cool feature called "GPS-track day" that allows users to playback GPS replays from a real life racetrack session on their copy of Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3. Polyphony Digital, maker of the Gran Turismo franchise, has released even more information about the system and a demo video. As it turns out, there's more to it than just GPS positioning.

The proper name for the "GPS-track day" feature is Gran Turismo Data Logger Visualization. When an appropriately equipped car is … Read more

Toyota FT-86 concept for PlayStation generation

We figured that Toyota would be trotting out its FT-86 concept at the Tokyo Auto Salon--after all, it is its home turf. However, the FT-86 G Sport concept that was also displayed features a very cool tech twist, and we're not talking about the wild body work.

The FT-86 G Sport concept is equipped with a feature called "GPS-track day" that is designed to interface with the upcoming PlayStation 3 game Gran Turismo 5. Here's how it works: You take your FT-86 to a track--say the Nurburgring or Mazda Laguna Seca--and have a good time running … Read more

$999 Blu-ray laptop with game:
Sony Vaio FW560F/T reviewed

Several months ago, one of our favorite retail laptops was the Sony Vaio FW480J/T. Besides offering no-hassle Blu-ray playback and a large if not full-HD 1,600x900-pixel resolution, 16.4-inch screen, it had decent discrete graphics that could handle many mainstream games. At the time, its $1,199 price was a little high, but very good when compared with traditional "gaming" laptops.

Just a few months later, the Sony Vaio FW560F/T has found itself at the top of our Holiday 2009 retail laptop roundup, a high-end system by definition of its price and features. At $999, … Read more

Toyota's FT-86 concept to be in Gran Turismo 5

Toyota is calling the FT-86 concept, which is due to be introduced at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, a production concept. Which means that it is more than likely that we'll see the neo-hachiroku (or something similar it) on showroom floors in the near future. But, what if you can't wait for the rumored 2011 launch? Well, just fire up your PS3 and take the FT-86 for a spin in the upcoming Gran Turismo 5 racing sim. (Unless, of course, GT5 is delayed again. In which case you may come out better just waiting for the car itself.)

Check out the video after the jump to see the Toyota FT-86 concept in the digital sheet metal in a Gran Turismo 5 promo spot.… Read more

Toyota finally creates an exciting concept

After months of rumors and rumblings, Toyota has released photos of its small sports car collaboration with Subaru, the Toyota FT-86 Concept. What follows is a very exciting concept from the world's most boring car company.

The FT-86 is a compact 2+2 that seeks to recapture the spirit of the 1980s AE86 Corolla GT-S (better known as the Hachiroku) of drifting fame. While most of the details are still mostly shrouded in mystery, we've got a little bit of meaty info. Under the hood, we should find a variant of Subaru's 2.0-liter boxer four-cylinder engine--dubbed … Read more

Microwave, pizza oven combo keeps college students going

Convenience and kitchen gadgets go hand in hand. Certainly, that is true in the case of this Stainless Steel Kenmore Countertop Microwave & Pizza Oven. With the inclusion of a pizza oven into the base of the microwave, it's quite possible any college student will never need another appliance as long as they are in school.

The microwave and pizza oven work independently of each other. The microwave has six automatic One-Touch buttons, for most common microwave usages: Reheat, Cook, Defrost, Express Defrost, Popcorn, and Potato. Additionally, an "Add 30 seconds" button allows for personalized preferences for … Read more

For athletes, a heart rate monitor--and then some

If you're a hard-core runner, it's a good idea to have the right tools at your disposal to maximize your training. In anticipation of the New York City Marathon Sunday, Polar a maker of portable fitness electronics, is now selling the RS800CX heart rate monitor. This is an updated version of the RS800G3 we covered last year.

The three major new features include:

GPS mapping: Routes are color-coded for "heart rate zones," and can be viewed on Google Earth with Polar's ProTrainer 5 Software Compatibility with Polar's speed and cadence cycling sensors Ability to … Read more

Virtual stack vendor CohesiveFT part of Top Ten Tech Startups

CohesiveFT is one of the more interesting vendors that you probably haven't heard much about yet. Their "Elastic Servers" are custom application stacks as virtual images.

Basically, they have created a "software chassis" for VM images to rolled on-demand. The company maintains libraries of components and customers may add their own proprietary components to the library (for their use only) and construct the image of a virtual application stack. The resulting images are built, encapsulated, given a unique identity and injected with management and integration services.

For example you can quickly create a VM image of Mule … Read more