bmw

BMW has announced the release of the BMW Connected app, which lets drivers use their iPhones to bring Internet applications such as Twitter, Facebook, and Internet radio stations into their vehicles. The new app works for all BMW vehicles produced after March, according to a BMW spokesperson. BMW previously launched app support in its Mini brand, with the MINI Connected app, which displays popular social media apps on the car's head unit and gives driving efficiency reports.

The BMW Connected app acts as a gateway that enables the car to replicate a specified set of iPhone app features on … Read more

The Geneva auto show is filled with signs that the industry turnaround under way in North America has reached Europe.

Automakers are bouncing back from the downturn of the past two years with a number of production vehicles and concepts in Geneva.

Volkswagen Group, helped by its new subsidiary Italdesign Giugiaro, will unveil an array of concept cars to show the industry it has the design depth, as well as the production capability and the financial strength, to topple Toyota as the world's No. 1 automaker.

BMW will debut the Vision ConnectedDrive, a futuristic roadster concept that shows how … Read more

For Geneva next week, we'll see a fat Ferrari, a faster Jaguar, and an electric Phantom. Meanwhile, Priuses, Prium, or Prii? And we find out there is an 'i' in BMW.

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• For BMW, i is the new e

• Chevy MyLink catches up with Ford Sync

• Presidential rides of past and present

Get ready for a new kind of BMW. The German carmaker announced that it will develop a new line of fuel-efficient vehicles under the "i" sub-brand. BMW i will manufacture and market the yet-to-be-unveiled electric Megacity Vehicle, which will officially be called the i3. The i8, which is the Vision EfficientDynamics plug-in that debuted at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show, will also be produced by BMW i.

These future cars appear to be on opposite ends of the electric spectrum, with the i3 being a small commuter vehicle intended for densely populated cities and the i8 being something … Read more

Today in hot, fresh, buzzy news, don't panic: Libya can fire guns at protesters from helicopters, but it can't turn off all your bit.ly links. Phew, right? Also, even though the Motorola Xoom might not have Flash the day it comes out of the box, it'll have it within two weeks, so that's also a calm-down story. Plus, Amazon launches its Prime streaming service, Microsoft offers a Kinect SDK, and Apple might give a tiny little window of opportunity to Android tablets. Plus: save Chrome's URL bar! --Molly

I was drinking in the notion that, according to the Global Status Report on Health and Alcohol, Germany is the 22nd most inebriated country in world (the U.S. came in a pathetically puritan 57th), when I discovered some fine and sober German ingenuity.

BMW, the folks who make cars for the highly self-aware, has just opened a factory where, aside from Watson's distant uncles, all the employees are aged over 50.

Somehow, we get lured into believing that all technological progress is created by young, slightly impersonal people in gray t-shirts who will put on a white one (with a collar) … Read more

When BMW came up with iDrive, however flawed that first-generation system might have been, it showed the company was as interested in pushing the technology interface envelope as much as it has driving engineering. The Vision ConnectedDrive concept, to be unveiled at the Geneva auto show, demonstrates that BMW is not done pushing these boundaries.

The car itself, a roadster, employs unique lines and very retro headrests molded into the body. But then the "Tron" elements come in. The entire car is interlaced with lighting effects that signify three different interface levels: safety, infotainment, and comfort. The configuration … Read more

BMW 7-series models often don't live up to their potential. They sit in traffic with 8- and even 12-cylinder engines idling away, never approaching their full horsepower. Even when their owners take them out on highways, the tachometer rarely gets even halfway toward the redline. But the new 740i is a BMW you can really drive.

Sure, it only has a six-cylinder engine. But this engine has twin turbos, and is an updated version of what had previously been used in the 335i. It only produces 326 horsepower, which may sound low for a big sedan. But in 99 … Read more

BMW released the second chapter of its four-part documentary series, "Wherever You Want to Go," which focuses on the future of mobility, cities, and technology. "The future just isn't what it used to be" is a 6-minute, 42-second clip showing interviews with transportation and technology leaders such as Buzz Aldrin, Google's Marissa Mayer, and former Zipcar CEO Robin Chase to discuss the future of the automobile.

The experts all say the same thing: start thinking small.

Despite the advances of aeronautics in recent years that may make suborbital travel possible, the automobile hasn't … Read more