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Vista in your car

Here's another take on Windows Mobile. The Azentek Atlas is a double-DIN system that fits into your car's dashboard and gives you all of the functionality of a Windows PC from the driver's seat. While the model on display here at CES 2007 is running XP, we're told that Atlas will ship in March with Windows Vista. The Atlas, which makes use of iMobile software, packs an Intel Core Duo processor and comes with 512MB of RAM memory and a Seagate automotive-grade 40GB hard drive. It also comes with built-in GPS with turn-by-turn navigation and maps … Read more

Chrysler's breakfast nook on wheels

New versions of the Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Caravan minivans made an appearance at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. Come on, wake up! There really is something interesting about these minivans. Chrysler creates a cozy little breakfast space in the back by adding swiveling capability to its middle-row seats, along with a foldout table. And it really makes these minivans kind of cool road-trip vehicles. While a couple of friends drive and navigate, you and your friends are in back riding limo-style, playing poker and doing shots of tequila. (Make that last one lemonade if you don't … Read more

Chevy Volts forward

Bad pun, I know, but "Chevy charges forward" would be worse, because the concept Volt is an electric car. Chevy grabbed the front of its new Camaro and grafted on a small sports coupe made of lightweight composite materials developed by GE. GM has been using its Chevrolet brand to push its most futuristic alternative energy ideas, such as the previously announced Fuel Cell Equinox. The Volt seems especially designed to counteract the bashing GM got in the movie Who Killed the Electric Car?, as the Volt builds on the technology GM used in its original electric car, … Read more

Ford, Microsoft and boy bands

OK, it's Sync, not *NSYNC, and with its stylish logo it should be free of any associations from the band that made Justin Timberlake famous. Unlike the band, Sync also plays music. Microsoft has been trying to sell automakers on its automotive platform for a while and is really starting to gain ground. Last year at the Geneva Auto Show, Fiat showed off an installation of Microsoft's system, dubbed Blue&Me, in one of its cars. This year the software maker and America's number two automaker announced that a version of Microsoft's automotive platform will … Read more

Mercedes-Benz Zamboni

At the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz demonstrated how its S-class could be used to smooth the ice of a skating rink. Or the company might have been demonstrating the new all-wheel-drive S550. Either way, most of the Mercedes-Benz floor area at the show was covered with ice, along with ice skaters chasing an S550 around the rink. Mercedes-Benz has offered its 4MATIC all-wheel-drive system in a variety of its models and used the Detroit show to announce its availability in the S-class. Mercedes-Benz brags in its press literature that it first developed an all-wheel-drive system in 1907.

The German … Read more

2007 Detroit Auto Show

Although most of the CNET crew will be at CES next week, we're sending a smaller contingent to the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. Our on-the-spot coverage of Detroit's auto show begins on Sunday, January 7, and will continue through the week. The tubes have been buzzing with advance pictures of cars for the show, and our interest is more than primed. We're all a titter over the upcoming announcement from Ford and Microsoft about incorporating Microsoft's Sync Bluetooth product in upcoming Ford models. Welcome to the 21st century, Ford. We hope some of your competitors get … Read more

Jaguar's new X

In a concept car set to debut at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show (see our coverage beginning on January 7), Jaguar shows off its new concept, the C-XF. This car represents Jaguar's continuing process of reinventing itself, which started with the launch of its beautiful XK last year. The C-XF concept is a substantial departure from Jaguar's current lineup, although the car's designers claim to have been influenced by models from the 1950s. Given the concept's name, it might provide a clue to the look of Jaguar's all new XF, which launches next fall and … Read more

Mercedes shows S Class convertible

Mercedes-Benz has just released new concept photos of their S600 flagship sedan in convertible form, which could become the company's first big convertible sedan since the '50s.

The S Class has always been a technology tour de force, and this convertible concept reportedly adds one more neat trick: The "AirScarf" is a system of vents in the headrests that circulate warm air around the nape of your neck for comfortable top down jaunts during the colder months.

This S600 ragtop concept looks very much like a production car, and when automakers circulate concepts that look this real, … Read more

Honda goes crazy for concepts

I just got back from the Los Angeles Auto Show, and Honda had more concept cars on display than anyone. But that's apparently not enough for Honda this car show season--the company just released a sketch of another concept it's saving for the Detroit Auto Show. The Accord Coupe Concept is probably a better depiction of future Honda styling than the Remix or the Step Bus. The Accord Coupe Concept sketch presents a sporty roofline, but the front wheels look larger than the rear ones. Which might be Honda's intent for a front-wheel-drive car, but more likely … Read more