Acura gives the old TL a bump for the 2009 model year, updating the styling and improving the cabin tech, but also splitting the model into a standard version and a sporty, all-wheel-drive version. We take that hyped-up TL SH-AWD and go in search of some of the most spectacular scenery in the country, with the aid of Acura's new navigation system.
When most people see the 2009 Suzuki SX4 Sport, they don't immediately think about the Japanese automaker's rally pedigree. They don't think about high-revving turbocharged powerplants or all-wheel drive vehicles that are in this car's DNA. Instead, they think of a cheap econo-box, which is a shame, because there is a lot to like about this modest little sedan.
For one, the SX4 Sport comes standard with an unconventional, but (as we learned) very useful, navigation system. It matches its competition for handling and outclasses them in power. The SX4 Sport also gets four-wheel disc brakes, … Read more
Whether the Infiniti FX's bulbous curves can be considered beautiful is debatable, but one thing we know for certain is that--in FX50S trim--it certainly is imposing. With muscular front fenders, a large dark chrome grill, and a pair of the most aggressive headlights we've ever seen on an SUV, the 2009 Infiniti FX50S prowls the streets looking like an angry hippopotamus on 21-inch wheels.
Before you laugh, there's something you should know about the hippo. It is one of the most aggressive animals in the world, and is often regarded as the most dangerous animal in Africa … Read more
With the body of a 1950s station wagon, what's the Ford Flex doing on a car technology site? The answer is inside, as this retro-wagon features the best infotainment system currently available. Mention an album name, and the stereo will start playing it. Say a street name, and the car will show you how to get there, on a route that avoids any bad traffic. Get low on fuel, and the car can tell you where to find the cheapest gas. It even gives you a weather forecast, movie times, and sports scores.
As for the drive quality, well, … Read more
While I love going to large events like Giants games or the circus, I hate dealing with the traffic afterward. Finally though, some good has now come out of the frustration of after-event traffic.
Engineering students at Purdue University have come up with a new method to track traffic: Bluetooth. The students tracked Bluetooth signals from cell phones and other devices carried by football fans as they drove home from a recent Penn State game.
The method uses each signal to constantly update how long it takes vehicles and pedestrians to travel from one point to another. Darcy Bullock, professor … Read more
NEW YORK--GPS map maker Navteq is teaming with its parent company Nokia to help drivers get more accurate information about traffic conditions.
Before Nokia bought Navteq last year, the two began working on a project in conjunction with the University of California at Berkeley called Mobile Millennium that uses GPS-enabled cell phones as traffic monitors or "probes" to collect real-time traffic data.
A pilot program using more than 10,000 handsets has already launched in the San Francisco Bay Area. And on Tuesday the companies were showing off the technology at the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress here … Read more
Online media reporter Greg Sandoval talks with Kara Tsuboi about the predicament movie studios and online video sites face in trying to provide free movies online. Also in this podcast: Google has added video and voice to its chat service; video game ratings board ESRB will now post summaries online to explain why it has rated video games they way it has; and YouTube will now offer advertisers the ability to buy sponsored video results on people's keyword searches.
Listen now: Download today's podcastToday's stories:
When consulting online traffic maps to form your plan of attack for hitting the streets, how often do you suspect that the red, yellow, and green colors indicating the various speeds of traffic flow are inaccurate, show outdated data, or that they'll change by the time you get there?
The concept of online traffic maps makes a lot of sense, but until they're foolproof, users will always be skeptical. A new collaborative project between UC Berkeley and Nokia is trying to provide mapped traffic data with more accuracy than ever before. How? By tapping into the ubiquity of … Read more
Intense interest in the outcome of the U.S. presidential election helped drive record traffic to news sites, according to Akamai Technologies.
At 8 p.m. PST, just as word was coming that Barack Obama had won the election, Akamai's Net Usage Index showed more than 8.5 million worldwide visitors per minute to the company's aggregate set of news sites. Not all of the traffic, of course, may have been specifically to election coverage, but the relative audience size in the index does correlate strongly to particular events.
Tuesday night's total was a big jump from … Read more
Reflecting consumer pessimism toward the current economic climate, online retailers experienced a decline in visits for the eighth straight week, according to a report released Tuesday.
Traffic to a custom collection of 500 retail Web sites monitored by analyst Hitwise declined 3 percent for the week ending October 25 compared with the same week a year ago.
The declines mirror the overall decline in consumer spending the past couple of months. Visits to Hitwise's Retail 500 Index were up 14 percent from June through August compared with the same period in 2007, but then declined 4 percent in September. … Read more
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