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Panasonic bike uses regenerative braking

Panasonic's Lithium Vivi RX-10S is no ordinary electric bicycle. For one thing, it has a battery that helps to power the onboard electric motor for assisted peddling. But what really sets it apart from the competition is its regenerative braking system.

A regenerative brake is a mechanism that reduces vehicle speed by converting some of its kinetic activity into another form of energy. In the case of the Panasonic Vivi RX-10S, the regenerative braking system stores the energy in the bicycle's 2.5-kilogram secondary Lithium-ion battery. This energy can then be used to extend the assisted travel range … Read more

Gear4 Blustream RX: Hi-fi Bluetooth puck

Gear4 popped by Crave UK yesterday to talk about a super-secret new product (which we're not allowed to talk about--but you will be excited when we can). We were also given the company's brand-new Bluetooth receiver for hi-fi systems. It's called the Blustream RX and although we've not had a chance to test it fully yet, it's looking to be a promising nugget of kit.

It's a very weighty unit, shaped like a hockey puck and roughly the size of a British three-pin plug. We were surprised at how solid this thing is. It … Read more

Toshiba delays 128GB solid-state notebook

Toshiba has postponed the launch of the Dynabook SS RX1 notebook slated to ship with a 128GB solid-state drive, according to an announcement on Toshiba's Japanese Web site.

The Japanese-market Dynabook has been billed as the first notebook with a 128GB solid-state drive, or SSD.

The notebook was originally scheduled for general availability in April but will be delayed until June, according to Toshiba.

Toshiba cited parts delays. It's not clear whether the delays are SSD-related, but Toshiba postponed the launch of a notebook last year with a 64GB SSD due to flash memory chip "procurement" … Read more

Five new Yamaha receivers for 2008

Yamaha has announced five new receivers for 2008, ranging from the budget $230 RX-V363 to the $1,000 RX-V863, which features HD Radio and three HDMI inputs. As is usual, Yamaha's receivers certainly don't impress from the spec sheet, as they offer fewer features than Sony's new budget receivers and even last year's Onkyo receivers. On the other hand, Yamaha loyalists are quick to chime in that spec sheets aren't everything, and that Yamaha offers more refined sound at these price points. We can't comment on that until we have get them in for review, but with that in mind, let's check out specs.

Yamaha RX-V363

Key features of the Yamaha RX-V363:

5.1 channels, 100 watts per channel Two HDMI inputs, 1080p-compatible… Read more

Three new single-disc stereos from Panasonic

The onslaught of new car stereos continues on the first day of action here at CES with another trio of single-disc receivers from Panasonic. The CQ-RX400U, CQ-RX200U and CQ-RX100U all come with front-mounted auxiliary input jacks for connecting digital audio players, while the top-of-the-range CQ-RX400U features a USB 2.0 port for playback of audio from iPods, flash drives, and other generic mass storage devices. The CQ-RX400U and CQ-RX200U can be connected to Panasonic's external module for XM/ Sirius Satellite radio; and Bluetooth hands-free phone calling. All three devices feature a 4 x 50W (max) amp and a 3-band … Read more

Review: 2008 Mazda RX-8

The Mazda RX-8 is one of the most distinctive sports cars on the road thanks to its unique rotary engine and its aggressive, comic-book styling. Its interior tech leaves plenty to be desired, but for sheer mid-market driving pleasure, the high-revving, four-door coupe is hard to beat. This week Mazda announced that it will be unveiling an update of the RX-8 to next month's Detroit auto show. Until then, you can check out our review of the 2008 model right here.

Yamaha takes a 24-hour lead in AV receiver war

For better or worse, most consumer electronics companies don't announce products with Apple-like fanfare. There's no gilded invite, no glitzy PR event at the Moscone Center, no 90-minute Steve Jobs presentation. For most companies, it's a booth at CES in January, and a press release. Three to eight months later, the product pops up at Amazon, Best Buy, or J&R, often with more of a whimper than a bang.

Take the new AV receivers from Yamaha and Onkyo. Keen eyes at AVS Forum and other enthusiast sites began noticing that new entry- and midlevel receivers … Read more

TiVo and JVC copy-protection follow-up

There's still no word on whether the TiVo Series3 will be seeing a price cut in the near future. But in the meantime, it's worth visiting an issue that cropped up during our testing of the box back in the fall of 2006. At that time, we noticed that the Series3 analog-video outputs exhibited some strange behavior when connected to JVC A/V receivers via HDMI--essentially, the composite and S-video outputs wouldn't work when playing back recordings that were flagged as "restricted" by the content provider.

Both TiVo and JVC have since followed up on … Read more