taxis

Blimp: The Flying Adventures is a blimp-piloting arcade game that has polished production values and gameplay similarities to both taxi and classic thrust-and-land games. Its interface makes great use of the iPhone and iPod Touch: you tilt your device left and right to control your blimp's pitch, and you tap a touch-screen button (again and again) with your right thumb for thrust. After the first few levels, you can also drop a limited supply of bombs with a left-thumb button.

In the game's sci-fi story, you play Captain Zed Pelin working for a merchant company on the planet … Read more

A whopper of a leak shot across the Internet Tuesday, reporting of a Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) meeting that discussed the possibilities of rereleasing classic Sega games as compilation Blu-ray Discs and downloads of PS2 games on the PS3. While we discussed this trend--and even suggested a few great franchises to pursue--when the God of War Collection was announced, an even more surprising and exciting bomb was dropped in these purported meeting minutes:

Dreamcast on the PS3.

From the wording of supposedly leaked August 6 SCEA meeting notes found on several forums including NeoGAF, it sounds like both PS2 and Dreamcast games will soon be available over PSN, much like PS1 games are already. That is big news. With PS2, PS1, and Dreamcast titles under their belts, it could be argued that the PS3 would have a Virtual Console that, while not as retro as Nintendo's, would be nearly unbeatable in offering the best of the late '90s and early '00s. After all, back then, the Dreamcast and PS2 were the biggest, bitterest rivals in town. It hasn't been confirmed that these notes are real, but they certainly seem too detailed and logical to not be.… Read more

On her way back from the airport the other day, our photo editor Sarah found a Kindle in the back seat of a New York City taxi cab. Being the honest person she is, she asked me if there was any way to get it back to the owner.

Well, it's actually not that easy to track down the owner of Kindle, especially if that person has a fairly common first and last name, as the owner of this Kindle does. We actually e-mailed him at the Kindle address that's registered to the device but it doesn't … Read more

Drunk drivers have killed people I care about. Twice. So if you're a drinker, I urge you to grab a copy of Designated Driver.

This iPhone app has the potential to save not only your life, but also the lives of perfectly innocent others.

Here's how it works: You choose five or more friends from your address book to serve as your "designated drivers."

Later, when you tap the "I Need a Ride Home" button, everyone on your list gets a text message--complete with your location and an embedded Google Maps link.

There's … Read more

The Wall Street Journal recently opined that "the inconvenient truth is that the earth's temperatures have flat-lined since 2001, despite growing concentrations of CO2," causing a greater number of scientists to question the science behind global warming. Whatever your opinion in the matter, it's certainly true that the world would be better off if we wasted less energy, which is what makes open-source Ecobot so useful.

While programs like Amee help businesses measure their carbon footprints, Ecobot offers a personal "carbon trainer" for Mac users.

Designed by Taxi, a Canadian corporation, Ecobot is derived … Read more

You got a better idea on how taxis should work? New York City is all ears.

On Tuesday, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) put out a request for information on how it can improve its taxi technology.

The TLC, in conjunction with the Design Trust for Public Space, staged an elaborate display at the New York International Auto Show in 2007 of taxis with innovative ideas on sustainability and design. Now it seems that the TLC wants to ensure that the public is aware of its interest in tech beyond hybrids.

The city's contracts with service providers for its tech tools program--referred to as the Taxicab Passenger Enhancement Program, or T-PEP--expire in about two years. The TLC seems to be shopping for options on how "to enhance the technology systems in each taxicab for the benefit of passengers, drivers, and owners alike," according to the announcement.… Read more

MTI (also known as Mark Licea) joins the show today to replace Justin Yu, who's on vacation to Boston. We cover everything under the typical 404-sun: strippers, Playboy, Mexican-Korean truck food, Twitter, and Sweet Lou Bakalar.

Every one knows that the economy is in the tank. For a lot of people out there, that means spending hours every day listening to past episodes of the 404. For some it means that instead of using that Harvard degree, they are using the assets their momma gave them. In related news, Playboy has posted its entire back catalog online. Warning: This is totally NSFW. You can check out all the previous back issues of Playboy magazine online with a Silverlight-enabled browser.

Also, last Friday was the final broadcast of the landmark series Battlestar Galactica. Wilson, being the only fan of the show on The 404, has plenty to say--most of which seems to bore the hell out of Jeff and MTI. The show will be missed, and while the finale hit most of the right marks, there were a few things that gave plenty of pause--like the second ending. Check it out on iTunes or Hulu. Promise you're going to love Number Six in a red dress.

There's a food truck in Los Angeles driving around, Twittering, and making Korean-Mexican tacos? Finally, Sweet Lou Bakalar, Jeff's father, gives us his insight on the current state of texting and television buying. Stay tuned tomorrow for Eric Franklin!

Last week I wrote about Taxi Magic (download), an iPhone app that, along with RideCharge--its cousin for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile phones--lets you order a cab to your present location, and track it as it wends its way toward you. Version 1.1, released on Wednesday, gives Taxi Magic the one main feature missing from its BlackBerry and Windows Mobile counterparts: the ability to pay your cab fare with a tap of the iPhone.

This mobile payment option works by associating one or more credit cards to your RideCharge account (RideCharge's privacy policy). When it's time to pay, … Read more

The idea behind WikiTaxi is so simple that the utility of it should be obvious: take Wikipedia offline. How cool is that? The real question is, though, does it work? Is it even possible to take the massive online encyclopedia offline in a usable format?

Surprisingly, the answer is yes. WikiTaxi compresses all of Wikipedia into a database that's searchable, fully usable, and small enough to fit on an 8GB USB drive. It grabs the Wikipedia database dump every few weeks, keeping your offline entries up-to-date with the latest changes. There's also an option in the program to … Read more