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Buick updates tech in 2014 LaCrosse

When Buick updated its LaCrosse model with its mild hybrid system, eAssist, and the IntelliLink infotainment system for the 2012 model year, the car was the most technically advanced Buick available. Rather than rest on its laurels, Buick gives the model new internal tech features for a 2014 model year update, including a new LED panel in the instrument cluster.

The 2014 LaCrosse model will feature the same drivetrain options as before, a 2.4-liter four-cylinder aided by a 15-horsepower electric motor or a more traditional 3.6-liter V-6 with direct injection.

The look gets refreshed slightly with new LED … Read more

Cadillac delivers 420 hp with new twin-turbo engine

Cadillac once again leads GM's technology efforts, this time with a new drivetrain for its 2014 CTS model. One of this new model's three engine choices will be a direct-injection 3.6-liter V-6, producing 420 horsepower.

The current CTS comes with either a 3-liter or 3.6-liter V-6, both featuring direct injection, outputting 270 horsepower and 318 horsepower respectively. The new CTS comes out with the twin turbo, a revised nonturbo 3.6-liter V-6, and a 2-liter four-cylinder using direct injection and a turbo to produce 272 horsepower.

The danger of using a turbocharger to boost power is … Read more

Washington Post to start charging frequent site users

The Washington Post won't be completely free online much longer.

The publication this summer plans to start charging users who access more than 20 articles or multimedia features a month. The Washington Post hasn't yet decided how much it will charge, according to an article on the newspaper's Web site.

Large portions of The Washington Post's audience will be exempt from fees, though, including home-delivery subscribers. Students, teachers, school administrators, government employees, and military personnel will have unlimited access to the Web site while in their schools and workplaces, the article said. And access to The … Read more

Scientists briefly revive extinct frog from dead cells

The Rheobatrachus silus frog has been extinct since 1983. This unusual Australian creature was known for swallowing its eggs and then releasing the young from its mouth. That's way too awesome to just let the animal be resigned to the biological history books.

Australian researchers have spent five years conducting experiments using somatic-cell nuclear transfer, a technique for creating a cloned embryo. Appropriately enough, it's called the Lazarus Project. The scientists took donor eggs from a related frog and replaced the nuclei with dead nuclei from the extinct frog. Some of the eggs then began to grow.… Read more

Range Rover Sport to make mad dash through New York

Last year, Land Rover took the wraps off its fully re-engineered, weight-reduced Range Rover. At the upcoming New York International Auto Show the company will unveil the Range Rover Sport edition, traditionally a more powerful, lowered version of Land Rover's big truck.

Land Rover promises a drive through New York as the first public appearance for the new vehicle on Tuesday, March 26.

I picture it something like this: Land Rover, wanting to enter Manhattan in style, sends the driver on a route over the Brooklyn Bridge, surrounded by camera cars. However, due to construction on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, … Read more

Take a computer-generated first look at the 2014 Hyundai Equus

Details and a pair of computer-animated videos of the upcoming 2014 Hyundai Equus (known in some world markets and referred to in the videos as the Centennial) have found their way onto the Web ahead of the Korean flagship's debut a the 2013 New York auto show later this month.

The 2014 Equus features a visual refresh that, with its reshaped front end, gently whispers "Mercedes-Benz S-Class," thanks to more wedge-shaped headlamps that are now available with full-LED adaptive front lighting. The Equus' profile is largely unchanged, as is often the case with a mid-cycle facelift. Around … Read more

Google Glass shows off its apps at SXSW

Google is showing off its wearable tech again, this time with an app-filled presentation at South by Southwest Interactive.

The presentation, which Engadget captured in Austin today, showed apps from The New York Times, Evernote, Skitch, and Path.

Of course, there was also a Gmail app. When an e-mail arrives, Google Glass wearers can use voice command to prompt Google's e-mail service to deliver the sender's image and subject line to the glasses' screen. Users can then tell the app what to write back.

The New York Times application will deliver an article in the form of an … Read more

Elon Musk at SXSW: 'I'd like to die on Mars, just not on impact'

AUSTIN, Texas -- SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk wowed a capacity SXSW crowd here today with the first public showing of a video of a rocket capable of blasting off and then returning safely and gently to the ground. And he later added he hopes to one day travel (perhaps one-way) to Mars.

The video of the company's Grasshopper rocket, filmed just about a day-and-a-half ago, demonstrates one of SpaceX's key propositions: That it can develop reusable rockets at a fraction of the cost of a traditional NASA mission, and that it can bring them back down … Read more

Join the wait list for the new Facebook News Feed

In case you hadn't heard, Facebook held an event today to announce that your News Feed is going to look completely different in the coming weeks. The new feed features bigger photos, quick access to all of your feeds, and a unified look across both Web and mobile.

The Facebook team said the new News Feed would slowly begin rolling out today, with tweaks being made along the way to ensure a solid user experience. If you're the adventurous type and want to try it out, you can join the waiting list to get early access.

Signing up … Read more