cruises

Imagine a floating city of entrepreneurs; a veritable Googleplex of the sea. That's the vision behind Blueseed, a San Francisco startup.

The company plans to deploy a cruise ship 12 nautical miles from Silicon Valley -- in international waters -- and convert it into a metropolis of floating offices so foreign workers can launch their companies without obtaining work visas.

Despite a number of bills currently in Congress that aim to expand immigrant work visas, "there is no entrepreneurial visa," says co-founder Max Marty. "I think that's a terrible problem."

The answer, according to … Read more

Jeff's back from his trip to the Dominican Republic, so we ask CNET Labs editor Joseph Kaminski into the studio to tell us what it's like to be stranded on an island owned by Walt Disney.

We'll also give our prediction for tomorrow's Apple iPad HD announcement and learn more about weapons from the future that disrupt speech patterns and jam cell phone signals.… Read more

Some things don't make sense. At least to one's eyes.

So when I saw the YouTube video I've embedded, I wondered whether it could possibly be real. Yet this purports to be a pool table on a cruise ship in rough water.

The poster claims that this pool table was a cruise ship called "Radiance of the Seas" on its way back from New Zealand last December.

I went to the Royal Caribbean site to check whether this might be true. And, indeed, there I found the boast that this is the first self-leveling pool … Read more

Last time, we took a look at how cars protect their passengers in the event of a crash. This week, we're taking a look at a few high-tech ways that modern vehicles can help prevent accidents in the first place.

Modern tech cars can be equipped with a host of driver aid systems that help make driving easier for your average commuter. From road-aware cruise control systems to self-aware headlight systems, cars are getting smarter every day.

Adaptive cruise control If the standard cruise control system was the first step toward vehicular autonomy, then adaptive cruise control system is … Read more

The best GPS you can load on your phone, how often you should change your oil in the real world, don't trust that self-braking car with your life (or someone else's) and adding remote start and seat heaters the right way.

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There's good sound, and there's high-end sound; the difference is in the details. Case in point: the little Cruise USB digital-to-analog headphone amplifier from Alpha Design Labs by Furutech.

The Cruise sounds clear, clean and remarkably transparent. Regarding the details, connectivity comes in two flavors, there's a 3.5 mm analog stereo line input and 24/96 USB digital input. The Cruise can run off its external AC power supply, internal rechargeable lithium ion battery, or USB power from your computer. Furutech claims the battery is good for 80 hours of playback time.

High-end gear has to look the part, and again the Cruise scores. It may be a little thing, but it feels solid. Mirror-polished, nonmagnetic stainless-steel end caps flank a curvy, high-gloss carbon fiber body. Resting on my desktop the Cruise absolutely looks the part; it's the real deal. … Read more

DETROIT--In a moment sure to foreshadow the future while driving hot-rod purists bitterly insane, the electric car invaded Motor City yesterday.

More than 50 Chevrolet Volts from around the country gathered on the outskirts of Detroit to celebrate their automaker's 100th birthday as part of the Woodward Dream Cruise.

The Cruise is an annual gathering that brings hot rods, custom cars, and elite vehicles from around the world together for various auto-centric events. During downtime, the more than 1 million cars in attendance cruise up and down Woodward Avenue, Motor City's drag-racing mecca and one-time home to countless diners and auto-tuning shops.

But just as more cars are evolving into electrics and hybrids, century-old Chevrolet is evolving the Dream Cruise to celebrate the Volt. The automaker thus dedicated a chunk of its 100th birthday parade of rumbling Corvettes, Camaros, Novas, Impalas, and Bel Airs to the barely audible hum of Volts. … Read more

I am not a film critic, but I find Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz's recent action movie "Knight and Day" quite a snooze, for the most part. Spoiler alert: There's one thing I like about the movie, however, and it's the idea of the "Zephyr," a perpetual battery about the size of a regular AA that has enough power to run a small city, forever.

Now powering a small city forever with a tiny battery is quite an ambition and will take at least until 2020 to get (I am an optimist). For … Read more

Ford this week announced it is partnering with MIT's AgeLab on a project to identify specific stress-inducing driving situations, monitor a driver's reaction to the situations using biometrics, and evaluate methods to incorporate new stress-reducing features into the next generation of Ford products. The six-month effort will begin in January and will focus on human interaction with a specially equipped 2010 Lincoln MKS.

Ford's goal for the program is to take this a step further by creating the most comfortable driving environment possible so that the driver is always relaxed and calm.

By using the Lincoln MKS, … Read more