(Credit:
Microsoft)
2009 is suddenly a holiday of racers. If you don't believe that, consider the trifecta that have been unleashed upon us already: Need For Speed: Shift, Dirt 2, and Microsoft's holiday tentpole Forza Motorsport 3. All of them promise realistic physics, blazing speeds, and tons of customization, but NFS: Shift and Dirt 2 are multiplatform, while Forza Motorsport 3 is an Xbox 360 first-party exclusive. For my money, though, I'll take Forza 3. After playing all three, the newest Forza has, surprisingly, won me over--not with realism, but with fun.
I say surprisingly because "simulation racers" generally lie in a calcified place among the hearts of the mainstream gamers: the hundreds of factory-immaculate car models and pitch-perfect world racing circuits, along with the endless class licenses and intricate engine tune-ups, can turn most gamers off completely. Right here in the CNET offices, I told a colleague I was playing Forza 3, and that I actually enjoyed it. "Really?" he asked, somewhat disbelieving. It's assumed that Gran Turismo and Forza will be inaccessible to those who don't appreciate racers, just like Madden often erects a wall between NFL fans and gamers and the rest of the world.
I am a casual racer, and Forza 3 sucked me in.
Its first success was employing a calm British man to talk to me. Much like LittleBigPlanet, a gentle voice of authority (although in this case, not Stephen Fry) welcomed me, showed me the basic ropes, and told me everything was going to be all right. Rather than worry about detailed car controls and under-the-hood tinkering, a simple press of a few A and B buttons got me right into a season-long circuit of races. The voice tutorials gently tailed off naturally, until I had the ropes completely. Suddenly I realized that I had been playing for several hours, and was itching to complete just one more race challenge to unlock more credits. That's when I realized that, fundamentally, Forza 3 is a success. ... Read more
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Trapster alerts you to nearby speed cameras and "Smokey takin' pictures."
It's been nearly a year since the debut of Trapster, a controversial but popular app that alerts you of nearby speed traps, cameras, and the like.
Version 3.5 just hit the App Store, bringing with it some impressive--and, for many users, long-awaited--new features. Here's the rundown:
- Improved interface Five features (some of them new) are now accessible by tapping blue icons that span the right side of the screen.
- Bluetooth audio If your car supports Bluetooth, you can pair Trapster to your stereo to get audio alerts over your speakers. Even better, if your car supports A2DP (i.e. stereo Bluetooth), you can take advantage of:
- Built-in iPod controls Tap the little musical-note icon to slide open Trapster's iPod audio controls. Obviously, you don't need stereo Bluetooth to use them, but it sure is a nice combo. ... Read more
John Cioffi joins the show to explain the difference between fiber optic cable and copper cable. Find out what you should know and why you should care.
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The British Steam Car spouts off as it gets ready to make a run at a 103-year-old land speed record.
(Credit: The British Steam Car Challenge)The Stanley Steamer may have finally been dethroned.
After holding onto its land speed record for 103 years, the homegrown Stanley automobile from the early days of motoring has been overtaken by a late-model import. The British Steam Car team said Tuesday that, earlier in the day, in the two runs required to be considered for the record, the Steam Car averaged 139.843 mph over a measured mile.
Charles Burnett III behind the wheel of the Steam Car.
(Credit: The British Steam Car Challenge)Tuesday's achievement still awaits official confirmation from the certifying agency, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile.
The steam-powered mark to beat was 127 mph, set in 1906 by Fred Marriott, driving that Stanley Steamer at Daytona Beach, Fla. (According to the FIA, the overall World Land Speed Record is 763 mph, a supersonic speed reached in 1997 by a jet-powered car, the ThrustSSC.)
The British Steam Car, a project 10 years in the making, is no jet, but it does have its share of modern trappings, including carbon-fiber construction. The 3-ton, 25-foot-long vehicle has 12 boilers, and its steam gets superheated to 400 degrees Celsius before being injected into the turbine.
In each of its runs, the Steam Car, driven by Charles Burnett III, actually traveled more than 6 miles on a dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. On either side of the measured mile, it requires a 2.5-mile stretch for acceleration and deceleration. In going for the record, the vehicle had to make the second run within an hour of the first--the steam team says it made the turnaround Tuesday in 52 minutes.
The vehicle's peak speed in the first run was 136.103 mph, and in the second, 151.085 mph.
In this day and age, it's hard to imagine that there might be an automotive speed record left that's only slightly north of 100 miles per hour. Heck, I've been passed by Audis on the autobahn that seemed to be going twice that fast.
But then, we've grown accustomed to cars with internal combustion engines. The record in question, which could finally fall this month after standing for more than a century, is held by a Stanley Steamer. In 1906, a gent named Fred Marriott drove a cigar-shaped steamer at Daytona Beach, Fla., to the then amazing speed of 127 mph.
Now along comes a 21st-century contender called the British Steam Car, which looks about as much like a Stanley-built vehicle as an F-16 looks like a Sopwith Camel. Looking for a catchier point of reference, the car's backers have taken to calling the 3-ton contraption, in at least one press release, "the fastest kettle in the world."
It's been a long road already this year to get the Brit-mobile ready for a record run, now set for sometime between August 18-22 after a postponement or two and some technical and logistical challenges. But just today, the steam team proudly proclaimed that in test runs on the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, their vehicle had--unofficially--bested the record, hitting a not-street-legal 131 mph.
Will they be cooking with, um, gas later this month when officials of the record-vetting Federation Internationale de l'Automobile join them in the desert? We'll know soon enough.
PhoneFace puts a face (or weird avatar) for your frequently dialed contacts.
Like Cover Flow for contacts, PhoneFace lets you create a custom favorites list comprised entirely of photos (and/or avatars).
In other words, it's a visual alternative to the iPhone's own Favorites list. And a terrific one at that.
To get started, you tap the Plus icon, then choose an existing contact from your address book. If there's not already an associated photo, you'll have the option to snap one with the iPhone's camera, choose one from your photo library, pick an avatar from PhoneFace's collection, or even pull down his/her Twitter profile photo (if it's someone you're already following).
After you've added some contacts, you can flip through them just like flipping through album covers in Cover Flow.
When you tap a photo, you'll see a menu that lets you call any of that contact's numbers, send a text message, or compose an e-mail.
The idea, of course, is that it's easier to find a contact by face than by drilling through a text-based list. It definitely is, which is why I wish you could link the iPhone app's Favorites icon directly to PhoneFace. Having to hunt for the icon kills a bit of the convenience.
Of course, you could always add it to your "dock" icons at the bottom of the screen. My only real complaint with the app is its weird assortment of avatars. A silhouetted cowboy? An astronaut carrying a briefcase? Uh, whatever.
Still, if you're a fan of Cover Flow, you'll love PhoneFace. It's 99 cents.
Not a fan of Cover Flow? Then what's your favorite speed-dial app for the iPhone?
The North American Eagle vehicle.
(Credit: Landspeed.com)If you haven't heard of North American Eagle, it's a program to break the existing land-based speed record of 763 miles per hour by reaching 800 mph, which is slightly faster than Mach 1 (768 mph).
There are a range of technologies incorporated into the NAE vehicle to make this crazy land speed possible, including those that provide communication between car and control center. This is where Tropos Networks comes into play.
The company announced Tuesday that its routers are being used in the latest NAE trial runs in the desert at Black Rock, Nevada, this week, where vehicle speeds exceed 500 miles per hour. Onboard the NAE vehicle during its high-speed test runs is a Tropos 4210 mobile mesh router that provides real-time communication and data monitoring.
While network connection at high speeds is not new, as Internet access on airplanes has been available for some time now, the main issue here is latency. The NAE vehicle is a very-fast-moving land-based testing object, and it's necessary that it has the capacity for true real-time communication.
To resolve this, Tropos system uses direct Wi-Fi links between the vehicle and ground stations to provide access to vehicle data with a delay of only one to three milliseconds. ... Read more
(Credit:
EA Mobile)
As a fan of iPhone games and racing sims, I'm pretty excited at the news that EA Mobile has finally released Need for Speed Undercover for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.
The story of Need for Speed Undercover (NFSU) is told through live-action cutscenes interspersed among a series of races. The basic plot is pretty much the same as the rest of the Need for Speed series: There's some sort of underground smuggling ring connected to some gang of street racers, and you, the driver, must infiltrate their ranks. Come to think of it, that's also the plot to "The Fast and the Furious"! What a rip-off!
Apparently in the world of Need for Speed, every vehicle is rear-wheel drive!
(Credit: EA Mobile/CNET)Rehashed plot aside, NFSU's gameplay is quite simple. There is no gas pedal, so when the race starts, the car begins to constantly accelerate (much like in the VW Polo game we looked at previously). Touching the screen activates the brakes and tilting the iPhone controls the steering. Swiping a single finger down the screen activates Speed Breaker (a sort of bullet time for precision maneuvers) and swiping up fires a nitrous boost for a quick burst of speed.
The controls are among the better of the iPhone racing sims, but the accelerometer-based steering is still floaty and difficult to control with much accuracy. Fortunately, the courses seem to be laid out with a pedal-to-the-metal driving style in mind, and the Speed Breaker mode is always there when you need to make the vehicle dance.
I counted 19 cars available in the game's menu, including vehicles from Ford, Nissan, Mazda, Porsche, BMW, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Pagani, and Lamborghini. There's even a pair of Pontiacs to chose for those feeling nostalgic for the fallen brand.
In typical NFS fashion, you can add a fugly body kit to any vehicle in the game.
(Credit: EA Mobile/CNET)Each vehicle can be customized in typical NFS fashion with performance upgrades to the handling and power, along with the requisite gaudy body kits and garish paint jobs we've come to expect from the street racer genre.
Race types include simple circuit races, sprints, and cop takeouts--where the player must disable a number of surprisingly fragile police cruisers before the clock runs out--along with a few other modes spread out across over two dozen races. Winning a race earns you cash prizes that can be used to upgrade your ride or unlock new ones.
At $9.99, Need for Speed Undercover is at the top end of what I feel is reasonable for an iPhone app, but the number of courses available combined with the number of vehicle to choose from and customize adds to the replay value of the game.
This is a test clip of some birds that I took using the Casio Exilim EX-FH20's high-speed video capture. (I know it's not the most exciting clip in the world, unless you're into watching 6 minutes of birds bathing in public, you sicko.) This feature is really pretty cool (as is the camera's 40-frame-per-second shooting speed), though I'm still on the fence about how much someone would actually use it after the initial "wow, this is cool" phase.
But Casio deserves credit for pulling off the high-speed shooting features on the Exilim EX-FH20 at its sub-$500 price. It really makes me look forward to testing the two less-expensive Casio Exilim ultracompacts with these features, the EX-FC100 and the EX-FS10. Unfortunately, the photo quality on the FH20 seems to have taken a back seat to its speedy shooting, and usability isn't too great, either.
EA ramps up the realism for Need for Speed: Shift.
(Credit: EA)We love racing games here at Car Tech. So we jumped at the opportunity to play a preview build of its upcoming Need for Speed: Shift when we were invited by EA.
Need for Speed: Shift is the first of a three-pronged split of the Need for Speed franchise that will also include Nitro--a casual, arcade racer--and World Online--sort of a racing sim MMORPG.
We were particularly blown away by the fully modeled interiors of the vehicles, which included fully functional gauges and mirrors. Having recently sat in many of the test vehicles, we were impressed by the level of detail. For example, the in-game Corvette featured the same head-up display as the 2009 Corvette Convertible we'd tested earlier.
Need for Speed: Shift is expected to be released in the fall for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Check out our gallery with more photos and details.
