by Darren Murph, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 8:04AM
With just about every other automaker on the planet champing at the bit to showcase its newest electric prototypes, Subaru’s doing its best to hang on to the briskly moving bandwagon. Said company has just recently announced that its plug-in STELLA concept will be showcased at the upcoming G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit, and four of the five on hand will actually be used to “transport government officials and other participants” while the other offers itself up for test drives. The four-seat vehicle in question utilizes the same EV (electric vehicle) system employed in the R1e, suggesting that it can cruise around 80-kilometers (50 miles) on a full charge and hit a top speed of 100km/h (or just over 62mph).

[Via AutoblogGreen]

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 5:52AM
At this point, there’s very little you don’t know about Dell’s upcoming Latitude E-series of laptops thanks to our Week O’ Dell Scoops. Only the official pricing and launch dates for these DisplayPort, eSATA, and Centrino 2 D-series laptop replacements (and new XT2 Convertible) have eluded us. While we expected the Mainstream and Essential Es to hit this month, we suspect Intel had a little something to do with that delay. However, by making a somewhat official appearance on Dell’s website, we’re guessing that we’ll see an annoucement before mid-July or the first week of August at the latest.

[Thanks, Matthew M.]

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 2:08AMAs if overnight, Eran Badit of NGOHQ.com has PhysX running on the AMD Radeon 3870. Badit said that the hack was “easy,” and NGOHQ.com will distribute the utility after a bit more testing. As for performance, he hit a 22,606 CPU score in 3D mark Vantage, which is nothing to sneeze at. He swears that AMD isn’t involved in any of this, and that the utility release will be entirely independent.

[Via TGDaily]

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by Darren Murph, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 4:07AM
Those positively fed up with lengthy lines for coasters at amusement parks will likely dig the concept here. Evento’s BuzzBall is essentially a personal roller coaster, which reportedly features a “single seat inside a large outer ball that’s able to spin and roll independently of the ball itself” alongside a pair of electric motors used to power it. Better still, you don’t even need a hill to ride, just a wide open field (or a road, if you’re the daredevil type) to frolic in. As it stands, the BuzzBall is simply a prototype waiting to flourish, but it sure looks like this company is serious about selling at least a few to those with enough resources (you know, cash and spare time) to enjoy it.

[Via OhGizmo]

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 12:09AMAnalysts love to come up with all sorts of conjecture based on history, numbers, and general guesswork. In this case, FBR Research analyst Craig Berger has a few predictions to give us regarding the future of Apple’s ipod and iPhone lines. We’ll keep them short and sweet here and leave the static mulling to you. First, he expects an updated, lower-priced iPod nano in the near future along with product refreshes for both the iPod classic and touch. That sounds about right, as Apple is almost due for updates of those products anyway. As far as Apple’s production rate, he says Apple has increased iPod production around 15 percent and sees Apple shipping 15 million iphone 3G by the end of the year (he’s a big fan of the number “15″). Nothing really surprising here, but if all this pans out, Apple will dig deeper into the smart phone market while tightening its stranglehold on the PMP landscape.

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I always love seeing what makes up the insides of my gadgets, but like many I am not willing to tear it open and actually find out because of the risk of damage. So its always fun to see the pictures when someone else does the work and takes the risk for you.

The Samsung Instinct has become the latest phone to get dissected. The work comes courtesy of Rapid Repair and they posted plenty of pictures as well as instructions, just in case you were feeling brave. Keep reading to check out a few of the images showing off the guts, then hit the Read link below to check out the full set.

Read [Rapid Repair] Via [IntoMobile]

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 28th 2008 at 10:10PM
There’s always that guy (or girl) who dominates meetings, saying the same thing over and over again, or just repeats what others say. We all find it annoying, and we all wish there was some way to make that blabbermouth aware of his (or her) social transgressions. Enter the Reflect table. Reflect monitors conversations and visualizes — literally — who has the table using an array of color LEDs. Microphones listen to all the talk and show who is currently talking, who talks the most, and who’s being left out. This could be great for business meetings to tone down the “thinking outside the box,” but could also be a terrifying ordeal on a first date.

[Via MAKE]

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In a somewhat surprising, yet not so surprising move, Nokia bought up the rest of Symbian that it didn’t already own and will open-source the cell phone OS platform. Why? This is the strategy du jour in this age of Linux vs Microsoft, and now Android (Linux basically) vs iphone/Win Mobile/blackberry.

It’s a $410 million gamble for Nokia, but not a bad risk. Open-sourcing products many times results in amazing contributions and improvements to the products which in turn fuel sales of hardware, software and services surrounding that product.

Time will tell how Nokia fares. This writer thinks this will certainly help to keep Nokia firmly in the top tiers of the cell phone handset industry.

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 28th 2008 at 4:56PM
We’re not sure where our tipster got these pictures (nor are we going to ask), but they appear to be screens from the Treo 800w’s specification and knowledge training documentation. New tidbits include a 333 Mhz processor, 4.4.1 x 2.28 x 0.73-inch dimensions, 320 x 320 pixel screen, and a weight of 4.94 ounces. Windows Mobile 6.1 looks to be in full-force, the camera shoots at 2 MP, and the USB port is 2.0. As for other revealed features, you’re looking at threaded SMS chat, but MMS is mysteriously missing in lieu of Sprint Picture Mail, a trend that continues to confuse us. If all this pans out, look for the 800w to be available on July 13th for $249.99. Hit the continue link to see the rest of the juicy shots and details.

[Thanks, brian]

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by Darren Murph, posted Jun 28th 2008 at 1:11PM
Compared to the other single-seat electric vehicle that we had the misfortune of laying eyes on recently, Topia’s HUVO looks just magnificent. This clearly minuscule road warrior, which officially tips the scales at 150-kilograms (or just over 330-pounds), holds one lucky motorist and a small briefcase (if you’re lucky). Reportedly, the frame is constructed from high-tensile steel plate, the doors and the back panel from aluminum alloy, the roof from carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), the windshield from polycarbonate and the interior / wheels covers from ABS resin. Your guess is as good as ours when it comes to crash test ratings, but we suppose we should wait and see if this thing even sniffs the commercial market before worrying over that.

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