The crux of LG’s story at this morning’s press conference? Connectivity is everything. The first step to making your whole home smarter is to get everything talking. Wi-Fi is a perfect first step. Not everyone will agree that appliances need Wi-Fi, but I think it’s a great start to a big ‘next phase’ in home integration. More »
HTC’s laying its cards down with a phone called “Smart” for Europe and Asia, which runs on Qualcomm’s BREW platform. As BREW is cheap for the manufacturer, I’m willing to bet the Smart will be cheap for the consumer too. More »
BBC has a video tour of Microsoft’s new smart house—a future home that runs on technology to help with daily tasks, including an interactive mirror that gives laundry directions for specific clothing.
The Smart fortwo seems like a perfect candidate for the electric makeover, and with Tesla lending its expertise to the project, we all expected an impressive showing. But to be honest, we’re not thrilled.
Panasonic demoed their Smart Home concept at CEATEC this week. Smart Home seems to be an integrated system that controls the electronics in your house, from lighting to air conditioning to multimedia. Even the television will slide to follow you around, which actually looks sort of creepy and desperate.
This is Kage Roi, a room that listens to conversations using speech recognition. It identifies keywords and constantly searches the web for related material, displaying information and images to help brainstorming sessions. In theory, combined with lighting that simulates the changes in sunlight, boosts people’s creativity. An amazing idea that, for obvious reasons, we would never be able to use here at Giz. [Pink Tentacle]
Here I was, credit card in hand, ready to fly across the Pacific and purchase my very first SMART Car from a vending machine, when I’m told it’s just some advertisement. Sure, SMART Cars can’t float (they can barely survive the SUV-congested streets of the U.S.), and the Japanese steer on the opposite side of their automobiles than us Yanks, but this was the promise of a car via a vending machine. I would have figured out a way to bring it home and make it work. To paraphrase the late, great comedian Mitch Hedberg, things are just better when they fall.
If you are looking for a self-driving car, now you can buy the ByWire XGV, the modified Ford Escape that got third place at the DARPA Urban Challenge for just US$89,000. Torc Technologies—who collaborated with Virginia Tech to develop this smartypants SUV hybrid—is going to sell the car as a research platform so other researchers can tune and add new contraptions to make it work better and look more menacing than the current version. The specs are loaded with ports, sensors, and even optional accessories, like vibration isolators. Whatever that is, we want it.
