Umeox unveils solar-powered Android phone

You may not have heard of Chinese mobile phone maker Umeox Mobile, but odds are you’ve come across one of their handsets at one time or another without realizing it, as its phones are generally re-branded and sold by operators around the world. The company's latest offering announced this week at Mobile World Congress 2011 is due to hit stores later this year. Named after the Greek god of the sun, the Umeox Apollo sports a built-in solar panel on the back for keeping the phone running when you can’t get to an outlet – provided you can get to some sunlight, of course.

Aside from the built-in solar charger, the Apollo’s features aren’t really anything to write – or phone-home – about, but should be fine for anyone who spends plenty of time in away from the convenience of an electrical outlet and doesn’t need the latest whizz-bang features. The Android-powered device has a 3.2-inch 320 x 480 display, 1 GB of internal storage that can be increased via a microSD card slot, FM radio, Bluetooth 2.1 A2DP, 3-megapixel rear camera and 3.5 mm audio jack.

As reported on Mobile Crunch, Umeox looks to be producing two versions of the Apollo – an 850/1900MHz model suited to networks in the U.S. and a 900/1800MHz model compatible with networks in Europe and much of Asia. Umeox says that topping up the phone for daily usage will only take about 2.5 hours of basking in the sun, but recharging a completely flat battery will take around 17 hours.

While a solar panel might seem like a nifty thing to have on your mobile phone, you’d have to ask yourself just how much time your current phone actually spends catching some rays and whether such a feature is worth sacrificing the power of a fully featured smartphone. Judging by the less than stellar success of other solar-panel touting mobile phones such as the Samsung Blue Earth, Sharp Solar Ketaiand Digicel Coral-200-Solar, the answers to these questions seems to be, 'not enough' and 'no'.

The 900/1800MHz model is set for release in Q2 this year, while the 850/1900MHz model is due in Q3 this year.

Report: Android beats Apple in market share

A new report from online research company comScore  gives a new indication that Android is overtaking Apple in popularity among U.S. consumers.

Blackberry-maker Research In Motion continues to lead in market share, with 33.5% of U.S. smart phone subscribers for the three months ending in November 2010. But it lost market share to Google's Android platform, which was up from 19.6% to 26% in the period.
Google narrowly beat Apple for second place. Apple took 25% of the market.
According to comScore, 61.5 million people in the U.S. owned smart phones during the period.

Disappearing Car Door

Vyrus plans to run hub-center steered 986 M2 Factory racebike in Moto2

Boutique Italian motorcycle company Vyrus is hoping to cause a real shake-up in top-level racing by entering its radically unorthodox Vyrus 986 M2 Factory in the heavily standardized Moto2 competition. With the same weight, engine, tires and electronics as its opponents, the Vyrus bike is more or less a controlled experiment in the racetrack effectiveness of hub-center steering. It will be the first time in decades that we've seen a machine enter top-level racing without a set of traditional telescopic forks at the front end. If it succeeds, it has a real chance at causing a suspension revolution in the sportsbike world. Oh, and there's streetbike and kit versions available too. Very exciting news.
Wish vyrus a good luck!

BMW Vision ConnectedDrive concept: the car as a fully integrated part of the networked world

BMW Vision ConnectedDrive concept: the car as a fully integrated part of the networked world

Like every other object in the world, the car is about to become networked. A glimpse into the automotive benefits of our networked future will be on show at the Geneva Motor Show next month when BMW shows its Vision ConnectedDrive concept car. The concept study, in a two-seat roadster guise, presents the automobile as a fully integrated part of the networked world in both its design and technological innovations. It is with this concept that BMW presents the potential of current and future in-car technology for optimizing comfort, safety and infotainment.

The BMW Vision ConnectedDrive employs a layering principal in its design, demonstrating the bond between the driver, passenger, vehicle and the surrounding environment. This is visualized by the complex light installation which shows the path of data exchange with the driver and passenger as the start and end point of each interaction.
The interior is divided into three layers – comfort, infotainment and safety – each with a corresponding light installation. Each layer is defined by a color, rhythm, motion and texture and, through the transparent surfaces the path taken by the information can be seen via fiber optic lighting.
The BMW Vision ConnectedDrive demonstrates the interaction between the driver and the passenger and shows how networking with the environment can reach new levels.........

G-Slate tablet headed for T-Mobile spring release

T-Mobile and LG have announced the G-Slate tablet with 8.9-inch multi-touch display, Tegra 2 processor, 32GB of storage and wireless connectivity over Wi-Fi or T-Mobile's HSPA super fast mobile broadband.

 

Motorola's Xoom may have grabbed most of the Android 3.0 headlines of late but it's not the only tablet to run on Google's new tablet-optimized operating system. T-Mobile and LG have announced a spring release window for the newest member of the G-series of mobile devices, the G-Slate. The Tegra 2-powered device features 3D-capable, high definition display and can record stereoscopic HD video via its rear-facing cameras. Wireless connectivity is also given a speed boost thanks to T-Mobile's growing HSPA+ network.
In addition to being Wi-Fi-capable, the G-Slate will also be able to wirelessly connect to T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, which offers theoretical download speeds of up to 21Mbps and has already been rolled out to more than 100 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. It's not quite 4G as defined by the International Telecommunication Union (which has determined that the only LTE-Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced currently qualify as true 4G technologies) but it's still damn quick.
G-Slate users can view up to 720p high definition content on the 8.9-inch, multi-touch display but the screen is also 3D-capable. You will need to use glasses to view the 3D content on the display, although whether those will need to be active or passive has not been revealed. If you want to play 3D or HD video on a suitably large television then the device can output full 1080p HD video via an included HDMI-out port.
Motorola xoom will make your life more zoom to others! :)

Volkswagen to unveil 261 mpg XL1 prototype in Qatar

At the dawn of the millennium, Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Piëch, who is today Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG, set his sights on creating a practical everyday use production car with a fuel consumption of 1.0 liter per 100 km (235 mpg). In 2002 a prototype VW 1-Litre was unveiled, which was followed in 2009 by the second-generation model, dubbed the L1, which boasted a combined diesel fuel consumption figure of 1.38-liter/100 km (170 mpg). As impressive as that figure is, the company has now managed to squeeze a combined fuel consumption of just 0.9-liter/100 km (261 mpg) with its third-generation VW 1-Litre prototype – the XL1.
With a combined fuel consumption of just 0.9-liter/100 km and CO2 emissions of 24 g/km, VW is calling the XL1 is the most efficient car in the world. This is achieved through a combination of lightweight construction using monocoque and add-on parts made of carbon fiber, very low aerodynamic drag (Cd 0.186) and a plug-in hybrid system consisting of a two cylinder TDI engine (35 kW/48 PS), E-motor (20 kW/27 PS), 7-speed dual clutch transmission (DSG) and lithium ion battery.