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Posts with tag air

New Hybrid Car to Use Air as Fuel

by Evan Shamoon, posted Sep 16th 2008 at 10:49AM

Now that biofuels are pretty much out of the running to save our planet, the not-so-subtly-named, New York-based company called Zero Pollution Motors plans to produce a new kind of hybrid car: one that runs on compressed air and gets up to 106 miles per gallon. The car's engine would apparently work like a locomotive -- rather than steam, however, compressed air would move the pistons to propel the car along. When the car hits 35 mph, a fuel-powered external combustion system kicks in and heats the air, further increasing its volume and giving the vehicle more power.

The company is pledging to build the first models in 2010, which will be sold for around $18,000. Air would be free, and pumped into the tanks using an on-board compressor.

In other news, we're going to build a spaceship that runs on rainbows. Stay tuned! [From: Asylum]

MacBook Air Hacked In Under Two Minutes

by Tim Stevens, posted Mar 28th 2008 at 9:20AM

MacBook Air Hacked in Under Two Minutes

If there's one thing Apple users love to taunt Windows users about, it's security. Mac owners giddily flaunt their lack of virus scanners and lack of worries in front of their PC comrades, whose machines look comparatively bloated with virus scanners, firewalls, and daily patch updates to fix the exploit du jour. Bad news for those Mac users, then, as a recent hacking competition showed that the new MacBook Air is able to be completely compromised in under two minutes.

The hacker in question, Charlie Miller, achieved this feat as part of a hacking competition called PWN 2 OWN. Miller hosted a malicious Web page privately, accessed it from the MacBook Air, and then, within two minutes, was able to take full control of the machine remotely and make it do his bidding.The culprit here is apparently an undiscovered flaw in the Mac Web browser Safari, which has shown to be somewhat lacking in the security department on both the iPhone and on Windows.

Charlie won $10,000 for his troubles, and he got to keep the laptop, but as part of the deal, he was also required to keep secret about the details of exploit, so hopefully there's little chance of it getting into the wild and taking over Macs around the world.

Still, we'd recommend steering clear of Safari -- and perhaps not being so smug.

From Engadget

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Charlie Rose Saves MacBook Air Instead of Face

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Mar 19th 2008 at 8:14PM

Charlie Rose Sacrifices Face for MacBook Air, Literally

Well Charlie Rose has proven his dedication to the gadget gods. The well-respected journalist, while strolling down 59th Street in New York City, tripped on a pot hole and had to make a quick decision: Save his face, or save his new MacBook Air. In case you can't tell by looking at the photo, Rose decided his super-thin laptop was more important.

But far be it for brutal facial trauma to keep one of the hardest working journalists in television from working. Rose showed up, blood-stained-MacBook-Air-and-all, to do his regular interview show looking like he had been on the losing side of a heavy weight prize fight.

Now that, our friends, is dedication.

From Engadget

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MacBook Air Confuses Airport Security, Forcing Man to Lose Flight

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Mar 11th 2008 at 9:18AM

Airport Security Can't Identify MacBook Air, Causes Man to Miss His Flight
You'd think that being in charge of what "devices" are allowed on an airplane would require TSA (Transportation Security Agency) agents to be on top of the latest technology. Or that at least the head office would send out memos about new and unique gadgets that might confound the agents. But think again. As one man found out, the wild world of consumer electronics can baffle not just one, but several agents all at once.

One poor man missed his flight when a gaggle of TSA agents were unable to identify his fancy new MacBook Air as an actual laptop. The security person monitoring the X-ray machine was apparently perplexed by the lack of a hard drive -- it was the 64-gigabyte solid state memory model -- and ports on the back of the machine. When several other agents were called over and unable to identify the thinnest laptop on earth as a legitimate computer, the frequent flyer was pulled aside into a security cubicle and forced to stand just out of arms reach of his new ultra-light Mac.

Thankfully, a younger, and more tech savvy, agent wandered in and explained to the befuddled security reps that this was the new MacBook air and didn't have a hard drive. After several, progressively dumbed-down explanations the agents let the man go, but it was already too late, his flight was long gone.

Too bad that same tech-savvy security agent wasn't around to help us when we got stuck at Boston's Logan Airport with an Asus eeePC, which also has no hard drive. Security agents pulled us aside and had us wait a good 15 minutes until they figured out it was just an eeePC.

Next time we're sure he'll show up with a little more time to spare.

From Engadget

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MacBook Air Selling Out Around the Country

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Mar 3rd 2008 at 12:22PM

MacBook Air Sold Out Around the Country

Despite some mixed reviews, it seems that retailers just can't keep the MacBook Air in stock. Whether the reason is that the ultra thin laptop is inspiring hardcore gadget lust, or that Apple kept shipments low to give the illusion of demand remains to be seen, but one thing is definitely true: Trying to track an Air down is increasingnly touch at Apple Stores around the country, as the folks at ArsTechnica recently found out.

Amazon isn't shipping orders until March 16, while stores in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and all throughout Massachusetts were all reported to be out of stock over the weekend.

Apple is refreshing stock at the stores on an almost daily basis, but the laptops are sold on a first-come-first-served basis and rarely stay on the shelves for even 24 hours. Whether that daily inventory refresh is 30 laptops or three, though, is not clear. Regardless, it looks like small laptops are in.

You can check to see if your local Apple outlet has the Air in stock here.



From ArsTechnica and Engadget

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Air-Powered Car Coming Soon

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 14th 2008 at 12:55PM

Concept Car Powered by Air
Forget hydrogen fuel cells. They may only produce water as exhaust, but hydrogen is highly explosive and requires a lot of energy to produce, negating some of its green credentials. But a car powered on compressed air, well that may be the holy grail of environmentally friendly vehicles.

The OneCAT is the brain-child of French inventor Guy Negre. Negre has claimed to be on the verge of a breakthrough for over a decade, but he may finally be able to deliver on the promise. Negre recently struck a deal with Indian car maker Tata who are behind the Nano, the world's cheapest car. Tata is putting the finishing touches on the engine design and has given generous financial backing to Negre to finish his concept car.

The OneCAT can be filled up with compressed air in under three minutes or plugged in to an electrical outlet and filled with air via the on-board compressor in about four hours. When driving in the city, the car will be a genuine zero emissions vehicle. For longer trips, a small fuel burner, which will operate with a wide variety of liquid fuels, will heat the air to expand it and increase pressure on the pistons and extend its range (which has yet to be revealed). In fuel burning mode, the OneCAT will get the equivalent of 120 miles per gallon.

If the price stays around its estimate £2,500 ($4,885) and the range is enough get around fill ups ever other day, Negre and Tata may have a revolutionary vehicle on their hands.

From the BBC

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Gigantic Bird's-Eye Billboards Target Air Travelers

by Tom Conlon, posted Sep 28th 2007 at 5:49PM

Gigantic Bird's-Eye Billboards Target Air TravelersWith the crying babies, cramped quarters, spiteful flight attendants and pilots who like to get cute over the PA, air travel is truly one of life's more miserable experiences. For London-based advertising startup Ad-Air, though, it's the perfect time to sell you on something (hey, it works for SkyMall).

Next month, Ad Air will begin placing ads on the ground along the flight paths of the world's busiest airports. Of course, since the eyes meant to view these ads are thousands of feet above the Earth, the advertisements are epically massive: approximately five acres each, or about four times the size of your average football field.

The behemoth billboards are placed on temporary framing just above the Earth and are surrounded by fencing or landscaping so that they're invisible from the ground. They'll be lit up at night if local legislation allows, and when placed over fertile land they'll be made of a PVC mesh to allow air and moisture through -- otherwise they're made from giant sheets of vinyl.

With the deals it's currently negotiating, Ad-Air estimates it will serve ads to up to 10 million captive viewers per year. The first ads roll out in Dubai this October, and London's Heathrow airport has signed on as well.

Is anyone else a little saddened by this? To those of us without a B.A. Baracus fear of flight, watching the homes, trees and cars zoom into focus as you come in for a landing is the one part of flying that's actually enjoyable. It seems another one of life's simple pleasures has bitten the dust.

From Gizmag

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Virgin America Details In-Flight Internet

by Tom Conlon, posted Sep 14th 2007 at 5:32PM

Virgin America In-Flight Internet Details

When Richard Branson rolled out the Virgin America airline in August, he promised us in-flight Internet -- though left out the how and when. While the latter is still a mysterious "sometime in 2008," the how will be dealt with through a newly announced partnership with a company called AirCell. AirCell will provide air-to-ground broadband Wi-Fi access to Virgin's fleet, allowing passengers to access the Internet through Virgin's seatback entertainment center or via their own Wi-Fi enabled laptops, smart phones, PDAs or new iPod Touches. In addition to Web access, the seatback system will provide e-mail access and chat through AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN and Google Talk.

But, that's not all. The seatback system also supports Skype, as will passengers' own laptops and BlackBerrys. Despite an FCC ban on in-flight cell phone calls, this definitely opens the door to in-flight voice chatting. The horror....the horror...

From Engadget

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Get Live Airport Updates, Now from Fellow Travelers

by Tom Conlon, posted Sep 7th 2007 at 9:28AM


The next time you fly, avoid having a Michael-Douglas-'Falling Down' kind of day with the newly launched Orbitz TLC Traveler Update, an online service that mixes elements of a standard travel update site with peer-to-peer and social networking technologies.

Along with the info on delays, cancellations and weather provided by the TSA, which you can get from any one of a hundred different travel sites, Orbitz TLC Traveler Update incorporates info from fellow travelers who are actually at the airport. So, when the TSA says there's a 20-minute delay at security, a person who's actually in line might post an update saying it's more like a 45-minute delay. This extends to weather, traffic, parking, Wi-Fi availability and almost anything else airport related you can think of. You're also likely to get notifications of flight delays and cancellations before any official announcements are made. Of course, all of this information is accessible and updatable on a computer or cell phone.

The above video won't tell you what took so long for someone to finally invent this service, but it will give you a nice walkthrough of how it works.

From Tech Crunch

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Sneak Peak at Virgin America's New High-Tech Planes

by Evan Shamoon, posted Aug 6th 2007 at 9:14AM



Air travel in the United States generally feels like a trip back in time: Specifically, a time before humans had developed electronics, fabrics that weren't beige vinyl or fully-formed legs.

Virgin Airlines aims to change all of that with the stateside launch of Virgin America Airlines this week. Sir Richard Branson is bringing his famous taste for mile-high luxury to our shores (or air space, rather), having developed a new fleet of planes decked out with nearly everything the modern traveler could ask for -- 110 volt AC current, Ethernet and USB ports (for charging iPods and phones), and QWERTY keyboard input for its Linux-based computer terminals. Engadget has an intense hands-on with photos to drool over.

Virgin America comes to a sky near you on August 8.

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