Tag: TOYOTA

Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web. Read: Texting While Birthing A sheet was draped in front of her, protecting the sterile field while shielding her eyes from the cutting below, none of which she could presumably feel, except for vague sensations. In the woman's left hand, she held a cell phone-which she was using ...

When greeting foreign dignitaries, first impressions are important. Perhaps Japan was operating in accordance with some apocryphal page from Emily Post when it decided to welcome attendees to the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit with the Paro animatronic seal, the singing/dancing HRP-4C fembot and an awkward single-seat vehicle from Toyota. Judging from the look on his face, ...

While hybrids like the Prius may be good for the environment, they have a serious design flaw. In electric-only mode, they're almost completely silent, which, if the world were loaded with battery-powered vehicles, would make being a pedestrian a little on the dangerous side. Some safety advocates have proposed that manufacturers equip hybrids with speakers that would play sounds to notify ...

A few months ago, Toyota was forced to recall millions of vehicles following accusations that some of their cars accelerated without warning. While the company acknowledged that many of the incidents could be attributed to faulty pedal placement, it also suggested that some drivers may have simply confused the gas pedal with the brake. Toyota may be able to tinker with its pedal arrangement, ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Toyota's Prius, which once symbolized and dominated the eco-friendly car movement, apparently just isn't friendly enough for California anymore. The state is revoking the vehicle's HOV lane privileges (while maintaining those same HOV rights for "super-clean cars" like the Tesla). [From: Discovery Treehugger] The Netflix ...

Thanks to Apple's rabid PR push and to media coverage, almost every little detail of the iPhone 4 has been documented -- except for one minor factoid, that is. The phone, like several other luxury electronics on the market, may contain minerals supplied by bloodthirsty Congolese paramilitary groups. Most of us should recall the controversy over the origins of so-called "blood diamonds," or ...

It's hard enough to find a decent roommate on Facebook, so finding someone to save your life is a near impossibility. So it was a daunting task Californian Eli Powell faced when he turned to the social networking site three years ago after he learned he had Berger's disease, which would eventually destroy his kidneys. According to CBS 13 News, the Citrus Heights native actually successfully ...

For the most part, as the news media has made you well aware, Chatroulette is the social network of creepers and crawlers. Porn freaks and perverts. Derelicts and... dance bands? According to Pitchfork.com (the Hammurabi's code of the hipster community), the Toronto disco-punks collectively known as Holy Fuck announced their new album via Chatroulette last Thursday. Due out May 11th, 'Latin' ...

Remember that scene in 'Avatar' when the crippled marine runs for the first time in his new body? We know it brought a tear to your eye. Well, a group of scientists and engineers (think of them as a nerdy version of the Justice League of America) recently gathered at M.I.T. to discuss bringing this concept from the big screen to real life. According to Singularity Hub, these guys want to ...

MSN, Microsoft's news and search portal, has remained largely unchanged over the last decade. The familiar butterfly logo, blue background, and oppressive quantities of links have gotten only minor tweaks since 2001 -- a different shade of blue, more links, more photos. But now, Microsoft is prepped to unveil a drastic redesign of its flagship portal, reducing clutter and ditching the "Microsoft ...

The very shoe-like 2010 Toyota Prius has made its official debut at this week's Detroit Auto Show. The company estimates it'll have a 50 MPG rating -- up from 46 MPG in the previous model -- and there's a bigger, 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine for improved highway mileage. In addition to Power and Eco driving modes, EV Drive will let you run on battery alone for about a mile, which if nothing ...

Around half a year ago, we heard that Toyota was engineering a Prius that would get part of its energy from the sun; now, we're seeing an eerily similar story from Japan suggesting that the plan is still on. In a rather odd report, it's noted that the automaker is "secretly (oh, is it now?) developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy," though it's also working on a partially ...

We thought we had a handle on what the next-gen Prius was going to look like when we spotted those renders back in July, and Toyota's just confirmed that some press shots that leaked out last week are the real deal, not just photos of a super-high-tech sneaker. The company isn't providing any more information until the official debut at January's North American International Auto Show in ...

Toyota hasn't made a huge secret of its plans to develop and sell a plug-in version of the Prius, and it sounds like the wheels are turning a little faster than we've heard -- fleet testing of plug-in models has been pushed up to early 2009, with the goal of having "several hundred" on the road by the end of the year. Still no timetable for actual retail sales, so you'll have to be a wheelman ...

First things first -- when we say "partially" propel, we mean partially. Nippon Yusen and energy distributor Nippon Oil are teaming up to spend around $1.37 million in order to equip a car-hauling cargo ship with 328 solar panels. Rather than just provide energy for the crew's on board entertainment system, it will be the first solar installation to actually produce a smidgen of power for the ...