Autoblog

"Left at the next exit you will turn," or so we imagine none other than Jedi Master Yoda telling us as we attempt to pilot our land speeders toward some unknown destination. You can now download Yoda as the voice of your TomTom or Garmin GPS unit courtesy of a company named PigTones and a fee of $12.97. Not a Star Wars fan? Well, you should be (at least of the original trilogy). There's always the Terminator. On second thought, who wants to be told to make a legal U-turn by the governor of California? That leaves Stewie from The Family Guy. He's the megolomaniacal infant that's hell bent on killing his mother, Lois. There are others to choose from too, some raunchier than others. Click here for the full list. Thanks for the tip, yash!

[Source: PIGtones via The Earth Times]

Here's another iPhone application that demonstrates that soon there is nothing you won't be able to know if you have just one device. DevToaster has created an app called Rev that reads information straight from the OBD-II port on your car and displays it on your iPhone. When it's fully operational, Rev can display things like vehicle speed, RPM, fuel consumption, calculated engine load, and a host of other parameters. You'll even be able to check and reset engine and error codes.

The only hitch is that you need an OBD-II/WLAN interface that can beam the information from the port to the phone. DevToaster is working on that now; in the meantime, you can download Rev Lite at their site and we have a feeling California's going to work on more phone-centric activities to ban.

[Source: DevToaster via WRX Fanatics]

It's no secret that our cars are quickly becoming extensions of our data-crazed lives. Everywhere we go, we surround ourselves with electronics meant to make our lives more convenient. Plus, most of these gadgets are just plain cool. Microsoft and Ford started something with the SYNC system and Apple has the market cornered with its iPod and iPhone, with integration of those i-devices now becoming popular options with car shoppers. Don't expect Google to sit back and watch. The internet giant has teamed up with an impressive list of major players, including Intel and Wind River Systems. These companies are actively working on getting their Android open-source operating system integrated into cars as we speak. If we had to wager a guess, it would be BMW that's most likely to roll out a new Android-powered infotainment system first, possibly as early as next year according to John Bruggeman, chief marketing officer at Wind River. For an early look at the first device with the Android OS, check out Engadget's recent feature.

[Source: CNET via Jalopnik]

Those wacky kids in Japan can do all kinds of things with their cell phones that those of us in the U.S. can't. Thanks to Nissan, Sharp Corporation, and NTT DOCOMO, the Japanese mobile communications company, they can now add car control to the list of possible cell phone features.

The phone uses the two-way communication of Nissan's Intelligent Key System, the same thing you use on your G37. For now, it can only lock and unlock the car and start and stop the engine, but if it takes off we imagine they'll add other options later. This is about convenience, not necessarily about sense -- if your phone gets stolen, that makes your car one more thing that the villains can abscond with.

The phone won't go on sale commercially until 2009, but will be demoed at the CEATEC exhibition in Japan later this month. You can read the full press release is after the jump, and get ready to overhear this in Japanese: "I called the wrong number and my car just drove off..."

[Source: NTT DOCOMO]

Automakers are always coming up with new branding and merchandising efforts in an attempt to separate the rich from their money, but here's one that's actually trying to help them keep it secure. Stockinger, the same safe manufacturer to which sister company Bugatti turned for their bespoke vault, has crafted a new line of safes exclusively for Bentley.

The irony could hardly be lost on anyone: Bentleys are built like vaults, and here's a vault built like a Bentley. Two vaults, actually: the Arnage safe is designed to keep watches, complete with little winding mechanisms to keep those special edition Breitlings working. The Continental safe, meanwhile, is crafted to store jewelery and would probably make the ideal location to keep that $20,000 Ego laptop. The attention to detail on the vaults is staggering: the painting process, for example, takes 18 hours, while the Bentley door handle takes 16 hours to mill from a solid piece of brass. Only 400 will be made in total, and each buyer can specify any exterior color from the Bentley catalog, a choice of ten different suedes for the interior and three different wood veneer panels.

There's plenty more information about the Stockinger for Bentley safes in the press release after the jump, and a small fortune's worth of images in the vault gallery below.

[Source: Stockinger]

Believe it or not, the Aston Martin you see above is really a previous generation Ford Mustang. Built by Canada-based Exclusive Motor Cars, the extensive conversion included stretching the wheelbase, widening the track, fitting a custom interior, and adding 34 composite body panels to convert the coupe into one of the most believable replicars we've ever seen.

Look familiar? You might remember seeing the car when we discovered it back in January, but it has since received some upgrades straight out of James Bond's V12 Vanquish in "Die Another Day". Of course, the hood-mounted machine guns and the rocket launcher in the grill won't be blowing up Bond villains any time soon, but you have to admit they're pretty cool. They even retract neatly into the bodywork with the simple touch of a button. The good news is that you can have one of your own through the car's distributor, Hillbank Motorsports. The bad news? It will cost you somewhere north of $100,000. We were fortunate enough to see the car in person, and took plenty of photos and a video showing the trick hide-away weapons. Hit the jump to see it in action.

Click above to view the Ego for Bentley laptop in hi res

$20,000 seems like a lot of money for a laptop computer, and it is for ordinary people like you and me. But in case you hadn't noticed, we're not the type of customers to whom Bentley caters. The stoic British automaker exists at the upper crust of the automotive elite among the kind of people from whom $20k is chump change to pay for a computer that will match their car perfectly.

With them in mind, Bentley has teamed up with Ego, an aptly named fellow outfitter to the obscenely wealthy, to produce this exclusive notebook computer. The specs are fairly straightforward: 64-bit processor, 160GB hard-drive, Windows Vista...but as we initially reported when news of the Ego Bentley first surfaced, the detailing is what sets it apart. The laptops are hand-built like a top-of-the-line Bentley, but inside out, with diamond-stitched leather and knurled aluminum trim on the outside and the buyer's choice of color options for the interior panels. Only 250 examples are being offered, which is just as well because we doubt there are many more consumers in the world than that who possess the means and inclination to buy one. For the rest of us, we can check out the press release after the jump and images in the gallery below.

[Source: Bentley]

You might remember the original Parmigiani Fleurier Bugatti Type 370 from our original Top 10 list of car watches. The splendidly complex (and fittingly expensive) timepiece features a unique sideways-mounted manual barrel movement that displays the time on the side so as to obviate the necessity for the driver to – heaven forbid – remove his hand from the wheel to see the time.

In honor of the Veyron Fbg par Hermes, only twenty of these new Faubourg editions – so named for Hermes' famous headquarters in Paris – will be offered in either brushed white gold with dark brown dial and strap or rose gold with light brown, to match the car's original colors. While it may seem like a ridiculous luxury for the rest of us, this epitome of the "if you have to ask" mantra will surely be a must-have for owners of the Veyron Fbg.

[Source: Sybarites]

A man who purchased Chrysler's uConnect in-car wi-fi recently gave his impressions... and he wasn't exactly impressed. His three main issues were: it's slow, there are no instructions for encryption, and you're limited to 1 GB for downloads.

The Autonet site lists speeds as 600Kbps-800Kbps, and the reader didn't give any idea of the speeds, but he said the router had a hard time keeping an EVDO connection and would go to 1x. Autonet says the "connection is secured with WEP encryption, MAC address restriction or WAN port restricton," but according to the reader, it isn't shipped with any encryption in place and the manual doesn't tell you how to do it or even that you need to do it.

As for the 1 GB cap, that's for the $29 plan. There's a $50 plan that gets you 5 GB, which would be the way to go if you really are going to have the kids on YouTube in the back seat. Of all he writes about, it seems the biggest gripe is the speed -- nothing like trying to watch a 30-second clip that takes eight minutes to download. That's not a minor drawback, but for the convenience of using any wi-fi equipped device, and not having to listen to that American Girl DVD again, it could be worth it.

UPDATE: The co-founder of Autonet Mobile, Doug Moeller, contacted us after reading this post to address some of these issues. He says the user was in a rural area of Vermont where coverage is very poor, so he was moving between 1x networks and no network at all. In fact, the area didn't have any of the EVDO networks that the company supports. Autonet's device can handle maintaining connections as you move between 1x, EVDO-0 and EVDO-A networks very well, but not much can be done if there's no network at all. Also, they don't do usage based billing so it's impossible to get a $800 bill. They even offered this customer a full refund, which is standard practice if anyone is unsatisfied with the service. Finally, Moeller offered Autoblog a unit to test, so look for our own hands-on review of the technology soon.

[Source: Gizmodo via Kicking Tires]

Upon first inspection, MR2forum.de member LaroCroft's second-generation (SW20) Toyota MR2 is simply a tastefully modded example of a cult favorite. However, peer inside and all preconceived notions are immediately thrown out the targa top.

Any "For Sale" thread that requires "Knowledge in electronics, skills in PC technology and knowledge of programming (especially Visual Basic)" is a clear indication that things inside have gotten thoroughly out of hand. Just check out the gallery and you'll see what we're talking about.

The entire instrument cluster and center console have been replaced with three screens displaying every conceivable function and parameter of the MR2's systems. The trio of displays are controlled by either a touch screen interface or a center console-mounted knob (ala iDrive), and allows the drive to manipulate everything from fuel consumption to engine temp; climate control to GPS functions; mirrors, radar/laser, the wireless transfer of music from a home computer, lights, fog lights, and on and on and on.

It's pure insanity and incredibly cool. And the best part: it's for sale in Germany – assuming you've got the programming chops to actually leave your driveway.


[Source: MR2Forum.de]