Top speed is an electrically-restrained 180mph, with the CC100 slamming through a six-speed hydraulically-actuated auto sequential manual gearbox. That’s controlled using paddle-shifters on the wheel in the driver’s pod; accommodation in the Speedster Concept is for two, with each getting a separately-braced area in the carbon-fiber cabin.

Although rain and wind might be an issue – there’s no roof, and no windshield – the CC100′s interior is otherwise relatively luxurious for a racing-oriented concept. As well as carbon-fiber there’s Bridge of Weir leather, glass buttons, and the same glass starter-button as on Aston Martin’s production road cars. The slimline doors – more like safety bars – hinge up and out to allow you to squeeze into the hide-covered racing seats.

Aston Martin CC100:

In all, it’s nearly 4.5m long and more than 2m wide, though interestingly shares a lot of the underlying chassis technology with the car company’s more mainstream range. Under the lightweight carbon-fiber is Aston Martin’s Vertical Horizontal Platform, a multi-purpose structure which is specially fettled for each car, whether it be the four-door Rapide or tourers like the DB9.

The CC100 made its public debut this weekend, at the ADAC Zurich 24 Hours of Nürburgring race, alongside the same Aston Martin DBR1 that completed the 1959 race. At the wheel of the classic was the same driver who guided it round those 1,000km (621 miles) 54 years ago, racing driver Sir Stirling Moss.

Unfortunately, there are no plans – public, at least – to create a production version of the CC100 Speedster Concept. However, given sufficient demand it’s possible that Aston Martin could relent on that front, and start a small-scale production run in a similar manner to its bespoke One-77 supercar.

It doesn’t appear that this device is designed to be flexible itself, but that screen is said to be flexible. I would imagine that the flexibility is important in a device designed to be written on by hand to allow the screen to survive without cracking over time. The device is currently a concept, but Sony reportedly plans to bring it to market this year for testing. The writing slate has a 13.3-inch E-ink screen that is sized like an A4 sheet of paper.

The screen promises a resolution of 1600 x 1200. Other details of the tablet are known include 4 GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, integrated Wi-Fi, and the device promises three weeks of battery life. The panel uses some sort of electromagnetic induction technology and the touch functionality won’t work with a finger.

The only way to interact with the tablet is said to be by using the included pen or another stylus. The device supports only one file format, which is PDF. That may well be the downfall of this device. There is no support for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or any other file type. More than anything else, that will limit the usefulness of this device.

Sony says that it will be field trialing the device at several Japanese universities later this year. Sony’s goal is to offer the tablet commercially by the end of its fiscal 2013. That would be somewhere around May of 2014 according to reports.

SOURCE: The-digital-reader

According to the announcement, the Design Vision GTI was made by Volkswagen’s Head of Design Klaus Bischoff and his team, which gave the vehicle a boost inside and out, tossing 20-inch wheels and an autonomous body into the mix. Power is substantially increased from the standard Performance model’s 230 horsepower to 503 horsepower/6500rpm, giving a 186mph top speed.

Such power enables the Design Vision GTI to hit 62mph in a reported 3.9-seconds, a speed that demands carbon-ceramic brake discs behind wheels specially designed with vents to let the brake gas dissipate. There’s a DSG dual-clutch transmission and 3.0-liter V6 TSI direct-injection engine, a step up from the standard 2.0-liter four cylinder offering.

Inside, drivers find a design meant to make driving a simple task, allowing hands to stay on the wheel as often as possible. There are paddle shifters, center console controls, and three drive modes: Track, Sport, and Street. In addition, there is also an electric kill switch and a button that triggers a fire extinguisher. Finally, in the center console the designers tossed in a real-time updated display with a map of the racing track with other racers’ positions.

[via Volkswagen]

Of course, this isn’t the first time Terrafugia has waved around a flying car, having first done so way back in late 2006 with the Transition, a work-in-progress that was said to function as both a car and a personal air vehicle. Not surprisingly, the Transition isn’t zipping around our skies, but that hasn’t stopped the company from unveiling its latest ambitions, the TF-X.

The TF-X is said to be a VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) vehicle with four-seats and a plug-in hybrid system under the hood. According to the announcement, Terrafugia has already discussed the vehicle with the FAA, which it says is agreeable to the technology. It also goes on to say that the Transition is “nearing” production, with the TF-X concept eventually going a step farther.

Said Terrafugia’s CEO Car Dietrich: “This is the right time for us to begin thinking about the future of the company beyond Transition® development. We are passionate about continuing to lead the creation of a flying car industry and are dedicating resources to lay the foundations for our vision of personal transportation.”

[via Terra Fugia]

In fact, IllumiRoom won’t get shown to the public until Siggraph in July, missing out E3 2013 in the process. The tech is “working well” according to the researchers, but it’s still in the early stages of development.

Microsoft has been dripping details around IllumiRoom for some months now, after surprising attendees at Samsung’s CES press conference back in January with a demo of the augmented reality system. Currently pairing a Kinect for Windows with a basic projector and a PC, IllumiRoom first automatically maps the user’s living room and then creates a 3D wireframe which can be used to extend play off of the screen and into the surrounding area.

So, explosions on-screen can cause ripples that spread out around your TV cabinet and beyond, while fireballs can spread outside the limits of your screen. Alternatively, IllumiRoom can be used to heighten the mood of the game, creating virtual snow, for instance, that can not only fall within the room but accumulate on shelves and tables.

Microsoft Research’s attentions aren’t just on gaming, however, despite the obvious applications for Xbox. The IllumiRoom system could also be used to make TV and movies more immersive; in a newly released paper for the CHI 2013 conference this week, the team shows a DIY dual-field-of-view camcorder prototype which simultaneously captures the core video and its extended surroundings, the latter to be projected around the TV.

Nonetheless, while it won’t be ready any time soon, IllumiRoom’s primary purpose looks to be extending the immersive gameplay of the next-gen “Xbox 720″, an obvious way to build value into the console in the face of low-cost casual gaming on smartphones and tablets. Considering Kinect followed on after the Xbox 360 had already been in the market for some time, there’s nothing to say that IllumiRoom couldn’t arrive after Xbox 720 has bedded down into living rooms, providing a mid-life refresh of sorts.

The Morphees proposal [pdf link] is built around the concept of “shape resolution”, as a further measurement of detail precision alongside screen and touch resolution. The result is “Non-Uniform Rational B-splines” (NURBS), a geometric model which has potential for flexing its shape resolution in ten features.

“For instance, when a game is launched, the mobile device morphs into a console-like shape by curling two opposite edges to be better grasped with two hands” Morphees team, University of Bristol and DFKI Saarbrücken

Those NURBS features include changes in closure – how the device folds in on itself – and curvature, along with the granularity of flexing potential and the speed of the device’s responsiveness. Although no one single device which demonstrates all ten of the NURBS has been constructed, the Morphees team has created a pair of prototypes which use dielectric electo-active polymers and shape memory alloys to twist in the user’s hands.

In one case, a flat concept device made up of triangular sections stitched together with shape memory alloy wires blooms open and then tightens up, depending on what is shown on-screen. One such implementation of that gesture, the Morphees developers suggest, is creating a more private terminal for inputing online banking information.

The other prototype, meanwhile, can shift from a flat “candybar” profile to a more gaming-suited shape, with the end pieces automatically curling to form handgrips when a game is launched.

Of course, truly flexible devices would require more than just casings that could change form: they’d also need screens that could bend, circuits that could either work around or with the points of flexibility, and twisting batteries. The extra strain introduced by all the movement would also need to be taken into consideration, before apps could instruct the devices they run on to take on new and unusual forms.

[via The Engineer]

Inside the cup is a chip of some sort, likely of the NFC variety. The chip will be linked to the cupholders Facebook profile somehow and when they think they’re glass together with someone else’s a bar or party, it would make them instant Facebook friends.

The Buddy Cup was created by Agencia Africa in partnership with a digital advertising studio in Brazil called Bolha. The cup can be used to help improve the social aspects of drinking for consumers attending Budweiser sponsored parties, concerts, and festivals. There might be a downside to this sort of product though.

I can see this Buddy Cup be particularly hazardous for attractive women. I can only imagine the never-ending stream of drunk guys begging to toast the pretty ladies at a party. I can also see some sneaky drinkers tapping glasses with a pretty girl without her knowing it. A cup like this likely means lots of weird creepers showing up on your Facebook account.

[via TheDrum]

The core of the ME.WE is a structure made up of tubular aluminum, onto which Toyota and the design firm have predominantly applied two types of material. For the bulk of the shell that’s expanded polypropylene, which has the benefit of being lightweight as well as entirely recyclable; other surfaces, such as a panel under the windshield and across the roof, are bamboo, which is known for being highly-sustainable.

Toyota envisages different colors and textures of panels to be offered, encouraging drivers to switch over their car’s appearance at will. That’s something we’ve seen Smart offer on its city-car, though exactly how many owners actually take advantage of that – outside of making damage repairs – remains to be seen.

Inside, the bench seats are fixed on slender rails and can be moved around or laid flat; the rear bench can be folded and pushed under the front seats, increasing the bamboo-clad load area. Rather than have a permanently large trunk, the ME.WE uses a combination of flexible neoprene covers – which can stretch to accommodate things transported on the roof – and integrated webbing that keeps suitcases and the like in place.

As with any concept, the likelihood of Toyota actually putting the ME.WE into production is something we wouldn’t recommend holding your breath for. Nonetheless, the idea of shifting the electric motors into the wheels – rather than inboard, as per most EVs and hybrids – is one the car industry looks to be moving toward. Earlier this year, specialist Protean announced plans to mass-produce such a motor, which with clever software management could dynamically adjust the power to each wheel independently while also freeing up space in the cabin and chassis.

[via Designboom]

In a way, Obake is similar to a drum head, only one which is considerably more flexible than you’d find on the average snare. By pulling and pushing on the silicone surface, the user can navigate through the projected image, with Kinect sensors tracking where the layer is flexed to.

However, an array of linear actuators underneath the surface are also present, and used to maintain shapes even when the user stops pinching and twisting them. So, you could pull out a “mountain” peak and have it stay protruding, with the projected data – which could be mineral content, for instance, or geographical level lines – adjusting to suit the 3D worksurface.

The team behind the prototype has also had to come up with a new palette of touches and gestures
to suit the touchscreen’s new abilities. That includes “intrude” and “extrude”, where you can push through the screen or pull it up, and “S bend” which – though it sounds like a Samsung plumbing tool – involves pulling in one area and pushing in another simultaneously. “Stitch” is where two points are pulled out and stretched together, linking data, and there’s the ability to make more complex shapes by, for instance, “extruding” a mountain and then “prodding” an “intrude” indent into it. More moderate use of the actuators can introduce friction, too.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen touchscreen technology that tries to escape from two-dimensions, though it’s certainly the most complex. Nokia demonstrated its Kinetic concept smartphone back in 2011, for instance, which mounted a flexible display in a rubberized chassis that could be bent and twisted to navigate the interface, though no production version ever arrived.

Meanwhile, other companies are working on the sensation of touch, if not the physical movement. Senseg uses an electrical field to fool the user’s fingertips into feeling different textures on what is in fact a smooth glass screen, and at one point was rumored to be included in Apple’s iPad. Rather than deforming the display, Senseg’s “tixels” stimulate the nerves in the fingers which normally register vibration, giving the feeling of sandpaper, silk, or anything else the UI designer requires.

Obake is currently a working prototype, though there’s no telling when it might ever cross over into a commercial product.

[via Phys]

According to USA Today, the goal was to create a car design that invokes thoughts of a vibrant river in motion and the rolling waves of the ocean. That’s the exterior, anyway, with the interior aiming to take inspiration from classic Chinese styles using ebony, wood inlaid with jade, suede, and aluminum. Also present are LED running lights and the familiar Buick grille.

While interpretation of design is up to the viewer, the concept is beautiful regardless of whether you see the influences of water in it. The interior is illuminated by soft blue LED lights, as are the LED headlights. Beyond the design is a hybrid powertrain, with consumers being able to charge it via either a standard charging cable or by going wirefree with a wireless charging panel under the car.

The concept also utilizes what General Motors refers to as an autopilot safety system that provides driving assistance – despite its name, you won’t be able to kick back and let the Buick doing the driving for you. Says President of General Motors, Shanghai: “By seamlessly integrating advanced technologies, flexible functions and contemporary aesthetics, the new Riviera heralds the start of a new chapter for the 110-year-old Buick brand.”

[via USA Today]

The laser projection headlights are something of amazement it seems, and thanks to some pretty nifty technology that’s built right into the headlights, drivers can project any image or video onto a screen. The images or video can come from a phone, tablet, flash drive, or even the internet using the GLA’s in-dash COMAND system.

However, Mercedes didn’t add projection to the GLA just for kicks and giggles — there is a logical purpose behind this, and the company says the projection system can be used as a real-time GPS navigation overlay.  It’s certainly something different then just looking at a small GPS screen during the whole trip.

The headlights feature a cooling system composed of a series of fans, so you won’t have to worry about the inevitable overheating of most projectors. Plus, there’s even a pair of HD video cameras mounted to the roof of the vehicle, and they’re detachable so you can take them with you when you’re not driving around. As for the engine specs, you’re looking at a turbocharged 2-liter four-cylinder motor pushing out 208 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque, with a seven-speed dual clutch transmission and 4Matic all-wheel drive.

[via Engadget]

According to Carscoop, this crossover concept is similar the vehicle itself, which Mercedes-Benz won’t be unveiling until the Frankfurt Motor Show later this year. If you like what you see and you have the funds, you’ll be able to nab the car next year when it goes on sale globally by mid-2014. Price and exact release date are yet still unknown.

Under the hood, you’ll find a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four engine offering 208 horsepower, the same found in the A-Class A250. The 7G-DCT transmission is a seven-speed dual clutch accompanied by a 4MATIC AWD feature. There’s said to be other engine options as well, with this being the base offering. Moving along is the interior, which is more than eye-catching and featured in the gallery below.

The interior is a smorgasbord of familiar components from the A-Class, with leather seats and what appears to be leather trim throughout the console and dashboard. Blue LED accent lights are featured in the concept images, as well as what appears to be a vertically-mounted display. We’ll be keeping an eye out for the official showing this weekend, and will update you then!

[via Carscoops]

Renault says that the Twin’Z is a fun, modern, artistic take on a city car that draws inspiration from the Renault 5 and Renault Twingo. The Twin’Z is an all electric city car featuring rear-wheel drive and a rear-mounted electric motor. The car is very small at 3.62 m in length and features 18-inch wheels.

The all-electric rear-wheel drive architecture allowed Renault to push the wheels to the extreme corners of the vehicle for a solid footprint and large platform. Pushing the wheels to the corners the vehicle also allow outstanding cabin space inside the car. One of the most interesting features of the concept car are the doors.

The front doors open forward like traditional doors, but the rear doors are rear hinged allowing the complete interior to be opened up. The vehicle uses LED lighting all around and on the inside. The vehicle is 1705 mm wide and 1506 mm high. The wheelbase is 2495 mm and the vehicle weighs 980 kg. The top speed is 81 mph and the vehicle has a driving range of 100 miles on a charge. The rear-mounted electric motor produces 68 hp. To reduce weight and increase the driving range, the car uses carbon fiber bodywork.

[via Renault]

The BMW X4 will be manufactured at the BMW Plant Spartanburg, which is located in the United States. The car features 21-inch alloy wheels, round LED headlights, a kidney grille, and a high-gloss frame. The entire vehicle is designed to be highly dynamic, with carefully positioned air intake vents, milled bars, and chrome edges. This results in contrasts that work together to help form a complete design that is both appealing and functional.

The side of the BMW X4 shows off the vehicle’s long wheelbase and bonnet, as well as short overhangs and wedged-shaped flanks. The sweeping downward roof is designed to make the car seem long. BMW says the car’s “visual center of gravity” has been lowered over other vehicles in the line, something that gives it more of a sporty look. There are swage lines above a concave area to draw emphasis to the wheels.

And then, moving on to the rear of the Concept X4, the design puts emphasis on horizontal elements, which is amplified by slim LED lights pushed outwards towards the maximum edges of the car’s back, amplifying the sportscar look. Combinations of light/dark colors and horizontal design elements are meant to make the car seem shorter, and the most obvious, eye-catching feature is said to be the rear apron with two tailpipes and a swooping design fading out towards the tires.

Of course, a picture is worth a thousand words, so check out the gallery below.

[via BMW]

Subaru says that their focus for this WRX concept is based around “sharp handling, AWD grip, and turbo power.” Overall the new concept sits a lot lower and has a more streamlined design than the 2013 Impreza WRX, and it’s just a few inches wider at the wheel base. The car also has a larger grille and an impressive set of headlights.

The car also has a carbon fiber roof top to cut down on weight, which is certainly an interesting approach, given that most manufacturers go with a carbon fiber hood in order to cut down the weight of a car. However, the car comes with that iconic hood scoop that proves it’s a true WRX. The car keeps the 4-door style, but it looks a lot more like a coupe now.

Overall, it’s a completely new car, but you can tell that Subaru left some things alone so that it still has some classic WRX styling to it. Again, this is only a concept, so some of the features you see may not hit the actual production model, and it’s not said when this car will hit the assembly line, but hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.

The cloak was developed by researchers at the University of Texas in Austin, with the material being wrapped around the cylinder you see in the image above. There’s a wrapping of copper and polycarbonate, with the copper being patterned, causing scattered light from the object and cloak to be cancelled out. In this case, the cloak successfully hides objects from microwaves, such as what is used by radars.

Before you get too excited at the thought of slipping into a thin sheet of invisibility and using it for various sorts of entertainment, realize that it doesn’t produce the same effect with visible light – yet, anyway. For now, the cloak can only hide objects from visible light that are a micrometer in size, meaning it is only effective if you need to hide a skin cell or two.

The project’s co-author Andrea Alu says that cloaking objects from visible light is possible, however. “In fact, metascreens are easier to realize at visible frequencies than bulk metamaterials and this concept could put us closer to a practical realization.” And with this device’s super thin design and use of conventional materials, it is both an exciting development in its own right, and also a glance at what the future holds.

[via Extreme Tech]

Hyundai says that this design of the HND-9 is described as a “modern reinterpretation of the classic premium sports coupe,” and we’d have to agree with them. The concept has the classic Lambo-style doors, as well as the fastback-esque rear design, with the dual exhaust on the back, along with the mean-looking taillights.

The concept that will be making an appearance at the Seoul Motor Show will sport a 3.3-liter turbocharged V6 GDI engine that spits out 365 BHP, and it’ll be accompanied by an eight-speed automatic transmission. Of course, this may not be the exact setup that will come to production vehicles in the future, but it could be template.

We’ve already seen a couple of Hyundai’s concepts over the last few months. The company showed off their HCD-14 sedan concept at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit back in January, as well as their Veloster C3 hatchback concept back in November, both of which look really sleek.

[via Autocar]

The typical Aventador, if you can call a snarling Lamborghini typical, has a pair of doors that lift into the air and those doors are a Lamborghini trademark. The stretch Lamborghini has two of those doors on each side. The images you see here show a conceptual design for the stretch limousine, whether or not the Lamborghini limo will actually be built remains to be seen.

Considering that the Aventador has a massive engine producing 690 hp, I don’t think the stretch the version of the exotic sports car will require any additional power to get those lucky enough to ride inside around town. Cars for Stars is seeking a sponsor to help them bring the stretch Lamborghini from a concept to the real world.

The company is offering 12 months of free advertising for anyone who sponsors the project and will name the car to incorporate the name of the company. I think the car needs a better name than Aventador Limo, I vote for Limotador. If the vehicle should actually come to the real world the company promises that it will have heated seats, rear plasma screens, surround sound, iPod docks, a wet bar, and lots more. Check out the rendered video showing more details of the concept car below.

[via Cars for Stars]

Official details, such as its design and specifications, haven’t been finalized, but word has it the camera will be launched in 2014. Along with the device will be a line of accessories specific to it, such as filters, lenses, and camera bags. This indicates the company expects the device to be popular, a reasonable expectation given the enthusiasm that spread across the Internet when the concept was produced.

If the camera follows closely to the concept, users can expect a generously-sized 4.3-inch touchscreen display on the back, as well as 16GB of internal storage. The device will print instant photographs from an integrated printer. Connectivity could then be comprised of both Bluetooth and standard Wi-Fi. It is reasonable to assume the on-board operating system could be Android, although everything is speculation at this point.

Socialmatic’s CEO Antonio De Rosa said: “We are so proud to work together with C & A and Polaroid, giants of digital photography. It has been a long and difficult negotiation but we were strongly motivated to reach an agreement to create a small revolution in digital photography. This mix of Hardware and Software, together with our brand new photo social network will fill the gap between virtuality and reality.”

[via Engadget]

Concept videos are like catnip to designers and futurologists, who generally can’t resist peering into the future and guesstimating what sort of technology might be around. Microsoft’s vision, at least, seems pretty realistic: the huge touch display walls and projected interfaces are certainly possible – albeit prohibitively expensive for most – and the object recognition and media streaming could also be enabled with today’s gadgetry.

However, we’re still quite a way off from having everything interoperate in the way Microsoft shows. Various companies are showing tablets, phones, and smart TVs that link together for easier media placeshifting, but the systems are still in their infancy, and often only work successfully if every part of your consumer tech line-up comes from the same brand.

“While none of these ideas are meant to be predictive about our products,” Microsoft’s Steve Clayton says, “they do highlight some of the key trends we’re investing in, such as machine learning and NUI.” Whether the timescale the company has suggested will prove realistic remains to be seen.

[via Long Zheng]

The production coupé’s MacPherson strut front and double wishbone rear suspension has also been carried over, along with a 13.1:1 power steering ratio for more rapid turns. At roughly 200bhp, the FT-One isn’t the most powerful drop-top we’ve seen, but Toyota argues that the car as a whole is more lively than rivals, with the compact engine low-slung to help keep the center of gravity down, closer to the road.

That’s not to say the FT-One is a finished product. Toyota says it’s using the concept as a test bed, not only to see how the public reacts – a big factor in whether a production version gets the green light – but to fettle things like how not having a solid roof affects chassis strength and other factors.

The company’s work will be made easier by the fact that the GT86 was designed with a cabrio version in mind from the outset: the coupé has frameless doors, for instance, which means Toyota won’t have to worry about fixing rigidity problems there, and the soft roof still gets a glass rear screen. Door lock reinforcements will be used to reduce torsional twist, and Toyota will be looking at how to preserve the GT86′s driving style given the FT-One drops the center of gravity even lower.

Inside, there’s a custom-finished cabin with perforated white leather and navy-blue seating, and golden yellow accent stitching. There’s also a rather fetching milled metal iPhone holder, though we’re not entirely convinced by what looks like an aftermarket-fit radio.

Toyota will bring the FT-One concept along to the Geneva motor show, kicking off on March 5.

Another interesting choice by KIA here is the treatment of the photo – or concept drawing, shall we say. Here we’ve got a set of extremely simple yet stark colors that push against one another to create an illustrated look. In fact what is happening is that this Urban Vehicle is being masked as much as possible without losing the interest of the viewer – and the interest is what we’ve got!

This machine will likely be revealed within the next few weeks at least in part while the details this week stay in the “non-existent” category. The KIA Cross GT is shown here with emphasis placed on the “cool” factor while the forward-facing appeal. This Cross GT is being tipped as coming in at a larger size than the Sorento crossover revealed previously, this being suggested by Motor Authority to leave room for three rows of seating – we shall see!

Have a peek in the timeline below for several entries in our massive Car hub, each of them blasting forth from KIA itself. We’ve had several test drives of future vehicle releases very recently with our man Cory Gunther taking the wheel down in Arizona with the new 2014 KIA Forte as well as the 2014 KIA Sorento – have a peek! Jump in our Car Hub for looks at the automotive universe from all directions!

The quality of the renders here is something we’re having trouble not focusing on as it was this man’s work nearly the whole tech publishing universe was tricked by back when he first whipped up the iPhone 5. And he’s certainly not gotten worse with his skill set since then, that’s for certain. Once we’ve got that in mind, it’s looking like RIM has done an amazing job at creating a smartphone that, believe it or not, looks beautiful enough on its own (before the software, that is), that it holds its own against the iPhone.

While the back of the device still rings a heavy RIM bell with a uniformly textured battery cover and a squared-off camera rectangle with beastly flash bulb next door, the sides and front are distinctly smooth and ready for a real modern fashion competition with the rest of the market here in 2013. The BlackBerry N10 is also rendered here in both white and black, appearing quite sleek and polished (as all renders from Hajek do), but again falling ever-so-slightly flat on the back.

The renders you see here are made from a combination of specification leaks, rumors, and what can be essentially considered confirmations (nearly) in photos and videos of the device that’ve been flowing for several weeks. Have a peek at the timeline below to learn more about the BlackBerry 10 launch (we’ll be there on the 30th of this month) as well as the BlackBerry Z10 you see above. Let us know if you’re going to jump on the BlackBerry 10 ship through the future, too!

[via Gizmodo]

Technical details of the GEAR concept are in short-supply, with Honda instead preferring to focus on the styling decisions its US R&D team took. The claim is that the GEAR is inspired by fixed-gear bicycles, as well as being “simple and utilitarian, but also customizable, connected and full of personality.”

Great buzzwords, though they perhaps unnecessarily dress up Honda’s real goal with the GEAR: to create a car that’s “cool” enough for young drivers to covet, but also affordable enough for them to buy. Honda isn’t saying exactly how much it envisages any production version of the GEAR costing, mind.

Interior shots haven’t been released (it’s possible Honda hasn’t even designed the cabin yet), and the degree to which the GEAR is connected is also unstated. If, though, the company could bring a distinctive four-seater to market, preferably a hybrid, at a price point – and with running costs – undercutting the roughly $15,000 starting price of the Fit, it would certainly get its fair share of attention.

They’re piped through the Fender audio system, as is the front-passenger entertainment kit. That centers on a 10.2-inch touchscreen with 3D navigation, while touch-sensitive keys control HVAC. Volkswagen even changes the color-scheme of its dashboard lighting depending on whether you’re in Eco or Sport mode, the illumination switching between blue and red accordingly.

It’s what’s under the hood that’s likely most important, however, for Volkswagen’s mid-sized SUV plans in North America. A combination of the new Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) front and rear suspension, and the 190HP TDI Clean Diesel engine, paired with the twin electric motors pushing out 133 lb-ft at the front and 199 lb-ft at the rear, and a Li-Ion battery hidden in the center tunnel, the company says there’s a good chance they’ll show up in future SUVs.

Unsurprisingly, there are compromises to be made in full-electric mode. As well as the paucity of range, Volkswagen limits the CrossBlue’s top speed to 75mph (from 127mph when the diesel engine is active), and you only get rear-wheel drive. Should the power run out, the diesel engine kicks in automatically. On the flip-side, it’s possible to run the CrossBlue solely on the TDI engine, or in an Offroad setting Volkwagen calls “propshaft by wire” where, with the front wheels driven by the diesel plant, the front electric motor is repurposed as a generator to power the rear motor, allowing for all-wheel drive even if the batteries are depleted.

If it makes it to showrooms, Volkswagen says the production CrossBlue would likely have a trio of seats in the middle row, making for seven altogether. The eye-catching 21-inch alloys would probably get smaller, too. No word on when that might happen, nor how much it would be, though the company predicts it would fall in-between the Tiguan (from $23k) and the Touareg (from $43k).

Launching in Q1 2013, the panel apparently brings not only a bump in resolution over Samsung’s previous AMOLEDs – the Galaxy S III, for instance, has a 4.8-inch 720p screen – but a cut in power consumption. The company claims the newer panels use 25-percent less juice than before, thanks to a switch-up in materials, while a low-power mode cuts the battery drain by almost half.

It’s YOUM technology we’d really like to see show up in the wild, however. Samsung’s mock-ups weren’t flexible in the sense of being bendable by the user, but instead wrapped the panel around the edges of the device; since AMOLEDs can selectively turn on sections of the display while leaving other parts shut off, that could mean the side of your phone might perpetually show a status ticker – with new message alerts, battery and signal indicators, IM previews, music playlist details, or other information – while consuming minimal power.

That’s an idea Nokia has flirted with in its Gem concept phone, though there the touchscreen was altogether more comprehensive, envisaged as wrapping around the whole device. Meanwhile, Samsung itself has dabbled in dual-displays, with the Continuum of late 2010 having a pair of screens. Since Samsung didn’t have flexible panels available at the time, however, it put both displays on the front of the handset.

Exactly when we can expect to see YOUM displays in shipping devices is unclear, however. Samsung’s original plan was to begin volume-production of the technology in 2012, but according to sources within the company opted to delay that roadmap and focus instead on regular AMOLED panels, which were still in high demand thanks to strong sellers like the Galaxy S III.

Lincoln’s target is both those drivers looking to step up to their first luxury car, and those stepping down in size but not wanting to sacrifice comfort on the move. For that audience, the MKC Concept borrows cues from previous Lincoln cars but also throws in some new material of its own; the rear tailgate, for instance, wraps around the edges of the car, so that the MKC’s designers could splay the lights right across without a cutline.

A fixed panoramic roof keeps things airy inside – helped by the white leather, which continues up the pillars, the door trip uppers, edges of the console, and even parts of the cargo area – while wood has been treated with metallic flake for a Twilight-effect sparkle. Chrome features on the speaker grilles and the air vents, while there’s crimson highlight-stitching on the seats.

Right now, Lincoln is maintaining that the MKC Concept is just that – a concept – with no word of a potential release date. With the luxury SUV billed as “a vision of how Lincoln will enter the industry’s fastest-growing small luxury utility segment” and a push into the four highest-growth segments with new models over the next four years, however, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the MKC in showrooms soon.

“The effects in the video are rendered in real time and are captured live,” Microsoft research says, “not special effects added in post processing.” The system uses a Kinect for Windows camera paired up with a computer-controlled projector, with the sensor bar mapping the geometry of the room and then overlaying the digital graphics on top.

None of the visuals are pre-processed, with the whole IllumiRoom system figuring out the skew of the walls and how the images need to be modified to suit in real-time. “Our system can change the appearance of the room, induce apparent motion, extend the field of view, and enable entirely new game experiences” Microsoft suggests.

Full details of the system haven’t been revealed yet, with Microsoft saying that it will be detailing the whole system in an upcoming paper. Exactly how the company might leverage the technology into a commercial product isn’t detailed, though we think it might be a while before Xbox gamers can fill their living room with gameplay.

The teams call those stacks “PaperTabs” and the eponymous slate can show several of them, on-screen, at the same time. That streamlines workflow, so for instance you can easily attach a photo to an email by previewing them at the same time and simply tapping them.

However, there’s also support for less traditional methods of control. For instance, flex-sensors allow for an email to be sent if the top corner of the screen is bent; you could also trigger a send by dropping the PaperTab into your outbox tray on your desk.

Multiple PaperTab units can be placed side-by-side, with the on-screen interface automatically extending to take advantage of the extra real-state, while the UI can be stretched out with simple gestures. There’s also interpretation of physical distance: for instance, when the PaperTab is out of reach, the interface switches to an icon mode to show what’s happening across all apps.

As you might have guessed, PaperTab is just a prototype right now, though Intel, Plastic Logic, and the Queen’s University team say the technology is all functional. Exactly what sort of battery life you could expect from a commercial product based on the hardware, and what kind of price you’d be looking at, is unclear; we’ll find out more at CES 2013 this week.

Elsewhere there’s distinctive venting – including slightly Ferrari-esque intakes in the front apron – and satin-finish aluminum trim dotted around the exterior. They’re functional, too, splitting air intake between the engine and the so-called Air Curtain which “hugs” the wheel arches to cool the brakes and also reduce fuel consumption.

20-inch exclusive-design alloys and some highly-reflective surfacing – including the “double swage line” on the sides, again borrowed from the 3 Series – keep the concept looking low and lean. At the rear, there are L-shaped lights which shine with different brightnesses, to add a greater sense of depth, while the rear apron echoes the three-way split of the front.

BMW Concept 4 Series Coupé:

Inside, it’s a cocoon of leather and metal, with some natural chestnut trim and BMW’s usual iDrive interface. A sizable display sits on the top of the dashboard, with the console curving slightly around the driver, though there’s still room in the back for two seats.

BMW isn’t talking production plans for the Concept 4 Series Coupé, but neither is it being particularly coy about the model’s forecourt potential. “BMW is looking ahead to the fourth generation of its sporty mid-range coupe” the company said in a statement about the car. “The ’4′ doesn’t just mark the start of a new cycle, it represents the zenith of a development curve.”

Subaru walked away with the win in the Design Competition with a concept called the SHARC. The Subaru design concept is an unmanned drone capable of operating on the land and in the air that is designed to operate on renewable resource fuels and has a topographical scanner integrated. The design concept operates autonomously eliminating the need for a large staff of officers.

All concepts submitted in the competition had to meet the strict Hawaii carbon-neutral environmental regulations. The Subaru concept has four wheels each with their own electric motors. The wheels and tires themselves can turn into rotors allowing for air operations.

The design concept also shows a wearable remote control system allowing officers to control the vehicles when needed. One of the more interesting features of the SHARC is that vehicle is inflatable rather than being a rigid frame vehicle.

The CFRP brings on enough strength of its own that no B-pillar is required to keep its structure strong, this allowing two rear seats to be much more accessible than in the vast amount of such back-sitting environments in vehicles today. Also inside you’ll find wood, wool, leather, and an extended collection of renewable materials to remind you that yes, you are rolling forth in a green-minded machine.

Entering and exiting the vehicle in the front from and to either side is also easier than ever as the area below the dash is empty. With no transmission tunnel-bound protrusions in your way, you can easily slide from side to side. Up top of the dash you’ll find two displays, the first being a 6.5-inch screen with information on your speed, power, and the like. The larger display is 8.8 inches and ready to bring on the BMW i ConnectDrive suite, with navigation, infotainment, messages, schedules, and one whole heck of a lot more.

This vehicle does not currently have a release schedule, but as the i8 Spyder was recently revealed to be coming up as soon as 2013, we must assume that this EV isn’t that far behind. Have a peek at our BMW tag portal as well as our Car portal to keep track of everything BMW and the larger vehicle world into the future – big things are going down!

This beast is aiming at the moment for a full market release sometime inside 2014 and will be busting out at 62 mph in five seconds on the open road. Top speed for this vehicle is a lovely 155 mph and it’s rolling out with three driving modes right off the line: all-electric, all-gas, or combo-mode. The electric motor inside the i8 is a hefty 96kw and it’ll be bringing on 78 MPG (3 liter per 100 km) at launch.

This particular Spyder has a 100 liter storage capacity in its trunk (or its boot, if you’re English), and the whole vehicle weighs in at 3,600 lbs (just incase you want to think about lifting it up, of course.) That weight in combination with the low center of gravity on this beast (along with many other factors, we’re sure), brings on a fabulous 354 horsepower. This eco-friendly supercar uses its 131 hp/96 kW electric motor with a 223 hp turbo charged three-cylinder to bust out the greatness.

Inside you’ve got a digital instrument cluster with smart info on how much energy you’re using, how much you’ve got left, and environmental info around and inside your vehicle as well. You’ve also got a 8.8-inch Central Information Display with touch control over a variety of elements including main telematics and infotainment. A third display sits near here able to control the climate inside the car specifically.

This vehicle is able to connect remotely to your smartphone (or vice-versa) using BMW’s i App, this allowing you to set up times when your vehicle should charge, turn on to warm up, or cool down based on pre-set conditions. You’ll be able to look up directions on your smartphone and toss them over to the main display in the vehicle as well.

This vehicle is said by BMW to be 90% finished with its final form, with one rather sizable addition still on the way – two additional seats in the back. We’ll see more of this amalgamation sooner than later!

The vehicle is called the Ener-G-Force and Mercedes says that the vehicle is designed for crowded roads with electronically monitored and guided traffic, a much larger population, and to deal with changes in human behavior. Mercedes figures that outdoor activities will dominate leisure time and therefore, a vehicle for police officers capable of traveling across all surfaces will be needed.

I don’t know about all that, what I do know is that the concept car is very cool. The concept car was inspired by the G-Class. The concept has a three-panel greenhouse with lines that reminded the classic G-Class. It rides on 20-inch wheels and looks sort of like a futuristic off-road racing truck.

In the rear of the vehicle is a pullout toolbox designed to hold a variety of equipment without having to open the entire tailgate. The concept stores recycled water in tanks on the roof and transfers the water to a “hydro-tech converter” where natural and renewable resources are converted into hydrogen to operate fuel cells that power the vehicle. The car has four electric motors with one in each wheel. The odds of this ever making it to production are virtually nonexistent, but it’s always cool to see an interesting concept car.

“The future vehicles will be distinctive, differentiated, and carry the respective DNA of Alpine and Caterham Cars” is all the two companies would say today, though it’s clear that this isn’t just a collaboration on a single model. “Renault and Caterham will combine their skills to build models in large and small volumes,” they say, “in order to widen their positioning on the sports car market.”

New models made as part of the partnership will be produced at the Alpine plane in Dieppe, France, saving it from closure. The Caterham Group will also grab a fifty percent share in Automobiles Alpine Renault, which until now is entirely held by Renault SAS.

At present, the Dieppe facility produces Renaultsport cars, the French firm’s niche performance models, and indeed The Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham will be managed by Bernard Ollivier, who previously led the Renault Sport Technologies team. Since 2011, Ollivier has been VP of Transformation at Renault.

Renault Alpine A110-50 concept:

If the first Alpine-branded car is anything like the A110-50 concept Renault showed off earlier this year, the two companies could be on to a winner. Channeling the original Alpine A110 “Berlinette” of fifty years previous, the concept borrowed F1 transmission and aerodynamics expertise for a car that – as Renault’s Alps assault proved - was as good on the road as it was on the car show stand.

Telefonica I+D invented the Thinking Things concept and believes that the product will significantly boost the development of M2M communications and help to establish an Internet of physical things. Thinking Things can connect all sorts of inanimate objects to the Internet, including thermostats and allows users to monitor various assets or tracking loads.

Thinking Things are comprised of three different elements. The first is a physical module that contains the core communications and logic hardware. The second element is energy to make electronics work via a battery or AC power. The third element is a variety of sensors and actuators to perform the tasks users want.

The Thinking Things device is modular, and the user can connect together multiple bricks to perform the task they need. This is an interesting project that can be used for anything from home automation offering simple control over a lamp to just about anything else you can think of. The item connected to the web using Thinking Things automatically gets its own webpage. That webpage provides online access allowing the user to control the function of the modules and devices attached to the modules. An API allows developers to access all functionality of the Thinking Things from within their software.

Yamaha has come up with the JWX-2 power assist unit, which essentially turns any ordinary wheelchair into a powered wheelchair. Powered wheelchairs are extremely expensive, but the company says that their new power assist technology will be aimed at physically-disabled people who are on a budget.

Users will still have to manually control the wheels, but getting up slopes and just going long distances will be much easier. Plus, the unit can be attached to almost any regular wheelchair, which is one of the reasons why it’s cheaper than powered wheelchairs. The unit also comes with computer software, where users can adjust settings and even fine-tune each wheel to different power adjustments.

There are buttons on the side the turn off and turn on the assist, and you can even control how much power the unit offers depending on if you come up to a steep slope or just a gentle one. No price has been given for Yamaha’s JWX-2 power assist unit and it’s still in its developing stages, but the company said that you should expect it to hit the market sometime in the spring of 2013.

[via DigInfo TV]

Here with this Sony device we’re seeing a complete lack of “Xperia” brand naming and some form shaping unlike anything Sony has delivered before. You can see some styling choices that certainly ring a Sony bell, enough to make us think it’s possible, but the family resemblance with the Galaxy Nexus makes one believe this might be a hybrid. This device has some metal (or plastic that’s made to look metal) on the bottom back, soft plastic up top, and a single LED flash near a large-lensed back-facing camera.

NOTE: If you weren’t already, take an extra grain of salt with this supposed leak. It’s more important at the moment to think about the implications of such a phone rather than assuming this one is real – but keep in mind that it COULD be real, too. You never know until you know!

There’s a single microUSB port on the left of the device along with three pogo-pins for wireless docking. It appears that this device will be released with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or greater, such is the color scheme in the user interface. The front of the device also has a right-side front-facing camera and two sensors as well. You’ll also notice a lack of any off-screen buttons, the home set of three being rather Nexus-friendly right along the bottom inside the display.

This device, if it is indeed real, could be released at the same time as the LG Nexus 4 (or Nexus G), with more than one manufacturer bringing the heat at the same time to show Google’s power. This is the new vision for Google, a re-imagining of their original Android mission to release a single phone that would be out on every single carrier at once. Will Sony be able to do justice to the next version of Android in a vanilla iteration? We shall see!

[via Xperia Blog]

So you’ve got what appears to be an iPhone’s back panel with nothing on it – not even a camera, but you know there’s a camera inside. You tap the camera app button on the display up front and the back reveals the camera lens that was there the whole time. This system would work with what Apple calls a “window controller” – certainly simple enough of a description – that would connect directly with the rest of the user interface with no additional physical buttons necessary for it to work.

The patent at hand mentions several different uses for the system including the revealing of several visually-dependent components” which may include a fingerprint scanner, an image capture device, a strobe, a light sensor, a proximity sensor, or a solar panel. The windows suggested for use here are a PDLC window, aka a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal window. Transparency would allow these components to work when you need them, and disappear when you don’t – like magic!

If indeed Apple does have the ability to make this technology a reality, we could very well be looking at another generation of iPhone that’s ready to appear “game changing”. The patent here was originally filed back on April 7th, 2011 by Rivera Alvarez, Jose Felix, Richard Hung Minh Dinh, and Scott A. Myers with serial code 082118 – if you’re looking for it in the Patent and Trademark Office, that is.

Have a peek at the collection of patent drawings made to show off the system for the patent above and below and let us know if you think this is a possibility for the future. The hidden future in which we cannot see anything on the phone until we need it – interesting stuff!

[via Apple Insider]

What we’re seeing here is a device based on the tipped or otherwise “leaked” specifications that have appeared with the iPad mini over the past few weeks and months. Apple has not confirmed or denied the existence of an iPad mini either way, but sources from several different arenas have made a convincing case for the smaller-sized iPad appearing soon for real. The images you’re seeing above and below are all 3D images created by Hajek.

The iPad mini has been tipped as having either a 7-inch, 7.5-inch, or 7.85 inch display with 1,024 x 768 pixel resolution. The display will likely have the same amount of pixels as the iPad 2 but spread across a smaller display, this allowing apps and games created for the previous generations to work right out of the box here on this next-generation device. The iPad mini has been tipped to be working with an anodized aluminum back plate as well, suggested here by Hajek to be coming in the same color varieties as the iPod Touch.

This device has been tipped to be coming with two cameras, one on the front for FaceTime and another on the back for slightly higher-resolution videos and photos. You’ll find a Lightning connection port at the bottom of this device along with speaker grilles, and the processor will likely have a processor not unlike the iPad 3, with a new generation iPad 3x being released with an A6 processor like the iPhone 5.