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Daily Crunch: Couch Cushion Edition

Posted: 06 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PDT

Review: 2011 Ford Edge Sport

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 05:48 PM PDT


Sigh. Another crossover. Nearly every manufacturer makes at least a couple. So Ford did something that would have been unthinkable for the company just five years ago. They pushed the Edge away from the norm. The exterior sheet metal went from pedestrian to radical. The interior no longer looks like every other Ford model. This is what’s called risky innovation. The result is a love it or hate design — both inside in and out.

I drove the Sport model of the redesigned 2011 Ford Edge for just about a full week. My initial impressions were slightly tainted from a previous stint in the vehicle, so I kind of knew up front that I would enjoy the ride but hate the brand new MyFord Touch in-vehicle infotainment system. Gradually though, the gigantic advantages of the MyFord Touch system overshadowed the laggy response and cluttered design.

Sporty indeed

Consumers generally like crossovers because how they feel. The Edge Sport should not be any different. Even though you’re up high like in an SUV, it still drives and rides like a solid car. There’s no swaying from side to side and the Edge can tackle sharp corners just like a full-size sedan without feeling like you’re going to roll. It’s perhaps the best crossover I’ve ever driven.

The 2011 Edge is loaded with tech and while I previously stated that I would buy it just for the MyFord Touch system, the vehicle’s driving characteristic will more than satisfy those not interested in navigation, syncing their phone over Bluetooth, or customizing their instrument cluster.

The 3.7L Duratech engine found in the Sport model provides more than enough juice to propel the Edge forward in a manner that will bring a smile to your face. It’s not a sports car, but it does try to be one. It’s heavy and while it handles just fine on corners, it’s also obvious that this is no Mustang.

However, it’s hard not to have fun in the Edge Sport. The seats grip you as tight as the rubber wrapping the 22-inch wheels hold on to the pavement. The large center analog speedo screams at you to find the speed limiter. And then you hit the gas and the six-speed transmission dances up and down between gears ever so gracefully. It’s at this point that you forget you’re in an wannabe SUV and enjoy the ride.

Hello, technology

The Edge Sport makes quite a statement with the large grill and aggressive wheels but it’s the interior that people will remember. It’s as if the Ford designers transposed both the good and bad from today’s consumer electronics. There are three LCD screens, smooth to the touch inductive button pads, and super-glossy plastic everywhere.

It’s a bit overwhelming at first and maybe even a safety hazard. In-vehicle buttons should be something you can operate without looking. Drivers should be able to quickly adjust the climate and radio without taking their eyes off the road. The flush-mounted inductive-type buttons make that impossible in the Edge Sport.

Even a little tiny nub in the middle of the flush-mounted buttons would make all the difference in the world. That’s how the Volt does it. There would still be an unnecessary learning curve, but over time, the driver would learn where each button was located and the little nub would confirm they’re on the right function.

Thankfully there are secondary controls for nearly everything built-into the gauge cluster. This is where the MyFord Touch really shines.

Flanking both sides of the large analog speedometer are two LCD screens. The right one controls everything that’s also found in the center-mounted infotainment screen — media, climate, phone — while the left screen relates more to the vehicle’s status. Both screens have independent 4-way navigational pads on the steering wheel, making controlling them hassle-free.

Both sides are chocked full of options, leaving the driver with endless screens and looks. It’s wonderful. Eventually this will work its way down-market and hit more and more vehicles — as it should. There’s no reason why people shouldn’t be able to customize their car how they want and LCDs are perfect for the job.

The other side of the MyFord Touch isn’t as rosy. It’s a bit rough around the edges, actually. The system is also tasked with the main infotainment in the middle of the dash and that's a problem.

While the system is robust and full of functions, it just doesn’t work well. There’s a lot of lag. It takes a good second or two before the requested action is performed — even when selecting radio stations. The lag can be a bit frustrating at first, but over time, you just learn to slow down a bit.

If it wasn’t for the lag, MyFord Touch would easily be the best in-vehicle system at this price point. It’s that good. But even with the lag, it’s still great partly because of the amount of features.

Deserves a look

The Edge nails two of the most important aspects of a passenger vehicle. It drives great and provides the occupants with industry leading technology. There’s really nothing else out there that even compares. The Range Rover Supercharged we drove a few weeks back had very similar systems with a full LCD as the gauge cluster and the same size LCD infotainment screen. But the systems used lack any the sheer depth and functions found on the 2011 Edge Sport.

The Edge might not be for everyone because of it’s bulk, but wagon and SUV shoppers need to include it on their test drive list.

Drive Stats

  • Total milage: 912.2 miles
  • 19.5 MPG
  • 22:21 behind the wheel
  • 3.7L TiVCT V6 Engine
  • 6-Speed Automatic Transmission with paddle shifters
  • MyFord Touch
  • Sirius Satellite Radio
  • Rear View Camera
  • Price as tested: $38,845

2011 Ford Edge Sport


A Week In The Technology-Packed 2011 Ford Edge Sport


The 2011 Ford Edge Sport Brings Vehicles Into The Computer Age

Another Successful Retinal Implant – Bionic Eyes, Here We Come

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 05:12 PM PDT

A German study has successfully implanted retina-replacement electrode arrays in a number of blind patients, allowing them to distinguish letters, words, and objects. The German team joins Australian, European, and American university teams and a number of private projects in the quest to replace the eye, though they all seem to be going about it in slightly different ways.

This German microelectrode array is quite large and dense — many arrays I’ve heard of have been as small as 10×10 or less, but this 38×40 grid may produce a decent image. It’s still black and white and takes a lot of time to get used to, but hell, it’s better than nothing.

[via MedGadget]

Want Buttons For Your iPhone Games? Tactile+Plus Stickers Might Work

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 03:00 PM PDT


These cheap little stickers may look like impulse buys from a dollar store, but they might actually be pretty handy if you’re a big iOS gamer. Basically they just provide little bumps so you can tell where the virtual buttons are without checking or fumbling around.

I’ve found the controls on more complicated iPhone and iPad games to be like the ones on console FPSes: tolerable, but by no means excellent. A little physical feedback goes a long way. My friend tells me that Street Fighter IV plays great on the phone, but I just don’t believe that for a second.

Continue reading…

A Chair Made Entirely Of The Cracks Between The Cushions

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 02:30 PM PDT


You know how your phone, change, pen, or whatever is always disappearing into that crack between adjacent cushions or the back of the couch? Very annoying, yes. Which is why design studio Daisuke Motogi Architecture decided that we need to own those cracks.

Result: the Lost In Sofa chair, which repurposes that flaw into a feature.

Being able to put the remote, book, iPad, or whatever you’ve got safely into one of these little spots seems like something anybody could get used to. I’m not sure I’d trust my coffee in it, though, and of course it would be a paradise for crumbs.

On the other hand, the amount of change you’ll lose in it over a year or two will probably suffice to buy you a pretty nice dinner when money is tight and you have to resort to looking between the cushions.

[via DeZeen]

The iPod Nano Wristwatch Gets Slightly Less Ridiculous

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 02:00 PM PDT


The original iPod Nano watch was a little raw, and the follow-up from Incipio wasn’t much of an improvement. And let’s be honest, this new one isn’t going to win any awards either. But at least if you want to embarrass yourself publicly, you have more options than ever now.

The silicone Hex band lets you snap your Nano right into it, and has little buttons for controlling the player. And there’s a hole for plugging in your headphones… which of course are now attached to your wrist, so you have to put the cord up your sleeve. Not exactly GQ.

And of course, they still haven’t fixed the fact that the watch won’t tell time for one whole day straight, or that it’s not water resistant, or that people will see it and laugh, laugh, laugh.

[via Gizmodo]

Marvin Sebastian Loeb World Rally Champion Watches

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 01:37 PM PDT

The wait is over and the Sebastian Loeb watch by Marvin is here. Loeb is a World Rally Champion race driver. I saw some concept art for the watch early on, and now the final piece has been released (actually there will be two models). Following a tradition of many race themed timepieces, the Loeb watch spins a new yarn on the idea of a timepiece linked to the world of motor sports. The piece looks as though it was made from miniature parts taken right out of a rally car parts pin. An interesting mixture of concepts to yield a piece that tasteful but visually indicative of its cause.


The SenseFly Swinglet CAM: Your Very Own UAV

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 01:34 PM PDT


This little drone isn’t quite as destructive or versatile as a Predator, but it probably costs a few million dollars less. It’s basically a little flying wing with stabilizers and a rear propeller, with a camera poking out of its belly. So essentially, it’s a micro version of real aerial survey vehicles.

Sure, you could just use Google Earth, but the Swinglet is up and running in just a few minutes (I love that you shake it to start it up and then just let it go) — then you set your GPS coordinates and have brand new birds-eye imagery on your laptop within a half-hour. Very useful for… well, I don’t know, someone. I think it’s cool regardless of practical applications.

Not sure how much they cost; price isn’t listed on the website, which usually means they’re not for hobbyists (read: pretty expensive). But I do like the idea of home aerial surveillance.

[via LikeCool]

Apple Drops XServe, Pitches Mac Pro Instead

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 01:08 PM PDT


Apple will remove the XServe server platform form the Apple Store on January 31, 2011, suggesting instead the server-oriented Mac Mini with no optical drive or the Mac Pro. The platform, introduced in 2002, allowed Apple a toehold in the heavy-duty IT world but the 1U servers have proven to be slightly less energy efficient than a standard Mac Mini and, obviously, much larger.

AppleCare and repair will still be available on the older machines and they will sell them until they run out of stock in 2011.

Product Page

via Electronista


Review: Blackberry Style 9670

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 12:49 PM PDT

Short Version I'm always wary when marketers use the word "style." Homestyle biscuits are rarely as flaky and buttery as grandma's were and family-style meals at Italian restaurants ignore the fact that I am usually there eating an entire lasagna alone. So what am I supposed to think about the Blackberry Style? That it is in the style of a Blackberry? Or that it adds a little style and panache to the Blackberry line? I'd say both of these are true, but I'd also say that the odd flip-up screen is a bit too much for die-hard Blackberry users.


Volt’s Wild Ride: A Long Drive In Chevy’s Electric Vehicle

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 12:21 PM PDT

I had the rare pleasure of driving a brand new Chevy Volt up the Eastern seaboard yesterday, a four hour trip from DC to New York in the driving rain of a dying nor’easter. Organized by beleaguered carmaker GM, the drive was an attempt to reach out to tech geeks and bloggers to drive what amounts to the most high-tech car I’ve ever driven. According to a GM spokesperson, the car’s programming alone is more complex than the code in a F16 fighter jet.

How was the ride? Well, first let’s talk a little about the car.

The Chevy Volt is an all-electric vehicle with an M. Night Shyamalan twist. The car contains a huge, T-shaped battery that recharges in 10-12 hours, depending on the voltage, and a small 1.4L 80hp internal combustion engine – sorry, generator – that powers the car and charges the battery when you deplete the original charge. The wheels are powered by a high-torque electric motor that is alternatively power either from the battery or the generator. If you drive, say, 30 miles a day there is a very good chance your engine will never kick on, thereby saving you a tankful of gas. If you need to go far you can use the gas generator to push you another 300 miles or so. In this way it is an EV without the problems in range.

The car is a strange amalgam of low-end and high. It comes with a Bose audio system standard as well as five years of OnStar – you connect to the car over OnStar using an iPhone app – and a central LCD screen for Nav and infotainment. There’s also a separate driver’s screen that displays current driving stats including your range and a little floating “ball” that shows how efficiently you’re driving. The ball rises and turns yellow when you’re gunning the engine and floats serenely in space when you’re driving like Mother Theresa. This actually encourages a more zen-like form of driving. In fact, I found myself being more careful and driving more slowly when the ball thing was on the dashboard. When I turned it off I gunned the car like a mofo.

The experience, in short, is six parts exhilarating and four parts disheartening. On the one hand, I was driving a unique, compelling vehicle by an American company manufactured in and around Detroit. On the other hand I wanted it to be better, to have more range, and to run in silent, electric mode for just a little longer than it did.

The ride itself was quite smooth and uneventful. Once I turned off the little efficiency ball my attitude to the car changed and I drove it just like I would any other compact sedan. In electric mode, however, you feel you’re riding something fairly special, like a really fast super golf-cart or one of those chairs the fat humans rode in Wall-E.

Then the generator kicks in and the magic is gone. The Volt is a compromise. On one hand it is amazingly complex and powerful and on the other it’s just another car – albeit one that is considerably more efficient than any other car I drove. During my drive I hit 40 mpg in city and highway driving and had I tweaked the settings I’m sure I could have gotten more. The car also runs in Sport and Mountain mode. Sport offers a bit more pick-up and transmission assisted braking while Mountain is for, well, mountains.

Was this trip best use of the Volt’s capabilities? Absolutely not. The car works best when it exists in a 30-40 mile bubble – say when you’re commuting back and forth to work. For many 40 miles is far too short a distance (our own Kyle drives something like 100 miles a day). Long drives in this thing are not particularly the best use of its capabilities.

At $41,000 ($32,000 with the tax rebate) this is an expensive vehicle, even considering the many standard features. I don’t want to discourage the average driver from potentially buying it simply because it is such a good idea – an electric vehicle with the range of a gas vehicle – but it is a piece of interstitial technology. All of the compromises between gas and electric haven’t yet been worked out but it definitely has many of the problems of other electric cars licked.

I was quite happy to drive the Volt. It was a privilege, in short, to be behind the wheel of a car that will, without a doubt, carry us into a brighter future.

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Product Page


This Spring: EA’s Battlefield Play4Free. Guess What It Is.

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 11:00 AM PDT

EA has announced the development of Battlefield Play4Free. I’ll forgive the use of the "4" in the title since Battlefield 3 is already in development. Moving on. As you might imagine, it’s Battlefield, and it’s free. Not too bad.

The game, which is currently scheduled to be released this coming springtime, allows up to 32 concurrent players. I find that 24 players is the max you can online without the match becoming a clusterwhatever, but I’m willing to learn to fight my way amongst the horde.

It’s free to play, yes, but playing the game will earn you in-game currency, currency that you can later use to make your guy spiffy.

And this isn’t mentioned anywhere, but I’d guess that you’d be able to spend real life currency on in-game doodads.

The trailer looks fine, but man alive can we move post the "military shooter = heavy metal soundtrack" line of thinking? Why not some hip-hop, or maybe even smooth jazz?

Mix things up, you know?

In any event, here’s the game’s Twitter thing in case you want up-to-the-minute info.

Is this thing on? Join us on Twitter for our first Friday CrunchGear Writer Interaction Thing

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 10:20 AM PDT

All of us at CrunchGear love you. Yes, you.

We seriously dig our readers — unfortunately, we rarely get the opportunity to talk to you guys. We’re usually too mobbed blasting out news about whatever electro-doodad the kids are talking about to sit down and chat with you — and that’s something that bums us out.

In hopes of addressing this, we’re going to try a bit of an experiment: each Friday, we’re going to have one of our writers take over the @CrunchGear twitter account. It’s up to them to decide what to Tweet (though we’ll still be tweeting our stories, of course). Maybe it’ll be about gadgets. Maybe it’ll be about Justin Bieber. Maybe we’ll just up and decide to give some stuff away. You’ll never know!

Here’s what you should know: if you send an @ to CrunchGear on a Friday, you’ll be talking to a living, breathing CrunchGear writer instead of the normal, faceless robot that endlessly spews out our headlines. The first writer on the bat? Yours truly. Join me over on Twitter, won’t you?

Mimo Usenet Browser: Now Available For Giganews’ Diamond Members

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 10:15 AM PDT

Giganews, the biggest Usenet provider around, has a new feature for Diamond members that’s certainly worth mentioning here. They’ve teamed up with Golden Frog—yes, the same people who developed Giganews’ VyperVPN service—to create a brand new Usenet browser. It’s called Mimo Usenet Browser, and could be an easy way to get acquainted with the many wonders of Usenet, which is still, to this day, the best part of the Internet.

First thing’s first: the browser works for both Windows and Mac. Whew, right?

With that out of the way…

What is it? It’s a Usenet browser, built "from the ground up" to take advantage of Giganews’ long retention times and robust file integrity.

You use it to, yes, browse around Usenet. Not only can you use it to read the actual discussions on Usenet—I still read some of the game groups in the comp.* hierarchy—but you can use it to browse binary groups.

View inline photos and the like… like this!

What’s better than fractals?

And perhaps most important: you can use it to search across all binary groups.

So, if you search for something it’ll pop up right there in the browser.

Granted, I wouldn’t be surprised if many Giganews users, particularly Diamond members, have already moved onto something like SABnzbd, an automated daemon that makes downloading from Usenet absolutely painless, but there’s nothing wrong with having an extra option.

Particularly free options.

Review: Iomega USB eGo 1TB External Hard Drive

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 07:29 AM PDT

Short Version: This seemingly everyday USB 3.0 hard drive hides a couple dirty secrets. tl;dr don’t buy this drive. Why you ask? You’re going to have to click through for that.

Features

  • 1TB storage
  • USB 3.0 interface
  • AES 265-bit hardware encryption
  • $159 MSRP
  • Product page

Pros

  • Rugged design
  • Good transfer rates

Cons

  • Included software suite is loaded on a virtual CD drive (craziness)
  • Bundled USB 3.0 Cable doesn’t work  with other USB 3.0 devices

Review

I don’t get it. How in the world can someone mess up an external hard drive? The formula is dead-simple: take a notebook hard drive and put it in the smallest possible external enclosure. Profit! Somehow the committee in charge of the Iomega eGo 1TB external hard drive dropped the ball.

It all boils down to one grievous issue. When you plug in the drive, it loads a virtual CD drive along with the hard drive. This isn’t simply a partition either as it shows up as another physical drive in Disk Management. On this virtual drive is the bundled encryption software (which I can’t get to install) and so, it’s not that much of a journey to see how this virtual drive came to be.

What’s the very first thing you do when you get an external hard drive? Delete all the crap software, right? That’s what I do. Someone at Iomega must of have realized this and so instead of leveraging the Internet’s fine ability to distribute software, this method was enacted to make sure the bundled software would remain on the drive for all of time.

This separate drive wouldn’t be that big of a deal if Windows didn’t insist on autorunning it every time the drive is connected even if instructed not to — or if there was an easier way to delete it. Because, you know, you bought the drive and should be able to use it how you want.

Then there’s the issue with the included USB 3.0 cable. I have three other USB 3.0 external hard drives and it won’t work with any of them. I can’t figure out why, either. It seems like a standard USB 3.0 drive with an extra end to help power the drive if needed. But it’s a no-go on my other devices.

The drive performs fine and finishes along side the other USB 3.0 drives I’ve tested with the average read/write speeds clocking in at 83.2 MB/s and 71.3 MB/s over USB 3.0. But it really bothers me that the owner does not have complete control over the drive. That’s a massive dealbreaker in my book.

Truck Card Reader And USB Hub Combo

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 06:24 AM PDT

I wonder why USB specialist Thanko has never thought of this cool card reader and USB hub combo [JP] that looks like a toy truck. The gadget offers a total of three USB 2.0 ports and supports 13 different cards, from microSD to CF cards.

You can check out the full list of supported formats in the picture above. Plug the truck into your PC’s USB port and the headlights will start to light up or disconnect the back part if you just want to use it as a USB hub.

Made by Japan-based accessory maker Sanwa, the truck went on sale in this country a few days ago (price: $19). Contact the Rinkya online store if you're interested in getting one but live outside Japan.

Medal Of Honor: $39.99 On Amazon Today

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 06:15 AM PDT

You’ll recall that Amazon (and several others, actually) has started the Black Friday sales a little early this year, and today’s deals may be worth looking into, particularly for you gamers out there.

The "deal of the day" is Medal of Honor, EA’s, well, so-so attempt to take on the almighty Call of Duty franchise. The game is $39.99 today, down from $59.99. I’d be shocked if you’d be able to find the game for a better price than that.

I’d pop into Amazon every so often today to see what else you can grab.

Metaflex: Getting Closer To A Proper Invisibility Cloak (À La Harry Potter Or Solid Snake)

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 05:45 AM PDT

Scientists in Scotland have developed a material called Metaflex, and it’s said to replicate the capabilities of a "Harry Potter-style" invisibility cloak. This should not come as a shock to any of you who’ve read Dr. Michio Kaku’s most recent book, Physics of the Impossible, a book I highly recommend.

As you’ll have read in Kaku’s book, materials that bend light in order to make the wearer appear "invisible" have been in development for some time. What’s different about Metaflex is that it’s useable on non-regular surfaces. That is, the old type light-bending material doesn’t really work on curved or soft materials, making them not exactly ideal for something like clothes.

Metaflex, as the name implies, solves that problem.

I guess the dream is to run around and attack Shadow Moses guards.


Did The Election Just Kill Net Neutrality?

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 05:15 AM PDT

What are some of the tech implications of Tuesday’s mid-term election? One thing that springs to mind—Net Neutrality. Speculation has begun that the Republican-led Congress (well, House) will be far more willing to chuck Net Neutrality into the rubbish bin, leaving all of us normal folk wondering, "What happened?"

CNN rightly notes that a majority of Republicans, whatever their motivations, had come out against Net Neutrality, while the Democrats, essentially cast out of America on Tuesday, were larger in favor of Net Neutrality.

And if the FCC were keen on setting the Net Neutrality agenda (before begin told by a court, essentially, don’t try to rise above your station, it’s going to be an awful lot harder when the GOP holds the levers of power.

"The momentum for legislative change and the likelihood of changing broadband to Title II is gone," Ron Gruia, principal consultant at Frost & Sullivan, told CNN.

Make no mistaker about it: we’re looking at two years of legislative deadlock; not much of anything is going to happen until, at the earliest, January, 2013.

Net Neutrality: we hardly knew ye.
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