Those of us in the auto industry are familiar with Mansory for the insane performance programs it builds for some of the finest supercars in the world.
But cars aren’t the only thing Mansory’s adept at building. Turns out, it knows how to work on building customized iPhones, too. Yep. IPhones, or in this particular case, a 24-carat-gold iPhone 5.
Recently unveiled at BaselWorld, the 50-piece Mansory iPhone 5 was designed using 24-carat gold, which was mirror-polished on the iPhone 5. Talk about blinging up, right?
Kourosh Mansory, owner of Mansory Design and Holding GmbH, explained the company’s decision to build an iPhone 5, saying, "At MANSORY, we have always been passionate about luxury watches and fine jewelry, and the 24-carat gold iPhone5 is a natural supplement to our portfolio as it meets our quality standard of production on the highest technical level combined with masterly craftsmanship and the most precious materials.”
If you do decide that this ultra-limited iPhone 5 is in your future, you can be one of the 50 people to score it for a price of €4,900, which is around $6,400 based on current exchange rates. Details of the release and where you can buy the iPhone have not been outlined.
For all of you game addicts out there, "Cie Games" needs no presentation. For those of you who do not know them, we will offer you one more clue: it is the company that has developed "Car Town" - a social network game that allows players to collect and modify virtual cars.
Cie Games announced the launch of the new "Car Town Streets" - a racing game developed in cooperation with International Speedway Corporation (ISC) and specially offered for mobile gaming platforms. Gamers will be able to play it for free on iOS devices including the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
This new game will include "virtual" events and the first one, "Daytona Challenge," will debut today in celebration of the 55th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 24th. Top players for each race will receive a free NASCAR racecar that can produce up to 1,200 horsepower – the fastest car in the game.
The new Car Town Streets will offer gamers the possibility to find, build and race with all their favorite cars, but also form teams and compete in head-to-head race battles. In the future, the game will unlock new race challenges and missions.
Rolls-Royce is breaking new company ground with the launch of its latest app, which has been designed to help you find used Rolls-Royce models without so much of a hassle.
The app is called the Provenance Pre-owned Stock Locator and follows the Provenance app that Rolls-Royce launched last year for its certified pre-owned vehicle program. Among the features of the PPSL app include easy-to-navigate search filters, as well as a feature that allows users to be able to make direct auto comparisons.
The app works in such a way that users can search for certain Rolls-Royce models in a specific country. From there, they can specify the exact model depending on a number of variables, including the car’s model, age, mileage, budget, or color.
For all the neat features of the app, it does have one caveat. The app will only cater to the highest grade models, which will be determined by a team of factory-trained technicians, who, in turn, will subject the car to a comprehensive road test before grading them.
The PPSL app can be accessed on the company’s official homepage and is available for the iPad, PCs, Macs, and most smartphones.
Cops in Maryland are quickly cutting down on their time spent running license plates by using what are called automatic license plate readers (ALPR). These nifty devices scan your plates automatically and check for insurance, validity, and other key safety issues. This is all well and good, according to civil liberties watchdog, the ACLU, but what they do with said information has the ACLU up in arms.
The ACLU has growing concerns with how long the information is retained in these ALPRs and worries that this ever-rowing data may eventually allow the government to precisely predict every move you make. So for all of you conspiracy theorists that think the gummament is watchin’ ya, this is just another nugget to keep in your head.
In a released statement, the ACLU says:
“If license plate scans, which are typically stamped with a location, time, and date, were used just for these purposes and deleted shortly thereafter, privacy concerns would be minimal to non-existent. After all, police can run license plates against these databases themselves. ALPR technology simply cuts down on the time and manpower required to perform these functions on a large scale.
The privacy issues arise with the retention of the information. A police officer will not forever remember the exact location and time of an innocent motorist’s travels. With ALPR technology, those details can be stored indefinitely, creating an ever-growing historical record of the daily comings and goings of every Marylander. As ALPRs become more ubiquitous and that record becomes longer and more detailed, it will become possible for the government to determine a person’s exact movements during any given time period.”
However, the police taking records of our license plate activity is one of the more primitive tracking devices that the government has access to in order to track us. There are many more active and precise devices that we all use on a daily basis that allows the government to keep tabs on us.
To see what other devices the government can use to track us, simply click past the jump.
Daimler’s Smart lineup has been begging for an electric variant since its inception, due to its small stature and focus on being more “green” than other cars on the road. It took some time, but Smart finally did debut an electric variant and it is now due for an upgrade. Well, after much delay, the redesigned Smart electric drive – yes, it’s all lowercase letters to stay true to the “smart” way – is finally set to hit the streets without hitting the filling station.
With the influx of EVs in the marketplace, can the puny smart fortwo really stand up to the challenge? The fortwo has always been a niche car and adding in the hum of an electric motor in the place of its three-pot gasoline power plant just places it into an even narrower niche.
Only time will truly tell whether this car will gain any traction in the EV market, but we are all set to dive into it and tell you what to expect. We will also let you know if this car is one for the ages or one that you can live without.
There’s no denying that the sound of any kind of forced induction is incredible. Fitting a turbocharger to any car is quite expensive and as a result, people generally only install aftermarket ones for the performance upgrades. However, if you’re still obsessed with the sound of a turbo, but aren’t prepared to pay to have one installed, then a recently launched iOS app dubbed ‘iBoost’ may be the perfect solution for you.
Developed by app development team Bonobo in conjunction with Japanese tuning firm HKS, the app helps recreate the sounds of the systems developed by HKS itself. In order to function, the iBoost app utilities the iPhon’s accelerometer to detect movement of the car, with a variety of different gauges and sounds being offered.
Nathan Hamey, lead designer of iBoost stated, "Working with HKS has been a blast. The partnership has given us pit-lane access to extract the best sounds possible from their SQV. We’ve also painstakingly crafted their boost gauges to look and respond just like the real thing. I think people are going to get a real buzz out of seeing and hearing authentic HKS gear in their car."
"We’re thrilled to have the chance to be featured in iBoost," says Masaya Funayama, spokesperson for HKS. "It’s is an incredibly well designed application and a lot of fun to play with. It’s a great match for the HKS SQV," he continued.
With the basic version costing just $0.99, while the upgraded pack costs $1.99, the iBoost app is definitely an attractive purchase.
The Apple vs. PC war has gone from computers to laptops, from laptops to MP3 players, from MP3 players to phones, and from phones to tablets, but Apple has never attempted to compete with Microsoft in its automotive form (see: Ford Sync)… That is, until now. Apple has just announced that it will start fitting its Siri system into vehicles.
For those that hate having only one mouse button to choose from (A.K.A. those that could give a rat’s backside about Macs) you may have no clue what Siri is. Well, Siri is, as Apple calls it, an “Eyes Free” system that allows you to control various items, like the iPad and iPhone, with only your voice. Before you start thinking “OMG, that’s like so 2007,” Siri actually learns your speech pattern and does not require you to use a series of ridiculous keywords to activate certain features, so it is basically a 2012 twist on 2007 technology.
So, this means that you can now drive “Eyes Free…” Okay, maybe not, but you never have to unglue your hands from the 10-and-2 position ever again when controlling whatever iDevice you happen to have, via Bluetooth, plus it also controls a turn-by-turn navigation system with crowd-sourced traffic updates. We are sure that there are tons more features to the automotive variant of Siri, but for now, this is all that Apple has released.
As for the cars that will include this new system; let’s just say that Apple definitely flexed its superpower connections, as according to Macworld, it has signed up Land Rover, Jaguar, BMW, GM, Mercedes, Audi, Toyota, Chrysler, and Honda. According to reports, you can pick up your first “iCar” starting in about 12 months.
Given this system is as cool as it sounds on paper, I can add one more product to the short list of Apple items I can actually stomach, making that list the iPad, iPod, and Siri.
When considering motorcycles, Suzuki is likely a brand that comes to mind. Their cars, on the other hand, nearly go unnoticed unless you are looking for specifically cheap transportation. They typically only account for a fraction of a percent of U.S. auto sales, but that fraction is a tight and very loyal market. Well, it looks like they are trying to dig themselves out of obscurity by adding high-end features to their vehicles.
Starting in the 2013 model year, nearly every Suzuki car, truck, and SUV will include a Garmin stereo system that will also include Pandora radio. With the internet taking over everything nowadays, it’s only expected that internet radio would make its way into more cars – heck, some cars now have a hard drive bigger than my desktop PC, seriously…
Pandora works a lot like satellite radio, as it is not broadcasted from terrestrial towers, but rather streamed through the internet. You can personalize your own station too, so there is no need to swap the station every time something you can’t stand comes blasting through the speakers.
There is no receiver or anything like that for Pandora radio, so this is really not costing Suzuki much, meaning the cost to you would be minimal, if anything. The Garmin radio connects to an iPhone, per Pandora, and the iPhone in turn receives the Pandora signal, broadcasting it through the radio. It makes us curious because Pandora radio also has an Android app, which means nearly any phone on the market can receive its signal. However, Pandora specifically mentions just the iPhone in its press release.
We are starting to wonder if iPhone and Garmin are maybe up to something, or did the Pandora rep just misspeak. For the sake of all Suzuki buyers that choose to use this service, we hope the latter is the truth. From our research, it looks like Garmin and Suzuki have apps for both Android and iPhone, so it was likely a mistake to just say “iPhone.”
Regardless of its connectivity, this is a step in the right direction towards Suzuki reeling in its direct competitors, Hyundai and Kia.
Hit the jump to read Pandora’s official press release.
Japanese automaker Nissan is introducing a new, state-of-the-art technology that promises "self-healing" capabilities. We’d love to tell you that this is some kind of joke, but the truth is, it’s not.
In all seriousness, Nissan is unveiling a cell phone accessory that features their new Scratch Shield paint technology. According to Nissan, the Scratch Shield paint technology promises to heal small scratches within an hour for less-serious instances, and up to a week’s time in more serious occurrences.
The technology was developed by Nissan in collaboration with University of Tokyo and Advanced Softmaterials Inc. This material is expected to be used in a number of future Nissan and Infiniti models, but will make its debut as an protective accessory for the iPhone 4 and 4S models.
The case is made out of ABS plastic, a material that’s stronger and tougher than any other kind of plastic and, when combined with their new Scratch Shield technology, promises to be a revolutionary new safety accessory to protect our beloved iPhones.
We’ve seen some pretty crazy things being invented the past couple of years, but a cell phone case that heals itself?
The good thing about technology these days, as far as video game developers are concerned, is the wide array of platforms they can come on. No longer are we limited to video game consoles now that smartphones and tablets have become a popular tool for the vast majority of the population.
EA Games, the developer of Need For Speed: The Run, is taking advantage of this wider access to video games with the release of the trailer for the game on the iPad and the iPhone.
You read that right, folks. We now have iPad and iPhone trailers.
Since the game is already out for the PS3 and Xbox platforms, the next step is to bring all the action to the iPad and iPhone. That’s what the trailer is for. And even if it doesn’t come with the same cutting edge graphics as that of the console versions, it still something that should be a good download.
Besides, the iPad and the iPhone have one thing going for them that the PS3 and the Xbox don’t: you can take those two anywhere you go, and in doing so, play NFS: The Run anytime and anywhere.
