Word on the street had it that Tesla's $50 million deal with Toyota wasn't formal back in late May, but evidently things have made positive progress since. According to a new (though admittedly brief) report over at CNN, Toyota is currently working with the electric automaker on a pair of prototype vehicles. As the story goes, Tesla will be delivering two prototypes to Toyota "by the end of the month," with the vehicles using "Tesla's electric motors and battery packs and the bodies of Toyota vehicles." Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel has been quoted as saying that the two outfits have "made a lot of progress in a short amount of time," and we couldn't be more excited to see what kind of results will come from this tie-up. We can't help but hope that those regenerative brakes do a bit more than regenerate, though. Sorry, we had to. Really.

Tesla planting electric engines into two Toyota prototype bodies originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whoa. TechCrunch reports that Google has invested between $100 and $200 million in Zynga, the social gaming behemoth behind Farmville, Mafia Wars, and others, in preparation for the launch of Google Games later this year. More »



Google - Zynga - Searching - Search Engines - Mafia Wars

This is an up close picture of Lutetia, an asteroid that hangs out somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. It's the largest asteroid ever visited by a satellite. More »



Rosetta - European Space Agency - Solar System - Asteroid - Lutetia

While we've no clue how widespread AT&T's generosity is, or how you might get one, it appears that the company's "most valuable customers" are now receiving free range-boosting femtocells. Today, loyal reader Jason got a old-fashioned paper letter in the mail, offering his iPhone-wielding family a 3G MicroCell with no strings attached. Driving down to the local AT&T store, he got the product, but the dumbfounded reps offered no explanation why. Though his calls do frequently drop at home, Jason says he wasn't terribly vocal about the issue and only pays around $180 per month for his family plan -- the only thing that might possibly qualify him, in his opinion, is that his contract was set to expire. We've reached out to AT&T for more information; in the meanwhile, see Jason's letter after the break.

[Thanks, Jason]

Continue reading AT&T handing out free 3G MicroCells to loyal customers?

AT&T handing out free 3G MicroCells to loyal customers? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were impressed by the DIY Battlefield Pinhole Camera, designer Steve Monteau is back with another DIY camera—La Guillotine Camera. It captures sequential snapshots on 120mm film for old-school action captures. More »



Photography - Arts - Pinhole - Camera - Techniques and Styles

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Portraying the digital still camera as an endangered species has been a popular pastime for years in the cellphone industry, and with the high-resolution stills and high-definition video capabilities of the latest round of smartphones, the argument is more convincing than ever when applied to the casual snapshot. But this week at the World Expo in Shanghai, Canon -- a name synonymous with high-quality photography -- offered a vision of a device that not only supersedes the digital still camera, but will likely eliminate photography as we know it.

With an estimated arrival date two decades in the future, the Canon Wonder Camera concept device has an incredible focal length from macro to 500mm with a single, integrated lens. It boasts massive (unspecified) storage, ultra-high (also unspecified) resolution, multiple facial recognition capabilities beyond that available today, and the ability to keep everything viewable in focus at the same time. But perhaps the most radical thing about this camera is that it's really a camcorder. Rather than take individual stills, Wonder Camera owners would simply have their pick of perfectly crisp photos as frames grabbed from video.

Continue reading Switched On: Photography is dead, long live photos

Switched On: Photography is dead, long live photos originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Considering how thrilled I was just to find this story, I can only imagine the delirious, all-consuming excitement felt by Dave Crisp, a British hospital chef, when his metal detector uncovered this pot of 52,000 Roman coins. More »



Roman currency - Coins - Shopping - Antiques and Collectibles - Recreation

• First Look at the Improved and Redesigned Firefox 4 (Windows/Mac/Linux)
  Mozilla today released the first beta build of Firefox 4, complete with a new look, new features, and support for more HTML5 specs. Here's a quick screenshot tour of how it's shaping up.
• Desktop Earth Sets a Rotating Picture of the Earth as Your Windows Wallpaper (Windows)
  We've already shown you how to set a rotating Earth image as your Linux wallpaper, and many of you came up with good Windows solutions. But if you're not the scripting type, here's a program that will do it all for you.
• Poyozo Downloads and Organizes Your Virtual Life (Firefox)
  If you feel like you've accumulated so many virtual inboxes-email, social networks, media sites-that you're never able to keep on top of them, Poyozo aims to help you collect and organize the various data streams from your virtual life.
• Chrome to Phone Sends Links, Text, and Numbers to Android Almost Instantly (Android 2.2 with Chrome/Firefox)
  For certain web searches, your desktop is better than Android, but you still want that data on your phone. Install Chrome to Phone and you can shoot links, Maps, and copied text directly to your Android phone.
• GVNotifier Adds Full Google Contacts Access and Windows 7 Integration (Windows)
  GVNotifier was a decent little utility the first time we looked at it. Now the app shows your full contacts list, offers in-app voicemail playback, puts frequent contacts in right-click jumplists, and generally makes Google Voice into a desktop app.
• Run Android on Your Windows Mobile Phone (Windows Mobile)
  If you're interested in trying out Android but you're locked into your current contract with a Windows Mobile phone don't despair. Quite a few Windows Mobile phones have the right hardware to support Android booting-without erasing Windows Mobile.
• AppBrain Upgrade Installs Android Apps Instantly from the Web (Android)
  Google previewed over-the-air app installing at its I/O conference, but you can get that functionality in your Android phone right now. Install AppBrain and its Fast Web Installer, and clicking "Install" on the web will instantly install apps on your phone.
• Phone Disk Mounts iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad as USB Disks in Finder (Mac)
  iPhone users have been able to browse the contents of their device using apps like previously mentioned iPhone Explorer for awhile, but Phone Disk integrates it with OS X, mounting your iPhone in the Finder instead of a separate app.
• Calcurse Manages Tasks and Appointments with Pure Text (Mac/Linux)
  Want a to-do and calendar manager that puts very little fluff between you and your important stuff? Calcurse is a clever text-based task and scheduling app that's rich in features but light on interface doo-dads.
• Unlocker Deletes Locked Files, Now Works for 64-bit Windows (Windows)
  Freeware system utility Unlocker deletes, moves, or copies locked files that you normally can't access, and the latest version finally adds much-needed support for 64-bit Windows.

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Windows Mobile - Android - Clients - WWW - Browsers

Stanford University's new Engineering Library is scheduled to open this August, and when it does, it will have 85% less books than the one it's replacing. It's a big step toward what the school's librarians envision as a bookless future. More »



Stanford University - United States - Libraries - California - Education