Automotive

Opening the Door on Some Cool Garage Apps

a-houseThe garage door goes up. The garage door goes down. To the casual neighbor passing by it might not look like anything special. But it’s what’s behind that door, and maybe more importantly, the technology behind it all that is quite special.

New technology centering around that sometimes forgotten “room” in your house is blowing the proverbial garage doors off of the idea that the garage is just a place to keep your vehicle out of the elements or a place to store holiday ornaments for 11 months out of the year.

What’s even better is the “key” to unlocking the doors to a cool garage is now right in the palm of your hand. Smartphones have made many aspects of our lives easier and there’s quite a few apps out there centering around the good old-fashioned garage, making it every bit as plugged in as the rest of your house.

Every room in the home has become more high-tech over the years — from smart TVs and wireless cinema surround sound in the living room to heated floors in the bathroom to new homes built with USB ports in every wall so you can plug in your tablet, phone, or laptop in any room at any time. So why wouldn’t the garage also see some innovation thanks to the wonderful world of technology?

In this article, I will highlight some of the most useful and inventive apps available revolving around the old-fashioned garage — from how to pick the right door for your home to organizational tools for your garage to cool garage door openers that allow you to control your garage from just about anywhere. …

Review: DR32 1080p DashCam Video Recorder

DR32 Dash CamIf you live in Russia and drive a car, there may be a higher-than-average chance that you have a dashcam (video camera in your car) and that it’s running all the time. Well so goes the stereotype at any rate! But if you’re in the market for a dash cam, read on for our review of an excellent video camera, the DR32.

Electric Formula-1 Car in Development

It’s not just regular consumer cars that are going green – race cars are doing it too.

Electric connector manufacturer FCI has just signed a partnership with Formulec in order to sponsor a Formula One electric car race. According to its website, Formulec’s mission statement is “to promote motor racing of tomorrow through new and ambitious technological solutions.” To achieve this goal, Formulec took the first step of designing and building an electric version of the Formula 1 race car. Known as the EF01, this car was built in conjunction with the consulting firm of Segula Technologies and the Formula 1 team for Mercedes GP Petronas.

Get OnStar in Any Car with the OnStar FMV Car Mirror

Remember that scene in Die Hard 4.0 when Matt Farrell uses the 5 series BMW to get in touch with the emergency services? OnStar offers you the chance to do just that without going out and buying a BMW with fancy optional extras – a few hundred dollars is all you need to get it installed in any car.

The new accessory, OnStar FMV is a rearview mirror wired up with all of the usual OnStar goodies. It costs $300 plus $100 to get it installed and it helps you with accidents, emergencies, security, navigation and breakdowns.

Automobile Cigarette Lighter to 120V AC Supply Looks Like a Coffee Cup

Converting your car’s cigarette lighter into a full household power supply is nothing new, but this one has all the wizardry contained in a box the shape and size of a takeaway coffee cup. This makes it the perfect size to fit in your car’s cup holder!

Also no more fiddling around to find the end of the cigarette lighter adpater to plug your gadget into, as well as it having 2 standard power outlets.

Blind Man Drives Car Around Daytona Speedway

Technology for blind people is advancing rapidly – recent new discoveries have been made that offer some degree of sight through a person’s tongue, but now imagine a car that can be driven, completely independently, by someone who has little or no sight.

The National Federation for the Blind (NFB) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, College of Engineering have teamed up to create this. The car uses ‘non-visual’ signals to tell the driver the location of obstacles, such as cars in other lanes, or cars to the rear or front. This means the car can actually be fully driven by a blind person, and doesn’t have to rely on a computer to do any of the thinking or decision making.

CES 2011: 2012 Ford Focus Electric

Ford Focus Electric The new Ford Focus Electric was announced by Ford CEO Alan Mulally in a keynote speech at CES.

With claims that the car will provide better mile-per-gallon equivalent (mpg-e) than the Chevy Volt and a full recharge in three to four hours which is half the time required to recharge the electric Nissan Leaf, the all electric car turned a few heads. According to the EPA, the Volt gets an estimated 93 mpg-e on electricity, 37 mpg on gasoline, and 60 mpg average. The all-electric Leaf gets a 99 mpg-e rating from the EPA.

Porta-Jump – The Perfect Solution to a Dead Battery?

It’s cold at the moment and I mean really cold. Times like this you can’t afford to have your car fail on your (even if it does slip and slide all over the ice). If you’re worried about this happening to your car then you should invest in a jump starter.

These can often be recharged at home, kept in your boot, and taken out to jump your battery in an emergency. Problem is, they are often rather heavy instruments.

A product that offers a solution to this is the Porta-Jump; it’s a similar sort of thing to every other rechargeable jump starter out there except it’s tiny. …

Actron Launches New Scanner, Mechanics Weep

2 years ago we reported on the CarMD that could tell you what was wrong with your car if a fault light came up on your dashboard. This was already looking a little dated in 2010 so we’ve got a new one for you: the ActronCP9180 Scanner. This little beauty will tell you in a matter of seconds what’s wrong with your car (assuming it’s newer than 1996) and comes in a ugly fetching orange and blue (at least it’ll be hard to lose).

The scanner has a USB connection available for you to hook up to the internet and download new codes (future-proofing your device) as well as being able to dump the data on to your laptop. …

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