Chevy sedan shakes off rental-car stigma

The good: The 2014 Chevrolet Impala LT boasts a potent 305 horsepower V6 engine and a ride that emphasizes comfort over sportiness. The standard MyLink infotainment system boasts a full array of digital audio sources. OnStar is much better integrated with other vehicle systems than in previous generations.

The bad: MyLink system was sluggish to respond to inputs, and even more so was the navigation portion. Packaging forces many unneeded options onto the buyer.

The bottom line: It may look like a high-strung sports sedan, but the 2014 Chevrolet Impala LT is all about pampering its driver with a comfortable ride without breaking the bank. The new MyLink tech isn't the best in this class, but it gets the job done.

MSRP:$29,950.00LOW PRICE:$29,950.00

• Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price From Edmunds.com
  $29,950.00

"You're driving an Impala this week, eh? Yeah, I rented one of those on my last vacation/business trip/etc.," said everyone I ran into (not like that) when testing the 2014 Chevrolet Impala LT2 this week. It seems that everyone I know has rented one, but no one actually knows anyone that owns one. This experience is anecdotal, of course, but it certainly isn't a good thing for the classic American nameplate.

For 2014, the Impala reaches the market with a new look and a new high-tech message that I think is a big step in the right direction. There's nothing dull about the the Impala's new angry face and the muscular proportions inject the nameplate with a healthy dose of machismo that's been missing since the Impala was neutered to a FF platform back in 2000.

Parked side-by-side at a local strip mall, the 2014 Impala is more memorable than the Camry or Accord, more menacing than the Mazda6 and Taurus. Stylistically speaking, this comeback is off to a very good start.

New generation MyLink infotainment
Dating back to 1958, the Impala is Chevrolet's second-oldest nameplate (preceded only by the Corvette), so I find it amusing that it is the model that ushers in the newest generation of Chevrolet's MyLink infotainment technology.

This 8-inch touch-screen cabin tech package checks many of the right boxes where connectivity and customization are concerned and even leaves a lot of room for expansion down the line. For example, the icons on the home screen can be reorganized by holding and dragging just like you can on your smartphone, as more features are added -- for example, if Chevrolet adds a new app partner later this year -- the main menu expands to multiple home screens that can be swiped between like an iPhone with eight, large, tappable icons per page.

The icons on the MyLink home screen can be reordered by dragging, just like on a smartphone.

Out of the box, you get access to three USB ports -- two in the center console and one behind the motorized touch screen that rises at the touch of a button to reveal a cubby hole for your sunglasses, smartphone, a box of animal crackers, or whatever. There's also an SD card slot, a 3.5mm analog auxiliary input, Bluetooth for audio and hands-free calling, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, and HD Radio tuning for the terrestrial FM band. We're also given control of the Pandora Internet Radio app on a connected smartphone, if installed, with the ability to browse custom stations, rate songs with a thumbs-up or -down, and bookmark artists or songs for later retrieval.

Let's also not forget the OnStar telematics system, which is now fully integrated into the infotainment system, rather than presenting itself as a totally separate system, and comes with a six-month trial for the full suite of services, including emergency crash response, remote services like door unlocking, concierge services, and turn-by-turn directions.

There's also a small, full-color information display in the instrument cluster that provides at a glance access to navigation directions, hands-free calling info, vehicle settings, and more using steering wheel controls.

As I said, the system checks a lot of the right boxes, even in its unoptioned form, but there are a few issues. For example, one of the system's features was the ability to store shortcuts to pretty much any part of interface using virtual preset buttons that popped up along the lower edge of the screen, but this strip of faux buttons appeared inconsistently -- sometimes ever-present, such as when listening to radio, and other times nowhere to be found.

Additionally, I found the system to be remarkably sluggish between my inputs and, at times, pretty unresponsive. It's remarkable how annoying a second or three of lag between a screen tap and a system response can be, but these are fast times that we live in and I expect my tech to be as quick on the draw as I am -- particularly at 70 mph. However, the most heinously laggy bit of the MyLink system was the optional navigation system.

Options, packages, and creature comforts
Out of the box, the 2014 Impala is well-equipped, but it's the options that truly characterize the cabin tech experience -- forming both its greatest strengths and weaknesses.

For example, the LT Navigation package is a $1,095 option that adds, well, navigation to the Chevy MyLink system, as well as keyless entry and push-button start. The interface looks good and all of the options and menus are laid out logically -- it's good to know that you won't get lost in the navigation system -- and the directions and routes returned by the system were generally pretty good.

The navigation system boasted good functionality, but was laggy and unresponsive to inputs.

However, like the rest of the MyLink system, the navigation system is sluggish and laggy. Hitting the map button upon entering the car, you'll have to wait as you watch a blank map load and be populated with streets, then 3D buildings. Searching for a destination, sometimes seconds would go by before I was allowed to start inputting search terms using the onscreen keyboard. If you started searching for a destination without first specifying a city, it could be a few beats between each letter of your search term while the autocomplete system presumably searched the entire state for restaurants that started with the letter "A" and then "Ar."

It was maddening, but there is another way: voice command. Whether you used the onboard voice recognition system or let OnStar do your destination entry, speaking to the car was usually very accurate and much faster than poking at its screen.

Cowboy-couture Ram boasts truckish tech

MSRP:$52,790.00LOW PRICE:$52,790.00

• Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price From Edmunds.com
  $52,790.00

The 3500 Laramie Longhorn is not shy about its modern cowboy aesthetic. Swing open its heavy door and step up on its running boards and you'll be greeted by an interior that is, well, a bit ridiculous.

Premium brown leather trims the Ram's seats with Longhorn-specific accents and contrasting piping meant to evoke the flourishes of a cowboy's boots. The designs, at first, appear to be stitched, but closer inspection reveals that the leather was likely laser-etched, allowing the detailing to sit flush with the smooth leather. On the backs of the seats you'll find saddle bag-inspired storage areas. The floor mats are molded to look like barbed wire.

The chunky shape and flow of the dashboard and steering wheel remind me a great deal of the Chrysler 300, only larger and more spread out for the truck's cabin. Along the top of the dashboard is more brown leather with contrast stitching. Here and there you'll find chrome accents and even a bit of wood trim on the center stack, door panels, and steering wheel.

The Laramie Longhorn interior is inspired by saddles and cowboy boots.

Even if the western theme isn't your cup of iced tea, you sort of have to appreciate the commitment to a theme and the attention to detail that's gone into the 3500 Laramie Longhorn's cabin. Sure, there are a few odd bits here, some ugly hard plastic there, but largely the Longhorn pulls off the look. It's sort of hard not to like it.

Standard Uconnect tech
In addition to having seats that look like cowboy boots and a giant "3500 Laramie Longhorn" belt buckle on its door, the Longhorn is also a luxury trim level that comes loaded with cabin amenities: heated and ventilated seats with power adjustment and multiple memory positions, a heated steering wheel, even heated second-row seats. The steering wheel doesn't telescope, but the pedals are power-adjustable.

Okay, so I'm talking a lot about seats again, but this Ram's dashboard is also packed with some interesting technology, including the newest generation of the Uconnect infotainment and navigation system. Built around an 8.4-inch color touch screen, this system features large icons along the bottom edge of its interface for the seven major functions.

Jumping into the middle of that row, we'll find a button for navigation. Previous generations of the Uconnect system lifted their navigation system wholesale from Garmin and, when you pressed the nav button, the entire interface changed to look like a giant Garmin Nuvi in your dashboard, complete with its own menu system. I'd bet my hat that in this new version of Uconnect the maps and routing algorithms are still provided by Garmin, but the entire system has been reskinned and reorganized to integrate seamlessly with the rest of the infotainment interface. I've used enough navigation devices over the years to recognize the menu structure, but if you weren't looking for it you wouldn't even notice the rebranding.

The navigation system has been redesigned to better match the rest of the Uconnect interface.

Routing is quick once a destination is chosen, but I found the points-of-interest search and onscreen keyboard used for address input to both be extremely laggy and sluggish. The most likely culprit is some sort of background search or autocomplete algorithm slowing down the system, but I can't be sure. You're going to want to take your time inputting a destination while you're parked. Actually, you won't have a choice, as the system doesn't accept keyboard input when the vehicle is in motion.

The Uconnect system does include touch-screen controls for the climate control systems for the cabin and seats, but I love that there are easily accessed physical controls beneath the screen as well.

The Uconnect Apps menu is a bit misnamed as the apps available are more like telematics services. We were able to access and add features such as 911 assistance, voice text messaging, remote door unlocking, and Yelp connected search for destinations, all using the Uconnect system's 3G data connection. You can also add Wi-Fi hot-spot connectivity to the vehicle right from the in-dashboard Uconnect App Store for $9.99 per day, $19.99 per week, or $34.99 per month.

Right now Uconnect telematics and Yelp destination search are the only apps I could find, but more are coming soon.

More apps, including Pandora, Aha by Harman, iHeartRadio, and Slacker, will be available from the Uconnect App Store soon through the new Uconnect Access via Mobile service.

Audio sources selectable with the Uconnect system include two USB ports with iPod connectivity, a 3.5mm analog auxiliary input, and an SD card slot located beneath the armrest in a sort of media hub. You also get Sirius XM satellite radio and terrestrial HD Radio. Standard Bluetooth enables voice-commanded hands-free calling and audio streaming from a paired smartphone.

Interestingly, a CD player is not among that list of standard options -- it'll cost you an additional $195 to drop a single-disc slot into the center console. When a pickup truck is too high-tech for a CD player, you know the format is dead.

The media hub beneath the arm rest houses the digital-audio connections.

Audio from whatever source you chose is played through an Alpine-branded premium surround-sound audio system with nine speakers and 506 watts of amplification. I like the sound coming out of those speakers and sub, which is sufficient to overpower the big ol' engine and exhaust that we'll get to later.

Pull the column shifter into reverse and the 8.4-inch screen displays a rear view of the area behind complete with a dynamic trajectory overlay that moves with the steering wheel. There are also audible proximity sensors that beep as you approach obstructions while parking, but I'd love to see the Ram's high-tech dashboard include some sort of around-view camera system like what we saw on the 2013 Range Rover or Nissan Pathfinder.

About the only tech options aside from the CD player are a $995 power sunroof, $395 for automatic high beams and rain-sensing windshield wipers, and $150 for a rear-window defroster. Everything else that I've mentioned so far is standard.

Horsepower for horse people
As the badge on the front fender proclaims, you'll find a 6.7-liter Cummins Turbo Diesel engine beneath the Ram's tall hood. You may assume that a truck this big would be packing a V-8 -- I know I did -- but the hunk of metal that powers this vehicle only has six pistons arranged in an inline configuration. With a per-cylinder displacement of just over 1.1 liters, those have got to be some pretty big pistons.

Toyota thinks pink to brighten frumpy facade

TOKYO -- If Toyota chief Akio Toyoda wants to make more head-turning cars, he'll certainly succeed with this one.

In September, Toyota will start selling a hot pink Toyota Crown -- a top end Japan sedan typically favored by the over-50 set, mid-cap corporate executives and livery companies, and habitually fielded in a pulse-quelling hearse-black finish.

It's a big gambit for a 14th-generation nameplate that usually elicits yawns from onlookers, if they notice it at all.

Toyota Motor Corp. is taking orders only from Sept. 1-30, and only in Japan. So act fast if you look pretty in pink.

The electric-fuchsia Crown actually debuted last November to shock the public into noticing the redesign. Toyota's designers also outfitted the latest redo with a huge Darth Vader grille.

The grille stayed. But the color was supposed to be a one-off.

At the redesign launch event, Toyoda feigned embarrassment at the flamboyant flamingo parked next to him on stage.

In truth, the car symbolized Toyoda's personal directive to his stylists to take more risks with polarizing designs.

"My initial reaction was: 'You're kidding! Please, not pink,'" he told reporters. "But being reborn does mean new challenges."

The pink Crown later appeared in a line of Japanese TV commercials featuring French actor Jean Reno.

But after much public shock and awe, Toyota sees another way to make green from pink: actually put the car on sale.

It will offer magenta paint jobs on two versions of the Crown Athlete G series, one with a hybrid powertrain, the other a V-6.

The V-6 starts at 5,130,000 yen ($51,400). Customers will have to pay extra to indulge their passion for pink, but Toyota won't announce how much more until closer to the start of orders.

12′ Inflatable Animated Spider

Halloween’s still some time in coming, but that does not mean your Boy Scouts instinct cannot kick in by being prepared all the time. After all, it is those who tend to make the earliest preparations be in the best position possible to handle whatever curve balls that life throws their way. Well, you have had enough of ghosts and ghouls being littered all over your front lawn and want something that is slightly different, then you might want to check out the $199.99 12′ Inflatable Animated Spider.



We are talking about a 12′-tall inflatable spider which ought to send those who suffer from arachnophobia scurrying away even from half a block down, as something this large, looming over your lawn, would definitely send chills down one’s spine. Not only that, it does not remain stationary at all, as it is capable of moving its gruesome looking 30″-wide head back and forth. The spider’s head will swivel 60º side-to-side, as though it is deciding on its next victim, and its eyes will be illuminated by a couple of integrated LEDs each, where these will change colors from a devilish red to a supernatural green from time to time. We’re glad to say that you need not use your lung power to inflate this bad boy, as it comes with a 4-watt air blower that offers constant inflation in under five minutes, ensuring that its eight legs remain spread all the time to either side.

Magellan Echo Smart Running Watch

So you are currently indulging in your daily exercise regime that has a careful balance of cardio as well as strength building sessions in order to keep up your fitness and maintain a prime physical condition regardless of your age. In the past, there weren’t too many tools that one was able to make use of in order to keep track of one’s progress, but fast forward to the 21st century, and we have a plethora of apps to accompany our smartphones as we pound the pavement or make like a hamster on a treadmill. Well, Magellan does not want to lose out on this market segment, having announced the Magellan Echo smart running watch which happens to be the company’s very first running watch that will make use of smartphone fitness apps to their full potential, where it is capable of wirelessly connecting them to your wrist.



Now that you are able to enjoy real-time fitness data that is streamed straight from your smartphone to the watch display, not to mention having the ability to remotely control connected apps, the Magellan Echo will ensure that you remain informed all the time, as well as remain in control regardless of the run.

Marking a first where a running watch is concerned, the Magellan Echo owner is able to simultaneously check out fitness data, notifications and achievements which are shown on your smartphone. Using Bluetooth Smart to hook up to your smartphone sans wires, the Magellan Echo will depict the elapsed time, distance and other fitness metrics with but a glance. Apart from that, the Magellan Echo will also ensure that users have control over a range of smartphone functions that will include start, stop or lap on your fitness app, apart from next song, play and pause on your music playlist.

Expect the Magellan Echo to be made available to the masses sometime in the fourth quarter of the year, with a recommended retail price of $149.99, or if you want it to arrive with a Bluetooth Smart Heart Rate Monitor, then do be prepared to fork out another $50.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Student Edition for back-to-school spotters

Ah, parents would definitely love the “back to school” season, as this would mean their little ones (no matter how old a child gets, in the eyes of the parents, he or she would still be considered as “young” or “little”) will have to return to school and get out of their hair, and a more normal pattern of living is established. No more sleeping in late for them, and neither do they have the opportunity to stay up till the wee hours of the morning – it is a life of rigorous discipline, and it is time to score those grades that are required by Ivy League universities in order to gain entry into the hallowed hallways of their prestigious educational institutions. Well, Samsung intends to ride the tide with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Student Edition.

Just what can one expect from the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Student Edition? Well, for starters, it will come with a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet right out of the box, accompanied by a Desktop Dock as well as Bluetooth keyboard in order for students to create, share and store documents – apart from browsing the Web of course. Heck, a tablet is said to make life easier when one is tackling homework and needs all the possible tools in order to ace whatever exams that they,face.

Not only that, it is said that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Now, we certainly do not want that to happen, do we? The moment one completes his or her homework, perhaps it is time to use the very same tablet to take some time off, and such recreational activities include watching movies or playing games on the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1′s 10-inch display. You can always make full use of the Samsung Media Hub or explore apps on Google Play with this tablet, and turn it into a TV remote thanks to the Smart Remote and built-in IR blaster. You can say that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Student Edition comes packed with content value, were it will include Polaris Office for homework purposes, an entire year’s worth of free of 50GB Dropbox storage, and three months worth of free of Hulu Plus for those boring moments. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Student Edition is on sale for $349.99 a pop, resulting in you saving over $100 along the way.

Soundfreaq Sound Spot wireless home speaker

When it comes to wireless speakers, you can more or less say that these are dime a dozen. In fact, there are just so many different brands out there, that it can end up pretty difficult in making a purchase decision. Who knows, you might even end up more confused after checking out the numerous reviews online. Soundfreaq, a name that one would be familiar with where critically acclaimed line wireless speakers are concerned, has recently announced the launch of Sound Spot, which happens to be part of its repertoire of devices – coming in the small form factor that does not flinch when it comes to delivering impressive sound quality, and doing so sans wires courtesy of Bluetooth wireless connectivity.

Sporting a mid-century design inspiration, the Soundfreaq Sound Spot can offer a clean, modern look, one that is unique to other portable speakers, all the while ensuring that your carefully planned home décor plans are complemented. In fact, those who are interested in picking up the Soundfreaq Sound Spot can do so by choosing an all black model or one which comes in a wood-and-white design, retailing for $69 a pop. Of course, these are not the only colors available, since you can pick them up in other colors when summer comes to a close and fall kicks off.

Thanks to a custom-engineered, full-range driver and carefully tuned ported housing, the Sound Spot is acoustically balanced in a way where it can complement anyone’s musical taste thanks to Tone Control settings. The Sound Spot is more than ready in “traveling” just about anywhere around the home thanks to its diminutive form factor and integrated rechargeable lithium-ion battery that is said to last for up to seven hours of AC-free listening. Not only that, the Sound Spot will also boast of a USB power port, enabling you to power up your handsets even as the Sound Spot runs on battery power.

UpWrite desk adjusts to your height, and acts as a whiteboard

If you spend most of your day working at a desk, that generally means that you’re spending most of your day sitting in a chair. While that might seem great, especially if you have a rather comfortable chair, it’s not the best thing in the world for your body. That is why standing desks have started to become more and more popular in recent years.

UpWrite is a new adjustable-height desk that tries to be as versatile as you are. Whether you want to sit down, stand up, or even run on a treadmill while doing your work, this desk will accommodate you. The desk measures 60” x 30” and can reach a maximum height of 50.5 inches (if you choose to get the wheel kit, that will give you an extra 3 inches). Now if you’re worried about how difficult it might be to raise and lower the desk’s surface, you’ll be happy to know that there is a simple controller that you can use to set the height, and the desk will raise and lower itself.

This particular desk has one more trick up its sleeve. The top of the desk is actually one large whiteboard. Need to take a quick note, or draw something out as you’re thinking about it? No need to scramble around for some paper, just use a wet or dry erase marker and go to town on it. Unfortunately, the cost of this desk is going to turn heads for the wrong reasons. The $1,149 price tag isn’t terrible, when you consider that it automatically adjusts to the height you select. However, that does mean that the desk will cost more than the computer you’re using with it (for most people, at least).