ET deals: $150 off 1080p touch LCD, 128GB SanDisk SSD for $90

Time for our latest roundup of today’s hottest deals. Leading today’s lists is a discount on a feature-packed display, the Dell S2340T. This 23-inch display serves up 1080p resolution on a gorgeous multi-touch enabled IPS LCD, backed up by a rotating hinge that allows for ideal touch interaction and a USB 3.0 docking hub.

Lenovo is also taking a bunch of money off their IdeaPad Y510p gaming laptop, complete with Haswell Core i7, 1080p screen, 2GB GT 750M graphics, 24GB mSATA SSD, and more for just $949. Also don’t miss the HP Envy 700 loaded desktop PC with Haswell Core i7, 12GB RAM, Radeon HD 7670, and a ton more features.

23-inch Dell S2340T multi-touch IPS monitor with built-in Dock for $549.99 with free shipping (normally $699.99 – use coupon code T8ND6DRQNQSM15).

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p Core i7 gaming laptop with 1080p screen, 1TB HDD + 32GB SSD, 2GB GeForce GT 750M for $949 with free shipping (normally $1369 – use coupon codeUSPY505801 on model 59370005, 2nd from right).

HP Envy 700-030qe 4th-gen Intel Core i7 desktop with 12GB RAM, 2TB HDD, Radeon HD 7670, 2-year warranty for $879.99 with free shipping (normally $999.99 – use 15% coupon code SVD8492).

Dell UltraSharp U2713H 27-inch IPS monitor for$719.99 with free shipping (normally $999.99 – use coupon code 8DLLTQCTZ8SPBX).

BioShock Infinite + BioShock 1 and 2 (PC Download) for $34.99 (normally $50).

120GB SanDisk Extreme SSD for $89.99 with free shipping (normally $109.99).

17.3-inch Toshiba Qosmio X70-ABT2G22 Core i7 gaming laptop with 1080p screen, 3GB GeForce GTX 770M Graphics for $1129.99 with free shipping (normally $1529.99 – use coupon code OFFERS700 | final price seen in checkout).

Google’s Moto X latest to jump on low-light bandwagon with RGBC “Clear Pixel” camera

After years of racing to be the megapixel king, smartphone vendors have wised up and started paying attention to overall image quality. In particular, low-light performance has belatedly received lots of love. Most famously, Nokia dropped its smartphone camera resolution from 41MP to 8.7MP to allow for much larger 1.4-micron pixels and improved low-light performance — and then later realized that 7:1 supersamplingwould provide much of the same benefit in the Lumia 1020, while retaining astonishing resolving power. HTC followed suit with the even more radical Ultrapixel sensor in the HTC One. Featuring massive 4-micron pixels and industry-leading low-light performance, the camera only captures images at 4MP resolution.

To provide improved low-light performance for the Moto X, Google decided to take a more adventurous approach. It is attempting to maintain a relatively high resolution of 10MP, while improving low-light performance through an unusual sensor design. Instead of having all colored pixels (traditionally two green, one red, and one blue in repeating blocks of four called a Bayer array), one pixel from each block is clear. This “RGBC” design, that Google calls “Clear Pixel” allows much more light to be captured in low-light situations.

The unspoken drawback of clear pixels

What the press releases and news stories about the technology don’t tell you is what a camera gives up by having 25% of its pixels ultra-sensitive to light and not color. In bright light, those clear (or as Sony calls them, white) pixels blow out way before the colored pixels. That either means that the camera has to be set to a lower exposure or a quarter of the image information is lost. If the exposure is kept low, then the color pixels don’t have very much information, increasing noise. If the exposure time is increased to get more information in the color channels, then not only are the clear pixels blown out, but blooming can cause image quality issues with surrounding sensor sites. In addition, some of the color information in the image is lost by removing half of the green pixels.

These shortcomings explain why Sony, who pioneered the use of clear pixels in camera sensors with its 2012 “RGBW” (W for White) design, stopped using it because of image quality issues. More recently, sensor maker Aptina has introduced its Clarity Plus sensor technology, that like the Moto X uses a clear pixel in lieu of one of the green pixels in each block.

Aptina believes it has overcome the inherent color issues with the RGBC technology through clever design and on-board signal processing, while retaining the 3-4 decibel signal-to-noise ratio improvement provided by the clear pixels. It has been rumored that a version of the Aptina technology is in the Moto X, but Motorola has not confirmed it.

Combining the relatively large 1.4-micron pixels — the Galaxy S4 features 1.1 micron pixels — of the X’s 10MP sensor with Google’s Clear Pixel technology, the Moto X will definitely be a great low-light camera. We’ll have to wait until the product ships to know if Motorola has finally cracked the code for successfully using a clear pixel without sacrificing overall image quality.

Apple’s next iPad Mini will have a Samsung-made Retina display, says report

Just about everything has a Retina or “retinal” screen nowadays. Most products from the company that coined the phrase, Apple, come in a Retina version, but not the popular iPad Mini. With a new Mini on the horizon, reports are now suggesting that the device will receive the Retina upgrade, and that the screen will be made by rival company Samsung.

The Wall Street Journal, prolific with regards to Apple rumors, reports that the omniscient, ubiquitous beings known as sources familiar with the matter claim that the new iPad Miniwill release in the fourth quarter of this year and will feature a Retina display made by Samsung. The new iPad Mini won’t get any less or more mini and will stay the same size of the 7.9-inch model with which we’re all familiar. Like with every mobile Apple device rumor as of late, the company is also experimenting with colorful back covers for the next Mini.

Another interesting facet of the report is that Apple plans to tap Samsung — its biggest mobile device rival — to make the displays for the upcoming iPad Mini. The current model of the tiny tablet uses screens produced by LG Display and AU Optronics. It’s tough to tell if tapping Samsung to make the Mini’s display is indicative of either Apple’s lack of display-making ability, Samsung’s stranglehold on the display market, or both. It is likely, however, that Apple put in a call to Samsung simply because the company can produce the quantity and quality of screen Apple requires, and in the provided timeframe. At least Apple and Samsung have worked together before, and frequently — notably on iPod and iPhone chips — so this likely isn’t representative of Apple walking over to Samsung’s house with hat-in-hand.

Though a Retina iPad Mini is currently just a report — regardless of how omniscient sources familiar with everything under the Apple sun may be — it does seem likely that the Mini would include a higher resolution display, as one of its biggest rival tablets, the Nexus 7,just released with one of its own. While neither Apple or Samsung commented on the matter, AU Optronics did note that it would not be producing the screen, as it could not meet the rate of output Apple demands.

Rumors have been recently flying around in a will-they-won’t-they manner, suggesting Apple will produce a Retina Mini one minute, then decrying the notion the next. In all likelihood, these rumors of stark contrast are the product of Apple’s rigorous testing phases, wherein the company produces a wide variety of units, but in Highlanderian fashion, chooses only one in the end. With the last iPad Mini’s release creeping up on its one year anniversary in a couple of months, we can except to see a refresh soon, and this tangled soap opera web of the device’s display will all be revealed in a hopefully dramatic fashion.

Conspiracy of the week: Can your car be hacked while you’re driving?

Imagine if hackers could mess with your car while you’re under way. Sure, it seems far-fetched, like a government agency that monitors every cell phone call. Even if the odds are low, the dangers of a hacked car are high, so academics and security experts spend time studying the possibility and write papers saying there are potential problems and it wouldn’t hurt to fund more research. The hacked car conspiracy theory got a boost recently with the auto accident death of Rolling Stone contributing editor Michael Hastings, under circumstances that were suspicious if you wanted to see them that way. Plenty of people did.

Some serious research has been done on hacking the car, via the OBD-II on-board diagnostics connector (which is mandated on modern cars, and look how easy it easy to find the port, right under the dash), and via wireless devices such as OnStar (and look how they’re proliferating). In both cases, the research has shown how almost every aspect of a car, including braking and steering, can be controlled by hackers.

Academic work from the University of Washington (Experimental Security Analysis of a Modern Automobile [PDF]) in 2010 and UC San Diego (Comprehensive Experimental Analyses of Automotive Attack Surfaces [PDF]) in 2011 highlight the potential attack vectors, and outcomes, of car hacking. Basically, the authors say that if you can hack the car, you can do all sorts of things that can’t be overridden by the driver. Some are minor, such as keeping washer fluid squirting after the driver stops pushing on the windshield washer button. But they also found they could disable some security aspects of the car’s networks, in some cases because automakers took shortcuts or didn’t fully follow security protocols. If you could embed malware, researchers found it could erase itself after a crash.

The second paper showed how hacks could reach the car wirelessly. General Motors’ OnStar telematics service has a feature, stolen car slowdown, that gradually slows the car if it’s being driven by a thief. The OnStar-to-car link is encrypted and secure, OnStar says. But ifif  it were compromised, imagine sending a command that worked the opposite way and doubled the speed of the car while the driver — an investigative journalist who just got an Army four-star general fired — was behind the wheel, and fired off the airbags before the car crashed so that they had no lifesaving value.

Charlie Miller’s talk on car security finally finds a home at Def Con 21

Need more? Charlie Miller, a security engineer for Twitter who was said to be the first to hack the Apple iPhone and Android G1, will give a talk on security shortcomings of cars at Def Con 21, which runs August 1-3 in Las Vegas at the Rio Hotel. Conspiracists will love this: Miller says his talk was originally rejected by the Black Hat conference. This is the abstract:

Automotive computers, or Electronic Control Units (ECU), were originally introduced to help with fuel efficiency and emissions problems of the 1970s but evolved into integral parts of in-car entertainment, safety controls, and enhanced automotive functionality. This presentation will examine some controls in two modern automobiles from a security researcher’s point of view. We will first cover the requisite tools and software needed to analyze a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus. Secondly, we will demo software to show how data can be read and written to the CAN bus. Then we will show how certain proprietary messages can be replayed by a device hooked up to an OBD-II connection to perform critical car functionality, such as braking and steering. Finally, we’ll discuss aspects of reading and modifying the firmware of ECUs installed in today’s modern automobile.

In the video below, Miller takes control of a car’s steering wheel remotely.

Why the conspiracy theorists keyed on Michael Hastings’ death

Hastings, 33, died in a “fiery” crash in Los Angeles this spring. He wrote articles that hurt military bigwigs. The accident was at the unusual hour of 4 a.m. and some parts of his Mercedes-Benz C250 were found far away, which some said could be explained by an explosion (or a high-speed crash). He had just attended the premiere of Dirty Wars. He had sent a “panicky” email to BuzzFeed (he also wrote for them) that said he was onto a big story. He had just spoken to a lawyer for WikiLeaks. Need further proof it could be a conspiracy? CNN ran a piece, “Was Journalist’s Death an Accident?” and CNN is big-time.

Should you be nervous?

There’s plenty of serious research that says you should be nervous about your car being hacked, and there are several logical places to hack the car (OBD-II connector, wireless interfaces). Previously, perhaps foolheartedly, it was presumed that these interfaces couldn’t be hacked — a presumption we now know to be false. The electromechanical malfunctions of cars that allegedly wouldn’t respond to brakes and couldn’t be shut off tend to have more prosaic explanations: drivers who mistook the gas and brake pedals, carpet mats that got in the way, or drivers who don’t know you need to hold the start-stop button down to shut off the engine while the car is underway. But in the meantime, the majority of drivers get the impression some demon seed was spawned inside the car — and maybe, just maybe, we now know that there’s a chance that hackers are actually to blame.

Ford hybrids need an update (don’t say recall) to improve mpg

Ford will offer free software upgrades to improve the mileage of 2013 Ford Fusion, Ford C-Max, and Lincoln MKZ hybrids. The goal is to improve the actual fuel economy drivers get. Ford rates all three at 47 mpg in both city and highway driving, but many drivers are getting closer to 40 mpg, some even less. This is an update or software upgrade; it’s not a recall.

The software upgrade information is an oh-by-the-way mention in a press release this week, titled “Ford Further Improving On-Road Hybrid Fuel Economy and Hiring for Future, as Electrified Vehicle Share Quadruples.” Ford threw into the release a lot of the your-mileage-may-vary blah-blah-blah. Bottom line is that customers and reviewers weren’t getting 47 mpg on the Fusion, MKZ or or C-Max hybrids. Since both city and highway ratings are 47 mpg, no matter what kind of driving you do on the current tank of fuel, it’s easy to see how you stand with the built-in fuel economy readout.

With the Ford Fusion Hybrid, Consumer Reports said it got 39 mpg, 17% worse than Ford’s EPA rating. When I test drove a Fusion hybrid recently for a week, I measured 41 mpg. I did see mileage on par with Ford’s 47 mpg claim in highway driving especially when using Ford’s adaptive cruise control, which accelerates and brakes less energetically than most drivers do.

Sorry, Ford, it’s not quite like a cellphone upgrade

President Raj Nair, Ford’s group VP for global product development, said, “Our commitment to deliver great fuel economy in our cars, utilities and trucks is a key reason we are seeing strong growth in coastal markets and with import buyers.”

In a meeting with reporters, Nair added, “I think all hybrids have experienced increased [fuel economy] variability. This will help that. [This is] just like you get upgrades on your cellphone or on your apps.”

Naj is correct that Ford doesn’t need to install new components or make other hardware tweaks. But this is an upgrade that requires you to make an appointment, take your car to the Ford or Lincoln dealer, and wait while the upgrade software is installed. In other words, it’s a hassle, and visiting your car dealer is not a favorite way to spend the morning. With a smartphone or PC, your just connect online and the upgrade happens in a couple of minutes.

When Ford decided to upgrade the MyFord Touch infotainment interface in 2011 for better usability and legibility, owners got an 8GB USB key in the mail. They could run the update themselves or go to the Ford or Lincoln dealer to have it done for them.

Live by high mpg, die by high mpg

Ford isn’t the only automaker chastened by high mpg claims. In late 2012, Hyundai and Kia had to restate the fuel economy ratings for a third of the 2.7 million cars in the 2011-2013 model years. Most embarrassingly, Hyundai ran a marketing campaign and gave out buttons and bumper stickers reading “40,” referring to the EPA highway rating Hyundai reported for cars including the high-volume Hyundai Sonata, Hyundai Elantra, and Hyundai Accent. The highway mileage on these models wasn’t the nice round 40 of Hyundai’s initial testing, and some models were further below their claimed EPA ratings.

Hyundai’s make-good was to offer a debit card for the difference in initial and restated mpg ratings, based on local gas prices and miles driven. Adding a 15% we’re-sorry bonus, an owner whose mpg fell 1 mpg short gets about $100 for every 15,000 miles driven.

Why Ford gets dinged for mpg and MyFord Touch

If Ford seems like it’s getting a disproportionate amount of bad publicity for its hybrids and infotainment systems, there’s a reason: Ford is pushing harder than any other US automaker to redefine the car and the driving experience, especially in making entertainment and navigation useful and affordable. Ford Sync and MyFord Touch are tougher to learn than Ford engineers believe, but once you’re past the learning curve, no US automaker offers more good stuff such as two USB jacks and free emergency crash notification using your cellphone.

With hybrids, it’s easy to get low mileage because hybrids demand good driving habits, in particular steady starts and light braking. Brake too hard or too late and the regeneration system can’t turn as much kinetic (moving) energy into power in the battery.

2014 Mercedes S-Class review: The best, most technologically advanced car you will ever drive

The 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class combines radar, cameras, and hundreds of LED lamps to provide a car that is a dream to drive, über-safe for occupants, and able to avoid jaywalking pedestrians and crossing traffic that darts in your path. Add streaming entertainment delivered through the car’s integrated 3G telematics system delivered to four LCD displays, and you have the world’s finest premium luxury sedan. The privilege of owning will cost you just under $100,000, more if you want options such as the hot stone massage seats, aromatherapy climate control, and the 24-speaker Burmester audio upgrade. Who says those stolid Germans don’t know a thing or two about the luxe life?

The bottom line is that the Mercedes-Benz S-Class is not just the best premium luxury sedan on the market today, it is the best car you are ever likely to drive.

Among Audi, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz, the mantle of best luxury car typically goes to whoever shipped most recently. That would be Mercedes with the sixth-generation S-Class arriving in September. Mercedes piled on so many new technical features that it’s not a close decision. In a car with so much tech, the biggest challenge, no surprise, is making the richness of features readily accessible to the driver and passengers. On the ease-of-use front, I believe the wizards of Stuttgart are delivering a work in progress and they’ll have to take their lumps from consumer magazines who expect a car with 100 microprocessors to be fully usable the first time you set foot in the cockpit.

Maximum driver assistance: Self-driving for 15 seconds

The optional driver assistance package is a must-have if you love tech and advanced cars. It’s the heart of what Mercedes calls Intelligent Drive. For the same price ($2,800) as adaptive cruise control was a decade ago, you now get a networked sensor array of radars and cameras for front, side, and rear assistance that avoids collisions and even drives the car for brief periods. Naturally there’s the core functionality of stop-and-go adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, and lane departure warning. That’s the starting point. (Read: What is adaptive cruise control, and how does it work?)

The pair of optical cameras mounted a half-foot apart in the windshield mirror housing provide 3D vision to augment Mercedes’ narrow-beam long range radar (out to 200 meters or 1,640 feet, equal to 18 seconds at 60 mph) and medium range wide-angle radar (200 meters or 650 feet). (Subaru also uses optical cameras for adaptive cruise control and pedestrian safety.) The 3D shaping of the optical cameras works to about 50 meters or 160 feet and can see in monovision to 500 meters or 1,640 feet. The 3D camera lets the car decide whether to key on lane markings or the car in front, and does a better job of detecting and traffic that darts across the front of the car. Here’s how Intelligent Drive saves you as well as pedestrians and wayward traffic:

Adaptive cruise with steering assist and stop & go pilot

In heavy traffic in stop & go mode up to 60 kph (37 mph), the sensor combo decides whether to track the lane markings or the car in front. On a crowded highway the camera might not always see the pavement markings.

Active lane keeping assist

Not only does the car warn if you’re about to cross over a lane by steering wheel vibration (no noisy beeps), it senses if the adjacent lane is occupied. If so, the front wheel opposite the hazard is lightly braked to pivot the car back into lane. On my test drive, the car does better than that: It keeps the big Benz centered in the lane, although with the lightest touch on the electric power steering, you’re in control. At highway speeds, adaptive cruise plus lane keeping assist equals a self-driving car. Mercedes knows this and limits you to about 10 seconds of hands-off driving, issues a warning (a chime and an instrument panel icon of blood red hands gripping the wheel) and five seconds later ACC deactivates. So long as you keep the lightest touch on the wheel, the car seems happy. It will handle curves of up to 15 degrees.

Brake Assist Plus with cross traffic assist, Pre-Safe Brake with pedestrian detection, Pre-Safe Plus

Brake Assist Plus watches for crossing traffic (a car that ran a stop sign) or an oncoming car veers into your lane; it warns you with audiovisual signals, and once you apply the brakes, the car adds braking pressure because too many drivers don’t brake hard enough. Pre-Safe Brake detects pedestrians and stopped cars and applies the brakes, hard. Up to 50 kph or 31 mph, there will be no collision, Mercedes says, and up to 72 kph or 45 mph the collision will at least be mitigated.

I sat in on a series of tests with a Mercedes driver at the wheel; a pedestrian dummy crossed in front and the car slammed to a safe stop. In another test, a car swerved a few feet into our lane and our car moved to the right, but still in the travel lane (photo right). With Pre-Safe Plus, if the car’s rear-facing radar detects a likely rear-end collision, it snugs the seat belts tight and if the car is standing still locks the brakes; on Benzes sold outside the US, the hazard lamps flash at high frequency.

Active parking assist

The car detects an open parking space suitable for parallel or back-in (mall) parking. Once you put the car in reverse, it automatically backs you in to the space. It can’t park head in, yet, but Mercedes notes back-in parking reduces backing out collisions when you’re done shopping.

BMW i3: Cheap, mass-produced carbon fiber cars finally come of age

The just-announced BMW i3 could be a breakthrough for carbon fiber production as well as for electric drive. Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) provides the weight reduction that effectively neutralizes the heft of the car’s battery pack. To make it happen, BMW teamed up with Boeing for expertise on carbon fiber manufacturing. As in the early days of the industrial revolution, BMW even sited one of the carbon fiber textile facilities near a stream for power. The result is a four-passenger car that can go 100 miles on a charge or accelerate to 60 mph in less than 7 seconds, yet weigh only 2,700 pounds (1224 kg).

BMW will be producing the first passenger car using significant amounts of carbon fiber in a vehicle designed for production of tens of thousands of units a year with no significant cost premium (over what BMW already gets for being BMW). Many automakers including BMW have made roof or hood panels from carbon fiber, mostly for limited production performance models. There are also million-dollar McLarens and Lamborghinis with CFRP bodies. Here, all the body panels are of carbon fiber and the car costs less than $50,000.

“With the BMW i3, we get a reduction of 250-350 kilos [550-770 pounds] from carbon fiber,” says Daniel Schafter, head of production of Concept BMW I, “and that more or less compensates for the weight of the battery.”

BMW’s multi-location carbon fiber production

One of BMW’s goals was to make lifecycle energy costs be less than for a traditional vehicle. Rather than farm out the carbon fiber R&D and production to others, BMW opted to retain control, much as earlier automakers started with shiploads of iron ore rather than prestamped body panels from a parts supplier. BMW and SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers set up a new factory in Moses Lake, WA. If not technically sited directly on an Industrial Revolution stream with a water wheel driving a long shaft, the Moses Lake plant draws from utilities making heavy use of hydro power.

The factory takes a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor created in Otake, Japan, by another JV involving Mitsubishi Rayon (MRC) and SGL Group. Moses Lake turns the polyacrylic fibers into carbon fibers. The PAN filaments are baked at 450 degrees, turning golden brown then black. Then they’re carbonized in two more oven steps, at 1,300 degrees and 2,550 degrees. Each step is controlled to prevent the filaments from catching fire or burning; inert nitrogen gas is injected into the carbonization ovens.

The next step turns them into lightweight carbon fiber fabrics in Wackersdorf, Germany, about 100 miles from BMW’s Munich headquarters. Here, they resemble fabrics, and BMW has actually joined Germany’s textile makers alliance. There, they go to a BMW plant in Landshut, Germany for further processing, and finally, they wind up in Leipzig in eastern Germany, where the CFRP parts are finished and the i3 is assembled along with BMW’s 1 Series sedan and X1 SUV. The first cars go to the European market; the US gets in on a second wave, starting spring 2014.

Mini Retro Popcorn Maker

Everyone loves sitting down to a good movie, especially when you want to unwind after a particularly difficult day at work. The thing is, movies do seem to be missing something whenever it lacks some popcorn as well as fizzy drinks on the side. Should you have invested a fair amount of money into your home theater system already, why not go the extra mile and top it up with the £34.99 Mini Retro Popcorn Maker?



This is a popcorn maker that will definitely roll back the years with its form factor, making you feel like you were a little kid all over again. With it, you are able to churn out mountains of healthy air-popped popcorn, all with a touch of 50s nostalgia. Not only that, once you are done making your very own popcorn, cleaning it up is a snap, coming in a fuss-free and easy to clean design. Sporting sleek looks with a classic red, white and chrome finish, it is definitely one kitchen appliance that you would not mind displaying on your tabletop.

Razer Naga MMO gaming mouse gets a refresh

Just what do you do when you happen to be at the pinnacle of your game? Why, you improve of course – remaining at the same place would just ensure that your competitors will catch up with you and eventually take over the coveted top spot that you used to occupy. Well, the Razer Naga MMO gaming mouse has been pretty much the best gaming mouse for the MMO genre to date, and also the best selling one, too, but even the best needs a kick in the butt once in a while, and that is exactly what Razer has done by offering the Razer Naga MMO gaming mouse 2014 edition.



This all new Razer Naga will boast of enhanced ergonomics, a re-designed mechanical thumb grid as well as a revolutionary in-game MMO configurator which should be able to make sure that your MMO gaming experience will never be the same again. For starters, its iconic 12-button thumb grid will now come outfitted with mechanical switches for increased tactility, speed and actuation assurance. Each of the buttons on the thumb grid will stand out in a more pronounced way than before, making it possible to blind-find them so that gamers can execute commands in a jiffy. Apart from that, its ergonomic form factor has also been updated, delivering a broader shape so that your hand will feel more comfortable holding it.

Both the fourth and fifth finger rests will now come with a gentler down-slope in order to promote better grip while reducing fatigue over an extended period of play. Not only that, Razer’s latest Naga will also boast of a tilt-click scroll wheel which can click in and out as well as left and right, giving gamers even more buttons than before at their disposal. This is definitely a nice bump from the 2009 predecessor, and if you are interested in upping your game, then the asking price of $79.99 for this puppy should not deter you, right?

Kick provides versatile lighting for your photography needs

One of the most important things about photography is having the right light. Even with the best camera, your pictures will turn out terrible if you have poor lighting. On the other hand, perfect lighting can make even a snapshot from your phone look great. The obvious solution is to invest in a nice flash, but what if you need something other than just white light flashed at your subject? Sometimes you need a device that can provide a range of different colors, and until now, that’s been very difficult to come across.

The Kick is probably one of the most versatile lights that I’ve come across. Using rows of LEDs, you’re able to shine white light onto your subject, just as you would with a regular flash. However, once you’ve paired it with a smartphone, you’re able to do so much more. First, you can simply change the temperature of the light by using some of the presets in the app. Want to create a specific mood with different colors? You can go into the color picker and select virtually any color that you want to shine.

If video is your thing, the Kick has plenty to offer there, as well. Let’s say that you have a character that’s sitting by a fire. Obviously, you’ll want to see the effect of the fire’s light on the person and the room. You can actually load up footage of a fire, and it will shine light accordingly. Another example used was flashing lighting during a thunderstorm. The possibilities are endless. If you need to add some color to your photos and video, you can pick one of these up for $179.

Jumpshot USB Drive – Your PC Fixing Friend

I can’t tell you how many times my family turns to me in order to fix their computer woes. It’s not that I’m a computer expert, it’s just that I know slightly more than any of them, so it looks like I’m a genius. I’m usually only successful about 50% of the time… after which I then quickly become the go-to girl for which replacement computer to buy. It sure would be nice to have a few tricks up my sleeve, or better yet, bestow upon them the ability to fix a few things themselves.

Check out the Jumpshot USB Drive, a truly plug and play option for you, or your computer-challanged friends and relatives. The Jumpstart USB Drive is simply inserted into an available USB port on the ailing PC and will instantly begin removing viruses, malware, spyware, trojans, and most of the other garbage that mucks up your precious PC, while you were failing to practice “safe-surfing” . While Jumpshot works its magic, a web browser pops up, entertaining the user while Jumpshot is working to de-clutter, disinfect and improve the performance of the machine. Seriously? I think I’m in love.

This adorable little USB packs a lot of features, including the ability to tweak your settings to improve performance, examine your hardware in order to detect failures, meter your internet speed and detect insecure WiFi connections. The Jumpshot USB can also help keep your online proclivities private and keep you informed of critical events. So get one and become the computer wizard your friends and family think you are, or buy several as gifts, and get them all to leave you the hell alone. Your choice, for under 30 bucks

With these autonomous cars, who needs you to drive?

The BMW Track Trainer is a robot car: a fully autonomous automobile capable of racing the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in California's Monterey County (or any other track it's been programmed to run) at the limit of traction, mere seconds off the time a professional would run in the same model.

BMW uses it to train drivers by showing them how the perfect racing line feels from the driver's seat and by providing real-time feedback, with corrections, once they decide to take over the controls themselves.

BMW

Engineers at BMW are deploying cellular networks to link cars to smartphones and data sources in the cloud.

But the car is also a showcase for BMW's Driver Assistance System, a series of radar and GPS sensors that work in concert with computer-operated steering, brake and power systems to achieve what BMW describes as "highly autonomous driving."

Click here to get an inside look at Silicon Valley's automotive innovations.

Since 1978, when microprocessors were first installed in the trip odometer of a Cadillac Seville, the number of chips in the average automobile has grown such that cars now contain anywhere from 50 to 200 processors and a mile of wiring. The increasing prevalence of hybrid and electric cars is accelerating that trend; the plug-in electric Chevrolet Volt, for example, requires 10 million lines of code, 2 million more than it takes to run a Boeing 787.

BMW

BMW's Group Technology Office wants to "open the car as a platform for applications."

So carmakers are coming to Silicon Valley, where code is king.

Mercedes-Benz opened a technology center here in 1995, BMW in 1998, Volkswagen in 1998, Toyota in 2001, General Motors in 2007 and Renault-Nissan in the past year — all in large part to tap the skills of the designers and developers and engineers and who have so ably sustained Google, Apple and Facebook.

BMW

BMW uses its Track Trainer, a self-driving sedan, to teach racers how to make optimal turns and engineers how to make optimal drive systems.
Exactly how I felt about all this is something I was chewing on when the Track Trainer crested the hill that leads into Laguna Seca's infamous "corkscrew." I had to trust that this robot racecar would remember how to negotiate one of the trickiest and most dangerous corners in the world, a hard left followed immediately by a hard right on a stretch of track that drops five and a half stories in 450 feet.Include homegrown start-ups Tesla Motors, Mission Motors and the autonomous car division at Google itself, and the result is a sort of Detroit West, where California engineers continue to devise new ways to make powerful, affordable, easy-to-use computers — but now they also devise new ways to make them move very, very fast.

Cresting the hill, the car managed not to panic and brake too soon, as humans tend to do. In fact, as we plunged into the turn, I thought for one terrifying moment that the car wasn't going to brake at all — until it did, with perfect timing.

As we safely exited, I realized I'd just hitched a brief ride into the future.

Computer processors regularly take control of the braking, steering and acceleration in many current high-end production models — such as when a stability-control system prevents drivers from spinning out on a wet road — and these same high-end cars are also increasingly encrusted with sensors (cameras, radar, LIDAR, infrared, ultrasonic) that gather data to feed those processors. The car will eventually know where it is and where it is going, and perhaps even how it will get there.

Within a few years, differential GPS, which uses fixed ground stations to correct inaccuracies in satellite signals, will allow a car to reliably determine its location to within a few inches.

Put these together, and pretty soon you have a Track Trainer that requires no engineer riding shotgun. It will be parked in your garage.

Cars are not especially good at learning right now, but engineers are working on that too.

Rob Passaro has worked at BMW's Group Technology Office in Silicon Valley since it opened in 1998, when the auto industry's idea of an IT revolution was a car that could play MP3s.

General Motors

General Motors' EN-V, built on a modified Segway chassis, would be able to cooperate autonomously with other EN-Vs and move in swarms.

When I met him in the "office's" spotless garage, though, he quickly explained that his primary mission was to "open the car as a platform for applications." Cars are the most thoroughly computerized machines most of us will ever buy, he said, but unlike phones or laptops, they are nearly impossible to upgrade — you pay your money and then drive the thing unchanged until it's scrapped.

But connect a car to the Internet, and the possibilities become more interesting.

Eventually, if the Silicon Valley engineers have their way, the cars will pass through the valley of distraction and into the realm of total autonomy — and then distraction will be exactly what we seek as we while away the commute in our idiotproof pleasure domes.

Johann Jungwirth, who directs Mercedes' own Silicon Valley outpost, says the Web has just begun invading the cockpit. Soon, social-networking applications will allow drivers to communicate with one another as if chatting online.

Then comes augmented reality: information about the landscape ahead being projected into the driver's field of vision, like an annotated windshield. The road itself could become another layer of entertainment.