Rinspeed’s Zero-Emission World Debut at the Geneva Motor Show - a Green “Fish” with Q-Factor

Thirty years after the movie thriller ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ hit the silver screen “sQuba” is the first car that can actually ‘fly’ under water.
“Dive it again, James!” If the situation gets too hot for the secret agent he’ll go underground - or under water. So demonstrated impressively by Roger Moore in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me” in 1977 when he dove below the waves in a sleek vehicle that moments before seemed to be an ordinary car. The only problem: The scene never really took place; it was an animation.

With the “sQuba,” the world’s first real submersible car, the movie fake now becomes reality for visitors of the Geneva Motor Show (March 6th - 16th, 2008). Rinspeed boss Frank M. Rinderknecht (52) is known for his extraordinary automotive creations. The acknowledged James Bond enthusiast and Swiss automobile visionary kept revisiting this scene in his mind over and over: “For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly under water. Now we have made this dream come true.”

And it is this submerged stabile flight at a depth of 10 meters that sets the “sQuba” apart from military vehicles. While the latter can go under water, they are limited to driving slowly over the submerged ground. Rinderknecht: “It is undoubtedly not an easy task to make a car watertight and pressure resistant enough to be maneuverable under water. The real challenge however was to create a submersible car that moves like a fish in water.”

It also had to be a sports car that was converted into a diving dream in the facilities of Swiss engineering specialist Esoro. In a first step the combustion engine was removed and replaced by several electric motors. Three motors are located in the rear. One provides propulsion on land, the other two drive the screws for underwater motoring. They are supported by two powerful Seabob jet drives in the front, which ‘breathe’ through special rotating louvers from HS Genion (for opening and closing the water intake). The rotating outlet jets were designed to be extremely light yet twist resistant by using high-tech nano materials, so-called Carbon Nano Tubes.

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More : http://www.rinspeed.com/pages/cars/squba/pre-squba.htm

Voz Sports unveils Bluetooth Frequency watch, Multy LYNK helmet

Bluetooth watches and Bluetooth helmets — been there, done that on both points. Still, Voz Sports is keeping our attention with its attention to detail on the Multy LYNK helmet and Sports Frequency wristwatch (shown after the jump). As for the latter, you can expect a black (2GB) or red (1GB) face, Bluetooth v1.2, a waterproof casing, included earbuds and USB 2.0 connectivity. Checking out the headgear, you’ll likely appreciate the “voice-activated, wireless two-way radio communication via 14 FRS channels with 38 privacy codes,” Bluetooth v1.2, its NOAA weather receiver, noise-canceling microphone, waterproof stereo speakers and AA battery operation. Each device is set to ship on April 1 (no joke!) for $249.95 and $299.95, respectively.

Nokia’s 7900 Crystal Prism could be worse

Eww, it’s back. Nokia’s 7900 Crystal Prism is now really, extra-super official with a scheduled Q1 2008 launch for €375 (before taxes and subsidies). Besides sporting a slight redesign from that earlier pic, we now know that the 7900 packs WCDMA 2100/850 in addition to those quad-GSM bands, 2-inch OLED, and 2 megapixel CMOS camera. But really, this one’s all about the look created by designer Frédérique Daubal. Yeah, us neither. “Renowned” enough for Nokia though, just not the 9.4 million pages of Wikipedia. See her “dress for tired people” after the break to see where this could have gone.

Nikon’s Coolpix L18 for 8 megapixel point and shooting

Last up for Nikon this morning is their L18 compact point and shoot camera. Pretty decent, but standard specs here: 8 megapixel sensor, 3x Zoom-NIKKOR lens, 3.0-inch LCD, anti-shake AE (adjusts shutter speeds and ISO), face detection, and automatic red-eye correction. It also boasts a “TV quality” movie mode which we’re assuming means VGA. Available this March for $140 in ruby red or navy blue.

Nikon announces D60 and lenses to boot

Okay, this Nikon DSLR isn’t full-frame either, but their new low-ender is now (officially) the D60, which enters the scene with a 10.2 megapixel sensor, 2.5-inch LCD (nope, not live-view), SDHC, vibration sensor cleaning, and an even smaller body than the D40x. Nikon claims February (but also March) shipment, with no price yet given.

Chinavasion’s do-it-all handheld doubles as solar charger

Yeah, we’ve seen solar chargers crammed into some fairly interesting places, and the latest questionable call comes from who else but Chinavasion. The CVEAB-S828-2 handheld features 2GB of internal memory, a media player, 3.5-inch display, integrated LED flashlight (saywha?) and of course, pre-installed emulators for NES and Game Boy titles. Beyond all that, users can crack this bad boy open, lay it out to bake, and watch it magically recharge its own batteries courtesy of the internal solar panels. And if for whatever reason that’s still not enough to draw you in, it can also recharge other gizmos attached via USB when parked under the sunlight. Still, we wouldn’t believe for a minute that this thing will actually work precisely as advertised, but those with oodles of faith can take the plunge for $123.32.

Slew of Sony VAIO products get minor spec bumps

It’s that time again boys and girls — the time when Sony pours out enough VAIO updates all at once that your head starts throbbing uncontrollably. Without further ado, we’ll start by tackling the Type T (pictured), which gets upgraded to a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, goes from 1GB to 2GB of RAM and now comes in a bevy of swank designs. Moving on, we’ve got the 17-inch Type A, which now sports one of those speedy new Penryn chips (exact model apparently depends on how you CTO it) but otherwise remains similar to the prior iteration. Lastly, we find that the outfit’s adorable TP1 now houses a Core 2 Duo T8100 CPU, a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M and a Blu-ray burner to boot. For all the nitty-gritty, put on your patience cap and wade through the links below, but be forewarned, it’s a jungle down there.

Knight Rider case mod does K.I.T.T. proud

Not everyone can afford to buy their own K.I.T.T. or K.I.T.T clone off eBay, but that doesn't mean you can't show your Knight Rider affection in other entirely non-subtle ways, as evidenced by this elaborate PC case mod by Thomas Fan (which we can only assume is not an alias for the 'Hoff himself). As you can see in the video after the break, the red LEDs faithfully mimic K.I.T.T.'s faint glimmer of intelligence and, while you can't carry on a conversation with it, you can at least make believe thanks to some familiar start-up and shutdown sounds. Sadly, Thomas hasn't provided any plans for building you own, though we're guessing that when it comes to something like Knight Rider, most fans would prefer to put their own personal touch on things anyway.

DS-controlled robot works six different ways

Sure, we've seen DS bots before, but some youngsters in France have taken the whole control issue to the "next level." Apparently, six engineering students decided to pull a fast one on a Pekee Robot (an open, modular, Roomba-like bot) which was collecting dust, and mainline DS controls into its tiny brain. The end result is a multi-use control rig run based entirely on Nintendo's portable console, offering wireless command of the bot with the D-pad, touchscreen, motion sensors, and stylus strokes, as well as a target mode modeled after Super Mario 64 DS, and voice commands via the system's mic. You can watch the video after the break to see the little guy in action, but you might want to avert your gaze when he becomes self-aware, determines humans are inefficient, and goes on a kill-crazy rampage.

HP Pavilion tx2000 tablet goes on sale

It's a little late, but it looks like the HP is finally ready to take your money and hand over a tx2000 tablet. Nothing really new to report specs- or price-wise: $1,299 buys you a 2.1GHz AMD Turion, 2GB of RAM, GeForce Go 6150, 160GB disk, LightScribe dual-layer burner and a fingerprint reader, while $2,311 bumps you up to a 2.2GHz Turion, 250GB disk, Verizon 3G ExpressCard, and Vista Ultimate. And, of course, that 12.1-inch touchscreen that "has a digitizer!" Not a bad deal, actually -- anyone going to take the plunge?