Categories
It isn’t everyday that you see a beautiful black Audi R8 V10 on the road. But it happens. What never happens is a guy driving up to you in an Audi R8 V10 and walking up to you and handing you the keys. For keeps. That was probably true before a couple weeks ago, but we can’t say that is the case anymore. According to New Zealand’s Independent Online, an unknown businessman has literally given the keys to his R8 to a pair of men he had never met before because he had a dream telling him to take the vehicle to Table Mountain in South Africa.
New York Times and Automobile contributor Ezra Dyer may have found the perfect German exotic for New England winters: the Audi R8. True, the R8 is pretty low to the ground, but it also makes good use of Audi’s superb Quattro all-wheel drive system and thanks to its mid-engine layout much of the weight sits over the rear wheels. But even the best AWD is useless when providing spin for four summer tires, so the snow white model Dyer was piloting around the northeast winter wonderland also had four of the widest winter tires you can find.
McDonald’s promised that it would be make its in-restaurant WiFi service available for free in “mid-January” and, right on cue, it’s now kicked things open to everyone with a laptop and a fast food craving starting today, January 15th. That service previously cost customers $2.95 for two hours of use, and it’s already available at 11,500 of the company’s 14,000 locations. Incidentally, that also makes McDonald’s one of the largest providers of WiFi hotspots (free or otherwise) in the United States, with the company itself claiming that no less than 16% of reported WiFi hotspots in the U.S. are located at McDonald’s.
If you thought AT&T and Verizon weren’t at war already, today will change your mind. In an effort to undercut each other, both networks have dropped the prices of their unlimited voice plans, including the unlimited plans of iPhone owners (but with a caveat).
Verizon was the first to strike. Earlier today they revealed a new set of nationwide plans for unlimited talk and text. An Unlimited Talk plan now costs $69.99, a full $29 cheaper per month. Unlimited Talk and Text now costs $89.99. Family plans and low-end data plans have also been overhauled (the $19.99 3G data package no longer exists). These new prices will not impact existing customers unless they change their plans (which requires no contract extension or penalty).
It didn’t take long for AT&T to respond, though. It just announced its own price cuts, matching the price of Verizon’s unlimited voice plan ($69.99) and unlimited talk and text ($89.99). The iPhone, labeled by AT&T as a smartphone, costs $99.99 for unlimited voice and data, while texting plans remain unchanged ($20 for unlimited). And just like Verizon, AT&T customers can switch to these new plans, starting on Monday, without penalty or contract extension.
If I had $80,000 to spend on a car, I would probably go with an Audi A8. And now I have even more reason to want one since they partnered with Nvidia for their dashboard graphics.
Not satisfied by the new retail-friendly Popbox that just debuted at CES? Popcorn Hour has announced it is introducing the A-200 Networked Media tank, internally as powerful as the bigger C-200 but with the A-110’s profile and lacking a Blu-ray drive port. Priced at $179, or with optional WiFi dongle for $20 more, preorders are to begin January 18 at 10 a.m. PST, it still has a slot for an internally mounted SATA HDD, and reported support for “simple” Blu-ray menu browsing. As far as other features, they’ve listened by including NTFS write support and also confirmed a new Flash Lite menu announced for the C-200 will arrive on this box, but unfortunately Netflix support on the Popbox doesn’t appear to have worked its way into the A-200. Check for even more specs and pics after the break, for those PCH fans once again choosing between flexibility and all-in-one ease.
Categories
Nexus One Disassembled
It had to happen at some point!
If you’re looking for the definitive comparison table between the Google Nexus One, Apple iPhone 3GS, Motorola Droid, and Palm Pre, here you have it. From storage capacity to price to plans. Guess who wins (you’ll probably be wrong).
My impression is that nobody clearly wins. Each of these phones have their own strengths and weaknesses, but there’s still not a definitive one. My favorite is still the iPhone just because the user interface design and the amazing applications—it’s not the number, but when you have 126,000 apps, inevitably you are going to have some amazingly good apps in each software category. However, in terms of specs, things are not that clear at all. At the end, it’s still a matter of personal preference
After successfully helping users unfriend a total of 50,000 Facebook members, Suicide Machine is now being thwarted by the social networking site, which has enforced its own death by guillotine to block the anti-social networking tool at the IP level.
The virtual melee is now in full swing, as Facebook is issuing access-restricted errors to Suicide Machine users who attempt to wipe out their Facebook profiles. Suicide Machine was blindsided by the digital beheading, and is rallying the troops with a new message on their website as seen below.
Of course, Suicide Machine isn’t ready to roll over and play dead just yet. The site is looking for ways to circumvent the IP block so that users can once again erase their Facebook friends and memories.