The Tesla Roadster electrifies Top Gear

"Say good-bye to dial-up, and say hello to the era of broadband motoring." Everyone's favorite English auto pundit never fails to disappoint, and with lines like that one, Jezza's review of the famed Tesla Roadster is no exception. It's safe to say most people know about the Tesla, but for the few people who have been sitting under a rock for the past two years, its worth giving a bit of info.

The Tesla Roadster is an all electric sports car. The brainchild of a former Silicon Valley millionaire, Tesla Motors (who plan to put out an all electric sedan as well) has made their roadster a nice combination of top-of-the-line electric car technology, and a quality off-the-shelf body from a Lotus Elise.

The combination is potent in a straight line, where its merits as an all electric car means it has maximum torque all the time. However, it lacks finesse in the corners, where the batteries weight it down. Is this car the future of motoring? Jeremy Clarkson and the boys over at Top Gear seem to think there is at least a chance that is true (though I would check out James May's look at the Honda FCX Clarity for the real future of automobiles.) Check out the video below.

writing for IUplanet.com and Stangplanet.com

So after years toiling in obscurity, im not going to be... continuing to toil in obscurity. I'm now writing for two websites, www.iuplanet.com which is a forum and news site for anything and everything related to Indiana University (where i go to school) and www.stangplanet.com which is another forum and news site from the same parent company, except its focus is on the Ford Mustang and its enthusiasts. I think this will be a good opportunity for me, and though very few people are reading this, hopefully the handful that do will check out both those sites because they would love your traffic. This job came relatively out of nowhere for me, and though i have only written a few stories for Stangplanet (where i will be doing the majority of my work) it has inspried me to start updating this blog again, so with any luck i will motivate myself and more posts will come after this one

-jig

Hello, i'm a Mac, and i'm a PC... and i dont care

Im sure everyone has heard of those great 'Get a Mac' ads that Apple puts out to tout its computers and operating system as better than PCs. If you havn't seen them heres a link. The ads are funny, brilliantly simple, and extremely well made, however, i have one huge beef: the ads don't highlight the features of the Mac, they just attack every possible aspect of the PCs as possible. I really just get pissed every time i see them- even though they make me laugh. One of the current ads that i saw as a banner ad on a website (apple has cleverly had the ad use the top and side banners to make the ad better) where PC gets a news ticker to show great news about his new Vista OS. We proceed to see several Vista bashing pieces of news on the ticker, which upsets PC. Mac sits there smugly, and the ad then fades to a picture of an imac. I do own a PC, and i love Macs too (if it weren't for their price i would have one probably too) however these ads make me hate the people at Apple. Every other computer companies adds highlight the computers features, whereas the best highlight we see in a 'Get a Mac' ad is Mac calmly and smugly proclaiming "everything kind of just works in a mac" when we discover a flaw in PC in one of the ads. Not only is that not always true, but it is really just a mean stab at PCs and at less informed PC owners who may begin to believe they are using inferior machines and wasted money, even though they are encountering none of the problems that John Hodgman (who plays Mac) encounters. These less informed computer users are doing everything they need to do on their PCs and do it fine, just the same as if they had a Mac, yet these ads try to trick them into thinking everything is wrong. YES, vista has its issues- a lot of issues, but the large majority of those issues are never causing hindrance to the average PC users- the problems are occurring for hard core computer users and programmers- yet the ads make it seem like they are. Yes, ads can attack their competitors, and companies do all the time, but the extent that Apple does it in their ads is almost sickening, and even though i like Macs, it makes me want to avoid buying one.

-Jig


I searched the web too see if anyone agreed, and i did find one reputable source who agreed with me, his last sentence sums up my opinion well:
"isn't smug superiority (no matter how affable and casually dressed) a bit off-putting as a brand strategy?"
link:
http://www.slate.com/id/2143810/

3G, 4G, 3 Fish, Blue Fish

Everyone has cell phones, and almost everyone uses the internet on their cell phone, but until last weeks unveiling of the iphone 3G everyone has become familiarized with 3G, at least in name only. The question is, what on earth is 3G? I'm glad you asked, because i just happen to know, and in a nutshell, 3G is a series of wireless communications standards that bring broadband speed internet to cell phones and the like. Right now most networks have a 3G infrastructure- with Sprint having the fastest speeds, as they are on their Revision-A (Rev-A) with Verizon not far behind, and in third in terms of 3G speed and coverage, comes AT&T. 3G is a revolution in cell phones and the internet in general, allowing speeds unheard of- and anywhere in the nation. Being able to have broadband speeds anywhere where your cell phone has reception is in my opinion one of the greatest technological leaps of the past 5 years. There is one more question though: what is next? The answer: 4G- the fourth generation of wireless internet communications, and though it is still in development, all the info you could want is here:
Wikipedia- 4G

trust your instincts

Its summer, and as usual, ive had a summer obsession- the Samsung Instinct. This is a brilliant phone for sprint, and my obsessing over it has made me realize i should change this into a tech blog- with a bit of automotive news in there- of some sort (for the zero people who read it.) My goal is to focus on the tech i enjoy, which ranges from cell phones to video games to HDTV technology and everything in between. I want to make this into a real blog posting several times a day, but that probably wont happen, anyway- if anyone is reading this, check out www.nowisgood.com - its Sprints Instinct site, and it will give you a brief overview of the phone. all the tech sites have given short reviews already, i suggest checking out the CNET.com review

-Jig

bored during break

its spring break, and im back home from college. there is no one else home pretty much, so im incredibly bored...