If you haven’t heard about India’s Tata Motor Company, then I’ll give you the skinny:  they are  releasing  a 100,000 rupee car – that’s US$2500, brand spanking new. Unveiled last night, the Tata NANO, will bring motoring within the reach of millions when it is launched in India later in 2008. It doesn’t have any of the modern luxuries like GPS, Air Conditioning, or even a radio, but it gets around 60 miles to the gallon.

I know what i’m getting next Christmas – insurance.

The above photo may be the work of a PS junkie or it may just be the real thing. In any case, the rumor mill is abuzz surrounding Macworld. This time around it’s all coming back to the purported multi-touch trackpad that was reported on some random websites in the summer. I guess that the iPhone technology is going to change the Mac laptop forever – that’s the rumor anyway. There’s also some talk going around about an external optical drive that will accompany the new sub-notebook.

personally, i can’t wait.

The way I see it, if you’re going to brave the freezing temperatures while climbing a steep hill for some sledding action, why not do it in style? Like Ferrari, Porsche must have realized there’s not a lot of money to be made selling their low-priced sports cars, so marketing their brand name and design prowess was probably the only way the company could pay the bills.

The sled itself has a very aerodynamic design, with metal runners and an actual suspension system on the front, steerable skid. There’s even a horn to make sure other riders get out the way when you’re careening down the hill. And while you might think that’s frivolous, if you hit someone and they see you’re wealthy enough to be riding a Porsche sled, you can guarantee there’ll be an expensive lawsuit on your hands for all their pain and suffering.

-Thanks OGizmo for the info

Verizon is enticing us (at least me) with four sweet new phones: the Juke, Pearl, Venus, and Voyager.
The Samsung Juke "flick" phone has 2GB of built-in storage, A2DP (which shows up in all these phones) and a VGA camera.
Verizon’s BlackBerry Pearl comes with EV-DO and a 3.5mm minijack, and the VZ Navigator service..
The Venus slider has a dual screen setup, with contextual touch controls and a 2 megapixel sensor with a microSD slot for up to 8GB of expansion.
The Voyager (pictured) has everything from a touchscreen on the outside, and a second screen on the clamshell interior, facing a full QWERTY keyboard. Add V CAST Mobile T, a microSD slot and 2 megapixel camera.

All of these are supposed to be out by Thanksgiving, but no word on prices.

Planar Systems has introduced its transparent and segment electroluminescent (EL) displays. The TASEL technology removes constraints imposed by flat, rectangular, non-transparent displays.

“Our innovative electroluminescent technology enables glass displays to be curved into different shapes and configurations, opening up markets with new OEM customers,” said Doug Barnes, general manager and vice president of the industrial business unit, Planar Systems. “Product designers seem inspired by this breakthrough to re-imagine how they incorporate displays into projects.”

Transparent displays are ideal for markets in which design aesthetics are a crucial component in communicating product innovation and quality.