News:

Apple’s “iOS in the Car” feature hasn’t been mentioned much since it was demoed onstage at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) last year, but it looks like the feature is nearly ready for public consumption. Now dubbed CarPlay, Apple’s in-car integration will be shown off in cars from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo at the Geneva International Motor Show this week, and cars compatible with the feature should begin shipping this year.

The revamped CarPlay interface shown off in Apple’s official screenshots looks similar to the images leaked by an iOS developer back in January. Though it looks different from the WWDC demo, the feature still works the same way: once you’ve connected your iPhone to a CarPlay-capable vehicle, iOS takes over the car’s display, enabling the use of features like Maps and Siri. You’ll be able to check voicemails, make calls, and dictate responses to e-mails or text. “Selected third-party audio apps” will also be able to use the dashboard display, including Spotify and iHeartRadio. We don’t yet know whether third-party developers are using a CarPlay-specific API or working directly with Apple to support the feature.

Previous reports had suggested that CarPlay would communicate with displays wirelessly using some version of Apple’s AirPlay protocol, but according to today’s release, the feature will only work with Lightning-equipped iPhones. The iPhone 5, 5C, and 5S will all work, but iPhones with the 30-pin connector, iPads, and iPod touches are apparently incompatible. Apple’s full list of CarPlay partners includes BMW Group, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki, and Toyota.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/03/ios-in-the-car-becomes-carplay-coming-to-select-dashboards-this-year/

Next-gen “Archival Disc†will squeeze 1TB of data onto optical discs

Move over, Blu-ray: Sony and Panasonic have just announced a new optical disc specification with even higher storage capacities. The new “Archival Disc” format promises to store between six and 20 times the data of a standard 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray disc. Unlike Blu-ray, this new format is intended primarily for professional, archival use. The companies first announced that they would be working on this then-nameless standard together in July of 2013.

“Optical discs have excellent properties to protect themselves against the environment, such as dust-resistance and water-resistance, and can also withstand changes in temperature and humidity when stored,” reads the release. “They also allow inter-generational compatibility between different formats, ensuring that data can continue to be read even as formats evolve. This makes them robust media for long-term storage of content.”

First-wave Archival Discs are slated to launch in summer of 2015 and will be able to hold up to 300GB of data. By comparison, the largest commonly available Blu-Ray discs use the 100GB and 128GB BDXL format. Archival Discs will apparently be double-sided, so this works out to 150GB of data per side. Future versions of the technology will improve storage density, increasing to 500GB (or 250GB per side) and 1TB (500GB per side) as the standard matures.

It’s possible that this technology could come to consumers at some point—we’ll eventually start seeing more 4K content as TVs that use the standard begin to replace their 720p and 1080p predecessors. However, streaming video services combined with new, more efficient video codecs may reduce the need for this kind of high-capacity optical disc in the home. Blu-ray salesaren’t growing fast enough to make up for the continuing decline in DVD sales, and an even more expensive, higher-capacity storage medium is unlikely to reverse this trend.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/03/next-gen-archival-disc-will-squeeze-1tb-of-data-onto-optical-discs/

In a wild ride of a day, much like the amazing acceleration of any Tesla Motors car, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission passes ‘anti-Tesla’ regulation.

It started in October last year when the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (NJMVC) proposed regulation PRN 2013-138 that would prohibit any vehicle manufacturer selling cars directly to consumers in the state. Regulations and laws of this type have been come to be known as ‘anti-Tesla’ as the Silicon Valley motor company would be the only manufacture who’s business model would be affected.

Since October Tesla has been working with the NJMVC and the Christie administration in Jersey to get this radical proposed change treated as legislation so that it gets an open and public debate.

This morning Tesla released a statement on their site calling for help. It seems that the proposal – which is sponsored by the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers (NJ CAR) – was to be debated today, something that goes against what Tesla claims was agreed. They were under the understanding that the voting on the regulation was being delayed.

The EV community mobilised. Tesla drivers and fans from New Jersey made the journey to Trenton where this was to be voted on at 2pm EDT. At Transport Evolved we shouted as loud as we could to raise awareness and live blogged the meeting.

Unfortunately, even with a turnout which left ‘standing room only’ the NJMVC passed the regulation making it the third state in the US to prohibit the sale of Teslas directly to customers.

After the vote, 14 members people in attendance signed up to speak. Comments, as relayed to us, included existing Tesla customers explaining why Tesla does car sales so much better to Jim Appleton from NJ CAR trying to explain how ‘Tesla crushes competition’.

http://transportevolved.com/2014/03/11/new-jersey-joins-texas-and-arizona-as-a-non-tesla-state/

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Geek This Week:

Aaron: Cosmos!!! AMAZING.

Gozer: PVZ: Garden Warfare, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze & TITANFALL!!!! Best Buy Gamer Club & Pebble

Aaron & Gozer: Guys Weekend!! Mashoonga 2, Heads Up & 300: Rise of an Empire

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Feedback and items of Note:

SegaNerds Tommo iPhone Case Contest

A sad day for Harold Ramis fans.

-Max

Yes, every time I finish a project. I get tons of questions, how did you do it. Photos?

So you guys get the first crack at it — my blog. Yes it’s wordpress (running on my server)

I started it by outlining my more neat projects — my Coffee Table computer builds.

This is the latest one, but you can check the first build and compare.

http://www.kazolar.com/?p=105

-Yakov

Sorry, I haven’t checked in, I’m listening but just been really busy — and haven’t caught up ( still about a month behind).

Anyways — it’s funny that I listen to your show and you mention some tech, say — huh, who’d want that and I’m laughing (on the treadmill or my car and saying, huh, I have that, or it’s already on order and coming tomorrow) — I’ll try to be brief, but you know me — I haven’t written in a while

So — leading off, Pebble Steel — have the original (kickstarter edition) — new one is awesome, noticeably more responsive, looks sharp, gorilla glass instead of plastic so it doesn’t have that rainbow effect.

Batting 2nd — Google Glass, yes, I am a glasshole — just got it a week ago, and if I didn’t have a 6 month old daughter, I’d be sending it back. It’s great for snapping quick photos (camera is 5mp and very good quality) and I capture her smiles and moments which I’d never be able to with a regular camera. Otherwise I don’t see much other use for it (yet). So it’s expensive, but I’ll have memories saved forever which otherwise would’ve been missed — as they say kids grow up so fast, so it’s worth it. And I ebayed the oculus rift (It’s just too nauseating at it’s present state), wife’s suggestion — she is right.

Hitting 3rd, Doorbot, just spent 2+ hours trying to install this POS, I tried every android device I own, and I own MANY, doesn’t work — my sisters iPhone, half works. This thing is a total disaster. Anyways — day 1, if they don’t fix the Android software its going back and I’m gonna have to fix the vinyl siding I had to cut out to fit it in.

Cleaning Up — Samsung Note Pro 12.2 — so this is a 12.2 inch Samsung tablet — which freaking rocks — it’s amazing. I draw, (was an art /comp sci double major) so the pen interaction is really well done. I love it — I ebayed my iPad and my Asus Transformer, so this thing ended up not being that expensive all considered.

So 3 for 4 — if my Yanks can start the season that way — I’ll take it.

Basically been an expensive few months with tech toys — but hell, no vacation this year — I’m not dragging an infant across an ocean or to Vegas, and my wife is loving her kindle paper white and the 15 books I surprised her with for v-day (cheaper to please than me I know), so we’re all tech’ed out for a while. But knowing me it won’t last too long — however as you can see, if something is not used on e-bay it goes — I love tech, but I’m not hording it or building a collection.

-Yakov

Hey guys,

My moms last laptop, it had a 2.3GHz i3 processor with 8GB of RAM and a 1 TB HDD, got a virus and she got mad so she threw it out a window. Luckily all the internal components are fine except for the monitor was destroyed. So, since I don’t have easy access to a free 3d printer, I just built a case for in out of Legos. I have it hooked up to a monitor by VGA. I have been trying to make it a hackintosh but It’s not looking good. If all else fails I will just install Debian or ubuntu or some other Linux distro. Also been enjoying watching The Ben Heck Show on YouTube. That guy is awesome! As always love the show

Dawson

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