Electric cars are so disruptive, internal combustion engine cars will be obsolete in 2016, says futurist • UPDATED 28 December 2013

2016 — sound a little too soon? Both General Motors & Tesla are working on mass market electric vehicles with a range of 200 miles (320 km). Elon Musk has promised the Tesla for, "Hopefully 2016, but I would say no later than 2017."

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1089325_electric-cars-so-disruptive-gas-cars-will-be-obsolete-in-2016-says-futurist

Update: More about the Tesla mass market EV:


Credit: Tesla Motors/Green Car Reports

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1084595_teslas-next-electric-car-line-roundup-of-what-we-know-now / Tesla Model S plug in plug-in electric cars 200 miles more electric range Tesla Motors prepares roll out more affordable Model E late 2016 face serious competition General Motors GM EV electric vehicle LiIon lithium ion battery cell BEV develop development developing Tesla-rivaling rival Tesla rivaling car 200 miles 321 kilometres km charge cost $30,000 The Wall Street Journal reports technology build go on sale particularly soon high battery costs Douglas Parks GM's Vice President global product programs opening expansion battery test lab at the company's Technical Center in Warren Michigan lowest battery cost per kilowatt-hour thousands of Panasonic commodity cells specially designed design less expensive laptop many patents unique approach automaker 200 mile 200-mile range sell price GM CEO Dan Akerson breakthrough breakthroughs battery technology Envia Systems Newark California-based California based company GM invested $17 million 2011 Envia specializes specialize specialise lithium-ion cathode technology create batteries greater energy density 400 watt-hours per kilogram much higher 140 Watt-hours per kilogram Nissan Leaf's battery pack Watt hours wait waiting battery technology LG Chem cells Chevrolet Volt Cadillac ELR battery electric battery-electric car Chevrolet Spark EV maximum range of 82 miles EV electric vehicle LiIon lithium ion battery cell charge recharge performance acceleration Roadster Model S X economy halve half 50% reduce reduced price /

Dynamo: magician impossible

Credit: PA/The Daily Mail

After watching these videos, I'm not ashamed to say I have no idea how any of this is possible. Definitely worth a look.

Man cut in half?

http://youtu.be/72zt6xrwNME

Bus levitation:

http://youtu.be/H7z7LyBrVhE

Longer videos:

14 minutes
http://youtu.be/xexL6EV9whI

46 minutes:
http://youtu.be/3KBbV32i8fs / rope loop wrap pull London bus levitate conjure conjurer magic illusion amazing trick playing card ring coin sweet lolly candy machine street football foot ball soccer /

Best wishes ★'°･:*:･｡

Credit: Wallpaper Arena www.hdwallpapersinn.com

Whatever your beliefs, all the very best from Hitchhiker's Guide 2 Tech! ｡･:* :･°'☆

Six reasons your next phone won’t have to run software from Apple or Google

Oppo N1 CyanogenMod Version
Credit: Oppo/CyanogenMod/DroidLife

We lost Palm some time ago & Nokia has killed off Symbian. BlackBerry appears to be circling the drain.

Still, the good folks at Quartz think we have reasons to expect some diversity in the phone market:

http://qz.com/161020/six-reasons-your-next-phone-wont-have-to-run-software-from-apple-or-google/ / two mobile operating systems Apple Apple’s iOS Google Google’s Android control 94% market competitors BlackBerry crowdfund Ubuntu Edge smart phone smartphone mobile cell phone operating system Linux target amount Nokia CEO Stephen Elop death certificate for Symbian company’s OS 2014 challengers CyanogenMod Cyanogen root flash ROM Android operating system control device devices and doesn’t contain the junk that phone-manufacturers 10 million downloads remove removed app playstore Play store download CyanogenMod Silicon Valley’s Valley venture capital firm faith, Andreesen Horowitz $23 million round of funding MeeGo Microsoft engineers SailFish avatar Jolla hybrid Sailfish OS run Android apps app store Russian web giant Yandex Windows Phone cell mobile hardware maker Nokia Ubuntu open source open-source, Linux-based based operating system mobile phones tablets desktop computers desktop Linux users, preview versions polished unified release OS all devices PC PCs ship Ubuntu phones and tablets Tizen backed phone makers biggest phone-makers LG Huawei Samsung Mobile World Congress Firefox OS adaptive app search circular icons Mozilla browser operating system web apps websites run like apps native apps written specially rewritten platform /

Settled: electric vehicles are cleaner than their fossil-fuel-burning cousins – update

Credit: SingularityHUB

It's over two years since the issues to be considered in answering this question were first discussed in these pages. Now the Union of Concerned Scientists has agreed that the question is settled.

http://singularityhub.com/2013/12/22/its-settled-electric-cars-are-cleaner-than-their-gas-powered-cousins/

Of course, the carbon footprint of an electric vehicle in your area depends on the power generation mix used there. Washington state in USA & Tasmania in Australia with largely hydro grids are obviously better than Victoria in Australia with lots of brown coal.

My solution: rooftop PV generates most of the electricity used by my EV, plus, I pay for "green energy". I.e., for a fee, my electricity provider undertakes to generate power from renewable sources &/or provide offsets for all of my power consumption, including my EV. All of the people I know who own EVs are doing at least one of these. / technological advance government consumer groups company companies sell innovative products electric vehicle Nissan Ford Chevrolet Honda Toyota Audi BMW Tesla EVs tiny fraction car cars road United States of America General Motors GM infamous electric cars car EV1 California in 1996 major issue electric vehicle complex complexity answer simple question better environment gasoline-powered cars gasoline powered petrol petroleum instinctively believe electric electricity electrical grid coal natural gas American utilities coal natural gas renewable energy sources Union of Concerned Scientists nonprofit supports scientifically sound cleaner energy policies question around emissions generated charge electric vehicles versus emissions petrol petroleum gas vehicles EV produces less greenhouse gas emissions average compact gasoline car Don Anair research deputy director UCS’s USC clean vehicles program Singularity Hub issue particulate pollution complicated overall EV electric vehicles clean cleaner track record reduce U.S. global warming pollution by four-fifths 2050 solar wind power continue become cheaper better represented electrical supply chain EVs advantage expert experts cost competitiveness solar wind geothermal biomass mix of sources Todd Foley senior vice president policy government relations American Council on Renewable Energy ACORE mix of energy sources charging your car fuel mix portfolio approach lower fueling prices better lifetime cost comparison equivalent of $1 per gallon of gasolene gasoline petrol saving fuel costs sticker price distance range charge recharge Mike Brace technical editor EVWorld niche market second household vehicle commuting workhorse Tesla charging stations inductive charging /

Levitron levitating table lamp

Credit: GeekAlerts/ThinkGeek

http://www.geekalerts.com/levitron-levitating-table-lamp// magic science Levitron Levitating Table Lamp amazing behold chrome table lamp floating lampshade light provided soft focus soft-focus LED lights light emitting diode lampshade hovers hover 3 inches above the base looking futuristic wonderful future home homes LED table lamp shade levitates 3 inches above light source fans science magic materials brushed chrome stand 6 high intensity high-intensity LED lights powered through low voltage adapter input 110v/220v output 15 VDC dimensions 16 1/2″ height max diameter 7 1/2″
Levitron Levitating Table Lamp $149.99 ThinkGeek.com coolest piece of decor cool /

The day Google had to "start over" on Android

In 2007, Google's Android, team had been working 60+ hour weeks for over a year. They were sure they were going to take the cell (mobile) phone world by storm with their revolutionary smartphone project ... then Apple announced the iPhone ... & everything changed.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/the-day-google-had-to-start-over-on-android/282479/ / bar 2005, Google Google’s sprawling, college-like college like campus most secret ambitious team teams smartphone effort Android project Google’s Building 44 Google ad reps four dozen engineers on track deliver revolutionary device change mobile phone industry forever more consumer blown away wanted one immediately engineer start over again worked sixty to eighty 60 80 hour hours sixty-to-eighty-hour weeks fifteen months more than two years writing testing test code negotiate negotiating soft­ware licenses license flying over the world find right parts suppliers manufacturers been working with proto­types prototype six months planned plan launch by the end of the year Steve Jobs stage announce unveil the iPhone Chris DeSalvo’s DeSalvo reaction iPhone Silicon Valley iPhone iPhone’s unveiling January 9, 2007 done the impossible iPod iTunes wireless car­rier build a revolutionary smartphone hairy Google size Google-size problem software industry mobile phones most dysfunctional technology wireless bandwidth users surf the Internet weren’t powerful enough rudimentary software oligopoly carriers phone makers writing software for phones wireless bandwidth improve phone chips more powerful looked carri­ers phone makers would control building software one device at a time Vodafone big European carrier Google search on their phones good mobile browser ring tones tone ring-tones carriers provide all the services inside walled garden AOL control best way make money few developers built software mobile phones lost money no standardization industry every phone ran own software applications meaning software written Samsung wouldn’t run Motorola phone Nokia software platforms incompatible different versions of Symbian money pit testing company Larry Page frustrate frustration frustrating share holder share­holders smartphone smart phone phones smartphones Microsoft compete monopoly Page executives mobile business Windows CE mobile phones software niche market consumers platform search tech world co-founder cofounder Sergey Brin dressed search engine’s popularity a fad U.S. government’s successful antitrust trial against Microsoft Oracle v. Google copyright trial Lass Vegas handset makers carriers Consumer Electronics Show Tseng Stanford business school Eric Schmidt Android /