driving

Lots of little 'lectrics at the LA Auto Show (roundup)

Take a look around the 2012 LA Auto Show and you'll see quite a few compact, fully-electric vehicles. Having spent much time creeping along at 20 mph on Los Angeles' gridlocked highways and stopping-and-going on its crowded streets this week, I can think of no better city to get excited about EVs.

We've rounded up the biggest players in this year's small EV class, many of which are currently available to consumers or will be sometime in 2013.

Chevrolet Spark EV

Chevrolet follows up its Volt with the smaller, simpler Spark EV. Based on the smallest model … Read more

Startup paid Black Friday shoppers to snap up cheap hard drives

Retailers have engineered Black Friday to whip consumers into a buying frenzy, but it turns out it can be good for startups looking for a good deal, too.

Backblaze, the online backup company that headed off a hard-drive price-hike crisis by enlisting friends and family as deputy procurement officers, found itself scouring the ads for good deals again during the holiday buying season. The result: another round of "drive farming" by people willing to help the company.

This time, though, the drive farming was open to the first 200 people who signed up to participate, and Backblaze paid … Read more

Save files to Google Drive with Chrome add-on Save to Drive

This Chrome extension is particularly useful for Chromebook users and anyone who uses Google Drive to store their files more so than their hard drive. If either of these profiles describes you, then I would urge you to give Save to Drive a try. It's dead simple to use and provides useful functionality for storing any image you stumble across in Chrome, along with HTML5 video and audio files.

When you spot such a file you'd like to keep, right-click it. With Save to Drive installed, you'll see a line -- Save image to Google Drive -- … Read more

Windows 8 sales off to brisk start

Wednesday's CNET Update is watching Windows:

A Microsoft executive revealed that 40 million licenses of Windows 8 have been sold since it came out last month. These numbers include both consumers and manufacturers, so Windows 8 isn't in 40 million homes. But to compare, Windows 7 hit sales of 60 million the first two months. Some say Windows 8 is off to an awkward start, and there is a learning curve with the new system.

Also in today's tech news roundup:

- Gmail works with Google Drive to let users send 10GB files.

- Vimeo makes it … Read more

Get a Patriot 32GB flash drive for $8.99

I know a lot of people don't care for rebates, but if you shift your perception a bit, they can seem like icing on the cake.

For example, Newegg has the Patriot PSF32GAUSB 32GB USB flash drive for $18.99 shipped. Right from the get-go, that's a great deal.

And here's the icing: a $10 mail-in rebate (PDF) brings your total cost down to $8.99, which is an unheard-of price for a 32GB drive. Heck, even a 16GB drive is a find at that price.

That rebate comes in the form of an American Express prepaid … Read more

Gmail, meet Google Drive -- and behold 10GB file transfers

Anyone who has ever had to send enormous files across the Internet has a new option. Google announced today that it has integrated Google Drive with Gmail, allowing users of both services to insert files from Drive directly into their messages.

Notably, file sizes can be up to 10GB, or 400 times larger than is allowed in a traditional attachment.

The team also built some "smart assistant" technology into the feature to make sure recipients of your shared files have the necessary permissions. Product manager Phil Sharp explains in a blog post:

Like a smart assistant, Gmail will … Read more

Two hard drive deals for Cyber Monday

A year ago, flooding in Thailand factories lead to some pretty insane prices on hard drives, but it seems things are starting to ease now. Cyber Monday is greeting us with some great deals on hard drives, including the wireless 500GB Satellite Flex. When CNET's Dong Ngo reviewed the drive last year he found that it was a flexible, well-performing drive and a "must-have for those who frequently travel with Apple's iPad."

Originally selling for $200, it's currently going for $99 at Newegg and Best Buy.

Compared with the 16GB Wi-Drive from Kingston (around $70), … Read more

The Cheapskate's Cyber Monday deal roundup

Now this is my kind of deal day: lots of killer bargains, no circling for 20 minutes just to find a parking spot.

Rather than highlight a single deal on this Cyber Monday 2012, I've cherry-picked a bunch I think you'll like. Let's get to it:

What's a Kindle without a case? AmazonLocal is offering a free voucher good for 30 percent off any qualifying Kindle accessory. These include cases, screen protectors, reading lights, and the like.

In what promises to be the first of many such discounts, the Microsoft Store has the Acer Iconia W510-1674 10-inch Windows 8 tablet for $399 shipped, … Read more

Big shift in who's driving and what

For the first time more women in the U.S. have a driver's license than men. Its just one of the major shifts in modern driving.

According to the same University of Michigan study, the proportion of teens and young adults with license is down, especially for males. Men 25-29 showed a big 10.6% drop in license holdership in the 15 years up to 2010.

That leaves a greater share of women out there driving, and they tend to buy smaller cars that use less gas and they tend to have lower fatality rates on the road.

Another … Read more