tech

Fed up with the withering death-stares we were getting from other drivers on the streets of San Francisco, we decided to take our 2007 Ford Expedition review car somewhere more welcoming. We found exactly what we were looking for among the tractor trailers and disused warehouses of an industrial estate just south of the city. There, we could just sit with the Expedition's 5.4-liter V-8 idling away and feel right at home next to other pieces of mammoth machinery.

We did have a few more creature comforts than the other truckers around us, however. The Expedition comes with … Read more

All eco-values aside, I'd drool over this radiator if it had the consumption levels of a Hummer. Why? Because it's pretty. When you're used to noisy old apartment-building radiators that frequently squirt water all over the floor, a good-looking one is like high art. But it gets even better. The Energy-Saver radiators from Belgian company Jaga, as featured on Treehugger, use 12 percent of a traditional radiator's energy and 10 percent of the water. It's not cheap--in the UK, it'll cost you the equivalent of just under $400 USD--but your energy bill will probably … Read more

We were let loose today in the hills outside of Los Angeles behind the wheel of Mazda's new CX-9 midsize crossover SUV. The CX-9, which is the biggest vehicle ever to come out of Mazda's Hiroshima plant, follows Mazda's CX-7 into the crowded crossover market, and is designed to appeal to that growing segment of customers in need of seven seats (how did we ever manage with just five?). Unlike many other seven-seaters we've seen, the CX-9's third row of seats will be standard on all models, and will not be removable.

If the CX-9 … Read more

The Walkman isn't dead, contrary to popular belief, at least in the world of anime. Sony is selling a special green edition of its once-royal brand that features a sleepy-eyed Japanese character of the same color (not Kermit). Other than its "Gachapin" theme, the Walkman E series is a standard MP3 player of modest capacity (512 and 1GB storage for $113 and $137, respectively). For those prices, we think the least they could have done is make the earphones green too. But you do get a super-kawaii felt case and carrier.

We get it. Luxury cars are branching out into more affordable gadgets with their brand names attached to them.

First there was the Ferrari laptop, then the Ferrari Etch-a-Sketch. Oops, I mean Ferrari navigation device. Then there was a Ferrari sound system for your car.

Hummer has a golf cart. Lamborghini has a laptop and Nokia phone. Not to be outdone, McLaren Mercedes has three phones.

Now add a Ferrari phone to that long list.

The Motorazr Maxx V6 Ferrari Challenge Mobile Phone is available at the Ferrari store online for $524. The multi-ban GSM phone with GPRS and EDGE … Read more

"Who ya gonna call?" Or maybe I should say, "They call me MISTER Tibbs!"

The Ecto 1, the 1959 Cadillac that Venkman, Spengler, Stantz and Zeddmore used to catch ghosts in the film Ghostbusters, is up for sale by the Volo Auto Museum, which has offered the vehicle through the Hemmings collector-car marketplace.

For a mere $149,998, a little piece of your '80s childhood could be sitting in your garage. But that's not all you'd get.

A little known fact about this car, according to Hemmings, is that it is the same 1959 … Read more

With amenities such as navigation with live traffic reporting and a phenomenal stereo system, Acura led the way in car technology with its RL and RDX models. Now it has taken the tech from those cars and loaded it into the full-size MDX SUV. We just got the 2007 Acura MDX in at CNET Car Tech, and this car gives us a lot to chew on. As with many SUVs these days, the MDX gets a third row of seats. With its relatively short body, the third row occupies most of the cargo area, so you can either haul six … Read more

A bunch of Web veterans are teaming up to offer an online forum for gearheads, giving car owners the chance to submit, edit, and control car-related content. Built on an open platform, CarGurus.com gives users a place to post their own reviews, photos, and wiki entries, and to ask questions of an audience of like-minded drivers.

The site, which has been in beta since March 2006, is the brainchild of Langley Steinert, co-founder and former Chairman of Trip Advisor; Simon Rothman, founder of eBay motors; and Matt Rightmire, a former vice president at Yahoo, among others. It will formerly … Read more

When I first saw the pictures of this house on Make Magazine's blog, I thought they were straight off the sets of one of the Lord of the Rings movies. Seriously, doesn't it look like the kind of place where you could open the door and expect to see see Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan inside sporting prosthetic foot fur? But, no, it's actually a "low-impact woodland home" in Wales that was built at a total cost of 3,000 pounds (a little under $6,000) and 1,000-1,500 man-hours over a period of … Read more