Racing

iPhone apps of the week

By now most people have heard the rags to riches stories of the iPhone app developers who learned a valuable secret: Make a "lite" version. It seems reasonable that while there are a lot of people willing to pay for apps, many want to know what they're getting before spending their hard-earned cash. One of our iPhone apps this week has benefited immensely from creating a lite version and I have to admit, I probably wouldn't have tried it myself if they hadn't. The lite version has now made it to the top of iTunes' … Read more

Sad news: Consumers don't pay up for quality

Erica Ogg's post "Report: Pioneer to exit TV business" made a point abundantly clear: TV buyers won't pay a premium price for a better display.

"The company is reportedly exiting the TV business rather than continuing to incur losses in that division," Ogg wrote. "This latest report comes a few months after Pioneer announced that it anticipated huge losses at the end of its fiscal year in March and plans to lay off 2,000 workers."

The market's demands for lower and lower prices eventually take high-quality manufacturers out of the … Read more

Make them hit the walls

LightBike Free is a limited, one-player version of LightBike, a racing game in which you compete in vehicles similar to the light cycles in the classic movie Tron. You steer by tapping the left or right side of your touchscreen, as you build walls to try to box in the three competitor bikes--while trying to avoid their attempts to trap you before the 40-second clock runs out. You navigate with both a behind-the-bike, third-person view and an inset overhead view, and you can tap the center of the screen for a temporary speed boost. You can choose one-, three-, or … Read more

Positive traction

Burning Tires 3D Lite is a free, two-level preview of Burning Tires 3D, a behind-the-car, third-person-view racing game with energetic graphics and sound effects. You compete with three other cars as you complete laps around the track and try to cross the finish line first. Steering with the accelerometer can be difficult to master at first (turning your iPhone or iPod Touch left or right like a steering wheel), but, thankfully, the game offers adjustable accelerometer sensitivity and--even better--touch-screen steering, which allows you to touch buttons on the left and right side of the screen to turn your car. You … Read more

iPhone racer gets a big update

My favorite game so far for the iPhone just got even better and it's definitely worthy of its own Download blog post. To be clear, this is not my iPhone apps of the week post which will appear on Friday as usual. It's just an update I think all players of this game should know about.

SlotZ Racer ($2.99) just received a free major update and it is definitely a must have for fans of this slot-racing simulator. The game was already a steal at the $2.99 price tag, featuring excellent graphics, different racing modes to … Read more

On the race track with 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia

So far this week we've looked at the phenomenal 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia up close in the showroom and in action on the roadway. In today's video clip, EVO Magazine's Chris Harris continues his analysis of the bold new Ferrari 458 Italia by taking it onto the race track to see just how much of an ass-kicker this new Prancing Horse really is.

In this Web video, EVO Magazine's Chris Harris breaks down the specs, features and handling of the 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia as it pertains to high speed driving technique. If you're not … Read more

Obama considers linking Defense Dept. with NASA

President-elect Barack Obama appears to be gearing up for a space race 2.0, this time with China.

Obama's transition team is considering doing away with some of the barriers that separate the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA, according to Bloomberg.

Citing people who've discussed the idea with the Obama team, Bloomberg says they believe collaboration between the country's civilian space agency and the military's space program would speed up the time in which the U.S. is able to send people back to the moon.

The main--and very costly--goal is to build a … Read more

The dark side of Galileo

When Americans think Europe, it's green parties and granola, not death from above. But a recent think tank report accuses the European Space Agency of plotting to use its Galileo satellite and other space programs to dominate the "high ground" of space.

The paper raises concerns about the "creeping militarization" of space and the potential for an inter-NATO arms race in the name of "EU security." It also highlights the roles played by the European military-industrial complex.

"EU-financed communication and spy satellites are slowly becoming reality and in the long term the … Read more

Fast times with alternative fuels

Want to see a bunch of alternative-fuel vehicles? Going really fast? Head to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, near Monterey, Calif., this weekend, October 17 to 19, for the final races of the 2008 American LeMans Series (ALMS) calendar.

Don't look for "Gasoline Alley" at the track. The cars run on E10, 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline; E85, 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline; or clean diesel. The ethanol part of the E85 of choice is celluosic, made from waste wood, not corn, and the diesels are among the quickest cars in the world.

ALMS … Read more