Apple's iPhone 4

It’s not an exaggeration to say that there’s a national love affair with Apple’s iPhone. Now that love affair is about to really blossom as the iPhone 4 is released from its bonds with AT&T and becomes available on Verizon Wireless. So naturally the question on every gadget lover’s mind is, should I finally get an iPhone now that I have a choice?

To answer that, consider the proverbial parental admonition: If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you jump, too?

It’s not hyperbole to point out that the “new” iPhone 4 on Verizon is really the old iPhone 4 (essentially the same model that’s available on AT&T). And that phone has already been eclipsed by other smart phones on the market–and is likely to be eclipsed by a new iPhone within a few short months.

That doesn’t mean Verizon won’t sell millions of the new/old iPhone. Apple has already sold more that 80 million of the handsets in the last 3 and a half years–in spite of one major fault: It doesn’t work well as a phone. Most people have been more mesmerized by apps than voice calls, anyway.

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Aha Mobile

Think of it as radio plus.

Rather than having providers stream music into cars through apps, car stereos and in-dash entertainment systems, which I wrote about in last weekend’s New York Times Automobiles section, Aha Mobile’s iPhone app bundles several driver-oriented services together. There’s local traffic (via Inrix), which sounds like a homily of nearby congestion and accident warnings. There are prerecorded podcasts from stations like Fox News Radio and NPR. There are comedy clips, and there’s even an application that will read your Facebook friends’ postings aloud. But what makes this software truly notable is one of the most peculiar car-oriented programs I’ve ever heard and one of the best examples of what an Internet-connected car radio can do.

The program, called Caraoke, lets Aha users record 15-second audio clips from behind the wheel as they sing along to their favorite songs. Then they share those clips with the entire universe of Aha users. The result is a bottomless jukebox of some of the worst, and funniest, caterwauling you’ve ever heard.

“It does tend to sound like the American Idol bloopers reel,” admits Robert Acker, chief executive of Aha Mobile, who also refers to the program as a “community-only content channel.” But even calling it “audio Twitter” or CB radio on steroids does not do it justice.

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Diving to Earth

Why would anyone jump from 23 miles above the earth's surface?

To see what would happen–and because they know they'll be protected by a high-tech pressurized suit to protect them as they fall.

More than merely a daredevil stunt, the Red Bull Stratos project is a serious attempt to break the record for the highest freefall–120,000 feet above the earth–and in the process also become the first parachutist to break the sound barrier plummeting toward the ground at over 760 mph. It may sound crazy, but the team of engineers and scientists behind the jumper, Austrian Felix Baumgartner, hope to cull volumes of data from the event that will later be used to develop advanced life support systems for future pilots, astronauts, and even space tourists. Consequently, perhaps the most critical element to the mission is the special supersonic suit he'll be wearing, a suit that represents the culmination of over 50 years of research and testing.

Developed by engineers at the Massachusetts-based David Clark Company, the suit and helmet Baumgartner will don is a custom design. The David Clark Company has been developing pilot and astronaut protective suits since 1941 when it made the first anti-G suits to prevent World War II fighter pilots from blacking out during high-G maneuvers. Since then, the company has developed a range of PPAs or pilot protective assemblies, ranging from pressurized suits for U-2 spy plane pilots to launch entry suits for Space Shuttle astronauts.

But no one has attempted to use a PPA to do what Baumgartner plans to do, so the David Clark Company had to tailor the suit to meet his particular needs. Typically, the type of suit Baumgartner will be wearing only has to withstand say, a pilot being ejected from a jet in his seat, but in this case it has to be designed for supersonic skydiving. MORE 

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Smart iPhone App

How do you make a Smart car even smarter? You guessed it: Create an app for that.

Smart's new Smart Drive App for the lilliputian Smart Fortwo is more ingenious than most. Developed by Mercedes-Benz software engineers, the forthcoming application for the iPhone not only adds features such as navigation to the car, but also does something the iPhone usually can't do on its own: multitask.

Demonstrated at the New York Auto Show, the software is part of a package that will include a cradle than needs to be installed by dealers. The application itself divides the iPhone screen into larger, legible quadrants, rather than using tiny icons that might tend to distract the driver (or distract the driver even more). The four on-screen buttons cover media, phone, map and assist functions.

The best part: like built-in navigation systems, it will mute a call in favor of spoken directions instructions, and it's here where the multitasking function comes in handy. Unlike other navigation-only applications for the iPhone, you don't have to choose between chatting on the phone or following the navigation system. It can run both simultaneously because the developers built both functions into a single application.

For more on the Smart Drive App, see The New York Times.

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Journaline

In the 90's, PointCast was the scourge of the nascent Internet: a news ticker that spread like wildfire on computer screens until it began clogging corporate networks. Well, a similar news crawl is about to appear again, but this time it will be on car dashboards.

Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network already broadcasts reports about incipient road congestion in about 125 metropolitan markets using its network of radio stations across the U.S. The information can be viewed on compatible car radios thanks to a text-only FM subchannel using a format known as RDS (Radio Data System). Now, Clear Channel plans to add news headlines to data feeds by using the Journaline service.

Clear Channel says it's ready to launch the service it some time in this summer as a free service for stereo systems that can receive HD Radio broadcasts. However, at the moment, only one compatible car stereo system has been introduced, JVC's $1,200 KW-NT3HDT Navigation Receiver, so it make be slow to gain traction with drivers.

The Journaline format has the ability to offer a text-to-speech feature depending on type of device being used to receive it. However, Clear Channel says it will only be text-based when it begins in the U.S. So the question becomes will drivers pay attention to the new in-dash crawl, and if they do pay attention, will it simply become another source of driver distraction?

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Journaline

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Chevy Volt

On the heels of Toyota's apparent problems with unintended acceleration, today, General Motors announced that it would make brake override systems standard on all of its passenger vehicles by the end of 2012. It's another move that indicates that such systems are likely to become the de facto standard in automobiles long before any government mandate.

GM calls its system "enhanced smart pedal" technology. It means that on cars with automatic transmissions and electronic throttle controls if the driver pushes down on the accelerator and the brake at the same time, the car's computer will assume the driver is attempting to stop and disconnect the throttle. It's an extremely important safeguard because it also means that should the car for any reason–stuck accelerator pedal, conflicting computer commands, jammed floor mat–detect that both pedals are depressed, it will bring the car to a safe stop (during which time the throttle is usually reduced to idle speed).

BMW and several other car makers use such brake override systems. And they are smart enough to know the difference between trying to take off brake-stand-style and cases in which you want to stop the car.

In a brief press release on the announcement, GM went to pains to basically say, but there's nothing wrong with our cars now…we just think this will make them safer.

While brake override is important, it should be noted that it will not prevent some accelerator related accidents, such as pedal misapplication or misidentification. This occurs when a driver thinks they are pressing down on the brake but are actually pressing down on the accelerator. It can be an all-too tragic occurrence particularly with older drivers, and even advanced auto braking systems, such as that about to be introduced in the Volvo S60, cannot prevent such mistakes.

Still, brake override–like backup rear view cameras and electronic stability control systems–are a step in the right direction.

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Earth Hour

What happens when the lights go out?

Okay, aside from that.

You save electricity (saving money), cut down on oil, gas, and coal consumption, and reduce overall carbon emissions. That's the triple pitch behind the Earth Hour (started by the World Wildlife Fund three years ago), during which everyone is encouraged to turn out their lights for one hour. Earth Hour this year is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, March 27th, at 8:30 local time.

I've covered this in the past and it's gimmicky, but successful. It does actually do what it proposes to do. And in this information overburdened, Tweeted-out, over-texted world we could all use an hour to contemplate something on a more metaphysical level–or just snooze. Take your pick.

Scheduled to take part in the dark are more than 3,100 cities in 121 countries on seven continents. According to the WWF, that tops last year's participation by 87 countries (and look at it this way, if the economy continues to rupture, even more will participate next year!).

In the U.S. more than 50 national monuments and landmarks will go dark, according to organizers, including the Las Vegas Strip, Mt. Rushmore, Niagara Falls, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and all 39 Broadway Theater Marquees in New York City. Across the world the lights will also go off at Big Ben, the Great Pyramids, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Sydney Opera House, and the Eiffel Tower (it's more romantic that way, anyhow).

(As a side note, if you're thinking about reducing electricity consumption after you turn the lights back on, check out a recent story on the state of LED tech.)

Remember, the time to throw the switch is 8:30 pm local time (wherever you are). And no cheating by using the LCD on your cell phone as a light.

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