The Gadgets Page

I absolutely ADORE this advertising campaign from Toyota. It’s for their Yaris, which is the bottom of the line car for them and they have decided to highlight features usually overlooked by car manufacturers.

Do you go places sometimes and leave places other times? Maybe you need a Yaris. It’s a car!

Ironically, my VW Beetle didn’t have this feature. The windows broke so often that I eventually just stopped rolling them down at all.

My Beetle wasn’t very good in this department either. It had two cup holders that couldn’t hold anything larger than a can of soda and even that was a tight squeeze.

Yellow? No! I guess I’ll just have to go with Other Other Blue…

Nine airbags! I AM PROTECTED!

Personally, I don’t care for the “soft dash” features. I have them in certain spots on my Prius and they are grime magnets. I’d rather just have plastic, I think.

It’s handy to have a USB port to plug in your iPod or iPhone. I wonder how it works with the stereo. I DO know that you can upgrade the Yaris stereo to one that has integrated Bluetooth.

They don’t even mention the best part of the Yaris. The gas mileage is 30 mpg in the city and 35 mpg on the freeway. I get 45 mpg in my Prius, but it cost me TEN THOUSAND dollars more than the Yaris. In the end, these Yaris commercials are just silly fun, but they got me to seriously look at a car that I might not have even considered.

Imagine if every road and parking lot in the United States was paved with solar panels instead of asphalt. Even if they had only 15% efficiency (as the current solar panels do), they would be able to generate enough electricity to power our entire country three times over. That is the premise for the solar roadways. The roads are already there, soaking up the heat of the sun. All we have to do is design a solar panel that can do that and withstand the beating that comes from being a road.

Solar Roadways, based in Idaho is doing just that. They are building their prototype in their own parking lot. This video from YouTube explains it:

I love how they talk about how they are using the garbage from the landfills to be used as the structure of the road (3:15 mark). Since asphalt is oil based, it won’t last forever. These roads are better all around.

Via: Solar Roadways to build solar-powered parking lot | The Car Tech blog – CNET Reviews

I’m trying not to be offended because Go Retro has named the Dodge Diplomat number four on its list of bad car names.

• Go Retro!: Bad Car Names

4. Dodge Diplomat: Despite a long production run (from 1977 to 1989) I’ve never heard of anyone who owned a Diplomat, and I’m not sure that those who did really did feel all that more important. Check out the vintage ad I’ve posted above – shuttle diplomacy? A misguided advertising attempt to make a soccer mom feel like she’s royalty or something.

When my dad moved out, my mom’s friend from work, Carol, moved in. She drove a Dodge Diplomat. It didn’t look like the one in this advertisement. It looked like this, except it was white (not silver) and the cloth top was a dark blue, not brown.

It breaks my heart that we don’t have a photo of that car, because we had so many good times in it. Carol and Mom took Stacey and me to Wisconsin in that car, driving across I-80 through the desolation that is Wyoming and the boredom that is Nebraska. We had a lot of good times in that car.

I never realized how cool it was until I was fourteen years old. By that time, Carol had been living with us for five years and the car was just the Diplomat. It was the family car and we took its luxuries for granted every day. That day, in ninth grade, Mom picked up a bunch of us from a school function. Crammed in the front seat, were the two cutest guys in the Quest program. While I was stuffed into the back seat with four girls, they fiddled with the radio up front. They were so impressed with the digital tuner on the radio (this was 1984, so digital tuners were VERY rare back then). After the ride, they told me how cool my mom’s car was and I beamed with pride.

Did riding in the Dodge Diplomat make me feel like royalty? That day, it sure did. Not to mention the fact that the car could hold six stranded teenagers. Sorry, Go Retro, you’re wrong. The Dodge Diplomat was a VERY cool car.

I love this ad for the Volkswagen Bus:

It reads:

What is it?

Glad you asked. It’s a Volkswagen Station Wagon. Don’t pity the poor thing. It can take it. It can carry neatly a ton of anything you can afford to buy. Or 8 people (plus luggage) if you want to get practical about it.

And there’s more than one practical consideration. It will take you about 24 miles on a gallon of regular gas. It won’t take any water or anti-freeze at all; the engine is air-cooled. And even though it carries almost twice as much as regular wagons, it takes four feet less to park.

What’s in the packages?

8 pairs of skis, the complete works of Dickens, 98 lbs. of frozen spinach, a hutch used by Grover Clevland, 80 Hollywood High gym sweaters, a suit of armor, and a full sized reproduction of the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

Sadly, there isn’t a vehicle made today that has all that the old VW Bus had. Tons of cargo space, room for 8 passengers, 24 mpg and small footprint for easy parking. If I could buy a brand new VW Bus today, I would.

Advert via: Live Journal: vintage ads

I love this advertisement from America’s Independent Electric Companies.

It reads:

More Power To You! America’s independent light and power companies build your new electric living

Tomorrow’s higher standard of living will put electricity to work for you in ways still unheard of!

The time isn’t too far off, the experts say, when you’ll wash your dishes without soap or water – ultrasonic waves will do the job.

Still hasn’t happened yet. I’ve seen lots of gadgets that SAY they do this, but none of them have been made readily available.

Your beds will be made at the touch of a button.

Yours do that? Mine sure doesn’t.

The kids’ homework will be made interesting and even exciting when they are able to dial a library book, a lecture, or a classroom demonstration right into your home – with sound. (Some of this is happening already)

Thank you, Internet! You HAVE fulfilled the dreams of the 1950′s!

To enjoy all this, you’ll want a lot more electric power, and the independent electric companies of America are already building new plants and facilities to provide it. Right now these companies are building at the rate of $5,000,000,000 a year, and planning to double the nation’s supply of electricity in less than 10 years.

America has always had the best electric power service in the world. The electric companies are resolved to keep it that way.

Can I just take a moment to THANK the electric companies of yesteryear?! They stepped up the production of plants to meet our needs so well that we feel that electricity is a RIGHT. Whenever we get a huge snowstorm here in Utah, the weight of the snow can snap a line. When the people of Utah are out of power for more than a few hours, they SUE electric companies. Outages and brownouts are rare because these folks had the foresight to build.

Mind you, I wish they had built more windmills and less coal burning plants, but it’s not really fair for me to expect them to foresee the energy crisis as well as the need for it.

Advert via: vintage_ads: “They’re working on it!”

I love this animated GIF from three frames.

It is from the movie, Playtime, which was released in 1967 in France. I love seeing all the old cars and buses moving around the traffic circle. That’s the beauty of old movies. They’re a glimpse of the gadgetry of days gone by.

This old Buick was parked in our neighborhood the other day, so I had to snap some photos of it because it looks so good!

You can see ALL the photos here:

I love this old advertisement comparing the old Volkswagen bug to the bus.

It reads:

That’s about the size of it.

That special paint job is to make it perfectly clear that our Station Wagon is only nine inches longer than our Sedan. Yet it carries almost 1 ton of anything you like. [About twice as much as you can get into wagons that are 4 feet longer.]

Or eight solid citizens with luggage.

Or countless kids with kids stuff.

The things you never think about are worth thinking about, too. You never worry about freezing or boiling; the rear engine is air-cooled. You can expect about 24 miles per gallon and about 30,000 miles on your tires. And you can forget about going out of style next year; next year’s model will look the same.

The most expensive VW Station Wagon costs $2,655. It comes in red and white or grey and white or green and white.

And you won’t ever have to go around painting sedans on it to show how small it is. Just Park.

Right now, I really wish a company would adopt the Volkswagen company model. The cars are the same every year for decades, allowing me to fix my 2009 car as easily as the 2020 car. They brag about their gas mileage, small size and practicality, not their luxury, massive size or status symbol.

I froze and boiled in my old VW bug. It failed me on numerous occasions, dropping parts on the road as easily as birds drop feathers. I was grateful to have a new car when I finally stopped driving my old beetle, but it was a twenty year old car by then. I want a car company like Volkswagen used to be, because the new VW isn’t like it at all.

Advert via: vintage_ads:

Update 08-14-09: Here is another VW Bus ad that was good.

Yves Behar was the designer who brought us the OLPC, the Leaf lamp and the Jawbone headset. He has now teamed up with Forrest North to create the Mission One motorcycle. It’s a good looking electric motorcycle that can go up to 150 mph with twice the range of any other electric motorcycle. The following video shows them introducing it at the TED conference this year.

Here are the stats on the Mission One:

Max Speed: 150 mph
Distance on a single charge: 150 miles
Regenerative braking: The batteries are charged when you use the brake.
Charging Time: 2.5 hours when using a 220 volt plug. 8 hours when using a 110 volt plug (standard home plug).
Sales Price: $68,995

Their advertising says that it has zero emissions, but there is a little something I learned in science class in seventh grade: There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. That motorcycle is charged by electricity. If you get all your electricity from solar, wind, hydro-electric or geo-thermal power, then, YES, there ARE zero emissions. If however, your local electrical plant uses natural gas or coal (which is more than half the electricity generated in the U.S.), then there ARE emissions. They are coming from the electrical plant in your area. This is true of ALL electric vehicles that claim to have zero emissions.

With a price tag of $68,995, you could afford to buy three or four Honda motorcycles or MANY electric scooters. Unless you need to drive 150 miles to work every day, the Mission One is an expensive way to show everyone how green you are.

This postcard from PostSecret made me cringe with guilt.

It reads:

I rear-ended an unregistered, unlicensed, illegal immigrant.

He went to jail because I was texting and driving.

I’ve texted while driving twice and each time I thought what I was doing was so important that I needed to do it. I was wrong.

There is NO text or phone call as important as staying ALIVE. The writer of the postcard could have just as easily killed the person he hit or someone in his own car. There is a gadget available that can stop you from calling or texting while driving. It’s called Key 2 Safe Driving.

Here’s a video showing how is works:

Trying to use this to monitor your teenagers is ludicrous. Within five minutes, your teen would figure out a way to disable the Bluetooth receiver on his phone so that he wouldn’t have to deal with the problem. The only answer in this case is self-control. Not answering your phone while you’re driving is the only way to ensure that you won’t kill someone or yourself by talking on the phone while driving.

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

Via: Key 2 Safe Driving Service Turns Off Your Phone While You Drive | cell phone, text message, digital life | geeksugar – Technology & Gadgets