Keeping an eye on stylish
gear and technology.

Well well, we might not have commuter jet packs yet but the future does seem to close in; Nissan is developing a “paramagnetic iron oxide paint polymer” which can alter the color of the car paint by the press of a button by using an electrical charge (remember the receptionist’s nail polish in “Total Recall”?).

The downside to this is that because the magic paint needs electric current it’ll only be active when the car is running, meaning the car will turn white when you park it and turn off the engine.

Apparently Nissan expects models with this James Bond-ish feature to launch sometime during 2010.

(Via Gizmodo)

This is the MS1 by Matra MS, a brand new electric bicycle hybrid capable of running on both electricity and regular 9-speed pedal power. It’s gifted with a 1kW motor wheel and while running on electricity it tops 45 km/h (about 28mph) and is capabale to take you up to 100 km / 62 miles on one charge.

There’s LED lights in the front and back to keep you safe and there’s an LCD display on the handlebars indicating speed and remaining battery power. Just plug it in and it’ll recharge in 3-6 hours depending on battery, and don’t worry if you need to leave it outside during the night - it sports an electric alarm and you need a magnetic card key to unlock it.

The retail price is estimated to €3,500 ($4,951).

www.matrasports.com (French)

(Via Gizmag)

If you’re looking for a premium GPS navigator the Porsche Design P’9611 Navigator might just be worth checking out. Besides features like “Reality View” which tries to provide an authentic depiction of the route and alternative route offers to bypass jams and holdups it can automatically adjust the instruction voice volume depending on how fast you’re going and vehicle noise so you won’t have to when going off-road or in the fast lane.

Besides the GPS receiver it’s equipped with a “high-performance” Bluetooth hands-free device and digital maps of 38 European countries with over two million special destinations.

Navigon.com: Porsche Design Navigator P’9611 (€795.00, about US$1,130)

Read on for a closer look on the display and menu:

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Porsche and Hummer has their own cell phones, so why not Audi? Here’s the Audi Mobile Device, presented as part of the future A1 model (Metroproject Quattro).

This Wi-Fi and touch-screen enabled device docks nicely in your vehicle and functions not only as a 3G UMTS cell phone but also as a navigation unit, audio/video player, remote control and authorization system for your car. Cold day outside? Why not connect to your car while having your morning coffee in the kitchen and tell it to turn on the heating system and it’ll be nice and toasty for you when its time to go.

Continue reading for a close-up image:

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Sagem revealed the Porsche P’9521 clamshell cell phone in June (read more here) and LetsGoMobile just published a review of it.

Quick feature round-up: The stylish exterior is made in glass and aluminum, it weighs 140 grams (91×48x18.4mm), it sports a 320×240 AM-OLED touchscreen display, a 3.2 megapixel camera (still images/video) with digital zoom, MP3/AAC/AAC+/MPEG-4 playback, and last (but not least) a fingerprint reader to make sure your phone stays secure.

The Porsche P’9521 will be sold exclusively by The Phone house sometime before Christmas to an estimated price of €1200 (about $1,700).

LetsGoMobile.org: Porsche P’9521 Review

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This futuristic bike is called Electrobike Pi and besides functioning as a regular bicycle it can run on electricity charged from either a standard outlet or generated by pedal power, hybrid-style. It’ll run on electricity for 2.5 - 3 hours (25-30 miles) on a single charge and it tops about 20 mph.

Design Within Reach: Electrobike Pi ($8,000)

(Via Acquire)

Koenigsegg has joined forces with Edox and created a set of limited edition watches inspired by the Koenigsegg CCX. It’s stylish and all but I guess its primarily made for the most hard-core fans of this extreme Swedish sports car since they cost 30,000 Euro each (about 41,400 USD).

Koenigsegg.com

(Via Watchismo)

This is ReCharge, a C30-based concept car by Volvo waiting to be unveiled at the Frankfurt Auto Show next week. This sleek thing will be able to take you about a 100 kilometers on electricity before it falls back on its 1.6-liter Flexifuel engine.

According to Volvo we can expect this baby to generate about 66% lower emissions of carbon dioxide compared with the best hybrid cars available on the market today.

Style and environmental friendliness in one package, how about that?

Watch a video of it here:

(Via Jalopnik)

There’s plenty of car-related co-branding going on right now (Porsche cells and laptops, Hummer cellphones, Ferrari and Lamborghini laptops, you name it). Luckily SanDisk is considerate enough to mind the bikers as well and have launched a collection of Ducati branded products - here’s the Extreme USB Flash Drive Ducati Edition.

“The attractive industrial design echoes the performance, colors, and lines of a Ducati MotoGP motorcycle. And hidden beneath this unique exterior lies a fast, 20MB/second USB Flash Drive.”

SanDisk Extreme USB Flash Drive Ducati Edition ($124.99)

Toyota just announced their official iPod integration kit, allowing all Toyota and Lexus models to control the iPod nicely through the car’s audio head unit (or steering wheel audio controls, if available) while safely docked and charged in the glove compartment.

The integration kit is compatible with most iPod models but the price tag stings a bit, they want about $300 for it.

Read more @ Gizmag