Noel McKeegan

Ford designers set their sights on creating an endearingly simple vehicle for their latest project, and we'd have to say they've succeeded. Unveiled at the Beijing Motor Show, there's definitely a certain stripped-back elegance about the Start Concept, which along with its sculpted lines and some clever interior customization options, features a new 1.0-liter, three-cylinder addition to the company's EcoBoost petrol engine family that promises a CO2 rating of under 100 g/km. Read More

It smashed Box Office records worldwide to become the highest grossing film in history, now James Cameron's Avatar is setting new benchmarks in the Blu-ray market. Around 1.5 million Blu-ray discs were snapped-up on the first day of release in the U.S. - more than previous record holder The Dark Knight - and that's just the 2D version, without special features. The Blu-ray release also triggered an avalanche of illegal downloads, with the sci-fi epic now well on its way to becoming the most pirated Blu-ray film ever. Read More

The pick of the world's most fuel efficient vehicles are lining-up at the Michigan International Speedway this week for stage one of the $10 million Automotive X PRIZE. Thirty-six entrants are are taking part in the initial "Shakedown Stage" (April 26-May 7), where they will undergo official safety checks before hitting the track for final testing and an opportunity to iron-out any last minute bugs. Read More

If you've ever been to Las Vegas you'll probably be familiar with Stratosphere, the 1,149-foot-tall hotel and casino that towers above the famous Strip. If you're the adventurous type, you'd also know there's some fun to be had at the top in the form of three hair-raising amusement rides. Now there's a fourth. Claiming the title of the world's highest commercial decelerated descent, the SkyJump takes thrill-seekers on an 855-foot "controlled free-fall" at 40mph - think base jumping, but with a safety wire. Read More

Garmin has announced slick new additions to its nüvi line of personal navigation devices with its 3700 series. Available in three models - the nüvi 3760T, nüvi 3750 and flagship nüvi 3790T, the slender units are just 9mm thick and feature a 800 x 480 pixel, 4.3” WVGA glass display with capacitive multi-touch functionality that lets users zoom in and out of maps by double-tapping or pinching. Read More

High-speed photography specialist Vision Research has unleashed its next-gen video camera - the Phantom Flex. The unit is billed as the world’s most flexible digital cinema camera and it's no idle boast - the specs speak for themselves. Packing a four mega-pixel color CMOS sensor, the Phantom Flex captures a maximum resolution of 2560x1600 shooting at 1,560 frames-per-second (fps) which can be increased to 2,800 when you step the resolution down to full-HD (1920x1080). At 720p HD resolution the maximum recording speed hits 6,100 fps, at 640x480 it's a whopping 13,000 fps and if you really want to trade in resolution for speed, try 330,000 fps at 256 x 8. Clearly this is a serious a weapon for capturing slow motion footage. Read More

Bang & Olufsen has added some serious bottom-end to its speaker line-up with the BeoLab 11 subwoofer. Sporting a small footprint and typically slick design, the tulip-shaped BeoLab 11 unit uses two opposing drivers to take advantage of the "Acoustic Balance Principle" - a first for B&O in subwoofer design. Read More

The Flip portable camcorder has a new form factor. In its first major redesign since hitting the camcorder market, the Flip SlideHD gets more viewing real estate via a touch-enabled 3-inch widescreen which, as the name suggests, slides out, resting on an angle for playback. The new Flip also has 16GB memory for up to four hours of HD video recording, double that of any of its predecessors. Read More

If you spent last weekend camping at the beach or in the desert dunes, chances are you'll be spending a good chunk of next weekend removing sand from tents, sleeping bags and pretty much every bit of gear you own. Take it from someone who did go camping last weekend - you just can't seem to get rid of the stuff. One solution would be to avoid bringing so much sand back in the first place, and the CGear Multimat provides a clever way to help you do just that. Its dual-layer design creates a one-way-street for sand, dirt and dust, so particles fall through from above, but don't come back-up through the mat. The result - a clean area to plonk your chair on or spread in front of your tent to help keep sand at bay. Read More