Comment Re:Everonmentalism I can agree with (Score 1) 257
A prius? Value isn't there. High up-front costs, low performance. I think not.
The Prius blows away just about every other gasoline powered vehicle available today in the highest up-front cost performance factor in history: Emissions. Extremely low emissions is the best reason to get a Prius, especially if you live in an area with a high incidence of respiratory disease amongst children.
Other Hybrids... Before long, NASCAR is going to see that there's some way to make this hybrid stuff make cars go faster and farther without a pit-stop... There are four industries here that drive new tech for the consumer. Military, NASA, Nascar and pr0n.
Toyota and others put electric motors in their SUV drivetrains for the acceleration performance enhancement (peak torque available at zero RPM) as much as the eco-branding. No, NASCAR is not going to be the primary race format to develop this technology, unless they start adding a lot more road courses that actually require the use of brakes.
I'll never have to worry about being without my iPhone cable again. At a neighbor's house? Good, their's is the same.
USB was already becoming the de-facto power port for low power devices like mobile phones, especially in the form of AC adapters and battery packs with the ubiquitous USB Type A receptacle. The new EU standard enforces USB power negotiation (thus the "data phone" mandate), but I'd bet real money that Apple bundles a dock connector-to-microUSB adapter instead of polluting the iPhone enclosure with an extra port, and continues shipping a version of its Type A receptacle AC adapter updated to comply with the new EU mandate.